Vanessa Bryant awarded $16m in suit over photos of Kobe’s crash

Kobe Bryant’s widow was awarded $16m as part of a $31m jury verdict on Wednesday against Los Angeles county after deputies and firefighters

shared grisly photos of the NBA star, his 13-year-old daughter and other victims killed in a 2020 helicopter crash.

The nine jurors who returned the unanimous verdict agreed with Vanessa Bryant and her attorneys that Los Angeles deputies and firefighters

taking and sharing photos of the crash victims invaded her privacy and brought her emotional distress, even though the photos did not become public

Bryant’s co-plaintiff, Chris Chester, whose wife and daughter were also among the nine people killed in the crash, was separately awarded $15m

The pictures were shared mostly between employees of the LA County sheriff’s and fire departments, sometimes in the context of entertainment

Vanessa Bryant tearfully testified during the 11-day trial that news of the photos compounded her still-raw grief a month after losing her husband and daughter