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Report: Bryant Accuser Told NBA Star'No'
By JON SARCHE
Associated Press Writer
EAGLE, Colo. (AP) -- The woman who accused Kobe Bryant of rape told
investigators the NBA star ignored her entreaties to stop and said there was no
doubt he heard her "because every time I said `No' he tightened his hold around
me," according to documents released Friday.
That is among the never-before-released details of the woman's interview with
Eagle County sheriff's investigators the day after the incident at a Vail-area
resort last summer. Some details were released months ago, before the rape
charge against Bryant was dismissed at the woman's request.
The then-19-year-old woman said she and Bryant kissed for several minutes in his
room before he became aggressive and began groping her.
The woman, who was a front desk employee and had given Bryant a tour of the
Cordillera resort, said he put both his hands around her neck and after bending
her over a chair, removed one hand to pull down her underwear.
"At that point I was just kind of scared and I said `No' a few times," she told
the detectives at the sheriff's office about 12 hours after the incident.
Investigator Doug Winters then asked how she knew that Bryant heard her.
"Because every time I said `No' he tightened his hold around me," she replied.
She said she cried during the encounter, and was scared he would hurt her.
The woman also said she believed she led Bryant to believe she wanted him to hug
or kiss her - she said she thought he was "going to try and make a move on me" -
but she did not intend to have sex with him.
During his interview with detectives, Bryant said the woman told him she had
hoped he would have sex with her, according to the transcript released Friday.
He said the woman never cried and he repeatedly told detectives the sex was
consensual. He also said she gave him a kiss goodbye before she left his room.
Several times during the questioning, Bryant asked detectives whether the woman
wanted money from him.
Bryant, 26, still faces a federal lawsuit filed by the woman that seeks
unspecified damages for pain and suffering she says she has suffered since the
incident last summer. No trial date has been set.
Several news organizations including The Associated Press had requested access
to the sealed case files, including evidence and witness statements. More will
be released Monday by the prosecution once the woman's name and some of her
personal history is redacted.
The material from the sheriff's department included 354 pages of court filings;
lists of evidence - mostly clothing, hair, fiber, blood and other bodily fluids;
and transcripts of interviews with witnesses, Bryant and the woman.
No physical evidence was made available to reporters. In a letter sent to the
sheriff's department this week, defense attorney Pamela Mackey said she believed
that no clothing or other physical evidence would be shown to the public. The
evidence includes a Bryant T-shirt stained with the woman's blood.
After the woman said she wouldn't testify in the criminal case, prosecutors
dismissed the felony sexual assault charge against Bryant on Sept. 1. District
Attorney Mark Hurlbert said at the time he believed a jury would have convicted
Bryant, but only if the woman was willing to testify.
Included in the documents were statements from the first three people the woman
saw after her encounter with Bryant. Trina McKay, the resort's night auditor,
said she saw the woman as she was leaving to go home, and "she did not look or
sound as if there had been any problem."
But Bobby Pietrack, a bellman and high school friend of the woman, said she
appeared to be very upset.
"As we started to walk to the time clock (she) grabbed my arm and started to cry
and said that Kobe Bryant choked her," Pietrack wrote in a police statement.
"After we clocked out, I asked her to tell me everything, and that is when she
told me that Kobe Bryant had forced sex with her."
He added: "She was very shaken and she was crying" as the two walked to their
cars from the hotel.
Pietrack said he followed her home, a drive of about 20 minutes, told her to
tell her parents what happened and left. He said he called the next morning and
learned she had not yet told her parents.
The woman had called her former boyfriend, Matt Herr, who wrote in a statement
that she was "very upset, claiming that Kobe Bryant had raped her."
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