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Paula Zahn Now

Police Confrontations Caught on Tape; Three Students Arrested in Alabama Church Arson Case; President Bush Visits Gulf Coast; Forensic Teams Work on St. Guillen Case; New Show about Racial Divide

Aired March 08, 2006 - 20:00   ET

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

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Thanks so much for joining us.
Tonight, a new look at one explosive moment that made headlines across the country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN (voice-over): The "Eye Opener" -- when a policeman shot an unarmed veteran, there was nationwide outrage. Now the cop is under arrest, and there is dramatic new evidence.

And there's no thing as routine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not going to let you go back to that vehicle.

ZAHN: Stunning dash cam video you have never seen before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop the gun!

ZAHN: When a simple traffic stop...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put your hands up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. That's what I'm doing.

ZAHN: ... becomes a struggle for survival.

(MUSIC)

ZAHN: And black, white. Two families...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'm going to be transformed into a white dude.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I get to learn just how it feels to go out in the world looking black.

ZAHN: ... we really do get under each other's skin. Forget everything you think you know about the other guy.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ZAHN: And we begin tonight with that case that sparked headlines and outrage all over the country, the shooting in January of an unarmed Iraq war veteran by a deputy sheriff in California, a shooting caught on chilling videotape.

Well, today that same deputy went to court to face criminal charges.

Here's Chris Lawrence with tonight's "Eye Opener."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An Air Force security officer was home from the hospital, wheelchair in tow. The California deputy who shot him left court Wednesday, after being arraigned on a felony. Ivory Webb pleaded not guilty to attempted voluntary manslaughter, a charge the victim's wife wasn't happy with.

MARIELA CARRION, VICTIM'S WIFE: It's a comfort that he was actually charged, but he wasn't charged for attempted murder, and that's what he wanted. That's what he did. He tried to kill him.

LAWRENCE: Both men are tied together by the grainy but graphic home video shot five weeks ago.

ELIO CARRION, VICTIM: I mean you no harm. I served more time than you in the police.

LAWRENCE: A car crashes after leading Deputy Webb on a short, high-speed chase. Elio Carrion is the passenger on the ground.

DEPUTY IVORY WEBB: Get up.

E. CARRION: I'm going to get up.

LAWRENCE: Prosecutors hired a special lab to enhance the video and amplify the audio.

MICHAEL RAMOS, SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Not once did anybody in the DA's office hear Deputy Webb say don't get up. We all heard, get up.

LAWRENCE: Neither Webb nor his attorney stopped to talk to reporters on their way out of the court. Prosecutors charged him with attempted voluntary manslaughter, not attempted murder, after they looked at the circumstances and determined the Deputy Webb did not have malice aforethought.

RAMOS: The deputy had a reasonable fear, an honest belief that he thought I'm in danger, not knowing what these people and why they're evading him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Well, now, it seems that more and more police confrontations are being caught on videotape, thanks to cameras mounted on the dashboards of police cruisers. They're making all of us witnesses to the very dangerous work police officers do, and, sometimes, the deadly consequences.

Here's Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One night last month, an Ohio State Trooper pulled over a motorist for driving erratically.

The dash camera in the officer's patrol car captures how a traffic stop quickly escalates into a deadly struggle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put your hands up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. That's what I'm doing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just going to pat you down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what I'm doing. That's what I'm doing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get your hands up (INAUDIBLE)

CARROLL: The driver draws a gun, but drops it. Both men wrestle for the weapon and with each other for several moments, until the officer manages to retrieve his gun.

The trooper shoots the driver in the head and kills him. It's a dramatic example of what officers call one of their biggest concerns while out on patrol.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dante (ph), go ahead and undo your belt and step out here.

CARROLL: Routine traffic stops that turn out to be far from routine.

(GUNSHOTS)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have been shot. I have been shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am...

CARROLL: A driver who wants to fight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't fight me, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why not?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because, don't fight me. Ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm already in trouble. What difference would it possibly make?

CARROLL: Again, a struggle for a weapon. The officer in this case is eventually forced to shoot the woman. She does not survive.

Michigan State Trooper Joel Service says most officers now need to be prepared for just about anything.

JOEL SERVICE, MICHIGAN STATE POLICE: I don't think there's any traffic behind us.

CARROLL: Service had his own run-in with an unruly driver last April, who led him and fellow officers on a high-speed chase. The suspect rammed his vehicle into Service's patrol car, locking them together.

SERVICE: I don't know.

(LAUGHTER)

SERVICE: I must have been trained pretty well, because I -- I think I was able to handle it -- handle the situation pretty well. I don't -- I didn't lose control. And I was able to kind of keep my wits about me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALES AND FEMALES: Good morning, Trooper.

CARROLL: Teaching recruits about the hazards of traffic stops is a major part of the training program for Connecticut State Police. And it goes way beyond the classroom.

STAN TERRY, CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE: Sir, I clocked you for 77 miles an hour in this 65-mile-an-hour zone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that's impossible.

CARROLL: Thanks to dashboard cameras and cop shows on TV, most recruits have already seen how real-life situations like this one can become dangerous in a hurry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you get to 1,030, you will stop. Hold that position.

Whoa!

Drop the gun! Drop the gun!

(INAUDIBLE) 44.

Drop the gun!

CARROLL: Eventually, this woman gave up and was taken into custody.

(on camera): When the recruits come in, are they asking -- do you find, are they asking better questions, having seen some of that stuff out there in the media?

TERRY: They see them. They ask better questions. They're -- they're very familiar with police tactics.

CARROLL (voice-over): Because dash cam video is now so prevalent, most drivers who are stopped these days almost certainly know they're being taped. That doesn't always stop them from becoming violent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I placed you under arrest. I'm not going to let you go back to that vehicle.

CARROLL: Not even this driver's children can convince him to stop punching the officer.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Dad, no!

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: No, dad!

CARROLL: Some state troopers say, all the dramatic dash cam tapes might give a false impression.

(on camera): Are people worse now than they were many years ago when you were patrolling? Or...

WILLIAM TATE, CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE: I don't think so. I think...

(CROSSTALK)

CARROLL: Or are we just seeing it now more because of the dash cams?

TATE: I think the dash cam is adding a lot more to the public awareness of what is going on out there.

CARROLL: I see.

TATE: I don't think people's behavior has changed drastically.

CARROLL (voice-over): Even so, Michigan State Trooper Joel Service has this advice for recruits about traffic stops.

SERVICE: Be aware of the fact that it could happen and it does happen. And, at some point in time in an officer's career, it is going to happen to him. And he needs to be ready for it when it does.

CARROLL: In this kind of work, it's very dangerous to think that anything is routine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop! Stop!

CARROLL: Jason Carroll, CNN, Meriden, Connecticut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Terrifying to watch.

President Bush moved to another visit to New Orleans today. Believe it or not, the hurricane recovery effort has just gotten tangled up in the fight to keep a Dubai company from taking over some U.S. port operations. How is that one possible? We will explain in just a moment.

Also, were the Alabama church fires just a student prank that got out of hand? Stand by for the surprising details about today's arrest.

And a CNN investigation -- the nation's number-two health care provider, lawsuits, and a state investigation involving staff members and patients' deaths.

Just about 20 million of you checked out our Web site today. Our countdown of the 10 most popular stories begins now here on CNN.com.

We start with the hunt for the number-two person on the FBI's most wanted list, Boston crime figure James "Whitey" Bulger. He's accused of murder and several other crimes. Find out more by going to CNN.com and clicking "Watch Video."

And, number nine, new concerns about bird flu, after reports of the latest death in China -- the World Health Organization says 96 people have died worldwide. One U.N. official says bird flu could reach the U.S. within a year -- numbers eight and seven up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: All right. So most have heard the saying walk a mile in my shoes. So, what happened when some black and white families disguised themselves as members of the other race?

First, some late-breaking news on the CNN "Security Watch" -- tonight, the deal to let a Dubai company take over operations at six U.S. ports may be in serious trouble.

Just hours ago in Capitol Hill, lawmakers attached language killing the ports deal to an emergency spending bill for the Iraq war and hurricane recovery efforts. They figure that's something President Bush can't possibly veto.

And, as congressional correspondent Ed Henry reports, it isn't the only case where Republican lawmakers are abandoning the president.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After five-and-a-half years of marching in near lockstep with the president, congressional Republicans are taking a tough line on one issue, the Dubai port deal.

REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R-IL), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We're talking about safety for our children here. And we have some concerns about the safety of this country and the port deal. And we will continue to do our best judgment on how to protect the American people.

HENRY: In an overwhelming vote, 62-2, the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee voted to block the port agreement.

While Hastert and House Republicans are bucking the president, Senate Republicans are holding their fire. Majority Leader Bill Frist has said he's more comfortable with the port deal in general and wants the 45-day security review to be completed before decisions are made.

The Republican split was on display in an event celebrating renewal of the Patriot Act. As Hastert answered a question about the port controversy, Frist ignored reporters.

HASTERT: Well, we want to protect Americans. We have a point of view of this...

QUESTION: Senator Frist? Senator Frist?

QUESTION: Senator Frist?

QUESTION: Senator Frist?

QUESTION: Senator Frist?

HENRY: Frist is also dodging Democrats, who caught the majority leader off guard by trying to force a vote on killing the port deal during debate over an unrelated lobbying reform bill. Frist blocked the vote for now. But Democrats vow to keep trying.

SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: We offered him a vote tomorrow. No. We offered him a vote on the next bill. No. We have asked him for a vote at some time certain. He said no. Well, he can run, but he can't hide.

HENRY: Hastert insists, the House action is motivated by concerns about security, and not by the upcoming midterm elections.

But one top Republican, talking about the president, put it bluntly -- quote -- "If this guy was at 65 percent in the polls, do you think this would be happening?"

A key Republican senator is launching a last-ditch effort to save the port deal and is urging the president to deliver a more forceful public campaign to bring Congress on board.

SEN. JOHN WARNER (R), VIRGINIA: I have confidence that he and others will work in the next few weeks to take -- as we say in the Navy, right this old ship and put it on an even keel.

HENRY (on camera): Senator Warner is desperately trying to craft a compromise. But even he acknowledged the political reality. It may be too little, too late -- Warner saying -- quote -- "I may be the last man standing."

Ed Henry, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And while Congress was busy with the ports deal and money for the war and hurricane recovery, today, President Bush was actually on the Gulf Coast, getting a closeup look at the rebuilding under way in New Orleans and Mississippi.

White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is still in New Orleans tonight. She joins us now.

So, Suzanne, how concerned is the president about all these Republicans that are bailing on him?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, Paula, this is a very big problem for -- for the president and for the White House, really.

And the only thing that they can do is continue to talk to Republicans, to reach out to senators, like Warner, as well as Frist. I spoke with Dana Perino at the White House. And she put it this way in regards to that amendment linking this ports deal, killing the ports deal, to Iraq, as well as Katrina funding, saying there would be concern by attempts to address this issue in a pending supplemental, because it would slow down the progress of getting through legislation through Congress and the president's desk.

And she goes on to say, of course, that it's about funding for our troops to get what they need in Iraq, the war on terror, provide critical funds to rebuild the Gulf Coast, and to help those affected by last year's hurricane.

The bottom line here is, the strategy of the White House is simply to buy time, that 45-day investigation period, hope they can turn around some of those Republicans, also, of course, hoping that, perhaps, the Dubai Ports company itself will change its structure somewhat to alleviate some of the concerns of those Republicans, and that the calculus here, Paula, of course, is that maybe the House Republicans will make a statement, but that, perhaps, cooler heads will prevail in the Senate -- Paula.

ZAHN: Some pretty tough issues to maneuver around now. This is the president's 10th trip to the Gulf Coast. What was he trying to accomplish there today?

MALVEAUX: You know, it's interesting, because it's his 10th trip to the Gulf Coast region, but the first that he was actually in the Ninth Ward, here in New Orleans, of course, devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

It comes really at a critical time, Paula, for the president, because there are a lot of polls that -- showing the American people just don't trust the president the way they used to. He made this pledge in Jackson Square right after Katrina that he was going to rebuild this area, rebuild Mississippi Gulf Coast, and essentially has promised to rebuild the levee system, 350 miles, before the next hurricane season. We are talking about less than 100 days here. The president has staked his presidency on this -- essentially protecting the American people in times of crises. He's facing a very important test very soon -- Paula.

ZAHN: Suzanne Malveaux, thanks so much for the update. Appreciate it.

Still ahead, the latest on a crime that absolutely stunned the nation. A student disappeared from a New York City bar and was brutally killed. What are detectives waiting for tonight?

Some answers right after Erica Hill at Headline News updates the hour's top stories.

Hi, Erica.

ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Paula. Good to see you.

ZAHN: Thank you. Good to see you.

HILL: We start off with -- thanks -- we start off with border security, under debate on Capitol Hill now. Senators are wondering whether a 700-mile virtual fence with cameras and motion detectors would really do the job along parts of the Mexican border, or an actual steel fence.

And $100,000 in fines for the company that owns the Sago Mine, where a dozen miners were killed in West Virginia in January -- those fines cover violations, though, before the January disaster.

Meantime, a forecast of higher gasoline prices from the Energy Department -- it says you will probably now be paying $2.50 a gallon or more for that summer travel. Right now, the average gallon of unleaded is going for $2.33.

And former Texas Governor Ann Richards is being treated for cancer of the esophagus. She's 72. And we will, of course, continue to follow her condition, and wish her the best, as she works to recover from that -- Paula.

ZAHN: She is one strong woman. We're all rooting for her tonight.

Erica Hill, thanks so much.

There has been a huge break in the investigation of church fires all across Alabama. You're not going to believe who was arrested today and exactly what led authorities to three college students.

Now we move on to number eight on our CNN.com countdown. Listen up, all you parents of high school juniors out there. Get this. A scoring mistake on the SAT has college admissions offices scrambling to reconsider applications for about 4,000 students. Ouch.

Number seven -- the trial of September 11 co-conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. Witnesses tell the jury how Moussaoui talked about flying a plane into the White House.

Number six, in Iraq, the bodies of 24 people were discovered across Iraq. Eighteen were found strangled, with their hands tied behind their backs. Also, bombings in two cities killed six people. We will return with number five right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Tonight, investigators may have solved the Alabama church fire mystery, a shocking string of arsons last month at rural Baptist churches, crimes that had many people wondering if there was a racial motive. It's number five on our CNN.com countdown tonight.

And you may be just as surprised tonight when you learn who the suspects are, three college students. Today, authorities charged them in connection with nine of the fires.

Rusty Dornin has been on the story all day long. She just filed this report for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Old-fashioned police work based on tire tracks, that's how investigators say they were able to crack the case on the Alabama church fires.

The vehicle investigators were looking for had left behind distinctive tracks at four of the fires in Bibb County. That led investigators to this store in Pelham, Alabama. They asked owner Jim Collins about this tire, a high-priced all-terrain model that had to be specially ordered.

JIM COLLINS, TIRE SHOP OWNER: They had already identified the tire size and the brand and the tread design. And, so, they gave us, like, a sheet of paper with, like, three sizes, wanted to know if we could research sales records.

DORNIN: And that led to the mother of Matthew Cloyd, 20 years old, a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

From there, the story began to unravel. Investigators told reporters weeks ago they suspected the church fires had been set by thrill-seekers. Now, according to the federal court papers, Matthew Cloyd told an unnamed witness it was a stupid joke that got way out of hand. Cloyd is now in custody.

Two other men, Russell Debusk and Ben Moseley, were arrested in the middle of the night on the campus of Birmingham Southern College, where they were theater majors.

Authorities say one of the three men told them that, in February, they went to Bibb County to do some deer hunting. They somehow came up with the idea of setting fire to two churches, and then watched all the fire trucks and chaos.

One of the suspects told authorities that, to throw investigators off the track, they went to western Alabama a week after the first fires, and set fire to four more churches there.

Here at Birmingham Southern, a prestigious Methodist college dating back to 1856, news of the arrests caused outage.

G. DAVID POLLICK, PRESIDENT, BIRMINGHAM SOUTHERN COLLEGE: Birmingham Southern College has suspended each student from the college and immediately banned them from campus, awaiting further action by the authorities.

DORNIN: Drama student Elizabeth Tutwiler (ph) couldn't believe her fellow students were behind these crimes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Typical guys, just -- just funny, and liked to joke around, and have a good time. That's the way I would describe them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were probably the most talented people in the class that I was in. I always wanted to be their partner.

DORNIN: Two of the suspects have a hearing scheduled for Friday. If convicted of all nine fires, the three could spend more than 40 years in jail for what one called a stupid joke.

Rusty Dornin, CNN, Birmingham, Alabama.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Coming up next, a CNN investigation -- the nation's number-two health care provider, lawsuits, and a state investigation involving staff members and patients' deaths.

And a mystery in New York City -- who killed a popular graduate student? What happened at the bar where she was last seen alive in the wee hours of the morning?

Plus:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Do you really believe Bruno is a racist?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that he has a lot of racial tendencies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: So, what exactly happens when a black family and a white family traded places and, through makeup, traded races? You will see the fireworks when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: She was studying to be a detective and was last seen alive at a New York City bar very early in the morning. Who killed a popular graduate student?

And would you trade places with a family of another race? How differently would people treat you? We're going to hear from black and white families who found out. And you're going to see the tension boil right here on the show.

And at the top of the hour on "LARRY KING LIVE," NBC reporter David Bloom's widow on exactly what killed him in Iraq. Plus an update on wounded ABC anchor, Bob Woodruff, dear friend.

Our next report is the result of months of investigation into the second largest health care provider in this country. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, our investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin, began looking into allegations that patients may have been deliberately killed at one New Orleans hospital owned by Tenet health care.

But even before Hurricane Katrina, Tenet has had trouble, spending $750 million over the last four years to settle lawsuits mostly over Medicare fraud. Drew Griffin takes us beyond the headlines tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER (voice-over): In a corporate history riddled with problems, Tenet Health Care now faces what could be the most serious. Operating a hospital where the staff and doctors are being investigated for the deliberate killing of patients.

If charges are filed at Tenet's Memorial Hospital in New Orleans, health care ethics professor Arthur Caplan, says the company will earn a dark place in medical history.

ARTHUR CAPLAN, BIOETHICIST: They will be the only hospital administration hanging there with the indictments coming down of this nature. The indictments are the worst that you can have. They're going to mean day after day pounding in public, about did you abandon your patients? Did you deliberately cause harm to your patients?

GRIFFIN (on camera): The Louisiana District Attorney's investigation centers on those desperate days right after Katrina and whether doctors and staff of a hospital deliberately injected lethal doses of medicine into the bodies of bed-ridden patients so that patients would die and that doctors and staff could more easily flee.

(voice-over): This at a time, staff members tell CNN, they witnessed looting in a nearby building and heard rumors of criminals taking over the streets.

Caplan is familiar with Tenet's record and is not surprised by this investigation.

CAPLAN: I think at the end of the day, if you look at it over the past 15, 20 years of this company, you'd have to say that management has been pushing the bottom line, telling the doctors to cut corners. Basically saying we're going to evaluate you and promote you on how well you make money. Not on how well you take care of the patients.

GRIFFIN: In fact, Tenet itself was in 1995 out of a scandal over medical insurance fraud by its predecessor, National Medical Enterprises. In state after state, Tenet Health Care facilities have come under investigation and the company has settled dozens of lawsuits.

Many of those lawsuits allege that the company overbilled Medicare, cheating taxpayers in the process. But there have also been allegations that some Tenet hospitals practice bad medicine, resulting in harm to patients, allegations that Tenet has denied.

Last year Tenet paid out $31 million to cardiac patients at this Florida hospital where 20 cardiac patients died. Those who sued claimed patients suffered from post-surgical infections because of dirty conditions.

At another Tenet hospital, this one in Redding, California, the charges were almost unbelievable.

GARY CRIPE, ATTORNEY: It's a situation where a sort of black joke was made. And that is, you didn't dare drive by the Redding hospital with a complaint of chest pain because they would pull you in and you'd get a surgery.

GRIFFIN: FBI agents raided the hospital in 2002 in connection with their investigation into weather doctors were performing unnecessary open heart surgery. Though admitting no wrongdoing, Tenet paid more than $60 million to settle federal and state claims and another $395 million to the 750 patient who claim they were victims of the heart surgery center.

Things have been so bad for so long at Tenet, that five years ago, a doctor and minority shareholder hired attorney Gary Cripe to change the company's direction.

Cripe wrote a scathing document, "Greed, Scandal and Wrongful Deaths at Tenet Healthcare Corp." It details investigation after investigation in which Tenet has been accused of cutting care, cutting costs and breaking rules in order to push profits.

Cripe published the book five months before Hurricane Katrina. Five months before 45 bodies were reported dead at Memorial Hospital after it was evacuated. Since then, CNN has heard from numerous nurses families of patients, doctors and others who have said Memorial Hospital was ill-equipped to handle the hurricane and its aftermath and was particularly unprepared when it came time to evacuate.

CRIPE: I can certainly say it's consistent with Tenet's decision to cut costs to the bone that the hospitals owned by Tenet in New Orleans were not prepared for Katrina.

GRIFFIN: Cripe and bioethicist Arthur Caplan say it's been Tenet's practice over the year to deny any knowledge of management of allegations of wrongdoing by hospital doctors and staff. That is certainly what appears to be taking place in New Orleans.

Allegations of euthanasia started to surface one week after Katrina. A week after that, on September 13, Tenet's Memorial Hospital CEO Renee Goux sat down with CNN's Jonathan Freed. During the crisis the CEO was inside the hospital, helping coordinate he evacuation. During our interview, he insisted he never heard of the allegations of euthanasia.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What did you think when you heard the allegations?

JONATHAN GOUX, CEO, MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: I haven't heard the allegations?

FREED: So you have no knowledge whatsoever that anything like that --

GOUX: Personally, I was not involved with the health care delivery side of it. I was involved in the evacuation side of it. I'm trying to answer you as honestly as I can. I'm not a health care giver. I wasn't up in those areas. If there's something that needs to be investigated, I's sure it will be investigated.

GRIFFIN (on camera): The investigation by the attorney general's office includes a doctor who worked here at Tenet's Memorial Hospital. Her name is Dr. Anna Poe, in court records, her attorney says Dr. Anna Poe is under investigation for alleged euthanasia.

(voice-over): Poe's attorney tells CNN his client was not involved in criminal misconduct. Bioethicist Art Caplan says he doesn't know what happened at Memorial, but believes doctors can be driven to kill patients, but only under the extreme stress of a hopeless situation.

CAPLAN: If you get into a situation where doctors are saying under oath, I felt I couldn't save myself unless I had somehow or another been able to say that I had taken care of, in one way or another, my patients, then that's poor management. That's culpable mismanagement. That's not responsible management.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: After a preview of this report appeared on CNN's Web site this afternoon, Tenet Health Care sent us this letter making these points about our report.

The company states it understands from the Louisiana attorney general's office that is not a target of the investigation. And it insists all of its Gulf Coast hospitals, including Memorial were prepared in advance of Hurricane Katrina.

According to the letter, Tenet says, it brought in new management in 2003 and then developed a new strategy to resolve all of its legal problems from the past, to resolve all pending federal investigations, and according to Tenet, to put transparency, honesty and integrity at the forefront of everything it does.

Tenet also writes since new management came on board, the quality of care at its hospitals has greatly improved. But the company wouldn't say any of that on camera, Paula, and again, denied our request for any on-camera interview.

ZAHN: I know you've been working on this investigation for many months. Keep us posted when there are any other new changes. Drew Griffin. Thanks.

We have the latest for you tonight on a very baffling mystery. The bouncer at a New York City bar is in jail tonight. Could he be connected with the mysterious disappearance and brutal death of a popular graduate student.

And have you ever wondered if people will treat you the same if you belonged to another race? You're going to hear two families discuss their remarkable experience which was a transformation of many hours of makeup. The African-Americans became White and the Whites became Black. You'll see their confrontation go to a boiling point right here, tonight.

And number two on the countdown, Iran hints it may cause trouble for the U.S. if it is punished for its nuclear program. Now it seems the State Department says the U.S. won't push for U.N. sanctions against Iran unless absolutely necessary. Number three when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Welcome back. In tonight's "Outside the Law" segment, the murder mystery that has gripped New York City is now in the hands of forensic experts. Imette St. Guillen, a graduate student, was last seen alive in a Manhattan bar in the early morning of February 26th. Well tonight, a bouncer from that bar is still in custody and police are trying to die his DNA to the victim. Allan Chernoff just filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Solving the murder of Imette St. Guillen now depends heavily on scientists at the New York medical examiner's office. The lab here says it is testing DNA found hair and skin tissue found at the crime scene and taken from Imette St. Guillen's body.

Forensic scientists are trying to determine if there's a match between that DNA and the DNA of someone who was with Imette on the night of her murder. That process could take several days or even several weeks.

LAWRENCE KOBILINSKY, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Most importantly perhaps, is the fact that her fingernails were ripped, indicating that she fought back as best she could and scratched her attacker.

And we are hoping that from the fingernail scrapings, we can retrieve DNA from the perpetrator.

CHERNOFF: Police investigators have been questioning Darryl Littlejohn, a bouncer from the Manhattan bar where St. Guillen was last seen. They are now holding him at New York's Rikers Island jail for violating a 9:00 p.m. parole curfew. Littlejohn, who used the alias Jonathan Blaze, served time for armed robbery and New York state has his DNA on file.

RAY KELLY, NYC POLICE COMMISSIONER: A term that we use is a person of interest and he's clearly a person of interest in this case.

CHERNOFF: Police have not charged Littlejohn in the St. Guillen case, but yesterday they took clothing from his home and a seat from a van that was parked nearby. The items could be tested to see if there are any connections to the victim.

KELLY: We're awaiting laboratory results. And it's best for me in my position, to hold my comments until we get some of these results back.

CHERNOFF (on camera): New York's medical examiner's office says it has the largest DNA lab in the country, with 110 forensic scientists. If there's any possibility of making a DNA match, this lab ought to be able to do it.

(voice-over): An autopsy concluded St. Guillen has been strangled and suffocated. Her neck was compressed and mouth and nose had been taped over, the body dumped in this isolated lot in Brooklyn. Imette St. Guillen was a grad student in criminal justice and had studied forensics. Now, the key to solving her murder could be the very science in which she was hoping to make a career. Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And when we come back, we have a really interesting story for you. A black family and a white family recently traded places. It's a pretty messy story.

Tonight, you're going to see some of that tension unfold right here on set when they talked about some of the very obvious differences in their lives. That comes up right after Erica Hill and the "Headline News Business Break."

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

ZAHN: Now despite all the progress America has made in race relations, what is it like being black in this country today? Well coming up, two families will join me to talk about an amazing experiment. What happened when they traded races through the magic of a bunch of makeup?

And coming up at the top of the hour, the little-known medical condition that killed NBC reporter David Bloom in Iraq. Melanie Bloom talks about her husband's death on "LARRY KING LIVE."

Now, we move on to No. 3 in the CNN countdown. In the upcoming edition of "Vanity Fair," actress Teri Hatcher says her uncle molested her when she was a child. She's claiming the abuse went on from the ages of five-to-nine. He is currently in prison after pleading guilty in another molestation case. No. 2 just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Tonight we're going to take you inside a controversial new reality T.V. series. Now, we know reality T.V. is not known for taking on heavy-weight topics, but this is tackling America's racial divide by having a black family and another family that's white, trade places and looks with the help of a ton of makeup.

And today, just before the show's premiere tonight, it came to a boiling point right here in the studios as you're about to see in my interview with the two families in "Black. White."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Do you like white people any more now than you did going into this thing?

BRIAN SPARKS, SWITCHED RACES FOR REALITY SHOW: You know, nothing has changed in the sense of liking or disliking because I like everyone, I take everyone at face value. What you bring to me is what I take away from it, so when I meet you, you have everything, all the respect, all the trust, everything that I can possibly afford you.

ZAHN: But you admitted you had these prejudices going into this. What are some of those prejudices?

B. SPARKS: I just thought that white America was -- the racism was more in corporate as opposed to what I found out was as prevalent as I feel now that is in society.

ZAHN: Bruno, some of what we witness on camera is pretty vivid, where the two of you are walking down the street, you as a black man, you in your own skin. And the way you perceive a simple situation of someone trying to get by you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you see that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't see that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She looked and ran over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just the little, little, little, things, but you know why you do it? Once you start going...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... She had to, because they were taping the whole sidewalk. I was like right here with you and they had to give it up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But the way she did it, so she wouldn't have to look at me.

BRUNO MARCOTULLI, SWITCHED RACES FOR REALITY SHOW: We all see the world in a different way, depending on how we were raised.

ZAHN: The two of you at some parts of the series saw each other as racists. Do you really believe Bruno's a racist?

B. SPARKS: I think that he has a lot of racial tendencies, racist tendencies.

ZAHN: And what does that mean?

B. SPARKS: A lot of things that come off on the set, you know, the excessive use of the "N" word. I know it's a project we were doing. His unwillingness to me to even accept that racism really exists.

ZAHN: Are you a racist, Bruno.

MARCOTULLI: I've never denied that racism exists. Brian continues to say that and I continue to...

B. SPARKS: ... well here's the impression to me of racism is that someone will just come up to him and call him the "N" word. It's not going to happen in today's society. There are a lot of other things that goes on racially in America. And this is white America, that he doesn't feel like it's white America, but we all know that it is white America.

And you know, and blacks, we come up, we play by the rules of white America. And he doesn't understand that. And you know, he can't see past that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does that lack of understanding make him a racist?

B. SPARKS: No, a lack of understanding doesn't make him a racist.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What makes him a racist?

B. SPARKS: The way he perceived American, white America over a black America and things like that.

ZAHN: So Bruno, you've heard what Brian just said, he's basically saying that you look at this through sort of a racist prism. Are you a racist?

MARCOTULLI: No. It's very hurtful because he doesn't know me. He doesn't know my life. He doesn't know anything about me. And yet, he's willing to assassinate my character in such a vicious way and I think it's completely unjustified.

ZAHN: And yet, the two of your families spent about six weeks together working on this project. Do you understand where you might have said some things, particularly, the use of the "N" word that would really have offended him?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCOTULLI: You know, so far, I'm kind of waiting for somebody to do go 'Hey (bleep). UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's not going to happen.

B. SPARKS: That's not going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCOTULLI: I used it in context and appropriately. I never was, I believe, inappropriate in using it. It's a show about race. It's about black and white, and I thought if we dance around the "N" word, that would be a bit ridiculous.

ZAHN: Renee, do you buy that argument?

RENEE SPARKS, CHANGED RACE FOR REALITY TV: I felt like he should know better. And yes, we are doing a project regarding race. So to me, he should have asked us questions like, "Well, how do you feel about the 'N' word, let's talk about the 'N' word," instead of just blurting it out and you know, saying the "N" word. I feel like no one can make you say something you don't want to say. That's how I feel.

ZAHN: I sense a lot of tension here today. So are you walking away from this family with less respect for them than you had going into this project?

R. SPARKS: I wouldn't say less respects. I mean, I give them a lot of respect for even acknowledging to do this project and then to talk about it openly. I mean, because that's the problem with America right now. A lot of people don't want to talk about this.

ZAHN: What did you learn, Rose, about the race differences that are so obvious in America?

ROSE WURGEL, CHANGED RACE FOR REALITY TV: I didn't know how eager people were to talk about it.

R. SPARKS: True.

WURGEL: I did not know how big it was and how much this has been repressed.

ZAHN: I hear tremendous emotion in your voice. Anger, frustration?

WURGEL: Unbelievable.

ZAHN: Tell me what you're feeling right now?

WURGEL: The fact that it is so hard for three people and three people to not want to understand the other person is enough for me to know that it's not just race that's the problem, that, really, as human beings in this country and if you want to say the world -- we have a problem getting out of ourselves. And if you can get out of yourself, you can make this project anything you'd like and you can grow.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ZAHN: We all learned from what these two families have wrestled with. "Black. White." premieres tonight on the FX channel.

No. 2 on our countdown, an L.A. court has ordered Paris Hilton to stay at least 100 yards from her producer, who accused her of threatening him. No. 1 next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: And we leave you with this bizarre picture tonight, No. 1 on our countdown. An animal that's never been seen before until now, it looks like a lobster with blonde fur. Scientists found it in the waters off of South Pacific. That's it for all of us, thanks for joining us and good night.

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