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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview with Nelda Blair, Lida Rodriguez-Taseff
Aired July 12, 2003 - 08:13 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.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, one of the stories making headlines this week was the arrest of basketball star Kobe Bryant and his case.
Well, it starts our Legal Briefs. But before we get to that, joining us now is Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, a civil rights attorney in Miami, and from Houston, former prosecutor Nelda Blair.
But before we get to Koby, Lida, I just want to start with you. The situation in Bakersfield, California with Mr. Vincent Brothers, what happens now that he is back in California?
LIDA RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, I think now he gets scrutinized by the media. They watch his every move. They try to determine whether he's behaving like an innocent grieving father and husband or whether he's behaving like a guilty killer.
You know, the way these cases are prosecuted in the media has completely changed the nature of prosecutions. So now we look at the behavior of the person in the media and scrutinize and then determine whether or not to charge.
VAUSE: Nelda, the fact that the police in Bakersfield have named no other suspects, how does that play out for Mr. Brothers?
NELDA BLAIR, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, I agree that he's going to be tried in the media. But more importantly, the prosecutors still have their job to do. They say he is, so far, their only suspect. And right now what they've got to do is examine every piece of evidence. I'm sure they'll have some search warrants and some other evidence that they'll want to gather.
They've got to put together those pieces of the puzzle and try to come up with what happened and whether or not they have a case against him. And if they do, of course, they'll proceed after him.
VAUSE: OK, let's move on to the story out of Lawrenceville in Georgia about the fatal car accident and the parents being charged for the actions of the daughter and for the fact that they did not maintain the car safely.
Lida, what's your take on this? Are the parents likely to be sentenced for this?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: You know, I hate to sound like Nelda this early on a Saturday morning, but you've got to look at this and say to yourself I understand that not all parental decisions that are bad parental decisions should be criminalized. But there comes a time when parents behave in such a gross and negligent fashion that they recklessly disregard the lives of their child and of others. And this is especially that case.
If the facts here are to be believed, these parents knew that that car was a death trap, that that car had no brakes, that that car had bald tires, that their daughter was a lousy driver and they still handed her the keys to this death trap.
The irony here is that the prosecutor is about to prosecute this teenager like an adult while at the same time we all sit around saying well, those adults shouldn't be treated like adults, we should let the parents free.
No, no, no. This one you prosecute the parents.
VAUSE: Nelda, very quickly, is this a growing trend that we're seeing in prosecuting parents for the actions of their children? We're seeing this in Alaska. We're seeing it in Philadelphia, as well, just to name a few other cases. And now in Georgia.
BLAIR: Well, I think what's happening is the pendulum is swinging back. You know, for so long parents are, have been saying well, someone else should have responsibility for my kid, you punish my kids, the school should take care of it, the police should take care of it. And what we're seeing is that society in general wants parents to take care of their children. They want mom and dad to be responsible for the way theyve raised and the decisions that they make involving their children.
I will say, though, this -- I think this is going to be a tough case to make stick. They're charging them with unlawfully a car to be operated and I think it's going to be pretty tough to say that they purposely allowed their daughter to kill someone.
VAUSE: OK, let's move on to Kobe Bryant. That's the, obviously, that's the star case of the week, if you like.
The prosecutor says that next week he'll announce if there will be charges.
Why is this taking so long?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Well, DNA testing, I think, is the first reason. And, second, this is an athlete. He's a, he's liked by the sports world. He's liked by the media. He's a squeaky clean kid up to now. So I think this is taking long because they're trying to figure out whether or not this is ultimately going to boil down to he said/she said. They've done the DNA testing. We'll see the results in a few days. If his DNA is found anywhere on her, on her body, on her clothing, the issue here is going to have to be his defense of consent. And that is why it's taking so long, I think.
VAUSE: Nelda, if this was a guy called Kent Brown and not Kobe Bryant, would this case be taking this long? Would they be going to the same extremes that they for Kobe Bryant? BLAIR: Oh, I really think they would. In any kind of sexual assault case, it is very often, as we just said, it's very often a he said/she said case. It's very often there's only two people that really know what happened. And we've got to be extra careful in guarding the victim, but also careful that we don't accuse someone who's not accusable.
VAUSE: And jumping the gun, though, if this -- if he does get charged and does go to trial, can he get a fair trial?
BLAIR: Oh, sure. Absolutely. You know, we have a lot of cases that get tried in the media. We have a lot of people that are famous folks that end up in the news, as we've seen recently. But our justice system is one of the best in the world and it's based on having your peers decide whether or not you're innocent or guilty. And I think that anyone can get a fair trial based on that system.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: You know, and on that note, I knew we wouldn't agree the whole morning. Absolutely he cannot get a fair trial. His career and his life has changed forever, whether or not he's even charged at the end of this. He is a marked man. His career is going to be completely different. He's over as a marketing star.
VAUSE: Yes, OK, Lida Rodriguez and Nelda Blair, thank you both for joining us this morning and giving us your insights into the legal briefs.
BLAIR: My pleasure.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 12, 2003 - 08:13 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, one of the stories making headlines this week was the arrest of basketball star Kobe Bryant and his case.
Well, it starts our Legal Briefs. But before we get to that, joining us now is Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, a civil rights attorney in Miami, and from Houston, former prosecutor Nelda Blair.
But before we get to Koby, Lida, I just want to start with you. The situation in Bakersfield, California with Mr. Vincent Brothers, what happens now that he is back in California?
LIDA RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, I think now he gets scrutinized by the media. They watch his every move. They try to determine whether he's behaving like an innocent grieving father and husband or whether he's behaving like a guilty killer.
You know, the way these cases are prosecuted in the media has completely changed the nature of prosecutions. So now we look at the behavior of the person in the media and scrutinize and then determine whether or not to charge.
VAUSE: Nelda, the fact that the police in Bakersfield have named no other suspects, how does that play out for Mr. Brothers?
NELDA BLAIR, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, I agree that he's going to be tried in the media. But more importantly, the prosecutors still have their job to do. They say he is, so far, their only suspect. And right now what they've got to do is examine every piece of evidence. I'm sure they'll have some search warrants and some other evidence that they'll want to gather.
They've got to put together those pieces of the puzzle and try to come up with what happened and whether or not they have a case against him. And if they do, of course, they'll proceed after him.
VAUSE: OK, let's move on to the story out of Lawrenceville in Georgia about the fatal car accident and the parents being charged for the actions of the daughter and for the fact that they did not maintain the car safely.
Lida, what's your take on this? Are the parents likely to be sentenced for this?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: You know, I hate to sound like Nelda this early on a Saturday morning, but you've got to look at this and say to yourself I understand that not all parental decisions that are bad parental decisions should be criminalized. But there comes a time when parents behave in such a gross and negligent fashion that they recklessly disregard the lives of their child and of others. And this is especially that case.
If the facts here are to be believed, these parents knew that that car was a death trap, that that car had no brakes, that that car had bald tires, that their daughter was a lousy driver and they still handed her the keys to this death trap.
The irony here is that the prosecutor is about to prosecute this teenager like an adult while at the same time we all sit around saying well, those adults shouldn't be treated like adults, we should let the parents free.
No, no, no. This one you prosecute the parents.
VAUSE: Nelda, very quickly, is this a growing trend that we're seeing in prosecuting parents for the actions of their children? We're seeing this in Alaska. We're seeing it in Philadelphia, as well, just to name a few other cases. And now in Georgia.
BLAIR: Well, I think what's happening is the pendulum is swinging back. You know, for so long parents are, have been saying well, someone else should have responsibility for my kid, you punish my kids, the school should take care of it, the police should take care of it. And what we're seeing is that society in general wants parents to take care of their children. They want mom and dad to be responsible for the way theyve raised and the decisions that they make involving their children.
I will say, though, this -- I think this is going to be a tough case to make stick. They're charging them with unlawfully a car to be operated and I think it's going to be pretty tough to say that they purposely allowed their daughter to kill someone.
VAUSE: OK, let's move on to Kobe Bryant. That's the, obviously, that's the star case of the week, if you like.
The prosecutor says that next week he'll announce if there will be charges.
Why is this taking so long?
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Well, DNA testing, I think, is the first reason. And, second, this is an athlete. He's a, he's liked by the sports world. He's liked by the media. He's a squeaky clean kid up to now. So I think this is taking long because they're trying to figure out whether or not this is ultimately going to boil down to he said/she said. They've done the DNA testing. We'll see the results in a few days. If his DNA is found anywhere on her, on her body, on her clothing, the issue here is going to have to be his defense of consent. And that is why it's taking so long, I think.
VAUSE: Nelda, if this was a guy called Kent Brown and not Kobe Bryant, would this case be taking this long? Would they be going to the same extremes that they for Kobe Bryant? BLAIR: Oh, I really think they would. In any kind of sexual assault case, it is very often, as we just said, it's very often a he said/she said case. It's very often there's only two people that really know what happened. And we've got to be extra careful in guarding the victim, but also careful that we don't accuse someone who's not accusable.
VAUSE: And jumping the gun, though, if this -- if he does get charged and does go to trial, can he get a fair trial?
BLAIR: Oh, sure. Absolutely. You know, we have a lot of cases that get tried in the media. We have a lot of people that are famous folks that end up in the news, as we've seen recently. But our justice system is one of the best in the world and it's based on having your peers decide whether or not you're innocent or guilty. And I think that anyone can get a fair trial based on that system.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: You know, and on that note, I knew we wouldn't agree the whole morning. Absolutely he cannot get a fair trial. His career and his life has changed forever, whether or not he's even charged at the end of this. He is a marked man. His career is going to be completely different. He's over as a marketing star.
VAUSE: Yes, OK, Lida Rodriguez and Nelda Blair, thank you both for joining us this morning and giving us your insights into the legal briefs.
BLAIR: My pleasure.
RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
