Ruling allows both sides to see content

By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
June 18, 2004

Text messages sent and received by a former boyfriend of the alleged victim of Kobe Bryant in the hours after she claimed to have been sexually assaulted will be made available to the basketball star's defense team.

Still to be determined is whether jurors will ever see them.

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In a ruling made public Thursday, Chief District Judge Terry Ruckriegle, after reviewing AT&T records that had been submitted to him under seal, ordered that they "contain material that is relevant for discovery."

That means the text records for an account belonging to Matt Herr, an ex-boyfriend of Bryant's alleged victim, will be provided to lawyers on both sides in the case.

"It's novel," said Denver criminal defense lawyer and legal analyst Scott Robinson. "It's the first time that I've ever heard of - that a text message was even considered as potentially admissible evidence in a criminal case."

Bryant defense lawyer Hal Haddon said at a hearing last month that messages had been transmitted between Herr and the alleged victim, and between Herr and a third party, in the hours immediately following the 20-year-old Eagle woman's June 30 encounter with Bryant at the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera in Edwards.

The text of those messages could be relevant to establishing Bryant's guilt or innocence at trial, Haddon had argued, and Thursday's ruling means both the defense and the prosecution can now review them.

Ruckriegle's ruling does not necessarily mean those messages will be introduced as evidence at Bryant's upcoming trial - yet.

But Bryant's lawyers will at least learn the content of Herr's messages and can then decide whether they will want to attempt to introduce them at trial.

Robinson believes it could be a significant development in the case.

"All of this is sheer assumption, but it could be something as innocuous as a lightness of tone, or something as substantive as a reference to consensual interaction with the basketball great," Robinson said.

The Los Angeles Lakers star is scheduled to be back in Eagle County District Court for another pretrial hearing in the case Monday.

His trial, expected to last at least three weeks, is likely to take place later this year.

Text records

• The ruling: Text messages sent and received by the former boyfriend of Kobe Bryant's alleged victim will be provided to both the defense and the prosecution.

• What it means: Bryant's lawyers will learn the content of the messages and can decide whether to try to introduce them at trial.

brennanc@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2742

Copyright 2004, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.