Vanessa Bryant has been awarded $16 million in damages in her trial against Los Angeles County.
The 40-year-old’s basketball star husband Kobe Bryant and their 13-year-old daughter Gianna were tragically killed in a helicopter crash back in January 2020.
Vanessa sued Los Angeles County for invasion of privacy over photos of the crash that were allegedly shared between police officers and firefighters after the tragedy.
Vanessa was awarded $16m as part of the $31m jury verdict on Wednesday.
Vanessa’s co-plaintiff, Chris Chester, whose wife and daughter were also among the nine people tragically killed in the crash, was separately awarded $15m.
The 40-year-old’s lawyers did not give the jury an estimated amount of damages they believed their client deserved, however, Chris’ lawyer gave them suggested guidelines which would have resulted in tens of millions per plaintiff.
The jury deliberated for four and a half hours before they reached their verdict.
The nine jurors, who returned the unanimous verdict, agreed with Vanessa and her lawyers that LA deputies and firefighters taking and sharing photos of the crash victims invaded her privacy and brought her emotional distress, even though they weren’t leaked to the public.
The pictures were shared mostly between employees of the LA County sheriff’s and fire departments, sometimes in the context of entertainment, including by some employees who were playing video games, and others attending an awards banquet.
The images of the crash were also seen by some of the employee’s spouses and in one case by a bartender at a bar where a sheriff’s deputy was drinking.
In court, a lawyer for the defence, Mira Hashmall, said the photos were taken because they were deemed important for assessing the crash site.
However, after LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva learned they were being shared, he demanded all copies be deleted.
After Ms Hashmall said the deputy who took the photos was only trying to do his job, Vanessa said: “I don’t think you need to take close-up photos of people to determine how many people are on an aircraft. I think he could have just counted.”
Vanessa Bryant broke down in tears during her emotional court testimony on August 19.
During her nearly three-hour testimony, Vanessa said she felt helpless after learning that first responders had allegedly shared graphic images of Kobe, Gianna, and the seven other victims of the crash.
Though the photos were never released publicly, the widow said: “I live in fear every day of being on social media and these popping up. I live in fear of my daughters being on social media and these popping up.”
“I want to remember my husband and my daughter the way that they were,” she explained. “I don’t ever want to see these photographs.”
Speaking on the stand, the 40-year-old recalled visiting the Lost Hills Sheriff Station the morning of the accident, and asking Sheriff Alex Villanueva to protect the crash site from the paparazzi.
Three days later, the photo-sharing allegations came to light in an article published by the Los Angeles Times on February 27, 2020.
Sobbing in court, Vanessa said: “I trusted them not to do these things.”
