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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield
Illinois Tornado Damage Assessed; More on Walter Scott Shooting; Latest on Aaron Hernandez Trial. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired April 10, 2015 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN HOST: It is the day after across parts of the Midwest, the day after tornadoes and storms devastated rural communities across three different states. Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at -- there goes, there goes cars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw headlights go flying.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my goodness...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my God, that's violent, you guys. That's a EFS. Got to be...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it's hitting - it's hitting something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: My God, you heard that storm chaser refer to an EF5. He only figured that out once it's done its damage and you measure by that manner. This is Rochelle, Illinois, about 75 miles west of Chicago. The tornado tearing through the city leaving a trail of destruction, 25 miles long. Imagine that in front of you. Wow. Right over a semi.
National Weather Service has more than a dozen tornadoes touch down across Illinois, across Iowa, across Missouri, but Illinois was hit the hardest. A little north of Rochelle, one woman was killed in her home, and right now people in these devastated communities are just left to search through whatever they can find. And really it isn't much for a lot of people. But there are a lot of folks coming together and we're hearing some amazing stories of survival.
Our Ryan Young is live in Illinois, and you've been talking to some people who rode this out in storm shelters, and now they're left with recovery. Take me there.
RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we really are hearing those amazing stories, especially from 12 people who were inside a restaurant who said they actually saw that storm coming toward them. They all ran to a storm shelter and as the door close, the roof collapse on top of it. And for two hours, they were trapped on the inside, and then all of a sudden they started smelling fuel, gas. And they thought they were going to die there.
Somehow, someone was able to get a cellphone service and be able to call 911 and firefighters actually had to cut the roof to free them from that storm shelter. You're hearing stories of survival all over this place, and I can tell you, we're here now because the governor's expected to come in this area as we're touring some of the damage. I mean when you talk to people, they all talk about how big that funnel cloud was. In fact, they've been watching the video, they've been watching CNN and what they don't understand is how something that big could stay on the ground for so long. And as you drive through the areas, you can go five and six miles without seeing any damage and then all of a sudden, as you turn the corner, you see large (inaudible) of destruction.
BANFIELD: These pictures are just so unbearable. You know, I'm always amazed, Ryan, when I see the aerial that show entire neighborhoods taken out and one house left behind, you know. Our thoughts go out to the people that you're talking to. Thank you for telling their stories, Ryan.
Ryan Young is in Illinois, he'll be continuing to update this story throughout the day and we're going to learn a lot more, hopefully about the damage when the governor of Illinois holds a news conference, that's coming at 1:00 p.m. as Ryan reported, we're going to bring it to you live just as soon as he takes to the microphone.
And now for this, if you're a political junkie, I hope I have your attention because the long wait is almost over. After months and months of teasing and speculation, CNN has learned that Hillary Clinton will in fact officially announce her presidential candidacy on Sunday.
A person close to the Clinton campaign says that her message will be delivered in a video via social media. And after the announcement of former Secretary of State, the former senator, the former First Lady, then has plans to travel to the early battle ground states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
So stay tuned folks, it's going to be a long season.
We're going to take you back to South Carolina in a moment where some very important new information came out today on the police shooting death of Walter Scott. But also, one major mystery remains unsolved. Just moments after the shooting, the police officer apparently dropped something near Scott's faced down body. Was that routine? Was he trying to manipulate the scene? We're going to dig into it further.
[12:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: One of the unanswered questions in the shooting death of Walter Scott is why he chose to run after being pulled over for a mere broken tail light. The dash cam video from the officer's patrol car shows Mr. Scott suddenly bolting from the Mercedes that he was driving. Except for a passenger in Scott's car, there was no one else who was visibile, but a witness tells CNN in an exclusive interview that she saw Mr. Scott and the police officer tussle nearby to that field shortly before Mr. Scott was shot to death.
Officer Michael Slager who was fired from his job in the North Charleston Police Department is now sitting in a jail cell, and he is charged with Mr. Scott's murder. The county sherif tells CNN that Officer Slager is in a cell by himself, that he is isolated from the general population and that he is frequently being monitored for his mental health.
Video of Officer Michael Slager's actions right after the shooting of Walter Scott is raising some troubling question about what he was actually doing. Was he in fact trying to plant evidence to justify the shooting? Or was it something else? Our Kyung Lah reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Officer Michael Slager shooting Walter Scott is shocking enough, but it is this moment, says Los Angeles Defense Attorney Darren Kavinoky, that is something he's never seen.
DARREN KAVINOKY, LOS ANGELES DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It looks like the officer is dropping an object. We see him drop the taser there or what appears to be a taser. I've never have the kind of corroborating evidence that this particular piece of tape represents, but I've heard the complaints over and over and over again. It's a common experience.
[12:40:05] LAH: Frequent claims by suspects alleging police planting evidence have been difficult to prove. In the late 1990s more than 70 officers in the LAPD's Rampart Division were implicated in tampering with and planting evidence in thousands of cases.
Officers were fired or prosecuted. But the public never saw the LAPD planting evidence. With more smart phones, more cameras and policing, there's more video capturing how police engaged with the public.
Earlier this year dash cam video captures a police stop in suburban Detroit, Inkster Police Officer William Melendez approaches gun drawn.
57 year old Floyd Dent opens his car door and is dragged out. The police officer then repeatedly punches Dent in the head. In the police report Melendez says he was protecting himself. After seeing the video the judge dismissed resisting arrest and assault charges against Dent.
The video also captures Officer Melendez handling what appears to be a plastic bag. He says he retrieved it from underneath the passenger seat but Dent's lawyer alleges the police planted drugs. And charge Dent with possession of crack cocaine.
Officer Melendez is now on paid administrative duties while the city and state investigate.
HARRY HOUCK, RETIRED NYPD DETECTIVE: Does it happen? Yes, it happens. Does it happen often? No. It's very, very rare like something like that does occur.
LAH: Harry Houck is a retired NYPD detective when he was an officer, he worked for the department's Internal Affairs. He says just like there are bad people, there are bad cops. But Houck have now the fired officer's video appearance in court.
HOUCK: What really caught my eye was diastolic look on his face. I saw no emotion. And here was the man standing there, who was just murdered a man. As a police officer standing there with no emotion at all, I thought that was very, very telling to me.
LAH: As far as whether or not there's been any sort of effort to track this and Ashleigh we couldn't find anything comprehensive done not by any governmental agency or an outside agency.
Now defense attorneys and activist have long held the belief that this maybe predominantly affecting poor minority communities but there's just no data to support that.
Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: OK. Thank you Kyung.
After Michael Slager was charged with murder and then lost his job as a police officer. You might expect at least some colleagues or friends or supporters to come to his defense. But we haven't seen that yet.
So far the only person who has spoken out in Slager's defense is his own mother. And here is what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAREN SHARPE, MOTHER OF MICHAEL SLAGER: I can't imagine him, he love being a police officer. I can't imagine him doing something that it's just not like him, it's not his character.
But I just have to let it be. And hope God takes care of everybody involved. Not only my family but Scott's family because I know they are grieving just like I'm grieving.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: And a mother's grief, there is nothing that matches it.
About 90 minutes from now a wake for Walter Scott will begin at a funeral home in North Charleston. And you can bet his mother will be there, friends and family and the public are invited, the public is also invited to Scott's funeral which is set for tomorrow morning in Summerville South Carolina.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:46:56] BANFIELD: Real drama in a Massachusetts courtroom. The jurors are deciding if the former New England Patriot Star Aaron Hernandez is guilty or not of murder.
He's accused in the 2013 killing of his friend Odin Lloyd.
And our Susan Candiotti has been following the trial from the very beginning and followed over Massachusetts.
I'm counting somewhere close to 14 hours and only about 10 plus or so minutes until they're done for the day any whisper from this jurors yet?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not today, no. And actually it's more like 19.5 hours, 19.5 hours over four days exactly.
Now they are supposed to break in about 15 minutes and the thing is this Ashleigh, they asked the judge yesterday if they could only work a half day today.
I mean as you and I both know often times jurors wanted just move forward go through the weekend. But they'll be stopping in about 10 minutes or so and then comeback on Monday.
Assuming in the next 10 minutes they don't announced that they have a verdict. So, they will not be sequestered, they have not been since the start and they're not working this weekend.
