Defense wants to ask woman about her sexual history

By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
February 28, 2004

Prosecutors, during a closed hearing Tuesday, hope to limit the ability of Kobe Bryant's lawyers to grill the athlete's alleged victim about her sexual history.

In a motion filed Friday, prosecutor Dana Easter confirmed earlier reports that Bryant's lawyers subpoenaed the 19-year- old woman he is charged with raping, as part of a defense bid to show that her sexual conduct before and after her June 30 encounter with the Los Angeles Lakers star should be admissible at his trial.

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This marks the second time the Bryant defense has tried to force a court appearance by his alleged victim.

His lawyers previously served her with a subpoena for Bryant's two-day October preliminary hearing - but prosecutors and an attorney for the young woman succeeded in quashing it.

Victim advocates have been highly critical of what they perceive to be continuing defense attempts to intimidate the 2002 Eagle Valley High School graduate.

But former Denver prosecutor Karen Steinhauser, now a professor at the Denver University College of Law, doesn't see the latest defense move in that light.

"This is part of the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to be able to meaningfully cross-examine his accuser," said Steinhauser.

"What the court is doing here is letting them do this in a setting that gives more protection to the victim, as opposed to being forced to do it in front of the public."

The admissibility of the alleged victim's sexual history will be argued outside the presence of the press or public, as is the case with several other issues to be addressed at Bryant's pretrial motions hearing, set for Monday and Tuesday in Eagle District Court in Eagle.

Colorado's rape-shield law, passed in 1975, presumes other sexual conduct of a victim to be inadmissible, unless it can be shown to have a bearing on the facts of the case in question.

The sexual history of Bryant's alleged victim is relevant, his lawyers have argued, due to evidence they say shows she had multiple sexual partners in the days before, and possibly shortly after, the night she met Bryant.

The defense argues that signs of trauma to her vaginal area can be attributed to promiscuity, while the prosecution contends it shows Bryant forced her to have sex.

Easter's motion Friday said the alleged victim's subpoena represents a defense attempt to circumvent the state's rape- shield law, with the intent to "humiliate and embarrass her."

The prosecutor's motion added: "The victim has been the subject of humiliation, death threats and a complete disruption of her life."

News of yet another threat on her life surfaced Friday with the announcement that a Long Beach, Calif., man had been indicted by a Denver federal grand jury for threats on the young woman, Eagle District Attorney Mark Hurlbert and others.

In a separate sealed filing, Easter proposed to District Judge Terry Ruckriegle the type of questions she believes defense lawyers should be limited to. Ruckriegle will take up the issue on Monday.

The Bryant defense team also is challenging the very constitutionality of the rape-shield statute. Arguments on that challenge are expected to be heard in open court Monday or Tuesday.

Bryant, who is free on a $25,000 bond, admits to committing adultery with the young woman, but said their contact was consensual.

brennanc@RockyMountain News.com or 303-892-2742

Copyright 2004, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.