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American Morning
Jury Awaits; Missing in Aruba; Landslide Questions
Aired June 03, 2005 - 09:00 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: Good morning. Today is the day the jury gets the case. This following bitter final arguments in Michael Jackson's trial. Ahead, the mood inside the courtroom as the -- we head toward a verdict.
Far from home. An Alabama family in a desperate search trying to find their 18-year-old daughter who vanished on a Caribbean island.
And residents in Laguna Beach going home after a landslide wrecked their neighborhood, and now asking questions about whether or not developers and not Mother Nature caused that mountain to crumble.
That's all ahead here on AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
HEMMER: One more hour of love. It's Friday. Good morning, everybody. Good to have you with us today.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Carol Costello, in for Soledad.
Also ahead, the kid that is the toast of the town today.
HEMMER: His name is Anurag Kashyap, he's this year's National Spelling Bee champ. Beat out about 300 others to take the top prize.
Last year he was 47th. This year he is number one. And this year he wins the right to come to our studio this hour. We'll talk to him later this hour.
COSTELLO: Good for him.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Was it last year we had the picture of some kid passing out during the finals?
COSTELLO: Yes.
CAFFERTY: Remember that? Fainted dead away under the pressure of it all.
HEMMER: Pressure.
CAFFERTY: Yes. He should do this program.
We've got a story of a couple in England married for 80 years. They are delightful. He's 105, she's 100. They met in church, 1925.
So that prompted us to ask the question to share with us the secrets of a happy marriage. AM@CNN.com.
HEMMER: We're getting some great answers.
CAFFERTY: E-mail us. Yes. The best one so far is marry an orphan.
HEMMER: No in-laws?
CAFFERTY: Yes. It takes the whole in-law thing right off the plate. That's never even in the mix going in, which is -- you know, there's some wisdom there.
(LAUGHTER)
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
Here are the headlines and Valerie Morris now.
Good morning, Valerie.
VALERIE MORRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. Good morning to you.
""Now in the News," another round of violent attacks in Iraq. A car bomb exploded as a U.S. military convoy passed this morning. At least four Iraqi civilians were injured. There were no American casualties.
North of Baghdad, at least 10 Iraqis were killed in an attack late Thursday. The incident was believed to have been a suicide car bombing.
Syria has apparently test-fired three scud missiles. Israeli security forces say the missiles were fired last week. The tests coincide with the first round of parliamentary elections in neighboring Lebanon.
Police in Los Angeles are looking for a woman whose apparent kidnapping was caught on surveillance cameras. Video shows the woman being pushed down. Then a struggle breaks out and the woman is ultimately carried away from a Hollywood apartment complex. Police say the dispute may be related to domestic violence.
And the so-called runaway bride, well, she is going to spend the next two years on probation. Jennifer Wilbanks pleaded no contest to a felony charge Thursday. She was also sentenced to community service and a fine. Wilbanks' attorney spoke with us earlier this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYDIA SARTAIN, ATTORNEY FOR JENNIFER WILBANKS: 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 Gwinnett County and law enforcement know that she apologize to them and she appreciated what they had done on her behalf.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORRIS: Wilbanks' fiance was at her side in court, and the ring, it's still on her finger -- Carol, Bill.
COSTELLO: Oh. But there's no word if they're actually going to get back together and get married, though.
MORRIS: No word yet. But I bet we'll follow it.
COSTELLO: Everybody is waiting, aren't they?
HEMMER: Thank you, Valerie.
The jury in the Michael Jackson trial could get that case later today. We expect that, anyway. Both the prosecution and the defense delivering closing arguments Thursday in what turned out to be a pretty fierce war of words. The defense wraps up its final arguments today, followed by a prosecution rebuttal.
And our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, in the courtroom yesterday, with us this morning, up early in Santa Maria, California.
Jeff, good morning out there.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Hi, Bill.
HEMMER: How was the mood in that courtroom yesterday when this went down?
TOOBIN: You know, it really was an electric atmosphere. You had four of the five original Jackson Five, as well as Michael Jackson's parents. You had a packed courtroom, which hasn't always been the case during this trial. And you had, of course, Michael Jackson, looking, frankly, as bad as I have ever seen him look.
He is emaciated. He looks -- I don't know whether it's medicated, but he looks really, you know, withdrawn.
Early in the trial he was interacting with his lawyers a lot. He now just sort of sits and stares off into space.
You know, the jury is very into this case. Remarkably, during this long trial, there hasn't been a single alternate called to the jury, not one alternate or juror -- jury member has left. I mean, this is a jury that's really into the case. And it was a very good day of arguments for both sides I thought.
HEMMER: How can you tell how much they are into this case, Jeff?
TOOBIN: Well, you know, almost all of them have stacks of notebooks, you know, that they have filled during the course of this trial. And I also think, you know, just the fact that no one has left. And the level of attentiveness, which, you know, as you know, having been in courtrooms, it's not always easy to pay close attention at all times. And this jury is riveted. They're also very aware of not giving away what they're thinking. So they're not smiling at one side and not the other. But this is a very attentive and involved jury.
HEMMER: Let's try and analyze this, first from the prosecution side. Ron Zonen did the bulk of the work yesterday. We'll hear from him and probably, what, I guess Tom Sneddon again later today.
How did Zonen do? And I know this entire time, Jeff, you've had this problem with this whole conspiracy theory. Did they dwell on that in closing arguments yesterday?
TOOBIN: They did. And I thought -- I thought Ron Zonen, first of all, just did an excellent job. But he also -- he made it at least plausible.
You know, his defense of the mother of the accuser, who is the central figure in the conspiracy charge, was such that at least I think the jury will consider it. But, you know, I think he had the good sense to spend most of his time and certainly his most effective time on the child molestation counts. And I thought he was incredibly effective, tying the accusations in this case to the prior conduct, the four other boys who were alleged to have been abused by Michael Jackson before.
That, I thought, you know, the way he tied those together, suggesting that it was a pattern of pedophilia, was really effective. And I thought, if Michael Jackson gets convicted, it's really going to be because of the way Zonen did that today.
HEMMER: Tom Mesereau, did he focus -- well, he essentially went after the shakedown, that this family was incredible. How effective was he?
TOOBIN: He, too, I thought, was very effective. And what I thought he did was -- so well, was he took what is clearly false testimony by the mother and the accuser in the J.C. Penney case, in a previous child investigation in Los Angeles, and he showed how the false statements in those cases, which the jury undoubtedly has to think are false, are so parallel to the accusations here.
And I think it's just going to be very hard for the jury having seen these very witnesses lie in other circumstances to convict on similar types of accusations here. I mean, it's just a very difficult fix for the prosecution.
HEMMER: Deliberations will start later today we expect. Thanks, Jeff, for getting...
TOOBIN: You know, I mean, Michael Jackson could be in jail by tonight.
HEMMER: Wow. TOOBIN: I mean, this thing could end today.
HEMMER: All right. Jeff, thanks. Back in Santa Maria, California, with Jeff Toobin.
TOOBIN: All right. See you, Bill.
HEMMER: All right.
Also, from Aruba, I want to pass this story along to you, too. We mentioned it earlier today.
Police there are using helicopters and all-terrain vehicles in a search for a Alabama girl. She disappeared on her high school senior trip. She is 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, missing since Monday. She was last seen leaving a nightclub and getting into a car. Here's her family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETH HOLLOWAY TWITTY, MOTHER: She was seen leaving Carlos and Charlie (ph) at approximately 1:30 a.m. Monday morning. And her -- 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 (ph) 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARSHA TWITTY, AUNT: We have the highest of hopes that we are going to -- we're going to find her. We've got FBI involved, and hopefully things will move fast and we can -- we can bring the child home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: While that search continues in Aruba, Holloway's family has offered a reward for her return. There was no value given on that reward. This is a story in Aruba and back in Alabama that we'll watch throughout the day -- Carol.
COSTELLO: We certainly will. Also, hundreds of residents in Laguna Beach, California, are being allowed to return home. The community was devastated by a landslide on Wednesday.
CNN's Chris Lawrence live in Laguna Beach. He has the latest.
Bring us up to date, Chris.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, the families who suffered the worst damage still can't get near their homes this morning. They say, granted, the rains that they got over the winter, twice as much rain as normal, probably had something to do with it. But they're telling us that huge new homes that were being built up on that hill helped to destabilize that slope.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Now, geologists say it was probably all that rain they got over the winter that caused the landslide. But some residents are telling us that some insurance companies are waiting on further tests before they even classify this as a landslide -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Ooh, you can almost smell the lawsuits now. Chris Lawrence live from California this morning.
Let's head to Atlanta now to check on the weather with Chad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: In a moment here, is the U.S. on the right track to defeat the Iraqi insurgency? Live to the Pentagon. We'll get a special report from Barbara Starr in a moment on that.
Also, the big secret is out. Now Woodward and Bernstein tell all about their relationship with Deep Throat.
HEMMER: Also, from 47th to first place in one year. He's the new National Spelling Bee champ, and he joins us a bit later this hour, talking about his victory this year. He's in studio in a matter of moments here when we continue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Mark Felt had the secret, but only Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward could tell the story. And they spoke about that story last night with Larry King for a full hour last evening about their legendary unnamed source, and also about getting scooped earlier this week.
Kelly Wallace has more this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL 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, "LARRY KING LIVE": 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 -- you know, reporters often think that they're in control of a story. The story controls the reporter.
WALLACE: 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 bookshelves soon.
Kelly Wallace, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Thank you, Kelly.
Bob Woodward also revealing that he had told his former wife also who Deep Throat was. Previously, it was thought that only Woodward, Bernstein, their editor, Ben Bradlee, and Mark Felt knew that secret.
In a moment here, no one had ever reported live from a war zone until CNN did it January of 1991, 14 years ago. Now the people who were there talk about what happened behind the scenes in the al-Rashid Hotel.
Back in a moment here as we continue after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: All this week we have been looking back at the defining moments of CNN's past 25 years, and 1991, when the first President Bush announced the start of the Gulf War, CNN broke new ground with live coverage of the war. Now Soledad O'Brien looks back with the people who were making history.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Five months ago, Saddam Hussein started this cruel war against Kuwait. Tonight, the battle has been joined.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): When the allied air forces began the attack on Iraq on January 16, 1991, CNN was the only network live from Baghdad.
BERNARD SHAW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Something is happening outside. Let's describe to our viewers what we're seeing. The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated. We are seeing bright flashes going off all over the sky.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, Baghdad?
O'BRIEN: Using a four-wire box with speaker and microphone box attached to a phone line, CNN was able to send out audio reports even as virtually every other phone in Baghdad was knocked out of service.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It gave us a huge advantage that as soon as the war started we could report it immediately. We didn't have to dial up and wait to get a telephone line.
O'BRIEN: CNN's boys of Baghdad, Bernie Shaw, John Holliman and Peter Arnett, covered the Gulf War while simultaneously taking cover.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to explain to the viewers why you did not hear from us for a nervously long time. For the past 20 minutes, I've been hiding under a table.
SHAW: You could hear bombs exploding. So the way I maintained my sanity was to focus on being a reporter. "Bernie" -- and I talked to myself -- "Bernie, just do your job."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's another refinery closer to our hotel, which is under attack. This one is in the close vicinity of the presidential palace here in Baghdad. The anti-aircraft guns near our hotel are now pointing their fire almost straight up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody, the CNN crew is all right. OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is everything all right with you aside from what's going on outside?
JOHN HOLLIMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're a little excited, David, as I'm sure is obvious. But, yes, we've checked in with virtually all of the CNN crew. We have done a headcount.
SHAW: Just one comment. Clearly, I've never been there, but this feels like we are in the center of hell.
O'BRIEN: CNN was able to keep broadcasting from Iraq until the end of the war, when the Iraqi government forced all western journalists to leave the country.
SHAW: What we did in Iraq and from that hotel constituted the first time a war had been covered live as it was happening.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Compare that with the start of the Iraq war, when embedded reporters rode into battle with videophones, broadcasting live pictures of the troops in action. CNN's "Defining Moments." We continue our special week of programming on "CNN Sunday NIGHT." That will come your way at 8:00 Eastern.
HEMMER: That's a great point to make, too, just how technology influences the jobs we do. And it like changes every six months, too, at this point.
CAFFERTY: Is AMERICAN MORNING considered one of CNN's defining moments?
HEMMER: One of our crowning moments.
CAFFERTY: I was just curious. I thought maybe it will come up in the series as we move forward.
COSTELLO: I'm sure it will.
CAFFERTY: A British couple made it into the record books this week -- 105-year-old Percy Arrowsmith -- look at these pictures; these are just delightful -- and his 100-year-old wife, Florence, they celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary Wednesday. The secret to their success, they say they never go to sleep on an argument, they also make sure to kiss and hold hands before retiring for the night. Plus, she rubs his head when he's tired.
(LAUGHTER)
CAFFERTY: The question is this: what's the secret to a successful marriage?
Bill writes from Wisconsin, "Every evening before falling asleep, the husband turns to the wife and says, 'I'm sorry, my dear, it's all my fault.'"
That works.
Carolyn in Ohio writes, "The secret to a happy marriage? Love, respect, trust and trustworthiness. It also helps to have financial values and religious values in common."
Rhonda writes in New York, "My husband and I celebrate our 40th anniversary this year. Our secret to a successful marriage, taking off our rose-colored glasses from the very beginning. You get a better view of the bumps in the road that way, so the ride is a little smoother."
And Dave in Florida writes, "You get a job where you work at night, your spouse gets a day job. This has two benefits. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and one of you is always too tired to fight."
COSTELLO: That's like my marriage.
CAFFERTY: Yes?
COSTELLO: Yes, we never see each other.
CAFFERTY: Yes. There are some benefits to that.
The other -- the other secret to success, as I mentioned at the very top of the program, two words: diminished expectations. Just lower what you are looking for and you'll think you've got it solved.
HEMMER: It's time to run that video before we get out of here one more time.
CAFFERTY: Can we do that again?
HEMMER: No, not right now. We'll hold it 30 more minutes.
CAFFERTY: Oh, OK. No, that's great. I like it.
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: Ever since the TV show "Laugh-In," she's been known as the actress who played a ditzy blonde. In her new book, though, Goldie Hawn shares some powerful private moments and the wisdom she has learned over the years. She's our guest next half-hour after this on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired June 3, 2005 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Today is the day the jury gets the case. This following bitter final arguments in Michael Jackson's trial. Ahead, the mood inside the courtroom as the -- we head toward a verdict.
Far from home. An Alabama family in a desperate search trying to find their 18-year-old daughter who vanished on a Caribbean island.
And residents in Laguna Beach going home after a landslide wrecked their neighborhood, and now asking questions about whether or not developers and not Mother Nature caused that mountain to crumble.
That's all ahead here on AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
HEMMER: One more hour of love. It's Friday. Good morning, everybody. Good to have you with us today.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Carol Costello, in for Soledad.
Also ahead, the kid that is the toast of the town today.
HEMMER: His name is Anurag Kashyap, he's this year's National Spelling Bee champ. Beat out about 300 others to take the top prize.
Last year he was 47th. This year he is number one. And this year he wins the right to come to our studio this hour. We'll talk to him later this hour.
COSTELLO: Good for him.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Was it last year we had the picture of some kid passing out during the finals?
COSTELLO: Yes.
CAFFERTY: Remember that? Fainted dead away under the pressure of it all.
HEMMER: Pressure.
CAFFERTY: Yes. He should do this program.
We've got a story of a couple in England married for 80 years. They are delightful. He's 105, she's 100. They met in church, 1925.
So that prompted us to ask the question to share with us the secrets of a happy marriage. AM@CNN.com.
HEMMER: We're getting some great answers.
CAFFERTY: E-mail us. Yes. The best one so far is marry an orphan.
HEMMER: No in-laws?
CAFFERTY: Yes. It takes the whole in-law thing right off the plate. That's never even in the mix going in, which is -- you know, there's some wisdom there.
(LAUGHTER)
HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.
Here are the headlines and Valerie Morris now.
Good morning, Valerie.
VALERIE MORRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. Good morning to you.
""Now in the News," another round of violent attacks in Iraq. A car bomb exploded as a U.S. military convoy passed this morning. At least four Iraqi civilians were injured. There were no American casualties.
North of Baghdad, at least 10 Iraqis were killed in an attack late Thursday. The incident was believed to have been a suicide car bombing.
Syria has apparently test-fired three scud missiles. Israeli security forces say the missiles were fired last week. The tests coincide with the first round of parliamentary elections in neighboring Lebanon.
Police in Los Angeles are looking for a woman whose apparent kidnapping was caught on surveillance cameras. Video shows the woman being pushed down. Then a struggle breaks out and the woman is ultimately carried away from a Hollywood apartment complex. Police say the dispute may be related to domestic violence.
And the so-called runaway bride, well, she is going to spend the next two years on probation. Jennifer Wilbanks pleaded no contest to a felony charge Thursday. She was also sentenced to community service and a fine. Wilbanks' attorney spoke with us earlier this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYDIA SARTAIN, ATTORNEY FOR JENNIFER WILBANKS: 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 Gwinnett County and law enforcement know that she apologize to them and she appreciated what they had done on her behalf.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORRIS: Wilbanks' fiance was at her side in court, and the ring, it's still on her finger -- Carol, Bill.
COSTELLO: Oh. But there's no word if they're actually going to get back together and get married, though.
MORRIS: No word yet. But I bet we'll follow it.
COSTELLO: Everybody is waiting, aren't they?
HEMMER: Thank you, Valerie.
The jury in the Michael Jackson trial could get that case later today. We expect that, anyway. Both the prosecution and the defense delivering closing arguments Thursday in what turned out to be a pretty fierce war of words. The defense wraps up its final arguments today, followed by a prosecution rebuttal.
And our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, in the courtroom yesterday, with us this morning, up early in Santa Maria, California.
Jeff, good morning out there.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Hi, Bill.
HEMMER: How was the mood in that courtroom yesterday when this went down?
TOOBIN: You know, it really was an electric atmosphere. You had four of the five original Jackson Five, as well as Michael Jackson's parents. You had a packed courtroom, which hasn't always been the case during this trial. And you had, of course, Michael Jackson, looking, frankly, as bad as I have ever seen him look.
He is emaciated. He looks -- I don't know whether it's medicated, but he looks really, you know, withdrawn.
Early in the trial he was interacting with his lawyers a lot. He now just sort of sits and stares off into space.
You know, the jury is very into this case. Remarkably, during this long trial, there hasn't been a single alternate called to the jury, not one alternate or juror -- jury member has left. I mean, this is a jury that's really into the case. And it was a very good day of arguments for both sides I thought.
HEMMER: How can you tell how much they are into this case, Jeff?
TOOBIN: Well, you know, almost all of them have stacks of notebooks, you know, that they have filled during the course of this trial. And I also think, you know, just the fact that no one has left. And the level of attentiveness, which, you know, as you know, having been in courtrooms, it's not always easy to pay close attention at all times. And this jury is riveted. They're also very aware of not giving away what they're thinking. So they're not smiling at one side and not the other. But this is a very attentive and involved jury.
HEMMER: Let's try and analyze this, first from the prosecution side. Ron Zonen did the bulk of the work yesterday. We'll hear from him and probably, what, I guess Tom Sneddon again later today.
How did Zonen do? And I know this entire time, Jeff, you've had this problem with this whole conspiracy theory. Did they dwell on that in closing arguments yesterday?
TOOBIN: They did. And I thought -- I thought Ron Zonen, first of all, just did an excellent job. But he also -- he made it at least plausible.
You know, his defense of the mother of the accuser, who is the central figure in the conspiracy charge, was such that at least I think the jury will consider it. But, you know, I think he had the good sense to spend most of his time and certainly his most effective time on the child molestation counts. And I thought he was incredibly effective, tying the accusations in this case to the prior conduct, the four other boys who were alleged to have been abused by Michael Jackson before.
That, I thought, you know, the way he tied those together, suggesting that it was a pattern of pedophilia, was really effective. And I thought, if Michael Jackson gets convicted, it's really going to be because of the way Zonen did that today.
HEMMER: Tom Mesereau, did he focus -- well, he essentially went after the shakedown, that this family was incredible. How effective was he?
TOOBIN: He, too, I thought, was very effective. And what I thought he did was -- so well, was he took what is clearly false testimony by the mother and the accuser in the J.C. Penney case, in a previous child investigation in Los Angeles, and he showed how the false statements in those cases, which the jury undoubtedly has to think are false, are so parallel to the accusations here.
And I think it's just going to be very hard for the jury having seen these very witnesses lie in other circumstances to convict on similar types of accusations here. I mean, it's just a very difficult fix for the prosecution.
HEMMER: Deliberations will start later today we expect. Thanks, Jeff, for getting...
TOOBIN: You know, I mean, Michael Jackson could be in jail by tonight.
HEMMER: Wow. TOOBIN: I mean, this thing could end today.
HEMMER: All right. Jeff, thanks. Back in Santa Maria, California, with Jeff Toobin.
TOOBIN: All right. See you, Bill.
HEMMER: All right.
Also, from Aruba, I want to pass this story along to you, too. We mentioned it earlier today.
Police there are using helicopters and all-terrain vehicles in a search for a Alabama girl. She disappeared on her high school senior trip. She is 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, missing since Monday. She was last seen leaving a nightclub and getting into a car. Here's her family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETH HOLLOWAY TWITTY, MOTHER: She was seen leaving Carlos and Charlie (ph) at approximately 1:30 a.m. Monday morning. And her -- 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 (ph) 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARSHA TWITTY, AUNT: We have the highest of hopes that we are going to -- we're going to find her. We've got FBI involved, and hopefully things will move fast and we can -- we can bring the child home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: While that search continues in Aruba, Holloway's family has offered a reward for her return. There was no value given on that reward. This is a story in Aruba and back in Alabama that we'll watch throughout the day -- Carol.
COSTELLO: We certainly will. Also, hundreds of residents in Laguna Beach, California, are being allowed to return home. The community was devastated by a landslide on Wednesday.
CNN's Chris Lawrence live in Laguna Beach. He has the latest.
Bring us up to date, Chris.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, the families who suffered the worst damage still can't get near their homes this morning. They say, granted, the rains that they got over the winter, twice as much rain as normal, probably had something to do with it. But they're telling us that huge new homes that were being built up on that hill helped to destabilize that slope.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Now, geologists say it was probably all that rain they got over the winter that caused the landslide. But some residents are telling us that some insurance companies are waiting on further tests before they even classify this as a landslide -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Ooh, you can almost smell the lawsuits now. Chris Lawrence live from California this morning.
Let's head to Atlanta now to check on the weather with Chad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: In a moment here, is the U.S. on the right track to defeat the Iraqi insurgency? Live to the Pentagon. We'll get a special report from Barbara Starr in a moment on that.
Also, the big secret is out. Now Woodward and Bernstein tell all about their relationship with Deep Throat.
HEMMER: Also, from 47th to first place in one year. He's the new National Spelling Bee champ, and he joins us a bit later this hour, talking about his victory this year. He's in studio in a matter of moments here when we continue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Mark Felt had the secret, but only Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward could tell the story. And they spoke about that story last night with Larry King for a full hour last evening about their legendary unnamed source, and also about getting scooped earlier this week.
Kelly Wallace has more this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL 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, "LARRY KING LIVE": 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 -- you know, reporters often think that they're in control of a story. The story controls the reporter.
WALLACE: 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 bookshelves soon.
Kelly Wallace, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Thank you, Kelly.
Bob Woodward also revealing that he had told his former wife also who Deep Throat was. Previously, it was thought that only Woodward, Bernstein, their editor, Ben Bradlee, and Mark Felt knew that secret.
In a moment here, no one had ever reported live from a war zone until CNN did it January of 1991, 14 years ago. Now the people who were there talk about what happened behind the scenes in the al-Rashid Hotel.
Back in a moment here as we continue after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: All this week we have been looking back at the defining moments of CNN's past 25 years, and 1991, when the first President Bush announced the start of the Gulf War, CNN broke new ground with live coverage of the war. Now Soledad O'Brien looks back with the people who were making history.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Five months ago, Saddam Hussein started this cruel war against Kuwait. Tonight, the battle has been joined.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): When the allied air forces began the attack on Iraq on January 16, 1991, CNN was the only network live from Baghdad.
BERNARD SHAW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Something is happening outside. Let's describe to our viewers what we're seeing. The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated. We are seeing bright flashes going off all over the sky.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, Baghdad?
O'BRIEN: Using a four-wire box with speaker and microphone box attached to a phone line, CNN was able to send out audio reports even as virtually every other phone in Baghdad was knocked out of service.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It gave us a huge advantage that as soon as the war started we could report it immediately. We didn't have to dial up and wait to get a telephone line.
O'BRIEN: CNN's boys of Baghdad, Bernie Shaw, John Holliman and Peter Arnett, covered the Gulf War while simultaneously taking cover.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to explain to the viewers why you did not hear from us for a nervously long time. For the past 20 minutes, I've been hiding under a table.
SHAW: You could hear bombs exploding. So the way I maintained my sanity was to focus on being a reporter. "Bernie" -- and I talked to myself -- "Bernie, just do your job."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's another refinery closer to our hotel, which is under attack. This one is in the close vicinity of the presidential palace here in Baghdad. The anti-aircraft guns near our hotel are now pointing their fire almost straight up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody, the CNN crew is all right. OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is everything all right with you aside from what's going on outside?
JOHN HOLLIMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're a little excited, David, as I'm sure is obvious. But, yes, we've checked in with virtually all of the CNN crew. We have done a headcount.
SHAW: Just one comment. Clearly, I've never been there, but this feels like we are in the center of hell.
O'BRIEN: CNN was able to keep broadcasting from Iraq until the end of the war, when the Iraqi government forced all western journalists to leave the country.
SHAW: What we did in Iraq and from that hotel constituted the first time a war had been covered live as it was happening.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Compare that with the start of the Iraq war, when embedded reporters rode into battle with videophones, broadcasting live pictures of the troops in action. CNN's "Defining Moments." We continue our special week of programming on "CNN Sunday NIGHT." That will come your way at 8:00 Eastern.
HEMMER: That's a great point to make, too, just how technology influences the jobs we do. And it like changes every six months, too, at this point.
CAFFERTY: Is AMERICAN MORNING considered one of CNN's defining moments?
HEMMER: One of our crowning moments.
CAFFERTY: I was just curious. I thought maybe it will come up in the series as we move forward.
COSTELLO: I'm sure it will.
CAFFERTY: A British couple made it into the record books this week -- 105-year-old Percy Arrowsmith -- look at these pictures; these are just delightful -- and his 100-year-old wife, Florence, they celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary Wednesday. The secret to their success, they say they never go to sleep on an argument, they also make sure to kiss and hold hands before retiring for the night. Plus, she rubs his head when he's tired.
(LAUGHTER)
CAFFERTY: The question is this: what's the secret to a successful marriage?
Bill writes from Wisconsin, "Every evening before falling asleep, the husband turns to the wife and says, 'I'm sorry, my dear, it's all my fault.'"
That works.
Carolyn in Ohio writes, "The secret to a happy marriage? Love, respect, trust and trustworthiness. It also helps to have financial values and religious values in common."
Rhonda writes in New York, "My husband and I celebrate our 40th anniversary this year. Our secret to a successful marriage, taking off our rose-colored glasses from the very beginning. You get a better view of the bumps in the road that way, so the ride is a little smoother."
And Dave in Florida writes, "You get a job where you work at night, your spouse gets a day job. This has two benefits. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and one of you is always too tired to fight."
COSTELLO: That's like my marriage.
CAFFERTY: Yes?
COSTELLO: Yes, we never see each other.
CAFFERTY: Yes. There are some benefits to that.
The other -- the other secret to success, as I mentioned at the very top of the program, two words: diminished expectations. Just lower what you are looking for and you'll think you've got it solved.
HEMMER: It's time to run that video before we get out of here one more time.
CAFFERTY: Can we do that again?
HEMMER: No, not right now. We'll hold it 30 more minutes.
CAFFERTY: Oh, OK. No, that's great. I like it.
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: Ever since the TV show "Laugh-In," she's been known as the actress who played a ditzy blonde. In her new book, though, Goldie Hawn shares some powerful private moments and the wisdom she has learned over the years. She's our guest next half-hour after this on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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