The Denver Post
Bryant's accuser denies later sex
Wednesday, March 03, 2004 -
EAGLE - The 19-year-old woman who says she was raped by Kobe Bryant adamantly denied assertions by the basketball star's lawyers that she had sex with someone else just after the alleged assault.
In a ruling late Tuesday, however, Judge Terry Ruckriegle gave defense lawyers wide latitude by refusing to limit their questioning of the woman as requested by prosecutors. The woman is expected to testify behind closed doors March 24 and 25, said Karen Salaz, spokeswoman for the state court administrator's office. Defense attorneys indicated they may need to question the accuser for more than four days. After that questioning, Ruckriegle will decide how much - if any - of the woman's sexual history will be admitted at trial. The accuser's denial was issued Tuesday by her attorney, John Clune, who said that sex allegations filed with Ruckriegle by the NBA star's attorneys were ludicrous. The denial came as a pretrial hearing in the Bryant sexual-assault case entered its second day at the courthouse in Eagle. "The claims that the victim in this case had any sexual contact with anyone within 15 hours after being assaulted by Mr. Bryant are patently false," Clune said. "Anyone trying to prove otherwise will be chasing ghosts." Clune said Bryant's accuser is confident that Ruckriegle will appropriately resolve what Clune called "these rape-shield issues" and that the focus of the trial will remain on Bryant, not the accuser.
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Bryant's defense team filed the allegation in a motion Monday, asking Ruckriegle to give them wide latitude in questioning the accuser. Bryant has said the woman was a willing sex partner on June 30 when he was staying at an Eagle County resort hotel. She was a hotel employee at the time. Former Denver prosecutor Phil Parrott said there is a low threshold for the amount of evidence defense attorneys are required to present in order to raise allegations that an accuser had other relevant sexual contacts. "It doesn't require any grand investigation," Parrott said. "...It can be based on something you read on a sidewalk." He said defense attorneys in criminal cases are obligated to put such allegations in written motions - even if they are based on rumor - if it would permit them to examine witnesses, including accusers, about information that might exonerate their clients. Parrott said whether the allegation in the Bryant case should have been filed under seal is up to the judge. "It is within the intent of the rape-shield law that these (allegations) could be filed under seal to prevent the public airing of what could be no more than rumor and which could have a chilling effect on the victim's willingness to cooperate," Parrott said. David Lugert, an Eagle lawyer who helped draft the state's Victims Rights Act while an assistant Colorado attorney general, said the Bryant defense team violated the state's rape-shield statute by making the claims public, rather than filing them under seal. Lugert said there should be no public airing of the accuser's prior or subsequent sexual conduct until a judge finds that the sexual history is relevant to a specific issue, such as if bleeding the woman suffered was caused by sexual activity with someone other than Bryant. He said Clune knows that under the Victims Rights Act and the Colorado Constitution, victims are to be free "from continued humiliation, abuse and fishing expeditions into her sexual history." "I'm sure he was very frustrated that her rights were not being protected," Lugert said. Clune's statement came as Ruckriegle continued to hear testimony behind closed doors on whether he should allow evidence about the woman's sexual history normally deemed irrelevant under the rape-shield law. District Attorney Mark Hurlbert and his prosecution team have not answered the defense allegations about the accuser's alleged sexual activity, with one exception: On Monday, Hurlbert called the defense's allegations about the woman a mixture of untrue innuendo and rumor. Former Denver prosecutor Karen Steinhauser cautioned not to read too much into the defense contentions, saying Hurlbert has necessarily been restrained from countering the attacks. "The prosecution doesn't have to respond in kind just so the public sees what the prosecution is saying," Steinhauser said. "They're going to make their arguments behind closed doors with regard to her sexual history and whether it's relevant and should be allowed." Investigators testified at Bryant's preliminary hearing that what started out as mutual kissing and flirtation became violent when Bryant allegedly grabbed the woman by the neck and raped her. Salaz said that Ruckriegle also denied a request by prosecutors that there be no rape-shield hearing. |