Denver Post
Judge orders Bryant to stand trial
Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - Kobe Bryant was ordered Monday to stand trial on a charge that he raped a 19-year-old front-desk employee at an Edwards resort, although the judge said the case has weaknesses.
Eagle County Judge Frederick Gannett said he must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution - the standard in Colorado for preliminary hearings. As a result, Bryant must stand trial. Blood on the alleged victim's underwear and Bryant's T-shirt can be interpreted as evidence of a rape in which "submission and force" were used, Gannett said. He noted in an unusual nine-page ruling that the evidence could be interpreted more than one way - the same argument the basketball star's attorneys made during the preliminary hearing. At the Los Angeles Lakers' El Segundo, Calif., practice facility, Bryant was asked before the ruling how much anxiety he was feeling. "Basketball, zero anxiety. Other stuff, a little anxiety," he said. "I've pretty much done all I can. Now I'll let God carry me the rest of the way. I feel comfortable with that," he said. The alleged rape occurred June 30 about 11 p.m. in Bryant's room at the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera. The woman, a 2002 Eagle Valley High School graduate who attended the University of Northern Colorado, had shown Bryant around the hotel on a private tour and then accepted an invitation to come into his room. Bryant, 25, an all-star guard for the Lakers, faces four years to life in prison if convicted of the Class 3 felony of sexual assault. Bryant has admitted he had sex with the woman but said it was consensual. The rape allegedly occurred after the accuser and Bryant kissed and hugged for five minutes. But the accuser said she resisted after Bryant began to grope her. She said that as she resisted, Bryant grabbed her by the neck with both hands, turned her around, bent her over a chair, pulled up her skirt, yanked her panties down and raped her for five minutes. The woman said that after the rape, Bryant forced her to kiss his penis. But Bryant's attorneys have said the woman's injuries could have been caused during consensual sex with two other men over a three-day period and asserted that Bryant let the woman go when she resisted. Gannett said the defense raised many questions about the minimal evidence presented by the prosecution and that it will be for a jury - not him - to weigh and consider those issues and determine whether the basketball superstar is guilty. Bryant's attorneys, Pamela Mackey and Hal Haddon, issued a statement expressing disappointment in Gannett's decision and reasserting Bryant's innocence. "Judge Gannett's decision does not change the fact that this case cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and should never have been filed," they said. Andrew Cohen, a Denver lawyer and full-time legal analyst for CBS News, said Gannett was simply emphasizing the obvious. "The judge recognized what the rest of us did - that the preliminary hearing raised more questions than answers," Cohen said. "It is an objectively weak case because prosecutors chose not to present more evidence." Cohen said that if prosecutors don't have stronger evidence to present at trial "they should fold up and go home right now. But I think they do have additional evidence. This ruling just accurately reflects the law and that the facts were very, very weak for the government." Former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman pointed out that Gannett criticized prosecutors for putting on the "bare minimum" of evidence. "This judge somewhat diplomatically told the prosecution that they presented an extremely weak case," Silverman said. "Judge Gannett is clearly holding his nose while he passes the case on to the next level." During the hearing, Mackey told Gannett that prosecutors had presented "an extremely thin case" and claimed the woman's story couldn't be believed. Gannett recessed the first day of the preliminary hearing after Mackey implied that injuries to the woman may have been the result of the accuser's sleeping around with "three men in three days." When the hearing resumed the following week, the judge permitted Mackey to continue that line of questioning and reveal other possible evidence helpful to Bryant. Among the points: The accuser went to her sexual-assault exam the day after the incident wearing panties that had semen in them belonging to someone other than Bryant. The night auditor at the hotel told investigators she didn't believe the accuser was assaulted. She told investigators the woman was excited to meet Bryant, stayed hours past her normal working hours to see him and after the encounter did not look or sound upset. The accuser, Mackey said, assigned Bryant to a room in one wing of the hotel and his body guards to another wing and then sneaked up to his room using a back employees' entrance for a previously arranged rendezvous. The accuser told detectives she flirted with Bryant while she was giving him the private tour of the hotel and expected "Kobe Bryant to put a move on her" when they returned to his room. Investigators asked the accuser early in the investigation why she never told Bryant "no" in an effort to stop his advances. In later interviews the woman said she told Bryant "no" at least twice. In one portion of the opinion, Gannett chided prosecutors. He said despite his continual admonitions to prosecutors, they presented "what can only be described as a minimal amount of evidence." And what evidence was introduced could be viewed in such a way as not supporting the grounds necessary to bind Bryant over were it not for the requirement that he interpret the evidence in the light most favorable to the people. Jeralyn Merritt, a Denver defense lawyer and legal commentator, said this "was one of the weakest findings of probable cause I've seen." "This order sends a clear message to prosecutors - that they better have something substantially more significant than what they presented at the preliminary hearing or the case is going no where." Bryant is to be advised of the charges in Eagle County District Court on Nov. 10. Eagle County District Attorney Mark Hurlbert said he was "pleased with the judge's decision, although we had confidence all along in the case and presentation of evidence." Connie Peterson, a former prosecutor who later served as a Denver District Court judge for 15 years, seven as chief judge, was critical of the way Gannett ruled, saying the ruling will only add to speculation about the case and the accuser. "The evidence you put on in a preliminary hearing is not the strength of your case," Peterson said. "You put on just enough to squeak by. And if you are looking at it with an eye for trial it is always going to look a little thin." Peterson said the ruling, in which Gannett raised questions about the prosecution's case, is "adding more fuel to the fire of speculation of whether it is likely he did not commit the crime." The Associated Press contributed to this report. Click here for the full text of Judge Gannett's ruling and other documents in the Kobe Bryant case.
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