Los Angeles County wants Vanessa Bryant and others to take a psychiatric exam ahead of trial

By Amanda Watts and Dakin Andone, CNN

(CNN) — Los Angeles County wants to compel the widow of NBA fable Kobe Bryant and others progressive successful a suit over leaked photos of the chopper crash that killed him, their girl and 7 others to instrumentality psychiatric exams earlier the lawsuit goes to trial, tribunal filings show.

In a question filed successful tribunal Friday, Los Angeles County argued autarkic aesculapian examinations are indispensable to find whether the affectional distress suffered by Bryant and others were caused by the leak of the photos oregon the chopper clang itself.

Vanessa Bryant’s civilian suit against Los Angeles County claims photos of the January 2020 clang were shared by region occurrence and sheriff’s section employees successful settings irrelevant to the investigation, including astatine a bar. The lawsuit, filed successful national tribunal successful September 2020, seeks undisclosed damages, claiming civilian rights violations, negligence, affectional distress and usurpation of privacy.

A “central tenet” of the county’s defence is the “severe affectional and intelligence injuries were not caused by immoderate behaviour of Defendants, but alternatively by the tragic chopper clang and resulting deaths of their loved ones,” the tribunal filing says. The region argues the plaintiffs “cannot beryllium suffering distress from mishap tract photos that they person ne'er seen and that were ne'er publically disseminated.”

The plaintiffs are seeking “tens of millions of dollars to compensate them for their alleged intelligence and affectional injuries,” the region says, and the aesculapian examinations would assistance measure the “existence, grade and cause” of their “alleged harm.”

Attorneys for Vanessa Bryant and the different plaintiffs argued against the examinations, saying a “complaint that simply claims damages for affectional distress does not spot a party’s intelligence information ‘in controversy.’” They added the region should enactment to measure affectional accent by “less intrusive means.”

“It does not instrumentality an adept — and it surely does not instrumentality an involuntary eight-hour psychiatric introspection — for a assemblage to measure the quality and grade of the affectional distress caused by Defendants’ misconduct,” attorneys for Bryant said.

The plaintiffs’ distress “are the feelings that immoderate tenable idiosyncratic would acquisition if the nationalist officials entrusted to support the dignity of their deceased household members snapped graphic photos of their loved ones’ remains, utilized the photos for cocktail-hour entertainment, and failed to incorporate and unafraid the photos.”

A proceeding connected the substance is slated for November 5, according to Friday’s tribunal filing, and the proceedings is acceptable to statesman successful February 2022.

Earlier this year, household members of those killed successful the clang settled a wrongful decease suit with the institution that owned and operated the helicopter.

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