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CNN Live Saturday

Condit Still Under Scrutiny in Levy Disappearance Case

Aired July 14, 2001 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: We will begin in Washington, where it's been 75 days since intern Chandra Levy vanished. D.C. police are forging ahead in their investigation on two fronts: They're checking out more abandoned buildings, and they're hoping that new composite pictures of Levy will result in leads.

CNN's Jonathan Karl is covering the case in Washington -- Jonathan.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right Donna. As a matter of fact, the D.C. police going to be search in addition to those abandoned apartment buildings that we've seen them searching over the last several days, they're also going to be searching parks in the D.C. area, again, trying to find any signs of any clues whatsoever as to the whereabouts of Chandra Levy.

Meanwhile, lawyers -- the main attorney for Gary Condit, the California Democrat who was involved with Chandra Levy came out yesterday with a major public relations offensive trying to dispel any doubts they are doing anything but cooperating fully with police on this matter.

Abbe Lowell, who is the attorney for California Democrat Gary Condit, said that Condit has agreed to a search of his apartment as we already know, he has turned over DNA samples, he has turned over his phone records, and he also revealed that Congressman Gary Condit took a lie-detector test that Abbe Lowell says was a lie-detector test taken by one of the nation's foremost experts on polygraphs.

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ABBE LOWELL, CONDIT ATTORNEY: Mr. Colvert, you will find is one of the people in this country, deemed one of the best experts in polygraphs, has told me that the charts were so clear that the results were so solid, that they are such of the kind that anybody looking at them will come to the same conclusion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: And the conclusion, of course, that Abbe Lowell's referring is that Gary Condit, according to Abbe Lowell, had absolutely nothing to do whatsoever with the disappearance of Chandra Levy and knows nothing about her whereabouts. But neither the D.C. police nor the Levy family were entirely satisfied with that lie detector test because it was administered without the presence of police investigators.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASST. CHIEF TERRANCE GAINER, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: I have never been involved in a polygraph in all these 30 some years of policing and homicide investigations where the polygraph examiner didn't want to know the facts of the case. And generally, the honest facts of the case, quite frankly, are given by law enforcement authorities. So this is a bit self-serving.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILLY MARTIN, LEVY FAMILY ATTORNEY: We asked the Congressman to cooperate with law enforcement authorities on agreeing to a term that would avoid any questions as to the objectivity of the polygraph. We asked that some time ago and yesterday it seems that the Congressman and his attorneys snuck off to a private polygraph examiner and took a term -- a polygraph on his terms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: But in a of just how far and wide this search is and also in a sign that the police have not given up on finding Chandra Levy alive, the police have also released some computerized images that would show what Chandra Levy might look like should she be trying disguise her appearance.

Here you see showing some of those computerized images showing Chandra Levy -- what she would look like, theoretically, if she had changed her hairstyle. There's one further down on the screen about to come up showing what she would look like if she had dyed her hair blonde, for example.

Now as this all goes on, it's important to emphasize once again that the police have not said that California Democrat Gary Condit is a suspect. They are saying they are pursuing all leads.

Back to you, Donna.

KELLEY: OK, Jonathan Karl in Washington. Thanks very much.

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