The Denver Post
Bryant team: Cash is motive
Friday, July 30, 2004 -
Defense attorneys claim that the woman who accused Kobe Bryant of sexual assault has received nearly $20,000 in victim's compensation, an extraordinary amount that they say casts doubt on her reasons for pursuing the case.
That charge was made in transcripts that a judge released Thursday from a closed-door hearing. The money awarded to the woman for mental-health treatment and lost wages far exceeds normal disbursements from the state and has encouraged the 20-year-old to persist with a "false allegation," defense attorney Pamela Mackey told District Judge Terry Ruckriegle in the June 21 hearing. "Twenty thousand dollars, I would suspect to most people in this county, is a lot of money...," Mackey said. "And she has done that on the basis of a false allegation and has persisted in that false allegation." The transcripts, detailing a closed- door hearing about the woman's personal life, have become the subject of a battle before the U.S. Supreme Court after Ruckriegle forbade publication of their contents when they were mistakenly sent to seven media outlets, including The Denver Post. In releasing the 15-page excerpt - focusing specifically on the victim's compensation discussion - the judge has begun complying with directions from the Colorado Supreme Court to make public any material from the hearing that he rules is admissible at trial. Arguing in favor of admitting the details of the woman's compensation, Mackey said the large sums bring into question the accuser's credibility and motivation for pursuing the case. She noted that the woman received $17,000 for mental-health treatment alone, far above the $1,125 set in the guidelines of the victim's compensation board, and that the facility was not in Colorado, contrary to regulations. "Judge, what our investigation of the documents in total reveal was that this amount was dramatically higher than other amounts awarded by the (compensation) board," Mackey said. The former hotel front-desk clerk also received $2,300 for lost wages, Mackey said. Prosecutors declined to respond during the hearing, asking instead for five days to craft written arguments that later were filed to the judge under seal. "The bottom line is this is an extraordinary amount of money for victim's compensation to pay," said former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman, a legal analyst who is following the case. "Normally these type of things pay for someone's glasses if they are broken."
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Steve Siegel, past president of the Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance, said Thursday that under state law, crime victims are entitled to up to $20,000 in assistance. He said the law doesn't classify into what category that money must go - for example, only so much for mental-health counseling. "Psychiatric care is very expensive," said former Denver prosecutor Bill Buckley. "She's obviously been traumatized by the incident and everything that has gone on since then. I don't think it is exorbitant. I'm sure they didn't pay it out willy-nilly." Bryant's accuser may be particularly fragile, Buckley added, noting reports that she had ongoing mental-health issues before the encounter with Bryant on June 30, 2003. The all-star guard for the Los Angeles Lakers faces four years to life in prison or 20 years to life on probation if convicted of sexually assaulting the woman in his room at the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera near Edwards. Former Denver prosecutor Karen Steinhauser, now a professor at the University of Denver School of Law, said it is "absurd" for the defense to contend that an alleged victim of sexual assault would continue with the case, or change her story, simply to receive more than $17,000 in mental-health care. "This is the first time I've seen defense attorneys use this as a motive as to why someone would continue with a prosecution," she said. Steinhauser pointed out that the alleged victim doesn't receive the money but rather it goes directly to the doctor or therapist. "I think this could absolutely backfire on the defense," she said. Sex-assault victims must continually retell their stories - to police, prosecutors, jurors - and in this case, the woman has received death threats and had her photo on the front pages of supermarket tabloids, Steinhauser said. "It makes no sense that she is willing to go through this just for the mental- health money," Steinhauser said. Denver defense lawyer Dan Recht said the figures could be viewed in two ways. "It might show she was really traumatized and that would be hurtful to the defense," he said. "On the other hand, it might be viewed as a freebie and be helpful to the defense. But I don't feel it will have huge significance for either side." Today, at another pretrial hearing, Ruckriegle is set to hear arguments about what other portions of the transcripts to release. Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com . Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1929 or hpankratz@denverpost.com . |