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URL: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_3019587,00.html
Media respond to quest to keep testimony secret

By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
July 8, 2004

A lawyer for seven media organizations argued again to the Colorado Supreme Court Wednesday that the Kobe Bryant trial judge was wrong to order that a sensitive hearing transcript should not be published by reporters who were sent a copy by mistake.

At stake in the legal battle is a 206-page transcript documenting a June 21-22 hearing in which Chief District Judge Terry Ruckriegle heard closed-door testimony to determine whether any part of Bryant's alleged victim's sexual history should be admissible at his upcoming rape trial.

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After seven news organizations were inadvertently e-mailed transcripts of that hearing on June 24, Ruckriegle ordered them to delete or destroy their copies and not publish the transcript's contents.

First Amendment lawyer Tom Kelley appealed that order last week to the Colorado Supreme Court.

On Friday, the office of Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar submitted legal arguments in support of Ruckriegle. In that document, it was argued that Ruckriegle's order did not amount to unconstitutional prior restraint, that the media had received the transcript unlawfully and that the issue should simply be returned to Ruckriegle's court so he could make further findings in support of his position.

But Kelley's reply brief, filed Wednesday, said those arguments were so lacking in merit that they further show "the hopeless unconstitutionality" of Ruckriegle's original order not to publish.

Lawyers involved in the Bryant case expect the Colorado Supreme Court could act on this issue within a matter of days, and that there are numerous directions the controversy could then be headed - including to the federal courts.

The transcript controversy erupted at the very time that a Ruckriegle ruling was anticipated on the admissibility of the alleged victim's sexual history at Bryant's trial, set to begin Aug. 27 - the very issue under discussion in the contested transcript.

That ruling could be issued at any time.

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