Celebrating her triumph. Vanessa Bryant spoke out after being awarded $16 million in her trial towards Los Angeles County first responders.
“All for you! I love you! JUSTICE for Kobe and Gigi!” Bryant, 40, wrote by way of Instagram on Wednesday, August 24, alongside a photograph of herself along with her late husband Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna.
The trial, which started on August 10, revolved across the January 2020 accident that killed 41-year-old Kobe and 13-year-old Gianna — together with seven different passengers — when the helicopter they have been touring on crashed right into a hillside in Calabasas, California.
The verdict, which discovered that the primary responders shared images of the our bodies of the late NBA icon, fell on what Los Angeles beforehand dubbed in 2016 as “Kobe Bryant Day” – a nod to the basketball participant’s jersey numbers that he wore whereas enjoying on the Lakers.
“#BetOnYourself #Mambaday #Mambamentality,” the mother, who additionally shared daughters Natalia, 19, Bianka, 5, and Capri, 3, with the basketball participant, wrote in her put up together with a bunch of yellow and purple hearts.
In addition to Vanessa successful $16 million on Wednesday, the jury additionally awarded $15 million in damages to Vanessa’s co-plaintiff Chris Chester, whose spouse Sarah and 13-year-old daughter Payton died alongside Kobe and Gianna within the crash.
Vanessa and Chester, for their half, sued Los Angeles County for emotional misery and psychological anguish after studying members of the division had shared images of the victims’ stays.
Luis Li, Vannesa’s lawyer, made his opening statements earlier this month during which he claimed that cellular phone images from the wreckage have been shared by the fireplace captain “for a laugh,” noting that there was no official cause for them to be taken within the first place.
He additionally said that on the day of the tragic occasion, first responders “walked around the wreckage and took pictures of broken bodies from the helicopter crash. They took close-ups of limbs, of burnt flesh. It shocks the conscience.” He argued that the images have been then “shared repeatedly with people who had absolutely no reason to receive them.”
The lawyer added, “January 26, 2020, was and always will be the worst day of Vanessa Bryant’s life,” he instructed the jury on the time. “They took and shared pictures of Kobe and Gianna as souvenirs. … They poured salt in an unhealable wound.”
On Friday, August 19, Vanessa took the stand and recalled studying concerning the images of the victims’ stays allegedly being shared by officers.
“I felt like I wanted to run down the block and just scream. But I couldn’t escape. I can’t escape my body,” she mentioned. “I live in fear every day of being on social media and having these photos pop up.”
While on the stand, Vanessa described herself as “blindsided, devastated, hurt and betrayed” by the existence of the photographs, explaining that she filed the lawsuit towards the county as a result of she “wanted answers.”
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