Vanessa Bryant Settles Lawsiluit $28.85 Million

On Tuesday, Vanessa Bryant reached a settlement with Los Angeles County for a sum of $28,850,000 regarding the pictures taken and shared by members of the sheriff’s department at the crash site that took the life of her husband, Kobe, and her daughter, Gianna, in January of 2020. Chris Chester, who lost his wife and daughter in the crash, settled with the county for $19,950,000.

Kobe and Gianna were en route to the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks when theirhelicopter went down in Calabasas, claiming the lives of all nine passengers onboard. Consequently, Vanessa filed a lawsuit against the county claiming that the first responders took inappropriate pictures of the human remains as mementos and shared them among each other, thus causing her immense emotional distress.

Finally, after months of legal proceedings, the jury awarded Vanessa $16 million in the invasion of privacy trial in August of 2022.

“Today marks the successful culmination of Mrs. Bryant’s courageous battle to hold accountable those who engaged in this grotesque conduct. She fought for her husband, her daughter, and all those in the community whose deceased family were treated with similar disrespect. We hope her victory at trial and this settlement will put an end to this practice,” Luis Li, Vanessa Bryant’s attorney, said in a statement.