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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Boehner Invites Netanyahu to Visit Congress; Video of Deadly Police Shooting Captured on Dash Cam; Justice Department Pulling out of Civil Asset Forfeiture

Aired January 22, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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


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ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking News in here to CNN you are probably well aware of the back and forth between Congress and the White House on a very high level invitation to a very high level diplomat. That would be Benjamin Netanyahu Israel's Prime Minister.

The Speaker of the House extended an invitation for that prime minister to visit the United States and address Congress. Trouble is he didn't talk to the White House about it and many people are saying you're right about that, that was intentional. And now the White House is responding. In fact I think the President is speaking live right now it is not about this issue.

But you can see him right there, he's in Lawrence, Kansas, his on a road trip so to speak. He probably heard about it in the State of the Union the other night where he's sort of on his way across the country, to various locations. Right now he's at the University of Kansas talking about middle class economics and some of the platforms that he put forward in his State of the Union speech. Talking about billions of dollars and new spending for community colleges to make it free and that's only the beginning of it. But that's maybe being overshadowed right now by what happened.

The White House giving a clear and firm answer to whether the president will even see Prime Minister Netanyahu when he steps foot on the shores.

Our Jim Acosta Senior White House Correspondent standing by now live for us on that very answer. And the answer is, Jim?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, a bit of a melodrama here inside the Beltway as the President is in Kansas selling his State of the Union message.

Good afternoon Ashleigh, that's right you said it up nicely. The president, you know, is essentially saying at this point that he is not going to be meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the prime minister visits Washington next month. It was announced yesterday by the Speaker's house -- Speaker's office that the prime minister would be coming here to give a speech to a joint session of Congress about the sensitive talks with respect to Iran's nuclear program. We heard earlier this morning the Speaker's office saying that the prime minister was rescheduling that. Now it's going to be in March. Well, according to the spokesman for the National Security Council here at the White House Bernadette Meehan, the President won't be having that meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, won't be having one at all. And according to Bernadette Meehan and says I quote, "As a matter of long-standing practice and principle, we do not see heads of state or candidates and so in close proximity, excuse me, to their elections so as to avoid the appearance of influencing a Democratic election in a foreign country."

But obviously Ashleigh, you know, this is something that irritated this White House no question about it. They were asked whether they were annoyed, they said they were not annoyed publically. But privately, Ashleigh they're annoyed.

And yesterday (inaudible) said this was a breach of protocol, a departure from protocol because normally a head of state when he's coming to the United States or she's coming to United States notifies the head of state of this country which is President Obama and this White House. That did not happen and of course it did not go over well with people inside this administration.

BANFIELD: Yeah it says -- I mean it does sound a bit weird that the President wouldn't be aware of a big invitation like that prior to.

But if you can just give our audience the reminder of what was this really all about. The President's alluded to it in the State of the Union address. It was about, "Hey, Congress back off on passing, you know, a resolution suggesting that we amp up what we're doing in Iran, that we amp up sanctions. I'm working with the Iranians we're trying to, you know, we're trying to pull back on this bad blood between us." And is that really the genesis of this issue?

ACOSTA: It is. And the President has said he will veto any legislation that comes out of this Congress that is passed while the U.S. and this other major world powers are in the sensitive negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.

You know, the White House has essentially said that it's, you know, probably less than 50-50 in terms of chances of this, you know, talks reaching any sort of a framework of an agreement with Iran. But at the same time the President has said that if something has passed out of this Congress while those talks are happening, it can really spoil the deal.

And not only will the Iranians potentially back away, other world powers according to people inside this administration, would blame the United States for spoiling this deal if that kind of legislation is passed.

And so the President has said don't do that, don't pass that kind of legislation. I will veto it and what the Speaker, you know, with the House Speaker John Boehner has said over the last several days is that, "No. The President can't just say he's going to veto something. And he wants to have Netanyahu come to Congress, give the speech and lay out the case against having this sort of deal with Iran.

And so I suspect Ashleigh that this soap opera is not finished yet. It's going to continue over the next several days, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Call me crazy, I feel kind of weird if I were Benjamin Netanyahu knowing that this is going on. This is your welcoming committee it's kind of desperate say the very least. Jim Acosta thank you for that good work.

ACOSTA: A little over the place you, you bet. You got it.

BANFIELD: A little over the place I guess you can say that.

All right. I want to take you to another story that we're working on. A fatal shooting of a suspect by police officers. I know you think you've heard the story before but this new video just released really gives a fuller and richer account that shows the suspect hands appeared to up. But and it's big one, there was a gun in the car and that suspect was known to police. But did the police follow the proper protocol. One thing we know there is a dead man in this scenario.

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BANFIELD: Some chilling new video of a deadly police shooting captured on a dash cam in Bridgeton, New Jersey. An entire encounter that took just a little more than a minute but it turned deadly.

The officers pulled over a blue Jaguar for running a stop sign last month. Now, one of the officers yells to his partner that there is a gun in the glove compartment. The other officer appears to remove it. The officers continue to yell at the passenger named Jerame Reid to stop reaching for something. But that's when Reid decides to step out of the car, his hands are raised at his shoulders and shots rang out. Have a look.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's raising. Show me your -- hand. No, you're not. No, you're not. No, you're not. Don't -- move. Don't you -- move.

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BANFIELD: So Reid was killed by those officers and now that shooting is being investigated by county prosecutors.

Braheme Days, one of the two officers involved in the shooting also happened to be an officer present when Mr. Reid, on your screen, was arrested last August on charges including drug possession and resisting arrest. It is unclear whether Officer Days recognized Reid from the prior arrest, but one thing is known on the tape, he repeatedly uses his name.

I want to bring back in CNN Legal Analyst and former New York prosecutor Paul Callan. So look, there's a background to this now dead man. He have shot at police officers, he had spent 13 years in prison because of that. He had already had additional offenses that he was facing including, I believe something like stalking and terroristic threats. This is definitely a dangerous guy who had proven himself to be dangerous. And the officer who approached him on that passenger side seems to know who he was.

Apart of any of that, did anything look wrong to you?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, this is what law enforcement authorities will be investigating. Under New Jersey law, you can use deadly physical force if you believe there's a reasonable danger to you, the police officer, that you're going to suffer from substantial physical injury or death.

However, New Jersey law also says if there's a reasonable alternative to the use of deadly force, you should make every effort to do that.

Now, let's look at this. We know that a gun was present in the car and we know that the suspect...

BANFIELD: Prior of all that.

CALLAN: Prior.

BANFIELD: You should know the officers saw the gun, got the gun prior to anything else happening, they knew the gun was there. They got the gun out of the car.

CALLAN: Well, yes. The individual officer who was to the right, next to the passenger compartment. He reaches in. You see him pulling out what appears to be the silver gun. Now I presume that was the gun that was in the glove compartment. Then the suspect gets out and we hear the gunshots.

What investigators are going to be looking at is, was an unarmed suspect being shot without justification at that point, or did the cop have reasonable fear that maybe the guy had a second gun. He knew the guy's prior history of shooting guns. He knew that he was a dangerous person.

BANFIELD: Presumably knew.

CALLAN: What was going through the cop's mind.

BANFIELD: We don't know for sure at the time that he knew, but we do know the background of this person.

Now, by the way, on the right-hand side of your screen, it's very dark and it's very hard to make out the officer. But one of the questions I had was, is this being discussed as a race-based action?

CALLAN: Well, I don't believe it is. Because the officer involved is African-American. The passenger in the vehicle was African-American also. Now, the officer on the other side of the car was white. BANFIELD: The officer who shot this person dead was also African- American.

CALLAN: That's correct. And this town, Bridgeton New Jersey, it's a small town and I'm betting, Ashleigh, and this is why I say probably the cop knew the background of this guy. We hear him musing the guy's name. It's a small town and small town cops know who the troublesome people are in town, the people with prior criminal records.

And I'm betting that he knew the background.

BANFIELD: Well, we don't know that yet, but it is possible. Again, he was using a name when they approached the car.

CALLAN: Yes.

BANFIELD: Paul I have to cut you off their only because I've got more breaking news as if there hasn't been enough in this program already. Thank you for your insight.

And this is coming to us, listen, if you have been worried that ISIS is getting an upper hand in any of its actions overseas, there is news to us coming that the coalition is making some incredible leaps and bounds in its efforts.

Look at the banner on your television. U.S. officials say 6,000 ISIS members have now been killed and that includes about half of the top command.

We're going to get a lot deeper into that in just a moment as we get that word out of the Middle East. More on this breaking news coming up.

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BANFIELD: Recently, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department is pulling out of a program that you may not even known existed. Something called Civil Asset Forfeiture, that is very fancy language for a program where the government can just take your money. Yeah, just take it. Or even your property too if they think that you have used it in a crime.

Just think. You don't even have to be charged to make them take your stuff, but just because the federal government's backing off this thing, it does not mean that the state and local governments where you live are doing the same thing, far from it.

Our Gary Tuchman has this terrific look at an example of what can happen in real life, this is part one of his CNN investigation.

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GARY TUCHMAN, CORRESPONDENT: It's a broad clear morning in April 2013. Inside that red car just ahead are these two men, Mark Davis and John Newmerzhycky, two friends who also happen to be professional poker players. On this dashcam footage in the distance, you can see the red car flashing a turn signal indicating to pass a black SUV. A few minutes later, an Iowa state trooper pulls them over.

And what did he say?

JOHN NEWMERZHYCKY, PROFESSIONAL POKER PLAYER: He said I didn't used my blinker and he was going to write me a citation, it'll only take a minute and to come with him to get in his car.

TUCHMAN: It was the beginning of an encounter with what eventually would be two Iowa state troopers. Professional poker players often travel with quite a bit of money which they use in tournaments around the country. The troopers pulled this bag of briefcase out of the trunk and found $85,000 in cash belonging to Mark Davis, and another $15,000 belonging to Newmerzhycky. And the officers took it, they took it all.

MARK DAVIS, PROFESSIONAL POKER PLAYER: This was the briefcase that I was carrying. It was locked. They threatened to destroy it if I didn't give them the combination.

TUCHMAN: So, you carried money on this all the time for poker, right? I mean you have money in it right now?

DAVIS: I do. I brought it along because I happen to have...

TUCHMAN: Just -- normal it is.

DAVIS: ... some money. I got that from the bank.

TUCHMAN: So how much is this?

DAVIS: That's $10,000. Before traveling intercity (ph), I would seal it.

TUCHMAN: The two men wound up being questioned for hours. They were given a traffic warning but not a citation. Newmerzhycky plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana paraphernalia, which he said was used for medical marijuana. Troopers let the men go but took the $100,000.

Seized, the authority said, as part of what the troopers called an interdiction because they claim to believe the money was being used to buy drugs. It's called Civil Asset Forfeiture, and that wasn't all.

GLEN DOWNEY, PLAYERS' ATTORNEY: Based on their belief that they thought my clients were involved in drug activity, called California where they live, informed the officers there or law enforcement officials there that they believe they were involved in drug activity. A search warrant was obtained on the basis of that information from the Iowa officer, and they raided their homes in California, OK? And tore their homes apart, looking for things related to drugs.

TUCHMAN: Even though there was only one misdemeanor drug charge in Iowa, California authorities claim they were distributing drugs there. The men's lawyer, Glen Downey, says Newmerzhycky was indicted. Then both men were offered a deal by the state of Iowa, we'll give you back $90,000 as long as you us keep the rest.

The men took the deal, afraid they would lose all their money if they didn't. The state of Iowa kept $10,000, and the felony charge California was dropped.

As shady is the whole affair sounds, it wasn't a one-off. It's part of a concerted effort by some law enforcement to legally target and keep your money without ever filing charges. In fact, the two Iowa state troopers as well as thousands of other state and local cops nationwide learned how to conduct these kinds of stops from private companies. And the biggest one is an Oklahoma company called Desert Snow.

The Desert Snow trainers travel all over the country to hold their workshops, and business is brisk. According to the company's website, 30 seminars are scheduled for 2015 from. From Oregon to Florida, from Delaware to California, and your police department could be one of Desert Snow's clients.

This is the man in-charge of Desert Snow, a former California State highway patrol officer named Joe David. He wouldn't talk with CNN on camera. But a glance at what his company charges police agencies, shows his training isn't cheap. The lowest price for a police force to attend, according to this price list, is a bit over $8,000. And the top end, $145,000.

TUCHMAN: Why would a police department spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to a seminar where it's just something you learn in the police academy?

DOWNEY: Well, they say they teach them more than they'll learn in the police academy, that they have specialized knowledge to teach these officers how to do it even better. I believe the training encourages them to take more cash because the more cash they take, the more cash Joe David is going to get in training materials.

TUCHMAN: Joe David told us he couldn't answer written questions about how many officers he trained or how much money he's made because of a law suit filed by Downey on behalf of those poker players. He claims that it's only a small part of his business which also helps officers go after people ranging from terrorist to kidnappers.

As for cop (ph) seizures, he said, "The purpose is not to take and seize funds belonging to innocent people. The purpose is to seize funds when they are tied to criminal activity." But there have never been any charges that the money taken from Bart Davis or John Newmerzhycky has been tied to criminal activity.

What has this done to your life?

DAVIS: It's made of aware of things I was unaware of. And made me angry. You know, it's not only this type of conduct that we're having problems with police these days. And how can you not be angry and saddened. TUCHMAN: The men still want the rest of their money back. That $10,000 kept by the state of Iowa. So far though, Iowa is not giving it back and it's not backing down.

Gary Tuchman, CNN.

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BANFIELD: Amazing. Don't miss part two of Gary's report. That's at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on Anderson Cooper this evening. And by the way, we've been breaking a lot of news on this program. Thanks so much for staying with us on Legal View, but there is a lot more coming up on Wolf. We're going to have more on those 6,000 ISIS fighters who've been killed in Iraq and Syria by the coalition forces. That announcement coming today.

And then there's this as well, Yemen's government just calling it quits, resigning after what's been called by some as a coup.

Also the President of this country, Obama -- Mr. Obama is not going to be meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, after he's been invited by Congress to visit. So a lot of developing stories. Wolf's going to have them all. The details after this quick break.

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