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Chicago Police Policy Changes; Bill Cosby Charged. Aired 3- 3:30p ET

Aired December 30, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY: Often groups of rape victims that I'm representing. She's not alleged to have been raped here.

Sometimes, they really have to process it. They have to think about what just happened, comes to terms with it, seek sometimes the support of family, friends, a counselor, a minister, a rabbi, a priest, attorneys, and so many others, before they make that decision as to, well, which option are they going to exercise? What options do they even have?

And it can be very intimidating to go up against a celebrity who has an army of attorneys. In this case, for the civil case, he has 700 attorneys. Yes. He has 700 attorneys, Quinn and Emanuel. In our civil case, Mr. Singer representing him, and then a few days after our deposition to Mr. Cosby, Mr. Singer was suddenly not representing him and substituted out, and then Quinn and Emanuel with 700 attorneys substituted in.

And, as I said, at that time, he hired 700 attorneys to fight one woman. But in any event, there can be many reasons why there's a brief delay in reporting or even a longer delay in reporting.

Any other question?

QUESTION: You're filing for a second -- to take a second deposition based on questions that Mr. Cosby did not answer in the first deposition. Can you comment on his demeanor while he was being...

ALLRED: No, I can't comment on anything.

QUESTION: Not if he was evasive or anything like that?

ALLRED: No, because I'm an officer of the court and I have to obey the court. And the court doesn't want comment on that deposition, unless and until there's a hearing wherein the court decides to lift the protective order.

And I don't expect that to happen in January, because I know the court wants to also not only review the transcript and the video of Mr. Cosby's deposition, but the court also indicated it wants to review the transcript and deposition of our client's deposition, which won't happen until January 29. So, no, I can't -- I can't comment about any of that. QUESTION: How stunned were you about today's actions? Did you have

any idea that this was going to happen?

ALLRED: No.

QUESTION: So this is a bolt out of the blue?

ALLRED: Well, I was aware there was a criminal investigation. I will just leave it at this.

QUESTION: But there have been a lot of criminal investigations.

ALLRED: That's true. And I was aware that there is a statute of limitations in Pennsylvania for the prosecution of a criminal case, and that that statute of limitations required that that there be a decision within a short time period.

So, I knew it would be within this time frame, not necessarily today, but within a very short time frame. But, yes, I was stunned that it happened this morning.

QUESTION: And the idea, if it goes to trial, based on who he is and 700 attorneys and unlimited money, that can he ever be prosecuted? Can he ever be found guilty?

ALLRED: By the way, those 700, I don't know if they will -- if any of them will be representing him in the criminal case in Pennsylvania. I'm not -- I don't know who will be representing him there in Montgomery County, whether it will be that -- anyone from that law firm or another law firm. Don't know. I just know that from the point of the view of the civil case, that is who is representing him.

QUESTION: How about the chance of him ever being convicted?

ALLRED: I really -- yes, in a criminal case? Yes. Yes.

I really can't comment on that, because I'm not aware of all of the evidence that the district attorney has, but it's clear that the district attorney's office believes that there's probable cause to arrest him and that they believe they have evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

That, of course, will be up to the jury. And I never predict what a jury will do.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

ALLRED: Well, actually, I'm never frustrated in anything, because I believe in action.

[15:05:00]

And frustration is kind of a waste of time, as far as I'm concerned, a waste of my energy. But, having said that, I know that this is a very, very high-profile case at this point. Probably, it is going to be the highest profile criminal case in this country, at least involving a celebrity.

And so, you know, I'm glad that this day has come and that, in a court of law, this matter will be decided. You know, Mr. Cosby's attorneys at some point seem to have indicated, well, but he's never been charged with a crime.

OK. Now he is charged with a crime. Now he will have his day in court on this. And then we will see what happens. I can't predict. But, obviously, there would not be a day in court in the criminal case unless these charges were filed. And that's what has happened. The former district attorney, Bruce Castor, did not file way back in 2005 and has made some statements about why he didn't file.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, you have been listening to Gloria Allred speaking to the media. She represents 29 of Cosby's alleged victims, not including Andrea Constand, which is the reason why, on the left side of your screen, you're seeing this black SUV that is carrying now Bill Cosby himself.

We have all been watching together as we first saw Mr. Cosby walk into that courthouse where he was arraigned, and we have since seen him exit the Cheltenham Township Police Department. He was fingerprint, got his booking pictures, mug shots, and got a copy of his charges, all per protocol, as he is now facing this felony charge, specifically aggravated indecent assault, the first criminal charge he faces amidst all these multiple accusations that have been brought by some 50 different women.

Jean Casarez is now with me. Jean Casarez was inside of that courtroom. She's now joining me to give us a little bit of -- hopefully, Jean, let's just begin with color.

How did Mr. Cosby appear as he sat at that defense table?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He was looking down. And he had a female to his right and a male attorney to his left.

You know, when he entered this very, very small courtroom, very quaint, it appeared as though he couldn't see. And he was walking, but being guided very, very carefully by the female that was escorting him in. And once in, the judge came in and proceedings started immediately. It was very short.

Basically, the first thing that was said was that bail had been set at $1 million, with 10 percent requiring to be met. And the judge said, I am requiring that you give up your passport. And at that point, the male attorney already had the passport. And so he stood up in court with the passport and literally placed it in the hands of the prosecutor.

And then the judge went on with other conditions for bail, that he could make no contact, no contact at all with the alleged victim in this. Went on that the judge said that you have got to sign some forms. And as he signed the forms, it appeared as though the attorney helped him to see where to sign. And then the judge said, do you understand? Because she reiterated,

you must have no contact with the alleged victim. And he said, no contact with? And that was Cosby talking. And she said with the complainant, as she called it. And then she said, do you understand? And Bill Cosby in court very loudly said yes with a big smile on his face, just as though he was just very comfortable, that it was an everyday thing, that he was here and that it really wasn't affecting him emotionally at all.

The judge did say that he would go on to the local police station to continue the processing. And the judge ended it all by saying, good luck to you, Mr. Cosby. And Cosby said, with a smile on his face, thank you. And they stood up and he was led out of the courtroom.

BALDWIN: Wow, so led out of the courtroom. We have re-racked some of these pictures as we're seeing him get back into the SUV, Jean.

Explain to us the process. We saw him head to that police station. Got, you know, fingerprints. What is he doing. Where is he headed now?

CASAREZ: Well, now he -- she did not say that he had to stay within the confines of the state of Pennsylvania. I did not hear that.

But, obviously, the passport -- can't travel internationally. He can go to his home. And he has one right in Montgomery County right here in Pennsylvania. And the next date is, preliminarily, January 14 at 9:30 in the morning for a preliminary hearing.

[15:10:05]

And that will either be here or at another court. And they are routinely continued for another date, because a preliminary hearing is an important legal procedure here.

But I want to tell you, in the courtroom, there were a lot of men in suites that were lining the back of the courtroom. So afterwards I went up to one, and they were very nice, and they are Montgomery County investigators.

And they didn't say anything, but they were here. And they are the ones that are responsible for reopening this investigation, at the forefront being the district attorney, Risa Ferman, of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, who now has just been elected a judgeship in this county.

But it was those investigators from Montgomery County that reopened the investigation this last summer. And I know from Dolores Troiani, the attorney for Andrea Constand, that they flew up to Canada, talking with her for several days as part of this investigation which led to these charges today.

BALDWIN: While I have you, Jean, and you are the first voice we have had on the ground there who sat in that courtroom, I just have to ask -- we just were listening to Gloria Allred and she said something to the effect of this being the biggest, most high-profile criminal case ever, or one that we have certainly seen in a long, long time.

Can you just speak to the scene outside of this smallish courthouse in Pennsylvania?

CASAREZ: Well, when we arrived, there was a lot of media, a lot of media from the local area, because it happened very quickly.

And we suddenly heard that a 4:30 arraignment was going to become a 2:30 arraignment and so it even sped up even more. But it is a beautiful, quaint area with a small, very small, quaint courthouse. But the barricades were up leading Bill Cosby to come into that courtroom.

And it is so small that the courtroom has a door onto the street. So Bill Cosby just walked on the street straight into the courtroom. But everything -- it is different now. No question about it. It is defendant Bill Cosby now of a criminal action.

This has never happened. All of these civil suits, all of the allegations, many people never believed there would ever be a criminal suit, because the statute of limitations had run. But his attorney was notified of this earlier. He obviously turned himself in, even though there was an arrest warrant. It appears as though complied with the court's orders.

And now another process begins in a criminal court, something that has never happened before.

BALDWIN: Jean Casarez, phenomenal reporting for us there, Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania. Thank you so much.

I have, I know, defense attorney Tom Mesereau is still with me. Philip Segal, has been seated as well. And Paul Callan is still with us.

Gentlemen, let me just turn to both of you, first just on some of the nuts and bolts from within this quick arraignment. The judge set bail at $1 million. We know he's already gone through the police station, fingerprints, mug shot. How much of that $1 million does he need to pay, assuming he...

(CROSSTALK)

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: I think the report was that he has to pay -- put down 10 percent of it, so probably in the range of $100,000, but then he secures it with property worth $900,000 for the bond.

That the way it is customarily done. This is an extraordinarily high bail for the level of charge.

BALDWIN: It is.

CALLAN: And I think what it reflects is his enormous wealth and also the possibility that maybe the judge thought he could -- he was a risk of flight. The fact, by the way, that there was no argument in open court

suggests to me that there was a conference in chambers between the district attorney...

BALDWIN: Argument over money?

CALLAN: Yes, over how much bail with be.

Usually, you see an argument in court. There is a fight about it, especially when it is this high. There probably was an agreement in chambers that that would be the amount and so no need it argue about it in court. Obviously, he has got enough money to raise the bail. A lot of times, people are going to be in jail because they can't raise the bail.

BALDWIN: Go ahead, Philip.

PHILIP SEGAL, ATTORNEY: Well, we also know that he was perceived to be a flight risk because he had to surrender his passport.

BALDWIN: Passport.

And that was pre-negotiated as well. You don't surrender your passport if they don't -- you're not forced to do that if they don't think you are going to flee.

BALDWIN: Arraignment is done. Booking. Got the copy of the charge. What's the next for him? What is the next legal step?

SEGAL: Preliminary.

(CROSSTALK)

CALLAN: The -- first of all, yes, I'm just a little curious about -- because Jean was saying he might be going to the police station next.

BALDWIN: Well, we saw. He has already gone to the police station. He went to the police station.

(CROSSTALK)

CALLAN: She is saying he is out of the police station? Because...

BALDWIN: We have seen him. We saw him.

(CROSSTALK)

CALLAN: All right, so that's done?

(CROSSTALK)

CALLAN: He has been printed already.

BALDWIN: Yes.

CALLAN: What is next is, you start this long process that is going to go on in Pennsylvania, the discovery process. The lawyers are going to exchange papers about what kind of evidence will be offered in court and the case will be put over.

[15:15:02]

I'm betting a high-profile case like this, we will have a trial in nine months, nine to 12 months. It would be surprising to me if it was longer than that, given the notoriety of this case.

SEGAL: I'm not sure if there is a speedy trial statute in Pennsylvania. In some states, the defendant can move for a speedy trial, so that the state has to bring evidence faster than they would like to bring. And in this case, the state was pressured by this statute of limitations. And they may want now eight months, nine months to do it. And I don't know if Pennsylvania is or is not.

(CROSSTALK)

CALLAN: It is a complex case.

And the thing I wanted to add also, we saw Monique Pressley by his side in court. Now, she is a new face on the scene.

BALDWIN: Because Mr. Singer, one of his lead attorneys, gone.

CALLAN: Right.

And since she has come into the case, which only happened earlier this year, it has been a much more aggressive defense. She has gone on television shows and he has filed these countersuits against a lot of the alleged victims.

So it has been an aggressive strategy. But, of course, we have an indictment now, but he still obviously has confidence in her because she is sitting by his side.

BALDWIN: Tom Mesereau, I want to pivot to you, because I don't know how much of the Gloria Allred newser you were listening to, but I definitely jotted down the note when she said, hang on a second, I do want to make a note to someone I saw on television earlier this morning who was pointing out accurately with regard to this case, in which he is now facing this felony charge, that it involves this alleged victim who then did settle civilly in 2006.

And you did say earlier -- I don't know who she was referring to, but you earlier was saying, yes, you can point out the fact that in this case this individual perhaps wanted money, discrediting maybe some of her own credibility, which her point was that doesn't mean that what this woman alleged didn't happen.

Your response to Mrs. Allred?

ALLRED: Well, I have a very definite response to Ms. Allred.

First of all, in 2001, Ms. Allred represented a woman in San Bernardino County , California, who claimed Mike Tyson had raped her. I received a call from an Arizona lawyer representing Mr. Tyson asking me if I would be California counsel in that investigation.

We prepared an investigative report. We presented it to the district attorney and no charges were filed. In 2004, Ms. Allred supported a complaint against Michael Jackson claiming he was an unfit parent. The complaint went nowhere and, as you know, in the criminal case, he was acquitted 14 times, 10 felonies and four misdemeanors.

In my opinion, Ms. Allred has never seen a camera she didn't like. That's my response.

BALDWIN: OK.

Tom, just staying with you, you have been watching all these different pictures with us. Do we even know, is Bill Cosby still looking around to sort of round out his defense team? And what does that process look like?

MESEREAU: I have no idea what he is doing as far as his defense team goes.

I do know Ms. Pressley. She is a great lawyer and a great supporter of Mr. Cosby. And he is lucky to have her. But exactly who they are talking to or what their plan is, I just don't know.

BALDWIN: OK.

Tom, and Philip, and Paul, stay with me. Much more on this breaking story ahead here on CNN.

We have got to take a quick break. We're back after this.

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[15:21:39]

BALDWIN: More on our breaking news here. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And this is the picture that will be on the cover of many a newspaper come tomorrow morning. This is the man himself, America's favorite father, Bill Cosby, for the very first time having to appear in court because today he was arraigned here. This is in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania.

And these were the steps he took amidst the madness of media and law enforcement and investigators all there to see this very moment, as he is now officially facing his very first criminal charge involved in a sexual assault case that dates back to 2004. Initially, it was actually closed, the DA at the time citing insufficient evidence and it has since been reopened based upon actually Mr. Cosby's own words in a deposition that was publicly opened just this past summer.

So, he was arraigned, bail set at $1 million. We have also since seen him head in this SUV leaving this location, onto the nearby police department, where he was fingerprinted, mug shot was taken, got a copy of his charges and away he guess. Not too far, though. The judge did ask him to surrender his passport.

I have Mark Geragos joining me now and Danny Cevallos, two top attorneys. Gentlemen, we have a lot to talk about. Wow.

Danny, beginning with you. I'm curious, apparently, inside this courtroom, Mr. Cosby did not enter a plea. Can you tell me why?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: So, this is just a preliminary arraignment. It's the very first appearance before the judge where bail is set.

Going forward, this defendant will next have a preliminary hearing. That will be scheduled very, very soon. It already has been scheduled and that's the hearing where the commonwealth must show, not beyond a reasonable doubt, this is not the trial phase, but instead a preponderance of the evidence, more likely than not that, number one, a crime was committed and, number two, the defendant sitting at this table committed the crime.

And if they do so -- and most cases are held over for trial -- this case will be held over for trial. It will leave the magisterial district court, the MDJ, as we call it, which is usually a very small building in the community, and it will migrate up to common pleas court and there it will begin the trial process.

And we discussed earlier there is a speedy trial rule in Pennsylvania, rule 600, 365 days.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: OK. OK. We were wondering if it was. But you're a Pennsylvania man, I know you know the law of the state extraordinarily well. Let me come back to you.

Mark Geragos, Gloria Allred was just talking. As we know, she represents 29 of Mr. Cosby's alleged victims. And she was saying that this is the biggest celebrity criminal case. I want to say she said the word ever. I don't know if she couched it maybe in a long, long time. You certainly represented your fair share of celebrity clients.

Would you agree?

MARK GERAGOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think what I have seen happen over the last 20 years is every case that I have either had or that has been covered by the media gets bigger and bigger.

And every time I'm involved one, I think, wow, this is the biggest one I have seen yet. And then the next one you're involved in seems to be bigger. I think that is just the nature of the media and the nature of the coverage.

[15:25:00]

And here you have got sex and celebrity and drugs and crime. And so that is a perfect storm. I think it certainly -- for Gloria's and from Gloria's standpoint, this is a gold mine, because I'm sure she is hoping that some of her clients will be used in the criminal case as other crimes type evidence, because that will only enhance the civil case that she has filed on behalf of these women.

BALDWIN: Given the fact, though, that you have been involved in so many high-profile cases, how does that change the strategy or in dealing with this optically? You see the media presence. That is only going to get more massive. How do they thread that needle moving forward?

GERAGOS: Well, I think one of the things they probably will do, and Danny can probably echo this, I think there's going to be a lot of pretrial skirmishing over the delay in filing.

Even though there's a 12-year statute of limitation, there are constitutional issues involved in a prosecutor waiting until the last minute to file the case. So, trust me, I believe that there will be all kinds of pretrial filing delay type motions, maybe even some issues as to whether or not the statute of limitations is even valid, because it was amended at one point during the period of time.

There's going to be these skirmishes, so to speak. And one of the things you do as the lawyer in these cases is, depending if you want to damp down the media attention, one of the things you do is continue it until such time as something else comes along that takes away the spotlight.

Remember, today, we're talking Cosby. Yesterday, it was affluenza teen. The day before, we had something else. You tend to -- these things tend to move very quickly and it just depends on what else is going on out there.

BALDWIN: Danny, you want to speak to that?

CEVALLOS: Going to what Mark said, Mark is absolutely right. Even cases that are brought within the statute of limitations can potentially be dismissed for pre-indictment delay, even within the statute.

However, that is exceedingly rare. And you have to show a substantial amount of prejudice to a defendant. But you can sort of see that in this situation, where you have a defendant who has been living decades, not preparing a defense, a criminal case, or anticipating a criminal case against him, and now all of a sudden has to prepare for that criminal case against him, although it could be fairly said that he was aware that people were accusing him in the past.

So it is a complicated issue.

(CROSSTALK)

CEVALLOS: The thing the defense has to do is keep out those prior bad acts. And that means the other accusers.

BALDWIN: Go ahead, Mark.

GERAGOS: Right, because what I was going to say is if you remember during the Spector case, when Phil Spector was charged with murder here in California, one of the things they did in Phil Spector's case is they had a parade of other women come on the stand who talked about guns and threats and things like that.

BALDWIN: Phil Spector.

GERAGOS: The idea, normally, you would say, well, that's just character assassination, and basically it is. But the prosecutors have gotten statutes passed in most jurisdictions, and Pennsylvania is one of them, where they can bring in this other acts evidence under the guise of a common modus operandi or scheme and so they get that information in.

That's going to be -- there's going to be massive fighting going on about that in the pretrial delay. And speaking to what Danny says, one of the other issues is, the prosecution is going to say, well, look, he knew this accusation was coming. He litigated this in the civil court. There were depositions. There was all kind of chances for him to preserve testimony.

So, prejudice, as Danny said, is a very high bar here. But trust me, they are going to raise the issue. I will give you a preview. That and the other crimes type evidence or modus operandi evidence is going to be the battlefield that they fight this case on.

BALDWIN: All right, spoiler alert from Mark Geragos. Gentlemen, thank you so, so much, as always. Mark Geragos, Danny Cevallos, appreciate it.

We will get back to this breaking story here in just a moment, but two other breaking stories this afternoon we have to cover as well here, first of all, in Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, the mayor, there he is, unveiling sweeping new changes to how his police force responds to scenes after the death this past week of a college student and a grandmother. We have much more on that.

Also ahead, the affluenza fugitive and his mother now fighting extradition after their capture in Mexico. Hear what U.S. Marshals just said about their fight not to come home, stay in Mexico.

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