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American Morning

Kobe Bryant Hearing

Aired October 15, 2003 - 09:06   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: Of course, lots of questions about, will there be any surprises out of the rest of the hearing that happens today? CNN's legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is in Eagle, Colorado this morning and he joins us with some insight.
Nice to see you, Jeff. So much to cover, so let's get right to it.

As we just heard from Gary, there's going to be this meeting before the hearing begins to discuss whether or not it should be closed. What do you think the chances of the judge saying, OK, let's close it?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, this judge has been very much oriented towards keeping proceedings each to the press. So I would doubt that he will close the hearings.

But I have late news for you, Soledad. We -- our colleague, Carlos Flores, was in the Burger King this morning, and Judge Gannett was there, too, having his morning coffee, and he said two things to Carlos. He said, one, tell Wolf to stop saying Eagle is such a small village, because we're not that small. And second, he said, we're going to try to keep this short and sweet. Whether either of those work out, I can't say. But that's what the judge is thinking about this morning.

O'BRIEN: Right out of the Burger King. You heard it here first.

TOOBIN: That's right.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about Pamela Mackey. Prosecutors filing this motion where they basically say she's trying to smear their client. Many people have said she's not going to come in to court today with her tail tucked between her legs and being contrite about this. Do you think that's true?

TOOBIN: I do think that's true. The defense here is one thing. The defense is, this woman is a liar who is trying to destroy Kobe Bryant's life for whatever twisted motive she might have. The only defense here is to attack this woman at every opportunity, and Pamela Mackey knows she's not in a popularity contest, and she is going to keep attacking from the beginning of this trial to the end.

O'BRIEN: Last week, you said that sort of strategy for the defense was a disaster. There are other people since then, hate to tell you, who are saying no, it's a brilliant strategy to come out swinging, come out strong and scare the alleged accuser in this case. Changing your mind at all?

TOOBIN: Well, no. I think it's a little too late to scare her away. She's not going anywhere.

And the thing about the defense here, there are good defenses in this case -- the absence of injuries, the consent to at least some sexual activity between the two of them. Those are good defenses. My issue was, you can raise those issues at trial. And all the defense did was get the ugly facts of this case in front of the public earlier by doing this.

So I'm sticking to my disaster guns, and when he's acquitted. you can come back and say, you know, you were totally wrong.

O'BRIEN: Let me write that down, Jeff Toobin says still a disaster. I want to talk to but reports we've heard about an audiotape potentially being played today, if, indeed, the hearing is left open. What do you know about that?

TOOBIN: The big issue that we expect to hear, the big piece of evidence, is Kobe Bryant's statement to the police when he was first confronted with this accusation the day after. This was tape recorded. One possibility is the prosecution will simply play the tape as part of the preliminary hearing.

Second, they could have the Detective Winters who testified before summarize Kobe Bryant's interview. But this is obviously going to be a crucial piece of evidence in the trial. What did Kobe Bryant say when he was first confronted? Did he tell the truth? Did he lie? Did he try to make excuses? That is a key fact.

And if this preliminary hearing takes place in public, we will almost certainly know what Kobe Bryant said when he was first confronted with these accusations, key part of the case.

O'BRIEN: The hearing is supposed to determine whether the case should move forward at all. And many have said the bar is actually so low that they expect that to happen. Do you think that's true, that there's nothing that could really happen here that would have the judge say, you know what, let's just not take this to trial.

TOOBIN: No, given the testimony from the victim, through the detective, there is no way the judge could throw this case out at this point. This case will clearly proceed to trial. That doesn't mean Kobe Bryant's going to be convicted, doesn't mean he's guilty. But this hurdle has been crossed by the prosecution. There will be a trial in this case, unless there's some sort of plea bargain.

O'BRIEN: Jeff, you know I love to put you on the spot. Are you predicting more shockers for today?

TOOBIN: You know, I think the evidence of Kobe Bryant's statement alone will be fascinating and an important new development. So that, I don't know if it counts as a shocker, but it will certainly be a big development. But the defense here came to play, they came to win, and they're not going to back down. So yes, I think there will be more shockers. So write it down, I predicted a shocker.

O'BRIEN: I've got a long list now, Jeff.

TOOBIN: A list of my notoriously incorrect predictions.

O'BRIEN: We will see. Jeff Toobin as always, thanks, in Eagle, Colorado, a large town, large, huge.

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 October 15, 2003 - 09:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Of course, lots of questions about, will there be any surprises out of the rest of the hearing that happens today? CNN's legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is in Eagle, Colorado this morning and he joins us with some insight.
Nice to see you, Jeff. So much to cover, so let's get right to it.

As we just heard from Gary, there's going to be this meeting before the hearing begins to discuss whether or not it should be closed. What do you think the chances of the judge saying, OK, let's close it?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, this judge has been very much oriented towards keeping proceedings each to the press. So I would doubt that he will close the hearings.

But I have late news for you, Soledad. We -- our colleague, Carlos Flores, was in the Burger King this morning, and Judge Gannett was there, too, having his morning coffee, and he said two things to Carlos. He said, one, tell Wolf to stop saying Eagle is such a small village, because we're not that small. And second, he said, we're going to try to keep this short and sweet. Whether either of those work out, I can't say. But that's what the judge is thinking about this morning.

O'BRIEN: Right out of the Burger King. You heard it here first.

TOOBIN: That's right.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about Pamela Mackey. Prosecutors filing this motion where they basically say she's trying to smear their client. Many people have said she's not going to come in to court today with her tail tucked between her legs and being contrite about this. Do you think that's true?

TOOBIN: I do think that's true. The defense here is one thing. The defense is, this woman is a liar who is trying to destroy Kobe Bryant's life for whatever twisted motive she might have. The only defense here is to attack this woman at every opportunity, and Pamela Mackey knows she's not in a popularity contest, and she is going to keep attacking from the beginning of this trial to the end.

O'BRIEN: Last week, you said that sort of strategy for the defense was a disaster. There are other people since then, hate to tell you, who are saying no, it's a brilliant strategy to come out swinging, come out strong and scare the alleged accuser in this case. Changing your mind at all?

TOOBIN: Well, no. I think it's a little too late to scare her away. She's not going anywhere.

And the thing about the defense here, there are good defenses in this case -- the absence of injuries, the consent to at least some sexual activity between the two of them. Those are good defenses. My issue was, you can raise those issues at trial. And all the defense did was get the ugly facts of this case in front of the public earlier by doing this.

So I'm sticking to my disaster guns, and when he's acquitted. you can come back and say, you know, you were totally wrong.

O'BRIEN: Let me write that down, Jeff Toobin says still a disaster. I want to talk to but reports we've heard about an audiotape potentially being played today, if, indeed, the hearing is left open. What do you know about that?

TOOBIN: The big issue that we expect to hear, the big piece of evidence, is Kobe Bryant's statement to the police when he was first confronted with this accusation the day after. This was tape recorded. One possibility is the prosecution will simply play the tape as part of the preliminary hearing.

Second, they could have the Detective Winters who testified before summarize Kobe Bryant's interview. But this is obviously going to be a crucial piece of evidence in the trial. What did Kobe Bryant say when he was first confronted? Did he tell the truth? Did he lie? Did he try to make excuses? That is a key fact.

And if this preliminary hearing takes place in public, we will almost certainly know what Kobe Bryant said when he was first confronted with these accusations, key part of the case.

O'BRIEN: The hearing is supposed to determine whether the case should move forward at all. And many have said the bar is actually so low that they expect that to happen. Do you think that's true, that there's nothing that could really happen here that would have the judge say, you know what, let's just not take this to trial.

TOOBIN: No, given the testimony from the victim, through the detective, there is no way the judge could throw this case out at this point. This case will clearly proceed to trial. That doesn't mean Kobe Bryant's going to be convicted, doesn't mean he's guilty. But this hurdle has been crossed by the prosecution. There will be a trial in this case, unless there's some sort of plea bargain.

O'BRIEN: Jeff, you know I love to put you on the spot. Are you predicting more shockers for today?

TOOBIN: You know, I think the evidence of Kobe Bryant's statement alone will be fascinating and an important new development. So that, I don't know if it counts as a shocker, but it will certainly be a big development. But the defense here came to play, they came to win, and they're not going to back down. So yes, I think there will be more shockers. So write it down, I predicted a shocker.

O'BRIEN: I've got a long list now, Jeff.

TOOBIN: A list of my notoriously incorrect predictions.

O'BRIEN: We will see. Jeff Toobin as always, thanks, in Eagle, Colorado, a large town, large, huge.

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