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FSU Quarterback Charged with Crime; Interview with Florida Prosecutor; Does Bill Cosby Have Somnophilia? Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 08, 2015 - 08:30   ET

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

JEWEL ALLISON, AUTHOR & ACTIVIST: But at the same time, I have learned that it's important to come forward and speak the truth. This has fallen at the doorstep of the African-American community.

[08:30:02] And now I think we need to decide what we're going to do with it. Are we going to leave it on the doorstep or are we going to bring it inside and deal with it with the veracity and the courage and the faith that we as a people are known to have to deal with and push forward. Because when this initially came out, a lot of the talk on the Internet was that it was only white women.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

ALLISON: And all you saw were write women.

PEREIRA: That's not the case.

ALLISON: And this black man. And that was also one of the things that -- that made me come forward. I was just like, no, this is going totally in the wrong direction.

PEREIRA: Well, both you and Kaya (ph) have been incredibly brave to speak with us. We're so glad you could join us. Kaya, Jewel, thanks so much for being with us today on NEW DAY and sharing your thoughts.

ALLISON: Thank you.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you.

Tune in tonight at 9:00 p.m. to CNN's special report. It's called "No Laughing Matter: Inside the Cosby Allegations." It retraces the steps of this entire case.

Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, another controversy we're going to take on after the break. Florida State's quarterback kicked off the team, facing charged after punching a woman in the face at a bar, as you just saw. Now his lawyer had some interesting points to make about why this happened and why this is being done to him. We're going to have the state attorney prosecuting the case on and ask him what his take is on this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:35:39] PEREIRA: All right, time now for the five things to know for your new day.

At number one, CNN has learned the man who allegedly shot a San Francisco woman used a federal agent's gun. The "San Francisco Chronicle" says the weapon was stolen from the agent's car last month.

Hillary Clinton talking exclusively to CNN in her first sit-down of the 2016 campaign. Clinton saying people, quote, "should and do" trust her, blaming attacks from the Republicans for creating the perception that people don't.

Mounting fallout for Bill Cosby. Disney removing a statue of the TV icon. Two new networks pulling reruns of "The Cosby Show." All of this after revelations that Cosby testified he got sedatives in order to give women he wanted to sleep with.

The South Carolina house reconvening today to take up a bill to remove a confederate flag outside the statehouse. The house already voting overwhelmingly to send the bill directly to the floor for debate.

FBI Director James Comey on The Hill later today. He'll be talking cyber security in the wake of several highly publicized hacks. He'll discuss the threat America faces of going dark because of cyber terror.

For more on the five things, be sure to visit newdaycnn.com for the latest.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Michaela.

Well, a former Florida State quarterback's punch of a woman was caught on camera. We will ask the prosecutor on this case what he thinks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:40:54] CUOMO: All right, when you see this video that we're going to show you, you'll see that the pictures tell the story. Now former Florida State quarterback De'Andre Johnson, the words exchanged, grabbing ensues, and then what you just saw there, violence. He was kicked off the team when this video surfaced and he's facing misdemeanor battery charges. Johnson's attorney says the woman was the aggressor and used racial slurs toward Johnson. So, where does the state's case stand? Let's ask William Meggs. He's the state attorney in Florida prosecuting this case.

Mr. Prosecutor, pleasure to have you on the show, as always. What is the case against Johnson?

WILLIAM MEGGS, FLORIDA STATE ATTORNEY: Well, I mean, you know, the -- it was reported to -- an off duty police officer made the initial report that was working security at the place. And then we didn't know much about it until the video was provided to us and an investigator with the police department brought the case to us. We looked at the video, which is obviously very disturbing, and made a decision that there was, in fact, the battery. We looked at all aspects of the case, about whether or not it was --

he was acting in self-defense. And I think the video clearly shows that he was not. And we've, obviously, interviewed the victim in the case and she is well prepared to go forward with a prosecution. And we intend to go forward with a prosecution.

CUOMO: Did she mention anything during her interview about what she might have said to him? And does it matter what she said to him or did to him before he hit her?

MEGGS: Well, from my -- from her perspective and my conversation with her, the idea that there was some kind of a racial statement made is simply not true. Basically she was being pushed by an elbow and a body into the -- you know, by him into the -- into the person sitting next to her and she basically turned around and told him, get off of me, I was here first. And at that point, the video doesn't clearly show it, but with her testimony and you can see it, that he was holding her left hand. And that's when she turned around and made the right fist and basically saying, get off of me, get away from me. And then that's when he released her left hand, grabbed her right hand. She took a pretty weak swing at him with the left hand, missed, and then he popped her in the -- in the face.

CUOMO: That does appear to be what we see on the video. Now, going and assessing the behavior of a Florida State student, football player, not new for you. You obviously had to take a look at the Jameis Winston case. There decided not to move forward. And I bring it up because the attorney in this case, Jose Baez, said something that triggered a thought with me. I want to play for you what he said and then I'll ask you the question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSE BAEZ, ATTORNEY FOR DE'ANDRE JOHNSON: So does he think he is a celebrated athlete? No, he's not a star. He was a star recruit, but that doesn't make him a star on the team. In fact, he wasn't in line to be the starting quarterback this year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: If De'Andre Johnson was the star, was Jameis Winston, would he too not have had a case made against him by your office?

MEGGS: You know, his status, his position, who he is, has nothing to do with the decision we make about whether to prosecute. We prosecute batteries all the time in county court. And so it has nothing to do with his status as a football player, a starter, a nonstarter or anyone else. You know, we looked at the facts of the case and we moved forward with a prosecution on him, as we would do with anyone else similarly situated.

[08:45:00] CUOMO: Criticism is coming from the fact that, well, you've got the videotape, you almost have to make a case here. With Jameis Winston, where you didn't have videotape, you didn't make the case where may people believed that you did have a basis for bringing a case. Do you accept that criticism? MEGGS: You know, I'm pretty used to criticism. We get criticized no

matter what we do. But we -- our office got involved in the Jameis Winston case some ten months after the event. And there were a lot of things that could have been developed earlier had they been developed that could not be developed ten months later.

And as we looked at it, we're pretty confident that things that were not right happened that night, but our burden of proof is did we have a reasonable likelihood of a conviction if we go forward. And after everything and a pretty thorough investigation ten months after the event, we determined we did not have enough to go forward. And that's the rules and we try to follow the rules.

CUOMO: Mr. Prosecutor, Willie Meggs, thank you for joining us on NEW DAY to give us your perspective on this prosecution and what happened with Jameis Winston. Appreciate it.

MEGGS: Well, thank you very much. .

CUOMO: Mick?

PEREIRA: All right, so as we discuss this whole situation with Bill Cosby, he had it all, right? Fame, power. Why would he have to allegedly drug women to have sex with him? There's an interesting theory we're going to explore. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:50:14] PATTI MASTEN, BILL COSBY ACCUSER: He could have had sex with anybody at any time. He was a very wealthy man, a celebrity. But to drug a person and then to violate them like that, that's a sociopath.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That was Bill Cosby accuser Patti Masten expressing a sentiment shared by so many people. Why would the popular, beloved, iconic comedian have to drug and sexually assualt dozens of women? Does Bill Cosby have a rare sexual disorder called somnophilia?

Wendy Walsh is a CNN human behavior expert and a psychologist. She has not treated Bill Cosby but she does know of this disorder. Wendy, great to have you here.

I was, I must say, bowled over when one of Cosby's accusers told me that she has heard of this disorder. It's called somnophilia. It also goes under Sleeping Beauty disorder. And she came to believe that he actually suffers from this.

Let me read to you and our viewer what is the definition is. This comes from a sex researcher at John Hopkins University who labeled this somnophilia. It is described as "a sexual fetish of the marauding-predatory type in which erotic arousal and facilitation or attainment of orgasm are responsive to and dependent on intruding upon an unresponsive partner."

It's almost chilling because so many of his accusers, more than 25, say that he tried to make them unresponsive. What do you know about somnophilia?

WENDY WALSH, CNN HUMAN BEHAVIOR EXPERT: Well, I know that it's one of the sexual paraphilia, and just giving a name to this kind of behavior doesn't really explain why. I will tell you that somnophilia is sometimes a stepping stone to necrophilia. It also is often associated with incest or early life sexual trauma. Perhaps the person who has somnophilia was abused while they were sleeping or half asleep and this is now the schema for sex for them. Or it could be that they have their own emotional depression, anxiety issues that come into performance anxiety, where they can't tolerate the person seeing them or seeing them fail, if you will. And therefore they get somnophilia.

CAMEROTA: It's just so bizarre to conceive of somebody only being sexually aroused by someone being unresponsive and unconscious.

WALSH: You know, human sexuality has so many interesting variations, some completely functional and adaptive. Now, there are people with somnophilia who live functional lives and have functional sex lives because they get consent actually from their partner before the partner falls asleep. There aren't drugs involved. It's not coercive sex. It's just, honey, before you wake up in the morning, can I start without you?

So there is a way to have what we'd call a disorder and make it adaptive.

CAMEROTA: Well, let me ask you about that, Wendy --

WALSH: Now, obviously it's maladaptive when it's a crime.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Well, herein lies the very issue, because obviously he cannot use this as an excuse because there are treatments for it. I mean -- well, you tell me. Are there treatments where -- if he suffered from this, he didn't have to resort to rape? He could have done something behavorial or cognitive?

WALSH: Of course he didn't have to resort to a crime using a weapon called drugs. Yes, we know that. The question is, in the '50s, '60s, '70s, was he self-aware enough to understand, A, that this was a completely disorder that could be treated?

Now, I am not ever saying this is an excuse. Let's make that clear. When I try to help people understand how people get to situations like this, it's about creating an understanding. It's not about forgiving. It's not about excusing. I don't want the victims to feel for one second that he's getting off the hook. Because in our modern culture, this paraphilia when used as rape and used with a drug, is a crime.

CAMEROTA: And from what you know of what these women, 25 accusers, have said, do you believe that Bill Cosby suffers from somnophilia? WALSH: I think he does. I think he suffers from some version of it.

And, remember, there are a litany of comedians who have had mental health disorders. Because Sigmund Freud said the only healthy defense against pain is humor. And so they make this great performance personality for the stage that entertains everybody, but underneath they're suffering a lot. We can begin with Robin Williams and Chris Farley and the suicides, the drug overdoses. There's a long list and history of comedians who we know suffered from mental illness.

[08:55:04] CAMEROTA: Sure, but he --

WALSH: I would go so far as to say as almost all.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but his takes it to a different level of violence and sexual violence is what he's accused of against women.

Wendy Walsh, thank you so much for all of the insight. It's great to get your expertise on this.

Let us know what your take is. We'd love to hear if you think he suffers from something like this sexual disorder. You can tweet us, you can #NewDayCNN, or post a comment on facebook.com/NewDay.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Good Stuff. 15-year-old Andrew Adam is a Civil War reenactor. He plays a drummer boy. Now did you know, many young musicians helped direct the troops died in the Civil War. Very few know it. So as his Eagle Scout community service project, he decided to build a memorial to them. But -- this is the part I love -- not just any memorial. One-half is made in the south exactly. And the other half in the north.

PEREIRA: How about that.

CUOMO: Benches were made in the north out of wood, the south statue sculpted of wood, granite base in the south.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW ADAM, EAGLE SCOUT AND CIVIL WAR REENACTOR: I want them to take away that unity begins with you. I worked with all these people and bringing them together is really important because it shows what we're able to get done as a country. And I'm really glad I was able to put it here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Three years of fund-raising and hard work. The park opened in Gettysburg over the weekend.

[09:00:01] This is an important reminder because of all this Confederate flag stuff. There's more that joins us than that which separates us. CAMEROTA: It's a community, that's great.

PEREIRA: All right, time for "NEWSROOM" with Ana Cabrera in for Carol Costello. Good morning.