Hollywood – An attorney for Kobe Bryant's widow, Vanessa, pleaded with a jury in federal court in this city on the 44th anniversary of his birth to render justice for him and his daughter more than two years after their passings.In Vanessa Bryant's civil trial against Los Angeles County, which was in its tenth day, she continued to cry throughout the day. This was also the day's last day of testimony after hearing from numerous witnesses. It was also the first day of closing arguments, and it was the first time a lawyer asked the jury for a specific sum of money for Bryant and Chris Chester, the other plaintiff in the case:
$75 million.Jerome Jackson, Chester's attorney, requested up to $2.5 million for each person's previous 2.5 years of mental anguish as well as up to $1 million for each year of their future distress, which amounted to 40 years for Bryant and 30 years for Chester.
Jackson said to the jury during closing arguments, "When I reach this part of closing statements, I'm generally nervous about not asking for too much." "Today, I don't have that fear because, ladies and gentlemen, you can never give someone too much money for what they went through. It cannot be stacked too high. It can't be dispersed too widely. It was cruel and horrible what they endured.After filing a lawsuit against the county in 2020, many months after they both lost their wives and daughters in the Calabasas, California, helicopter disaster that claimed the lives of all nine people on board, she and Chester both took this matter to trial. They are criticizing what transpired after the incident, not the crash itself, rather than the county. They both claimed that county sheriff's and fire department officials had taken graphic images of their slain loved ones at the collision scene using their personal phones even though they had no good reason to do so on behalf of their employers.
According to the county, the pictures were erased soon after the accident and were never shared online. Bryant and Chester, however, claim they always worry about the photographs turning up again because it's impossible to know if they still exist elsewhere and may surface at any time.Kobe Bryant was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, forty-four years ago today, according to the opening statement of Bryant's lawyer, Craig Jennings Lavoie. "His birthday is today. It is a pleasure to stand here on Mrs. Bryant's behalf as she asks for justice and accountability for both parties as well as for their daughter Gianna, who would be 16 if she were still present.Bryant shared her first public Instagram post since the trial started on August 10 while attending the trial on Tuesday in all-black. The image was of her and Kobe, and it was captioned:
Happy birthday, little one! You are very much missed and loved by me.Final arguments
Her recollection quickly gave way to melancholy in the courtroom as the case was about to come to a close. The jury, which consists of five men and four women, will consider the following issues after concluding closing arguments on Wednesday morning:
Do these county first responders' public releases of these crash-scene pictures, reportedly done so they might use them as "souvenirs" or amusing items, violate Bryant and Chester's constitutional private rights under the Fourteenth Amendment?
If so, is the county responsible for it as a whole?
If so, how much should the jury decide to give them in compensation for their past and future emotional suffering?
Key details of the trial's evidence were explained to the jury by Jennings Lavoie, including the contradictory testimony of those who took and shared the pictures and the two major public occurrences at which county employees shared crash-scene images. One incident involves fire captain Tony Imbrenda displaying crash images at an awards ceremony in February 2020. A witness claimed she overheard someone say that one of the photos showed Kobe's "burnt-up" body, which Imbrenda disputed at trial.
In a another instance, Jennings Lavoie informed the jury that Joey Cruz, a trainee sheriff's deputy, provided the "clearest illustration" of a violation when he displayed images of the crash scene at a restaurant bar two days after the collision.
Jennings Lavoie also brought up the incident involving fire captain Brian Jordan, who the fire department claims visited the scene of the collision and took pointless pictures of dead victims. Anthony Marrone, the current acting chief, instructed Jordan, according to testimony Jordan provided, to take pictures of the crash scene.
But Marrone said in his testimony this week that wasn't the case. Jordan, according to him, texted him the position of Gianna Bryant's remains at the crash site, which were located in a ravine.
According to Jennings Lavoie, "based on that, chief Marrone understood that Brian Jordan had eyes on her in that ravine."
Jordan was subsequently charged with taking "personal souvenir images of a murdered child, not for any business purpose, but because he intended to gift these photos to himself, to take them home with him as a trophy," according to Jennings Lavoie.
Bryant dried her eyes with a tissue as Jennings Lavoie discussed this matter while she was seated at the plaintiffs' table in front of the jury.
"Can you envision?" the jury, Jennings Lavoie enquired. "It's up to you to decide whether or not that shocks your conscience. It jolts the consciousness 1,000 times. And after taking the pictures, he publicly released them by keeping them for himself and leaving the scene that day.
Due to Jordan's improper use of these images, the fire department informed him in writing of its "intention to terminate" him in December 2020. The letter stated that the images "simply served to appeal to baser instincts and appetites for what amounted to visual gossip." Jordan made the decision to leave his job early. In his testimony last week, he claimed that the reason he was in court was due to "false charges," that he couldn't recall being at the crash site on that particular day, and that he didn't even know who Gianna Bryant was.erasure of evidence
When Jordan was compelled to give in his computer to his employer, the hard disk was missing. Jordan was also questioned in court last week about what happened to the drive. He admitted he had no idea, which led the plaintiffs' attorneys to speculate that it might still contain graphic images that might suddenly resurface.
The destruction of evidence was still another crucial component of the plaintiffs' argument. The plaintiffs have no way of proving what was in the images or where they went because county staff destroyed photos soon after the disaster. Instead, their attorneys had to obtain witness testimony about what they contained and then compare it to descriptions of the accident victims.
Jennings Lavoie told the jury, "You may assume the evidence would have been negative for them.
Jennings Lavoie also discussed the plaintiffs' view, according to which the county is responsible for the actions of its employees in this case since it had the necessary training or regulations to stop it. He played video of L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva giving an interview, in which he said that police had a long history of obtaining and disseminating graphic images of victims of accidents or crimes.
For years, it has been permitted, Jennings Lavoie told the jury.
Although the county contests this, the jury will first need to decide if county workers in this case violated Bryant and Chester's rights.
The sheriff's department should be held accountable for half of the damages, according to Chester's attorney, and the fire department for the other half.
Jackson stated of his client, "They robbed his dignity and his family's privacy." "They did it on purpose. They executed it brutally. They carried it out cruelly. They also made jokes about it and spoke lies about it. Then they made an awkward, careless, and stupid attempt to cover it up, failing at times even to maintain the consistency of their account.
On Wednesday, the county is slated to address the jury in its closing statement.
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