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American Morning

Attention Falls on Teammate of Missing Basketball Player

Aired July 03, 2003 - 07:15   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Attention in the case of missing basketball player Patrick Dennehy is falling on a teammate, Carton Dotson. Dotson has hired an attorney, and the lawyer is trying to squelch speculation that Dotson had anything to do with Dennehy's disappearance.
Gary Tuchman is live in Waco, Texas, to bring us up-to-date on a story that is far flung to say the least.

Hello -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Miles.

And the Waco, Texas, police are telling us they are not close to solving this mysterious disturbing case. Patrick Dennehy has now been missing for three weeks. His car, his SUV was found 1,600 miles away in Virginia Beach with its license plate gone, but very little other evidence he's been gone.

He's a basketball player, a forward for the Baylor University basketball here team in Waco. These pictures you see are when he played for the University of New Mexico. He transferred to Baylor University.

Police have conducted searches in this area based on tips. They have not found a body. They are not telling us, however, if they found other evidence. They say they have no official suspects, but do say they have "people of interest" -- that's their word, not ours. They're not telling us how many people of interest they have. They're not telling us names, except for one, and that name is Carlton Dotson.

Dotson is said to be a friend of Dennehy; also played for the Baylor University basketball team, but wasn't coming back next year because his scholarship wasn't renewed.

The main reason Dotson is a person of interest is his name appears on a legal affidavit. It's an affidavit that says he killed Patrick Dennehy. Now, this affidavit is not evidence. It was simply from an informant to a police officer. The police officer wrote it up to get a judge to give them permission to search computers. So, it's not evidence, and we don't know if the informant is telling the truth, or we don't know if the informant knows what he's talking about. But either way, Mr. Dotson has some legal issues to deal with, and because of that he's hired an attorney.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GARDY IRVIN, CARLTON DOTSON'S ATTORNEY: Any credibility which is given to a quote/unquote "confidential informant," real or unreal, is unknown at this particular time. So, I won't waste my time, I won't waste my client's time, trying to respond to, (A), someone who I don't even know who it is, and we don't know what the basis of the comment -- of the statement is. Where does it lend support from? Where does it come from?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: Well, obviously, it isn't enough for police either, because they don't even know if a crime was committed yet because they don't have a body and they don't have enough evidence. So, officially this is still a missing person case.

One more thing we want to mention to you, Miles, is that a friend of both of these men, a friend of Dennehy and Dotson, says both men were afraid of another threat from elsewhere. They both bought guns because they were scared of something else. So, that gives you an idea, Miles, of how complicated this case is.

Back to you.

O'BRIEN: The plot thickens. OK, Gary Tuchman, thanks very much.

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 July 3, 2003 - 07:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Attention in the case of missing basketball player Patrick Dennehy is falling on a teammate, Carton Dotson. Dotson has hired an attorney, and the lawyer is trying to squelch speculation that Dotson had anything to do with Dennehy's disappearance.
Gary Tuchman is live in Waco, Texas, to bring us up-to-date on a story that is far flung to say the least.

Hello -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Miles.

And the Waco, Texas, police are telling us they are not close to solving this mysterious disturbing case. Patrick Dennehy has now been missing for three weeks. His car, his SUV was found 1,600 miles away in Virginia Beach with its license plate gone, but very little other evidence he's been gone.

He's a basketball player, a forward for the Baylor University basketball here team in Waco. These pictures you see are when he played for the University of New Mexico. He transferred to Baylor University.

Police have conducted searches in this area based on tips. They have not found a body. They are not telling us, however, if they found other evidence. They say they have no official suspects, but do say they have "people of interest" -- that's their word, not ours. They're not telling us how many people of interest they have. They're not telling us names, except for one, and that name is Carlton Dotson.

Dotson is said to be a friend of Dennehy; also played for the Baylor University basketball team, but wasn't coming back next year because his scholarship wasn't renewed.

The main reason Dotson is a person of interest is his name appears on a legal affidavit. It's an affidavit that says he killed Patrick Dennehy. Now, this affidavit is not evidence. It was simply from an informant to a police officer. The police officer wrote it up to get a judge to give them permission to search computers. So, it's not evidence, and we don't know if the informant is telling the truth, or we don't know if the informant knows what he's talking about. But either way, Mr. Dotson has some legal issues to deal with, and because of that he's hired an attorney.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GARDY IRVIN, CARLTON DOTSON'S ATTORNEY: Any credibility which is given to a quote/unquote "confidential informant," real or unreal, is unknown at this particular time. So, I won't waste my time, I won't waste my client's time, trying to respond to, (A), someone who I don't even know who it is, and we don't know what the basis of the comment -- of the statement is. Where does it lend support from? Where does it come from?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: Well, obviously, it isn't enough for police either, because they don't even know if a crime was committed yet because they don't have a body and they don't have enough evidence. So, officially this is still a missing person case.

One more thing we want to mention to you, Miles, is that a friend of both of these men, a friend of Dennehy and Dotson, says both men were afraid of another threat from elsewhere. They both bought guns because they were scared of something else. So, that gives you an idea, Miles, of how complicated this case is.

Back to you.

O'BRIEN: The plot thickens. OK, Gary Tuchman, thanks very much.

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