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Media Flock to Eagle, Colo. For Wednesday Bryant Hearing

Aired August 05, 2003 - 15:45   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: This time tomorrow the eyes of the world will be on Eagle, Colorado, or it may just feel like it. NBA superstar Kobe Bryant will be in court to hear a sexual assault allegation and he may not say a word.
But Gary Tuchman's talking. He's live. What's happening, Gary?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're always talking, Kyra, to give you as much information as we can get.

And we have some new information right now. According to the judge in this case, this hearing tomorrow, which will be at 6:00 Eastern Time, 4:00 Mountain Time might take no longer than five minutes. And,you're right, we don't expect Kobe Bryant to say a word. He certainly will not issue a plea tomorrow. This will merely be a procedural hearing where Kobe Bryant will be advised of the charges against him, his rights and then it's likely another hearing will be scheduled.

Now as you might imagine, there are lots of members of the news media here. Many of them arrived today. Some are describing it as a three-ring circus. I would not say we've reached the three-ring level yet, but it will be very crowded here tomorrow.

The courthouse itself is very small. The courtroom only has a total of 68 seats, 22 of which are for members of the news media. Now if you put a zero after 22 and made it 220 seats, that probably still wouldn't be enough. So what the court is doing right now is constructing a tent with TV sets in it and that's where the overflow journalists will be sitting.

Now we talked with the judge in this case earlier today, Judge Frederick Gannett. Judge Gannett tells us that the hearing, as I said, will take probably five or 10 minutes, that he's totally flabbergasted about all the attention this case has gotten.

And then we asked him about this -- news media attorneys have asked him to unseal files in this case. Prosecutors and defense attorneys say they want it to stay sealed; they don't want that information to come out. Judge Gannett tells us he will issue a ruling on that the week of August 18, which is still about two weeks from now.

The prosecutor wrote a legal brief to the judge saying why he doesn't want those papers released. He said -- and this Mark Hurlburt, who is the district attorney -- he said, "the national and local media have contributed to a circus-like atmosphere in and around the Eagle County Courthouse in the town of Eagle, Colorado." So you can see prosecutors and defense attorneys are banding together against the news media, at least for now.

Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: Well, Gary, give us an inside look. Is it a circus- like atmosphere? Can your photographer hear me? Can you pull out and give us a look at a -- I'm sure there's lot of satellite trucks around there.

TUCHMAN: What I'll do -- if we can go this way for one second, Leon (ph). We'll show you the tent. Talking about circuses, circuses have tent. It looks like a circus tent, but that is the tent where the members of the news media will be to watch the proceedings. So you can see it's not so crazy right now, but keep in mind one thing: the judge has issued a decorum order, which says that journalists may not interview any members of the news media on the other side of this -- any members involved in the court case, that is, on the other side of the street. So normally you might see a lot of members of the news media walking around there. You won't. because of this so-called decorum order.

PHILLIPS: Well, I know you'll get all the right pictures. I heard you say Leon. I know what a good photographer he is.

Gary Tuchman....

TUCHMAN: He is.

PHILLIPS: ...thank you. All right.

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 August 5, 2003 - 15:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: This time tomorrow the eyes of the world will be on Eagle, Colorado, or it may just feel like it. NBA superstar Kobe Bryant will be in court to hear a sexual assault allegation and he may not say a word.
But Gary Tuchman's talking. He's live. What's happening, Gary?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're always talking, Kyra, to give you as much information as we can get.

And we have some new information right now. According to the judge in this case, this hearing tomorrow, which will be at 6:00 Eastern Time, 4:00 Mountain Time might take no longer than five minutes. And,you're right, we don't expect Kobe Bryant to say a word. He certainly will not issue a plea tomorrow. This will merely be a procedural hearing where Kobe Bryant will be advised of the charges against him, his rights and then it's likely another hearing will be scheduled.

Now as you might imagine, there are lots of members of the news media here. Many of them arrived today. Some are describing it as a three-ring circus. I would not say we've reached the three-ring level yet, but it will be very crowded here tomorrow.

The courthouse itself is very small. The courtroom only has a total of 68 seats, 22 of which are for members of the news media. Now if you put a zero after 22 and made it 220 seats, that probably still wouldn't be enough. So what the court is doing right now is constructing a tent with TV sets in it and that's where the overflow journalists will be sitting.

Now we talked with the judge in this case earlier today, Judge Frederick Gannett. Judge Gannett tells us that the hearing, as I said, will take probably five or 10 minutes, that he's totally flabbergasted about all the attention this case has gotten.

And then we asked him about this -- news media attorneys have asked him to unseal files in this case. Prosecutors and defense attorneys say they want it to stay sealed; they don't want that information to come out. Judge Gannett tells us he will issue a ruling on that the week of August 18, which is still about two weeks from now.

The prosecutor wrote a legal brief to the judge saying why he doesn't want those papers released. He said -- and this Mark Hurlburt, who is the district attorney -- he said, "the national and local media have contributed to a circus-like atmosphere in and around the Eagle County Courthouse in the town of Eagle, Colorado." So you can see prosecutors and defense attorneys are banding together against the news media, at least for now.

Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: Well, Gary, give us an inside look. Is it a circus- like atmosphere? Can your photographer hear me? Can you pull out and give us a look at a -- I'm sure there's lot of satellite trucks around there.

TUCHMAN: What I'll do -- if we can go this way for one second, Leon (ph). We'll show you the tent. Talking about circuses, circuses have tent. It looks like a circus tent, but that is the tent where the members of the news media will be to watch the proceedings. So you can see it's not so crazy right now, but keep in mind one thing: the judge has issued a decorum order, which says that journalists may not interview any members of the news media on the other side of this -- any members involved in the court case, that is, on the other side of the street. So normally you might see a lot of members of the news media walking around there. You won't. because of this so-called decorum order.

PHILLIPS: Well, I know you'll get all the right pictures. I heard you say Leon. I know what a good photographer he is.

Gary Tuchman....

TUCHMAN: He is.

PHILLIPS: ...thank you. All right.

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