It has some explicitness in it .
Kobe: The Untold Story
Exclusive interviews reveal that there’s a lot more to this case than meets the eye. Too bad you’re about to learn more than the jury ever will.
Maxim, May 2004
By Alex Straus
Kobe Bryant is scared to death…for good reason. Since 1998, Colorado has locked up 476 sex offenders. Only two have been paroled. Compare that with Indiana, where Mike Tyson raped a woman and was back on the street in 36 months.
“Colorado’s treatment protocol makes no distinction between a pedophile, a serial rapist, and Kobe Bryant,” says Jonathan Shamis, an attorney in Eagle County. “If convicted, Bryant could very well die in prison.”
Many people argue that this would be an appropriate sentence if the 25-year-old Lakers phenom did, in fact, rape his 19-year-old accuser. But did he?
Unfortunately for Bryant, that question will probably be left up to a Colorado jury to decide sometime this summer. “Unfortunate” because, depending on rulings to be made by District Judge Terry Ruckriegle, the facts you are about to learn—uncovered through interviews with the sheriff, defense attorneys, criminal psychologists, and friends, former friends, and ex-boyfriends of the accuser—may never be heard by the jury.
Prosecution blunders
In the early morning hours of July 2, 2003, two officers from the Eagle County Sheriff’s Department arrived at the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera to question Bryant. They did not have an arrest warrant and did not read him his rights. But Eagle County detective Dan Loya did activate a tape recorder hidden in his pocket. While that act wasn’t illegal, Bryant’s lawyers argue that the 75-minute interview he gave that evening—as well as the T-shirt police took off his back, mysteriously stained with the accuser’s blood—was obtained improperly and should be inadmissible.
What’s on the tape? Bryant’s account of what took place in Room 35 the night of June 30. According to sources close to the case, Bryant said the sex was completely consensual…until he ejaculated on the alleged victim’s face and she became distraught. But those sources also say Bryant told police she left the room on good terms.
While the bloody T-shirt might tell a different story, these law enforcement mistakes may have sown the seeds of an unwinnable case. Adding to the perception of police bias, two days later Eagle County sheriff Joe Hoy sent his deputies 88 miles and three counties away to get a warrant from a judge outside of his jurisdiction, without the approval of the district attorney.
“From what I hear, the sheriff intentionally circumvented the D.A.,” says Jim Farhenholtz, former Eagle County chief deputy district attorney. “He was clearly anxious to get an arrest, and he may have been concerned that [Eagle County district attorney Mark] Hurlbert would not approve it.”
Bryant’s lead attorney, Pamela Mackey, believes Hoy’s actions were far more illicit. “Contrary to the direct instruction of the D.A.’s office, the Eagle County sheriff’s office sought and obtained an arrest warrant,” she said. “This action illustrates the complete bias of the sheriff’s office.”
Hoy pleads ignorance. “I’d never even heard the name Kobe Bryant before this,” he says. “I wouldn’t change a thing about how this case has been handled.”
But Mackey and her team of legal sharks could smell the blood in the water. On the first day of pretrial hearings, despite warnings from Judge Frederick Gannett, Mackey blurted out the alleged victim’s name in open court…six separate times. “I could get you a big muzzle,” Judge Gannett threatened, knowing that releasing the accuser’s name is the first step toward character assassination.
“This maneuvering goes well beyond even the typical smear tactics of defense attorneys in sexual assault cases,” says Cynthia Stone, spokeswoman for the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault. “This was a calculated attempt to intimidate this victim.”
Outside the courthouse, a few feet from where investigators were testifying about their blunders and Mackey was revealing the alleged victim’s name to the world, a company called Hangmantees.com was handing out T-shirts emblazoned with a hanged man on the front and the words I’M NOT A RAPIST; I’M JUST A CHEATER—K_B_ BRY_NT on the back. According to an e-mail obtained by Maxim, dated October 15, 2003, the “impartial” Eagle County Sheriff’s Department and D.A.’s office promptly ordered 78 shirts.
Unfortunately for the alleged victim, these mistakes were compounded by incompetence: unprepared witnesses, sloppy police work, and a late court filing.
“It’s absurd that the district attorney is going ahead with this case,” Farhenholtz contends. “Law enforcement has made a conviction nearly impossible. The Kobe Bryant trial will be a long, drawn-out waste of taxpayers’ money.”
It’s too late to turn back now.
The hamstrung defense
This case—like every he-said, she-said rape case—will come down to the alleged victim’s believability.
Under Colorado’s 30-year-old rape shield law, designed to encourage a woman to come forward without fear of being victimized by the proceedings, the sexual history of a rape victim is inadmissible in a court of law. In other words, even if Bryant’s accuser had sex with a bellhop in the elevator on her way up, that has no bearing on whether or not she was raped in Bryant’s room.
But once again, this case isn’t black and white. On July 1, 15 hours after the alleged rape, Bryant’s accuser arrived at the Vail Valley Medical Center for a medical exam. According to the defense, the exam revealed her underwear contained semen and pubic hair from men other than Bryant. As a result, the defense contends that Bryant’s accuser had sex with another man in that 15-hour period, and the most important physical evidence (vaginal lacerations) was not necessarily caused by Bryant. As this would constitute reasonable doubt, they argue it either falls under an exception to the Colorado rape shield law or the law is unconstitutional.
The prosecution is outraged. “[The defense] intends to humiliate and embarrass the accuser with allegations that have no bearing on this case whatsoever,” District Attorney Dana J. Easter wrote in a court motion.
Legal experts suggest that the explanation may be simple: The accuser had mistakenly worn dirty underwear to her exam, and her personal attorney, John Clune, adamantly denies that his client had sex after her encounter with Bryant. “Anyone trying to prove otherwise will be chasing ghosts,” he said in a statement.
But legal experts also say information about her sexual activity in the 72 hours surrounding the incident may prove admissible. If so, the defense will parade an unending string of witnesses eager to destroy the character of the alleged victim. Already photos have surfaced in The Globe of the accuser making out with a stranger in a Calgary bar five weeks after the alleged rape. And three of the girls in the photos, the accuser’s so-called friends, are now speaking publicly for the first time.
“She’s a ho,” Kylie, Natalie, and Melanie tell us in near-unison. “She’s fun to party with, but she’s lying,” Kylie claims. “Bottom line: You can’t rape the willing.”
Dennis Lord, a 21-year-old college student who lived in the accuser’s dorm and was listed as a reference on her hotel job application, claims she’s currently staying in a Florida rehab center. “She told me she’d have her settlement money in four to five months,” he says. “She said she and her best friend are going to get breast implants, and she’s going to buy me a koala bear. I even heard her joking around about the size of Kobe’s dick.”
But the prosecution has its witnesses, too. When Kylie testifies, so will the accuser’s ex-boyfriend, John Ray Strickland. “When I heard what happened, I didn’t believe it,” Strickland attests. “But after seeing how different she is now, I know she was raped. And as soon as the jury sees her, they’ll know it, too.” The state has also dug up a young female hotel employee in Portland who says Bryant regularly requested she come to his room, kissing her more than once despite her reluctance.
Will this testimony ever reach the jury’s ears? That’s a question only one man can answer: District Judge Terry Ruckriegle.
And justice for none
Ruckriegle will also have to decide if the accuser’s mental state is relevant and admissible—and many in the medical community believe this may tell the real story. “Not many people know this, but she tried to commit suicide after her boyfriend broke up with her last year,” says Lord, who accompanied the girl’s mother to the hospital after the failed attempt. “After that, every time we got ****ed up, her friends would run around hiding all her pills.”
According to sources close to the case, those pills included Risperdal, a powerful antipsychotic prescribed to treat bipolar disorder. “If she is bipolar and wasn’t taking her medication and became manic, it’s possible that she does not have a realistic recollection of her actions on the night in question,” explains clinical psychotherapist Robi Ludwig, Psy.D., a frequent expert on Court TV. “One symptom of a bipolar patient in a manic state is extreme sexual promiscuity and hypersexuality. It is entirely possible that Bryant did not think he was raping her, and at the same time, she believes she was raped.”
So what’s going to happen? As we go to press, there is a good chance the jury will never hear all the evidence. They may never know about the bloody T-shirt, the dirty underwear, Bryant’s history with other female hotel employees, or his accuser’s medication and suicide attempts. But they will have to decide if the alleged victim is lying or if Kobe Bryant deserves to spend his life in jail.
Whether Bryant is guilty or innocent, we know that critical mistakes have already been made in this case that only serve to handicap the eventual jury, guaranteeing that there will always be questions left unanswered. And however ill-informed the jury is, their verdict will stand.
Kobe: The Untold Story
Exclusive interviews reveal that there’s a lot more to this case than meets the eye. Too bad you’re about to learn more than the jury ever will.
Maxim, May 2004
By Alex Straus
Kobe Bryant is scared to death…for good reason. Since 1998, Colorado has locked up 476 sex offenders. Only two have been paroled. Compare that with Indiana, where Mike Tyson raped a woman and was back on the street in 36 months.
“Colorado’s treatment protocol makes no distinction between a pedophile, a serial rapist, and Kobe Bryant,” says Jonathan Shamis, an attorney in Eagle County. “If convicted, Bryant could very well die in prison.”
Many people argue that this would be an appropriate sentence if the 25-year-old Lakers phenom did, in fact, rape his 19-year-old accuser. But did he?
Unfortunately for Bryant, that question will probably be left up to a Colorado jury to decide sometime this summer. “Unfortunate” because, depending on rulings to be made by District Judge Terry Ruckriegle, the facts you are about to learn—uncovered through interviews with the sheriff, defense attorneys, criminal psychologists, and friends, former friends, and ex-boyfriends of the accuser—may never be heard by the jury.
Prosecution blunders
In the early morning hours of July 2, 2003, two officers from the Eagle County Sheriff’s Department arrived at the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera to question Bryant. They did not have an arrest warrant and did not read him his rights. But Eagle County detective Dan Loya did activate a tape recorder hidden in his pocket. While that act wasn’t illegal, Bryant’s lawyers argue that the 75-minute interview he gave that evening—as well as the T-shirt police took off his back, mysteriously stained with the accuser’s blood—was obtained improperly and should be inadmissible.
What’s on the tape? Bryant’s account of what took place in Room 35 the night of June 30. According to sources close to the case, Bryant said the sex was completely consensual…until he ejaculated on the alleged victim’s face and she became distraught. But those sources also say Bryant told police she left the room on good terms.
While the bloody T-shirt might tell a different story, these law enforcement mistakes may have sown the seeds of an unwinnable case. Adding to the perception of police bias, two days later Eagle County sheriff Joe Hoy sent his deputies 88 miles and three counties away to get a warrant from a judge outside of his jurisdiction, without the approval of the district attorney.
“From what I hear, the sheriff intentionally circumvented the D.A.,” says Jim Farhenholtz, former Eagle County chief deputy district attorney. “He was clearly anxious to get an arrest, and he may have been concerned that [Eagle County district attorney Mark] Hurlbert would not approve it.”
Bryant’s lead attorney, Pamela Mackey, believes Hoy’s actions were far more illicit. “Contrary to the direct instruction of the D.A.’s office, the Eagle County sheriff’s office sought and obtained an arrest warrant,” she said. “This action illustrates the complete bias of the sheriff’s office.”
Hoy pleads ignorance. “I’d never even heard the name Kobe Bryant before this,” he says. “I wouldn’t change a thing about how this case has been handled.”
But Mackey and her team of legal sharks could smell the blood in the water. On the first day of pretrial hearings, despite warnings from Judge Frederick Gannett, Mackey blurted out the alleged victim’s name in open court…six separate times. “I could get you a big muzzle,” Judge Gannett threatened, knowing that releasing the accuser’s name is the first step toward character assassination.
“This maneuvering goes well beyond even the typical smear tactics of defense attorneys in sexual assault cases,” says Cynthia Stone, spokeswoman for the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault. “This was a calculated attempt to intimidate this victim.”
Outside the courthouse, a few feet from where investigators were testifying about their blunders and Mackey was revealing the alleged victim’s name to the world, a company called Hangmantees.com was handing out T-shirts emblazoned with a hanged man on the front and the words I’M NOT A RAPIST; I’M JUST A CHEATER—K_B_ BRY_NT on the back. According to an e-mail obtained by Maxim, dated October 15, 2003, the “impartial” Eagle County Sheriff’s Department and D.A.’s office promptly ordered 78 shirts.
Unfortunately for the alleged victim, these mistakes were compounded by incompetence: unprepared witnesses, sloppy police work, and a late court filing.
“It’s absurd that the district attorney is going ahead with this case,” Farhenholtz contends. “Law enforcement has made a conviction nearly impossible. The Kobe Bryant trial will be a long, drawn-out waste of taxpayers’ money.”
It’s too late to turn back now.
The hamstrung defense
This case—like every he-said, she-said rape case—will come down to the alleged victim’s believability.
Under Colorado’s 30-year-old rape shield law, designed to encourage a woman to come forward without fear of being victimized by the proceedings, the sexual history of a rape victim is inadmissible in a court of law. In other words, even if Bryant’s accuser had sex with a bellhop in the elevator on her way up, that has no bearing on whether or not she was raped in Bryant’s room.
But once again, this case isn’t black and white. On July 1, 15 hours after the alleged rape, Bryant’s accuser arrived at the Vail Valley Medical Center for a medical exam. According to the defense, the exam revealed her underwear contained semen and pubic hair from men other than Bryant. As a result, the defense contends that Bryant’s accuser had sex with another man in that 15-hour period, and the most important physical evidence (vaginal lacerations) was not necessarily caused by Bryant. As this would constitute reasonable doubt, they argue it either falls under an exception to the Colorado rape shield law or the law is unconstitutional.
The prosecution is outraged. “[The defense] intends to humiliate and embarrass the accuser with allegations that have no bearing on this case whatsoever,” District Attorney Dana J. Easter wrote in a court motion.
Legal experts suggest that the explanation may be simple: The accuser had mistakenly worn dirty underwear to her exam, and her personal attorney, John Clune, adamantly denies that his client had sex after her encounter with Bryant. “Anyone trying to prove otherwise will be chasing ghosts,” he said in a statement.
But legal experts also say information about her sexual activity in the 72 hours surrounding the incident may prove admissible. If so, the defense will parade an unending string of witnesses eager to destroy the character of the alleged victim. Already photos have surfaced in The Globe of the accuser making out with a stranger in a Calgary bar five weeks after the alleged rape. And three of the girls in the photos, the accuser’s so-called friends, are now speaking publicly for the first time.
“She’s a ho,” Kylie, Natalie, and Melanie tell us in near-unison. “She’s fun to party with, but she’s lying,” Kylie claims. “Bottom line: You can’t rape the willing.”
Dennis Lord, a 21-year-old college student who lived in the accuser’s dorm and was listed as a reference on her hotel job application, claims she’s currently staying in a Florida rehab center. “She told me she’d have her settlement money in four to five months,” he says. “She said she and her best friend are going to get breast implants, and she’s going to buy me a koala bear. I even heard her joking around about the size of Kobe’s dick.”
But the prosecution has its witnesses, too. When Kylie testifies, so will the accuser’s ex-boyfriend, John Ray Strickland. “When I heard what happened, I didn’t believe it,” Strickland attests. “But after seeing how different she is now, I know she was raped. And as soon as the jury sees her, they’ll know it, too.” The state has also dug up a young female hotel employee in Portland who says Bryant regularly requested she come to his room, kissing her more than once despite her reluctance.
Will this testimony ever reach the jury’s ears? That’s a question only one man can answer: District Judge Terry Ruckriegle.
And justice for none
Ruckriegle will also have to decide if the accuser’s mental state is relevant and admissible—and many in the medical community believe this may tell the real story. “Not many people know this, but she tried to commit suicide after her boyfriend broke up with her last year,” says Lord, who accompanied the girl’s mother to the hospital after the failed attempt. “After that, every time we got ****ed up, her friends would run around hiding all her pills.”
According to sources close to the case, those pills included Risperdal, a powerful antipsychotic prescribed to treat bipolar disorder. “If she is bipolar and wasn’t taking her medication and became manic, it’s possible that she does not have a realistic recollection of her actions on the night in question,” explains clinical psychotherapist Robi Ludwig, Psy.D., a frequent expert on Court TV. “One symptom of a bipolar patient in a manic state is extreme sexual promiscuity and hypersexuality. It is entirely possible that Bryant did not think he was raping her, and at the same time, she believes she was raped.”
So what’s going to happen? As we go to press, there is a good chance the jury will never hear all the evidence. They may never know about the bloody T-shirt, the dirty underwear, Bryant’s history with other female hotel employees, or his accuser’s medication and suicide attempts. But they will have to decide if the alleged victim is lying or if Kobe Bryant deserves to spend his life in jail.
Whether Bryant is guilty or innocent, we know that critical mistakes have already been made in this case that only serve to handicap the eventual jury, guaranteeing that there will always be questions left unanswered. And however ill-informed the jury is, their verdict will stand.
Gig 'em Aggies!
