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CNN Live Sunday
Rudolph Faces Court Appearance Tomorrow
Aired June 01, 2003 - 16:01 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.
SOPHIA CHOI, CNN ANCHOR: Let's begin with Eric Rudolph and the beginning of his long journey through the legal system. The man authorities suspect is behind four bombings, including the blast in the 1996 Olympics, faces a court appearance tomorrow in Asheville, North Carolina. It is 90 miles away from Murphy, where Rudolph was caught, and that's where we find CNN's Gary Tuchman. Gary?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sophia, hello to you. Sunday is generally a very quiet day in Murphy, North Carolina, population 1,600, except for the churches, because this is the middle of the Bible Belt. But today is busy everywhere, and that is because Eric Rudolph is still in town, is in the Cherokee County jail building, it is that brick building you can see about 100 yards behind us.
We're told that he's on one of the first two floors, but we are not being told much else. A lot of people are surprised he's in the jail. This is not exactly Alcatraz, this building, and he is supposed to be transferred anytime to Asheville, North Carolina, where he has his first date in court on Monday. Lots of security outside the building. Local officials with rifles, police, sheriff's office, making sure that no one breaks into the jail and that no one breaks out of the jail facility.
Also here right now, federal officials, FBI, people from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms combing the woods, trying to find out where he was the last several years. Trying to find evidence. It is not clear if Rudolph is talking. If he's telling officials where he was or if they are searching blindly, as they have been for few years, looking for him. But they're in the woods looking for evidence that could help lead to the conviction of Eric Rudolph, or possibly lead to the conviction of those who might have aided him over the last several years.
So this Monday, Asheville, North Carolina, which is tomorrow, 10:00 a.m. eastern time, what's called a removal hearing. And it is simply a hearing where they officially identify him as Eric Rudolph, and then the judge announces where they are removing him to. It will be most likely to Atlanta or to Birmingham, the states, Georgia and Alabama, where the bombs went off. One other thing we want to mention to you, Sophia, we are talking to several people here in town who are now claiming they had sightings of Eric Rudolph recently.
The grocery store where he was found, the owner-operator of the store says he believes he saw him a week and a half ago behind the same store looking through the dumpster. Also, we talked to a hotel clerk who says she now believes she saw Eric Rudolph drive through a Pizza Hut drive-in a couple of years ago. Now, there is no way of proving that these claims are correct, but this is the kind of thing that locals in Murphy, North Carolina are talking about. Sophia, back to you.
CHOI: Gary, I understand the federal authorities are now trying to retrace his steps. And I'm wondering, do they plan in on bringing in dogs to kind of sniff out where he was and sniff out that track?
TUCHMAN: Well, we can only imagine they will. However, they're being very quiet right now. They don't want to tell us any information. Yesterday, we had sheriff's officials, local police officials, the police officer, the 21-year-old police officer who found Rudolph, talking to us, smiling when they were talking to us, now they are all clammed up. They have been ordered by Washington, by the federal authorities, not to talk about anything right now.
CHOI: All right. Understood. Thank you, Gary.
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 June 1, 2003 - 16:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOPHIA CHOI, CNN ANCHOR: Let's begin with Eric Rudolph and the beginning of his long journey through the legal system. The man authorities suspect is behind four bombings, including the blast in the 1996 Olympics, faces a court appearance tomorrow in Asheville, North Carolina. It is 90 miles away from Murphy, where Rudolph was caught, and that's where we find CNN's Gary Tuchman. Gary?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sophia, hello to you. Sunday is generally a very quiet day in Murphy, North Carolina, population 1,600, except for the churches, because this is the middle of the Bible Belt. But today is busy everywhere, and that is because Eric Rudolph is still in town, is in the Cherokee County jail building, it is that brick building you can see about 100 yards behind us.
We're told that he's on one of the first two floors, but we are not being told much else. A lot of people are surprised he's in the jail. This is not exactly Alcatraz, this building, and he is supposed to be transferred anytime to Asheville, North Carolina, where he has his first date in court on Monday. Lots of security outside the building. Local officials with rifles, police, sheriff's office, making sure that no one breaks into the jail and that no one breaks out of the jail facility.
Also here right now, federal officials, FBI, people from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms combing the woods, trying to find out where he was the last several years. Trying to find evidence. It is not clear if Rudolph is talking. If he's telling officials where he was or if they are searching blindly, as they have been for few years, looking for him. But they're in the woods looking for evidence that could help lead to the conviction of Eric Rudolph, or possibly lead to the conviction of those who might have aided him over the last several years.
So this Monday, Asheville, North Carolina, which is tomorrow, 10:00 a.m. eastern time, what's called a removal hearing. And it is simply a hearing where they officially identify him as Eric Rudolph, and then the judge announces where they are removing him to. It will be most likely to Atlanta or to Birmingham, the states, Georgia and Alabama, where the bombs went off. One other thing we want to mention to you, Sophia, we are talking to several people here in town who are now claiming they had sightings of Eric Rudolph recently.
The grocery store where he was found, the owner-operator of the store says he believes he saw him a week and a half ago behind the same store looking through the dumpster. Also, we talked to a hotel clerk who says she now believes she saw Eric Rudolph drive through a Pizza Hut drive-in a couple of years ago. Now, there is no way of proving that these claims are correct, but this is the kind of thing that locals in Murphy, North Carolina are talking about. Sophia, back to you.
CHOI: Gary, I understand the federal authorities are now trying to retrace his steps. And I'm wondering, do they plan in on bringing in dogs to kind of sniff out where he was and sniff out that track?
TUCHMAN: Well, we can only imagine they will. However, they're being very quiet right now. They don't want to tell us any information. Yesterday, we had sheriff's officials, local police officials, the police officer, the 21-year-old police officer who found Rudolph, talking to us, smiling when they were talking to us, now they are all clammed up. They have been ordered by Washington, by the federal authorities, not to talk about anything right now.
CHOI: All right. Understood. Thank you, Gary.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
