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New Day

Ferguson, Missouri, Prepares for Possible Grand Jury Decision in Police Shooting Case; Deadline for Deal on Iran's Nuclear Program Extended; Another Cosby Accuser Speaking Out

Aired November 24, 2014 - 08:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: What comes next? Grand jury in Ferguson meets today. The decision could follow on whether to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the death of unarmed teen Michael Brown. Key arrests have been made that hopefully are not a sign of what's to come.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: New accusations against Bill Cosby, another woman claims to have been assaulted by the comedian 45 years ago. The allegations from accusers cast a cloud over the comedian, will he finally speak out?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: One year later, Obamacare up and running, will this round of sign-ups go smoother than its rocky debut? This as the GOP continues to push for repeal. Former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius breaking her silence in one of her first interviews since stepping down.

CUOMO: You NEW DAY continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan and Michaela Pereira.

CUOMO: Good morning, welcome to NEW DAY. It's Monday, November 24th, just after 8:00 in the east, Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira here. Bring her in, because we all want welcome back in our dish viewers. We've missed you. It's nice to have you. Call a friend, tell them NEW DAY is back in town.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: And we're going to start off with Ferguson, Missouri. There is a reason to be on edge. The grand jury is meeting there today, could be the last time they meet. They could be bringing up a decision very soon. So the question is whether they will or not indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown. Whatever decision is made, we're expecting a quick announcement, and that's new information. It had been that authorities were going to hold it for a couple of days. Now you'll hear as soon as we do.

CAMEROTA: But tensions remain high in Ferguson with concerns over what will happen if Wilson is exonerated. And it's not clear whether the public will get to see the evidence the grand jury has reviewed despite earlier assurances that they would. CNN's Ana Cabrera is live in Clayton, Missouri, for us. What is the latest there, Ana?

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Aliysn. We are actually seeing an increase in police presence outside the St. Louis County Justice Center here this morning where the grand jury is expected to reconvene sometime in the next few hours. Remember, there have to be at least nine of the 12 grand jurors that agree for there to be an indictment in this case.

So what will their decision be? When will the announcement come? These are questions creating a lot of anxiety and tension in this community awaiting answers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Overnight, protesters marched, blocking traffic in Ferguson, relatively calm, but for this incident.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to go home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, yes, I know. But you going to be here for a minute, bro.

CABRERA: While shooting this video "L.A. Times" reporter Matt Pearson was rushed to the hospital after being struck in the head by a small object.

MATT PEARSON, "L.A. TIMES" REPORTER: I didn't see anything throw anything. I didn't see what it was. It felt like conk on the head.

CABRERA: The fire still burning in the hearts of protesters awaiting a decision from the St. Louis County grand jury. The group of 12, made up of five women and seven men, nine white and three black, is expected to meet again today after ending the day Friday with no decision.

Outside the courthouse, law enforcement have put up barricades to brace for backlash. Inside the grand jury weighs the following options -- indict Officer Darren Wilson on first or second-degree murder, voluntary or involuntary manslaughter, or deliver a no true bill, saying there isn't enough evidence to go forward with the charges against Wilson who fatally shot unarmed teenager Michael Brown.

BOB MCCULLOCH, ST. LOUIS COUNTY PROSECUTOR: Ultimately the transparency will there. Everything that the grand jury hears, the public will ultimately hear one way or the other.

CABRERA: Prosecutor Bob McCulloch if Wilson is charged the evidence comes out at trial. If there is no indictment, he plans to make all the testimony, reports, diagrams, and more public. But a judge has the final say on what gets released and when. Michael Brown's parents have urged calm.

LESLEY MCSPADDEN, MOTHER OF MICHAEL BROWN: I just want you all to be careful, don't agitate them, don't let them agitate you all. I don't want nobody getting hurt. CABRERA: The president on ABC's "This Week" joined the call.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is a country that allows everybody to express their views, but using any event as an excuse for violence is contrary to rule of law and contrary to who we are.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Keep in mind, regardless of the outcome of the grand jury decision here, this will not be the end. There are still two federal civil rights investigations that are ongoing, one probe into the shooting death of Michael Brown. The other is taking a much broader look at police conduct involving minorities in Ferguson, Chris.

CUOMO: All right Ana, and just as a matter of law, the prosecutor, even if the grand jury doesn't return a true bill, he could still prosecute. It's part of his prerogative. So there is much that remains to be seen.

Let's bring in Gabe Crocker. He's the president of the St. Louis County Police Association. Gabe, it's good to have you with us. What the police do here is going to be pivotal -- always a pleasure. And this outcome is very relevant to the brothers and sisters who are trying to protect the communities as well. So let me ask you, do you have different sets of protocols and dispositions based on what the outcome of the grand jury decision is?

GABE CROCKER, PRESIDENT, ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE ASSOCIATION: Well, you know, we have in St. Louis, St. Louis County, the St. Louis region, we have a unified command. I'm sure you've heard a lot about it. Our chief of police John Belmar, the city police chief and the captain from the Missouri state highway patrol have worked on these plans with all of their command personnel over the last several weeks. So there are different areas that are more hot spot like, like the Shaw neighborhood in St. Louis City, or certainly West Florissant up in Ferguson, and of course here outside the courthouse where we're expecting that grand jury announcement any time.

So really, there are different areas that we expect different levels, and of course we've got police officers and first responders that are in these areas. There is a plan in place. We're trying to secure these areas, protect life, protect property, and make sure that, you know, that, you know, we don't lose anybody in these situations.

CUOMO: Lessons learned from the last time around in terms of where to be and how to be?

CROCKER: Oh absolutely. I mean, and you know, we also have the opportunity to do a lot more planning. You know last time, it just, everything exploded on us so quickly, it really flashed on us. So we were behind the curve from the very beginning. This time we've had a lot more time to prepare. We've had, you know, a lot more time for larger police departments and smaller police departments to work together, establish command posts, and put particular officers in certain locations. So we're much, much more prepared this time. CUOMO: And how worried are you about the outside bad guys, the FBI

making arrests on two people trying to get materials in an undercover operation to make pipe bombs? That's a different level of nasty than what we saw the last time. Pipe bomb versus a water bottle is no joke. How concerned are you about maybe more of those guys out there?

CROCKER: What you're really asking me is how concerned I am about domestic terrorism, because that's not protesting. That's not a First Amendment thing. That's people that are trying to place bombs, and we can go back in our history the last 20 years ago and talk about domestic terrorism that occurred right here.

So that's, of course we're very, very worried, as we have been even since August when we, again, when we were behind the curve a little bit. But we started to realize quickly that most of the people in St. Louis, especially in Ferguson, weren't the one that were actually causing the problems by and large, that is. We had a lot of outside groups that were here quite frankly to have a little bit of fun, and it was at the expense of a lot of very, very good, hardworking, decent people here in the St. Louis region.

CUOMO: Being an agitator versus a pipe bomb is two very different degrees of involvement, so hopefully you guys are on top of that. Do you think you need the National Guard there?

CROCKER: Yes. And I actually agreed with that decision to do that. The National Guard, you know, of course there is an immediate accusation of you're militarizing the situation. That's completely unfair and that's just simply people that are not informed about the situation making that call.

What that was is and what it is now is they are there to provide support to law enforcement. You know, guarding parking garages, guarding strip malls, things of that nature, which frees up additional police officers and patrol cars that can be out in the communities doing what we need to do in direct contact with the protesters. And that, of course then you have the National Guard, and they're basically back filling roles for us, and that's extremely helpful to law enforcement.

CUOMO: I mean, but you understand the concern just on the level of optics. You've got guys in Humvees with 50 cals on top, you know, it sends a message. What their role is relevant as well.

CROCKER: That's not true. That's not true. There's no 50 cals on the top of those. These are Humvees. By the way I can go to any used car dealership around here --

CUOMO: Not like that, you can't.

CROCKER: I'm not trying to be argumentative with you. I'm just saying -- not with a gun. You know, and you know, sure they're going to have those vehicles available to them. They're not going to be armed with machine guns on the top and no cannons or anything like that. They're backfilling positions. Listen, if you want them in a Prius, we can do that too. It's just

that these are the vehicles that they have, and that's what they're going to use. By the way, if it's a Humvee that makes a St. Louis community safer and protects us from what we just said, domestic terrorists planning to put bombs in the area or people that are looking to burn down businesses or kill police officers, the more Humvees the better in my opinion, and I don't think very many people in St. Louis disagree with me on that one.

CUOMO: Safety is certainly the priority. Gabe Crocker, thank you very much for being with us.

CROCKER: You bet.

CUOMO: Hopefully all the preparations are much more than as needed to deal with whatever the outcome is. I'll see you out there.

CROCKER: Thanks, Chris.

CUOMO: Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris, we have some breaking news this morning to get to. The deadline for a deal on Iran's nuclear program is being extended until next summer. Six world powers agreed to this extension with Iran. So what does mean? Let's get to CNN's chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto live in Vienna. What does it mean, Jim?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Alisyn, a western diplomat telling us these new details just now, that that deadline extended for a final agreement to July 1st, next year, and for a political agreement, general principles, you can say, until March 1st next year. You do the math, that's eight months from now, 20 months from when the interim agreement was first signed last November. That's a lot of time to have a lot of these questions unresolved, particularly keeping in mind the political pressure that certainly American negotiators are under back home with a Republican- led Congress going to be starting in January, but also back in Iran.

And it means that you've had Secretary Kerry working this, certainly not just for the last few days, but for weeks and months, and they could not come to agreement to close those gaps on those big issues.

What does that mean to people back home? It means the big questions of what exactly is the nature of Iran's nuclear program? Do they fess up to detail us about past efforts to make a nuclear weapon? What rights will Iran retain going forward in terms of enriching uranium, which is a step towards making a bomb even if you don't go further than that, all those questions will not have final answers now for a number of months.

Now, when I speak to members of the diplomats involved in the negotiations, they say that they would not keep talking unless there was something to talk about, unless they felt that there was a good chance they could come to an agreement on the issues. The fact is they're going to start those talks yet again just in the next couple of weeks, but they've given themselves a lot of time, Alisyn, to resolve the issues, and it means for folks watching this back home and for the Obama administration, the Iranian leadership, those questions will remain unanswered for some time.

CAMEROTA: Let's hope that restart proves productive. Jim Sciutto, thanks so much for explaining that.

There's more news. Let's get over to Michaela right now.

PEREIRA: All right, good morning. Once, again, here are your headlines. Afghanistan's parliament approving agreements with the U.S. and NATO allowing troops to remain beyond the end of the year when the mission was supposed to end. And 12,000 international troops will remain, that number is unchanged. What does change is their role. President Obama approved new guidelines allowing American troops to engage Taliban fighters in addition to Al Qaeda.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham with a sharp rebuttal to a new House committee report on the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. He calls it, quote, "full of crap and garbage," and says the House intelligence committee, let by his own party, is doing a lousy job. The report says the White House didn't mislead anyone despite flawed talking points.

One person is dead and 30 others injured after a bus ran off a freeway and flipped in California. It happened early Sunday about 100 miles just south of the Oregon border. Earlier in the very same trip that bus driver crashed into a Denny's restaurant but continued on when no one was injured. Investigators say the driver, who is being held for questioning, showed signs of fatigue.

Good weekend for the latest "Hunger Games" film. Over the weekend in the box office, "Mockingjay Part One," had the year's biggest opening weekend, bringing in a whopping $123 million. Now, they may seem like big numbers. They're actually lower than opening weekends for the first two films in the franchise, but still a big win for them.

CUOMO: She said it was good.

PEREIRA: She like it.

CUOMO: I was a little disappointed she didn't ask me to take her. I thought it was going to be an end run around that I'm a little old to be going to see the movie.

PEREIRA: Nope.

CAMEROTA: Denied.

CUOMO: She went with another girl and two boys.

PEREIRA: Sorry, dad.

CAMEROTA: A new era. She doesn't to want go on a date with daddy.

CUOMO: I had to wait a little longer than usual outside the movie theater, daddy did.

PEREIRA: Oh.

CUOMO: Ready to hop over there and deal a beating. But she said it was a good movie.

CAMEROTA: Really? I think it's a calorie burner. It makes you stressed out to watch it.

CUOMO: Well, then that's good. I'll see it twice.

CAMEROTA: There you go.

All right, stick around for this, because there's another woman from Bill Cosby's past who claims the comedian sexually assaulted her. The disturbing details and the words she has for Cosby in her first national interview.

CUOMO: Plus, did the University of Virginia ignore student's rape claims? That's the question and we're talking live with a professor and an alum of the school for answers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: In the past two weeks, at least 15 women have come forward accusing comedian Bill Cosby of sexual assault or rape. Some of these women, like the one you're about to meet, kept the alleged assault secret from their closest friends and family for decades.

On social media, people are skeptical of the accusers. Many have suggested the women are doing this for money or fame.

I sat down with Kristina Ruehli for her first national interview. She says Cosby assaulted her in 1965 and I asked her whether she has ever tried to get money for her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTINA RUEHLI, ALLEGES BILL COSBY SEXUALLY ASSAULTED HER: I am a very -- a woman that's very comfortable financially. I'm really happy. I have everything. I don't want his money, or anyone else's.

CAMEROTA: So, then, why are you coming forward?

RUEHLI: Two reasons. One, I don't like to see these other women who had similar experiences called liars and trashed in the media when I know that I can speak for them. And the second was that it might encourage others, because I thought, well, these are all new that I didn't know about and there may be dozens, or hundreds of other victims.

CAMEROTA (voice-over): Seventy-one-year-old Kristina Ruehli says her encounter with comedian Bill Cosby took place in 1965 when she was 22 years old, making hers the earliest known alleged case. She was working as a secretary at a talent agency when she says Cosby invited her and several co-workers to a party at his house. (on camera): You get to the party, or the beginning of what you think

will be a party. And he prepares a cocktail for you.

RUEHLI: Yes. Bourbon and 7, that was sort of the standard thing for me to drink at that time.

CAMEROTA: You have two drinks.

RUEHLI: I had two drinks that I'm clear about.

CAMEROTA: And then what happened?

RUEHLI: I don't remember a thing. It went blank.

When you're in that kind of a foggy state, you don't think of anything, but that you had drunk too much. So I must have passed out again, because when I awakened again, I found myself on a bed.

CAMEROTA: And then what happened?

RUEHLI: He was there, he had his shirt off, and I believe he had his pants off. It's pretty groggy. And he had his hand on the back of my head.

CAMEROTA (voice-over): She says he then tried to force her to perform oral sex.

RUEHLI: And so, I lifted my head away, I think it surprised him. I lifted my head away, and pulled myself away immediately. And I went into the bathroom, and I threw up, and I know I threw up a couple of times. When I finished, I came out and he was gone.

CAMEROTA: Kristina believes it could have been worse. Cosby could have raped her. A few months after the alleged incident, she says she told her boyfriend at the time what happened.

(on camera): Did you tell anyone else other than your boyfriend?

RUEHLI: I might have, I might have, but it's something that sort of maybe you would term your boyfriend, but not girlfriends. Things were different. You talked about different things. You didn't talk about date rape with girlfriend.

CAMEROTA: Did it ever occur to you to go to the police?

RUEHLI: No. He had no injured me. What had he done? Exposed himself to me, but this was the '60s. And it never occurred to me to go to the police. I just went on with my life.

CAMEROTA: People are skeptical.

RUEHLI: I know.

CAMEROTA: That Bill Cosby did this to you and to the other women. Bill Cosby was a likable, beloved --

RUEHLI: He was likable.

CAMEROTA: -- back in the '70s, '60s and '70s, why did he have to resort to drugging women?

RUEHLI: I don't think he's very attractive, or sexy. I guess that's just my viewpoint.

Maybe he is an adequate -- maybe he is inadequate inside. But I heard that this was a routine of his, all the time. Rape is about power, not sex. Rape is about anger, not sex. And until he had the series "I Spy", which was the series he had then, he was just a comedian. And the power that he found in his hands, he abused.

CAMEROTA (voice-over): In 2005, 40 years later, Kristina read about another alleged victim, Andrea Constand, she filed a lawsuit against Cosby and Kristina wanted to help. Becoming one of the 13 Jane Doe's in the case, which was settled for an undisclosed amount with Constand.

(on camera): So, you basically volunteered your services, and your memory --

RUEHLI: Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- to this other lawsuit, but you did not stand to gain financially from being a part of this lawsuit.

RUEHLI: Oh no. And I didn't need it, and I didn't need the aggravation, but I thought, what's the worst thing that can happen to me that somebody calls me a liar.

CAMEROTA: I want to read you a statement from Bill Cosby's attorney.

RUEHLI: Uh-huh.

CAMEROTA: Lawsuits are filed against people in the public eye every day. There has never been a shortage of lawyers willing to represent people with claims against rich, powerful men, so it makes no sense that not one of these new women who have just come forward for the first time now ever asserted a legal claim back at the time they alleged they have been sexually assaulted.

RUEHLI: Well, lawyers can be hired by rich, powerful men to speak for them when they are silent.

That's my answer.

CAMEROTA (voice-over): Cosby's attorneys did not provide CNN with a response specific to Kristina's claims.

(on camera): What do you think is going to happen next? Do you think that there's such a dim now that's been created by the more than dozen women, yourself included, who come forward, that he must respond?

RUEHLI: I think more will come from the word, whatever you follow here, it doesn't end with me. CAMEROTA: Do you think it's time for Bill Cosby to come forward and

say something?

RUEHLI: I do. I wish he had the courage. I wish he had the balls.

Who would want 15 minutes of this kind of, not fame, shame?

So, I'm here -- not that I think I'm this great, courageous character person, but to say to the others who have come forward and who I hope will come forward, it's -- it takes courage.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: All right. So, she answers a lot of the questions that have been on social media. Are you doing it for money? Are you doing it for notoriety or fame somehow? She addresses those directly.

When we tabulated the Facebook response on the NEW DAY Facebook page, it was 3-1 last week in favor of Cosby -- supporting Cosby and rejecting the women's stories. Maybe today, it's changing, but she just gets right to the heart of the matter. She was very candid. I don't need money, I'm coming forward to support all of the --

PEREIRA: Standing in solidarity with these other women. I'm getting so frustrated when I hear people say, why do you keep covering the story? Why do you keep cover this story? Because these allegations are too loud for us to ignore. If this is happening, we have to shine a light on this.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: Right. The question is what are you going to do about it? You know? What happens here?

There is an inherent frustration, they're coming forward at great personal risk --

PEREIRA: Make somebody take responsibility.

CUOMO: -- and then what happens? I mean, the chance he decides to go on television and give an answer, different than that in the past is a very remote suggestion. Although, she made a point there that I misunderstood the first time you just explained. Who would want these 15 minutes of shame?

That may apply equally to Cosby. If he's saying this is untrue, how long will he take it? You know what I mean? How long will he take it?

CAMEROTA: She was talking about the women, why would they want to come forward?

CUOMO: I know.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Strong point.

CAMEROTA: Here's a comment that just came in on Facebook that I just have to read because of the misunderstanding that I believe it is warranted here. Joshua writes, "To me, it's not a question of whether I believe them, the women, Cosby tried to seduce them, they said no, he stopped, and in one case, the woman got back in his car and let him drive her home."

That's not seduction, Joshua, if what they are alleging happened, happened. He allegedly drugged them and attacked them. You have an interesting view of seduction.

PEREIRA: This is where I think it's just, you know, social media gets, I don't know that it's necessarily helpful in this kind of situation because it just propagates mistruths instead of --

CUOMO: Especially Facebook, Twitter, Facebook can be different, but Twitter really is just hate bait.

CAMEROTA: Well, we're trying to take the temperature of the viewers and of Americans in terms of their response to the Cosby things. So, I don't know if this is representative of how people are really --

CUOMO: No, I think there are a lot -- there's a range of opinions, not that big of a range on this. I think, when you look online, there's some reasonable people find themselves in one position. You should ask yourselves, why do you give so much difference to a celebrity in terms of benefit of the doubt than you do of people in general? Especially when it comes to black men in general. It's a very interesting dynamic going on.

All right. Another story -- by the way, that was a hell of an interview.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

CUOMO: Biblical proportions, that's what they fear in buffalo because feet of snow now unprecedented floods, that's what they're worried about. An outcome there of biblical proportions. People being forced from their homes. Are they ready? Can they be? We have a live report ahead.

CAMEROTA: Plus, healthcare.gov facing problems. We're not talking technical glitches. The president's health care law facing major legal hurdles. We will speak live with Kathleen Sebelius, the former secretary of Health and Human Services.

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