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Castro To Show "Other Side"; NSA Surveillance Programs; Woman Falls From Ride; Simon Cowell's Big News; Florida Deputies Shoot Unarmed Man; Southwest Fined For Ad Violations

Aired August 1, 2013 - 07:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everybody. This is NEW DAY. It is Thursday, August 1st. Just 30 minutes past the hour there. I'm Chris Cuomo.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. We're here with our news anchor --

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: I choose the music.

BOLDUAN: Music or electrocution?

Coming up this morning, airlines accused of pulling the old bait and switch offering bargain ticket prices. When you try to book a flight, sorry, Charlie, all sold out. What you can do to make sure you don't get ripped off?

CUOMO: No good. They get the grumpy cat.

Plus we have a skate boarding trick for you this morning where you can give Tony Hawk trouble. That is a second board. That is a flip. That is ridiculous and we're going to show you --

BOLDUAN: Replay.

COUMO: Feel it. Live it. Love it.

BOLDUAN: Talk about a bait and switch. That is good stuff.

PEREIRA: Please don't try that, Chris.

CUOMO: I would try that once.

BOLDUAN: You know, what the best part is, he would try it. He will say I tried it once. He would try it and nail it.

CUOMO: Yes, I would nail it and by nailing it meaning break both my legs and my neck.

Anyway, a lot of news for you this morning, Michaela has got it all, starting off with Ariel Castro. This is the big day in court.

PEREIRA: This is going to be an emotional day in court as well for many of the people gathered there. Making news, Ariel Castro, the Ohio man who kept those three young women prisoner in his home about a decade expected to give a long and personal statement during his sentencing today. One of his victims, Michele Knight is expected to be in that courtroom and to speak today, as well. Castro pleaded guilty last week to more than 900 counts including murder and kidnapping in a deal that spared him a possible death sentence.

The British "Guardian" newspaper releasing more information provided by NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, he claims the NSA can mine internet browsing histories and other online data through a program called "X- Keyscore." The Senate Judiciary Committee holding hearings on the NSA surveillance programs. Committee Chairman Senator Patrick Leahy says there is little evidence that the NSA's collection of phone records has helped prevent terrorist attacks.

Another amusement park accident, this time, a woman was injured after falling from the zipper ride at the Montana state fair. The ride was not moving at that time. Other passengers were being unloaded actually. According to a fire rescue report the woman fell about eight to ten feet and hit her head. Earlier this month, a Dallas woman died after falling out of a roller coaster at Six Flags over Texas.

In Florida, scary courtroom confrontation caught on camera here. An inmate waiting to be called before a judge tries to grab a deputy's gun. That veteran officer managed to hold on to her weapon while her colleagues attacked the guy who is already grand theft and burglary charges. Well, I guess, we can add battery of a law enforcement officer to that list.

Could there be diapers in Simon Cowell's future? It would appear so. The "X-Factor" judge is reportedly about to become a new dad. The mother, socialite, Lauren Silverman, she is currently involved in quite a nasty and high profile divorce from one of Cowell's best friends, New York real estate mogul, Andrew Silvermann. Cowell and Silverman have reportedly been dating now for several months. That makes evening get togethers and cocktail parties kind of uncomfortable.

BOLDUAN: Awkward.

CUOMO: To say the least. Michaela Pereira, thank you very much.

A Florida man says he felt like he was on the wrong end of a firing squad. His name Roy Middleton and he is still trying to figure out why police started shooting when he was in his car unarmed in his own drive way. In a moment, we'll talk with Pensacola Sheriff David Morgan whose officers were involved. But first Nick Valencia will bring you up to date on the story and tell you everything you need to know. Good morning, Nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Roy Middleton was shot by police. He is still in the hospital recovering. His family tells us that he is expected to be out soon. But for now Middleton is just trying to make sense of what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA (voice-over): An unarmed man getting out of his own car shot multiple times by police.

CELDA WALKER, MOTHER: He was in the car like this. He said that when they told him -- he thought it was our neighbor playing with them because they do that when they shine the light he said he went to put up his hands and turn around and that's when the bullets started.

VALENCIA: Celda Walker's 60-year-old son, Roy Middleton came under fire while he stood in his Pensacola, Florida drive way mistaken as a burglary suspect in the wee hours of the morning.

ROY MIDDLETON, VICTIM (via telephone): When I complied with the order and they opened fire on me, and didn't stop until they ran out of ammunition.

VALENCIA: Middleton says he was just looking for a cigarette in his car at 2:30 in the morning. The Scambia County deputies responding to a 911 call from a concerned neighbor say it was dark, and Middleton refused to obey their commands. Then they say he lunged at them with a shiny object. Sheriff's deputies fired 15 shots at Middleton and two hitting him. He is now recovering in the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

MIDDLETON: The hip bone is blown out. I have metal rides to it.

VALENCIA: Critics to the shooting don't buy it and say deputies need to be better trained.

ART ROCKER, CHAIRMAN, SCLC FLORIDA: I think what the community must understand is that we have a group of deputies that is trying to do their job, but it is a little difficult for them to do that job because they are not trained. Why would you shoot someone that is not shooting at you?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: Now whether Middleton was complying or the deputies were acting appropriately will be determined in the coming weeks. The sheriff handed the investigation over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state attorney. They will have to determine if any laws were broken -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, thanks, Nick. Sheriff David Morgan joins us now. Sheriff, thank you very much for taking the opportunity to deal with these questions, you know how important the situation is because it looks bad. You have a 60-year-old man in his own house, in his own driveway and he winds up getting shot at 15 times by two officers. You say it was justifiable. How?

SHERIFF DAVID MORGAN, ESCAMBIA COUNTY, FLORIDA: Well, again, our officers followed standard protocol. We are getting Monday morning quarterbacking and the after actions, you know, comments basically of neighbors who are getting their information from other neighbors and sometimes getting second and thirdhand information from even family members.

The officers responded to a 911 call, which was a vehicle theft in progress 2:30 in the morning. Again, you know, some of the statements varied and the spontaneous utterances that Mr. Middleton made are changing now, but they responded again early in the morning. We had an eyewitness next door who was on the cell phone during the entire time. He entered his house once the gun shots started.

He observed exactly what the deputies did. All of the witness statements match up with what the deputies' actions were. So right now we are comfortable from a training perspective that our officers, in fact, did follow standard protocols. I believe, you're an attorney, you know the standard we use and train to is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, which is a reasonable test of how officers react to these unknown situations.

The officers, by the way, were illuminated by street lights. When we asked the witness was he aware that they were deputies he said yes. He could tell by the patches on their sleeves.

CUOMO: Right. What we're leaving out here though, Sheriff, is what could the 60-year-old unarmed man have done that would make the officers feel they needed to shoot with him 15 times.

MORGAN: He did not comply is the bottom line. The witness statements go as such. When they first directed the individual to exit the car he first stuck one hand, his left hand out the driver's window and then retrieved his hand. It looked as though he was going into the consol area of the car. He opened the door. Put one leg and one arm outside the door, lunged back again inside the car as the deputies were telling him to step out of the car, let us see your hands.

When he got out of the car, he made a lunging movement out of the car. When he spun around his hands were not up. He raised one hand, which had a metallic object in it, and it was at that point that the officers began to fire.

CUOMO: Even if everything you are saying or that your officers are saying is true, 15 times at a 60-year-old unarmed man? Why?

MORGAN: Well, again, Chris, we didn't know that he was unarmed, number one. He had an object in his hand, which led the officers to believe that he had some sort of weapon and that also is standard protocol. When an officer employs deadly force training tells you to continue to fire because you made the decision at that point that your life or the life of someone else is in danger. That is not out of the ordinary.

CUOMO: The officers involved -- yes, go ahead.

MORGAN: Chris, I might also point out that just less than five days prior to that people are making comments about the officers training. They had just completed a routine thing, our active shooter program, which is an interactive program. It's a computer driven where you role play and officers are trained to diffuse situations. That was just five days prior to this case. CUOMO: But Sheriff, doesn't something about this situation give you pause for concern when your officers wind up shooting at a guy 15 times? It is like the only thing in his favor was that your sheriffs were bad shots. Otherwise, it seems like it is all he had going for him and you seem completely unmoved by the circumstances. It is very troubling.

MORGAN: Well, again, Chris, we are always -- I described this to a lot of folks as a tragedy. Anytime an officer has to deploy the use of deadly force in any situation is a tragedy. It's a tragedy anytime someone is hit by any rounds. Again, the number of rounds is not out of the ordinary. I think it's only out of the ordinary of those folks who were not engaged in law enforcement. This is all too common occurrences.

We live in a very violent society. We have the third highest rate of incarceration out of 67 counties and the eighth highest crime rate for a county that again is not the largest county in Florida. So our officers are responding to very dangerous situations. This was 2:30 in the morning. Again, we had a subject who was not compliant. Again, I'm not really sure how the officers could have reacted differently in this situation.

CUOMO: I got you. That is a very strong move, your handling it over to the state authorities so they can have an independent eye on it. I have to give you one more chance at this. People look at this situation and the report was wrong t. It was not a burglary. This is the man's house. He was unarmed. You say that your deputies say he didn't comply. Another witness says he did comply. He says he complied. We don't know what happened although it is unreasonable to assume a man would not comply while on his own property doing something wrong. Do you understand why it gives people concerns about what happens when white police officers encounter black men down in your county?

MORGAN: Now we are injecting race into the situation, which compounds the situation. Again, the eyewitness you are referring to. He was one of the neighbors of Mr. Middleton. His statement has changed. We got a sworn statement from this individual. The statement that we received from him said from his vantage point, he could hear the officers directing Nr. Middleton. He confirmed basically all the things our officers said. He wasn't belligerent. We have a variance there. Are we concerned? That is a little bit of a ridiculous statement if I may say so. Anytime a citizen is harmed we are concerned. In this case when you inject race into it, it is inflammatory.

CUOMO: Well, I want to give you a chance to respond to it because it is not me introducing you to what people's concerns are about this situation. That's why I'm putting it out there. This is the way it sizes up to people. That is why I appreciate you coming on to explain it from your perspective.

MORGAN: Can I put this somewhat in balance?

CUOMO: Sure. MORGAN: Here is why we are concerned about this as a community and as a nation. Approximately four months ago in Escambia County, there were two black males and a black female who bludgeoned a white female to death with a hammer and a crow bar. There was no public outrage. There was no uprising in this. Approximately a month and a half ago, a black male shot a white male unarmed on Pensacola Beach, you know, in the face and in the chest.

There was no public outcry to this. So again now that law enforcement is involved in this I am very concerned about this from a race relations perspective as much as anything because what it tells me is we haven't bridged the gap as much as I thought we had.

CUOMO: I think it is a great point to make, Sheriff. I appreciate you making it on our show. I appreciate you taking the opportunity. Thanks for being with us today.

MORGAN: Yes, sir.

CUOMO: Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up next on NEW DAY, fake fares and airlines being forced to pay up for offering ticket prices too good to be true. So find out how to make sure you are not taken for a ride.

Take a look at this young skateboarder, pretty fearless. We show you more coming up.

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PEREIRA: NEW DAY, let's talk airline price controversy. You have seen the sales for the really, really low ticket price at $66, 99 bucks, but those prices may be too good to be true. The U.S. Department of Transportation slapped southwest airlines with a $200,000 fine for violating rules on airline advertising. Earlier, this year Southwest offered a one way non-stop flight for $66. The DOT says they didn't provide any tickets at that price.

Christine Romans is here. We know this is a pretty standard thing. We see lots of companies doing these really, really low fares. So they're not the only once that are getting --

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This was the love affair sale. It turned into get a big fine from the government sale. Basically the Dallas route they advertised $66 one way fare. No one got that fare, some other routes maybe 1 percent. The government said that is not enough. Southwest said it was an error in the reservation system that they were unintentional this problem. The government said they better not happen in the future. If you can go a whole year without basically scamming your customers then you only have to pay $100,000 of that fine.

BOLDUAN: You know most people think if you can go one year without scamming your customers, we will give you a treat. This isn't just Southwest. I've seen these ads everywhere. ROMANS: Other fines of other airlines for these. In particular other gains have received big fines. American Eagle recently fined for leaving people on the run way for too long. That was a real interesting story there. Their big fine was like $200,000. Delta was fined $750,000. What they did was they were bumping people on oversold flights and selling out the flights. Has that ever happened to you? I bought a ticket to fly this flight.

CUOMO: They give you a voucher at some off-brand hotel.

ROMANS: So, look, $59 is cheap. Too good to be true is usually too good to be true. There are not going to be a lot of flights on those things. When tickets are free, they are usually you know on some of these tickets you get using your miles you can pay up to $500 to use that. Don't miss your flight, that's an important thing. New standard fares everyone is jumping on. You miss your flight, be very, very careful. I'll tell you the customer relations of some of these airlines. Their customer relations are terrible. U.S. Airways, for example, five to seven days to respond to your request for somebody to talk to you about a fare complaint.

BOLDUAN: It is not easy to fly. The friendly skies no more.

CUOMO: Christine Romans, people's advocate, human fine print, I love it.

ROMANS: No one has called me that before.

BOLDUAN: It's a compliment. Coming up next on NEW DAY, PETA, posts a video of a dolphin they say jumped out of the tank and on the cement what Sea World is saying about it this morning straight ahead.

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PEREIRA: A bonus today, you get two must-see moments. This is so cool. A guy in Iceland pulling off a pretty rad-trick, you ride one skateboard and does a perfect back flip. He apparently nailed it on his second try. Not too shabby when you consider professional skateboarders have trouble doing this. Here is the good thing we want to point out for all the parents at home. Where is your helmet?

CUOMO: Fair point, fair point. Little bit of ice water on the situation in Iceland.

BOLDUAN: Hang after a three-pointer.

PEREIRA: Nothing but net.

CUOMO: Probably felt guilty he didn't have a helmet on.

PEREIRA: Moms everywhere.

BOLDUAN: His mom's seeing it now and she's furious.

CUOMO: Amazing what humans can do. We're going to break but breaking news for you. We just got word that the NSA leaker Edward Snowden has left the airport in Moscow. That's the news. The question is, where is he going, who's helping him? We'll find out as soon as we can. See you after the break.

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CUOMO: Standing up to evil. One of the Cleveland three set to speak at the sentencing of Ariel Castro just an hour from now as we get new details from their diaries on how they survived.

BOLDUAN: How far does it go? New revelations on the NSA spying program. Can they search anything you do online with just a few key strokes? The new allegations this morning.

PEREIRA: Under fire, another shocking video taken at Sea World. This of a dolphin stranded on the concrete. The amusement park is now fighting back. W e have your response this morning.

CUOMO: Your NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So kind, compassionate and caring. I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to murder her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brother, are you hungry? Have a good day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Good morning and welcome back to NEW DAY, everyone. It is Thursday, a beautiful Thursday, August 1st, 8:00 in the east. I'm Kate Bolduan.

CUOMO: I'm Chris Cuomo. Here as always with our news anchor, Michaela Pereira. We have breaking news for you this morning. NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, has left the Moscow airport where he has been holed up now. The question is, what is he able to do? Here's what we know so far, the information still coming in. According to his lawyer, he got the documents he needed from the Russian government, right?

BOLDUAN: Got the documents he needed from the Russian government, but the big question remains, where is he going to head? We're going to hopefully have a live report on that coming up. Bring you all the latest developing right now.

Also, we're following a possible olive branch between Senator Rand Paul and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.