KOBE RAPE TRIAL
KEY DNA evidence shows that the 20-year-old woman who has accused
basketball star Kobe Bryant of rape had sex with another man hours
after her encounter with him, a defence expert has testified.
The expert also rejected a prosecution theory that the DNA - found
on swabs from the woman's inner thighs, vagina and cervix - ended
up there only because the young woman put on a pair of
previously-worn panties.
The testimony by DNA expert Elizabeth Johnson came during a
closed-door courtroom hearing in Colorado in June but was kept
secret until yesterday by Eagle County District Judge Terry
Ruckriegle.
Bryant is accused of raping the young woman, a hotel concierge and
college student in his Colorado hotel room on the night of Jun 30
last year. The Los Angeles Lakers star has pleaded innocent and
maintains that the two had consensual sex.
Ms Johnson said she analysed swabs taken from the young woman's
inner thighs and area of her vagina. She found sperm and a protein
found in semen. DNA tests showed the samples belonged to a man
identified in court papers only as 'Mr X'.
Ms Johnson said she analysed the purple G-string panties the woman,
then 19, was wearing on the night of her encounter with Bryant. She
said she found DNA that came from both Mr X and Bryant.
She dismissed a prosecution theory that the DNA from Mr X could
have been transferred from a pair of yellow panties that the woman
put on for a rape exam. That pair of underwear, prosecutors say,
may have been worn previously and not washed.
Said Ms Johnson: 'It's just far-fetched and unlikely that transfer
from the yellow panties could account for all of these findings.' -
Reuters.
Source: NP
