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Report: Reserve Deputy's Training Records Falsified; Aaron Hernandez Sentenced to Life in Prison; Civilians Flee as ISIS Surrounds Ramadi; Man Flies into Protected Airspace Near U.S. Capitol. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired April 16, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Explosive allegations about the Oklahoma volunteer deputy who shot and killed an unarmed man.

[05:59:00] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Questions have been raised about whether Bates paid to play deputy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Guilty of murder in the first degree.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sentenced to life without parole.

MEL ROBBINS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR AND LEGAL ANALYST: Aaron Hernandez is a murdering thug.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I forgive the hands of the people that had a hand in my son's murder.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we can all sit here and say we made the right decision.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ISIS advancing into Ramadi. Thousands of refugees fleeing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: NBC News under fire once again. The story of their reporter being kidnapped changes.

RICHARD ENGEL, NBC CHIEF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: We climbed out of the vehicle, and the rebels took us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The integrity of the peacock back in the media crosshairs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, CO-HOST: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, April 16, 6 a.m. in the East. Alisyn and Michaela are off. They told me not to take it personally, and they gave me Poppy Harlow here and John Berman. And we do have breaking news for you this morning. A major

report claiming Tulsa County sheriff's supervisors were ordered to falsify the training records of Robert Bates or else. He is the 73- year-old reserve deputy who accidentally shot an unarmed man, he says, when he confused his gun for a Taser.

Now, we've been told the whole time he was trained. Now that is not as clear.

POPPY HARLOW, CO-HOST: CNN has also just obtained copies of the Bates training record. But they still don't give a full picture at all of his qualifications, or lack of qualification. Those records now being called into question.

This as the Tulsa sheriff's office is planning to audit the reserve program that allowed Bates on the streets with a gun.

Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Ryan Young with the breaking details. Good morning, Ryan.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy.

A new report calls into question whether Robert Bates should have even have been carrying a gun. The newspaper, "Tulsa World," is reporting that some supervisors at the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office were ordered to falsify the training records for Robert Bates.

"Tulsa World" reports that at least three of Bates' supervisors were assigned -- reassigned after refusing to sign the training documents. The report does not say who asked the supervisors to allegedly falsify the records.

The paper says the false records give Bates credit for field training he never completed and firearm certifications he should have not gotten. The training documents obtained by CNN omit the names of the supervisors who signed off on them.

Now, records show in the last seven years Bates has taken a variety of courses, everything from weapons training, including Glock, Taser and rock river training, as well as less-than-lethal delivery system training sessions.

The sheriff's office denies the allegations and the newspaper's report. They also declined CNN's interview request to respond to the claims.

Local media's reporting that the Tulsa sheriff's office plans a major audit of its reserve deputy program, which Robert Bates was a part of, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Ryan. Changing the program is one thing. Whether or not that program was legit with Mr. Bates, very different in light of this new reporting. Thank you for setting the groundwork for us there.

Let's bring in the reporters who are offering this story, Dylan Goforth and Ziva Branstetter. They are of "Tulsa World."

Thanks for both of you being here. Let's just set the table, OK? When this happened with Bates, the police department came out, the sheriff's department, the authorities, they gave us the training documents. They gave us a memo saying that he was trained. His lawyer then came on the show and echoed that sentiment about how don't see him as a 73-year-old business owner; he was just like any other deputy. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT WOOD, ATTORNEY FOR ROBERT BATES: He's got the training. Every news outlet has checked with CLEET, the certifying agency in the state of Oklahoma. And they -- everyone has been told he is a certified reserve deputy in the state of Oklahoma and has all the requisite powers that come with that. He's done the training. He's proven himself on the firing range.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Dylan, what do you make of that statement in light of your reporting?

DYLAN GOFORTH, REPORTER, "TULSA WORLD": Well, from what I understand from talking to CLEET, they receive the records from the sheriff's office and keep them. They don't necessarily go and do it themselves. So them having the records, I don't think necessarily proves that they were not falsified.

CUOMO: Ziva, have you ever heard of the instructors' names being redacted on documents like this?

ZIVA BRANSTETTER, REPORTER, "TULSA WORLD": No, I don't see any purpose for that. You would think the sheriff's office if, in fact, there has been -- has been no pressure applied, no falsification of records, that they would be forthcoming with these documents. We certainly hope they are. We've asked for them. They've said that they don't believe they're public records.

There are hundreds of hours that may have been falsified, at least three supervisors that may have been -- that our sources said were transferred, were disciplined because they refused to sign off on training that Bates never received, including weapons training.

CUOMO: All right. So let's unpack this a little bit. You're saying that your sources tell you basically two big headlines. The first one is he didn't get the training that they say he got. The second one is, and when the training instructors were approached to help falsify his training, some refused, and they were acted upon; they were removed. Do I have it right, Dylan?

GOFORTH: Yes.

CUOMO: And...

GOFORTH: They were. Pretty much immediately, that's what we're being told.

BRANSTETTER: We heard it from numerous sources who didn't know each other, the same details over and over. And we now have records to corroborate this.

CUOMO: All right. So two other big -- let's talk about those records. What do you believe you have that proves it, other than your interviews and reporting?

BRANSTETTER: There's some records we can discuss and some we can't. But Bates in his statement, which we obtained yesterday, said that he had become an advanced deputy in 2007, which requires hundreds of hours of training. That's vast -- that's a different timeline than the sheriff's office has given.

And then the sheriff himself said that they have lost some of his handgun certification records, and they're trying to figure out if he is even certified. We have -- it's been two days ago, and we haven't heard an answer to that. So those -- those definitely kind of line up with what we're being told.

[06:05:15] CUOMO: All right. Let's hear from the sheriff's department. Here's what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't have (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for failure to sign off on his training?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not to my knowledge, no.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So there's never been any concern raised about his training and his...?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not that I'm aware of, no. He has been trained.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, he has 300 hours or almost 300 hours of CLEET-accredited training, and state statute requires 25 hours of continuing education per year. So he is well in excess of what you would anticipate someone would have that was meeting minimum requirements.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But no one has ever expressed concerns about his ability or his training in the sheriff's office?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never to me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the sheriff's office?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In fact, just the opposite.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CUOMO: So Ziva, is this a question of whether or not he has as

many hours as they claim, or whether he has enough hours? I mean, how would you parse it?

BRANSTETTER: Well, I mean, I think if we had the records, we would be able to know for sure.

What we heard, there's two separate issues. The field training hours are when they have experience in the field with officers, who then will sign off on that. What we were told is that the supervisors were told to sign off on 250 hours of training. Most of that, he did not have -- virtually all of that, he did not have.

And then the supervisors at the gun range were told to sign off on his handgun qualification, even though he did not qualify. You have to have a 72, I think, on the third try to be qualified. And he wasn't qualified, as well.

CUOMO: All right. So the big question becomes why, Dylan. And when I'm looking at some of the documents we have here, the dates all seem to be about, like, 2009-ish, 2008. Do you believe that, whatever pressure was applied, that this was done then, at the time that Mr. Bates was trying to be certified, so that he could go on these different police actions, as opposed to now as a cover-up?

GOFORTH: Well, we don't know officially yet. They have to re- train every year. It could have been at any point during that when this was going on. And we don't know, because we haven't seen any of the records that we've asked for.

CUOMO: When did the...

BRANSTETTER: One thing to note is that he...

CUOMO: The trainers that you spoke to.

BRANSTETTER: ... a car to the sheriff's office.

CUOMO: Ziva, I want you to make that point, but here's the question that tees it up, is the trainers who said, "We got pressured and they moved us," was that recently, or was that back when he was originally trying to get on as a deputy?

BRANSTETTER: It was back when he was trying to get on as a deputy. He had already been accepted in the program. Then there was the falsification of the field training records initially. Then the handgun qualification records after that is what we understand.

So it was, you know, back several years ago. And then ever since then he was named reserve deputy of the year in 2011. Ever since then, he's been going on, he said, 100 or so undercover operations.

CUOMO: Do you know why he was reserve deputy of the year? Did he do anything in the field? Any kind of exemplary service or something like that? BRANSTETTER: He may have. We don't have any records of that.

We do know that during that time and a year or two before that and at that time he had given the undercover unit five automobiles, donated that -- those automobiles to the unit, as well as surveillance equipment.

CUOMO: So in terms of motivation here, Dylan, your sources on this point, are they telling you that this was about trying to get the sheriff's pal certified to do what he wanted? I mean, what do they think was going on here?

GOFORTH: I mean, that's been the allegation since - since they brought us his name originally. Was that this was just someone who, you know -- the sheriff had called him a long-time friend that he'd taken on fishing trips. Someone that the sheriff liked and that they wanted him to be able to do what he wanted to do.

CUOMO: One of the last questions here, although this is going to spur a lot more questions. We're going to talk again, and that's for sure. And thank you for bringing the reporting to us this morning. One of the training exercises they did was called the "OKC incident- Obama sign." Do you know what that was, Ziva?

BRANSTETTER: I don't have details on that, but what I'm pretty sure is that it was some kind of free-speech-protest-type situation where someone got angry about a sign, and there was some kind of standoff at a public protest.

I thought some of the names of those training incidents were interesting. There was lots of talk about takedowns of suspects and subduing suspects. And so it was kind of interesting to look at the names of the training courses that he did or he didn't take, I don't know.

CUOMO: All right. It's going to be very interesting to see what the pushback is that you get now, in light of your sourcing coming out and the information you have. We look forward to continuing this conversation because it's not just about what happened on that day. It's about why Mr. Bates was there in the first place and whether he shouldn't have been.

BRANSTETTER: Thank you.

CUOMO: Thank you very much, Dylan Goforth and Ziva Branstetter. Good luck going forward.

GOFORTH: Thank you.

BRANSTETTER: Thank you.

[06:10:04] CUOMO: Now, in the interest of completeness, not only were we reviewing what the sheriff's office said at the presser yesterday, but we asked them to come on this morning. They declined. They did, however, say that "Tulsa World" report is, quote, "unsubstantiated and deceptive" -- Poppy. HARLOW: Aaron Hernandez waking up to a very new reality this

morning, that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars. The former NFL star showed little emotion. But there was plenty of drama in the court as the jury convicted him of first-degree murder, and a judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

Jurors are now speaking out about the verdict. Our Susan Candiotti has been following this -- following this since the beginning. She joins me now from Fall River, Massachusetts, with the details -- Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Poppy.

Aaron Hernandez is waking up this morning in a prison that is not that far from the place where he was once a rich rising star in the NFL, Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots. And while he was heading to that prison, a source tells me he was acting as though it was business as usual.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): "They got it wrong." Aaron Hernandez's words during his transfer to a state prison Wednesday. That prison close to the stadium where he once played as a New England Patriot. A law-enforcement source saying Hernandez telling his jailers, quote, "I didn't do it," hours after being sentenced to life without parole.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Guilty of murder in the first degree.

CANDIOTTI: Hernandez grim-faced as he heard the verdict, with his mother and fiancee in tears and just feet away from the family of victim Odin Lloyd, no less emotional.

Hernandez pursing his lips and appearing to mouth the words, "You're wrong" and then telling his family, "Be strong," and "I'm OK," watching them weep.

A jury finding Hernandez guilty of the 2013 execution-style murder of Odin Lloyd, shot six times. Central to the case: surveillance videos that show the victim on the night of his death getting into a rented Altima with Hernandez and two other men. Other video showing the same car at the industrial park where Lloyd's body was found. And minutes later, that car back in Hernandez's driveway.

Hernandez's own surveillance cameras capture him holding what prosecutors say is the murder weapon. That .45 caliber Glock was never found.

Surprising to the jury, the defense team during closing arguments admitting Hernandez was at the crime scene, saw Lloyd killed but did not shoot him.

After sentencing, jurors tell reporters they found out from the judge that Hernandez now faces trial for double murder in Boston.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That we did the right thing. Yes. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That we did the right thing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.

CANDIOTTI: After the verdict Lloyd's mother addressed her son's killer.

URSULA WARD, ODIN LLOYD'S MOTHER: I forgive the hands of the people that had a hand in my son's murder. And I pray and hope that someday everyone out there will forgive them also.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: And after leaving the courthouse, family and friends of victim Odin Lloyd went to his grave site, releasing balloons in his memory -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Susan Candiotti. They had such nice memories of Odin Lloyd yesterday. Thanks so much, Susan.

New this morning in Iraq, intense fighting in Ramadi with ISIS apparently on the brink of taking that city. In a CNN exclusive, CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon witnessed thousands of civilians fleeing for their lives, many of them heading to Baghdad. Arwa joins us live now from Baghdad with the latest.

Good morning, Arwa.

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And those civilians were fleeing yesterday morning, because ISIS had begun its onslaught into the eastern part of Ramadi. Remember they controlled the north, the south and much of the west.

The vast majority of those we spoke to seem to be completely shell-shocked. They were arriving at a bridge that connects Anbar province to Baghdad, forced to cross on foot because Iraqi officials do not allow vehicles across, piling into these metal carts.

The situation since then much more dire, according to the deputy provincial council had located inside Ramadi. He said that ISIS overnight advancing on all fronts towards the city center, now trying to launch multiple attacks against the government complex, saying for now that Iraqi security forces were able to repel them from that complex. Very strategic territory within the city.

But they will not be able to do so for long. They are quite simply outmanned and outgunned. They have been for weeks now asking for backup from the Iraqi government. The Iraqi government says it sent reinforcements. Those reinforcements have yet to appear. They've also been begging for airstrikes from the Iraqi air force and from the U.S.-led coalition. And those have not been happening in any sort of significant or decisive manner.

[06:15:13] The city right now very well could fall to ISIS. And if that happens, Chris, it would be absolutely devastating to the Iraqi government and to the civilian population.

CUOMO: Arwa, you've been reporting from the beginning that coordination is still very difficult on the ground. Thank you very much. We'll stick with you on this.

In other news, two active members of the Army National Guard are due in federal court today after allegedly trying to sell guns, ammunition and body armor to Mexican drug cartels. It's alleged they made more than a dozen sales to informants working for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco a`nd Firearms. Officials say they were so brazen they wore their Army uniforms while conducting some of the transactions.

HARLOW: Also, potential hurdle for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Despite mounting criticism, a lot of news headlines, the board of the Clinton Foundation has agreed to limit but not eliminate donations from foreign governments. The foundation will continue to accept donations from Australia, Canada and four European countries.

Critics have expressed concerns that these donations could compromise Clinton's presidential bid. Earlier this week, she resigned from the board of the foundation due to her run for the White House.

New details this morning about the Florida man who prompted chaos in Washington after landing a gyrocopter -- do not call it a helicopter -- on the lawn by the Capitol building. Doug Hughes said he did -- did all this to protest political corruption. And it turns out this is not the first time he has been on the radar of the Secret Service.

For the latest, let's get right to CNN aviation correspondent, Rene Marsh. Good morning, Rene.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Here at the Capitol and the area around the White House, it is the most hypersensitive portion of air space, yet this man's actions highlighted the vulnerabilities of what's supposed to be the most secure no-fly zone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is not good, people.

MARSH (voice-over): Apparently undetected and unauthorized. This small aircraft sailing through the most heavily guarded air space in America.

NORA NOUS, WITNESS: Within about 45 seconds of his initial landing there were multiple police cars on the scene.

MARSH: The Florida mailman, 61-year-old Doug Hughes, swarmed by police and a bomb squad after landing on the west lawn of the Capitol building. The bizarre incident throwing the U.S. Capitol into chaos, shutting the area down for hours.

DOUG HUGHES, FLEW INTO PROTECTED AIRSPACE: I had carefully planned it so that nobody would get hurt.

MARSH: In this video published by "The Tampa Bay Times," Hughes says flying the gyrocopter into the no-fly zone was all in protest. And he'd been planning it for years. Strapped to the landing gear, 535 letters, one for every member of Congress, opposing corporate money in politics.

HUGHES: There are these problems and these problems and these problems that are much more important than campaign finance reform. But those won't get addressed until we fix campaign finance reform.

MARSH: Ben Montgomery, a reporter from "The Tampa Bay Times," says they alerted the Secret Service and the Capitol police before takeoff. Not so, says the Secret Service. Montgomery says he was amazed Hughes made it.

BEN MONTGOMERY, REPORTER, "TAMPA BAY TIMES": He was fully prepared to be blown out of the sky long before he ever entered protected air space.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH: Well, we do know that this man took off from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The question is, why didn't anyone intervene before then? NORAD says they didn't scramble any jets, because they didn't hear about it until that gyrocopter already landed.

Back to you, Chris.

CUOMO: That's going to be the concern, right? When did they know, did they react soon enough? We know you'll be on it. Rene, thank you very much.

So former New England Patriot great Aaron Hernandez will spend the rest of his life behind bars. However, it took 35 hours for the jury to deliberate and find him guilty. Why so long? What was going on in that room with what was supposed to be a slam dunk case? We'll hear from the jurors ahead.

HARLOW: Also, is this another black eye for NBC News? The network's chief foreign correspondent changing his story about his time in captivity in Syria three years ago. What he now says really happened. Coming up.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:23:20] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What say you, Madam Foreperson? Is the defendant not guilty, guilty of murder in the first degree, or guilty of murder in the second degree?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Guilty of murder in the first degree. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: It took the jury more than 35 hours, but the consensus was clear yesterday. Aaron Hernandez will now spend the rest of his life in prison. How did the jury reach its decision? And the legal challenges still ahead for the former NFL star, now convicted murderer.

Let's bring back in Susan Candiotti, who was in the courtroom throughout this trial, and Mel Robbins, CNN commentator and legal analyst.

Susan, let me begin with you. I know you've been covering this from the beginning from far before the trial began. You sat there yesterday as the jury read its verdict. And you stared at Aaron Hernandez. Take us to that moment. And also tell us what you've learned from the police officers and those that were escorting him after he was handcuffed.

CANDIOTTI: You know, sitting in the courtroom just a mere feet away from him. Of course, watching him for his every movement when that verdict was read.

And as soon as it happened, again, little emotion showing on his face, but he immediately turns and looks to whom? To his fiancee and his mother, who by then are openly weeping in each other's arms. And what struck -- what struck me, that is that he just kept turning and looking at them and at one time appearing to mouth the words "Be strong."

So that was as terrible to watch as it was to look over, perhaps more so, where the victim's mother was seated when she lifted her arms up in the air and pumped her arms as if in great relief that, finally, she got the justice she said that she sought. So that was interesting to follow along that point.

[06:25:08] And when he left the courthouse, a source tells me that he was telling his jailers on his way to his new prison that, he said, "They got it wrong. I didn't do anything wrong." And so, apparently, it still hasn't set in yet, or he knows he is already facing another trial coming up.

HARLOW: And, Mel, what was so interesting was how quickly this all progressed after the verdict. You saw all 15 jurors, including the alternates, come out, give a lengthy press conference, answer most of the questions that were posed to them, and say that they will only speak in unison. Do you recall a group of jurors so unified?

ROBBINS: You know, I actually don't. And I actually don't recall a press conference like that, Poppy, immediately following a verdict where you have every single juror present.

As somebody that covers trials, it was fascinating to learn firsthand exactly what they were thinking and exactly which pieces of testimony they gave a lot of weight to and they found compelling, namely Bob Kraft, the owner of the Patriots, and which pieces they found, quote, "baffling and unbelievable," which was the theory -- much of the theory of the defense, Poppy.

HARLOW: So let's take a listen to one of the jurors responding to how critical that testimony from the owner of the Patriots, Robert Kraft, was. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One part for me was Aaron's alleged statement that he wished at the time that Odin was murdered -- was made public. Because he was at a club at that time. To this day we just went through a three-month trial. This is now a year and a half or two years later. We still don't know the exact time of Odin's murder specifically. So I don't know how Aaron would have had that information two years ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Mel, as a lawyer, as someone who follows these trials very closely, what does it tell you that they latched on as a group to something so nuanced? A little bit of a timeline from one of 130-plus witnesses for the prosecution?

ROBBINS: Well, it tells us a couple things. I mean, first of all, one of the reasons why they took 35 hours is, as they said, it was information overload, and they wanted to get it right. And what I found fascinating about it, Poppy, is the fact that it's probably Aaron Hernandez's behavior after the murder that convicted him of first-degree murder because of how he acted indifferent, how he lied, brandishing the gun at his house, that ultimately tipped the scales.

And it's a distinction with a difference. Had they found him guilty of murder in the second degree, it would not be a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. He would have been eligible for parole in 15 years, Poppy.

HARLOW: Susan, the headline, of course, because this is a former NFL star, and his fall from fame and a $40 million contract is Aaron Hernandez. The fact is the headline should be Odin Lloyd, and it should be his family. And it should be what they're going through.

Can you tell us, Susan, what the reaction was from Odin Lloyd's family? Do they feel a sense of closure here?

CANDIOTTI: Well, I think that you have a degree of what their feeling is when you heard those very emotional words from his mother, who stood before the court and said that she's able to forgive those, she said, the people who are responsible for her only son's murder.

And that's -- I think, was a very telling moment about the pain that she is going through. And yet how she is trying to move ahead with this.

And you know, she goes to his grave site each and every day. And yesterday no different, being there to meet with him and talk with him, as she said she does every day. They said that his -- his departure from this world from day one, she said, has left a hole in her heart. And at one point indicated she wished that she had been with him. But she knows now that she has to go on for her family.

HARLOW: The heartbreak of a mother who has lost her child. Susan Candiotti, excellent reporting for months and months all around this trial. Thank you so much. Mel Robbins, thank you for the analysis. I appreciate it -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Poppy. The 2016 race for the White House is heating up. Hillary Clinton walking the walk in Iowa, but when will she start talking the talk? She says she's going to start rolling out her platforms, quote, "soon," unquote. What we can expect and when, ahead.

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