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Member of Duke Lacrosse Team Breaks the Silence; Sago Mine Hearings; School Soda Machines Go Sugar Free

Aired May 03, 2006 - 10:30   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, ANCHOR: Breaking the silence. A Duke lacrosse player speaks out about the rape allegations against his teammates. The two players charged in the case are due back in court in a week and a half. The D.A. also says that he expects results from a second round of DNA testing, but the players who's speaking out says he is certain no rape occurred.
He spoke with reporter Darla Miles. The exclusive interview is from our affiliate WTVD.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DARLA MILES, WTVD REPORTER (on camera): Are you certain a rape did not occur that night at the party?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, ma'am.

MILES: A hundred percent?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, ma'am.

MILES (voice-over): A teen party. Two exotic dancers. March 13th, the night that changed the lives of 47 young men.

(on camera): You all were slated to win the national championship. Did you ever think the season would end like this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. It's a nightmare compared to what we thought the season was going to be like. I mean, we all expected to be playing this past weekend in the A.C. Championship, A.C. Tournament, and focusing on the play-offs this time, not have our season canceled and, you know, two players be indicted for rape.

MILES (voice-over): The weeks before the indictment, a nightmare, too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The team has stayed strong. I mean, from the get go, we've only had each other to fall back on because, you know, we've been convicted in the media, our university turned its back on us. And we've only had each other to fall back on.

MILES (on camera): What do you mean the university turned its back on you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that they didn't stand up for us, and we feel neglected, and that our loyalty wasn't -- our loyalty to the university wasn't reciprocated.

MILES (voice-over): But before indictments were handed out by the grand jury, this player believes Coach Pressler was the first casualty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't resign. He was forced out. I -- the notion that he quit or resigned is absolutely ridiculous.

MILES (on camera): Do you think that's unfair?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

MILES: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because -- he shouldn't -- I mean, as the report shows, I mean, there's clearly a disconnect between student affairs and the athletic department, and he took the fall for things that he didn't even know -- for a lot of things that he didn't know about. They said that he fostered an atmosphere where this behavior was accepted, and that's not true at all. All the incidents that he knew about, he dealt with. I mean, there was discipline, I mean, there was extra running, there were suspensions, for things that the university never even knew about. You know, this guy was a stand-up man, still is a stand-up man.

MILES: Tell us about the day you found out your two teammates were indicted?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was probably the most emotional day of my life. Because a lot us, I kept holding on to the fact maybe this was going to go away. And to see their faces on TV in handcuffs, and to see their parents on TV and their expressions, it was tough. It's really tough, because you put yourself in that position, and you know it could have easily been any one of us.

MILES: With the possibility of a third indictment, how do you feel?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just pray he doesn't go through with it, that he's not going to indict another innocent person. We're all anxious. Because even if it's not me, it's going to be somebody else who I care about. You know, people ask me, you know, are you satisfied and happy that it wasn't you that was indicted, that the two players indicted? Not really. Because, you know, those are like family and it's still just as upsetting.

MILES (voice-over): Equally upsetting is what players describe as being hung out to dry publicly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the D.A. shouldn't have made it seem like to the public that the DNA was going to be, you know -- the DNA results were going to show that this actually happened. I think a lot of the Durham community actually believed the DNA was going to come back and there were going to be three matches because of what Nifong said in the media. And I wish he hadn't. If he had -- if he was planning on going forward with this from the get-go, I wish he hadn't have said that the DNA was going to exclude innocent parties.

Because in our minds, we thought, this is all coming back negative and this is going to be over. So from our perspective, you know, we thought this was going to be over. And from the community's perspective, you know, they thought they were going to get three guilty parties. And neither came back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: That report from Darla Miles with our affiliate WTVD.

Let's focus on the accuser now. A lot of information has surfaced about the woman who says she was raped inside this house by three lacrosse players. For instance, we now know that she accused three men of raping her years ago when she was a teenager. The family calls that revelation a smear campaign, and relatives have spoken out how the media portrayed has this young woman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACKIE, ALLEGED VICTIM'S COUSIN: For a long time, they were just saying a stripper or an escort, and they weren't saying a human, a mother, a student. And that's what she is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Do rape cases put the alleged victims on trial? Joining me to talk about that, two former prosecutors, Pamela Hayes in New York and Wendy Murphy in Boston. Ladies, good morning.

PAMELA HAYES, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Good morning, Daryn.

WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Good morning.

KAGAN: All very interesting to hear what that Duke teammate had to say, but can we agree, for the purpose of this discussion, that we really have no idea what happened inside that house that night?

HAYES: Absolutely.

MURPHY: Yes, and neither does he. It was in a bathroom with the door shut. He absolutely does not know. And when he says he's 100 percent certain, that itself is very troubling.

KAGAN: Well...

HAYES: Unless he was there, because if he was in the bathroom, maybe he does know what happened.

KAGAN: Well, maybe he does, but we don't. But I want to get your expertise as former prosecutors. The things that we are learning about the woman. As a prosecutor at the time, wouldn't that maybe be troubling to you, make it more difficult for you to present your case?

HAYES: I don't think so. The fact that someone was a victim of a sexual assault when she was 14 years old, and she's now 27 years old, you know, it's just something drastic that happened. If you looked at the facts of the case, she didn't come forward at the time it happened, because she was afraid, or whatever reason she had. She didn't really reveal this until three years later.

MURPHY: I agree. I agree with Pamela.

HAYES: You know, so that's a problem. You know, but I don't think it makes the case any worse, because that's not going to come to light in court. And I really think it's a disservice when that type of information comes out, when you can't use it in court.

MURPHY: And I agree with Pamela. And I'd even go so far as to say I bet one or more of the players was, you know, molested or something as a child, and it's just as unfair to talk about that. It doesn't elucidate the truth. It distorts it for us to include in the package of facts that are relevant to this case this kind of irrelevant, very painful and, to some extent, you know, prejudicial information. I think we should feel sympathy for her.

KAGAN: Well, even if all this is true about the woman, at the end of the day, it doesn't mean she was or wasn't raped.

MURPHY: It has nothing to do with it.

HAYES: Precisely.

KAGAN: You could come up with the worst possible profile, and that person could still be a rape victim.

MURPHY: Absolutely!

HAYES: Yes, but you know, Daryn, the worst profile. What do we mean by that? The fact that somebody may have been raped in another lifetime, or a previous lifetime, is -- it's not negative. That's what I...

KAGAN: Well, here's a bad profile. I mean, you can't help but look at this case and think back to the Kobe Bryant case in Colorado. And that accuser, when the DNA information came back on other DNA in her underwear and things, that's a bad profile to have to make a case from.

HAYES: That's a bad profile because it's scientific evidence.

MURPHY: Let me say something. Can I say something about that case? Because what happened in that case was false information was dumped into the public trough. It badly tainted the jury pool, because we all heard the defense claim falsely in court. This is consistent with the victim having sex with three men in three days. That was an absolutely false statement. We all know now that that was a false statement.

And what's disturbing about the criminal justice system in rape cases is the defense gets away with smacking victims around gratuitously with utter lies that are prejudicial. And the prosecutor isn't as free to correct the record. Her lawyer tried to go into court, tried to say publicly, that's a lie, and he got hauled into court and yelled at by the judge, who said I'm going to throw you in jail for contempt if you speak publicly again. That double standard is the most disturbing component of any high-profile rape case..

(CROSSTALK)

HAYES: We differ on that particular case. We really do.

KAGAN: Aren't we seeing the same thing happen here? And if one thing that's very clear is the accused in this case have better legal representation and P.R. representation than the accuser does.

MURPHY: Absolutely right.

HAYES: Absolutely. If she had a spokesperson -- what she needs is a spokesperson, someone to -- if they're going to talk about the case, to give her side of the story, who knows how to project it in a way where she can garner the same type of sympathy that the defense is getting at this time.

I mean, the fact that she's portrayed as a stripper. I mean, if you go to a strip joint, which a lot of guys do, you don't get to touch the strippers. You're not allowed to assault them, or rape them or do whatever thing you were doing to them. You know, the whole thing is just being spent out of control.

And because this woman is obviously of less means, she doesn't have the money, she doesn't have the spokesperson, she can't get it to work for her as we know it, and that's really unfortunate.

KAGAN: That's the next date coming up within a couple of weeks. We expect to see the two defendants, the two accused, back in court. We also expect to hear about a second round of DNA tests.

Ultimately, though, as we go forward, to either of you think a fair trial can be held in North Carolina about this case?

HAYES: Absolutely.

MURPHY: A fair trial can and will be held. This is not the first high-profile rape case with very sensitive issue on both sides. The most important thing that has to happen, though, to ensure fairness for both sides, is that jurors are carefully screened so that they don't walk in to that courtroom thinking that because she was a woman of low income and lesser social status, and because she was there in a capacity of a stripper, that somehow that means she's entitled to less credibility. The jurors have to be screened out if they bring those kinds of prejudices to bear on this case, just like jurors have to be screened out if they think just that the Duke guys are wealthy white kids, that they must be guilty. That's the most important piece of the trial in this case.

KAGAN: Pamela Hayes, Wendy Murphy, thanks for the discussion today.

HAYES: You're welcome. KAGAN: Thank you.

Speaking of Kobe Bryant, the Lakers, there are more legal troubles for a Lakers star today. Los Angeles police say that Kwame Brown is now under investigation for an alleged sexual assault. The Lakers center He denies wrongdoing. Police say the assault allegedly happened Saturday, JUST hours after the Lakers beat the Suns in game three of the Western Conference quarterfinals. So far no charges have been filed in the case.

Her Marine son has died. Now a mother in mourning fights to get his life's savings. You'll be shocked, shocked, when we tell you who she says has the money.

Also, we're standing by. An announcement coming in New York City about what your children can buy in school in terms of sodas. Former president Bill Clinton making a deal and making remarks just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: And as promised, here's former President Bill Clinton.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FMR. PRES. OF UNITED STATES: ... generation. Dr. Eckols (ph) and other leaders from the American Heart Association. And especially the leaders from America's Beverage Industry, who are here with us this morning.

A year ago today, our foundation and the American Heart Association launched the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, to halt the increase in childhood obesity by 2010 and reverse the trend by 2015. The prevalence of overweight children tripled between 1980 and 2000. Nine million children today are overweight, with a 70 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese as adults. With health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, type II diabetes and even some forms of cancer. If present trends continue, this generation of young people could be the first to have shorter life expectancies than their parents.

The 2004 Emory University study found that rising obesity rates alone accounted for 27 percent of the growth in health care spending in the United States between 1987 and 2001. This is also, I might add, a global problem. There is a national effort to do something about childhood obesity in the United Kingdom. There's a national effort in Ireland. On my recent trip to India, I saw significant press coverage, of the problem arising there, as young Indians achieve middle-class lifestyles and abandon what I think is the most interesting diet in the world for a diet that causes all the obesity in the West.

So we should know this is a big challenge for the United States and for the world. It has, on the surface, a simple solution: to help children reduce the number of calories they consume and increase the number they burn. But it's easier said than done, and requires a comprehensive approach, which is what we have tried to adopt. First, we're working with the Nickelodeon Network to engage young people directly, to help them find solutions for themselves.

Last Sunday, the first in a series of shows following the lives of four young people addressing obesity in their own lives and communities aired on the network. And I'm grateful to them. I thought it was an interesting show, and there'll be more to come.

Earlier this year, we launched a partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation's largest dedicated to improving the health and health care of all Americans to create a healthy school program, to recognize schools that offer healthy foods to children, that exercise programs for students and after-school programs, and also wellness programs for the staff. And we're out there busily signing up schools and also trying to help schools develop such programs.

Today I'm enormously happy to announce our first industry agreement, as part of the Healthy School programs. Cadbury-Schweppes, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and the American Beverage Association have agreed to new guidelines limiting the portions sizes and reducing the number of calories available to children through their products during the school day. Under these guidelines, only lower-calorie and nutritious beverages will be sold in schools. First, elementary schools, will only sell water and eight-ounce calorie-capped servings of certain juices with no added sweet sweeteners, and serving of fat-free, and low-fat regular and flavored milks.

Middle school would apply the elementary school standards, with portion sizes increasing slightly to 10 ounces. The companies under this agreement will work with their bottlers to no longer sell full- calorie beverages, such as sodas, fruit drinks and sweetened teas to high schools, and (INAUDIBLE) sell diet drinks, flavored water, unsweetened (INAUDIBLE) low or no-calorie beverages.

The beverage industry will cover 75 percent of the nation's schools, public and private by these standards, by the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year, and all students should be covered by them at the beginning of the following school year, 2009-2010. The alliance will work to ensure the school food service managers and school districts adjust their bidding process to comply with this agreement over the next year, and we'll work with the ABA to ensure that bottlers and other companies, such as food service intermediaries, comply with the agreement within three years. This is a truly bold step forward in the struggle to help more than 35 million American young people live healthier lives.

The ABA released its school beverage standards last year. And I commend them for working with our alliance over the past several months in very complicated, occasionally difficult, negotiations to take this important step. This is a truly significant thing for an industry to do. Not entirely free of risks on their part. Not only economic risks, but backlash among the consumers. And they did it, I believe, because they understand and accept the data and the trends, and they care about the future of our young people. And I'm very grateful to them.

I hope we can reach other similar agreements in other areas as part of our comprehensive approach to help children begin just to reduce the number of calories they ingest and increase the number they burn.

I want to say a special word of thanks to all those who negotiated this agreement. They are too numerous to mention on both, or all sides, if you will, but they worked very hard and in complete good faith, or we wouldn't be here today. And I'm profoundly grateful to them.

I'd now like to ask Governor Huckabee to come up here and say a few words, and we'll proceed on with the program.

KAGAN: Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee standing up -- stepping up to the microphone. He knows a lot. He has lost quite a bit of weight himself, as he tackled his own obesity issues. But today it's about the kids, and America's school kids and former President Clinton announcing an agreement with the beverages companies, major beverage companies of America, not to sell sugar sodas and whole milk in high schools, and also a similar agreement for elementary schools across America.

More on that ahead.

Also, wait until you -- you're upset about high gas prices? Wait until you see what these cars did, they lined up for blocks, and we'll tell you why. And actually we'll get to that in a moment.

But I want to let you know, if want to listen to more of Mike Huckabee and more about this agreement about not selling sugar sodas in schools, just go to CNN.com Pipeline, and they'll continue to carry the even there.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: The Sago Mine disaster was four months ago. We are learning now, through hearings in Buckhannon, West Virginia, more about what went wrong, especially with the miscommunication.

Our Joe Johns is standing by in West Virginia with more on that. Joe, good morning.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

It was a day of intensely personal testimony, bringing tears to the eyes of some people in the audience, including family members of the deceased miners. This included a gut wrenching painstaking account of the search and rescue for the miners who were trapped underground in early January, beginning with a show-and-tell description of the breathing devices used underground by the rescuers and how communications from people wearing those devices can become garbled.

Mostly, though, this was about the search, a minute-by-minute account, the uncertainty, the dangerous conditions. The discovery of the miners behind a barricade with clear life signs coming from only one miner, Randal McCloy. Then miscommunications that some of the others might have been alive, later the realization that they were not. An apology from one of the rescuers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON HIXSON, MINE RESCUER: If I may just say one thing for myself and the mine rescue team members involved. We apologize for any of the problems or heartaches that the miscommunications caused. That was not meant to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Later today, we expect more discussion about the cause of the accident. The company has announced that it believes lightning was the cause. A lot of people are questioning that today -- Daryn.

KAGAN: What about the status of the mine? Is it still closed all these months later?

JOHNS: No. The mine did reopen for business some time ago. Several weeks ago, in fact. And miners went back in. There's been a lot of talk, including some talk I've had with a few of the miners there, that they were, quite frankly, glad to get back to work after all of the things that have swirled around the mine.

KAGAN: Yes, well, these investigations still go on as well. Joe Johns in Buckhannon, West Virginia, thank you for that.

Laundry, doing baths, breakfasts. It's the job of being a mom. It's priceless, right? Well, until now. The salary moms should be paid. We're going see if you agree. We add up the numbers when LIVE TODAY returns.

Also, love is blind, so the saying goes. But it also has a sense of humor. Meet this centarian and her young groom. She's old enough -- get this -- she is old enough to be his great-grandmother. They say it's love. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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