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@THISHOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA

Parents Charged After Dangling Son Over Cheetah Exhibit; Tsarnaev Mother Says Son is "Best of the Best"; Teen Meets Hillary Clinton at Gas Station; Jordan Spieth Tweets about Masters Win. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired April 13, 2015 - 11:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:32:41] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: AT THIS HOUR, a mother is charged with child endangerment, accused of dangling her 2-year-old son over the railing at the cheetah exhibit at the Cleveland zoo. The child fell about 10 feet into the enclosure. The parents jumped in after and were able to get the boy out to safety.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Worst injuries came from gravity and the ground. He came away with scrapes and minor bruises. Luckily, the cheetahs had no interest in the boy. Those animals are quite fast and you have seen on nature shows, eating things. Didn't bother the kid at all. But still, how scary is that? The question, are these charges warranted? Are they enough?

We're joined in studio with our legal expert, Mel Robbins and Danny Cevallos. Danny Cevallos, a defense attorney as well.

Mel, let me ask you this. There's bad parenting and there's illegal parenting. Where does this fall, dangling your kid over the cheetah enclosure? When does it move from bad parenting to illegal?

MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think dangling over a cheetah enclosure is the definition of illegal parenting because it's hugely reckless, which is the language, not hugely, but reckless under the statute in terms of what makes this illegal.

But let's back up a minute. You have witnesses that say that they were dangling the child, but were they holding the child up, which I've seen a lot of parents do at zoos so that the kids can get a better look. I don't do that because I have vertigo. I get near the edge and grab my kids away. Was she holding the child up on a ledge to get a better look or were they doing the Michael Jackson move where the child was suspended over the ledge? It's a question of fact whether or not what the parents were doing was reckless.

BOLDUAN: Where is the responsibility on the part of the zoo to make sure the railing, the enclosure, that it's protected enough that a kid can't go in? This is not the first time this has happened. Where's the responsibility land there?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: That's an interesting personal injury type law question because it really does create -- it raises the question when it comes to zoos should they all be completely enclosed. Should you have zero open air access to an animal? You have to balance that against do you lose anything in the experience of going to the zoo if everything is behind six inches of glass. But in a case like this, it's important to remember there are many different kinds of child endangerment. There's actual physical abuse and sexual abuse and other horrible things on one end of the spectrum, but then there's garden variety recklessness, which is still serious. It means they disregarded a conscious known risk. They did something galactically stupid. In this case, if the child was harmed, that will affect the grading of this crime. If there's any serious physical harm --

(CROSSTALK)

[11:35:22] BOLDUAN: The level of the harm matters?

CEVALLOS: Exactly. Exactly. If it's serious physical harm, it will be a felony of the third degree. But if it's just a creation of some risk of harm with that level of stupidity, then it's really a first- degree misdemeanor, which of course all crimes are serious, but it doesn't necessarily reach even felony level.

BERMAN: So it matters -- the cheetah matters. The cheetah is a key player because the cheetah wasn't interested and cheetah didn't attack so it may not be a major crime?

ROBBINS: I remember the kid in Pittsburgh who fell into the enclosure and was mauled by dogs. That was settled out of court. I think there's something else --

BOLDUAN: Didn't the child die?

ROBBINS: I think so.

BOLDUAN: I think the child died, yes.

ROBBINS: Awful story.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

ROBBINS: But there's something else at play here, which is you notice the zoo officials immediately said they were going to look into child endangerment charges. They don't bring them. The state does. But if the parents were not negligent under the statute, maybe to your point, Kate, the zoo is. The zoo is definitely cooperating with the police because if there's a charge in this case, if these parents are convicted, that is very important evidence that will be considered in a civil case if these parents, for example, were to say, hey, we went to the zoo for a family outing. We just were holding up our kid like every other parent out there. You're negligent, zoo. You owe us money for pain and suffering. Our child fell in there. Luckily, minor injuries. The harm, emotional, I think that there could be a civil action in this case. That's also why the zoo immediately came out and said the parents were negligent.

BOLDUAN: That's more of what happened in the Pittsburgh case. The family sued the zoo saying that they had been warned that the railings were insufficient, that people were known to hold their children up like that, and the zoo then countered sued saying that's not the case, that the kid was reckless and they let the kid jump in.

CEVALLOS: Kate, you bring up a good point. In this case, the zoo has potential liability if they didn't take important safety precautions. One of the things you keyed on is going to be very important if there's a lawsuit. It's going to be prior notice. Did the zoo have any notice beforehand that this was the kind of risk that kids could easily climb this and easily get over? Any prior complaints? Has anyone fallen in before? And did they do nothing to correct the problem?

BOLDUAN: I'm sorry. This is maybe a completely stupid question --

(CROSSTALK)

CEVALLOS: Bring it on. We love it.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: You think about dangling your kid? How far can you go?

BOLDUAN: How far can I dangle my kid before I'm in trouble? That's not my question. Is there a standard --

(LAUGHTER)

They all laughing -- that all zoos have to have certain -- does railing height matter? Is there a standard across all zoos?

ROBBINS: Not across all zoos. It would be a state by state --

(CROSSTALK)

ROBBINS: -- standard in terms of safety. If you know as a zoon that parents stand their kids and put their feet on a railing to get a better look at the animals, you're on notice that parents are engaging in this kind of behavior.

CEVALLOS: Isn't it interesting -- I don't know the answer, if there are different standards depending on the animal. Like the hila monsters, you need a six-foot wall for the anacondas --

(CROSSTALK)

CEVALLOS: -- or a complete enclosure. A very dangerous animal.

BERMAN: All right, Dr. Doolittle, Mel Robbins --

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: You too are dangerous animals.

BERMAN: -- thank you so much. We appreciate it.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us AT THIS HOUR, "the best of the best" is how she describes her son. The mother of the Boston bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, speaking out against the guilty verdict against him. What does Boston's top cop have to say about that? Police Commissioner Bill Evans will be joining us live.

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[11:42:00] BOLDUAN: AT THIS HOUR, the Boston Marathon bombers life hangs in the balance. The same jury that convicted him last week on all 30 counts will soon determine if Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should die for his actions. The penalty phase begins a week from tomorrow.

BERMAN: While that's going on, we just heard some stunning statements from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's mother. This is the first time we heard from her since her son's conviction. She wrote on a Russian social media website, quote, "My sons are innocent as innocent as innocent as all those being killed by your country." She also wrote, "The terrorists are the Americans and everyone knows it. My son is the best of the best."

I want to talk about this with Boston's police commissioner, Bill Evans.

Commissioner, thank you for being with us.

You're not just the commissioner of the police department up there. You're a marathon runner. You ran in the marathon in 2013. You finished before the bomb went off. You could have easily been near that when it happened. I'm asking you as both someone involved in the city and involved in the race, when you hear the mother now of this convicted murderer say that he's the best of the best and the terrorists are the Americans and not this young man, what's your reaction?

WILLIAM EVANS, POLICE COMMISSIONER, BOSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT: Obviously, it's very disturbing. I think we all know the damage done. He took some young lives that day and did some severe damage on over 261. The jury spoke last week and 30 guilty verdicts and even his own defense had admitted that he in fact did do it. You know, obviously we have some concerns with his mother, and I hate to say it, maybe that's the type of home he was brought up with and I can understand why his views are the way they are.

BOLDUAN: When you hear that from her, you were in the courtroom when the verdict was read, but when you hear these words from his mother after you experience what you did and you were in -- and Boston has experienced it, does it reopen old wounds? Does it impact you still hearing those words from that mother?

EVANS: Yeah, it does. How anyone can defend and defend her two sons after extensive evidence in the jury deliberation. There's no doubt that her two sons were responsible for this disaster and it's just crazy that anyone can make that statement. It does open old wounds. I think forever destroyed the safety of that great day, Patriots Day here with the marathon and it's just disturbing to a lot of us and again, when a mother says stuff like that, you know, every mother is going to protect their son but that's so far out there that it is very disturbing for families that have to live with the impact of this bombing every day and people say about closure with guilty. These families never have closure. Yesterday, I was at an event with the young Martin Richard's young sister swimming around the pool with one leg. That breaks your heart. So there's a lot of people out there who I'm sure will never ever get over what happened on April 15th, 2013.

[11:45:20] BERMAN: That was two years ago. The next Boston Marathon is Monday. Are you running again this time?

EVANS: No. I love to run. I've done 47 marathons. Since I've been in this role since the marathon, the commissioner two years, obviously the safety of that race, making sure things go off well that day, that's what my role is on that day. We'll be ready. We had a great marathon last year. And I anticipate if the weather cooperates, which today it's doing on opening day with Fenway and the Red Sox, we hope to have just as good a day next Monday.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Everyone can hope for that. That's for sure.

Commissioner Bill Evans, thank you so much for being here.

EVANS: Thank you.

BERMAN: The police commissioner.

Ahead for us AT THIS HOUR, it was supposed to be a quick trip to a gas station but it ended up being a surprise encounter for one teenager and Hillary Clinton. Gas station besties. We'll speak to that young man who made a new friend on the road right after the break.

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[11:50:00] BERMAN: Hillary Clinton on a big road trip to Iowa in a van she nicknamed Scooby.

BOLDUAN: She's won the 7-year-old vote already.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: She has. And she's on this road trip after officially announcing she is running for president. This time around, her campaign says the message they're trying to get out there is the campaign is much more about the voters than Hillary.

BOLDUAN: One of the first voters that Hillary met was 19-year-old Chris Learn, a college student. You see a picture of them right there.

And Chris is joining us from Altoona, Pennsylvania.

Chris, thank you for jumping on the phone with us.

So, what happened? What did you say when you saw someone who looked strikingly like Hillary Clinton pass you by at the gas station?

CHRIS LEARN, COLLEGE STUDENT MET HILLARY CLINTON (voice-over): I just walked up to her and asked her for a picture because I knew exactly who she was. There was like a couple secret service people around her, so I knew it was pretty important to get that picture. I had to.

BERMAN: So one of the things that the Clinton campaign this time around -- and I don't want to put you on the spot politically -- but they say she's listening to voters, she wants to be the champion for everyday people and listen to the concerns of people out there. Did you ask her anything? Was there any question you had or concern you wanted to present to this new candidate for president?

LEARN: No, not really, but she asked me what I was studying at college and I told her criminal justice and she said she's a big supporter of that.

BERMAN: Criminal justice is something that Hillary Clinton supports?

LEARN: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: Did you know at the time when you saw her at the gas station, at the rest stop, did you know she had made her announcement?

LEARN: No, not at the time.

BOLDUAN: So did she tell you? Did she ask for your support?

LEARN: No. She just was talking to me like a regular person really, not like a political campaigner.

BERMAN: When you discovered that Hillary Clinton had announced she's running for president and was sort of on this road trip to Iowa, what did you think about that? These pictures, by the way, are terrific, you and the former secretary of state standing side by side at the gas station there. Did you realize you were sort of a witness to at least a little bit of --

BOLDUAN: Election history.

BERMAN: -- election history?

LEARN: Yeah. I think so, yeah. It was pretty -- I thought it was pretty important.

BOLDUAN: Did she give you any insight into why she was driving all the way to Iowa?

(LAUGHTER)

Did she give you any insight into what goes on in the Scooby van that she named it, on her way to Iowa?

LEARN: No, she didn't really give me any -- the insight of that. I saw the van but didn't ask her much about it.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: Did she buy anything inside the gas station? I go by a gas station and want to get the beef jerky or Slim Jims.

BOLDUAN: Beef jerky is too much for me. I go for more beverages.

BERMAN: Was there anything that you saw her get on this political journey she's on the next 500 miles or so?

LEARN: I don't think she went inside. I didn't see her go inside. I went inside to get food.

BERMAN: And there she is. Did she pump the gas herself?

LEARN: I don't think so.

BOLDUAN: All right. All right. Chris, it's great to meet you. Thank you so much for jumping on the line. Thanks so much for sending your pictures and obviously --

LEARN: Thank you.

-- you now have a little bit of history.

BERMAN: Those are great, great pictures. Terrific.

BOLDUAN: Very fun. This will be the first time he can vote.

BERMAN: It will.

BOLDUAN: There you go.

BERMAN: There's one guy who barely is voting age and you know what he did yesterday.

BOLDUAN: What did he do?

BERMAN: He won the Masters. Jordan Spieth, the best golfer on earth, at least for today.

BOLDUAN: Fabulous transition.

BERMAN: Wearing the green jacket. We are going to hear from him directly, an interview with this remarkable young man, next.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(APPLAUSE)

[11:52:32] BERMAN: jacket everywhere.

BOLDUAN: It fits so good. It fits so good. Masters champion, Jordan Spieth, woke up this morning with one

thought, tweeting out this, "Well I'm glad that wasn't a dream." I'm sure he is. Can't blame him.

His performance was spectacular, my friends, from start to finish, ending up as the second-youngest person to win the prestigious event. That's behind Tiger Woods. He also tied Woods for the lowest ever score at 18 under.

BERMAN: You know that tweet is really amazing. "I'm glad that wasn't a dream," it kind of epitomizes -- I keep calling him a young man, he's 21, he looks older than me, I have to say. But --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Why are you saying that?

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: He looks terrific. He's a champion right there and he showed remarkable poise.

BOLDUAN: I think the poise is what it is.

BERMAN: And his graciousness. The tweet the day after, "I'm glad that wasn't a dream." How awesome is that?

He had a chance to sit down with Don Riddell of CNN Sports and talk about everything that happened. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JORDAN SPIETH, PRO GOLFER: To sit with this jacket on and to be a part of the history of Augusta National and the Masters, was something I watched slip away last year, had a chip on my shoulder, carried some momentum into this week and it came together at the right time.

DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS: I know that your family and your upbringing is important to you and that's played a huge role in getting you here today. I wonder if I can just pass you these three photographs. What emotion do you experience when you see these pictures?

SPIETH: How about the focus on that swing that's a little John Daly like there, isn't it? This is really cool, from my sister. That's her smile. Miss her a lot. Wish she could have been here, but can't wait to get back to her let her maybe try on the jacket or something. And then this is really cool. I haven't seen any photos from today yet.

RIDDELL: That's what you look like.

SPIETH: It looks good. It looks good. I'm OK wearing green.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER) BOLDUAN: I would say so. It's kind of awesome to see -- I think that's a technical term -- a quiet, humble guy winning and getting this spotlight when, you know, there's so many athletes, outrageous, outlandish, and that's what we hear about them.

BERMAN: You never know what's going to happen but he seems like, you know, a terrific guy --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: I wouldn't fault him if he went on the party circuit.

BERMAN: -- 50 years from now, and look back at this moment, I hope I will have just retired from playing the Masters at that point and won a few more. Congratulations.

BOLDUAN: Not a dream, buddy.

[12:00:04] BERMAN: That's all for us AT THIS HOUR.

BOLDUAN: "LEGAL VIEW" with Pamela Brown today starts right now.