Los Angeles County agreed to pay nearly $30 million to Vanessa Bryant, the widow of NBA player Kobe Bryant, on Tuesday in a legal settlement related to photos taken at the helicopter crash site where her husband was killed in 2020.
The Los Angeles Times reported:
Los Angeles County agreed Tuesday to pay $28.85 million to the family of Kobe Bryant, concluding three years of litigation that began after deputies shared graphic photos of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed the Lakers star, his daughter and seven others.
The settlement agreement filed in federal court also resolves pending litigation originally filed in state court and adds to the $15 million a jury had already awarded to the basketball star’s widow, Vanessa Bryant, after a trial in federal court last year.
Luis Li, one of Vanessa Bryant’s attorneys, said in a statement:
‘Today marks the successful culmination of Mrs. Bryant’s courageous battle to hold accountable those who engaged in this grotesque conduct. She fought for her husband, her daughter, and all those in the community whose deceased family were treated with similar disrespect. We hope her victory at trial and this settlement will put an end to this practice.’
A federal jury in August 2022 found the Los Angeles Sheriff’s and Fire departments had violated Vanessa Bryant’s right to privacy by taking and distributing photographs of Kobe Bryant’s body. In addition, it found the emergency departments liable to compensate Vanessa Bryant for “emotional distress.”
Bryant’s legal team argued that Los Angeles deputies and firefighter casually and callously shared graphic photos of Bryant’s and others’ bodies in unprofessional scenarios.
The site of a helicopter crash that claimed the lives of former NBA great Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant, 13, is shown on January 26, 2020, in Calabasas, California. Nine people on board the helicopter perished in the crash, according to published reports. (TSM/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
Chris Chester, whose wife Sarah Chester was killed in the helicopter crash, joined Vanessa Bryant in suing Los Angeles Country. Kobe Bryant and his teenage daughter Gianna were killed in the accident alongside seven others.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.