DENVER: A friend of the 19-year-old woman who has accused Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant of sexually assaulting her said on Monday that the woman was distraught and wanted the media to leave her alone.

"She didn't know what was going to happen to her. She was just scared," 19-year-old Starlene Bray said on ABC's Good Morning America.

Bray said she appeared on the morning news programme at the behest of the alleged victim.

Two other friends of the alleged victim appeared on NBC TV's The Today Show, and one, Casey Strickler, said the young woman was in shock. Strickler also said she spoke briefly with the alleged victim, quoting her as describing the incident by saying "he went the whole way."

The televised interviews came a day after Bryant, a five-time NBA all-star, said in a newspaper interview that he was innocent and that his name would ultimately be cleared.

Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to charge Bryant for allegedly assaulting the woman on June 30 at a posh Colorado resort where she worked as a concierge.

At the time, Bryant was in Colorado for an operation on his right knee and was staying at the Lodge and Spa at Cordillera.

Bryant surrendered to Colorado authorities on a felony arrest warrant on July 4 and was released after posting a US$25,000 bond.

Media reports have said Bryant offered samples for DNA testing. Pete Mang, spokesman for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, said on Monday evidence from the case was still being analyzed at the state crime laboratory.

He said hair and other potential evidence is analyzed by different experts and is passed along to authorities separately. "They're all submitted at different times," Mang said.

Mark Hurlbert, district attorney for Eagle County, where the incident allegedly took place, is expected to decide this week whether he will charge Bryant.

Because the mountain town where the alleged victim lives is small, her identity has become widely known by her neighbours and members of the media have visited her home.

"She's kind of hiding out right now," Bray told the ABC TV morning television programme. "She's been back and forth from Denver, kind of trying to avoid the media and the press right now."

Bryant, 24, told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday that he was innocent. "I would never do something like that," he said.

"When everything comes clean, it will all be fine, you'll see," the Lakers leading scorer told the newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.

Agencies via Xinhua

(China Daily 07/16/2003 page8)