July 21, 2003
Kobe Central
The big news over the weekend in the Kobe Bryant case came in the pages of the Orange County Register, which revealed that the 19-year old woman who charged that she was raped by Bryant, tried to commit suicide earlier this Summer. The Register was able to piece together the story by talking with a number of the girl's "friends" over the past few days.
For those of you consumed with the case, make sure you start with the LA Times' special section (intrusive registration required). Once you're done with the serious coverage there, you might want to stop by Free Kobe, a "fan" site that pruports to want to see Bryant exonerated, "because we don't have anymore heroes." Be prepared to be disgusted.
On a more serious note, there are a number of articles that are dealing with the case in a more serious manner. Foremost among these has to be a piece by Harvey Araton of the New York Times where he talks to Allison Jennings, a former student at Oklahoma State who claims she was raped by a number of the school's football players (intrusive registration required) -- including two who are now on NFL rosters.
Then again, if some woman aren't belived when they make accusations of rape, it's because false accusations aren't exactly an uncommon occurence. Just a few days ago, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post revealed in a story about conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, about how the CNN host was falsely accused of rape by a Kentucky woman with a history of mental problems (mildly intrusive registration required).
Over at the Chicago Sun-Times, Greg Couch reminds us about how former Minnesota Twin and Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett was simply assumed guilty in his sexual assault case -- something that led him to lose his front office job with the Twins despite the fact that he was completely exonerated.
Finally, I'd urge everyone to check out some comments that were left here at Off Wing a few days ago by an anonymous visitor concerning how local political conditions in Eagle County might have led to this prosecution, whether or not the facts warranted it. After reading that post, Josh Crocket was moved to write about a 1999 case involving former Virginia Tech quarterback Jim Druckenmiller.
POSTSCRIPT: More and more often now, I'm running across newspapers that insist on requiring readers to become registered users. The Orange County Register is one of those newspapers, which makes getting to their story about Bryant that I reference above a real pain. From now on, whenever I can, when I run into this situation, I'll try my best to substitute that actual story with accounts that run on the AP wire. For the most part, I can always link to an AP account without exposing my readers to a potential registration screen. Sure, it isn't the actual story with all the details, but it won't require you to expose yourself to a cookie you're not inclined to ingest.
UPDATE: Matt Drudge is reporting that a Web site at Geocities has published the identity and address of Bryant's accuser, along with a photo. Will the Lakers be able to move on in Bryant's absence? David Dupree of USA Today has some answers.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Some provocative thoughts from the desk of Max Power.
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