Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Discussion About Protecting Celebrities on Trial

Aired June 05, 2002 - 09:42   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Jury deliberations resume this morning in the trial of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel. As soon as a verdict is reached, we will go live to the courthouse in Norwalk, Connecticut. Right now, though, we are going to turn to a different high-profile case and the safety of a high-profile defendant. Winona Ryder reportedly suffered a fractured elbow on Monday, when a scuffle broke out outside the courthouse.

With me now to discuss who is responsible for protecting celebrities on trial, CNN legal correspondent Jeffrey Toobin, and in Los Angeles this morning, personal protection agent Zeke Unger.

Good morning. Welcome, gentlemen.

ZEKE UNGER, PERSONAL PROTECTION AGENT: Good morning.

ZAHN: Jeffrey, whose fault is this, that Winona Ryder got injured?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: It makes you proud to be a journalist, doesn't it?

ZAHN: It is so embarrassing. You and I have covered trials before. We know what it's like when you have news director or boss telling you, you got to get the shot. But come on.

TOOBIN: Yes, but the thing is, this can be avoided. With a little bit of planning and a little bit of common sense, all the court people have to do is put up a barrier, and I've been covering the Skakel case. There's a lot of cameras there, more than there were at the Winona Ryder case.

But the court personnel very efficiently and fairly made some rules, everybody abides by them, and you don't have situations like this. But when you have no planning, you get chaos, and you know, it's terrible. This woman should not have broken elbow, and the court person was injured, too.

ZAHN: So, Zeke, Whose fault was that this spiraled out of control the way it did? Obviously, the Behavior of journalists is not helpful. But should the court have made arrangements for this woman to have better protection?

UNGER: I think it's a dual responsibility. A, the courts should allow a secure media area, which allows the media to get their story, but yet secures the position of the person going to court. Secondly, I think it's up to the media -- heads of the media companies regarding work ethic, to talk to their people about how they conduct themselves in public.

ZAHN: OK. What I want both of you to do now is analyze this video. There is seems to be a little bit of conflict about which elbow was actually injured of which Winona Ryder. If you look at these pictures now, it seems abundantly clear that it was on her left side that she had to take on some body slamming there. But in fact it was her right arm, Jeffrey, that was fractured?

TOOBIN: The plot thickens.

ZAHN: Now if one wants to be really cynical here, is this a case to get the case postponed again? And what can you tell from the picture?

TOOBIN: Very hard to tell from the picture. It's obviously a jostling situation. You can get a case postponed only so many times. That was, I think, the sixth postponement there, and now it's the seventh postponement, but especially after all this attention. The case isn't going away. The charges aren't going away.

I can't imagine she's faking a broken elbow to do this. But I've been surprised before.

ZAHN: Yes.

TOOBIN: It seems awfully stupid to me. But people do stupid things.

ZAHN: Let's quickly review other high-profile cases where we've seen aggressive tactics on the part of the press -- Monica Lewinsky, Paula Jones. Do you think the American public is becoming desensitized to this?

UNGER: I don't know if they're being desensitized or not. But I think that as this occurs more and more, people feel that it's OK for this to happen, and it's really not. Regardless of people are high profile or not, anyone going to court does not have the right to be assaulted, and has the right to be protected, whether being privately by protection agents like myself, or by the court system. There needs to be rules put in place to protect these people.

TOOBIN: Very interesting video we're looking at right now. It's Betty Currie, President Clinton's secretary, being swarmed on when she testified in the grand jury during the Kenneth Starr investigation. Her lawyers warned Starr's office before then, and said, you know, make a rule, just establish some ground rules, and Starr's people said, no, no, we don't have anything to do with media, it's not our problem, we're not dealing with. And Betty Currie wound up looking up like a real victim here, looking assaulted, and that hurt Starr.

So I think the idea that some prosecutors and some court personnel have that no, no, we don't want anything to do it, it's sullying our hands, winds up having real` impact.

ZAHN: Which begs the question, what responsibility did Winona's Ryder's attorney have to make these arrangements on behalf of his client?

TOOBIN: It's not really his opportunity to do it. I mean, he can't put up crime tape, the police lines. It's not his -- he doesn't know how to do it. He can ask. Betty Currie's lawyers asked to have some arrangements made. But ultimately, it's the responsibility of the people who run the courthouse.

ZAHN: Zeke, you get the final word on that this morning before we move back to the Skakel trial here.

UNGER: I think attorneys do have the right to facilitate protection for their clients. I think it's a necessity. Preplanning is very important in the matters. As you see, being assaulted by cameras can do severe damage not only to their clients, but can postpone the case itself. I think we need to take an aggressive look, and it needs to start at the top. It needs to start with the heads of the media companies explaining to their people about work ethic and how they should conduct themselves and get proper help in these situations.

ZAHN: Quick final thought on the Skakel trial.

TOOBIN: Day two of deliberations starts any minute. I think you can't really drawn any conclusions. There's no way a jury would take a case this complicated and decide it in one day responsibly.

I think today is the day we will start to see some notes from the jury. There were no notes yesterday. And we'll see what they're thinking.

ZAHN: We'll be relying on you to guide us through the process.

Jeffrey Toobin, Zeke Unger, thank you both for your time this morning.

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