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At This Hour

News Questions in Case of Reserve Deputy Shooting Unarmed Man; Man Flies Gyrocopter to U.S. Capitol as Protest; ISIS Takes Control of Key Iraqi City; Alleged Gang Rape in Panama City Beach. Aired 11:30a- 12p ET

Aired April 16, 2015 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:31:13] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Were the records falsified? New questions in the case of reserve deputy, Robert Bates, now charged with second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of an unarmed man.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A report in "Tulsa World" newspaper claims sheriff supervisors were ordered to falsify training records for Robert Bates. The report says that at least three of the reserve deputies' supervisors were transferred after refusing to sign off on his state-required training. This training has come under intense scrutiny after Bates claimed he mistook his gun for a taser when he fatally shot Eric Harris.

Joining us to discuss this, one of the reporters from the "Tulsa World," who broke the story, Ziva Branstetter.

Thanks for being with us.

Let's be clear been, I said before, fully understand what you're reporting here, you're saying before this incident happened, potentially years before, they were people ordered to falsify the report. When they didn't, they were punished.

ZIVA BRANSTETTER, REPORTER, TULSA WORLD: That is correct. We have been told this by at least five sources and we have documents to corroborate this information. What we understand is that there are so-called field training officer records sort of in the field training that is supposed to be included and that there were not enough of those hours, that most of them actually didn't occur and Deputy Bates need to have those hours and supervisors were ordered to just sign it. They refused. I don't know if you can say they were punished but they were transferred out to less desirable positions at least in the case of one of them. Then the other issue was falsification of the firearms training records. Supposedly that supervisor refused to sign off on those records and was also transferred because the score was not high enough to meet the limit.

BERMAN: This happened before. To be clear about the now, if sources are accurate, when officials are telling us over the last several days that Bates had all the training he was supposed to, they were flat-out wrong.

BRANSTETTER: I have no idea who ordered this and who approved it, who knew, who didn't. The sheriff said he didn't know. I took him at his word. I think probably a thorough investigation of this within the sheriff's department and outside of it would be a good idea. The sheriff's department can clear this up very quickly producing the names of the people who signed off on training, produced the records. What I've been told us they have been lost or they are not public record. It's just very unclear. We've been asking for these records for about a week and we still don't have -- we have summaries and have the actual records themselves.

BOLDUAN: The sheriff's department going further than saying they can't find paperwork, they have rejected any claims that there was any falsification of any documents. They are calling into question your reporting. From the sheriff's department put out a statement saying this, keep in mind the "Tulsa World" reporter cannot validate her sources and claims anonymity which leaves us skeptical that her claims are unsubstantiated and deceptive. That's coming from the sheriff's department. We reached out to the sheriff's department, asked them to come on. They declined to come on. I want to give you the opportunity to respond to that.

BRANSTETTER: Sure, of course. The sheriff's department knowing we had this story did not want to comment yesterday. They have not produced the documents that could have made -- definitely made us question the story. We have documents we're not allowed to discuss at this time that do corroborate this story completely. He was an advanced reserve officer in 2007. That would require 400 hours of training. He didn't start his training until 2008 or so. So that is off. The sheriff also says that his gun certification records have been lost. He thinks it might be with the Secret Service agent who used to work at the department. There's just a lot of confusion surrounding this. To me it raise as lot of questions.

[11:35:29] BOLDUAN: It does raise questions. One of the big questions throughout, I want your perspective only, you're closer than anybody. Does this come down to "Peyton Place" scenario. You lay out in your reporting, Bates was a campaign manager for the sheriff in his most recent re-election campaign, also lay out he contributed vehicle, other things to the department over the last few years. From your perspective, in your reporting and talking to your sources, do you think this was a pay to play being a cop scenario?

BRANSTETTER: That is a wildly held perception to everyone talking about this story. However, the flip side is donated equipment, donated cars. It is a big benefit to the department. They use it in undercover operations. That's a benefit. Was he trained at 73 years old with only one year of law enforcement experience in his 60s, was he trained to go and do an undercover operation and be in this role? He said he's done 100 or so operations. I think a lot of people question whether he had the proper training to be in the position that he was in.

BERMAN: Let's see the records here. This is going to be important.

Ziva Branstetter, thank you for coming on and talking about your reporting. It's an important story.

BRANSTETTER: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: It's an important story to reinforce to viewers, the reason this matters, a man died. He thought, said he accidentally meant to grab for a taser, grabbed for a weapon instead. This all played out and caught on a body camera. That's how this all came to light. The reason this matter, should he have had a weapon in his hands, been there in the first place. That's what the conversation is about.

BERMAN: 37 minutes after the hour. Ahead for us, a man who had a beef with Congress. How did he send that message? He flew the gyrocopter within feet of the U.S. capitol. Very dangerous. Major security implications.

BOLDUAN: Also, desperation in Iraq. Tens of thousands of family on the run as ISIS closes in on their town. The latest on the fight to stop terrorist onslaught.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:40:55] BERMAN: Serious security questions this morning after a Florida mailman managed to shut down the U.S. capital with a pretty wild protest ride. 61-year-old Doug Hughes goes to court this afternoon to face charges after landing his gyrocopter -- in case you're wondering what's a gyrocopter, that, there -- he landed it on the West Lawn of the capital. He did this asking for reform in campaign finance laws. He was immediately arrested.

BOLDUAN: That brings about a lot of questions, including how was he able to land this thing in restricted airspace without anyone knowing or did Secret Service know about the ride. As "Tampa Bay Times" is reporting, they said they alerted the Secret Service.

A lot to get into. Let's bring in former Secret Service agent, Jonathan Wackrow.

Great to see you, Jonathan.

JONATHAN WACKROW, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Everything out there so far, they are looking all into it, air defense system doesn't detect aircraft as he entered airspace. No one stopped him from landing. He landed, why was he allowed to land?

WACKROW: We have to look back at -- Secretary Johnson said this morning he flew in below the radar. I think there are two different radar systems we need to look at.

BOLDUAN: Literally, below the radar.

WACKROW: Below the radar. The way the radar works, flew in below the signal. As you get closer to Washington, D.C., more restrictive airspace called P6. Once he entered into that, a tightly controlled airspace, capital building, naval observatory corridor. When he entered that area, I find it hard to believe he was not picked up by some of the more sophisticated radar systems on site. BERMAN: You think it's possible there's something we're not being

told here, which brings up another question, a lot of questions how this happened, why wasn't he shot down. As you look at it, this guy -- should we be concerned or did it work here.

WACKROW: You should be concerned. We know after the fact he had a political agenda. From a law enforcement standpoint what we should really be concerned of, basically he provided a rehearsal of concept for people who really want to do harm. So any terrorist organization thinking can I fly a gyrocopter, which is a kit made small helicopter, into this airspace. We just proved you could do it. What are the ramifications of doing that? Obviously, nothing. Right now what law enforcement has to do, they have to look at the protocols, their rules of engagement when something enters restricted airspace. It should have consequences to it. When you come into this airspace, there's consequences. That's the problem with law enforcement now. What is the threshold for mitigating that threat?

BOLDUAN: It's very serious. At least as far as I'm concerned seems to be very difficult to determine while that helicopter, anything is in the restricted airspace to determine the level of the threat, should we let them land or not.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: -- pull the trigger?

WACKROW: There's a bigger question right there. What are the thresholds, who is responsible for defending that airspace? I cannot speak for capitol police where incident occurred, as you get close to the White House, it really becomes a Secret Service responsibility to protect that house. So I think those are the bigger questions. What are the thresholds, rules of engagement, how do we protect airspace.

BOLDUAN: Amazing when you think the guy flew under the radar and landed on the capitol. When they are under lockdown, it's a terrifying experience when it does happen.

It's great to see you, Jonathan.

WACKROW: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

[11:44:27] BOLDUAN: Fleeing in droves, thousands grabbing their children whenever they can and running when ISIS takes control of a key Iraqi city. What's being done to stop ISIS? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: AT THIS HOUR, a key city near Baghdad may be slipping out of the hands of Iraqi security forces. Today the U.S.-led coalition is bombing the area from the sky to cut off ISIS supply routes and prevent them from advancing further into the key city of Ramadi.

BERMAN: Sizable parts of that city already under control or at least influence of ISIS.

Want to bring in Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona.

Colonel, thanks for being with us.

There's been all kinds of chest thumping over the past week Iraqi military over the fact it was able to retake the city of Tikrit from is. Yeah, they have Tikrit but now they might be on the verge of losing Ramadi. What kind of problem is this?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's a big problem, John. If you look at how they took Tikrit it was done primarily at the very end through massive American air power. If you look what happened before that, they were not doing that very effective. They were using rocket launchers and just pulverizing places. Not doing this effectively. Now we're seeing Ramadi, ISIS surrounding this city. Surprisingly seem to be collapsing in front of them again. Just abysmal performance on their part.

BOLDUAN: Iraqi forces if they are collapsing in front of them, what do they notice? At this point doesn't seem just having U.S.-led air power is enough to hold them off.

FRANCONA: Air power can stop them. Fix them in place, stop the advance. And the Iraqis keep proving themselves incapable of doing this. So, I think we're on the verge of watching either more parts of the city fall or the city itself collapse. It's almost surrounded. The ISIS has got them covered to the north, the east and the south. So it's not looking good for the defenders there, who are running short of supplies.

BERMAN: Is this a one off, though, Colonel? Look a lot of things happened in Anbar Province. Does this get in the way of the strategic goals of the U.S. and the Iraq going forward, mainly, which is retaking the city of Mosul where is ISIS essentially headquartered in Iraq.

FRANCONA: That's a key point. Every time the Iraqis say we're getting ready for the kickoff or the retaking of Mosul. John, we had this conversation a month ago and the Iraqis say we're on the verge of launching this campaign and it will take a few weeks to liberate Mosul and you and I both thought that was not going to happen. ISIS was able to stalemate them for weeks. So, I think Mosul is way down the road and every time the Iraqis have some sort of victory, ISIS pops up again somewhere else. It's, ISIS proving them selves to be very resilient and resourceful enemy.

[11:51:27] Colonel Rick Francona, always great to have you with us. Thanks so much, sir.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, Colonel.

BERMAN: Ahead for us AT THIS HOUR, spring break as we know it is over. Police in Panama City Beach lay down the law after video surfaces of an alleged gang rape. A video, they say, is one of perhaps countless others. So, what changes are on the way?

BOLDUAN: But first, a look into the future. If you've ever had that feeling that someone is reading your mind, that someone is now a computer.

Here's CNN's Samuel Burke.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At Attrativa (ph), we develop emotionally intelligent computers. So, we use technology that can track your facial expressions and we map that into a number of emotional states. Essentially what the computer is doing tracking your main feature points like your mouth, eyebrows.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Smile. Brow raise. Brow furrow. I try not to do that so I don't have to get Botox. Frown.

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, your technology, how can it know what I'm feeling? What is it looking for?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have amassed the world's largest emotion- related depository, about seven billion emotional data points. We collected videos from over 75 countries of people responding to digital content and we use that to train the computer to detect all sorts of different expressions from enjoyment to confusion, concentration.

BURKE: One of the things that is scary about this type of technology is you think, wow, will computer maybe be reading my emotions without me knowing? Do you think that's possible for this technology one day?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Technologically, it's possible, but we have crafted all our user experiences to date so that we get this in beforehand.

BURKE: What are some ways you're already implementing these technology?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of the main focuses is in the advertising and media space. Work with movie studios to task their trailers and also we work with 1,400 brands in advertisers. We use their data because they want to understand the emotional connection with a brand and we optimize their advertising.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:57:1900] BERMAN: New shocking revelations following an alleged gang rape in Panama City Beach. The video that apparently shows the rape and shows crowds of spring break revelers steps away from the victim is not the first of its kind.

BOLDUAN: It's just disgusting. Authorities have arrested three people in connection now with the alleged gang rape, but what more is being done to protect young women to stop this from happening. They say it's not unusual.

Our Alexandra Field is in Panama City Beach trying to get some of those answers.

What are you hearing, Alexandra?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Spring breakers have been welcomed in this community so long. Years, decades even. But that video illustrating that attack has really brought this to light. A situation that has grown out of control, according to the people that we talked to here, devolving into something that is not desirable, but down right dangerous. We heard from the sheriff's office and they arrested three times the amount of people this year than last year. More than 1,000 people. The spring break population has now swelled to over 100,000 people and they're seeing all kinds of criminal activity in a place where you used to see college kids just sort of taking a few weeks off, drinking together. Of course, always been problems and those problems have really mounted.

The bigger problem here is identifying when problems do happen. John and Kate, as you know, that was uncovered by police when they were doing a separate investigation in a different state. The sheriffs here in Bay County say they have been looking at social media and looking at pictures and videos that have been posted online and trying to determine whether or not more crimes have been committed. They're looking at other behavior, other acts and questioning whether or not there have been other sexual assaults. In some cases, it isn't entirely clear to them. But they have reached out to another woman in one case and trying to find the man who may have been involved in that case.

BERMAN: That's the past. You know, what about the future? They're not going to close the beaches and cancel spring break, are they?

FIELD: This is such a difficult issue because spring break is such a major boom to the economy in this area. Yes, that's important. Given what happened this year, sort of this collective sentiment that something has to change. What we're hearing about is talk of passing more ordinances and then enforce those ordinances. That's tough when officers are outnumbered by the crowds. What some people here are saying they want news of these ordinances to spread. They want to limit the crowd that comes here to make it more manageable to police to make this a safe place and keep some form of spring break the way it used to look here.

BERMAN: Safety, that is what is important here.

Alexandra Field, thanks.

BOLDUAN: Stories are just appalling that we're hearing right now.

Great to see you all. Have a great day.

[11:59:57] BERMAN: "LEGAL VIEW" today with Randi Kaye in the chair starts right now.