As if the bombshell unleashed by the defense at yesterday's preliminary hearing in the Kobe Bryant case wasn't enough to shock the media, there's more. We're not going to reprint the new details here, so go read the article. Then read the rest of what we have to say.

The hearing has been continued to this coming Wednesday. The prosecution, which last week opposed a defense motion to close the courtroom, has now filed its own motion seeking closure of portions of the upcoming hearing.

Tom Kelley, an attorney representing the media including The Denver Post, said that it was an "interesting flip-flop" and that the judge was being asked, in essence, to let the prosecution present its case publicly and then require the defense to issue a rebuttal behind closed doors.

Victims rights groups are up in arms against Kobe's lawyers. They are quick to shout "rape shield law violation," apparently without having read the actual text of the law. Colorado's law has no requirement that the Judge be advised of the intent to introduce evidence of prior or subsquent sexual conduct at a pre-trial hearing. In addition, the rape shield law provides that while evidence of prior or subsequent sexual conduct is presumed irrelevant and inadmissible, there are exceptions. Here's the actual text of the statute:

Bump and Update: The defense dropped a bombshell. We agree with the legal analysts quoted in the article who speculate it helped Kobe. The hearing will continue next Wednesday. [link fixed.]

**************
1/9 3:33 pm
Update: Ugly details are coming out. But so far, it's just the direct examination of the detective, no cross yet. People are speculating that Kobe himself might testify.

**************
original post, 1:30 pm

Contrary to prevailing legal speculation, including our own, Kobe Bryant's attorneys are proceeding with the preliminary hearing in the case. It just started and is expected to last two hours. No reports yet on what portions of the hearing, if any, will be closed to the public. That was decided at a hearing in the last hour. Clearly, if the defense is going forward, they aren't worried about what will come out in the public domain today. The defense is expected to call at least one witness that will challenge the accuser's credibility.

Earlier report is here.

Bump and Update: Fox News reports that the hearing will go forward and the defense plans on calling witnesses to attack the accuser's credibility. We'll try to post updates throughout the day. If you're not into Kobe news, just scroll past this.

Kobe Bryant has arrived at the Eagle County courthouse for his court hearing scheduled to begin at 3 pm ET but whether it goes forward remians unclear.

Will it go forward? Hard to say. Up until yesterday, we were pretty sure the Judge's recent rulings that the accuser did not have to be present or testify and refusing to close the courtroom to the public would result in a waiver of the hearing. Now, it's anybody's guess.

Kobe Bryant has returned to basketball...for now. In a candid interview with reporters in Honolulu, Kobe describes the toll the criminal charges have taken on him and his family. He says he's "terrified" for his family and that basketball now comes second.

A telephone status conference is set for Tuesday of this week. Kobe's preliminary hearing is set for Thursday. An hour before the hearing the Judge will entertain motions to close specific portions of the hearing to the public.

If the preliminary hearing goes forward, it will not be a long one. The investigator who interviewed the accuser will testify as to what she told him. He will also testify as to what a nurse told him about the accuser's physical condition the night after her and Kobe's encounter, when she went to the hospital for an examination. Photographs showing the accuser's physical condition will be introduced in evidence. Whether those will be made public is yet to be determined.

The prosecution will not be introducing the accuser's videotaped statement to investigators or Kobe's audio statement. They bartered these away to bolster their argument for a public hearing. (See page 13, Paragraph 2 of the Judge's order.)

CBS's " 48 Hours" tonight presents an interview with a former boyfriend of Kobe Bryant's accuser. We've seen advance clips. The young man, Johnray Strickland, states that the accuser asked him to present her side of the story because she feels she's being unfairly treated in the media. Among other details, Strickland says the accuser would love to see Kobe Bryant in jail; that she is definitely a victim and not just an accuser; that she was sexually assaulted by Kobe; and that the reason she went back to Kobe's room alone after getting off work that night was because she felt safe with him, primarily because she knew he was married. He also confirms her two prior overdoses on pills.

We hope people avoid watching the interview. Mr. Strickland wasn't there, didn't see anything, and is only repeating what the accuser told him and what she wants repeated. It's tabloid trash, not news, and we're suprised and disappointed a national network like CBS is running it.

Our legal view (as reported in today's Los Angeles Times):

The interview with a friend of Bryant's accuser that will air tonight on CBS' "48 Hours Investigates" is troubling to legal analysts, because Johnray Strickland said the woman asked him to go public.

"I'm appalled by it," said Jeralyn Merritt, a Colorado defense attorney. "It smacks of unfairness. We have no way of knowing that what she said to him is truthful."

The judge presiding over the case issued a gag order July 24, but it appears to apply only to attorneys and law enforcement officials — not to Bryant's accuser or other witnesses.

"She made a serious charge and should let it work through the courts," Merritt said. "If it doesn't violate the letter of the gag order, it violates the spirit."

Key rulings came down in the Kobe Bryant case today:

The Judge will not allow the defense to call the accuser at the preliminary hearing. The Prosecution has agreed not to introduce the accuser's videotaped statement.

The preliminary hearing will be open. However, the Judge will entertain motions to close parts of it. The parties will meet with the Judge just before the hearing to discuss this.

The Judge refused a defense request for the accuser's prior medical records, saying the request should be made later before the trial judge. (This judge loses jurisdiction over the case once it's bound over for trial after the preliminary hearing or waiver of preliminary hearing.)

The Judge also set a telephone status conference two days before the preliminary hearing. We suspect that is for the defense to advise the Court if they still wish to go forward with a preliminary hearing. Without the accuser's availability for cross-examination, we see no benefit to a preliminary hearing. We think the defense will waive it. Or seek a stay while it appeals today's decisions to a higher court.

We will be discussing these developments tonight with Dan Abrams on MSNBC's Abrams Report (9 - 9:30 pm ET.)

[comments now closed]

Here's the latest on the alleged murder for hire plot in the Kobe Bryant case, including a rare public statement by Kobe's lawyers.

Bryant’s attorneys made a rare public appearance Thursday night. They wanted to emphasize that the threatening letter was sent to the Lakers, who gave it to Bryant. Bryant and his security alerted the L.A. County sheriff’s department. ...During the tape-recorded conversation which the L.A. sheriff's department recorded, this gentleman repeated his offer to make the problem go away for three million dollars,” Bryant attorney Hal Haddon said.

“This atmosphere not only threatens Mr. Bryant, threatens his lawyers, threatens the accuser, but it threatens the fundamental right of a fair trial before an impartial jury,” Haddon added.

“Our concern about this is that this is not only going to create a side show, but that this is going to create a wave of sympathy that is going to prevent us from having an impartial jury who will simply judge the allegations on their facts.” Haddon said.

They are in a bizarre and difficult situation. They have repeatedly said they do not want to try the case in the media. They have declined interviews, but felt this time it was important to explain publicly what happened. “He is outraged of the making of these kinds of threats and these offers are made. He's afraid for his family. His first reaction was that he was terribly afraid for his family and he wanted to leave his house and he's also very concerned that he can't get a fair trial in this atmosphere,” Haddon said.

We are scheduled to discuss this and other new developments in the case tonight on Hannity and Colmes and tomorrow night on Rivera at Large (always subject to change due to breaking news events.)

Update: There's breaking news in the Laci Peterson case. We'll be talking about Kobe on Rivera Sunday night instead of tonight.

A California man allegedly offered to kill the accuser in the Kobe Bryant case for $1 million up front and $2 million after the deed was done. He wrote to Kobe's security staff who contacted the sheriff's deaprtment. An undercover operation ensued and the purported hit man, a 31 year old who represented himself to be a member of the Russian mob, was arrested. He is being held on charges of solicitation to commit murder.

In other Kobe news, the Pitkin County Sheriff has completed his court-ordered investigation into law enforcment leaks in the case. His conclusion: No wrongdoing by anyone subject to the gag order. So, perhaps the leaks occurred before the gag order. More likely, the leaks turned out to be unsubstantiated rumors rather than true facts obtained from sealed documents or reports in the case. In any event, we're satisfied. We know the Pitkin County Sheriff and think quite highly of him.

Kobe Bryant's lawyers are not yielding in their effort to have his accuser take the stand at his October 9 preliminary hearing. Nor are they letting up in their demand for her medical records.

In a pleading filed yesterday, Kobe's lawyers argue:

"These records are sought prior to the preliminary hearing because it is believed, based on law enforcement reports and other information in the possession of the defense, that the records will contain information important to the court's assessment of the accuser's credibility."

The defense motion to close the preliminary hearing to the public is here.

We think the defendant's right to a fair trial trumps the media's right to access. If the accuser is not going to testify at the preliminary hearing, then her videotaped interview of what happened should be excluded from consideration -- or the hearing should be closed to public access. If the defense can't cross-examine the accuser on the details of the interview, her statements haven't been tested for truth. That is what cross-examination is all about. It has been described as the greatest legal engine ever invented for ferreting out untruths in the courtroom. While the rules of evidence are relaxed at a preliminary hearing, Colorado courts caution against excessive use of hearsay.

The defense says they need her medical records from her prior forced hospitalization (one that resulted from a determination that she was a danger to herself) to establish her lack of credibility and the implausibility of her testimony. That's a tough sell, but technically, they are right. A judge can toss the charges at a preliminary hearing if he or she finds the accuser's testimony to be incredible or implausible as a matter of law. It's more than which person to believe though--it really would have to be that her testimony was simply not believable at all.

We think the motion to close the preliminary hearing is a stronger one. The Constitution says trials are open to the public--not pre-trial proceedings. In a case such as this, where evidence will be introduced that may not be admissible at trial, in light of the massive media interest in reporting and analyzing every nuance of the case, the only way to preserve Kobe's right to a fair trial by an impartial jury is to close the hearing.

We don't know what time this airs in your area today, but it was a lot of fun to do and we think it has a good mix of the legal and social justice issues involved in the Kobe Bryant case. The promo is here.

The Judge in the Kobe Bryant case has ruled that cameras will not be allowed in the courtroom for Kobe's preliminary hearing.

Colorado rules do not allow cameras in the courtroom during pre-trial proceedings, other than at the advisement and arraignment.

The best part of the decision is that the Judge based his ruling on the Colorado Code of Judicial Conduct --which means it cannot be appealed.

Preliminary hearings are conducted under relaxed rules of evidence and prior to suppression hearings. They are loaded with hearsay evidence and evidence that may not be admissible at trial. We think it is incredibly prejudicial to the defendant to televise such a hearing.

The DA also opposed the cameras, arguing it would be unfair to both the accuser and Kobe.

The Associated Press reports that race may become an issue in the Kobe Bryant case. Polls already show more blacks are sympathetic to his plight than whites. And many compare Kobe's case to OJ Simpson's--in which the vast majority of people think OJ got away with murder.

Two CNN/USA Today/Gallup polls conducted in late July and early August found that 63 percent of blacks surveyed felt sympathetic to Bryant, compared to 40 percent of whites. About 68 percent of blacks said the charges of sexual assault are not true, but only 41 percent of whites said the same.

....Both blacks and whites mentioned O.J. Simpson, whose acquittal at his criminal trial for the 1994 deaths of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman divided the groups. Most whites concluded the verdict was wrong, while most blacks favored it.

Bryant and others, including Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, have been viewed as athletes first and black men second, said Tony N. Brown, assistant sociology professor at Vanderbilt University.

But, he noted, that "doesn't last long. At the first sign of trouble, race comes right in the picture."

On August 5, at the request of the defense, the Judge in the Kobe Bryant case appointed the Pitkin County Sheriff's office to investigate alleged leaks by the law enforcement. The written order was entered Monday, and is quite broad. It is available here. After the investigation, the Pitkin County Sheriff's office will file a sealed report with the Judge and provide a copy to both the defense and prosecution.

In other case news, both the prosecution and defense have filed objections to cameras in the courtroom for the preliminary hearing. You can access their pleadings here.