*Los Angeles County has asked a federal judge to keep a man whose wife and daughter were among the nine who perished in the fatal helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, separate from Vanessa Bryant‘s lawsuit over the sharing of photographs of the crash site.
The county says Christopher Chester should not be permitted to “ride Bryant’s coattails” by consolidating his case with Vanessa’s, Law and Crime reports.
The cases are proceeding in U.S. District Court in California before U.S. District Judge John F. Walter, a George W. Bush appointee, and Magistrate Judge Charles F. Eick.
Both Vanessa and Christopher sued L.A. County after first responders shared the gruesome images of the crash with multiple sheriff’s deputies.
READ MORE: Vanessa Bryant Fears Crash Site Photos of Kobe and GiGi Will Go Viral
The county claims the images were not distributed to the public. The county has filed a motion to keep Vanessa and Christopher’s suits from being consolidated. Per the reprot, legal docs note that while their cases “arise from the same tragic incident” there are enough differences that “consolidating them for trial would create jury confusion and risk a fair trial.”
From the motion:
“Given Kobe Bryant’s worldwide recognition, Bryant’s case is distinct. Chester should not be permitted to ride Bryant’s coattails and benefit from critical evidence that only pertains to Bryant. Chester has shown his propensity to do this in nearly every pretrial filing and again at the July 8 pretrial conference.”
Attorneys for the county say, “Chester cannot point to any evidence of photos depicting his loved ones.” The county says it is “unlikely he can prove public dissemination and thereby establish a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
From the county’s filing: “Unlike Bryant, Chester is not a celebrity with millions of social media followers. He is a private person who avoids the spotlight, and he was not worried about paparazzi in the hours following the death of his loved ones.”
The county warned that consolidating the cases would cause Chester to “unfairly reap the benefits of the significant impact Bryant and her celebrity witnesses will have on this case.”
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