A jury has found Kobe Bryant’s widow, Vanessa Bryant, in a lawsuit against Los Angeles County authorities for publishing photos of the bodies of the basketball player and his daughter Gigi.
Vanessa Bryant will receive a compensation of 16 million dollars (about 16 million euros), while Chris Chester, who lost his wife and daughter in the same accident, will receive 15 million (about 15 million euros).
The jury’s decision, quoted by US media on Wednesday, came a day after Kobe Bryant’s 44th birthday.
Vanessa Bryant’s attorneys have accused Los Angeles County of publishing photos of the January 26, 2020 helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others, including his 13-year-old daughter, Gigi.
Kobe Bryant, one of the NBA’s all-time stars, dies in a helicopter crash
The complaint alleges that police officers and members of the fire department copies and shared the images with other people on different occasions.
During the opening of the trial, Vanessa Bryant’s attorney argued that the photos were not taken for any official purpose of investigating the accident.
The images “were repeatedly shared with people who had no reason to receive them,” he said.
I feel devastated, hurt and betrayed by the county officials who released the photos,” Vanessa Bryant said last week during her trial.
Kobe Bryant’s widow stated that the victims’ right to privacy was violated and that the relatives felt “great pain”.
During the testimony, Vanessa Bryant assured that she suffers emotional stress due to “the fear” that she or her children will find “horrible images of their loved ones on the internet” in the future.
In turn, the defense argued that the photos have not appeared on the Internet for more than two and a half years and that, therefore, there is no reason to think that they will ever appear again.
In 2021, Vanessa Bryant reached a financial settlement with the company that operated the helicopter involved in the accident.
In February 2021, investigators stated that the helicopter pilot was disoriented by fog and maintained that he did not follow established protocol when flying in dense cloud cover.
Kobe Byrant, who came to the NBA at the age of 17 and spent 20 years in the Los Angeles Lakers, was considered one of the best players of all time in the North American Basketball League (NBA).
Source: Observadora
