Did Police Lie --- Or Misspeak
In Miami Beach?

VOLUME 17, NUMBERS 31 & 32                AUGUST 4-11, 1997

When police surrounded a houseboat and eventually found the suspect's body, news executives felt misled by a police statement that no body had been found by the elite Special Response Team that entered the houseboat. A man's body had been lying in clear sight in a bedroom.

Here is the story of the challenge of covering a massive stakeout, and trying to confirm what police claimed was not true.

There were many challenges for news executives when the hunt for suspected killer Andrew Cunanan centered on South Florida.

Little official information was available.
Internationally known fashion designer Gianni Versace was shot to death on the street near his home. The police carefully controlled the release of information through news conferences. One-on-one interviews were hard to get.
At the same time, there were many supposed sightings of suspected serial killer Andrew Cunanan.
What do you report that advances the story, yet is responsible?

A week after Versace was shot, a large law enforcement team surrounded a houseboat. One early claim was that perhaps a man on the boat had fired a shot.

Police requested an embargo on live coverage. They said they wanted to avoid a suspect(s) inside seeing police movements on television, endangering officers' lives.

You are covering one of the biggest police actions in years. Traffic is tied up for miles. News helicopters are hovering above. Do you pull the plug on your live coverage?

Police: No one is in there.
Sources: He's dead.

After a four-hour siege, an assault team searched the boat.
The Miami Beach Police Department public information officer did live interviews saying that not only was there not a body inside the houseboat, the media had blown this out of proportion.
However, reporters on the scene saw high-ranking officials arrive. Well-placed sources began to say that not only was there a body, it was Andrew Cunanan.

How much confirmation do you need before you go with it?

Having reliable, highly placed sources was vital.
Almost from the very beginning of this story, it was hard to work.

When Versace was shot in front of his home, WTVJ-TV was the first to report the Cunanan link.
A red truck taken after a cemetery caretaker was murdered in New Jersey while Cunanan was fleeing was discovered in Miami Beach.
"We matched the VIN numbers of the vehicle that was found in the parking lot to William Reese, the man who was killed in New Jersey," explained Ramon Escobar, Managing Editor of WTVJ.
"We have three or four reporters who have some incredible sources, and they really worked their sources on this one," he said.

The authorities were very slow to reveal information about the Versace execution.
"The shooting happened at about 8:45 a.m. By 9:30, police knew it was Cunanan, and yet they didn't release it officially to the press until an 8 p.m. news conference," said Cheryl Stopnick, Assistant News Director of WFOR-TV.

It was the pattern of things to come in the days following Versace's murder. Stopnick said it was basically a media blackout.

"In the week that followed the murder, and we needed information, they said they couldn't comment. Cunanan was still in our community, potentially lining up his next victim or trying to steal a car. We did a whole piece on the media blackout --- how they were not responding to our questions, and how the public had the right to know if there was a serial killer here," she said.

Stopnick said there were cases where police refused requests from local media for interviews, but did interviews with network programs such as Today and PrimeTime Live.
"The story was affecting our people. There was national interest, but if they were going to choose to do one media over the other, they should be talking locally to people who are potentially at risk," she argued.
"The police had just decided they didn't want to deal with us anymore. That was wrong, and we called them on it," said Stopnick.

Part of the problem was that it was a multi-agency effort.
In light of the lack of official information, reporters continued to work their sources within the departments who were giving information off the record or on background.
"We discussed carefully what might be speculation and what might be fact. Sometimes we had things we didn't go with because we couldn't get it confirmed from a second source or an official source. You don't want to go on the air with rumors or speculation, but you want to give the public something, because people were fearful," she said.

Police surrounded the houseboat on Collins Avenue at about 4 p.m.
"We were getting reports of a burglary or shootout at a houseboat on a waterway that bordered the main street where there are a lot of high rise condos and hotels," said Stopnick.

It was clearly not a routine burglary or shootout.
"It became quickly apparent it was something more when many different law enforcement agencies began showing up. They blocked off this very busy thoroughfare for several blocks on either side of the crime scene, and they were not allowing people to return to their homes," she said.
"Our photographer was the first to get there and he was actually inside the perimeter of the crime scene. He went across the street into one of the hotels, and had a vantage point from the penthouse directly across the street. He could shoot everything as it was going on," she said.
He couldn't get the tape out until it was over, but he had a good camera position because he responded early.

"It seemed as though every single law enforcement officer in South Florida swooped down on this houseboat, so we knew something was going on," said Escobar at WTVJ.
The whole area was chaos.
They weren't letting anyone in.
When WTVJ sent other reporters, they had to fight to get into the scene.

On one side were hotels, and on the other was the canal where the houseboat was.
"We sent a reporter on the other side of the canal --- in the house that was directly across from the houseboat. The FBI and law enforcement went house to house clearing out media, claiming they were 'in the line of fire.' But it was private property. We even called our lawyer on this. We told her not to move, and the people in the house allowed her to stay in the house," said Escobar.
She did phoners.
"She saw the other side of the houseboat, and could see movement, and could tell us if there was anything going on," he said.

Between 5 and 5:30 p. m., police began faxing requests to the television stations for an embargo of live coverage.
"It is our policy that we do not honor blanket embargos. We assess each embargo on its own merits, and we make a decision on a case-by-case basis," said Escobar.
"We were already on the air, and I did not see any purpose for an embargo. What I did feel was legitimate was their request for us not to broadcast live any police (Special Response Team) movements towards the house," he said.

The SRT, the equivalent of a SWAT team, responded in this kind of situation. No one would knowingly reveal police positions and movements.
"That we agree with. It has always been our policy. But you must reiterate it to your staff members. In the heat of the moment, they can get excited. We put the message out to all the crews that we were not going to broadcast live any movements by the Special Response Team," he said.

"The key here is the booth. You have to tell the booth, and constantly remind them. You want your people in the field to shoot everything. We want them to shoot the SRT movements. We got video of them going into the houseboat. But we played the tape back later," he explained.

The managers at WSVN and WFOR also balked at the request for a blanket embargo of live coverage.

"We came to a friendly agreement with police," said Alice Jacobs, Vice President For News at WSVN.
"As long as our helicopter shot stayed tight on the houseboat, and we did not show any movement of the SRT teams, we could stay on the air. We complied with that, because obviously, we don't want to put anyone's life in jeopardy," she said.

WFOR honored the embargo by widening the helicopter shot and being careful when using it.
"We showed the house and some police activity. But no one could see specifics. We told viewers that we were not showing them tight pictures from our helicopter, because police have asked us not to. We picked our moment to show live shots from the helicopter when we felt the shots would not be critical to the police operation," added Stopnick.

During the three-hour period when police asked that the SRT movements not be broadcast, the stations cut between very wide shots of the houseboat and the police presence, updates from the reporters on the scene, and tape that was shot earlier.
After their evening news blocks, the stations returned to regular programming, cutting in as the developments warranted.

When the SRT went into the houseboat, the police officials again asked the stations to limit coverage from the scene.
"We were on the phone with the police and on the phone with the control room, deciding when to go ahead and say that they were in the house. We held up until they were in the house, and for a few minutes afterwards. But one of our competitors went on the air, so we decided we should go," said Stopnick.

Police were still asking them not to air it. But the WFOR managers felt it was time to continue with the story.
"They called back later and said that we had violated the embargo. My response was that we honored the embargo and waited until the police officers were inside the house --- and we waited a few minutes beyond that --- but at some point we must serve the public. We must tell people what is going on with a story we have been covering for several hours. We stand by our decision. No one's life was placed in jeopardy because we went on. Then, after we did, other stations went on the air, too," she said.

At 8:45, the Miami Beach Police public information officer was live by phone with WFOR. He said nobody had been found.
"He also made it clear that they were going do a more thorough search, but as of that point, they had found no one," Stopnick said.

Cunanan's body was in plain sight, sprawled on a bed in the upstairs master bedroom. A .40-caliber handgun was there. Its serial number was the same as that of a weapon stolen from a man Cunanan was believed to have killed in the Midwest.

Metro-Dade Police tactical officers later said they located the body of a white male dead from a gunshot wound within two minutes of making entry --- and reported that to the Miami Beach police.
``Once we went in and identified that there was a deceased male in there and nobody else, that information was relayed [to Beach police] and the scene was relinquished back to their custody,'' Metro-Dade Police spokesman Denis Morales told the Miami Herald.

"Whether he (the Beach PIO) misspoke or he had incomplete information, I don't know. I don't think he outright lied to us, because he went on with every TV station and said the same thing," Stopnick said.

By then it was around 9 p.m. WFOR and the other network affiliates still had two hours until their newscasts.
"Everybody was still out at the scene. There was going to be a news conference by police at some point, so everybody was still working the story," she said.

WFOR began to stand down and plan for the coverage at 11.
"We hit all of our reporters again at the scene, wrapped it up by about 8:55, promised more coverage at 11, and then re-grouped to get our coverage on for 11," she said.
"Even if there had been no body in the houseboat, this was a major police action and an inconvenience for thousands of people. This was huge story regardless," she added.

When they got the word it was "clear," WTVJ news managers also went back to regular programming. They kept the crews at the scene and were monitoring the situation, keeping the camera trained on the house.
"We stayed at the scene, because you never know. This story was so bizarre that we had no idea what was going on," said Escobar.
"We wanted to protect ourselves, so we stayed. It just seemed weird. For what looked like the Fifth Armored Division to descend upon a houseboat for a regular burglary? That did not make any sense to any of us. Then, to go in and have nobody there? It just didn't add up," said Escobar.

Some WTVJ managers had taken a break to grab a quick dinner, when they were informed that a WTVJ reporter had a source who told her there was a body inside, and it might be Andrew Cunanan.
"There had been four helicopters hovering over the scene, and my first thought was that the police were under a lot of pressure and had tried to clear out the media," said Escobar.

WTVJ had eight people who had been working the story since Versace's murder.
"We went around the room and asked who had a source they could call to try to confirm this," said Escobar.
"We only had one source who told us flat out that it was Andrew Cunanan, that he had killed himself and he was in the house. It was a very reliable source from one of our best reporters. That one I was comfortable with. But our standard is to go on the air with two very reliable sources. We had secondary sources, but they were people who had heard it from someone else. We didn't feel those were appropriate," Escobar said.

Around 10 p.m., another reporter called with "a half source."
"It was a wink and a nod, but that wasn't good enough. We needed him to answer clearly three questions: Is he dead? Was it suicide? Is it Andrew Cunanan?" said Escobar.
"At 10:20, the reporter called back again, this time with a very reliable source who had answered all three questions, 'Yes.' At that point, we had two very reliable sources, in addition to all of our secondary sources. Then, we got a third source. We decided to go with it," he said.
"We were running to get on the air. Our reporters were calling to tell us the head of the FBI task force and the head of the Miami Beach Police were arriving. I knew we had it. We went on the air at 10:24, and were the first to confirm and report it," said Escobar.

WSVN was the second to report there was a body inside, although they did not confirm it was Cunanan's body until the news conference shortly after 11 p.m.
"We had a lot of people telling us they thought it was him, or they heard it was him, but nobody could tell us it was him. So, we couldn't go with it," said Jacobs.
At 10:49, they reported they had confirmed there was a body inside.
"We told people what was going on at the scene. There were extremely important people showing up, and we pointed them out for our viewers, and explained that they don't just arrive at any normal crime scene. We told viewers we had confirmed that there was a body inside, that a lot of people were saying it might be Cunanan, but that we did not know that. But we knew something was up. All of those very high-profile people were out there, and they were all looking very happy. We took the viewers through the scene and explained what we thought was happening," said Jacobs.

Unfortunately, they had begun their 10 p.m. news with the PIO's statement that there was no body.

The WFOR reporters were also suspicious that something unusual was going on.
"Our reporters wondered if the houseboat was empty, why hadn't all these police agencies, including the FBI, left? They knew something was up. They were working it in the field. Our reporters suspected someone was in there --- either alive or dead," Stopnick said.

At 10:10, WFOR recorded a promo that basically said, "Did police come up empty-handed?" It ran at 10:38.
"We didn't feel we had enough solid information to pull it. If we had solid information, we would have pulled it and done the promo live," said Stopnick.
"There were a lot of rumors and sightings that we were filtering through all week long. We had to make sure we were telling the public confirmed information," she said.
They weren't comfortable that the information they had was good enough to take the leap.

These were not inexperienced communications officers and officials.
Roberto Vizcon, News Director of WSCV-TV, Channel 51, said that the Miami area has one of the most sophisticated PIO systems in the country.

The PIO for Miami Beach was subsequently reassigned. But Vizcon felt the incident created some mistrust between the PIOs and the media that would last.

The next day, the mayor and the city manager of Miami Beach were critical of their police department's statements.
The mayor said, ``I don't think they lied, but they certainly erred."
The manager said, "I can't think of any circumstances that justify putting out misinformation in this case."

Police Chief Richard Barreto apologized to news organizations. He said, ``I want to apologize to anybody in the media who may have been confused or inconvenienced."
He acknowledged his officers had incorrectly told reporters that no body had been found. He claimed the bad information was due to a series of misunderstandings by his people.
Barreto maintained one of his officers heard the Metro SRT officers use the term ``clear'' after they swept the boathouse. To the Metro team, that meant there was no threat present.
However, the chief said that a Miami Beach officer heard that and thought it meant there was nothing inside, it was "clear."
``The term `clear' was misinterpreted by one of my officers to indicate they had not located the body,'' said the Chief.
That incorrect information was relayed to the department's spokesman who was speaking to reporters by phone from headquarters.

Why didn't he correct the information quickly?
Barreto claimed his officers had to control traffic and determine where they would hold a media briefing.

City Manager Jose Garcia-Pedrosa said he and other authorities knew within an hour that the body was Cunanan's. However, television reporters were left with impression no body had been found.

At WTVJ, Escobar said he didn't know if the misinformation was a deliberate effort to mislead the news media.
"I hope it was not. But there have been incidents in the past where we feel we haven't been given the whole truth," he said.

"Everyone is blaming everyone else. One person is saying there was miscommunication. Another person is saying the SRT lied. Another that the Miami Beach Police misunderstood," said WSVN's Jacobs.
"How do you misunderstand there is a dead body upstairs --- and then let the misinformation be broadcast for the next two hours? Someone knew we had misinformation, but no one called to tell us we were wrong," she said.
She felt they could have simply said they weren't going to release any information immediately, but it was a big story and the newspeople should stand by.
"The body was laying on the second floor sprawled out on a bed. There was no way they missed the body," she maintained.

Here are suggestions from these managers.

Create a team for a big story.
"Develop a team whose only job is to do this story. Make it consistent," Escobar advised.
WTVJ managers put together a team of eight people. It included anchors, reporters and desk people.
"Every day we worked the story. We took the special projects unit off of all the sweeps pieces they were doing, because this was more important. We dedicated all of their time to this, too," he said. During this eight-day period, all these eight people did was to work the story over and over again.
"That paid off. When you have a story this big, throw everything you have at it, because that is what is going to pay dividends," he said.

Check and double-check everything.
"Newsweek got it wrong. Newsweek did a story about how a woman in Brazil spotted them at a party," said Escobar.
"On a story like this, rumors rule the day. You must be extremely careful. I was shocked that Newsweek got it that wrong. We did a story the next day, showing how Newsweek got it wrong. They were flat out wrong. We didn't want to make the same mistake," he added.

Managers are the gatekeepers.
"Make certain you are buttoned up. Don't speculate. Everyone was speculating. As news managers, that was our sole function --- to make sure we got the facts right. Do not speculate," he said.
"You constantly had to be monitoring every piece of information that went on the air, deciding if it was valuable enough to go on the air. Speculating can kill you," he warned.

Use your best people.
"Managers need to know their newsrooms, as far as the strengths and weaknesses of their staff. Always put your 'A' players on this. Always. It' s a team effort. You can't do it alone. Our general manager Don Browne was even involved," said Escobar.

Don't let down your guard.
"Don't discard the story until you are absolutely sure there is no story there," said Vizcon of WSCV. "No matter how efficient you think a public information officer is at a police department, don't take it for granted. Always try to make sure you have your bases covered," he said.

"This was a very unique situation. I don't want the lesson to be not to trust your PIO, because we have to trust them," said Jacobs.
"We all live and die by those few people who are supposedly telling us what is really going on. How many times do reporters arrive at a scene, and an officer tells them they don't need to worry about it, or that it is a big deal and we should stick around? Sometimes that's all they'll say, but it leads us to what stories we cover. To this day, I'm still going to believe the PIO, and hope that he is telling me the truth," she said.

Misinformation like this does have repercussions.
"It made a lot of viewers very angry.  We had viewers call the next day saying they went to bed thinking everything was all clear, and they woke up the next morning to ask 'What happened?' That hurt us," Jacobs said.

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