EAGLE, COLO. – Atlanta libel attorney L. Lin Wood has masterminded much of the past two months' bizarre twists and turns in the Kobe Bryant sexual-assault case.

Wood, the media-savvy lawyer who has rehabilitated the images of murder suspects John and Patsy Ramsey and Centennial Olympic Park bombing suspect Richard Jewell, joined civil attorney John Clune in July to represent the 20-year-old woman accusing Bryant of raping her on June 30, 2003, at a Vail-area resort.

Since becoming a part of case, Wood has aggressively pushed these 14 months of courtroom wrangling toward what could be an impending multimillion-dollar, confidential settlement in a federal civil suit.

The announcement late Wednesday that 5th Judicial District Attorney Mark Hurlbert was reluctantly dismissing the felony sexual-assault charge against Bryant because the accuser was no longer willing to testify seems just part of Wood's grand scheme.

"Mark Hurlbert allowed his office to be used by civil attorneys (Wood and Clune) as leverage against a rich defendant," Denver criminal defense attorney Craig Silverman said.

"Everything is part of a strategy to make this case reach a settlement. It's hard to speculate on how much it will cost Kobe to have that happen."

Even Bryant's carefully constructed apology issued Wednesday appeared the product of a deal struck by Bryant's legal team of Pamela Mackey and Hal Haddon and the woman's civil duo of Wood and Clune.

Bryant apologized to the woman and to her family and said:

"After months of reviewing discovery, listening to her attorney and even hearing her testify in person, I now understand that she sincerely feels that she did not consent to this encounter."

On Wednesday, a smiling Wood handed out copies of Bryant's apology to reporters outside the Eagle courthouse.

The legal games continued to play out Thursday with confidential talks between Bryant's lawyers, who have returned to Denver, and Wood and Clune, who remain in Eagle.

"The willingness to settle is high in this rape case because of the risk with a 50-50 chance of going either way in front of jury," said Richard Waites, a Houston attorney and trial psychologist.

"Kobe wants to cut his losses, and she'll want to get something in a civil court where there's a lower standard of proof."

The civil suit, which was filed in Denver on Aug.9, seeks a jury trial and unspecified economic, non-economic and punitive damages for the woman's "stress, emotional distress, mental pain and suffering and adverse physical consequences" as a result of her encounter with Bryant.

In Colorado, a jury in a civil trial can award up to $366,250 in non-economic damages for emotional distress and up to double that ($732,500) if the plaintiff can prove "by clear and convincing evidence" that her mental pain and suffering exceeded the initial cap.

Also, a jury determines the economic damages, specific to the woman's treatment, therapy and recovery from injury. Punitive damages equal economic damages but might be as much as tripled at the judge's discretion.

Any money the woman might receive from a civil settlement or an insurance company in excess of her expenses should be reimbursed to the state's Crime Victim's Compensation fund.

The woman already has claimed nearly $20,000 from the state fund, and has signed a "post-separation" agreement requiring her repayment, according to Hurlbert's spokeswoman, Krista Flannigan.

Also, civil jurors are directed not to consider a defendant's net worth - such as Bryant's seven-year, $136.4million Lakers contract, $4.1million Newport Coast home and $10million annual endorsement portfolio - when determining damages.

"I believe that there is going to be a confidential settlement based on the parameters of Colorado's limits on what can be recovered as well as the leverage of both parties," said former [practicing] attorney Perry Binder, who is a legal studies professor at the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.

"Bryant's attorneys know that the accuser wants to keep certain details private and can use the fact that she didn't want to testify at the criminal case against her. The woman's attorneys can leverage that against a criminal defendant who would be forced to testify at a civil case."

Binder believes that civil attorneys urged Hurlbert to dismiss the criminal case because a civil suit has a lower burden of proof, a mere "preponderance of the evidence" as opposed to the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard in a criminal trial.

Also, having watched Wood work to get lucrative settlements for Jewell from media that reported him responsible for the 1996 Olympic bombing, Binder noted the trademark Wood pattern of rehabbing the accuser's reputation through the media.

Wood and Clune violated a judge's pretrial publicity order by making early August appearances on ABC's "Good Morning America" and NBC's "The Today Show."

An eloquent Wood used the platform to tell a national-television audience that the much-maligned accuser wasn't a "gold digger" or a "slut" but a young star-struck woman thrilled to be around a celebrated athlete.

A week later, Wood and Clune filed the civil suit, and then Wednesday, four days into jury selection, their client, who they portrayed as strong and resolved to go forward, suffered a sudden attack of cold feet.

"I'm mystified by where her attorneys are coming from but it seems part of Wood's master plan," Waites said. "Legal cases are full of strategies and gamesmanship."