ORLANDO, Fla. — Comedian Bob Saget’s family asked an Orange County judge on Tuesday to block local authorities from releasing records related to his death investigation.
The lawsuit filed by Saget’s wife Kelly Rizzo and his daughters, Aubrey Saget, Lara Saget and Jennifer Saget, seeks to prevent Orange County Sheriff John Mina and the District Nine Medical Examiner’s Office from releasing further information in response to public records requests.
Saget’s family will “suffer irreparable harm in the form of extreme mental pain, anguish, and emotional distress” if more details about his death investigation are released, the complaint said. “No legitimate public interest would be served by the release or dissemination of the records to the public.”
Saget, 65, was found dead Jan. 9 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Orlando. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office has already released an incident report and a recording of the 911 call by hotel security.
The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit.
According to Saget’s autopsy report, which the Medical Examiner’s Office made public last week, he died of head trauma that “most likely incurred from an unwitnessed fall” in his room. A toxicology analysis did not reveal any illicit drugs or toxins. His death was ruled an accident.
Details of the autopsy findings were first made public in a statement released by Saget’s family to multiple media outlets.
“Now that we have the final conclusions from the authorities’ investigation, we felt it only proper that the fans hear those conclusions directly from us,” the family’s statement said.
Lawyers for the GrayRobinson firm in Orlando, representing Saget’s family, wrote in the complaint that photographs, video and audio recordings from the investigation of Saget’s death and his autopsy are confidential and should be exempt from release.
“The facts of the investigation should be made public, but these materials should remain private out of respect for the dignity of Mr. Saget and his family,” attorney Brian Bieber said in a statement. “It’s very simple — from a human and legal standpoint — the Saget family’s privacy rights outweigh any public interest in disclosure of this sensitive information.”
Photos, video and audio recordings of autopsies are already exempt from public disclosure under Florida’s public records laws. That exemption was created by state lawmakers following a controversy over the autopsy photos of another celebrity: NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, who died in a February 2001 crash at the Daytona 500.
Saget, star of “Full House” and the first host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” was on a tour of Florida cities last month with his stand-up comedy act. He performed at Hard Rock Live at Orlando’s Universal CityWalk two days before his death.
On Monday, Rizzo shared a TikTok on her Instagram Stories of a cooking segment with Saget on how to prepare jumbo lump crab cakes.
“I haven’t had crabs in years, honey,” Saget joked.
Rizzo wrote that her husband always thought Valentine’s Day was “kind of a silly holiday,” but he always sent her roses “and always showered me with love ... like he did every single day.”
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