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Vanessa Bryant Testifies in Crash Photos Lawsuit; Wisconsin Officials Working to Fill 320+ School Vacancies; Alec Baldwin Refutes FBI Claim that He Pulled Trigger on Set; Significant Flash Flood Threat Through Weekend Across Southwest. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired August 19, 2022 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:33:15]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: An emotional Vanessa Bryant took the witness stand today in her lawsuit against Los Angeles County. She's the widow of basketball legend, Kobe Bryant.

She says she suffers from panic attacks and anxiety after officials took and shared close-up photos from victims' remains from the crash that killed her husband, her daughter, her daughter's teammates and parents.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: CNN's Natasha Chen is in Los Angeles.

Natasha, what else did Vanessa say in the courtroom?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn and Victor, about five minutes ago, Vanessa finished her testimony. L.A. County, the defense in this case just finished cross-examining her. And it was, expectedly extremely emotional.

Because we've been watching Vanessa Bryant sitting in the room for the last couple of weeks listening, reacting strongly to the descriptions of gruesome close-up photos of her loved ones' remains that L.A. County sheriff's deputies and firefighters allegedly took and shared amongst each other.

She is a co-plaintiff in this case alongside Christopher Chester, who lost his wife and daughter in the same crash.

What they described on the stand today and yesterday was this additional fear and anxiety, additional emotional distress that is on top of the grief of losing their loved ones, and this fear that these photos could surface at any point on the Internet.

I want to read to you a quote that we wrote down in the courtroom that Vanessa Bryant said about the moment she learned about the existence of the photos.

She said, "I just remember not wanting to react because the girls were in the room. I said, I can't do this and I bolted out of the house and I ran to the side of the house so the girls couldn't see me. I wanted to run down the block and just scream."

She said, "It felt like needing to jump into the ocean." But instead, she said, "I can't escape my body. I can't escape what I feel."

[14:35:03]

And while the county defense has continued to emphasize, with both her and Christopher Chester, that they have never seen these alleged photos surface in the last two and a half years, both of them say that possibility is very real.

In fact, Vanessa Bryant referred to an Instagram direct message she got from a stranger that we saw pop up on the screen in there with emojis of helicopters and flames and this person threatened, "I'm going to leak Kobe's body."

And Christopher Chester also said today on the stand that someone called his lawyer this past week alleging that someone did have the photos and was charging a fee for people to see it.

So whether or not those things are true, whether those threats are real, that fear that they experienced, they kept emphasizing that.

L.A. County, of course, wanted to emphasize that the deputies had to take these photos in order to respond to the scene in the best way possible to know how many people they were trying to locate.

So this will continue. And we will soon hear from L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

Victor and Alisyn, back to you.

CAMEROTA: What an awful experience for her to have to relive all of the time.

Natasha Chen, thank you very much.

BLACKWELL: Schools across the country are desperately trying to solve teacher shortages. Ahead, we'll speak to a Wisconsin district superintendent who recruited his latest addition from Mexico.

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[14:41:03]

BLACKWELL: With just weeks before the entire country is back to school, some superintendents are turning now to unconventional methods to fill the overwhelming need for teachers.

Listen to these. One district in Texas has enlisted remote instructors to appear virtually in the classroom. The students come to the classroom and the teacher is piped in through a camera.

All right, there's a charter school system in Chicago that's lowering its standards for full-time substitutes. The job posting says no experience, college degree or teaching licenses required. The salary is $57,000 to $80,000 a year.

My next guest has taken his search international and just recruited a teacher from Mexico to fill one of the many vacancies in his district.

Carlton Jenkins is the superintendent for Madison, Wisconsin, public schools.

Sir, thank you for being with me.

These listings sound like these districts just need somebody in the room to watch the kids.

If you don't require a college degree or a teaching license or experience, are districts now just resigned to a warm body in the room without a criminal history?

CARLTON JENKINS, SUPERINTENDENT, MADISON METROPOLITAN SCHOOL DISTRICT: Well, I'll tell you, some of my colleagues are taking different measures to get someone in front of the students.

But in Madison, we're a great city, we're a great attraction here in Madison, Wisconsin, but yet we're still going international to get individuals for our DLI programs, our dual language immersion programs.

And we were very fortunate to recruit teachers from Mexico and Spain to come here to teach. But teachers are coming here from New York, California, Florida, Georgia, all over.

And we've been very successful. As we see right now, we have 75 more teachers thus far this year than we did all of last year to come to our district.

BLACKWELL: How many are you still short?

JENKINS: We're still short teachers in the classroom, about 135. If you can help me out, we really need two kindergarten teachers. We're short two kindergarten teachers.

And on the average, almost two at the elementary level, three at the intermediate level. And then at the high school, it's a little bit less than two teachers.

We've been pushing out. We have, on Monday, another fair, virtual fair for our teachers hiring and other hirings. And then, on Thursday, we have another fair we're going to have.

But we have improved with our number of teachers who are ready to sub that are highly qualified. We have 275. We've reached out to 581 just this week alone.

BLACKWELL: You heard the list of these creative avenues that districts are having to go down to try to bring in instructors into the classroom.

There are local reports in Wisconsin of people who were taking three- year online college courses to become teachers, to get certification, to graduate.

What is the cost to the student? I imagine that the requirements before the shortage weren't arbitrary. What are students losing by having all of these corners cut?

JENKINS: Well, I'll tell you, it's not just what students are losing. It's what America is losing. Right now, we have a national crisis in terms of teachers coming out.

In 1970, we had 200,000 teachers being confirmed to be in the classroom. Now we have less than 90,000 that graduated last year.

We also see in this particular situation the pandemic, it's unprecedented. You have students coming out and they were coming into a virtual world when they were prepared to teach face-to-face.

That connection, that personal connection in our field in terms of education is really important.

So with the challenges we've faced with supply chain, demand, just like business -- businesses are also facing a shortage. We're facing that in the schools.

[14:44:59]

And it's just keeping the family connection away, like we've had in the past where people are able to come in the buildings.

Now that we're emerging from COVID -- it's still here but we've learned mitigation strategies and we're able to give our students opportunities to begin to interact with one another within the classroom and with their teachers.

And we have masks recommended going on now, where, in the past, we had mask mandates.

BLACKWELL: Superintendent Carlton Jenkins, out of Madison, again, you say you need a couple of kindergarten, middle schoolteachers, high school instructors.

I know that there's this campaign between superintendents, whisper campaign, where, if you know someone is headed in your direction or the direction of another city, you'll call ahead.

I thank you for your time. And I hope you find the instructors you're looking for.

JENKINS: OK, thank you so much for covering this. This is very important.

BLACKWELL: Certainly.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. It's a national problem, as you guys point out.

Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin insists he did not pull the trigger on that gun that killed cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, though an FBI report says otherwise. So Baldwin speaks with CNN next.

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[14:50:20]

BLACKWELL: Alec Baldwin says the deadly shooting on the set of his movie "Rust" still haunts him. He tells CNN he thinks about it every day.

CAMEROTA: But the actor maintains he did not pull the trigger that killed his cinematographer.

He also revealed to CNN's Chloe Melas that, in the aftermath of the shooting, he feared Donald Trump would put his life in danger.

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CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER (voice-over): Ten months in --

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MELAS: -- and confusion still persists over the sequence of events that led to a deadly shooting on the set of "Rust."

This week, an FBI report concluded this gun could not be fired without the trigger being pulled while the gun was cocked and eventually malfunctioned after internal parts fractured.

In his first interview with CNN, Alec Baldwin denies pulling the trigger.

ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR: I never once said -- never -- that the gun went off in my hand automatically. I always said I pulled the hammer back and I pulled it back as far as I could. I never took a gun and pointed at somebody and clicked the thing.

MELAS: While waiting for the results of the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office investigation, Baldwin says he hired his own investigator.

BALDWIN: That private investigator, as you probably know, did not have a difficult time accessing the staff of the sheriff's department. And that person told us, quote, unquote, "We've known in the department since January that Alec would not be charged with a crime."

MELAS: A sentiment echoed by his attorney.

(on camera): Do you think that there is a possibility, though, that he could face charges at all?

LUKE NIKAS, ALEC BALDWIN'S ATTORNEY: It would be a huge miscarriage of justice.

MELAS (voice-over): But the then-president fanned flames against him.

BALDWIN: The former President of the United States said, "He probably shot her on purpose." To me, it was really the only time I thought that I needed to -- that I was worried about what was going to happen.

Because here was Trump, who instructed people to commit acts of violence, and he was pointing the finger at me and saying I was responsible for the death.

MELAS: No one has been charged for the tragedy on set but Baldwin said there are two people responsible, armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, and assistant director, Dave Halls.

Through their attorneys, they accuse Baldwin of deflecting blame. But Baldwin points to the findings of an occupational safety report.

BALDWIN: Hannah Reed handed the gun to Halls and said, don't give it to Alec until I get back to the set, I've got to go do something else. And he proceeded to the set and, A, handed me the gun.

MELAS: Baldwin said Gutierrez-Reed should have known the difference between dummy rounds, which make a rattling sound, and live ammunition.

BALDWIN: I mean, anybody on earth who works in that business can determine that.

MELAS: Baldwin raised questions about the supplier of guns and ammunition for the film, Seth Kenny, who is being sued by the armorer. An FBI report said 150 live rounds were found on set.

BALDWIN: What was the provenance of all the bullets on the set? Where did those come from?

MELAS (on camera): Well, according to the FBI report, as far as I'm aware, the bullets were comingled.

BALDWIN: What -- so if that's the case, then who comingled them? Did Seth Kenny provide her with prop ammunition where he comingled live rounds with blank rounds?

MELAS (voice-over): Questions Baldwin says kept him up at night as he replayed the final days of a talented friend and cinematographer.

BALDWIN: And she was great at her job and she died, and she died. And that's -- that hurts me every day.

(CRYING)

BALDWIN: You know, every day of my life I think about that. It's horrible.

MELAS (on camera): Alisyn and Victor, the film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, filed a lawsuit against the film's ammunition supplier, Seth Kenny, in January, saying that he sold her a cache of dummy rounds, which also contained live rounds of ammunition.

In a response, his legal team said that's absolutely not true but they did admit that he was the sole supplier of ammunition on the set of "Rust." Now, in my wide-ranging interview with Alec Baldwin, he also said that

it's been a difficult time over the last 10 months. And also, he's found it very hard to find work in Hollywood. And he has been fired from five jobs, including one just the other day.

But he says he's leaning on the support of his friends and family, especially his wife, Hilaria Baldwin.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Really interesting interview. Chloe, thank you.

[14:54:32]

BLACKWELL: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has a warning for his party. Republicans may not be able to flip the Senate this November. We'll discuss.

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CAMEROTA: The drought-stricken southwest is desperate for rainfall.

BLACKWELL: But the storms coming this weekend are also bringing the danger of severe flooding.

CNN meteorologist, Britley Ritz, is tracking it all from the CNN Weather Center.

Hey, Britley.

BRITLEY RITZ, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Alisyn.

Hey, Victor.

We are dealing with this monsoonal flow that continues to pump up from the south, all across the four corners, scattered showers and thunderstorms remain. And this is going to continue through the weekend, as you just mentioned.

[14:59:48]

Flood watches in effect. The soil, almost hydrophobic, so it can't get absorbed as quick it's coming down, so it starts to back up, hence the flash flooding concerns, although we do need the rain.

Again, scattered thunderstorms will continue on through the rest of this evening into the weekend. Your time stamp reading Saturday morning through the afternoon.