Witness Condit is grilled like a suspect at Levy trial
"I didn't do any harm," the ex-congressman insists.
WASHINGTON - Former California Rep. Gary Condit on Monday repeatedly refused to say whether he had an "intimate" relationship with Chandra Levy but vigorously insisted he had nothing to do with her murder.
"I didn't commit any crime, and I didn't do any harm," Condit said.
In a courtroom confrontation, Condit acknowledged he used to see Levy or talk with her "a few times a week." Despite a sharply worded cross-examination, he didn't further describe Levy as anything more than a friend.
"You had an intimate relationship with Ms. Levy, right?" asked Maria Hawilo, attorney for Ingmar Guandique, the Salvadoran immigrant on trial in Levy's killing.
"I'm not going to respond to those types of questions, based on my privacy and Chandra's privacy," he said.
Hawilo tried asking the same question again, until Superior Court Judge Gerald I. Fisher told her to move on.
Condit's daughter, Cadee, watched, and two rows behind her, Chandra's mother, Susan Levy, sat, taking notes.
Prosecutors say Guandique killed Levy on May 1, 2001, during an attempted sexual assault in Washington's Rock Creek Park.
Levy, 24, had finished graduate studies and a Bureau of Prisons internship and was preparing to return to California. Testimony last week revealed that she had planned to travel cross-country by Amtrak starting May 5.
Prosecutors acknowledged in their opening statement that police failed in the Levy investigation by focusing on Condit and excluding others.
That allowed Guandique to "hide in plain sight" as investigators failed to link Levy's disappearance with attacks on other joggers in Rock Creek Park, even though Levy had looked up information on Rock Creek Park on her laptop before she disappeared.
Defense attorneys have said the investigation was bungled so badly that it has been impossibly compromised and that Guandique has been made a scapegoat.
Condit appeared on the fifth day of testimony.
His testimony marked a rare public appearance by the 62-year-old former Democratic politician. Since losing his House seat in 2002, Condit has kept a low profile. "I'm pretty much retired," he said, when Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Haines asked his profession.
Prosecutors summoned Condit preemptively, knowing that Guandique's attorneys are trying to insinuate that Condit somehow was involved in Levy's disappearance. Condit's testimony made clear his dismay that investigators, too, once suspected him.
"I didn't trust them anymore," Condit testified, recalling his early dealings with Washington police.