Race Enters the Picture

Race for the first time was addressed in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case Friday when an attorney for the Laker star complained, “There is lots of history about black men being falsely accused of this crime by white women.”

Pamela Mackey made the comment during a pretrial motions hearing in Eagle County Court while arguing for access to notes taken by a rape crisis center employee during a police interview with the 19-year-old woman who has accused Bryant of rape.

Inga Causey, an attorney representing the Resource Center of Eagle County, said fewer women would report a rape if they feared their medical background might become public. She quoted statistics from Florida, where she said the number of rape reports dropped after attorneys for William Kennedy Smith successfully targeted similar information about his accuser.

Mackey countered by urging Judge Terry Ruckriegle to ignore the “political agenda of the rape crisis center.” Then, after making her comment about past false accusations, she added, “I don’t think we want to get dragged down into this history any more than we want to get into the history brought up by the rape crisis center.”

Ruckriegle did not rule on whether the notes must be shared with the defense, or whether there will be a hearing devoted to that topic.

While Friday was the first time defense attorneys mentioned race in open court, they have often complained of bias against Bryant, noting what they said was the racist tone of T-shirts mocking their client that were purchased by some law enforcement officials and workers in the Eagle County district attorney’s office.

The open portion of the proceeding began at 8:10 a.m. after Bryant entered the courthouse through a private entrance for the first time.

Officials from the Eagle County Sheriff’s Dept. told The Times this week that Bryant’s arrivals and departures from the small courthouse could become less predictable because the security company employed by Bryant had expressed concerns about his safety.

A source close to Bryant had said the player recently received death threats, and although Eagle County Sheriff Ken Wilson denied that, Bryant was not riding in a caravan of SUVs that pulled up to the front of the courthouse carrying his agent, attorneys and boxes of evidence.

“There will be irregularity in how and when he will enter the court,” said Kim Andree, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Dept. She added, however, that Bryant will go in or out the front door at least once a day to give the legions of photographers a chance to take his picture.

Bryant, 25, faces one count of felony sexual assault stemming from a June 30 encounter with an employee of an Edwards, Colo., mountain resort where he was staying. He says he and the woman had consensual sex.

The deliberate pace of future proceedings became clear when Ruckriegle laid the foundation for a timeline: The analysis of physical evidence will not be completed until early May.

Prosecutors agreed to allow a defense expert to observe testing by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation of clothing, hair and fiber taken from Bryant and his accuser.

Testing will be completed by March 1 and DNA results will take about 45 days to be completed.

Forensics experts then will take two weeks before submitting reports on the evidence.

After a mid-morning recess, the defense agreed to return medical records to Valley View Medical Center pertaining to a May 30 suicide attempt by Bryant’s accuser.

The records were inadvertently sent to the prosecution instead of records from the woman’s July 1 rape examination, which was conducted at Valley View.

Bryant attorney Hal Haddon said that because the woman did not object to the defense’s having the records -- the mistake, made months ago, was brought to the court’s attention by an attorney representing Valley View -- she had waived privacy rights.

However, Haddon agreed to return the records within 10 days. Legal analysts said the damage to the prosecution case has already been done.

“The [accuser] should be angry that neither the prosecution nor her own attorneys did a thorough enough examination of the documents before disclosing them to the defense,” said Lisa Wayne, a Denver attorney who has followed the case closely.

Also, Ruckriegle reprimanded both sides for publishing sensitive material in court pleadings at the same time they were requesting that portions of the hearings be private.

“It seems contrary to the need for closure,” he said.

Noting the “18 [boxes] of files, more than in a [recent] death penalty case that took 18 months of pretrial hearings and five weeks of trial,” Ruckriegle requested that attorneys avoid unnecessary delays.

Defense attorneys say prosecutors have dragged their feet in testing the physical evidence. Dist. Atty. Mark Hurlbert asked Ruckriegle in November for a hearing to determine whether a defense expert could observe testing -- something that is stipulated under Colorado law. Hurlbert later rescinded the request.

Forensics expert Elizabeth Johnson has been hired by the defense to observe the testing, which is expected to take three days. The prosecution has hired criminalist Henry Lee, who gained national prominence during the O.J. Simpson murder trial, and famed detective Tom Bennett, who also is trying to solve the JonBenet Ramsey murder case.

The afternoon portion of the hearing was mostly taken up by arguments from Haddon and an attorney representing a media group that includes The Times. Ruckriegle denied a media motion to unseal a portion of the October preliminary hearing that had been closed.

Media attorney Chris Beall argued that an upcoming suppression hearing on whether Bryant’s statements to investigators were taken by investigators illegally should be open.

Haddon suggested that the hearing could be closed and that afterward Ruckriegle could release a transcript with sensitive portions blacked out. The judge will issue a written ruling before the Feb. 2 hearing.

Bryant’s team plans to argue that he was in custody at the time he made the statements during a 75-minute interrogation between 1 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. on July 2.

Haddon said Friday that Bryant was approached by detectives in the parking lot of the hotel where the alleged rape had occurred about 26 hours earlier. He was on crutches because he had undergone knee surgery July 1 and was taken to his room and questioned without being read his Miranda rights. A detective surreptitiously tape-recorded the interview.

In closed session, there was a hearing to determine whether the defense can get access to additional medical records pertaining to the woman’s suicide attempts last February and May.

Prosecutors say the records are protected by privacy laws. The defense says the woman waived her right to privacy by discussing the suicide attempts with others and it subpoenaed nine witnesses to testify Friday. The accuser’s mother, who had been among those subpoenaed, was excused from testifying and sat in the front row of the gallery during the open portion of the proceeding.

Additional pretrial hearings are set for Feb. 2 and 3, March 1 and 2, and March 24 and 25. Legal experts believe more hearings will be necessary because Bryant’s attorneys are challenging prosecutors at every stage.

“They will fight for every inch, regardless of whether it pertains to the case or not,” said Norm Early, a former Denver district attorney. “Everything is done with two courts in mind: Judge Ruckriegle’s and the court of public opinion.”