The Denver Post
Judge delays questioning of Bryant accuser
Tuesday, March 02, 2004 -
EAGLE - The judge in the Kobe Bryant sexual-assault case agreed Monday afternoon to delay the first courtroom appearance of the basketball star's accuser after what was described as a stormy closed-door session.
In open court earlier in the day, District Judge Terry Ruckriegle initially denied a motion by prosecutors to limit defense questioning of the woman, ruling they had made the request too late and setting up what observers anticipated would be "open season" on her when she took the witness stand today. But he later agreed to reconsider his decision after prosecutors renewed their arguments in the judge's chambers that the woman should not be subjected to a "humiliating fishing expedition" by the defense. At 6 p.m., moments after Bryant and his entourage left the Eagle County courthouse in a string of sport utility vehicles with tinted windows, Karen Salaz, spokeswoman for the state court administrator's office, posted a notice on the door of the courthouse indicating that Ruckriegle had decided take the matter of the accuser's questioning "under advisement."
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It is now unclear when the accuser, who was flown in from out of state for her scheduled appearance, will undergo questioning by Bryant's attorneys. Late last week, prosecutor Dana Easter filed an eleventh-hour motion to severely curtail the scope of the defense questioning, claiming it would "circumvent the entire purpose" of the state rape-shield statute, which generally prohibits raising an accuser's sexual history. "This victim has been the subject of humiliation, death threats and a complete disruption of her life," Easter wrote. "Defense investigators have contacted every one of her friends and made them witnesses in order to question them about every private aspect of her life." Legal observers predicted the woman's appearance on the stand - which, when it takes place, will be her first time in the same room with Bryant since their June 30 encounter at a hotel near Edwards - will be a grueling ordeal under the questioning of defense attorneys. "The judge will not allow her to be beaten up. But it is still going to be a difficult day for her," said former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman. The woman is likely to be quizzed about her sexual relationships and asked for detailed, graphic characteristics of her encounters, as defense attorneys attempt to get past the rape-shield law by portraying her sex life as relevant to Bryant's defense and the possible source of her injuries. The questioning "is going to be X-rated," Silverman said. "She will be asked to name names. This is a golden opportunity for the defense to size her up. They will try to have her testifying for many hours." The defense said in a motion filed Monday that the questioning could last longer than four days. After today, the next hearing in the case is scheduled for March 24 and 25. Bryant, 25, has admitted to committing adultery but claimed the liaison was consensual. Prosecutors contend that consensual kissing degenerated into a rape when the NBA all-star forcefully grabbed the woman by the neck, pushed her over a chair, lifted her skirt, took off her panties and penetrated her. He faces four years to life in prison or 20 years to life on probation if convicted of first-degree sexual assault. Under the state's rape shield law, evidence of an alleged rape victim's sexual conduct, sexual history or reputation are presumed irrelevant. But defense attorneys, such as Bryant's team of Pamela Mackey and Hal Haddon, are permitted under the law to present the judge with a motion accompanied by affidavits showing how such conduct or history is directly relevant to their case. If the judge finds that the offer of proof in the affidavits is sufficient, the court can hold a closed, nonpublic hearing at which the accuser is questioned, and the judge can then rule which details, if any, are admissible at trial. In a sometimes testy public hearing Monday morning, Ruckriegle chastised Eagle County District Attorney Mark Hurlbert for not turning over the crotches of two pairs of the accuser's panties for independent testing by the defense. "Let's assume that order I signed is what I intended," the judge said during the public portion of Monday's hearing. "Had I not previously ordered you to turn it over?" Hurlbert argued that the Colorado Bureau of Investigation should not relinquish the material, taken from the purple panties that the woman wore during her encounter with the Los Angeles Lakers star and another yellow pair she wore when undergoing a sexual-assault examination the next day that also were stained with semen. But the judge renewed an order from early February that prosecutors turn over "all items of physical evidence with regards to this case, including cuttings, hair, clothing and fiber, to be examined in an independent lab." Haddon and Mackey want the panties to prove their assertion, reiterated in a motion Monday, that the woman engaged in "multiple acts of sex" before and after her encounter with Bryant at the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera near Edwards. They claimed in the motion that Bryant's accuser engaged in acts of sexual intercourse in the 72 hours prior to her rape kit examination, including intercourse 15 hours after her encounter with Bryant. "Acts of prior and subsequent sexual activity of the accuser are relevant to show the accuser's knowledge, intent, common plan, pattern and modus operandi with respect to whether she consented to have sexual intercourse with Mr. Bryant," Mackey wrote. In that motion, Bryant's attorneys also asserted that the accuser had engaged in "sexual conduct" with two prosecution witnesses under similar circumstances to the encounter with Bryant, placing those witnesses' credibility in doubt. Already, defense attorneys have raised questions about the woman's mental health history, suicide attempts and use of anti-psychotic medications - issues that were to be taken up Monday in closed hearings about disputes over the privacy of her medical records. The continuing attacks on the accuser's credibility outraged Cynthia Stone of the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault. "This is a deliberate effort to discredit this victim in the court of public opinion," she said after attending the morning hearing. "They're fishing expeditions. They're filled with rumor and innuendo." Also on Monday, defense attorneys presented two witnesses to support their argument that Bryant's late-night statements to investigators should be thrown out because he had been taken into custody and questioned without being advised of his Miranda rights. Troy Laster, a detective supervisor with the Los Angeles Police Department who moonlighted for Bryant's personal security detachment, testified that he was guided away from the encounter with police. "I had been with him for the past 48 hours," said Laster, who never took off his black trench coat. "I had no reason to think anything bad happened." Cordillera security guard Zorn Moravek testified that an Eagle County sheriff's officer told him it was "their investigation" and that he should leave. "Mr. Bryant believed he was under arrest, and we were attempting to show that law enforcement kept people away because he was under arrest," Mackey said. |