Kobe Bryant Lawyers Seek New DNA
May 27, 2004 -- Lawyers for Kobe Bryant are planning to ask the judge today to order DNA testing of two of the alleged victim's former lovers in an aggressive effort to show the woman accusing the NBA star of rape is lying, ABC News has learned.
In papers filed with the court, the defense claims the accuser had sex "within the two days preceding and within less than 15 hours following her encounter with Bryant."
The defense, which believes they have found a bombshell, says DNA from semen found inside the 19-year-old woman after the alleged rape did not belong to Bryant. The defense wants to know who it came from.
Sources say the defense plans to argue that the woman had sex with someone other than Bryant after her encounter with the basketball star and before she went to a hospital for testing.
Lisa Wayne, a Denver defense attorney who has tried numerous sexual assault cases, says such behavior would be highly unusual and she expects the defense team to focus on that point.
"It's fair game because the defense should be able to tell jurors that if she had sex after she was supposedly raped by Kobe Bryant common sense tells us it's not believable, that this is a woman who was not traumatized that is going out and having sex with someone else right after this happened," Wayne said.
The alleged victim and her lawyer deny that she had sex with anyone in the hours and days after the alleged rape. The defense claims DNA tests will prove otherwise.
Sources tell ABC News that the defense, in a hearing to be held today in Eagle, Colo., will seek court-ordered DNA testing on the alleged victim's former boyfriend, Matt Herr. Bobby Pietrack, a 22-year-old bellman at the hotel where the alleged rape took place, has also been asked to take a DNA test, sources told ABC News.
According to sources, the alleged victim acknowledged that she had sex with Pietrack two days before her encounter with Bryant, and that she and Herr had relations two weeks prior to the incident.
Sources tell ABC News that Matt Herr has not yet agreed to take a DNA test for the defense. Meanwhile, in a statement given to ABC News, Pietrack's father, David Pietrack, said his son has already been tested.
"All testimony Bob has given under oath has been 100 percent accurate," David Pietrack said in the statement. "In light of that, he voluntarily agreed to take and has taken a DNA test because he has nothing to hide."
Pietrack is the prosecution's star witness.
Sources also tell ABC News that the defense wants records of cell phone text messages sent by the alleged victim to Herr and others in the hours surrounding the incident with Bryant. The defense wants to establish what she was telling her friends after the alleged rape.
Bryant, 25, pleaded not guilty earlier this month to a rape charge that could land him in prison for life. He has said he had consensual sex with the woman last summer at the Vail-area resort where she worked. If convicted of felony sexual assault, he would face four years to life in prison or 20 years to life on probation.