Judge agrees to unseal Bobbi Kristina Brown's autopsy results

NORTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News has learned it could be Friday before the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office releases an autopsy report into the death of Bobbi Kristina Brown.

It's been 13 months since Roswell police found Brown unconscious in her bathtub.

Brown, who died in July, is the daughter of the late Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown.

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A judge had ordered her autopsy result be sealed in October after the Fulton County DA’s Office said releasing the report would put the safety of witnesses in the case in jeopardy or lead to the potential of a flight risk for witnesses involved in the case.

"Right now there is information in it only privy to people investigating this case and to the perpetrators," Paige Whitaker, of the Fulton County District Attorney's Office, told Channel 2’s Mike Petchenik.

Thursday morning, a judge reversed that decision and ordered the medical examiner to release that autopsy report.

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"The public interest here, in addition to what I've already mentioned is in solving crimes, in public safety and in the confidentiality of on-going investigations," Whitaker said.

But attorneys for media outlets, including Channel 2 Action News, argued the public's right to know should prevail.

"Her death and the circumstances leading up to it have been the subject of substantial press coverage," said attorney S. Derek Bauer.

At a hearing Thursday, an assistant prosecutor even characterized the case as a murder investigation.

A spokesman for Brown's former boyfriend, Nick Gordon, said his attorneys are very interested in what the autopsy says after allegations he might have played a role in her death.

Atlanta defense attorney Lawrence Zimmerman said it's telling the investigation's gone on for 13 months with no arrests.

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"That means they're stretching. They don't have much, they're grasping at straws. For a defense lawyer that's favorable for his client," Zimmerman told Petchenik.

Zimmerman said Gordon's attorneys will be paying close attention to any manner of death listed in that autopsy report.

The Medical Examiner’s Office plans to release that report as early as Friday, which ironically would have been Bobbi Kristina Brown's birthday.

So far, no one has been charged in Brown’s death. An initial autopsy found no obvious cause of death.

Cox Media Group