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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Cosby Case Examined; New Terror Threats Cause Heightened Security; Aftermath of Big Storms Discussed. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired December 30, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: ... of molesting them. And she joins me now -- Attorney Gloria Allred represents more than dozen women who are accusing Bill Cosby of molesting them and she joins me now from Los Angeles.

[12:30:09] Gloria, nice to see you as always.

Have you had a chance to speak with any of your clients? And if so how they reacted to this?

GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY FOR COSBY ACCUSERS: No, I have not. However many of them are e-mailing me. My -- I think my e-mail is about to crash. I have so many people e-mailing me.

But I know that many of them will be elated because the majority of them have allegations that are beyond the statute of limitations for both criminal prosecution and even for them to file a civil suit. In other words it's too late for anything to have been done about their allegations.

And for that reason, a number of them have been working with me and with state legislators to try to change or eliminate the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution of rape and sexual assault in a number of states. And we did expand the statute of limitations in Nevada. And Governor Sandoval signed that into law that was his result of one of my client's efforts.

KAYE: So from what I understand, you deposed Mr. Cosby in October can you give us any details about what he said and whether the Los Angeles County D.A. is still looking at any of those charges against him or is it all simply too late?

ALLRED: Well, the one lawsuit in which I am representing in alleged victim with Mr. Cosby is Judy Huff versus Bill Cosby.

And Mrs. Huff alleges that when she was 15-years-old that she became a victim of Mr. Cosby at the Playboy Mansion here in Los Angeles area.

The district attorney said that it is too late to criminally prosecute on that case, even if she felt that she could prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

However, we allege is not too late for the civil case, and we have been permitted to proceed. We did take his deposition in October. And then recently, actually within the last few weeks, we filed a motion to compel a second deposition of Mr. Cosby with the superior court. And that hearing is set for February 2nd on our motion to compel, and the basis of that in short was that he refused to answer certain questions in the deposition in October.

There is a protective order over it, so I can't comment on anything that occurred at that deposition except that he did appear for it. And we'll have to see if the judge at another date decides that he will lift that protective order.

Our client's deposition will be taken in January 29th, and then there's another date also to appear on February 26th. So we're actively litigating Judy's case.

KAYE: Yeah, and back to today's news, how significant or serious do you think these charges are now?

ALLRED: Well, very serious for Mr. Cosby, after all it's a felony that's alleged, not a misdemeanor. And I do have to say Andrea is very brave Andrea Constand, her attorney has been tenacious, and I think she's terrific.

And so, this is a case that is within the statute of limitations to prosecute it criminally, and the district attorney is doing that.

This new district attorney who was just elected is very serious. He's got a terrific background with the district attorney's office. He has scrutinized this, and I know that there's an extensive criminal investigation going on, and they can be sure that if and as and when they think that any of the clients are relevant as -- potential witnesses in that case, if their testimony would be admissible that I know that many of my clients have alleged to me that they would stand ready to testify if they are permitted to do so.

KAYE: And Mr. Cosby has filed these defamation lawsuits very recently against some of the women who have made these allegations against him.

What are the charges that were announced today due to that and due to the defamation lawsuit?

ALLRED: Well, I don't represent any of the women who have been sued. He did sue seven who had sued him for defamation. So essential that's a cross complaint against them in that same case. But then he did, he took another step, and he also sued Beverly Johnson who had not sued him.

And so, you know, you would have to ask his attorneys, his 700 attorneys who represent him what their plans are. But a civil case can proceed even when a criminal case is pending. It may be that the person who people seek to depose in this case, Mr. Cosby, may decide to assert his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination, and decide not the testify in a civil case. But other than that the civil case can precede or some cases may end up being stayed.

KAYE: And just quickly, Mr. Cosby we know, he's always denied in doing anything wrong, he's always said that these acts were all consensual. Without any evidence, how does the D.A. prove otherwise? [12:35:09] ALLRED: Well, I think that the course credibility is the key issue. Andrea Constand's credibility, and also Mr. Cosby's credibility if he decides to take the witness stand and testify, which is going to be interesting to see whether or not he does or invokes the fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination.

And then there's a question of whether others who allege similar acts by Mr. Cosby will also be permitted to testify under Pennsylvania law.

I want to the say that I am from Pennsylvania, originally, I was born in Pennsylvania, I was -- went to school in the Philadelphia area, and I'm very proud to be from Pennsylvania, especially from -- on this day when the Montgomery County has decided that there is sufficient evidence in the district attorney's opinion to proceed and to try to prove his case beyond a reasonable doubt.

KAYE: Yeah, certainly a big day for all of those women who have taken the stand against him.

Gloria Allred, nice to see you, thank you.

ALLRED: You, too. Thank you.

KAYE: Next, a day ahead of New Year's Eve, officials now say there will be tighter security in Times Square, and at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles.

What's prompting this move, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back. Federal and local officials are ramping up security over new terror threats aimed at the U.S. President Obama has been briefed by top security leaders warning of possible attacks in New York, Los Angeles and Washington.

CNN's Evan Perez has tapped his sources and has the very latest for us.

Evan, how concerned are the officials right now?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Well Randi, people are very concerned because of the number of threats that they're following right now.

[12:40:03] The threat that you just mentioned was briefed to the president just before he left on his vacation to Hawaii, and it basically talked about a possible attacks in three U.S. cities, three major U.S. cities. And those are New York City, Los Angeles and Washington D.C.

Now this threat was a single source it came from a source overseas, and it was not corroborated. But tha said, officials have to treat it very seriously, so we know for instance, here in New York, the FBI, New York and Washington and in Los Angeles, the FBI is increasing the number of agents that are in their command posts. These are 24-hour command posts that are keeping an eye on all the threats.

The New York City Police Department says that they have 6,000 officers that are going to be protecting the Times Square area which obviously is going to draw millions of people to celebrate the New Year in Los Angeles.

We know police are increasing security for the Rose Bowl which is going to be -- there's a parade and the football game on New Year's Day.

So this is all part of a broader threat picture, as you -- as we've discussed on the air today the officials in Belgium and in Turkey say that they have thwarted possible attacks tied to the new year's holiday.

We have a statement to the Homeland Security Department which says "Though we know of no intelligence that is both specific and credible at this time, by the plot by terrorist organization to attack the homeland. The reality is terrorist individuals have conducted or attempted to conduct attacks in the United States this year. Randi?

KAYE: So officially no known credible threat, but the police and authorities still tend to focus on these soft targets, right, these large gatherings and mass transit as well, right?

PEREZ: Exactly, those are always the top focuses of officials here in New York and Washington and L.A. simply because we know that that's what the terrorists look to try to hit, places where they might be able to carry out and -- the most injuries, the most deaths, and also a very difficult for authorities to protect.

KAYE: And does this fit into the whole narrative and the focus on National Security in ISIS that we have seen all year really?

PEREZ: It absolutely does. This have been a record year, the Justice Department says that they've had about 60 -- just about 60 prosecutions this year which is a record. Not even after 9/11 did we see this level of activity. And so that's one of the concerns that officials have right now, Randi.

KAYE: So of course, be vigilant. And it's good to know that authorities are paying close attention.

Evan Perez, as always, thank you.

PEREZ: Thanks.

KAYE: There is a new development in the case of the Texas teen and his mom who escaped the country over a deadly drunk driving accident. They were expected back into the U.S. today after Mexican authorities detained them, but they appear to be fighting extradition.

The surveillance video right here shows the two at a market in Mexico before they were caught, that's Ethan Couch there with the darker hair and the beard with his hat backwards. And his mother is just casually shopping around that little store as well. The story of course, infuriated many people, initially because of a light sentence that Ethan Couch was given just ten years for horrific crash in 2013 that killed four people, ten years probation.

And then for the alleged parole violation when he and his mother fled the country as well that got a lot of people very, very angry.

All right, back to our breaking news.

Bill Cosby has been charged with sexual assault. He's expected to be arraigned today.

Our legal experts join me next with more on the details of the case, and where it goes next. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:46:46] KAYE: Back now to our top story. Just days before the statute of limitations runs out in a 2004 sexual assault case, prosecutors in Pennsylvania bring the first criminal charge yet to arise from the mountain of allegations against Bill Cosby.

Let me bring back the panel, CNN Legal Analyst Joey Jackson, and Danny Cevallos, Attorney, CNN Contributor and former South Carolina lawmaker Bakari Sellers as well.

Danny, let me start with you here. What is Cosby facing in terms of prison if he is convicted?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN, LEGAL ANALYST: Well, his charge with -- second degree felony aggravated indecent assault, which carries a statutory maximum of 10 years, but the sentencing guideline range for Cosby who we assume has no prior record, a defendant in Cosby's position would be in the range of 22 to 36 months, but again, the statutory maximum is a decade for a felony to conviction if the prosecution wins this case.

And it is important to remember that there is no requirement that the complainant or the victim corroborate the evidence the testimony against him. Her testimonial alone can be sufficient to sustain a conviction in a case like this, where there is certainly no rape case or any other physical evidence just the testimony of a complainant.

KAYE: So that's what I'm going to ask you Joey. I mean, what about the evidence are locked there on my guess. Because we have to remember that Andrea Constand waited a year from the alleged assault before he tried to bring charges and the D.A. all those years ago said there just wasn't any evidence, no bodily fluids or anything so what do you make of that?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, Randi, what's going to happen is this. In many cases where a case is taken so long to come to court, it comes very problematic. In fact there's a statute of limitations to begin with, because the memories go stale, witnesses disappear, people don't have the same recollection as they did have. In this case, I think there's a lot of preserved evidence. Now in terms of the waiting to report, there are many psychologists, and psychiatrists who could testify and do testify in past cases that I've had where there's a prosecutor, and defense attorney that there are many reasons why a victim may not initially report, a lot related to their shame, a lot relating to, you know, just suppressing the memory that they have such a traumatic event, so they could very well be expert testimony in the case.

So the waiting a year, I don't think is not going to be that compelling or that detrimental to the prosecutor case. In terms of the other evidence that has been preserved here, let's remember that there was a major civil suit here, and in light of that civil suit there have been depositions that are taken, which have confirmed what people have said.

Cosby has spoken on the record, and under oath, swear to tell the truth in terms of what exactly has occurred. The mother of Ms. Constand actually has given a statement to the police, has a recollection of the events of her daughter coming back to Canada, of her daughter changing in terms of how she was having nightmares saying what's wrong with you. Then go into the police. The police in Canada conducting a investigation, submitted a report to Philadelphia, they conducted an investigation, so a lot the evidence and information is there.

The question becomes how credible of a witness she'll make, and whether or not it is a compelling enough case for the jury to say,, you know what, we understand what you are alleging, we believe it, you did it, guilty. That is the issue doing forward, Randi.

KAYE: And Bakari no doubt a lot of people, you know, with all the allegations against him, I'm sure a lot of people expected that one day there might be charges.

[12:50:05] But this is America's favorite dad. I mean, this was who Bill Cosby was many of us grew up watching Bill Cosby. It's really a turn of events for Cosby fans, isn't it, Bakari?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well it is, but I think that you have seen the glimmer and the shine on Cosby mantra be chipped away. Whether it was the Ebony Magazine cover, we saw recently written by Goldie Taylor which dealt in the Bill Cosby, the show and what it means to African-Americans then and now, and now these charges.

And one thing as a criminal defense attorney, one thing that I believe his attorneys are probably doing are mapping out all of his accusation, and then also mapping out the statute of limitations for those accusations, to make sure that this is the only charge that he's facing.

If he's facing more than this one criminal charge, he'll have more issues to deal with. But this is the only one and person have bounced back whether or not it was Michael Jackson and his criminal sexual from in the children whether or not it was Kobe Bryant who was looking at similar charge in colorado. So people have bounce back. For Bill Cosby at 78-years-old, I'm not sure he'll have the time to bounce back and we'll see.

KAYE: Danny, where do you think the defense team goes with this. I mean picking up on what Bakari said and could the stories from other women making this similar claims all be brought into court?

CEVALLOS: Those two questions can be answered at once. And the defense team in this case has to work very hard to keep out any of those prior bad acts in the form of other females coming in to testify that Bill Cosby did certain things to them.

The general rule of evidence here in Pennsylvania is that prior bad acts are not admissible to show that a defendant committed a particular crime or was a criminal in general.

However, a massive exception to that rule is when the evidence is offered to show for example the similarity of prior acts or a common scheme or a motive, opportunity, other purposes other than showing that the defendant committed the crime.

So that is a massive exception to the rule. And the defense has its work cut out for it. It has to fight like heck to keep that information out of court, because that will be devastating against Cosby if the other accusers are allowed to come in and testify about what is essentially prior bad acts evidence.

KAYE: Joey, very quickly, could you see Bill Cosby taking the stand?

JACKSON: You know, it'll be very difficult for him to, because remember he has given deposition, and why is that relevant, Randi? Because if he says anything that's inconsistent from what he said before, he will savage, and also, remember, that he's giving admissions in terms of his conduct within those depositions and so, does he take the stand and risking something that's different and destroy his credibility or...

KAYE: Right.

JACKSON: ... that he try to, you know, wiggle out. It is going to be very difficult for him to take the stand to defend himself in this particular case.

KAYE: Yeah, it certainly a tough one. Danny Cevallos, Joey Jackson, Bakari Seller, great to see all. Thank you so much and Happy New Year.

BAKARI: Thank you, Randi.

JACKSON: Thank you, Randi

CEVALLOS: Happy New Year.

KAYE: Next the water is rising in Missouri all the way up to the roof in some areas. People are desperately trying to get out, and rescue crews are out in their boats.

We're live with the latest on these historic floods straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:56:36] KAYE: And this just in to CNN, the woman accused of killing one person and hurting dozens others when she plowed into pedestrian on the Las Vegas Strip tested positive for marijuana. The toxicology report on Lakeisha Holloway was released today in Clark County Nevada. Holloway has been charge with murder. The county district attorney says the drug result do not change those charges.

And now, to Eureka Missouri not far from both Merrimack River and the Mississippi River both are which are flooded what forecaster say will be historic levels before the waters recede.

This is just one town, but people in 13 states are in flood danger right now. 17 million people or either evacuating to higher ground, getting ready to or perhaps nervously watching the water rise in their hometown. Just outside of St. Louis Valley Park, Missouri, CNN Meteorologist Jennifer Gray is there.

Jennifer, either if the rains stop right now, this is still an emergency of epic proportions. So what are the next 6, 12, maybe even 24 hours looked like?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, absolutely. That's what so misleading. You know, there's no more rain, the rain has stopped but the waters are still rising and I just checked the flood gauge, right before I came out here and surprisingly, the new forecast for this river to crest right where we're at Valley Park is a foot higher than forecasted.

So it was forecasted at crest around 43 feet tonight between midnight in 6:00 a.m. Not is ready to de-crest (ph) at 44 feet and a foot is going to make a lot of difference.

So that's the breaking news at this hour.

Look behind me and you see the water. We've been watching the sign that a highway 141 sign that says north and south right there.

Earlier when we came out this morning around 5:00 Eastern Time, and 4:00 Central Time, it was about foot lower than it is right now, and so it is continuing to rise, you can see the street lights under water and even that overpass right there Interstate 44.

In fact I spoke with somebody from Missouri Department of Transportation about an hour or two ago. And he said there's about a 24-mile a stretch of Interstate 44 that is shutdown, and it could possibly be shutdown until Friday. And he says what you can't see from right here is the traffic gridlock on either side of where that Interstate is shutdown. People are having a really hard time tying to find an alternate route.

And so, especially if you are traveling across the state of Missouri, find a different way to go. It is shutdown from 270 to route 100. And so, a lot of trouble there, highway 141 that's right behind me, it could be shutdown Randi until Monday or Tuesday. It all depends on how fast this water goes down. We know its river flooding. It goes down just as slowly as it comes up. And so, it could be several days, even a week before, some of these roads are able to can be passable.

A lot of people have evacuated, they're staying in hotels. In fact, there's a hotel right here in the parking lot that about 100 people are out here right now with their cell phones getting a closer look at the flood waters, but everyone is urged to just stay at higher ground, stay home and stay off those roads for sure.

KAYE: And what's the sense you're getting from residents, just quickly. I mean, there's a sense of panic or it's a pretty calm evacuation?

GRAY: For the most part, from what we understand, it is pretty calm. You know, river flooding, it rises pretty slowly unless there is a breach in the levee or something like that, but aside from those water rescues that we saw this morning, people are not heeding those warnings, and it has been pretty calm for the most part I do believe.

[13:00:04] KAYE: All right, good to hear. Jennifer Gray. Thanks very much. Stay warm there.

And thank you, everybody for watching today. I'm Randi Kaye. Wolf with Brianna Keilar starts right now.