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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: riri
Some people have a problem not taking advantage of the chance to commit a crime of opportunity. It happens all the time.
121 posted on 10/09/2003 3:34:08 PM PDT by F.J. Mitchell (When the law of survival has been rescinded,all other laws are meaningless!)
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Kobe walks.

On just about every trip down the court ...

122 posted on 10/09/2003 3:34:09 PM PDT by vollmond
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To: jimbo123
#110

That's more telling than the "consensual" phrase discussed here. IMO, the phrase was neutral.

Anyway, I don't know his politics but I've spoken to a wide variety of people who automatically concluded Kobe is absolutely innocent within a day or two. A lot of them right here on FR.
123 posted on 10/09/2003 3:34:22 PM PDT by Shermy (Tiger Week On Free Republic)
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To: Dolphy
It all started with Clinton trying to define oral sex as not sex at all. We started down a very dangerous path then and it hasn't gotten better since.

What was discussed today on Court TV should not be discussed on television AT ALL in my view.

And you're right - it's darned absurd for anyone to think young women who go into hotel rooms get what they deserve. I hope those people don't have young daughters who will surely at some point show poor judgment. No one deserves to be raped.
124 posted on 10/09/2003 3:35:18 PM PDT by Peach (The Clintons have pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: aristeides
Actually the same question is asked by my wife, oh, once a month or so.
125 posted on 10/09/2003 3:35:23 PM PDT by Mr. Lucky
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To: riri
But riri--no one thought the Luster guy was capable either. He was rich, most thought he was good looking, none of his friends believed it of him. No one thought Ted Bundy could do such a thing either--but a string of bodies proved otherwise.

Rapists don't always look and act like monsters. Especially if they're sociopaths. Clinton snookered an entire nation for almost 8 years.


126 posted on 10/09/2003 3:36:20 PM PDT by MizSterious (First, the journalists, THEN the lawyers.)
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To: jimbo123
Pro rape reporters. Pro Saddam reporters. Pro everything bad and evil. Don't get me started.
127 posted on 10/09/2003 3:36:36 PM PDT by Peach (The Clintons have pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: MizSterious
Scratch on the arm, a scratch on the face, a large bruise on the bicep... does she have dogs, does she have brush around the house... the vaginal issue is a totally different story... I haven't heard much today about the bruises on the neck??? Did they come out with info on them??
128 posted on 10/09/2003 3:38:58 PM PDT by Porterville
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To: Peach
Another point of view in regards to her going into a hotel room... She worked at the hotel and she may have been lulled into a false sense of security because it was on her "home" turf. If she had been invited to a hotel room in a hotel she wasn't so familiar with, she might not have gone into the room. Surrounded by people she worked with and in an environment she was comfortable in may have lulled her into the false sense of security.

129 posted on 10/09/2003 3:39:31 PM PDT by Sally'sConcerns (It's painless to be a monthly donor!)
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To: Mr. Lucky; aristeides
LOL!

Mrs. Aristeides must be a happy woman.
130 posted on 10/09/2003 3:40:07 PM PDT by Shermy (Tiger Week On Free Republic)
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To: MizSterious
I agree. I really don't have a dog in his fight.

One scenario I can certainly imagine. He is supposedly a guy with a pretty low maturity level and very self centered. He may be stuck in a (sexless) marraige. Not knowing how to deal with a situation, the frustration of it all--leads him to act on tendencies he may have had. Who knows.

I just hate to see another bimbo cash in.

131 posted on 10/09/2003 3:41:06 PM PDT by riri
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To: Sally'sConcerns
She probably didn't expect that Kobe Bryant would choke her, throw her over a chair and rape her.
132 posted on 10/09/2003 3:41:32 PM PDT by jimbo123
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To: jimbo123
I agree with you. She probably didn't think a celebrity would rape her.
133 posted on 10/09/2003 3:43:06 PM PDT by Sally'sConcerns (It's painless to be a monthly donor!)
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To: maxwellp
I would tell the young lady she was wrong to go to his room and I'd tell Kobe he was, well what was he? I think he was just a man who received an invitation from a woman and he acted on it. They are both young, foolish individuals

So she "deserved" it, huh?

She "deserved" to be choked and bent over a chair by a man twice her size, and to be penetrated while saying "No" and crying?

134 posted on 10/09/2003 3:52:25 PM PDT by WackyKat
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To: riri
I wondered about the bimbo angle too--but (to the best of my knowledge) she's done nothing to "cash in" at all. Maybe someone else has heard something?
135 posted on 10/09/2003 3:53:05 PM PDT by MizSterious (First, the journalists, THEN the lawyers.)
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To: PRND21
Her account is that she let him kiss and hug her. When she tried to leave he put his hands around her neck and forced her over the chair and assaulted her.

Now, whether this is the exact truth or not I cannot say beyond a reasonable doubt at this point, but I do know that agreeing to kiss does not grant license for someone to force sexual intercourse on you keeping his hands around the girl's throat the whole while.

And the fact that she foolishly thought it would be fun to flirt with a basketball star and ask for his autograph does not grant him license to force a sex act such as the one described upon her.
136 posted on 10/09/2003 3:55:07 PM PDT by cyncooper
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To: cyncooper
Very well said.
137 posted on 10/09/2003 3:58:13 PM PDT by Peach (The Clintons have pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: mountaineer
Yes, kissing is far short of intercourse. Her story is that is all she permitted. Kissing and holding and when his hands started roving she tried to leave and he put his hands around her throat and kept at least one hand around her throat throughout the rest of the event.

I do think the fact that she worked at the hotel mitigates her decision to enter the room, and she was flat out wrong to engage in the kissing. She had just escorted his bodyguards to their room (on a separate floor) before giving him the tour he asked for. She also asked for an autograph before the kissing started. It's not clear from the reports I've heard if she got it.
138 posted on 10/09/2003 3:59:56 PM PDT by cyncooper
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To: Peach
See, I just don't know... as a guy I am very wary of saying that we should take a string of facts and automatically come to a conclusion, because many times in my life I have seen things that have seemed to be the case but were not

As a person with a lot of women in my life, I would hang a pig up for raping my daughter (if I had one) on meat hooks...

that said, if my daughter was nutz and suicidal, well then I would be dubious. I bet her dad is too.

139 posted on 10/09/2003 4:05:01 PM PDT by Porterville
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To: Peach
HUH? Every woman who has been raped understands the importance of not destroying the evidence/DNA. Some women can't stand it and bathe anyway.

And here's something to think about as a possibility: Word is that Bryant denied even knowing who the girl was when the police first approach him. Eventually he admits to sex but says it was consensual. I wonder if he claimed it happened on the bed and I wonder if they collected forensic evidence off of that chair. Just wondering...(I recall reading the evidence collection team was in that room for quite awhile)

140 posted on 10/09/2003 4:08:08 PM PDT by cyncooper
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