Case's price tag: $400,000
By Monte Whaley
Denver Post Staff Writer
Eagle - The cost of pressing the case against NBA superstar Kobe Bryant is an estimated $400,000 so far - and that price tag is likely to go up as the final bills roll in.
The price of erecting phone lines and setting up other resources for the national media that descended on Eagle during every Bryant proceeding has yet to be calculated, said Karen Salaz, spokeswoman for the state court system.
The Eagle County Sheriff's Office carried the brunt of the security for each proceeding and is likely to have high overtime costs, she added.
Even so, District Attorney Mark Hurlbert said Thursday that his department tried to keep costs low without sacrificing the case.
Some experts he was going to bring in to help with the case were not charging fees or were offering their services at a cut rate.
"We really did do this on a shoestring," Hurlbert said.
Hurlbert drew help from an expert on sexual assault and domestic violence from the Boulder District Attorney's Office and from Jefferson County and the Denver District Attorney's Office.
Hurlbert had informed the four counties he represents - Eagle, Summit, Lake and Clear Creek - that he would spend $45,000 on expert witnesses, and he requested another $248,000 for staffing. He said he would pay a jury consultant $20,000, while the fees for authorities in strangulation, rape and trauma ranged from $1,000 to $3,000.
The trial's cost would have been the same as for a first-degree murder case, Hurlbert said Thursday. "It's really not that far out from some of the other bigger cases we do," he said.
Few here in Eagle thought it was worth the money, especially since Hurlbert didn't get a chance to pitch his case to the jury.
"That is what's so surprising, because they let it get so far and then to drop it," Eagle business owner Peter Sharpe said Thursday. "It was a major waste of money. The burden to the taxpayers is huge."
All the police who were put on duty during the Bryant saga could have been better used elsewhere, Sharpe said.
"Every time Kobe showed up, every police officer had to be there," he said. "Those guys could have been doing something productive."
Downtown businesswoman Terri Edwards said the whole Bryant ordeal was a "painful process."
"That kind of money, $400,000, is a lot of hard-earned taxpayer dollars to cough up," said Edwards, who acknowledges she has become cynical about the criminal justice system.
"I don't think the DA had much choice but to pursue this case if you have the victim come forward," she said. "But was justice served?"
Staff writer Steve Lipsher contributed to this report.
Staff writer Monte Whaley can be reached at 303-726-8674 or [email protected] . www.denverpost.com/Storie...22,00.html