Exactly one year after a 19-year-old woman said she was raped by basketball star Kobe Bryant, the chief prosecutor said he will not take part in the upcoming trial in the high-profile case.

　　District Attorney Mark Hurlbert - who has attended virtually all the pretrial hearings in the Eagle, Colorado, courtroom - will leave the case in the hands of his chief deputy, Gregg Crittenden, and two other prosecutors on loan from counties near Denver, Ingrid Bakke and Dana Easter.

　　Hurlbert said in a statement on Wednesday he would be neglecting his other duties in the district, which covers four counties, if he remained heavily involved in the Bryant case.

　　He will, however, continue to provide general oversight, his office said. Bakke and Easter are experienced litigators in sexual assault cases.

　　Traditionally, district attorneys do not try many cases because of their administrative duties.

　　"The only thing a little odd here is that Hurlbert has been so publicly visible as the front man for the prosecution in the case that many assumed he would go into the fray as a litigator," Denver attorney Scott Robinson, who is observing the case, said.

　　Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers star, has pleaded not guilty and said he had consensual sex with the woman on June 30 at a Vail-area resort where she worked. The trial is scheduled to start on August 27 and could wrap up around the end of September.