Kobe CNN documentary Making of a Legend uncovers police interview that complicates legacy

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On Saturday (January 25) the first episode of a new three-part documentary, Kobe: The Making of a Legend, will air on CNN. The first installment of the in-depth series covers his childhood, his rise in youth basketball, and the marriage to his wife Vanessa that put him at loggerheads with his parents and closest advisors.

But it is the second episode, set to arrive on January 31, that will prove most controversial, as it includes details of a newly unearthed police interview with the 19-year-old hotel worker who accused Bryant of sexual assault in 2003.

At 24, Bryant was already a superstar when he checked into the Cordillera Lodge and Spa in June 2003. He was in the sleepy Colorado town of Eagle to undergo a minor knee surgery. His alleged victim was employed on the front desk of the hotel, and claims in the police interview that after showing the VIP guest to his room, he asked her for a personal tour. When they ended up back in his room, he asked her for a hug, then started kissing her. While that was consensual, she says that when Bryant started to grope her and she objected, she tried to break away and he grabbed her by the neck.

Her account of what happened next is chilling. In a victim’s statement, she says: “When he took off his pants, that’s when I started to kinda back up, and to push his hands off me, and that’s when he started to choke me.” Asked by a police detective how hard he was choking her, she replies in video seen now for the first time: “He wasn’t choking me enough that I couldn’t breathe, just choking me to the point I was scared.” She also tells detectives that she repeatedly told Bryant “no”. When they ask how she can be sure he heard her, she responds: “Because every time I said ‘no’ he tightened his hold, around me.”

The documentary also quotes from police interviews with Bryant himself, who initially denies having sex with the young woman. After making it clear that all he really cares about is his wife not finding out, he eventually admits that he did have sex with her and that he did have his hands around her neck. “I had my right hand like this and my other hand like that,” he tells police. Asked how hard he was holding her, he responds: “I don’t know. My hands are strong. I don’t know.”

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