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"Please Let Me Go Home To My Kids"; New Book Details Jodi Arias' Secrets; Legal Action Threatened Over Detention; 911 Calls Of Zimmerman Trial In PSA; Suspected School Gunman In Custody; Captor Left Money To Teen's Family; Filner: "More Than Sloppy Kisses"
Aired August 20, 2013 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: -- five years in prison for her actions after her husband, Rusty, was gunned down outside their son's daycare back in November of 2010. Her boss, Henny Newman was the killer. Prosecutors said Andrea was having an affair with Newman and hindered investigators' efforts to identify him. But Sneiderman insisted under oath today that she and Newman were only friends and that she pleaded with the judge to let her be with her two children.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREA SNEIDERMAN, CONVICTED PERJURER: Sofia and Ian desperately need me to fill that role for them. They've already suffered so much. Since last August they've had no parent to join them at school events, to take them to the playground or to go have an ice cream all because the state wrongly charged me with a murder that I had nothing to do with and would do anything to undo.
I want to go back to the life I had with Rusty. This is not a world that I understand anymore. However, I am determined to raise my children to be happy, productive citizens of this country. I am the person that should be doing that. Sofia and Ian have been punished enough. Please let me go home to my kids. Mr. Newman changed my children's lives forever by killing their father. Please don't make them live without their mother. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Wow. Jane Velez-Mitchell host on our sister network HLN. JVM, I know you have been all over the Sneiderman story. Just to hear her, her tearful testimony today, she pointed out, I mean, she was staring down this murder charge. Prosecutors changed the charges. What do you make of all of this at the very end here?
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN'S "ISSUES WITH JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL": Brooke, I don't buy her tearful allocution. I looked very closely. I didn't see actual tear drops, study. Study that video. She's a master manipulator according to her dead husband's family. They feel that she has really a lot more responsibility. You know what? This is whittled down, watered down justice.
As you mentioned, she was originally facing murder charges. The prosecution decided they didn't have enough to charge her or prosecute her for murder. Then she gets convicted of these nine felonies. She could have gotten 65 years according to some analysis. Then the prosecution only asks for 20 and then the judge gives her five with time served, she gets four. You know how it is, in a couple years she'll be out. This is what happens over and over.
We have a two-tiered system of justice in this country. There are more people locked up in America than any other country and a lot of people are doing real hard time for nonviolent drug offenses and things of nature. You have a case like this and she plays the mommy card and the judge buys it apparently.
BALDWIN: So from master manipulators, Jane Velez-Mitchell to chameleons. Let's talk about this. Jodi Arias, your book and I love the sort of juxtaposition here. Let's all look at the front cover of your book. It's called, "Exposed: The Secret Life of Jodi Arias." You dedicate this book to Travis Alexander. Why did you write this?
MITCHELL: I wrote it because I was out there in the hot Phoenix sun, outside that courthouse and going into the courthouse and listening as the nation did to Jodi Arias lying through her teeth on the witness stand as the prosecutor maintained and I decided, you know what, I want to get the real story because the prosecution is ham strung. They can't present everything they have.
I started talking with a tape recorder to Travis' friends going in and out of the courthouse. I got a completely different story, Brooke. On the witness stand, Jodi Arias portrays herself as a submissive, meek woman who endured sex with Travis Alexander to pacify him and placate his anger, contrare.
Travis' friend said she was the sexual aggressor. They saw her many times behaving very aggressive in the sexual department, sucking on his ear in a church settings and things of that nature. Travis Alexander himself told his very best friend that Jodi Arias was a nymphomaniac and I can't go into the details, but they're in the book, "Exposed: The Secret Life of Jodi Arias." You have to read them for yourself.
The bottom line is that she knew a lot more about sex. She was the sexual aggressor. Then when she needed to, she turned around and tried to make him an abuser and tried to turn the kinky sex games that she taught him into him committing domestic violence on her and it was a travesty. We set the record straight in this book.
BALDWIN: Read all the details, "Exposed: The Secret Life of Jodi Arias." I think the next chapter in this whole case starts next week. Jane Velez-Mitchell, thank you very much.
MITCHELL: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Coming up, want to take you back to our breaking news story here out of Georgia. A gunman as we've been reporting is in custody. All kids are safe after seeing them filing out one by one from the school this afternoon. The police chief here is now revealing new details about what went down.
Plus, the partner of the reporter who published Edward Snowden's leaks is threatening legal action for being detained at an airport for hours. Senior legal analyst Jeff Toobin on this urgent deadline next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Lawyers for a man detained at London's Heathrow Airport say they will take legal action against the British government unless the government admits the detention was illegal. David Miranda is the partner of "Guardian" newspaper reporter Glenn Greenwald who broke the whole story of NSA leaker Edward Snowden.
Miranda was traveling back to Rio De Janeiro from Berlin when he was stopped in this airport, held for nine hours. When he was finally allowed to get on a plane he got on that plane minus a lot of his gear.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID MIRANDA, DETAINED NINE HOURS IN HEATHROW (through translator): They took my computer, video games, cell phone, everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Greenwald says the incident, I'm quoting him, "embolden him and he'll become more aggressive in his reporting." So CNN senior analyst, Jeff Toobin, good to see you, sir. Let's talk about this -- this deadline. Tomorrow is the deadline. What are the chances that the British government and police will concede on this?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Zero.
BALDWIN: Zero.
TOOBIN: I mean, just not a chance. Look, this is a very bizarre story and I think there are a lot of facts that are not known yet, but Mr. Miranda was not some random tourist who was stopped. He had been in Berlin visiting with Laura Portias who was the filmmaker who worked with Greenwald on the original Snowden disclosures. He was bringing back computer equipment that she gave him. He was acting as, as they say, a mule so he was carrying stuff that the British government said was related to terrorism.
Now that may be a stretch. It is certainly not a stretch to say that it contained government stolen documents and material. So it wasn't like they picked Miranda out simply because they didn't like his partner. They had evidence that he was transferring stolen material.
BALDWIN: So what about if you look at it from the side of the government and the police, they want that material. Is what they did legal?
TOOBIN: Well, again, I don't want to pretend that I know every in and out of British law here, but certainly when you enter a country you surrender a certain number of rights. It's a very different situation than when you're already there. We all go through customs. We all give up our belongings for research. Something else happened yesterday in this case where the London authorities went to "The Guardian" newspaper -- BALDWIN: Offices.
TOOBIN: Right. And destroyed computers that they said contained classified information or stolen information. That, to me, is a far clearer abuse of power, just an outrageous thing as far as I can tell. Much more than this border search which, again, based on the information we know does seem at least partially defensible.
BALDWIN: Again, on "The Guardian" offices, this is what "The Guardian" editor wrote when it comes to the intelligence agents coming in. They called and said, quote, "You've had your fun, now we want the stuff back." We'll be following it. Mr. Toobin, a pleasure.
Tonight, Anderson Cooper will be talking to both Glenn Greenwald and David Miranda. Watch that exclusive interview tonight, "AC 360" 8 p.m. Eastern.
Coming up next, the PSA that has a lot of you talking, it reenacts essentially the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Find out what this group wants you to know. Don't miss this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: They were used to help clear George Zimmerman in court, and now those 911 calls the night he shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin are on screen for much different reason. The Coalition To Stop Gun Violence is the group that's put them out there in this 90-second public service announcement, this PSA. The group wants people to, quote, "Stand up to stand your ground laws," which exist in some two dozen states. Here's the PSA.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think he's yelling help?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Gunshots.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who's saying who shot who?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A guy is raising his hands up saying he shot a person, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officer's there. He has somebody at gun point. They're going to handle the situation from here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My God, it's a young boy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Stand your ground statutes allow people to use deadly force in self-defense if they fear for their lives. Let's talk about this PSA with former Prosecutor Faith Jenkins and Criminal Defense Attorney Darren Kavinoky. So Darren, let me just begin with you here because we were just talking. When you look at the PSA in of itself, aesthetically it's beautifully done.
DARREN KAVINOKY, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Gorgeous.
BALDWIN: You say though that this PSA, it shows specifically when it comes to stand your ground how the law lags behind trends in society.
KAVINOKY: Yes. We talked about that it could even be perceived by some as being misleading because when we talk about stand your ground what we're really talking about is that people no longer have a legal duty to retreat before using deadly force. Ordinarily you have no duty to retreat when you're in your home, but in states that have stand your ground laws, they have extended that lack of duty to retreat to when you're out in public. But the thing that strikes me as misleading about that is that this was not an issue in the Zimmerman trial.
BALDWIN: They didn't use it.
KAVINOKY: They didn't use it because the big tool around stand your ground laws is that a defendant or defense lawyer can actually have a hearing prior to trial where they're trying to get a judge to rule that they have immunity from prosecution based on the law. It was not used in the Zimmerman trial and I don't think the repeal of stand your ground would have made a difference at all in the Zimmerman case.
BALDWIN: Faith, I want you to weigh in, too.
FAITH JENKINS, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes.
BALDWIN: I think it's striking to see all the bodies at the very end of the PSA, all the different states represented here.
JENKINS: Yes.
BALDWIN: What did you think of it?
JENKINS: It's a very powerful piece, no doubt. I will say this about the stand your ground law and how it was applied in the Zimmerman case and why. You're going to see the Zimmerman trial being used repeatedly for groups like this who try to advance their argument on why these laws should be repealed. The stand your ground statute in Florida extended the basic self-defense laws.
That's why you have the judge when she read the jury instructions. She said George Zimmerman had a right to stand his ground. She did not read the standard language that used to be there about a duty to retreat. So the implementation of that law in Florida actually expanded self-defense laws.
It expanded gun rights and what you can do with a gun now in a situation where you're in a fight or you have an opportunity to retreat, but now you don't have to. That's because of stand your ground.
BALDWIN: Darren and Faith, thank you very much.
Coming up, much more of our breaking news out of the Atlanta area, a gunman in custody, all of these kids, this is pre-K through 5th grade at this elementary school. They are safe at this hour.
The assistant police chief getting pretty animated when he's talking to members of the media when asked about what happened in that school not too long ago, we've got that sound. We'll turn it around for you right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Again, back to our breaking story, the gunman is in custody after this incident at this elementary in the Atlanta area. All of the kids and faculty staff are safe. I want to play some sound. This is from the Dekalb County assistant police chief talking to our affiliate in Atlanta WXIA near the scene. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone is OK, is OK. I just want to reassure you that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know what time the bus is going to roll?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief, chief, chief, when do you think that the -- chief, when do you think that the buses will be getting here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We take our time in securing the scene, in securing this -- searching this location. We're going to check everything for secondary, device secondary suspects, anything. We've got to make sure before we let these kids move at this time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These parents have been pretty orderly, haven't they?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The parents --
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Again, making calls. Obviously police are investigating, police and sheriff's deputies to try to figure out who this is and why he would want to do something like this today.
Coming up next, embattled San Diego mayor out of rehab and with allegations growing, possibly back at work today, or is he? More on that story next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A twist in the Hannah Anderson kidnapping case. James DiMaggio, the man believed to have killed Christina and Ethan Anderson and kidnapping 16-year-old Hannah Anderson named the teen's grandmother as the beneficiary of his life insurance policy. DiMaggio was a family friend of the Andersons, like an uncle, they said. He was shot and killed by the FBI in the Idaho wilderness back on August 10th after a weeklong manhunt. A spokesman for the DiMaggio family told the "L.A. Times" the policy was for $112,000.
And it's not exactly back to business for San Diego Mayor Bob Filner as he is trying to sort through his legal problems after taking out some time for behavioral therapy in response to the increasing number of allegations against him. At least 16 women accusing the mayor of sexual harassment, but his supporters who gathered for a rally at city hall say he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ENRIQUE MORONES, FILNER SUPPORTER: When you stand united in stopping the public mockery of our judicial system, due process for Mayor Filner and due process for the accusers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: The mayor is involved in mediation trying to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by a former staff member.
New in the next hour of NEWSROOM, a case that has a lot of parents concerned. At least two daycare workers fired after posting allegedly these photos of these little kids on Instagram with these cruel captions. Now the Department of Social Services is investigating. More on what happened and how the mom of one of these kids is speaking out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
