KOBE IN SEX-LIE TANGLE

[KoriEllis]

KOBE IN SEX-LIE TANGLE

By BARRY BORTNICK and DAN MANGAN
www.nypost.com/news/natio...s/2164.htm

August 1, 2003 -- NBA superstar Kobe Bryant initially lied to authorities by repeatedly denying he had sex with a 19-year-old hotel concierge, a new report said yesterday.
But Bryant flip-flopped barely 24 hours later, when he admitted messing around with the Colorado woman who was accusing him of raping her the night of June 30.

The married Bryant copped to having sex with the woman in his Cordillera, Colo., hotel room during an interrogation by Eagle County authorities, with a lawyer present, according to the Vail Daily.

The interrogation came the day the Los Angeles Lakers guard was having knee surgery at a clinic.

Several weeks later, the 24-year-old Bryant was charged with sexual assault, a crime he denies committing, insisting the sex was consensual, albeit adulterous.

Yesterday, lawyers for media outlets argued in an Eagle courtroom that a judge should unseal do ents in the case, including the affidavit supporting Bryant's arrest and other papers that could detail evidence.

County Judge Fred Gannett said he did not expect to rule until after Wednesday, when Bryant is scheduled to appear in court for the first time.



Yesterday, Bryant, through his lawyers Hal Hadden and Pamela Mackey, asked to be excused from appearing in court Wednesday for the first hearing on the charges against him, but Gannett quickly denied the request.

Also yesterday, the Rocky Mountain News reported that the accuser's vaginal area suffered trauma during her encounter with Bryant.

The revelations came amid multiple reports that the college student had engaged in some consensual intimacy with Bryant during her visit to his room at around 11 p.m., where she reportedly stayed for less than a half-hour.

The Vail Daily quoted sources saying Bryant and the woman started "fooling around" but that she shortly thereafter told him to stop.

"She was trying to leave and was not allowed to leave," a source told the Daily.

The newspaper also reported that the accuser went to the hotel lobby in a "shocked stupor," and that she showed signs of physical injury.

Bryant appeared in the lobby later that night to play chess, according to sources quoted by the Daily.

Gerald Lefcourt, a New York City defense lawyer not associated with the case, said news that there may have been consensual intimacy between Bryant and the woman is "certainly problematic" for the prosecution and a positive development for Bryant.

"I think that he's halfway home," said Lefcourt. "The case is going to turn on how you say no, if you said no, in what way you said no, did you think it, did you communicate it."

The lawyer also said the accuser's psychological problems — she apparently has been hospitalized twice in the past six months for drug overdoses — now "become extremely relevant" for the defense.

He said such problems bolster a possible defense argument that she had consensual sex with Bryant and then made up a rape allegation after experiencing regret.

[Shelly]

I'm glad the judge told him he had to appear for the hearing. Hopefully, whatever judge handles the case (if it goes to trial) won't get Lance Itoitis.

BTW, I was flipping through the channels last night and the girl that was popping up all over the internet was on clearing her name.