If Kobe’s accuser is alcoholic, should we believe her?
AUGUST 2004
Accuser’s sex life will be fair game at Bryant’s assault trial
Stating that the credibility of the accuser was a factor in the Kobe Bryant case, the judge ruled July 23 that her sexual escapades (my term) during the week preceding the alleged rape can be used against her. The likelihood of multiple sex partners immediately before (and, apparently, after) the event is an excellent clue to addiction because wielding such sexual power can be very ego-inflating. A false accusation would fit right in with the profile.
False accusations are common to alcohol and other drug addicts and decidedly uncommon among non-addicts. In a classic case, Charles Whitman, District Attorney of New York, framed police lieutenant Charles Becker for murder in the early 1900s. As Becker’s wife pleaded for his life, Whitman, who had since become Governor of New York, was so drunk he had to be held up by his assistants. Becker was executed the next day.
In another tragic case, Judy Johnson made the first accusation in the early 1980s against the Buckey family in what became the McMartin Pre-School child abuse trial in Manhattan Beach, California. Years later, the Buckey’s were exonerated and Johnson, who had since committed suicide, was outed as a full-blown addict. Yet at one point, an incredible 98% of Los Angeles County residents believed accusations of abuse that almost everyone today views as patently ridiculous. As I noted in my book How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics, lies made by practicing addicts are often more believable than truths told by non-addicts, even in a court of law.
The fact that alcoholics find ego-gratification in making false accusations is reason enough for backgrounds and reputations of accusers to be fair game in every “he said/she said” trial. While the judge ruled for Kobe on narrow circumstances having to do with bruises found on her that could have been inflicted by a person other than Kobe, such rulings should be standard fare.