Todd Heisler © Rocky Mountain News District Judge Terry Ruckriegle will preside over the Kobe Bryant trial. The Los Angeles Lakers star is scheduled to appear in Ruckriegle's court Nov. 10, but that hearing might be postponed.

Ruckriegle to rule if Nov. 10 hearing can be postponed

By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
October 25, 2003

Fifth Judicial District Chief Judge Terry Ruckriegle's first decision on the Kobe Bryant case may be that the Los Angeles Lakers star can play a road game in Tennessee next month, after all.

Ruckriegle assumed responsibility for the case Thursday. It took just one day for Ruckriegle to be handed an issue to resolve.

Eagle Deputy District Attorney Greg Crittenden on Friday filed a motion asking that Bryant's arraignment in Eagle District Court for his sexual assault case be postponed from Nov. 10 - when Bryant's team is scheduled to play a road game against the Memphis Grizzlies - to either Nov. 24 or 26.

Crittenden's motion states that both District Attorney Mark Hurlbert and Deputy District Attorney Ingrid Bakke have prior court commitments that conflict with the Nov. 10 date. Their appointments had not been noted in the court calendar that an Eagle District Court clerk consulted in scheduling Bryant's arraignment.

As of late Friday, Ruckriegle hadn't decided whether Bryant's return to Eagle will now be one of the two later dates.

Those dates both fall during a five-game Lakers home stand. Bryant's team is scheduled to play in Los Angeles against the Memphis Grizzlies on Nov. 23 and the Washington Wizards on Nov. 26.

It is not yet certain, however, whether Bryant's arraignment will be rescheduled at all.

"That would be at the discretion of the judge," said Colorado Judicial Branch spokeswoman Karen Salaz. "He's known for maintaining control, so I don't know what he'll do. It will be interesting."

Control is said to be as much a fixture in Ruckriegle's courtroom as a gavel and a dark robe.

Denver defense attorney Dan Recht offered this example:

Recht worked out a plea bargain for a client, Michael Scott

Dietert, who was charged with murder in Breckenridge. The deal called for Dietert, 22, to plead guilty to manslaughter in the Nov. 1, 2002, death of Cody Wieland and get no jail time in return for testimony that could send Dietert's two co-defendants to prison.

Recht liked the deal. So did the prosecutor, Hurlbert. But the judge in the case was Ruckriegle.

And he shot it down.

"Judge Ruckriegle would not take that plea bargain because he was not willing to agree in advance that Mr. Dietert should not go to prison," Recht said.

"That's somewhat unusual," Recht said. "I was pretty surprised. When the prosecution and the defense come to you with a resolution that will help a prosecutor convict other people on a murder case, normally a judge will take that kind of plea bargain.

"He said he has a strict rule of not taking sentencing concessions. He was just imposing, in our case, the rule he imposes in all others."

So for now, Recht's client still faces a possible second-degree murder trial along with his co-defendants.

Under the rotation system employed in the four-county Fifth Judicial District, of which Eagle County is a part, the Bryant case should have gone to District Judge R. Thomas Moorhead, who has been on the district court bench a little more than a year.

Prior to that, Moorhead was a county court judge in Eagle County - for just 14 months.

But Ruckriegle claimed the Bryant case for himself - a prerogative he enjoys as chief judge of his district.

"Judge Moorhead has only been on the bench a short time, and I can see why Judge Ruckriegle would worry about his level of experience" with the high-profile Bryant case, Recht said.

brennanc@RockyMountainNews .com or 303-892-2742

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