Sex assault specialist from Jeffco to assist Eagle County team

By Charlie Brennan And Peggy Lowe, Rocky Mountain News
November 18, 2003

The Kobe Bryant prosecution team is gaining a fourth member, adding a respected veteran sexual assault specialist from Jefferson County.

She is Dana Easter, 48, who is being loaned to Eagle County by her boss, Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas.

Thomas, along with several other metro-area prosecutors, consulted early in the Bryant case with Eagle District Attorney Mark Hurlbert.

Thomas said he told Hurlbert not long after a felony sexual assault charge was filed against the Los Angeles Lakers star on July 18 that he would help Hurlbert any way he could.

"A couple of weeks ago, he called me and said, 'I might want to take you up on that offer,' " Thomas said.

Hurlbert, Thomas said, already had Easter's name and specifically asked for her.

"He said, 'I think we could use her help,' " Thomas said. "I said, 'You've got it.' "

Thomas said Hurlbert learned about Easter from prosecutor Ingrid Bakke, who already is on loan to Eagle County for the Bryant case from the Boulder District Attorney's Office.

Bakke and Easter are former colleagues. They worked together in Jefferson County from 1990 to 2001, before Bakke moved to the Boulder office.

Krista Flannigan, spokeswoman for the Eagle County prosecutor's office, said Bakke and Easter give the Bryant prosecution two of the best sexual assault prosecutors in Colorado.

"We are thrilled to have them as part of the team," Flannigan said. "It will definitely be a benefit to the case."

The fourth member of the prosecution team is Greg Crittenden, a deputy district attorney in Eagle County.

Easter is well-respected by defense attorneys and prosecutors.

"I can't think of anybody in the state that would be a better prosecutor on that case than Dana," said Maureen O'Brien, a criminal defense attorney in Jefferson County who has worked many cases involving Easter.

"She is as excellent and ethical a prosecutor as you can find," said Anne Munch, a former Denver prosecutor who is director of Ending Violence Against Women, which trains police, prosecutors and victim advocates.

Easter is one of the trainers for Munch's group.

"She has tried many, many sexual assault cases, both stranger and non-stranger. She is a true champion of victims of these cases because she's done so many of them," Munch said.

Easter's resume shows one area of expertise in particular in which she could bolster Hurlbert's prosecution of Bryant.

She serves on Colorado's Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program advisory board. It was SANE nurses who examined Bryant's alleged victim at Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs. Prosecutors contend that those nurses believe injuries to the 19-year-old woman's vagina were indicative of forced penetration.

Bryant has said the sex during the June 30 incident was consensual.

Easter was not available for comment Monday.

Thomas, her boss, said Easter may not be involved full time in the Eagle County case at first. But that is expected to change by the time Bryant's trial starts.

No trial date has been set. It is unlikely to begin before May, at the earliest.

Copyright 2003, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.