Bruce Jenner may be forced to surrender cellphone in crash probe

Associated Press

MALIBU, Calif.

Investigators will likely ask Olympic gold medalist and Kardashian family patriarch Bruce Jenner to surrender his cellphone to determine if he was texting when he was behind the wheel of an SUV involved in a highway crash in Malibu that killed a woman, authorities said Sunday.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Philip Brooks said that all the drivers involved in Saturday’s multi-vehicle accident will likely be asked to voluntarily provide their phones so investigators can check call and text data.

Investigators could also request search warrants, if necessary.

The information gleaned from those records could help inform prosecutors, if they were to consider charges against the drivers involved.

However, Brooks said it is difficult to determine if a driver was texting at the exact time of a collision. Investigators will look at signs of driver behavior such as multiple texts that span a period of time leading up to, or including, the crash, Brooks said.

The sheriff’s department has custody of all the vehicles and will be inspecting them to ensure they’re mechanically sound or whether a defect prevented somebody from stopping in time.

Investigators are trying to determine who or what triggered the crash on Pacific Coast Highway. One woman died in the crash, and seven others were injured.

The celebrity gossip website TMZ first reported that the department could issue a search warrant to determine if Jenner was texting at the time of the accident.

The moment of impact was captured by celebrity photographers who quickly posted the images on the Internet. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officials said there was no indication Jenner was being chased by paparazzi at the time of the crash.