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American Morning
A Big Day in Michael Jackson's Trial; Woodward and Bernstein Finally Getting to Tell It All
Aired June 03, 2005 - 07:00 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Bill Hemmer.
A big day in Michael Jackson's trial. In a matter of hours, his fate will be in the hands of the jury, and we will have live coverage from the courthouse in a moment.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello, in for Soledad O'Brien.
A desperate search far from home. An Alabama family trying to find their 18-year-old daughter who vanished during a school vacation in the Caribbean.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Jack Cafferty.
A British couple made it into the record books this week after 80 years of marriage. We'll tell you the secret of their success and find out some of yours.
HEMMER: Also, Woodward and Bernstein finally getting to tell it all. The secrets of Deep Throat, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
Welcome, everybody. It is Friday morning, and good morning. Michael Jackson topping our news today.
COSTELLO: Well, it's getting close. Now this could be a huge day.
HEMMER: Yes, and that's where we start today, too, in fact, Santa Maria, California, where the jury in Michael Jackson's trial could get the case later this afternoon. That's after closing arguments started on Thursday. They continue today. Here's Rusty Dornin this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flanked by family, Michael Jackson blew a kiss to his small, but determined, crowd of fans, a crowd that has grown as his final days in court draw near. Inside the courtroom, prosecutor Ron Zonen wrapped up the state's case as painting Jackson as a sexual predator, a man he claimed has serious alcohol problems who lured young boys into his bedroom.
Zonen called it a fortress, quote, "a room of the forbidden." He told the jury Jackson plied young boys with pornography and alcohol. At one point Zonen showed a photo from what he called Jackson's pornographic collection, and asked jurors, "Are you comfortable with a middle-aged man who possesses this book getting into bed with a 13- year-old boy?"
Again and again, prosecutors have urged the jury to believe Jackson only groomed young boys from vulnerable families, poor ones where father figures were nonexistent. At one point he showed a photo of Jackson surrounded photos of four young men prosecutors say were molested by the superstar, a powerful image, say some legal analysts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's giving these jurors a sharp contrast in their mind. He says one two things is true -- either all four of these young men are liars and perjurers, including this young man now a past tore in a church, they all lied, they all perjured themselves in front of you, or Michael Jackson is a child molester.
DORNIN: Less than three hours later Zonen finished, trying to convince the jury to believe the jury and hold Michael Jackson responsible.
For the defense, it's always been a question of credibility. Defense attorney Thomas Mesereau launched an all-out attack on the accuser's family, especially the mother. He called her a pathological liar who used her children to extort money, but the mother wasn't Mesereau's only target.
JIM MORET, LEGAL ANALYST: This is about the accuser. There's only one accuser, only one alleged victim in this case. And if you don't believe that accuser and don't believe his brother, Michael Jackson has to be acquitted.
DORNIN (on camera): The defense has less than two hours to wrap up its case, and then it's the prosecution's turn for rebuttal, and the last word. It's likely jury deliberations will begin sometime Friday afternoon. And then for Michael Jackson, the waiting begins.
Rusty Dornin, CNN, Santa Maria, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: In about 30 minutes from now, we'll go back to California. Defense attorney Anne Bremner, who was in the courthouse yesterday, back with us today. We'll get her view on what she heard in the courthouse on Thursday.
Meanwhile, from Aruba, police are using helicopters and all- terrain vehicles in a search for an Alabama girl. She disappeared on her high school senior trip. Eighteen-year-old Natalee Holloway has been missing since Monday. She last seen leaving a nightclub in Aruba and getting into a car.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETH HOLLOWAY TWITTY, MOTHER: She was seen leaving Carlos and Charlie's at approximately 1:30 a.m. Monday morning, and she was here on a senior trip. And there were approximately, I don't know, there could have been 20 to 40 of her classmates in Carlos and Charlie's periodically. But at least 10 of them saw her leave in a small four- door car, not sure of the make, bluish-gray color, and there were three locals in the car with her. I will stay here until I find you, Natalee.
FRANCIS ELLEN BIRD, FRIEND: We want everybody, as many people as we can, to pray for Natalee. I talked to her mom today. She said she could feel that everybody was praying.
MARSHA TWITTY, AUNT: We have the highest of hopes that we are going to find it. We've got FBI involved, and hopefully things will moved fast and we can bring this child home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Holloway's family has offered a reward for the safe return, although they are not saying how much at this point. More on this story as we move throughout the morning -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks is not going to jail, but she will have to pay back the sheriff. Wilbanks has pleaded no contest to a felony charge of making false statements to police. She must serve two years probation, 120 hours of community service and repay sheriff's expenses of $2,500. Wilbanks ran away from Duluth, Georgia on April 26, just before she was planning to get married.
Four days later, she called from Albuquerque, New Mexico with a story about being kidnapped and assaulted. A recording of the call to her fiance has just been released.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FIANCE: Are you sure you're not in Duluth?
JENNIFER: No, I am not in Duluth.
FIANCE: Are you in Georgia?
JENNIFER: I don't know.
FIANCE: Okay. It's OK, sweetie, it's OK. We're just trying to figure out how to come find you.
JENNIFER: They cut my hair.
FIANCE: They cut your hair?
JENNIFER: Uh-huh.
FIANCE: And that's all they did to you? Well, that's great.
JENNIFER: It was a man and a woman.
FIANCE: It was a man and a...
JENNIFER: A Hispanic man and a Caucasian woman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Lydia Sartain is the attorney for Jennifer Wilbanks. She's in Gainesville, Georgia this morning. She joins us live.
Good morning.
LYDIA SARTAIN, ATTY. FOR JENNIFER WILBANKS: Good morning.
COSTELLO: First up, I have to ask you about the call. We now know it was all made up. Jennifer Wilbanks is a grownup woman. Why not just tell her fiance the truth at that point?
SARTAIN: Jennifer is a grown-up woman who suffers from a lot of mental distress. She had a lot of mental problems going on, a lot of chaos in her life, a lot of it in her mind, a lot of stress. And it's not the way a healthy 32-year-old woman would react, but it was the way this woman reacted with mental distress.
COSTELLO: How serious is her mental distress? We noticed in court yesterday, she told the judge she was on medication.
SARTAIN: Out of respect for her privacy, I couldn't go into the details of her treatment, but she has been in a residential treatment program for over a month. It is anticipated that her treatment will continue for a very long period of time, into the indefinite future. She is working very hard to regain her health and to regain her mental health, and also to regain her life. I thought she showed a lot of courage and dignity yesterday in addressing the court. It was very important to her that she let the people of Gwinnette County and law enforcement know that she apologized to them and that she appreciated what they had done on her behalf.
COSTELLO: When she made that call to her fiance from New Mexico, did she pre-plan it? Did she plan to say those things? Was it just spontaneous? Did she actually know what she was doing?
SARTAIN: No, absolutely that was not planned. She knew that she needed to call home, finally worked up the courage to do it, and it's very important that the public know that that call was to her family. That call, of course, is the basis of one of the criminal charges. But she called her family, and then, I mean, the motion, she's just so, so distraught, you can't help but hear that and know that.
COSTELLO: We couldn't help but notice that her fiance was with her. She had the ring on her finger. Are they still going to get married?
SARTAIN: I know that the question everybody wants to have answered. And even though they've been very much in the glare of the media, that's a private, private matter, a private decision. I do appreciate and respect and admire John for being in court yesterday, being supportive, being so kind and compassionate to Jennifer. I just wish them both much happiness in whatever decisions they make.
COSTELLO: Will she go back and live with him after she gets out of this psychiatric facility?
SARTAIN: Those decisions are down the road. I mean, she is now going about the business of healing, and regaining her life, and she's going have a lot of decisions, and this is really where the hard part is going to be.
COSTELLO: Lydia Sartain, joining us live from Gainesville, Georgia, thanks so much.
SARTAIN: Thank you.
HEMMER: Now nine minutes past the hour, Carol.
Mark felt told the secret, but only Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward could tell the story, and they talked about that story last night with Larry King for a full hour here on CNN about their legendary unnamed source and about getting scooped this past week. Here's Kelly Wallace with more from last night.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In their first live primetime interview since Deep Throat's identity was revealed, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein talked with Larry King about getting scooped.
LARRY KING, HOST: How did "Vanity Fair" beat you?
BOB WOODWARD, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Well, they did some good reporting.
CARL BERNSTEIN, FMR. "WASHINGTON POST" REPORTER: There's a great lesson, journalistic lesson, in the way the story broke, in that we didn't get it. And that is that reporters often think that they're in control of a story. The story controls the reporter.
SARTAIN: Bernstein said he never actually met their legendary source, Mark Felt, and said Woodward met and talked with him fewer than a dozen times in two years during the Watergate scandal. Woodward told Larry King he hadn't spoken with Felt for a number of years.
WOODWARD: It was a number of years ago, I talked to him, and it was clear to me that -- and this was the reluctance we had that he has dementia, and his memory is often nonexistent on critical matters, and he is somebody 91 years old.
WALLACE: What about the critics who accuse felt of being disloyal, one calling him a snake?
BERNSTEIN: Sounds like what these people said about us 30 years ago, and the president of the United States said when they tried to make the conduct of the press the issue in Watergate.
WALLACE: Asked if they thought felt, who was number two at the FBI at the time, broke the law by sharing secrets with them... WOODWARD: No, I don't think so. I think -- and again, and this is part of the additional story, that he was careful to give us guidance, he didn't give us direct information from FBI files or reports.
WALLACE: What about those who say Felt, passed over for the top job at the FBI, might have been seeking revenge?
BERNSTEIN: I think that's a much too simplistic way to interpret it. He obviously felt an obligation to the truth. He felt an obligation, I think, to the Constitution. He realized that there was a corrupt presidency, that the Constitution was being undermined.
WALLACE: And finally, how will history regard the man who helped uncover Watergate crimes, a scandal that brought down a president?
WOODWARD: He was a man conflicted, in turmoil, truly a man of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI, who saw all of these things going on. He's an important part, but you know, you don't know what history is going to say.
WALLACE (on camera): For three decades, they kept one of the biggest secrets in Washington. Now they can tell all, and plan to do that with a new book, which Woodward says could be on book shelves soon.
Kelly Wallace, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Bob Woodward also revealing last night that he has told his former wife who Deep Throat was. Previously, it was thought that only Woodward, and Bernstein and their editor, Ben Bradlee, knew the secret -- Carol.
COSTELLO: That almost blew the secret, because didn't Nora Ephron tell her son, and her son told someone at camp, and that kid wrote a report about it in high school, and this became ugly. But the secret's out now.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: That devastating landslide in Laguna Beach. Residents are allowed to go back home, but there is more bad news ahead, and we'll talk about that in a bit -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Also, we take you inside the Michael Jackson trial for what happened just before closing arguments that may have hurt the defense.
HEMMER: Also, a bit later, how do you spell success?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... g-g-i-a-t-u-r-a.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The big word that clinched it finally for this 13- year-old spelling champ. We'll talk to him a bit later this hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: From Laguna Beach, California today, most residents are allowed to go back to their homes, but police urging them to stay away until utilities are restored there; 48 homes still off limits after this massive landslide damaged much of the neighborhood on Wednesday. Geologists say heavy rains are surely to blame, but there are residents speculating it was more than just a wet season.
Chris Lawrence, again, in Laguna Beach this morning for us.
Here's Chris.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The effects of the Laguna Beach landslide are just starting to sink in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you go up? Did you go up?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, did you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
LAWRENCE: Police have handed out permits to hundreds of residents, allowing them back in their homes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just got through talking to an insurance company.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. We don't get anything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
LAWRENCE: Lori Herek house was damage so badly, police wouldn't let her near it.
LORI HEREK, LAGUNA BEACH RESIDENT: I don't want to see my home. I don't want to see the street that no longer exists. I don't want to see the beautiful canyon that I used to look at, out every morning and every evening, thinking how incredibly blessed I was to live here. I don't want to see it. What I want to see are my cats, and what I want to see are answers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Herek and her neighbors have been complaining about new construction on the hill.
HEREK: It's unnatural, when you're pounding the earth day in and day out for a year, year and a half, two years. LAWRENCE: Twenty-eight inches of rain this winter didn't help, but residents blame new construction and existing problems with the underground pipes for helping cause this damage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long have you lived in the home?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The cause is important to Lori's insurance agent. Companies won't cover landslides, but if there were other factors, like new construction, Herek might recover some damages.
HEREK: There was no stress fractures in my house. My tile wasn't cracked. The street wasn't cracked. You tell me why that hill slid.
LAWRENCE: On this piece of land, the answer to that question is worth millions.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, Laguna Beach.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Coming up in the next hour, back to Laguna this morning. We'll talk to a senior engineering geologist. She was surveying the landslide yesterday. We'll get her thoughts about what she sees right now for the potential for more slides in Southern California -- Carol.
COSTELLO: If you own an iPod, you might be eligible for some free money. Andy will explain. He's "Minding Your Business," next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: All right, welcome back, everyone. A big jobs report expected out later today, and investors waiting for this report throughout the week.
Also, want some cash back on your iPod? Andy Serwer is watching that, "Minding Your Business."
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you, Bill.
Let's talk about the markets first of all, yesterday. Oil prices dropped, and that boosted stocks a little bit, just a little, not too much. Also, optimism over lower interest rates.
HEMMER: A smidge.
SERWER: A smidge. Yes, we have the big jobs report at 8:30 Eastern. For the month of May, we're expecting to add 175,000 jobs. Unemployment rate expected to remain at 5.2 percent. In April, we got 274,000 new jobs. So you can see the threshold is a little bit lower. We don't want this to grow too fast, because that will get people concerned about inflation again. Let's talk about the iPod. And you know, CNN's crack production team was actually able to procure one here. Pretty amazing what we're doing here. The iPod battery has been the object of complaints over the years, and it appears that the company is now close to a settlement in a class-action lawsuit, where it would give people who purchased iPods a $50 voucher, and also an extended warranty for those who purchased iPods up to, let's see, it's May of 2004. The company said the battery would last a lifetime for the product and would charge for 10 hours. People are suggesting it only lasted 18 months and would only charge for four hours. Apple very close to making that settlement right now.
HEMMER: Have you seen the Web sites where people can go and they can troubleshoot their own iPod? And they've been picking on that battery issue for a number of years.
SERWER: Yes, and I think they've fixed it, because the new ones last longer than the old ones.
COSTELLO: Yes, but why only until May of 2004?
SERWER: Because they fixed it after that, so if you purchased it up to that point.
HEMMER: And we have right here in our studio a real iPod.
SERWER: Yes, get got one, along with 10 million others of them that were sold. That's right.
HEMMER: See you later. Bye.
SERWER: OK.
COSTELLO: Hi, Jack.
CAFFERTY: That's a pretty heavily intellectual environment you've found yourself in this morning, huh?
COSTELLO: I find myself becoming educated.
HEMMER: Yes, it is.
SERWER: Brace yourself, Carol.
CAFFERTY: Marriage can last a lifetime, and in the case of a British couple, it has, 80 years: 105-year-old Percy Aerosmith and his 100-year-old wife, Florence, celebrated the 80th anniversary Wednesday. The couple were married in 1925. They met at the local church. He sang in the choir. She was a Sunday school teacher. They have three kids, six grandchildren, nine great grandchildren. The secret to Percy's and Florence's 80 years of wedded bliss, never go to sleep on an argument. They say they also always kiss each other good night and hold hands before going to bed.
The question is this, what is the secret to a successful marriage? I'm trying to do this seriously, Carol. COSTELLO: I was seeing your softer side. That's why I was laughing.
CAFFERTY: Well, thank you so much. I'm trying to work on my image here a little bit, you know.
The answer to marital longevity is two words: diminished expectations.
SERWER: Now how now he's back to his old self, carol. Didn't take long.
COSTELLO: That's right.
There's more to come on AMERICAN MORNING.
Just ahead on "90-Second Pop," Tom Cruise's comments about his love life and Scientology have Hollywood buzzing. Is he hurting his career?
Plus, Lisa Kudrow hits the small screen again in a comeback. Can she carry a show without help from her "Friends?" That's later on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired June 3, 2005 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Bill Hemmer.
A big day in Michael Jackson's trial. In a matter of hours, his fate will be in the hands of the jury, and we will have live coverage from the courthouse in a moment.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello, in for Soledad O'Brien.
A desperate search far from home. An Alabama family trying to find their 18-year-old daughter who vanished during a school vacation in the Caribbean.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Jack Cafferty.
A British couple made it into the record books this week after 80 years of marriage. We'll tell you the secret of their success and find out some of yours.
HEMMER: Also, Woodward and Bernstein finally getting to tell it all. The secrets of Deep Throat, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
Welcome, everybody. It is Friday morning, and good morning. Michael Jackson topping our news today.
COSTELLO: Well, it's getting close. Now this could be a huge day.
HEMMER: Yes, and that's where we start today, too, in fact, Santa Maria, California, where the jury in Michael Jackson's trial could get the case later this afternoon. That's after closing arguments started on Thursday. They continue today. Here's Rusty Dornin this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flanked by family, Michael Jackson blew a kiss to his small, but determined, crowd of fans, a crowd that has grown as his final days in court draw near. Inside the courtroom, prosecutor Ron Zonen wrapped up the state's case as painting Jackson as a sexual predator, a man he claimed has serious alcohol problems who lured young boys into his bedroom.
Zonen called it a fortress, quote, "a room of the forbidden." He told the jury Jackson plied young boys with pornography and alcohol. At one point Zonen showed a photo from what he called Jackson's pornographic collection, and asked jurors, "Are you comfortable with a middle-aged man who possesses this book getting into bed with a 13- year-old boy?"
Again and again, prosecutors have urged the jury to believe Jackson only groomed young boys from vulnerable families, poor ones where father figures were nonexistent. At one point he showed a photo of Jackson surrounded photos of four young men prosecutors say were molested by the superstar, a powerful image, say some legal analysts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's giving these jurors a sharp contrast in their mind. He says one two things is true -- either all four of these young men are liars and perjurers, including this young man now a past tore in a church, they all lied, they all perjured themselves in front of you, or Michael Jackson is a child molester.
DORNIN: Less than three hours later Zonen finished, trying to convince the jury to believe the jury and hold Michael Jackson responsible.
For the defense, it's always been a question of credibility. Defense attorney Thomas Mesereau launched an all-out attack on the accuser's family, especially the mother. He called her a pathological liar who used her children to extort money, but the mother wasn't Mesereau's only target.
JIM MORET, LEGAL ANALYST: This is about the accuser. There's only one accuser, only one alleged victim in this case. And if you don't believe that accuser and don't believe his brother, Michael Jackson has to be acquitted.
DORNIN (on camera): The defense has less than two hours to wrap up its case, and then it's the prosecution's turn for rebuttal, and the last word. It's likely jury deliberations will begin sometime Friday afternoon. And then for Michael Jackson, the waiting begins.
Rusty Dornin, CNN, Santa Maria, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: In about 30 minutes from now, we'll go back to California. Defense attorney Anne Bremner, who was in the courthouse yesterday, back with us today. We'll get her view on what she heard in the courthouse on Thursday.
Meanwhile, from Aruba, police are using helicopters and all- terrain vehicles in a search for an Alabama girl. She disappeared on her high school senior trip. Eighteen-year-old Natalee Holloway has been missing since Monday. She last seen leaving a nightclub in Aruba and getting into a car.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETH HOLLOWAY TWITTY, MOTHER: She was seen leaving Carlos and Charlie's at approximately 1:30 a.m. Monday morning, and she was here on a senior trip. And there were approximately, I don't know, there could have been 20 to 40 of her classmates in Carlos and Charlie's periodically. But at least 10 of them saw her leave in a small four- door car, not sure of the make, bluish-gray color, and there were three locals in the car with her. I will stay here until I find you, Natalee.
FRANCIS ELLEN BIRD, FRIEND: We want everybody, as many people as we can, to pray for Natalee. I talked to her mom today. She said she could feel that everybody was praying.
MARSHA TWITTY, AUNT: We have the highest of hopes that we are going to find it. We've got FBI involved, and hopefully things will moved fast and we can bring this child home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Holloway's family has offered a reward for the safe return, although they are not saying how much at this point. More on this story as we move throughout the morning -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks is not going to jail, but she will have to pay back the sheriff. Wilbanks has pleaded no contest to a felony charge of making false statements to police. She must serve two years probation, 120 hours of community service and repay sheriff's expenses of $2,500. Wilbanks ran away from Duluth, Georgia on April 26, just before she was planning to get married.
Four days later, she called from Albuquerque, New Mexico with a story about being kidnapped and assaulted. A recording of the call to her fiance has just been released.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FIANCE: Are you sure you're not in Duluth?
JENNIFER: No, I am not in Duluth.
FIANCE: Are you in Georgia?
JENNIFER: I don't know.
FIANCE: Okay. It's OK, sweetie, it's OK. We're just trying to figure out how to come find you.
JENNIFER: They cut my hair.
FIANCE: They cut your hair?
JENNIFER: Uh-huh.
FIANCE: And that's all they did to you? Well, that's great.
JENNIFER: It was a man and a woman.
FIANCE: It was a man and a...
JENNIFER: A Hispanic man and a Caucasian woman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Lydia Sartain is the attorney for Jennifer Wilbanks. She's in Gainesville, Georgia this morning. She joins us live.
Good morning.
LYDIA SARTAIN, ATTY. FOR JENNIFER WILBANKS: Good morning.
COSTELLO: First up, I have to ask you about the call. We now know it was all made up. Jennifer Wilbanks is a grownup woman. Why not just tell her fiance the truth at that point?
SARTAIN: Jennifer is a grown-up woman who suffers from a lot of mental distress. She had a lot of mental problems going on, a lot of chaos in her life, a lot of it in her mind, a lot of stress. And it's not the way a healthy 32-year-old woman would react, but it was the way this woman reacted with mental distress.
COSTELLO: How serious is her mental distress? We noticed in court yesterday, she told the judge she was on medication.
SARTAIN: Out of respect for her privacy, I couldn't go into the details of her treatment, but she has been in a residential treatment program for over a month. It is anticipated that her treatment will continue for a very long period of time, into the indefinite future. She is working very hard to regain her health and to regain her mental health, and also to regain her life. I thought she showed a lot of courage and dignity yesterday in addressing the court. It was very important to her that she let the people of Gwinnette County and law enforcement know that she apologized to them and that she appreciated what they had done on her behalf.
COSTELLO: When she made that call to her fiance from New Mexico, did she pre-plan it? Did she plan to say those things? Was it just spontaneous? Did she actually know what she was doing?
SARTAIN: No, absolutely that was not planned. She knew that she needed to call home, finally worked up the courage to do it, and it's very important that the public know that that call was to her family. That call, of course, is the basis of one of the criminal charges. But she called her family, and then, I mean, the motion, she's just so, so distraught, you can't help but hear that and know that.
COSTELLO: We couldn't help but notice that her fiance was with her. She had the ring on her finger. Are they still going to get married?
SARTAIN: I know that the question everybody wants to have answered. And even though they've been very much in the glare of the media, that's a private, private matter, a private decision. I do appreciate and respect and admire John for being in court yesterday, being supportive, being so kind and compassionate to Jennifer. I just wish them both much happiness in whatever decisions they make.
COSTELLO: Will she go back and live with him after she gets out of this psychiatric facility?
SARTAIN: Those decisions are down the road. I mean, she is now going about the business of healing, and regaining her life, and she's going have a lot of decisions, and this is really where the hard part is going to be.
COSTELLO: Lydia Sartain, joining us live from Gainesville, Georgia, thanks so much.
SARTAIN: Thank you.
HEMMER: Now nine minutes past the hour, Carol.
Mark felt told the secret, but only Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward could tell the story, and they talked about that story last night with Larry King for a full hour here on CNN about their legendary unnamed source and about getting scooped this past week. Here's Kelly Wallace with more from last night.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In their first live primetime interview since Deep Throat's identity was revealed, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein talked with Larry King about getting scooped.
LARRY KING, HOST: How did "Vanity Fair" beat you?
BOB WOODWARD, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Well, they did some good reporting.
CARL BERNSTEIN, FMR. "WASHINGTON POST" REPORTER: There's a great lesson, journalistic lesson, in the way the story broke, in that we didn't get it. And that is that reporters often think that they're in control of a story. The story controls the reporter.
SARTAIN: Bernstein said he never actually met their legendary source, Mark Felt, and said Woodward met and talked with him fewer than a dozen times in two years during the Watergate scandal. Woodward told Larry King he hadn't spoken with Felt for a number of years.
WOODWARD: It was a number of years ago, I talked to him, and it was clear to me that -- and this was the reluctance we had that he has dementia, and his memory is often nonexistent on critical matters, and he is somebody 91 years old.
WALLACE: What about the critics who accuse felt of being disloyal, one calling him a snake?
BERNSTEIN: Sounds like what these people said about us 30 years ago, and the president of the United States said when they tried to make the conduct of the press the issue in Watergate.
WALLACE: Asked if they thought felt, who was number two at the FBI at the time, broke the law by sharing secrets with them... WOODWARD: No, I don't think so. I think -- and again, and this is part of the additional story, that he was careful to give us guidance, he didn't give us direct information from FBI files or reports.
WALLACE: What about those who say Felt, passed over for the top job at the FBI, might have been seeking revenge?
BERNSTEIN: I think that's a much too simplistic way to interpret it. He obviously felt an obligation to the truth. He felt an obligation, I think, to the Constitution. He realized that there was a corrupt presidency, that the Constitution was being undermined.
WALLACE: And finally, how will history regard the man who helped uncover Watergate crimes, a scandal that brought down a president?
WOODWARD: He was a man conflicted, in turmoil, truly a man of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI, who saw all of these things going on. He's an important part, but you know, you don't know what history is going to say.
WALLACE (on camera): For three decades, they kept one of the biggest secrets in Washington. Now they can tell all, and plan to do that with a new book, which Woodward says could be on book shelves soon.
Kelly Wallace, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Bob Woodward also revealing last night that he has told his former wife who Deep Throat was. Previously, it was thought that only Woodward, and Bernstein and their editor, Ben Bradlee, knew the secret -- Carol.
COSTELLO: That almost blew the secret, because didn't Nora Ephron tell her son, and her son told someone at camp, and that kid wrote a report about it in high school, and this became ugly. But the secret's out now.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: That devastating landslide in Laguna Beach. Residents are allowed to go back home, but there is more bad news ahead, and we'll talk about that in a bit -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Also, we take you inside the Michael Jackson trial for what happened just before closing arguments that may have hurt the defense.
HEMMER: Also, a bit later, how do you spell success?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... g-g-i-a-t-u-r-a.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The big word that clinched it finally for this 13- year-old spelling champ. We'll talk to him a bit later this hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: From Laguna Beach, California today, most residents are allowed to go back to their homes, but police urging them to stay away until utilities are restored there; 48 homes still off limits after this massive landslide damaged much of the neighborhood on Wednesday. Geologists say heavy rains are surely to blame, but there are residents speculating it was more than just a wet season.
Chris Lawrence, again, in Laguna Beach this morning for us.
Here's Chris.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The effects of the Laguna Beach landslide are just starting to sink in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you go up? Did you go up?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, did you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
LAWRENCE: Police have handed out permits to hundreds of residents, allowing them back in their homes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just got through talking to an insurance company.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. We don't get anything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
LAWRENCE: Lori Herek house was damage so badly, police wouldn't let her near it.
LORI HEREK, LAGUNA BEACH RESIDENT: I don't want to see my home. I don't want to see the street that no longer exists. I don't want to see the beautiful canyon that I used to look at, out every morning and every evening, thinking how incredibly blessed I was to live here. I don't want to see it. What I want to see are my cats, and what I want to see are answers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Herek and her neighbors have been complaining about new construction on the hill.
HEREK: It's unnatural, when you're pounding the earth day in and day out for a year, year and a half, two years. LAWRENCE: Twenty-eight inches of rain this winter didn't help, but residents blame new construction and existing problems with the underground pipes for helping cause this damage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long have you lived in the home?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The cause is important to Lori's insurance agent. Companies won't cover landslides, but if there were other factors, like new construction, Herek might recover some damages.
HEREK: There was no stress fractures in my house. My tile wasn't cracked. The street wasn't cracked. You tell me why that hill slid.
LAWRENCE: On this piece of land, the answer to that question is worth millions.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, Laguna Beach.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Coming up in the next hour, back to Laguna this morning. We'll talk to a senior engineering geologist. She was surveying the landslide yesterday. We'll get her thoughts about what she sees right now for the potential for more slides in Southern California -- Carol.
COSTELLO: If you own an iPod, you might be eligible for some free money. Andy will explain. He's "Minding Your Business," next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: All right, welcome back, everyone. A big jobs report expected out later today, and investors waiting for this report throughout the week.
Also, want some cash back on your iPod? Andy Serwer is watching that, "Minding Your Business."
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you, Bill.
Let's talk about the markets first of all, yesterday. Oil prices dropped, and that boosted stocks a little bit, just a little, not too much. Also, optimism over lower interest rates.
HEMMER: A smidge.
SERWER: A smidge. Yes, we have the big jobs report at 8:30 Eastern. For the month of May, we're expecting to add 175,000 jobs. Unemployment rate expected to remain at 5.2 percent. In April, we got 274,000 new jobs. So you can see the threshold is a little bit lower. We don't want this to grow too fast, because that will get people concerned about inflation again. Let's talk about the iPod. And you know, CNN's crack production team was actually able to procure one here. Pretty amazing what we're doing here. The iPod battery has been the object of complaints over the years, and it appears that the company is now close to a settlement in a class-action lawsuit, where it would give people who purchased iPods a $50 voucher, and also an extended warranty for those who purchased iPods up to, let's see, it's May of 2004. The company said the battery would last a lifetime for the product and would charge for 10 hours. People are suggesting it only lasted 18 months and would only charge for four hours. Apple very close to making that settlement right now.
HEMMER: Have you seen the Web sites where people can go and they can troubleshoot their own iPod? And they've been picking on that battery issue for a number of years.
SERWER: Yes, and I think they've fixed it, because the new ones last longer than the old ones.
COSTELLO: Yes, but why only until May of 2004?
SERWER: Because they fixed it after that, so if you purchased it up to that point.
HEMMER: And we have right here in our studio a real iPod.
SERWER: Yes, get got one, along with 10 million others of them that were sold. That's right.
HEMMER: See you later. Bye.
SERWER: OK.
COSTELLO: Hi, Jack.
CAFFERTY: That's a pretty heavily intellectual environment you've found yourself in this morning, huh?
COSTELLO: I find myself becoming educated.
HEMMER: Yes, it is.
SERWER: Brace yourself, Carol.
CAFFERTY: Marriage can last a lifetime, and in the case of a British couple, it has, 80 years: 105-year-old Percy Aerosmith and his 100-year-old wife, Florence, celebrated the 80th anniversary Wednesday. The couple were married in 1925. They met at the local church. He sang in the choir. She was a Sunday school teacher. They have three kids, six grandchildren, nine great grandchildren. The secret to Percy's and Florence's 80 years of wedded bliss, never go to sleep on an argument. They say they also always kiss each other good night and hold hands before going to bed.
The question is this, what is the secret to a successful marriage? I'm trying to do this seriously, Carol. COSTELLO: I was seeing your softer side. That's why I was laughing.
CAFFERTY: Well, thank you so much. I'm trying to work on my image here a little bit, you know.
The answer to marital longevity is two words: diminished expectations.
SERWER: Now how now he's back to his old self, carol. Didn't take long.
COSTELLO: That's right.
There's more to come on AMERICAN MORNING.
Just ahead on "90-Second Pop," Tom Cruise's comments about his love life and Scientology have Hollywood buzzing. Is he hurting his career?
Plus, Lisa Kudrow hits the small screen again in a comeback. Can she carry a show without help from her "Friends?" That's later on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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