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CNN NEWSROOM

Elvis Impersonator Freed; When Tamerlan Tsarnaev Began To Change

Aired April 24, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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


CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Mr. Curtis, let me stop you for a second because I want to get a little context here from your attorney.

PAUL KEVIN CURTIS, FORMER RICIN SUSPECT: Yes. Sure.

CUOMO: Ms. McCoy, help fill us in on other than Elvis impersonating, what types of activities were in your client's backgrounds that may have been peaking suspicions from investigators?

CHRISTI MCCOY, ATTORNEY FOR KEVIN CURTIS: Well, now as I understand it, the main thing, the first thing, and what turned out to be the only thing that made them suspicious is when Senator Wicker's office - I believe his letter was first. And the letter was signed "K.C. and I approve this message." So it's my understanding they went to Senator Wicker's staff and they kind of started narrowing down any constituents who might have the initials K.C. And at some point someone on his staff recognized K.C. as Kevin and said, well, yes, you know, this is someone who communicates with the senator somewhat.

So at that point they looked at his Facebook, at his social media a little bit more. Agent Grant (ph) spent some time initially on the stand Friday basically, in my opinion, he was kind of laying the groundwork for the prosecutor that a lot of people thought that Kevin was coo-coo, or that he was - he went to great lengths to tell us that a staff member of Congressman Allan Nunly (ph), who is based here out of Tupelo, the staff member, when questioned about Kevin Curtis, said he's nuts. And so it's almost as if they said, well, his initials are K.C., he frequently uses this quote on his social media, and he's nuts. So he must have done this.

Other than anything in his past, you know, he has had a passion for different issues, but, you know, nothing - nothing in his past. He has multiple communications to multiple elected officials, none of which were ever violent or threatening or dangerous. So, you know, I don't know. I can't really get in the mind of them at that time.

But I do want to mention something that Kevin didn't mention. On Wednesday night, when he was being interrogated, one thing that he was told that, quite frankly, that upset me just a little bit, but he was told by Agent Grant that there was a young woman in the hospital at that very moment who was probably going to die from her exposure to ricin and that they needed to know right that minute what was in the ricin so that they could save her life. That was just untrue. I mean I realize that law enforcement has great leeway, but that that was untrue and a little unnecessary in my opinion.

CUOMO: Right.

CURTIS: And scary to think someone may die while you're sitting in jail being incarcerated for something you didn't do.

CUOMO: Right, but, Christi -

MCCOY: Yes.

CUOMO: No, it's a harsh thing, no question. But as you do know, there is latitude there and very often investigators are dealing with people who may well have done terrible things and they're trying to use whatever leverage they can.

MCCOY: Sure. Sure.

CUOMO: But let me ask you something, Christi. So you get word from the federal government that it is basically your -- you and your word and your wits against theirs. How do you get into that kind of challenge? I mean you were up against some significant odds here.

MCCOY: Yes. I mean, it's -- I'm not going to tell you that I don't get scared and that it wasn't a little bit scary. But I have been doing this a long time, almost two decades, and I've -- you know, I've been in nothing of national significance, but I have been up against our federal government on more than one occasion. It is a frightening thought that the resources they have, compared to the resources I have, but to be just perfectly honest, I am such a strong and faithful believer in the bedrock of this country, in the Constitution, that, I mean, as imperfect as our justice system can be, I put my eye on that Constitution and I stamp my feet and my red shoes or whatever shoes I'm wearing and I -- you know, I just hold fast. And I just don't let anything scare me in that way. I feel like I have that on my side, I'm good.

CURTIS: She's the "Lion King" in the courtroom. I've been in and out of court over two dozen times in 13 years and I've never seen anything like this. And she came in one day before and - I mean, I've had attorneys two, three years into litigation that walk in and go, continuance, continuance, continuance for seven, eight years and then they go, oh, we've got to drop this. And there was never that with Christi. She just took it, ran with it head on and I think she scared everyone in there to death. And they were just like ah, ah, ah, ah. She tripped everyone up under cross-examination. Don't be bashful, just let it out, let it be known if you need the mega-representation, this is the person. Your phone will probably be ringing for the next 40 years off the hook. Because it was just unbelievable. I've seen a lot. It was Perry Mason on crack is what it was.

MCCOY: Thank you. I appreciate that.

CUOMO: That's a great description.

CURTIS: Well, it's true. I speak from the heart. CUOMO: Mr. Curtis, let me ask you -- that's just how you want to be known, Christi. But let me ask you this, Mr. Curtis, given the intensity of the allegations and the energy being focused at you, did you think that you were not going to get out of this situation no matter what you believed to be true?

CURTIS: Well, I told my family over the last couple of years, and I always say they, I never say police, FBI, CIA, but whenever speaking of all the research I've done in bone tissue and organ harvesting, which has ruffled a lot of feathers in Washington and China and different places where there is a black market for bone tissue and organ and body part marketing, sure, I've made enemies. Sending e- mails asking please pass my House Resolution 6631 to regulate bone tissue and organ harvesting so people will stop dying, cancerous material will stop being placed into healthy people and they will get diseases by tainted tissue. So that's been my goal for years.

So as -- when I began trying to push that through Congress, strange things started happening. And I became a person of interest, if you will. And this has restored my faith, actually, in our justice system. I had lost all faith. But I've been telling my kids for years, you know, I'm going to walk out this door, I've got to go here. You know, I love you all. You know, God's in control. When it's my time to go - because they would always say, dad, you've had death threats, you know, are you scared? And well, sure, you're -- if you're uncertain if you're going to walk out of a door, there's cars running you off the road and your home's burning down, your dog's having their throat sliced.

CUOMO: Well, Mr. Curtis --

CURTIS: You know, things -- so many things are happening. It's very scary.

CUOMO: All of this outside intrigue we'll kind of leave to the outside for a second just to focus on this specific situation here that's gotten national attention. The arrest, very public. The embarrassment, public. Somewhat part of the process. Given that, how did they explain to you that you were going to be released? And what did they say to you when they were releasing you at that time initially? What did they tell you?

CURTIS: No one in the system told me anything regarding being released. All I got on the inside was, man, you're in trouble. Man, you tried to kill the president. When I got to Christi on the day I was -- it was dismissed, I walked up to a screen window and she just put her hand up to it. And when she did that, I just knew it looked good. And she said, just hold on. We don't have all the information, but there's been a turn of events and looks like we're going to get you out of here today and this will be dismissed.

And that's when I just felt this train lifted off my shoulders. That as the first moment after seven days of sitting in a tiny cell looking out the bars that I had thought, oh, my gosh, I'm not going to prison for life. They haven't conjured up all of this information from my Internet activity and my activism work and said, got to be the guy, this is K.C. and I approve this message, has to be the one who done it. So, you know, that's the moment I found out and that was yesterday?

MCCOY: What is today? Yes, it was Tuesday, yes, yes.

CURTIS: She's like me, I haven't slept much in a week.

MCCOY: That was Tuesday. Yes. And Hal (ph) and I, we did the fist bump (INAUDIBLE) -

CUOMO: So, Christi, how did you get word -

CURTIS: Hal got the fist.

CUOMO: How did you get word from the office? Because this was a really random turn of events. And at first it was couched a little bit cautiously by them, right? The early word was that there was bond. That this was not just a free release. He wasn't on his own recognizance. It wasn't over, right?

MCCOY: Right.

CUOMO: So take me through the evolution of, we're going to continue the hearing, he's going to be released but there is a bond, and then the conditions are now unset, he's just free. Take me through.

MCCOY: Right. All right. Yesterday morning, when we returned for the continuation of the hearing, we went to judge's chambers. The U.S. attorney's office, myself, Hal Nelson (ph), my co-counsel, met in judge's chambers, and the government told us, again, we need time, but there's something that's really, really breaking right now.

And so the question was, what do we do? If we had gone back into the hearing, if we had gone into the preliminary hearing, then I would have been allowed to ask the agent about whatever it was that was breaking. They would have had to tell me. And the fear was that that might compromise the new information. So we didn't think that was a good outcome.

The second option was initially there was an indication, well, why don't we just agree to a bond and put your guy on electronic monitoring? And we said, well, why don't you just dismiss the charges? You know, I mean, if there's that much of information out there, you can't keep holding him. So we went back and forth on that. We're basically - we were digging our heels in the ground wanting a dismissal. They were wanting an electronic monitoring. So we pretty much got our way. It was just delayed a little bit.

So what we did is, there has to be a bond. In order for the United States marshals to release someone from custody, there has to be a bond. Well, we didn't feel that Mr. Curtis, nor his family, should have to come up with money, which they don't have, to try to scramble around and make a bond. And, of course, the judge agreed with that. So the bond at that point was unsecured, which just means he was released on his own recognizance. And with the idea being he would be released, everything would be under seal, and we would go and get him, remove him from the jail and remove him basically from Lafayette County before anyone knew what was going on.

And the purpose of that was, again, the government had some concerns that if these other suspects and people who they now believe were involved, if they got wind of Kevin's release that, you know, they might go into destructive mode of evidence or things could happen. So we agreed to that because we felt it was in Kevin's best interest. And then, of course, we were told everything would be dismissed before 5:00. We couldn't tell the press that yesterday but it was - you know, obviously we can now.

CUOMO: All right, so just to be clear - just to be clear -

MCCOY: Yes.

CUOMO: Because the prosecutors haven't said anything. They haven't said, yep, we're looking at somebody else, that's why there are all the hazmat suits at this other house. We have another suspect. They're not saying anything like that. They're not saying that Curtis is totally out of the woods. So I want to hear it from you. As far as you know, does your client now have no point of interest with the U.S. prosecutors? That they no longer see him as connected to this?

MCCOY: That is my understanding. I mean, like I said, the last conversation I have had with the prosecutor, their interest was in having Kevin help them determine some things that have happened in the past few weeks with regard specifically to his computer. I don't think I can say more than that. But their interest is not as - at Kevin, looking at Kevin as a suspect. And I - I trust -- again, I trust Chad Lemar (ph). When he says, trust me, I trust him.

CUOMO: All right. So let me ask you this, Mr. Curtis.

CURTIS: (INAUDIBLE) something out there about the signature and how to help the public know -

MCCOY: Wait, wait, wait a minute.

CURTIS: Educate them.

MCCOY: Go ahead, Chris.

CUOMO: Please. Please. Yes.

CURTIS: OK. I was just going to mention the significance of using the type of calling card signature that I used for maybe 15 to 17 years, I purposely did that. And I want to tell this for the public and to educate teenagers, because all my children have FaceBook's except for my eight-year-old. And I'm constantly telling them, you know, don't put where you're going, what your -- because people watch that. That's how they knew the person that did this knew specific information on me. You can't just scroll across any of my music or my websites or activism work and go and pick up on it like that. You have to zero in on it and stalk it in a way. And so I'm trying to say, it's so important to watch what you type and put on the social networks because it can come back and bite you. You can be completely innocent, but you could be saying for a year, it is what it is, and then -

MCCOY: That's right.

CURTIS: And then the president get a threat.

CUOMO: So -

CURTIS: I don't know, whoever said it, said four times, it is what it is. And they come at your door and Homeland Security, your dog runs away, you'll never see your dog again, your home's destroyed, you're in court in a jail and your life - you just - you don't know what's happening. So it's very serious. I will never sit at a computer again. I'll check my stats with my music, with Nashville, BMI, but I will never just get on there and put my thoughts, politically or socially. I won't even talk to my children online. If I have something to say to somebody, I'll call them on their phone or I'll go to their house. But, you know, I don't want to get too paranoid about it, but it is significant.

CUOMO: Right.

MCCOY: It is.

Yes, Chris.

CUOMO: Mr. Curtis, I understand, you know, you have good reason and maybe some just general reason to be paranoid, at least coming out of this situation. But let's get to the urgency of it. Somebody sent letters that investigators believe to have been laced with ricin. As far as you understand, Mr. Curtis, what's the best sense -- or both of you just answered me on this. What's the best sense of where investigators are about why this happened, who may have done it? We know they were searching a house. What's the information you've been given?

MCCOY: As far as information, you know, they're notoriously tight lipped, as they were about Kevin, until it was time to bring it to court. But there's some sources leaking out here and there as far as the search that was conducted yesterday and into the night.

Yo know, one thing that was said to me by someone that was connected to the investigation that really made me stop and think that people were looking at who would frame Kevin. Who would frame Kevin. And did this person hate Kevin enough to frame him? But I think now there's also a different look that's being looked into, is it's not so much who would do this to Kevin because they hate him, but who hates Senator Wicker and President Obama so much that they're willing to do it and then Kevin is just kind of an afterthought that truly their hatred is more with the elected officials than with Kevin.

CUOMO: Right. MCCOY: And that made some sense to me because, honestly, I was looking at it as someone has hated Kevin so much that he's doing this to Kevin. But I think now there may be looking into no, they're doing it to Senator Wicker, President Obama and Judge Holland (ph). Kevin just happens to be the scapegoat for it. And that maybe, you know, that the true intent was really not to frame Kevin, but that - that was kind of an afterthought.

But, no, they're notoriously tight lipped. I mean I've been trying to get some information this morning about, you know, the context and what's going on. I mean, not in small part because Mr. Dutski (ph) has been on television saying some pretty pointed things toward me -

CURTIS: Crazy.

MCCOY: That has frightened my children a little bit. They accidentally saw it. So, you know, we're trying to get a hold on where the investigation is. But, you know, at this point, I still trust the agencies involved. I have no reason not to. So -- because, again, I believe that when they realize that they have made a mistake, they made it right. As well as they could right then. Now there's still some making right to do, but, you know, they did agree to dismiss.

CUOMO: Right.

CURTIS: But you do have a body guard. I'll take care of you.

CUOMO: But one thing - but one thing is for sure, as far as you know, Ms. McCoy, the case is dismissed at this present time and you have not been told about any desire to follow up? True?

MCCOY: Absolutely. Absolutely. I - you know, the way the complaint works, it's dismissed, that wouldn't bar them from indicting him later. But I have not been given any, any idea, consideration, thought or anything that he's even under the investigation anymore.

CUOMO: OK.

MCCOY: I mean I believe it's over.

CUOMO: Well -

MCCOY: Almost seven days to the, you know, from when it started.

CUOMO: Well, this is, obviously, a very - obviously a very serious situation. Investigators have to find out who sent those letters. If it's not your client, all the better for both of you. And so assuming you're out of this forever, Mr. Curtis, you go on with your life. It's a very traumatic situation. But, tell me, do you think it will affect your impersonating ability? Do you think you'll still be able to go on with what you were known for most often by most people for your Elvis impersonating?

CURTIS: There's no way it could affect in a negative my impersonating. And, obviously, I'm going to wake up tomorrow and still be able to sound like 100 different people, Randy Travis, and Elvis, And Buddy Holly. But, you know, any kind of - any time there's a conspiracy of any sort, it can either do one of two things. It can - it can destroy you or it can - it can thrust you into the limelight and make you successful. I've seen pieces of television shows where somebody was taken from their home and falsely arrested and something happened and no one knew who they were. They might have been a lawn mower repairman. And the next thing you know, they are in Washington performing for the president. You know, so I mean this thing could flip and I could become the next best thing since sliced bread. I don't -- and I could get a record deal, publish my book and take my kids to Disneyland. You know, that's the way I'm looking at it from a positive standpoint.

CUOMO: Well, we wish you well. We wish you well.

CURTIS: Thank you.

CUOMO: And in the interest of your rehabilitation, if you want to give me a little - give me a little taste of what you got as an impersonator, I'm willing to let you do it before I go to break. What do you got?

CURTIS: One of my favorite fellas in the world is Randy Travis. I just like him as a person. So I'll give you a little of that.

CUOMO: OK.

CURTIS (singing): On one hand I count the reasons I could stay with you and hold you close to me all night long. So many lovers games I'd love to play with you and on that hand there's no reason why it's wrong. But on the other hand, there's a golden band and it reminds me of someone who would not understand. On one hand I could say --

CUOMO: Thank you. Thank you very much.

CURTIS: Thank you very much.

CUOMO: Thank you very much for that. Christi McCoy, Mr. Curtis, good luck going forward.

MCCOY: Thank you, Chris.

CURTIS: Thank you.

CUOMO: We're going to take a break from here. Absolutely. Take care.

MCCOY: Thanks, Chris.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to Boston. I'm Chris Cuomo, live here for CNN's continuing coverage into the investigation of the Boston terror attacks.

Several new developments today. The suspect's body remains unclaimed, still in a morgue, five days after his death. Police are telling the family they can have his body, but the family's saying a Boston area mosque is refusing to hold a funeral for him. There's a lot of conflicting information on that. We'll be following it.

We're also learning the suspects said that they were heading to New York City after the bombings, but not for more attacks. Instead, they may have been heading there to, quote, "party." But today is really about remembering one of their alleged victims at a memorial for MIT campus police officer Sean Collier.

The sun came - the sun came out today for the memorial, shining on all the people there to remember Sean Collier. The vice president was there. He gave a very moving tribute. He actually just came by here just now to Copley Square where the memorial is set up. And it was a very emotional day, obviously, as people remembered this fallen officer who, as the vice president said, represent everything that Boston strong is about.

Now, today, Boylston Street will be reopening here as Boston gets on its feet. We're about to see the first pictures of the bombing site which was, of course, on Boylston Street, after the workers spent the night cementing and scrubbing, removing the last traces of this act of terror.

But we do want to begin our coverage right now with new details about what may have been the motivation for these brothers. A former family member suggests a guy named Misha, literally that's how he put it, may have influenced the suspects' thinking as he became more immersed in religion. So we're digging into the suspect's relationship with this so-called Misha for any clues about his changing views, again, because this is where it is coming from, is this brother-in- law. So I have Brian Todd with me right now.

Brian, good to have you, as always.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, good to see you.

CUOMO: You hear what I'm saying, obviously. What do we know about this suggestion?

TODD: Family members have described this person named Misha. First the uncle told us, the suspect's uncle in Montgomery County, Maryland, told us this was an Armenian man, a recent convert to Islam. Digging further into it, we contacted the ex-brother-in-law of the suspects. He was married to one of the suspects' sisters. The brother- in-law's name is Elmirza Khozhgov. He spoke to Wolf Blitzer earlier today from Kazakhstan. What he said was that he met this person named Misha at one time. That Tamerlan Tsarnaev introduced him to Misha. He saw them talking together. He did not know Misha's first name. But he said he never actually, quote, "witnessed him radicalizing Tamerlan Tsarnaev," but he did say this about maybe the leanings, that he influenced Tamerlan Tsarnaev to have. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELMIRZA KHOZHGOV, SUSPECT'S FORMER BROTHER-IN-LAW (voice-over): I am not sure if he inspired or taught him to be radical Islamist, but he surely did have influence and did teach him things that would make Tamerlan, you know, go away from the people and go more into the religion. And maybe, maybe that's possible that he suggested to him some radical ideas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Now, Elmirza Khozhgov, in that interview with Wolf Blitzer, said that he didn't suspect that Misha or Tamerlan Tsarnaev were harboring any terrorist ideas, that they were planning any terrorist attacks. But he did say that they did speak about Islam being under attack from the outside. They had those leanings that Islam was really embattled. And that's kind of how he - that's how he knew Misha.

Now, we have tried to track this person down, Chris. We have nexused (ph) his name up against Internet searches of how he's been described. We have come up with a name that kind of, you know, when you put it all in a matrix, there is a name that comes up. We've tracked that person throughout the Boston area. E-mail addresses, phone numbers and physical addresses. We have not found him yet. We're not saying his name, of course, because we have no idea if he's actually that person.

CUOMO: Right. And we obviously have such an abundance of caution there because we don't want to falsely implicate somebody.

TODD: Right. Right.

CUOMO: But you have a couple of different points of contact within the family giving you the same name.

TODD: That's right.

CUOMO: A little bit odd to hear Armenian Muslim, right?

TODD: That's right.

CUOMO: A predominantly Christian faith.

TODD: They are.

CUOMO: You're told that he's a convert.

TODD: Yes.

CUOMO: So this is something that's a lead. Obviously, if we have it, investigators have it.

TODD: We - you know, we assume that they do. And we're getting slight indications that maybe they're at least questioning the younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, about this. But, you know, again, what the younger brother knows is going to be unclear because he may not have been brought into some of this until later on. You know, we know that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, according to the uncle, had radical leanings as far back as 2009. By all indications, that's a lot earlier than the younger brother may have been brought into any of this. CUOMO: And to be clear, obviously, Brian, in your reporting, this isn't about developing curiosities about these suspects as people, it's about figuring out how deep the roots of the conspiracy may have gone.

TODD: Exactly. Right. And who turned them to it, if anyone.

CUOMO: Right.

TODD: Who worked with them and who turned them to maybe do something like this? Who may have inspired at least the older brother?

CUOMO: Thank you very much. I know you're staying on it. I'll be talking to you soon.

TODD: Thank you, Chris. Thank you.