By HEATHER LOURIE and MARCIA C. SMITH
The Orange County Register
EAGLE, COLO – Everyone here knew her as the popular Eagle Valley Senior High School cheerleader springing with vibrant spirit and sweet smiles, as the beautiful singer always ready to perform in school musicals with the clearest voice and the strongest heart.
But her close friends have been doggedly protecting a secret in the unnerving days since the 19-year-old woman accused Los Angeles Lakers All-Star Kobe Bryant of forcing her to have sex with him - a secret that Bryant's attorneys could use to undermine her credibility, legal experts say.
Two months before the woman went to the Eagle County Sheriff's Department on July 1 alleging that Bryant had sexually assaulted her, the woman suffered under such mental anguish that she overdosed on pills and was rushed to a hospital, her friends told The Orange County Register.
"I think it was just a cry for help," said Lindsey McKinney, 18, who lived at the woman's house in May, when the woman took the pills.