Prosecution Rejects Expert
Kobe Bryant’s attorneys want to use a crime-scene expert from the O.J. Simpson trial, but prosecutors are seeking to bar the testimony.
In a court filing Friday, Eagle County Dist. Atty. Mark Hurlbert said anything John Ragle could say about the investigation at the Edwards, Colo., hotel where Bryant is charged with raping a 19-year-old employee June 30 would be “irrelevant and misleading at best.”
During Simpson’s 1995 murder trial, Ragle said that Los Angeles police had ignored standard evidence-collecting procedures at the scene where Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were killed.
Hurlbert said that should Judge Terry Ruckriegle allow Ragle’s testimony, prosecutors would request a hearing to show “whether this is in fact a field that one can be considered an expert.”
Bryant, 25, has said he had consensual sex with the woman. A trial date is expected to be set next week when Bryant enters a plea.
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