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Las Vegas Shooting/Crash Investigation Continues; New Breast Cancer Drug Approved; Misconduct at FBI

Aired February 22, 2013 - 15:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The shooting and fiery crash that killed three people and shut down part of the Las Vegas Strip started as an argument in a hotel valet lot. That spat ended when someone in a Range Rover shot at a Maserati, killing the driver and sending the car careening across a busy intersection.

The Maserati hit several cars, including a taxi which burst into flames, as you see in that video.

Miguel Marquez is in Los Angeles and he has been digging into the identities of the victims, how this all came about.

What have you learned?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is so hard to look at that video there, Fred.

Michael Boldon is the cab driver who was on his very first call of the day, a 62-year-old man. He had been in Las Vegas for about a year. He's from Detroit. This is a guy who his brother says always had a smile on his face and would do anything to help out anyone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEHRAN BOLDON, VICTIM'S BROTHER: My life mission would be to see them punished and brought to justice for the senseless thing that they did. They don't know who they touched.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: It is so heartbreaking to watch that.

Kenneth Cherry was the gentleman in the Maserati that crashed into the taxicab that then exploded. He was from Oakland, but had lived in Las Vegas for many years. He was an aspiring rapper. He went by Kenny Clutch. He had two kids. And his father says their family is just devastated by this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNETH CHERRY SR., FATHER OF VICTIM: When I talk about my son, that was the sweetest young man I ever met in his life. He had a little mean streak in him, but all kids do. Kenny was a smart, lovable person, and he cared about other people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Now, police still being pretty tightlipped with the details of this, only saying that it started in the valet area of the Aria Hotel, but as anyone who has been to Vegas knows, there is tons of surveillance everywhere, not only inside, but outside these different hotels, so one suspects that they have a pretty good line on who may be responsible for this. They do say there is a nationwide be on the lookout or BOLO alert for that black SUV, that black Range Rover.

WHITFIELD: A terrible situation. Miguel Marquez, thanks so much from Los Angeles.

(NEWS BREAK)

WHITFIELD: And Oscar Pistorius broke down in tears today, sobbing and shaking as the magistrate spent two hours recapping the murder case against him. Then the magistrate granted him bail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DESMOND NAIR, CHIEF MAGISTRATE: That reaching out in the affidavit in the way that he did, placing it before the court, together with the fact that none of the factors that need to be established have been established, I come to the conclusion that the accused has made a case to be released on bail.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The man known as Blade Runner shown leaving the South African court today with his family, but Pistorius' troubles are far from over. His next court date is June 4, and his trial may not start until the end of the year.

CNN's Robyn Curnow has been following this case for us and joins us now from Johannesburg.

Robyn, the reaction from Pistorius, we heard that outburst in the courtroom. Was he among those?

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, not at all. That outburst that outburst came from, I think, a group of friends towards the back of the court. What was very clear is that Pistorius' family's reaction was quite muted.

They didn't want to look, or they certainly didn't look like they were celebrating. There was a sort of quiet resignation, from what I understand, and they all sort of huddled around sort of praying.

Pistorius himself barely acknowledged the bail application, the fact that it had been given a go-ahead. He was still very immobile, seemed sort of disconnected are from the proceedings around him. You know, a few days ago, we were chatting about how he was really sobbing and crying and often responding to what was going on and what was said during the court process. I mean, today and particularly with that bail application and the announcement, he was -- he just seemed to have been somewhere else, switched off. That said, our producers in the courtroom said there was a sort of sigh of relief, this exhaustion, this sort of sense of the tension in that courtroom and, of course, everywhere else, two hours of argument and judgment.

It was very, very palpable and that magistrate really played with the theater of it, didn't he? And so only at the last minute did he give it away. I think it was a real sense of relief that it was over. But everybody looked exhausted.

WHITFIELD: Is there a feeling from those who have been watching these proceedings that this bail kind of sets a tone as to what kind of legal proceeding Pistorius might be facing, that rulings may come in his favor?

CURNOW: No, I don't think so. What was clear from this two-hour judgment was just how the magistrate kind of was critical of both the defense and the prosecution's case, saying the state didn't have a watertight case, but he also said that the defense really hadn't proved exceptional circumstances, so he kind of -- what was obvious is that this is going to be a mammoth trial when it does come to trial, this sort of clash between these two versions of events.

It is going to be significant. So that is also playing out on the streets here because there's now all this realization that there's sort of, to put it bluntly, team Oscar and team Reeva, and even within families there's disagreements over, you know, what should happen to Oscar and the reaction.

And I just want to give you a sense. We spoke to a young man on the side of the road just when we were doing our live shots, and this is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it's amazing how my family members will feel completely different to how I am.

CURNOW: Why? Do they think he should go to jail?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of them. Some think he should rot in jail and he's a danger to society. And it's funny how yesterday we called him a hero and the following day people just say, nah, he should just be put to the side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: And, you know, eight days after that Valentine's Day murder, I think it is sinking in across this country that this has been quite a remarkable fall from grace, hasn't it?

WHITFIELD: It has indeed. All right, Robyn Curnow, thanks so much for the continued updates. And this breaking news here in the States. The Pentagon is grounding all F-35 fighter planes, F-35 military fighter planes all being grounded. Inspectors found a crack in an engine fan blade during an inspection in California. We will keep following this story and bring you details as we learn them.

And U.S. officials warn Iran is one step closer to a nuclear weapon. United States inspectors say Iran has installed advanced new centrifuges that can accelerate the uranium enrichment process.

For more on this, Elise Labott live now from the U.S. State Department.

Elise, this is just a week out from Tehran's nuclear talks with world leaders in Kazakstan. Is this an act of defiance?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, it kind of calls into question, Fred, whether the Iranians are really serious about taking steps to prove that its nuclear program is peaceful.

Even as they're getting ready to talk, the new centrifuges can produce uranium at -- three or four times faster than its old ones. It moves them one step closer to having a nuclear bomb more quickly. That's really a concern that they could more quickly produce this nuclear material. They're also working on some of those other components of the nuclear weapon such as the delivery system. So it's a very alarming development.

WHITFIELD: All right, Elise Labott, thanks so much from the State Department there in D.C.

New hope for women with breast cancer. It's the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women. But now there's a new way to treat a specific type of disease -- that story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The FDA approved a new breast cancer drug today. It may be some offering of new hope for women battling a specific type of advanced breast cancer. The new drug is not for all breast cancer patients.

Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen with us now to help us understand all of this.

So a specific kind of cancer.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. About one out of four with women have a kind of breast cancer called HER2- positive.

So, for these women, this is really great hope. Imagine you have tried everything, end stage breast cancer. There's nothing more you can do. Doctors are kind of throwing up their hands. Now there is another drug that you can try. It's called Kadcyla. And I want to be sure to say, this is not a cure. This is not curing women. What it's doing is it's giving them more months of life.

WHITFIELD: Treatment then. This is treatment.

(CROSSTALK)

COHEN: Treatment that will give you more months of life. I want to look specifically at the numbers.

WHITFIELD: So then you have to be fairly advanced stage is what we're talking about when this is applied?

COHEN: The women in the study were very advanced stage. They had really tried everything.

Now in practice when this is on the market, anyone can use it and there may be doctors using it for different stages of breast cancer, but so far it's only been studied in women with very late stage breast cancer.

WHITFIELD: Any potential side effects, risks that come with this?

COHEN: There are some risks. A very small number of women get, for example, congestive heart failure. But it is minuscule compared to traditional chemotherapy.

In traditional chemotherapy, it kills healthy and unhealthy and cancerous tissue. This is like a heat-seeking missile for cancer cells, so it attacks just the cancer cells, so far fewer side effects than regular chemo.

WHITFIELD: How about cost? That is always a factor too. How expensive is, how reasonable or even accessible?

(CROSSTALK)

COHEN: When you hear a new high-tech drug, you think money. This costs nearly $100,000 a year. That's a lot of money.

Now, insurance will likely pay for it, so women with insurance will likely be covered. Of course, you worry about the women who don't when it's that expensive.

(CROSSTALK)

COHEN: It depends, of course, on what kind of insurance you have. And it's not -- there are other drugs for cancer -- that new drugs that also cost sort of in this neighborhood, but still, yes, $94,000 a year, that's a lot of money.

WHITFIELD: Nonetheless, fairly hopeful.

COHEN: Fairly hopeful, again, not a cure. Didn't work for everyone. But some women saw, let's say, another five months of life. Some women saw another 10 months of life. That's a wonderful thing when you think you have reached the end of the road.

WHITFIELD: Absolutely. It offers some hope. Sometimes, you need at least that.

COHEN: Some hope, right.

WHITFIELD: All right, Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much. Appreciate that.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: All right, coming up next, Drew Peterson sentenced to 38 years in prison for killing his wife. This sketch of Peterson on the stand yesterday and, let me tell you, he had a few words for the court there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Former Illinois cop Drew Peterson will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. He was sentenced yesterday to 38 years with a credit of four already served for killing his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

You may remember Peterson was convicted last fall of murdering Savio. Her death in 2004 had been ruled an accident until Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy, disappeared in 2007. She still has not -- her body has still not been found. Peterson showed anger at his sentence. Just look at this sketch right here. He yelled in court, "I did not kill Kathleen."

Defense attorney Joey Jackson is "On the Case."

Joey, good to see you again. The defense asked for a retrial. It got denied. Will Peterson ever get a new trial, or what circumstances would he?

JOEY JACKSON, ATTORNEY: It seems unlikely, Fredricka.

Now what the attorneys were trying to do was to get him a new trial under ineffective assistance of counsel grounds and that means basically that my lawyer messed up in common, plain English. But the problem is, is that this is a matter of trial strategy. Just briefly, with regard to the trial, there was hotly contested testimony that was allowed in, hearsay testimony, right?

There were -- his wife who went missing was allowed to testify from the grave, saying, I fear him. He's going to kill me. And guess what? She did die. His fourth wife, who he has not been charged for, as you noted, also statements were allowed in. And Harry Smith, a divorce attorney from his fourth wife, was called by the defense, and the defense in eliciting testimony from her, he said on the stand, could I -- this was his testimony as he testified.

He testified that his fourth wife, Stacy, called him and said, listen, I really believe that Drew killed his third wife, Kathleen. If I say that, can I squeeze money out of him from a divorce proceeding? Why would you allow testimony like that? His new lawyers are saying that it was a real botch to allow testimony like that to proceed, but the court said it's a matter of trial strategy. You called him, you live with it. That's the issue.

WHITFIELD: So might he still potentially face charges involving the missing wife Stacy?

JACKSON: It's certainly likely. Now, what will happen is, is that there will be an investigation, as there has been, to determine where she went. She disappeared, of course, and she hasn't been heard or found since. So it's likely he could be charged. Of course, there's justice here if you're the family of Stacy.

You know, you want more justice. You want him to definitively be concluded guilty, but certainly Kathleen's family is happy in the notion that he will be away for 38 years. Finally, Fredricka, you know they're still appealing and they're going to appeal under the grounds of this was a hearsay trial. Initially, it was ruled an accident. They exhumed her body when the fourth wife went missing.

They reclassified it not as an accident, as a homicide. There was no type of physical evidence to be found, but on those hearsay statements, he was put away and found guilty. The lawyers will be attacking and attesting whether they should have been allowed. In fact, Chicago passed a law, Drew's Law, to allow such hearsay statements from people from the grave. So, the beat goes on.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Yes, it really does, so complex. It's tough to follow that case.

Next case, the former mayor of Bell, California, Oscar Hernandez, and five of his city council members are on trial for allegedly misappropriating more than $1 million in public funds. The mayor got a salary of $100,000 for doing part-time work, but now his lawyer claims that he's uneducated and didn't have the training to know his salary was so huge and that it was illegal.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: Joey, his lawyer points out that Hernandez didn't even go to college. You're a defense attorney. Does this argument have any weight, that he just didn't know, he was uneducated about it all?

JACKSON: You know, Fredricka, I wish I could go into court and I could say, Your Honor, please excuse my client. They had no knowledge, they had no idea, no college, no high school, and no elementary school, as was the defense here.

The answer to that question, Fredricka, is, no. We have all heard the axiom that ignorance of the law is no excuse and that provides the same thing here. You cannot defend a case on the grounds of I just didn't know I was paying myself too much money.

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: Well, you should have known. If you didn't know, it's theft and that means conviction and jail. But we will see. The jury is still out.

WHITFIELD: Joey Jackson, thanks so much. Good to see you. Have a great weekend.

JACKSON: Pleasure. You, too, Fredricka. Be well.

WHITFIELD: All right.

Well, it may sound like a plot out of a bad movie, but this is real stuff. Fidelity, bravery and integrity, that's the FBI motto. But according to a new report obtained by CNN, it might not always be the case. Drugs and sexting at the FBI? You won't believe this next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: It could be weeks before we find out what killed a Canadian tourist whose body was found inside a hotel water tank in Los Angeles. The autopsy on 21-year-old Elisa Lam was inconclusive. Toxicology tests will be done. Lam's decomposing body was discovered Tuesday.

She had been in a tank on the hotel roof as long as 19 days while water from that tank actually flowed to the rooms below. Surveillance video shows Lam acting oddly in a hotel elevator there the last day that she was seen alive, but the manager of a bookstore around the corner from the hotel says Lam didn't seem odd the day they met.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE ORPHAN, MANAGER, THE LAST BOOKSTORE: Talking about what books she was getting and whether or not what she was getting would be too heavy for her to carry around as she traveled or to take home with her. It kind of feels like the beginning of a noir novel, like this is the beginning of a Raymond Chandler story and Philip Marlowe is going to figure out what happened. And, unfortunately, this is real life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: As for the people who drank the water at the Cecil Hotel, the Health Department says its did not find any harmful bacteria. The water will be retested after all the building's pipes are drained, flushed and sanitized.

All right, now to reports of illegal activity at one of the most respected federal agencies in the country, the FBI. CNN exclusively obtained stunning internal FBI reports. They reveal details of agents bugging their boss' office and one agent who used a government-issued phone to send nude photos.

Investigative correspondent Drew Griffin has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The FBI's motto is fidelity, bravery, integrity. Agents take down bank robbers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shots are being fired.

GRIFFIN: And the mob. The FBI's polished image kept in the spotlight by countless TV shows and movies.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I'm with the FBI.

GRIFFIN (on camera): But there's another side to the FBI contained in these confidential internal records obtained by CNN that show serious misconduct by employees and even supervisors.

(voice-over): Assistant FBI Director Candice Will oversees the agency's Office of Professional Responsibility. She sends out the reports four times a year to all 36,000 employees.

CANDICE WILL, FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: We do our very best. We don't, obviously, if you know anything about our quarterlies, and they're not a public document, but we know that doesn't mean that CNN doesn't have a copy -- there are no names. There are no locations. There are no job titles. We do our very best to sanitize the quarterlies so that the employees' identity is protected, while imparting as much knowledge as we can about what happened, so that employees can learn about it.

GRIFFIN: CNN obtained these summaries from the last year that include an employee who hid a recording device in a supervisor's office and did an unauthorized search of that office, another who was involved in a domestic dispute at a mistress' apartment, in which the police were called.