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American Morning

Kobe Bryant Case

Aired July 21, 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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Randy Wyrick is a reporter for "The Vail Daily," and he joins us from Eagle with a hometown perspective on the story.
Good morning, Randy. Thanks for joining us.

RANDY WYRICK, REPORTER, "VAIL DAILY": Not a problem.

O'BRIEN: Before we talk about the change of venue we were discussing wit prosecutor, I want to talk about the sense of the town now. Does the town feel completely beleaguered by the media that's now camped out? Is it a sense of chaos, or are people just sort of sick of what's going on?

WYRICK: Well, first of all, we always love it when company comes. But as a general rule, people are beginning to get a little bit tired of being asked questions. This is a town, Eagle, Colorado, of only about 3,500, and it's beginning to seem to some of them there are that many reporters out here as well.

O'BRIEN: A number of reporters matching the number of townspeople. Let's talk a little about the facts of the case. There's been, obviously, lots of speculation. What do you know?

WYRICK: Well, we know that on June 30th, he checked into a hotel, between 10:00 and 10:40. We know that the entire shift of workers that night checked out at 11:10. So somewhere in that hour, the alleged incident occurred. And we know that the place has been ripe with rumor and innuendo and speculation and gossip. And we've tried to get through most of those and get down to the facts of the matter, which are that on June 30th, the incident occurred, that it was reported the next day, July 1st, the same day Mr. Bryant was in town to have surgery.

Here's one for you, we also know that Hunter S. Thompson was in the next room.

O'BRIEN: Interesting.

WYRICK: Oh, yes. He was also in the next room during the Watergate affair, so he's just a lucky guy.

O'BRIEN: The woman, 19 years old, as you mentioned, employed by the hotel. Friends have stepped forward to shed a little light on her personality, and what has come out is that she'd broken up with her boyfriend, that she -- a friend of hers had died recently. Have you been able to confirm all of these things? WYRICK: Yes, yes. She went through a tumultuous breakup with her boyfriend. What we've learned is that when she returned from her freshman year at college, he had been dating another woman, and that broke her heart. We know her best friend, a woman named Nicole Clemons, died in an automobile accident on the high school graduation day, and was on life support system for a couple of days. When she was taken off life support system and they finally had the funeral and a memorial service, the alleged victim stood up and actually sang. She's quite a talented singer, actress, musician, and was apparently solid as a stone at that funeral service.

O'BRIEN: Randy, a quick couple of seconds for the last question, local girl versus NBA star. Can the folks, as we heard from the prosecutor in Eagle, can they be fair in a trial?

WYRICK: Well, you know, Eagle County is a fairly well-educated, fairly enlightened place. Most of the people here have some college, if not a college degree. They tend to want to blow right through the smoke and the gossip and get to the facts of the matter. I think it's a pretty fair-minded group of people. I've been up here a long time. They've certainly appeared that way to me.

O'BRIEN: All right, Randy Wyrick, thanks for joining us this morning with your insight. Appreciate it.

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 21, 2003 - 09:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Randy Wyrick is a reporter for "The Vail Daily," and he joins us from Eagle with a hometown perspective on the story.
Good morning, Randy. Thanks for joining us.

RANDY WYRICK, REPORTER, "VAIL DAILY": Not a problem.

O'BRIEN: Before we talk about the change of venue we were discussing wit prosecutor, I want to talk about the sense of the town now. Does the town feel completely beleaguered by the media that's now camped out? Is it a sense of chaos, or are people just sort of sick of what's going on?

WYRICK: Well, first of all, we always love it when company comes. But as a general rule, people are beginning to get a little bit tired of being asked questions. This is a town, Eagle, Colorado, of only about 3,500, and it's beginning to seem to some of them there are that many reporters out here as well.

O'BRIEN: A number of reporters matching the number of townspeople. Let's talk a little about the facts of the case. There's been, obviously, lots of speculation. What do you know?

WYRICK: Well, we know that on June 30th, he checked into a hotel, between 10:00 and 10:40. We know that the entire shift of workers that night checked out at 11:10. So somewhere in that hour, the alleged incident occurred. And we know that the place has been ripe with rumor and innuendo and speculation and gossip. And we've tried to get through most of those and get down to the facts of the matter, which are that on June 30th, the incident occurred, that it was reported the next day, July 1st, the same day Mr. Bryant was in town to have surgery.

Here's one for you, we also know that Hunter S. Thompson was in the next room.

O'BRIEN: Interesting.

WYRICK: Oh, yes. He was also in the next room during the Watergate affair, so he's just a lucky guy.

O'BRIEN: The woman, 19 years old, as you mentioned, employed by the hotel. Friends have stepped forward to shed a little light on her personality, and what has come out is that she'd broken up with her boyfriend, that she -- a friend of hers had died recently. Have you been able to confirm all of these things? WYRICK: Yes, yes. She went through a tumultuous breakup with her boyfriend. What we've learned is that when she returned from her freshman year at college, he had been dating another woman, and that broke her heart. We know her best friend, a woman named Nicole Clemons, died in an automobile accident on the high school graduation day, and was on life support system for a couple of days. When she was taken off life support system and they finally had the funeral and a memorial service, the alleged victim stood up and actually sang. She's quite a talented singer, actress, musician, and was apparently solid as a stone at that funeral service.

O'BRIEN: Randy, a quick couple of seconds for the last question, local girl versus NBA star. Can the folks, as we heard from the prosecutor in Eagle, can they be fair in a trial?

WYRICK: Well, you know, Eagle County is a fairly well-educated, fairly enlightened place. Most of the people here have some college, if not a college degree. They tend to want to blow right through the smoke and the gossip and get to the facts of the matter. I think it's a pretty fair-minded group of people. I've been up here a long time. They've certainly appeared that way to me.

O'BRIEN: All right, Randy Wyrick, thanks for joining us this morning with your insight. Appreciate it.

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