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A jury awarded Vanessa Bryant $16 million in her invasion of privateness trial towards Los Angeles County over images taken on the scene of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed her husband, basketball star Kobe Bryant, and their 13-year-old daughter, in response to ABC Los Angeles station KABC.
The jury additionally awarded $15 million to Chris Chester, an Orange County monetary adviser who had additionally sued the county over images taken of his spouse and daughter, who had been killed in the identical crash, in response to KABC.
The jury deliberated for a number of hours earlier than reaching the decision.
“All for you! I really like you! JUSTICE for Kobe and Gigi!” Vanessa Bryant posted on Instagram following the decision.
In an announcement to KABC, Mira Hashmall, associate on the Miller Barondess regulation agency and lead exterior counsel for Los Angeles County within the case, stated, “We’re grateful for the jury’s onerous work on this case. Whereas we disagree with the jury’s findings as to the County’s legal responsibility, we imagine the financial award exhibits that jurors did not imagine the proof supported the Plaintiffs’ request of $75 million for emotional misery. We might be discussing subsequent steps with our consumer. In the meantime, we hope the Bryant and Chester households proceed to heal from their tragic loss.”
The federal trial started on Aug. 10, with the jury listening to from these in regulation enforcement, first responders and the household of the victims, together with Vanessa Bryant and Chester. Attorneys gave closing statements on Tuesday and Wednesday after almost two weeks of testimony.
Vanessa Bryant filed a lawsuit a number of months after the 2020 crash towards Los Angeles County, alleging that first responders took graphic images of human stays on the scene as “souvenirs” and shared them with others. She claimed she suffered emotional misery and sued for an undisclosed quantity of damages for negligence and invasion of privateness.
In July, U.S. District Choose John Walter determined to consolidate Vanessa Bryant’s and Chester’s circumstances into one trial.
Kobe Bryant and their daughter, Gianna, had been headed to a basketball sport at his Mamba Sports activities Academy in Thousand Oaks together with others related to the basketball program on Jan. 26, 2020, when the helicopter they had been touring in crashed in Calabasas. All 9 individuals on board had been killed.
Vanessa Bryant took the stand in Los Angeles federal court docket on Friday, telling the jury she lives in worry each day that the images may very well be leaked and desires “justice for my husband and my daughter.”
Chester took the witness stand on Thursday, telling the jury he was in “disbelief” after listening to stories that deputies and firefighters took and shared images of his spouse, Sarah, and their 13-year-old daughter, Payton.
“It was grief on prime of grief,” he stated, calling for “justice and accountability.”
All through the trial, the protection maintained that the images haven’t surfaced on-line because the tragedy. A number of county fireplace and sheriff’s personnel have additionally testified that they deleted no matter crash-site photos they’d on their cellphones.
Each Vanessa Bryant’s and Chester’s lawsuits argue that the images had been shared earlier than being deleted by first responders.
The jury was instructed that they might discover both the county sheriff’s workplace or fireplace division, or each, to be liable, and that Vanessa Bryant or Chester, or each, had been warranted damages.
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