I just saw this in the EUR. I can’t say I’m surprised, but still… damn!!!
KOBE’S VIRGINIA WOMAN: ‘SI’ reports on player’s admission of consensual sex with a second woman.
“Sports Illustrated,” journalist Jeff Benedict has obtained a sealed statement made by Kobe Bryant and recorded by police before he was arrested for the rape of a hotel employee in Eagle, Colorado. The statement, highlighted in the magazine’s September 20th issue, contained the following:
- When he was questioned by two police officers in the parking lot of the Lodge and Spa at Cordillera in the early morning of July 2, 2003, Bryant, after first denying an encounter took place, admitted to “holding her around her neck from behind” and graphically described a series of sex acts he engaged in with his accuser.
- As the officers and Bryant made small talk while walking to his room, Bryant told them he would pay his accuser to make the charges go away because “I’m in the worst f—— situation.”
- During the interview Bryant told police about “a girl in Virginia named ‘Michelle'” with whom he said he had had a consensual sexual relationship.
- In their summary of the conversation, police said Bryant told them that he should have paid the woman to keep quiet — and mentioned another NBA player who he said had done that. Bryant said the player would pay women “not to say anything,” and that he had spent up to a million dollars to get out of situations like Bryant’s.
- Bryant told the police that he had never had to resort to paying hush money, stating that he “treats a woman with respect, therefore, they shouldn’t say anything.”
Meanwhile, according to newly-released documents, the prosecution team in the Kobe Bryant case spent nearly $400,000 in its attempt to convict the NBA star of raping a woman at a Vail-area resort last summer. The total includes nearly $75,000 for expert witnesses and travel, more than $78,000 to investigators and more than $35,000 for a broadcast news clipping service.
The prosecutor’s balance sheet obtained by the Associated Press through an open-records request shows that $397,508 was spent from July 15, 2003, through Aug. 31 – the day before they dismissed the felony sexual assault charge against Bryant at the woman’s request. Spokeswoman Krista Flannigan, who earned $76,000 after she was hired to help District Attorney Mark Hurlbert handle media coverage, remains on the payroll. Lawyers in Hurlbert’s office still are working on a request by Bryant’s attorneys to seal all records and evidence.
“This actually is a little less than you’d expect for something of this high profile,” Flannigan told AP Tuesday. “It’s typical for a first-degree murder case, even in our district.”