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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interviewwith Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, Nelda Blair

Aired July 26, 2003 - 08:13   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.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to our legal roundtable. On the docket today, the flowers that keep on blooming and another California police beating trial.
Joining us from our Miami bureau this morning is civil rights attorney Lida Rodriguez-Taseff.

Good morning to you, Lida.

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

COLLINS: And from Houston, former prosecutor Nelda Blair.

Thanks so much for being here, Nelda, to you, too.

NELDA BLAIR, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Thank you.

COLLINS: Let's go ahead and get started with Gennifer Flowers and Hillary Clinton.

What is this case all about?

Lida, why don't you go ahead and start.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Conspiracy versus conspiracy, the vast right- wing conspiracy meets up with the vast Clinton White House conspiracy. The judge in this case allowed a charge to go forward, a claim to go forward by Gennifer Flowers of conspiracy where she alleges that Hillary Clinton used George Stephanopoulos and James Carville as her instrumentalities to defame and to go after Gennifer Flowers.

COLLINS: And, Nelda, is this about conspiracy in your eyes?

BLAIR: Oh, sure. It's -- who would ever believe that James Carville or George Stephanopoulos would do anything to try to cover up for Bill Clinton? I can't imagine that. Sure. That's exactly what it's all about and Gennifer Flowers was caught up in it as much as anyone, and she's trying to prove herself correct, herself (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

COLLINS: Does she have a case?

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Absolutely. You know, this is kind of an interesting issue. Does she have a case? Who knows and who cares, because the trophy here is not whether she has a case. The trophy here is whether she gets to depose Hillary Rodham Clinton. And the answer is yes. And you know what? Hillary Rodham Clinton is going to make a lousy witness because smart people, especially smart lawyers, make lousy deposition witnesses. All you have to do is look at her husband's transcript to know that this is going to be an interesting little legal battle.

COLLINS: And, Nelda, what do you think about the fact that Hillary Clinton is now a senator? I mean she seems to have a lot to lose if she does go and take part in this trial.

BLAIR: Well, absolutely. Absolutely, because I mean Hillary has been through quite a bit as it is. But she has made sense. She has been able to be elected senator. But being on a witness stand, talking about her husband having an affair while he was governor, talking about her husband at all in this situation has got to embarrass her. It's not going to help her image at all.

What I really wonder is what Gennifer Flowers is waiting out of this, what damages has she actually suffered? I can see why she might be doing this mainly just to say look, I'm right and all these people who were in power were really wrong.

COLLINS: All right, ladies, let's go ahead and move on now to our next issue, which happened in Inglewood, California. And on Wednesday, the Los Angeles jury in this police beating trial was actually asked to decide whether or not the former Inglewood police officer was "out of control" or just simply doing his job.

Once again, this is a police brutality trial. You're looking at some of the video there. It happened on July 6 of 2002.

Lida, what do you think about this, out of control, doing his job?

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Out of control is definitely the understatement. This 16-year-old was handcuffed, surrounded by four police officers. He's on the ground. He looks like he's unconscious. They take him, they shove -- the officer that's on trial takes him and shoves him into the hood of the -- the back hood of the car and then he punches him. And now he's arguing well, he pulled at my groin. Give me a break. This is not a groin pull. This is an abuse by a police officer and hopefully this jury will move swiftly to a conviction.

COLLINS: Nelda, have we seen everything that we can see about what happened here on this video?

BLAIR: Well, what we're seeing -- all we're seeing this morning is the video and what else would we expect Lida to say? She's a civil liberties lawyer. But look at it this way. When you actually look at all the evidence, when you hear other policemen that say this is reasonable use in a reasonable situation where we might reasonably have thought that we were in danger, you have police -- even the prosecution's witness has come out and said look, I don't think criminal charges should have been filed. And there's also testimony that the young man told paramedics he did not pass out.

So in spite of this video, you've got a lot of testimony that's going to work in the favor of these policemen.

COLLINS: All right, Let's go ahead and move on to our final topic now this morning, the missing basketball player at Baylor University. Of course, talking about Patrick Dennehy here now.

Carlton Dotson is the man who's charged with the murder and the disappearance of this man. Is there a confession or not? There seems to be a lot of talk about that at this point.

Lida, once again, you can go ahead and start on this one.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: It depends on who you ask. I guess if you ask Nelda, the answer is yes, there's a confession and it's signed, sealed and delivered. He's saying there isn't. The FBI says there is. The question is what happened during that hospital visit after he called 911 and said -- we're unclear as to what he said, but obviously he said oh, I want to talk to the police. They have not shared with us what he said about his mental condition. Obviously now his lawyers are saying he couldn't have given a confession, he was delusional. He was haring voices. He was seeing things. The family said so and the 9/11 taped call said so.

COLLINS: All right, Nelda, what do you think about this? Has there been a history of mental problems here?

BLAIR: No, no, no. Let's read between the lines on this. The man has been going from one room reading the bible, according to his family. He might be hearing voices, according to some of the -- a policeman that he called. Then he goes into the FBI, he gives them some kind of statement and the prosecution thinks that it's enough to charge him with murder.

Now, I respect their decision on that, but let's say this. His attorney is saying, what he's saying is there can't be a confession because he was delusional. In other words, he's saying that he wasn't competent at the time that he said whatever he said. So he said something that made the police file charges.

His attorney is not saying he didn't confess. He's saying he wasn't competent at the time to confess. Big difference.

COLLINS: Yes, a big difference. And, of course, a lot more to come on that issue, at least.

All right, Nelda Blair, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

BLAIR: My pleasure.

COLLINS: And Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, thank you once again.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Thanks, Heidi. Take care.

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 26, 2003 - 08:13   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to our legal roundtable. On the docket today, the flowers that keep on blooming and another California police beating trial.
Joining us from our Miami bureau this morning is civil rights attorney Lida Rodriguez-Taseff.

Good morning to you, Lida.

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

COLLINS: And from Houston, former prosecutor Nelda Blair.

Thanks so much for being here, Nelda, to you, too.

NELDA BLAIR, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Thank you.

COLLINS: Let's go ahead and get started with Gennifer Flowers and Hillary Clinton.

What is this case all about?

Lida, why don't you go ahead and start.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Conspiracy versus conspiracy, the vast right- wing conspiracy meets up with the vast Clinton White House conspiracy. The judge in this case allowed a charge to go forward, a claim to go forward by Gennifer Flowers of conspiracy where she alleges that Hillary Clinton used George Stephanopoulos and James Carville as her instrumentalities to defame and to go after Gennifer Flowers.

COLLINS: And, Nelda, is this about conspiracy in your eyes?

BLAIR: Oh, sure. It's -- who would ever believe that James Carville or George Stephanopoulos would do anything to try to cover up for Bill Clinton? I can't imagine that. Sure. That's exactly what it's all about and Gennifer Flowers was caught up in it as much as anyone, and she's trying to prove herself correct, herself (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

COLLINS: Does she have a case?

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Absolutely. You know, this is kind of an interesting issue. Does she have a case? Who knows and who cares, because the trophy here is not whether she has a case. The trophy here is whether she gets to depose Hillary Rodham Clinton. And the answer is yes. And you know what? Hillary Rodham Clinton is going to make a lousy witness because smart people, especially smart lawyers, make lousy deposition witnesses. All you have to do is look at her husband's transcript to know that this is going to be an interesting little legal battle.

COLLINS: And, Nelda, what do you think about the fact that Hillary Clinton is now a senator? I mean she seems to have a lot to lose if she does go and take part in this trial.

BLAIR: Well, absolutely. Absolutely, because I mean Hillary has been through quite a bit as it is. But she has made sense. She has been able to be elected senator. But being on a witness stand, talking about her husband having an affair while he was governor, talking about her husband at all in this situation has got to embarrass her. It's not going to help her image at all.

What I really wonder is what Gennifer Flowers is waiting out of this, what damages has she actually suffered? I can see why she might be doing this mainly just to say look, I'm right and all these people who were in power were really wrong.

COLLINS: All right, ladies, let's go ahead and move on now to our next issue, which happened in Inglewood, California. And on Wednesday, the Los Angeles jury in this police beating trial was actually asked to decide whether or not the former Inglewood police officer was "out of control" or just simply doing his job.

Once again, this is a police brutality trial. You're looking at some of the video there. It happened on July 6 of 2002.

Lida, what do you think about this, out of control, doing his job?

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Out of control is definitely the understatement. This 16-year-old was handcuffed, surrounded by four police officers. He's on the ground. He looks like he's unconscious. They take him, they shove -- the officer that's on trial takes him and shoves him into the hood of the -- the back hood of the car and then he punches him. And now he's arguing well, he pulled at my groin. Give me a break. This is not a groin pull. This is an abuse by a police officer and hopefully this jury will move swiftly to a conviction.

COLLINS: Nelda, have we seen everything that we can see about what happened here on this video?

BLAIR: Well, what we're seeing -- all we're seeing this morning is the video and what else would we expect Lida to say? She's a civil liberties lawyer. But look at it this way. When you actually look at all the evidence, when you hear other policemen that say this is reasonable use in a reasonable situation where we might reasonably have thought that we were in danger, you have police -- even the prosecution's witness has come out and said look, I don't think criminal charges should have been filed. And there's also testimony that the young man told paramedics he did not pass out.

So in spite of this video, you've got a lot of testimony that's going to work in the favor of these policemen.

COLLINS: All right, Let's go ahead and move on to our final topic now this morning, the missing basketball player at Baylor University. Of course, talking about Patrick Dennehy here now.

Carlton Dotson is the man who's charged with the murder and the disappearance of this man. Is there a confession or not? There seems to be a lot of talk about that at this point.

Lida, once again, you can go ahead and start on this one.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: It depends on who you ask. I guess if you ask Nelda, the answer is yes, there's a confession and it's signed, sealed and delivered. He's saying there isn't. The FBI says there is. The question is what happened during that hospital visit after he called 911 and said -- we're unclear as to what he said, but obviously he said oh, I want to talk to the police. They have not shared with us what he said about his mental condition. Obviously now his lawyers are saying he couldn't have given a confession, he was delusional. He was haring voices. He was seeing things. The family said so and the 9/11 taped call said so.

COLLINS: All right, Nelda, what do you think about this? Has there been a history of mental problems here?

BLAIR: No, no, no. Let's read between the lines on this. The man has been going from one room reading the bible, according to his family. He might be hearing voices, according to some of the -- a policeman that he called. Then he goes into the FBI, he gives them some kind of statement and the prosecution thinks that it's enough to charge him with murder.

Now, I respect their decision on that, but let's say this. His attorney is saying, what he's saying is there can't be a confession because he was delusional. In other words, he's saying that he wasn't competent at the time that he said whatever he said. So he said something that made the police file charges.

His attorney is not saying he didn't confess. He's saying he wasn't competent at the time to confess. Big difference.

COLLINS: Yes, a big difference. And, of course, a lot more to come on that issue, at least.

All right, Nelda Blair, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

BLAIR: My pleasure.

COLLINS: And Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, thank you once again.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: Thanks, Heidi. Take care.

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