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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Jackson Late for Court; Interview With Maureen Orth

Aired March 10, 2005 - 22:00 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.

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again.
Guilt or innocence aside, that's not our department, strange and Michael Jackson go together like burgers and fries and the day could hardly have been stranger.

We begin tonight with CNN's David Mattingly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eight-thirty a.m. Pacific Time, Santa Maria Superior Court goes back into session. Michael Jackson's young accuser is expected to return to the witness stand but where is Michael Jackson? It turns out the self-proclaimed king of pop is in the town of Solvang at a small 22-bed hospital seeking treatment for a "serious back problem."

BRIAN OXMAN, JACKSON FAMILY ATTORNEY: He tripped this morning and he fell in the early morning hours while he was getting dressed. His back is in terrible pain.

MATTINGLY: A hospital spokesperson tells CNN Jackson arrived at 7:25 a.m. She would give no details about his treatment or condition. Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville immediately lays down the law, issuing a bench warrant. Jackson has one hour to appear or else he goes to jail and loses his $3 million in bail.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're getting word now from our CNN sources at the courthouse he has not arrived yet.

MATTINGLY: What follows is an unscripted high stakes reality TV celebrity drama. With a national audience watching and his very freedom on the line, Jackson must hurry. It's a 37-mile journey, a 45-minute drive in the best of circumstances and, according to a hospital spokesperson Jackson doesn't leave until after 8:45.

Back at the courthouse tension builds. As the Jackson entourage speeds down the 101 exceeding 90 miles an hour at one point, Jackson's attorney nervously paces outside. He constantly checks his cell phone, 8:49, 9:09, 9:14, 9:20, 9:29. It's clear to all who are watching the clock it's going to be close.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: We are just about a minute away now from the end of that one hour time period.

MATTINGLY: But as the seconds fly by, Jackson is losing his race. About the time his black SUV exits the 101, with just 1.3 miles to go, his moment of reckoning is at hand. The 9:35 deadline comes and goes. Jackson is late.

WOODRUFF: It is now past the one hour mark. It is 9:35 a.m.

MATTINGLY: Two minutes, 37 seconds later, Jackson arrives. He emerges from the vehicle slowly. His father at his side and aided by bodyguards he appears unsteady, unsure of himself, solemn, unresponsive as fans yell his name.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told him "Be strong, Michael. Hold on. Fight, Michael, fight."

MATTINGLY: Wearing what looks like pajama pants and slippers, Jackson takes a full minute to walk the 30 yards from the curb to the courthouse door, a slow and curious spectacle, as cameras record every inch of his highly-anticipated entrance, a sharp contrast to Jackson's energetic and upbeat arrivals of previous days.

Finally, 9:39, four minutes after the court-imposed deadline, Jackson walks inside the court to face the judge. Instead of addressing Jackson, the judge addressed the jury, telling the jurors that he had to order Jackson to court today but the jurors should not make inferences from the order about Jackson's guilt or innocence.

Late in the day, the judge eventually determines no punishment is necessary and gives Jackson a warning as the superstar's career, fortune and freedom hang in the balance.

David Mattingly, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, now, once the spectacle calmed down, there was still a trial to conduct and the central witness to question and evaluate, the accuser on the stand, day two.

Here's CNN's Miguel Marquez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jackson may have arrived in court in pain but there was no relief as the judge had him sit through a day of testimony from his 15-year-old accuser.

LAURIE LEVINSON, LEGAL ANALYST: It was very personal in there.

MARQUEZ: The boy testified that Jackson masturbated him and brought him to ejaculation twice. He said the incidents lasted about five minutes each and both happened in the pop star's bedroom at Neverland Ranch. The boy said on the second incident Jackson wanted the boy to reciprocate. The boy said he didn't want to do it and "felt weird and embarrassed."

MICHAEL JACKSON: I'm sorry, I can't speak now. LEVINSON: There was a little bit of a stare-down going on between the boy and Michael Jackson during the testimony, whereas at times before that the boy would talk to the jury. If you notice, when he was talking about that molestation and especially on cross- examination, he was looking at Michael Jackson.

MARQUEZ: The teenager also testified that Jackson gave him alcohol several times, which the pop star told him was "Jesus juice." The boy told jurors that Jackson ordered the accuser and his family not to watch the Martin Bashir video "Living with Michael Jackson" that aired on ABC in February, 2003.

The prosecutor charges that Jackson, among other things, conspired to keep the family from seeing the documentary. Before the day ended, Jackson's accuser only had a few minutes to question the accuser.

LEVINSON: In 20 minutes of cross-examination, he did it an amazing amount. The first thing he did was establish a motive for why the boy would make up this story and he got the boy to say that he was mad at Michael Jackson. He felt abandoned by his best friend.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Well, there's going to be more soon. Jackson says he is not guilty of any and all charges against him and on Monday his lawyer will have a chance to prove that under cross-examination and I'm sure it's going to be long and tedious as Mr. Jackson's accuser continues -- Aaron.

BROWN: Is the boy, is he composed? Did he come off with a strong voice? What's his demeanor?

MARQUEZ: He is as composed, amazingly composed for a 15-year-old boy. He is a much better witness so far than his older sister or his younger brother and I think a lot of what he is saying so far is having far more resonance with this jury -- Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you, Miguel Marquez out west tonight.

Journalist Maureen Orth is covering the Jackson trial for "Vanity Fair" magazine. She's familiar with the pop star, having written about him for more than a decade, including in her book the importance of being famous and she is at the courthouse as well tonight. It's always nice to see her.

It doesn't get much weirder than this in the post-O.J. period does it?

MAUREEN ORTH, "VANITY FAIR": No, not really. Today was one of those days where when Michael Jackson came speeding back with a motorcycle escort, Tom Mesereau was just nearly, you know, looking at his watch every two minutes like the groom that had been left at the altar and the judge made absolutely no bones about it. He was ready to revoke that $3 million worth of bail. BROWN: There's all sorts of stories floating around tonight. You're probably familiar with them that Mr. Jackson is on the verge of cracking up, that he was up all night with money problems. What do you know?

ORTH: He doesn't look well that's for sure. He's extremely emaciated. He's very, very pale. When he walked into court today, his wig was unkempt. He isn't wearing all the rouge that he usually wears. He's much, much thinner.

You know I saw him in court in 2002 where he was making all the little signs to the jury and all that stuff and he claimed to have a spider bite and came in on crutches. You know he really does have a history of pulling these medical interruptions particularly on days that he doesn't want to face court.

But, today I think he very well could have been in pain. He really doesn't look very good and, of course, he does have huge money problems. There's all kinds of rumors that Neverland is being sold that he's going to have to give up, you know, his assets when huge loans are called due later on this year. So, and then there has been a report that Neverland's employees have not been paid for the last two weeks.

BROWN: Is there -- can you tell at all how the jury, just by watching them that's all you have to go on, was processing all of this. They see this guy look decidedly different today and the pajamas and they know something has gone on and what -- how do they seem to be reacting?

ORTH: The judge admonished them not to draw any inferences as to guilt or innocence when he explained to them. He said, "You know, we're starting late today because Mr. Jackson had a medical problem. I had to order him to court." And he said, "I don't want you to draw any inference from this" and they seemed to -- they seemed to understand that. I think they trust this judge and we settled down after that and got into the examination of the accuser.

BROWN: And on that point, which is after all the main point of all of this...

ORTH: Right.

BROWN: ...how did that seem to go? Do you have a sense of how the defense now will approach this young man?

ORTH: Oh, absolutely we have a sense of how the defense is approaching this whole thing because they have to make the accuser and his family, particularly his mother, the defendant, he is out to show that they're nothing but a bunch of money grubbing grifters.

However, he's going to have a much more of an uphill battle because this is a pretty compelling witness this young man and the amount of detail of every night drinking. They had like cocktail happy hour in the arcade drinking wine, "Jesus juice," white win, vodka with a boy called Jim Bean, Baccardi rum. He was extremely detailed about all the things that happened. There were love notes that Michael Jackson gave to him. They were in bed together constantly. They slept together many, many nights together and also with the brother. So, this is a lot of specific detail that the defense is going to have to overcome and say that it's all made up.

BROWN: Well, you know, here's my take. There's probably another weird chapter to come yet so we'll talk to you again. It's good to see you. Thank you.

ORTH: Thanks.

BROWN: Maureen Orth who's covering the Michael Jackson trial for "Vanity Fair" magazine.

On to other things now; doctors hope that former President Bill Clinton will be on his feet by tomorrow. He won't be playing golf again for a while but doctors say his second heart surgery in six months went well, even if it was somewhat more complicated than they expected; an update from our Senior Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After four hours or surgery, doctors say the former president will be back on his feet in just a day. That's no surprise to anyone that the procedure went seamlessly, especially to Mr. Clinton. In the days preceding, he let his characteristic optimism drive both his golf game and his attitude about the operation.

BILL CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's not useful to sit around and worry about things you have no control over. I want to be able to breathe again fully.

GUPTA: To help him breathe fully, doctors honed in on scar tissue surrounding his left lower lung, stripping it away like an orange peel and draining the fluid that had built up as a consequence of his quadruple bypass just six months ago.

The only minor hiccup, if you can call it that during the four- hour procedure, doctors realized the almost one centimeter plaque-like rind on his left lung was too thick to remove with just a tiny incision.

DR. JOSHUA SONETT, CLINTON'S THORACIC SURGEON: It became quickly apparent that more was going to be needed, so then we find the best place to enter between another set of ribs and we go between ribs and gently spread the ribs.

GUPTA: While any operation of the chest is serious, surgeons considered this one low risk. Doctors do agree it's curious for symptoms like Mr. Clinton's to manifest so many months after a quadruple bypass. DR. JONATHAN REINER, CARDIOLOGIST: We typically see patients develop some fluid in their chest in the days or even early weeks after bypass surgery. But now, you know, more than five months following surgery, it's really very unusual.

GUPTA: Dr. Craig Smith, Mr. Clinton's cardiac surgeon, says of the 6,000 bypass operations he's performed only ten have resulted in this kind of condition.

DR. CRAIG SMITH, CARDIAC SURGEON: So, quite uncommon.

GUPTA: The fact that one of those ten complications was in a former president has given this rare condition significant attention, top of the hour news all day long by just about every broadcast network. But regardless of its rarity, everything went as expected, even better.

SONETT: And a full, functional recovery with not only no limitations but improved function is expected.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, New York Presbyterian Columbia Hospital.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A quick check now of some of the other headlines we're following. We go to Erica Hill who's at CNN Headline News in Atlanta, good evening again to you.

(NEWSBREAK)

BROWN: Thank you. We'll see you in about a half hour or so; much more coming up on the program tonight starting with the dramatic twist in the murder of a judge's family in Chicago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): A Chicago man with a link to the judge kills himself. In a note, he apparently claims he committed the murders.

PHIL CLINE, CHICAGO POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: We are attempting to learn as much as we possibly can about Bart Ross' history.

BROWN: So, will this close the case?

Two retired New York detectives are charged with carrying out contracts for the mob while on the force, ten murders or attempted murders between them.

In Connecticut a criminal charge that has set off a storm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hunt (ph) has always been very much of a caring person.

BROWN: Hunt Williams cleaned the gun his dying friend used to kill himself. Now he faces manslaughter charges but many in his hometown stand behind him.

From New York and around the world this is NEWSNIGHT.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Tonight, police in Chicago may have the break in the shooting death of the husband and the mother of a federal court judge and what's unfolding reads like a chapter in a drugstore crime novel.

There is a suicide, an apparent suicide note referring to the murders and, in a strange twist resembling the BTK case in Kansas, letters to a Chicago TV station presumably from the killer.

Tonight, police are still saying the case is not solved, not officially; in Chicago tonight, CNN's Keith Oppenheim.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In West Allis, Wisconsin, police say Bart Ross, a 57-year-old Chicago man with no known criminal record was pulled over because his taillights were out, suddenly, an unexpected suicide.

CHIEF DEAN PUSCHING, WEST ALLIS POLICE DEPT.: While approaching the driver, a single gunshot was fired from inside the vehicle. The bullet exited the driver's window very close to where the officer was standing.

CLINE: In processing the crime scene, we came upon a note written, presumably by the victim, where he implicated himself in the murders of Michael Lefkow and Donna Humphrey.

OPPENHEIM: Chicago Police said the note in Ross' van had information about the Lefkow family murders only the killer could know. Thursday, Chicago TV station WMAQ received typed and handwritten letters signed Bart Ross, letters the station submitted to the FBI.

In them, the station reports, the author wrote, "I regret killing husband and mother of Judge Lefkow as much as I regret that I have to die for the simple reason that they personally did to me no wrong. I had no choice but to shoot him. Then I heard, Michael, Michael, so I looked to the hallway and saw an older woman. I had to shoot her too."

(on camera): Court records indicate Bart Ross last year filed a lawsuit that was assigned to Judge Lefkow. The lawsuit was against numerous parties for cancer treatment he received and ultimately dismissed by Judge Lefkow in January of 2005. Police sources tell CNN in the suicide note found in the minivan, Ross wrote the judgment cost him his house, his job and his family.

(voice-over): Until Wednesday, this case had focused on Matt Hale, a white supremacist who last year was convicted of plotting to kill Judge Lefkow. If investigators confirm that Bart Ross was indeed trying to do the same thing, to kill Judge Lefkow, then this story will end with a tragic irony that the judge survived but this time with a terrible loss.

Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Of all the questions yet to be answered in this case, these are at the top of the list tonight. Who was Bart Ross? What kind of life did he lead? And, if in the end police do link him to the murders, the primary question why really; CNN's Chris Lawrence tonight on a man driven to take his own life and very possibly those of two others.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): According to neighbors, Bart Ross didn't talk much but when he did he let loose about the courts and hospitals that he said ruined his life.

MERCEDES RIVERA, NEIGHBOR: But nobody would listen to him, so that's why he was really angry.

LAWRENCE: First, with doctors in Chicago who couldn't cure the cancer eating away his face.

DON ROSE, ACQUAINTANCE: He looked OK. He had some teeth missing but then he took out his prosthesis to show me what had happened and there was like a partial jaw came out and then his face sort of collapsed inward.

LAWRENCE (on camera): Don Rose hired Ross as an electrician on and off for years. They used to talk casually about politics until Ross tried to sue the University of Illinois Medical Center for malpractice and not one attorney would take his case.

ROSE: At one point, this case was all he could talk about.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): Ross wrote his own complaint, a rambling, 130 pages in a lawsuit that was eventually dismissed by Judge Joan Lefkow. A letter sent to a Chicago TV station and signed Bart Ross said, "Judge Lefkow, to her neighbors, is a church-going angel. To me, Judge Lefkow is a Nazi-style criminal and terrorist."

ROSE: It's very clear that over the years this obsession that he had, which was quite understandable had become really paranoia.

LAWRENCE: In the letter, the writer compares himself to a soldier defending himself against the doctors, lawyers and judges he perceived as enemies. "They practically murdered me, and in this way, they murdered husband and mother of Judge Lefkow. And although I killed them, I am not a murderer as U.S. soldiers who killed innocent Afghans, Iraqis are not considered murderers."

The letter signs off saying, "I am already dead" and by Thursday the important parts of Bart Ross' life were carted away, as animal control officers took away his dog and police collected the last bits of evidence from his home.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Murdering a judge or members of a judge's family is thankfully rare. Threats, it turns out, are not.

Eugene Sullivan knows that firsthand. We talked to the retired federal judge late this afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Judge Sullivan, you were threatened a couple of times. Just give me a brief kind of look at what happened and whether you at the time considered those threats serious.

HON. EUGENE SULLIVAN, RETIRED FEDERAL JUDGE: The U.S. Marshal Service the first time I was threatened informed me that their intelligence arm had picked up a threat against me, a life threat and so they immediately gave me protection while they investigated it.

I thought immediately of my family and so I bought a security system for my home and I bought a weapon and trained my children and my wife how to use the weapon but there's a lot of other things you can do to protect a judge and the judge's family.

BROWN: Do you think judges generally worry about their own safety because of the decisions they make from the bench?

SULLIVAN: I think after this case in Chicago judges, state and federal, will start worrying more about it but I've always felt that there's an impact no matter who wins in a case that the aggrieved party may come after you.

BROWN: Were you threatened more than once?

SULLIVAN: Twice.

BROWN: The second time was it more the sort of left field guy from nowhere sort of thing?

SULLIVAN: It was very bizarre. It involved a traffic incident with a member of my family and, as the person was charged with a minor offense, he was going out of the courtroom and said, "I'm going to get Judge Sullivan."

BROWN: Let's talk then about what both the system can and should do because if we can't protect our judges, then we obviously have an enormous hole in the justice system. What first, individual judges I suppose can and ought to do to protect themselves and, what the system needs to do to make sure that judges and their families are safe.

SULLIVAN: Well, I think, I'll take the last question first. The system we need to have a study done on protecting a judge in the judge's home and remembering a threat against a judge is a threat against the judge's family.

And we've spent millions of dollars to protect our courthouses and they're almost like big bunkers protecting the judges and the court personnel inside the courtroom but judges are most vulnerable, like in Chicago, at their home. And there are some things we can do, as judges, in the interim. You can put lights around your home, buy a security system as I did, buy a dog.

BROWN: Every one of them makes perfect sense and all of them to some degree have the same problem, which is it requires you, it requires the judge to consider all the time, almost literally every day of their life that something horrible could happen.

SULLIVAN: I think a true thinking judge will realize that.

BROWN: Sir, we appreciate your time tonight. Good luck on that second career, or third career of yours writing books. We'll look forward to that and we appreciate meeting you. Thank you.

SULLIVAN: Yes, sir, thank you.

BROWN: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Retired Federal District Court Judge Eugene Sullivan.

In Las Vegas tonight, an arraignment for a pair of alleged mobsters, they entered no pleas to a bill of indictment featuring both crime and characters straight out of the movies. If they were just your run-of-the-mill alleged mob associates, we probably would have passed on this story but they weren't, not nearly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was Jimmy and Tommy and me and there was Anthony Stabile (ph).

BROWN (voice-over): In ever good gangster movie, you notice the characters first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then there was Moe Black's (ph) brother, Fat Andy.

BROWN: Louis Eppolito to you, back then Detective Louis Eppolito.

ROSLYNN MAUSKOPF, U.S. ATTORNEY, NEW YORK: In a stunning betrayal of their shields, their colleagues and the citizens they were sworn to protect Louie Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa secretly worked on the payroll of the mob while they were members of the NYPD.

BROWN: And according to a 27-page indictment the job description included kidnapping and ten murders or attempted murders. The detectives, the government says, were hit men.

MAUSKOPF: Beginning in the early 1980s and for many years thereafter, Eppolito and Caracappa used the confidential files of the NYPD as their personal yellow pages. They funneled to members and associates of the Luchese crime family the identities of actual or suspected informants, witnesses, ongoing wiretaps and surveillance operations.

BROWN: Big names, including Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, whom the detectives allegedly tried to kill. And, in a scene straight out of "Goodfellas" an associate of Gravano's outfit bundled into the trunk of a car never to be seen again.

MAUSKOPF: All tolled the numbers are staggering. Eppolito and Caracappa are charged for their roles in eight murders, two attempted murders and one murder conspiracy. Five were committed while both men were cops. All of them committed while Caracappa was on the job.

BROWN: They're both now retired from the force. The actor, also an author of "Mafia Cop: The Story of an Honest Cop Whose Family was the mob," a story tonight with a postscript.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Coming up on the program still, a dying man took his own life. Now his friend could go to prison but was there really a crime, a break first.

Around the world this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: New York City on this chilly March night. U.S. Supreme Court may soon take up Oregon's assisted suicide law. Oregon is the only state where assisted suicide is legal, though it doesn't mean that's the only state where it's practiced. This is a story about an assisted suicide. It's also the story of a town and the people in that town about a friendship tested. And it is a story about the law that is sometimes tested as well.

Reporting for us tonight, CNN's Deborah Feyerick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): People in Cornwall, Connecticut say if you know Hunt Williams, consider yourself lucky.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hunt has always been very much of a caring person.

FEYERICK: When we ran into him at the Cornwall Fire Department, the 74-year-old volunteer medic had just helped fire fighters pull a car from an icy river.

SKIP KOSCIUSKO, VOLUNTEER FIREMAN: I think about the times, you know, that our ambulances had to roll. It's in the middle of the night. It's in horrible weather. All times of the day and night. And I know I can always count on Cornwall 27 signing on. And Cornwall 27 is Hunt Williams.

FEYERICK: Last spring, Williams was taking care of an old friend, John Wells, a man with a gentle heart and generous laugh, well known in town. He built a house deep in the woods on land his family farmed for generations. His lawn was filled with gadgets that he was either taking apart or putting together.

CHARLES GOLD, WILLIAMS' BROTHER-IN-LAW: John was John. And I think that if people didn't like John, he just said fine, that's their problem. He went on and did his own thing his own way.

FEYERICK: Charles Gold knew both men. He spent his childhood with John Wells. His sister married Hunt Williams.

GOLD: They had a lot of respect for each other as individuals. They accepted people for what they were.

FEYERICK: They were both together the day John Wells stepped from his house and fired a gun through his mouth. He had been diagnosed with cancer that had spread to his spine.

GOLD: He says, I think what I do is to enjoy my life as much as I can for the next week or months as it lasts. And when the time comes, I'll know it and then I'll end it. And that will be that.

FEYERICK: The week Wells died, friends took shifts around the clock to care for him and to say goodbye.

GOLD: When Hunt arrived, he didn't know that John had decided that that was the morning that he was going to end it. It just happened to happen on Hunt's watch.

FEYERICK (on camera): According to the police report, Hunt Williams arrived at the house early that morning. He was met by a friend who said, quote, "John needs to do this." Williams said he was ready to honor John's wishes. So, he cleaned out Wells' .38 caliber revolver, told him the best place to aim, then carried the gun outside. Wells followed him, leaning on a walker. Williams began to head down the drive way. And that's when he heard a single shot.

(voice-over): Williams would not talk to us about the case, but in the police report, he is quoted saying "This is what John wanted. I had a comfortable feeling that this was right for him, knowing the man." The death of his friend was hard on Williams, says stepson Phil West and not something he had expected that day.

PHIL WEST, WILLIAMS' STEPSON: I saw him that morning, and I know he wasn't going down there planning on doing that. So, it was just sort of what happened while he was there.

FEYERICK (on camera): Did the words assisted suicide or I helped him kill him ever come into the conversation?

WEST: No. Not at all.

FEYERICK (voice-over): But when prosecutors analyzed the police report, and looked at the law defining assisted suicide, they concluded Williams had done just that.

CHRISTOPHER MORANO, CHIEF STATES ATTORNEY: There were two things you look at, aids or causes.

FEYERICK: Christopher Morano, the chief states attorney, says prosecutors had no choice but to charge Williams.

MORANO: Cleaning a gun, showing how to use it, making sure it's available and anything else to aid the person in achieving a suicide they want to commit -- definitely comes within this statute.

FEYERICK: Connecticut law makers have been trying to change the assisted suicide law, a change the chief state's attorney supports if the law is changed in certain cases. People in this situation could avoid prison and get two years' prohibition instead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think maybe I'll not be down later.

FEYERICK: As for Hunt Williams, his lawyer says, friends have written about 100 letters of support. They don't feel any crime was committed.

GOLD: It was simply the action of a compassionate friend who simply said, yes, I'm here.

FEYERICK: Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Cornwall, Connecticut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still to come on the program tonight, Major League Baseball and members of Congress, locking horns over the issues of steroids. Does Congress have the right to question the American past time?

No subpoena necessary for the rooster. He shows up with morning papers every time we ask. We'll take a break. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Congress and officials of Major League Baseball dug in their heels today, neither side giving an inch. Several -- seven Major League players, including some of the biggest names in the sport, have received subpoenas to appear before a House committee investigating steroid use. The hearing a week from today, and the people who run Major League Baseball are doing everything they can to keep the players away.

Here is CNN's Bill Schneider.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): What makes Major League Baseball think it's so special? Well, the Supreme Court, for one thing. Since 1922, the court has ruled that baseball is exempt from anti-trust laws. Baseball is America's game. Does that mean baseball is beyond criticism? Not hardly.

REP. STEVE BUYER (R), INDIANA: I noticed some articles in some sport pages that were even questioning Congress as to why they should even look at this issue. What? As though we should turn a blind eye? I don't think so.

SCHNEIDER: Congress is challenging baseball to clean up its act.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: The purpose of this hearing is to examine not only whether the drug testing procedures of professional and amateur sports organizations serve the best interests of the organizations, their players and their respective sports, but whether they serve the best interest of the public.

SCHNEIDER: How dare Congress subpoena us, Major League Baseball seems to be saying. They have hired a big-time Washington lawyer to challenge Congress' authority.

STANLEY BRAND, MLB ATTORNEY: This has nothing to do with any operation of the federal government.

SCHNEIDER: In a letter to the committee this week, Brand wrote: "The right to the privacy of this information outweighs any asserted interest in the health problems stemming from the use of steroids."

Oh, really? A year ago, Senator John McCain dramatized those health problems.

MCCAIN: Let me remind them of the five-fold increase in the sales of androtestine (UNINTELLIGIBLE) known as andro, that occurred after Mark McGwire admitted to using the substance in 1998 while chasing Roger Maris' home run record.

SCHNEIDER: Ask baseball fans. Two-thirds of them polled in January said the new steroid testing program set up by Major League Baseball and the Players Union does not go far enough in addressing the issue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They should go to clear it all up so that they don't have a bad name.

SCHNEIDER: To many people, refusing to obey a subpoena can mean you have something to hide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they didn't do anything wrong, then there's no reason why they shouldn't go to Congress.

SCHNEIDER: A recent precedent makes it harder for players to stonewall Congress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't resist a subpoena. They'll come get you. You know, it's the federal government. Ask Martha Stewart. SCHNEIDER (on camera): Legend has it a young boy said to Shoeless Joe Jackson after the 1920 Black Sox scandal, "say it ain't so, Joe." Ball players today may not be able to get out of answering that challenge.

Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And on the program, we'll make a quick check of the latest headlines, and then morning papers, and the headlines that will land on your doorstep tomorrow. A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The deaths from that one incident back in January have carried us through the entire week.

There's a late breaking development out of Chicago in a story we told you about earlier. We have got that and other headlines of the day from Atlanta and CNN's Erica Hill -- Erica.

HILL: Yeah, Aaron, some breaking news. The Associated Press reporting DNA tests on a cigarette butt found at the home of a federal judge have matched that of a man who killed himself at a traffic stop in Wisconsin. That judge, of course, we're referring to is Judge Lefkow. She came home last week to find her husband and mother murdered. The gentleman that we're talking about is a Bart Ross. He had been pulled over near Milwaukee at a routine traffic stop and committed suicide. Notes found in his car actually pointed to the murders at the judge's home. And again, the Associated Press now reporting that DNA on a cigarette butt found after the killings apparently do match that of Bart Ross. This coming to us from the AP, which is quoting a Chicago police spokesman. And we'll continue to update you on that.

Meantime, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says al Qaeda and other terrorist groups are trying to get into the U.S. by way of Mexico and Canada. In her first visit to Mexico since taking over at the State Department, Rice says al Qaeda will try to get into the U.S. by, quote, "any means they possibly can."

President Bush is on a two-day, four-state Social Security blitz, visiting Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee and Louisiana, trying to drum up support for his plan to privatize the Social Security system.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's a safety net for retirees. There's a hole in the safety net for a younger generation coming up. And that's why I have asked Congress to discuss the issue.

I guess it's just my nature. I believe when you see a problem, you've got to deal with it and not pass it on to future presidents and future Congresses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Congressional Democrats are virtually unanimous in their opposition to the president's privatization plan.

The Environmental Protection Agency is hoping you will breathe easier with the agencies new limits on smog and soot pollution. Those rules require most coal fire power plants in the East, South and Midwest to cut nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxides that can drift long distances and across state lines.

The FCC wants cellphone companies to follow truth in billing guidelines the traditional careers adhere to. Those include making the charges on your bill brief, clear and spelled out in plain language. Officials say they should be folded into the base rate so consumers have a more accurate cost comparison.

And those are the headlines for you. Just about 10 to the hour. I'm Erica Hill. Aaron, back to you.

BROWN: Erica, thank you. We'll take a break here. Morning papers on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: OK. Time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world.

We'll start -- we haven't done the Washington Times in awhile so we'll start with the Washington Times. Bad day in Iraq again, "Bomber Kills 47 At Mosque." On the other hand, good news, I guess, "Kurdish Block Shiites To Sign Treaty Over the Weekend."

Weird thing that they're having to sign a treaty, but anyway, it does looks like they'll be able to form a government and hopefully avoid a civil war in Iraq.

The Chicago Sun Times -- we'll come back to this later. But here is the lead on the Lefkow murder break. "Suspect's Tortured Life, Disfigured and Despondent." Don't look at the weather. We'll do that at the end.

"Newsday" out of Long Island leads with a great story, isn't it. Two New York or retired New York police officers busted for being mafia hit men is the allegation. "Feds Bust Mafia Cops Tied to Eleven Murders: This guy Got 'Em." It's a story of retired NYPD Detective Tommy Dades who helped prosecutors build the case. That's a nice picture there on the cover of "Newsday" or the front page of "Newsday."

Out west, the Oregonia, "Dry With a Dismal Outlook." It's been very dry in the Pacific Northwest where this time of year it's normally very wet. It's been very wet down in California where it's normally been very dry. And I suspect there's a relationship. But anyway, it means trouble in the northwest, because they depend on that rain or snow for power all year long.

Papers struggle to bear with the Michael Jackson thing. Not the Detroit News. They just put it right there on the front page. "Jackson, Judge Square Off At Trial." Have a little picture of the "King of Pop" over there.

This is the better story, though, isn't it? "Babies Give Parents Six Times The Joy, Worry and Diapers." The story of sextuplets babies in Michigan. That is a great story. Three loads of laundry a day.

How are we doing on time? 20 seconds? All right, down here in the Examiner of Washington, I didn't want to quite go with the whole story, but did want it on the front page. So, you got Jackson's jammies down there. And if you like jammies, they're nice PJs he's got.

Weather in Chicago. Grrr. We'll wrap it up in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We'll see you tomorrow. Good night from all of us.

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 March 10, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again.
Guilt or innocence aside, that's not our department, strange and Michael Jackson go together like burgers and fries and the day could hardly have been stranger.

We begin tonight with CNN's David Mattingly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eight-thirty a.m. Pacific Time, Santa Maria Superior Court goes back into session. Michael Jackson's young accuser is expected to return to the witness stand but where is Michael Jackson? It turns out the self-proclaimed king of pop is in the town of Solvang at a small 22-bed hospital seeking treatment for a "serious back problem."

BRIAN OXMAN, JACKSON FAMILY ATTORNEY: He tripped this morning and he fell in the early morning hours while he was getting dressed. His back is in terrible pain.

MATTINGLY: A hospital spokesperson tells CNN Jackson arrived at 7:25 a.m. She would give no details about his treatment or condition. Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville immediately lays down the law, issuing a bench warrant. Jackson has one hour to appear or else he goes to jail and loses his $3 million in bail.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're getting word now from our CNN sources at the courthouse he has not arrived yet.

MATTINGLY: What follows is an unscripted high stakes reality TV celebrity drama. With a national audience watching and his very freedom on the line, Jackson must hurry. It's a 37-mile journey, a 45-minute drive in the best of circumstances and, according to a hospital spokesperson Jackson doesn't leave until after 8:45.

Back at the courthouse tension builds. As the Jackson entourage speeds down the 101 exceeding 90 miles an hour at one point, Jackson's attorney nervously paces outside. He constantly checks his cell phone, 8:49, 9:09, 9:14, 9:20, 9:29. It's clear to all who are watching the clock it's going to be close.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: We are just about a minute away now from the end of that one hour time period.

MATTINGLY: But as the seconds fly by, Jackson is losing his race. About the time his black SUV exits the 101, with just 1.3 miles to go, his moment of reckoning is at hand. The 9:35 deadline comes and goes. Jackson is late.

WOODRUFF: It is now past the one hour mark. It is 9:35 a.m.

MATTINGLY: Two minutes, 37 seconds later, Jackson arrives. He emerges from the vehicle slowly. His father at his side and aided by bodyguards he appears unsteady, unsure of himself, solemn, unresponsive as fans yell his name.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told him "Be strong, Michael. Hold on. Fight, Michael, fight."

MATTINGLY: Wearing what looks like pajama pants and slippers, Jackson takes a full minute to walk the 30 yards from the curb to the courthouse door, a slow and curious spectacle, as cameras record every inch of his highly-anticipated entrance, a sharp contrast to Jackson's energetic and upbeat arrivals of previous days.

Finally, 9:39, four minutes after the court-imposed deadline, Jackson walks inside the court to face the judge. Instead of addressing Jackson, the judge addressed the jury, telling the jurors that he had to order Jackson to court today but the jurors should not make inferences from the order about Jackson's guilt or innocence.

Late in the day, the judge eventually determines no punishment is necessary and gives Jackson a warning as the superstar's career, fortune and freedom hang in the balance.

David Mattingly, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, now, once the spectacle calmed down, there was still a trial to conduct and the central witness to question and evaluate, the accuser on the stand, day two.

Here's CNN's Miguel Marquez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jackson may have arrived in court in pain but there was no relief as the judge had him sit through a day of testimony from his 15-year-old accuser.

LAURIE LEVINSON, LEGAL ANALYST: It was very personal in there.

MARQUEZ: The boy testified that Jackson masturbated him and brought him to ejaculation twice. He said the incidents lasted about five minutes each and both happened in the pop star's bedroom at Neverland Ranch. The boy said on the second incident Jackson wanted the boy to reciprocate. The boy said he didn't want to do it and "felt weird and embarrassed."

MICHAEL JACKSON: I'm sorry, I can't speak now. LEVINSON: There was a little bit of a stare-down going on between the boy and Michael Jackson during the testimony, whereas at times before that the boy would talk to the jury. If you notice, when he was talking about that molestation and especially on cross- examination, he was looking at Michael Jackson.

MARQUEZ: The teenager also testified that Jackson gave him alcohol several times, which the pop star told him was "Jesus juice." The boy told jurors that Jackson ordered the accuser and his family not to watch the Martin Bashir video "Living with Michael Jackson" that aired on ABC in February, 2003.

The prosecutor charges that Jackson, among other things, conspired to keep the family from seeing the documentary. Before the day ended, Jackson's accuser only had a few minutes to question the accuser.

LEVINSON: In 20 minutes of cross-examination, he did it an amazing amount. The first thing he did was establish a motive for why the boy would make up this story and he got the boy to say that he was mad at Michael Jackson. He felt abandoned by his best friend.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Well, there's going to be more soon. Jackson says he is not guilty of any and all charges against him and on Monday his lawyer will have a chance to prove that under cross-examination and I'm sure it's going to be long and tedious as Mr. Jackson's accuser continues -- Aaron.

BROWN: Is the boy, is he composed? Did he come off with a strong voice? What's his demeanor?

MARQUEZ: He is as composed, amazingly composed for a 15-year-old boy. He is a much better witness so far than his older sister or his younger brother and I think a lot of what he is saying so far is having far more resonance with this jury -- Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you, Miguel Marquez out west tonight.

Journalist Maureen Orth is covering the Jackson trial for "Vanity Fair" magazine. She's familiar with the pop star, having written about him for more than a decade, including in her book the importance of being famous and she is at the courthouse as well tonight. It's always nice to see her.

It doesn't get much weirder than this in the post-O.J. period does it?

MAUREEN ORTH, "VANITY FAIR": No, not really. Today was one of those days where when Michael Jackson came speeding back with a motorcycle escort, Tom Mesereau was just nearly, you know, looking at his watch every two minutes like the groom that had been left at the altar and the judge made absolutely no bones about it. He was ready to revoke that $3 million worth of bail. BROWN: There's all sorts of stories floating around tonight. You're probably familiar with them that Mr. Jackson is on the verge of cracking up, that he was up all night with money problems. What do you know?

ORTH: He doesn't look well that's for sure. He's extremely emaciated. He's very, very pale. When he walked into court today, his wig was unkempt. He isn't wearing all the rouge that he usually wears. He's much, much thinner.

You know I saw him in court in 2002 where he was making all the little signs to the jury and all that stuff and he claimed to have a spider bite and came in on crutches. You know he really does have a history of pulling these medical interruptions particularly on days that he doesn't want to face court.

But, today I think he very well could have been in pain. He really doesn't look very good and, of course, he does have huge money problems. There's all kinds of rumors that Neverland is being sold that he's going to have to give up, you know, his assets when huge loans are called due later on this year. So, and then there has been a report that Neverland's employees have not been paid for the last two weeks.

BROWN: Is there -- can you tell at all how the jury, just by watching them that's all you have to go on, was processing all of this. They see this guy look decidedly different today and the pajamas and they know something has gone on and what -- how do they seem to be reacting?

ORTH: The judge admonished them not to draw any inferences as to guilt or innocence when he explained to them. He said, "You know, we're starting late today because Mr. Jackson had a medical problem. I had to order him to court." And he said, "I don't want you to draw any inference from this" and they seemed to -- they seemed to understand that. I think they trust this judge and we settled down after that and got into the examination of the accuser.

BROWN: And on that point, which is after all the main point of all of this...

ORTH: Right.

BROWN: ...how did that seem to go? Do you have a sense of how the defense now will approach this young man?

ORTH: Oh, absolutely we have a sense of how the defense is approaching this whole thing because they have to make the accuser and his family, particularly his mother, the defendant, he is out to show that they're nothing but a bunch of money grubbing grifters.

However, he's going to have a much more of an uphill battle because this is a pretty compelling witness this young man and the amount of detail of every night drinking. They had like cocktail happy hour in the arcade drinking wine, "Jesus juice," white win, vodka with a boy called Jim Bean, Baccardi rum. He was extremely detailed about all the things that happened. There were love notes that Michael Jackson gave to him. They were in bed together constantly. They slept together many, many nights together and also with the brother. So, this is a lot of specific detail that the defense is going to have to overcome and say that it's all made up.

BROWN: Well, you know, here's my take. There's probably another weird chapter to come yet so we'll talk to you again. It's good to see you. Thank you.

ORTH: Thanks.

BROWN: Maureen Orth who's covering the Michael Jackson trial for "Vanity Fair" magazine.

On to other things now; doctors hope that former President Bill Clinton will be on his feet by tomorrow. He won't be playing golf again for a while but doctors say his second heart surgery in six months went well, even if it was somewhat more complicated than they expected; an update from our Senior Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After four hours or surgery, doctors say the former president will be back on his feet in just a day. That's no surprise to anyone that the procedure went seamlessly, especially to Mr. Clinton. In the days preceding, he let his characteristic optimism drive both his golf game and his attitude about the operation.

BILL CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's not useful to sit around and worry about things you have no control over. I want to be able to breathe again fully.

GUPTA: To help him breathe fully, doctors honed in on scar tissue surrounding his left lower lung, stripping it away like an orange peel and draining the fluid that had built up as a consequence of his quadruple bypass just six months ago.

The only minor hiccup, if you can call it that during the four- hour procedure, doctors realized the almost one centimeter plaque-like rind on his left lung was too thick to remove with just a tiny incision.

DR. JOSHUA SONETT, CLINTON'S THORACIC SURGEON: It became quickly apparent that more was going to be needed, so then we find the best place to enter between another set of ribs and we go between ribs and gently spread the ribs.

GUPTA: While any operation of the chest is serious, surgeons considered this one low risk. Doctors do agree it's curious for symptoms like Mr. Clinton's to manifest so many months after a quadruple bypass. DR. JONATHAN REINER, CARDIOLOGIST: We typically see patients develop some fluid in their chest in the days or even early weeks after bypass surgery. But now, you know, more than five months following surgery, it's really very unusual.

GUPTA: Dr. Craig Smith, Mr. Clinton's cardiac surgeon, says of the 6,000 bypass operations he's performed only ten have resulted in this kind of condition.

DR. CRAIG SMITH, CARDIAC SURGEON: So, quite uncommon.

GUPTA: The fact that one of those ten complications was in a former president has given this rare condition significant attention, top of the hour news all day long by just about every broadcast network. But regardless of its rarity, everything went as expected, even better.

SONETT: And a full, functional recovery with not only no limitations but improved function is expected.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, New York Presbyterian Columbia Hospital.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A quick check now of some of the other headlines we're following. We go to Erica Hill who's at CNN Headline News in Atlanta, good evening again to you.

(NEWSBREAK)

BROWN: Thank you. We'll see you in about a half hour or so; much more coming up on the program tonight starting with the dramatic twist in the murder of a judge's family in Chicago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): A Chicago man with a link to the judge kills himself. In a note, he apparently claims he committed the murders.

PHIL CLINE, CHICAGO POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: We are attempting to learn as much as we possibly can about Bart Ross' history.

BROWN: So, will this close the case?

Two retired New York detectives are charged with carrying out contracts for the mob while on the force, ten murders or attempted murders between them.

In Connecticut a criminal charge that has set off a storm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hunt (ph) has always been very much of a caring person.

BROWN: Hunt Williams cleaned the gun his dying friend used to kill himself. Now he faces manslaughter charges but many in his hometown stand behind him.

From New York and around the world this is NEWSNIGHT.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Tonight, police in Chicago may have the break in the shooting death of the husband and the mother of a federal court judge and what's unfolding reads like a chapter in a drugstore crime novel.

There is a suicide, an apparent suicide note referring to the murders and, in a strange twist resembling the BTK case in Kansas, letters to a Chicago TV station presumably from the killer.

Tonight, police are still saying the case is not solved, not officially; in Chicago tonight, CNN's Keith Oppenheim.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In West Allis, Wisconsin, police say Bart Ross, a 57-year-old Chicago man with no known criminal record was pulled over because his taillights were out, suddenly, an unexpected suicide.

CHIEF DEAN PUSCHING, WEST ALLIS POLICE DEPT.: While approaching the driver, a single gunshot was fired from inside the vehicle. The bullet exited the driver's window very close to where the officer was standing.

CLINE: In processing the crime scene, we came upon a note written, presumably by the victim, where he implicated himself in the murders of Michael Lefkow and Donna Humphrey.

OPPENHEIM: Chicago Police said the note in Ross' van had information about the Lefkow family murders only the killer could know. Thursday, Chicago TV station WMAQ received typed and handwritten letters signed Bart Ross, letters the station submitted to the FBI.

In them, the station reports, the author wrote, "I regret killing husband and mother of Judge Lefkow as much as I regret that I have to die for the simple reason that they personally did to me no wrong. I had no choice but to shoot him. Then I heard, Michael, Michael, so I looked to the hallway and saw an older woman. I had to shoot her too."

(on camera): Court records indicate Bart Ross last year filed a lawsuit that was assigned to Judge Lefkow. The lawsuit was against numerous parties for cancer treatment he received and ultimately dismissed by Judge Lefkow in January of 2005. Police sources tell CNN in the suicide note found in the minivan, Ross wrote the judgment cost him his house, his job and his family.

(voice-over): Until Wednesday, this case had focused on Matt Hale, a white supremacist who last year was convicted of plotting to kill Judge Lefkow. If investigators confirm that Bart Ross was indeed trying to do the same thing, to kill Judge Lefkow, then this story will end with a tragic irony that the judge survived but this time with a terrible loss.

Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Of all the questions yet to be answered in this case, these are at the top of the list tonight. Who was Bart Ross? What kind of life did he lead? And, if in the end police do link him to the murders, the primary question why really; CNN's Chris Lawrence tonight on a man driven to take his own life and very possibly those of two others.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): According to neighbors, Bart Ross didn't talk much but when he did he let loose about the courts and hospitals that he said ruined his life.

MERCEDES RIVERA, NEIGHBOR: But nobody would listen to him, so that's why he was really angry.

LAWRENCE: First, with doctors in Chicago who couldn't cure the cancer eating away his face.

DON ROSE, ACQUAINTANCE: He looked OK. He had some teeth missing but then he took out his prosthesis to show me what had happened and there was like a partial jaw came out and then his face sort of collapsed inward.

LAWRENCE (on camera): Don Rose hired Ross as an electrician on and off for years. They used to talk casually about politics until Ross tried to sue the University of Illinois Medical Center for malpractice and not one attorney would take his case.

ROSE: At one point, this case was all he could talk about.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): Ross wrote his own complaint, a rambling, 130 pages in a lawsuit that was eventually dismissed by Judge Joan Lefkow. A letter sent to a Chicago TV station and signed Bart Ross said, "Judge Lefkow, to her neighbors, is a church-going angel. To me, Judge Lefkow is a Nazi-style criminal and terrorist."

ROSE: It's very clear that over the years this obsession that he had, which was quite understandable had become really paranoia.

LAWRENCE: In the letter, the writer compares himself to a soldier defending himself against the doctors, lawyers and judges he perceived as enemies. "They practically murdered me, and in this way, they murdered husband and mother of Judge Lefkow. And although I killed them, I am not a murderer as U.S. soldiers who killed innocent Afghans, Iraqis are not considered murderers."

The letter signs off saying, "I am already dead" and by Thursday the important parts of Bart Ross' life were carted away, as animal control officers took away his dog and police collected the last bits of evidence from his home.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Murdering a judge or members of a judge's family is thankfully rare. Threats, it turns out, are not.

Eugene Sullivan knows that firsthand. We talked to the retired federal judge late this afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Judge Sullivan, you were threatened a couple of times. Just give me a brief kind of look at what happened and whether you at the time considered those threats serious.

HON. EUGENE SULLIVAN, RETIRED FEDERAL JUDGE: The U.S. Marshal Service the first time I was threatened informed me that their intelligence arm had picked up a threat against me, a life threat and so they immediately gave me protection while they investigated it.

I thought immediately of my family and so I bought a security system for my home and I bought a weapon and trained my children and my wife how to use the weapon but there's a lot of other things you can do to protect a judge and the judge's family.

BROWN: Do you think judges generally worry about their own safety because of the decisions they make from the bench?

SULLIVAN: I think after this case in Chicago judges, state and federal, will start worrying more about it but I've always felt that there's an impact no matter who wins in a case that the aggrieved party may come after you.

BROWN: Were you threatened more than once?

SULLIVAN: Twice.

BROWN: The second time was it more the sort of left field guy from nowhere sort of thing?

SULLIVAN: It was very bizarre. It involved a traffic incident with a member of my family and, as the person was charged with a minor offense, he was going out of the courtroom and said, "I'm going to get Judge Sullivan."

BROWN: Let's talk then about what both the system can and should do because if we can't protect our judges, then we obviously have an enormous hole in the justice system. What first, individual judges I suppose can and ought to do to protect themselves and, what the system needs to do to make sure that judges and their families are safe.

SULLIVAN: Well, I think, I'll take the last question first. The system we need to have a study done on protecting a judge in the judge's home and remembering a threat against a judge is a threat against the judge's family.

And we've spent millions of dollars to protect our courthouses and they're almost like big bunkers protecting the judges and the court personnel inside the courtroom but judges are most vulnerable, like in Chicago, at their home. And there are some things we can do, as judges, in the interim. You can put lights around your home, buy a security system as I did, buy a dog.

BROWN: Every one of them makes perfect sense and all of them to some degree have the same problem, which is it requires you, it requires the judge to consider all the time, almost literally every day of their life that something horrible could happen.

SULLIVAN: I think a true thinking judge will realize that.

BROWN: Sir, we appreciate your time tonight. Good luck on that second career, or third career of yours writing books. We'll look forward to that and we appreciate meeting you. Thank you.

SULLIVAN: Yes, sir, thank you.

BROWN: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Retired Federal District Court Judge Eugene Sullivan.

In Las Vegas tonight, an arraignment for a pair of alleged mobsters, they entered no pleas to a bill of indictment featuring both crime and characters straight out of the movies. If they were just your run-of-the-mill alleged mob associates, we probably would have passed on this story but they weren't, not nearly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was Jimmy and Tommy and me and there was Anthony Stabile (ph).

BROWN (voice-over): In ever good gangster movie, you notice the characters first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then there was Moe Black's (ph) brother, Fat Andy.

BROWN: Louis Eppolito to you, back then Detective Louis Eppolito.

ROSLYNN MAUSKOPF, U.S. ATTORNEY, NEW YORK: In a stunning betrayal of their shields, their colleagues and the citizens they were sworn to protect Louie Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa secretly worked on the payroll of the mob while they were members of the NYPD.

BROWN: And according to a 27-page indictment the job description included kidnapping and ten murders or attempted murders. The detectives, the government says, were hit men.

MAUSKOPF: Beginning in the early 1980s and for many years thereafter, Eppolito and Caracappa used the confidential files of the NYPD as their personal yellow pages. They funneled to members and associates of the Luchese crime family the identities of actual or suspected informants, witnesses, ongoing wiretaps and surveillance operations.

BROWN: Big names, including Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, whom the detectives allegedly tried to kill. And, in a scene straight out of "Goodfellas" an associate of Gravano's outfit bundled into the trunk of a car never to be seen again.

MAUSKOPF: All tolled the numbers are staggering. Eppolito and Caracappa are charged for their roles in eight murders, two attempted murders and one murder conspiracy. Five were committed while both men were cops. All of them committed while Caracappa was on the job.

BROWN: They're both now retired from the force. The actor, also an author of "Mafia Cop: The Story of an Honest Cop Whose Family was the mob," a story tonight with a postscript.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Coming up on the program still, a dying man took his own life. Now his friend could go to prison but was there really a crime, a break first.

Around the world this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: New York City on this chilly March night. U.S. Supreme Court may soon take up Oregon's assisted suicide law. Oregon is the only state where assisted suicide is legal, though it doesn't mean that's the only state where it's practiced. This is a story about an assisted suicide. It's also the story of a town and the people in that town about a friendship tested. And it is a story about the law that is sometimes tested as well.

Reporting for us tonight, CNN's Deborah Feyerick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): People in Cornwall, Connecticut say if you know Hunt Williams, consider yourself lucky.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hunt has always been very much of a caring person.

FEYERICK: When we ran into him at the Cornwall Fire Department, the 74-year-old volunteer medic had just helped fire fighters pull a car from an icy river.

SKIP KOSCIUSKO, VOLUNTEER FIREMAN: I think about the times, you know, that our ambulances had to roll. It's in the middle of the night. It's in horrible weather. All times of the day and night. And I know I can always count on Cornwall 27 signing on. And Cornwall 27 is Hunt Williams.

FEYERICK: Last spring, Williams was taking care of an old friend, John Wells, a man with a gentle heart and generous laugh, well known in town. He built a house deep in the woods on land his family farmed for generations. His lawn was filled with gadgets that he was either taking apart or putting together.

CHARLES GOLD, WILLIAMS' BROTHER-IN-LAW: John was John. And I think that if people didn't like John, he just said fine, that's their problem. He went on and did his own thing his own way.

FEYERICK: Charles Gold knew both men. He spent his childhood with John Wells. His sister married Hunt Williams.

GOLD: They had a lot of respect for each other as individuals. They accepted people for what they were.

FEYERICK: They were both together the day John Wells stepped from his house and fired a gun through his mouth. He had been diagnosed with cancer that had spread to his spine.

GOLD: He says, I think what I do is to enjoy my life as much as I can for the next week or months as it lasts. And when the time comes, I'll know it and then I'll end it. And that will be that.

FEYERICK: The week Wells died, friends took shifts around the clock to care for him and to say goodbye.

GOLD: When Hunt arrived, he didn't know that John had decided that that was the morning that he was going to end it. It just happened to happen on Hunt's watch.

FEYERICK (on camera): According to the police report, Hunt Williams arrived at the house early that morning. He was met by a friend who said, quote, "John needs to do this." Williams said he was ready to honor John's wishes. So, he cleaned out Wells' .38 caliber revolver, told him the best place to aim, then carried the gun outside. Wells followed him, leaning on a walker. Williams began to head down the drive way. And that's when he heard a single shot.

(voice-over): Williams would not talk to us about the case, but in the police report, he is quoted saying "This is what John wanted. I had a comfortable feeling that this was right for him, knowing the man." The death of his friend was hard on Williams, says stepson Phil West and not something he had expected that day.

PHIL WEST, WILLIAMS' STEPSON: I saw him that morning, and I know he wasn't going down there planning on doing that. So, it was just sort of what happened while he was there.

FEYERICK (on camera): Did the words assisted suicide or I helped him kill him ever come into the conversation?

WEST: No. Not at all.

FEYERICK (voice-over): But when prosecutors analyzed the police report, and looked at the law defining assisted suicide, they concluded Williams had done just that.

CHRISTOPHER MORANO, CHIEF STATES ATTORNEY: There were two things you look at, aids or causes.

FEYERICK: Christopher Morano, the chief states attorney, says prosecutors had no choice but to charge Williams.

MORANO: Cleaning a gun, showing how to use it, making sure it's available and anything else to aid the person in achieving a suicide they want to commit -- definitely comes within this statute.

FEYERICK: Connecticut law makers have been trying to change the assisted suicide law, a change the chief state's attorney supports if the law is changed in certain cases. People in this situation could avoid prison and get two years' prohibition instead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think maybe I'll not be down later.

FEYERICK: As for Hunt Williams, his lawyer says, friends have written about 100 letters of support. They don't feel any crime was committed.

GOLD: It was simply the action of a compassionate friend who simply said, yes, I'm here.

FEYERICK: Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Cornwall, Connecticut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still to come on the program tonight, Major League Baseball and members of Congress, locking horns over the issues of steroids. Does Congress have the right to question the American past time?

No subpoena necessary for the rooster. He shows up with morning papers every time we ask. We'll take a break. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Congress and officials of Major League Baseball dug in their heels today, neither side giving an inch. Several -- seven Major League players, including some of the biggest names in the sport, have received subpoenas to appear before a House committee investigating steroid use. The hearing a week from today, and the people who run Major League Baseball are doing everything they can to keep the players away.

Here is CNN's Bill Schneider.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): What makes Major League Baseball think it's so special? Well, the Supreme Court, for one thing. Since 1922, the court has ruled that baseball is exempt from anti-trust laws. Baseball is America's game. Does that mean baseball is beyond criticism? Not hardly.

REP. STEVE BUYER (R), INDIANA: I noticed some articles in some sport pages that were even questioning Congress as to why they should even look at this issue. What? As though we should turn a blind eye? I don't think so.

SCHNEIDER: Congress is challenging baseball to clean up its act.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: The purpose of this hearing is to examine not only whether the drug testing procedures of professional and amateur sports organizations serve the best interests of the organizations, their players and their respective sports, but whether they serve the best interest of the public.

SCHNEIDER: How dare Congress subpoena us, Major League Baseball seems to be saying. They have hired a big-time Washington lawyer to challenge Congress' authority.

STANLEY BRAND, MLB ATTORNEY: This has nothing to do with any operation of the federal government.

SCHNEIDER: In a letter to the committee this week, Brand wrote: "The right to the privacy of this information outweighs any asserted interest in the health problems stemming from the use of steroids."

Oh, really? A year ago, Senator John McCain dramatized those health problems.

MCCAIN: Let me remind them of the five-fold increase in the sales of androtestine (UNINTELLIGIBLE) known as andro, that occurred after Mark McGwire admitted to using the substance in 1998 while chasing Roger Maris' home run record.

SCHNEIDER: Ask baseball fans. Two-thirds of them polled in January said the new steroid testing program set up by Major League Baseball and the Players Union does not go far enough in addressing the issue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They should go to clear it all up so that they don't have a bad name.

SCHNEIDER: To many people, refusing to obey a subpoena can mean you have something to hide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they didn't do anything wrong, then there's no reason why they shouldn't go to Congress.

SCHNEIDER: A recent precedent makes it harder for players to stonewall Congress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't resist a subpoena. They'll come get you. You know, it's the federal government. Ask Martha Stewart. SCHNEIDER (on camera): Legend has it a young boy said to Shoeless Joe Jackson after the 1920 Black Sox scandal, "say it ain't so, Joe." Ball players today may not be able to get out of answering that challenge.

Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And on the program, we'll make a quick check of the latest headlines, and then morning papers, and the headlines that will land on your doorstep tomorrow. A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The deaths from that one incident back in January have carried us through the entire week.

There's a late breaking development out of Chicago in a story we told you about earlier. We have got that and other headlines of the day from Atlanta and CNN's Erica Hill -- Erica.

HILL: Yeah, Aaron, some breaking news. The Associated Press reporting DNA tests on a cigarette butt found at the home of a federal judge have matched that of a man who killed himself at a traffic stop in Wisconsin. That judge, of course, we're referring to is Judge Lefkow. She came home last week to find her husband and mother murdered. The gentleman that we're talking about is a Bart Ross. He had been pulled over near Milwaukee at a routine traffic stop and committed suicide. Notes found in his car actually pointed to the murders at the judge's home. And again, the Associated Press now reporting that DNA on a cigarette butt found after the killings apparently do match that of Bart Ross. This coming to us from the AP, which is quoting a Chicago police spokesman. And we'll continue to update you on that.

Meantime, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says al Qaeda and other terrorist groups are trying to get into the U.S. by way of Mexico and Canada. In her first visit to Mexico since taking over at the State Department, Rice says al Qaeda will try to get into the U.S. by, quote, "any means they possibly can."

President Bush is on a two-day, four-state Social Security blitz, visiting Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee and Louisiana, trying to drum up support for his plan to privatize the Social Security system.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's a safety net for retirees. There's a hole in the safety net for a younger generation coming up. And that's why I have asked Congress to discuss the issue.

I guess it's just my nature. I believe when you see a problem, you've got to deal with it and not pass it on to future presidents and future Congresses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Congressional Democrats are virtually unanimous in their opposition to the president's privatization plan.

The Environmental Protection Agency is hoping you will breathe easier with the agencies new limits on smog and soot pollution. Those rules require most coal fire power plants in the East, South and Midwest to cut nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxides that can drift long distances and across state lines.

The FCC wants cellphone companies to follow truth in billing guidelines the traditional careers adhere to. Those include making the charges on your bill brief, clear and spelled out in plain language. Officials say they should be folded into the base rate so consumers have a more accurate cost comparison.

And those are the headlines for you. Just about 10 to the hour. I'm Erica Hill. Aaron, back to you.

BROWN: Erica, thank you. We'll take a break here. Morning papers on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: OK. Time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world.

We'll start -- we haven't done the Washington Times in awhile so we'll start with the Washington Times. Bad day in Iraq again, "Bomber Kills 47 At Mosque." On the other hand, good news, I guess, "Kurdish Block Shiites To Sign Treaty Over the Weekend."

Weird thing that they're having to sign a treaty, but anyway, it does looks like they'll be able to form a government and hopefully avoid a civil war in Iraq.

The Chicago Sun Times -- we'll come back to this later. But here is the lead on the Lefkow murder break. "Suspect's Tortured Life, Disfigured and Despondent." Don't look at the weather. We'll do that at the end.

"Newsday" out of Long Island leads with a great story, isn't it. Two New York or retired New York police officers busted for being mafia hit men is the allegation. "Feds Bust Mafia Cops Tied to Eleven Murders: This guy Got 'Em." It's a story of retired NYPD Detective Tommy Dades who helped prosecutors build the case. That's a nice picture there on the cover of "Newsday" or the front page of "Newsday."

Out west, the Oregonia, "Dry With a Dismal Outlook." It's been very dry in the Pacific Northwest where this time of year it's normally very wet. It's been very wet down in California where it's normally been very dry. And I suspect there's a relationship. But anyway, it means trouble in the northwest, because they depend on that rain or snow for power all year long.

Papers struggle to bear with the Michael Jackson thing. Not the Detroit News. They just put it right there on the front page. "Jackson, Judge Square Off At Trial." Have a little picture of the "King of Pop" over there.

This is the better story, though, isn't it? "Babies Give Parents Six Times The Joy, Worry and Diapers." The story of sextuplets babies in Michigan. That is a great story. Three loads of laundry a day.

How are we doing on time? 20 seconds? All right, down here in the Examiner of Washington, I didn't want to quite go with the whole story, but did want it on the front page. So, you got Jackson's jammies down there. And if you like jammies, they're nice PJs he's got.

Weather in Chicago. Grrr. We'll wrap it up in a moment.

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BROWN: We'll see you tomorrow. Good night from all of us.

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