911 call from sister of Mazzeo surfaces

Barry M. Horstman

Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2006 | 7:21 a.m.

A fourth 911 call dealing with the Rep. Jim Gibbons-Chrissy Mazzeo incident surfaced Tuesday, one in which Mazzeo's sister frantically inquired whether Mazzeo had yet called police to claim that she had been assaulted by Gibbons.

In the two-minute call, placed at 11:32 p.m. on Oct. 13, an audibly upset caller - who identified herself as Mazzeo's sister but did not give the dispatcher her own name - said her sister had called her an hour earlier to tell her of the alleged assault.

"She would never lie about this," the caller added.

Metro Police released the tape to the Sun on Tuesday.

Mazzeo has more than one sister, and it could not be confirmed Tuesday which one made the call.

The caller misstated several details, including referring to Rep. Gibbons as "Senator Gibbons" and saying that her sister had claimed that she had been raped. Mazzeo has alleged only that Gibbons tried to sexually force himself on her and shoved her against a parking garage wall before she ran away from him.

Although Mazzeo had made three 911 calls to police between 10:23 p.m. and 11:14 p.m. that night, the caller was unable to learn whether those emergency calls had been placed because she did not know where Mazzeo was when she had spoken to her.

"We can't trace things from names," the dispatcher said.

After the dispatcher told the caller she could report her sister missing, Mazzeo's sobbing sister said, "OK," and hung up.

Following is a transcript of the call:

911 Dispatcher: 911 Emergency.

Caller: Hi, I need to know if my sister called 911.

Dispatcher: Why would she call 911?

Caller: Because Senator Gibbons raped her.

Dispatcher: Who?

Caller: Senator Gibbons. And I need to know exactly if she called because if she didn't call and she's not calling anybody then that means she's a jerk. And I know this sounds random but she just called me and she would never lie about this.

Dispatcher: OK, so what did she call you and tell you?

Caller: She called me and she told me Senator Gibbons raped her.

Dispatcher: Raped her?

Caller: Yes. And that, if she, if she's missing, then it's him. So if he's in town I'm telling you then it's the truth.

Dispatcher: How long, OK, so how long ago did you get that call?

Caller: One hour ago. Her name's Chrissy Mazzeo.

Dispatcher: OK. Did she tell you where she was?

Caller: She wouldn't tell me where she was. She was afraid because (unintelligible).

Dispatcher: All of our events are locations. So if we don't know where she is, there wouldn't be an event. We can't send an officer if we don't know where she is.

Caller: I know, but would she have called? Did she call?

Dispatcher: I don't, ma'am, I don't know. We can't trace things from names. I don't know. If you want to report her as missing you can do that.

Caller: She was with a friend. I guess something happened, and they were flirting with her, and I guess. I don't know, even know a Senator Gibbons. I don't know nothing (unintelligible word)... I guess he was picking up on her.

Dispatcher: OK, but if we didn't have a location, then I can't look up to see if she's called.

Caller: I don't know where she was.

Dispatcher: OK, so if you want to report her missing you can do that.

Caller (crying): Um. OK.

Dispatcher: OK, you need to call 311, and ask for police dispatch.

Caller: OK.

Dispatcher: All right.

Sun reporter Marshall Allen contributed to this story.