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Michael Jackson Late For Court; Chicago Police Discuss Judge Lefkow Case
Aired March 10, 2005 - 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Michael Jackson's accuser back on the stand after a very strange turn of events earlier today in the Jackson trial, even by Jackson standards. We'll tell you why the pop star is wearing pajamas to court and why the judge was not amused.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We were.
O'BRIEN: Out of surgery and resting comfortably, his surgeons say former President Clinton doing just fine after an operation to ease fluid and scar tissue buildup around his lung. We'll go live to New York for the latest health check in just a bit.
Secretly selling to Iran. A Pakistani official says, without the country's knowledge, its former top nuclear scientist, A.Q. Khan, provided Iran with materials that can be used to make nuclear bombs. Khan is now under house arrest since confessing he provided nuclear materials to Libya.
PHILLIPS: Command, yes. Performance, who knows? One thing is for sure. That was no moonwalk for Michael Jackson showing up 68 minutes late for court today, treading stiffly and very lightly before an angry judge who threatened to send him to jail.
CNN's Miguel Marquez has the latest now from Santa Maria.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michael Jackson turning drama into high drama today when he didn't show up for court on time. The judge issuing a bench warrant, but holding it for an hour.
If Mr. Jackson didn't arrive here within that hour, the judge was going to remand him into custody and yank his bail, $3 million. Mr. Jackson arrived three minutes late past the deadline. It's not clear what the judge will do. He did admonish jurors, though, that they should not take anything from the fact he had to order Mr. Jackson here. It didn't mean anything about his innocence or guilt.
The judge saying that, if you were late, I'd do the exact same thing. When Mr. Jackson got here, his lawyer said that Mr. Jackson suffered from a severe back problem. When he got here, he did seem to be in distress.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He looked very weak, very pale. He was being supported by his lawyers. He looks like he's in pain. He was wearing pajama bottoms and a T-shirt and a jacket over it and appeared to be wearing slippers. He appeared definitely to be in distress. His hair was not combed.
MARQUEZ: This morning's drama overshadowing the main event for today, the accuser testifying against Mr. Jackson. So far, he's testified that, in the Miami hotel room that Mr. Jackson took him and entire family to, that Mr. Jackson gave him wine to drink, calling it Jesus juice, and telling him it would help him to relax.
He also testified that Mr. Jackson forbade he and his family from watching the Martin Bashir documentary. Court watchers say and court officials say that it's likely the judge will have more to say about Mr. Jackson's tardy this morning by the end of the court day.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, Santa Maria, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: A strong indication suspicions were right that the double murder at the home of a federal judge was an act of revenge for one of her rulings.
And white supremacist Matthew Hale, however, may be off the hook. "The Chicago Tribune" reporting Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow had tossed out a lawsuit brought by a man in Chicago identified by police sources as Bart Ross. Overnight in contacted, Ross -- Ross purportedly shot himself dead. The story is picked up now live from Chicago, as authorities there give us a briefing.
Let's listen.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
PHILIP CLINE, SUPERINTENDENT, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: I'm Philip Cline, superintendent of the Chicago Police. Joining me are Robert Grant, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Chicago, Kim Widup, United States Marshal for the Northern District of Illinois, Hiram Grau, deputy superintendent of the Bureau of Investigative Services, and James Malloy, chief of detectives for the Chicago Police Department.
We're here this afternoon to update you on the progress of our investigations into the homicide of Michael Lefkow and Donna Humphrey. Last night, members of the Lefkow homicide task force were notified by local police in West Allis, Wisconsin, that a suicide investigation they were conducting had potential links to the Lefkow murders.
We immediately dispatched Chicago Police detectives and federal agents there to West Allis to investigate the lead. When we arrived there after midnight, we immediately began working with the local police to piece together the events of the traffic stop where Bart Ross took his life. In processing the crime scene, we came upon a note written, presumably by the victim, where he implicated himself in the murders of Michael Lefkow and Donna Humphrey.
In the note, the offender outlined in some detail the events of Monday, February 28. As you know, the note alone is not definitive evidence that we have our offender. We are analyzing the note, along with other evidence gathered at the scene of last night's suicide. We understand that there is plenty of information out there pointing to this individual as the offender.
However, only a complete and total analysis of all the evidence will point us in any one direction. We are currently working up physical evidence taken from the scene in West Allis. Prior to getting that information back, it would be premature to make any statements directly implicating Bart Ross in these murders.
While we do characterize last night's developments as significant, we are not prepared at this time to definitely say that any one person is responsible for these homicides. This case is by no means closed. Our investigation is continuing, and it will be driven by the facts, not rumor, speculation or half-truths.
We still have many facts to gather. So we're asking for your patience as this phase of the investigation unfolds. Getting to the truth remains our first and last priority. That's our commitment to the victims, their families and to everyone we serve. And based on that, we are not able to discuss in specific detail our findings to this point. Please bear in mind that during the question-and-answer period of this news conference.
While we're eager to share information, we also hold the obligation to find the truth. And there is much work that lies ahead of us. Evidence collected at the scene at last night's suicide is being analyzed by the Illinois state crime lab and the FBI crime lab.
I should point out that both agencies have been extremely cooperative with us as this case has moved forward. We continue to gather evidence from the Lefkow home. We are currently searching Bart Ross' home for any physical evidence that points us to last week's double homicide. We're attempting to learn as much as we possibly can about Bart Ross' history, who he was, whom he was associated with, and what he was doing in the days leading up to and following the Lefkow murders.
While this remains an open, active investigation, we continue to urge the public to share any additional information they have about this case or about Bart Ross. Maybe last night's developments and today's news will spark a memory in someone that may be useful to our investigators. So, please forward investigation to the Chicago Police, FBI and U.S. Marshals Office.
And, finally, while there's a lot of work ahead of us, I would like to thank everyone who put in the long hours and hard work to get us to this point. The press and public needs to understand how well all of these different agencies have been working with one another since this task force was formed. From the first night, when we responded to the scene on Lakewood, right up through this morning's daily conference call, the teamwork, coordination and commitment have been remarkable.
We've been on a daily conference call since the investigation began last week, sharing information and resources. And, on those calls, everyone has brought something to the table, be they resources, ideas or leads. That cooperation isn't new.
It's simply how things go in Chicago. As we move forward, we're asking many, many questions and seeking just as many answers. And while the work is being done, again, we ask for the media's and the public's cooperation. Thank you.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) Can you say whether or not there were any facts letter left in the car that only the killer would know?
CLINE: Yes.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
CLINE: No. I mean, we're satisfied that there is information in the letter that would point us to Ross having been in the Lefkows' house that day. But that's as far as I'm going to -- there's been too many things that came out in the media that hampered us.
But there was things in there that weren't out in the media.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) forensically, then, what do you need to establish now? What time frame are you looking at before you can compare the abundance of things founds in the Lefkow home with Mr. Ross?
CLINE: Well, there's testing being done for both DNA and fingerprints, and those are the two things that are -- that are being accomplished both by the state lab and the FBI lab right now.
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: His name was on a list of cases that Judge Lefkow had handled. And the task force was scheduled to interview him.
QUESTION: Why was he in the greater Milwaukee area? Have you been able to establish that?
CLINE: I have no idea.
QUESTION: Is there currently any physical evidence linking Ross to the Lefkow murders (OFF-MIKE) letter itself and any sort of (OFF- MIKE) physical evidence? Do you have any of (OFF-MIKE) yet?
CLINE: Yes, there is. But we're not going to discuss it now. We're going to wait until all the tests have been done on all of the evidence before we...
QUESTION: Beyond the letter?
CLINE: Right, beyond the letter, there is physical evidence.
QUESTION: Do you have a sense if he acted alone? Were there others?
CLINE: At this point, we cannot find anyone else that's connected with him, at this point. QUESTION: Is there in relationship between the pictures that were circulated earlier of the two people of interest and Mr. Ross?
CLINE: Yes. The one composite of the older gentleman, we feel is the composite that our witness saw of Mr. Ross leaving the house.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
CLINE: Sometime in the early afternoon, sometime around 1:00.
QUESTION: So that was matched with a statement he made in another letter that that is the time he left?
CLINE: That's correct.
QUESTION: That would corroborate things like that?
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... scheduled to interview Mr. Ross? Had any attempts been made to actually contact him prior to yesterday? Or when were you going to go see him?
CLINE: Well, there was a task force that consisted of federal agents and Chicago Police detectives. They were each given a list of individuals that had to be interviewed that were connected with either Judge Lefkow's cases or Michael Lefkow's cases. And he was on one of those lists.
QUESTION: Do you know if he had been contacted at home, if that contact might have sparked him to plan a suicide?
CLINE: Not to my knowledge, no.
QUESTION: Do you know why he was up in Milwaukee? There's reports that two judges on (OFF-MIKE) up there that...
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: I'm not going to speculate why he was up there.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) anything about any kind of list of people that he may have also (OFF-MIKE)
CLINE: There is other names there. We're in the process of personally contacting everyone. Phone calls have been made to everyone letting them know the status of what happened.
And the Chicago Police Department will provide special attention for those people who live or work in Chicago. And we're going to contact the suburban departments for those who live or work in the suburbs.
QUESTION: None of those people have been injured (OFF-MIKE) CLINE: No.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: There's been a lot of speculation about white supremacists. Do you -- does this man have no connection to (OFF- MIKE)
CLINE: At this time, no.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: People who are familiar with those court cases indicate that there was a certain amount of rage in Bart Ross, which would really flag him, single him out as someone who ought to be contacted. Why, nine days after the murders, had he not been contacted yet?
CLINE: Jay (ph), there's over 600 leads. Plus, there's hundreds of names that were generated just by their cases.
I'm pleased with the progress that the task force was making. I think they were going in the right direction. And I'll let Bob...
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: No. I think we all agree that everything was going right.
QUESTION: Do you think that there was another person involved in this case? Two people were sighted in those drawings.
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: Well, remember, the one composite of the older individual, the one that we say fits what Ross described that he did that day, was by him himself. The other composite was of an individual that was seated in a red car earlier in the morning in front of the church with another individual that the witness couldn't describe.
So at no time did we say they were together.
QUESTION: Did Mr. Ross have a criminal record?
CLINE: I'm sorry?
QUESTION: Did Mr. Ross have a criminal record?
CLINE: No, not with Chicago and I don't think anything has come back nationally either.
QUESTION: He apparently left multiple notes. Do you know any more than (OFF-MIKE) are they similar and what that they contain?
CLINE: Well, the notes that we've recovered as evidence, we're going over right now. And, basically, one of them describes his actions on February 28 at the Lefkow home. And the other one describes his dealings with the court proceedings that -- regarding his medical condition.
QUESTION: Are they consistent?
CLINE: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... of doctors and other attorneys involved in the case...
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: There's names of other individuals on the list. And we -- like I said, we've contacted or we're in the process of trying to contact everyone on that list.
QUESTION: Would you classify that as a hit list of other people...
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: I'm not going to speculate as to what it is.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... bomb-sniffing dogs and hazmat teams out at his house on the northwest side right now?
CLINE: We're going to use every resource that all the federal agencies and the Chicago Police Department have to make sure that no evidence is left undiscovered.
QUESTION: Is the weapon he killed himself with consistent with the caliber that was used to kill the Lefkows?
CLINE: I'm not going to discuss that at this time.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Do you have any idea how he learned of Judge Lefkow's address?
CLINE: No.
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: This investigation is still going on. That's what we're going to try and determine.
QUESTION: Mr. Superintendent, have you been able to establish whether there is family (OFF-MIKE)
CLINE: No, we have not been able to find any family. And there again, we're asking anyone with information about him to please call our hot line, 311, if you live in Chicago, 312-744-5000 if you live in the suburbs or out of the state.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Superintendent, if he hadn't killed himself during this traffic stop, and kept his mouth shut about all this and not written a letter, do you think that he would ever have been caught? I mean, what were the -- what was so...
CLINE: Absolutely.
QUESTION: You think he would have...
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: Yes.
QUESTION: How long would it have...
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: I can't give you a time frame.
But we...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: There you have it, an amazing twist and turn to that murder case, Judge Lefkow's family, her husband and mother, shot dead in Chicago.
Many of the early indications and suspicions pointed in the direction of a white supremacist who is behind bars and who had, after all, been convicted of threatening that very judge. As it turns out, it appears that, although police weren't divulging a lot the specifics, for some obvious investigatory reasons, it all leads to that traffic stop and that suicide in Wisconsin. We will continue to follow that case for you, of course, as the developments warrant.
Former President Clinton undergoes surgery for the second time in just over six months.
PHILLIPS: Just ahead, we're going to go live to the hospital where it all took place, get an update from CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: In New York City, doctors say they have successfully removed fluid and scarring from former President Bill Clinton's chest.
CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta live at New York Presbyterian Hospital with details of the surgery.
And, Sanjay, the thoracic surgeon said it was remarkable, five to eight millimeters of, plaquey scar tissue. It's kind of gross, actually.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I guess you could describe it as that.
I mean, it's not -- they got a C.T. scan of his chest ahead of time and it looked like he had some plaque about two to four millimeters in thickness. So, this scar tissue wasn't unexpected, a little thicker than they thought, Miles. They originally thought that they would be able to go with just an endoscope and sort of peel away -- an endoscope is a small, sort of fiberoptic cable with some instruments, sort of a minimally invasive thing. They would go in there and just peel this away.
They couldn't do it that way. The plaque was too thick. They ended up actually going -- opening his chest a little bit more and peeling what you just described off, sort of like an orange peel. It sounds like everything went just fine. It took about four hours, a little bit longer than they thought it was going to take. No changes in blood pressure, no significant blood loss. The president has a chest tube in, but I guess the best description would be as planned.
O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay Gupta, we appreciate it. Thank you very much.
GUPTA: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Kyra.
PHILLIPS: And this just in to CNN. A Yemeni cleric has been convicted in a terrorism conspiracy. We had told you about this man a couple of weeks ago, that it was getting close to a decision. Now a jury has convicted this Yemeni cleric of conspiring to aid the terrorist groups al Qaeda and Hamas.
CNN ANCHOR: Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad was accused of funneling millions of dollars to these -- the radical groups. And now, after a five-week trial and five days of deliberating, the jury found the 56-year-old guilty and did conspire to provide material support and resources to the foreign terrorist organization. Once again, the Yemeni cleric convicted on a terrorism conspiracy.
O'BRIEN: President Bush taking his Social Security message to the people.
PHILLIPS: So, is he a good salesman? Find out just ahead on "INSIDE POLITICS."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: All out of time.
PHILLIPS: Pretty interesting day. O'BRIEN: It's been a wild day.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: We're glad you were with us.
PHILLIPS: Thank you so much for joining us. We'll be back tomorrow.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired March 10, 2005 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Michael Jackson's accuser back on the stand after a very strange turn of events earlier today in the Jackson trial, even by Jackson standards. We'll tell you why the pop star is wearing pajamas to court and why the judge was not amused.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We were.
O'BRIEN: Out of surgery and resting comfortably, his surgeons say former President Clinton doing just fine after an operation to ease fluid and scar tissue buildup around his lung. We'll go live to New York for the latest health check in just a bit.
Secretly selling to Iran. A Pakistani official says, without the country's knowledge, its former top nuclear scientist, A.Q. Khan, provided Iran with materials that can be used to make nuclear bombs. Khan is now under house arrest since confessing he provided nuclear materials to Libya.
PHILLIPS: Command, yes. Performance, who knows? One thing is for sure. That was no moonwalk for Michael Jackson showing up 68 minutes late for court today, treading stiffly and very lightly before an angry judge who threatened to send him to jail.
CNN's Miguel Marquez has the latest now from Santa Maria.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michael Jackson turning drama into high drama today when he didn't show up for court on time. The judge issuing a bench warrant, but holding it for an hour.
If Mr. Jackson didn't arrive here within that hour, the judge was going to remand him into custody and yank his bail, $3 million. Mr. Jackson arrived three minutes late past the deadline. It's not clear what the judge will do. He did admonish jurors, though, that they should not take anything from the fact he had to order Mr. Jackson here. It didn't mean anything about his innocence or guilt.
The judge saying that, if you were late, I'd do the exact same thing. When Mr. Jackson got here, his lawyer said that Mr. Jackson suffered from a severe back problem. When he got here, he did seem to be in distress.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He looked very weak, very pale. He was being supported by his lawyers. He looks like he's in pain. He was wearing pajama bottoms and a T-shirt and a jacket over it and appeared to be wearing slippers. He appeared definitely to be in distress. His hair was not combed.
MARQUEZ: This morning's drama overshadowing the main event for today, the accuser testifying against Mr. Jackson. So far, he's testified that, in the Miami hotel room that Mr. Jackson took him and entire family to, that Mr. Jackson gave him wine to drink, calling it Jesus juice, and telling him it would help him to relax.
He also testified that Mr. Jackson forbade he and his family from watching the Martin Bashir documentary. Court watchers say and court officials say that it's likely the judge will have more to say about Mr. Jackson's tardy this morning by the end of the court day.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, Santa Maria, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: A strong indication suspicions were right that the double murder at the home of a federal judge was an act of revenge for one of her rulings.
And white supremacist Matthew Hale, however, may be off the hook. "The Chicago Tribune" reporting Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow had tossed out a lawsuit brought by a man in Chicago identified by police sources as Bart Ross. Overnight in contacted, Ross -- Ross purportedly shot himself dead. The story is picked up now live from Chicago, as authorities there give us a briefing.
Let's listen.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
PHILIP CLINE, SUPERINTENDENT, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: I'm Philip Cline, superintendent of the Chicago Police. Joining me are Robert Grant, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Chicago, Kim Widup, United States Marshal for the Northern District of Illinois, Hiram Grau, deputy superintendent of the Bureau of Investigative Services, and James Malloy, chief of detectives for the Chicago Police Department.
We're here this afternoon to update you on the progress of our investigations into the homicide of Michael Lefkow and Donna Humphrey. Last night, members of the Lefkow homicide task force were notified by local police in West Allis, Wisconsin, that a suicide investigation they were conducting had potential links to the Lefkow murders.
We immediately dispatched Chicago Police detectives and federal agents there to West Allis to investigate the lead. When we arrived there after midnight, we immediately began working with the local police to piece together the events of the traffic stop where Bart Ross took his life. In processing the crime scene, we came upon a note written, presumably by the victim, where he implicated himself in the murders of Michael Lefkow and Donna Humphrey.
In the note, the offender outlined in some detail the events of Monday, February 28. As you know, the note alone is not definitive evidence that we have our offender. We are analyzing the note, along with other evidence gathered at the scene of last night's suicide. We understand that there is plenty of information out there pointing to this individual as the offender.
However, only a complete and total analysis of all the evidence will point us in any one direction. We are currently working up physical evidence taken from the scene in West Allis. Prior to getting that information back, it would be premature to make any statements directly implicating Bart Ross in these murders.
While we do characterize last night's developments as significant, we are not prepared at this time to definitely say that any one person is responsible for these homicides. This case is by no means closed. Our investigation is continuing, and it will be driven by the facts, not rumor, speculation or half-truths.
We still have many facts to gather. So we're asking for your patience as this phase of the investigation unfolds. Getting to the truth remains our first and last priority. That's our commitment to the victims, their families and to everyone we serve. And based on that, we are not able to discuss in specific detail our findings to this point. Please bear in mind that during the question-and-answer period of this news conference.
While we're eager to share information, we also hold the obligation to find the truth. And there is much work that lies ahead of us. Evidence collected at the scene at last night's suicide is being analyzed by the Illinois state crime lab and the FBI crime lab.
I should point out that both agencies have been extremely cooperative with us as this case has moved forward. We continue to gather evidence from the Lefkow home. We are currently searching Bart Ross' home for any physical evidence that points us to last week's double homicide. We're attempting to learn as much as we possibly can about Bart Ross' history, who he was, whom he was associated with, and what he was doing in the days leading up to and following the Lefkow murders.
While this remains an open, active investigation, we continue to urge the public to share any additional information they have about this case or about Bart Ross. Maybe last night's developments and today's news will spark a memory in someone that may be useful to our investigators. So, please forward investigation to the Chicago Police, FBI and U.S. Marshals Office.
And, finally, while there's a lot of work ahead of us, I would like to thank everyone who put in the long hours and hard work to get us to this point. The press and public needs to understand how well all of these different agencies have been working with one another since this task force was formed. From the first night, when we responded to the scene on Lakewood, right up through this morning's daily conference call, the teamwork, coordination and commitment have been remarkable.
We've been on a daily conference call since the investigation began last week, sharing information and resources. And, on those calls, everyone has brought something to the table, be they resources, ideas or leads. That cooperation isn't new.
It's simply how things go in Chicago. As we move forward, we're asking many, many questions and seeking just as many answers. And while the work is being done, again, we ask for the media's and the public's cooperation. Thank you.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) Can you say whether or not there were any facts letter left in the car that only the killer would know?
CLINE: Yes.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
CLINE: No. I mean, we're satisfied that there is information in the letter that would point us to Ross having been in the Lefkows' house that day. But that's as far as I'm going to -- there's been too many things that came out in the media that hampered us.
But there was things in there that weren't out in the media.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) forensically, then, what do you need to establish now? What time frame are you looking at before you can compare the abundance of things founds in the Lefkow home with Mr. Ross?
CLINE: Well, there's testing being done for both DNA and fingerprints, and those are the two things that are -- that are being accomplished both by the state lab and the FBI lab right now.
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: His name was on a list of cases that Judge Lefkow had handled. And the task force was scheduled to interview him.
QUESTION: Why was he in the greater Milwaukee area? Have you been able to establish that?
CLINE: I have no idea.
QUESTION: Is there currently any physical evidence linking Ross to the Lefkow murders (OFF-MIKE) letter itself and any sort of (OFF- MIKE) physical evidence? Do you have any of (OFF-MIKE) yet?
CLINE: Yes, there is. But we're not going to discuss it now. We're going to wait until all the tests have been done on all of the evidence before we...
QUESTION: Beyond the letter?
CLINE: Right, beyond the letter, there is physical evidence.
QUESTION: Do you have a sense if he acted alone? Were there others?
CLINE: At this point, we cannot find anyone else that's connected with him, at this point. QUESTION: Is there in relationship between the pictures that were circulated earlier of the two people of interest and Mr. Ross?
CLINE: Yes. The one composite of the older gentleman, we feel is the composite that our witness saw of Mr. Ross leaving the house.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
CLINE: Sometime in the early afternoon, sometime around 1:00.
QUESTION: So that was matched with a statement he made in another letter that that is the time he left?
CLINE: That's correct.
QUESTION: That would corroborate things like that?
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... scheduled to interview Mr. Ross? Had any attempts been made to actually contact him prior to yesterday? Or when were you going to go see him?
CLINE: Well, there was a task force that consisted of federal agents and Chicago Police detectives. They were each given a list of individuals that had to be interviewed that were connected with either Judge Lefkow's cases or Michael Lefkow's cases. And he was on one of those lists.
QUESTION: Do you know if he had been contacted at home, if that contact might have sparked him to plan a suicide?
CLINE: Not to my knowledge, no.
QUESTION: Do you know why he was up in Milwaukee? There's reports that two judges on (OFF-MIKE) up there that...
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: I'm not going to speculate why he was up there.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) anything about any kind of list of people that he may have also (OFF-MIKE)
CLINE: There is other names there. We're in the process of personally contacting everyone. Phone calls have been made to everyone letting them know the status of what happened.
And the Chicago Police Department will provide special attention for those people who live or work in Chicago. And we're going to contact the suburban departments for those who live or work in the suburbs.
QUESTION: None of those people have been injured (OFF-MIKE) CLINE: No.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: There's been a lot of speculation about white supremacists. Do you -- does this man have no connection to (OFF- MIKE)
CLINE: At this time, no.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: People who are familiar with those court cases indicate that there was a certain amount of rage in Bart Ross, which would really flag him, single him out as someone who ought to be contacted. Why, nine days after the murders, had he not been contacted yet?
CLINE: Jay (ph), there's over 600 leads. Plus, there's hundreds of names that were generated just by their cases.
I'm pleased with the progress that the task force was making. I think they were going in the right direction. And I'll let Bob...
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: No. I think we all agree that everything was going right.
QUESTION: Do you think that there was another person involved in this case? Two people were sighted in those drawings.
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: Well, remember, the one composite of the older individual, the one that we say fits what Ross described that he did that day, was by him himself. The other composite was of an individual that was seated in a red car earlier in the morning in front of the church with another individual that the witness couldn't describe.
So at no time did we say they were together.
QUESTION: Did Mr. Ross have a criminal record?
CLINE: I'm sorry?
QUESTION: Did Mr. Ross have a criminal record?
CLINE: No, not with Chicago and I don't think anything has come back nationally either.
QUESTION: He apparently left multiple notes. Do you know any more than (OFF-MIKE) are they similar and what that they contain?
CLINE: Well, the notes that we've recovered as evidence, we're going over right now. And, basically, one of them describes his actions on February 28 at the Lefkow home. And the other one describes his dealings with the court proceedings that -- regarding his medical condition.
QUESTION: Are they consistent?
CLINE: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... of doctors and other attorneys involved in the case...
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: There's names of other individuals on the list. And we -- like I said, we've contacted or we're in the process of trying to contact everyone on that list.
QUESTION: Would you classify that as a hit list of other people...
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: I'm not going to speculate as to what it is.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... bomb-sniffing dogs and hazmat teams out at his house on the northwest side right now?
CLINE: We're going to use every resource that all the federal agencies and the Chicago Police Department have to make sure that no evidence is left undiscovered.
QUESTION: Is the weapon he killed himself with consistent with the caliber that was used to kill the Lefkows?
CLINE: I'm not going to discuss that at this time.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Do you have any idea how he learned of Judge Lefkow's address?
CLINE: No.
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: This investigation is still going on. That's what we're going to try and determine.
QUESTION: Mr. Superintendent, have you been able to establish whether there is family (OFF-MIKE)
CLINE: No, we have not been able to find any family. And there again, we're asking anyone with information about him to please call our hot line, 311, if you live in Chicago, 312-744-5000 if you live in the suburbs or out of the state.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Superintendent, if he hadn't killed himself during this traffic stop, and kept his mouth shut about all this and not written a letter, do you think that he would ever have been caught? I mean, what were the -- what was so...
CLINE: Absolutely.
QUESTION: You think he would have...
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: Yes.
QUESTION: How long would it have...
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: I can't give you a time frame.
But we...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.
(CROSSTALK)
CLINE: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: There you have it, an amazing twist and turn to that murder case, Judge Lefkow's family, her husband and mother, shot dead in Chicago.
Many of the early indications and suspicions pointed in the direction of a white supremacist who is behind bars and who had, after all, been convicted of threatening that very judge. As it turns out, it appears that, although police weren't divulging a lot the specifics, for some obvious investigatory reasons, it all leads to that traffic stop and that suicide in Wisconsin. We will continue to follow that case for you, of course, as the developments warrant.
Former President Clinton undergoes surgery for the second time in just over six months.
PHILLIPS: Just ahead, we're going to go live to the hospital where it all took place, get an update from CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: In New York City, doctors say they have successfully removed fluid and scarring from former President Bill Clinton's chest.
CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta live at New York Presbyterian Hospital with details of the surgery.
And, Sanjay, the thoracic surgeon said it was remarkable, five to eight millimeters of, plaquey scar tissue. It's kind of gross, actually.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I guess you could describe it as that.
I mean, it's not -- they got a C.T. scan of his chest ahead of time and it looked like he had some plaque about two to four millimeters in thickness. So, this scar tissue wasn't unexpected, a little thicker than they thought, Miles. They originally thought that they would be able to go with just an endoscope and sort of peel away -- an endoscope is a small, sort of fiberoptic cable with some instruments, sort of a minimally invasive thing. They would go in there and just peel this away.
They couldn't do it that way. The plaque was too thick. They ended up actually going -- opening his chest a little bit more and peeling what you just described off, sort of like an orange peel. It sounds like everything went just fine. It took about four hours, a little bit longer than they thought it was going to take. No changes in blood pressure, no significant blood loss. The president has a chest tube in, but I guess the best description would be as planned.
O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay Gupta, we appreciate it. Thank you very much.
GUPTA: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Kyra.
PHILLIPS: And this just in to CNN. A Yemeni cleric has been convicted in a terrorism conspiracy. We had told you about this man a couple of weeks ago, that it was getting close to a decision. Now a jury has convicted this Yemeni cleric of conspiring to aid the terrorist groups al Qaeda and Hamas.
CNN ANCHOR: Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad was accused of funneling millions of dollars to these -- the radical groups. And now, after a five-week trial and five days of deliberating, the jury found the 56-year-old guilty and did conspire to provide material support and resources to the foreign terrorist organization. Once again, the Yemeni cleric convicted on a terrorism conspiracy.
O'BRIEN: President Bush taking his Social Security message to the people.
PHILLIPS: So, is he a good salesman? Find out just ahead on "INSIDE POLITICS."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: All out of time.
PHILLIPS: Pretty interesting day. O'BRIEN: It's been a wild day.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: We're glad you were with us.
PHILLIPS: Thank you so much for joining us. We'll be back tomorrow.
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