FREE KOBE!
[Click to read]Looks like the prosecution in the Kobe Bryant rape trial has run into a few snags. It seems clear that they know it. After all, they have asked for a continuance in light of some pretty exculpating evidence and the accuser has run into civil court faster than you can call "traveling". The case is falling apart. The question we should ask:
Is dismissal good for Kobe?
On the one hand, what defendant wouldn't take his get out of the possibility of jail free card and run? The potential sentence that Kobe faces is serious. Even just the fine is serious.
I had a little, personal taste of this recently. Someone I know was arrested for battery **. We'll just call him My Baby Brother. Well, Baby Brother did NOT commit battery. Baby Brother was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong guy who was willing to lie to police. There was absolutely no evidence to support the charge. However, Baby Brother was not at all reassured by the lack of proof or obvious acquittal conclusion. Baby Brother was more interested in that $2,000. fine or 6 months in jail aspect. I can't blame him. It is a daunting possibility -- that a judge might decide that you need to go to jail and then, buddy, you go to jail.
So, Kobe is probably not going to demand a trial and insist that he be acquitted. VINDICATED. Because there is no sure thing. It is possible that something could happen, something screwy, which will land him in that jail cell. And that is a huge risk to take. I couldn't blame him if he took his dismissal and ran. But I wish he wouldn't.
I would like to see this go to trial. And I would like all the evidence to come out. And in the end, I would like to see justice done. A justice which includes closing the civil court door to a complainant who appears to have cooked up the entire accusation. With a flat dismissal, we may never know who is telling the truth.
This issue may be the first argument Dork and I ever had. Way back, in the very beginning of this case I was pretty staunchly in the victims camp. A defender of rape shield laws and advocate for protecting the "victim". Dork was just a hard core Lakers fan. (His argument has been paraphrased because he is not here to defend himself anyway) I recall asking "What would possess this woman to subject herself to public scorn and ridicule aside from being the victim of a legitimate crime?" I think Dork said "Lakers ROCK."
The moral of that story is we just don't know until we know. Which is why I would like to see Kobe insist on a trial. Insist that the prosecution marshall all their evidence against him and then blow it all away. I would like to see him walk out of the court room, not with the default "Dismissed" but with the hard fought "Acquitted".
Or better yet "Innocent".
**Baby Brother ended up at court but was not on the calendar, got a dismissal from an ADA that took 2 seconds to decide the charge was nonsense.
posted by Girl Ipsa at 7:55 AM
1 Comments:
I think my argument was more cerebral and well thought out than “LAKERS ROCK”, but hey, you’re the self professed know-it-all law student geek and I remain anonymous. Who can argue with that?
The Lakers do rock though, and so do I.
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