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No Rape Charges; American Killed in Libya; Storm Brings Cold; Stranded Whales

Aired December 05, 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 you. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We begin with some breaking news on Thursday. Big news in the world of football, but this could have ramifications way beyond that when it comes to accusers in sex assault in big college football towns.

You're looking at pictures of a really good football player. This is FSU quarterback, Jameis Winston. So he had been accused of raping a young woman, the incident apparently taking place about a year ago. And so we had just been waiting for the big moment, which has now happened in Florida. Florida state attorney, Willie Meggs, officially announcing moments ago that Winston would not be facing charges.

In case you missed it, let me play that for you first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGGS: I know there's been a lot of concern about the length of time that we've taken to complete our investigation. But I want to assure you that our timing should not and has not been driven by any Heisman demands or football schedule. As we do with every case that comes before us, we wanted to be confident in the decision we make and make sure we make the right decision.

I have been in law enforcement nearly 50 years. And prosecution -- my prosecution experience has taught me that we need to handle each case equally and fairly. And it's a search for the truth.

We did so in this case. Our city has two universities, major universities, here, and we've dealt with athletes on prior occasions and made decisions at some time to prosecutor them if the facts merited it.

We've carefully examines all the evidence in this case and have concluded that no charges will be filed against anyone in this case.

BALDWIN: There you have it. That is the headline. I want to talk about this with a number of people here at the top of the show. We have CNN's legal analyst and former prosecutor Sunny Hostin, prosecuted many a rape case. Also former Atlanta Falcons player Jamal Anderson here in studio, and CNN's Martin Savidge. So, big, big news here for folks in Tallahassee.

Martin Savidge, let me just begin with you because this was - this percolated. This was like a drip, drip slowly. MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes.

BALDWIN: Because a lot of questions over why this incident really happened and why it took - we we're almost two days shy of a year, you know, to finding out what his fate would be.

SAVIDGE: December 7, 2012 -

BALDWIN: Yes.

SAVIDGE: Is when this young lady called authorities to report what she said was a rape. And yet, why is it that here it is now almost a year later when we get these results, which is on the eve of a championship weekend, and on the eve of the Heisman trophy voting.

BALDWIN: Four days from the voting.

SAVIDGE: So, so, you know, how is it that the timing could come down to this? And this is what has people I think bothered even though we believe the judicial system has worked appropriately here.

The question is, what happened to that initial investigation. Why was it taken over a year? And no one seems to have answered at this particular time.

What we do know is that when the local authorities began investigating, they suddenly stopped in February. Now they say it's because the victims stopped communicating with them and that the victim implied to them she no longer wanted to move forward with the investigation. Her attorney and her family says that was never the case. So why did it suddenly stop? It picked up again only after the media started reported the story.

BALDWIN: Jamal, I'm coming to you in just a second. I have to just tell everyone, when you sat down, I mean there was a clear sigh of relief on your end.

JAMAL ANDERSON, FORMER PLAYER, ATLANTA FALCONS: Right.

BALDWIN: You're saying this is a good kid.

ANDERSON: Yes.

BALDWIN: I want to come to you in just a minute.

But for the legal angle, Sunny Hostin, and I think also to Martin's point, it seems like from what I've read, there have been two stories. It's been basically the police version saying that he wasn't talking, she wasn't talking. Ultimately, according to the accuser's attorney, they were just going to drop the charges.

But then according to the accuser and her attorney, they had a very different story. And I just want to quote before we move along. This is one quote from the detective here in Tallahassee, Florida, as far as questions maybe within this police department. This is the detective, according to this accuser's attorney. "Tallahassee was a big football town and the victim needs to think long and hard before proceeding against him because she will be raked over the coals and her life will be made miserable." You know, you can see that two ways of saying, hey, listen, back off. Back off on this. Or it could be, if you go forward with this, just be prepared, this is going to be a big fight.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes. And if that was truly said, that is not the way you speak to an alleged victim of rape. I've spoken to many rape victims, of course, during the course of my career as a prosecutor of sex crimes, and you do warn victims. You do say, listen, this is going to be a hard thing that you're going through, this is going to go through. Trials are very challenging, especially when there's this defense of consensual sex. It's going to be your word against his word. Please be prepared. But to say you're going to be raked over the coals because this is somehow some famous football player is really ridiculous.

But I think, Brooke, when you look at this case and exactly what this prosecutor said, this chief prosecutor, keep in mind he said, when we bring cases, we have to, quote, "have a reasonable likelihood of a conviction." What that tells me is perhaps they think something happened but they can't prove it, and that is the burden of a prosecutor.

BALDWIN: Right.

HOSTIN: It's not what happened. It's what you can prove. And when you look at the facts of this case, you're talking about a girl who says she had five to six shots of alcohol, whose memory was very broken. That in any circumstance, regardless of whether or not the suspect is a football player, a famous one, it is very difficult to prove a case like that.

BALDWIN: Nevertheless, he is facing no charges.

Jamal Anderson, I mean he is a red-shirt freshman.

ANDERSON: Right.

BALDWIN: This is his first year playing.

ANDERSON: Right.

BALDWIN: If he were to win the Heisman, we were saying, Johnny Football was the first freshman.

ANDERSON: Yes, last year.

BALDWIN: That was last year.

ANDERSON: Right.

BALDWIN: He's a good player.

ANDERSON: He's a very good player. You know, Brooke, the only team in college football who had a first-round quarterback last year was Florida State. So when you lose a first-round quarterback and you have a guy who's a red-shirt freshman come in and do what he has done, obviously several, several talented players on this football team.

BALDWIN: Yes.

ANDERSON: In fact, most of the times you watch them, they look like a pro team. But this is a two-sport star who brings not only his talent level, which is clearly obvious, tremendous amount of enthusiasm, energy, leadership. He plays baseball as well. I mean you watched, weeks ago, they had a huge game down in Clemson and here's this red- shirt freshman standing in the hallway giving everybody fives and telling them that we're ready to go. He's, you know, one of the younger guys on the team, but he's a leader of that team. And look at the way they've played this year. This would have been heartbreaking for them.

BALDWIN: Quickly, do you think now that this whole thing is absolved, do you think that this will still affect any voting for the Heisman or not?

ANDERSON: It's going to be interesting. I would hope that it does not. I would hope that it does not. Obviously the season's not over. We've got a couple more championship games coming up this weekend.

BALDWIN: Yes.

ANDERSON: But he's clearly one of the front runners for the Heisman trophy, if not the front runner. And I would hope that now that this has come -- the legal proceedings have played out, there are not going to be any charges. It certainly shouldn't affect any voter from choosing Jameis Winston to be the Heisman.

BALDWIN: Jamal Anderson, thank you. Martin Savidge, thanks. Sunny, appreciate you for being with me here with the breaking news.

Jameis Winston, by the way, his attorney will give his reaction to this afternoon's big announcement. That happens just about an hour and a half from now. And, of course, we will have live coverage of that. Stay tuned.

An American teacher named Ronnie Smith was shot and killed in Benghazi days before he was reportedly set to return home for the holidays. Blood stains on the street mark the spot where Smith was gunned down during his morning exercise workout. He was exercising near the school where he taught chemistry. And it happened near the very same U.S. diplomatic mission where a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed last year in that bloody attack.

And, you know, this is Libya. This is a dangerous place. This is a dangerous time. Right now we do not know who killed Ronnie Smith. We don't know really the biggest question, why. But this is what we do know. In October, U.S. special forces went to Libya and snatched an alleged al Qaeda operative. This man, Abu Anas al-Libi. He is now charged in connection with the 1998 bombings on U.S. embassies in Africa.

And I would like to bring in Jomana Karadsheh on the phone, a CNN producer and reporter in Tripoli.

And, Jomana, recently militants called for revenge for this al-Libi snatching. What are you hearing from Libyan officials as far as calls for revenge here?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN PRODUCER/REPORTER (via telephone): Brooke, this is probably coming as news to Libyan officials. We haven't heard anything yet regarding the killing of Ronnie Smith from Libyan officials as of yet. No reaction from here.

But to put things into context, the situation in Benghazi, the security situation, has really been deteriorating over the past few weeks. Especially not just when it comes to western interests there that have been targeted even before the U.S. consulate attack last year and continued after that. On a daily basis, what we're seeing Libyan security forces, the government has been trying to really wrap up security there. They sent in a special forces unit to try and control the situation There. You have a lot of militia groups in that part of the country, especially Islamism militants. Some of them extremist groups with ties to al Qaeda. And, really, the security forces there have come under attack almost on a daily basis there are (ph) assassination and as one Libyan said to me today, this is one of four killings today in Benghazi.

BALDWIN: But given the dangers - given - given the dangers that you are outlining, I just -- I want to know why an American teacher would be exercising on the streets of Benghazi. It can't be safe for an American.

KARADSHEH: Brooke, that's a big question. I was in Benghazi a few months ago with my colleague, Arwa Damon, and really the city has been emptied, pretty much, of westerners. All foreign diplomatic missions, pretty much, western diplomatic missions, have shut down and left their city. There have been continuous targeting of western interests in Benghazi and the eastern part of the country. Western governments, including the United States, have advised their citizens not to go to Benghazi and (INAUDIBLE) the country. It has been a no-go zone pretty much for westerners. So this is a very big question.

Now, it remains to be seen who is responsible for the killing. Was this a targeted attack? Was it targeting him because he was an American? This all remains to be seen. But the situation there has really been deteriorating and it has not been a friendly place, pretty much, for these operating (ph) there for westerners.

BALDWIN: Tenuous. Jomana Karadsheh, thank you so much, on the phone with us from Libya right now.

Also, Mexican authorities have found that stolen truck containing radioactive material. Two men had held up the driver and his assistant Monday. This is about 25 miles outside of Mexico City. But apparently, bad news for the criminals here, apparently, they opened the container housing the dangerous radioactive element, it's called cobalt 60, and experts believe the robbers are likely very sick from this exposure to radiation. A prosecutor said a truck was transporting the cobalt 60 from a hospital to a radioactive waste storage center when it was stolen.

Coming up next, it is a story that is impacting millions of people across the country, the weather. It is cold and these temperatures are leading to major power outages, flight delays. We'll take a close look at the forecast and the problems it is causing for so many of you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: OK, check the calendar. It's just about winter time. Listen, it's supposed to be cold. We should be seeing freezing rain in parts of the country. But the storm that's moving across the nation right now is taking wintry weather to ridiculous levels.

Take a look at this. First of all, beautiful in Dallas yesterday. A wonderful 80 degrees. Flash forward to tonight, freezing rain, sleet, and burr, a low of 26. Do the math. That is a 54-degree differential. This is right before this weekend's Dallas Marathon. Think of those runners running those 26.2 miles.

The weather is expected to get so nasty that American Airlines has just canceled nearly 500 flights out of DFW Airport through tomorrow morning simply as a precaution. And the ice storm could be so harsh that hundreds of power workers from Florida, they are heading west to Arkansas, northwest Arkansas, where exposed electrical lines could be taking a big hit from the ice. The National Weather Service warning electricity could be out for weeks, plural.

Denver, you woke up to a miserable cold this morning. Double digits below zero. But it feels even colder in many cities, like 20, 40 degrees below. And even if you don't live in this, you know, wintry strike zone, if you will, you could be affected. Cold weather here could affect fruits, vegetables growing in California. And that means for all of us higher prices when you go to the grocery store.

Meteorologist Jennifer Grey is here with me.

And, first, I just have to say, welcome to you, Jennifer Grey. Nice to have you on. Welcome to the CNN family.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Thank you. Thank you.

BALDWIN: Let's talk cold weather. Which is this supposed to be the worst?

GRAY: Yes, this is a huge arctic front. A very cold blast of air from Canada dipping down into the far south regions of the country. We're seeing ice, freezing rain. That's going to be the big problem. And right now we're seeing it through portions of southern Missouri, northern Arkansas.

And as the evening rolls on, we're going to start to see it move into some of those bigger cities, say Dallas, Little Rock. And it's going to hit you guys right around the time you're trying to drive home from work. So the afternoon, the evening commute, could get really icy in the next couple of hours. And so what we're talking about, accumulations of about half an inch or more. Some places like Dallas and Little Rock, all the way up to Paducah. And this is going to cause major problems as far as downed power lines, trees, a lot of power outages going to be the result of this. so that's what we'll be looking for.

Farther to the north, we'll be looking at snow through Springfield, Oklahoma City, and we could see anywhere from four inches or more of snow in these parts. And so we have freeze watches and warnings and ice advisories going on all across the deep south. And this will continue not only for tonight, Brooke, but as we get into tomorrow as well.

BALDWIN: OK, Jennifer, thank you very much.

And from the cold to at least some encouraging news for all of you who have been watching this progress, these stranded pilot whales off the coast of Florida. Well, we have now learned that a number of them are moving into deeper waters, but experts say this is still a pretty tough situation for these whales. Coming up next, we will talk live to a man who knows a lot about this kind of thing, here he is, Philippe Cousteau. CNN special correspondent Philippe Cousteau. He is watching the situation. We'll talk about the challenges involved in this kind of operation when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: It has really been a touch and go situation in Florida, this effort to save these dozens of pilot whales stranded on the beach and in shallow water in Florida's Everglades National Park, showing signs of progress this hour. Just a short time ago, we here at CNN learned that about 15 to 20 whales did move into deeper waters. That has been the goal for these rescuers really since yesterday. It is unclear how long these short-finned whales have been stranded, but we do know some fishermen spotted them Tuesday.

The whales, they appear distressed. Some of them, as you can see from these pictures, have already beached themselves. Ten have already died. Four had to be euthanized because of the poor condition.

And I would love to bring in now CNN special correspondent and environmentalist Philippe Cousteau, host of "Going Green" on CNN International.

So, Philippe Cousteau, welcome to you.

And, first, let's just begin with the positive here, because it wasn't looking good for this group yesterday.

PHILIPPE COUSTEAU, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: No, it wasn't.

BALDWIN: Now the development that, you know, now two dozen may be moving out to deeper waters. What are the chances that they actually survive?

COUSTEAU: Well, it's very touch and go at this point, Brooke. You know, the challenge with these whales, they're very communal. They like to stay together. So the fact that they've broken up the pod is a good sign simply because, you know, certainly several of the whales are distressed, most likely dehydrated. At low tide it gets very shallow and very hot there. They are deeper water animals, usually living in thousands of feet of water and certainly hunting very deep. So they probably haven't eaten anything for several days. so several of them will be weak. But trying to get the healthier ones away from the shallowest of water and out towards the ocean is a good sign. That's good news.

BALDWIN: From what I understand, it's a pretty isolated area here of this part of Florida, so that was part of the challenge, right, in getting these rescuers out to these whales. We're showing some of the video and you can see some of the rescuers in boats. Philippe, just tell me, can you explain to me the process of trying to get some of these whales out?

COUSTEAU: Well, it's a very difficult process. When you think about these whales, they're at least a ton each. They can be 12 to 16 feet long. And you're dealing with an area that while it's shallow, still is three dimensional, so there is an area for them to move around. And the best that you can do in such a remote place like the Everglades is get a few boats out there. Typically when you have mass strandings, say in New England with these whales, they bring in flatbed trucks, maybe a helicopter. They have a lot more heavy machinery to deal with them. This far in a remote area, I've spent a lot of time down in the Everglades filming, is very remote and it's difficult just to try and use boats to corral the whales and use aluminum pipes, banging on the pipes under water to try and startle them and move them in a direction. Nevertheless they --

BALDWIN: Really, pipes?

COUSTEAU: I'm sorry?

BALDWIN: I said, really, pipes?

COUSTEAU: Yes, indeed. You know, the whales are very sensitive to sound.

BALDWIN: Wow.

COUSTEAU: And so both the revving engines and also aluminum pipes they can bang in the water can help create a wall of sound that can drive the whales in a specific direction. I know that's one of the techniques that they've been employing. And working hard to try and get these whales as quickly as possible back to deep water. So, it's positive. Things are certainly looking up. I reported on this just a little bit ago and it wasn't looking good, so this is good news. But still, they're not out of the woods yet.

BALDWIN: Hopefully with that school mentality, if they all followed one another to this location, hopefully they will turn around and follow one another back out of there.

COUSTEAU: Indeed. BALDWIN: Philippe Cousteau, thank you so -

COUSTEAU: We'll keep watching it.

BALDWIN: We will indeed. Thank you, my friend.

COUSTEAU: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, it is a unique behind the scenes look at the training that conductors go through before driving a train. CNN has this unique access to the simulator that prepares people to operate a train. It's a question many are asking after that deadly derailment in the Bronx over the weekend. We'll look at that.

Also, you probably use one of the above, Gmail, Twitter, FaceBook. Millions of passwords were stolen from people who use these sites. Coming up next, we'll tell you who was targeted and how you need to protect yourself.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just about the bottom of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

A second person injured in Sunday's deadly train derailment in New York has filed a claim against the operator, Metro North. His name, Edward Russell. He was seriously hurt when all seven train cars jumped those tracks Sunday morning. He is asking for $10 million in punitive damages for negligence on part of Metro North, the MTA, the city, and the state of New York.

Speaking of that train derailment here, one of the questions we're asking is, was the man behind the controls of that commuter train, William Rockefeller Jr., was he in a daze, was he nodding off, or did he have, in the words of his lawyer, highway hypnosis? Whatever the case here, and they'll figure it out, the accident raises concerns about the dangers of drowsiness while operating any kind of vehicle, especially something so complex as a train with so many passengers' lives at stake.

So joining me now is CNN's Chris Frates.

And, Chris, this is so amazing because you have this unique ability. You went to railroad engineer training school. You sat in the simulator to see what it's like to sit behind the throttle of a massive locomotive. What was it like?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIONS UNIT: Well, I'll tell you, Brooke, I learned that it's a lot harder than it looks. I mean there's so many things to take into account when you're in the cab of a locomotive. You have the signals. You have the throttle. There's two sets of brakes. And the train slows down and speeds up a lot slower than a passenger car. So you have to take that into account and be thinking moves ahead as you're coming down the track. And like a passenger car, though, there's been concerned about leaving engineers alone. And one expert I talked to was very concerned about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE RANGEL, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, MODOC RAILROAD ACADEMY: There's hundreds of trains as we speak that are running up and down the tracks with one person in the cab of that locomotive. And, unfortunately, we're only human.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So he says we're only human, Chris Frates, but what can be done to prevent the kind of -- what shall we call it, engineer fatigue, that might have cause, might have caused the derailment over the weekend?

FRATES: Well, when I talked to Dave Rangel there at the academy, he says the easiest thing for folks to do is just to put another engineer in the cab with the operator so that you have two sets of eyes and that -

BALDWIN: Like a copilot.

FRATES: You know, just like a buddy system -- like a co-pilot, when you're coming down the highway, right, like you have your - you have your person sitting shotgun and they're making sure, during a long drive, that you're all right.

BALDWIN: So how did you do in that simulator?

FRATES: Well, I'll tell you what, I passed, so I was very excited about that.

BALDWIN: You did. Nice work.

FRATES: But I think that - I think that's more to do with having the instructor over my shoulder and helping me along. And I found out that just like in a car, my lead foot translates to the train. I got bumped for speeding a couple times. The other really cool thing I was able to do here in Chicago was take a ride on a commuter rail. I did that during this morning's rush hour. We'll have more of that story tonight in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good deal. We'll see you starting at 5:00 Eastern. Chris Frates for us in Chicago. Thank you very much.