Case against Kobe Bryant dropped
EAGLE, Colo. -- Kobe Bryant's rape trial ended just was it was beginning yesterday when a Colorado judge dismissed the felony sexual assault charge against the Los Angeles Lakers guard and barred prosecutors from filing new charges in the case.
With jury selection underway and opening arguments scheduled to begin next week, District Attorney Mark Hurlbert announced that the 20-year-old woman who brought the charge against Bryant did not want to testify at a criminal trial. "For this reason and this reason only," Hurlbert said, he asked the judge to drop the charge.
Bryant still faces a civil suit in federal court in which the woman alleges he raped her at a Rocky Mountain resort hotel in the summer of 2003. But with the criminal charges dropped, the National Basketball Association all-star has no risk of a jail term. His new $136 million contract with the Lakers, which would have been voided by a felony conviction, is safe.
Bryant has said he had consensual sex with the woman. He offered apologies in a statement released after the court hearing.
"I want to apologize to her for my behavior that night and for the consequences she has suffered in the past year," he said in the statement read by his lawyer, Pamela Mackey. "Although this year has been incredibly difficult for me personally, I can only imagine the pain she has had to endure. I also want to apologize to her parents and family members, and to my family and friends and supporters, and to the citizens of Eagle.
"Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual," Bryant's statement continued, "I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did."
It was unclear whether Bryant's statement was part of any negotiated end to the case. Defense lawyers left court without taking questions, and Hurlbert, after speaking to reporters, also did not answer questions.
Bryant, 26, was in Los Angeles when the criminal case collapsed. The woman was not in court, but her parents and several of her friends were present for the final hearing, in which the prosecutor, defense lawyers, and the accuser's lawyer all asked Judge Terry Ruckriegle to dismiss the case.
All sides agreed that the charge be dropped "with prejudice." That means Bryant cannot be charged in the same incident again.
Hurlbert, the local prosecutor who is campaigning to keep his job in the November election, told reporters after the hearing that "justice in this case has been interrupted.
"The prosecution team wants to try this case. This is the victim's personal decision. Candidly, I understand why she had misgivings about her rights being protected."
In recent weeks, there were clear indications that the alleged victim had become reluctant to pursue the case. Her personal lawyer, John Clune, said the woman's concern increased sharply when the judge ruled that evidence of her sexual activity in the days surrounding her encounter with Bryant could be made public at the trial.
Colorado's "rape shield" law would usually protect the complainant in a rape case from such disclosures, but Bryant's lawyers convinced Ruckriegle that the privacy law should not apply in this case. The Colorado Supreme Court declined to overrule the judge's decision to let evidence of her sexual history be presented to the jury.
Beyond that, mistakes by the court staff released the woman's name to the public, and sealed transcripts dealing with her sexual history were sent to the media by accident. Her name, photo, and whereabouts were reported on numerous websites, and defense lawyers described her in public documents as a sexually promiscuous liar and drug abuser.
Earlier this year, the mother and father of Bryant's alleged victim wrote angry letters to the judge, complaining that he failed to protect their daughter's privacy and reputation. The judge has apologized for the accidental release of information.
Three weeks ago, when the woman filed a civil suit against Bryant in federal court, some court observers suggested that move might be part of an "exit strategy."
"It doesn't make any sense to file a civil suit two weeks before the criminal trial unless you are planning to drop the criminal case," said Craig Silverman, a defense lawyer and former prosecutor in Denver. "If Kobe goes to trial and is acquitted, she loses a lot of her leverage for a settlement. If she is interested in getting some money, she would do better to decline to testify for the prosecution, and then start negotiating over a settlement of the civil case."
The planned trial that overwhelmed this small mountain village in central Colorado had its beginnings on the night of June 30, 2003, when Bryant checked into a resort hotel in nearby Edwards, Colo. He asked the woman, a desk clerk, to come to his room.
The woman told police the next morning that the couple engaged in "mutual flirting." According to sheriff's deputies who interviewed her, she did not initially resist when Bryant hugged and kissed her. But then, she reported, the athlete gripped her by the neck, bent her over a chair, and raped her.
