The widow of the American basketball player Kobe Bryant, who died in 2020 in a plane crash, has ordered $16 million in compensation for the moral damage caused to her by photos from the crash site. They appeared in the public space due to the "leak" of information from the police and rescuers.
The BBC writes about it.
Forty-year-old Vanessa Bryant told the court that she began to have panic attacks after the published photos of the tragedy, which were taken by the local Los Angeles County police and rescuers. The court ruled that the county must pay her compensation.
Another co-applicant, Christopher Chester, was also awarded compensation. His relatives also died when the helicopter that Bryant was in crashed.
Last November, the county independently agreed to pay the families of the victims $2.5 million for emotional distress, but Bryantʼs widow disagreed with that amount and went to court. She recalled how she first felt when she saw photos of the accident in the Los Angeles Times.
“I never want to see these pictures. I want to remember my husband and daughter as they were," she emphasized.
The lawyer of the local government assured that the photos from the scene were necessary and were not published anywhere, but the police and rescue services employees forwarded them to each other — and thatʼs how they ended up in the media.
- On January 26, 2020, NBA star Kobe Bryant flew to Los Angeles for a youth basketball tournament. Eight people were on board the helicopter with him, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna. The helicopter crashed after 40 minutes of flight — everyone died.