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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Russians Halt Flights to and from Egypt; Airport Security Examined; 9-Year-Old Shot in Gang Reprisal against Father; Gliniewicz Case Discussed. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired November 06, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:06] RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Eight flights are due to leave from Sharm el Sheikh today for London. Now, that is down from 29 that were planned of the hold up seems to be a ban on some checked luggage.

The BBC is quoting British intelligence saying that the Metrojet plane may well have been downed by a bomb slipped into the cargo hold.

And that brings me to my CNN colleague Rene Marsh reporting today from Washington.

Rene, no less than President Obama saying it's a possibility terrorism was involved here. What is the U.S. doing about it?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Randi, I can tell you that the TSA is monitoring the investigation into this Metrojet crash very, very closely. Especially with the leading theory be that a bomb was on board.

I can tell you that discussions are currently going on as we speak. I spoke with several people, officials on Capitol Hill who have been inside of classified meetings, several aviation security officials who all say that they are still working on the specifics of potential changes to TSA screening measures. And they are still working on the timeframe.

But what you could likely expect, what travelers can likely expect is that the focus will be on this overseas airports with direct flights into the United States.

They can expect to see enhanced measures like more canines, more officers, random checks, swabbing of hands, things of that sort. And this wouldn't be the first time that the Department of Homeland Security has ordered increased screening at overseas airports.

We saw the same thing happen just last summer where they required that before getting on these flights, people had to turn on their electronic devices, so we've seen that sort of action before, and we're waiting to see exactly what kind of action may be taken this time, Randi.

KAYE: All right, Rene Marsh, thank you very much.

And now let me bring in my panel. CNN Aviation Correspondent and Business News Anchor Richard Quest joining me here in New York, CNN Aviation Analyst and Boeing 777 Captain Les Abend also here as well, CNN Intelligence and Security Analyst and Former CIA Operative Bob Baer live via Skype from California to talk more about this.

Les, let me start with you on this one. How much does it concern you that after 14 years, 14 years since 9/11 we are still talking about possible holes in airport security, and the possibility that someone, perhaps an airport worker was able to put a bomb in the cargo hold of this Metrojet?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Yes, it concerns me a lot, Randi. I mean this is, you know, something that we seem to have new knee-jerk reaction to. I mean I'm glad that it is the catalyst for us to improve the security measures. But, you know, the vulnerability, even after 9/11 we protected our passengers in various ways. We had put pilot stepping up to the flight volunteering for a federal flight, deck officer program.

There were various things that we did. But the vulnerability is always been what's below us in those cargo holds. And what the passengers are bringing on board.

So, you know, it is certainly been an improvement since 9/11. But I think we still have more to go and as far as this accident is concern I want, you know, I still want to see definitive proof that we're dealing with an explosive device on this aircraft.

KAYE: And Bob, clearly a lot of work still needs to be done here. Walk me through just briefly if you can, this investigation that will no doubt be focusing on these airport workers. How will they go about it?

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE & SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Randi, I'm not sure we're absolutely certain it was an airport worker who put it on. It could have been a suitcase that was rigged up the sky, the explosives and the initiator may have actually come through security. So I think we have a long way to go to figuring out, first of all if it was a bomb, and secondly how it got through security if it's an airport worker, that's a local Egyptian problem and how you vet the airport workers.

I mean, we have the same problem here we had an airport worker from Minneapolis join the Islamic state and went to Syria and was later killed. I mean how do you vet that thousands and thousands of people that have access to airplanes.

I mean, if you can't find a way to do that and it's a really hard, hard task to do, then planes will always be vulnerable.

KAYE: So Richard, what can we learn still from the black boxes. I mean it's a bomb who did go off in the airplane, would those black boxes have stopped recording or would there be some clue on them?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Depends, depends what happened immediately after the explosion. If the bomb was so positioned that it immediately cut power to the aircraft with such a large bomb that can cause the instance and stick to disintegration, then yes, and as soon as power is lost, as soon as in fact the cables connected the information to the boxes is lost -- it goes. But you get a scintilla, you get a split second, a millisecond before we saw it with TWA 800, we saw it in MH17.

And on the CVR the voice recorder you will hear a noise, just a very small amount.

[12:35:03] KAYE: Like a whistle or noise or it just a sound?

QUEST: Well, it is just so small that it has to be analyzed forensically to the hear it. And on the data recorders, you will see the parameters going all over the place.

Now, of course, if the bomb happens, but the power isn't immediately lost, then you will see a lot more information on it. It just depends at the critical moment when power is lost to the recorders.

KAYE: So let me ask you, would you be flying out of Sharm el Sheikh today? Would you feel safe?

QUEST: Yes, I think I would. I mean, I think you've got to look at the security that's now in place. The biggest problem of Sharm el Sheikh got now is that all these people with baggage that isn't flying with them.

And the airport doesn't have anywhere to store hundreds of bags. Hundreds of tons of bags on now at Sharm el Sheikh waiting for military planes to arrive.

You see all these people that you're seeing here, they are all being taken away on their planes. And there is congestion by the way now there's too many planes trying to get in and out of Sharm el Sheikh.

What we're waiting for is the military planes to come and collect the whole baggage to ease up the situation.

KAYE: Richard Quest, Les Abend, Bob Baer, thank you all very much, appreciate it.

Coming up next, well the most cowardly criminal act, the Chicago police superintendent has ever seen.

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[12:40:35] KAYE: All right, now to Chicago and what the police superintendent is calling "Probably the most abhorrent cowardly unfathomable crime," he has witnessed in his 35 years of policing.

Authorities revealing that 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee was lured into the alley and shot in a gang-related attack, because his father happened to be a member of a rival gang.

Tyshawn of course had no direct involvement in any gang activity. He was just 9, only in fourth grade. He loved playing basketball and was murdered while he was walking to his grandmother's house.

The Chicago Tribune says he always carried a basketball with him, and the ball was found near where he was so ruthlessly shot to death on Monday afternoon.

Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy is joining me by phone to talk more about this.

Tell me, Mr. McCarthy, what evidence is there that helped you to arrive at this horrible conclusion that the boy was targeted and really assassinated in the alley because of his father's association with a gang?

GARRY MCCARTHY, CHICAGO POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: Well, I'm not going to reveal too much on that unfortunately, Randi, I apologize obviously we're looking to protect people.

We do have some witnesses who have kind of put together a time line for us on that. But we know certain, with absolute certainty about a series of events going back as far as August with three or four separate shootings and murders that we believe are tied to this gang particular gang conflict between these two groups of individuals.

And unfortunately Tyshawn's father is intimately involved in some of that. And putting together what we've got from witnesses, some of the evidence at the scene, we are tying those incidents altogether at this point. And it's not a thousand percent, but we're relatively certain this is what happened.

KAYE: And from what I understand the boy's father who you mentioned hasn't been cooperating. In fact he's even accused the police of being more interested in his alleged gang activity than solving this crime. How do you want to respond to that?

MCCARTHY: Well look, as I said yesterday at the press conference, I can't even tell you what he said to us when we tried to interview him on two separate occasions.

And I can also tell you that because of the amount of attention that this has drawn, he scheduled a meeting with us at 7:00 A.M. this morning and didn't show up again.

So I mean look, this -- it is what it is. I don't have to make a case here.

KAYE: What about the suspects? Are you any closer to figuring out who did this?

MCCARTHY: We're -- we believe we know what happened. We believe we know who is involved. The point is proving it legally at this point.

And that's what we're working on. And that's why we need a little bit more help, and that is why we set up the go fund me donations yesterday. And actually, here's a scoop for you all, the number is up to 51,000 as far as reward money for tips leading to solving and prosecuting this particular crime.

KAYE: That is good news. But let me ask you, because, you know, in a lot of cases like this, people are afraid to come forward and give information, you know, up more and then not snitches as they're called and referred to in the neighborhoods, they get killed.

So how do you change that mindset to get information?

MCCARTHY: Well, you know, there is a good reason to be fearful in this case quite frankly. And I absolutely understand it. But, you know, at the end of the day, good people will stand up. And I got to tell you something, you know, I we have a moral obligation to come forward and try and help in any high profile or any crime committed. But at the end of the day, this one goes to the separate level. And it's actually a little bit disturbing that we have to make sure that we get as much money out there as we can to encourage people to come forward.

I mean, you know, how about just doing the right thing. How about getting a murderer off of the streets that the can target, lure, and then assassinate a 9-year-old child. I mean does that individual need to be in our society? I don't think so.

KAYE: No, I think we all know the answer to that for sure.

Well, we will keep on top of this story, and continue to follow the investigation along with you, Garry McCarthy, thank you.

MCCARTHY: Thanks, Randi.

KAYE: Up next, you thought you'd heard it all in the case of that Illinois cop who faked a shooting and stage to suicide after embezzling money and stealing from a charity.

[12:45:03] Well now it looks like he try to hire a hitman to knock off another official.

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KAYE: Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, text and Facebook messages from disgraced Police Lieutenant Joe Gliniewicz reveal an even darker side. He wanted any to see, it began long before he staged his suicide to make it look like he was killed in the line of duty. After the officer received a hero's funeral, we learned he wasn't so noble. Gliniewicz was stealing and laundering tens of thousands of dollars from a police department sponsored program called "The Explorer Post".

The organization mentored young people hoping to become police officers. When Fox Lake Village Administrator Anne Marrin started to ask some questions about those finances, Gliniewicz started to panic. Back in April he told a third party about his problems with Marrin eluding to the idea that he wanted a gang member to take a hit on her. Last night Marrin told Anderson Cooper she had new clue her life was ever in danger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:50:00] ANNE MARRIN, FOX LAKE VILLAGEADMINISTRATOR: I was stunned, absolutely stunned. It's definitely not a good feeling, and it is very scary in the same sentence as well. It's almost surreal. We had very little conversation, and the ones we did were about the explorer's programs during special events and things such as that. So it was very minimal and always very pleasant they weren't any bad words exchanged, so it was very surprising.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Rosa Flores is live in Fox Lake, Illinois following the investigation. So, Rosa, how did the authorities learn about the alleged hit?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, authorities shared with us the one text message they say gave them the biggest clue, Randi. And I'm going to share it with you right now. It reads, "Close to entertaining a meeting with a mutual acquaintance of ours with the word White in their nickname."

Now if you just read it might mean nothing to you. But two authorities White is a code word for a high ranking gang member. You know, did a lot of police work, they found that gang member, ask them about this potential hit on the Village Administrator and that gang member denied everything. He said that he never had a conversation with Lieutenant Gliniewicz and that he never had a pending hit on the Village Administrator. Randi.

KAYE: And Gliniewicz, Rosa, he deleted 6,500 incriminating text messages, it took weeks of course, but the investigators were finally able to recover them, who was he texting?

FLORES: You know, sources confirmed to CNN that he was actually texting with his widow and with his son. And so, in those messages that were release by authorities, like you said that he deleted a lot of them, those exchanges were with individual number one, who according to sources is the widow, and individual number two who is according to sources is actually his son. And if you read those messages, you can tell that they are having conversations that are pretty incriminating.

Now, we got a few of them here for you, and I'd like to read some of them, so I can share them with you. I'm going to quote here. "Chief won't sign off to move it to American legion and if she gets a hold of the old checking account, I'm pretty well expletive." Here's another one. "To start dumping money into that account or you will we be jail -- you will be visiting me in jail."

Again, a lot of the messages deleted by Gliniewicz, but recovered by authorities.

KAYE: Fascinating turn of events. Rosa Flores, thank you very much.

Let's get the legal view now. Let me bring in CNN Legal Analyst Paul Callan, Criminal Defense Attorney and former prosecutor and CNN Commentator Mel Robbins to talk about this.

All right. So Paul, mom and son under investigation. What kind of potential charges are they facing and punishment?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Potentially very serious charges. If they were aware of the embezzlement and helped him with it and certainly moving money from one account to another would suggest awareness that the money was illegally obtained, they could be facing embezzlement charges under Illinois law.

Now, the law in Illinois structured depending upon how much money was stolen for instance $10,000 would lead to seven years in prison is a maximum, as it gets higher the number it's a bigger number, but they're also potential federal charges, wire fraud that sort of thing, if the feds decide to involved.

KAYE: And Mel, I guess the question so they're level of involvement, did they knew -- just know about it, and what was their duty to make authorities aware of it or were they actively involved in it, right? That would play a role?

MEL ROBBINS, CNN COMMENTATOR: That's not only going to the play a role, it's actually key in terms of their ability to prosecute these folks successfully if they do bring charges. So there are those text messages that you read and he said, you will be visiting me in jail. Well, they're going to go to jail if they actually transferred the money, because that shows that they were physically doing things that were a crime, they were part of the embezzlement by transferring the money that they knew was stolen. I mean, they going to of course have to prove that.

You also asked the question about whether or not there was a duty for them to report. Paul and I were talking about this earlier, and there is something called the misprision of a felony, which Paul has been a processing a heck of a lot longer than I have...

CALLAN: Don't rub it (inaudible).

ROBBINS: You only said it done once.

CALLAN: Yeah.

ROBBINS: In the amount of time. So it's on the books, that you can prosecute somebody for not reporting a felony. But it's almost never use.

CALLAN: It almost never used particularly were family members are involve.

ROBBINS: Yes.

CALLAN: Otherwise, you are arresting mothers and brothers and sisters.

KAYE: Yeah. And just quickly what about all of the money spent on is the search. I don't have the dollar figure here in front of me, but the search for the suspect, could they basically go to his estate, you know, I mean and call back say hundreds of thousands of dollars to the money that was donated by a charity and funeral expenses?

CALLAN: You know, that's a fascinating question, and I think the answer is probably no. It's very difficult to establish that that's a crime or civil offense in any waay. [12:55:03] Now some places have actual laws about it like out west when people are searching for lost mountain climbers and things, they have certain statutes, but here, I don't thing there is a statute.

KAYE: All right. Thank you both, as I said this really such a fascinating case now that we know more and more details which continue to come out everyday. Good to see you both. Good to see you.

Thank so much for watching everybody. I'm Randi Kaye. Wolf's starts right after a very quick break.

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