EAGLE, Colorado, 3 March 2004 — NBA star Kobe’s Bryant’s accuser had sex with another man just 15 hours after she claimed she was raped, and also slept with two prosecution witnesses, Bryant’s lawyers claimed Monday.
The stunning allegation came in court documents filed a day before the 19-year-old former hotel concierge was due to make her first court appearance to be grilled over her claim that she was violated by Bryant.
The bombshell came as the Los Angeles Lakers star’s attorneys battled in a pre-trial hearing Monday to deflect a prosecution bid to limit the defense’s questioning of the woman yesterday.
“Given the timing and nature of the accused’s sexual activity following her encounter with Mr. Bryant, all of this activity is now also relevant, wrote Bryant attorney Pamela Mackey.
The lawyer, who had previously alleged the accuser might have had sex 18 hours after seeing Bryant, said the woman’s alleged encounter with another man shortly after sex with Bryant was relevant as it could explain injuries to her genitals that prosecutors say indicates she was raped.
The evidence would serve to “test and rebut the prosecution experts’ opinions regarding the supposed trauma and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) allegedly suffered by the accuser,” Mackey’s 10-page brief stated.
The woman claims she was raped by Bryant in his luxury hotel room in the Colorado mountain resort of Eagle on June 30 last year. The married Bryant, 25, admits to having had sex with the woman, but claims it was consensual and strongly denies rape. He faces up to life prison if convicted.
Former Denver district attorney Norm Early, upon hearing of the defense claim that Bryant’s alleged victim engaged in sex so soon after she was with Bryant, said, “If that’s true, then it’s over.”
“How are you going to prosecute an assault case where someone is having sex 15 hours later?” he asked. “It’s going to be very difficult.”
But Cynthia Stone, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault, wasn’t so sure. “Even if this stuff is brought in and allowed as evidence, that doesn’t mean it’s fact,” said Stone. “It only means that it can be put to the jury, for the jury to decide if it’s important.”
Meanwhile at Monday’s pre-trial hearing in Eagle, an eleventh-hour prosecution bid to limit questioning of Bryant’s alleged victim at yesterday’s closed-door hearing about her sexual history failed.
Judge Terry Ruckriegle judge ruled that the prosecution attempt to contain the scope of questioning of the young woman by Bryant’s lawyers was not made quickly enough.
Prosecutor Dana Easter said she did not file a motion prior last Friday to set firm boundaries for questioning of the alleged victim because, “We never had anything substantive enough to respond to.”
