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Rep. Cummings Face-to-Face with Protesters; Baltimore Mayor on Freddie Gray Developments; Report: Prisoner Claims Gray Tried to Injure Himself. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 30, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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


ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Emotions are very high with protests erupting across the country, from Minneapolis to Houston to Boston, the message is all for one from these demonstrators. And that is that police brutality is a national issue. Now, one of the most intense protests happened right here in New York City.

Check this out. About 100 people were arrested.

[07:00:01] Now, the night started off very peacefully, but it escalated with the small scuffle with police. Twelve people -- 20 people, excuse me, ended up in zip ties.

Then they started marching towards Times Square. Police followed in tow, telling people not to be off the sidewalk. Those who didn't obey the rules ended up in handcuffs.

We move onto Washington, D.C., where the protests were more friendly than confrontational. There were about 500 strong. Once they moved to the White House those crowds disbursed.

And then more violence in Denver, Colorado. You see people here walking down the streets of downtown. Well, guess what? About 11 people were arrested here.

And there is one common theme here, guys, and that is that all of these protests usually start in social media.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: When I was talking to them or was that just -- all right, Rosa, thank you very much.

Now, there's no question that while there are protests that are going on in other cities, and they're about the same kind of thing, overnight there was still tension in Baltimore. It was all about when the clock struck 10. Here's what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go home. You may not remain in a public place.

CUOMO (voice-over): Curfew, once again the moment of truth in Baltimore.

(on camera): You now have about 300 people here who aren't sure whether they want to leave or not. (voice-over): Thousands of National Guard added to the mix. Police

assembling equipment and forming the line.

(on camera): We just had armored show up. You have the police here in bigger numbers.

(voice-over): Color sparking violence, but on this night it was about gang colors, as Crips and Bloods went at it.

The police never moved. The community handles its business, stepping up, squashing the rogue gang bangers and enforcing the curfew.

(on camera): As we approach 10 p.m., it's moving in the right direction.

(voice-over): The key, leadership. Concerned citizens and, all importantly, elected leaders on the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): We shall overcome...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): We shall overcome...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): We shall overcome...

CUOMO: Baltimore Representative Elijah Cummings and State Senator Catherine Pugh voices of reason, people responding. Flanked by media, they move from group to group until they're only left with reporters and calm streets.

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), MARYLAND: We are very, very proud of our folks. And we're proud of our city.

CUOMO: No small irony night turns out better than day in Baltimore as massive crowds swarm city hall and Penn Station.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do we want?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Justice!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Justice!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Justice!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When do we want it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now!

CUOMO: The majority of protests peaceful, a handful still determined to harm police, hurling rocks.

COMMISSIONER ANTHONY BATTS, BALTIMORE POLICE DEPARTMENT: I have a number of officers that have, well, they probably have broken hands or other bumps and bruises.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's signing fake autographs for fake fans.

CUOMO: The biggest reminder of disruption in Baltimore seen on the field, not the streets. For the first time in history, the Baltimore Orioles played to an empty Camden Yards, MLB officials too afraid of possible violence inside their stadium.

ADAM JONES, BALTIMORE ORIOLES BASEBALL PLAYER: My prayers have been out for all the families. All the kids out there, you know, they're hurting.

CUOMO: But what exactly happened to 25-year-old Freddie Gray? That remains a mystery.

According to a newly-released investigative document obtained by "The Washington Post," a prisoner who rode in the police van with Gray, who was separated by a metal partition and could not see him, told investigators he believes he was, quote, "intentionally trying to injure himself."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody's standing up for the officers, any of them.

CUOMO: Cutting against this report, a family member of one of the six officers under investigation. They wish to remain unidentified but say Gray wasn't manhandled on the road, and the van ride was not rough.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were two people in the back. If he was rolling around in the back, then the other person that was back there would have been rolling around in the back also. And they weren't.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: A document from someone who was with Freddie Gray in the van that says to the police, according to them, he tried to hurt himself. The family member of one of the officers involved saying they thought that he got hurt before he was in the van.

So let's examine this. How much weight should it have? Whether this prisoner matters, does the family member matter more? CNN justice reporter Evan Perez is digging down for us. What do you got?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: But you know, Chris, we're talking about six blocks. This is when the second prisoner gets into the van, and they are taken to the police station, both prisoners.

So during this six-block ride is when this prisoner says he believes, he comes to the impression, that Freddie Gray was trying to harm himself.

Now, they're picked up -- Freddie Gray is picked up at 8:42. That's when the paddy wagon was requested. 8:46, the van driver says that he is being irate, and they put leg irons on him.

CUOMO: Freddie Gray is being irate.

PEREZ: That is correct. And then shortly thereafter, they stop again to pick up the second prisoner.

So it's hard to understand how this second prisoner comes to believe that he's trying to harm himself. We do know that he was thrashing about in the back there. The Baltimore police commissioner addressed some of this. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[07:05:14] COMMISSIONER ANTHONY BATTS, BALTIMORE POLICE DEPARTMENT: The second prisoner that was picked up is that he didn't see any harm done to Freddie at all. What he has said is that he heard Freddie thrashing about. The driver didn't drive erratically.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And ...

CUOMO: Hold on a second, Evan. How could the second prisoner have seen anything? He's on the other side of a wall.

PEREZ: He's on the other side of a wall. And he's -- he's, you know, giving his impression based on not seeing anything.

Now, what we've -- what we're beginning to see here, Chris, is -- is you know, as you know, the police and the prosecutors have to bring a case based on the idea that they can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. And what you're seeing here...

CUOMO: They don't have to bring charges on that basis.

PEREZ: They don't, right. But they have to believe...

CUOMO: They can bring a case.

PEREZ: Right. And so what we're seeing here, along with the interview last night with Anderson Cooper, in which a friend of the -- one of the officers involved here says that, you know, the officer believes the injury occurred before he gets into the van. That begins to show a picture here that, you know, there's going to be different explanations that prosecutors are going to have to sort through.

CUOMO: Right. Now, look, one of the reasons that Evan Perez, you know, he's a pro. One of the reasons he seems so qualified is you've got to remember the sourcing on this.

One is a family member of one of the cops who says that that cop says. And on the other side, it's this prisoner who cops say he said to them, even though he was on the other side of the wall and he couldn't see. It's speculative. That's why there's so much push for real answers that people can clarify. Thank you very much for the reporting. We'll keep digging on that.

And all of this is going to come down to leadership by the cops and the electeds here in Baltimore. They've told the public they have to have patience in the search for justice, but how long will that hold?

So we bring in the mayor, the woman at the center, Stephanie Rawlings- Blake. She is here. She's been at the center of it. Certainly trial by fire.

Ms. Mayor, it's good to have you with us. It is good to have you after a night where we can say things were better. But let's break down what will build your future here in this city.

This "The Washington Post" report, you know what it says. The person who was on with Anderson Cooper last night, you've heard about that. Did you know these things before they came out in the media? Are you getting information as a leader about what's going on?

STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE, MAYOR OF BALTIMORE: So the issue is, for me, it's not helpful to the Freddie Gray family. It's not helpful to our community, who wants to seek justice, to engage in speculation that doesn't get us closer to answers. Our community wants answers to what happened to Freddie Gray. And that's important, that we protect that process so we're able to get there.

CUOMO: When you have a situation that you know is a pretty closed -- and look, you're an established attorney. You know all this. When people say it's all the cops, it's a pretty limited fact pattern, you've had a lot of time, you got statements from the cops, why aren't I hearing anything? It fuels negative suspicion. Do you understand that?

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: I absolutely understand that. People are in pain. And people want answers. And the family wants justice. And we've been clear from the very beginning that we want to do everything possible to put information out as soon as we can, but in a way that doesn't undermine our ability to seek justice for Freddie Gray.

At the end of the day if we're going to heal as a community, it is because we have done everything that we can to get the answers and to seek justice for Freddie Gray and for his family.

CUOMO: What's the main answer to satisfy the confusion about why it has taken as long as it has taken?

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: A lot of people don't understand the process. And a lot of people don't care about the process. A lot of people want better for their communities. A lot of what you're seeing, when you saw the worst of it, it wasn't about the process. It wasn't about justice. It was about the fact that we have people in our community who were in pain.

And my hope is that, by focusing on justice and by focusing on that pathway forward, we'll have time and space to heal our community. We have work to do to rebuild that trust. Work that we've been doing. I've been in the process of reforming my police department.

We put in place better training. We've got police discourtesy complaints down, excessive force down, shootings down. We're holding more officers who are -- who act out. We're holding more of those officers accountable. Lawsuits against the city are down.

With all of that progress that we're making, you see the pain that still exists. So my goal is to find the space and the place and the pathway not just to justice but to peace and to allow us to heal and to get better as a city.

CUOMO: But it all starts with the case, right? Because justice winds up being a process, fairness under law; and justice delayed is justice denied. We've all heard those words.

They've set up an expectation here about tomorrow. You know that. The police commissioner contributed to this. You've been part of this dialogue. Tomorrow, in all fairness, is not the day of clarity in the case of Freddie Gray, is it?

[07:10:09] RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Tomorrow is an inflection point. That is the deadline that the commissioner gave to give over the investigative material to the state's attorney. It is a continuation in a process toward justice.

CUOMO: Well, we're not going to get leaks (ph). The citizens here who want answers will not get them tomorrow, fair point?

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: So what we've said very -- very clearly is we have a duty to protect the justice process. So Freddie Gray's family can have the justice that they want. They don't want any information to go out that would undermine their ability to get justice for Freddie Gray. They've said it loud and clear. And we're going to protect that.

CUOMO: Right. I'm just saying that people think tomorrow they may learn -- I mean, you know. You're hearing it. We're hearing it on the streets. Be calm tonight. Friday's our day. We'll get our answers.

Don't you feel that people should know, no, you're not going to get your answers on Friday. And not for bad reason, for good reason. But don't have the expectation that the mayor or the police commissioner is going to step out and say, "Here's what we know. Here's what's going to happen."

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Uh-huh. I'll say this: we have given out information as we can as long as we know it's not going to undermine our ability to seek justice for Freddie Gray.

I want to make -- make sure that, when this information goes to the state's attorney, we continue to do that. That's the only way that we're going to be able not just to seek optics -- I mean, to seek justice for optics, but to have justice for Freddie Gray.

We've been talking in schools. I've been talking to clergy leaders. We've been talking to community leaders about this process to try to make sure people have the right expectations about what's going to go on on Friday.

CUOMO: Tomorrow is not the day. I'm just saying, do you agree with that proposition? Don't look to tomorrow for the end.

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Well, it can't be the end. There's been no charges; there's been no trial. It cannot be the end.

CUOMO: Understood, but you know that people aren't clear on that. So I just want to make it clear for them.

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Yes. Absolutely. Yes.

CUOMO: And what they'll say is, you know what? If I did this, you know, people in your community are saying, "They would have arrested me already. Maybe they'd charge me. Maybe they wouldn't." Why weren't these officers arrested? You've got a guy who dies in their custody with a crushed larynx and a broken spine, you know? He did that to himself in a van? Maybe, maybe not, but certainly would be probable cause that a crime may have been committed as a citizen as the defendant. Why not here?

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: So what you're talking about is the deeper issues and the pain that I know exists in our community.

CUOMO: No, I'm talking specific to the facts of this case.

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Yes. Specifically to this case...

CUOMO: Again, not to pad your pedigree, but you are a practicing attorney. You know if it were a regular person, a citizen, and you had someone with a crushed larynx and a broken spine, and it was just about your client and that victim that would very likely be probable cause for some type of arrested charges.

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: But you're speculating. Quite likely, but it could be the same situation. And at the end of the day, it's about this case and making sure that we're getting this case right. It has nothing to do with speculation about any other cases out there.

This family wants justice. They don't want us to sit here and speculate about what could have happened if it was a private citizen that did it. They want justice.

CUOMO: When the officers are home getting paid; and Freddie Gray's dead and it seems like there's a connection between what happened. Nobody wants to paint the police in a bad light. That does not help the future of your community. But the suspicion is what matters. You understand what I'm saying?

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: I absolutely understand. And that's why I've worked so hard to reform our department. I lobbied to get the Justice Department in here to do a collaborative reform process, because I know we have issues with our police department. I know that there are issues of mistrust. And I want to do everything in my power to bring the resources to my city so we can fix it. And we're going to do that.

The issues that you're talking about and the mistrust and the expectations, that's bigger than this one case. And we have to get it right.

So while we seek justice for Freddie Gray, I'm going to continue to push for progress. I'm going to continue to work with communities so we can do the healing that they say that they want and the police say that they want.

CUOMO: The -- you get a big amen from the community on that. And one of the things that has brought it out is this word "thug." When you're in the communities with the civic leaders there, they say this is one of the ugliest problems we're dealing with right now. This idea that you're going to dismiss everybody who broke a window and looted and rioted as all the same person just is a lie about the reality here. That there are just as many people who saw this as an act of desperation.

And people on the outside can could say, "Oh, you're just excusing thugs' behavior." But do you know better, Mayor? Is there a better explanation? Because, you know, you got caught up in the use of the thug word also.

Do you believe that everyone in that community, who was breaking a window or acting in anger or making bad choices, that they're just criminals looking for opportunities? Or there's another kind of person there acting out, as well?

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: What is clear is that name calling and blaming doesn't bring healing to our communities. I was angry when I saw what people were doing to the community that I love. I know that that's a community that's been fighting back from the riots from the '60s. And to see it being destroyed was painful.

I used a word that I regret. I've apologized. And you know why? Not just because I used it, because it took the eye off of the real problems in our community. Calling them thugs or criminals or even worse doesn't bring the resources that they need. It doesn't bring healing to the community.

[07:15:05] CUOMO: It doesn't validate their reality.

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Absolutely.

CUOMO: Look, apologies are necessary. You're in politics now. That's part of the game. But I think the more important part may be the suggestion of and the reason "thug" doesn't matter is because you may not live here, but you know this community. And they deal with things every day that most people in the country don't have to, in Baltimore.

One in every three of them is living under the poverty line. They can't get jobs. There is an education process. We watched a kid last night rapping that they want education, not incarceration. He doesn't want to go to jail. The kid was like 8, and he was rapping this on the street. Doesn't that matter as much to give voice to that, no matter what the rest of the country wants to see this as?

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Absolutely. And that's why I've spent so much time over the past few days every chance I get talking to our young people about how they're feeling. What does this make you feel when you see your city portrayed like this?

They know very clearly that this -- the acting out that we saw, wasn't just about Freddie Gray. It's about pain in the community. But it's also about people who don't respect where they live. And those young people are mad about it.

So this -- out of these dark days and our city there's a healing that's possible. And there's a pathway to a better Baltimore. We're a resilient city. And we're a city that's not -- that we refuse to be down. So don't count us out.

CUOMO: Two other things. What is your take on this moment that became metaphor of the mom eyeballing her kid as, you know, a potential kid going out there to act out their anger, and her slapping him around, keeping him in line? What does that mean to you?

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: You know, I think we can all debate her methods. What I can say is she loves her child enough to intervene when it was necessary. And I applaud that.

We need more parents that are willing to step up and to take control over their kids, to listen to their kids. And when they see their kids in trouble, to immediately act. That's what it's going to take in order for us to have the healing that we need and the space for these kids to find their pathway.

When you -- when you, as a parent know, that your kids are doing this and putting themselves at risk of death, of incarceration, that is your tacit acceptance that they're not going to reach their potential.

That mother, she's like "not on my watch. You're going to make it. You're going to get your education. You're going to do the right things, because you know better." And there are so many parents that need to say that same message.

CUOMO: And again, you know, she winds up being a demonstration of how two people see the situation differently. Some are saying, "Well, you got six kids. You're all alone. You know, that's part of the problem."

People don't necessarily understand conditions and life and what people have to deal with in order to get their kids where they want to be. That's where leadership comes in, feeds into what is being done on the ground to help the situation.

I know hindsight's 20/20, but it also gives you a way of how you can do it next time, and there are always going to be problems.

Do you think you should be on the ground here more? Elijah Cummings was out there last night with Senator Pugh, and it makes such a difference with people on the street, to have a leader there, not a recorded voice over a bull horn but there.

You got 87 percent of the vote, but you haven't been at the ugly situations at night. Do you think you should be?

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: So this is the deal. Every person in our community, even the gang members in our community that are coming out, everybody that has their role and their place to bring peace in our community.

I know that my presence can be a calming presence and can be a flashpoint. I'm not going to risk inserting myself. You know, it might look good to some people, but I'm not going to insert myself in a situation that we know is potentially hostile and very fragile, when I have leaders like Elijah Cummings and Senator Pugh, who are willing to stand in and do that work that needs to be done.

There are a lot of moving pieces. There's a lot of work that needs to be done operationally. And I'm doing that role. And I'm grateful that we have leaders that are willing to step up and to insert themselves, whether it's community leaders, faith leaders, other elected officials, to help. I can't be eight different places at one time. I can't be at the watch center, making sure that we have all the resources we need and on a bull horn at the same time. I'm not going to be able to do that.

But what I can do is lean on the leadership and the courage of other leaders in our city that help and want to do their part to get us better.

CUOMO: And they're all leaning back on you, because you know, it all comes down to who's at the top, and that's you in this city. One quick question. The curfew.

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Uh-huh.

CUOMO: Do you see it going a full week? Are you thinking -- we heard that you're thinking about reducing how long you'll have a curfew. Where are you?

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Apparently, there's a mind reader that someone has. No. I have made no decision about lifting the curfew. We re-evaluate it on a daily basis.

CUOMO: Because you get that message that that sends to the community too, right?

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Absolutely.

CUOMO: Is that they can't be trusted to live their own lives.

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: That's not -- well, that shouldn't send that message. What it's saying is we want peace in our community. And we're going to do everything that we can to ensure that we have peace moving forward.

[07:20:04] We've done -- we've had curfews before in Baltimore. We have a youth curfew year round. We're going to make sure that we keep our young people safe. I don't want to lose another life out on the Baltimore streets because of the violence that has been erupting in our city. CUOMO: Understood.

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: And we're going to make sure that we do everything that we can to keep everyone safe.

CUOMO: You know what they're saying: it's not the curfew; it will be justice that will bring peace. Ms. Mayor, you've got a lot of work to do. Thank you for joining us here on NEW DAY.

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Thank you.

CUOMO: Appreciate it.

All right. So we've been discussing with the mayor what's going on here right now. The next big step will be tomorrow, because that's when the police are going to hand over a preliminary report to the prosecutors. What do the family expect tomorrow? What do they think they're going to learn?

And we're going to have the reaction of the speculation that maybe Freddie Gray hurt himself in that van. We're going to talk with an attorney for Gray's family coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: NEW DAY, the headline here, "The Washington Post" has a document that supposedly gives the account of a prisoner who was being transported with Freddie -- Freddie Gray in the same van. And he says, supposedly, according to investigators, that he thinks Gray was trying to injure himself.

Tomorrow's a big day here. Maybe seen as too big, by the way. It is the day that, certainly, police will give their preliminary investigative findings to prosecutors. Does that mean we get answers?

Let's turn to Mary Cook. She's part of the legal team representing Freddie Gray's family.

MARY COOK, ATTORNEY FOR FREDDIE GRAY'S FAMILY: Good morning.

CUOMO: Pleasure.

COOK: Good to see you.

CUOMO: You just heard the mayor. What was your takeaway from what the mayor had to say about the current investigations, the expectations and how it's being handled?

[07:25:04] COOK: OK. So let me just talk a little bit about the fact that we represent the Gray family. And on our team, at our firm we have, you know, Billy Murphy, who not only is a defense attorney, but he also was a judge. I come from a background of being a prosecutor doing defense work. We have other people who have spent their career -- Jason -- doing defense work.

CUOMO: You get the system. COOK: We understand it. We've told the family from the beginning

answers were not going to come quickly. And that answers needed to be -- the investigation needed to be full and complete so that whatever happens subsequently -- and hopefully, what will happen is the correct people are charged, those charges are prosecuted and then that prosecution sticks.

CUOMO: Two questions. Why does everybody think tomorrow's a big day?

COOK: Because that's what the government told them. That's what the police commissioner told them in the beginning. And the mayor did not disavow people of the fact that May 1 was sort of a drop-dead date.

I think missing from the conversation, and it may have been inadvertent. There are many things going on, but missing from the conversation was -- is that this is a process.

So the police department has the ability to charge -- to make an arrest to charge someone. But in a situation like this they're always going to go to the state's attorney's office. The state's attorney's office...

CUOMO: Is that the right way to do it?

COOK: It's the way it's always done. It's probably...

CUOMO: But that doesn't mean whether it's right or wrong.

COOK: You know, it is -- I think it is probably the right way to do it, only because there is...

CUOMO: Why? If you were a prosecutor and I did this to Freddie Gray, you would have had me arrested and said, "We have probable cause that a crime was committed. Let's see what charges there are. Let's see if they stick." But that's what would happen if it was a citizen, not when it's cops?

COOK: I will tell you -- no, I don't agree with that. I don't agree that it doesn't happen -- that it shouldn't happen when it's police officers. It should happen when it's anyone.

But the process -- I have to say that the mayor was right that the process works differently depending on the circumstances. In this case, the police officers did an investigation. No one was arrested on the scene.

Oftentimes, what we will see is if there's sort of an immediate reaction, the officers know immediately who the suspect is, they will -- they will arrest that individual. And that individual will go through that process of arrest. They will sometimes have a preliminary hearing. They will sometimes be charged first by the state's attorney' office via the grand jury. OK? So that's a little bit different.

Sometimes -- and she was correct when she said this, sometimes in the course of the process, there's an investigation that's done to determine who should be charged, what charges should be brought, and then that's done via the grand jury.

Arrest warrants can be issued via -- after a grand jury indicts you can get arrest warrants on the indictment. The officers, if they're charged, can then be arrested.

So the fact that it's going to the prosecutor's office and potentially will go to a grand jury doesn't mean that people will not be arrested. It just is a little bit of a longer process before those arrests occur.

CUOMO: I've got you. And it's an interesting dynamic. You're not here to defend the process. You're representing the family who wants the answers more than anybody else.

COOK: I am.

CUOMO: The suspicion that the police should not investigate themselves. Yes, you have the state -- the state police are doing their thing. The attorney's office is doing her thing. The sheriff -- the police are doing their thing.

Should there be an independent body like what you have in Wisconsin, where every time there's police excessive force as an allegation, there's an outside entity, independent, that reviews it? So you can't question the timing. You don't question whether there's conflict.

COOK: You know, I think that that's probably a really good idea. I think that when the police department is confronted with what they were confronted when Freddie was unresponsive in the van, they knew there was a problem. They knew that there was a potential criminal -- there may be a potential criminal investigation.

I think going to the outside to bring someone in, prosecutors do it all the time. If there's any kind of conflict, any kind of relationship, we bring -- when we were -- when I was in the office we would bring someone from the outside who would come in and prosecute that case.

CUOMO: Is the family happy with what the mayor's doing and how they're communicating with her and how the city is being controlled during this time?

COOK: You know, the family is -- the family doesn't comment on the process. What the family wants to see is a full and thorough investigation. Look, right now what we've had are bits and pieces of information. We don't receive any more information than you receive. And so there's no special information that the family's been given or that we've been given as the family's attorneys.

So it's really difficult to sort of track the investigation, because all we have now are pieces of information that we can't put together.

The family wants the violence to stop. That's for sure. There's no question about that.

CUOMO: We know that's a much bigger dynamic than what happened to Freddie Gray. Here's one of the big questions of the day, and I know you want to address it.

COOK: OK.

CUOMO: Is it true that Freddie Gray did have a spine injury, but it was the result of a pre-existing injury and that he may have settled a case about that injury involving his spine, and that he may have had surgery on his spine before so that he was vulnerable, and it wasn't about what the police did? Is that a big revelation that's being kept from people?

COOK: OK, I'm going to answer that in two parts. The first answer is, I have no information that our client, or Freddie Gray, had any kind of spinal injury. There's -- I have no information on that regard. And I haven't seen anything in that regard.

Second thing is, let's just assume as a hypothetical, even if that were true, that would not excuse the actions of the officers. So let's make that clear.

One sort of has nothing to do with the other. It's a distraction. It's another one of those rumors and pieces of innuendo thrown out there. It distracts from the actions of the officers and the issues of whether or not charges should be brought. Has nothing at all -- doesn't in any way, shape or form, if it were true -- and I'm not saying that it is.