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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Lack of Investigation by New Orleans Detectives; European Space Probe Lands on Comet; Ferguson Gears Up for Possible Protests

Aired November 12, 2014 - 12:00   ET

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


MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: That's it for us @ THIS HOUR. "LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield starts right about now.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

We want to begin this hour with a special kind of outrage. The kind that comes from terrible crimes against innocent people and the utter disregard from the people that we count on for help. I'm talking about the city of New Orleans. No stranger to police misconduct. Well, it has now been uncovered that there are hundreds of reported sex crimes or violent crimes against children that detectives never investigated, sometimes even when the heartbreaking evidence was staring them straight in the face.

A three-year investigation by that city's inspector general focused on five particular detectives. Detectives who were in the nine-member SVU, or Special Victims Unit. I want you to take a look at some of the numbers so you get a really good idea of what's going on here. One 1, 290 calls were assigned to those five detectives between January 1, 2011, and December 31, 2013. But only 450 were ever actually written up in the briefest of initial reports. And of those, only 179 were investigated in any capacity. That amounts to 14 percent. One hundred and five cases were sent to the D.A.'s office. The D.A.'s office prosecuted 74 of those cases. Seventy-four prosecutions out of almost 1,300 reported offenses.

My CNN colleague, Alina Machado, has much more from New Orleans.

Alina.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, as you mentioned, this is a very disturbing report. The numbers really a staggering. And the Special Victims Unit, as you know, Ashleigh, investigates child abuse, domestic violence, sex crimes, some of the most sensitive cases out there. And for some reason, for whatever reason, because the report does not go into that, but for whatever reason, these five detectives did not provide enough evidence showing that they properly investigated hundreds of these cases.

Now, we sat down with the inspector general and also with the police chief here in New Orleans. Listen to what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MACHADO: Have you ever seen anything quite like this?

ED QUATREVAUX, NEW ORLEANS INSPECTOR GENERAL: Not in terms of the volume, the wholesale nature of it. There are so many cases that -- where the documentation suggests nothing was done. We don't know that for a fact, but we're missing the documentation. And that's what we need to have because the documentation is the evidence of investigative effort. If it's not there, then obviously we're going to think it doesn't exist.

MACHADO: Do you have any idea of what went wrong?

CHIEF MICHAEL HARRISON, SUPT. NEW ORLEANS POLICE: I do not. I do not. What I can tell you is that we're building measures of accountability so that we know what detectives are doing and what they're not doing on a daily basis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACHADO: Now, you've just heard from the new police chief. He's been in this position for about a month. There was a different police chief here in New Orleans who was also the head of the department during that three-year period from 2011 to 2013 that was looked at, that chief retired in August.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: I think one of the big questions that initially comes up when you hear about this and the staggering number of victims, especially who are infants, kids under three, what on earth could possibly be a motive for, you know, not writing something up or flat- out ignoring, absolutely ignoring evidence that's right there in front of them?

MACHADO: We asked that question to the police chief. We asked that question to the inspector general. And at this point, they really don't have a good answer for what may have motivated or the reason behind this apparent failure in the system. They are working to correct these issues, Ashleigh, at least that's what the police chief says he's doing.

BANFIELD: I am very curious to know what correcting the issues is going to entail. Alina Machado reporting for us from New Orleans. Thank you so much for that.

The story absolutely cries out for answers. Answers that may take a very long time to get. But in the meantime, perhaps you can dig into where they're going to get those answers. I want to bring in my legal team, Sunny Hostin, Paul Callan and Mel Robbins.

Guys, I don't even know where to begin. How on earth, in this day and age, can anything like this happen? You're a former federal prosecutor. Have at er (ph)?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, I'm shocked. I've been reading the report. I haven't seen anything like this, especially coming out of the special victims unit because they're called special victims for a reason -

BANFIELD: For a reason.

HOSTIN: Because they have heightened vulnerability, right?

BANFIELD: Yes.

HOSTIN: So we're talking about the elderly. We're talking about women. We're talking about children. And so when you read this report and you look at the fact that they had a report of a juvenile living with a registered sex offender but didn't follow up --

BANFIELD: Let me read that. You know what, since you mentioned it -

HOSTIN: Right.

BANFIELD: I want to -- you will not believe - and I'm going to read straight from the report, folks. Listen up. This will just - I don't know what it will do to you. "A juvenile was brought to the hospital emergency room due to an alleged sexual assault. A review of the hospital records revealed that a forensic interview was conducted by a specialist trained to elicit information from children regarding sexual/physical abuse. The forensic interview report noted that specific information regarding sexual and physical abuse by a named individual who was living in the same house with the juvenile. This report also stated that the named individual was a registered sex offender. Detective "a" wrote that the juvenile victim did not disclose any information regarding a sexual assault and closed the case due to a lack of evidence."

HOSTIN: It's remarkable and it's also remarkable when you look at the evidence that they had.

BANFIELD: Really, are juveniles -- first of all, are juveniles ever supposed to be the person that actually tells you?

HOSTIN: Of course not.

BANFIELD: And when they actually tell a trained representative that it happened --

MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's absolutely astonishing. A lack of evidence? There is a preponderance of immorality and criminal behavior here, as far as I'm concerned. When you have five police officers who are ignoring - ignoring 86 percent of the cases that come in, as far as I'm concerned, there better be a federal investigation. There better be criminal charges.

Let's start with obstruction of justice. Let's start with collusion. Let's start with corruption. Anything. Because this is such a gross violation.

HOSTIN: It's a federal case.

ROBBINS: I would put it on the level of a Brady violation of not turning over exculpatory evidence because they are failing to even investigate these cases. Meaning, there is no case. It is so offensive, Ashleigh, you can tell that --

BANFIELD: And -

HOSTIN: It's criminal, though. It's not only just offensive. I see criminal liability here.

BANFIELD: Criminal charges here against these five.

HOSTIN: Absolutely. Absolutely.

BANFIELD: These five detectives.

HOSTIN: Absolutely.

BANFIELD: They are - they could be in some big trouble.

HOSTIN: And their supervisors as well.

BANFIELD: And lawyering up as we speak.

HOSTIN: Yes.

BANFIELD: Can I ask you as well, since you guys are steeped in this kind of transactional stuff all the time, you know the numbers. I tried to crunch them as quick as I could, Paul. This is right up your alley. From the numbers that cases that came in as complaints -- a let's remember, a lot of these never get to that level. People sometimes never report rapes or complaints like this very often. But the ones that came in, the ones that actually resulted in a prosecution is somewhere around 5-ish percent. Does that compare nationally to other - like where should it stand?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you know, I've been doing a survey of the literature in the area and I've got to say, the statistics, like statistics, are all over the place. But I found a study that seems to put them all together. And the thought is that in the range of 2 percent to 8 percent of complaints are false complaints that are brought to prosecutors, 2 percent to 8 percent. However, when they study big city prosecutions, Philadelphia, Kansas City, there was a study, 50 percent of the cases that were brought to prosecutors were prosecuted in court.

BANFIELD: Fifty.

CALLAN: So at the very at least we're looking at -

BANFIELD: Fifty.

CALLAN: Fifty percent. And I --

BANFIELD: Compared to the 5-ish percent here.

CALLAN: And I also wanted to add one other thing. In 2011, the Department of Justice conducted an investigation of this very police force. And you know what they found? That there's been a systematic failure to investigate sex assault and domestic violence cases. BANFIELD: You know what -

CALLAN: In 2011. Nothing's been done, apparently.

BANFIELD: I want to make sure that our audience is really clear on the things that have come out of this report. You just heard one or two instances. But an infant was brought to a hospital emergency room with a skull fracture. The emergency room nurse wrote that she suspected non-accidental trauma. And detective "a" conducted no investigation and closed the case.

Another infant was brought to a hospital emergency room with a skull fracture. The doctor found not only a current skull fracture, but an old skull fracture as well. The victim's mom changed her story several times and detective "a," the same detective, wrote in the original report, no cause for criminal action. Closed the case.

HOSTIN: And how -

BANFIELD: A juvenile -

HOSTIN: Yes, that one.

BANFIELD: Brought to a hospital emergency room due to an alleged sexual assault. A review of the victim's medical records revealed that juvenile, who was under three years old, had a sexually transmitted disease. And detective "a" - again, detective "a" -- wrote that the victim did not disclose any information that would warrant a criminal investigation and closed the case.

HOSTIN: Wow.

BANFIELD: The three-year-old did not tell detective "a" that he or she had been raped.

HOSTIN: That part was actually striking to me, especially if you realize that when these victims undergo these sex kits and these examinations, they're usually four to six hours. So you're talking about specially trained nurses and doctors that are conducting these medical investigations and examinations -

BANFIELD: We -

HOSTIN: Providing them to police officers and a police officer not doing anything about - I suspect we're going to hear criminal charges here.

BANFIELD: Tip of the iceberg.

ROBBINS: Yes.

BANFIELD: Tip of the iceberg. You're coming back.

HOSTIN: Yes.

ROBBINS: An unprecedented case. BANFIELD: Alina has just begun her work.

HOSTIN: Oh, no question.

BANFIELD: She's just begun.

HOSTIN: No question.

BANFIELD: It's just remarkable. Sunny, Paul, Mel, thank you. Stick around, though, because we've got lots of other stories coming down the pike.

In the meantime, though, I want to tell you about the European space probe, which has successfully landed on the surface of a comet. Yes, folks. Nerd out, coming up. Mission managers celebrating this historic landing and we're waiting for the first pictures from the comet's surface. Big hugs all around. And what does it mean to the meaning of life, by the way? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Just moments ago we got word of a historic moment in human space exploration. And it's been 10 years in the making, folks. The Philae lander has actually landed on a comet that's been hurtling through the cosmos at tens of thousands of miles per hour.

I want to show you the jubilant reaction from mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, after they received confirmation that, indeed, they caught their comet and they landed on that thing.

Joining me to talk about how this is being accomplished and the historic significance for human kind is CNN's Fred Pleitgen. He's at the mission's headquarters in Darmstadt. And also from Houston is former astronaut Leroy Chiao, who knows a thing or two about space because during his time at NASA he flew on four space missions, most recently serving as the commander of the International Space Station during Expedition 10, a six and a half month flight.

Commander, I want to wait on you for a second and get to -- get to Fred because, Fred, there's some news that's just been handed to me about a tweet that's come regarding the Philae lander, suggesting that - and you'll have to excuse my homogenous wording here, but it says, "finally, I'm stretching my legs after more than 10 years, landing." But then more interestingly - I actually don't want to read the tweet on the air right now, the one that's showing. I want to read the one that says the harpoons didn't fire. "More analysis of Philae 2014 telemetry indicates harpoons did not fire as first thought. Lander in great shape. Team looking at re-fire options."

Is this a problem? Are we experiencing the first problem after the jubilation, Fred, or do you know what it means?

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean the part about great shape I think sounds pretty good. The part about the harpoons is a little difficult because we have a model here of the landing zone and of the lander. So it touched down on the comet about an hour ago. And what it was supposed to do, it was supposed to fire harpoons out of its legs that would then go about - I would say about a foot and a half deep into the ground to then anchor it to this comet. Because one of the things we have to keep in mind, Ashleigh, is that this comet has almost no gravitation of its own. So there's a real danger of this thing just falling off and then falling back into space.

Now apparently it has additional drills on its little feet that it has that are also supposed to anchor it in the ground. So we'll wait and see what this means. But apparently, at this point in time, it's sending back signals. They believe that it's on the comet and it's made a very soft landing on that comet, so they think everything is going all right.

Now, the thing that we're waiting for right now, Ashleigh, is the first image, because then we'll be able to tell exactly where this thing is. It's got cameras all around here. I think six or seven cameras in total. And the folks here are telling me that they are already receiving the first data from these cameras. The first images are already coming in. We expect to be able to see them in a little over half an hour. So about the top of the next hour, we expect to get the first images in here because, of course, a transmission like that, it's 350 million miles from earth. It's going to take a while for these images to get there, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: That's incredible. Oh, Fred, this is just so cool.

PLEITGEN: Yes.

BANFIELD: Commander, if I could just bring you in on this. I love the fact that there are these harpoons that are supposed to keep the Philae, you know, on the surface of the comet as it's just hurtling along at 41,000 miles per hour. But can you bring it down to the layperson's level and tell me exactly what it is we're going to get out of this comet from these experiments that will actually be significant for humankind?

LEROY CHIAO, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, sure. And as you know, this is the first time that a lander has successfully soft landed on a comet and so just besides the technical feat of doing that, the science that we're going to learn, it has instruments on board. It will be able to look at the chemical composition of the comet and it will be able to determine if it contains water and the basic chemicals that form the building blocks of life. And, if so, it could help bolster the theory that comets rained down on the earth in the early ages and ended up putting most of the water on the earth and, in fact, may have seed the earth with those building blocks of life. And if the comets have been shown to do that, it further bolsters the theory that it could have done it elsewhere in the universe as well.

So this is very exciting both from an operational and technical standpoint. Just landing on the thing and being able to anchor itself, as well as the scientific data that are going to come back.

BANFIELD: And just to be real clear about this, commander, it took 10 years to get there. All of the experiments are going to be transmitted data, right? Like they aren't collecting samples and taking 10 years to come home with them, correct?

CHIAO: That's correct. All the data will be transmitted and, at this distance, as you heard Chris (ph) say, 350 million or so miles away. It takes about half an hour for the signal to get back traveling at the speed of light.

BANFIELD: Well it's just super ultra awesome cool, if that's a scientific term. And I'm really appreciative that you took the time to talk with us about it and I'm sure we're going to be talking more.

Fred Pleitgen, thank you, in Germany. And Leroy Chiao, thank you, in Houston. Keep beaming back all that information to us and let us know how the progress is. Thanks, guys.

So, as Ferguson, Missouri, waits for a grand jury decision in the shooting death of Michael Brown, that city and the surrounding communities, too, are gearing up and they're getting ready for some possible protests that could, could get ugly. In the meantime, Michael Brown's parents are saying that the prosecutors in the case have not been keeping them in the loop about the status of this case. So is that normal? You're going to get the legal view on that straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: If you drive around Ferguson, Missouri, today, it looks like a storm is coming. And it just might be, but not in the sense you're used to. Take a look at that. People who live and work there are boarding up, they are locking up, not against mother nature but about the possibility of a new explosion of violent protests because there's still a big unknown. There's still no word on whether the police officer who shot and killed an unarmed teenager this summer will be indicted by the grand jury that is hearing the evidence as we speak. That announcement could come any day now. And we're told the pathologist who did a second autopsy on Michael Brown is set to testify tomorrow before those grand jurors. There is so much to talk about in this particular case. And our Sara Sidner has this report from Ferguson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the grand jury announcement on whether to indict Officer Darren Wilson grows ever nearer, the Missouri governor sent a message out to everyone, law enforcement is ready.

GOVERNOR JAY NIXON (D), MISSOURI: If folks cross that safety line on property or on person, we will use the full power of the law to keep peace.

SIDNER: The governor says he will send in the National Huard if required.

NIXON: When we make the determination that the National Guard is necessary to provide support, you know, I'm prepared to issue that order. SIDNER (on camera): We've talked to dozens of people, from pastors, to

residents, to protesters, to police, and they all say the city is on pins and needles waiting for the grand jury's decision. And everyone is planning. Not just here in Ferguson, but in the entire St. Louis metropolitan area.

SIDNER (voice-over): The St. Louis County Police Department is already gearing up, purchasing more than $100,000 in riot gear. Some protesters blame police for escalating tensions after the killing of Michael Brown and they, too, are planning their reaction.

DEBRA KENNEDY, RESIDENT & PROTESTER: It's probably going to be a little anger, a little tension. There are going to be a few bad apples that do some looting. But my position is, you can always replace a window, you can replace things, but you can't replace human lives. So as long as no lives get lost and if any lives are lost, it's probably going to be at the hands of the police officers. And then that would just cause more problems.

SIDNER: But police said they have been diligent over the past 90 days, meeting with the community to make safety for all a priority.

CHIEF JON BELMAR, ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE DEPT.: We have had instances where officers have been injured. We have had instances where they've been hit with rocks in the face and different things like that. So we're going to do what we can to protect them. But at the same time, we try to always portray a posture of appropriateness to the situation that we're faced with.

SIDNER: While the community plans, Michael Brown's family was in Geneva speaking to the U.N. on police brutality. They've been calling for a peaceful reaction to any decision. But if there is no indictment, they told CNN they will join protesters in the streets once again.

MICHAEL BROWN SR., MICHAEL BROWN'S FATHER: Because the fight would not be over. We understand that our son is gone. But the movement will be that we're trying to make sure that this doesn't happen to anyone else.

SIDNER: Sara Sidner, CNN, Ferguson, Missouri.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: So you just saw in Sara's report Michael Brown's mother and father. That was part of my conversation on this show with them yesterday. They happen to be in Switzerland right now because they're testifying before a U.N. panel dedicated to ending mistreatment by government agencies. And I also wanted to know what their treatment's like right now, if they're in the loop about what's going to happen in Ferguson when the news comes down about an indictment or no indictment. And Michael Brown, Sr., told me this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BROWN SR., MICHAEL BROWN'S FATHER: We haven't heard from anyone, which that I feel that's pretty cruel and unfair, you know. With this type of situation going on, no one really reached out, let us - you know, no hand, no hug, no - no nothing. Just -- basically just deal with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Legal analyst Mel Robbins is here to talk about that whole notion of just dealing with it.

This is not normal, is it, that you are a victim's family member and you don't have that alliance or that ally in the prosecutor? Or am I wrong?

MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: There's nothing normal about this case, Ashleigh. And, yes, what you're talking about is every single prosecutor's office, including the St. Louis prosecutor, has a victims services division. And their entire job is to provide services to victims of crimes. And in this case, that means the extended family. And so typically what you would see, when there's not a police officer shooting involved, and even when there is, you'd have somebody from the prosecutor's office reaching out to the family. And according to them, nobody has done that.

BANFIELD: And someone should hold the hand of family members of violence through the process. Ultimately, this is a weird case, I get it. And is there any notion that sharing sensitive information with the parents of Michael Brown could end up being more dangerous for the community as a whole because it could get out -

ROBBINS: Yes.

BANFIELD: And then all of a sudden the whole process could be tainted?

ROBBINS: I think that's what's happened is, unfortunately, they didn't do this the right way from the beginning, so the Brown family was backed into a corner and had to hire lawyers in order to get the information and the justice that they needed. And now two parties that should be actually working together - because, look, if the officer is indicted, their will -- they will be involved. They'll be attending the trial. They will submit a witness impact - or victim impact statement if he's convicted. They're part of the process.

BANFIELD: But won't that be a pretty abrasive relationship because it never got off to a good footing to start with, or can it all change with an Etch-a-Sketch moment?

ROBBINS: I think it can change in a moment. And I think this entire situation is sad. It's sad that Michael Brown was shot and died. It's sad that this officer has already been convicted in the court of public opinion on the streets. It's sad that nobody has any trust in the system. And typically when some - when a prosecutor is presenting a case that involves a police officer, they've got to take a step back, too, and look a little impartial.

BANFIELD: Yes. ROBBINS: They can't go gunning for the police department. They can't indict the person that was shot. They've got to do exactly what this prosecutor is doing, which is give them everything. And by the way, the Brown family pathologist is actually in the grand jury this week testifying. So the grand jury is hearing evidence that supports the theory of the case that would lead to an indictment.

BANFIELD: Yes.

ROBBINS: And so people need to calm down and they need to let the process play out.

BANFIELD: All right, well we'll watch and see what happens. It's any day now. So we're kind of all on standby, as are all of these people as well.

ROBBINS: Right.

BANFIELD: Mel Robbins, thank you for that.

This is disturbing. United States Navy sailors attacked, bags placed over their heads. And this happened in Turkey. Turkey! Isn't Turkey a U.S. ally? And with friends like these, what do you do about it?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)