How Silence Handcuffed Bryant's Accuser
Aug. 26, 2004 -- Court-imposed silence hasn't been golden for Kobe Bryant's alleged sexual assault victim.
Jury selection in Bryant's sexual assault trial is scheduled to begin Friday, but there has been speculation for weeks that the alleged victim may decide not to testify, which would likely prompt prosecutors to drop the criminal case. The rumors began last month when a clerk in Colorado's Eagle County Court mistakenly posted a sealed document on the court's Web site.
"This case is quite unusual in that the gag order was violated by the court itself," said Jim Cohen, a law professor at Fordham University in New York. "It really undercut the gag order in a very fundamental way."
Bryant, 25, has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault for allegedly attacking the woman on June 30, 2003, while he stayed at a Vail, Colo., resort where she worked. The Los Angeles Lakers star admits he had sex with the woman, who was 19 at the time, but insists it was consensual.
The accidentally posted document revealed the alleged victim's name, which has been withheld. It also included testimony from an expert witness who said DNA evidence suggests the alleged victim had sex with someone soon after her encounter with Bryant. The woman, through her attorneys, has denied having sex in the days following the alleged rape, and prosecutors contend the DNA evidence may have been contaminated.
This was the third time the court had accidentally posted sealed court documents in the Bryant case. The alleged victim's attorneys complained that her privacy had been violated and that the court's gag order prevented her from responding fully to the defense insinuations and accusations made public by the postings. The court-imposed gag order that was designed to protect the alleged victim may have hurt her more than any potential cross-examination by Bryant's defense attorneys in a criminal trial.
Irreversible Damage?
Since the last accidental posting, the judge in the case has loosened the gag order.
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