Vanessa Bryant’s extraordinary act with $16m pay out from Kobe Bryant lawsuit
The widow of Kobe Bryant has revealed how she will spend the $16 million awarded for the traumatic photos taken of the NBA icon.
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Vanessa Bryant will be donating the $16 million verdict she was awarded in her case against Los Angeles County to the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation.
The widow of NBA icon Kobe Bryant was seen to be visibly emotional as she broke down in court on Thursday (AEST) as it was announced a nine-member jury verdict will see the County pay $16 million in compensation.
Bryant has now revealed the pay out will be donated to the charity founded by her late husband, The New York Post reports.
The not-for-profit organisation, launched by the Lakers legend after his retirement in 2016 as the Mamba Sports Foundation — a nod to his nickname, The Black Mamba — provides funding and sports programming for young athletes in under-served communities, according to its website.
Bryant said she is donating the verdict proceeds to the foundation to “to shine a light on Kobe and Gigi’s legacy,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
The foundation was later renamed in 2020 after the 41-year-old and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, were killed in a helicopter crash.
A federal jury ruled Thursday that LA County must pay Vanessa Bryant $16 million after first responders snapped and shared grisly photos of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed her husband, daughter and seven others.
The jurors also awarded $15 million to plaintiff Chris Chester, who lost his wife, Sarah, and daughter Payton in the Calabasas, California, accident.
“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,” her lawyer Luis Li said in a statement to the paper. “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.”
After an 11-day trial, jurors unanimously found that the LA County Sheriff’s Department violated the constitutional rights of Bryant and Chester when they failed to train their employees on accident scene picture-sharing protocol.
In his statement, Li told The Times Bryant and Chester “brought to light the decades old practice of taking and sharing photos of accident and crime victims for no legitimate purpose.”
“It is Mrs. Bryant’s hope that this important civil rights case will put to a stop this abhorrent and callous behaviour,” he added.
During the trial, Bryant and Chester’s lawyers chronicled how photos of the victims’ remains from the crash scene were shared between employees from LA County sheriff’s and fire departments and seen by some of their spouses.
The photos have not been made public, but Bryant, 40, testified that the prospect of the images being leaked made her “fear every day of being on social media and these popping up.”
— This story originally appeared on nypost.com and has been republished with permission
Originally published as Vanessa Bryant’s extraordinary act with $16m pay out from Kobe Bryant lawsuit
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