A man who police say approached Kobe Bryant and offered to kill the 19-year-old Colorado woman who has accused the Los Angeles Lakers star of rape was charged on Monday with solicitation to commit murder.

Swiss national Patrick Graber, 31, appears for arraignment in Los Angeles Superior Court Airport Branch September 22, 2003 after being arrested and held on US$1 million bail on suspicion of offering to kill the woman who accused Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant of sexual assault. [Reuters]

Patrick Graber, 31, appeared briefly in a Los Angeles courtroom and was ordered held on US$1 million bail. A judge postponed his arraignment on the charges, which carry a maximum of 12 years in prison.

Police say Graber, a Swiss national who was living in the Los Angeles area on an expired visa and claimed to be a member of the Russian mafia named "Yuri," offered to kill Bryant's young accuser for US$3 million.

Bryant's security team alerted authorities, who arrested Graber after he accepted a bag full of mostly fake money as a deposit. Authorities said they believed Graber intended to follow through.

In Denver, meanwhile, attorneys for several news organizations told a court that it would be taking an unprecedented and unconstitutional step if it barred the public from Bryant's preliminary hearing in the case, which will determine if he must stand trial.

Attorneys for the 25-year-old basketball star asked a judge to seal the hearing on the grounds that potential jurors would be exposed to prejudicial information that would not be admitted at trial.

"The defendant has asked this court to do what no court in the state of Colorado has done since the Colorado Supreme Court announced the definitive and binding standard governing this motion in 1979: to close a preliminary hearing to the public and the press," media lawyers said in a court filing.

The woman, a hotel concierge and part-time college student, told police that Bryant raped her on the night of June 30 at the four-star Colorado mountain resort where she worked. He is charged with class 3 sexual assault, the equivalent of rape under Colorado law.

Bryant has denied the charge and characterized the encounter as consensual sex.

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