MSNBC - Kobe prosecutors: DNA contaminated?

Kobe prosecutors: DNA contaminated?
D.A. also says defense team may have manipulated data

Updated: 12:31 p.m. ET Aug. 25, 2004
DENVER - Crucial DNA evidence tested by defense experts in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case might have been contaminated, prosecutors said in a court filing released Wednesday, just two days before jury selection is to begin.

Prosecutors said they had found contamination in DNA “control” samples intended to ensure testing was accurate. They also said data from the defense’s experts appears to have been manipulated.

Prosecutors asked the judge to hold a hearing Thursday to force the NBA star’s attorneys to prove the reliability of the evidence intended to be presented at trial by defense experts.

Those experts include Elizabeth Johnson, who testified in a closed-court hearing in June that DNA evidence strongly suggests the alleged victim had sex with another man after her encounter with Bryant and before her hospital examination the following day.

That claim, which attorneys for the woman have denied, is a core part of the defense’s strategy to undermine the accuser’s credibility.

In the filing, prosecutor Dana Easter said some data from Technical Associates Inc., the California company where Johnson works, appeared to have been “whited out or otherwise manipulated.”

Easter said in the filing that contamination was present in samples intended to ensure the accuracy of testing. She also said Technical Associates conducted testing earlier this month but has not provided prosecutors with those results.

Prosecutors also asked the judge to force Bryant’s attorneys to hand over certain unspecified information, saying defense attorney Hal Haddon had repeatedly refused to provide documents and evidence that should have been turned over.

“The documents requested are essential to complete the documentation of the defendant’s DNA evidence,” Easter said.

In her filing, she included an Aug. 16 letter in which Haddon told prosecutors much of the requested material had already been turned over and that some of the material had not been sought previously.

“Your letter is a transparent tactic designed to distract us from trial preparation,” Haddon wrote.

Defense attorneys, who are subject to a sweeping gag order in the case, did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

Bryant, 26, has pleaded not guilty to felony sexual assault, saying he had consensual sex with the woman at the Vail-area resort where she worked last summer. If convicted, the Los Angeles Lakers star faces four years to life in prison or 20 years to life on probation, and a fine up to $750,000.

Because Bryant has acknowledged having sex with the woman, DNA evidence is unnecessary for identification purposes. Defense attorneys have suggested the evidence would show the woman had sex with other men in the three days surrounding her encounter with Bryant, which they claimed was part of a pattern of behavior designed to gain the attention of a former boyfriend.

In the June hearing, Johnson explained in detail why she believes the DNA evidence suggests the woman had sex in the 15 hours after her encounter with Bryant.

The prosecution has suggested that semen from another man was transferred to the woman’s body when she put on unwashed underwear before going to the hospital.

The testimony was mistakenly sent to media organizations by a court reporter and later released by the judge after the organizations won a court fight to publish the details.