The Police Interviews

Thursday, Oct. 19, 2006 | 7:33 a.m.

Vick noticed a male at her table to be Jim Gibbons, sitting with another male and two females. Another female at the bar ... asked if she could buy Jim Gibbons and his guests a round of drinks, which Vick delivered. Vick then observed the two females join Jim Gibbons' table. According to Vick, the atmosphere at the table became "flirty." According to Vick, the two females stayed at the table for approximately 30 minutes after Gibbons left.

WITH CHRISSY MAZZEO, 1:30 A.M. IN THE MCCORMICK & SCHMICK'S PARKING LOT

Q. What happened?

A. I went to dinner with Penny Puhek and we met at the McCormick and Schmick's at 4:20 p.m. We had a couple of drinks and went out to the auction and saw a band...

Q. The auction is in a tent out front?

A. Yes. After the auction we had dinner and walked back out to see the band. Then we walked back in. We ordered a coffee and she - Penny Puhek - noticed Jim Gibbons sitting across the bar in a booth with two ladies and a guy. She offered to buy the group drinks, then Jim Gibbons and his friend ask us to join the crowd.

Q. How did you know it was Jim Gibbons?

A. I didn't.

Q. Where did you sit?

A. Next to Jim Gibbons.

Q. Where did Penny sit?

A. Next to his friend.

Q. How many drinks do you think you all had?

A. We had two rounds.

Q. Did Jim Gibbons talk to you?

A. Yes. He started talking about how his marriage wasn't successful and how he had two children. He was married for 20 years and that marriage wasn't everything that it was cracked up to be and then that's when he gave me his card.

Q. Was there any contact between you and him?

A. Yes. That's when he started playing like

footsies with me and Penny, and some of the waitresses noticed it. So I started hugging Penny ... I actually was trying to move away from him.

Q. Did he touch you?

A. He put his hand on my leg. I just scooted closer to Penny.

Q. Did he say anything when you scooted away?

A. He said, "Oh, I wish I could have that kind of affection..." (Laughter)

Q. Did you reply?

A. No. At that point I already knew that he was making unwanted advances but ... I just thought maybe he was flirting with me.

Q. Then what happens?

A. People ... pulled out phones and started taking pictures.

Q. Other patrons?

A. People at different tables ... started noticing that odd behavior and started taking pictures and then that's when Penny noticed it and then that's when his partner said to Jim that they needed to leave.

Q. Then what happens?

A. Jim said that he wanted to leave and he told me that he was staying at Resident Inn and then he said that we could basically crawl back to his hotel room.

Q. When he said, "We can crawl back to the hotel," was he asking you to go back with him or he was just making a statement?

A. Probably indirectly. I don't know.

Q. Did you reply to him?

A. Nope. He said it out loud in front of the whole table.

Q. OK.

A. Then he got up and left and his partner ... left also.

Q. OK.

A. After about 15 minutes, I told Penny that I was going to leave. I left and walked out to valet, the front valet, and I walked straight trying to find my truck and then I remembered I was parked in - parking lot.

Q. Which is?

A. Behind McCormick and Schmick's.

Q. Right next door?

A. I went to go turn and he was to the right of the valet. He said, "Are you lookin' for me?" And then that's when I said, "No." And he goes, "Well I'll take you to your truck" ... 'cause they knew that I had a truck, during dinner.

Q. OK.

A. I said, OK, and so that's when we started walking across the street to the parking garage.

Q. Where he said he was parked?

A. He was going to take me to my car.

Q. OK.

A. As soon as we walked downstairs, it was by the ... it was right in front of the elevator, because I remember the staircase. We walked down there, and then that's when he grabbed my arms, the top of my arms.

Q. When you say "grabbed your arms," what did he use, one hand? Both hands?

A. Both hands.

Q. And...

A. He pushed me against the wall.

Q. On the way to the parking garage?

A. Yes.

Q. Was there any conversation?

A. Nope. Nothing.

Q. So you arrive in the parking garage ... he grabs both of your arms?

A. And pushes me against the wall.

Q. OK.

A. And that's when I said I thought he was joking at first and then that's when he said, "You have two choices." And I said, "Are you really, you know, rape me at this time?" And he said, "You have two choices right now." And I said, "What are my choices?" And he just said basically you can, uh... And I said, "What?" And he goes basically you have one choice, you can leave or you can do the other choice. And I said, "No way." I said, "I've survived cancer and then you're going to turn around and do this," and then that's when he said - I said that I thought I saw three people running across the parking (garage).

Q. He said you have two choices. And one was you could leave?

A. One, where you could try to leave ... and the other one, or you could just do what he says.

Q. What did you say?

A. I said, "Are you serious?" I said, "I just survived cancer for 11 years (laughter) and you're really going to do this right now?" And he said, "Lucky you. You survived cancer." And then...

Q. What happened when you saw the three people?

A. I said, "Go f--- yourself." Then I started running. I said, "Now say something." I ran to Starbucks, and that's when I called 911.

Q. What did you tell 911?

A. I told them exactly what happened and the lady told me to calm down, so I ran into the bathroom and sat on the floor. Then I called back and she told me to sit outside and I finally saw a cop car and I went up to the cop car and nobody was in there. I sat on the curb for a minute and then I went over to Gordon Biersch and I called 911 again. I sat outside on the bench. That's when I saw you guys.

Jim Gibbons

3:11 P.M., SATURDAY IN HIS HOTEL ROOM

Q. We are looking into an incident of an alleged battery which occurred last night. Can you tell us about that incident?

A. I arrived at 6 p.m. to meet and have dinner with Sig Rogich and Dean Spanos, his two sons and a couple of other people. Terry Wright was one of them. We had dinner starting at about 6:30 and finished about 8 o'clock. Sig and I left the restaurant, walked outside, it was pouring rain, so we decided to have a glass of wine, waiting for the rain to stop. We walked into the bar, saw a legal secretary and a lawyer for ... a law firm that's right in the same office as Sig's, which is across the street. We sat with them because there were no other seats available. We have a glass of wine, talking with those two people. Two women started looking at us and came over and asked if I was Jim Gibbons. We joked with 'em, we talked about the campaign and running for governor. Sig said, "Why don't you just come over and sit and join us and we'll talk." I think we had two glasses of wine. This would have been somewhere between 9:30 and 10 o'clock. We all decided to get up and go. Sig and I walked out of the bar out onto the veranda. Sig turned around to go back to make sure the bill was paid. I started to walk away when one of the women walked out that was sitting with us. I only knew her name as Chris. And I said, "Good night, Chris." And I said, "It's really dark out tonight." And she says, "Yeah, I'm looking for my car." I said, "Would you like me to help you find your car?" She said, "Yes." We walked out of the restaurant. I walked down to the parking lot, to one end of the parking lot and I said, "What does your car look like?" She said, "It's a big truck." And I said, "Is this the truck?" She said, "No." ... I said, "Well, where's it parked?'' She said, "Across the street, across the way." She pointed over here, toward this area. I said, "OK." So I was going to go that way anyway and I walked across the street.

She came across the street then, and we were walking down and I presumed that her car was in that structure right out here, that's back here. So I just walked over there. She tripped. I grabbed her to straighten her up. I said, "Are you OK?" She walked away. I walked away. And I went into the, into the hotel, came up here and went to bed.

And that's the end of the story.

Q. When these two additional women came and sat at your table, can you describe where each was seated?

A. The one with dark hair ... I guess her first name is Chris, was sitting on a chair. I was sitting in the booth. She was sitting on a chair next to me ... We sat there for an hour. I had two glasses of wine 'cause I knew I wasn't driving. So I didn't have to worry about a DUI because I could have crawled back here.

Q. What was the conversation like?

A. It was about politics, for the most part. She talked about having a 3-year-old. We talked about ages of everybody. I think she said she was 32, the girl next to her was 40. I said, "Well, I'm the ... coming up on 62 so I'm a lot older than all of you.''

Q. OK.

A. I don't have any problem with her. She's a wonderful young lady. I'm surprised that she would think that I would do something wrong. If there's an opportunity for me to apologize to her I'd be happy to do that. If she thought that would help.

Q. It has been described to us by witnesses that this get-together was very flirtatious.

A. (Chuckle) I don't think that ... I didn't find it that way. We were having a good time. We were laughing.

Q. Was there any touching between you and Chris?

A. Well, once in a while she would reach over and put her hand on my arm to tell me something about, "Well, I think you're doing a wonderful job." You know? "We're hoping that you win the governorship."

Q. Did you touch her in any way?

A. No ... We were all laughing about the idea that we're in a bar. There's all these people around. And these four ladies are sitting with Sig and me in the middle and think we were talking about the impression that the public would have if they ever saw this on TV ... because we were laughing and everybody had a glass of wine in front of 'em.

Q. What was Chris' demeanor to you?

A. She was quiet.

Q. ... intoxicated or?

A. She was quiet. She didn't talk a lot. I'm not the kind of an experienced person that can look at somebody and tell 'em if they're intoxicated or not. She just seemed like a nice person.

Q. At what point did you decide to leave?

A. I wanted to come back and study. So we all got up and ... Sig and I walked out together. He turned around and walked back in, either to check the bill or something.

Q. Do you remember anything about anybody taking photographs?

A. I don't remember personally but the legal secretary over here said, "Isn't that strange? No matter where you go people are taking photographs." 'Cause there was a group of people just next to us that were using their cell phone to take pictures of us.

Q. OK.

A. I presume they knew who I was. They were going to sell it to the trade magazines and say, "Here's Jim Gibbons out cavorting with the women. I just laughed at it. I said, 'Well, you know, I'm 60, close to 62 years old, married, this isn't going to fly very far.' " But I didn't think much about it.

Q. When you were outside, how long do you think you were out there before Chris came out?

A. 30 seconds.

Q. When she came out, what was her demeanor?

A. She walked out. I said, "Chris, good night." I said, "Do you want me to help you find your car?" It's like she was worried about where her car was. So I just assumed that she couldn't find her car. She was unsure when we were walking through the parking lot where she had parked it ... She said, "It's over here ..." pointing in the direction of this parking structure ...I said, "Good. I'm walking that way. I'll walk with ya."

Q. At some point you mentioned that she tripped.

A. She did. Around the corner, I think the surface is uneven, but she tripped. I reached out to grab her. I stood her up. I said, "Are you OK?" And she ...

Q. ...did you escort her into the parking structure?

A. It was right at the entrance of that parking structure.

Q. Where she tripped?

A. Yeah.

Q. OK.

A. It was just a, a quick one. It was just like she started to lose her balance and trip. I caught her and I stood her up and I said, "Are you OK?" She looked at me and walked away. I went off into the hotel.

Q. Her allegation here is that near the parking structure you basically, forcefully grabbed her by both arms, held her and said some things of a sexual overtone to her.

A. No. I don't recall saying anything to her other than, "Are you OK?"

Q. And so the, the allegation of forcefully grabbing her and detaining her in some way in an attempt to ... kiss her, talk her into...

A. No.

Q. ... having sex with you? Anything like that you would say as ...

A. Didn't happen. Didn't happen. And if she assumed that helping her up was detaining her, well then I'm stu... I'm shocked at that.

Q. Allegations that have surfaced is that you guys were sitting at the table and, for lack of a better word, you and Chris were playing footsies and that at some point you placed your hand on her knee in a flirtatious way.

A. She was sitting so close and that's a small table that, yeah, her leg was right up against mine. And I was moving it around 'cause I would talk, move around and talk to her. At some point I am sure that my leg bumped hers. But it was not flirtatious.

Q. Did you place your hand on her leg or rub her leg in any way?

A. I do not recall doing anything like that.

Q. One of the accusations is that you grabbed her by both of her arms. Is that similar to the way that you picked her up off of the ground?

A. I thought that when I reached out and grabbed her ... I grabbed one arm like this and I reached, and I probably missed, and I went under the other arm and stood her up and asked her if she was OK.

Q. Were you at the time close to any wall or any part of the structure of the garage?

A. I think there was a wall or a bench right there. I was looking at her to see if she was OK. And that's when I asked her, "Are you OK?" She turns. I step back. She turns and walks away. And I left and went into the hotel.

Q. When she was walking with you, was she able to walk in a straight line? Was she stumbling?

A. She was not ... like I said, she might have been tipsy. She didn't walk in a straight line. That's for sure.

Q. Is there anything about this incident that you feel is important that we haven't touched on?

A. No, I sure don't. I mean, to me it was a, it was a dark, rainy night. I have to admit that, gosh I learned an important lesson, never to offer a helping hand to anybody ever again.

Chrissy Mazzeo

5:30 P.M., SATURDAY AT HER RESIDENCE

Q. Chrissy, uh, earlier, about an hour ago, we had a phone conversation reference the incident in which you alleged you were the victim of a battery.

Is that correct?

A. Yes.

Q. And in that interview, uh, you brought to my attention some concerns you had with prosecuting this case, or going forward in this matter. Is that correct?

A. Yes.

Q. Uh, you told me that it was, uh, your intention that you did no longer want to go forward...

A. No.

Q. ...with this investigation. Is that correct?

A. Yes.

Q. OK. If you could, just give me some of the reasons why you feel you no longer want to go forward with this.

A. Mainly because of who he is. (Laughter) 'Cause of who he is and I just don't want to go up against something like that.

Q. We discussed that there was a possibility that if we approve this case, you didn't want to go forward. You told me over the phone that you had a lot of things going on, including school ...

A. School. I'm a single mom.

Q. And you talked a little bit about you were concerned that this might become a three-ring circus.

A. Yeah.

Q. We just want to make sure that since this incident occurred that it is in fact your own willingness not to go forward and that no one has contacted you ...

A. No.

Q. ...or tried to pressure you into ...

A. Nobody.

Q. ...not going forward, either from the police department...

A. No. Nobody.

Q. ... or from any other group...

A. Huh-uh.

Q. ...or persons. You've had no contact?

A. None.

Q. No influences or anything else?

A. Nothing.

Q. OK, that ends this.

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