Kobe Bryant crash: Judge rules Vanessa Bryant won’t undergo psychiatric
The lawsuit, filed against LA County in federal court in September 2020, seeks undisclosed damages, claiming civil rights violations, negligence, emotional distress and violation of privacy.
But according to court documents filed Monday, Magistrate Judge Charles F. Eick denied Los Angeles County’s October 15 request on the grounds a psychiatric evaluation would be “untimely.”
CNN reached out to the attorney hired by Los Angeles County for comment but did not immediately hear back.
The trial is set to begin in February 2022.
According to court filings, LA County had argued that a “central tenet” of its defense would be that the “severe emotional and mental injuries were not caused by any conduct of Defendants, but rather by the tragic helicopter crash and resulting deaths of their loved ones.”
The county argued the plaintiffs “cannot be suffering distress from accident site photos that they have never seen and that were never publicly disseminated.” The county argued the medical examinations would help evaluate the “existence, extent and cause” of the plaintiffs’ “alleged harm.”
Arguing against the examinations, attorneys for Bryant and the other plaintiffs said a “complaint that merely claims damages for emotional distress does not place a party’s mental condition ‘in controversy.'” They added the county should work to evaluate emotional stress by “less intrusive means.”
CNN’s Amanda Watts and Dakin Andone contributed to this report.
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