SI on Kobe
 

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All or Nothing for Kobe



You would not want to be Kobe Bryant now, sleeping each night on a bed of Swiss army knives, your career, your future, your life wobbling on a serrated edge.

It's all or nothing, innocent or guilty of rape, joyous freedom or a kind of hell he can't even imagine. The two scenarios:

If Kobe Bryant is found innocent ... He will first collapse, tearfully, into the arms of his wife, Vanessa, who never turned on him, not through the ugliest moments of the trial, and it will have gotten very ugly.

Then he will burst, jubilantly, out the courtroom doors -- probably in Grand Junction, Colo., where many experts think the trial will be moved -- to the cheers of a bizarre crowd of maybe 1,000, most of them Lakers fans. They will be off the hook that their star is off the hook. This will probably happen in early May 2004, with the playoffs just kicking in.

"His endorsement career is dead either way," says a Lakers executive, "but at that point, he won't give a damn."

But if Kobe Bryant is found guilty ... He will be instantly taken by two deputy sheriffs to a life of degradation, humiliation and loneliness. "Colorado sex-offense statutes are probably the harshest in the country," says Denver trial attorney Bob McAllister. "There's no worse place to commit a sex crime."

If he isn't eligible for bond, Bryant will spend around 60 days simmering in a county cell. Either way, while he is awaiting sentencing, he will likely be given a penile plethysmograph test, in which an electric measuring band connected to a computer will be placed around his penis. He will then be shown pornographic, deviant and sex-abuse images, and the device will record his level of arousal. The results of the test will be used to determine the course of his rehabilitation treatment.

"It's all very Clockwork Orangish," says Dan Recht, former head of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar.

At sentencing, the judge will have three options: probation, the community correction system, or state prison.

If Bryant gets into the community system, which is primarily for nonviolent offenders, he will probably be sent to one of Denver's community correction houses. It won't exactly be the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera. He'll most likely share a matchbox room with another sex offender. The bathroom will be down the hall.

His stay in the community system will last at least four years, during which he will go through the Sex Offender Treatment Program. Could he work while in the community system? Yes, if the NBA will allow it, but almost certainly not for a company out of the area. Hello, Denver Nuggets.

More likely the judge will send Bryant to prison and horrors he never knew existed. That's no exaggeration.

Over the last five years convicted rapists in Colorado have received "indeterminate" sentences -- four years to life. Only when they are deemed safe to reenter society are they allowed out. "That's a very hard thing for a rapist to convince a parole board of," says Denver defense attorney H. Michael Steinberg.

"Since this new sentencing scheme went into effect," says Recht, "I don't know of anybody who's been paroled."

There will be a bus ride, likely to the Colorado State Penitentiary in Cañon City, where for the first year, "he will be in a cell 23 hours out of 24," says McAllister. "He's famous so the guards will make sure there's no appearance of favoritism. They'll probably be harder on him, full-body cavity searches, just to show him he isn't anything special."

Meanwhile, back in Eagle, Colo., his victim can sue him in civil court and win. How much might she get? In Vail, attorneys are guessing between $5 million and $10 million.

In prison Bryant will have to get through an exhaustive treatment program, which "could take five to eight years to complete," says Steinberg. The rehab will include group therapy, anger management, admission of guilt and a listing of his "distorted core beliefs about self, men, women, children, sex, family and the world," according to the program's website.

Best case ... Bryant will be paroled in six years. He will be 31 and can play in the NBA again -- if he still has the skills and can find a taker. But he won't be living his old bling-bling NBA life. He'll be required to inform his parole officer of his every movement, by contacting the officer or by electronic bracelet or GPS device. Some sex parolees are not allowed to be around anyone 18 or under. Under Megan's Law anytime Bryant changes his address, he will have to register with the police as a sex offender and his name will be placed on a list that is available to the public.

After 10 years Bryant might be off parole and a relatively free man. He would be 41 years old.

So that's it -- all or nothing. A jury foreman steps up and, with a few words, determines Bryant's future.

If it were me, I'd stop buying $4 million diamond rings and start buying more $4 million lawyers.
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Rick Reilly is the MAN.

Go Rick, GO!!

Or maybe it's all bullshit and the cash-cow will drop her charges?

Guilty or innocent, Kobe will never serve time in jail. Such is the way society treats our celebrities if they are still of use to us.

Fry 'em.

Fry her ;)

Intersting article. I really hope Kobe didn't do it because, as much as I hate the Lakers, I'd really hate to see Kobe go down like that. The whole thing about wrapping something around his schlong and testing his arrousal levels. Jesus. All a bit much for me. I reckon Kobe would do alright in that test though. His wife is F#@$@$ gorgeous and I'm sure this little incident isn't his first :cool:

When's the next development in the case??? I just wanna know the verdict already.