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Time and Momentum on Iraq's Side?; Security and the City; Sexual Predator Arrest
Aired May 06, 2005 - 13:59 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: The trail of trust. A police officer and father figure now accused of molesting a child and the object of an international manhunt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, the thing that went through my mind was that Satan was there and he was working.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is like what I call a cult.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Demonized Democrats. Church members excommunicated because they voted for John Kerry.
O'BRIEN: They're furry, they're cute, but they could make you really sick. A word of warning about pocket pets.
PHILLIPS: And they've struck not oil but water in Miami. This gusher of a geyser gets our attention as the picture of the day.
O'BRIEN: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, where we're always dealing with a torrent of news, I'm Miles O'Brien.
PHILLIPS: We are variable gushers ourselves. I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
O'BRIEN: Not soldiers, but civilians. Not a mosque, but a marketplace bomb today in Iraq just south of Baghdad. Sixteen dead, dozens wounded. And the region's nickname, Triangle of Death, sadly undisputed today.
Earlier today in Tikrit, a suicide bomber rammed a busload of Iraqi police, killing seven of them. And police in Baghdad came upon 14 bodies in a garbage dump where someone was apparently trying to dig a trench to bury them. All of the victims were men in traditional clothing; each had been shot in the head.
Through it all, Iraq's military maintains time and momentum are on its side, as CNN's Ryan Chilcote reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In an exclusive interview, the deputy chief of staff of Iraq's armed forces told CNN that he thinks these are desperate acts.
LT. GEN. NAISER ABADI, IRAQI ARMY DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF: They're just trying to bring the attention, get the attention of the media that they're winning, and I don't think they are.
CHILCOTE: Iraq's security forces, he says, are steadily growing. Undeterred by the attacks.
(on camera): Statistically, though, has there been a drop because of the attacks?
ABADI: Never, no. On the contrary. We don't have enough facilities to accommodate all these people, because you have to man them, train them, equip them. And we can't take all of them.
CHILCOTE: Iraq's forces are coming on line on the battlefield, slowly taking up responsibility from coalition troops. The general believes their nemesis, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, is on the defensive, but it could take time to catch him.
ABADI: He's cunning, and he's had a lot of experience in using people. And I think he's doing a good job, but he can do it for some time but not all the time. I think sooner or later we're going to catch him. He's bound to make a mistake, and information will come to us.
CHILCOTE (on camera): He says information came just last week that Zarqawi may be holed up in a hospital in the western city of Ramadi. U.S. and Iraqi forces moved in. They didn't find him. But the general says information is still coming in, and it's only a matter of time before they catch him.
Ryan Chilcote, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: More pictures, new threats against the Australian-born engineer who was kidnapped by Iraqi Mujahideen. Al-Jazeera TV aired another bit of video of Douglas Wood, 63-years-old, head shaven, eyes blackened, along with a vow by Wood's captors to kill him if Australia doesn't pull its troops out of Iraq in 72 hours. Australian's prime minister is vowing not to give into the terrorists. It's not clear whether Wood was taken hostage.
O'BRIEN: Well, call her Colonel Karpinski. Sixteen months after being relieved of her command at Abu Ghraib prison, the former brigadier Army general in the Reserves has lost her star as well.
An Army probe has substantiated charges of dereliction of duty against Janis Karpinski, along with shoplifting, of all things. But it cleared Karpinski of lying to investigators and failing to obey orders.
It also says the purported dereliction played no apparent role in the inmate abuse and humiliation for which several MPs under Karpinski's command have been prosecuted. Go figure that one. Karpinski insists the abuse was orchestrated all along by U.S. military intelligence.
PHILLIPS: In New York, it was a traffic stopper literally. A suspicious package forced police to close the Manhattan Bridge during rush hour this morning. Someone spotted the bag on the lower level of the bridge and called 911. The bomb squad unit arrived and x-rayed the package.
It turned out to be a backpack full of clothing and other personal items. The bridge reopened soon after that.
It's been a jittery two days in the Big Apple. This scare comes about 24 hours after another one. Two makeshift grenades blew up outside a building that houses the British Consulate. These incidents are renewing fears about security in the city.
CNN's Mary Snow reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New Yorkers have grown accustomed to tight security after 9/11 took news of explosions in stride.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no such thing as safe in this world anymore. But you've got to go on with your life, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the security in New York is as good as it can be anywhere. Nothing is ever 100 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm reading the paper just now, and they were talking about how they had stopped designs on the new building, Freedom Tower, because of the security problems. And you're just wondering, going around, are we really safe? Has 9/11 really done anything to protect us?
SNOW: Wednesday it was announced that the Freedom Tower, slated to be built at the World Trader Center site, has to be redesigned. Besides structural issues, New York's police department had serious security concerns.
Officials say the structure was too close to a multi-lane highway adjacent to the site Protecting buildings from cars or truck bombs has become a reality in the post-9/11 world. That's one of the reasons behind these heavy concrete planters like the kind outside the building where the small blast occurred. This time, though, one may have been used as a container for the explosive devices.
JAMES BUCKNAM, EVP, KROLL: I think what it points out is the need to couple these barricades with physical presence of people, security guards and the like, or clearly operational cameras in the vicinity, monitoring movements of people.
SNOW: Another change since 9/11 is the response to these kinds of incidents.
GEORGE BAURIES, CRITERION STRATEGIES: Before 9/11, they probably would not even be considering the concept of weapons of mass destruction. You wouldn't be doing any initial indicators of chemical weapons.
SNOW: Former FBI agent George Bauries says another example is analyzing various theories.
BAURIES: Was it a test of first responders of a potential run for, say, what they call an RDD, a radioactive dispersal device?
SNOW: There is no evidence supporting that theory, but it's part of normal operating procedure to consider different scenarios.
Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information day and night.
O'BRIEN: The manhunt is over in Florida. A convicted sexual predator who cut off a tracking bracelet and disappeared now under arrest. Jon Shainman from our affiliate WPBF, live in Palm Beach Gardens with details -- Jon.
JON SHAINMAN, REPORTER, WPBF: Well, good afternoon to you, Miles.
Thirty-nine-year-old Patrick Bell picked up this morning by U.S. Marshals and the North Florida Violent Taskforce. Picked up in Tallahassee around 8:30 this morning without incident. Now, police had been looking for Mr. Bell since Tuesday when he tore off the bracelet at his mother's house.
Now, he had been released from prison just one month before disappearing. And he had two years and two months left with that GPS system.
Now, we spoke with his mother, who told us, well, she doesn't condone what he had done and gone to prison for, but that he was getting frustrated with his situation and where he could live. He couldn't live with his mother because she lived close to a daycare center, and he could live near two different motels.
In one motel, they found out he was a sexual predator, so they kicked him out. The other was near a public park.
Now, as you saw, Tallahassee -- or as you may know, Tallahassee, several hundred miles from the West Palm Beach area where Bell was last seen. And again, in our area alone, three sexual predators have gone missing in the last two weeks. Fortunately, all three tonight are back in custody.
O'BRIEN: Jon, a quick question for you. Is this a thing -- a common thing that we haven't been reporting so much about that happens all the time, or is this story just because we're put some additional focus on it that we have the sense that a lot of this is occurring?
SHAINMAN: Well, I think certainly here in Florida it's gotten a lot of additional attention. On Monday, Governor Jeb Bush signed the Jessica Lunsford Act into law. You'll recall Florida has been the scene of a couple of these terrible tragedies where young girls have been kidnapped and killed allegedly at the hands of sexual offenders. And here's the governor on Monday signing this act into law.
What it means is anyone convicted of molesting a child could be punished by at least 25 years in prison, and sometimes up to life. And if the person is released from prison, they would be forced to wear a GPS tracking device for the rest of their life.
Now, the law provides $11 million to make all this happen. And again, you saw the governor shaking hands with Mark Lunsford, Jessica's father. So, again, it's certainly received additional attention here.
And Miles, one additional note. We talk about security, we had one case last week where a sexual predator on the Treasure Coast managed to board a plane and end up in New York with his anklet monitor on before he was apprehended.
O'BRIEN: All right. Jon Shainman with WPBF in Palm Beach Gardens. Thanks very much.
A trial that sparked a lot of debate across the country back in the news. It involves one of the owners of two dogs bread to fight, the brutal mauling of a young woman by their two animals and whether to reinstate a murder conviction.
We get more from Vicki Liviakis of our San Francisco affiliate KRON.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VICKI LIVIAKIS, REPORTER, KRON (voice-over): The infamous San Francisco dog mauling trial of Marjorie Knoller and her husband Robert Noel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The court finds that the evidence does not support it.
LIVIAKIS: The judge throwing out a second-degree murder verdict against Knoller; instead, convicting her of manslaughter. Now, the state appeals court wants to reinstate the murder verdict that could put her right back in prison. Reaction from the DAs who tried the case...
JIM HAMMER, PROSECUTOR: If these aren't the meanest people, the coldest people you have ever met, I don't know who are. I got to know them all too well. And in the end, what they did is just as serious as somebody who points a gun at somebody or gets drunk behind the wheel of a car knowing they might kill someone and doesn't give a damn about it. That's why this was a murder case. KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, PROSECUTOR: I really feel that, you know, lady justice is worth her weight. It was a long time coming. But I feel good about the decision.
LIVIAKIS: One hundred-pound Presa Canario dogs belonging to Knoller and her husband mauling Diane Whipple to death just outside her door.
(on camera): The mauling took place at this Pacific Heights apartment. It made national news mainly because of the viciousness of the attack. And some people still aren't over it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We remember this case because we actually drove up when all the police were there when it happened that night. So I did -- it affected this neighborhood. People really do remember that couple and just sort of the horrible situation that happened with the dogs.
MARK DWIGHT, NEIGHBOR: I feel strongly that, you know, people keeping pets like that in such close proximity to people like this -- I mean, this is an urban environment. So it doesn't seem like it belongs here. But, you know, the criminal element is for the courts to decide.
LIVIAKIS (voice-over): Knoller's attorney says, while there is still no love for his client, by the public she's paid her dues.
DENNIS RIORDAN, KNOLLER'S ATTORNEY: We do believe that at the end of the day, the California judiciary will decide that Marjorie Knoller was not guilty of murder in this case.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: The trial judge overturned Knoller's second-degree murder conviction, saying he believed evidence failed to prove she had known the dogs were likely to kill someone.
PHILLIPS: Well, they probably won't kill you, but so-called pocket pets could make you pretty sick.
O'BRIEN: Ahead on LIVE FROM, the Centers for Disease Control spots a troubling trend with owners of mice and other furry critters.
PHILLIPS: Religion and politics. Members of a North Carolina Baptist church excommunicated because they didn't vote for President Bush. We'll have the details.
O'BRIEN: And later, vandalism at an image many in the Chicago area revere as a holy sign of hope.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) O'BRIEN: Politics and religion don't mix. It's the old bromide. But members of one North Carolina church say they were told to support Republicans in last year's election or repent. And then worse.
Russ Bowen from our affiliate WLOS has our story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, the thing that went through my mind was that Satan was there, and he was working.
RUSS BOWEN, REPORTER, WLOS (voice-over): Thelma Morris (ph) served as East Waynesville's Baptist treasurer for decades. We've gathered her, several deacons and others whose memberships span between 30 and 42 years. Now they find themselves excommunicated from their church.
LEWIS INMAN, FMR. CHURCH MEMBER: He told us that we needed to -- if we didn't support George Bush, that we need to resign our position and get out of the church, or go to the altar and repent and agree to vote for George Bush.
FRANK LOWE, FMR. CHURCH MEMBER: He says if we support John Kerry we have supported abortion and homosexuality.
BOWEN: Both of which no one here says they support. And among them are several Republicans who are just related to Democrats. It all started last October, but it wasn't until this week they were kicked out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is like what I call a cult.
LOWE: And the members that were there even stood up and applauded that we left.
BOWEN (on camera): We spoke with the minister on the phone and asked him for an interview. Chan Chandler (ph) said that he was unavailable. So we asked if someone else could speak. He said he was the only one who speaks on behalf of the church.
He then issued a statement saying these actions were not politically motivated. He then hung up on us. But here's what he said in last Sunday's sermon...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And mostly (INAUDIBLE) because I'm naming names during the election. I want you to know something, I'm going to again. I have to. I have to. I have to, according to the word of god.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So the pulpit has been misused, and I hope I (ph) still got good sense. I am there to worship god, not the preacher.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: That came from Russ Bowen with our affiliate WLOS. PHILLIPS: Other news "Across America" now.
Arrests in an unauthorized Chicago paint job. That's after a man defaced an image on a highway underpass that some believe looked like the Virgin Mary. He's accused of spray-painting the words "Big Lie." The man has been charged with criminal damage to state property.
High drama at a Las Vegas airport. A passenger landed his private plane after the pilot reportedly suffered a fatal heart attack. The plane crash-landed on its belly just a few hundred feet short of the North Las Vegas Airport runway.
There was one other passenger on the plane. Neither passenger suffered any serious injuries.
Good things come in threes, right? Well, doctors at Arnold Palmer Hospital -- you'd think the golfer in me, I could say that.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Sorry, Arnie. Anyway, his hospital in Orlando, named after him...
O'BRIEN: You can have a mulligan on that one.
PHILLIPS: Oh, thank you -- delivered three sets of triplets yesterday. A record for the hospital. A pair of twins were also born on that same day.
O'BRIEN: One more note from Florida. A suburban Miami street looked perfectly well-suited for a Miami dolphin or a gator, or anything but traffic this afternoon. A water main broke today in a dramatic fashion. It shot a geyser 20 feet into the air before utility crews finally got a handle on it.
Nobody hurt. Plenty of people wet. I'm sure a lot of taps dry, too.
This is the last running water this neighborhood will see for days. Big, big repair job.
Now, a story that is raising concerns in classrooms and homes across America. Federal health officials say so-called pocket pets, hamsters mice, rats, have been linked to dangerous salmonella outbreaks. They say as many as 30 people in 10 states have come down with drug-resistant strains of the illness which can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhea. Health officials say people should wash their hands after they contact any pet.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, a South Carolina mom calls it the ultimate betrayal. A police officer who becomes a father-figure to her daughter now accused of molesting the girl. Authorities are looking for him. We've got the story later on LIVE FROM.
KATHLEEN HAYS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kathleen Hays at the New York Stock Exchange. Up next, new documents are shedding light on Vioxx marketing, and some lawmakers are calling the sales tactics deceptive. I'll tell you why next on LIVE FROM.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINA PARK, CNN.COM CORRESPONDENT: Your mom may have said there's only one of you in the world, but that might not be so true in the digital age. CNNmoney.com Security Special helps you stop identity fraud in its tracks.
Let's say your employer lost your personal data, or someone cracked into your accounts. First thing, call the credit bureau and set up a fraud alert, or sign up for a credit monitoring service. That way, if someone tries to set up an account in your name, you'll be one of the first to know.
And be vigilant. Check your credit report every few months for suspicious activity, like a new credit card account you never signed up for.
And could your personal computer be wide open to identity fraud? Aside from the obvious, like installing antivirus software and a firewall, what else can you do?
First, be sure to read any terms of agreement before you download anything for free online. You could be saying yes to spyware, software that gathers personal data without your knowledge.
And, don't be lazy or too trusting. New viruses are written every day, so keep updating your security software. And don't open just any e-mail that drops into your inbox.
CNNmoney.com/security is here to make sure that me, myself and I, stays that way.
I'm Christina Park reporting from the dot-com desk.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: All right. New Vioxx documents giving the public a glimpse into the world of drug marketing. It is a house of mirrors and smoke, isn't it?
PHILLIPS: Kathleen Hays live from the New York Stock Exchange to tell us a little bit more about it, I guess. Smoke, mirrors, truth, fact, fiction, I don't know.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired May 6, 2005 - 13:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The trail of trust. A police officer and father figure now accused of molesting a child and the object of an international manhunt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, the thing that went through my mind was that Satan was there and he was working.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is like what I call a cult.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Demonized Democrats. Church members excommunicated because they voted for John Kerry.
O'BRIEN: They're furry, they're cute, but they could make you really sick. A word of warning about pocket pets.
PHILLIPS: And they've struck not oil but water in Miami. This gusher of a geyser gets our attention as the picture of the day.
O'BRIEN: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, where we're always dealing with a torrent of news, I'm Miles O'Brien.
PHILLIPS: We are variable gushers ourselves. I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
O'BRIEN: Not soldiers, but civilians. Not a mosque, but a marketplace bomb today in Iraq just south of Baghdad. Sixteen dead, dozens wounded. And the region's nickname, Triangle of Death, sadly undisputed today.
Earlier today in Tikrit, a suicide bomber rammed a busload of Iraqi police, killing seven of them. And police in Baghdad came upon 14 bodies in a garbage dump where someone was apparently trying to dig a trench to bury them. All of the victims were men in traditional clothing; each had been shot in the head.
Through it all, Iraq's military maintains time and momentum are on its side, as CNN's Ryan Chilcote reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In an exclusive interview, the deputy chief of staff of Iraq's armed forces told CNN that he thinks these are desperate acts.
LT. GEN. NAISER ABADI, IRAQI ARMY DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF: They're just trying to bring the attention, get the attention of the media that they're winning, and I don't think they are.
CHILCOTE: Iraq's security forces, he says, are steadily growing. Undeterred by the attacks.
(on camera): Statistically, though, has there been a drop because of the attacks?
ABADI: Never, no. On the contrary. We don't have enough facilities to accommodate all these people, because you have to man them, train them, equip them. And we can't take all of them.
CHILCOTE: Iraq's forces are coming on line on the battlefield, slowly taking up responsibility from coalition troops. The general believes their nemesis, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, is on the defensive, but it could take time to catch him.
ABADI: He's cunning, and he's had a lot of experience in using people. And I think he's doing a good job, but he can do it for some time but not all the time. I think sooner or later we're going to catch him. He's bound to make a mistake, and information will come to us.
CHILCOTE (on camera): He says information came just last week that Zarqawi may be holed up in a hospital in the western city of Ramadi. U.S. and Iraqi forces moved in. They didn't find him. But the general says information is still coming in, and it's only a matter of time before they catch him.
Ryan Chilcote, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: More pictures, new threats against the Australian-born engineer who was kidnapped by Iraqi Mujahideen. Al-Jazeera TV aired another bit of video of Douglas Wood, 63-years-old, head shaven, eyes blackened, along with a vow by Wood's captors to kill him if Australia doesn't pull its troops out of Iraq in 72 hours. Australian's prime minister is vowing not to give into the terrorists. It's not clear whether Wood was taken hostage.
O'BRIEN: Well, call her Colonel Karpinski. Sixteen months after being relieved of her command at Abu Ghraib prison, the former brigadier Army general in the Reserves has lost her star as well.
An Army probe has substantiated charges of dereliction of duty against Janis Karpinski, along with shoplifting, of all things. But it cleared Karpinski of lying to investigators and failing to obey orders.
It also says the purported dereliction played no apparent role in the inmate abuse and humiliation for which several MPs under Karpinski's command have been prosecuted. Go figure that one. Karpinski insists the abuse was orchestrated all along by U.S. military intelligence.
PHILLIPS: In New York, it was a traffic stopper literally. A suspicious package forced police to close the Manhattan Bridge during rush hour this morning. Someone spotted the bag on the lower level of the bridge and called 911. The bomb squad unit arrived and x-rayed the package.
It turned out to be a backpack full of clothing and other personal items. The bridge reopened soon after that.
It's been a jittery two days in the Big Apple. This scare comes about 24 hours after another one. Two makeshift grenades blew up outside a building that houses the British Consulate. These incidents are renewing fears about security in the city.
CNN's Mary Snow reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New Yorkers have grown accustomed to tight security after 9/11 took news of explosions in stride.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no such thing as safe in this world anymore. But you've got to go on with your life, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the security in New York is as good as it can be anywhere. Nothing is ever 100 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm reading the paper just now, and they were talking about how they had stopped designs on the new building, Freedom Tower, because of the security problems. And you're just wondering, going around, are we really safe? Has 9/11 really done anything to protect us?
SNOW: Wednesday it was announced that the Freedom Tower, slated to be built at the World Trader Center site, has to be redesigned. Besides structural issues, New York's police department had serious security concerns.
Officials say the structure was too close to a multi-lane highway adjacent to the site Protecting buildings from cars or truck bombs has become a reality in the post-9/11 world. That's one of the reasons behind these heavy concrete planters like the kind outside the building where the small blast occurred. This time, though, one may have been used as a container for the explosive devices.
JAMES BUCKNAM, EVP, KROLL: I think what it points out is the need to couple these barricades with physical presence of people, security guards and the like, or clearly operational cameras in the vicinity, monitoring movements of people.
SNOW: Another change since 9/11 is the response to these kinds of incidents.
GEORGE BAURIES, CRITERION STRATEGIES: Before 9/11, they probably would not even be considering the concept of weapons of mass destruction. You wouldn't be doing any initial indicators of chemical weapons.
SNOW: Former FBI agent George Bauries says another example is analyzing various theories.
BAURIES: Was it a test of first responders of a potential run for, say, what they call an RDD, a radioactive dispersal device?
SNOW: There is no evidence supporting that theory, but it's part of normal operating procedure to consider different scenarios.
Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information day and night.
O'BRIEN: The manhunt is over in Florida. A convicted sexual predator who cut off a tracking bracelet and disappeared now under arrest. Jon Shainman from our affiliate WPBF, live in Palm Beach Gardens with details -- Jon.
JON SHAINMAN, REPORTER, WPBF: Well, good afternoon to you, Miles.
Thirty-nine-year-old Patrick Bell picked up this morning by U.S. Marshals and the North Florida Violent Taskforce. Picked up in Tallahassee around 8:30 this morning without incident. Now, police had been looking for Mr. Bell since Tuesday when he tore off the bracelet at his mother's house.
Now, he had been released from prison just one month before disappearing. And he had two years and two months left with that GPS system.
Now, we spoke with his mother, who told us, well, she doesn't condone what he had done and gone to prison for, but that he was getting frustrated with his situation and where he could live. He couldn't live with his mother because she lived close to a daycare center, and he could live near two different motels.
In one motel, they found out he was a sexual predator, so they kicked him out. The other was near a public park.
Now, as you saw, Tallahassee -- or as you may know, Tallahassee, several hundred miles from the West Palm Beach area where Bell was last seen. And again, in our area alone, three sexual predators have gone missing in the last two weeks. Fortunately, all three tonight are back in custody.
O'BRIEN: Jon, a quick question for you. Is this a thing -- a common thing that we haven't been reporting so much about that happens all the time, or is this story just because we're put some additional focus on it that we have the sense that a lot of this is occurring?
SHAINMAN: Well, I think certainly here in Florida it's gotten a lot of additional attention. On Monday, Governor Jeb Bush signed the Jessica Lunsford Act into law. You'll recall Florida has been the scene of a couple of these terrible tragedies where young girls have been kidnapped and killed allegedly at the hands of sexual offenders. And here's the governor on Monday signing this act into law.
What it means is anyone convicted of molesting a child could be punished by at least 25 years in prison, and sometimes up to life. And if the person is released from prison, they would be forced to wear a GPS tracking device for the rest of their life.
Now, the law provides $11 million to make all this happen. And again, you saw the governor shaking hands with Mark Lunsford, Jessica's father. So, again, it's certainly received additional attention here.
And Miles, one additional note. We talk about security, we had one case last week where a sexual predator on the Treasure Coast managed to board a plane and end up in New York with his anklet monitor on before he was apprehended.
O'BRIEN: All right. Jon Shainman with WPBF in Palm Beach Gardens. Thanks very much.
A trial that sparked a lot of debate across the country back in the news. It involves one of the owners of two dogs bread to fight, the brutal mauling of a young woman by their two animals and whether to reinstate a murder conviction.
We get more from Vicki Liviakis of our San Francisco affiliate KRON.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VICKI LIVIAKIS, REPORTER, KRON (voice-over): The infamous San Francisco dog mauling trial of Marjorie Knoller and her husband Robert Noel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The court finds that the evidence does not support it.
LIVIAKIS: The judge throwing out a second-degree murder verdict against Knoller; instead, convicting her of manslaughter. Now, the state appeals court wants to reinstate the murder verdict that could put her right back in prison. Reaction from the DAs who tried the case...
JIM HAMMER, PROSECUTOR: If these aren't the meanest people, the coldest people you have ever met, I don't know who are. I got to know them all too well. And in the end, what they did is just as serious as somebody who points a gun at somebody or gets drunk behind the wheel of a car knowing they might kill someone and doesn't give a damn about it. That's why this was a murder case. KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, PROSECUTOR: I really feel that, you know, lady justice is worth her weight. It was a long time coming. But I feel good about the decision.
LIVIAKIS: One hundred-pound Presa Canario dogs belonging to Knoller and her husband mauling Diane Whipple to death just outside her door.
(on camera): The mauling took place at this Pacific Heights apartment. It made national news mainly because of the viciousness of the attack. And some people still aren't over it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We remember this case because we actually drove up when all the police were there when it happened that night. So I did -- it affected this neighborhood. People really do remember that couple and just sort of the horrible situation that happened with the dogs.
MARK DWIGHT, NEIGHBOR: I feel strongly that, you know, people keeping pets like that in such close proximity to people like this -- I mean, this is an urban environment. So it doesn't seem like it belongs here. But, you know, the criminal element is for the courts to decide.
LIVIAKIS (voice-over): Knoller's attorney says, while there is still no love for his client, by the public she's paid her dues.
DENNIS RIORDAN, KNOLLER'S ATTORNEY: We do believe that at the end of the day, the California judiciary will decide that Marjorie Knoller was not guilty of murder in this case.
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O'BRIEN: The trial judge overturned Knoller's second-degree murder conviction, saying he believed evidence failed to prove she had known the dogs were likely to kill someone.
PHILLIPS: Well, they probably won't kill you, but so-called pocket pets could make you pretty sick.
O'BRIEN: Ahead on LIVE FROM, the Centers for Disease Control spots a troubling trend with owners of mice and other furry critters.
PHILLIPS: Religion and politics. Members of a North Carolina Baptist church excommunicated because they didn't vote for President Bush. We'll have the details.
O'BRIEN: And later, vandalism at an image many in the Chicago area revere as a holy sign of hope.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK) O'BRIEN: Politics and religion don't mix. It's the old bromide. But members of one North Carolina church say they were told to support Republicans in last year's election or repent. And then worse.
Russ Bowen from our affiliate WLOS has our story.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, the thing that went through my mind was that Satan was there, and he was working.
RUSS BOWEN, REPORTER, WLOS (voice-over): Thelma Morris (ph) served as East Waynesville's Baptist treasurer for decades. We've gathered her, several deacons and others whose memberships span between 30 and 42 years. Now they find themselves excommunicated from their church.
LEWIS INMAN, FMR. CHURCH MEMBER: He told us that we needed to -- if we didn't support George Bush, that we need to resign our position and get out of the church, or go to the altar and repent and agree to vote for George Bush.
FRANK LOWE, FMR. CHURCH MEMBER: He says if we support John Kerry we have supported abortion and homosexuality.
BOWEN: Both of which no one here says they support. And among them are several Republicans who are just related to Democrats. It all started last October, but it wasn't until this week they were kicked out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is like what I call a cult.
LOWE: And the members that were there even stood up and applauded that we left.
BOWEN (on camera): We spoke with the minister on the phone and asked him for an interview. Chan Chandler (ph) said that he was unavailable. So we asked if someone else could speak. He said he was the only one who speaks on behalf of the church.
He then issued a statement saying these actions were not politically motivated. He then hung up on us. But here's what he said in last Sunday's sermon...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And mostly (INAUDIBLE) because I'm naming names during the election. I want you to know something, I'm going to again. I have to. I have to. I have to, according to the word of god.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So the pulpit has been misused, and I hope I (ph) still got good sense. I am there to worship god, not the preacher.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: That came from Russ Bowen with our affiliate WLOS. PHILLIPS: Other news "Across America" now.
Arrests in an unauthorized Chicago paint job. That's after a man defaced an image on a highway underpass that some believe looked like the Virgin Mary. He's accused of spray-painting the words "Big Lie." The man has been charged with criminal damage to state property.
High drama at a Las Vegas airport. A passenger landed his private plane after the pilot reportedly suffered a fatal heart attack. The plane crash-landed on its belly just a few hundred feet short of the North Las Vegas Airport runway.
There was one other passenger on the plane. Neither passenger suffered any serious injuries.
Good things come in threes, right? Well, doctors at Arnold Palmer Hospital -- you'd think the golfer in me, I could say that.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Sorry, Arnie. Anyway, his hospital in Orlando, named after him...
O'BRIEN: You can have a mulligan on that one.
PHILLIPS: Oh, thank you -- delivered three sets of triplets yesterday. A record for the hospital. A pair of twins were also born on that same day.
O'BRIEN: One more note from Florida. A suburban Miami street looked perfectly well-suited for a Miami dolphin or a gator, or anything but traffic this afternoon. A water main broke today in a dramatic fashion. It shot a geyser 20 feet into the air before utility crews finally got a handle on it.
Nobody hurt. Plenty of people wet. I'm sure a lot of taps dry, too.
This is the last running water this neighborhood will see for days. Big, big repair job.
Now, a story that is raising concerns in classrooms and homes across America. Federal health officials say so-called pocket pets, hamsters mice, rats, have been linked to dangerous salmonella outbreaks. They say as many as 30 people in 10 states have come down with drug-resistant strains of the illness which can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhea. Health officials say people should wash their hands after they contact any pet.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, a South Carolina mom calls it the ultimate betrayal. A police officer who becomes a father-figure to her daughter now accused of molesting the girl. Authorities are looking for him. We've got the story later on LIVE FROM.
KATHLEEN HAYS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kathleen Hays at the New York Stock Exchange. Up next, new documents are shedding light on Vioxx marketing, and some lawmakers are calling the sales tactics deceptive. I'll tell you why next on LIVE FROM.
Stay with us.
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINA PARK, CNN.COM CORRESPONDENT: Your mom may have said there's only one of you in the world, but that might not be so true in the digital age. CNNmoney.com Security Special helps you stop identity fraud in its tracks.
Let's say your employer lost your personal data, or someone cracked into your accounts. First thing, call the credit bureau and set up a fraud alert, or sign up for a credit monitoring service. That way, if someone tries to set up an account in your name, you'll be one of the first to know.
And be vigilant. Check your credit report every few months for suspicious activity, like a new credit card account you never signed up for.
And could your personal computer be wide open to identity fraud? Aside from the obvious, like installing antivirus software and a firewall, what else can you do?
First, be sure to read any terms of agreement before you download anything for free online. You could be saying yes to spyware, software that gathers personal data without your knowledge.
And, don't be lazy or too trusting. New viruses are written every day, so keep updating your security software. And don't open just any e-mail that drops into your inbox.
CNNmoney.com/security is here to make sure that me, myself and I, stays that way.
I'm Christina Park reporting from the dot-com desk.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: All right. New Vioxx documents giving the public a glimpse into the world of drug marketing. It is a house of mirrors and smoke, isn't it?
PHILLIPS: Kathleen Hays live from the New York Stock Exchange to tell us a little bit more about it, I guess. Smoke, mirrors, truth, fact, fiction, I don't know.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
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