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Troops in Default; Geragos Takes Stand in Jackson Trial; Jaws Celebrates 30th Anniversary
Aired May 20, 2005 - 14:30 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: "Now in the News," President Bush says photographs don't inspire murder. He predicts a picture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein dressed only in his underwear will not prompt further anti-American violence. The photo appeared in U.S. and British newspapers. The military is investigating.
Experts say it could be years or it cold be decades until we reap the benefits of a big advance in stem cell research. South Korean scientists say they've grown the first stem cells that are a genetic match for sick people. This means they shouldn't be rejected by the immune system.
Jurors in the Michael Jackson trial hearing from Jackson's old lawyer Mark Geragos. Meantime, the judge threatening to hit Jackson's current lead attorney with sanctions. A live report from the courthouse, legal analysis, in just a few moments.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: You won't find any Army recruiters pounding the pavement today. Instead, all 7,500 of them are spending the day talking about how to do their jobs. The Army is falling short of its recruitment goals and there have been reports of recruiters bending or even breaking rules to entice folks to sign up. In one case, recruiters helped a teenager get a fake diploma.
O'BRIEN: Not long after he signed up, one soldier found himself fighting on two fronts, against the enemy in Iraq and creditors here at home. CNN's Ed Lavandera with the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SGT. MICHAEL GASKINS, U.S. ARMY: It's nothing fancy. It's nothing unique. It's not lowered. It's not jacked up.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a 1993 Toyota pickup truck with 123,000 miles on it. Sergeant Michael Gaskins is baffled why anyone wants to fight him for it.
MICHAEL GASKINS: It's nothing special, but it's mine.
LAVANDERA: Four years ago, Gaskins put this truck down as collateral on a $6,000 loan from the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital Credit Union in Florida. He needed the money to finance a split- second decision, a decision about what to do with his life.
MICHAEL GASKINS: And at 29 years old, I guess I had an early mid-life crisis. I needed a change. LAVANDERA: Gaskins was working as a jailer at the sheriff's department in Tallahassee. A month after the 9/11 attacks, he was driving home from work when he passed this Army recruitment office.
MICHAEL GASKINS: I could have been home helping my wife cook dinner, helping my kid do homework. But no, I went to the recruiter office instead.
LAVANDERA: Fifteen minutes later, he was resigning from his job.
MICHAEL GASKINS: I didn't even tell my wife. My wife didn't know. She had no clue until I came home.
LAVANDERA: Gaskins walked into this office a jailer and walked out an Army private, giving himself a 50 percent pay cut. It was that $6,000 loan that helped the Gaskins make the financial transition to their new military life. A few weeks later, he shipped out to basic training and what would become two tours in the Iraq war.
MICHAEL GASKINS: I didn't know what to expect. I thought maybe she'd pack her bags and leave me. I couldn't really blame her. I really couldn't. You know, I thought...
LAVANDERA (on camera): Did the thought cross your mind?
MELISSA GASKINS, WIFE: He's lucky he's still here.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): While Sergeant Gaskins worked as a military police officer in the war zone, his wife was fighting her own battle, the battle of raising a teenage son on a soldier's pay. The Gaskins fell behind on their loan payments, and the credit union sued.
MICHAEL GASKINS: Here I was in Iraq fighting for what was right, and I have a company back here suing me. You know, I could never understand that.
MELISSA GASKINS: What do you want to eat?
LAVANDERA: But the Gaskins had a secret weapon -- secret because it's too often overlooked. The Service Members Civil Relief Act, which protects military personnel and their spouses from being subjected to some civil legal actions while serving on active duty.
One of the things it prevents is default judgments being filed against service members who can't defend themselves in court because they're on the battlefield, for example.
This didn't stop the credit union. First, they sued Michael Gaskins. After some legal wrangling, that was dropped. Then they sued his wife.
MICHAEL GASKINS: And that just shows you how bad they want us, how bad they want to get at us, to know, well, OK, well, the law does apply. We'd better leave it alone. No. What they do, say, oh, well, the law applies to him, let's go after his wife. And that's just to me, that was dirty. That was cheap. LAVANDERA: This is Melissa Gaskins' scrapbook of frustration, pages and pages documenting every detail of what's happened the last four years. The night the truck was repossessed briefly until Melissa could make a payment, and the last time she personally delivered a check.
MELISSA GASKINS: Told me not to make another payment, do not come back to their credit union, and had me escorted out by security.
LAVANDERA (on camera): The credit union's attorney acknowledges that they did not have a full understanding of how the Service Members Civil Relief Act actually worked, that not only is the soldier protected, but so is their spouse.
And military officials agree that the Gaskins' story is not an isolated case, and that there seems to be a lot of confusion about this law nationwide.
(voice-over): The credit union refused our request for interviews regarding the specifics of the Gaskins' case, but recently the credit union dropped its lawsuit. Melissa Gaskins hopes their story will be a lesson, not just for military families, but for the companies that do business with them.
MELISSA GASKINS: I don't know if it can be misinterpreted. It's in black and white. It's pretty simple to understand, I believe. But you've got all these soldiers and their family members out there that major companies are claiming they just don't know about it.
MICHAEL GASKINS: You ready to go for a spin?
LAVANDERA: Michael Gaskins says he's in the Army for life, and he'll keep this car as long as it keeps running. But he likes to say the credit union picked a fight with the wrong woman. He's just grateful he married that woman.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Ft. Hood, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: All right, shifting gears now. A defense lawyer is once again a defense witness in the Michael Jackson trial. We want to go now to CNN's Ted Rowlands in Santa Maria, California, with all the latest developments. Hey there, Ted.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Betty. Mark Geragos is on the stand again today. This is a continuation of his testimony from last week because he was in trial on another case. The judge allowed him to wait to come back until today. And so far on the stand today he has been asked mainly questions about this so-called conspiracy that Geragos has been associated with. And Michael Jackson associates have also been accused of working for Michael Jackson and keeping the accuser's family held hostage.
At no point has Michael Jackson himself been implicated, especially by Mark Geragos. Geragos is familiar with the law, he's familiar with this case and clearly he is an advocate for Michael Jackson and he is doing a good job of getting around questions. You can see he doesn't really want to ask or answer, rather, and it is tedious and frustrating at times for prosecutors, it seems. And what the jury is taking from this is unclear.
A few times they've asked him about potential molestation and Jackson's behavior with boys. Ron Zonen (ph), the prosecutor doing the examination, said did you ever ask Michael Jackson about sleeping with boys? Geragos immediately takes Jackson's side and says, well, to suggest that there's anything sexual about that would be wrong. So Geragos is on the stand now. We thought that his testimony was going to be relatively short today. It has gone longer than expected and continues at this hour.
NGUYEN: All right. Ted Rowlands, thank you so much.
Attorneys on the hot seat, of course. We want to take a closer look at the developments in the Michael Jackson trial with Drew Findling. Drew is a criminal defense lawyer here in Atlanta. And we appreciate you being with us.
Let's get back to Geragos' testimony, because we understood that he was testifying, but he could only speak about certain things because of this waiver. What's the latest with that?
DREW FINDLING, CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER: Well, what happened on Monday is, it was presented to the judge and to the prosecution that there was a waiver of privilege. That is an attorney/client privilege, which is anything communicated between Michael Jackson and Mark Geragos would not be admissible. However, he waived it, he said it's OK for it to come in. And that's what Mesereau told the court.
Once he was done with the direct examination and the prosecutor started cross-examining, the questions started leaning towards what happened after his arrest. And all of a sudden at that point, Geragos turned around and said I'm not going to answer those questions because that permission I was not given and...
NGUYEN: And the judge didn't know about that?
FINDLING: The judge did not know about it. And it was really dropping the ball on behalf of the defense. And they said, we're sorry, your honor, we kind of rushed into it. We'll draw something up real quick. And the courtroom...
NGUYEN: But can you do that? Can you change the rules? Can you draw something up real quick in the middle of testimony?
FINDLING: Well, I think that's what the question is. And that's why they put it off until Friday. The question is, going into the testimony, was there a partial waiver of attorney/client privilege? Which there is allowed to be. The question was, did that exist or did all of a sudden Geragos or Mesereau or somebody in the defense camp switch it up? The judge took a week, he let them brief it and he decided to side with attorney/client privilege, which is an enormous right in our judicial system. NGUYEN: Because Jackson has that right, regardless of whether his attorney may have made a mistake, perhaps, with this waiver situation.
FINDLING: Betty, that's a great point, because it is the client who waives the privilege. It's not up to Mesereau and it's not up to Geragos and it's not up to the judge or the prosecutor. Only Michael Jackson can waive that privilege or partially waive that privilege and that's what Michael Jackson exercised his option to be.
NGUYEN: So what does Geragos have to say here on the stand? I mean, is he helping the defense or does he play into the prosecution's hand in any way?
FINDLING: Well, this is where the prosecutor is running into trouble. He's trying to cross-examine an accomplished attorney. In cross-examination, you never ask a question to which you don't know the answer. You're always seeking an affirmative response or a negative response with no explanation.
Geragos knows the name of the game and Geragos is just not going to give you a yes or no. He is going to respond and he is going to explain and if you say to him, don't you think it's a weird sign that he sleeps with kids, he's going to say, well, all I know is that doesn't mean you're a molester, there's no sexual innuendo with that, absent evidence of physical contact. And Geragos is just going to keep on hitting homeruns every time you ask him a question.
NGUYEN: See where that's going. All right. We thank you for your time and your insight today -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Someone may have spotted those two missing children in Idaho. It's been four days now since their mother and their older brother were found murdered. We'll talk live with Captain Ben Wolfinger, the sheriff's department there, for the very latest in just a little bit.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Well, remember this expression? "Read my lips, no new taxes"? Sure, you do. 1988, right? But what you may hear next might make you forget it. Joining the pantheon of quotes from George Bush, the elder, is an apparently, presumably, hopefully unscripted anecdote delivered at the brand-new Hyundai plant in Alabama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE H. BUSH, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I remember going into San Francisco. And you go in there with a decoy motorcade, presidential flag on one fender, presidential flag on another fender, drive around. I saw the worst-looking group of people I had ever seen out there to protest me. And one particularly looking -- ugly-looking woman came up alongside the car and she held up a sign that said "Stay Out Of My Womb!" No problem, lady. No problem with that one, don't worry about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Oh, wow.
O'BRIEN: All right.
NGUYEN: Wow.
O'BRIEN: Well. Maybe that played well at the Hyundai plant. I don't know.
NGUYEN: Perhaps.
O'BRIEN: Out of context, as they say.
All right, already tired of hearing about "Star Wars"? Yes. Think that light sabers are so five minutes ago?
NGUYEN: Five minutes ago. Hollywood hopes you'll take the bait on another American classic, though. You're not afraid of the water, are you?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Perfection comes in many forms and today it's an 11- year-old Little Leaguer. The hurler downed every batter and struck them out each and every time. Oh, and she's a girl playing in an all- boys league. We get the details now from reporter Lynne Dixon of CNN affiliate WGRZ in Buffalo, New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LYNNE DIXON, WGRZ REPORTER (voice-over): It's not unlike a lot of small town communities across the country. They move at their pace. But when it comes to bragging, they can keep pace with the biggest.
JEFF SAGE, COACH: Quite overwhelming, you know, for a small community and get national attention like we have been getting.
DIXON: All this attention in Oakfield because a strong-armed hurler has come to town.
SAGE: Baseball is big here.
DIXON: In one big baseball game last Saturday has a lot of people noticing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then the calls just kept coming in. "The New York Times," "The New York Post." We did photo shoots, we did interviews down here.
DIXON: Wanting to talk about Denise Bichot's (ph)child.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello.
DIXON: She's also busy feeling calls nonstop about her Little Leaguer, 11-year-old Katie. That's right, Katie Brownell, pitching a perfect game last weekend.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kate was out there pitching.
JON CASSIANO, TEAMMMATE: I was going to go in fifth inning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I said don't you dare pull her out, because that was going to be his son that went in. She's having a perfect game. Leave her in there, let's see if she can do it.
CASSIANO: So then I was -- I just stayed on short stop and she just kept pitching the rest of the game.
DIXON: And boy, did Katie Brownell pitch. One after another, not a hit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I went over to her and I said, you know, you're pitching a perfect game. I said, this is awesome. She's going, yes. You know, like no big deal.
DIXON: That's just how Katie is, lets her play speak for itself and lets her play do most of the talking for the media, taking pictures and the networks and talk shows calling and calling.
KATIE BROWNELL, STAR PITCHER: Like I'm a star or something.
DIXON: A baseball star, no doubt. In an all boy's league, the boys are noticing that girl on the mound.
CASSIANO: They always think that they're going off her, just because she's a girl.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see it in their eyes sometimes, that they don't want to strike out against a girl.
BROWNELL: When someone tells me that, then I try harder.
DIXON: So maybe other teams ought to keep quiet, although it's hard to quell the noise being made here in Oakfield about a young girl who's perfect.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Hey, you better keep quiet. She'll strike you out. And Katie Brownell is not only a perfect pitcher, she's a slugger hitting .714 through her team's first three games. That's not too bad, Miles.
O'BRIEN: She's is a taller 11-year-old. That might give her a little advantage. I'm not trying to minimize her accomplishment. Anyway but -- anyway. Congratulations Katie, great job. She would strike me out, too.
NGUYEN: Yes, she would.
O'BRIEN: The movie that took a big bite out of Hollywood celebrates 30 years. Hard to believe it's been 30 years that the cello music -- do we have the cello music cued up? No. We don't have it.
Darth Vader, Yoda and the rest of the gang could make box office history, sure. But CNN entertainment correspondent Sibila Vargas has the scoop from L.A. She's got the cello music, right?
SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Which one, dah dah dah.
O'BRIEN: Yeah, that's it. Good. I knew you could do it.
VARGAS: Yeah. All right, Miles. The force was definitely with George Lucas last night as the grand finale to the Star Wars saga opened in sold out theaters. Legions of fans blocked to the screenings in some 2900 theaters bringing an estimated 16.5 million bucks. The unprecedented tally puts "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" on par to be one of the biggest summer blockbusters of all time.
And speaking of summer blockbuster hits, remember duh da, duh da. It was the film that made us afraid to go into the water. The director was Steven Spielberg. The villain, one ferocious beast.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VARGAS (voice-over): The music...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Duh da, duh da.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Duh da, duh da, duhdaduhda.
VARGAS: And the mayhem.
For 30 years now, people have been jolted by "Jaws."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That scared the bejeezus out of me.
VARGAS: Hard to believe then that before the movie opened in 1975 Universal Studios was worried.
TOM SHONE, AUTHOR: The producers were convinced they had made the biggest turkey, because the shoot of the movie had been so troubled. And it had gone so over budget.
VARGAS: Over budget mainly because the mechanical shark playing the lead role kept breaking down.
CARL GOTTLIEB, CO-WRITER/COSTAR, "JAWS": The world was collapsing around us, and the shark wasn't working and the actors were fractious, and the crew was muttering.
VARGAS: Carl Gottlieb, author of the "Jaws" log (ph) co-wrote and co-starred in the film. He still marvels at how a young director named Steven Spielberg kept his cool.
GOTTLIEB: He held it all together. He improvised in ways that nobody was aware.
VARGAS: Spielberg made a virtue of the shark's failure to perform.
STEVEN SPIELBERG, DIRECTOR: I resorted to Hitchcockian rule, which is basically shooting the water and suggesting the shark without showing it. Having the peer go out and turn around by itself and come back again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take my word for it. Don't look back. Swim, swim.
VARGAS: That increased the suspense, which became evident during early test screenings.
GOTTLIEB: The people screamed, and then they screamed again, and then they jumped in their seats.
VARGAS: Then the film opened to the public and a movie industry legend was born.
SHONE: Jaws mania kind of swept the country in a grassroots kind of way.
GOTLIEB: There was a shark on the cover of "Time" magazine. And it just grew in the public consciousness.
SHONE: It really became like this kind of cultural event.
GOTTLIEB: It played and played and played, and people just kept coming.
SHONE: The amount of money that "Jaws" made, you know, just completely changed the course of Hollywood, you know, moviemaking. Immediately, the first response, can we do it again? And how many times can we do it? And what about next summer? So it was the beginning of kind of Hollywood's sort of endless summer.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VARGAS: "Jaws" went on to earn an astonishing $470 million worldwide in 1975. And that's not even adjusted for inflation. Those earnings will only increase when a 30th edition comes out on DVD in June. Scared me -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Well, you know, it just goes to prove, Sibila, it doesn't have to be all this 3-D animation to scary. You know, just that peer going through the water is a scary scene.
VARGAS: Absolutely. And to think he had to go through all that to get to that point and it was the scariest movie. At least for me. It scared me. It's still with me.
O'BRIEN: Still up there. All right. You're looking good out there with the shoulder thing.
NGUYEN: I knew you would comment on that.
O'BRIEN: I love... NGUYEN: He's digging that, Sibila.
VARGAS: Thank you very much.
(LAUGHTER)
VARGAS: OK.
O'BRIEN: Are you going to wear that this weekend?
VARGAS: I don't know.
NGUYEN: For hot ticket. It's a "Hot Ticket to Fun." The entertainment special. You have to watch that. That's our "Hot Ticket to Fun." It's at 6:00 p.m. Eastern, Saturday and at 4:00 p.m. Eastern on Sunday. Don't miss it. All you want to know about up summer entertainment this summer. It'll be there.
O'BRIEN: All right. Our own hot ticket, thank you very much, Sibila Vargas.
NGUYEN: Is that your wife calling? I think you're in trouble, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Probably.
NGUYEN: OK. We are getting close to the top of the hour. The day's big stories are next, including the new pictures of Saddam Hussein. Will they touch off more anti-American sentiment? CNN talks with Saddam Hussein's attorney.
O'BRIEN: Taking all precautions, NASA runs yet another test on the space shuttle as it gets ready for a launch. They hope in July. We'll have details.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Now in the news, the Pentagon is promising an aggressive investigation into Saddam Hussein photogate, as it's being called. A British tabloid has published photos of the detained former leader in his underwear. We will have those photos and the fall out coming up.
On a goodwill mission, first lady Laura Bush has arrived in Amman, Jordan. The first leg of her five day tour of the Middle East. Tomorrow, she plans to speak at the World Economic Forum, pressing for more women's rights in the region.
And South Korean researchers have crossed a new medical frontier, announcing that they have sped up the human cloning process and produced the first embryonic system cells -- embryonic stem cells, that is, that are a genetic match. Now, at the same time, a bill in congress would expand public funding for such research, although the bill faces White House opposition.
Deception by the defense? The judge in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial says that he may sanction the pop star, the lead attorney for that. Now this after Jackson's former lawyer Mark Geragos announced he could only testify about matters up to Jackson's arrest back in November 2003. The judge says Jackson's current lawyer misrepresented the terms under which Jackson waived attorney privilege.
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Aired May 20, 2005 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: "Now in the News," President Bush says photographs don't inspire murder. He predicts a picture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein dressed only in his underwear will not prompt further anti-American violence. The photo appeared in U.S. and British newspapers. The military is investigating.
Experts say it could be years or it cold be decades until we reap the benefits of a big advance in stem cell research. South Korean scientists say they've grown the first stem cells that are a genetic match for sick people. This means they shouldn't be rejected by the immune system.
Jurors in the Michael Jackson trial hearing from Jackson's old lawyer Mark Geragos. Meantime, the judge threatening to hit Jackson's current lead attorney with sanctions. A live report from the courthouse, legal analysis, in just a few moments.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: You won't find any Army recruiters pounding the pavement today. Instead, all 7,500 of them are spending the day talking about how to do their jobs. The Army is falling short of its recruitment goals and there have been reports of recruiters bending or even breaking rules to entice folks to sign up. In one case, recruiters helped a teenager get a fake diploma.
O'BRIEN: Not long after he signed up, one soldier found himself fighting on two fronts, against the enemy in Iraq and creditors here at home. CNN's Ed Lavandera with the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SGT. MICHAEL GASKINS, U.S. ARMY: It's nothing fancy. It's nothing unique. It's not lowered. It's not jacked up.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a 1993 Toyota pickup truck with 123,000 miles on it. Sergeant Michael Gaskins is baffled why anyone wants to fight him for it.
MICHAEL GASKINS: It's nothing special, but it's mine.
LAVANDERA: Four years ago, Gaskins put this truck down as collateral on a $6,000 loan from the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital Credit Union in Florida. He needed the money to finance a split- second decision, a decision about what to do with his life.
MICHAEL GASKINS: And at 29 years old, I guess I had an early mid-life crisis. I needed a change. LAVANDERA: Gaskins was working as a jailer at the sheriff's department in Tallahassee. A month after the 9/11 attacks, he was driving home from work when he passed this Army recruitment office.
MICHAEL GASKINS: I could have been home helping my wife cook dinner, helping my kid do homework. But no, I went to the recruiter office instead.
LAVANDERA: Fifteen minutes later, he was resigning from his job.
MICHAEL GASKINS: I didn't even tell my wife. My wife didn't know. She had no clue until I came home.
LAVANDERA: Gaskins walked into this office a jailer and walked out an Army private, giving himself a 50 percent pay cut. It was that $6,000 loan that helped the Gaskins make the financial transition to their new military life. A few weeks later, he shipped out to basic training and what would become two tours in the Iraq war.
MICHAEL GASKINS: I didn't know what to expect. I thought maybe she'd pack her bags and leave me. I couldn't really blame her. I really couldn't. You know, I thought...
LAVANDERA (on camera): Did the thought cross your mind?
MELISSA GASKINS, WIFE: He's lucky he's still here.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): While Sergeant Gaskins worked as a military police officer in the war zone, his wife was fighting her own battle, the battle of raising a teenage son on a soldier's pay. The Gaskins fell behind on their loan payments, and the credit union sued.
MICHAEL GASKINS: Here I was in Iraq fighting for what was right, and I have a company back here suing me. You know, I could never understand that.
MELISSA GASKINS: What do you want to eat?
LAVANDERA: But the Gaskins had a secret weapon -- secret because it's too often overlooked. The Service Members Civil Relief Act, which protects military personnel and their spouses from being subjected to some civil legal actions while serving on active duty.
One of the things it prevents is default judgments being filed against service members who can't defend themselves in court because they're on the battlefield, for example.
This didn't stop the credit union. First, they sued Michael Gaskins. After some legal wrangling, that was dropped. Then they sued his wife.
MICHAEL GASKINS: And that just shows you how bad they want us, how bad they want to get at us, to know, well, OK, well, the law does apply. We'd better leave it alone. No. What they do, say, oh, well, the law applies to him, let's go after his wife. And that's just to me, that was dirty. That was cheap. LAVANDERA: This is Melissa Gaskins' scrapbook of frustration, pages and pages documenting every detail of what's happened the last four years. The night the truck was repossessed briefly until Melissa could make a payment, and the last time she personally delivered a check.
MELISSA GASKINS: Told me not to make another payment, do not come back to their credit union, and had me escorted out by security.
LAVANDERA (on camera): The credit union's attorney acknowledges that they did not have a full understanding of how the Service Members Civil Relief Act actually worked, that not only is the soldier protected, but so is their spouse.
And military officials agree that the Gaskins' story is not an isolated case, and that there seems to be a lot of confusion about this law nationwide.
(voice-over): The credit union refused our request for interviews regarding the specifics of the Gaskins' case, but recently the credit union dropped its lawsuit. Melissa Gaskins hopes their story will be a lesson, not just for military families, but for the companies that do business with them.
MELISSA GASKINS: I don't know if it can be misinterpreted. It's in black and white. It's pretty simple to understand, I believe. But you've got all these soldiers and their family members out there that major companies are claiming they just don't know about it.
MICHAEL GASKINS: You ready to go for a spin?
LAVANDERA: Michael Gaskins says he's in the Army for life, and he'll keep this car as long as it keeps running. But he likes to say the credit union picked a fight with the wrong woman. He's just grateful he married that woman.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Ft. Hood, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: All right, shifting gears now. A defense lawyer is once again a defense witness in the Michael Jackson trial. We want to go now to CNN's Ted Rowlands in Santa Maria, California, with all the latest developments. Hey there, Ted.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Betty. Mark Geragos is on the stand again today. This is a continuation of his testimony from last week because he was in trial on another case. The judge allowed him to wait to come back until today. And so far on the stand today he has been asked mainly questions about this so-called conspiracy that Geragos has been associated with. And Michael Jackson associates have also been accused of working for Michael Jackson and keeping the accuser's family held hostage.
At no point has Michael Jackson himself been implicated, especially by Mark Geragos. Geragos is familiar with the law, he's familiar with this case and clearly he is an advocate for Michael Jackson and he is doing a good job of getting around questions. You can see he doesn't really want to ask or answer, rather, and it is tedious and frustrating at times for prosecutors, it seems. And what the jury is taking from this is unclear.
A few times they've asked him about potential molestation and Jackson's behavior with boys. Ron Zonen (ph), the prosecutor doing the examination, said did you ever ask Michael Jackson about sleeping with boys? Geragos immediately takes Jackson's side and says, well, to suggest that there's anything sexual about that would be wrong. So Geragos is on the stand now. We thought that his testimony was going to be relatively short today. It has gone longer than expected and continues at this hour.
NGUYEN: All right. Ted Rowlands, thank you so much.
Attorneys on the hot seat, of course. We want to take a closer look at the developments in the Michael Jackson trial with Drew Findling. Drew is a criminal defense lawyer here in Atlanta. And we appreciate you being with us.
Let's get back to Geragos' testimony, because we understood that he was testifying, but he could only speak about certain things because of this waiver. What's the latest with that?
DREW FINDLING, CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER: Well, what happened on Monday is, it was presented to the judge and to the prosecution that there was a waiver of privilege. That is an attorney/client privilege, which is anything communicated between Michael Jackson and Mark Geragos would not be admissible. However, he waived it, he said it's OK for it to come in. And that's what Mesereau told the court.
Once he was done with the direct examination and the prosecutor started cross-examining, the questions started leaning towards what happened after his arrest. And all of a sudden at that point, Geragos turned around and said I'm not going to answer those questions because that permission I was not given and...
NGUYEN: And the judge didn't know about that?
FINDLING: The judge did not know about it. And it was really dropping the ball on behalf of the defense. And they said, we're sorry, your honor, we kind of rushed into it. We'll draw something up real quick. And the courtroom...
NGUYEN: But can you do that? Can you change the rules? Can you draw something up real quick in the middle of testimony?
FINDLING: Well, I think that's what the question is. And that's why they put it off until Friday. The question is, going into the testimony, was there a partial waiver of attorney/client privilege? Which there is allowed to be. The question was, did that exist or did all of a sudden Geragos or Mesereau or somebody in the defense camp switch it up? The judge took a week, he let them brief it and he decided to side with attorney/client privilege, which is an enormous right in our judicial system. NGUYEN: Because Jackson has that right, regardless of whether his attorney may have made a mistake, perhaps, with this waiver situation.
FINDLING: Betty, that's a great point, because it is the client who waives the privilege. It's not up to Mesereau and it's not up to Geragos and it's not up to the judge or the prosecutor. Only Michael Jackson can waive that privilege or partially waive that privilege and that's what Michael Jackson exercised his option to be.
NGUYEN: So what does Geragos have to say here on the stand? I mean, is he helping the defense or does he play into the prosecution's hand in any way?
FINDLING: Well, this is where the prosecutor is running into trouble. He's trying to cross-examine an accomplished attorney. In cross-examination, you never ask a question to which you don't know the answer. You're always seeking an affirmative response or a negative response with no explanation.
Geragos knows the name of the game and Geragos is just not going to give you a yes or no. He is going to respond and he is going to explain and if you say to him, don't you think it's a weird sign that he sleeps with kids, he's going to say, well, all I know is that doesn't mean you're a molester, there's no sexual innuendo with that, absent evidence of physical contact. And Geragos is just going to keep on hitting homeruns every time you ask him a question.
NGUYEN: See where that's going. All right. We thank you for your time and your insight today -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Someone may have spotted those two missing children in Idaho. It's been four days now since their mother and their older brother were found murdered. We'll talk live with Captain Ben Wolfinger, the sheriff's department there, for the very latest in just a little bit.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Well, remember this expression? "Read my lips, no new taxes"? Sure, you do. 1988, right? But what you may hear next might make you forget it. Joining the pantheon of quotes from George Bush, the elder, is an apparently, presumably, hopefully unscripted anecdote delivered at the brand-new Hyundai plant in Alabama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE H. BUSH, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I remember going into San Francisco. And you go in there with a decoy motorcade, presidential flag on one fender, presidential flag on another fender, drive around. I saw the worst-looking group of people I had ever seen out there to protest me. And one particularly looking -- ugly-looking woman came up alongside the car and she held up a sign that said "Stay Out Of My Womb!" No problem, lady. No problem with that one, don't worry about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Oh, wow.
O'BRIEN: All right.
NGUYEN: Wow.
O'BRIEN: Well. Maybe that played well at the Hyundai plant. I don't know.
NGUYEN: Perhaps.
O'BRIEN: Out of context, as they say.
All right, already tired of hearing about "Star Wars"? Yes. Think that light sabers are so five minutes ago?
NGUYEN: Five minutes ago. Hollywood hopes you'll take the bait on another American classic, though. You're not afraid of the water, are you?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Perfection comes in many forms and today it's an 11- year-old Little Leaguer. The hurler downed every batter and struck them out each and every time. Oh, and she's a girl playing in an all- boys league. We get the details now from reporter Lynne Dixon of CNN affiliate WGRZ in Buffalo, New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LYNNE DIXON, WGRZ REPORTER (voice-over): It's not unlike a lot of small town communities across the country. They move at their pace. But when it comes to bragging, they can keep pace with the biggest.
JEFF SAGE, COACH: Quite overwhelming, you know, for a small community and get national attention like we have been getting.
DIXON: All this attention in Oakfield because a strong-armed hurler has come to town.
SAGE: Baseball is big here.
DIXON: In one big baseball game last Saturday has a lot of people noticing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then the calls just kept coming in. "The New York Times," "The New York Post." We did photo shoots, we did interviews down here.
DIXON: Wanting to talk about Denise Bichot's (ph)child.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello.
DIXON: She's also busy feeling calls nonstop about her Little Leaguer, 11-year-old Katie. That's right, Katie Brownell, pitching a perfect game last weekend.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kate was out there pitching.
JON CASSIANO, TEAMMMATE: I was going to go in fifth inning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I said don't you dare pull her out, because that was going to be his son that went in. She's having a perfect game. Leave her in there, let's see if she can do it.
CASSIANO: So then I was -- I just stayed on short stop and she just kept pitching the rest of the game.
DIXON: And boy, did Katie Brownell pitch. One after another, not a hit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I went over to her and I said, you know, you're pitching a perfect game. I said, this is awesome. She's going, yes. You know, like no big deal.
DIXON: That's just how Katie is, lets her play speak for itself and lets her play do most of the talking for the media, taking pictures and the networks and talk shows calling and calling.
KATIE BROWNELL, STAR PITCHER: Like I'm a star or something.
DIXON: A baseball star, no doubt. In an all boy's league, the boys are noticing that girl on the mound.
CASSIANO: They always think that they're going off her, just because she's a girl.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see it in their eyes sometimes, that they don't want to strike out against a girl.
BROWNELL: When someone tells me that, then I try harder.
DIXON: So maybe other teams ought to keep quiet, although it's hard to quell the noise being made here in Oakfield about a young girl who's perfect.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Hey, you better keep quiet. She'll strike you out. And Katie Brownell is not only a perfect pitcher, she's a slugger hitting .714 through her team's first three games. That's not too bad, Miles.
O'BRIEN: She's is a taller 11-year-old. That might give her a little advantage. I'm not trying to minimize her accomplishment. Anyway but -- anyway. Congratulations Katie, great job. She would strike me out, too.
NGUYEN: Yes, she would.
O'BRIEN: The movie that took a big bite out of Hollywood celebrates 30 years. Hard to believe it's been 30 years that the cello music -- do we have the cello music cued up? No. We don't have it.
Darth Vader, Yoda and the rest of the gang could make box office history, sure. But CNN entertainment correspondent Sibila Vargas has the scoop from L.A. She's got the cello music, right?
SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Which one, dah dah dah.
O'BRIEN: Yeah, that's it. Good. I knew you could do it.
VARGAS: Yeah. All right, Miles. The force was definitely with George Lucas last night as the grand finale to the Star Wars saga opened in sold out theaters. Legions of fans blocked to the screenings in some 2900 theaters bringing an estimated 16.5 million bucks. The unprecedented tally puts "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" on par to be one of the biggest summer blockbusters of all time.
And speaking of summer blockbuster hits, remember duh da, duh da. It was the film that made us afraid to go into the water. The director was Steven Spielberg. The villain, one ferocious beast.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VARGAS (voice-over): The music...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Duh da, duh da.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Duh da, duh da, duhdaduhda.
VARGAS: And the mayhem.
For 30 years now, people have been jolted by "Jaws."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That scared the bejeezus out of me.
VARGAS: Hard to believe then that before the movie opened in 1975 Universal Studios was worried.
TOM SHONE, AUTHOR: The producers were convinced they had made the biggest turkey, because the shoot of the movie had been so troubled. And it had gone so over budget.
VARGAS: Over budget mainly because the mechanical shark playing the lead role kept breaking down.
CARL GOTTLIEB, CO-WRITER/COSTAR, "JAWS": The world was collapsing around us, and the shark wasn't working and the actors were fractious, and the crew was muttering.
VARGAS: Carl Gottlieb, author of the "Jaws" log (ph) co-wrote and co-starred in the film. He still marvels at how a young director named Steven Spielberg kept his cool.
GOTTLIEB: He held it all together. He improvised in ways that nobody was aware.
VARGAS: Spielberg made a virtue of the shark's failure to perform.
STEVEN SPIELBERG, DIRECTOR: I resorted to Hitchcockian rule, which is basically shooting the water and suggesting the shark without showing it. Having the peer go out and turn around by itself and come back again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take my word for it. Don't look back. Swim, swim.
VARGAS: That increased the suspense, which became evident during early test screenings.
GOTTLIEB: The people screamed, and then they screamed again, and then they jumped in their seats.
VARGAS: Then the film opened to the public and a movie industry legend was born.
SHONE: Jaws mania kind of swept the country in a grassroots kind of way.
GOTLIEB: There was a shark on the cover of "Time" magazine. And it just grew in the public consciousness.
SHONE: It really became like this kind of cultural event.
GOTTLIEB: It played and played and played, and people just kept coming.
SHONE: The amount of money that "Jaws" made, you know, just completely changed the course of Hollywood, you know, moviemaking. Immediately, the first response, can we do it again? And how many times can we do it? And what about next summer? So it was the beginning of kind of Hollywood's sort of endless summer.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VARGAS: "Jaws" went on to earn an astonishing $470 million worldwide in 1975. And that's not even adjusted for inflation. Those earnings will only increase when a 30th edition comes out on DVD in June. Scared me -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Well, you know, it just goes to prove, Sibila, it doesn't have to be all this 3-D animation to scary. You know, just that peer going through the water is a scary scene.
VARGAS: Absolutely. And to think he had to go through all that to get to that point and it was the scariest movie. At least for me. It scared me. It's still with me.
O'BRIEN: Still up there. All right. You're looking good out there with the shoulder thing.
NGUYEN: I knew you would comment on that.
O'BRIEN: I love... NGUYEN: He's digging that, Sibila.
VARGAS: Thank you very much.
(LAUGHTER)
VARGAS: OK.
O'BRIEN: Are you going to wear that this weekend?
VARGAS: I don't know.
NGUYEN: For hot ticket. It's a "Hot Ticket to Fun." The entertainment special. You have to watch that. That's our "Hot Ticket to Fun." It's at 6:00 p.m. Eastern, Saturday and at 4:00 p.m. Eastern on Sunday. Don't miss it. All you want to know about up summer entertainment this summer. It'll be there.
O'BRIEN: All right. Our own hot ticket, thank you very much, Sibila Vargas.
NGUYEN: Is that your wife calling? I think you're in trouble, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Probably.
NGUYEN: OK. We are getting close to the top of the hour. The day's big stories are next, including the new pictures of Saddam Hussein. Will they touch off more anti-American sentiment? CNN talks with Saddam Hussein's attorney.
O'BRIEN: Taking all precautions, NASA runs yet another test on the space shuttle as it gets ready for a launch. They hope in July. We'll have details.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Now in the news, the Pentagon is promising an aggressive investigation into Saddam Hussein photogate, as it's being called. A British tabloid has published photos of the detained former leader in his underwear. We will have those photos and the fall out coming up.
On a goodwill mission, first lady Laura Bush has arrived in Amman, Jordan. The first leg of her five day tour of the Middle East. Tomorrow, she plans to speak at the World Economic Forum, pressing for more women's rights in the region.
And South Korean researchers have crossed a new medical frontier, announcing that they have sped up the human cloning process and produced the first embryonic system cells -- embryonic stem cells, that is, that are a genetic match. Now, at the same time, a bill in congress would expand public funding for such research, although the bill faces White House opposition.
Deception by the defense? The judge in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial says that he may sanction the pop star, the lead attorney for that. Now this after Jackson's former lawyer Mark Geragos announced he could only testify about matters up to Jackson's arrest back in November 2003. The judge says Jackson's current lawyer misrepresented the terms under which Jackson waived attorney privilege.
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