Los Angeles County Seeks Psychiatric Exam Of Vanessa Bryant

By Associated Press
October 18, 2021

Los Angeles County is seeking to compel psychiatric evaluations for Kobe Bryant's widow and others to find if they genuinely suffered affectional distress aft archetypal responders took and shared graphic photos from the tract of the 2020 chopper clang that killed the hoops star, his teenage girl and 7 others, tribunal documents say.

Vanessa Bryant, whose national suit against the region alleges penetration of privacy, has claimed successful tribunal papers that she has experienced “severe affectional distress” that has compounded the trauma of losing her hubby and 13-year-old daughter, Gianna.

Kobe Bryant and the others were killed Jan. 26, 2020, erstwhile the chopper they were aboard, connected their mode to a girls hoops tournament, crashed successful the hills westbound of Los Angeles amid foggy weather. Federal information officials blamed aviator mistake for the wreck.

Vanessa Bryant's suit contends archetypal responders, including firefighters and sheriff's deputies, shared photographs of Kobe Bryant’s assemblage with a bartender and passed astir "gratuitous photos of the dormant children, parents and coaches.” The Los Angeles Times archetypal reported that a sheriff's section interior probe recovered deputies shared photos of victims’ remains.

None of the archetypal responders were straight progressive successful the probe of the clang oregon had immoderate morganatic intent successful taking oregon passing astir the grisly photos, the suit contends. Gov. Gavin Newsom past twelvemonth approved authorities prompted by the chopper clang that makes it a transgression for archetypal responders to instrumentality unauthorized photos of deceased radical astatine the country of an mishap oregon crime.

“Ms. Bryant feels sick astatine the thought of strangers gawking astatine images of her deceased hubby and child, and she lives successful fearfulness that she oregon her children volition 1 time face horrific images of their loved ones online,” tribunal documents say.

Attorneys for Los Angeles County privation the tribunal to bid Bryant and different household members of the radical who were killed successful the crash, including children, to acquisition psychiatric evaluations arsenic autarkic aesculapian examinations. The lawyers suggest that the evaluations beryllium audio- and video-recorded and past 8 hours for adults and 4 to six hours for children.

The region contends that portion the families “have undoubtedly suffered terrible distress and trauma from the clang and resulting nonaccomplishment of their loved ones, their distress was not caused by (the archetypal responders) oregon immoderate mishap tract photos that were ne'er publically disseminated.”

LA County attorneys wrote successful tribunal papers that specified psychiatric examinations are “necessary to measure the quality and extent” of the families' alleged injuries.

Vanessa Bryant’s attorneys, successful filings submitted Friday, said the region is resorting to “scorched-earth find tactics" designed to bully her and the household members of different victims into "abandoning their pursuit of accountability.”

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.