Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Police Search Congressman Condit's D.C. Apartment

Aired July 11, 2001 - 09:01   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: Here now are the latest developments in the case of Chandra Levy who has been missing now for more than 10 weeks. Police searched Congressman Gary Condit's Washington apartment overnight. Investigators now want Condit to take a lie detector test, although they continue to say he is not a suspect.

Also, a woman who claims Condit asked her to lie about an alleged affair is expected to meet with representatives of the U.S. attorneys office today. Details on all of this now from our national correspondent Bob Franken who is in Washington.

Bob, good morning.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Of course, this is all part of 10-week old investigation into the disappearance of Chandra Levy. The 24-year-old former Washington intern disappeared about 10 weeks ago. And the police, of course, have focused, at least as the public knows, a lot of their attention on Congressman Gary Condit because he has acknowledged to investigators now that he did have a romantic relationship with Chandra Levy. And with the permission last night of Levy's attorney Abbe Lowell, the police came in for what amounted to a three-and-a- half hour search of the congressman's apartment. Shortly before midnight is when they arrived.

As you can see, they used strobe lights. We can tell you that they used chemicals to look for blood, that type of thing, signs of a struggle. At the end of the search, about 2:40 in the morning, they came out carrying bags of material, evidence that they refused to detail for us. Although they did say that they were looking for blood samples, that type of thing in the apartment, DNA samples etcetera.

Now, the apartment, this morning, is quiet once again. Cameras, of course, still out there, as the police continue the investigation and continue to negotiate with Congressman Condit over a variety of things. They're trying to come up with the final details about taking a DNA sample. We're told by officials that would just involve taking a little sample of saliva. There is also a discussion about a lie detector test.

And of course, Congressman Condit right now has to face his colleagues in the capital and explain to them, several of the members of Congress say, why he lied to them about their relationship. They say that, in fact, he had told them he was not having a romantic relationship. He is, of course, dogged everywhere he goes in the capital by news cameras and he's keeping quiet as he has thus far.

As for the lie detector test, police officials talking with Condit's attorney, Abbe Lowell, who had invited them to talk about that. He did not agree to test and there's several differences as a matter of fact, difference about who will do it for instance. The police would like the FBI to do it. Attorneys will often tell you they want to maintain control with their own expert but, it, in case, as the police chief said on CNN, "that's being negotiated".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: We've been working with Mr. Lowell around all these different issues. We don't have specific timelines but hopefully we'll be able to do everything we need to do very, very quickly and again, get these samples analyzed, take a look and review the lie detector results and move on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: And of course, this is an investigation that has spread out in so many directions. It will also have an element that will be going on at the U.S. attorney's office here in Washington.

Representatives of the U.S. attorney will be talking with Anne Marie Smith. Anne Marie Smith, you will remember is the flight attendant who claims she too was having a romantic relationship with Congressman Condit. And more importantly, she says that the congressman and his representative tried to get her to swear under oath falsely that she was not having a romantic relationship. Well, that has peaked the interest of the investigators here. The U.S. attorney wants to interview her. That is supposed to take place later today.

And of course, often times all this attention on Congressman Condit almost obscures the fact that this is about a missing young woman who is still missing after 10 weeks, Chandra Levy. Her parents are desperate. They have pushing much of this investigation and much of the publicity. But thus far, the police tell us, they really are not any closer to finding out where she is -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, Bob, on that note that of course, this investigation goes in other directions besides the congressman, I know earlier this morning you had a chance to interview Chief Ramsey of the Washington D.C. Police Department and you asked him are they searching anybody else's apartment or doing anything similar with other people. What did he have to say about that?

FRANKEN: Well, as you noticed, I was stunningly unsuccessful, in getting him to give us any details. What I was trying to find out is if this was unique. And the police chief failed -- did not want to answer that. But we do know that he is focused any number of individuals. The police have probably about 100 others. We've been told all along that some of them have had even more attention than Congressman Condit. We've also been told by police sources, that some of them have been asked to take a polygraph test themselves. But thus far, they would not tell us whether, in fact, the lie detector had been administered to any of them. Right now, what we do know is that there's a negotiations going on for the polygraph to be administered to Congressman Gary Condit.

KAGAN: Bob Franken in Washington.

Bob, thank you. We will check with you throughout the morning. And we encourage our viewers to stay with CNN for the latest on the Chandra Levy case.

Ahead this hour, a polygraph expert will actually perform an examination right here on the air. Also, tonight on "THE POINT WITH GRETA VAN SUSTEREN": an interview with Jim Robinson. He is the attorney for Anne Marie Smith, who claims that Congressman Condit encouraged her to withhold information about their alleged affair. That's at 8:30 Eastern, 5:30 Pacific.

STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: The chief of the metropolitan police has been careful to say that Congressman Condit is not a suspect in this case and that's because it is not a criminal case. Police say their investigation has found no evidence of a crime in the disappearance of Chandra Levy and that determines how the case is classified. CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena now explaining how a case can move from missing person to something more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police have been careful to consistently call the search for Chandra Levy a missing persons case, despite the fact she's been missing for almost two-and-a-half months.

LOUIS HENNESSY, FORMER D.C. HOMICIDE CHIEF: My intuition would be that things are not good. I mean she hasn't made contact with anybody. She's missed significant events in her life that one wouldn't expect one to miss.

ARENA: But law enforcement experts say how long a person is missing has nothing to do with whether a case is reclassified as criminal. Instead, it comes down to evidence and the threshold isn't high. Police do not need to find a body. In fact, the slightest bit of evidence can suffice.

TED WILLIAMS, FORMER D.C. POLICE INVESTIGATOR: The first thing they're looking for is some semblance of foul play. If they can show any semblance whatsoever, no matter how minute that semblance is, that case then can be transferred to a criminal case.

ARENA: Evidence is not needed when children are missing. Those cases are automatically investigated as criminal. But the law is different concerning adults.

ERNIE ALLEN, CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN: Adults have a right to be missing if they choose to be. I mean if someone decides, I just don't like where I am, I don't like what I' doing, I'm just going to go away, they have a right to do that.

ARENA: Missing persons cases can drag on for years.

(on-camera): That's partly due to a lack of resources. FBI figures show that at any one time, the Nation's police departments have about 100,000 reports of missing persons.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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