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Prosecutors Review Evidence in Allen Iverson Case

Aired July 10, 2002 - 14:10   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A superstar on the basketball court could be headed for criminal court. We're talking about detectives in Philadelphia. They're asking prosecutors to consider charges against 76er Allen Iverson for an incident that happened last week. CNN correspondent Bob Franken is following the developments from there -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, the police have been in the prosecutor's office here almost two and a half hours. They came here with the statements and the evidence they have on charges that Allen Iverson threatened with a gun some people when he was searching for his wife in an apartment on July 3. That would have been a week ago. The police are presenting their evidence to the district attorney, Lynne Franklin -- excuse me -- Lynne Abraham, trying to see if, in fact, she will follow up on the charges that they say they've considered, aggravated assault and terrorist threats which has nothing to do with terrorism, it is just what they call it in Pennsylvania. Other places call it menacing threats. Both of those are felonies. They're trying to see if the district attorney, the prosecutor here is, in fact, going to file chose charges, and they have been on the phone a long time.

The exact whereabouts of Allen Iverson are not known, although it is pretty much concluded that he is in the city of Philadelphia, but he has not shown his face since this story came up.

Now, Allen Iverson, of course, has had a stellar basketball career, but something of a checkered past when it comes to brushes with law enforcement officials. He did spend a few months in jail in Virginia when he was a teenager, but he was ultimately pardoned for those charges by the governor of Virginia. In any case, there is something new that's going on right now, and some of the people who have been watching this say that this is not such a clear cut case, that it might not be easy to prove such serious charges, and the evidence of that may be how in long it is that the discussion is going on with the prosecutor -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Bob, what's the deal with this gun? Was it Iverson's gun? Did he have a license for it? Was it registered?

FRANKEN: None of which we know. The police have told us none of that. What we have heard is that he did not, in fact, brandish the gun. So that, of course, makes it a little bit more difficult to prove a menacing threat, or what they call a terrorist threat charge. That is precisely the kind of intricacy that they're trying to hash out now.

PHILLIPS: Bob Franken -- thanks, Bob.

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