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American Morning

Fatal Crash; Geoghan's Killer Guilty

Aired January 26, 2006 - 08:33   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: No skidmarks -- that is perhaps the most telling clue as to what happened yesterday not far from Jacksonville, Florida when a tractor-trailer slammed into a car stopped behind a school bus. No one survived in that car, seven members of one family, aged 20 months to 15 years. We're left with many questions this morning about the investigation and the fallout in that part of the world.
Lieutenant Bill Leeper, the Florida Highway Patrol, and Carlton Faulk, Union County school superintendent, join us both, to fill us in.

Lieutenant, I'd like to begin with you. If you could just bring us up on the investigation, have you talked to the driver of the tractor-trailer?

LT. WILLIAM LEEPER, FLA. HIGHWAY PATROL: We've interviewed the driver. Everything's still under investigation. We took a blood sample from him to determine any drugs or school in his system. There didn't appear to be, but we'll check that. It takes several weeks for those results to come back, and look at a variety of things to see exactly what happened.

M. O'BRIEN: What did the driver tell you about what he recollects? Had he been working a long-duty day? Was he tired?

LEEPER: Well, basically he just wasn't paying attention. The school bus had stopped. The other vehicle stopped behind the bus, and he just came up, wasn't paying attention, and couldn't slow down in time, and just ran into the back of the other vehicle.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, help me understand, he wasn't paying attention. It was a fairly straight section of road, straight and level. What was paying attention to?

LEEPER: That we don't know. It was a straight road. Visibility was clear. There's really no reason why the driver could not observe the vehicles ahead of him. But we're still looking into everything before we make charges.

M. O'BRIEN: Have you been able to determine beyond a shadow of a doubt if the flashers were operative on that school bus?

LEEPER: Everything appeared to be working fine on the school bus. The bus was doing everything properly. The vehicle stopped behind it like it should. Unfortunately, the semi truck did not stop, and seven people were killed as a result. M. O'BRIEN: The emotional state of the driver of that truck, how would you describe it?

LEEPER: Well, he was slightly injured taken to the local hospital. But there, again, everything's still under investigation to determine why it happened, how it happened, and we'll go forward from there.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, did he express sorrow for what happened?

LEEPER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: OK. And the fact that it was a 15-year-old girl driving the car, is that any in any way relevant to this discussion?

LEEPER: Not to the actual crash. There are some questions that we're going to need answered why those individuals had the vehicle, why there was not someone in there with a license that could drive. So those are questions we'll look at later. But we're focusing now on why the crash happened, and all that has to do with the truck.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you, lieutenant.

I want to shift over to the superintendent now. Mr. Faulk, this is a nightmare kind of day at school for you. What do you have planned for the students? Obviously, there are going to be some very emotional moments.

CARLTON FAULK, UNION CO. SCHOOLS SUPT.: Well, I'll tell you, just going back to yesterday, an administrative team getting the call and all of us going to the scene and just being there and seeing the people of Union County. You kind of got to understand, we've got 2200 students. And a lot of kin people, a lot of good close friends.

You know, when I came up on the scene, our media specialist from the elementary school was helping attend to one of the children. She was on her way home from school. We had all the different agencies -- the sheriff's department, the Florida Highway Patrol, emergency management, fire/rescue, and all our volunteers. And everyone just did an outstanding job. We were able to get into the hospital last night to visit with some of the kids, and they seemed to be doing well, met with administrators on the phone and at the hospital last night. We knew we had to have our counselors on duty this morning. We received some help from Bradford County, Harry Hatcher, Becky Reddish (ph) called us and were on hand. And then Doug York, from emergency team...

M. O'BRIEN: Mr. Faulk, how seriously injured are those kids that were on the school bus? Are there any that are extremely serious?

FAULK: The kids are going to be okay. They do have some time to heal, but they're going to be okay.

M. O'BRIEN: And finally, have you thought about -- are you going to address students today? And if so, what will you say to them? FAULK: Yes, we met with the faculty first thing. We had our faculty come in early. And, again, we've got counselors on hand. And as the day goes on, if we feel like we need to have a student assembly, we'll do that. And if we find that we have some students that need some more help than we can provide, we'll get that.

M. O'BRIEN: Thanks for your time, gentlemen. That's superintendent Carlton Faulk of the Union County schools, and Lieutenant Bill Leeper of the Florida Highway Patrol, on a tough morning there in Union County, Florida -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Good job, no hard feelings. That is what Joseph Druce said to the jury on Wednesday after he was convicting of murdering pedophile priest John Geoghan in prison. The jury rejected his insanity defense.

AMERICAN MORNING's Dan Lothian has our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Convicted pedophile and former priest John Geoghan was serving a 10-year prison sentence for groping a young boy when he began talking to convicted killer Joseph Druce.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You ever think of him as a person?

JOSEPH DRUCE: At one point. At one point, I did.

LOTHIAN: Geoghan had been accused of molesting about 150 children. Druce, who himself claims to have been abused as a child, says as he got to know the prison's most notorious inmate, Geoghan became arrogant and was unrepentant.

DRUCE: The guy was talking about molesting kids, getting out and starting a mission and molesting more kids. I wasn't going to let it happen.

LOTHIAN: So two-and-a-half years ago, he sneaked into Geoghan's cell, jammed the door shut with a book, then beat him and used his socks to strangle the 68-year-old former priest.

DRUCE: He was like, "general, it doesn't have to be like this," you know, that was his last words, you know, "general, it doesn't have to be like this," and I was, like, you ain't hurting no more kids. It's over for you, pal.

LOTHIAN: This prison surveillance tape shows the aftermath as guards struggle to get into the cell and restrain Druce. Already serving a life sentence for killing another man who had allegedly made a sexual pass at him, Druce testified how Geoghan's death brought him relief.

DRUCE: I just knew I had to stop him. I admitted I killed him.

LOTHIAN (on camera): During the two week-long trial, his attorney used the insanity defense, arguing that Druce was mentally ill and delusional and believed that he was carrying out God's will by sending a clear message to other pedophiles around the world. But the prosecutor insisted he was a calculating criminal, who planned his attack for weeks in order to become a big shot at the Massachusetts prison.

(voice-over): They describe how he spent hours stretching his socks to create the murder weapon and how he warmed up to Geoghan, making friendly visits, in order to catch him off guard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Druce understood that what he was doing was wrong. He understood it was criminal.

LOTHIAN: After deliberating for about seven hours over two days, the jury agreed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guilty of first-degree murder.

LOTHIAN: Druce waved to the jury, told them it's all right, good job, and did a thumbs up. The prosecutor said no one likes pedophiles, but no one gave Druce the right to become an executioner.

Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Druce's conviction carries an automatic sentence of life without parole. It's added to the other life sentence that he is already serving.

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S. O'BRIEN: Let's take to you Britain where both the air and the spare are having kind of military makeovers. Prince Harry, third in line to the throne, is going to join a distinguished army regiment when he finishes training and could be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan.

As CNN's Jim Boulden reports, it's certainly a far cry from his days as a royal party animal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Prince Harry's hijinx were a huge embarrassment for the royal family when he appeared in Britain's "Sun" newspaper, wearing a Nazi uniform at a party a year ago.

These days he's wearing a British military uniform at the country's esteemed Sandhurst Military Academy. And soon, the third in line to the throne could be serving in Afghanistan, or even Iraq. In April, Prince Harry will join an elite armored division where, where after some training, his aim is to lead a tank reconnaissance unit.

First he'll be in the operational side of a household cavalry, which will see action in the Faulklands, the First Gulf War, Bosnia and Kosovo. If his unit is called to Iraq or to Afghanistan, he will be expected to search in those hotspots, too. And Britain is expected to soon increase troop levels in Afghanistan. He's not the first modern royal to serve in the armed forces. His uncle, Prince Andrew, was in the Royal Navy and served in the Falklands. He, too, had a reputation as a party boy, but perhaps not quite in the same spirit as Harry, whose father, Prince Charles, intervened when Harry gained the nickname "Harry Pothead." The military, said his father, was the answer.

But Harry's regiment, one of Britain's oldest and known as the blues and royals, also has a ceremonial unit based in London, where Prince Harry could be charged with protecting his grandmother, the queen.

Jim Boulden, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, pretty nice to be a celebrity at the Sundance Film Festival, millions of bucks, and everybody's fighting to give them free stuff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEY JUDD, ACTRESS: It's the reverse of getting mugged -- people throw stuff at you and then they run.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Straight ahead, is Sundance really more about the freebies then the films. We'll take a look at that, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

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M. O'BRIEN: Well, they call themselves the indies -- independent filmmakers in search of creative freedom. And their alter of independence is the legendary Sundance Film Festival, underway this week in Park City, Utah. But just how far is Sundance from the swag of Tinseltown?

Entertainment correspondent Brooke Anderson takes a peek behind the silver screen. And Brooke, I guess there's creeping swaggitis there or something like that, right?

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: There's a lot of swaggitis here, Miles. The face of the festival has changed dramatically since Robert Redford founded it more than 20 years ago. And that has led a lot of people to ask the question has Sundance lost its soul?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON (voice-over): It's considered the premier American showcase for independent filmmaking. One hundred twenty are making their debuts at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

(on camera): But besides the screenings, there are plenty of other distractions vying for attention.

(voice-over): From exclusive parties...

LANCE BASS, ENTERTAINER: This alone is $1,000.

ANDERSON: ... to bags of free stuff known as swag, celebrities, including Lance Bass, Jessica Biel and Shannon Elizabeth, are flocking to dozens of sponsored suites and taking home thousands of dollars in gifts and goodies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Paige (ph), the designer of Paige Premium Denim.

ANDERSON: This commercialization has led to criticism that Sundance has become more about the free stuff than the films.

TONI COLLETE, ACTRESS: It's kind of funny.

ANDERSON (on camera): Has it gotten out of control? Is it too much?

COLLETE: Yes, probably.

ASHLEY JUDD, ACTRESS: It's the reverse of getting mugged, where people throw stuff at you and then they run.

KEVIN SMITH, DIRECTOR: And they're like, let's get some of our products in the hands of famous people, take their pictures. But that has nothing to do with the festival itself.

ANDERSON (voice-over): Still, for some performers, like Paul Giamatti, who had two films debut at Sundance this year, the spirit of Sundance is still intact.

PAUL GIAMATTI, ACTOR: There's a big layer of the hoopla, but underneath it, this thing doesn't seem to be that different. There's all kinds of stuff here.

ROBERT REDFORD, SUNDANCE FESTIVAL FOUNDER: There's been a tendency to want to judge the festival from the outside where the parties are, you know, the celebrities are, that may not even be seeing the films for all I know.

ANDERSON : Despite that criticism, Sundance founder Robert Redford insists the festival remains true to its original mission.

REDFORD: To be creating an opportunity for all work to be seen -- documentaries, shorts, features -- that are of a little different order, a little bit off the grid in terms of their points of view, but no less powerful. That's the festival.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Sundance features a diverse group of films, 120 total this year. And Miles, that includes 59 first-time filmmakers. M. O'BRIEN: All right, Brooke, thanks for getting up early for us, or staying up late. I don't know which way it is. But hope you're having fun out there. That's one of those assignments -- I never get an assignment like that.

S. O'BRIEN: No, that's a...

M. O'BRIEN: It's a good one.

S. O'BRIEN: Does she get any swag? Hey, Brooke? Can we ask her?

ANDERSON: I don't, in fact. Unfortunately, I see the swag suites and I have to leave empty-handed.

S. O'BRIEN: Ah, man!

M. O'BRIEN: You can't do it. We'd have to rat you out.

ANDERSON: I know.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, coming up tomorrow, the Sundance kid. Not Robert Redford, but 21-year-old Roger Ingraham. He has hit the big time bringing his indie film to Sundance, all about life in his hometown. We'll find out what it's to go from being just a regular guy to rubbing elbows with the superstars.

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, have you heard the very latest about Kanye West? Kind of a new controversy. Take a look at this. He looks like Jesus on the cover of "Rolling Stone." Needless to say, some people aren't crazy about that shot. We'll talk about that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

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