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Son of Immigrants Conflicted about World Cup: Conviction Overturned for Insufficient Evidence Against Cannibal Cop; Putin Calls for Peace in Ukraine; Fabien Cousteau Wrapping up Mission 31; Amanda Knox's Former Boyfriend Speaking Out; Colorado Recreational Marijuana on Verge of Transformation?
Aired July 01, 2014 - 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: Bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
All right, let's get to it, 90 minutes till game time. America versus Belgium. World Cup. The biggest sports stage on earth. So if I may, I would like to take a few moments to introduce you to one fan with a questionable allegiance. His name, Paul Vercammen, senior producer, employed by CNN. He lives and works in Los Angeles, which is in America. He has two teenagers. One of them plays American soccer. He enjoys Bruce Springsteen. He likes cheeseburgers and beer brewed by an American company. You see where I'm going? Yet, Paul Vercammen may not be rooting for America today.
Why? Explain yourself.
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: I am conflicted. And if you haven't figured this out, I'm the son of Belgian immigrants. In my youth, we used to have to watch on the Spanish-language station because no one would show it in America. But I'm a huge USA fan. I was there in 1994 when we beat Colombia 2-1. I absolutely jack- hammered my voice box. I sounded like this. Hi, everybody, how are you doing?
(LAUGHTER)
I never had a moment where Belgium has played the U.S. This is a first for me.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: So you're conflicted?
VERCAMMEN: I'm torn up.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: I feel you being perplexed. But listen, you have to pick. What are you picking?
VERCAMMEN: I haven't picked yet because I'm torn up by this.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: How are you even walking around in the newsroom --
(LAUGHTER)
-- in a Los Angeles bureau without people riveting you a little bit?
VERCAMMEN: Absolutely. I'm taking severe abuse. I'm going to have to visit you and go to a self-esteem workshop. I went. Because no matter what, I've got a team in the quarterfinals.
BALDWIN: Rocky, come here.
I'm talking to our camera operator.
(LAUGHTER)
Because this is what it boils down to -- cheeseburgers. You're a big fan of In and Out? Belgian chocolates. Which one is it? Paul Vercammen, give me one.
VERCAMMEN: You know, as an anchor, that's a loaded one. You're insulting my mom, by the way.
(CROSSTALK)
VERCAMMEN: She doesn't want to hear wimpy American chocolate. If I have to choose the cheeseburger or American chocolate, I'm going to have to go with both.
BALDWIN: That's a non answer. I hope you can hold your head high watching the game in a couple of hours.
(LAUGHTER)
Good luck with that. Let's talk tomorrow, and I hope you're hoarse for the right reasons.
Paul John Vercammen, thank you.
It is a true-life case that has all of the makings of a horror story. A police officer entrusted with people's safety is arrested and convicted in this horrific plot to kidnap, kill, and eat young women. Remember this case? This was initially out of New York City last year. When we first heard about this, it made headlines nationwide. This officer, nicknamed the Cannibal, his wife alerted the police to websites where he was talking about snatching and cooking and killing people. He was found guilty. But now, in a shocking twist, a federal judge overturned the conviction.
Let's make sense out of this, CNN's legal analyst, Sunny Hostin; HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell.
Sunny, first to you.
The judge said there was insufficient evidence. The plots of raping and cooking women are fantasy online role play, that he wouldn't actually carry them out. How do you prove that?
SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, I've got to tell you, Brooke, I was at this trial. I covered it for CNN. I sat through the trial. I heard the testimony. I was there are to the verdict and I was shocked. Shocked that he was convicted in federal court of this conspiracy to commit cannibalism.
BALDWIN: You were?
HOSTIN: I really was. We are not the thought police. When I was in the courtroom, it was very clear to me that these fantasies that he had, albeit very creepy, never rose to the level or action. He never completed what he was talking about, which was kidnapping, raping, and eating women. We're talking weird stuff here. But I don't think the prosecution proved its case and I think the judge got it right.
BALDWIN: Two your point of not being thought police, this is what was said outside of court yesterday, yes, he had unconventional thoughts, but we can't be the thought police.
JVM, do you agree?
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: I agree. Listen, if you're going to throw men in jail for looking at hideous porn, you better build more jails. Porn is huge, huge, huge. In my book "Addict Nation," you can get into the violent porn and we as society need to find out why American men are so addicted to porn. There is an addiction by the Internet. You can't throw people in jail for having these kinds of thoughts. I mean, we don't want to live in a place like China where -- this is going to open a Pandora's Box if you did that.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: There's porn and then there's discussions online of fantasies of eating and cooking women, or does that all fall in the same category?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Very little porn is pleasant, and most of it involves degradation to women, and a lot of it involves violence, torture, snuff films, things of that nature. We really need to look at this because this is out there. And the Internet has supersized the addiction because you can experience more porn on the Internet than you could in real life going to a thousand brothels. Addiction is a progressive illness. You need to get a bigger charge every time you visit, and that's how men get into this incredibly sick porn. This is a social crisis.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Jump in, Sunny.
Jane, I feel your passion.
Sunny? HOSTIN: Certainly, it's an addiction, and it's an epidemic and
something we should address. I think what is very troubling about this case in federal court is that we're talking about a police officer, as you mentioned, someone that we trust, that we're entrusted with protecting us, right? So what he also was convicted of was that he actually went on police databases to fuel this addiction, to fuel his fantasy and got names and addresses of real women and was sort of sharing that information with someone else to fuel their fantasies. He never went so far as to kidnap a woman but he was guilty of illegally accessing that information.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: That conviction was upheld.
HOSTIN: Right. He's served already 21 months in prison. And prison for a police officer or a former police officer is never an easy thing. So this is now the time for him to put his life back together and hopefully get treated for this addiction.
BALDWIN: Absolutely. I'm glad you pointed that out, that that part was not overturned.
Sunny Hostin and Jane Velez-Mitchell, thank you very much.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thanks, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Three words: We will attack. Bringing an end to a 10-day cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine. This time, it's Ukraine with the fighting words here, restarting military operations in the divided east. Ukraine conducting air strikes on its own soil, hitting rebel positions in the town of Slavyansk. And get this -- Vladimir Putin is calling for a peaceful end.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translation): Unfortunately, President Poroshenko has made a decision to maintain a military option and we were not able -- and when I say we, I mean both myself and my European colleagues -- we were not able to convince him that the road to sustainable, solid, and lasting peace cannot lead through war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Ukraine's president, Viktor Poroshenko, he says his country would not renew a cease-fire with the separatists, vowing to, quote, "attack and liberate our land."
Joining me now, CNN's Phil Black, live in Moscow.
Phil, this unilateral cease-fire was not being respected by either side in the past 10 days. How much of an escalation is this?
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, you're right. The cease-fire never really lived up to its name. Dozens of soldiers were killed. The Ukrainian government is going to try to achieve an outright military victory. That could get bloodier, far messier in the event that this fighting moves into a more built-up residential areas controlled by the militants. The Ukrainian government is really saying, we're done talking, we're going to fight this out, Brooke.
BALDWIN: There are reports of opinions, Phil, that Ukraine forces used this 10-day cease-fire to get organized, consolidate weapons and are now going into this stronger than before. Do we know what reaction the Ukrainian military is prepared to take?
BLACK: I think it's pretty likely that the Ukrainian government was using that 10-day period to its advantage. The question really is, will the Ukrainian government and military operation be more effective than it was prior to the cease-fire. Because before that, they really weren't making much ground at all. So the question now is, can they use this time that they've had to their advantage? They are now under the control of a newly elected president, Petro Poroshenko. Will these factors improve their capabilities on the ground -- Brooke?
BALDWIN: Phil Black, on the ground in Russia for us, thank you.
Fabien Cousteau is wrapping up his 31-day underwater experiment in Key West, Florida. Katie Linendoll, she talked to Cousteau under water, part of Mission 31. She will join me live, next.
Plus, Amanda Knox's former Italian boyfriend is speaking out saying that Amanda's version of events that night is, quote, "imagination and hallucination." But is he saying that just to save himself? We'll discuss. Stay with me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Fabien Cousteau will be back on dry land after spending 31 days under water for Mission 31. He worked at Aquarius, 63 feet under water. Fabien Cousteau is the grandson of Jacques Cousteau.
Katie Linendoll got to dive down in the Keys to visit Fabien herself.
Katie, what was that experience like for you?
KATIE LINENDOLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Let me tell you, you know it's going to be an adventure any time there is a Cousteau involved.
(LAUGHTER)
But this is definitely my only report done underwater. So cool to be diving underwater to talk to Fabien about the mission. Aquarius, this is the only underwater Marine habitat which is whereas astronauts all over the world train for pre-mission training.
BALDWIN: Super cool.
LINENDOLL: But just getting there was a journey in itself. We had super high seas. We had awesome Navy escorts that took us out. It was about an hour. We felt like we were going to Narnia in the middle of the ocean and there were string rays passing by. And then you meet Fabien in this habitat. He says, "I feel completely at home." Incredible experience.
BALDWIN: I know you can only stay down there for so long. I did this Google hangout with Fabien not too long ago and at one point they lost air conditioning. Here you have scientists huddling together and then female scientists came down from MIT. They were sort of nervous of -- it's a small space. Let's be real.
LINENDOLL: Oh, my gosh. It's a small space. They are comparing it to the size of a small school bus. I'm surprised that the bigger story wasn't that they killed one another. Their bunk beds are stacked on top of each other. They have Wi-Fi in there. They are doing chats all across the country. 330 million people they hope to reach through social. Tons of cameras, and very, very high-tech. It's an impressive facility.
BALDWIN: What do you think the biggest takeaway will be from this Mission 31?
LINENDOLL: That was the million dollar question as I headed under water to ask Fabien. He said he couldn't even narrow it down to three. Just getting people more excited about the ocean exploration. Showing kids.
10 percent of the ocean has been explored. We know more about the surface of the moon than the ocean. It's incredible. 31 days is equivalent to six months of research because they don't have to come up and decompress. They hope to have 10 published studies by the end of this mission. Very impressive what we're going to learn about climate change, the health of our reefs, and also predator/prey interaction.
Hats off to Team Cousteau.
BALDWIN: Totally. Hats off to Mission 31. You can read your experience all about this scuba mission of yours on CNN.com
Katie Linendoll, thank you for coming on. I appreciate it.
LINENDOLL: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Just head, nanny nightmare. The California family who fired that full-time live-in nanny who refused to leave their house may have no legal foot to stand on. Why? Find out next.
And Amanda Knox is back in the news. This time, her ex is saying that her version of events is based off of imagination. But might he be saying that to save himself? We'll discuss that, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: New comments by the former boyfriend of Amanda Knox will not help her defense very much. For a long time, Rafael Sollecito stuck to the same story, that they were both innocent. But their bond is unraveling, with Sollecito saying that her version of events are imagination and hallucinations. Direct quotes from him.
Paul Newton, you were in Italy. What is he trying to do by saying this?
PAUL NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He is spending a quarter century in jail. He wants a new trial. Separating his story from Amanda Knox's story, he doesn't need an alibi anymore. He can say, I don't know what she was doing. There is no DNA evidence to link me to this crime.
BALDWIN: They want a new trial as far as Amanda Knox goes. There's no way she's going back to Italy. So she's safe?
NEWTON: It's going to be a legal nightmare that will go on and on and on but she will not return for any kind of a trial.
Having said that, there are so many murky details, Brooke. I can hardly imagine that it has been seven years since this exchange student, Meredith Kercher, was murdered.
BALDWIN: Still dragging out. It was seven years.
NEWTON: A drifter is serving time for the murder already. A prosecutor, who I spoke to for hours and hours while this was going on -- highly irregular that he would do that, speak to the media -- he was highly criticized for that. He thinks the three of them colluded. Bottom line is Sollecito's lawyer says there's no proof that he had anything to do with this murder.
In terms of him going through those questions about Amanda Knox, he says she is innocent, but you can understand how her story may seem strange. He says she had this courthouse confession, this jailhouse confession. What was that all about? He says she was hallucinating. So many details that his legal team is saying, look, you must treat this man separately from her.
BALDWIN: Paula, thank you so much.
A new twist playing out in this saga of the nanny who will not leave. Marcella says she's living a nightmare. Her live-in nanny, who she fired four weeks ago because she stopped working, is refusing to leave her house in southern California. So now this nanny, Diane Streton (ph), is firing back. She says she was not fired. She quit. What's more, she tells KNX radio that she is the victim.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DIANE STRETON (ph), NANNY (voice-over): They were the ones trying to exploit me, as if I were poor migrant worker from a foreign country.
When I was working there, I didn't get lunch breaks, coffee breaks, any holidays or -- basically, I was working 24/7.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So beyond this nanny speaking, she is no longer staying at the house but her belongings are still there. She's offered to move out over the Fourth of July holiday. The problem is, they will be out of town and they are worried that if Streton (ph) gets in, she could keep them out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This has become one of the most popular strains of marijuana here in Colorado. This is called Strawberry Diesel. It's popular because of how it makes you feel. We're told it's supposed to bring a euphoric high, like sunshine, when you smoke it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Did she say sunshine? We're going to talk to Ana Cabrera. It's been six months since Colorado started its pot experiment. Is it causing problems? The answer.
Plus, what happened to Serena Williams today? She was disoriented and stumbling on the court, she was weeping. She has dropped out of Wimbledon. We'll get the story, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: If you are keeping count with us, you will know that recreational marijuana is hitting the milestone of six months in Colorado. Flash forward six months, a marijuana shortage in Washington State may rattle the debut of recreational pot sales there next week. Apparently, in Colorado, there is plenty of pot to go around. Colorado's recreational marijuana industry on the verge of a transformation?
Here is CNN's Ana Cabrera.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIM CULLEN, CO-OWNER, EVERGREEN APOTHECARY: So you want a full ounce of this?
CABRERA (voice-over): A full six months after recreational pot sales, the state already collecting more than $11 million in retail marijuana taxes and fees.
(on camera): How is business?
CULLEN: It's still fantastic.
CABRERA (voice-over): Lines outside dispensaries are gone but pot shop owners say business is still booming.
CULLEN: We see about 10,000 people a month.
CABRERA (on camera): Primarily Coloradoans.
CULLEN: I would say that 20 percent are traveling from out of state.
CABRERA (voice-over): Number like that made us wonder, how many of those cannabis consumers hit the road high. Colorado State Patrol just started keeping track of the numbers. Since January, Marijuana DUIs have accounted for just 10 to 15 percent of DUI citations.
NATE REID, CALIFORNIA STATE PATROL TROOPER: Alcohol is more readily available. More people use alcohol.
CABRERA: Yet, pot problems have emerged with marijuana edibles, especially with people eating too much too soon and then getting hit hard with the psycho active side effects of THC.
DR. PAULA RIGGS, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: It's a slower onset but it lasts longer.
CABRERA: The issue has state regulators considering new rules for packaging and labeling.
CULLEN: The industry is small enough and nimble enough that people can adjust without hiccups in productions.
CABRERA: Asked if it's good enough for Colorado and the majority of voters in the state say yes. A recent survey says that 52 percent say marijuana was a good move, with 38 percent saying it was bad. Marijuana advocates hope outcome of the Colorado's experiment will convince more states to follow suit.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABRERA: Bigger picture, here's where we are at right now. 22 states have legalized the use of some form of marijuana. Primarily for medical marijuana use. Two states, Colorado and Washington, have legalized marijuana for recreational use and six other states, half a dozen states, Brooke, are considering similar initiatives.
BALDWIN: Look at those people in the store lining up. I guess this is business as usual where you are.
CABRERA: It is.
BALDWIN: What about because there were fears about issues with legalizing marijuana and impacting the crime in Colorado, what have you seen from this?
CABRERA: I think people from the outside think it's Colorado "Going Up in Smoke." That's not the case. It's still illegal to smoke pot in public and police have been cracking down on that. In Denver alone, 350 people have been issued citations for that. It comes with a $130 fine. We looked at other crimes, like burglary, and Denver police say, when you look at last year's numbers compared to this year's numbers, burglaries at marijuana facilities, the numbers are flat. There's been a very strong effort to make sure this doesn't get out of control -- Brooke?
BALDWIN: Ana Cabrera, thank you so much, in Denver for us.
And we continue on on hour two here. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
