Easement greets end to Kobe’s rape case

Alicia Robinson

Local basketball fans and other residents said they’re reluctant to

pass judgment but glad to see the end of the high-profile rape case

against Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant, who lives in Newport Coast.

“I’m not going to judge the man. I’ll watch him play basketball,”

said Frank Jank, who owns the Hearthstone, a fireplace fixture store

on the Coast Highway. “I like basketball, and he happens to be one of

the best.”

An Eagle, Colo., judge on Wednesday dismissed the rape case

brought against Bryant, who said he had consensual sex with the woman

who accused him. Bryant apologized to the woman, but he still faces a

civil suit.

Most people prefaced their opinions by saying they don’t have all

the facts. Some questioned the motives of the alleged victim, who is

not being named in the media, because she was the victim of an

alleged sexual assault.

“I kind of think that maybe she was targeting him because he was

famous,” said Corona del Mar resident Nicole Riedman, who was

chatting with her friend Heather Arico at Starbucks on Coast Highway

Thursday.

That’s the impression the case left on Gary Lee, a former Corona

del Mar High School basketball player who was buying groceries down

the street at Albertson’s, where Bryant sometimes shops.

“I feel like she tried to make something out of it,” he said.

However, the truth may never come out, Lee said, adding, “It’s one

of those things that he’ll know, and she’ll know.”

John Cooney, who was stocking a dairy case at Albertson’s, said

Bryant sometimes signs autographs for people when he’s in the store.

As a Lakers fan, Cooney was pleased the case against Bryant was

dismissed.

“It’s going to be good for him,” Cooney said. “Now he can get on

with his life. He said he’s sorry.... Now he can play the season

without it being interrupted.”

Arico said she hopes victims of rape will still feel they can

speak out, even though this particular case didn’t end in a

conviction.

“If [the alleged victim] came out and talked about it, that’s the

best she can do,” Arico said.

The precedent of bringing the accuser’s sexual history into the

case, as Bryant’s attorneys tried to do, could deter people from

making rape charges, Riedman said.

“It would definitely discourage me,” she said.

People often aren’t willing to believe anything negative about

their sports heroes, but widely publicized allegations like those

made against Bryant are hard to shake, Jank said.

“We make gods out of athletic people, and they make millions of

dollars, and the papers make them human, with feet of clay,” he said.

“I don’t think he’ll ever have a commercial for Ovaltine or

Wheaties.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.