DENVER -- When Kobe Bryant said he "made the mistake of adultery," he handed prosecutors the challenge of proving that whatever happened between him and the woman who accused him of sexual assault was against her will.
"How do they prove it's not consensual? That's the whole enchilada right there," said Steve Kron, a longtime sports criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles.
"It's hard to prove (with) two adults in a room having sex that the sex was not consensual," he said.
Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar, was charged Friday with felony sexual assault against a 19-year-old woman who worked at an exclusive spa where Bryant was staying while in Colorado for knee surgery.
"I am innocent of the charges filed today. I did not assault the woman who is accusing me. I made the mistake of adultery," Bryant said in a written statement.
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"Now it's going to be interesting," said Kron, who has represented Paula Poundstone and other celebrities.
"Do you have witnesses or physical evidence? Was she bruised, scratched, injured in some fashion?" Kron said.
Kron and others said Bryant's attorneys will scrutinize the woman's life and look for ways to discredit her. Jurors may not want to believe allegations against a superstar, they said.
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Kron said financial questions may also be raised.
"Are there financial incentives for her? We all know what Kobe's worth," he said.
The reaction of Bryant's wife, Vanessa, will be crucial to both jurors and the public, said Robert Pugsley, a professor of criminal law at Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles.
"It will give the public a sense that he acknowledged that something did occur but it also says it's a moral lapse and not a criminal act," he said.
Vanessa Bryant issued a statement Friday saying her husband "has made a mistake -- the mistake of adultery."
But she added, "I know that he did not commit a crime, he did not assault anyone. He is a loving and kind husband and father. I believe in his innocence."
One in four women surveyed was victim of rape or attempted rape.
An additional one in four women surveyed was touched sexually against her will or was victim of sexual coercion.
84 percent of those raped knew their attacker.
57 percent of those rapes happened while on dates.
One in twelve male students surveyed had committed acts that met the legal definitions of rape or attempted rape.
84 percent of those men who committed rape said that what they did was definitely not rape.
Sixteen percent of the male students who committed rape and ten percent of those who attempted a rape took part in episodes involving more than one attacker.
Only 27 percent of those women whose sexual assault met the legal definition of rape thought of themselves as rape victims.
42 percent of the rape victims did not tell anyone about their assaults.
Only five percent of the rape victims reported the crime to the police.
Only five percent of the rape victims sought help at rape-crisis centers.
Whether they had acknowledged their experience as a rape or not, thirty percent of the women identified as rape victims contemplated suicide after the incident.
82 percent of the victims said that the experience had permanently changed them.
While the truth is this case, regardless of press speculation, remains for a Colorado court to establish. It seems that women in general understand, that regardless of the truth, it's hard for a women to prove non-consensual sex.
DENVER -- When Kobe Bryant said he "made the mistake of adultery," he handed prosecutors the challenge of proving that whatever happened between him and the woman who accused him of sexual assault was against her will.
