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L.A. County Attorneys want Psychiatric Evaluations for Vanessa Bryant, Other Victims

The county is trying to determine if they truly suffered emotional distress after photos of deceased leaked

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Vanessa Bryant

Vanessa Bryant, the widow of basketball star Kobe Bryant, is receiving pushback from Los Angeles County in the aftermath of her husband’s death. Vanessa filed a federal lawsuit against the county alleging invasion of privacy and claimed in court papers she experienced “severe emotional distress” after the deaths of her husband and 13-year-old daughter, Gianna.

As a result, “Los Angeles County is seeking to compel psychiatric evaluations for Kobe Bryant’s widow and others to determine if they truly suffered emotional distress after first responders took and shared graphic photos from the site of the 2020 helicopter crash” reports The Washington Times.

The widow’s lawsuit states first responders such as firefighters and sheriff’s deputies took photos of the devastating scene and then shared the photographs of Bryant’s body. As the Los Angeles Times first reported, a sheriff’s department internal investigation found evidence that deputies had indeed shared photos of the victims’ remains.

The Washington Times writes the individuals “shared photographs of Kobe Bryant’s body with a bartender and passed around ‘gratuitous photos of the dead children, parents and coaches.” The crash occurred on January 26, 2020, killing Bryant, his teenage daughter, and seven others.

The helicopter was headed to a girls basketball tournament when it crashed in the hills west of Los Angeles in foggy weather. Federal safety officials blamed the wreck on pilot error.

Los Angeles County attorneys are asking for the court to order Vanessa and other family members of the crash victims, “including children, to undergo psychiatric evaluations as independent medical examinations. The lawyers propose that the evaluations are audio- and vide-recorded and last eight hours for adults and four to six hours for children” reports the Times.

Vanessa’s lawsuit prompted Governor Gavin Newsom to approve legislation last year making it a crime for first responders to take unauthorized photos of deceased people at scenes of accidents or crimes.

Court documents say “Ms. Bryant feels ill at the thought of strangers gawking at images of her deceased husband and child, and she lives in fear that she or her children will one day confront horrific images of their loved ones online.”

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education

BREAKING: Disney drops suit challenging special district status in settlement with Florida, DeSantis

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A settlement was reached Wednesday in the two-year lawsuit over who controls the special governing district that encompasses the Walt Disney World Resort, which includes Disney dropping its lawsuitsagainst a newly created tourism board.

“We are glad that Disney has dropped its lawsuits against the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and conceded that their last-minute development agreements are null, void, and unenforceable,” Bryan Griffin, DeSantis’ communications director, said in a statement. “No corporation should be its own government. Moving forward, we stand ready to work with Disney and the District to help promote economic growth, family-friendly tourism, and accountable government in Central Florida.”

Fox News explains the dispute began “after Disney’s criticism of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act – derided by critics as the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill – prompted the DeSantis administration to revoke the special Disney-controlled tax district that gave the entertainment autonomy over its theme parks in the region.”

“No corporation should be its own government,” Bryan Griffin, a spokesman for the governor, said in an emailed statement. “Moving forward, we stand ready to work with Disney and the District to help promote economic growth, family-friendly tourism, and accountable government in Central Florida.”

Misleadingly deemed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, prohibited the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity to young students in the state. National Review reports:

After receiving pressure from employees, Disney’s then-CEO, Bob Chapek, said that the company’s leaders had been opposed to the bill “from the outset,” and Disney declared that the legislation “should never have passed and should never have been signed into law.”

In February 2023, DeSantis signed House Bill 9B, which established the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District to replace Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District. Reedy Creek was a 56-year-old special taxing district that allowed Disney control its own development, regulations, building codes, and other municipal services.

Lawmakers voted to give the governor the power to appoint the district’s board members.

However, before a DeSantis-appointed board took over last March, the Disney-controlled board handed control of the district’s development over to Disney…

As part of the settlement, Disney acknowledges that the development agreement approved by the outgoing Reedy Creek board has “no legal effect or enforceability.”

As for the media reports that DeSantis had been humiliated and out-maneuvered by Disney, Griffin said that “as usual, the media were wrong.”

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