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Autopsy Assistant Under Fire; Ferguson Needs to Heal; Gearing Up for Today's NFL Games; A Look at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Aired November 27, 2014 - 09:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you so much for joining me this morning.

The mayor of Ferguson, Missouri, is questioning where the National Guard was when protesters and looters ripped through the city in the hours after the grand jury's decision. Seven hundred guardsmen were deployed to Ferguson before that verdict was read, but still, violence broke out across the area, businesses vandalized and destroyed, cars and buildings set on fire, and Mayor James Knowles wants to know where those troops were to assist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JAMES KNOWLES, FERGUSON, MISSOURI: I was assured, and our community was assured, that if it was getting out of control, if the National Guard was need, at that point, you're beyond antagonizing. The -- you know, the destruction is already underway. There's no reason not to deploy them. I have no idea why they weren't deployed. That's frustrating.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: By Tuesday night, more than 2,000 troops were ordered to the area, and protests turned more peaceful last night.

A man who assists with one of the autopsies of Michael Brown gave a news conference and many, many interviews about his findings, but he's now the subject of scrutiny himself as questions have emerged about his qualifications and his actions may have led to the release of a man suspected of killing his grandfather more than two years ago. Elizabeth Cohen has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Out of the death and violence in Ferguson, Missouri, this summer, a turn to be a media star for a man named Shaun Parcells.

SHAWN PARCELLS, DIR. NATIONAL FORENSIC AUTOPSY AND TISSUE RECOVERY SERVICES: First of all, I'm Professor Shaun Parcells.

COHEN: He dazzled with details on the private autopsy of Michael Brown.

PARCELLS: Two gunshot wounds to the head, indicating that Mr. Brown was bending over as they were coming down at him (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're back with Shawn Parcells, who assisted in the autopsy of Michael Brown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now Shawn Parcells --

COHEN: Even here on CNN.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Parcells, thank you very much.

PARCELLS: Thank you. Thank you.

COHEN: He's appeared in the media time and again as a forensic pathology expert. We know he assisted Dr. Michael Baden in the private autopsy commissioned by Michael Brown's family. Baden said he was a good assistant.

Parcells is not a doctor. We know he calls himself a forensics medical consultant, and a medical investigator, and a professor, but is he what he says he is?

COHEN (on camera): So you call yourself a professor?

PARCELLS: Yes.

COHEN: Where are you a professor?

PARCELLS: I'm an adjunct professor at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas.

COHEN (voice-over): But that, as far as we could tell, isn't accurate. We contacted Washburn University. They say, while he has spoken to nursing students, he's not now and never been an adjunct professor there.

COHEN (on camera): Washburn University says that's not true.

PARCELLS: OK, I have a contract that states that it is true.

COHEN: Can you show us that contract?

PARCELLS: I can.

COHEN (voice-over): But he never sent us that contract showing he was an adjunct professor. He later said it was proprietary.

DEPUTY GRANT GILLETT, ANDREW COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: I see him as a fraud. I mean that's the best word I would say to describe Shawn Parcells to me.

COHEN (on camera): How about you?

DUSTIN JEFFERS, FORMER ANDREW COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICER DEPUTY: Manipulator.

GILLETT: A very good con artist is the way I'd put it.

COHEN (voice-over): In Missouri, Deputy Sheriff's Grant Gillett and Dustin Jeffers say Shawn Parcells performed an autopsy procedure in a criminal case without a doctor present.

COHEN (on camera): So he introduced himself as a pathology, as a medical doctor?

GILLETT: That is correct.

COHEN: And he seemed believable?

GILLETT: Very well.

JEFFERS: Very much so, yes.

COHEN: I mean you two are both experienced law enforcement officers. And even you were duped.

GILLETT: That's right.

COHEN (voice-over): The deputies say, without a medical doctor's signature on Robert Forrester's (ph) autopsy report, it's not valid.

COHEN (on camera): It's been more than two years since the crime. Can you move forward with the prosecution?

GILLETT: We can't move forward at this time with that case at all.

COHEN: Why not?

GILLETT: Because the autopsy was not performed legally. So we can't use any evidence found from the autopsy in a court of law to be used to prosecute any suspects on a case.

COHEN (voice-over): That means, according to the deputies, Bobby Forrester, suspected of killing his grandfather, was set free, and he went on to beat up his grandmother. Shawn Parcells says he never told the deputies he was a doctor.

PARCELLS: If they want to think I'm a doctor, that's their issue. People assume stuff all the time, and they may never ask. It's -- it's bad that they're assuming and that they never ask.

COHEN: Parcells, who has a bachelor's degree, says he's supervised by medical doctors, but sometimes they're not present when he performs an autopsy procedure.

COHEN (on camera): So you do autopsies where there's not a pathologist or an M.D. anywhere in the room.

PARCELLS: At times. Sometimes a pathologist is there and sometimes they're not.

COHEN: You're not an M.D.

PARCELLS: I'm not an M.D.

COHEN: But it's legal for you to be cutting up bodies, taking organs out, making observations?

PARCELLS: Yes.

COHEN (voice-over): This, even though a letter on his own company's letterhead states unequivocally that "during each and every forensic autopsy conducted, the attending pathologist is present at all times." "We always have the attending pathologist present and directing the autopsy examination."

And if you think that's shocking, the owner of this funeral home says Parcells promised to arrange for an autopsy on the remains of an unidentified body, but didn't show up for more than a week. Maggots appeared. And where's that body now? Phelps (ph) County Deputy Coroner Lenox Jones (ph) would love to know. He says he's not heard from Parcells in more than a year. When we asked Parcells, where's the body, we got a barrage of obscenities.

COHEN (on camera): Lenox Jones says that he's never heard back from you.

PARCELLS: He has. Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Excuse my language, but I've got (EXPLETIVE DELETED) e-mails to prove him and I going back and forth and the fact that he ignores me. He's a (EXPLETIVE DELETED). You want to be truthful? He is a (EXPLETIVE DELETED). And I'm sorry to cuss like this on your cameras, but this particular case pisses me off.

COHEN (voice-over): Parcells added that the coroner can pick up the body from his morgue in Topeka any time.

So with coroners and law enforcement so angry, why haven't they gone after him?

Dr. Mary Case, chief medical examiner for St. Louis County, says prosecutors might be worried. She says some of them may have used his autopsy reports to get convictions, convictions they don't want overturned.

DR. MARY CASE, CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER, ST. LOUIS COUNTY: It could be a problem for that prosecuting attorney if that prosecutor has prosecuted somebody based upon Shawn's findings. Of course that's a problem.

COHEN (on camera): For the prosecutor?

CASE: For the prosecutor.

COHEN: So no one wants to go after him.

CASE: No one has. No one has to this point.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: A county in Missouri did file a complaint with the state's medical licensing board saying they expected a pathologist to be at the procedure and instead Parcells did it on his own. The board closed the case without taking any action and wouldn't tell us why.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Elizabeth Cohen reporting.

Parcells insists that the Forrester death investigation was doomed from the start because the dead man's body was embalmed prior to the autopsy and because the sheriff's department never turned over the records needed for the autopsy report to be completed.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, months of unrest and a community divided. Now some in the community of Ferguson perhaps inspired by the spirit of the season, looking to the future and ways to heal. We'll talk about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Missouri is the heart of America, and America's heart is broken. Those words written by a Ferguson pastor for cnn.com as she urges healing in a community who residents she says need to learn a new way of relating to each other. Her words echoed by this image from "The New Yorker" magazine. Pictures of St. Louis Arch in pieces. One black, one white. The headline, "a broken arch for Ferguson."

Well, let's talk about that on this day of thanks. Reverend Suzan Johnson Cook is a former U.S. ambassador at large for International Religious Freedom.

Thank you so much for being here on Thanksgiving Day.

REV. SUZAN JOHNSON COOK, FORMER U.S. AMB. AT LARGE FOR INTL. RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: Thank you for having me.

COSTELLO: Because I think this is important to talk about.

COOK: Yes, I mean, America's heart is broken. That's why you see the marches from California all the way to the East Coast, college students, because there hasn't been a place for venting of anger. And especially now in Ferguson, they're, you know, tailgating on the tragedy that this happened. You know, I think a couple things. One, there has to be an intentionality about healing. Everyone has to want it to happen. So the first thing that needs to happen is the vandalism needs to stop because these are good people who have worked all their lives to provide for their community and they're the ones whose property is being destroyed.

But then there has to also be an admission that there is a problem in America with race. I call it American judicial apartheid because there's been a racial issue and we've called it everything else exempt racism. We've said diversity, multiculturalism, human rights. No, there's a race problem and it starts in every family, whether you're young or old. It could be in high school when a counselor tells you, a smart student, that you shouldn't even apply to college. Your dates, your uncles, your brothers, who get stopped consistently by the police. So instead of having the birds and bees story now, we're talking about cops and robbers. You have to really know about stopping and frisking. And those are the conversations we're having with our sons. I'm a mother of two sons. So I think there needs to be some town hall places, some town hall meetings.

COSTELLO: Well, let me ask you this. You know, usually these kinds of things happen in our country and then a couple months go by and we don't think about them again. So is this a moment in our history or is this a movement what's happening in Ferguson?

COOK: It's both. It's a moment to begin a movement. Because what we have to have is -- we always respond when there's an emotional crisis. And you have to have someone who's non-emotional and who's objective, who comes in to look at the lay of the land. So there needs to be some short term and some long term strategy. The short term is, we've got to stop this violence. We've got to help the family heal.

COSTELLO: But you talk about someone. And I'm struggling to come up with a name, right, because --

COOK: I don't know if this is one name. I think, you know, joined -- have CNN join me and do some town hall meetings all across the country. People have to have a place to gather and people have to have a place to vent, otherwise you're going to have marches and you're going to have movements. But that's not a bad thing. Movements trigger some attention being drawn to the situation.

So I think we need to have a point -- when South Africa, after apartheid, had the reconciliation hearings, there was a group that admitted that they had done some wrongs and there was a group that received their apologies. And you have to have that.

COSTELLO: Right, there was forgiveness, right?

COOK: There was forgiveness. But you have to have some admission and you also have to have a chance for people to forgive.

COSTELLO: Wow. OK, should President Obama go to Ferguson?

COOK: I think he should, along with -- I mean but even he and Eric Holder have had to have the talk with their sons and their family members who are male about, you know, the police stopping and frisking. So every black family has been affected by this.

I think he should go, but I think, you know, we should go. I think that you have to have people who don't just respond in crisis time, but who begin to plan for the long range -- long range strategy. One of those issue is having more people that look like the majority population in the police force and elected office. So they have to do some training. And if you have to call it quotas, well, then there need to be some quotas, but you have to have people that look like the people who they're policing. I was a police chaplain for 21 years here in New York City, and I came

in under Commissioner Lee Brown. And he really started community policing. People need to see people that look like them. Otherwise, it's kind of this minority over this majority, which is what apartheid really was.

COSTELLO: Right. On the other hand, we have to get along, too. We live in a diverse world, right?

COOK: We live in a diverse world.

COSTELLO: So how do you -- I understand you need to see people who look like yourself, I do. I get it. But you also have to get along with those who don't look like you, and that's both sides.

COOK: Very much so, but not when it's in a confrontational state. I mean, al that's happened in Ferguson is now you have a confrontation that hasn't really been addressed. People thought America did not get this right and they really didn't think the verdict was going to come down the way it did.

So you're talking about diversity, people getting along. I was on President Clinton's President Initiative on Race back in '98 when he tried to put race on the table, that it's going to be a multicultural diverse world. But we still have black Americans who feel we haven't had our fair share in America. So you have to call it what it is, deal with it, and allow people to have the chance for forgiveness. But for forgiveness to happen, you have to have the conversation.

COSTELLO: Got you. And, boy, I hope we have it this time, I do, because we live in a great country and we should get along. And it's so frustrating and so painful.

COOK: It is.

COSTELLO: Thank you so much for your insight. And Happy Thanksgiving, and thank you so much for coming in.

COOK: My pleasure.

COSTELLO: I know you have a big dinner back at home waiting for you. I appreciate it. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Turkey, what turkey? I'm getting ready for the big game. I'm going to watch the Lions annihilate the Bears, Andy Scholes.

(LAUGHTER)

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: I like that hat, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thank you, sir.

SCHOLES: I think I know who you're going to be rooting for today. Is there anything better than stuffing your face with some turkey and other Thanksgiving goodies and then passing out on the couch watching some NFL football? It's one of my favorite traditions; I'm sure it's yours, Carol.

And this year, unlike last few years, we actually have some good match-ups to watch. Carol, your Lions and the Bears are going to kick things off. Now, the Bears, they're pretty bad. They've been a disappointment to their fans, to the city. Even to the Bears themselves this year. Your Lions, though, on the other hand, Carol, they're fighting for a playoff spot. They're a game back in the division against the Packers, still in the hunt for a wildcard. So today's game is very important for them.

The game after that is going to have the Dallas Cowboys hosting their division rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles. Now, everyone, this one is going to take over first place in the AFC East. The Cowboys, of course, coming off of that big last minute win over the Giants on Sunday Night Football. Now both of these teams of course, high powered offenses, so this one should be an entertaining game to watch.

The nightcap or dessert, if you will, tonight's going to be the defending champs Seahawks taking on their bitter rivals, the San Francisco 49ers. Now, we both -- we know these two teams, they don't like each other. The Seahawks of course beat the 9ers in last year's NFC championship game to advance to the Super Bowl. Carol, you may remember, in that game, it's famous sbecause that's when Richard Sherman gained a household name and he just went off on San Francisco's Michael Crabtree. And tongith's going to be the first time that these two are going to meet each other on the field since that incident. So it should be a very, very fun game to watch as well.

Here's a look at the schedule. Once again, it's going to Bears/Lions at 12:30 Eastern, kicking things off. And then you've got Eagles and Cowboys at 4:30, followed by Seahawks and 49ers. I'm excited.

Of course you've got to plan your naps accordingly. Try to get them in the first half of the game so you don't miss the finishes.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: I know; I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to cook dinner and then -- because the Lions game starts at 12:30 Eastern.

SCHOLES: Yes, the early one. That's the one where you're usually eating and watching at the same time. Always a tough one.

COSTELLO: That's so awesome to me. Golden Tate, Calvin Johnson, Matthew Stafford, yes! Andy Scholes, thank you so much.

SCHOLES: You're welcome. Good luck.

COSTELLO: Thank you. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: OK. Before we hit the next hour of NEWSROOM we have to head out to 72nd Street to check in with Miguel Marquez. I love that turkey family behind you.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hey, I got two bits of advice for you. If you're going to do this parade, get here early and dress like a turkey.

CROWD: (CHEERING)

MARQUEZ: This is the Branfield family. But I want to show you what's happening right up above our heads right now. Go way up. That is a brand new balloon that is making its way down Central Park West here, the Eruptor. Very, very cool balloon. There are five brand new balloons in this parade today.

And, look, the next band is coming up as well, out of Kentucky. The biggest band they've had so far here just started off this parade, 505 members, absolutely incredible. 14 buses to get them here. 17 hour it took them. An absolute incredible day.

So much has to come together for this parade to work. And the people -- unbelievable, the crowds. I mean, it must be 1,00 thick back there. It goes all the way back maybe to the next avenue. People can't even see up here and they're still standing down there. Incredible. Incredible, Carol.

COSTELLO: Come on, can you talk to the turkey family? Because I'm just wondering, did they sit down weeks ago and say, hey family --

MARQUEZ: Oh yeah, we can talk to the turkey family. We got time. We'll talk turkey all day.

How long have you guys been out here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since 4:45 this morning.

MARQUEZ: Oh my god. And why turkeys?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because it's thanksgiving.

MARQUEZ: And what are you having for dinner later on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not chicken.

MARQUEZ: Come on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can't eat ourselves!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not cannibals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll have Uncle Lou's. He had a (INAUDIBLE).

MARQUEZ: Have you come out here as turkeys every year?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Third year.

MARQUEZ: And it really is smart because everybody comes by, everybody from the balloons comes by, and gives you guys all of the love. This is maddening though, to come out here this early to be this cold.

Why do you do this every year?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because there's not much else to do on Thanksgiving except for this and eat turkey.

MARQUEZ: And I have to say that these guys, they went the distance. They came from so far. About a block down that way. So we'll by at theirs having hot chocolate a little later on.

Having a good time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. It's awesome.

MARQUEZ: What's the best bit?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't see a lot of people.

MARQUEZ: Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving! Love it, love it.

COSTELLO: Oh Miguel Marquez.

MARQUEZ: (INAUDIBLE) from Kentucky going by us. It's just -- this is the best. I really drew the short straw today, Carol.

COSTELLO: I envy you. And, in fact, I talked to the drummer's mother earlier this morning.

MARQUEZ: Oh, more clowns. We love the clowns! There you go, Carol.

COSTELLO: Excellent. You made my day. Woo-hoo! Happy Thanksgiving!

The news hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

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