Kobe Rebounds

By Bill Saporito

From the beginning, Eagle County, Colo., district attorney Mark Hurlbert insisted that the sexual-assault charge he filed against Kobe Bryant had nothing to do with the celebrity of the Los Angeles Lakers' star. But from the beginning, legal experts wondered whether a Rocky Mountain lawman would have filed such a case had the defendant been anything other than Hollywood-famous.

The case collapsed last week after Bryant's accuser, the target of death threats and harassment since she was accidentally outed by the court, declined to testify against him. And in what seemed to be a programmed pas de deux toward settling the civil case she also filed against him, Bryant apologized to her, saying, "I now understand how she sincerely feels that she did not consent to this encounter."

The initial stages of the encounter were never in dispute. Bryant, in Colorado to undergo a knee operation at a clinic in Vail, checks into the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera in nearby Edwards on June 30, 2003. The front-desk clerk, a 19-year-old woman, shows him around the place and later visits him in his room, anticipating a brush with fame. They kiss by mutual agreement. Then they have sex: forced, she says; consensual, he says. He is arrested on July 4 and two weeks later charged with felony sexual assault.

Month by month, though, Hurlbert's case collected dents from a series of court foul-ups and from Bryant's big-league defense team, which seemed to overwhelm the locals. The crushing blow may have come on July 23, when Fifth Judicial District Court Judge Terry Ruckriegle ruled that Bryant's lawyers could ask the alleged victim about her sex life during a 72-hour window surrounding the incident. Getting her to admit to having had sex with another man before her encounter with Bryant would allow the defense to cast doubt on physical evidence that Bryant had forced himself on her. And getting her to admit she had sex right after the alleged rape could cast doubt on her whole story.

By then both sides knew the case was running out like a 24-sec. shot clock. The prosecution had consulted forensic expert Dr. Michael Baden several months ago about the accuser's physical examination, which showed some vaginal bruising, a possible sign of rape. But Baden said the evidence was inconclusive. "You could have these injuries in consensual sex and not have any injuries in nonconsensual sex," he told TIME. When one of Bryant's attorneys, Pamela Mackey, discovered that the prosecution had removed Baden from its witness list, she phoned him. He told her what he had told prosecutors. Mackey subsequently asked the court to dismiss the charges on the grounds that the prosecution had not shared exculpatory information, as required by law.

As jury selection began, both the accuser and the defendant were looking for an exit--she to avoid what surely would have been a grueling trial, he to avoid the risk of conviction. In midafternoon on Sept. 1, one of Bryant's local attorneys, Terrence P. O'Connor, whose office is in Edwards, visited the nearby Avon office of John Clune, who represents the accuser. It is believed that O'Connor carried a carefully crafted apology that he said Bryant would be willing to release once the charge had been dropped. The two had been discussing it for weeks, says former Eagle County prosecutor Bruce Carey, a courthouse regular. On Wednesday, he says, "they finally came to an agreement regarding the wording."

Hurlbert, visibly distressed on hearing news of the agreement, had no choice but to ask for a dismissal. Says sheriff Joe Hoy, who arrested Bryant: "Were we happy about it? No. But again, we had to look at the bigger picture. And it was their choice. Much as we'd have liked to have gone forward, this was the right thing to do at this time."

That may well be true. But by the practical standards of the criminal-justice system, in which prosecutors have to measure out their resources and pursue cases they have at least some expectation of winning, this one seemed a loser from the moment Hoy collared Bryant without Hurlbert's knowledge. Although Hurlbert filed charges two weeks later, experts say he needlessly rushed the investigation. In a preliminary hearing, Judge Frederick Gannett forewarned Hurlbert about the merits: he allowed the case to go forward but noted that the evidence barely met the legal standard.

Nor did the court's serial bungling help matters. Three times court personnel released privileged information, even posting the accuser's name on the court's website. A transcript of a closed hearing that offered details of her sex life--specifically that another man's semen was found on her body and in her underwear--was mistakenly e-mailed to news organizations. And last week a jury questionnaire that also contained the accuser's name as well as a list of 150 potential witnesses was inadvertently leaked. Karen Salaz, a spokeswoman for the Colorado courts, says she is haunted by the mistakes but adds, "We've had 12-hour days, and we're only human."

The leaks removed any protection for the accuser, a one-time student at the University of Northern Colorado who once tried out for American Idol. Her ex-boyfriend, Johnray Strickland, portrays a young woman under siege: "It all affected her, the press and the tabloids and the friends who were selling her out. Wherever we went, people would yell out Ko-be!"

Bryant has been a center of attention since he waltzed into the NBA out of high school. He wore his fame like an itchy turtleneck, never quite comfortable in it, yet never wanting to remove the celebrity garment. Teammates described him as an aloof, immature superstar. His on-court clash with personable big man Shaquille O'Neal over who would be the Alpha Laker poisoned the team's season more than the trial did.

Bryant is now free to rejoin his Laker teammates--at least those who are left. As his legal team was scoring point after point, his basketball team, which lost to Detroit in the NBA finals, was disintegrating. Coach Phil Jackson is gone. So is Shaq, Gary Payton, Rick Fox and possibly Karl Malone. Bryant is the lone star, a few million dollars lighter for his legal fight--plus the $4 million "I'm sorry" ring for his wife--and toxic as a marketing personality. His contracts with McDonald's and Sprite are finished. He still has a $45 million deal with Nike, but don't expect a Kobe sneaker anytime soon. He'll have to make do with a $136 million, seven-year contract he signed with the Lakers in July.

Bryant now bounces from the criminal-justice system into the civil arena. His attorneys may have to assign a price to keep him from giving what will be a very sordid deposition. Atlanta attorney L. Lin Wood, who represents the plaintiff, told TIME, "There have been no settlement discussions with respect to the civil case," adding that Bryant's apology was independent of the civil matter.

Women's rights advocates, who worry because the loss in the criminal case could discourage women from reporting sex crimes, took some solace in Bryant's apology. Said Cynthia Stone of the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault: "If this had been dismissed without that statement, it would have been devastating. It was a validation."

But it was not a conviction, or even a verdict, and Bryant's accuser may be saddled with a kind of fame she never bargained for. "It has ruined the life that she's known," says Strickland of his ex-girlfriend. "Her future is pretty well set for her. She's not allowed to put it behind her."

--Reported by Mike Billips/Atlanta, Rita Healy/Eagle and Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles

With reporting by Mike Billips/Atlanta, Rita Healy/Eagle and Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles