Vanessa Bryant will be donating the $16 million verdict she was awarded in her case against Los Angeles County to the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization founded by her late husband.
The organization was launched by Kobe Bryant after his retirement in 2016.
Vanessa Bryant said Thursday she was donating the verdict proceeds to the foundation to “to shine a light on Kobe and Gigi’s legacy,” the Los Angeles Times reported. The foundation was later renamed in 2020 after the 41-year-old NBA legend and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, were killed in a helicopter crash, according to the report.
On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that LA County must pay Vanessa Bryant $16 million after first responders snapped and shared grisly photos of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed her husband, daughter and seven others.
Another $15 million was awarded to plaintiff Chris Chester, who lost his wife, Sarah, and daughter Payton in the Calabasas, California, accident.
“From the beginning, Vanessa Bryant has sought only accountability, but our legal system does not permit her to force better policies, more training or officer discipline,” her attorney Luis Li said in a statement to the paper. “Those measures are the responsibility of the sheriff’s and fire departments — responsibilities that Mrs. Bryant’s efforts have exposed as woefully deficient, even giving amnesty to the wrongdoers.”
Lawyers for Bryant and Chester showed the jury how the photos had spread from the phones of deputies and firefighters at the crash scene on a remote hillside in Calabasas on Jan. 26, 2020.
