Posted on 07/26/2003 7:48:48 PM PDT by Recourse
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ESPN.com: NBA | |
Saturday, July 26, 2003
Teen craves spotlight, but friends say not like this
EAGLE, Colo. -- The profile of the young woman emerges as if in silhouette.
Kobe Bryant's accuser remains anonymous, her identity protected as an alleged sexual assault victim, her voice not heard to tell her side of the story. Details of her life, coming from friends and police reports and cast in the half-light of reflected celebrity, create an enigmatic image.
Some see the slender 19-year-old with shoulder-length blond hair and a sweet smile as energetic, upbeat and confident -- a peppy cheerleader and spirited singer in school shows who had aspirations of stardom.
Others in this middle-class, Rocky Mountain town of 3,500 -- where bored teens hang out at the Texaco station, then drive off to party through the night in the hills -- describe her as a showoff, "a total starve for attention," as one ex-boyfriend put it.
"It doesn't matter if (the attention) was good or bad," Josh Putnam said. "It was always good to her."
| “ | I correlate it to throwing a pebble into a pond and then you have a ripple effect. When something's high-profile, your ripples get bigger and bigger and bigger. The higher profile it is, the greater the potential victim base. ” | |
| — Attorney Krista Flannigan |
Friends call her honest, trustworthy and strong, "one of the toughest people I know," according to Luke Bray, a 21-year-old construction worker whose wife has known her since second grade.
"She can't believe the things that people in her own town are saying about her," he said. "She's going to be a victim a second time, a third time, a fourth time, every day for the rest of her life. But she knows the truth and can handle it."
Yet several former friends doubt her allegations against Bryant, saying she is impulsive, vindictive and emotionally fragile.
Her freshman year at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, a farm community 60 miles north of Denver, was interrupted Feb. 25 when she was rushed to a hospital by ambulance. Campus police chief Terry Urista said his office received a call about 9 p.m. that night regarding a woman in a dormitory room.
"An officer determined she was a danger to herself," Urista said, identifying the woman by name but refusing to characterize the episode as a suicide attempt. "It's classified as a mental health issue," he said.
Lindsey McKinney, who lived at the woman's family's house this spring before the two had a falling out, said her former friend tried to kill herself at school by overdosing on sleeping pills and overdosed again at home in May, little more than a month before she alleged Bryant assaulted her.
The woman was distraught over a breakup with her boyfriend and the recent death of a girlfriend in a car accident, McKinney said.
The contrast between the gregarious, seemingly happy image so many friends have of the woman and the histrionic, troubled side others describe is stark and hard to reconcile.
She is less visible these days, her friends say, staying home most of the time, unless she's driving to meetings at her attorney's office in nearby Avon. She still visits friends but has been warned by authorities not to talk about the case.
Sexual assault victims often worry about being blamed, said Krista Flannigan, an attorney and victim advocate working for the district attorney in the Bryant case.
"Fear, anxiety, some form of guilt, sadness, anger, vulnerability-- those come and go," Flannigan said. "Some are more intense than others, depending on what their past life experiences have been, what their current support systems are, what their past support systems have been."
A high-profile case, she said, affects the victim and her community with greater intensity.
"I correlate it to throwing a pebble into a pond and then you have a ripple effect," Flannigan said. "When something's high-profile, your ripples get bigger and bigger and bigger. The higher profile it is, the greater the potential victim base."
In this case, the ripples are reaching far beyond the woman's family -- her retired father and mother and two brothers. They are touching virtually everyone in this tiny town, down the valley from resort-rich Vail.
What everyone agrees on is that she had a passion and talent for singing. She wrote songs and kept telling people she would be famous someday.
She traveled with McKinney last fall to Austin, Texas, to audition for the TV show "American Idol." The two slept outside for 12 hours to win wristbands that ensured audition spots.
Involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with a boyfriend from Eagle, the woman chose a song by country singer Rebecca Lynn Howard called "Forgive," about a woman stung by infidelity, wondering how to respond when her lover asks her to say she forgives him.
The refrain of the song is: "Well, that's a mighty big word for such a small man, and I'm not sure I can, 'cause I don't even know who I am, it's too soon for me to say forgive."
McKinney thought her friend's rendition was beautiful, but neither of them got past the first round.
Though many friends believe the woman is telling the truth when she says Bryant assaulted her June 30 in his room at the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera, where she recently had begun working at the front desk, McKinney has her doubts.
"I almost think she is doing it for the attention," she said. "She craves attention like no other. This is the bad kind of attention that she's going to get. I'm not saying it didn't happen. But it just doesn't fit the puzzle."
But Sara Dabner, 17, sees it differently. To her, Bryant's accuser is like a big sister, befriending her on a high school choir trip to Disneyland and helping her through personal problems. She and other friends took the woman out to see the movie "Bad Boys II" after charges were announced against Bryant.
The notion that the woman would make up the allegations strikes Dabner as preposterous.
"Why would a woman put herself through all of this -- having people call her names?" she said, noting that her friend didn't even know who Bryant was when he first arrived at the hotel. "She's not trying to drag him through the dirt," Dabner said. "She just wants justice."
I would hope so
Well, it's equally my right to comment on your statements---and I will.
As to you addressing me about the "innocent victim" in quotes as if I said that or that I had concluded that, that is totally incorrect. Unlike you I have not determined the facts in this story.
One of the reasons for lawyers ..... to know how to admit the evidence. In my case, it was the proper defense. Personality disorders need to admitted, currently women enjoy way too many legal advantages over men in a court of law. That should change. Past sexual history can also be admitted when it can be clearly shown that the accuser is lying under oath (in my case I had letters ... that were admitted and read into evidence). Again one of the reasons for lawyers is to know how to present your case.
For the last ten years my life has centered on my daughter and my company. My daughter will (and is) get to make her own decision about her mother. She is a cheerleader and my shotgun is right next to the front door .... girls are indeed God's revenge to fathers .....
What is common law's relevance to rape shield laws in various states, including Colorado?
At common law, a defendant charged with sexual misconduct could fairly easily attack the prior sexual conduct of the victim in an effort to show that she was a 'bad girl." At the same time, inquiry into the defendant's prior behavior was quite limited.The Colorado rape shield statute reverses this practice. The statute, CRS § 18-3-407 creates a presumption that the prior sexual behavior of the alleged victim is irrelevant and inadmissible. Exceptions exist for evidence of the prior sexual contact between the defendant and the alleged victim, or evidence of prior sexual behavior that show the source of any semen, disease or pregnancy to show that the sexual misconduct was not committed by the defendant. A party wishing to avoid the restrictions of the statute must file a motion in advance of trial so that the trial court can hold a hearing and resolve the issue.
Boulder County Bar Association
Look, the issue here is consent to intercourse. How is it possible that you would think, even for a second, that one's tendency to consent to intercourse with strangers, or not to, was not relevant?
Irrelevant under the law and quite possibly under the circumstances. Legislatures and courts have realized even the sluttiest whore in the world can be forcibly raped. Laws now reflect such sanity. Bryant's attorneys will likely file motions for various exceptions. Some, if not all, will not pass the judge's scrutiny. Here's an article which delves into the issue:
Trial judge could rule out testimony about overdose
The defense attorneys know her name. The only people who are supposed to be prevented access to her name and personal information are the public.
An accuser is merely that. The trial will establish victimhood, or not.
I'm glad to know at least one of you Laker fans is honest enough to admit the young lady is on trial.
Should it not be the states burden to prove that it wasn't?
...with a "seasoned" prostitute...that way he gets what he pays for...rough sex or anal sex...let a "seasoned pro" provide him with what his WIFE apparently won't give him...
The state's burden is reduced significantly since Mr Bryant has already, and in public, admitted sexual penetration occurred. The state has a witness (the accuser) who will claim it was not consensual. The state will meet a large part of the burden with that testimony. Add to it any physical evidence, such as bruising, tears, cuts, etc. The defense will have to find a way to rebut it or otherwise establish doubt.
From what I'm hearing about the 'point of entry', those would be normal even in a consentual situation.
My point was more the redefinition of the procedure toward justice, kind of like when people call our country a 'democracy'. These types of errors, in particular from those who should know better, are one of the biggest problems we have speeding our decent into a statist, socialist/fascist hellhole.
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