The three major ones were located within a fifteen-block radius in midtown Manhattan. First one up: NBC. The file clerk was emphatic; the only way I was getting the dubbed tapes would be through a court order. I explained that there was no time to get a court order. The truth was I knew that once the network lawyers found out we were subpoenaing the footage, they'd fight it in court. Their argument would be valid. The tapes were property of the network. By handing over their tapes, they could be viewed as biased and could become vulnerable to civil lawsuits. But the woman didn't live under a rock; she knew the case I was working on. After thirty minutes of pleading, she caved. She let me have the tapes for twenty-four hours. I signed for the tapes, Patrolman Eveready. I had the same problem at CBS. But after showing the woman the tapes I'd gotten from NBC, she was a little more inclined to give them up. I was in civilian clothes, and the only identification I had on me was my police ID.
