National Roundup

California
Judge: Kobe Bryant’s widow must turn over therapy records
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge has ruled that Kobe Bryant’s widow must turn over her therapy records to Los Angeles County in her lawsuit claiming she suffered emotional distress after first responders took and shared graphic photos from the site of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed the basketball star, his teenage daughter and seven others.

U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Charles Eick granted a request by county lawyers to review Vanessa Bryant’s records, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday. But the judge limited the documents to the years since 2017, not 2010 as the lawyers had sought.

“Plaintiff 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,” the judge wrote of the Jan. 26, 2020, crash near Los Angeles.

Vanessa Bryant testified in her deposition that because of the photos she has suffered constant fear and anxiety and has had trouble sleeping. She is suing for invasion of privacy, asking for damages for emotional distress. The case is scheduled for trial in February.

County lawyers led by outside counsel Skip Miller argue that the deaths themselves caused her distress, and they sought the therapy records to determine Bryant’s mental state.

 The same judge rejected a previous effort by the county to require her to undergo a mental health evaluation.

Her lawyers argued that the effort to get her therapy records was a further invasion of her privacy.

“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. We are gratified that the Court has granted our motion for access to her medical records, as it is a standard request in lawsuits where a plaintiff demands millions of dollars for claims of emotional distress,” Miller said in a statement obtained by the Times.

Lawyers for Vanessa Bryant didn’t immediately comment.

A Times investigation in March revealed that deputies had shared the grim images of the scene. The photos were shared internally and by one deputy who displayed his cellphone in a Norwalk, California, bar and by a fire captain who showed the images on his phone during an award shows cocktail hour.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva ordered all deputies with images of the crash to delete them immediately after learning of a Jan. 29 citizen complaint about the bar incident.

Ohio
Pension fund sues Facebook over investment loss
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s largest public employee pension fund has sued Facebook — now known as Meta — alleging that it broke federal securities law by purposely misleading the public about the negative effects of its social platforms and the algorithms that run them.

The lawsuit by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System specifically claims that Facebook buried inconvenient findings about how the company has managed those algorithms as well as the steps it said it was taking to protect the public.

The suit also contends claims that Facebook knew that its platform facilitated dissention, illegal activity, and violent extremism, but refused to correct it. The Associated Press and a coalition of other news organizations have reported extensively on Facebook’s actions, internal dissents that warned of these problems and related issues around the world based on internal company documents, now known as the Facebook Papers, leaked by the data scientist and former Facebook employee Frances Haugen.

“Facebook said it was looking out for our children and weeding out online trolls, but in reality was creating misery and divisiveness for profit,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement. “We are not people to Mark Zuckerberg, we are the product and we are being used against each other out of greed.”

The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in California, says market losses resulting from publicity over Facebook’s actions caused investors — including OPERS — to lose more than $100 billion . A Facebook spokesperson called the lawsuit without merit and said the company would fight it.

Rhode Island
Survey shows discrimination in legal system
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A survey among members of the Rhode Island Bar Association found discrimination in the state’s legal system, with nearly half of the survey’s participants saying they witnessed or experienced discrimination in the workplace and in state courts.

Discrimination — including racism, sexism, homophobia and bias because of a disability — was encountered by 47% of the more than 300 members of the bar association’s 5,000-plus members who responded, The Providence Journal  reported.

Lawyers in underrepresented groups said they experienced roadblocks in their professional careers, citing different treatment based on their gender, race, sexual orientation and disability, as well as lower pay and fewer promotions.

The Rhode Island Bar Association Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, which conducted the survey, recommended that the bar association and the state Supreme Court mandate education courses focusing on anti-racism training and emphasizing the importance of including minority lawyers in leadership positions. The task force was created in 2020 after national and local calls to promote a more fair and equal justice system.

A spokesperson for the Rhode Island Supreme Court said the survey results are currently under review, and that The Committee on Racial and Ethnic Fairness has a meeting with the bar association leadership later this month.


Alabama
Woman, man charged in death of 2-year-old girl
OPELIKA, Ala. (AP) — An east Alabama woman and man have been arrested on murder charges in the death of the woman’s 2-year-old daughter, who was found dead last week.

Chastity Umeko Baker and Jamario Emanuel Mitchell, both 28 and from Opelika, were charged Monday in the death of the child, whose name has not been released, according to statements from Opelika police and the Lee County coroner.

Mitchell is not the child’s father and was believed to be dating Baker, the baby’s mother, WRBL-TV reported.

Authorities were called to a home in Opelika on Friday about a child who was unresponsive. The girl was pronounced dead, and her body was taken to a state laboratory for an autopsy.

Baker and Mitchell were held at the Lee County Jail on $450,000 bail. Court records were not available Tuesday to show whether either person had a lawyer who could speak on their behalf.