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Bishop Thomas O'Brien Awaits Sentencing; California Woman Fights Return to Prison

Aired March 26, 2004 - 15:00   ET

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

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


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to LIVE FROM. I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's happening at this hour.
The deadlocked jury in the Tyco trial is told to go home for the weekend amid fading hopes for a verdict. Descriptions coming out of the jury room describe deliberations as irreparably compromised by infighting. For now, the judge is resisting calls for a mistrial by attorneys for Tyco's former CEO Dennis Kozlowski.

Sentencing looms for Bishop Thomas O'Brien. Prosecutors are asking that O'Brien be sentenced to six months in jail for leaving the scene of a fatal accident. The announcement is set for 3:30 p.m. Eastern in Phoenix. O'Brien is believed to be the first Catholic bishop ever found guilty of a felony.

Upping the ante against Richard Clarke. Senate Republicans say the former counterterrorism adviser may have lied under oath when he portrayed the White House as lax in fighting terrorism. GOP leaders trying to declassify a briefing Clarke gave in 2002 to compare it against his remarks to the 9/11 Commission.

Also today, the White House offers up Condoleezza Rice to appear before the commission, but only in private. On advice from the White House counsel, Rice is refusing to testify in public, citing the constitutional separation of powers.

Jobs abroad and homes at home, dueling economic themes today from the two main candidates for president. John Kerry pledging to stop or at least discourage the export of American jobs. President Bush touting record numbers of Americans who own, rather than rent their homes. The Democrats spoke in Michigan, a state whose unemployment rate is a full percentage point higher than the nation as a whole.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We now have a tax code that does more than reward companies for moving overseas than it does to reward them for creating jobs here in America. So if I am elected president, I will fight for the most sweeping international tax law reform in 40 years, a plan to replace tax incentives to take jobs offshore with new incentives for job creation on our own shores.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Minutes earlier, Bush spoke at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds in Albuquerque. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The home sales were the highest ever recently. That's exciting news for the country when you think about it. It's good for the builders. But, more importantly, it's good for the owners. We want people owning something in America. That's what we want. The great dream about America is, I can own my own home, people say, or, I can own my own business, like many back here today, or, I can own and manage my own health care account or my own retirement account.

See, we want more people owning something, because when somebody owns something, they have a vital stake in the future of the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, you can see and hear much more from both men on CNN's "INSIDE POLITICS" starting at the bottom of the hour. And stick around for Lou Dobbs' interview with John Kerry 6:00 Eastern, 3:00 Pacific right here on CNN.

Other news across America. Taking an AIDS test is now as easy as saying, ah. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a rapid saliva test. It can determine whether a person has HIV antibodies in as little as 20 minutes. The FDA says the oral test is more than 99 percent accurate.

Making a run for it. This race horse called Deja Vu got away from its track in the San Francisco Bay area. The stable says the horse panicked after throwing its rider. Animal control caught the horse after a pretty wild chase.

And cruising in Connecticut is difficult after a fiery highway crash on Interstate 95. Part of the highway could reopen this weekend after a tanker truck exploded and melted a bridge. The governor says the state will get federal dollars to fix the bridge, but it could take two weeks.

The time has come for a retired Catholic bishop to learn his fate in a fatal hit-and-run case. This hour, a judge in Phoenix will decide if Bishop Thomas O'Brien will spend time behind bars or get probation.

CNN national correspondent Frank Buckley joins us now live from Phoenix, Arizona.

Hi, Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra.

Prosecutors here in Phoenix are asking for jail time for Bishop Thomas O'Brien, at least six months in jail, plus probation. Bishop Thomas O'Brien has said to Judge Stephen Gerst that he would like to stay out of jail, saying that he can best serve his community in that way. Bishop O'Brien was convicted last month in the hit-and-run fatal collision involving 43-year-old Jim Reed. Jurors said, after that conviction, that a reasonable person would have stopped after hitting Reed, even if they weren't sure what they hit, given the extensive damage that was visible to Bishop O'Brien's car. The bishop said that he thought he hit an animal or that someone through a rock at his vehicle.

Here's what he said during a presentence hearing just a few days ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BISHOP THOMAS O'BRIEN, DEFENDANT: Your Honor, I know there's no one to blame for this but me. My career as a church leader has effectively ended. However, my ability to serve the people of the diocese and our community has not. I would like to ask this court to place me on probation, so that I may continue to serve the church and the community and to try to make up for my wrongs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: The sentencing hearing gets under way in about 25 minutes here in Phoenix, Kyra. We're expecting the sentencing hearing to take anywhere from 60 minutes to an hour and a half. Judge Stephen Gerst confirming this morning to CNN that he, in fact, plans to do a PowerPoint presenting some of his reasoning, some statistics, some information as to why he is deciding the way he is deciding, so that sentencing hearing taking place in about 25 minutes.

But it could take quite a while for us to hear what the decision is. Of course, we'll pass it along to you when we find out -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Frank Buckley, thanks.

Pretrial hearings in the sexual assault case against Kobe Bryant will likely stretch into the summer. That's despite an impassioned by the accuser's family to pick up the pace.

CNN's national correspondent Gary Tuchman reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kobe Bryant knows this courthouse well, with eight pretrial hearings in his sexual assault case but still no trial date after nearly nine months.

Now the accuser's attorney being frisked, her father in the blue shirt and her mother behind the plant say they've had it. The lawyer has filed legal papers saying she has been forced to quit school. She cannot live at home. She cannot talk to her friends. And she has received literally hundreds of phone calls and e-mails threatening either death or mutilation.

Lawyer John Clune is calling on the judge to swiftly set a trial date.

CRAIG SILVERMAN, COLORADO ATTORNEY: This clearly puts the ball in Judge Ruckriegle's court. The motion was real and heartfelt. I think he'll seriously consider it, and he might expedite proceedings from here on out.

TUCHMAN: Indeed, three people, including this man, John Roche of Iowa, have been arrested and charged with threatening the 19-year-old woman.

The alleged victim's parents, whose faces CNN has decided not to show, have written a letter to the judge, saying in part: "We are constantly worried about her safety. My daughter has lived in four different states in the past six months. Her safety is at risk, and she has to move again."

The letter comes after a hearing on the alleged victim's sexual past, with testimony from a slew of her friends, alleged sexual partners and herself.

KATHIE KRAMER, RAPE ASSISTANCE AND AWARENESS PROGRAM: It strikes us as a circus. It also strikes us as sort of a show, a deliberate show by the defense to say, This woman's had lots of different sex with different men in her lives.

TUCHMAN (on camera): The judge has not issued any response to the swift trial motion as of yet. Meanwhile, the hearing into the accuser's sexual past is not yet over. It will be continued in four weeks. A hearing on the statements Kobe Bryant made to police that were secretly recorded isn't over either. It will be continued in one week. There is still a lot of preliminary work to do.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Eagle, Colorado.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Next, the true story of a woman who's gone from prisoner to model citizen. So why does California want to send her back to jail for a few days? It has many people shaking their heads.

Mel Gibson's movie finds a whole new audience. See where.

Plus, a warm and fuzzy gift for kids whose mom and dads are in Iraq.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: A California woman's freedom is at risk. She served time in prison and now a few years after being released, a legality could send her back.

Our favorite reporter of the day, CNN's Frank Buckley, has her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY (voice-over): The Pamela Martinez who went to prison in 1996 for stealing a toolbox who had fallen into a life of petty crime to feed a drug addiction is not this Pamela Martinez. PAMELA MARTINEZ, FORMER PRISONER: I have made poor choices in life, but this isn't who I am today.

BUCKLEY: After prison, Pamela got a job at Home Depot. She was well-liked and respected. Her immediate boss described her in this letter as reliable, responsible and dependable. Two-and-a-half years after being released from this prison, Pamela Martinez was back on her feet.

But then the California Supreme Court issued a ruling that turned her new life upside down.

(on camera): The effect of the ruling, Pamela Martinez was released too early. Pamela had won an appeal while she was in prison. Her sentence was recalculated.

(voice-over): She was released from this prison in October of 2001. But a dispute over how Pamela's sentence was recalculated continued in the courts.

MARTINEZ: The long and the short of it is, the state attorney general's office finally won.

BUCKLEY: Which is why she is going back to prison to serve the remaining 65 days of her sentence.

MARTINEZ: You know, I've tried. I've tried so hard to change my life around. And now they're going to reduce me back to poverty status.

BUCKLEY: Friends and supporters are asking California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, for clemency.

ANN PETERS, FRIEND OF PAMELA: They gave her, her freedom once. They should renege on it and take her back.

JACKIE GOLDBERG, CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY MEMBER: I cannot think of a single thing in terms of society that is served by her going to jail for two months and five days.

BUCKLEY: A petition drive has garnered hundreds of signatures, some of them gathered at this 7/11.

DAVID SHAW, STORE OWNER: She's turned her life around. She's got a good job. She's got a good home. Why take that away from somebody?

BUCKLEY: The attorney general's office says Pamela's case was pursued because the sentencing formula could have actually resulted in longer sentences for other inmates.

For Pamela, it's much simpler. The ruling means her hard work, her new life are on hold for now, because Pamela Martinez is headed back to prison.

Frank Buckley, CNN, Vista, California. (END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: One of Hollywood's most talked about couples is no more. Which Cruise broke it off? Today's entertainment buzz just ahead only here on LIVE FROM.

And later, moms and dads serving in Iraq get some help from Linus. That's right, inspiration from the Peanuts gang.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, this week, we've been looking at the health care challenges facing middle-class Americans, today, the problems of young uninsured adults. Many have a gap of coverage from when they leave home to when they get a job with benefits.

CNN's Casey Wian reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIC MOORE, UNINSURED PATIENT: The last time I had health insurance was when I was a UCLA student from between 1998 and 2000.

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eric Moore is typical of many young adult Americans, in and out of work since college, no health insurance. Two years ago, disaster struck. Moore had ignored persistent leg pain until he passed out on the street and wound up here, under the care of Dr. Susan Fleischman.

MOORE: She said, Mr. Moore, you have what's called a pulmonary embolism and it's a potentially fatal situation. And I was completely shocked. I had never even heard of the word pulmonary embolism.

WIAN: After four days in the hospital, having the blood clot dissolved, Moore left with a $14,000 bill and no way to pay.

MOORE: I have never seen really a bill that much for anything.

WIAN: Moore was evicted from his apartment and now lives with his mother, still deeply in debt.

Tonya Kirk is another recent college graduate working two part- time jobs. She has decided not to buy health insurance.

TONYA KIRK, UNINSURED WORKER: I don't want to spend the money on it. I guess I just figured full-time work is going to come soon. And so why start paying into something if I'm going to get something else? But full-time work is taking longer than what I expected.

WIAN: Whether by circumstance or choice, 30 percent of 18-to-24- year-olds don't have health insurance, double the rate for all age groups.

DR. SUSAN FLEISCHMAN, VENICE FAMILY CLINIC: When you are 18 or 19 or even 32, you feel pretty -- fairly invulnerable. So as long as they don't get sick, they don't perceive not having health insurance as a problem. It is a problem, though, if they wake up with appendicitis in the middle of the night.

WIAN: A growing number of the young uninspired are middle class who have recently lost jobs.

(on camera): The newly unemployed often have fewer health care options than even low-income patients. This free clinic says it is turning away 100 recently unemployed people a week because they made too much money during the past year.

Casey Wian, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(FINANCIAL UPDATE)

PHILLIPS: Checking entertainment headlines this Friday, no more frisky business for Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz. The Hollywood "It" couple have split after three years. Their publicists say that they remain good friends and deny that Tom Cruise's religion, Scientology, came between the two.

"The Passion" comes to Britain amid controversy. The film of "The Passion of the Christ" opens in Central London today. Critics in Britain say the film will spread anti-Semitism. The movie has already earned about $300 million since it opened in the U.S. back on February 25.

And Bennifer is back, briefly. Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez star in "Jersey Girl," which opens today. Now, here's a spoiler. Lopez's character dies 15 minutes in the film. The former couple was last seen in that flop, you know, "Gigli."

All right, ba, blankey, binky, most of us had one, you know, the blanket we all held onto as we sucked our thumbs. Well, come on, even Linus had one all those Charlie Brown cartoons. Well, my point is that that blanket brought many of us comfort and that's what Project Linus is doing now, providing blankets, security blankets, they're called, for the hundreds of children needing comfort since they lost mom or dad while serving in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARLEEN MANLEY, PROJECT LINUS VOLUNTEER: I saw a picture of a little girl in the newspaper and she was saluting at her father's funeral. And it was one of the first soldiers that was killed in Afghanistan. And it just really dug to my heart. And so I talked with headquarters for Project Linus and asked if they would mind if I started to coordinate that effort. And they said that would be fine.

This is where I began. This is from the defense link, which is put out by the Department of Defense.

And I start searching for any news articles that might be out there, talking about the soldier, finding out if he had children or younger brothers and sisters. His father said he was a good son and a good father and he loved his family. Each one brings new tears to your eyes because you know that there's another family that's missing somebody they loved a lot. The last thing she said to him was Be careful there, hide your head. That was a week ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that teddy bear and that Christmas racket.

MANLEY: A blanket is just warmth and comfort. And many children have a blanket that they never want to have mom wash. And they just want to hug it all the time. And it brings the security to them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are...

MARY BELL, AUNT: You see him play with his blanket and you know, run around the house with the blanket wrapped around him. And so to see him happy, you know, that makes me happy. And I really appreciate the ladies because they didn't have to do that.

He says his dad is sleeping because that's, you know, I told him until he gets older and I explain the difference between life and death. He knows on occasion he'll see my crying. And he don't want me to cry -- he doesn't want me to be sad. He did the ultimate -- he sacrificed his life for him so that he can live in a free America, you know.

MANLEY: Any time there is a child that just could use a hug and a blanket, Project Linus tries to be there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All the blankets sense out through Project Linus are homemade by volunteers. Not only are they being distributed to children who lost a parent in Iraq, but they are being sent to children all over the world who are suffering from serious illnesses and trauma.

That wraps up this Friday edition of LIVE FROM. Hope you have a great weekend.

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Aired March 26, 2004 - 15:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to LIVE FROM. I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's happening at this hour.
The deadlocked jury in the Tyco trial is told to go home for the weekend amid fading hopes for a verdict. Descriptions coming out of the jury room describe deliberations as irreparably compromised by infighting. For now, the judge is resisting calls for a mistrial by attorneys for Tyco's former CEO Dennis Kozlowski.

Sentencing looms for Bishop Thomas O'Brien. Prosecutors are asking that O'Brien be sentenced to six months in jail for leaving the scene of a fatal accident. The announcement is set for 3:30 p.m. Eastern in Phoenix. O'Brien is believed to be the first Catholic bishop ever found guilty of a felony.

Upping the ante against Richard Clarke. Senate Republicans say the former counterterrorism adviser may have lied under oath when he portrayed the White House as lax in fighting terrorism. GOP leaders trying to declassify a briefing Clarke gave in 2002 to compare it against his remarks to the 9/11 Commission.

Also today, the White House offers up Condoleezza Rice to appear before the commission, but only in private. On advice from the White House counsel, Rice is refusing to testify in public, citing the constitutional separation of powers.

Jobs abroad and homes at home, dueling economic themes today from the two main candidates for president. John Kerry pledging to stop or at least discourage the export of American jobs. President Bush touting record numbers of Americans who own, rather than rent their homes. The Democrats spoke in Michigan, a state whose unemployment rate is a full percentage point higher than the nation as a whole.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We now have a tax code that does more than reward companies for moving overseas than it does to reward them for creating jobs here in America. So if I am elected president, I will fight for the most sweeping international tax law reform in 40 years, a plan to replace tax incentives to take jobs offshore with new incentives for job creation on our own shores.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Minutes earlier, Bush spoke at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds in Albuquerque. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The home sales were the highest ever recently. That's exciting news for the country when you think about it. It's good for the builders. But, more importantly, it's good for the owners. We want people owning something in America. That's what we want. The great dream about America is, I can own my own home, people say, or, I can own my own business, like many back here today, or, I can own and manage my own health care account or my own retirement account.

See, we want more people owning something, because when somebody owns something, they have a vital stake in the future of the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, you can see and hear much more from both men on CNN's "INSIDE POLITICS" starting at the bottom of the hour. And stick around for Lou Dobbs' interview with John Kerry 6:00 Eastern, 3:00 Pacific right here on CNN.

Other news across America. Taking an AIDS test is now as easy as saying, ah. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a rapid saliva test. It can determine whether a person has HIV antibodies in as little as 20 minutes. The FDA says the oral test is more than 99 percent accurate.

Making a run for it. This race horse called Deja Vu got away from its track in the San Francisco Bay area. The stable says the horse panicked after throwing its rider. Animal control caught the horse after a pretty wild chase.

And cruising in Connecticut is difficult after a fiery highway crash on Interstate 95. Part of the highway could reopen this weekend after a tanker truck exploded and melted a bridge. The governor says the state will get federal dollars to fix the bridge, but it could take two weeks.

The time has come for a retired Catholic bishop to learn his fate in a fatal hit-and-run case. This hour, a judge in Phoenix will decide if Bishop Thomas O'Brien will spend time behind bars or get probation.

CNN national correspondent Frank Buckley joins us now live from Phoenix, Arizona.

Hi, Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra.

Prosecutors here in Phoenix are asking for jail time for Bishop Thomas O'Brien, at least six months in jail, plus probation. Bishop Thomas O'Brien has said to Judge Stephen Gerst that he would like to stay out of jail, saying that he can best serve his community in that way. Bishop O'Brien was convicted last month in the hit-and-run fatal collision involving 43-year-old Jim Reed. Jurors said, after that conviction, that a reasonable person would have stopped after hitting Reed, even if they weren't sure what they hit, given the extensive damage that was visible to Bishop O'Brien's car. The bishop said that he thought he hit an animal or that someone through a rock at his vehicle.

Here's what he said during a presentence hearing just a few days ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BISHOP THOMAS O'BRIEN, DEFENDANT: Your Honor, I know there's no one to blame for this but me. My career as a church leader has effectively ended. However, my ability to serve the people of the diocese and our community has not. I would like to ask this court to place me on probation, so that I may continue to serve the church and the community and to try to make up for my wrongs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: The sentencing hearing gets under way in about 25 minutes here in Phoenix, Kyra. We're expecting the sentencing hearing to take anywhere from 60 minutes to an hour and a half. Judge Stephen Gerst confirming this morning to CNN that he, in fact, plans to do a PowerPoint presenting some of his reasoning, some statistics, some information as to why he is deciding the way he is deciding, so that sentencing hearing taking place in about 25 minutes.

But it could take quite a while for us to hear what the decision is. Of course, we'll pass it along to you when we find out -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Frank Buckley, thanks.

Pretrial hearings in the sexual assault case against Kobe Bryant will likely stretch into the summer. That's despite an impassioned by the accuser's family to pick up the pace.

CNN's national correspondent Gary Tuchman reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kobe Bryant knows this courthouse well, with eight pretrial hearings in his sexual assault case but still no trial date after nearly nine months.

Now the accuser's attorney being frisked, her father in the blue shirt and her mother behind the plant say they've had it. The lawyer has filed legal papers saying she has been forced to quit school. She cannot live at home. She cannot talk to her friends. And she has received literally hundreds of phone calls and e-mails threatening either death or mutilation.

Lawyer John Clune is calling on the judge to swiftly set a trial date.

CRAIG SILVERMAN, COLORADO ATTORNEY: This clearly puts the ball in Judge Ruckriegle's court. The motion was real and heartfelt. I think he'll seriously consider it, and he might expedite proceedings from here on out.

TUCHMAN: Indeed, three people, including this man, John Roche of Iowa, have been arrested and charged with threatening the 19-year-old woman.

The alleged victim's parents, whose faces CNN has decided not to show, have written a letter to the judge, saying in part: "We are constantly worried about her safety. My daughter has lived in four different states in the past six months. Her safety is at risk, and she has to move again."

The letter comes after a hearing on the alleged victim's sexual past, with testimony from a slew of her friends, alleged sexual partners and herself.

KATHIE KRAMER, RAPE ASSISTANCE AND AWARENESS PROGRAM: It strikes us as a circus. It also strikes us as sort of a show, a deliberate show by the defense to say, This woman's had lots of different sex with different men in her lives.

TUCHMAN (on camera): The judge has not issued any response to the swift trial motion as of yet. Meanwhile, the hearing into the accuser's sexual past is not yet over. It will be continued in four weeks. A hearing on the statements Kobe Bryant made to police that were secretly recorded isn't over either. It will be continued in one week. There is still a lot of preliminary work to do.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Eagle, Colorado.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Next, the true story of a woman who's gone from prisoner to model citizen. So why does California want to send her back to jail for a few days? It has many people shaking their heads.

Mel Gibson's movie finds a whole new audience. See where.

Plus, a warm and fuzzy gift for kids whose mom and dads are in Iraq.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: A California woman's freedom is at risk. She served time in prison and now a few years after being released, a legality could send her back.

Our favorite reporter of the day, CNN's Frank Buckley, has her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY (voice-over): The Pamela Martinez who went to prison in 1996 for stealing a toolbox who had fallen into a life of petty crime to feed a drug addiction is not this Pamela Martinez. PAMELA MARTINEZ, FORMER PRISONER: I have made poor choices in life, but this isn't who I am today.

BUCKLEY: After prison, Pamela got a job at Home Depot. She was well-liked and respected. Her immediate boss described her in this letter as reliable, responsible and dependable. Two-and-a-half years after being released from this prison, Pamela Martinez was back on her feet.

But then the California Supreme Court issued a ruling that turned her new life upside down.

(on camera): The effect of the ruling, Pamela Martinez was released too early. Pamela had won an appeal while she was in prison. Her sentence was recalculated.

(voice-over): She was released from this prison in October of 2001. But a dispute over how Pamela's sentence was recalculated continued in the courts.

MARTINEZ: The long and the short of it is, the state attorney general's office finally won.

BUCKLEY: Which is why she is going back to prison to serve the remaining 65 days of her sentence.

MARTINEZ: You know, I've tried. I've tried so hard to change my life around. And now they're going to reduce me back to poverty status.

BUCKLEY: Friends and supporters are asking California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, for clemency.

ANN PETERS, FRIEND OF PAMELA: They gave her, her freedom once. They should renege on it and take her back.

JACKIE GOLDBERG, CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY MEMBER: I cannot think of a single thing in terms of society that is served by her going to jail for two months and five days.

BUCKLEY: A petition drive has garnered hundreds of signatures, some of them gathered at this 7/11.

DAVID SHAW, STORE OWNER: She's turned her life around. She's got a good job. She's got a good home. Why take that away from somebody?

BUCKLEY: The attorney general's office says Pamela's case was pursued because the sentencing formula could have actually resulted in longer sentences for other inmates.

For Pamela, it's much simpler. The ruling means her hard work, her new life are on hold for now, because Pamela Martinez is headed back to prison.

Frank Buckley, CNN, Vista, California. (END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: One of Hollywood's most talked about couples is no more. Which Cruise broke it off? Today's entertainment buzz just ahead only here on LIVE FROM.

And later, moms and dads serving in Iraq get some help from Linus. That's right, inspiration from the Peanuts gang.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, this week, we've been looking at the health care challenges facing middle-class Americans, today, the problems of young uninsured adults. Many have a gap of coverage from when they leave home to when they get a job with benefits.

CNN's Casey Wian reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIC MOORE, UNINSURED PATIENT: The last time I had health insurance was when I was a UCLA student from between 1998 and 2000.

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eric Moore is typical of many young adult Americans, in and out of work since college, no health insurance. Two years ago, disaster struck. Moore had ignored persistent leg pain until he passed out on the street and wound up here, under the care of Dr. Susan Fleischman.

MOORE: She said, Mr. Moore, you have what's called a pulmonary embolism and it's a potentially fatal situation. And I was completely shocked. I had never even heard of the word pulmonary embolism.

WIAN: After four days in the hospital, having the blood clot dissolved, Moore left with a $14,000 bill and no way to pay.

MOORE: I have never seen really a bill that much for anything.

WIAN: Moore was evicted from his apartment and now lives with his mother, still deeply in debt.

Tonya Kirk is another recent college graduate working two part- time jobs. She has decided not to buy health insurance.

TONYA KIRK, UNINSURED WORKER: I don't want to spend the money on it. I guess I just figured full-time work is going to come soon. And so why start paying into something if I'm going to get something else? But full-time work is taking longer than what I expected.

WIAN: Whether by circumstance or choice, 30 percent of 18-to-24- year-olds don't have health insurance, double the rate for all age groups.

DR. SUSAN FLEISCHMAN, VENICE FAMILY CLINIC: When you are 18 or 19 or even 32, you feel pretty -- fairly invulnerable. So as long as they don't get sick, they don't perceive not having health insurance as a problem. It is a problem, though, if they wake up with appendicitis in the middle of the night.

WIAN: A growing number of the young uninspired are middle class who have recently lost jobs.

(on camera): The newly unemployed often have fewer health care options than even low-income patients. This free clinic says it is turning away 100 recently unemployed people a week because they made too much money during the past year.

Casey Wian, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(FINANCIAL UPDATE)

PHILLIPS: Checking entertainment headlines this Friday, no more frisky business for Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz. The Hollywood "It" couple have split after three years. Their publicists say that they remain good friends and deny that Tom Cruise's religion, Scientology, came between the two.

"The Passion" comes to Britain amid controversy. The film of "The Passion of the Christ" opens in Central London today. Critics in Britain say the film will spread anti-Semitism. The movie has already earned about $300 million since it opened in the U.S. back on February 25.

And Bennifer is back, briefly. Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez star in "Jersey Girl," which opens today. Now, here's a spoiler. Lopez's character dies 15 minutes in the film. The former couple was last seen in that flop, you know, "Gigli."

All right, ba, blankey, binky, most of us had one, you know, the blanket we all held onto as we sucked our thumbs. Well, come on, even Linus had one all those Charlie Brown cartoons. Well, my point is that that blanket brought many of us comfort and that's what Project Linus is doing now, providing blankets, security blankets, they're called, for the hundreds of children needing comfort since they lost mom or dad while serving in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARLEEN MANLEY, PROJECT LINUS VOLUNTEER: I saw a picture of a little girl in the newspaper and she was saluting at her father's funeral. And it was one of the first soldiers that was killed in Afghanistan. And it just really dug to my heart. And so I talked with headquarters for Project Linus and asked if they would mind if I started to coordinate that effort. And they said that would be fine.

This is where I began. This is from the defense link, which is put out by the Department of Defense.

And I start searching for any news articles that might be out there, talking about the soldier, finding out if he had children or younger brothers and sisters. His father said he was a good son and a good father and he loved his family. Each one brings new tears to your eyes because you know that there's another family that's missing somebody they loved a lot. The last thing she said to him was Be careful there, hide your head. That was a week ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that teddy bear and that Christmas racket.

MANLEY: A blanket is just warmth and comfort. And many children have a blanket that they never want to have mom wash. And they just want to hug it all the time. And it brings the security to them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are...

MARY BELL, AUNT: You see him play with his blanket and you know, run around the house with the blanket wrapped around him. And so to see him happy, you know, that makes me happy. And I really appreciate the ladies because they didn't have to do that.

He says his dad is sleeping because that's, you know, I told him until he gets older and I explain the difference between life and death. He knows on occasion he'll see my crying. And he don't want me to cry -- he doesn't want me to be sad. He did the ultimate -- he sacrificed his life for him so that he can live in a free America, you know.

MANLEY: Any time there is a child that just could use a hug and a blanket, Project Linus tries to be there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All the blankets sense out through Project Linus are homemade by volunteers. Not only are they being distributed to children who lost a parent in Iraq, but they are being sent to children all over the world who are suffering from serious illnesses and trauma.

That wraps up this Friday edition of LIVE FROM. Hope you have a great weekend.

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