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American Morning

New Jersey Prosecutors Add to Original Jayson Williams Manslaughter Charge

Aired March 15, 2002 - 08:33   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the case against former pro basketball star Jayson Williams. Just this week, you might remember, New Jersey prosecutors added to the original manslaughter charge with new allegations of evidence tampering and obstruction of justice. They say Williams and two friends tried to manipulate the crime scene to make the fatal shooting of a limo driver in his home look like a suicide.

Williams defense team meanwhile is starting to take shape.

Renowned forensics expert Dr. Michael Bauden (ph) has signed on, and joining us now to talk more about the Williams case and athletes in trouble with the law is attorney Tim Green. This goes on and on. Former pro football star, also happens to be the author of "The New York Times" best seller "The Fourth Perimeter."

Good to see you in person for a change.

TIM GREEN, AUTHOR/ATTORNEY: Great to see you in person for a change.

ZAHN: Welcome.

Let's talk a little bit about this Jayson Williams case. Dr. Michael Bauden is a heavyweight, no doubt about that.

GREEN: Absolutely, and he's known for the Clause Von Buelle (ph) case, and he's known for the O.J. case where forensic evidence was called into question and the scientific methods of the prosecution and the police were called into question, and they were able to really defeat the prosecution because they were able to create some doubt in the minds of the jury.

Now, the difference here is that with Jayson Williams, if in fact, The prosecutors have the within they're purported to have, if they have witnesses who are going to say, listen, we saw Jayson Williams and someone else, we saw them wiping prints off of the gun, and then we saw them taking the dead man's hands and placing his palm prints and his fingerprints on the gun, then that is going to overwhelm any kind of question of the forensic evidence. That will substantiate it enough, and that's not something that we had in the O.J. case. ZAHN: It seems like a trial balloon was being dropped, because even in the "Sports Illustrated" article that came out a couple of weeks ago, these so-called witnesses must have been the ones who talked to this author, talking about the tampering of this evidence at the scene.

GREEN: Right, and it's being reported, Paula, that some of the Harlem Globetrotters who were there have already been offered immunity, and once people are offered immunity, they're going to talk. You're offered immunity for a reason. You could possibly be in trouble. And then if you get the immunity, they're not going to give it to you for free.

ZAHN: Put this case in context as we review the Ray Lewis case, and e will look at some pictures of him now. In exchange with dropping the two murder charges against him, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a police officer. Then you have the Ray Carruth story, who we will see here shortly, who was charged and convicted in January of 2001 of conspiring to murder the mother his unborn child. A judge sentenced him to over 18 years in prison.

GREEN: Right. You have a lot of similarities. Obviously, you have professional athletes. But also, if you look at these cases, you also have kind of a pay scale. If you look at the O.J. case, he had the dream team, he had the best attorneys money could buy. He had the money. Jayson Williams, we're seeing Dr. Michael Bauden on. That cost a lot of money. He's got Steve Hayden, one of the more respected trial attorneys in New Jersey. So don't be surprised if he assembles all kinds of experts to come to his aid.

Now, on a pay scale, those guys are multi, multi-millionaires, O.J. and Jayson Williams. Ray Lewis was a millionaire, and he had a bunch of experts, but actually Ray Lewis, you have to qualify that, because he was clearly innocent once the evidence came out in that trial. But Ray Carruth on the other hand, was not even a millionaire, and people think you put them all in one category. But Ray Carruth at the time had 400 something odd dollars in his bank account. And you say, well, I mean, that is a lot of money, but it's not tens of millions where you can afford to bring in the best of the best.

ZAHN: So you're basically saying money, if you got these great attorneys can buy you freedom?

(CROSSTALK)

GREEN: It can't buy you freedom, but it gives you a heck of a lot better chance, you know. Most people, I mean, I think -- I think O.J. really did murder someone.

ZAHN: I'm not going there this morning.

GREEN: You're not going there, but I'll go there. Some people don't, but it seemed to me if I was on that jury, I would have convicted him.

However, some people didn't, and I think the people that didn't, they really believed that he was innocent. They believed that he didn't commit the crime, and I think the defense put on such a great show and all the best of the best experts that they called everything into question. They called scientific evidence into question that in most cases a jury just sits there and says, aha, well, these are the experts, and they're saying this is the case, so we believe them.

ZAHN: Since you've been so involved with athletes over the years, why is it that we see such a high percentage of professional athletes get into trouble?

GREEN: You know what, it's a low percentage of athletes. It just seems like it's a high percentage of athletes. There was a book that came out about that a couple of years ago that I thought sensationalized the amount of trouble that NFL players get into.

ZAHN: You think that's all hype at Super Bowl time when we talk about folks with misdemeanor charges and felony indictments.

GREEN: You know what, Paula, I know it is, because if you look at studies cited in some of these books, they will tell that you that NFL players -- I'm talking about NFL players now, are half as likely as the general populous for males in their age group for males in their age group to be -- to have incidents with the law, to be arrested. Half. What happens is now they're out there, and when it does happen, look at Jayson Williams. I mean, things like this happen, unfortunately, all the time. But when it happens with Jayson Williams, we're sitting hearing talking about it, everyone is watching.

ZAHN: And he gets to hire Dr. Michael Bauden and we will talk about it more.

GREEN: And look at the O.J. thing, I mean, I've never seen anything like that.

ZAHN: Good of to you drop by. Thanks for having me.

GREEN: Great seeing you, too.

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