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University of Memphis Student Shot; Manhunt Continues in Video Sex Abuse Case; Over-the-counter Cold Medications and Children; N.C. Manhunt Ends; Terrorists & Toys; Spotting Child Predators; Opening The War Chest; Blackwater Probes

Aired October 01, 2007 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Child molestation captured on tape. The child is found safe but the molester isn't found at all.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Police are determined the suspect's ex is tormented by guilt. We'll hear from her and from a forensic psychiatrist this hour.

Hello everyone. I'm Don Lemon live at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LEMON: We start this hour in the CNN NEWSROOM with some breaking news happening right now. This is in Iredell, North Carolina, Mooresville to be specific. They are looking for a suspect here, a suspect believed to be involved in a slaying of some people. This is the school, the schools, there are seven schools of them are on lockdown and you see authorities on the scent there. Here's what they say.

They are not exactly sure if this person they are looking for is targeting the schools but saying that they are seeking a fourth suspect in a weekend homicide here. That is the suspect that you're looking at. Two other suspects were arrested Sunday and a third was arrested earlier today. But they have put seven schools here on lockdown, trying to look for the suspect. And as soon as we get more information on this we're going to bring it to you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. This is going on again in the Iredell School District in North Carolina.

PHILLIPS: Also happening right now, we're expecting new information from police this investigating the deadly shooting of a student athlete at the University of Memphis. Taylor Bradford was shot last night near a campus housing project. His manager -- he managed, rather, to get in his car, drive a short distance right before crashing into a tree.

Now police think that the shooting was not random, that someone was gunning for the 21-year-old junior but the school canceled classes just to be safe. Police don't have any suspects at this point and they're asking anyone who might have any information to help out. Bradford was a defensive lineman on the Memphis football team. LEMON: A 3-year-old girl raped on videotape, the suspect on the run right now. The crime happened four years ago, but time hasn't made it any less horrific nor police any less determined. An intense manhunt is underway for 37-year-old Chester Stiles about whom we're learning more all the time.

CNN's Dan Simon talked with a woman who dated Stiles for 10 years. What do you have for us, Dan?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. Yeah, they dated for 10 years. And the woman we spoke to, Tina Allen, she says she is actually the reason that Chester Stiles even met this little girl. She said she never saw anything inappropriate, nonetheless she says she feels a tremendous sense of guilt about what allegedly took place.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON (voice-over): CNN obtained this home video showing Chester Stiles in a far different light than what he's accused of.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

SIMON: Acting as a fun, caring guy to his girlfriend...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

SIMON: ... and her children at a Las Vegas park.

TINA ALLEN, STILES' FORMER GIRLFRIEND: He can be very charming, beguiling.

SIMON: Tina Allen said she thought she knew Stiles better than anyone. She said she had been in an on and off again relationship with him for 10 years. Allen said she was excited when the athletic 6'2" man first asked her out.

(on camera): Describe how he was around your family.

ALLEN: He was good with my kids. Said he'd been in the Navy and, you know, I was looking for a strong guy to represent to my sons what I thought they needed to be.

SIMON (voice-over): The relationship blossomed, Stiles moved in with her. So, it would have been very normal for Allen to take Stiles over to her son and daughter's crowded apartment.

ALLEN: He cultivated being Mr. Trustworthy. You know you can trust me with kids.

SIMON: Among those also living in the apartment, a family friend and her 3-year-old girl, a girl detectives say seen in this home video allegedly molested by Stiles.

(on camera): Is it Chester Stiles on that tape?

ALLEN: It's Chester Stiles on that tape. It is him. SIMON: How is this weighing on you knowing that you're the one who brought him to this apartment?

ALLEN: I'm disgusted. I'm ashamed. I'm embarrassed. I'm mortified. I regret every step I ever took. I feel bad for the baby.

SIMON: Looking back Allen says she completely missed the warning signs. Stiles had a lengthy rap sheet, had been accused of committing lewd acts on a child. Stiles she says also had a violent streak. She says he once hit her, but she did not file a police report. And she says there were also some creepy comments about him wanting to have a daughter.

ALLEN: He would point out oh, isn't she so cute, look at her. She's so cute. I always wanted a little girl. I was so disappointed when my son was born.

SIMON: Now Allen blames herself for what police say happened to the little girl.

ALLEN: Why couldn't I have recognized something? You know. Why are all these people going through this torture now because of me?

SIMON: A few months ago Allen said she ended their relationship. She says it was just time to move on. Stiles is now a wanted man by police, but Allen says it won't be easy to catch him.

ALLEN: He will hide out in mountains if that's what it takes. He'll hide out in a crowd; he'll find somebody who hasn't heard anything and stay there. He has skills, he knows how to hunt, he knows how to -- I mean hunt with a gun, a knife, a bow.

SIMON: Chester Stiles, a one-time father figure, now accused of a most heinous crime against a child.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON: Something for folks here to be aware of. We are told that Chester Stiles looks a bit different than the way he did in those photos and the video. We are now told his hair is longer. It goes down to about his shoulders and he seems to have put on a bit of weight and a lot of muscle. So he looks different than he does in those images -- Don.

LEMON: CNN's Dan Simon, thank you for your report, Dan.

PHILLIPS: Straight to the University of Memphis now. The president of the university is speaking about the shooting death of their star football player, 21-year-old Taylor Bradford. They do believe that the shooting was targeted. Let's listen in.

SHIRLEY RAINES, PRES. UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS: We felt the TigerText was there to alert students about two things. The closed classes today that the incident had happened and that there were counselors and advisors available to them. So, we felt the closing of the residence halls immediately was the appropriate response. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How did you notify students that the residence halls were closed?

RAINES: We have a system of working with the residents, every residence hall has residence hall advisors on each floor and all of the residence halls were notified immediately as well as the advisors.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you know at this point if the suspects are students and how many suspects are police actually looking for?

RAINES: I can't tell you that information. They are still working that out.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Dr. Raines, can you talk about the security measures in place now at the University of Memphis?

RAINES: Well, we have a number of security measures, one is a large campus police force. We also have security cameras. We do have a system of notification. Our police chief can activate any part of that system immediately.

He does not have to wait for me or for anyone else, so we feel like the police officers have the best way of determining danger, and so in addition to this system of e-mail and TigerText and sirens, and many surveillance cameras, which we hope will help us in discovering more about who the assailants were.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: My follow-up question was that did any of the security cameras catch the shooter?

RAINES: I can't tell you that. All of that is being worked on as we speak, so I can't give you that information. If I had it I would give it but I don't have it. I expect that at the next press conference that Bruce Harbor (ph) who is now with the Memphis City police, that's why he is not here with me at this point, we hope will have some additional information to share. Let me have this lady and then you. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What can you tell me about (UNINTELLIGIBLE), what are you hearing about him today from (UNINTELLIGIBLE) parents (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

RAINES: Well, we hear he was a very outgoing young man. We know he was a marketing major and of course we know that his parents loved him dearly. We have been -- both Coach West (ph) and I have met with the parents and they have agreed that Taylor would want the game to go on tomorrow night, but a special pause, a moment of silence and other observation will happen with the University of Memphis football team as well as we will be asking Marshall (ph) football team to join us, all that is to be worked out at this point so I can't really add anything to that. But of course he was a transfer student. I can't tell you much more than that at this point. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You mentioned witnesses. Are there other college students, any University of Memphis students who might be providing information or being questioned who were there or saw it? RAINES: Anyone who was listed as witnesses are being followed up with, as well as students are being questioned who were in the Carpenter (ph) complex.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Dr. Raines, what has the university learned about Taylor's movements leading up to the shooting last night, where he was, what he was doing?

RAINES: I can't tell you that because I don't know it. If I knew it I would tell you but I simply don't know that. That's being worked with the Memphis City Police and Police Chief Harbor (ph). Let's see -- I've called on you several times, so let me call on this...

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that ever activated (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

RAINES: The emergency P.A. system was not activated. It is only activated when the campus is seen to be in imminent danger; it is activated by the police chief. Since there were witnesses that saw the suspects leave, it was not considered to be an imminent danger situation but as an early precaution to make sure that no one entered residence halls -- this was at night, the residence halls were closed. Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you know if the suspects were on foot or they were in a car?

RAINES: I believe they were in a car but I probably should stop there because I really have not read any of that report.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you recollect the last time something this tragic happened here on campus?

RAINES: We do not have something this tragic that happened here on the campus. There certainly have been tragic deaths of students in other places, but on campus, no.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What time was that TigerText sent out? What exact time was it sent?

RAINES: The first TigerText to alert people that the campus -- classes were not going to be held and that they should see advisors and counselors went out at 3:44.

PHILLIPS: No classes today at the University of Memphis after the deadly shooting of this student athlete. We're talking about Taylor Bradford here. He was shot last night near a campus housing complex. He managed to get in his car, drive a short distance, but then he crashed into a tree.

Police think the shooting was not random. You just heard there from the university president, Dr. Shirley Raines. They believe it was a targeted attack on the 21-year-old junior. We will follow up on the investigation as it moves along.

LEMON: Could popular toys be terrorist tools? The feds say check please when it comes to remote controlled toys and air travel.

PHILLIPS: Another warning that is nothing to sneeze at, Elizabeth Cohen has more on young children and over-the-counter medicines.

LEMON: And call it stumping for dollars. Presidential candidates hit a key deadline in the race for campaign cash.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Sixteen past the hour, three of the stories we're working on for you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Seven schools in North Carolina are on lockdown this hour near Charlotte as authorities search for a suspect in a weekend murder. Classes are going on inside the buildings.

Police in west Tennessee are looking for the person who shot and killed a University of Memphis football player. Twenty-one-year-old Taylor Bradford was killed last night outside a university housing project. The school canceled classes today.

And a metal detector might have saved the day at the U.S. embassy in Vienna. Austrian officials say a Bosnian man carried a back pack filled with grenades, nails and screws into the building and tried to get inside today, but the metal detector went off and he took off. Police arrested him a short time later.

PHILLIPS: Dow 14,000, no longer just a fond memory. The blue chip average is kicking off the new week, month and quarter with quite a bang. Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange with the latest on all the market action rather and I guess a look at what we can expect going forward, yes.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. The forecast is pretty good if you look at history or recent history I just say, Kyra. The rally started right at the open, the gains have accelerated since. The Dow now above 14,000 for the first time since July and trading at all-time highs, I should say that the past back to that milestone has been a rocky one.

The just ended third quarter was one that you could say was marked by extreme volatility. After hitting a record high this summer a meltdown in the housing, mortgage and credit markets caused the Dow to plunge more than 8 percent in less than one month. Mortgage lenders and home builders were among those that got hit the hardest.

But then the bulls made a comeback as the Fed stepped in and slashed interest rates, so what can we expect from now until the end of the year? If history is any indication the fourth quarter will be strong, the broader S&P 500 has risen 13 of the last 15 years, October historically has been kind of a tough month when you think about 1987's crash and 1929, but we won't really go there today because check it out. The Dow is up 155 points, more than 1 percent, 14,050. NASDAQ composite is up more than 1 percent as is the broader S&P 500. Investors are betting that this morning's weak read on manufacturing means there could be more rate cuts on the horizon. The Fed meets later this month, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well that turmoil on the financial market has really hit people right in the wallets, didn't it?

LISOVICZ: And the fourth quarter is really about consumer spending. This is Christmas, Hanukkah, holiday season where it's very important to the retail industry and retailers are a little nervous about it. In fact, Wal-Mart is already slashing prices by 10 percent to 50 percent on some of its popular toys and will continue to cut prices on select items every week. I know, Kyra, you're dying to know which ones. Kid tough digital cameras, Littlest Pet Shop, digital pets, there are the Tonka toys, fortunately they are still around, but then...

PHILLIPS: I know Tonka.

LISOVICZ: Are you smarter than a fifth-grader game. These are hot toys.

PHILLIPS: Wow.

LISOVICZ: And Wal-Mart is slashing them. Of course this also may have something to do with Chinese made toys that have been recalled, so Wal-Mart is stepping up. It also says it's going to buy more toys made in the U.S., so Wal-Mart stepping up on cutting prices. In the next hour, General Motors, 74,000 union workers will vote on a new contract this week. They have a lot to consider including possible plant closing. We'll talk about that in the next hour -- Kyra and Don, back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right, that sounds good.

LEMON: Kyra, don't let her go. Are you a Cubs fan, Susan?

LISOVICZ: I am a Cubs fan.

LEMON: Cubbies, let me hear both of you say Cubbies!

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I appreciate the fact that they...

LEMON: Look. Do you see that?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing like going to a Cubs game...

LEMON: There's nothing like going to Wrigley.

(CROSSTALK) LEMON: Look at that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right.

LEMON: Daily Plaza (ph) in Chicago. Thousands of people it looks like gathered out there and if I weren't here, I would be one of them out there.

Chad Myers, it looks kind of...

(CROSSTALK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

Thank you, Chad.

PHILLIPS: Well heading into the cold and flu season, some drastic new recommendations about over-the-counter cold and cough meds for kids. Some say you shouldn't be giving it to the them at all, so how do you help your sick kid? We'll have some advice straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, time for some advice, when your little one is coughing and sneezing, you reach for the cold medicine, right? Well you might want to think twice about that.

CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now with some important new recommendations about that. And you can never be too safe with the kiddies.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: You brought your prop, too.

ELIZABETH, COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, we brought our props. We went to the drug store last night. As a parent you think when something says for children, it's got cute little hearts...

LEMON: Yeah.

COHEN: ... or a teddy bear on it, it says for children you think oh, I guess I should give this to my child if my child has a cough or a cold. However, there are some experts at the FDA who did a safety review and they say that these cough and cold medicines -- and this is just a selection -- there are tons more like this on the drug store shelves, that in fact if your child is under 2 or under 6 in some cases -- we'll get to that in a minute -- you should not be using these products.

Specifically let's talk about exactly what kind of products we're talking about, cough and cold medicines for kids. These FDA experts say do not use over-the-counter decongestants for a child under the age of 2. These experts also say don't use an antihistamine for children under the age of 6. What they have found after years of study is that sometimes children got very sick or even died after taking these drugs.

LEMON: OK, so really bad doesn't necessarily mean they're bad. How bad are they? That's the question I'm asking.

COHEN: Well what they did is they looked at the number of deaths...

LEMON: Right.

COHEN: ... and they looked at the number of visits to the emergency room because they say because of these drugs. What they found is that in a 40-year time period, so a pretty big time period, they had 54 deaths because of decongestants, and in that same time period they had 69 deaths because of antihistamines. And in just two years the Centers for Disease Control says that 1,500 kids ended up in the nation's emergency rooms because of this drug.

Now the kicker is that these experts say these don't work in little, little kids. They just don't work, so it might sedate them. They might get kind of quiet and sleepy, but it doesn't work for their coughs or for their colds.

LEMON: Yeah, that's why I like you know cough medicine when I was a kid...

(SOUNDS)

COHEN: There you go. I'm sure your mother liked it for sure, right? Yeah.

(CROSSTALK)

COHEN: All is quiet. We're good. Yeah.

LEMON: So, OK, if you have an allergy, a cough or a cold or some sort of symptom, then what do you do then?

COHEN: Well you know one doctor I talked to, he said you know what, parents have become so dependent on these over-the-counter drugs that they forget there is some real good old fashioned things you can do to help your child through a cough or a cold. First of all, plenty of fluids, also a cool mist humidifier, that's a humidifier you put in the child's room, and also saline drops.

Incredibly simple, they are just salt water drops that you give a child that you put in their nose. And then I've got something here that every parent's got to know about -- I hope they do. This is a nasal bulb syringe and this helps -- I won't be too graphic -- it gets all the stuff out of your kid's nose. The kids hate it -- there you go. The kids hate it. You can just imagine...

LEMON: You know I'm an uncle, so I know about this.

COHEN: You know about this.

LEMON: I know about this. COHEN: But they are a parent's best friend. And it works and you can't do any danger.

LEMON: Yeah. Absolutely, OK, leave some of that cough medicine...

COHEN: There you go. You want to take a nap later. Right, OK.

LEMON: Take a nap later. OK, great advice. Thank you so much.

PHILLIPS: Well this man is suspected of horrific child sexual abuse. How does a predator get access to your kids or your grandkids? We're going to have an expert on child abuse joining us. It might surprise you how easy it is -- that eye-opening conversation straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips.

Some of the adults closest to a victimized child say they didn't even see the signs.

LEMON: But did they know what to look for? A little knowledge can be a powerful and important thing. You'll find it here right in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: But first let's get straight to T.J. Holmes. He's working details on a developing story for us right now.

Hey, T.J.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning there or good afternoon to you here. A story we have been following since this morning, actually. Suspects are being sought in a murder in North Carolina. Schools had to be shut down.

Well, there's that fourth suspect -- has been caught. The deal here was that four people were being sought after a murder over the weekend in Mooresville, North Carolina. Well today, as you're seeing here in Statesville, North Carolina, from the video from earlier, police were searching for at least two of the suspects. One of them taken into custody today. The other two taken into custody over the weekend.

So we had one still on the loose. They had reason to believe that this man that you're seeing here, Orazio Ryan Fava, was for some reason in the area of the schools. Seven area schools there in Statesville had to be on partial lockdown. School did continue inside, but the doors were locked.

Well apparently this fourth suspect has now been taken into custody. Don't know if the schools now are no longer on lockdown. That's not clear. But the four people that police sought and the one that was left on the run today and it caused a lockdown of these schools apparently has been taken into custody.

No word on how he was taken into custody, if it happened peacefully or if it was actually, in fact, somewhere near these schools, around these schools. Don't know those details yet. But at least the good news is somebody they certainly believe was a dangerous individual has now been taken into custody.

So I just want to wrap this thing up for our viewers who have been watching this and we've been on this since this morning, again, lockdown of these schools. It appears all of the suspects now in custody.

Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll keep tracking it. Thanks, T.J.

HOLMES: All right.

LEMON: Something new today on the list of items you might not want to take to the airport. Security screeners across the U.S. are looking twice at remote controlled toys. Here the tell us why, CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve. She's in Washington.

Jeanne, what kind of toys are we talking about here?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, I heard you say you were an uncle. You may have given one of these things. At least seen them. This is what we're talking about. These remote-controlled cars, in this case. They also come as trucks, boats.

The Transportation Security Administration is warning passengers that if they have one of these in their carry-on bags they could be subjected to extra scrutiny. A TSA official say no specific intelligence led to the change, but there is general threat information indicating these remote controlled toys could be used as detonators.

For instance, you may have heard about the two University of South Florida students arrested in August in South Carolina with low grade explosives in their car. Well, authorities allege that one of them posted a video on YouTube demonstrating how to use one of these toys to trigger a bomb. So the advice from TSA, pack the toys in your checked bag, otherwise you could have to a lot some extra time to go through security as authorities check to make sure the toys haven't been modified into something much more sinister.

Don.

LEMON: Yes. And, Jeanne, I have to ask you, because these are toys. I mean are they going to pat down kids at the airport now?

MESERVE: Well, that is not what the TSA wants to spend its time doing. But if a kid is carrying a toy like this in a back pack or in their carry-on bag, it could happen. It's one reason why the TSA is publicizing this change. They want to get people to put the toys in their checked baggage. Another reason, they want to let the terrorists know that authorities are aware of this tactic.

Don.

LEMON: So they're going to take them away if you come with your kids precious today. They're going to take it at the airport.

MESERVE: Well, they're going to check them. They're going to look at them very carefully to make sure they haven't been modified into something else.

LEMON: So it's not like our water bottles and all that stuff.

MESERVE: No, no, no.

LEMON: All right, Jeanne Meserve, thank you for that info.

MESERVE: You bet.

PHILLIPS: A three-year-old girl raped on videotape and it happened four years ago. And she's now been found safe. But time hasn't made the crime any less horrific and it's only made police more determined to catch the suspect. Thirty-seven-year-old Chester Stiles on the run right now and CNN is hearing more about him from the woman who dated him for 10 years. Tina Allen says the girl assaulted on the tape is a daughter of a family friend. She also says that Chester Stiles fooled her and her family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TINA ALLEN, STILES' FORMER GIRLFRIEND: He can be very charming, beguiling. Said he'd been in the Navy. And, you know, I was looking for a strong guy to represent to my sons what I thought they needed to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, child sexual predators, they could be any one, any where and they might have their sights set on your children. Here to clue us in on the warning signs, Dr. David Walker, psychiatrist with the forensic panel. It's a national forensic consulting practice.

And you heard from the mother or the woman, rather, that Stiles had dated.

DR. DAVID WALKER, FORENSIC PSYCHIATRIST: Yes.

PHILLIPS: She felt she had no clue. But there were some warning signs. Give us a reality check when you start to think there are warning signs.

WALKER: Well, certainly if the individual has a prior history, which my understanding that may be the case. The next, oftentimes individuals will try to be put around vulnerable victims. And so in this case a very young child. Although three is younger than usual for this type of situation, but certainly a vulnerable victim. A 37- year-old baby-sitting and with a prior history, those are all concerning things.

PHILLIPS: But she says she didn't know about his history. So let's say that -- I had two children and I just started dating someone. He seemed like a charming guy. He had a great background. He said he was in the military. He loved kids. When do I need -- I mean should I be asking certain questions? Looking for certain actions? What are some of the . . .

WALKER: Well, certainly the person's history, although they may not be forthcoming with you when you ask them. One of the things is to really know your child and have your child where they're comfortable talking to you, telling you things, if something out of the ordinary or unusual, the good touch, bad touch, those type things.

PHILLIPS: What if they're two or three years old though?

WALKER: Well, certainly if a child is being abused, in this case physically abused, then you would wonder if you would begin to see changes, such as in their personality, or other changes you can see when somebody is physically injured.

PHILLIPS: Someone like a Stiles, how does he find the perfect situation for his, you know, disgusting addiction, I guess is the way to put it. Does he look for single moms who work a lot and he just happens to be there and watches the kids? I mean, what does someone like Stiles look for?

WALKER: You would expect an individual in this kind of situation would look for a vulnerable victim. And so that is a victim where they might be able to be around, alone with this victim frequently. They can look at victim who psychologically may be at risk. And so a single parent who's not there, certainly, could be more at risk.

PHILLIPS: I was reading that they go to MySpace, that they go to single dating websites and look for moms with kids. Is that true?

WALKER: Yes. In my experience, what they find is -- what I found is, they will search out vulnerable victims. And the Internet makes that much easier to do, whether it be through chat sites or whether it be through the official networking sites that you mentioned.

PHILLIPS: Is there any way to check an individual's background? Say you don't have access like we do here in the media or if you don't work in law enforcement or something of that type. How can you find out the background of someone you start dating?

WALKER: Well certainly that's going to be, I think, the most difficult thing for individuals. I think the one thing you can do is know your child, make sure that your child is comfortable in talking with you and interacting with you and be very observant of what your child is doing and saying and how they're acting. Look for personality changes, temperament changes, those type things. And then supervision. Certainly when a child is left alone, that's when they're going to be most vulnerable.

PHILLIPS: And someone like a Chester Stiles, who police are still looking for now. His girlfriend was saying, well, he did sort of talk about how he always wanted girls and wanted a family and he would look at young girls and say, oh, isn't she so cute. What are some of the signs you can look for in someone that you start dating that you think, hmm, this doesn't seem quite right?

WALKER: Well, the clinical term we use is cognitive distortions, and that where an individual uses thoughts to justify things. So that a child can consent or the child can do things that an adult could do by explaining it as if they were a young adult

PHILLIPS: Give me an example. Give me some examples.

WALKER: Well, a special relationship can actually protect the child from future predators or from other individuals that by having this relationship with them I'm actually helping them in some kind of way. So it's really a distorted thought. The ultimate example would be that a child could consent to a sexual act.

PHILLIPS: When you see someone like a Chester Stiles and you learn about his type of behavior, is that a learned behavior? Is that because he more than likely was abused as a child? Through your work and through individuals you have dealt with, with regard to sexual abuse, what do you find to be common reasons why? People have such a hard time understanding, how can you do this to a three-year-old child.

WALKER: Right. Yes. Well there's a belief that if you were abused, that will turn you into an abuser. But that really doesn't seem to be the case. One of the main theories is this is biologically based. In other words, that around puberty these individuals having deviant, sexual thoughts that they -- if they act on it, often times they're not caught until they're much older. There is a theory that they were abused and then learned and paired that with the abuse and then became an abuser themselves, but that is not something that you could say is the cause. You can sometimes see that in their histories, but that's not causative.

PHILLIPS: Dr. David Walker, we'll continue to follow the case. Appreciate your time today.

WALKER: Oh, thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, Chester Stiles is definitely not alone. There are plenty of other alleged child predators on the run out there somewhere and they are former babysitters, they are former church officials, former cops and police want to have your help to find them. We're profiling some of the most wanted throughout the next couple of hours right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LEMON: They are opening their war chest and showing you what's inside. The presidential hopefuls revealing their third quarter fund- raising numbers. Those numbers are just coming in now, some of them, after pushing for cash right up to the last minute. We're going to have details straight ahead right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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LEMON: Pushing for cash right up till the last minute. The presidential hopefuls are starting to tell us how much money that they have raised in the third quarter of the year. The Obama camp is just out. In fact, it came in just a little bit ago, posting $19 million in the third quarter. Let's find out why from CNN's senior political analyst Bill Schneider.

Bill, if I remember correctly, in the past, the campaigns were all anxious to get the money numbers out. What does it tell us and how many of them are not anxious to get their numbers out?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the numbers are coming in very slowly. Why? Because the third quarter is a famously slow period for fund-raising. It's the summer. People are away. They have other things to do. And, of course, many of the eager donors were tapped out in the first and second quarters, so they have to go off and prospect for new donors as the year goes on. So the numbers have been slow in coming out. A number like $19 million in the third quarter is normally a very impressive number. It just doesn't quite match the $30 some million that Obama raised in the second quarter, because so far this year the numbers have broken all records.

LEMON: Yes. And, you know, I'm looking at -- because it just came over. We just got the information. Where does all this money come from?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you.

LEMON: I said, where does all this money come from? I mean, $19 million, it's nothing to sneeze at.

SCHNEIDER: No, it isn't. It comes from individual contributions. And remember, those contributions are limited to $2,300 for the primaries, $2,300 for the general election. So you need a lot of contributors and he's got a lot of them. Many of them on the Internet. He inspires a lot of people. Many people have not been involved in politics before and they keep on coming. Even though he has not moved up very rapidly in the polls, he's sitting on about a quarter of the national Democratic primary vote. He still has a lot of supporters and a lot of enthusiasts. His message is hope and apparently there's a lot of hope out there.

LEMON: Yes. So as far as I know, is he the only one who's come in on the Democratic side?

SCHNEIDER: I think Bill Richardson has announced that he expects to raise about $5.2 million. He's hoping to rise from the second tier of candidates to the top tier to be one of the big boys, one of the serious contenders, along with one woman, of course, Hillary Clinton. And I think the $5 million is an impressive take and it will put him in contention.

LEMON: OK. What about the Republicans? Who should we be watching for closely, Bill?

SCHNEIDER: Well, it's still a race between the top two likely -- likely top two fund-raisers, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, who were expected to raise not as much as the Democrats, but about $10 million each. But a lot of the interest is in John McCain. Will he raise enough money to keep his campaign going? Will he get a second wind? And, of course, Fred Thompson, the newcomer to the race, is he going to be a sensation? How big will his numbers be? They're estimated to be about $8 million, which are impressive, of course, but not quite enough to blow everyone else away.

LEMON: OK. I'm not as big a political junky as everyone is -- a lot of people around here, but I do follow -- what's this, I heard a little talk over the weekend about a possible third party run. I thought that was all caput, no?

SCHNEIDER: Well, there was a meeting of Christian conservatives. And apparently a smaller group of those conservatives met and discussed the possibility of running an independent or third party candidate, a conservative, if Rudy Giuliani turns out to be the Republican nominee. We're a long way from there, of course. But they object to the fact that he is, of course, a supporter of abortion rights.

And in their view, in a choice between a Democrat and a Republican, both of who support abortion rights, it won't make any difference and they want to make a statement by running an independent, really a protest candidate. He could do a lot of damage to Republicans. Remember when Ralph Nader, with a very small number of votes, did to the Democrats back in 2000. In many ways this could be a message to Republican voters. If you nominate Giuliani, watch out.

LEMON: OK. And here's what everybody's wondering about. I got to move on, but, the bus. Can you tell us one thing about the bus that nobody knows about?

SCHNEIDER: About the bus?

LEMON: Yes.

SCHNEIDER: It has very nice bed. The sides of the bus move out and the couch folds down and it becomes a bed. And I took a snooze on it twice. I've taken a snooze on that bed. Very convenient.

LEMON: Election express. Bill Schneider. Not on it today. He was on it last week. He's back in Washington and we thank you for joining us, sir.

SCHNEIDER: OK.

PHILLIPS: Well, a firm that provides private security for U.S. officials in Iraq now under public scrutiny. Blackwater officials getting ready to answer congressional questions after a deadly incident in Baghdad. That's straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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PHILLIPS: New developments in the case of the Blackwater security firm guarding U.S. diplomats in Iraq. Iraqis have claimed the company's guards are trigger happy and killed civilians for no reason pointing to a shootout in Baghdad last month. Blackwaters says its employees were responding to an insurgent attack and did nothing wrong. CNN has learned that a Blackwater contractor actually wrote the initial report on that shooting for the State Department. The government spokesperson now says that report was just a quick write-up of the event and wasn't meant to be a key document in the investigation.

LEMON: The State Department, the Defense Department, Congress, a joint U.S.-Iraqi commission, they're all putting Blackwater under the microscope this week. The owner of the company will have the chance to defend his employees against claims they killed innocent Iraqi civilians. CNN's Suzanne Simons takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUZANNE SIMONS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): The owner of Blackwater USA doesn't often find himself in the spotlight. Eric Prince, a former Navy SEAL, will be answering tough questions Tuesday before the House Oversight Committee. Lawmakers are turning their attention to the man at the helm of the company entrusted with more than $1 billion in U.S. government contracts.

The committee, led by Representative Henry Waxman, is expected to ask about a September 16th shooting involving Blackwater contractors who were accompanying State Department personnel in Baghdad. Iraq's interior ministry contends Blackwater guards opened fire indiscriminately in a crowded Baghdad intersection, killing more than 20 civilians. The company has said its men were responding to hostile fire.

In light of the incident, the Iraqi government is calling for an end to contractor immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law.

"The U.S. government relies on private contractors to provide security for diplomats moving around in the country."

A joint U.S.-Iraqi commission on the incident is expected to meet for the first time this week in Baghdad. (INAUDIBLE) also expected to be pressed on details about the incident that thrust the dangers facing private contractors into the headlines more than three years ago. An insurgent attack in Fallujah in which four Blackwater contractors were shot, burned, their bodies dragged through the streets. Two of them hanged from a bridge as a group of spectators cheered. The questions now focus on whether Blackwater properly prepared the men for the mission under the terms of their contracts. The men's families are suing Blackwater over the incident.

Suzanne Simons, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIPS: "Newsweek" reporter Kevin Peraino says that he's seen evidence from the September 16th shooting that left almost a dozen Iraqis dead. Evidence including this graphic videotape that Iraqi police shot at the scene. Peraino tells CNN that Blackwater's version of the story just doesn't hold up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN PERAINO, "NEWSWEEK" MAGAZINE: The material that I saw is largely consistent with what the Iraqi officials, interior ministry officials have been saying all along. They said that Blackwater, the firing, was unprovoked. They don't know why it happened. All the witness statements that I saw that they had collected there said that there was no apparent reason for the firing to begin. Blackwater, of course, says that they were being fired on from different positions, by both civilian, people in civilian clothes and people in Iraqi police uniforms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The questions about Blackwater haven't stopped the U.S. government from doing business with its parent company, The Prince Group. "The Wall Street Journal" reports the Defense Department has given a contract worth about $90 million to Presidential Airways, and that firm will handle various flight missions in Central Asia.

LEMON: He is one of the most private, least open, hardest to reach justices ever to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. But Clarence Thomas is speaking out now in print and also on the air. In the NEWSROOM, Thomas' take on some of the trying times in a celebrated and controversial life.

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LEMON: A popular student athlete shot on campus. University of Memphis says it's not a random murder.

PHILLIPS: But who wanted Taylor Bradford dead and why is still a mystery. The story we're following all afternoon in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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