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Judge Hearing Arguments About Skakel Made by Former Tutor Ken Littleton

Aired May 10, 2002 - 13:36   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Inside a Connecticut courtroom today, there will be no testimony in the murder trial of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, but a judge there is hearing arguments about Skakel made by Skakel's former tutor, Ken Littleton.

Deborah Feyerick watching the twists and turn again, from Norwalk.

Deborah, good afternoon.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ken Littleton says he was blacked out in the back of his car when he allegedly told his wife he stabbed Martha Moxley in through the neck.

Well, Skakel's lawyer says this is a confession, but prosecutors say it's not. It's a bad attempt by Greenwich investigators to wrap up the Moxley murder, either by clearing Ken Littleton or convicting him. And the way they did this is by recruiting his wife, Mary Baker. She was on the stand. She testified that investigators told her to coax Littleton into confessing. And the way it do it, by telling him he had already admitted the murder, seen saying there was evidence, a pair of pants, that he had hidden somewhere.

Well, in the end, Baker said, it wasn't true, and that Littleton never confessed. Littleton was also on the stand. Prosecutors and defense both showing a videotape. On it, Littleton speaks with the police psychiatrist. Although he gives details of the murder, they are not firsthand detail. They are details as told to him by his wife, and the reason he went to this psychiatrist if the first place was because he was trying to save his marriage, and so clear up any suspicion concerning him.

The question is, is the jury going to hear any of this? Well, that's why the judge is here. That's why we're here. That's the lawyers are here. That's what the judge is deciding -- Bill.

HEMMER: From an outside observation, it appears the thing is moving at a pretty quick clip so far. Pretty much to plan.

FEYERICK: Yes, it definitely is. They've already had more than a dozen witnesses on the stand, and that's only in the first week. Now having said that, there is still about 50, 60 more witnesses to go. They are going to move very quickly, but it's still likely to take really about five weeks. But they are doing a good job, and the jury has the day off today, so a beautiful day, and they must be happy.

HEMMER: We shall see them again Monday. Thank you, Deborah.

Deborah Feyerick in Connecticut.

Down in New York now, more insight on the Skakel trial, Jeffrey Toobin, CNN legal analyst is our guest again.

Jeff, good afternoon. Nice to see you on a Friday.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hi, Bill.

HEMMER: Ken Littleton is the tutor who moves into the Skakel house, depending on which side you listen to on the timeframe of the murder. On the night that he moved into that home, Martha Moxley turns up dead. I mean, you cannot write something more than that.

Go ahead. I see you shaking your head there. Go ahead.

TOOBIN: Can you get more bizarre? I mean, Ken Littleton arrives the day of the murder, and then this has got go down in the annals as the most bizarre law enforcement technique I have certainly ever heard, recruiting the fellow's ex wife to tell him some phony story, so that maybe, possibly he will confess. I mean, even if he did confess, whether that would be admissible in court, is a -- is an interesting legal question in and of itself. I think it illustrates how much the Greenwich police were floundering around for so long in this case.

HEMMER: That is an interesting point, because if you go back to Halloween day in 1975, Littleton, who was not even there 24 hours, was told to take the kids upstate to New York and gets out of town essentially. Why was he not interviewed then?

TOOBIN: Again, lots of questions about how the Greenwich police handled this. I remember earlier in the week, we heard from the first policeman on the scene, he had never investigated a murder before. Fortunately for the people in Greenwich, there are an lot of murders there, so they don't have a lot of practice in cases like this.

But what is so interesting about today's testimony, is that the judge really faces a difficult decision, because on the one hand, this whole business with Ken Littleton and his wife and what she did and didn't tell him is sort of a sideshow. I mean, the issue before the court is, what did or didn't Michael Skakel do?

But Mickey Sherman makes a pretty persuasive argument, that if you have this important witness talking on tape in 1992 about his possible involvement in the crime, the jury should at least be allowed to hear that, and then discount it if they want, but it should be in front of the jury. That's a tough choice for the judge.

HEMMER: And what Mickey Sherman is trying to do is essentially follow up on the defense strategy and theory that they have the wrong guy essentially. It wasn't Michael Skakel. It was either the brother Tommy or it could have been Ken Littleton, or it could have been someone else right now not even in question, right?

TOOBIN: And it just shows how seriously all of these suspects were taken. Remember earlier in the week we learned, that detective Keagan (ph), who was head of the whole investigation, went to the states's attorney and said, we got the guy, I want an arrest warrant for Tommy Skakel, in 1976, the year after the murder. The prosecutor turned him down, and said you don't have enough evidence. That just shows you how seriously they took Tommy Skakel at this point.

Here today, we are hearing about this bizarre technique where they were trying to get a confession from another suspect, Ken Littleton. They ultimately didn't get what they wanted out of him, so they finally, after Mark Furman wrote his book, turned to Michael Skakel. It's a very difficult defense of police action, when, you know, they couldn't settle on Michael Skakel until literally decades after the murder.

HEMMER: Quickly here, Jeff, does the judge have to make a decision on today's matter before the jury can be reconvened on Monday, or can the case continue before that decision is made?

TOOBIN: No, he's got decide, because the first thing on the agenda Monday is the cross-examination of Littleton. So Mickey Sherman has to know what is admissible and what isn't.

HEMMER: We will see if the wrong guy theory works for the defense or not. Thank you, Jeff. Have a good weekend, OK?

TOOBIN: You too.

HEMMER: Jeffrey Toobin, live there in New York.

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