DENVER – An attorney for the woman accusing Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant of rape said yesterday she wants a public airing of her federal lawsuit as soon as possible.

L. Lin Wood said his client decided against filing a second, parallel suit in California state court because it might delay the start of the trial in federal court in Denver.

“We want to get this case in front of the public as soon as possible,” Wood said.

The woman’s lawsuit seeks unspecified financial damages for pain, ridicule and scorn she says she has suffered since her encounter with Bryant in a Vail, Colo.- area resort in June 2003.

Bryant had faced a charge of felony sexual assault but prosecutors dropped the case in September after the woman said she no longer wanted to participate in the criminal case.

Bryant, who had pleaded innocent to the charge, has said the two had consensual sex.