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Don Lemon Tonight
Violent Crime on the Rise?; The Crying Elephant; What Part Did Mom Play in Toddler's Hot Car Death?; Baseball Fan Sues Over Footage of Him Sleeping; Shock Jock Fired for Racist Tweets; Swimmer Describes Shark Attack
Aired July 08, 2014 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon.
And this is a tale of two cities, Chicago reeling after 82 people are shot over the Fourth of July weekend, New York fearing the violence is spreading with more and more shootings every day. Is a simple change in police tactic to blame? A former cop and a councilman will go head to head.
Plus, what does this guy have in common with disgraced radio Anthony Cumia of Opie and Anthony? They both ended up on the wrong
side of the debate about what you can and can't say. My legal experts are here to tell you who is right and who is wrong.
Plus, the latest surprise in the hot car case.
And we know what happens when animals attack, sharks and bears, but what happens when the tables are turned and humans are the bad guys? The heartbreaking and inspirational story of the crying elephant.
And as always, we want to know what you think about all of this. Make sure you tweet us using #AskDon.
But, first, I want to give you my take on the violent crime that seems the plague some of our cities. It's 10:00 p.m. Do you know where your children are? Remember that phrase on the TV and the radio? Do you know where it came from? It started in the summer of '67 when youth curfews were put into place after rioting in several U.S. cities like Newark, Buffalo, Chicago, and Los Angeles and beyond.
Some say it started in Buffalo. Others say it started here in New York with news anchor on the 10:00 news starting each nightly broadcast with the phrase as a reminder to parents to keep their children off the streets. That station, WNYW was WNEW back then. That was the first station at which I ever worked. And I often wondered why it was said, but never got to the bottom of it until now, until this past holiday weekend when an astounding number of people were injured by gunfire in Chicago and New York.
It makes me think that maybe it's time we bring that phrase back. I will ask you again. It's 10:00 p.m. Do you know where your children are?
And with that, our tale of two cities now. George Howell is in Chicago. Jean Casarez is in New York.
We begin tonight with George.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Violent reality on the streets of Chicago. A rash of shootings in a span of five days. Just Monday night, a 19-year-old was shot and killed, eight wounded. And over the holiday weekend, a reported 82 people were injured by gunfire, 16 reported killed, most of the shootings on the city's South Side.
MURPHY PALMER, CHICAGO RESIDENT: You don't want it to happen to you, because you never know.
HOWELL: People like Murphy Palmer live with the fear and frustration that nothing seems to stop these spikes of violence.
PALMER: It happens every day. You don't want to see it in your neighborhood.
HOWELL (on camera): Right.
PALMER: But it happens.
HOWELL: Police say they had plan in place, putting more officers on patrol in certain neighborhoods. But Chicago's top cop admits there was just something about Sunday making it one of the bloodiest in memory.
GARRY MCCARTHY, CHICAGO POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: We're square-rooting it nine ways from Sunday. What is it that happened yesterday? Was it a fatigue factor? Did we give people off?
HOWELL: Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy tells me part of the problem, police can't seize illegal guns off the streets fast enough.
MCCARTHY: We're drinking from a fire hose. We're taking more guns off the street than anybody in the country every single year and very people go to jail for gun possession.
HOWELL: McCarthy says the penalties need to be stiffer. And residents like Palmer agree.
PALMER: They pick somebody up, go to jail, go to court, turn me loose. Gun violence.
HOWELL: Stiffer gun laws, more cops on the streets. Many Chicagoans are left wondering what will it take to stop the violence.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I'm Jean Casarez in New York, where the city is reeling from its own bloody Fourth of July. BOBBY THOMPSON, NEW YORK CITY RESIDENT: It's been a terrible, kids
dying, everything.
CASAREZ: For New York City residents, the holiday was anything but peaceful, 23 people shot, three dead, part of a frightening spike in shootings, according to the New York Police Department, a 10.3 percent increase in the number of shootings victims from this time last year.
JOZALYN VELEZ, NEW YORK CITY RESIDENT: To hear gunshots with your child around is not the best thing ever. I worry about my daughter all the time. But it's just something we have to live with.
CASAREZ: But why now after New York City seemed to have gun crime under control? All this comes just 11 months after a federal judge ended New York's controversial stop and frisk policy, which gave police officers the power to search someone without a warrant based on reasonable suspicion.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio:
BILL DE BLASIO (D), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: I don't think this has had an impact. It's being used a lot less than in the past because, in the past, as we know, almost 90 percent of those stopped were not guilty of anything.
CASAREZ: Some New York City residents who applauded that ruling now wish officers were more proactive on the streets.
BOBBY DAWSON, NEW YORK CITY RESIDENT: If there is somebody walking down the street with a gun on them or something like that, the officer could apprehend them and they could find it on them, and then, look, somebody is safe.
CASAREZ: Not all agree.
VELEZ: I wouldn't really say it did too much good. It wasn't stopping anybody from doing what they had to do. If anything, it created an advantage for a lot of cops to abuse their power.
CASAREZ: New York's police commissioner, Bill Bratton, insists overall crime is lower, including the murder rate, down 10 percent. But Bratton vows to put hundreds more officers on the streets. And in East New York, Brooklyn, where the murder rate is up, it won't come soon enough.
THOMPSON: A lot of people dying this year, like more than last year. You know what I mean? And the year not even almost over yet, you know what I mean?
CASAREZ: Jean Casarez, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Jean and George, thank you very much.
Joining me now, Lou Palumbo, director of Elite Intelligence and Protection and a former police officer. Jumaane Williams is a New York City council member, and CNN legal analyst Mark O'Mara.
I'm going to start with you, Jumaane. This holiday weekend in New York City, 12 shot, three dead, Chicago, 82 shot, 16 dead. It's horrible. The weekend before that in New York City, 21 people were shot. Why this rash of violence?
JUMAANE WILLIAMS (D), NEW YORK CITY COUNCILMAN: Well, let's just be clear. Every one of those numbers is attached to somebody's mother, son, daughter, family and/or friend.
And, second, I want to be clear there was no ruling or law that was passed took away stop, question and frisk. Police still have the ability to do that. And I hope they do do it, they just do it constitutionally. There have been ebbs and flows of gun violence throughout the past 12 year, throughout the past 20 years.
There is no one single thing that is a causality. But we have failed as a nation in addressing this gun violence problem because we keep trying to find one thing that will cause to it go down. And it's a multilayered approach and the same thing across the country. The same thing goes with New York City.
I think we have an administration now, though, that understands that a little better than the previous administration.
LEMON: But you just said you hope that they continue to do stop and frisk when you were against stop and frisk before. You were one of the main opponents of stop and frisk.
WILLIAMS: Well, that's why I wanted to correct it. I never was opposed to stop, question and frisk. I was opposed to the abuses of stop, question and frisk.
And that always got lost in the white noise. Purposefully, the police unions, the then mayor and then police commissioner tried to make it confusing. But I had never been opposed to police officers being able to do their job. They have to be able to stop, question and frisk people if it's constitutional.
What was being done was not constitutional. It was the abuses that we were trying to end, not the tactic that is a needed tactic.
LEMON: Lou, you saw in the story that shooting violence is up 10 percent compared to this time last year in New York. Do you believe it is directly related to stop, and, as he said, stop, question, and frisk?
LOU PALUMBO, FORMER NEW YORK POLICE OFFICER: Yes, I think there is a direct correlation to the somewhat total abandonment of the practice.
I mean, conversations were had as to what the impact or the direct result would be if the police officers stopped this practice of stop, question, and frisk. And we're now living with it today. It's a simple reality and truth.
LEMON: And many people say, listen, the numbers don't show -- there is no evidence. If you look at the studies, they don't show it. But now the New York City Police Department has commissioned a study now because of this spike in shootings to see if it is indeed a factor. Lou?
PALUMBO: Don, I want to start my comment by saying this. Let's go back 21 years when Bill Bratton first arrived in New York. The homicide rate was over 2,200 per year. In a short window of time, this very talented law enforcement official brought the homicide rate down to roughly 500.
That was done by employing this tactic of stop, question, and frisk. Part of the problem we have here, Don...
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Jumaane, is that you?
(CROSSTALK)
PALUMBO: ... we have a bad case of amnesia.
LEMON: Yes.
Someone is saying -- is that Mark or who is that?
MARK O'MARA, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, that was me. Looking it that simplistically is just not giving due credit to New York City's police department for the way they did handle and bring down the homicide rate.
But you can't look at stop and question and frisk and say that it in and of itself was the reason for the now uptick in it. What we really have to look at it is what happened with stop, question, and frisk is this.
LEMON: Or just stop and frisk. You can say just stop and frisk.
(CROSSTALK)
O'MARA: Stop and frisk.
OK. What they did was they changed it from a probable cause standard to a reasonable suspicion standard. And when you make the standard easier, it's easier to abuse. There is no question that what was happening from all of the figures that we look at that a lot of people who were truly innocent of any crime, any criminal behavior whatsoever were being stopped unnecessarily.
The police simply cannot abuse that right to do their good police work. And if they do good police work, followed by probable cause, they're going to make proper stops and proper arrests. They just went too far.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. I want you to listen to the police commissioner and we will pick back
up. Listen to William Bratton.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
WILLIAM BRATTON, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: It isn't the cure for any crime disease. It's one of the many, many tools that we use.
So, unfortunately, stop, question, and frisk has become the flavor of the month, if you will, that everybody feels that's either the cause of the problem or the solution. It is neither the cause nor the solution.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
LEMON: Go ahead, Jumaane.
WILLIAMS: Let's just be clear.
To do a proper stop, question and frisk, you need reasonable suspicion to stop someone. You need probable cause to go ahead and go from the frisk to the search. Officers were not using any of those. They were stopping people based on getting their numbers up, which is usually based on the people's -- the color of someone's skin.
There has not been a wholesale stop of stop, question, and frisk. But what has happened is that people have made some officers afraid, the police unions have, the former mayor and the former commissioner. We are now reeducating what we try to do when it comes to stop, question, and frisk.
LEMON: OK. Let me read this to you. Let me read this to you. This is from an NPR article that I read that I found very interesting.
East New York is one -- it has seen the biggest jump in crime this year. It's a working class neighborhood in Brooklyn that is predominantly black and Latino. Stop and frisk is down here more than 90 percent. Shootings here on the other hand are up 30 percent last year.
James William (ph), a resident there, says he felt safer when criminals were more afraid of the cops. He says, "Now these kids are just running around with their guns and whatnot. They feel more safer carrying them." He says "They're more aggressive and they're more bold. And they know that the man can't stop them."
Another resident says she agrees with it, didn't like it when they stopped her son. Her son is a good boy. But they need to bring back stop and frisk.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: But look at the numbers. The problem is we keep looking at numbers in a silo.
If we look at the past 12 years, there is absolutely, positively no causation. You look at Kelly and Bloomberg's own numbers from '04 to '06.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Well, how do you explain the uptick then?
WILLIAMS: The uptick, the problem with that is that we keep trying to find one thing that is going to deal with the gun problem. The NYPD is one part of a solution. They are part of law enforcement. Where are the other agencies, the Department of Mental Health, the Division of Youth Community Development?
We need legislative, we need cultural and mentality changes and we also need law enforcement. We keep focusing on law enforcement. We do that with the black and Latino community, black and brown community historically. But it's not the only thing that we have to do to address this.
LEMON: Go ahead, Lou.
PALUMBO: Don, if I may, the councilman brings up some very, very valid points. And I hate to contradict Mr. O'Mara, whom I have a lot of respect for, but it's a very simplistic approach to this problem.
If you are proactive and you stop individuals who you suspect may be contemplating engaging in a crime and you get guns off the street, the gun violence goes down and so does the homicide rate. That's irrefutable, no matter how you want to say it.
(CROSSTALK)
O'MARA: And I agree with that. I truly do.
The problem that I have is that we have a Constitution that allows us to be free from unreasonable attack from police. And I don't call it attack. I think cops do a great job. But here is the problem. We know that there are certain police tactics that work. We can call it racial profiling that has been outlawed in every state in the country, because you can't focus on a racial group and say we're going to -- we believe that there is more crime happening there.
There used to be the denial of right to counsel. That got more confessions when you didn't have lawyers involved. Not to tell say what happened 100 years ago, but rubber hoses used to get more confessions. But the reality is, we have to use those things that are consistent with the constitutional, fundamental principles that we're going to live like in a free society.
And when you allow police officers to go to somebody with less than a good reason, and that's what has happened with stop and frisk, or else 90 percent of them wouldn't have been completely innocent, and it wouldn't be the racially biased profile.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Everyone, stand by. I got get to a break. Everyone, stick with me. When we come right back, we're going talk about why things are so much
worse in Chicago than our other big cities.
Plus, what this shock jock said and why it cost him his job.
And an app that just might cost ESPN $10 million. My legal eagles are going to weigh in on that.
And, as always, we want to know what you think. Make Sure you tweet us using #AskDon.
And then we're going to talk about this elephant. Have you seen this? The heartbreaking crying elephant and the whole story behind it -- when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: No city in America is immune to gun violence. But no city has it worse than Chicago. So what will it take to fix the problem?
Back with me now, Lou Palumbo, Jumaane Williams and also Mark O'Mara.
Can we pick up where left off? But did you guys finish your point when we were talking...
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: There were two things that I wanted to...
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: ... say that make -- that we have to focus on one is the effectiveness of abusing stop, question, and frisk.
And if you look at the numbers, it wasn't effective. But the second part is, we have to decide as a society that the Constitution means something and we don't want to live in a police state. And if we want to violate those things, I'm sure that all manner of crime will go down. But we can't just do it in just one community. We can't just do it in the black and brown community.
(CROSSTALK)
PALUMBO: If I may say one thing, Don, very quickly.
LEMON: But what about the people who say that you're doing it in the neighborhoods where there is crime?
WILLIAMS: Yes, except you don't do it on Wall Street. We don't stop and frisk people in briefcases...
(CROSSTALK)
PALUMBO: There aren't shootings on Wall Street.
(CROSSTALK) WILLIAMS: Yes, but there's financial crimes that cause the shootings. We didn't do it in the Italian neighborhood when we wanted to break up the mob.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: I understand what you're saying, Jumaane. That's apples and oranges.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: The mafia -- the violent crime happened in the Italian community, they didn't do that. When they wanted to deal with violent crime in the immigrant community that was white...
(CROSSTALK)
PALUMBO: But the Italians don't indiscriminately shoot people in the street.
WILLIAMS: No, but wait a second. If you look at gangs in New York and you look at violent crime and immigrants...
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Jumaane, let him get in.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: ... that were a lighter hue, what they did and said was that they needed jobs and they needed the education. And they flooded those communities with those things.
In the black and brown community, they just don't do that.
(CROSSTALK)
PALUMBO: That's a very valid point, but I just want to speak to the Italian issue very quickly.
They normally were mission-driven. The people that they shot were part of an agenda. They didn't indiscriminately shoot people in the street and injure innocent people, number one.
Number two, the problem that we're dealing with here is we're going from one extreme to another, perhaps an overzealous approach to stop and frisk to an abandonment. But I want to say one thing so everybody is clear about this. When you have 2,200 homicides and the city is so dangerous that people are afraid to go out at night, they tell the police go out and do whatever it needs to take, whatever you need to do to get the city back in tow, which Bill Bratton did.
The second point I want to make, it's a very important point. When you take a statistic down to about 500 homicides, you have to revisit the tactic. And that's what I think the problem was. The exercise here is not to go from one extreme to another, but to understand that you have to be a bit more judicious. And I'm not suggesting at any point in time we violate anyone's civil rights. But I want to make one final point.
LEMON: Quickly.
PALUMBO: Until you're a police officer making these decisions in a sometimes spontaneous fashion, please don't be so judgmental about what is going on in the street until you have walked those streets.
(CROSSTALK)
O'MARA: Don, very quickly, and I have said this on your program before, I would never risk my life the way a cop risks their life every day. I truly respect them. All I'm suggesting is we have to be very careful of the Constitution when we put them on the street.
LEMON: OK.
Let's move on to Chicago now. Every summer, we seem to see an increase in the murder rate. Do you see a correlation between -- I think we do see a correlation cold weather, right, and a drop in violence. For example, January 2013, New York went nine days without a murder, given the increase in violence. Right?
So the summer, though, now you see all of this. You see 22 people. Why does that happen in the summer, as a police officer, Lou?
PALUMBO: Because we're in the street. And the heat drives us. And combined with alcohol, it makes us do different things.
But, Don, to speak to the problem in Chicago, it's a different dynamic that is diving the problem in Chicago.
LEMON: Gangs?
PALUMBO: Exactly right, sir. There's a bad narcotics issue there and there's a very prevalent presence of gangs there, so much so that the drug cartels have become brazen enough to literally send in their own representatives into Chicago to, how would you say, facilitate their transactions. That's one of the issues and it's an issue that is germane also to Newark and to Camden, New Jersey.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Why more gangs or more gang violence in Chicago as opposed to New York City?
(CROSSTALK)
PALUMBO: Because New York City wouldn't stand for it. They have a gang unit that's attached to the intelligence division and they're very proactive and they have an entirely different approach to policing.
The problem with Chicago, Don, as again I go back to Newark and Camden, the horse is out of the stall with the gang activity. It never got that way in New York. New York has always stayed on top of it.
WILLIAMS: But the problem again here is we keep focusing on just one thing.
You bring up the '90s. Crime went down nationally during that time. Also in New York City, not only did Mayor Dinkins put more cops in the streets. He opened up the schools. There were communities that never had these resources that became beacon schools.
(CROSSTALK)
PALUMBO: Councilman, the city was the most dangerous in the history of New York during Dinkins' administration.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: I didn't finish.
But what I said is there was more than one thing that was done at that time. And it's important because police officers risk their life every single day to keep us safe. We can't put the only -- the onus completely on them when it comes to public safety.
LEMON: Jumaane, I understand your point. You have made it several times.
But, listen, I lived here during the Dinkins administration. And Lou is right. It was the most unsafe time.
WILLIAMS: I was here too.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Listen, people get upset with Rudy Giuliani because of the tactics for police officers. The city was never safer than under Rudy Giuliani, which was, which was Bill Bratton. He brought Bill Bratton in, who brought in stop and frisk and quality of life crime.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: I understand that. But wait a minute.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: Giuliani gets a lot of credit for things that Dinkins started on the way out.
All I'm saying is, we have to have the police department. They have to be able to do their job. But we keep putting the onus of public safety completely on them.
And what I'm saying is, we have to do some other things to deal with this across the nation, because, as we can see, just putting the onus on the police, who risk their life, is not working.
LEMON: OK. PALUMBO: And that's a well-made point, Don. But the simple reality
of the situation is, when you have an immediacy of need, you need to find the quickest resolution to the problem.
WILLIAMS: Great. But what happens after that?
(CROSSTALK)
PALUMBO: You're absolutely correct, Councilman.
What we have to do at this point is put on our thinking caps and try to facilitate what else is going to change the living dynamic in that culture, so they gravitate away from the guns, much the same way they do in white America? I agree 100 percent with you. But you cannot arbitrate the need or the effectiveness of stop and frisk.
WILLIAMS: But that conversation -- that last part of the conversation, of what you just said is a conversation that never happens in these communities.
The only thing we do is say we need police, police, police, which we do. But that last part of the conversation does not happen. And it is critical.
(CROSSTALK)
PALUMBO: Don, if I may just say one thing.
LEMON: You have got to go fast.
PALUMBO: Bill Bratton didn't fail us 21 years ago, and we should trust him again. He is the most progressive, intelligent, and qualified law enforcement official. Let's give him a run at this.
WILLIAMS: I'm absolutely doing that. I'm happy about this administration...
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: It's a great conversation. Thank you, Lou. Thank you, Jumaane. Will you guys please come back and we will do this all over again?
WILLIAMS: Absolutely.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: I appreciate it.
OK, Mark, you're going to stick around with us, because we have a lot to talk about.
Next, the latest surprising details about the hot car death of little Cooper Harris. Cooper's jailed dad gets an interesting visitor.
And some people think baseball is boring, right? Take a look at this guy, why he is suing ESPN for $10 million.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Police say Justin Ross Harris was sexting six women on the day his son died in a burning hot car. But his wife, the boy's mother, is standing by her man.
Joining me now to talk about this, defense attorney Jayne Weintraub, Alex Ferrer, a former police officer, a former Florida circuit court judge and the host of television's "Judge Alex," Jane Velez-Mitchell, anchor of HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell, and Mark O'Mara, a CNN legal analyst and a criminal defense attorney.
It's good to have all of you. Welcome back to the panel, Mark.
Jane, today, Justin Ross Harris' wife, Leanna, went to the jail where her husband is being held. NBC News is reporting that she was unable to see him. Is it odd that she even tried or is she even being consistent about standing by her husband?
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Well, I think it's crazy. And something doesn't add up, Don. Why is she so fiercely loyal to this man who has betrayed her in the worst possible way, cheating on her, sexting with six different women, and then losing her son, their son?
Whether you believe it's intentional or accidental, it happened on his watch. Why is she so fiercely loyal to him? And here are some things that come to mind. First of all, I heard a friend just a little while ago describe her as very shy. Perhaps she is malleable.
We know that he is a manipulator of women, sexting with six women allegedly at one time. I have to wonder. Given the fact that authorities have been looking into his medical records and their son's medical records, if he didn't tell her some story, make up some lie, because cops say that he has lied, perhaps about a hereditary illness, something to sway her and put her on his team.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: But, Jane, I understand what you're saying, but she is a grown woman.
Go ahead. Go ahead, Mark. What were you saying?
O'MARA: But just less speculation for right now.
Obviously, he is being convicted in the court of public opinion already because of what came out at the last hearing. But let's just make sure that we be careful about what is going to be truly admissible in a courtroom. A lot of that will not be.
And let's not jump to the speculations yet until we find out what is really going on.
LEMON: And, Judge... VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, we're not in a courtroom.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Judge, she does seem totally unfazed by all of this, sexting women. She does seem totally unfazed by it, from the looks of it.
FERRER: She does, and I do agree with Mark that the sexting of women is really going to be irrelevant to his state of mind at the time that the death happened.
But there is an aspect of it that probably will come in. And that is one of the women that -- one of the women he was sexing, he told her that he had no conscience. And you better believe the prosecution is going to -- going to use that in the case.
There's a lot of evidence. These accidents happen all the time. They're tragic, horrible situations. But the jury has to decide what his state of mind was. And the only way they can do that is looking at the surrounding circumstances like him searching on websites about how children die in hot cars...
WEINTRAUB: But we don't know what triggered that.
FERRER: ... searching websites about lives without children, all those circumstances.
LEMON: Go ahead, Jayne.
WEINTRAUB: Judge, we don't know what triggered them looking or searching that website. We don't know if there was a PSA, a public service announcement. I mean, in Florida we have so many drownings, and kids are always drowning. And it amazing me that everybody doesn't know how to swim in this state. But they don't.
And it's the same thing. Maybe because it was getting so hot they wanted to be conscious of the fact that they wanted the air conditioning in the car to be a certain degree. We don't know...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Look, Jayne, if it was...
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Let her finish. Let her finish.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Child-free lifestyle.
WEINTRAUB: Jane, you can't guess and you can't assume. And before these prosecutors walk into the courtroom with cameras and the court of public opinion as the personal jurors overcharging the case, like they did in Casey Anthony, we need to just wait and see what the evidence really is.
And I disagree with you, Judge. I'm sorry. But I do think that the evidence of the sexting will come in from the defense. Because I think they will show he was so distracted that that's how he could forget.
LEMON: But does it raise any suspicion, though? Does it raise any suspicion.
O'MARA: That's not what you really want to show.
LEMON: Go ahead, Mark.
O'MARA: That's not the distraction you really want to show. I don't think the sexting is coming in. But I do think, as the judge mentioned and Jane, you said, you know, the state of mind is going to be most relevant to this case. He is either the worst of the worst, a first-degree murderer of his own child or it's a horrible negligent accident, but there's no middle ground in this case. He's one or the other.
LEMON: A friend of the father was on "NEW DAY" this morning. Let's listen to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He knew his craft very well. You know, everything that he told me computer wise, you know, I instilled in my website. You know, when news of the searches came out, I was like they've got to be making this stuff up, because Justin Ross is a computer genius. He wouldn't leave searches like that, if he was going do searches like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So Jane, if he had ill intentions, why would he leave a digital trail?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, he tried to delete some of his incriminating searches and some of his chats. The prosecutors said that in his probable cause hearing, but they managed to retrieve it.
But I mean, there's a litany of things. He researched how to survive in prison. Five days before his son dies in a hot car, he looks at a video of a veterinarian.
FERRER: There's something you don't typically research.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. He looks at a video of a veterinarian demonstrating on tape how horrible it is to die in a hot car, to be stuck in a hot car.
WEINTRAUB: Weird behavior. Weird and unusual behavior...
FERRER: And also -- there's also the fact that his -- his...
WEINTRAUB: ... not evidence of guilt of a murder.
LEMON: Go ahead, Judge.
FERRER: There's also the fact that his -- there's also the fact that his office was only five minutes away from the Chik-Fil-A where he ate with his child. So you're asked to believe it, and it may very well have happened. I'm not saying he's guilty. But I'm saying there's a lot of suspicious circumstances.
He put the child in the car and within five minutes forgot the child was in the car. I mean, that's a stretch. But there's -- that does happen.
LEMON: Jayne...
WEINTRAUB: Maybe the baby wasn't making noise.
FERRER: All the circumstances are being put together. And the life insurance. I mean, I don't know a lot of people who take life insurance out on their toddler.
LEMON: Hang on. How do you explain, Jayne, if you're representing, how do you explain that to a jury? How do you explain those searches?
WEINTRAUB: How do I explain the search on the website? What I was saying is that we don't know what triggered it. It might have been a PSA, a public service announcement about make sure when you get into your car that it's a certain temperature. If it goes above a certain temperature. We don't know. And we can't make...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What about the death videos?
LEMON: Mark O'Mara, go ahead.
O'MARA: There are easy ways, and we all know this as criminal defense attorneys. There are easy ways to explain away individual pieces of evidence. The problem that the Harris defense is going to have is trying to explain away this half dozen or a dozen by time of trial, maybe two or three dozen individual factoids like all of the searches, the fact that the child was dead for enough time for rigor mortis to set in and, therefore, a smell to emanate through the car.
All of those things are going to be very, very difficult in sum to try to explain away that this is all just circumstantial and that there's some reasonable doubt there.
LEMON: OK. We have a lot more to discuss. Everyone stick around. This guy you're about to see, he thinks he should get paid 10 million bucks. Does he have a case?
And you've heard of crocodile tears, of course, but what about a crying elephant? These weren't tears of pain, but tears of joy. The full story, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: New York Yankee Derek Jeter makes 12 million bucks a year, not bad for playing baseball. But one Yankees fan thinks he deserves at least $10 million.
I'm back now with Jayne Weintraub, also Alex Ferrer and Jane Velez- Mitchell. Also Mark O'Mara is with me.
First, a man who fell asleep during a Yankees-Red Sox game is suing the Yankees, the MLB, ESPN and the two commentators who pointed out he was asleep. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KRUK, ESPN COLOR COMMENTATOR: Asleep. I tell you what, how comfortable is that? Probably won't have any neck problems tomorrow.
DAN SHULMAN, ESPN PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER: I mean, is that guy to his left his buddy who's just letting him sleep, or is he here alone? What's the deal with this guy?
KRUK: Maybe he -- maybe that's his buddy, and he likes him a lot better when he's asleep.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Judge Alex, I mean, does he have a chance?
FERRER: No, not really. Although I have to tell you, I totally sympathize with him, because baseball has the same effect on me.
But they could definitely put him on the big screen. He's in a public place. He can't claim that he has any right of privacy in a baseball stadium. What they said is crucial. They're saying, "Oh, you know, he's overweight or things like that," if he is overweight, it's truth. And truth is a defense to slander. If they call him a thief, well, that's a different ball game. But I didn't hear anything like that.
O'MARA: The other thing about the ticket is, if you read the back of your ticket at every MLB game and NFL game, you give up your right to your privacy. And they can reproduce and show anything they want to that's going on in that stadium. So when he walked in those gates, he gave up his right to sue for anything like that, unless there's something truly egregious that they did. But no, he's not going to get that.
LEMON: When he bought the ticket and then walked into the stadium. But Jayne, he is demanding $10 million for damages for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
WEINTRAUB: I couldn't hear you. Huh?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Really.
LEMON: If you were representing him with what kind of strategy would you have or would you send him home?
WEINTRAUB: I mean, within 24 hours, what could possible warrant a $10 million verdict? I mean, it is absurd to me. The lawyer is only perpetuating more shows of this clip. I don't understand how a lawyer can make this lawsuit.
Everybody knows you go to a ball game to have fun. The Jumbotron is always to make fun. People kissing, people dancing, older people, people eating disgustingly. I mean, it's all part of the fun of the game.
LEMON: And Jayne and I, the next time we go to a game, Jayne, we're going to be on kiss cam. And I mean, if they play that, it will cause a lot of people some emotional distress.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I love it.
WEINTRAUB: Sign me up.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But let me say this. The sad part about this whole thing is that, obviously, he didn't like how he looked. And his reaction was to sue. Instead of having a moment of clarity and realizing "Maybe there's a reason, and I bear some responsibility for not looking the way I want to look. Maybe I should go to a batting cage or join a softball team and get some exercise." That wasn't his reaction. And I think that's kind of sad. Look in the mirror.
LEMON: Here it is. This is the kind of...
O'MARA: That's another lawsuit.
LEMON: Oh, it is? That I'm showing the "New York Post"?
WEINTRAUB: I think he should wake up.
O'MARA: What Jane just said.
LEMON: I know. Jane, you're going to get us sued here. So let's move on now. Let's move on.
I want to turn now to another story in the headlines, a case of Sirius XM radio host Opie and Anthony, Anthony Cumia was fired for a series of racially-charged tweets. He's a shock jock. Can a company fire someone, Judge, for being a jerk?
FERRER: Yes, absolutely. You know, people say what about his First Amendment rights? And what they don't understand is the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment, are intended to protect you from government action. Meaning the government can't arrest you for making racist comments. That's why the KKK can march in Skokie, Illinois, and say all kinds of outlandish cretin-minded things.
But that doesn't mean that your employer has to keep you. If you want to test that theory, Don, go to your employer at CNN and call him a pig-faced animal or something.
WEINTRAUB: Don, you have the right to remain silent. Don't do it.
FERRER: Watch how quickly you're not working. Watch how quickly you're not working for CNN.
LEMON: You know, but Jayne...
FERRER: There's consequences for your actions. LEMON: There are. But a lot of people are cancelling their Sirius XM subscriptions. They're standing by, and there's a Change.org petition...
FERRER; That's their right, too.
LEMON: ... to reinstate him, that he should get his job back a la Phil Robertson of "Duck Dynasty." Jane Velez-Mitchell.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Listen, I looked at the tweets, and they're horrific. They are really vile, in my humble opinion.
LEMON: Let me read it to you, then you can talk. "It's a jungle out in our cities after midnight. Violent savages own the streets. They all came to defend this pig. I had to yell like dogs."
"And then she was," talking about a confrontation that he got in with woman on the street. "Then she punched me five more times. She is lucky I was a white, legal gun owner or she'd be dead. Then five blacks started giving me" -- I can't say what that is. Shiite.
But that's what -- that's what happened. Apparently, there was a confrontation on the street and he said that he was accosted by an African-American woman, Jayne.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Jane Velez-Mitchell, sorry, sorry, sorry.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Those were some of the nicer tweets. I mean, you -- really, my stomach turned when I was reading the entire thread. And honestly, I have to say, in my humble opinion, that Sirius did the right thing, and that he needs to seek help. I think that this shows a very angry man who needs to get some counseling over his feelings.
LEMON: Jayne.
WEINTRAUB: Look, you have a First Amendment right to say what you want in this country, for the first part, but there are consequences attached to your speech. That's what people aren't understanding here. That's why you could be fired. It's a consequence of the offensive behavior.
You don't want to promote, as the boss or the employer -- you don't want to promote that kind of what I would call disgusting commentary. But it doesn't mean that he's not allowed to say it. It's not against the law. I mean, we must start breeding tolerance by acting tolerant.
LEMON: There's someone on Twitter that says Anthony -- Opie and Anthony aren't shock jocks. Really?
Go ahead. Go ahead, Judge.
FERRER: I was just -- one of the things I was going say was I was on Opie and Anthony's show on two occasions during the George Zimmerman commentary. They were very polite. They were funny. I never heard any racist comments.
I don't know what he's like normally. This might have just been one fly-off-the-handle moment, and it's a shame that that could be a career ender. But you know...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know what I say, Don? Don, they say in vino veritas. I say in tweeting veritas. If you tweet enough, your real personality is going to come out, and you're going to reveal yourself. So that's why it's dangerous, and it's taken a lot of people down.
O'MARA: This is very simply a contract action. He has a contract with Sirius. And somewhere in that contract it says they have the right to fire him, if he does something they determine to be inappropriate. This was obviously inappropriate.
We have a complete right to be a raving racist, but there is consequences to what we do.
LEMON: Yes.
O'MARA: So if you want to do that and tweet out whatever you want, but don't say you can also keep your job if you have a contract that says they may fire you.
LEMON: Yes. I don't understand why people are defending him. Listen, he has every right to do what he wants to do, but there are consequences. Thank you, everybody. Appreciate it.
Next, a bleeding man rescued from a vicious shark attack? What it was like the moment that the shark sank its teeth into him, and how he managed to get away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Have you heard the one about the crying elephant? There's no punch line. And it's really not a joke.
Tears rolled down the elephant's cheek as he was freed from a painful captivity in India. Look at this guy.
Meanwhile, some very different animal stories are making headlines in this country. A mother bear and her two cubs who attacked a jogger in Alaska and a Fourth of July weekend shark attack.
Joining me now is Jarod Miller. He's a zoologist and a television host.
So I want to start with this shark attack. It was on the Fourth of July. A long distance swimmer's name is Anthony [SIC] Robles, right, was attacked by a Great White shark off the coast of Los Angeles. Here's how he described it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVEN ROBLES, SWIMMER ATTACKED BY SHARK: And I'm sitting there staring at this shark eye to eye, just right there. And I could feel the vibration of this entire shark gnawing into my skin. You can feel the whole body shaking as it's digging into my torso. And it was -- you know, I grabbed -- I grabbed his nose with my hand here. I tried to pull it off of me, and he -- fortunately, the shark released itself. And it took off as fast as it appeared. And it didn't come back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right, Jarod. So what do you do? Can you imagine how scary that is? What do you do if you're attacked by a Great White?
JAROD MILLER, ZOOLOGIST: It's a scary thought. I mean, of all animals on the planet, I mean, a Great White has been around for millions of years. And the good point is, too, is where, you know, being attacked by an animal that size, there's really not much you can do in that situation.
And what's interesting, in listening to how he described that encounter, is that, you know, he pushed the nose or the rostrum. And the rostrum of a shark is very interesting. They have millions of little electro receptors, and they use that to find food and determine what's food and what's not.
And in the case of a Great White shark, they probably are the most notorious. They're the ones that have the worst representation, especially with Hollywood movies and people going out in the water. And because of their sheer size, people are most afraid.
LEMON: He's lucky that he did it there. But you know people say you should punch a shark right in the nose. Is that true?
MILLER: Well, you know, in that situation, you can disrupt them a little bit. You want to stun them. But keep in mind, when sharks attack, whether it's a big Great White or even a bull shark -- that's another shark that commonly will attack humans -- sharks will come, and they'll bite and they'll release.
LEMON: Yes. They aren't deadly most of the time.
MILLER: Exactly.
LEMON: They don't really like humans.
MILLER: That's interesting. You know, the one statistic, even last year was that only one fatality out of, what, 50 some...
LEMON: Forty-seven.
MILLER: Forty-seven.
LEMON: Forty-seven unprovoked shark attacks in the U.S.
MILLER: Exactly. You're human. You're out in the water like this.
And remember this, too. A shark is no different than any other fish. Don, if you go up to your goldfish at home and move your finger, he's going to follow your finger. They're all about movement. So what happens if a shark approaches you and attacks, some of your best, you know, ways of guaranteeing that you'll come out of this alive is really just maybe stay still. And he might take a bite out of you, but then he'll -- if he doesn't see you as something that's injured or is going to die, again...
LEMON: If I see a shark, I'm going to swim as hard as I can the other way and scream at the top of my lungs. Ahhh!
MILLER: Exactly. Got you.
LEMON: Let's go from sharks now to bears. There's a woman that -- jogging near a campground in Alaska, and it's a second recent such attack. What do you know about this incident?
MILLER: OK, first off, when you know, obviously, people -- when you're encroaching into a bear's territory, there's a number of reasons that you could be attacked. Probably the most prevalent would be simply the bear was protecting. This was a sow bear, a female. And, you know, their -- when their maternal instincts kick in, and their protective instincts, they'll do whatever it takes to protect their cubs. And that's probably and usually the most common reason bears will viciously attack someone.
LEMON: Why are we seeing them in so many neighborhoods? Is it because we're moving -- do we keep moving to the outskirts and into their territory? Is that why we're seeing it?
MILLER: It's like the sharks, too. I mean, the reason people are getting attacked by sharks is we're going into their habitat. Bears, we're encroaching on their -- human population is expanding much quicker than even the animals can handle sometimes in their environments. So, you know, we're coming into their habitats, and they're adjusting to us. They've been around much longer than us in many cases, and now they're conflicting with us.
LEMON: I was leaving a friend's house for the Fourth of July, and I saw a deer. And it was so cute, like Bambi, in the neighborhood. I was shocked. You live in New York City, you're like what's that? That's a giant dog.
MILLER: Well, it's remarkable. Even in Central Park right here, it's amazing the wildlife that can live on the fringe of human existence.
LEMON: Yes, I've seen it. When I run at night I do see that. But here's what you don't see in Central Park, unless you go to the zoo here. You don't see the elephants.
This is a story that has captured the hearts of many Americans, especially on social media. His name is Raju, a 50-year-old elephant held captive and in chains since he was a baby. He was rescued by an organization called Wildlife SOS and freed from his shackles for the first time. Here's a video of Raju being freed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DR. YADURAJ KHADPEKAR, WILDLIFE SOS VETERINARIAN: And see these horrendous, inhuman spikes on his legs. And he has had them for 50 years. And we're going to remove them now. I'm very glad that he is going to experience his first chain-free and spike-free moment of his life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: What's more incredible, Jarod, is that when he was freed, apparently, he cried. So obviously animals, even elephants, have emotions, right, like humans.
MILLER: Absolutely. Animals feel pain. Animals -- and even an elephant. My -- just my fortunate experience of, you know, working and being around elephants in captivity and seeing them in the wild, as well, elephants are highly perceptive, highly intelligent, highly just really remarkable creatures. It's a 9,000-pound animal. Can you imagine how big their brain is? I mean, they have all -- and they mourn their dead. They can experience loss.
I mean, there are studies that prove that elephants go back and mourn like an elephant graveyard. I mean, it's remarkable how elephants are, very similar to humans and nonhuman primates, as well.
LEMON: Is it 50 years. Is it common for some animals to be held privately like that?
MILLER: Well, it seems like it was in India. And again, it is, compared to the United States or, you know, in the West, obviously, you know, elephants have been utilized in that part of the world for different reasons. And he was probably kept, you know -- I don't know if he was a zoo elephant or if he was one that was used, you know for work. I mean, a lot of elephants do work. But, you know, 50 years is a long time. And what's remarkable about this, you know, the chain thing, it's...
LEMON: It's terrible.
MILLER: It's become barbaric. And especially with an animal like an elephant. But, you know, it's amazing to see this animal now. I mean, that's the silver lining.
LEMON: Thank you, Jarod Miller.
MILLER: Thank you, Don.
LEMON: Appreciate it. Hug your dogs tonight or your cats, whatever it is. Check out his nationally-syndicated show, "Animal Exploration with Jarod Miller."
And up next, mug shot. The mug shot that went viral and melted hearts. But it may be a while before this guy's mug is on camera again.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: This is "CNN TONIGHT Tomorrow," the stories that you will be talking about tomorrow.
First up, a World Cup blowout. Did you see this game? In the semifinals today, Germany crushed Brazil, 7-1. The Germans scoring one goal after another, stunning the home-court Brazilian fans. Germany goes to the final, facing the winner of tomorrow's match between Argentina and the Netherlands.
And we have reports of up to four storm-related deaths to tell you about tonight, three due to high winds in Syracuse, New York, and one at a church camp in Maryland.
And this story: We have seen the last of the man dubbed the sexy mug shot guy, at least for now. That's because California officials transferred Jeremy Meeks to federal custody to face a gun charge. And the feds, they don't allow photos.
That's it for me tonight. I'm Don Lemon. Thanks for watching. See you back here tomorrow. "AC 360" starts right now.
