DRUG OFFICERS TO TESTIFY IN BRYANT HEARING

Three undercover members of the High Country Drug Task Force will
testify next week in connection with the Kobe Bryant case.

Sources close to the investigation said drugs are not involved in the
rape case against Bryant and that the three undercover agents were
called in to help with the investigation on June 30, the night Bryant
allegedly raped a 19-year-old Eagle woman at the Lodge and Spa at
Cordillera. Because of the small number of law enforcement officers in
Eagle County, other agencies are sometimes tapped.

District Judge Terry Ruckriegle on Thursday ordered that the agents
testify in open court but their identities be protected. Ruckriegle
ordered them to enter and leave the courtroom from a secluded room,
through a side entrance and away from the public. A screen will be
erected in front of them to keep them from being seen by the public
and the media in the courtroom. The courtroom sketch artist is banned
from drawing a likeness of the three undercover agents.

Ruckriegle banned prosecutors and defense attorneys from identifying
the undercover agents during questioning in open court.

During last week's motions hearing, media attorney Chris Beall argued
that the only way for the public to be certain that their public
servants are behaving themselves is for their actions to be detailed
in public. Ruckriegle partly agreed, ordering the undercover
investigators to testify, while concealing their identities.

What will they say?

Testimony will range far beyond just what those three undercover
agents have to say. According to Ruckriegle's order, testimony is
expected to include actions and communications among law enforcement
personnel; communication between Bryant, his bodyguards who
accompanied him to Colorado and law enforcement personnel; as well as
communication at Valley View Hospital, where Bryant and his alleged
victim each underwent rape examinations.

Anything dealing directly with Bryant's statements to sheriff's
investigators will be presented in a private session with only the
attorneys and Ruckriegle - a small apparent victory for Bryant's
defense attorneys Pamela Mackey and Harold Haddon, who have been
fighting to keep those statements away from the public, saying they
would hurt Bryant's chances of getting a fair trial.

Bryant was interviewed by sheriff's investigators for almost 75
minutes, beginning just after midnight July 2.

He and his entourage arrived at Cordillera around 10 p.m. June 30, and
the alleged rape occurred about a half hour later. Bryant had knee
surgery the next day, July 1. He was met outside the Lodge at
Cordillera just after midnight that night - making it July 2 - by
sheriff's investigators for questioning. Most of that questioning was
done in Bryant's room, Room 35. Sheriff's deputies then drove him to
Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs, where he submitted to a rape
exam.

Ruckriegle's order stipulates that everything having to do with
Bryant's statements and the Valley View communications will be in
private, to help the judge decide whether those statements should be
allowed as evidence at the trial, explained local attorney Rohn Robbins.

"No one's asking about the ride to Valley View, and no one's
offering," Robbins said. "That seems to indicate that nothing happened
during that ride."

During October's preliminary hearing, Mackey asked Eagle County
Sheriff's Detective Doug Winters if investigators examined the area of
Bryant's suite where the incident occurred or the bathroom where the
alleged victim cleaned up afterward. Winters answered that he and the
other investigators did not.

Night and day

Mackey has asked Ruckriegle to throw out almost all the physical
evidence collected by sheriff's investigators the night of the
incident, saying they obtained it unlawfully. That argument will take
up much of Monday's and Tuesday's court time.

Among Mackey's arguments is that the warrant to detain and question
Bryant was not served properly. Robbins explained that Colorado law
requires that warrants be served during daylight hours, unless the
judge issuing the order says it can be served at night.

"It can be served at night if it's reasonable to believe that the
suspect might flee," said Robbins. "It's possible the judge believed
that the evidence might have been spoiled if he had left. Her hair and
fluids might not be present on him if some more time were allowed to
pass."

"In an alleged sexual assault, time is probably of the
essence."