A Few More Woods Accident Stories-Monday Morning
FoxNews.com is refutting TMZ's claim of a warrant search for medical records with a quote from the Florida Highway Patrol's Chief of Affairs.
"We don't need a warrant to get records, that is incorrect," said Florida Highway Patrol Chief of Public Affairs Capt. Mark Welch.
However TMZ now reports that the warrant may be in a quest to obtain surveillance video footage or as they are now reporting, a continued quest for medical records after a morning visit to the hospital.
And SportsByBrooks notes that TMZ mistakenly claimed that Elin's latest story of driving out in a golf cart could not be possible since no cart was visible in crash scene photos, when in fact there was one visible.
Erin Geiger Smith contemplates the possible charges police could be investigating, narrowing it down to DUI, Filing a False Police Report or Domestic Violence.
Meanwhile Woods was criticized on most morning news shows for his Sunday statement and more writers are chiming in that he's taking the wrong approach to this.
Crisis manager Kevin Sullivan at Yahoo:
1. Don't delay. Hold your scheduled press conference Tuesday to kick off the Chevron World Challenge, which, since it benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation among other charities, makes it the perfect backdrop. Without going into every private detail, provide a sense of what led to the collision. Give an explanation, take a couple questions, and then move on to previewing the tournament and how it will benefit the work of your foundation.
2. If you have something to own up to, do it completely and you will be forgiven. Just ask Kobe Bryant.
3. If not, disarm the skeptics with your sense of humor. Gary Peterson of the Contra Costa Times had a suggestion: Say you were excited about a Black Friday sale and got carried away. Then give a sincere explanation.
George Vecsey in the New York Times:
This is a man who has never had the yips in public. But we are now witnessing his hooking and slicing his image straight into the rough, into the trees, into the drink.
Phil Mushnick in the New York Post:
It comes as thin surprise that Woods and Team Woods have been less than cooperative with authorities in the three days following his 2:25 a.m. domestic car wreck/whatever the heck happened. From the time he was 15, he was taught to beat the rules.
As a kid, identified as a can’t-miss pro, his father and the monolithic rep firm IMG teamed to circumvent USGA rules by funding Woods’ amateur career. IMG hired Earl Woods as a “talent scout” — with the tacit, Rumpelstiltskin-like agreement to deliver Tiger the instant he turned pro. Done and done.
U.S. PGA Tour rules disallow appearance fees. Team Woods beat that, too. It made multi-million dollar endorsement deals with several PGA tournament title sponsors, Buick, among them, thus, although Woods skipped many Tour events, his participation in his sponsors’ events was guaranteed.
Rex Hoggard finds one attorney who says Tiger is doing the right thing by staying silent.
As a rule, Samuel Kohrs, an Orlando-area criminal defense attorney, tells his clients to never give law enforcement officials a statement.
“People think they can talk their way out of things and they can’t,” Kohrs told GolfChannel.com on Sunday. “If they are going to arrest or charge you it will not matter what you say. If they aren’t going to arrest you nothing good can happen from (giving a statement).”
Kohrs has seen all of this before, sort of. Much of the way this has been handled by FHP is standard except for the repeated trips by officers out to Isleworth, the tony gated community where Woods lives.
“I’ve never had a client who said they didn’t want to talk and (officers) kept coming back,” Kohrs said. “It’s kind of weird.”
And legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin was interviewed by his network, CNN:
Toobin: Woods may not talk to them because there is possibly something unpleasant and embarrassing that he doesn't want to share with them, and he has that right. Based on what is publicly known, Woods has a public relations problem much more than a legal problem. He's arguably the most famous athlete in the world, and his team's overall strategy is a gamble that his general statement of responsibility won't be overtaken by events or other disclosures.
Monday, November 30, 2009 at 09:19 AM
Reader Comments (5)
I also agree that while this is all sound legal strategy for the ordinary person who finds himself in legal jeopardy, this is a disaster for an individual or a corporation accused of general wrongdoing (criminal or not) and is in a situation of "image jeopardy."
Putting it mildly, taffy.