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American Morning

Could an Old Allegation Present a New Wrinkle for Prosecutors in Duke Lacrosse Case?; 16-Year-Old Boy Fighting For His Life in Houston, Texas

Aired April 28, 2006 - 07:00   ET

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

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jason Carroll in Durham, North Carolina. Could an old allegation present a new wrinkle for prosecutors in the Duke lacrosse case? I'll have that story coming up.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ed Lavandera in Houston, Texas, where a 16-year-old boy is in a hospital fighting for his life, and police say two other teenagers are responsible for putting him there. More on that story coming up.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Elaine Quijano at the White House. President Bush wants the authority to change fuel standards for cars, part of an effort to curb high gas prices. I'll have that story ahead.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And plenty of bluster in Washington D.C. over rising gas prices. Politicians, though, may not practicing what they preach when it comes to conservation. We'll talk about that.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And there is controversy over a Spanish-language national anthem. The grand old song gets a makeover with a little Latin flair. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.

We're also going to tell you about "The Da Vinci Code" ruling that in it has a code.

S. O'BRIEN: Really?

M. O'BRIEN: There's a code in the ruling from the judge.

S. O'BRIEN: Intentionally?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Interesting.

M. O'BRIEN: And we'll decode it for you.

S. O'BRIEN: Interesting.

Welcome back, everybody. Soledad O'Brien. Let's get right to the top story this morning. Surprise in a -- for defense attorneys in the Duke rape investigation. They want to know more about the accuser's past, which we know now includes a previous rape allegation.

CNN's Jason Carroll is live for us in Durham, North Carolina for us this morning.

Hey, good morning to you, Jason.

CARROLL: Good morning to you, Soledad.

This is something defense attorneys are going to be looking very closely at. It has to do with an incident report, a police incident report, filed 10 years ago in Creedmoor by the accuser. Creedmoor, about 15 miles from here. In that incident report, she says that three years before that, she was sexually assaulted by three men. The reports says, quote, "Three suspects raped and beat her when she was 14 years old for a continual time." So she names the three men in that incident report that we took a look at. Those names are blacked out. She says that one of her attackers at the time when she was 14 was an acquaintance.

The officer who took the incident report at the time asked her to write a chronological account of what happened. She did that. But, Soledad, no charges were filed in that case. And at this point, it is unclear why.

What is clear is that defense attorneys are going to be looking very closely at this, possibly raising this if this incident goes to trial, in terms of trying to attack her credibility -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, one would imagine that defense attorneys have been absolutely, you know, pouring through her past. That's no surprise there. What about the prosecution, though? Do you think this is going to affect the current charges?

CARROLL: Well, I think what prosecutors will say is, look, this is just another attempt by defense attorneys and by others to really attack this woman's credibility. I think prosecutors will argue it is perfectly possible for a young woman to have been raped at one point, and then sometime later in her life to, unfortunately, have that same thing happen to her again -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: We will see. All right, thanks. Jason Carroll for us this morning. Jason, thank you -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: A Hispanic teenager fighting for his life this morning in a Houston hospital. Authorities considering whether this might very well have been a hate crime. Two white teens behind bars right now, charged with beating the Hispanic teen within an inch of his life all because he tried to kiss a 12-year-old girl at a party.

CNN's Ed Lavandera joining us now from Houston.

It is an attack so brutal and violent it's hard to talk about, Ed.

LAVANDERA: It is. And many of the details that have emerged in this case are very hard to talk about. And what has started off as a party with about six or seven people last Saturday night has left that 16-year-old boy here in the Houston area fighting for his life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): During a late- night party Saturday, a fight erupted inside this suburban Houston home. Investigators say David Tuck and Keith Turner unleashed a brutal assault on a 16-year-old boy after he tried to kiss a younger girl. Prosecutors say, both suspects dragged the victim into the backyard, kicked him in the head with steel-toed boots, and then sodomized him with a two-inch-thick PVC pipe.

MIKE TRENT, PROSECUTOR: They also poured bleach on him. And the victim is in pretty bad shape right now, critical condition, and it's unclear at all whether he is going to survive.

LAVANDERA: Authorities say no one at the party called an ambulance until 10 hours after the attack. The 16-year-old was left fighting for his life all night.

Neighbors who saw the boy taken away by paramedics were shocked.

NANCY BENAVIDES, NEIGHBORHOOD RESIDENT: He was severely beaten. It was just -- oh, my goodness. I couldn't believe it. His face was severely swollen, lips, everything. He just looked -- and blood everywhere.

LAVANDERA: Tuck and Turner have been charged with aggravated sexual assault.

But, if the victim dies, authorities say the charges will be upgraded to capital murder. David Tuck made a brief court appearance. But his attorney said he was invoking his Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate himself. Keith Turner has not been to court yet. And it's still not clear if he has an attorney.

But plenty of people are talking in the town of Spring, the Houston suburb where the attack happened. They are especially stunned by the details the attack might have been racially motivated. Investigators say the suspects yelled racial epithets as they beat the Hispanic victim. Many in this neighborhood say the two suspects were troubled and angry. Classmates and neighbors of David Tuck say he had a history of using racial slurs.

DAVID COOK, NEIGHBORHOOD RESIDENT: When we were at his house, there was all sorts of stuff, like he would have swastikas painted on the fence of his backyard. It was just really white-trashy sort of stuff. He would be all sort of "Heil Hitler" crap.

LAVANDERA: Timothy Borque doesn't think Keith Turner is racist. He says the 18-year-old often hung out with minority students. But he does Turner acted like a wanna-be gangster. TIMOTHY BORQUE, RESIDENT OF SPRING, TEXAS: He's an (EXPLETIVE DELETED) He's just a wanna-be, a little bitty kind of short white dude, who thinks he's all that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: The 16-year-old boy said to be a popular football player at the high school. And he is clinging to his life right now. We've been told by prosecutors and investigators that he has suffered major internal injuries because of the attack with that pipe. And it is not exactly clear if he will survive, but we've been told a short while ago by a hospital administrator that he's still in critical condition -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Ed, it's shocking story on so many dimensions. One of the things which I've been reading about as well is possibility there's a lot of alcohol and perhaps drugs involved. What are authorities saying an about that?

LAVANDERA: We've been asking about that, but investigators won't give us much on that front, so it's hard, you know, the speculation is out there, but at this point, it is just that.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Ed Lavandera in Houston, thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's get to our next story this morning. Everybody's talking about gas. So we might as well, too. Check now on CNN's Gas Gauge. The national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded, $2.92. A month ago, it was $2.50. A year ago, the price was $2.32.

And we're awaiting the release of more oil company earnings this morning. Chevron's expected to release the earnings sometime before the market opens. Yesterday, ExxonMobil announced more than $8 billion in first-quarter profits -- billion with a 'b.' Chevron's earnings are expected to be just about half that number. High gas prices are prompting New Jersey to consider some statewide changes, including decreasing the maximum speed limit to 55 miles an hour, and ending that ban they have in that state on self-serve gas stations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JON CORZINE (D), NEW JERSEY: We will start with select sites if not on all of the turnpike positions over a period of time. And in some local neighborhoods, north, south and central, to see whether these price savings actually flow through to the consumer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Governor Jon Corzine says consumers could save as much as 6 cents a gallon. New Jersey and Oregon are the only states that do not allow self-serve stations.

President Bush says one way to fight rising gas prices to make cars more fuel efficient. He's asking Congress to give him the authority to raise fuel economy standards.

Elaine Quijano is in Washington for us this morning.

Hey, Elaine, good morning.

QUIJANO: Good morning to you, Soledad.

That's right, with those high gas prices persisting, President Bush and lawmakers here in Washington want to show that they are taking steps to alleviate those high costs. So yesterday in Biloxi, Mississippi, on a visit to the Gulf Coast region, President Bush encouraged Congress to give him the same authority to set fuel economy standards for cars that he now has over light trucks.

Right now, the fuel standard for cars is 27 1/2 miles per gallon. That has been the same number since 1990. Administration officials say that they want to sake a scientific look at changing those standards in a way that's safe and cost effective. Now this is just one idea that's being talked about in Congress, and of course, Soledad, important to keep in mind that all this talk about gas prices is taking place as lawmakers particularly are looking ahead and looking at their prospects of re-election with those midterms coming up in November -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, yes. You always want to glom on to some very emotional events in order to sway voters.

I have a question for you, though. He is talking about really authority which is kind of a long-term issue. It's not a short-term issue. You get authority to make these changes, when could they possibly kick in?

QUIJANO: Well, you know, that is the key question really, Soledad.

The administration has continued to say for a long time now that these high energy prices are not something that can be fixed overnight, and in this case specifically, changing fuel standards would be a long-term solution, because it would take time, first of all, to create a rule, and it certainly would take time for automakers to put that law into effect and implement it.

So bottom line, no immediate relief from this particular action to those prices at the pump. -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Bottom line, yep. Elaine Quijano at the White House for us this morning. Elaine, thanks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: That Senate proposal to scrap FEMA and start over with a new agency we told you about yesterday, causing a stir in Washington this morning.

As you might suspect, FEMA's acting director, David Paulison, is fighting back. I spoke with him a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAVID PAULISON, FEMA ACTING DIR.: There has been loss of confidence in FEMA because of response to Hurricane Katrina. However, FEMA is a good, solid agency. We just need to bring it some 21st century tools. I don't agree we need to dismantle it. I think we need to beef it up, like we're doing now, working with Secretary Chertoff to bring in the tools that these employees need to do the job that they're trained to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Just a little bit of what David Paulison has to say. My full interview with him in our next hour, so stay tuned for that.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we're going to tell you about a threat on the Internet. We're going to meet a woman who was just victimized by a cyber-stalker. We'll tell you what she did about it.

M. O'BRIEN: Also, Prince Harry in Africa, fighting the scourge of AIDS, and carrying out one of his late mother's most important issues.

S. O'BRIEN: Another secret message involving "The Da Vinci Code." This time, though, it was hidden in the judge's ruling. The copyright fight over the book. We're going to meet the lawyer this morning who cracked the judge's code. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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M. O'BRIEN: The political gassing is at a premium these days in Washington, but as lawmakers try to get mileage out of plan after plan to ease the gas crunch, we ask this, what kind of cars are they driving themselves? We'll go live to Washington. Yes, there you see 'em, the big boys, 7,000 pounds a piece, the SUVs.

Plus, we're live in New Orleans, we'll show you why the latest sign of recovery there is on a golf course.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Life imitating art in Great Britain. The judge who presided over that "Da Vinci" copyright trial put a code of his own into the ruling. OK, so it wasn't written in blood, and we doubt he's in a secret society, but nevertheless it kind of makes for a little bit of a stem-winder in real life.

Dan Tench, a lawyer with a British firm, found the code, and deciphered it. He joins us now from London.

Mr. Tench, good to have you with us. Congratulations on cracking the code.

DANIEL TENCH, LAWYER, OLSWANG FIRM: Thank you. Good morning to you.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's explain how it worked, how this all came to light. Apparently in the ruling, in which the author of "The Da Vinci Code," by the way, Dan Brown, won on this copyright infringement case. Certain letters were italicized, right?

TENCH: That's right. If You go through the judgment, the judgment runs is some 70 pages, and extremely authoritative, but rather oddly, as you go through the first few paragraphs of the judgment, you'll find that the occasional letter appears in italics for no obvious reason at all.

M. O'BRIEN: And so immediately you thought, well, is there something wrong with the word processor, or did you think, ah, there is something going on here?

TENCH: Well, I thought the former really, because you don't really expect judges to encrypt messages in their judgments. But I thought it was a real curiosity. And it seemed to me ironic, although no more than that, in the context of a case about two books about encryption, that there appeared to be this eccentricity running all the way through the judgment. So in fact I just sent an e-mail to one of our national newspapers and said this would make quite a funny diary piece about the irony that "The Da Vinci Code" judgment seemed to have this theme running through it.

Only then did I receive an e-mail from the judge, asking me to look a bit closer when I did that. When I did that, I noticed that the first ten letters which were encrypted in this way, which had this italicization, spelled out "Smithy Code." Now the judge was Mr. Justice Peter Smith, and so Smithy code was obviously his way of signaling that this wasn't a random italicization or some word processing error, that he had imposed this thing deliberately. So that was the first 10 letters, Smithy code.

M. O'BRIEN: That part we could get, the Smithy code part. Once we're looking, right? Just spelled it out. So after that, how did you crack the code?

TENCH: After that, well then, there's another 31 letters which are a complete jumble, and we managed to pick these out. But there was no clue as to what the code was and how you were to decipher it. So I had to say we went back to the judge, a number of people went back to the judge, and the judge starting giving us a few clues, and what he did say was that the key to it was a thing which is referred to in actually The Da Vinci Code" book, and this is the Fibonacci sequence. This is a well-known mathematical progression of numbers, and he said, what you do is you apply the Fibonacci sequence to this script and all will be revealed. Well, it's not quite as straightforward as that, because you had to work out precisely how you applied the Fibonacci sequence.

But after quite a lot of playing around and a lot of trial and error, finally we cracked it, and we sent it back to the judge. We said, we think it says this. And he said, congratulations, you are the first. Not only did you find it, you were first to crack it.

M. O'BRIEN: And, so what did it say?

TENCH: Well, the message itself is extremely curious. What it says is "Jackie Fisher, who are you, dreadnought?" Which in itself you might think needs some decoding.

M. O'BRIEN: You would think. Well, yes.

TENCH: The answer to this lies in the judge's who's who entry. And in his who's who entry, he lists as one of his interests, the British admiral, the Naval admiral, Jackie Fisher, and he was an admiral in the 1900s and he was the first one to commission this giant warship called the dreadnought, a massive, great big battleship. And I think what the script is a repast by the judge to all those who -- he's expressed an interest in Jackie Fisher, saying, who on earth is Jackie Fisher? And the answer is, that he's the guy who invented the dreadnought battleship, which of course was a very significant development in Naval warfare.

M. O'BRIEN: So what does have to do with copyright infringement, Jesus and the possibility that Jesus might have lineage, or is it deliberately not anything to do it?

TENCH: It is deliberately, absolutely nothing to do with it. What he is demonstrating is how you can use codes, which of course was what the subject matter of the litigation was all about, how you can use codes to put secret messages. And if you like, convey your -- whatever your own personal interest is, and the judge's own personal interest was Admiral Fisher.

M. O'BRIEN: Interesting. Interesting stuff. Dan Tench, congratulations for cracking the code.

TENCH: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: No billable hours there, but I'm sure worthwhile the time nevertheless. And the judge certainly has a sense of humor in this case. We appreciate him offering that up to us as well.

Back with more in a moment.

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