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Group of 20 Meets in Cannes; Herman Cain's Sexual Harassment Case; Explaining the 'G' Summits; Judge Admits Beating Daughter; School Cheating Scandals; Talk Back Question

Aired November 03, 2011 - 12:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Top of the hour. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Let's get you up to speed.

Greece is the word that's affecting the markets and your money today. Investors are watching the financial and political drama play out in Greece and the rest of Europe. Stocks are up after the European Central Bank's decision to cut interest rates, but the uncertainty in Greece is keeping investors on edge.

On a positive note, the prime minister of Greece is now backing off plans to hold a public vote on the European debt deal. The opposition party has agreed on the need for austerity measures to deal with the country's financial crisis.

Presidential candidate Herman Cain blames the campaign of a Republican rival for his current troubles. Cain is fending off allegations of sexual harassment during his tenure at the National Restaurant Association. He denies he sexually harassed anyone and accuses a consultant to Rick Perry's campaign of leaking the story.

The consultant says it wasn't him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CURT ANDERSON, PERRY SENIOR CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT: There's two problems with that. One is, I didn't know anything about this, and so it's hard to leak something that you don't know anything about, of course.

The second problem with it is this -- if someone tells you something in confidence, a family member, a friend, a candidate, a client, and then you go out and blab it to other people, that's just unethical and that's not the way I live my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Meantime, the smoke has cleared over Oakland, California, after a violent confrontation between Occupy Oakland protesters and police. Police say they fired tear gas on several hundred people who were throwing rocks and shooting fireworks at officers. The violence last night followed a general strike that shut down some businesses and the port of Oakland.

"Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!" That was their chant as anti-Wall Street demonstrators marched outside a Seattle hotel last night.

The CEO of JPMorgan Chase was speaking at an event inside. And then later, things got ugly after a shoving match broke out. Police used pepper spray on some of the demonstrators.

New violence in Syria a day after the government promised to end its crackdown on protesters. Activists say four people were killed in neighborhoods and homes. CNN can't independently verify the reports because of restrictions on news organizations. Just yesterday, the government of President Bashar al-Assad agreed to stop all violence to protect Syrian citizens.

And Condoleezza Rice says it was "weird" and a bit "creepy" that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi had a crush on her. During the uprising, Libyan rebels found a photo album with pictures of Rice in Gadhafi's compound.

Rice says during a visit to Libya, Gadhafi played a video montage of her set to music. She tells Piers Morgan that she was relieved the video wasn't raunchy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, FMR. SECRETARY OF STATE: It was my job to go there, do a little bit of diplomatic business, and get out. And so that's what I did. But I have to say, I did have that terrible moment when he said that he had the videotape. I am just glad that it all came out all right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Meantime, overseas, the G-20 summit is under way in France. The big focus, however, is Greece and the hard-won deal to rescue its economy.

Ali Velshi joins us now from Cannes. Jim Boulden is standing by in Athens.

So, Ali, all the surprise developments coming from Greece have thrown G-20 leaders into full-on crisis mode, but maybe they are a little relieved to hear that Greece, or at least Papandreou, is having second thoughts.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I've got to say, Fred, either you've been anchoring for about 12 hours, or this has been the busiest couple of hours that I've been involved in reporting in a long time, because it looks like a collective sigh of relief is being breathed here at the G-20.

Jim would know better as to how definite these new rumors are, but we've been living on rumors, basically, for the last 18 hours. And now the rumor is -- or the report is -- that Papandreou is going to pull back off of the idea of a referendum of the Greek people on this European bailout situation because he's getting support from one of the opposition parties.

And what that's done is it's -- there just hasn't been the attention at the G-20 on the things that the G-20 is supposed to be about, because President Obama got here this morning, all the other world leaders arrived, Angela Merkel from German, and the host country, France, President Sarkozy, were here last night. They had a big talking to with Papandreou here at G-20, and it looks like everybody's been focused on Greece. Because if Greece, which is only the 32nd largest economy in the world, if Greece were to mess this whole thing up, it could throw Europe back into some kind of a recession, and could have an impact on the rest of the world, on markets, on the ability to get a loan, and on jobs, because European demand would shrink and American products and services would be in lower demand.

So there's a sense that they came here to discuss global growth and regulation, and that was sort of set off track. There's a bit of a collective sigh of relief that maybe things are going to get back on track in Greece again, and the G-20 can get down to the business they were actually supposed to do.

So, definitely, things feeling a lot calmer than they were just an hour ago -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. OK. Well, we'll see what happens next time we speak, because there could be yet another development.

VELSHI: Yes, let's see.

WHITFIELD: All right. Ali Velshi, thanks so much.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's go to Athens, Greece, and find out what the latest might be. Let's check in with our Jim Boulden. He's there.

So, can you try and clarify for us whether the prime minister will set this referendum in place or whether indeed he has backed off that?

JIM BOULDEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, what's happening right now is the prime minister is speaking to his party in the parliament building right behind me. Literally, he is on national television explaining to his party and to the people exactly what he's going to do.

He's been talking for about 10 minutes. We have not heard him yet say exactly what's going to happen to the referendum, but what has been coming out in the last few minutes, it seems to be that he's trying to create some sort of national coalition government with the opposition parties, and that the idea then would be that there wouldn't be a need for a referendum. But we're still waiting for a confirm from him, specifically whether or not he wants to go ahead with that referendum.

If he doesn't go ahead with that, then that means that the opposition party has agreed with him that all these very tough, painful austerity measures must be pushed through parliament. He has a wafer-thin majority of two at the moment.

So that's what he's trying to do. So he has really taken the stakes very high in the last 24 hours, right now explaining to his party why he's done that. We should be hearing any moment now whether that referendum will go ahead.

It seems unlikely, but things have changed every hour here tonight. I wouldn't want to put any money on it at the moment.

WHITFIELD: Interesting.

So while we await the prime minister's decision on that, so I wonder, Jim, can you give us an idea whether in general, the Greek people are throwing their support behind the prime minister, or do they like the idea of what European leaders have proposed?

BOULDEN: Yes, this has been absolutely fascinating. He shocked the people here in Greece as much as he shocked the EU leaders about this idea of a referendum.

You would think most people would be very happy to go to the polls and give their opinions. This is Greece, after all, the home of democracy. Right?

People were furious because they said the politicians made this decision, the politicians put us in this position. It's your job to sort this out. And then some people said to me, frankly, blackmail. Now you're going to tell us it's our job to vote and to tell you whether we like what you've been doing.

Well, you can have a confidence vote. You can vote people in and out. But what most people said to me is they didn't want a vote on whether they should be in the euro or out of the euro. That's for politicians to decide, then we'll decide whether to kick you guys out.

So that's where the controversy here came in. And even members of his own party thought he was absolutely crazy to ask people to vote on that.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. OK. Fiery times there in Athens, Greece.

Jim Boulden, thanks so much.

All right. Here's a rundown of some of the stories that we're covering right now.

Next, a testy encounter as Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain defends himself against sexual harassment allegations.

Then, closing arguments in the Michael Jackson death trial are getting under way. We'll go live to Los Angeles.

Plus, this. Police and Occupy Wall Street protesters clashing in Oakland, California.

And a Texas judge is under investigation after a video surfaced on YouTube that shows him beating his teenage daughter.

And we'll take a closer look at some cheating scandals that have rocked school districts across the country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. In the race for the White House, denials and finger-pointing as Herman Cain deals with sexual harassment accusations. At least two women have accused the Republican front- runner of harassing them in the 1990s when he was head of the National Restaurant Association.

There was some testy exchanges yesterday in Alexandria, Virginia, as reporters asked Cain about the allegations.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me say one thing. I'm here with these doctors, and that's what I'm going to talk about. So don't even bother asking me all of these other questions that you all are curious about. OK? Don't even bother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But are you concerned about the fact these women do want to --

CAIN: What did I say?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- the one who wants to come forward? Are you concerned about --

CAIN: Excuse me. Excuse me!

What part of "no" don't some people understand?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. CNN's Joe Johns is at our political desk in Washington.

So, Joe, there are more twists and turns with this story at every moment. What is the latest now?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We've been following the finger-pointing. You know, who's the person who leaked the story? And it's kind of important, because if it turns out that it was a conservative who leaked this story, it sort of really puts a big hole in that theory that this was like a liberal drive-by on a conservative candidate. Anyway, the finger-pointing is pretty interesting, also, because Herman Cain said a guy named Curt Anderson, who used to work for him, but is now an adviser to presidential candidate Rick Perry, is the guy who put the story out there. But Anderson has already taken his point of personal privilege, going on TV, CNN, by the way, to say he didn't do it. Also, praising Herman Cain at the same time, and using some pretty interesting language, if you will, to characterize Cain's decision to start pointing fingers.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CURT ANDERSON, RICK PERRY CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT: He's in a tough spot, and it's very rough. And candidates, when they get into a firestorm like this, sometimes come unraveled.

And it seems to me that they're kind of grasping at straws and fishing around, trying to figure out what to do, how to get out of this. And it's a lot of stress. I mean, these guys are under tremendous stress in these situations, and so they're floundering, and maybe it's a diversionary tactic or something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: So, who did it is anybody's guess. It's the million- dollar question. But perhaps more important is, you know, what is it that Herman Cain has spent this week defending himself from?

You know, we've heard his defense, but what we're really waiting to hear is from someone who can tell us what he was accused of in the first place to get this whole controversy started -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Right.

And then, where is Herman Cain today? We saw that clip of him in Alexandria yesterday, and that exchange with reporters. And then he went on to Capitol Hill, where he was met with more reporters, of course. But where is he today?

JOHNS: No public statements today. What we do know is that he may very well do a radio show of some type some time today.

He is still in Washington, D.C. And this evening, around 6:00, we hear he has a private reception.

So he's not nearly as visible as he was in the earlier part of the week. And there's been speculation that perhaps some of the people at the campaign, even his lawyers, have told him, you need to tamp it down until we find out who's going to say what in the days and weeks ahead.

WHITFIELD: OK. And any credentials being allocated for that event this evening?

(LAUGHTER) JOHNS: It's at a private club, one of the big clubs in Washington, D.C. You know, down sort of off of Embassy Row in Washington, D.C.

WHITFIELD: No credentials allowed.

JOHNS: But to my knowledge, there's not going to be a mass of media crawling around in there yelling questions at Herman Cain. That's my guess.

WHITFIELD: OK. Well, it is Washington. They'll be outside if they're not inside.

JOHNS: That's for sure.

WHITFIELD: All right. Joe Johns, thanks so much.

JOHNS: All right.

WHITFIELD: And of course you're going to want to hear what Texas Governor Rick Perry has to say about all these allegations involving his competitor, Herman Cain. Rick Perry's going to be on CNN's "JOHN KING USA" tonight at 6:00 Eastern Time.

And in light of the allegations against Herman Cain, we want to hear from you.

Today's "Talk Back" question: What constitutes sexual harassment? Tell us what you think at Facebook.com/CarolCNN, and we'll read some of your responses coming up.

For most Americans, wages have not gone up a whole lot lately, but some corporate executives saw huge pay hikes. This CEO, Donald Stebbins, got a $23.6 million raise last year.

What were the two highest wage increases? The answer in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. We asked you what the two highest pay raises were for CEOs in 2010.

You ready for this? Occidental Petroleum CEO Ray Irani got $44.7 million in a pay raise, but the highest went to Viacom's CEO, Phillippe Dauman. His pay rose to $55.5 million.

All right. So what's with all the Gs? We're not talking about money, we're talking about the G-20, which is going on right now, plus the G-8 and the G-5, you name it.

Michael Holmes breaks it all down for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There are so many "Gs" out there, it's easy to get confused. There is actually a G-5. Then there was the G-6, and then there was the G-7, the G-8. There's the G-20.

The Gs really started back in 1975, when you had six countries get together. That was the G-6, and you had the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, and Italy, and they were the first. They were the six. And they got together actually to talk about what was then the oil crisis that was going on, and to have a bit of a confab about it.

And then, from there it became an annual thing. They thought, why not continue this on? They found it worthwhile.

The next year they added Canada, so it became the G-7. And then a little bit later on, Russia came along and was admitted, and there you have your G-8.

The groups have always attracted critics, and in many cases we've seen in the past violence as well, protesters from trades unions to environmentalists and anarchists as well. A lot of the more extreme protesters blame the members of the G-8 for pretty much all of the world's ills from debt and poverty in Africa, all the way through to global warming. And they show up pretty much to make their voices heard and say that it's an anachronistic group, an elite group, that, actually, far from solving some of the world's problems, is causing a lot of the world's problems.

Another criticism the G-8 has faced is that it's not really representative of the world's great economies. There are those who say, well, you've got Canada in the G-8, but at the same time, you don't have India, you don't have China. And because, partly of that criticism, we saw in 1999 the formation of the G-20. They added in another 11 countries.

And to be more inclusive, countries like Australia -- there's a bunch of others. And 11 and 8 equals 19. What's the 20th? The European Union. They come along for the ride as well, and they also meet every year and discuss things.

Now this is not a meeting of world leaders. This is a meeting of finance ministers and the governors of banks, and they get together, and it's a financial basis to the meeting.

And if you needed another "G," there's also the G-5. Or, it's actually called BRICS, the acronym being Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. And they meet as well.

And so you've got Gs all over the place.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Geez!

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: All right. Michael joining us right now. So, do all of the members of, say, the G-20 have an equal voice?

HOLMES: Well, they do really. I mean, it's important to note, too, we are seeing world leaders. It started off being finance ministers and the heads of banks going to the G-20.

WHITFIELD: Yes. We're seeing the presidents.

HOLMES: Seeing presidents and prime ministers now, and that's because of the importance since the global financial crisis. But, yes, they do have pretty much a common voice, all the members.

They have no formal powers. They don't formally vote on issues. This is all pretty much done by consensus, if you like.

Think of it as sort of an international steering committee. And as I said, it was when the global financial crisis hit that you saw it coming into its own. And they did some coordinated economic policy moves which were seen as good.

But as I explained in the piece there, a lot of people see it as a bit of a talk-fest as well. And that they -- they actually work better in times of crisis than they do when things are quiet.

WHITFIELD: It seems to be hammering out smoothly.

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: If one of the big boys decides to do something that's against the interests of the smaller countries, well, there's nothing they can do about it because, as I say, it's not that structured in a way. It's just meant to be a bit of a conversation and perhaps a policy-directing group.

WHITFIELD: And this is the class photo from today -- actually --

HOLMES: It happened earlier, yes.

WHITFIELD: -- just a few hours ago.

You know, I wonder if there is a real star of the show, because even one of the previous images that we just saw, we saw President Obama walking by, and it was as if all eyes were turning. Angela Merkel turned to look at him, Sarkozy turned to look at him.

HOLMES: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Does there become kind of a star of these G-20 summits ever, or does it depend on what the global or economic climate is?

HOLMES: Well, it depends. Well, obviously, you're going to have your bigger countries like the United States who are always going to attract a little bit more attention. And in this case, with the European debt crisis, you've got Angela Merkel of Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy of France taking center stage as well.

But as I said, it's meant to be this sort of more democratic grouping. And it's interesting that in the time it's been together, membership has not changed at all.

When they formed it, they formed it based on a number of things, like geography -- like, you've got Australia down south and you've got the Americans and the Europeans, spread it out. Population, also the strengths of the various economies. They wanted to get a grouping that was reasonably representative after the criticism that the G-8 wasn't.

Interestingly enough, the G-20 countries produce 90 percent of global economic output, four-fifths of world trade come from these countries. Two-thirds of the world's population are in the G-20.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

HOLMES: Yes.

WHITFIELD: So while it appears there's potential to add on, countries don't drop out.

HOLMES: No, you don't drop out. There is criticism, as I said, that it's still not inclusive enough, and that decisions that these 20 countries take in terms of policy direction impact the rest of the world.

But then there are others who say, well, you've got to keep it small to keep it nimble, so it acts quicker, as it did during the economic meltdown that very nearly occurred. And so, keep it smaller, keep it able to act faster, rather than have like, like, a U.N. that plods along at a snail's pace.

WHITFIELD: With a few hundred. Yes, right.

Thanks so much, Michael Holmes.

HOLMES: A little background there.

WHITFIELD: Thanks. I appreciate it. I loved it. And I loved the funky music that took us through the journey.

HOLMES: I wrote it especially for you.

WHITFIELD: I liked that. Thank you. I was feeling the lava lamps and everything.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: Good to see you.

WHITFIELD: Thanks, Michael.

All right. A House panel -- this country now -- voted a short time ago to subpoena the White House for documents related to the bankrupt solar energy company Solyndra. The company got more than $500 million in federal loan guarantees, but went belly-up in August.

President Barack Obama promoted Solyndra in a highly-publicized visit last year. Some Republicans have questioned the White House's relationship with that company. A source says the White House sent 2,000 pages of e-mails to Capitol Hill last month. A House subcommittee voted 14-9 today in favor of issuing subpoenas for more internal documents.

Meantime, let's take a quick look at the markets right now, the Dow encouraging right there, up 135 points. We will keep a close watch on your money and the markets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, here's a rundown of some of the stories we're covering next.

Closing arguments are taking place in the Michael Jackson death trial. We will go live to Los Angeles.

And then to Oakland, California, violent scenes as police clash with Occupy Wall Street protesters there.

Plus, a Texas judge is under investigation after a video surfaced on YouTube that shows him beating his teenage daughter.

All right, to Los Angeles now. Jurors are back in court to consider closing arguments in the Conrad Murray involuntary manslaughter trial. They will have to decide if Murray was criminally negligent in pop superstar Michael Jackson's death.

Casey Wian has a look at what has happened in court so far.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dramatic moments at the Conrad Murray manslaughter trial, including an audiotape of Michael Jackson slurring his words -- and disturbing pictures of the singer's dead body.

In court a procession of Murray's former girlfriends and the constant presence of Jackson family members. Outside, supporters of both sides.

Several prosecution medical experts testified about the dangers of treating Jackson's insomnia with the powerful anesthetic Propofol, especially outside of a hospital. Murray declined to take the stand. His former patients did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm alive today because of that man.

ED CHERNOFF, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Do you have an opinion about whether Dr. Murray treats his patients with care and caution?

LUNETTE SAMPSON, CONRAD MURRAY'S FORMER PATIENT: I have never had a doctor that was more caring. WIAN: Prosecutors clashed with medical experts for the defense, which sought to portray Jackson as a drug addict who could have injected himself with Propofol.

DAVID WALGREN, PROSECUTOR: Is there a reason why it's so difficult for you to answer my questions and so easy to answer Mr. Chernoff?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sustained.

WIAN: The judge fined defense expert Dr. Paul White, an anesthesiologists, for suggesting that Michael Jackson has his own supply of Propofol, an allegation not in evidence. The prosecution also extracted a seemingly key concession from Dr. White, that he never would have treated Jackson the way Murray allegedly did.

WALGREN: If Michael Jackson had come to you, Dr. White, and indicated that he would like to hire you to administer Propofol to him, to put him to sleep each night in his bedroom, would you do it?

DR. PAUL WHITE, ANESTHESIOLOGIST: Absolutely not. That would be a job that I would never consider accepting.

WIAN: Murray faces four years in jail and the loss of his medical license.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Casey Wian joining us live now from Los Angeles.

So, what's the timetable, Casey, on when the jurors get to hear those closing statements today?

WIAN: It's going to happen very soon, Fredricka.

As we speak, right now, the judge is wrapping up his final instructions to the jury, telling them what they need to do to convict Dr. Conrad Murray of manslaughter. They have to come up with two -- they have to come up with an agreement unanimously on two prosecution theories. One is that Murray committed a lawful act with criminal negligence. That means that he gave him propofol lawfully, gave Michael Jackson propofol lawfully, but was negligent in doing so, because he did not meet the standard of care for administering that powerful anesthetic.

The other option is that he had a -- he did not perform a legal duty and he was criminally negligent in doing so. And that goes to the issue of not calling 911 immediately after Michael Jackson was seen to be in trouble, and also the fact that he left the room after administering that dose of propofol to Michael Jackson.

The judge has also instructed the jury that even if they agree with the defense's theory that Michael Jackson may have administered the fatal dose of propofol himself, they can still find Dr. Conrad Murray guilty of manslaughter if it was foreseeable that Michael Jackson would have injected himself. So we're expecting it to go to the jury perhaps later this afternoon, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Casey Wian, thanks so much in Los Angeles.

So the jury's decision in the Conrad Murray trial hinges on whether the prosecution met its burden of proof.

Criminal defense attorney Holly Hughes is here right now with a breakdown of how both sides might score some points in these closing statements.

So the prosecution will go first?

HOLLY HUGHES, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes.

WHITFIELD: OK. So the prosecution has to try and tie the pieces together that Conrad Murray was criminally negligent. How will they do that effectively? Because it is these last words, the summation, that will really kind of sit, rest with the jurors.

HUGHES: That's exactly right, Fred.

It is what we call the law of primacy and recency. People tend to remember the very first thing they hear and the very last thing they hear. And that's where the defense is at a disadvantage in these criminal trials, because not only does the prosecution go first. Then they get to come back after the defense and go again.

So they're going to have two bites at the apple, as it were. They will go, Ed Chernoff will close, and then they will get back up and finish. What they're doing is they're sewing together all these pieces of evidence into a tapestry. And when they're done, they're going to say this picture we have woven for you is guilty.

Think about it. How long ago did we hear the testimony about the girlfriends, he's on the phone while Michael is in the ambulance.

WHITFIELD: That was about three weeks ago.

HUGHES: Right. And so we don't remember those things. And so the prosecution is going to go back and pull all those little pieces out and say, remember when they testified that Dr. Murray was up there cleaning up the scene when Michael's body was in the ambulance? He could have put that I.V. tubing in his coat. Remember the girlfriends? He's on the phone with one when Michael allegedly dies. He's on the phone with another when he's in the ambulance with Michael's body.

WHITFIELD: So they have to weave a story.

HUGHES: They're going to pull it all together, and they're going to remind of jury about what they heard and they're going to hammer it home, because they really did meet the burden.

WHITFIELD: And so the defense then has the burden of trying to dispel all of that and then possibly go back to their claim that Michael Jackson injected himself, administered that fatal dose himself.

HUGHES: Right.

And it is tricky to be a defense attorney, because when you want to do, you don't want to give too much weight to the state's evidence, because you want to say, they didn't even meet their burden, this isn't beyond a reasonable doubt, and here is why.

So you want to poke little holes, but you basically don't want to chase them, putting out their fires. You want to put up why it is reasonable doubt. That's when you call back the testimony of your own experts and you say, you heard Dr. Paul White say, and he is the foremost expert on propofol, this isn't the level of carelessness or bad care that rises to criminal conduct.

They're going to bring up Ruby Mosley. We remember her, very no- nonsense, lovely woman. And she wasn't going to change her mind. Ms. Ruby knew what they knew, she was sincere, told the truth, this man is a great doctor. Another patient said, he saved my life. The defense is going to do all that.

And, lastly, Fred, they will tread likely, but they will have to say Michael did this to himself.

WHITFIELD: And, quickly, yes or no, is this going to be difficult for the jurors?

HUGHES: Not if the prosecution lays out the law clearly and tells them why the evidence meets the burden under the law.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. All right, Holly Hughes, thanks so much.

HUGHES: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Appreciate that.

All right, have you seen this? Of course you have by now. Looks like a war zone, doesn't it? Well, it's right here in the U.S. of A. That's Oakland, California, early this morning. We are live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The Occupy movement boils over in Oakland, California. Police used tear gas, shot bean bags and used flash-bang grenades when people didn't comply with the orders to disperse.

Police say the crowd shot fireworks at them and pelted them with rocks.

Dan Simon joins us now from a much calmer looking Oakland right now, but still a lot of damage there.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot of damage and a lot of vandalism, Fred. This is one example. This is a dental center in downtown Oakland.

A lot of businesses, the workers came to work this morning, saw their windows looking like this. We have seen a lot of smashed windows. And we should point out that this protest that continues to make headlines, in part because of the vandalism that you're seeing here today, but we should point out that they talk about the 99 percent vs. the 1 percent.

But this group of protesters, they also have their 1 percent, and these are the people who are intent on creating, stirring up violence in the streets of Oakland. This was a peaceful protest that we saw yesterday. We saw lots of marching throughout the streets, people protesting at banks, going to the Port of Oakland, actually shutting it down, but they did so peacefully.

Then, as soon as the sun went down, you saw dozens of these really anarchists coming out into the streets, trying to incite the police, and they succeeded in their mission. The police came out. You saw these pictures, ugly pictures, with tear gas, bean bags being shot at them.

And so we want to point out, Fred, that the vast majority of these protesters acted responsibly. But you do have, you know, these protesters who, you know, are intent -- their intent is to really to incite the police, and they succeeded -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dan Simon, thanks so much from Oakland, California.

A family court judge in Texas admits to beating his daughter. We'll show you this stunning YouTube video that has exploded on the Internet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Authorities are investigating a judge in Texas after a video surfaced on YouTube that shows him beating his teen daughter over and over with a belt. CNN's Kyra Phillips has the story. And a warning now, some viewers may find this very disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDGE WILLIAM ADAMS, ARKANSAS COUNTY, TEXAS, COURT-AT-LAW: Bend over that bed.

HILLARY ADAMS, DAUGHTER: Dad.

W. ADAMS: Bend over that bed.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The video is difficult to watch.

W. ADAMS: Bend over the bed!

PHILLIPS: It shows a Texas father punishing his 16-year-old daughter for using the computer to download video games. But that father, William Adams, is a Texas judge who handles, among other things, family and juvenile cases. This happened seven years ago in 2004. And the now 23-year-old daughter, Hillary Adams, posted it online. It's been view more than a million time. The outrage is causing Judge Adams to leave his post temporarily. A visiting judge will take over his caseload. Judge Adams could face criminal charges. Police are investigating.

CHIEF TIM JAYROE, ROCKPORT, TEXAS, POLICE: We need to see the original of the video. We're always concern with seeing an original when possible.

PHILLIPS: Phones at the Aransas County Courthouse have been ringing off the hook. A fellow judge says the video is disturbing and surprising.

C.H. MILLS, ARANSAS COUNTY JUDGE: Observing him in court, you would never think that he had any kind of temper.

PHILLIPS: Judge Adams admits it's him in the video.

W. ADAMS: In my mind I haven't done anything wrong other than discipline my child after she was caught stealing. And I did lose my temper, but I've since apologized. It looks worse than it is. There is a story. It will come out in due time.

PHILLIPS: In a Twitter post his daughter says, "I'm feeling some regret for publishing the video because to ruin my own father is heavy indeed." She tells Corpus Christi TV station KRIS --

H. ADAMS: I'm very relieved that these things have been brought to light. And not because I want to see my father burned or anything like that. That's a hideous way of thinking and I don't want to inflict that upon him. I just -- I cannot stress enough, I cannot repeat myself enough that he just needs help.

PHILLIPS: Kyra Phillips, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: The pressure to cheat in the classroom. We'll break down which schools are facing investigations and what every parent needs to know.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: After a massive cheating scandal and fighting on the school board, there's a little bit of good news for Atlanta Public Schools. It is off probation. Meaning its schools are still accredited and its board can move forward. But the school system still has to recover from one of the biggest cheating scandals in history. And it's not the only one, by the way. CNN's Carl Azuz is going beyond the headlines here.

So, Carl, we're talking about school districts that have been facing a lot of problems. CARL AZUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Uh-huh. And this -- you know, this cheating thing is coast to coast, Fredricka. I mean when we started reporting on the Atlanta Public Schools scandal over the summer, we said at that time it was the biggest in American history. It wasn't going to be the only one. And, unfortunately, we were right.

There are accusations right now going on in Pennsylvania. And they have to do with something calls erasures. Erasures are when wrong answers on a test are erased and replaced with the right ones. Currently there is an investigation that flagged 60 schools that had suspicious results on standardized tests. They're blaming erasures for that.

You see Washington, D.C., highlighted. A "USA Today" investigation found that more than half of the district's public schools had higher than average erasure rates there.

In L.A., going out to California now, there was a charter school scandal last year. Principals somehow acquired state tests at a group of charter schools. They required teachers to look at these tests and then teach students what was going to be on them. That led to the closure of six charter schools in Los Angeles.

And then New York. Board of regents is banning the practice of allowing teachers to grade their own tests. That's something that teachers used to be able to do, their own student's tests. And now that practice is gone because some are saying erasures might have been a factor there as well.

So, I mean, we've seen it coast to coast. Texas had one a couple of years ago. It's pretty widespread.

WHITFIELD: And we're talking about educators that are accused of erasing and changing the answers. We're not talking about students who said, you know what, I'm going to think again about that answer.

AZUZ: That's right.

WHITFIELD: So why are these educators -- or what is the suspicion as to why these educators are allegedly cheating?

AZUZ: There are a lot of different ideas about why school systems cheat, why educators cheat. And the reason why is because from state to state and district to district school systems are so different. But there are some pressures that all American schools face. Some things they have in common.

One of those involves culture and competition. In Atlanta Public Schools they say culture was the reason for some of the cheating there where teachers were pressured or punished if they didn't take part. Other people blame the notion of competition for causing people to pull out all the stops, do whatever it takes to pull ahead.

You also have issues like high-stakes testing, money, reputation, a school's operation are tied in to scores on standardized tests. Some say that can lead to temptation to cheat. You have No Child Left Behind. Just about every article I looked at for this report mentioned No Child Left Behind, talking about how schools are threatened with closure if they don't show improvement on standardized tests. That could lead to cheating.

Race To The Top also mentioned in this. That's a government program that delivers school funding for schools that show improvement. Some say Race To The Top might have been a factor in D.C. school system's alleged erasures because some of these schools benefited by thousands of dollars for what they allegedly did, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So, lots of pressure, but some say, still, no excuse.

Carl Azuz.

AZUZ: No excuse. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much.

All right, today's "Talk Back" question, perhaps were you listening earlier, what constitutes sexual harassment? Mary Ann writes in and says, "everyone should learn to speak out against sexual harassment because it belittle us all." More of your responses next.

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WHITFIELD: All right, you've been sounding off on our "Talk Back" question today. It's based on the allegations against Herman Cain. And we've been asking you, what constitutes sexual harassment.

Sean Smith writes this. "Men can feel just as uncomfortable with sexual advances or talk in the workplace coming from men or from women. There is a very thin line between joking with co-workers and crossing into uncomfortable."

Evelyn says this. "For Laura Ingraham to pass judgment on the women involved in this case speaks volumes as to why laws against sexual harassment became necessary in the first place and why rape or sexual assault against women especially remains one of the hardest allegations to prove. Not because the women are always gold digging liars, but because of the perception that they are and that the powerful men involved can't possibly be guilty."

And Rickey Hains (ph) says this. "Seems sexual harassment is anything that a woman says it is. Sometimes it's valid and sometimes it is not. Like when I was on a job once and a woman overheard a boyfriend and his girlfriend whispering to each other and filed a third party sexual harassment suit. Really."

And Jeffery Baxter says this. "It involves uncomfortable/unwelcome/unwanted sexual advances. These include sexual gestures, touching, looking at private areas, an sexual comments."

Thanks so much for your input on the "Talk Back" question today.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield as CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Randi Kaye -- Randi.