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Boisselier to Appear in Florida Court

Aired January 22, 2003 - 13:10   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: All about Eve. Eve is the baby girl the Clonaid company says was the world's first cloned human. Now, a judge in Florida is holding hearings on a guardian for the purported child, and he says he wants the truth about Eve.
CNN's John Zarrella live in Ft. Lauderdale now -- John.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, I don't think we're any closer to the truth right now than when this hearing began. It ended just a few minutes ago, and the parties have been ordered back to court here in Broward County on the 29th of January at 11:00 a.m., including Brigitte Boisselier, who is the president of Clonaid. And, in fact, during this court hearing today, the judge was trying to establish if Baby Eve does exist, if Baby Eve's whereabouts are known, and attorneys representing Clonaid said, in fact, the baby is not in the United States, is certainly not in Florida.

Now, the judge was scratching his head throughout most of this because he had on the phone a vice president for Clonaid, Thomas Kaenzig. Now, Kaenzig has been ordered to appear in court here again on Monday, on the 29th as well. He was on the telephone from Las Vegas today. He evaded most of the questions the judge asked, and during the proceedings he said that he doesn't get a salary from Clonaid. In fact, he said Clonaid is not registered anywhere as a corporation in the world. So many, many questions about Clonaid left the judge frustrated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE JOHN FRUSCIANTE, BROWARD COUNTY JUVENILE DIVISION: Clonaid was ready to present this child to the world, and then backed off on that. Some people say it was an excuse for them to be backed off because an attorney ended up filing a lawsuit so the child wouldn't be taken away from the parent. Again, my concern here is simply for the protection of the child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: Now, the reason that we are in a Broward County court room is because two days after Christmas, as our viewers might recall, the Clonaid people, led by Brigitte Boisselier, she came and said the baby had been born. So an attorney in Miami decided, Well, they're saying it in Broward County. We're going to go to court in Broward County and ask a judge to appoint a guardian for this baby.

So that's why we're in Broward County court. But now the judge has said, if I don't know that the child exists, if I don't know the whereabouts of the child, how can I appoint a guardian? How can I even establish whether I have jurisdiction in this case? So again, Kyra, at this point we know no more now about whether Baby Eve exists, where Baby Eve is, than we did before this hearing began. Perhaps, on the 29th, we will get some more answers, maybe just one or two answers -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So John, is this a situation where we could keep seeing hearing after hearing after hearing until either we see a child or the folks from Clonaid say, OK, it's a hoax?

ZARRELLA: Exactly. The judge was very, very frustrated. He does not want to continue on with hearing after hearing. He said he wants the truth from Clonaid. But technically, Clonaid as a corporation doesn't even exist. So it really is this tremendous shell game out there as to who has the child, does the child exist, where is the child, what is Clonaid, and it's tremendously -- the judge at one point said, if I can't find out these answers in a courtroom, how can anybody expect that attorney Bernard Siegel is going to be able to find out any of these answers in discovery, which is the attorney who brought this case to begin with.

On hand, members of the Department of Children and Families from Florida, members of the Guardian of Light (ph) program in Florida. So the judge and the Florida system of protection of children taking this extremely seriously, even though we still have no idea whether Baby Eve exists -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, our John Zarrella. Meanwhile, Clonaid getting a lot of free publicity.

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 January 22, 2003 - 13:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All about Eve. Eve is the baby girl the Clonaid company says was the world's first cloned human. Now, a judge in Florida is holding hearings on a guardian for the purported child, and he says he wants the truth about Eve.
CNN's John Zarrella live in Ft. Lauderdale now -- John.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, I don't think we're any closer to the truth right now than when this hearing began. It ended just a few minutes ago, and the parties have been ordered back to court here in Broward County on the 29th of January at 11:00 a.m., including Brigitte Boisselier, who is the president of Clonaid. And, in fact, during this court hearing today, the judge was trying to establish if Baby Eve does exist, if Baby Eve's whereabouts are known, and attorneys representing Clonaid said, in fact, the baby is not in the United States, is certainly not in Florida.

Now, the judge was scratching his head throughout most of this because he had on the phone a vice president for Clonaid, Thomas Kaenzig. Now, Kaenzig has been ordered to appear in court here again on Monday, on the 29th as well. He was on the telephone from Las Vegas today. He evaded most of the questions the judge asked, and during the proceedings he said that he doesn't get a salary from Clonaid. In fact, he said Clonaid is not registered anywhere as a corporation in the world. So many, many questions about Clonaid left the judge frustrated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE JOHN FRUSCIANTE, BROWARD COUNTY JUVENILE DIVISION: Clonaid was ready to present this child to the world, and then backed off on that. Some people say it was an excuse for them to be backed off because an attorney ended up filing a lawsuit so the child wouldn't be taken away from the parent. Again, my concern here is simply for the protection of the child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: Now, the reason that we are in a Broward County court room is because two days after Christmas, as our viewers might recall, the Clonaid people, led by Brigitte Boisselier, she came and said the baby had been born. So an attorney in Miami decided, Well, they're saying it in Broward County. We're going to go to court in Broward County and ask a judge to appoint a guardian for this baby.

So that's why we're in Broward County court. But now the judge has said, if I don't know that the child exists, if I don't know the whereabouts of the child, how can I appoint a guardian? How can I even establish whether I have jurisdiction in this case? So again, Kyra, at this point we know no more now about whether Baby Eve exists, where Baby Eve is, than we did before this hearing began. Perhaps, on the 29th, we will get some more answers, maybe just one or two answers -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So John, is this a situation where we could keep seeing hearing after hearing after hearing until either we see a child or the folks from Clonaid say, OK, it's a hoax?

ZARRELLA: Exactly. The judge was very, very frustrated. He does not want to continue on with hearing after hearing. He said he wants the truth from Clonaid. But technically, Clonaid as a corporation doesn't even exist. So it really is this tremendous shell game out there as to who has the child, does the child exist, where is the child, what is Clonaid, and it's tremendously -- the judge at one point said, if I can't find out these answers in a courtroom, how can anybody expect that attorney Bernard Siegel is going to be able to find out any of these answers in discovery, which is the attorney who brought this case to begin with.

On hand, members of the Department of Children and Families from Florida, members of the Guardian of Light (ph) program in Florida. So the judge and the Florida system of protection of children taking this extremely seriously, even though we still have no idea whether Baby Eve exists -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, our John Zarrella. Meanwhile, Clonaid getting a lot of free publicity.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com