Escort Talks About Scandal; China: Chen Can Apply To Study Abroad; Seau Coroner Rules Suicide; Concussion And Brain Studies; Drew Peterson In Court This Hour
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): -- fire alarm. With only 10 days left of school and students now studying for exams that is probably a good call. Dan Simon, CNN, Berkeley, California.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello. Stories we're watching right now in the NEWSROOM. She is the woman at the center of the scandal that has humiliated the Secret Service and now she is speaking out on TV for the first time. Mountains of flowers and condolences for Junior Seau. And news his family will allow his brain to be studied for signs of concussion. He's not the president, but he's played him on the screen -- I guess, he portrayed a man running for president. Now he's about to give the real commander in chief a huge boost with $40,000 a head fundraiser. It's the biggest full moon of the year and it's almost upon us, but what makes the moon so super tonight? Good morning to you. More salacious details this morning from the prostitute or as she calls herself, a high priced escort at the center of the Secret Service prostitution scandal. Yes, this woman, Dania Suarez is talking on TV. She is the escort who got into an argument with one of the Secret Service agents in Colombia after he refused to pay her. You know the story, it happened before President Obama arrived in Colombia last month. Here's Ms. Suarez on Colombian TV.</s>DANIA SUAREZ, ESCORT (through translator): You know, neither my friends or I didn't know they were agents, you know, Obama's agents or you know, then we left and we went to this place to buy condoms, and then we went to the hotel. Who went? My friend, she is not a friend, just acquaintance, and the agent who was with me and the other one and the four of us. And then my friend went with him because she liked him. No, I don't understand because she liked him, it wasn't the same thing I was doing.</s>COSTELLO: OK, there you have it. Miriam Wells, managing editor for "Colombia Reports," she join us via Skype. So I thought this woman's life was ruined, but she seems pretty happy.</s>MIRIAM WELLS, MANAGING EDITOR, COLOMBIA REPORTS: Good morning, Carol. Well, she does, actually. She seems cheer full throughout the interview although she does talk how the scandal has damaged her life. There is a bit of a contradiction there, but yes, lots of interesting stuff. She is giving more details of what happened between herself and the agent, the behavior of the rest of the agents in the club. Yes, that's a few interesting things coming out. I'd say the most interesting is the behavior of the agents. She is saying there were 10 or 11 of them in the club, completely drunk, rowdy. She says they were drinking alcohol like water. She says she can't believe knowing now who they are that they were behaving this way. Then the agent the specific one she went back with, she said in the club he was good looking. He was friendly. He was nice to her. She was having a great time with him, but the next morning when he woke up, when he was -- his character completely change and he said some quite nasty things to her, apparently.</s>COSTELLO: Yes, that is when supposedly he threw her out of the room and called her, I guess, the "B" word for lack of a better way to put it, right?</s>WELLS: Yes, that is what she said. She said in the club it was the transaction was very clear despite the language difference. He said sex to her and she understood obviously, she said baby, cash money, cash money. He said, OK, Quanto. In Spanish, that is how much. She said $800, he repeated back $800. She said the next morning when they wake up she asked for the money and he said let's go with the "B" word and swore at her. She said he was completely different the next morning and she was very surprised because she had trusted him and thought he seemed like a nice guy.</s>COSTELLO: Just a final question, has she become like a celebrity in Colombia?</s>WELLS: No, she hasn't. This is the first interview she's done. They have a few networks. They have questions from different media around. This is the first time she has given an interview. There hasn't been that much talk since other -- what is going on in the U.S. but no, she has been out of the media. Also worth noting she confirms she did not know they were secret agents. She didn't know that they had anything to do with Obama. She says she saw a military uniform in the room, but she didn't really think anything of it he could be any sort of soldier and she thinks knowing what she knows now they were complete idiots to do what they did.</s>COSTELLO: I think she is on to something there in the mind of many people. Miriam Wells, thank you for joining us live via Skype. We appreciate it. Of course, that Secret Service investigation still ongoing within the United States, not over yet. A deal has been struck that could diffuse the diplomatic crisis over a Chinese activist that's according to the State Department. We got this in about two hours ago. The statement says Mr. Chen has been offered a fellowship from an American university where he can be accompanied by his wife and two children. The Chinese government has indicated that it will accept Mr. Chen's applications for appropriate travel documents. Now that means Chen and his family should soon be on their way to the United States and it means the Obama administration may have wiggled free from an embarrassing diplomatic tussle. But you never know because it's China. Stan Grant is in Beijing. So Stan, what happens now?</s>STAN GRANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we wait to see exactly how this plays out. You know, the door was open when the Chinese said that they could process a passport for Chen. He could apply as any other Chinese citizen would. Of course, he's not just any other Chinese citizen. He's the man at the center of this extraordinary firestorm between China and the United States. Now the U.S. saying that they would expedite a process of student visa and he has a place to go and study once he arrives in the United States. Now what prompted all of this, Chen, of course, who fled house arrest. He was in holed up in the embassy for almost a week. He left the embassy thinking a deal was done then. A deal would allow him to stay in China, which is what he wanted to do and to live safely and freely. Within hours of leaving the embassy, everything changed. His wife told him about threats that have been made. She was beaten up since the guards discovered he had fled. He then realized that there was no future for them in China. Their lives were in danger and that is when he started to ramp up the case to be to get out from China quickly and go to the United States. This appears to be, Carol, a face saving win-win situation for all. Most notably Mr. Chen if he's actually able to leave the country and go to the United States. Still some time to play out, but he's a little bit closer to his dream -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: I know you'll keep an eye on it for us, Stan. Stan Grant reporting live from Beijing, China this morning. Sometime today the family of Junior Seau will announce his funeral plans. It comes just a day after the coroner rules his death a suicide with a single gunshot to the chest. The former football star had told friends he wanted his brain studied to learn more about the damage caused by concussions. Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been investigating the topic of concussions and football players for years now. So Junior Seau's brain will go do this Boston Institute and what will they look for?</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is hard to talk about, obviously, so recent, but they are going to look for evidence of what is known as plaques and tangles in the brain. People may have heard those terms typically associated with Alzheimer's disease. It's a very similar process. We're talking about something known as CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. And the theory is and again, it's pretty new science, but the theory is that repeated blows to the head, not even blows that necessary cause concussions. But just blows to the head over and over again can cause this process, CTE and it can cause it in at a pretty young age, you know, 43 here.</s>COSTELLO: And it can cause react in certain ways like anger and depression and it could really like make you commit suicide?</s>GUPTA: Well, you know, it's -- we don't know for sure because it's still such new science but yes, anger, depression, and memory loss and cognitive problems. Again, just so early in life. There was even evidence I saw when I was doing one of my stories of this process in a 17-year- old's brain. So it starts very early in life. It's hard to draw the link, but you remember Dave Duerson last year, who also committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest. I point that out again, it's hard to talk about it. But he did it specifically for the reason of saying I want my brain to be studied. He didn't shoot himself in the head because he wanted his brain to be studied. You know, the same sort of thing is possibly what happened here with Junior Seau.</s>COSTELLO: So the NFL has taken steps to try to prevent these concussions from happening, has the NFL done enough?</s>GUPTA: There is a lawsuit that was filed yesterday, as you know, a lot of people saying they haven't done enough. I think right now the concern about trying to limit the number of head injuries and also taking players out of the game. There have been significant improvements. I think they've done things to try and make sure players are actually tested in between these big hits. But I think overall the concern is these players, the retired players, you had Jamal on earlier. You know, later on in life if they develop these problems, what happens to them at that point? And when we say later in life with a football player that is in the 40s, yes, so it's very early in terms of their overall life span, hopefully, but their health care, how they get it treated, resource that they have available for them.</s>COSTELLO: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you.</s>GUPTA: Thank you, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Don't miss your appointment with Sanjay this weekend. "Sanjay Gupta, M.D." airs tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 Eastern and on Sunday morning at 7:30 Eastern. An interior designer who helped the John Edwards campaign get money from a wealthy donor will return to the stand for a second day as the corruption trial of the former presidential candidate resumes. The designer says neither he nor the donor knew the money would be used to cover up Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter. Remember this guy? That would be Drew Peterson, the former Chicago area cop accused of killing his third wife and still under investigation in the disappearance of his fourth. At the bottom of the hour, in 20 minutes, he's due in court, his first such appearance in two years. Ted Rowlands is in Joliet, outside Chicago. So what kind of hearing is this?</s>TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, it has been two years since Drew Peterson has been in a courtroom. What is going to happen today we're expecting it will be relatively short. This is a status hearing on the heels of an appellate court hearing and decision, which has cleared the way for the process to move again. Basically, it has been held up for two years because the appellate court had to weigh in on some hearsay evidence. That has been done. Now we're going to find out first of, who is the judge in the case because the judge that was overseeing it retired. And then we may get a trial date. It's expected that this trial will get underway in the fall. A lot of people in this community are very keen on this story and they have been watching every detail of it since Drew Peterson was arrested. He's a former police officer in nearby Bolingbrook, Illinois accused as you said of killing his third wife and also is the main suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife. So he's back in court. We'll find out in just about half an hour likely who the judge will be and possibly a trial date.</s>COSTELLO: All right, Ted Rowlands reporting live from Joliet, Illinois this morning. How would you like to have dinner with George Clooney? Who wouldn't, right? For a few bucks you can win the chance, the raffle outcome just days away. And the moon moving very close to the earth, that means a super moon will appear before our very eyes, and it will happen this weekend. Much like it did when Dean Martin sang that famous classic song. I love Dean Martin. We're both Paisanos. We love Dean Martin. But let's take about the moon --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will be a Bella Luna, that's for sure. It's going to be the closest approach of the year and it's full moon, so we call it the super moon, because of that it will be bigger and brighter than you would typically see up to 20 percent brighter in many spots. Of course, you look to the east, once the sunset tomorrow night all night long unless if you have cloudy skies and if that is the case, that's going to be an issue. Northeast and southwest corner of the U.S. that's where you have your best shot, everybody else sing a song and hope for a break in the clouds. We will be right back.