Kobe Bryant's lawyers appear to be worth every cent the Los Angeles Lakers star is paying them. In a highly unusual move the Colorado judge in the NBA player's rape trial agreed to a request from defense attorneys to prohibit his accuser from being referred to as a "victim" in pretrial hearings.
Mr. Bryant's lawyers rightly argued that the term implies guilt, and in our judicial system one is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Kobe Bryant, who admits that he had sex with his accuser, says it was consensual and has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault.
Still, the legal victory for team Kobe stunned many in the legal community. "What's so noteworthy in this case is that somebody objected and the court agreed," said Lawrence Solan, professor of law at Brooklyn Law School.
The 19-year-old woman who accused the NBA star will be identified by her name at trial, and state District Judge Terry Ruckriegle played it safe, appropriately so, in deciding how she should be referred to in pretrial hearings. Experts say his ruling touches a major issue on terminology that goes beyond semantics. "In a courtroom, only a jury can decide whether she's a victim, and to call her a victim is to prejudice a jury," said Larry Pozner, former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Women's advocates cringed at the latest development in the Bryant pretrial process and complained that it only continued to put his accuser at center stage, thereby "victimizing" her twice. But not all words carry the same weight, as Mr. Bryant's lawyers quickly learned when pushing another request to drop the word "defendant" in connection with their client. That one went nowhere, and correctly so. The judge rejected that objectionable stretch, saying the term accurately reflected the basketball player's legal status.
All the pretrial grind in the high-profile rape case has almost eclipsed the fact that a trial date has not yet been scheduled, freeing the Lakers' star for his other "court" appearance -- the NBA finals.
First Published: June 10, 2004, 4:00 a.m.
