As Usual, Lawyers Get the Best-Case Scenario

We like tidy, undisputed results in the sports world, so here are your winners in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case: the lawyers.

They always triumph, emerging unscathed while the entire process batters everyone else involved. The lawyers tally the billable hours and move on to the next case.

Bryant’s attorneys, Pamela Mackey and Hal Haddon, scored a shutout, a sweep and a TKO all rolled into one. They held the lead from their very first serve, from the moment Mackey opened that surreal Staples Center news conference last year by saying “The accusations in this case cannot be proven,” until her words came true Wednesday and the charge was dismissed.

Said David Cornwell, president of DNK Cornwell law firm in Newport Beach: “They had a laser-beam focus on what this case was about from the beginning, which was [the accuser’s] credibility versus Kobe’s credibility. Every stone they turned went to the issue of her credibility.... I think they did an excellent job.”

The accuser’s civil attorneys, John Clune and Lin Wood, are winners too. Why? Because you just read their names, John Clune and Lin Wood. Clune, in particular, seemed to want to get his name and his own message out there, even if it undermined the criminal case, even if his squawking got so bad that the judge had to slap a gag order on everyone even remotely associated with the case.

A Google search on “John Clune” and “lawyer” returned 6,810 hits and “Lin Wood” turned up 4,130. Mission accomplished.

Even the losing lawyers in high-profile cases turn out to be winners. There’s a chair, microphone and earpiece waiting for each of them in a TV studio somewhere. Maybe there’s a book deal. I get the feeling a certain district attorney in Eagle, Colo., will be available very soon.

Before Mark Hurlbert heads to the unemployment line, he can take a place in that long queue of losers in this case.

There’s Bryant, who has lost about $40 million in endorsements already, not to mention the millions more that could have come his way. He doesn’t have to worry about going to jail anymore, but he also doesn’t have the vindication of a jury’s declaration of innocence. In the interim, he has spent millions of dollars in legal fees and flown thousands of miles simply to maintain his legal status of 14 months ago.

There’s the accuser, whose life was turned upside down, whose anonymity was violated even by the court entrusted to protect it, whose underwear became a topic of national discussion.

There’s the very real problem of sexual assault. Wasn’t that supposed to be the issue here? All too often, it got lost in the shuffle of 30-point scoring nights, procedural missteps and attorney bickering. So we did not end up with any meaningful discussion on the topic, only a lesson that if you want to file a rape complaint you’d better be ready to have your dirty laundry aired -- literally.

“Sexual assault is already one of the lowest-reported crimes, with only an estimated 16% of the victims coming forward,” said Cynthia Stone, spokeswoman for the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault. “Of course, we have been concerned when other women see the treatment of the victim in this case, that it might hinder them or at least make them hesitant.”

The Lakers get a return on their $136-million investment in Bryant, but after a summer during which they traded Shaquille O’Neal, they begin the fall as losers too

Finally, there’s one large group of losers: us. Everyone who wanted to get as close as possible to the truth.

We’re left with two different accounts of what happened on the night of June 30, 2003. We know that somewhere, something went wrong as Bryant and his accuser went from kissing each other in a hotel room to facing each other in a courtroom. Whether he took something from her or she wanted something more from him is still up for speculation.

What did Bryant say during his initial police interview?

What was the content of the text messages the accuser sent from her cellphone after leaving Bryant’s room?

When -- and with whom -- did the accuser have sex around the time of her encounter with Bryant?

What was the significance of the blood stains on Bryant’s T-shirt?

We don’t know. The information could come out in the civil case, which has not been dropped. But all of the experts expect the civil case to go away with one check, thanks to a statement-apology by Bryant that had all the earmarks of the first step toward a negotiated settlement and was, to Cornwell, the masterstroke by Mackey and Haddon.

“At the end of the process, that’s where they earned their money,” Cornwell said.

Ah, money. Ultimately that played a greater role than fame, race or any of the other supposed themes of his case.

Financial gains were a motive that Mackey and Haddon were prepared to use against the accuser’s credibility, especially after she’d filed the civil case before the criminal trial began.

More important, Bryant could afford the best representation, and as a result he had the best shot at keeping his freedom. Just as with the O.J. Simpson case, this wasn’t a victory for a black man over the system.

It was just another “W” for money -- which sooner or later seems to find its way into the hands of lawyers, the real winners here and every other time a court case becomes a national story.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/Adande.