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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Antares Rocket Explodes After Liftoff in Virginia; Special Needs Student Used as Bait by Teacher's Aide

Aired October 29, 2014 - 12:00   ET

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

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Michaela Pereira.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Berman. "LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be loud. It's going to be loud. (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Oh, my God! (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: He said it would be loud. It was earth- shaking. A setback for the private space industry. A rocket headed for the Space Station down in flames. Millions of dollars in supplies and scientific research up in smoke. So what went wrong?

In Alabama, a case that's gone from a bathroom stall to a federal courtroom. A special needs student supposedly sent in as bait to catch a sexual predator at her school. She herself explains how that plan went so terribly wrong.

And if hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, ISIS, beware. Meet the women on the front lines taking on the world's most ruthless killers.

Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. And welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

This country well knows the dangers involved in space flight. And so as devastating as these pictures are, we all know last night's explosion of a rocket bound for the International Space Station could have been so much worse. The Antares rocket, hired by NASA but owned by the private company Orbital Sciences, carried 5,000 pounds of very valuable cargo. What it didn't carry was astronauts, people, human cargo.

I want you to watch this liftoff in what NASA calls the, quote, "catastrophic anomaly" that followed. From the point of view of reporters who were stationed just three miles away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five, four, three, two, one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy crap. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, God. (EXPLETIVE DELETED). (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

Hold on, it's going to be loud! It's going to be loud.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be loud.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED). (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Geez!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, God. Oh, God, we've got to go. Holy mackerel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Those voices say it all. Got to go, holy mackerel and then the debris field came raining down from the sky. My CNN colleague, Tom Foreman, joins me live now on this from Washington.

I still can't see enough of those pictures. It is so remarkable to see that view from three miles away. The public is only allowed 12 miles away. So that press site is a very dangerous place to be that close. But, still, do we know anything about why this happened, Tom?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In a word, no, we do not. We know what they're looking at. We know that from the moment this happened, they started looking at the telemetry of this rocket. What that means is, all these tremendous radio signals coming off this rocket that tell you about the - the temperature and the humidity and the speed and the power and the burn rate and so many different things as this liquid- fueled first stage of this two-stage rocket kicked into action there. About six minutes in, it fell apart when it was supposed to burn for about four minutes and carry this rocket up into orbit where it would be traveling around 17,000 miles an hour, something like that.

So what they're doing, is they looked at the telemetry from the beginning. Today they're picking up all those pieces. That debris you said that came raining down. Well, they're looking far and wide for every piece of it in all of that marshland out there because they have to put it back together and see if they can trace it back to the source, what made it fall apart? All they've said so far is that there seemed to be some disassembling of the bottom of the rocket. But that could just be the explosion itself. They just have to find out why. Did the disassembly lead to the explosion or did the explosion cause it? BANFIELD: Yes, that's - interesting though that you say they're just

going to reassemble, just like they would after an air disaster. They just put them back together to find out, you know, where the mystery leads them.

I want to talk about what was on board that also blew. Because this cargo was critical. Sixteen hundred pounds of scientific experiments on matters ranging from meteors to human blood flow. There was about a ton of hardware, computer, spacewalk equipment. And some of that gear is supposed to be classified. There were also hundreds of pounds of food that was supposed to be heading up to those crew members who are on the International Space Station. So now that it's not going where it's supposed to be going, is this - is this a pretty big problem?

FOREMAN: It's not a big problem, but it is a problem in the sense that every single ounce that gets sent into space is important because sending things into space is still incredibly difficult and expensive. So nothing's going up there that doesn't matter.

What this means is some of these experiments will probably just be scrubbed. They may never fly again. Some may find a way to get onto another flight if they can replace the equipment itself, which is expensive. And in terms of supplies to the ISS, well, a Russian rocket took off today with more supplies for the Space Station. There's another launch by SpaceX, another private corporation, scheduled for December 9th that would also take supplies up. So there will be a steady stream of supplies. But, yes, they have to make up the difference now, Ashleigh. And, obviously, if they had another setback somewhere, then people start seeing it in a much more critical eye to make sure those astronauts in flight in the ISS are fully supplied, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: All right, Tom Foreman, live for us from Washington. Thank you for that, Tom.

FOREMAN: You're welcome.

BANFIELD: Also want to bring in Matthew Travis. He shot and posted that amazing video you were just looking at from that press viewing area. Again, just three miles from the launch pad in coastal Virginia. Matthew is also, as it would happen, an aerospace engineer and managing editor of "Zero-G News."

I'm so glad that you had that view for us because I think it was very telling what you physically experienced. But I want you to sort of walk me through it. Explain what that was like when that moment happened, Matthew.

MATTHEW TRAVIS, MANAGING EDITOR, "ZERO-G NEWS": Sure. Good afternoon.

At first it looked like a normal launch. We knew the Antares would lift off a bit slower than previous ones because it was a heavier rocket. The new version of the upper (ph) stage (ph). So we noticed that. And then it -- there was a flicker in the flame and it kind of just hovered in midair. And it started to (INAUDIBLE) back. And that's when you see the disintegration, the disassembly of the back end of it.

And it was real interesting because we could feel the heat when it exploded. We could actually feel the heat from the fireball three miles away. And I've shot a number of launches. And so I kind of knew, you know, that it was going to be loud. And I knew that there were other photographers out there. So I thought I'd yell out to them that it was going to be loud so that when it - when the concussion hit us, that it wouldn't - that they wouldn't drop their cameras or get scared or --

BANFIELD: And what did that feel like? What did that feel like when the concussion hit you?

TRAVIS: You know what, have you ever heard a sonic boom or been to an air show with the jets - I mean it was -- it was stronger than that. It felt - it was like a bomb (INAUDIBLE). It was like a --

BANFIELD: So did you -

TRAVIS: Go ahead.

BANFIELD: Sorry, I was going to ask, did you realize right away -- because I remember from 9/11 watching the towers above me coming down. I didn't realize right away they were coming down to that spot. Did you realize right away there was going to be debris raining down and that you were going to have to hightail it out of there?

TRAVIS: Well, before we - before we go out to the media viewing sites, we're always told what the procedures are in case of an anomaly like this. And it was interesting they -- they made a big point of it this time yesterday when we went out that, you know, if anything happens, get back to the bus. Leave everything. You know, we'll pick it up later. So that's kind of programmed into your mind. And I've done it enough that before a launch, I always, you know, just what I'm going to do. But some of the newer people, you know, they -- they're not trained. They haven't trained themselves mentally to prepare for - nobody - nobody prepared for it mentally really.

BANFIELD: What about -- of course. Although emergency crews say that they prepare, you know, they prepare for it every single time that they, you know, show up in these instances. But I want to ask you about your cameras and how many cameras you may have been actually set up for this. And will they play in any part in the investigation as to what happened and might they be actually very helpful, whatever images you were able to capture?

TRAVIS: Well, I hope so. Out at the press site, I had three cameras. One didn't get anything really usable. I had one video and one still camera. But out at the launch pad, I set up two still cameras and six video cameras. I and about half a dozen other people set up cameras right at the launch pad. Those could be helpful in an investigation because they can get close-up photos as things are happening.

BANFIELD: I think we might have just - we might have just lost Matthew's Skype. But what an amazing image that -- Matthew, are you back with us? TRAVIS: I'm here.

BANFIELD: I have one last question for you if you're still there. I wanted to just read this tweet, if I can. I'm going to put it up on the screen as well. NASA sent this out for anyone. "If you find debris in the vicinity of the launch mishap from last night, please stay away and call the incident response team at 757-824-1295."

Just quickly, did you see anything? I mean I know that you quickly realized, we've got to get out of here. Did you see anything come down, did you see anything land or had you see anything in the immediate aftermath of this accident?

TRAVIS: We saw a lot of rocket parts flying all over the place. And the upper stage (ph) has solid fuel. It's not liquid like the first stage that failed. And in the explosion you can see -- looks like a firework, you know, when a firework goes off. That, I'm assuming, was the upper stage engine disintegrating. But that's pretty much all we could see. We had to evacuate immediately. So we were -

BANFIELD: Yes.

TRAVIS: On the bus in less than two minutes. And it was a - it was a few hours before we could go back out and pick up the stuff that we left. And as far as our cameras - as far as our cameras at the launch pad, that could take maybe a week to get those back.

BANFIELD: Oh, interesting. Well, listen, I'm glad you're with us and I'm glad you're OK. I mean three miles may seem like a long way, but it is not at all. Certainly from your vantage point.

TRAVIS: It didn't feel that far away last night.

BANFIELD: I'll bet. Well, thanks so much for joining us today and telling your story.

TRAVIS: Thank you.

BANFIELD: And showing us your pictures. They're just so remarkable. We sure appreciate it.

Matthew Travis joining us live.

Up next we're going to talk live as well with a former astronaut who was on the International Space Station when one of these rockets exploded. So what this explosion means for the crew that's currently in space and the bigger discussion about NASA's reliance on private contractors to get cargo and astronauts as well up into space.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five, four, three, two, one. And we have ignition (ph). And we have liftoff on Antares (INAUDIBLE) missions delivering (INAUDIBLE) third CRS (ph) mission to the ISS. That main engine's at 108 percent. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: And just like that, 5,000 pounds of food and hardware and science experiments that were headed for the International Space Station burning up on the launch pad at Wallops Island, Virginia. We are following the fallout from the first major setback of the post- shuttle private space flight era.

And joining me live now with their expertise and insights on what happened last night, CNN aviation analyst and former CNN anchor Miles O'Brien, as well as former astronaut and retired air force colonel, Colonel Ron Garan.

Colonel Garan, if I could begin with you. You are no stranger to space flight. You have flown on a shuttle and a Soyuz and you have been on the International Space Station specifically at a time when a Russian ship exploded back in 2011. Could you take me there and tell me what it's like for the guys who are up there right now on the International Space Station seeing what they saw last night?

COL. RON GARAN, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.): Yes, well, its -- there's a couple of ways to look at this. One is, you have supplies coming up that maybe you were counting on. There was a lot of experiments on board and maybe these were experiments that you have worked on personally and were looking forward to working on.

But in our case, we were also about two weeks from returning to earth. And the launch of this particular spacecraft, the "Progress" spacecraft, was on basically the same rocket that we launch people on. And so we knew that the Russian Space Agency was going to delay the next launch until they figured out what happened with this failure, which initially meant that we were going to be delayed coming home. So the first word we got was, be prepared to spend another two months on board the International Space Station. And that did not --

BANFIELD: So this - Colonel Garan, you're -- I never expected you to give me the scheduling answer. I expected you to tell me that it's actually terrifying to see that because that could be the kind of ride, you know, you need.

GARAN: Well, I mean, in this particular case, as was the case with the "Progress," these are unmanned missions and so there are big implications. But, you know, it's a lesson that we learn -- we're in a very dangerous business that although we've been doing this for decades, we still have a lot to learn and it's better to learn the type of lessons like this on unmanned spacecraft than it is on manned spacecraft.

And, yes, you know, being on board when you're expecting a cargo ship to come up and it doesn't come up, you know, has a lot of implications for, you know, your schedule, for your life in the near future, and there's also probably personal things on board that you were looking forward to getting, but that's, in the big scheme of things, that's pretty minor. BANFIELD: Yes, pretty minor. Apparently we're told the astronauts were

actually watching as this happened as well.

So let me ask you this, Miles, about the protocols for testing and overnight and what kind of an effect -- what happened last night is going to have on that. And I'm specifically referring to the SpaceX launch, which is only about a month or so away. What are we going to see change?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, I don't think you're going to see much change related to SpaceX. It's a competitor to Orbital Science and they've taken an entirely different approach. And the big difference is that they manufacture almost everything themselves. You go to Elon Musk's SpaceX factory in Hawthorn, California, about 80 percent of what comes out at the other end is actually made right there. They don't buy a lot of parts. They try to avoid that.

In the case of Orbital Sciences, they looked around for engines and unfortunately there are not a lot of options for U.S.-made engines. SpaceX is making them. A company called Blue Origin, which is run by Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame, is planning to build engines. But basically the commercial sector is all Russian engines. And in this case, they were 40-year-old engines, not 40-year-old technology, 40 years old. These were engines that were supposed to carry Russian cosmonauts to the moon. The Russians never did it. They had several failures on the launch pad. They went into storage for 40 years. Orbital Sciences bought them, refurbished them and attached them to the rocket. Well, the idea of going to space safely on an engine that was built 40 years ago is fairly debatable. And I'm not saying that the engines did it, but we have to come up with more ways of building rockets in this country.

BANFIELD: Well, Miles, you're the first person we think of when things like this happen. And, Colonel Garan, just excellent to have you on board with us today. Thank you so much, both of you, for your perspective. Appreciate it.

A 14-year-old special needs student says that she was raped in an Alabama school supposedly after a teacher's aide came up with a plan to use her as bait. Bait to catch another student in the act. The problem is, she said no one came to help her when that act began to happen. How on earth did they end up in this situation? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: This is just a horrifying case in Alabama. A family of a special needs student at a school in Madison County is suing over an incident that happened nearly five years ago but is still affecting this very young woman and devastating her life. The girl was 14 at the time. And here's where it's unbelievable. She was allegedly used as bait to catch an accused sexual predator who was also a student at the same school where she was. A legal brief in the case says that a teacher's aide encouraged this girl to go with a boy into a bathroom so that the teachers could catch him in the act. The only problem is, no teachers came to the rescue and the girl was allegedly raped. The teacher's aide has since been forced to resign, but there have

been no repercussions for the school's administrators who allegedly say they knew nothing about the plan or for the alleged rapist as well, beyond a couple of days of suspension and some different schooling. Our Victor Blackwell spoke with the young woman and has more on this story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JADEN: I just felt like I was set up by the teachers.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We'll call her Jaden. It's not her real name, but for the first time she's telling her story publicly.

JADEN: They gave me a word that they couldn't keep.

BLACKWELL: Sparkman Middle School near Huntsville, Alabama, January 22, 2010. Jaden was just 14 years old and a 16-year-old eighth-grader was propositioning her in the hallway again.

BLACKWELL (on camera): What would this boy say to you?

JADEN: He would just always ask if I wanted to have sex with him and things like that.

BLACKWELL: And what did you say?

JADEN: I usually just ignored him.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): Jaden says a friend suggested she tell a teacher's aide, June Ann Simpson (ph). Simpson knew of other girls the boy had tried to lure into the bathroom for sex. So Jaden says she told Simpson. However, when Simpson alerted the school's principal, Ronny Blair (ph), he told her it had to be proven that he was guilty of something before he could be punished, according to court documents. So Simpson hatched a plan. In this written statement, Simpson explains how she wants to catch the boy using Jaden as bait. She writes, "I was tired of that kid and that she should go pretend she wanted to meet him so we could set him up to catch him."

BLACKWELL (on camera): And when she first asked you to do that, what did you tell her?

JADEN: I told her no, I didn't want to do it.

BLACKWELL: What changed your mind, then?

JADEN: Because I just wanted it to stop.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): So the plan went forward. Simpson says she told Vice Principal Jeanne Dunaway (ph) about the plan but Dunaway said nothing. Jaden says she was there too, but Dunaway denies the conversation ever happened. Jaden says she left the vice principal's office minutes later.

BLACKWELL (on camera): Did you see him in the hallway?

JADEN: Uh-huh.

BLACKWELL: And what did you say to him?

JADEN: I said we can do it.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): Simpson watched school surveillance cameras hoping to catch them walk into the bathroom, but she never did. Why? Well, according to Jaden, the boy made a last-minute change. "He told me to go into the boy's bathroom by the gym," she writes, "and then told me never mind because everyone was around." The two went into a different bathroom. Simpson was watching surveillance cameras on the wrong hallway.

JADEN: I thought they were going to do what they said they were going to do and be there and stop him and then just get him in trouble.

BLACKWELL: Jaden says she stalled, told him, "I don't want to do this" and she tried blocking him but she says it wasn't enough.

BLACKWELL (on camera): And no one came?

JADEN: No.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): Jaden says the boy sodomized her. Simpson watched surveillance like this given to CNN by Jaden's attorneys and waited for several minutes until students told her Jaden was not where she thought, that she'd gone into another bathroom. Simpson then sent a teacher to get them. They were found in a stall together.

JADEN: I told them what happened and they called the cops and my foster parent.

BLACKWELL: According to the boy's written statement, they started kissing and that is it. Jaden, however, said from the start she had been assaulted. And although it was the aide's plan to bring the students together, the administrators shockingly said they were not convinced Jaden was actually raped. And when they were deposed by Jaden's attorneys more than two years later, they were still unsure which student's story to believe. Principal Blair said, "I still, to this day, don't know for sure what happened in that bathroom and that's the way I just have to leave it." Vice Principal Dunaway told them, "I believe she took responsibility for herself when she went into that bathroom." Jaden's attorney even showed another vice principal, Teresa Terrell (ph), picture of Jaden's anal trauma and asked if a 14-year-old would have consented to that kind of sexual behavior. Terrell replied, "I just don't know one way or the other."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She didn't consent. She didn't consent.

BLACKWELL: This woman was Jaden's foster mom at the time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we send our children to school, we send them there with the trust that the teachers are going to protect them. But when you send your child there thinking that they're going to be OK and something like this happens, it really thwarts your trust for the school system.

BLACKWELL: Attorney Eric Artrip represents Jaden and her father. They filed a civil suit against the faculty and the school board claiming violations of state and federal laws, including sexual harassment provisions of Title 9.

ERIC ARTRIP, ATTORNEY FOR "JADEN" AND HER FATHER: If it had been followed, the allegations against this boy would have been properly investigated and this result would have never happened.

BLACKWELL: In 2013, a federal court judge allowed claims of violation to state law, including negligence, but threw out federal claims against the faculty and school board. Appeals have been filed by all parties.

Attorney Mark Boardman represents the Madison County School Board and school officials.

MARK BOARDMAN, ATTORNEY FOR MADISON COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD: He found that the board of education's policies were proper. He found that school administrators took appropriate action and complied completely with federal law as soon as they were notified of this unfortunate incident.

BLACKWELL: And what happened to the boy?