Kobe Bryant’s accuser is a troubled young woman who was seeking attention from her ex-boyfriend by accusing the Los Angeles Lakers star of rape, defense lawyers said in new court filings released Monday.
Bryant’s lawyers also asked a judge to throw out much of the evidence against him and to disregard the state’s rape shield law, which limits what defense lawyers can ask about an alleged victim.
Evidence the defense seeks to bar includes an interview of Bryant secretly taped by investigators and a T-shirt he was wearing the night he allegedly assaulted the 19-year-old concierge at a resort. Investigators say the woman’s blood was found on the shirt.
Seventeen motions filed by the defense and prosecutors were released Monday. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the judge would consider any of them at a hearing scheduled Friday.
