The widow of the late basketball legend Kobe Bryant has agreed to accept $28.85 million in damages after she accused people of taking pictures at the scene of her husband’s death, then leaking them to the press.
The settlement between Vanessa Bryant and Los Angeles County includes $15 million from a prior judgment made last year and will resolve all pending litigation and future claims filed by Bryant.
“Today marks the successful culmination of Mrs. Bryant’s courageous battle to hold accountable those who engaged in this grotesque conduct,” Bryant’s attorney, Luis Li, said in a statement Tuesday. “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.”
The mother of four sued Los Angeles county just months after the fatal helicopter crash that took the lives of Kobe Bryant, their daughter Gianna and seven other occupants who were all killed on impact.
At the time of the filing, her legal team said first responders had “no legitimate business reason for doing so and instead were violating her privacy rights by using the photos as souvenirs or objects of amusement,” according to a report in USA Today.
The jury found that the county’s fire and sheriff’s departments violated her constitutional rights to control the death images of family members.
“We believe the settlement approved by the Board in the Bryant case is fair and reasonable,” Mira Hashmall, a partner at the Miller Barondess law firm and lead trial counsel in this case told USA Today. “The $28,850,000 settlement includes the verdict awarded by the federal jury in August 2022, and further resolves all outstanding issues related to pending legal claims in state court, future claims by the Bryant children, and other costs, with each party responsible for its respective attorneys’ fees.”
