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CNN NEWSROOM

Another Cosby Accuser Comes Forward

Aired November 21, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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


BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Bottom of the hour. You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Another Cosby accuser is coming forward. She's speaking with CNN describing an encounter from 1969. We're talking about Linda Traitz. She was a teenager. She was waiting tables. Cosby co-owned the restaurant where she worked and she says one day he sat down at one of her tables, told her she was pretty and offered her a ride home. Traitz said she was absolutely star struck and at the time she didn't see any red flags. So when he asked her to get in his car, she did. It was a Rolls-Royce. They went to the beach. And that is where Traitz says Cosby opened a briefcase full of pills.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDA TRAITZ, BILL COSBY ACCUSER: All he said was why don't you take a couple of these and they will help you relax. He kept, you know -- what? Help me relax, for what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Did you take any of the pills?

TRAITZ: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: OK. So then what happened?

TRAITZ: He started grabbing at my chest and, you know, he started to try to fondle me and then he started to push himself on top of me like against the seat and against the door as he was groping me. And I don't remember the conversation. But I do know that that's when I panicked. I opened the door behind me and ran out of his car. I ran down the beach and I had on a long hippy peasant skirt. That's what we wore back then. And I was running and I was running toward the, you know, towards I guess the shoreline, my foot must have hit the bottom of my skirt because I fell and it tore up my skirt probably to the knee and I partially fell in the water so I was wet. He was coming after me trying to calm me down because I was making such a scene. I was crying and I was in a panic. I was crying and he said I'll take you home. I'll take you home. At that point I was not raped but I was groped and terrorized.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That's the latest voice to come forward here sitting down Alison Camerota. And now, this is what Bill Cosby's attorney has to say. Let me quote them precisely. "Mrs. Traitz's long criminal record for

numerous offenses including charges of criminal fraud, possession of oxycodone, cocaine possession, marijuana possession, possession of drug paraphernalia speaks for itself. As the old saying goes, consider the source." That's from the attorney.

Now, Linda Traitz admit, yes, says she's had drug problems. She says that started long after her encounter with Bill Cosby. She's specific in saying she was not raped and that she never went after Bill Cosby for this alleged groping incident.

Mark Ebner, bring you in covering -- covered Hollywood crime for a long time, you say. You are a reporter with "the Daily Beast."

So, you know, of course, I read your piece and we will get to in a second. But I would love to hear just your take on this lawyer, this Bill Cosby lawyer sort of bringing up this woman's, you know, past as she is speaking about being groped allegedly. Your thoughts?

MARK EBNER, REPORTER, THE DAILY BEAST: Yes. This kind of lawyer tactics while they're not surprising, it's really a slippery slope. Instead of having Bill Cosby come out and speak to the issues and the allegations, using a lawyer as a mouth piece, discrediting the alleged victims is not the way to go. They should have Bill Cosby step up and answer these accusations.

BALDWIN: That's the question. Will he do that? And just so far, not, you know. But you, you have been covering these allegations against Bill Cosby for years. You write this piece saying you warned us.

EBNER: Well, yes. I mean, actually I wrote the original piece in 2007 and I couldn't get any traction with the media. I even went to the AP news wire with it. And their response to me was we don't want to libel Mr. Cosby. Well, you know, that is imputing my integrity as a journalist. I had three sources at the time. Tamara Green in upstate California, Joan Tarshis in Woodstock, New York and via her attorney in Canada, Andrea Constand who, by the way, Bill Cosby has already settled with.

Now, that said, these women are from three different parts of the world sharing the same story. I was drugged and I was raped. These are their allegations. They didn't get together and conspire with this. And not only that, you know, people are calling them attention seekers and they are trying to cash in, I didn't buy a cup of coffee for any of them.

BALDWIN: So there you were in 2007 with these three separate sources, you are banging down doors to these places to get your piece, you know, published. I mean, listen. You know, I talked to a number of journalists who have sort of done similar things and the onus falls on members of the media as well.

EBNER: Well, sure it does. And you know, they treasure their icons and they try to protect them.

BALDWIN: Americans do.

EBNER: Yes. And it's really unfortunate. I mean, the tabloids actually used allegations as a bargaining chip to get an exclusive interview with Bill Cosby. This came out today in "the Guardian." And you know, I was eyewitness to that. It's extremely frustrating to ply my trade in the kind of environment that wants to coddle celebrities even when accusations are as deep and dark as rape.

BALDWIN: You have been working this beat for a long time. I'm wondering just if you think, you know, the chorus grows louder and louder, do you think ultimately Bill Cosby will address this?

EBNER: Well, you know, he seems to have lost everything dear to him. I mean, they pulled his Netflix special, they pulled his intended series where he was going to play America's granddad. And you know, he's dropping out of live performances. I mean, you know, what else does he hold dear, you know, besides his wife that stands by his side with a, you know, pasted smile on her face? You know, as these people are trying to ask him what's up with these accusations. You know, I think his career is done. And if he wants to save face at all, he should step up and meet the press on this.

BALDWIN: Mark Ebner, thank you.

So continuing along talking about Ferguson now. How is Ferguson Missouri's embattled police chief getting ready for possible fallout from the grand jury decision? The answer to that actually might surprise you. We'll play that for you. He talked to my colleague Erin Burnett. She'll join me live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: He is the embattled police chief of Ferguson, Missouri. Thomas Jackson has been described as a colorful character and hammered by critics for his handling of the fallout in the Michael Brown shooting from August. In fact, the governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon, even taking authority from the Ferguson police department, but still Jackson says his local officers will be patrolling the streets. And for his part, he says he won't be stepping down.

Joining me now, Erin Burnett.

Erin Burnett, you talked to him. You asked him about, you know, what makes him think that he's the guy. He is the guy to lead people through all of this. What did he tell you?

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST, OUTFRONT: All right, look. He's adamant about that, Brooke, as you just said. He believes that he is going to see this through and he was clear that that means not just right now, but it means on the other side when this is done, indicted or not indicted, he wants to stay.

Look. He's had a 30-year career in the St. Louis county police department. This was supposed to be sort of the end of a career, go to Ferguson, it's a small town. This can't be that hard. And obviously, it has become the test of his career and there were some very, very significant horrible errors that were made. But when I asked him about why he was going to stay, here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: You are not overseeing the local response. And I know the governor of Missouri didn't include you in the press conference when he laid out his plan to deal with violence. Do you think you should be running that response to show the community it can trust you and it can trust your police force?

CHIEF THOMAS JACKSON, FERGUSON POLICE: Well, I'm running a response here locally and we're still going to be -- the Ferguson police department will be patrolling the city of Ferguson throughout all this. But we are a smaller police department in a small community and this is a much larger regional issue and I know Jon Belmar, the chief of police for St. Louis County for decades and I have absolute confidence in his ability to see us through this thing.

BURNETT: In August, I know you spoke to Jason Carroll and you said Wilson was treated at the hospital for a swollen face. I know you didn't see him personally. Have you seen any evidence of Officer Wilson's injuries since you last spoke to CNN?

JACKSON: No. I specifically kept myself away from all of the evidence in this case so that the county and the prosecuting attorney's office can conduct a fair and impartial investigation without interference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And he was very careful to say that he had stayed away from this, Brooke, as you heard since then. One thing that I thought was really interesting was I asked him why there were only three African- American police officers on a police force of 53 even though 66 percent of the population in Ferguson is African-American. And he said, well, we're trying to get as many minorities as possible but now we have four. So now they have one more so they have four out of 53, and in an environment where obviously African-Americans are not minority. They are by far the majority.

And when I put that question to him, he said, look, the reality of it is that we don't have enough African-American applicants. And we're doing everything we can about that. We're trying to ramp that up. But that's what he blames that disparity on.

BALDWIN: OK. So they are maybe plus one on that end, but they could be minus one as we report today sources telling CNN this police officer shot, you know, Michael Brown is in talks about a possible resignation. This is all predicated upon, you know, how the grand jury decides. You asked him about that. What did he say?

BURNETT: So look. He's very careful to say we're going to figure out what happened about whether he stays or goes. I think it seems to the logical person that he's not going stay at least going out on the streets. That wouldn't make sense at this point. But they haven't made a formal decision as to whether he would have some sort of a desk job or anything like that. But as you heard him say, Chief Jackson said look, I haven't been in

contact with Darren Wilson since all of this happened trying to distance himself from that saying he didn't want to taint the investigation. I asked him, though, again what was Darren Wilson like as a police officer because you may remember, Brooke, at the very beginning when he gave those sorts of impromptu press conferences and everyone would sort of, you know, surround him and he would talk about, well, he was a good man. And here's what he said. I just want to read.

He said Officer Wilson was a hard working police officer, was very personable -- is very personable. So then he tried to switch the tense. And of course, the question is that used as the past tense, something that indicates -- look, it's pretty much a done deal that he isn't going to come back to this force even if he's not indicted.

But he did go too far. He just said he was a personable guy and a hard working guy and nothing further than that.

BALDWIN: Interesting. Great interview. Erin Burnett, thank you so much. We'll watch for you, as we always do, at 7:00 eastern here on CNN.

And just a quick reminder to all of you, live pictures here Las Vegas, Nevada in a matter of moments President Obama will giving a speech in Vegas about his immigration order. We watched him last night from the White House. You know, listen. This is a big moment as he is trying to convince Americans his decision to go it alone was the right one. We'll take it live.

But first, the reason I am sitting today in Atlanta, Georgia, is because of one individual. The person who I hear each and every day in my ear piece, the person who is directing the show as we speak, this is a big deal. This is a big day for us, not just for me, personally, but for us here at CNN because this is his last day.

And in addition to being this all-around good guy, amazing husband to his lovely wife, Eve, and fantastic director and friend, he's one of the last CNN originals. And this is a big deal. We always know when we have a CNN original in our midst, right?

Roger Strauss was here when CNN first went on the air in 1980. Way back when Ted Turner promised the network would be live until the world ends. Folks, that is 34 years at CNN. In the control room some 19,000 live shows he has done this countless times.

What we all admire about this line of work, this is someone who has truly had a front row seat to history to some of the most important and dramatic events of our lifetime so in a tribute to my friend, Roger, here's one of them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: When I tell people I not only have a CNN original Roger Strauss directing my show each and every day I tell them he directed Tiananmen Square. ROGER STRAUSS, CNN DIRECTOR: I as in the control room during all of

that. That was probably my most stressful day ever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm being told that the government officials are coming into the CNN control room now.

STRAUSS: I'm sitting there directing in the control room and there are three guys from the Chinese army standing right there in the row behind me carrying machine guns and you don't often have to direct with people carrying machine guns behind you.

While Alex was on the front in Atlanta, and we were trying to extend the broadcast as long as we could and he was dealing, he was actually negotiating in the control room with those Chinese soldiers and a representative from the Chinese government, all of this while we're doing live TV from a site in China.

BALDWIN: That was history. That's when CNN said we're here and we're CNN. He's an amazing person. He is a phenomenal journalist. He's a friend. I hope for a long time. And I will throw my arms around him and say thank you.

STRAUSS: I want to be remembered as a person who got the job done, a person who came into the control room and gave the producers exactly what they wanted. It's my last day but CNN is a lot bigger than just one person and the network will go on and I know it's in really good hands.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You saw him last night in the White House with the big speech. Here he is a day later in Las Vegas talking immigration. Take a look.