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American Morning

Headed for Trial?

Aired October 16, 2003 - 09:15   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Jeannine Pirro is the district attorney in Westchester County New York, the author of "To Punish and Protect." Right now on a book tour for that, and making a stop with us here.
Nice to see you again. Good morning to you.

JEANNINE PIRRO, WESTCHESTER CO. DIST. ATTY.: Good morning.

HEMMER: You say it's unusual for the sexual history to be brought up at the preliminary stage.

PIRRO: Sure, it is. Actually it's unheard of. In a preliminary hearing, the prosecution...

HEMMER: Unheard of?

PIRRO: Yes. The prosecution puts on a skeletal case, and the defense basically tries to get what they can in terms of discovery and move forward. This was a spin that is not going to change a judge's mind, because everyone already knew she had sex with someone else. She told it to the police immediately. So why are we surprised?

HEMMER: Well, there's the...

PIRRO: The whole point...

HEMMER: The counter-thought says the defense is trying to prevent this thing from going to trial, and if they want to prevent it, or even have a shot at it, throw all your trump cards on the table.

HEMMER: But it's going to go to trial. Because what you have is Kobe Bryant who has got her blood on the front of his T-shirt. She's got an injury on her chin. She has vaginal injuries. She has an outcry, according to the testimony that we heard.

Remember, Bill, that was all hearsay. That wasn't the victim testifying. It was someone who was saying what she said. Let's wait until we get to the trial and hear the whole story.

HEMMER: A couple of things that came out yesterday. The woman apparently did not tell the detective that she said no during their five-minute interaction. Significant or not?

PIRRO: Well, it certainly is significant. But if you juxtapose that against what happened last week, he said that she said no twice, if you'll remember that testimony from last week. But we need to hear it from her. And the fact that he asked it doesn't mean that she didn't already say it. She was describing, I'm sure, the rape. That's what rape victims do. They say what happened to them. And what we have here is a scenario where we're acting surprised because she may have had sex with someone else.

HEMMER: Here's another point, the first interview, the woman apparently says Bryant stopped when she resisted. What's the impact when a jury hears that?

PIRRO: It's powerful. It's powerful. But according to the testimony last week, she said no when he went to pull her panties down. She said no when he put his hands around her neck. We need to hear it from her. We've only got bits and pieces. It's like a snapshot of what happened.

HEMMER: We do know that apparently one witness inside that resort said the woman did not, look, I think the word was, did not look or sound as if there was a problem. Does that hurt the prosecution?

PIRRO: It hurts the prosecution, but we don't know, number one, when she saw the victim or the accuser. We don't know what the relationship is, whether the victim might have gone forward and told her something. You know, there's a lot here that we're jumping to conclusions. This judge will hold this case over for trial without a doubt. I think most legal minds would agree that there's enough.

HEMMER: Even if that's the case next Monday, did the defense score some points yesterday or not?

PIRRO: Sure, sure they did. You've got the prospective jury pool listening and saying, whoa, listen to what we've heard about her. This is a woman who's had sex with other people. By the way, nobody's asking if he had sex with other people. Nobody's looking at his underwear. But it's what we do to victims, we trash them, we bisect them, we dissect them, and then we try to explain away what the criminal did.

HEMMER: Jeannine Pirro, thanks for coming in. Come back any time.

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 16, 2003 - 09:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Jeannine Pirro is the district attorney in Westchester County New York, the author of "To Punish and Protect." Right now on a book tour for that, and making a stop with us here.
Nice to see you again. Good morning to you.

JEANNINE PIRRO, WESTCHESTER CO. DIST. ATTY.: Good morning.

HEMMER: You say it's unusual for the sexual history to be brought up at the preliminary stage.

PIRRO: Sure, it is. Actually it's unheard of. In a preliminary hearing, the prosecution...

HEMMER: Unheard of?

PIRRO: Yes. The prosecution puts on a skeletal case, and the defense basically tries to get what they can in terms of discovery and move forward. This was a spin that is not going to change a judge's mind, because everyone already knew she had sex with someone else. She told it to the police immediately. So why are we surprised?

HEMMER: Well, there's the...

PIRRO: The whole point...

HEMMER: The counter-thought says the defense is trying to prevent this thing from going to trial, and if they want to prevent it, or even have a shot at it, throw all your trump cards on the table.

HEMMER: But it's going to go to trial. Because what you have is Kobe Bryant who has got her blood on the front of his T-shirt. She's got an injury on her chin. She has vaginal injuries. She has an outcry, according to the testimony that we heard.

Remember, Bill, that was all hearsay. That wasn't the victim testifying. It was someone who was saying what she said. Let's wait until we get to the trial and hear the whole story.

HEMMER: A couple of things that came out yesterday. The woman apparently did not tell the detective that she said no during their five-minute interaction. Significant or not?

PIRRO: Well, it certainly is significant. But if you juxtapose that against what happened last week, he said that she said no twice, if you'll remember that testimony from last week. But we need to hear it from her. And the fact that he asked it doesn't mean that she didn't already say it. She was describing, I'm sure, the rape. That's what rape victims do. They say what happened to them. And what we have here is a scenario where we're acting surprised because she may have had sex with someone else.

HEMMER: Here's another point, the first interview, the woman apparently says Bryant stopped when she resisted. What's the impact when a jury hears that?

PIRRO: It's powerful. It's powerful. But according to the testimony last week, she said no when he went to pull her panties down. She said no when he put his hands around her neck. We need to hear it from her. We've only got bits and pieces. It's like a snapshot of what happened.

HEMMER: We do know that apparently one witness inside that resort said the woman did not, look, I think the word was, did not look or sound as if there was a problem. Does that hurt the prosecution?

PIRRO: It hurts the prosecution, but we don't know, number one, when she saw the victim or the accuser. We don't know what the relationship is, whether the victim might have gone forward and told her something. You know, there's a lot here that we're jumping to conclusions. This judge will hold this case over for trial without a doubt. I think most legal minds would agree that there's enough.

HEMMER: Even if that's the case next Monday, did the defense score some points yesterday or not?

PIRRO: Sure, sure they did. You've got the prospective jury pool listening and saying, whoa, listen to what we've heard about her. This is a woman who's had sex with other people. By the way, nobody's asking if he had sex with other people. Nobody's looking at his underwear. But it's what we do to victims, we trash them, we bisect them, we dissect them, and then we try to explain away what the criminal did.

HEMMER: Jeannine Pirro, thanks for coming in. Come back any time.

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