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Erin Burnett Outfront
Gangs Behind the Border Crisis; Time Warner Rejects Murdoch's $80 Billion Deal; Alleged Killer Call Girl Pleads Not Guilty; Time Warner Rejected Rupert Murdoch $80 Billion Proposals; Four Palestinian Boys Killed While Playing on the Beach
Aired July 16, 2014 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Next, breaking news, Palestinian children killed while playing on the beach. Is this a tipping point in the Mideast crisis?
Plus media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, sets his sights on CNN and our parent company. Will he get what he wants?
And the alleged killer call girl in court today. She says she had nothing to do with a Google executive's death, but the proof could be on tape. Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening, everyone. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight gangs on the border. President Obama and Vice President Biden have just wrapped up a meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus about the emergency on the border. Members calling the meeting emotional and productive, but there weren't any specifics on how to solve the problem.
Keep in mind, tens of thousands, more immigrants are expected to be flowing over that border joining tens of thousands already there. Tonight, we take a closer look at one of the reasons this crisis is happening, gangs. Many of the undocumented immigrants say they fear for their lives because of the threat of gang violence in their home countries.
And some of the gangs terrorizing Central America are the gang members who were actually arrested and deported from the United States decades ago. Sara Sidner has our OUTFRONT exclusive investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This 19-year- old is living in the shadows in Southern California. He's an illegal immigrant who says he's running away from unimaginable gang violence in his home country, Guatemala. But he is not just a victim. He admits he is also a perpetrator, recruited by the gangs when he was just 9.
"They were like my second family," he says, a second family that soon wanted him to run gun, drugs and eventually kill in Guatemala. "I decapitated people. There was killing without mercy" he says. Now a father, he breaks down in tears telling the story of the things he saw and did before his many attempts to cross into the U.S. illegally as a child.
(on camera): Do you think the reason why so many children are coming to the U.S. especially now is because they're so afraid of the gangs there?
(voice-over): "Yes, the gangs force them to join. This the new norm to become a gangster." He says.
(on camera): He and gang experts tell us the most powerful gangs now in Central America originated here from in this Los Angeles neighborhood.
(voice-over): More than a decade ago, U.S. immigration and customs enforcement began major crackdowns on transnational gang activity. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, between 2001 and 2012, more than 185,000 convicted immigrants were sent back to Central America.
Those numbers include members of L.A.'s notoriously violent MS-13 gangs and the 18th Street gang. Some of those deported gang bangers eventually became kingpins in Central America, terrorizing the population.
ENRIQUE HURTADO, GANG INTERVENTION ORGANIZER: Their gang members over there look out to anything that comes from L.A. So you might be a small guy, but you come from L.A., so that makes you a leader.
SIDNER: Enrique Hurtado is a former L.A. gang member born in El Salvador. He now runs a program aimed at rehabilitating gang members.
HURTADO: Either you're not victimized, you're a victim.
SIDNER: That's what this 16-year-old is struggling with. He says he traveled alongside many other children last year when he snuck across the U.S. Border. He says he's running away from a violent future after living a violent past in Guatemala's MS-13 gang.
(on camera): What's the worst thing that you had to do for the gang? "Kill people because they didn't want to pay the bribes to the gangs" he says. You understand why people in America say you have to go back, we don't want the gangs here.
(voice-over): He understands, but says if people in the U.S. knew the terror and hunger facing children in Central America, maybe the understanding would go both ways.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIDNER: Now, Erin, I want to give you the latest numbers. The numbers that ICE has for deportations. These are deportations for people inside the United States, not on the border, 133,551 and ICE says 82 percent of them have been convicted of a crime. And that's what makes anti-immigration advocates so angry -- Erin.
BURNETT: It's 82 percent. What an incredible statistic. Sara, thank you very much. A powerful report on exactly what this country is dealing with on the border, our political commentator, Paul Begala joins me now.
Paul, let me start with that statistic that Sara just concluded with, 82 percent of those they sent home convicted of a crime. As she said, fodder for the anti-immigration advocates, but that's a shockingly high number.
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It is. Of those sent home, that is not -- I don't want to confuse our viewers -- of these children who are now awaiting some kind of hearing on our side of the border. It's not 82 percent of those who got in. We've shipped them back. But I thought it was a terrific report from Sara. What is driving this -- you can't say one thing.
But the people who have gone down there and I've read their congressional testimony, especially the Catholic bishop of El Paso, Mark Sykes who went down there, he said the same thing as Sara. Many, many of these children are fleeing gang violence in their home countries. And that's why they're coming up here. It's not like the traditional problem we've had of undocumented workers coming in looking for jobs.
BURNETT: Right.
BEGALA: These are children. It makes it especially difficult for us. As you know, there's this Bush era law that passed unanimously -- nothing passes unanimously in Washington -- this passed unanimously, if you're an immigrant child from Central America, we can't send you back. We were worried about people being victims of trafficking. Nobody anticipated 50,000 kids on the border.
BURNETT: The problem is, the impossibility, frankly, of all of them staying. The president has said, I want more money to solve this problem, $3.7 billion. If you look in this -- wanted to high light this for the viewer, 300 million of that is supposed to be basically an ad campaign, right, in these countries to have these families stop sending their kids. Don't listen to those smugglers, this isn't going to help you from gang violence.
I wanted to play for everybody a quick pop of what these ads are. They're pretty direct and they're negative. Here they are. And for those, my mom keeps saying I shouldn't go to the USA. Drug cartels kidnap immigrants who have to walk days in the desert. They have these ads down there, Paul. But by and large, everybody I've been hearing from people is they just ignore them. So why are we throwing $300 million in these country for ads that don't work?
BEGALA: I'm not entirely sure they don't work. If advertising didn't work, Coca-Cola wouldn't do it. And I wouldn't have a job and neither would you. Advertising can be effective. I've said this on your show many times, the president has made a mistake in not going to the border.
Because in addition to those ads, which are actually a good idea, there's nothing like the direct testimony of the president of the United States standing on the border saying don't send your children here, they could die on the trip and we're going to send them hope anyway. That's a missed opportunity for him.
Its things that both parties should agree on. Republicans have been calling for these things. Increased surveillance on the border with drones, stepped up enforcement, more immigration judges, speeding the deportation process, cracking down on the smugglers who are the real bad guys, the coyotes that bring these kids up, then the care and feeding of these kids. Actually it's a lot of money but all stuff that both parties should be able to get together on.
BURNETT: Paul, thank you very much. Paul Begala. OUTFRONT next, Rupert Murdoch. He's trying to buy -- me. OK, and all of CNN and our parent company. Can he pull it off?
Plus, we are live on the scene, in the Middle East where tensions are boiling over. Four Palestinian boys killed while playing on the beach. The crisis is reaching horrific proportions. We have a live report from Gaza.
And charges of sexual harassment at tech giant, Yahoo, did a female executive cross the line with another female employee?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She hugged me all over and then she took my hands, you know, and put it under her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: The billionaire who doesn't like to take no for an answer. Today we learned that Time Warner said no to Rupert Murdoch's $80 billion proposal to take over CNN's parent company and add it to Murdoch's global empire. The merger with Murdoch, who already owns Fox News would have created what would have been even bigger juggernaut, spanning an abundance of channels, movies, television and newspapers including "The Wall Street Journal."
That brings us to tonight's numbers 17 percent, that's how much Time Warner's stock was up on news of the offer. Everybody thinks that Rupert Murdoch will come back and offer even more money. So Murdoch got rejected, but he has a history of being persistent when it comes to his way and usually winning. Our Brian Stelter is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Love him or hate him, Rupert Murdoch started with a few newspapers in 1950s Australia he's grown his influence into a bona fide media empire. Today he controls dozen of channels and newspapers.
From Fox News to "The Wall Street Journal," to hit shows and movies like "Modern Family." "Homeland." "X-Men" and "Ice Age," but it's not enough. After all he's only 83 years old. He wants more media, apparently Time Warner, the parent company of CNN. Last month, he made an $80 billion offer cash and stock. Time Warner management said it thought long and hard about the proposal but on July 8th it says thanks but no thanks.
JEFF BEWKES, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, TIME WARNER: It is not in the best interests of Time Warner or our shareholders to accept the proposal or to pursue any discussions with Fox.
STELTER: But wait, wait a second. Murdoch back in deal making mode? Just two years ago people were writing him off. His company was in turmoil, dragged down by a phone hacking scandal in Britain. Pressured by Wall Street to split his beloved newspapers off into a separate business from the faster growing 21st Century Fox. Now though stocks of both his companies are up and his swagger seems to be back.
PAUL LA MONICA, CNN MONEY ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Like many media moguls, he has a pretty big ego. And he has to be thinking this might be the last big deal.
STELTER: A combined FOX and Time Warner would have more leverage at the negotiating table with growing media distributors like Comcast and AT&T.
To some, especially liberals the conservative Murdoch is a boogeyman, a symbol for all that's wrong with the media, but above all else, he's a businessman and he's not ready to retire.
LA MONICA: He's relentless. I don't think he'll go away any time soon. Once he wants something he'll do his damnedest to try and get it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Brian Stelter is OUTFRONT now along with David Bank who covers the media industry for RBC.
All right. You know, David, last week I just had a chance to see Rupert Murdoch. All right. He is old, but he is sharp as a tack. He's asking questions. I mean, his physical appearance does not match his mental acuity. He's worth $13.9 billion. He's 83-years-old. Why is he doing this right now?
DAVID BANK, MEDIA ANALYST, RBC: Why he is doing it for a couple of reason. I think, first of all, you know, putting together a media colossus like this from both an economic perspective and just a, you know, an empire, for that matter, would be the capstone on a pretty amazing media career. I think intellectually, I think there are few media visionaries that you will see in your lifetime, like a Rupert Murdoch.
And as the media ecosystem is evolving into a much more global, much more digital distribution platform, I think part of what Rupert Murdoch is trying to achieve is to own as much content as humanly possible just before the revolution. You know, the evolution, the revolution so that he has a hand -- BURNETT: In everything.
BANK: In controlling his own destiny as the ecosystem evolves.
BURNETT: But I mean, you know, what's amazing about this though, Brian, is people would say, wait a minute, this guy owns FOX News could try to buy CNN? I mean, that is sort of a jaw dropping thing to dream of.
STELTER: Is it too big anymore? But with CNN at least it does seem that in any scenario that involves FOX, CNN would be divested, sold to some other company, some other bidder. And for a long time CBS has seemed to be interested, ABC has seemed to be interested. So I think that would solve itself relatively quickly if this deal materializes.
BURNETT: All right. So what are you hearing in terms of -- so Rupert Murdoch is a persistent guy. Remember when he bid for Dow Jones, "the Wall Street Journal," and he bid and they said no. And they went out and publicly said take a hike and he came back and came back and he got it which is why some people today who look for a 17 percent jump for those of you who don't cover the stock market, for company as big as Time Warner, is incredible. That is an incredible amount of money to make in one day. And that is because people believe, Brian, that Rupert Murdoch is not going to give up.
STELTER: That this will happen. And if it's not FOX, maybe there's other players as well. We heard analysts today suggesting are there other suitors who might take a look at Time Warner now, now that it seems to be on the block.
BURNETT: I mean, but Time Warner is a really big company when you look at it.
STELTER: How many companies really could --
BURNETT: Time Warner is a $73 billion company.
BANK: It was.
BURNETT: OK. So now -- and now it's a lot bigger. Because the share price went up today, everybody. But when you look at this. How many people could really afford to buy it? Because look, let's just be honest, Comcast can't, they own NBC.
BANK: I don't know that that's necessarily true. I don't know that Comcast couldn't on it. And in fact, I think part of the complexity is the fact that, you know, some of these other players that could buy it, like an AT&T or potentially a Comcast are tied up, you know, with mergers of their own. AT&T with DirecTV or Comcast or Time Warner cable.
STELTER: For Time Warner the timing is not great, right, because there is not other possible bidders out there.
BURNETT: You want to sell there's a lot of other people out to buy it. BANK: In media land, it feel like an auction of one at this moment.
You never really want an auction of one. I think Disney is the only company that really rivals Time Warner -- rather FOX in terms of size. So you're looking outside of media then.
BURNETT: So outside of media, but --
STELTER: There were rumors last week about Google.
BURNETT: Yes. I work at CNN. I'm loyal to it, everybody. But CNN is the marquee brand of news around the world. Yes, advertisement. I believe it happens to be true. So you have Google, could CNN be owned by the likes of Google or Apple?
STELTER: I think in people's minds have sort of suddenly opened in the last 12 hours because of the news today. You think about it, you think about the way media is radically evolving, really radically evolving. And you wonder, does a Google or an Apple want to be in the news business? There aren't a lot of signs that they do, but maybe they are going to want to five years from now.
BURNETT: It is just --- it is pretty incredible. I find --
STELTER: If you want to see the future in this deal, I think the point about is getting as much content as he can get makes perfect sense.
BURNETT: So all I can say, by the way, for those of you out there who own Time Warner, you made a heck of a lot of money out there today. And you know what happens you should take some off the table. Sorry. I'm just saying. Maybe a little bit. Maybe even if it keeps going up.
And by the way, if you own the S&P 500, you just got that nice 17 percent.
STELTER: True.
BURNETT: All right, still to come, breaking news in Gaza. Tension is high. Four Palestinian boys killed while playing on the beach. We are live there tonight.
And the flesh eating bacteria that killed people across the country. New cases this week that may make you think twice about where you go for a swim.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Breaking news in the Middle East tonight, the death of four children who died when a shell from an Israeli gunship exploded them on a beach in northern Gaza. Moments ago the president spoke.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Over the past two weeks, we've all been heartbroken by the violence especially the death and injury of so many innocent civilians in Gaza. Men, women and children who are caught in the crossfire. That's why we have been working with our partners in the region to pursue a cease-fire, to protect civilians on both sides.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: As these civilian deaths that are causing such international outrage, there are words tonight that both parties, Israel and Hamas, have agreed to a temporary cease-fire for five hours on Thursday so the United Nations can deliver humanitarian supplies. It may sound like nothing, but it is a small something.
And Ben Wedeman is in Gaza city for us tonight.
Ben, what is happening there especially in light of that very tragic and horrific death of those four boys today?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is just the latest in a series of deaths. The death toll is now well over 200. So it was a tragic incident. And, of course, now we have news of this five-hour truce that goes into effect at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning until five -- 3:00 p.m.
Hamas, just moments ago, accepted that truce. During that time not only will the United Nations be able to deliver relief supplies, people will be able to go to the bank for the first time in ten days, will be able to go out and about in relative safety. But for those four boys on the beach in Gaza, that truce, that cease-fire or rather that pause, didn't come soon enough.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WEDEMAN (voice-over): They were killed on the beach Wednesday afternoon when the Israeli military targeted Gaza's harbor. The four boys, Ismail, Zakaria, Ahed and Mohamed, were cousins from the extended Bakr family ranging in age from nine to eleven. They were rushed to Gaza city's hospital but it was too late.
An Israeli military spokesman says the incident is being carefully investigated and that preliminary results indicate, quote, "the target of this strike was Hamas terrorist operatives," end quote.
In just over an hour after their deaths, hundreds turned out for their funeral. Behind the angry chants, there is real grief. 11-year-old, Mohammed's mother convulsed with shattered disbelief.
Why did he go to the beach and play with them to take him away from me, she cries. His blind father is equally devastated.
"I felt as if the world had come to an end when I heard the news" he tells me. "I wish I'd died before hearing he was dead."
Of the more than 200 people killed in the last ten days of Israeli bombardment, over 70 percent have been civilians according to the United Nations. Around 40 of the dead are children.
"Were those four small boys firing rockets" a relative asks. "They went to the beach to play football."
The boys died on the sands of Gaza and in the sands of Gaza they were buried.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WEDEMAN: So that truce or rather the pause goes into effect in nine and a half hours, but until then what we've been hearing is the continued thunder of war -- Erin.
BURNETT: Ben Wedeman, thank you so much.
OUTFRONT next, the alleged killer call girl in court today. She says she's not responsible for the death of a Google executive. Do you believe her? Please take out poll at CNN.com/OUTFRONT in next couple of minutes.
Plus a female executive at Yahoo! accused of sexual harassment by a woman. The accuser is OUTFRONT in an exclusive interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I told her, hey, look, we are friends and you are my manager. We shouldn't be doing this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Not guilty. That is from the alleged high priced prostitute charged with cooking up a lethal dose of heroin and injecting it into a Google executive.
Alix Tichelman appeared in a California court this morning to face charges including manslaughter and drug possession in the death of Forrest Hayes. Police say she left him to die. But Tichelman's attorney says it was an accident.
Kyung Lah was in the courtroom and she's OUTFRONT tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Quiet and subdued, Alix Tichelman entered a plea of not guilty. A bond were made at $1.5 million. Her tattooed wrists in handcuffs, she went back into custody.
A very different woman --
ALIX TICHELMAN, CALL GIRL: It's going to take a little bit on a fluffy brush.
LAH: -- than the Alix Tichelman on YouTube cheerfully giving makeup tips, or the one on Twitter flaunting her body in numerous provocative images. The heavily mascaraed 26-year-old openly shared her love of the underbelly of society, Marilyn Manson, the TV serial killer show "Dexter." As a so-called "sugar baby", police say she picked up older men on the Web site seekingarrangement.com and that she was a Silicon Valley prostitute with 200 clients. One of them was Google exec Forrest Hayes.
DEP. CHIEF STEVE CLARK, SANTA CRUZ POLICE DEPARTMENT: At that point, she showed no concern for the condition of the victim in this case.
LAH: Police say surveillance video shows Tichelman giving heroin to the married father of five as Hayes overdosed --
CLARK: She cleaned up the drugs. She walked around with her glass of wine in her hand, as she stepped over the body a number of times. You know, what's particularly shocking in this case, though, is just the glacial callousness and coldness that she showed towards the condition of the victim.
ATHENA REIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I certainly reviewed the video. I don't think that's been the most accurate representation in the media.
LAH: Tichelman's public defender says the scandalous image doesn't match the facts. Tichelman is a heroin addict, they say. She was Hayes' prostitute, but that, they say, was it.
LAWRENCE BIGGAM, ATTORNEY: This case is about two adults who were engaged in mutual, consensual drug usage in the context of a sexual encounter initiated and encouraged by Mr. Hayes. There was no intent to harm or injure, much less kill Mr. Hayes.
LAH: The attorneys say Tichelman was also present when a previous boyfriend in Georgia overdosed on heroin and died just a few months ago. But that, they say, is an unfortunate coincidence and the life of a heroin addict.
BIGGAM: Birds of a feather fly together. And that's been my experience in this business. And I'm sure that they were both engaged in some unhealthy, high risk choices in lifestyle back there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH: Now, in some court documents that were released today, the defense attorneys depict their version of what they saw on the surveillance tape aboard that boat. On the tape, according to the defense attorneys, you can actually see Forrest Hayes using a light on his cell phone to help Tichelman locate a vein. After she injected him with heroin, he became lethargic and fell asleep. She gathers her things and leaves.
There is no mention, Erin, of her finishing her red wine or stepping over his body several times -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Kyung, thank you very much.
And this case does come down to the video Kyung is talking about there. Footage police say they actually had to get from the security company because the captain of the yacht told investigators for a while that -- well, the cameras weren't working.
Steve Clark is the deputy police chief for the Santa Cruz Police Department. Good to have you with us again, sir.
And Alix Tichelman's attorney, you just heard Kyung Lah explaining, you know, I'm looking at their statement today. They say, look, the tape proves this was an accident. He purposefully put his arm out, then they kissed, then he lethargically passed out. It shows there was no intent to harm Forrest Hayes.
And we asked our viewers what they though, 74 percent did not believe Alix Tichelman's side of the story.
You have seen this tape. Do her attorney's views add up?
CLARK: Well, you know, this is really the oldest trick in the defense book. When in doubt, try to put the victim on trial. And that's exactly what they're trying to do here.
They have no explanation for the behavior. They've seen the same video. They know that Alix Tichelman stepped over the body several times. They know that she spent a good seven minutes on that boat after Mr. Hayes went into medical distress.
So, they know the facts. They know that she was walking around drinking her glass of wine. What they're trying to do is they're trying to paint a picture of Forrest Hayes and they're trying to absolve their client of responsibility here.
You know, at the end of the day, the question to ask here is who brought the drugs, who prepared the drugs, who injected the drugs and then who neglected their responsibility when the victim went into medical distress?
The answer to all of those questions is their client, Alix Tichelman. She was responsible. Forrest Hayes could not call for help. He could not do anything to help himself in the situation. Alix Tichelman was the only one who had that ability to do that.
BURNETT: And, Steve, what about -- you know, the defense here and their statement again they talk about how she injected herself with an unknown substance, and then he -- I'll read exactly the quote here. "The man rubbed and hit his inner elbow to help the woman locate a vein," this is in his own arm, "shining a light from his cell phone on to his inner elbow to assist her. The man was injected. The man and the woman kissed again. The man then became lethargic and nodded off."
There's nothing in this description that includes her walking back and forth over his body. There's nothing that includes her then having a drink of wine while he was lying comatose on the floor.
That happened, though, in the video you saw, right?
CLARK: Oh, absolutely it did. It was quite an exercise in creative writing really on the defense's part. Why would they put anything in there that tends to point towards responsibility of their client? They're trying to paint a certain picture of her and actually put Forrest Hayes on trial as opposed to their suspect. They're trying to bring about -- you know, make her the victim in this case.
She's not the victim. And here's what's interesting is none of this affected Alix Tichelman. Her behavior never changed after either the death of the man in Milton, Georgia, or the death of Mr. Hayes. She was still involved in prostitution activities. She was still introducing drugs into those situations. That's evidenced by the fact that when we arrested her, she showed is up with a needle full of heroin, and additional heroin ready to go.
BURNETT: All right.
CLARK: She was still prostituting. Thought she was coming for a -- none of this has affected her and her behavior has not changed one bit because of these experiences.
BURNETT: All right. Steve, thank you. >
And now, a bombshell at Yahoo! The tech company in the middle of an attempted resurgence is facing embarrassing allegations against one of its female executives. It's an unusual case of sexual harassment, a software engineer, a woman, claims her female boss at Yahoo! coerced her into performing lewd, sexual acts. Yahoo! says there's no basis to the allegations.
The executive today filed a defamation and in an OUTFRONT exclusive, the accuser tells her story to our Laurie Segall.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NAN SHI, FORMER YAHOO EMPLOYEE: I told her, hey, look, we are friends and you are my manager. We shouldn't be doing this.
LAURIE SEGALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That's what a former Yahoo! engineer says she told her boss Maria Zhang when she allegedly came on to her.
SHI: She hugged me all over and she took my hands and put it under her. I just felt like, you know, I was being forced, and we did oral sex.
SEGALL: Nan Shi, a former Microsoft engineer, left the company to work with Zhang startup, which that was eventually acquired by Yahoo. The company transferred the women to Yahoo's headquarters, where according to Shi, Zhang requested to stay in her apartment. She's suing Yahoo! and Zhang for wrongful termination and sexual harassment.
Yahoo! has adamantly defended Zhang, saying that they would vigorously to clear her name. And now, Zhang is fighting back, too, filing a defamation suit against her accuser.
(on camera): Did you tell her it made you uncomfortable?
SHI: No. I just told her that I didn't want to do it.
SEGALL (voice-over): According to Nan Shi, Zhang joked that her future hung in the balance. SHI: She said, well, if they don't have these, then you may not get
your stocks and, you know, you may not even stay at a Yahoo!
SEGALL: In a suit just filed against Nan Shi, Zhang adamantly denies ever having a sexual relationship with her, claiming the engineer is looking for financial gain, and that she simply wasn't making the grade.
Nan Shi tells us another story, claiming after she cut off the sexual advances, her work was affected. Nan says she was removed from projects and separated from her teammates.
SHI: I don't mind the hard times, but please, please, I'm a human being. You cannot separate me from my other co-workers.
SEGALL: She reported the alleged harassment to Yahoo! HR.
SHI: The help I wanted is: please, please move me to another team. I don't feel safe.
SEGALL: As a result, Nan Shi says Yahoo! asked her to stay home while they conducted the investigation.
SHI: That was the hardest time I went through. You know, after months I finally went to my family doctor. I told her, you know, I have depression.
SEGALL: Zhang also says her reputation has been damaged.
Nan Shi herself claims both emotional and financial damages as questions lingered.
SHI: I just sit here and keep asking myself why me.
SEGALL: Laurie Segall, CNN Money, Sunnyvale, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Still to come, a dangerous summer threat: flesh-eating bacteria lurking in waters across the country. In some cases, this has led to death. What you need to watch for.
And what would the world have been like if Twitter existed when the first mission to the moon was launched? Jeanne Moos shows us the cold hard truth.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: New fear about deadly disease lurking in the water. In just the past month, there have been multiple cases of flesh-eating bacteria and brain-eating amoeba in the United States. Victims are infected by swimming or fishing in contaminated water.
Miguel Marquez is OUTFRONT with the story. I have to warn you before we show you, some of these images are disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nick Duvernay loved the water -- diving, fishing, even spearfishing. Two Sundays ago, he spent the day in the water off Ocean Springs, Mississippi.
SARAH DUVERNAY MONTGOMERY, VICTIM'S SISTER: Sunday night, he started feeling bad. And by Wednesday, he was just in a really bad situation.
MARQUEZ: His organs failing, his body filling with fluid. The next day, he was dead.
MONTGOMERY: They took 4 1/2 liters of fluid off of him. And they did not realize how bad the leg was until he was already in a room in the ICU and his leg actually just started to burst open on the bed.
MARQUEZ: Sarah says the speed of his death from aches and pains to organ failure, shocking.
Did you ever think it could happen to you?
MONTGOMERY: No. Absolutely not. This is something that you see on the news. It doesn't happen to you. It doesn't happen to your family. And it happened to us.
MARQUEZ: It happens more often than you think and attacks the body in many ways.
Rene lost his arm to bacteria and he never even got in the water. Only handled shrimp for bait on a fishing trip.
Jocko Angle's left leg still twice its normal size a year after wading into water in Biloxi, Mississippi.
JOCKO ANGLE, CONTRACTED FLESH-EATING BACTERIA: It was the most painful thing. And these people saved my leg.
MARQUEZ: His heart goes out to the medical staff at memorial hospital in Gulfport. And it's not just Mississippi. It can happen to anyone anywhere. A few recent cases, Louisiana, in Georgia, Michigan, Idaho, Oregon.
In Kansas, a brain-destroying amoeba took the life of 9-year-old Haley Youst (ph) last week.
DR. WILLIAM SHAFFNER, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: The amoeba finds itself way back in our noses, and then can work its way into our central nervous system.
MARQUEZ: Jacksonville University recently tested six bodies of water near its Florida campus for the flesh-eating bacteria. Half the sites tested positive for the deadly bacteria vibrio vulnificus, the same bacteria that killed Nick Duvernay last week.
MONTGOMERY: If you have to be in the water, make sure you don't have any cuts or any sores. And if you noticed something wrong, don't ignore it, I mean, do it right away, because my brother was dead in four days.
MARQUEZ: A heartfelt warning for a woman that laid her brother to rest just yesterday.
Miguel Marquez CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, a trauma surgeon, Dr. Marc de Moya. He treated a woman infected with the flesh eating bacteria, was able to save her life.
Dr. De Moya, thank you for being with us.
I mean, a tragic story, and horrific and people can get these in any kind of a cut. The man from Mississippi, Nick Duvernay, got sick and died in just four days.
How worried should people be about this?
DR. MARC DE MOYA, TRAUMA SURGEON: Oh, Erin, absolutely. People should be very worried about these sorts of infections. Once they take hold, they can really take off and really consume the body in essence in terms of its resources.
BURNETT: So, the cases Miguel was talking about. These are people who are fishing. They were people who were swimming, but then there was someone who said he just touched some shrimp, hadn't actually been in the water. Can you be infected by the flesh eating bacteria, if you're not in the water?
DE MOYA: The flesh-eating bacteria is kind of broad category. The type of bacteria that actually infected those people that you're talking about was specifically the type of bacteria that can actually go through a cut. So you have to really have some sort of port of entry, whether it's a cut on your hands from fishing or a scrape on your leg that you may even think that is not so bad.
BURNETT: So, it could be something you don't even notice, just a break on your skin. But what about -- so is it possible that -- I don't have a break on my skin at all that people are swimming, you can get it on your skin, it's sitting there?
DE MOYA: Right. So, these -- many of these drugs, not the ones that are associated with the water, but the ones that are found in the community -- I mean, they're found everywhere. The bacteria live on our skin. The bacteria live in the community.
And if they have the right circumstances, the right environment to set up shop in essence, especially in patients that have some sort of immune system compromise. So, patients that are -- have liver failure, that have some sort of immune dysfunction that are on medications that suppress the immune system. So --
BURNETT: All right.
DE MOYA: Those are the patients that really have to be worried.
BURNETT: All right. It's frightening. Dr. De Moya, thank you for taking the time.
And Boko Haram struck again. The story of the girls kidnapped by the Islamic group in Nigeria is one we've been following closely on the show. Now, "The Wall Street Journal" reports Boko has killed 44 people in two days, slaughtering them for tipping off Nigerian military officials to the group's movement. Five women and two children were also kidnapped, joining another 200 girls who had been held captive by the terror group since May.
Well, OUTFRONT next, the Apollo 11 launch took thousands of people to accomplish, but only 140 characters to celebrate. Jeanne Moos is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Forty-five years ago today, the Apollo 11 was launched into space. It was one of the greatest moments in the history of the American space program, and how did it get celebrated? Well, today with Twitter.
Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a very special blast from the past.
Remember newspapers? They were the referred way to read news in 1969, but NASA decided to tweet the reenactment of the moon launch to celebrate its 45th anniversary.
JACK KING, THE VOICE OF APOLLO: We are go for Apollo 11.
MOOS: At the same time of the morning, corresponding the real events, NASA sent out tweets. The astronauts are breakfasting on steak and eggs, suiting up, waving good-bye.
KING: All three astronauts are now aboard the space craft.
MOOS: That's Jack King, the nickname "The Voice of Apollo".
KING: T minus three minutes and counting.
MOOS: Jack was 38 then, 83 now.
KING: The atmosphere in the control center was completely electric.
Astronauts report it feels good. T minus 25 seconds.
MOOS: Jack says he wasn't nervous.
KING: Ten, nine -- ignition sequence starts.
MOOS: Jack did make one teeny-weeny fluff right at the end of the countdown.
KING: I did get a little bit emotional. I had four voices coming in my head set.
Five, four --
All of a sudden, another voice came in my ear and the voice was mine and the voice said my God, we're going to the moon.
Three, two, one, zero -- all engines running, lift off, we have a lift off.
MOOS: There were TV bloopers that day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now to Mike Papus (ph) at the VIP viewing area.
MOOS: VIP, very inaudible person.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike Papus --
MOOS (on camera): Walter Cronkite wasn't tweeting in 1969 but his immediate reaction was so short and sweet, it could have fit in a tweet.
KING: Lift off on Apollo 11.
WALTER CRONKITE, TV ANCHOR: Oh, boy. Oh, boy, it looks good.
MOOS (voice-over): Forty-five years after the moon walk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Giant leap for mankind.
MOOS: There is a guy who tells us he still thinks it was a giant fraud, that all moon walks were fake.
Bart Sibrel is most famous for hounding astronauts Buzz Aldrin.
BART SIBREL: Why don't you swear on the Bible that you walked on the moon?
MOOS: Buzz finally punched him.
BUZZ ALDRIN, ASTRONAUTE: You're a coward and liar, and a thief.
MOOS: The next time we have a super moon like we had the other day, imagine the "Voice of Apollo" gazing up.
KING: I look at the moon and said, we did it.
MOOS: You can call that mission perfect --
KING: Ten.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN --
KING: Liftoff. MOOS: -- New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Just an incredible moment. You know what? Just imagine that super moon the other day. We walked on it.
For more on Apollo 11 and the space race, tune in to this week's episode of "The Sixties." That is tomorrow night, 9:00 Eastern and Pacific, right here on CNN, of course.
Thanks so much as always for joining us. We'll see you again here tomorrow night, same time, same place.
"AC360" starts right now.
