Legal

Vanessa Bryant wants a jury to know that the sheriff's deputy accused of taking helicopter crash scene photos of Kobe Bryant was involved in another scandal involving excessive force where a handcuffed inmate's head was allegedly knelt on.

But, L.A. County is fighting back, insisting the other incident is irrelevant, and would seriously prejudice the jury.

About a year after Kobe, Gigi, and seven others tragically died in a helicopter crash, there was an incident inside a county jail involving a deputy named Doug Johnson ... who's accused of kneeling on the head of a handcuffed inmate for several minutes. The March 2021 incident received national news attention.

The L.A. County Sheriff's Department allegedly attempted to prevent the details of the incident from going public ... believing it'd be a black eye for the department.

It's not the first scandal Doug Johnson's allegedly been involved in ... 'cause he's accused of being one of the deputies who took photographs of Kobe's remains at the crash site.

Photos were then allegedly shown to civilians -- without authorization -- in places like bars.

Now, lawyers for L.A. County are asking a judge to prevent Vanessa's attorney's from raising the issue during the defamation and negligence trial -- filed by the Bryant family in 2020 -- and set to begin in July.

The county, in documents filed on Friday, argues the jail incident is "entirely unrelated" to Vanessa's case. They argue bringing up such a hot button issue like excessive force could have a huge effect on the outcome of the trial.

Lawyers for the county reportedly asked Vanessa's legal team if they'd agree not to bring up the other incident ... but VB's attorney refused, according to the L.A. Times. That's when L.A. County filed the motion.

A judge is yet to make a decision on L.A. County's request.

As for the jail incident ... Johnson was captured on camera leading an inmate through a hallway, before the man, awaiting a murder charge, punched him in the face several times. Once Johnson got the 24-year-old inmate under control and handcuffed, he allegedly knelt on the inmates head for around 3 minutes.

Amber Heard says years of notes from her therapist lay out the ways in which she was allegedly being abused by Johnny Depp.

The actress says she has a binder chock full of notes from therapy sessions with a doctor, dating back to 2011, who she was reporting the alleged abuse to ... and she says it's a real-time account of what was going on between her and Johnny.

Amber turned over the documents to NBC as part of her interview with Savannah Guthrie ... according to a preview clip from Friday's upcoming "Dateline" episode, which shows pages of notes on-screen with an excerpt reading, "He hit her, threw her on floor."

There's more ... the "Dateline" episode also includes notes alleging Johnny "ripped her nightgown, threw her on the bed" and "threw her against a wall and threatened to kill her."

The documents were not included in Amber's legal showdown with Johnny ... a trial Johnny won ... because the judge reportedly ruled the therapist's notes were hearsay and inadmissible.

Johnny's legal team issued a statement to "Dateline," saying the actor wants to move forward with his life after winning the case against his ex-wife Amber.

Jamie Spears has just gone full throttle, asking a judge to force his daughter to sit for a depo ... and it's largely over claims Britney made about him on social media.

Jamie just filed legal docs, obtained by TMZ, in which his lawyer says Britney is going on a campaign to trash Jamie on Instagram and her soon-to-be-published memoir, and apparently Jamie now wants to challenge her allegations.

Among the issues Jamie wants to direct at his daughter under oath ... allegations that she was forced to give 8 tubes of blood for medical treatment, was forced to participate in therapy and was not allowed to own pain-reliever meds.

Jamie is saying all of his daughter's allegations are relevant to whether he abused his role as conservator ... something Britney and her lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, have insisted happened.

He goes on to say Rosengart has refused to schedule a depo, saying Jamie's effort was "another tactic to bully, harass and intimidate his daughter -- his own daughter."

The January 6th House Committee recounted a passage from a book on the insurrection, in which Donald Trump told Mike Pence how cool it would be for one person -- the Veep -- to overturn the will of the people.

The story came out in the book, "Peril," but the exchange between Trump and Pence was shocking enough to make its way to the hearing. After Pence told Trump he did not have the power to ignore the electoral results, Trump responded, "If these [Trump's] people say you have the power, wouldn't you want to?" Pence responded, "I wouldn't want any one person to have that authority."

Trump's response is shocking ... "But wouldn't it almost be cool to have that power?" When you break that down, it's almost as if Trump is saying forget about whether you ACTUALLY have that power ... it would be cool to do it anyway. That's pretty close to saying in spite of not having authority, why not just undermine democracy and do it anyway -- and that could show the kind of intent the Dept. of Justice is investigating.

The capper is equally shocking ... when Pence persisted that he had tried to find legit ways to challenge the election results, this was a line he would not cross, and Trump responded, "No no no. You don't understand Mike. You can do this. I don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this."

Vince McMahon is voluntarily stepping away from his duties as CEO and Chairman of WWE amid an investigation into alleged misconduct by the billionaire ... and his daughter, Stephanie, has been appointed interim CEO and interim Chairwoman.

WWE and its Board of Directors, of which Vince is a member, announced on Friday the 76-year-old will take a step back from his responsibilities as the org.'s honcho until the conclusion of the investigation.

"WWE and its Board of Directors take all allegations of misconduct very seriously," the statement read. "The Independent Directors of the Board engaged independent legal counsel to assist them with an independent review."

"In addition, the Special Committee and WWE will work with an independent third-party to conduct a comprehensive review of the company's compliance program, HR function and overall culture."

They added ... "The Company and the Board do not expect to have further comment until the investigation is concluded."

The investigation into Vince stems from a claim that he allegedly agreed to pay a former employee $3 million over 5 years after the two had an affair.

The woman alleges that Vince paid her $1 million in advance ... and was expected to dish out the remaining $2 million in "hush money" over 5 years.

The Wall Street Journal reported that a preliminary investigation into Vince revealed Vince made a payment to the ex-employee using "personal funds."

Vince said in the statement Friday that he will cooperate and support the investigation by the Special Committee ... and he will accept the findings and outcome of the probe once it's over.

“I love this company and am committed to working with the Independent Directors to strengthen our culture and our Company; it is extremely important to me that we have a safe and collaborative workplace," said Vince, who is expected to appear on 'SmackDown' on Friday night.

"I have committed to doing everything in my power to help the Special Committee complete its work, including marshaling the cooperation of the entire company to assist in the completion of the investigation and to implement its findings."

As a result, Stephanie, who recently stepped away from her role as the chief brand officer of WWE to be with her family, is back with the company as interim CEO and interim Chairwoman.

Rob Kardashian just struck out in his bid to end another legal war with his ex, Blac Chyna ... and now it looks like her revenge porn case is going to trial.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, a judge just denied Rob's attempt to enforce a settlement he says he struck with Blac Chyna that would have made the case go away before trial.

TMZ broke the story ... Rob filed legal docs earlier this month claiming he struck a deal with Blac Chyna to drop her revenge porn lawsuit and claimed she was trying to back out on the alleged deal.

Rob said Chyna had agreed to drop the suit if Rob helped get her dropped from a separate lawsuit ... with Rob saying he agreed to hold up his end of the alleged bargain, and she should be held to her end.

RK asked the judge to enforce the alleged deal with Chyna ... but the judge just said no.

As a result, it looks like Rob and Chyna are heading for another legal showdown as the case was set to go to trial this month.

Remember ... the Kardashians soundly defeated Blac Chyna in their recent legal battle over the former couple's canceled reality show.

Now, the stage is set for a second fight.

Johnny Knoxville is calling an end to his marriage … filing for divorce from his second wife, Naomi.

The "Jackass" star filed docs, obtained by TMZ, Thursday in Los Angeles. According to Johnny, he and Naomi have been separated since September 2021.

The two got married in September 2010 in Los Angeles. They’ve got two kids together, a 12-year-old son named Rocko and a 10-year-old daughter named Arlo.

Johnny’s asking for joint legal and physical custody of the kids, and lists irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split.

Nipsey Hussle's murder trial continued with testimony from another man who was allegedly shot by Eric Holder the day Nipsey was killed -- though he remained pretty tight-lipped on the stand.

Kerry Lathan was shot in the back during the same incident where Nipsey died. While prosecutors asked Lathan a variety of questions, he didn't seem to want to get into specifics -- especially when it came to identifying who was present and naming names.

At one point, prosecutors played a video purportedly showing Lathan arriving at Marathon Clothing that day, but Lathan wouldn't confirm it was him in the clip, saying, "I don't know nothing, don't see nothing."

He testified when the shooting started, he heard "a lot" of shots, but wouldn't identify who he thought pulled the trigger.

Prosecutors asked Lathan, "You don't want to testify about what happened?" to which Lathan responded, "That's right."

As we reported, Holder allegedly told Nipsey, "You're through" before killing the rapper. Lathan was asked if he heard anything said during the shooting, but replied with, "He wasn't talking to me."

During opening statements Wednesday, prosecutors warned Lathan may not be very cooperative because of the involvement of Rolling 60's gang members in the case ... so his hesitation to be totally open about the events isn't totally surprising.

Ex-NHL star Sean Avery has just been convicted of attempted criminal mischief ... after he was accused of slamming his scooter into a car in a road rage incident back in 2019.

A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office tells TMZ Sports ... Avery was found guilty of the misdemeanor charge on Thursday, following a short bench trial this week.

According to the spokesperson, Avery was sentenced to time served. The judge in the case also issued full orders of protection for the victims.

42-year-old Avery was initially charged back in 2019 ... after a businessman said the former New York Rangers center damaged his car following a dispute over a New York bike lane.

The man claimed Avery's outburst left a small hole in his vehicle's door, near where his 4-year-old daughter had been sitting during the incident.

Manny Halley, Young Thug's former manager, has no bad blood with his ex-client -- he wants to see him free again, and firmly believes the system is using "our culture" against hip hop superstars.

We chopped it up with Manny Thursday at LAX, where he told us about his time at YSL ... stressing there was never any notion about the company being a gang. He says it feels like law enforcement's using "made-up charges" to take down a successful revenue stream for Black artists.

Manny and YSL unceremoniously parted ways back in 2018 after he was awarded a 7-figure settlement from Thug's former business managers ... but he says it's still all love and wants to see Thug and Gunna free as the air outside.

Some of what he told us echoes attorney Drew Findling's sentiments about Georgia prosecutors and the RICO charges.

The YSL guys have been getting loads of support from the likes of Chris Brown, Lil Baby, and DJ Khaled. Thug even recorded a message played last week at Summer Jam to thank fans for their support.

As we've reported, Thug, Gunna and co. aren't slated to go to trial until early 2023.

Ben Crump says Black people in America have overcome the most dire of circumstances, and he has no doubt the community will continue to progress in the future ... no matter how concerning things appear today.

The high-profile civil attorney joined "TMZ Live" Thursday to talk about the overall state of civil rights and equality in America ... ahead of the release of the new Netflix documentary, "Civil: Ben Crump."

Ben tells us, he has no doubt Black people will win the war against inequality. He says, no matter how it feels today, "we are far better than we were yesterday, and we are going to be better tomorrow."

As you know, Ben has been involved in the country's most high-profile civil rights cases -- including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Andre Hill -- and he continues to shine a light on police violence ... now the leading cause of death for Black men.

The documentary -- which drops on Sunday, Juneteenth -- follows Ben through 2020 as the nation faced a reckoning on race and equality in the wake of George Floyd's murder.

Ben says, he's grateful for those who blazed a trail for him, and he hopes to inspire the next generation of civil rights attorneys and activists. He spoke to us about the 2 legal icons who inspired his own career and life philosophy.

A juror in the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial says they just didn't buy what he says were Amber's emotional swings, from "crying" to "ice cold."

The juror, who wanted to stay anonymous, spoke to 'GMA' Thursday, saying he took umbrage at Heard's post-verdict statement that the jury ruled the way it did because of Depp's star status.

The male juror seemed to be swayed in no small part by Amber's demeanor on the stand, saying jurors were "uncomfortable" by what he seemed to say were dramatic outbursts they just didn't buy, saying ... "The crying, the facial expressions, the staring at the jury, all of us were very uncomfortable." He says some of the jurors called her sobbing "crocodile tears."

He went on to say the jury felt Amber was more the aggressor than the victim ... "A lot of her story didn't add up. The majority of the jury felt that she was the aggressor. She would answer one question and she would be crying and two seconds later she would turn ice cold."

He went on to say the jury felt Amber and Johnny were mutually abusive, but "he just seemed a little more real in terms of how he was responding to questions. His emotional state was very stable throughout."

As for Heard's comments on "Today," that Johnny won because he was a bigger star and more likable -- the juror insists they reached their decision based on evidence ... full stop.

Bam Margera is on his way back to the Florida rehab facility he bolted from earlier this week ... we're told he was found in a nearby hotel after he was reported missing.

Sources close to the 'Jackass' star tell TMZ ... Bam shacked up at a hotel in Delrey Beach after bouncing from the rehab facility, and cops and a crisis intervention team located him Wednesday and are escorting him back to the treatment center. We are told he went back voluntarily and didn't fight it.

Remember, the rehab center manager says Bam is supposed to be there under a court order ... which is why police are taking him back.

TMZ broke the story ... Bam was reported missing Monday after splitting from the treatment center, and cops went looking for him.

We're told Bam, who recently completed one year in the drug and alcohol treatment program, has been off his medication since leaving the facility and our sources were unsure if he had relapsed.

Nipsey Hussle's alleged murderer, Eric Holder Jr., is standing trial in Los Angeles and prosecutors just laid out the details of Nip's shooting death in court ... and it's horrifying.

Deputy District Attorney John McKinney told the jury Wednesday ... after Holder gunned down Nipsey in a Crenshaw parking lot, Holder walked over to Nispey's bullet-riddled body and kicked him in the head.

The prosecutor also told the courtroom, Holder said to Nipsey, "You're through" ... with Hussle replying, "You got me," before Holder took off from the scene.

McKinney told the jury, Holder's kick to Nipsey's head shows it was a personal attack ... while Holder's public defender is trying to frame the case as something that happened in the heat of the moment.

You'll recall ... Holder was arrested a few days after Nipsey's shooting death, and he's charged with 1 count of murder, 2 counts of attempted murder (two other people were injured by gunshots during the incident) and 1 count of possession of a firearm by a felon.

Cops are on the lookout for Bam Margera after he bolted from a Florida rehab facility he wasn't allowed to leave ... TMZ has learned.

According to a Delray Beach police report, the rehab facility's manager reported the 'Jackass' star missing on Monday. The manager says Bam told him he was unhappy with the place and their services ... so he was splitting, which he apparently did.

The report notes Bam told the manager that instead of staying there, he'd be checking himself into a different rehab center in the area ... and then left the premises in a black sedan.

According to the manager, Bam was there under a court order, and the staff was concerned he seemed to be leaving without authorization.

In any case, the staff also said Bam didn't appear to be a danger to himself or others. Cops did go looking for him that day but, so far, they've come up empty-handed.

Sources close to Bam tell TMZ ... he was currently staying at a sober living facility and had recently got into an argument with his wife. We're told he did have issues with the facilities' restrictions and made the impulsive decision to leave.

Last month Bam had broken his wrist and elbow in a skateboarding accident and was blaming the facility for not setting up his physical therapy appointments.

Amber Heard says she has a lot of mixed feelings about Johnny Depp post-trial, but one of those feelings is apparently love ... even after all of the nasty back and forth.

The final clip from actress' sit-down with "Today" aired Wednesday, and a range of topics was covered ... including where her ex lies in heart. According to Amber, JD is still near and dear, to some degree -- despite the fact he took her to court and won $8.35M.

Savannah Guthrie references Amber's own words about Johnny -- a statement in which she said she still has love for him -- and asks if it's true today. AH says it is.

Amber was also asked if she feels like Johnny has succeeded in ruining her globally -- as he alluded to over text once -- and she says yes, going on to say she feels like he could sue her again if she isn't careful.

Savannah asks about Amber's young daughter and how she plans on explaining this to her one day ... Amber says she'll tell her the truth, and be okay with it knowing she did the right thing, as she believes she's on the right side of history.

At one point in the full interview, Amber is asked about credibility -- including her $7 million pledge to the ACLU, which she hasn't completed -- and while she notes she shouldn't have had to make that to be believed, AH acknowledges that might've played a factor in the jury ruling against her. As Savannah notes, the trial was all about character and trustworthiness.