The Denver Post
Kobe's accuser admits lies
Saturday, October 09, 2004 - Eagle - Kobe Bryant's accuser admitted lying about certain aspects of their sexual-assault case in an initial interview with investigators, one of the problems facing prosecutors that were revealed in a new set of documents released Friday.
According to acquaintances in Calgary, Alberta, the woman also "did not behave like a victim of a rape" and even joked about how much money she would make from the case against the Los Angeles Lakers star. The revelations were among the estimated 600 pages of documents released by Eagle County District Attorney Mark Hurlbert that give another glimpse into the closed-door machinations of the celebrated case that ultimately was dropped on the eve of trial. But the documents - investigator notes, interviews and reports collected by prosecutors - also include an account from the woman's mother who noticed her 19-year-old daughter appeared distraught after returning from work that night. The next morning, upset and crying, she said, "Mom, I was raped last night." The documents, obtained under the Colorado Open Records Act, contain what defense attorneys had called troubling holes in a criminal case that ended during jury selection last month after the accuser indicated she no longer would willingly participate in the trial. A hand-printed letter from the woman to DA investigator Gerry Sandberg - dated more than a year after the incident - acknowledged that she had lied to Eagle County sheriff's deputies about why she showed up late to work that day at the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera near Edwards. "I told Detective (Doug) Winters that on that morning while leaving Grand Junction, I had car troubles. That is not true. When I called in late to work that day, that was the reason I gave my boss for being late. In all reality, I simply overslept." The woman wrote that she was "very sorry for not telling the real reason why I was late to work that day." She then went on to correct another misstatement, that Bryant forced her to wash her face after their encounter in his room. "I am extremely disappointed in myself and also very sorry to anyone who was mislead (sic) by my mix-up of information," the accuser said. "While there is no excuse for that mix-up, I said what I said because I felt that Detective Winters did not believe what had happened to me. In reporting this crime, one of my fears was that I would not be believed." Bryant, 26, contended that the liaison was consensual but, immediately after the case was dropped, issued an apology to the woman acknowledging that he understood how she could have believed otherwise. The woman continues to pursue a civil case against Bryant in Denver federal court seeking damages in excess of $75,000.
Click here for a timeline of the People v. Bryant case.
Click here for the official court website with officials court orders, filings and documents in the case.
Click here to see a copy of the felony charges against Bryant in the PDF format. The charges were dropped Sept. 1.
Click here for the questions that were asked asked of potential jurors in the case.
Click here for an interactive presentation on Bryant's career.
Click here for the 9NEWS archive on the case.
Click here for the CourtTV archive on the case.
"Kylie did not feel that (the woman) was a victim of sexual assault because she seemed to make a joke of it and commented about money she was going to get from the trial," Sandberg reported. Robinson and some other friends sold photographs of the woman dancing on barroom tables to supermarket tabloids. Hotel bellman Bobby Pietrack, who acknowledged that he was a paramour, told authorities she was hysterical after the encounter and could barely drive home. But night auditor Trina McKay said she didn't notice any changes in her demeanor that night. "She had a big smile on her face and was bubbly," McKay told Sandberg. A hotel guest, Janet Woods, told investigators she saw the woman with Bryant at the front desk that night and commented to a waiter that she must have been his "wife, mistress, girlfriend, fill in the blanks." Asked why she made the assumption about someone who she soon learned was a hotel employee, Woods stated that it was the body language between the two of them that led her to believe the woman was "intimately" connected with Bryant, according to a report by Sandberg. Both Bryant and the woman acknowledged mutual flirting when she gave him a tour of the upscale lodge, and she accepted his invitation back to his room, where they engaged in hugging and kissing. At that point, the woman said Bryant forced her over a chair, lifted her dress, pulled down her panties and sexually assaulted her while holding her neck. A hotel maid, Suany Leticia Nunez, reported finding spots of blood on Bryant's sheets and a used condom in the trashcan, although Bryant and the woman said the sexual encounter occurred over a chair and that no condom was used. The maid, who found a $10 tip on the bed, said she sent the sheets to the laundry without mentioning them to anybody. Coupled with the Oct. 1 release of 200 pages of information from the sheriff's department, the carefully redacted records paint a fuller picture of the investigation. At least 68 separate documents were withheld for undisclosed reasons. Staff writer Alicia Caldwell can be reached at 303-820-1930 or acaldwell@denverpost.com . Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com . |