Defense team wants to know if woman plans lawsuit, book

By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
March 16, 2004

If Kobe Bryant's alleged victim plans to sue the Los Angeles Lakers star or write a book about her case, his lawyers want to know about it now.

Those are among the issues targeted by a defense motion made public Monday that enumerates points on which Bryant's lawyers claim prosecutors have failed to honor their legal obligation to turn over evidence that might bolster the athlete's defense.

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Defense lawyer Hal Haddon states in his 17-page motion that the Bryant team has been seeking specific information from the prosecution, without success, since Sept. 15.

In response to at least seven letters from the defense team, Haddon charged, "Not only has the prosecution failed to provide the requested material, it has failed to provide any response at all to the requests."

Haddon is asking Eagle County District Judge Terry Ruckriegle to force the prosecution to turn over what the defense is looking for.

On several points, according to legal experts, Bryant's attorneys may be seeking things that may not even exist.

The extensive wish list includes:

• All information "regarding the accuser's plans to file a civil suit" against Bryant, including arrangements for attorneys' contingency fees.

• "All information regarding the accuser's plans to publish a book," plus information concerning her "notes, correspondence and diaries/memoirs" about the Bryant case.

• All information relating to payment from any law enforcement agency or the state's victim compensation fund for the 19-year-old Eagle woman's stay at an addiction treatment center, identified by Haddon as The Meadows, in Wickenburg, Ariz.

• All information regarding any potential witnesses' refusal to provide DNA samples. It was stated during Bryant's preliminary hearing in October that two men had declined to do so.

John Clune, an attorney representing Bryant's alleged victim, and prosecution spokeswoman Krista Flannigan both declined comment on Bryant lawyers' latest move.

Dan Recht, past president of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, said the defense request for information doesn't mean such material exists or would be admissible at trial.

"They can say, 'If such and such document exists, we want it. We don't know if it exists, but if it exists, they have an obligation to give it to us,' " Recht said.

Denver defense lawyer Craig Skinner doesn't see the latest step by Bryant's team as an effort to intimidate his alleged victim. It could have been avoided, Skinner said, had prosecutors answered the repeated written requests from Bryant's attorneys.

A lack of response by prosecutors, Skinner said, "forces the defense to go to the court for help. They have no choice. Anyone who would say this is another defense ploy is off base."

The alleged victim is expected to testify March 24 at a hearing, closed to the public, concerning her sexual conduct before and after her June 30 encounter with Bryant, to determine whether it should be admissible at Bryant's as-yet unscheduled trial.

It's possible the latest move by the defense could postpone the young woman's upcoming court appearance, Recht said.

"The prosecution will, with great certainty, object to having to comply with these requests, and I think the defense is going to want to have litigated these discovery issues before they get her on the witness stand," said Recht.

But Karen Steinhauser, a professor at the University of Denver College of Law, doubts that much of what the defense is seeking should have any bearing on the hearing concerning the alleged victim's sexual history.

"It's not going to be a free-for-all, where they get to ask whatever they want to ask," said Steinhauser.

Also on Monday, the judge admonished attorneys involved in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case to abide by his gag order nearly two weeks after the accuser's lawyer denied defense claims that the woman had sex with someone else hours after the alleged attack.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Copyright 2004, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.