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CNN&Time

Fireball; Tough Justice

Aired September 3, 2000 - 9:00 p.m. ET

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

ANNOUNCER: CNN & TIME.

Tonight, "Fireball." No one saw the problems with this underground pipeline in Washington state until it exploded in a park where children were playing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY KING, MOTHER OF WADE KING: It's just smoke everywhere and a huge ball of flames. And I said, "Where's Wade?"

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: And for nearly 50 years, no one checked the inside of this pipeline in New Mexico before it exploded and killed 11 people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALD MACALUSO, FIREMAN: It was scary. It scared me. It looked like the sun was actually coming up in the south it was so bright.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: A half million miles of aging pipelines run beneath communities across the nation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's just a time bomb everywhere else. And this will happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: "Tough Justice," the man who's been called America's toughest sheriff runs a tough jail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE ARPAIO, MARICOPA COUNTY SHERIFF: I'm doing them a favor. I don't want them to come back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: The death of this prisoner may be evidence the jail is too tough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In my opinion, it's a homicide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: CNN & TIME with Jeff Greenfield and Bernard Shaw.

BERNARD SHAW, CO-HOST: Good evening. And welcome to CNN & TIME. I'm Bernard Shaw in Washington. Jeff Greenfield is off tonight.

Two weeks ago, a natural gas pipeline blew up in New Mexico killing 11 people. Investigators found that the pipe had not been fully inspected in almost half a century. The government does not require it.

Last year, a gasoline explosion in Bellingham, Washington, took the lives of three youngsters. A few months ago, their parents told us the federal government is not doing enough at the public.

We will take a hard look at both of these tragedies starting again with what we found in Bellingham.

Here is correspondent Aram Roston.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 9-1-1.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's been an explosion.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, do you know what exploded?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. There is just a cloud of smoke like...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hang on one second...

(END AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow.

ARAM ROSTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The explosion tore through Bellingham, Washington.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy Christ.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need all officers here immediately. We have a big explosion.

ROSTON: Through a park close to the home of Mary King.

KING: And I was standing in the living room and looked out the window. And it was just smoke everywhere and huge ball of flames. And I said, "Where's Wade? Where is Wade?"

ROSTON: Ten-year-old Wade King was in the park. It was the last afternoon before school was out for the year. He was with his best friend Steven Chorbis (ph), his classmate in the fourth grade.

Steven's mother Catherine Dalen (ph).

CATHERINE DALEN, MOTHER OF STEVEN CHORBIS: I looked out and saw this huge cloud of smoke and immediately became terrified.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

ROSTON: Gasoline from a leaking pipeline had exploded. The boys were at ground zero. The blast ripped more than a mile through the city.

The pipeline was just one piece of a half a million miles of interstate gas and oil lines threaded like underground plumbing throughout the country. Each year, oil lines spill more than six million gallons into the ground and water.

KING: And I knew there was a pipeline up the street. But I never thought about it. I mean, I never questioned what went through it.

ROSTON: The line, owned by Olympic Pipeline Company, carries gasoline and fuel oil, half a million gallons an hour, from refineries along the coast south to Seattle and Portland.

DALEN: It's going under our homes, our parks, across our streams, by our schools, under our freeways. And they're not taking care of it.

ROSTON: Government investigators think the Olympic line was damaged during a construction project near the city water plant in 1994. They say Olympic learned of a potential defect at that site in 1996.

In 1997, records indicate an Olympic engineer came to take a look at the pipe buried here seven feet down. He marked the problem spot "defect" on this report, but then wrote, "Did not inspect this location" because it was a difficult area to access.

FRANK KING, FATHER OF WADE KING: We have a copy of his dig report.

ROSTON: Frank King is Wade's father.

F. KING: He just decided that he wasn't going to dig up that section of pipe that split because it was too hard to get to. That makes me very angry.

ROSTON: Two years later, at 3:30 p.m. on June 10 last year, this pipe cracked open at the very same spot. A quarter million gallons of gasoline drained into a small creek that flowed into a larger one where Wade and his friend were playing. F. KING: I think the boys were right here and got down here to the creek. And that's where all the gasoline is coming down gushing down.

ROSTON (on camera): As the boys played here at Wantham (ph) Creek, 90 miles away in Renton, Washington, employees at Olympic Pipeline's control room were supposed to be monitoring the flow of gasoline. Investigators are trying to piece together what those employees were doing for an hour-and-a-half as the gasoline poured from the ruptured pipeline.

(voice-over): This is how a pipeline is run today, by computer showing pressure and flow along the line. In this training demonstration, when a pipe breaks, the yellow line plunges. This is what a high-tech control room should see when the alarm bells go off.

At first, the Olympic control room cut off the flow of gasoline from the refineries. But at 4:16, 46 minutes later, Olympic restarted the flow.

F. KING: And I think that that's when the river of gasoline really starts flowing down this creek.

ROSTON: Olympic policy requires controllers to confirm there is not a leak rather than keep on running the line. Investigators have yet to be told why the pumps were turned back on.

(on camera): That day, Olympic executives had a reason to want to show the company at its best. A major share in the pipeline was up for sale. And a group of potential buyers was taking a tour of these facilities.

(voice-over): Restarting the gasoline flow was like turning on a high pressure hose. The phone calls to 9-1-1 began at 4:23 p.m.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is some kind of incredible chemical odor that made my daughter and I both sick just stopping at the light.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The creek is discolored. And it's a strong, strong odor of petroleum.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ROSTON: At 4:30, an hour after the leak began, the man in the plaid shirt, Rick Keeney (ph), an off-duty Olympic chemist, was driving home past the park. He too called 9-1-1.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

RICK KEENEY, OLYMPIC PIPELINE COMPANY CHEMIST: Out on the bridge here, there was a very, very heavy smell of gasoline.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

KEENEY: The fumes, when I drove through it...

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ROSTON: Keeney also called Olympic's control room. At 4:32, the pumps were stopped. The line was shut down again.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm calling from Olympic Pipeline Company...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ROSTON: It took almost an hour-and-a-half after the rupture before an Olympic secretary phoned the fire department at 4:56 to report a leak.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're suspecting that it came from our pipeline.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ROSTON: By then, firefighters were already on the bridge and seeing explosive readings on their meters.

Liam Wood, a teenager fishing in the creek, was the first to die. He was overcome by the fumes and drowned.

Police believe Wade King and Steven Chorbis were upstream playing with this fireplace lighter. It was 5:02.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just burning everywhere. I don't know if you can see this.

ROSTON: The creek exploded.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God.

F. KING: He said that they saw a spark and the whole sky turned orange.

ROSTON: The 3,000 degree heat burned off 90 percent of the boy's skin. They plunged into the water to douse the flames and struggled to get home.

F. KING: I came running down through here. And I met Wade right about here.

And of course, he doesn't have any hair. And he doesn't a shirt on. And his shorts are just a tatter.

M. KING: He was standing and he was talking. He said, "Mom, don't look. Don't look, Mom." His beautiful face was stretched, distorted. And all I could think of was is it going to be scarred? I never thought, is he going to die? I never, ever thought is he going to die?

ROSTON: The two victims were airlifted to the burn center in Seattle.

F. KING: The doctor took us in a little meeting room. And he said, "Your son is going to die." I'd never heard of a doctor saying that.

ROSTON: Steven and Wade died within hours.

F. KING: I remember leaning down and sitting by his ear and saying, "Wade, it's OK to go."

ROSTON: A federal grand jury is investigating. So is the National Transportation Safety Board, which looks into pipeline disasters, just like airline crashes.

But people at Olympic who know the most about what happened that day will not talk. They're taking the 5th Amendment.

F. KING: In my opinion as a law-abiding citizen, the only way I'm going to plead the 5th Amendment is if I've got something to hide.

M. KING: It feels deceitful to me.

ROSTON: Kevin Divig (ph) was on duty in the control room when the line leaked and exploded. He is one of those who has taken the 5th. Ron Brenson (ph) isn't talking either. He was the control room supervisor.

M. KING: This to me is a pretty big responsibility. You're moving a flammable product through pipes all over the state. And Wade might have done a better job in that control room.

ROSTON: Olympic referred all questions to its public relations person, Maggie Brown (ph).

MAGGIE BROWN, OLYMPIC PIPELINE COMPANY'S PUBLIC RELATIONS CONTACT: So I simply can't discuss any of those events that are under investigation at this time. I'm sorry.

ROSTON (on camera): The pipeline ruptured, according to the NTSB, at 3:30. Forty-five minutes after that, Olympic controllers turned - 46 minutes - at 4:16, they turned the flow of gasoline back on. How could that happen?

BROWN: Well, that's the purpose of the National Transportation Safety Board Investigation. And because of that ongoing investigation, we'll have to wait until the investigation is complete.

ROSTON: How come Olympic didn't know for almost an hour, or more than an hour, that there was a leak? Shouldn't Olympic have known? BROWN: Once again, because of the criminal investigation, the NTSB investigation, and the lawsuit, I simply am not able to respond to questions.

DALEN: I don't believe the pipeline company really wants us to know what really happened that day.

ROSTON (voice-over): Olympic, like other lines, is regulated by the Federal Office of Pipeline Safety. Less than three months before the explosion, agency inspectors gave Olympic an almost perfect score for safety.

M. KING: This isn't just a mistake made in the control room. That was part of it. And that may have led to the explosion. But it's just a chain reaction of irresponsibility down the line starting with the company, Olympic Pipeline, going through our government. And it's irresponsibility all the way across the board.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole sky is just black.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 9-1-1, there is a big smoke - the sky is full of smoke...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, hold on...

(END AUDIO CLIP)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: When CNN & TIME continues, a fireball in New Mexico.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MACALUSO: It looked like the sun was actually coming up in the south it was so bright.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: An old natural gas pipeline that had not been properly inspected in nearly 50 years suddenly explodes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY COINER, FEDERAL OFFICE OF PIPELINE SAFETY: We know that these lines need to be tested.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: When we return with part two of "Fireball."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHAW: Welcome back. In the aftermath of the recent pipeline explosion in New Mexico, investigators found that the pipe had not been fully inspected in nearly 50 years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COINER: We know on this line that it was not tested extensively in terms of internal inspection.

ROSTON (on camera): Extensively, or at all?

COINER: There was a few hundred miles that were tested. On our overall system, about 10,000 miles.

ROSTON: I mean, this area that exploded had never been tested.

COINER: That's correct.

ROSTON: That indicates a glaring hole, or doesn't it, in the nation's pipeline oversight?

COINER: This is an area that we recognize as a problem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHAW: When CNN & TIME returns, a hard look at this latest deadly explosion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARPAIO: Everybody decent around here? I'm coming in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Also ahead...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARPAIO: How come you guys aren't working?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: He's been called America's toughest sheriff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARPAIO: I want them to hate jail so much that when they get out they won't come back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Now the sheriff is in a fight for his political future four years after the death of an inmate in one of his jails.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No one should ever die like that no matter what they did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: As CNN & TIME continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHAW: More than a decade ago, federal investigators said pipeline companies should be required to run internal inspections on all their lines. But for years, the agency that regulates the industry did nothing.

Now, after a new disaster in New Mexico, the government is starting to do some tough talking.

Here again is correspondent Aram Roston.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

M. KING: It's pretty ugly, what I've learned. It's pretty ugly.

ROSTON (voice-over): Frank and Mary King say their 10-year-old son didn't have to die.

M. KING: It was totally preventable.

ROSTON: They say they've learned the Bellingham explosion that killed him would not have happened had the federal government been doing its job. The Office of Pipeline Safety is supposed to protect the public.

F. KING: Why would we spend $35 million on a regulatory agency that doesn't do anything to regulate?

M. KING: This is not an isolated incident I don't believe. It will happen again.

ROSTON: Two weeks ago, it did, on a natural gas pipeline in New Mexico. This time, a family of 12 was caught in the fireball. Five of them were young children. They were camping beneath a nearby bridge. Only one victim would survive past the first few days.

In the predawn darkness, fireman Ronald Macaluso (ph) took this picture from a quarter mile away.

MACALUSO: It was scary. It scared me. It was a real scary thing to see flames. It looked like the sun was actually coming up in the south it was so bright.

ROSTON: Before they could get close, firefighters had to retreat and wait for workers to turn off the flow of gas by hand.

MACALUSO: It was so hot that we thought the paint on the side of the engine was going to burn, it was going to melt the paint off.

ROSTON: When federal investigators examined the pipe where it broke, they said it was severely corroded on the inside. The pipe had been laid almost 50 years ago before most of the victims were even born. In all that time, that section of pipe had never been checked on the inside.

The pipe is owned by El Paso Natural Gas. The company's John Summerhummeler (ph) said checking the inside was impossible.

JOHN SUMMERHUMMELER, EL PASO NATURAL GAS: There are a lot of bowels and turns in the pipeline. So this part of the pipeline is not capable of being inspected internally.

ROSTON: The industry does have devices like this called smart picks that can be inserted in most pipelines to check for rust and dents. But for almost all of El Paso's 10,000 miles of line, no type of internal test has ever been done. It's not required by the federal government.

Kelly Coiner (ph) is in charge of the Federal Office of Pipeline Safety.

COINER: We know on this line that it was not tested extensively in terms of internal inspection.

ROSTON (on camera): Extensively, or at all?

COINER: There was a few hundred miles that were tested. On our overall system, about 10,000 miles.

ROSTON: I mean, this area that exploded had never been tested.

COINER: That's correct.

ROSTON: That indicates a glaring hole, or doesn't it, in the nation's pipeline oversight?

COINER: This is an area that we recognize as a problem.

ROSTON (voice-over): The National Transportation Safety Board has been calling it a problem for 13 years.

JIM HALL, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: Some companies are doing a better job than others.

ROSTON: Chairman Jim Hall.

HALL: The bottom line is that most of the pipe in this country is now decades old. And we need to monitor it closely.

ROSTON: In the mid-'80s after a series of deadly pipeline explosions like this one in Minnesota, the NTSB, said the Office of Pipeline Safety, should require companies to do regular internal inspections on their line and fix any problems they found. But Hall said the pipeline office did nothing.

HALL: I give them an F because they have failed on just the basics that need to be done to ensure safety in this area.

ROSTON: The disaster in New Mexico could make a difference. COINER: This accident unfortunately confirms our concerns about pipeline safety where natural gas is concerned. We know that these lines need to be tested. We have been moving toward regulations in that area.

ROSTON: Coiner now says her hands are tied because she doesn't have the resources or the authority. She says if Congress will pass pending legislation, her office will require internal inspections on all lines - natural gas, oil, gasoline, everything flammable.

(on camera): Does this New Mexico explosion prove that the nation's pipeline system is not safe?

COINER: What this accident shows is that this company had a serious safety problem. It also illustrates to us that while this particular kind of problem with internal corrosion is rare, it can be fatal.

ROSTON: Shouldn't you have known that before this pipeline exploded and those 11 people died? Wasn't it clear that if you have a pipeline that carries explosive gases inside it and it doesn't get inspected for 50 years, you could have a potential safety problem?

COINER: We've been working very hard to put into place testing requirements for this kind of pipeline. We've proposed legislation earlier this year which would seek tougher testing, placement of bowels and leak detection systems.

We need Congress to pass that legislation. And we need Congress to give us the resources to enforce it.

ROSTON: You can't do it without Congress.

COINER: We can't do it without Congress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pipe reading is 1.608.

ROSTON (voice-over): There are other steps the NTSB says could help prevent disasters. Five years ago, it warned that pipelines should have automatic valves to shut down lines immediately.

That came after a natural gas line broke in Edison, New Jersey, sending flames shooting high in the air, endangering an apartment complex, causing $25 million in damage before the gas line could be turned off. But the Office of Pipeline Safety never complied with that recommendation.

The New Mexico fire burned almost an hour before workers could reach the valves and shut them off by hand.

SUMMERHUMMELER: Today, the industry has looked at those type things. But most of the interstate pipelines do not have automated valves because of the cost issues and liability problems, and actually a situation where they can cause other problems.

ROSTON: Coiner says the rules will be rewritten. COINER: That will mean valves. That will mean leak detection. It will be a requirement, not an optional choice.

ROSTON: Even so, her office still has only 50 inspectors to keep an eye on the nation's half million miles of cross-country lines. And when they do review company operations, that doesn't mean they find the dangerous.

Three months before the fatal explosion in Bellingham, Washington, federal officials had visited Olympic Pipeline Company. Forty-six times on this checklist, the officials marked satisfactory for control room training, maintenance, inspections, almost everything on the list. Coiner now concedes that review was inadequate.

COINER: The kinds of problems in Bellingham were largely omissions in their actions. And those are perhaps the most difficult ones for us to detect.

ROSTON: One year after the explosion, Coiner announced a record $3 million fine against Olympic.

COINER: We found violations from engineering to operations to training violations as well.

ROSTON (on camera): Was it just a disaster waiting to happen because of the way they were running things there?

COINER: When they had the rupture of the line, they were clearly ill-prepared to deal with it.

ROSTON (voice-over): Olympic is a small pipeline system, but with big names behind it. At the time of the disaster, it was run by a joint operation of Shell and Texaco. Only a few weeks ago, BP, which bought this refinery on the line, moved in, took control, and started making changes.

Kevin Divig and Ron Brenson, the men in the control room at the time of the leak, are being moved out and reassigned.

BP now says it was a mistake to turn the flow of gasoline back on after the pipe had ruptured the day of the disaster. BP has agreed to run internal safety inspections of its pipeline every year. It will be the strictest checkup program for any line in the nation.

But for Mary and Frank King, the changes come too late.

F. KING: Why do you have to have an accident to be safe?

ROSTON: Coiner says she needs more support and less resistance from the industry.

(on camera): Have they been blocking what you've been trying to do?

COINER: Companies need to get on board forcefully and ensure that the legislation is passed. ROSTON: So you must be particularly frustrated if you feel you don't have the resources.

COINER: I just came back from New Mexico. I've met with rescue workers. I've met with people who went to high school with people who were killed out there. And to say frustrated is not even the beginning of how I feel about it.

When your staff has spent their time responding to something when they ought to be preventing something, and we are all frustrated at the situation that we find ourselves in.

ROSTON (voice-over): In Bellingham, Mary King still worries.

M. KING: It's just a time bomb everywhere else because this isn't the only unmaintained pipe. They're all over the United States. And this will happen again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHAW: When Congress comes back to work next week, it will be facing three sets of bills to try to improve pipeline safety. One of the toughest is sponsored by Congressman Jay Ensley (ph). The Bellingham runs through his suburban Seattle district. You may chat live with Congressman Ensley after the show on our Web site, CNN.com/chat.

ANNOUNCER: Next...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARPAIO: What, are you a wise guy?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This sheriff prides himself on running a tough jail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARPAIO: Jail should never be better inside than it is on the outside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: But a death inside his jail has drawn fire from the outside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said, "They murdered him. I was there. They murdered him."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: When CNN & TIME continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHAW: Welcome back to CNN & TIME.

Violent crime in the United States was down more than 10 percent last year according to the FBI. Some say it is because of hard-nosed policies like those in Phoenix, Arizona, where Sheriff Joe Arpaio calls himself America's toughest sheriff. He puts women on chain gangs and makes the men wear pink underwear.

But next week, Arpaio faces his first election challenge in nearly eight years from opponents who say his methods cross the line. In a story CNN & TIME brought to you last year, those concerns date back to the death of a young prisoner who died in a struggle with jail guards.

Here's correspondent David Lewis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID LEWIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They may be women serving time for crimes like drug use and prostitution...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: My back is aching my feet are sore...

INMATES (in unison): My back is aching my feet are sore...

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: ... and I won't break the law no more.

INMATES (in unison): ... and I won't break the law no more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED INMATE: It's a learning experience -- just that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEWIS: ... or men who may be guilty of traffic violations or being deadbeat dads. Their average sentence: less than three months in jail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARPAIO: Evidently you can't follow the policies because you're in lockdown.

UNIDENTIFIED INMATE: No, sir, I am not in lockdown.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEWIS: They are serving their time here in Phoenix, in the Maricopa County jails, run by the man who calls himself "America's toughest sheriff," Joe Arpaio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARPAIO: What are you? A lawyer?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARPAIO: No TV, no movies, no smoking, no porno -- took 'em all away. Took away their coffee -- why do you need coffee in jail? Feed 'em bologna sandwiches. A dollar, ten to feed the dogs a day -- $1.10, I believe -- and it's only 90 cents for the inmates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEWIS: Everybody decent around here? I'm coming in. The sheriff. How come you guys aren't working?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEWIS: He makes most convicted inmates live in Korean War army tents in the Arizona desert. The men have to wear pink underwear.

ARPAIO: I want them to hate jail so much that when they get out, they won't come back.

LEWIS: But not all the people in his jails have been convicted. Two-thirds are simply awaiting trial. Thirty-three-year-old Scott Norberg was one of them. He was picked up on a spring night in 1996 in an affluent Phoenix suburb, disoriented and out of control.

Norberg was brought to this downtown jail the next day, where videotape shows him shirtless and confused, pacing a hallway. The son of a lawyer and a utility company executive, Norberg had been a promising college football player and musician, but he struggled with drugs for a decade and twice served time in state prison for assault and theft.

JARON NORBERG, SCOTT'S FATHER: In the rational moments, in his heart -- in his heart of hearts, it just had to eat him alive to think what he had thrown away.

LEWIS: A little more than 24 hours after his arrest, Norberg's parents, on vacation, received a call from another son.

J. NORBERG: That Scott's dead.

LEWIS: Dead in jail. The father was told to call the sheriff's office.

J. NORBERG: I called them, got some story about how they'd wanted to move him, and he was spitting on them, so they put a towel around his face, and then he just collapsed and died.

LEWIS: The medical examiner's office said Norberg had died of asphyxia. It ruled his death an accident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, JUNE 3, 1996)

ARPAIO: There is no indication or evidence of the victim being beaten or kicked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEWIS: Norberg's death drew media attention. Arpaio's get-tough jail policies were already under scrutiny by the Justice Department. Now, the sheriff found himself facing questions about how Norberg died.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, JUNE 3, 1996)

ARPAIO: It appears that he was in withdrawal, which could cause paranoia, aggression, excitement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEWIS: The parents were suspicious, so they hired their own pathologist, who found bruises on Norberg's body and a fractured larynx. On the same day, Arpaio was telling the press the death was accidental, Norberg's parents found an anonymous message left on their phone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DURAN: Hello. I was there when Scott died, and I need to talk to somebody about it because they murdered him. And please is anybody there, please?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEWIS: Eventually, the family would discover the caller was Patricia Duran, a court clerk working in the jail -- an eyewitness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that your voice?

DURAN: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

D. NORBERG: It just stunned me, you know, because she said, "They murdered him. I was there. They murdered him."

LEWIS: The Norberg family took on "America's Toughest Sheriff." They sued for millions in a legal battle that would last two and a half years with roadblocks and missing evidence.

KARNITSCHNIG: To put it bluntly, it's just a huge screw-up.

LEWIS: Last summer, the family turned to the county's former chief medical examiner to review how his old department had handled the case. He discovered Norberg's larynx and other key evidence were gone.

(on camera): Does it pass the smell test or not?

KARNITSCHNIG: It doesn't pass the smell test, no.

MICHAEL MANNING, NORBERG'S ATTORNEY: This is a shot of the west hall.

LEWIS (voice-over): Finally, late last year, the county turned over crucial videotapes to the family lawyer, Michael Manning -- tapes that raised questions about the treatment of prisoners in the jail system Sheriff Arpaio runs, tapes that showed the last minutes of Scott Norberg's life.

MANNING: He doesn't know where he is. He bounces off of walls. He has to be drugged from spot to spot.

LEWIS: A guard entered a holding cell to rouse Norberg for a court proceeding. Court clerk Patricia Duran testified it was the guard who started the confrontation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, DEPOSITION VIDEO)

DURAN: He reached down with his left hand, grabbed Scott by the right arm, pulled him up and stunned him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEWIS: When Norberg reacted, guards used electronic stun guns to try to subdue him. Other inmates in the tank said Norberg was kicked, punched, and beaten. Then, the guards dragged Norberg into the hallway.

MANNING: At this point he's crying for help from God, from his mother. He's begging them to be patient with him.

LEWIS: Guards went to get a restraint chair to strap Norberg down. Norberg fought back. The guards told investigators that a towel was brought to put over his head in case he began to spit.

MANNING: There it is. The towel is thrown over to one of the detention officers.

LEWIS Despite what the father had been told, guards would admit Norberg never did spit.

Jail guard Kimberly Walsh (ph) testified she was standing behind Norberg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, DEPOSITION VIDEO)

KIMBERLY WALSH, PRISON GUARD: I caught the towel. It came down. It landed on his head, so I positioned it over his mouth, and I took a grip of it on the back side.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEWIS: She said she checked and made sure the towel was not over Norberg's nose. Other guards contradicted her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, DEPOSITION VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was covering his whole face from, you know, his forehead down to his chin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEWIS: Guards testified Norberg's head was pushed down, his chin against his chest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, DEPOSITION VIDEO)

WALSH: It was pushed down further than needed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEWIS: Officer Walsh said she turned to a guard next to her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, DEPOSITION VIDEO)

WALSH: I told him that he was turning blue or purple and he I don't think he was breathing. And he said, "Who gives a (expletive deleted)."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEWIS: Guards began to scatter once Norberg went limp.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, DEPOSITION VIDEO)

DURAN: No one should ever die like that, no matter what he did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARNITSCHNIG: His head was pushed forward. His arms were pinned to his back. His head was pushed down onto his chest. He couldn't breathe. And a towel was held over his mouth and nose.

LEWIS (on camera): In your opinion, was this a homicide?

KARNITSCHNIG: Yes. In my opinion, it's a homicide.

LEWIS (voice-over): The medical evidence that was missing prompted the county prosecutor to investigate.

RICHARD ROMLEY, COUNTY ATTORNEY: Every time I turn a corner, it seems like that there is more troubling aspects to this whole investigation. If it does go towards a cover-up, my office definitely will prosecute, no matter where it goes.

LEWIS: In January, the civil lawsuit over Scott Norberg's death was settled. The county agreed to pay the family eight million dollars. ARPAIO: That wasn't me, that was an insurance company. That was not taxpayers' money. They did that without my knowledge. I wanted to go to trial. I didn't agree to that.

LEWIS (on camera): Did your staff do anything wrong?

ARPAIO: I have no information they did. They were acting in the scope of their duties. It's a tough job in that jail.

J. NORBERG: Here is this poor, confused boy of mine, sitting on the floor, saying, "Be patient with me. What have I done?" And somebody says, "Stand up," and he puts his arms up, and 10 or 12 guards jump on him, stun gun him and crush him to death -- kick him, stand on him. My people have done nothing wrong -- geez.

LEWIS (voice-over): With the lawsuit settled, the prosecutor convened a grand jury to look into possible charges of manslaughter and obstruction of justice. So far, 13 guards have been subpoenaed. So has Sheriff Arpaio. The guards declined to talk with CNN.

ARPAIO: I stick by my employees and we'll see what happens in the future.

LEWIS: The FBI has joined the investigation. It's the second time it's looked into how Arpaio runs his jails and treats his prisoners. In 1996, shortly before Norberg died, the justice department sent Arpaio a letter warning about "the use of excessive force." When that investigation was closed, a year after Norberg's death, Arpaio was triumphant.

ARPAIO: The chain gangs stay, the tents stay, the pink underwear stay. All my programs stay.

LEWIS: That same year, an Amnesty International report criticized Arpaio's programs and said the degree of force used against Norberg appeared to be unwarranted.

ARPAIO: I have not received many negative comments, other than the Justice Department or Amnesty International or the Civil Liberties Union. They've all come down. They don't like my programs. I told Amnesty to go back to Iraq where they came from.

J. NORBERG: To blow off Amnesty International, to blow off the Justice Department, to blow off our son's death and to maintain that for two and a half years -- in light of all the evidence, in light of everything that has happened -- is just despicable.

LEWIS: But despite what's happened, Arpaio is unyielding.

ARPAIO: I'm still around, right? Nothing has changed, has it?

LEWIS: He's looking forward to next year's election.

ARPAIO: He's running again. Watch out. Now what will he do next term? He's done just about everything. Is there anything left? I have a few ideas left. I'm not done yet. (END VIDEOTAPE)

SHAW: Since that report aired, the security cameras in the jail where Scott Norberg died are showing live pictures 24 hours a day on Sheriff Arpaio's Internet site. You can see for yourself by logging on to our Web site at CNN.com/cnntime.

We'll be back in a moment.

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, the dark side of Olympic competition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB SULLIVAN, "TIME" CORRESPONDENT: It becomes a question of who's got the most efficient pharmacist. People are losing their lives in an effort to win races.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: The persistence of drugs in the Olympics as CNN & TIME continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: Next, seeking an edge in the Olympic games.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SULLIVAN: I do think the only way to cheat in an Olympics right now is to take drugs. And that's the way people are trying to get the edge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Why some athletes say it's not cheating if everybody does it when CNN & TIME continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHAW: Less than two weeks remain until the start of the summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. And once again, Olympic officials will be on the lookout for illegal performance enhancing drugs.

But negative tests are no assurance that an athlete is drug-free. That's the subject of tonight's "Dispatches."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SULLIVAN: I really do think the only real way to cheat in an Olympics right now is to take drugs. And that's the way people are trying to get the edge.

It's impossible to know how widespread cheating in the Olympics has been or will be. All we can know for sure is that the tests as they've been done heretofore haven't caught all the cheaters. BARRY MCCAFFREY, U.S. DRUG POLICY DIRECTOR: International competition has gotten to the point where it is widely believed that the winners are cheating through chemical engineering.

SULLIVAN: We now know from court cases in East Germany that every East German athlete in sports other than sailing was being given steroids in the 1970s and early '80s. Not one of them tested positive for steroids at the 1976 Olympics and then in the 1980 Summer Olympics.

They took home literally hundreds of medals from those games. Scores of them were gold medals. They didn't have to give back one of them, because nobody tested positive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's nice to see you. You always look so fit. You look like you're Superman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks.

SULLIVAN: Ben Johnson's coach, when Ben tested positive after setting a world record in the 100 meters at Seoul said, "It isn't cheating if everybody does it."

You can't know that everybody is doing it. What we do know is that 10 people tested positive at Seoul, including Ben Johnson, and that many, many more than 10 people were taking drugs at that Olympics.

Frank Shorter (ph), the great marathoner who's going to be the head of the new U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that starts up in October says that the Olympics are quite dirty. And it's because the tests don't work.

We know that there are ways to beat these tests through masking agents or by bringing an athlete right up to the level that is criminal but not over that level. You know, these trainers are very careful in monitoring their athletes. And they can do that with anabolic steroids.

There are new water-based steroids that flush from the body in no time. But your muscles are bigger. Are you going to lose your muscles overnight? No you're not. But you're not going to be able to get caught for that anabolic steroid.

And all sorts of other new stuff, human growth hormone, insulin factor. These things are banned substances, and they're not even going to test for it.

You're basically trusting the athletes. You know, you're saying to them, "This is a banned substance. Please don't take it. We're not going to test you for it. But please don't take it."

The argument can be made that an athlete who doesn't do that, who doesn't boost his strength a little bit by coming up to that level, is jeopardizing his chances of winning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you feel that you have been made a target of some sort?

MICHELLE SMITH, SWIMMER: Maybe. I think anyone who does really well and who comes along and wins three gold medals in a row is always an easy target.

SULLIVAN: In 1996, everybody assumed that the Irish swimmer Michelle Smith was dirty at the Atlanta Olympics because she had lowered her times remarkably after putting on a heck of a lot of muscle that just wasn't there before and had become a world beater. Now this was coincidental with her marrying a former Dutch discus thrower who had been thrown out of his own sport for four years as a drug cheat.

The final denouement on that is who do those five medals that were won in Atlanta rightly belong to? They're still in Michelle Smith's closet.

We can't say she was dirty. She passed the tests.

SMITH: And I can't believe I'm standing here with these medals.

SULLIVAN: Then there's the ultimate scary thought. The question is now obviously are we going to start trying to genetically engineer superstars?

If you look at the situation today, the answer to the question is pretty clear. Of course we are. Sure we'll try genetic engineering. Why not? We've tried everything else. That might be the next step that's undetectable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHAW: In an attempt to detect illegal drug use, the newly created World Anti-Doping Agency plans to conduct 2,400 drug tests on Olympic athletes before the Sydney games.

That's this edition of CNN & TIME. I'm Bernard Shaw. For everyone at CNN & TIME, thanks for joining us.

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