Witness in Dismissed Bryant Case Speaks

April 6, 2005 — -- A key witness in the Kobe Bryant rape case is speaking out for the first time about what the basketball star's accuser told him right after the alleged attack, saying "I believe her" account of what happened that night and "this thing should have went to trial."

Bob Pietrack was the bellman on duty at the Cordillera Lodge and Spa, near Vail, Colo., when the Los Angeles Laker checked in on June 30, 2003. One of Pietrack's co-workers, a 19-year-old front desk clerk, said Bryant raped her that night after she gave him a tour of the hotel. Bryant said the two had sex but claims it was consensual.

In police tapes made a day after the attack, he is heard telling detectives: "She must want money or something, I'm telling you man, I swear on my life, I did not -- I did not sexually assault her in no kind of way whatsoever."

Bryant was charged with one count of sexual assault but prosecutors dropped the case after the alleged victim said she was too traumatized to go forward. The woman filed a civil suit against Bryant, which was settled for an undisclosed sum last month -- despite her lawyers' insistence that her motives were not financial. The terms were not disclosed, but both parties agreed not to talk about the case. Pietrack is no longer bound by the court's gag order.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News' Cynthia McFadden, Pietrack wouldn't say whether he thinks the basketball star got away with a crime -- but he says he is disappointed in the way it ended.

"I don't want to point the finger, and look at another man and point at him and say, 'You are a rapist," Pietrack told McFadden in the interview, airing Thursday night on "Primetime Live."

But Pietrack added: "This thing should have went to trial, and should have been decided by 12 jurors, and whatever verdict they would have came back with would have sufficed."

Pietrack is now an advocate for sexual assault victims, and says he had chosen to come forward in April in recognition of National Sexual Assault Awareness Month.