LOS ANGELES – A federal jury has awarded Kobe Bryant’s widow Vanessa $16 million after an 11-day civil trial that went into graphic detail about gruesome photos that were taken and shared from the scene of a helicopter crash that killed all nine aboard in January 2020, including the NBA legend and his daughter.
The nine-member jury found Los Angeles County liable for damages to Bryant and Chris Chester, a financial adviser who lost his wife and daughter in the same crash and separately was awarded $15 million by the same jury.
Both plaintiffs sued the county and brought the case to trial not because they believed the county was responsible for the crash but because of what happened right afterward with the taking and sharing of photos of their family members’ remains.
They asked the jurors to decide three general questions:
- Did county sheriff’s and fire department employees violate the plaintiffs’ constitutional privacy rights when these employees used their personal cell phones to display and share gratuitous photos of dead crash victims from the crash site?
- If so, was the county liable for that conduct as an organization because it failed to prevent it through its policies and training or had a longstanding custom of such violations?
- And if that’s the case, what should Bryant and Chester be awarded in damages for their past and future emotional distress?
The jury gave its answer Wednesday after about four hours of deliberations, handing a victory to Chester…
