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Jersey Jailbirds Still on the Loose; Rice Visits Iraq; Truck Hits Bridge in Ohio; Problems With Witness Protection; Writers Strike Continues
Aired December 18, 2007 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: ...secretary of state turns up in northern Iraq, a few hundred miles away, Turkish troops are also inside the country.
Clever Jersey jailbirds chisel through concrete to freedom. We'll tell you about this (INAUDIBLE) note they left behind. This Tuesday, December 18, you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
We want to take you directly to the NEWSROOM now and T.J. Holmes with details on this developing story we're talking about in Ohio.
Hi there T.J., tell us what we know at this point?
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: What we know, we have some good news at least. These evacuations we were talking about, people seem like they will be able to get back to their homes shortly. They were evacuated because a gas line was ruptured. Now this is the aftermath you're seeing here, an accident happened around 5:00 this morning on Route 11 in Trumbull County, Ohio. This is in the northeast corner of the state of Ohio, Trumbull County. The truck hit a bridge there. Well after it hit the bridge a lot of debris was out in the road.
A passing car tried to avoid some of that debris and then went head on into a semi. The driver of that car that tried to avoid the debris was killed in this accident but again a six-inch gas pipeline was ruptured. That prompted the evacuation of some 230 homes, the authorities wanted to evacuate as a precaution. Now the gas line has been or the gas, at least, to that gas line has been cut off we understand so it appears that people will no longer have to evacuate and those who were evacuated will be able to go back to their homes.
The other fear here was that with the bridge and the hit that it took from the first truck and all of the aftermath might have made this bridge a little unstable. So there was some fear that possibly the bridge is unstable and could possibly collapse after the two crashes. No word yet on if they were able to stabilize this bridge and what -- just how close to or possible it is for this bridge to collapse. That's still a concern right now. What we have is one dead, people will be able to go back to their homes.
That's an update after being evacuated because of a gas line rupture. Gas has been cut off now. That's the update there but now the concern is just keeping an eye on this bridge and seeing what's happening there. We're trying to get more info on what's happening with the bridge and as we get it we will certainly pass it along to you -- Heidi?
COLLINS: Terrific T.J. In fact, we may be able to do that right now. I'm just being told that we have on the line now with us Sheriff Tom Artier. I hope I'm saying your name correctly. He's with the Trumbull County Sheriff's Department, Altere, sorry about that sheriff. Tell us what you know about the situation currently in Trumbull County.
VOICE OF SHERIFF TOM ALTERE, TRUMBULL COUNTY, OHIO: Well what we had is we had a garbage truck, a huge one, going southbound on route 11. Its bed was up and it struck the overpass on (INAUDIBLE) Road and did major damage to that overpass.
COLLINS: We're looking at the pictures now. We've kind of been watching the story all morning long. Tell us about the injuries that you may know of. We are understanding that the driver of a car that was involved in this was killed.
ALTERE: No, the driver of the truck was killed. That was the only fatality we had.
COLLINS: The driver of the garbage truck, true?
ALTERE: That's correct.
COLLINS: Because the video that we are looking at from some helicopters flying above right now obviously looks like there are several cars and trucks involved in all of this. Is there anymore that you can tell us about possible injuries here.
ALTERE: No, that was the only injury we had, just the one fatality.
COLLINS: What's going on now? Originally we had reported about 230 people evacuated. What's the situation on that?
ALTERE: Yes, there was. There was a reverse 911 call made to those people approximately one mile east of where that accident occurred because of that gas leak. However, by 7:30 this morning we were assured by the gas company that was, the gas line was shut off and we told the people that they could go ahead and go back to their homes.
COLLINS: I guess the next question would also be then about the, about the bridge and the structure, whether or not it is compromised in any way. You mentioned this huge garbage truck in case people missed it went under the overpass with the bed up and struck this overpass. Any idea, the condition of the bridge itself?
ALTERE: Well I'm not an engineer but I'll tell you what, I looked at the bridge and I think it's going to have to be removed.
COLLINS: You think it's going to have to be removed?
ALTERE: There is major damage to that main support beam underneath that bridge, the metal beam. So I believe while the highway department of transportation are going to have their engineers down there looking into the safety of it, and that's why we have still Route 11 closed north and south.
COLLINS: Well, we obviously are going to be checking into that, as well and try to get some answers there. Give us an idea, if you could sheriff, how busy that area is, if in fact that's the case and that bridge has to go what will that mean to traffic and commerce, actually, in that area?
ALTERE: Well, that's a major thoroughfare, Route 11 between Youngstown and Warren and it's heavily traveled every day. It's going to be a burden for a lot of our folks around here who travel that route. They will have to take detours.
COLLINS: Does it seem strange to you that a bridge could possibly come down with this type of incident?
ALTERE: The southbound part of that bridge is like I said heavily damaged and I'm sure that it's going to have to come down.
COLLINS: Boy, OK. We will continue to follow this story right here. We appreciate your time, too. Sheriff Tom Altere of the Trumbull County Sheriff's Department in Ohio there.
Again, we will watch these pictures for you. Unfortunately we do know that the driver of that garbage truck has been killed in all of this. So again we'll watch the story for you bringing any new information should we get it here.
Unannounced in Iraq. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, arriving there this morning first in the North in Kirkuk and then on to Baghdad. That's where she is now meeting with Iraqi leaders in both cities discussing reconciliation and political progress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: We're continuing our discussions about how to build on the security and economic progress that is being made here and the significant development, political developments at the local and provincial level to make certain that national reconciliation takes place.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: This is Rice's first visit to Iraq since arriving with President Bush back in September.
Military movement today not far from where Rice is meeting in Kirkuk. Turkey sending troops into Iraq chasing Kurdish rebel fighters. CNN's Barbara Starr at the Pentagon now for us. Barbara, what is the very latest on this?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well Heidi good morning to you, again, U.S. military officials telling CNN it's their estimate now that Turkey has sent perhaps 300 to 500 of its ground forces into northern Iraq to chase down those PKK rebels that they have been going after. U.S. officials behind the scenes are calling this basically a raid rather than this one official said it's not what he calls a major muscle movement. But look, this comes just a day or so after Turkish war planes launched air strikes into northern Iraq dropping their bombs against suspected PKK rebel positions.
And what is so interesting there, of course, is behind the scenes, there is significant U.S. involvement in that Turkish air strike by all accounts, according to several sources, the U.S. military provided the Turks with the targeting intelligence as to where those PKK positions were, when their fighter jets flew into northern Iraq and certainly those Turkish jets came into Iraq with U.S. acquiescence if not outright approval. Because of course, the U.S. continues to control Iraqi airspace. All of this part of the U.S. effort to help the Turks, a key ally, go after those rebels which Turkey says are causing many of the violent attacks inside their own country -- Heidi?
COLLINS: What's it all mean? What type of message does it send to the Iraqi people?
STARR: Well you know there is some pretty -- reaction inside Iraq that is anti-U.S. to say the least where the Iraqis say look, it's their sovereign country. How is it that the Turks can come in? But the U.S. position, the Bush administration position is they are going to help the Turks against these PKK rebels.
The Turks are very unhappy about these rebel movements from northern Iraq across the border into their country. Some of the attacks that they say the PKK has been staging inside Turkey so the U.S. strategy is to help the Turks, a key NATO ally even if it means they're crossing back into northern Iraq -- Heidi?
COLLINS: All right, CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr for us this morning.
Barbara, thanks.
Still shivering more than a week after an ice storm hit the plains some 80,000 homes and businesses in the dark today in Oklahoma, thousands more in Kansas. Utility companies hope to get everyone back on line by tomorrow or Thursday but a lot of people already tapped out. No money to keep their generators running or to stay in hotels. Shelters are open. Probably not much offering there, though, unfortunately. The west coast is gearing up for storms, as well.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: The shows must go on. That showbiz credo ringing anew today, weeks after the writer's strike threw your favorite shows into reruns. Some stars are returning to the air. On January 2nd Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien will unveil fresh episodes of their late night talk shows on NBC. Without writers the comics will rely on a lot of their own material.
And the awards season looms but here are two things you may not see at the Oscars and Golden Globes, stars and film clips. The Writers Guild has denied the use of the clips and some stars could boycott the awards in show of support for the writers. The networks have already sold commercial time though so the shows indeed must go on.
History on the auction block tonight at Sotheby's in New York, you could walk away with a copy of the Magna Carta for a cool 30 mil. If you need a refresher course, the Magna Carta is the first document to grant human rights. It was signed by the king of England about 710 years ago. Sotheby's officials says the Magna Carta helped establish the foundation for the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Keeping them honest. Witnesses putting their lives on the line for justice. But left with little protection.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Want to get a quick look at the big board now. We are to the positive, yeah, 13,205 is where the Dow Jones industrial average are resting right now. Up about 38 points. That's good since yesterday it was down about 172 by the end of the day. So we'll continue to watch that and we'll get to Susan Lisovicz shortly.
On the campaign trail in Iowa. The jabs getting more and more pointed. Some of the tougher comments coming from former President Bill Clinton. Just minutes ago CNN's Suzanne Malveaux spoke with him one on one. She is with the CNN Election Express in Des Moines. Hi there Suzanne. This was an exclusive interview. What did the former president have to say?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, as you know this has really been kind of this fierce battle that's been taking place between Senator Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over who has experience to be the next president. As you know it's the former President Bill Clinton who has been weighing in on this. Over the weekend some rather sharp rhetoric coming from him.
He said in an interview, PBS interview and I'm quoting here, he said that even when he was governor he didn't run for the first time, he said I could have in 1988. I had lots of democratic governors encouraging me too. I knew in my bones I shouldn't run, that I was good enough politician to win, but I didn't think I was ready to be president.
Well that really is generating a lot of heat. A lot of attention whether or not he is saying that Barack Obama himself is not ready to be president. I put that question to him this morning when we caught up with him at the Embassy Suites Hotel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Some of the comments you made about Barack Obama, you said that in 1988 you weren't ready to be president, you didn't run. Are you trying to say that Barack Obama isn't ready, either?
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, I'm trying to say that I agree with what the Des Moines Register says. Hillary has the best record of positive change making in other people's lives and I think it's important. I think that's why they endorsed her. That's what I was trying to say. I bragged on all of them, Senator Obama, Senator Edwards, all of them, I like them. I think she has the best record of making change in other people's lives in the most different circumstances and I think that's very important for the next president.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Now, Heidi, really there's a balance here, a political balance in terms of this strategy. I spoke with political analyst Stu Rothenberg who said this whole thing could backfire if you're playing good cop, bad cop here and he goes too far, pushes this point too far about Barack Obama and experience. I don't know if you heard in the tape, but Senator Clinton behind the scenes saying come on, Bill, hurry, hurry, we have to get to the kids. So they don't want to play this thing up or overplay it if you will. So that's one thing that they really have to be aware of. I think that they are aware of that.
Now what's happening today is that they were on their way to an event in Davenport, Iowa, about two and a half hours from where we are. Essentially they're traveling with star power, more star power, that is Magic Johnson, each one of these candidates try to bring out one of their own celebrities to get the kind of attention in the crowds they want to get their message across. I actually got a chance to catch up with Magic Johnson and I asked him why is he supporting Hillary Clinton as opposed to the other candidates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAGIC JOHNSON, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: You think about her experience of bringing us out of debt, health care, education, she's the one person who can bring all those things back to us as a country and I think make us powerful again and make us a better country because of her leadership ability and because of her experience.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So, Heidi, you keep hearing that word over and over, experience, this is something that they have been fine tuning the message and Bill Clinton as well, very much so an aggressive message hoping that the voters, it will resonate with them here in Iowa. Heidi?
COLLINS: We shall see. All right, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux traveling with the CNN election express in Des Moines, Iowa. Thank you Suzanne.
Want the most up to the minute political news anywhere available, cnnpolitics.com is your one stop shop. It's the internet's premier destination for political news. Today's top story a judge rules White House visitor logs are public, cnnpolitics.com.
An elderly woman found dead in the front seat of a car impounded by the police.
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COLLINS: An elderly woman found dead at a police impound lot, one day after a car crash. Now police in California are looking into what went wrong. The 72-year-old was riding with her son when he crashed into a building. Paramedics pulled him from the car and police say he told rescuers he was alone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY WILLIAMS, OWNS BUSINESS IN BUILDING: The doors were open on the car and nobody saw this lady in the back of the car or in the front of the car, wherever she was, but the doors were all open. But I think everybody was so fixated on the building they didn't really pay much attention to the car.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: When relatives reported her missing police went to the impounded car. They found the woman behind the passenger side air bag. Initial autopsy reports say she died minutes after the crash.
One country challenging a popular video sharing Web site. It claims YouTube is helping spread hate. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDRIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Trying to stop us is a bad idea, the lyrics go, we are the voice of the Arian beat. This band neo-Nazi song like hundreds of others is easily available on the German language YouTube site and that make this is man very angry.
Stephan Kramer is the secretary-general of Germany's largest Jewish organization. He says he has been trying for a month to persuade YouTube and its parent company Google to get tough on neo- Nazi content.
STEPHAN KRAMER, COUNCIL FOR THE JEWS IN GERMANY: We forwarded critical clippings that were forwarded to us. We did not get any response, clipping that we flagged about three, four weeks ago were not taken from the internet.
PLEITGEN: Since World War II Nazi ideology has been illegal in Germany not only Nazi symbols like swastikas or the Hitler salute. Even denial of the holocaust is a crime, too. But all are found on the U.S.-owned YouTube including this six-part video series we found that tries to prove which science the Holocaust never happened. Fake Hollywood gas chambers it claimed at the concentration camp in (INAUDIBLE).
After the Jewish central council complained Google Germany sent an e-mail promising to block the videos immediately. Five days later we looked for ourselves. Here are the icons. All the videos remain available. This one tries to show the Nazis couldn't have incinerated hundreds of thousands of Jews in Auschwitz by showing how hard it is to set fire to a phone book. Here you see the proof, he says. YouTube's parent company Google declined an on camera interview. But in an e-mail YouTube said it does try to keep content with racial hatred or glorification of violence off the site.
The company apologized in case content that breaks YouTube rules has not been taken off the platform. The company says it relies on a system where users flag problem videos to site managers. The company says it also has filters to prevent once banned content from being posted again. This song calling for the bombing of Israel was taken off the site during our research. But the Jewish Central Council says it still finds Neo-Nazi videos from almost a year ago clicked on more than 100,000 times. YouTube they say isn't trying hard enough.
KRAMER: We will hold them responsible and I'm asking seriously if the owner of YouTube, Google and the board, wants to promote such clippings specifically the discriminatory and the clippings that are on the internet. I doubt that they would do that.
PLEITGEN: The Jewish Central Council says it may try to sue YouTube but that may be difficult because it can't sue in Germany. YouTube is a U.S. company where all speech is protected by the Constitution.
Fredrik Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Want to get you back to Trumbull County, Ohio now. The story we have been telling you about this morning regarding an accident with a bridge. There was a garbage truck that apparently tried to go underneath this bridge with the bed open and hit the bridge. The driver of that truck has been killed. We want to go out to the scene now. Lieutenant Dragovich is with the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Lieutenant, if you can hear me OK, I know you are on the scene. Can you tell me a little bit about what you're seeing around you?
VOICE OF LT. JOE DRAGOVICH, OHIO STATE PATROL: I am on the scene. It wasn't a garbage truck, it was a container roll-off commercial vehicle.
COLLINS: OK.
DRAGOVICH: That was the first event that vehicle struck the bridge overpass. And then we had multiple crashes after that involving other vehicles. Minor injuries in the other crashes and unfortunately fatal injuries in the first crash.
COLLINS: Right, OK. It sounds to me like we have a few things to clear up here because we had just learned moments ago from the sheriff of the Trumbull County that there was only this one vehicle involved that had been asking about the video that we're looking at. Because it does look like there are several vehicles involved and I'm not quite familiar with the type of vehicle that you're talking about. The only reason why I think it's important is obviously because it went underneath this overpass and was too tall, is that exactly what happened?
DRAGOVICH: What happened was, we have four vehicles involved with a couple different events. The first crash event involved, they call it a roll-off. It carries the cargo containers. OK, when it delivers that container it has an apparatus or boom arm that goes in an upright position and they call it a roll-off because that container that it's carrying will roll off of that apparatus.
COLLINS: OK.
DRAGOVICH: That vehicle was traveling southbound on state route 11. It was approaching the Niles Viana Bridge overpass. We don't know at what point, if that apparatus or that arm was never lowered after he made a delivery or if somehow it raised up but at some point that arm was up and as he tried to go under that overpass we had a crash.
COLLINS: Understood. That makes much more sense to me now. Talk about, if you could please, too, the gas main.
DRAGOVICH: Well, running parallel with the I-beam support on that bridge for Niles Viana is a six-inch gas line. That gas line was ruptured from the impact and the gas that was going out into the air, the fumes, the vapors created a hazard for the area. I think, a mandatory evacuation impacted only five or six homes in the area. The gas provider was contacted.
They responded to the scene. And they were able to shut that gas line off. It's our understanding that the impacted homes can be serviced by other lines that will feed in. That mandatory evacuation is no longer mandatory. Just from the information I have at the scene that only impacted five or six homes.
COLLINS: Wow, because we originally were reporting here in several different outlets 230 homes so we certainly appreciate.
DRAGOVICH: They may be serviced by that gas line but as far as the mandatory evacuation, from what I have at the scene here, I'm told --
COLLINS: Wow, OK, because we originally were reporting here in several different outlets 230 homes. So, we certainly appreciate ...
DRAGOVICH: Well, they may be serviced by that gas line, but ...
COLLINS: OK.
DRAGOVICH: ...as far as the mandatory evacuation from what I have at the scene here, I'm told it only impacted five or six homes.
COLLINS: OK, and important to point out no more mandatory evacuations.
Last question before we let you go here, Lieutenant. You said there were other vehicles involved, which it seems quite clear when we look at the video here that is the case. DRAGOVICH: Yes, yes. What happened was after that initial event, there was debris on the road and this is still under investigation. We know we had a southbound passenger car strike some of that debris and wind up in the median strip or the divider strip off the left side of the road.
COLLINS: OK.
DRAGOVICH: We don't know if that happened simultaneously with the impact with the bridge that as he was driving, debris was flying on to the roadway and he struck it or if it was -- if it had stabilized and he came upon it and couldn't avoid it and struck it and wound up in the median.
After that second crash, after that event, we had another passenger vehicle traveling south that struck the debris. Behind that passenger vehicle was a traditional commercial vehicle unit with a tractor and trailer. The first passenger vehicle struck the debris and bounced off into the left lane. The commercial vehicle saw the vehicle in the median, saw the vehicle in front of him strike the debris, swerved to avoid the debris himself and the red vehicle ...
COLLINS: OK.
DRAGOVICH: ...ended up striking the red vehicle.
COLLINS: Wow, all right.
DRAGOVICH: So we had a separate crash. But fortunately, all those folks -- the injuries they received, they don't appear to be serious at all.
COLLINS: All right, all right. Well, good news certainly on that regard. We so appreciate some of the clarification, again, Lieutenant Joe Dragovich from the Ohio State Highway Patrol. He is out at the scene able to clear some of this up for us. We will continue to follow the story right here in CNN.
Also want to take a moment now to get to our Kathleen Koch standing by at the White House. We told you just a little bit earlier in the program some information coming in on Fidel Castro. We have White House reaction now to some of that.
Good morning to you, Kathleen.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.
And let's just remind viewers that it was yesterday on Cuban television that a letter was read from the ailing Fidel Castro in which he said he did not intend to cling to office or to be an impediment to rising young leaders.
I asked Press Secretary Dana Perino what the White House makes of the letter. And she says well, it's an interesting letter and it's hard to make out what he's saying or what he means. Perino said that we're continuing, we, the U.S., to work for democracy on the island and we believe that that day will come soon. That's really all Perino had to say.
But it's interesting to point out that Castro has long been a thorn in the side of U.S. presidents, defying them, outliving them, outlasting them in office. And in fact, President Bush himself in answer to a question this summer after a speech to the Naval War College said, "one day, the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away." Now obviously, the White House got a lot of questions after that. And they said, no, no, no, the president isn't wishing that Fidel Castro pass away. He was simply commenting on an inevitable event.
So anyway, the White House scratching its head, not quite sure, Heidi, what to make of that very interesting letter.
COLLINS: Yes, very interesting, indeed. All right, CNN's Kathleen Koch reporting from the White House for us today. Kathleen, thank you.
KOCH: You bet.
COLLINS: Baseball's report on steroids, a lot of big names in play. And now, one major leaguer may pay for the notoriety.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: A high seas rescue, a teenager now aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, she's getting emergency surgery from U.S. Navy docs. CNN's Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon for us again today. Thanks so much, Barbara, for being with us all morning long.
What exactly happened to this girl?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well Heidi, this is an amazing rescue story. 14-year-old Laura Montero, of Albion, Illinois, was on board a cruise ship off the coast of Baja, Mexico, vacationing with her parents when she suffered from a ruptured appendix.
The pictures you see from the U.S. Navy here are from the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan. They'd launched a helicopter, they went to the cruise ship, they picked her up. They had to put her in a basket and basically lift her off the deck of the ship. And took her on board the Ronald Reagan, where these troops, this Navy medical crew, performed an emergency appendectomy on this young American teenager, emergency surgery. She was suffering from a ruptured appendix.
Now today, she is resting comfortably. The Ron -- you see her here -- they're taking her into surgery just after taking her off the Helo (ph). They're comforting her, they're telling her that her parents are on the way.
The Ronald Reagan will pull into port in a couple of hours, we're told, in San Diego. She is now with her parents. They will all be taken off the Reagan. She will be taken to a local hospital. But the Navy doctors report she is resting comfortably and doing well. And a very relieved family after this amazing rescue, Heidi. COLLINS: Yes, close call too, but certainly not the way you want to go aboard an aircraft carrier for the first time, that's for sure.
STARR: Well no, and you know, we can only imagine for the passengers back on that cruise ship who saw this military rescue operation ...
COLLINS: Yes.
STARR: ...take place, it really must have been amazing because of course, on a cruise ship, there's no room for one of these large military helicopters to land. They had to lower a basket, rope her into the basket and lift her off the deck of the ship that way. Quite an amazing rescue operation at sea, Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes, because it's hard to realize how big those helicopters are when you're looking at them on top of an aircraft carrier and you compare it to a ship that doesn't quite have that landing space and it's a whole different story.
All right, CNN's Barbara Starr reporting from the Pentagon. Glad this one ended well. Thanks, Barbara.
STARR: Thank you.
COLLINS: Something learned in the classroom doesn't necessarily stay in the classroom. High school student helps save a life.
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COLLINS: Is the Rocket a dud? Baseball star Roger Clemens may not be feeling the love. Clemens named in baseball's report on performance-enhancing drugs last week. Today his status as a role model in doubt. He was set to speak at the Texas High School Coaches Annual Convention soon. Organizers are meeting today to decide whether they will rescind their invitation. Clemens' attorney has denied the pitching legend ever used steroids.
(BUSINESS HEADLINES)
COLLINS: Keeping them honest. Witnesses putting their lives on the line for justice. But left with little protection.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: A court hearing has been postponed for Debra Lafave, the woman who confessed to having sex with her middle school student. The former teacher is charged with violating her probation. The accusation, Lafave discussed her private life with a teenage coworker. Under the terms of the probation she is not supposed to have contact without permission. Lafave is now due to return to court in three weeks.
Happens all the time in the movies, mobsters get a new identity thanks to the federal witness protection program. But are states giving witnesses the same option? CNN's Randi Kaye now keeping them honest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This man doesn't want you to know his name or where he lives. What's he so afraid of? Getting killed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're on constant alert.
KAYE: We'll call him Scott. Eight years ago, Scott and his wife witnessed a crime. Their decision to testify against the suspect nearly cost them their lives, and they're not alone. One prosecutor told Congress, witness intimidation is an epidemic.
Scott and his wife testified against their daughter's boyfriend, Keith Reynolds, after he beat her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw a 4-year-old grandson walking around with Kleenex trying to clean up Mom's blood.
KAYE: Reynolds got three years for domestic assault. Scott says his family was terrorized. They'd answer the phone and hear this: a gun being cocked. Strange cars parked outside their home. And threats arrived by mail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a threatening letter from him, saying that he was going to have us killed.
KAYE: Scott says Colorado prosecutors told him a hit had been put on his family. Still, even though the state has a witness protection program, Scott says his family didn't get any help.
(on camera) At any point did the Arapaho County D.A. or any of the prosecutors from that office make you aware that there was a witness protection program available to you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No, all they did was told us that, well, maybe you should move.
KAYE (voice-over): "Keeping Them Honest," we asked Arapaho County D.A. Carol Chambers if Scott's family had been offered any protection. Chambers was not the D.A. at the time but worked in the office and was familiar with the case.
(on camera) As a witness he says your office never told him about any type of protection program.
CAROL CHAMBERS, D.A., ARAPAHO COUNTY: I don't believe that to be true.
KAYE (voice-over): Scott says he spent more than $10,000 on security, cameras, even bodyguards.
Scott, his wife and 13-year-old grandson learned to shoot. And Scott never leaves home without this strapped his chest. As a result of the threats, Reynolds was convicted of witness intimidation and sentenced to ten years in prison. That makes Scott one of the lucky ones. These Colorado witnesses were all murdered.
(on camera) It's no wonder critics charge the witness protection program is hardly a priority here. Last year, the city of Denver spent more money planting trees and flowers than the state of Colorado had budgeted to protect the lives of witnesses.
The witness protection budget is $50,000. Yet Denver spent nearly twice that making the city look pretty.
(voice-over) On average the state spends less than $1,000 per witness: on moving expenses, rent, sometimes furniture. The witness does not get a new identity, like in the federal program.
REV. LEON KELLY, PASTOR: The state witness protection program is a joke.
KAYE: Reverend Leon Kelly says most witnesses are used, then dumped. One death a decade ago still haunts him.
Darrell Gibbons asked Reverend Kelly if he should testify in a murder case. He did. But, according to Kelly, was not given protection. He ran from the courthouse in fear.
(on camera) Darrell Gibbons moved back to his neighborhood and, for months, nobody bothered him. But one morning, 1 a.m., he paid the ultimate price for testifying.
He was sitting in his car with two guys he thought were friends, one in the passenger seat, one in the back seat, when they shot him, twice in the head.
(voice-over) Gibbons' murder is still unsolved. Reverend Kelly says he was killed for his testimony, and nobody will come forward.
(on camera) Are people running scared?
Kelly: There are people that are terrorized.
KAYE: You're going to get $1,000. Is that really worth talking?
KELLY: What incentive is it? You know, if you're thinking about just getting $1,000, you know, total of incentive to do the right thing, then you look at it and you get to thinking about, my life is worth no more than $1,000?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: More from Randi Kaye coming up. We'll hear from a grieving mother whose son fell through the cracks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: No protection, star witnesses left out in the open. States letting them fall through the cracks. CNN's Randi Kaye keeping them honest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE (voice-over): Javad Fields was a good kid, a recent college grad who never had trouble with the law. He planned to marry and move east.
But on July 4, 2004, something Javad saw ended that dream. He witnessed his best friend's murder and decided to testify against these men. Two were serving multiple life sentences for other crimes. All pleaded not guilty in this case.
His mother says the men threatened her son repeatedly. Colorado prosecutors have filed more than 2,000 felony witness intimidation cases since 1998. Still, Javad's mother says prosecutors did nothing to protect her son.
Before he ever took the stand, Javad was murdered. The gunman fired 11 shots as he drove along this suburban road. In a flash, Javad and his fiance, Vivian Wolfe, both 22, were dead.
(on camera) Whoever killed Javad Fields had staked out his house and confronted him twice the day before he was murdered.
One of those confrontations took place here at this sports bar. His mother says one of the suspects approached him, told him he was a marked man and told him he'd better watch his back.
Was your son ever told that there was a witness protection program...
RHONDA FIELDS, MOTHER OF JAVAD FIELDS: No.
KAYE: ... or a relocation program for him?
FIELDS: No, he was not told. There was no notification to my son at all.
KAYE (voice-over): After Javad was killed, his mother confronted prosecutors.
FIELDS: I asked them what happened, why wasn't there any measures taken to safeguard his life? And I was told that he never asked for any protection.
KAYE (on camera): Do you think it was your son's job to ask for protection?
FIELDS: No, I think it is the authorities' responsibility to notify witnesses of the dangers that's involved with being a witness.
KAYE (voice-over): Prosecutors understood the danger. In June, 2004, the D.A.'s office filed this order for protection, requesting Javad's personal information be kept secret. But it wasn't signed by a judge until one year later, after defense lawyers had already given the suspects this information, along with other trial documents. (on camera) Does that anger you, that something so important as saving your son's life could just fall through the cracks like that?
FIELDS: I felt like the D.A.'s office used my son in a way that to win their case, but did not take the proper measures to safeguard his life.
KAYE (voice-over): "Keeping Them Honest," we asked District Attorney Carol Chambers why the ball was dropped on the protection order.
CHAMBERS: The case itself changed hands, and the follow-up was not done.
KAYE: Chambers says that won't happen again. And prosecutors now attach a notice about witness protection to every subpoena. But even that didn't start until two years after Javad's murder.
(on camera) Witnesses have been getting killed, though, for years, so why wait until 2007?
CHAMBERS: It was rare.
FIELDS: It really saddens me.
KAYE (voice-over): If Javad Fields had been relocated, his mother's convinced he'd be alive today.
FIELDS: If we cannot protect witnesses, then we're really -- our whole government and justice system is just going to collapse. I mean, we're just going to have anarchy, because no one is going to be able -- you know, people will just be able to do what they want to do.
KAYE: And witnesses also remain the prime target.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Denver, Colorado.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: You're with CNN. Hi there everybody I'm Heidi Collins. Developments keep coming in to the CNN NEWSROOM, on Tuesday, the 18th of December. Here's what's on the rundown.
Will it hold? A couple of crashes threaten to bring down a bridge in Ohio. We're watching it closely this hour.
And the Cuban president writes, he won't cling to office. Is it his goodbye letter? The White House tries to decode Castro.
Nine days after an ice storm, thousands of Midwesterners are still in the dark today, power hungry. In the NEWSROOM.
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