Before criminal case evaporated, defense buttressed position

By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
November 9, 2004

Kobe Bryant's lawyers were prepared to call at least 130 people in defense of the Los Angeles Lakers star at his rape trial that was scuttled at the last minute when the alleged victim declined to go forward.

The lists of potential witnesses, made public Monday, contained an unusually high number of figures who would have looked more at home on a prosecution witness list - such as five members of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, including its deputy director, Peter Mang.

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The CBI personnel were expected, if called, to challenge a prosecution explanation for why another man's sperm and semen were found on the alleged victim at the time of her examination the day she contacted authorities about her encounter with Bryant.

The prosecution had contended at pretrial hearings that the DNA samples had transferred onto her body from soiled underwear worn at the time of an unrelated consensual sexual encounter about two weeks earlier. CBI experts considered that unlikely.

"It's a huge number of defense witnesses," said former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman.

"In some cases, you see attorneys throwing names on a piece of paper. But I can virtually guarantee you that the defense had its investigators interview at least 90 percent of these witnesses and that they had huge files, with respect to what these defenses were going to say."

The defense witness lists revealed the all-inclusive nature of the wide net the prosecution had cast in its trial preparation. They include Brian Malone, a Castle Rock videographer who was filming a documentary on the case; a number of young people who had cavorted with the alleged victim in a Calgary, Alberta, bar a few weeks after the reported assault; and Lin Wood, one of her personal attorneys, who had expressed concern about whether she'd get fair treatment through Colorado's criminal courts.

The lists also showed that the defense continued to buttress its case up to the very end, even once jury selection was under way. The final supplemental witness list, filed Aug. 31, included names of just two individuals, both identified as "impeachment witnesses and necessary only if (the alleged victim) denies the statements she made to them."

The final name, entry No. 126, on the original defense witness list - there would be four supplemental lists filed - was the most well-known: "Kobe Bryant may testify," that list concluded.

Neither Bryant, nor anyone else, ever did testify. Although jury selection started on schedule Aug. 27, Eagle District Attorney Mark Hurlbert announced Sept. 1 that the alleged victim did not wish to go forward and that the case would therefore be dismissed, never to be refiled.

The young woman also has sued Bryant for rape, filing in U.S. District Court in Denver.

She first did so as "Jane Doe," but after her right to sue Bryant anonymously was successfully challenged by both the Rocky Mountain News and Bryant's lawyers, she refiled the lawsuit in her own name, Katelyn Faber.

Also unsealed Monday was the prosecution witness list, which was less than half as long as that of the defense and carried many of the same names - including those of CBI personnel.

brennanc@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2742

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