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American Morning

D.C. Police Chief to Comment on Chandra Levy Case

Aired July 05, 2001 - 09:00   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to start this day after the holiday with a story where we could learn more details this morning about the investigation into the disappearance of Chandra Levy. Washington, D.C.'s police chief will likely face questions about the case of the missing intern during a radio show next hour.

Our national correspondent Bob Franken joins us with -- from Washington with more.

Bob, good morning.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

And some perspective, he does this regularly on an all-news radio station here, WTOP, who is going to let us cover it. And inevitably, of course, among the questions about such things as speeding tickets, he'll also get questions about what everybody is talking about right now and that is the disappearance of Chandra Levy.

And let us not forget that, although Chief Ramsey has put what some of his officers are calling a cone of silence on this, in other words, they're not having so much discussion in public about the investigation into Chandra Levy, this continues to be a case about the 24-year-old former Washington intern. She was an intern for the bureau of prisons, Chandra Levy was. She disappeared about nine weeks ago.

She has been repeatedly linked in speculative reports to Congressman Gary Condit who there have been charges that they had a romantic relationship. Up until now, the Condit office has repeatedly denied that there was a romantic relationship, although various spokespeople are now saying what matters about that, in any case, what was the nature of their relationship. What really matters is the fact that nobody has found Chandra Levy. So Condit is continuing to avoid speaking to the press.

He also avoid, as a matter of fact, -- avoided, yesterday, appearing in a parade in Modesto, California. There have been a variety of explanations for that. One of them that, in fact, he was worried about disrupting the parade because of all the media attention that's following him. The other explanation, Daryn, is that he had some sort of conflict and would not be able to appear. There was no elaboration on that and we have no indication that there's going to be an elaboration on that. So if the story advances today, it will be whatever disclosures that get -- we get from Chief Ramsey when he talks to WTOP radio and we watch that and then afterwards, hopefully, he'll come out and talk to us, if we have any further questions -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Bob, explain to us once again what the format is? You say the chief does this on a regular basis. He's just a regular guest on this talk show?

FRANKEN: This radio station, like so many all-news stations around the country, has various city officials in from the jurisdictions around Washington who take phone calls from the viewers and receive questions from the reporter and interview. It's a normal format. It's the normal kind of thing. But, of course, this is not a normal circumstance right now.

KAGAN: Absolutely not -- Bob Franken in Washington, thank you.

And of course we will have live coverage of WTOP and that radio call-in show with the D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey that is coming up next hour at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, 7:00 Pacific.

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