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Remembering Joan Rivers; Helping LGBT Youth; South Carolina Officer Charged. Aired 8:30-9:00a ET

Aired June 09, 2015 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We all miss Joan's sharp one- liners and blunt fashion feedback, but no one feels the loss more than her daughter. Melissa Rivers is with us to talk about her new memoir about her mom. But first, more on Joan Rivers' enduring legacy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOAN RIVERS, COMEDIAN: If you laugh at it, you can deal with it. I really - that's how I've lived my whole life.

CAMEROTA (voice-over): Nearly one year after the untimely death of beloved comedic icon Joan Rivers, questions remain about the procedure which medical examiners say took her life. Still pending, a lawsuit filed by her daughter Melissa in January, alleges that doctors at Manhattan's Yorkville Endoscopy Clinic were, quote, "reckless" and "grossly negligent."

CNN reached out to the clinic. And while they will not comment on the pending litigation, they emphasized that patient safety is their highest priority. They said, quote, "we use state of the art monitoring devices and have emergency resuscitation equipment, including a fully equipped crash cart, immediately available during every procedure for every patient."

Rivers' trailblazing career spanned decades with countless classic punch lines and hilarious one-liners.

RIVERS: Do you know what it's like to go in the morning to take off a facial mask and realize you're not wearing one?

These are all my jokes.

CAMEROTA: Every joke Rivers told for more than three decades was meticulously filed in the star's personal archives, soon to be professionally cataloged.

RIVERS: There are jokes. Everywhere -- jokes to be filed. Jokes to be written. Jokes -

CAMEROTA: She kept them in her lavish 11-room Manhattan penthouse, now up for sale for a whopping $28 million. Even at age 81, Joan Rivers was at the top of her game and her lifetime of laughter left us too soon.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CAMEROTA: Joining us now is Joan's partner in crime and laughter, her daughter, Melissa.

MELISSA RIVERS, AUTHOR, "THE BOOK OF JOAN": Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Hi. Great to see you.

RIVERS: Good - and good to see you on the East Coast.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: I know, my West Coast friend.

RIVERS: We miss - I know we miss you on the West Coast.

PEREIRA: How you doing?

RIVERS: I'm all right. We're hanging in there. Coop's doing - about two months ago I saw the fog lift from Cooper, which I thought was great.

PEREIRA: OK. It's been harder on him, do you think?

RIVERS: Well, I don't think it's been harder or not as hard. This is his real first experience with this and he and my mom were so close. And my priority became, obviously, making sure that my son was OK. Remember, she lived with us three days a week. So there was never that generational divide.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

RIVERS: So, for him it was much more the loss of a parent than a grandparent. So about two months ago I saw the - saw the fog start to lift and that's when I hit the wall because I could finally go, my son's OK.

CAMEROTA: You know, you've written this book about your mom, "The Book of Joan," and you wrote -

RIVERS: "With Tales of Mirth, Mischief and Manipulation."

CAMEROTA: And manipulation.

PEREIRA: Uh-huh.

CAMEROTA: (INAUDIBLE).

RIVERS: Which is not - it is not a memoir, nor a self-help.

PEREIRA: Ah.

CAMEROTA: It's just - it's remembrances of her.

RIVERS: Yes. It's a series of essays, for lack of a better way to describe it, that are funny.

CAMEROTA: They are funny.

RIVERS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: And there's great nuggets in here. Was it fun? I mean I'm impressed at how quickly you wrote this.

RIVERS: So am I.

CAMEROTA: Was it fun or was it painful to go back through some of these memories?

RIVERS: It was terrifying and daunting in the beginning, but it forced me to sit down every writing session and think of funny things. So it was almost forced laughter therapy -

PEREIRA: Yes.

RIVERS: Because - and I can't believe I'm five weeks on "The New York Times" bestseller list, which I keep saying shows you how low the bar in American - American literature has dropped.

CAMEROTA: Or how much (INAUDIBLE) how much people loved your mom.

RIVERS: Or - exactly. Exactly. In our family, we don't think of it that way.

CAMEROTA: Right.

PEREIRA: Did you hear - did you hear her in your head while you were writing this like sort of sassing you?

RIVERS: Well, I heard her - I mean people keep saying to me, what would her reaction be? I go, she would already be writing her rebuttal. Yes, this is what happened, but now let me explain to you why and my side and why my side makes sense.

CAMEROTA: Right. Here's a cute little nugget. "My mother loved airplane food."

RIVERS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: "So to her, first class was a five-star restaurant. My mother traveled so much that her habits became legendary." That's a great moment. Was your mom - did she like fancy things? Obviously she did, but yet she loved traveling on airplanes?

RIVERS: She - well, she's - not so much traveling on airplanes, but she loved the American Airlines airplane food.

PEREIRA: How bizarre.

RIVERS: And they used to give her the leftovers to take home.

PEREIRA: They did not.

RIVERS: Yes, for her dogs.

PEREIRA: No. Real (ph) doggie bags. RIVERS: And then she would - real - it was (INAUDIBLE) for her dogs and then she would take the extra like (INAUDIBLE).

PEREIRA: Oh, my goodness.

RIVERS: She loved airplane food. I don't know - I think it's because she felt like if she was in the air the calories didn't count. I don't know.

PEREIRA: I'm going to go with that.

RIVERS: Yes, I don't know what - oh, she's like, oh, are you finishing yours? She'd be eating off your tray.

CAMEROTA: Wow.

PEREIRA: Now, that's what I love about this, is there's so many wonderful nuggets of things in this book and you talk about how fastidious and meticulous your mom was and how she would really needed and demanded manners from everybody.

I remember the first time you guys came to my station in Los Angeles, KTLA. I was so nervous and so intimidated because I thought she would be searing and biting and mean. She was the sweetest, kindest, gentlest, generous lady.

RIVERS: Yes, the -

PEREIRA: And people didn't see that often.

RIVERS: Well, the on stage persona was different than the person.

PEREIRA: Right.

RIVERS: And a lot of people are like that.

[08:35:04] PEREIRA: Yes.

RIVERS: You know, it's always funny because the people who always say like the nicest on TV (INAUDIBLE) are usually not the ones in real life who are so nice.

PEREIRA: Yes.

CAMEROTA: So we talked about this inedible catalog of jokes.

RIVERS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Your mom kept - she wrote down every one of her jokes -

RIVERS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: And she filed it in her house.

PEREIRA: It's like the Dewey Decimal System.

RIVERS: Yes. It is.

CAMEROTA: Pretty much it's like the Dewey Decimal System.

RIVERS: It's like the old days going to the library and going through the card catalog.

PEREIRA: Yes. Yes.

CAMEROTA: All right, so what are you going to do with all of those?

RIVERS: We're having them digitally scanned. I thought we were done, but apparently there was a whole bunch more that we just found - we found when we cleaned out, ready for this, the subbasement.

CAMEROTA: Wow.

RIVERS: Yes. They found a whole backlog.

PEREIRA: No.

RIVERS: So we're back. And I think the count right now are 72,000 something or 76,000 something without even cross-referencing them yet.

PEREIRA: Oh, my.

CAMEROTA: And then once you catalog them, where will they live? I mean how - will the American public see them and read them all over (ph)?

RIVERS: We've had a number of offers. We're talking to the Smithsonian. We're talking to the Museum of Broadcasting. It's so funny because I'm so - I've never lived in a house that we didn't have this big metal wall.

PEREIRA: Cabinet, yes, yes.

RIVERS: So it's wired for me to say like, it's going to go live in somewhere else. But it will - it will go somewhere.

PEREIRA: I know that you can't comment on details of the lawsuit. I know that and we recognize that. But what - I know this is very important to you. I was watching your face as we ran that piece. What do you want to come out of all of this?

RIVERS: That it doesn't happen to anybody else, what went on. We filed a very detailed lawsuit, which people can look at. And the most important thing for me is - is - is - is that what happened or allegedly happened doesn't happen again. It's not just about my mother. It's about moving forward.

CAMEROTA: You have funny moments in the book. You also have poignant and painful moments. And I want to read about her last moment that you write about.

RIVERS: OK.

CAMEROTA: You say here in the book, "in the morning, when it was time to remove the ventilator, she was surrounded by those who loved her the most and whom she loved most. I lay in the bed and held her for a while, and after a few hours she was finally gone." Must have been very hard to make the decision of what time and what day that would happen.

RIVERS: Very difficult. Sometimes through these different events in your life you sort of become an expert on things you never wanted to be. And I learned in one week more about traumatic brain injury than I ever cared to learn about. And the doctors told me something brilliant and we had an amazing neurologist who said to me, and a lot of it is wait and see with brain injury, is they will at one point present themselves. And she presented herself.

He said, we knew what we have. And we knew what the situation was. And at that point it becomes clear what you need to do. Plus, my mother had a very extensive living will. So she, in a strange way, gave me the gift of not having to actually make the decision. I knew so clearly what her wishes were.

CAMEROTA: That is a gift.

RIVERS: And that is such a gift.

PEREIRA: And you knew that she loved you and you loved her.

RIVERS: Yes, I talk about that in the book.

PEREIRA: (INAUDIBLE) beautiful (ph).

RIVERS: Which is, you know, always tell your kids you love them.

PEREIRA: Every day.

RIVERS: I mean I'll say to my son, I don't like you very much, but I still love you.

PEREIRA: Love you. (INAUDIBLE).

RIVERS: You know, there's days. I have a teenager. That's, you know, that's what you do.

CAMEROTA: The book is "The Book of Joan." It's a great read. Melissa, thank you so much.

RIVERS: Thank you so much.

CAMEROTA: Great to have you on here.

RIVERS: Thank you.

PEREIRA: All right, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so we have this story of a former South Carolina police officer who's facing a trial for shooting and killing a man after hitting this unarmed suspect eight times as he was running away. Tough facts to be sure. But there is a defense to be offered. We're going to give you the best case for both sides, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:42:45] CUOMO: LGBT issues are big in the news lately, but there is a headline that you are not hearing. There's a new study that tells us, 40 percent of homeless young people identify as LGBT. Now, most of them have been told by family members to get normal or get out. And that was enough to inspire one Memphis couple to impact your world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO (voice-over): The welcome sign on Deb and Steve Word's (ph) front lawn is more than just southern charm. These devout Catholics have been safe house parents for 17 homeless lesbian, gay and transgender youth in the past six years.

DEB WORD, SAFE HOUSE PARENT: Some of these kids were living under bridges or couch surfing or camping in apartments with 12 kids and no utilities.

CUOMO: For many LGBT youth, coming out leads to family rejection.

LEE PARKS, FORMER SAFE HOUSE RESIDENT: I didn't have any family left in the city. And them providing that help for me completely changed my life.

CUOMO: Reaffirming a sense of family is top priority.

STEVE WORD, SAFE HOUSE PARENT: Many of the young people who have ever stayed with us have known they are going to be treated just like our own children.

CUOMO: Leaders in the gay community say there is an urgency to help homeless LGBT youth.

WILL BATTS, DIRECTOR, MEMPHIS GAY AND LESBIAN COMMUNITY CENTER: What happens to kids on the street in the first 48-hours is scary. What we need is a permanent solution for a temporary problem for each kid.

CUOMO: But what LGBT youth want more than shelter is acceptance.

PARKS: People want to feel accepted. They want to feel loved. They don't want to feel like they're different.

D. WORD: We've got to get past the fact that sexual orientation is a reason to discriminate or a reason to not love someone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: That happens more than you would think, even among families. So if you'd like to learn more about how you can impact your world, go to cnn.com/impact.

CAMEROTA: OK. Well, the South Carolina police officer caught on camera shooting a suspect in the back now formally charged with murder. We have the latest on this case. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:48:19] CUOMO: OK, here's what we know. A former South Carolina police officer has been indicted on a murder charge for the death of Walter Scott. Scott shot eight times, OK. Several bullets hit him in the back. Came from Michael Slager, that's the officer. Now he claims Scott went for his Taser. But this video of the shooting told a different story and sparked national outrage, which you know.

So we have Joey Jackson, HLN legal analyst and former prosecutor, and Danny Cevallos, CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney, to puzzle out the two sides of this case.

You will be the prosecutor, my friend. You will be defense. What is the main line coming at this officer?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Intent. The reality is that retaliation is never a defense to any crime. I think they're going to analyze all the circumstances leading up to it. And certainly you can make the argument that he shouldn't have run, Chris. We get that. You can make the argument there shouldn't have been a struggle.

But you have to look and focus on the fact of, look, number one, why was he stopped? It's a violation. And so with regard to, you know, state of mind, you're talking about a taillight certainly does not constitute the death penalty or shouldn't qualify someone for one.

But then there's more than that, and that's the incident itself. Whenever an officer is in imminent fear for their life, then, of course, you may be justified in discharging your weapon and protecting yourself. But when someone is running away, that seems to dissipate some type of threat. Where's the threat here?

CUOMO: So you're saying, at the end of the day, the video tells the story?

JACKSON: I think that it tells the story, but it's also more than that because you look at the video and you see no imminent threat. You see eight shots being fired, four hit him in the back and one in the ear. And then you look at the aftermath of - in terms of looking like he's planting some evidence, which we don't see here. There's no rendering of aid. And there's a telling of a story that there was a struggle, which we certainly do not see.

[08:50:02] CUOMO: All right. Rebuttal, Cevallos?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: If I'm defending this case, I think defense attorneys would say that you focus not on what the video shows, but what the videos - and I use plural because now we have a dash cam video and the iPhone video that we've been seeing so much of.

CUOMO: Dash cam of the original stop.

CEVALLOS: Of the original stop. Focus not on what those videos show, but what the videos don't show, which is that initial encounter. And you better believe that if I'm defending this case, then I will articulate, or have the officer articulate, or some up with some evidence to show that in the interim the suspect made a grab for the weapon, either through the officer's testimony - and really is the only way they can probably get that in - that he went for my weapon, he went for my Taser. I had a reasonable fear of my safety, of eminent bodily harm.

And then, when he's fleeing, the Supreme Court has said that if a - someone is fleeing and the officer reasonably believes they pose a threat to either the officer or others, then deadly force may, may be warranted. But I have to concede, that is a very difficult case to make when the man originally sprinted away, then had a brief tussle and it appears that at all times he only wanted to flee and not to attack anyone. So that's an uphill battle.

CUOMO: Any chance that you get the tape thrown out?

CEVALLOS: That is an interesting question. I would have to say - lean towards no at this point. Why? Because most of the times when you get evidence suppressed, it's because the constitutional rights of the defendant have been violated. He does not have standing to assert those rights. If a non - if a third party voluntarily took video of what is a public occurrence occurring in public, there really aren't a lot of avenues to get that evidence suppressed or have it thrown out of court.

JACKSON: Tape comes in.

CUOMO: Tape comes in. All right.

JACKSON: Absolutely.

CUOMO: So here are the big points of pushback. What Danny's articulating is actually true. Whether it applies or not will be fact sensitive.

JACKSON: Sure.

CUOMO: You came for the Taser. The victim came for my Taser, changed the calculus and now I saw this guy, if he's willing to try to take my Taser, then this guy is a deadly threat to people and that's why I had to shoot him.

JACKSON: I mean it's an argument, Chris. I don't think it's one that carries the day. And the reason it doesn't carry the day is because -

CUOMO: Does it get you to manslaughter off of -

JACKSON: It - well, what gets you to manslaughter could be the provocation. It could be that they examine it and say that it's a heat of passion. It's not so much a premeditated type of event where you intended to kill him, though the tape certainly says something different. But just based on its state of mind, the adrenaline, the struggle, maybe gets you to manslaughter.

But I'm going to tell you why that's a distinction without a difference. Manslaughter in South Carolina carries a 30 year sentence as a maximum. So even if he's convicted on that, I don't see based upon these circumstances where it looks like he's taking pot shots very calmly, intentionally, purposely. He's just laying back and firing to someone who poses no threat. I don't see a judge taking it easy on him, even though the minimum on manslaughter is two years.

CUOMO: Why didn't he go - well, thank you for that segue. Why didn't he go for a deal?

CEVALLOS: The officer, because this is an all or nothing type case. I mean at this point you have to wonder, was there an offer and what was that offer? I don't believe there was one.

CUOMO: You think there may be no offer.

CEVALLOS: There may be no offer at this point. I mean just from a public relations perspective, imagine if a D.A.'s office had made some overtures to the defendant at this point. And, frankly, for the most part, in my experience - Joey, you may feel the same way - at this point the D.A.'s office wouldn't make any offer. They're at the indictment stage essentially. So if there is an offer, I can still see the officer not taking it. Why? Because if he feels his actions were justified, any deal, whatever it may be, I would - I would almost assure you would involve the loss of his job, a felony conviction.

CUOMO: Well, he's already fired.

CEVALLOS: Which for - right, I understand that. But if he's exonerated, I mean this is a man who could arguably work somewhere else again. But the stakes are just too high. For these officers, I think you find it's often all or nothing.

CUOMO: If you didn't have the videotape - let's not forget how this started. And I think it matters more about policy going forward than it does of this particular prosecution. I know it matters -

JACKSON: Right.

CUOMO: But it's about what it says about policing culture going forward. The cops came out in favor in support of this officer in the initial aftermath. That there was nothing wrong (ph). If you didn't have this videotape, do you think you get him off?

CEVALLOS: The videotape changed the entire case because, in any murder case, why -

CUOMO: So no tape. But then you have a body with four - four shells in it.

CEVALLOS: Chris, in any murder case, whether it be by a police officer or by a civilian on the street, the problem is always the same, there is usually only one side to the story and that side comes from the party that is still alive.

JACKSON: Although - although -

CUOMO: You think they would have gotten him? JACKSON: Remember, SLED, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, they looked at it and they said, wait, there are inconsistencies here. You're saying he posed a danger. He's shot in the back? How did he pose the danger? There was the issue of, you know, how actually this event would have taken place. And remember this, Chris, just briefly back to the issue of a plea deal. If prosecution doesn't have the goods, they'll offer the deal. They have the goods here.

[08:55:02] CUOMO: They have the goods in spades (ph), yes.

JACKSON: So I think, you know, he's done.

CUOMO: All right. Well - well done, Danny. Thank you very much. We'll see how it goes, because there is going to be a trial here.

All right, fellas.

All right, so, only little boys can be Spiderman, right? Not if "The Good Stuff" has anything to say about it. We've got a good one for you coming up. It's not about her.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: All right, it's time for "The Good Stuff."

PEREIRA: We need it.

CUOMO: It is good. You know, four-year-old Eli Evangalista (ph) -

PEREIRA: OK.

CUOMO: She's from here in Gotham, New York City. She loves Spiderman. But there was this problem.

PEREIRA: What's the problem?

CUOMO: There is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARGARET RYAN, PARENT: She started coming home from school talking about just not wanting to be a girl anymore because the boys - some of the boys at school said that only boys can be Spiderman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: As I tell my daughters all the time, boys stink. So her parents asked other people in the neighborhood for advice. But they didn't just give their advice. This is NYC, baby. They organized an entire superhero parade.

PEREIRA: Look at the little Ironman.

CUOMO: To tell Eli and the world that it does not matter if you're a boy or a girl, you can always be a superhero.

PEREIRA: I love it.

CAMEROTA: (INAUDIBLE).

CUOMO: You had girls as Superman, boys as Wonder Woman. This spontaneous parade took place over the weekend here in New York City.

PEREIRA: My girlfriend's little girl is obsessed with Darth Vader and I think it's fantastic.

[09:00:02] CAMEROTA: That's great. She can do it.

PEREIRA: She can. She can dress (INAUDIBLE) -

CAMEROTA: She can be an evil character.

PEREIRA: Why not?

CAMEROTA: Yes, why not? That's great.

All right, time now for "Newsroom" with Carol Costello.

Hey, Carol.

CUOMO: Also known as Superman.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: (INAUDIBLE) Darth Vader.