“Found GUILTY” Los Angeles County to pay $16 Million to Vanessa Bryant over photos of Kobe Bryant’s body
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Kobe Bryant's wife Vanessa Bryant with her family coming out after the trial
According to several media outlets, a jury on Wednesday awarded $16 million to the widow of the late basketball player Kobe Bryant, Vanessa Bryant, for the sharing of pictures of skeletal remains at the scene of the helicopter crash where her husband, their 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven other people died in 2020. After accusing officers of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s and fire departments of distributing graphic photographs of the incident in unauthorized circumstances, including with customers at a pub, Vanessa sued Los Angeles County, alleging invasion of privacy. The widow of the NBA great, received $16 million in damages from the jury, while Chris Chester, whose wife Sarah and daughter Peyton were killed, received $15 million.
On January 26, 2020, Kobe Bryant was travelling to a youth basketball event with his daughter Gianna, 13, and seven other people when the helicopter they were travelling in crashed into hills in Calabasas, west of Los Angeles. The nine jurors all concurred that Vanessa Bryant’s privacy had been violated and that the images had upset her. Those who were playing video games and attending an awards ceremony were among the majority of LA County sheriff’s and fire department workers who posted the photos. Additionally, several of their spouses and, in one instance, a bartender at a pub where a deputy was drinking, witnessed them.
Kobe Bryant- Gone too soon
Kobe Bryant has established a tremendous career as a star player for one of the NBA’s most illustrious teams. He won two MVP awards for the Finals and was the Lakers’ all-time leading scorer. He also played a significant role in five different Lakers championship teams in the early 2000s. Later, Bryant evolved into one of the league’s top scorers of all time, cementing his status as one of the greatest players in NBA history. On the all-time scoring list for the NBA, only Karl Malone, LeBron James, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are ahead of him. Bryant was a part of both the NBA 75th anniversary team and the 2020 Class for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s posthumous induction.
On January 26, 2020, a helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, 41, and his daughter Gianna, 13, crashed in Calabasas, California, killing nine persons in total. The accident, which took place in cloudy weather, had no survivors. Celebrities, leaders of the government, and other athletes paid tribute to him, and many expressed sadness at his unexpected passing. Basketball matches all across the world including in the United States held minutes of silence as a respect to the Black Mamba and his daughter, who was a future basketball star.
Vanessa Bryant with the sigh of relief
A month after the deaths of her husband and daughter, Vanessa Bryant testified during the 11-day trial that learning of the photos added to her nonetheless grief. She also revealed that she still experiences panic attacks at the thought that the photos might still be available online. The county coroner described the horrifying scenes at the crash site during the trial, which started in August; the majority of the victims had to be scientifically identified because their appearances were barely recognizable. On Kobe Bryant’s 44th birthday, which was on Tuesday, the closing arguments started, and the decision was rendered the following day.
Vanessa Bryant admitted that not everyone who viewed them needed to know about them. She underlined, however, that neither the petitioners nor the public had ever seen the photographs. She said that this meant that when sheriff Alex Villanueva and other officials instructed individuals in possession of the images to erase them, they acted decisively and effectively. In court last week, Villanueva acknowledged that his department’s regulations were insufficient to address the privacy issues at issue. In addition, Villanueva, who is up for re-election this year, admitted he had no means of knowing if all of the stolen images had been erased.
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Irvin Philip
(701 Articles Published)