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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Storm Slams Southeast; Brock Turner Released; Race for the White House. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired September 02, 2016 - 12:00   ET

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


[12:00:00] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield, standing by live outside of the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice. It was just three hours ago in the dark that Brock Turner walked out of the main jail here adjacent to this location a free man after serving just three months of a six month sentence for three felony counts of sexual assault here in this county. It all stems from that Stanford rape case in which a young women courageously read a 12 page letter talking of the damage that was done to her. It started up a firestorm about a judge who sentenced a young man because he thought that prison would be very difficult for him. So just a six month sentence, within the legal parameters, but it's caused a lot of anger. And behind me, in just a few short moments, a large crowd is expected to gather to protest that sentience.

I'm covering this story live throughout this hour. My colleague, Christine Romans, is standing by live as well in New York because, obviously, Christine, this is a very serious situation in Florida where a hurricane, now Tropical Storm Hermine, is causing massive problems for millions of Americans.

Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Ashleigh.

You're right, the breaking news here we're following. It didn't last long as a hurricane, but this tropical storm ripping up the eastern seaboard. It is still very dangerous and will make this weekend very interesting, wet and uncomfortable for millions of people.

These are images from downtown Savannah, Georgia. That's the next large population center in this storm's path. Emergency crews are preparing shelters in Savannah in case an evacuation is ordered for low lying parts of the city.

The storm is called Hermine. It crashed into Florida's panhandle overnight as a category one hurricane, bending over trees, knocking out power to more than 100,000 homes in the Tallahassee area. Right now communities on the coast of Georgia and the Carolinas, they are preparing for a major dump of rain and a good chance of some pretty serious flooding.

Want to go to Charleston, South Carolina. CNN's Brian Todd is there. Our meteorologist, Chad Myers, is watching the storm's track from the Severe Weather Center.

Brian, let me talk to you first. How are people preparing for this storm's arrival, and how are the conditions right now?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine, the conditions are really worsening here. The wind, we've noticed a very, very noticeable uptick in the wind gust and the speed. It could get up to about 50 miles an hour. The storm surge still pretty strong here along the sea wall along East Bay Street. We just got sprayed a little while ago. Some rain brands have been through here. We're expecting others to come through here soon. As you can see, the palm trees starting to blow in the wind over here on East Bay Street.

We have a resident here named Ann Blessing (ph). Ann lived through Hurricane Hugo in 1989. So she's seen some of the worst of this.

And, Anne, you talked to me earlier about how easily this area floods, even from minor weather events. What happened? This was just a few days ago.

ANNE BLESSING, CHARLESTON RESIDENT: Last week it flooded with a full moon and high tide. So it floods where the marsh was and where there were river and creeks before it was filled it. It floods regularly.

TODD: And, you know, there are a lot of people in Charleston who are not from here. You are from here. But you see people make some pretty common mistakes that, you know, they're maybe not taking the storm seriously enough. What are some of the mistakes you see people from out of town make?

BLESSING: Definitely driving through water, trying to make it through, and then having your car break down.

TODD: Right.

BLESSING: Or have problems later and panicking.

TODD: All right. Well, for the most, she has brought her three kids. This is Lydia, Jane and Walter. You guys don't look too scared, but we'll see if that changes later on as the storm really kicks in.

Lydia, thanks for talking to us. We appreciate it.

City officials telling people, get some sandbags out if you need them. There are areas near here that tend to flood a little more easily than this street. They've handed out thousands of sandbags to local merchants and residents and they're encouraging people, come and get some more sandbags because this is going to be a pretty heavy rain event here.

Also, you can see the wind here in the lower part of the - of the Charleston area, but this is also a city of high bridges. And one city official told us a short time ago, that's really one of the main concerns here. There are a lot of high bridges around the Charleston area. They're telling people, do not get up on those bridges later unless you absolutely have to, but even then, you know, you probably shouldn't go near the bridges because it is going to get a lot - a lot worse in the hours ahead.

Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Brian, thank you for that.

Let's go to Chad now.

Chad, where is this thing headed and one thing a lot of people are concerned about here is that there's a chance it could become a hurricane again. If it gains some momentum, some energy, some heat sitting out there churning in the Atlantic.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right. It went over Florida, over here, probably the least populated part of Florida possible. And now it's over Georgia, but it's going to go out into the Atlantic Ocean again.

What's out there? That's the Gulf Stream. A very warm river of water that comes out of Key West, goes around Key Biscayne and then on up the East Coast. The temperature of that water is high enough to create an intense surge of the intensity of the storm itself. It could get bigger. It will get bigger as it gets there.

[12:05:14] This is still about 110 miles from Brian. And if you weren't with us a couple of hours ago when Brian started his broadcast, he was standing on the beach right below him. There's no more beach. That matter is coming up. That beach is completely gone. And that water will continue to come up because the wind is blowing on shore.

Another thing that's going to happen, Christine, is that later in the weekend, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, the thing stops, and this same type of surge, just a wind surge, will put all of this water on shore in New Jersey, on up the Hudson, on up toward the Delaware, and this could be another storm surge event that we're going to see a second surge with this storm.

ROMANS: And we know the mayors here along the East Coast of New York, New Jersey, they're already starting to kind of prepare for those low lying areas to see what they need to do to keep safe if this thing does do that.

OK, thanks so much for that, Chad.

On the phone with me now, the mayor of Charleston, John Tecklenburg.

Mr. Mayor, what are you being told to expect here? And what are your priorities now. I know this storm is about 100 miles away from you, moving slowly, so it could be very wet for you.

MAYOR JOHN TECKLENBURG, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA (via telephone): Well, thank you, Christine.

We - we are expecting some heavy rainfall and winds. We have deep memories of Hurricane Hugo from 1989. So we take any storm seriously. We're pleased that its been downgraded to a tropical storm, but we're ready and we're asking our citizens just to bunker down, batten the hatches and let this pass overnight. Actually, tomorrow, Sunday and Monday, we have a great forecast for beautiful weather here in Charleston and we'll be open for business.

ROMANS: I know you had some historic flooding there just about a year ago. You're passing out some 3,000 sandbags, helping people get prepared here. If this is a slow moving storm and just drenches you, do you think you're going to have just major flooding again? Are you going to be ready for that?

TECKLENBURG: We'll be ready for it. We've had our vacuum trucks already clearing drainage lines and had them providing free sandbags to our citizens at a number of locations. We have our fire department ready with water rescue equipment in the event its need. So we're preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best.

ROMANS: Yes. And as you say, you're blessed it has been downgraded, but it could still cause an awful lot of damage. What about after the storm passes, Mr. Mayor? What do you expect to have to deal with then? Because sometimes damage and injury, even loss of life can happen after the storm has passed.

TECKLENBURG: Well, we'll stay on guard and stay ready and we'll have crews out tomorrow cleaning up if - I'm sure there will be a little bit of clean up. We'll be ready for that. But, again, if we just get through this overnight, we're expecting a great weekend.

ROMANS: All right, best of luck to you, sir. It sounds like you guys are - have prepared very well. You told your folks to just hunker down there. We really wish you the best. Thank you, sir.

All right, let's send things over to my colleague, Ashleigh Banfield. She is in California. She's covering the latest on that Stanford rape case and the release today, after only three months of that rape sentence.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: You know, Christine, it was just three hours ago that Brock Turner was released after three months. And it was just from this complex, and that's not the end of the action at this area because there are dozens and dozens of people who are expected to show up here within the next hour to protest that release, to protest what happened and to protest the judge who made it possible. We're going to talk to those folks coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:12:42] BANFIELD: Within the next hour, dozens of people are set to protest here at the Santa Clara Hall of Justice. It's just adjacent to the jail where just a couple of hours ago Brock Turner walked out a free man. And it was not something he probably wanted to see when he got to the doors, the front doors of the jail. No special treatment for Brock Turner as he left the jail complex. He walked out through a gauntlet of media watching him, glaring lights, saying absolutely nothing to a waiting car. Take a look at what the moment looked like and sounded like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brock, do you have anything to say? Do you have anything to say?

Brock, do you have anything to say?

(INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So after three sexual assault felonies and just three months of a six month sentence served, and that's the legal allowance. He served half his sentence, good behavior and overcrowding allows for that kind of an early release. Brock Turner walked away to that waiting car, presumably to head to Dayton, Ohio, where he's from, and where probation authorities have said he will be allowed to serve out the three years of his probation.

But that's not all. There is more to the sentence as well. He will be registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life. And that's a pretty strict regimen that he's got to follow as well. He's going to have to register within five days of his release in Ohio. He's going to have to enter a sex offender management program for at least one year, possibly up to three.

Even though that kind of stringent regulation on the rest of his life was imposed on him, there is a lot of criticism in that light jail sentence. Six months. It could have been 14 years. The prosecutors wanted six years but he got six months, and that's why there is this recall Persky campaign. The protesters with that campaign coming out later today to this area to voice their opinion. But not everybody is against the sentence. In fact, one of the public defenders who's spoken on behalf of judge Persky has said that, in fact, this was a very fair sentence and he gave his reasons why. Have a listen to the public defender, Gary Goodman, what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY GOODMAN, DEPUTY PUBLIC DEFENDER, SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: He is a young man with no record and for his young life he had done a lot for himself. And that's what - and so the legislators have put out factors where you decide whether somebody goes to prison or gets probation. And he clearly fell in the probation area. Whether it's six months, nine months, 12 months, two months really is kind of inconsequential. It's that initial going into prison that shocks people, that straightens people out. That's what you get from people, OK? And then remember, he's a 290 sex registrant for the rest of his life. He might as well have a "p" on his forehead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:15:24] BANFIELD: Well, along with the protesters who disagree with that, there are some folks in law enforcement who disagree as well. In fact, the woman who runs this operation, runs this jail, Sheriff Laurie Smith, had a couple of choice words that she delivered to the media that was waiting for the release of Brock Turner this morning. She had also written a letter to the governor asking for him to sign that bill, the bill that changes the legislation, disallowing someone like Brock Turner to qualify for a probationary sentence like this. And this is what she said about the inmate that she was ready to release within minutes. This is what she said to the media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF LAURIE SMITH, SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: We need to change the law. The law has to be that if you rape someone who is unconscious and intoxicated, you go to state prison.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Michele Dauber likely agrees with that sheriff. She's a Stanford law professor that's been at the helm of the recall Persky campaign, and obviously one of the main organizers of the protest that's going to be happening a little bit later today. And then just to Michele's left is Kamilah Willingham, who's a Harvard law rape survivor. She's going to be joined by other rape survivors out here as well.

Michele, just your thoughts on the day of the release and what protesters want, not only the community but the judge to hear.

MICHELE DAUBER, STANFORD LAW PROFESSOR: So we're out here protesting the incredibly short sentence that Mr. Turner received from Judge Persky. We believe that Judge Persky is biased in cases of violence against women, and we do not think that he is the best we can do for a judge in Santa Clara County. And we believe the voters will agree with us. And so we are going to be working towards his recall.

BANFIELD: And this is a - this particular story has received a lot of attention. I think the bulk of it is because of what the survivor of the Stanford rape story had to say in court. Twelve pages, single spaced. It was a super profound statement. I read it on the air on this live program.

I have a small segment, if you just indulge me, that I wanted to remind people of because I think this is why so many people became engaged with this case all around the world, not just across the country. The survivor faced the courtroom and faced Brock Turner in particular and the judge and said in part this, "one day I was at work scrolling through the news on my phone and I came across an article. In it I read and learned for the first time about how I was found unconscious, with my hair disheveled, long necklace wrapped around my neck, bra pulled out of my dress, dress pulled over my over shoulders and pulled up above my waist, that I was butt naked all the way down to my boots, legs spread apart and had been penetrated by a foreign object, by someone I didn't recognize. This was how I learned what had happened to me. That was when the pine needles in my hair make sense. They didn't fall from a tree. He had taken off my underwear. His fingers had been inside me. I don't even know this person. I still don't know this person. When read about me like this, I said, this can't be me. I read that according to him, I liked it. I liked it."

Those are the words of the Stanford survivor in the courtroom.

Kamilah, as a rape survivor yourself, a Harvard law graduate, those kinds of stories have to bring back memories of your own tragic crime and what you've had to cope with afterwards. You've traveled to be here for this. I want to get your feelings on this day.

KAMILAH WILLINGHAM, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL RAPE SURVIVOR: Right. I am honored to be here and to show the community and Judge Persky that what happened there is unacceptable. To read that victim's words and see that Brock Turner only got three months in jail for violating her so egregiously, there were eye witnesses. I mean most victims don't have the physical evidence, the eyewitnesses. And the message that Judge Persky sent to all survivors, including this victim, is, your pain isn't valid. It doesn't matter. That he brought Brock Turner's excuse that, you know, this was an innocent mistake, party culture, whatever. It's just simply unacceptable. Nobody parties like that. That's not what alcohol makes people do. That's rape. And it should be punished as rape.

BANFIELD: So speaking of punishment, Professor Dauber, the - this case in particular, and I think your efforts afterwards have really spawned this legislation that's siring on Governor Jerry Brown's desk right now. Presumably he's going to sign this bill. And this takes away a lot of the judicial discretion that judges will have in probationary sentencing. Effectively in layman's speak, that means a guy like Brock Turner wouldn't qualify for a probationary sentence, wouldn't get the six months. He would actually end up probably in a penitentiary setting plus two years. But critics of that have said, taking away judicial discretion isn't necessarily the answer. That - that every case is different. How do you feel?

[12:20:07] DAUBER: Well, I agree in the sense that I don't think that this particularly bill actually is going to solve the problem of a judge who abuses his discretion. So Judge Persky abused his discretion. He looked for a loophole and he bent over backwards in order to save Turner from the consequences of what he did. A judge who is biased, like Judge Persky, and who is determined to find a way to assist that offender in not facing the consequences will always be able to find a way to do it. Don't forget that 90 percent of cases end in a plea bargain or more. And through that bargaining process, judges have a lot of opportunity to exercise their discretion as well. So what I think you would see as a result of this case perhaps is someone like Mr. Turner pleading guilty to a lesser offense that does not have that mandatory minimum.

BANFIELD: So, Kamilah, this is a hard question to ask somebody who's a survivor of rape, but there are many viewers who also would say, you know, Brock Turner was a young man who made a catastrophic mistake in his life. He may have only served three months of a six month sentence, but for the rest of his life, he will be affected by this. He will register as a sex offender regularly. I mean this is within months and years each time he'll have to repeatedly register. He will never be allowed to walk freely in certain areas. He may never be able to go to his kids' football games. It will actually following him for the rest of his life. Does that have a - does it have an effect on you? Do you ever think about the perspective from his shoes?

WILLINGHAM: I mean I do and it only makes me more angry. Like, poor, Brock, he has to carry the stigma of being known as a rapist. People like his victim and people like me have to live with that for the rest of our lives, too. We live with the nightmares. We live with the flash backs. And like there are prison sentences for rapists for a reason. People treat what Brock Turner did as if it's some lesser category of rape. That is what like 80 percent of rape looks like. Well, actually, it's usually people who are known to the victim. But like this wasn't a youthful mistake. This is an - it's not on inevidentability of co-ed party culture. This is rape. This is like - yes, I don't - I don't buy that it was a youthful mistake. It's a - I think a violent act of domination of another person.

BANFIELD: Real quickly, just wrapping it up, how many people are you expecting today, Michele?

DAUBER: You know, I really don't know. But we're hoping for a good sized crowd. We think that there's a lot of attention and anger in the community about this. And we feel that's not just because of Mr. Turner, but it's also because of the series of pattern of other cases that the campaign has been bringing forward showing that this was not a one-time thing. Judge Persky has been biased in case after case after case, particularly in cases of colligate athletes. So we really are here to say, enough is enough, and we want to bring this to the voters of Santa Clara County.

BANFIELD: OK, well, we're expecting the rally to get underway in about 35 minutes or so. Thank you to both of you. I really appreciate you taking the time. Thank you very much for talking about a difficult topic and a certainly difficult episode in your life, Kamilah, I really appreciate it. Michele Dauber, I'll continue to check in with you throughout the day to see, you know, who has shown up and what the messages are.

In the meantime, you don't often think when you're talking about a rape case and an inmate being released and the topic of sexual assault that it's funny. It is not funny. And yet some of the celebrities who are showing up here today, one of them is actually from a website called "Funny or Die." And there's a good reason for that. So coming up in the program, Christine Romans, I'm going to talk with one of the famous writers from "Funny or Die," what she has to bring in the rally today, and why so many different kinds of people are showing up today to voice what they think about today's release of Brock Turner and the judge that allowed, you know, a six months sentence, three months served. Back to you.

ROMANS: All right, fascinating. We'll watch for that. Thanks, Ashleigh, so much.

And we just found out who's moderating all the presidential debates. Donald Trump heading to church. New job numbers for both campaigns to spin. There's a whole lot more in the wild world of politics. We're hot on the campaign trail coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [12:28:40] ROMANS: All right, welcome back. I'm Christine Romans.

How's this for an eye opener, 67 days remains in the 2016 race for president, but early voting starts for some of us a mere three weeks from today. More than three dozen states allow voters to cast ballots well before Election Day. Minnesota and South Dakota starts the soonest, September 23rd. And that just makes everything I want to talk about today with my experts all that more urgent. Jackie Kucinich is CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast." Errol Louis is a CNN political commentator and political anchor for Time Warner Cable News.

But since I'm news, the business person guys, I want to start with a jobs report for August, just released this morning, 151,000 jobs added. A little less than expected. And 4.9 percent unemployment. Still near, you know, full employment, the experts say. And 2.4 percent wage growth. And a couple of strong months before that. You got almost a million and a half jobs created so far this year.

Naturally, the Trump campaign doesn't like it, doesn't like those numbers. A statement reads in part from team Trump, "the August jobs report shows the stagnant Clinton-Obama economy fails to deliver the jobs Americans desperately need. The Clinton-Obama recovery is seven years of failure on virtually every significant metric - growth, income, trade and jobs."

[12:29:57] The Clinton camp just issued this. "We've come a long way since President Obama inherited the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression."