[ql06] TORT: False Imprisonment and Kobe Bryant

From: "K.K. Campbell -- LAW'06" <2kc16@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ql06@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2003 12:56:57 -0400

By the way, the most "famous" recent use of the idea of false
imprisonment (criminal, and probably civil soon enough) is LA Lakers'
Kobe Bryant.

I am SURE I collected other news stories about Bryant for my little
law-news database, but I can only find the Xinhua (Chinese-state) news
wire service and it's somewhat idiosyncratic English. (I get ALL my
basketball and legal news from the Chinese government!)

I am not update-to-date since last summer, but, at the time the arrest
warrant was unsealed, it seemed the prosecution had tacked criminal
false imprisonment on, in case the more serious sexual assault failed.

Will try to check the L.A. Times archives, since I'm not able to find
the stories I thought I had.

Ken.

--
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.
          -- H.G. Wells



--- cut here ---

Bryant recorded with false imprisonment

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Kobe Bryant, who was charged with a
sexual assault, was also recorded with false imprisonment, according to
a copy of the arrest warrant unsealed Wednesday.

The Los Angeles Lakers star was charged with a single count of felony
sexual assault alleging he raped an employee at a Colorado resort where
he was a guest June 30.

While the July 3 arrest warrant said there was "probable cause " Bryant
was also guilty of false imprisonment, a misdemeanor punishable by up to
a year in jail.

The prosecutor probably chose to drop that charge to avoid the risk of a
conviction on false imprisonment rather than the more serious assault
charge, Denver criminal defense attorney Dan Recht said.

"The jury won't know it's a class 2 misdemeanor and won't even know it's
a misdemeanor.  False imprisonment has a serious ring to it," Recht
said.

Conviction on the sexual assault charge could bring a sentence of four
years to life in prison or 20 years to life on probation.

[ql06] TORT: False Imprisonment and Kobe Bryant

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