Tuchman: Bryant hearing will be quick
 |
CNN's Gary Tuchman
Story Tools
|
EAGLE, Colorado (CNN) -- NBA superstar Kobe Bryant makes his first court appearance Wednesday on a felony sexual assault charge. The judge in that case ruled late Monday that television cameras will be allowed inside the courtroom. But the judge has yet to decide whether to unseal critical documents. CNN's Gary Tuchman has the latest from outside the courthouse.
TUCHMAN: Virtually no on the record information has been released in this case, and that's just the way the district attorney and defense attorneys like it. But the news media have asked the judge in this case to release some of the case files, saying it's public record.
[CNN is one of the news organizations asking the judge to release case documents to the public.]
And that judge in this case, Frederick Gannett, tells us that he will make a decision on that, but probably not until the week of August 18. He says first he'll preside over the initial hearing [Wednesday].
Then he'll take a week of vacation. And then Judge Gannett says he'll work on deciding whether public information should be made available.
Now Judge Gannett tells us this hearing [Wednesday], this initial court hearing for Kobe Bryant, will probably only last five or 10 minutes. One would find it hard to believe that this many lawyers involved in anything could be that quick. But he says it will be quick. It's a procedural hearing.
He says Kobe Bryant will likely not even talk, will not issue a plea of any kind, will be told what his rights are, what the charges are, and then a date will likely be set for a preliminary hearing, which will be very important, because during that preliminary hearing, prosecutors will be obliged to publicly say what some of their evidence is and the judge will then determine if there is probable cause for this case to continue.
Now, Judge Gannett's a very interesting guy. He tells us that he's a basketball fan. Not an NBA fan necessarily, but a recreational basketball fan. He says he played for many years. But he says he's had seven knee surgeries, so he's kind of given up the game and is now just golfing here in Colorado.
We do want to tell you, inside this courthouse, the courtroom where this hearing will be, is very small. Only 68 seats for spectators. And of those 68 seats, only 22 will be available for the news media. We're expecting hundreds of members of the news media to be here.
So obviously not all will be able to go inside. So they've actually set up an overflow tent next to the courthouse with TV sets, where most of the journalists will watch it on TV, just like you viewers out there.
