Dennehy Case: Cover Up Caught on Tape?

This is a partial transcript from On the Record with Greta Van Susteren,  August 18, 2003. Click here to order the entire transcript of the show.

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GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: Now to a stunning twist in the Patrick Dennehy (search) case.

Tonight, secretly recorded audiotapes reveal Dennehy's coach tried to cover up alleged NCAA violations by plotting to portray Dennehy as a drug dealer.

Here's a quote from Coach Bliss (search) to an assistant coach:

"What we've got to create here is drugs. What we want to do is they tell the story. We've been going to Dennehy's apartment, and what we've done out there in Dennehy's apartment is -- you know, we'll go up there and smoke some weed and drink some stuff and have some ladies up there."

Patrick Dennehy's stepfather, Brian Brabazon, joins us from Reno, Nevada, and his girlfriend, Jessica De La Rosa, joins us on the phone.

Brian, your thought about this concocted story by Coach Bliss.

BRIAN BRABAZON, PATRICK DENNEHY'S STEPFATHER: A desperate man looking for a way out.

VAN SUSTEREN: Have you ever met Coach Bliss?

BRABAZON: I can't say I've met him. He shook my hand after Patrick's memorial, and just the audacity of a person already concocting a story coming up to me to offer his sympathies.

VAN SUSTEREN: Jessica, you're close to Patrick. Your thought about Coach Bliss -- at least these audiotapes certainly indicate, or suggest that there was a cover-up, -- but, nonetheless, these tapes sound bad.

JESSICA DE LA ROSA, PATRICK DENNEHY'S GIRLFRIEND: Well, I just think it's very unbelievable. Well, actually, I guess it is believable, but it's very painful. He's really hurt our family in this, and, you know, sadly enough, I think that he has hurt his own family.

You know, it's awful that somebody, you know, they can say whatever they want to about somebody just because they're gone. That's just awful.

VAN SUSTEREN: Brian, I've read the transcript from the tapes, and, at least one of them suggests that there at least is a remark by Coach Bliss that Patrick wasn't around to dispute what he was saying, so that, in some ways, it would be a successful cover-up. Did you read that transcript?

BRABAZON: I did read that and I have to refer to what Jessica said, and that was he forgot one person: Jessica. And not only Jessica, but he also forgot Patrick's parents, Patrick's friends, Patrick's family. This would not have gone down as a drug dealer because we would have stood up and got to the truth.

VAN SUSTEREN: Brian, what should happen to Coach Bliss?

BRABAZON: You know, in my own mind, I'd like to give him a good old-fashion butt whooping. I don't know if there's any criminal charges that can be pursued, but I would like to find that out.

I would like Bliss to be half the man that Patrick is and admit to all his wrongdoings, tell the truth about who he's actually covering up for besides himself, and face any consequences that might be handed down by the legal community.

VAN SUSTEREN: You know, Brian, it's sort of interesting in a sense that you have the ongoing murder investigation of Patrick. You now have the investigation for the NCAA violations by Coach Bliss, but still hanging out there in my mind is did Patrick complain to the coaching staff that he was being threatened by somebody and is there someone out there involved in his murder? Has anyone mentioned that to you?

BRABAZON: Nobody has mentioned anything about that. However, in the transcript, it does state that they knew about the threats. Coach Ash and Coach Belcher told my wife that they knew about the threats and that they wish they had only treated them with more concern. Then they came out and publicly denied it.

There is something else going on. I believe it is Harvey Thomas. Coach Bliss -- I don't even want to call Bliss a coach -- is running a gang of thugs, not a basketball team, and there is a thug on that team, including some coaches, if not Bliss, maybe somebody else in the athletic department, that has knowledge of Patrick's disappearance and/or death. Bliss did not pull the trigger, but he handed Carlton the bullets.

VAN SUSTEREN: Jessica, anything Patrick would say to suggest that there are more people involved in this?

DE LA ROSA: Well, I think just looking at some of these things that have come up, we have to question an awful lot. We have to question, like Brian said, was there anybody else there with the murderer? Was somebody else there? You know, did somebody else plan this and help plan this?

I mean, there are so many different questions to answer, but, unfortunately, there is no amount of justice, no amount of penalties that's ever going to bring back Patrick or ever going to reverse what has happened.

VAN SUSTEREN: But, hopefully, the investigation will move forward and justice, to the extent that it can be, will be delivered.

Brian, Jessica, thank you both very much.

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