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Man Falls at MLB Ballpark; Security Guard Hailed as Hero; Oprah Incident; Baby Monitor Hacked; Bulger's Enforcer Talks: Powerball Winners
Aired August 13, 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: Good to see all of you on this Tuesday. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Happening right now in Boston, remember these two guys? These two friends who allegedly helped the Boston bombing suspect cover his tracks?
Well, today they're being arraigned in court. They have been charged with removing a backpack containing fireworks and a laptop computer, among other items, from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He was the younger of the two brothers, from his dorm room at U-Mass Dartmouth as the FBI were searching for him. So CNN is live at the courthouse right now. We'll bring you the latest as soon as we get more information on that hearing today.
Meantime, it was a lengthy rain delay. It was finally ending. The hometown team, the Atlanta Braves, and the visiting Philadelphia Phillies finally close to playing ball, but then tragedy struck. A fan, 29 years old, fell 65 feet to his death. He fell 65 feet from the upper level in Atlanta's Turner Field onto the stadium parking lot reserved for the players. Police have called it, quote/unquote, "apparently accidental," but they're talking to some witnesses still.
Let me bring in Alina Machado. She's out there live for us at Turner Field in Atlanta.
And I understand, Alina, you're getting some new information this hour including a photograph of this young man?
ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, we just got that. I just want to make mention that the police investigation in this case is ongoing. Right now all they are saying is that this appears to have been an accident. I want to emphasize appears because that's what they are saying. They also say foul play is not suspected at this time.
Now, we want to show you a picture of the victim. His name is Ronald Homer. He was 29 years old. He was from Conyers, Georgia. That's a town that's about 25 miles east of Atlanta.
Now, this all happened here at Turner Field last night right before the start of the game. There had been a two hour rain delay. And I want to show you the general area where this accident happened. We're going to zoom into those bleachers over there. Police say it happened behind those bleachers. They say Homer was standing alone near a railing that was above waist high when he fell 65 feet. Police say he fell from an upper level platform to the secured parking lot you mentioned.
And we just heard from the medical examiner's office that the autopsy has been completed. However, the cause of death in this case is still pending further investigation. Toxicology results could take up to eight weeks before they're ready. And, Brooke, as far as we know, we still don't know if alcohol was a factor in what happened here.
BALDWIN: It's horrible all the way around. I remember back in 2011 there was a fatal fall at the park where the Texas Rangers play. And in response to that, the team, you know, actually raised the height of some of its rails at the stadium. Do you know, in talking to folks with the Braves, with Turner Field, Alina, are there any immediate changes planned? I know there's a game tonight.
MACHADO: There is a game tonight. It's a continuation of the series that -- against the Phillies. But as far as we know, there are no immediate changes planned. We have called the team but we have not yet heard back from them.
BALDWIN: OK. Alina Machado for us in Atlanta. Alina, thank you.
Now today some new developments in the investigation of former NFL star Aaron Hernandez. A dive team searching a small retention pond looking for the gun used to kill Odin Lloyd in June. The pond is across the street from Pine Lake. An extensive search of that lake over several days turned up nothing. Hernandez, who is a former New England Patriot, has been charged with the murder and has pleaded not guilty.
New details today about the rescue of 16-year-old Hannah Anderson straight from one of the rescuers who found her in that treacherous terrain in Idaho. A U.S. marshal who was part of the week long search that stretched all the way from southern California, way up into the wilderness of central Idaho, is describing the moment he spotted Hannah Anderson and her captor, James DiMaggio.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE JURMAN, U.S. MARSHAL: So we circled the lake a few times and didn't see anything. And then all of a sudden there was a little glimmer of blue. Then we were able to see that it was a blue tent.
We were actually able to verify that it was a male and a female with blonde hair and a small animal. So at that point, we knew we had something extremely valuable.
Well, there were several things going through my mind. Number one, we definitely were not going to take our eyes off of that tent until we had it covered by ground units and make sure that we determined for sure if it was or was not them.
Because they were spotted so quickly, everybody was kind of taken off guard. We really were trenching ourselves in for a long, drawn-out search.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: As for Hannah, she is back with family and friends. San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore (ph) says the teen had no idea her mother and brother were murdered until she was rescued. At a news conference in her hometown of San Diego, her dad asked for privacy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRETT ANDERSON, HANNAH ANDERSON'S FATHER: The healing process will be slow. She has been through a tremendous, horrific ordeal. I am very proud of her and I love her very much. She is surrounded by the love of her family, friends, and community. Again, please, as a family, give us our team to heal and grieve.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Police say the investigation is still ongoing but they caution there are things, quote/unquote, "we might never know."
And a building crumbles. Dozens of people inside. Quick thinking by this one security guard actually helped everyone get out alive. We talked about this yesterday. We showed you this huge 60 foot sinkhole. Just yesterday talked to someone who escaped. Well now we're learning how the people inside this resort, this is near Disney World, got out as quickly as they did. Keep in mind, this was the middle of the night. Most people and kids, sound asleep. So there was this security guard. He actually went door to door to door banging on the doors, waking people up, warning them about the building crumbling around them. And now he's being hailed as a hero. CNN's Martin Savidge talked to him about his quick actions.
Martin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And that is building 104. That's the building that on Sunday night, around 10:30, 11:00 at night, people inside, the guests, about 100 of them, began hearing odd noises. Things like popping, cracking. And then the windows began blowing out, one after the other.
There was a security guard nearby, Richard Shanley. He first got the call, thought it was a domestic dispute. But once he got inside that building realized it was the building itself that was coming down. The same story he was trying to relay to the customers inside who were waking up and not believing a word of what he said.
RICHARD SHANLEY, SECURITY GUARD: I thought about everybody else before I thought about myself.
SAVIDGE: So how did it begin? Tell us that.
SHANLEY: I was driving down the street and I was flagged down by a guest and telling me that they had a problem. They kept hearing noises. Popping and cracking noises in the building. And then I heard glass shattering from the second and third floors.
SAVIDGE: So as a security officer you're thinking what?
SHANLEY: I thought it was a domestic disturbance. Somebody had gotten mad at somebody and busted a window. I went door to door just beating on the doors, trying to get people out and making sure they were safe. I went floor to floor, got everybody out. And at the time I got done, I really didn't think about it, I just got them out and then got out myself. There was people sleeping in rooms. I actually physically had to wake them up and get them out of the building.
SAVIDGE: And what was their reaction?
SHANLEY: They thought I was kidding. They thought it was a joke. I said, this is no joke. I mean you can look down the hallway and see it. And they looked down and they got devastated and they - I took them out each end of the stairwells. I wasn't going to let them come through the breezeway. I said, get out to the stairwells as quick as you can. Don't worry about grabbing your stuff, just get out.
SAVIDGE: Everyone was able to get out. In fact, nobody was even injured. Engineers are going to be going over this site to check out the rest of the property. Meanwhile here, they are considering it miraculous that this is the only real devastation without any significant tragedy.
Martin Savidge, CNN, Clermont, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Now to this legal victory for the queen of southern cooking, but not a total win here. A federal judge has dismissed the racial discrimination claims in this lawsuit filed against Paula Deen by this former employee. The judge says the woman can't claim to be a victim of racial discrimination because she's white. But -- here's the but. Other parts of the suit, including sexual harassment and abusive treatment claims, they are still pending. You know the story. Deen's career took a huge hit earlier this summer after she admitted in a deposition that once upon a time she had used the "n" word. She lost major endorsements and her Food Network cooking show. She did later apologize. She said she is not a racist.
And now to Oprah and this controversy that has apparently erupted over this purse. She was shopping for a pretty pricey handbag in Zurich, Switzerland, and now both Oprah and this store clerk are talking. They now say this was just a huge misunderstanding.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY: I think that incident in Switzerland was just an incident in Switzerland. I'm really sorry that it got blown up. I purposely did not mention the name of the store. I'm sorry that I said it was Switzerland. I was just referencing it as an example of being in a place where people don't expect that you would be able to be there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Nischelle Turner, let me bring you in. I know you just sat down with Oprah not too many -
NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
BALDWIN: You know, days ago, sort of talking a little bit about this. First, I know you have both sides of the story. Let's begin with Oprah. What is Oprah's version of events?
TURNER: Yes, OK, let's start with Oprah, Brooke, because the point I think to make here is that Oprah is not apologizing for talking about what happened to her or saying that it didn't happen. She seems to be saying that she's sorry everyone is focusing on the specifics of this story and not the point that she was trying to make, that even Oprah Winfrey believes she is discriminated against.
Now, she said last night that she was just trying to use this incident as an example of the fact that she believes she still experiences racism, just not in the overt ways, which is something that she did say to me when we sat down last week because she also said, you know, nobody's going to come up to her and call her the "n" word to her face, but she believes it still plays out in other ways and she thinks this handbag incident was one of those ways.
BALDWIN: So she went out of the way not to talk specifically about the store, but then you have the store clerk is talking to media and she's challenging Oprah's story.
TURNER: Yes.
BALDWIN: A, she also now is like apparently fearful for her own life?
TURNER: You know, there's a lot that she said to that Swiss newspaper. The first thing though, you're right, Oprah did not specifically name the store. We're seeing it there, Trois Pommes. It was the media who found out what store it was and who the store clerk was.
But now that store clerk is telling her version to a Swiss newspaper. She denies that she ever told Oprah that the bag was too expensive for her. She believes this was all a misunderstanding, that's what she says. The store clerk is an Italian woman and is reportedly blaming some of this on language issues. She says she had a handbag in her hand that was the exact same bag as the one on display except it was a different material and it cost less. She says she tried to steer Oprah towards that bag. In essence, her defense seems to be that she was trying to help a customer get a better buy, although if I'm a salesperson and --
BALDWIN: You want somebody to buy the -
TURNER: (INAUDIBLE), of course.
BALDWIN: Right, pay a chunk of change, right?
TURNER: Right. You don't want to give somebody a deal, necessarily, you want them to buy the most expensive item in the store. That benefits you.
BALDWIN: OK. OK. OK. Maybe it was lost in translation. Who knows. Nischelle Turner, thank you for --
TURNER: You know -
BALDWIN: Yes?
TURNER: Well, can I just go on just really quick.
BALDWIN: Yes, yes.
TURNER: The store clerk does say that the store makes an effort to respect and to treat everyone the same.
BALDWIN: OK.
TURNER: She also says that she offered to resign over this whole thing but the manager said no and stood by her.
BALDWIN: Thank you for clearing it up.
TURNER: Absolutely.
BALDWIN: Nischelle Turner, good to see you. Thank you very much.
TURNER: You too, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Coming up, it's a story, if you have little ones, pay close attention, because if you have little ones who sleep in another room, you have a baby monitor, right, that baby monitor is there to let you know if he or she is crying, needs something, keep a good, close look on them. Well, what if the monitor starts to move. Some other voice appears through this thing. That happened to one family. Hacking a baby monitor. We're talking about that and how you can protect yourself coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A baby monitor hacked. A Texas father makes this shocking and frightening discovery when he hears this voice, this weird voice, saying sexual things to his two-year-old daughter as she lay asleep. KTRK's Jessica Willey has this story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARC GILBERT, FATHER: We just use it to listen.
JESSICA WILLEY, KTRK REPORTER (voice-over): For two years Marc Gilbert and his wife have come to rely on their Internet cameras.
GILBERT: We almost couldn't live without them.
WILLEY: With them, they could watch their two toddlers in their rooms. But over the weekend, someone else was watching too.
GILBERT: It felt like somebody broke into our house.
WILLEY: Gilbert says he first heard a voice from down the hall. As he and his wife got closer, what it was saying got worse.
GILBERT: Well, he said, wake up, Allyson, you little (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
WILLEY: Soon he knew it was coming from the camera.
GILBERT: I see the camera move on us.
WILLEY: Gilbert immediately pulled the plug and started doing research. He believes someone hacked his router, as well as the camera. The person could see Allyson's name on her wall to call her by it. He now wants to warn other parents about the danger.
GILBERT: As a father, you know, I'm supposed to protect her against people like this and so it's - it's a little embarrassing, you know, to say the least, but it's not going to happen again.
WILLEY: The only saving grace is that Allyson never heard a thing.
GILBERT: Allyson was born deaf, so she has cochlear implants. So, thankfully, she -- we had them off and she didn't hear any of it and she slept right through it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: And that was our affiliate KTRK with that report.
But I wanted to talk more about this. David Kennedy, security consultant, joins me here.
David, my first thought was, what and yikes! You have this IP camera. This is the camera in this particular instance. It's an Internet protocol camera. Not necessarily your traditional baby monitor. How does this thing exactly work?
DAVID KENNEDY, SECURITY CONSULTANT: Well, Brooke, if you look at it, I mean the way that these devices work is they connect over through your home wireless networking and then they allow you to be able to, you know, sync up things like your phone to them so that you can communicate with your baby or you can look at them. I personally - I have three kids and I have one of these as well at home.
BALDWIN: Oh, no.
KENNEDY: And they basically just use the entire router themselves to actually communicate and, you know, talk back and forth between the rooms.
BALDWIN: So if this thing is connected to a wireless router, who doesn't have, you know, a wireless router. We rely on the Internet.
KENNEDY: That's right.
BALDWIN: But can anything Internet based really be hack proof?
KENNEDY: Not hack proof, no, but there's some definite things that you can do to make them more, you know -- less prone to attack. And, you know, I think that's what you're looking at here is, you know, and especially what the gentleman said that he was able to hack through the router and then from there gain access to the camera. It sounded like there that, you know, there was some insecurities on the actual systems themselves.
BALDWIN: OK, so what do we need to do? Give me those examples where we protect these - protect our baby monitors or what have you.
KENNEDY: Sure. Well, you know, one thing to note is that these cameras are very sensitive. I mean you can literally hear a cat meow from five rooms away and they're, you know, very capable of actually listening to things inside the house, not just in the room that they're at. So you really want to make sure you protect these. And the first thing you want to do is make sure that your access point itself has a really strong encryption on it. And what I recommend is two types of encryption which is wpa and wpa 2. Those are wireless protocols that actually secure your communications back and forth so that if someone were to try to attack it, they wouldn't necessarily have access to it.
BALDWIN: OK.
KENNEDY: The second is to do a complex pass phrase or a complex password. And what I generally recommend as a rule of thumb --
BALDWIN: Not just 1234.
KENNEDY: Not just 1234, no. You definitely want to change it because that's the first thing I'm going to guess as a bad guy, right?
BALDWIN: Yes.
KENNEDY: Not saying I'm a bad guy, but -
BALDWIN: I hear you.
KENNEDY: But, you know, but those are the things I would change. And then at least do a 12 character password or above. The longer the password is, the harder it is to actually crack. And you can introduce things like spaces. Make things like a sentences. Like, I walk down the park with an exclamation point at the end of it is a very complex password if you incorporate spaces into it. Those things alone can really help out.
And the last thing --
BALDWIN: So helpful. Yes, quickly.
KENNEDY: And the last thing - the last thing is, change all the default passwords. Whenever you get these things and you buy them, they come with default passwords, especially your routers and your modems. Log into them and change the passwords away from admin admin or admin 12345. Those will really make sure that you have a really tight network.
BALDWIN: Helpful. People have baby monitors. They want to monitor their babies, not be - you know, have them be hacked into. So we'll put this on the Brooke blog, cnn.com/brooke, so that people can really go through those four tips.
David Kennedy, thank you so much. I appreciate that.
KENNEDY: Thanks, Brooke. Appreciate it.
BALDWIN: And he is the man who buried bodies, moved guns, collected the cash for reputed mob boss Whitey Bulger. Now Kevin Weeks, he's talking to CNN, revealing specific information about Whitey Bulger and why he turned on his one-time mentor and what he says about after this one time when a woman was killed might give you the chills.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you ever think of the look on Debby (ph) Hussey's face?
KEVIN WEEKS: No.
FEYERICK: Do you remember the look?
WEEKS: Not really.
FEYERICK: Do you remember Bulger and how he reacted after?
WEEKS: He laid down and went to sleep.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: To Boston we go where James "Whitey" Bulger has been convicted on 31 of those 32 federal counts against him including racketeering, extortion, conspiracy. And one of the government's key witnesses during that two month trial was a man by the name of Kevin Weeks, one of Bulger's closest associates when they were running that organized crime gang in (INAUDIBLE). CNN's Deborah Feyerick sat down with Weeks to talk about his old boss.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Whitey Bulger's mob enforcer, Kevin Weeks says he buried the bodies, moved the guns and collected the cash, which bookmakers and businesses paid to stay in business. Weeks was one of the government's eye witnesses. Last month he came face to face with his one-time crime partner.
KEVIN WEEKS, BULGER ENFORCER: He -- he wasn't the same guy I knew. I mean, he was a lot older, but his -- he had no life in his eyes. He had - he was subdued. He had changed. He just kind of lost his spark.
FEYERICK: Weeks turned against his former boss after learning Bulger, who ran a murderous criminal enterprise for 20 years, had spent much of that time as a government informant, the kind of man Bulger always referred to as a rat. During the trial, Weeks and Bulger cursed each other after a defense question about Weeks' role and his regrets.
WEEKS: Basically what he asked me was, he says, you have no regrets in life. Nothing bothers you. I says you know what bothered me? I says, we killed five people. He says, and that bothered you? I says, no, what bothered me is we killed people for being rats and I have the two biggest rats right next to me.
FEYERICK: Defense lawyers argued Bulger's never provided any useful information to the government and that Bulger's lawyers argued crime partner Steve Flemmi killed two women. Weeks testified he had seen Jim Bulger murder Deborah Hussey with his own eyes. WEEKS: And I walked out and there was Jimmy strangling her. She had walked in the house with Stevie and Jimmy jumped out and started strangling her. And he killed her and she was brought downstairs and, you know, ultimately buried.
FEYERICK (on camera): Do you ever think of the look on Debby Hussey's face?
WEEKS: No.
FEYERICK: Do you remember the look?
WEEKS: Not really.
FEYERICK: Do you remember Bulger and how he reacted after?
WEEKS: He laid down and went to sleep.
FEYERICK: Why?
WEEKS: He always did. He was nice and relaxed.
FEYERICK (voice-over): In December 1994, Bulger fled south Boston after a corrupt FBI agent tipped him off the feds were closing in. After a worldwide manhunt, Bulger was finally arrested in Santa Monica, California, in 2011.
FEYERICK (on camera): Whitey Bulger stood up and said he didn't get a fair trial, it was a sham, he had been given immunity by a corrupt prosecutor. What do you think of that?
WEEKS: I'll equate it to this. He got a fairer trial than the people we killed.
FEYERICK: Do you think Jim Bulger ever lies awake at night thinking about the people he allegedly killed or he killed?
WEEKS: I think he lies awake at night thinking of the people he should have killed and didn't kill.
FEYERICK: If Jim Bulger were sitting across from you right now --
WEEKS: Right.
FEYERICK: What would you want to say to him? WEEKS: Nothing.
FEYERICK: What would you tell him?
WEEKS: I'd have to shoot him because he'd be trying to shoot me if he was sitting right there right now.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Deborah is still in Boston for us today. She's actually talking to one of the jurors who convicted Bulger just yesterday. We will play that for you at the top of the next hour.
Meantime, how would you like to win Powerball? Well, 16 lucky people have. These are live pictures. This is a lottery official. As we have now learned, these 16 co-workers, they have dubbed themselves "the ocean 16," they are about to receive some pretty enormous checks here once they go splitsies. They're each going to get about $3.8 million. Zain Asher is there in the room where I'm sure the anticipation is mounting.
$3.8 million. Not too shabby.
ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I know. Not too shabby at all, Brooke. Yes, a huge amount of money. The press conference has literally just started. You can hear applause and people are just very excited here right now.
We're actually waiting for the lottery winners to actually come on the stage right now, but the formula is basically going to be an introduction and then a question and answer session from the lottery winners. You know, and the past four days have been a huge -- hugely turbulent for these winners. You know, they've been desperately trying to maintain their privacy. So today is really all about sort of coming forward, showing their faces to the world and then moving on with their lives.
This time last week they were making roughly $35,000 a year. Now they're making -- now they're going to get a check for roughly $3.8 million in just one go. They haven't received the money yet. Powerball takes some time to collect the money from all the (INAUDIBLE) across the country. That takes about 10 days (ph).
And in the meantime they are going to be sort of planning how they're going to be spending the cash. So they're going to be doing some financial planning. I am told that six of these winners were affected by Hurricane Sandy, so this is obviously hugely good news for them. Literally the answer to their prayers.
But one thing that I find quite interesting is that a lot of these people have no immediate plans to quit their jobs. I actually spoke to one of the lottery winners on Friday. He said he planned to continue working at least until the end of the year even though, in theory, he's (INAUDIBLE) retired. BALDWIN: Zain, I am -- I'm going to need you to speak up because I'm having a hard time hearing you over some of the round of applause. Can you tell me what's going on right now? Are these the winners right there on the stage?
ASHER: Yes. You can actually see all 16 of them sitting on the stage. We're waiting to be introduced to them. But right now we're seeing a lottery official talking, sort of giving a brief introduction to these winners and then we're going to be getting - receiving answers from these winners. They're going to be telling us their life's stories. We're going to be asking questions. They're sort of going to be introducing themselves to us. So we're literally waiting right now for that to happen.
Brooke?
BALDWIN: OK. So as we continue to wait, let me go back to one of the points you were just making, the fact that several of these - oh, here we go. Here is Ocean 16 number one. Let's listen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I couldn't think of anyone else I'd rather be with right now. This is just an awesome group. We are truly blessed for what we've received. And I'm - it's just been great. And I think I speak for all of us when we turn around I want to thank our director, Mr. James Pine (ph).
When we found out on Thursday that we were the winners, it was a little bit of roller coaster ride and his leadership and direction really kept us all focused and kept us protected from everyone out there that we really didn't want to see right away. But we are just -- we are really blessed and we want to thank - thank everyone for all their support, our families and everyone else out there.
On a personal note, I'd like to say a personal thank you. This is for a gentleman I used to work with, Colonel Anthony Lashure (ph) from the Air National Guard. I want to thank him for providing me with this opportunity to be at this point in my career where I could be here and be with these special people. Thank you. Cheers, everyone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know you want to ask questions, but I want to introduce someone else who's here today. I want to introduce the manager of the Acme (ph) store, Matt Juring (ph). He'd like to say a couple of words.
Matt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, real fast, great job, Lisa. Look forward to seeing you in the Acme again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hear, hear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So do the associates. So it's been busy in the last week since that happened. The lottery line has been getting longer and longer but importantly your winning ticket enabled Acme markets (ph) to give back to the community.