The family of NBA star, Kobe Bryant, has agreed to a $28.5m settlement with the Los Angeles County, to resolve the remaining claims in a lawsuit over deputies and firefighters sharing graphic photos of the basketball star, his 13-year-old daughter and other victims killed in a 2020 helicopter crash, attorneys and court filings said on Tuesday, 28th February, 2023.
The settlement includes a newly agreed upon payment from the county of $13.5m along with the $15m a federal jury awarded Bryant’s widow, Vanessa Bryant, at a trial in August, 2022.
The agreement will resolve any future claims by Bryant’s three surviving daughters, related issues pending in state court, and other costs.
Vanessa Bryant tearfully testified during the 11-day trial, that the news of the photos compounded her still-raw grief a month after losing her husband and daughter, and that she still has panic attacks at the thought that they might still be out there and her daughters might someday see them online.
The verdict which was in her favor had been erroneously read as $16m in court, but was later amended to $15m.
Kobe Bryant, the former Lakers star, a five-time NBA champion and member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, was traveling with his daughter Gianna and seven others to a youth basketball game when the helicopter they were aboard crashed into hills in Calabasas west of Los Angeles on January 26, 2020.
Story: Christy Dung