Steve Cohen and Arlene Ellis Schipper Now Spin for Attorney David Kock?

Steve Cohen and Arlene Ellis Schipper have basically been in the “where are they now” category of late in discussing the disappearance of Natalee Holloway and the situation regarding the three suspects, Joran Van der Sloot, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. That was until last nights Rita Cosby’s, ‘Live & Direct’.

The other night the Kalpoe’s attorney, David Kock, stated the following:

Of course, it’s a call of the DA. But from the information that we are getting, it seems like, you know, they know, too, they have to round this up. I won’t be surprised if, you know, summer, June, July the case will be presented.

Now for some reason Steve Cohen and Arlene Ellis Schipper feel it their need to SPIN for a defense attorney? These two people are members of the Aruban government sponsored, Aruban Strategic Communications Task Force. Steve Cohen is the Aruban government’s spokes person; why on earth is he coming forth and stating what David Kock either did or did not mean to say? Even for Aruba this is peculiar.

The comment Steve did and got quite the tongue lashing from Rita Cosby in the process. Read the following as the fur certainly flew on last nights show. Quite the interesting development in that Steve Cohen feels the need to tell everyone what another individual meant to say. Hey Steve, you speak for the government; you do not speak for David Kock.

Live & Direct; March 21, 2006

And now let‘s bring in, if we could, Steve Cohen. He‘s a special adviser to the Aruban government. And joining us now live on the phone from the island is Aruban attorney Arlene Ellis Schipper.

Steve, does the Aruban government want to see this case go to trial and wrapped up in some shape or form, whichever way it is?

STEVE COHEN, SPECIAL ADVISER TO ARUBAN GOVERNMENT: There‘s no question that the goal has always been to figure out what happened to Natalee, who was responsible, if anyone, was there criminality? You know, we want that result.

But all that‘s happened here, Rita, is that you have an aggressive producer who got hold of the attorney, and the attorney, just talking out loud, thinking out loud, came up with these suppositions that are totally…

COSBY: All right, Steve. I got to interrupt you. I got to interrupt you on two counts.

First of all, our producer wasn‘t aggressive; he was doing his job. And second of all, Steve, I can tell you, if you listened to the whole thing—I‘m not sure if you saw the whole thing—he essentially said, “I‘m getting information that,” and it sounds like it‘s coming from the prosecutor‘s office or somewhere. So he‘s providing this information. You can‘t blame an attorney saying it, and you can‘t blame us for… (CROSSTALK)

COHEN: I‘m telling you that all that‘s happened is that this is conjecture, that there is no one inside the case, either the investigators or the office of the prosecution, that told this attorney what he said. So I have to say that… (CROSSTALK)

{{{So now Steve Cohen knows all inside info that Attorney Kock may be privileged to? Steve Cohen who should not be privy to any information from either the Prosecutors office or defense is somehow in the loop. How and better yet why is that the case?}}}

COSBY: Are you saying just this attorney—I‘ve got to interrupt you, Steve. Are you saying this attorney‘s just making it up? This is the Kalpoe brothers‘ attorney. And why would he want to even say this, that his clients could be facing murder charges? It doesn‘t make his clients look good.

COHEN: Because I think that, when you ask an attorney questions like he was asked, he‘s going to offer his instinctive, you know, feelings. He‘s going to offer what he thinks could happen. And it was about what he said could happen, not what would happen. (CROSSTALK)

{{{Steve Cohen now speaks for the defense council of the Kalpoe’s. Gee Steve, isn’t that a conflict of interest even for you?}}}

COSBY: But, Steve, he did say, “I have inside information.”

COHEN: I have to be a little bit more—a little bit firmer with you. Nothing‘s changed in this case. The investigation has not concluded. Until the investigation is concluded, the office of the prosecution will not know exactly what they have with their case that they then can present to the judge.

COSBY: All right, let me bring in Arlene Ellis, because let me be firm with you. Then the question is: Why would this guy say he‘s getting inside information? Are you saying that this attorney is lying, Arlene, and just making it up for some attention? I find that hard to believe.

ARLENE ELLIS SCHIPPER, ARUBAN STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS TASK FORCE: Well, I listened to your sound bite. And I actually called up the attorney‘s office today to get an explanation straight from the horse‘s mouth. And basically he confirmed that he just speculated on information that he got.

{{{Why are we supposed to believe Arlene Schipper when the actual individual who made the comment said what he did? Straight from the horse’s mouth? It did come from the horse’s mouth, Arlene.}}}

It is his estimation and speculation. There‘s nothing confirmed, like Mr. Cohen said. There‘s key elements missing in order to conclude that this case is going to trial.

And first of all, the police must feel that the investigation is complete. Then, they close the investigation regarding these suspects, send the official and complete case files to the prosecutor‘s office. And then the prosecutor has the sole capacity to decide on a prosecutional decision that can be either to prosecute or not.

COSBY: And, Arlene, I agree that—and I agree with you and Steven in the sense that I don‘t think that this is the right time, based on everything that we‘ve seen publicly. But I will tell you that he was very clear—and it‘s even on camera saying I am getting information, I‘m being told, and would not be surprised that. Is the Aruban government putting heat on this guy for speaking forward, Arlene?

SCHIPPER: No, not at all. It is a common, known fact that the prosecution‘s office wants to bring this case to trial, but they will only do so if they feel confident.

Because, as Ms. Twitty already said, there is the issue of double jeopardy. And no prosecutor in her right mind will bring the case to trial if she feels not confident.

And, yes, he thinks—it is his estimation that, possibly, if they don‘t feel comfortable about a murder charge, they could bring them up for lesser charges, if they feel comfortable, but it‘s all estimation and speculation. And I do not want to feed any expectations or raise any expectations, if we are still in the face of active and open investigations, which we are still at.

COSBY: All right, well, both of you, thank you again. And, again, everybody, we just want to tell you again what he said to us on camera, was he is being told that he‘s getting information that he would not be surprised if June and July as you saw specifically on camera, that there could be a trial starting in June or July.

And, again, of course, we hope that that‘s not the case, if there‘s not new information one way or the other, for the family, of course. But indeed that is what he said on camera, everybody. And our producer did do a great job. Hats off to our producer, Darren Mackoff, who went down there.