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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Darren Wilson Speaks about Michael Brown; Marking One Year Since Missouri Shooting and Riots; Sex Offender Registries Examined; 12:30-1p ET

Aired August 04, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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


ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: I want to get your opinion on what these words say to you or mean to you from Darren Wilson?

[12:30:08] CEDRIC ALEXANDER, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, thank you for having me Ashleigh.

But, you know, if I take an analytical view at that New York article which I had an opportunity to look over the last day or so. There are a lot of contradictions in there. But let's be clear about something.

Darren Wilson was been vindicated of any crime. And so that is sad. But if you look at some of the statements that he made in there in regards to the fact this is not about race but yet and still much of his remarks are into the fact of it being about race.

He also speaks to the fact that I want to move on with the rest of my life. But yet and still he's trying to insert himself back at law enforcement which is going to be quite a challenge considering the circumstances and where we are in this country in terms of moving policing ahead and the event that occurred.

So, I just think that when you read that article, what I gleaned from it quiet frankly is an individual who may want to consider just moving on with the rest of his life. Looking into a profession that be -- maybe more suited for him. Because, even though he was vindicated of this event, it's still in some reason because being in that city that was identified by the justice department is being a racist institution in and on itself.

Justice is going to create too much drag for him trying to get in law enforcement anywhere in this country. There's need to move on and do something else.

BANFIELD: So, Antonio French, I want ask you. Michael Brown may not have been exactly the case everyone thought it was at the time that it happened.

And as Cedric just pointed out, there was a complete vindication of the officer's action not the department's action.

But, let's about the case in particular. It certainly did spawn some very important thinking regardless of the merit with that case itself.

It spawned likewise matter a hashtag is now a massive movement with a lot of power include (ph).

It spawned as all knowing the names Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Samuel DuBose, that's just few of them.

So, in essence, I hate to even ask this question, because if I am Michael Brown's parents, I don't want to hear it this way. But did Michael Brown die in vain?

ANTONIO FRENCH, ST. LOUIS ALDERMAN: No, I don't think Michael Brown died in vain. You know, this is a young man who in his short time on this earth.

His impact is still being felt a year later after his death.

You know, what happen to Mike Brown that day, it been resonated with so many people because it was another case of an unarmed young man been being killed.

When we think that there could have been deescalation tactics, it could have been another way to handle that incident that didn't result in anybody being hurt.

And so, I think one the things is really happen in last year is as part the conversation about how the police in this country.

And, I think that's an important first step. I think enough progress is not been made yet in the last year about repairing some other things that we've identified as being wrong with how the police in the country.

But we've had some important steps and, you know, and being able to get pieces on the front for -- on the forefront has been important.

BANFIELD: I can't thank you enough, Antonio French, Cedric Alexander, I'm sorry that we convene on this kind of an indication. But I think you're right, there's a lot of conversation that's been spawned and it's all important. Thanks to both, appreciate it.

ALEXANDER: Thank you for having me.

FRENCH: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Coming up. Exactly who are those registered sex offenders living on your street?

Are they the monster and the molesters that you think they are? Or are they someone completely different maybe like someone actually living in your house?

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:37:39] BANFIELD: Sex offender registries are supposed to help police track predators. They're also supposed to help warn parents about potential molesters who live nearby. Anybody actually could use that warning. So that's the theory about these things.

But not everybody on the list is your classic rapist or your classic child molester. In fact one teenager's nightmare began after he went to a dating app and met a girl.

And now that teenager cannot use Facebook, cannot go to a mall, cannot linger near a playground and get this that teenager is not even allowed to live in his own home with his family.

Our Kyra Phillips investigates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For 19-year-old Zach Anderson, it looks like it's been an idyllic summer.

Relaxing like any other teenager with his family on the St. Joe River.

But looks can be deceiving. This summer is hardly normal for Zach. In fact his parents say, Zach can't even live in their house anymore because its 15-year-old brother lives here too.

And that's not all.

ZACH ANDERSON, REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER: Like using the internet and going to like if you're bored going to walk around in a park or something.

PHILLIPS: Can't go to a mall.

ZACH ANDERSON: Yeah, I cannot go to mall to buy clothes or anything like that.

PHILLIPS: All because Zach is listed in his state's sex offender registry.

ZACH ANDERSON: Looks like I'm an outcast from society with all the things that I have put on me.

PHILLIPS: Here's what happened. Zach went on a racy dating app called Hot Or Not, hoping to meet a girl. He did, they had sex and that's when the problems began.

How old that she say she was?

ZACH ANDERSON: She had told me that she was 17.

PHILLIPS: But she lied. She was actually 14.

By law he had committed a sex crime. He was arrested and convicted.

Now Zach is on the same list of sex offenders as child molesters and pedophiles. And his parents say that's a colossal mistake.

PHILLIPS: When you heard those words that your son was a sex offender what was your reaction? [12:39:59] AMANDA ANDERSON, ZACH'S MOTHER: It's a blatant lie, it's not true.

It doesn't even fit our lifestyle. It doesn't fit how we raise our kids.

PHILLIPS: Even the girl's mother, appeared in court. Testifying that she didn't want Zach labeled as a sex offender because "he's really not."

We also obtained this letter that the girl in question gave Zach's family. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you my age," she writes, "It kills me every day, knowing you are going through hell and I'm not. I want to be in trouble and not you."

Did it ever enter your mind at any time that she could be under age?

ZACH ANDERSON: No, not at all.

PHILLIPS: And was the sex consensual?

ZACH ANDERSON: Yeah. Yeah.

PHILLIPS: But even if the girl admits, she lied about her age. And the sex was consensual as she did in court. It's not a defense in the eye of current sex offender laws. And that's why the judge and prosecutor in Zach's case didn't let him off the hook.

Judge Dennis Wiley angry that Zach had used the internet to meet a girl said, "That seems to be part of our culture now. Meet, have sex, sayonara. Totally inappropriate behavior. There is no excuse for this whatsoever."

He sentenced Zach to 90 days in jail, five years probation and 25 years on the sex offender registry.

PHILLIPS: Is that you? Are you a sex offender?

ZACH ANDERSON: Not at all.

PHILLIPS: What's happening to Zach sounds unusual but it's not.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about a quarter of the 850,000 people on the sex offender registry across the nation were under 18 when convicted.

The problem say experts in the sex offender registry is one size fits all. Everyone on it is treated as if they post the same threat whether they are predatory child rapist or a teenager who have sex with his girlfriend.

WILLIAM BUHL, FORMER MICHIGAN JUDGE: If we caught every teenager that violated our current law, we'd lock up 30 to 40 percent of the high school. We're kidding ourselves.

PHILLIPS: Former Michigan Judge William Buhl has been trying to fix the sex offender registry for two decades. He says adding teens just takes away resources from monitoring the truly dangerous.

BUHL: They take that example and say, "Boy, we got to watch this guy and so we'll apply that to everybody," and it just doesn't make any sense.

PHILLIPS: Even convicted sex offenders, the very people, the registry was set up to monitor, tell us their type of criminal behavior and mindset is vastly different from some of these teens.

TED RODARM, CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER: He's not the one that we're going to have to fear. He's simply a teenager.

PHILLIPS: Ted and Rose Rodarm were both convicted of molestation in separate incidents 20 years ago and a part of a ministry now for sex offenders.

RODARM: The registry has become so diluted that you can't identify the truly dangerous, and that in itself is dangerous.

PHILLIPS: So Zach is left wondering about what the rest of his life will be like. The weight of his sentencing came crashing down his first day back at church after he was released from jail.

LESTER ANDERSON, ZACH'S FATHER: He just didn't look right, and I said, "Are you OK?" and he just shook his head. We went outside, and he just started crying. And I said, "What's the matter?" And he said, "I don't know who I can talk too. I don't know whose person or whose hand I can shake. And I feel like everybody's looking at me." You know, and he have to deal with that and to see that...

AMANDA ANDERSON: The shame.

LESTER ANDERSON: Yeah, the shame. I think -- that's the biggest issue is the shame of it.

ZACH ANDERSON: To me, it honestly doesn't really seem real to me. It seems like a bad dream that I haven't woke up from yet.

PHILLIPS: In Elkhart, Indiana, Kyra Phillips, CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So here's a quick update on Zach's case. That teenager is waiting for another court hearing, at the same time, his lawyer is trying to work how to way to mitigate his sentence. But there is these big issue that still hanging over, everybody, right? Not just if you have teenagers, the people live on street where there's a registered sex offender who might be teenager.

When someone's name goes on that sex offender list, is there any way to get it off before that say 25 years sentence is over? The answer is yeah, maybe. In fact, there is someone working real hard to change the law. But what about all those people who aren't like Zach, and are dangerous, do they benefit from it too?

[12:44:47] Find out next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: And we just told you about an Indiana teenager named Zach, who's going to spend decades on a sex offender registry. His crime, he had what he felt was consensual sex with another teenager, but she was underage.

His story is not in the list unique because across the country thousands of teenagers just like Zach are paying the prize for very similar offenses.

I want to bring in South Carolina State Representative Todd Rutherford who joins me now live.

And Representative, you recently introduced a bill to change the way at least your state treats juvenile sex offenders. But I have to ask you this. Well, a lot of people who watch the story about Zach would wholeheartedly agree something needs to be done about this.

What about those other cases where you do have some teenagers with serious mens rea who are dangerous and perhaps are rapists, wouldn't they be treated the same way and get the benefits of the Zach's of the world?

STATE REP. TODD RUTHERFORD, D-SOUTH CAROLINA: What we have requested in South Carolina is that we simply do risk assessments, that we examine these individuals, these children at least in South Carolina that are being put on the registry for the rest of their lives that we examine them and have a doctor or physiatrist examine them. And I also have a psychiatrist for the state to examine them as well to make sure that that they are not likely to reoffend. That should be the fact that we considers to whether we going to take people off the registry, not because some judge who is not a psychiatrist, who don't know anything about mental health, who don't know anything about the risk to reoffend decides this is ought to be 25 years in Zach's case or in South Carolina any judge that put somebody on the registry is putting them there for the rest of their lives.

[12:50:00] I represent an individual who is 16-years-old who is put on the sex offender registry for the rest of his life even though a psychiatrist testified that he was not likely to reoffend. This needs to change.

BANFIELD: So how did we end up here? Because I always want to say the law doesn't catch up with technology when we were talking about sexing being an issue, but teenagers have been having sex for quite some time.

Are there more cases of it? Is it more public because there is more social media? How did we end up in this problem where teenagers who think they're having consensual sex, let say a girlfriend or boyfriend end up as these dangerous felons were registered for life?

RUTHERFORD: You know, I think that legislators have ignored the fact that children actually do engage in sex and especially teenagers. In South Carolina, we instituted what we call the Romeo colossal that we have a three-year difference. If a 16-year old had sex with a 15- year old or 14-year old, that 16-year old can't be put on the registry.

But once you get to 18 having sex with the 14-year old then you can be put on the registry even if the 14-year old lies, says that they were in a club at that time, had a drink of alcohol in their hand, it doesn't matter. Anyone that had sex with that 14-year old s going to be guilty and going to be put on the sex offender registry.

That we've got to stop simply putting people on the list for the rest of their lives, we got to stop making people feel like they're safe because there's a sex offender registry. When all that actually -- if they'd look at the registry, there may be someone on that registry that is put on there because they were urinating in public. At least 12 states put people on the registry for simply urinating in public.

BANFIELD: So that I'm glad you brought that up because I actually want to pop up a list of some other things that would qualify one potentially for being a sex offender in some states.

As you mentioned, public urination, that's at the top of our list, then there's indecent exposure which actually could be someone streaking across the college campus. Taking nude photos and posting it online as a minor or, you know, sending your 15-year-old boyfriend a naked picture.

And then there is that case of Zach, you know, thought he was in with a consensual sex he believes he was having, but that, you know, that child was a minor. He did not know that he said.

I have this question for you. Would it be simple to have the fix? And clearly we're not talking about every state just yours at this point. Would it be more simple to have those teenagers who are the dangerous offenders perhaps raised to adult court, and then treat them as the adult to get the registration and the Zach's of the world stays teenagers and are dealt in a juvenile way because our whole juvenile system is supposed to reflect the fact that we don't want to you not to ever be able to get a job. We don't want you not to be able to get into college. We want you to grow and get better because you still have the potential to do so.

RUTHERFORD: Absolutely. That would be the better way to do it. If we're going to put them on this registry for the rest of their lives, the problem is, Ashleigh, again, the standards in South Carolina is so low when you talk about urinating in public, when you talk about having sex with someone who lied about their age, that we are putting people on for the rest of their lives and even if we take them off, because of the internet in 2015, we're not actually even doing anything except allowing them to live back in their homes and live near the school and potentially go to college. Because, again, remember this juveniles that have been put on the sex offender registry, they can't go to a college because they can't be that close because of the laws in South Carolina and many other states. And even if you put on it in another state and you move to South Carolina, you have to go to the sheriff's departments, spend hours down there at registering. And then at some point if you want to get taken off, you probably have to go back to your home state since South Carolina doesn't do it.

We are simply loading up this list of people that are supposed to protect the public in creating this list but now puts the public in my opinion at more at a risk because they don't know who the threat is.

BANFIELD: Well, I know that the legislative season for you is tight this year. But I'd love you to keep us posted on what happened in your state, and where this movement is going.

Representative, thank you so much for being with us.

RUTHERFORD: Thank you for having me.

BANFIELD: Good to have you with us. Thank you.

Coming up next.

One last verdict to go, the juror is now in that final phase of three, in the sentencing of James Holmes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:57:46] BANFIELD: In Colorado, the sentencing of the Aurora Movie theater shooter is entering its third and final phase today.

James Holmes' life is truly hanging on the balance right now. And we've got some live pictures to show you as the trial gets under way in that courtroom right now. It's expected to be highly emotional today and there's a reason for that.

The victims and their relatives get a chance to give their impact statement before the jury does its final deliberation on whether to sentence Holmes to death or to give him the reprieve of life in prison without parole.

And joining me now live outside the courthouse in Centennial Colorado is CNN's, Ana Cabrera, these are really, really tough days to get through.

Do you know how many of those people are going to be able to give their statements in that courtroom?

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well the prosecution is said they expect to call about 15 or 16 of these victims' family members to present their testimony to the jurors.

We're hearing right now from the father of victim, Alex Sullivan we know, Sandy Phillips is one of those who's planning to testify she's the mother of Jessica Ghawi, we saw her in court wrapped in Jessica's green scarf today and she had said, that Jessica will be speaking through her and providing her energy as she gives her testimony. Her husband Lonnie Phillips, telling me it's going to be tough day and it's expected to be very emotional. But this is it; really business to final evidence presented to jurors who will decide whether Holmes lives or dies.

And right now, it's not about the facts that it more it's really a moral decision for these jurors to make.

Now, remember, they've already said that the mental health issues that Holmes suffered did not out way the heinousness of his crimes that was in phase two. But it doesn't necessarily mean that they are going to give him the death penalty. It only really means that they wanted to give both the prosecution and the defense every last opportunity to present every piece of evidence that could impact their final sentence.

And it all takes is one juror who will believe that it's not morally right to give him the death sentence for him to eventually be sentence to life imprison, a prosecution say and they expect to present evidence over the next two to three days. We could see deliberation in the final faith began at the end of this week, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: And they have all been death qualified. So this -- I mean this is one of those really tough times.

[13:00:00] Ana Cabrera, thank you for that, appreciate it.

And thank you everybody for watching.

Brianna Keilar is going to take it from here. See you again tomorrow.