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Kobe Bryant faces accuser in a Colorado courtroom
The woman who accuses basketball star Kobe Bryant of rape held her head high when she entered a Colorado courtroom on Wednesday to undergo painful questioning by defense attorneys on her sexual past.
The defense wants to ask the woman questions about her sexual history to see if they can show that injuries to her vaginal area could have been caused by someone other than the 25-year-old Los Angeles Laker.
The 19-year-old strawberry blond with shoulder-length hair who was a drama major in college was dressed conservatively, wearing camel-color slacks, a black jacket and a black top.
She had a timid smile on her face when she returned to courtroom in Eagle, Colorado after a mid-morning break.
The media are only showing pictures of her taken from the back and the mainstream press has not disclosed her name, although many details of the young woman's life have been plastered on the Internet and in supermarket tabloids.
Prosecutors had hoped to shield her from having to answer questions about her sexual past, but Colorado's highest court earlier this month declined to intervene in the case.
While Colorado's rape shield law protects people who report sexual crimes from having their sexual history examined during a trial, there are exceptions for compelling reasons, the defense has said.
The purpose of a pretrial hearing is to set the borders of what can be introduced to a jury at trial. The defense hopes it can convince Judge Terry Ruckriegle that information about her sexual life -- going back one year before the incident with Bryant -- is relevant for trial. If the judge rules against the defense then information that emerged during the closed door hearing will remain confidential.
Bryant, who is married and the father of a 14-month-old girl, has denied he attacked the woman on June 30 at a Colorado resort where she worked. He said the sex was consensual and his only mistake was committing adultery, which he regrets.
The defense has been relentless in trying to attack the woman's account of what happened that night at the resort and also in attacking her credibility and stability in general.
They have said in court filings that she attempted suicide twice to gain the attention of an ex-boyfriend and that her accusation against Bryant follows the same pattern.
During the hearing, defense attorneys Hal Haddon and Pamela Mackey have had an opportunity to size up the young woman to see how she stands up to tough questioning.
The defense wants to counter an assertion by prosecutors that the woman suffered trauma after the rape by showing she had sexual relations in the hours just after she said Bryant raped her. |
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