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Sixth Defendant in Simpson Case Turns Himself In; Two Shot on Delaware Campus; Florida Town Damaged by Storm

Aired September 21, 2007 - 13:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CO-HOST: Well, it turned heads. It looked real, and a lot of people, well, they took it very seriously. But is it art? Not when you wear it in an airport, as an MIT student just learned in Boston. We'll have the very latest in a live report.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CO-HOST: And we're also watching a subtropical depression gathering steam in the northern Gulf of Mexico. It's not big enough to have a name just yet. But warnings are already posted.

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.

And we start the NEWSROOM today with some developing news. Actually, it's breaking news. Just in to the CNN NEWSROOM. A sixth defendant has turned himself in in the O.J. Simpson case.

And here's the deal. His name is Charles Erhlich. He traveled from Florida, we are told, to answer the charges outlined in an amended complaint filed in open court this morning.

We're also told that bail for Mr. Erhlich was set at $32,000. He must surrender his passport, and the judge ordered him to report in Monday to Friday to his attorney.

But, again, a sixth person has turned himself in in the O.J. Simpson trial.

Also of note, bail has been set for defendant Charles Cashmore. We've been talking about him also in this case, $28,000 for him.

The latest person to turn himself in, $32,000. The latest person is Charles Erhlich. We're going to continue to follow this developing story about the O.J. Simpson case and this new person turning himself in throughout the afternoon here in the CNN NEWSROOM -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Also, all eyes this hour on Boston, where police say 19-year-old Star Simpson is lucky that she's just in jail and not in a morgue.

Here's the new video of her appearing in court just this afternoon. You can see her way in the background there, to the right. Officers armed with submarine guns arrested Simpson this morning and charged her with disorderly conduct. They say she showed up at Boston's Logan Airport with a fake bomb. The woman, an MIT College student, reportedly says it was an art project.

And we'll have a live report coming up from CNN's Dan Lothian in Boston momentarily.

LEMON: OK, also, now to Delaware. Delaware State University on lockdown. Just before 1 a.m. two students were shot on campus and the gunman still out there somewhere.

They are starting a press conference now to talk about that. The big question: what are these students doing, Fredricka, while they're on lockdown? We're going to -- they're doing the introductions now to this press conference.

Kathleen Koch is there. We're going to get back to this just as soon as they finish introducing folks. And we'll let you know what the news is out of there -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Meantime, one day after thousands of people marched in Jena, Louisiana, to support him and five other teens, Mychal Bell could get out of jail. It all depends on what happens at a bond hearing.

For the latest, let's go to CNN's Sean Callebs in Jena.

And Sean, what do we know is actually taking place in this hearing?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we can tell you, because Mychal Bell is being treated as a juvenile, 17 years old now, the court proceedings are closed to the general public. We saw his mom and his grandfather walk in a short while ago.

There are a couple of things going on. Firstly, the defense is trying to get the judge, who has been hearing the case for months involving Mychal Bell, J.P. Mauffray, recused. They would like him pulled from this case.

Apparently, that is the first issue that is going to be going on inside the La Salle Courthouse behind me.

Now, secondly, once that has been concluded, one way or the other, the defense is trying to get a bond set for Mychal Bell, so he can be released from jail, where he has been held since last December.

Of course, we all know by now, after that massive demonstration yesterday, the attention that's been focused on the events here in Jena, that the district attorney has really pinpointed Bell as the instigator in just an ugly beating at the local high school, where Bell and five other teens allegedly beat a white teenager so badly that he had to be taken to the hospital.

Well, the -- we've had a chance to speak with Bell's attorney on the way in. And he is hopeful that Bell is going to be released today, but he was very tightlipped.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been trying to get an order for his release. We're trying to get it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you confident you'll get it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll see what happens. I don't like to speculate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CALLEBS: So right now everything still going on inside, Fredricka. We'll be out here monitoring. We'll bring you the latest information as it becomes available.

WHITFIELD: All right, Sean, thanks so much. We'll check back with you. And when we do, I want to find out about the scene outside. Because we can hear, certainly, a lot of ambient noise where there is quite the attendance outside that courtroom -- Don.

LEMON: And straight to Dover, Delaware, now for that press conference. They're taking questions about what happened on the university campus there. Let's take a listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I can speak a lot for the administrators that are there now, because we told nonessential personnel not to come to work today, because we did not hold classes today.

But, of course, we are very troubled and saddened by this event. This is nothing that any administrator wants to happen on their university campus. Certainly, they didn't want what happened down at Virginia Tech to happen down there.

But we have been very busy with the work of dealing with all the issues that come with this type of thing. Coming to the decisions that we've had to make about closing classes and taking care of the students that are still on campus. Dealing with the issues related to the media and trying to get ourselves in a position to provide you with the information. So, we've been pretty busy.

So, we cannot really dwell a lot on how much we're troubled by this and saddened by this. We have work to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) timely warning notification?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Timely warning notification.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four hour after the shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nope, nope, nope. OK, hold off on that. I'm going to let the chief give a statement and then I'm going to come back and I'm going to talk about that, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After the chief gets his say.

LEMON: He said he's going to come back and talk about that. Apparently, they're waiting for the police chief to show up to give them some more information and update on this.

But again, as he said, nonessential personnel being asked not to go in. The campus on lockdown. Students are being asked to stay there. Troubled and saddened, he said, by the events. Also bring up the sad event that happened at Virginia Tech just a couple months back.

But speaking of students being on lockdown now. We have a student on the telephone right now.

Where are you, sir? I would imagine. Is it a young man?

AKOSUA HWEDIE, DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY JUNIOR: No.

LEMON: No, it's a young lady.

HWEDIE: Yes.

LEMON: OK. Hello, yes. This is just coming in. Where are you and what's going on? Are you in a dorm? Are you on campus?

HWEDIE: I'm in an apartment on campus.

LEMON: So tell us, you're on lockdown. What are they telling you? I understand that you can go somewhere, pick up a phone. It gives you information. But where are you going if you need to, you know, food or you need to speak to someone. What -- what are the instructions being given to you?

HWEDIE: Well, the only instruction that I was given was just to remain indoors. And they gave out a timely notification saying that they'll provide whatever needs to be provided to the students. But since I'm in an apartment, I kind of have kind of food resources and all that.

LEMON: Yes. So tell us when this shooting happened, where were you? Did you hear anything? Have you heard from other students? Tell us about when it went down, what you were doing?

HWEDIE: I was in my apartment when it took place, and I received a phone call from one of my friends telling me that there had been a shooting on campus. So, I really wasn't at the scene when it happened.

LEMON: OK. And say your name. It's Hweida (ph) is your last name? Hweija (ph)?

HWEDIE: Hwedie.

LEMON: Hwedie (ph). And your first name is Akusla (ph)? HWEDIE: Akosua.

LEMON: Akosua. OK. So you were on campus, and you're now -- what about your friends? Anyone involved in incident, that you know?

HWEDIE: I don't know, because they haven't released any names. So I'm unaware of who was actually involved.

LEMON: OK. When you heard about it, I'm sure it comes back to you, all the other campus shootings which, you know, sadly ends in tragedies. All of that came back to you, I'm sure. What was going through your head?

HWEDIE: I was just worried. I was sitting, waiting to find out more information and wondering, like, when are they going to catch the person who did it.

LEMON: Yes.

HWEDIE: I just wanted more information.

LEMON: Yes. Well, we wish you well. If you get any more information, please give us a call back here. We wish you well, as well as the rest of the students.

Again, campus on lockdown there for two students being shot this morning. And they're also waiting, at last word, to hear about a possible suspect. And who they're searching for.

The police chief just arrived to the press conference, Fredricka. Let's take a live picture now. The police chief arriving, this person before introducing the police chief. But apparently he's just arriving.

Anytime something like this happens, you know, on a university campus, we'll obviously bring it to you. And it's very, very serious.

WHITFIELD: It is, indeed. And it looks like we're going to get a chance to hear from him now.

CHIEF JAMES OVERTON, DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY POLICE: Good afternoon. The Delaware State University Police Department is currently investigating a shooting incident that took place earlier this morning.

Sometime between midnight and 1 a.m. this morning, a group of eight to ten students left the Village Cafe and dispersed. At some point soon after that, students ended up in the pedestrian mall between Grossly Hall and Memorial Hall. Shortly before 1 a.m. a gun was produced in the area among these students, and approximately four to six shots were fired.

A 17-year-old male student and a 17-year-old female student, both from the D.C. area, Washington, D.C., area, were struck by gunfire.

The DSU police were contacted approximately 12:54 a.m. and informed that there had been a shooting at the location and that there were injuries. Ambulances were called immediately, and police were dispatched to the scene, where they found the two wounded students.

The students were transported to local hospitals. The male student was shot once and is in stable condition. The female student, who was shot twice, is in serious condition.

In accordance with federal laws relating to privacy of students, we're not at liberty to divulge any more details about their injuries. The DSU Police Department and the Dover Police Department are conducting a joint investigation and have interviewed numerous persons. They have identified two persons of interest, both students, one of whom have been located, and we are in the process of interviewing.

The joint investigation is continuing, and those two agencies are always receiving some additional assistance from the Delaware State Police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the U.S. Marshal Service and the Delaware attorney general's office. However, DSU police is the lead investigator on this case.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Delaware State University Police is the lead investigator in this case, if you did not -- I have copies of that statement for you all, because I know some of you were in the back and you didn't get a chance to hear.

LEMON: OK. The police chief there in Dover, Delaware, holding this press conference, saying that sometime between midnight and 1 a.m. a group of students together somehow ended up back at a pedestrian hall, as he put it, on campus. And there's a -- the memorial gymnasium there. I guess apparently where it happened, if you're looking at that graphic on our air there.

Two students ended up being shot, a male student and a female student. The male student we're told, shot once, stable condition; female student, shot twice, is in serious condition.

At first we heard that they were looking for one suspect, one suspect on the loose. We're hearing now there are two people of interest. One person has been located. Another person they're still looking to talk to.

Again, you heard the police chief saying very serious charges right now. Of course, everyone wondering and their minds and thoughts are with those two students who have been shot.

So, we're going to continue to follow this developing story. Again, two people of interest in this case. Two people shot. One person has been spoken to by police. Another person they're looking for. One person in serious condition. Another in very serious condition in Dover, Delaware.

A serious story, we're going to continue to follow it today.

WHITFIELD: Very serious, indeed. Something else we're following, we're going to take you to Florida where some pretty severe weather overnight has caused a lot of devastation there. We're going to talk live with a reporter on the scene as well as check in with our Bonnie Schneider on what else might be expected weather-wise.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Let's talk dangerous weather. A small town in central Florida has been slammed by what may have been a tornado. Property damage is pretty heavy. But so far, no word of any serious injuries. That's good news.

Reporter Jon Petramala with our affiliate Bay News 9 is with us now from Eustis, Florida.

Pretty ugly scene behind you.

JON PETRAMALA, BAY NEWS 9 CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's a mess. That's the best way to describe it.

It's about 11 last night, neighbors say, when they heard what they say was a freight train. That's what it sounded like to them. They didn't get any warning. They didn't see anything coming. They just heard that freight train.

Now let's show you what sounded like a freight train, what that caused to this neighborhood. It's about a six-block area. And as you can see, roofs have been torn off, trees are just a mess, the limbs have just been ripped away. You know, it's just a mess.

In all officials say about 20 homes have been left uninhabitable by this storm. Another 30 were damaged. And like you said, amazingly nobody was killed in this storm. Only about one person was injured. That's the report we've gotten so far.

People, though, are really coming together really fast to get this fixed up. Let me show you over here. As you can see, all up and down this street, there are piles about shoulder high of debris that people have just started to clean up, you know. They wake up and they see the damage. But right away, they get to cleaning up.

You can hear chain saws in the background. Everybody is really coming together to get this neighborhood back in shape.

And speaking of getting back to normal, I saw the mailman just a little while ago, and he was going door to door to people's homes, seeing if they are OK. But also, as you can see behind me, there really aren't many mailboxes around for him to deliver the mail to.

Back to you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Always ready to deliver, no matter what. So does it seemed like this tornado touched down in kind of one central location, or is there a wide swath that it appeared to cut, as well?

PETRAMALA: It seems to me that it's been a wide swath. I really haven't been able to see any other video from helicopters flying overhead. But just here on the ground, it just appears it's just a swath.

You know, in storms like this, it's really weird. You'll have homes just like this one with the roof torn off. But then right next door to it, there's no damage at all. And that's -- that's usually indicative of a tornado or a storm similar to that.

WHITFIELD: Yes, that's the freaky thing of those storms. All right. Thanks so much. Jon Petramala, with Bay News 9 there in Eustis, Florida.

LEMON: We're going to stick with the weather there. A new worry, a big worry, this hour for the parts of Gulf Coast. Storm force warnings are in place for Apalachicola, Florida, to the mouth of the Mississippi River. That includes the Katrina-battered Mississippi Gulf Coast and also New Orleans.

The latest now from meteorologist Bonnie Schneider in the CNN severe weather center -- Bonnie.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: All right, Don, we are looking at a subtropical depression. It doesn't sound that serious, because of the subtropical word. But that really just has to do with the temperature at different levels of the storm. This is still going to be, likely, a tropical storm. The next name on the list is Jerry.

And what you're looking at right now is this really cool image of the visible satellite image, meaning the satellite pictures were taken during the daylight hours, so it's the most recent pictures. And you can see the curvature of that storm, that counterclockwise flow very close to land right now.

That's why this storm really won't intensify to hurricane strength; it doesn't have the time to do that.

But currently, you can see the track kind of hugs the coast. And even for a short while on Saturday morning when it's in the Gulf of Mexico, that will help it maintain its strength. Likely to become a tropical storm with winds as strong as 45 miles per hour early on Saturday and then early on Saturday night.

And you can see, yes, the path does take it over New Orleans. And that is one of our biggest concerns, because we could see on the high side between two and five, possibly even six inches of rain in isolated areas. Doesn't mean we'll definitely get that for New Orleans, but we're likely to see portions of heavy rain and strong wind.

A tropical storm warning is in effect, as you mentioned, from parts of Florida all the way through to Louisiana. That means that tropical-storm force conditions are going to occur, likely, within the next 24 hours. So that's why we're watching this storm so closely.

Take a look at the radar picture. You can see the circular motion of this storm. Plenty of moisture coming in from the Gulf of Mexico. And it's coming in heavy at times. We're getting some real strong downpours from Tallahassee down to Panama City and then back out coming into the gulf as this storm kind of winds up.

We're waiting for more data to come in from hurricane hunter aircraft. The latest report still has this as a subtropical depression, but I think any time this afternoon we're likely to see the tropical depression get upgraded to a tropical storm. So it's something we're watching very, very closely -- Don.

LEMON: Yes. And it sounds like you should be. All right, Bonnie. You know, we'll continue to check back with you with that going on. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: How about this, the NRA and the '08 candidates for president? Guns and politics meet on the national stage today. You might be surprised who's grabbing some of the limelight.

LEMON: And just look at this video. Wow. A woman tasered by police. Here's a question, did the officer on the scene go too far? Watch and listen to the tape with us.

WHITFIELD: Boy, I'm still stunned by those images.

OK, then, later, if you are what you eat, then you might be amazed to learn what Americans are actually really made of.

LEMON: There's a hint right there on the video.

WHITFIELD: Dr. Sanjay Gupta with surprising info about what is in our bodies. That's a good, thing, though.

LEMON: Well, not always.

WHITFIELD: Really? Corn?

LEMON: No. You're going to be surprised.

WHITFIELD: Oh, man. I'm going to be so disappointed. It's my fave.

LEMON: I talked to him just minutes ago. We're going to find out.

WHITFIELD: All right. Really?

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We have a very important recall to tell you about today involving baby cribs. Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange with all the details on that.

Hi, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don.

This one is really alarming. The Consumer Products Safety Commission says there is a voluntary recall of one million Simplicity cribs, but for some families it's too late. There have already been two infant deaths. Another seven children who have gotten trapped.

The problem is that the drop side can detach from the crib, which can create a dangerous gap and lead to entrapment or suffocation.

The recalled cribs were made in China and sold nationwide from January 1998 through May of this year. Safety officials are warning parents to check all cribs made by Simplicity, which includes some popular brand names such as Grayco -- or Graco -- Aspen and Nursery in a Box.

You'll want to make sure the drop side is installed right side up. At least one fatality is linked to a crib that was installed upside-down. Can you imagine?

You can contact the manufacturer, Simplicity, at 888-593-9274, 888-593-9274. The manufacturer will do a free repair or inspect the crib to make sure that it was assembled properly -- Don

LEMON: Yes, that's an important number. So let's leave that up there again, 888 -- Susan -- 593-9274.

And all those names you mentioned, very popular names when it comes to baby accessories and cribs.

LISOVICZ: And a lot of people, you know, assemble those cribs and it was a very common mistake apparently or a common mistake.

LEMON: OK. Speaking of children and small people, little people, Mattel, another saga there with the recalls. What's going on with that?

LISOVICZ: Well, of course, I mean, this has been a -- the word "recall" and "children" has been something that we've been mentioning a lot over the summer. More than 20 million of the summer's toy recalls were from Mattel. They were also made in China.

But today an extraordinary apology from the world's biggest toy maker. It apologized to China. An executive with the company told a high-ranking Chinese official in a face-to-face meeting that the vast majority of those products that were recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel's design, not through a manufacturing flaw in China's manufacturers.

When Mattel announced its recalls, needless to say the company's stock dropped and pulled down other toy makers, as well.

But today Mattel shares are up more than 1.5 percent on an analyst's upgrade who said Mattel's problems are now behind it and the company has a strong product line for 2008. This is a story that will continue. We haven't even gotten into the holiday season yet. Yes.

LEMON: I'm going to ask you, is that maybe because people thinking Mattel is having trouble, the stock is down, maybe it's a good time to get in now as you're saying it's all behind them and they've got good stuff?

LISOVICZ: That's right. I mean, that's basically what the analysts from Oppenheimer are saying, that -- that a lot of the problems are now behind it, the recalls, and that in addition to that, very important for a toy maker, or for any company that makes stuff, is what you've got. What have you got in the pipeline?

The analyst says that it's got a strong product line for '08 and therefore upgraded Mattel, and other investors agree. The stock is doing nicely today.

(STOCK REPORT)

LISOVICZ: Coming up next hour, $1 billion just doesn't get you what it used to. I'll tell you what it takes to get on the elite list of the country's richest people. That is, you know, kind of the story that we live vicariously. Sad to say.

LEMON: Yes.

LISOVICZ: Sad to say. Don and Fred.

LEMON: Enough said, right?

LISOVICZ: Yes.

LEMON: All right, Susan, thank you.

LISOVICZ: You got it.

WHITFIELD: Republican presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani, on the spot at an NRA conference. How does he explain his lawsuit against the gun industry? We'll tell you, coming up, in the "NEWSROOM."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Come on in, everybody. I'm Don Lemon, live in the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

And I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Kyra Phillips. You are in the NEWSROOM.

WHITFIELD: Some pretty severe weather in many parts of country. Last hour we talked about Florida, last 30 minutes. Well, now, look at Minnesota. This is what happened as a result of what's being described as some pretty serious wind damage.

(WEATHER REPORT) (NEWSBREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, suspect No. 6 in the O.J. Simpson case has turned himself in. Charles Ruth Ehrlich faces charges of armed robbery, and assault with a deadly weapon and kidnapping. His lawyer says Ehrlich was an acquaintance of Simpson's. A judge set bail at $32,000. Six men, including Simpson, are accused of bursting into a Las Vegas hotel room last week and stealing sports memorabilia at gunpoint.

LEMON: You remember during the hearing the other day, everyone's sitting in the NEWSROOM going, who is that they keep focusing on? We hadn't seen We had seen O.J. Simpson's daughter and the other players. Well, she was in could with him, right, in Vegas, and it wasn't the first time that the world had seen Christine Prody at the side of O.J. Simpson. The two have been together for years.

And CNN's John Zarrella has a police report and tabloid headlines to prove it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The woman in the sunglasses and red baseball cap tried keeping a low profile as she waited for the luggage at Ft. Lauderdale airport.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How is he holding up?

CHRISTIE PRODY, O.J. SIMPSON'S GIRLFRIEND: Very well.

ZARRELLA: That's not easy when, for more than a dozen years, you have been the woman nearly always seen with O.J. Simpson. That didn't change this week. Simpson's girlfriend, Christie Prody, stood by her man in court in Las Vegas and at his side on the trip back home to Miami.

STEVE DUNLEAVY, COLUMNIST, "NEW YORK POST": She was just resting her head on his shoulder. That's about it. So it was very uneventful.

ZARRELLA: Their lives together have been anything but uneventful. From Minnesota, Prody met Simpson in Los Angeles during his first trial. She's more than 20 years his junior.

By 1999, they were both living here in Miami. That year, a 911 call, placed by Simpson, from Prody's apartment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does anybody there need rescue?

O.J. SIMPSON, FORMER PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYER: She's been doing drugs for two days with (EXPLETIVE DELETED), who just got arrested on cocaine, and I'm trying to get her to leave her house and go into rehab right now.

ZARRELLA: Police said the woman was Prody. From behind her door, Prody says she wasn't even there. PRODY: The thing has been a total misunderstanding. This had nothing to do with O.J. and I. No problems between the two of us. This was a friend of ours.

SIMPSON: It had nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my girlfriend and me. So don't go there.

ZARRELLA: We tried to reach people who knew Simpson and Prody. Only one, Prody's uncle, would talk with us. On the phone he says, quote, "She's a good kid, a nice person. She keeps a low profile. She doesn't seek the limelight," end quote.

But the limelight finds her. In 2000, Prody is caught using Simpson's handicapped parking decal, and she's arrested on a bench warrant for driving with an expired license.

They had an on-again, off-again relationship. And during one of the off periods, Prody gives an interview to "The National Enquirer" about cocaine use and abortion saying, quote, "For years I could never admit that the man I loved could have killed his ex-wife in cold blood," end quote.

She adds, quote, "But I no longer believe in his innocence," end quote.

But she always ends up back with Simpson. Between 2000 and 2006, Miami-Dade police have responded to 11 incidents involving Prody, from a hotel altercation with Simpson to allegations she stole Percocet and Xanax from a neighbor. Charges were never pressed.

PRODY: I'm in shock, still in shock.

ZARRELLA: Prody was a victim, too, of a break-in at her apartment.

PRODY: It must have taken place sometime while I was out. I was with O.J. all night.

ZARRELLA: And now, while Simpson remains secluded, it's Christie Prody, forced into the spotlight to defend her man, whether she likes it or not.

John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: That's disturbing, isn't it?

WHITFIELD: Hard to watch.

LEMON: Yes, and we don't know the circumstances. But we're going to talk about it. A police officer tasers a woman again and again and again. And it's all caught on tape, as you can see. Did he go too far. That's the question? The story behind this dramatic video. We're going tell you about it straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM. WHITFIELD: And does hat always end up on your plate at dinner? Hmm?

LEMON: Maybe not in that form.

WHITFIELD: Well, OK. Well, it's in almost everything out there, corn. You thought it was healthy? well, Don tells me through his interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, you might be a little surprised and disappointed about the benefits, or lack thereof?

LEMON: Too much corn. Let's not get it twisted, as they say. Too much corn, maybe. That's interesting.

WHITFIELD: yes.

LEMON: Corn's good for you.

WHITFIELD: You definitely downed it on the corn.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: You probably heard the saying you are what you eat. Well, if that's true, Americans are a lot like probably a corn chip. It turns out there's a lot of corn in our diet. It's not necessarily healthy, and there's a new test to tell you just how much is in your body.

Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, he joins us now. He's got a special coming up, it's called "Fed Up, America's Killer Diet." So, what's wrong with all the corn? What, is it unhealthy?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, corn in and of itself, Don, is not a big problem. I mean, a lot of people eat corn and raw corn is actually -- can be quite good for you.

Part of the problem is how much of it we actually take in. And it's just about everywhere, you know. I mean, you get this -- what's called high fructose corn syrup. You've probably seen this in lots of different products.

LEMON: Yes.

GUPTA: It's in ice cream, it's in ketchup, it's even in beef because we feed a lot of our cattle corn instead of grass. So, we're getting a lot of corn into our diet. When they turn this corn into high fructose corn syrup, what that is is high-calorie, low-nutrition stuff. And that's probably in part what's causing some of the obesity problems in this country.

You're absolutely right, Don, though, you can measure it. You know, human beings are carbon life forms. The question becomes how much of the carbon that we have is actually has corn in it that's in our bodies, and we can test this. I actually had this tested myself. They took a strand of my hair, and you can see how they did the test here. They actually measured it and tried to figure how much of carbon, how much of the carbon in that hair was actually made up of corn. And get this, Don, it was 69 percent, 69 percent.

LEMON: Sixty-nine percent.

GUPTA: And they told me -- I was stunned by that. But they told me that's absolutely the norm here in the United States, between 65 and 70 percent. I think I eat pretty healthy. I try and watch what I eat certainly. But corn is just everywhere. And that fructose corn syrup is everywhere as well. And that's probably why my corn levels are high and probably why maybe yours even as well and a lot of people out there.

LEMON: Yes, I had no idea that it was so much corn. I usually try to stay away, listen to (ph) your book, about "Chasing Life," stay away from the white, wheat and what have you and that sort of thing. But you don't necessarily know that the corn is in there. So, pretty good test and very interesting stuff.

You know, we can't be alone in this, are we? I mean, are we the only country, are there other countries who have just as high amounts of corn in their diets as well?

GUPTA: Well, I asked that same question. It's important. I think in Mexico, for example, they have very high corn levels in their diet as well, but far less processed corn, I will say. And the processing part, we know is -- can be a problem. When you're creating so much of this, again, this high-calorie, low-nutritious stuff, that can be a problem.

But it was interesting, Todd Dawson (ph), who just -- was the one who measured my levels, he actually told me that he went and lived in Europe, specifically Italy for three months, and while his levels were high as they should be in the United States, they dropped down to about five percent when he moved to Italy.

So many European countries, because they have less fructose in all the grocery products, because they have grass-fed beef instead of corn-fed beef, because there isn't such a reliance on corn as an industry, they don't have as much corn in their diets. And I think it may, you know, there's lots of different reasons for the obesity epidemic, but this may be one of the reasons why they have a less problem with it over there.

LEMON: Is that -- but is that the main reason, is that the only reason that explains why Europeans have less amounts of corn just because of that?

GUPTA: Well, I think that's a large part of it. I also think -- I mean, you know, we've been analyzing this situation for months. I think that, overall portion sizes, overall amount of activity. Simple calories burned versus calories consumed on any given day probably play a large part of that. But I will tell you, Don, one of the most fascinating things to me was if you look at the farm acreage in the United States, the farm belt if you will, the vast majority of the farm belt is actually goes towards making just two products, and they are corn and they are soybeans. We've already talked about corn in terms of turning it into that high fructose corn syrup. Soybean gets turned into an oil, which is hydrogenated and that becomes a transfat.

Simply put, two of the biggest products we make in this country are bad for us. They're bad for our health, they're bad for our overall obesity problems in this country and that's something that a lot of people are starting to focus on and hopefully may change. Changing that farm belt to make it healthier for us.

LEMON: It's called "Fed Up! ...

GUPTA: Thank you.

LEMON: ...America's Killer Diet," right? It airs Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 p.m. only here on CNN, our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta special. Sanjay, thank you.

GUPTA: Thanks, Don, any time. Appreciate it.

WHITFIELD: I've now lost my appetite. Thanks a lot, Don -- and doctor (ph).

LEMON: It's Sanjay, not me, you know.

WHITFIELD: Yes, both of you.

All right, the online revolution of the Civil Rights movement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We saw with our membership, you know, an e- mail go out to maybe 10,000 or 20,000 people read and took action on and they spread that to over 200,000 people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: How the worldwide web sparked a national campaign to free the Jena 6, straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

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WHITFIELD: All right, people, I think everyone would agree. It is nothing to joke about. Not at any airport. and especially not at Boston's Logan Airport, where the September 11th hijackers boarded two airliners in 2001. Well, a 19-year-old MIT student was arrested there today. Police say she was wearing a fake bomb.

CNN's Boston bureau chief Dan Lothian is on the CNN Security Watch.

And was that her intent, to wear a fake bomb? DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it depends on who you talk to. Certainly, according to prosecutors, those who were working at the airport when they saw it, they got scared. But when you listen to her lawyer, he says that this was just someone who was wearing what he called a work of art. That she had put on this sweatshirt in order to stand out at a career event at school, at MIT. She went to the airport, according to the prosecutor, to meet a boyfriend, who was flying in from Oakland, California. She walked up to the information desk, which is inside terminal C, and she asked for the information about the flight, and then turned around and walked out.

A short time after that, the person who was behind the desk called law enforcement officials, who surrounded her at gunpoint. She followed all of the command and she was arrested. And, indeed, as you mentioned, she had on what appeared to be sort of a fake bomb. It was a circuit board with some lights on and it some wires attached, as you can see there, to a black sweatshirt which she was wearing. We just came back from her arraignment in court here in Boston. She was arraigned for possession of a hoax device and disorderly conduct. She entered a not guilty plea. Prosecutors had been seeking about $5,000 bail. But it was reduced to $750 bail. She did post bail and expected back in court October 29th.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. So she, or through her attorney, are trying to say that maybe she kind of forgot she was wearing this thing, this device, this outfit to try to get the attention of those at the career day, and somehow it ended up being very inappropriate at the airport.

LOTHIAN: That is essentially what they're saying. She had this on before she came to the airport. But you know, as someone pointed out, a law enforcement official pointed out at the airport, you have to be smart enough. You can't even say the word "bomb" at an airport. So to walk in with something like that, you have to think about it before you got to an airport, especially in this post-9/11 time.

WHITFIELD: All right, somebody was not thinking today, but, hey, the others thought quick enough to act fast, didn't they, to investigate.

All right, Dan Lothian, thank you very much.

LOTHIAN: That's right.

LEMON: It's disturbing to watch, but it certainly poses a big question lately with all these new things. A woman screaming there because she's being tasered by police. It happened in Ohio. The run- in was caught on tape by the officer's dash-cam, and it is now under investigation. Let's take a look at the tape again, with the sound up so you can hear it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ow! Ow!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down! Down!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ow! Oh, God, oh, God!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to walk to that car or you're getting tasered again. Walk to that car. Right over here!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: I think he says, you're going to walk to that car or you're getting tasered again, right?

Well, there's the video. There you have it. The woman was taken by ambulance to the hospital, and later pleaded not guilty of the charges against her, charges including felony assault, resisting arrest, criminal damaging and vehicle trespass. As far as for the officer, he is on paid administrative leave. In this report he said his taser misfired several times.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, it had the people, and it had the passion, that's for sure. Yesterday's demonstration in Jena, Louisiana, had one thing the civil rights marchers of the 1960s couldn't have dreamed of -- the Internet.

CNN's David Mattingly reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have got to move. Let's go.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before the streets clogged with people, before fleets of buses jammed the roads, news of the Jena Six was burning up the blogosphere, and a new generation of young activists was paying attention.

SHANELLE MATTHEWS, DEMONSTRATION GROUP LEADER: Yes, we missed class. We missed work. We skipped every obligation that we had to come down here and seek justice on behalf of the Jena Six.

MATTINGLY: To Shanelle Matthews and thousands of others online, it was an irresistible story of youth, claims of injustice and racism. It first caught the interest of a few select bloggers and quickly became a sensation, a viral story that turned into an epidemic.

JAMES RUCKER, COLOROFCHANGE.ORG: We saw, with our membership, you know, an e-mail go out that maybe 10,000 or 20,000 people read and took action on, and they spread that to over 200,000 people in a matter of weeks. So, that wouldn't have happened without the Internet; that's for sure.

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: No justice.

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: No peace.

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: No justice.

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: No peace. MATTINGLY: Before the national media picked up on the story, Matthews was already spreading the word through her accounts at MySpace and Facebook. She began networking with fellow students at LSU.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right. Tomorrow, big day.

MATTINGLY: And when national radio shows started promoting the march on Jena, Matthews rented two buses on her own; 110 young online activists joined the ride, bringing their own plats to tell the Jena story.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have got a lot of powerful young kids that have a lot of ideas, that they need to get them out.

MATTINGLY (on camera): Because of the Internet, this group of young people has a power that the generations before them didn't have. They're creating their own video, their own photographs, and writing about their own experiences to be sent out to the world. They have become their own media machine.

(voice-over): Everywhere we looked, we could see video rolling for potential podcasts. Digital cameras clicked away by the hundreds, capturing images that can resurface in blogs.

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Free Jena Six!

MATTINGLY: And, for this group of young activists, the highlight of the march turned out to be a photo-op, a symbolic pose of defiance destined for the Internet on the spot where the tree used to stand that started it all.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

David Matting, CNN, Jena, Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And perhaps you missed it last night. Well, tonight, a special encore present of "Judgment in Jena." Kyra Phillips gets to the heart of the crisis gripping a small southern town. Justice in black and white. It's a can't-miss CNN Special Investigations Unit special tonight, 7:00 Eastern.

A powerful storm rips through a small town in central Florida. That same system is now responsible for tropical storm warnings. Get the very latest from meteorologist Chad Myers in the CNN Weather Center.

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