http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~1525789,00.html
http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_2126638,00.html
http://www.vaildaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030721/NEWS/307210102
The alleged victim in the Kobe Bryant sexual-assault case suffered obvious physical injuries that are still apparent three weeks after the incident, the Denver Post reports. “She had been hurt, there’s no question about it,” said Luke Bray, a high school friend who said he has helped take care of the woman since the June 30 incident. Bray would not discuss the specific injuries. Bryant says he had consensual sex with the woman.
The mother of the alleged victim has asked her daughter’s friends to stop talking with reporters, but not before the woman’s purported picture, address, phone number and e-mail address began circulating on the Internet. The photo being circulated, however, is actually of someone else, a former classmate told the Post.
Nearly a dozen of the woman’s friends and former classmates have appeared on national TV news shows such as “Primetime,” “Good Morning America,” “Today,” “American Morning” and “Fox News: Big Story Weekend with Rita Cosby.”
The Vail Daily reports that Lindsey McKinney, a friend of the accuser, turned down a $12,500 from the National Inquirer to tell her story. McKinney was quoted Sunday in the Orange County Register, as saying that the alleged victim had ingested too many pills, lost consciousness and had to be taken to a hospital. “No amount of money is worth the harassment,” said McKinney. “Nothing is worth what (the victim) went through, and what she’s going to have to go through.
Although acquaintainces of the accuser are circulating information on the Internet, the names of people who say they are sexually assaulted are sealed because they may be revictimized by public exposure, the Rocky Mountain News notes.
With sexual-assault allegations, an accuser’s credibility and life history are unfairly called into question as in no other crime. Victims, for example, may be blamed for inviting the attack. “When a robbery occurs, we don’t question why a person had a wallet full of money,” said Kathie Kramer of the Denver-based Rape Assistance and Awareness Program.
Link: http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~1525789,00.html