Legal Ace Roy Black On: Tiger Woods, Rachel Uchitel, Gloria Allred and David Letterman
Legendary Florida-based attorney Roy Black, who has represented the likes of William Kennedy Smith and Rush Limbaugh, gives his views on the Tiger Woods brouhaha.
Black, who spoke with us about Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton back in July 2007, gives his views on Rachel Uchitel lawyering up with feminist, powerhouse attorney Gloria Allred. He also draws a comparison between Tiger’s situation and David Letterman’s recent woes.
Listen to the Roy Black CYInterview:
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Chris Yandek: As someone who has practiced law in Florida for decades at a very high level, what are your thoughts on the current situation given with Mr. Woods’s case?
Roy Black: “Well, I think he’s doing the right thing. I know the pr people keep telling him he’s gotta get ahead of this story and make statements and all of this, come out and tell the truth about what happened, but there is absolutely no advantage to doing that. He shouldn’t talk to the police. He should keep quiet about it because anything he says can lead to disaster. If it’s true that his wife was attacking him or what have you, does he really want to make a case against his wife? Of course not.
If any other statements that he makes about it are just gonna come back to haunt him. And as we know from the David Letterman situation, once you start talking to the cops they’re gonna air all your dirty laundry through all the media and that’s the last thing in the world he wants to do. So I think he’s smart in keeping quiet. Without talking to the cops they’re not going to be able to do anything. All it is is a fender bender accident so long as he’s not drunk or under the influence of prescription meds or something like that there is nothing they can do and that is the end of the story.”
CY: From what we know again, he hit a fire hydrant and a tree with his car. The back window of his car was smashed with a golf club. Under what circumstances if any would the Florida authorities have reason to further investigate this? And should they? Can his attorney come and say, “Look, my client hit a few things with his car. He’ll pay the differences on the expenses. Nobody was harmed. This is a private matter and we can go on and he’s not talking to authorities.”?
RB: “Yeah. Well, what is happening here is the Florida Highway Patrol of course shows up and all the cameras are there and now they feel that they have to do some big investigation to justify the media and public interest in this. If it was Sam Woods, nobody would do anything. But Tiger Woods, they’re gonna do something. They want to look like they’re running a professional police organization and nobody gets away with anything in their jurisdiction. So they’re gonna keep going at this. I don’t how many days it’ll take and then they’ll finally say, ‘Well, there is nothing else we can do. So we’re not going any further.’”
CY: So he can’t be forced to speak under Florida law?
RB: “No. Well, they could. The prosecutor could subpoena him and grant him immunity and force him to testify or the police could get a search warrant if they could get a judge to find probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed and then seize his cameras and his medical records and whatever else they could find. You would think they would need some evidence of a crime to do all that other than just evidence that a celebrity has an embarrassing situation.”
CY: Is there a given amount of time under Florida law that they have to interview someone on a case like this? Is there like an allotted amount of time before they move on?
RB: “No. That’s all up to their digression. There is a statue of limitation that he’ll be who knows whatever crime they’re looking into, but that’s a long way away. They can spend whatever time and effort they want on it.”
CY: Do you think this thing has been overblown?
RB: “Of course. Anybody other than Tiger Woods or some other celebrity, nothing would’ve happened. Police would of shown up and left and that would be the end of the matter, but that’s just our culture today. If you have a high profile like that it’s going to be big news.”
CY: It’s been reported by the National Enquirer that Rachel Uchitel is the alleged mistress of Tiger Woods. Earlier this week, Ms. Uchitel met with attorney Gloria Allred. Why do you think she would meet with Gloria Allred at this given point and time?
RB: “The only reason anybody meets with Gloria Allred is to work out your media strategy to be sure that you’re on every possible TV show 24 hours a day.”
CY: Any final thoughts on this matter?
RB: “Yeah. That’s not a good sign for Tiger Woods that she’s meeting with Gloria Allred cause Gloria is just there for Gloria. She’ll go on every TV show and God only knows what she’ll be selling on those shows. But I think Tiger Woods quite frankly has handled this very well because if he had gone and given a statement to the police he’d be regretting it today and I said it just like David Letterman. If Letterman had just told the guy, ‘Buzz off. I’m going to tell my wife. You’ve got nothing to blackmail me about.’
That would’ve been the end of the matter. But by calling the police and getting entwined into this criminal justice system, once this machinery starts it’s going to grind you up and spit you out. In Florida it’s worse than New York because we allow cameras to film everything in the courtroom. Every document will be available for the press and the public. Nothing is private. So if Tiger Woods and his wife get involved in the court process, every single piece of dirty laundry will be aired.”
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