Bryant Accuser’s Mother Pleads for Quicker Process

EAGLE, Colo. —  The mother of the woman accusing Kobe Bryant of sexual assault made an impassioned plea to the judge Thursday, asking him to set a trial date soon because of constant worries that her daughter’s “safety is in jeopardy.”

The letter to Judge Terry Ruckriegle said the 19-year-old woman had been the target of “hundreds of death threats” and “thousands of obscene messages.”

“My daughter has lived in four different states in the past six months,” it continued. “She is followed everywhere by the defense and the media.”

Included in a court filing made by John Clune, the lawyer for the Laker star’s accuser, the letter provides a glimpse into the frenzy that often surrounds celebrity court cases.

It is also the most detailed description yet of the woman’s life since her encounter June 30 with Bryant at a mountain resort near Vail. She says she was raped.

Bryant has said they had consensual sex.

“The defense begins to question everyone she meets,” the woman’s mother wrote. “The media reveals her location. Her safety is at risk and she has to move again. She can’t live at home, she can’t live with relatives, she can’t go to school, or talk to her friends.”

Some legal analysts speculated that the request to speed up the proceedings might be an indication the woman has had second thoughts about pursuing the case after she testified in a closed hearing for nearly four hours Wednesday.

The rape-shield hearing is being held to determine whether details about the woman’s sexual activity are relevant and should be admissible at trial. The hearing began March 1 and will continue April 26 to 28, when several more defense witnesses will testify.

“If the prosecution loses the rape-shield hearing, the woman and her attorney have to start looking for a graceful way out,” legal expert Craig Silverman said. “This motion might be the beginning of an exit strategy.”

In the filing, Clune took issue with Ruckriegle’s scheduling of motions hearings, saying that by May it will have taken five months to conduct 16 days of motions hearings.

“As each month passes, more dates are scheduled for motions, and more death threats are sent to a 19-year-old girl who has been forced to leave everyone who has the ability to protect her,” Clune wrote.

Clune cited a Colorado law that appears to give victims a statutory right to a speedy disposition of the case. However, analysts said the law, enacted in 1992, has never been tested. And a second statute mentioned by Clune applies only to victims under age 15.

In her letter, the mother of the alleged victim made a more personal plea.

“The last time she got a job, the second day she was there the media found her and began following her,” she wrote. “Most employers are not willing to deal with the problems this brings to their business.

“My daughter has been home for two days. Last night, she tried to have dinner with a friend and her friend’s mom. On the way into the restaurant a man came up to them, pulled out a camera and began taking pictures and questioning them. They asked him to stop, they tried to walk away, he followed them and would not stop until she used a cellphone to call for help....

“She has received more than enough death threats that those thoughts are now a required part of her daily life....

“No one else involved in this case has had to make the life changes and compromises that my daughter has had to make and will need to continue to make until this case is over. Even the defendant is able to continue living in his home and continue with his employment.”

Legal analysts said Ruckriegle will have to consider the requests. For several months, motions hearings have been spaced several weeks apart because of limited Eagle County courtroom availability.

“Setting a trial date at least would give the victim a date to point to,” former Denver prosecutor Norm Early said. “If nothing else, this motion puts the issue on the minds of the media and everyone else following the case.”

Clune said prosecutors did not object to setting a trial date, and Bryant’s attorneys said months ago they desired a swift disposition to the case. However, moving at a faster pace might not be easy.

DNA test results are due April 23 on cuttings from the underwear the woman wore at her rape examination, which could trigger another round of motions hearings involving the testimony of forensics experts.

Defense attorneys have yet to prove what they alleged in an open hearing March 1, that the woman had sex with another man after her encounter with Bryant and before she went to her rape examination.

Swabs taken from the woman’s thighs and vaginal area at the examination contained sperm and semen from a man other than Bryant.

Defense attorneys do not know who the sperm and semen is from and men they wanted to test have refused to produce DNA samples.

On Wednesday, Bryant’s accuser and five others testified at the rape-shield hearing.

The only rape-shield testimony Thursday came early in the morning when the woman’s former boyfriend testified for about an hour in closed court.

After his testimony, the judge resumed another hearing, which started in February and continued in March. It still is not over and Ruckriegle set a new date, April 2, to complete it.

Bryant is trying to establish that he believed he was in custody when detectives interrogated him the night of July 1, one day after the alleged rape.

If Ruckriegle determines Bryant was in custody, the statements surreptitiously tape-recorded by detectives and a seized bloodstained T-shirt would be inadmissible because Bryant was not read his Miranda rights.

Richard Sanders, a professor at the University of Colorado at Denver, was called as a defense expert on the limitations of audiotaping. Prosecutors have said the tape had to be “enhanced” because some of it is barely audible.

During the afternoon, Ruckriegle is believed to have heard the 75-minute tape for the first time.