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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Shot on Tape; Student Murder Mystery; Nothing to Cheer About; Navy Rape Trial; CSI: Target; Anthrax Mystery; Anthrax Anger
Aired March 08, 2006 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: From across the U.S. and around the world, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360. Live from the CNN studios in New York, here's Anderson Cooper.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening again. We begin the hour with a shooting caught on tape. Take a look. It happened after a chase in southern California. Elio Carrion is on the ground. Deputy Ivory Webb has the gun on him. Now, Carrion gets up, and right there, Webb opens fire. Even though the tape is dark, that much is plain to see.
As for why? Deputy Webb now faces trial. The case may hinge instead on what's plain or not so plain to hear.
CNN's Chris Lawrence reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Air Force security officer is home from the hospital. Wheelchair and toe. The California deputy who shot him is also going home, arraigned on a felony.
Ivory Webb pleaded not guilty to attempted voluntary manslaughter, a charge the victim's wife is not happy with.
MARIELA CARRION, VICTIM'S WIFE: It's a comfort that he was actually charged. But he wasn't charged for attempted murder, and that's what he wanted. That's what he did. He tried to kill him.
LAWRENCE: Both men are tied together by the grainy, but graphic home video shot five weeks ago.
ELIO CARRION: I mean you no harm.
I served more time than you in the police...
LAWRENCE: A car crashes after leading Deputy Webb on a short high speed chase. Elio Carrion is the passenger on the ground.
DEPUTY WEBB: Get up...OK? Get up."
CARRION: I'm gonna get up.
(Shots fired.)
LAWRENCE: Prosecutors hired a special lab to enhance the video and amplify the audio.
MICHAEL RAMOS, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY: Not once did anybody in the D.A.'s office hear Deputy Webb say, don't get up. We all heard, get up.
LAWRENCE: It's not the first time home video has been used in a case that questions how officers make stops and arrest suspects.
White and black Inglewood police officers were caught on tape in 2002 as they arrested a black teenager.
Fifteen years ago, the Rodney King beating outraged people across the country. Yet, this case is causing a different reaction.
LORI LEVENSON, PROFESSOR, LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL: You don't see the stark racial disparity that you saw in the Rodney King case. The second thing is, we've seen this before. And I think the more frequently the public sees it, the more they sort of say, well, these things happen.
LAWRENCE: Attorney Lori Levenson says a lot can happen between the time the public sees the tape and a jury considers the evidence.
LEVENSON: It's hard to prosecute police officers because frankly, we've learned from the Rodney King case that the tape doesn't necessarily tell the whole story.
LAWRENCE: Instead of attempted murder, prosecutors charged Webb with attempted voluntary manslaughter. They determined the deputy truly believed he was in danger, following the high speed chase.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, Chris, I mean, it was a chaotic situation. And if the D.A. believed the deputy's intentions, why charge him with a felony at all?
LAWRENCE: Well, they agree that at that time, you know, Deputy Webb thought that what he was doing was reasonable. But prosecutors say there's something else that comes into it. They looked at what another deputy would do. And they said in a reasonable situation, another deputy in that same situation, with a man on the ground, facing him, he would not have shot three times.
COOPER: All right, Chris Lawrence, thanks.
If in the end it turns out that Deputy Webb pulled the trigger for no other reason than his adrenaline was pumping and his senses were on edge, it would be wrong and possibly illegal, but it wouldn't be unheard of. It's a very stressful and chaotic job, of course.
And as CNN's Jason Carroll found out, these heart-stopping moments happen all the time. And more and more, they happen on tape.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How much have you had to drink tonight?
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One night last month, an Ohio State Trooper pulled over a motorist for driving erratically. The dash camera in the officer's patrol car captures how a traffic stop quickly escalates into a deadly struggle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, OHIO STATE TROOOPER: Put your hands up here...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, DRIVER: OK. That's what I'm doing.
STATE TROOPER: I'm just going to pat you down.
DRIVER: That's what I'm doing. That's what I'm doing.
CARROLL: The driver draws a gun, but drops it. Both men wrestle for the weapon and with each other for several moments until the officer manages to retrieve his gun.
The trooper shoots the driver in the head and kills him. It's a dramatic example of what officers call one of their biggest concerns while out on patrol.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dante, go ahead and undo your belt and step out here.
CARROLL: Routine traffic stops...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Screaming)
CARROLL: ... that turn out to be far from routine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, OFFICER: Ma'am...
CARROLL: A driver who wants to fight.
OFFICER: Don't fight me, ma'am.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why not?
OFFICER: Because. Don't fight me. Ma'am.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm already in trouble.
What difference would it possibly make?
CARROLL: Again, a struggle for a weapon. The officer in this case is eventually forced to shoot the woman. She does not survive.
Michigan State Trooper Joel Service says most officers now need to be prepared for just anything.
Service had his own run in with an unruly driver who led him and fellow officers on a high speed chase. The suspect rammed his vehicle into Service's patrol car, locking them together. JOEL SERVICE, MICHIGAN STATE POLICE: I don't know. I must have been trained pretty well, because I think I was able to handle it -- handle the situation pretty well. I don't -- I didn't lose control, and I was able to kind of keep my wits about me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.
RECRUITS: Good morning, Trooper.
CARROLL: Teaching recruits about the hazards of traffic stops is a major part of the training program for Connecticut State Police. And it goes way beyond the classroom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, OFFICER: So I clocked you for 77 miles an hour in a 65 mile an hour zone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, DRIVER: I think that's impossible.
CARROLL: Thanks to dashboard cameras and cop shows on TV, most recruits have already seen how real life situations like this one can become dangerous in a hurry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they make the 1,030 (ph) stop. Hold that position. Whoa! Drop the gun! Drop the gun! 3044 (ph) drop the gun!
CARROLL: Eventually, this woman gave up and was taken into custody.
(On camera): When the recruits come in, do you find are they asking better questions, having seen some of that stuff out there in the media?
STAN TERRY, CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE: They see them. They ask better questions. They are very familiar with police tactics.
CARROLL (voice-over): Because dash cam video is now so prevalent, most drivers who are stopped these days almost certainly know they're being taped. That doesn't always stop them from becoming violent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, OFFICER: I placed you under arrest. I'm not going to let you go back to that vehicle.
CARROLL: Not even this driver's children can convince him to stop punching the officer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dad, no! No! No, Dad!
CARROLL: Some state troopers say all the dramatic dash cam tapes might give a false impression.
(On camera): Are people worse now than they were many years ago when you were patrolling or?
WILLIAM TATE, CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE: I don't think so. I think...
CARROLL: Or are we just seeing it now more because of the dash cameras?
TATE: I think the dash cam is adding a lot more to the public awareness of what's going on out there. I don't think people's behavior has changed drastically.
CARROLL: Even so, Michigan State Trooper Joel Service has this advice for recruits about traffic stops.
SERVICE: Be aware of the fact that it could happen and it does happen and at some point in time in an officer's career, it is going to happen to him. And you need to be ready for it when it does.
CARROLL: In this kind of work, it's very dangerous to think that anything is routine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop! Stop!
CARROLL: Jason Carroll, CNN, Meriden, Connecticut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Unbelievable.
Here in New York, there are new developments in a murder mystery that is getting national attention. A beautiful young criminology student spent a night at a bar, never made it home. Her body was found hours later, tortured and mutilated. Tonight, police are focusing their attention on a man who's been in and out of prison, a career criminal, who was with the victim shortly before she disappeared. They're calling him a person of interest.
CNN's Rick Sanchez investigates.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICH SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Friday night in New York City, the bars are packed and booze abounds. And so it was on a recent Friday night when Imette St. Guillen, a 24-year-old Venezuelan beauty with a promising future, chose to party into the wee hours. Even after her friends had called it quits and gone home.
(On camera): It was now 4:00 in the morning here at The Falls, a trendy bar in SoHo. Closing time. Imette was asked reportedly to leave the bar. In fact, in what may have been somewhat humiliating for her, she was escorted out by the bouncer.
VERONICA BELENKAYA, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: She was someone sitting in the middle of the bar, having her drinks. She was -- she didn't finish the second one and then she left.
SANCHEZ: But did the bouncer, 41-year-old Darryl Littlejohn, know a lot more than he was letting on to New York Daily News Reporter Veronica Belenkaya? The only member of the press who's heard his side of the story firsthand.
(Voice-over): Soon, Littlejohn would become a person of interest in the police investigation into Imette's murder.
(On camera): He never said that he was asked to escort her out?
BELENKAYA: No, no, that never came up.
SANCHEZ: He never said that he may have even had a bit of tiff with her?
BELENKAYA: No, no. That certainly wasn't...
SANCHEZ: He didn't say that?
BELENKAY: No.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): In the days since Imette's murder, police have scoured the building that houses the bar, searching high and low for any piece of evidence that can tell them if something horrible happened here.
But they've also spent days searching Darryl Littlejohn's home in Queens, and confiscating evidence, including this van.
Lawrence Kobilinsky is a renowned forensics expert, who is connected to the investigation.
LAWRENCE KOBILINSKY, PH.D., PROFESSOR, FORENSIC SCIENCE, JOHN JAY COLLEGE: She had to have been moved while still alive from The Falls, that location, to the place where she was raped and sodomized and tortured.
SANCHEZ (on camera): The best evidence may be found on Imette, herself. Her body was found dumped here the following night in this hideaway in Brooklyn. She'd been raped and tortured. Her face was wrapped in tape, a sock stuffed down her throat.
How'd police find her? They were led here by a phone call.
It's not known who made that phone call police have now traced to this payphone in Brooklyn. And Kobilinsky says another phone call could put Littlejohn near the spot where Imette's body was found.
KOBILINSKY: We also know that the cell phone was again active in Brooklyn, fairly near the site where the body was dumped. And we have the timing of that as well. Now, what he was doing in Brooklyn is a good question.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Police are now questioning Littlejohn while he's being held for violating his parole by working in a bar and missing his curfew. Littlejohn has spent more than 12 years in prison for drug possession and robbery. But is he capable of murder?
KOBILINSKY: Well, there is a disconnect between the crimes that he has been convicted of, armed robberies, drug possession, holding up a bank, and crimes like that are not in the same -- they're not at the same level as, you know, rape, sodomy and homicide.
SANCHEZ (on camera): In the end, the irony of the story is, Imette was an honor student, going to grad school here at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Could she have known enough to leave police some kind of clue, possibly DNA in her fingernails as to who her killer was? Kobilinsky and others here at the college say, they're convinced of it.
Rick Sanchez, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, the U.S. Naval Academy is rocked by a rape scandal. And the defendant accused of the crime is the Navy's star quarterback player. We'll bring you that story ahead.
Also, tonight, it started with a fever and chills and it ended with a diagnosis of anthrax poisoning. Our 360 MD Sanjay Gupta shows us how the mystery behind one man's illness was finally solved.
And later, you may not know this, but cheerleading is actually one of the most dangerous sports for girls in the nation. We'll tell you the story of one young cheerleader whose life changed forever.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: So, it takes probably a special kind of person to be a cheerleader. You have to be up, no matter what. But even up, has its limits. You don't have to be up when you, yourself, come tumbling down the way Kristi Yamaoka did this weekend while cheerleading on her team.
Southern Illinois University is where is where it happened. Despite a concussion and spinal injuries, the school spirit -- check that out -- never left her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTI YAMAOKA, INJURED CHEERLEADER: I was aware that I was doing it, but every time we hear that fight song, and they play it over and over at all the games, we -- you know, our coach has us dance because it helps keep the crowd going and gets everyone motivated to support the SIU. So, as soon as I heard it, I figured the rest of my squad was probably doing the fight song, and I'm still part of the squad, so I had to do my thing. I probably should have known better than to be doing the arm motions too, but it was the cheerleader coming out in me, I guess.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Yes. Cheerleader coming out in her. Kristi's reaction to her experience is something else. The experience itself is not. This is not an isolated problem, actually, as CNN's Ed Lavandera found out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the moment Tracy Jensen stepped on the University of Nebraska campus, she knew cheering on the Huskers would be her passion.
TRACY JENSEN, FORMER CHEERLEADER: I just thought it was amazing. I was impressed and blown away by these girls flying through the air.
LAVANDERA: She was living the dream her junior year, soaring and spinning in the air at football games.
JENSEN: I got goose bumps every time I walked on that field.
LAVANDERA: But during a practice session near the end of the 1996 football season, Jensen launched into a difficult jump when something went wrong.
JENSEN: In the middle of the air it was like vertigo. I couldn't tell where I was. And when I hit the ground, I thought I just knocked the wind out of myself.
LAVANDERA: It was much worse.
JENSEN: I couldn't feel anything except for my face. There was no air. I wasn't breathing.
LAVANDERA: Friends kept her alive using CPR until the medics arrived.
JENSEN: Everything was going black. And I'm thinking, is this it?
LAVANDERA: Jensen had landed on her head and broke her neck in three places.
JENSEN: And I remember thinking, God, if you want me, take me now. And if you don't, leave me here. And when I opened my eyes, I was staring at the ceiling.
LAVANDERA: Jensen woke up a quadriplegic, needing a ventilator to breathe. In that tragic instant, she became a statistic in a disturbing trend that's often overlooked.
(on camera): In the last 20 years, the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research found that cheerleaders were involved in half of the serious injuries involving female high school athletes. Fast forward to college, and the number jumps to 65 percent.
(voice-over): Injuries range from torn ligaments to skull fractures and broken necks leaving many paralyzed. Experts say cheerleading should not be considered a cute after school activity.
DR. FRED MUELLER, EXERCISE & SPORTS SCIENCE SPECIALIST: And IF you look at what's going on in cheerleading today, it's a gymnastic type activity. So, you need people who are qualified and you need to treat it as a sport. You need to have the -- all of the other requirements that are in place for other sports.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Let's lie down and do some of your neck and shoulder stretches.
LAVANDERA: Jensen's accident prompted the University of Nebraska to limit the stunts its cheerleaders could perform. Gone are the high-flying acrobatics.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come up faster. That's it. Good. Knees up. Knees up. Heel to toe. Good. OK. Go, go, go, go! That's it. OK. Now, let it down slow.
JENSEN: I remember the feel of things. Just my body doesn't cooperate when I go to do them.
LAVANDERA: Tracy Jensen once defied gravity with ease. Today, she's relearning how to run and jump.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get a good, big jump. There you go.
LAVANDERA: The last eight years have been filled with endless hours of physical therapy. But considering where Jensen has been, the fact she can do all of this is amazing. For her, though, it's not enough.
JENSEN: I want what I had. I want my life back. And I want my physical ability back. And I do have to remind myself sometimes how far I really have come.
LAVANDERA: A home aid helps Jensen get ready every morning. She's become more independent and is back in school. But life moves at a slower pace.
JENSEN: Showering, clothes, and hair and makeup will probably all take me between two and two and-a-half hours.
LAVANDERA: She drives herself around town.
JENSEN: And it's zero effort steering wheel so it's very easy to turn.
LAVANDERA: And will never forget the first day she had the keys to this car, her symbol of liberation.
JENSEN: I got out on the open highway. I cranked my radio and I drove for miles. It was great!
LAVANDERA: Tracy Jensen will never leap into the air like she did as a cheerleader, but every step she takes these days makes her feel like she's flying again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes! You're running, you're running! Great!
LAVANDERA: Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Man, a lot of courage.
Well, a look at the considerable dangers of cheerleading when 360 continues.
First, Erica Hill, from "HEADLINE NEWS," joins us with some of the other stories we're following -- Erica.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Anderson.
President Bush made a swing through New Orleans today as part of a visit to the Gulf Coast. This after urging Congress to approve a $4.2 billion plan to reimburse Louisiana homeowners for their destroyed residences. And Mr. Bush also said levee repairs are on track, ahead of the 2006 hurricane season. That, of course, begins June 1.
Three Birmingham college students face federal charges in connection with a string of Alabama church fires that court papers describe as a joke, that quote, "got out of hand." Ben Moseley and Russell DeBusk, both 19; and 20-year-old Matthew Lee Cloyd, are charged with nine of the 10 fires reported last month.
The House Appropriations Committee today approved an amendment that would block a deal under which a United Arab Emirates base company is to assume some U.S. port operations. The vote was 62 to 2, in favor of the amendment, which was inserted into an emergency supplemental funding bill for military action in Iraq and Afghanistan and disaster assistance for the Gulf Coast.
And holy mackerel! Or tuna, this case. A group campaigning against mercury in fish says eating sushi has become, in its words, the new Russian roulette. Gotmercury.org tested mercury levels at six top sushi restaurants in Los Angeles, and found them all unacceptably high. Some were as high as 88 percent higher than the recommended FDA levels. But still, the owner of one sushi restaurant said sushi is safer and healthier, in his opinion, than beef or chicken. And we should point out, I think they only have like 12 samples, Anderson, so, you know. You got to keep that in mind.
COOPER: Well, I had eight pieces of salmon sushi tonight, so, there you go.
HILL: OK. So, maybe I'll see you tomorrow, maybe I won't.
COOPER: Erica, thanks.
Up ahead, a story that is rocking the U.S. Naval Academy, with the Navy star athlete at the center of it.
And later, why law enforcement is turning for retailing for help solving crimes.
You're watching 360.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Honor, courage, commitment -- that's what the U.S. Naval Academy prides itself on. But today, the distinguished institution finds itself as the backdrop of a brutal crime, the rape of a midshipman, allegedly committed by a fellow student, who also happens to be the Navy's star athlete.
CNN's Joe Johns investigates.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The legendary Army/Navy game, 2005, broadcast to a nationwide audience. Quarterback Lamar Owens, star of the Naval academy, brings the team a decisive victory.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Owens got on the sideline. How did he do it?
JOHNS: A leader, a captain, a senior with a bright future in the service. He went on to win a bowl game, most valuable player award. His next stop should have been the White House, to stand with teammates and be honored as the top service academy team.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am proud of the midshipmen.
JOHNS: The glory days ended abruptly when the Navy charged Owens with rape. The Navy charges it happened January 29, at this Annapolis residence hall, where the midshipmen live. And what is roughly equivalent to a military grand jury hearing, Wednesday, a military prosecutor laid out the evidence. An all too familiar tale of alcohol, hazy memories, disputed accounts, and a telephone call in which Owens acknowledged that something bad happened.
Here's how the story unfolded, as recounted today in the courtroom. Although she was 20, underage, Owens' accuser says she was drinking that night, heavily, eight to 10 drinks, including some shots of liquor. She returns to campus to her room and goes to sleep. The next thing she says she remembers, Lamar Owens is standing at the foot of her bed.
CNN Producer Michael McManus was inside the courtroom, listening to her testimony.
MICHAEL MCMANUS, CNN PRODUCER: Lamar Owens came into her room and kissed her. And she says she clenched her lips and she turned over on her side, as to say, leave. And then she says she blacked out. She says when she woke up again, he was on top of her and her clothes were off.
JOHNS: Conscious now and aware of Owens on top of her, she curls up, she says, to move away, twice before she says Owens gets up and leaves. Then, after days of agonizing, she reports the alleged attack to criminal investigators February 6. Some time later, with investigators taping her cell phone, the woman calls Owens. The tape played at today's hearing. MCMANUS: He says, I didn't do it that long, like a few minutes. You weren't even awake, so I stopped. He then says to her, I apologize. I woke up the next day, I really wanted to kill myself.
JOHNS: During cross-examination, the woman acknowledged she was very drunk, that her memory of the night has gaps, and that when asked if it was possible she consented to having sex, she said, I suppose. Although, she later added, I don't believe I would have consented. At no point does she say she told Owens, no. In fact, she says, she doesn't remember saying anything to him at all.
It would seem to be seriously inconsistent behavior for a student athlete who came from an all-male Catholic military school in Savannah, Georgia, where prayer and football go hand in hand.
Owens' lawyer describes his client as a fine young man, and told CNN, I'm confident he will be vindicated of the charges.
But the bad news hasn't stopped there for the academy. A Navy official tells CNN on background, that in a separate and unrelated case, two other male midshipmen are under investigation of a sexual assault that occurred on a different date.
(On camera): The charges against Navy's top gun have brought more pain to the U.S. service academies, which have been struggling to overcome the perception that they're insensitive to charges of sexual harassment and assault.
Just last June, a report prepared for Congress, talked about hostile attitudes towards women, and said the response by the academies has been inadequate.
(Voice-over): The Defense Department says it's trying to change, giving victims of sexual assault more legal options and sexual assault response coordinators to help victims and make sure they don't face retaliation.
Owens is considered innocent until proven otherwise, so he's still at the academy, attending classes and going about his duties. That said, the academy wants to make sure Owens and the alleged victim don't run into each other.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have taken steps to protect the victim and the accused from further contact until this case is settled.
JOHNS: Whatever the outcome of this case, the problem is sexual assault in the academies is hardly new. And what's inexplicable and contradictory is how students, bound by a code of duty and honor, can find themselves at the center of this kind of trouble.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Joe, it's interesting, having public hearings like this, you know, where so much of the evidence gets aired, it's a little different from the way things get done in civilian court. What comes next? JOHNS: That's true, Anderson. The hearing continues tomorrow. Up to four more people are expected to testify, including the officer the Navy assigned to look after the complaining witness when the case was first reported. The military is required to hold this kind of a hearing to examine the basis of the criminal charges before they can be dismissed or, for example, refer it to a court marshal.
COOPER: All right, Joe, thanks. Joe Johns reporting tonight.
Coming up, solving crimes. Certainly it takes hard work and sometimes high tech help. Police and even the FBI are getting just that from a place better known for catching shoplifters. We'll explain.
And anthrax anxiety. A drummer hospitalized with the illness. How police tracked down the source.
Across America and around the world, you're watching 360.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: When surveillance videotape has to be enhanced and other high tech help is needed, local police -- even the feds, are turning to a team of crime fighters, and they're coming from a store near you.
CNN's Jonathan Freed explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Minneapolis, July 2004. Murder at a convenience store, caught on the store's security camera. The killer would eventually be sentenced to life in prison, thanks to the help of a team of forensic experts tucked away in a crime lab, protected by walls of security.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Entered into the parking lot from this side.
FREED: They've got the latest crime solving technology at their command, and they work for Target. Yes, that Target.
BRAD BREKKE, VICE PRESIDENT, ASSET PROTECTION, TARGET: Many of our cases end up in court, so we wanted to maintain the same standards law enforcement maintains.
FREED: Brad Brekke is ex-FBI and heads up the discount retailer's asset protection program at Target's headquarters in Minneapolis. Due in part to its size -- 1,400 stores in 47 states -- Target says it can become a target for everything from theft to fraud to personal injury cases.
Like the time in California a shopper slipped and then sued. Using video analysis done in its crime lab, Target convinced a jury that a wet spot on the floor wasn't ignored by an employee, but was caused right before the accident by another shopper's spilled drink.
BREKKE: There's multiple uses for this products, video analysis or computer analysis or others.
FREED: Well, word got out about Target's forensic team and over the last couple of years, the labs helped solve cases that had nothing to do with Target, at the request of dozens of law enforcement agencies across the country -- local, state, even the Secret Service, the ATF and the FBI. All of it for free.
Do you ever get the reaction of wait a minute, what is Target doing here dealing with this?
BREKKE: Yes, initially sometimes. Actually less now.
FREED: Target sees crime fighting as a brand of community service.
NATE GARVIS, VICE PRESIDENT, GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS, TARGET: We have expanded the concept of safeness well beyond the walls of our store.
FREED (on camera): What is it that Target's crime lab provides that your own lab doesn't?
INSPECTOR KRIS ARNESON, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE: Speed. The ability to take the evidence and turn it around in a very timely manner and get it back to us within probably 24 hours.
FREED (voice-over): And that's what happened with the convenience store murder case, where Target's crime team gave police a cleaned up image of the suspect's face in less than a day. And...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In this image here, we have a portion of a vehicle that is going by this area within the door.
FREED: Forensic Video Expert Craig Thrain (ph) helped identify the make of the getaway car. The Target lab painstakingly analyzed the few lines of the vehicle's frame, visible on the surveillance tape, eventually finding what would prove to be a perfect match.
BREKKE: It's a very fulfilling moment when you hear that the work you did contributed to a bad guy being taken off the street.
FREED: Off the street and away from their stores.
Jonathan Freed, CNN, Minneapolis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, we all remember these chilling pictures from just after 9/11. The anthrax scare was still unfolding, postal workers were dying. And we all lived in fear. Just ahead, an update on the investigation, along with a new case of anthrax and they mystery surrounding it.
And since Katrina struck, there has been -- one man has been buying up buildings all over New Orleans -- buying so many buildings, some are calling him the Donald Trump of NOLA. Is that a good thing? That story and more, when 360 continues. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: In an apartment in lower Manhattan, and a warehouse in Brooklyn remain hot zones tonight. Cleaning crews in biohazard suits are doing their best to remove any remaining traces of pathogens so deadly that it threw the nation into a panic not so long ago.
Tonight, the man who lives in the apartment and works in the warehouse, is fighting to recover.
Here's 360 MD Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONENT (voice-over): His name is Vado Diamande, and he was drumming at this dance performance last month, when suddenly he collapsed and was rushed to this small Pennsylvania hospital.
He had fevers, chills, trouble breathing. It looked like pneumonia. The ER doctor took a blood sample to check. And microbiologist Don Banks (ph) tested a dab of it.
DON BANKS (ph), MICROBIOLOGIST: Our alarm on the blood culture instrument went off. There was a fair chance that it was a serious organism.
GUPTA: Banks called the ER doctor to warn him it was anything but a simple case of pneumonia. In fact, it was a mystery. He'd never seen anything like it.
BANKS: If you've never seen an organism like this before in your life, you've got to surprised.
GUPTA: Under the microscope, no movement. One possibility of a very rare and often very alarming organism.
BANKS: And that's an indication that it might be anthrax.
GUPTA: But was it? Banks ran six more tests. All but one, positive for anthrax. This part of the mystery would continue another 24 more hours, until the blood sample he sent to a state lab confirmed -- anthrax.
Where did it come from? Who else had been exposed? After all, only five years ago, soon after 9/11, the nation was preoccupied with anthrax anxiety.
BANKS: Anthrax is not an organism that we see every day. We wind up having to look up information and, you know, check it over.
GUPTA: Immediate fears turned to terrorism. You remember the anthrax mail to Congress and the news media? Five people died from it. Millions were terrorized. That was a lesson in how easily anthrax could be turned into a powder and a weapon. Suddenly, again, public health officials were in a breakneck rush to find the source, to contain it. Within hours, the hunt focused on New York City.
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, MAYOR, NEW YORK CITY: We are here to present facts about what we believe at this point to be a completely isolated and accidental case of anthrax infection in our city.
GUPTA: Investigators had searched and sealed off Diamande's home. And they found the same bacteria that had been sent through the mail nearly five years ago. But this time, it came from a very different source.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had information that this individual had been doing some work with some sort of processing of hides, but that was just one piece of the puzzle.
GUPTA: Diamande used animal hides to make his drums. The day before his collapse, he had been scraping and stretching them, releasing anthrax spores from the hides into the air, and then inhaling them without knowing it.
Investigators discovered Diamande had bought the hides in December in western Africa.
Anthrax is commonly found in African cattle, from goats. The spores grow naturally in the soil and can enter the body when touched, swallowed, or inhaled.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anthrax is a terrible organism because it really ravages the body. Once it takes root in a specific location, it essentially acts like a small bomb.
GUPTA: Sometimes, antibiotics can diffuse the bomb. For now, Diamande remains in fair condition in this Pennsylvania hospital. And though his condition is improving, anthrax can be brutal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Antibiotics can stop that process, but some of the damage may already have been done, even in someone who initially recovers.
GUPTA: It took investigators two weeks to unravel Diamande's mysterious illness. But it could be years before he's healthy again.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, this new case of anthrax, disturbing as it is for the victims, certainly, and those who live and work near him, doesn't begin to match the terror that gripped the nation in the months after 9/11.
Remember? That's when anthrax began appearing in letters and when being a postal worker meant risking your life. Yet, for all the lives lost and all the terror and all the time gone by, the case still has not been solved.
Once again, here's CNN's Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS (voice-over): The FBI code-named the case Amerithrax, the first major bio-terror attack in the U.S., and it's still very much an open case. Highly potent anthrax sent in childlike, though menacing, letters, to high profile destinations. One to then NBC Anchorman Tom Brokaw and two to senators -- Democrats Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy, both of home escaped injury.
But the hidden substance that passed through the mail, apparently originating from the Trenton, New Jersey, area, still killed five people and injured 18 others in Washington, D.C., Florida, New York, and Connecticut.
The U.S. Postal Service, which handled the letters, was hit hard. Hundreds of workers put on antibiotics, especially at this plant, known as the Brentwood facility, where 2,000 people worked. Not far from the U.S. Capitol.
DENA BRISCOE, POSTAL EMPLOYEE: This was an American terrorist attack, as they say. I don't feel as though they had concerns about the public, the employees, or anyone else.
JOHNS: Dena Briscoe was working at Brentwood at the time. Two employees here, Joseph Curseen and Thomas Morris, died from inhalation anthrax they contracted while working with mail at the contaminated Brentwood facility. At least three others recovered, after being diagnosed with anthrax infection.
BRISCOE: None of us were being tested for anthrax. We were only being treated for whatever symptoms we had.
JOHNS: Briscoe helped start a support group for Brentwood's workers who say the government failed to protect them.
BRISCOE: They let us down -- this country down, tremendously. We still haven't got the case resolved. My coworkers haven't even dealt with that. they haven't even dealt with the fact that someone put anthrax in the mail. We're still dealing with how we were treated during that time.
JOHNS: The postal workers have long complained that hundreds of people on Capitol Hill were getting powerful antibiotics, just in case they'd been exposed, and that the government took a week to shut down Brentwood, which had been contaminated.
The FBI's Washington office, the lead agency in charge of the Amerithrax investigation, says, it cannot comment on the case, other than to say that 18 FBI special agents and 10 postal inspectors are working on it full-time.
Newspaper Editor and Former Reporter Marilyn Thompson, who wrote a book about the case, thinks it may never be solved. MARILYN THOMPSON, AUTHOR, "THE KILLER STRAIN": But my feeling after years of watching and waiting and talking to people, is that they're lost. It's a cold case, and the hope of solving it is very slim.
JOHNS: One of the key unanswered questions has been whether this was in fact a case of international terrorism, which was suggested in the odd language of the enclosed handwritten notes. Or if the crime was more likely committed by a U.S. national with access to anthrax or the means of making it.
Marilyn Thompson is not alone in her assessment that the suspect may have been an American.
THOMPSON: I felt it was almost certainly a domestic bad actor, because the evidence that they were able to retrieve from some of the sites where people died of anthrax poisoning, you know, they were able to do a very extensive DNA analysis of that anthrax, and link it back to U.S. bio-defense labs.
JOHNS: But what they haven't been able to do is charge a suspect.
One person who claims his reputation was ruined as a result of the investigation, is Dr. Steven Hatfill. He claims in a lawsuit that the government launched a campaign to falsely accuse him in the case, without ever referring to him by name. He's also sued some news organizations for defamation.
The legal wrangling goes on. But to this day, whoever launched the anthrax attacks on America, has still escaped justice.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, Erica Hill, from "HEADLINE NEWS," has some of the business stories we're following right now -- Erica.
HILL: Hi Anderson.
We start off with potentially damning testimony today at the Enron trial. Former Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow said on the stand that Enron Founder Kenneth Lay was aware of the company's withering finances in late 2001 -- that's even as he gave glowing reports to its employees and the media. The most direct link yet to be made between fraud at Enron and Lay, who is on trial with CEO Jeffrey Skilling.
TiVo, the maker of the popular set top digital video recorder, reporting narrower fourth quarter losses today. It also announced a new pricing plan, which it hopes will attract more subscribers. The company will now do pretty much like a lot of cell phone providers do. They will charge only for the service, not for the DVR hardware that it used to sell. And if you haven't started planning your summer vacation yet, or even if you have, you might want to put aside a little extra money for gas. According to the Energy Information Administration, U.S. consumers should expect to pay more than $2.50 a gallon at the pump, come summer. You can thank high crude costs and strong demand brought on by warmer weather. I think right now, it's around $2.33 a gallon, Anderson, but you take the subway.
COOPER: Yes, that's right, I do.
Erica, thanks.
In a moment, a pioneer, renaissance man, and a friend -- remembering the great Gordon Parks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: "On the Radar" tonight, Kentucky's decision to charge state employees who smoke more for health insurance than nonsmokers. A lot of reaction on our blog tonight.
Levon in Redonado Beach, California, writes, "You can't punish smokers for simply leading unhealthy lifestyles if you aren't going to throw all other unhealthy habit practitioners into the mix. Shouldn't people who eat McDonalds Big Macs three or more times a week be required to pay higher premiums like these smokers in Kentucky are required to?"
Says Brian in Rexburg, Ohio, "I take a sick delight in the fact that smokers are angry at the added cost placed on them. Did they not already realize that they're paying a lot of money for the cigarettes in the first place? Does it not occur to anyone that it's already free to not smoke?"
And from Justin in Lakeport, California, "Unlike heart disease and cancer, smoking is a choice. I don't think it's unreasonable for insurance companies to require a higher premium from those who choose to smoke. What is unreasonable is asking non-smokers to help foot the bill for treating emphysema and other smoking related medical conditions."
That's "On the Radar."
Back, sadly, to the here and now. The world lost a man unlike any other yesterday. His name was Gordon Parks. He was so many different things to so many different people. A photographer, a film director, a poet, a writer, a composer -- and he did all those things better than just about anyone else.
With each accomplishment, he broke down barriers that were seen and barriers that were unseen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC)
COOPER (voice-over): There were no black staff photographers at "LIFE" magazine, until Gordon Parks.
GORDON PARKS, 1912-2006: I didn't have any feeling about I was black when I walked into the "LIFE" magazine.
COOPER: In Hollywood, at the major studios, there were no black directors, until Gordon Parks. And there were no black action heroes in film either, until Gordon Parks made "Shaft."
Harlem gang members were mostly not to be seen in the mainstream media, nor were the desperately poor of South America, until Gordon Parks trained his camera on them.
Have we mentioned that Gordon Parks never finished high school, nor had any training of any kind in any of the things he was so naturally good at? He gave so much to the world. This world, which at first, hadn't given him much of anything.
He was born a dirt poor farm kid from Kansas, one of 15 children. Orphaned at 16, he was on his own in the world, making his way as among other things, a brothel piano player.
He never studied piano, mind you, but he didn't need to. He just knew how. Just knew how to make unforgettable pictures too, of the high and mighty and the down and out.
PARKS: You must have respect for your subject matter. You might be the famous "LIFE" photographer, but you are really low on the totem pole because they are the important one, your subject matter. They may be paupers, you know, but if they don't want to give to you, you're not going to get a good photograph of them.
COOPER: He just knew how to turn the story of his life into a novel. "The Learning Tree," it was called; and the novel, into a screenplay; and the screenplay, into a film, for which we also wrote the music. He just knew how to do it all.
In his work as a photographer and director, writer and poet and composer, Gordon Parks showed us an America many had never seen -- and some simply didn't want to see.
In his life, as a father and husband and friend to so many, he showed us what dignity and wisdom and determination are really all about.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (on camera): I was lucky as a kid in many ways, not the least of which was knowing Gordon Parks from the time I was born. My mom and he had a friendship that went back some 50 years. Long before I even knew what the word "cool" meant, I knew that Gordon Parks was cool. It wasn't just the green Jaguar he drove or his unpretentiousness, it was his warmth and his drive. And the world is a better place for him having lived in it these past 93 years. And I am certainly a better person for having known him.
We'll have more of 360 in a moment. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Thanks for watching 360.
"LARRY KING" is next. His guest is Melanie Bloom, the widow of Reporter David Bloom, and a friend of ABC News Anchor Bob Woodruff, wounded in Iraq.
That's it for us tonight. Thanks very much for watching. We will see you back here tomorrow night. Good night.
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