The Denver Post
Definition fuels dispute
Tuesday, April 27, 2004 -
EAGLE - The judge in the Kobe Bryant sexual-assault case on Monday waded into the bitter dispute over whether to call the NBA star's accuser a "victim" before Bryant's guilt or innocence has been determined.
Potentially opening a whole new round of legal feuds surrounding the state Victim's Rights Act, Judge Terry Ruckriegle asked both sides to submit arguments to determine the appropriate terminology, entertaining a debate over semantics that could have broad repercussions in how the 19-year-old woman is viewed under the law. The order came as the Los Angeles Lakers guard returned to Eagle on Monday for the start of a crucial three-day hearing on whether to admit into trial the accuser's sexual history and Bryant's statements to investigators. Bryant, 25, has admitted to committing adultery but said the encounter with the former clerk at the upscale Lodge & Spa at Cordillera near Edwards was consensual. In prosecuting the case, District Attorney Mark Hurlbert has taken the position that a crime has been committed and the woman is a "victim." But defense attorneys Pamela Mackey and Hal Haddon say calling her that in court documents and hearings - which even the judge has done - is highly prejudicial to the basketball player. "The accuser is not a 'victim' because the question of whether a crime has been perpetrated against her is in serious dispute, and is indeed only for a jury to decide," Haddon wrote in a recent brief. Victims' advocates, however, say the state constitutional amendment presumes a person making allegations of a crime is a true victim.
Click here for an interactive presentation on Kobe Bryant's career.
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Click here for The Denver Post's graphic on the events of June 30.
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Click here for the CourtTV archive on the case.
"Victims are victims from the moment of the (reported) offense," said Eagle attorney Dave Lugert, a former longtime prosecutor who helped craft the amendment, which requires police and prosecutors to keep crime victims informed of charging options, court appearances and plea arrangements. Cynthia Stone, spokeswoman for the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault, noted that the Eagle County Sheriff's Department arrested Bryant, the district attorney charged him and a county court judge found that there was enough evidence against him to send the case to trial - all lending credibility to the "victim" designation. The judge gave both sides 15 days to file written motions. Meanwhile, a week after Ruckriegle ruled Bryant's defense team could not see the accuser's medical and psychological records, the issue has come up again in the form of a new defense request to find out how much - if any - of the woman's medical treatment has been provided by prosecutors through the victim's compensation fund. The revelations, which could undermine the woman's standing as an unbiased witness, were first made public through reports in a supermarket tabloid that tracked her to an exclusive drug-rehab center in Arizona. "Something like the Meadows in Wickenburg, Ariz., seems like an extraordinary expenditure of victim's compensation funds," former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman said. But any admission of payment details into court - as sought by the defense - could clash with the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a federal law that protects patient records and imposes heavy fines for improper disclosures. "There's no doubt that this implicates ... the most sensitive medical-privacy issues," Silverman said. Meanwhile, court officials said Ruckriegle heard evidence behind closed doors Monday on details of the accuser's sexual history to determine if they have any relevance to the case. The Colorado rape-shield law and Colorado Supreme Court rulings have held there is a presumption that evidence relating to a rape victim's sexual conduct is irrelevant. But that can be overcome if the defense files motions with the judge, accompanied by supporting affidavits, outlining evidence that may clear its client. Ruckriegle also is considering a defense motion to keep out statements Bryant made to detectives who first interviewed him after the alleged assault. |