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American Morning

Priest-Nun Murder Trial; Gas Shortage?; Queen Elizabeth 80 Years Old; Crisis in Nepal

Aired April 21, 2006 - 08:59   ET

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

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: A priest facing life in prison in the murder of a nun. Opening statements today in the
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: A Columbine-style school attack in Kansas foiled at the last minute. Police are tipped off to the plot on MySpace.com. Today the students may face a judge.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello. Gas shortages in seven states. It's going to be a long, hot, expensive summer. Details coming your way.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Becky Anderson in Windsor, England, where it's happy birthday to the queen. I'll be live with the festivities.

NGUYEN: Well, good morning to you. Top of the morning. It's a Friday. Happy Friday and welcome to AMERICAN MORNING.

I'm Betty Nguyen, in New York, in for Soledad.

ROBERTS: And I'm John Roberts, in Washington, in for Miles O'Brien today.

A unique murder trial going on right now in Toledo, Ohio. It's believed the first time a Catholic priest has ever been tried for killing a nun. It's a 26-year-old crime. And as CNN's Keith Oppenheim reports, it will test the jury's ability to ignore who is on trial and focus on the facts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Father Gerald Robinson was a popular priest who spoke Polish. In Toledo's Catholic community, few would have suspected him of murder.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just can not believe it. I just won't. Unless I hear it from him, I won't believe it.

OPPENHEIM: Twenty-six years ago this month, a 71-year-old nun was found murdered in the chapel of Toledo's Mercy Hospital. Sister Margaret Ann Pahl was strangled and stabbed more than 30 times on the neck and chest. At the time, Father Robinson was the hospital chaplain. He was questioned, but never charged.

Dave Davison, a former Toledo police officer, was among the first to arrive at the crime scene. DAVE DAVISON, FMR. TOLEDO POLICE OFFICER: The story I heard was that he had cut short Good Friday services here, and that she confronted him on it, and said don't do it for Easter services. Don't cut it short. Next thing you know, she is dead.

OPPENHEIM: Some investigators believe it was a ritual killing, and that her wounds were in the shape of a cross.

SGT. STEVE FORRESTER, DETECTIVE, TOLEDO POLICE: We have some evidence now that we believe indicates that some type of ceremony took place.

OPPENHEIM: Twenty-four years later, an unrelated investigation into the diocese, led detectives back to the Sister Paul murder case. In April 2004, Robinson was arrested and charged with murder. The difference this time, a sketch artist noticed something previously overlooked.

DAVID YONKE, REPORTER, "TOLEDO BLADE": He recognized that there was a pattern in the -- on the altar cloth left in blood by what was the weapon that stabbed her, which was a letter opener.

OPPENHEIM: Prosecutors believe the weapon was a dagger-shaped letter opener, and say the priest has admitted it was his, but denies killing the nun.

The case against Robinson is based largely on old circumstantial evidence.

JACK SPARAGOWSKI, FATHER ROBINSON SUPPORTER: And the facts just aren't there to, at least in my mind, to get a conviction here.

OPPENHEIM: A spokesperson for the diocese wouldn't talk about the case, but as the trial begins, the question is, in a heavily Catholic community, could a jury convict a priest for a murder that happened 26 years ago?

(on camera): Later today, the jury is expected to take a field trip and go to the hospital chapel where Sister Margaret Ann Pahl was murdered.

Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Toledo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Students are returning to Riverton High in Kansas this morning after an alleged plot to attack students there was foiled. Five teenagers accused in the suspected plot could be in court as early as this afternoon.

The school launched an investigation after a staff member became suspicious of references to an attack on the Internet site MySpace.com. The Kansas attorney general's office is going to prosecute the teenagers. In the last hour, I spoke Attorney General Phill Kline.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILL KLINE, KANSAS ATTORNEY GENERAL: When law enforcement receives and school officials receive a threat that is particular in nature, that indicates some evidence of planning, they have to act. And law enforcement and school officials did exactly the right thing here. They ensured that the other students at that school were safe, and they are now safe and school is resuming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: And coming up in just a few minutes, Betty is going to talk with a Riverton senior about the case.

Right now, back to Betty.

NGUYEN: And we're going to be talking about gas prices right now and a gas crisis. It's not even summer yet, but already we are seeing shortages and high prices.

Let's go live now to Carol Costello in the newsroom with the latest on this.

Is this just the beginning?

COSTELLO: I think so. You know, if you're waking up in California, good morning. And you probably know this by now, but I'm going to tell you, it's official, gas, for a regular gallon of gas, $3.

Of course, it depends where you live in California. We've seen as high as $3.77 a gallon. Take a look at that for one gallon of regular gas.

The problem in the Northeast, of course, high prices, too, but there is a gas shortage. In fact, in seven states they flat ran out of gas at some gas stations. That would be in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

Why? Because of the ethanol problem. That is, ethanol has to be added to gas, and refineries just haven't kept up. It means gas stations can't get gas fast enough from the refineries or from their suppliers, and that means a shortage at the gas station.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CATHY ROSSI, AAA: There's plenty of crude oil. There's plenty of gasoline to go around. It's a matter of getting it to the gas stations in a reasonable amount of time. And there may be some problems with that in the days to come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Days to come. How many days to come?

AAA says, oh, we might be having this problem for a month or more. Already, there's a group out in California that plans to protest at an ExxonMobil station in just about two and a half hours. And you can expect more disgruntled customers throughout the United States, I am sure.

NGUYEN: No doubt about that, Carol. Thank you.

Well, there is new information this morning on just how dangerous it is to drive while distracted. The numbers are just staggering.

Nearly 80 percent of accidents involve driver inattention. The massive study is sponsored by the National Transportation Safety Board. They put cameras in a hundred cars for one year, and what they found is that it doesn't matter whether it's a cell phone, a cup of coffee, or a drive-through burger. All of them contribute pretty equally to an increase in crashes.

So stay off that phone, John.

ROBERTS: I certainly try to as often as possible.

NGUYEN: It's hard. It is, yes.

ROBERTS: You have to tell the folks at CNN to stop calling me when I'm driving.

NGUYEN: You know, I'll work on that for you. How about that?

ROBERTS: Thanks. Appreciate it, Betty.

NGUYEN: I will.

ROBERTS: Enough about driving for now. Let's talk about a walkabout. It's how Queen Elizabeth likes to celebrate her birthday. And today that birthday cake has a significant number of candles, 80 of them, enough to burn down Windsor Castle.

Becky Anderson is live in Windsor, England, and joins us this morning.

How's the party going, Becky?

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's been a right royal party, as we would say here in the U.K. Fifteen thousand people out on these streets of Windsor, on the high street here outside Windsor Castle, which is just behind me. The crowds are now dwindling, but just about 12:00 local time today the queen came out of King Henry VIII's gate just behind me to greet the rolls (ph) of the well- wishers.

The band of the Irish Guard played "Happy Birthday" and she went on a walkabout. These walkabouts started in 1970 on a tour to Australia and New Zealand so that the queen could get closer to the people.

While she walked all of the way down the high street, she was given thousands of flowers by many of the kids specifically who were lining the streets here. The flowers ingratiating them, as it were, to the queen. Prince Philip, the queen's husband, picking out some of these kids, pulling them over the barriers so they could get closer to the queen.

It is a very special day today. Of course, it is her 80th birthday, her real birthday. She has another birthday in June, but this her real birthday. A very, very special day -- John.

ROBERTS: Boy, I tell you, when you're queen you get two birthdays. That's terrific. Listen, she was crowned almost...

ANDERSON: That means 160, though.

ROBERTS: She was crowned almost 53 years ago. Is there any talk of retiring? Which, I guess, really is a euphemism for abdicating.

ANDERSON: Yes. That's right. Not any time soon. Not if you talk to her. Not if you talk to her family, and not, indeed, if you talk to people in the U.K.

A poll was carried out of 1,500 people for the ITV New network. Fifty-seven percent of those polled said the queen should reign until she dies. Sixteen percent want her to retire and make way for Prince William. Not, indeed, for Prince Charles. Thirteen don't want a successor.

And those numbers remain around that area. You get from between 20 to 25 percent of people who say that she should go, but a huge majority say that she should stay at this point -- John.

ROBERTS: Well, I have the sense that the queen is going go when the queen thinks it's time to go.

Becky Anderson, thanks very much...

ANDERSON: You're absolutely right.

ROBERTS: ... joining us from Windsor this morning -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Pressure is building in Nepal. A few minutes from now, the king will speak to the people as crowds of pro-democracy demonstrators are massing on the outskirts of Katmandu.

Look at this new video coming in. They're defying a curfew and the threat of violence. They want the king to give up power.

Senior International Correspondent Satinder Bindra is on the phone from Katmandu.

Satinder, what is the king expected to say?

SATINDER BINDRA, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, most people would obviously like him to make some concession. If the king does make concessions, Betty, he's got two choices. Either he could either set up a government of national unity, or he could reconvene parliament that he abrogated and scrapped about a couple of years ago. Everyone is waiting with bated breath, and we understand that out on the streets the crowd is now, even according to official counts, about 130,000 strong. Other independent observers are saying it's a larger crowd, perhaps 150,000, 170,000. And this crowd, once again, is defying a curfew.

Even yesterday, a large crowd, 115,000-strong crowd, defied a curfew. Four people were killed in police firing, and now 15 people have died so far in Nepal's ongoing pro-democracy protest.

Everyone here waiting now. We just have about two or three minutes before the king comes on television. Some people already reading the tea leaves and saying that he's making an announcement and saying perhaps this announcement may not have much to offer. If that is indeed the case, then protests will continue.

NGUYEN: OK, Satinder. So, say he does make these major concessions. What is it going to take to satisfy the protesters?

BINDRA: Well, clearly, some protesters will want more than just a new government. Some of these hard-line protesters will say that's not enough.

These hard-line protesters have been saying for several days that the king must go, and along with him, the monarchy must go, too. Anything short of that, these people won't be happy with.

So, even if the king does announce concessions and decides to stay on, perhaps with limited powers, that in itself won't also satisfy a lot of people. So, no matter what he says, still, in the opinion of some, the uncertainty here will perhaps still linger on.

NGUYEN: We'll be monitoring it.

Satinder Bindra in Katmandu for us with the latest there.

Time now to check on the forecast. Chad Myers is at the CNN Center.

Chad, it's a Friday. People look forward to the weekend, but maybe not this weekend?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: They look forward to sitting in airports waiting for weather to clear, I'm afraid, yes.

NGUYEN: Yes. Not good.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: Oh, you are so full of good news, Chad.

MYERS: Always.

NGUYEN: Yes. All right.

Coming up, more on that alleged plot to shoot up a Kansas high school. We'll talk to one of the students there and ask him about the rumors he heard before the attack was supposed to happen.

ROBERTS: Also, the latest in the Duke rape investigation. We'll tell you what police found in the dorm room of one of the suspects.

NGUYEN: And later, New Orleans native Wynton Marsalis joins us live. We're going to ask him about his new project to save the city's cultural heritage.

Stay with us on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: We may learn today the charges that will be filed against five Kansas teenagers suspected of planning a Columbine-style attack on their school. Students are attending classes there this morning, but one of our affiliates reports some parents want their children out of the school.

And joining me from Riverton, Kansas, is Daniel Koucky, a senior at Riverton High School, along with his father, Jon.

We appreciate you being with us today.

Daniel, let me start with you. There's talk that there were rumors about this plot before officers discovered it on the Internet.

What did you know about that? Did you know about it?

DANIEL KOUCKY, RIVERTON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: I just heard a little bit the day right before. It wasn't like they had been talking about it for the whole year, but the day before they just mentioned something about a kid was supposed to bring a gun to school the next day.

NGUYEN: Did you have any idea who these kids were?

D. KOUCKY: I heard that there were a whole list of kids that it could have possibly been. There were, like, 10 or 12 kids that people had been mentioning, so I didn't really know for sure who was going -- who it was.

NGUYEN: We're looking at a handful of suspects. Do you know these suspects? Do you know what they're like? Have you spoken with them at school?

D. KOUCKY: Yes. I mean, they're -- not bad kids, but I would never expect anyone in our school would do something like this. So I really wouldn't expect them to be. They're not -- they don't have anything that I could think of that would have provoked this of them.

NGUYEN: We're hearing reports that some students said that they were threatened by these students. Were you ever threatened? Had you heard about those threats?

D. KOUCKY: No. I was never threatened. I actually -- this is the first time I've heard anything about that, really. NGUYEN: Jon, let me talk to you now, because these teenagers have been arrested, five of them. Police -- this is what they found: guns, ammunition, knives in one suspect's room, and then documents on firearms and talking about Armageddon in some lockers at school. This is pretty alarming.

JON KOUCKY, DANIEL'S FATHER: Oh, it's very alarming. And I think the scariest part, this is a very safe community. If this can happen here, it can happen anywhere. We certainly never suspected that we could be a part of something like this.

NGUYEN: This message we're hearing came out on MySpace.com, which tipped police to this plot. But that message, we understand, came out on Tuesday. Police made their arrests on Thursday.

Are you a little bit worried about how close these kids came to possibly executing this plan?

J. KOUCKY: Well, yes. It was terrifying. I think when we first heard the rumors, two of my sons wanted to stay home, and we allowed them to do that, but I never thought anything would come to it. We thought it would just be a hoax, but then it seems like it was very realistic, the threats.

And I think the authorities did a great job. I mean, obviously, the threats were prevented, and we're all very relieved about that. So I'm pleased with them and I think they did the right thing.

NGUYEN: Jon, I see you standing outside the school today. Do you feel safe going back to school?

J. KOUCKY: Well, I'm not sure we can ever feel safe again. If this, like I said, can happen here, it could be going on all over. It could be happening again tomorrow. So, I think we need to focus on school security and be more vigilant to make sure this type of action is prevented.

NGUYEN: Yes, to see your child.

J. KOUCKY: Obviously -- yes, obviously, every day kids go to school. And now everyone should be concerned. It's a frightening thing.

NGUYEN: Well, Daniel, I mean, you're the one who's actually attending this school. How do you feel?

D. KOUCKY: I feel a little more nervous than did I before, obviously, but I feel like they did a -- the school did an incredible job of preventing this. And I feel like that they would prevent it again. I don't really feel that nervous going back. Just a little bit.

NGUYEN: Jon and Daniel Koucky, we appreciate your time and insight into this today. Thank you.

J. KOUCKY: Thank you. D. KOUCKY: Thank you.

NGUYEN: Now, this alleged plot came to light after someone found notes on the suspected plans on the Web site MySpace.com. And joining us to discuss this world of cyber suspects and point-and-click police is Technology Correspondent Daniel Sieberg.

Daniel, how unusual is it for a tip to come from a site like this?

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's increasingly not that unusual, actually, Betty. You know, law enforcement using cyberspace as a tool is nothing new, but MySpace certainly poses some new challenges.

There are about 72 million registered users on MySpace. And we've certainly heard and we've done some of the stories about the potential pitfalls of MySpace when it comes to sexual predators luring kids online through MySpace. But, you know, in this case, MySpace proved to be a valuable tool for law enforcement.

They were able to get this information in a way that they may not have been able to get otherwise. MySpace basically offers potential criminals or criminals a chance to chat about this stuff online, and it could be used as evidence for law enforcement. So, it's certainly a useful tool in this case.

They also, of course, have to sift through what's credible and what's not. A lot of what's on MySpace could just be some kids talking about something they are not actually going do. But it does prove a valuable tool. Of course, it's a huge site, so very difficult for them to try and go through all this information.

NGUYEN: Yes, I wanted to ask you about that, because MySpace.com, supposedly it has 70 million people registered on there. That's just one of the many sites out there.

How can you police them all?

SIEBERG: Well, it's very difficult to do. And as I mentioned, there are about 72 million registered users on this social networking site. For people who don't know it, it's very popular with kids these days.

They use it to chat with friends. And, you know, kids of all ages, older people use it as well. But it's tough, of course, to try and monitor all this stuff.

Police could go under cover and create a profile and try to find out what's happening that way. There are a number of different ways that they can do it.

They actually did use MySpace in a rape case a couple of months ago. A woman who met some guys on MySpace went to a party, ended up being raped. She didn't know their -- anything beyond their first names, but she could use MySpace profiles to identify these suspects. So it's certainly useful that way.

NGUYEN: I guess the bottom line, though, is parents really need try to watch what their kids are doing on the Internet.

SIEBERG: Absolutely, yes.

NGUYEN: That's a way of staying on top of it.

SIEBERG: Right. And we do have a couple of ways we can tell people how to do this.

NGUYEN: OK -- quickly.

SIEBERG: A lot of Web sites that are out there these days are offering a way to monitor. We did find one, MySpaceWatch.com, which professes to be able to monitor a specific profile on MySpace.

I talked to the guy who runs it. It's very early stages of this. A lot of them that are out there, as well, spectorsoft, a company that makes Internet monitoring software. They're now offering a way to monitor what's on blogs with their new version for parents.

And as well, you know, it's a good idea for parents to just create a MySpace profile of their own. It is free. Go on there and find out what your kids are doing, because, you know, a lot of the activity that goes on is very much below the radar. So, tough for law enforcement, tough for parents. You're just going to have to get involved, basically.

NGUYEN: Good tools there, though, Daniel. Thank you for that.

SIEBERG: All right.

NGUYEN: CNN Technology Correspondent Daniel Sieberg -- John.

ROBERTS: Thanks, Betty.

Coming up, we're going to talk to CNN contributor and talk show host Bill Bennett. We'll find out what got his listeners fired up today and ask him about the controversial comments he made about three Pulitzer Prize winners earlier this week.

Plus, Senator Ted Kennedy joins us live. We're going to ask him about his new book, "America Back On Track," and get his take on everything from immigration to Iraq.

Stay with us on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Well, let's take a look at what people are talking about this Friday morning. CNN contributor Bill Bennett has been hearing it from his radio listeners for the last few hours. He's live in Arlington, Virginia, where he does his show "Bill Bennett's Morning in America."

Good morning to you, sir.

BILL BENNETT, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hey, John. How are you?

ROBERTS: Good. So what's on the radar this morning with your listeners?

BENNETT: A lot of it was President Hu, the visit yesterday. And, of course, Wenyi Wang disrupting it. And we had a lot of listener reaction to that. People -- one of the listeners said that was the shout heard around the world.

ROBERTS: Yes, it was. It took a while for it to register on the radar screen as we were watching the welcoming ceremony yesterday, but I'll tell you, she has a very loud voice. She made it above the P.A. system.

BENNETT: Yes. Don't think -- the only problem is she's not loud enough to be heard in China, John. Apparently, you know, the screens went black in China when she started to talk.

So that was censored out. But everybody heard it here. And I think it was actually a good thing. It reminded people that in this country you can do that and she will not be put to death.

ROBERTS: Right. Well, let's hear what one of your listeners had to say about it. This is Dr. Marty who called in, and here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I just wanted to point out the difference in the treatment by the media of this protester. Cindy Sheehan protesting Bush is a big hero. She's glorified, she's everywhere.

This -- everyone referred to her as an embarrassment. You know, if you're protesting the Chinese leader, you're an embarrassment, and if you're protesting Bush you're a hero.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ROBERTS: We should point out that the "Epoch Times," which is the newspaper for whom Wenyi Wang works, did apologize to the White House but not to Hu Jintao.

But were you getting a lot of that, that she was being treated differently than other protesters?

BENNETT: Yes, we got a lot of that, but the main thing we got, I think, was a sense of support for her, because a lot of people were uneasy about this visit and about the welcome. They're uneasy about hearing about Yahoo!, you know, turning people in to the Chinese government.

So I think that this, if you will, the shout was taken by a lot of our listeners as a cry -- a cry of freedom, and a lot of people thought she should get more attention and maybe Cindy Sheehan a little less.

ROBERTS: Well, Bill, what's your opinion on it? Should she have chosen that for forum to make her point? Because it did sort of reflect badly on the White House.

BENNETT: Well, I'm sure -- it didn't really reflect so badly on the White House, it seemed to me. There's a bit of a security breach. It was, you know, a little embarrassing, the president said. But, you know, it reminded the whole world what kind of country this is and that you can do this in America.

It also was interesting, John. It took about three minutes for the security to get there. As the old drug czar, I remember sometimes we let things sit for a while just so people could get the point. And I wonder if there was not an order not to rush to get her out.

ROBERTS: Well, I'm sure that somebody's going to look into that.

BENNETT: Yes.

ROBERTS: Let's talk about your comments earlier this week about the James Risen, Eric Lichtblau of "The New York Times" and Dana Priest at "The Washington Post," who won Pulitzer Prizes for their work uncovering CIA secret prisons in Europe, and as well, the NSA spying scandal.

What were your listeners saying about that this morning?

BENNETT: Well, we had a lot of people weigh in. I said that I wondered whether they deserved the Pulitzer more, or actually more deserving was a subpoena or, perhaps, going to jail. Look, Judy Miller went to jail. And I don't know why we should treat these folks differently than Judy Miller.

ROBERTS: Yes, but Judy Miller went to -- Judy Miller went to jail for contempt of court.

BENNETT: Right. Well, let's see.

ROBERTS: These people haven't been charged with contempt of court.

BLITZER: Well, if James Risen is asked, right, or Dana Priest is asked, "Who are your sources?" The people who gave them this information committed a crime, leaked classified information.

If they are asked and they do the same thing Judy Miller does, which I expect they would, don't you?

ROBERTS: Right.

BENNETT: Then they would go to jail.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: But they haven't been asked yet. They haven't been asked yet, though.

BENNETT: Well, I don't know. If they have been asked yet, I assume they will. Then you can change the tense of my remarks but not the substance of them. But there's also the Espionage Act. The Espionage Act says it is a crime to publish classified information. They did.

ROBERTS: Right. Just real quick before we let you go, what about the idea that -- the old -- age-old idea that news is what the government doesn't want you to know?

BENNETT: Well, sure. We had Pete Hoekstra on this morning, the chairman of House Intelligence. He said government should be whacked, government should be criticized. But when you're talking about security, classified security information at the time of war, about a program that may help us defend ourselves, you've got to -- you've got to respect the government's wishes on that one, I think.

ROBERTS: Fodder for a lot of discussion in the coming days.

BENNETT: Yes.

ROBERTS: Bill Bennett, Washington fellow of the Claremont Institute and our own CNN contributor.

Thanks very much. Appreciate it.

BENNETT: Thank you very much, John.

ROBERTS: Thanks.

And we should let you know, too, that Bill is going to be a guest in "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer. That comes your way at 4:00 p.m. Eastern today.

We're back in just a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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