Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Saturday Morning News
Police Pepper Sray Teenager; Armored Car Heist Suspect Arrested; IPod Explosion; Marion Jones Pleads Guilty
Aired October 06, 2007 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN HOST, CNN SATURDAY MORNING: Well, hello there from the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm T.J. Holmes. And this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN HOST, CNN SATURDAY MORNING: Good morning everybody, I'm Betty Ngyuen.
All right. Take a look at this; it is in your face. Oh, look at that. A police officer uses pepper spray on a teenager. And now what is behind this arrest?
HOLMES: Plus, are you tired of receiving credit card offers in the mail? They just keep on coming every single day. Our personal finance editor Gerri Willis has the best way to get rid of that junk mail.
But we're going to start with a developing story out of Philadelphia this morning. Police have arrested and charged now a man in Thursday's deadly armored car robbery. The suspect is 36-year-old Mustafah Ali. Police say three armored car employees were servicing an ATM when the suspect started shooting. He killed two of the guards, wounded the third. Police say the suspect got away with cash. An anonymous tip led to his arrest. Police also say they confiscated his vehicle. Early this morning we spoke with Michelle Durham of affiliate KYW about what happened just before Ali was arrested.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE DURHAM, KYW: He actually had the black Acura, which was the getaway car, allegedly, covered with a tarp. And he was driving a rental vehicle. So he was about to leave his apartment to go somewhere when they swooped down and got him on an unrelated warrant. But today he is charged with two counts of murder.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Ali is expected to be arraigned sometime today.
NGUYEN: Tainted gold for track star Marion Jones now admitting to using steroids during her Olympic gold medal performances. Jones pleaded guilty to lying to a federal agent about her drug use during the Balco Labs investigation. She faces up to ten years in prison for that. She offered this tearful apology on the courthouse steps.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARION JONES, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: I want you to know that I have been dishonest. And you have the right to be angry with me. I have let them down. I have let my country down, and I have let myself down. I recognize that by saying that I'm deeply sorry, it might not be enough and sufficient to address the pain and the hurt that I've caused you. Therefore, I want to ask for your forgiveness for my actions, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.
It is with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust. I want all of you to know that today I plead guilty to two counts of making false statements to federal agents. Making these false statements to federal agents was an incredibly stupid thing for me to do, and I responsible fully for my actions. I have no one to blame but myself for what I have done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Jones will likely have to return her Olympic gold.
HOLMES: A bit of background now on Marion Jones. A lot of you probably familiar with it, taking a closer look here at some of the highlights from her career. She's 31 years old. Has a birthday coming up next week, she was born on October 12th, 1975 in Los Angeles. In addition to being a track star, she played basketball in high school and college at North Carolina. Actually helped them in 1994 win a national championship.
She was a journalism and communications major and graduated from North Carolina in '97. She won three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. She also won three gold medals, a silver and a bronze in 1999 and in 2001 at the World Championships. One of those Olympic gold medals came in the 4 x 100 meter relay.
Coming up next hour we'll talk with CNN's sports Larry Smith about what Jones' admission could mean for her relay teammates.
NGUYEN: In the meantime, it's a Saturday. So before you put those burgers on the grill today, here's the latest on that recent rash of frozen hamburger recalls. Four E. coli cases in Minnesota are being traced to frozen beef patties produced by Cargill and sold at Sam's Club Stores. Here's what you need to look for. Angus beef patties made by American Chef Selection with an expiration date of February 12th. Those are being taken off Sam's Club shelves nationwide.
Meanwhile, Topps Meat Company is going out of business. Production at their Elizabeth, New Jersey, plant was shut down following last weeks recall of nearly 22 million pounds of frozen hamburger patties, 32 e. Coli cases have been traced to Topps.
Another food recall to tell you about. This time it is soup. Campbell's is recalling more than 72,000 cans of its chunky baked potato soup with cheddar and bacon bits. The company says the cans may contain pieces of hard plastic. The recall only involves the 18.8 ounce cans shipped to 24 states. They have a July 8, 2009 expiration date.
HOLMES: Got some video here we're about to show you which you might find pretty tough to watch. It's from a dash cam, it was just released. Police in Ft. Pierce, Florida, are trying to arrest a 15- year-old girl who was said to be breaking curfew. Now take a look at how things played out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(UNIDENTIFED FEMALE): Stop. I'm not doing anything. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, sir. I'm not doing anything. I'm sorry. Ow!
(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): Don't fight me!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Again here, this is a 15-year-old girl as you can see. She was hit and also sprayed with pepper spray. The officer says the girl became violent. The officer said he was trying to -- she was trying to bite him as he was trying to put the handcuffs on. The chief of police there says that officer acted appropriately. The teen was in court this week. She faces a felony charge of battery and a misdemeanor charge of resisting a law enforcement officer.
NGUYEN: All right. Check this out. This is an unusual getaway. See the guy there? All right. This guy in Trent, New Jersey, he is an absolute mess. You want to know why? Police say he spent five hours in a storm drain trying to get away from police after being suspected of driving a stolen car. Yeah, they had to hose him down. The 32-year-old man complained that his back was hurting after spending so much time in the drain. Yeah, you think? He was hosed off; he was taken to the hospital, and then charged with receiving stolen property and alluding police, among other things.
HOLMES: For the past three years, federal agents and local police in 25 U.S. cities have been working together to crack down on crime. Authorities say they have arrested 12,000 gang members and confiscated more than 14,000 weapons. The latest arrest happened in Atlanta this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES (voice over): Atlanta police and federal agents call him the worst of the worst. Saying eight suspects arrested in a sting operation are believed to be involved in three retaliation murders or hits in Atlanta and may be connected to three other killings.
CHIEF RICHARD PENNINGTON, ATLANTA POLICE: We looked at the type of weapons that were being used and being a chief in New Orleans, I know for a fact many ak-47s were used in murders in New Orleans. We started to see a rash of ak-47s being used in Atlanta.
HOLMES: Here is what we know; police say three of the eight men arrested were New Orleans residents who relocated to Atlanta.
PENNINGTON: We know that Edward Moses, Maurice Hargrove and Ashton Mitchell are all from New Orleans.
HOLMES: Police say most of the crimes were committed over a three- month span this past summer. Authorities believe the spike in Atlanta's violent summer crime wave was caused in part by these two groups retaliating against each other.
PENNINGTON: So these individuals are associated together. This is the other faction down here.
HOLMES: Investigators say the men were part of an exceptionally violent crew who robbed drug dealers and criminals.
PENNINGTON: They actually were friends with each other at one point and now they are competing against each other.
HOLMES: Police say the suspects, all in their 20s, were particularly dangerous because they often fired at their targets with little concern for bystanders.
(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): One of the individuals was shot in front of a pool hall and there were people inside the pool hall when they opened up on that individual. So we were just, I guess, lucky that no innocent people were killed.
HOLMES: Authorities say they seized bulletproof vests and 16 guns, including assault rifles and pistols during their arrests conducted over the past two weeks. The investigation continues while seven of the eight are in custody. New Orleans police say they are also checking to see if the suspects could be responsible for crimes or murders committed there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: One of the men arrested was on the Atlanta Police Department's ten most wanted list. That suspect was the youngest of the eight arrested at 20 years old.
NGUYEN: Well there is new fallout from the Jena 6 case in Louisiana. This time it's over a song by John Mellancamp.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): Oh, Jena oh, Jena
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Jena's mayor says the video is so inflammatory, so defamatory that a line has been crossed and enough is enough. This song makes reference to nooses hung from a tree outside Jena High School. Six black teens were arrested for beating a white student during racial tensions that followed. And in a statement on his Website, Mellencamp says the song wasn't written to indict the people of Jena but to condemn racism.
HOLMES: Myanmar's Buddhist monks head for safe haven in Thailand, that is, if they make it out alive.
NGUYEN: Plus, are you tired of receiving credit card offers in the mail? They arrive just about every day at my house, that's for sure. And our personal finance editor Gerri Willis has the best way to get rid of all of that junk mail. HOLMES: Also coming up, a typhoon rocks Taiwan. We'll bring you an I- report from half a world away. That is when CNN SATURDAY MORNING returns. 0
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: A suicide attack today in Afghanistan claims a U.S. soldier. The car bombing happened near Kabul Airport and also killed an unk0nown number of Afghan civilians. It is the third major attack in Kabul in the past week. It coincides with the sixth anniversary of the U.S. led invasion of Afghanistan.
HOLMES: Well unofficial votes count; show President Pervez Musharraf has been re-elected to a third term. But hold on. Pakistan's Supreme Court could disqualify him because he still holds the title of military leader. Opposition parties either abstained in today's vote or boycotted it as part of a protest demanding Musharraf abandon his position as army chief. Election results won't be ratified for at least 11days so legal challenges can be resolved.
NGUYEN: Protests worldwide today against Myanmar's military government. Want to show you some new video just in from London. Take a look where demonstrators are calling on the regime to free political prisoners. The government admits to detaining hundreds of Buddhist monks who have led pro-democracy demonstrations. And while monks initiated the calls for democracy in Myanmar few are being seen now. CNN's Matthew Chance reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The latest pictures smuggled out of Myanmar's biggest city raise a troubling question. Where are the thousands of monks so visible on the streets here just days ago? CNN has spoken to pro-democracy student activists inside Myanmar who say hundreds of monks have been detained and scores are trying to escape, fearing arrest.
One report has managed to get inside this monastery which he was told usually has 100 monks inside. But he saw only three. And there was this scene of young children studying at one of the country's many monasteries right outside the reporter's hidden camera recorded images of soldiers standing guard. Monks have been at the front and center of Myanmar's dramatic protests. Activists inside Myanmar tell CNN at least 40 monks alone may have been killed. Images have emerged from the aftermath of monks and civilians, too, being beaten by soldiers. One shows an officer who seemed to be happily in charge.
But now, at the dissenting face of the Myanmar military may be showing through. An army major who fled his country because of the crackdown. Speaking in neighboring Thailand, he says his conscience forced him to leave. "When I heard monks had been shot dead on the streets and that others had been shot, too, I felt very upset," he says. As a Buddhist, I didn't want to see such killing.
Reports from inside Myanmar say troops are now trolling the streets warning they'll arrest anyone suspected of taking part in the anti- government protests. "It's impossible, he says, that under the rule of the military regime Myanmar will be prosperous and peaceful." So far there's little sign many others in Myanmar's military rank and file feel the same.
Amid all this tension, the United Nations special envoy to Myanmar has now left the country having met its generals and its main opposition figure. His report is expected by the end of the week. But now the United Nations recommend human rights commission wants a fact-finding mission to find out how many people were killed in the crackdown and what's happened to so many of the country's monks.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Bangkok.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: You have to see this next story. A bird gets all hot and bothered in Britain. Check it out. Well, that's the bird. Let's see the Lexus because that thing needs a new paint job now. Just imagine trying to get your insurance company to cough up on this claim. We'll show you the damage.
HOLMES: Winter shows up a little bit early. We'll have all the chilling details. But first, a preview of today's "Open House" with Gerri Willis.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Coming up at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, "Open House." New plans on Capitol Hill to ease the mortgage meltdown. We'll take a closer look to see if help is really on the way. Then it's not all bad news out there in the housing market. We'll tell you the hot spots to buy right now.
And we all know what it's like to have insurance claims denied. We'll tell you how to fight it. That's "Open House," 9:30 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Snow, really, already? It's not even fall really.
NGUYEN: It is.
HOLMES: It is, barely. The Sierras out west got eight inches of snow in some spots. An early cold storm for that area. And the snow caught everybody by surprise. Some are saying this is the earliest snow that they can remember.
NGUYEN: All right. Let's check that with our expert, Reynolds Wolf who joins us in the Weather Center. So is that the earliest for them?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOOLOGIST: It's a little early. They've had times before where the snow has actually fallen a little earlier. When it comes to snow, snow is a weird thing. It really is. What may seem pretty in the mountains, and it is pretty up there, is a little bit different if you have to shovel that eight inches of snow off your car on the way to work. You know what I'm saying? This is a little different. We'll be seeing that snow move from places like the Sierra through the Rockies. Some of this could get really heavy, especially by the late afternoon. We're talking about Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
You'll see snow really begin to really pile up. In elevations from 9,000 to 10,000 feet you can see over a foot of snowfall before the day is over. Then back in the central Plains, you are not looking at snow but chance strong thunderstorms. Some of those may be severe. There's that slight chance of tornadoes as well.
Otherwise scattered showers across much of the Gulf Coast. Back in the northeast, it is going to be beautiful. New York and Boston, high temperatures today in the nation's capital, too, will be mainly into the 70s and 80s, 90 in Kansas City. Summer is still being felt but still very, very chilly up in those high elevations. That's a look at your forecast across the nation. Let's send it back to you at the news desk.
NGUYEN: Reynolds, we thank you. We'll see you shortly.
All right. Severe weather causing damage on the other side of the globe, its typhoon Krosa. Check this out, it is an I-report video sent to us from Taiwan. Hundreds of trees there have been ripped to the ground. Next up is mainland China. Officials have already ordered tens of thousands of residents to head to higher ground.
HOLMES: Whether it's mail at home, e-mail, that inbox or junk mail, whatever it is, you get it. We get it at home, all over the place. CNN's personal finance editor Gerri Willis tells us how to get your name off all those mailing lists.
WILLIS: Here's what you need to do. Go to optoutprescreen.com or call 888-5-optout. It is run by a group of credit agencies. They claim your name will not be on lists used for five years. And on optoutprescreen.com you can request to permanently remove your name from the list. You have to send it back through the regular mail, but it is possible. Don't give away your e-mail address. Think about getting two e-mail addresses, one for personal messages and one for newsgroups and chat rooms. The more complex your e-mail address is, the harder it will be for a spammer to find you.
One technology consultant told us don't waste money on buying extra spam filters for your computer. Instead, rely on your ISP, that's short for internet service provider. They are aware of spam attacks in minutes if you are getting spammed; report the messages to the FCC at spam@uce.gov. This will let them take legal action. You can also send a copy of the spam to your abuse desk. Often the address is abuse@your ISP name.com.
HOLMES: Please be sure to watch "Open House" today at 9:30. Gerri Willis will look at what Democrats are demanding President Bush to do save home owners from foreclosures. Also talking to real estate expert about hot housing markets to watch and remember this expert she'll have on is from "The Apprentice 3."
And also Gerri will tell you how to fight back if your health insurance claim is denied.
NGUYEN: Here is what we have coming up Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones admits to using steroids. Athletes continue to use them, but why aren't these drugs being detected? We'll tell you.
Plus --
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ: A man had an ipod and was listening to music so hot -- how hot was it you might ask? It was so hot; it caught his pants on fire. I'll have the details next from the dotcom desk.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: I'm just going to say hot pants and let you take it away.
DE LA CRUZ: A man in Georgia is listening to a beat so hot his pants catch fire. Well, actually, it wasn't the pants that caught fire. It wasn't the music that caught his pants on fire. It was his ipod nano. The man works at an airport. He was carrying the ipod in his pocket when it exploded. He said the incident made him nervous because his pants were smoking and --
NGUYEN: Not every day that happens.
DE LA CRUZ: They might think he had a bomb. Good news is Apple says they will replace his ipod.
NGUYEN: What about the pants? Going to dig deeper for that one.
DE LA CRUZ: Got to take a loss on that one.
Going now to the UK and amorous peacock by the name of Ron Davis who lives on this estate. He loves anything peacock blue. So much so that he runs up and he attacks anything in that color. Including this car. Guess attending weddings on the estate are warned not to wear this color. If they are driving peacock blue cars, they are warned not to park in the lot. Thanks Ron Davis.
Let's move on to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LORI PLATO, BRA SET OFF METAL DETECTOR: The security guard asked me, do you have an under wire bra on? And I was like, yes, I do. And he says issue that's it. You need to remove it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DE LA CRUZ: A woman in Idaho said she was forced to take off her bra in public before she was allowed in a federal courthouse. She said she was embarrassed and humiliated. The marshal service says the woman was given a number of options to ensure her privacy. The courthouse is now adding a private room for people who may need to remove their undergarments for security reasons.
NGUYEN: Are you serious? I mean, there's got to be some other way.
DE LA CRUZ: It was the under wire in her bra apparently. It was causing the alarm to go off. Maybe there should be a dress code for airports and courthouses. No steel, no wire. And no offensive t- shirts.
NGUYEN: Yeah, back to that story.
DE LA CRUZ: Back to the southwest story.
HOLMES: You going to talk about that later?
NGUYEN: We're done with that one.
DE LA CRUZ: It was a fishing t-shirt. We have gotten e-mails from people who say they have that exact same shirt. And I love it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com
