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Rodney King Dead; First Results From Greek Elections Are In; Day Two Of Runoff Voting In Egypt; Wildfire Destroys Nearly 200 Homes; Romney Bus Tour Rolls Into Ohio; President Obama Heads To G20 In Mexico; Sandusky To Be Evaluated Today

Aired June 17, 2012 - 14:30   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

We start with the death of Rodney King. Police say he was found at the bottom of his California pool early this morning. King's beating by Los Angeles police back in 1991 was caught on tape and sparked riots a year later after the acquittal of four police officers involved. Police are today investigating and say they haven't seen any signs of foul play. Much more straight ahead.

The first partial results from Greece's critical parliamentary elections are in. About 20 percent of the vote is counted and the country's conservative new Democracy Party holds a 4.5 percent lead over the leftist Syriza Party. The outcome should have a significant outcome on world financial markets. A live report from Athens is just moments away.

Another election we're following very closely today is underway right now in Egypt. Voters headed to the polls for a second day in a presidential runoff. Turnout was lower than expected in some areas because of extreme heat.

Egyptians are choosing between an Islamist candidate and the former right-hand man of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak, but there are still questions about whether the military will actually relinquish power.

Strong winds and high temperatures are expected to continue to fuel a wildfire in Northern Colorado. It's already destroyed almost 200 homes and scorched 55,000 acres. A U.S. agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, was in the area to talk about what is being done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM VILSACK, AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: Over 140,000 man hours have already been dedicated to this fire. And so it will be some time before the fire is out, but our challenge now is to make sure that we do everything we can to contain its damage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The blaze has forced thousands of evacuations and left one person dead. All right, now back to the death of Rodney King. He became a household name after he was beaten by Los Angeles police in 1991. King, who was 47, was found at the bottom of his pool in Rialto, California about an hour east of Los Angeles.

Captain Randy DeAnda is with the Rialto Police Department. Captain, who called the police and what exactly was said?

CAPTAIN RANDY DEANDA, RIALTO POLICE DEPARTMENT (via telephone): This morning at approximately 5:25 a.m., we received a 911 call from the fiance of Rodney King stating she had found him at the bottom of his swimming pool.

Rialto officers arrived on scene and attempted to rescue him from inside of the swimming pool and he was found to be unresponsive.

Officers began CPR, at which time the Rialto Fire Department Paramedics arrived on scene and began trying to resuscitate him. He was ultimately transported to the Arrow Head Regional Medical Center in the city of Colton, California where he was pronounced deceased at 6:11 a.m.

WHITFIELD: So Captain DeAnda, did the fiance say anything whether it be to investigators once they arrived on scene or even during the 911 call whether he had been swimming, something happened, or whether he had been missing for a period of time? What was exactly in the context of that call?

DEANDA: The fiance told us she had been in -- having different conversations with Mr. King who was pool side, which is not uncommon for him to be pool side on this time of morning and apparently, she heard him -- she heard a splash in the pool.

She immediately went outside to find him at the bottom of the pool. According to the fiance, Mr. King was an avid swimmer and she's not so she attempted to try her best to remove him from the pool, at which time she immediately dialed 911 to get a response from us.

WHITFIELD: Earlier you had mentioned that there was no foul play. Officers once they arrived on the scene actually took the plunge into the pool to retrieve his body, examined his body. What was seen?

DEANDA: Yes. Well, in any drowning it is a tragic situation for everybody involved, especially the victim. But when he was removed from the pool, the officers on scene and the paramedics found no obvious signs of any trauma to Mr. King.

So it doesn't appear to be any signs of any foul play. However, that will be determined after the investigation and obviously after the autopsy is completed by the San Bernardino County Coroner's Office.

WHITFIELD: The body has already been taken to the coroner's office. How long would that determination be made?

DEANDA: That's correct. The determination usually an autopsy will be performed within 24 to 48 hours. However, any toxicology results and/or any results involving intoxication or any controlled substances would probably be about six to eight weeks.

WHITFIELD: Captain Randy DeAnda of Rialto Police, thanks so much for your time.

DEANDA: You're welcome.

WHITFIELD: Our own Nick Valencia grew up in Los Angeles and remembers vividly the Rodney King beating and the riots. He's here with us right now.

So Nick, it is hard to believe that it was 20 years ago. But in some ways does it feel it's so indelible that it even feels recent to you and maybe others who grew up in the area?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So much so, Fred, because of the 20th anniversary was just last year. We did some terrific reporting with Don Lemon out there having an interview with Rodney King. And as mentioned just now the captain saying Rodney King found dead at his home earlier today at 47 years old.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA (voice-over): It was this scene caught on camera that would turn Rodney King's life and Los Angeles upside down. In 1991, King led police officers from the LAPD on a high-speed chase after leaving a friend's house after a night of drinking.

RODNEY KING: I had a job to go to that Monday and I knew I was on parole and I wasn't supposed to be drinking. I'm like, my God.

VALENCIA: What transpired in its aftermath changed the dialogue on race in America. King, 25 when the incident happened, was nearly beaten to death. He was in surgery for five hours. He admitted he should have stopped the car.

Following a three-month trial, three of the officers involved in the beating were acquitted on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force. The jury was deadlocked in the case of the fourth officer.

The verdict sparked riots across Los Angeles and the United States. In L.A., rioters ran through the streets looting businesses, torching buildings and attacking those who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

At least 50 people were killed and $1 billion worth of property was damaged. As the riots enter their third day, Rodney King emerged to plead.

KING: Can we all get along?

VALENCIA: In the years that followed, King struggled to leave his past behind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You didn't want to be a part of history? KING: No. I wasn't expecting to get tossed in history like that. You know, unfortunately, it happens to us unexpectedly to some of us, and I was one of the unexpected ones to survive through it.

VALENCIA: In his later years, Rodney King battled addictions to drugs and alcohol, never quite escaping the demons that caused his infamous encounter with the Los Angeles police officers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: Rodney King was an infamous character in Los Angeles and U.S. history. In a recent interview, he said, understand we can all get along. That's my saying and that's how I will want to be remembered -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And you know, in that famous quote really came at that press conference. He was with his attorneys. His attorneys wanted him to say something very specific and he said, no, I'm not going off script. I've got to go from my heart and that's why he said we can all get along.

VALENCIA: He was pleading to the Los Angelenos to stop the riots.

WHITFIELD: Yes, he really was. So, you know, for you and others who grew up in the area. That was a very tumultuous frightening time. No one knew what the next day would bring.

You talked to me about the kind of fear everyone felt about not knowing when it was going to end. At what point did that kind of fear dissipate and people kind of came together again?

VALENCIA: I remember I was about 8 or 7, 8 years old. It was a week of just fear. I grew up in northeast Los Angeles. Not in a very rough area. There was graffiti and some gangs there.

I remember on my block, which was a nicer block. There was graffiti on people's garage doors. We went to the local grocery store to stock up on groceries because we didn't know. My parents didn't know what was going to happen.

I remember telling my dad at one point, can we go to Las Vegas? That was one of the closest big cities to us. We wanted to move. I wanted to move because I was so scared what was happening -- what I was seeing on TV. It was just a very formative year for me and of course for Los Angeles.

WHITFIELD: You feel like it was a common experience, many people felt that way?

VALENCIA: I think so. It wasn't just African-Americans. It was everybody that was affected, living in the city. This changed the dialogue about race in America.

A lot of people in the community, in the African-American community, in Los Angeles, felt that this was really a microcosm, the beating, of how they justified how they were already feeling. It wasn't just them that were feared, that lived in fear during that time.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nick Valencia, thanks so much for that perspective. Appreciate that.

Stay with us as we bring you more on Rodney King's death tonight. "CNN PRESENTS, Race and Rage," you can see it at 8:00 Eastern Time, 5:00 p.m. Pacific right here on CNN.

It is one country's election, but it has huge implications worldwide. We go live to Greece for the latest on that country's pivotal vote.

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WHITFIELD: Some other stories making news now -- Mitt Romney's six- state bus tour rolls into Ohio today and he isn't alone on this Father's Day. All five of his sons and his wife are with him. Romney will make three stops in the battleground state. He is campaigning with potential VP bets Senator Rob Portman.

Later this evening, President Barack Obama heads to Los Cabo, Mexico for the G20 Summit. The group of 20 is made up of the world's biggest economies. The summit comes a day after parliamentary elections in Greece. The financial turmoil in Greece will be on the G20 agenda.

In Toronto, one man is dead and four people injured after a stage collapsed before a concert. Alternative rock band "Radiohead" was set to perform. This video from the accident shows metal framing crumpled on to the stage.

All right, now to the elections in Greece, a vote with potentially huge economic consequences for Greece, Europe and the U.S. Official results are just starting to come in. Voters are choosing between two parties.

One led by 37-year-old leftist politician, Alexis Tsipras, and the other, a 61-year-old conservative, Antonis Samaras, two men with two very different visions for Greece's future.

CNN's Matthew chance is live in Athens with the partial results. Matthew, what can you tell us?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You can see, Fredricka, behind me there are celebrations under way in this kiosk in the center of the Greek capital, Athens. It is a kiosk that's been set up by the conservative party here called the New Democracy Party.

They've emerged according to the latest official figures that have come in after this election as the biggest party. Latest figures say they've got more than 30 percent of the vote. It means they don't get an overall majority. They can't form a government on their own.

That doesn't matter to these people. What they're celebrating is that they've got the biggest number of votes that almost certainly means Greece will get some kind of stable government and if it happens, there will be sighs of relief breathed tonight in the United States and in Europe as well.

Because these conservative parties is one of the parties that backs the austerity measures it wants Greece to make these economic reforms and stay within the eurozone and within single currency and to receive the bailout fund continually from the international creditors.

If this result carries through to a coalition government, there will be big sighs of relief in Europe and in the United States.

WHITFIELD: So it is still early. I know it is noisy there, Matthew. But is there any indication how many hours away we would be from a final or a more definitive tally?

CHANCE: It's been 2-1/2 hours since the polls closed. Already they've counted 36.9 percent so another five or six hours perhaps. We'll have the final result in.

But the indications are this is going to be a pretty big victory for New Democracy, this conservative party. Again, what they're saying, it is a victory not just for them but a victory for Europe as well.

WHITFIELD: Matthew Chance in Athens, thanks so much.

Jerry Sandusky's defense team is getting ready to make its case this week. So why is a prosecution psychologist examining the former football coach today?

And if you have to go out today, you can continue to watch CNN from your mobile phone. You can also watch CNN live from your laptop, just go to cnn.com/tv.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Jerry Sandusky's lawyers say a type of personality disorder may explain some of his behavior. Today, a prosecution psychologist is expected to examine Sandusky to check that claim out.

Sandusky's lawyers are hoping this disorder will explain some of his behavior with the young boys he is accused of molesting. Susan Candiotti takes a look at defense strategy.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, for four days, jurors heard prosecutors set out to prove Jerry Sandusky is a serial predator. Raping and molesting ten boys. Come Monday, the defense takes center stage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): After a week of listening to withering testimony from about ten alleged victims, Jerry Sandusky began and ended nearly every day with a smile on his face. His lawyer's trying to be upbeat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every day's hard. It's tough work.

CANDIOTTI: Tough work defending a man who himself is a legend for designing defense on the football field. Criminal defense attorney Ron Kuby says Sandusky has an uphill battle.

RON KUBY, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: There's a tsunami of evidence against him.

CANDIOTTI: Sandusky's strategy is expected to attack the timeline of repeated alleged sexual assaults raised during cross examination by pointing out conflicts with Sandusky's schedule.

The defense is also expected to further question whether alleged victims were motivated to come forward by possible lucrative lawsuits. Nonsense, says Howard Janet, attorney for alleged victim six.

HOWARD JANET, ATTORNEY FOR ALLEGED VICTIME SIX: Does that mean that none of them are telling the truth because they've gone to hire a lawyer? That's absurd.

CANDIOTTI: Sandusky's wife, Dottie appeared briefly in court the first day. But stayed away the rest of the time indicating she's expected to take the stand to defend her husband.

KUBY: What is his wife going to say in his defense unless she was in the shower with him and the various young boys, which obviously she wasn't? She has, as far as I can see, nothing to offer this case outside of some sort of plea for sympathy.

CANDIOTTI: The defense also plans to bring in a psychologist to explain love letters Sandusky wrote to alleged victims. In court papers, the defense indicates the letters were not part of a predator's grooming technique, but indicative of someone suffering from a histrionic personality disorder who wanted to make himself more endearing to the boys in his charity.

(on camera): Are you looking forward to presenting your case?

(voice-over): A gag order is preventing Sandusky from talking now and he isn't required to testify. But the defense promised jurors they'd hear from Sandusky.

KUBY: The only chance he has is to take the witness stand and just maybe he can convince one juror to hold out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: Will he or won't he take the stand? Ultimately, Sandusky must decide whether he wants to look jurors in the eye and face prosecutors armed with tough questions of their own -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Susan Candiotti at the Jerry Sandusky trial.

All right, his videotaped beating created a national discussion on race. We'll have more on the death of Rodney King.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Author Buzz Bissinger has accomplished a number of things professionally, but making a personal connection with his now-adult savant son was far more challenging until together they took a 4,200 mile trip cross-country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUZZ BISSINGER, AUTHOR: I felt for very much of his life I'd never had a real conversation with him. I never knew if I was really, really getting through to him, which is why I came up with this idea of driving across the country with him to really focus on him and be in a concentrated space with him.

But this trip, as you say, was an opportunity to basically do with Zach what I had done with Jerry, those heart-to-hearts, what I had done with my youngest son Caleb and I also felt it was time to tell Zach what his condition was like.

I had never ever mentioned it. I felt he should know and I wanted to see how self-aware he was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Bissinger's book about this journey is called "Father's Day -- A Journey Into The Mind And Heart Of My Extraordinary Son." You can see the entire interview today, 5:00 Eastern Time.

Now we're learning more about the death of Rodney King. Police say his fiance found him at the bottom of his California swimming pool early this morning. A police captain just told me that his fiance said King was an avid swimmer.

But she thought it was very peculiar that he would be in the pool at this particular hour so she ended up calling 911 for help. King's beating by Los Angeles police in 1991 was caught on tape and sparked riots after the acquittal of the officers involved.

The first official results from Greece's critical elections are in. With about 20 percent of the vote counted, the country's conservative party holds a 4.5 percent lead over the leftists who want to scrap the country's debt deal with Europe. The election results are expected to impact world financial markets tomorrow.

Another election we're following closely today is under way in Egypt. Voters headed to the polls for a second day in a presidential runoff. Turnout was lower than expected in some areas due to extreme heat.

Egyptians are choosing between an Islamist candidate and the former right-hand man of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak, but there are still questions whether the military will actually relinquish power.

Four Japanese climbers are feared dead after an avalanche Thursday on Mount McKinley in Alaska. The national park service says a search is still under way, but at this point it is more of a recovery effort.

One climber survived and returned to base camp to report the incident. Mount McKinley is North America's highest peak. This comes just one week after I talked to a group of climbers, all amputees, after they started their hike up Mount McKinley. Their representative tells us this morning, they are OK.

Stay with CNN. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. "YOUR MONEY" starts right after this.

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