Bryant's attorneys cite history of black men falsely accused

CBS Sportsline ^ | 01/23/2004 | SportsLine.com wire reports

[Therapist]

EAGLE, Colo. -- Kobe Bryant's attorneys suggested in open court Friday that the Los Angeles Lakers star may have been falsely accused of rape because he is black.

The comment from attorney Pamela Mackey came during a legal squabble over the notes of a rape crisis center worker who sat in on a police interview with Bryant's 19-year-old accuser. The defense wants access to the notes, a request opposed by the crisis center.

Inga Causey, attorney for the Resource Center of Eagle County, said releasing more details about Bryant's accuser would lead to fewer women reporting rapes. She said rape reports dropped in Florida after William Kennedy Smith was acquitted, a case in which his accuser's medical background was targeted by defense attorneys.

At that point, Mackey urged the judge to focus on the Bryant case and avoid the "political agenda of the rape crisis center."

"There is lots of history about black men being falsely accused of this crime by white women," Mackey said. "I don't think we want to get dragged down into this history any more than we want to get into the history brought up by the rape crisis center."

Until now, defense attorneys had said only that the woman had a "scheme" to falsely accuse Bryant in hopes of winning attention from an ex-boyfriend.

The defense has previously accused the sheriff's office of bias and labeled as racist T-shirts mocking Bryant that were purchased by someone in the district attorney's office.

Mackey did not discuss the race issue further. Judge Terry Ruckriegle said he would decide later whether to hold a full hearing on turning the notes over to the defense.

Also Friday, an Iowa man pleaded guilty to leaving a profanity-laced death threat on the accuser's answering machine last July. John Roche, 22, pleaded guilty to making a threatening telephone call across state lines. He faces a sentence ranging from probation to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine at sentencing June 4.

Bryant, 25, faces four years to life in prison or 20 years to life on probation if convicted of felony sexual assault. He has said he had consensual sex with the employee of a mountain resort where he was a guest last June.

Denver attorney Craig Silverman, a former prosecutor, said it was inevitable that race would become a point of argument in the case.

The defense "will give the jury a smorgasbord of reasons why the rape allegation was false," Silverman said. "They're giving jurors a hook to hang their reasonable-doubt hat on."

The defense dropped other bombshells at pretrial hearings. Mackey drew a warning from the bench for repeatedly mentioning the accuser's name in open court, and she has said the woman may have had sex with multiple partners before and even after her encounter with Bryant.

The top issue at Friday's hearing was expected to be whether the accuser surrendered her medical privacy rights by discussing her medical history with others, including her mother and police. The defense has suggested the woman took anti-psychotic medication and twice tried to commit suicide in the months before her encounter with Bryant.

The medical privacy arguments, however, will be held behind closed doors. Ruckriegle ruled the evidence is too sensitive and potentially humiliating to the accuser.

The defense must win this fight to be able to present the woman's medical history at trial, either through information from her records or through testimony of friends and relatives.

A Feb. 2-3 hearing will determine whether the medical history is relevant and should be admitted at trial.

[Therapist]

What is good for a white Kennedy should be OK for a black Bryant. The overzealous DA should just drop this charge.

[familyop]

Agreed. Besides, what the heck is a *ho** doing accusing anyone of rape if she didn't get the syphillitic stuffing beaten out of her?

Everyone's gone political correctness nuts ever since people starting listening to the so called "suffragist" witches of the 19th Century and their subsequent revisionisms!

...no irony here. I'm quite serious.

[caisson71]

I was willing to give Kobe the benefit of the doubt - innocent until proven guilty - until the race card was played. I now doubt Kobe's legal team have a valid defense and that he is probably guilty.

[Therapist]

I disagree. The defense has a great case. However, they would be remiss not to bring this into the courtroom.

The "alleged victim" stalked his room three times and got just what she wanted except there was no romance. She wanted to spread her legs on the King sized bed not be bent over a chair.

[onedoug]

My wife once told me that Fatal Attraction was a movie every wife should make her husband see.

[L.N. Smithee]

What is good for a white Kennedy should be OK for a black Bryant. The overzealous DA should just drop this charge.

How much of this race-baiting do you actually agree with, and how much is your heretofore baseless presumption that you know enough about the accuser to judge her a liar?

[L.N. Smithee]

...no irony here. I'm quite serious.

That's what's sad.

[Sacajaweau]

He's already confessed to adultry at the least. How does he play the race card against that? The race card makes absolutely no sense.

[Hacksaw]

I don't think it has anything to do with being black - simply the fact that he is a nationally known sports figure makes him a target. I have no idea if he did it or not, but someone tried to pull this on Jerome Bettis - and she ended up being shown to have lied about it.

[caisson71]

They would be remiss if they didn't bring race into the courtroom? If they had a case, why would race be relevent. We can see that he is black and she is white! Is that because we are such a racist society and blacks always get screwed by whites. I think that card has been overplayed and most thinking people see that ploy for what it is.

[Finalapproach29er]

Agreed. Race card:Last gasp of the desperate.

[Howlin]

What is good for a white Kennedy should be OK for a black Bryant.

Go stand in the corner.

[Therapist]

She went to his corner three times bfore receiving the prize she wanted.

[familyop]

"She went to his corner three times bfore receiving the prize she wanted."

...so true. Too many Republicans these days agree with feminists (who do that which is unnatural with other women) and other Democrats on one thing--indulging in those mental what-we-should-do-to-rapist fantasies until they're foaming at the mouths. ...like that nervous, batty-eyed femme, what's-his-face,...Bill O'Reilly!

Shoot, the way so many people hate fathers and men in general, you'd think they all want to go back to their immigrant ghettos of a 100 or so years ago and live in their mining camps again or something.