A nurse who examined the 19-year-old woman accusing basketball star Kobe Bryant of rape testified on Tuesday in a closed hearing held to decide if the woman's sexual past should be admitted at trial.
The nurse, from Valley View hospital in Glenwood Springs, who examined the woman the day after she said was raped, was questioned for about 3-1/2 hours.
Three young men, believed to be friends of the accuser, also testified in the critical closed-door hearing on Colorado's Rape Shield law.
The law bars defendants from presenting evidence of a sexual assault victim's sexual history at trial unless there is a very strong reason.
Bryant's defence lawyers, Hal Haddon and Pamela Mackey, have said the woman's sexual activity days before and hours after she said she was raped on June 30 last year could explain certain injuries to the genital area she sustained. The long questioning of the nurse may have focused on the injuries.
Prosecutors have countered that the woman's sexual past is not relevant and should not be admitted at trial. The woman, through her attorney, has denied she had sex within 15 hours after she said she was raped at a Colorado resort where she worked and Bryant was staying while he had outpatient surgery on a knee.
The hearing on the woman's sexual history, which has included testimony from former boyfriends and other acquaintances, is held behind closed doors to protect the woman's privacy. If District Court Judge Terry Ruckriegle rules that the woman's sexual history should not be admitted at trial, then her privacy will have been protected.
The Rape Shield issue has been the focus of hearings in recent months and to date some 18 witnesses have testified on whether or not the defence should have access to the woman's medical and psychological records. The judge ruled last week that the accuser never waived her physician-patient privilege.
The 25-year-old Los Angeles Laker has denied he raped the woman at a Colorado resort where she worked and he was staying while he had outpatient surgery on his knee.
Instead, Bryant, married and father of a 15-month-old girl, said the two had consensual sex, which he regrets.
The hearing ends on Wednesday.
