Los Angeles Requests Vanessa Bryant’s Therapy Records in Legal Battle

According to NBC News, last week on Friday, Los Angeles County requested the therapy records of Vanessa Bryant, including sessions that date back as far as January 2012.

This request is the latest back-and-forth between the parties after Bryant, the widow of Los Angeles Lakers legend, Kobe Bryant, filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County after first responders at the helicopter crash site took photographs and then allegedly shared them publicly.

Just last week, after asking that Bryant take a psychiatric exam as part of her lawsuit against Los Angeles County, a federal judge denied the request.

According to The Associated Press, Los Angeles County attempted to have Bryant and others submit to psychiatric evaluations to determine if those who are testifying in the case suffered emotional distress over photos of the crash scene and bodies at the site of Kobe and their daughter, Gigi’s death.

In last week’s filing, the attorneys for Los Angeles County said Vanessa’s therapy records are necessary for its defense against the lawsuit she filed last year. In the motion it asks for “all documents relating to or reflecting counseling, therapy, psychotherapy, psychiatry or any other mental health treatment provided to Vanessa Bryant from Jan. 1, 2010, to the present.”

“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,” county attorney Skip Miller wrote in a written statement.

“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,” he concluded.

Last year, attorneys for Vanessa Bryant filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the company that operated the helicopter that caused the deaths of her husband, 13-year-old daughter, and seven other passengers. Bryant’s complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, is against Island Express Helicopters, Island Express Holding Corp., and the pilot’s estate, Ara Zobayan.

The wrongful death lawsuit stated that the pilot was negligent by flying in foggy and cloudy conditions on Jan. 26, and he should have aborted the flight.

The 41-year-old basketball legend died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven other people on Jan. 26, 2020.