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CNN Saturday Morning News

Legal Briefs

Aired July 19, 2003 - 08:20   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.


THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to our "Legal Briefs" segment. Tops on the docket this morning, the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case. Also, should there be charges after the carnage at the Santa Monica farmer's market?
We're going to talk with our legal panel about this. In Miami, we're joined by now one of our experts, civil rights attorney Lida Rodriguez-Taseff. And in Houston, former prosecutor Nelda Blair.

Ladies, good morning.

Great to have you with us, as always.

LIDA RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Good morning.

NELDA BLAIR, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Good to be here.

ROBERTS: All right, let's get right to this, Kobe Bryant, the situation yesterday where we have the press conference coming out about 9:00 Eastern time. Kobe taking the microphone, talking to the reporters there, with his wife in his hands -- she never speaks, though. But any surprises that you ladies noticed about this press conference?

BLAIR: Well, not really surprises, except for the fact that Kobe does come out and gives the prosecution a large part of their case, because often in a sexual assault case, as Lida said last week, it's a he said/she said type of situation. And often the prosecutor has to even prove that there was sexual contact between the two. That part of the case is made at this point.

So whether it was consensual or not consensual is the only thing that we'll be looking at.

ROBERTS: And, Lida, here we see the fact that he's coming out of the gate talking about the fact that he committed adultery, not rape.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Absolutely. And, you know, one of the things that I think is most interesting is the fact that he did do it, he said it, he talked about it. He's got a great legal team. But he made this statement at the Staples Center. Now it's time to pander or play to the crowd in Colorado. So the next question is going to be, you know, we lawyers -- and Nelda can talk about this, as well as I can -- we're always worried about getting home towned. And Kobe and his lawyers are going to have to worry about that. They need to play to the crowd in Colorado. And my advice to him is to spend some time in Colorado. He didn't find religion. He shouldn't move there. But he needs to, before hearings and after hearings, go a few days early, stay a few days late, so he can start winning over the people that are going to either serve on that jury or are going to be judging him.

ROBERTS: Nelda, a name that we're going to become very familiar with in all of this is Pamela Mackey. She is the defense attorney that's been hired by Bryant to go forth with this.

BLAIR: Right.

ROBERTS: Not a big name. Not someone from L.A. This is someone from Colorado, a defense attorney from there.

What do we know about her and how critical was it for him to find a Colorado attorney, as well as a female?

BLAIR: Well, she's obviously a seasoned defense lawyer and I think it was a perfect idea for him to get someone from Colorado for the same reason as we were just talking about. Often when you're in an area where people obviously know this woman, she's well liked, she's well thought of, you need someone from the same area to kind of lead your defense on that side. I think that was a smart idea.

But, honestly, Kobe's got a long, long journey to go before he not only proves himself innocent, if he can do that, but tries to repair what's left of his reputation.

ROBERTS: All right, ladies, we want to shift gears now and head further out west, take us all the way to Santa Monica, California today. That farmer's market is reopening with a memorial service to the people that lost their lives there after an elderly gentleman drove his car through that farmer's market.

Now, we're still waiting to figure out whether or not manslaughter charges are going to be filed on this.

Ladies, which way can they go on this and if they do file manslaughter charges, what next? Will this 86-year-old man be going to jail?

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Well, you know, the manslaughter issue in California is kind of kooky. It's either whether he was driving his car in the commission of a crime or whether or not he was engaged in proper behavior while driving the car. So the issue is going to become whether or not they can say -- he obviously wasn't committing a crime -- whether or not he was, whether or not the wrong turn can be the basis for the initial charge.

Now, I don't know which way this is going to cut, but the question is what should California do and what should other states do as a result of this incident? California had this issue come up two years ago as a result of another death in the same area of a 15-year- old girl who was killed by a 98-year-old man.

The issue is going to become what do we do with elderly drives? Do we test them more often? Do we require road tests? Twenty-one states require something more. So that's going to be the real issue.

ROBERTS: Nelda, real quickly, CNN was able to obtain video from about 10 years ago where they believe Mr. Weller was involved in a different accident.

BLAIR: Right.

ROBERTS: It shows the same vehicle that was in the Santa Monica accident.

How damaging is this if this is connected?

BLAIR: Well, you've got to be -- every driver has got to be held accountable for anything in their past that might shed light on what they have done in this particular situation. This guy has killed a bunch of people and whether or not he was capable of driving obviously is going to come into play. But I've got to disagree with Lida. It doesn't have anything to do with his age. We call that age discrimination in the United States of America. And what it hinges on is whether or not he was capable of driving, whether or not he should not have been driving or whether or not he had some past problems.

Absolutely, that's going to come into play.

ROBERTS: Ladies, I'm sorry to say we are out of time.

As always, though, we appreciate you taking the time to talk with us this morning.

Our Nelda Blair and Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, thanks very much.

We'll talk again soon.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Thank you.

BLAIR: Thank you, too.

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 19, 2003 - 08:20   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to our "Legal Briefs" segment. Tops on the docket this morning, the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case. Also, should there be charges after the carnage at the Santa Monica farmer's market?
We're going to talk with our legal panel about this. In Miami, we're joined by now one of our experts, civil rights attorney Lida Rodriguez-Taseff. And in Houston, former prosecutor Nelda Blair.

Ladies, good morning.

Great to have you with us, as always.

LIDA RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Good morning.

NELDA BLAIR, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Good to be here.

ROBERTS: All right, let's get right to this, Kobe Bryant, the situation yesterday where we have the press conference coming out about 9:00 Eastern time. Kobe taking the microphone, talking to the reporters there, with his wife in his hands -- she never speaks, though. But any surprises that you ladies noticed about this press conference?

BLAIR: Well, not really surprises, except for the fact that Kobe does come out and gives the prosecution a large part of their case, because often in a sexual assault case, as Lida said last week, it's a he said/she said type of situation. And often the prosecutor has to even prove that there was sexual contact between the two. That part of the case is made at this point.

So whether it was consensual or not consensual is the only thing that we'll be looking at.

ROBERTS: And, Lida, here we see the fact that he's coming out of the gate talking about the fact that he committed adultery, not rape.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Absolutely. And, you know, one of the things that I think is most interesting is the fact that he did do it, he said it, he talked about it. He's got a great legal team. But he made this statement at the Staples Center. Now it's time to pander or play to the crowd in Colorado. So the next question is going to be, you know, we lawyers -- and Nelda can talk about this, as well as I can -- we're always worried about getting home towned. And Kobe and his lawyers are going to have to worry about that. They need to play to the crowd in Colorado. And my advice to him is to spend some time in Colorado. He didn't find religion. He shouldn't move there. But he needs to, before hearings and after hearings, go a few days early, stay a few days late, so he can start winning over the people that are going to either serve on that jury or are going to be judging him.

ROBERTS: Nelda, a name that we're going to become very familiar with in all of this is Pamela Mackey. She is the defense attorney that's been hired by Bryant to go forth with this.

BLAIR: Right.

ROBERTS: Not a big name. Not someone from L.A. This is someone from Colorado, a defense attorney from there.

What do we know about her and how critical was it for him to find a Colorado attorney, as well as a female?

BLAIR: Well, she's obviously a seasoned defense lawyer and I think it was a perfect idea for him to get someone from Colorado for the same reason as we were just talking about. Often when you're in an area where people obviously know this woman, she's well liked, she's well thought of, you need someone from the same area to kind of lead your defense on that side. I think that was a smart idea.

But, honestly, Kobe's got a long, long journey to go before he not only proves himself innocent, if he can do that, but tries to repair what's left of his reputation.

ROBERTS: All right, ladies, we want to shift gears now and head further out west, take us all the way to Santa Monica, California today. That farmer's market is reopening with a memorial service to the people that lost their lives there after an elderly gentleman drove his car through that farmer's market.

Now, we're still waiting to figure out whether or not manslaughter charges are going to be filed on this.

Ladies, which way can they go on this and if they do file manslaughter charges, what next? Will this 86-year-old man be going to jail?

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Well, you know, the manslaughter issue in California is kind of kooky. It's either whether he was driving his car in the commission of a crime or whether or not he was engaged in proper behavior while driving the car. So the issue is going to become whether or not they can say -- he obviously wasn't committing a crime -- whether or not he was, whether or not the wrong turn can be the basis for the initial charge.

Now, I don't know which way this is going to cut, but the question is what should California do and what should other states do as a result of this incident? California had this issue come up two years ago as a result of another death in the same area of a 15-year- old girl who was killed by a 98-year-old man.

The issue is going to become what do we do with elderly drives? Do we test them more often? Do we require road tests? Twenty-one states require something more. So that's going to be the real issue.

ROBERTS: Nelda, real quickly, CNN was able to obtain video from about 10 years ago where they believe Mr. Weller was involved in a different accident.

BLAIR: Right.

ROBERTS: It shows the same vehicle that was in the Santa Monica accident.

How damaging is this if this is connected?

BLAIR: Well, you've got to be -- every driver has got to be held accountable for anything in their past that might shed light on what they have done in this particular situation. This guy has killed a bunch of people and whether or not he was capable of driving obviously is going to come into play. But I've got to disagree with Lida. It doesn't have anything to do with his age. We call that age discrimination in the United States of America. And what it hinges on is whether or not he was capable of driving, whether or not he should not have been driving or whether or not he had some past problems.

Absolutely, that's going to come into play.

ROBERTS: Ladies, I'm sorry to say we are out of time.

As always, though, we appreciate you taking the time to talk with us this morning.

Our Nelda Blair and Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, thanks very much.

We'll talk again soon.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Thank you.

BLAIR: Thank you, too.

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