The Denver Post
Bryant trial won't be delayed
Saturday, August 14, 2004 -
The judge in the Kobe Bryant sexual-assault case on Friday ordered the trial to go on as scheduled beginning Aug. 27, rejecting a request by the prosecution to delay the proceedings.
District Judge Terry Ruckriegle also denied the defense's request to bring up the mental-health history of the accuser and any evidence of drug or alcohol use, a key restriction in the defense's campaign to undermine the woman's credibility. District Attorney Mark Hurlbert on Wednesday asked that the judge postpone the trial indefinitely because of fear that potential jurors had been influenced by the release of secret testimony of a defense expert indicating the accuser, now 20, may have had sex with someone else in the hours after her encounter with Bryant. "This court cannot conclude that the juror pool in Eagle County has been improperly or unduly influenced by the transcript evidence," Ruckriegle wrote in the order released Friday afternoon. The judge's ruling barring the introduction of the woman's mental-health history - including two purported suicide attempts - and allegations of substance abuse undermines a major plank in the defense theory that she said she was raped as a way to get attention. "This will take out much of the wind in the sails of the defense," said Dave Lugert, an Eagle defense attorney who has been following the case. "I believe it's a huge blow for Mr. Bryant, who has to be very concerned about the case moving quickly toward trial and a huge bunch of his theory ruled inadmissible." Ruckriegle's order did not disclose many details of the evidence at question, which instead was contained in a sealed file because he ruled the material inadmissible, he wrote. Defense attorneys Pamela Mackey and Hal Haddon had suggested that the woman's rape report followed a "modus operandi," or pattern of extreme acts, intended to gain attention from her former boyfriend. In the ruling denying the delay, Ruckriegle disputed prosecution claims that the release of the testimony from defense DNA expert Elizabeth Johnson would taint the jury and noted that he released only evidence that would be admissible at trial.
Click here for the official court website with court orders and other documents in the People v. Bryant case.
Click here for The Denver Post's graphic on the events of June 30.
Click here for the 9NEWS archive on the case.
Click here for the CourtTV archive on the case.
The transcripts, stemming from a closed-door hearing June 22, mistakenly had been e-mailed to seven media outlets and became the subject of a fierce First Amendment fight over their publication. Ultimately, the Colorado Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer determined that the judge should release the portions of the transcript containing admissible evidence. Ruckriegle also discarded claims that the prosecution had no opportunity to fairly reply in public to Johnson's testimony, saying that prosecutors intentionally refrained from presenting their own experts in the hearing and that they were allowed to release a motion summarizing the testimony of one prosecution witness that normally would have been filed under seal. Additionally, he pointed out that attorneys for the accuser, John Clune and Lin Wood, "embarked on a media campaign immediately subsequent to the release of the transcripts, during which they replied to Dr. Johnson's conclusion." Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com . |