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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Pope John Paul II Undergoes Tracheotomy; Martha Stewart Gets Ready to Return

Aired February 24, 2005 - 19:00   ET

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

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


ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Good evening from New York. I'm Anderson Cooper.
Pope John Paul II on a respirator after a serious medical setback.

360 starts now.

Pope John Paul undergoes surgery. Tonight, the latest on his condition and his prognosis for recovery.

The danger your kids face behind the wheel. What's behind the dramatic drop in teen driving deaths? Will it mean your kids won't get their license so soon?

Martha Stewart readies to return. But will she become CEO of the company she once created?

Michael Jackson prepares for trial. The case hinges on a child's testimony. Tonight, we take you beyond the headlines, the case that put child testimony under a microscope.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember my family and me standing against the world, and no one believing us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: An in-depth look at the McMartin Preschool trial, a 20th century witch hunt.

And, don't like the food in a restaurant? You might want to think twice before sending it back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can put Visine in somebody's drink and give them terrible diarrhea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Tonight, what really happens inside those restaurant kitchens.

ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.

COOPER: And good evening to you. We hope your day has been a good one.

We begin tonight with hope, hope and prayers as millions around the world watch and wait to see what will happen with John Paul II.

Right now, in a Rome hospital, he is recovering from what the Vatican is calling a relapse of the flu. That's a live shot of the clinic right there. He's also recovering from surgery. He had a 30- minute operation, doctors performing a tracheotomy, cutting a hole in the pope's windpipe to help him breathe.

The pope was rushed to the hospital this morning, just two weeks after he'd been released. Short time ago, a top Italian government official who saw the pope after surgery made this statement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIANNI LETTA, SPOKESMAN FOR ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): When he woke up, with the same spirit, he went like this with his hand, as if he wanted to say, I'm still going to approach you. So it means he's fine. The doctors are satisfied with the way he has undergone the surgery, and also as far as the first hours after the surgery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, no details of exactly what the pope's condition is are being closely held by the Vatican.

We have extensive coverage tonight, beginning with CNN's Vatican analyst Delia Gallagher, who is in Rome tonight. Delia, last time Vatican officials seemed to downplay the pope's illness. Are they doing that tonight?

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: Well, no, they can't hide it tonight. He had the operation, and they had to come out and say that's what happened.

One of the things, of course, Anderson, that we are able to watch closely here is, when the pope goes into hospital and when he comes out, we can see him a few days after that. He tries to make those appearances. He made an appearance from the hospital window two weeks ago when he was in last time.

So we're able to monitor what the Vatican is telling us versus what we see the pope's condition to be. SO all indications tonight are that the operation went successfully and the pope is resting, Anderson.

COOPER: Papal resignations are rare. They're not unprecedented. Is there a possibility that the pope might resign? And how would he go about doing that?

GALLAGHER: Well, the pope can resign, according to church law, that is open to him. However, he has indicated before many times in the past that he has no indication of -- he has no intention of doing so.

You know, the pope doesn't feel that this is a job like any other from which you can resign. He considers himself the father of the Catholic Church. It is a vocation for him, and furthermore, it's a vocation which was given to him by God, in his understanding. And therefore, it -- he doesn't have the right to take it away, only God does. And God will do that with his death. That's the pope's thinking on this.

However, it is a possibility for him. And some of the cardinals have suggested, Well, let's leave it up to his conscience, because no what -- nobody else can make him do it. He has to sign the paper and say, I resign, I am in full mental capacities, and I choose to resign.

COOPER: Delia Gallagher reporting live from Rome for us. Thank you very much, Delia. She'll be standing by, of course, throughout this hour as we continue to follow the pope's condition.

Let's talk now about the actual medical condition the pope has. CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins for that from Atlanta to look at the medical angle on the story.

Sanjay, how common is it for someone with the flu to get a tracheotomy?

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Very uncommon. You know, certainly, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), given his advanced age and his other medical problems, he falls into a different category than just your average person with the flu.

Now, most people do recover from the flu well. But, you know, let me just show you, Anderson, because you were alluding to this earlier in terms of what a tracheotomy is. Typically, what people will do is actually make a little -- you see the little model here -- they make an incision in the neck and actually find the windpipe, which is right here.

And I've actually (UNINTELLIGIBLE) what a tracheotomy actually looks like, the actual device, and that is actually inserted right into the windpipe and provides a new airway, as you can see here. That's what it sort of looks like.

The point of this, Anderson, is to secure the airway, which is mission number one after he was in the hospital.

Now, as far as how he's going to do in the longer term over the next few days or so, that's a little bit harder to tell. The general anesthesia, the biggest risk of an operation like this, what we're hearing, it looks like he's coming along OK.

COOPER: Of course, he's 84 years old. For anyone, surgery is difficult for a man that age. How big of a concern is pneumonia? And what would that mean from the pope? GUPTA: It's a big concern, Anderson. When we talk about the flu, when people talk about people dying from the flu, what they really mean is the complications of that, pneumonia being one of the biggest ones. Pneumonia, what that really means is a bacterial infection in the lungs. It's a concern, which may have been part of the reason this tracheotomy was performed. They can actually not only give him an airway but also may be able to clean his lungs a little bit better through that tracheostomy device as well, Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks, covering the medical angle for us tonight.

We're, as we said, we're going to be monitoring the pope's condition around the clock. We'll bring you any updates in this next hour as they happen.

Pope John Paul was very quick to offer his prayers for the victims of the tsunami in Asia. And tonight, we have a remarkable story about two of those victims.

On a beach in Thailand, a camera washed ashore. Stored in its memory, this picture, John and Jackie (ph) Knill on their vacation. It's a vacation they did not come home from. They didn't survive the tsunami, but their camera did. It is a silent witness to their final hours.

CNN's Frank Buckley has the photos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They knew their parents were there when the tsunami hit. And days later, the Knill brothers of Vancouver received the awful confirmation. Their mother, Jackie, and their father, John, had perished in the waters.

CHRISTIAN KNILL, OLDEST SON: So there was a bit of hope, but, you know, now it's gone.

BUCKLEY (on camera): And like so many other loved ones of the victims, they were left with the question, How did they die?

(voice-over): And then this month, it was as if John and Jackie Knill spoke to their boys through these pictures that they apparently snapped as the tsunami roared ashore. The beach, the water suddenly recedes. People are curious. Then, a wave in the distance. It's getting closer. Some start to run. The water is churning. And then it's upon them.

A final shot shows the wave hitting the beach.

PATRICK KNILL, MIDDLE SON: They were probably thinking, OK, let's try to get this, so if, by chance, it does get to somebody, they'll be able to see what happened, you know? And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I know they were together, because they were always together.

BUCKLEY: The brothers knew, because other shots showed their parents enjoying their vacation, and because this man, Christian Pilet, a missionary from Seattle, was determined to find out who the couple was when he and a colleague found a smashed-up digital camera amid debris in the disaster zone.

CHRISTIAN PILET, FOUND THE KNILLS' CAMERA: I said, Well, you know, my idea was, We'll just junk it, we don't need it. And he said, Oh, hold on. And he pulls out the compact flash. And he says, You never know, the little card might have recorded something.

BUCKLEY: They popped it into their laptop, and up came the images.

But who were these people in the images? They checked embassies, to no avail. When Pilet returned to Seattle, he and his wife searched Internet sites for the missing.

Almost immediately, they found the Knills.

PILET: We were glad to be able to give them this back to them. If anything, it's a gift to the sons from their parents.

BUCKLEY: Frank Buckley, CNN, Vancouver, British Columbia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Amazing.

Coming up next on 360, Martha Stewart taking charge. She's walking free next week and planning a big comeback. We have details on that, plus some new information on exactly how she's going to be spending her time under house arrest. It's a fascinating look at what house arrest really means.

Also tonight, are you worried about your teens getting behind the wheel? Well, there's a new study out that has some dramatic numbers about the drop in teen deaths, and maybe some new laws and new technology to keep them from driving so young.

Also a little bit later tonight, false accusations. The McMartin Preschool case, it forever changed the way children are questioned about sexual abuse. Tonight, the challenge of sorting out fact from fiction when kids are on the witness stand. We take you behind the headlines.

All that ahead. But first, let's look at your picks, the most popular stories on CNN.com right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTHA STEWART: I just have one little joke, because, despite what you all might think, I do have a sense of humor. And I was walking, I was walking in front of the General Motors building the other day, and there were a group of very well-dressed businessmen standing outside. And they looked at me, recognized me, and said, Oh, she's out already.

Well, I hope that my time goes as fast as that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, that was Martha Stewart before she went to prison.

We don't know about her, but time for us has certainly flown. It's hard to believe that her five-month prison sentence ends next week. Her days of scrounging around the prison, collecting dandelion or crabapples for experimental microwaving will soon be over.

And as that release date draws near, one question grows. How will Stewart return to public life?

CNN senior correspondent Allan Chernoff has taken a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nearly a year ago, Martha Stewart left a federal courthouse as a convicted felon, found guilty of lying about a stock sale.

STEWART: And I'll be back. I will be back.

CHERNOFF: Even though she is appealing, Stewart decided to do her time. By October, she was inmate number 55170-054, imprisoned in West Virginia, earning pennies a day as an orderly, a distant tumble from her high society life.

Martha Stewart personified the term "fall from grace."

Stewart had to resign as chief executive of the company she built, and as a director of the New York Stock Exchange. Her fortune took a beating as her company's stock tumbled.

(on camera): Now the scene is set for Martha Stewart's second act. Next week, she's scheduled to leave prison for five months of home detention. But probation rules permit her to come here to her office for work, and that could be the springboard for what may develop into a great American comeback.

(voice-over): Already in place are two television shows, a new daily syndicated program and her own version of "The Apprentice."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE APPRENTICE")

DONALD TRUMP: You're fired.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: She'll write a column for her magazine.

Martha's public awaits. Fans such as executive recruiter Jacqueline Parker... JACQUELINE PARKER, EXECUTIVE RECRUITER: I'm so thrilled that my Martha is going to be back. And I hope she's enjoyed -- has plans to enjoy her life and continue doing the fabulous work that she does, because we need her. Martha, you go, girl.

CHERNOFF: Martha Stewart cannot return as an executive of her company while an SEC case is still pending against her. Susan Line, who is running the company, says she's delighted to have Martha come back.

SUSAN LINE, CEO, MARTHA STEWART LIVING OMNIMEDIA: It's a great story. She's been missed here. She's a fountain of ideas.

CHERNOFF: The stock price has been rising in anticipation of Stewart coming back, having more than tripled since her conviction. Stewart's holdings once again are worth over a billion dollars.

Martha Stewart already is a modern tragic heroine. Now she has a opportunity to turn tragedy into triumph.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, no surprise that Martha Stewart's pending freedom and return to her company is making waves on the Internet, where Web surfers are keeping close track of it.

Also watching it for us tonight, CNN's Rudi Bakhtiar. Every night, she heads into cyberspace to give you a new angle on a story you won't see anywhere else.

Now, you found out quite a bit, a lot of details about what her house arrest is really going to be like.

RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. You know, Web surfers, they love the Martha Stewart story. So we were digging around. It's been one of the popular stories on CNN.com.

Now, Martha's chance to come back as CEO is there, but with her under house arrest, we wanted to know (UNINTELLIGIBLE) business would have to wait, so we did some digging around, and we found out a lot about what Stewart's sentence really means, and why confinement isn't really that confining.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BAKHTIAR: Take a look at Martha's punishment. For the next five months, she'll be holed up here, her $16 million, 153-acre estate in Bedford, New York.

While we know the basics of her probation conditions, we don't know the details. And for that, we spoke to Chris Stanton, the chief probation officer for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He says that Stewart can work 48 hours per week away from her home. That's two full days of business off the estate. And, with permission, she could even travel by plane outside the country.

In addition to those 48 hours, Stewart can be granted by permission by her probation officer to leave her home for medical care, dental care, and grocery shopping.

When she's back under house arrest, though, Stewart must stay in one building on her estate. She can't roam the grounds.

And to make sure of that, probation officials will attach an electronic ankle bracelet, a receiver connected to a phone that goes off whenever she leaves.

And, by the way, Stewart will also have full access to phones and the Internet, where she could pay a visit to her official Web site.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BAKHTIAR: Well, there are some who are saying that Martha Stewart is receiving special treatment, insisting that her house arrest condition is an example of the way white-collar criminals are dealt with in the criminal justice system.

COOPER: So what if she has an emergency?

BAKHTIAR: Yes, we were looking into that. We actually got a copy of her home confinement program participant agreement. And it's...

COOPER: It's amazing what you can find on the Web.

BAKHTIAR: Yes, exactly, one of those things that really was hard to find, actually. But it says in case of an emergency, she has to try to get the permission of her officer. If it's not possible, she has to call the office, officer as soon as she's able to do so.

If she calls during nonbusiness hours, she has to leave a message, including her name, date, time, brief description of the emergency, and the location or destination. And she has to provide proof that there really was an emergency.

COOPER: All right, so there are people saying she's getting special treatment. Is that really true, though? I mean, how, how, how do they determine who gets house arrest, who doesn't?

BAKHTIAR: Well, there's a lot of factors. It depends on a case- by-case system. It depends on whether the house arrest is pretrial or postsentencing. And it depends on the person's health, if they're a flight risk, and various things that take (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

COOPER: It's been around for a long time, house arrest.

BAKHTIAR: You know what we found, which was really interesting, is that Galileo, believe it or not, back in, what was it, 1630, I think, he wrote a book, and he was actually supporting Copernicus's theory of the heliocentricity of the solar system. And the Roman Catholic Church actually sentenced him to life in prison, and then they sort of softened it up to...

COOPER: House arrest.

BAKHTIAR: ... house arrest.

COOPER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BAKHTIAR: Which was, in Italy, in a really nice place in Florence. So, you know...

COOPER: Not too bad.

BAKHTIAR: ... not so bad.

COOPER: That's right. All right, Rudi Bakhtiar, thanks for that.

360 next, the Jackson trial. It hinges on a child's testimony. Tonight, we take you beyond the headlines. An up-close look at the case that put kid witnesses under the microscope. Do you remember this, the McMartin preschool case? False accusations of sexual abuse. We're going to take a look at what really happened in that.

Also tonight, if you're a parent, and you worry about your child driving, we have some new informations. Dramatic drop in numbers of teen driving deaths. That's the good news. The question is, should more states raise the driving age? What you need to know before your kids hit the road.

Also a little later tonight, revenge of the waiters. Food on the floor, Visine in your drinks? Yikes. Yes, a revealing look at what some waiters -- and we're not saying all, just some -- do you hear me, waiters out there? Don't -- just some. We're covering all the angles tonight.

Stay with us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "FERRIS BEULER'S DAY OFF")

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a car.

Oh! Jeanie, what the hell are you doing? You trying to kill us?

Jeanie, slow down, now.

(CROSSTALK)

Jeanie, stop it!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That was a scene there from "Ferris Beuler's Day Off." It's funny stuff.

But, of course, for many of you have teenagers, a kid behind the wheel is no laughing matter. Tonight, there is some very encouraging news, however, for parents. A new study says that the number of deadly crashes involving teenagers has dropped over the past decade.

Now, what your teens may not be happy about is that in part, the drop in deaths is because of tougher driving restrictions that 46 states and the District of Columbia have placed on young drivers.

The question tonight is, should states get even tougher?

CNN national correspondent Bob Franken takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Arturo Betancourt was so proud of his daughter. Alicia (ph) was sensitive, a talented artist. He had asked so many questions that night, been so careful.

DR. ARTURO BETANCOURT, VICTIM'S FATHER: I'd been told by hundreds of parents, You did everything right. Is my daughter alive? No. I did everything right. It still didn't save her.

FRANKEN: She was the passenger in a car driven by another 16- year-old who police said was speeding and lost control. Alicia was killed instantly.

BETANCOURT: I'm angry at the driver. He was doing something for which he was not prepared. And the fact that my daughter is dead is a result of his negligence.

FRANKEN: There are aggressive efforts to address the risk-taking immaturity of 16-year-olds, and innovative teaching aids, an insurance company tape, for instance, put microcameras into cars to show teenagers who thought they were driving sensibly taking risks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, I want people to feel safe. Because, I mean, when someone's in your car, their life is in your hands.

FRANKEN: In fact, a study by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety shows a full 26 percent drop in the rate of 16-year-old traffic deaths over 10 years.

(on camera): One reason, there are fewer 16-year-old drivers. Most states have imposed restrictions on their licenses. Maryland is considering limitations at first on nighttime driving, the number of teenaged passengers, and the use of cell phones.

SAMANTHA MILLER, 12TH GRADER: I think all those things can be a distraction. You're new, when you're a new driver, you're still learning the rules of the road.

FRANKEN: Alicia Betancourt will never get that chance.

BETANCOURT: One of the things that we mourn is, what would have happened with her life? What was she going to do? What would she have accomplished?

FRANKEN: Bob Franken, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Michael Jackson prepares for trial. The case hinges on a child's testimony. Tonight, we take you beyond the headlines, the case that put child testimony under a microscope.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember my family and me standing against the world, and no one believing us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: An in-depth look at the McMartin Preschool trial, a 20th century witch hunt.

And don't like the food in a restaurant? You might want to think twice before sending it back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can put Visine in somebody's drink and give them terrible diarrhea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Tonight, what really happens inside those restaurant kitchens.

360 continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: You know, when the Michael Jackson trial begins next week, the prosecution is going to rely heavily on the testimony of two children, two brothers. And the defense is going to attack the credibility, not only of those two kids, but the reliability of children's testimony in general.

So tonight, we wanted to take you beyond that headline, and look very closely at another case that hinged on child witnesses. We're talking, of course, about the McMartin Preschool case 20 years ago. One woman's claim of child abuse led to a wave of hysteria, where memories were twisted, they were shaped. Stories were fabricated.

At one point, 360 children said they were sexually abused, 360 kids. The allegations were bizarre, including stories of sex tunnels and drinking blood.

In the end, though, the allegations were all proved false.

Now, we wanted to understand exactly how that can happen and how it's influence, how kid's testimony is used today. Tonight, in a CNN exclusive, Randi Kaye interviews the principal players in the case, including Ray Buckey, a McMartin teacher aid and a key defendant, who hasn't talked publicly since it ended 15-years-ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The corner of Manhattan Beach Boulevard and 11th Street. Today, a dry cleaner's. This was the scene, two decades ago, 1983, when the McMartin Preschool stood here. It's owners and employees under attack, hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse. So wild, so gripping, the prestigious preschool sounded more like a little shop of horrors. Animals sacrificed, teachers drinking blood from bats, children sodomized in secret tunnels.

Caught in the middle, Ray Buckey, a part time aid at the McMartin school. It all began the day a little boy named Michael Johnson was dropped off by his mother, August, 1983. Buckey wasn't even Johnson's teacher, but, the boy's mother later accused him of sodomizing her son.

RAY BUCKEY, FOUND NOT GUILTY: Well, then all of a sudden, next thing we know, is bam, an explosion and seven people are arrested.

KAYE: Judy Johnson, an alcoholic diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia (ph), told police she found red marks on her son's buttocks. Police sent this letter to two hundred families with children enrolled in the preschool, setting off a firestorm. The letter urged parents to question their children, saying that Buckey may have forced them to engage in oral sex, fondling of genitals and sodomy. Hundreds of children were interviewed, the preschool shut down.

BUCKEY: You know, we're in jail. Were in the middle of this, and you're just sort of sitting back, or just sort of watching all of this. It's almost like watching people go -- an insanity go around you and hoping that none of it just sort of hit you.

KAYE: Ray Buckey watched as the community turned on his family.

BUCKEY: My grandmother put 28 years into that community and they smeared her. Smeared her big time, and that hurt her bad.

KAYE: Ray Buckey's grandmother, Virginia McMartin, and his mother, Peggy McMartin-Buckey, owned the preschool. Then, district attorney Ira Reiner dropped the charges against most of those accused, but chose to prosecute Ray Buckey and his mother. The McMartin trial remains the long criminal trial in United States history.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We the jury in the above entitled action, find the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) defendants not guilty of the various crimes.

KAYE: When all was said and done, reputations were ruined, families destroyed, livelihood's gone. After six years, $16 million, not a single conviction. It's been 15 years since the case ended. This is the first time Ray Buckey has been interviewed since being told he's a free man.

(on camera): What did this experience do to you? How did it effect you?

BUCKEY: This was not just me in the center of a storm, this was my whole family. And, my whole world. So, this was like, living through a war. I remember grinding it out. I remember my family and me, standing against the world. And, no ones going to -- no one's believing us.

KAYE (voice-over): So why did this innocent man spend five years locked in a Los Angeles County jail?

What spared him and his mother in the end?

BUCKEY: Those video tapes saved our lives. Everybody knows that. Everybody says that.

KAYE: The interviews with children were documented on videotape.

GLENN STEVENS, FORMER PROSECUTOR: What was fundamentally wrong with McMartin was just what I had mentioned, is that the purity of the pristine nature of the investigation was out the window from day one. It became contaminated.

KAYE: Prosecutor Glen Stevens quit the case before it went to trial. He's the only member of the prosecution team who would comment for this story.

STEVENS: Children were being fed information that other children had said, and so on and so on and so on, and that's how it built. It just built into this just massive -- massive, bulky case.

KAYE (on camera): The McMartin case had a ripple effect, both here in Manhattan Beach and across the country. Daycare providers became the subject of police raids coast to coast. Investigators were on the hunt for a nationwide porn ring. They never found it. Meanwhile, the team prosecuting Ray Buckey and his family,became know as the experts in getting children to open up.

(voice-over): But, were the young accusers telling the truth? Back in 1990, they said they were.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were so sure of ourselves, and we still are.

KAYE: Or were they coached by an overzealous therapist?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't put words in their mouths. I tried to enable them to get over their fears, to tell us whatever they may have to tell us. And they went on to do that.

STEVENS: She would immediately start out by saying, I'd to play a game with you. I'd like to talk to you about what happened at the school. And they would use the anatomically correct dolls. And if the child gave an answer that was not favorable, I.E., nothing happened to me nothing or happened to Kyle, for example just to use the name of a child or billy, the interviewer's puppet would say, well, don't you want to be smart like your friends. Or your buddy Grant told me that this happened. Or Sara said that you were involved in playing naked games.

KAYE: Kee McFarlane was the therapist who interviewed the children. In four months time, McFarlane diagnosed more than 360 students as abused. She did not want to be interviewed for our story, but sent a written statement saying, "We've learned a lot in twenty years about how to interview children for forensic purposes and how to manage complex cases such as this one. It would be a sad commentary if we didn't learn from such painful experience." She adds, "But some things don't change. Young children still aren't good at providing narrative responses to questions no matter how you ask, and they still make better victims than they do witnesses."

Still, parents become so convinced of the far out allegations of animal sacrifice, fantastic airplane rides and secret sex tunnels, they dug up the preschool's parking lot themselves searching.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of kids talk about being taken down through a tunnel under the school.

KAYE: Anything recovered was suspicious.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty steak, if it's a steak bone.

BUCKEY: Right here is the center of the school.

KAYE: We took Buckey back to where the McMartin preschool once stood, his first trip here since 1983, and not an easy one.

(on camera): What do you think when you stand here, and you think about your life back then, before 1983, before the original allegations?

BUCKEY: I say this is a wonderful play to grow up. But, it did something to my family in my life, that I won't ever come back here. But this is a wonderful town.

KAYE (voice-over): Buckey remembers every detail of the years he lost sitting in jail. There, he transcribed every minute of the videotape interviews with the children.

BUCKEY: Kee McFarlane would go, did you ever hear the naked movie start game, no. How do you think it's probably played, I don't know. Well, can you think you can help me figure it out how it might be played, It might be played naked. What a good memory. What a great memory. Who do you think played that game, Ray. What a great memory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remembered a lot of nap times.

KAYE: This former McMartin preschooler was interviewed on one of those tapes. He does not want to be identified.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember pulling out the cots. I remember a little bit about painting. I remembered, you know, feeding the turtles lettuce. KAYE: What he says he doesn't remember is abuse. Two decades later, he still recalls pressure from his parents and therapists, Kee McFarlane, to say the right thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you know, if nothing did happen, they were brainwashing our parents. Our own parents were brainwashing us, making us believe something that never happened happened. I was saying what ever they wanted me to say, because I was kind of raised that way. And, I think it was just all a big publicity thing, whatever. Parents just jumped the gun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ray Buckey had threatened to kill the parents if they told.

KAYE: In the end, it came down to whether the jurors believed the children and what they saw on tape.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Believing the children was so hard, with the contamination, the leading questions (UNINTELLIGIBLE) interview Then, listening to the defendant who -- his life was on the line.

KAYE: Buckey's convinced without the jury seeing those tapes, he would have gone to prison.

BUCKEY: Those video tapes saved our lives, irregardless of how well or many times the stories change after that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has been an acquitted.

KAYE: Ray Buckey and his mother were found not guilty on 52 counts. The jury hung on 13 other charges against Buckey, who was retried latter than summer. The media called it McMartin, the sequel. Buckey called it summer reruns.

BUCKEY: Now, I'm going to listen to it again.

KAYE: Eventually prosecutors gave up.

JUDGE WILLIAM POUNDERS: It has been an unusually one. You have served in the longest criminal trial in world history. No jury has had to endure what you have had endured.

KAYE: Judge William Pounders was on the bench for three years of the McMartin trial. He still believes he saw what he calls a ring of truth in some of the children's testimony, but recognizes the process in which the testimony was taken, failed.

POUNDERS: Everyone seemed to learn from the process, that that is not the way to go for the information. To much was given to the children.

KAYE: Which may explain why, two decades later, McMartin still echoes in courtrooms nationwide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There have been changes in the law that have helped the prosecution greatly. The changes in the law may or may not help Michael Jackson.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Incredible that this could happen. What is too far when it comes to protecting a child? Coming up next on 360, the lessons learned from the McMartin case. We're going to hear more from Ray Buckey speaking out for the first time since the end of his trial.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: With the Michael Jackson trial set to start next week, the accuracy of children's testimony is under the microscope. The defense is likely to talk about what happened 20 years ago at the McMartin preschool, where hundreds of children said they were sexually abused by the school's owners and a teacher's aide. Now, before the break, we took a look at that case and we learned how kids say they were brainwashed to say what adults wanted to hear. Fifteen years after the trial, the outcome of the McMartin case has changed the way kids are questioned by therapists and investigators, and you'll be surprised to see how. Once again, Randi Kaye goes beyond the headlines in this exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE (voice-over): This is a rare look inside the mind of a child. A mind so vulnerable to suggestion. So eager to please.

The therapist seated next to this little 10-year-old girl is trying to find out if she's been molested by her father. Questions like these aren't easy. Neither is getting to the truth. Listen to how the man asks the question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what did your father do to you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, he usually tells me to lay on my stomach and he goes on my back.

KAYE: Before the McMartin preschool trial fiasco back in the 1980s, interviews with children weren't always conducted this way. That legal debacle radically changed the way police and therapists talk to children about sexual abuse.

STEVENS: Newer cases aren't like that. The interviews are done by somebody who isn't feeding information to the child. They are not being coaxed into saying something just to please the interviewer. If it didn't happen, they say, well, it didn't happen. You know, and there's a lot more of a push now to only file cases where there's corroborative evidence.

KAYE: Glenn Stevens quit the McMartin prosecution team, taking issue with the way evidence was gathered, especially the way children were asked leading questions, questions that generated wild stories of Satanic rituals, animal sacrifice and sexual abuse.

Ray Buckey, a McMartin school teacher's aide was jailed for five years but never convicted. BUCKEY: It's one of those things where you sort of watched it grow and evolve, but you couldn't do anything about it.

KAYE (on camera): In the McMartin case, the accusers were no older than 5 when the abuse supposedly occurred. Preschoolers, say child interview specialists, are most vulnerable to repeated questioning. Children naturally want to please, so a young child will often change his or her mind, even if that means not telling the truth.

(voice-over): More attention is also being paid these days to an interviewer's tone. Is it suggestive, leading, or does it simply allow the young accuser to tell what happened.

(on camera): And what is it like to have been accused and then cleared? What is the burden for those people?

KIM HART, TRIAL CONSULTANT: You know, there are people that just can't get over it. They're terrified. They will never be around children again. They become very introverted and very, very isolated, very protective.

KAYE (voice-over): Kim Hart is a private trial consultant. She followed the McMartin trial closely, and now assists lawyers defending those, she says, are falsely accused.

(on camera): What are the added challenges when it comes to a case involving children like these?

HART: Well, the presumption of guilt is squarely on the defendant. I understand the Constitution's theory of innocent until proven guilty, except when it comes to children.

KAYE (voice-over): While there have been many improvements since McMartin, prosecutors and defense specialists say the system is still not perfect. Most states do videotape interviews, but the practice is not universal.

HART: How do you prove a bad interview was conducted or was not conducted if you don't record it?

KAYE: Videotape testimony made all the difference to Ray Buckey.

(on camera): What do think about videotaping kids?

BUCKEY: I think all witnesses all the time should be videotaped.

KAYE (voice-over): Ray Buckey no longer works with children. Instead, he works in construction. He says he's not angry and believes the community understands what it did to his family.

BUCKEY: It didn't affect me in the sense of what people might think, like I carry around a chip or a scar that, you know, I can pull out and, you know, drop a bucket of tears and get some sympathy.

KAYE: Instead, it is Ray who has sympathy, for the parents of the young accusers. They are the ones, he says, who suffered, duped into believing their children had been molested.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Manhattan Beach, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: A remarkable case.

360 next, a far lighter story. Do you ever worry about what your waiter might be doing to your food? Well, tonight, we take a peek into restaurant kitchens. And before you eat out again, you are going to want to hear what we found.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "FIVE EASY PIECES")

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see that sign, sir? Yes, you all have to leave. I'm not taking anymore of your smartness and sarcasm.

JACK NICHOLSON, ACTOR: You see this sign?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: A scene from Jack Nicholson classic "Five Easy Pieces." A funny scene, unless I guess you're a waitress.

Now, in high school, I worked as a waiter. I was terrible. I mean, really, really bad. I actually used to beg people not to sit at my table because I just couldn't handle the pressure.

People are really rude to waiters, and they cannot talk back to customers. So, it turns out now they can tell their stories on a Web site. And before you go to a restaurant again, listen to what waiters say really goes on in restaurant kitchens. CNN's Jeanne Moos took a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ever wonder what the smiling wait staff is really thinking?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I come back and they're like, "can we have anymore bread please?" You don't need anymore bread than that.

MOOS: Pardon the pan, excuse the strainer. We're hiding the identity of waiters ready to dish the dirt on what can happen when a customer isn't nice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I actually watched the waiter drop their steak on the floor and step on it, and then put it back in the box and take it back to the table and hand it to them.

MOOS: Like in the movie "Birdcage."

These days, you can read all about bad behavior and sweet revenge on Web sites like BitterWaitress, StainedApron, WaiterRant and ShamelessRestaurants.

Speaking of shameless, don't ever provoke a lactating waitress. And don't shake up the bartender.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can put Visine in somebody's drink and give them terrible diarrhea, too. One drop of Visine in somebody's drink will send them to the bathroom for the rest of the night.

MOOS: And talk about crappy. BitterWaitress lists bad tippers by name. An entry about Omarosa from "The Apprentice" asked, "is this woman even human?," for allegedly tipping 15 cents.

J.Lo supposedly complained, "waiter, this water is too cold. Make it warmer." And then, there's the war story about someone leaving $2 and a coupon for cranberry juice. No wonder BitterWaitress sells shirts plastered with the preferred tip.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's also the verbal tip. That's my favorite. When at the end of the meal you get, the oh, I loved you, it was wonderful.

MOOS: Praise, but a lousy tip. New York City servers point out that without tips, they make only about $3 an hour.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The way that people in Israel have to go into the Army, I think that everybody in America should have to waitress.

MOOS: But even Jack Nicholson's restaurant run-in...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You want me to hold the chicken, huh?

NICHOLSON: I want you to hold it between your knees.

MOOS: Doesn't compare with the Sizzler waiter who got in a fight with an Atkins dieter. She wanted to substitute vegetables for potatoes. The server followed the family home and covered their house in toilet paper, syrup, flower, you name it.

(on camera): Now, are there things that people ask for that really get on your nerves?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think every waiter in the world hates people who order tea.

MOOS (voice-over): For a cheap-o beverage, you have to get a saucer, a teabag, a teapot, pour scolding water, get lemon, milk, more sweetener.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They open it up and they wrinkle it into those little bowls and they stuff it back into the sugar caddy, like that's going to be OK.

MOOS: Got tea? Get your waitress teed off.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: All right, I was a bad waiter, I never lactated in anyone's food, though, like one of those waiters did.

Let's find out what's coming up in a few minutes on "PAULA ZAHN NOW." Paula, happy birthday, also.

PAULA ZAHN, HOST, "PAULA ZAHN NOW": Thank you, Anderson. And thanks for sharing that piece of your past with us this evening.

COOPER: My pleasure.

ZAHN: That might fall into the file of things we maybe didn't want to know, Anderson?

COOPER: Yeah, I know, too much information.

ZAHN: But thanks for the birthday greeting.

We, of course, will be watching developments out of Rome with Pope John Paul's health. But we will also focus on a life or death decision due tomorrow in Florida. I'll be talking to Terri Schiavo's parents, and ask if she will be in pain if her feeding tube is removed to let her die. We will also hear from a woman who will tell us what it was like to have her feeding tube removed. As you might imagine, Anderson, she describes it as complete agony.

COOPER: Can't even imagine. Five minutes from now, Paula, all right. Thanks very much, Paula.

ZAHN: Thank you.

COOPER: Coming up next on 360, you are not going to believe this woman. She went on a million dollar spending spree and now she's blaming 9/11 for making her shop. It is the lamest excuse we have ever heard, and we've heard a lot. We'll tell you her story ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight, taking lame excuses to "The Nth Degree."

We've heard a lot of lame excuses in our time. You know, the dog ate my homework, the drug made me do it, someone else did it first. And until today, we thought we'd heard it all. But no.

Antoinette Millard has come up with the lamest excuse we have ever heard. She is being sued for insurance fraud. It seems she once pretended to be a Saudi princess and racked up $1 million in debt buying jewelry on her credit card.

Now, No. 1, she's no Saudi. And No. 2, she ain't no princess.

But when American Express sued this non-paying non-princess, she counter-sued, claiming -- and I find it hard to even tell you this -- she claims she's a victim of 9/11. Now, she wasn't in the Twin Towers; her husband or brother wasn't killed. She says she's a victim because she was upset by 9/11. Traumatized, in fact. So traumatized that she was trying to kill herself by shopping. Suicide by shopping. Suicide by spending, that's what she calls it. She says American Express should have realized how stressed out she was, and should never have given her credit.

Now, you've got to give Antoinette Millard credit for chutzpah. I mean, imagine it. To be so completely shattered by an event that you're driven not to slash your wrists, but to cover them in diamonds instead.

Can't imagine it? Neither can we.

Thanks for watching 360. "PAULA ZAHN NOW" is next -- Paula.

ZAHN: That's ridiculous. Thanks, Anderson.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired February 24, 2005 - 19:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Good evening from New York. I'm Anderson Cooper.
Pope John Paul II on a respirator after a serious medical setback.

360 starts now.

Pope John Paul undergoes surgery. Tonight, the latest on his condition and his prognosis for recovery.

The danger your kids face behind the wheel. What's behind the dramatic drop in teen driving deaths? Will it mean your kids won't get their license so soon?

Martha Stewart readies to return. But will she become CEO of the company she once created?

Michael Jackson prepares for trial. The case hinges on a child's testimony. Tonight, we take you beyond the headlines, the case that put child testimony under a microscope.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember my family and me standing against the world, and no one believing us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: An in-depth look at the McMartin Preschool trial, a 20th century witch hunt.

And, don't like the food in a restaurant? You might want to think twice before sending it back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can put Visine in somebody's drink and give them terrible diarrhea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Tonight, what really happens inside those restaurant kitchens.

ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.

COOPER: And good evening to you. We hope your day has been a good one.

We begin tonight with hope, hope and prayers as millions around the world watch and wait to see what will happen with John Paul II.

Right now, in a Rome hospital, he is recovering from what the Vatican is calling a relapse of the flu. That's a live shot of the clinic right there. He's also recovering from surgery. He had a 30- minute operation, doctors performing a tracheotomy, cutting a hole in the pope's windpipe to help him breathe.

The pope was rushed to the hospital this morning, just two weeks after he'd been released. Short time ago, a top Italian government official who saw the pope after surgery made this statement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIANNI LETTA, SPOKESMAN FOR ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): When he woke up, with the same spirit, he went like this with his hand, as if he wanted to say, I'm still going to approach you. So it means he's fine. The doctors are satisfied with the way he has undergone the surgery, and also as far as the first hours after the surgery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, no details of exactly what the pope's condition is are being closely held by the Vatican.

We have extensive coverage tonight, beginning with CNN's Vatican analyst Delia Gallagher, who is in Rome tonight. Delia, last time Vatican officials seemed to downplay the pope's illness. Are they doing that tonight?

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: Well, no, they can't hide it tonight. He had the operation, and they had to come out and say that's what happened.

One of the things, of course, Anderson, that we are able to watch closely here is, when the pope goes into hospital and when he comes out, we can see him a few days after that. He tries to make those appearances. He made an appearance from the hospital window two weeks ago when he was in last time.

So we're able to monitor what the Vatican is telling us versus what we see the pope's condition to be. SO all indications tonight are that the operation went successfully and the pope is resting, Anderson.

COOPER: Papal resignations are rare. They're not unprecedented. Is there a possibility that the pope might resign? And how would he go about doing that?

GALLAGHER: Well, the pope can resign, according to church law, that is open to him. However, he has indicated before many times in the past that he has no indication of -- he has no intention of doing so.

You know, the pope doesn't feel that this is a job like any other from which you can resign. He considers himself the father of the Catholic Church. It is a vocation for him, and furthermore, it's a vocation which was given to him by God, in his understanding. And therefore, it -- he doesn't have the right to take it away, only God does. And God will do that with his death. That's the pope's thinking on this.

However, it is a possibility for him. And some of the cardinals have suggested, Well, let's leave it up to his conscience, because no what -- nobody else can make him do it. He has to sign the paper and say, I resign, I am in full mental capacities, and I choose to resign.

COOPER: Delia Gallagher reporting live from Rome for us. Thank you very much, Delia. She'll be standing by, of course, throughout this hour as we continue to follow the pope's condition.

Let's talk now about the actual medical condition the pope has. CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins for that from Atlanta to look at the medical angle on the story.

Sanjay, how common is it for someone with the flu to get a tracheotomy?

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Very uncommon. You know, certainly, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), given his advanced age and his other medical problems, he falls into a different category than just your average person with the flu.

Now, most people do recover from the flu well. But, you know, let me just show you, Anderson, because you were alluding to this earlier in terms of what a tracheotomy is. Typically, what people will do is actually make a little -- you see the little model here -- they make an incision in the neck and actually find the windpipe, which is right here.

And I've actually (UNINTELLIGIBLE) what a tracheotomy actually looks like, the actual device, and that is actually inserted right into the windpipe and provides a new airway, as you can see here. That's what it sort of looks like.

The point of this, Anderson, is to secure the airway, which is mission number one after he was in the hospital.

Now, as far as how he's going to do in the longer term over the next few days or so, that's a little bit harder to tell. The general anesthesia, the biggest risk of an operation like this, what we're hearing, it looks like he's coming along OK.

COOPER: Of course, he's 84 years old. For anyone, surgery is difficult for a man that age. How big of a concern is pneumonia? And what would that mean from the pope? GUPTA: It's a big concern, Anderson. When we talk about the flu, when people talk about people dying from the flu, what they really mean is the complications of that, pneumonia being one of the biggest ones. Pneumonia, what that really means is a bacterial infection in the lungs. It's a concern, which may have been part of the reason this tracheotomy was performed. They can actually not only give him an airway but also may be able to clean his lungs a little bit better through that tracheostomy device as well, Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks, covering the medical angle for us tonight.

We're, as we said, we're going to be monitoring the pope's condition around the clock. We'll bring you any updates in this next hour as they happen.

Pope John Paul was very quick to offer his prayers for the victims of the tsunami in Asia. And tonight, we have a remarkable story about two of those victims.

On a beach in Thailand, a camera washed ashore. Stored in its memory, this picture, John and Jackie (ph) Knill on their vacation. It's a vacation they did not come home from. They didn't survive the tsunami, but their camera did. It is a silent witness to their final hours.

CNN's Frank Buckley has the photos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They knew their parents were there when the tsunami hit. And days later, the Knill brothers of Vancouver received the awful confirmation. Their mother, Jackie, and their father, John, had perished in the waters.

CHRISTIAN KNILL, OLDEST SON: So there was a bit of hope, but, you know, now it's gone.

BUCKLEY (on camera): And like so many other loved ones of the victims, they were left with the question, How did they die?

(voice-over): And then this month, it was as if John and Jackie Knill spoke to their boys through these pictures that they apparently snapped as the tsunami roared ashore. The beach, the water suddenly recedes. People are curious. Then, a wave in the distance. It's getting closer. Some start to run. The water is churning. And then it's upon them.

A final shot shows the wave hitting the beach.

PATRICK KNILL, MIDDLE SON: They were probably thinking, OK, let's try to get this, so if, by chance, it does get to somebody, they'll be able to see what happened, you know? And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I know they were together, because they were always together.

BUCKLEY: The brothers knew, because other shots showed their parents enjoying their vacation, and because this man, Christian Pilet, a missionary from Seattle, was determined to find out who the couple was when he and a colleague found a smashed-up digital camera amid debris in the disaster zone.

CHRISTIAN PILET, FOUND THE KNILLS' CAMERA: I said, Well, you know, my idea was, We'll just junk it, we don't need it. And he said, Oh, hold on. And he pulls out the compact flash. And he says, You never know, the little card might have recorded something.

BUCKLEY: They popped it into their laptop, and up came the images.

But who were these people in the images? They checked embassies, to no avail. When Pilet returned to Seattle, he and his wife searched Internet sites for the missing.

Almost immediately, they found the Knills.

PILET: We were glad to be able to give them this back to them. If anything, it's a gift to the sons from their parents.

BUCKLEY: Frank Buckley, CNN, Vancouver, British Columbia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Amazing.

Coming up next on 360, Martha Stewart taking charge. She's walking free next week and planning a big comeback. We have details on that, plus some new information on exactly how she's going to be spending her time under house arrest. It's a fascinating look at what house arrest really means.

Also tonight, are you worried about your teens getting behind the wheel? Well, there's a new study out that has some dramatic numbers about the drop in teen deaths, and maybe some new laws and new technology to keep them from driving so young.

Also a little bit later tonight, false accusations. The McMartin Preschool case, it forever changed the way children are questioned about sexual abuse. Tonight, the challenge of sorting out fact from fiction when kids are on the witness stand. We take you behind the headlines.

All that ahead. But first, let's look at your picks, the most popular stories on CNN.com right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTHA STEWART: I just have one little joke, because, despite what you all might think, I do have a sense of humor. And I was walking, I was walking in front of the General Motors building the other day, and there were a group of very well-dressed businessmen standing outside. And they looked at me, recognized me, and said, Oh, she's out already.

Well, I hope that my time goes as fast as that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, that was Martha Stewart before she went to prison.

We don't know about her, but time for us has certainly flown. It's hard to believe that her five-month prison sentence ends next week. Her days of scrounging around the prison, collecting dandelion or crabapples for experimental microwaving will soon be over.

And as that release date draws near, one question grows. How will Stewart return to public life?

CNN senior correspondent Allan Chernoff has taken a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nearly a year ago, Martha Stewart left a federal courthouse as a convicted felon, found guilty of lying about a stock sale.

STEWART: And I'll be back. I will be back.

CHERNOFF: Even though she is appealing, Stewart decided to do her time. By October, she was inmate number 55170-054, imprisoned in West Virginia, earning pennies a day as an orderly, a distant tumble from her high society life.

Martha Stewart personified the term "fall from grace."

Stewart had to resign as chief executive of the company she built, and as a director of the New York Stock Exchange. Her fortune took a beating as her company's stock tumbled.

(on camera): Now the scene is set for Martha Stewart's second act. Next week, she's scheduled to leave prison for five months of home detention. But probation rules permit her to come here to her office for work, and that could be the springboard for what may develop into a great American comeback.

(voice-over): Already in place are two television shows, a new daily syndicated program and her own version of "The Apprentice."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE APPRENTICE")

DONALD TRUMP: You're fired.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: She'll write a column for her magazine.

Martha's public awaits. Fans such as executive recruiter Jacqueline Parker... JACQUELINE PARKER, EXECUTIVE RECRUITER: I'm so thrilled that my Martha is going to be back. And I hope she's enjoyed -- has plans to enjoy her life and continue doing the fabulous work that she does, because we need her. Martha, you go, girl.

CHERNOFF: Martha Stewart cannot return as an executive of her company while an SEC case is still pending against her. Susan Line, who is running the company, says she's delighted to have Martha come back.

SUSAN LINE, CEO, MARTHA STEWART LIVING OMNIMEDIA: It's a great story. She's been missed here. She's a fountain of ideas.

CHERNOFF: The stock price has been rising in anticipation of Stewart coming back, having more than tripled since her conviction. Stewart's holdings once again are worth over a billion dollars.

Martha Stewart already is a modern tragic heroine. Now she has a opportunity to turn tragedy into triumph.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, no surprise that Martha Stewart's pending freedom and return to her company is making waves on the Internet, where Web surfers are keeping close track of it.

Also watching it for us tonight, CNN's Rudi Bakhtiar. Every night, she heads into cyberspace to give you a new angle on a story you won't see anywhere else.

Now, you found out quite a bit, a lot of details about what her house arrest is really going to be like.

RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. You know, Web surfers, they love the Martha Stewart story. So we were digging around. It's been one of the popular stories on CNN.com.

Now, Martha's chance to come back as CEO is there, but with her under house arrest, we wanted to know (UNINTELLIGIBLE) business would have to wait, so we did some digging around, and we found out a lot about what Stewart's sentence really means, and why confinement isn't really that confining.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BAKHTIAR: Take a look at Martha's punishment. For the next five months, she'll be holed up here, her $16 million, 153-acre estate in Bedford, New York.

While we know the basics of her probation conditions, we don't know the details. And for that, we spoke to Chris Stanton, the chief probation officer for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He says that Stewart can work 48 hours per week away from her home. That's two full days of business off the estate. And, with permission, she could even travel by plane outside the country.

In addition to those 48 hours, Stewart can be granted by permission by her probation officer to leave her home for medical care, dental care, and grocery shopping.

When she's back under house arrest, though, Stewart must stay in one building on her estate. She can't roam the grounds.

And to make sure of that, probation officials will attach an electronic ankle bracelet, a receiver connected to a phone that goes off whenever she leaves.

And, by the way, Stewart will also have full access to phones and the Internet, where she could pay a visit to her official Web site.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BAKHTIAR: Well, there are some who are saying that Martha Stewart is receiving special treatment, insisting that her house arrest condition is an example of the way white-collar criminals are dealt with in the criminal justice system.

COOPER: So what if she has an emergency?

BAKHTIAR: Yes, we were looking into that. We actually got a copy of her home confinement program participant agreement. And it's...

COOPER: It's amazing what you can find on the Web.

BAKHTIAR: Yes, exactly, one of those things that really was hard to find, actually. But it says in case of an emergency, she has to try to get the permission of her officer. If it's not possible, she has to call the office, officer as soon as she's able to do so.

If she calls during nonbusiness hours, she has to leave a message, including her name, date, time, brief description of the emergency, and the location or destination. And she has to provide proof that there really was an emergency.

COOPER: All right, so there are people saying she's getting special treatment. Is that really true, though? I mean, how, how, how do they determine who gets house arrest, who doesn't?

BAKHTIAR: Well, there's a lot of factors. It depends on a case- by-case system. It depends on whether the house arrest is pretrial or postsentencing. And it depends on the person's health, if they're a flight risk, and various things that take (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

COOPER: It's been around for a long time, house arrest.

BAKHTIAR: You know what we found, which was really interesting, is that Galileo, believe it or not, back in, what was it, 1630, I think, he wrote a book, and he was actually supporting Copernicus's theory of the heliocentricity of the solar system. And the Roman Catholic Church actually sentenced him to life in prison, and then they sort of softened it up to...

COOPER: House arrest.

BAKHTIAR: ... house arrest.

COOPER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BAKHTIAR: Which was, in Italy, in a really nice place in Florence. So, you know...

COOPER: Not too bad.

BAKHTIAR: ... not so bad.

COOPER: That's right. All right, Rudi Bakhtiar, thanks for that.

360 next, the Jackson trial. It hinges on a child's testimony. Tonight, we take you beyond the headlines. An up-close look at the case that put kid witnesses under the microscope. Do you remember this, the McMartin preschool case? False accusations of sexual abuse. We're going to take a look at what really happened in that.

Also tonight, if you're a parent, and you worry about your child driving, we have some new informations. Dramatic drop in numbers of teen driving deaths. That's the good news. The question is, should more states raise the driving age? What you need to know before your kids hit the road.

Also a little later tonight, revenge of the waiters. Food on the floor, Visine in your drinks? Yikes. Yes, a revealing look at what some waiters -- and we're not saying all, just some -- do you hear me, waiters out there? Don't -- just some. We're covering all the angles tonight.

Stay with us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "FERRIS BEULER'S DAY OFF")

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a car.

Oh! Jeanie, what the hell are you doing? You trying to kill us?

Jeanie, slow down, now.

(CROSSTALK)

Jeanie, stop it!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That was a scene there from "Ferris Beuler's Day Off." It's funny stuff.

But, of course, for many of you have teenagers, a kid behind the wheel is no laughing matter. Tonight, there is some very encouraging news, however, for parents. A new study says that the number of deadly crashes involving teenagers has dropped over the past decade.

Now, what your teens may not be happy about is that in part, the drop in deaths is because of tougher driving restrictions that 46 states and the District of Columbia have placed on young drivers.

The question tonight is, should states get even tougher?

CNN national correspondent Bob Franken takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Arturo Betancourt was so proud of his daughter. Alicia (ph) was sensitive, a talented artist. He had asked so many questions that night, been so careful.

DR. ARTURO BETANCOURT, VICTIM'S FATHER: I'd been told by hundreds of parents, You did everything right. Is my daughter alive? No. I did everything right. It still didn't save her.

FRANKEN: She was the passenger in a car driven by another 16- year-old who police said was speeding and lost control. Alicia was killed instantly.

BETANCOURT: I'm angry at the driver. He was doing something for which he was not prepared. And the fact that my daughter is dead is a result of his negligence.

FRANKEN: There are aggressive efforts to address the risk-taking immaturity of 16-year-olds, and innovative teaching aids, an insurance company tape, for instance, put microcameras into cars to show teenagers who thought they were driving sensibly taking risks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, I want people to feel safe. Because, I mean, when someone's in your car, their life is in your hands.

FRANKEN: In fact, a study by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety shows a full 26 percent drop in the rate of 16-year-old traffic deaths over 10 years.

(on camera): One reason, there are fewer 16-year-old drivers. Most states have imposed restrictions on their licenses. Maryland is considering limitations at first on nighttime driving, the number of teenaged passengers, and the use of cell phones.

SAMANTHA MILLER, 12TH GRADER: I think all those things can be a distraction. You're new, when you're a new driver, you're still learning the rules of the road.

FRANKEN: Alicia Betancourt will never get that chance.

BETANCOURT: One of the things that we mourn is, what would have happened with her life? What was she going to do? What would she have accomplished?

FRANKEN: Bob Franken, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Michael Jackson prepares for trial. The case hinges on a child's testimony. Tonight, we take you beyond the headlines, the case that put child testimony under a microscope.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember my family and me standing against the world, and no one believing us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: An in-depth look at the McMartin Preschool trial, a 20th century witch hunt.

And don't like the food in a restaurant? You might want to think twice before sending it back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can put Visine in somebody's drink and give them terrible diarrhea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Tonight, what really happens inside those restaurant kitchens.

360 continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: You know, when the Michael Jackson trial begins next week, the prosecution is going to rely heavily on the testimony of two children, two brothers. And the defense is going to attack the credibility, not only of those two kids, but the reliability of children's testimony in general.

So tonight, we wanted to take you beyond that headline, and look very closely at another case that hinged on child witnesses. We're talking, of course, about the McMartin Preschool case 20 years ago. One woman's claim of child abuse led to a wave of hysteria, where memories were twisted, they were shaped. Stories were fabricated.

At one point, 360 children said they were sexually abused, 360 kids. The allegations were bizarre, including stories of sex tunnels and drinking blood.

In the end, though, the allegations were all proved false.

Now, we wanted to understand exactly how that can happen and how it's influence, how kid's testimony is used today. Tonight, in a CNN exclusive, Randi Kaye interviews the principal players in the case, including Ray Buckey, a McMartin teacher aid and a key defendant, who hasn't talked publicly since it ended 15-years-ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The corner of Manhattan Beach Boulevard and 11th Street. Today, a dry cleaner's. This was the scene, two decades ago, 1983, when the McMartin Preschool stood here. It's owners and employees under attack, hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse. So wild, so gripping, the prestigious preschool sounded more like a little shop of horrors. Animals sacrificed, teachers drinking blood from bats, children sodomized in secret tunnels.

Caught in the middle, Ray Buckey, a part time aid at the McMartin school. It all began the day a little boy named Michael Johnson was dropped off by his mother, August, 1983. Buckey wasn't even Johnson's teacher, but, the boy's mother later accused him of sodomizing her son.

RAY BUCKEY, FOUND NOT GUILTY: Well, then all of a sudden, next thing we know, is bam, an explosion and seven people are arrested.

KAYE: Judy Johnson, an alcoholic diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia (ph), told police she found red marks on her son's buttocks. Police sent this letter to two hundred families with children enrolled in the preschool, setting off a firestorm. The letter urged parents to question their children, saying that Buckey may have forced them to engage in oral sex, fondling of genitals and sodomy. Hundreds of children were interviewed, the preschool shut down.

BUCKEY: You know, we're in jail. Were in the middle of this, and you're just sort of sitting back, or just sort of watching all of this. It's almost like watching people go -- an insanity go around you and hoping that none of it just sort of hit you.

KAYE: Ray Buckey watched as the community turned on his family.

BUCKEY: My grandmother put 28 years into that community and they smeared her. Smeared her big time, and that hurt her bad.

KAYE: Ray Buckey's grandmother, Virginia McMartin, and his mother, Peggy McMartin-Buckey, owned the preschool. Then, district attorney Ira Reiner dropped the charges against most of those accused, but chose to prosecute Ray Buckey and his mother. The McMartin trial remains the long criminal trial in United States history.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We the jury in the above entitled action, find the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) defendants not guilty of the various crimes.

KAYE: When all was said and done, reputations were ruined, families destroyed, livelihood's gone. After six years, $16 million, not a single conviction. It's been 15 years since the case ended. This is the first time Ray Buckey has been interviewed since being told he's a free man.

(on camera): What did this experience do to you? How did it effect you?

BUCKEY: This was not just me in the center of a storm, this was my whole family. And, my whole world. So, this was like, living through a war. I remember grinding it out. I remember my family and me, standing against the world. And, no ones going to -- no one's believing us.

KAYE (voice-over): So why did this innocent man spend five years locked in a Los Angeles County jail?

What spared him and his mother in the end?

BUCKEY: Those video tapes saved our lives. Everybody knows that. Everybody says that.

KAYE: The interviews with children were documented on videotape.

GLENN STEVENS, FORMER PROSECUTOR: What was fundamentally wrong with McMartin was just what I had mentioned, is that the purity of the pristine nature of the investigation was out the window from day one. It became contaminated.

KAYE: Prosecutor Glen Stevens quit the case before it went to trial. He's the only member of the prosecution team who would comment for this story.

STEVENS: Children were being fed information that other children had said, and so on and so on and so on, and that's how it built. It just built into this just massive -- massive, bulky case.

KAYE (on camera): The McMartin case had a ripple effect, both here in Manhattan Beach and across the country. Daycare providers became the subject of police raids coast to coast. Investigators were on the hunt for a nationwide porn ring. They never found it. Meanwhile, the team prosecuting Ray Buckey and his family,became know as the experts in getting children to open up.

(voice-over): But, were the young accusers telling the truth? Back in 1990, they said they were.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were so sure of ourselves, and we still are.

KAYE: Or were they coached by an overzealous therapist?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't put words in their mouths. I tried to enable them to get over their fears, to tell us whatever they may have to tell us. And they went on to do that.

STEVENS: She would immediately start out by saying, I'd to play a game with you. I'd like to talk to you about what happened at the school. And they would use the anatomically correct dolls. And if the child gave an answer that was not favorable, I.E., nothing happened to me nothing or happened to Kyle, for example just to use the name of a child or billy, the interviewer's puppet would say, well, don't you want to be smart like your friends. Or your buddy Grant told me that this happened. Or Sara said that you were involved in playing naked games.

KAYE: Kee McFarlane was the therapist who interviewed the children. In four months time, McFarlane diagnosed more than 360 students as abused. She did not want to be interviewed for our story, but sent a written statement saying, "We've learned a lot in twenty years about how to interview children for forensic purposes and how to manage complex cases such as this one. It would be a sad commentary if we didn't learn from such painful experience." She adds, "But some things don't change. Young children still aren't good at providing narrative responses to questions no matter how you ask, and they still make better victims than they do witnesses."

Still, parents become so convinced of the far out allegations of animal sacrifice, fantastic airplane rides and secret sex tunnels, they dug up the preschool's parking lot themselves searching.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of kids talk about being taken down through a tunnel under the school.

KAYE: Anything recovered was suspicious.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty steak, if it's a steak bone.

BUCKEY: Right here is the center of the school.

KAYE: We took Buckey back to where the McMartin preschool once stood, his first trip here since 1983, and not an easy one.

(on camera): What do you think when you stand here, and you think about your life back then, before 1983, before the original allegations?

BUCKEY: I say this is a wonderful play to grow up. But, it did something to my family in my life, that I won't ever come back here. But this is a wonderful town.

KAYE (voice-over): Buckey remembers every detail of the years he lost sitting in jail. There, he transcribed every minute of the videotape interviews with the children.

BUCKEY: Kee McFarlane would go, did you ever hear the naked movie start game, no. How do you think it's probably played, I don't know. Well, can you think you can help me figure it out how it might be played, It might be played naked. What a good memory. What a great memory. Who do you think played that game, Ray. What a great memory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remembered a lot of nap times.

KAYE: This former McMartin preschooler was interviewed on one of those tapes. He does not want to be identified.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember pulling out the cots. I remember a little bit about painting. I remembered, you know, feeding the turtles lettuce. KAYE: What he says he doesn't remember is abuse. Two decades later, he still recalls pressure from his parents and therapists, Kee McFarlane, to say the right thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you know, if nothing did happen, they were brainwashing our parents. Our own parents were brainwashing us, making us believe something that never happened happened. I was saying what ever they wanted me to say, because I was kind of raised that way. And, I think it was just all a big publicity thing, whatever. Parents just jumped the gun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ray Buckey had threatened to kill the parents if they told.

KAYE: In the end, it came down to whether the jurors believed the children and what they saw on tape.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Believing the children was so hard, with the contamination, the leading questions (UNINTELLIGIBLE) interview Then, listening to the defendant who -- his life was on the line.

KAYE: Buckey's convinced without the jury seeing those tapes, he would have gone to prison.

BUCKEY: Those video tapes saved our lives, irregardless of how well or many times the stories change after that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has been an acquitted.

KAYE: Ray Buckey and his mother were found not guilty on 52 counts. The jury hung on 13 other charges against Buckey, who was retried latter than summer. The media called it McMartin, the sequel. Buckey called it summer reruns.

BUCKEY: Now, I'm going to listen to it again.

KAYE: Eventually prosecutors gave up.

JUDGE WILLIAM POUNDERS: It has been an unusually one. You have served in the longest criminal trial in world history. No jury has had to endure what you have had endured.

KAYE: Judge William Pounders was on the bench for three years of the McMartin trial. He still believes he saw what he calls a ring of truth in some of the children's testimony, but recognizes the process in which the testimony was taken, failed.

POUNDERS: Everyone seemed to learn from the process, that that is not the way to go for the information. To much was given to the children.

KAYE: Which may explain why, two decades later, McMartin still echoes in courtrooms nationwide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There have been changes in the law that have helped the prosecution greatly. The changes in the law may or may not help Michael Jackson.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Incredible that this could happen. What is too far when it comes to protecting a child? Coming up next on 360, the lessons learned from the McMartin case. We're going to hear more from Ray Buckey speaking out for the first time since the end of his trial.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: With the Michael Jackson trial set to start next week, the accuracy of children's testimony is under the microscope. The defense is likely to talk about what happened 20 years ago at the McMartin preschool, where hundreds of children said they were sexually abused by the school's owners and a teacher's aide. Now, before the break, we took a look at that case and we learned how kids say they were brainwashed to say what adults wanted to hear. Fifteen years after the trial, the outcome of the McMartin case has changed the way kids are questioned by therapists and investigators, and you'll be surprised to see how. Once again, Randi Kaye goes beyond the headlines in this exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE (voice-over): This is a rare look inside the mind of a child. A mind so vulnerable to suggestion. So eager to please.

The therapist seated next to this little 10-year-old girl is trying to find out if she's been molested by her father. Questions like these aren't easy. Neither is getting to the truth. Listen to how the man asks the question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what did your father do to you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, he usually tells me to lay on my stomach and he goes on my back.

KAYE: Before the McMartin preschool trial fiasco back in the 1980s, interviews with children weren't always conducted this way. That legal debacle radically changed the way police and therapists talk to children about sexual abuse.

STEVENS: Newer cases aren't like that. The interviews are done by somebody who isn't feeding information to the child. They are not being coaxed into saying something just to please the interviewer. If it didn't happen, they say, well, it didn't happen. You know, and there's a lot more of a push now to only file cases where there's corroborative evidence.

KAYE: Glenn Stevens quit the McMartin prosecution team, taking issue with the way evidence was gathered, especially the way children were asked leading questions, questions that generated wild stories of Satanic rituals, animal sacrifice and sexual abuse.

Ray Buckey, a McMartin school teacher's aide was jailed for five years but never convicted. BUCKEY: It's one of those things where you sort of watched it grow and evolve, but you couldn't do anything about it.

KAYE (on camera): In the McMartin case, the accusers were no older than 5 when the abuse supposedly occurred. Preschoolers, say child interview specialists, are most vulnerable to repeated questioning. Children naturally want to please, so a young child will often change his or her mind, even if that means not telling the truth.

(voice-over): More attention is also being paid these days to an interviewer's tone. Is it suggestive, leading, or does it simply allow the young accuser to tell what happened.

(on camera): And what is it like to have been accused and then cleared? What is the burden for those people?

KIM HART, TRIAL CONSULTANT: You know, there are people that just can't get over it. They're terrified. They will never be around children again. They become very introverted and very, very isolated, very protective.

KAYE (voice-over): Kim Hart is a private trial consultant. She followed the McMartin trial closely, and now assists lawyers defending those, she says, are falsely accused.

(on camera): What are the added challenges when it comes to a case involving children like these?

HART: Well, the presumption of guilt is squarely on the defendant. I understand the Constitution's theory of innocent until proven guilty, except when it comes to children.

KAYE (voice-over): While there have been many improvements since McMartin, prosecutors and defense specialists say the system is still not perfect. Most states do videotape interviews, but the practice is not universal.

HART: How do you prove a bad interview was conducted or was not conducted if you don't record it?

KAYE: Videotape testimony made all the difference to Ray Buckey.

(on camera): What do think about videotaping kids?

BUCKEY: I think all witnesses all the time should be videotaped.

KAYE (voice-over): Ray Buckey no longer works with children. Instead, he works in construction. He says he's not angry and believes the community understands what it did to his family.

BUCKEY: It didn't affect me in the sense of what people might think, like I carry around a chip or a scar that, you know, I can pull out and, you know, drop a bucket of tears and get some sympathy.

KAYE: Instead, it is Ray who has sympathy, for the parents of the young accusers. They are the ones, he says, who suffered, duped into believing their children had been molested.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Manhattan Beach, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: A remarkable case.

360 next, a far lighter story. Do you ever worry about what your waiter might be doing to your food? Well, tonight, we take a peek into restaurant kitchens. And before you eat out again, you are going to want to hear what we found.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "FIVE EASY PIECES")

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see that sign, sir? Yes, you all have to leave. I'm not taking anymore of your smartness and sarcasm.

JACK NICHOLSON, ACTOR: You see this sign?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: A scene from Jack Nicholson classic "Five Easy Pieces." A funny scene, unless I guess you're a waitress.

Now, in high school, I worked as a waiter. I was terrible. I mean, really, really bad. I actually used to beg people not to sit at my table because I just couldn't handle the pressure.

People are really rude to waiters, and they cannot talk back to customers. So, it turns out now they can tell their stories on a Web site. And before you go to a restaurant again, listen to what waiters say really goes on in restaurant kitchens. CNN's Jeanne Moos took a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ever wonder what the smiling wait staff is really thinking?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I come back and they're like, "can we have anymore bread please?" You don't need anymore bread than that.

MOOS: Pardon the pan, excuse the strainer. We're hiding the identity of waiters ready to dish the dirt on what can happen when a customer isn't nice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I actually watched the waiter drop their steak on the floor and step on it, and then put it back in the box and take it back to the table and hand it to them.

MOOS: Like in the movie "Birdcage."

These days, you can read all about bad behavior and sweet revenge on Web sites like BitterWaitress, StainedApron, WaiterRant and ShamelessRestaurants.

Speaking of shameless, don't ever provoke a lactating waitress. And don't shake up the bartender.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can put Visine in somebody's drink and give them terrible diarrhea, too. One drop of Visine in somebody's drink will send them to the bathroom for the rest of the night.

MOOS: And talk about crappy. BitterWaitress lists bad tippers by name. An entry about Omarosa from "The Apprentice" asked, "is this woman even human?," for allegedly tipping 15 cents.

J.Lo supposedly complained, "waiter, this water is too cold. Make it warmer." And then, there's the war story about someone leaving $2 and a coupon for cranberry juice. No wonder BitterWaitress sells shirts plastered with the preferred tip.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's also the verbal tip. That's my favorite. When at the end of the meal you get, the oh, I loved you, it was wonderful.

MOOS: Praise, but a lousy tip. New York City servers point out that without tips, they make only about $3 an hour.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The way that people in Israel have to go into the Army, I think that everybody in America should have to waitress.

MOOS: But even Jack Nicholson's restaurant run-in...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You want me to hold the chicken, huh?

NICHOLSON: I want you to hold it between your knees.

MOOS: Doesn't compare with the Sizzler waiter who got in a fight with an Atkins dieter. She wanted to substitute vegetables for potatoes. The server followed the family home and covered their house in toilet paper, syrup, flower, you name it.

(on camera): Now, are there things that people ask for that really get on your nerves?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think every waiter in the world hates people who order tea.

MOOS (voice-over): For a cheap-o beverage, you have to get a saucer, a teabag, a teapot, pour scolding water, get lemon, milk, more sweetener.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They open it up and they wrinkle it into those little bowls and they stuff it back into the sugar caddy, like that's going to be OK.

MOOS: Got tea? Get your waitress teed off.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: All right, I was a bad waiter, I never lactated in anyone's food, though, like one of those waiters did.

Let's find out what's coming up in a few minutes on "PAULA ZAHN NOW." Paula, happy birthday, also.

PAULA ZAHN, HOST, "PAULA ZAHN NOW": Thank you, Anderson. And thanks for sharing that piece of your past with us this evening.

COOPER: My pleasure.

ZAHN: That might fall into the file of things we maybe didn't want to know, Anderson?

COOPER: Yeah, I know, too much information.

ZAHN: But thanks for the birthday greeting.

We, of course, will be watching developments out of Rome with Pope John Paul's health. But we will also focus on a life or death decision due tomorrow in Florida. I'll be talking to Terri Schiavo's parents, and ask if she will be in pain if her feeding tube is removed to let her die. We will also hear from a woman who will tell us what it was like to have her feeding tube removed. As you might imagine, Anderson, she describes it as complete agony.

COOPER: Can't even imagine. Five minutes from now, Paula, all right. Thanks very much, Paula.

ZAHN: Thank you.

COOPER: Coming up next on 360, you are not going to believe this woman. She went on a million dollar spending spree and now she's blaming 9/11 for making her shop. It is the lamest excuse we have ever heard, and we've heard a lot. We'll tell you her story ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight, taking lame excuses to "The Nth Degree."

We've heard a lot of lame excuses in our time. You know, the dog ate my homework, the drug made me do it, someone else did it first. And until today, we thought we'd heard it all. But no.

Antoinette Millard has come up with the lamest excuse we have ever heard. She is being sued for insurance fraud. It seems she once pretended to be a Saudi princess and racked up $1 million in debt buying jewelry on her credit card.

Now, No. 1, she's no Saudi. And No. 2, she ain't no princess.

But when American Express sued this non-paying non-princess, she counter-sued, claiming -- and I find it hard to even tell you this -- she claims she's a victim of 9/11. Now, she wasn't in the Twin Towers; her husband or brother wasn't killed. She says she's a victim because she was upset by 9/11. Traumatized, in fact. So traumatized that she was trying to kill herself by shopping. Suicide by shopping. Suicide by spending, that's what she calls it. She says American Express should have realized how stressed out she was, and should never have given her credit.

Now, you've got to give Antoinette Millard credit for chutzpah. I mean, imagine it. To be so completely shattered by an event that you're driven not to slash your wrists, but to cover them in diamonds instead.

Can't imagine it? Neither can we.

Thanks for watching 360. "PAULA ZAHN NOW" is next -- Paula.

ZAHN: That's ridiculous. Thanks, Anderson.

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