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American Morning

Kobe Bryant Accused of Sexual Assault

Aired July 07, 2003 - 07:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: One of the NBA's biggest and most respected stars may be in trouble with the law. Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant is accused of sexual assault. Police say a woman alleges the misconduct occurred in a Colorado hotel.
Charles Feldman is live at the Lakers arena, the Staples Center, in Los Angeles for us this morning.

Charles -- good morning.

CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, and welcome to CNN, Soledad, and good morning to you, Bill and Jack, as well.

A big story rocking the sports world this morning, and that is Kobe Bryant, the star player for the Los Angeles Lakers, is out on $25,000 bond after police in Eagle, Colorado -- that's near Vail -- accused him of sexually assaulting a young woman.

Now, I've got to point out that, according to various news reports, the district attorney's office has not yet charged him formally with any crime.

Now, as you can well imagine, his team players are being, at least at this time, very supportive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREEN RUSH, TEAMMATE OF BRYANT: Yes, totally I respect him. But, you know, who knows? And I don't think it's true, so I'm going to stand by him and say that it's 100 percent not true.

JANNERO PARGO, TEAMMATE OF BRYANT: He's a great teammate, and, you know, he's a happily married man, you know, and I'm sure he's happy. You know, he talks about his wife all of the time. So, I mean, I just can't wait for the truth to come out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FELDMAN: Now, though it's very early out here in Los Angeles, we do have a statement that was issued yesterday night by the general manager for the Los Angeles Lakers, and we quote now. He says: "These allegations are completely out of character of the Kobe Bryant we know. For the seven years he's been with us, he has been one of the finest young men we've known and a wonderful asset to both our team and our community," so says the general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers. Now, we do not know at this hour, Soledad, whether or not Kobe Bryant remains in Colorado, or if in fact he has returned to his Orange County, California home, which he shares with his young wife and a very recently arrived young child -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Charles, a quick question for you. In some reports, it seems as if prosecutors were surprised by the charges. So, isn't that unusual? I mean, generally, wouldn't the police wait until the prosecutors decided to file charges?

FELDMAN: Well, in most jurisdictions that's the case, but what normally happens is the police in most communities, if they feel that they have enough evidence, will go ahead and have a judge sign off on an arrest warrant or they'll arrest somebody on what's called a criminal complaint. And then you're quite right, at a certain point the prosecuting authorities -- in this case, the Eagle County D.A. -- they have to evaluate that evidence and decide whether or not there is a case and a case that they could win. Apparently, that has not happened yet.

So, the best we can say is that Kobe Bryant certainly is in trouble, at least with the police. It's yet to be seen whether he's going to face any real serious charges -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Charles Feldman reporting for us from Los Angeles this morning. Charles, thanks for that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired July 7, 2003 - 07:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: One of the NBA's biggest and most respected stars may be in trouble with the law. Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant is accused of sexual assault. Police say a woman alleges the misconduct occurred in a Colorado hotel.
Charles Feldman is live at the Lakers arena, the Staples Center, in Los Angeles for us this morning.

Charles -- good morning.

CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, and welcome to CNN, Soledad, and good morning to you, Bill and Jack, as well.

A big story rocking the sports world this morning, and that is Kobe Bryant, the star player for the Los Angeles Lakers, is out on $25,000 bond after police in Eagle, Colorado -- that's near Vail -- accused him of sexually assaulting a young woman.

Now, I've got to point out that, according to various news reports, the district attorney's office has not yet charged him formally with any crime.

Now, as you can well imagine, his team players are being, at least at this time, very supportive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREEN RUSH, TEAMMATE OF BRYANT: Yes, totally I respect him. But, you know, who knows? And I don't think it's true, so I'm going to stand by him and say that it's 100 percent not true.

JANNERO PARGO, TEAMMATE OF BRYANT: He's a great teammate, and, you know, he's a happily married man, you know, and I'm sure he's happy. You know, he talks about his wife all of the time. So, I mean, I just can't wait for the truth to come out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FELDMAN: Now, though it's very early out here in Los Angeles, we do have a statement that was issued yesterday night by the general manager for the Los Angeles Lakers, and we quote now. He says: "These allegations are completely out of character of the Kobe Bryant we know. For the seven years he's been with us, he has been one of the finest young men we've known and a wonderful asset to both our team and our community," so says the general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers. Now, we do not know at this hour, Soledad, whether or not Kobe Bryant remains in Colorado, or if in fact he has returned to his Orange County, California home, which he shares with his young wife and a very recently arrived young child -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Charles, a quick question for you. In some reports, it seems as if prosecutors were surprised by the charges. So, isn't that unusual? I mean, generally, wouldn't the police wait until the prosecutors decided to file charges?

FELDMAN: Well, in most jurisdictions that's the case, but what normally happens is the police in most communities, if they feel that they have enough evidence, will go ahead and have a judge sign off on an arrest warrant or they'll arrest somebody on what's called a criminal complaint. And then you're quite right, at a certain point the prosecuting authorities -- in this case, the Eagle County D.A. -- they have to evaluate that evidence and decide whether or not there is a case and a case that they could win. Apparently, that has not happened yet.

So, the best we can say is that Kobe Bryant certainly is in trouble, at least with the police. It's yet to be seen whether he's going to face any real serious charges -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Charles Feldman reporting for us from Los Angeles this morning. Charles, thanks for that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.