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Denver Post
Eagle DA enlists big-name criminalist in Bryant case
Monday, December 22, 2003 -
Eagle County prosecutors have turned to well-known criminalist Henry Lee for help in the Kobe Bryant case.
Lee spent Friday night and Saturday morning in Eagle County, meeting with prosecutors, looking at the area and examining evidence in the case. Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers basketball star, is accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman June 30 at a lodge in Edwards, where she was an employee and he was a guest. He says the sex was consensual. Lee was reluctant to talk about his visit to Eagle County, and the spokesman for the district attorney's office couldn't be reached for comment. "I can't tell you what I looked at," Lee said. "I cannot speak on an active case." Lee has worked on a number of high-profile cases, including O.J. Simpson, JonBenet Ramsey, war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia, and the suicide of Vince Foster, a deputy White House counsel in the Clinton administration. Lee, chief emeritus of the Connecticut state police laboratory, was in Colorado to speak on developments in forensic science and his life experiences. His speech Saturday night at the Palace Chinese Restaurant in southeast Denver was sponsored by the Chinese American Council of Colorado and the Denver Police Protective Association. Lee said he had talked with prosecutors about the Bryant case several times previously. He described those talks as general discussions of forensic evidence. His involvement in the Bryant case hasn't been spelled out. He said he is contributing his time and isn't sure how much work he will be doing on the case. "It's all subject to my time and availability," he said. "Right now, I have about 800 cases." |