The University of Denver has recently made headlines because of the similarities between a 1999 rape on campus and the Kobe Bryant case.
Last Thursday at Bryant’s hearing, Doug Winters, an Eagle County Sheriff’s detective, testified and described the encounter that led to Bryant being charged with raping a 19-year-old Eagle woman. Bryant’s accuser did not testify but was interviewed by the court.
At the conclusion of the day, Judge Frederick Gannett said that the hearing would continue Wednesday and that Bryant would be required to appear. Bryant had left the LA Lakers training camp to appear at the hearing.
The similarity between the DU rape case and the Bryant case was first explored in an editorial for the Rocky Mountain News by University of Colorado Law Professor Paul Campos and was recently featured in a report on CBS’s 48 Hours.
Campos said that he drew a comparison between the two cases because both involved contact between an African-American male and a white female and both have a witness, who saw the woman immediately after the encounter.
In the DU case, during the fall quarter of 1999 Kavin Smith, a freshman, was convicted of raping another first-year student, who has never been identified. Smith is serving a life term at the Buena Vista Correctional Complex.
Smith was an out-of-state student from modest means family who had no criminal background and was at the university on a scholarship. Smith and the female student spent the evening and a night together. They smoked marijuana and drank alcohol. Later, they returned to her dormitory. This is where their stories begin to differ. During Smith’s trial both testified that sexual activity took place, but he claimed it was consensual and she said it was rape.
“It all comes down to consent and then ‘he said, she said,'” Campos said.
At the trial, the deciding factor was a third person who witnessed the woman’s reaction after Smith left her room. This witness testified at the trial that the woman appeared to be very upset.
Campos said that there was no physical evidence because the woman had taken a shower and that the deciding factor was the witness’s testimony.
He said that the prosecutors were overzealous and wanted a conviction.
Today the 25-year-old Smith faces an indefinite prison term because he won’t admit that he raped the woman.
He won’t be eligible for parole until his 16th year. Campos explained that according to Colorado statute Smith can only receive parole if he admits he raped the woman, begins to take sexual assault rehabilitation classes and convinces the parole board that he is reformed enough to re-enter society.
Campos said that it was a “very sad situation” and that the judicial system should re-examine the process to convicting a person for rape.
“I believe that there is no way he should have been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” Campos said.
When asked if he thinks that Bryant could be convicted like Smith was, Campos said that given this case and previous cases in Colorado history, it could happen.
Warren Smith, head of the office of communication, said that DU’s involvement with the case was limited. The case was initially reported to Campus Safety and then turned over to the Denver Police Department.
