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American Morning

The Search for Chandra: Constituents Urge Condit to Speak Out

Aired July 09, 2001 - 10:42   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: The Chandra Levy case has pushed the former intern into the spotlight and prompted Congressman Gary Condit to retreat into the shadows. But in his home district, many are grumbling that the Congressman's record of loyal service is being squelched by the scandal. Here's our national correspondent Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing? You doing all right?

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Gary Condit scene avoiding reporters and ducking cameras is not the Congressman Condit they recognize in the farming communities and small cities of California's central valley; Condit Country, they call it, where Gary Condit has been either a city councilman or an assemblyman, a country supervisor, or a congressman all of his adult life. He has never lost an election. He is supported by Democrats and Republicans.

SANDRA LUCAS, COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CHAIRWOMAN: The Congressman Condit that I'm seeing portrayed is really not the man that we know in this area.

BUCKLEY: Sandra Lucas is the chair of the local Democratic Party Committee and has known Condit for 20 years.

LUCAS: He is a man of integrity. He has not sold the boat for pork projects. He doesn't believe in that. So he has a tremendous amount of integrity, and I believe that's gotten lost in this media circus around Chandra Levy.

BUCKLEY: Also lost, say supporters, their view of the congressman, with little said of Condit's advocacy for agriculture, local pride in his rise to influence with the so-called Blue Dog group of conservative Democrats, his reputation for strong constituent service.

On Condit's media silence, some suggest he has never had a comfortable relationship with reporters.

JOHN EDGELL, FORMER CONDIT STAFF MEMBER: He's not the first to jump out and hold six press conferences a day, and there is a reticence towards the press, and I think, given the nature of the coverage on this developing story, his reaction has been just to provide less information, which I think has had its own inverse set of results.

BUCKLEY: In the continuing absence of a Condit appearance, his constituents are left to wonder what or who to believe.

MAYOR CARMEN SABATINO, MODESTO, CALIFORNIA: There's a confusion, you know, there's a point where, yes, I believe this, and now we're in a period, I think, of I'm confused by this.

BUCKLEY (on camera): What many people here continue to say is they want to hear an explanation from Condit himself -- not from his lawyers or spokespersons, but from the man they first chose to represent them in the city council some 30 years ago, a man who is now their congressman -- a man they think they know.

Frank Buckley, CNN, Modesto, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And getting a closer look at the case, at the investigation, through the eyes of a former police investigator now, our guest, Bo Dietl, former homicide detective with the New York Police Department. Bo, good morning. Thanks for joining us.

BO DIETL, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR, FORMER NYPD HOMICIDE DETECTIVE: Good morning.

KAGAN: A revelation that we're hearing over the weekend, police source saying that, in fact, Congressman Condit saying that he indeed did have a romantic relationship with Chandra Levy. As a private investigator, how would this change the case for you?

DIETL: Well, it really doesn't change the case because the fact of the matter was when the aunt spoke out about her having knowledge about the relationship, I think he was kind of forced into admitting it, because now all of a sudden, again, if he has nothing to do with this and he keeps denying about the affair, then you have the stewardess coming out, he's denying that. I mean you have a lot of other problems here. Also a lot of people are missing one.

KAGAN: What's that?

DIETL: We remember talking about his wife. His wife is supposed to be sick or something. I don't know exactly what her illness is. And she supposedly visits Washington maybe twice a year. She was in town at that time. I think she's a very important person that the police or the investigator should speak with. When you look at a disappearance...

KAGAN: Well, Bo, we should point out that she did, in fact, talk with police, I think over the Fourth of July holiday. So she would be cooperating with police as well.

DIETL: Right. And I think it's very important to uncover anything like this as far as motive. Also, these other woman that he is supposedly having sexual affairs with, you know, I don't want to sound really sexual or anything, but I would investigate, I would talk to these women, find out what kind of sexual activity he was involved in. Maybe some kind of S&M type thing. And you eliminate each thing as you do the investigation.

KAGAN: Let's bring it back to what the family wants to talk about now, and that is a lie detector test for Congressman Condit. Do you think would be a good idea for the family to push for?

DIETL: I think it would be a great idea. We all know that lie detector tests can't really do anything. All they do is eliminate. They could say if a person is telling the truth or not telling the truth, and then there's an area in there where there's no real decision. But I think a lie detector test, if he had nothing to do with it, he should take. He should also make a public announcement himself and answer some questions. He's going to have to fall on the sword as far as his relationship with this woman prior to her disappearing.

Again, if you have nothing to do with it draw the line in the sand now and support the truth because if you keep lying and you keep making false statements to official investigations, now you are opening up the obstruction of justice, you're opening up perjury possibly.

KAGAN: OK, Bo, before we go throwing the book at Congressman Condit here, let's bring the spotlight back on the original intention, that is to find Chandra Levy and what happened to her. You know as a private investigator you have to follow up a number of leads. If you were working with the family, would you advise them that despite all the suspicion and the questions about Congressman Condit, you don't want to lose, perhaps, a hot trail. A lot of other things could have happened to Chandra Levy and most likely did.

DIETL: Absolutely. And you have to interview all f the witnesses and interview people to justify their statements. Very, very important here is that when you do an investigation like this you don't focus on one thing. You eliminate things and you keep doing an investigation. One lucky thing about the Levy family is that she had an involvement with this congressman because of the fact that there's more attention, more media attention. And these police wouldn't be taking this case up like this. And now you have everybody in America looking at her picture, and for the Levy family, if, again, the congressman has nothing to do with this, they're very lucky that she had an affair with him because all the attention in America is going on that lady's picture and maybe just someone will remember something and bring that information to the police or to the investigators.

KAGAN: You're absolutely right. As you pointed out, hundreds of missing people and they don't get the kind of attention that Chandra Levy is getting.

DIETL: Over 17 years of age, you're only a, you're a missing person. There is no active case unless a person has any kind of a mental illness or something like that. So let's keep that in mind and let's keep in mind there's still a missing person. There's no body has been found and the congressman has not been proven anything.

KAGAN: No crime.

DIETL: But all I'm saying is the congressman has to come out and draw the line and own up to whatever the relationship he had with this female, right or wrong.

KAGAN: Great. Bo, thanks for your insight. Appreciate it. Good to see you.

You can also tune in tonight to CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE" for an exclusive interview with Levy family attorney Billy Martin. That's tonight at 9:00 Eastern, 6:00 Pacific.

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