Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Reid Arraigned in Boston; Interview of Passengers Valleau and Haynes

Aired December 24, 2001 - 10:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, we want to begin in Boston. The man accused of smuggling explosives on board Saturday's harrowing American Airlines flight. CNN's Kathleen Koch is outside the federal courthouse with more. Kathleen, can you tell us specifically what is the charge that he's facing right now?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Basically, 28-year-old Richard Reid is being charged with interfering with the performance of the duties of a flight crew by assault or intimidation, and that charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Now, only about a half an hour ago his arraignment wrapped up here in the Moakley Courthouse in Boston, and I'll tell you a little bit about what we saw during that proceeding. Reid shuffled very quietly into the court room at 9:45 this morning. He was wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. He was handcuffed, also was in leg irons and wearing flat sandals. He seemed very calm. he didn't really look at the audience. He was quite a tall man, about 6'4", over 200 pounds with very long, bushy, sort of unkempt hair, and he sat quietly as the judge, then, entered the chambers.

And, the first item, of course, that they brought up was asking him to stand and swear that anything he would say today was the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, to which he simply shrugged his shoulders, at which point, the bailiff said, "well, is that yes?" And then he did say, "yes." Then the remainder of the proceeding was basically advising him of his rights. Right to remain silent, right to an attorney, to which Mr. Reid responded, "yes" on all occasions.

Now, the U.S. Attorney's office asked that Reid be detained pending trial because of dangerousness and risk of flight. The judge in the case, U.S. Magistrate Judith Dean (ph), is going to be appointing him an attorney, Mr. Reid does not yet have an attorney in this case, and she set Friday, December 28th at 11:00 a.m. as the date and time for an evidentiary hearing at which point Mr. Reid will have an attorney who will be representing him, and then we'll be hearing more of the charges against him and perhaps his plea at that point -- Carol.

LIN: All right. Thank you very much. Kathleen Koch, reporting on those proceedings there in Boston. Of course, we want to get back to the scenario, what it was like to be on board that plane when all this went down. Two passengers actually had front row seats to that ordeal. Jacques Valleau and Elizabeth Haynes were traveling with their 9-month-old son, Benjamin, and they join us this morning from Pompano Beach, Florida. Good morning to both of you, and I bet you are very glad to be home.

ELIZABETH HAYNES, AMERICAN AIRLINES PASSENGER: Yes, thank you.

JACQUES VALLEAU, AMERICAN AIRLINES PASSENGER: Good morning.

LIN: Now, we said that you had a front row seat to this. Exactly where were you, and what did you see?

VALLEAU: So, actually we are on the row on the 36A and B. And we were, I would say around maximum six meters, which is something like 18 feet from where the terrorist was on the right side of the back of the plane.

LIN: And how did you know something --

VALLEAU: So, we definite --

LIN: Right, go ahead, I'm sorry. Jacques, go ahead.

VALLEAU: No problem. So you know, after a while, after we had the meal, some special, you know, smell burn appeared, and everybody realized that something was going wrong, and that's exactly what was happening. And at the meantime, after, I would say, something like three or four minutes, the flight attendant and chief jumped on the guy with a bottle of water, and at the meantime, three other men who were pretty muscular and strong, helped her to attach the gag.

And at the meantime, when I saw that scenery, I jumped out of my seat, too, and you know, to be where the action was, exactly if I could help or not, and I took, actually, a few photos of the scene, too, but the FBI has those -- those photos, so maybe you will have them, I don't know. This is --

LIN: Jacques, I'm just wondering, while this is going down, did you think it was an unruly passenger, or did you have an idea that this guy might actually have explosives on board?

VALLEAU: Of course not. We didn't know anything about that, but you know, when you are flying and suddenly when you can smell this burn, you realize right away that something is going really wrong, and then when all during the action, everybody was kind of, you know, kind of screaming and because the guy was also pretty close to some teen- agers, and everybody was frightened, that's for sure. That's for sure.

LIN: Elizabeth, what was going through your mind? I mean, there you are carrying your 9-month-old son, and this is going down.

HAYNES: Well, yeah, I was -- obviously, my first concern was him, and I wasn't -- you know, I couldn't jump up and see what was going on. Jacques actually did that, and I was -- you know, I was concerned for his safety and we wanted to just get home and see -- you know, get to our family, and make sure that they knew we were okay, you know.

LIN: I bet everybody was worried, because I know that you were detained for quite sometime at the Boston airport, but thank goodness everything turned out well, and that you are safe at home. I'm sure investigators may have more follow-up questions to all the witnesses, but happy holidays to you. We're glad to see that you are safe.

HAYNES: Thank you.

LIN: Thank you for sharing your story.

VALLEAU: Thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com