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Major Development in Murders of a Federal Judge's Family; Michael Jackson's Teenage Accuser Testifies Again Today in Child- Molestation Case

Aired March 10, 2005 - 07:00   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. A major development in the murders of a federal judge's family. Reports now of a confession and a suicide in Wisconsin.
Former president Bill Clinton arriving at a New York hospital just a short time ago, getting ready now for surgery on his lung.

And Major League Baseball says no way, Jose, after several players are called to Capitol Hill. The search for the truth about steroids on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING, with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody.

Other stories that we're following this morning, dramatic 911 tapes released following a huge explosion at that Petco store. A woman trapped calls 911 from her cellphone. We'll hear her tapes this morning and talk to the emergency dispatcher who helped to keep her calm during the experience. Some say he may have even saved her life.

Also this hour, the boy accusing Michael Jackson of molestation is back on stand today after an intense one hour of testimony yesterday. Jeff Toobin is here to talk about the impact of this pivotal testimony out in California.

O'BRIEN: Mr. Cafferty, what's the question of the day.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

Major League Baseball says it's going to fight the subpoenas from a congressional committee. Some of the biggest stars being hauled in front of Congress and, under oath, being questioned about steroid use. The potential damage to the image of America's pastime is huge. We'll take a look.

Thank you, Jack.

HEMMER: New developments this morning in the murder case of a federal judge's husband and mother. "The Chicago Tribune" is now reporting a man who shot himself yesterday outside of Milwaukee left a suicide note, claiming responsibility for those murders. At this time, police are not saying if the two cases are related, but from Chicago this morning, here is Keith Oppenheim working that story for us.

Keith, good morning. What's the latest as we have it now?

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's a lot of investigative activity going on right now. First of all, what the "Tribune" is reporting is that a man who committed suicide, shot himself in the head during a traffic stop in Wisconsin, that he is claiming in a suicide note responsibility for the murders of federal Judge Joan Lefkow's husband and her mother last week.

The man's van was stopped in West Alice, Wisconsin, which is near Milwaukee, and the "Tribune" was reporting that the suicide note included details of the investigation, of the case that previously had not been released to the public. And also that there were .22 caliber shell casings found inside the van; .22 caliber shell casings were also found in Judge Lefkow's home last week.

Chicago police said that they have not made a definitive link, but they are sending officers to the scene in Milwaukee.

We should note that the registration of the van is associated with a man who lives in Chicago. And while we're not reporting his name at this time, we can tell you that we have crews on the scene at that location, and they say that there are a lot of police at the home of the man whose name is associated with that van registration.

Now, the question, of course, is whether or not this man had appeared before Judge Lefkow in the past. The "Tribune" is reporting that in the suicide note that there was a judgment that had cost him his home, his job and his family.

Just to recap the events of last week quickly, Bill, on Monday, Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow came to her home. She found her 64-year- old husband, Michael, as well as her 89-year-old mother, Donna Humphrey, dead in the basement. They had both been shot.

Police had been scouring the scene for forensic evidence, and they had come up with some significant things, including a fingerprint that was on a window pane, as well as DNA that had been taken from a cigarette butt found in the home. But the problem that we were reporting as of yesterday was that they weren't able to make a link between that forensic evidence and any names that they could get from national crime database.

So it seemed as of yesterday that the major leads in this case had kind of come to a stop, and now we have this latest development. It's important to note that further background that it was last year that white supremacist Matt Hale had been convicted of plotting to kill Judge Lefkow, and in fact, he is in Chicago awaiting sentencing. So what we're wondering now is whether there is any link to white supremacist groups, or whether this is a completely different case, and has nothing to do with hate groups at all. So a lot going on, Bill.

HEMMER: Thanks for that, Keith. We'll see if we're going in an entirely direction throughout the morning here. Keith Oppenheim in Chicago -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Michael Jackson's teenage accuser testifies again today in the child-molestation case. When he took the stand for the first time Wednesday, it was the first time in two years the accuser and Jackson had seen each other.

CNN's Miguel Marquez has our report this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael Jackson's accuser on the stand, face to face with the world-renowned pop star.

QUESTION: Tell us how you felt facing your accuser.

MICHAEL JACKSON, ENTERTAINER: I'm sorry, I'm under a gag order.

MARQUEZ: In the courtroom as the 15-year-old took the oath to tell the truth, Jackson sat bolt upright.

ANNE BREMNER, LEGAL ANALYST: He did look at Michael Jackson, I think you saw that, and Michael Jackson looked at him.

MARQUEZ: Prosecutors have charged Jackson with plying the boy with alcohol and molesting him four times and conspiring to cover it all up. Jackson says he's not guilty. His accuser once called Jackson "the coolest guy in the world." Today the 15-year-old commanded the world's attention.

BREMNER: He doesn't appear to be relaxed and calm, but he doesn't appear really nervous.

MARQUEZ: The boy testified that on his first day at Neverland in 2000, while still suffering the effects of nearly terminal cancer, Jackson suggested he and his brother spend the night in his bedroom. The boy said his parents allowed it, and the following night, he, his brother, Jackson, his kids, Paris and Prince, and a man named Frank Tyson went to Jackson's room to watch movies. Instead, said the accuser, Tyson got online and surfed adult sites on the Internet for 15-30 minutes. His short testimony so far seemed effective.

BREMNER: Remember when he had to scoot up to the mike, and he said, "OK," really loud into the mike? Jurors just spontaneous smiles of empathy for him.

MARQUEZ: The accuser told jurors that Jackson brought he and his siblings during the filming of the Martin Bashir documentary, "Living With Michael Jackson." And Jackson told the documentary was the boy's audition for the movies. He also told the court that Jackson instructed him to call him "Daddy Michael," and to tell Bashir on camera that Jackson was largely responsible for his recovery from cancer.

(on camera): The boy was only on the stand for about an hour before the court day ended, and later today, he'll be back on the stand being questioned by the prosecution.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, Santa Maria, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Just how pivotal is the accuser's testimony in the state's case against Michael Jackson. Senior legal analyst Jeff Toobin weighs in this morning.

Nice to see you. Good morning.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: We heard Miguel say he thought that the testimony has been very effective. If the boy is good and everybody else is not so good as we've seen thus far, can the prosecution still win this case?

TOOBIN: Absolutely. This is a case with one victim, and if the jury believes that this victim was abused by Michael Jackson, game over, case over. And today is the day he's going to testify about his interaction with Michael Jackson in that bedroom. And if that's believable and if everything else in the case is discounted by the jury, Michael Jackson is still going to get convicted.

O'BRIEN: But we've seen Mesereau, frankly, shred the testimony from another potentially sympathetic person, the brother of the accuser. We haven't seen any kind of cross-examination yet of the accuser.

TOOBIN: Not at all. Of course that's going to be a key moment in the case. What's going to make his job so difficult with this boy is that he is such a sympathetic figure. Unlike the brother, the alleged victim is a cancer survivor. You know, the fact from this case that keeps ringing in my head from Tom Sneddon's opening is this is a boy who had a 16-pound tumor removed from my stomach. If it stayed in my head, it stayed in the jury's head, too. It's going to be difficult to cross-examine a kid like that in a hostile way, but Mesereau proved that he can be polite, insistent and totally devastating in cross-examining a kid. So maybe it will work with the accuser, as well.

O'BRIEN: Do you think juries are more -- we just heard in the piece a woman said, you know, the jury smiled in empathy when he had to scoot up to the microphone in order to be heard. Are juries more forgiving in things in children they might not be forgiving in adults? For example, they contradict themselves, they forget, they can't remember certain details that they could remember three weeks ago?

TOOBIN: Absolutely. And the children have proved to be very successful witnesses, even in cases that turn out to be bad cases. You remember in the '80s, they had all those child-abuse investigations in daycare centers, supposedly satanic abuse, and the juries believed these children testifying in cases where it came out later that no abuse took place at all. So it's very difficult to defend against a child's accusation, because of just what you're suggesting, juries are sympathetic to them, but that's the task before the defense here.

O'BRIEN: You've already said you were underwhelmed by the opening remarks from the prosecution. What does the prosecution have to do now if the accuser is actually a pretty substantial and good witness for them?

TOOBIN: You know, I think one of the things they should probably do is wrap up their case relatively quickly. You know, we had talked about a five, six-month trial. We're only in the second week here, and they're already up to the accuser's testimony. I think prosecutors often over-try their cases. If they believe that this child, now 14, is a good witness, wrap it up in the next couple of weeks. Let the jury decide. The longer this goes, the more complicated it becomes, I think the it is better more Michael Jackson.

O'BRIEN: Leaves the testimony fresh in the jurors' minds as well.

TOOBIN: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: All right, Jeff Toobin, thanks, as always.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: Bill Clinton back in the hospital this morning because of a rare complication from bypass surgery. Sanjay's outside the hospital. We'll talk to him in a moment about what we can expect for the former president today.

O'BRIEN: Also a woman trapped after an explosion at a Petco store. Her only life line was her cellphone. We'll hear her desperate call to 911, just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Former President Bill Clinton has checked into a New York hospital where he will have surgery today on his lung. The procedure stems from a rare but treatable complication that developed after his quadruple-bypass six month ago.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta outside that hospital this morning. Sanjay, good morning to you. I know the president just arrived a couple of hours ago. Give us a sense of what the timeline looks like.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he did get here just a couple of hours ago, about 10 after 5:00 this morning. The cars pulled up. He went in through a side entrance into the hospital. The hospital right behind me here. We were here just six months ago. Similar timeline to then. Usually, you know, and I work in a lot of academic hospitals over the years, Soledad. Typically, what happens is he goes inside, he meets with the anesthesiologist, they talk about the operation. He had some IVs put into his arm, and then is taken back to the operating room. Usually I would guess somewhere in the next hour or so, half hour or two, hour or so, the operation will probably begin in the operating room and probably take a couple hours. After that, he may go to an ICU bed, where he'll just stay.

Now the operation again, we've talked about this over the last couple of days, is designed to basically get rid of some of the scar tissue and some of the fluid around his lung. They're going to try doing this operation as minimally invasive as possible by putting a little camera in and doing the operation through some small instruments. If that doesn't work, they'll actually open up the chest and put in some larger instruments. But again, about two to three hours in terms of length -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, I know that the plan is that he'll be released from the hospital early next week. What's the recovery look like? I mean, how soon is he back out on the golf course playing golf?

GUPTA: Yes, he was obviously golfing yesterday. I think probably the next couple of weeks, he's still going to be sort of homebound. You'll see him out and about maybe a little bit, but probably not doing too much. Within a month or so, he will probably feel comfortable enough to go out and do things to golf.

Golf interestingly enough does put a lot of strain on several muscles, including the muscles around the chest, that will have to be cut to a certain extent to perform this operation, but I think up and about, he'll probably be up and about here in the hospital. He'll probably be able to start maintaining a normal schedule within a month or so -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay Gupta for us this morning. Sanjay, thanks. Of course we're going to continue to check in with you throughout the morning -- Bill.

HEMMER: After more than 20 years as anchor of the "CBS Evening News," Dan Rather has signed off for the final time last evening. The 73-year-old Rather delivering his final newscast 24 years to the day after taking over for Walter Cronkite. Rather said farewell last night, much like he did in his early days, with his famous word, "courage."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN RATHER, CBS ANCHOR: To my fellow journalists in places where reporting the truth means risking all, and to each of you, courage. For the "CBS Evening News," Dan Rather reporting. Goodnight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Family and colleagues then joined Rather in the studio there, and Rather will keep working as a correspondent for "60 Minutes." He says he cannot wait to take on that task. Bob Schieffer, meanwhile, takes over for Rather later tonight, said to be only a temporary basis for CBS. That network expected to name a permanent team in the coming month. The end of an era last night here in the world of journalism.

O'BRIEN: I thought that was pretty remarkable. I thought was nicely said. HEMMER: Twenty-four years, a credit to him.

O'BRIEN: Yes, long career.

Ahead this morning, identity thieves attack another major U.S. company. Thousands of Americans now affected. What's Congress doing to protect us? Andy is "Minding Your Business," up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Welcome back, everyone. One of your most precious possessions in danger like never before. The question this morning, can Congress do anything about identity theft? Andy Serwer first check "Minding Your Business," and this has been a story we've talked about for a couple weeks now.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: It seems to be snowballing. And Congress is going to be holding hearings this afternoon. Let me tell you what's going on. Lexis-Nexis yesterday, this is the company that does database searches, people familiar with it, it's also a data broker, yesterday revealed that 32,000 Americans had their identities compromised. Thieves may have gotten into the system and poached them.

Here is what they were going after, names, addresses, driver's license and of course, Social Security numbers. Interesting, Lexis- Nexis has a subsidiary, this is the same company that provides security searches to the government to analyze Americans suspected of being terrorists, the same part of the business.

And of course, last month, ChoicePoint, another data broker, announced that 145,000 American's files have been compromised.

A shoe company, DSW, on Tuesday said 103 stores had their files also looked into, Bank of America, as well several weeks back.

So Congress at 2:30 this afternoon is going to be holding hearings. They're going to be people from ChoicePoint and from Bank of America testifying. The FTC estimates that in 2003, 10 million Americans had their identities stolen, and you know, it's a huge nightmare that can take month and months to sort out. Looking at more regulation here probably.

HEMMER: How much do you think the perils of technology are at play here?

SERWER: Well, the thieves are always one step ahead, that's the problem, and technology is what it's all about.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

HEMMER: We'll talk again.

O'BRIEN: Another big nightmare to talk about, steroids.

CAFFERTY: Indeed. Some of baseball's biggest stars being ordered to appear before a congressional committee and testify under oath about steroid use. Major League Baseball knows an image problem when it sees one and is going to court to try to prevent guys like Jason Giambi, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa from having to answer embarrassing questions whether they used steroids. Players who refuse to answer would have to invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, which could do Major League damage to the sport's image.

Here's the question, should Major League Baseball players be forced to testify under oath about steroids? The e-mail address is Am@CNN.com.

HEMMER: If that were to happen, boy what a sight that would be, huh? And Jose Canseco has said he would do it, and Jose Canseco has a book out right now.

SERWER: He has a credibility problem, too, though.

HEMMER: Very true.

But all these other guys are saying no way, and baseball's fighting it, right?

O'BRIEN: Unless you have a book out, you don't really have a huge upside I would imagine.

CAFFERTY: The Congress is, you know, they're going to spend their time doing this. Major League Baseball is a private organization. They have a contract with the players union. I'm not sure. A judge may say they can't do it. But I'm not a lawyer.

O'BRIEN: Maybe we'll check in a little bit later this morning with Jeff Toobin.

HEMMER: Congress is going to solve this problem and that problem, right?

SERWER: Hold your breath.

HEMMER: Thanks. Let's get a break here. Skin pace space is a hot new commodity for those advertisers, a sign of the times in a moment here. Back after this on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired March 10, 2005 - 07:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. A major development in the murders of a federal judge's family. Reports now of a confession and a suicide in Wisconsin.
Former president Bill Clinton arriving at a New York hospital just a short time ago, getting ready now for surgery on his lung.

And Major League Baseball says no way, Jose, after several players are called to Capitol Hill. The search for the truth about steroids on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING, with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody.

Other stories that we're following this morning, dramatic 911 tapes released following a huge explosion at that Petco store. A woman trapped calls 911 from her cellphone. We'll hear her tapes this morning and talk to the emergency dispatcher who helped to keep her calm during the experience. Some say he may have even saved her life.

Also this hour, the boy accusing Michael Jackson of molestation is back on stand today after an intense one hour of testimony yesterday. Jeff Toobin is here to talk about the impact of this pivotal testimony out in California.

O'BRIEN: Mr. Cafferty, what's the question of the day.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

Major League Baseball says it's going to fight the subpoenas from a congressional committee. Some of the biggest stars being hauled in front of Congress and, under oath, being questioned about steroid use. The potential damage to the image of America's pastime is huge. We'll take a look.

Thank you, Jack.

HEMMER: New developments this morning in the murder case of a federal judge's husband and mother. "The Chicago Tribune" is now reporting a man who shot himself yesterday outside of Milwaukee left a suicide note, claiming responsibility for those murders. At this time, police are not saying if the two cases are related, but from Chicago this morning, here is Keith Oppenheim working that story for us.

Keith, good morning. What's the latest as we have it now?

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's a lot of investigative activity going on right now. First of all, what the "Tribune" is reporting is that a man who committed suicide, shot himself in the head during a traffic stop in Wisconsin, that he is claiming in a suicide note responsibility for the murders of federal Judge Joan Lefkow's husband and her mother last week.

The man's van was stopped in West Alice, Wisconsin, which is near Milwaukee, and the "Tribune" was reporting that the suicide note included details of the investigation, of the case that previously had not been released to the public. And also that there were .22 caliber shell casings found inside the van; .22 caliber shell casings were also found in Judge Lefkow's home last week.

Chicago police said that they have not made a definitive link, but they are sending officers to the scene in Milwaukee.

We should note that the registration of the van is associated with a man who lives in Chicago. And while we're not reporting his name at this time, we can tell you that we have crews on the scene at that location, and they say that there are a lot of police at the home of the man whose name is associated with that van registration.

Now, the question, of course, is whether or not this man had appeared before Judge Lefkow in the past. The "Tribune" is reporting that in the suicide note that there was a judgment that had cost him his home, his job and his family.

Just to recap the events of last week quickly, Bill, on Monday, Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow came to her home. She found her 64-year- old husband, Michael, as well as her 89-year-old mother, Donna Humphrey, dead in the basement. They had both been shot.

Police had been scouring the scene for forensic evidence, and they had come up with some significant things, including a fingerprint that was on a window pane, as well as DNA that had been taken from a cigarette butt found in the home. But the problem that we were reporting as of yesterday was that they weren't able to make a link between that forensic evidence and any names that they could get from national crime database.

So it seemed as of yesterday that the major leads in this case had kind of come to a stop, and now we have this latest development. It's important to note that further background that it was last year that white supremacist Matt Hale had been convicted of plotting to kill Judge Lefkow, and in fact, he is in Chicago awaiting sentencing. So what we're wondering now is whether there is any link to white supremacist groups, or whether this is a completely different case, and has nothing to do with hate groups at all. So a lot going on, Bill.

HEMMER: Thanks for that, Keith. We'll see if we're going in an entirely direction throughout the morning here. Keith Oppenheim in Chicago -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Michael Jackson's teenage accuser testifies again today in the child-molestation case. When he took the stand for the first time Wednesday, it was the first time in two years the accuser and Jackson had seen each other.

CNN's Miguel Marquez has our report this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael Jackson's accuser on the stand, face to face with the world-renowned pop star.

QUESTION: Tell us how you felt facing your accuser.

MICHAEL JACKSON, ENTERTAINER: I'm sorry, I'm under a gag order.

MARQUEZ: In the courtroom as the 15-year-old took the oath to tell the truth, Jackson sat bolt upright.

ANNE BREMNER, LEGAL ANALYST: He did look at Michael Jackson, I think you saw that, and Michael Jackson looked at him.

MARQUEZ: Prosecutors have charged Jackson with plying the boy with alcohol and molesting him four times and conspiring to cover it all up. Jackson says he's not guilty. His accuser once called Jackson "the coolest guy in the world." Today the 15-year-old commanded the world's attention.

BREMNER: He doesn't appear to be relaxed and calm, but he doesn't appear really nervous.

MARQUEZ: The boy testified that on his first day at Neverland in 2000, while still suffering the effects of nearly terminal cancer, Jackson suggested he and his brother spend the night in his bedroom. The boy said his parents allowed it, and the following night, he, his brother, Jackson, his kids, Paris and Prince, and a man named Frank Tyson went to Jackson's room to watch movies. Instead, said the accuser, Tyson got online and surfed adult sites on the Internet for 15-30 minutes. His short testimony so far seemed effective.

BREMNER: Remember when he had to scoot up to the mike, and he said, "OK," really loud into the mike? Jurors just spontaneous smiles of empathy for him.

MARQUEZ: The accuser told jurors that Jackson brought he and his siblings during the filming of the Martin Bashir documentary, "Living With Michael Jackson." And Jackson told the documentary was the boy's audition for the movies. He also told the court that Jackson instructed him to call him "Daddy Michael," and to tell Bashir on camera that Jackson was largely responsible for his recovery from cancer.

(on camera): The boy was only on the stand for about an hour before the court day ended, and later today, he'll be back on the stand being questioned by the prosecution.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, Santa Maria, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Just how pivotal is the accuser's testimony in the state's case against Michael Jackson. Senior legal analyst Jeff Toobin weighs in this morning.

Nice to see you. Good morning.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: We heard Miguel say he thought that the testimony has been very effective. If the boy is good and everybody else is not so good as we've seen thus far, can the prosecution still win this case?

TOOBIN: Absolutely. This is a case with one victim, and if the jury believes that this victim was abused by Michael Jackson, game over, case over. And today is the day he's going to testify about his interaction with Michael Jackson in that bedroom. And if that's believable and if everything else in the case is discounted by the jury, Michael Jackson is still going to get convicted.

O'BRIEN: But we've seen Mesereau, frankly, shred the testimony from another potentially sympathetic person, the brother of the accuser. We haven't seen any kind of cross-examination yet of the accuser.

TOOBIN: Not at all. Of course that's going to be a key moment in the case. What's going to make his job so difficult with this boy is that he is such a sympathetic figure. Unlike the brother, the alleged victim is a cancer survivor. You know, the fact from this case that keeps ringing in my head from Tom Sneddon's opening is this is a boy who had a 16-pound tumor removed from my stomach. If it stayed in my head, it stayed in the jury's head, too. It's going to be difficult to cross-examine a kid like that in a hostile way, but Mesereau proved that he can be polite, insistent and totally devastating in cross-examining a kid. So maybe it will work with the accuser, as well.

O'BRIEN: Do you think juries are more -- we just heard in the piece a woman said, you know, the jury smiled in empathy when he had to scoot up to the microphone in order to be heard. Are juries more forgiving in things in children they might not be forgiving in adults? For example, they contradict themselves, they forget, they can't remember certain details that they could remember three weeks ago?

TOOBIN: Absolutely. And the children have proved to be very successful witnesses, even in cases that turn out to be bad cases. You remember in the '80s, they had all those child-abuse investigations in daycare centers, supposedly satanic abuse, and the juries believed these children testifying in cases where it came out later that no abuse took place at all. So it's very difficult to defend against a child's accusation, because of just what you're suggesting, juries are sympathetic to them, but that's the task before the defense here.

O'BRIEN: You've already said you were underwhelmed by the opening remarks from the prosecution. What does the prosecution have to do now if the accuser is actually a pretty substantial and good witness for them?

TOOBIN: You know, I think one of the things they should probably do is wrap up their case relatively quickly. You know, we had talked about a five, six-month trial. We're only in the second week here, and they're already up to the accuser's testimony. I think prosecutors often over-try their cases. If they believe that this child, now 14, is a good witness, wrap it up in the next couple of weeks. Let the jury decide. The longer this goes, the more complicated it becomes, I think the it is better more Michael Jackson.

O'BRIEN: Leaves the testimony fresh in the jurors' minds as well.

TOOBIN: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: All right, Jeff Toobin, thanks, as always.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: Bill Clinton back in the hospital this morning because of a rare complication from bypass surgery. Sanjay's outside the hospital. We'll talk to him in a moment about what we can expect for the former president today.

O'BRIEN: Also a woman trapped after an explosion at a Petco store. Her only life line was her cellphone. We'll hear her desperate call to 911, just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Former President Bill Clinton has checked into a New York hospital where he will have surgery today on his lung. The procedure stems from a rare but treatable complication that developed after his quadruple-bypass six month ago.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta outside that hospital this morning. Sanjay, good morning to you. I know the president just arrived a couple of hours ago. Give us a sense of what the timeline looks like.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he did get here just a couple of hours ago, about 10 after 5:00 this morning. The cars pulled up. He went in through a side entrance into the hospital. The hospital right behind me here. We were here just six months ago. Similar timeline to then. Usually, you know, and I work in a lot of academic hospitals over the years, Soledad. Typically, what happens is he goes inside, he meets with the anesthesiologist, they talk about the operation. He had some IVs put into his arm, and then is taken back to the operating room. Usually I would guess somewhere in the next hour or so, half hour or two, hour or so, the operation will probably begin in the operating room and probably take a couple hours. After that, he may go to an ICU bed, where he'll just stay.

Now the operation again, we've talked about this over the last couple of days, is designed to basically get rid of some of the scar tissue and some of the fluid around his lung. They're going to try doing this operation as minimally invasive as possible by putting a little camera in and doing the operation through some small instruments. If that doesn't work, they'll actually open up the chest and put in some larger instruments. But again, about two to three hours in terms of length -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, I know that the plan is that he'll be released from the hospital early next week. What's the recovery look like? I mean, how soon is he back out on the golf course playing golf?

GUPTA: Yes, he was obviously golfing yesterday. I think probably the next couple of weeks, he's still going to be sort of homebound. You'll see him out and about maybe a little bit, but probably not doing too much. Within a month or so, he will probably feel comfortable enough to go out and do things to golf.

Golf interestingly enough does put a lot of strain on several muscles, including the muscles around the chest, that will have to be cut to a certain extent to perform this operation, but I think up and about, he'll probably be up and about here in the hospital. He'll probably be able to start maintaining a normal schedule within a month or so -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay Gupta for us this morning. Sanjay, thanks. Of course we're going to continue to check in with you throughout the morning -- Bill.

HEMMER: After more than 20 years as anchor of the "CBS Evening News," Dan Rather has signed off for the final time last evening. The 73-year-old Rather delivering his final newscast 24 years to the day after taking over for Walter Cronkite. Rather said farewell last night, much like he did in his early days, with his famous word, "courage."

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DAN RATHER, CBS ANCHOR: To my fellow journalists in places where reporting the truth means risking all, and to each of you, courage. For the "CBS Evening News," Dan Rather reporting. Goodnight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Family and colleagues then joined Rather in the studio there, and Rather will keep working as a correspondent for "60 Minutes." He says he cannot wait to take on that task. Bob Schieffer, meanwhile, takes over for Rather later tonight, said to be only a temporary basis for CBS. That network expected to name a permanent team in the coming month. The end of an era last night here in the world of journalism.

O'BRIEN: I thought that was pretty remarkable. I thought was nicely said. HEMMER: Twenty-four years, a credit to him.

O'BRIEN: Yes, long career.

Ahead this morning, identity thieves attack another major U.S. company. Thousands of Americans now affected. What's Congress doing to protect us? Andy is "Minding Your Business," up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

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HEMMER: Welcome back, everyone. One of your most precious possessions in danger like never before. The question this morning, can Congress do anything about identity theft? Andy Serwer first check "Minding Your Business," and this has been a story we've talked about for a couple weeks now.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: It seems to be snowballing. And Congress is going to be holding hearings this afternoon. Let me tell you what's going on. Lexis-Nexis yesterday, this is the company that does database searches, people familiar with it, it's also a data broker, yesterday revealed that 32,000 Americans had their identities compromised. Thieves may have gotten into the system and poached them.

Here is what they were going after, names, addresses, driver's license and of course, Social Security numbers. Interesting, Lexis- Nexis has a subsidiary, this is the same company that provides security searches to the government to analyze Americans suspected of being terrorists, the same part of the business.

And of course, last month, ChoicePoint, another data broker, announced that 145,000 American's files have been compromised.

A shoe company, DSW, on Tuesday said 103 stores had their files also looked into, Bank of America, as well several weeks back.

So Congress at 2:30 this afternoon is going to be holding hearings. They're going to be people from ChoicePoint and from Bank of America testifying. The FTC estimates that in 2003, 10 million Americans had their identities stolen, and you know, it's a huge nightmare that can take month and months to sort out. Looking at more regulation here probably.

HEMMER: How much do you think the perils of technology are at play here?

SERWER: Well, the thieves are always one step ahead, that's the problem, and technology is what it's all about.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

HEMMER: We'll talk again.

O'BRIEN: Another big nightmare to talk about, steroids.

CAFFERTY: Indeed. Some of baseball's biggest stars being ordered to appear before a congressional committee and testify under oath about steroid use. Major League Baseball knows an image problem when it sees one and is going to court to try to prevent guys like Jason Giambi, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa from having to answer embarrassing questions whether they used steroids. Players who refuse to answer would have to invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, which could do Major League damage to the sport's image.

Here's the question, should Major League Baseball players be forced to testify under oath about steroids? The e-mail address is Am@CNN.com.

HEMMER: If that were to happen, boy what a sight that would be, huh? And Jose Canseco has said he would do it, and Jose Canseco has a book out right now.

SERWER: He has a credibility problem, too, though.

HEMMER: Very true.

But all these other guys are saying no way, and baseball's fighting it, right?

O'BRIEN: Unless you have a book out, you don't really have a huge upside I would imagine.

CAFFERTY: The Congress is, you know, they're going to spend their time doing this. Major League Baseball is a private organization. They have a contract with the players union. I'm not sure. A judge may say they can't do it. But I'm not a lawyer.

O'BRIEN: Maybe we'll check in a little bit later this morning with Jeff Toobin.

HEMMER: Congress is going to solve this problem and that problem, right?

SERWER: Hold your breath.

HEMMER: Thanks. Let's get a break here. Skin pace space is a hot new commodity for those advertisers, a sign of the times in a moment here. Back after this on AMERICAN MORNING.

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