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http://www.vaildaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040805/EDITS/108050007
The attorneys for Kobe Bryant's alleged rape victim have done her no favors
by going on television to suggest they'll take her case from criminal to
civil court.
Doh! All they really accomplished was buttressing the notion that the
prosecutors' case is weak and to raise unfair but inevitable doubt over
whether the young woman is, in their words (sigh), "not a gold digger."
Bad enough that an element of society that worships celebrity has made
rather remarkable leaps to conclusions about the woman and shares them in
the cruelest ways.
Bad enough that the authorities, through mistakes and inattention in the
biggest case of their careers, have done her more harm than anyone to this
point.
Now her own attorneys sow doubt about her determination to "pursue the
truth," as one put it, while inconvenient evidence is admitted into the
trial and released to the public.
With a few TV appearances, they've changed the woman's position from
resolutely seeking justice to a question of whether she's really seeking
something else.
We've gone from a case that's all about protecting society from criminal
behavior to a stance that this is all only about the young woman. Thanks,
guys. Great job.
Attorneys Lin Wood and John Clune no doubt mean well, but they've made a
mess for everyone even more difficult.
Yes, a court clerk inadvertently sending transcripts from a hearing mostly
on DNA evidence to selected news media was shameful. And releasing even an
edited form of the transcripts of information that is admissible in the
trial, should there be one, is regrettable.
But the public by and large, and juries in particular, are smart enough to
understand that these transcripts reveal one viewpoint and that the
prosecution will have a different explanation, which will be made public as
well in due course.
Actually, the transcripts themselves bear clues in District Attorney Mark
Hurlbert's questioning of a defense DNA expert that suggest that the age of
the seminal samples will likely show that the material was not fresh.
The notion that lawsuits loom beyond the criminal case has been obvious from
the beginning. There was no absolutely no good reason to talk about it at
the brink of the criminal trial.
The two lawyers wound up looking like nothing so much as trying to weasel a
way out of that quest for the truth.
Where's the justice in that?
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DENVER (Routers) -- The slut in the case against a famous basketball
player said Friday that if she cannot expect to win in her criminal
case, she'll take it to a civil trial. "I deserve some bling bling for
giving him my virginity," she said.
And, she added, if she cannot expect to win in a civil case, she will
take her case to "Playboy," which has offered her the cover of the
November issue, "The Girls of the NBA."
"But they promised me it will be tasteful. No open crotch shots. At
least not this year."
"I set up that room on the corner, I got into his room, we did the
dirty, then I told my boyfriends, and some of their friends I had sex
with, and some other guys the next day, that I was gonna be famous. He
promised me a job as a Laker girl! I got nothing! And that's why I said
he raped me. He owes me!"
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