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At This Hour

Former Prison Worker Joyce Mitchell Pleads Guilty; Trump Adviser Apologizes for Rape Remarks; Dannemora DA Gives Update on Mitchell Plea Deal. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired July 28, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And trust me, New Yorkers are rejoicing. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. "AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone. I'm John Berman.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kate Bolduan. We are following breaking news at this hour. Former prison worker Joyce Mitchell, she has just pleaded guilty to charges associated with helping the two inmates escape the maximum security prison in Upstate, New York.

You saw her arraignment happen live here on CNN and an emotional Mitchell, she waived her right to a grand jury hearing as part of this deal. Her handcuffs were removed so she could sign the waiver and you can see her wiping away what appears to be, of course, tears from her eyes as she became emotional.

BERMAN: Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wiley read the deal in court. It calls for 2 1/3 years to seven years in prison on contraband charges. Mitchell will be sentenced in September.

We're waiting for our reporter Alexandra Field who is in the courtroom. She is getting to a live location right now to tell us exactly what she saw. The audio was thought to see but obviously you see Joyce Mitchell was emotional.

Let's bring in our CNN Legal Analyst, Paul Callan he is here with us as well as Gary Heyward who worked as both a prison guard and then ultimately also served time in prison so has some experience on both sides.

Paul, the deal, 2 1/2 years to seven years in prison, pleading guilty. What does the county get out of it? What does she get out of it?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, she got a great deal. I think her attorney negotiated a very, very good deal. Because -- let's face it, this is a very serious offense. I mean, these guys are murderers set loose on the community. They could have killed somebody.

And under this deal she could be out in as little as approximately 2 1/2 years. It's more likely she'll serve more time but she's parole eligible after that short period of time. So -- so that's a very, very good deal for her. Now, she could do the entire seven years depending upon what the parole board thinks.

BOLDUAN: Good deal for her but then what does the prosecutor or the district attorney, he's not going to obviously just let her loose. What do they get out of it?

CALLAN: Well, the prosecutor had to agree to this deal because -- and essentially what happens is there's an arrangement made with the judge, an agreement, and then a report is done called investigation and sentence report and they report back to the judge. The judge could still back out of the deal on the sentence if he wanted to in the end if there were multiple counts in the indictment as I believe there were.

But -- so the prosecutor obviously feels this is the best he could do even if he tried the case, and one overriding thing I think you have to consider, it's a big company town up there. These small towns in Upstate, New York, you know what the entire industry is? The prison. And everybody knows everybody else. This is a prison worker. So it doesn't surprise me that maybe they were a little more sympathetic to her than they would be.

BOLDUAN: And she worked in there.

BERMAN: And plus they caught these guys. I mean, these guys are now -- I mean one is dead and one is back behind bars.

Gary, presumably somewhere along the line while they were chasing for these guys now that she's been in custody and enter time in prison, she could work with the people of this county to fix the prison there. Obviously a lot of problems in that prison that allowed for this escape to happen. How much does she know? How helpful do you think she can be in reforming the system that allowed this to take place?

GARY HEYWARD, FORMER CORRECTIONS OFFICER AND INMATE: Well, she could be very helpful because the relationship that she developed with these inmates was over a period of time. Everybody probably knew like a close-knit family setting in there, so the information she may provide will help them put things in place where things like this wouldn't happen again. How comfortability with the inmates? When did she meet and when did she start really intact with them. Now they have things to look for and things to train other officers or people coming in to work in the prison system what not to do and what to look for to see if this thing could happen again.

BOLDUAN: And Gary, I mean, she is going to serve, we assume she's going to serve some amount of time. I mean, she's now -- shares -- you share something with her in terms of going from a prison employee to a prisoner. Tell me about that transition and now what Joyce Mitchell has to be looking for.

HEYWARD: Oh, one thing she's probably going to go through, I could tell you first hand is the humiliation of probably seeing people that she knows that she worked with and now she's on the other side of those bars.

During her time there, she has to sit there and think about her rehabilitation within herself, the embarrassment to herself and her family and stuff like that. So she's got a big hurdle ahead of her she's going to have to go through.

BERMAN: Paul, does she have to drop the dime to anyone else to make it worthwhile for the prosecutor? Does she have to talk?

CALLAN: Well, certainly the prosecutor should have been looking for that. You know, you got to get something back when you're offering such a sweet deal. Now, we don't know really the backstory on this yet and I'm sure it's going to come out in the days ahead as we get closer to sentencing, but usually, yes, the prosecutor would want her to reveal everything she knew about the case and I presume she probably has.

BOLDUAN: And Paul, you were also saying it would be attorney malpractice if her attorney hadn't made sure that she wasn't going to have the possibility of being facing other charges as part of this plea deal. What is your take on that?

CALLAN: Yes. Normally when you negotiate a plea, you have an agreement that you're going to be covering any potential outstanding charges.

BOLDUAN: So no matter what comes up later.

CALLAN: Well, there's not a no matter.

BOLDUAN: OK. OK.

[11:05:00] CALLAN: If you found out later on she murdered somebody, you know, that would -- but usually in the confines of what happened in this case, yes, she's not going to be charged with something else. I think this will end for her.

BERMAN: What about Sweat? I mean, this guy is back, you know, he is in jail, he's singing, like he is telling everything. Will we are fully learn everything he said? Will that be part of this case now that a deal has been reached?

CALLAN: Well, whether the public will find out what he has said, I really don't know. There's an entire secret world in this prison. You know, I'm representing somebody who just spent three years at Clinton on murder charges. And I'm astounded that the stories I hear about this secret world over the prisons and much of the information won't get out. I'm sure Gary can talk more about it.

HEYWARD: As I wrote my book, Corruption also, there was a situation where an inmate got murdered, he got murdered and the officers tried to cover it up, but in the end the officers ended up paying a price for being terminated. But what he is -- to piggyback of what he said, a lot of what goes on inside the prisons that the media don't get a world of, the world doesn't even know about and when it does get out, you get what they want you to know about the situation. BOLDUAN: Well, and, Gary, this all happens at the same time the focus

has been how do they make sure a prison break like this never happens again or Joyce Mitchell being able to bringing in these hacksaw blades and such could never happen again? I think I remember you saying you think there are going to be some reforms for a while and then it's just going to go back to business as usual. I mean, they've got 12 people who are on administrative leave right now but what's next?

HEYWARD: Well, honestly, they're going to put things in place for now. And what I mean by for now is it's not like every day prison -- a break like this happens but it's going to be up to the supervisors and the prison superiors to make sure that these things they put in place are enforced on a regular basis. So that determines how long they are going to continue to do these preventative measures.

BERMAN: All right. Gary Heyward, Paul Callan, a lot of good insight here. Again, a plea deal reached with Joyce Mitchell. She was guard who assisted in the escape of Richard Matt and David Sweat from a prison in Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. We are waiting a news conference from the Clinton County DNA -- D.A. who made this deal. Presumably with...

BOLDUAN: You saw him in the courtroom and he's going to be coming out and he's going to briefing reporters. A lot of questions for him. What are the next steps for Joyce Mitchell and what did they all get out of this deal? We're going to be covering that as you see the live podium. They were sitting up as we speak.

And also this ahead for us, an explosive claim by Donald Trump's top advisor. He's one of Donald Trump top advisors, he said you cannot rape your spouse. Well, moments ago he explained himself. We're going to have breaking news on that story ahead.

BERMAN: Plus a kill kit found in the trunk of a car. The driver was on a date with an escort but the encounter took a deadly turn and now suspicions that he could have been a serial killer.

And dramatic video of a detective threatening to blow a hole in the head of a driver. This driver had a dashcam.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't know you were.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't know you were a cop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll put a hole right through your head.

[11:10:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Breaking news involving the race for the White House. One of Donald Trump's advisers just moments ago is now apologizing and trying to explain himself for an explosive comment that he made about rape. Here is how it all started.

Michael Cohen is a special counsel to the billionaire Donald Trump and an executive vice president to the Trump Organization and he said this to the Daily Beast. By the very definition, you can't rape your spouse. You can't rape your spouse and there's very clear case law. One of the problems with that is that it's not true.

BERMAN: Yes, it is not true. Marital rape is a crime in all 50 states. Trump's campaign manager says Mr. Trump didn't know of Cohen's comments but disagrees with them. Cohen's rape statement was in response to an accusation that Ivana Trump made more than 20 years ago during her contentious and very public divorce from Donald Trump, an accusation that she has herself dismissed now. A lot of twisted stuff going on here.

Athena Jones has more details. Athena?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning guys. There are a lot of twists and turns in this and it's getting a lot of attention because of course, Trump himself is getting a lot of attention. He's leading the race for the republican nomination for 2016 as of right now and so the things he says and the things people who work for him say are going to get a lot of scrutiny.

You mentioned how this all began, but I should tell you that this Daily Beast reporter decided to look into -- to decide in doing this story inspired by Donald Trump's own remarks at his campaign launch back in June when he called some Mexican immigrants rapists, and so this reporter decided to look into Donald Trump's past, find out what's been said about him on this topic, and so here is what Michael Cohen though said to that reporter, which he then wrote about in the Daily Beast. These are the threats that came about.

I will make sure that you and I meet one day while we're in the courthouse and I will take you for every penny you still don't have. And I will come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly know. So I'm warning you tread very bleeply lightly because what I'm going to do to you is going to be bleeping disgusting do you understand me? So a very angry Michael Cohen trying to quash the story by the Daily Beast reporter, Tim Mak.

Now, as you mentioned Cohen has put out a statement. I'll read it for you. He says I want to clarify a statement I made to the Daily Beast. As an attorney, husband, and father there are many injustices that offend me but nothing more than charges of rape or racism. They hit me at the core. Rarely am I surprised by the press, but the gall of this particular reporter to make such a reprehensible and false allegation against Mr. Trump truly stunned me. In my moment of shock and anger, I made an inarticulate comment which I do not believe and which I apologize for entirely.

So there is the statement from Michael Cohen. Kind of a non-apology apology again, of course, attacking the reporter. Now, I want to also read a statement put out by Ivana Trump as all of this came about. She said I have recently read some comments attributed to me from nearly 30 years ago at a time of very high tension during my divorce from Donald. The story is totally without merit. Donald and I are the best of friends and together have raised three children that we love and are very proud of. I have nothing but fondness for Donald and wish him the best of luck on his campaign. Incidentally, I think he would make an incredible president. [11:15:00] So a lot of statements going back and forth here, but I can

tell you that this is not the story that's going to end quickly. Democrats are already trying to make hay out of this. Democratic national committee spokesman calling on republicans to stand up and call this despicable and also trying to link these comments to other controversial comments that have been made by candidates, republican candidates, in the past. So this story is definitely not over yet. Back to you guys.

BERMAN: No, I would say not. A lot going on here. Athena Jones, thanks so much.

Let's talk more now with Mike Shields, he's the former chief of staff for the Republican National Committee and now, president of the Congressional Leadership Fund. Also, with us our political commentator and republican consultant Margaret Hoover.

Michael, let me start with you, there are like sort of like a lot going on here with too many things. Whatever happened 30 years ago in the marriage of Donald and Ivana Trump and then this statement from his aide Michael Cohen who says there's no such thing as marital rape, you can't rape your spouse he says, which isn't true by the way, which gets to the second issue which is who does Donald Trump surround himself with right now? This seems to indicate that he doesn't really have a traditional support staff of campaign workers you can count on to say things that aren't wildly controversial.

MICHAEL SHIELDS, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF REPUCLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Well, first of all, let's just establish that statement is absurd, it's not true. It's despicable. It has no place in politics but this isn't really about politics. This is about a lawyer for one of the candidates. The candidate didn't say it himself.

He has distanced himself from the comments so I don't know that this is going to play that big after role in the campaign. We have a debate coming up on August 6th. I think that's when the candidates will all be on stage. We will get into more of a policy discussion and some of this sort of preliminary crazy things that are going on in the week leading up to the candidates jostling around with each other, so.

BOLDUAN: Margaret, what do you think? Do you think, as Mike points out, this is by an adviser, this is by an aide, this is not coming from Donald Trump himself and they're distancing themselves from Michael Cohen, but does this stick? Does this leave a mark on Donald Trump?

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think not much seems to have left a mark on Donald Trump.

BOLDUAN: Excellent point.

HOOVER: What to me is concerning is not just the falseness of the statement but also the caliber and the anger and the vitriol with which he came after the journalist. The vindictiveness of Michael Cohen -- probably is a representative of what we -- quite frankly, it's not similar from the vindictiveness we've seen from the principal himself, right? Tone comes from the top in any organization. Whenever Trump is insulted, he comes after you directly. That was Michael Cohen's pit bull response as well. So after the journalist, he said I will take you for every penny you do not yet have and make your life terrible for the rest of your life.

I mean, this this is the flip side of talking frankly to the American people, right? You can talk frankly and tell it like it is, but the flip side is that can have a dark underbelly. And that may not be what the American people want in their politics, especially when you have a First Amendment that protects journalists and protects free speech.

BERMAN: Yes. And what I'm going to do to you is going to be blanking disgusting, that's an exact quote from Michael Cohen to the Daily Beast there. You know, Donald Trump wants to be the free speaker, wants to be the tell it like it is candidate right now. Doesn't he need to get out there and say something?

SHIELDS: Well, I think he has. He's already put out a statement.

BERMAN: Cohen put out a statement.

SHIELDS: Trump did as well.

BOLDUAN: They just distanced themselves...

BERMAN: That comes from the campaign. This did not come from Mr. Trump himself.

BOLDUAN: What do you think?

SHIELDS: Well, I mean, look, Donald Trump is a plain spoken guy and that's why he's doing pretty well. I think that he's voicing an anger that's out in the American people. The public does not want Washington. They want people that are not from Washington. I think in the end that's a real big problem for Hillary Clinton. No matter who the republicans nominate, you're not going to ever have anyone who is going to be more Washington, D.C., than Hillary Clinton and her campaign. I think these are all things that are roiling leading up to the first debate and all the candidates are jockeying and trying to put themselves in a good position leading up to the debate.

HOOVER: A lot of other republicans are straight talkers though. I mean, remember this sort of puts in relief, you know, the stark contrast with Chris Christie who is viewed as too harsh and not diplomatic enough.

BOLDUAN: Doesn't look like it now.

BERMAN: He's a gentle little flower.

SHIELDS: If he's too blunt, the voters are going to say something. I mean, we're going to go to a point that goes too far and says too much, that's what these debates are for. And that's why you have 160 days roughly to the Iowa Caucuses start. BOLDUAN: I'm really getting excited.

BERMAN: Sit tight for a second right now because we want to go back to Clinton county up in Dannemora right now. It's the news conference with District Attorney Andrew Wiley about the plea deal which reach -- just reached in the case of prison guard Joyce Mitchell.

ANDREW WILEY, CLINTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: These are the same two charges that Joyce Mitchell was originally charged with back on June 12, 2015 which she was arraigned in Plattsburgh city court. Upon the advice of her attorney, Steven Johnston, the defendant pled guilty today to each charge contained within the Superior Court information.

[11:20:00] After several weeks of ongoing investigations conducted by the inspector general's office, members of the New York State Police the violent crimes unit, and the forensic investigation unit as well as the Clinton County District Attorney's Office and after an extensive consultation of each of these agencies, I determined that although there were possible other charges in which to charge Miss Mitchell with, that the people were confident that the two charges within the Superior Court information were charges that would be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and in the interests of justice I negotiated a plea and recommended sentence that was placed on the record today.

Miss Mitchell and her attorney agreed that the defendant would plead guilty to the two count Superior Court information and waive those charges being presented to the grand jury. Specifically any other charges that we could file against her would be promoting prison contraband, conspiracy to commit murder of her husband Lyle Mitchell and sexual related charges under article 130 of the penal law relative to David Sweat and Richard Matt.

The negotiated sentence as you heard in court today was for the defendant to be sentenced to the maximum indeterminate sentence allowable by law. That on the promoting prison contraband she would be sentenced to 2 1/3 to seven year term of imprisonment and a $5,000 fine upon her conviction for promoting prison contraband and a one year county jail sentence to be imposed concurrently with a $1,000 fine on her conviction for criminal facilitation.

In addition to these prison sentences and fines, the court will impose mandatory surcharges, crime victims' fees and require the defendant to provide a DNA sample and pay a $50 DNA data bank fee. A further condition of the negotiated plea and sentence is for Joyce Mitchell to cooperate with the ongoing investigation of the inspector general's office relative to their continuing investigation at Clinton Correctional Facility as well as a consent to surrendering her New York State teacher's assistant certificate which was issued September 1st, 2002.

The court as is normal procedure has adjourned this matter to September 28th, 2015, at 10:00 A.M., approximately two months out for the probation department to conduct a presentence investigation report. And this is standard procedure pursuant to criminal procedure law Article 390. The purpose of this report is to provide the court with additional background information on Miss Mitchell.

The Clinton County District Attorney's office did not consult with or discuss the terms directly with Miss Mitchell. I have only discussed terms of the negotiations with her attorney, Mr. Johnston. Furthermore, my office did not consult or discuss the terms and conditions of this plea bargain with Lyle Mitchell or his attorney.

In regards to the charges pending against Gene Palmer, our office is continuing its investigation with the New York State Police. The charges against Palmer being presented to the grand jury were delayed to allow Palmer's attorney to review the case and all the statements that Palmer made previously to New York state police.

Plea negotiations with Palmer's attorney have failed to reach an agreement and Palmer's attorney has advised us in writing that Palmer will not waive his right to grand jury and that the case will be presented in early August to a Clinton county grand jury. In regards to charges pending against David Sweat of escape in the first degree, a delay in the grand jury presentment was caused by the inspector general's investigation as well as the investigation being conducted by the Franklin County District Attorney's Office.

The only significance of the delay was just identifying witnesses who can testify relative to the escape without jeopardizing the other investigations. These witnesses have now been identified and we will also present this case in early August. At this time there are no other individuals who have been identified through the investigation as being involved directly or indirectly with the June 6th, 2015, escape of inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat from Clinton Correctional Facility.

Lastly, I have been in regular contact with the inspector general office relative to her investigation of Clinton Correctional Facility and at this time I have no comments relative to that investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Wiley.

WILEY: So let me -- go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A plea deal usually involves a deal. And she agreed to plead guilty to both counts, pay the fines.

WILEY: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What does she get besides you not filing other charges?

WILEY: That's exactly what she gets is not filing any type of sexual assault, rape charges that could possibly be charged against her relative to these allegations of sexual conduct between her and David Sweat or her and Richard Matt. Obviously, in order for us to pursue those charges, we need additional evidence to support those charges other than her statements, and I made a determination that it was in the interests of justice to just proceed with these two charges that we have and not go forward with anything else.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will she face less than the seven years, is it also part of the deal she might do the minimum?

[11:25:00] WILEY: Right. That sentencing, what the court would impose is the 2 1/3 to seven year sentence. Depending how she is inside the facility when she comes up for parole and they review her potential release times, that would be subject to division of parole.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's getting the max.

WILEY: She's getting the max on these charges, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Wiley, you said that the goal of this deal was for her to cooperate with the continuing investigation. You also said she's been cooperative with investigators from the beginning. What questions do you still have for her?

WILEY: I don't have any additional questions for her. There may be questions by the inspector general's office. They have representatives that have spoken with Mr. Johnston and they are making arrangements to interview her to assist in their investigation at the facility.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is there information on any topics specifically you feel she hasn't yet shared?

WILEY: That's a question you would have to ask the inspector general's office.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If the evidence is so overwhelming, why bypass the grand jury process?

WILEY: That's the exact reason why to bypass as far as the defense is concerned I would think. Mr. Johnston may want to clarify that question, but because the evidence was so overwhelming, Miss Mitchell has acknowledged her guilt obviously by appearing in court today and entering a plea. She, once again, speak to Mr. Johnston or Miss Mitchell about it, but she wanted to expedite her case proceedings and move on with the matter so that's why we went by a Superior Court information today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did David Sweat confirm there was a sexual relationship?

WILEY: Negative. Negative.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He did not.

WILEY: He did not confirm that. Whatsoever.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you say in court she also agreed to plead guilty.

WILEY: She agreed to plead guilty to the two charges contained within the Superior Court information. And we can distribute that to everybody for your e-mail addresses that I have, we'll distribute that out as well as a copy of the plea offer, but we agree to not pursue these charges. Potentially there could be based on the inspector general's

investigation, there could be allegations of other actions that Joyce Mitchell took or participated in during her employment at Clinton Correctional Facility and if something along those natures arise during that investigation, my office would be advised on it and we could pursue additional charges against Miss Mitchell and those would not be covered under the plea.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why not?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In which she put the hacksaw in the frozen hamburger meat.

WILEY: That's correct. There's a second incident in which she talked about providing hacksaw blades to Richard Matt. We just made a determination to expedite that matter, to not have additional charges to satisfy that charge as well. Hold on, folks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the prosecution of David Sweat, given that it would not increase his amount of incarceration...

BOLDUAN: You're listening right there to the district attorney in Dannemora, Andrew Wiley, giving a briefing to the press following the arraignment and a lot has happened in that brief hearing there of Joyce Mitchell, the prison worker who has now pled guilty as part of a plea deal related to charges of helping the two escaped inmates do their amazing break out of prison.

Let's bring in Randi Kaye here, she's been following this case very closely. So Randi, you have the arraignment, she has the plea deal, and then when he was speaking to reporters, the district attorney answered the question that was on everyone's mind. What did she get out of it? Because it seems she's still facing the two charges she was up against, he said it means we're not going to pursue charges related to sexual related charges of her while in prison. Which was fascinating.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is fascinating because we've learned quite a bit about her relationship with both David Sweat and Richard Matt. We know from sources close to the investigation that she was having a sexual relationship. And having sex in that prison tailor shop where they all worked with Richard Matt. She had a questionable relationship with David Sweat, so much so that he was actually moved out of the prison tailor shop back in 2013 because they thought maybe something funny was going on but we spoke with a former prison inmate there who also worked in the tailor shop with them.

And he told me that there was definitely something going on between Joyce Mitchell and David Sweat, that she would keep him back when all the rest of the guys went to the mess hall for lunch and she would bring him fried chicken and barbecue chicken and all kinds of special lunches. Her lawyer said she and David Sweat did not have any type of relationship but who knows.

BOLDUAN: It seems they didn't want that to become public.

KAYE: Absolutely.

BERMAN: One other thing here, the state inspector general looking into the prison in Clinton Correctional has made clear that he will be talking to Joyce Mitchell at length.