After a ten-day trial, a federal jury spent just a few hours deliberating the lawsuit Vanessa Bryant and another individual brought against Los Angeles County and came back with their verdict finding for the plaintiffs.

The nine-member jury found that Los Angeles County must now pay Vanessa Bryant, basketball star Kobe Bryant’s widow and Gianna Bryant’s mother, $16 million and fellow plaintiff Chris Chester $15 million, bringing the total payout to $31 million.

In an eerie twist of fate, the verdict was announced on the same day Los Angeles celebrates “Kobe Bryant” day, a celebration created on August 24, 2016, after the Laker’s legendary Basketball player retired.

The lawsuit against L.A. County said first responders shared horrendous photos of victims of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed nine people, including Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna. The victims were traveling via helicopter when it crashed into a Calabasas hillside area northwest of Los Angeles. There were no survivors.

Jurors agreed that L.A. deputies and firefighters responded to the grisly scene and took photos, with some sharing them, and violated the privacy of Vanessa Bryant. The widow said she suffered tremendous emotional distress after learning first responders took photos of the sickening remains of her late husband and teenage daughter.

Mrs. Bryant sobbed when the guilty verdict was read in court.

Chester, who lost his wife and teenage daughter in the same tragic helicopter crash, was a plaintiff with Vanessa Bryant.

In speaking to the jury, Bryant’s attorney Luis Li said that the photos taken of the helicopter victims included bloody dismembered body parts and more, and they were never for public consumption.

They were “not public” and not “for deputies to share,” he said.

In his arguments, Li said Vanessa Bryant should receive $42.5 million and that Chester should receive $32.5 million for their emotional distress, both now and in the future, and invasion of privacy.

By the summer of 2020, Mrs. Bryant discovered that explicit photos were taken at the scene of the crash and were being shown to the public. These photos, she said in her lawsuit filed on September 20, 2020, were taken by first responders and shared among themselves and with others in public.

The L.A. Times discovered, during an investigation into the crash, that deputies had shown photos of the disturbing scene, including one instance in a bar with patrons. The lawsuit says a deputy trainee showed the images from a cell phone to numerous patrons at a Norwalk bar.

During the trial, Key witnesses testified that they saw these disturbing photos in a Norwalk, California, bar. A bar patron testified he felt “betrayed” when an L.A. Sheriff's Deputy showed the disturbing photos of Bryant's dead body and body parts to bartender Victor Gutierrez, who then went from table to table, telling patrons and staff about the photos. L.A. Deputy Sheriff Joey Cruz was a friend of Gutierrez’s and showed him the photos at the bar.

Surveillance video from the bar was shown to the jury, where both Cruz and Gutierrez were seen looking at numerous photos. In the video, after a few moments, both Cruz and Gutierrez could be seen laughing. When asked about the photos he saw, the bartender said, "there were just parts.”

The video then showed the bartender with cooks, other staff, and about five tables of patrons, pointing to his own body and ostensibly describing the viewings.

Bar patron Ralph Mendez Jr., a Norwalk real estate investor, filed a legal complaint after Gutierrez came to his table that night. He said Gutierrez told him what Cruz had shown him and that he "sounded very excited.” In his complaint, Mendez wrote, “There was a Deputy at Baja California Bar and Grill who was at the Kobe Bryant crash site, showing photos of his decapitated body.”

The lawsuit considered the emotional turmoil of private, shocking photos of loved ones being shared by first responders with the public and among themselves, and about the violation of the plaintiffs' constitutional rights.

Last week during the trial, Vanessa Bryant told the court that she was extremely upset and anxious about the gory photos of her late husband and young daughter circulating among the public.

“I live in fear every day of being on social media and these popping up,” she said. “I live in fear of my daughters being on social media and these popping up.”

During closing arguments, attorney Li emotionally told the jury they must give justice to all the victims such as Payton Chester, Sarah Chester, Kobe Bryant and Gianna Bryant, who was “a 13-year-old girl.”

“It’s your turn to stand up and be heard,” Li told the jurors. This is “for every family who may face tragedy someday.”