Vanessa Bryant Must Turn Over Her Therapy Records

Judge rules records from 2017 on must be submitted to Los Angeles County
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Nov 2, 2021 12:54 AM CDT
Updated Nov 16, 2021 6:47 AM CST
Kobe Bryant's Widow Won't Have to Undergo Psychiatric Evaluation
Investigators work the scene of a helicopter crash that killed former NBA basketball player Kobe Bryant and his teenage daughter, in Calabasas, Calif., on Jan. 27, 2020.   (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)

Update: A judge has ruled that Kobe Bryant's widow must turn over her therapy records to Los Angeles County in her lawsuit claiming she suffered emotional distress after first responders took and shared graphic photos from the site of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed the basketball star, their teenage daughter, and seven others, the AP reports. US District Court Magistrate Judge Charles Eick, who rejected a previous effort by the county to require Bryant to undergo a mental health evaluation, granted a request by county lawyers to review Vanessa Bryant's records, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday. But the judge limited the documents to the years since 2017, not 2010 as the lawyers had sought. Our original story from Nov. 2 follows:

Kobe Bryant’s widow won't have to undergo psychiatric testing for her lawsuit over graphic photos of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed the basketball star, her 13-year-old daughter and others, a federal judge ruled Monday. Los Angeles County sought to compel psychiatric evaluations for Vanessa Bryant and others to determine if they truly suffered emotional distress over photos of the crash scene and bodies that her lawsuit said were taken and shared by county sheriff's deputies and firefighters. US Magistrate Judge Charles F. Eick said that the county's motion to compel an evaluation was untimely, the AP reports. Bryant's invasion-of-privacy lawsuit is scheduled to begin in February.

Bryant's lawsuit contends first responders, including firefighters and sheriff’s deputies, shared photographs of Kobe Bryant’s body with a bartender and passed around “gratuitous photos of the dead children, parents and coaches.” Bryant, in a deposition, had said that “for the rest of my life I’m going to have to fear that these photographs of my husband and child will be leaked.” Attorneys for the county had argued that Bryant had never seen the photographs and they weren't shared publicly and wanted to determine whether she truly had suffered emotional distress. They had sought to require Bryant and other family members of the people who were killed in the crash, including children, to undergo psychiatric evaluations as independent medical examinations. (Vanessa Bryant says "RIP Kobe" was the first she heard of her husband's death.)

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