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Vanessa Bryant, widow of NBA star Kobe Bryant, will receive 16 million dollars as compensation after winning the lawsuit against the Los Angeles County authorities for disseminating photographs of the player’s and his daughter Gigi’s corpses.
Chris Chester, who lost his wife, Sarah, and daughter, Payton, in the accident; will also receive $15 million for damages caused by publishing the photos. “In reaching the verdict after only a few hours of deliberations, jurors made clear they had been persuaded by Bryant and Chris Chester, who argued that illicit photos of the crash victims’ bodies had violated their right to privacy and inflicted emotional distress. Chester lost his wife, Sarah, and daughter, Payton, in the crash,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
During the trial, the lawyers demonstrated how the photos of the accident had spread from the phones of fire and security officers and were shown to various people until they reached a Norwalk bartender.
“County lawyers countered that there were legitimate reasons for first responders to take and receive the photos, including to help determine the size of the crash site and decide what resources were needed. The images, they say, were never published online or in the media — nor were they seen by the victims’ families because of swift work by sheriff’s and fire leaders in tamping down their spread,” the media outlet detailed.
Vanessa Bryant v. Los Angeles County
However, Bryant’s attorneys stressed that knowing how many people had access to the photos was impossible. “It wasn’t until most of the involved deputies had received new phones that officials hired a firm to conduct a forensic examination of employee devices.”
Last week, Kobe Bryant’s widow lashed out at the county and said she felt devastated by the officers’ behavior. “I feel devastated, hurt, and betrayed by the county employees who leaked the photos,” she said before a Los Angeles County court, in statements reviewed by the EFE news agency.
Williams Perdomo es periodista y escritor, especializado en las fuentes Política y Cultura.