Investigator Testifies at Bryant Hearing

Chippawa Valley ^

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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.

[StarFan]

And I believe it is against the law to speak the victim's name in court, according to FNC

I also heard it mentioned by Nancy Grace, Esq., on LKL who said Mackey defied the Rape Shield Law. The fellow (name?) who always takes the opposite view on the Peterson case, also agreed with Nancy. I suspect Colorado is governed by different statutes or else the Judge would have sanctioned her.

[cyncooper]

This is interesting. The AP repeats the tattoo on the ankle testimony.

When I heard Dan Abrams' first report he said several times he had been writing fast and had trouble reading his own writing. It is possible he confused the account of Bryant raising the girl's skirt (which he did report) with her showing him her tattoo.

I thought that if she raised her skirt to show the tattoo that was really dumb and would count against her. But maybe she didn't do that. Maybe she did just show him her ankle.

Also this on the bruising:

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.

I'll go ahead and predict the bruising was visible but the girl's hair covered it, as the story is he had a grip on her *from behind*.

[jwalsh07]

I am extremely reticent to admit this but I actaully read the book cover to cover when I was very young fellow. It utterly ruined my life and my eyesight. :-}

[Tall_Texan]

Maybe no one ever told Kobe about foreplay.

Kobe thinks foreplay is what happens when you're fouled while making a shot behind the three-point line.

[Dolphy]

And how do you know he isn't? Or won't?

I don't, Howlin, but when his attorney reaches for the age old "nuts and sluts" defense it enrages me.

There is also the story, which I don't know was ever confirmed, that he initially denied having sex with her to the police. It just seems that if he believed it was consensual, he would have told the truth starting there. In the least, if this initial denial story is true, he contributed to her credibility.

[Torie]

I sort of identified with Pierre I must admit. No surprise there, eh? :)

[Howlin]

As long as you're here, babbling away, be useful: does the Rape Shield Law say you can't say an accuser's name in the courtroom, in a trial or during a closed hearing?

[connectthedots]

Maybe Kobe should have been given a copy of the song that goes "I want a lover with a slow hand; I want a lover with and easy touch..."

Like you, I doubt that anal sex was involved. Not that I have ever experienced it, but I have been told that is requires considerable lubrication even when it is consensual. I doubt that even a rapist would force a woman to "kiss it" after anal intercourse, and ther was no mention of anal intercourse during the hearing today. If there had been, certainly pictures would have been taken and repairs would have been required.

[ladyjane]

but frankly if she had sex with three men in three days, then went to a stranger's hotel room, past history of attempted suicide, could there not be the possibilty that she could be a little unstable???

Toespi - The defense is hoping the jurors will follow your brand of logic.

[Torie]

Sorry, I don't have a clue. Not my field. Thus I will remain totally yours, but totally useless.

[Howlin]

Stan Goldman said the bruise on her face was so small you could hardly see it.

And that's a great point about Dan's notes.........LOL....I heard him say that!

[connectthedots]

Maybe basketball faqns can start referring to a basketball assist as 'foreplay' or 'a Kobe'?

[Howlin]

Well, this is all I could find:

First of all, it says that evidence of "the victim's sexual conduct" is "presumed to be irrelevant." There are three exceptions to this.

"Evidence of the victim's prior or subsequent sexual conduct with the" defendant is admissible.

Evidence that someone other than the defendant in fact committed the act the defendant is accused of. (For instance, if the accuser says "Bob raped me and got me pregnant," and the defense has evidence that in fact Jim got her pregnant, that's admissible).


Any other evidence whatsoever is admissible, as long as the defense attorney can convince a judge that the evidence is relevant.

[Toespi]

It would be prudent for a jury to make these considerations in determining a person's guilt. Especially if the physical evidence is as scanty as we have heard today. There is a chance her story is fabricated you know and that should be tested.

[connectthedots]

If she was in the habit of having sex with a lot of men, she would not have gone to the police.

[sissyjane]

Howlin-for what it's worth. I heard that the victim told the bellman shortly after it happened. She was so upset that he followed her to make sure she got home okay. She -(I think the next day)-told her parents, who called the police. When they interviewed her she told them that she had not showered and they took her to the hospital where photos were taken and swabs for DNA testing.

[Torie]

The last sentence is a rather broad exception. I am not sure how this relates to whether names can be mentioned.

[aristeides]

Great Russian prose style. One luxuriates in that style while reading it, like with Cicero or Plato or Nietzsche. Doesn't matter how little sense what he's saying makes.

[jwalsh07]

If I remember correctly, Pierre was a self identified humanist. That would seem to fit but like I said I was a young fellow when I read it. It was my Dad's book, a guy who dropped out of tenth grade and went off to WW2. A smart guy who wore a blue collar. :-}

[Howlin]

Again:

The only real limitation Bryant's attorney faces due to rape shield laws is that she can't drag in irrelevant evidence that Bryant's accuser has voluntarily had sex with men other than Bryant in the past.