The Denver Post
Bryant to enter plea in mid-May
Thursday, April 29, 2004 -
EAGLE - Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant is expected to enter a plea of not guilty in mid-May, about 10 months after he allegedly sexually assaulted a 19-year-old woman in his Colorado hotel room.
On Wednesday, District Judge Terry Ruckriegle scheduled an arraignment during the three-day pre-trial hearings that begin May 10, which would finally trigger a six-month time frame in which to hold a trial. After the hearing, Bryant left to fly by private jet to California for the Lakers' NBA playoff game against the Houston Rockets. "What we saw today is that they've made some significant progress. There is very serious light at the end of the tunnel," said former Denver prosecutor and legal analyst Craig Silverman. Ruckriegle ordered another round of closed-door, pre-trial hearings on two motions from prosecutors that would seek to prevent the defense from inquiring about the accuser's purported use of illegal drugs or alcohol and alleged suicide attempts.
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He indicated that all pending motions should be resolved after the hearings in May and a new round of hearings scheduled for the week of June 21. The scheduling of the arraignment came about three weeks after District Attorney Mark Hurlbert and the accuser's mother and her attorney, John Clune, made impassioned pleas on her behalf to speed up the proceedings. "To have some sort of end point will be a tremendous benefit for her well-being," Clune told the judge Wednesday. Hurlbert, alluding to dozens of death threats made against the woman and her family, also indicated the sooner the case is over the better. "We have a concern for the victim. We have a big, big concern, the way she has been treated by some members of the public and the tabloids," he said. The woman's parents sat directly behind prosecutors in the courtroom; her mother wrote an emotional letter to the judge last month detailing how her daughter's life had been turned upside down by the case and that she has had to live in four states in six months. "The defense begins to question everyone she meets. The media reveals her location," the mother wrote. "Her safety is at risk, and she has to move again. She can't live at home. She can't live with relatives. She can't go to school or talk to her friends." Bryant's attorneys have said he had no problem entering a plea or having a trial date set, but they had been following Ruckriegle's directions to complete the motions before the arraignment. Meanwhile, in a detailed nine-page ruling released Wednesday that will result in another round of closed hearings, the judge spurned a defense effort, at least temporarily, to prohibit considering the woman as a "victim" before Bryant's guilt or innocence is determined. Although he has ordered additional arguments on use of the word in all court matters, Ruckriegle determined that the woman has a right to that designation under the purview of the Colorado Victim's Rights Amendment. |