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Remembering the Atlanta Courthouse Shootings, One Year Later; Club Provides Support for Kids Who Lose Parents; Mistrial in John Gotti Jr. Trial
Aired March 10, 2006 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kyra Phillips, live at the Fulton County Courthouse, where one year ago this city was terrorized for 26 hours. It was the biggest manhunt in Georgia history. A rape suspect named Brian Nichols was on the loose after a brutal shooting spree in this courthouse.
Thanks once again for joining us, everyone. We're right here in front of the new courthouse. As you know, the tale unfolded within the new and the old courthouse.
Brian Nichols was actually in his holding cell here in this courthouse when he broke out, over-powered that deputy, Cynthia Hall, and made his way to the old courthouse.
They had a memorial service, actually, today just across the street from the old courthouse. You can see all the flags here at half staff. The memorial service honored three individuals that died in this courthouse. Judge Rowland Barnes; as you remember, it was in his courtroom where the shooting spree began. Brian Nichols opening fire, also, on the court reporter, Julie Brandau.
And then the third person to be remembered today in this memorial service, Sergeant Hoyt Keith Teasley, the only sheriff's deputy that chased Brian Nichols down the stairwell of this building out into the street to only be shot by Brian Nichols. One bullet to the abdomen.
We later learned that he didn't have his bullet proof vest on. And that's because he had just gotten to work. He was listening to his radio, and Brian Nichols took a lucky shot and got him right into the abdomen. We've later learned now that policy has changed. All deputies coming to this courthouse has to have a bulletproof vest on before they come to work.
The other person that we've been talking a lot about is Ashley Smith. You remember, she was the woman holed up for seven hours in her apartment with Brian Nichols before she talked him into turning him in -- talking him into turning himself in to police that day.
We went back, we talked to her. We retraced the steps of that apartment, that apartment where she was one year ago. She's now moved out -- now moved out of that apartment, but she took us back for this exclusive look just a week ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIPS (voice-over): It is now after midnight. Ashley Smith is in her new apartment, unpacking boxes. Feeling tired and stressed from a long day of work and moving, it's time to run out for cigarettes.
ASHLEY SMITH, TAKEN HOSTAGE BY BRIAN NICHOLS: And when I opened up the door I heard a truck pulling up. And I didn't think much about it. You know, he was backing into a parking space. I thought, whatever. So I just went and got in my car and went to the store and got cigarettes.
PHILLIPS: When she returns, Ashley notices the same man in the same blue truck. But now in a different parking space.
SMITH: So at first I thought, this is kind of weird. But then I also hoped that maybe he had just beeped the horn and was waiting for somebody else to, you know, come out and get in the truck with him and leave. Why else would he be waiting there?
As I got out of the car, I heard his door close behind me. And, of course, my heart dropped even more then because I kind of felt him walking up behind me then.
PHILLIPS: For the first time Ashley Smith returns to her apartment since moving out one year ago.
(on camera) Is it strange being back?
SMITH: Yes, it's very strange being here.
PHILLIPS: What were you thinking when you pulled up?
SMITH: How nervous I was going to be going in here and just how kind of weird it feels.
PHILLIPS: How do you feel right now?
SMITH: OK. I'm a little short of breath.
PHILLIPS: So take me through that day.
SMITH: When I turned around and saw him right there, the door was already open, and he just followed me in and shut and locked the door.
PHILLIPS: He had the gun right on your head?
SMITH: Yes, yes, right at my face.
PHILLIPS: So what happened at that point?
SMITH: Well, he came in and closed the door and locked the door. I can just remember right here just saying, "Please don't hurt me. I have a little girl who doesn't have a dad."
PHILLIPS (voice-over): It's been two weeks since Ashley last saw her daughter, but she planned to see her later that morning.
SMITH: He had the gun pointed right at me, and I began to scream immediately with a fun pointed at my face.
PHILLIPS: Fearing someone may have heard her scream, Nichols forces Ashley into the bathroom.
SMITH: I'm sitting here remembering what rug I had on the floor, what shower curtain was up or whatever. It's just weird.
PHILLIPS (on camera): Are you seeing Brian? Can you remember his face?
SMITH: I can see him a little bit standing. Yes, I mean, of course, I can. And I can see the gun sitting on the counter and it's very strange.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Brian Nichols asks Ashley if she's been watching the news that day.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A massive manhunt is under way...
SMITH: He said, "You know the whole Brian Nichols thing?"
O'BRIEN: ... for that suspect linked to that multiple shooting.
SMITH: And right here he ripped his hat off right there in the doorway and said, "Now do you know who I am?"
And I just -- just went back against the mirror and said, "Oh, my gosh, please don't hurt me."
I know that I started to cry when he told me who he was. And I just knew that I was going the die. And then he told me to get in the bath tub. And so I walked over and got in the bath tub.
PHILLIPS: Nichols ties Ashley up and tells her he wants to take a shower.
SMITH: He took a regular towel and a washrag and a hand towel out. The hand towel he placed over my head and he said, "I'm going to put this over your head so you don't have to watch me take a shower."
And I thought, what? You know, that's kind of weird. Why would you care about the way I feel?
PHILLIPS: Sitting with her face covered, Ashley begins opening up to Nichols about her life.
SMITH: And as Brian was taking a shower I was sitting like right here on this stool. And I began to talk to him and ask him if he had any family or if he had any children. And he said that he had just had a son born. And I asked him if -- didn't he want to be a father to that son.
He said, "Yes, there's no way I can be a father. I've ruined my life now."
And that's when I began to talk about Paige. There was a picture of me and Paige from my cousin's wedding sitting here on the counter right here in the bathroom. So I told Brian that I was supposed to see Paige the next day and was I going to be able to?
And he said, "I don't think so."
PHILLIPS: Thinking she may never see her daughter again, she tries to reason with Nichols.
SMITH: I said, "You don't understand. I haven't seen her in two weeks. Her daddy's dead. Imagine what she's going to feel like when I don't show up. She's going to think that I didn't want to see her."
PHILLIPS: After taking a shower, Brian Nichols asks for something to help him relax.
SMITH: He asked me if I had any marijuana, and I was like, "What? No." But immediately I said, "I have some ice." And thought, oh, my gosh, what did I just do? I can't do that. But it was so late. I had already offered it to him.
PHILLIPS (on camera): Why did you have it?
SMITH: Because I was addicted at the time to it.
PHILLIPS: Did you feel a need to do it with him?
SMITH: No way. I knew that that was my last chance. I had been more of a prisoner to that drug for the past few years than I was to Brian Nichols that night in this apartment, really. It took control of my life. It even made me give custody away of my daughter, the person that I love the most in the world.
PHILLIPS: Nichols unties her and tells her to go get the drugs.
SMITH: He said, "I don't know how to do it. Could you set it up for me?" So I came back in the bathroom and laid it out on the counter and set it up for him.
PHILLIPS: Did you actually chop it up?
SMITH: Uh-huh.
PHILLIPS: He just went right for it?
SMITH: Uh-huh.
PHILLIPS: Did you watch him? Did you say anything to him?
SMITH: No, I walked out of the room. I didn't want to watch him. I asked him to not do it. I said, "You shouldn't do that. It will ruin your life."
PHILLIPS (voice-over): For the first time in her life, Ashley Smith says she has the strength to refuse crystal meth.
SMITH: I just felt the presence, like the presence of God come into the house and like everything was going to be OK. And that's when I went and grabbed my "Purpose Driven Life" and asked him if I could read. I went and grabbed it and went and sat on the bed.
PHILLIPS: "Purpose Driven Life" is Rick Warren's best-selling devotional book. Ashley reads a paragraph out loud.
SMITH: "What you are is God's gift to you. What you do with yourself is your gift to God. God deserves your best. He shapes you for a purpose and he expects you to make the most of what you have been given. He doesn't want you to worry about or covet abilities you don't have."
PHILLIPS: Nichols asks her to read it again. It seems to register. And he begins to open up.
SMITH: He said he felt like there was a demon inside him and that there was a spiritual warfare going on inside of him. And I asked him if he was a Christian and he said yes, he was a born again Christian. And I expressed to him that I was, too.
PHILLIPS: At this point Ashley feels she is gaining Nichols' trust.
SMITH: He said, "Maybe God led me here to you. Maybe you're my guardian angel."
PHILLIPS: Ashley feels she is gaining control and tells him...
SMITH: You've got to turn yourself in.
PHILLIPS: And what did he say?
SMITH: He just sat there. I mean, I think he knew that he had to turn himself in. He couldn't -- he couldn't go on forever.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And Carol, Ashley Smith is now back in her hometown of Augusta, Georgia. She just bought a house. She's remodeling it. She' actually painting it herself and working on it. It's not far from her Aunt Kim and other family members.
Aunt Kim has been caring for her daughter Paige since she gave her up, so to speak. She actually did. She said, "I can't care for this little girl anymore" and gave custody to her aunt. But now she's hoping, as she gets her life on track that she'll be able to get her daughter back, to live together in this home and that she'll be able to start all over again.
Her job right now is traveling around, speaking out against drugs, telling her story, talking about the "Purpose Driven Life" and what she says was an act of God that interfered in her life and took charge that day. In addition, she says she wants to go to college next fall. That she is thinking about psychology.
CAROL LIN, HOST: Wow. All right. And what an experience to draw from.
Kyra, we're going to get more of chance to talk to you about your interview with Ashley Smith, coming up at the half hour. So I want to invite everybody to tune in and stay with us for the next 20 minutes, at least.
And also to remind you that Kyra's special, it's a two-hour special edition of "CNN PRESENTS: 26 HOURS OF TERROR." So you can see how the dramatic events unfolded that day and see Kyra's exclusive interviews and what suspect Brian Nichols faces this coming October. That's Saturday and Sunday night at 7 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.
This just in to the CNN center. According to the Associated Press, there is a mistrial declared in the John Gotti Jr. case.
Now, this -- the jury went to deliberations just this past Wednesday on -- he is accused of extortion and loan sharking and ordering a vicious attack on a radio host, Curtis Sliwa, in retaliation.
It was emotional testimony in the Gotti case, just as John Gotti Jr.'s attorney had absolutely declared to the jurors that he had left the Gambino crime family behind, that he had had a fresh start. He was no longer a part of the mob. He had officially left it and that he had declared that to his father. As you might recall him, the Dapper Don, John Gotti Sr. That he had told his father on his father's death bed that he was not going to have any part of the family business.
So a mistrial here. Our -- CNN's Adaora Udoji is working this sorry. She's confirming all the details of what happened, and she's going to bring it to you live.
The news keeps coming. We're going to bring it to you as soon as we get it. More LIVE FROM next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: Champion cyclist Lance Armstrong visited the son of Dana Reeve on Wednesday to comfort him. Thirteen-year-old Will Reeve lost his mom to lung cancer earlier this week. And Lance Armstrong says Will is in good spirits, considering all that's happened. Now Armstrong said he and Will became close during his mother's illness.
Will's father, actor Christopher Reeve, died in 2004.
Losing two parents in less than two years, for most people, it is hard to comprehend what Will Reeve might be going through right now. And it's painful to imagine any child going through life without Mom or Dad. Now, there will be awkward moments no one else feels and grief no one else understands and tears no one else sees. Two people who know how that feels join me now: 13-year-old Adam Stein, who lost his father nearly three years ago, and Kate Atwood, who lost her mother when she was 12. She is the founder of Kate's Club, a place for kids facing the death of a parent or a sibling.
I want to tell the audience that this is not a downer segment. It's not. Because my little girl is -- is growing up without her dad. And I just want to share with the audience that your experience is different than most people think, you know. There is a real uplifting side to it because of your strength and the specialness that you find within yourself.
Kate, you were so young when your mother passed away and you dealt with her cancer for five years, six years?
KATE ATWOOD, FOUNDER OF KATE'S CLUB: She was diagnosed when I was 6 years old. So I lived most of my childhood with her being treated for cancer. But that -- those were years of inner strength that were developed in me that I think are long lasting even today.
LIN: Yes. Because, Adam, kids deal with grief differently, right? They deal with the death differently than adults to do. How so?
ADAM STEIN, KATE'S CLUB MEMBER: Kids, it is slower. They really -- you're younger so you don't have that much experience in having this happen. And it feels like -- it's so much harder than I would think for an adult, because you don't know really how to feel.
LIN: Right. And when your friends come up to you, people don't know what to say and they think maybe don't even say anything. Let's not bring it up, which I think is a big mistake.
STEIN: Well, it's that you -- nobody really knows how you feel. Even if your parent has -- if their parent -- if they felt this, they really wouldn't know what you feel. Every experience is different.
LIN: Showing some of your family pictures here. And it's so wonderful to see you guys together. And your dad just looks like such a loving father, wonderful memories.
Kate, why do you think it's so important, then, to get the kids who have lost a parent together? What happens there that doesn't happen anywhere else?
ATWOOD: I think the great thing about an organization like Kate's Club is these kids share a bonded experience. But the focus is on the future and all the opportunity and the excitement that life still has to offer.
For me, personally, losing my mother at 12 years old, I was very active. I was, you know, sports. I was able to channel a lot of my grief immediately after the death through sports and activity. But it was later in life that I realized that that support and that understanding from a relationship that had shared that experience was missing. LIN: Right.
ATWOOD: And that was really the puzzle of pieces coming together. And it's so powerful for these kids to be able to not just help themselves but help each other. They help each other heal.
Adam has been with our program for two years. And he's at a different place in his grief journey than some kids, like Will Reeve, who may have just recently lost somebody. And Adam's power is, he's helping them see, again, that the hope and the opportunity that lies ahead.
LIN: Adam, what would you tell Will Reeve?
STEIN: Well, that you -- all the feelings that you feel are not usually -- you should be sad. You should let it out. And if you feel that you need to keep it in, you should keep it in. All these feelings are natural.
And it just -- it's -- you really don't get what's happening to you until after you're really going to be in a state of, what am I supposed to do?
LIN: Right. And how do you think -- what did you need right after your dad passed away, from your friends and even family who just didn't know what to say?
STEIN: I must say that I was more of the one saying than -- I mean, because there were so many people in our family, so many people grieving. And I was more of the help than most of the people.
LIN: Wow, that's a lot of responsibility for a young man.
STEIN: Of course, people came up to me with, I mean, just trying to help out.
LIN: Right. And it's good that people ask about your dad. Like, you know, I meet you, God, what was your dad like? What were some of the favorite things you guys used to do? Because I think, you know, that, for me, is a confirmation of that life, you know. Ask, ask the question. You know, don't be afraid to talk about it. Or say what happened?
Do you agree with that, Kate? I just think people are so awkward about death.
ATWOOD: I really do. And I think that, you know, Adam makes a good point in that he suddenly became this adult. He was surrounded by attention to this event and, you know, he suddenly became a caretaker in his household.
And I think what is so important for Adam and Will and other kids out there that are -- that are going through this process is to realize that they're -- they're still a kid and this is a puncture to their innocence. And that's hard. But they're still...
LIN: But some people try to then protect the child by not talking about the event.
ATWOOD: Exactly. Exactly.
LIN: And I think that's wrong, too.
ATWOOD: And one of the best pieces of advice that Adam gave to me two years ago was that you have to continue living, you know, and to talk about it is to live. And to laugh about it is to live. And you -- he still holds so much of his father in him, and he still holds so much of his learnings with him. And to honor him by, you know, pointing out to Adam what, you know, what traditions his father did or stories about his father. I think that even I, as a young adult, still grasp those memories of my mother.
LIN: Yes. Absolutely. Don't be afraid and don't be afraid to move forward. And you know what? I don't think we get over things. I think we get through things.
ATWOOD: Right. Right.
LIN: All right. So people want more information about Kate's Club?
ATWOOD: Kate's Club, our web site is KatesClub.org. And we are -- we have a facility here in Atlanta, but we are, of course, available for resources and calls to help kids and teens around the country that are dealing with -- are facing life with the death of a parent or sibling. So we do. We really focus on all that opportunity and the hope that still lies ahead in our lives. So...
LIN: Adam, thank you very much.
STEIN: Thank you.
LIN: Thank you. Kate, terrific work. Thank you so much for sharing your story, too.
ATWOOD: Thanks for having us.
LIN: A pleasure.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: All right. Working on a developing story: a mistrial in the John Gotti Jr. trial.
Let's go to Adaora Udoji to get the very latest on this.
Adaora, the jury started deliberating just a couple of days ago. What happened?
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Carol. It was day three of deliberations in the criminal -- the federal criminal trial against John Gotti Jr. He was facing racketeering charges that included two attacks against Curtis Sliwa. Now Sliwa is the founder of the Guardian Angels.
The jury who was considering the evidence that the government had put forward against John Gotti Jr., day three goes to the judge at noon today, says, "We are completely deadlocked on those charges. We cannot come to an agreement. We don't believe that if we spend any more time discussing this matter that we will be able to find John Gotti Jr. either guilty or not guilty on those racketeering charges brought by the U.S. attorney's office."
The government then said, 'Fine, we will agree to a mistrial," and the judge agreed. So a mistrial has been called in the John Gotti Jr. case.
He is, of course, the son of the famed Mafia boss John Gotti. And the charges, part of those racketeering charges actually stem from the fact that the government's accusing John Gotti Jr. of attacking Sliwa because he wanted him to stop verbally attacking his father, John Gotti.
So today the judge in that trial -- again, John Gotti Jr. has called a mistrial. And in the same breath that the U.S. attorney's office agreed with that mistrial they also say that they are ready to move forward with a retrial, Carol, offering two potential days in April, just a couple of weeks ago -- away, to start another criminal trial against John Gotti Jr. -- Carol.
LIN: Adaora, what do you think hung up the jury? I mean, the defense attorney made a case that John Gotti Jr. is not part of the Gambino crime family. He repudiated his family's past. He is no long area part of the mob. He couldn't have orchestrated the attack against Curtis Sliwa or done these other things. Do you think that's what the jury might have been focusing on?
UDOJI: Well, that's an interesting point, because apparently that was one of the issues that the jury spoke to in that note to the judge, saying that they could not come to an agreement on the withdrawal, something called a withdrawal charge. And that was the question as to whether or not John Gotti Jr. had indeed removed himself that the Gambino crime family.
So Carol, unclear on -- juries work in mysterious ways. But what we do know at this point is that the judge has called a mistrial in that criminal case.
LIN: Adaora, thank you very much for that.
Well, there is a full full-fledged rally under way on Wall Street. Susan Lisovicz joins us live from the New York Stock Exchange with a look at what's leading the charge -- Susan.
(MARKET REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LIN: Coming up, a CNN exclusive. Kyra Phillips has been working on a documentary called "26 Hours of Terror," which talks about the behind-the-scenes of the courthouse shooting in Atlanta last year, and she got remarkable access to the players in this dramatic story. She's outside the courthouse building right now -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Carol, he's remembered as one of the bravest individuals in this rampage, this shooting rampage that took place a year ago. Sergeant Hoyt Teasley chased Brian Nichols from this stairwell right out into this street right over here.
And that's when Brian Nichols turned around, fired a shot. Teasley was standing right here, didn't even have a chance to reach for his gun. Started working his ways down these steps to take cover. That bullet hit him in the abdomen. He dropped instantly. Fellow deputies tried to come and save his life.
To this day, his wife is still struggling immensely. We have the exclusive interview. Here's a little bit of that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEBORAH BARNES, WIDOW OF SGT. HOYT TEASLEY: People kept telling me in the beginning, oh, it will get better with time. No, I think it's getting worse than better for me because I guess everything is like settling down and, you know, you got more time to think. Now I'm more emotional than I ever been.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Coming up at the top of the hour, you're going to hear more of that interview. I'm actually going to take you to the Teasley home, Carol. It's first time she's let a journalist inside, and she's going to share with us some pretty special memories about her husband, a very brave man who fought in the military and, also, as a sheriff's deputy here in Atlanta, Georgia.
You're also going to meet their two daughters, I might add, both on the honor roll and remaining very strong right now. But I have to tell you, all three of them miss their father and husband extremely -- it just -- tremendously. And they were at the memorial service today. I had a chance to talk a little bit with Deborah, but definitely has not been easy for her. You'll get more of an inside look coming up at top of the hour.
LIN: All right, Kyra, I'm just wondering, did they -- did the Teasley family work to make changes at the courthouse to make it safer?
PHILLIPS: That's a great question. The Teasley family -- of course, Claudia Barnes, she lost her husband, Judge Rowland Barnes. Cynthia Hall, the deputy overpowered by Brian Nichols, including a number of other people that have been involved in what happened here.
Yes, there are lawsuits going on but there have also been a number of reports that have been issued, not only by the sheriff's department, but also judges here at this courthouse making efforts to make changes. And that has already been put in place.
All deputies now have to wear bullet-proof vests before they even arrive here at work, because Teasley didn't even have time to put his on. And there is a consensus that if he had it on, that it could have probably saved his life.
Also, if you'll remember, Brian Nichols was in a holding cell with the deputy, with Deputy Hall. And so he was able to -- she took the cuffs off and that's why he was able to do what he did. Now, suspects have to put their hands through a window and that is where someone else in another room takes those handcuffs off, they put their street clothes on for court, they put their hands back through that window, handcuffs are put back on. So what we saw happen a year ago will never happen again.
There's also more cameras and there are more deputies on patrol here at this courthouse. And we'll address more of courthouse security in the next hour as well.
LIN: Thanks so much, Kyra. Great stuff. We're going to hear from Kyra in just a little bit as she goes live from the courthouse before the opening of her documentary this weekend, "26 Hours of Terror."
Meantime, we want update you on some international news. Just like the killings of Iraqi civilians, kidnappings are also a daily threat. But not all victims are Iraqis, and not all kidnappers are insurgents.
CNN's Arwa Damon reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ali Rahed Ujai (ph) is one of the lucky ones. He was kidnapped for ransom in Baquba, freed by the Iraqi army, now back with his family. The kidnappers originally demanded $150,000. His family refused to pay. They called again, asking for $50,000, his father Daea Darday (ph) says. I said, I will build his funeral tent before I will give you even $100. I said, let him die, let him be a martyr.
Kidnapping is big business all across Iraq. In the Abu Ghraib district west of the capital, the U.S. 10th Mountain Division has been busting kidnapping gangs since last year.
LT. COL. KEVIN BROWN, U.S. ARMY: Because of the criminal element. You know, you ransom someone, you make money and you can therefore find your counter -- or your insurgent efforts.
DAMON: This marketplace was prime pickings for kidnappers until Iraqi security forces set up permanent checkpoints in the area at the beginning of the year. Military officials say things are safer now, but the Abu Ghraib neighborhood used to be sanctuary for the kidnapping gangs. Multiple joint military operations reduce their ability to function there. BROWN: The kidnapping cell is elusive because -- because of the nature of that type of activity. I mean, it's criminal, is what it is. And so what we have to do is work through our human intelligence linkages. They stay on the move. I mean, they don't -- kidnapping cells don't establish a location. You have to operate pretty quickly to stay on the heels of it and garner something out of it.
DAMON: When the kidnappers moved to the fields and farmlands north of the city, so did the military's intricate game of cat and mouse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We advise audible small arms fire.
DAMON: The first major sweep of the area in early January saved the life of French engineer Bernard Plaunch (ph).
(on camera): Bernard Plaunch was rescued about a month after he was kidnapped, when U.S. and Iraqi army forces were conducting an operation through here. Plaunch, whose captors had fled, walked out of that little white building over there.
(voice-over): This run-down street in a relatively safe neighborhood became sanctuary for an entire family of 85, victims of multiple kidnappings.
DAMON: shows the house where he used to live, a place he was proud to have built but may never return to. I never cry, he says, just when I had to desert my home. He lost his home but knows that unlike many other Iraqis, he was lucky to have enough money to save his family's lives.
Arwa Damon, CNN, Abu Ghraib, Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: In Pakistan, death on the way to a wedding. At least 28 people, mostly children, were killed today when their bus hit a land mine in the southwestern part of that country. The groom was among the eight people wounded. Officials blame the mines on local tribal militants have who have been fighting for years for greater autonomy and more revenues from local gas fields.
A new conclusion today on who didn't bomb the trains and tracks in Madrid two years ago. Two senior intelligence officials tell the Associated Press that homegrown radicals, not al Qaeda, carried out the attacks on March 11, 2004. One hundred and ninety one people were killed, more than 1,500 hurt.
Muslim militants had claimed they acted on al Qaeda's behalf because of Spanish troops in Iraq. The A.P. sources say Spain remains home to radical Algerian, Moroccan and Syrian groups bent on more attacks. Indictments are expected in the case next month. You've warned your children not to talk to strangers, but nowadays typing to strangers can be just as risky. Blogging, texting and instant messaging are the top ways teens hang out these days. And what you don't know about their online worlds might terrify you. We are going to take you there next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: A 20-year-old man under arrest, charged with having sex with a 13-year-old girl, the same New Jersey teen who disappeared Monday and then sent an ominous text message to her mother claiming she had been kidnapped.
Police in New Jersey and Jersey City have charged Sebastian Osario with criminal sexual contact, saying he's one of three men who recently befriended the girl at the mall. They say he has not been connected to her alleged abduction.
Now, for many teenagers, being on the Internet is pretty much a like breathing. When they're not instant messaging their friends, it's a good bet they're blogging. And when they're blogging, well, there's reason for their parents to be worried.
Here's CNN's David Mattingly.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She was only 15, but for years, Caeli, had been living a double life. To her parents she was the typical smiling teenager, but in the secretive world of blogging, she was known as a partier.
CAELI, TEEN BLOGGER: Everyone who has a blog does sort of live this separate life because by making a blog, you create this whole image of yourself and most of the time, it's not actually, you know, what you come off as or who you seem to be. But online you can be anybody.
MATTINGLY: Online Caeli was blogging about real life experiences of smoking pot, getting drunk and passing out. She found plenty of others who claim to be doing the same, validating her own destructive behavior.
CAELI: It sort of desensitized you to it, especially when you're reading about a million other people doing it. You don't look at it as something that's so uncommon or bad anymore, because you see everybody else doing it.
MATTINGLY: And her parents had no idea. It is a password- protected, no grown-ups allowed party, where 60 percent of online teens say they share personal information they would never share with their parents.
With dozens of blogging sites to pick from, a teen can choose to be faceless, anonymous, and almost untraceable by the people closest to them. (on camera): How easy is to it hide from your parents in here?
CAELI: Really easy.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): The Pew Research Center estimates four million teens have a blog, eight million teens read them, and three million read the blogs of strangers.
Before 18-year-old David Ludwig allegedly murdered the parents of his 14-year-old girlfriend Kara Borden, police in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, believe the two developed a relationship while blogging on a church network.
SUSAN BARTELL, PSYCHOLOGIST: Because it's unsupervised and because there's guidance from adults, the kids don't really necessarily make the right decisions when it comes to the people that they're meeting through their blogs.
MATTINGLY: Studies find most teens become interested in blogs as early as the seventh grade. Caeli was 13 when she started. By 15, she was spending up to four hours day online, blogging, messaging and withdrawing from her family, all the while reading about the darkest exploits of her circle of friends.
Drugs and drinking and just parties and stuff that went on at school, like, you know, people -- girls like having sex and all this stuff, just all like the really bad details of high school life.
MATTINGLY (on camera): About half of parents in a recent national survey say they electronically monitor their children's access to the Web. But if Caeli's mother hadn't decided to investigate last year by clicking on one of her daughter's open journals when she wasn't looking, then Caeli's substance abuse could have remained a secret.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The worst thing was when I found in a journal that she wrote online that she and a bunch of kids had gone to -- one of the kids' had a boat, his family had a boat out on the bay and it was February.
And apparently, she was so drunk she passed out and they tucked her in on a bed on the boat and then they all left her. I just couldn't believe, you know, how terrified I was when I read that. And I thought, my God, she could have died.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): And the confrontation that followed was traumatic. Caeli's parents were devastated by the years of deception. Caeli herself felt betrayed by the intrusion into her private world.
CAELI: She made me go to the therapist in my town and then she printed out my whole journal and highlighted everything and gave it to my therapist, and that's when I got really mad.
MATTINGLY: The family then agreed to some changes. Now 16, Caeli's in a new school and her online activity is closely monitored at home. Pot and alcohol are in the past. But the blogging, she shows us, is as feverish as ever, giving her parents still plenty of reasons to worry.
David Mattingly, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Tonight on "PAULA ZAHN NOW," catching sexual predators who scour the Internet for victims. CNN's Daniel Sieberg traces a police sting operation from chat logs to a stakeout, and the subsequent arrest. That's at 8:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.
Legal action delayed DAMON: shows the house where he used to live, a place he was proud to have built but may never return to. I never cry, he says, just when I had to desert my home. He lost his home but knows that unlike many other Iraqis, he was lucky to have enough money to save his family's lives.
Arwa Damon, CNN, Abu Ghraib, Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: In Pakistan, death on the way to a wedding. At least 28 people, mostly children, were killed today when their bus hit a land mine in the southwestern part of that country. The groom was among the eight people wounded. Officials blame the mines on local tribal militants have who have been fighting for years for greater autonomy and more revenues from local gas fields.
A new conclusion today on who didn't bomb the trains and tracks in Madrid two years ago. Two senior intelligence officials tell the Associated Press that homegrown radicals, not al Qaeda, carried out the attacks on March 11, 2004. One hundred and ninety one people were killed, more than 1,500 hurt.
Muslim militants had claimed they acted on al Qaeda's behalf because of Spanish troops in Iraq. The A.P. sources say Spain remains home to radical Algerian, Moroccan and Syrian groups bent on more attacks. Indictments are expected in the case next month.
You've warned your children not to talk to strangers, but nowadays typing to strangers can be just as risky. Blogging, texting and instant messaging are the top ways teens hang out these days. And what you don't know about their online worlds might terrify you. We are going to take you there next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: A 20-year-old man under arrest, charged with having sex with a 13-year-old girl, the same New Jersey teen who disappeared Monday and then sent an ominous text message to her mother claiming she had been kidnapped.
Police in New Jersey and Jersey City have charged Sebastian Osario with criminal sexual contact, saying he's one of three men who recently befriended the girl at the mall. They say he has not been connected to her alleged abduction. Now, for many teenagers, being on the Internet is pretty much a like breathing. When they're not instant messaging their friends, it's a good bet they're blogging. And when they're blogging, well, there's reason for their parents to be worried.
Here's CNN's David Mattingly.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She was only 15, but for years, Caeli, had been living a double life. To her parents she was the typical smiling teenager, but in the secretive world of blogging, she was known as a partier.
CAELI, TEEN BLOGGER: Everyone who has a blog does sort of live this separate life because by making a blog, you create this whole image of yourself and most of the time, it's not actually, you know, what you come off as or who you seem to be. But online you can be anybody.
MATTINGLY: Online Caeli was blogging about real life experiences of smoking pot, getting drunk and passing out. She found plenty of others who claim to be doing the same, validating her own destructive behavior.
CAELI: It sort of desensitized you to it, especially when you're reading about a million other people doing it. You don't look at it as something that's so uncommon or bad anymore, because you see everybody else doing it.
MATTINGLY: And her parents had no idea. It is a password- protected, no grown-ups allowed party, where 60 percent of online teens say they share personal information they would never share with their parents.
With dozens of blogging sites to pick from, a teen can choose to be faceless, anonymous, and almost untraceable by the people closest to them.
(on camera): How easy is to it hide from your parents in here?
CAELI: Really easy.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): The Pew Research Center estimates four million teens have a blog, eight million teens read them, and three million read the blogs of strangers.
Before 18-year-old David Ludwig allegedly murdered the parents of his 14-year-old girlfriend Kara Borden, police in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, believe the two developed a relationship while blogging on a church network.
SUSAN BARTELL, PSYCHOLOGIST: Because it's unsupervised and because there's guidance from adults, the kids don't really necessarily make the right decisions when it comes to the people that they're meeting through their blogs. MATTINGLY: Studies find most teens become interested in blogs as early as the seventh grade. Caeli was 13 when she started. By 15, she was spending up to four hours day online, blogging, messaging and withdrawing from her family, all the while reading about the darkest exploits of her circle of friends.
Drugs and drinking and just parties and stuff that went on at school, like, you know, people -- girls like having sex and all this stuff, just all like the really bad details of high school life.
MATTINGLY (on camera): About half of parents in a recent national survey say they electronically monitor their children's access to the Web. But if Caeli's mother hadn't decided to investigate last year by clicking on one of her daughter's open journals when she wasn't looking, then Caeli's substance abuse could have remained a secret.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The worst thing was when I found in a journal that she wrote online that she and a bunch of kids had gone to -- one of the kids' had a boat, his family had a boat out on the bay and it was February.
And apparently, she was so drunk she passed out and they tucked her in on a bed on the boat and then they all left her. I just couldn't believe, you know, how terrified I was when I read that. And I thought, my God, she could have died.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): And the confrontation that followed was traumatic. Caeli's parents were devastated by the years of deception. Caeli herself felt betrayed by the intrusion into her private world.
CAELI: She made me go to the therapist in my town and then she printed out my whole journal and highlighted everything and gave it to my therapist, and that's when I got really mad.
MATTINGLY: The family then agreed to some changes. Now 16, Caeli's in a new school and her online activity is closely monitored at home. Pot and alcohol are in the past. But the blogging, she shows us, is as feverish as ever, giving her parents still plenty of reasons to worry.
David Mattingly, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Tonight on "PAULA ZAHN NOW," catching sexual predators who scour the Internet for victims. CNN's Daniel Sieberg traces a police sting operation from chat logs to a stakeout, and the subsequent arrest. That's at 8:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.
Legal action delayed. A federal judge will wait until next week to decide on bond for three college students accused of burning churches in rural Alabama. And that means at least five more days of jail for the suspects, two of them teenagers.
Court papers indicate the fire started as a joke. Well, the charges are nothing to laugh about, federal conspiracy and arson. The students are believed connected to fires that damaged or destroyed nine churches earlier last month.
Now, a little boy with a lightning bolt on his head helped put a British writer into a very exclusive club. J.K. Rowling is number 746 out of 793. When LIVE FROM continues, we're going to go to the top of the latest list of the world's richest people.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: Michael Jackson built his Neverland Ranch as a place to relive his childhood. Well, apparently it's time to grow up, or at least pay up. The state of California has shut Neverland down, saying Jackson hasn't paid his workers or his workers' comp. insurance in months.
He faces $169,000 in fines, and employees have been told not to return until the insurance issue is fixed. Jackson left the country after he was acquitted on child molestation charges last year. He's been living in the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain.
Well, the bombshell book claiming to expose steroid use by slugger Barry Bonds hasn't even hit book stores yet, but "Game of Shadows" is already on the top 10 sales lists of both Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.
Now, the latest allegations against the San Francisco outfielder have former commissioner Fay Vincent calling for action. Vincent, the man who permanently banned Pete Rose from baseball for gambling, wants current commissioner Bud Selig to hire an outside investigator to research the allegations. Selig says he'll wait for the book due out in March, actually March 23rd, before deciding what to do.
Well, talk about a grand slam. J.J. McCormick has been buying old baseball cards since he was little. But it was never like this. When the Florida teen opened a pack of cards he bought at a collector's store, it included a rare Babe Ruth card complete with a small piece of fabric from the legendary slugger's uniform.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.J. MCCORMICK, CARD TRADER: I looked at one another and we were like, it says Ruth. I knew it was special. I knew it was an expensive card. Someone would love to have it. I mean, I loved having it. But I had no idea it would go for the amount that it did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: What did it go for? The teenager ended up selling the card on eBay for $10,000. He plans to use the money for college.
Well, there is a record number of billionaires in the world, 793 to be exact. With $50 billion in the bank, or somewhere around there, Microsoft's Bill Gates tops the Forbes list for the 12th year in a row, proving that talk is profitable. Also, Oprah Winfrey is number 562 with $1.4 billion. And here's the top 10. Gates at number one of course. Investor Warren Buffett is second. The next three spots are international, a Telecom magnet from Mexico, the founder of Ikea and a steel mogul from India. Microsoft's Paul Allen is number six followed by Bernard Arnault of Louis Vuitton. Saudi Prince Alwaleed and Canadian publisher Kenneth Thomson and Hong Kong's Li Ka-Shing.
More from LIVE FROM straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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