Updated post: An updated version of this story can be found here: Vanessa Bryant won’t have to undergo mental exam in lawsuit, judge rules
Original post: Vanessa Bryant will not have to undergo a psychiatric examination as part of her lawsuit against Los Angeles County over the helicopter crash scene photos taken by sheriff’s deputies and shown to others, a federal magistrate ruled Monday.
The widow of Kobe Bryant sued L.A. County last year, alleging that she and her family suffered severe emotional distress after learning that L.A. County sheriff’s deputies snapped and later shared gruesome images of the crash scene where her husband, daughter Gianna and seven others died in January 2020.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles F. Eick ruled that the county’s motion to compel Vanessa Bryant to undergo an independent medical evaluation was untimely given that a trial is scheduled for February 2022.
Lawyers for the county had contended that Vanessa Bryant could not be suffering severe distress from crash photos she has never seen and that were never shared publicly, and they wanted a psychiatric exam to prove so.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.