Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a $2.5M settlement in a lawsuit over leaked photos brought by families who lost relatives in the January 2020 Sikorsky S-76B helicopter crash that killed Kobe and Gianna Bryant.
As per sources, the county already has paid more than $1.29 million in legal fees for these two cases , money that will come out of the sheriff’s and fire department’s budgets.
The Board of Supervisors approved a settlement of two federal lawsuits filed by the Altobelli and Mauser families alleging they suffered emotional distress over graphic photographs of the scene that reportedly were taken or shared by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and firefighters.
Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and the others were flying to a girls basketball tournament on Jan. 26, 2020, when their helicopter crashed in the Calabasas hills west of Los Angeles in foggy weather. Federal safety officials blamed pilot error for the wreck.
The settlement, once approved by the court , will pay $1.25 million to Matthew Mauser, whose wife was killed . Another $1.25 million will be shared by J.J. Altobelli and Alexis Altobelli, siblings who lost their mother, father and 14-year-old sister.
The settlements are “reasonable and fair to all concerned,” said Skip Miller, an attorney representing the county. “We are pleased that the Mauser and Altobelli families, who as private citizens suffered the same grief and loss as others, will be able to move forward after these settlements. We also hope that eventually the other families will be able to do the same.”
Vanessa Bryant continues her own lawsuit over the photos, which weren’t taken as part of the investigation into the crash.
To her relief, a federal judge has ruled that she won’t have to undergo an independent psychological examination that the county had argued was necessary to determine whether she had suffered emotional distress.
