Kobe Bryant and the Sexual Assault Case That Was Dropped but Not Forgotten (original) (raw)

Basketball|Kobe Bryant and the Sexual Assault Case That Was Dropped but Not Forgotten

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/27/sports/basketball/kobe-bryant-rape-case.html

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A 2003 rape accusation changed how many saw the Lakers star, but it did not change the trajectory of his career.

Bryant leaving the courtroom after a hearing in October 2003.Credit...Ed Andriesk/Getty Images

Jan. 27, 2020

Even as Kobe Bryant moved beyond his career in the N.B.A. and into his next chapter as a Hollywood and tech mogul, he could never fully leave the ugliest part of his past behind.

Bryant — among nine people, including his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, who died on Sunday in a helicopter crash outside Los Angeles — was charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman in 2003. But as in the vast majority of cases involving accusations of sexual violence, there was no clear resolution. There was no verdict.

Prosecutors dropped the case just before it was scheduled to go to trial, citing the accuser’s unwillingness to testify. A lawsuit the woman filed against Bryant ended in a settlement, the details of which have never been made public.

In the era before #MeToo — the societal reckoning with the frequent sexual harassment and abuse women endure at work and in their personal lives — Bryant resumed a career that had never really paused. Throughout the 2003-04 season, while the case was still being litigated, he flew back and forth between court appearances in Colorado and games, often arriving just minutes before tip-off.

The Lakers made the N.B.A. finals that season but lost their bid for a fourth championship in five seasons. Bryant, however, would win two more N.B.A. titles, plus two Olympic gold medals, before his retirement in 2016, and he continued his evolution into a global celebrity, an international ambassador for both his sport and Nike, his major sponsor.

Yet in 2018, just seven months after he won an Academy Award for best animated short film, Bryant was dropped from the jury of a film festival.

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