Bryant accuser almost gave up

The woman who accuses Kobe Bryant of rape was so shaken by a court error that allowed sealed testimony about her sexual history to be e-mailed to news organizations that she almost abandoned the case, her lawyer said on Monday.

The revelation came as the Colorado Supreme Court in Denver ruled that the media companies that received those court records in error last month could not disclose their contents. The court cited the woman's right to privacy under the state's rape shield law.

Separately, both sides in the high-profile case urged the trial judge to bar TV cameras from courtroom, saying it would be an unwelcome distraction.

Last month, seven media organizations mistakenly received e-mailed transcripts of a closed hearing about the young woman's sexual history.

The decision in Denver by the state's highest court and issues taken up at Monday's pretrial hearing in Eagle, Colorado, revolved around the intense media attention that the case has generated and the accuser's right to privacy.

The young woman has received death threats and, while not identified by the mainstream media, she has seen her name and picture on Internet sites and in supermarket tabloids.

Her attorney, John Clune, said she had been shaken by the accidental disclosures by court officials, who in September also failed to delete her name from a filing published on its Web page.

"The only times she considered not going forward with this case is when people sworn to protect her have failed," Clune told District Court Judge Terry Ruckriegle.

Bryant, an all-star guard with the Los Angeles Lakers, who pleaded not guilty to the sexual assault charge, is scheduled to go on trial August 27. Bryant, 25, said he had consensual sex in his Vail-area hotel room in June last year with the then 19-year-old hotel worker.

Clune said the prospect of having the trial televised would be very painful for the young woman. Bryant's lawyer, Hal Haddon, said the overriding concern in a criminal trial was to "adjudicate guilt or innocence" and to televise the trial would only be a "titillating and salacious" experience.

Months of closed-door hearings have been held on whether evidence about the young woman's sexual history could be admitted at trial.

The defense has said that a genital injury prosecutors say she sustained when Bryant raped her could instead have come from consensual sex with another man hours after she said Bryant attacked her.

In a split decision, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the right to privacy of victims of sexual assault enshrined in Colorado's rape shield law overrode press freedom rights.

The court, however, ordered Judge Ruckriegle to make his rape shield ruling "as expeditiously as possible" and release any portions of the transcripts relating to evidence, if any, that will be allowed at trial.

State court spokeswoman Karen Salaz said a ruling on the rape shield issues could be expected before the next pretrial hearing on July 30.

The media organizations involved in the court challenge over the transcripts are The Denver Post, the Associated Press, CBS, the Los Angeles Times, Fox News, ESPN, and the TV show Celebrity Justice.

(Additional reporting by Keith Coffman and Ellen Miller)