In June 2003 an outstanding player of LA Lakers NBA basketball team Kobe Bryant was accused in felony sexual assault. The woman alleged that she was a victim of sexual misconduct by Bryant on June 30 at the hotel where he stayed. Eagle County Sheriff Joseph Hoy issued an arrest warrant, on July 4 Bryant returned to Colorado from Los Angeles to surrender. In some days he was released on $25,000 bond. The investigation procedures began, for such a case as felony sexual attack, Bryant could face four years to life in prison or 20 years to life on probation. At first Bryant refused the accusations and said that he did not do anything criminal.
However, later on, when sexual penetration had been medically proved, he accepted committing adultery with the woman but insisted the sex was consensual. Thus, the court was aimed to found out, how much criminal Kobe Bryants case is. The results of medical expertise were presented to the court, proving the sexual intercourse, about 20 witnesses including friends of the victim and hotel guests were interrogated. The investigators of Colorado court have processed a great deal of information and materials, related to mental stability of the victim, credibility of testimonies of the witnesses, etc. It was revealed that the woman had 2 attempts to commit suicide, what made Bryants advocates appeal to her psychological stability, besides it was found out that she was having numerous other sexual contacts, including the time right after the one with famous basketball player. Kobe Bryant’s defense team was examining the facts one by one with the attempts to make them favorable for Bryant, and wanted to convince the judge that this sexual history is relevant and should be introduced as evidence. The majority of advocates claimed that this case is the most complicated affair they have ever worked over.
Certainly, all the details of the case were thoroughly examined and represented by the mass media, there were discussions about the court sessions, about the decisions of judges and sexual assault laws in USA, about the necessity to make the sessions opened and reveal the name of the victim, which is still being kept in secret. As a rule, Bryant was willingly collaborating with court investigators, but insisted on privacy of the case particulars. During a year, reporters have been speculating about the case, providing their publications with newly obtained details of the incident, like found traces of blood at Bryants T-shirt, testimonies of other clients of the hotel, behavior of the victim in the court sessions and her mother on public. There have been a lot of talks about women who use false allegations of rape to extort money from professional athletes. Race was also a factor in the popular conversation about this case, like it happened years ago about Mike Tysons rape trial. The case of Lakers superstar has been voted the number one AP sports story of the year 2003. Numerous fans and admirers of Bryant support him and believe in his innocence in front of criminal accusations. His wife also announced the trust into her husband despite of the adultery; she said that she relies on fair and impartial trial. The process is still not complete, as several witnesses won’t be available until Bryant’s next pretrial hearing, set for May 10-12, when he is expected to enter a plea of not guilty and prologue the case going to a trial for 6 more months. On the other hand, both Bryants attorneys and the prosecutors side expressed their wish to push the case behind and come to the end with it. What will it turn to, only time can tell, because when famous people are involved into scandal affairs, it attracts a lot of public attention, brings good reward for mass media and increases the popularity of everything, connected with the activity of such victims.
The question is, was Kobe Bryant, a talented prosperous basketball player, the golden boy of his team, interested in this much ado around his name and reputation, or he needs yet to learn how to be responsible for little and not little naughtiness, which reach people are supposed to afford for themselves?.