Kobe Bryant Prosecutors Say Medical Data Private

Kobe Bryant Prosecutors Say Medical Data Private
Tue September 9, 2003 07:50 PM ET

By Judith Crosson

DENVER - Prosecutors in the Kobe Bryant rape case have joined the battle over his accuser's medical records and in a filing made public on Tuesday said she has not waived her right to keep information about a hospital stay confidential.

The prosecution also plans to ask the court to quash a defense subpoena that would require the woman to testify at a preliminary hearing next month, the prosecutor's spokeswoman said.

Attorneys for Bryant, 25, have subpoenaed the 19-year-old woman's medical records about an incident when she was hospitalized in February after police determined she was "a danger to herself."

Eagle County District Attorney Mark Hurlbert in a filing said the woman who worked as a concierge at a posh Colorado resort hotel when she said she was attacked has not waived the physician-client privilege. Hurlbert wants a subpoena for the records to be quashed.

Defense attorneys Hal Haddon and Pamela Mackey want records from the time the woman was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Greeley, Colorado where she was a student at the University of Northern Colorado. The defense has issued four subpoenas to see the women's medical records, according to the prosecution's filing.

Details of the woman's hospital stay have not been disclosed, but police have said they took the young woman to the hospital in February -- about four months before she said Bryant raped her -- because she was "a danger to herself."

The defense has not said why it wants to see the medical records, but the aim would clearly be to call into question the woman's credibility or emotional state.

OPPOSED TO DEMAND ACCUSER TESTIFY

The prosecution will also make a filing with the court soon that will argue against making the accuser testify at an Oct. 9 preliminary hearing that will determine if Bryant should stand trial for rape.

Seeing how the young woman handles herself on the witness stand would help the defense plan its next strategic step.

"They want to see what she looks like and how she sounds as a witness," Jay Leach, director, Center for Legal Advocacy with the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California, said.

The Los Angeles Laker has denied he raped the woman and said the June 30 encounter was consensual sex.

The defense has also asked the judge to hold an evidentiary hearing -- separate from the preliminary hearing -- to determine if the woman's medical records should be turned over to the defense. The judge has not made any decision on that motion.

"You can anticipate a battle over whether that evidentiary hearing will be open to the public," Craig Silverman, former chief assistant prosecutor in Denver, said.,

"That could be another big media battle and all of these things point to delay," Silverman said. Media organizations are appealing a decision that unsealed only a portion of documents in the case and have been rebuffed in their effort to have cameras in the Oct. 9 hearing.

If the defense loses on its motion for an evidentiary hearing it probably would not succeed if it tried to appeal the decisions right away, but it could delay the time any trial would begin.

"The defense would like this case to go to trial on the 12th of never," Silverman said.

Bryant is accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman at the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera in Edwards, Colo., on June 30, 2003

Bryant appears in court on assault charge. Preliminary hearing set for October 9

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