#MeToo would’ve convicted Bryant – Ex-prosecutor

DENVER, Colorado (AP):

The prosecutor who pursued sexual assault charges against Kobe Bryant 17 years ago believes he would have won a conviction if the case had gone to trial and that the woman who accused Bryant would have received more support if the case had been filed in the current #MeToo environment. #MeToo is a movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault.

Mark Hurlbert said in an interview with The Associated Press that he is shocked and saddened by the deaths of Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, and seven others this week in a helicopter crash. Still, he remains confidentthat he would have won a conviction against Bryant in 2003-2004 had the accuser not decided to end the criminal case during jury selection in the Rocky Mountain town of Eagle.

“I do think it would be different today,” said Hurlbert, now a chief operating officer for an Internet start-up in the ski resort town of Breckenridge. “Because of #MeToo, there’s a lot more support for a victim.”

The woman, 19 when the case began, was a former high school cheerleader and college student. She moved out of state as she was pursued relentlessly by reporters during 18 gruelling and polarising months of pre-trial discovery and motions.

“She was getting death threats. The tabloids were camped out at her door, and one was trying to infiltrate her therapy sessions” by offering money to a session participant, Hurlbert recalled.

Hurlbert’s comments underscore a shadow – one brought out on social media this week – cast over the outpouring of grief and the celebration of Bryant’s life by a case that forever changed the lives of the NBA champion and the alleged victim. The AP does not generally use the names of alleged victims of sexual assault.

A young Bryant admitted that he committed adultery but emphatically insisted that he was innocent of assault. If convicted, the then -24-year-old Bryant faced a potential life sentence.

Concerns

The woman’s personal attorneys and her parents had also expressed concern about whether she could get a fair trial following leaks and mistakes by the court, including her name being accidentally posted on a court website.

At one hearing, defence attorney Pamela Mackey stunned observers by suggesting that the accuser had sex with multiple partners in a short amount of time surrounding her encounter with Bryant.

The woman’s sexual history was headline fodder for months before the criminal case was dropped.

“It was just exhausting on top of being threatening,” Hurlbert said. “Ultimately, she just decided she could not take it anymore.”

As jury selection began in Eagle County District Court, the woman called Hurlbert to tell him to drop the case. He asked her to reconsider and call in a couple of days. She did; she hadn’t changed her mind.

“I was disappointed. I would have loved to go to trial and have an Eagle County jury decide. But I completely understood,” he said.

After the criminal charge was dropped, Bryant issued a statement apologising for his “behaviour that night and the consequences she suffered’.’

Ultimately, Bryant and the woman reached a civil settlement in 2005.