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New Player Suit; Six States Hold Primary Elections; Actor Booked for Murder Pregnant Christian Faces Death

Aired May 20, 2014 - 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: And here we go. Top of the hour. Great to be with you. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Let's begin with some news just into us here at CNN. Have you heard about these explosive allegations being leveled against the NFL by some of its former players? Well-known names. Even a Hall of Famer.

You know all about the concussion claims. We have covered that here on CNN extensively. But a new lawsuit alleges that NFL teams and their doctors knowingly gave players an array of prescription drugs, and painkillers, for years and years without any regard for the long-term damage.

The question, who is making these claims? Here's the answer. Former Super Bowl quarterback Jim McMahon for one. He says he actually got addicted to painkillers, even taking them in the off-season. Another player here in this lawsuit, McMahon's former Chicago Bears teammate Richard Dent. He is a Hall of Famer.

So, let's get more on this story, this developing story from our Ed Lavandera. He's joining us now.

And, Ed, tell me more about the lawsuit.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Brooke.

Well, it's an extensive lawsuit. About 85 pages long. I've had a chance to go through all of it here this afternoon. And it is filed on behalf of eight players. Three of those players were part of that 1985 Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears team, Richard Dent, Jim McMahon being two of those.

And, you know, we've heard over the years a lot of different crazy stories and the lengths that he football players would go to, to stay on the football field. But essentially this lawsuit is accusing the NFL and the trainers and the doctors that take care of these players, of working together to ensure that in some cases, recklessly, and in some cases illegally, were prescribing pain medications to keep these players and these lawyers for these players are saying that the NFL did this to line its pockets with better profits.

But the stories, you know, simply, when you see them in print, are still very staggering. There's one story of a player, Keith Van Horne, an offensive lineman for the Chicago Bears, who says he played an entire season with a broken leg and was never told about it and was just hopped up on pain medication to make it through the season. Descriptions of trainers going down NFL team flights with briefcases full of pain meds, just handing out the pain medications as they went down the aisle. And another story in the lawsuit talks about jars full of amphetamines that were left out for any and all players to pick from for the Chicago Bears back in the 1980s. So, some really staggering stories.

The NFL has not responded. They told us this afternoon that they have not had a chance to review the lawsuit just yet.

BALDWIN: Right. Right.

LAVANDERA: And that their lawyers are looking at it now, Brooke.

BALDWIN: You know, it's interesting, you bring up the culture of playing or playing through injury. We're going to be talking to a former player because I will definitely be asking him about the pressure to get up and get back on the field. But here's really the other question is, you know, as you mentioned, this -- these players, this is really from the '80s. And here we are in 2014, Ed. Why come forward now?

LAVANDERA: Well, I think what a lot of these - and if you read some of the individual stories of each of the players that were highlighted in this lawsuit is that they talk about their addiction to these pain medications and how it has followed them since they've left the playing field. In one - in the case of one player, who had become homeless and having to try to buy these pain medications that he had become addicted to off of the streets, and the financial cost that these -- that these addictions have taken their toll on some of these players. So clearly these players and these lawyers looking for some sort of financial settlement with the NFL. In the lawsuit, they do not specify the amount that they're looking for. But, you know, that is one of those things that will have to be argued out in courts in the years ahead.

BALDWIN: OK. Ed Lavandera, thank you.

Let me bring in Leigh Steinberg, sports agent, real life Jerry Maguire.

Leigh, you with me? Here you are. I see you. I see you.

LEIGH STEINBERG, SPORTS AGENT/SPORTS ATTORNEY: Yes.

BALDWIN: Let me just begin with, you know, your take. I mean you have represented some of the biggest names in all of the NFL. What's your reaction to these claims?

STEINBERG: My reaction is that I've been doing this since 1975 and players who are in a state of denial. They want to play, so they're very dependent on what a physician would tell them, and especially what a physician would tell them to take. There have been so many situations where players get shot up to mask the pain, go out, get injured worse. When I started, the vats of these painkillers and all sorts of meds were just there for players to scoop up and take. They had no idea what was going on. And now you have players who are -- one player took 1,000 Vicodin a month, because they get addicted. No one's there to help them. And they didn't really realize what the consequences were of what they were doing.

BALDWIN: How is it, though, just hearing Ed and this one story of someone having a broken leg through a season and really just sort of numbing the pain to get through, how -- can you just speak more to what you saw, and if you heard from players who you represented who said, I'm hurt, this doesn't feel right, they keep shooting me up, something - something isn't right here. Did you ever hear stories like this, or did they just keep on going?

STEINBERG: Over and over again. So I had a player play a couple games with a broken leg. He didn't realize it was broken. I had a player play with a collapsed lung. I had a player play with broken ribs. And very often they weren't quite sure other than pain what they had. And when they went out and played and were shot up with painkillers, it exacerbated the problem because they weren't feeling the pain.

BALDWIN: Of course it did.

STEINBERG: So they could get much -- hit and hurt much worse. This was replete in those days.

Sports medicine is better now. The NFL is better now. But in those days, it was like the wild, wild west. One year I had a player who, because his -- there was misdiagnosis, ended up with two hip replacements. They thought it was a groin problem. Another year a player who had multiple problems with his leg, and had his foot amputated. And then another player who was told to take -- to take anti-inflammatories. So he would take 30 or 40 ibuprofen at a time. And he had dialysis so -- and had his kidney replaced. So this is a major problem. These are bright players, but they don't really understand, as they feel pain, what the right remedy is, what the right dose is. And I had players come out of the hospital addicted to morphine, for example, or codeine -

BALDWIN: I -

STEINBERG: Who had devilish problems getting off of it.

BALDWIN: I have a feeling you and I could sit an entire afternoon and I could listen to all your different stories and examples of the players. And it sounds like the complaints and the issues, and this is just the beginning of this story. First, you know, we had a massive national conversation about concussions, and now this. This is just the beginning. Please come back. Leigh Steinberg and Ed Lavandera for the reporting, gentlemen, really, thank you both.

And we have a horse race today, a big one in Kentucky. Political thoroughbred Mitch McConnell, he is the Senate minority leader and a political animal, zero doubt about that. Republican Mitch McConnell's vow to crush his opponent, Matt Bevin, and the rest of the Tea Party along with him. You could call this super Tuesday 2014. You have six states, and they're voting, primary elections with nine more intriguing than Kentucky. The state where horses and wildcats reign supreme and candidates running for statewide office are advised to wear blue to the polls. Dana Bash is with us live from Louisville. Gloria Borger is live from Washington, our chief political analyst.

But, Dana Bash, first to you here. When we talk about Mitch McConnell, he, you know, is favored today. But as I mentioned a second ago, he said, you know, he's the one who won't just win, he will crush Matt Bevin, crush the Tea Party as well. We should point out that Bevin says McConnell has tried to smear his reputation, quoting him, "it is how he's run the race." So says Bevin, "he is attacking me for being a member of the Tea Party and threatening to crush these people and punch them in the nose." Continuing here with this quote, "all of this," says Bevin, "is horse pucky." That's what he told our own Peter Hamby.

So, Dana, can you just talk to me about how worked up over this race now Mitch McConnell is and will he really crush his opponent?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, whether he's going to crush his opponent is really the big drama left in today's election today, primary day. But the answer of why he's so worked up, look at what's happened over the past two election cycles, Brooke. He has seen some of his friends, some of his Republican colleagues, Republican incumbents get crushed themselves by Tea Party challengers and that has hurt them but it's also hurt him because it has meant, in many a cases, that the Democrat has won in the state and that has prevented Mitch McConnell from becoming the majority leader, it's prevented Republican from picking up enough seats in the Senate. So he has seen that over the last few election cycles and he was determined not to let that happen to him. And as Peter really does a great job of explaining and illustrating it his cnn.com piece -

BALDWIN: He does.

BASH: Mitch McConnell is not afraid to play dirty. He's called the godfather of politics here. And he spent a lot of money to try to quell this challenge. And he also made clear that he had a Tea Party darling in his corner in this state, and that is Rand Paul, his junior senator.

BALDWIN: Well, this so-called godfather of politics in that, that great state of Kentucky in which you stand, Gloria Borger, you know, as we mentioned, he is Senate majority leader, Senate minority leader. He will win if Republicans claim the Senate if he himself wins reelection. Which of those two is the tougher road here, McConnell winning re-election or Republicans, you know, winning the Senate?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, he's going to have a tough re-election right. There's no doubt about it. He's running against a very attractive candidate who happens to be a woman. If he wins this primary today, which we anticipate that he will. But I would have to say, in direct answer to your question, Brooke, that I think it's a tougher haul now to win control of the Senate. As Dana points out, he's running for Senate majority leader right now. He's running kind of an old school campaign which says, OK, we need to get these six seats to win control and then I'll be in charge and then I can do more for this state. Lots of things have to go their way. But I think the Republicans have gotten a lot smarter this time because they're trying to nominate more winnable candidates. And they're doing it.

BALDWIN: OK. I'm so used to saying minority leader, but he covets majority leader.

Go ahead, Dana, jump in.

BASH: No, I was just - I was just going to say, just being down here in the state, what is really interesting to watch is a wrinkle that we haven't seen in a lot of incumbent races, trying to fend off challengers, as McConnell is doing, of course, from the right and the left, in that, you know, being experienced is a dirty word for incumbents in this kind of Tea Party anti-incumbent era. And he's running towards it. He's not running from it. He's saying, experience matters. Having 30 years under his belt representing Kentucky and having that kind of seniority in the Senate matters. That's what he's running on unabashedly. And it's really fascinating to watch. And that's a very different kind of thing from some of his predecessors who ended up losing. So, yes.

BALDWIN: (INAUDIBLE) experience -

BORGER: His point is, if you want change, change to what?

BALDWIN: Right. Right. What's the alternative?

BORGER: You know? And that's - and that's his - that's his argument. Right.

BALDWIN: OK. Ladies, thank you. We'll watch, of course, through the evening. Gloria Borger, Dana Bash, thank you very much. Big day at the polls.

Just ahead, the worst day of my life, not mine, but someone we're going to talk about here. Now New York's hottest tourist attraction. That is actually from a man who lost his sister on that horrible morning of 9/11. Should this new museum that's opened at Ground Zero include a gift shop? Should they be making this profit? We'll talk to a family member.

And, he has starred in "Forrest Gump" and "The Shield," but today this actor is now behind bars, accused of killing his wife at their home with their children inside. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

He has played a police officer on TV, but now his life off camera has taken a very different turn. "The Shield" actor Michael Jace has been booked for murder, accused of shooting his wife to death. Jace was handcuffed outside his Los Angeles home early this morning. His wife's body, found inside. Also inside their home, according to police, the 51-year-old actor's two sons. April Jace was 40 years old. The couple had been married nearly (ph) 11 years. CNN's Alan Duke is working this one for us. He is live in Los Angeles.

And, Alan, I know this is still so early here, but what, if anything, are police saying as far as a motive could go?

ALAN DUKE, CNN DIGITAL REPORTER: Well, they're calling it domestic violence. Now, we don't know, we've not been able to find out, if there's been any other incidents at this home in south Los Angeles, the Hyde Park area. We don't know if police have been called there before.

What we know is last night at about 8:30, that he, Michael Jace, called 911 and told the operator his wife had been shot. We know no other details other than that about what he said. We do also know that neighbors, some other neighbors, called 911 after they heard gunfire inside the home. The couple's lived in this home since 2005. So I assume the neighbors knew who they were.

And as you said, the two kids were inside. They're not telling us their ages, but we know that they were young and that they were handed over to California Children Services agents and I believe taken to a relative's home since then.

BALDWIN: Alan, what am I reading about, maybe reports that he was having financial troubles? Have you heard this?

DUKE: Well, he was in bankruptcy.

BALDWIN: OK.

DUKE: He filed for bankruptcy in March of 2011, citing a half million dollars in debt, trying to save his home. That's been going on for the last several years. He only makes about $70,000 or $80,000 a year. And in Los Angeles, that's not a lot of money. As an actor, he lives off the residuals because he's not had a lot of big acting jobs lately.

BALDWIN: OK. Alan Duke, thank you so much. We'll stay in close contact with you and see where that story moves next.

Coming up next, a pregnant woman sentenced to die for being a Christian. We are now hearing what is happening to her behind bars. Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Two U.S. senators have joined the effort to help this imprisoned pregnant woman facing execution because she has now been sentenced to death in Sudan for refusing to disavow her Christian faith. So now you have Senators Roy Blunt and Kelly Ayotte, they have sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry asking him, pleading with him to get involved and to offer political asylum to this woman, her name is Meriam Ibrahim. She has also been convicted of adultery, because her marriage to a Christian man, who is an American citizen, was ruled invalid. And that conviction carries a penalty of 100 lashes. And just adding another layer here, she is reportedly -- remember, she's pregnant -- reportedly being held in this prison in shackles, but still caring for her 20-month-old son who, again, is living with her behind bars.

Let's bring in Daniel Burke, editor of the CNN belief blog.

And, Daniel, there are so many issues with this story, and this treatment of this mother who is pregnant. I mean, I guess the first question is, is Sudan really going to execute a pregnant woman because she's Christian?

DANIEL BURKE, CNN BELIEF BLOG EDITOR: Right. Well, the horrible news is that is the penalty within Sudan for what they call apostasy, which essentially means they think Meriam Ibrahim has converted from Islam to Christianity, and that's illegal. Now, she and her lawyer argue that she was never Muslim. She had a Muslim father, but he left the family at a very early age and she was raised by a Christian woman so no conversion ever took place. So that's what they're hoping to tell the appeals court in these next steps with this case.

BALDWIN: So apostasy. So is this then, I presume, pretty typical for a Christian, or just a non-Muslim, in Sudan?

BURKE: Well, the law, as I said, is on the books. But I was combing through reports by international religious freedom groups like Amnesty International and the State Department -

BALDWIN: Yes.

BURKE: And technically it looks like there haven't been very many, if any, people actually given the death penalty for conversion in Sudan. So at least that's the good news.

Now, this case has to go through several more measures. And Sudan's own constitution technically allows religious conversion. So her lawyer told CNN he's fairly, fairly optimistic that this case will be settled some other way.

BALDWIN: So are you saying that if she converts, whether she really feels that she's doing so or has to do so to save her life, that could be an option?

BURKE: Well, that could be an option. She said she wasn't going to do that at this early trial, which is kind of what landed her in this situation.

BALDWIN: OK.

BURKE: But there are ways, including international pressure, as you mentioned, with the two senators -

BALDWIN: Right.

BURKE: To get away - to get around these laws. Judges don't have to impose the worst penalty every time. There's a lot of leeway where they can kind of just impose some other kind of penalty.

BALDWIN: In 2014, that this happens in the world. Daniel Burke, thank you. We'll stay - we'll stay up with you and the belief blog. Thank you so much with that one.

BURKE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, it is a museum, it is a memorial, but it is also a grave site. The 9/11 Museum holds the unidentified remains of a number of the victims killed that day. But it also holds a gift shop that sells mugs and t-shirts and scarfs and key chains. So now outrage from some family members and first responders who say the tragedy is just being commercialized.

Plus, we are learning more about the man who will be honored at the next medal of honor ceremony. His message to the nation, quote, "I am just getting started." His heroic story coming up next.

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BALDWIN: Just about the bottom of the hour. You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

It is a day Americans will forever have etched in our minds. And almost 13 years later, the museum to honor those victims of September 11th and the first responders is about to open. But there is controversy yet again at Ground Zero. This time it centered around a gift shop located inside the memorial set to open to the public tomorrow.

And you're looking at some of the pictures. I mean some of the items here sold, you know, the hats with the FDNY symbol, stuffed search and rescue dogs. And some people are upset over the idea of profiting from their loved one's final resting places. But organizers of this museum, they say that covering the museum's cost of operation will require that revenue generated from the gift shop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE DANIELS, PRES. AND CEO, 9/11 MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM: What we know it's the right thing. That when visitors come here, they want to take a keepsake away. This is the United States of America. And the number one thing is, if you don't like what we're selling, don't buy it. The number one seller in our gift shop is a book called "The Place of Remembrance," which talks about the building of the memorial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let me bring