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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Vegas Driver Faces List of Charges; Trump's Large Lead in Newest Polls; Cruz Uses Political Cartoon to Fundraise; Iraqi Forces Advancing in Ramadi. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired December 23, 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] ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: That is Lakeisha Holloway. She's charged with a list of charges, murder with a deadly weapon, child abuse, neglect or endangerment, and leaving the scene of the accident.

In this, in this incident, one person was killed, 35 others injured, and this is one of the things where it sounds like this is the tip of the iceberg for Holloway. In a news are release, the Clark County district attorney said this, quote, "Our hearts go out to the victims and their families. This is a horrendous and inexcusable act that has needlessly and tragically impacted countless lives. I am confident that, as the investigation unfolds, we will be filing many more charges against Ms. Holloway."

Now, we also just heard from attorneys. I want you to listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT COFFEE, HOLLOWAY'S DEFENSE ATTORNEY: -- criminal history which makes this so much out of character. She essentially turned herself in at the Tuscany, asked for police to be called. That is not a usual situation, having dealt with criminal defendants for the last 20 years, 40 years experience between Mr. Abood and myself. That's not a normal situation for somebody who is an out-and-out criminal.

JOSEPH ABOOD, HOLLOWAY'S DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That's right, and listen, just bear one thing in mind, you know, I understand that it's being framed, and the narrative that's being spun, is that was an intentional act. But it's very early in the investigation. There are a number of things that we have to consider other than an intentional act. So although it is tragic for everybody around, and the result ends up to be the same, this case is going to be taking some time. And it's going to take a lot of investigation, and it very well could be that it is anything but an intentional act. We just don't know yet. So we have plenty of work to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So for the record, you're going towards pleading not guilty?

ABOOD: Well, yes, I fully expect that we will enter a not guilty plea.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And can you say your name just so we have it for the tape?

ABOOD: I'm Joseph Abood. A-B-O-O-D.

COFFEE: Scott Coffee, C-O-F-F-E-E, just like the drink.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Best last name ever.

COFFEE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you anticipate seeking film at this time?

ABOOD: Well, I mean at the appropriate time, we will address all kinsd of issues like that. It's just a little early right now, and you can imagine that the charges are extremely serious, so even if bail were granted, I don't know that anybody would have the kind of money that it would take to bail out. But we'll -- we'll look into all of her options as time goes by.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your client is characterized as having told police she was homeless, living in the car. That would suggest she couldn't bail even if it was set. Is there any reason to quibble with her characterization of how she was living?

ABOOD: Well, it is an interesting way to get to that question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I tried, Joe.

ABOOD: Yes, I know you did.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is there any chance she'll be able to see her child (INAUDIBLE)?

COFFEE: She is in 24-hour lockdown, she doesn't have access to that kind of thing. When you're in a detention center, it's not like being in your house.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

COFFEE: Again, when you're a detention center, things don't work that way.

ABOOD: You know, if your question is does she want to see her child? The answer is she's very concerned about her child. She's a loving mother, of course she would love the see her child. But the reality of her circumstance right now is that her life has changed forever.

COFFEE: And her life has changed dramatically from the story from you (sic). In the scenario that we have received.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: OK, so you're listening to part of a news conference with Lakeisha Holloway's attorneys there, him talking about that most likely she will plead not guilty, bail issues will be decided at a later date, and that she of course is a loving mother and wants to see her child. So Lakeisha Holloway just appeared in court. I want to get more on

that appearance. Let's go the Stephanie Elam who is live there outside the courtroom. Stephanie, I understand this is a very quick hearing.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was very quick. Alison, it was only a couple of minutes that she was even in the courtroom where she came in to hear this, and what they decided is that they're going to take a 30-day status check, because they believe that -- both sides want to do more investigating. And also they believe that there will more charges will be filed against Holloway as well. So the next time she's expected in court is on January 20th, at a 8:00 a.m. So she will remain in custody based on what we just heard her lawyer say and based on what we saw in the court, Alison.

KOSIK: Did she show any emotion at all?

ELAM: No, she was stoic. They brought her in separately from the other people who are coming in to be before the judge. They brought her in separately. She stood the whole time, she's very serious, she nodded, and then she left. She just seemed very, very reserved and very stoic, and she was only in there I would say probably no more than 2 minutes.

KOSIK: All right. Reserved and stoic after mowing down more than 30 people.

[12:05:00] All right, Stephanie Elam, thanks for that.

I want to get the LEGAL VIEW on this and bring in HLN legal analyst and defense attorney Joey Jackson and CNN legal analyst and defense attorney Danny Cevallos. Joey, let me start with you. What kind of sentence do you see for Lakeisha Holloway? I mean, it's no question that she's the one who did this. What kind of sentence is there?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Right. You know what, Alison, at this point, I know it is earl, and the defense attorney's really speaking to the issues of what her culpability is, talking about, well, maybe it's not intentional, maybe it was something else, and the reason I mention that is because that affects sentencing, OK? And we're not there yet. She obviously at this point there could be more charges filed, there's a lot of investigation to begin with.

But let's be clear about this. In the event that it is intentional, in the event that the prosecution pursues this, as they are pursuing it now, she's looking at a life sentence. And not only to the extent that it's a life sentence but the fact that they're charging murder with a deadly weapon, that's what we call an aggravator, an enhancer, so you're looking at life-plus. And so it's significantly serious and the only way I think to mitigate this, the defense has one of two ways to go. Either the one way, as Mr. Abood her attorney was speaking to, is the issue of maybe it wasn't intentional. Maybe it was some negligence on her part, which could still be criminal. Or the other way is they're going to have to look, Alison, at her mental capacity and very much put that on trial. KOSIK: Danny Cevallos, you're a defense attorney. It looks like her

defense attorneys are getting kind of creative. I'm just getting that feeling based on that little piece of the news conference. How would you defend her?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, in this case like this, we know who the actor was, so now it becomes a question of what was in the heart and her mind when she did this act, because every crime has both a mental element and a physical element. We know she drove the car onto a curb and injured people, but what was her intent? Was an accident as they will surely argue? Was she unable to form the requisite intent because of some mental defect or illness? Or, as the prosecution will likely attempt to show, she maliciously intended to injure people and possibly cause death.

And the difference in terms of intent here can make a massive difference in terms of sentencing. For example, we all know murder is punishable in almost all states by either life in prison or death, but if it's mere negligence, we may be looking at possibly a misdemeanor, depending what was in her heart, her soul and her mind. But believe me, we can draw many inferences by her behavior about her intent.

JACKSON: Yes, two quick things. Even if you establish that there was some kind of negligence, negligence could be criminal and it can escalate to that level. And when you engage in an act where you're driving onto driving on the sidewalk, 35 people injured, there's one that's dead, some more may die, even if it is negligence, I would think that the severity of that would certainly put her in jail for a long time if she is guilty.

The other way, though, I think, they can go is they can go at her mental capacity and say, at the time she did this, again we don't know, but that she could have been delusional. She could have snapped. There could have been something amiss. Danny speaks to the issue of state of mind, the intent and what it would take, but I certainly think that they could predicate this on some type of insanity type of defense.

KOSIK: It's going to be interesting to hear all the facts come out in the case. We'll see you a bit later on in the show. We'll be talking about other issues as well. Joey Jackson, Danny Cevallos, thanks very much.

Up next, calling Hillary Clinton call Donald Trump's latest comments about her hateful and incendiary, and as usual, he's not backing down. And his poll numbers, as you can bet, are going up. Just wait until you see how big his lead is now in a new CNN poll.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:11:49] KOSIK: The more Donald Trump attacks opponents and the more he's criticized for it, the higher the numbers go. Take a look at this new nationwide CNN/ORC poll, showing Trump with an overwhelming 39 percent support among Republicans. That's actually more than double the support for Senator Ted Cruz in second place with 18 percent. Ben Carson and Senator Marco Rubio tied with 10 percent. Let's bring in senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns and senior

media correspondent Brian Stelter, joining me now. Joe, let me begin with you. Trump numbers obviously hitting a new high, he's the clear frontrunner, but how would he fare in a general election?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that's the $1 million question on the general election. And anything could happen. It's pretty clear that Hillary Clinton is essentially ahead in polling in the sort of the head-to-head matchups, if you will, and he's also behind the -- Bernie Sanders. So there you go. Anything could happen, we still have a lot of time, and what we do know is that, while he's made some very strident statements here trying to get the Republican nomination, on the other hand, any candidate who's done something like that to get the nomination for the Republican Party, will then move to the center. And the question would be how well would he move to center for a general campaign, Alison.

KOSIK: OK, so, Joe, there was an interesting study, a Morning Consult study, and listen to what it found. It found that that Trump has actually been performing better than what we're seeing in these polls that we show you every day, that he's been performing better in online polls versus live telephone polling. Now, this new number is in line with the online polls. So are the polls are beginning to reflect his actual support, meaning that if people are polled anonymously, they're going to show more support for Donald Trump. If they're called up by a person, they're less likely to support him.

So what this actually shows is that maybe there's a feeling that they don't want to be embarrassed by others judging them for supporting Trump, meaning like if they get into a voting booth and close the curtain, no one's going to see how they vote, and they're going to vote for Trump.

JOHNS: Well, here's the thing. We don't really know the question on the internet polling, because there has always been an issue of methodology, there's always been an issue of polling methods there. And very difficult, some say just about impossible, to get an accurate sampling on the individuals who have sort of the plus/minus, the margin of error, if you will, Alison. So we don't really know the deal with internet polls, and we do know that a lot of people say it's easier to get something that's fairly reliable when you have a live questioner. I think those are the problems that come up when you talk about internet polls.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, bottom line, we're in such an exceptionally uncertain time when it comes to the polling. All kinds of polls, it's getting harder and harder to find out what Americans really think, partly because we're all using cell phones now, not landlines.

[12:15:00] And we're all on line now. More than ever, we really have to wait for the votes to be counted this time.

KOSIK: OK, so let's move on to Hillary Clinton for a moment. "The Des Moines Register" caught up with her responding to Trump's vulgar language about her this week. Listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I really deplore the tone of his campaign and the inflammatory rhetoric that he is using to divide people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: OK, Trump's digging in, he's standing behind the comments, so Joe, let me ask you this. Do you think this at all hurts him with his base? Is there anything that can hurt Teflon Don at this point?

JOHNS: It's just not clear that those comments hurt Trump with his base right now. The race of course is for the GOP nomination. And if you look at our polls, Trump has 42 percent support from men, 37 percent support among women. So that's not a significant difference. And Trump, the other thing you have to say, defies convention. When he made comments for example about Carly Fiorina's face, he didn't lose significant support from Republican women there. However, in the general election, if he were to get the nomination, it could be much different, because he might have to influence overall women voters and a lot of Democratic voters have a much stronger feelings about Donald Trump than the Republicans do in a negative way.

KOSIK: All right. Let's move on the Ted Cruz trying to raise $1 million because of this cartoon you're about to see published by "The Washington Post". This is a cartoonist depicting his, Ted Cruz's daughters as monkeys. The cartoon was eventually removed from the newspaper, but a seemingly furious Cruz saying that his daughters are not fair game and that he's sickened by the cartoon. He tweeted this, saying, "Classy, Washington Post making fun of my girls. Stick with attacking me. Caroline and Catherine are out of your league."

So Cruz spoke in Tulsa, Oklahoma, earlier today, saying that "The Washington Post" cartoonist may find herself in a padded cell. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRSIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: By the end of eight years, there are going to be a whole lot of reporters and newspaper editors and journalists who have checked themselves into therapy.

(APPLAUSE)

CRUZ: I think "The Washington Post" editorial cartoonist may find herself in a padded cell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: All right. Well, the artist is defending her cartoon, tweeting, "Ted Cruz uses his kids as political props." She has since deleted the tweet. So Brian, the question to you is, is there an unwritten rule that all children are off limits? Keeping in mind that he did have his kids in a campaign commercial not too long ago, I think a week ago? STELTER: It's not an unwritten rule, but I would say it's a consensus among most people in the media, including many cartoonists. Cartoonists, though, are paid to push the envelope, to make people uncomfortable, to provoke a reaction.

Now I think, in this case, it's really on "The Washington Post". They chose to publish this; then they chose to delete it. Deleting it was probably the right call, but they shouldn't have put it up in the first place if they weren't proud of it. The cartoonist herself is just waiting to get on Twitter saying -- she's not commenting right now, but she does want to write an essay about this entire experience. And we did hear Ted Cruz this morning saying leave all of our kids alone -- Hillary Clinton's kids, Donald Trump's kids, everyone's kids alone.

By the way, Trump calling this nasty, calling it bad. So he's siding with Ted Cruz right now.

KOSIK: Very quickly, guys. Got to ask you this, Brian. You know, he's using it to raise money, to fight against what this cartoonist did. Isn't that a little hypocritical?

STELTER: In fact, he's actually including the cartoon in his fund- raising pitch. I suppose that is where you are. You bash the media, but you also try to raise as much money as you can while you're bashing them.

KOSIK: Oh, the irony. All right, Brian Stelter, Joe Johns, thanks so much.

Up next, we're learning more about the lives of those six American troops killed in an Afghanistan bombing as the situation intensifies on the ground there as well as in Iraq.

[12:19:20]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSIK: Today the focus of the fighting in Iraq is the city of Ramadi.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)

KOSIK: And those are the soldiers of the U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces who now say they're within a half mile of central Ramadi, now completely occupied and controlled by ISIS. The Iraqi military says progress is slow. The ISIS fighters are not leaving; they are resisting. And the urban battlefield is covered with explosive traps.

I want to get retired Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt in here to talk about this. You just returned from Iraq a few day ago. And also Philip Mudd, CNN's counterterrorism analyst.

I want to begin with General Kimmitt. As I said, you've been to Ramadi, you know this city and how it fits into the big picture stategically in terms of priorities in the fight against ISIS. So how important is it that Iraqi forces get control of a city that's the size of Ramadi?

BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, this will be the biggest victory that the Iraqi security forces have had since ISIS attacked. It's an iconic city. This is where a lot of the Americans have died and a lot of the Iraqi security forces died.

And I note that you keep saying that this is the Iraqi military. In fact, some of those vehicles that you showed in your clip just now belong to the Iraqi police. So this is truly a combined operation between the Iraqi military and the Iraqi police, who are side by side with their military counterparts.

KOSIK: How much though is this sort of a strategy of whack-a-mole? You know, it was Mosul, it's Ramadi now. And it seems like, you know, it's sort of just of getting to ISIS at that moment and then sort of trying to keep tentacles out in the other areas?

KIMMITT: No, I don't think it's whack-a-mole at all. These are the two major cities on the two major rivers, on the Tigris River and the Euphrates River. In the case of the Euphrates River, Ramadi is right alongside of it. They're pushing out along that axis toward Syria, and of course they've got to go up the Tigris River -- excuse me, the Euphrates River -- to get up to Mosul as well. Those are two strategic targets that will be necessary as the enemy has fought along these river valleys, they're re-taking these two river valleys.

[12:25:06] I would expect that, after Ramadi, you'll see the pressure put on to Mosul.

KOSIK: All right, Phil, let me ask you this. You know, people who got out of Ramadi says ISIS makes it clear that anyone who flees or tries to flee will be treated very harshly. Why is that they want to keep civilians in the city?

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: They're going long term. We're talking about the short-term battle and whether the American- backed forces take the city. The long term goal is though to persuade people that they can live under not only ISIS governance, but under this new idea of a state, a state that's ruled by Islamic law, by sharia law.

So when you see these waves of immigrants going out of Syria, when you see residents leaving Ramadi, that denies ISIS the ability to put out propaganda that says we are not a place for people who leave (ph). We're a magnet for people who have a goal of living in a unique society, and that's a purist Islamic society. Their goals are big.

KOSIK: All right, General Kimmitt, Ramadi is one of the three Rs that Defense Secretary Ash Carter said were critical to defeating ISIS, and the others involved the city of Raqqa and U.S. special forces. And ISIS is struggling to keep Ramadi now, but if they lose it, how will this affect momentum on the front?

KIMMITT: Well, let's be very clear. ISIS is not just about Iraq -- and Phil is exactly right, that it's primarily about keeping an Islamic state. But as we have seen over the past couple of weeks, ISIS is not constrained simply to the caliphate inside Iraq and Syria. We're seeing them in the Russian -- the shoot down of the Russian flight, the blow-up of the Russian aircraft in flight. We're seeing them in Paris. It's the inspiration of this idea which was behind the San Bernardino attacks. So while the land may be significant, the idea, the ideology, is even more important.

KOSIK: OK, Phil, I want to the ask you this quickly about these flier. There's a U.S. Army Public Affairs Officer who tweeted that -- this tweet here, that ISIS has ordered the fighters to dress as Iraqi troops and, quote, "commit atrocities" if they're forced to flee the city of Fallujah. Specifically telling them put on Iraqi uniforms and assault women and torture civilians and make videos of everything.

Does this propaganda really work? And how does coutnerterrorism officials even make a strategy against this mindset if people are willing to jump on board and do what ISIS is asking?

MUDD: Well, let's be clear from the start -- it's not clear yet whether this propaganda is accurate or not. People are still assessing this.

Let's assume that is. Some of this will work and we have to understand this from the perspective of Iraqis and ISIS and not from an American perspective. This is pretty simple. This is a sea of suspicion. Polling data from this week shows that many people, most in Iraq and Syria believe the U.S. responsible for creating ISIS. It may be hard for us to understand, but that's the reality there. In the midst of that reality, this kind of propaganda, putting on fake uniforms and claiming that American-backed forces are committing atrocities might work, because already the civilian population is suspicious. They don't beliee us.

KOSIK: All right, thanks so much for your time, General Kimmitt, Phil Mudd, thanks so much for coming on the program.

There is obviously another side to the fighting, any fighting, and in a couple of hours, the body of U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Chester McBride is going to be returning to the U.S. from another place, from the place where he was killed -- Afghanistan. Sergeant McBride was 30 years old from Statesboro, Georgia. He's one of six American men and women killed when a suicide bomber targeted a coalition patrol near Bagram, Afghanistan, base Monday. His arrival at the U.S. military's port mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, that is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

CNN's Jason Carroll with me now. Tell us more about the others who were killed in this attack?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's really tough, especially when you see pictures like that of McBride, you realize that these aren't just names, these aren't just titles, these real people with real families. Really, really difficult. Actually now six families in mourning today, six fallen heroes.

We've already heard a little bit about one of them, this was yesterday we heard about Sergeant Joseph Lemm. He was surprised -- he surprised his family two years ago when he returned home, there's the video there from Afghanistan, and surprised his daughter, who's giving him a big hug there when she was performing at a singing performance. Lemm was a 15-year veteran of the NYPD. New York's governor said Lemm embodied the bravery of police officers and soldiers everywhere.

Also killed, Sergeant Louis Bonacasa. He was 31-years-old and from Manerville, New York. I spoke to his mother briefly last night. She described her son as a hero, someone who loved his family and being a soldier. He also had a daughter who just turned five just a few days ago. His brother is speaking out about the family's loss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VINCE BONACASA, STAFF SGT. LOUIS BONACASA'S BROTHER: It was always a blessing to have him in my life. He was cut from a different cloth.

[12:30:01] He was a good man. A man's man, a gentleman. He loved his family, loved his country. He died doing what he wanted to do. He was a real soldier. A real hero.

(END VIDEO CLIP)