July, apparently, epitomizes the dog days of summer less for some members of the public sphere than for others.
During the month's course, Mark Hurlbert '91, a cross-country skier from 750-person Dillon, Colo., has been pitted against one of the nation's most easily-recognized sports superstars -- and a legal "dream team" to match.
The prosecutor who is set to try Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant for sexually assaulting a 19-year-old female June 30 at a Vail lodge, Hurlbert has gone from a quiet life as the attorney for Colorado's Fifth Judicial District to morning talk-show appearances, newspaper interviews and now, death threats directed toward him and his family.
Even more jarring, perhaps, is the fact that Hurlbert, 34, is only in his eighth month of office. Colorado Gov. Bill Owens appointed him late last year to district attorney for a four-county region allotted a meager $2 million for all of its legal expenditures. Bryant's team of lawyers, in contrast, is powered by the financial powerhouse that is its client's basketball earnings.
His adversaries also have big names in the Rocky Mountain region's courtrooms and political arena. Pamela Mackey, one of Bryant's attorneys, successfully defended Colorado Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy in a domestic violence case two years ago. Her co-counsel, Harold Haddon, represented John Ramsey in the much-publicized JonBenet Ramsey case and ran former Sen. Gary Hart's 1988 campaign for President.
Still, despite the seemingly numerous odds against him, Hurlbert said that he's confident of success. Otherwise, he added, the case wouldn't have been pushed even this far. In his other high-profile case this year, involving a British skier entwined in a fatal collision at Breckenridge ski resort, Hurlbert didn't file charges, saying it wasn't possible to prove that a crime had indeed taken place.
"I have an ethical burden not to prosecute a case unless I can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt," Hurlbert said in a July 18 announcement to prosecute Bryant, the wholesome hoops star who has already admitted that he had extramarital, though consensual, sex with the alleged victim. The case has also put Bryant's multitude of endorsement deals on the line.
A preliminary hearing is still several weeks in the future, but Eagle County, Colo., Judge Frederick Gannett has already issued a gag order for lawyers and law enforcement officials involved in the case.
Bryant, 24, has been released on $25,000 bail. He is slated to appear in Eagle County court briefly on Aug. 6, but not until the preliminary hearing can his lawyers ask for the case to be dismissed.
All in all, it's providing quite the hectic summer schedule for Hurlbert, a Nordic ski team recruit and the middle of three sons in a staunchly Republican family.
Life at Dartmouth, he hinted in an interview yesterday, was not nearly as stressful. While at the College, Hurlbert majored in government, skied, led two Freshman Trips with the Dartmouth Outing Club and was a member of Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity.
"He was a very hard worker," said friend and Nordic ski team captain Andrew Sveen '91. "Mark was always viewed as someone who worked really hard and trained really hard."
Hurlbert's outgoing and trustworthy character, Sveen added, made him practically impossible not to be liked.
And although always focused, according to Sveen, becoming a lawyer was not one of Hurlbert's initial goals.
"It was more of that I didn't know what to do, so I applied to law school and I got in here" at the University of Colorado, Hurlbert said.
An interest in government work came earlier, he said, growing out of an off-term internship with the office of Sen. Bill Armstrong, R-Colo., in Washington, D.C.
"That got me interested in politics, in public service, what can be done in public service," Hurlbert said.
After finishing law school, he returned to his home in Summit County, Colo., where he landed a low-paying post in the prosecutor's office.
"Criminal law was the only thing that interested me in law school," Hurlbert said, adding that the small amount of defense work that he performed early on didn't suit him.
As a deputy district attorney for nine years, Hurlbert prosecuted hundreds of minor brawl and abuse cases. Two years ago came his first high-profile case, in which he prosecuted Charles Garrison, a local self-made millionaire later convicted of his wife's second-degree murder.
Still, the limelight surrounding the Bryant case is something brand new to this newly-minted district attorney's office.
"It's gotten a lot busier, Hurlbert said, "even though I was pretty busy to begin with."
