Posted on 07/20/2003 1:36:02 PM PDT by Smogger
The Colorado woman who has accused Kobe Bryant of sexual assault overdosed on pills and was rushed to a hospital two months before the alleged incident with Bryant, one of her close friends told the Orange County Register.
Based on the 19-year-old woman's accusation, Bryant was officially charged with a single count of felony sexual assault Friday. If convicted, he faces four years to life in prison or 20 years to life on probation, and a fine of up to $750,000. Bryant is scheduled to return to Eagle, Colo., for a preliminary hearing on Aug. 6.
Bryant, 24, said Friday that he was guilty only of committing adultery.
In cases of this nature, the credibility of the accuser -- whose identity is not being revealed -- often becomes an issue. The accuser's friends have been keeping her overdose a secret -- until now, the Register reported.
"I think it was just a cry for help," 18-year-old Lindsey McKinney told the newspaper. McKinney had been living at the accuser's house in May, when the woman allegedly took the pills.
When she learned from the woman's ex-boyfriend that the woman had "overdosed," McKinney rushed to her home and found the woman incoherent, lethargic and seemingly drunk, according to the Register.
"I was scared. She wasn't really talking at all," McKinney told the newspaper. "I was like, 'you need to open your eyes.' "
Some friends of the accuser said they believed the overdose was an accident. Not McKinney.
"I don't think it was accidental. I was there," she told the Register.
Tyson Ivie, a former classmate of the accuser's, told the newspaper that the overdose was "a big secret" that friends have been unwilling to talk about until now.
The police dispatch call from the night of the alleged assault is currently sealed from the public by investigators. The woman's father declined comment for the Register's story.
According to the newspaper's report, Bryant's accuser was going through an extremely difficult period in her life at the time of the overdose. She returned home from her freshman year of college to find out her ex-boyfriend had taken up with another woman. Also, around the time of the overdose, close friend Nicole Clements died in a road accident while returning from high school graduation ceremonies.
"It was kind of boom, boom, boom," McKinney told the Register. "I think the things that happened to her in the past had a lot to do with what [she said happened the night of the alleged assault]."
"I know she had been going through a lot, but I know that she wouldn't lie," 19-year-old Eagle resident Ashley Scriver told the newspaper. Scriver also knew about the the overdose.
The Register quoted legal experts as saying the news of the overdose will be a major advantage for Bryant's defense team.
"This is powerful evidence and the answer to the defense's prayers," Robert Pugsley, a criminal law professor at Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, said. Pugsley added that this kind of evidence, if exploited by the defense, could be enough to shut down the case before it reaches trial.
"[Defense attorneys are] looking for a way to demonstrate that this woman is hysterical and over-reactive," Pugsley said. "This is literally dynamite evidence, a bonanza for the defense and a landmine for prosecution."
Bryant's attorneys could not be reached for comment Saturday by the Register.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.go.com ...
The mainstream media would NOT be handling the Iraq news responsibly, but would be mouthing the Democratic Party talking points every day. Every day it would be, "Another US soldier killed today in what is quickly becoming the quagmire that critics of the Bush administration warned of."
There would be little good news from Iraq. Little discussion of how the problems Iraq faces now are due largely to Saddam's neglect of Iraq's infrastructure while he built palaces and torture chambers and rape rooms. Little credit given to US forces for the good they have been doing.
It's just as well that they feel compelled to spend so much time on this Kobe Bryant case.
As for Fox News' spending so much time on a rape case-- that is unnacceptable. They could be doing competent coverage of the Iraq situation.
Just as her friends might want to vouch for her.
It does matter because someone is lying here. If he did it then he should pay. If he didn't do it she should pay.
My Opinion:
Kobe committed adultery, and her boyfriend cheated on her. She can't make her ex-boyfriend pay, (committing suicide might make him a little sorry, though) but she sure as hell can make Kobe pay and she is going to try to.
This young DA seems to be somewhat intelligent, but you are correct that his political head will come off if he has filed charges without some clear evidence of forced sex. I am lead to believe that he does have something we have not yet seen since the Sheriff went out on a limb to take the lead initially. If the prosecution does have some damaging evidence, we should hear start to hear about it as the days go by. However, one should be very careful about the sources of any suspicious evidence leaking. As one can clearly tell in these forums, this thing is probably already breaking along lines of gender; possibly even race.
Muleteam1
Your crazy. The whole point of feminism is that men are all sex-crazed rapists deep down. We can barely control ourselves. We (men)are constantly harassing, raping, and opressing women.
The intersts of black people always takes a back seat to the intersts of women in the Democratic party dude. You should know that by now. Look at abortion. Look at Clarence Thomas, look at OJ. Hell! Kobe Bryan't doesn't even "act black."
Anonymous rape accusations.
Domestic violence laws where the woman can't retract accusations, and the man is always arrested.
Of course it can -- standard impeachment evidence they'll ask the witness first, if she denies it they'll bring in other witnesses to confirm.
IF this is true, expect the DA to have a SERIOUS conversatiuon with the alleged victim; and a dropping of all charges soon thereafter. On the other hand, this could simply be a planted story for defense PR purposes.
You seem to link a suicide attempt by a "squeaky clean" victim as somehow proof of a false accusation but you reject the "squaky clean" perp confessing to adultery as somehow proof that he is capable of rape. AMAZING!
The reason there are laws against reporting the name of sex crime victims is because of the very smear campaigns your seeing through the Orange County Register. Even if it is true, it does not make her any less a rape victim if she was indeed raped.
It has ZERO to do with the actual case but it sure does get the Kobe worshippers all lathered up doesn't it?
You mean like smearing someone by falsely accusing them of rape, and dragging their names through the mud, though they have been convicted of nothing? Right. I can see why you would want to do that anonymously
I
The credibility of a witness may be attacked or supported by evidence in the form of opinion or reputation, but subject to these limitations: (1) the evidence may refer only to character for truthfulness or untruthfulness, and (2) evidence of truthful character is admissible only after the character of the witness for truthfulness has been attacked by opinion or reputation evidence or otherwise.
In this regard, I am not sure how, under Colorado's rules of evidence, a prior suicide attempt impacts on the question of the alleged victim's credibility in this matter.
You're talking about the admissibility of a 3rd party witness who would be offered to state whether the accuser/victim has a reputation for truthfulness.
But that's not how the suicide info would be used. The defense would ask the victim directly on cross whether she recently tried to commit suicide.
The prosecution objections as to relevance would likely be overcome by the defense offering to use the inquiry to prove whether the "cry for help" aka attempted suicide is being mirrored in the "cry for help" rape drama. I do think the defense would be allowed to explore that line of inquiry, and the evidence rule you cited is not on point -- this is a direct inquiry on cross, not a 'truthfulness' presentation by an independent witness.
Now it is true that the defense would be prevented, based on recent statutes, from using the women's prior sexual history per se on impeachment(even though that might be relevent on purely logical terms).
What "laws" are there that prevent the names of rape victims from being published? My understanding is that the press does that out of courtesy.
I can't imagine such a law standing constitutional scrutiny.
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