A jury ordered Los Angeles County to pay $31 million in damages to Kobe Bryant's widow and a co-complainant Wednesday over graphic photos of the helicopter crash that killed the basketball star.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.The civil 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.
In its defense, Los Angeles County said the pictures have never become public and officials have been diligent in efforts to scrub them from devices. But the two-week trial heard how Vanessa Bryant and Chris Chester, whose wife and daughter also perished in the crash, live in fear of these photographs surfacing on the internet one day. The county was ordered to pay $16 million to Bryant, and $15 million to Chester.
Bryant is widely recognized as one of the greatest basketball players ever, a figure who became the face of his sport during a glittering two decades with the Los Angeles Lakers.He was a five-time NBA champion in a career that began in 1996 straight out of high school and lasted until his retirement in 2016.