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New Allegations in Ft. Hood Case; Digging Up Past in Florida; Convicted Sex Offenders on the Prowl
Aired August 07, 2013 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: This is a bit tough to actually believe, and if you believe it, it's real tough to stomach it. But more than 100 children disappeared while attending a now defunct reform school in the Florida Panhandle. All of this happened between 1940 and 1960. So today, researchers are digging up unmarked graves to try to find these disappeared children and maybe even unearth some of the secrets of what happened to them. The governor of Florida, Rick Scott, and the rest of the Florida cabinet have all decided to vote to allow the authorities to exhume the graves near the school for boys. That was a school that was plagued by stories of beatings and abuse and believe it or not, killings. You might say murders. And now the families of those who just vanished are hoping to finally get some closure in this case.
CNN affiliate, WTSP's Preston Rudy has the details.
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PRESTON RUDY, REPORTER, WTSP: Thomas was 13 years old when he died at Dozier in 1934. State records don't say where he's buried. Researchers will now be given the chance to find his remains along with those of 20 other boys who also died at the school but can't be located. The backdrop to the story, former students continue to make accusations that state guards raped, tortured and even murdered boys at the school.
PAM BONDI, FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL: We all know Dozier has a history, part of our Florida history that we're probably not proud of. We're not exactly sure what happened there. But we know it wasn't good. And it's something that we as Floridians cannot dig in.
ADAM PUTNAM, FLORIDA AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER: In a state as old as Florida is, we're going to having chapters in our history that we're more proud of than others but there is no shame in searching for the truth.
RUDY: Already, USF has exposed troubling facts about Dozier closed in 2011. Using radar, they found more gravesites at Dozier than previously reported. They found at least 98 deaths occurred at the school between 1914 and 1973 which is 17 more than previously stated. Plus, researchers have identified discrepancies in records regarding the cause and manner of death reported for several boys.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any comments or objections? Hearing none, the motion carries.
(APPLAUSE)
RUDY: They will find more bodies and Dozier school's story will spill out onto the newspaper and all of its sordid past and we'll get it back in the history book where it should be and it will never happen again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: That was reporter Preston Rudy from WTSP.
California's prison crisis is putting communities at risk. That's from one parole supervisor who says that convictions being monitored by ankle bracelets can pretty much get away with just about anything and the terrifying tale of one who actually did in a CNN investigation coming up next.
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BANFIELD: Hello, California, apparently, have you quite a problem on your hands, some serious overcrowding in your prisons in the state. And apparently by the end of the year, you need to figure out what to do with 9600 prisoners, either move them around, move them out of state or move them out and let them go by the end of the year, five months away. Here's where it gets uncomfortable and frightening. The law requires convicted sex offenders to go to local instead of state prisons. Apparently those prisons are real overcrowded, too. These offenders are arrested for parole violations and often spend about I don't know, 24 hours behind bars before they just end up released again because there's no space.
CNN's investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin, is keeping them honest.
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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's early on a Tuesday evening in Stockton, California. Parole agents are arresting 41-year-old Jack Turner. Described by agents as someone with an extensive history of sexual violence.
JACK TURNER, DESCRIBED AS HAVING HISTORY OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE: (INAUDIBLE)
GRIFFIN: Tonight though, his only problem is the GPS monitoring ankle bracelet he is required to wear has run out of power. It is a parole violation, not at actual crime. But he is still tracked down, found on the streets of Stockton by agents who know his usual hangouts. Taken to a jail where less than 20 hours later, not even a full day behind bars -- Jack Turner is led out.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Put your left foot up.
GRIFFIN: He may be a sexual offender. He may have a dangerous past. But Turner knows, violating parole in the state of California means almost nothing to him.
(on camera): How many times do you think you've gone through this parole violation procedure?
TURNER: Last week, be this week, last week, the week before that, probably before that, so they know me real well here. So I'm always --
GRIFFIN: Is it always the same, come in, spend a night, come out.
TURNER: Spend the night, come out.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): In Stockton, California this convicted sex offender has no real incentive to follow any rules of his parole, which is why parole supervisor, Susan Kane, is trying to sound the alarm. She is speaking out against the state's wishes, saying she believes the public is not safe. She says she's speaking out for herself, personally and not the department of corrections.
SUSAN KANE, SUPERVISORY PAROLE AGENT: In all my years of law enforcement, over 30 years, I for the first time feel at a total loss. That I can honestly say we do our job, we do the very best job that we can. But we can't protect the community with this. We can't protect them from these sex offenders because they get out of jail the next day.
GRIFFIN: How did this happen? Two words. Prison overcrowding. There's simply not enough room to keep people in jail. The state of California tried to solve its own prison overcrowding by passing a bill called AB-109, backed by the Governor Jerry Brown. It called for a realignment of where criminals serve time. Low level offenders and especially parole violators would no longer come to state prisons. They would instead go to county jails.
But in San Joaquin County, the jail is already under a court order to relieve its own overcrowding.
According to undersheriff, John Piccone, the state dumped its problem on the county and the county is now dumping criminals on the streets.
(on camera): So no matter what the state or the governor says are the county's duties in terms of handling these parole violators, you just have no room?
JOHN PICCONE, UNDERSHERIFF, SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY: The overcrowding situation is such that we can't afford it. We can't keep them here because of the court order. So we have to follow the court order.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): In this county, it is Judge Richard Giuliani who makes those decisions about who stays behind bars and who doesn't. On the day we met him, he had released four inmates, ten the day before. Amazingly, he admits, they shouldn't be on the streets.
(on camera): Are you comfortable with who is being released?
RICHARD GIULIANI, JUDGE, SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY: I'm not comfortable releasing anybody. I think it's an unfortunate reality, and we do the best that we can by prioritizing the people that we do release.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Parole violators like Jack Turner are usually the first to go. Susan Kane says parolees is especially sexual predators know they can get away with almost anything.
KANE: I even had a parolee who was upset last week because we arrested had I am for being around minors when he's a child molester. He says I'm going to be in jail one night and when I get out, I'm going to make your life miserable.
GRIFFIN: This past February, Sidney Deavila a convicted sexual offender was picked up by Stockton police. Not knowing what to do, they brought the homeless man to the home of his grandmother, Rachel Russell. It was February.
(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)
911 OPERATOR: 911, what is your emergency?
RACHEL RUSSELL, GRANDMOTHER OF JEROME DEAVILA: Yes, the police just brought my grandson, Jerome, out to my house about an hour ago and told him not to go back out no more and they leave him alone. He sneaked out again. Now he's tearing up my property and my car.
(END AUDIO FEED)
GRIFFIN (on camera): Was she scared of him?
STEPHEN RUSSELL, UNCLE OF JEROME DEAVILE: Yes, she was.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Stephen Russell is his uncle. He says his mother was the only person in the family who still held out any hope for his nephew, but in February, he began to frighten even his own grandmother. On February 13th, he was arrested yet again, the 16th time for violating his parole. He had cut off his GPS ankle bracelet. To Stephen Russell, it was a relief.
(on camera): You guys taught he was in prison?
STEPHEN RUSSELL: Yeah, he was in jail. And he had a violation of parole, failure to register as a sex offender. He kept taking the tracking device, removing the tracking device so when he was picked up, we knew he was going to get some time and so there was a big relief.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): The relief was short-lived. Diavala's 16th parole violation was considered not enough to hold him in a crowded jail. The judge made the decision and for the 16th time, Deavila was released.
(on camera): What happened after that?
STEPHEN RUSSELL: He went over to my mother's house and killed her. He killed her and he left her body in the backyard in a wheelbarrow. He raped her, he murdered her. And he robbed her. GRIFFIN (voice-over): The State Department of Corrections says, overall, its new policy is working well. But it's second in command says perhaps the judge was at fault for releasing Deavila.
MARTIN HOSHINO, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS & REHABILITATION: I do, you know, consider the judge's position on then and not knowing, I wouldn't second-guess all the difficult decisions that he has to make, but there were perhaps some attributes about that particular case or that individual that should have been given more consideration and some weight in the determination.
GRIFFIN: Stephen Russell found his mother in the backyard. Police found Deavila on the streets. He has been charged with murder and rape and technically, his 17th parole violation. He's entered a plea of not guilty.
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BANFIELD: Our thanks to CNN investigative reporter, Drew Griffin, for that report.
California's governor, Jerry Brown, would not comment on this be to CNN but an official at the Department of Corrections says that the real problem is that judges need to do a better job of prioritizing who gets out and who doesn't.
You can always reach out to the CNN's investigative unit. Go to CNN.com/investigate.
Coming up next, an amazing survival story, a woman who receives a kidney transplant as a young girl goes on to become a young woman who is a transplant surgeon. She is the focus of the story you're going to hear about next.
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BANFIELD: I really, really like these stories especially if we can be positive in the news, and this one is great from recipient to resident. Dr. Silke Niederhous beat the odds of getting a transplant as a kid and became and transplant surgeon herself.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the story.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: As a transplant surgeon, Silke Niederhaus has transplanted more than a hundred kidneys. It's what she's wanted to do for as long as she can remember.
SILKE NIEDERHOUS, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND MEDICAL CENTER: I was interested in being a doctor at age four.
GUPTA: By the time she was eight, she was in the fight for her life.
NIEDERHOUS: I started having blood in my urine and we couldn't figure out why. It came on so acutely.
GUPTA: She was diagnosed with a relatively common kidney disease that caused severe inflammation.
NIEDERHOUS: By the time I was 11, I had to start on dialysis.
GUPTA: She received a new kidney and it worked immediately at first.
NIEDERHOUS: A week later, I had my first rejection episode.
GUPTA: A second and a third, all of it within a month.
NIEDERHOUS: They said the kidneys had so many rejections it will probably never work.
GUPTA: On average a donor kidney lasts about ten years and doctors gave her kidney a 50/50 chance. She was not about to give up. She became the first child to try an experimental drug and it worked.
NIEDERHOUS: I had something that I wanted to do. That was to be a transplant surgeon.
GUPTA: After high school she and her family moved to the United States so she could go to medical school and pursue the dream.
NIEDERHOUS: The kidney was not working at a few points in time. I walked away 24 years later with excellent kidney function.
GUPTA: That allowed her to fulfill another dream to have a baby with her husband, John. She had a high risk pregnancy. She developed anemia and high blood pressure. In June, he was born. He was early due to complications but he was healthy.
NIEDERHOUS: If you have a goal all your life and something gets in your way, set yourself a goal and work towards that goal and you'll get that. You have something that doesn't let you give up.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: You can make a point to watch "Sanjay Gupta, M.D." every Saturday at 4:30 eastern pres.
What do you get when you cross a Weiner with a chesty madame? You get our next story.
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BANFIELD: Here in New York, there's quite a heated faceoff between the mayoral candidate, Anthony Weiner, and his Republican rival. It was triggered when Weiner decided to refer to George McDonald as "grandpa." Take a listen.
ANTHONY WEINER, (D), NEW YORK MAYORAL CANDIDATE: Grandpa.
GEORGE MCDONALD, (R), NEW YORK MAYORAL CANDIDATE: Oh, OK.
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BANFIELD: Did you hear that? "Grandpa, oh, OK." This has been a total circus. We've had the madame that he's up against in another race arrested for pushing pills. We had Eliot Spitzer who has his history, who has entered that race. Forgive me when I roll my eyes if there's another Anthony Weiner story. There's so much more I could add but I'm not going to.
Live pictures of the Mayflower. If you thought it couldn't weather another couple of hundred years, it couldn't. It's the Mayflower II. It's being brought back to its harbor because it was under some repairs. It had a bad time and needed to be repaired at the Fairhaven shipyard. The hole in the rudder was a bit of a mess. There's a big celebration when it gets to Plymouth plantation. It's going to the state pier. There you go. The replica identical, as well including the tar that was used to build it.
Thanks so much for watching, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield.
AROUND THE WORLD starts next.
