Accuser Said Bryant Used Force in Sex

Kobe Bryant’s accuser was adamant in an interview with detectives that the Laker star used force during their sexual encounter and that he ignored her repeated pleas to cease, according to law enforcement documents released Friday.

The woman’s account appears to contradict the preliminary hearing testimony of the lead detective in the interview, Doug Winters, who said at the October 2003 proceeding that he asked the accuser why she never told Bryant “no.”

Most of the information in the 354 pages of records unsealed Friday had already been disclosed in court testimony and filings. But a 32-page transcript of the accuser’s initial interview is the first account of the alleged rape in her own words. She did not testify at the preliminary hearing.

A transcript of Bryant’s interview with detectives -- first publicly disclosed Sept. 16 -- is also included in the released documents, providing a “she-said, he-said” comparison of the encounter.

The felony sexual assault charge against Bryant, 26, was dismissed Sept. 1 after his accuser said she was not willing to testify. The woman has filed a federal civil suit seeking unspecified damages for pain and suffering. No trial date has been set.

Their versions of the encounter are similar in detailing how they met the evening of June 30, 2003, at the Cordillera Lodge & Spa, went on a tour of the grounds and consensually hugged and kissed in his room. From that point, however, their accounts are dramatically different.

The woman, who was 19 at the time, said, “When he started groping me he wasn’t so nice anymore. His voice got deeper and more stern and he became more rough with me. When he first started kissing me it was all really soft and he was being really nice, and then he just, his actions became, he jerked me around and he was squeezing me.”

She said Bryant began choking her, not to the point she couldn’t breathe, but “to the point that I was scared.” She said she tried to leave but that Bryant blocked her path to the door, bent her over a chair and raped her.

“At that point I was scared and I said no a few times,” she said.

Winters asked her how she knew Bryant heard her. She responded: “Because every time I said no he tightened his hold around me.”

She also said she used the word “no” several times when Bryant asked her whether she was going to tell anyone about the encounter.

Bryant was interviewed by Winters and his partner, Detective Dan Loya, the next day. He said he stopped intercourse when the woman said no. “We stopped cold,” he said.

Winters pushed the issue of consent with Bryant, saying, “I mean, is it possible that at some point she could have told you no and you didn’t quite hear her?”

Bryant: “No, absolutely not, absolutely not.”

There are other discrepancies. The woman said she cried during intercourse; Bryant said she did not. He said she told him she had hoped he would have sex with her; she said only that she believed he would “put a move on me.”

Statements from several other witnesses were included in the released documents. The first person to see the accuser after she left Bryant’s room, hotel night auditor Trina McKay, said “she did not look or sound as if there had been any problem.” McKay also said she did not observe the accuser crying and stated that she did not believe the accuser was telling the truth.

Hotel bellman Bobby Pietrack said he walked out of the hotel with the accuser after the alleged rape and that she began crying. “She just kept saying like he was trying to choke, choke her ... and then having sex with her.”

Winters conducted a second interview July 7, 2003, with Pietrack, who detectives discovered had lied during his initial interview. According to a pretrial motion and several sources, Pietrack and Bryant’s accuser had consensual sex June 28. “I asked Robert if anything else he had said was not true,” Winters wrote in a report. “He stated everything he told us before is true.”

Audiotapes and videotapes of interviews with witnesses were not made available to the media. Several news organizations including The Times had requested access to the sealed case files.

Additional material could be released by the Eagle County District Attorney’s office and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation late next week.

The documents also brought to light apparent lapses in the investigation.

Authorities did not attempt to interview the hotel employee who cleaned the room until Oct. 28 -- nearly four months after the alleged rape.

Much of the material was redacted, including any references to the sexual history of Bryant and his accuser. Also, the name of Shaquille O’Neal was blacked out in an incident report. Winters said Bryant told him that O’Neal, the Laker center at the time, has paid women “up to a million dollars already for situations like this.”