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More Details in Duke Rape Investigation; Heckler Interrupts Ceremonies for Chinese President; Feds Crack Down on Employers Hiring Illegals

Aired April 20, 2006 - 13:00   ET

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

CAROL LIN, HOST: Hello, I'm Carol Lin at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. Kyra Phillips is on assignment. LIVE FROM starts right now.
New developments in the Duke rape investigation. Details are just coming in about a search warrant used to search the dorm rooms of the two student athletes charged with first degree sex crimes.

Straight to Alina Cho in Durham, North Carolina. Alina, what did you learn about the search warrant?

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, just to remind our viewers, we are getting more details into the search of the dorm rooms that happened two nights ago. We're talking about the dorm rooms of the suspects Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann. This search warrant deals with Room 203, which was the room of Collin Finnerty.

Here's what we can tell you. It does list a description of the items that police were looking for. Included on this, and I'm going to read some of this now, any clothing related to the suspect and the victim from the night of the attack, any documentation identifying the suspect, documenting -- documentation, rather, showing residency, property belonging to the accuser, included but not limited to the white shoe that she says that she was missing on the night of the attack. Any still photographs, video footage or digital recordings of the party and any computers that might be related to the case.

Now looking at this search warrant, Carol, I can tell you that it has an "x" next to a box that says that there were items seized. But there is not a description of those items that police seized.

Just a moment ago we spoke to the district attorney, Michael Nifong, and he said even he didn't know why those lists of items that police seized was not included in this search warrant.

Now remember, this morning we've been reporting that defense attorneys have constructed a time line, and they believe that this time line means if you follow it that these two suspects were not at the party at the time of the alleged rape.

One key potential witness is a cab driver who says that he remembers driving Reade Seligmann on the night of the attack. We have just learned from the cab driver, as well, that when he dropped off Reade Seligmann, he went back to the cab company, received another call for another pickup at the same address, 610 Buchanan, where that lacrosse party was being held.

He said when he got to the party, he saw 20 people outside in the yard, including, he believes, one of the two exotic dancers who performed that night. He said what he saw was some back and forth arguing and that he overhead lacrosse players making a comment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOEZ MOSTAFA, TAXI DRIVER: She come outside from the driveway from the house, cross my car. And she went to sit in the car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you hear her say anything?

MOSTAFA: No, I didn't. I hear her talking to both the guys but I didn't hear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was some talking back and forth?

MOSTAFA: Back and forth, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Friendly conversation?

MOSTAFA: No, it doesn't look friendly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: Now CNN, I can tell you, has already spoken to the father of Reade Seligmann today. He tells us that his son and the family is understandably distraught by this entire situation.

He also tells us that this whole legal proceeding may bankrupt him. And he also tells us, Carol, that Reade Seligmann right now is reading the book of Job in the Bible, trying to figure out why all of this is happening to him -- Carol.

LIN: Alina, you talked about some of the hard evidence in the case according to the defense attorneys, an ATM receipt, also electronic monitoring of when one of the suspects returned to the dorm and used his key card. I mean, in light of that evidence, is the prosecution still pretty confident they have a strong case?

CHO: Well, listen, that question has been asked a lot, particularly in the past 24 hours or so, Carol. And all I can tell you is that the D.A. has come out with a statement, and that was early yesterday.

And essentially what he said was, "This case is moving forward," and indeed what he is trying to do right now is identify a possible third assailant. He's trying to identify this person with certainly. And he plans on bringing that third assailant to justice.

Now, the next step in this process, Carol, is that the grand jury will be meeting back here in the building behind me on May 1, a little less than two weeks from now. At that point they could hear evidence that could lead to a third arrest.

LIN: Alina, thank you.

Want to move on now to what's happened at the White House today. Pomp and pageantry interrupted by a voice of dissent.

China's president, Hu Jintao, is at the White House for talks with President Bush. Now the two men met with reporters last hour. And shortly after a dramatic reminder of the issues at stake for both countries.

Our White House correspondent Ed Henry was there.

Ed, it just goes to show that you can't plan everything.

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

LIN: The last detail.

HENRY: That's right. Good afternoon, Carol.

In fact, President Bush did welcome President Hu to the White House here to the White House, to the South Lawn, full military honors as well as a 21-gun salute. But all of that pomp and circumstance could not mask all the tension bubbling just beneath the surface.

As you mentioned, one female protester stood up and started up started screaming, basically heckling the Chinese president shortly after he started speaking. She was saying things like, "President Bush, stop him from killing. President Bush, stop him from persecuting the Falun Gong."

She was perched pretty high up with some photo journalists on a camera stand. And so high up it took the Secret Service a bit of time to get to her. She was very close to the two leaders so she was really able to get her point across.

She also kept screaming -- after a little bit of that English, she was screaming in Chinese. Interesting, this came shortly after President Bush had urged his Chinese counterpart to let the Chinese people speak freely. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: China's become successful because the Chinese people are experiencing the freedom to buy and to sell and to produce, and China can grow even more successful by allowing the Chinese people the freedom to assemble, to speak freely and to worship.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now there are still hundreds of protesters outside the White House gates. You can probably hear them just behind me here. Mostly focusing on human rights, but there are a lot of other tensions between these two nations. President Bush brought up some of those tensions in an Oval Office meeting that you mentioned, Carol. Tensions over trade, tensions over the Chinese currency. And President Bush was blunt about saying there really were no concrete break-throughs in that Oval Office meeting.

But both sides also insist that they have some common ground. President Bush trying to enlist the help of his Chinese counterpart to deal with the nuclear standoffs with both Iran and North Korea. President Hu did pledge to work together with the United States to deal with those standoffs, and in general pledged to work towards human rights. But as you can tell by the protesters behind me, it's not enough for them, Carol.

LIN: Loud and clear. Thanks very much, Ed.

Now one more important note on that protester that you saw on the White House lawn. Well, more than a billion people did not hear that exchange. The Chinese government blocked the signal of CNN International in China when CNN aired live pictures of the protester. Official Chinese news agencies are reporting on the welcoming ceremony, but they're not reporting on the heckler or other protests.

Well, the surge in U.S. trade with China happened quickly. Let's check the facts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIN (voice-over): China has 1.3 billion people. That's more than any country in the world.

In the last 25 years, China has reinvented itself. It was once closed to world trade. Now it's an economic juggernaut. China produces 10 times more today than it did in 1978.

By one measure, it is the second largest economy in the world. Only the U.S. is bigger. But China is ahead of such powers as Britain, France and Germany. Relations are tense between the U.S. and China. Americans buy $200 billion more in goods from China than China buys from the U.S.

For example, much of the clothing, computers and other electronics Americans buy are made in China. As a result, China uses vast amounts of oil, and is in direct competition with the U.S. for buying oil on the world market.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Straight to these live pictures. Breaking news in Cleveland, Ohio, as Cleveland firefighters are battling a blaze that started after an explosion in a tank at General Environmental Management.

All right. This is on Transport Road off of Rockefeller in case you're in the local area. But the fear here is that there may be chemicals there. They're trying to control the situation.

Employers beware. If you knowingly put people to work who are in this country illegally, the feds may come knocking. This week alone agents swooped in on about 40 workplaces in 26 states and rounded up more than 1,100 illegal workers. But that record number isn't what really set off this operation -- or set it apart, at least.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: And that means what we're focused on is not just individual cases involving a single violator here or single violator there, but actually looking at those people who adopt, as a business model, a systematic violation of United States law.

We target those organizations. We use intelligence to define the scope of the organization. And then we use all of the tools we have, whether it's criminal enforcement or the immigration laws, to make sure we come down as hard as possible and break the back of those organizations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff spelling out his department's new focus: go after illegal immigrants and the people who employ them. CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve has more on yesterday's raids.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement swooped down on IFCO Systems facilities in Altamont, New York; Phoenix, Arizona; Houston, Texas; Westborough, Massachusetts, nearly 40 locations in all, rounding up more than 1,000 illegal workers.

Seven current and former managers of the company, which makes wooden pallets, crates and containers, were also arrested and charged with transporting and harboring illegal aliens and giving them false documents.

JULIE MYERS, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: Employees at IFCO have been involved in inducing illegal aliens to work there, telling them they should doctor their W-2s, giving them fake Social Security cards and in fact telling them they didn't need to fill out any documentation at all.

MESERVE: ICE alleges a sampling of the IFCO payroll in 2005 showed that more than half of the company's employees were using Social Security numbers that belonged to other people, some of them dead.

MYERS: The Social Security administration had written IFCO over 13 times and told them, "Listen, you have a problem. You have over 1,000 employees that have faulty Social Security numbers, and we consider that to be a big problem." And IFCO did not do anything about it.

MESERVE: In a statement, IFCO said, "It is our policy to comply with all federal and state employment requirements. We are cooperating fully with representatives from ICE and hope to have this matter resolved as soon as possible."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: I just want to give a heads-up to parents. If you have children in the room, you may want to send them out.

The upcoming story is very important. Sexual exploitation of children is an age-old problem. But Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says the Internet has made it much, much worse. Today, he issues what he describes as a wakeup call. He says pedophiles, once isolated, have become emboldened by the Internet, and he says child pornography they share on the Web is much, much more accessible, graphic and harmful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think it's time to deliver a wakeup call about the true nature and the scope of this criminal activity: the depth of the depravity and the harm being inflicted upon innocent children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: The attorney general is calling on Congress to increase penalties against Internet providers that fail to report on child porn sites on their systems. He's going to be my guest on LIVE FROM at 1:50 this afternoon, later this hour. And I invite you to join us.

Now, the first planes have landed to the cheers of family and friends. LIVE FROM brings you the homecoming hoopla for members of the Georgia National Guard's 48th Infantry Brigade. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: A hero's welcome for citizen soldiers, finally home after a long and perilous tour in Iraq. They're members of Georgia's 48th Infantry Brigade. And many of them have been separated from their families since January of last year.

Reporter Tony Thomas with our Atlanta affiliate WAGA was on hand for the first wave of happy reunions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TONY THOMAS, WAGA CORRESPONDENT: Two hundred and ninety-one Gainesville and Lawrenceville-based National Guard members returned from active duty overnight. They served in some of the hottest spots in Iraq, firefights and roadside bombs part of daily life. Twenty-six members of their brigade were killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of stuff goes on. You know? Bombs get blown up, rockets being shot out. It's an experience.

THOMAS: But those things now definitely a half a world away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go fishing. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go fishing.

THOMAS: There are many new beginnings here. Fathers see infants for the first time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've never met him until tonight.

THOMAS: Others will start new lives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Marrying this wonderful woman right here tomorrow.

THOMAS: Over the next few weeks the remaining 4,000 members of Georgia's 48th Brigade will also come home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very happy. He's an inspiration to our family.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: And just a short time ago at Fort Stewart, more hugs and tears as more members of the 48th arrive home. Once again, a big thank you to our Atlanta affiliates and a big congratulations to all of those families.

Well, in medical news, Hawaii could get a new law making it easier for families to practice a traditional ceremony. Now some Hawaiians believe that after a child is born, the placenta should be planted in the earth, along with a tree that grows along with the child.

Well, a rule keeping the placenta from being released to families went into effect in 1990. And hospitals have been refusing families' requests. Lawmakers have passed a bill to change the rule, and it's now awaiting the governor's signature.

Also time between babies can help their health. Researchers in Colombia say women have a better chance of having healthy babies by spacing their pregnancies. They believe that pregnancies at least 18 months, but no more than five years apart, lower the risks of complications including premature birth and low birth weight. The report in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" makes the case that better family planning could prevent millions of infant deaths.

In Key West, a LIVE FROM follow-up. The city's beloved free- ranging chickens, well, they've just got to go. Despite squawks of protests from bird lovers, the city commission voted Tuesday to get the chickens off the streets.

Commissioner Bill Verge proposed the ordinance. He says the chickens, and what they leave behind, can spread diseases, such as salmonella and E. Coli. Now Verge also worries about the potential threat of bird flu.

About 3,000 birds now roam through Key West. Verge's plan is to catch them with nets. The ordinance, though, doesn't mention what happens next. KeysNews.com reports chickens can be kept in cages.

We've all seen it and too many of us do it. We eat, make phone calls, even fall asleep while driving. Up next, details on drivers who pull all of us -- put all of us in jeopardy with risky behavior behind the wheel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: In the immortal words of Pogo, we have seen the enemy, and he is us. Attention deficit drivers who take multitasking to dangerous levels: eating, chatting, even falling asleep at the wheel.

CNN's Kathleen Koch is in Washington with the photographic evidence. Photographic evidence, Kathleen, huh?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed. And it was caught by researchers doing a study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Very, very comprehensive: 100 cars packed with cameras and sensors were driven by 241 people in the northern Virginia/Washington, D.C., area for more than a year. Now here you see what the drivers were caught doing. You basically see four views from the camera. And these -- the drivers quickly forgot about the cameras and engaged in the risky behavior.

You saw in one video you see someone putting a CD in and nearly losing control. Now here you see a drowsy driver very nearly running off the road. And in this one, a young woman looks down at something, and the car has to swerve to miss a car in front of her that stops. Her air bag deploys. She hits a telephone pole.

Altogether, the cameras captured 82 crashes, 761 near crashes and more than 8,000 close calls or critical incidents.

Researchers were able to quantify which bad habits were the riskiest. They found that drowsiness, for example, increases the risk of a crash by a factor of four.

Now, the most common distraction, not surprisingly, is a cell phone. Reaching for, moving objects -- your coffee is spilling -- that increases the risk of a crash by nine. Reading and applying makeup by three times. Dialing a hand-held device like a cell phone by nearly three times.

And Carol, researchers basically hope that this study makes people more aware just how very dangerous distracted or driving -- or drowsy driving is so they'll stop.

LIN: Yes. We were just talking in the control room, what about babies? What about kids in the car seat, you know, when they want something and you're leaning back?

So Kathleen, was age a factor, either young or old in some of the incidents you just showed us? KOCH: It was. People in the study were between the ages of 18 and 73. And what they found is that the younger you were, the more likely you were to engage in distracted driving, to be drowsy behind the wheel. And they found actually, for example, for those who are 18 to 20 years old, you have four times the risk of being in a crash, because you are distracted than someone, say, over the age of 35.

LIN: Kathleen, do you have teenagers yet? Are they old enough?

KOCH: I have a 15-year-old who will be driving far too soon for my liking.

LIN: I bet you're TiVo-ing this story, aren't you?

KOCH: Yes, I am. And she'll be hearing a lot more about it when I get home.

LIN: I bet. Thanks, Kathleen.

KOCH: You bet.

LIN: All right. If you drive, it's impossible not to notice what's been happening to gas prices recently. And it seems those high gas prices are already affecting Americans' driving habits. Susan Lisovicz is live from the New York Stock Exchange with that story -- Susan.

(STOCK REPORT)

LIN: Check in with you later.

Now from beyond the grave, the cat and mouse game continues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The irony that they would pursue him now even past his grave is something that even J. Edgar Hoover didn't try.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Still ahead, the FBI demands the papers of a legendary Washington columnist. A closer look at this case and how it could affect the way all journalists do their jobs. LIVE FROM continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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