Bobbi Kristina Brown’s death may have been a suicide, attorneys for her boyfriend said as they argued that authorities should close the case and move on.
“Frankly, the right thing for the district attorney’s office to do right now is to tell the public the truth … that this was an accident … or even a suicide, but not a murder,” Nick Gordon’s lawyers said in a written statement released Tuesday. “And the right thing for everyone to do is let Nick live his life now and let Bobbi Kristina rest in peace.”
Emergency crews found Brown, the daughter of pop icon Whitney Houston and singer Bobby Brown, unresponsive in her suburban Atlanta home in January 2015. She died at a hospice in July at age 22, having never regained consciousness.
The statement from attorneys Joe Habachy and Jose Baez comes days after a judge unsealed Brown’s autopsy.
In the report, the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office said it could not say whether Brown’s 2015 death was an accident -or something else.
Officials said drug intoxication and immersion in a bathtub of water led to Brown’s death months later from pneumonia and brain damage
Her estate has filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against Gordon, alleging he beat her after an all-night “cocaine and drinking binge.” He then gave her a “toxic cocktail” that knocked her out, according to the suit.
Gordon has not been charged. His legal team has described the lawsuit as “slanderous and meritless.”
In their statement Tuesday, Habachy and Baez accused prosecutors of trying to make Gordon into a murderer “despite having clear and convincing evidence that Bobbi Kristina’s death was nothing more than a tragic accident.”
“The truth is that Nick tried to save Bobbi Kristina’s life. The truth is that Nick cooperated with law enforcement since day one. The truth is that no one loved Bobbi Kristina more than Nick and no one has suffered more as a result of her death then Nick,” the lawyers said.
After the judge unsealed the autopsy report last week, Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard Jr. said his office had public safety and investigative reasons when it requested keeping the report under wraps last year.
“It is our feeling that those valid reasons still exist; however, as citizens and officers of the court we must, nevertheless, follow the orders and instructions of the court,” Howard said in a written statement.
The district attorney said his office’s investigation into Brown’s death would continue.
That drew ire Tuesday from Gordon’s lawyers.
“By failing to acknowledge that there is simply no evidence of any wrongdoing, they have in essence helped feed the slanderous media frenzy regarding Nick Gordon,” the lawyers said.
