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CNN Saturday Morning News
Police Continue Search for Chandra Levy
Aired July 14, 2001 - 09:01 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.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour with the latest on the Chandra Levy case. Washington police are now circulating composite pictures of Levy. The four computer-adjusted photos on the police Web site show how Levy might look if she had altered her appearance with a new hairstyle or new hair color.
It has now been 75 days since Levy was last seen.
And police plan to keep looking through abandoned buildings near the apartments of Chandra Levy and Congressman Gary Condit.
With more on the search for Levy, here's CNN's national correspondent Bob Franken in Washington.
Good morning, Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're pulling out all the stops, Brian. This is, on the one hand, very, very fundamental police work. It's become the highest priority for the Washington, D.C., police, but it's also been reduced in the minds of many to a legalistic public relations value.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN (voice-over): The news conference capped a week of maneuvering by attorney Abbe Lowell designed to take the pressure off his client. The announcement, Congressman Gary Condit had taken a lie detector test and passed it with flying colors, showing no deception when confronted with what Lowell described as the key questions.
ABBE LOWELL, GARY CONDIT'S ATTORNEY: First, did the congressman have anything at all to do with the disappearance of Miss Levy? Second, did he harm her or cause anyone else to harm her in any way? And third, does he know where she can be located?
FRANKEN: But the test was given by a prominent polygraph expert hired by Condit. Washington, D.C. police were clearly not satisfied.
ASST. CHIEF TERRANCE GAINER, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: Giving a polygraph examination where the police aren't involved might serve a defense lawyer properly, but it's not the way the police would approach this.
FRANKEN: Put simply, police said their examiner might have had more facts at his disposal, might have asked some unasked follow-up questions.
LOWELL: What else do you want to know except for the three questions that have any bearing on what you are all supposed to be concerned about?
FRANKEN: Assistant Chief Terrance Gainer, barely hiding his disappointment, said he would have preferred if Lowell had continued the discussions about the lie detector test. Instead, the congressman's attorney listed 10 different ways that Condit had cooperated with authorities.
GAINER: There's not an attorney, a defense attorney, worth their salt who would just offer up a client to a polygraph without them giving their own. So that aspect doesn't surprise me. This kind of -- you know, the 10 -- top 10 list of things how they helped police is interesting theatrics.
FRANKEN: It was the Levy family that had called on the congressman to take a polygraph. Their attorney, Billy Martin, criticized the privately administered test.
WILLIAM MARTIN, LEVY FAMILY ATTORNEY: It seems that the congressman and his attorneys snuck off to a private polygraph examiner and took a term -- a polygraph on his terms. Once again, it...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN: And let us not -- let us not forget, Brian, that the maneuvering cannot obscure the fact that Chandra Levy has now been missing for almost 11 weeks.
NELSON: Bob, I got a question for you. We've seen the computer- altered images of Chandra Levy, so the question now is, in the minds of many, do police think that's exactly what has happened to her now? Are they discounting the possibility of murder, foul play?
FRANKEN: Oh, to the contrary. That is their optimistic scenario, but quite frankly, a lot of the officers are really quite pessimistic, and that's reflected in what we see with this search around the city. The police are just fanning out. They're going into abandoned buildings. Sometimes this is quite dangerous. You can see there's quite a bit of debris inside. They have to watch where they step, et cetera.
They're looking for a body, as simple as that. They're going to be searching through the weekend, they're going to be looking in parks, and they may expand if necessary.
NELSON: All right, thank you, CNN's Bob Franken in Washington for us again. Thanks, Bob.
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