July 20, 1995 - Part 3
July 20, 1995 - Part 3
(11:40:20) Mr. ROLLA. Some people were not approachable. We tried to talk to different people. We talked to-I think we talked briefly to both sisters. I had more of a rapport with Mrs. Foster, so I talked to her. Cheryl talked to Laura, the daughter. The sons weren't home. We talked to Mr, Watkins. Other than that, we didn't talk to anyone else there. Senator DODD. But their responses and actions were not out of the ordinary in your experience-maybe, again, I'll focus this on you, Ms. Braun--in your experience in dealing with that reluctance to talk, being grief stricken, highly emotional, this is a normal pattern, you were not necessarily surprised by how people were reacting? Ms. BRAUN. I think we were, a little bit, in that it was so businesslike and in that nobody seemed-that this was a complete sur- 176 prise to everybody, and I don't think in a suicide that is a normal-- suicide isn't normally a complete surprise to the family. I feel that-and this is my own personal opinion-that there might have been a little bit of damage control going on, in that this could have possibly been an embarrassing situation for the White House arid so they were reluctant to let us know that, yes, Mr. Foster had been depressed. Things could have been a lot simpler if they had just been up front with us from the beginning, yes, he was depressed, yes, I gave him the names of psychiatrists. We didn't get that information. Senator DODD. That's a conclusion you drew as-have you done suicide investigations -of high-ranking officials in other positions or people of note? Ms. BRAUN. No, I have not. Senator DODD. So there's nothing to compare that with necessarily. It's just a feeling Ms, BRAUN. As I said, it's my personal opinion. Senator DODD. How about you, Mr. Rolla? Mr. ROLLA. I agree with her. One of the things is we didn't want so many people there at one time. We believe in. bringing a close friend, a pastor, somebody, a relative, to help comfort because we certainly didn't want anyone to be alone during this time. But, as I stated before, there comes a time after the initial grief-it's a shock or whatever-that there's information exchanged. They want to know things from us and we get things from them that help us. Depending on the type of case, it's a death investigation where expediency of the information is very important and whether-of course this was all looking like a suicide, leaning that way from the very beginning, but it would have been-we needed to know was he receiving-was there anything out of the ordinary. Was he getting death threats or threatening letters or what. Again, was he depressed, was there some reason to believe that. Overall, I understand people in that-with everyone there, I think maybe there was reluctance on Mrs. Foster's part to talk to us maybe out of embarrassment, not wanting to talk in front of other people. Senator DODD. Do you know what Mrs. Foster's religion is? Mr. ROLLA. I believe they're Catholic. Senator DODD. Were you aware of that at the time? Ms. BRAUN. No. Mr. ROLLA. No. Senator DODD. Let me just mention that that can be a factor as well, given the whole notion of suicide and people of Catholic faith in terms of their views of suicide. Did it occur to you that that might be a part of the thinking as well? Mr. ROLLA. I'm Catholic and if it's embarrass-it occurred to me that it might be embarrassing in front of all those other people. He killed himself. The family isn't going to deal with that with God; he is, as far as their religion is concerned. So in terms of embarrassment, maybe with several other people showing up at that time, maybe she felt less like talking to us about certain things. That's why I like not to go with so many people. Senator DODD. You would understand that? Mr. ROLLA. Yes. 177 Senator DODD. When you approached Mr. Watkins, Sergeant Braun, did you seek out Mr. Watkins or was this in terms of the exchange about securing the office? Ms. BRAUN. Mr. Watkins became like a liaison with us. Since we were asked to contact him because he wanted to go with us to do the notification he fell into that role as being the liaison, So he was the person that I dealt directly with in making my request. Senator DODD. Did you seek him out specifically as you were going out or did this come up in the conversation just as you were leaving? Was it an afterthought or was it something you went specifically to him to raise? Ms. BRAUN. We had stopped to speak to him and to exchange our business cards with Mr. Watkins to let them know if they had any information that they should call us, if they came upon any information that they should call us, and then he made his request about us not releasing Mr. Foster's name to the media, and then I, in turn, made my request to have the office sealed so that we could go through it in the morning.