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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Bombshell Charges Against Bill Cosby; Epic Flooding Swallows Parts of Missouri; Heavy Security for New Year's Eve. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired December 31, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:12] ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: Bill Cosby not going down without a fight. His lawyers promising a vigorous defense after he was charged with sexual assaults. What are his alleged victims are saying this morning. We've got the very latest, straight ahead.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The historic flooding only getting worse in parts of Missouri. Roads and homes washed away by the power of rushing waters with nowhere to go but up. We will tell you where the danger lurks next.

KOSIK: And security in force as the world is ushering in 2016. Police working in major cities around the world to keep celebrations safe, but the terror threat already forcing one major cancellation. We'll tell you where 2015 will go out quietly.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Alison Kosik.

ROMANS: Happy New Year's Eve.

KOSIK: Happy New Year's Eve.

ROMANS: Nice to see you. I'm Christine Romans. It is Thursday, December 31st, New Year's Eve, 4:00 a.m. in the East.

Reaction is pouring in this morning for the first time, comedian Bill Cosby faces criminal charges. The TV legend is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a former Temple University employee Andrea Constand 12 years ago. Now, a local prosecutor at the time declined to charge the actor, citing insufficient evidence. Constand sued Cosby and settled in 2006.

Now following the parade of recent accusations against Cosby, his deposition in Constand's suit has been unsealed, providing a new prosecutor with new evidence.

CNN's Jean Casarez was at Cosby's arraignment. She has the latest for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Alison, Bill Cosby was not late to his arraignment yesterday right here at this very small court house behind in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. When defendant Cosby entered the court, he appeared as though he

couldn't see well and his attorney had his arm and really helped him step by step get to the defense counsel and sat him down in his seat. The magistrate judge took the stand a very short time later and really apprised Mr. Cosby of the criminal charges against him, alleged, aggravated indecent assault, explaining the various theories of the prosecution. She also told him bail was set at $1 million, 10 percent he would have to pay.

Cosby didn't saying anything. He doesn't have any emotion that came out through his eyes. He just was intently looking. But she was talking about the conditions of bail, saying that he could not have any contact with the accuser with the complainant. At one point he said, "With who?" And she said, "With the complainant." He seemed to understand. She said, "Do you understand what I'm telling you?" He said yes.

He gave up his passport. His attorney had it, gave it to the prosecutor as a condition of bail. The judge ended by saying, "Mr. Cosby, good luck." And Bill Cosby said, very matter of fact and very respectfully, "Thank you."

The victim, Andrea Constand, at this point, we believe remains in Canada. Her attorney said she was told one day ahead of time that charges would be brought. She is so grateful, I'm told, that this district attorney is believing and has confidence in her -- Christine, Alison.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSIK: All right. Jean Casarez, thanks for that.

Other Cosby accusers are weighing in, applauding the news that an alleged victim will get her day in court. The lawyer for former supermodel Janice Dickinson releasing a statement that says, "Though he's a very wealthy and famous celebrity, Mr. Cosby should be subject to the same criminal and civil laws as everyone else. Mr. Cosby's arrest today is a highly significant chapter in his accusers' long journey toward justice. Every woman who stands up against Mr. Cosby does so in solidarity with the other 50 women who have now had the courage to speak out against him."

And supermodel Beverly Johnson tweeted about karma, writing, "When it comes down it, truth is simple. There is nothing that we give to others that does not come back to us in some shape or form."

ROMANS: Attorneys for Cosby immediately slammed the prosecution of their client as political. Their statement says, "The charge by the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office came as no surprise, filed 12 years after the incident and on the heels of the hotly contested election for this county's D.A. during which this case was made the focal point. Make no mistake, we intend to mount a vigorous defense against this unjustified charge and we expect Mr. Cosby will be exonerated by a court of law."

Some high profile lawyers are also raising series questions about the prosecution. Tom Mesereau who, of course, successfully defended Michael Jackson against child molestation charges, he tells CNN he thinks the D.A. is going after Cosby because he made a campaign promise and because the statute of limitations was about to run out. Mesereau also said accuser Andrea Constand will likely be haunted by the settlement in her civil suit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:05:01] TOM MESEREAU, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: My understanding is that the accuser in this case entered into a confidential civil settlement with Mr. Cosby, OK? Every confidential settlement I heard of involved payment of money with agreement where you acknowledge, the defendant, does not admit wrongdoing. If that happened in this case, and I have trouble believing it didn't and I were cross examining this person, the first thing I would ask her would be, what's more important to you, money or principle?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Cosby faces 10 years in prison if convicted.

KOSIK: Turning to weather now, there's no rain in the forecast for Missouri, but historic flooding under way there this morning. It's also only expected to get worse. Overnight, state officials closed parts of a major interstate south of St. Louis so they can push sandbagging efforts to the limit. They are hoping to keep the interstate open as long as possible.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon says the Mississippi River expected to crest later today will hit all time record levels.

CNN is accompanying the governor as he toured the flood-ravaged area by helicopter tour. You see him here. Houses, neighborhoods, schools all under water, many ruined. Rescue efforts are underway across the state.

I want you to watch this carefully here, as the man trying to save a dog, stranded on a rooftop. It gets dunked in the river, all for his trouble trying to get his dog out. And I want you to check out the truck here, towed up and out with some of the river still in the truck. You see the water coming out.

Let's get more now for the latest let's in bring CNN's Martin Savidge. He's in Pacific, Missouri.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. Good morning, Alison.

This is not the way many, many people here in Missouri thought they would be spending their New Year's Eve. Out of their homes in emergency shelters as their communities are absolutely under water like they are here in Pacific. Even in the darkness, you can see, well, blackness back there. It's only the television lights offering illumination whatsoever. This is about 7,000 people here, but you can duplicate this scene here

over and over in the state. The governor has been up flying over the devastation and it is from the air that you get a true sense of how bad things are and how much water there is.

It's not just one river. It is the Missouri. It's the Meramec and it's the Mississippi River. It's the Meramec, though, which is what we are beside now that seems to be setting all the real records.

This is the state, of course, that has seen flooding in the past, but not usually at this time of year and not in this amount. The death toll continues to rise. It's over a dozen now. And though the water may be starting to recede here, the bad news is, it's all got to go somewhere. And that means the waters will only start rising in some other communities.

Flood warnings are being extended all the way down to now to nearly the Gulf of Mexico -- Christine and Alison.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: Martin Savidge --

KOSIK: All right. Martin Savidge, thanks.

It's amazing to see those pictures. It really is.

ROMANS: It really is. There will not be much celebrating in these places while they are trying to stay dry and a lot of people who are not even home right now. They are in shelter. Some 12 million people are under new flood warnings now in 19 states. You see them here. It is extremely unusual for this time of year.

For the latest forecast, I want to bring in meteorologist Allison Chinchar.

Good morning.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning to you.

Yes, we still have about a dozen states right now that are still dealing with flood watches, flood warnings, or even flash flood warnings. You can see them here on the map.

Now, one thing we do want to note, we still have 356 rivers right now that are either at or above flood stage. The one thing to know is several of these are not expected to crest until overnight tonight until early Friday. So, some areas still going to be dealing with flooding throughout their homes and streets fro at least the next 24 hours.

Here you can see the difference. With that front that brought all of the rain, you can see still right through here, stretching through parts of Northeast and the Midwest, because you can tell the temperature difference, 63 right now in Charlotte, it's 70 in Charleston, but it's only 29 in Chicago, 33 right now into St. Louis. Here is a look at our forecast change. Again, yesterday, it was 48

degrees in New York, or about 47 today. Not a huge difference, but you go just a little farther to the west. It was 49 in Pittsburgh. Today, we're going to top out at 39, going from 43 to 34 into Columbus.

And again, tonight, New Year's Eve, who could forget. Forecast in New York City to be 39 degrees, partly cloudy skies and some relatively light winds. But just to put into the perspective because the North Pole has actually been incredibly warm, 33 degrees. It's actually colder in Chicago and Denver than it is in the North Pole, guys.

So, if you are thinking about it, if you are spending New Year's Eve, Alison and Christine, it could be a lot worse.

[04:10:03] ROMANS: All right. Allison Chinchar, thank you so much for that. We will talk to you again very, very soon.

It has been a mess, hasn't it?

KOSIK: It really has been.

All right. Turning to the world of politics: most of the candidates, they are laying low for the holiday. Even so, big news coming this morning from the Jeb Bush campaign. A major shift in strategy, dropping $3 million worth of TV buys in early voting states. And those resources will be redeployed with the campaign instead sending 60 or more staffers to those states.

Donald Trump meantime doing a redeployment of his own. He's kind of repurposing his signature slam against Jeb Bush. Remember when he called him low energy. Well, now, Trump is using it against Hillary Clinton without softening the blow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Low energy can be applied to Hillary. I just don't like to use the same thing twice on one of my enemies. I consider them enemies. We view this as war. Don't you view this as war? It's war. It's war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Ben Carson's war chest in the headlines as well with word he raised $23 million in the fourth quarter. That puts Carson at or near the top of the Republican fundraising rates. Not a bad haul for a campaign that was reported just weeks ago to be in a fund raising crisis.

ROMANS: All right. Eleven minutes past the hour. Time for an early start on your money. This is the last chance to trade stocks for the year, boys and girls. U.S. stock futures are higher. The big story, another huge drop in oil, 3 percent slump in oil. Oil is now down 30 percent for the year. Remarkable.

So progress report for stocks this year ending the year basically where they started. Stocks move sideways most of the year. Remember that decline in the fall and that big recovery? Right now, the S&P 500 is up just 0.2 percent for 2015. That's very different from the double digit gains that investors have become used to.

Look at this, the past six or seven years. Last year, stocks climbed 11 percent. In 2013, a stunning 30 percent. But now, the market bull's run slowed to a crawl.

What's in store for next year? Well, experts polled by CNN Money, they do not expect more double digit gains. Your portfolio could get a boost in this year, a bigger boost than this year.

The prediction about the 6 percent gain with the S&P 500 by the end of the year.

KOSIK: Hold on. You are saying we are ending where we began? To all that volatility, it was all for nothing?

ROMANS: I promise you, someone was making money all along the way. It may not be enough, so --

KOSIK: You are absolutely right about that.

2016 now just 20 hours away. Celebrations planned around the world, but terror concerns threaten to put a damper on festivities. That story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSIK: Nerves on edge this New Year's Eve. Heightened security for celebrations in the U.S. and around the world.

President Obama briefed before his Hawaii vacation of a threat to New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, between Christmas and New Year's. The NYPD responding at an unprecedented scale, deploying a record 6,000 officers in and around Times Square.

Miguel Marquez has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Alison, well, this is it. The crossroads of the world despite not being any credible threats will be turned into the most secure streets in the world. The ball will drop right down there. The famous New Year's Eve ball, more than 1 million revelers in Times Square here.

Police taking no chances though, saying even though there is no credible threat, they will plan for anything that comes at them. Six thousand police just for these few blocks alone. Tens of thousands of law enforcement to protect events happening throughout New York City.

What was once parties and good times are now considered soft targets. The threat of ISIS has changed for cities like New York. They will have to throw everything at it from the land, from sea, from underground in the subways, even from the air over the city to protect the entire city during the New Year's Eve celebrations.

They will have lots of bomb-sniffing dogs out and available. They will have radiation detectors, chemical detectors, and thousand of cameras as well to keep tabs on things.

The mayor of New York saying that because of Paris and San Bernardino, it has changed the way they look at security.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: We pride ourselves in the city. We are the best prepared city in the country. The best prepared city to prevent terrorism and to deal with any event should it occur. There will be a tremendous number of officers who you will see and many officers you won't see. There will be obvious security measures you will see and a number of measures you won't see. What we can assure you is that the preparations are extraordinary.

MARQUEZ: New York City saying that special response team is able to respond to dozens of incidents at a time, that's because of the San Bernardino and Paris attacks. They want to be able to hone in and respond to any sort of small bore attacks in several different locations at the same time.

This will be the biggest security operation ever with 800 additional officers. New York City says it is prepared for whatever may come -- Alison, Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Miguel, thank you.

A heightened terror alert prompting the cancellation of New Year's festivities in Brussels.

CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson live in Brussels. He's got the very latest on that.

But, first, Nic, we understand just moments ago, Belgium announcing terror charges with someone arrested yesterday. Some breaking information about that individual, one of them who was arrested yesterday. What can you tell us?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, what the prosecutor's office here is saying that the man arrested here yesterday is being charged with terrorist murder and with a membership or participation of terrorist organization. They are also saying that ten cell phones were recovered at that location.

And we remember just yesterday there was the information came out that somebody has sent text messages from outside the Bataclan Theater where the attacks took place in Paris almost two months ago now in the 24 hours preceding the attack, right up to the moment before the attack when the last text message said we are about to start. That cell phone had sent 25 text messages to cell phones here in Brussels.

Now, we know the police have arrested a man here saying that he is charged with terrorist murder and that they recovered ten cell phones. We don't know this terrorist murder is the murders that took place in Paris. There seems and appears at this stage to be a link, but we don't know for sure.

What it has led to here is the cancellation of the fireworks display. This is the Grand Place right here in the center of Brussels, a very beautiful square. There will be New Year's revelers here. The celebration is much more muted.

The cancellation of the fireworks here is a huge deal.

[04:20:00] This is the equivalent of Times Square in New York for the Belgians here. The prime minister went on national television last night said that the terror threat right now is unknown. It changes by the hour, that this is a new stage in the history for Europe. More needs to be done to tackle terror.

So, the prime minister takes the national television to explain the terror threat here right now -- Christine.

ROMANS: That charges in one of the arrests from yesterday, terrorist murder and others.

All right. Thank you so much. Keep us up to date on any information. Nic Robertson for us this morning in the Grand Place -- thank you.

KOSIK: A friend who allegedly supplied assault rifles to the San Bernardino massacre couple now facing terrorism charges. Twenty-four- year-old Enrique Marquez was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday. He is accused of conspiring with Syed Farook to plan terror attacks in 2011 and 2012, years before Farook and his wife killed 14 people earlier this month.

Prosecutors have said there is no evidence Marquez knew about the San Bernardino attack.

ROMANS: All right. Twenty-one minutes past the hour.

New overnight, the mother of the affluenza teen back in the U.S. But why is Ethan Couch, her son, still in Mexico? We've got the very latest, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Tonya Couch, the mother of the affluenza teen. She's back in the U.S. this morning. There she is. She landed just hours ago. You see her in handcuffs back in Los Angeles, while her son remains in Mexico. Sources say Ethan Couch has been transferred to an immigration holding facility in Mexico City. He is expected to remain there while lawyers file paper work seeking legal protection for Couch and trying to block Mexican authorities from deporting him.

[04:25:06] Couch violated his probation sentence from a drunk driving crash in which he killed four people. He and his mother were on the run for nearly three weeks before their arrest in Puerto Vallarta this week. Texas prosecutors planned to charge Tonya Couch with hindering a juvenile. KOSIK: Authorities say the woman accused of plowing her car into a

crowded pedestrian along the Las Vegas Strip, killing one person, had marijuana in her system. But according to prosecutors, the amount doesn't appear to be enough to alter Lakeisha Holloway's mental state at the time.

The 24-year-old mother is charged with murder, felony hit-and-run and child endangerment. One person was killed and 35 others injured in the crash. Holloway is on suicide watch in a Las Vegas jail.

ROMANS: New York Knicks player Cleanthony Early recovering in a hospital after he was shot in the leg and robbed outside a strip club early Wednesday. A group of masked suspects reportedly surrounded Early's taxi and demanded his gold, his jewelry before shooting him.

According to ESPN, the bullet exited his leg and caused no structural damage. He is expected to make a full recovery. Early tweeted his thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers, with a shout-out to you beautiful souls for caring.

KOSIK: Legendary comedian Bill Cosby facing sex assault charges for the first time after dozens of women came forward with accusations. The prosecutor filing just before the statute of limitations ran out. Can the charges stick? The very latest next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: After a parade of accusers, Bill Cosby is officially charged with sexual assault. The Hollywood icon trading his head shot for a mug shot. A report from outside the courtroom moments away.

KOSIK: Flooding of historic proportion making for disaster in Missouri. Rising river levels, they're rising to record highs, washing homes straight off their foundations. The worst isn't over. We're going to have the latest from Missouri.