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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Eric Frein Charged with Terrorism; Student-Teacher Sex Case Examined; Latest in the Missing Mexican Students Case; Betting on Sports Discussed

Aired November 14, 2014 - 12:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The man charged with murdering one police officer and then wounding another has a new list of very serious charges that are stacked on top of his case today.

Eric Frein is the guy I'm talking about, the one who is sporting (ph) a couple of fresh new wounds in his orange jumpsuit when he was taken in. He's already looking at the death penalty for sneaking up and shooting two Pennsylvania state troopers, one of them died, one of them didn't.

Here's the update, terrorism. He's being charged with terrorism. The prosecutor say that he's not just a cop killer, he's also wanted because he wanted to change the American government and in his words, quote, "Wake people up." Whatever that means.

Midwin Charles and Danny Cevallos are here. So what's so interesting is that they -- the police were able to -- through (inaudible) Lawrence, get a thumb drive with a letter that he had written to his parents that he assumed only wanted his parents to read if he were caught. And there are a lot of pronouncements in that letter about changing the government. How things needed to change, how things were so different now. What does that mean if you just write something crazy to your parents?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: So let's look at terrorism, the charge to begin with. In Pennsylvania, it's just -- the underlying felony which here obviously is a killing, that's the allegation, plus the additional intent to affect or intimidate the conduct of the citizens or the government. So, what this letter does is, irrespective of whether or not it was a stamp was placed on it and it was sent in mail, what it does is it gives us a look into the -- his intent, his motives.

And the prosecution is going to use all of those rumblings to put on evidence of that intent and that motive to satisfy charges of terrorism. And it's going to be very effective, I mean when people write this manifestos, it's a look right into the minds of a killer.

BANFIELD: Yes.

MIDWIN CHARLES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It really is.

BANFIELD: He mentioned the word assassination, too so that have must changed the dynamic somewhat.

CHARLES: Well, it changes the dynamic because one of the things that this letter does is also show that this was something that he planned to do. He planned to sort of have an effect that his actions in sort of shooting this two state troopers would have an impact in what Americans thought because he said in his statement, that he wanted to wake Americans up with what he's done. So...

BANFIELD: But for a lot of people, they think terror means creating fear, creating terror as opposed to I'm going to do this to make a change. Not to scare people but to make a change. Is that arguable at all?

CEVALLOS: No. The component is actually much more political. If you can either affect the conduct of a government, or the direction or political leanings of a government, the statute allows for, you don't need to create fear. You just need to try to affect a government or affect their political impressions or what have you.

BANFIELD: This guy is going to be facing first degree murder and death penalty. Why do you need the terror on top of that? What's that going to do for anybody?

CHARLES: Well, I think what it does is it changes the landscape of the sort of prosecution that we are going to see. So this isn't just going to be a murder trial. Now we are also going to see prosecutors delving into whether or not his actions were looking to impact the manner in which the United States' government is directed. And Ashleigh, might I also add out that a lot of people were surprised, you know, your question I think was excellent with respect to the terror because this guy terrorized the community for seven weeks on...

BANFIELD: Because that scares me but his letter didn't.

CHARLES. Right. I know...

(CROSSTALK)

CHARLES: Isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting?

BANFIELD: ... this month long manhunt...

CHARLES: And I think most of lay person's opinions, that is there with a terror.

BANFIELD: Terrorism. Yes.

CHARLES: Exactly. You could sort of hold a community in hostage for seven weeks while you are armed and dangerous and having already shot two state troopers.

BANFIELD: Right. All right. Well, we'll watch this one. It doesn't look like it's going to be the most difficult prosecution, after all he apparently admitted it. But there's always the problem with confessions, too, and those could be litigated as well.

Midwin, Danny, as always, thank you.

CHARLES: Thank you.

BANFIELD: The suspect in the kidnapping of a University of Virginia student, Hannah Graham, made a plea today. Can you imagine what he said? Not guilty, but to charges of a different crime in fact. It was a sexual assault case from back in '05. Jesse Matthew's lawyers did not ask for a mental evaluation as some people expected they would. His trial is set for March the 9th.

The Los Angeles School District said a 14-year-old student consented to sex with teacher. Yes, I just said that the District said that the 14-year-old consented to sex with a teacher. Can you believe that? Fairly, this is all part of the District's defense in a liability lawsuit that was brought by the teacher -- or by the student after that teacher was convicted for having sex with her. Yes, the teacher was convicted for having sex with her, but somehow the District says, "But she decided to do it on her own."

So what is going on in California? How did that happen? We're going to talk about that in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: 14-year-olds can't boat, they can't drive, but according to the attorney for Los Angeles School District, they can be mature enough to consent to sex with an adult even if that adult is their teacher.

A middle school math teacher named Elkis Hermida, was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to three years in state prison for having sex with his student, both on campus and off campus. The student then sued the Los Angeles Unified School District, claiming that it was negligence that it didn't do enough to protect but a jury ruled against her in civil court.

And now, she's appealing that lawsuit. The District, in its defense, is now using her sexual history as evidence and says that she was a willing participant. Let me remind you, she's 14 and the District is using her sexual history. And there is one humdinger of a quote that's being used in this defense, I want you to listen to a Keith Wyatt, the L.A. Unified trial attorney, told the radio station, KPCC.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

KEITH WYATT, ATTORNEY: Children make decisions all the time, all right? Making their decision in whether or not to cross the street when traffic is coming, that takes a certain level of maturity, all right? And that's a much more dangerous decision than deciding, "Hey, I want to have sex with my teacher."

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BANFIELD: Gulp. Wyatt has since apologized for those comments. In fact, issued a written apology saying that, "Upon reflection, I realized how insensitive the comments I made to KPCC radio station. How insensitive were, and I'm truly sorry to this young woman and her family. My statements were ill-thought out and poorly articulated and by no means reflect the opinions of the School District or its leadership." Well, that's all fine but they're still fighting this case folks.

For that legal view, I want to bring back criminal defense attorney, Midwin Charles, a CNN legal analyst Paul Callan.

OK. So, let me get this straight, guys, you get a criminal case in which the guy goes away for three years. It's determined that, no apparently you can't consent if your 14 to having sex with your teacher and he's guilty and he goes away. He gets into the civil arena and all of the sudden, California law gets crazy and suggests that you can. Paul, walk me through it.

PAUL CALLAN, CNN ANALYST: Well, number one, it's why people don't like lawyers, I think because -- and here's the deal with this lawyer. The lawyer looks at the case and he comes up with a technical argument which will allow him to win the case, all right. And the argument is the legislature messed up when they passed the criminal law, they didn't -- the wording wasn't right and it sort of created an argument that there's no law on the issue of consent with respect to a minor in a civil case for money damages.

So, the lawyer uses that argument because he can win the case even though from a moral standpoint, it's wrong. And he's client, the Los Angeles Unified School District, should have said to him don't use that argument.

BANFIELD: Don't do this. It's not the right thing.

CALLAN: But of course there's one part of the back story we don't know, how much money was she suing for? Was it a colossal, extremely high, greedy number and they had to fight?

BANFIELD: A bankrupting number.

CALLAN: Or was it a reasonable number? So, I'd like to know the whole story before I judge the lawyer too harshly.

CHARLES: I don't know if you can discern between greedy of reasonable. This is a 14-year-old girl that had a sexual relationship with a teacher in a school district, and her parents are suing the school district holding them or wanting to hold them civilly liable. And I think Paul is correct that this is a technicality but this is a horrendous, horrendous road for the school district to go down because what they are saying in...

BANFIELD: It's all good, it's OK.

CHARLES: Well -- right it's a school district.

BANFIELD: For kids.

CHARLES: So, there are other children and, you know, weird, they're basically telling the children and their parents that this is what they think of their children.

BANFIELD: I want to be clear, the school district was cleared of any wrong doing in the criminal, OK? And this is an appeal on the civil case, they beat this rout (ph). But they're using her sexual history. I've always been of a conviction that rape shield laws stop you from doing that. Are we in the same problem with this civil arena?

CALLAN: And rape shields laws only file to criminal cases. They don't use it....

BANFIELD: So, the civil Arena is no holds barred, all systems go and just have that.

CALLAN: And the rape shield law just so people know is that you can't use a woman's sexual history against her in a rape case unless it involves you relationship with the guy who you've accused of rape. But -- yes.

BANFIELD: But this is as simple as, you're not in Kansas anymore. You're in a civil Arena.

CHARLES: Right.

CALLAN: But, you know, just getting back to the issue though of, you know, and as Midiwn says, it's, you know, it's a terrible situation here but let's say they were asking for $50 million in compensation, well the school district might have been put in a position where they say we can't pay you that much. May be we'd pay a million or $500, 000, a reasonable number, so they get forced to go to trial. I don't know that that happened but I've seen enough cases to know it's usually a fight about the money that causes this embarrassment of court.

BANFIELD: Well, speaking of embarrassment, (inaudible), you know, in the media arena and who knows that will drive them behind close doors into settlement conference on this one because this is just an abomination if we think about that.

CHARLES: Particularly when you think of age of consent when it comes to sex and when -- as a society, we've already decided that a 14-year- old can't buy alcohol, can't buy cigarettes, can't enter into a contract. So...

BANFIELD: Neither can a 16, 17, or 18-year old, you know.

CHARLES: Right. So, this sort of notion that a 14-year-old can consent to sex applies against to what we as a society has deemed appropriate and legal.

BANFIELD: It's crazy. Midwin and Paul, thank you very much.

CALLAN: You're welcome.

BANFIELD: A new twist in the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico. It's weird, but a former mayor has now been charged with homicide. We're going to get an update on the investigations and exactly why would a mayor and his wife be involved in any of this from the get go.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: I want to take you live inside the House Representatives where we are looking at a procedural vote right now. And if you just look at the -- a little tricky to read it now but it's so small. Now, we've actually passed the procedural vote, we're in the actual vote now.

I can barely see the numbers because my screen is tiny but the Republicans are now at 220 ayes, Democrats 31 ayes, and there's a 168 nays, this is all in a vote over the Keystone pipeline. So, the pictures on the right indicating what this is all about, a pipeline that is set an $8 billion projects to be built to transport oil from the Northern Climes (ph) of Canada down to the Gulf Coast. It's been political football for quite sometime.

And now, here we are with two Houses, in the control of the Republicans and already were seeing some of the action that's going to be taken. This is ongoing and I think it should probably come to some kind of fruition momentarily. I'm seeing time remaining zero but I don't think we're at the final vote right now.

So, wait and see what they're actually going to do. I can't here any sound from the House unfortunately, but there you have it.

So, what's also significant here is that there is obviously the second body that would have to take up this bill, the Keystone Pipeline bill, that would be the Senate. Well, up until last week, that would have been a big fat no, more than likely, and now there is a possibility that there are enough votes in the Senate including a very significant democratic senator, one named Mary Landrieu who might think actually that they can get to the 60-vote majority which would actually prevent any kind of filibuster.

So a lot of action happening. A lot of people wondering what's going to happen with the pipeline, well let you know just as soon as we have the final numbers.

Meantime, a huge development today in this awful, unbelievable story that's pushing the anger levels to Mexico really to the point of explosion. Crowds of people across the country furious, demanding justices all after 43 college students just vanished in September. Now they are feared dead. Today someone actually charged the alleged mastermind -- and here's the shocking part. That person is a former elected official.

Straight from Guerrero state in South Western Mexico is CNN Rosa Flores. So tell me what the prosecutors are saying and why the mayor now has actually been charged in this, Rosa.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Ashleigh, tensions are really high. And it's (inaudible) with a lot of twist and turns. So, here is what we know from authorities. So the mayor and his wife were arrested last week. Now what we learned today is that the mayor was charged with six counts of aggravated homicide and one count of attempted homicide.

Now, there are so many intricacies to this story but I'll give it to you in a nutshell. So, what authorities are saying is that that the mayor asked the police in the town to stop the protesters that were coming into his town. Now, these protesters are the students. And so here's the other twist, authorities also say and this is based on confessions from other cartel members and other police officers who have been arrested, that the mayor had the cartel members on his payroll, I.E., he made an order they were able to respond and be at his disposal.

Of course, we don't know to what extent he ask them to do. We don't know what he asked them to do exactly. Authorities are not saying that, but we do know that now he is being charged.

BANFIELD: All right. Rosa Flores on it for us live. Thank you keep us posted as to what happens next in that case.

For years, pro-sports leagues hasn't wanted anything to do with gambling effectively. Now, the commissioner of the NBA says, "It is time to legalize sports betting." What do you suppose is behind this?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: In a surprising turn, the NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that he supports the legalization of sports betting. In an (inaudible) to the New York Times, Silver says that the U.S. should allow gambling on pro-sports with strict regulations to keep it safe and keep it legal.

Joining me to talk about the pros and cons about sports betting is the host of CNN's Unguarded, Rachel Nichols, who knows a lot more about sports than I do. So this is the thing, I don't know your world but this seems weird, is it?

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN HOST: Well, it's certainly unusual. It's a very daring position for Adam Silver to take but hey, he's certainly been having a good year as compared to a lot of other commissioners that we've been talking about so, maybe he feels a little bit empowered and embolden to take this step. And there are advantages for sports leagues in promoting this. If you could say that maybe this would increase interest in their game.

Certainly, the leagues already promote fantasy sports and most people who play fantasy sports have some cash money on the board for their prices. So in a way, this leagues are kind of endorsing this anyway and then they're pulling back at the same time and saying, "No, no, no. There's no gambling in this establishment." He basically wants to take it out of the shadows, but it's a controversial position.

BANFIELD: Well, what about, you know, nannies and drivers and family members and all of those people who might be able to influence athletes possibly, isn't that part of the metric?

NICHOLS: There's all sorts of concerns about it and look, in the NBA itself it wasn't that long ago that we had a huge gambling scandal. One of the referees was taking money to change how he was officiating games and to influence the outcome of games. So, in a way, you would think the NBA would be the last sports to take this on. But Adam Silver apparently think it's good for him and they have had greater investment in fantasy sports and I think that that is linked up with this.

BANFIELD: Does the owners like this?

NICHOLS: Well, you know, you ask 30 different owners, you're going to get 30 different opinions. But it won't surprise you, Ashleigh, that Mark Cuban has already spoken on this, the Dallas Mavericks owner, who's often controversial himself and he has fully endorsed the NBA commissioner's decisions. He says, "Hey, everyone is doing it anyway, we might as well be regulating it and maybe even getting a piece of the pie ourselves." Again, doesn't really address the dangers and you've had other sports leagues having issue with this.

You mentioned the legislation in New Jersey, well you just have a bunch of the other sports leagues actually file a complaint against that legislation, including the NFL, including the NCAA, including Major League Baseball. They say that they see this as very dangerous. I actually just had NHL commissioner Gary Bettman in my studio here. He's going to be on our show Unguarded tonight...

BANFIELD: Perfect.

NICHOLS: ... and he came out against it as well.

BANFIELD: Well so, you mentioned two things that both -- we have to be going to be real quick on this one but if they get a piece of the pie, would that change how the other leagues feel?

NICHOLS: Well, I mean look, every league would then legislate that to themselves. It depends on what side deals they make. You got to think that money influences things, but Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner said that his big concern is you are changing the way young people see sports. Instead of being about competition and betterment and all the things that we hope sports embodies, it's not about gambling.

BANFIELD: Did you just say that money influence these things, Rachel?

NICHOLS: I know. I can't imagine. I know it's a first person to bring that idea to this show.

BANFIELD: Where did you get that? You're a crazy lady. You're...

NICHOLS: I know.

BANFIELD: Rachel, thank you.

NICHOLS: Thank you.

BANFIELD: And here's a big plug for you, Rachel Nichols, Unguarded tonight, 10:30 right here on CNN. Thanks girl, have a good weekend. Hey -- and thank you all for watching. I do appreciate it. My colleague, Jim Sciutto, one of the smartest in the business, he's sitting in for Wolf. He's starting right now. Stick around.