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Homeless Man's Mom On Fullerton Acquittal: Officers "Got Away With Murdering My Son"; Deputies Search Justin Bieber's Home; Study: Childless Marriages Are Happier; Why Peyton Manning Shouted "Omaha!"

Aired January 14, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. Bottom of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin. A verdict has absolutely rocked the city of Fullerton, California. Two former officers were on trial for beating a homeless man so badly. I have to warn you, the images you are about to see of him are disturbing, they're graphic, so let me give you a minute.

Here it is. This was Kelly Thomas in July of 2012. He died five days after six officers restrained him in a parking lot. Thomas, who was schizophrenic, refused to listen to their orders and despite what you saw in that photo, a jury found Kelly Thomas was not a victim of a crime. These two men who no longer work for Fullerton police have been acquitted on all the charges listed here.

Here are these two former officers. Part of the evidence jurors saw in this courtroom was surveillance video of this entire encounter. So again, we'll play part of this for you, but a warning, it is tough to hear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are killing me, daddy. Dad!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a fight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Relax. Relax. Relax.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daddy. Daddy. Killing me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Relax. Relax.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: On the phone with me now, Kelly Thomas's father, Ron Thomas. Mr. Thomas, I am sorry about your son. Let me just begin with, I am sure you have seen that video so many times, but to hear your grown son crying for you, what's that like, all these months later?

RON THOMAS, KELLY THOMAS' FATHER (via telephone): Well, it's still horrifying. Especially the segment you played -- those were the very last words of his life and hearing it getting slower and more labored in his breathing after he was calling for me. And a 37-year-old man reverting back to daddy, daddy, they're killing me. What he went through, the pain, the horror from on duty police officers, it's unfathomable and then they get away with it completely. Not even an excessive force charge. How can this be?

BALDWIN: After hearing Mr. Thomas not guilty, the verdict is read four times yesterday. Can you just take me inside that courtroom? Tell me your initial few thoughts.

THOMAS: I prepared myself for it. I couldn't believe once again that they were found not guilty on all charges. We all realized not guilty does not mean you were found innocent. They were just found not guilty, horrifying, really. It is so evidence, so obvious what they did. He was standing there talking, he was -- he could do everything. In a matter of minutes, he was dying in a pool of his own blood, and yet they're not guilty of even excessive force? That's unbelievable, unacceptable.

BALDWIN: There are two sides to this story. You represent one. You have the officers and these defense attorneys, you know, maintaining that if you watch this video in its entirety, that the officers were calm, they were not in a frenzy, that they were following procedure. Let me play this sound. This is their attorney Manuel Ramos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BARNETT, ATTORNEY FOR MANUEL RAMOS: They did as they were told. They did as they were taught. We send them not knowing if they're going to go home and we send them with instructions. And when they follow those instructions and they do go home, they're not guilty of murder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The jury heard this whole case. We know how the jurors ruled. But we can tell our viewers that the FBI is continuing to investigate to see if your son's civil rights were violated. Can you tell me, do you have any update on that federal investigation?

THOMAS: I don't have any update. Just what you stated. I will be talking with them later today, though and you know, his interview right there, he was always alluding to it is somebody else's fault. The training that was given to them. It was the policies that were in place. It's garbage, really, that they should have been responsible for their own actions as police officers.

BALDWIN: As far as that case, though, sir, this is over. I know you filed a lawsuit against the city of Fullerton. Your wife has already settled. You talk about the policies here. What do you want? You have lost your son. What can you get from this? What changes do you want?

THOMAS: I've already had several changes inacted in Fullerton. The police department -- every member, even the civilian employees of the police department have gone through specialized training to work with the mentally ill and the homeless. And many law enforcement agencies throughout Southern California have done the same. And, you know, I have a platform right now and I'm using that to make things better for everybody.

And to correct all these things that were in place that could allow this to happen to Kelly, I have a lot of law enforcement support, an overwhelming amount of law enforcement support on this. It's just not the way they do business. If I can help somebody else, it's worth it to all this advocacy I'm doing.

BALDWIN: Final question for you, Mr. Thomas. We now know these officers who were on duty, they are no longer serving. But if they were sitting next to you, what's the one thing you would say to them?

THOMAS: I would have something different for each officer. Ramos, he's -- you know, he's not a nice guy at all. I don't know what I would say to him, but it would be very nice and professional. The other, I would want to know where he went wrong with his oath that he took and his professional standard.

I believe he was probably a good officer at one time. I know he's a corporal. He was destined to be a sergeant and a lot of people have talked highly about him. So where did he go wrong for him? I'd want to know that and many other questions, of course.

BALDWIN: Ron Thomas, thank you so much for calling in. And quick break, back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies are out in full force today at the home of pop superstar, Justin Bieber. Deputies descended upon Bieber's upscale neighborhood this morning searching for evidence involving the egging of his neighbor's home. You heard me right.

Justin Bieber may have chucked a lot of eggs toward his neighbor's home because now a felony vandalism investigation is under way. We'll talk legal here with our analysts, Sunny Hostin and Danny Cevallos. But first, let's go straight to L.A. to our digital correspondent there, Alan Duke. Alan, we know the sheriff's news conference has just ended. Tell me what you learned.

ALAN DUKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, there was an arrest made at Justin Bieber's house today, but it had nothing to do with the egg vandalism. Instead, it was one of Justin's friends who was staying there. They found allegedly cocaine on him, so they made a felony cocaine arrest. As far as Bieber, he is a suspect in a felony case, vandalism from the egg throwing.

What they were looking at today, they had about a dozen deputies go into Justin Bieber's house. This is a very exclusive neighborhood. Katherine Jackson and Michael Jackson's kids live right down the street. Britney Spears has lived there. A whole bunch of really famous and rich people live in this. It's got two security gates you have to get through. They were looking for surveillance video. I've been into these mansions before, into their security rooms. I can tell you, they've got cameras everywhere. They've got like a war room for security there. And so somewhere, the investigators are hoping, is video of the egg-throwing incident, which they say caused about $20,000 in damage to the neighboring mansion.

BALDWIN: It's $20,000. I think that worth underscoring.

DUKE: Yes. Less than a thousand dollars would have made it a felony. So this is a serious felony investigation. It's not the first time deputies have been to Justin Bieber's home since he moved into the Oaks community a couple of years ago. They were called there because of a neighbor accusing Bieber of spitting on him. Neighbors accusing Justin Bieber of riding in his high-powered performance cars up and down the street, but this time, it could land Justin Bieber in court. The sheriff's investigators will decide if there's enough evidence to take it to the district attorney for prosecution.

BALDWIN: Quickly, Alan, just to follow up. Was Bieber home? Is he being cooperative?

DUKE: He was at home and he was cooperative. He had about a dozen deputies knock on his door. His security came, let them in. They talked to Bieber not about their investigation because they're waiting until he's got a lawyer. He insisted on that, apparently. But they did talk to him about who's in the home, that sort of thing. Things they needed to execute the search warrant. They said he was cooperative. He was not detained. He was not actually questioned about the vandalism.

BALDWIN: OK, Alan Duke, thank you. Sunny and Danny, can we just have a reality check moment for a second? We're talking eggs potentially causing upwards of $20,000 in damage. We're talking felony vandalism because of this. Have either of you ever heard of a case like this?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I have -- I haven't heard about felony egg-throwing. I have heard, of course, about felony vandalism. We're hearing that Justin Bieber's home is a $6.5 million home. If all of the neighbors have similar type homes, then clearly, you could do $20,000 of damage if you break a couple of windows or stain siding. But I think the larger issue here is we're seeing again sort of this celebrity -- the effect of celebrity on young people.

I mean, I'm thinking back to Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears and perhaps we're now seeing sort of the destruction of the Bieber brand. And I wonder again where are his advisers, where are his parents, why is someone in his home being arrested for felony drug possession. This is a real problem. Not only just for his image and his brand, but just for Justin Bieber. Remember, this is a kid.

BALDWIN: OK, brand is one thing, Danny Cevallos, but when I was watching this happen, when I saw all of these sheriff's deputies, cars, and patrol cars swooping in, I thought my goodness, this is where my tax dollars are going to work. I mean, is this the best use of law enforcement resources here? DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's really astounding when you see the difference between a criminal investigation for egging in this community, compared to North Philadelphia where I'm from or South Central L.A. Can you imagine an egging probe where there are more than one or two cars dispatched to, what, dust for prints? I don't know what they're going to do there.

Here's what you have to consider. I see egging cases fairly from time to time, I would say, but they're in juvenile court, where juveniles are committing them. And usually they end in a pre-trial intervention program or some kind of probation. You don't get a lot of adult felony egging cases.

Part two that I find even more astounding is that they executed a search warrant. They allegedly found cocaine in the home. Justin Bieber is lucky he didn't get charged with constructive possession.

BALDWIN: But they arrested someone.

CEVALLOS: They arrested someone. If it's in his home, a creative prosecutor could charge him like Sunny with constructive possession of that cocaine, depending on where it was found in the home. You know I'm right.

HOSTIN: You are right, you are right.

BALDWIN: I'm sorry, I'm just shaking my head a bit over this one. Sunny Hostin and Danny Cevallos, thank you and Alan Duke, thank you very much.

Coming up next, Miami Heat, NBA champs paying a visit to the White House today. President Obama set to honor the basketball team in the east room. We have cameras, we are standing by. We'll have that for you live in a matter of moments.

Plus, Chris Christie's "State of the State" address happening moments away as well. What will he say about these scandals currently surrounding his administration? We will have it for you live. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Want to have a happy marriage? Then don't have kids. That's what a new study is saying. Researchers out of the United Kingdom's Open University interviewed 5,000 adults, all ages, sexual orientation. The findings, no matter who you were, if you didn't have a child, you were happier in your marriage and your relationships.

So joining me now, CNN digital correspondent, Kelly Wallace, who is a mom and I'm sure has had thoughts.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BALDWIN: But I read the study and here is where I was perplexed because it said childless couples have happier marriages, feel more valued by the partner. But if you read further, it says women without children were least happy with life overall. So I'm confused.

WALLACE: I know and there's a lot of confusing stuff here. Then when you talk about of all the groups who was the happiest of them all, mothers said that they were the happiest of all the groups. So I think it comes down to when mothers were asked who's the most important person in their lives, they said their children, their husbands and partners might not like that. I think that's where they're getting the most satisfaction in their lives from their children maybe. Not necessarily from their relationships.

BALDWIN: But I guess it kind of makes sense, you know, if you have children, your focus especially when they're younger and you're in the thick of it, your focus tends to be more on them and less on your husband or wife.

WALLACE: Yes. I mean, it becomes a time thing, right? You know, there are only a certain number of hours in the day and so you might not be putting the same kind of attention on the relationship. The interesting thing, Brooke, is there was another study, yet another study that came out yesterday.

And this one looked at when it factored out income, education, health, religion, factors that might influence how satisfied you feel about your life. Once they threw all of those factors out the window, guess what? No difference in satisfaction and well-being and happiness really in general between people with kids and people without kids.

And I kind of loved it, because for so long, so much of the research has been saying that parents are unhappy, miserable and people without kids are having the time of their lives.

BALDWIN: And you, Kelly Wallace, let's end on that. You're a happy woman, yes?

WALLACE: I'm a happy woman, stressed. You know, don't get enough sleep. Not enough me time, but I'm happy and I think it comes down to choice, too, right? I chose to have kids and I'm happy about that. Well, guess what. Someone who chooses not to have kids is just as happy with that decision as well.

BALDWIN: Read Kelly's column, as always. They are thought- perplexing, cnn.com/opinion. Kelly, thank you very much.

And now to this, America wants to know, what the heck was Peyton Manning talking about? What was he shouting this past weekend? Superstar quarterback famous for changing plays at the line of scrimmage, and during Sunday's playoff game, it sounded like the Omaha Chamber of Commerce was like sponsoring his snap counts. Take a listen for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEYTON MANNING: Omaha. Omaha! Omaha! Omaha!

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: Sorry, this one just cracks me up. He did that so many times. So what does Omaha mean? Aaron Nagler is here, the leading NFL analyst for "Bleacher Report." Aaron, why is he shouting Omaha over and over?

AARON NAGLER, LEAD NFL ANALYST, "BLEACHER REPORT": Well, as you said, it is a snap count. The truth is no one really knows for sure other than Peyton Manning and his offense.

BALDWIN: Big fan of Nebraska? What's going on?

NAGLER: Well, traditionally a quarterback will use something to let the offensive line and everyone around them know that the snap is coming pretty much in the huddle. You go on one or on two. You saw it again and again. He said it rhythmically, Omaha, three syllables. They all know it's coming and he said hut, or hut, hut. Whatever is one or two or whatever the snap count was and then the offensive line would go.

But you'll notice there are a couple of times, five in total, where he got the chargers to jump, usually by mixing it up. He got them in such a rhythm they kept thinking we know what's coming. He says Omaha and then here comes the snap. Every time he changed it up, nearly every single time, he got the Chargers to jump. It's just another weapon for him to use in his arsenal.

BALDWIN: Well, clearly it worked for the Broncos over the weekend and it's working if you talk to the mayor of Omaha. I spoke with her a couple minutes ago and she says, you know what, Nebraska is saying go Broncos to the Super Bowl. Here she was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JEAN STOTHERT, OMAHA, NEBRASKA: You know, we really hope they get into the Super Bowl. We'd love to hear our name shouted. But most importantly, we want people to know what Omaha is really about. And it is a new visitor destination and more and more people are coming here each year, and we invite people to come to Omaha for a day or a week. There's a lot going on here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: It's pretty funny when we talk about the Super Bowl specifically we'll have to stand by and wait for that interview coming up. We'll play the whole thing next hour. But Aaron, back to you, do other quarterbacks do this? Why do I think people shout numbers or colors? Is this city thing just a Peyton Manning thing?

NAGLER: No, there are other quarterbacks that have used it. Eli has used it, his brother. Tom Brady has used it before. It's really just something to get a cadence going, get a rhythm going. Like you said, all different quarterbacks use all sorts of things before the snap, before they tell the guys to go. It could mean anything. You talk to offensive guys around the league. They use all sorts of different words to mean different things. We as the public never know. We're just more tuned into it now because they have cameras and microphones everywhere.

BALDWIN: They do and it's a great advertisement for Omaha, Nebraska. Aaron Nagler, thank you so much.

Coming up here, we'll take you to the White House. We're minutes away from the president saying hello, maybe not necessarily to his favorite NBA team, but they've done pretty well so far. The Miami Heat swinging by to pick up what looks like a pretty nice trophy, maybe they're just letting the president take a look at theirs.

We're also minutes away from the "State of the State" in New Jersey. How, when, to what degree will Governor Chris Christie address these recent scandals? Stand by, we're live in Trenton.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, rolling in hour two. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me here. Just about 3:00 Eastern Time, two live events about to start here at the top of the hour, busy, busy day. First, you have Roswell, New Mexico. Police and we're hearing also the governor should be there holding this news conference about this school shooting there this morning.

Two students were hurt at a middle school and we expect to learn a little bit more as far as what happened there in New Mexico. Also we're moments away from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's "State of the State" speech in Trenton, New Jersey. He has, as you know, multiple controversies dogging him right now, including the closure of lanes on the George Washington Bridge going back to September.

That's where we'll begin. Chris Christie, Governor Christie, one of the top Republican talents in the country, a potential presidential contender in trouble. How much trouble? We still don't know. As he gives the "State of the State" speech today, moments from now, we are told that Governor christie will address the scandal surrounding some aides' apparent involvement in traffic tie-ups that may have been created as political payback.

Jake Tapper has headed from Washington, his usual post, to Trenton, New Jersey, to cover this event for us. Gloria Borger, our chief political analyst, is live in Washington. So Jake, we know he will be addressing the George Washington Bridge closure, that whole scandal head on, but do we know if he will be making news? Do we know if he will tell us something we don't know, such as who came up with the closures in the first place?