NEWS INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT / CNN
ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES
What Next in Anna Nicole Case?
Aired February 23, 2007 - 22:00 ET
But there was a second issue in Florida today that the judge might have had jurisdiction over, and that is the simple removal of DNA from Anna Nicole's body, which was done last week, and giving that to the attorneys for Larry Birkhead. They asked for that. I think the Florida judge does properly have jurisdiction over that.
COOPER: Well, Kendall, I mean, wouldn't all this just be resolved if a court, whichever court, just forced everybody to take a DNA test? Why hasn't that happened? Will that happen?
KENDALL COFFEY, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Well, I think it requires really not that you get some DNA from the dad. It's all about the baby, who's in the Bahamas. And as our guests are pointing out, so far there doesn't seem to be any order that can require the baby.
Now we can all wonder whether there is some kind of investigators sort of floating around the Bahamas trying to get, who knows, anything from a dirty diaper to a fingernail. Because sooner or later, somebody's going to try to make that connection. But up until now, hasn't happened in any court.
TOOBIN: And you know, Anderson, there's actually a potentially very sinister thing going on here. Howard Stern obviously wants custody of this baby. He has not -- refused to take a DNA test. The law of the Bahamas is that getting a positive DNA test does not necessarily mean the father has rights. So he could be assigned -- be the father in the Bahamas without taking a DNA test.
So I mean, it certainly seems like he has found a jurisdiction where he can be named the father without taking a DNA test. And there may never be a DNA test.
BLOOM: And that's not an accident.
COOPER: How is that possible?
BLOOM: And that's not an accident, Anderson. There was testimony in the hearing yesterday from the son-in-law, Ben Thompson, who owns the house where Anna Nicole and Howard and the baby had been living, that that's why Anna Nicole and Howard Stern went there in the first place.
Because they knew that the laws of the Bahamas would favor an unmarried mother co-habiting with a man that was not the father of the baby, that it would protect their rights to be the parents of the baby. That's why they went to the Bahamas. That's why Howard Stern has stayed in the Bahamas, because their laws are more favorable to that couple than they would have been in the U.S.
COOPER: So even if it's proved through DNA that Howard Stern is not the father, under Bahamian law, he can still be the father?
TOOBIN: Well, it would never be proved that he was not the father, because they could not get a test of the baby's DNA or Howard Stern's DNA. So he would simply be in custody of the child. He would raise the child. Bahamian law would treat him as the father. And there would never be a genetic proof that he was the father, but...
COOPER: But Kendall -- Kendall brings up the idea of, you know, private investigators, and God knows there's enough money involved in all this, to, you know, pick up a diaper from the trash outside their house and be able to determine the child's DNA from that.
COFFEY: Well, it could happen that way, Anderson, and maybe the Bahamian courts, which apparently are going to have some hearings on it Monday, would simply order it.
It may not be as entertaining a process as we've had for the last week. But I have to tell you on behalf of the Florida legal community, we are really glad that the showbiz is over. I mean, we had hanging chads. Now we have this. It's great to be talking about some legal issues for a change.
BLOOM: And Anderson, you can't use the word "never." That baby's DNA is going to get taken either by order of a Bahamian court or by some news agency or private investigator getting DNA. It's not difficult to do. What's Howard Stern going to do? Keep that baby holed up in a mansion for the rest of her days? It's not possible. In fact, they'll probably get evicted from that mansion. They may not even have residency in the Bahamas much longer.
TOOBIN: But the point is, as I understand Bahamian law, first place, they may not get an official DNA test. But even if they got a DNA test that said Howard Stern was not the biological father, he could still be treated as the father under Bahamian law.
And that's a chilling thought as an American, where a biological tie is all you need to establish parental rights here.
COOPER: But in order for him to take part in this -- in this other suit in order to get the money, wouldn't he have to come to the United States? And wouldn't -- if he entered the United States or brought the child the United States, wouldn't that then make them...
BLOOM: No, he wouldn't have to be in the United States. Because Howard Stern testified in a hearing that he has a 6 percent contingency on about a $100 million judgment that he's expecting to get.
Translation, if that money comes, he's entitled to about $6 million. That's money already earned under an attorney's contingency fee agreement. He's entitled to that wherever he is in the world.
TOOBIN: And Dannielynn is certainly going to be the heir to her mother's estate. So the money will go to her, and thus, presumably her father will be able to control it and share in it.
COOPER: We're going to have to leave it there. Lisa Bloom, Kendall Coffey and Jeff Toobin, thanks.
COFFEY: Hey, thank you.
READ full transcript here: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0702/23/acd.01.html
