Arnold Schwarzenegger Prepares to Assume Power
BLITZER: Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor-elect of California praising Congressman David Dreier for all the help he received in helping to get him elected the governor of California. Arnold Schwarzenegger announcing his transition team, getting ready to assume power in Sacramento. We'll continue to monitor this news conference by the governor-elect and go back there live if warranted. In the meantime, there's other news we're following right now. After months of waiting, Kobe Bryant is in court right now for the first time hearing the prosecutor's evidence against him, the details very, very graphic, explosive in fact. We'll go there live. Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.</s>BLITZER (voice-over): From the court to the courtroom, is Kobe Bryant betting it all on a trial? Bad day in Baghdad, six months later it's still a war.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's hard and it's not finished. We will stay the course.</s>BLITZER: Siegfried speaks, an astonishing assertion about a tiger.</s>SIEGFRIED FISCHBACHER, SIEGFRIED AND ROY: So he took Roy and put him backstage behind the curtain.</s>LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: To protect him?</s>FISCHBACHER: To protect him.</s>BLITZER: Battle against breast cancer, a potential breakthrough you need to know about.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The results of this study unquestionably offer new hope to hundreds of thousands of breast cancer patients.</s>BLITZER: It's Thursday, October 09, 2003. Hello from Washington, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting. For the first time we're hearing her side of the story, the woman accusing Kobe Bryant of sexual assault. The basketball star is in Eagle, Colorado right now for a preliminary hearing. His lawyers had been expected to waive their right to this hearing, which had investigators recounting the alleged victim's version of what happened and some of that testimony was quite graphic. Let's go immediately to our National Correspondent Gary Tuchman. He's heard it all. He's joining us live from outside the courthouse - Gary.</s>GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, right now we are outside the courthouse where the preliminary hearing is taking place. This is the absolute first time we have ever heard any public evidence in this case from the prosecution since this happened, this incident, 100 days ago. And here is what Detective Doug Winters of the Eagle County Sheriff's Office is telling us. There is a videotape of this accuser testifying. Both sides agreed not to play the videotapes. The detective is paraphrasing it and quoting it. He said that the woman worked in a hotel here in Edwards, Colorado. She heard Kobe Bryant was coming to the hotel. She said she was excited about him coming to the hotel. When he arrived she gave him a tour of the hotel upon his request, according to the testimony. According to the testimony, Kobe Bryant asked her to come back to his room. She said she did go back to the room. According to the detective she says he began kissing her mouth and neck, which she agreed to. That's what the detective said that she agreed to the kissing and that she did acknowledge they were flirtatious with each other. But then the detective says the 19-year-old told him: "He began to grope her, touching her breasts and her buttocks area and then he grabbed her with both hands around her neck." That is the testimony coming from the sheriff's deputy in the court just a short time ago. He said that the woman was afraid he was going to choke her that she was scared at this point. According to the detective he then said that Kobe Bryant turned the woman around with his hands on her neck, bent her over a chair and the quote was "pulled her panties down and after he pulled her panties down he had sexual intercourse with her." The sexual intercourse, according to the detective, lasted five minutes. At that point, the detective says Kobe Bryant asked several times you're not going to tell anybody about this and the woman said no I will not. Now it's very important to point out this is very graphic, harsh testimony, but this is one side's viewpoint of what happened. The defense as of now hasn't had a chance to cross-examine this detective who's on the stand. She said she cried during the sexual intercourse, according to the detective and then a short time ago we were shown pictures in the courtroom. One of the pictures was of the private area of the woman where there were many lacerations, according to the testimony, also a picture of her jaw, a laceration on her jaw. Nurses said that these injuries were consistent with trauma, not consistent with consensual sex. And one more item we want to mention to you and this is also harsh and, once again and we've emphasized this over the last hour since we've been talking about this that if you have someone in the room with you you don't want to hear this please you can take them out right now. We are certainly not saying everything we heard in the court, just what we think to provide the news properly. But according to the detective on the stand, after the sexual intercourse the woman said that Kobe Bryant asked the woman to kiss his private parts. The woman said no and then according to the detective Kobe Bryant made her do it. Now once again the defense will get a chance to cross-examine this detective. We did not think we would have a preliminary hearing today specifically for these reasons because of the details coming out which are quite sordid. But one philosophy among legal experts was it might be better to have these details come out now than six months down the road when you're seating a jury. The jury will be familiar with this, will have digested this already and that might be the strategy of the defense. Either way the judge has to decide today if there is probable cause to bring this case to trial - Wolf, back to you.</s>BLITZER: This is very, very risky strategy I take it on the part of Kobe Bryant's lawyers because there was widespread speculation as you point out, Gary, that they would waive this right to this preliminary hearing. All of these details coming out right now. What is happening in the courtroom expected in the next few hours? There will be cross- examination by the defense attorneys of this detective?</s>TUCHMAN: I think a couple things. First of all, most observers are pretty surprised this is taking place. I do want to tell you that as we speak the lawyers are meeting without the news media present to decide with the judge if an audio tape of Kobe Bryant talking about this after the incident but before he was arrested should be allowed to be played in this preliminary hearing. That's taking place. Inside the courthouse, Kobe Bryant has been there relatively expressionless looking very serious, not really talking to his attorneys, and we should mention that his wife is not here.</s>BLITZER: Is it possible that this preliminary hearing could continue tomorrow as well? Originally we thought it was going to be rather brief. It looks like it could get dragged on.</s>TUCHMAN: We're told that the judge was planning on this to last about four hours to 7:00 Eastern time, 5:00 Mountain time. Right now though, as you see, it's 5:10 Eastern time. They're in a break. We anticipate much more still to come so I would guess it will go longer but the judge did tell us he wants to put this all to a finish by the close of business today.</s>BLITZER: Are you getting any indication how Kobe Bryant, Gary, was reacting as this very explosive graphic testimony was being delivered by this detective?</s>TUCHMAN: Well, that's something that everyone watches very carefully because I've been in many trials over the years where you hear explosive testimony and the defendant just erupts and says it's not true. It's not true or starts to cry and that hasn't happened in this case. Kobe Bryant is looking very serious, looking studious, trying to listen to everything, not talking to his attorneys and we don't know if that will change when we go back inside the courthouse but as of now that's how he's looked. But it is fair to say that this testimony is very shocking to a lot of people even though we've known about this case. The simple fact is, Wolf, there have been lots of rumors out there and I got to tell you that most of the rumors that we've heard and that we haven't reported have proved not to be true, the allegations that we've heard. We've now heard the actual prosecution evidence, much of which wasn't rumors.</s>BLITZER: And it's not just testimony. These pictures that you say are they going to be made public in the sense that they're going to be released to the news media? Will these pictures actually appear in newspapers?</s>TUCHMAN: I could tell you we're not sure about that. We've asked that question. No one seems to know the answer to that. We haven't asked the judge yet. I will tell you that the one picture from the private area I could tell you that it will in no possible way be released. You just can't do that. The jaw area that's a whole other story we don't know.</s>BLITZER: And the other business this was actually the one and only time that they had met. She took him on a tour of the hotel complex and it was only then that he invited her up to his room. They hadn't known each other or met at an earlier occasion is that right, Gary?</s>TUCHMAN: Exactly right. They had never met before and that was one of the rumors that they had met before. No, they had never met before according to the prosecution testimony and he had been in the hotel less than an hour and a half according to the prosecution testimony when not only all this took place but it was all over by then. Ninety minutes after he arrived there this woman was crying to the bellhop, the bellhop following her home and the bellhop is a very significant part of this because he is what they call in legal terms an outcry witness. He'll be testifying as to her state after this happened and that is a very important part of sexual assault trials that have a so-called outcry witness.</s>BLITZER: And what about there was a widespread suggestion, Gary, that perhaps he had put his hand on the door, prevented her from leaving, in effect kidnapping her. I guess that could have been one of the charges against her. Did anything like that come out in testimony by the detective?</s>TUCHMAN: What the testimony is that he did prevent her from leaving by holding her neck. The detective says that he held her neck with two hands for a period of time and then, and once again this is graphic, but according to the testimony bent her over the chair and then took one of his hands off her neck and used it to take off her underwear.</s>BLITZER: And, Gary, just because I think this is very important what happened after she left the room? He remained in the room. She left. What happened then? The detective walked everyone in that room through the process where she went.</s>TUCHMAN: Right. She said several times to him I will not tell anyone this happened. She then went - she then, according to the testimony, Kobe Bryant asked her to clean herself up. She went into the bathroom, dried her tears, brushed her hair, according to the testimony. I apologize for emphasizing that so much but that's important to state. She then went downstairs, according to the testimony, started to close up her shift. Her shift was normally supposed to come to an end at 7:00 at night. She came late to work that day. It was then supposed to end at 11:00 at night. It was at this point past midnight or close to midnight. She started counting up money and then she saw the bellhop, told the bellhop, according to the testimony, what had happened, was very upset. The bellhop then followed her all the way to her home to make sure she got home safely. The next day she went to the hospital for the checkup.</s>BLITZER: Did the detective explain why she waited to go to the hospital, why she waited to report this to police because that presumably could be crucial evidence that the defense attorneys will bring forward? Why the delay?</s>TUCHMAN: Well, your defense attorney's wheels are spinning, Wolf, and we anticipate that's a question that the defense might ask during their cross-examination. Also something they'll talk about is the fact that she, according to her own testimony, she did agree to kiss and hug him. She did say she was flirtatious but that was also one of the rumors and normally I wouldn't want to state rumors but they said, according to the rumors, that she went much further than that. According to this testimony today and this is important to emphasize from the prosecution standpoint, the furthest she was prepared to go with this man, according to their testimony, was kissing and hugging him. Once he started groping her that is when the prosecution says she started objecting to it and continued objecting the rest of the time.</s>BLITZER: And they're in recess right now as they go through this whole issue of whether or not to release the actual tape, the videotape or the audio tape, is that right Gary?</s>TUCHMAN: Well, technically it's not a recess. It's a closed session. They kicked the reporters basically out of the courtroom to discuss this. What has apparently happened and this wasn't explicitly said but after covering legal stories for all this years and covering this one since July, I know implicitly what has happened. The defense agreed to carry on with this preliminary hearing provided they don't play the videotape of the accuser so the decision was made because we know the videotape is there. The prosecutors have already said that in court papers so they agreed to have the detective testify as to what was on the videotape. Now the judge said when he came in, the defense asked today before this hearing began, hey, we'll go through with the preliminary hearing but keep the press out and the judge said the press will be allowed in; however, if the prosecution decides it wants to play Kobe Bryant's audio tape we'll then meet in a closed session and discuss whether or not the press should be allowed to be in when we play the audio tape and if we should play the audio tape at all.</s>BLITZER: All right, Gary, stand by. I'm going to get back to you because there's still a lot more details but I want to get some legal analysis in the meantime. For that in this high profile case we're joined from Denver by the criminal defense attorney Larry Pozner. Larry thanks very much for joining us. What you've heard right now what goes through your mind? This is all explosive, very detailed, graphic testimony against Kobe Bryant.</s>LARRY POZNER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Indeed, Wolf. It's a sad and savage story but the thing we must keep in mind is none of this can take the defense by surprise. They have the police reports under Colorado law. They have the tape recordings so they knew this was coming. So we must ask ourselves why then are they doing the preliminary hearing? And the answer is cross-examination. They must have some details they think the detective doesn't want to talk about, perhaps changes of the witness' story, perhaps other witnesses who have heard her give a different version of events. So, this preliminary hearing is designed by the defense to give them an opportunity to explore the other parts of the case that we wouldn't hear about. In other words, they have a good reason to do this hearing.</s>BLITZER: As you know, Larry, going into this hearing today there was widespread assumption, speculation there wouldn't even be a hearing, that the defense attorneys would waive that preliminary hearing. That was their right.</s>POZNER: Yes, Wolf, and I heard that over and over but frankly I didn't agree with it and spoke yesterday saying that is not the likely course of events. It's not as if you can keep this case quiet. Her story was going to come out and so the defense I don't think is playing to the media here. I think the defense has its mind where it should be, which is what will the evidence be at trial and we're going to get a preview of that in defense evidence today. They get to say to the detective now you interviewed so and so and they told you something different or you interviewed the girl a second time and she changed. That's what we need to be listening for today because, Wolf, at the end of this it will be the credibility of this witness that goes to trial.</s>BLITZER: The whole notion, and we're going to take a quick break, I want to get back to you Larry, but very briefly the whole notion of this high stakes strategy by the defense attorneys they must know something else that so far we don't know.</s>POZNER: That is exactly right, Wolf. You are onto it. There are things they must know that they want to bring out today through the prosecution witnesses and perhaps by calling their own witnesses or they wouldn't be in this hearing.</s>BLITZER: All right, Larry, stand by because I have a lot more questions. We have a lot more issues to resolve. We're going to get right back to you. As we've been reporting it's happening right now, at long last the details officially coming out in a court of law, the preliminary hearing against Kobe Bryant that's going on. We're going to get through much more of that throughout the course of this hour. And we're also following other important news of this hour as well. Six months after the fall, coalition forces continue to face a barrage of bullets from opposition fighters in Iraq. And this important news breakthrough, potential at least, for breast cancer patients, there are some drawbacks. We'll explain. And later, Siegfried offers his explanation of why one of their show tigers attacked Roy, a lot of news coming up. Stay with us.