CBS.SportsLine.com - Judges reconsiders request; woman's testifying delayed

Perhaps I am a little more passionate about this because it involves the Lakers. But the sexual assault victim advocates are truly starting to annoy me. Before I rant, I want to emphasize that I do not condone Kobe's adultery nor do I condone rape. I do, however, have some opinions concerning victim privacy protection.

Keep in mind, my entire rant here is made entirely with regards to the Kobe trial. The victim has yet to testify in any of the preliminary hearings. What this essentially means is that the victim has maintained her privacy and normal ('normal' for what it's worth given the circumstances) day to day life. She is still, despite early internet photos and and defense attorney name slips, relatively unknown allowing her to cope with the situation personally as well as to escape it to some degree. Granted Kobe is a well known celebrity and would not have this option in any situation.

But my point is this, say Kobe is found not guilty. Will that really matter? Kobe's image has been smeared. Endorsements, aspects of his livelihood have been lost. And the victim? More than likely there will be some civil suit that she probably will win. Although personally, I believe if you lose a criminal case you should not be allowed to come back and file a civil suit. But that's another topic for another day. If Kobe is found innocent because the victim just straight out lied then I would be in an even deeper fervor because Kobe lost it to some money hungry, conniving so and so.

Now I don't want to smear the victim because I don't know Kobe personally and he could have very well raped her. But my current issue with this rape issue deals with the multiple specimens of semen found in the victim's underwear. Now if the sexual encounter occurred before the alleged rape then the injuries (severe vaginal bruising) could have been pre-existing. If the sexual encounter occurred after, well that says a lot about 1) the victim's state of mind and/or 2) whether the victim initially believed she was raped or if that's something that she decided to declare at a later date. This is the reason the defense wants to examine her sexual history along with her tendency to go to extremes when dealing with turmoil in her life (ie multiple suicide attempts).

This will be an interesting case to watch as the foundation for future rape charges could likely look at this case as precedence. My fear is that 1) there is no 'jury of peers' in Colorado hence making a tougher case for the defense, 2) the jury will feel the need to make an example of Kobe Bryant given the number of athletes on the wrong side of the law, and 3) Kobe is truly and honestly guilty (not a case of he said vs. she said but without a reasonable doubt guilty).