Vanessa Bryant awarded $29M in suit over Kobe helicopter crash photos

Vanessa Bryant and her family were awarded $28.85 million over the photos from the 2020 helicopter crash that killed her husband, NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, their 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others, according to a court filing Tuesday.

The settlement with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors includes the $15 million that Bryant was awarded by a jury in August, along with additional funds to settle any potential future claims from her surviving daughters: Natalia, 20, Bianka, 6, and Capri, 3, The New York Times reported.

“Today marks the successful culmination of Mrs. Bryant’s courageous battle to hold accountable those who engaged in this grotesque conduct,” Bryant’s lawyer Luis Li said in a statement to the newspaper.

“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.”

NBA all-time great Kobe, who retired in 2016 after 20 years and five championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, was traveling with Gianna to coach her youth basketball team when inclement weather disoriented the pilot and caused the craft to crash, killing all nine people on board near Calabasas, Calif.

Responders to the scene snapped gruesome photos of Bryant and his daughter’s mangled remains at the crash site and shared the images with other responders and law enforcement officers.

The pictures were shared mostly between employees of the LA County sheriff’s and fire departments and seen by some of their spouses.

During last year’s trial, a bartender testified that Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputy Joey Cruz showed him photos of Bryant’s remains.

During her testimony, Vanessa Bryant said she suffers anxiety and panic attacks over the fear that the gory images of her husband and daughter’s remains could one day surface online, although they have not been made public.

“I live in fear every day of seeing on social media and having these images pop up,” she testified, adding that she hasn’t seen them.

“I don’t ever want to see these photographs,” Bryant said. “I want to remember them as they were.”

Bryant testified that she was disgusted to learn, weeks later, that sheriff’s deputies and firefighters had been showing off the crash site photos.

“I expected them to have more compassion, respect,” Bryant said of the first responders sharing the photos. “My husband and daughter deserved dignity.”

The panel of nine jurors unanimously found that the LA County Sheriff’s Department violated the constitutional rights of Bryant when they failed to train their employees on accident scene picture-sharing protocol causing Bryant emotional distress.

Bryant was awarded $16 million before it was reduced to $15 million due to a clerical error. 

The jurors also awarded $15 million to plaintiff Chris Chester, who lost his wife, Sarah, and daughter, Payton, in the wreck.

After the verdict in August, Bryant said she plans to donate the money to the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation, a sports nonprofit founded by her husband,