Defense aims to call accuser's mother, friends to testify

By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
December 10, 2003

A recent flurry of defense subpoenas in the Kobe Bryant sexual-assault case includes one calling upon the alleged victim's mother to testify at next week's motions hearing.

Legal observers following the case believe that the subpoenas, several of which have also been served on friends the young woman made last year as a freshman at the University of Northern Colorado, might be aimed at learning more about the alleged victim's medical history.

Bryant, 25, is free on a $25,000 bond and is due back in Eagle District Court Dec. 19 for a motions hearing. Bryant has admitted committing adultery with the woman in June but denies assaulting her.

Karen Steinhauser, a professor of criminal procedure, evidence and trial advocacy at the University of Denver College of Law, said Bryant's lawyers are possibly trying to show that their client's alleged victim, a 19-year-old woman, has waived her privilege of confidentiality on certain issues.

The woman, who lived with her family in Eagle at the time of the alleged assault, required emergency treatment after police judged her a danger to herself while at UNC in February; friends say she also overdosed on prescription pills in Eagle about a month before her encounter with Bryant.

"The court could find there is an implied waiver," said Steinhauser. "For example, if the alleged victim has been discussing what would be in the content of those (medical) records with other people, including her friends or her mother, the defense could conceivably make an argument saying she has implied a waiving of that patient-client confidentiality, by discussing all of those confidential things with others.

"It could also be a fishing expedition, in terms of trying to find out from the people closest to her what she has told them about her medical condition, about - if these were suicide attempts - why; those types of things."

Krista Flannigan, a spokeswoman for the Eagle District Attorney's office, said communications between adult children and their parents are not legally privileged. An attorney for the mother of the alleged victim was not available for comment Tuesday.

Flannigan said it is not yet known whether prosecutors will attempt to block any of the recent defense subpoenas.

"No decision has been made, because we're just trying to determine whether there are any legal grounds to quash any of these," she said.

Also on Tuesday, District Judge Terry Ruckriegle denied a prosecution request that all motions containing evidentiary material be filed under seal, in order to limit the effects of pretrial publicity.

"While it is admirable to attempt to prevent potential tainting of the jury pool, giving counsel free reign to file any such motions under seal is potentially problematic in a case with the level of public interest which has been generated by the media," Ruckriegle ruled.

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