The Denver Post
Bryant accuser didn't give up privacy rights, prosecutors say
Friday, March 19, 2004 -
EAGLE - The alleged victim in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case did not give up her medical-records privacy rights by failing to ask the NBA star's lawyers to return records accidentally given them by a hospital, prosecutors say.
In a court filing released today, prosecutor Dana Easter said Bryant's attorneys have no legal grounds to keep the documents and should either destroy them or return them to the hospital. "Where there is no voluntary disclosure, there can be neither waiver of the privilege nor an obligation on the privilege holder-victim to correct the treatment provider's erroneous disclosure," Easter wrote. The Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs inadvertently included confidential medical records of the alleged victim when it responded to a defense subpoena seeking records of her examination the day after the alleged assault. The woman had consented to releasing the records from that examination, but no other records. The hospital had asked prosecutors and defense attorneys to destroy the confidential records or return them to the hospital. Defense attorney Hal Haddon has argued that he can keep the records because the alleged victim never asked him to return or destroy the documents. State District Judge Terry Ruckriegle has not ruled on a request from the hospital to order Bryant's attorneys to destroy the documents. Bryant, 25, faces four years to life in prison or 20 years to life on probation if convicted of felony sexual assault. He has said he had consensual sex June 30 with the 19-year-old woman at the Vail-area resort where she worked. No trial date has been set. |