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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Kurds Beat Back ISIS Troops Otuside Irbil; Details of Valentine's Day Shooting; Examining a Stabbing Among Children; Border Patrolling Drones Costly

Aired February 18, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: We're following the land war in Northern Iraq and a big setback for ISIS, at least for now. U.S. ally Kurdish forces today fought off an all out assault on the outskirts of the Kurdish capital, Irbil. This was the area just days ago. Overnight, however, the two sides were fighting so close together that coalition air strikes weren't even possible.

Hours later, Kurdish forces pushed the invaders back -- far enough back that fighter jets could help save the day.

At this hour, the White House is hosting what they call the Summit on "Fighting Violent Extremism." President Obama is due to speak at 4:30 Eastern time just about 4 hours from now or so, and you'll see him live right here on CNN.

NATO Secretary General is calling on Russia to withdraw its forces from Eastern Ukraine and urge separatists to respect the ceasefire. Ukraine says it has pulled 80 percent of its armed forces out of the strategic railroad hub of Debaltseve. The city has been the focus of intense fighting with pro-Russian separatists.

And the Obama Administration now says anybody who was in the process of signing up for Obamacare when the deadline came in three days ago, will have until Sunday to finish. 11.4 million American successfully enrolled or reenrolled during the latest window, about a 150,000 had computer problems or were stuck on perpetual hold.

More details out today from the deadly Valentine's Day shootout that escalated from an argument in traffic. It happened in Las Vegas. This woman, Tammy Meyers, shot dead in her own driveway by a man who angrily confronted her on the road earlier in the day. That was Saturday. The shooter still has not been caught.

CNN's Sarah Sidner with more now on what happened.

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SARAH SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... continued grief and outrage from the family of Tammy Meyers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She never did bad to anybody. SIDNER: Meyers, a 44-year-old mother of four, police say shot in the head in her own Las Vegas driveway after a road rage incident with this man. His car caught on surveillance video and then the manhunt continues.

LT. RAY STELBER, LAS VEGAS METROPOLITAN POLICE: She was encountered by a vehicle that was speeding up rapidly behind her.

SIDNER: Police say Meyers was giving her 15-year-old daughter driving lessons in this parking lot. When Meyers got behind the wheel in the neighborhood, the suspect sped up behind them and pulled to one side. That's when her daughter reached over and honked the horn.

STELBER: Right or wrong, she beeped the horn.

SIDNER: Police say the driver then got out of his car and said something that "frightened" Meyers and her daughter, and the two then sped away.

What happens next may have escalated the situation.

STELBER: Mrs. Meyers is scared but she's upset.

SIDNER: According to police, Meyers returns home to pick up her 22- year-old son, Brandon, who grabs his gun heading off together in pursuit.

STELBER: The vehicles and persons found each other.

SIDNER: Meyers followed the suspect before eventually breaking off and heading home, that's when police say the suspect appears as she's exiting the vehicle, firing a volley of rounds at Meyers, the son firing back.

Evidence of the exchange of fire in a nearby wall.

ROBERT MEYERS, TAMMY MEYERS' HUSBAND: My son is a hero in my (inaudible). There was mistakes made like everyone of us may be in our life. But, this particular mistake was made to keep a bigger mistake from happening. And my wife paid the ultimate price for it.

SIDNER: Her case an extreme example of a potential danger of rage on the roads.

Sarah Sidner, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Police do have a description of the shooter but again, so far no arrest.

Up next, what do mutilated Barbies and Harry Potter's Voldemort have to do with the internet's mysterious Slenderman. And two 12-year-old accused in a brutal stabbing. The disturbing details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAYE: We're just learning that President Obama is set to officially name Joseph Clancy as the new leader of the Secret Service. Clancy has been serving as the interim leader since October. He's a 27-year veteran of the Secret Service and prior to accepting the position of acting director, Mr. Clancy served as the executive director of cable security at Comcast Corporation.

Certainly this is a big appointment because we've been following the troubles of the Secret Service lately and in recent years. Certainly those folks have been able to get over the fence at the White House and some troubles that they've had in terms of pursuing those, including the one man who was able actually get inside the White House.

So, a lot of eyes now on Joseph Clancy.

Meanwhile, turning now to this, it sounds like something out of a horror movie, two 12-year-old girls accused of stabbing their best friend and leaving her in the woods in Wisconsin. That was last May. Inside one of the suspect's bedrooms, mutilated Barbie dolls and disturbing drawings of a fictional internet character called Slenderman. Those new details just coming out after a preliminary hearing to determine if the girls will go to trial. The judge will decide next month.

Yesterday, a psychologist testified that Morgan Geyser, the alleged ringleader believes in Vulcan mind control and truly feels that Slenderman is real.

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DEBORAH COLLINS, PSYCHOLOGIST: So, when you ask Morgan, what if Slenderman doesn't exist. She can't tolerate that and says she knows it's true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And her belief in Voldemort, that's a Harry Potter character?

COLLINS: Yes, although she would say it's not really a Harry Potter character, it's a real person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Incredibly, the victim survived crawled to her own rescue. The girls now charge as adults with attempted first degree intentional homicide, although the defense is now pushing for those charges to be reduced.

So, for the Legal View, I want to bring back in criminal defense attorney, Midwin Charles and CNN legal analyst, Paul Callan.

Welcome back. Midwin, let me start with you, so is this compelling evidence do you think that Morgan Geyser is mentally ill, I mean they're saying she really believed in Slenderman.

MIDWIN CHARLES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well I think the evidence is compelling. There clearly is a psychosis going on here. Whenever you see children, as young as this, 12-years old kind of coming together and deciding to take the life of another child, clearly there are some disturbing facts there. And I think that this psychologist who testified can sort of attest to that.

I think that you could see that, but what is most disturbing is the fact that they will be charged as adults, at least according to the report. It was my understanding that that decision hasn't yet been made. It is scary, I think we can all agree to think, that a 12-year old could sort of even fathom, you know, the idea to take the life of another. It is incredibly disturbing, I've been doing this for a long time and this is one of those cases that really ranks up there as just shocking.

KAYE: Yeah, I mean every time you guys come out here, we say - we just can't believe this case. But as Midwin said, Paul, I mean they were 12-years old certainly at the time. I mean is the brain even fully developed and will that have a place in this case?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you know, that's a great question because the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that you cannot impose the death penalty on people who are under the age of 18. The Court has also ruled that you cannot impose life without parole for any crime other than murder if somebody is under 18 based on scientific studies of exactly that, that the human brain is not really totally formed during the teenage years which is why when you get down to 12-years old, a lot of states would mandatorily treat that as a juvenile offense.

And the difference here, by the way, is spending pretty much 65 years in prison.

KAYE: Right.

CALLAN: ... as opposed to getting out when they're 25 years old.

CHARLES: If they're convicted as adults.

CALLAN: If they're convicted as juveniles. So, it's a big, big change.

CHARLES: Yeah.

CALLAN: It's a life -- the potential of the life versus no life.

KAYE: You want add something quickly?

CHARLES: Yeah. I'm just going to say that, you know, this is interesting because our legal system has always separated adults from juveniles for that very reason. There is -- and an acknowledgment, a recognition that when someone is young, A, they don't have the mental capacity, their brains haven't necessarily been formed. But also the stigma, right, because we understand that in society, we expect or hope that young people will somehow develop and mature and have a better chance at life later on.

KAYE: Right.

CHARLES: So, that's one of the reasons why our legal system has always separated juveniles from adults with respect to charging them for crimes.

KAYE: The judge is suppose to make his decision on whether it not it will be moved to juvenile court next month. So, we'll continue to follow that.

Many thanks to both of you.

Did you know the government is using drones to track down illegal immigrants at the border? Each arrest costs about $28,000. And guess who's paying?

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KAYE: For the past decade, the U.S. has been quietly patrolling hundreds of miles of the Mexican border with unmanned drones, chasing down illegal immigrants, drug smugglers, possibly even terrorists. But our senior investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin, discovered this high-flying technology comes at an extremely high price for tax payers, with some questionable results.

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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: They are slick, mostly silent retooled weapons of war. Now battling the war on Arizona's border. Predator drones patrolling the skies in the hunt for illegal immigrants. And according to the retired marine general who runs this program, they are proving invaluable.

RANDOLPH "TEX" ALLES, U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION: We could never see the border in the same way we could before when -- before we got these platforms.

GRIFFIN: The trouble is General Randolph "Tex" Alles is one of the few in government who think so. And a look at the price tag tells you why.

Report after report, by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general, basically calling this entire operation," a waste of taxpayer dollars".

Tom Barry with the Center for International Policy, studies the billions spent securing the border. And nothing could be a bigger waste he says than the $28,000 spent on a predator drone to catch just one illegal immigrant. You heard that right, $28,000 to catch a single illegal immigrant.

TOM BARRY, CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL POLICY: It has been a waste since the program begun in 2005. The inspector general says that we shouldn't spend any money, I think it should be shutdown.

GRIFFIN: Seeing up close its impressive technology, drones at 18,000 feet silently view the landscape below, determined and lock on to potential suspects crossing the vast Arizona desert. Commanded by a control team, safely tucked inside this virtual cockpit, those controllers send the guard right to where they're needed.

So this is happening now in real time. That's the pilot of the drone. This is person who's a second pilot, he's watching the camera and they had detected a group that is now crossing the border or illegally -- potentially suspects. And another group of gentleman, which we can't show you, actually has the radar screen and it's like a vector in agents to see, are these guys illegal, are they carrying dope, do they need to be arrested, that's happening right now.

Seems perfect until you actually do the math, that arrest according to the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general, cost you, the tax payer, $28,000.

That doesn't seem like an efficient way to protect the border.

JOHN ROTH, INSPECTOR GEN., U.S. DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Well that's one of the reasons that we wrote this audit.

GRIFFIN: Each drone cost $12 million, operations run $62 million a year, the entire program is $300 million, all for nine drones that fly part time.

Although he won't say it flat out, Inspector General John Roth's latest report is clear, military drones used by the Customs and Boarder Patrol to catch illegal immigrants, is a waste.

The CBP has fired back, they're saying that you, you're office, the inspector general, did not capture a lot of the things that we believe are valuable about this program that can't be measure.

ROTH: So the question you have to ask yourself is what we are getting from this? You have to be able to measure your investment and that's true in the government, it's true in business and I think that's what the American tax payer wants.

GRIFFIN: And in the measure of this drone program, it's to measuring up.

ROTH: As we see it, while it contributes to borders security, they have been putting measurements in place as to whether it's effective. The measurements that we saw show, that in fact, it's not a effective.

GRIFFIN: The inspector general says his job is to point out where money is being wasted and the drones, he says, are indeed a waste Yet they still fly and Congress is even debating to buy more.

To Tom Barry, it's a clear example of Congress and the Customs and Boarder Patrol simply ignoring the facts.

BARRY: The CBP refuses to set performance, goals, that it snubs its nose at this very reports that are made by government investigators. So one can be come vary indignant as a researcher and certainly indignant as a tax payer. GRIFFIN: The U.S is now spending more than $12 billion a year, supposedly to secure the border which by almost all accounts is hardly secure with or without predator drones.

Drew Griffin, CNN, Sierra Vista, Arizona.

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KAYE: The former marine general who runs the drone program for Customs and Boarder Patrol tells Drew that he wants to work with the drones they already have and prove their effectiveness before he asks for more. Drew adds that members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, want to expand the drone program to patrol the entire southwest U.S. border with Mexico. The estimated costs of those plans, about half a billion dollars.

Alabama's governor is apologizing to the government of India for the actions of a local police officer. The details just ahead.

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SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Defective, that's how Wendy Davis labeled herself growing up.

WENDY DAVIS, ACTRESS: Had a tough time staying seated in class. I always found the window next to my desk and the things that were happening outside the classroom far more interesting. So I just knew that something was different.

GUPTA: It wasn't until Davis his first grade daughter was diagnosed with ADHD decades later that she discovered she had it as well.

DAVIS: My entire childhood was explained in that moment.

GUPTA: Despite not knowing she had the disorder until she was an adult, Davis did find ways to manage her challenges.

DAVIS: I become a person who studied twice as hard as anyone else. I just became super diligent in the areas that I was interested in.

GUPTA: For Davis, that was acting. She did find success on TV.

DAVIS: We need to get something straight...

GUPTA: ... with her award nominated role on Lifetime's "Army Wives" and with parts on shows like ABC's "Scandal".

DAVIS: I have a vivid imagination. I also am very emotional. This may not be such a great quality, let's say in a corporate office, but it really just worked in my profession.

GUPTA: Now, the actress is passing along her positivity. She volunteers to the non-profit organization CHADD, which provides education and support for people with ADHD. DAVIS: I'm really here for those kids who aren't feeling good about themselves to say that you are different, not defective. You can create an amazing life for yourself.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay GUPTA, CNN, reporting

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: We are just learning that President Obama is set to officially name Joseph Clancy as the new leader of the Secret Service. Clancy has been serving as the interim leader since October. Clancy is a 27- year veteran of the Secret Services. Prior to accepting the position of acting director, Mr. Clancy served as the executive director of cable security at Comcast Corporation.

Jesse Matthew appeared in court today, his first time before a judge in the case of kidnap and murder of college student Hannah Graham. The judge assigned him co-counsel ans set a trial date, June 29th. Jesse Matthew was the last person to be seen with 18-year old Hannah Graham who disappeared last September. Her body was found in Virginia just a few weeks later.

The governor of Alabama is apologizing to the government of India. I'm about to show you why? But it maybe hard for some viewers to watch, you may want to turn away for at least the next 30 seconds or so.

On February 6th, a Madison, Alabama police officer was accused. He was caught on a fellow officer's dash cam slamming 59-year old Indian man to the ground. The man suffered partial paralysis and needed surgery to repair damage in his back. Officer Eric Parker has pealed not guilty to third degree assault.

Thank so much for watching everyone. I'll be back tomorrow but for now, Wolf starts right now.