9/1/2004

KOBE WALKS, TALKS

It isn’t often that the dismissal of a charge leads to an immediate confession, but that’s pretty much what happened with Kobe Bryant:

“Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did,” Bryant said. “I now understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter.”

I’ll give Kobe credit for being man enough to try to see things from her point of view. I only hope he’s learned that a guy his age–a marriedguy in particular–has no business messing around with 19-year-old minimum-wagers. He has not been “vindicated” by today’s actions–while he’ll never be held criminally accountable, a civil suit is still pending, and morally, he’s already convicted.

Kobe’s had many defenders who have trashed his accuser mercilessly. What class. If you see one of them, be sure to congratulate them on their great taste in fandom.

Posted by Mark @ 10:08 pm | | Permalink
This post is filed under: Sports

3 Comments

  1. I see a huge cash settlement coming in the civil case. Which will make it that much harder for the victim in the next celebrity rape case.

    Comment by Harry — 9/2/2004 @ 8:57 am

  2. Yeah, my first thought when I heard this was, “Man, talk about just handing her victory in the civil case.”

    Comment by Zygote — 9/2/2004 @ 10:23 am

  3. I think his attorneys were thinking that they will have a huge pot of money to throw at a civil suit, and that it doesn’t matter what Kobe’s statements (and signed apologies) were, they can get it all quashed. There will be a settlement before this ever goes to trial.

    The blame in this case falls at the feet of Colorado’s TABOR Amendment (aka Amendment 1), which hogties the state’s ability to raise taxes. As a result, the university system has the lowest rate of state support of any state system in the US, state agencies are devoid of cash, and most importantly to the Kobe case, there’s no money to keep the state court system running at anything close to effectively. That gave the Kobe team a massive opening to take to task the courts and prosecution for sloppy work. It wasn’t that they were sloppy, it’s that they have no money to hire even a base level of clerks to keep these base errors from happening.

    Just a reminder of the long term price of voter-approved across-the-board tax cuts.

    Comment by dw — 9/2/2004 @ 1:17 pm

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