Lawyers for Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant, charged with raping a 19-year-old Colorado woman last year, asked a judge on Monday to close an upcoming hearing because matters to be discussed could taint the jury pool.
A hearing scheduled for February 2 and 3 is expected to discuss statements Bryant 25, made to police on July 1 just hours after the woman said Bryant raped her. The defense does not want the statements entered into evidence during the trial, whose date has not yet been set.
"If the statements attributed to the defendants are disseminated to the public and then suppressed, the intense media coverage of this case will insure that the jury pool will be exposed to those statements, even though they may have been ruled inadmissible," Bryant's attorneys Hal Haddon and Pamela Mackey said in a filing with the court.
Bryant has denied he raped the woman who worked as a concierge at a posh resort near Vail, Colorado, saying the encounter was consensual sex. He has been charged with felony sexual assault and if convicted could go to prison from four years to life or 20 years to life on probation.
Another pretrial hearing scheduled for Jan. 23 is still expected to be open to the public and the press.
At a hearing last month Eagle County District Court Judge Terry Ruckriegle said he would need additional legal briefs before deciding if the defense will be allowed to present evidence on the accuser's mental health, including reports of two suicide attempts, to attack her credibility.
