Judges seal records in Bryant, sex videotaping cases
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Judges seal records in Bryant, sex videotaping cases
- The records in Kobe Bryant’s sexual assault case are temporarily sealed by a Colorado judge while he considers a permanent seal, while a New York judge sealed records in a case involving the filming of people engaged in sexual intercourse.
Sep. 13, 2004 — Colorado 5th District Judge Richard Hart is expected to decide this week whether to permanently seal records from Kobe Bryant’s sexual assault case. Hart ruled late Wednesday to temporarily seal the records after Bryant’s attorney, Pamela Mackey, convinced the judge that Bryant would “suffer real, immediate and irreparable injury” if the records are released.
At least six requests have been filed seeking access to the records after prosecutors last week dismissed the charge at the request of the 20-year-old alleged victim, Mackey said.
The judge’s order is in effect until Sept. 18.
“No member of the public or media should be permitted to manipulate and abuse for salacious and other improper purposes the evidence, audio recordings and other materials in this case,” Mackey told the Associated Press. “This case is over. Mr Bryant is innocent. He should be permitted to move on with his life.”
In another sealing case, Ithaca’s City Court Judge Judith Rossiter ordered court and Ithaca police records after a plea bargain involving two Cornell University students who filmed two people having sex in 2003.
Ithaca Alderwoman Pam Mackesey opposes the sealing.
“I think it’s unfair for people in the community not to have some knowledge about it,” Mackesey told The Ithaca Journal said. “The details? No. But why would their right to privacy be greater than our rights to know? How could that be?”
Michael Pusateri and Kristoffer Kaminski, both 21, were charged with unlawful surveillance in the second degree, a class E felony, but accepted plea bargains. In exchange for pleading guilty to disorderly conduct, they were each sentenced to 50 hours of community service and ordered to pay a $150 fine.
Rossiter ordered the sealing under a section of New York law that allows records to be sealed in cases in which felonies or misdemeanors have been reduced to violations and in which the information sealed pertains to the more serious charge, the Journal reported.
— KC
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