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Investigator Testifies at Bryant Hearing
Chippawa Valley ^

Posted on 10/09/2003 2:08:36 PM PDT by per loin

Edited on 10/09/2003 7:29:36 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]

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URL: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_2334846,00.html
Detective: Bryant's accuser protested during encounter

By Tim Dahlberg, Associated Press Writer
October 9, 2003

EAGLE - The woman who accused Kobe Bryant of rape told police a flirtatious encounter quickly turned ugly when he grabbed her by the neck, bent her over a chair and attacked her, repeatedly asking, "You're not going to tell anybody about this, right?"

The 19-year-old woman was raped after agreeing to go to Bryant's suite at the resort where she worked, Eagle County Sheriff's Detective Doug Winters testified Thursday at a preliminary hearing to determine whether Bryant will stand trial.

Winters described in graphic detail for a packed courtroom how, according to the woman, an exciting, chance meeting with the Los Angeles Lakers' superstar led to a nightmarish assault that left her shaken and in tears.

She said she told Bryant "no" at least twice and he ignored her, pulling her dress up and her underwear down and raping her from behind.

At one point, the woman told police, Bryant forced her to face him and say "no" when he asked if she was going to tell anyone. After the attack, Bryant made her kiss his penis, Winters said the woman told investigators.

Bryant, 25, has insisted the sex was consensual. He sat at the defense table staring straight at Winters for much of the hearing, hands folded in front of him. Bryant occasionally clenched his jaw, but showed little other reaction.

Though the testimony was graphic, the most explosive statement came from Bryant's own defense attorney when she suggested under cross examination that the woman's injuries would also be "consistent with a person who has had sex with three different men in three days."

That led an angry Judge Frederick Gannett to empty the courtroom and summon the lawyers to his chambers. Gannett was also upset earlier when defense attorney Pamela Mackey said the woman's name four times when asking questions.

She apologized, saying she would write herself a big note not to say it.

"Or I could get you a big muzzle," Gannett said.

The hearing - expected to last only an afternoon - was finally adjourned after more than six hours, an indication the trial could be long and laborious for both sides. Gannett said it would continue next Wednesday, and the district attorney's office said Bryant had to appear.

Winters, the only witness of the afternoon, recounted what the woman told him in an hourlong interview the day after she met Bryant at the resort. It all began with a tour of the hotel on June 30 that led to some flirting. She went back to Bryant's room and showed him a tattoo on her ankle, then turned down his request to join him in the hot tub, Winters said.

Her shift at the front desk was ending and she wanted to go home, he said, and "she was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable."

Winters said she stood up to leave and Bryant gave her a hug that led to some consensual kissing, Winters said.

But when she turned to go, Bryant grabbed her by the neck, pulled up her black dress and raped her against a chair, Winters said. She told investigators she said "no" at least twice, before bursting into tears as the five-minute attack went on.

Bryant wasn't holding her neck so tight she couldn't breathe, Winters said, but enough to control her movement.

"She was afraid that he was going to choke her," he said.

Afterward, Bryant told the woman to clean up, Winters said. She fixed her hair, wiped her face and left after again promising to remain silent.

She went back to the front desk to finish up her work and finally left the resort with an unidentified bellman, Winters said. She told him what happened and he urged her to report it, later following her home.

Winters testified that the woman's blood was found on the inside of Bryant's T-shirt, based on DNA tests. The woman told him she had bleeding from the attack, he said.

The prosecution also presented photographs showing vaginal injuries and one of a bruise on the woman's jaw, and a rape nurse's statement that her injuries were not consistent with consensual sex.

Mackey, though, suggested Winters had no idea when the bruise occurred, and got him to acknowledge that the woman needed no treatment for injuries when she was examined. She also questioned him on whether he saw marks on her neck when he interviewed her the next day.

"She talks on how Mr. Kobe Bryant grabbed her neck and choked her," Mackey told Winters. "You looked at her neck to see?"

Winters said he had, then Mackey asked him if he saw any injuries on her neck.

"Not from the front, no," he said.

"Not a red mark?" she asked.

"That's correct," he said.

"Not a scratch?"

"That's correct."

Winters said the woman seemed serious when he first interviewed her with her parents at their Eagle home.

"I sensed a crackle in her voice," he said. "She stated that he raped her."

Bryant faces up to life in prison if convicted of a felony charge of sexual assault.

Legal experts had expected the defense to waive the hearing and head straight to trial rather than allow prosecutors to lay out their case for the first time _ evidence that will be discussed in public for months.

Gannett had rejected defense requests to have the woman testify and to see her medical records.

The hearing began as hundreds of reporters and a handful of spectators gathered outside the courthouse to catch a glimpse of Bryant as he arrived with his lawyers in a caravan of three SUVs. He said nothing to the crowd.

Bryant had to take off a necklace and was checked with metal detectors before walking into the courtroom.

Bryant, free on $25,000 bond, had been ordered to appear in court for a bond hearing even if the preliminary hearing was waived. He left the Hawaii training camp of the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.

Bryant has the right to go to trial within six months of entering a plea, but he could agree to push that back until later, perhaps after the NBA season ends early next summer.

Copyright 2003, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: kobe; kobebryant; rape
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To: Peach
The reporter used that phrase. It's not in quotation marks.
101 posted on 10/09/2003 3:20:10 PM PDT by Shermy (Tiger Week On Free Republic)
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To: Peach
The AP reporter Tim Dahlberg called it a consensual sexual encounter, not the sheriff.
102 posted on 10/09/2003 3:20:25 PM PDT by jimbo123
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To: Porterville
The detective might not have noticed it because it takes a few hours sometimes for bruises to come out. The nurse noticed it and thankfully took pictures of it.

Today is the first day I've paid much attention to this case and I don't think I've ever been on a thread regarding the matter before.

The only emotion I have is those people who feel that a woman going to a man's hotel room deserves what she gets.
103 posted on 10/09/2003 3:20:52 PM PDT by Peach (The Clintons have pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: jimbo123
Thank you for clearing up the matter of the sheriff's words, which have been mischaracterized by the press.

The liberals never met a minority rapist they didn't support.
104 posted on 10/09/2003 3:21:58 PM PDT by Peach (The Clintons have pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: Peach
Of course she didn't deserve to be raped... that said, she appears not to be capable of taking care of herself in public either... if he raped her, he should go to jail.. if she is nutz, she should be locked away... like that movie Crush.
105 posted on 10/09/2003 3:22:52 PM PDT by Porterville
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To: Peach
CNN and Court TV said the Sheriff's office, I believe.

That does not make sense. As the rape was not reported until the next day. They could not have been taken in the sheriffs office, or a report would have been made then. Any photos from that night would be quite interesting.

106 posted on 10/09/2003 3:23:50 PM PDT by TheOtherOne
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To: Porterville
You may have a point. But I'd hate to think that mentally unstable people, who don't typically show good judgement, would find themselves a victim of violence and no one believes them as a result of their own past instability.

Certainly mentally ill and mentally challenged people are the most at risk for the very violence we are discussing.
107 posted on 10/09/2003 3:23:50 PM PDT by Peach (The Clintons have pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: Shermy
Thanks, Shermy. The stinking press can muck up the simplest of interviews.
108 posted on 10/09/2003 3:24:22 PM PDT by Peach (The Clintons have pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: TheOtherOne
See a few posts back - the nurse took the pictures the next day.
109 posted on 10/09/2003 3:25:08 PM PDT by Peach (The Clintons have pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: Shermy
Tim Dahlberg is a Kobe cheerleader, pro-rape liberal:

Bryant Already Ahead
TIM DAHLBERG
Associated Press

EAGLE, Colo. - When it comes down to deciding Kobe Bryant's innocence or guilt, the court of public opinion may be the most important court of all.

If that's the case, Bryant could be well on his way to acquittal...



110 posted on 10/09/2003 3:25:30 PM PDT by jimbo123
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To: Porterville
Just looking at my body right now I have a scab on my arm a bruise on my knee and a scratch on my fae. My girlfriend has a huge bruise on her arm from where my 100 pound dog scratched her. I haven't had a picture taken of me in over 2 weeks.... what, where, how, when, why??
111 posted on 10/09/2003 3:26:35 PM PDT by Porterville
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To: Peach
Here's the pro-rape AP reporter's email:


tdahlberg@ap.org
112 posted on 10/09/2003 3:26:50 PM PDT by jimbo123
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To: mountaineer
"I really have to wonder what she thought was going to happen when she went into that hotel room."

Whatever she may have thought was going to happen in that room, it is pretty sure that she never dreamed that she was surrendering the right to say, no. Or to suspect a guy with at least some college education, would have a problem with understanding what no, meant.



113 posted on 10/09/2003 3:27:51 PM PDT by F.J. Mitchell (When the law of survival has been rescinded,all other laws are meaningless!)
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To: Porterville
if he raped her, he should go to jail.. if she is nutz, she should be locked away

I agree. I struggle with the fact that not one person has come forward and said "Yes, this makes sense, I could see Kobe Bryant doing this" or "Yes, one night in Altanta or Boston or wherever Kobe Bryant attacked me".

True, rape isn't generally about sex but it also isn't something you wake up and start doing one morning either.

114 posted on 10/09/2003 3:29:02 PM PDT by riri
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To: Peach
Now we are down to it depends on the meaning of sexual encounter, huh? It seems some even believe in going to his room she was consenting to whatever fate met her. I find that absurd.
115 posted on 10/09/2003 3:29:24 PM PDT by Dolphy
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To: Peach
It bothers me too (that people think if she went to his room, she was "asking" for it--I mean, she worked there). This evidence today kind of pushes me off the fence. I think the "squeaky clean" guy maybe isn't so clean after all.
116 posted on 10/09/2003 3:30:35 PM PDT by MizSterious (First, the journalists, THEN the lawyers.)
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To: MizSterious
Ditto.
117 posted on 10/09/2003 3:31:57 PM PDT by Peach (The Clintons have pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: Porterville
I agree with you that Kobe will walk if this case goes to trial. The jury will come to the conclusion the young lady "asked for it", or some version thereof.

The info released today was done purposely to de-sensatize the public and potential jury pool to any shock long before it comes to trial.

Medical evidence will be challenged in mind-numbing detail during a trial. Tons of "expert witnesses" will testify. The plaintiff's character will be ripped to shreds.

The lawyers will use all their challenges to shape the potential jury. If it ends up an "OJ-type" panel, Kobe will be a free man regardless of the facts.

Going ahead with a trial is a good bet for the defense. They have little to lose now, and everything to gain.

Leni

118 posted on 10/09/2003 3:32:31 PM PDT by MinuteGal
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To: Porterville
Porterville--I think the bruises that interest the prosecution are the ones on her neck, and the vaginal and anal tears. Not typical of consensual sex.
119 posted on 10/09/2003 3:33:33 PM PDT by MizSterious (First, the journalists, THEN the lawyers.)
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To: Porterville
>> invetigator didn't notice the bruise the night before, but the nurse does the next day??

Here's a tip for ya: most bruises take time after the injury to discolor.

120 posted on 10/09/2003 3:34:04 PM PDT by Yeti
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