DENVER: Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant was ordered on Monday to stand trial on charges that he raped a 19-year-old woman who flirted with him at a Colorado mountain resort last June, even though a judge said prosecutors presented only minimal evidence to support their claims.

Eagle County Judge Frederick Gannett ordered the star athlete to appear in district court on November 10, when he will enter a plea to the charges. The case could go to trial next spring, and is expected to be vigorously contested.

Defense attorney Pamela Mackey said she would not comment on the judge's decision. Eagle Country prosecutor Mark Hurlbert in a statement said he "was pleased with the judge's decision."

But the judge said in his eight-page order, "...the people presented, despite the court's consistent comments and admonitions concerning the amount and nature of evidence... what can only be described as a minimal amount of evidence."

He also rejected the prosecution's contentions that Bryant had implicated himself with his own statements to police - statements that have never been made public.

A portion of the preliminary hearing was conducted in the judge's chambers - away from the public and the media.

Kept from the public was testimony about a tape police made when they first spoke with Bryant, in which he reportedly denied having sex with the woman.

"A married celebrity might not want to admit that," attorney and former Denver chief deputy prosecutor Craig Silverman said.

Probable cause?

"This judge has said, in effect, that reasonable inferences from the evidence do not even support probable cause," Silverman said, referring to a legal standard by which evidence can be evaluated.

"This judge is holding his nose as he passes this case on to the next level," Silverman added.

Last week, Hurlbert said he did not put all the evidence he had before the judge, and that he was confident in his case.

"It's not the low standard for finding probable cause in Colorado, it's the fact that he (the judge) has to take all the evidence in a light most favourable to the prosecution," Silverman said.

Bryant later told police and the public in a news conference when he was charged with rape on July 18 that his only mistake on June 30 was committing adultery with the woman, who worked as a concierge at a posh resort near Vail, Colorado.

Gannett based his decision to bind Bryant over for a trial on evidence presented at a preliminary hearing, which ended last week and included graphic testimony from a police officer that the basketball star forced the woman over a chair and then had sex with her while his hand was around her neck.

Legal experts had uniformly predicted that the prosecution presented enough evidence under Colorado law to bind Bryant over for trial.

But the experts differed on whether prosecutors could prove their case in light of questions raised by defense attorneys about the woman's case, including her willingness to flirt with Bryant and spend time alone with him in his hotel room.

During the preliminary hearing, prosecutors also presented evidence that a small bruise was found on the woman's jaw and that her blood was on Bryant's T-shirt - indicating force.

Bryant's defence team said the woman had flirted with Bryant, kissed him, willingly went to his room and had expected him to "put a move on her."

They also claimed that the woman may have had sex with two other men before and after her encounter with Bryant.

Agencies via Xinhua

(China Daily 10/22/2003 page8)