After two weeks of waiting, an Eagle County Colorado prosecutor has charged Los Angeles Lakers superstar guard Kobe Bryant with felony sexual assault in connection with an incident that occured on June 30th at a resort in the town of Edwards.
News of the charges brought forth this especially forthright statement from Bryant:
"I am innocent of the charges filed today. I did not assault the woman who is accusing me," Bryant said in the statement. "I made the mistake of adultery. I have to answer to my wife and my God for my actions that night and I pray that both will forgive me. ... Nothing that happened June 30th was against the will of the woman who now falsely accuses me."
A press conference is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. PDT in Los Angeles at the Staples Center. Stay tuned.
Several points
1) I know nothing more about Mr. Bryant than has been reported in the press
2) There are three types of people in a resort town like Vail. They are the permanent citizenry of small business owners, craftsmen, and others that together, in other circumstances, would be called the petit bourgeouise, the transient workforce of footloose and fancy free 20 somethings, and the wealthy tourists.
3) The young woman in this case is reported to be a child of the some of the permanent citizens of the area.
4) The district attourney of Eagle County is an elective office, and the permanent citizenry votes. On the other hand, the tourists are ineligible to vote, and the transient workforce has low turnout at election time.
5) Were a young man with a fine and well honed legal mind be looking for a post to further his career, he might not consider Eagle County DA one of the stepping stones along his path.
6) Kobe Bryant will have the best legal representation that money can buy, but the jury pool will likely be composed of folks very much like the parents of the young lady involved.
In short, the DA has to bring the case to trial, because, if nothing else, the young woman’s parents and sympathisers are likely to back heavily any opponent, were he not to. Legal skill is likely to break heavily in Kobe’s favor at the trial, but this will likely be offset by the sympathies of the jurors.
I expect Kobe’s lawyers may file for a change of venue, especially as Eagle county is small, and the jury pool limited by population and aquantaince with the victim. This may be of limited benefit, as many potential alternate venues exhibit the same population mix as Eagle County. In my humble opinion, all Colorado venues stink for Kobe, with the possible exceptions of Denver, Boulder, Ft. Collins, and Grand Junction. There are other venues where Kobe might have an advantage, but their tinyness makes them unlikely canidates.
I’m starting to see some similarities between this case and the Jim Druckenmiller rape accusation of 1999 (of which he was found not guilty). More on that connection later.