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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Veteran Found Dead After Pleading For Care; Kim Jong Un Expected To Visit Moscow; FBI Investigating Durst's Ties To Unsolved Murders. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired March 19, 2015 - 16:30   ET

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

[16:30:08] NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is coming from the university.

It is worth noting, Jake, that the Virginia State Police have launched a criminal and comprehensive investigation into the conduct of the officers involved in Martese Johnson's arrest -- Jake.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Nick Valencia, thank you so much.

Turning now to a special lead investigation, he gave his all to the country he loved, but when this Iraq war veteran needed help the most, he was sent home by the V.A. with some prescription drugs and the promise of a phone call from a shrink in a week or so.

Richard Miles did not make it that long. Now his family wants answers from the hospital they say failed him. I went there to find out exactly what happened. Our investigation is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:35:02]

TAPPER: Welcome back. Our national lead now, a CNN investigation, for a year now, we have been reporting on delays in appointments at V.A. hospitals across this country as veterans languish and some even die waiting for care.

We, as a nation, elect leaders and our leaders send young men and women overseas to fight wars. There, they do things and see things and have things done to them that changed them sometimes causing permanent injury.

How well do we as a nation deal with these injuries especially the ones inside their heads? Are we doing any better? Are we helping them enough? These are all questions that are magnified by the case of a man named Richard Miles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER (voice-over): I need help. On February 15th, Iraq war veteran Richard Miles came to this Veterans Administration Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa, and told the staff quote, "I need help" according to the hospital's records. Miles had told friends he was going to check himself in. (on camera): He was diagnosed with worsened PTSD, anxiety and insomnia, but Richard Miles was not admitted to the hospital.

(voice-over): Five days later, the 40-year-old who had served three tours in Iraq was found dead in the woods, having taken a toxic amount of sleeping pills, his body frozen in the elements.

Now those who loved Richard Miles want to know whether the V.A. did enough for him that February night.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was his cry for help, and it was not taken seriously or received the way it should have been received.

TAPPER: Richard Miles was one of the premier presenters at the Science Center of Iowa, beloved and quite literally a picture-perfect employee.

CURT SIMMONS, RICHARD MILES FORMER BOSS: He was passionate and knowledgeable about science himself and he went beyond that. His passion extended to sharing that knowledge with others. As excited as he would get about viewing stars on his own, he was ten-fold more excited when he could share that with others.

TAPPER: What this popular Iraq war veteran did not share with most is that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He knew the date and where he was, you know, when he had shot and killed people.

TAPPER: Katie Hopper is Miles' ex-girlfriend and mother to their daughter, Emilyn. She says he left Iraq, but it never left him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was very, very aware of what he was doing, that he was ending people's lives even if it was for the greater good.

TAPPER (on camera): It stayed with him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely, it did.

TAPPER (voice-over): Medical records obtained by CNN state that years after miles returned from Iraq in 2004, he quote, "began to experience depression with suicidal attempts." He recalled seeing dead bodies and often had graphic violent dreams.

Friends and family saw Miles struggle with his PTSD, but they say he was doing generally OK, until January, when he disappeared. V.A. records show friends called the Iowa V.A. to look for Miles and told the V.A. they were filing a missing persons report with local law enforcement.

Miles finally responded days later, to his friend Harry Ollor, who had reached out via text.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He wrote back, I didn't mean to get people worried. I just need to spend some time at the hospital to figure things out. TAPPER: Thankfully, Miles returned and chose to stay with Katie Hopper, but after only a few days, he became restless.

KATIE HOPPER, MOTHER OF RICHARD MILES' DAUGHTER: I said do you feel like you need to get out of the house, do you want to go for a drive, do you want to go for a walk. He said, no, I'm going to go to the V.A. I said right now? Yes, I'm going to go right now.

TAPPER (on camera): Where must he have been to take have taken these steps?

HARRY ALLER, FRIEND OF RICHARD MILES: He had to be in a place where he was going to harm himself mentally and the thought of that would lead him to want to get help because he would be letting down his daughter, his son, his friends, and that was not an option for him.

TAPPER (voice-over): On February 15th, Miles left several of his belongings with Hopper and went to the hospital. It was a familiar place to the veteran whose medical records show a long history of suicidal acts and thoughts.

From 2008 to 2009, Miles was hospitalized four times for PTSD, made two attempts to hang himself and brought a gun into a separate hospital ward with the plan to kill himself. On February 15th, Miles told the hospital attendant he needed help, but doctors' notes say he denied feeling suicidal when asked.

HOPPER: He came home about three hours later.

TAPPER (on camera): Were you surprised?

HOPPER: Yes. I was like what are you doing here? He goes I'm done. I said what do you mean, you're done? I thought you were going to be days or weeks, even. He said yes, me, too, but they just gave me medication and sent me home. Said my psychiatrist would follow up with me this week, would set up an appointment.

TAPPER (voice-over): Miles did not make it that long. He instead walked into these woods where he and Hopper used to go, and never came back. After taking the toxic dose of sleeping pills, Miles was found frozen to death in this clearing, wearing no jacket, no shoes and most infuriating, with no clear reason why his life had to end like this.

[16:40:10] HOPPER: The V.A. failed him. I feel like they failed him.

TAPPER: The V.A. tells CNN that the emergency room staff quote, "followed proper mental health screening procedures" and that Miles had been given medication he indicated had helped him in the past. They refused to answer any more of our questions, citing federal privacy laws.

If proper procedures were in fact followed, it must be asked if the V.A. policies for dealing with suicidal veterans are adequate. Not just in Iowa but nationwide. BRANDON COLEMAN, ADDICTION SPECIALIST, PHOENIX, VA: We are missing the boat with these most at-risk veterans and not enough is being done systemically in order to protect them. We can't just hand these guys pills. That's not the answer.

TAPPER: Brandon Coleman developed a suicide prevention program at the V.A. hospital in Phoenix where he says it's desperately needed. But now the disabled Marine Corps veteran says he's blowing the whistle on insufficient care for his peers.

A 2012 V.A. report suggested about 22 veterans commit suicide each day in the U.S. Some of them seek help at V.A. centers and other hospitals and don't get the help they need.

COLEMAN: I came forward mainly because of the veterans' suicides. They are not being handled properly.

TAPPER: In January, a different concerned employee at the Phoenix V.A. secretly recorded a staff meeting and with it, the astonishing admission that suicidal veterans there had quote, "bolted out the door."

UNIDENTIFIED SUPERVISOR: We have been really lucky that nothing bad is happening in these specific incidents that just happened. It was sheer luck that nothing happened.

TAPPER: Coleman is now nearing his second month of paid administrative leave. He says it's retaliation for his whistleblowing. In a statement to CNN, the Phoenix V.A. said quote, "We have strengthened our protocols and approaches for how we care for suicidal veterans. We continue to look for ways to improve the care and appreciate suggestions made by our employees and others."

Experts say, however, that even the best of intentions may not be enough.

DR. ELSPETH CAMERON RITCHIE, FORMER MILITARY PSYCHIATRIST: I think the V.A. is in the lead on treatment of PTSD. Are they doing as much as they could be? It's no secret that the V.A. is an overwhelmed system and it's no secret to anybody that the V.A. can't handle it all.

TAPPER: The friends and family of Richard Miles want the V.A. to learn from their tragedy. They want the V.A. to figure out what they could have done differently with Miles so the next veteran is admitted and helped.

(on camera): What do you not have now because this happened?

HOPPER: I don't have a friend. My daughter doesn't have her father. He taught so many people. He was so great.

TAPPER (voice-over): The Iowa V.A. however seems more focused on defending itself than on learning from any mistakes.

HOPPER: I really do feel as though the V.A. failed him. Ultimately, I feel like it's kind of on them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Coming up next, North Korea's leader is set to visit Moscow in a matter of weeks. Now many are wondering just what Kim Jong-Un and Vladimir Putin may be up to.

Plus, the smash hit TV show "Empire" pulls in an insane number of viewers for last night's season finale. How many people watched?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:47:28]

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. In world news today, on first glance they look like a geopolitical odd couple, one a bare-chested horseback riding judo chopping ex-KGB agent, the other reportedly on the mend from an annoying case of gout.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong-Un do have a lot in common like a talent for antagonizing the United States, which is why the White House will surely be watching closely when Kim makes his first foreign trip as head of state to Moscow.

Joining me now is Jamie Metzl, former State Department official under President Bill Clinton, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of "The Genesis Code."

Jamie, good to see you, as always. What is the relationship between Russia and North Korea?

JAMIE METZL, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, it's an important relationship for North Korea and it's becoming more important. North Korea was born because of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union was the biggest patron of North Korea until the fall of the Soviet Union, then North Korea shifted, deftly shifted to being a client of China, essentially.

Now relations between China and North Korea are souring and North Korea's looking for a new patron and Russia, especially with bad boy Vladimir Putin in charge is their best bet. So the two countries are very rapidly coming together.

TAPPER: Beyond just coming together, what do you think these two guys are cooking up here?

METZL: From the North Korean perspective, as I said, they need a new patron. For the Russians, they see an opportunity to get North Korea as a client. On one hand you would say why would anybody want North Korea as a client state?

But from a Russian perspective, if they begin arming North Korea, re- arming North Korea with better weapons than the North Koreans have had in the past, they have a tool. If relations between Russia and the west worsen, they can make sure that relations between North Korea and everybody else worsens. If the west treats Russia nicer, they can do what they can to help facilitate better relations between North Korea and the west. So in Russia and in Putin, assuming this bad boy role, North Korea, a better relationship with North Korea would give him another pawn to play in a global chess game.

TAPPER: And as part of that chess game we have seen Putin becoming increasingly more aggressive, more militant, some would even say more greedy, how much should U.S. policy makers be alarmed by this?

METZL: Well, I think we should, because Putin is reminding the world, particularly reminding Europe that hard power matters a lot. Many of us, particularly those in Europe, have started to think that old- fashioned hard power didn't matter as much.

[16:50:12] Now with Russia, they are flying planes along the English Channel. They are re-arming. They are even threatening nuclear war and we are going back to an earlier time where it's the jungle rules and we are going back to this old balance of power model and client states and all these things we thought we had gotten over at the end of the cold war, but now many of them are back. It's a big deal and very worrying.

TAPPER: Yes, that's what the last question I was going to ask. Is this just another example of Putin trying to return to that cold war era?

METZL: It is, and he's doing it in a really dangerous way. If I were a Russian nationalist, I would be up at arms against Vladimir Putin because while I'm sure it feels very good to be saber rattling in the way that they are doing.

And they have gotten away with the taking of Crimea, with the invasion of the Ukraine, at the end of the day. The only way Russia is going to succeed is with economic growth. They can't succeed just providing natural resources to China.

They are going to need to have real economic development and ultimately, they will see that that can only happen with better relations with Europe and the west, but between now and then, I anticipate a lot of pain on all sides.

TAPPER: Jamie Metzl, thank you so much.

When we come back, he's a millionaire accused of murder and now the FBI wants to know could Robert Durst be connected to even more killings? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:55:51]

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. In the Money Lead today, who knew that one of the greatest empires of all time would be named by a tyrant named Cookie.

(VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: "Empire," Fox's hugely successful prime time soap opera, had its season finale last night. It drew a whopping 16.7 million viewers. In fact, the show has grown its audience every week since its premiere, something practically unheard of in this media era.

The secret to "Empire's" success seems not just to be salacious and entertaining story lines, but also a huge on demand viewership and streamed episodes. "Empire" is not just conquering the tube, the music world as well. The sound track to the show climbed to number one on the Billboard Charts.

In other national news, could a wealthy real estate heir arrested for a decades-old murder have left an even bigger trail of bodies across the country? That's the latest twist being investigated in the bizarre case of Robert Durst.

Durst, of course, as you know was the subject of the HBO true Crime Series "The Jinx" which examines suspicions surrounding his involvement with three murders. He was arrested over the weekend and charged one day after the show's finale aired this week.

Now the FBI thinks Durst might be linked to other unsolved cases dating back 50 years. CNN's Dan Simon has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Louisiana authorities have Robert Durst on suicide watch, the FBI is putting out a call to local police departments to examine cold cases where Durst lived over the past 50 years.

The wealthy real estate heir has a reported net worth of $100 million and lived or owned a property in several states including New York, Vermont, Texas and California.

We are certainly interested in any information that may or may not come out of interviews with Mr. Durst. If information comes to us that allow us to further our investigation then we will certainly take the opportunity to do that.

SIMON: One case that has piqued interest is in the small northern California town of Eureka. The 16-year-old Karen Mitchell went missing in November 1997. She was on her way to work at a day care center.

According to local news reports at the time, she was last seen leaning into a light blue car that she may have gotten into. A witness gave police a description of the man behind the wheel, the sketch bearing a striking resemblance to Robert Durst.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Durst apparently knew Karen Mitchell. Karen had volunteered at a homeless center in Eureka which Durst had frequented, which he had a habit of doing in these different cities.

In addition, Mitchell's aunt ran a shoe store in a mall in Eureka and Durst had gone there several times, one time dressed as a woman.

SIMON: Author and investigative reporter, Matt Burbeck, wrote "A Deadly Secret" about Robert Durst, copies of which were found in Durst's Houston home. In New Orleans meanwhile where he checked into this hotel using a fake name, court documents also reveal he had more than $40,000 in cash mostly in $100 bills, a rubber or latex mask to disguise identity, some marijuana and a loaded Wesson .38 revolver.

A law enforcement official telling CNN he appeared to be on the lam and planned to travel from New Orleans to Cuba. Durst was arrested in New Orleans on Saturday and charged with the 2000 murder of Susan Berman, his friend and spokeswoman.

She was killed just before New York investigators were to question her about the disappearance of Durst's first wife. The arrest coming a day before the final installment of HBO's documentary about his life, when he made this alleged confession while talking to himself in the bathroom.

ROBERT DURST: Killed them all, of course.

SIMON: Durst's attorney says not to read too much into those comments. Durst himself has long denied any involvement in Berman's death and his wife's disappearance.

JIM MCCORMACK, BROTHER OF DURST'S FIRST WIFE: I was chilled actually vindicated, but chilled by the open and unsolicited admission of guilt.

[15:00:00] SIMON: That's Jim McCormack, the brother of Durst's first wife, Kathie, who says he hopes Durst will finally confess to killing her and others.

MCCORMACK: I'm hopeful that he'll finally man up, tell his lawyers to bug

Off and he wants to have this thing over and put behind him.

SIMON: Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

TAPPER: That's it for THE LEAD.

I'm Jake Tapper, turning you over now to Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.