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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Undocumented in Limo; Team USA Survives; Police Talk to Boy Found in Detroit Basement; U.S. Flying Armed Drones Over Baghdad

Aired June 27, 2014 - 12:30   ET

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


ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Police found Charlie in his own basement, the boy crouched down, barricaded behind a stack of boxes and a 55-gallon barrel, items so heavy, officials say, he couldn't have constructed it himself.

The 12-year-old seemingly excited to see police, who say he was hungry.

NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST, "NANCY GRACE": Out to the father of the --

FIELD: HLN's Nancy Grace broke the news to Bothuell that his son was found live on air.

GRACE: We're getting reports that your son has been found in your basement. Sir? Mr. Bothuell, are you --

CHARLES BOTHUELL, FATHER OF BOY FOUND IN BASEMENT: What?

GRACE: Yes, we are getting reports that your son has been found alive in your basement.

BOTHUELL: What?

GRACE: We're getting that right now from -- yes. How could your son be alive in your basement?

BOTHUELL: I -- (EXPLETIVE DELETED), I have no idea. I --

FIELD: Charlie's father says the basement was checked repeatedly.

BOTHUELL: The FBI searched. Detroit police searched. We've all searched. Oh, God, they brought dogs, everything. Everybody has searched. What -- oh, God, my son.

FIELD: Police say a PVC pipe and bloody clothing were found in the home. They have not elaborated on the significance of that. Police have not ruled out child abuse, but no charges have been filed.

BOTHUELL: For anybody to imply I somehow knew my son was in the basement it's absurd and it's wrong. I love my son.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Our thanks to Alexandra Field for that report.

I want to bring back victims' rights attorney Gloria Allred, live here on the set, and also CNN legal analyst and defense attorney Danny Cevallos, live with me as well.

Danny, first to you, the arrest of the stepmother who lived in that house with the father who got that news from Nancy Grace on a weapons- related probation violation sounds unrelated to the case, but why would police do that in the midst of such a high-profile case?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: There are two ways of looking at this. When you hear the facts, the police executed a search of her home. They know she's on probation. For a weapons violation like this, they have to take her into custody. She's so clearly in violation of her probation, which was for a weapons offense.

BANFIELD: You don't see this as a squeeze tactic?

CEVALLOS: I do. So -- in that sense, I do, because typically, violations of probation are treated with differing degrees of seriousness. In this case, they're doing the search of the home. They know she's on probation. They have to take her in.

Now that she's in custody, the police have a few more hands in their -- or cards in their hands that can use to play to maybe play the two parties against each other and get the information that they want. And, believe me, they'll use that. It's just another tool in their arsenal to use in this investigation.

BANFIELD: Yeah, the squeeze, but, Gloria, what does it say to you? You heard Nancy Grace ask the question of that father who said he couldn't comment effectively. But why won't the police let you see the boy? That screams unusual to me that there's been no reunion between that father and son.

GLORIA ALLRED, VICTIMS' RIGHTS ATTORNEY: It appears that he may very well be a suspect, or let's just put it this way, maybe a person of interest, someone that they want to ask more questions of. And they haven't ruled him out yet. That's all. It doesn't mean they'll ever charge him.

BANFIELD: But why can't it be simultaneously? Why can't you still see your boy and still be a person of interest?

ALLRED: It may be they don't want him to influence the boy in any way in terms of what the boy may say to police. It appears that the boy's already been interviewed by law enforcement, that they had him see a psychologist first, and then to be interviewed by law enforcement.

But, still, I mean, because that's his child, because he was living with his child, it may be the child will be influenced in what he would say happens if, in fact, he had contact with his father.

BANFIELD: Here we are a couple of days, guys, and no charge, that father hasn't been brought in for questioning at this point. Does that speak anything to you?

CEVALLOS: No, that doesn't surprise me, at least in terms of keeping the kid away from dad, because that's what child protective services does. They come in they take the kid away and then they wait for a hearing. They always operate with safety as their guiding point.

ALLRED: Well, that's true, but it may not just be child protective services.

CEVALLOS: Sure.

ALLRED: It may be law enforcement outside of child protective services that is wanting to protect the case.

BANFIELD: There is not always daylight, this early in the case.

Gloria Allred, always good to see you. Thanks for coming in. And Danny Cevallos, as usual, thank you for you insight as well. Thanks to both of you. Have a good weekend.

ALLRED: Thank you. You too.

BANFIELD: OK, thanks.

So armed U.S. drones are now flying over Baghdad. What is their mission going to be? Because if you say defense, how do you define defense? I know that's a tough question. May seem easy. It ain't. A live report from the Pentagon, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: The crisis in Iraq escalating today with the discovery there of mass graves. Amnesty International says it's found evidence of mass graves in the city of Tikrit, apparently filled with bodies or Iraqi troops or civilians executed by ISIS militants. And we've also just learned that the U.S. is now flying armed drones over Baghdad.

Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us now with the very latest. Armed drones, that wasn't what we expected. We thought they'd be unarmed. But does it matter, one way or the other? And is it just Baghdad or is it northern Iraq as well? Are they looking for ISIS?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: At this point, Ashleigh, what these armed drones are doing, and it just began in the last 24 hours, according to a U.S. official, they're providing overhead protection for the U.S. military advisers, about 180 of them that are now in Baghdad and beginning to go out, have a look around, and try and assess the strength of the Iraqi forces and the strength of ISIS.

So right now, these armed drones, that means U.S. drones overhead with missiles on them, basically are keeping watch to keep U.S. troops safe as they move around the Baghdad area.

As the mission expands, as U.S. military advisers go into other areas of Iraq, I think it's a safe assumption that the same thing will happen. This is a very dangerous area right now, and so these -- this small group of military advisers is going to have protect overhead in case they get into trouble.

Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: Well, that's curious. And I'm going to try to parse some words with you if I can because you know Pentagon lingo better than I do.

One of the things your reporting elicited, Barbara, was any air strikes that are not defensive in nature would still require President Obama's sign-off. What exactly does defensive mean? I see a truckload of bad guys, let's take them out? Or that truck load of bad guys shot at us?

STARR: Look, here's the bottom line. When we talk about this, U.S. troops anywhere in the world always, 24/7, all the time, under U.S. military law have the right and expectation to defend themselves.

No one is going to put U.S. troops into Iraq without them having the ability to defend themselves, and that's what we're really talking about. If U.S. troops come under attack and they can't deal with it, the drones overhead will be there to protect them.

What we're not talking about, according to U.S. officials, is these drones going on offensive missions to go hunt down insurgents, ISIS, whatever you want to call them today, not like you've seen over the years in Iraq and Afghanistan, to go hunting for the bad guys. They are there to keep watch, and if U.S. troops get into trouble, they will be there to protect them.

If there is any notion of the hunting down of insurgents, the more offensive mission, that is still air strikes; that is something president has not yet decided on.

BANFIELD: I just think those are so fascinating, because they sure are tough to hit with an RPG. The game has changed so significantly.

Barbara Starr, great to see you. Have a good weekend.

The man behind the film "Documented" is going to react to President Obama's recent message about the fate of Central American children in the United States and also talk about his new project, could impact the entire debate over immigration.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: A couple of developments on the immigration front to get you up to speed on, New York City has just joined Los Angeles and San Francisco and New Haven, Connecticut, as states that now offer IDs to undocumented immigrants, effectively bypassing the gridlock on immigration reform in Washington. This, as thousands of undocumented and unaccompanied children are jamming the United States border with Mexico, prompting the president to send this warning to parents in Central America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our message absolutely is, don't send your children unaccompanied on trains or through a bunch of smugglers. That is our direct message to the families in Central America. Do not send your children to the borders. If they do make it, they'll get sent back. More importantly, they may not make it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: I want to bring in Jose Antonio Vargas. He's the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who revealed that he was brought to this country as a kid, unknown to him at the time he didn't have legal documentation.

JOSE ANTONIO VARGAS, DIRECTOR, WRITER OF "DOCUMENTED": Yes.

BANFIELD: His brand-new film "Documented" aired this Sunday here on CNN.

And, first of all, I just want to get your reaction to what the president just told George Stephanopoulos. Big breath.

VARGAS: Look, I mean, the president is in a really hard position here, right? I mean, this border crisis, as the news media has been calling it, has basically effectively ended immigration reform or any chances of it this year. But I listen to that statement and I think about, what about those undocumented like young Germans and Italians and Irish kids who were sent here through Ellis Island, you know, years and decades ago, right? Like, what did we do with them?

And I just -- what if that was your kid? Each one of those kids has a mom, has a dad. Some of them here in America and they're looking for their parents. And the question that I don't think we've really talked about is, what is the responsibility of the United States when it comes to the political and kind of -- the violence and the situation in these countries? In Salvador, in Honduras and in Guatemala. Like, how did it get to be that violent in those countries? And what has been the role of the United States, for example, when those countries had civil wars?

BANFIELD: Let me ask you something.

VARGAS: But we're not even talking about that.

BANFIELD: So, you know, your -- the doc is amazing and it's going to air on Sunday.

VARGAS: It's going to air on Sunday.

BANFIELD: I mean the whole story will be sort of more richly told because you and I have interviewed before.

VARGAS: Yes.

BANFIELD: We've had special -- I'm also an immigrant. I came here as a documented immigrant and I worked my way through the process. I'm -- VARGAS: From Canada, right?

BANFIELD: From Canada. (INAUDIBLE) the border.

VARGAS: Anne of Green - "Anne of Green Gables" was a big influence when I was younger. It taught me how to speak like this.

BANFIELD: You're kidding me.

VARGAS: Marilla Cuthbert.

BANFIELD: Unbelievable.

VARGAS: And Anne Shirley.

BANFIELD: Listen, I will tell you this, it took me a very long time to become a citizen of this country.

VARGAS: Yes.

BANFIELD: It was an enormous task.

VARGAS: Yes. Yes.

BANFIELD: The money that I spent.

VARGAS: Oh, yes.

BANFIELD: The time that I invested. The lawyers that I hired. I can't imagine anybody having to go through that if they don't have a job.

VARGAS: Yes.

BANFIELD: So while visa-ed, I was able to make enough money -

VARGAS: Yes.

BANFIELD: To go through this process. Ultimately, you were spending all this time going through this process and living your life right up to being a Pulitzer Prize winner secretly. And then you just came out and you told everybody. And still undocumented. I -- how are you maneuvering? Like now that everyone knows who you are and where you live and you're right here now, how do you continue to stay here?

VARGAS: Well, look, I'm the most privileged undocumented immigrant in America. Every day people like me get detained and deported. And what do I do, I make a film, right? And so with great privilege comes great responsibility and that's why I made this film. That's why I've been as vocal and as visibility as I've been. And I have to tell you, I meet a lot of undocumented European, undocumented German, undocumented British women.

BANFIELD: You told me you met undocumented Canadians?

VARGAS: Undocumented Canadians.

BANFIELD: (INAUDIBLE).

VARGAS: I've met maybe four so far who tell me that they feel so guilty because whenever the media talks about illegal people, it's never about undocumented white people.

BANFIELD: Well, then, that's a huge part of this, the racism that could be at play.

VARGAS: Yes.

BANFIELD: I want to play just a quick snippet of your documentary that's coming up.

VARGAS: Oh.

BANFIELD: Hold on. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VARGAS: I was brought here when I was 12.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

VARGAS: I didn't know I didn't have papers since I was 16. My grandparents, who were American citizens, didn't tell me. So I've been here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

VARGAS: I've been paying taxes since I was 18. I just want to be able, as you said, to get legal, to get in the back of a line somewhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So let's talk about that. Do you think it is because it's a racist thing? I mean nobody ever asked me if I was legal. But, then again, I don't meet a lot of illegal Canadians, but there are numbers that are at play here.

VARGAS: Well, there's that. But also, I think, all these years I've been able to pass, right? I mean when I was a kid, I found out I was undocumented in 1997 before there was the Internet.

BANFIELD: Wow.

VARGAS: So I remember thinking -- the first thought in my head was, OK, I need to get rid of this really thick Filipino accent. And I have to talk like Charlie Rose and Dr. Dre at the same time. I have to talk white and black so that no one would ever think that I'm not from here.

BANFIELD: Yes.

VARGAS: So that was my first instinct. Isn't that horrible that that's what I thought. But this is why, by the way, you just mentioned municipal IDs here in New York. People forget that to be undocumented in this country means that your whole life you're obsessed with pieces of documents.

BANFIELD: Show me what you have. This is -

VARGAS: So -

BANFIELD: Every time someone asks you for ID, you step on a plane and you go to a bar -

VARGAS: My only - my only ID -- because I fly.

BANFIELD: Yes.

VARGAS: I'm flying more now than I've ever flown. People like me are not supposed to be flying, right?

BANFIELD: Sure.

VARGAS: So I'm flying with my passport that was issued by the Philippine government to me. After I outed myself as undocumented, my driver's license got revoked from Washington state.

BANFIELD: So you can't drive right now.

VARGAS: So I can't drive. So, is there anything more American than driving?

BANFIELD: No.

VARGAS: By the way, you all know that undocumented people drive, by the way, which is like, for me, the fact that we have such a standstill on immigration reform -

BANFIELD: Yes.

VARGAS: Right? How can states and cities like New York alleviate the struggle? There are 500,000 undocumented New Yorkers in New York City alone.

BANFIELD: Half a million.

VARGAS: Can you imagine how to get any -

BANFIELD: You know, I have so much that I want to talk to you about. I wish I had an entire - well, you know what, there is an entire hour coming. We're not (ph) going to learn a whole lot more. But it's good to meet you in person. By the way, you and I have interviewed via satellite.

VARGAS: Via satellite, yes.

BANFIELD: Well, yes, all the time. So it's nice to finally meet you in person. I'm glad you did the piece.

VARGAS: Thank you so much for having me.

BANFIELD: And you know what I would have asked you was what's the end game, but I have a feeling it's coming on Sunday night.

VARGAS: Yes.

BANFIELD: There you go. Look at that, folks. Jose Antonio Vargas has the film coming, "Documented," CNN, this Sunday night, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. All the questions I wasn't able to ask him, bet your bottom dollar they'll be in that. Nice to see you.

VARGAS: Thank you so much.

BANFIELD: Thanks for coming in.

VARGAS: The United States still there, folks, still in the World Cup. And that is not the only big story making news in Brazil though. We're going to find out a little bit more about the player who apparently likes to bite as much as he likes to kick. What?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: OK, brace yourself, we going to talk about soccer. Do not worry, though, I've got someone here who knows a lot more about soccer than I do. It's a really good thing. The group of death did not kill Team USA and so many naysayers, you're wrong. The Americans are in the last 16. It means that the matches will not get any easier. They're going to play the European powerhouse Belgium. That's coming on Tuesday. And the goalkeeper, Tim Howard, was on CNN earlier today. He is not intimidated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM HOWARD, TEAM USA GOALKEEPER: I think we match up really well with them. Having said that, they're strong and they're powerful. You know, defensively they've been rock solid. In the attack, they've got some dangerous, some very tricky players. Very much like Germany. So we'll have our work cut out for us. But we feel like we're strong, we're powerful and we've been playing some of the best soccer that this team has seen. So hopefully we'll give as good as we get.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Ah, Greg Lalas is here from the world famous Lalas Brothers. He also runs the website mlssoccer.com.

I'm so glad you're here because, well, I love seeing them all run around the pitch. I really have no idea what's going on. Although I do know this --

GREG LALAS, FORMER PROFESSIONAL SOCCER PLAYER: That's OK, you don't have to know.

BANFIELD: It's like America's already won, isn't it, really?

LALAS: In some ways it feels like America's won. I mean the way that the fans have celebrated this. And there have -- they seem to be having a lot of fun in this.

BANFIELD: And didn't we just not expect them to get this far?

LALAS: And in some ways, this is a big moment to get out of this group of death. I mean we're still alive and Portugal's not and Ghana's not. England, they're not. Italy, they're not. These are world champions in the history of the game.

BANFIELD: And, by the way, it's on the front cover of both of the tabloid newspapers in New York.

LALAS: Yes.

BANFIELD: And that adorable note that the coach wrote for everyone who wanted to get out of work yesterday.

LALAS: Yes.

BANFIELD: The governor of New York allowing his government workers an extra hour at lunch.

LALAS: Pretty amazing.

BANFIELD: This has sort of transcended soccer fans and it's even transcended sports fans.

LALAS: Yes, it has, and it's started to make a real push into mainstream. I think ultimately, though, this is an evolution that we've seen over the last 20 years. It started with the World Cup in '94. It started when MLS soccer - or MLS - yes, Major League Soccer - MLS is the site I'm with.

BANFIELD: (INAUDIBLE).

LALAS: Major League Soccer started in 1996. And over the last 20 years, we've seen it grow and grow.

BANFIELD: They had me at Brandi Chastain's top when she - I mean that's really like a branding (ph) moment, you know?

LALAS: Yes, which was a - which was a big moment. It was a big moment. But those little moments ultimately are just little boosts. And as the evolution continues, now you're getting crowds of 30,000, 40,000. Seattle Sounders, they get 40,000 people to every single game. It's amazing.

BANFIELD: Twenty thousand people watching it on ESPN in the middle of the day.

LALAS: Yes. It's amazing.

BANFIELD: It's really remarkable.

LALAS: It's amazing what we're seeing.

BANFIELD: OK. So, the game, Belgium, little teeny Belgium, how about that? LALAS: Yes. Yes. Well, they are a good team. They're sort of

everyone's dark horse, which I've been saying is not -- you're not a dark horse anymore if everybody picks you in this way.

BANFIELD: Yes.

LALAS: They have a lot of skill. A lot of power. We heard Tim Howard say they're similar to Germany, but they're kind of the poor man's Germany. So I think we compete.

BANFIELD: This is a yes or no. I hate to do it, but it's yes or no, Greg, can America win this thing?

LALAS: Yes, America can win this. They're not -

BANFIELD: Oh, my golly. Really?

LALAS: Yes. Yes. Absolutely.

BANFIELD: You're not saying that and crossing your fingers?

LALAS: I am not saying that. I am not waving the flag in this one. This - they have the ability to beat Belgium.

BANFIELD: Greg Lalas, I'm holding you to that and you have to come back here after the games and we'll see just how you do.

LALAS: Deal. Deal.

BANFIELD: Thanks. Nice to see you.

LALAS: Nice to see you too. Thanks.

BANFIELD: Have a good weekend. Enjoy the soccer, futbol.

So this week we had a biter in the news. I think you probably saw that. Now we have a spitter making some headlines. Not the guy you would think either. It's actor Shia LaBeouf. This guy was arrested outside of Studio 54. That's not the bar (ph). It shows the Broadway show, the Broadway play "Cabaret." Here he is leaving court this morning after a court appointed attorney represented him, even though he's worth millions and millions. That 27-year-old kid was allegedly drunk and disruptive during the show "Cabaret." Right during the first act. Allegedly he was allegedly slapping and spitting on the audience. Eyewitnesses say the guy was out of control.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was brilliant. It took us a little bit to realize it was him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he was acting a little strange?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ah, yes. We didn't know if he was drunk. I thought he was working on a role or something because it was obviously him and he was quite a mess. He had a torn shirt. He had a cigarette. He was blending into the crowd, trying to, and chasing bums and craziness.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he just walked up to the bar inside of "Cabaret" and grabbed a strawberry and fed it to some woman off of her plate and then tipped the bartender and ran out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Oh, crazy New York. This is just the latest in a long episode, but string of episodes, erratic behavior coming from the "Transformer" super star. In January, he tweeted that he was retiring from public life after being accused of plagiarism. And in February, he went to a movie premiere in Berlin wearing a paper bag on his head. A bag that read, "I'm not famous anymore." But Mr. LaBeouf, I'm here to tell you, with antics like that, yes, you are. And you will remain so in the twittersphere.

Hey, have a great weekend. It's been nice to have you with us. But stick around because the best man in television is coming up now. It's Wolf Blitzer. See you Monday.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, as the crisis in Iraq escalates, a U.S. official tells CNN, armed American drones have started flying over Baghdad.