Kobe shouldn't settle for less ... or more

[2Cleva]

Kobe shouldn't settle for less ... or more
Sam Kellerman / FOXSports.com


The instant a celebrity is accused of rape, you can be sure that a violation has occurred. You just can't be sure what kind.

If the accuser is telling the truth, then the violation was physical. One person brutally forced another into submission. In that case, we hope the wheels of justice roll in the right direction — right over the violator.
If, on the other hand, the accuser is not telling the truth, then a different kind of violation has occurred. The media's got big wheels too, and an accused celebrity — even an innocent one — gets flattened in the court of news entertainment.

Now that the rape charge against Kobe Bryant has been thrown out, and Bryant has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, it is clear which type of violation occurred in that case.

After publicly branding Bryant with a scarlet R, "Jane Doe" (as she has been referred to in these proceedings, to protect her anonymity) dropped the charge, but only after Bryant had been repeatedly dragged into court and an estimated $400,000 in taxpayer dollars had been spent.

Ms. Doe cited "the cumulative stress of the last 14 months" as the reason she would no longer cooperate with prosecutors, according to the D.A. whom she called with her final decision.

I can't help but notice that Ms. Doe's "cumulative stress" accumulates selectively. Criminal trials make it unbearable, while civil trials, where a monetary reward looms and the standard for proof is less than reasonable doubt, apparently don't.

I know the civil trial will be more private. But it's not like Bryant will suddenly morph into Slava Medvedenko once it begins. The same star is headlining the sequel. That means we go from Criminal Trial of the Century to Civil Trial of the Century.

It just doesn't make any sense how being at the center of the latter qualifies as a stress reliever.

Every day now, we see stories all over the national media about the civil trial, and most of these stories find space to mention the more sensational details of the case. Like a defense expert's testimony that when Ms. Doe was examined for the injuries she claimed Bryant inflicted, she had semen from an entirely different man on her body and in her underwear. That one gets tons of play.

Again, it escapes me how the proliferation of such embarrassing details, which will intensify as the civil trial unfolds, can possibly provide emotional relief for anyone.

You could argue that dropping the criminal case removed the financial and emotional burden that the criminal trial had placed on the State of Colorado, a burden that was shared by Ms. Doe, who had to wear the tag of "woman who started this whole thing." Anyone can understand how that would be stressful.

But I think I speak for most American taxpayers when I say that if a woman is raped, I'm happy to invest my taxes and emotions in putting away whoever did it. I would submit that a person who is raped even has an ethical obligation to help remove the sexual predator from society, for the protection of others.

Maybe Ms. Doe felt the cause of justice was satisfied by getting Bryant to write a note stating that while he didn't think he raped her, he can understand how she thought he did. But by accepting that statement in exchange for clearing Bryant of any criminal wrongdoing, Ms. Doe made a statement of her own — namely, that what happened between the two of them was a misunderstanding and not a crime.

Oh, and also that even though he didn't commit a crime, she still wants some of his money.

Let me make something plain about Jane: by continuing with the civil case after dropping the criminal one, she lost her credibility. Now it's up to Kobe to decide whether he wants to keep his.

I know the thought of a settlement must be tantalizing, because he can afford it and it makes the civil trial go away. That would allow Bryant to concentrate exclusively on basketball, which he'll need to do if the post-Shaq-and-Phil Lakers hope to succeed.

But a man's legacy as a human being is more important than his legacy as a basketball player. Don't settle, Kobe — no matter what it costs you or the Lakers. An out-of-court settlement, coupled with your apology note, will create the impression that you committed a crime and got away with it because you're rich.

Go for the "and-one." Clear your name in civil court, too. Don't compromise your reputation just because your accuser compromised hers. That's not an even trade.

See, there's an important difference between the damaged reputation of the accuser and the damaged reputation of the accused when a celebrity is charged with rape. The difference is illustrated by the name above the No. 8 on a Lakers jersey.

It ain't Doe.

Link (http://msn.foxsports.com/story/3002620)

[ducks]

Let me make something plain about Jane: by continuing with the civil case after dropping the criminal one, she lost her credibility.

says who?
both kobe and the victim I mean accuser did wrong and lost crediablity
kobe changed his story to the police

[SequSpur]

Isn't this the Spurs forum?

I hope Kobe dies.

:shootme

[ducks]

no it is the nba forum in the month of sept.:spin

[iminlakerland]

kobe changed his story to the police

She changed her story more than once...thanks

[sportcamper1]

Nice article... but the reality is that Mr. Bryant...”a multimillionaire Hollywood & sports celebrity” had a sexual encounter with a small town teenage girl that he knew only a matter of minutes...The girl later claimed that she was forced into this sexual encounter...

And the reality is that Kobe would not have a trial surrounded by his adoring fans from Los Angeles with Judge Ito on the bench...The trial would be held in Eagle Colorado with the local populace as jurors...Imagine a trial with people like Tim MVP, Sequ Spur, or Ducks sitting in the jury box...

Given the option of facing a life in prison sentence...Or writing a well scripted apology & paying the girl a couple million dollars...I don’t think it is too difficult to figure out Kobe’s legal strategy...

[2Cleva]

sportscamper - he isn't paying her anything as of now. He still has retained Mackey and Co as his lawyers for the civil trial. People made assumptions that he was paying her off but nothing either side is doing is supporting that.

And even her own backyard doesn't believe her. No rape ever occurred and I also bet there won't be any settlement.







04/09/10 - Accuser Kate Faber lost credibility refusing to testify against Kobe


File photo: Kids proclaiming Kobe is innocent at the Justice Center parking lot.

And, speaking of money, Faber’s actions of claiming rape, have cost the county taxpayers approximately $350,000.00 to $400,000.00, according to Mike Roeper, Eagle County Finance Director.

Will Kate Faber reimburse Eagle County for putting us through that? Realistically, probably not! And, yet, we should forgive the young woman for what she has put us through, based only on her youth.
Opinion By Michael Cacioppo, President, SpeakoutVail, Inc. - EAGLE – Kate Faber, Kobe Bryant’s 20-year-old accuser who alleged Bryant sexually assaulted her last year, has lost all credibility by refusing to testify at the trial scheduled to begin earlier this week. On September 1st, a media advisory from Krista Flanigan, a lawyer working on behalf of the District Attorney’s office, said, “... the (alleged) victim has informed us, after much of her own labored deliberation, that she does not want to proceed with this trial. For this reason, and this reason only, the case is being dismissed.”

Faber’s name has been known by many in Eagle County since it was learned on the second or third day after Bryant’s arrest in July 2003, despite attempts to keep it secret. It was disclosed shortly thereafter by liberal talk show host, Tom Leykis of Los Angeles, and has also been reported by the tabloid press, as well as in numerous internet reports.

Even Presiding District Court Judge Terry Ruckriegle’s associates twice disclosed her name on the court’s website, allegedly by mistake.

The so-called main-stream media, who launched an assault to be the first to find and report the accuser’s name, backed off when illegally and unconstitutionally threatened by the first press “decorum order,” enacted by Eagle County Judge Fred Gannett, under the close supervision of Judge Ruckriegle. It has been Ruckriegle, throughout the case, that has attempted, and in some cases, succeeded in violating the First Amendment rights of the free press.

His first illegal order included a threat that any media outlet that printed her name would not be allowed a seat in the courtroom.

Frankly, this newspaper has had enough of Ruckriegle’s illegal orders and bullying of the press throughout this historic trial that has damaged rights of the press and the accused in many ways. Only someone as wealthy as Kobe Bryant could have had the where-with-al to afford to mount a strong legal defense against a woman who, according to the chief investigator’s testimony, lifted up her skirt to show Bryant a tattoo in their encounter.

The investigator, Eagle County Sheriff’s Detective Doug Winters, is known to this newspaper as an honest cop who doesn’t lie in court to get a conviction.

Winters testified at the preliminary hearing that Faber met twice with Bryant the evening she said she was raped, and that Faber had told him that she expected something to happen between herself and Bryant. Winters also testified that he wondered why Faber never told Bryant “no,” and that he wondered if a rape ever occurred.

This testimony alone, should have been enough to dismiss the case at the preliminary hearing.

But, not so with Colorado’s absurd statute that says that a county judge must look at the evidence “in the light most favorable to the prosecution” in a preliminary hearing. That law, in our opinion, violates Bryant’s Fourteenth Amendment constitutional right to equal protection under the law.

Further confounding this case is Colorado’s absurd and, in our opinion, unconstitutional rape shield statute, which helps to, all but convict, an accused, such as Bryant.

Bryant, who admitted only to committing adultery, can thank his team of attorneys, led by Pamela Mackey and Hal Haddon, with the able assistance of local attorney Terry O’Connor, for his freedom. It was their extremely fine legal work that turned the case in his favorearly on, to make the prosecution look like donkeys, and Faber look like a gold-digger.

An intelligent person has to ask the question, “If the prosecution and Kate Faber thought they had such a strong case,” as District Attorney Mark Hurlbert told Speakout! a few weeks ago, “then why would they not proceed to attempt to put away the alleged rapist, Bryant?”

And, if the case is so strong, as the spin stories printed in the Vail Daily this week, quoting assistant prosecutor Dana Easter, has claimed, then why would Faber not be willing to testify and “get” Bryant criminally, but be willing to continue forward in a civil trial in Federal District Court in Denver that can only get her money, if she is successful.

The answer, by any intelligent person, should be, “It was always about money!”

And, speaking of money, Faber’s action of claiming Bryant raped her, have cost the county taxpayers approximately $350,000.00 to $400,000.00, according to Mike Roeper, Eagle County Finance Director.

Roeper added, “... it’s spread over to several departments and it goes to last year as well, and it included our share of the District Attorney’s costs.”

Will Kate Faber reimburse Eagle County for putting us through that? Realistically, probably not!

And, yet, we should forgive the young woman for what she has put us through, based only on her youth.

And, Speakout! has learned that Bryant may be considering a wrongful arrest suit against Eagle County, claiming damages that may reach up to $100 million dollars in lost or future endorsements. And, frankly, Speakout! wouldn’t blame him if he did sue Eagle County.

Performances of all the players
in the Kobe Bryant case, ie:
the Good, the bad, and the ugly!

The Good

• The law firm of Pam Mackey and Hal Haddon – their successful actions speak louder than our words!

• The mainstream press, initially led by NBC, and including the Vail Daily, who spent hard dollars filing motions to attempt to restore the First Amendment rights of the press that Judge
Ruckriegle tried to take away!

• Karen Salaz, the Supreme Court administrator, who treated all fairly, considering the restrictions placed on her by Judge Ruckriegle. Her performance, during a personally difficult time, was outstanding and inspirational.

• Craig Silverman, the former Denver Chief Deputy District attorney under Norm Early. Silverman correctly and early-on forecast accurate analysis about the hearings.

• Denver Defense Attorney Scott Robinson, who behaved similarly to Silverman.

• The Vail Daily’s Randy Wyrick and Rohn Robbins, the reporter and the legal columnist, performed in an exemplary manner!

• County Judge Fred Gannett, who at least made an attempt to tell the press why he was doing what he was doing. Gannett actually appeared to have wanted to dismiss the charges against Bryant, but believed he couldn’t. If only the good judge could have displayed just a little more courage and dismissed the case!

• Speakout!, the first print medium to inform readers how weak the prosecution case was, complete with our version of what Bryant’s closing argument should be.

The Bad

• Sheriff Joe Hoy, who jumped the gun on arresting Bryant.

• District Attorney Mark Hurlbert, who never should have filed charges without a lot more evidence.

• Former Denver District Attorney Norm Early, who from the get-go, was a proponent of Faber’s. His analysis was suspect, and typical of most district attorneys who care only about winning, no matter what the cost to the accused or the taxpayer.

• Cynthia Stone, an activist who doesn’t give a whit about any accused. To Stone, if a woman says a man did something, it must be true!

The Ugly

• Judge Terry Ruckriegle, a judge that irritated liberals because of his office’s leaks, and his ruling allowing some evidence to come in, and a judge who irritated conservatives because he continuously violates the constitutions.

• Speakout!, the Sheriff’s Department, and the District Attorney’s office, after Speakout! informed them of real people who claimed to be in a room near Bryant’s at the Cordillera Lodge the day of the alleged event, and who claimed that they heard Bryant rape the girl. But, in fairness to Speakout!, the actions of the Sheriff’s Department and the District Attorney’s office were uglier, because they, not Speakout!, had the ability to subpoena the records of the Lodge to determine if the so-called “ear witnesses” were actually there. Speakout! identified the people from California, confirmed they existed, and only with the help of Rita Cosby, the emmy award winning broadcaster with Fox News, were we finally able to determine that the people were flakes. Speakout! begged the Sheriff’s Department and the D. A.’s office to confirm the Lodge’s check-in list, and if the ear witnesses weren’t on that list, we could have eliminated them as crackpots, early-on!


www.speakoutvail.com (http://www.speakoutvail.com/front1.shtml)

[ChumpDumper]

Accuser Kate Faber lost credibility refusing to testify against KobeAnd Kobe might have lost any civil case by issuing his apology. The burden of proof is much lower in civil courts, and Kobe's saying he could "understand" the woman's view could cost him millions.

I think he'll settle before it goes to court.

[bigzak25]

lemme tell you what i believe.....

they had sex....consensual. he wanted to have booty sex. she said no. he did as he pleased.

still rape? i don't know. i think so though. would any of you like to have unconsesual booty sex? clever? you wouldn't mind that huh?

he ain't innocent. neither is she. but he did wrong plus one....so now he's gotta pay. i think there's a limit on how much she can get anyway....and he's not going to jail. pay up. move on. NEXT please. I think we have all made our own conclusions here. We will NEVER know the truth. Nobody was murdered.....time to move on. I don't care if kobes has to pay a settlement. Does anyone?

I'll take my pleasure from watching Kobe fail miserably ON the COURT next year instead of in it. #8 ain't #23.

[Kevin Kaster]

And Kobe might have lost any civil case by issuing his apology.

Kobe's lawyers have already come to an agreement that the issued apology (required by the prosecution for the case to be dropped) would not be used in the civil trial. It's literally written within the apology itself. It's amazing how consistently clueless you are on everything Laker.

[iminlakerland]

he wanted to have booty sex. she said no. he did as he pleased.

From what i've read Big Z there was no anal sex...

[ducks]

they can say that apology will be not used in the courts but the jury will know he said what he said

[ChumpDumper]

Really, who doesn't know about this?

Catch a clue.

The jury knew OJ did it, too.

[Kevin Kaster]

Really, who doesn't know about this?

Catch a clue.

The jury knew OJ did it, too.

You have no idea what you're talking about, just admit it and move on.

[ChumpDumper]

Sure I do.

A judge can issue all the orders he wants -- he can't erase the apology or any of the other crap from the jury members' minds.

Unless Kobe buys some kind of machine to do so, I suppose.

Please tell me about the memory erasing machine Kevin.

Do Chris Mihm and a phantom Marcus Banks have anything to do with it?

If so, I concede.

[Kevin Kaster]

Who says the jury members will know about the apology, remember every detail about it, or not be smart enough to disregard it when they're told to? Come on now, even you should be able to come to these elementary-level conclusions.

[ChumpDumper]

We're talking about an American jury, cupcake. A Colorado jury.

For the love of Jumaine, please catch the clue.

[Kevin Kaster]

Meh, I thought you'd grasp the concept, too bad. I can't spoon feed everything to you.

Again, assumptions make you look like one. Let me know next week's lotto numbers while you're letting me know what an unconviened jury does or does not know about.

[ChumpDumper]

Meh, there's nothing to grasp as usual.

Impartiality is a myth.

[Kevin Kaster]

Impartiality is a myth.

You said it, not me. :lol

[ChumpDumper]

Yep.

I'm not saying there's no way Kobe could win -- but it would take the right venue, the right judge, the right preemptory challenges, and most importantly the right amount of money to be win it all.

It'll be easier to make another statement and settle for an undisclosed amount. The damage to his name and marketability have already been done and can't be undone. The only question for Kobe is what price he wants to put on his pride.

[SickDSM]

Exactly my thoughts bigzak. The bloodstained t-shirt tells a lot. I could see if she was some virgin or second timer and kobe had a huge tool but from what i've heard about her she's somewhat experienced. Enough blood to soak a t-shirt with doesn't happan naturally. Not to mention if they were having anal sex, she was probably tensed up and from what i've read there is NO WAY IN HELL that even the skankiest of skanks can enjoy anal sex when there not relaxed.

[Tawnia79]

Exactly my thoughts bigzak. The bloodstained t-shirt tells a lot.

first off, the blood stain was SMALL. The detective that initially investigated the crime scene didn't even notice it on the shirt when he collected the evidence, and he testified to that.

And secondly, women can bleed during consentual sex. It happens all the time for some women, and a lot of factors can go into it. I'm not going to go into details, but trust me when I say that it's not as uncommon as you'd think. The reason most guys don't even know about it is because its such a small amount that it's not even worth talking about.

[Tommy Duncan]

I'd like to do Twatnia Kobe-style.

[Useruser666]

The reason most guys don't even know about it is because its such a small amount that it's not even worth talking about.

Are you talking about the blood or the guy's penis? :p

Useruser666 :eyebrow