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Alex Murdaugh Trial Continues; Police on Hunt For Kidnapping Suspect; Antony Blinken in Israel; Sixth Memphis Police Officer Suspended. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired January 30, 2023 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:02]

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DAVID DEPAPE, DEFENDANT: It's my own fault. No one else is to blame. I should have come better prepared.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: DePape facing federal and state charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

Appreciate your time today on INSIDE POLITICS. Hope to see you back here tomorrow.

Kasie Hunt picks up our coverage right now.

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Hello. I am Kasie Hunt in Washington.

We are tracking major fallout in the fatal police beating of 29-year- old Tyre Nichols. A sixth Memphis police officer was just relieved of duty for alleged involvement in the deadly incident, five previously fired officers charged with murder.

Those five were members of the department's SCORPION unit that was disbanded over the weekend. This comes as new charges could be in play and as Congress faces new calls to act on police reform.

CNN's Nick Valencia joins us now.

Nick, anybody who watched this video can see that at various points there were more than five officers at the scene. What do we know now about this sixth officer's role?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Memphis Police Department telling me that this sixth officer who was involved in Tyre Nichols' arrest that led to his death has been relieved of duty, put on administrative leave.

That officer identified as Preston Hemphill, who's been with the Memphis Police Department since 2018. You're looking at a photo of him there. And we have reached the attorney, the man who says he's representing Mr. Hemphill, who said to us that he can confirm that that is his client. He also says that it was the bodycam footage of Mr. Hemphill that we saw in video one.

Has per departmental regulations, Officer Hemphill, the attorney says, activated his bodycam. He was never present at the second scene. He is cooperating with officials in this investigation. A lot that we don't know, though, about this latest officer who has been relieved as a result of his involvement in Tyre Nichols' arrest.

We don't know exactly what he did to catch the attention of the police department that put him on administrative leave. We're working on trying to get those answers. But we know just very quickly as well, Kasie, that he was part of the crisis intervention team of the Memphis Police Department.

That's the photo that you saw him holding up that certificate for, now, though, the follow up continuing over Tyre Nichols' death -- Kasie.

HUNT: So, Nick, will investigators be looking into past arrests and past complaints that may involve this SCORPION unit?

VALENCIA: Oh, absolutely.

They're doing that already and have been doing that. And we heard over the weekend that this unit has been permanently disbanded. And SCORPION unit, I mean, what a moniker to give an elite police unit. It stands for Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods. And they were launched in late 2021.

And they were heralded by city leadership. In fact, in January of 2020, to the mayor of Memphis, Jim Strickland, praising this unit, saying that it led to 566 arrests; 390 of them were felonies. He also said just in a matter of a couple of months of being on board or active, rather, that they had seized about $100,000 in cash.

But we were hearing today -- even though the police chief on Friday told us that she has no other evidence that members of this unit had engaged in similar activity, we were told today -- I was told by Benjamin Crump, the family attorney, that, tomorrow, he plans on hosting a press conference with a 66-year-old man who claims that he was assaulted by members of the SCORPION unit.

So, clearly, this just the beginning and the fallout in the investigation to what's going on there in Memphis -- Kasie.

HUNT: Indeed.

Nick Valencia, thanks very much for that report.

VALENCIA: You bet.

HUNT: We really appreciate it.

Now let's get the view from Capitol Hill with CNN's Manu Raju.

Manu, it's good to see you. I mean, over the past decade. I mean, how many times have you and I

seen this cycle play out and covered it on the Hill, police violence, protests, demands that Congress do something? What are lawmakers saying about what's going to happen this time?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there just is no consensus about what the path forward is.

And last Congress, there was a real serious effort to try to get legislation through to overhaul policing in this country. That effort collapsed over some of the key differences, one of which is to allow police officers to be sued in civil court. That's something called an issue of qualified immunity.

That was a hot-button issue, a sticking point between the two sides they could not resolve. And, ultimately, that collapsed. The dynamic there much different. Democrats at the time controlled the House. They approved the George Floyd Policing Act that included those changes to so-called qualified immunity.

The Senate, 50/50 Senate, there was bipartisan talks. That did not get through the chamber after those talks ultimately collapsed. So in the aftermath of what we saw in Memphis, there were some renewed calls to pass the George Floyd Policing Act. That is something that the president has called for, Democrats have called for.

But Republicans are opposed to the matter and Republicans, including the speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, noncommittal on this issue. I asked him about this last week. He said that this is an issue that would be left to the committees in the House to make decisions on how to proceed.

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And, right now, the Republicans in the House, those committees not planning to take this up, at least not at the moment yet, Kasie.

HUNT: Short answer for a lot of delay and likely inaction.

Manu Raju, thanks very much, as always, for your reporting. Really appreciate it.

I want to bring in now former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis.

Mr. Davis, thank you so much for being with us.

What reforms are necessary, in your view? I mean, this does keep happening in city after city.

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Hi, Kasie. Thank you.

So, reforms are always necessary and important. It's always an evolving process to put in good ideas and good laws that cover the type of issues that we see that manifest themselves, even really terrible things like this. But I think what's important is that there have been a number of

changes to policy and rules and regulations and law that have been put in around the country since the George Floyd homicide. And it's the implementation of those that's really important right now.

If you put a unit like this out on the street in this environment, and you look at a number where they're pulling in 170 or 180 people into custody every month after the unit gets started, you have got to take a close look at what they're doing, what those charges are, what the probable cause is, what the reason for the stops is, all of these things.

That's about the supervision of these things. These units can get out of control really quickly. And if you're not paying close attention on the supervisory part, then you have got a problem.

The other side of it is the culture. If you're calling it the SCORPION unit, what message are you sending to the officers who are in it and to the community? Are we going to hurt -- scorpions sting, right? So, what's the idea behind that?

Making sure that those officers understand that constitutionally protected policing is what is necessary in cities right now is really important.

HUNT: So, New York's anti-crime unit was disbanded after the choke hold death of Eric Garner. And, obviously, this unit that you're -- we have been talking about, the SCORPION unit, was just disbanded.

When you were in charge in Boston, you saw crime go down overall. How did you use special units? Were they a key piece of that? I mean, can they work if they're done right?

DAVIS: If you listen to the community.

One of my first meetings I went to as the police commissioner in Boston, I went to Mission Hill and listened to a group of 200 or 300 young black men, who told me that our units were jumping out of their cars and tipping guys upside down to see if a gun would come out.

I went back, and I met with the gang unit after that, and I made it very clear that this was not the mission that I wanted accomplished. I wanted to do very different things to connect with the community and respond to what the community needs were. You can't make everybody who's between the age of 15 and 25 a suspect.

You need to be very cautious about how you go at this. And that change made a difference there. And I think -- I think that listening to the community, understanding what's happening, looking at those measurements of what they're doing and how they're doing it, and really good, solid supervision is critical to these units.

HUNT: So, on the investigative front, I mean, when you go back, and how important is it to go back and look at prior arrests?

I mean, that sounds like one of the things that's going to happen here, because now we are hearing about prior complaints that were potentially involving the charged officers and definitely involving this SCORPION unit, to figure out if this was a one time thing or whether it was a systemic problem.

DAVIS: Right.

And you will find these things after a terrible tragedy like this. These things will happen. There will be a postmortem. There will be a drilling down into what happened. The tragic thing is that those reviews need to happen before the tragedy occurs.

You need to be constantly monitoring what these special squads are doing out there to make sure this type of aberrant behavior doesn't occur. And they will find things. They always do. And people will say, oh, my goodness, this was terrible.

But the terrible part of it was that people weren't paying attention to it in real time. We have systems that allow us to do that. And your strongest sergeants need to be put in those units, people that won't take that kind of behavior, that won't be captured by the culture.

Those are the men and women who can make a difference to these units, that first level of supervision.

HUNT: And it comes down to leadership. It always does.

Former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, thanks very much for your time, sir.

DAVIS: Thank you.

HUNT: I really appreciate it.

DAVIS: Thank you.

HUNT: All right, let's turn now to deepening tensions in the Middle East.

[13:10:00]

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is on a high-stakes visit to Israel after stopping in Egypt. He met with the Israeli prime minister just a short time ago. Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians are really getting close to a boiling point right now after a wave of violence last week that included an attack on a synagogue that killed at least seven people.

Blinken is also meeting with Palestinian leaders during his trip.

CNN's Hadas Gold is in Jerusalem for us.

Hadas, it's good to see you.

There is always, of course, a lot at stake for Blinken when he visits Israel, but there does seem to be a real heightened sense of urgency right now. HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

I mean, and, listen, Blinken's trip to Israel was already expected to be a little bit prickly. This was preplanned a long time ago, partly because it's his first visit to this new government. Netanyahu is a familiar face, of course, but his new government is largely considered to be the most far right, nationalist, religious in Israeli history.

But then, as you noted, the events of this past few days really added a new sense of urgency. When Antony Blinken landed in Tel Aviv earlier today, he said that this was a pivotal moment. It really is more like a high-stakes crisis moment, because there is a big hope that his visit will really help at least dial the temperature down here on the ground after the events of last week on Thursday.

It was the deadliest day for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and over a year. And then, as you noted, on Friday night was that shooting just outside a synagogue during Shabbat services. The next morning, there was another shooting just outside of the Old City, where two Israelis were injured. And we're hearing reports of Israeli settler violence against Palestinian cars and buildings.

And so, for Antony Blinken, the big message of this trip, aside from issues like Iran and other internal issues for Israel, is, of course, the situation the ground. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We're urging all sides now to take urgent steps to restore calm, to de-escalate. We want to make sure that there's an environment in which we can, I hope, at some point create the conditions where we can start to restore a sense of security for Israelis and Palestinians alike, which, of course, is sorely lacking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLD: Now, what's interesting is, when Benjamin Netanyahu spoke, the Israeli prime minister, he didn't really specifically speak about the violence wave of the last few days, instead just trying to focus on the fact that he wants to expand the Abraham Accords, normalize Israel's relations with more countries.

His number one priority on that is Saudi Arabia. And he says that, through that, through the Abraham Accords, he thinks that's the way to ultimately reaching some sort of solution with the Palestinians. I think a lot of people would disagree with him. But that's how he focused that.

Now, Antony Blinken tomorrow is heading to Ramallah, where he will meet with Palestinian leaders. And he said in a photo spray with the Israeli foreign minister that he will be bringing that same message to the Palestinians, that they also need to take steps to de-escalate the situation.

Last week, the Palestinian Authority severed its security coordination with Israel. That is seen as really a vital tool to help at least keep some sense of communication between the security forces. He will be likely urging them to restore that. We heard from the Americans last week. They said that they didn't think that was a good idea. Very much a high-stakes trip.

But I do have to say the optimism that he will be able to actually make a huge change is not quite there -- Kasie.

HUNT: All right, Hadas Gold in Jerusalem, thanks very much for that report.

Police say he's on the run, extremely dangerous, and could be using dating apps to hunt down new victims. What we're learning about the growing manhunt for this alleged kidnapper who's accused of tying up and torturing a woman in her home.

Plus: back to school, but with therapists, clear backpacks and metal detectors. Students in Virginia returning to class for the first time since a 6-year-old shot his teacher. But, of course, it will not be the same.

And a new warning from the surgeon general. Why he says 13 is just too young to be on social media.

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[13:18:00]

HUNT: He's extremely dangerous, he's on the run, and he may be using social media to find victims.

Police in Southwestern Oregon say they're trying to find a man who allegedly kidnapped a woman and beat her until she was unconscious. They say 36-year-old Benjamin Foster may be using dating apps to evade police and possibly find more targets.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov joins us.

Lucy, this is terrifying. Why do police think the suspect may be using dating apps? And what more are we learning about him at this point?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kasie, I mean, that's exactly as you said.

They believe that he might either be using these apps to learn more victims or potentially to even force someone to help him get away. Now, they identified him pretty quickly on Tuesday as 36-year-old Benjamin Obadiah Foster. They did release several photos of him, warning folks that he might try to change his appearance, perhaps by shaving his beard or his hair are changing his hair color.

They are asking folks to pay extra attention to his facial structure and eyes, since, obviously, those features are very difficult to change. Now, the district attorney said that he tried to kill this victim in Grants Pass, Oregon, very close to the California border, while intentionally torturing her and secretly confining her in a place where she was not likely to be found.

Police say that she was bound, severely beaten, but that he fled the scene before officers arrived. This was Tuesday. They think he may have had some help in evading capture. On Thursday night, authorities raided a property nearby about 20 miles north of Grants Pass, where they found a bunch of evidence, including us car.

They arrested a 68-year-old woman for hindering prosecution. They believe she was helping him hide out. But, again, he managed to escape, leaving the small community on edge.

Take a listen to the police chief in Grants Pass.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN HENSMAN, GRANTS PASS, OREGON, POLICE CHIEF: I'm always concerned about our community. This individual's behavior clearly shows that he is capable of doing anything to anyone within our community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:20:00]

KAFANOV: So, he is -- the police are offering a $2,500 reward for any information leading up to his arrest. And he is being charged, Kasie, with attempted, murder, kidnapping and assault.

HUNT: So, police also say that this isn't the first time that this suspect has been accused of violence against women.

I mean, what do we know about previous charges?

KAFANOV: Yes, I mean, that's right.

He moved to Oregon from Las Vegas, Nevada, where it turns out he actually faced two very similar charges. In the first case, he was charged with felony battery constituting domestic violence. His ex- girlfriend testified that he had attempted to strangle her in a rage in 2017 after another man texted her.

While that case was still pending in court, Foster was charged with felony assault battery and kidnapping for allegedly attacking another woman who was his then-girlfriend. This was in 2019. That victim told police that he strangled her to the point of unconsciousness, very similar to the Oregon case, several times.

She said he kept her tight up for two weeks, burned her with lye. As part of a 2021 plea deal with Clark County prosecutors, Foster ultimately actually served less than 200 days in prison. And the Oregon police chief, Kasie, in charge of today's investigation and manhunt says he finds it extremely troubling that Foster is not still in prison in Nevada for that crime or those crimes.

HUNT: Troubling, indeed.

Lucy Kafanov, thanks very much for that reporting.

Meanwhile, trial is back in session right now for Alex Murdaugh. He is the disgraced South Carolina attorney accused of killing his wife and son. An investigator testified about how law enforcement handled the crime scene.

CNN's Randi Kaye is covering the trial for us.

Randi, bring us up to speed on what we saw today.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kasie, the defense has been trying to convince the jury that there was some really shoddy police work going on here on the part of investigators.

They basically laid out their case, saying investigators trampled the crime scene, walked through the blood that was at the crime scene, walked through the footprints, added footprints that now have not been identified. And that theme sort of continued today, as the defense took on this crime scene investigator on the stand.

Just listen to this one example of him going at her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a body footprint near his that turned out to be law enforcement, correct?

MELINDA WORLEY, SOUTH CAROLINA LAW ENFORCEMENT DIVISION: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the (INAUDIBLE)

WORLEY: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In blood? Is that preservation of the scene that your -- that your standards require?

WORLEY: Not exactly, no.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not exactly? Should the police be walking through the scene?

WORLEY: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do we know what other evidence they may have destroyed?

WORLEY: I have no idea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right. We don't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: And both sides still continue to disagree on whether or not Alex Murdaugh had blood on him the night of the murders.

Now, state investigators who have testified have all said they didn't see any blood on his hands, on his clothing. The defense disagrees with that. But that is a real issue, because Alex Murdaugh told investigators that night that he actually checked his wife and son for their pulses. He also said that he tried at least twice to turn his son over.

This was a very bloody, gruesome crime scene, Kasie. So it would make sense that he would have had some blood on him. But the investigators did not search his entire home that night. In fact, they waited more than three months to search Murdaugh's home, even though they had a search warrant.

Now, there was another really interesting moment in court today, where there was a witness, a special agent named Jeff Croft. He took the stand and testified that he had spoken with someone and interviewed someone, a witness who said that he had been calling Maggie and Paul Murdaugh that evening and texting them. This was a guy who had his dog. He was texting with them about a dog that was at the Murdaughs' kennels, which is where the murders took place.

And the special agent testified that there was a text or a call to Paul Murdaugh at 9:29 p.m., 9:42, p.m., 9:57 p.m. And this same person also texted Maggie Murdaugh at 9:34 p.m., saying: "Tell Paul to call me."

Of course, neither one of them ever responded to that person. And I should point out that the prosecutors have said that the deaths occurred some time between 8:30 p.m. and 10:06 p.m. on that night, so that would be right in that timeline, Kasie.

HUNT: It would, indeed.

All right, Randi Kaye, thanks very much for that reporting.

Coming up, it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack, if the needle were radioactive and the haystack were the size of California. Why officials in Australia are on a frantic search to recover this tiny toxic capsule that fell off of a truck.

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[13:29:19]

HUNT: The Pakistani Taliban is claiming responsibility for a suicide bombing at a mosque. At least 61 people were killed, and more than 150 were injured.

This happened at a mosque inside a police compound and attended mostly by law enforcement officials.

CNN's Sophia Saifi is in Islamabad.

What is the Pakistani Taliban saying at this point about this attack, Sophia?

SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN PRODUCER: Kasie, they put out a statement a couple of hours ago. It's actually a faction of the Pakistani Taliban that have said that

the reason behind this attack was because one of their founders was killed by the Pakistan state last year. Now, we have not received any confirmation by Pakistani authorities confirming that it is, in fact, the Pakistani Taliban who were behind this suicide attack.