Media Appeal to U.S. Justices on Transcripts

Seven news organizations asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn a ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court and permit them to publish transcripts from a closed hearing in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case.

The 206 pages of transcripts are from a hearing June 21 and 22 that addressed evidence that Bryant’s attorneys contend should be an exception to Colorado law that protects the privacy of an alleged victim’s sexual history. The hearing included testimony from a DNA expert hired by Bryant regarding the sexual conduct of his accuser in the days surrounding the alleged rape on June 30, 2003, as well as discussions by the judge and attorneys regarding other topics relating to the case.

A court reporter mistakenly e-mailed the transcripts June 24 to the news organizations, including The Times. The trial judge, Terry Ruckriegle, issued an order about five hours later, threatening the news organizations with contempt if the material was published.

The Colorado Supreme Court decided by a 4-3 vote Monday that the rape-shield law and the accuser’s privacy prevail over the media’s 1st Amendment right to publish the material.

Ruckriegle has yet to rule on the relevance of the woman’s sexual history and whether any of the evidence from the rape-shield hearing will be admissible at trial, scheduled to begin Aug. 27 in Eagle County Court.

The appeal stated, “The Colorado Supreme Court’s logic quite literally stands the 1st Amendment on its head,” and it reiterated what the three dissenting Colorado Supreme Court justices said, that many details of the accuser’s sexual conduct around the time of the alleged rape have been made available through public documents and that the media obtained the transcripts lawfully.

“The Colorado Supreme Court seriously exaggerated the threat to the alleged victim’s privacy interests that disclosure of the information in the transcripts might pose,” the appeal said. Also, the transcripts “contain substantial information concerning the conduct of government officials that is completely unrelated to the alleged victim’s sexual history.”

Also Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the Eagle County district attorney’s office said that no plea agreement was reached by the Tuesday deadline set by Ruckriegle.