Preliminary Hearing in Bryant's Sexual Assault Case Set to Resume
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The preliminary hearing in Kobe Bryant's sexual assault case set to resume today in Eagle County. The judge suspended that hearing last week after some explosive remarks concerning the accuser from Bryant's attorney, Pamela Mackey. Beth Karas is covering the case for Court TV. She joins us live from Eagle County to talk about it. Good morning out there.</s>BETH KARAS, COURT TV: Good morning.</s>HEMMER: Does Pamela Mackey, what's her approach today? Does she come with a bit of contrition or does she stay just as aggressive as last week?</s>KARAS: Well, my understanding of Pamela Mackey, who, by the way, is an excellent attorney, is that she's probably not going to be walking into court with her tail between her legs. This is a woman who was just getting warmed up in her cross-examination of Detective Winters last week when court abruptly broke for the week. So I suspect that she may not come out with questions like the bombshell that she dropped last week, without alerting the court first and getting a ruling on it first. However, anything is possible.</s>HEMMER: Some people are anticipating more incendiary, exploding comments today in court. If that's the case and if it is true what you're describing to us, how does the judge respond today, given this?</s>KARAS: Well, let me tell you, all right, here's what happened last week. After the question about did you ask the nurse whether or not the injuries were consistent with having sex with three different men in three days, after that, the court went into closed session. When the judge came out, he said, among other things, that the attorneys are going to try to, in the next days, agree to a line of questioning and if they agree to this line of questioning, then the prosecution will withdraw its motion to close the reminder of the preliminary hearing. Presumably that line of questioning means that there will be no more explosive questions like what she asked at the end of the day last Thursday. But yesterday the prosecution filed a formal motion in writing to close the hearing, which makes me think that maybe they couldn't agree to a line of questioning. They want to be alerted in advance so there are no more explosive questions like that. If it does happen again, I mean the judge has the option to sanction her, because he's probably put her under order not to do anything like that again without alerting him first.</s>HEMMER: But at this point, it's our understanding the judge is going to keep that hearing open, depending on what happens in the court. It's my understanding the rules in Colorado could allow, in a case like this preliminary hearing, could allow the defense to put on witnesses. Do you expect that to happen today?</s>KARAS: Well, it is a possibility. The defense can call witnesses in preliminary hearings. It's not typically done. Typically, they just hold the prosecution to the burden, which is a low burden, just to establish probable cause, and they use this as a discovery tool, also, to see how the witnesses are, the few who are called. Detective Winters may be the one and only witness called in this. If there is a witness for the defense, I would be surprised. But I think it will be an effort on the part of the defense to continue doing what they're doing, which is to affect the court of public opinion and also the potential jury pool here in Eagle.</s>HEMMER: Yes, well, a week ago there wasn't a legal analyst in this country who predicted what we all heard in court last week. So we'll see what happens today. Thanks, Beth. Good to have you back with us here.</s>KARAS: My pleasure. Thank you.</s>HEMMER: Beth Karas from Court TV in Eagle County. You've got it. Resume>