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American Morning

Duke Rape Scandal Highlights Racial Tensions in Durham; Grand Jury Investigates Bonds' Steroid Use

Aired April 14, 2006 - 08:00   ET

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

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm David Mattingly in Durham, North Carolina with the latest in the Duke University rape scandal. I'll have that story.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also, more trouble off the field for baseball star Barry Bonds. A grand jury right now is looking into possible perjury during his steroids testimony.

A rare black bear attack leaves a child dead in Tennessee. And within the last two hours, rangers are back on the hunt for that bear. We're live with the very latest from there, as well.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Another night of wild storms. Iowa hit by devastating tornadoes and now more strong storms are moving in.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: More storms, as well, indeed. Seventeen tornado reports across eastern Iowa yesterday, one in Wisconsin, one in Illinois. Not so much severe weather today, but a big outbreak tomorrow. Details on that coming up.

M. O'BRIEN: And evacuations ordered ahead of a fast moving wildfire in New Mexico. We'll take you there live on this AMERICAN MORNING.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning.

Welcome, everybody.

I'm Soledad O'Brien.

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning.

S. O'BRIEN: What are you doing over there?

M. O'BRIEN: I was busy with the next story.

We've got to say good morning, too.

Good morning to you.

S. O'BRIEN: Ah, it's Friday. You know how that is.

M. O'BRIEN: It's Friday. It is Friday. And the Friday before vacation for you.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. M. O'BRIEN: We wish you well.

S. O'BRIEN: I could not be...

M. O'BRIEN: But you still have two hours, so onward we go.

S. O'BRIEN: To muddle through, yes.

Let's begin, in fact, in Durham, North Carolina, where they're looking for ways to heal the racial divide. The meeting is underway right now involving Duke University officials and community leaders. That's after an African-American woman accused white Duke lacrosse players of rape.

Long, simmering tensions at Durham have really become a major concern.

Let's get right to David Mattingly, joining us this morning with more -- hey, David, good morning.

MATTINGLY: Good morning, Soledad.

That meeting going on behind closed doors. It's the second such meeting between the leaders of Duke University and community leaders here in Durham.

We're expecting to hear what they have to say at a news conference that's scheduled at 8:45 Eastern time this morning. So they will emerge to talk about what they've been talking about behind closed doors.

While that's been going on, some new developments in the investigation of this case. The Durham police late yesterday released an audiotape. It's a recording of radio traffic from when a police officer first encountered the woman who claims she was raped at that party on Duke -- at Duke University.

On it, you can hear the police officer describing her condition as "passed out drunk."

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP, COURTESY DURHAM 911 CENTER)

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: This is going to wind up being a 24-hour hold. She's 10-56 and unconscious. (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED DISPATCHER: 10-4.

Do you need a medical truck? (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: She's breathing and appears to be fine. She's not in distress. She's just passed out drunk.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Again, university leaders and black community leaders meeting this morning to work over any sort of problems, any sort of lingering problems that might have occurred because of the reporting of this crime, any sort of divides racially and culturally between the university and the surrounding community -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: David, a couple of questions for you.

First, that 911 call.

Has anybody said what they think it means? Are they saying if she's passed out drunk then she wasn't raped?

I mean I don't really understand what it's supposed to signify.

MATTINGLY: It's sort of left open-ended because the Durham Police Department is not commenting at all on the contents of that tape. They did release it to show what the police officer was saying when he first encountered this woman at a grocery store parking lot. So that is all we know about that tape and the context of that will probably be coming out later.

As far as what we're waiting for today, we're not expecting the university leaders to have any comment about the tape either.

S. O'BRIEN: Indictments going to come soon, on Monday?

MATTINGLY: Well, we're looking for that grand jury on Monday. Everyone wondering if the D.A. is going to pursue the criminal case with that particular grand jury that's meeting on Monday. If he does, it will be curious to see if they decide to hand down indictments. And if they do, it would be the first time that any sort of names or faces have been put to these accusations and the first time anyone has actually been formally accused of this crime.

S. O'BRIEN: David Mattingly for us this morning.

David, thanks a lot for the update -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Barry Bonds is chasing a vaunted home run record, now possibly facing a legal curve ball this morning. Sources telling us a grand jury is trying to determine if he lied under oath about steroid use.

Our Carol Costello in the newsroom with more -- hello, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Miles.

Good morning to all of you.

Bonds is just 48 home runs shy of breaking Hank Aaron's home run record. Now he's looking at this. If he is found guilty of perjury, he could wind up in prison.

Here's the deal. Sources close to the investigation tell us for more than a month, a federal grand jury has been hearing evidence about whether Bonds lied to a different grand jury about taking steroids. The "San Francisco Chronicle" has reported Bonds testified he never took steroids but did say his trainer supplied him with flax seed oil and a balm for his arthritis, substances which really describe two undetectable performance enhancing drugs made by BALCO, called "The Clear" and "The Cream."

Last night, after the Giants game in Houston, Bonds was hounded by reporters shouting questions at him, urging him to come clean.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Were you aware that there was another grand jury (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

QUESTION: Barry, what do you want to tell the fans?

BARRY BONDS, SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS: I love them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: In case you didn't hear Barry Bonds' answer, he says tell my fans I love them.

Bonds' attorneys say he's the victim of overly aggressive prosecutors and compared his case to Martha Stewart's. You'll remember she was convicted of lying to prosecutors about alleged insider trading.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL RAINES, BARRY BONDS' ATTORNEY: ... Martha Stewart. The trap is perjury. The trap is, as they did with Martha, you get him in there, you offer him the immunity then you ask him the questions and then you get him for 18 USC 1001, lying to federal officers, exactly what they got Martha for. That's the trap.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Bonds' case is complicated by his association with this man, Victor Conte. Conte founded BALCO and went to prison for supplying steroids to athletes. And Bonds' longtime friend Greg Anderson also went to prison for steroid distribution.

The "San Francisco Chronicle" also reporting this morning that Bonds' personal physician has been subpoenaed to testify before the new grand jury. No comment from the doctor so far.

S. O'BRIEN: Huh, that's an interesting development. One would imagine that wouldn't even be legal to request that.

All right, Carol, we'll watch that, as well.

Across eastern Iowa this morning, chainsaws, of course, coming out, because that part of Iowa was hit by at least three tornadoes last night. And one death is being blamed on the severe weather. Trees and power lines have been knocked down. Crews are working to restore electricity to several areas. There are reports of possible gas leaks in Iowa City. Damage also reported right at the University of Iowa and classes there have been canceled today. All of that brings us right to Chad.

He's at the Weather Center -- hey, Chad, good morning again.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad.

And now we have some what we call outflow boundaries, some air that was thrown out of thunderstorms, pushed to the ground and then we made a big gust of wind. And these boundaries, they're hard to find when the storms haven't fired up. But I'm afraid that some of the boundaries will re-fire today.

When you get one temperature air mass next to another one, you get them clashing together, the air has to go up because it can't go down. And then we'll get more storms to fire to the south of where the rain is right now.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Fast moving wildfires forcing evacuations in parts of northeast New Mexico. The Ojo Feliz fire has already destroyed at least one home, scorched more than 12,000 acres near Santa Fe.

Joining us live now is Geoff Corkum of our affiliate KOAT.

He's in Mora County, New Mexico this morning -- Geoff, what's the latest from there?

GEOFF CORKUM, KOAT CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, late last night you could see the orange glow from the fires in the mountaintops. And as the sun comes up this morning, we children once again see the smoke coming up from the ground.

Now, this Ojo Feliz fire started at about 11:00 on Wednesday and once it did, it spread quickly. The latest word from the Forest Service at this point is that more than 13,000 acres of primarily dry brush and Ponderosa pines has burned.

In its wake, it's left and evacuated about a half dozen to 10 small communities in this area. And for those people, they spent the last nights, two nights, that is, in an evacuation area in this area, a small town called Mora near this area, also with family members and local hotels, as well. And a small community called Las Vegas, New Mexico, about 20 minutes south of here. And for those people, many of them are just waiting by the roadblocks in this area for the past day or so, waiting to get in or waiting to get any information out just about the conditions of their homes.

But right now, this fire is still 0 percent contained. They do believe it's human caused and nobody is going back in that fire area.

Back to you -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Geoff Corkum of our Albuquerque affiliate, KOAT.

Thank you very much. A killer bear is on the loose in Tennessee. A little girl is dead after the bear attacked her at a campsite. Her mother and brother are badly hurt.

How could this happen?

We will ask an expert.

S. O'BRIEN: Also this morning, did Barry Bonds lie when he was testifying about steroid use? There's word he could now be indicted on perjury charges. We're going to talk to senior legal analyst Jeff Toobin just ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: And last minute tax tips. We mean last minute now, including the most common mistakes to avoid, things like don't forget to sign your return.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: In the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee, there are traps set this morning for a killer bear still on the loose. At the Cherokee National Forest yesterday, a 2-year-old boy swimming is attacked by a bear. A mother goes to rescue him, is attacked herself. And then later, the bear kills a little girl's 6-year-old brother. The mother and the young daughter are very seriously hurt.

And joining me now from Benton, Tennessee is Dan Hicks.

He's a spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Natural Resources.

Dan, good to have you with us.

What a terrible story.

First of all, just bring us up to date this morning.

You've cleared out campers in that area, right?

DAN HICKS, TENNESSEE WILDLIFE RESOURCES AGENCY: Yes, sir. Almost immediately after the event occurred, we evacuated the campsite area, all the people in the area that we could, and brought in a bunch of dogs to try to start the search for the bear.

M. O'BRIEN: Is the search underway this morning? Or are just traps laid out at this point?

HICKS: We stopped the dog search around 3:00 a.m. We put two culvert traps in place, one near the site of the attack and one at the bottom of a draw where the bear might naturally move into. We're going to check those around 9:00 Eastern and see what we have. And the next step will be we're going to put out a number of snare traps in the area this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: And how is the family doing this morning?

How is the mother? How is the child?

HICKS: Well, just to correct you there a little bit, Miles. The boy was the 2-year-old and he is recovering in the hospital from surgery last night. He is expected to make a full recovery. He's still listed in critical condition at this time.

The mother also went into surgery. She should recover from her wounds, both consistent with bear attacks, puncture wounds and claw marks. And, of course, we're waiting now for the family to positively identify the body of the young girl, the 6-year-old girl.

M. O'BRIEN: And just, if you could, lay out the circumstances for us, since I had the boy and the girl mixed up. I apologize. If you could just lay it out, exactly what happened.

HICKS: Yes, sir.

Well, they were down at the waterfall area, which is about 50 yards from the parking lot where we are. Basically, several families were there enjoying the natural sights, the waterfall, the little pool. One of the families decided to leave the area. The kids ran ahead of the parents. They turned around and ran back and told the parents there was a bear on the trail. They all went back to the waterfall area and this bear appeared out of the bushes.

They tried to scare it away and it went over and picked up the little boy in its mouth. And the mother fought. The other adults fought the bear. She was dragged by the bear about 50 yards into a rhododendron patch.

And during that ruckus or the chaos of the situation, apparently the 6-year-old girl ran back down the trail and when the bear exited the area, we theorize, they came in contact again. And that's when she was also drug 50 or 60 yards from the main trail.

M. O'BRIEN: What a horrifying scene. And that is not normal behavior for a black bear, is it?

Have you ever heard of a story quite like this?

HICKS: We had a situation around five years ago in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, an alleged bear attack. We, you know, this is only the second time that we've had a documented case of a black bear attack in the history, modern history of the State of Tennessee.

And, you know, from a public education standpoint, we normally tell people that a bear is going to be more afraid of you than it is, you know, it's afraid of you and it's going to run. It's going to smell you. It's going to leave first. And, you know, we just don't have a lot of history to give this information on, you know, how to handle this type of situation, because we haven't had it happen in this state. And most of the other states in the Southeast, you know, we -- the black bear has not been considered an animal that would attack.

M. O'BRIEN: So how...

HICKS: If we do find the bear, it will be killed and it will be taken to the University of Tennessee hospital for a necropsy. There may be some kind of brain virus or something going on with the brain that they can detect. But that is one of the things that we're going to be looking at.

M. O'BRIEN: So that could explain the behavior.

The bear was shot by somebody in the midst of all of that.

HICKS: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: How seriously injured was it?

HICKS: Well, when the rescue squad -- this is volunteer rescue squad guys -- arrived and did help in the search. They found the little girl down in the rhododendron patch. The bear was still hovering over her body. And a man, of course, produced a small caliber handgun and shot at the bear, which made the bear leave her body.

We don't know whether he struck the bear. He felt like he did. We have not been able to locate any blood and the dogs that we brought up were not able to hit on that. And at this point, because of the weather conditions, the humidity, the dogs are useless to us.

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, really? They can't -- they can't do anything for you?

HICKS: Yes, sir. So we're back down to the -- to trying to use the trapping method to locate this bear at this moment.

M. O'BRIEN: Dan Hicks, we wish you well as you try to find that bear. And we hope that people heed the message to stay out of the woods for now.

He's with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agcy.

Thank you for being with us.

HICKS: Thank you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up in just a moment, we'll have more on the developing story that you first heard on CNN. A grand jury is reportedly considering perjury charges against Barry Bonds. Senior legal analyst Jeff Toobin will weigh in on the situation for us.

And the clock is ticking. If you still haven't done your taxes, we've got some last minute tips, including the quickest way to get it done.

That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, are you still working on your taxes? Ah, yes, all you procrastinators out there, we are talking to you. Monday is day den -- D-Day, I mean. You've got to file by then, at least for most folks. And in the spirit of giving, we are giving you some tips to help you out at the last minute.

Lauren Young is with us.

She's a personal business editor at "Business Week" magazine.

Nice to see you.

LAUREN YOUNG, "BUSINESS WEEK": Nice to see you.

S. O'BRIEN: At this point, which is really sort of desperation point, what's the fastest way to do it?

YOUNG: Do it online.

S. O'BRIEN: Got to do it?

YOUNG: Absolutely. You've got to do it online.

S. O'BRIEN: The deadline is still the same? Nothing changes?

YOUNG: Yes. But what's nice is actually more -- more than half of all people who filed taxes last year, about 68 million people filed online.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh.

YOUNG: Which I think is really surprising.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, actually, I think that number is high.

YOUNG: But the reason why you do it online is for the math, because you can't -- you can't do the adding and subtracting at this...

S. O'BRIEN: Yes...

YOUNG: ... you're too freaked out.

S. O'BRIEN: And you're -- right. It's too late in the game. You will -- you'll mess it up.

YOUNG: Less room for error if you do it online. And there are so many ways to do it online. If you make less than $50,000, you automatically can do it for free online at the IRS' Web site.

S. O'BRIEN: Which is irs.gov? YOUNG:

S. O'BRIEN:

YOUNG: Yes. Now, go to irs.gov, not irs.com. Very important.

S. O'BRIEN: A totally different thing.

You also can do it for free at your bank, right, in some cases?

YOUNG: Yes, mutual fund companies, a lot of banks will offer you Turbo Tax or Tax Cut. They'll offer those free software programs to their customers. So definitely check out your bank's Web site, because you want to do it for free. Why pay -- you can pay $25 at some places to do it or, you know, $10 for the state return. But try to do it for free if you can.

S. O'BRIEN: If you don't fall in under any of those freebies, there's completetax.com.

How much does it cost to do it there?

YOUNG: $25 for the federal...

S. O'BRIEN: So that's the one.

YOUNG: ... one and $10 for your state. And I think that's actually a really good service, so I would check that one out.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, that's not so...

YOUNG: No, not bad.

S. O'BRIEN: If you are stuck -- and I think what happens as you get to the last minute, really, you know, people start working on it and then you get stuck and that's what's making everybody procrastinate.

Where can you go?

YOUNG: Well, there are actually some good resources out there for people and I think that you should definitely utilize them. Now, a lot of the services are for people who are elderly or low income. For example, the American Association of Retired Persons, AARP, they have a hotline, they have a Web site. I went on it yesterday. You can go on, you log in your zip code.

S. O'BRIEN: Do you have to be an older person to go to the AARP Web site or on the hotline? Or could anybody call up?

YOUNG: You have to be 50 or older, I think, is to be the AARP membership. Is that what it is, 50 or 55? So...

S. O'BRIEN: So you have to be a member.

YOUNG: No, but you have to qualify. But there are -- but the IRS...

S. O'BRIEN: If you're 26 and you call up and you're desperate for help, are they going to take your call or not?

YOUNG: They're going to send you over to the IRS. The IRS actually has centers all over the country. They've actually set up shop in libraries, resource community centers, senior citizen centers. So there are people out there to help you with your taxes.

Incidentally, I hear that there's guys in Hoboken who are doing your taxes in a bar.

S. O'BRIEN: Cool.

YOUNG: So that sounds like fun, too.

S. O'BRIEN: I might need to call them. Let's talk about that after the show.

You can always put your money in an IRA, which helps, of course, with your taxes. But I'm surprised -- what's the deadline? I mean what's the last moment you can do it?

YOUNG: OK, some of the mutual fund companies, the banks, will actually let you set up -- it depends on the financial institution -- until midnight on Monday night, which is the 17th.

Now, the reason why you want to open up an IRA is it reduces your taxable income. If you're somebody who doesn't have a retirement account at work, you could put $4,000 if you're a single filer. And if you're a couple, it's $4,500.

So that does help your overall reducible -- reduce the taxable income. But if you make, if you're a single person, $50,000 or $60,000 a year, any more than that, you can't put money in an IRA. And the same thing with a couple. It's $70,000 or $80,000.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's say you do all the math and you're going to owe money and you're like great, my taxes are now done, but I don't have the money.

What do you do?

YOUNG: OK, if you want to put it on a credit card and you're going to use the miles and you're going to pay it off in one to two months, that's OK. But credit cards have -- most of them have double digit interest rates at this point.

S. O'BRIEN: So now you're paying 20 percent interest.

YOUNG: Right. Which is ridiculous.

S. O'BRIEN: So what do you do?

YOUNG: Go to the IRS. I'm really surprised that the IRS is loan-sharking, but they will lend you the money... S. O'BRIEN: They call it loaning, not loan-sharking there, I believe.

YOUNG: They'll lend you money. You pay a 7 percent interest rate. There's a 40...

S. O'BRIEN: That's much better.

YOUNG: ... a $43 set up fee. And you do have to pay the money back, folks. I mean the IRS is going to come.

S. O'BRIEN: How much time do you have to pay it back?

YOUNG: You have -- you have like, I think it was about six months. It's not so bad, but at the same time, you know, you do need to pay it back. You -- and you have to be in good standing with the IRS.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes.

YOUNG: Tipp. And you have to owe less than $10,000 in taxes.

S. O'BRIEN: So a couple of caveats, but otherwise a good deal.

Lauren Young with "Business Week" magazine, nice to see you.

Thanks.

I'm getting an extension. I can't do all that. I'm sorry. Too much for me.

Thanks, Lauren.

YOUNG: Happy taxes.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh!

In our next hour, technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg is going to join us to talk about some online tax scams.

That's ahead -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: It looks like a big legal headache for Barry Bonds. A grand jury is reportedly considering perjury charges against the slugger. Our legal analyst, Jeff Toobin, will assess this one and tell us how much trouble Barry Bonds might be in.

Plus, you've seen these sketches from the Moussaoui trial. We'll meet the artist behind them and we'll hear what it's been like to be inside that emotional courtroom.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: In today's Life After Work report, Jennifer Westhoven introduces us to a couple who have turned their passions into retirement careers.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JENNIFER WESTHOVEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A former public relations account executive, Marika Stone now practices yoga on the beach. And when she's not practicing yoga on the beach, she's teaching it in a classroom.

MARIKA STONE, 2YOUNG2RETIRE.COM: I'm teaching a class to people who have been working all day. And they come in and their faces are just so tight, and their bodies, too. And by the end of the class, it's just sort of ah. One of the things that really surprised me was that I could learn something brand new, you know, in my 50s. And there's a nice balance between family life and professional life, which, to be honest, I really didn't have before.

Thanks for being here today.

WESTHOVEN: Meet Marika's husband and business partner, Howard Stone.

HOWARD STONE, 2YOUNG2RETIRE.COM: I was in an airplane coming back from Hong Kong and I was realizing how tired I felt. And I knew that we were going to have grandkids real soon. And I said, you know, am I going to be doing this for the rest of my life?

WESTHOVEN: Not one to retire, or even use the word, he calls these his bonus years. Howard hung up a career in international ad sales and publishing and works as a life coach. He and Marika wrote a book and run a Web site, 2young2retire.com.

Here's their message.

H. STONE: The time of life that used to be thought of as decline and disappearance is the time of life to have the most growth, the most possibilities and to take some chances and kick some butt, you know? Rock the house instead of the rocking chair. This is what it's about.

WESTHOVEN: Jennifer Westhoven, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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