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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Mercy Killings at New Orleans' Memorial Hospital?; Lewis Scooter Libby Appears in Court
Aired November 03, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening, everybody. Thanks so much for being with us.
Mysterious deaths at a New Orleans hospital -- tonight, yet a new account of what happened there. Were there mercy killings?
I'm Paula Zahn. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Tonight, African-American women bitterly upset about the way they're portrayed in hip-hop videos -- so, why do so many covet the chance to appear in them? Is it exploitation or a ticket to a better life?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you say hi?
ANNOUNCER: And man's best friend doesn't get better. Meet an honest-to-goodness four-legged hero, a lifesaver so humble, she will never say a word about the amazing thing she did.
Also tonight:
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know I don't look fat now, but I used to eat paper instead of food.
ANNOUNCER: The unbelievable story of a girl who very nearly starved herself at the age of 5.
This is NEWSNIGHT.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: First, though, here is a quick check of some of the stories we're following at this hour.
Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis Scooter Libby, has pleaded not guilty to five criminal charges stemming from the investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's name. The next hearing in the case will be in February.
The Senate Judiciary Committee says it will hold confirmation hearings in January for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. President Bush wanted Alito confirmed by December, but Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter says senators need more time to study Alito's judicial history. President Bush has arrived in Mar Del Plata, Argentina, for the fourth Summit of the Americas. Mr. Bush and 33 other leaders from the Western Hemisphere will meet tomorrow and Saturday to discuss economic development.
Right now, some new developments to report on a story we have been reporting on for several weeks now. CNN's investigative team has been digging into mysterious deaths at one New Orleans hospital in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and allegations that hospital staff discussed performing mercy killings on patients.
The Louisiana attorney general and other officials are investigating as well.
Tonight, CNN's Drew Griffin has found a new witness who was At Memorial Hospital and who says his mother almost died there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is the first time he has been back and the first time he has ever spoken about what happened at New Orleans' Memorial Hospital. Lionel Hall's mother was a stroke patient here during the hurricane. And, in the chaos that followed, he believes, if his mother had been left alone, she would have died.
(on camera): If you did not do what you did, if you left your mother in their -- quote, unquote -- "care," you are for certain she would be dead by now?
LIONEL HALL, SON OF FORMER MEMORIAL HOSPITAL PATIENT: One hundred percent, just like any of the other people that they found here dead.
GRIFFIN: And she is, today, 100 percent alive.
HALL: One hundred percent alive.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Artie Hall had a stroke weeks before Katrina and was being cared for in room 5128. As the hurricane approached, Lionel Hall says he came to the hospital determined to be with his mom. They survived the storm, but the aftermath, he says, nearly killed them both.
HALL: I believe the truth should be told, because it was a sad thing that happened here.
GRIFFIN: News spread quickly through the hospital, he said, that patients on life support were dying because there was no power. Panic crept in. Those who could get out did. But invalids, like his mother, had to stay behind. He says that, after a few days, hospital administrators said it was time for him to go.
HALL: So...
GRIFFIN (on camera): And they said specifically to you what? HALL: We want you to leave your mother with us. And, you guys, leave.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): A spokesman for Tenet Healthcare, which owns the hospital, said the staff performed heroically. While not addressing Lionel Hall specifically, the spokesman said people were encouraged to evacuate as transport became available.
Lionel Hall met Dr. Bryant King, a contracted doctor working inside Memorial. It was Dr. Bryant King, he says, who convinced him, if his mother stayed, she would die.
HALL: What he said to me was, "They are all going to burn in hell" -- his words to me. And he said, man, let's get your mother. Let's get her through a wall and let's get her out of here. And we proceeded to do so.
GRIFFIN: In exclusive interviews with CNN, it was Dr. Bryant King who first went public with allegations that some doctors and an administrator discussed putting patients out of their misery, performing mercy killings at Memorial in the aftermath of the storm. King says, an administrator suggested praying. And then there was this.
DR. BRYANT KING, MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: I looked around, and one of the other physicians -- not the one who had the conversation with me, but another, had a handful of syringes. I don't know what's in the syringes. I don't know what -- and the only thing I heard her say is: I'm going to give you something to make you feel better.
I don't know what she was going -- what she was going to give them. But we hadn't been giving -- we hadn't been giving medications like that to -- to make people feel better or any sort of palliative care or anything like that. We hadn't been doing that up to this point.
GRIFFIN: Lionel Hall left New Orleans' Memorial Hospital on Thursday, September 2. He and his mother were two of the last people to leave this hospital alive, he said. He's convinced, if he hadn't been here that day, his mother would be dead.
HALL: She would not be here, as well as some of the other people that were here alive when we left, and they were not when -- let's just say when America found out there were people here dead.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Forty-five patients were found dead at Memorial, Paula. The attorney general of Louisiana investigating to find out if some of them may have died as a result of euthanasia. And toxicology reports on the bodies of those patients are due back any day now.
ZAHN: Isn't the coroner of Orleans Parrish now telling us that that's going to be really difficult to prove, because so many of these bodies have decomposed so badly? That's going to be a huge challenge. GRIFFIN: And that -- that may be true, Paula, but a spokesman for the attorney general tonight says that this investigation is very active, very busy, and said, despite what the coroner said -- in fact, regardless of what the coroner said -- the attorney general plans to be able to try to answer the question of euthanasia with or without evidence from those bodies.
ZAHN: Drew Griffin, thank you so much for the update.
And we will continue to follow this story as it unfolds.
Now on to some other questions raised in the wake of Katrina -- be careful what you say or write, or your words may come back to haunt you. Perhaps no one knows this better tonight than Michael Brown, the embattled former director of FEMA.
Brown resigned under a crushing wave of criticism in the days after Katrina. And, today, another batch of e-mails that he exchanged as the catastrophe unfolded were made public. They were anything but flattering.
Jeanne Meserve has the rest of the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Monday, August 29, Hurricane Katrina has just ravaged New Orleans. Beginning at 9:36 in the morning, FEMA Director Michael Brown receives a series of e-mails reporting levee failures.
One FEMA staffer is hearing of severe flooding. Police report water level up to second floor of two-story houses. People are trapped in attics. Michael Brown's one-line response to all of this: "I'm being told here, water over, not a breach."
Democratic Congressman Charlie Melancon from Louisiana, who released the e-mails, says Brown's response shows he didn't grasp the dire situation.
REP. CHARLIE MELANCON (D), LOUISIANA: Topped or breach, it doesn't matter. Water is going over the top. There is another circumstance that needs to be addressed, and he should be asking for more information.
MESERVE: Brown receives a flurry of e-mails about shortages of water and ice. But there is no response in the e-mails that have so far been released. And when Marty Bahamonde, the lone FEMA representative in New Orleans, tells Brown the situation is past critical, Brown answers: "Thanks for the update. Anything specific I need to do or tweak?"
Brown does, however, answer e-mails about his appearance on television. When a staffer tells him, "You look fabulous," Brown responds: "I got it at Nordstrom's. Are you proud of me? Can I quit now? Can I come home?" and later calls himself "a fashion god."
Brown's lawyer says his client was doing his job and that there were phone calls and face-to-face meetings and many more e-mails.
ANDREW LESTER, ATTORNEY FOR FORMER FEMA DIRECTOR MICHAEL BROWN: We're looking at one tiny, tiny, tiny sliver of the information. To release that tiny sliver, the selective sliver that clearly was -- was released, it strikes me, designed to embarrass.
GRIFFIN (on camera): The House committee investigating Katrina would like to see more of that record, but says the administration has been slow to turn over all the other e-mails it has requested. The administration says, it's working on it.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And then, of course, after Katrina, came Rita, then Wilma, a devastating trifecta that has stretched relief agencies dangerously thin.
In Florida, nearly 157,000 victims of Wilma have now applied for housing assistance. Finding shelter for all of them has been a struggle. Resources are stretched so thin that an ordinary rainstorm can tip the balance.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN (voice-over): Juanita Beelik (ph) is trying to stay strong for her family. But their uncertain future makes it hard, very hard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's confusing. It's upsetting. I mean, the not knowing is the worst part. That's the worst part.
ZAHN: The Beeliks (ph) thought they had made it through the hurricane season. Wilma caused a few leaks in their Fort Lauderdale apartment that they had just rented just two weeks ago. But it was nothing major, nothing they couldn't fix.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We felt like we were on top of the world. We got through this and we are -- everything is great.
ZAHN: But then Tuesday's rainstorm, not a hurricane, just a normal heavy Florida rain, caused the ceiling in two rooms to collapse, buried all their belongings in Sheetrock and water, and sent the family into the streets looking for shelter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My husband and I work paycheck to paycheck. I make $7 an hour. My husband makes $7.25. It's not easy. We have nothing left.
ZAHN: After searching for a hotel room for hours, with no luck, Juanita (ph), her husband, mother and her three children had to make do at a shelter. In Arthur Ashe Middle School, with about 50 other people, the Beeliks (ph) sleep on cots in the gym.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's no privacy. It's loud. It's very humiliating. Yes. ZAHN: They play cards and read, anything to distract the children. But, sometimes, the children just can't be fooled.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He says, when are we going home? He saw the pictures and he said: Mommy, look at our house. It's ruined.
How you doing, baby? Hi.
ZAHN: Juanita has been given a few days off from her job managing a restaurant. She watches her kids, while her husband works at a fast-food place. In the meantime, she tries to get some answers on where they will go next. But neither FEMA, nor the Red Cross, have come up with a real solution. And she worries that a short-term emergency is turning into a long-term crisis.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where do we go from here? School is going to be open next week. Where are we going? And they said, don't worry. We will cross that bridge when we get to it.
ZAHN: Although the Beeliks (ph) are uncertain of what the future holds, Juanita (ph) is determined.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to get through this. You know, God has never put anything in my hands that I couldn't handle, that I couldn't deal with. So, as long as we have each other, we're going to be OK.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: What a great attitude.
And, tonight, we're happy to report, things are looking up a bit for the Beelik (ph) family. Just a few hours ago, the Red Cross found them another temporary shelter in a school that will not open for classes any time soon.
Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: The vice president's former right- hand man goes to court. What happened today, and what does this mean for the White House?
Plus, walking the thin line -- a shocking problem, children not eating, getting dangerously sick just to even look thin.
And a little bit later on:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, that's my good girl. Yes, it's my good girl.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, it's my good girl. Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ZAHN: And, Honey (ph) there is more than just a good dog. She happens to be a lifesaver. You're not going to believe what she did. And she was basically brand-new to her owner.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: And we're back at just about 16 minutes past the hour, give or take a second or two -- time for an update now on the news headlines from Erica Hill in Atlanta.
Hi, Erica.
ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Paula. Good to see you.
This is one definitely getting a lot of attention today, round two in the legal battle over Vioxx. And, this time, it is a victory for drugmaker Merck. A New Jersey jury found Merck did not mislead consumers about the dangers of using the painkiller. You may recall, just two months ago, a Texas jury found the pharmaceutical giant liable in a Vioxx user's death and awarded his wife $253 million. Merck is appealing that verdict. The company still faces more than 6,000 lawsuits over Vioxx.
The son of Miami's police chief has been arrested for allegedly trying to buy 4,000 pounds of marijuana from an undercover federal agent. Officials claim the 25-year-old gave the agent a gym bag with $450,000 in cash. His dad has declined to comment, saying it is a private family matter.
Fourteen people are injured, two of them seriously, after a school bus rolled over in Texas this evening. The bus was carrying high school J.V. football players. The seriously injured were airlifted to hospitals Dallas.
And a new judge has now been chosen to try the criminal case against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court picked Pat Priest of San Antonio to preside. The original judge in the case was recused because of his contributions to Democratic organizations. And the district judge who was assigned to pick his replacement stepped aside because of his ties to Republicans -- a lot of stuff going on there.
(LAUGHTER)
ZAHN: There certainly is, a whirl of news.
Thanks so much, Erica.
And, just last week, Lewis Scooter Libby was one of the most powerful people in our nation's capital, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff. Well, today, Scooter Libby was simply a defendant.
On crutches because of a recent foot injury, he appeared before a judge in Washington, no longer part of the administration, no longer able to stay behind the scenes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN (voice-over): Flanked by his lawyers, dogged by reporters and photographers, Lewis Scooter Libby headed into U.S. district court in Washington this morning to answer the charges against him, charges filed last week in an indictment by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.
QUESTION: Mr. Libby, it's your day in court. How do you feel?
ZAHN: Libby is facing one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury, and two counts of making false statement to investigators in connection with the investigation into the leak of a CIA covert agent's identity.
Libby pleaded not guilty to all five counts. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 130 years in prison and more than $1 million in fines. The former chief of staff and national security adviser to Vice President Cheney was known for his discretion while in office. He has not spoken publicly about his indictment since it was handed down. And that didn't change today. Instead, his attorney spoke for him.
TED WELLS, ATTORNEY FOR LEWIS SCOOTER LIBBY: He has declared that he intends to fight the charges in the indictment. And he has declared that he wants to clear his good name.
ZAHN: Libby was released without bail.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Scooter Libby was so close to Vice President Cheney that some consists suspect the V.P. may have had something to do with the leak.
Well, today, three Democratic congressmen urged the vice president to testify on Capitol Hill, citing -- quote -- "many wide- ranging questions about his involvement."
CNN chief national correspondent John King examines the Cheney connection.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The case against Scooter Libby is a trial, of sorts, for his former boss, as well.
JAMES THURBER, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: The vice president has been very close to this president. He's been a stealthy leader behind the scenes. He's now out in front of the media, which hurts him, because that's not his style. It will hurt, therefore, the president.
KING: In the Libby indictment, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald alleges the vice president was among the first to tell Libby administration critic Joe Wilson's wife worked at the CIA.
And on a July 12, 2003, flight with Cheney and other officials, Libby sought advice on how to deal with questions about Wilson, and that, later that same day, Libby discussed Wilson and his wife with two reporters.
THURBER: I think the vice president will claim executive privilege and try not to appear in court. But, if he does appear in court, it is likely to draw him even closer to this controversy.
KING: Cheney's role in this administration has always been controversial -- a defender of presidential powers, whether the issue be his secretive energy task force, or resisting outside investigations into the 9/11 attacks, and Iraq war intelligence failures -- the leading advocate of toppling Saddam Hussein.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The issue is that he is pursuing nuclear weapons.
KING: Former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft says the vice president is a changed man -- for the worse: "I consider Cheney a good friend. I've known for him 30 years," Scowcroft told "The New Yorker," "a Dick Cheney I don't know anymore."
SEN. TRENT LOTT (R), MISSISSIPPI: I've known him quite well since our days in the House together in the late '70s.
KING: Senator Trent Lott scoffs at talk his friend the vice president has changed, and at talk Cheney is now a liability and will lose some of his unrivaled West Wing influence.
LOTT: I think the president relies on him, and I sleep better every night knowing that Dick Cheney is serving as vice president of the United States. That role will not diminish, because it's too vital a role. It's too critical.
KING: But Democrats see an opening, criticizing Cheney in this letter for promoting two deputies to fill Libby's role. "Instead of cleaning house," the Democratic senators wrote, "you simply rearranged some of the furniture."
The prospect of an election-year trial focusing on the vice president's office has some in Washington whispering, perhaps, Cheney will step, or be nudged, aside. Not a chance, say those who know the relationship.
NICK CALIO, FORMER BUSH ADVISER: No. If you know him, and if you know the president, the answer is flat-out no. And that's, you know, one of the great secondary sports in Washington, is, you know, speculation about the vice president resigning for one reason or another. It won't happen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Now, as for those Democrats on Capitol Hill saying the vice president should answer questions before the Congress, Paula, don't hold your breath.
But it does spotlight one of the problems. One of the vice president's role is to speak publicly for the administration, sometimes to go on the Sunday talk shows, other television interviews, to advocate the president's proposals. Aides says, he's restricted in doing that right now, because he can't answer the tough questions about Libby indictment. But they do say they're trying to find a venue to get him out to answer those questions, not right away, but they do say perhaps soon.
ZAHN: I can think of a couple of different venues here, John King.
(LAUGHTER)
ZAHN: Eight o'clock...
KING: We have...
ZAHN: ... would work.
KING: We have offered it up.
(LAUGHTER)
ZAHN: All right. Appreciate it.
And I'm joined now by CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.
(CROSSTALK)
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: You -- you don't have Dick Cheney, but you have me. I know it's...
(LAUGHTER)
ZAHN: Well...
(LAUGHTER)
ZAHN: I will settle for -- for second best here tonight.
We just heard John King reporting that -- that -- quote -- "Don't hold your breath" for the president to come testify before Congress.
But what are the chances, if this ends up in a trial, that -- that Libby will sell out the vice president?
TOOBIN: Well, I -- I think, if he was going to sell him out, he would have done it already. If he was going to cut a deal, where he was going to flip on the vice president, usually, that's done before an indictment.
I -- I don't really see that either Libby -- Scooter Libby -- has any inclination to sell out his -- his former boss or that he has any evidence that Patrick Fitzgerald would use to build some sort of case against Dick Cheney. So, I -- I think that train has left the station. There's -- there's just -- I don't think any deal is going to happen.
ZAHN: You really don't? Because I have talked with a couple of people today who suggest there is some kind of pressure being put on him to do just that.
TOOBIN: Well, undoubtedly, there is pressure. And -- and there's an incentive. A lower-level person can always get a better deal if they're going to flip.
But, usually, that's done before an indictment, and that -- those negotiations, if they took place, had to have -- had to have gone on. If they didn't happen yet, I don't think they're going to happen.
ZAHN: So, Mr. Libby has brought in a new attorney who is widely considered to be a hot shot and very effective.
TOOBIN: He's certainly considered that way by me. I think he's great...
ZAHN: And...
TOOBIN: Ted Wells, yes.
ZAHN: And he's telegraphing a strategy of a defense of: Look, he's a very busy man. How could he possibly remember every single conversation he ever had with every reporter?
TOOBIN: Right. And...
ZAHN: Does that -- will that work?
TOOBIN: It might, because perjury means -- all the charges here, perjury, obstruction, false statement, they're intent crimes. You have to intend to tell a false statement.
If you simply make a mistake in good faith, you're innocent. And given the fact that he's -- he's a busy guy, that is not an -- a totally implausible defense. It all depends on how the evidence comes out in court.
ZAHN: I know you're not a gambling kind of guy. But, very briefly, in closing, what are the chances this ends up going to trial?
TOOBIN: I would think high. I would put...
ZAHN: You really do?
TOOBIN: Oh, yes. I would say over 75 percent.
What was interesting about today's court hearing is that it's very -- clearly, on a very slow track. The parties are not even going to be in court until February, lots of issues about classified information, motions. I would be surprised -- mid-2006 is the earliest, probably the fall of 2006, for a trial to start. (CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: And I have just written down the 75 percent prediction.
TOOBIN: Yes. See, that's -- that's such a weasel. I -- I can't be wrong.
(LAUGHTER)
ZAHN: Change it then.
TOOBIN: That's great. No, no, no. That's all right.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: ... right now. All right, he's going to stick with the 75 percent.
Jeffrey Toobin...
TOOBIN: OK.
ZAHN: ... always great to have your insights.
Coming up, catching a criminal decades after the crime -- the sophisticated technology that's extending the long arm of the law.
And torment by an eating disorder at a shockingly young age, the age of 5 -- this woman you see in the blue T-shirt, who is -- you know, 5 years old. We're going to hear about her testimony of hell.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: British Prime Minister William Gladstone once said, justice delayed is justice denied. And that may have been true back in the 19th century. But now that DNA evidence can solve crime decades after the fact, it can be justice finally obtained.
This is the story of a woman who was violated half-a-lifetime ago. In her case, justice was delayed for a very long time, but it may not be denied. She and the man accused of attacking her faced one another today in court.
Here's Deborah Feyerick's report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For more than 30 years, police and investigators have waited for this day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Warrants were issued for his arrest.
FEYERICK: The arrest of the man who allegedly terrorized women in the late '80s and early '90s.
LIEUTENANT PHILIP RAUM, MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT: He would break into residences, whether they be private residences or apartment residences, either through an unlocked window or an unlocked door.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a relatively tight geographical area.
FEYERICK: The serial rapes, some two dozen of them, happened in a Maryland suburb just outside Washington, D.C.
Lieutenant Philip Raum spent countless hours hunting a person known only as the Silver Spring rapist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We looked at over 2,000 suspects in the case and did not come up with anyone we thought was really a viable suspect.
FEYERICK: Last September, the viable suspect made a big mistake. Commander Jeffrey Kato (ph) runs the Sheriff's Fugitive Task Force in DeKalb County, Georgia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the subject went to purchase a weapon.
FEYERICK: When Fletcher Anderson Worrell (ph) who used the alias Clarence Williams, tried to buy a gun here, the storeowner ran a background check. Out came an arrest warrant dated 1977.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For charges of attempted murder, rape, and robbery.
PHILLIPS: In the '70s, Williams had been tried twice in New York City for rape and attempted rape.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The case resulted in a hung jury. He then absconded, ran away, before he could be retried, and nobody knew where he was.
FEYERICK: No one, it seems, followed up after Williams fled. His file was moved to a warehouse and forgotten. Yet, in trying to buy that gun, Fletcher Worrell, AKA Clarence Williams had come out into the open.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this is where Fletcher Anderson Worrell was arrested and resided at the time of his arrest.
FEYERICK: Commander Kato's deputies arrested him last September.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His demeanor was pretty calm. In fact, he made a statement, I thought this matter was resolved. So it was obvious to us that he knew why we were there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What truly amazes me, though, is...
FEYERICK: Back in New York City Martha Dashford (ph) and Melissa Morges (ph) got the kind of call they dream about. Both are special investigators with the Manhattan district attorney's DNA cold case squad. They immediately pulled Williams' long forgotten file. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Looking through it, I found some of the evidence that had been admitted into the trial, photographs, fingerprints, money and then in the very last envelope a pair of underpants.
FEYERICK: Underpants that had not been tested back in 1973, because DNA sampling didn't exist.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The first thing I did was call one of the detectives we work with and said, I don't care what you're doing, come down here now and collect these and take these up to the medical examiner.
FEYERICK: At the medical examiner's office, forensic expert Mary Quigg (ph) was skeptical.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We automatically thought it would be a challenge because they were so old and the DNA may have degraded.
FEYERICK: But when she and her team looked closely, what they saw gave them hope.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We tested a portion of the stains that we saw in the panties for semen.
FEYERICK: The DNA from 1973 was almost intact and they had a match.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The probability of seeing that come from another individual was one in greater than a trillion.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And Williams was the key suspect. Armed with that DNA sample, Quigg contacted the FBI's national DNA database.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a match between Mr. Williams and the piece of evidence.
FEYERICK: And it wasn't just one match but a dozen, spread through Maryland, New York, and New Jersey.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were just astonished at how many cases were linked to each other, that had never been suspected as being part of a pattern.
FEYERICK: Morges phoned police in Silver Spring.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I told him: no, we have got the guy, we have him on Riker's Island, he is in a jail cell; he was ecstatic.
FEYERICK: For Lieutenant Phillip Brown, it was finally time to tell the victims they had someone in custody.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The general response from almost all of them was, oh, my gosh, I can't believe, after all these years, you're still investigating this case. FEYERICK (on camera): Williams has already entered not guilty pleas in the two rape cases. Prosecutors in New Jersey Maryland are working to bring their own charges and several victims say they plan to testify.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's ironic, but the case against him is much stronger now because we have the DNA evidence than it was back the day that it happened when we had to rely on eyewitness testimony.
FEYERICK (voice-over): And what if he hadn't tried buy the gun? Chances are good his file would still be sitting in that warehouse, and Fletcher Worrell, AKA Clarence Williams, might still be out there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Deborah Feyerick reporting tonight.
Coming up, the heartbreak of anorexia, why some kids will risk anything to be thin, including their lives.
And also meet the girls of hip-hop. Are they being exploited or exploiting an opportunity? We're going to see both sides as NEWSNIGHT continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: We all hope to spare our children all of life's really serious problems but far too often we can't, and sometimes most shockingly they bring serious problems on themselves. This is a story of a child who nearly died because she wouldn't eat enough to survive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JUSTINE GALLAGHER, RECOVERING ANOREXIC: This is the story of about how I used to have a really bad eating disorder.
ZAHN (voice-over): Justine Gallagher began starving herself when she was just 5 years old.
J. GALLAGHER: I would think, I can't eat, I can't eat, I can't eat.
ZAHN: What could possibly make such a young girl stop eating?
J. GALLAGHER: A lot of boys in my class said that I was fat and stuff.
ZAHN: Justine's weight was healthy. But in her baby pictures, she thought she looked chubby. The teasing and the picture made her self-conscious, plus, her mother, like millions of others, struggled with her weight and talked about it, about feeling fat and about dieting. Yvonne didn't realize that her 5-year-old daughter Justine was listening.
YVONNE GALLAGHER, MOTHER OF 5-YEAR-OLD ANOREXIC: I was in the house saying, oh, I'm fat, I have to lose a few pounds, I can't eat this, I can't eat that. I have to watch myself. She internalized that she was also heavy.
ZAHN (on camera): But it's so unusual for a kid that age, because, you know, so much of the world is egocentric, it's all about themselves.
Y. GALLAGHER: I think it depends upon the child too. I think there are some that are ultra sensitive and feed off other people's feelings in the household, too.
ZAHN (voice-over): Hard to believe, but this adorable healthy normal weight child stopped eating all together. When the hunger pains got too bad, the only way she could deal with them was to find a food substitute.
J. GALLAGHER: I know I don't look fat now. But I used to eat paper instead of food.
ZAHN: Yes. Justine ate paper, her school work, anything she could get her hands on.
Y. GALLAGHER: We didn't even realize at that point why she was doing it, or if she really knew herself why she was doing it.
ZAHN: By the age of 6, Justine weighed just 32 pounds, the size of a 3-year-old. Her concerned mother took her to three different pediatricians.
Y. GALLAGHER: They told me it was a phase. They told me she was doing it for attention. They told me if she's hungry, she'll eat. The problem was she didn't. She was getting thinner. She would be next to her cousin who was a toddler and my niece's arms were bigger than Justine's.
ZAHN: Her frail body started to break down. This once healthy child developed bronchitis. Desperate, Yvonne turned to her boss, a psychologist who recommended this man, Ira Sacker an eating disorder specialist and author of "Dying to be Thin."
DR. IRA SACKER, AUTHOR, "DYING TO BE THIN": I had never seen a case like Justine's in all of the work that I have done on eating disorders. She was headed right down this cascading road and Justice would have died.
ZAHN: His treatment plan started traditionally with therapy and a nutritionist. But given Justine's novel case, Dr. Sacker decided to try something very different, photo-video therapy. He introduced Justine to photographer Ellen Fisher Turk. Turk photographs or videotapes patients and then has them write diaries about what they see.
ELLEN FISHER TURK, PHOTOGRAPHER: Image is potent for shifting how we see ourselves. We think we're one way and when we are reflected back, we see something else.
ZAHN: In Justine's case, Turk made a documentary, in which Justine spoke of her eating disorder in her own words. J. GALLAGHER: The top of blanket in my room, it's chewed.
ZAHN: Even reenacting some of her destructive behavior.
J. GALLAGHER: I used to bite pencil erasers off and I used to eat them.
ZAHN: For the first time this child and her family saw how skinny, how frail, how sick she really was.
SACKER: timing is really important, because early on, OK, if I take a picture of somebody who has lost all this weight and they look at that and they look at skin and bones, oftentimes that doesn't empower them into anything other than, wow, I'm really skinny, I'm feeling really good about it. But at the right moment in time, once they see that, it makes treatment, OK, much more effective at that moment.
ZAHN: For Justine, it was at the right moment. This is Justine today. She learned, through a combination of therapies, how to accept food and accept herself, growing stronger and reaching a more normal weight.
J. GALLAGHER: I'm a normal teenager, basically happy. I think that I'm a pretty good weight now.
ZAHN (on camera): How scary was it for you to see this videotape of yourself when you were so painfully fragile and thin?
J. GALLAGHER: It just -- sometimes it makes me sick to my stomach to see like how thin I was. And sometimes I'll look at certain parts of it sometimes. And when I'm feeling down on myself, like feeling like I don't want to eat, I'll look at that and I'll be like, never mind, I don't want to pull back to that again.
ZAHN (voice-over): Now 13 years old, Justine has just started high school, with its pressure to be popular and pretty.
J. GALLAGHER (singing): I used to think I had the answers to everything.
ZAHN: But this young woman seems armed with knowledge and strength far beyond her years.
J. GALLAGHER: There's always going to be part of you that seems like it's attached to the eating disorder, it's kind of like having a twin, like the anorexia is your twin and you have to -- like, you need your space. And like it's something like that's a part of you.
ZAHN (on camera): But that twin hasn't been hanging around you, has she?
J. GALLAGHER: No.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ZAHN: It has been a hard fight for her to win that newfound sense of strength. That was just one segment from my special broadcast, "Walking the Thin Line." You can see it in its entirety this Sunday, November 6th, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., repeating again from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m..
Coming up on NEWSNIGHT...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, you're my baby, aren't you? You're my baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: You may never have seen a life-saving story quite like this one, the star of which can sit, stay and go for help.
And if hip-hop videos strike some in the African-American community as downright degrading to women, why are so many young women lining up for the cameras?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Have you ever wondered what all those people are listening to on their iPods? Well, the odds are pretty good that much of it is hip-hop, rap, the best-selling music in the country, best-selling but not universally approved, especially not among those who think it degrades and humiliates them. And that is exactly how many young African-American women feel. There is, however, another side to the story.
Jason Carroll reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In many way, Celestina Henry is a typical college student. She is an English major at Temple University, and when she's not studying or dancing, she's teaching ballet at a children's center in her community. She herself has been a dancer since she was 5. But there's another side to Celestina, one that, well, you be the judge.
(MUSIC VIDEO)
CELESTINA HENRY, PERFORMER: I never had any aspirations to be in a video. I had aspirations to be a dancer, aspirations to be an actress. And I thought about different ways of getting exposure.
CARROLL: Exposure she got. Her father was concerned at first but also supportive.
JAY HENRY, CELESTINA'S FATHER: There's one scene in it that, you know, as a father I don't necessarily need to see her in her lingerie or underclothing, but, you know, it's a video. I've seen the videos, and compared to what I've seen, that was mild. CARROLL: If that was mild, here's a look at the wilder side of hip-hop videos.
(MUSIC VIDEOS)
CARROLL: Critics say the videos promote a negative image of black women, going as far as to say they foster misogynistic ideas and calling some of them "porn for beginners." Celestina, one of the girls behind the music, says that's not what video girls are all about. She said she won't do anything too suggestive, that hip-hop videos can actually open doors for all types of women.
C. HENRY: There's this idea that black women are not attractive unless they're 100 pounds or they have to be a certain build, a certain size, a certain color, you know. And I feel that music videos embrace many different women of color.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You understand that this is not just a beauty role.
CARROLL: Her casting director sees hip-hop as an opportunity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do wish that black women could be seen in a different light, maybe not as sexual. To be seen for, you know, their intellectual side, for their fashion sense, for their sense of personality. But I guess right now, it's better to have something than nothing. You have to start somewhere.
CARROLL (on camera): But the sexual images are so powerful, so pervasive, one former video performer says they can even corrupt the women in the videos.
KARRINE STEFFANS, AUTHOR, "CONFESSIONS OF A VIDEO VIXEN": It's your fault when you're treated poorly because you project a poor image of yourself.
CARROLL: Karrine Steffans says she should know. She is a former video performer who says she started behaving like the promiscuous women she portrayed in the videos. Steffans even wrote a book about her sexual exploits. And while on a racy magazine shoot, she warned about the down side of doing what she did and what she does, selling her sexuality.
STEFFANS: They've been video girls. And so you're not going to be taken seriously. If you want to be taken seriously, get an education and get a job that utilizes your brain and not your body.
MELYSSA FORD, PERFORMER: She's one individual who made her own choices.
CARROLL: Unlike Karrine, Melyssa Ford got herself into the kind of hip-hop videos that make careers. She used it to launch another career, in her case, broadcasting.
FORD: The majority of girls that you see are not portraying the image of who they really are. They're being sexy for the camera. But they go home and they're regular people.
CARROLL: And while she believes the public is savvy enough to separate images in videos from the real thing, she wouldn't feel comfortable doing them these days.
FORD: My plan A has always been this.
(POINTS TO HEAD)
FORD: It has never been this.
(INDICATES FACE)
CARROLL: But for Celestina, still waiting for her big break, her advice to women hoping to break into hip-hop videos...
C. HENRY: Women need to make sure that they stay true to themselves. And that's the biggest thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're walking toward the camera, you know, real sexy, provocative.
CARROLL: It's also one of the most difficult things to come to terms with, using videos as steppingstone but at the cost of creating an image that may be tough to erase.
Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And we're just about nine minutes before the top of the hour, time for an update on the news headlines. Here's Erica Hill in Atlanta -- Erica.
HILL: Hi, again, Paula. The death toll in Iraq now stands at 2,037, this is after a U.S. soldier was killed today by a homemade bomb. The U.S. military, meantime, says it is taking steps to combat the increasingly common weapon known as improvised explosive devices, a three-star general has been put in charge of investigating the problem.
Also in Iraq, some new information today about a helicopter crash yesterday near Ramadi that killed two U.S. Marines. Witnesses believe they saw shots fired at the aircraft from the ground. The U.S. warplane later dropped two bombs on a suspected insurgent base near the crash site.
A Texas death row inmate is headed back behind bars after escaping from a Houston jail. The inmate dressed in civilian clothes and used an ID card that said he worked for the attorney general's office. Charles Thompson, convicted of two murders, was re-sentenced to death when he escaped.
And Republican Senator John McCain says he'll decide next year whether to run for president in 2008. Senator McCain told CNN's Larry King, he will wait until after the 2006 mid-term elections before deciding, Paula. So not a no but not quite a yes.
ZAHN: That was quite a dance they had on the air tonight to try to get that answer.
HILL: It was not an easy answer to get.
ZAHN: Yes, exactly. Thanks so much.
Still to come on NEWSNIGHT tonight, a hero's tale that's a tail. That's tail, T-A-I-L, the story of a spaniel that was told to fetch and help, and he did.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: All right. You know that a dog is man's best friend. The story of Honey the dog proves it.
Here's Ted Rowlands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a Northern California hospital, Michael Bosch had a very special visitor this morning, who he says saved his life.
MICHAEL BOSCH, PUPPY OWNER: Hi, Honey. Hello, Honey. Come here, baby. Come here. Come here to me.
ROWLANDS: Honey, a 5-month-old Cocker Spaniel was with Michael Monday morning when he plunged 50 feet down his hillside driveway in an SUV.
BOSCH: When we got into the soft soil, it just started to tip. And I knew I was in trouble.
ROWLANDS: The SUV hit a tree. Michael and Honey were trapped, pinned inside, hanging upside down in a remote area on private land.
BOSCH: I sort of went through my mind, who is going to find me on 70 acres?
ROWLANDS: Michael, who suffered a heart attack in August, said his heart was racing. He says he took a nitroglycerin pill to calm himself down. Then, he saw a hole in a smashed window big enough for Honey to get through.
BOSCH: I saw the opening. And I said, Honey, you've got to go home. And I pushed her out there and scurried her up the hill.
ROWLANDS: Michael then waited, hoping he could stay alive until someone could find him.
BOSCH: My only hope was that dog.
ROWLANDS: Six hours later, now evening, a quarter mile away Robin Allen came home from work and found Honey in her driveway. ROBIN ALLEN, NEIGHBOR: She wanted to get my attention. There's no question about that.
ROWLANDS: Robin had never seen Honey, but the phone number on Honey's tag was Michael's, so she drove the puppy home. When she opened her car door, she could hear Michael yelling.
ALLEN: And then I realized he was yelling help.
ROWLANDS: It took rescue crews 45 minutes to get Michael out of the SUV and pull him up the hillside. With major injuries to his chest and legs, Michael was rushed to a waiting medical helicopter.
Michael only adopted Honey two weeks ago from this Northern California pet shelter. He had been coming here looking for the right dog for more than a year and immediately spotted Honey two days after she arrived.
CAROL WILLIAMS-SKAGGS, MARIN CO. HUMANE SOCIETY: I think she was just meant to be his. I think that she worked her way here for that reason.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a match made in heaven.
BOSCH: Yes. You're my baby, aren't you?
ROWLANDS: Despite five broken ribs and limited feeling in one of his legs, Michael says being reunited with Honey is already making him feel better.
BOSCH: She's never leaving my side again. I'll tell you that. That dog saved my life.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, San Rafael, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: I think Honey deserves about 400 biscuits a day for her valor. Thanks so much for joining us.
Still to come though on the second part of our show tonight, from terror strikes to natural disasters, are we really prepared? A NEWSNIGHT special coming up.
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