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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Republican Harassment Claims; The Fight Over Ebola-Contaminated Waste

Aired October 14, 2014 - 12:30   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The high school football field in Sayreville, New Jersey, is empty and will remain empty the rest of the season. All games cancelled. This after seven players were arrested and charged in an alleged sexual assault on four younger players in the locker room over 10 days. This happening apparently last month, the allegations suggest.

New Jersey Advance -- or NJ Advance Media spoke to the parent of one alleged victim who said, quote, "It would start with a howling noise from a senior football player at Sayreville War Memorial High School, then all of a sudden the lights were shut off. When it was dark," the parent said, quote, "a freshman football player would be pinned to the locker room floor, his arms and feet held down by multiple upper classmen. Then the victim would be lifted to his feet and sexually abused."

To add to the shock, the reaction from some of the players' parents who showed up at a Board of Education meeting to protest, here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MADELINE THILLET, PARENT OF FOOTBALL PLAYER: No one was hurt, no one died. I don't understand why they're being punished. These kids are dedicated and I haven't seen more dedication out of my son. And I want him to play the rest of this season.

TIM MCINTOSH, PARENT OF FOOTBALL PLAYER: They're innocent until proven guilty. They just want to play football. We care about the victims. We care about the perpetrators. We care about the players. We care about this family that they've created.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, the family that they've created is without question broken in some sense today. Three of the players are charged with aggravated sexual assault.

For the legal view, I want to bring in CNN legal analyst Mel Robbins and alongside Mel, CNN legal analyst Paul Callan, a criminal defense attorney and a former prosecutor.

So, guys, first of all, we can't even describe what happened because this is -- it's just -- we can't. I'm sorry, on television, we can't say some of the allegations of what happened to these younger four alleged victims. But this some people say has happened forever and ever, amen. How all of a sudden does it change today and how difficult is this a case to prove, Paul?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: First of all, it's very -- it seems very difficult to change this culture of hazing that goes on in football programs. You know, if this were the first time we had heard about this, it'd be one thing. But there was a case in Pennsylvania a few years ago involving a football camp where there was actually penetration with a broomstick and horrible, horrible things have gone on. Criminal charges have gone on and yet we still see it in locker rooms constantly. These --

BANFIELD: Because they've all turned around.

CALLAN: Well --

MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I mean, it's pretty easy to solve. You don't let 60 --

CALLAN: Yes, but why is --

ROBBINS: -- unsupervised high school boys alone in a locker room.

CALLAN: Why are the adults -- why are the adults not getting in play here.

ROBBINS: I mean, come on.

CALLAN: Why is the football coach not seeing that it doesn't happen? They're on notice that this goes on. So I'd like to see where the administrators were and why they didn't know about it.

BANFIELD: And, by the way, Mel, to that point, is that standard operating procedure? There are no adult supervision protocols in locker rooms?

ROBBINS: Well, I'm sure it changes all across the country depending on the team and the age of the kids. But you saw over the weekend was an outcry of award-winning high school and college and NFL coaches saying hey, wait a minute, you don't let 60 teenagers alone in a locker room and you don't do it repeatedly. Because this isn't just one actually.

This is four alleged incidents between September 19th and September 29th where this happened to four different victims allegedly. And while we can't describe it, at least three of the seven boys that were arrested were charged with aggravated sexual assault.

BANFIELD: So let's be clear, that's not snapping your towel at someone's bare bottom?

ROBBINS: No. No.

BANFIELD: It is big, it is as big as it gets when it comes to sexual offenses. ROBBINS: Yes. And there are -- there were also at least several

dozen other kids that were witnessing this. Not -- I'm not saying encouraging it. But what you've got is, you just kind of pointed to I think what Paul is talking about, too, which is this didn't just happen this season. And they --

CALLAN: If you want to know, by the way, how many times it has happened, I was stunned by this. Alfred University did a study in 2000 about harassment in sports programs. 800,000 players, they think, over the course of many, many years have been exposed to hazing. Now not of this severity.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Right. There's hazing and then --

CALLAN: But it's a long time things that's been going on --

BANFIELD: This is a far -- this is a lot -- go ahead.

ROBBINS: Let me --

CALLAN: Yes.

BANFIELD: I just -- I want to tell you, the superintendent has responded. And there's been some pretty swift action obviously. This is a quote I want to give you from the superintendent who this matter.

"The Board of Education takes this matter extremely seriously and thus will continue to make the safety and welfare of our students, particularly the victims of these horrendous alleged acts, our highest priority."

Just quickly, Mel, you're saying that it's not good enough just to cancel this season. What else needs to happen?

ROBBINS: Well, they need to fire the entire coaching staff, number one. They need to cancel the following season because -- and for those parents, if you're sitting there saying that you're upset that your son lost his scholarship over this thing, if he actually did this, he doesn't deserve a scholarship, he deserves jail time.

And if your kids watched it or knew about it, and did nothing, they're still involved because they didn't say anything. The only people that said something were the victims. I mean, this is horrible.

BANFIELD: Yes. Mind you --

ROBBINS: Absolutely horrible.

BANFIELD: I will say this.

ROBBINS: Assuming it's true.

BANFIELD: Sometimes kids don't know it's wrong. If they think that's what the way it's always been and that's hazing, and that's what they should be expecting.

(CROSSTALK)

CALLAN: You know, ironically --

ROBBINS: They may have been --

CALLAN: -- the kids who had been charged here may actually have been harassed themselves the year before.

BANFIELD: Right.

CALLAN: So we'll see more as this case develops.

BANFIELD: Which, you and I, we're all going to have -- have this conversation.

CALLAN: Yes.

BANFIELD: Because that could very well work its way into whether they are ultimately adjudicated or how it's been, you know, plays out.

Thanks to the both of you. Appreciate it.

CALLAN: Thank you.

BANFIELD: I want to take you back to the top story, that deadly Ebola virus. The hazmat crews collected medical waste from the Dallas apartment of the Ebola victim named Thomas Eric Duncan. And it was supposed to go to a landfill in Louisiana. Of course after it was burned to ashes. But that state refused to take it. Actually refused to take the ashes. So how can anyone be sure that the ashes of the incinerated waste aren't safe and what are you supposed to do with it if you can't get to a landfill?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: This just in to CNN. The nurse who is suffering from Ebola down in Dallas, Texas, has put out a statement about her condition. You heard Elizabeth Cohen at the beginning of this program saying that they hadn't updated her condition. Well, now Nina Pham is telling you herself how she's doing. She says, "I'm doing well and I want to thank everyone for their kind wishes and prayers. I'm blessed by the support of family and friends and I'm blessed to be cared for by the best team of doctors and nurses in the world here at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas."

That was issued at the request of Nina Pham by the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital staff. But there you go. She says she's doing well and says that her team is the best in the world. She's one of them and yet she contracted the Ebola virus after treating Thomas Eric Duncan who died with it last week.

Now one big problem with trying to contain Ebola is what to do with all of the contaminated waste, the blood-soaked sheets, the used needles, even the clothes that an Ebola patient wore can pose a risk of spreading the disease.

And as CNN's Drew Griffin reports, Louisiana's attorney general doesn't want any Ebola waste making its way inside of its state even if it's burned.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is this waste, the attorney general of Louisiana is worried about, the bags of sheets and clothes and stuff that Ebola victim Eric Duncan may have touched or soiled while he was sick and living inside this Dallas apartment.

The bags of waste were hauled away, disinfected, then placed into 55- gallon drums. The drums taken to this Port Arthur, Texas, facility for incineration, burned in ashes. The ashes is what Louisiana's attorney general says he doesn't want in Louisiana.

"There are too many unknowns at this point," says Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell and says it is absurd to transport potentially hazardous Ebola waste across state lines.

What's absurd, says infectious waste expert, Dr. Gavin McGregor- Skinner, is how uninformed Louisiana's attorney general is on the danger of incinerating Ebola waste and how that is adding to hysteria.

DR. GAVIN MCGREGOR-SKINNER, ELIZABETH R. GRIFFIN RESEARCH FOUNDATION: Incineration is going to kill the virus. But then again if he's concerned, you do a simple test on the waste and you show there's no virus in there. And we know that's a waste of money, a waste of resources because that virus is dead. It is not infectious, has no risk, zero risk to the environment, to people, to anyone being infectious.

GRIFFIN: Despite the lack of risk, the waste management company has sent out a statement saying it will not ship the Ebola ashes to a Louisiana landfill. Apparently to avoid a legal fight with the state's attorney general.

There is, though, a real problem in the U.S. dealing with Ebola waste and it's happening where it would be generated. Hospitals need to be equipped with these. It is a supersized pressure steam device called an autoclave. Think of it as a huge, high temperature pressure cooker for hospital garbage. Capable of killing any germ or virus.

WALTER CASSITY, BAYLOR UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: It's a specialized waste and it requires onsite incineration or placed in the autoclave, which means it's sterilized here on site before we ship it off to the final disposition.

GRIFFIN (on camera): And anybody who does that has to be trained, I would imagine.

CASSITY: Correct. Correct. Our EMS (ph) personnel go through stringent training. With this particular type of waste, it would have special precautions as it left the area, went to an isolation area to be held until it was placed in the autoclave.

GRIFFIN: Many hospitals don't have these large scale devices to take care of the enormous amount of waste from just a single Ebola patient, which is why privately, we are told, many hospitals hope to never see anyone carrying the Ebola virus.

Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: The CDC is going to be getting some help from Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg because Zuckerberg announced today that he's donating $25 million to the Centers for Disease Control Foundation for the fight against Ebola. Zuckerberg says he's hopeful that that donation is going to save lives and help control the outbreak.

In other news, a young rising star on the Republican Party who took his former opponent to task for sexually harassing women is now himself facing sexual harassment allegations. But could it derail his campaign for Congress? That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: So it was already one of the most closely watched congressional races of the midterm election involving a man considered a new hope for the Republican Party. But now it's getting kind of ugly with claims that the openly gay GOP candidate harassed one of his staffers. And we want to warn you that this next story has some graphic content that's certainly not suitable for children. CNN investigative reporter Chris Frates sat down exclusively with the accuser and has this look at both sides.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARL DEMAIO: For individual freedom.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Carl DeMaio is a rising Republican star, backed by heavyweight congressional leaders like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, even endorsed by Michael Bloomberg. He's positioned as a GOP candidate for a new generation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carl DeMaio, a new generation Republican --

FRATES: After losses in 2012, top Republicans concluded in a review they must recruit more minority candidates. It's a problem DeMaio helped solve. Just look at how a local newspaper describes him in its endorsement. "A gay man who will chip away at the party's image as intolerant and inflexible." National media has repeatedly declared DeMaio a candidate to watch.

DeMaio first came onto the national scene when he lost to Democrat Bob Filner in the race for San Diego mayor. But Filner was forced to step down after 18 women claimed sexual harassment. DeMaio tried to make Filner's behavior a campaign issue.

DEMAIO: You need a mayor who's going to insist on zero tolerance when it comes to the issue of sexual harassment.

FRATES: But now DeMaio's being tested by allegations about his own sexual misbehavior and accusations of harassment. It's an issue that escalated this week when he was asked about it at a campaign news conference.

DEMAIO: Absolutely untrue.

FRATES: The allegations come from a former campaign staffer who sat down on camera with CNN. Todd Bosnich says he joined DeMaio's campaign last year, eager to work for a candidate who shared his values and who, like himself, is an openly gay Republican. But he says he was fired after complaining about DeMaio's aggressive sexual behavior.

TODD BOSNICH, FORMER CAMPAIGN STAFFER: He asked me to come over to his office, which is in the back. And when I came over to his office, his door was open and he was masturbating.

FRATES (on camera): And so what did you see when you walked in?

BOSNICH: I saw his hand -- his penis in his hand and he was -- had a smile on his face. And as soon as I came over, he was looking at me.

FRATES: So there was no mistaking what was happening?

BOSNICH: There is no mistaking whatsoever.

FRATES (voice-over): Bosnich, who became the campaign's policy director, says DeMaio would repeatedly find him alone and make inappropriate advances, massaging and kissing his neck and groping him. He says it started one evening after drinks with the staff at a local bar. Bosnich says DeMaio gave him a ride back to his car.

BOSNICH: We were making small talk on the way back. And when he pulled up to my car, he reached over into my lap and grabbed my crotch. And I flipped out and I pushed his hand away.

FRATES (on camera): And how did it make you feel?

BOSNICH: I just was shocked because I'd never had anyone do something like that to me, especially in a position of authority and trust. And at the time, I just figured, well, maybe he was drunk and blew it off. But he progressively and progressively, the inappropriate touching incidents continued from there.

FRATES (voice-over): It was several more months, according to Bosnich, before he mentioned the behavior to the campaign manager.

BOSNICH: The campaign manager who, you know, laughed it off, that's just the way Carl is, and that if I really felt that uncomfortable, I shouldn't have let him know that I'm a gay man.

FRATES (on camera): And so he was essentially saying to you, well, it was your fault?

BOSNICH: Exactly. He was implying that it's my fault, that it's incumbent on me to stop Carl DeMaio from these behaviors. And I was really offended.

FRATES (voice-over): A few weeks after the alleged masturbation incident, Bosnich says he confronted DeMaio.

BOSNICH: You need to either stop or drop out of the race was basically my main point. And then it was the very next day, in the morning, that the campaign manager called me into his office and said that Carl lost his trust in me and that he had terminated me. He offered me a position in the county Republican Party and also told me to sign a nondisclosure agreement in exchange for $50,000.

FRATES (on camera): Was that hush money?

BOSNICH: You know, I'll let it speak for itself.

FRATES: How did you look at it?

BOSNICH: I took it as an attempt to bribe me to keep my silence.

FRATES (voice-over): Bosnich says he left the campaign without taking any money or signing any papers. He recorded an interview with a local conservative radio station outlining his allegations. That interview never aired. But CNN obtained a copy of that recording. After hearing it, we took Bosnich's allegations directly to DeMaio, catching up with him after a campaign news conference.

FRATES (on camera): I mean he says that, you know, you were inappropriate in the office, you -- that you would touch him, kiss him, grab his butt. He --

DEMAIO: All I can say is the police department has --

FRATES: Let me - I just want to - I just want to - let me finish the litany. And he also says that you went out for drinks with the staff, you drove him home.

DEMAIO: All not true. None of it's true.

FRATES: You grabbed his crotch.

FRATES (voice-over): DeMaio denied Bosnich's claims, saying that they are the cover story of a plagiarist and suspected criminal.

DEMAIO: This is an individual that was let go by our campaign manager for plagiarism, a well-documented plagiarism incident of taking a report from the "National Journal" and passing it off as his own work. He was terminated. He admitted that he plagiarized. He apologized for plagiarizing. And when we told him he was no longer welcome in the staff and in the campaign office even as a volunteer, he left. Days later, he broke in.

FRATES: DeMaio claims the San Diego Police Department is investigating Bosnich for breaking into DeMaio's campaign headquarters, smashing computers and cutting phone lines just days before the primary.

DEMAIO: It's unfortunate. He's clearly troubled. He got caught for the damage that he did to the campaign. And now he's manufacturing in essence a cover story to explain away his actions. It's unfortunate. It's untrue. And my hope is that the police department will hold him accountable for his actions against our campaign.

FRATES (on camera): And you can provide us with the evidence --

DEMAIO: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

FRATES: That shows both the break-in --

DEMAIO: Absolutely. Absolutely.

FRATES: And both the evidence that would refute his claims -

DEMAIO: Absolutely. Absolutely.

FRATES: Here that you somehow were inappropriate?

DEMAIO: We would be happy to do that. Absolutely. Why don't you come back to the office, we'll walk you through every single e-mail, text message. I think you will be satisfied.

FRATES (voice-over): We went to DeMaio's campaign headquarters and were briefly shown some documents and other materials. They wouldn't let us copy them or describe them to you and they did not on their own appear to refute Bosnich's claims. Police confirm they investigated the break-in and sent their findings to the district attorney for review. And Bosnich confirms he was interviewed by police.

FRATES (on camera): Four months after the campaign office break-in, police still haven't charged anyone with a crime and they refuse to discuss the case on camera or name any potential suspects.

Did you break into Carl DeMaio's office?

BOSNICH: No, I did not.

FRATES (voice-over): Bosnich also denies that he was the one who plagiarized from the "National Journal."

FRATES (on camera): After interviewing Bosnich on camera, CNN repeatedly tried to get detailed answers from the DeMaio campaign. First, the campaign spokesman demanded to talk to my bosses and then had a top GOP consultant take over that call accusing CNN of going on a partisan witch hunt.

FRATES (voice-over): When we followed up with a detailed list of questions, including whether the campaign manager knew about Bosnich's complaints, the campaign then hired two high-powered Washington attorneys who asked for even more time and more information about what CNN had. CNN followed up with a second detailed letter laying out the information they requested. The next day, CNN finally got a response from the lawyers, contact the campaign with your questions. And back to square one. Their statement was almost exactly what they said when we first asked about it. This is not the first time DeMaio has been accused of sexually

inappropriate behavior. Last year, a fellow city councilman said he caught DeMaio masturbating in a city hall restroom, twice. It's a claim DeMaio denied, even taking a polygraph test to support his denial.

DEMAIO: This lie crossed the line. It's so gross, it's so untrue, it's so humiliating that it demands a response.

FRATES: Now Todd Bosnich has taken an independent lie detector test to support his allegations.

BOSNICH: It corroborated my account of being sexually harassed by Carl DeMaio.

FRATES: Bosnich's attorney gave us a copy of the polygraph results and the report says no deception indicated.

FRATES (on camera): DeMaio is locked in a very close race to unseat Democratic Congressman Scott Peters.

Chris Frates, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Thanks so much for watching, everybody. My colleague, Wolf, starts right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)