A judge has ruled that Kobe Bryant’s widow must turn over her therapy records in her lawsuit over leaked photos that were taken at the site of the helicopter crash where the NBA great and their 13-year-old daughter died.
Vanessa Bryant sued Los Angeles County and its sheriff’s office over the graphic images of the victims’ bodies that county employees allegedly “showed off” following the Jan. 26, 2020, crash, which she claims has caused her severe emotional distress.
Earlier this month, attorneys for Los Angeles County requested that a federal magistrate judge order Vanessa Bryant to release “all documents relating to or reflecting the counseling, therapy, psychotherapy, psychiatry or any other mental health treatment provided to Vanessa Bryant from Jan. 1, 2010, to the present.”
On Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles F. Eick granted the motion.
Court documents said Bryant “has waived her psychotherapist-patient privilege by placing into controversy the reportedly extraordinary, continuing emotional distress allegedly resulting from Defendants’ photograph-related actions or inactions.”
However, the judge did not agree to the scope of the original request, spanning more than a decade, and instead said the therapy records only had to date back less than five years.
Bryant's attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
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In a statement released after the motion was filed, Los Angeles County attorney Skip Miller wrote, “The County continues to have nothing but the deepest sympathy for the enormous grief Ms. Bryant suffered as a result of the tragic helicopter accident. Our motion for access to her medical records, however, is a standard request in lawsuits where a plaintiff demands millions of dollars for claims of emotional distress. I have an obligation to take this step to defend the County.”
The 41-year-old NBA legend and daughter Gianna were among nine people who died when their helicopter crashed into the side of a mountain in Calabasas, California, last year.
"Nothing compares. Nothing's close to this,” Vanessa Bryant said of the tragedy in an October deposition. “I lost my husband and child. That was the worst thing imaginable.”
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