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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Plane Part Found; Ex-Campus Cop Charged with Murder. Aired 12- 12:30p ET

Aired July 30, 2015 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Number on that piece of debris matches a 777.

LEGAL VIEW with Randi Kaye picks that up right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye, in for Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

All right, at this point we are all still waiting for formal confirmation that the big metal chunk of airplane that washed up on a beach is the Indian Ocean is the first real solid piece of evidence from the commercial airliner that disappeared last year. Right now, just in the past few minutes, a source close to the investigation telling CNN there is a high level of confidence that the debris did come from a Boeing 777. A number inscribed on the part corresponds with a 777 part, a flaperon, as it's called, which is part of the wing. That's important because only five Boeing 777 airliners have crashed and the others are all accounted for. So really this is easy math. If this debris is from a 777, then it is from Malaysian Airlines 370.

Right now, the piece is being taken to France and investigators from Malaysia are on the way to the recovery site, Reunion Island, and also on their way to France.

Now, whatever that piece is, it washed up on an island beach in the Indian Ocean thousands of miles from where Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 took off in March of last year. And CNN's Robyn Kriel is on Reunion Island where it's after 8:00 p.m. right now.

And, Robyn, I guess, first of all, who found this piece and what was the reaction there when the news spread that it could be such an important piece of this big mystery?

ROBYN KRIEL, CNN: Well, a beach - someone who was cleaning the beach. This island in the western part of the Indian Ocean is a very clean island. It's beaches are pristine. And it was people cleaning the beach who found this piece of debris and then they alerted the French authorities. The French the authorities came. They thought that it might be a part of an airliner.

But before they could take it away, a number of people took video of it, they took snapshots and, of course, those went on the Internet and went viral and many - many heavyweights in the airline industry started weighing in with what they believed it to be, a part of a Boeing 777. And as that has come - come about, many more other people are weighing in and they - they do believe that this very well could be a component of a Boeing 777. And, of course, then there's the various serial numbers that people are comparing. Also investigators will look at that as they try to figure out if this is indeed a piece of MH370.

KAYE: So let's talk about the island though itself. I mean how remote is it and how unlikely is it that something this size would wash up on the beach there?

KRIEL: It is a remote island. It is - the closest real land mass is Madagascar, which is also a remote island. So we are kind of in the middle of nowhere here. It's difficult to get to, as well, which is, I believe, why investigators are taking so long to get there. Malaysian Airlines - a source from Malaysian Airlines telling CNN that they couldn't get flight seats to get here. So that's probably what is taking people so long to activate and to come here and be able to say to the families, yes, it is that piece or no it's not. And also to get that debris to France is going to be a - quite a mission as well.

But it's got about 800,000 people on the island. It's a volcanic island, so the beach itself is also quite harsh terrain. So it's going to take a while to search the entire island.

KAYE: Robyn Kriel, thank you very much. Appreciate the update there from Reunion Island, in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

David Soucie is our safety analyst who was so involved in the search for this airplane that he wrote this book "Malaysian Airlines Flight 370." And also with me, Les Abend. He flies the Boeing 777 for a living as a commercial airline captain.

David, now, even Boeing is saying that it has a high level of confidence that the piece of debris is their part. What else needs to be done for someone to say, yes, this is it?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, these are scientific investigations. It's not a matter of just going out and saying, yes, I've seen that part number and that's what it is. This has to be done in accordance with HOYAL (ph). We have to know exactly what it is and the process for how it's reported and the process for how it's documents. So that takes some time.

Even after they get on the site, I wouldn't expect them to just say, oh yes, that's it. It's going to take some time to get this done so that there's no question. And - and the surviving family members deserve that. It needs to be perfect. There's no room for error in this like there was early on in this investigation.

KAYE: Yes, which would explain why they're not rushing to answer that question.

Les, let me ask you. I mean so many theories about what happened to this airplane. Which of those theories might this piece of debris, if it turns out that it did come from MH370, could this rule out?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, I mean, anything is purely speculative at this point. But I think one thing is can rule out for sure is that the conspiracy theory that the airplane made it to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, the airplane obviously impacted the water in some form. How it impacted the water will be the investigators' jigsaw puzzle to solve of just, you know, there - there may be some aspect of that particular air foil that we're now calling the flaperon that - that they may be able to determine how fast or what angle it - it struck water.

[12:05:35] KAYE: I want to bring up this picture that we're just getting in. It's a - it's a photo of the stamp on the plane, of the number that they're going to be looking at to try and match with Boeing to one of their 777s and, of course, eventually to MH370. You can see it there. A little hard to see, but that is the number they're going to be looking at.

David, so we have this. We have these schematic drawings matching it. We have this part - part of a number that's matching it. The photos matching it. Any chance that this isn't from a 777, in your mind?

SOUCIE: If we're talking about inside my mind, at this point, yes, there's no question in my mind whatsoever. This diagram that you had up there is from the structural repair manual from a Boeing 777 of this particular serial number aircraft. So this is specifically what that part is. If you look at it, just the characteristics of the slots in the front where the support and the actuator attach points go on, you notice that those two points are broken off, which would indicate to me that the - there was an even pull against that thing. At one time, it didn't go to twist. It was actually pulled off all at one time.

Again, I'm being speculative because I'm not there looking at it, so please take this with a grain of salt. But if I was there looking at, that's the first thing I would be looking at is the abruptness of how quickly it was torn off and there's some metal (INAUDIBLE) that you can do to test that to see where - how this twisted or whether it was working and then let go. So there's a lot of information that needs to be gained. But as far as just identification, it would be profoundly out of the odds to say that this is not from a 777 or that it's not from MH370.

KAYE: And, Les, I mean this flap, it's used to help control the airplane. What are investigators really going to be looking at to, I guess, to try and determine from this piece of debris what brought the plane down, really, in the end?

ABEND: Well, I mean, this is - this is, you know, as Dave Soucie's been saying, this is - this is going to - this is still part of the investigation process. And this, in and of itself, is not going to necessarily stand up to any theories. We really need to find those - the cockpit voice recorder, the digital flight recorder and trace it all the way back to that point. If we find - if more clues are found in regard to more airplane pieces around this particular island or in the vicinity, a lot of that, you know, depending upon how the impact damage looks, if there's similar, there might be some more theories in that regard. But we really need more pieces to this jigsaw puzzle.

KAYE: Yes, certainly a lot of questions still need to be answered.

David Soucie, Les Abend, thank you both.

And we know that certainly you have a lot of questions at home about this development that you want answered, so tweet us your questions using #mh370qs. That's #mh370qs.

For the long suffering families of MH370s passengers and crew, yesterday's discovery could end almost 17 months of uncertainty of waiting. But it could also end some hope. Their thoughts, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:12:04] KAYE: Families of the 239 people on board flight MH370 are anxiously awaiting to found out whether their newly - this newly found piece of debris will provide some concrete answers about the fate of their loved ones. This man, Phillip Wood, was a passenger on that flight and last night his partner, Sarah Bajc, choked back tears as she talked about what the debris could mean.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH BAJC, PARTNER WAS ON MH370: If, ultimately, this is a piece of the wing, then that little thread of hope that I've been holding on to will - will have to break and reality will have to take over. But, yes, up until now, I am - and most of his family members have continued to believe that until we have a body, we can't - we can't give up hoping that they'll still come back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: So difficult for them. CNN's Will Ripley is in Beijing, where Flight 370 was headed before veering off course.

So, Will, how is the Chinese government responding to this latest news?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Really all they're saying right now, Randi, is that they're monitoring the situation, as is the rest of the world. Essentially, we're not seeing the Chinese government making a very strong effort to set up any sort of information center for the families like the Malaysian Airlines information center here in Beijing shortly after the crash that was closed long ago. There's no hot line distributing information to the families. And you'll remember, China did dispatch search ships. They actually allowed the families to protest in the streets.

But - but in the months and now more than a year that has passed since, other family protests have actually been broken up by the government, they've discourage the families from getting together. They basically encouraged them to go on - go home, move on with their lives. And so you have these - these relatives sitting at home, getting no official information and - and - and they're learning about this from the media, not from any official channels. It's heartbreaking.

KAYE: How about all along? Have these families been getting any regular updates at all from authorities there or the government?

RIPLEY: Not for months. And that's - and that's why they really do feel left out. And it's also why, and I want to read for you a quote because it was more than 150 Chinese families here, but 239 people on the plane. And a lot of them still do believe very strongly that their loved ones are still alive out there.

Jacquita Gonzales, she's the wife of Patrick Gomez, the inflight supervisor, she speaks for a lot of the families that we've been talking to here in Beijing as well saying, quote, "I'm torn. If it is confirmed to have come from 370, there will be some closure for us, but I am also hoping it's not the plane. That Patrick is still alive."

And families that we've been chatting with, you know, they have group chats on social media, they're saying the same thing. And they're saying, even if this debris is confirmed from 370, they want to know, where's the plane? Where are the remains? Where's the proof? Proof and closure that they still don't have and may not have for a long time, Randi.

KAYE: Yes, we are hearing that from a lot of these - these relatives and these loved ones who had people on board, wishing that maybe the plane was taken somewhere else and their loved ones might be being held or still alive.

But the families, Will, have also said that they want to know more about the criminal investigation. What's the latest on that?

[12:15:10] RIPLEY: Well, as you recall, in the initial months after MH370 disappeared, investigators from a number of different agencies went through the backgrounds, searched computer records, looked for any indication if anybody, any of those 239 people on board, including the flight crew, if there was any motivation, any indications of a criminal intent. And they so far have found nothing.

So, in reality, the proof is going to be in those flight data recorders, which are with the plane, presumably, wherever it went down. And again, you know, we're talking about drifting debris. We may still be no closer to knowing where exactly the plane went down. Search crews have been scouring for months. They've been working very hard. And this is certainly a promising lead, but they still don't have the big pieces of evidence and so therefore these families still don't have answers. They don't know if it was a criminal act or if it was simply an accident.

KAYE: Absolutely, they certainly would like to get their hands on those black boxes. Thank you very much, Will Ripley, for the update.

And we will be sure to keep you posted on the plane, breaking news this hour.

But first, we are live in Cincinnati where a tough judge set a high bail for the former campus cop now charged with murder. That's coming up after a quick break. So stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Breaking news from a Cincinnati courtroom. A former university police officer pleaded not guilty this morning to charges of murder and voluntary manslaughter. Prosecutors say Ray Tensing shot and killed Samuel DeBose, an unarmed man, in a traffic stop earlier this month. The entire incident caught on the officer's body camera. The judge set bail at $1 million, then scolded spectators when applause broke out.

[12:20:20] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very good.

The defendant is facing the possibility of life in prison. It's the court's duty to ensure his appearance. The bond will be $1 million anyway.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a courtroom. You will conduct yourselves at all times appropriately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Our Jean Casarez is outside the Hamilton County Courthouse.

And, Jean, the courtroom was packed today.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was absolutely filled to capacity, Randi. I mean people were lining the walls. And then suddenly the realization, the family's not in the courtroom. They were standing outside. And so Mark O'Mara, their attorney, really negotiated and talked for quite a while with court officials. Finally, court officials asked if there would be volunteers to stand up so the family could come in. People readily stood up. The family came in, the proceeding started. And as we know, the prosecutor says the basis of these charges so serious here in the state of Ohio, purposeful murder, intent to kill murder. The basis is that body camera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ (voice-over): Protesters pleading for justice in front of a Cincinnati courthouse late Wednesday, emotions running high, as newly released body camera footage shows campus Police Officer Ray Tensing shoot and kill 43-year-old Samuel DuBose during a routine traffic stop.

RAYMOND TENSING: Go ahead and take your seat belt off. Stop! Stop!

CASAREZ: Tensing, now behind bars. The 25-year-old police officer turning himself in on Wednesday after being indicted for murder.

JOSEPH DETERS, HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO, PROSECUTOR: This is the most asinine act I've ever seen a police officer make. CASAREZ: The nearly 30-minute long video shows Tensing pulling over

DuBose for a missing front license plate.

TENSING: Hey, how's it going man?

SAMUEL DUBOSE: Hey, how's it going?

CASAREZ: Tensing asks repeatedly for his license.

TENSING: Why don't you have your license on you?

DUBOSE: Because I don't - I just don't. I'm sorry.

CASAREZ: What happens next is hard to watch.

TENSING: Well, until I can figure out if you have a license - a license or not, go ahead and take your seat belt off for me.

DUBOSE: I didn't even do nothing. Why you -

TENSING: Go ahead and take your seat belt off. Stop! Stop!

DUBOSE: Frame by frame, you see the police officer reach for DuBose's door. DuBose starts the car and the car begins to move. From a second body camera attached to a different officer, you can hear what Tensing says happened.

TENSING: I just got tangled in the car. I thought he was going to run over me.

CASAREZ: The county prosecutor says Tensing's account is misleading.

DETERS: When he got shot, if you - you can hear the car accelerating because he fell forward and must have pressed on the gas.

CASAREZ: DuBose's mother says she thanks God everything was revealed.

AUDREY DUBOSE, MOTHER OF SAMUEL DUBOSE: I'm so glad that the man that murdered my son is in jail now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: Now the fact is, the bond is $1 million. What does that mean in realistic terms? It means that $100,000 cash can actually get him out. And here is the headline, Randi, that was at doorsteps all over Cincinnati today, "this is, without question, a murder." And, Randi, I don't think the defense probably likes this headline because the potential jury pool that will make up the trial, that's what they read today as they were waking up and getting their morning newspaper.

Randi.

KAYE: I'm sure it's getting the reaction that that paper wanted.

But, Jean, now we've seen two body cam versions of this event in your piece there. As well, is there a third one that exists? CASAREZ: There is a third body cam because once the officer and the

shots rang out, two other officers came upon the scene almost immediately. That third body camera has not been released, but I did speak with a defense attorney today for this young officer and he believes that that is going to be a very important videotape. Not that it shows the interaction or even dragging, but the words of the officer, that he thought he was going to be killed, minutes after this happened. And it's the defense position that you can't make it up when it's so fast in time. Emotions are churning. And it just comes out of your mouth, that excited utterance, what you truly believe is the truth.

KAYE: Absolutely. Jean Casarez, thank you very much, reporting for us.

When we come back, we are back to the Indian Ocean, where investigators may be able to retrace the course of that apparent airplane debris with the help of the ocean inhabitants that hitched a ride on it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:28:24] KAYE: It is the hours' breaking news here on CNN. A source telling CNN that the company that makes the 777 airliner is confident the piece of airplane wing that washed ashore in the Indian Ocean is one that they made. That's because a part number found on that debris matches up with numbers from a 777. And that's important because Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, which vanished more than a year ago, is the only 777 in the world that is unaccounted for. People cleaning a beach on the remote French island of Reunion found the airplane piece yesterday.

While investigators try to marry up part numbers and airplane models, remember that the families of 239 people are also waiting for confirmation for more personal reasons. That is the number of passengers and crew aboard Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 when it took off from Kuala Lumpur almost a year and a half ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE (voice-over): March 8, 2014, just after midnight in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 takes off, bound for Beijing, 239 people on board.

ATC: 370, 32 right, cleared for take-off. Good night.

MH370: 32, right cleared for take-off. MAS370. Thank you, bye.

KAYE: Forty minutes into the flight, the airplane's transponder suddenly goes dark.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: The plane's transponder is effectively the instrument which sends out a signal to air traffic control. It tells you what height it's at, which direction and what speed it's traveling. Suddenly, this giant 777 is blind to the world.

KAYE: It's the middle of the night and the plane simply vanishes, no distress call, and air traffic control waits two hours before notifying emergency responders.

[12:30:10] DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: That two hours was incredibly critical towards finding the aircraft and finding it if there were survivors.