http://www.vaildaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031212/NEWS/3121201
11

A judge told media attorneys Friday that they'd have to argue their
civil cases separately from the criminal hearings in the Kobe Bryant
case.

Attorneys for several media outlets asked that their civil cases be
heard simultaneously with the criminal proceedings against Bryant.
Media attorneys asserted that the County Court overstepped its bounds
when it ordered the preliminary hearing partially closed and the
transcript partially sealed.

District Judge Terry Ruckriegle, who's hearing the Bryant case now,
denied the media attorneys' request and ruled that if they wanted
their cases heard, they'd have to do it on their own time.

Media attorneys, Ruckriegle wrote, allege that their two civil cases
and the criminal case involve "common questions of law and fact."
Media attorneys also argued that it serves "no useful purpose for all
three alternative routes to proceed on parallel tracks."

In his ruling, Ruckriegle disagreed completely. He said that in filing
their civil cases, the media attorneys established those three
parallel tracks.

"There is no rule or statute in Colorado civil or criminal procedure
which permits consolidation of civil and criminal cases, even when
such matters allegedly involve the same issues of fact and law,"
Ruckriegle wrote.