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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield
Hazmat Suited Officials Pull Ebola Jokester Off Plane; Malala Yousafzai Shares Nobel Peace Prize; Man Possibly Recognizes FBI Fugitive on CNN's "THE HUNT"; Palin Family Fight at Party; Preacher Confesses to Inappropriate Relationships with Parishioners
Aired October 10, 2014 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In an statement issued this week, police said the window broken because officers were concerned for their safety after the passenger reached for a backpack in the rear seat and refused lawful orders to get out of the car.
Susan Candiotti, CNN, Hammond, Indiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: So by now, most people know you can't make jokes at the airport about bombs and things like that. You can actually be arrested.
Did you know you shouldn't make comments about Ebola on an airplane either? Someone did it and you're about to see the unbelievable reaction.
Also, new screening measures going into effect to screen passengers for the deadly virus at American airports.
All of that, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: OK. This next story may sound like something out of a "Saturday Night Live" skit, but it actually happened.
An American man got on to a U.S. Airways flight, reportedly sneezed, then stood up and announced to the plane, "I have Ebola. You're all screwed."
Bad joke. Like catastrophically bad. It caused hazmat to get on the plane and passengers were forced to sit on the plane terrified for more than two hours.
CNN's Alexandra Field has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, here's the situation. I need everybody to sit down.
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That was the announcement from a flight attendant just before several health officials in full hazmat suits boarded a U.S. Airways flight in the Dominican Republic.
A passenger posted this video and local reports say the man said, "I have Ebola. You're all screwed."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please stay out of their way. Let them do their jobs.
FIELD: The flight from Philadelphia was checked and cleared, but kept passengers stuck on the plane for two hours. It's unclear what happened to the man who made the claim.
This incident only the beginning of a new front in the fight to stop the spread of Ebola. Passengers leaving the hot zone will be checked for symptoms, answering questions, and having their temperatures taken when they arrive state side at five major U.S. airports. New York City's JFK International, Newark, Washington Dulles, Atlanta and Chicago O'Hare.
DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, CDC DIRECTOR: We expect to see some patients with fever and that will cause some obvious and understandable concern at the airport.
FIELD: More than 50 million passengers travelled through JFK last year, but the new procedures will impact just a tiny fraction.
Exams will be done in special areas designated by Customs and Border Protection. An onsite CDC health officer will step in to evaluate any potential Ebola case. Passengers leaving Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea are already screened before boarding planes out of those countries.
GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Of course I'm concerned. I don't think there's anybody in the country who's not concerned about the situation with Ebola. We're not ready at the airports yet, but we will be.
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BANFIELD: Speaking of airports, Alexandra Field joins me from just that, JFK airport. What's the verdict on this 54-year-old idiot? Is he being charged? Where he is?
FIELD: Look, certainly we can think about the fact that charges could be considered, a charge of a disturbance.
What we know is the immediate reaction that was had on the plane. Video was recorded inside the cabin as these passengers were sitting there for hours with health officials coming on to the plane dressed in the protective suits.
And what you can hear in that video is people actually booing. You don't hear anyone laughing, and you do hear at one point the flight attendant coming on over the p.a. system, and she actually calls this man an idiot.
BANFIELD: I think that's pretty much it. There's nothing funny at all about Ebola. Alexandra, thank you for that.
There could be a big break for a killer on the most wanted list and police are actually trying to dig up the evidence, an actual body in Alabama, all because of a viewer who saw a story about this case on "THE HUNT WITH JOHN WALSH," and the viewer called in a tip.
Just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Last hour on CNN, you saw the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize showing a wee bit of the spirit and the grace and the passion that has moved this globe.
Seventeen-year-old Malala Yousafzai, she was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban two years ago -- two years ago yesterday, in fact -- just for daring to go to school and advocating for it.
Since then, she has been a tireless campaigner for the rights of all children to an education.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MALALA YOUSAFZAI, NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE: It's sometimes quite difficult to express your feelings, but I felt really honored. I felt more powerful and more courageous because this award is not just a piece of medal that you would wear on a wall that you would keep in your room.
But this is really an encouragement for me to go forward and to believe in myself, to know that there are people who are supporting me in this campaign.
And we are standing together. We all want to make sure that every child gets quality education. So this is really something great for me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: And Malala is sharing this year's -- her Peace Prize with a 60-year-old child-rights activist from India -- lovely that it's Pakistan and India. That's not lost on a lot of people.
By the way, she was in chemistry class when she found out that she was the winner, and this is what the Malala Fund tweeted out. "Malala will make her first statement after school."
After school -- and she did exactly that, after school.
We could be really near to a resolution that some are saying would be a very fitting resolution to a terrible murder case from 1976. William Bradford Bishop Jr., a career foreign-service officer, accused of beating his mother, his wife, and his three young sons to death with a hammer, and then loading up their bodies into the family station wagon and driving them to North Carolina, all the way from Maryland, where he buried them in a shallow grave but not before setting their bodies on fire. Those are the facts. The case was featured on CNN's program, "THE HUNT WITH JOHN WALSH" just in July.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dug a shallow grave.
LEWIS YOUNG, FORMER STATE INVESTIGATOR, NORTH CAROLINA: He just didn't dig this hole in 15 minutes. It took some time to dig it three feet deep.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He then placed all of the bodies of his family members in that shallow grave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So this isn't just a plug for John's show. John's show "THE HUNT," may have actually solved this case, because there was a viewer who was watching in Alabama and thought, you know, there's something really uncanny about that William Bradford Bishop Jr.
He sure looks a lot like a drifter who was killed by a hit-and-run driver in the town of Scottsboro in 1981. That man's body, by the way, was exhumed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL DAYMOND, FBI: CNN'S program, "THE HUNT WITH JOHN WALSH," aired a Top Ten fugitive was aired, Mr. Bishop, and asked the public for any assistance that they had recognizing him.
Mr. Collins, who works at the -- or worked at the Scottsboro Funeral Home, recognized John Doe and also recognized Mr. Bishop.
JEREMY COLLINS, FUNERAL HOME EMPLOYEE: Well, me and my wife was watching it on the couch and watching television, and I had seen the picture of him from the funeral home.
And I told her. I said, you know, this really looks a lot like the guy that was in the "Daily Sentinel," and it looked too much like him to not do something about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Awesome. DNA tests at an FBI lab are expected to take a few weeks, and so, if this really plays out, it would be the second case to be closed through tips generated by John's show.
It's a great show, "THE HUNT WITH JOHN WALSH." I encourage you to watch it. Just in case you're wondering, in July, a suspected sex offender was tracked down in New York City and killed in a police shootout. This was after tips from John's program. We're very proud of him for that.
When you're almost a heartbeat away from the presidency and then there are police reports about you and your family, they make news. And this one is jaw dropping involving members of Sarah Palin family. It includes fist fighting and blood and dirt and -- all right, coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: We have some new details from that drunken brawl involving members of Sarah Palin's family at a summer party in Alaska. The Anchorage police report from the incident says Bristol Palin punched the host of the party in the face repeatedly and that Track Palin also tried to start a fight with the host's father. Police say no charges are going to result from the brouhaha. And, understandably, the host of the party have a very different version of the story than apparently the Palins do.
Joining me to talk about this, CNN legal analyst Mel Robbins, Mark Geragos, both smiling because it's a little weird to have somebody a heartbeat away from the presidency, potentially, to have a police report with the family - while they were there, by the way, Sarah and her husband too.
MARK GERAGOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: And nobody arrested out of it. And as I told you, normally --
BANFIELD: That's my question, why no one arrested?
GERAGOS: Well, normally, they don't make an arrest if it's a cop involved when the cop's punching somebody.
BANFIELD: Right.
GERAGOS: Here it's -
MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: OK, but, listen, it's a small town.
BANFIELD: (INAUDIBLE), Geragos.
GERAGOS: But it's true.
ROBBINS: They probably -
GERAGOS: But why did you - why did you pronounce Alaska that way, by the way?
BANFIELD: Alaska? Because I'm from almost close to there.
GERAGOS: There. OK.
ROBBINS: From Canada.
Yes, but, I mean, come on, this is a small town. The cops show up. You've got a bunch of drunken people. You've got the Palins retreating to their white limo, drunk. You've got the homeowner basically saying they're jerks. They're saying he's jerks. Nobody wants to press charges. The police are like, fine, go away, see you later.
GERAGOS: The host apparently wants to. The victim, who's getting his face pounded, apparently wants to.
BANFIELD: I think the Palins took most of the pounding, though -
GERAGOS: Can I say something?
BANFIELD: Because there was all this talk about blood and shirts not on and things like that.
GERAGOS: The Palins -- yes, well that actually happens when you rip your shirt off and start pounding - yes, that's kind of -
BANFIELD: Does it, Mark? Is that what happens when -- OK.
ROBBINS: That's the way Mark does it when he gets upset.
GERAGOS: It's - right, shirt comes off.
BANFIELD: That's the way Mark does it?
ROBBINS: Yes, he gets the hulk move in terms of -
GERAGOS: I -
BANFIELD: I - you know, I only bring this up and, look, this is the kind of bar fight that would never make the news, again, unless you stood on a platform like this with your family and crossed America for a year. It is a little odd to see this. And that's why I think a lot of people wonder, when the police arrive upon a scene with a very prominent family like that, do they have the right to pick and choose what they're going to do with whom?
GERAGOS: They're not supposed to. They're not supposed to. But obviously it was done here.
BANFIELD: Well, maybe -
GERAGOS: And I don't understand why -- why is this not a big deal yet? If this were an NFL player, this would be wall-to-wall coverage.
BANFIELD: And -
ROBBINS: Well, first of all, she's not running for president. That was many, many years ago and several reality shows ago. And so it's a totally different ball game. Secondly, she doesn't work for the NFL, so she's not upholding their brand and doesn't sign a contract guiding her conduct. And third, I think that there are plenty of people in America that have witnessed a brawl break out at a barbecue and know that a lot of times it's stupid. Apparently this was over Willow getting pushed over and Bristol coming and being angry -
BANFIELD: Words were said and -
ROBBINS: And people drinking too much alcohol.
BANFIELD: Mean things being said. You should see the Banfield family dinners. I'm amazed the police never showed up for those. ROBBINS: Oh, isn't it Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend (ph)?
BANFIELD: Thank you for saying so.
ROBBINS: Happy Thanksgiving, Ashleigh.
BANFIELD: Thank you for saying so. It's metric. It's a metric Thanksgiving. It comes months before the real -- Mark Geragos and Mel Robbins, thank you. And happy Thanksgiving to you, too.
All right, so we've got a couple of other things on the agenda here before we leave you. And a Baptist church has fired its pastor. A pastor who was at the pulpit for more than two decades. Why would you think that's national news? There's a really good reason. He reportedly told his congregation that he had the AIDS virus and then he really dropped the bombshell. He said he'd had sex with church members after he was diagnosed. After he was diagnosed. LEGAL VIEW on that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Church scandals may be nothing new when it comes to news headlines, but I guarantee you, you probably have not heard one like this. Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, has fired its preacher. Did so on Sunday, in fact, after more than two decades at the pulpit. Just a few Sundays earlier, it turns out, CNN affiliate WFSA is reporting that Reverend Juan McFarland (ph) told his churchgoing congregation that he contracted HIV way back in 2003.
And then he found out that he actually developed full-blown AIDS five years later. That would be 2008. And then he confessed to the big one, having sex with women in the congregation inside the church building. Let me just repeat that. Having sex with women in church long after he knew he had developed AIDS. Just for good measure, McFarland also admitted to illegal drug use and stealing church money or mismanaging it or whatever that is he's confessing to from the pulpit. He confirmed all of this to CNN affiliate WFSA before he got the boot on Sunday and he hasn't spoken since then despite CNN's repeated attempts to get ahold of him. Wow. Mel Robbins and Mark Geragos back on this one.
Where do I even begin? The criminal or the civil side.
GERAGOS: First of all, he stopped talking, which, if you're advising him, that's a good thing. Criminally, Mel can tell you. But I -- there's not much that can be done. It's a misdemeanor down there.
ROBBINS: Right. I mean it's a misdemeanor, Ashleigh.
BANFIELD: It's a misdemeanor.
GERAGOS: Yes.
ROBBINS: We've looked into this, Mark and I did. There's all --
BANFIELD: Potentially infecting someone with what could be considered a deadly disease.
ROBBINS: Could be, although, you know, look at Magic Johnson. You can manage this disease. It's not necessarily the death sentence.
But what was stunning to both Mark and I is that there are 35 states in the U.S. that have criminalized the sexual transmission of diseases, knowingly doing it, and 34 of them make it a felony to transmit HIV to somebody. In Alabama, it's only a misdemeanor. This guy's facing a class c misdemeanor, which is like disorderly conduct.
GERAGOS: Ninety - 90 day - right, it's a 90 day maximum.
ROBBINS: Ninety days. $500.
BANFIELD: Amazing. Well, OK, $500. Let's talk about that for a minute. Because if you can't find remedy in the criminal justice system, you all go to the civil justice system.
GERAGOS: You're - let me tell you what's going to happen in civil. Civil -
BANFIELD: And, thank you, there's a lot of liability here.
GERAGOS: This is - this is the lawyer's full employment act. Number one, it's on church grounds. You've got somebody who is there who knew about it at the time. I can't even imagine the insurance companies must be reserving millions of dollars because this -
BANFIELD: If they have it.
GERAGOS: If they have insurance because this has got to be the civil liabilities off the charts.
BANFIELD: So he himself is liable, the church is liable, and the organization that church belongs to as well.
ROBBINS: Yes.
GERAGOS: The church is liable, potentially.
BANFIELD: Now here's the big one. Nobody as of, you know, press writing at this point, has come forward as the victim. If you don't have a victim in this case, do you have a civil case anyway?
GERAGOS: Well, you could probably -- the victim would have to sue, and they could sue -
BANFIELD: So the congregation feeling wronged by their pastor can't sue on behalf of unnamed victims?
GERAGOS: Well, they could sue him for the other things there. I mean there are - there are other theories -
ROBBINS: The theft and the - yes.
GERAGOS: The theft and everything else and arguably the illegal drugs there and doing damage to their brand, if you will. There's ways that you concoct a legal theory. But somebody can sue under a Jane Doe and that's the way to remain anonymous.
ROBBINS: And here's the other thing.
BANFIELD: (INAUDIBLE). I've got 10 seconds left.
ROBBINS: Is that you don't even have to transmit the disease. You can recover damages for the intentional infliction of distress for the fear that you might have it.
BANFIELD: Well, that's a pretty distressing thing I should say.
ROBBINS: Yes, absolutely.
BANFIELD: I mean that's -- happy Thanksgiving. Happy weekend. Nice to have you both, Mel, Mark.
ROBBINS: Great to see you.
GERAGOS: Thanks, Ashleigh.
BANFIELD: We'll see you soon.
And thank you, everyone, for joining me. I'm going to take a little break and go to Canada for this Canadian Thanksgiving thing. You should try it some time. It's a lot of fun.
Thanks, everybody. Stay tuned. My colleague, Wolf, starts right now.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, tensions escalate between North and South Korea just as new speculation emerges on the whereabouts of the North Korean illusive leader Kim Jong-un.
Thick smoke rises into the sky over
