Bryant's prosecutor signs big-name help

Philadelphia Herald Monday 22nd December, 2003

The Colorado prosecutor in the Kobe Bryant rape case has signed a top criminal expert to his legal team, the Denver Post reported Monday.

Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers basketball star, is accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman June 30 at a lodge in Edwards, Colo., where she was an employee and he was a guest. He says the sex was consensual.

Criminalist Henry Lee, who has worked on a number of high-profile cases, including O.J. Simpson, JonBenet Ramsey, war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia, and the suicide of Vince Foster, a deputy White House counsel in the Clinton administration, was in Eagle County, Colo., to talk with prosecutor Mark Hulbert about the Bryant case.

I can't tell you what I looked at, Lee said. I cannot speak on an active case.

Lee, chief emeritus of the Connecticut state police laboratory, was also in Colorado to speak on developments in forensic science and his life experiences.

His speech Saturday night at the Palace Chinese Restaurant in southeast Denver was sponsored by the Chinese American Council of Colorado and the Denver Police Protective Association.