A judicial order in the Kobe Bryant case mistakenly posted on a court Web site yesterday contained the name of the accuser and details of previously undisclosed evidence. The Denver Post says the gaffe comes on the heels of an effort by the woman’s attorney to end the electronic publication of court documents. The order from Judge Terry Ruckriegle filed “under seal” asks the two sides to come up with an agreement on the use of DNA tests taken from the basketball star. It marks the third time that sensitive material contained in court documents mistakenly has been released. “I would term it confounding given the number of times this woman has been subjected to intrusions into her life,” said Steve Siegel, past president of the Colorado Organization of Victim Assistance. “This is hard to fathom.”
A court spokesperson said that a clerk, “when told that a document was ready for posting, selected the wrong document from the shared folder, and a critical safeguard was omitted that would have averted the release of this information.” The order indicates that swabs taken from Bryant’s penis during a mandatory sex- assault exam reveal evidence of DNA from the accuser and from Bryant, “but not of the unknown donor whose DNA was found on other items of physical evidence in this case.”
Link: http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~28682~2301057,00.html