The Denver Postkobe bryant case
Delay frustrates Bryant attorneys
Friday, February 27, 2004 -
Attorneys for Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant complained Thursday that prosecutors in his sexual-assault case have not turned over the accuser's panties for their own laboratory investigations.
Defense attorney Hal Haddon asked District Court Judge Terry Ruckriegle to force the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to let a defense expert have access to both pairs of panties - one the woman wore during the June 30 encounter with Bryant and a second pair she wore to a sexual- assault examination that reportedly were soiled with another man's semen. "The CBI and/or the Eagle County Sheriff's Office has had possession of this evidence for over seven months and has cut the crotches on several different occasions," Haddon wrote. "The defense needs access to the entire pieces of cloth so that it, too, can examine various parts of them and conduct tests as it deems appropriate - just as law enforcement has done." Indicating that prosecutors declined again Thursday to turn over the underwear, Haddon requested the judge enforce an earlier order that prosecutors let the defense have access to all physical evidence by Saturday. A spokeswoman for District Attorney Mark Hurlbert could not be reached Thursday night for comment. Bryant, who is accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old hotel clerk last summer near Edwards, is scheduled to return to Eagle on Monday for two days of pre-trial hearings. |