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New Day Saturday
Obama Shakes Hands with Raul Castro; Clinton to Announce Presidential Bid; Funeral Services for Victim Killed by Cop, Police Transparency after South Carolina Police Shooting? Brawl Between Cops, Family at Walmart; Good Samaritans Try to Save Woman on Freeway; Still No Verdict in Hernandez Trial. Aired 7-8a ET
Aired April 11, 2015 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:00:01] COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS: He's sitting pretty right now, heading into the final two rounds but Charlie Hoffman who's currently in second is only five shots behind him. And a lot of guys are playing really well and can make a run if Spieth tumbles. So Phil Mickelson is playing well. He's currently a minus six.
We'll see guys action get started at 10:05 today. Tiger gets started a little later in the day. Maybe I'll come back and share what's going on with you.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Looking forward to it, Coy. Thank you so much.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Coy.
BLACKWELL: And also watch "ALL ACCESS AT AUGUSTA." This a CNN Bleacher Report special hosted by Rachel Nichols which will air today at 2:30 p.m. Eastern.
PAUL: We have so much news to tell you about this morning.
BLACKWELL: Yes, so the next hour of your NEW DAY starts right now.
A powerful image ahead of a historic meeting potentially. President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro shaking hands. Could this meeting break wide open decades of tension between the two countries?
PAUL: Former secretary of State, Hilly Clinton's announcement. This run for the White House is going to be a lot different than in 2008. How she's changed and how it could shape her run in 2016.
BLACKWELL: Plus a grieving South Carolina community prepares today to say good-bye and we're learning new details about the man in Walter Scott's car. That mysterious passenger. Who was he and why did police let him go.
PAUL: Just past 7:00 here at the top of the hour. And so grateful that you're joining us as always. I'm Christi Paul.
BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. A pleasure to be with you every weekend. PAUL: Absolutely. A historic moment here, too, we're talking about
today for U.S.-Cuba relations. President Obama shook hands with Cuban President Raul Castro at a summit in Panama. They even spoke on the phone earlier this week.
BLACKWELL: Now the last time something like this happened was back in 1959, and here is the picture when then Vice President Nixon and Fidel Castro shook hands and now the White House is considering better U.S.- Cuba relations. And having you Cuba removed from the list of state sponsors of terror.
CNN's Rosa Flores is live in Panama City for us now.
And, Rosa, is there an official meeting? This I'm calling just an encounter because they shook hands and spook for a minute. But a sit down meeting with the two presidents, is that planned?
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's not. There's no official bilateral meeting that has been set between both heads of state. But I want to go back to that picture because I want to take you behind the scenes, how that picture was taken, and why it's not an official photo. Because if you look closely it's not the official handshake, there's no media around.
This was actually in an leader's lounge. And so it was a meeting before the actual inauguration of the Summit of the Americas so it's just leaders just mingling and then bam, you have President Obama and President Castro shaking hands. Mingling a little bit. We of course don't have audio to that video, otherwise that would be fascinating.
And then of course, I was trying to look around in that video, Victor, to see was somebody mediating this meeting, this encounter? I was looking for the cardinal perhaps. Because as you know the Vatican for the first time sending someone to the Summit of the Americas, a cardinal.
But no, that's a very casual, that's a casual encounter and of course everyone here in Panama and around the world talking about that handshake. But I've got to tell you something, you know, they broke the ice on Wednesday when both leaders spoke by phone and President Obama was still in Washington, D.C. President Castro restored in Havana and from what we've learned they spoke about the ongoing negotiations to get embassies in Havana and in Washington, D.C.
So again we will be monitoring all of the events today because as you know there's events throughout the day, and these two leaders will be mingling. They could meet on the sidelines but like I mentioned, no official bilateral meeting has been set -- Victor.
BLACKWELL: All right. Rosa Flores, for us from Panama City. Rosa, thanks.
PAUL: Former secretary of the State Hillary Clinton meanwhile is running for president, we are told. The much anticipated announcement expected to come tomorrow in the form of a video posted online. She's not planning a big live announcement as we've seen, you know, this month with her Republican rival but she is hitting the campaign trail to visit crucial states such as New Hampshire and Iowa.
Remember Mrs. Clinton's third straight finish in Iowa back in 2008 ultimately led to the collapse of her presidential aspirations at that point.
CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is live in Washington with the very latest. What have you heard, Sunlen?
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Christi. Well, this video will be posted at social media at some point on Sunday. Clinton will then quickly get out to the early states, traveling to Iowa soon after. They say the goal here is to demonstrate that this time around she doesn't want to take anything for granted.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm back.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
[07:05:02] SERFATY (voice-over): A new version of Hillary Clinton when she hits the campaign trail. Less of this.
CLINTON: Thank you so much.
SERFATY: And more of this.
CLINTON: Looking forward to coming and having a conversation with a few people.
SERFATY: The campaign's expected new strategy -- place Clinton is smaller, more intimate settings, intended to try to highlight her softer side, aides say.
CLINTON: Thank you.
SERFATY: And avoid the perception of inevitability that dogged her and led to her defeat in 2008.
CLINTON: Good to see you.
SERFATY: Central to that new pitch, a focus on Hillary Clinton, the person, aiming to reintroduce herself not as a former first lady, not as a former senator or secretary of state, but as a grandmother.
CLINTON: I have to say I'm still kind of in the grandmother glow six months in. It's better than a spa treatment. I highly recommend it. And I suppose it's only fair to say, don't you someday want to see a woman president of the United States of America?
SERFATY: She's already coming in bruised, controversy still swirls over her use of a private e-mail server while secretary of state.
CLINTON: Looking back? It would have been better for me to use two separate phones and two e-mail accounts. I thought using one device would be simpler, and obviously it has not worked out that way.
SERFATY: And her trustworthiness has taken a hit. A Quinnipiac poll out this week from the crucial swing states of Iowa, Virginia, and Colorado show more voters believe she is not honest.
CLINTON: Hello, everyone.
SERFATY: An area of vulnerability Republican candidates have already pounced on.
SEN. RAND PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The question here is, are they skirting election law? Are they taking money and potentially getting influence bought by foreign countries through a foundation? It is unseemly.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SERFATY: And polls show that Clinton enters the race with a big lead over her potential Democratic challengers, but if she wins the nomination, the general election will be a different story. Polls also show there are many leading Republican contenders who've started to edge ahead of her in these key swing states -- Christi.
PAUL: All right. Sunlen Serfaty, always appreciate it. Thank you.
BLACKWELL: Joining us now for more CNN politics senior reporter Stephen Collinson and CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.
Good to have both of you. Stephen, I want to start with you and a look at the CNN-ORC poll. Secretary Clinton is holding on to a massive lead over other potential candidates, we'll put it up here. I mean, she's more than 45 percent ahead of Vice President Biden who's in second place here with 15 percent. And some thought that Clinton was inevitable -- inevitable rather back in 2007 and in 2008 until Barack Obama came into the picture, and we know how that ended up.
Stephen, which if any Democrats could chip away at the lead here? And how would that happen? Are we seeing any indicators of a strategy?
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Not really. It doesn't seem like there's any real candidate who's got the strength to take on Hillary Clinton, who could raise the kind of money, for example, that would be needed. A lot of people have spoken about Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren who's very popular with the Democratic grassroots.
But she said she's not going to run and many people think that, you know, her political interests are best served by being a power broker on the sidelines and not coming into the race where she would likely lose to Hillary Clinton. So, you know, as you said Hillary Clinton is much more inevitable, strangely enough, than she was, you know, in 2008 when she -- I think she only led Barack Obama that year by about 15 percent this time in the race. So -- and that's why it's very interesting the campaign -- the nation campaign of Hillary Clinton is making strenuous efforts to not appear inevitable. So there's a certain irony there, I think. BLACKWELL: Douglas, we have the 2008 example here, but how often do
candidates who not only are very strong going to the general but going into the primary seem like the inevitable next president. How often do they actually win?
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, it's very rare. Usually it happens for an incumbent president if you're sitting in the White House and you're going for reelection, the party usually just says well, you're our candidate. And it's a little bit that way with Hillary Clinton.
She's going to have a very interesting time, I think, of getting out there and trying to loosen up and find momentum. She's got the name recognition, she doesn't really have competition, and you know she's the proverbial favorite really even to win the election probably right now, but she is going to -- it'll be interesting to see if -- if she can attract the women to her cause. So she is making that her main stay and if she can do that, if she can start really polling well with women voters she'll get momentum and she's going to be a force to reckon with. The Republicans are going to have a hard time with her.
BLACKWELL: Common wisdom back in 2008 and 2012 was that the eventual nominees were better general election candidates. And I guess that's the time it was in every cycle because they go through the struggles of the primary, Stephen.
[07:10:09] Is that how the Clinton campaign is looking at this? Are they hoping for credible challenger, a strong challenger in the primary to better prepare for the general?
COLLINSON: I think that, you know, it would be good if Hillary Clinton had some strong competition in Democratic debates certainly so that when she goes up against the Republicans she's, you know, practiced and has her lines well honed. In some ways I think for Hillary Clinton the general election begins tomorrow. You know, in the knowledge that she doesn't really have a genuine Democratic candidate.
You've already seen the number of Republicans including Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, who's expected to launch his campaign early this week to, you know, taking on Hillary Clinton already. It's almost in some ways we've almost got a general election breaking out even before the primaries have really got going. So, you know, Hillary Clinton is used to being in the public guy. She's used to, you know, playing hardball partisan politics.
And the fact that she doesn't have a Democratic candidate to go against her will mean that the Republican attacks may be what she uses as foil to kind of get some momentum to her candidacy.
BLACKWELL: Douglas, can we talk about President Clinton for a moment. We saw some of the fumbles straight out of the gate in 2008 with what his role should be in Hillary Clinton's campaign for president. But is there any other example of -- obviously not a president, a former president who is the spouse of a candidate, but someone who is married to someone with such a strong charismatic personality and how to include that without overshadowing the candidate?
BRINKLEY: Well, we had that once, her name was Eleanor Roosevelt. And she would break away from FDR and talk more about civil liberties and women's rights, working class issues, took over the kind of the progressive agenda of the Democratic Party on her own. And you have a similar situation some ways with Bill Clinton but what he does is draw huge crowds. He is a performer.
And so to get him out there, and just get things going, I keep using the word momentum. They've got to build the momentum now. And one person we should mention in Iowa is Governor O'Malley of Delaware coming out to Iowa. He's going to run there and, you know, he's working hard. He's almost living in the state of Iowa right now. And if he could ever get down so it's a one-on-one debate, O'Malley versus Clinton in Iowa, he might be able to track a little bit.
But beyond that right now, nobody else wants to take on her or take on the Clinton machine as people like to say. So it's becoming to look more and more like an anointment of her.
BLACKWELL: Yes, we've got the reporting from the "Baltimore Sun" this morning that former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley is going to announce in May his decision to get into the primary fight or not.
Douglas Brinkley, Stephen Collinson, thank you both.
COLLINSON: Thanks.
BRINKLEY: Thank you.
PAUL: And one South Carolina community is preparing to mourn and to protest today. This was a rally last night, held to honor Walter Scott. The victim of that deadly police shooting. We are live with the very latest on the investigation. The passenger in his car before the final moment, before he died.
Also the pesticide scare in the Virgin Islands. It could be expanding. Why authorities say they are looking for more vacationers now.
BLACKWELL: And coming up next half hour, we're getting a first look at a big brawl. Look at this. Outside of Arizona Wal-Mart. We'll show more of it without the banner in just a moment but a family gets into a fight with police, fists flying everywhere, shots fired.
We've got the story next hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:16:58] BLACKWELL: Friends and family will gather this morning in Summerville, South Carolina, to lay to rest Walter Scott who was shot and killed by a North Charleston officer one week ago today. Meanwhile there are new developments about the mystery passenger we've highlighted here on your screen, who was captured on dash cam sitting next to Scott before Scott ran during that routine stop. Now this is new video of the passenger in the striped shirt here
talking with another officer. State authorities say they have met with this person and that he has been released without charges. Still little else is known about what was discussed with the investigators or even the identity of the person.
Let's bring in CNN's Polo Sandoval who is in Summerville, South Carolina, with the latest on the investigation. Some distance from North Charleston I guess because it's a larger venue, Polo?
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Victor. In fact that funeral is expected to happen in the building you see behind here at Word Ministries, shortly after 11:00 a.m. But back to what you just mentioned there in this mystery passenger despite several efforts to try to track him down, really at this point CNN gets to speak to that person.
And I'll tell you why it's so crucial really to hear from him because he could potentially provide a huge part of this puzzle that really part of this investigation because he is essentially, Victor, the very last person that spoke to Scott before he decided to jump out of the vehicle and run away and then of course have that deadly confrontation with Officer Slager, so of course based on this information, we would be able to find out exactly what went on in that vehicle before Scott decided to run because at this point, Victor, it is really -- there's this gap.
We have that initial video of the traffic stop and we do have that very graphic and tough to watch video that shows the actual shooting itself. But we don't know what actually happened between that officer. Would that interaction in the vehicle tell us exactly why he ran? That's one of the major questions we have this morning almost a week after the shooting, Victor.
BLACKWELL: Polo, what about what we're expecting today as it relates to the demonstrations? Are there demonstrations planned for today?
SANDOVAL: At this point we're not hearing that there are any demonstrations planned for today and I will tell you the last several days demonstrations while they were organized, they haven't really been significantly large. We did see a small vigil outside of the North Charleston City Hall yesterday. But next to that, we really haven't seen any major or any large groups assembled. It would be interesting to see if we actually see a show of support outside Word Ministries here in Summerville, South Carolina.
Looking ahead, I can tell you that the family should be headed to the funeral home in nearby Charleston within the next hour or so. From there, they would be traveling here to Summerville, a very short drive. Again this is where that funeral service will be held. It is open to the public. The family choosing to (INAUDIBLE), it could potentially accommodate a larger crowd than if the home -- Victor.
BLACKWELL: All right. Polo Sandoval, thank you so much.
PAUL: Want to bring in CNN political commentator Errol Louis now for us.
Errol, thank you so much for being with us.
ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Christi.
PAUL: Sure. Good morning to you. You've written an opinion piece for CNN.com. And you say it's time to end stonewalling on police shootings. Elaborate on that. What exactly are you calling for?
[07:20:14] LOUIS: Well, we keep hearing these cases and we've talked about it on this show and others about how many times there are these cases where people appear to be under controversial, unarmed people killed by the police. But we don't know how often that takes place. And as amazing as it might sound a law was passed by Congress and signing the law by then President Bill Clinton back in 1994, mandating that the U.S. Attorney General present an annual report on how often this happens.
Now there are 17,000 police departments all around the country, and they have some incentives to provide the information but it's not provided consistently and so we actually don't know how often this happens. And you know it's amazing in a way because there's so much at stake, you know, in community after community people say, well, this seems to be happening so much and we don't know if it correlates with officer training, we don't know if it correlates even with, you know, mental disease among officers.
We don't know if it correlates with race. We don't really what's going on out there. And in my opinion there's really no excuse for that.
PAUL: Well, and you mentioned, too, in your op-ed this article in the "New York Times" in 2001 that said there is no comprehensive accounting for all the nations as you just said 17,000 police departments. It doesn't exist. And that it's really expensive to collect that data. But you say the onus falls on Congress to make something happen here.
LOUIS: Absolutely. The only reason we're not getting these reports, the only reason we're not really pushing these local departments, and Congress could do this frankly. The Justice Department could do this if they really wanted to. If they were to say look, you already, local departments, you have to -- they have to present all kinds of data about the number of homicides, about domestic violence, about all kinds of different information.
It has to be fed into the -- upward to the FBI. It would not take all that much in the way of effort to sort of mandate, standardized compliance. Now I understand it is a tough task. And I understand as well that local departments don't want to air their dirty linen. But without some kind of sense again as mandated that we were told by Congress we're supposed to be collecting this data 20 years ago now. Without that information, we're kind of flying blind about solutions and how to sort of put an end to this kind of tragic killings.
PAUL: Right. Right. How to evolve from all of this. Walter Scott's brother says, you know, without this video showing his
brother being shot, he might never have known what happened. Listen to this real quick.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY SCOTT, WALTER SCOTT'S BROTHER: Nothing that the officers have reported previously lined up to what was seen on the video. I was like -- he did not struggle. There was not a struggle for the taser, which I didn't believe my brother would have done that anyway. But after seeing the video, I was like he was running for his life. Not to be shot down. Not to be tased anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: What's the reaction to that, Errol?
LOUIS: Well, I mean, you know, he raises a point that actually I had thought about on the second or third viewing of that video. There are people who are raising the question, well, why would you ever run from law enforcement? Why would you run? Well, you know, we don't know what exchange was going on between them. We don't know in the police officer -- I am making this up, if the police officer might have said, hey, get out of here.
You know, get out of here before I hurt you or something like that, or he might have said, you know, you're in for the beating of a life -- of your life or something like that. We don't really know what happened in here. Again, because we don't know, it's becoming so hard to say what went on in this case or any other case.
And one other point I'd like to make, Christi, is that, you know, there's all this talk about body cams, let's have cameras on the cops. Well, what you saw in this case was not a body cam. You know, it was a third party shooting from a different vantage point. And, you know, and it was surreptitious at that. And that's a very different kind of kettle of fish than trying to assume that the same police officer, let's say Slager, is guilty of what the authorities have charge him with, do you really think that somebody who would shoot an unarmed fleeing person like that, who would appear to plant a taser on the body would also responsibly handle a body cam that might incriminate him?
You know, we're just at the beginning of this problem. It seems like, you know, we're not going to get a technological fix to what's a much deeper problem.
PAUL: A lot of people have said, body cameras are not the magic cure by any means, but certainly they could bring more answers that what we're left with in many of the situations we've seen thus far.
Errol Louis, always appreciate you. Thank you.
LOUIS: Thanks, Christi.
BLACKWELL: Another police beating caught on tape, now getting the FBI -- getting involved in this one, too. Still ahead, there could be additional charges for nearly a dozen California deputies videotaped punching and kicking an unarmed man here. Watch this one. We've got more video for you on this.
[07:25:10] Also newly released police dash cam video shows fists flying everywhere in a brawl between cops and a family in Wal-Mart in a parking lot. Details ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAUL: 28 minutes past the hour. I want to share some stories with you that are developing this morning. An FBI civil rights investigation underway now into yet another police beating that was caught on tape.
BLACKWELL: Yes, this incident involved California sheriff's deputies in San Bernardino County. Look, nearly a dozen officers, and they'll run in later, in this video, they're seen attacking a robbery, an identity theft suspect, repeatedly kicking and punching this unarmed men. He was subdued at the time. The deputies are currently on paid leave.
There may be more people who were exposed to deadly levels of the bug spray on the Virgin Islands. Government officials say they are trying to track down additional vacationers who had stayed at condominium villas on the Caribbean Island. The pesticide company Terminix may have improperly used methyl bromide to fumigate rooms at multiple resorts. Siblings, two siblings from Delaware who vacationed on St. John remain in a coma.
PAUL: Arizona Police just released a dash cam video that shows this huge brawl between police and a family in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Now it happened late last month, one man is dead, seven others are injured and a police officer was hurt.
[07:30:00] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Pete Suratos of CNN affiliate WNXT has details for us here.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: I need to separate these folks and talk to them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, your not going to separate --
PETE SURATOS, REPORTER, ABC 15 NEWS, WNXT: It's our first look of the intense brawl between Cottonwood police and a family of eight. That family attacking officers in this Walmart parking lot back in March after they were accused of assaulting a Walmart employee just moments before.
(SHOUTING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're hitting children.
(SHOUTING) SURATOS: Officers tried subdue the family, repeatedly tasing them, spraying pepper spray and even tackling them.
(SHOUTING)
SURATOS: They had help from a Walmart worker and two others but they had little luck. The family finding different ways to continually attack these officers, rolling on the ground when Tased and wiping away the pepper spray.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Personally, I have not seen the tactic applied, so I am not sure where he learned it. Somebody has taught them that.
SURATOS: Time and time again the family put their hands up, pretending to surrender, but they never do.
(SHOUTING)
SURATOS: And then during the fight, shots are fired. The first shot according to go the police, is one of the suspects shooting the officer in a leg. Another shot is an officer shooting the suspect who is now deceased.
And on the topic of civilians, how close is too close. This is a Walmart employee, Eric Fields, helping police fight off the family.
I asked if this is something that regular folks should steer clear from instead of jumping in.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: We're very familiar with him because of our interactions with him at the loss prevention at Walmart, so the officers are familiar with him. The other two gentlemen that approached were nonthreatening.
SURATOS: Six of the family members were arrested, two of them are juveniles, facing a variety of charges, including assault of an officer and resisting arrest. That injured officer has been released from the hospital and is recovering from injuries. And this case is under investigation with GPS.
In Cottonwood, Pete Suratos, ABC 15 News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: All right, Pete, thank you.
Also, I want to show you some new video of a shooting that wounded a decorated Boston officer. It ended with the death of the gunman. The tape was released in order to calm concerns over the use of deadly force.
Take a look at this video here. It shows the suspect being pulled over by two unmarked police cars. Officer John Moynihan approached the vehicle and that's when he shoots Moynihan at close range. Moynihan is revering. He was actually honored at the White House last May for his heroism in helping to save an officer wounded during the shootout with the Boston Marathon bombers.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Let's dig deeper into these incidents involving police and cameras.
Joining me now is HLN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney, Joey Jackson.
Also back with us, CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director, Tom Fuentes.
Good to have both of you back with us.
JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, Victor.
Good morning, Tom.
BLACKWELL: Tom, I want to start with you.
The video that's being released, is this an effort by law enforcement agencies across the country to be more transparent? Typically, they would say that you have to wait until it comes out in court. Now we see days later, dash cam video, surveillance video they have, body camera video.
TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: No, I think, Victor, they want to be more transparent and, in some cases, they're being forced to be transparent. This is something that many people need to wake up to. When you want to have body cameras on every single police officer, you have dash cameras, which, in this case, show what occurred and what the police officers are facing, either getting beat on or shot at, you know, bad things happen to police officers. Unfortunately, you know, if happens that a police officer does a bad thing to somebody else, but, by and large, this is what you're going see. You're going see what police officers face. How you get attacked on the street. How they get shot at. How vulnerable they are. It's a dangerous profession and especially when you have people out of control and wild, especially in the Walmart case. That's what the police officer faces. How do you go in to that situation and try to establish peace? No community policing is going help when you run into a situation like that family.
BLACKWELL: I want to talk more about the community element in just a moment.
But, Joey, I was with a group of police chiefs and prosecutors and the police were saying that often they release this type of video because they want to calm fears and anxiety in the community. But prosecutors say do not release that. That's evidence. How does this help or hurt in a courtroom?
JACKSON: Well, it's a fabulous development. We live in a new era and a new age. It's not so that in the past you needed a camera walking around to find something. A cell phone has exquisite devices on it that can get crystal clear exactly what is going on. There's two perspectives that need to be balanced. The first is that there's a community there that needs to have the trust of law enforcement. And I am certain that law enforcement wants that trust to the community.
When you have the release of the dash cam videos and have discussions about body cameras -- and see in South Carolina what they're doing now, the executive order in North Charleston has everyone getting them. I think that everyone now is on their best behavior. Why not release this to the public to let the public know what occurred. We do not have to rely on witness one, two, three, four, that may or may not be inconsistent from each other. We can see it with our eyes.
Now you move that to the prosecution's concern, and, of course, there's the concern that you want to preserve evidence. There's a time and place, according to the prosecutor, to have the information released. That's in the court of law. However, I do not think that it hinders the prosecution or the defense to let the community know prior to trying the case what occurred.
[07:35:45] BLACKWELL: Hey, Tom, I want to go to this case that we're talking about in Cottonwood because the reporter spoke with the police chief and the police chief said that he had never seen tactics like this before in resisting the pepper spray and the Tasers, and someone must have taught them that. I maybe off base here, and tell me if you think I am, but is it that we're looking at something that's less of a collection of what happened at that moment or something that was designed or choreographed to get to some of those officers?
FUENTES: Good question, Victor. I don't' know. I can't tell from looking at that. I can't tell exactly what the police chief means by a deliberate attack. I am just not sure what the reference is. You see in that -- you see the limitations, using Taser in a brawl, you get one shot with it. If it doesn't take -- and when you hear that clicking sound, which you hear in this video, that means that both probes did not land on the suspect, and that's when it makes the sound. It's a louder noise. So the Taser was used once, ineffective. Maybe other people were Tased. It only works for a second or two. It's only designed to stun the person just long enough to get the handcuffs on them and get them under control. If they wake up and revive before you do that, then the brawl is back on. The Taser is not the answer to everything. It's an attempt to have a nonlethal in- between measure between a fistfight and shooting somebody.
PAUL: OK. Tom Fuentes, Joey Jackson, a lot to talk about. I am sure that we will talk about the case soon. Thank you both.
FUENTES: Thank you.
JACKSON: Have a great day, Victor.
BLACKWELL: You, too.
JACKSON: Take care.
PAUL: Drastic measures to save a woman's life. Look at the video here. After the break, good Samaritans trying to save a woman on this busy free way. This could have been prevented. We will talk about that coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:41:24] You know we say it, but this time we really mean it, lucky to be alive. Seven people are counting their blessings today. There was a dramatic traffic incident on a San Diego free way. Look at this.
BLACKWELL: Yeah, you can tell that this video, this woman is fortunate. A driver abandons her car. The heart-stopping ordeal ends with her in handcuffs.
Virginia Cha, from CNN affiliate KGTV, has our story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL ANDEREGG, PHOTO JOURNALIST, KGTV: Don't go into the lane. Don't go into the lane.
VIRGINIA CHA, NEWS ANCHOR, KGTV (voice-over): That's the voice of our photo journalist, Paul Anderegg, pleading with a young woman not to walk into the business lane of the northbound 15.
It started when Paul pulled up to find what looked like an abandoned car. The woman emerged from the driver's side and teetered over to our 10 News Breaking News truck and asked for jumper cables. When she disregarded Paul's pleas to stay off the freeway and started to walk back to her car, he jumped out of his car.
(CROSSTALK)
CHA: As cars whizzed by, she stops to talk to two good Samaritans who pulled over to help. She continues to walk to her car. As the two men try to alert the drivers to the danger, one of them is almost hit by a white Taurus wagon.
The Taurus driver told us he is counting his lucky stars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see a gentleman flagging me and I just avoided with colliding with the care and hitting the gentleman. I don't know how he escaped and I don't know how I escaped, but I am blessed to be alive and go home.
CHA: Meanwhile, after the woman got back in the car, Paul does what he can to get her out of harms way.
ANDEREGG: Lady, you have to get out of there. Hey. Get out of the car. You have to get out. You're going get hit. Get out of the car.
Get out of the car. Get out of the car. You're going get hit by a car. Lady, your life is in danger.
Don't stand in the road. Don't stand in the road. They're going to hit you.
CHA: In fact, at least one car almost hit the woman's car.
(SHOUTING) CHA: When CHP officers arrived, they arrested her for DUI.
It's nothing short of a miracle no one was hurt. But those are not tears of joy as the woman is put into the back of a cruiser.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: Good heavens.
BLACKWELL: Does not make sense at the end, I guess.
PAUL: Thank you to Virginia Cha there for that report.
PAUL: All right. Still ahead --
[07:48:59] BLACKWELL: Former NFL star, Aaron Hernandez, is waiting on a jury to decide if he is guilty of murder. So after four days of deliberations -- we understand they will get back to it on Monday -- why haven't jurors reached a verdict?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAUL: Families are returning home after a train derails in South Carolina. This happened Friday night near Trenton. According to reports, 39 cars derailed, one of them filled with ammonia nitrate. Thankfully, no injuries have been reported.
BLACKWELL: Take me out to the ball game, but wake me up when it's over.
(LAUGHTER)
Last night, I guess that we should really say this morning, the Yankees Red Sox game lasted 19 innings. The game went past 2:00 a.m. This is one of the greatest rivalries in professional sports. There was a power outage did not help either. Boston outlasted New York, 6- 5.
The jury is still out on the Aaron Hernandez verdict in the murder trial there. Does four days of deliberations without a verdict mean good or bad news? Our legal discussion is ahead.
PAUL: In this week's "Staying Well," nearly two-thirds of adults are over weight or obese. It's hard to lose weight. There are some programs that do have more success than others.
Elizabeth Cohen shows us what they are.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[07:44:01] DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Last year, Americans spent $2.5 billion on commercial weight loss programs. Well, if you're going spend a lot of money, you need to make sure that you're getting a good program.
Researchers took a look at studies on commercial weight loss problems, and here is what they found out. They found out that the number one program in terms of long term weight loss is Jenny Craig.
Let's take a look at some of the numbers. The dieters started out at 200 pounds and, after a year, the folks lost about 15 to 22 pounds. Compare that to people that had counseling and education alone, lost two to six pounds over the year.
Another program that did well was Weight Watchers. Now it's important to remember that the programs can be very expensive, like hundreds of dollars a month, so not every can do them.
Let's think about thing you can do without having to spend all of that money. Let's take the lessons from what has work in the programs. One thing that's important is get support in person from people who are trying to do what you're doing, whether it's family or friend or a support group. When you're surrounded by people who help you lose weight that helps. Also, drink beverages that don't have calories. Juice or soda, which can have a lot of calories, sometimes you slug down drinks and don't realize how many calories you're taking in. Third, exercise to keep the weight off. Americans, we're not that bad at losing weight. What we're not so great at is keeping it off and exercise can really help.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAUL: Now the jury is still out in the Aaron Hernandez murder trial. After four days of deliberations, the panel hasn't decided whether the former New England Patriot is guilty of shooting Odin Lloyd to death. A lot of people expected a quick verdict here. What does it say about the prosecution? Did the state prove its case?
CNN commentator and legal analyst, Mel Robbins, in Boston, is joining us.
What do you make of no word on a verdict? Did you expect one by now?
MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST & COMMENTATOR: I would have expected one by now, Christi, if they were going to convict him. I think this is terrible news for the prosecution. What it says to me is that there probably is a juror, if not several of them, that are a holdout on this case. You see it fairly often where you have a complicated circumstantial case. There's 400 pieces of evidence. There's 130 witnesses. They had nine weeks of testimony, Christi, in this case. Also, it is circumstantial. And the laws in Massachusetts are a little convoluted. You have seen the jurors come back, Christi, and ask for instructions. Lots of times when they're doing that, it's so that they can go back and say to the folks that are holding out or undecided, see, see, this is what the judge said. Of course, this is just speculation. We'll have to wait.
[07:55:39] PAUL: What do you think, based on everything we know about this case, would be the one piece of evidence that they would be going back and forth about most? ROBBINS: Oh, gosh. You know, I think they're probably talking a lot
about motive. And the defense hammered it home. And they threw a kind of curveball at the end because it was during closing arguments, Christi, that they said for the first time that Hernandez was actually at the scene. And so for the entire case, the momentum building toward it was proving that he actually was there. And so now the big, dark hole in this case is, well, what motive would he have to kill a guy when he has a $40 million contract, a brand new, you know, baby basically. He seems to be at the top of his life and this is his future brother-in-law. But there's one twist that I would love to tell you about that I think maybe could help them convict him.
PAUL: OK. Well, you have to tell it now because I can't --
(CROSSTALK)
ROBBINS: OK. So here it is. If you're literally just there and if you witness it, why wouldn't you go to the police?
PAUL: Right.
ROBBINS: You have every single thing to lose. You have a $40 million contract. You're an NFL player. You don't have a criminal record, for crying out loud. If you just witnessed it, you weren't involved, this is your future brother-in-law, why on earth would you stay silent, Christi? That, to me, is an argument that I'm hoping one of the jurors is making behind closed doors.
PAUL: We shall see. Of course, he's still facing murder charges even after this one.
ROBBINS: Indeed.
PAUL: So, hey, Mel Robbins, thank you so much. We appreciate it.
ROBBINS: Great to see you as always, Christi.
PAUL: You, too.
Thank you, Mel.
Victor?
[07:57:03] BLACKWELL: We have a busy morning ahead. So the next hour of your NEW DAY starts after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)