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Your cynicism gets ahead of you. It may very well be about the money, but that is not proven by this.
The judge's decision to allow aspects of the accuser's (not plaintiff - civil trials have plaintiffs) past sexual history in the criminal case has probably led them to believe Bryant will win an acquittal. All you need is one juror to say somebody else might have done it or she brought it on herself by being a skank. The lesson for future rapists who can afford good lawyers is you get a free pass with any woman you can portray as a slut.
The reason for this is that in criminal trials there is a high burden of proof - beyond a reasonable doubt - and jury verdicts must usually be unanimous*. Civil trials, which do not seek to take away one's life or liberty, do not have to meet the same standards. There, the standard is usually something like "the preponderance of the evidence." This standard is often expressed as "more likely that not" or "ore probably true than not true."
The criminal trial of The State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson and the civil trial of Fredric Goldman, Sharon Rufo and Louis Brown, et al. v. Orenthal James Simpson, et al. are examples where a defendant was found not guilty in a criminal trial but guilty in a civil trial. In the first, the state failed to meet the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt (actually they did, but the jury nullified). In the second, the plaintiffs were able to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the glove did fit.
RL probably has more knowledge in this area, since he's a litigator, but my impression is that this is unusual. An acquittal in a criminal trial makes it much harder to win in a civil trial, even when everyone "knows" the defendant is guilty. Perhaps the accuser's lawyers are worried that the State has so fouled up the prosecution of its case that no justice can be reached in criminal court.
If you think Kobe is innocent, that is your right, but this development is far from probative of that.
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* Two states, Oregon and Louisiana, and the UK allow 10-2 jury verdicts in felony criminal trials; Oregon allows 5-1 verdicts in misdemeanor trials. Thirty states allow non-unanimous verdicts in civil trials.
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