Colorado, Oct 10: Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant appears at a preliminary trial in his sexual assault case.
A Colorado woman told police that Kobe Bryant grabbed her around the neck, bent her face first over a chair and raped her as she wept and begged the Los Angeles Lakers star to stop, a sheriff's detective testified during a preliminary hearing in the case on Thursday (October 9).
"She stated she felt pain, she was hurting," Eagle County Sheriff's Det. Doug Winters said of the 19-year-old woman as he gave the first public account of the case against the basketball star, who has strongly denied the charges. Bryant, 25, is charged with raping the hotel concierge and college student on the night of June 30 at his posh hotel near Vail. The hearing will determine if he must stand trial on the charges sometime next year. Bryant has pleaded innocent but admitted having sex with the woman in what he said was a consensual encounter.


Winters, the lead investigator in the case, testified that the woman told him that on the night of the alleged rape, she gave Bryant a tour of the hotel, then returned to his room, where they chatted and kissed.


According to the police officer, the woman said that Bryant then tried to reach under her skirt and she tried to leave.


The woman told police that she cried during the entire rape, tried to pry Bryant's hands from around her neck and repeatedly asked him to stop, Winters said, but he would not.


The woman said that when it was over Bryant allowed her to turn around and made her promise not to tell anyone about what had happened, Winters said, adding that "she feared he'd commit more physical violence" if she did not.


Bureau Report