Posted on 07/19/2004 4:28:49 AM PDT by Hawk44
EAGLE, Colo. - Lawyers for Kobe Bryant want the judge in his sexual assault trial to allow cell phone text messages between the NBA star's alleged victim, her former boyfriend and a third person to be introduced as evidence.
The messages were sent hours after the woman's encounter with the Los Angeles Lakers (news)' guard last summer.
Defense lawyers also want to give the jury information about money the woman received from a crime victims' compensation program. Bryant's attorneys have suggested the woman received unusually large amounts from a board appointed by the district attorney as an incentive to continue participating in the case.
District Judge Terry Ruckriegle was scheduled to hear arguments on both requests Monday behind closed doors. An open hearing also scheduled for Monday was to deal largely with peripheral issues.
Meanwhile, with less than six weeks before jury selection begins, the judge still must decide whether the alleged victim's sex life can be used against her.
Ruckriegle has already said attorneys for the NBA star cannot have access to the woman's medical records — though they can question friends and relatives on that topic — and that prosecutors will be allowed to use Bryant's recorded statements to investigators and some clothes he gave them.
But Ruckriegle has not yet decided whether the woman's sexual activities are relevant to the case. The defense wants to argue to the jury that she had sex with at least one other man in the days surrounding her encounter with Bryant and that another man could have caused injuries found on her during a hospital examination.
Prosecutors and the woman's attorney have argued the information is irrelevant to the question of whether she consented to sex with Bryant.
"For the defense, it's going to be a critical linchpin to their defense, and I'm assuming they're sitting on pins and needles awaiting that ruling. And I'm assuming for the prosecution as well," said Denver defense attorney Lisa Wayne.
Bryant has pleaded not guilty to felony sexual assault. He has said he had consensual sex with the then-19-year-old woman at the Vail-area resort where she worked. If convicted, he faces four years to life in prison or 20 years to life on probation, and a fine up to $750,000.
The judge's ruling will significantly affect trial strategy and witness lists for both sides, Wayne said. More than a dozen acquaintances of the woman have testified in closed hearings as Ruckriegle weighs his decision.
He already got his medical exam thrown out, wanted to throw out his testimony he gave the police, she had physical injuries that are impossible to explain away, he had physical evidence on him that he threw out, and now he wants to prove that she maybe had sex with at least one around the time either before or after he raped her(ONE is operative word here!) Not the three people that she has been branded with in the press!
Best case senario, it wasn't sex that he had with her to begin with. He forced her over a chair(bruises on her neck) and torn clothing, brutally entered her from behind (lacerations and tearing), when he was done and while she was in tears made her kiss his manhood, and discarded her like a piece of trash. He felt he could treat her like crap because he is the Great Kolby, not a mere mortal man.
I think Kobe is going to plead out of this case to some sort of assault. The audiotape will be very damaging to him and he does not want the accuser to testify about her version of what happenned regardless of how relentless the defense team will be during their cross-examination of her.
Not in defense of Kolby, but she should never have put herself in this position to begin with.
That time of night, alone in his room. I know this doesn't give a man the right to rape, but it throws off signals.
Absolutely not true.
He forced her over a chair(bruises on her neck)
No.
and torn clothing
No.
brutally entered her from behind (lacerations and tearing)
No.
...when he was done and while she was in tears made her kiss his manhood
So she says.
You need to get your facts straight.
And she did put herself in that position; her shift was over, but she stayed around to meet Kobe personally.
She assigned the rooms, putting him all the way at the other end of the hotel from his friends.
Correct. However, a gal does not go to a man's room at night and not expect something to happen. Does she live in a bubble? She may as well have gotten into a car with a complete stranger.
She assigned the rooms, putting him all the way at the other end of the hotel from his friends.
Right again! Personally, I always thought they knew each other previously, and this time around, she gave him a choice...........and he refused. If you know what I mean, since he IS a married man.
And then she cried "foul."
"Kissed his manhood?" How would one know this? This is the first I have heard that statement.
You need to get your facts straight!
There was bruising hand pattern on her neck/arms and blood on his shirt. As far as the torn clothing, it is my understanding that a button was ripped off and I think other physical evidence relating to clothes being removed forcefully. The rape kit they ran did determine that their were lacerations and tearing, signs of forced entry. That is why they are trying to find other sex partners to blame.
No, there was not. There was one TINY place on her jawbone that was not readily visible upon first glance. It may or may not have been a finger mark. That was ALL there was.
it is my understanding that a button was ripped off and I think other physical evidence relating to clothes being removed forcefully.
No testimony to that, period. In fact, I've never seen that even claimed.
The rape kit they ran did determine that their were lacerations and tearing, signs of forced entry.
No, again. There were two miniscule "lacerations" that were not visible to the naked eye and may or may not have been caused by force.
And they're not "trying to find other sex partners to blame." There's more than enough sperm to account for at least two, if not more.
That sounds SO Monty Python-ish, doesn't it?
LOL! That's what "I" was thinking. Sounds like a line out of a romance novel I have read in the past. hehe!
But honest to God, Howlin, if I was on that jury, and 11 jurist deemed Kolby guilty, the jury would be hung because I could not convict him just on this fact alone......that she went to his room at that time of night by herself.
Then, it turns into he said she said, and I am really suspicious about this.
She was 19 at the time. Surely she had to have known better........or else she had another agenda.
First off, you haven't heard or seen any testimony since no evidence has been presented in open court! You are basing your information on second-hand hearsay of the press, which has been notoriously wrong throughout and I must admit so am I!
I suspect that we are both partially right. Everything I mentioned was written in the press and presented as facts. Several of her friends say the evidence of bruising was visible. Blood on his shirt is not disputed. Rape kit evidence depends on how you shine a light on it, but her blood his shirt suggest he wasn't gentle.
The facts not in dispute:
He wants to have evidence thrown out. Testimony, blood evidence, his medical examination, he is looking for other sex partners to blame her physical injuries on, etc...
Actually, I'm basing MY posts on the testimony of the detective during the preliminary hearings.
I agree; there is way too much information about her manipulating what went on at the hotel.
And I am waiting to see what these phone messages say! She better hope she wasn't bragging about what happened, like she was at the party, or her case will go in the toilet (where it belongs, IMO).
It will be interesting to see today what the judge rules about her previous sex life; even if he just rules that her experiences that WEEK are relevant, she's going to have a huge problem in front of the jury, just based on sperm.......LOL.
Which of course, you know was only a small part of the evidence they will present during the trail?! They did not, I repeat did not, present a 10th of their case! All they did was present enough evidence to go to trail. Everything I stated stills might be true based on inside sources, according to the press!
If that's on there, I wonder what some of the lynch mob will say. Nothing I'm guessing.
Do you mean the same disappointment I felt when O.J. got off? Why of course! I hate suppression of evidence, cheap defense tricks, blame the police mentallity, hero worship of a slimball, ect... Yes, my disappointment will be the same that I felt about the O.J. case.
What on earth would make you think that? Even the judge BEGGED them to come up with more and made the statement that the ONLY reason he put it forward was because the law of Colorado forced him to.
And, BTW, they discussed the clothing and the "marks" in that hearing. Now she's boxed in by what the detective said she said, which wasn't much; he had to go back and ask her THREE TIMES if she told him to stop because she never said she did.
As for what the press and her friends say/said, she better hope they don't let any of that stuff in; there are plenty of them out there who say she is a gold-digger and was bragging about it.
This prosecutor has a bad case on his hands and he's fervently praying that some dumb jury saves his sorry a$$ before the next election.
You don't want to know what the inside sources have been saying from the very beginning about what really happened between these two immoral sluts in that hotel room.
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