Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Bail Set for O.J.; Proposed Senate Measure Would Limit Troop Deployment; Video of Campus Tasering Incident Popular on Internet; Al Sharpton Demands Justice for Jena 6
Aired September 19, 2007 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Bond is set. The terms are agreed. Now O.J. Simpson expects to be leaving Las Vegas for a few weeks anyway. Ten big-time felony counts and one gross misdemeanor will be waiting when he returns.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Violence, race, and the law for the small town of Jena, Louisiana, on the map today. Potentially, thousands of civil rights protesters are on their way.
Hello, everyone, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in today for Kyra Phillips at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Leaving his jail cell behind, but bracing for a legal battle ahead, a judge has set bail for O.J. Simpson, who appeared in a Las Vegas courtroom this morning, handcuffed and wearing a blue jail uniform. He was asked whether he understood the 11 criminal charges against him, stemming from an alleged armed robbery. And he simply answered yes in a hoarse voice.
We're expecting a not guilty plea in the near future. Right now, let's go to CNN's Ed Lavandera, who is at the courthouse for us.
Ed, update us.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don.
We understand now that O.J. Simpson is beginning the process, is probably well into the process, of posting bail here in Las Vegas, and we expect that he will be released from jail here in perhaps the next couple of hours. So, we will see what Mr. Simpson will do after that.
You know, he lives in Miami, so whether or not he stays here in Vegas for any time or leaves immediately is still up in the air. But the judge here in Las Vegas has ordered him to surrender his passport, which has already been done. It's been given to his attorney. So he is not allowed to travel outside the U.S., but he is -- is allowed to travel freely within the United States.
And the judge has also asked, or ordered essentially, O.J. Simpson to not be in contact directly or indirectly with any of the victims, the witnesses, or anyone else connected with this case. All of that work, the judge says, has to go through his attorney.
As for O.J. Simpson's attorney, he says that what they wanted to accomplish here this morning, they've been able to do so.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YALE GALANTER, SIMPSON'S ATTORNEY: What we came here to do this morning, we got accomplished. Our goal was to get what is, in my opinion, a fair, reasonable bond, allow Mr. Simpson to go home and be with his family. That is going to be accomplished. And we thank everybody who facilitated that in happening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Touchdown, dude. Touchdown.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to follow...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: And, you know, the circus-like atmosphere continues outside the courtroom here in Las Vegas. There have been dozens of people who have turned out. Not exactly sure what they've turned out for, maybe to catch a glimpse of O.J. Simpson. But essentially they've turned out.
O.J. Simpson, as I mentioned, going through the process of beginning to leave the jail. The three other defendants who have been arrested in connection with this case, they've already come through the process here and posted bail, as well.
So, all four defendants in this case, stemming accused of burglary and robbery of the Vegas hotel room last Thursday, are all out of the process. And now the legal process begins here. The attorneys are all lined up and the prosecution begins the process, begins the process of presenting -- working on this case of trying to convict O.J. Simpson -- Don.
LEMON: CNN's Ed Lavandera reporting outside the courthouse. Thank you very much for that, Ed.
And tonight's O.J. Simpson's lawyer, Yale Galanter, talks to our own Larry King about his client and the court battle ahead. That's "LARRY KING LIVE" tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern only here on CNN.
And again, 11 counts, 10 of them felonies. If you want to read the full criminal complaint against O.J. Simpson, logon to CNN.com and you can watch any courtroom drama in this case as it unfolds. Again, that's at CNN.com -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: The high-profile visitor for one of the Jena 6. Al Sharpton, who organized tomorrow's rally, met with Mychal Bell this morning. So far, Bell, who is still behind bars, is the only one of the defendants who has gone on trial. He was convicted of second- degree battery.
But last week a state appeals court threw out the conviction, saying Bell should not have been tried as an adult. Yesterday, an appeals court ruled it premature to consider a motion to release him.
Bell could still face charges in juvenile court, and you'll want to stay right here in the NEWSROOM. The Reverend Al Sharpton joins us from Jena, Louisiana, in the 3:00 p.m. Eastern hour. And our Susan Roesgen joins us in just a few minutes, live from Jena.
Racial tensions in Jena, Louisiana, came to a boil after a black student sat under a tree at a local high school. That tree was the usual gathering spot for white students.
The next day, three nooses were hanging from the branches. Local reports say a school district committee suspended three white students for three days for hanging the nooses, a gesture written off as a prank.
CNN's Kyra Phillips sat down with the U.S. attorney, Donald Washington. She asked him why no federal hate crime charges were filed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD WASHINGTON, U.S. ATTORNEY: Our process is to say for juveniles if you're -- if you're under the age of 18, we have to certify you and give a good reason to bring you in the federal court.
For the very same reason that the state is attempting to get Mychal Bell into state district court today, hey, we have an even stronger process, I believe, in trying to decide amongst ourselves when and how we should prosecute someone who has not reached the age of majority yet.
The other thing we did in this particular case is to establish, to the best of our ability, that there were no other adult -- there was no other adult involvement. There were no -- there was no indication of the KKK, the Aryan Nation or any other hate group, for that matter. It appeared to be that these three folks, for whatever reason, decided to hang those nooses that day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Washington says the people of Jena need to get together and talk about racial issues. He says he and his office are willing to help them do that.
Well, CNN goes inside the racial tensions in Jena, Louisiana. Tune in for a CNN special investigations unit report, "Judgment in Jena". That's tomorrow night at 8:00 Eastern, only on CNN.
LEMON: Let's turn now to Washington, D.C. It's not a deadline. Not a timeline. Not a troop reduction plan, per se, but a measure being circulated again by Democratic Senator Jim Webb, maybe Iraq war critics' best hope of hastening a U.S. drawdown.
You're looking at live pictures there in Washington, D.C. The senators are discussing the proposal right now on the floor. And many are watching for the move of a top Republican, to see what he will make, what he will do.
CNN's Dana Bash reports on this. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Freshman Democrat Jim Webb thinks he's found a way to force a change in Iraq policy: focus on the overextended troops.
SEN. JIM WEBB (D), VIRGINIA: There's nothing going on in Iraq that justifies requiring our soldiers and Marines to be in Iraq more than they're home.
BASH: His legislation mandates troops spend as much time at home as on the battlefield.
WEBB: This administration has continued its policy for 4 1/2 years. It's reached the level where they are abusing, in my view, the well-being of our troops, and the Congress has a duty to step forward.
BASH: Webb is a former Navy secretary and fought in Vietnam. His son is now serving in Iraq. He is driven by personal experience.
WEBB: I know what it's like to have a father deployed. I know what it's like to be deployed. I know what it's like to have a son deployed.
BASH: Some supporters of Webb's proposal call it a backdoor way to force redeployment from Iraq.
The Pentagon is fighting to defeat it. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned it would actually make him extend tours in Iraq, break up military units and reduce combat effectiveness.
ROBERT GATES, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Cumulative effect of these kinds of things we think would, frankly, increase the risk to our men and women in uniform over there.
WEBB: Secretary Gates is a member of this administration. This administration has created a problem that is affecting the morale and the retention of their troops.
BASH: Webb, a former Republican, says troop rest is even more critical since the president admitted the U.S. will be in Iraq for some time.
WEBB: They were denying it and denying it for years. And now they openly are saying this is going to be like Korea. So, I think they need to get their story straight.
BASH (on camera): Webb appears to have 57 of the 60 votes he needs and says he has a good chance at finding three more Republicans to pass his legislation.
But the senator says he also knows he's up against staunch opposition from the Pentagon and Republican senators like John McCain who say it's unconstitutional to limit the president's ability to deploy troops.
Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: And, again, the key no-vote on Webb's amendment could come from his fellow Virginian, outgoing Senator John Warner. He is speaking now. You're looking at live pictures of him on the right of your screen. We'll monitor his comments and let you know what he says, straight ahead, of that vote.
WHITFIELD: Time to check a little weather. Meteorologist Chad Myers is tracking some severe weather at that, including a system off Florida that is starting to cause a little bit of concern. Don't say the "H" word or the "T" word.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No. No name, no number just yet, although they are investigating it.
WHITFIELD: OK.
MYERS: It is investigating number 93, I think, they used. Now, that has nothing to do with tropical depression, tropical storm, but there is some type of circulation here. And you can see it.
I mean, OK, the clouds are going that way. And over here, the clouds are going that way. So, yes, something, some kind of low pressure is developing here. But right now it is not a tropical low. Not even a subtropical low. We got to use that term for the past couple of storms.
But it is now making an awful lot of rainfall from Orlando and from Melbourne northward. This is a major-league rainmaker for you.
Now, here it is, 93-L. Whatever. This storm is going to move across Florida. Not as a storm, but as the low, as that little circulation. Then it's going to get into the Gulf of Mexico. And then we begin to worry. Worry's maybe the wrong word. But it will begin to gain strength in this very warm water here.
And the farther it goes to the west, the stronger it could be. Now, why is that? Because it will be in the water longer. So, you get a longer period of that spin time. And so you can get it going much quicker. And if it gets into Louisiana, where most of the models are now taking it, somewhere between a tropical storm and maybe a minor hurricane.
But you remember how quickly some of these storms can form? We're going to have to keep watching it, Fred. These things can jump out of the ocean so quickly. You just can't keep up with them.
What we do know is going to happen, going to be flooding rainfall. We had it in Sawgrass and Jacksonville a couple days ago. We'll have it in Eastern Florida, all the way to Orlando for today.
WKMG, our affiliate in Daytona, Florida. I love this shot. Look at the breakers coming into Daytona. It's just an awful gray and rainy day. And it isn't going to stop. I hope that's a really good book you have in your hand right now. James Patterson or something very, very long.
WHITFIELD: Right. Folks want some rain, but not all at once where you have to sit there.
MYERS: Not while you're on the beach. No.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks a lot, Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome, Fred.
LEMON: O.J. Simpson allowed to bail out of jail. But he still faces 11 serious criminal charges. Our Jeffrey Toobin joins us with an update on that.
WHITFIELD: Plus, do you trust your doctor to give you an accurate diagnosis when you're sick? Well, maybe you shouldn't.
LEMON: And imagine a storm so dangerous, two million people had to flee. A huge typhoon makes landfall in China.
You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Fifteen past the hour. Three of the stories we're working on for you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
We're expecting O.J. Simpson to leave a Las Vegas jail within hours. Judge has set a $125,000 bond for Simpson, now facing 11 criminal charges in an alleged armed robbery.
More money, more power. The Consumer Products Safety Commission is asking a House panel today for both to better protect people from faulty products, such as the millions of Chinese-made toys that have recently been recalled.
Beirut, Lebanon, reeling from a bomb blast. It killed an anti- Syrian lawmaker and at least five other people. The lawmaker is thought to have been the target.
WHITFIELD: There's only been a couple of days, but the taser incident at the University of Florida is all over the Internet. And it seems we can't stop playing it, either.
But apart from the e-mail appeal of this video, there's serious debate now. And, today, action taken over whether tasers belong in the hands of campus police.
CNN's Alina Cho has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is a YouTube sensation and one of the most-watched videos on CNN.com. It has also reignited the debate over free speech. In case you missed it, take a look.
ANDREW MEYER, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: I didn't do anything! Don't tase me, bro. Tonight tase me.
CHO (voice-over): On Monday a University of Florida student, 21- year-old Andrew Meyer, was tasered after he loudly questioned Senator John Kerry at a campus event. Meyer has been released after spending the night in jail.
Now, University of Florida's president has placed two campus police officers on paid administrative leave. He's also opened an internal investigation and called the tasering incident regretful.
BERNIE MACHEN, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA PRESIDENT: We're absolutely committed to having a safe environment for our faculty and our students so that the free exchange of ideas can occur. Civil discourse, civil debate, are hallmarks of universities.
CHO: On his web site, Senator Kerry responded by saying, "I have never had a dialogue end this way. I believe I could have handled the situation without interruption."
Today some students are also calling on the university to ban tasers altogether. But university officials say in the wake of Virginia Tech, the tasers will stay.
Also some questions today about whether the student, Andrew Meyer, was trying to pull a prank. One officer reportedly said his demeanor completely changed once the cameras were out of sight. And, according to some reports, he even asked a woman to tape the incident using his own video camera.
(on camera) Meyer is known in some circles to for taping his own practical jokes and posting them on his web site. Either way this is serious business. He could be facing charges of resisting arrest and disturbing the peace, though no formal charges have been filed just yet.
Alina Cho, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And CNN.com has been getting thousands of clicks on this story. A lot of you voted in our "QuickVote". Do you think the officers who tasered a student at a Senator John Kerry event acted correctly? So far, 35 percent say yes; 65 percent say no.
LEMON: Very interesting.
You trust your doctor to get it right, of course. But what if the diagnosis you get is wrong? It happens more often than you might think. Coming up, the value -- the value of a second, or sometimes even a third opinion. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, the person on your left, obviously Reverend Al Sharpton. On your right, Michael Baisden, a radio talk show host, also author. They're holding a press conference about the Jena 6. Let's take a listen.
REV. AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: ... those of us in National Action Network and the family want to emphasize. This is not about politics. It's not about blacks against white. This is about equal protection under the law and justice.
We spent about 20, 25 minutes just now with Mychal. It breaks our hearts to see him handcuffed and in leg shackles. But his spirit is high. He has said that he is very encouraged to know that thousands of people are coming to this little town to stand up for him and his five friends.
He asked me to communicate that he is praying and with the grace of God he will rejoin us soon. But he does not want anything done in any way tomorrow to disparage his name with violence or even a word that is negative.
This is about standing up for justice. It's not about being against anyone. And other things we will share tomorrow.
I want to, on behalf of all of us, who have fought for justice for any length of time to thank Michael Baisden for taking his microphone and then making others do the same, at commercial sacrifice, to drumbeat for justice. And I think that we are on the eve of a historic occasion, where again we come in the Deep South to represent new hope, not to condemn, but to raise the banner of there must be equal protection under the law.
And I asked Mr. Baisden to come in early so he could meet with Mychal Bell, because Mychal Bell wanted to see him and thank him personally. And I want to thank Mr. Baisden for adjusting his schedule and coming in a day early to do this.
MICHAEL BAISDEN, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Thank you.
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Reverend Sharpton, Susan Roesgen with CNN ...
LEMON: OK. The Reverend Al Sharpton, again, right there at the center of your screen. The guy to your right that you can't see in the light shirt -- it's either white or pink, I can't tell from my monitor here -- is Mychal Baisden. He's a radio talk show host and also the author who has been sort of organizing the grassroots effort to get this march and protest down in Jena.
The Reverend Al Sharpton will be our guest shortly in the CNN NEWSROOM. Just of note to tell you, he spoke with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today on his radio show. We're going to play a bit of that. Talk to him about that and about why everyone's there.
Obviously, he's stressing nonviolence, saying that he met with Mychal Bell this morning, one of the accused, spent about 20, 25 minutes with him. He said Mychal Bell encouraged by the thousands of people who are going to show up in Jena tomorrow.
Also of note, very important to mention. My colleague, Kyra Phillips, is down in Jena, and she's going to go inside. She has a special investigation coming up tomorrow night at 8 p.m. Eastern here on CNN. We're going to do "Judgment in Jena". It's an investigation by our Kyra Phillips. Tomorrow at 8.
She's also going to join us tomorrow in the CNN NEWSROOM to preview that special documentary for us -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: We look forward to that.
And the Fed-inspired rally continues for a second straight day on Wall Street. But is all the optimism justified?
Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange, to explain what the interest rate cut will and won't mean for you and me.
Hi, Susan.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka.
Yes, I guess we have to put a little bit of reality check in after the euphoria we saw on Wall Street yesterday. We all know that, by cutting interest rates, the Fed has provided some relief to credit card users, car buyers and to some homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages.
But relief only to a certain extent. Resets of those adjustable rates mortgages to higher rates to low teaser rates are expected to peak over the next few months. And while the rate cut will provide some relief, monthly payments are still heading higher for many homeowners. That means we may still see more homes for sale on top of what is already a huge glut.
Some economists are concerned the rate cut could bring about a return of more risky speculation, and eventually lead us back to the very conditions that forced the feds to act in the first place -- Fred. Coming full circle, so to speak.
WHITFIELD: Yes, we like that, sort of, right? Well, the Fed, running to the rescue. Well, they weren't the only ones. Who else?
LISOVICZ: That's right. Congress also took action, as well. The House approved a plan that allows the Federal Housing Authority to back refinance loans for borrowers hurt by a rate recess. FHA insures mortgages for low- and middle-income borrowers. That move could provide help for up to 200,000 borrowers.
The Senate committee takes up the measure today.
Meanwhile, housing starts and permits for new construction fell to 12-year lows in August. The results, worse than economists had expected. That's exactly why the Fed was acting.
(STOCK REPORT)
LISOVICZ: Coming up, Wal-Mart prescribes a new health insurance plan for its workers. I'll have that in the next hour of NEWSROOM. In the meantime, I'll turn it back to you, Fred and don.
WHITFIELD: All right, we look forward to that and hopefully, we'll still see that plus sign, as well.
LISOVICZ: Uh-huh.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks a lot, Susan.
He'll be leaving Las Vegas, but what's the next move? CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin looks at new developments for the O.J. Simpson and where it might go from here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Hello, everyone, I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in today for Kyra Phillips.
O.J. Simpson told to handover $125,000 and his passport, but what happens next?
LEMON: Yes, what happens next? We're going to check in with CNN's senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, for the latest on this, of course, headline-grabbing case, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
But first, at the bottom of the hour, nerves on edge in Jena, Louisiana. Protesters are on their way to the small southern town for tomorrow's show of support for the so-called Jena 6, the group of black students charged in the beating of a white schoolmate. Right now, the hope in Jena is that everything stays peaceful.
Let's go to our Susan Roesgen, who is there on the ground.
Reverend Al Sharpton just wrapped up a press conference moments ago, saying the same sentiment; he hopes everything stays peaceful for tomorrow. Susan?
ROESGEN: Absolutely, Don. Reverend Sharpton just came out of a meeting with Mychal Bell, the first of the Jena 6, the six black teenagers accused of beating a white student here at the Jena high school last year. He just met with Mychal Bell. Reverend Sharpton told me last night that he planned to ask Mychal Bell. Reverend Sharpton had told me last night that he planned to ask Mychal Bell to give him a statement that could be read at the rally tomorrow since Bell is still locked up in jail. He's been in jail here in Jena since last December.
I asked Reverend Sharpton, OK, so we know certainly know that black residents welcome you here, welcome the support for the Jena 6, but I asked him what he thought about the white residents and their fear that this rally is not a good thing, their concerns for people here protesting in Jena tomorrow.
And here's what Reverend Sharpton had to say: (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: I want to emphasize, this is not about politics, it's not about blacks against whites; this is about equal protection under the law and justice. We spent about 20, 25 minutes just now with Mychal. It breaks our hearts to see him handcuffed and in leg shackles, but his spirit is high. He has said that he is very encouraged to know that thousands of people are coming to this little town to stand up for him and his five friends. He asked me to communicate that he is praying, and with the grace of God, he will rejoin us soon.
But he does not want anything to be done in any way tomorrow to disparage his name, with violence or even a word that is negative. This is about standing up for justice; this is not about being against anyone. And..
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROESGEN: Don, I also talked to Reverend Sharpton about Justin Barker, the white victim, and his family's feelings. Justin Barker told me last night that his family has received hate mail and death threats. And Reverend Sharpton said to me, and I'm quoting here, "We are not protesting for the rights of black kids to beat up white kids." He said, "We don't endorse beating anyone up." He's simply here because he believes the legal system failed these kids, that the charges were too high, too excessive, for the crime, for beating up a student in school.
So right now we understand that Reverend Sharpton has gone back into the courthouse here behind me to do his nationally syndicated radio show. He'll come out again later, and then we probably won't see him again until the big rally tomorrow, Don. They're going to have a group of buses get together in Alexandria. That's about an hour and 10 minutes away. Bus here, get here about 7:00 local time. They're going to make a speech right here where I'm standing. They'll have the families of the Jena 6. They'll have a couple of the students themselves. They'll make a few remarks, and then they're going to march about a mile to Jena High School, where the beating was last December, and then come back to the courthouse, get back on buses and go back to Alexandria.
Townspeople here are very concerned that this town of about 3,000 people just can't handle tens of thousands of potential protesters.
LEMON: Right, and we're going to talk to the Reverend Al Sharpton just a bit later on in the CNN NEWSROOM.
I want to talk just a little bit about your last comments. We spoke to some business owners yesterday. A lot of people are closing their doors, and people are leaving the town because these people are coming in. Is that correct?
ROESGEN: We've heard that some people have. We've heard that a lot of businesses will close, either because they're afraid of potential property damage, or they have been told that the organizers have urged the protesters not to buy anything in this town, to boycott this town. So if you are a business owner here in Jena and you sold water, or you let people use your restroom or you have a cafe here, general thinking might be, why be open? We're going to have a ton of people here, and they won't be buying any of our goods. That's one thing that people are talking about.
There are others who believe that it's just too frightening to have that many people here. We've heard everything from 5,000 people, Don, to perhaps 50,000 people. But that number could be vastly inflated. We just won't know until tomorrow when we see how many people really do come.
LEMON: Won't know until it happens. Our Susan Roesgen on the ground. Thank you for that report. Again, we're going to have the Reverend Al Sharpton here in the CNN NEWSROOM, talk about him speaking this morning with Mychal Bell, as well as interviewing Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on this subject.
And CNN goes inside the racial tensions in Jena, Louisiana. Tune in for a CNN special investigation's unit report, "Judgment in Jena." That's tomorrow night, Thursday at 8:00 Eastern, only on CNN.
WHITFIELD: O.J. Simpson shedding his blue jumpsuit and handcuffs and gearing up for what could be another headline-grabbing court battle. Simpson's expected to leave a Las Vegas jail within hours now after a judge set bail at $125,000. He simply answered "yes" in a hoarse voice when asked if he understood the 11 criminal charges against him stemming from an alleged armed robbery.
Afterward his attorney was more vocal, and so was an apparent Simpson fan, who stood near the microphone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YALE GALANTER, SIMPSON'S ATTY.: What we came here to do this morning, we got accomplished. Our goal was to get what is in my opinion a fair, reasonable bond, allow Mr. Simpson to go home and be with his family. That is going to be accomplished. And we thank everybody who facilitated that in happening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Touchdown, dude. Touchdown.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right, so you heard the fan in the background. So was this a touchdown or were there serious penalties which is O.J. Simpson -- which, rather, is he heading for? Let's bring in our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin.
Good to see you, Jeffrey.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Hi, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: So, with these charges, what is the first line of defense for his defense team? TOOBIN: Well, you mentioned, you know, what -- like a football game. We are very much in the first quarter here. In fact, Yale Galanter, the lead defense attorney, said today, he's about to start a three-month trial elsewhere.
WHITFIELD: Right.
TOOBIN: He doesn't even think the motions in the case, much less the trial of the case, will start until next year. So this case has moved very quickly so far. The incident was last Thursday. The arrest was Sunday. He's out on bail today. But things are now going to slow down considerably.
WHITFIELD: Well, he, Yale Galanter, even said he has yet to get through all the evidence, to really get through all the facts of the case. But in his view, what has been publicized has been highly inflated. But isn't a defense attorney supposed to say that?
TOOBIN: Well, absolutely. But I think it is true that this case does not look like it's an open-and-shut victory for the prosecution.
WHITFIELD: Why is that?
TOOBIN: Well, assuming that any jury will look at the evidence in this case and not simply look at O.J. Simpson and say, guilty, assuming that they look at the evidence, it seems like a very confusing situation. You have a dispute about who owned this property that was seized in this hotel room. You have the memorabilia dealer, Thomas Riccio, who acknowledged to Larry King last night that he was the person who led O.J. up there, while taping, raising the question, why did he get immunity and Simpson's being prosecuted on all these very serious felonies? The question of who initiated this activity, what was meant by this visit to the hotel room, who controlled the gun that may have been present there, who knew that a gun was involved. I mean, this is a very, at the moment, not -- doesn't look like a tremendously strong case, assuming the jury evaluates it carefully.
WHITFIELD: And the defense team will also try to argue, while you mentioned, you know, Tom Riccio gets immunity and, you know, O.J. Simpson is facing a charge that has a -- up to life imprisonment penalty along with, the fact that his alleged accomplices were able to get out on bail. So, there are a lot of inconsistencies in the layers who are involved in this alleged incident, and so the defense has to say, well, wait a minute, is our client being treated this way because he is O.J. Simpson?
TOOBIN: There will certainly be an argument made by some people that this whole incident, this, you know, crazy hotel room scuffle involving apparently 10 people in this relatively small hotel room, is something that doesn't belong in a criminal courtroom, that it was simply a dispute among various, not-too-respectable people over who owned some merchandise, where I am certain we will never know with certainty who really owned this stuff.
That this is not the kind of thing that criminal courts were invented for, and that they're just trying to get Simpson on something he didn't -- you know, when the -- what they really want to get him for is the murder for which he was acquitted. Those arguments will be heard quite a bit as this case moves forward.
But the prosecution at this point has to make some decisions about who gets immunity, whether they cut deals with anyone besides Simpson and do they go to a preliminary hearing or the grand jury.
WHITFIELD: And are you seeing that this -- and are you seeing that the road is being built for, indeed, some sort of deal being cut by O.J. Simpson, given that his attorney was, you know, very gracious, you know, about applauding the district attorney's office in the way the prosecutors have handled things thus far?
TOOBIN: Well, I am certain ...
WHITFIELD: Or at least their conversation.
TOOBIN: ...that Yale Galanter's agenda at this point is to say to the prosecutors, look, take some time, investigate it, and drop the whole thing. That's what lawyers do at this point. I don't know if that's plausible or possible here.
But this is a moment in the case before a preliminary hearing or before a grand jury when prosecutors sometimes take stock and say, you know ...
WHITFIELD: Yes.
TOOBIN: ...better leave the whole thing alone.
WHITFIELD: All right, Jeffrey Toobin, thanks so much. We'll be talking to you again, I'm sure.
TOOBIN: See you, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks.
Well, 11 counts, 10 of them felonies. If you want to read the full criminal complaint against O.J. Simpson, you can just logon to CNN.com and you can watch any courtroom drama in this case as it unfolds. Again, that's CNN.com.
LEMON: You trust your doctor to get it right, but what if the diagnosis you get from that doctor is wrong? Happens more often than you might think. Coming up, the value of second or even a third opinion in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, well doctors sometimes get it wrong. A study in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" found doctors misdiagnose illnesses 10 to 15 percent of the time.
In today's Empowered Patient segment, CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen tells us how to know whether we've been given bad information. ELIZABETH COHEN, MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, because if you think if people get misdiagnosed about 10 to 15 percent of the time, that means that there's a pretty good chance ...
LEMON: Yes.
COHEN: ...in your lifetime you're going to get misdiagnosed.
And so, in today's Empowered Patient column on CNN.com/health, we tell you how you can figure out if you've been misdiagnosed because it is not always clear.
In fact, we talked to a woman who was misdiagnosed with this horrible form of cancer, they said it could kill her in six months, and she didn't have cancer. And so, she has a list of things that you should keep in mind to help you figure out if you've been a victim of misdiagnosis.
The first one is, if your diagnosis is based purely on a lab test like this woman's was, you should be a little bit suspicious and start asking questions. If the doctor says, look, we took a biopsy of that lump and it came back to be this horrible cancer, you should ask, gosh, is there anything else besides that lab test, because lab tests are sometimes wrong.
So now, again, you're not diagnosing yourself. What you're doing is you're asking the doctor the right questions to help them get to the right diagnose.
LEMON: OK, lab test, check, got that on your checklist. Any other suspicions, any other things that might make you suspicious?
COHEN: Yes, now this one is going to sound very obvious. People might think duh, but actually people make this mistake quite often. If the doctor diagnoses you and treats you and you don't get better, you should be thinking, have I been misdiagnosed?
There are just story after story of people who are treated, diagnosed and treated, and they don't get better. So, they try another drug to treat that diagnosis, and that doesn't work, either. And it can go on for months and months.
There was actually a lawyer who worked for a hospital system in Massachusetts who said we had two doctors in our hospital that diagnosed acid reflux for a woman who actually had acute pancreatitis and ended up in kidney failure, on dialysis for the rest of her life. She wasn't getting any better. And really, she should have said something to her doctor, like you know, I'm not getting better ...
LEMON: Right.
COHEN: ...are you sure you've got this right?
LEMON: OK, so I know from doctors who are friends, some doctors love it, some doctors hate it, people come in armed with ...
COHEN: Yes.
LEMON: ...all this information from the Internet. Does that help? Does the Internet help in all of this?
COHEN: The Internet can help you as long as you don't use it to diagnose yourself.
Here's how the Internet can help. When your doctor gives you a diagnosis, you can go online and look up that diagnosis, there's so much great information out there.
So, for example, if your doctor says you have tendinitis and you are still aching a year later, you might find out on the Internet that tendinitis doesn't usually go on that long. And so, you might go back to the doctor and say, you know, I looked up tendinitis which is what you tell me that I have, but I've had this for a really long time and tendinitis doesn't usually last that long.
So, that's another tip. And you can get more if you go to CNN.com/health.
LEMON: Speaking of the Internet, right.
COHEN: Yes.
LEMON: OK, see if we got it. Lab tests only, not getting better, and then Internet. Thank you ...
COHEN: Thank you.
LEMON: ...very much for that information.
To find out more about what Elizabeth just talked about, more about how to become an empowered patient, go to our Web site. It is at CNN.com/health.
Thanks again, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks.
WHITFIELD: Federal health experts are sounding a new warning over flu shots. They say only a fraction of the people who need the shots are actually getting them. That includes just one in five babies and toddlers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JULIE GERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: Some people don't get vaccinated because they don't have confidence in the vaccine. In fact, some people are afraid that the vaccine causes flu. We know that's not true. This is -- a vaccine has -- does not cause flu in any way, shape, or form. It is a very safe vaccine. And it certainly is not a factor in developing flu-like illness among people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: The CDC says the flu vaccine supply will hit record levels this fall. Flu kills about 36,000 Americans every year.
LEMON: Typhoon Wipha hits eastern China. We'll look at the damage left behind, straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: I know you can identify with this one. Ever been stuck for hours on a flight going nowhere? If not, some angry airline passengers want you and Congress to know what it feels like. They've put up a tent in Washington painted to look like an airliner. It's supposed to simulate a delayed flight sitting on an airport tarmac, hot and sticky, complete with the sound of screaming babies and simulated overflowing toilets. Even some airline pilots agree, it's time for a change.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRUCE HEDLUND, PILOT: When we make the decision to return to the terminal, we are left with few options. Many times, the gates are occupied by other flights. There are few commercial airliners today with internal stairs that can be accessed by crew members on board the aircraft.
And the airports and the airlines have not provided an infrastructure that would include stairs and buses to provide me, as a captain, with additional options to get you safely off of my aircraft and into the terminal, which -- where you would much rather be, I'm sure. And it is past time to provide these options.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Congress is considering an airline passenger's bill of rights. But no votes have been taken. The airlines say legislation is unnecessary because they've already come up with plans to cope with future delays.
LEMON: A major storm, but not as bad as millions of Chinese feared. The Chinese coast around Shanghai is starting to check the damage from a typhoon that swept through just hours ago.
CNN's John Vause reports from Beijing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With Typhoon Wipha on a collision course for Shanghai, authorities prepared for the worst. But this sprawling city of close to 20 million people were spared a direct hit as the storm made landfall some 240 miles to the south in Jorjong (ph) Province.
As hurricane-force winds swept across the coast, hundreds of homes collapsed. Officials estimate hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars in damage. But somehow, no deaths, no injuries reported here, even though authorities described Wipha as a supertyphoon, potentially the most devastating to hit China in a decade. Officials took no chances. Around two million people were forced to move to safer shelter. According to state media, the biggest mass evacuation this part of China has seen since the Communist Revolution.
"The company we work with evacuated us to this school. We came here around 4:00 yesterday afternoon," says this man.
Many went to hospitals, government office buildings and schools like this. "We have to be careful and take good care of these people. As to when we can let them go back, we need to wait for the advice of the government," says the headmaster of the elementary school.
Severe winds meant air travel was severely disrupted while huge seas sent ferries back to port. More than 40,000 fishing boats were forced into harbor or further out to sea.
Wipha is now slowly losing steam as it heads north up China's mainland. While the winds are slowly starting to ease, there is still the fear that heavy rainfall might bring widespread flooding.
John Vause, CNN, Beijing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And now a deadly confrontation, conflicting versions of what went down. Coming up in the NEWSROOM, Aneesh Raman hears from Iraqis who say Blackwater Security fired first.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, we have a new twist for you on the story of three bears. This time from Highland Lakes, New Jersey. Take a look at that.
WHITFIELD: Oh, look at that.
LEMON: They're cute. Yes, but do you want them in your backyard?
WHITFIELD: They're having fun. Well, as long as I'm inside and the doors are shut.
LEMON: Yes, and a telephone, right?
WHITFIELD: And with a video camera like that.
LEMON: There's no Goldilocks in this story, just three bears who thought this backyard hammock would be just right. Only one problem, as any human can tell you, ever try to get into a hammock?
WHITFIELD: Yes.
LEMON: It can be a real bear.
WHITFIELD: Oh, that's cute. LEMON: Susan Keo (ph), that's her name. She took these pictures in her backyard -- are we just lingering, because it's so cute -- before she shooed the bears away. She says she loves the bears in the wild, just not in her hammock in her backyard. Shooed them away, I think I'd -- a For Sale sign for me would be going up. I saw a snake, I'm ready to move already, so you know, if I saw bears in my backyard.
WHITFIELD: Just hang tough.
LEMON: Just hang tough.
Next hour, the CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
WHITFIELD: No more handcuffs, no more jail cell, no more courtrooms, maybe, for O.J. Simpson, at least for a while.
LEMON: That's right, Fred. Simpson's soon to be free on bail after a turbulent trip to Las Vegas that'll keep him going for a long time to come.
Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon live at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield in today for Kyra Phillips.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com
