http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/07/18/condit/index.html
Police ignore Condit's faulty alibi
Falsely used as a Condit alibi -- and, she says, falsely smeared by the
tabloids -- an ABC News reporter is surprised she still hasn't heard from
D.C. police.
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By Jake Tapper
July 18, 2001 | WASHINGTON -- Washington police have yet to contact Rebecca
Cooper, the off-air ABC News reporter whom staffers for Rep. Gary Condit,
D-Calif., mistakenly identified as having met at a restaurant with the
beleaguered congressman on May 1, the day that Chandra Levy was last heard
from.
Cooper has confirmed to Salon that she was the reporter who met with Condit
at Tryst, a restaurant/bar in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, in the late
afternoon of May 2, to discuss the California energy crisis as well as
Condit's three meetings at the White House that week. In a timeline drafted
for the media, Condit staffers subsequently and erroneously reported that
meeting as having taken place a day earlier, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The
error in the timeline certainly seems significant, since it purportedly
creates an alibi for Condit on the day that Levy was last heard from.
On anything else having to do with the meeting, the erroneous report by
Condit's office or the failure of the police to contact her, Cooper had no
comment and referred questions to the ABC News public relations department.
"She's not been contacted by any law enforcement authorities," confirms
Su-Lin Nichols, a spokesperson for ABC News.
Cooper's admission comes on a day when D.C. police searched the heavy
underbrush of Rock Creek Park a full 10 weeks after the department was told
she was missing -- and yet she had left evidence on her computer showing that
one of her last known acts was to have used a map search engine on May 1 to
find the location of nearby Klingle Mansion. Though the police have searched
the area around Klingle Mansion before, this is the first time they have
conducted such a thorough search of the area.
It's another reminder that with the whole country watching, the D.C. police
have consistently inspired something less than confidence.
Cooper, reports a source close to her, is "surprised" that she has yet to
receive one phone call from the D.C. police to clear up this matter -- not to
mention discuss with her Condit's behavior or state of mind the day after a
woman with whom he was having an affair went missing.
The police's reaction? "First of all, I don't know if we know about that,"
said Sgt. Joseph Gentile, public information officer for the D.C. Police
Department, when asked about the mess-up in Condit's schedule. "Second of
all, why are you asking about Condit's state of mind? We're looking for Miss
Levy, we want to know about Miss Levy's state of mind. Third of all, we don't
identify the people we talk to."
Still, according to one former D.C. police sergeant, "Somebody should have
interviewed her."
Among many at ABC News, at least, that has been the prevailing wisdom: Every
day that passes without Cooper receiving a phone call from D.C. police raises
eyebrows and questions among both Cooper and her colleagues about the
thoroughness of the investigation. One week ago, on July 11, ABC News' Pierre
Thomas reported on "Nightline" that "in the timeline, [Condit] says he meets
with a reporter the evening of May 1 at a local coffee shop, from 6:30 until
7:30. That reporter, who works for ABC News, remembers the meeting taking
place the next day. Condit's office immediately puts out a statement saying
the timeline was only a draft. They still have not provided a corrected
version."
"It's just basic 101 police work," says local community activist Dorothy
Brizill, executive director of D.C. Watch, a local government watchdog group.
"You wonder whether or not they get it. When it comes to MPD" -- the
Metropolitan Police Department -- "they have been lacking in basic
investigative skills for years.
"Just the other day on Sunday's programs, you see [Police Chief] Ramsey
talking about the Internet traffic on her computer and you say, 'Wait a
minute! Did he just learn this?' and you just scratch your head," Brizill
says. "Anyone who has any familiarity with D.C. police will tell you the lack
of professionalism, the lack of skills."
Critics also wonder why it took D.C. police until their third interview with
Condit, on July 6, to get him to admit the nature of his relationship with
Levy when they had been told early on about the affair by Levy's aunt, Linda
Zamsky. They wonder about the low-rent computer-generated composite
photographs of Levy with different hairstyles that look like they were put
together by a 10-year-old with a scissors, Elmer's glue and a stack of old
People magazines from the 1970s.
They wonder about why it took D.C. police 10 weeks before asking Condit to
submit to a voluntary search of his home.
"No, we hadn't asked for a voluntary search," Ramsey told "Nightline." "That
issue had not
