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Michael Brown's Stepdad Speaks Out; Interview with Charles Barkley' Source: No Charges Likely Against Brown's Stepdad; CNN Goes Inside Battle-Scarred Kobani; Woman Sues Cosby, Claims Underage Abuse
Aired December 03, 2014 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM.
CHARLES BARKLEY, FORMER NBA PLAYER: We have a racial issue in this country.
COSTELLO: Charles Barkley one-on-one and unleashed.
BARKLEY: There's some black people out there who are crooks.
COSTELLO: Ferguson, race, and solutions.
BARKLEY: We need some strong black men in St. Louis to stand up.
COSTELLO: Riot watch. New fallout and new questions this morning, did Michael Brown's stepfather cause a riot with his words?
And hands up.
CROWD: Hands up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hands up.
CROWD: Hands up.
COSTELLO: A phrase, a call, a symbol, how a silent gesture has said more than any words possibly could. This morning, we ask this --
CROWD: Hands up. Don't shoot.
COSTELLO: Does it further the movement or incite violence?
Let's talk, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Michael Brown's stepfather Louis Head speaking out this morning -- let
me -- let me set the stage before we get to Don Lemon who is sitting right to my right here.
On the night the grand jury decision was reached in Ferguson, Louis head, Michael Brown's stepfather, according to police, maybe incited a riot when he uttered these words. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LOUIS HEAD, HUSBAND OF LESLEY MCSPADDEN: Burn this mother (EXPLETIVE DELETED) down. Burn this bitch down. Burn this bitch down. Burn this bitch down.
(SHOUTING)
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: All right. Somewhere in there Louis Head has said, burn the bitch down. And as you know a number of businesses were burned in Ferguson that very night. And the Ferguson Police Department said yesterday that it was thinking of filing incitement to riot charges against Mr. Head.
Mr. Head is speaking out. He talked with Don Lemon. And as I said Don Lemon is sitting with me right now.
What did he say?
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR, CNN TONIGHT: He reached out and actually gave me a statement this morning that -- to read. I wanted to do an interview with him. He did not want to do an interview but here's what a source close to him wants people to know.
It says, "Something came over me as I watched and listened to my wife, the mother of Michael Brown Jr. react to the gut-wrenching news that the cop who killed her son wouldn't be charged with a crime. My emotions admittedly got the best of me, this is my family."
He goes on to say, "I was so angry and full of raw emotions as so many others were and granted I screamed out words that I shouldn't have screamed in the heat of the moment. I was wrong and I humbly apologize to all those who read my pain and anger as true desire for what I want for the community. It wasn't."
And I think it's worth to read the rest of the statement, Carol, because it says, "to place blame," because it goes on -- it's more nuanced than that. "But to place blame solely on me for the conditions of our community and country after the grand jury decision goes way too far and is wrong as the decision itself, to declare a state of emergency and send a message of war and not peace before a grand jury decision is announced was also wrong.
"In the end I've lived in this community for a long time. The last thing I truly wanted was to see it go up in flames. In spite of my frustration it really hurt me to see that. Now it's time to rebuild. If we are to honor Michael Brown's memory we need to work together to make rebuilding happen. I plan to remain here and do my part in earnest and in truth."
And it's signed Louis Head. So there you have it from Louis Head. I think it's feeling the pressure that he needed to say something about this and at least show some remorse because even though his wife said he spoke out in anger we had not heard from him.
COSTELLO: Have we heard from the Ferguson Police about why they might charge, if they're going to charge, when they're going to decide?
LEMON: I haven't -- I haven't spoken to the Ferguson Police today about this. I know that my producers spoke to them yesterday about it and also our justice reporter Evan Perez has been digging on this. I don't think the prosecutor knows anything about this. I don't think it's gone beyond the Ferguson Police chief making statements on another network about looking into the possibility. So I'm not sure just how much there is there with actually charging Louis Head with anything.
COSTELLO: OK. So we're going to dig in to all of that.
LEMON: Yes.
COSTELLO: And we'll have more information for all of you coming up in the NEWSROOM.
Don Lemon, thanks so much. I appreciate that.
LEMON: Thank you, Carol.
COSTELLO: OK. Let's talk about Charles Barkley now.
Scumbags, that's what NBA Hall-of-Famer Charles Barkley calls looters in Ferguson who burned buildings after the grand jury decision and he is sticking to that comment, plus he says it's ridiculous to think white cops are out there killing black people.
Barkley first opened up in a radio interview and last night he sat down with Brooke Baldwin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's just begin with the news of the day that Michael Brown's stepdad is being investigated for saying eight different times burn this B down the night the grand jury decision was made public.
HEAD: Burn this bitch down. Burn this mother (EXPLETIVE DELETED) down.
BROWN: And he's being investigated for inciting a riot. Do you think that is fair? Should police be pursuing that? BARKLEY: No, I think under the circumstances this has just been an
awful incident for everybody, and I just think that they're just clouds the discussion. You know, one of the problems with this entire situation, there's just so much noise going on, you never get to the crux of the issue you need to be discussing. So no, I don't think they should pursue charges against him.
BALDWIN: What about all the walkouts and all the protests? And you've definitely caught some.
BARKLEY: Yes.
BALDWIN: You know, slack for calling some people --
BARKLEY: I don't call them slack. Number one, I haven't gotten any slack. I don't do social media.
BALDWIN: I know you don't.
BARKLEY: And I don't sit around and watch what everybody think about me. I have no --
BALDWIN: The scumbag comment? Respond to that.
BARKLEY: Yes. When you're looting people's property that's what you are. That's against the law. It's not your property. You don't want people to do it to your house. You know, you need to go back to the stepdad, he don't want people to burn down his house. So it's all just a bunch of noise at this point. But anybody who walks out peacefully and who protest peacefully that's what this country was built on.
I have no problem with that whatsoever. But to be burning people's property, burning police cars, looting people's stores, that's 100 percent ridiculous.
BALDWIN: Do you think that we would be seeing all of that, had this been a black police officer? Had Darren Wilson been black? And all the facts remaining the same, we would still have a slain 18-year-old. Would the outrage be there?
BARKLEY: No, because we have a racial issue in this country. We've always had a racial issue in this country, and the biggest problem with it is we never discuss race until something bad happens. We never have meaningful dialogue over a cold beer when things are going good, but what happens is, everybody -- when something bad happens everybody has a tribe mentality, everybody wants to protect their own tribe, whether they're right or wrong.
BALDWIN: What do you mean when they're right and wrong?
BARKLEY: We all got bad characters in our group, we all got bad characters. So my grandmother taught me you judge everybody on their own individual merit. You don't care what any other jackass has to say. You don't put everybody together. Black is not always right and white is not always wrong. You got some bad apples who are taking advantage of the situation,
that's the point. You got -- and that's unfortunate because this is a serious -- somebody lost a child. And this is something we need to seriously sit back and discuss and figure out what happened, what went wrong, but I'm going to say this.
The notion that white cops are out there just killing black people, that's ridiculous. It's just flat-out ridiculous. And I challenge any black person to try to make that point. This notion that cops -- cops are actually awesome. You know, they're the only thing in the ghetto from -- between this place being the Wild, Wild West. So this notion that cops are out there just killing black men is ridiculous. And I hate that narrative coming out of the -- out of this entire situation.
And the thing that bothers me the most, Brooke, is the notion that all these people are standing here saying if they indict him -- they were already going to riot.
BALDWIN: No matter if there was an indictment or not?
BARKLEY: No question. Because your mind does not go from let me sit here and listen and let me go and just start burning up police cars and tearing down buildings. That just doesn't happen.
BALDWIN: You know, I'm hearing so much from different people, friends, people who come on my show, African-Americans saying listen, Brooke, you know, I was taught as a young age, I have different rules than you do when I deal with police and there is a lot of -- there is a lot of getting that off people's chests right now because of what happened in Ferguson. There's a lot of anger, there's a lot of frustration.
What can we as a country do with that, this energy right now?
BARKLEY: Well, first of all, we can open a dialogue and I think that's probably what I was -- what I did, was open a dialogue.
Brooke, in fairness, there's some black people out there who are crooks and when the police come to your neighborhood, it's a tense situation. The only time you interact with the cops is when things are going wrong. That's the only time we ever interact with the cops, but first of all, we, we, we as black people, we got a lot of crooks. We can't just wait until something like this happened.
We have to look at our self in the mirror. There's a reason they racially profile us at times. Sometimes it's wrong but sometimes it's right. So to act and sit there and act like we hold no responsibility for some of this stuff, that's disingenuous.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And Brooke Baldwin joins me now.
And, you know, I know he's a tough guy. But he says you know, I'll stand up for what I say, I don't care what people say, but people have been calling him stuff like Uncle Tom.
BALDWIN: They have. I mean, in the wake of that radio interview, and that was part of the reason why I picked up the phone, and I said, let's stop talking about you, I want to talk to you. You know, he said, listen, Brooke, the issue, and this is just him speaking, within the African-American community, he's like we can't disagree to disagree.
There have to be labels and names thrown out like Uncle Tom and traitors. And that frustrates him. I mean, this is someone who's spoken out -- this is sort of his reputation. I was like, Chuck, you know, people run into you on the street, what's the number one thing people say to you, and they say well, thank you for speaking your truth all the time.
You know, his issue is initially when this whole story broke and there was so much misinformation he and still his heart absolutely bleeds for Michael Brown's family, he said initially I was infuriated because he was hearing dribs and drabs about, you know, that this officer had shot him and he assumed that -- you know, that the shots had hit him in the back. And he didn't even want to talk to anyone until the grand jury had made the decision.
He has -- Charles Barkley told me, he has read through all of the minutia of the testimony, the forensic evidence. He was citing the autopsy with me. I mean, we talked for a half hour and he said, you know, people just jump to conclusions. They hear headlines and we're a society that lives in 140 characters or less. And we don't get on to the second and third graphs of a piece.
And so he has thus made his conclusion based upon what he has read. He says the facts of the case and if you don't agree with him, he says sorry.
COSTELLO: Well, I do like what he says about, you know, getting the conversation going, because it's important to have this conversation in a meaningful way, right, and that's what he's trying to do.
BALDWIN: For sure. And I think, you know, we chatted long after the interview. I mean, Charles Barkley is a man who likes to speak his mind and I think, you know, he has a lot of police officer friends. I think, and I've heard, too, from officers. I'm sure you've had law enforcement on your show, and black and white and he said some of their fears are just based upon how people are feeling about certain officers, certain people feel targeting, you know, African-Americans, African-American youth.
Some of these cops are saying to Charles, you know, listen, you may be on your own and that's a frightening thing to think about.
COSTELLO: Brooke Baldwin, many thanks.
BALDWIN: More at 2:00. Thank you so much.
COSTELLO: That's right. Your show is coming up at 2:00.
BALDWIN: Lots more.
COSTELLO: Lots more. The entire interview with Charles Barkley in the NEWSROOM with Brooke Baldwin, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
I'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
COSTELLO: All right. I told you at the top of the show the Ferguson police were thinking about filing incitement to riot charges against Michael Brown's stepfather, Louis Head.
Louis Head gave a statement to our Don Lemon saying, "The last thing I truly wanted was to see Ferguson go up in flames".
But still the police are investigating. You see the pictures of the night when that grand jury decision was announced not to indict Officer Darren Wilson.
Well, our justice correspondent Evan Perez has been talking with police authorities, has some new information about these possible charges.
What can you tell us, Evan?
EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, Carol, we don't really expect -- these officials do not expect any charges to come from this investigation.
Locally, people look at this as something of a stunt by the Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson who has said a few inflammatory things in the last few weeks. If you remember he also said that Officer Darren Wilson would be welcomed back to the force if he wasn't indicted. Lot of people took that as something very inflammatory given the tensions down there.
And this one is sort of seen in the same way. The reason for the fact, for the view that this likely won't get to any charges is the fact that this incitement of riots charged would stage a high bar simply because you have to prove that anyone out there went and rioted and burned things down based on what this one individual said, the stepfather, Louis Head.
And so, that's a very difficult thing to prove and frankly law enforcement down there wants to try to cool things down. They do not -- they don't have any appetite for bringing charges in something like this especially in light of all the reaction to the grand jury decision.
COSTELLO: So, one of your sources Evan said he wished the police chief would just shut up. Why doesn't he?
PEREZ: Well, you know, this is partly the reason why there's been an effort down there to try to have him step aside. I mean, this police department and this community is trying to heal and all he keeps doing is stepping in it to frankly -- just to cause problems and that's the view of a lot of people down there. They'd like him to move aside so that the department can move ahead with reforms.
And I think the Justice Department is still doing an investigation of the Ferguson police department then I think you'll see some pressure on Jackson as time goes on.
COSTELLO: All right. Evan Perez reporting live for us this morning, thanks so much.
On to other news and something you will not see anywhere else, we take you inside Kobani. That's the Syrian city that's been torn apart by ISIS. CNN got incredible access to the heart of this town. Our senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh and his crew made the dangerous trek across the border and into Kobani.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've been taken down this street towards the eastern front line behind those curtains they've put up to protect them from snipers. (INAUDIBLE) and Media who are two of the female YPG fighters escorting us down there, and this is near the eastern front where there's been much more intense fighting in the past three or four days.
While we get differing figures from who you speak to here about how much of the city is controlled and you see here quite remarkable devastation caused by the explosives used. What's quite clear is that ISIS far from giving up this fight, in fact, trying to take ground every day.
The move toward the official border crossing three or four days ago that was a substantial advance. They tried, they were beaten back but each night particularly last night, we had very intense clashes further down this street towards the eastern front here.
You can see the absolute devastation here as we get closer towards ISIS' positions here to the north southeast of the city.
Some of this caused by air strikes but some too from the daily constant sometimes every five minutes thump of mortars, some homemade by ISIS, they've been pounding into Kobani for months now. We can see Turkey literally just behind us, but here they're edging through this wreckage closer and closer to the places where ISIS is trying to push forward.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Just incredible pictures of devastation.
Nick Paton Walsh joins us live from the Turkish side of the border with Syria.
I can't believe civilians are still living there. WALSH: What is remarkable is, it's hard to know really how many are
in there. But they do still stay there, some even saying, in fact, people are coming back to protect their homes but it's hard to see how anyone can live.
The conditions we experienced are remarkable. You hear a coalition airstrike go in, normally three separate explosions, but it simply shakes the walls and the floor you're lying in and around you during the nights you hear the mortars land, as you saw there, often homemade bombs, a gas canister for example for domestic heating filled with bits of scrap metal and launched indiscriminately at civilian areas. In fact, during the night we think we heard some of that shrapnel clanging as it hit the concrete streets around the area where we were.
So, a very difficult time for civilians there. They say food is lacking, we saw that ourselves, fuel for heating and it's increasingly cold winter and increasing now ISIS moving towards the center of the city. We have been told outside by Kurdish officials that, in fact, 20 percent, 30 percent were still in ISIS hands.
It looks more now like they have about half potentially of that city, the fight still ranging at night, above where we were sleeping, endless heavy machine gunfire cracking in the sky, very hard for children. In fact, one group we spoke to, scuttling into a room to show us where they hid when bombs began to land, simply cushions piled on them for protection -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Wow. Nick Paton Walsh reporting live for us this morning, thank you.
Still to come in THE NEWSROOM, Bill Cosby may be heading to court after all. Another woman has filed a lawsuit claiming she was molested by the comedian when she was just 15. Jean Casarez is on the story.
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Many women have come forward in the last few weeks with allegations against Bill Cosby, but now something very different, a woman in California has filed suit in California superior court saying she was molested by Bill Cosby when she was 15 years old. We'll have more right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Bill Cosby may be forced to respond to allegations of sexual assault for the first time in nearly a decade. A woman in California has now filed a lawsuit claiming the comedian molested her at the Playboy Mansion back in the '70s when she was just 15 years old. That means she is a minor -- she was a minor, right?
Jean Casarez joins us now details on this.
And that matters.
CASAREZ: And we got the complaint -- it does. We got the complaint right here. It was filed yesterday in California superior court. And, Carol, what is interesting is that this alleged victim, and she is named in the complaint, Judy Huth, she says it was 40 years ago, in 1974, she was 15 years old, her little friend was 16 years old and they went to a park, the complaint describes, in San Marino, California, very nice area outside of Los Angeles.
She goes on to say that Bill Cosby was filming a movie there, and so, they went up to meet him. He said the next Saturday, I want to you come to my tennis club, so they went. She then says he said, let's go to a house. They went to a house and it's alleged in the complaint that he forced her to drink a beer every time he won a game of billiards.
Then, according to the complaint he said, I've got a surprise for you. It's alleged he took them to the Playboy Mansion. She then said I have to go to the bathroom. She went to the bathroom. He led her to one off of a bedroom. She comes out of the bathroom she alleges he is sitting there on the bed and begins to sexually molest her.
Those are the facts as alleged in this complaint which was filed yesterday.
COSTELLO: So, because she was 15 at the time, she can go ahead and file this complaint and because of the California law, it allows her to do that.
CASAREZ: That's the big question and that's still going to be a question. You know, every state is different with their laws. But in California, they passed a law in 1990 which states that if you suddenly as an adult, not only realize that you were abused as a child, but you connected then to psychological injury or illness, and the study shows that sometimes you don't understand this until you're an adult, you can bring an action within three years of that discovery.
Here's something else that I think is fascinating. I was looking at some of the procedural notes under California law -- before somebody files an action like this, you have to go before a judge in his chambers or her chambers, and you have to file a certificate of merit as an alleged victim, and the judge needs to look at that, to see if there is some corroboration, to see if there's some authenticity of what you're saying and a mental health professional has to file a certificate of merit.
Furthermore, it's a John Doe in an action that's filed until there is corroborating information that's presented to a judge. And this complaint states the name Bill Cosby. Not John Doe.
COSTELLO: So, any word from the Cosby camp?
CASAREZ: No, we've reached out to Marty Singer, his attorney, throughout the night. We have no response at this point but with an action being filed, there will have to at least be a legal response from his team.
COSTELLO: I'm sure you'll be on it. Jean Casarez, many thanks to you.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM: full of school kids, two buses collide, three people are dead and authorities want to know why.
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