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Vanessa Bryant, widow of the late NBA legend Kobe Bryant, settled her lawsuit with Los Angeles County for $28.85 million, according to reports.
Los Angeles County agreed to pay Vanessa and her three daughters nearly $30 million after county personnel distributed death scene photos via text messages to other departments and to a woman in a bar.
The settlement includes a newly agreed upon $13.85 million along with $15 million awarded to Vanessa and her children by a Los Angeles jury in August 2022. Vanessa said she planned to donate the initial $15 million settlement to a foundation she controls.
Kobe, 41, and daughter Gianna, 14, died in a January 2020 helicopter crash along with seven others in Calabasas, California.
Vanessa’s attorney told the jury she suffered undue emotional distress after she discovered county personnel shared cellphone pictures of the human remains as morbid “souvenirs.”
Another plaintiff, Chris Chester, whose wife and daughter died in the chopper crash, was awarded $15 million by the same jury in August 2022.
Vanessa accused members of the sheriff’s office and fire department of sharing graphic images of the charred remains of her late husband and daughter for their morbid collections.
The settlement resolves any future claims by Kobe’s three surviving children.
