The Denver Post
Error releases Kobe transcripts
Friday, June 25, 2004 -
The court reporter in the Kobe Bryant sexual-assault case on Thursday mistakenly sent transcripts from last week's closed hearings to several media outlets, including The Denver Post, only to have the judge intervene late in the day and issue a hasty order that none of the material be published.
Michelle Goodbee, a longtime court reporter, sent the transcripts - which detail secret testimony from the "rape-shield" hearing on information about the accuser's background that defense attorneys want admitted at trial - to seven media outlets by e-mail at 1:19 p.m. Exactly four hours later, Goodbee sent out another e-mail: "The transcripts sent earlier today are SEALED and should be deleted. We ask your cooperation in this matter. Please verify (by) return e-mail that you have deleted this transcript, as it is not public access." Then at 6:41 p.m., she relayed an order from District Judge Terry Ruckriegle prohibiting the release of the transcripts and ordering any recipient to "delete and destroy any copies and not reveal any contents" or be held in contempt of court. "The order itself is pretty explanatory," Ruckriegle said when reached at his home Thursday night. "There was an error made, and I was communicating to everyone that it's consistent with the previous positions that it was inappropriate to release that. And that's really all there is to it right now." The 206 pages of documents entail the full transcripts of the hearings Monday and Tuesday, including a day-and-a-half of hearings behind closed doors to address whether the state rape-shield statute - which generally presumes an accuser's sexual history is irrelevant - should be breached in the case. The basketball star's defense attorneys want to show that injuries suffered by Bryant's accuser had been caused by sex with other men around the time of her June 30 encounter with Bryant. The transcripts include explosive testimony that prosecutors want to preclude from trial under the argument that the woman's sexual history has no bearing on whether or not she was sexually assaulted. The Denver Post has chosen not to release the material but, like many media outlets, wrestled with the issue of "prior restraint" against publishing material, which is a violation of the First Amendment guarantee of a free press. Goodbee referred calls to her home Thursday night to Karen Salaz, spokeswoman for the court administrator's office. "She went to address the e-mail to Judge Ruckriegle and got the wrong mailbox addresses and hit 'send,"' Salaz said. The error marks the latest in a series of public breaches of confidentiality in the case, including the release of court documents that inadvertently named the now-20-year-old accuser and repeated use of her name by defense attorney Pamela Mackey during the preliminary hearing. Denver Post staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or at slipsher@denverpost.com .
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