Kobe Bryant’s widow and a family friend were awarded $31 million in damages by a jury for distress they’ve suffered over the sharing of photos taken by emergency personnel at a helicopter crash site where their spouses were killed.
The federal jury reached a verdict Wednesday in favor of Vanessa Bryant and Christopher Chester after about 4 1/2 hours of deliberations following an 11-day trial in Los Angeles.
Bryant and Chester, an Orange County financial adviser who lost his wife and daughter in the crash, sued the Los Angeles sheriff’s and fire departments for violations of their constitutional rights when first responders at the crash scene took photos with their phones and then circulated them to friends and colleagues.
The verdict sends a message to the county to set up protocols for picture taking and dissemination of photos from crime and accident scenes with fatalities. The jury heard conflicting testimony with some department officials saying there were no policies in place at the time of the crash, while others said photos of dead bodies shouldn’t have been taken or shared.
Public dissemination of family members’ death images that “shocks the conscience” violates due process rights in California. The jury was required to find that occurred, and then had to determine whether the departments had inadequate policies and training, or whether it was custom and practice for emergency personnel to take such pictures.
Chester’s lawyer Jerome Jackson suggested to the jury that it should award a total of $75 million in damages. The panel awaded $16 million to Vanessa Bryant and $15 million to Chester.
Kobe Bryant, widely regarded as one of the best professional basketball players of all time who spent his 20-year career playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, was killed with his daughter and seven others when the helicopter they were traveling in crashed in cloudy weather in January 2020.
The jury heard that sheriff’s deputies and fire officials shared photos that were often grisly and depicted body parts with friends and colleagues. In one case, a sheriff deputy sent pictures to a colleague while the two were playing the video game “Call of Duty.” Another showed off pictures in a bar and a fire official showed his photos to a group of friends at an awards ceremony.
“I live in fear every day of being on social media and having these photographs pop up,” Vanessa Bryant testified.
But the county argued the photos weren’t disseminated publicly and none have showed up in the media nor were they posted online.
“This is a picture case and there are no pictures,” Los Angeles County attorney Mira Hashmall told the jury.
Representatives of the county counsel’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Vanessa Bryant exited the courthouse with her lawyers and got into a black SUV not answering any questions from reporters.
The case is Bryant v. County of Los Angeles, 20-cv-09582, US District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).
Photo: People gather around a makeshift memorial for former NBA and Los Angeles Lakers player Kobe Bryant after learning of his death, at LA Live plaza in front of Staples Center in Los Angeles on January 26, 2020. Photographer: Apu Gomes/AFP/Getty Images
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