Kobe Bryant: More Secrets Revealed

By Rita Healey

When the transcript of a June 22 closed hearing in the sexual-assault case of Kobe Bryant was inadvertently released, the press had the expected field day. In the document, defense expert Dr. Elizabeth Johnson presented evidence that suggested Bryant's accuser may have had sex with another man not long after her encounter with Bryant--raising doubts about whether it was Bryant who caused the former college student's vaginal trauma and lending credence to his assertion that the sex was consensual. Speculation flew that the prosecution's case was collapsing and that the charges would be dropped.

But the transcript suggests that Johnson's testimony was not so clear-cut. In his questioning of the doctor, district attorney Mark Hurlbert raised doubts about the number of sperm cells and whether they could have dated from an earlier sexual encounter. And if the prosecution is losing its resolve in the case, it certainly didn't show in Hurlbert's immediate and aggressive appeal to Judge Terry Ruckriegle to set an early trial date. Prosecutors are refusing to comment on rumors that they may drop the case, though the accuser's attorneys went on television to suggest that she might have better luck with a civil case. As for the accuser herself, a friend tells TIME that the relentless publicity--including the mistaken release of her name on three occasions--has taken its toll: "She cut all ties to her friends. She's like a ghost."

--By Rita Healey