Investigator Testifies at Bryant Hearing

Chippawa Valley ^

[per loin]

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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.

[najida]

I am going to write all these stories down one day. They are ALL exactly like this, in the core.

Do we condemn the man who has poor judgement and gets robbed because he wears a Rolex into a ghetto bar?

[mewzilla]

What was that about the porno movie? He rented porn afterwards?! So much for the NBA's choir boy.

[mountaineer]

.... According to NBC 10 News reporter Alicia Taylor, the prosecution called its first witness at 1:30 p.m., Mountain time. Deputy Doug Winters was the lead investigator in the case. He was the one who received the phone call the day after the alleged assault.

Winters said he arrived to the alleged victim's house and was greeted by the victim's father, then met with the mother and then the victim.

Winters said the victim told him, "To make a long story short, Kobe Bryant raped me."

The deputy also said the victim told him she had not showered since the alleged incident, so investigators retrieved the clothing she wore that night -- a dress, a coat, her shoes and underwear.

Winters said the victim started recounting what happened and, according to the deputy, the night of the alleged attack she was working on the reservations desk at the resort where the alleged crime took place.

The woman told Winters that she took the phone call when the reservations were made and the hotel was notified Bryant would arrive at the resort that night.

According to the deputy, the woman admitted that she was excited about this and that she looked forward to meeting him. She said that once he arrived she escorted Bryant and his two bodyguards to their rooms and she says once she was about to leave when Bryant pulled her aside and said to her, "Can you come back later and give me a tour of the resort?" She said she told him yes. The woman reportedly returned 15 minutes later and gave Bryant a tour.

http://www.nbc10.com/news/2544262/detail.html

[Peach]

Thanks for explaining.

And not to be argumentative, but given the number of extramarital affairs, they have to start somewhere and it usually does start with flirting and kissing.

I've been married for 23 years so unless things have changed drastically (and perhaps they have), I just don't see most young girls thinking they are going to jump right into bed with someone within a FEW MINUTES of meeting them.

[mewzilla]

If he stole the Rolex we do.

[aristeides]

SWo it's confirmed that it was a porno movie, and that he watched it? Was it after that that he came down to the lobby to play chess?

[najida]

It was his Rolex.

It was her body.

[TADSLOS]

So this kid of an adult, this sports "superstar", who has more money than than maturity, marries a hottie without a prenup against the advice of his friends, fellow players and parents, then the high maintenance wifie figures she has it made and cuts him off, he wants to divorce her but the cost is too high. His hormones continue to rage, then viola, this young tart with her own demented history suddenly appears at the wrong place and the wrong time and WHAM, he makes a really stupid decision to act on it! So now, he faces prison time, will probably lose a big chunk o' money to both women in civil court and divorce settlements. Hardly what you'd call a success story.

[AnnaZ]

consensual sexual encounter

How it began has nothing to do with how it ended. There's a young man here in Cali who's doing time because his partner changed her mind whilst having sex. She said she'd changed her mind, he continued 'til he was done, there wasn't a mark on her and no perceived violence or threat. He's doing time. 

[Humidston]

It sounds as if this 19 yr old girl was used to having her boyfriend stop after some heavy petting. Unfortunately, she ended up locked in a room with an overpaid celebrity who thinks the world owes him something.

Both of them were surprised.

[mewzilla]

You can vouch for the Rolex. It's your example :) You can't vouch for the sex being consensual. You weren't there.

[aristeides]

WHAM, he makes a really stupid decision to act on it!

I would call the violence of a rape a lot worse than just stupid.

If it was just a matter of being desperate for sex, what was stopping him from hiring a prostitute?

[najida]

I was talking about rape in general and bad judgement.

We tend to put more on the shoulders of the victim in a rape case...ie...
"her bad judgment" contributed to the rape and use it as a defense or at least an excuse for the rapist
(read my prior posts)

But we don't say "his bad judgement led to the robbery" and us it as a defense for the robber.

Rape is a crime unlike any other.

[tsmith130]

If it was just a matter of being desperate for sex, what was stopping him from hiring a prostitute?

Not sure I agree with this. Rape is not about sex...it's about power & control.

[per loin]

We'll never know, yet they blocked Kobe from bringing up all her mental problems, so if convicted, look for the town to have many visiting rioters who will set the town on fire IMO!

Who is going to sell them boat tickets to Colorado?

[PRND21]

Why do you keep repeating consensual sexual encounter? You are so obviously uninformed.

Read the article.

[sissyjane]

According to CNN she had a laceration on her jaw,and her "privates". Had testamony from a nurse that the injuries were not consistant with consentual sex. I hope he's toast.

[colorado tanker]

I was initially amazed at the fact the defense didn't waive the eharing. Then I heard a talking head on one of the news nets this morning suggest that the defense was going to use the prelim as a way of arguing that the jury pool in Eagle Cty was too tainted to be fair. The defense allows the prelim, argues that the locals are too biased, and innoculates every other possible jury pool by getting the shick values info out early. I'm beginning to buy this explanation.

That may very well be the defense theory. They may also want to lock in the officer's testimony right now, for some reason that would only become apparent to us later.

[Shermy]

As Humidston says, "overpaid celebrity."

[tsmith130]

....then the high maintenance wifie figures she has it made and cuts him off...

You know this? Was it reported somewhere that she "cut him off" ?

then viola, this young tart with her own demented history suddenly appears...

Apparently, all his problems are the fault of women. The poor guy. </s