Although police are still trying to get Tiger Woods to open up about his mysterious car crash early Friday, his spokespeople have hinted that he has no plans to talk.
Why is he staying so hush-hush?
"Tiger Woods is under no legal obligation to speak with police," says CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. "The Fifth Amendment gives everyone an absolute right to refuse to talk to them. He may be counting on the fact that if no new news emerges, everybody will move on."
Woods, 33, may not be talking because "there is possibly something unpleasant and embarrassing that he doesn't want to share with them, and he has that right," says Toobin. "Based on what is publicly known, Woods has a public relations problem much more than a legal problem. He's arguably the most famous athlete in the world, and his team's overall strategy is a gamble that his general statement of responsibility won't be overtaken by events or other disclosures."
The authorities likely won't have any luck getting Woods to talk, either.
"If someone doesn't want to talk to you, you as a police officer can't do anything about it," Toobin explains. "In theory, they could get a search warrant, but you need probable cause that a crime took place, and at this point, I don't see anything that would justify it."
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Asked why Rachel Uchitel — the New York nightclub manager accused of having an affair with Woods — went on to hire famed celeb attorney Gloria Allred, Toobin says, "The woman may go public to repeat … what she's said to the AP and publicly deny the affair, or perhaps to say that she was libeled by the Enquirer. Gloria Allred's clients tend not to disappear from the news media."
