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Scott Peterson's Attorneys Take Turn Today; Federal Judge Strikes Down New Law Prohibiting Some Types of Late-Term Abortions

Aired June 02, 2004 - 10:30   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's check some stories making news at this hour. Easy for me to say. We begin in Israel. Tanks and bulldozers rumbling through the Rafa (ph) refugee camp in Gaza today. Associated Press quotes witnesses as saying they were demolishing more homes. The Israeli army says that's it's on a mission to find tunnels used to smuggle weapons into Egypt. Israeli forces have withdrawn most of its forces last week, after an offensive that Palestinian sources say left scores of Palestinians dead and hundreds homeless.
The Alligator Alley section of Interstate 75 is open again this morning. Take a look at these pictures, though. It was closed down after some smoke from nearby wildfire caused zero visibility. A 3,000-acre blaze is still burning in South Florida, though flames near the highway have died down. The road was closed for three hours last night after the fire cut visibility to zero.

The second round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee is now under way in Washington. Look at the pressure on those young faces. The 265 students took a written test yesterday. The top 90 spellers will advance to the third round this afternoon. The final round begins tomorrow.

And how about Miss Australia? Jennifer Hawkins, she is the new miss universe. She's 5'11, a blue-eyed blond, a model, no surprise there, and a choreographer who some day would like to work in television. The runner-up was Miss USA Shandy Finessey (ph). Organizers say a billion and a half people in 180 countries watched the pageant.

Scott Peterson's attorneys take their turn today after prosecutors caused some courtroom gasps in their opening statements.

Out Ted Rowlands is covering the double murder trial. He's in Redwood City, California with more on that.

Ted, good morning.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

After hearing incriminating audio tapes and other evidence against Scott Peterson yesterday, this jury will hear a much different story today from Peterson's attorney, Mark Geragos, as he tries to convince them that somebody else is responsible for the murder of Laci Peterson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ROWLANDS: The case against Scott Peterson is centered on lies and, according to prosecutor Rick Distaso, common sense. In opening statements, Distaso methodically stacked bits of circumstantial evidence against Peterson, trying to show that Scott Peterson is the only logical person that could be responsible for the murder of his wife and unborn son. Distaso told the jury about how Peterson lied consistently to investigators, his family and friends and the media in the days and months after his wife's disappearance.

Peterson looked away when Distaso showed the jury photos of he and girlfriend Amber Frey at a Christmas formal, the same night Laci attended a different Christmas party alone, where this picture was taken of her sitting in a chair. At one point, Distaso played a five- minute portion of audio tape of Peterson talking to Frey on December 31st, the same day hundreds of people attended a vigil for Laci in Modesto.

Peterson, who claimed he was in Brussels on international business, says to Frey at one point, "You know you're so beautiful, and our relationship will grow."

In another tape, Peterson is heard talking to his friend who works in real estate about selling the family house, furnished. Peterson his friend he would like to keep the sale private and would like to put the house on the market right away, because he said, quote, "I can't have Laci coming home to that house."

Laci's family fought back tears when Distaso showed graphic photos of both Laci and the baby's remains.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROWLANDS: As expected, that more of those photos will be shown today when Geragos begins his opening statements in about 90 minutes from now. He'll have as long as he wants to complete his opening statements. When he's finished, the prosecution will begin presenting their case, starting with the Peterson maid, the first witness scheduled to testify in this trial -- Daryn.

KAGAN: No cameras in the courtroom for this one, right, Ted?

ROLWANDS: No cameras as well. No audio as well, just court artists and sketches, and court reporters, of course, taking notes.

KAGAN: Which is why we have you there. Thank you for that report. Ted Rowland, thank you for that, Redwood City, California.

Here's another legal update. You won't be hearing the word "victim" being used to describe the accuser in the upcoming Kobe Bryant. Siding with defense lawyers, the judge in the sexual assault case has accused that referring to Bryant's accuser as a victim implies there was a crime, that the basketball star is already guilty. Bryant denies the rape charges. He says the two had sex, but that it was consensual.

And now for a closer look at these legal cases and how they might unfold, legal analyst Tom Heiden joins us from Chicago. He is a senior attorney at Letham and Walken (ph). Good to have you back here with us.

Don't know if we're hearing Tom. Can you try one more time?

TOM HEIDEN, LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, Daryn. How are you?

KAGAN: Oh, good, there you go. You just needed to speak up, that's all. No, it was the microphone, we fixed it. Let's start with Kobe Bryant here. How significant is that ruling that appears to favor the defense, that you won't hear the word "victim?"

HEIDEN: Well, it seems to me that it is important for the defense, and the defense has gotten one little victory after another, and so far, I think that the defense side in Colorado, is doing everything right, and things are turning out, so far, well for them.

KAGAN: But, with this last ruling, the one before with victim, talking about having access to the DNA, and basically to the woman, since we won't call her victim either, to the woman's underwear.

HEIDEN: Well, I think, I think it's been, Daryn, one victory after another for the defense and Kobe. These are small victories. There is no jury yet, but each one of these things, I think, helps the defense a little bit, and I think that so far they have cast Kobe Bryant well. He looks good. He looks like he's taking all of these proceedings very seriously, which is exactly the kind of image that he should be projecting.

KAGAN: Let's go to California now and to the Scott Peterson case. Did you hear anything in the opening statement by the prosecution that surprised you?

HEIDEN: I think there was no surprise in what the prosecution said. It's a little bit unusual that the prosecution didn't tell the story yesterday of what happened on the day of the murders. But rather, they took yesterday to paint the defendant in very evil colors. The surprise from yesterday, I think, Daryn, was in how long the prosecution took. The court set aside two hours for this, and the prosecution took all day. What that means, I think, is that the prosecution is going to call many, many witnesses to put in a mountain of evidence, painting Scott Peterson as a very bad guy who lied to everyone about everything and that means, among other things, a long trial.

KAGAN: And so it's Mark Geragos coming out of the gate today for his defense opening statements. Does that mean, from your advice, he needs to come out and say, OK, my client, he is not man of the year, he is not husband of the year, but where is the physical evidence where you can show that he is a murderer?

HEIDEN: Daryn, I think there are three things to watch for today. No. 1, will the defense point out all the things that the prosecution didn't talk about yesterday? Didn't talk about DNA, or fingerprints, or murder weapons, or cause of death or eyewitnesses to anything. Second, will the defense offer an alternative? Will the defense offer an alternative? Will they suggest some specific or unknown murderer or murders of their own? And third, will they try to paint their own client as halfway sympathetic to undo some of the damage yesterday, or will they, as you suggested, step right up to the jury and say, he's not charged with adultery, he's not charged with lying, he's charged with murder? And I think that's probably the hardest part for the defense team.

KAGAN: And just real quickly as we wrap it up. Before this is all said and done, four to six months, will we see Scott Peterson on the witness stand, do you think?

HEIDEN: I suppose part of the prosecution tried to do yesterday was to catch him in so many lies that they would force him on the witness stand. It strikes me that there is no way to put this man on the witness stand in front of this jury.

KAGAN: Tom Heiden, in Chicago, thanks for your legal expertise this morning. Appreciate it.

HEIDEN: Thanks, Daryn.

KAGAN: We're at 38 minutes past the hour. The abortion debate could be headed for another Supreme Court showdown. A federal judge has struck down a new law that prohibits some type of late-term abortions.

Our Miguel Marquez explains what's at stake.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush signed the act last November. Now a federal judge calls it unconstitutional. Groups opposed to abortion are already looking to the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling.

PATRICIA CALL, NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE: We certainly hope that by the time that the bill reaches the Supreme Court there will be a one vote shift away from this very extreme position.

MARQUEZ: A federal district court judge in San Francisco ruled the Partial Birth Abortion Act unconstitutional for three reasons, saying it places an undue burden on the right of a woman seeking an abortion, the act contained too many constitutionally vague terms and the act, not including an exception for the health of the mother. Planned Parenthood brought the suit.

GLORIA FELDT, PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA: It's so broad that a doctor hardly knows when he or she is committing a criminal act and that's why the judge's ruling is so very, very important.

MARQUEZ: In the 117-page ruling, the judge concluded that the term partial-birth abortion was synonymous with what doctors called intact dilation and extraction, a procedure in which a fetus is partially brought out of the womb and a suction device is inserted in the back of its head, crushing its skull.

CALL: Partial-birth abortion is a perfectly clear definition of what we're talking about here.

MARQUEZ: The judge disagreed, saying that similar procedures to partial-birth abortion, procedures like dilation and extraction, disarticulation, where the fetus is taken apart in the womb, appear to be legal under the act, and it's that vagueness that creates confusion for practitioners.

FELDT: The abortion ban law outlaws a wide range of techniques that doctors use even very early in the second trimester of pregnancy, 12, 13 weeks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Coming up on CNN LIVE TODAY, thinking about doing some heavy duty cleanup in your yard, a word of advice. Be careful with the crane.

And another kind of bringing down the house. Tamyra Gray, she battled for the American Idol title in the first season. She joins us to talk about her new album and finding success. This is CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's take a look at other stories making news coast to coast here in America. A 10-year-old Florida girl saved a man in his 30s who went under in her apartment complex pool. Shenette Grant (ph) held the man's head above water and the others got him out of the pool. Good for her.

Acting like a backyard pet, an alligator in the South Florida apartment complex, his home for several hours. Looks pretty comfy there. Fish and wildlife officers ultimately grabbed the gator. They think he may have climbed out of an area lake or was pushed out of a habitat by a new development.

Here in suburban Atlanta, the homeowner, all she wanted was the dead tree removed. Now she might have to have her entire home replaced. The two-story house in Kennisaw was condemned after a crane toppled over. It sliced the house in two. The homeowner was inside, but was not hurt.

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: From American Idol to American star. Tamyra Gray is no Idol dreamer. Her legion of fans thought that she deserved more than fourth runner up in "American Idol's" first season. But titles aren't everything. As we've seen. Tamyra left the popular talent show with a contract, a stint on the television drama "Boston Public," and now her own album, which she cowrote is appropriately titled "The Dreamer." And Tamyra Gray is our guest here this morning. Thanks for being here with us.

TAMYRA GRAY, SINGER: Thanks for having me.

KAGAN: Congratulations on all the success.

GRAY: Thank you very much.

KAGAN: You are perfect example that you don't need to win "American Idol" to benefit from this contest.

GRAY: Right, right. You don't. You don't at all. It's a brilliant show, you know, because of that.

KAGAN: But you have the talent to back it up. I mean, you're like the quadruple threat -- the writing, singing, acting, the beauty.

GRAY: Thank you.

KAGAN: So, 10 years from now, are we going to know you as Tamyra Gray the actress, or the actress who sings, the singer who acts, the writer mogul?

GRAY: I think the singer, actress, writer, whatever else comes along my way in 10 years.

KAGAN: When you went into it, did you think that your big opportunity was actually going to be acting? As we said, you went on to "Boston Public."

GRAY: No, I had no idea. You know, I though that, you know, hey, I'll get a record deal, and then right after I got off the show, I got the call to do "Boston Public," and it was like, really? Wow.

KAGAN: Had you ever act to that extent?

GRAY: Not to that extent, no. I had done a few local plays in Atlanta and in the Southeast region, but I had never really done anything that was of that much weight.

KAGAN: Let alone a David Kelly series.

GRAY: Exactly. Exactly.

KAGAN: All right, you talk about when you went off the show. Let's talk about going off the show, because there was a lot of controversial votes this season, but you were actually like the original controversy, like, what do you mean she got voted off when she got voted off?

GRAY: You know, my take on that is for a lot of people who call it controversy -- and I'm a victim. I don't vote. I haven't voted.

KAGAN: Really, because you have a telephone, like, anybody else.

GRAY: Yes, I do. And nine out of 10, it's the ones who are saying it's controversial, and then they didn't vote either.

KAGAN: Kind of like America, they don't like who's in office and they don't vote.

GRAY: Exactly.

KAGAN: But people have complained they can't get through to vote when they want to.

GRAY: Yes, it is definitely difficult to get through, especially when you only have a two-hour window, and everyone is voting for that person at the same time as you, so that can be difficult.

KAGAN: Well, because you lived it, because you are the first one to get voted off, long before people thought you should have, when you watched this season unfold, whether it was Jennifer Hudson or later people getting voted off, did you have a different perspective because you lived it?

GRAY: You know, yes. I definitely -- I still couldn't get -- like, I was disappointed when Jennifer got voted off, but I didn't vote. So I couldn't like really say anything. I felt like, you know, she did not deserve to be voted off, that's for sure, and I think people also mistake the fact that, you know, whether they think somebody's safe or not, you still have to call in to keep that person going, so I was kind of disappointed that Jennifer didn't go through, but I didn't do my part of it either, so.

KAGAN: There you go. Well, what you did do your part with this season, you wrote the song that now "Fantasia," the winner, will go ahead and record.

GRAY: Yes, that's pretty cool. The producers who did half of my album actually got an e-mail saying that they were looking for the single for the winner, and they asked me if I'd be interested in co- writing it.

KAGAN: And so what was it like on the final show to see Fantasia and Diana DeGarmo perform your song?

GRAY: Very emotional.

KAGAN: Was it?

GRAY: Yes, I was crying like the whole name, and especially when they called Fantasia's name, and then she sang it at the end, and then it was just like, I couldn't stop the tears. It was like, wow, and she does such a beautiful job.

KAGAN: She really does, with that gospel choir behind. And so on your new album, do we hear that single? Or that's just for Fantasia.

GRAY: No, I just wrote -- it was just written two weeks ago, so it wasn't even something that I'd had or anything. We just got the call, went and wrote it, recorded it, demoed, it, got it to them, and it was accepted, so.

KAGAN: On top of everything, she's a drive-thru song writer. Incredible.

We'll be looking for the album. It's called "The Dreamer," appropriately.

Tamyra Gray, good luck.

GRAY: Thank you very much.

KAGAN: Thanks for stopping by with your very busy schedule.

GRAY: Thank you.

KAGAN: You can keep your eye on entertainment 24-7 by pointing your Internet browser to CNN.com/entertainment, and we are back with the forecast in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Taking a look at Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano. It is nearly always nearly active, but it hasn't been this busy for nearly a year. For the first time since last July, red hot lava is flowing directly into the Pacific. The U.S. Geological Survey reports from its vantage near the volcano, that the molten rock is reaching the ocean at several locations.

(WEATHER REPORT)

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Aired June 2, 2004 - 10:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's check some stories making news at this hour. Easy for me to say. We begin in Israel. Tanks and bulldozers rumbling through the Rafa (ph) refugee camp in Gaza today. Associated Press quotes witnesses as saying they were demolishing more homes. The Israeli army says that's it's on a mission to find tunnels used to smuggle weapons into Egypt. Israeli forces have withdrawn most of its forces last week, after an offensive that Palestinian sources say left scores of Palestinians dead and hundreds homeless.
The Alligator Alley section of Interstate 75 is open again this morning. Take a look at these pictures, though. It was closed down after some smoke from nearby wildfire caused zero visibility. A 3,000-acre blaze is still burning in South Florida, though flames near the highway have died down. The road was closed for three hours last night after the fire cut visibility to zero.

The second round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee is now under way in Washington. Look at the pressure on those young faces. The 265 students took a written test yesterday. The top 90 spellers will advance to the third round this afternoon. The final round begins tomorrow.

And how about Miss Australia? Jennifer Hawkins, she is the new miss universe. She's 5'11, a blue-eyed blond, a model, no surprise there, and a choreographer who some day would like to work in television. The runner-up was Miss USA Shandy Finessey (ph). Organizers say a billion and a half people in 180 countries watched the pageant.

Scott Peterson's attorneys take their turn today after prosecutors caused some courtroom gasps in their opening statements.

Out Ted Rowlands is covering the double murder trial. He's in Redwood City, California with more on that.

Ted, good morning.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

After hearing incriminating audio tapes and other evidence against Scott Peterson yesterday, this jury will hear a much different story today from Peterson's attorney, Mark Geragos, as he tries to convince them that somebody else is responsible for the murder of Laci Peterson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ROWLANDS: The case against Scott Peterson is centered on lies and, according to prosecutor Rick Distaso, common sense. In opening statements, Distaso methodically stacked bits of circumstantial evidence against Peterson, trying to show that Scott Peterson is the only logical person that could be responsible for the murder of his wife and unborn son. Distaso told the jury about how Peterson lied consistently to investigators, his family and friends and the media in the days and months after his wife's disappearance.

Peterson looked away when Distaso showed the jury photos of he and girlfriend Amber Frey at a Christmas formal, the same night Laci attended a different Christmas party alone, where this picture was taken of her sitting in a chair. At one point, Distaso played a five- minute portion of audio tape of Peterson talking to Frey on December 31st, the same day hundreds of people attended a vigil for Laci in Modesto.

Peterson, who claimed he was in Brussels on international business, says to Frey at one point, "You know you're so beautiful, and our relationship will grow."

In another tape, Peterson is heard talking to his friend who works in real estate about selling the family house, furnished. Peterson his friend he would like to keep the sale private and would like to put the house on the market right away, because he said, quote, "I can't have Laci coming home to that house."

Laci's family fought back tears when Distaso showed graphic photos of both Laci and the baby's remains.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROWLANDS: As expected, that more of those photos will be shown today when Geragos begins his opening statements in about 90 minutes from now. He'll have as long as he wants to complete his opening statements. When he's finished, the prosecution will begin presenting their case, starting with the Peterson maid, the first witness scheduled to testify in this trial -- Daryn.

KAGAN: No cameras in the courtroom for this one, right, Ted?

ROLWANDS: No cameras as well. No audio as well, just court artists and sketches, and court reporters, of course, taking notes.

KAGAN: Which is why we have you there. Thank you for that report. Ted Rowland, thank you for that, Redwood City, California.

Here's another legal update. You won't be hearing the word "victim" being used to describe the accuser in the upcoming Kobe Bryant. Siding with defense lawyers, the judge in the sexual assault case has accused that referring to Bryant's accuser as a victim implies there was a crime, that the basketball star is already guilty. Bryant denies the rape charges. He says the two had sex, but that it was consensual.

And now for a closer look at these legal cases and how they might unfold, legal analyst Tom Heiden joins us from Chicago. He is a senior attorney at Letham and Walken (ph). Good to have you back here with us.

Don't know if we're hearing Tom. Can you try one more time?

TOM HEIDEN, LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, Daryn. How are you?

KAGAN: Oh, good, there you go. You just needed to speak up, that's all. No, it was the microphone, we fixed it. Let's start with Kobe Bryant here. How significant is that ruling that appears to favor the defense, that you won't hear the word "victim?"

HEIDEN: Well, it seems to me that it is important for the defense, and the defense has gotten one little victory after another, and so far, I think that the defense side in Colorado, is doing everything right, and things are turning out, so far, well for them.

KAGAN: But, with this last ruling, the one before with victim, talking about having access to the DNA, and basically to the woman, since we won't call her victim either, to the woman's underwear.

HEIDEN: Well, I think, I think it's been, Daryn, one victory after another for the defense and Kobe. These are small victories. There is no jury yet, but each one of these things, I think, helps the defense a little bit, and I think that so far they have cast Kobe Bryant well. He looks good. He looks like he's taking all of these proceedings very seriously, which is exactly the kind of image that he should be projecting.

KAGAN: Let's go to California now and to the Scott Peterson case. Did you hear anything in the opening statement by the prosecution that surprised you?

HEIDEN: I think there was no surprise in what the prosecution said. It's a little bit unusual that the prosecution didn't tell the story yesterday of what happened on the day of the murders. But rather, they took yesterday to paint the defendant in very evil colors. The surprise from yesterday, I think, Daryn, was in how long the prosecution took. The court set aside two hours for this, and the prosecution took all day. What that means, I think, is that the prosecution is going to call many, many witnesses to put in a mountain of evidence, painting Scott Peterson as a very bad guy who lied to everyone about everything and that means, among other things, a long trial.

KAGAN: And so it's Mark Geragos coming out of the gate today for his defense opening statements. Does that mean, from your advice, he needs to come out and say, OK, my client, he is not man of the year, he is not husband of the year, but where is the physical evidence where you can show that he is a murderer?

HEIDEN: Daryn, I think there are three things to watch for today. No. 1, will the defense point out all the things that the prosecution didn't talk about yesterday? Didn't talk about DNA, or fingerprints, or murder weapons, or cause of death or eyewitnesses to anything. Second, will the defense offer an alternative? Will the defense offer an alternative? Will they suggest some specific or unknown murderer or murders of their own? And third, will they try to paint their own client as halfway sympathetic to undo some of the damage yesterday, or will they, as you suggested, step right up to the jury and say, he's not charged with adultery, he's not charged with lying, he's charged with murder? And I think that's probably the hardest part for the defense team.

KAGAN: And just real quickly as we wrap it up. Before this is all said and done, four to six months, will we see Scott Peterson on the witness stand, do you think?

HEIDEN: I suppose part of the prosecution tried to do yesterday was to catch him in so many lies that they would force him on the witness stand. It strikes me that there is no way to put this man on the witness stand in front of this jury.

KAGAN: Tom Heiden, in Chicago, thanks for your legal expertise this morning. Appreciate it.

HEIDEN: Thanks, Daryn.

KAGAN: We're at 38 minutes past the hour. The abortion debate could be headed for another Supreme Court showdown. A federal judge has struck down a new law that prohibits some type of late-term abortions.

Our Miguel Marquez explains what's at stake.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush signed the act last November. Now a federal judge calls it unconstitutional. Groups opposed to abortion are already looking to the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling.

PATRICIA CALL, NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE: We certainly hope that by the time that the bill reaches the Supreme Court there will be a one vote shift away from this very extreme position.

MARQUEZ: A federal district court judge in San Francisco ruled the Partial Birth Abortion Act unconstitutional for three reasons, saying it places an undue burden on the right of a woman seeking an abortion, the act contained too many constitutionally vague terms and the act, not including an exception for the health of the mother. Planned Parenthood brought the suit.

GLORIA FELDT, PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA: It's so broad that a doctor hardly knows when he or she is committing a criminal act and that's why the judge's ruling is so very, very important.

MARQUEZ: In the 117-page ruling, the judge concluded that the term partial-birth abortion was synonymous with what doctors called intact dilation and extraction, a procedure in which a fetus is partially brought out of the womb and a suction device is inserted in the back of its head, crushing its skull.

CALL: Partial-birth abortion is a perfectly clear definition of what we're talking about here.

MARQUEZ: The judge disagreed, saying that similar procedures to partial-birth abortion, procedures like dilation and extraction, disarticulation, where the fetus is taken apart in the womb, appear to be legal under the act, and it's that vagueness that creates confusion for practitioners.

FELDT: The abortion ban law outlaws a wide range of techniques that doctors use even very early in the second trimester of pregnancy, 12, 13 weeks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Coming up on CNN LIVE TODAY, thinking about doing some heavy duty cleanup in your yard, a word of advice. Be careful with the crane.

And another kind of bringing down the house. Tamyra Gray, she battled for the American Idol title in the first season. She joins us to talk about her new album and finding success. This is CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's take a look at other stories making news coast to coast here in America. A 10-year-old Florida girl saved a man in his 30s who went under in her apartment complex pool. Shenette Grant (ph) held the man's head above water and the others got him out of the pool. Good for her.

Acting like a backyard pet, an alligator in the South Florida apartment complex, his home for several hours. Looks pretty comfy there. Fish and wildlife officers ultimately grabbed the gator. They think he may have climbed out of an area lake or was pushed out of a habitat by a new development.

Here in suburban Atlanta, the homeowner, all she wanted was the dead tree removed. Now she might have to have her entire home replaced. The two-story house in Kennisaw was condemned after a crane toppled over. It sliced the house in two. The homeowner was inside, but was not hurt.

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: From American Idol to American star. Tamyra Gray is no Idol dreamer. Her legion of fans thought that she deserved more than fourth runner up in "American Idol's" first season. But titles aren't everything. As we've seen. Tamyra left the popular talent show with a contract, a stint on the television drama "Boston Public," and now her own album, which she cowrote is appropriately titled "The Dreamer." And Tamyra Gray is our guest here this morning. Thanks for being here with us.

TAMYRA GRAY, SINGER: Thanks for having me.

KAGAN: Congratulations on all the success.

GRAY: Thank you very much.

KAGAN: You are perfect example that you don't need to win "American Idol" to benefit from this contest.

GRAY: Right, right. You don't. You don't at all. It's a brilliant show, you know, because of that.

KAGAN: But you have the talent to back it up. I mean, you're like the quadruple threat -- the writing, singing, acting, the beauty.

GRAY: Thank you.

KAGAN: So, 10 years from now, are we going to know you as Tamyra Gray the actress, or the actress who sings, the singer who acts, the writer mogul?

GRAY: I think the singer, actress, writer, whatever else comes along my way in 10 years.

KAGAN: When you went into it, did you think that your big opportunity was actually going to be acting? As we said, you went on to "Boston Public."

GRAY: No, I had no idea. You know, I though that, you know, hey, I'll get a record deal, and then right after I got off the show, I got the call to do "Boston Public," and it was like, really? Wow.

KAGAN: Had you ever act to that extent?

GRAY: Not to that extent, no. I had done a few local plays in Atlanta and in the Southeast region, but I had never really done anything that was of that much weight.

KAGAN: Let alone a David Kelly series.

GRAY: Exactly. Exactly.

KAGAN: All right, you talk about when you went off the show. Let's talk about going off the show, because there was a lot of controversial votes this season, but you were actually like the original controversy, like, what do you mean she got voted off when she got voted off?

GRAY: You know, my take on that is for a lot of people who call it controversy -- and I'm a victim. I don't vote. I haven't voted.

KAGAN: Really, because you have a telephone, like, anybody else.

GRAY: Yes, I do. And nine out of 10, it's the ones who are saying it's controversial, and then they didn't vote either.

KAGAN: Kind of like America, they don't like who's in office and they don't vote.

GRAY: Exactly.

KAGAN: But people have complained they can't get through to vote when they want to.

GRAY: Yes, it is definitely difficult to get through, especially when you only have a two-hour window, and everyone is voting for that person at the same time as you, so that can be difficult.

KAGAN: Well, because you lived it, because you are the first one to get voted off, long before people thought you should have, when you watched this season unfold, whether it was Jennifer Hudson or later people getting voted off, did you have a different perspective because you lived it?

GRAY: You know, yes. I definitely -- I still couldn't get -- like, I was disappointed when Jennifer got voted off, but I didn't vote. So I couldn't like really say anything. I felt like, you know, she did not deserve to be voted off, that's for sure, and I think people also mistake the fact that, you know, whether they think somebody's safe or not, you still have to call in to keep that person going, so I was kind of disappointed that Jennifer didn't go through, but I didn't do my part of it either, so.

KAGAN: There you go. Well, what you did do your part with this season, you wrote the song that now "Fantasia," the winner, will go ahead and record.

GRAY: Yes, that's pretty cool. The producers who did half of my album actually got an e-mail saying that they were looking for the single for the winner, and they asked me if I'd be interested in co- writing it.

KAGAN: And so what was it like on the final show to see Fantasia and Diana DeGarmo perform your song?

GRAY: Very emotional.

KAGAN: Was it?

GRAY: Yes, I was crying like the whole name, and especially when they called Fantasia's name, and then she sang it at the end, and then it was just like, I couldn't stop the tears. It was like, wow, and she does such a beautiful job.

KAGAN: She really does, with that gospel choir behind. And so on your new album, do we hear that single? Or that's just for Fantasia.

GRAY: No, I just wrote -- it was just written two weeks ago, so it wasn't even something that I'd had or anything. We just got the call, went and wrote it, recorded it, demoed, it, got it to them, and it was accepted, so.

KAGAN: On top of everything, she's a drive-thru song writer. Incredible.

We'll be looking for the album. It's called "The Dreamer," appropriately.

Tamyra Gray, good luck.

GRAY: Thank you very much.

KAGAN: Thanks for stopping by with your very busy schedule.

GRAY: Thank you.

KAGAN: You can keep your eye on entertainment 24-7 by pointing your Internet browser to CNN.com/entertainment, and we are back with the forecast in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Taking a look at Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano. It is nearly always nearly active, but it hasn't been this busy for nearly a year. For the first time since last July, red hot lava is flowing directly into the Pacific. The U.S. Geological Survey reports from its vantage near the volcano, that the molten rock is reaching the ocean at several locations.

(WEATHER REPORT)

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