The judge presiding over Kobe Bryant's sexual assault case will make several important decisions later this week that will impact the trial's future.

One of the issues Judge Frederick Gannett will rule on is whether to order Kobe Bryant's accuser to testify at next week's preliminary hearing. He will also have to decide if the public will be allowed inside the Oct. 9 hearing. The preliminary hearing will determine whether the Los Angeles Laker star will stand trial.

Gannett has also been asked to decide whether the defense can see the woman's medical records.

Gannett said Monday he plans to issue his decisions on all unsettled legal questions on Thursday, giving attorneys on both sides time to appeal to the state Supreme Court if necessary.

"It's just a matter of trying to sit down and integrate it all into one response," Gannett said. "They're all related."

Bryant's attorneys want the hearing closed because they say it would publicize information that would threaten his right to a fair trial. Prosecutors say there are sufficient safeguards in place so that potential jurors would not get enough information to form opinions.

Gannett said there is a possibility the hearing would have to be postponed, but that he hoped to avoid that.

Attorneys for Bryant and for media organizations met with the judge Monday to discuss his order restricting media activities, including punishing organizations that publish the woman's name or photograph. Media attorneys contend parts of the order are unconstitutional.

Gannett said he hoped to have changes worked out by Wednesday and that he would schedule a hearing if there are disagreements.

Suspect Who Threatened To Kill Accuser To Appear In Court

In the meantime, the arraignment of a bodybuilder charged with soliciting the murder of the woman accusing Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant of rape was postponed Monday until next week.

Patrick Graber has already been charged with two felonies in connection with offering to kill the Colorado woman who accused Bryant of rape. The proceeding was postponed to Oct. 6 after defense attorney Peter Knecht said he had not yet received prosecution evidence against Patrick Graber, who was charged last week with solicitation of murder and solicitation to dissuade a witness.

Bryant is charged with raping a 19-year-old employee of the Lodge and Spa at Cordillera near Edwards, Colo., on June 30. He has said the two had consensual sex.

Ironically, Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson said he was in Eagle that same night, but about 6 miles away. Jackson said he was on a motorcycle trip and happened to stop in Eagle but did not know that his star player was there.

Eagle 'Media Guides' Create Controversy

A plan by officials in Eagle to fund a media guide of local businesses for reporters covering the Bryant hearing has drawn some criticism from local residents.

Town manager William Powell said he got the idea after a reporter covering a previous Bryant hearing asked where he could find a good steak in town.

City leaders, cognizant of the army of reporters expected for Bryant's Oct. 9 arraignment, agreed to publish some sort of guide to encourage the press to spend money in their town.

The plan has drawn criticism in some circles.

"It's just short of selling T-shirts that say, 'Eagle, Colorado, home of the Kobe Bryant victim,'" L.D. Anderson told The Denver Post.

All 175 business license holders in Eagle have been asked if they want to appear in the guide, at no charge.

All 12 restaurants in Eagle are participating and each one will get two full pages, with space to list their menu, location and hours. Other businesses that have opted to participate range from medical services to tire changing.

One local business that won't be participating is the Eagle Pharmacy. Manager Annie Colby told the Post that she thinks the town is making a mistake because many of the reporters won't even spend money in Eagle, opting instead to stay and eat in nearby Vail, just 30 miles down Interstate 70.

Eagle will print 300 information packets, produced with city equipment, so the total cost is expected to be about $45.

"I think we're choosing the wrong time. The wrong event. The wrong whatever to be active about promoting the town," said Colby, whose family owns the store.

However, the owner of the Broadway Bar & Grill said reporters ordered dozens of meals in his restaurant. Still, Chris Darrohn tried to keep it all in perspective.

"I'm more excited about it being hunting season than I am about it being the Kobe trial," Darrohn told the Post.