Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Anthony Weiner Sexting Revelations; Spain Train Crash; White Supremacist Charged with Murder; Pope Visits Shanty Town

Aired July 25, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: There's no sound, no warning, just a terrifying image. As crews search the rubble of a deadly derailment, the question we're asking, how safe are America's trains?

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

A six-year-old found murdered. The manhunt for her killer takes a dramatic turn when police approach her neighbor's home, the home of a teenager.

The pope's security team on high alert as he kisses babies, shakes hands, and walks right out in the open.

Plus, who's the woman at the center of the Anthony Weiner scandal?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOU COLAGIOVANNI, CONFIDANT OF SYDNEY LEATHERS: Sydney loved him, but then she fell out of love with him because of a guiding light vision of which she had of him was not true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Inside Sydney Leather's conversations with Carlos Danger.

And, women at Merrill Lynch are claiming they were given a book urging them to, quote/unquote, "stroke men's egos" in order to advance. We're on the case.

And here we go. Good to see you on this Thursday. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

You know, another day and more news. We have some more details today about the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal, including this bit we've learned, as far as how many women - how many women Anthony Weiner says he was involved with, why his wife decided to stay with him, and what one of his sexting partners was thinking.

All of this as a brand new poll, taken yesterday after the whole scandal broke, shows Weiner following out of the top spot in the Democratic mayor's race in New York. You see him nine points now, nine points behind leader Christine Quinn.

This morning, Weiner volunteered at a soup kitchen. There he is in Brooklyn. Afterward, he held a brief news conference and was asked a lot of questions. One of them, he was asked point blank about his sexting partners. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many -- how many conversations did you have with women after you resigned that were sexual in nature?

ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK MAYORAL CANDIDATE: I don't believe I had any more than three.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Friends of his wife, Huma Abedin, tell CNN that she was this close, I'm quoting them, this close to leaving Weiner last fall when he confessed to sexting again, but they say she thought about it. She ultimately decided to stay to work on the marriage for the sake of the couple's very young son.

CNN has identified one of Weiner's sexting partners. She is 23-year- old Sydney Elaine Leathers of Indiana. Her confidant spoke exclusively to Laurie Segall of CNN Money, who joins me now from New York.

And, Laurie, a couple of questions for you. First, what was the crux of your conversation with this man, this confidant?

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: You know, he showed us all the chats that he had with her about the relationship with Anthony Weiner. And essentially, you know, these conversations date back. And he told us that this has been going on for a long time. He also said that she had told him that they spoke all day for months. So a long time.

And essentially, you know, what was the nature of those chats? That was my question to him. Listen to what he had to say, Brooke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEGALL: You don't know if they ever met, but from these chat logs and from what she showed you, do you know if they had any kind of sex?

LOU COLAGIOVANNI, CONFIDANT OF SYDNEY LEATHERS: Oh, absolutely. There was tawdry phone sex that went on between these two for months on end. You can see by some of the chat logs, the descriptions, Anthony Weiner apparently has a shoe fetish and he also apparently has a domination fetish. And that was the basis of their relationship. Sydney thought the basis of the relationship was going to be some sort of mutual respect, loving, you know, as idealistic as that would have been.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEGALL: And, you know, many of -- we've spoken to many of Sydney's friends, and a lot of them describe her as very -- as a political activist. She's very active on these online forums. And to a degree, many say, including Lou, that she really idolized Anthony Weiner, to some degree.

BALDWIN: You know, going back to your point, Laurie, about it was a longer relationship, was he specific as far as how many months? Because I've read something like six. Maybe it was longer. And also, let's be crystal clear, nothing was ever physical, correct?

SEGALL: That's what he said. And when I asked him, he said he wasn't exactly sure on the timeline, but he said it was about six months. That's the answer he gave me.

And, you know, in these chat logs that I was reading through, you see her describe this as almost like "House of Cards." So you almost get the idea that there was a little -- she could have been a little bit naive about this. I mean she is. She's very active on social networks, on Twitter, on FaceBook, on Instagram. You get the idea that she really is in her early 20s.

BALDWIN: And how did the whole thing end? Who ended it?

SEGALL: We asked -- I asked Lou this, and he said, you know, there wasn't a specific point, he said, but she had idolized him, and to a certain degree, that kind of faded away. And then they started talking about, OK, well, what can we do next? Could we potentially make money from this story? Could we put it out there in a way that we could actually make money? And those were the conversations that they started having.

BALDWIN: Laurie Segall, great interview, exclusive interview. If you want to watch the whole thing, go to cnnmoney.com.

Laurie, thank you.

SEGALL: Thank you.

BALDWIN: We have also now just gotten word that an American died in that horrible train crash in Spain. We do not have the name. The driver is being questioned. The death toll continues to rise.

Look at this with me. Here it is, rounding the curve. The train nearing the end of a six-hour trip. And it goes flying off the rails at 8:41 last evening. Two hundred and eighty-one passengers, crew of around 30. At last word, 80 people are dead, 178 injured, including at least 5 Americans.

And you can see, we slowed down the tape, just giving you a couple of different vantage points, a couple different looks at this. And if you would, I want you to look very closely at this. As the train tries to - slowed it down, tries to negotiate this curve here, it appears as though the cars maybe have separated from the engine right about there. Nothing definitive there. Potentially a clue. Do you see that?

Karl Penhaul is at the scene of the crash.

Karl, what's the latest on this theory, this speculation that this train might have been going too fast?

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, really, at this stage, those comments, in fact, came from Spain's minister of development. He - speculate there may be excessive speed on a very tight curve was one of the factors here. But then the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, came along and he said, no, we're still looking at all factors to see what actually caused this tragedy. The Spanish government does appear to have ruled out a terrorist act, but he says that all other factors are at play.

And you mentioned the video. And that's something that crash investigators have taken a very keen interest in because, yes, you see that front locomotive appear to slide off towards the back end and then crash into this concrete pillar. But if you look just a fraction of a second before that happens, about midway along the length of the train, you see a puff of something. Is that smoke? Is it dust? There's a kind of a little explosion of something before then you see the derailment going into full effect. And so that is something also that investigators are going to be look at to get to the bottom of exactly what happened, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes, I am sure they are going through this video that we're looking at frame by frame by frame.

Karl, I also wanted to ask, you know, just in reading about this, I had read that one of the workers described the crash scene as "hell." What more can you tell us about the seconds, the minutes, the hours after the crash and the chaos?

PENHAUL: I think you could use a lot of comparisons here. And I think that all those comparisons would fall pretty much short. I just look at the facts on the ground and it makes me shudder. Right now a full one-third of the passengers on board this train are dead. One of the carriages from that train flew up 18 feet into the air. It was tossed into the air and landed 45 feet from the track.

When we saw some of these wagons being lifted off the tracks and being sent away on loaders, the whole side of a carriage had simply been ripped away. Inside you see blood spats and blood marks inside. It really (INAUDIBLE) consistent with passengers being thrown around at high speed and projected into the walls of those carriages. And, of course, we know that some of those carriages were split in half, some came on fire.

If there is any hope in this, perhaps it was the residents who lived alongside this track that raced down there and tried to pull the survivors from the wreckage, Brooke.

BALDWIN: A harrowing scene there in Spain. Karl Penhaul, thank you so much.

I want to bring in Richard Beall. He joins us from Miami. He's a railroad operation and safety expert.

Mr. Beall, thank you so much for joining me.

Really, I just want to go back to the video. I think to Karl's point, as we know, investigators are going through this. And I'm sure you've seen this, and we're watching it again. Does what we're seeing support the idea that the train was going way too fast as it's going around this curve?

RICHARD BEALL, RAILROAD OPERATOR AND SAFETY EXPERT: Well, so far, that's my understanding. We'll have to wait for further details on it. But it certainly looks like, if there was a 50 mile an hour speed limit on that curve, it seems to be doing much faster than that.

BALDWIN: And if you are the engineer or the driver, as they say in Europe, of this train and you're rounding this curve, if speed is an issue, at what point is it too late to slow down?

BEALL: It is too late.

BALDWIN: It is too late.

BEALL: It's too late. I mean you never know what's going on in the cabin of that locomotive. Whether he fell asleep or got distracted or whatever. But it's obviously so far too fast that something had to have happened there. And once you're into the curve, you can hit the brakes as hard as you want. It's going to take you a little while to get down to the point where the stress on the outside of that high rail, the tension, it just would be too much.

BALDWIN: What else? As you look as these pictures, you heard Karl describe one of the - I think he said one of the carriages, one of the cars, flying up 18 feet into the air. If you're an investigator, what are you looking at? What are you honing in on?

BEALL: Well, it's going to take a lot more further study, but I saw the same thing. You know, my initial viewing of the accident, you know, and it's so rare to have a camera in place like that camera was, is that, I said, wow, look at that, it looks like two or three or four cars behind the engine is where it first took place. And I watched it several more times, and it almost looks as if something happened, something almost jackknifed.

But you never know. It could have been caused by the lead engine with so much stress on the rail going around, starting to turn the rail over, and it actually stayed on and the other ones at that point, the rail was turning over and coming off. We just won't know until they finish their investigation.

BALDWIN: And I'm just curious, sort of relating this to us back here at home. I used to live in Washington, D.C. I have hopped on the Acela Express many a time, right, traveling up to, say, New York City. Maybe this is totally apples and oranges, but is this something that could happen here or not at all?

BEALL: Oh, it could certainly happen here. I mean we - I was on the Acela a few months ago myself and, you know, those trains can do 150 miles an hour up there. And -- but for the most part, trains are safe. You don't have to worry. You don't have to stop taking the train because in 99.999 percent of the time, everything's competent, everything's fine. There's always going to be either a human error or a track defect or some sort of defect on the train itself that would cause the problem.

BALDWIN: Richard Beall, thank you.

BEALL: You're welcome. BALDWIN: Coming up next, a suspected killer tells police, good thing you got me because I was about to kill again. This news after he and his wife allegedly target and murder a sex offender. Find out what clues his tattoos may offer.

Plus, surreal images today out of Rio. Look at this. The pope's security crews once again on high alert as he steps out kissing babies, shaking hands, mingling with the crowds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Really in this next story, it's the mug shot of this murder suspect in South Carolina that you have to see that tells part of this story. You see skinhead in ink on this guy's neck. This is Jeremy Moody, and the Union County sheriff says Moody admits he is a white supremacist. Another tattoo on his temple reads "made in America." In fact, the police report says Moody has 30 tattoos in all.

But it turns out the true marked man in this story is this individual. This is Charles Parker. The sheriff says Moody targeted and killed Parker because Parker is a registered sex offender. Parker's wife, Gretchen, was also shot and stabbed to death. Their bodies found in their own home. Now Moody and his wife Christine are under arrest for the murders, and more charges are coming.

Nick Valencia is working this one for us today.

There's a lot to it.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BALDWIN: Let's begin with the fact that apparently -- so this guy confesses to this murder and says, you know what, I wasn't done.

VALENCIA: Yes, there's a lot to this case. A very scandalous case. But let's start from the beginning.

The victim and the suspect, we know that they were at least, the very least, acquaintances. The local sheriff's office told us that. At some point the victim worked on the suspect's car within the course of the last year. That's actually, Brooke, how he was able to gain access into the home. He shows up with his wife, this is the suspect, saying that he needs his car worked on. Gets into the home. And actually once he got into the home, he had some very choice words for the victim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF DAVID TAYLOR, UNION COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA (voice-over): The night that we arrested him, or the morning we arrested him, about 3:40 in the morning, he told us that it's a good thing that we arrested him before Wednesday because he had a target and was planning to kill another sex offender yesterday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: Now, Moody has admitted to investigators that he is a white supremacist. Right now the sheriff's office is saying that there's no ties between his white supremacist group and this murder. But it is - you know, it is, Brooke, like he said, we're glad you caught me now. That's sort of, you know, why this has turned into a really big case. He had others on his list he was going to target who were sex offenders as well.

BALDWIN: So I know, according also from this sheriff from what I've read, that other sex offenders in the area have called into the sheriff's department because they are fearful, actually of their own lives given, I guess, what this guy has done.

VALENCIA: Yes.

BALDWIN: Tell me more about the victim.

VALENCIA: The victim has a - I wouldn't say extensive, but he has multiple charges of sex offenses against minors. These are some of them. He's been charged in North Carolina and South Carolina both. So he's not all together, I would say, a good person.

But let's get back to the suspect. The way he got this victim, not only was his acquaintance, they were acquaintances, but also he was going through sex registries and looking for other sex offenders, and that's how he had picked out his -- what would have been his second victim.

BALDWIN: And you had more sound. This is from also the sheriff?

VALENCIA: Yes, this is also from the sheriff. Another sound bite we have to play you about what he told - what the suspect told investigators.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAYLOR: He told our investigators in his statement that the deceased, Mr. Parker, told him that he thought he was there to rob him. And he says, I'm not here to rob you, I'm here to kill you because you're a child molester. And those were his words to our investigators.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: So now there are other investigations into whether or not he's been involved in other murders. And there are other charges coming forward. I think you have the sheriff booked next hour. We may hear more charges coming forward.

BALDWIN: We do. Nick Valencia, thank you very much.

VALENCIA: You got it.

BALDWIN: At the top of the hour I'll be talking to the Union County Sheriff David Taylor, who Nick talked to. We will ask him if this case will have an impact on the sex offender registry. Got a lot of questions for him, so stay tuned for that.

Coming up next, we will take you live to Brazil, where Pope Francis has been meeting the people face to face, kissing babies -- here goes one -- with security for the pope raised to high risk. Later today, the pope will celebrate his biggest mass yet before more than 1 million people. Incredible images coming out of Rio. We will take you live to Brazil, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The pope visited one of Rio de Janeiro's poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods today. Pope Francis, though, he shrugged off security concerns, waded into the crowds, (INAUDIBLE) by drug lords. Large swaths of this area, they're still in ruins. Pope Francis walked the favela's narrow streets, reportedly repaved just in time for his visit. Look at the joy on one - look at this - one little boy's face. He reaches out to touch him. The pope touching, shaking hands, giving these little ones hugs.

Shasta Darlington, I mean, what an incredible trip to be covering of the pope there in Rio. But the favelas in Rio, incredibly dangerous places. Why go there?

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Brooke, he really didn't have any choice. This is the people's pope. The pope of the poor. This is where he wants to be. I think in some ways these kinds of visits that are the most important for him.

And you can see him light up when he walks through the crowds. When he's in the back of the Popemobile and people hand him their babies, he lights up as well. This is very important for him.

And you could hear also he had a message, a very strong message for the poor, saying that he and the church were with them. That authorities and people with resources should give more to help the poor.

But this was obviously a bit of a nightmare for the security detail. We saw hundreds of police lining the route that he walked down. There were military helicopters overhead. Just at least trying to keep as many people around him as they can, even though they obviously cannot control his movements, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I cannot imagine security for this man out and about in the streets, hanging out of what looks like an open air back of a jeep. We know, Shasta, in just a couple of hours, the pope will bless up to 1 million people on the beautiful Copacabana Beach for World Youth Day. Tell me a little bit more about that. And then also, I hear the music behind you. Where are you?

DARLINGTON: Exactly. I'm actually going to ask Miguel to swing the camera around so you can see. I'm next to already, I would say, hundreds of thousands of people getting ready right here on Copacabana Beach for the pope to arrive. And they've got live music for them. Some of the most popular catholic rock groups and pop groups from around the world are playing for them. And this despite a very cold weather actually. It's been raining all day. People are just packing the beach and excited about this trip.

BALDWIN: Shasta Darlington for us in Rio. Shasta, thank you very much.

Coming up, women at a top financial firm filing a lawsuit claiming bias. They say they were given books ordering them to, quote/unquote, "stroke men's egos" at the company in order to get ahead in the world. We'll talk about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)