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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Reservists Fired After Deployment; Can You Trust Your Children's Teacher?
Aired May 19, 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, HOST: Good evening again. This is a story that at its core is about right and wrong. Maybe it's not our place to say what is right or wrong, but that's how we see it. When a country asks its young men and women to go to war, the least they can expect is that their jobs will be protected when they return, that collection agencies won't be hounding them when they get back. They should be able to count on the support of their communities in return for their sacrifice.
Yet we begin tonight with two stories that defy your sense of right and wrong and decency as well. The first report is by Ed Lavandera.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SGT. MICHAEL GASKINS, U.S. ARMY: It's nothing fancy. It's nothing unique. It's not lowered. It's not jacked up.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a 1993 Toyota pickup truck with 123,000 miles on it. Sergeant Michael Gaskins is baffled why anyone wants to fight him for it.
MICHAEL GASKINS: It's nothing special, but it's mine.
LAVANDERA: Four years ago, Gaskins put this truck down as collateral on a $6,000 loan from the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital Credit Union in Florida. He needed the money to finance a split- second decision, a decision about what to do with his life.
MICHAEL GASKINS: And at 29 years old, I guess I had an early mid-life crisis. I needed a change.
LAVANDERA: Gaskins was working as a jailer at the sheriff's department in Tallahassee. A month after the 9/11 attacks, he was driving home from work when he passed this Army recruitment office.
MICHAEL GASKINS: I could have been home helping my wife cook dinner, helping my kid do homework. But no, I went to the recruiter office instead.
LAVANDERA: Fifteen minutes later, he was resigning from his job.
MICHAEL GASKINS: I didn't even tell my wife. My wife didn't know. She had no clue until I came home. LAVANDERA: Gaskins walked into this office a jailer and walked out an Army private, giving himself a 50 percent pay cut. It was that $6,000 loan that helped the Gaskins make the financial transition to their new military life. A few weeks later, he shipped out to basic training and what would become two tours in the Iraq war.
MICHAEL GASKINS: I didn't know what to expect. I thought maybe she'd pack her bags and leave me. I couldn't really blame her. I really couldn't. You know, I thought...
LAVANDERA (on camera): Did the thought cross your mind?
MELISSA GASKINS, WIFE: He's lucky he's still here.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): While Sergeant Gaskins worked as a military police officer in the war zone, his wife was fighting her own battle, the battle of raising a teenage son on a soldier's pay. The Gaskins fell behind on their loan payments, and the credit union sued.
MICHAEL GASKINS: Here I was in Iraq fighting for what was right, and I have a company back here suing me. You know, I could never understand that.
MELISSA GASKINS: What do you want to eat?
LAVANDERA: But the Gaskins had a secret weapon -- secret because it's too often overlooked. The Service Members Civil Relief Act, which protects military personnel and their spouses from being subjected to some civil legal actions while serving on active duty.
One of the things it prevents is default judgments being filed against service members who can't defend themselves in court because they're on the battlefield, for example.
This didn't stop the credit union. First, they sued Michael Gaskins. After some legal wrangling, that was dropped. Then they sued his wife.
MICHAEL GASKINS: And that just shows you how bad they want us, how bad they want to get at us, to know, well, OK, well, the law does apply. We'd better leave it alone. No. What they do, say, oh, well, the law applies to him, let's go after his wife. And that's just to me, that was dirty. That was cheap.
LAVANDERA: This is Melissa Gaskins' scrapbook of frustration, pages and pages documenting every detail of what's happened the last four years. The night the truck was repossessed briefly until Melissa could make a payment, and the last time she personally delivered a check.
MELISSA GASKINS: Told me not to make another payment, do not come back to their credit union, and had me escorted out by security.
LAVANDERA (on camera): The credit union's attorney acknowledges that they did not have a full understanding of how the Service Members Civil Relief Act actually worked, that not only is the soldier protected, but so is their spouse.
And military officials agree that the Gaskins' story is not an isolated case, and that there seems to be a lot of confusion about this law nationwide.
(voice-over): The credit union refused our request for interviews regarding the specifics of the Gaskins' case, but recently the credit union dropped its lawsuit. Melissa Gaskins hopes their story will be a lesson, not just for military families, but for the companies that do business with them.
MELISSA GASKINS: I don't know if it can be misinterpreted. It's in black and white. It's pretty simple to understand, I believe. But you've got all these soldiers and their family members out there that major companies are claiming they just don't know about it.
MICHAEL GASKINS: You ready to go for a spin?
LAVANDERA: Michael Gaskins says he's in the Army for life, and he'll keep this car as long as it keeps running. But he likes to say the credit union picked a fight with the wrong woman. He's just grateful he married that woman.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Ft. Hood, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Other service members are coming home to fight a different battle. Since September 11th, more than 400,000 reservists have been called up to active duty in the war on terror and the war in Iraq. Their employers are required to hold their jobs for them. Not every employer honors the law. Here's CNN's Kelly Wallace.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lieutenant Colonel Steve Duarte of Littleton, Colorado considers himself the consummate citizen soldier. Twenty-eight years as a Reservist with the Marine Corps and 19 years with Hewlett-Packard and its spin-off company, Agilent Technologies.
But in November, 2003, after his second post-September 11th deployment, the 52-year-old was fired.
LT. COL. STEVE DUARTE, U.S. MARINES CORPS RESERVES: It was primarily an emotional thing for me. It was one of shock. I couldn't understand why they did it. And I think the pride thing kicked in there, too -- what did I do wrong?
WALLACE: Duarte says after his deployment, Agilent assigned him to a special project rather than his previous position in human resources. Court records show Agilent was carrying out a workforce reduction program, terminating Duarte after he scored poorly on a critical skills assessment test. Duarte contacted a Marine Corps lawyer and filed a lawsuit. DUARTE: This is a battle that shouldn't be fought because you're coming back to your families, you're coming back to the United States, you're coming back for a lot of other good reasons, and to have to do something like that and try to fight that battle, it's -- it just wasn't right.
WALLACE: After a trial last month, a federal judge ruled that Agilent violated federal law in terminating Duarte four months after he returned from Kuwait and Iraq. The judge awarded Duarte nearly $390,000 for loss of back pay and loss of future pay.
DUARTE: It was never about the money. It was always about being able to get the word out to other veterans coming back.
WALLACE: Getting the word out about the federal law. It mandates Reservists are entitled to their previous civilian jobs, as well as the pay, status and seniority they would have had if they hadn't gone away. And employers are barred from firing Reservists for a minimum of six months after deployments, except for cause.
(on camera): Lieutenant Colonel Duarte is not alone. Since September 11th, Reservists have seen the biggest call-up since World War II. And with that, the number of complaints from Reservists has gone up.
(voice-over): Gone up from an average of 900 complaints a year to the Labor Department to nearly 1,500 cases in the 2004 fiscal year, a 67 percent increase.
Retired National Guard General Paul Monroe witnessed the problem back in 2002 when his son's job was abolished during his deployment. Monroe then testified before his son's school district to help save his son's job. Since then, he has gotten involved with the National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, a group which, Monroe says, tries to help not just Reservists, but employers, as well.
GEN. PAUL MONROE (RET.), U.S. ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: Not only is it hard on soldiers and their families, it's hard on their employers, too. There's one employer that went out of his way to hire Reservists because of their training and everything. Now he says that he can't -- he cannot operate because all his Reservists are his supervisors. And we're taking them all away.
WALLACE: Monroe says more predictability, such as knowing how long deployments will last and when they will occur, would help both employers and Reservists.
Duarte, who has set up a Web site, hopes his story helps Reservists and sends a message to companies like his former employer.
DUARTE: If you're an employer and you're thinking about doing this, this is what it might cost you. And if you're a veteran coming back and this is happening to you, let somebody know, because now there is some recourse. WALLACE: Duarte formally retired from the Marine Reserve Sunday, but won't retire from being a citizen soldier. His mission: Making sure Reservists have the information they need to fight back.
Kelly Wallace, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still ahead from us tonight, you save and send your kids to private school. You want to believe their teachers are good people. You want to trust them. But should you?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You'd be shocked at what people tell and don't tell in terms of information to all employers, but especially to schools.
BROWN (voice-over): How a convicted murderer ended up in one classroom. It's all about loopholes.
We knew the tsunami was huge.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've never seen signals from an earthquake of this size.
BROWN: We're only now learning just how big it was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I realize the police can't protect me. It's up to me to protect myself.
BROWN: He shot his teenage neighbor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He took it overboard and would go to get his gun.
BROWN: Why police say the shooter did the right thing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Catching a home run ball that's part of a record is sort of like winning the lottery, except you feel like you earned it.
BROWN: But earned it how?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Both of these gentlemen ended up in court over this baseball.
The home run hit that became a major league battle.
From New York, and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In a moment, scientists have now analyzed the data, and they know the strength of the earthquake that spawned the tsunami in the Indian Ocean over Christmas. The results are staggering. It's not exactly staggering, but it is surprising. We hit the newsbreak almost on time. Erica Hill joins us tonight in Atlanta. Good to see you.
ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: And you as well. Doing a fine job.
BROWN: Thank you.
HILL: Republican leaders in the House are supporting a bill that would encourage research using stem cells extracted from umbilical cord blood. Now, that's an alternative to stem cells that come from human embryos. Some in Congress disagree with embryonic stem cell research because it involves the destruction of embryos. Extracting stem cells from cord blood does not destroy embryos, but their use in research is more limited.
A big merger in the airline industry: U.S. Airways and America West joining forces. The new airline will reach far more markets nationwide than either carrier could reach on its own. It will create a strong competitor to Southwest Airlines, the leading discount carrier. The airline will operate under the name U.S. Airways.
The International Red Cross said today it had received complaints from detainees the Guantanamo Bay that U.S. military personnel had disrespected the Koran. They reported those complaints to the Pentagon, which then issued guidelines to U.S. troops. After "Newsweek" reported the allegations this month, anti-American riots broke out in Afghanistan, killing at least 15 people. "Newsweek" retracted its report after questioning the reliability of its source.
The Department of Homeland Security announced today Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles has been charged with illegally entering the United States. He was arrested in Miami on Tuesday and admitted he was smuggled into the country. Posada is a long-time opponent of Fidel Castro and is wanted in Venezuela on terrorism charges. Posada plans to file for political asylum in the United States.
And that is the latest from Headline News at this hour. Aaron, back to you.
BROWN: Erica, thank you very much. See you in half an hour.
The human toll has been clear for some time now, hundreds of thousands of lives lost. But it's taken five months for the tsunami that destroyed so much to give up all its secrets. The earthquake that caused the giant wave was the first of its size to be measured by new digital equipment around the world. Scientists have finally pieced together the data, and it is like nothing they have ever seen.
Here's CNN's Daniel Sieberg.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The second largest earthquake on record released energy greater than 30,000 Hiroshimas. One scientist claimed it gave off as much energy as the entire United States uses in six months. Scientists agreed Thursday it was substantially more powerful than first thought, and it lasted longer than any earthquake ever recorded.
PROF. CHARLES AMMON, PENN STATE UNIVERSITY: Normally, a small earthquake might last less than a second. A moderate-sized earthquake might last a few seconds. This earthquake lasted between 500 to 600 seconds.
SIEBERG: The quake, centered in the Indian Ocean, ripped apart the earth's crust, as one tectonic plate slipped beneath another. The crack it created set a record, the longest one ever observed. To help translate how long and how fast-moving this rupture was, think about getting from north Florida almost to New York in just ten minutes.
Near the quake's center, the earth shifted by up to 15 feet. Even 1,000 miles away in Sri Lanka, the movement was nearly four inches, and the big picture here, globally -- this earthquake was large enough to basically the vibrate the entire planet by as much as half an inch. Now, that's not enough for most of us to feel anything, but everywhere that seismic monitors existed on the earth, they picked up vibrations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That wave is a good 15, 20 feet tall.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was staggering to see these signals, to actually have recorded the complete vibrations of the ground from such a giant earthquake.
SIEBERG: Its power was 100 times that of California's 1989 Loma Prieta quake, a 6.9 magnitude quake that caused major destruction. Scientists hope what they've learned from December's quake will help improve early warning systems and get more people to safety.
Daniel Sieberg, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: There is the science of the tsunami, and then there are the people, victims, some, survivors, others, homeless refugees. In our week in Aceh, back then, we saw them all, the wounded and the desperate, the heroes as well. We revisit one of them tonight, a young American, the third man in a helicopter, the one who unloaded the food and water and made the life and death decisions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: This is not one more story about what was lost, though the west coast of Aceh lost much. Many villages lost everything, some lost nearly everyone. It's not a story about delivering supplies, though that will happen. It is the story of a young American seaman, the job he does, and the choices he must make.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That one looks pretty good. They got a tree stump in there, but I think we can clear that. A lot of people on that hill. That will work out pretty well.
BROWN: As the pilot and co-pilot wait, Petty Officer Second Class Charles Geary unloads the food and water to the survivors of the village. Indonesian soldiers help keep order, though in truth, Geary could have done that too.
The longer we are on the ground, more and more people show up. They stand and wait, some dazed and confused. Some smile. Some, many it seems, simply hurt, and now, with the chopper empty, the easy work for Charles Geary is over. Now he must decide who is just injured and who is injured enough to be evacuated.
Look at these faces. Think about that choice. It plays out powerfully through the noise of the helicopter. Silently, he looks. He moves from one face in the crowd to another. He makes the first choice. In some eyes, desperation. He makes another. Then another. Space on the helicopter is running out. The last choice is made.
All are now crammed in a space that's maybe six by five. Geary is still working, diagnosing each.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-eight year old female. Cut to the bone on the upper right thigh.
BROWN: Bandaging wounds, setting a splint. It's hot, and it's hard, and it never stops. Maybe later he'll think about those choices. Maybe he'll wonder or question them. Maybe he will again, as we have, see the faces of those whose lives he saved. Or maybe he'll just do the same work again tomorrow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Coming up on the program ahead, the mystery deepens with two missing children at the center of it.
And later, how could a school hire a convicted killer? The answer is there's nothing to stop it. We take a break first. Around the world and around the country, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: New York City on what has been a beautiful spring day and is a beautiful spring night. You're looking down at Central Park South, Park on the left, Columbus Circle right below you.
When police tell you about the moments that weigh heavy on their hearts, they tell you about cases like this one. Two missing children, three people murdered, precious little to go on.
Today in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, a person of interest in the mystery no longer is. He passed a lie detector test. And with the children gone three days now, time has become the enemy.
Reporting for us in Idaho, CNN's Sean Callebs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's day four, investigators still searching for telling shreds of evidence. Two children, a sister and brother, ages 8 and 9, are still missing without a clue. They were last seen at their mother's house. The mother was killed there, along with their 13-year-old brother and the mother's boyfriend. Authorities now say all three died of blunt force trauma to the head.
The sheriff's office still has no idea why or who committed the grisly crimes. The missing children's distraught and devastated father, no longer married to their mother, issued a public plea Thursday to their possible abductors.
STEVE GROENE, FATHER OF MISSING CHILDREN: Please, please release my children safely. They had nothing to do with any of this. Release them in a safe area where the law enforcement can find them. Call the help line. Let them know where they can be found.
CALLEBS: The FBI and sheriff's office interviewed a man they had called a person of interest. 33-year-old Robert Roy Lutner, who was first to call authorities. Officers say that he was questioned for seven hours and that Lutner voluntarily took and passed a lie detector test.
Investigators determined he had no apparent ties to the triple slayings or missing children. But bottom line, at this point, investigators say they are coming up empty with absolutely no leads in the case.
CAPT. BEN WOLFINGER, KOTTENAI CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT: It's discouraging for everybody involved and the public. We're as concerned about these children as anyone.
CALLEBS: The best information Lutner could provide, that there was a gathering of friends at this house hours before the killings. But police don't know whether that gathering led in any way to the deaths and to the disappearance of the children. The sheriff's office is pleading that anyone with information come forward.
Sean Callebs, CNN, Coeur D'Alene, Idaho.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: It's impossible, of course, to anticipate every danger to your child. It's tempting to believe there are danger-free zones like children's schools. Columbine and the other shootings of that time may have changed that notion. We still like to believe that we can trust our kids' teachers, and mostly we can. And sometimes, in this case, we can't.
Here's CNN's Kathleen Koch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This small private school in inner city Baltimore aims to give children a fresh start. And the principal has always believed that applies to teachers as well.
CHRISTINA PHILLIPS HOLTSCLAW, COMMUNITY INIT. ACAD. PRINCIPAL: He has a daughter of his own. And I just felt that give this man a second chance. Young, black men do not always get a second chance.
KOCH: But the man, Charles Carroll, was a convicted murder, and two weeks ago he was arrested for sexually assaulting three students. He's facing charges ranging from groping to rape of a 13-year-old.
Cherri Reams, whose son and daughter attend Community Initiatives Academy, says parents were shocked.
CHERRI REAMS, PARENT: Yes. Because it's okay. It's close to heart. It's home. And you're saying, wait a minute, my children are there.
KOCH: The incident points up a gaping hole in school security nationwide. In most states, private schools are not bound by the same laws as public schools when it comes to checking teacher backgrounds and deciding who to hire. Some do thorough checks and won't hire anyone with a criminal record. But educators concede some schools don't check and hire whoever they want.
PATRICK BASSETT, NAT'L ASSN OF INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS: In the context of private schools, it's unacceptable to this extent. We have, as all schools do, a vulnerable client. In order to achieve our mission of educating kids well, we have to check very carefully.
KOCH: Bassett's organization represents 1,200 private schools around the country, like prestigious Mclean School of Maryland. Principal Darlene Pierro says they conduct detailed background checks, but they don't want the state mandating who they can and can't hire, because they want to decide on a case by case basis.
DARLENE PIERRO, MCLEAN SCHOOL OF MARYLAND: And I think that the background checking that, for instance, we have to do for the State of Maryland is very good. Beyond that, I think schools have to make their own decision about how they're going to operate.
CARYN PASS, LAWYER: Private schools can do what they want largely.
KOCH: Lawyer Caryn Pass, who advises private schools on background checks, warns them not to be too trusting.
PASS: You'd be shocked at what people tell and don't tell in terms of information to all employers, but especially to schools. They lie, you know, notoriously about their educational background, about where they've taught, about what they made. And then you really have to do very comprehensive checks, especially since it's kids. It's not -- you know, they're not working at Nordstrom. They're working at a school.
KOCH: Public school teacher background checks can fall short too. Massachusetts is one of several states that only checks state, but not national criminal records. In Methuen, that led to the hiring of a teacher that had been arrested next door in New Hampshire for allegedly groping students. Dennis Sheehan, who says he's innocent, is now charged with the same offense in Massachusetts.
PHILLIP LITTLEFIELD, METHUEN SUPERINTENDENT: There are a number of adjectives I can use, angry, distraught, embarrassed.
KOCH: Methuen superintendent Phillip Littlefield, is calling for a national database of convictions and arrests to bolster the existing background check system for public and private schools.
LITTLEFIELD: There are holes in it. And I tell you, the bad guys are pretty good at finding out what those holes are and being able to slip through them.
KOCH: Back in Baltimore, the private school principal says she won't hire an ex-convict again. Charles Carroll says he is innocent. And is in jail awaiting trial. Cherri Reams, she still believes on second chances.
REAMS: I don't have a problem with it. I wake up every morning. OK, you're ready to school? They're comfortable. They don't feel it. God is watching over them.
KOCH: She still believes her children are safe here.
Kathleen Koch, CNN, Baltimore, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still to come on NEWSNIGHT tonight, neighbor shooting neighbor, self-defense or the work of a vigilante?
And later -- I got it. No, I do. A game of keep-away that became a movie about a baseball. A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In our "Security Watch" now, the home front. In a perfect world, only police would have guns, and they'd come when you need them. Instead, in this country, there are nearly 200 million handguns in circulation. There are bad guys in rough neighborhoods, and the cops can't be everywhere, so people learn to rely on themselves and sometimes on their guns, which may or may not make things any safer in the end or any simpler.
Reporting from Oakland, California, tonight, CNN's Frank Buckley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Police say residents in this neighborhood in North Oakland, California, are in the process of regaining it from drug dealers, and the family living in this home is right in the thick of it. Patrick and Daphne McCullough have lived here for 10 years, their 9-year-old son, since he was born.
Look out the front door, they say, and you can see drug dealers plying their trade. McCullough calls police to report them every time. A couple of years ago, one alleged dealer took offense and beat him up, in his own driveway.
PATRICK MCCULLOUGH, HOMEOWNER: So from that moment on, whenever I was going someplace at night, I made sure that, you know, I had a pistol nearby. I realize the police can't protect me. It's up to me to protect myself.
BUCKLEY: Which is what he claims he was doing one evening last February when he was getting into his car.
MCCULLOUGH: I hear this one voice says, there's the snitch. So I'm like, jeez, why? So I turned around, and there's this kid, and he's walking towards me. So I said, hey, boy, get out from in front of my house, and don't talk to me like that.
BUCKLEY: The boy, 17-year-old Melvin McHenry, who lives with his mother and three brothers and sisters, just a few houses away. The two came to blows, but as McHenry was walking away, McCullough says the teenager yelled for a gun and grabbed one from one of his friends.
MCCULLOUGH: And right when he puts his hand on it, I leveled my pistol and shot him right through the shoulder.
MELVIN MCHENRY, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: The bullet came on my back, grazed me and then came, entered right here and then came out right here.
BUCKLEY: The teenager was wounded. He disputes McCullough's story.
MCHENRY: He saw no gun in his eye. He didn't see nothing, hear nothing, about, something about, hand me a gun. He didn't hear nothing like that. He took it overboard and went to go get his gun.
BUCKLEY: McCullough was arrested. As the district attorney considered charging him, the police rallied to support him.
LT. LAWRENCE GREEN, OAKLAND POLICE DEPT.: I know Patrick McCullough. I know those -- the thugs involved, and I understand what the dynamics are of that neighborhood. So it's clear to me, after doing a little investigating, that Patrick McCullough was in the right and acted properly.
CROWD (CHANTING): Who's McCullough? Don't you see? Just another snitch for the O.P.D.
BUCKLEY: There have been demonstrations against McCullough. Melvin McHenry's family retained an attorney. Emotions, raw, on both sides.
MCCULLOUGH: I asked a question.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm asking you. Do you want to shoot me?
MCCULLOUGH: No. I would like to do something to you that you may not like, but that's not it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like what? Why would you like to do -- would you like to use physical force?
MCCULLOUGH: No. I'd like to (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
BUCKLEY: But last month, the district attorney's office cleared McCullough of any wrongdoing, and now police worry that he is a marked man. They've encouraged the family to move. But if McCullough was even considering pulling out, his wife Daphne set him straight when he came home one day to find this sign she put up in the window.
DAPHNE MCCULLOUGH, WIFE: We're not here to make any problems. We just want to live our lives, you know, do things with our son. Give him a good education and just live peacefully. I mean, but we're not going to stand back and let them dictate our lives or tell us what to do, and intimidate us.
BUCKLEY: Just up the street, there are boxes packed for a move. McHenry's mother has decided to take her family out of the neighborhood because, she says, she's afraid, of McCullough. What is your fear?
STACY HEGLER, MCHENRY'S MOTHER: That Patrick going to shoot another one of my kids if he don't shoot Melvin, and this time he may kill him.
BUCKLEY: McCullough says he shot the teenager in self-defense, and he has no regrets.
MCCULLOUGH: If other people are attacking you, they're wrong, not you, and you shouldn't flee. You should do whatever you have to do to stop the attack, and don't feel bad about it. I don't feel bad about what happened.
BUCKLEY: And, McCullough says, he'd do it again if he had to.
Frank Buckley, CNN, Oakland, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still ahead on the program, we'll check some of the other day's top stories, including a horrible roadside encounter. Believe it or not, it could have been a whole lot worse.
And later, the battle over a baseball. OK, a half million dollar baseball, but still a baseball. From the cheap seats, well, they're not that cheap actually, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: More than 1,600 Americans have now died in Iraq. No sign that there will be a troop drawdown any time soon.
In a moment, a documentary about baseball, sort of. It includes Barry Bonds and an actual baseball, and some fans who got into what would be called a custody fight.
First, at a quarter to the hour, almost, here's Erica Hill with the headlines -- Erica.
HILL: Thanks, Aaron.
Race has entered the battle in the Senate over President Bush's controversial judicial nominees. A group of black ministers held a news conference with Majority Leader Bill Frist and hinted the Democrats are opposed to putting a black woman on the federal appeals court. They are referring to the nomination of California Judge Janice Rogers Brown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: Some have suggested that she wants to take us back to the Civil War days.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
FRIST: That's a quote. Such talk is unnecessary, it is uncivil, it is unjust. And I pledge to all of you who are here today that I will do everything within my power to see that it stops.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: In the meantime, moderate senators from both parties are trying to reach a compromise. One possible deal would allow five of the seven contested nominees to come up for a vote, while preserving the right to use the filibuster in limited circumstances.
Some late word from the Michael Jackson trial. His former attorney Mark Geragos will be back in court tomorrow. Legal questions about his testimony last week need to be answered.
Meanwhile, testimony today from a friend of Jackson's accuser who told jurors the teen and his family never complained they were held against their will at Jackson's ranch, as prosecutors have alleged.
The newest "Star Wars" movie is playing in theaters only one day, and already word that illegal copies are circulating on the Internet. Reports say so many fans are trying to get a copy of "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," that it's actually taking up to 40 hours to download the movie even with a high speed connection. And a reminder, it's illegal.
Federal agents are trying to determine just who is behind the theft of data from Lexis-Nexis, the giant database service. They've searched at least 10 homes and have seized computers, but so far, no arrests have been made. Up to 300,000 people may have had their Social Security numbers stolen.
And finally for you, a moment caught on tape that every law man fears and that precious few ever walk away from. Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). Officer down! Officer down!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Incredible. A truck plowed into this officer on the side of the road. It all happened in Little Canada, Minnesota. A sheriff's deputy was helping a woman whose car was stuck in a ditch along Interstate 94. The deputy -- and this is amazing -- actually sustained only minor injuries. He was treated and sent home from a local hospital.
No matter how many times I see that, Aaron, I cannot believe that that man walked away.
BROWN: Well, I saw it three times, and I can't believe he walked away.
HILL: It's amazing. And the driver was apparently all right as well.
BROWN: Thank you.
I think I'm the only one here who knows where Little Canada, Minnesota, is.
HILL: You might be.
BROWN: Thank you, Ms. Hill.
By now, the story of Barry Bonds and anabolic steroids and whether he'll ever play ball again has sort of dominated the news. We put all that aside for now, along with what he thinks of the press and what the press thinks of him. Instead tonight, by way of a documentary film called "Up for Grabs," we take you back to a moment when Barry Bonds, sweetheart though he never was, was nonetheless, in big letters, the man.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WRANOVICS, DIRECTOR, "UP FOR GRABS": "Up for Grabs" is -- we're calling it a docu-comedy, which is its nature. It's a funny movie, but it is real. Basically, it starts with Barry Bonds hitting his 73rd home run of the 2001 season.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A floater to Bonds, and he hits it high.
GWEN KNAPP, SPORTSWRITER, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Catching a home run ball that's part of a record is sort of like winning the lottery, except you feel like you earned it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it is out of here!
WRANOVICS: News cameraman named Josh Koeppel (ph) had captured the action out there. The wild melee, and you know, he captured the ball entering one of these two guys' gloves. And then what happened after that, one guy, Patrick Hayashi, emerged from the pile holding up the ball, saying I've got it.
PATRICK HAYASHI: I've got it! I went down there (INAUDIBLE)! Yeah!
WRANOVICS: And then Alex Popov, another guy who was out in the stands and in the middle of that pile said...
ALEX POPOV: I catch it. The pile goes on top of me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then we start to realize that this is actually a bigger story than just this historic home run ball.
WRANOVICS: So we had this dispute that ended up leading to a legal case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why can't the two of you go in a room and resolve it?
POPOV: I would welcome the opportunity to do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Hayashi, do you want to work it out? Do you want to sit in a room -- do you want to sit in a room with Mr. Popov right now? He's made the offer.
HAYASHI: We've had settlement negotiations before.
POPOV: I look forward to going to trial.
WRANOVICS: Both of these gentlemen ended up in court over this baseball.
"Up for Grabs" is not a serious examination of who deserves the ball. Right from the beginning, I always saw this as potentially a satire, just how crazy things can get when people are trying to get rich quick and get their 15 minutes of fame. This is one of those interesting elements of the story was how seriously people were taking this and how much they loved talking about it, to the point where they'd be willing to talk to you about this ball even as they were in the middle of their work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's really put a lot of effort into this case, hoping to win the ball. Close, tap, tap, tap.
WRANOVICS: In a way, it is a statement about American society. Just 40 years earlier, Sal Durante -- he was a 19-year-old kid in New York...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There it is.
WRANOVICS: You know, Roger Maris hit number 61, breaking Babe Ruth's record.
SAL DURANTE: I reached as high as I could reach, and it was perfectly hit to me, hit the palm of my hand, knocked me into the next row.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you going to do with the ball?
DURANTE: I'm going to give it to Roger.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah?
DURANTE: That's what he wants.
WRANOVICS: It was his instinct at the time, it's just give the ball to Roger Maris.
A judge rules that the ball needs to be put under a restraining order and locked away in a safety deposit box in a bank, and then you've got a media circus around it. Then there were ball touching parties, complete with a security guard wearing white gloves.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't touch it.
WRANOVICS: And then the auction. How much is this ball going to be worth? Sal Durante actually -- he was invited to the auction. So he actually got to meet both of the litigants in this case. And, you know, he looked at it very differently than they did.
DURANTE: I'm sure everybody knows it was about the money. That's the way it is today.
WRANOVICS: It doesn't sum up America, but it definitely comments on one aspect of America in the beginning of the 21st century.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The ball brought nearly $500,000 at auction. A judge told the two men to split the cash.
Morning papers, all our own, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Okey-dokey. Time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. A leisurely walk through the headlines.
Washington Times starts it off. "U.S. Airways Bankrupt: America West to merge, new airline to be based in Arizona." But it's going to be called U.S. Airways, but it's going to be based where America West is.
Well, it's one less airline to lose your luggage. There you go. Stars and Stripes lead to military. "Soldier gets three years for groping children, incidents took place in Weisboden (ph)."
And then they have pictures of the new Army uniforms, which I think will be a little uncomfortable in the desert. But there they are.
"San Antonio Express News." Down here. I bet there's a better headline than this, but this is a big story. We should do this tomorrow, guys. "Stem Cells Taken From Clones. South Korean embryo technique avoids ethical complications." Though it probably creates all sorts of new ethical complications. "South Korean scientists have surmounted a key hurdle in stem cell research. They produced 11 human embryo clones." Anyway, it's a big science story. We'll all be talking about it tomorrow. And there you go.
"Des Moines Register" in Des Moines, Iowa. "New York investors to buy Maytag." Maytag, the appliance maker, big business in the state of Iowa. So that's a legit front page story. Something else I like.
Here in New York, "The New York Daily News." "No Stadium, No Games. U.S. Olympic boss warns." It's a big battle here in New York over whether to spend $600 million for a stadium for the New York Jets. And the dangle here is well, maybe we'll get the Olympic Games. Therefore, we ought to spend the dough.
And maybe we should. I'm not taking sides.
"Sana Rosa News" -- I'd like to get there, Sana Rosa, New Mexico. "Dive Into Summer." It's the theme for the Santa Rosa Days, 2005.
A couple stories from the "Chicago Sun Times." We always end on the sun times for no particular reason other than I like to. "Former Key GOP Aide Accused of Theft and Fraud." Down here -- I've been saying this for years. "Men Do More Chores Than Women Give Them Credit For." That would be like one, right?
The weather tomorrow in Chicago, my friends -- "A Hoot."
We'll wrap it up with one cool picture, I hope, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE; This week in history. In 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross in Washington D.C. She went on to head the organization for 23 years.
Amelia Earhart took to the sky on May 21st, 1932, to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
And Oliver Brown led the fight in what is now known as a judiciary landmark. The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Brown versus Board of Education case declared it was unconstitutional to separate educational facilities by race.
That is this week in history.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And this day in history -- give me this picture quickly. One of my favorite athletes, Reggie Miller, ended his career in Indiana today. Or tonight. They lost to the Pistons to end his career. He's 39-years-old. One of the great players of our time. We'll be with you again tomorrow, 10:00 Eastern time. Join us. Until then, good night for 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 May 19, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening again. This is a story that at its core is about right and wrong. Maybe it's not our place to say what is right or wrong, but that's how we see it. When a country asks its young men and women to go to war, the least they can expect is that their jobs will be protected when they return, that collection agencies won't be hounding them when they get back. They should be able to count on the support of their communities in return for their sacrifice.
Yet we begin tonight with two stories that defy your sense of right and wrong and decency as well. The first report is by Ed Lavandera.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SGT. MICHAEL GASKINS, U.S. ARMY: It's nothing fancy. It's nothing unique. It's not lowered. It's not jacked up.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a 1993 Toyota pickup truck with 123,000 miles on it. Sergeant Michael Gaskins is baffled why anyone wants to fight him for it.
MICHAEL GASKINS: It's nothing special, but it's mine.
LAVANDERA: Four years ago, Gaskins put this truck down as collateral on a $6,000 loan from the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital Credit Union in Florida. He needed the money to finance a split- second decision, a decision about what to do with his life.
MICHAEL GASKINS: And at 29 years old, I guess I had an early mid-life crisis. I needed a change.
LAVANDERA: Gaskins was working as a jailer at the sheriff's department in Tallahassee. A month after the 9/11 attacks, he was driving home from work when he passed this Army recruitment office.
MICHAEL GASKINS: I could have been home helping my wife cook dinner, helping my kid do homework. But no, I went to the recruiter office instead.
LAVANDERA: Fifteen minutes later, he was resigning from his job.
MICHAEL GASKINS: I didn't even tell my wife. My wife didn't know. She had no clue until I came home. LAVANDERA: Gaskins walked into this office a jailer and walked out an Army private, giving himself a 50 percent pay cut. It was that $6,000 loan that helped the Gaskins make the financial transition to their new military life. A few weeks later, he shipped out to basic training and what would become two tours in the Iraq war.
MICHAEL GASKINS: I didn't know what to expect. I thought maybe she'd pack her bags and leave me. I couldn't really blame her. I really couldn't. You know, I thought...
LAVANDERA (on camera): Did the thought cross your mind?
MELISSA GASKINS, WIFE: He's lucky he's still here.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): While Sergeant Gaskins worked as a military police officer in the war zone, his wife was fighting her own battle, the battle of raising a teenage son on a soldier's pay. The Gaskins fell behind on their loan payments, and the credit union sued.
MICHAEL GASKINS: Here I was in Iraq fighting for what was right, and I have a company back here suing me. You know, I could never understand that.
MELISSA GASKINS: What do you want to eat?
LAVANDERA: But the Gaskins had a secret weapon -- secret because it's too often overlooked. The Service Members Civil Relief Act, which protects military personnel and their spouses from being subjected to some civil legal actions while serving on active duty.
One of the things it prevents is default judgments being filed against service members who can't defend themselves in court because they're on the battlefield, for example.
This didn't stop the credit union. First, they sued Michael Gaskins. After some legal wrangling, that was dropped. Then they sued his wife.
MICHAEL GASKINS: And that just shows you how bad they want us, how bad they want to get at us, to know, well, OK, well, the law does apply. We'd better leave it alone. No. What they do, say, oh, well, the law applies to him, let's go after his wife. And that's just to me, that was dirty. That was cheap.
LAVANDERA: This is Melissa Gaskins' scrapbook of frustration, pages and pages documenting every detail of what's happened the last four years. The night the truck was repossessed briefly until Melissa could make a payment, and the last time she personally delivered a check.
MELISSA GASKINS: Told me not to make another payment, do not come back to their credit union, and had me escorted out by security.
LAVANDERA (on camera): The credit union's attorney acknowledges that they did not have a full understanding of how the Service Members Civil Relief Act actually worked, that not only is the soldier protected, but so is their spouse.
And military officials agree that the Gaskins' story is not an isolated case, and that there seems to be a lot of confusion about this law nationwide.
(voice-over): The credit union refused our request for interviews regarding the specifics of the Gaskins' case, but recently the credit union dropped its lawsuit. Melissa Gaskins hopes their story will be a lesson, not just for military families, but for the companies that do business with them.
MELISSA GASKINS: I don't know if it can be misinterpreted. It's in black and white. It's pretty simple to understand, I believe. But you've got all these soldiers and their family members out there that major companies are claiming they just don't know about it.
MICHAEL GASKINS: You ready to go for a spin?
LAVANDERA: Michael Gaskins says he's in the Army for life, and he'll keep this car as long as it keeps running. But he likes to say the credit union picked a fight with the wrong woman. He's just grateful he married that woman.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Ft. Hood, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Other service members are coming home to fight a different battle. Since September 11th, more than 400,000 reservists have been called up to active duty in the war on terror and the war in Iraq. Their employers are required to hold their jobs for them. Not every employer honors the law. Here's CNN's Kelly Wallace.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lieutenant Colonel Steve Duarte of Littleton, Colorado considers himself the consummate citizen soldier. Twenty-eight years as a Reservist with the Marine Corps and 19 years with Hewlett-Packard and its spin-off company, Agilent Technologies.
But in November, 2003, after his second post-September 11th deployment, the 52-year-old was fired.
LT. COL. STEVE DUARTE, U.S. MARINES CORPS RESERVES: It was primarily an emotional thing for me. It was one of shock. I couldn't understand why they did it. And I think the pride thing kicked in there, too -- what did I do wrong?
WALLACE: Duarte says after his deployment, Agilent assigned him to a special project rather than his previous position in human resources. Court records show Agilent was carrying out a workforce reduction program, terminating Duarte after he scored poorly on a critical skills assessment test. Duarte contacted a Marine Corps lawyer and filed a lawsuit. DUARTE: This is a battle that shouldn't be fought because you're coming back to your families, you're coming back to the United States, you're coming back for a lot of other good reasons, and to have to do something like that and try to fight that battle, it's -- it just wasn't right.
WALLACE: After a trial last month, a federal judge ruled that Agilent violated federal law in terminating Duarte four months after he returned from Kuwait and Iraq. The judge awarded Duarte nearly $390,000 for loss of back pay and loss of future pay.
DUARTE: It was never about the money. It was always about being able to get the word out to other veterans coming back.
WALLACE: Getting the word out about the federal law. It mandates Reservists are entitled to their previous civilian jobs, as well as the pay, status and seniority they would have had if they hadn't gone away. And employers are barred from firing Reservists for a minimum of six months after deployments, except for cause.
(on camera): Lieutenant Colonel Duarte is not alone. Since September 11th, Reservists have seen the biggest call-up since World War II. And with that, the number of complaints from Reservists has gone up.
(voice-over): Gone up from an average of 900 complaints a year to the Labor Department to nearly 1,500 cases in the 2004 fiscal year, a 67 percent increase.
Retired National Guard General Paul Monroe witnessed the problem back in 2002 when his son's job was abolished during his deployment. Monroe then testified before his son's school district to help save his son's job. Since then, he has gotten involved with the National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, a group which, Monroe says, tries to help not just Reservists, but employers, as well.
GEN. PAUL MONROE (RET.), U.S. ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: Not only is it hard on soldiers and their families, it's hard on their employers, too. There's one employer that went out of his way to hire Reservists because of their training and everything. Now he says that he can't -- he cannot operate because all his Reservists are his supervisors. And we're taking them all away.
WALLACE: Monroe says more predictability, such as knowing how long deployments will last and when they will occur, would help both employers and Reservists.
Duarte, who has set up a Web site, hopes his story helps Reservists and sends a message to companies like his former employer.
DUARTE: If you're an employer and you're thinking about doing this, this is what it might cost you. And if you're a veteran coming back and this is happening to you, let somebody know, because now there is some recourse. WALLACE: Duarte formally retired from the Marine Reserve Sunday, but won't retire from being a citizen soldier. His mission: Making sure Reservists have the information they need to fight back.
Kelly Wallace, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still ahead from us tonight, you save and send your kids to private school. You want to believe their teachers are good people. You want to trust them. But should you?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You'd be shocked at what people tell and don't tell in terms of information to all employers, but especially to schools.
BROWN (voice-over): How a convicted murderer ended up in one classroom. It's all about loopholes.
We knew the tsunami was huge.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've never seen signals from an earthquake of this size.
BROWN: We're only now learning just how big it was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I realize the police can't protect me. It's up to me to protect myself.
BROWN: He shot his teenage neighbor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He took it overboard and would go to get his gun.
BROWN: Why police say the shooter did the right thing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Catching a home run ball that's part of a record is sort of like winning the lottery, except you feel like you earned it.
BROWN: But earned it how?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Both of these gentlemen ended up in court over this baseball.
The home run hit that became a major league battle.
From New York, and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In a moment, scientists have now analyzed the data, and they know the strength of the earthquake that spawned the tsunami in the Indian Ocean over Christmas. The results are staggering. It's not exactly staggering, but it is surprising. We hit the newsbreak almost on time. Erica Hill joins us tonight in Atlanta. Good to see you.
ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: And you as well. Doing a fine job.
BROWN: Thank you.
HILL: Republican leaders in the House are supporting a bill that would encourage research using stem cells extracted from umbilical cord blood. Now, that's an alternative to stem cells that come from human embryos. Some in Congress disagree with embryonic stem cell research because it involves the destruction of embryos. Extracting stem cells from cord blood does not destroy embryos, but their use in research is more limited.
A big merger in the airline industry: U.S. Airways and America West joining forces. The new airline will reach far more markets nationwide than either carrier could reach on its own. It will create a strong competitor to Southwest Airlines, the leading discount carrier. The airline will operate under the name U.S. Airways.
The International Red Cross said today it had received complaints from detainees the Guantanamo Bay that U.S. military personnel had disrespected the Koran. They reported those complaints to the Pentagon, which then issued guidelines to U.S. troops. After "Newsweek" reported the allegations this month, anti-American riots broke out in Afghanistan, killing at least 15 people. "Newsweek" retracted its report after questioning the reliability of its source.
The Department of Homeland Security announced today Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles has been charged with illegally entering the United States. He was arrested in Miami on Tuesday and admitted he was smuggled into the country. Posada is a long-time opponent of Fidel Castro and is wanted in Venezuela on terrorism charges. Posada plans to file for political asylum in the United States.
And that is the latest from Headline News at this hour. Aaron, back to you.
BROWN: Erica, thank you very much. See you in half an hour.
The human toll has been clear for some time now, hundreds of thousands of lives lost. But it's taken five months for the tsunami that destroyed so much to give up all its secrets. The earthquake that caused the giant wave was the first of its size to be measured by new digital equipment around the world. Scientists have finally pieced together the data, and it is like nothing they have ever seen.
Here's CNN's Daniel Sieberg.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The second largest earthquake on record released energy greater than 30,000 Hiroshimas. One scientist claimed it gave off as much energy as the entire United States uses in six months. Scientists agreed Thursday it was substantially more powerful than first thought, and it lasted longer than any earthquake ever recorded.
PROF. CHARLES AMMON, PENN STATE UNIVERSITY: Normally, a small earthquake might last less than a second. A moderate-sized earthquake might last a few seconds. This earthquake lasted between 500 to 600 seconds.
SIEBERG: The quake, centered in the Indian Ocean, ripped apart the earth's crust, as one tectonic plate slipped beneath another. The crack it created set a record, the longest one ever observed. To help translate how long and how fast-moving this rupture was, think about getting from north Florida almost to New York in just ten minutes.
Near the quake's center, the earth shifted by up to 15 feet. Even 1,000 miles away in Sri Lanka, the movement was nearly four inches, and the big picture here, globally -- this earthquake was large enough to basically the vibrate the entire planet by as much as half an inch. Now, that's not enough for most of us to feel anything, but everywhere that seismic monitors existed on the earth, they picked up vibrations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That wave is a good 15, 20 feet tall.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was staggering to see these signals, to actually have recorded the complete vibrations of the ground from such a giant earthquake.
SIEBERG: Its power was 100 times that of California's 1989 Loma Prieta quake, a 6.9 magnitude quake that caused major destruction. Scientists hope what they've learned from December's quake will help improve early warning systems and get more people to safety.
Daniel Sieberg, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: There is the science of the tsunami, and then there are the people, victims, some, survivors, others, homeless refugees. In our week in Aceh, back then, we saw them all, the wounded and the desperate, the heroes as well. We revisit one of them tonight, a young American, the third man in a helicopter, the one who unloaded the food and water and made the life and death decisions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: This is not one more story about what was lost, though the west coast of Aceh lost much. Many villages lost everything, some lost nearly everyone. It's not a story about delivering supplies, though that will happen. It is the story of a young American seaman, the job he does, and the choices he must make.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That one looks pretty good. They got a tree stump in there, but I think we can clear that. A lot of people on that hill. That will work out pretty well.
BROWN: As the pilot and co-pilot wait, Petty Officer Second Class Charles Geary unloads the food and water to the survivors of the village. Indonesian soldiers help keep order, though in truth, Geary could have done that too.
The longer we are on the ground, more and more people show up. They stand and wait, some dazed and confused. Some smile. Some, many it seems, simply hurt, and now, with the chopper empty, the easy work for Charles Geary is over. Now he must decide who is just injured and who is injured enough to be evacuated.
Look at these faces. Think about that choice. It plays out powerfully through the noise of the helicopter. Silently, he looks. He moves from one face in the crowd to another. He makes the first choice. In some eyes, desperation. He makes another. Then another. Space on the helicopter is running out. The last choice is made.
All are now crammed in a space that's maybe six by five. Geary is still working, diagnosing each.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-eight year old female. Cut to the bone on the upper right thigh.
BROWN: Bandaging wounds, setting a splint. It's hot, and it's hard, and it never stops. Maybe later he'll think about those choices. Maybe he'll wonder or question them. Maybe he will again, as we have, see the faces of those whose lives he saved. Or maybe he'll just do the same work again tomorrow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Coming up on the program ahead, the mystery deepens with two missing children at the center of it.
And later, how could a school hire a convicted killer? The answer is there's nothing to stop it. We take a break first. Around the world and around the country, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: New York City on what has been a beautiful spring day and is a beautiful spring night. You're looking down at Central Park South, Park on the left, Columbus Circle right below you.
When police tell you about the moments that weigh heavy on their hearts, they tell you about cases like this one. Two missing children, three people murdered, precious little to go on.
Today in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, a person of interest in the mystery no longer is. He passed a lie detector test. And with the children gone three days now, time has become the enemy.
Reporting for us in Idaho, CNN's Sean Callebs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's day four, investigators still searching for telling shreds of evidence. Two children, a sister and brother, ages 8 and 9, are still missing without a clue. They were last seen at their mother's house. The mother was killed there, along with their 13-year-old brother and the mother's boyfriend. Authorities now say all three died of blunt force trauma to the head.
The sheriff's office still has no idea why or who committed the grisly crimes. The missing children's distraught and devastated father, no longer married to their mother, issued a public plea Thursday to their possible abductors.
STEVE GROENE, FATHER OF MISSING CHILDREN: Please, please release my children safely. They had nothing to do with any of this. Release them in a safe area where the law enforcement can find them. Call the help line. Let them know where they can be found.
CALLEBS: The FBI and sheriff's office interviewed a man they had called a person of interest. 33-year-old Robert Roy Lutner, who was first to call authorities. Officers say that he was questioned for seven hours and that Lutner voluntarily took and passed a lie detector test.
Investigators determined he had no apparent ties to the triple slayings or missing children. But bottom line, at this point, investigators say they are coming up empty with absolutely no leads in the case.
CAPT. BEN WOLFINGER, KOTTENAI CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT: It's discouraging for everybody involved and the public. We're as concerned about these children as anyone.
CALLEBS: The best information Lutner could provide, that there was a gathering of friends at this house hours before the killings. But police don't know whether that gathering led in any way to the deaths and to the disappearance of the children. The sheriff's office is pleading that anyone with information come forward.
Sean Callebs, CNN, Coeur D'Alene, Idaho.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: It's impossible, of course, to anticipate every danger to your child. It's tempting to believe there are danger-free zones like children's schools. Columbine and the other shootings of that time may have changed that notion. We still like to believe that we can trust our kids' teachers, and mostly we can. And sometimes, in this case, we can't.
Here's CNN's Kathleen Koch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This small private school in inner city Baltimore aims to give children a fresh start. And the principal has always believed that applies to teachers as well.
CHRISTINA PHILLIPS HOLTSCLAW, COMMUNITY INIT. ACAD. PRINCIPAL: He has a daughter of his own. And I just felt that give this man a second chance. Young, black men do not always get a second chance.
KOCH: But the man, Charles Carroll, was a convicted murder, and two weeks ago he was arrested for sexually assaulting three students. He's facing charges ranging from groping to rape of a 13-year-old.
Cherri Reams, whose son and daughter attend Community Initiatives Academy, says parents were shocked.
CHERRI REAMS, PARENT: Yes. Because it's okay. It's close to heart. It's home. And you're saying, wait a minute, my children are there.
KOCH: The incident points up a gaping hole in school security nationwide. In most states, private schools are not bound by the same laws as public schools when it comes to checking teacher backgrounds and deciding who to hire. Some do thorough checks and won't hire anyone with a criminal record. But educators concede some schools don't check and hire whoever they want.
PATRICK BASSETT, NAT'L ASSN OF INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS: In the context of private schools, it's unacceptable to this extent. We have, as all schools do, a vulnerable client. In order to achieve our mission of educating kids well, we have to check very carefully.
KOCH: Bassett's organization represents 1,200 private schools around the country, like prestigious Mclean School of Maryland. Principal Darlene Pierro says they conduct detailed background checks, but they don't want the state mandating who they can and can't hire, because they want to decide on a case by case basis.
DARLENE PIERRO, MCLEAN SCHOOL OF MARYLAND: And I think that the background checking that, for instance, we have to do for the State of Maryland is very good. Beyond that, I think schools have to make their own decision about how they're going to operate.
CARYN PASS, LAWYER: Private schools can do what they want largely.
KOCH: Lawyer Caryn Pass, who advises private schools on background checks, warns them not to be too trusting.
PASS: You'd be shocked at what people tell and don't tell in terms of information to all employers, but especially to schools. They lie, you know, notoriously about their educational background, about where they've taught, about what they made. And then you really have to do very comprehensive checks, especially since it's kids. It's not -- you know, they're not working at Nordstrom. They're working at a school.
KOCH: Public school teacher background checks can fall short too. Massachusetts is one of several states that only checks state, but not national criminal records. In Methuen, that led to the hiring of a teacher that had been arrested next door in New Hampshire for allegedly groping students. Dennis Sheehan, who says he's innocent, is now charged with the same offense in Massachusetts.
PHILLIP LITTLEFIELD, METHUEN SUPERINTENDENT: There are a number of adjectives I can use, angry, distraught, embarrassed.
KOCH: Methuen superintendent Phillip Littlefield, is calling for a national database of convictions and arrests to bolster the existing background check system for public and private schools.
LITTLEFIELD: There are holes in it. And I tell you, the bad guys are pretty good at finding out what those holes are and being able to slip through them.
KOCH: Back in Baltimore, the private school principal says she won't hire an ex-convict again. Charles Carroll says he is innocent. And is in jail awaiting trial. Cherri Reams, she still believes on second chances.
REAMS: I don't have a problem with it. I wake up every morning. OK, you're ready to school? They're comfortable. They don't feel it. God is watching over them.
KOCH: She still believes her children are safe here.
Kathleen Koch, CNN, Baltimore, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still to come on NEWSNIGHT tonight, neighbor shooting neighbor, self-defense or the work of a vigilante?
And later -- I got it. No, I do. A game of keep-away that became a movie about a baseball. A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In our "Security Watch" now, the home front. In a perfect world, only police would have guns, and they'd come when you need them. Instead, in this country, there are nearly 200 million handguns in circulation. There are bad guys in rough neighborhoods, and the cops can't be everywhere, so people learn to rely on themselves and sometimes on their guns, which may or may not make things any safer in the end or any simpler.
Reporting from Oakland, California, tonight, CNN's Frank Buckley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Police say residents in this neighborhood in North Oakland, California, are in the process of regaining it from drug dealers, and the family living in this home is right in the thick of it. Patrick and Daphne McCullough have lived here for 10 years, their 9-year-old son, since he was born.
Look out the front door, they say, and you can see drug dealers plying their trade. McCullough calls police to report them every time. A couple of years ago, one alleged dealer took offense and beat him up, in his own driveway.
PATRICK MCCULLOUGH, HOMEOWNER: So from that moment on, whenever I was going someplace at night, I made sure that, you know, I had a pistol nearby. I realize the police can't protect me. It's up to me to protect myself.
BUCKLEY: Which is what he claims he was doing one evening last February when he was getting into his car.
MCCULLOUGH: I hear this one voice says, there's the snitch. So I'm like, jeez, why? So I turned around, and there's this kid, and he's walking towards me. So I said, hey, boy, get out from in front of my house, and don't talk to me like that.
BUCKLEY: The boy, 17-year-old Melvin McHenry, who lives with his mother and three brothers and sisters, just a few houses away. The two came to blows, but as McHenry was walking away, McCullough says the teenager yelled for a gun and grabbed one from one of his friends.
MCCULLOUGH: And right when he puts his hand on it, I leveled my pistol and shot him right through the shoulder.
MELVIN MCHENRY, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: The bullet came on my back, grazed me and then came, entered right here and then came out right here.
BUCKLEY: The teenager was wounded. He disputes McCullough's story.
MCHENRY: He saw no gun in his eye. He didn't see nothing, hear nothing, about, something about, hand me a gun. He didn't hear nothing like that. He took it overboard and went to go get his gun.
BUCKLEY: McCullough was arrested. As the district attorney considered charging him, the police rallied to support him.
LT. LAWRENCE GREEN, OAKLAND POLICE DEPT.: I know Patrick McCullough. I know those -- the thugs involved, and I understand what the dynamics are of that neighborhood. So it's clear to me, after doing a little investigating, that Patrick McCullough was in the right and acted properly.
CROWD (CHANTING): Who's McCullough? Don't you see? Just another snitch for the O.P.D.
BUCKLEY: There have been demonstrations against McCullough. Melvin McHenry's family retained an attorney. Emotions, raw, on both sides.
MCCULLOUGH: I asked a question.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm asking you. Do you want to shoot me?
MCCULLOUGH: No. I would like to do something to you that you may not like, but that's not it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like what? Why would you like to do -- would you like to use physical force?
MCCULLOUGH: No. I'd like to (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
BUCKLEY: But last month, the district attorney's office cleared McCullough of any wrongdoing, and now police worry that he is a marked man. They've encouraged the family to move. But if McCullough was even considering pulling out, his wife Daphne set him straight when he came home one day to find this sign she put up in the window.
DAPHNE MCCULLOUGH, WIFE: We're not here to make any problems. We just want to live our lives, you know, do things with our son. Give him a good education and just live peacefully. I mean, but we're not going to stand back and let them dictate our lives or tell us what to do, and intimidate us.
BUCKLEY: Just up the street, there are boxes packed for a move. McHenry's mother has decided to take her family out of the neighborhood because, she says, she's afraid, of McCullough. What is your fear?
STACY HEGLER, MCHENRY'S MOTHER: That Patrick going to shoot another one of my kids if he don't shoot Melvin, and this time he may kill him.
BUCKLEY: McCullough says he shot the teenager in self-defense, and he has no regrets.
MCCULLOUGH: If other people are attacking you, they're wrong, not you, and you shouldn't flee. You should do whatever you have to do to stop the attack, and don't feel bad about it. I don't feel bad about what happened.
BUCKLEY: And, McCullough says, he'd do it again if he had to.
Frank Buckley, CNN, Oakland, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still ahead on the program, we'll check some of the other day's top stories, including a horrible roadside encounter. Believe it or not, it could have been a whole lot worse.
And later, the battle over a baseball. OK, a half million dollar baseball, but still a baseball. From the cheap seats, well, they're not that cheap actually, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: More than 1,600 Americans have now died in Iraq. No sign that there will be a troop drawdown any time soon.
In a moment, a documentary about baseball, sort of. It includes Barry Bonds and an actual baseball, and some fans who got into what would be called a custody fight.
First, at a quarter to the hour, almost, here's Erica Hill with the headlines -- Erica.
HILL: Thanks, Aaron.
Race has entered the battle in the Senate over President Bush's controversial judicial nominees. A group of black ministers held a news conference with Majority Leader Bill Frist and hinted the Democrats are opposed to putting a black woman on the federal appeals court. They are referring to the nomination of California Judge Janice Rogers Brown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: Some have suggested that she wants to take us back to the Civil War days.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
FRIST: That's a quote. Such talk is unnecessary, it is uncivil, it is unjust. And I pledge to all of you who are here today that I will do everything within my power to see that it stops.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: In the meantime, moderate senators from both parties are trying to reach a compromise. One possible deal would allow five of the seven contested nominees to come up for a vote, while preserving the right to use the filibuster in limited circumstances.
Some late word from the Michael Jackson trial. His former attorney Mark Geragos will be back in court tomorrow. Legal questions about his testimony last week need to be answered.
Meanwhile, testimony today from a friend of Jackson's accuser who told jurors the teen and his family never complained they were held against their will at Jackson's ranch, as prosecutors have alleged.
The newest "Star Wars" movie is playing in theaters only one day, and already word that illegal copies are circulating on the Internet. Reports say so many fans are trying to get a copy of "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," that it's actually taking up to 40 hours to download the movie even with a high speed connection. And a reminder, it's illegal.
Federal agents are trying to determine just who is behind the theft of data from Lexis-Nexis, the giant database service. They've searched at least 10 homes and have seized computers, but so far, no arrests have been made. Up to 300,000 people may have had their Social Security numbers stolen.
And finally for you, a moment caught on tape that every law man fears and that precious few ever walk away from. Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). Officer down! Officer down!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Incredible. A truck plowed into this officer on the side of the road. It all happened in Little Canada, Minnesota. A sheriff's deputy was helping a woman whose car was stuck in a ditch along Interstate 94. The deputy -- and this is amazing -- actually sustained only minor injuries. He was treated and sent home from a local hospital.
No matter how many times I see that, Aaron, I cannot believe that that man walked away.
BROWN: Well, I saw it three times, and I can't believe he walked away.
HILL: It's amazing. And the driver was apparently all right as well.
BROWN: Thank you.
I think I'm the only one here who knows where Little Canada, Minnesota, is.
HILL: You might be.
BROWN: Thank you, Ms. Hill.
By now, the story of Barry Bonds and anabolic steroids and whether he'll ever play ball again has sort of dominated the news. We put all that aside for now, along with what he thinks of the press and what the press thinks of him. Instead tonight, by way of a documentary film called "Up for Grabs," we take you back to a moment when Barry Bonds, sweetheart though he never was, was nonetheless, in big letters, the man.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WRANOVICS, DIRECTOR, "UP FOR GRABS": "Up for Grabs" is -- we're calling it a docu-comedy, which is its nature. It's a funny movie, but it is real. Basically, it starts with Barry Bonds hitting his 73rd home run of the 2001 season.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A floater to Bonds, and he hits it high.
GWEN KNAPP, SPORTSWRITER, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Catching a home run ball that's part of a record is sort of like winning the lottery, except you feel like you earned it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it is out of here!
WRANOVICS: News cameraman named Josh Koeppel (ph) had captured the action out there. The wild melee, and you know, he captured the ball entering one of these two guys' gloves. And then what happened after that, one guy, Patrick Hayashi, emerged from the pile holding up the ball, saying I've got it.
PATRICK HAYASHI: I've got it! I went down there (INAUDIBLE)! Yeah!
WRANOVICS: And then Alex Popov, another guy who was out in the stands and in the middle of that pile said...
ALEX POPOV: I catch it. The pile goes on top of me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then we start to realize that this is actually a bigger story than just this historic home run ball.
WRANOVICS: So we had this dispute that ended up leading to a legal case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why can't the two of you go in a room and resolve it?
POPOV: I would welcome the opportunity to do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Hayashi, do you want to work it out? Do you want to sit in a room -- do you want to sit in a room with Mr. Popov right now? He's made the offer.
HAYASHI: We've had settlement negotiations before.
POPOV: I look forward to going to trial.
WRANOVICS: Both of these gentlemen ended up in court over this baseball.
"Up for Grabs" is not a serious examination of who deserves the ball. Right from the beginning, I always saw this as potentially a satire, just how crazy things can get when people are trying to get rich quick and get their 15 minutes of fame. This is one of those interesting elements of the story was how seriously people were taking this and how much they loved talking about it, to the point where they'd be willing to talk to you about this ball even as they were in the middle of their work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's really put a lot of effort into this case, hoping to win the ball. Close, tap, tap, tap.
WRANOVICS: In a way, it is a statement about American society. Just 40 years earlier, Sal Durante -- he was a 19-year-old kid in New York...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There it is.
WRANOVICS: You know, Roger Maris hit number 61, breaking Babe Ruth's record.
SAL DURANTE: I reached as high as I could reach, and it was perfectly hit to me, hit the palm of my hand, knocked me into the next row.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you going to do with the ball?
DURANTE: I'm going to give it to Roger.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah?
DURANTE: That's what he wants.
WRANOVICS: It was his instinct at the time, it's just give the ball to Roger Maris.
A judge rules that the ball needs to be put under a restraining order and locked away in a safety deposit box in a bank, and then you've got a media circus around it. Then there were ball touching parties, complete with a security guard wearing white gloves.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't touch it.
WRANOVICS: And then the auction. How much is this ball going to be worth? Sal Durante actually -- he was invited to the auction. So he actually got to meet both of the litigants in this case. And, you know, he looked at it very differently than they did.
DURANTE: I'm sure everybody knows it was about the money. That's the way it is today.
WRANOVICS: It doesn't sum up America, but it definitely comments on one aspect of America in the beginning of the 21st century.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The ball brought nearly $500,000 at auction. A judge told the two men to split the cash.
Morning papers, all our own, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Okey-dokey. Time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. A leisurely walk through the headlines.
Washington Times starts it off. "U.S. Airways Bankrupt: America West to merge, new airline to be based in Arizona." But it's going to be called U.S. Airways, but it's going to be based where America West is.
Well, it's one less airline to lose your luggage. There you go. Stars and Stripes lead to military. "Soldier gets three years for groping children, incidents took place in Weisboden (ph)."
And then they have pictures of the new Army uniforms, which I think will be a little uncomfortable in the desert. But there they are.
"San Antonio Express News." Down here. I bet there's a better headline than this, but this is a big story. We should do this tomorrow, guys. "Stem Cells Taken From Clones. South Korean embryo technique avoids ethical complications." Though it probably creates all sorts of new ethical complications. "South Korean scientists have surmounted a key hurdle in stem cell research. They produced 11 human embryo clones." Anyway, it's a big science story. We'll all be talking about it tomorrow. And there you go.
"Des Moines Register" in Des Moines, Iowa. "New York investors to buy Maytag." Maytag, the appliance maker, big business in the state of Iowa. So that's a legit front page story. Something else I like.
Here in New York, "The New York Daily News." "No Stadium, No Games. U.S. Olympic boss warns." It's a big battle here in New York over whether to spend $600 million for a stadium for the New York Jets. And the dangle here is well, maybe we'll get the Olympic Games. Therefore, we ought to spend the dough.
And maybe we should. I'm not taking sides.
"Sana Rosa News" -- I'd like to get there, Sana Rosa, New Mexico. "Dive Into Summer." It's the theme for the Santa Rosa Days, 2005.
A couple stories from the "Chicago Sun Times." We always end on the sun times for no particular reason other than I like to. "Former Key GOP Aide Accused of Theft and Fraud." Down here -- I've been saying this for years. "Men Do More Chores Than Women Give Them Credit For." That would be like one, right?
The weather tomorrow in Chicago, my friends -- "A Hoot."
We'll wrap it up with one cool picture, I hope, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE; This week in history. In 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross in Washington D.C. She went on to head the organization for 23 years.
Amelia Earhart took to the sky on May 21st, 1932, to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
And Oliver Brown led the fight in what is now known as a judiciary landmark. The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Brown versus Board of Education case declared it was unconstitutional to separate educational facilities by race.
That is this week in history.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And this day in history -- give me this picture quickly. One of my favorite athletes, Reggie Miller, ended his career in Indiana today. Or tonight. They lost to the Pistons to end his career. He's 39-years-old. One of the great players of our time. We'll be with you again tomorrow, 10:00 Eastern time. Join us. Until then, good night for all of us.
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