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Erin Burnett Outfront
Baltimore Police Officers: Kick Prosecutor off Gray Case; San Francisco Police's Racist Texts Spark Investigation; NFL Considering Punishment For Tom Brady; Ebola Virus Discovered in Survivor's Eye. Aired 7-8:00p ET
Aired May 08, 2015 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:08] ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: OUTFRONT tonight, breaking news, fighting back. The police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray calling for the prosecutor to be kicked off the case. Is she too biased for the job?
And days after issuing a bombshell report on Tom Brady, the NFL still hasn't said a word. Will Brady get a free pass or a major suspension?
Plus, a doctor declared Ebola free. Find out the virus is back in his eye. We have the images, the story. Let's go OUTFRONT.
Good evening, I'm Erin Burnett OUTFRONT tonight. Breaking news. A demand to kick the Baltimore prosecutor off the case. The Baltimore police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray are demanding Marilyn Mosby be removed immediately. There's a motion filed just tonight, it insists Mosby is bias in favor of the Gray family and in favor of the protesters who took to the streets of Baltimore after Gray's death. The motion points to the statement that Mosby made the day she announced those charges including a charge for murder, when she said in part -- listen to her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARILYN MOSBY, PROSECUTOR IN FREDDIE GRAY CASE: To the people of Baltimore and the demonstrators across America, I heard your call for no justice no peace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: She continued to say I will seek justice on your behalf. This is your moment. Calling the charges against the officers baseless. The attorneys also leveled a totally new accusation against the prosecutor. They say the lead attorney for the Gray family, the man you see there Billy Murphy, served as Mosby's personal attorney in the past. And they go on to highlight that the Gray family attorney is Mosby's mentor and a major financial supporter of her.
Sara Sidner is OUTFRONT in Baltimore tonight. And Sara, how serious are these accusations, these charges against the prosecutor?
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (VOICE-OVER): Well, the defense certainly think they're very serious. If you talk to some people, they say those will get thrown out. We'll have to wait and see what the court does. I want to go down just a few of the things that are listed. And this is a very lengthy document. It's about a hundred pages. But some of the things mentioned we knew about, the husband that's a councilman, Mr. Mosby is also a councilman in that very same district where they live and where Gray was killed. A lot in this document saying, hey, this is a conflict because she could give personal or political gain to her husband because she did the charges, that the community there wanted.
Also, that she knows some of the witnesses, has a relationship with the witnesses. That is one of the charges. That these defense attorneys are making. That she has this personal relationship with the Gray family attorney. That being a big one that she would not be able to separate or trying to please this attorney because of their personal relationship. Her husband also of course having a personal relationship with the attorney. It also talks very much about the speech that she made to the public when she made this announcement to the public about the charges against these officers saying that she went through the details of these charges and that those who heard it, it was going to be very difficult to get a jury to be very fair in this case because they listened to all these details.
And believe me, these are just charges. Of course they're not convicted of this. But hearing this from the state's attorney early on they say will prejudice any members of the jury potentially. We talked to her about a few of these conflicts, namely the ones with the personal attorney because that is something also that the police association did talk about that they had this relationship with Mr. Gray's family attorney. Also, we asked her about the relationship with her husband, the conflict that has been brought up there. Here is what she had to say about all of that on Monday when we asked her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOSBY: There is no conflict of interest. I mean, I'm going to prosecute -- I'm the Baltimore City state's attorney. My jurisdiction covers every district in Baltimore City. There's a number of crimes that take place in Baltimore City, and unfortunately in the district that we live. Where is the conflict?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Yes.
MOSBY: But I have to take myself away from every case or crime that takes place in West Baltimore. That makes absolutely no sense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: So there you know the two sides. You've got the attorneys for the six officers charge saying she should be removed or at least her office should be removed from the case and she herself saying absolutely not. I'm going to do this and I'm going to go forward with this prosecution.
BURNETT: All right. Sara, thank you very much. She's standing her ground. OUTFRONT now, criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Paul Callan along with our Van Jones.
Okay. Good to have both of you. Paul, you've actually read these hundred pages. You've now gone through it. What's your verdict? Should Mosby step side?
PAUL CALLAN, FORMER PROSECUTOR: You know, I had said early in the week, I didn't think that there was a conflict here. I thought it was a close question. But having read these papers now, I've changed my mind. I think there clearly is a conflict. Billy Murphy who represents the family was her personal attorney, and not like a real estate closing or something non-personal, but something involving an ethics complaint that was made against her. So you get very close to your attorney in that sort of thing. Her husband, of course, represents the district most heavily affected by the crime.
[19:05:28] She made a statement that only part of that statement was aired by the press. You played a little bit more of it tonight in which she literally called out to the demonstrators and said I bring you justice, and she went beyond that and said that this would result in structural changes in the system in Baltimore. Now that sounds like a political statement, not the statement of a fair and objective prosecutor. So I think when you combine all of those things together, the public would have to look at her and say she can't be fair and you should have a special prosecutor.
BURNETT: All right, Van, you know, there were people on the other side saying this in Ferguson. Now the other side, they're saying it here in Baltimore. Paul said he's changed his mind when he read this and he thinks she should step aside.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, I mean I -- first of all, the court, the judge is going to throw this out immediately. First of all, let's be very, very clear. This is just absolutely ludicrous as far as I'm concerned, number one. You say that she can't represent the prosecutor's office in this case. Her job is to prosecute wrongdoing. She prosecutes wrongdoers in that neighborhood every single day. The police have never said, well, hey, you live in this neighborhood you can't prosecute. They've just picked out this one particular situation. Number two, the family attorney is representing the family in civil court, not in criminal court. As a prosecutor, she's not a judge. She's not the jury. She's not supposed to be neutral. Once she figures out there's wrongdoing, her job is to do what she's doing, the go after the wrongdoers in her view. That's what prosecutors do all over the country.
CALLAN: Van, I'm very surprised to hear you say that. Because I know that you called for the removal of the Ferguson prosecutor and the prosecutor in the Staten Island case, the Garner case, saying that they were in a conflict of interest situation because they worked with the police and their core responsibility was working with the police. Now she does the same thing.
JONES: Absolutely.
CALLAN: You didn't call for her removal. What's the difference? JONES: Well, two things. One, this is the exact opposite
situation. In that situation they were not going to bring charges forward because of the close relationship. She's going against --
CALLAN: You called for their removal before they announced charges. They were presenting the case to the grand jury.
JONES: Because -- exactly. Because the people in Ferguson had already said, and they were right, that that district attorney was wrong. And by the what way, if you want to talk about selective outrage, I didn't hear you expressing outrage when the prosecutor in Ferguson came out in the middle of federal investigation and said the most inflammatory unprofessional stuff when he said he wasn't going to bring those charges, he gave a half an hour speech that was completely inflammatory and Ferguson burned to the ground an hour later. And I didn't hear you coming out and saying that that was --
CALLAN: I made a lot of comments that were critical of him during the course of the case.
JONES: Prosecutors are supposed to be tough on wrongdoers so she's doing her job.
CALLAN: And fair and unbiased. Fair and unbiased.
BURNETT: Let me just play again exactly what she said, right? On this issue of "no justice, no peace" and now I'm going to continue to read something else she said. Let me just play it again so our viewers can hear it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOSBY: To the people of Baltimore and the demonstrators across America, I heard your call for "no justice, no peace."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: She continues then Van to say, "I will seek justice on your behalf, this is your moment." Obviously the attorney here clearly believe the implication of what she's saying is justice is conviction, the people on the street want a conviction. That's what justice is. So, you get a conviction, you get justice and then you get peace. If you look at it that way --
JONES: Exactly.
BURNETT: -- but that does sound a bit bias to put charges because it's what people on the street want. Right? Isn't her job to put charges based on facts?
JONES: Erin, are we now saying we're shocked that a prosecutor wants to get a conviction in a case she's bringing forward? Prosecutors do this every day. They bring charges forward every day. They say I'm going to put somebody in jail every day. The only reason we're upset and shocked is that you have a prosecutor saying this about police officers. By the way, three of these officers are African-American. So you have a prosecutor saying I saw wrongdoing, someone is dead in my city. I am going to go after them. That is justice. I'm passionate about it and that's wrong? Every prosecutor in America needs to be fired if that's wrong.
CALLAN: There's a code of professional responsibility that applies to prosecutors and it requires them not to make inflammatory statements that would tend to affect the trial process. Now I find it hard to believe that anybody wouldn't view that as an inflammatory statement that I bring you justice.
JONES: Where were you in Ferguson?
[19:10:15] CALLAN: Well, you have to go back and see what I have to say in Ferguson. Because you know what I said in Ferguson, I said, the Justice Department made a big mistake contradicting the local prosecutor by doing a parallel investigation at the same time. You know, they blew that case in Ferguson.
JONES: Be honest. Be honest. Be honest.
CALLAN: Let's not blow this case because she's got a good case here against some of these cops. She has no case against others. Why blow the case? Get a prosecutor in whose neutral and can put a good case together.
BURNETT: All right. Thank both of you very much. This conversation I know will continue. I'm sorry about that Van, and I'm sorry Paul. But thanks very much to both of you.
It's not just in Baltimore where you have these debates going on. Across the country there's another major police department under fire. I mean, this is an incredible story. This isn't one case. This is up to 3,000 cases. In San Francisco, racist and homophobic texts between 14 officers are now throwing 3,000 criminal cases into question.
Dan Simon is OUTFRONT with our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Is San Francisco the new Ferguson?
(Bleep)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Ferguson is here.
SIMON: The unlikely comparison comes among the troubling disclosure of racist and homophobic text messages exchanged between more than a dozen San Francisco police officers. Texts that are causing a major stir. "Do you celebrate kwanza at your school?" One officer texted, reply, "Yes, we burn the cross on the field, then we celebrate whiteness." In another text, the N-word is used it to describe black women, quote, "they should be spade." The response I saw one an hour ago with four kids.
GEORGE GASCON, SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The messages that were being traded between these officers were horrendous.
SIMON: It's why the San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon is investigating some 3,000 cases in which the officers were involved, cases that could potentially be tainted by perceived racial bias.
GASCON: Certainly in this is an area that we cannot afford to look the other way. There's just too much writing on it.
SIMON: In some cases criminals will have to be let go. Eight active cases Gascon says have already been dismissed.
(on camera): Are we talking about a lot of cases where people were wrongfully arrested or accused because they're African-American?
GASCON: We don't know the answer to that today. You know, and we'll get to the answer. I'm fully committed to doing so.
SIMON (voice-over): The texts messages surfaces earlier this year in a federal case involving a San Francisco police officer on trial for corruption. Sergeant Ian Furminger was sentenced to more than three years in prison after being found guilty of stealing drugs and belongings from suspected drug dealers. The texts uncovered on a cell phone were sent or received by 14 officers in 2011 and 2012. There were hateful words used against gays, Mexicans and Filipinos as well. Sergeant Furminger out on bail while his cases un-repeal says he's not a racist.
IAN FURMINGER, FORMER SAN FRANCISCO POLICE SERGEANT: If I offend anybody, I'm sorry. I'm truly, truly sorry. However, it's banter amongst friends.
SIMON: San Francisco is known for its progressive politics and for being a tolerant city. But these disgusting text messages have exposed what some civil rights activists have complained about for years, that there's an element of racism within the police department. Reverend Ames Brown is the head of the San Francisco Chapter of the NAACP.
REV. AMES BROWN, NAACP SAN FRANCISCO: We're 4.9 percent of the population. We have 45 and 50 percent of inmates are black. I know Ferguson is over in Missouri. But in terms of attitudes, practices and outcomes, as it pertains to justice for black people in this city, we are Ferguson.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIMON: Well the San Francisco police chief declined our request for an on camera interview but he has said that the department has no tolerance at all for homophobic or racists behavior. He's recommended that at least eight of these officers be terminated. And Erin, it just goes to show you that even in San Francisco, a city known for diversity and inclusion, we're not immune to these kinds of problems involving police -- Erin.
BURNETT: Yes. Those text messages that you're sharing does sound exactly like some of those e-mails that we heard out of Ferguson. Thank you very much.
And OUTFRONT next, Tom Brady shrugging off deflate gate charges whole the league remained silent on whether he's going to get punished. Is Brady untouchable or will he be held to the same standards as others?
Plus, a new FBI warning about ISIS prompts a massive boost in security at military bases across America tonight.
And an unprecedented storm system is barreling down on nearly 20 million Americans, tornadoes, heavy rain, high wind, hail, a possible hurricane off the coast of the Carolinas. It's a massive, massive storm and we have a live report coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:18:54] BURNETT: Tonight silence from the NFL. It's been three days since a damning report charge Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, that he knew game balls were deliberately deflated to his advantage during the AFC championship game. But still the league has been silent on a punishment. This as Brady remains defiant, he smiled, he laughed off questions about the allegations.
Here's Jason Carroll OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New England's quarterback arrived like a rock star, flying in by chopper for his speaking engagement at Salem State University outside Boston. He was met by applause and kept his smile while answering questions about a report into so-called deflate gate. One would suggest that Brady cheated the AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. Brady's critics say he just played dumb when asked questions about the report findings Thursday night.
TOM BRADY, QUARTERBACK, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: It's only been 30 hours. So I haven't had much time to digest it fully but when I do I'll be sure to let you know how I feel about it.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Are you that slow a reader?
BRADY: Well my athletic career is better than my academic career. I'm usually used to reading Xs and Os. This is a little bit longer.
CARROLL: No, a submission of guilt. Smile and move on. If Brady had read the 243-page report, he would have seen that it alleges more probable than not that Brady was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities. This is not the first time his character has come into question. In 2007 many wonders whether Brady knew his ex-girlfriend was pregnant when he broke up with her and began dating supermodel Gisele Bundchen. Many of his fans have not wavered.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I'm a New England girl and I'm going to stand by Tom Brady 100 percent. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: People that love him still love him, people
that hate him still hate him, you know. He's pretty bullet proof around here.
CARROLL: In some sport circles, Brady has earned the nickname Teflon Tom. But now critics are coming forward. Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharp tweeted Brady must be suspended for a minimum of two to four games. Cleveland head coach Mike Pettine saying this to Cleveland.com, I've always had a lot of respect for him, but I lose a lot of respect for guys who cheat. And "USA Today's" Chris Chase, his ego is far too big to admit he lied. Witness his smirking sit-down with Jim Gray on Thursday night.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Tom it looks like you picked a pretty friendly place to reappear.
(APPLAUSE)
BRADY: Thank you guys for being here. Thank you very much.
CARROLL: The question is, will the applause last?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: If you're a Patriots fan, Tom can do no wrong. I think that Brady is certainly the John F. Kennedy of the sports world. What I don't think is this might tarnish his legacy somewhat.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Well, we'll have to see about that. The NFL says that there are no decisions have been made about any sort of punishment at all. The NFL has a lot of options that they could be putting on the table. They could suspend him, they could fine him or Erin, they could simply do nothing at all -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Jason Carroll.
All right. So, let's bring in now sports agent Drew Rosenhaus. He represents three Patriots players including one of Brady's top receivers, that's Rob Gronkowski. So obviously the story affects him personally. Also with me the former linebacker for the San Diego Chargers Shawne Merriman. Okay, great to have both of you with us. I know you see the story differently.
Drew, let me start with you. You heard Tom Brady last night, you saw Tom Brady last night. He was in a friendly room. That's going to make your body language and everything very calm. To some it may appear smug and to a lot of people it did appear smug and disingenuous. What do you think?
DREW ROSENHAUS, SPORTS AGENT: Well, listen, the guy is one of the all-time greatest players in the history of the NFL. He deserves the benefit of the doubt in my opinion. I know this report came out. But I want to see what the league is going to do with it. You know, quite frankly there's a lot of probables, a lot of maybes, a lot of dots that are connected. But it takes more than that to come down and enforce a serious penalty. I've represented players who have been punished by the NFL unfairly and the appeals have been heard and we've had the rulings overturned. I'm sure Tom Brady's legal team is chomping at the bit to take a shot if the league disciplines him in a heavy handed fashion. Because there's not a lot of hard evidence here.
[19:23:37] BURNETT: Sean, you say and I think you tweeted last night, like a pep rally. Those were your words.
SHAWNE MERRIMAN, FORMER SAN DIEGO CHARGERS LINEBACKER: Yes. It was a pep rally. You probably heard more cheering than anything else was -- something you thought he was going to do when he approaches the stage. We didn't see that. I feel like his attitude is he knows the league won't come count down on as much or as hard so he's taking that approach. And whether he says he's guilty or not, or whether he says he did or not, it doesn't matter. His approach to this whole thing is, you know he won't be held accountable as much as anyone else. If this was anyone else other than Tom Brady, they would have been suspended by now. And if he's not suspended, and just a fine, I think most players in the NFL are going to be outraged because they know if they were put in the same exact situation, they would have been suspended.
BURNETT: So, you know, Drew on this point about, you're talking about, you know, the circumstantial evidence. Which by the way, there's a lot of it and it's important. And as you point out though, you've got to be able to put all the dots together to withstand an appeal. Fair point. But there is a common sense test here and Brady has talked about his football preferences in the past. Here he is a couple of years ago actually talking about how the football deflates when your client Rob Gronkowski spikes it after one of his famous touchdowns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRADY: When Grons scores like a touchdown, he spikes the ball and he deflates the ball which I'd love that because I like, you know, the deflated ball.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. Obviously Drew, I'm putting out more circumstantial evidence. But I am making a serious point. Right? This is a guy who can touch a football and know whether it's been deflated. So, even if you can't prove that he knew who or when it was deflated, when he touched it he would have known it was deflated. So isn't he therefore responsible?
ROSENHAUS: Erin, I'm sorry. I think this thing is so overblown. The Patriots beat the Colts because on that day they were the better football team.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: But how will you ever really know that if they did it by cheating? ROSENHAUS: It was football. Because they ran for like 250
yards. Like Eric Blunt (ph) won that game, not Tom Brady. I think this is overblown. Look, they're a very successful team, he's a very successful guy. I think this thing is blown way out of proportion. They're a great football team, they won the Super Bowl and they didn't win it because of the supposedly deflated footballs that Tom Brady knew about. I'm not into fining guys or suspending guys, millions of dollars over innuendo and suppose it. I'm an agent. I support the players. And I'm looking for the NFL PA backing it up. Listen, Shawne, if he cheated and they can prove it, he should be punished.
MERRIMAN: Drew, if he came out straight after that game and say, you know what? I had a little bit of air taken out of the ball, this is the way I like to throw the ball. Okay, fine him. And let it be that. It's the fact he had no knowledge of the entire -- like he didn't know. And there's 243 pages of evidence show that he did at least know about it. So, at this point he should have been fined if he came out after the game when he found out and it was made public. Now he should be punished and he shouldn't be punished but organization should be punished as well.
ROSENHAUS: Everybody deserves to handle things with the media differently. I believe that the Patriots organization should not be punished if Bill Belichick or the other players organizationally weren't involved. I don't think it's fair to punish the Patriots one bit. If this had to do with Tom Brady in two equipment people and it was an isolated incident, I don't think you can punish the Patriots organization.
BURNETT: Well, by the way, they're saying the report has happened in multiple games. But quickly before we go. Shawne, you were suspended for four games for violating the NFL's policy and performance enhancing drugs. Right? You sit here as someone who's been through this. Very quickly, your bottom-line, what do you think Tom Brady deserves?
MERRIMAN: I believe he deserves six games. If he wanted to go back and appeal it and he gets four, that's fine. But if you don't suspend Tom Brady at this point, you're setting the standard across the league that it's okay for everyone else. Even in my suspension, I'd be the first one to tell you, I didn't try to go back and say, hey, I don't think that's fair. I didn't know what else, put in my body, let me get one game or two games, no, I deserved my suspension. I made a mistake. And in this point Tom Brady made a huge mistake. And he deserves to be punished. Set the standard for the league and not just for Tom Brady.
BURNETT: All right. I thank both of you very much. And we will wait to see whether we hear from the NFL next week on a punishment for Tom Brady.
[19:28:02] OUTFRONT next, breaking news, U.S. military bases on high alert tonight. One of highest alert level ever. There's an FBI warning from ISIS targeting American military personnel and whether threatening so much of the country tonight, 20 million people, tornadoes, hail, heavy rains, possibly the first hurricane of the year and it is only the beginning of May. Our special report coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:32:22] BURNETT: Breaking news at this hour: military bases across the United States are right now under heightened alert, increased security tonight after an FBI warning that ISIS could be targeting them.
As we speak, the security level is now at bravo, which means the threat is increased and a predictable threat. So that's important. And as you can see, it moved up from the lower levels. Bravo there the yellow. The threat has not been at this level since the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 is attacks.
Jim Sciutto is OUTFRONT live in Washington tonight. Jim, this is a significant thing for them to do, to move this level up when they're talking about specifics.
What exactly prompted this ISIS fear and warning?
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'll tell you, it's because the British jihadi who is a known ISIS recruiter tweeted out the name and address of a U.S. military officer this week, he's the man who's believed to have pushed the Texas gunman to attack, who have inspired him.
And this is not the first time ISIS has done this. Last year, they published the names and addresses of some 100 members of the U.S. military. And we know that hay have pushed ISIS supporters in Canada, you remember the shooting in Ottawa. There were a couple of other recruits there who used their cars to attack men in uniform. So, this is a known M.O. from the group and the military taking it very seriously.
BURNETT: And, Jim, they're also saying they're going to increase, the FBI is going to increase its surveillance of people they think are going to do something for ISIS in the United States. You know, we've heard, though, from former CIA agents -- there could be, thousands, tens of thousands of people that have under surveillance.
How can they actually monitor those people closely?
SCIUTTO: Well, that's the problem. There have to be multiple layers of monitoring. Right now, the numbers you hear from the FBI are hundreds of investigations of possible ISIS supporters here and perhaps thousands who have at least checked out a jihadi Web site, followed someone from ISIS on Twitter, et cetera, that kind of thing. So, then the judgment is, who among them do you consider serious enough to put full surveillance on?
Keep in mind, the Texas gunman, they put him under investigation again, but they didn't put them under full surveillance. And, of course, that attack happened and we saw that in Texas. They have thousands of guys there. They didn't get the "Charlie Hebdo" attackers right either. That's why in the wake of this, you have the FBI director calling
all of his officers around the country and saying, we have to take another look at all of these suspects to see if anyone needs heightened monitoring. And undoubtedly, they will put more on heightened monitoring.
BURNETT: I'm sure they will. And, of course, no matter how hard they try. As you point out. There's always those slipped through the cracks.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BURNETT: Jim Sciutto, thank you.
All right. We're also following breaking news on the weather front. We have a large tornado on the ground in Texas right now, part of a massive dangerous storm system bearing down on nearly 20 million Americans tonight.
[19:35:01] From Kansas to Texas people are bracing for an incredible and dangerous storm vortex, heavy rains, hail, high wind, major tornadoes.
At this hour, at least four tornado watches are in effect. This is an area, as you can see here, that's already been hit with massive funnel clouds leaving paths of devastation in its wake. You can see some of the stores here, from top left, that one in Kansas, it was intense fires, there was one north of Dallas, lightning hit a natural gas -- well, you can see the damage there.
And threatening the East Coast, the first named storm of the hurricane season, which hasn't even technically started yet, it starts June 1st. But, nonetheless, a major storm called Ana. It is barreling towards the Carolinas bringing heavy rains, high winds, coastal flooding and according to our latest metrological forecast, the storm is growing in the strength by the minute, expected to hit with full force tomorrow.
Jennifer Gray is OUTFRONT at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
And, Jennifer, this is -- we're talking about a rare unprecedented storm system that you're looking at right now.
JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. We are looking at major storms. We're looking at snowstorms in the Rockies, and we're also looking at a tropical system. So, it's sort of the weather trifecta here this weekend.
We are looking at some of the dangerous storms, though, right on the Texas/Oklahoma line. We do have tornado warnings in effect for Cotton and Jefferson Counties in Oklahoma and Clay County in Texas. There had been reports of a tornado on the ground there. So, if you are in the area, definitely seek shelter, Byers (ph) area as well as Hastings. We have been looking at a couple of other tornado warnings in
Texas just a little bit southwest of Wichita Falls. This one that we're speaking of, the tornado possibly on the ground, it is actually to the northeast of Wichita Falls right on the Texas-Oklahoma line.
This is not the only night of severe weather. We've been talking about severe weather pretty much every single night this week and the threat continues. As we go, today, Saturday and even into Sunday, and we could see it ramp up more tomorrow.
We have a moderate risk of severe weather, especially in central and western Oklahoma that does extend south into north Texas. You mentioned we're here in Norman at the Storm Prediction Center. The men and women here are hard at work. They're issuing watching and warnings in connection with the National Weather Service. They'll be working around the clock to get those warnings out quickly so everyone can stay informed.
And the biggest thing, stay ahead of it. Know what's going to go on this weekend, especially if you're in the areas of the highest risk and now what to do, have a plan to stay safe.
BURNETT: Thanks very much to you. And the unprecedented line of severe storms is causing damaging winds, drenching rains. We talked about the hail and the serious tornadoes.
Ryan Young is on the ground outside of Oklahoma, just north of the Texas state line.
And, Ryan, you've been driving around storm chasing. What have you seen?
RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, we've been driving for two or three hours now. My photographer is guiding us down east. And we have been seeing heavy hail. You know, it's a sound you won't forget. We've pulled off to the side of the road a couple of times. This is what we noticed. The day started with just light rain and then all of the sudden --
BURNETT; And it looks like obviously we lost that shot.
Look, the weather out there is pretty terrible. So with some of these live shots and technology we're not always able to have to have them consistently. When we get that back, we will bring Ryan Young's full report to you.
Next, an American Ebola survivor thought to be cured has a stunning relapse. Thought to be cured. So, out in public, living a normal life but Ebola was still alive inside him, inside his eye.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta explained.
Plus, plus another Craig's list killing, a teen selling his car online found dead after taking a potential driver for a test drive. A special report on the murders on Craigslist.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:42:53] BURNETT: Tonight, Ebola in an American's eye. An American who had been given a clean bill of health after being hit with Ebola suddenly was in great pain. He found out the Ebola was still alive and in his eye.
Here's what we know. Dr. Ian Crozier was hospitalized in Atlanta in September with Ebola. In October, he got that clean bill of health. He was back out in public, living his normal live. And then two months later he was back in the hospital. His left eye was in great pain. His iris had turned in this blue that you see here to green and as you can see, the pupil had dilated incredibly so you could barely even see the ring around it.
And tests showed that while his blood was declared Ebola free, his eye, that eye still full of the virus.
Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is OUTFRONT.
Sanjay, this is a bizarre story. It's a frightening story.
I guess the first question is he gets the clean bill of health, two months later, the Ebola is in his eye. How was he able to survive and was it alive the whole time in his eye? Did it migrate there? I mean, what do you know?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Most likely it had been in his eye all along. The interesting thing about the eye, along with a few other parts of the body, is that they're sort of immune privileged, meaning that cells that fight infections have a hard time getting to certain places. They can get there, but in much smaller amounts.
So, Ebola the virus or it could have been any virus or pathogen, if it gets in the eye, sometimes the body has a harder time clearing it. That can happened in certain parts of the brain as well and your cartilage.
So, likely, Erin, he had the infection from the beginning. It's not in his blood anymore which is what gave him the clean bill of health. This but because he's having these symptoms, they put a needle in his eye and when they pulled back some of the fluid, they found the Ebola virus in that fluid.
BURNETT: So, you're talking about places in the body. This is incredible. That it's hard for immune cells to get to, things can survive, in cartilage, parts of the brain, the eye.
I mean, when this doctor -- as this country was told the doctor was healthy, back in public, no longer contagious.
[19:45:02] Obviously, they didn't know or expect that the virus would be in his eye but it was. I mean, how can he know he wasn't a risk to others around him if the Ebola was still there?
GUPTA: Yes, it's a great question and, you know, it's a question that we put directly to the doctors who did the procedure. They were the ones who had the most contact. I should mention first of all that we've known about the possibility of Ebola lingering in the eye for some time. Even back in the outbreak of 1995 in Africa, there were some patients who subsequently were found to have the virus if their eye a couple of months after they were declared Ebola-free. So, it wasn't new.
But what these doctors did was interesting. They -- around the tear duct, they took some of the tears and the area and looked for the Ebola virus first before they did the tap. After they did the tap, they found the Ebola in the eye itself. But after that they looked at the tears again and they didn't find Ebola. So, they're confident that they're not contagious, that he's not spreading this virus to other people.
So, you know, from a public health standpoint, that was really important.
BURNETT: Very important, his iris as we saw went from blue to green and, obviously, the pupil dilated significantly. It became all black. That's the normal and that's what happened to his eye. Why would that happen?
GUPTA: You know, it's interesting. Again, we asked the ophthalmologist this and they say it's a bit of a medical mystery.
You know what's interesting, Erin, you'll appreciate this because you have blue eyes. Blue eyes you basically don't have any pigment, melanin in the eye. When light is shining into your eye, it just refracts. It disperses and that's what gives it the blue color.
People who have darker eyes, like me for example, you have a lot more melanin. Could it have been the virus itself causing some of the pigmentation of his eye and then when the virus cleared, his eye started to go back to a more normal color. Typically, what we hear is this does happen when the eye changes color, it usually stays that way. In his case, it went back to its normal color. It could be some indication that the amount of the Ebola virus has gone down. But it is kind of remarkable to look at those pictures.
BURNETT: Yes, as you say, a medical mystery.
All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much.
GUPTA: You got it, Erin. Thank you.
BURNETT: Disturbing story.
And OUTFRONT next, a Craigslist seller meets a potential buyer in a parking lot. Pretty standard, right? A lot of you may have done the same thing. But now, the police say the buyer killed him.
Next, the surprising number of Craigslist deals that turn deadly. The numbers are stunning.
And pot comes to Colorado and the locals are fighting back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, an alleged killer in jail, suspected of killing a 19-year-old college student who posted an ad on Craigslist. Taylor Clark was trying to sell his car on Craigslist. Investigators say he met with 24-year-old Michael Gordon to test drive his vehicle and allegedly Gordon shot Clark. This is the latest in the string of murders and gruesome crimes associated with Craigslist that is terrifying, considering how many people watching tonight who probably used Craigslist.
Martin Savidge is OUTFRONT.
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MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Internet has made a lot of things easier. Murder just maybe one of them.
Nineteen-year-old Taylor Clark was on a roll, done with his college finals, he had already paid for his next semester in full. He had a cool car, and he wanted to sell it on Craigslist.
According to police, that's where he met 24-year-old Michael Gordon. Police say the two agreed to meet at lunch during a truck driver training school to look the car over. On Monday night, Clark's family reported the college sophomore missing and the next day, police found his car still parked at the truck driving school and his body in some nearby brush.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taylor was shot one time.
SAVIDGE: It was convenient, according to investigators. Meet online, murder over lunch.
The convenience cuts both was, police say, the Internet quickly led them to Clark's alleged killer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The victim and the suspect, they connect through Craigslist.
SAVIDGE: Gordon has been charged with first degree murder and assault. The case is not the only recent example of violent crime allegedly connected to Craigslist.
VICTIM: She cut me.
911 OPERATOR: Who cut you?
VICTIM: I don't know.
SAVIDGE: One of the most horrific this past March in Colorado, when a woman seven months pregnant responded to an ad for baby clothes on Craigslist. She was attacked police say by 34-year-old Dynel Lane who they say stabbed the mother to-be and cut her unborn child from her body. The mother survived, her baby did not. And there's this man who authorities in Georgia say lured in a
suburban Atlanta couple by advertising a 1966 Mustang on Craigslist. Instead of their dream car, police say all the couple got was killed. In both of these cases, the accused have yet to be arraigned.
Craigslist turns 20 this year. The company reports more than 60 million people use the Web service every month in the U.S. alone, and Craigslist says the incidence of violent crime is extremely low. The site offers a link to safety tips for buyers and sellers. Reports of crime in Craigslist may bother some, but police thought it will stop many from using the service. It's just too convenient.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: Many police departments across the country are growing increasingly concerned about these Internet classified ads and how they can end up at times deadly.
So, what they're doing is they're opening up their parking lots in some cases, even opening up their lobbies and encouraging people to finish transactions there at the police department.
If you want, in some communities, they'll even provide a police officer to oversee them -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Martin Savidge, thank you very much. That makes you think twice, though.
Next, wealthy Colorado towns fighting back as pot shops open up on their main streets.
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[19:58:19] BURNETT: Pot is making people rich in Colorado. They become millionaires overnight, but that upsets a lot of other people. In our new series, "HIGH PROFITS", looks at the booming business of weed and how it's changing some rich tourist towns.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do this every morning. Just waking them up, let them know I'm thinking about them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People think the store is where the money is, but the real bread and butter is in the garden.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, this isn't worth much. Give us 100 days and we'll have a million dollars worth of marijuana here. This is going to give us out of our cash poor situation.
MILES DUBA: This is our baby girls here. These plants are about a week of age, just over a week. They're just started rooting through the clone cubes. And at that point, once we see the roots, it's time for transplant.
They need to be tags. It's kind of a tedious process. But here in the peaceful garden, I find it time to relax and make my way through the day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Going to go out of the day and take advantage of my archery tag and see if I can't find some elk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got a gun with marijuana.
SUSAN MANIS: I think it is too late to fight the pot issue. But we can at least keep it from being downtown.
We're a family oriented place. We don't want it over run with marijuana shops. We can't have 5 to 8.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: All right. Well, that debate high properties, Sunday night at 10:00 and this weekend, be sure to watch the global edition of OUTFRONT. Our show airs Saturday and Sunday on CNN international. And this week, you'll get to see my interview with Elton John on AIDS, his fight with Dolce and Gabbana, and the royal baby.
Thanks for joining us. Anderson is next.
