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American Morning

Colorado Prosecutor Says It Will be Tuesday at Before Announcement

Aired July 11, 2003 - 08:24   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: If any charges are to be filed against Kobe Bryant, they won't come today, as originally expected. Instead, a Colorado prosecutor now says it will be Tuesday at the earliest before there is an announcement.
A woman has accused the Los Angeles Lakers star of sexual misconduct.

And CNN's Brian Cabell is live for us in Eagle, Colorado -- good morning to you, Brian.

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Kobe Bryant will remain in legal limbo for at least a few more days. As you said, the D.A. had been hoping to have an announcement as to whether to file charges today. Instead he says Tuesday at the earliest, perhaps even later. He wants to take a look at more evidence. He wants to wait for analysis of more evidence.

That physical evidence is in the Colorado Bureau of Investigation in Denver right now, such things as saliva, blood and hair. We're told normally in sexual assault cases it takes normally six to seven weeks. They're trying to expedite this case, perhaps two weeks. But still, that'll take some time.

Kobe Bryant, we presume he is still in southern California, away from all of this with his wife of two years, his daughter, who is about six months old, trying to stay away as much as possible from this media circus. But if it's bad now, you can imagine what it might be like if a trial actually does occur.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY POSNER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: When 100 cameras turn on and 100 microphones pop up, people in law enforcement behave differently. That's just our experience in America, that the high profile defendant gets treated worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABELL: And the sheriff in this case isn't being treated all that well either. He's received a number of e-mails, he says, over the last week, a number of e-mails that he would characterize as hateful. People that like Kobe Bryant a lot are not especially happy with his accuser. As for the alleged victim, she's a 19-year-old college student who was a concierge at this resort where the incident occurred. She apparently left town for a few days. She's back in town. We tried to call the family home a couple of days ago. We were told by her father that he had nothing to say, that we should call the district attorney, which is what we are doing.

The D.A., of course, is saying very little about this, as well, because this is sealed.

We've been told that if there is a trial held, it likely won't be held for another six to nine months. That would occur just about the middle of the NBA season, toward the playoffs -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Brian, a quick question for you.

Since prosecutors are talking about this new deadline, is that some kind of indication, then, that we can expect that official charges will be filed?

CABELL: No. I don't think we can read anything at all into this. They simply want to have, I think, all their ducks in a row. They need to get all the physical evidence back. They want to have it all analyzed. Some people think they acted a little precipitously last week and so now they want to make sure they have everything in line and then they will come out with their announcement.

But I don't think we can read a thing into this.

O'BRIEN: All right, Brian Cabell for us in Eagle, Colorado.

Thanks for that report this morning.

Appreciate it.

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




Announcement>


Aired July 11, 2003 - 08:24   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: If any charges are to be filed against Kobe Bryant, they won't come today, as originally expected. Instead, a Colorado prosecutor now says it will be Tuesday at the earliest before there is an announcement.
A woman has accused the Los Angeles Lakers star of sexual misconduct.

And CNN's Brian Cabell is live for us in Eagle, Colorado -- good morning to you, Brian.

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Kobe Bryant will remain in legal limbo for at least a few more days. As you said, the D.A. had been hoping to have an announcement as to whether to file charges today. Instead he says Tuesday at the earliest, perhaps even later. He wants to take a look at more evidence. He wants to wait for analysis of more evidence.

That physical evidence is in the Colorado Bureau of Investigation in Denver right now, such things as saliva, blood and hair. We're told normally in sexual assault cases it takes normally six to seven weeks. They're trying to expedite this case, perhaps two weeks. But still, that'll take some time.

Kobe Bryant, we presume he is still in southern California, away from all of this with his wife of two years, his daughter, who is about six months old, trying to stay away as much as possible from this media circus. But if it's bad now, you can imagine what it might be like if a trial actually does occur.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY POSNER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: When 100 cameras turn on and 100 microphones pop up, people in law enforcement behave differently. That's just our experience in America, that the high profile defendant gets treated worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABELL: And the sheriff in this case isn't being treated all that well either. He's received a number of e-mails, he says, over the last week, a number of e-mails that he would characterize as hateful. People that like Kobe Bryant a lot are not especially happy with his accuser. As for the alleged victim, she's a 19-year-old college student who was a concierge at this resort where the incident occurred. She apparently left town for a few days. She's back in town. We tried to call the family home a couple of days ago. We were told by her father that he had nothing to say, that we should call the district attorney, which is what we are doing.

The D.A., of course, is saying very little about this, as well, because this is sealed.

We've been told that if there is a trial held, it likely won't be held for another six to nine months. That would occur just about the middle of the NBA season, toward the playoffs -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Brian, a quick question for you.

Since prosecutors are talking about this new deadline, is that some kind of indication, then, that we can expect that official charges will be filed?

CABELL: No. I don't think we can read anything at all into this. They simply want to have, I think, all their ducks in a row. They need to get all the physical evidence back. They want to have it all analyzed. Some people think they acted a little precipitously last week and so now they want to make sure they have everything in line and then they will come out with their announcement.

But I don't think we can read a thing into this.

O'BRIEN: All right, Brian Cabell for us in Eagle, Colorado.

Thanks for that report this morning.

Appreciate it.

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




Announcement>