Mark Hurlbert, newly elected to a full term as district attorney, addressed the City Club of Denver on the topic "What I Learned Trying to Prosecute Kobe Bryant" Tuesday at the Brown Palace hotel downtown.

Hurlbert admits making error in case that derailed

By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
November 10, 2004

Eagle District Attorney Mark Hurlbert admitted Tuesday that as soon as Kobe Bryant's alleged rape victim filed a lawsuit against the basketball star, he should have told her that any decision about backing out of the criminal case needed to be made "now or never."

But he didn't. And two weeks later, after three full days of jury selection, that's exactly what she did.

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"I probably should have sat down with her, face to face (when the federal lawsuit was filed Aug. 10), and said, 'Look, here's the deal: now or never,' " Hurlbert said. "I did not do that. That was one of the mistakes that I made on this case.

"The result might not have been very different, but there wouldn't have been 700 Eagle County people that came in to jury duty."

Hurlbert made that admission after an address to about 50 people at a Denver City Club luncheon at the Brown Palace Hotel.

During Tuesday's speech, Hurlbert made a claim that would surprise most close observers of the 14-month Bryant prosecution, which ended Sept. 1 with a dismissal of the rape charge when the alleged victim chose not to go forward.

"I know it's tough to tell, sometimes, but we won every single major (pretrial) motion," Hurlbert said.

Afterward, Hurlbert was challenged on that assertion and reminded of a critical "rape shield" ruling by Chief District Judge Terry Ruckriegle that the defense would be allowed to explore the alleged victim's sexual activity in a 72-hour window around the time of her June 30, 2003, encounter with Bryant.

"That was more of a tie," Hurlbert said. "Given the fact of all the sexual history that the defense wanted in, that certainly was not a loss."

Hurlbert said Tuesday that the final straw leading to the 20-year-old woman's decision to back out of the criminal case was the leaking to a reporter of the jury questionnaire, on the first day of jury selection.

The questionnaire had been accompanied by a witness list, which included, among other things, the alleged victim's parents' names and address. That was not the first time material had become public which she had believed would not.

"She had actually called me (Aug. 30) and said, 'You know, Mark, I can't go forward,' " Hurlbert said. "I tried to convince her to go forward. I said, 'Take two days, and think about it.' "

The woman did so, but called Hurlbert back Sept. 1, and said she couldn't continue. Late that afternoon, Hurlbert went before Ruckriegle and a packed courtroom to formally dismiss the case.

Doing so wasn't easy for Hurlbert, who'd been appointed to office just six months before Bryant's arrest. Hurlbert won election to his first full term last week.

"That's the victim's decision," he said, "but it was really kind of like a kick in the gut, after all that time, after all that work that we put into it. It was pretty tough to dismiss the case."

Hurlbert was asked by an audience member, and by a reporter afterward, about recent reports of a "mock trial" prosecutors staged Aug. 25, in which the alleged victim reportedly became highly distraught under questioning from an attorney playing the part of defense lawyer Pamela Mackey.

That experience, Hurlbert insisted, was not central to her decision to back out of the criminal case.

"She did a pretty good job, as she always did on every cross examination. It may have been a bit rough, but I certainly don't think that that was pivotal in her deciding not to go forward," said Hurlbert, who didn't attend the mock proceeding.

Hurlbert declined to comment on a recently published report that two prosecutors on his team, Ingrid Bakke and Dana Easter, were feuding and not speaking to one another near the end of the case.

Hurlbert did acknowledge Tuesday some trepidation upon first hearing the name of the man who was under investigation in what may well be destined to remain the biggest case of his career.

"I was hoping it was another Kobe Bryant," he said.

brennanc@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2742

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