Shameful secret that haunted Kobe Bryant till his horrific death revealed in new documentary

The rape case that almost ruined Kobe Bryant’s career is front and center in a new CNN documentary that puts the NBA great’s life under a microscope.

The film includes a newly unearthed police interview with a hotel clerk who accused the basketball legend of choking her during an alleged sexual assault.

The woman, who was 19 at the time of the alleged 2003 attack, is featured in the film Kobe: The Making Of A Legend.

Documentary: A new CNN film about Kobe Bryant’s life details a hotel clerk’s sexual assault accusation against Kobe Bryant in 2003

The woman went to the police with her claims and said in the documentary that she felt ‘scared’ as Bryant tightened his grip on her neck every time she would say ‘no’.

Bryant, who played his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers, came forward after the claims were first made and admitted that he cheated on his wife Vanessa, but strongly denied sexually assaulting the young woman.

It allegedly took place at The Lodge & Spa At Cordillera, a hotel in Edwards, Colorado, where Bryant checked in to undergo minor surgery.

Denial: Bryant, who played with the Los Angeles Lakers throughout his career, vehemently denied the claims that he had raped her

Mark Hulbert, one of the Eagle County prosecutors who brought the case forward, said in the film that the alleged victim was a front desk employee who greeted Bryant before he pulled her aside and asked her to give him a tour.

The pair went to his room and Bryant began kissing her, which the victim was initially OK with. But when he tried to go further, he allegedly grabbed her, put his hand around her neck and sexually assaulted her.

The case was proceeding through the courts but came to a standstill and was dropped a year later after the alleged victim stated she didn’t want to cooperate.

Hearing: Bryant passes through a security checkpoint as he arrives at the Eagle County Justice Center April 28, 2004, shortly before the case was dropped

This decision was frustrating for the prosecution who said in the film that justice was not done and that Bryant ‘knows what he did’.

According to Colorado District Court Chief Judge Ingrid Bakke, the victim had been ‘beat up for so long’ that she had ‘reached her breaking point’.

Bakke joined the prosecution team on the Bryant case in 2003. She had considerable experience working on sexual assault cases.

Family man: The allegation came during the middle of his career. He had a wife, a five-month old baby daughter and he could have been jailed for at least four years if found guilty

According to Bakke, one of the ‘strongest pieces’ of evidence was that the victim told a colleague right after the incident and said she didn’t want to speak out because ‘no-one’s going to believe me’.

Despite her hesitance, the woman went to police the next day and gave a statement.

The documentary reproduces whole chunks of the interview with Eagle County Sheriff Doug Winters, who is shown asking the victim where exactly Bryant was grabbing her butt and chest.

Prosecutor: Mark Hulbert was a member of the team that brought the case to court. He said the woman had been ‘resolute’ at the start of the process but the rulings and the attacks on her character ‘wore her down’

The victim said: ‘When he took off his pants, that’s when I started to kinda back up and to try to push his hands off me and that’s when he started to choke me.

‘He wasn’t choking me enough that I couldn’t breathe, just choking me to the point I was scared.’

Detective Winters asked the woman if she said anything during the incident. She replied: ‘I was scared and I said no a few times.’

The victim confirmed that Bryant heard her because ‘every time I said no he tightened his hold around me’.

‘And then he would lean his face real close to me and ask me questions [like] “you’re not going to tell anybody, right?”‘ the woman added.

Tragic end: Bryant and his daughter Gianna were killed in a horrific helicopter crash  in 2020

When Bryant was first called by police he denied everything and said that his wife not finding out was ‘all I care about’.

But then he admitted involvement with the woman and said he did have his hand around her neck.

Bryant told police: ‘I had my right hand like this, and my other hand like that.’

When asked how hard he was holding her, Bryant said: ‘I don’t know. My hands are strong.’

In the documentary, Hulbert describes the case as strong and said the victim had ‘the details right up front’, unlike most sexual assault victims who were too traumatized to have a clear memory.

After the charges were filed, Bryant appeared at a press conference holding hands with Vanessa and saying he was ‘innocent’ but he admitted adultery and said he was ‘furious at myself’.

‘I love my wife with all my heart,’ Bryant said, turning to Vanessa and saying: ‘She’s my backbone, you’re a blessing’.

Bakke says that when she saw the press conference, her view was that Bryant was ‘so scared and I’m saying this because I have to say this’.

Admission: Bryant told police during his interview that ‘all I care about’ was his wife Vanessa not finding out about the incident

Bryant’s life in the documentary will, according to the outlet, put a light on the ‘unseen forces’ that shaped Bryant’s life until his untimely death in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles in 2020 at the age of 41.

His 13-year-old daughter Gianna died alongside him. He was survived by Vanessa, 42, and three other daughters Natalia, 22, Bianka, eight, and Capri, five.

Hulbert said the woman had been ‘resolute’ at the start of the process but the rulings and the attacks just ‘wore her down’.

Then, in September 2004, as the jury was being chosen, Hulbert got a call from the victim who said ‘I don’t want to do this anymore’.

He said: ‘She had been so beat up for so long she’d reached her breaking point and had enough.’

National hero: Bryant was awarded the Choice Male Athlete Of The Year only 14 days after he was charged

According to Hulbert, in the wake of the case being dropped, there was a ‘significant’ plummet in the number of women reporting sexual assaults in Eagle County.

The woman did sue Bryant in a civil case, and as part of the settlement he issued an apology.

Bryant said: ‘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.’

In the documentary Bakke dismissed the apology, saying it was ‘well crafted’.

Bakke said in the film: ‘Do I think justice prevailed? Absolutely not… he knows what he did.’