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Orange County Register
Monday, February 2, 2004
Bryant statements focus of hearing
His lawyers will argue today that detectives illegally obtained his July 2 comments.
By MARCIA C. SMITH
The Orange County Register
EAGLE, COLO. – Nearly seven months ago, two Eagle County Sheriff's Office detectives approached Kobe Bryant in the parking lot of the exclusive mountainside resort where he was a guest and began questioning him about an alleged sexual assault.
Today, as the Lakers guard returns for another pretrial motions hearing at the Eagle County Justice Center, the conduct of local investigators during Bryant's 90-minute police interview in the early morning hours of July 2 will come into question.
Bryant, 25, of Newport Coast has been charged with the June 30 sexual assault of a 19-year-old Eagle woman at the Lodge and Spa at Cordillera, where he was a guest and she worked as a front-desk agent. He says he had consensual sex with the woman.
Bryant's attorneys, Pamela Mackey and Hal Haddon, are scheduled to begin arguments today to keep what Bryant said to police - and the two white T-shirts investigators collected as a result of Bryant's statements - from being used in court as evidence against him.
Defense lawyers claim Bryant's statements were illegally obtained by detectives who exercised "unlawful conduct" and violated several of Bryant's constitutional rights.
In a 30-page defense motion filed Dec. 12, Bryant's attorneys detailed what they consider police misconduct, beginning with the moment detectives Doug Winters and Daniel Loya encountered Bryant outside the Edwards resort just after midnight.
Bryant, who was recovering from arthroscopic right knee surgery seven hours earlier in Vail, was on crutches when police separated him from his two security guards.
Detectives asked to be taken to Bryant's hotel room, where the assault allegedly occurred. Bryant "expressed reluctance" but "detectives insisted," and police interviewed Bryant from about 1:30 a.m. to 3 a.m., the court filing said.
According to his lawyers, police never read Bryant his Miranda rights prior to questioning, violating his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent as protection from self-incrimination.
The defense also maintains that police violated Bryant's Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure by interrogating him at night without judicial authority and in his hotel, where he has the expectation of privacy.
The filing says Bryant was not informed that the detectives possessed a search warrant and a court order to take him to an area hospital for a male sexual assault examination.
Loya also surreptitiously activated a recorder in his shirt pocket to record 75 minutes of Bryant's statements, the filing said.
Testimony and evidence regarding Bryant's statements from the time he was approached by police to his placement around 3 a.m. in a police vehicle for transport to Valley View Hospital 50 miles west in Glenwood Springs will be heard in a closed courtroom, by order of Fifth Judicial District Court Judge Terry Ruckriegle.
Haddon last week pushed for the suppression hearing to be closed because Bryant had disclosed some "intensely personal" and clearly irrelevant details to police that could prejudice potential jurors, especially if his comments are deemed inadmissible at trial.
But the issue of whether police followed proper procedure will be held in open court, where the local prosecution team will bear the heavy burden of proving Bryant was neither interrogated or in custody when his statements were taken.
Monday, February 2, 2004
Bryant statements focus of hearing
His lawyers will argue today that detectives illegally obtained his July 2 comments.
By MARCIA C. SMITH
The Orange County Register
EAGLE, COLO. – Nearly seven months ago, two Eagle County Sheriff's Office detectives approached Kobe Bryant in the parking lot of the exclusive mountainside resort where he was a guest and began questioning him about an alleged sexual assault.
Today, as the Lakers guard returns for another pretrial motions hearing at the Eagle County Justice Center, the conduct of local investigators during Bryant's 90-minute police interview in the early morning hours of July 2 will come into question.
Bryant, 25, of Newport Coast has been charged with the June 30 sexual assault of a 19-year-old Eagle woman at the Lodge and Spa at Cordillera, where he was a guest and she worked as a front-desk agent. He says he had consensual sex with the woman.
Bryant's attorneys, Pamela Mackey and Hal Haddon, are scheduled to begin arguments today to keep what Bryant said to police - and the two white T-shirts investigators collected as a result of Bryant's statements - from being used in court as evidence against him.
Defense lawyers claim Bryant's statements were illegally obtained by detectives who exercised "unlawful conduct" and violated several of Bryant's constitutional rights.
In a 30-page defense motion filed Dec. 12, Bryant's attorneys detailed what they consider police misconduct, beginning with the moment detectives Doug Winters and Daniel Loya encountered Bryant outside the Edwards resort just after midnight.
Bryant, who was recovering from arthroscopic right knee surgery seven hours earlier in Vail, was on crutches when police separated him from his two security guards.
Detectives asked to be taken to Bryant's hotel room, where the assault allegedly occurred. Bryant "expressed reluctance" but "detectives insisted," and police interviewed Bryant from about 1:30 a.m. to 3 a.m., the court filing said.
According to his lawyers, police never read Bryant his Miranda rights prior to questioning, violating his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent as protection from self-incrimination.
The defense also maintains that police violated Bryant's Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure by interrogating him at night without judicial authority and in his hotel, where he has the expectation of privacy.
The filing says Bryant was not informed that the detectives possessed a search warrant and a court order to take him to an area hospital for a male sexual assault examination.
Loya also surreptitiously activated a recorder in his shirt pocket to record 75 minutes of Bryant's statements, the filing said.
Testimony and evidence regarding Bryant's statements from the time he was approached by police to his placement around 3 a.m. in a police vehicle for transport to Valley View Hospital 50 miles west in Glenwood Springs will be heard in a closed courtroom, by order of Fifth Judicial District Court Judge Terry Ruckriegle.
Haddon last week pushed for the suppression hearing to be closed because Bryant had disclosed some "intensely personal" and clearly irrelevant details to police that could prejudice potential jurors, especially if his comments are deemed inadmissible at trial.
But the issue of whether police followed proper procedure will be held in open court, where the local prosecution team will bear the heavy burden of proving Bryant was neither interrogated or in custody when his statements were taken.
