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Vanessa Bryant will donate to charity the $16 million judgment she won Wednesday against Los Angeles County over the leak of gruesome crash site photos of her late husband, NBA legend Kobe Bryant, her lawyer announced.
Attorney Luis Li told the Los Angeles Times that Bryant planned on giving the sum to nonprofit Mamba and Mambacita Sports foundation, named in the memory for her late husband and their 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, who perished in a 2020 helicopter crash.
Li said that Vanessa Bryant wanted “to shine a light on Kobe and Gigi’s legacy.” The Lakers legend founded the charity in 2016.
After an 11-day civil trial in Los Angeles, a federal jury awarded Vanessa Bryant and another plaintiff, Chris Chester, $31 million for the privacy breach.
VANESSA BRYANT WINS LAWSUIT AGAINST LOS ANGELES COUNTY OVER INVASION OF PRIVACY, AWARDED $16 MILLION
Vanessa Bryant, the widow of Kobe Bryant, leaves a federal courthouse in Los Angeles. She won her invasion of privacy lawsuit against Los Angeles County on Wednesday and plans to donate the $16 million award to charity.
(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Chester lost his wife, Sarah, and daughter Payton, 13, in the tragic collision Jan. 26 in Calabasas, California. All nine people aboard the aircraft died when it crashed into a hillside in heavy fog.
VANESSA BRYANT WEEPS ON WITNESS STAND OVER LEAKED PHOTOS OF KOBE BRYANT’S REMAINS
Bryant testified that her suffering over the loss was compounded when she learned that first responders had shared gruesome images of crash victims’ remains with a bartender, at a banquet and in a video game chatroom.
The images, which were never made public, were shared with nearly 30 people, Li told jurors during the proceeding.
Former Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna at a sports event. They both died in a 2020 helicopter crash.
(Chris Carlson/AP)
“From the beginning, Vanessa Bryant has sought only accountability, but our legal system does not permit her to force better policies, more training or officer discipline,” Li told the local newspaper.
GRISLY PHOTOS OF KOBE BRYANT’S REMAINS SHARED FOR ‘GOSSIP’: LAWYERS
“Those measures are the responsibility of the sheriff’s and fire departments — responsibilities that Mrs. Bryant’s efforts have exposed as woefully deficient, even giving amnesty to the wrongdoers.”
Li also thanked two men, Ralph Mendez and Luella Weireter, whose complaints to the Sheriff’s Department and Fire Department, respectively, uncovered the misconduct.
Vanessa and Kobe Bryant arrive at the Oscars in Los Angeles, March 4, 2018. Vanessa won her lawsuit against Los Angeles County over photos deputies shared of her husband’s remains after he died in a 2020 helicopter crash.
(Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
Mendez testified that he was disturbed when he witnessed a sheriff’s deputy showing grisly photos of remains from the crash scene to a bartender. Weireter reported that firefighters had shared the graphic images to other firefighters and their spouses at an awards gala in Universal City.
Li said the whistle-blowers “brought to light the decades old practice of taking and sharing photos of accident and crime victims for no legitimate purpose.”
He continued, “It is Mrs. Bryant’s hope that this important civil rights case will put to a stop this abhorrent and callous behavior.”
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Li did not immediately return a request for comment.
