Stern vs. Goodell

When Kobe was charged by the girl in Colorado and hauled into court on we know what charges, Bryant was allowed to fly back and forth from Colorado to wherever the Lakers were playing to play in his team's games. Even though his conduct was unbecoming a professional athlete he suffered no suspension or league penalty. Goodell, on the other hand has banished Roethlisberger for six games next season and could be longer based on his non compliance with therapy and NFL rehab procedure. Why does Stern sweat the small stuff and ignore the elephant in the room. Banter about refs is not nearly as serious as the conduct of league superstars (NFL or NBA) off the court or playing field. Stern should have taken similar action with Kobe that Goodell took with Big Ben. As classy as the Steeler organization is, you know the Rooneys would have acted if the Commissioner did not!

MDCelticsFan wrote:When Kobe was charged by the girl in Colorado and hauled into court on we know what charges, Bryant was allowed to fly back and forth from Colorado to wherever the Lakers were playing to play in his team's games. Even though his conduct was unbecoming a professional athlete he suffered no suspension or league penalty. Goodell, on the other hand has banished Roethlisberger for six games next season and could be longer based on his non compliance with therapy and NFL rehab procedure. Why does Stern sweat the small stuff and ignore the elephant in the room. Banter about refs is not nearly as serious as the conduct of league superstars (NFL or NBA) off the court or playing field. Stern should have taken similar action with Kobe that Goodell took with Big Ben. As classy as the Steeler organization is, you know the Rooneys would have acted if the Commissioner did not!

And Kobe was actually arrested and Stern did nothing. Roethlisberger was never even arrested and was suspended for nearly half the season. For those who have forgotten the details about Kobe's Colorado adventure, here's your reminder:

The Kobe Bryant sexual assault case began in the summer of 2003 when the news media reported that the sheriff's office in Eagle, Colorado had arrested NBA superstar Kobe Bryant in connection with an investigation of a sexual assault complaint filed by 19-year old hotel employee Katelyn Faber. Bryant had checked into The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera hotel in Cordillera, Colorado on June 30 in advance of having surgery near there on July 2 under Dr. Richard Steadman. Faber accused Bryant of raping her in his hotel room on July 1, the night before the surgery. Bryant admitted to an adulterous sexual encounter with his accuser, but denied the assault allegation. The case was dropped after Faber declined to testify in the trial, and a civil suit was settled out of court.

Arrest

Eagle County Sheriff investigators first confronted Bryant with the sexual assault accusation on July 2. During the July 2003 interview with investigators, Bryant stated that the sex was consensual.[1] Bryant said he checked into Room 35 of the Lodge and Spa at Cordillera on June 28, and then the alleged victim gave him a tour of the hotel on July 1. After the tour he claims they went to his room and were kissing. He said Faber showed him a tattoo on her lower back that had music and instruments on it, and told him she wanted to be a singer. He said Faber then gave him oral sex for a few seconds before bending over a chair and pulling up her skirt. Bryant said he stopped having intercourse with her after he asked if he could "cum on her face", and she said no, when Bryant apparently told her to leave.[2] He said Faber asked him to sign autographs and then left his room once the intercourse ended. He also told investigators that he didn’t ejaculate during the intercourse and instead masturbated in his room after she left. He expressed fear that his wife would leave him if she found out that he cheated on her and suggested that Faber must be after money.

Law enforcement officials collected evidence from Bryant and he agreed to submit to a rape test kit and a voluntary lie detector test.[3] On July 4, Sheriff Joe Hoy issued an arrest warrant for Bryant. Bryant flew from Los Angeles back to Eagle Colorado to surrender to police. He was immediately released on $25,000 bond, and news of the arrest became public two days after that. On July 18, the Eagle County District Attorney's office filed a formal charge against Bryant for sexual assault. If convicted, Bryant faced probation to life in prison.

On July 15, three days before Bryant was charged with sexual assault, Faber allegedly bragged about having sex with Bryant at a party, and gave a graphic description of the NBA star's penis. Steve Evancho told NBC News that he was surprised when Faber showed up at his house party. “She was bragging about the whole thing," Evancho said, adding that the woman seemed "happy. She was having fun." And answered a question about his penis “with a gesture and a description."[4][5]

After he was formally charged on July 18, Bryant held a news conference in which he adamantly denied having raped Faber. With his wife on his side, he confessed, in tears, to having an adulterous sexual encounter with her, but insisted that everything that happened between the two had been consensual. Faber told a friend that "She couldn't believe that his wife was sitting there and apparently didn't care about adultery."[6]

The case's pre-trial hearings went on through the 2003–04 season, a number of times causing Bryant to have to be in court in Colorado during the day, then immediately fly to another part of the country to play in the Lakers' game that night. Bryant generally performed well in such games, though the on-going proceedings and the media attention on them served as a continuing distraction, both to Bryant personally, and to the Laker team as a whole.[7][8]

Faber's statement

In her initial interview with police on July 2, Faber claimed Bryant raped her from behind over a love chair in his hotel room at approximately 11 pm on July 1.[9] She said she arrived late to her job at the hotel because of car problems. While in Bryant’s room after giving him a tour of the hotel, she said she became “uncomfortable” because he was being flirtatious. She said she got up to leave and that Bryant asked her for a hug. Then she said he kissed her when she looked up at him. She later said both the hug and kiss were consensual, but she never wanted to have sex with Bryant.

Faber stated the kiss lasted 5 minutes, and then Bryant pulled down his pants and started groping her. She claimed that she tried to pull away at that point, and said Bryant put both of his hands around her neck to choke her. She said he pulled her over to the chair by her neck, where he "bent her over the chair and pulled down her panties". She said he then penetrated her from behind with one hand on her neck holding her down. She said both her hands were on the chair and that she said “no” repeatedly. She said she wasn’t resisting because she was afraid he would become “more physical.”

She told investigators that Bryant then asked whether she "liked it if a guy came on [her] face".[10] She said she told Bryant "no". And then she "got a little more aggressive with him and tried to release his hands from [her] neck". After "trying as hard as [she] could to get away" she said Bryant stopped having intercourse with her, and she was able to free herself. She said Bryant made her promise not to tell anyone, and then he forced her to wash her face before she could leave. She told investigators three times that she washed her face in his room before she left the room, but later claimed she never washed her face. Detective Winters asked "are you lying to me right now?" Faber answered "no". While giving the statement, Faber also volunteered to take a lie detector test to prove she was telling the truth.[11]

According to Detective Winters's "Affidavit in Support of Arrest", Faber added something to her story when examined by a nurse on July 2.[12] She told the nurse that she gave Bryant oral sex. Faber later explained to Detective Winters that Bryant made her kiss his penis after the intercourse by pulling her head down with both hands. She stated that there was nothing else that she could recall. Winters noted that Bryant said ejaculating on his partner's face was his "thing". Faber's rape examination revealed "vaginal trauma" and that her underwear had a very small brown mark on the crotch that was identified as dried blood. Detective Winters also noted that Trina McKay, the resort's night auditor, said she didn’t look upset when she came back from Bryant's room, and didn’t believe Faber was telling the truth.

In her letter to Gerry Sandberg, Faber would apologize for "mix-ups" in her initial statement to police.[13]

Hearings

As the hearings began, the prosecution accused Bryant's defense team of attacking Kate Faber's credibility.[14] It was revealed that she wore underpants containing another man's semen and pubic hair to her rape exam the day after the alleged incident.[15] Detective Doug Winters stated that the yellow underwear she wore to her rape exam contained sperm from another man, along with Caucasian pubic hair. Bryant's defense stated that the exam results showed "compelling evidence of innocence" because the accuser must have had another sexual encounter immediately after the incident. Faber told investigators that she grabbed dirty underwear by mistake from her laundry basket when she left her home for the examination. On the day Faber was examined, she said she hadn’t showered since the morning of the incident. The examination found evidence of vaginal trauma, which Bryant’s defense team claimed was consistent with having sex with multiple partners in two days.

The evidence recovered by police included the T-shirt that Bryant wore the night of the incident, which had three small stains of the accuser's blood on it. The stains were invisible to the naked eye on the white T-shirt. The smudge was verified to be Faber's blood by DNA testing, and probably wasn't menstrual blood because Faber said she had her period two weeks earlier. It was revealed that Bryant leaned Faber over a chair to have sex with her, which allegedly caused the bleeding. This became the sex act in question, as Faber claims she told Bryant to stop but he would not, and Bryant claims he stopped after asking if he could ejaculate on her face.[16][17]

Trina McKay, the resort's night auditor, said she saw Faber as she was leaving to go home, and "she did not look or sound as if there had been any problem."[18] However, Bobby Pietrack, Faber's high school friend and a bellman at the resort, said she appeared to be very upset, and "told me that Kobe Bryant had forced sex with her."

A few weeks before the trial was scheduled to begin, Faber wrote a letter to Gerry Sandberg apologizing for intentional misstatements and clarifying “mix-ups” she made when first interviewed by Colorado police.[19] She wrote that she wanted to make the corrections because she was worried Detective Doug Winters, the lead investigator in the case, did not believe her story. Faber wrote she lied when she told investigators that Bryant forced her to wash her face in his room before she was allowed to leave, stating she never washed her face in his room and instead wrote that she used a mirror near the hotel elevator to clean up her face. She said this was the only thing she “exaggerated.” She also admitted to be lying about having car troubles the day of the incident. In the last paragraph, she wrote that Bryant asked if he could ejaculate on her face and that it was “a degrading comment” and “difficult to talk about.” And concluded the letter with this statement:
“ The other thing is that when I was finally able to pry his hands off my neck, when I turned around his hands were in the air, like someone would when a cop asks them to put their hands in the air.

I know that none of these things change what happened, but I wanted you to know. Please call me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Kate Faber[20]

”

Bryant's defense lawyer Pamela Mackey asserted that Faber was taking an anti-psychotic drug for the treatment of schizophrenia at the time of the incident. Faber was hospitalized as a "danger to herself" four months before the alleged sexual assault.[21] Lindsey McKinney, who lived with the accuser, said the woman twice tried to kill herself at school by overdosing on sleeping pills. Before the alleged incident, Faber, an aspiring singer, tried out for the television show American Idol with the song "Forgive" by Rebecca Lynn Howard, but failed to advance.[22]

On September 1, 2004 Eagle County District Judge Terry Ruckriegle dismissed the charges against Bryant, after prosecutors spent more than $200,000 preparing for trial, because Faber informed them that she was unwilling to testify.[23]

Settlement

Before the case was scheduled to go to trial, Faber filed a civil lawsuit against Bryant over the incident on August 10. The two sides ultimately settled that lawsuit, with specific terms of the settlement being undisclosed to the public. Bryant did, however, issue the following statement through his attorney, as part of an agreement with the accuser to dismiss the sexual assault charge:
“ First, I want to apologize directly to the young woman involved in this incident. I want to apologize to her for my behavior that night and for the consequences she has suffered in the past year. Although this year has been incredibly difficult for me personally, I can only imagine the pain she has had to endure. I also want to apologize to her parents and family members, and to my family and friends and supporters, and to the citizens of Eagle, Colo.

I also want to make it clear that I do not question the motives of this young woman. No money has been paid to this woman. She has agreed that this statement will not be used against me in the civil case. Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did. After months of reviewing discovery, listening to her attorney, and even her testimony in person, I now understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter.

I issue this statement today fully aware that while one part of this case ends today, another remains. I understand that the civil case against me will go forward. That part of this case will be decided by and between the parties directly involved in the incident and will no longer be a financial or emotional drain on the citizens of the state of Colorado."[24]

Aftermath

Eight months after the initial incident the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera remodeled and as part of that sold some furniture. There was speculation that some pieces included in this sale were from "Room 35" where Kobe Bryant had allegedly stayed at the time.[25] The lodge denied this and stated they had disposed of the furniture from that room separately.[26]

Bryant signed a seven-year, $136 million contract a year after the allegations, and regained several of his endorsements from Nike, Spalding, and Coca-Cola.[27] He remains married to his wife Vanessa Bryant, and was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player in 2008 and the Finals' Most Valuable Player in 2009.

MD,

The difference between Kobe and Ben is that Ben is a multiple offender of the conduct code. Ben did not get suspended until after the third event.
Kobe had one event in which he was not found guilty. If he showed poor discretion again, he could expect to be suspended.
It sounds like you feel Kobe shouldn't have been allowed to go to work during the allegations/trial. Should Delonte West have been suspended for this season because he faces a summer trial for gun charges? He has serious charges to face but has not been suspended yet.
David Stern never suspends a player until after the legal proceedings have taken place, if there are any.
1/15 Arenas plead guilty.
1/27 Arenas was suspended.

This girl in Colorado was a mental case who was suicidal and hospitalized months earlier.
She got what she wanted which was a financial settlement.