July 29, 1994 - Part 4
July 29, 1994 - Part 4
(15:35:15) They ask: "Did you talk about your theories of the case or how you felt the investigation was going." You said: "Yes." They asked: "Did the White House get mentioned in those conversations? You answered: "Yes," Next they questioned: 'Vill you tell me a little bit about them? How it bad come up, what kind of context?" Your answer was: "This is from memory, but I know that Captain Hume was very upset. The White House was stonewalling us in our investigation and getting access to the office. They went up there, were not allowed in, were not treated very nicely, and they were very upset. They bad to go up a second time before the things were put together and they were allowed to go in there. After that time, I was not there. I only heard what people told me." Does that reflect what you told the questioner in the deposition? Mr. ROLLA. That is correct. I was not there either time because this was all from memory, office talk. Senator BOND. Then, again, referring to the stonewalling and on page 156, the question is asked: "Did you ever talk in detail with Captain Hume about what went on at the notification to tell him some of those concerns that you had?" You answered: "Yes. We talked about them, that we were stonewalled, we were stonewalled there. People basically, we bad a few questions here and there of certain people but we were stonewalled." Does that reflect your memory of the situation? 81 Mr. ROLLA. The transcript does not read as good as it sounded when I said it. [Laughter.] Senator BOND. Would you like to state it in your own words? maybe, I am sure that it was The CHAIRMAN. That happens to us too. Senator BOND. Would you express your views for the Committee? Mr. ROLLA. Of course, you are reading parts of statements that were much longer. Talking about the death notification, You are speaking of the death notification? Senator BOND. Yes. Mr. ROLLA. OK Senator BONI). And the investigation that, went on. Mr. ROLLA. As far as the death notifi cation, it was not the situation we would normally have liked to have had, There were too many people there, too many people met us at the door. It was not the right atmosphere in which to make a notification in which to ask questions after a period of grieving. There were too many people there, and we did not have an opportunity to question the family or friends the way we would have liked to. Senator BOND. It was not just with the investigation at the time Of notification? You had problems with getting access to the papers? Is that correct? The papers of Mr. Foster and other personal effects? The CHAIRMAN. Let me just sound a caution here because the question of the papers and the handling of the papers is an issue that Mr. Fiske is still investigating, and be 'has written to us and asked us to not move into that subject because he is not finished with it. And so I think we have got to be very careful about the degree to which we inadvertently cross into that zone. Senator BOND, I gather there was an effort, by you to find if there was a suicide note or any other information that might bear upon the cause of death while you were at the Foster home? Mr. ROLLA. Yes. Senator BOND. Did you have any luck with it, were you able to carry that out? Mr. ROLLA. We were there for a total of almost an hour, I be- And it seems like a long time, but with all that was going on, it was not very long. We did not have the-we had opportunity to ask certain questions, but not anything at length and we were told, asked was there anything, did you see this forthcoming, was there anything different about him, has be been depressed, and all the answers were no. Senator BOND. But your testimony in the deposition was that you were stonewalled? Mr- ROLLA, And by that, I mean that everybody said, Do, they knew nothing about his depression or anything when It later comes Out that he was depressed and they were aware of it, but at the time, no one really spoke to us or gave us any Senator BOND. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I think this witness, just in the limited area, has given us an idea of some of the difficulties of the investigation and we will be getting into the question, of access to the White House papers later on. 82 I think that this all leads up to the fact that this phase of the investigation by Mr. Fiske is another very important one that we will have to explore at a 'later date. I thank the witnesses. The CHAIRMAN. And we will do so. Senator Sarbanes, you are next in line. Senator SARBANES. Mr. Chairman, I just returned, and I would like to defer. I will defer to a colleague The CHAIRMAN, Would you yield to me, then, briefly? Senator SARBANES. I will pick up my round later. The CHAIRMAN. Just would you yield a couple of minutes of your time to me, then? Senator SARBANES. Certainly.