N.O. Police Attorney Says His Clients Are Innocent

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & COLMES:," October 13, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: The Associated Press has just released the entire videotape of New Orleans police officers involved in the beating of a 64-year-old man, Robert Davis, on Bourbon Street on Saturday night.

Now, the full version of the video is unedited. It shows the complete struggle between Davis and the police officers, and the tape also shows police arresting an unidentified man in an unrelated incident.

Now, the officers on the tape have pleaded not guilty to charges of battery and defend their actions in restraining Davis.

Joining us now with the other side of what we've heard this week is the attorney for the police officers, Frank DeSalvo.

Frank, welcome to the program. Thanks for being with us.

FRANK DESALVO, ATTORNEY FOR POLICE OFFICERS: Thanks for having me.

HANNITY: I am always concerned, always when only a portion or snippet of video is used in a police case like this, because I don't think it always tells the whole story. With that said, I look at this, and the over the head punch after punch after punch and the guy trying to seemingly hide from the camera, it looks pretty damning.

DESALVO: Well, you got me at a disadvantage. I only saw it for about a 15-second snippet. But what I saw was a man continuing to resist. I saw a man grabbing onto what looked like a rail on a window, with his right hand refusing to come into compliance.

HANNITY: Right.

DESALVO: Now...

HANNITY: So is this what you do in a situation like that?

DESALVO: He had...

HANNITY: It looks like he has his back turned.

DESALVO: If you had it here in front of me, we could break it down in slow motion.

HANNITY: Well, is that what your defense is going to be? Look, there's no bigger defender than the police officers, Frank, than I am. If there's another side of this story, do you think he was drunk? Was he resisting arrest? Was he spitting at the officers? Was he cursing at them? Was he kicking them? Are there things in this video that we're not seeing yet?

DESALVO: All right. You want me to tell you about them?

HANNITY: Yes, sir.

DESALVO: He was extremely intoxicated. He was extremely intoxicated, and I can prove it. He was belligerent, and I can prove it. He cursed the officers. He told them to go "F" themselves when they were cordially trying to get him to tell them where he was and if he had a friend who could come pick him up and he was — wanted to bust away.

HANNITY: Wait a minute. How can you...

DESALVO: He had plowed into a police horse he was so drunk.

HANNITY: How can you prove he was drinking? He said he had not had a drink in 25 years. Do you have bartenders that will testify that he served him?

DESALVO: I'm not going to play that hand. That's for the courtroom. I've been doing this 37 years. I know when to play my cards.

HANNITY: You have evidence that...

DESALVO: I play them when I'm supposed to, and everything is going to be fine.

HANNITY: So you have evidence and you're going to show a jury that he was resisting arrest, that he was drunk, cursing, belligerent? All those things are going to be proven beyond any doubt?

DESALVO: I don't have to prove beyond any doubt, but I'm going to prove it. They got the burden, remember? I'm the defense.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Well, they don't do tests on that stuff, Frank. Why don't they test the situation like this to see if somebody has been drinking?

DESALVO: Well, because the law dictates when they can force it when and when they can't. The only provision in Louisiana when you can force a blood test or intoxilyzer test is in the circumstances of a driving while intoxicated, when there's an accident with serious bodily injury or death.

COLMES: You've been quoted in the press as stating that he was not punched in the face. I want to show you that part of the videotape. This is not mitigated by the additional...

DESALVO: Well, you can't show me. I don't have...

COLMES: OK. Well, I assume as the attorney, you've looked at the videotape. Let me show it to our audience, and now we're slowing it down. You can see where they are pummeling him and punching him in the face. And I'm sure as his attorney you would taken the time to look at this before you go to the press and state, as you have, allegedly, as I've seen in the press quotes, and correct me if I'm wrong, you said he was not punched in the face.

DESALVO: Well, you're wrong. I did say there was one glancing blow to the face, a glancing blow, and it was on the side of the face, not his nose where he was bleeding.

COLMES: Then they must have misquoted you. That was not a glancing blow.

DESALVO: Well, that's what you think. You know, I think it's a glancing blow.

COLMES: Well, but then why...

DESALVO: We know when the injury occurred. He was...

COLMES: Well, it sounds like you're trying to get some wiggle room here. Now you're saying there was a glancing blow to the face. Why would he have been punched in the face to begin with?

DESALVO: He was never punched in the face. His face was injured when he was taken to the ground by an FBI agent who saw him resisting arrest, who came to the rescue, did his duty and the man hit his face.

COLMES: All right. I want to play that again, if we can, while we're talking here. Why was he treated for a fractured cheekbone, broken nose and a black eye? Why was he — that's what he was treated for in the hospital.

DESALVO: Have you seen the medical records?

COLMES: That's what's been reported. Now again, you're going to tell me the press reports were wrong. They could be, but are you going to dispute he was treated for those maladies?

DESALVO: The medical records show a cut on the nose and another laceration.

COLMES: We're showing the slow motion once again, him being punched in the face. Are you saying that that report is wrong, he was not treated for a fractured cheekbone, for a broken nose or for a black eye? That did not happen?

DESALVO: I have the medical records from that night. It did not happen. And if you look at his pictures the day after, you didn't see any swelling from this so-called broken orbit. You didn't see any of those injuries. You know, this is all poppycock designed to get money out of the city. This is not going to be a problem for these police officers. And we're going to win this case.

HANNITY: All right. Frank DeSalvo, representing the officers in New Orleans, thanks for being with us.

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