The Denver Post
Bryant's trial set to begin Aug. 27
Saturday, June 26, 2004 -
NBA basketball star Kobe Bryant will go on trial Aug. 27 in the alleged sexual assault of a 19-year-old employee at a Colorado mountain resort just miles from Eagle, where the woman lived and the trial will be held.
State District Judge Terry Ruckriegle announced the date late Friday after holding a telephone conference call with prosecutors and Bryant's defense team. The trial is expected to take three to four weeks, said Karen Salaz, spokeswoman for the state judicial department. Salaz said the Aug. 27 date had been Ruckriegle's "target" for some time. Potential jurors will report to the courthouse Aug. 27 - a Friday - to fill out questionnaires. They will report back the following Monday for questioning by the lawyers. Salaz said Ruckriegle hopes opening statements to the jury will be Sept. 7. Bryant faces four years to life in prison if convicted of the Class 3 felony sexual assault charge, which accuses him of using physical force or violence to coerce the woman into having sex with him last June 30 at the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera. The case has received massive publicity because of Bryant's star status and the complex and emotional issues that surround the case. At a news conference in Los Angeles on the day he was charged, Bryant said he was innocent but admitted he had had sex with the young woman. "I didn't force sex on her to do anything against her will," Bryant said as his wife sat by his side. But he added that he was angry at himself for hurting his family. The woman, a front-desk employee at the lodge, said what started out as flirting and kissing shortly after Bryant checked in turned into rape when Bryant grabbed her and forced himself on her in his room. Because of the widespread publicity and because Eagle County is small and has many vacation homes that stand vacant much of the year, officials decided to send out the highest number of jury summonses in Eagle County history. Salaz said Friday that exactly 1,000 will be sent out, compared with the 225 to 250 normally sent out in the county of 42,000 people. Salaz said that it hasn't been decided whether the jury, once selected, will be sequestered, a practice that has grown less frequent in recent years. Sequestered jurors normally are housed in hotels for the duration of a trial to keep them away from outside influences, such as family, acquaintances and media reports. Earlier in the week, the lawyers in the case had discussed sending out a preliminary questionnaire to be included with the jury summonses. But Ruckriegle said Friday that he decided against sending a preliminary questionnaire after investigating the feasibility, cost and time involved. He said to send them would cause a delay in the trial's starting date. Karen Steinhauser, a former prosecutor and a professor at the University of Denver School of Law, said there had been considerable pressure on Ruckriegle to announce a trial date. On March 25, John Clune, the lawyer for the accuser, asked Ruckriegle to set a trial date. The mother of the alleged victim sent a letter to the judge saying that her daughter had been forced to live in four states in six months because of the myriad death threats and thousands of obscene messages she had received. "I think this is a big deal for everyone," Steinhauser said. "It needs to get done so people can get on with their lives. We need to hear the facts instead of speculation and hearsay." Dan Recht, a Denver defense lawyer, said Ruckriegle has done an impressive job of handling a complex case. "I'm frankly impressed how quickly it has moved," Recht said. Another Denver defense lawyer, Jeralyn Merritt, noted that Ruckriegle has not yet ruled on several key motions. They have to do with whether portions of the woman's sexual history should be heard by the jury and whether statements made by Bryant to investigators should be thrown out. Merritt said that by setting the trial date, the judge is signaling the opinions will be out shortly. "We can expect the opinions very soon," she said. Also Friday, lawyer Tom Kelley, representing The Denver Post and six other media organizations, said he will ask the Colorado Supreme Court on Monday to set aside Ruckriegle's order, entered Thursday, prohibiting the media from publishing the contents of transcripts of a closed rape-shield hearing that a court reporter mistakenly sent to various media organizations. The transcripts detail secret testimony from the hearing that will determine if any part of the accuser's sexual history should be heard by the jury. "The order is a classic example of a prior restraint, which the United States Supreme Court has repeatedly declared to be the most pernicious and least tolerable form of government interference with rights guaranteed by the First Amendment," Kelley said. Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com .
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