Jury awards $31 million damages over Kobe Bryant crash photos

Los Angeles County must pay $31 million in damages to Kobe Bryant's widow and a co-plaintiff over graphic photos taken at the site of the helicopter crash that killed the basketball star and eight others, a jury ordered on Wednesday. Sheriff's deputies and firefighters who rushed to the scene of the January 2020 crash snapped pictures of the carnage, including the mangled remains of the Los Angeles Lakers legend and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna.

A trial in Los Angeles heard how some of these first responders showed the photographs to members of the public -- including a bartender -- while one deputy texted them to a friend as the pair played video games. Vanessa Bryant and Chris Chester, whose wife, Sarah, and daughter, Payton, also perished in the crash, sued for emotional damages over the pictures, which they said they feared would one day surface on the internet.

The civil jury ordered the county to pay $16 million to Bryant, and $15 million to Chester, after deliberating for just a few hours. The award represents redress for past and future suffering.

Bryant wept while the verdict was read and left court without speaking to waiting reporters. She later posted a picture on Instagram of her with her late husband and daughter, with the caption: "All for you! I love you! JUSTICE for Kobe and Gigi!" Chester's lawyer on Tuesday had called for $1 million for every year of the plaintiffs' expected lives, a figure that amounted to $40 million for 40-year-old Bryant, and $30 million for 48-year-old Chester.

"You can't award too much money for what they went through," said attorney Jerry Jackson. Bryant's lawyer Craig Lavoie said he was asking for "justice and accountability" for the basketball great -- a hero to the city