The Denver Post

Report: Bryant talked of paying accuser
Magazine cites police statement
By
The Denver Post

Wednesday, September 15, 2004 - Basketball star Kobe Bryant told authorities that he should have paid off the woman who accused him of sexual assault to keep her quiet, according to a story carried Tuesday on the website of Sports Illustrated.

The magazine said that it obtained a copy of the sealed statement Bryant made to police before he was arrested. In it, the Los Angeles Lakers all-star acknowledged to detectives that he thought he was in trouble and should have paid the woman up to $1 million, something he claimed a former teammate had done in another case, Sports Illustrated said.

Prosecutors dropped the sexual-assault case against Bryant in the middle of jury selection this month after the accuser informed them that she was unable to go forward with the case. The woman still has a civil lawsuit pending against Bryant in Denver federal court seeking an undisclosed amount of money in excess of $75,000.

The statements, which were obtained during a 75-minute interview the night after the June 2003 encounter at a hotel near Edwards, included Bryant's initial denial that he had sex with the 19-year-old hotel desk clerk.

Bryant also reportedly told authorities that he put his hand on the woman's neck and bent her over a chair to have sex with her and said that he had done similar acts with another woman.

"He did talk about having his hand on the back of her neck and the other hand on her waist and bending her over a chair," prosecutor Dana Easter told The Denver Post in an interview last week, adding that Bryant demonstrated the posturing twice on Eagle County sheriff's Detective Daniel Loya. "He said: 'That's just my thing. That's what I do."'

Defense attorney Pamela Mackey last week angrily disputed Easter's statements as "libelous, slanderous and untrue." She has received a temporary restraining order barring the release of the tape or any other evidence in the case and requested that the material be sealed permanently since the case cannot be refiled and her client is therefore innocent.