The sexual assault case that almost ruined Kobe Bryant’s career is front and center in a new CNN documentary that puts the NBA great’s life under a microscope.
The film – due to debut on Saturday includes a newly unearthed police interview with a hotel clerk who accused the basketball legend of choking her during an alleged sexual assault.
The woman, who was 19 at the time of the alleged 2003 attack, is featured in the film Kobe: The Making of a Legend.
She went to the police with her claims and told the film that she felt ‘scared’ as Bryant tightened his grip on her neck every time she would say ‘no’.
Bryant, who played his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers, came forward after the claims were made and admitted that he cheated on his wife Vanessa, but strongly denied sexually assaulting the young woman.
It allegedly took place at The Lodge and Spa at the Cordillera, a hotel in Edward, Colorado, where Bryant checked in to undergo minor surgery.
A new CNN documentary on Kobe Bryant’s life examines unearthed 2003 police interviews with his alleged victim, who claimed he sexually assaulted her when she was 19 years old at a hotel in Colorado
Bryant played with the Los Angeles Lakers throughout his career. He vehemently denied the claims that he had assaulted her but did admit in a press conference that he had cheated on his wife Vanessa who sat by his side
Mark Hulbert was one of the Eagle County prosecutors who brought the case to court. He said the woman had been ‘resolute’ at the start of the process but the rulings and the attacks on her character ‘wore her down’
Mark Hulbert, one of the Eagle County prosecutors who brought the case forward, said in the film that the alleged victim was a front desk employee who greeted Bryant before he pulled her aside and asked her to give him a tour.
The pair went to his room and Bryant began kissing her, which the victim was initially okay with. But when he tried to go further, he allegedly grabbed her, put his hand around her neck and sexually assaulted her.
The case was proceeding through the courts but came to a standstill and was dropped a year later after the alleged victim stated she didn’t want to cooperate.
But this decision was frustrating for the prosecution who said in the film that justice was not done and that Bryant ‘knows what he did’.
According to Colorado District Court Chief Judge Ingrid Bakke, the victim had been ‘beat up for so long’ that she had ‘reached her breaking point’.
Bakke joined the prosecution’s team on the Bryant case in 2003. She had considerable experience working on sexual assault cases.
Bryant passes through a security checkpoint as he arrives at the Eagle County Justice Center April 28, 2004, shortly before the case was dropped
The allegation came during the middle of his career. He had a wife, a baby daughter who was five months old – and he could have been jailed for at least four years if found guilty
According to Bakke, one of the ‘strongest pieces’ of evidence was that the victim told a colleague right after the incident and said she didn’t want to speak out because ‘no-one’s going to believe me’.
Despite her hesitance, the woman went to police the next day and gave a statement.
The documentary reproduces whole chunks of the interview with Eagle County Sheriff Doug Winters, who is shown asking the victim where exactly Bryant was grabbing her butt and chest.
The victim said: ‘When he took off his pants, that’s when I started to kinda back up and to try to push his hands off me and that’s when he started to choke me.
‘He wasn’t choking me enough that I couldn’t breathe, just choking me to the point I was scared.’
Detective Winters asked the woman if she said anything during the incident. She replied: ‘I was scared and I said no a few times.’
The victim confirmed that Bryant heard her and said she knew because ‘every time I said no he tightened his hold around me’.
Bryant and his daughter Gianna were killed in a horrific helicopter crash in 2020
An Eagle County sheriff talking to young Kobe Bryant fans who were waiting to catch a glimpse of him outside of the courthouse on the second day of pre-trial hearings in 2003
‘And then he would lean his face real close to me and ask me questions (like) you’re not going to tell anybody, right?’ the woman added.
When Bryant was first called by police he denied everything and said that his wife not finding out was ‘all I care about’.
But then he admitted involvement with the woman and said he did have his hand around her neck.
Bryant told police: ‘I had my right hand like this, and my other hand like that.’
When asked how hard he was holding her, Bryant said: ‘I don’t know. My hands are strong.’
In the documentary, Hulbert describes the case as strong and said the victim had ‘the details right up front’, unlike most sexual assault victims who were too traumatized to have a clear memory.
Bryant told police during his interview that ‘all I care about’ was his wife Vanessa not finding out about the incident. He admitted that he slept with the alleged victim and did have his hand around her neck but denied it was assault
After the charges were filed, Bryant appeared at a press conference holding hands with Vanessa and saying he was ‘innocent’ but he admitted adultery and said he was ‘furious at myself’.
CNN’s new documentary Kobe: The Making of a Legend will debut on Saturday
‘I love my wife with all my heart,’ Bryant said, turning to Vanessa and saying: ‘She’s my backbone, you’re a blessing’.
Bakke says that when she saw the press conference, her view was that Bryant was ‘so scared and I’m saying this because I have to say this’.
Bryant’s life in the documentary will, according to the outlet, put a light on the ‘unseen forces’ that shaped Bryant’s life until his untimely death in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles in 2020 at the age of 41.
His 13-year-old daughter Gianna died alongside him. He was survived by Vanessa, 42, and three other daughters Natalia, 22, Bianka, eight and Capri, five.
The sexual assault allegation came during the middle of his career, he had a wife, a five month-old daughter and he could have been jailed for at least four years if found guilty.
Public opinion turned against the alleged victim and was shown when Bryant was awarded the Choice Male Athlete of the Year only 14 days after he was charged
Supporters of Lakers star Kobe Bryant passed the Eagle County Justice Center in Eagle, Colorado, in August 2003
But the mood turned against the prosecution almost immediately with the public showing support towards Bryant who was given the Choice Male Athlete of the Year award just 14 days after he was charged.
Bryant bought his wife a $4million, eight carat diamond ring which earned him some ridicule.
Bakke described how as the case got going, Bryant’s lawyers threw ‘everything’ they could at the victim to ‘break her down’.
That included Bryant’s lawyer repeatedly naming the victim during one hearing, despite an agreement not to do so.
Bryant’s lawyer even suggested that the victim could have gotten her injuries from having sex with three men over three days – even though nobody had ever suggested that.
In a devastating blow, the judge in the case ruled that the woman’s past sexual history could be brought up during the trial.
Bryant with his attorney Pamela Mackey on July 19, 2004. His lawyers repeatedly named the victim during one hearing despite an agreement not to do so, and even suggested her injuries could’ve been from having sex with three men over three days
Hulbert said the woman had been ‘resolute’ at the start of the process but the rulings and the attacks just ‘wore her down’.
Then, in September 2004, as the jury was being chosen, Hulbert got a call from the victim who said ‘I don’t want to do this anymore’.
He said: ‘She had been so beat up for so long she’d reached her breaking point and had enough.’
According to Hulbert, in the wake of the case being dropped, there was a ‘significant’ plummet in the number of women reporting sexual assaults in Eagle County.
The woman did sue Bryant in a civil case, and as part of the settlement he issued an apology.
Bryant said: ‘After months of reviewing discovery, listening to her attorney, and even her testimony in person, I now understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter.’
The documentary reproduces whole portions of the interview with Eagle County Sheriff Doug Winters (left). Colorado Judge Ingrid Bakke said the alleged victim had been ‘beat up for so long’ that she had ‘reached her breaking point’
In the documentary Bakke dismissed the apology, saying it was ‘well crafted’.
Bakke said in the film: ‘Do I think justice prevailed? Absolutely not…he knows what he did.’
Among the other details in the film are insights into Bryant’s ‘Black Mamba’ alter ego which was inspired by a scene with a killer snake in the movie ‘Kill Bill’.
Friends reveal that Bryant used the hate that he got after the sex assault case to fuel his game, rather than letting it eat him up.
Journalist Scoop Jackson, a close pal of Bryant, said that a ‘switch was flipped and the Black Mamba was born’.
‘It got him through the darkest time of his life,’ he said.
Lakers fitness coach Gary Vitti said: ‘Nobody had rage like him, nobody, adding that Bryant was ‘like a dragon, the angrier he gets the more he’s going to douse you’.
DailyMail.com has contacted Bryant’s lawyers and representatives for comment.
