The pair headed into court on Monday amid their ongoing lawsuit against Los Angeles County.
Standing strong and staying close. Vanessa Bryant and daughter Natalia Bryant showed their love and solidarity as they stepped into court in Los Angeles on Monday.
Vanessa, 40, and Natalia, 19, held hands as they arrived at the courthouse, surrounded by photographers, for the start of the third week of trial in Vanessa's lawsuit against Los Angeles County, regarding graphic photos taken and shared by officers from the helicopter crash site that killed her husband, Kobe Bryant, and the couple's 13-year-old daughter, Gianna Bryant.
Vanessa wore a white button-down blouse and black skirt with dark glasses, while Natalia donned an all-black suit ensemble for the ongoing courtroom battle. Vanessa's friends, Ciara and Monica, were also by her side for the trial on Monday.
Monday's arrival to court marks the first day of the trial after Vanessa took the witness stand on Friday and emotionally recalled the moment she found out the graphic photos from the crash scene -- including photos of Kobe and Gianna -- had been leaked.
She said she was at home breastfeeding her then 7-month-old daughter, Capri, when she was alerted to a Los Angeles Times report about sheriff's deputies sharing the photos.
Vanessa also shared that, to this day, she experiences panic attacks and anxiety over the possibility of seeing the photos from the devastating 2020 helicopter crash.
In May 2020, Vanessa filed a claim against the L.A. County Sheriff's Department for sharing private photos of the Jan. 26, 2020 crash scene in Calabasas, California, that left nine people dead, including Kobe and Gianna. The following September, she filed a lawsuit which seeks unspecified damages, including punitive damages, for negligence, invasion of privacy as well as intentional infliction of emotional distress. The lawsuit accuses eight sheriff's deputies of taking cell phone photos of the bodies of her late husband and late daughter for their personal use.
In her opening remarks last week, L.A. county lawyer Mira Hashmall insisted that the county did not violate the Bryant family’s constitutional rights by publicly spreading unauthorized photos.
"They’re not online. They’re not in the media. They’ve never even been seen by the plaintiffs themselves,” she said, adding, "That is not an accident. That is a function of how diligent [the department leaders] were."
See the video below for more on the ongoing lawsuit.
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