0 >> what kind of volumizer that justin bieber uses in his hair. because a lot of us go through great lengths to try to get that sort of height. >> reporter: height? seems like a new low. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> poor biebs. "ac 360" starts right now. evening, everyone. breaking news tonight in a story that 360 first brought to national attention. the strange disappearance and mysterious death of an african-american father in texas. also tonight a judge gets set to heart case of the reportedly brain-dead texas woman whose body is being kept alive against her 23578ly famils wishes because she's pregnant. justin bieber's dui charges and general odd behavior. addiction specialist dr. drew pinsky is on the case tonight. alfred wright vanished last november. his body found his body two weeks later after authorities finished searching in the same area where his body was found by his family. the sheriff told them there was no sign of foul play. the family is alleging a murder and coverup. now after deborah feyerick reporting put a spotlight on the case she joins us now. what are you learning? >> reporter: we can tell you that the justice department, attorney general eric holder, is being contacted about looking into this case. congressman sheila jackson lee from the houston area of texas met with the wright family yesterday for several hours. she had seen our three-part investigation here on "ac 360" into the death and disappearance of alfred wright. we spoke to her chief of staff today. he says that they are drafting a letter as we speak. that letter's going to go to the justice department, attorney general eric holder, as well as the u.s. attorney in beaumont, texas. we have no specifics just yet on the kind of investigation what assistance are going to ask from the justice department. but it would include things for example like civil rights violations, hate crimes, public corruption, for example corruption within law enforcement and the texas rangers have been asking the fbi for assistance. right now there's no new information on the status of the investigation either from the rangers or from the fbi. this investigation by all accounts seems to be moving very, very slowly. >> we should point out the investigation was already handed over by by the local sheriff to the texas rangers who asked for fbi assistance? >> reporter: correct. the texas rangers are the ones taking the lead on all of this. you ask anybody in texas, they say the texas rangers, they're like the fbi but of that region. but they are looking for a wider assistance. and that's what the fbi is sort of on stand by for right now. >> deborah feyerick, appreciate the update. next to the dallas area where an emergency hearing is set for tomorrow in the case of marlise munoz. her family says she's brain-dead and say she never wanted to be kept alive like this. but because she's pregnant, the hospital is keeping her on a ventilator. tomorrow her husband will ask a judge for permission to disconnect the machine, claiming her body and then lay her to rest. today we got new details from inside the icu where her body has been held since november and learned more about the judge who will hear the case tomorrow. ed lavendare joins us from dallas. marlise munos's husband has made statements about his wife's condition. what's he saying? >> reporter: this comes from a court filing made late this afternoon. it's an affidavit that eric munos the husband of of marlise munos has given to the judge who will be hearing the case this afternoon in ft. worth. it details the sadness and horrific scene inside that intensive care unit where marlise munos's body has been since november 26, the night she collapsed of an apparent blood clot in her lung. in it he says, eric david says when i best down to kit her forehead, her usual scent is gone replaced instead with what i can only describe as the smell of death. he goes on to say that one of the most painful parts of washing my wife's deceased body lie trapped in a hospital bed each day is the soulless look in her eyes. her eyes, once full of the glimmer of life are empty and dead. my wife is nothing more than an empty shell. eric munos goes on to say all he wants to do is be able to put his deceased wife's body to rest. there is no mention in this affidavit of the fetus, anderson. >> the emergency court hearing requested and set for tomorrow afternoon, what do we know about the judge in the case? . well, it's interesting. the judge ace lifelong fort worth texas resident. he had been in private practice as a civil attorney at one of the most prominent law films there in ft. worth. also worked for a time as an assistant federal prosecutor in ft. worth as well. by all accounts a very well-respected person. he is a republican. most judges in texas are elected officials at this level. however, he was appointed by texas governor rick perry in 2010 to fill a vacant seat. he won re-election in 2012 and not up for re-election again until 2016. >> marlise munoz has been kept on vent lateilators her family against her own wishes for two months. do we have any idea who will be responsible for those medical payments? >> reporter: this is interesting. it's something we've been asking from the very beginning. we reached out to john peter smith hospital and asked them what will happen with the medical bills that have been incurred in all of this. we got a one-line statement from the hospital today. this is from a spokeswoman for the hospital where they said the billing department at john peter smith hospital will pursue its customary procedures for identifying payers and reimbursement. it seems clear they expect to be paid for the medical bills that have been incurred over the last nearly two months. we do know that various phone calls we've made we've tried to reach out to marlise munoz's employer and the insurance company where she is sponsored and has her insurance with. those two groups said that they could not speak or offer any more details because of privacy issues. but that is clearly something that -- and i spoke with eric munoz's lawyers a couple of weeks ago. they said that is something that they anticipate and will have to deal with once they get past this initial emergency hearing tomorrow. >> wow. a whole other side of that. ed lavendar, appreciate it. i want to bring in legal analysts sonny hostin and mark geragos completely divided on this and obgyn doctor lisa masterson and attorney and children's advocate riba martin. what impact could this have legally if any, this affidavit? >> i think it's going to just bolster the argument from the husband that his wife has been determined brain-dead and to continue to force her to jess tate this fetus is just cruel. not just to the wife but to the family as well. and i hope the court takes note of a 1999 case, anderson, a very similar situation. a 34-year-old woman in a tragic accident. her common law husband fought to keep her on a ventilator to allow a fetus to jess tate. once they were able to show that woman was brain-dead, the court ordered that the ventilator be turned off. you should not be maintaining the life, so to speak, of a corpse. i hope in this tragic case that something very similar happens tomorrow at that court hearing. >> mark when you hear details about the judge, republican, is it possible this could come down to politics or would politics be involved in this? you've said all along this is an offshoot of the battle over abortion. >> that's always my fear is that somebody is going to read not the law but the political winds. by all accounts, the way that he was just described sounds like somebody who should be, if you believe what comes out of the right, a strict constructionist. if they read the law, this case will be done tomorrow. and let me just say one thing. i mean, you look at the -- you hear those words in that declaration, and shame on people who are putting this father through it. i mean, i hate to sound like a scold, but shame on them. this is just unbelievably ghoulish. it's beyond the pale. i realize we get ratings on cable because of it. but it really is utterly ridiculous to keep a cadaver there as some kind of a vessel for fetal tissue that is abc normally -- that has no chance whatsoever of springing forth life. it's ridiculous. i said it last night. this is nothing more than a proxy or trojan horse for the abortion battle. and it's disgusting. >> sonny -- >> wow, fetal tissue. >> sonny, there was nothing written but the husband says it was her wishes all along never to be kept on life support. she's a paramedic. the fact that nothing's written down does that influence you on this? >> it doesn't in the sense that it doesn't influence the law. it doesn't change the analysis. the law is very clear that even if there was an advance directive that says listen unplug me, that directive is disregarded in favor of the statute because she is pregnant. and i think what's so interesting about people like mark and others that are sort of dancing around the issue, and i think the issue is now that the mother is allegedly brain-dead, according to mark and others, then -- >> according to the husband. >> -- according to the husband and mark geragos, her autonomy sort of ceased with her death. this is not a question of her right. it really is a question of the child's right at this point. >> whose right is this? >> it's the child's right. >> sonny, i have one question for you. >> mark, i think when you look at the statute. i think when you look at the statute, they contemplated this. >> what about the husband's rights? >> the husband's rights over the mother's body? >> the husband has rights. what about -- and you know, we've been talking about -- >> that doesn't make sense, mark. >> we've been talking as if the hospital -- we've been talking about this hospital as if they're somehow doing something noble. you just saw in that package that they're their billing department says we're going to customarily go after whoever we want. >> they're following the law. is that not noble? >> they're following the profit motive. they're following the profit motive. to bill out the insurance. >> let sonny answer. what about the husband? does he have rights? >> people have been framing this issue as the mother's rights. if mother is brain-dead, then the rights that are really at issue are the fetus's rights. >> let me bring in dr. masterson. doctor we talked about this last night when we learned the fetus seems to have a whole host of medical problems. you say there's not much ability for the fetus to live after the mother dice. if that's the case, the longer this goes on the more difficult it becomes, correct? >> correct. actually, it's a very tragic situation. because even if it is prolonged just like i said before, the fetus probably will have -- the baby will probably have some defects. definitely if it actually lives. the question as we said before is that this is still a woman's choice, a choice. and we don't know if she would still do anything in her power to have this baby live or to sustain this baby. and that's what the court is trying to determine. if she did. now, there is a time clock. because actually with roe versus wade, the state comes in at 24 weeks. because then the fetus is deemed viable. so that's why this is an emergent sort of court situation. because right now they're still taking the mother's right of choice into power right now. would she have wanted to have done everything that she possibly could because mothers change their mind when they're pregnant. >> ariva, what about that? her husband and her father are saying look she never wanted to be kept in this kind of a state. the counter argument which sonny has made is, she didn't say that when she was pregnant or we don't know if she said that when she was pregnant. does that convince you, ariva? >> this is a very educated, smart woman. she didn't have to go line by line and delineate what she meant when she said she didn't want to be kept on life support. her wishes are very clear. >> come on. >> this law is really troubling to me. anderson, i'm a children's rights advocate. some would say, you should be advocating for the child. but no one's talking about the psychological impact. can you imagine a child being born and has to learn that they were gestated in their dead mother's body for months? >> i think that's a ridiculous argument. [ overlapping speakers ] >> it's not ridiculous. >> guys, guys, guys. >> it's not ridiculous at all, sonny. guys, seriously stop. no one listens when you're all yammering over each other. finish your thought then we'll get the others to weigh in. >> it's not ridiculous at all. it's a reality here. we're gestating a fetus in a dead woman's body. jahi mack math, when girl was determined brain-dead, the hospital says we don't treat brain-dead corpses and they stopped all medical treatment. the same should apply in this young woman's case. she's brain-dead. stop all the treatment. allow her family to bury her with grace and dignity. >> dr. masterson? >> but not if it's actually keeping a fetus alive. i have seen mothers go to all kinds of extremes, like if the baby had a -- if they ruptured their bag of water at 24 weeks and their baby had very little chance of staying alive and they stayed on bed rest for all that time. is that a corpse? a mother on bed rest? she is still doing something physiologically to try and -- >> they were alive. >> again, mark, your point is that there's a difference between being in a vegetative state or being in a coma and being brain-dead. >> well, look, anderson, i don't know how many nights that row we can try to explain the fact that she's not alive. in every jurisdiction she is dead. it is a cadaver. and to force the husband to have to sit there and look into the lifeless eyes as he says and to smell death and to have this done and have the hospital which i'm more appalled than ever by this statement that are going to continue their usual billing practices, shame on this hospital for misinterpreting a statute that says you don't give -- there's nothing in that statute that information the hospital to take the actions they're doing. it's a complete abomination. >> that is not true, mark, and you know it. that is not true. the statute is -- >> we'll see tomorrow, sonny. >> we will. because the statute is silent after that which means it's open to interpretation which means it's unclear. if you look at the history of this judge, this judge made it i have clear judges shouldn't be legislators. >> for a fact what the statute actually says is about life support that if taken away then ends the life of the patient. but in this case the argument is the patient is already dead. you say the patient is also the fetus. >> that's right. >> that's where your argument is. sonny, mark, dr. master soon, ariva martin, appreciate it. again hopefully this will be resolved tomorrow. we'll find out what the answer is. follow me on twitt twitter @andersoncooper. tweet using #ac360. next did what former republican presidential candidate mike huckabee say today about women and birth control complicate his party's efforts to try to win back women voters? got the true politics. you can decide for yourself. later this is really stunning. a microphone picks up what richard sherman said to that guy, michael crabtree, right before crabtree took a poke at him. was it more trash talk like sherman's post-game rants just seconds later or something else entirely? we finally have the answer. it may put to rest what a lot of the people who attacked that guy on twitter were saying about him. we'll play the tape for you ahead. hey linda!
Related Keywords
Miami , Florida , United States , New York , Canada , Michigan City , Indiana , Germany , Texas , California , San Diego , Russia , Quebec , Washington , District Of Columbia , Estonia , Mali , Miami Beach , Houston , Tallinn , Harjumaa , Dallas , Italy , Italian , America , Canadian , American , Alisa Masterson , Michael Crabtree , Ricky Gervais Derek , Jeanne Moos , Nick Nolte , States Anderson , Eric Munoz , Paula Newton , Rick Perry , Joe Johns , Richard Sherman , Justin Bieber , John Peter Smith , Edward Snowden , Conrad Murray , Mike Huckabee , Jess Tate , Justin Smith , Sheila Jackson Lee , Alfred Wright , Eric David , Reince Priebus ,
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.