Testimony: Flirting Led to Brutal Attack

Detective Details Alleged Rape in Kobe Hearing

EAGLE, Colo. — The 19-year-old woman who has accused basketball star Kobe Bryant  of sexual assault told investigators he grabbed her neck and raped her from behind, a sheriff's detective said Thursday in the preliminary hearing.

Eagle County Sheriff's Detective Doug Winters  said the woman described a consensual sexual encounter that suddenly spiraled out of her control on June 30.

Winters said the alleged victim, who worked at the front desk of the posh resort where Bryant was staying, had been excited to meet Bryant and personally escorted him to his room. After giving him a tour and some flirting, she said she went back to his room and he closed and locked the door, according to testimony.

The Los Angeles Lakers star asked the woman to show him a tattoo on her back and she complied, but turned down a request to join him in the hot tub, Winters said.

Her shift was ending and she "wanted to go home," Winters said. "She stated she was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable."

She stood up to leave and Bryant gave her a hug that led to some consensual kissing, Winters said.

Then, with his hand on her neck the whole time, Bryant turned the woman around, pulled up her skirt and raped her from behind against a chair for about five minutes despite her repeated protests, the detective said on the stand.

She told investigators she told Bryant "no" at least twice, before bursting into tears as the attack went on.

Bryant asked the young woman several times to promise not to tell anyone; she agreed out of fear that the NBA player would hurt her, according to testimony.

"She didn't want him to commit more physical harm to her," Winters said.

Bryant faces four years to life in prison if he stands trial and is convicted of the single felony charge of sexual assault. He has said the sex was consensual.

The details were the first to emerge from the hearing, which went off as planned around 3:15 p.m. EDT Thursday amid tight security.

Winters also said a nurse who examined the woman later at a hospital found injuries consistent with a sexual assault.

Winters was cross-examined about why the accuser told a nurse but not the investigators that she was forced to perform oral sex after the vaginal sex. Winters replied that he did not ask her the question that elicited that response but the nurse did.

Photographs were also shown of the woman's injuries, which included bruises on her face.

Bryant was somber during the proceedings, looking uncomfortable during the descriptions of the sexual encounter and glaring several times at detectives who were there to testify against him.

Legal experts had expected the defense to waive the hearing and head straight to trial rather than allow prosecutors to lay out their case publicly for the first time.

"The only reason the defense would choose to go ahead with a preliminary hearing when it doesn't have to is it believes — given the minimal amount of evidence the prosecution is going to be putting on — it may gain more by cross-examining those witnesses," said Stan Goldman, a professor at the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

He suggested the defense may call witnesses to testify, a list that could include Bryant himself.

Judge Frederick Gannett  has rejected defense requests to have the accuser testify and to see her medical records. He also issued a gag order in the high-profile case.

Sources close to both sides of the case told Fox News that the forensic evidence will likely make or break this case if it goes to a jury.

"There is obviously a good deal of physical evidence that could be interpreted in different ways," forensic scientist Dr. Larry Kobilinsky told Fox News on Thursday.

No Bryant family members and no friends of the accuser were in the courtroom.

Earlier, the basketball player arrived in court wearing a dark suit as he stepped out of an SUV, flanked by one of his attorneys and Eagle County sheriff's deputies.

Bryant said nothing to the throng of reporters and spectators gathered outside as he walked into court. He had to take off a necklace and was checked with a metal-detecting security wand before walking through a metal detector and into the courtroom.

Bryant's agent, Bob Pelinka, was in Eagle with Bryant, Fox News has learned.

"I'm here to show my support for Kobe, that's all," he said.

Legal analysts had earlier speculated that defense attorneys Hal Haddon  and Pamela Mackey  would waive the hearing because they have no chance of winning it, and little chance of learning more than they already know.

Had they waived the hearing, Bryant's attorneys could have also avoided the disclosure of details until trial.

Eagle County District Attorney Mark Hurlbert  said he would speak to reporters after the proceedings and take questions, no matter what the outcome.

Security for the hearing was bolstered after dozens of threats were made against the prosecutor, the judge and Bryant's accuser. Two metal detectors were in place and armed guards were prepared to stand watch.

Gannett has acknowledged receiving letters containing death threats, and two men have been charged with threatening Bryant's accuser.

Patrick Graber  pleaded innocent in Los Angeles to charges he approached Bryant's security team with an offer to kill the woman for $3 million. An Iowa college student has pleaded innocent to leaving a death threat on her answering machine.

The case against Bryant could lead to a celebrity trial the likes of which have not been seen since O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murder charges eight years ago.

Since Monday, about 300 television, print and radio reporters and camera crews have been arriving, filling motel rooms and parking TV satellite trucks in a vacant lot across from the courthouse that normally is a lumber dealer's back yard.

Bryant, free on $25,000 bond, left the Los Angeles Lakers' Hawaii training camp on Wednesday to travel to Colorado.

Bryant has the right to go to trial within six months, but he could agree to push that back until later, perhaps after the NBA season ends early next summer.

Hearing to resume next Wednesday