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Irvin: Reporter never identified herself Posted: Thursday July 31, 2003 11:30 PMUpdated: Saturday August 02, 2003 12:51 PM
DALLAS (AP) -- The attorney for a former Baylor basketball player on Thursday questioned circumstances surrounding a newspaper's jailhouse interview with his client who suggested he acted in self-defense in a deadly confrontation with a teammate. The Dallas Morning News defended its story. Grady Irvin, the Florida-based lawyer who represents Carlton Dotson, said in a written statement that intern Shani George did not disclose her affiliation with the newspaper before meeting with Dotson at the Kent County, Md., Detention Center on Wednesday. Dotson, 21, was charged in his home state of Maryland in the death of his former roommate, Baylor player Patrick Dennehy. He is awaiting extradition to Texas on a murder charge. "It is our understanding that the intern did not provide any identifying information as being a reporter or intern with The Dallas Morning News when she secured Mr. Dotson's appearance in a meeting area. Instead, it is our understanding that she represented herself as a Christian who was there to let Mr. Dotson know that she was 'praying' for him," the statement said. The Dallas Morning News said George was following up on several interview requests from the newspaper when she went to the jail during visiting hours, told the desk officer she hoped to interview Dotson and gave the officer a copy of her press credentials and an unsealed note to Dotson identifying herself as working for the paper and requesting an interview. "She immediately introduced herself to Mr. Dotson as a reporter for The Dallas Morning News , not, as Mr. Irvin suggests, as 'a Christian,"' Stuart Wilk, vice president/managing editor of the newspaper, said in a written statement. "Mr. Dotson said he was willing to tell his side of the story to the public. Mr. Dotson apparently noticed a small gold cross necklace Ms. George was wearing and asked if she was a Christian. She said she was." Warden Ron Howell told The Associated Press that George did not tell guards before the interview that she was a journalist, but that she was not required to do so. She was only required to show a photo identification, and did, he said. He said George mentioned as she left the jail that she was a member of the press. Dotson, in the copyright newspaper report published Thursday, said he believed Patrick Dennehy was his friend but betrayed him. "If someone points a gun at you and shoots and it doesn't go off, what would you do?" the story quotes him as saying. "If someone is pointing a gun at you and they start putting more bullets into the gun, what would you do?" Irvin's one-page statement does not dispute the accuracy of the story but says George took no notes and identified herself at the end of the meeting as a "friend of someone who worked for the newspaper." George, an intern in Washington, D.C., for Belo Corp., told CNN that Dotson agreed to meet with her and she identified herself to him as a reporter. Belo Corp. is the Morning News' parent company. "He had been corresponding with another reporter before, so he was familiar with my organization and he was just, I think he just wanted someone to talk to," she said. She acknowledged no notes were taken, but didn't say why. Immediately after talking to Dotson, George called an editor in Dallas and related the brief conversation, including the direct quotes that were still fresh in her mind, Wilk said. Visitors to the jail are not allowed to carry recording devices or cameras, though they are allowed to carry pencil and paper, Howell said. The jail doesn't record conversations between inmates and visitors, so he said authorities don't know if she identified herself as a reporter during the interview. Dotson, who was arrested July 21 in his home state of Maryland, told FBI agents that he shot Dennehy after the player tried to shoot him, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. After his arrest, Dotson told The Associated Press that he "didn't confess to anything." He has declined requests for an interview with The AP. On Thursday, two local attorneys representing Dotson visited him at the jail and approved a "visitors list" for Dotson. Anyone not on the list will not be allowed to talk to him, Howell said. The Dallas Morning News also reported that Dotson related a confusing story about meeting someone in Texas named Roman who told him he would be able to do miraculous things. Melissa Kethley, Dotson's estranged wife, told the newspaper for a story in its online edition Thursday night that Dotson had introduced her to a Baylor student named Roman in May. "This guy was real Christian-y," she said. "He gave Carlton all these religious books to read. He and Carlton would talk about the Bible." She said that after meeting Roman, Dotson seemed more preoccupied with religion and began to talk more about seeing visions and hearing voices. The decomposed body of the 6-foot-10 Dennehy, who was missing about six weeks, was found July 25 in a grassy field four miles from the Waco campus. He died from gunshot wounds to the head, according to a preliminary autopsy report. Dennehy was killed in the field where his body was found, according to the autopsy. The document did not detail how many times he was shot, whether he suffered any other wounds or the day he died. A complete report was expected to take several more weeks. An unnamed informant told Delaware police that Dotson told someone he shot Dennehy in the head with a 9mm pistol as the two argued while firing guns, according to court records filed in the case. A funeral service was scheduled for Aug. 7 at the Jubilee Christian Center in San Jose, Calif., near Dennehy's hometown. A memorial service is scheduled Aug. 28 at Baylor, the world's largest Baptist university with 14,000 students.
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