The Denver Post

Judge chastises attorneys in Bryant civil case
By Mike McPhee
Denver Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, February 02, 2005 -

A federal judge took unusual steps today to slow the pretrial publicity swirling around the Kobe Bryant sexual-assault lawsuit.

U.S. District Senior Judge Richard P. Matsch told lawyers on both sides that all "discoverable" material gathered by both sides would be sealed from the public until trial.

Discoverable material is any information, testimony or evidence gathered to bolster one side's position in trial. It may include information that would not be admissable in trial.

Increasingly, lawyers on both sides of the Bryant case have been bickering about the ground rules of discovery. To support their arguments, they have filed motions with attachments of discoverable material, such as copies of letters and e-mails between the lawyers.

The attachments also included reprints of numerous newspaper and magazine articles, as well as anonymous Internet blogs or opinions. Motions automatically become public documents, as do their attachments.

"This practice must stop," said Matsch. "These communications are matters for the court and should not be subjects for press releases. This court is not involved in the entertainment business.

"This trial is about the credibility of two persons, the only two persons who know what took place the night of June 30, 2003."

Bryant, now 27 and an all-star NBA basketball player, is being sued by a 21-year-old woman who claims he raped her the night he checked into an exclusive resort west of Vail where she worked.

Felony sexual assault charges against Bryant were dropped last fall when the woman told Eagle County prosecutors she didn't want to testify at a criminal trial.

But before she backed away from the criminal trial, she had high-profile Atlanta attorney L. Lin Wood, who previously represented the parents of JonBenet Ramsey in civil lawsuits, sue Bryant in federal court in Denver for unspecified monetary damages.

The accuser, now roughly five months pregnant, appeared in court today with her lawyers and the unnamed man acknowledged as the father of her unborn child.

(The Denver Post is not naming the accuser, respecting her wishes for privacy.)

Bryant did not appear in court.

Matsch said he wouldn't issue a generic order sealing all filings. Instead, he issued what he called "Discovery Order #1," effectively sealing everything except procedural requests or motions, and his responses.

The order also prohibits attorneys from quoting transcripts, depositions or other materials in motions filed with the court. Material quoted in motions automatically would become public.

Matsch then said his order would be retroactive back to the date the case was filed, a ruling that raised a few legal eyebrows.

"It's unusual," said attorney Steve Zansberg, who represents The Denver Post. "Ordinarily, documents are filed under seal, then remain under seal until they are unsealed. In this case, documents that have been made public are now being sealed by the court.

"Those reporters who didn't have the foresight to anticipate the ruling now will not have access to formerly public documents.

"It's clear that Judge Matsch was unhappy with the way the attorneys were filing materials in this case."

Wood said he agreed with Matsch's ruling. "Too much has been filed (publicly), a lot of it stuff that shouldn't have been filed," he said.

Bryant's attorneys refused to comment.