Anderson Cooper (AC360's Transcript Page) isn't updated yet, so I decided to transcribe the segment myself from my DVR via iPhone (I'm impatient that way :blushing: :earson: )
Suspect's Attorney: Story from Victim's Family Doesn't Add Up
AC: So Conrad (Claus = CC), is there a lot to this story that we haven't heard yet, in your opinion? Because it does seem like the facts that are out there, A) they keep changing; and a lot of them don't seem to really add up in terms of explaining what really happened.
CC: Well, the funny thing is that if you apply another motive potentially, to these stories, changing stories, it makes a lot more sense. And while we're not willing to do that right now, the changing stories are only confusing if you're looking at it as a "road rage situation," if you're looking at it as it was initially presented.
AC: So you don't believe there was a "road rage," initial "road rage" incident.
CC: No, I don't believe there was an initial "road rage" incident. If you want, I can give you five or six, or more points that...
AC: sure
CC: ... that logically point to the fact that it wasn't there. Well, first off, the "road rage" was precipitated by a mother supposedly giving driving lessons to her daughter at 11 o'clock at night. They, when threatened on the road, they don't call the police, but they go home. If you have a stranger stop you on the road and say, "We're going to, yeah we're going, I'm going to hurt you," the first place you go is not driving straight to your house, you call the police, and drive to some populated area that's NOT near your house. When you get to the house,, the first thing you do is call the police, not arm yourself and go looking for this person. There's no way that you'd find a person. There's no way you're gonna find somebody who randomly had a problem with you in traffic five minutes before, unless you know who they are. The fact that the Meyers family don't tell us, at any point for five days that this was Erich Knowsch that they believed was involved in this situation, is suspicious. The fact that the sketch was inaccurate, I'll go so far as to say the composite sketch provided to police was MISLEADING,, is also problematic.
AC: Can you talk a little bit more about the relationship between your client and. Tammy Meyers? Because the Meyers family says that a Tammy became close to your client after his father committed suicide. *** She used to go to the park, talk to him, you know, kind of give him "life-counseling." That he'd even stayed at their house.
(***kimi_SFC note: CC exhibits brief smirk in response to this question - I hope they release the video so y'all can see the non-verbal communication)
CC: Yeah, well, what I can say is that actual relationship between Tammy Meyers and between Erich Knowsch is probably somewhere the two lies that were offered by Bob Meyers at different stages of this. The first lie being, "We didn't know this guy at all. We didn't know this person who threatened or shot". And the second lie being, "My wife was his mentor and used to give him money for no reason, and have him around the house at all times." There has been reported to us, independent conversations, the media and hopefully the police have had some contact with some people that have indicated that there may have been some exchanges that went on in the park between Tammy Meyers and Erich Knowsch, but we are not asserting that. We are not preparing to. We hope that anybody with information about that comes forward and proves further information. We're in the process of investigating that.
AC: You're alluding to so that our viewers are aware, some reports that some media outlets some people in the neighborhood or some people say they are friends with your client, have said that actually Tammy Meyers may have actually been buying prescription drugs or that even your client was selling prescription drugs in the park, and perhaps that, those are the exchanges you're referring to.
CC: the problem, Anderson, is we've got a horrendous situation, and we don't want to make it worse by making allegations that aren't supported by facts.
AC: Let me ask you just about your client. You believe some of his statements made to police were made while he was under the influence. Apparently he had gotten high before he gave himself up.
CC: the sequence was, on the night that Erich was taken into custody, the police were humane and responsible and rather than storming in, they made sure he was alone in the house, and negotiated him stepping out. And part of the terms to negotiation was he received permission from police to officers to get high before he came outside.
AC: I think a lot of people would be surprised to hear that the police negotiated with your client, allowing him to get high before he gave himself up. That was something discussed between him and the police?
CC: it might surprise most people, but when you have a dynamic situation, with SWAT surrounding a home, helicopters flying around a home, and a potential for violence, what police officers are trained to do is use whatever tools that are at their disposal in order to effectuate a peaceful change in custody status, so to speak. They wanted to take Erich into custody, and they didn't want anybody to get hurt. So negotiating in such a manner is not only explainable, but it's praise-worthy. It's making sure that., if he said he'd come out when he was high, then let him get high before he came out. Our concern is that they didn't let him get un-high. They didn't let him dry out before they questioned him.
AC: Conrad Claus, thank you for your time.
CC: thank you.
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