The Denver Post
Court errs again, posts evidence in Bryant case
Thursday, July 29, 2004 -
An order from the judge in the Kobe Bryant case mistakenly posted on a court website Wednesday afternoon contained the name of the accuser and details of previously undisclosed evidence.
The gaffe comes on the heels of an effort by the woman's attorney to end the electronic publication of court documents. The order from Judge Terry Ruckriegle, filed "under seal," asks the two sides to come up with an agreement on the use of DNA tests taken from the basketball star. It marks the third time that sensitive material contained in court documents mistakenly has been released. "I would term it confounding given the number of times this woman has been subjected to intrusions into her life," said Steve Siegel, past president of the Colorado Organization of Victim Assistance. "This is hard to fathom." The document, which refers to the accuser by her last name, was posted to the court website shortly before 2 p.m., and by about 3 p.m., the site had been temporarily shut down by court officials. Karen Salaz, spokeswoman for the state court administrator's office, issued a statement explaining and apologizing for the mistake. "Today's erroneous release of the alleged victim's name stemmed from a new procedure adopted by the court which was intended to assist with research for the court's opinions," the statement said. "Unfortunately, the clerk, when told that a document was ready for posting, selected the wrong document from the shared folder, and a critical safeguard was omitted that would have averted the release of this information. "The court administrator intends to apologize to the alleged victim and her family and is considering what action may be appropriate for the staff." The latest order indicates that swabs taken from Bryant's penis during a mandatory sex- assault exam at the Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs reveal evidence of DNA from the accuser and from Bryant, "but not of the unknown donor whose DNA was found on other items of physical evidence in this case." The defense had previously won a motion to suppress evidence from Bryant's hospital exam, but in closed hearings, defense attorneys backtracked and indicated they wanted to use the DNA evidence, according to Ruckriegle's order.
Click here for an interactive presentation on Kobe Bryant's career.
Click here for an archive of court 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.
Bryant's defense attorneys, Pamela Mackey and Hal Haddon, have argued that the woman's injuries could have resulted from having sex with multiple partners in a short period of time. They have suggested that she may have had consensual sex with another man shortly after her encounter with the Los Angeles Lakers star. Bryant is accused of sexually assaulting the Eagle woman on June 30, 2003, at the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera, where the alleged victim was a front-desk employee. Bryant says the encounter was consensual. In a hearing earlier this month, the woman's attorney, John Clune, specifically asked Ruckriegle to end the posting of documents, saying the widespread dissemination of information on the Internet has caused her the most harm and even encouraged death threats. The judge has not yet ruled on the request. Clune said he was not happy with Wednesday's error. "Today's stunning lapse sends a destructive message to all victims that the very institution charged with the protection of victim's rights has little interest in succeeding in that effort," Clune said. The Denver Post does not name the alleged victims of sexual assault without their consent. Eagle County District Attorney Mark Hurlbert also argued that the court should carefully monitor the release of sensitive documents, requesting that it delay the postings for 24 hours to allow for a full review. Krista Flannigan, spokeswoman for the district attorney's office, said the release bolsters the request for a delay in posting documents. Flannigan didn't know how the accuser would react to the latest mistake but said prosecutors don't have "any concerns ... about moving forward with the prosecution." In September 2003, a court document briefly posted to the website contained the 20-year- old accuser's full name, and in June, a court reporter mistakenly sent copies of a transcript from a closed-door hearing to seven media outlets, including The Denver Post. The latter release has become the subject of a pitched legal battle after Ruckriegle subsequently issued an order prohibiting the media from releasing the details of the document. The Colorado Supreme Court upheld Ruckriegle's order as an acceptable "prior restraint" on the media - something that typically is considered a violation of the First Amendment. Attorneys for the media asked U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to intervene but were temporarily rebuffed as the high-court justice for the Colorado circuit encouraged Ruckriegle instead to release a version of the transcript, now that some of the material has been ruled admissible. The judge was scheduled to discuss the release of the transcripts, among other items, with prosecutors and defense attorneys during a conference call Wednesday, about the same time the order was posted on the website. |