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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD
Nepal Earthquake; Tamir Rice Case; Awaiting Madison Ruling. Aired 12-12:30p ET
Aired May 12, 2015 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:21] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to LEGAL VIEW.
We begin with the incredibly tragically sad story, Nepal rocked by another deadly earthquake. A 7.3 magnitude quake striking some 11 miles deep, and this time near the border with China. At least 48 people are reported dead in Nepal now, 17 more in India and one more in Tibet. More than 1,200 people have been injured.
The moment it struck was caught on video. Sheer panic setting in as people start to scramble, trying to find any safe, stable ground. The video from parliament. And then there's this, the power of the quake moving masses of rock and earth and creating this landslide that threaten the people and the homes in the village below.
And I'm sure you don't need the reminder that it was just less than three weeks ago, Nepal was hit with a massive quake. That death toll is higher than 8,000 people and the injured, more than 10. In fact, closing in on 20.
Joining me on the phone right now is CNN's Manesh Shrestna, and via Skype structural engineer Kit Miyamoto, who's a specialist in earthquake response and reconstruction. They are both in Kathmandu.
Manesh, if I can begin with you. Just the straight reporting, what is the latest in terms of the casualties and trying to find those who are missing?
Manesh, can you hear me?
MANESH SHRESTNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes.
BANFIELD: I think we -- you know, we're having some trouble, Manesh. I'm not sure if you can hear me.
SHRESTNA: (INAUDIBLE).
BANFIELD: We're having trouble hearing you. So while we get your connection fixed --
SHRESTNA: (INAUDIBLE).
BANFIELD: I want to go to Kit Miyamoto if I can.
Kit, can you hear me? KIT MIYAMOTO, STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: Yes, I can hear you.
BANFIELD: All right, I'm going to ask you to do a little bit of Manesh's job and help us with some of the reporting in that what you have seen as a structural engineer being there to do the job of figuring out how to deal with the structural issues from the first quake, what are you seeing as a result of this second quake?
MIYAMOTO: Well, I think it's really shocking to everyone. And I was in that earthquake and it was around the maybe 3:00 p.m. or so and the ground started shaking. And I was in the office and, well, being a structural earthquake engineer, I knew it was an aftershock and (INAUDIBLE) stay -- stay still. And -- but everybody ran out to the street in just sheer panic. And I'm (INAUDIBLE). I mean an earthquake is something really scary. I have no control over it. And -- but it's definitely the aftershocks are (ph) something expected. We may see an even bigger ones still (ph).
BANFIELD: So, Kit, are you seeing a lot of evidence in the street of what we can only assume is happening, and that is people are just running for their lives and afraid to be in any building anywhere at this point in this country because these aftershocks and these quakes are happening in a lot of places.
MIYAMOTO: That is true. The -- actually the -- I was -- right after the earthquake, I was headings to the integration office because I have to extend my visa. We're here (INAUDIBLE) supporting the government in the private sector here for the construction. And -- but, obviously, the immigration office is totally closed and -- because of the damage (ph). And I just went through the whole building and accessed the safety for the offices for them. And, fortunately, they would open the office for me so I can get the extension visa.
But it just -- this is something that's really scary, you know, because it has no control over it and -- but Kathmandu is actually the very calm today right now, but destruction is outside. And it's just unbelievable amount of destruction out there. I know that thousands of (INAUDIBLE) and many people are really exposed to the upcoming monsoon and this is something that just one country alone cannot do that. They definitely need international support (INAUDIBLE).
BANFIELD: And the kind of support that you're giving, you know, having left America to go to help in this structural and then being there for this second quake.
Kit, I'm going to ask you to stand by for a moment. I think we have Manesh back -- back up and running on the phone.
Manesh, if you can hear me now, I wanted to get an update from you. Can you add to what Kit has already told us and just give me the latest in how this country is handling this second quake on top of the first catastrophic one?
SHRESTNA: We do not yet know the extent of the destruction -- destruction yet, but there are villages which initial reports say are totally wiped out, just like villages were wiped out in the April 24th quake -- April 25th quake.
[12:05:01] Now, these are remote areas and the highways to these areas have been -- are blocked totally because of landslides. I was talking to police officials, government officials earlier today and they have no the -- they do not know the extent of the damage. So far, as of right now, 50 people are already -- 50 people are already reported dead. But government officials, the police, expect this number to rise constantly, but did not want to give a figure. They have not yet been able to get to the remoter parts of these most affected district. One is Dolaha (ph) districts and the other is Singupar (ph) district.
Now, these (INAUDIBLE) districts are east of Kathmandu and (INAUDIBLE) parts of district has already lost 3,000 -- more than 3,000 lives in the April 25th quake. And Dolaha, just like in (INAUDIBLE) district, there are villages completely wiped out. That is what authorities are saying.
BANFIELD: Ah!
SHRESTNA: Now, how will relief get to these places is a big question mark. (INAUDIBLE) only have to be done with two helicopters and we do not have enough helicopters.
BANFIELD: So, Manesh, we're just seeing some -- some new video into CNN as you were reporting, where we actually could see some of the structures falling either during or after this latest quake. And it's just harrowing to see them come down so quickly and so incredibly destructively. It made me wonder about the places where all of those injured people now mounting towards 20,000 are being treated. Are the structures, like hospitals and clinics where the injured are, are they safe, are they moving the injured? What are they doing about the integrity of these buildings and those who are already so vulnerable?
SHRESTNA: Yes. I -- I was there today at the National Trauma Center after the earthquake. Next to the National Trauma Center is our biggest hospital in the country, the oldest hospital in the country. And what happened was, these patients, which are in the hospital, were all brought out after the quake. And once the quake stopped, they were again being shifted in. So there is -- there was chaos out there. And we know that in the earlier quake, so many schools were -- school were totally destroyed, so many airports in the villages were totally destroyed. So there is a -- I know our doctors will rush back to hospital, to their -- for work as soon as they heard of the quake and people at once started to -- being brought in.
But these people, when it was just around Kathmandu, I do not know the extent. We do not still know the extent of injuries. The police say there are almost just 1,200 (ph) people were injured -- are injured. But then we also got to remember, when the April 25th quake hit, the injuries mounted as the days went by. So injuries are going to mount and are (INAUDIBLE) and with -- and it just going to be helicopters, which have to -- which have to ferry them to the nearest town because the roads are blocked completely and they will not -- and because of the landslide. So it is a big stress for the whole -- for the whole country, bit for the whole system at the moment. We will know things clearer tomorrow, the extent of the damage. It's already night here. BANFIELD: And sometimes -- you know we're looking at this video.
Sometimes just the sounds are as harrowing as the pictures. You can hear in the background. Oh, my Lord.
Oh, Manesh. Manesh Shrestna reporting for us, our CNN producer who's in Nepal, who was there to cover the original earthquake and now is finding himself in the middle of this secondary and massive 7.3 magnitude earthquake. Our thanks to Manesh and to also to Kit Miyamoto who is there also, you know, in the aftermath of the first quake to work on the structural engineering aspect of the buildings that survived quake number one. Kit, you have your work cut out for you. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us. Manesh, thank you as well.
And we want to let you know, if you want to help those who were affected by the earthquake in Nepal, you can visit our website, cnn.com/impact. Again, cnn.com/impact. A lot of ways that you can help out as well.
[12:09:30] In other news, six months now after a 12-year-old boy with a pellet gun was shot and killed by the Cleveland police, there's still no word about charges and filing them against the officer who fired the fatal shots. Police have not even released Tamir Rice's body to his family. They cannot bury him. A few minutes ago we finally got an update on this investigation and it wasn't at all what we expected.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: In the nearly six months since a Cleveland police officer shot and killed a 12-year-old boy as he was playing with a pellet gun in a playground, police have said almost nothing. And Tamir Rice's family hasn't even been able to get his body back to bury him. The investigation has been dragging on. Last hour, however, the Cuyahoga County sheriff, Clifford Pinkney, finally broke his silence but offered little more than a timeline on the investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF CLIFFORD PINKNEY, CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OHIO: My investigators have poured over thousands of pages of documents and conducted numerous search warrants and interviews with witnesses. We also reviewed any and all surveillance from the surrounding area and connected a 3D measurement scan at the Cudell Rec Center. So as you can see, we have been tirelessly working on this investigation, all of which brings us to today. While a few more witnesses need to be interviewed, and more forensic evidence needs to be collected, the majority of our work is complete.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: A lengthy investigation for what to some seems like a fairly simple case because this shooting was even caught on camera. And before we go on, I do want to give you a warning, we're going to play the silent surveillance video of this shooting. If you don't want to see it or perhaps if you have children in the room, I'm going to ask you if you could just make some adjustments for the moment. We thinks this, however, is very important to this case so that you can see just how quickly this fatal encounter took place.
[12:15:00] (VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Now, I know that's probably difficult to make out, but the entire tape was about 23 seconds. The firing of those fatal shots was just within two seconds of the officer getting out of the car.
No charges have been filed against that offer who pulled the trigger. His name is Timothy Loehmann. And with no resolution in the case, the family has gone ahead and they filed two lawsuits against the Cleveland P.D., the police department. One of them is a wrongful death case and the other one is a federal civil rights case.
I want to bring in two of our legal analysts to try to figure out why this delay. CNN legal analyst Danny Cevallos and Paul Callan are both here to talk about this case.
On its surface, it seems deplorable that a family would have to wait five to six months to bury their baby. Is there something I'm not seeing here, Paul?
PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's absolutely shocking because most of these cases, they're complex fact patterns, a lot of different moving parts here. But, you know, this is a very, very simple, straightforward kind of case, you can see it on the video, or so it seems. But --
BANFIELD: Or so it seems.
CALLAN: And the so it seems part is that, when you have a criminal investigation of police officers, that -- they always take quite a while. Look at what happened in Ferguson and the Staten Island, the chokehold case.
BANFIELD: A couple of months.
CALLAN: And then the family now has filed a civil rights action and part of that may be a wrongful death case as well, so you have parallel cases going on and it makes it much more complicated and they take longer.
BANFIELD: Danny Cevallos, I'm going to give one to the cops here because the police department turned all of this over to the sheriff and they only did that three months ago. So the sheriff has said, look, I got this in my lap and I started in earnest three months ago. So if you want to be fair about this, that person who updated us today has had this case on his desk for three months. So is it sounding like it's a little more realistic?
DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's an interesting thing. Once a criminal case is actually filed, the Constitution requires that you be brought to trial within your speedy trial time. But there really isn't a whole lot of constitutional guidance about how long an investigation can or should take. So it's very interesting in cases like this, and as many people have observed when law enforcement's involved, that the investigation takes a lot longer than some of the other run of the mill, civilian involved shootings, I should say.
So in cases like this, it's -- I think the family has a point that while we should not be allowed -- we should not be made to wait indefinitely while this investigation proceeds -- and the police in their moving papers have said, well, you know, speedy trial requires that these defendants be brought to trial within a certain period of time, that's a little disingenuous because that -- that clock only begins running after someone is charged.
BANFIELD: So for people who don't have law degrees, this stuff can be pretty darn tricky. And I do recall in the Casey Anthony case, all that civil activity had to wait until that murder trial was over. But in this case, we're seeing all the civil activity getting active before we're even seeing a potential criminal investigation. Does that mean that the cops are having a tough time handing out the subpoenas, getting the interviews of the witnesses they need because they may be busy over with other people's lawyers who have held them for, you know, their purposes and it's making it more complicated. I'm trying to play the devil's advocate for the process because everyone knows the legal process is sluggish.
CALLAN: You know, back in -- back in the old days, when -- before we had such a run on these horrible cases, these police shooting cases, usually if you bring in a civil case, you wait until the criminal case is over because if they prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the cops are guilty, then, boom, you're going to win your civil case. You've already won the issue of liability and you just have to get damages. But now --
BANFIELD: Right, because the standard is so much lower once you get to the civil court.
CEVALLOS: Right. Exactly.
CALLAN: So much -- people have so much distrust in the system now that these lawyers are coming in and they're filing the civil cases and then, you're right, witnesses are being interviewed twice, you're getting conflicting possibilities of evidence, and it's going to cause problems for the civil case and problems (INAUDIBLE) --
CEVALLOS: And in case -- in cases like this, to build on what Paul is saying, it is entirely at the discretion of the judge, the court, in whether or not to stay proceedings or allow them to go forward. So each case is a case-by-case basis.
BANFIELD: And then there's just this mood. I mean everybody feels as though, you know, you're under a microscope. If you end up in this kind of litigation, you better not screw it up because cities can burn over this stuff.
[12:20:02] Paul and Danny, I'm going to ask you to stick around. Thank you for that.
We've got another case also capturing the attention of America. It involves yet another detainee and, again, this detainee died in custody and, again, after being put in a police van. This case is in Indiana where state police are investigating the death of 19-year-old Kyler Myers. After being booked in the Johnson County Jail, he was taken to the hospital. The sheriff says Myers walked himself into the van but by the time they arrived at the hospital he was unresponsive and later died. An autopsy report is expected sometime later today. We'll keep you posted.
We also have this update on the case of the two police officers who were killed in Mississippi. Investigators say even though four suspects have been charged in connection with the killing, just one of them is really the one accused of pulling the trigger and they've reduced the charge of the female suspect from two counts of capital murder to accessory after the fact.
Up next, after weeks of uncertainty and protests, a decision is about to come down in Madison, Wisconsin, on whether a police officer will face charges in the shooting death of an unarmed teenager.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: This afternoon, we're supposed to learn more about the Wisconsin police officer who shot and killed an unarmed biracial teenager like if -- or if he's going to be charged or not in that case. Friends and family and community members who knew Tony Robinson are gathering in Madison awaiting word from the prosecutor this afternoon. It comes after two months of questions and simmering tensions there. The killing triggered days of large but peaceful protests, some supporting law enforcement and others claiming excessive force. Robinson's mother was emotional when she described her son.
[12:25:26] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREA IRWIN, TONY ROBINSON'S MOTHER: My son was the kindest, most lovingest, most playful kid. He played games all day long. He loved his family. He loved his friends. He was never -- never, never hurt a person. Never. My son was a very tall, big boy, 6'4", 220 pounds, but never, never fights.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: CNN's Ryan Young is live in Madison right now. We should point out, and it's very different, but this case is being investigated not by the police department but instead by an outside agency and this is sort of one of the first in the nation kinds of laws. It doesn't apply everywhere, but it applies here. But where are we with this case and, while you're at it, do give me some background as well and remind people how we got here, Ryan.
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly, Ashleigh.
Look, this law was passed in 2014, so you do have that independent force looking at this. But this is the street where this shooting took place. And, in fact, if you look across the street at that door right there, you can see the number eight, that's where the shooting sort of happened. The officer arrived, heard some noise behind that door, wanted to go inside because he knew someone may be in trouble. That's what he thought. When he got inside, he was faced with Tony Robinson. There was a struggle. Three shots were fired. Tony Robinson was hit three times and he would die. In fact, we have a 911 call from that night that we'll play for you right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DISPATCHER: Look for a male black, light skinned, tan jacket, jeans, outside yelling and jumping in front of cars, 19 years of age, name is Tony Robinson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YOUNG: Now, Tony Robinson was unarmed and his family believes that he was on drugs. He was shot three times, like I said before, once in the head, in the chest and in the arm.
Now, look, in the days after this shooting, the family really called for calm and peace. There were several marches going on. Young folks took over the capitol at one point, making sure their voices were heard. And that same thing is going on right now. Several people in this community actually believe the officer will not be indicted and they're preparing for that. We're also told there will be a massive march on Wednesday.
This community, in terms of the young people, really got behind this cause, especially with so many of them knowing Tony Robinson. He was just 19 years old and had just graduated from high school. So people knew of this young man and they didn't believe he should be shot.
Now, in terms of the officer, some people were questioning, why not use a stun gun. Well, in this state, if you don't have backup, you don't use your stun gun. He did suffer a concussion and he opened fired.
Ashleigh.
BANFIELD: So that was the thing I wanted to make sure, you know, in fairness to this officer, he reported that he -- he suffered a blow to the head in whatever happened behind that door. He went in there having been told that Robinson had been acting erratically, jumping in front of cars, assaulting people and ultimately he said he was hurt and I believe he might have been treated for this concussion. But is that maybe, Ryan, just quickly, if you can wrap it up for me, is that what's tamping down and keeping people peaceful until they hear the fact of the case as the investigation finds them?
YOUNG: I think it's a combination of a lot of things. It's the police department, it's the family and it's the community. All of them have been talking since this incident. All of them have been asking for calm. And it seems to be a real organization between all three really to make sure things don't get out of hand.
But on top of all of that, there are a lot of questions in terms about what happened behind that door. And I think people want to hear the evidence, which they're hoping to hear this afternoon, so they can make some conclusions on their own, including us. BANFIELD: Yes. Ryan Young reporting -- including us, including
everybody. Everyone needs to hold tight until you hear the facts of the case. Ryan Young doing a great job for us in Madison. Thank you for that.
Also, don't forget, CNN is going to stay on this story live. We'll have that coverage for you just as soon as they release the prosecutor's report. It's expected to come out at 3:30 Eastern Time. So stay tuned for that as well.
And then coming up next, what on earth is going on at Georgia's Chatham County Jail. Three weeks after one inmate died there, another violent confrontation captured on tape involving some of the same officers who have since been fired. We're going to show you the tape.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
