A Florida judge has ruled that photos and videos taken of Bob Saget following his death will be permanently blocked from being released to the public, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
The ruling took place on Monday during a virtual hearing for the lawsuit filed by Saget’s family, who last month requested that the court block the release of medical records in connection with the investigation into the Full House actor’s unexpected death.
Circuit Judge Vincent Chiu blocked the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and District Nine Medical Examiner’s Office from releasing photos taken at the scene of Saget’s death. The records in question include 147 photos taken during the OCSO’s investigation, of which 97 will be permanently sealed from the public.
The remaining 57 photos of Saget’s hotel room will “not be protected by any statutory exemption.” Meanwhile, videos outside the hotel room would also be releasable, though footage from inside the hotel room would be protected.
“I want to commend everybody involved here because this could have been very messy,” Chiu explained. “I think what we’ve done here, what the parties have done here is strike a very delicate and necessary balance.”
Addressing Saget’s family members, Chiu said, “Nothing that we’re going to do today obviously is going to take away the pain of your loss. But the hope is that what we can do today by entering this injunction is to allow you a little bit of space and privacy to travel that.”
Following the judge’s ruling, Saget family lawyer Brian Bieber thanked Chiu for preserving “Bob’s dignity, as well as their privacy rights, especially after suffering this unexpected and tragic loss.”
“We are pleased this issue has been resolved, and the healing process can continue to move forward,” Bieber said. “All of the prayers and well wishes continuously extended to the family are beyond appreciated.”
Back in February, Saget’s official cause of death was ruled to be from “posterior scalp abrasions, subgaleal hemorrhage, discoloration in the upper and lower eyelids due to skull fracture, subdural hematoma, and subarachnoid hemorrhage.” Investigators told People that their theory is that Saget fell backward in his Ritz-Carlton Orlando Grande Lakes hotel bathroom the night of his death.
Saget’s family released a statement after learning the cause of his death where they shared that no drugs or alcohol were involved.
“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 statement read. “The authorities have determined that Bob passed from head trauma. They have concluded that he accidentally hit the back of his head on something, thought nothing of it and went to sleep. No drugs or alcohol were involved.”
