Vanessa Bryant received nearly $29 million in an agreement with Los Angeles County to resolve a lawsuit about photos that were captured of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed her husband, the late Lakers star Kobe Bryant, and her daughter Gianna and seven others.
The agreement ended several years of legal proceedings regarding the helicopter crash that took place in the hills of Calabasas, Calif., on Jan. 26, 2020.
The news of Tuesday’s agreement comes after a federal jury mandated last August—following an 11-day trial—that Los Angeles County pay Bryant $16 million for the “emotional distress” caused by the county’s deputies and firefighters sharing grim photos of the disfigured bodies involved in the helicopter crash. The $16 million for Bryant was also included in Tuesday’s settlement.
David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports
Kobe Bryant, a five-time NBA champion and member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, was traveling with Gianna and seven others to a youth basketball game when the helicopter crashed.
Luis Li, Bryant’s attorney, told CNN in a statement that the resolution marked the end of her “courageous battle to hold accountable those who engaged in the “grotesque conduct” of capturing the images from the crash.
“She [Vanessa] fought for her husband, her daughter, and all those in the community whose deceased family were treated with similar disrespect,” the statement read. “We hope her victory at trial and this settlement will put an end to this practice.”
While the pictures were primarily disseminated among the two county factions, they were also seen by some of their spouses as well as one bartender at a bar where a deputy was drinking, according to the Associated Press. Beyond the emotional distress, Bryant and her co-plaintiff Christopher Chester—whose wife and daughter were killed in the crash—also claimed that the photos violated their privacy. Chester received $19,950,000 in Tuesday’s agreement. Bryant’s youngest daughters, Bianka and Capri, were also named in the lawsuit.
Mira Hashmall, the head lawyer representing the county, described the settlement as “fair and reasonable.”
“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,” Hashmall said in a statement.
