Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Hit & Run Case

Aired June 20, 2003 - 09:17   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.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The caller did not identify the vehicle and did not say that she actually saw a vehicle hit this man.
Jeff, how do you see this tape being used in court, then?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it certainly doesn't implicate O'Brien directly, but it does implicate his explanation. Because remember the first thing he said to police when he finally was questioned about it, was that he thought he hit a small animal, maybe a dog or a cat. That explanation is going to be somewhat hard to maintain when you look at all that damage on his car, which is a big, you know, window damaged right on the driver's side.

HARRIS: Almost knocked out the entire windshield.

TOOBIN: Right. And we all know it takes quite a jolt to damage a car like we can see on the screen there. And then the 911 tape, you know, establishes that there was this large man lying in the middle of the street. It's just very hard to imagine that any jury is going to believe that he really did think he hit a cat when you have that kind of surrounding evidence.

HARRIS: Yes. And as I understand it, this man, Jim Reed, was about 260 pounds.

TOOBIN: He was -- yes, 260 pounds, he's a big guy.

Now, you know, a fact somewhat to the defense is a woman came forward to "The Arizona Republic" yesterday, and said that a man fitting this -- Hill's description was wandering through houses in the neighborhood, apparently intoxicated, the argument being that maybe he was wandering the streets and could have, you know, gotten hit that way. That doesn't excuse leaving the scene of the accident. But it is -- it perhaps fills in the picture somewhat about what was really going on.

HARRIS: Yes, but still, the toughest thing is how do you get around explaining how something can be hit that high up on your windshield and you not see it, particularly if it was something big enough to make that big of an impact?

TOOBIN: Right, and as you said at the beginning of when he we were talking, the police have now found human hair, human blood on the bishop's car, again, making it the cat or dog explanation just that much harder to maintain.

HARRIS: Yes. Now, as I understand it, the bishop's new attorney is trying to move his preliminary hearing now from June 25th to July 7th. What's that all about?

TOOBIN: It's what criminal defense attorneys always do. And if they can move it to November, even better, and December, even better after that. There is tremendous attention in this case in Phoenix, obviously, just as there is around the country. Defense attorneys want to let passions cool, have a chance to look at the evidence, just, you know, push things into the future. July or August probably won't matter much. But it is typical and certainly highly professional behavior by the defense attorney to say, let's slow this train down a little bit and try to get some facts for the defense side as well.

HARRIS: All right. Jeff Toobin in Washington. Thanks. Have a good weekend.

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






Aired June 20, 2003 - 09:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The caller did not identify the vehicle and did not say that she actually saw a vehicle hit this man.
Jeff, how do you see this tape being used in court, then?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it certainly doesn't implicate O'Brien directly, but it does implicate his explanation. Because remember the first thing he said to police when he finally was questioned about it, was that he thought he hit a small animal, maybe a dog or a cat. That explanation is going to be somewhat hard to maintain when you look at all that damage on his car, which is a big, you know, window damaged right on the driver's side.

HARRIS: Almost knocked out the entire windshield.

TOOBIN: Right. And we all know it takes quite a jolt to damage a car like we can see on the screen there. And then the 911 tape, you know, establishes that there was this large man lying in the middle of the street. It's just very hard to imagine that any jury is going to believe that he really did think he hit a cat when you have that kind of surrounding evidence.

HARRIS: Yes. And as I understand it, this man, Jim Reed, was about 260 pounds.

TOOBIN: He was -- yes, 260 pounds, he's a big guy.

Now, you know, a fact somewhat to the defense is a woman came forward to "The Arizona Republic" yesterday, and said that a man fitting this -- Hill's description was wandering through houses in the neighborhood, apparently intoxicated, the argument being that maybe he was wandering the streets and could have, you know, gotten hit that way. That doesn't excuse leaving the scene of the accident. But it is -- it perhaps fills in the picture somewhat about what was really going on.

HARRIS: Yes, but still, the toughest thing is how do you get around explaining how something can be hit that high up on your windshield and you not see it, particularly if it was something big enough to make that big of an impact?

TOOBIN: Right, and as you said at the beginning of when he we were talking, the police have now found human hair, human blood on the bishop's car, again, making it the cat or dog explanation just that much harder to maintain.

HARRIS: Yes. Now, as I understand it, the bishop's new attorney is trying to move his preliminary hearing now from June 25th to July 7th. What's that all about?

TOOBIN: It's what criminal defense attorneys always do. And if they can move it to November, even better, and December, even better after that. There is tremendous attention in this case in Phoenix, obviously, just as there is around the country. Defense attorneys want to let passions cool, have a chance to look at the evidence, just, you know, push things into the future. July or August probably won't matter much. But it is typical and certainly highly professional behavior by the defense attorney to say, let's slow this train down a little bit and try to get some facts for the defense side as well.

HARRIS: All right. Jeff Toobin in Washington. Thanks. Have a good weekend.

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