LOS ANGELES On the 44th anniversary of Kobe Bryant’s birth, his widow’s counsel asked a federal court jury to render justice more than two years after their deaths.
Vanessa Bryant’s civil trial against Los Angeles County ended after 10 days and dozens of witnesses. It was also the first day of closing arguments and the first time an attorney set a cash estimate on what he wanted the jury to award Bryant and Chris Chester.
$75m.
Jerome Jackson, Chester’s attorney, sought $2.5 million each for the past 2.5 years of emotional pain and $1 million for each year of future distress—40 years for Bryant and 30 for Chester.
In his closing statements, Jackson told the jury, “When I reach this point of closing arguments, I’m generally nervous about not asking for too much.” “I don’t have that fear today because I will tell you, ladies and gentlemen, you can’t award too much money for what they went through. You can’t award too much money for what they went through. It is impossible to stack it too high. You can’t make it any more widespread than that. What they had to go through is brutal and inhumane in its very nature.
Bryant hasn’t requested a sum.
She and Chester sued the county in 2020 after losing spouses and daughters in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. They blame the county for what happened following the crash. They both accused sheriffs and firefighters of using personal phones to snap graphic images of their dead loved ones at the crash scene.
The county alleges the images were removed immediately after the crash. Bryant and Chester fear the images will resurface because they don’t know if they still exist.
Bryant’s counsel told the jurors in his final argument that “Today, Kobe Bryant was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.” Today is his birthday. It’s a pleasure to represent Mrs. Bryant and call for justice and responsibility on her and their daughter Gianna’s behalf.
On Tuesday, Bryant appeared in court wearing black attire and made her first post on her public Instagram account since the trial began on August 10. It was a picture of her and Kobe, and there was a caption that said:
“Happy birthday, baby! I adore you and think about you all the time!
Closing arguments
In court, where the trial was ending, her memories turned to sadness. After closing statements start Wednesday morning, the jury will make several decisions:
- First responders are said to have shared photos of the crash scene as “souvenirs” or for fun, which went against Bryant and Chester’s privacy rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.
- Is the county responsible if so?
- How much should they be awarded for past and future emotional distress?
Jennings Lavoie conducted the jury through significant trial evidence, including inconsistent testimony from people who shot and shared the images and two public cases in which county officials exchanged crash-scene photos. One case involved fire captain Tony Imbrenda showing crash photos at an awards gala in February 2020. A witness overheard a photo of Kobe’s “burned up” body, which Imbrenda denied at trial.
Sheriff’s deputy Lavoie told the jury that sheriff’s deputy trainee Joey Cruz presented crash-scene images at a bar two days after the collision.
Jennings Lavoie also mentioned fire captain Brian Jordan, who took unneeded images of dead bodies after the disaster. Anthony Marrone, the interim chief, reportedly told Jordan to photograph the collision site.
This week, Marrone testified otherwise. He stated that Jordan texted him the location of Gianna Bryant’s remains at the crash site.
Jennings Lavoie stated that Chief Marrone knew Brian Jordan was watching her in the ravine.
Jennings Lavoie accused Jordan of shooting “souvenir images of a murdered child, not for business, but to keep as a trophy.”
Bryant wiped her eyes while Jennings Lavoie discussed this with the jurors.
Imaginable? Jennings Lavoie asked. “You decide if that shakes your conscience. It’s incomprehensible. After snapping the images, he gave them to himself and left. “
The fire department wrote Jordan a letter in December 2020 stating its “intention to terminate” him for misusing the images, adding they “simply appealed to baser instincts and desires for visual gossip.” Jordan retired early. He testified last week that he was in court because of “false claims” and that he couldn’t remember being at the crash scene that day.
Destruction of evidence
Jordan was quizzed in court last week about his missing computer’s hard disc. He said he didn’t know, so the lawyers for the plaintiffs said it could still have bad photos.
The destruction of evidence was vital to the plaintiffs’ argument. Plaintiffs can’t show what was in the images or where they went since county officials erased them after the collision. Their lawyers had to get people to testify about what was in them and match it to how accident victims were described.
Jennings Lavoie instructed the jurors to assume the evidence was bad.
Jennings Lavoie told the jury the plaintiffs’ hypothesis is that the county is accountable for its workers’ actions because it had proper regulations or training to prevent them. He showed the jurors video of L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva saying cops have a long record of sharing horrible death photos.
Jennings Lavoie told the jury, “It’s been tolerated for decades.”
The county denies this, but the jury must decide if Bryant and Chester’s rights were violated.
Chester’s lawyer asked the jury to give half of the damages to the sheriff’s department and the other half to the fire department.
Jackson stated his client’s privacy and dignity were taken. “It was deliberate. inhumane. inhumane. They laughed and lied. Then they tried to cover it up with a clumsy, sloppy, and foolish cover-up.
Wednesday is the county’s closing argument.
