[Zoraida Sambolin, Cnn Anchor:] College students pepper sprayed at a school board meeting. Some of them were hospitalized. They say they didn't get a warning that the pepper spray was coming. Were they an angry mob or did the cops overreact big time? An investigation is now under way.
[Ashleigh Banfield, Cnn Anchor:] The Augusta National Golf Club still just for men this morning as the Masters tournament gets under way at least officially just for men. Traditionally sponsored CEOs have been giving memberships to Augusta National, but the sponsor IBM's new CEO is a woman, Virginia Rometty. So, will she be the club's gender barrier and will it finally be broken?
[Sambolin:] Conflicting stories still emerging about the night Trayvon Martin died and the racially charged shooting continues to spark harsh words and a lot of protest. Trayvon Martin's parents were among the many people who gathered in Miami to mark the 44th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination as well as to remember the death of the unarmed Florida teen.
[Banfield:] In the meantime, George Zimmerman's father is defending his son's actions in a prime time television interview. And Zimmerman's attorneys also spoke with CNN's Piers Morgan where things got pretty tense. Alina Cho is here now with all of the developments and they just come day by day, don't they?
[Alina Cho, Cnn Correspondent:] They most certainly do and a lot of people have spoken. A lot of sort of key players in this case in the past 24 hours. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. You know, the father of George Zimmerman and his lawyers are speaking out, as Ashleigh and Zoraida just said. So, what happened on the night in question, the night of February 26th inside that gated community in Sanford, Florida? The night, of course, that Trayvon Martin was shot and killed? We do know that George Zimmerman called 911 after seeing someone he thought was suspicious. The operator told Zimmerman he did not need to follow the unarmed teen. So in an interview with Fox's Sean Hannity, Zimmerman's father, Robert, who spoke in silhouette, said that's when his son started walking back to his car.
[Robert Zimmerman, George Zimmerman's Father:] Trayvon came from his left side, asked him, did he have a did he have a problem. George said no. At that point, Trayvon said, well, you do now. He punched him in the nose, knocked him to the concrete and started beating him. George was there, yelling for help for at least 40 seconds. It's clearly him on the tape. There's absolutely no doubt about who it is.
[Cho:] All right, so, that tape that Robert Zimmerman is referring to is a 911 call made by a neighbor. On it, you can hear someone yelling, but nobody has been able to determine for sure whether the person yelling was Trayvon Martin or George Zimmerman. Meanwhile, Martin's family attorney, Benjamin Krump, told our Piers Morgan that he had a different take of what happened. Watch.
[Piers Morgan, Host, Cnn's "piers Morgan Tonight":] Could it be that he did attack, jump on George Zimmerman?
[Benjamin Crump, Attorney For Trayvon Martin's Family:] Well, I don't think we could say attacked. We could say he defended himself, because Trayvon Martin had every right to defend himself against George Zimmerman, who approached him. And think about it. George Zimmerman didn't have a badge or anything official. He had on a sweatshirt and some jeans. We've all seen the video now. So, we believe Trayvon Martin went to his death not knowing who this strange man was that was approaching him.
[Banfield:] In the meantime, Alina, George Zimmerman has a new lawyer and his legal adviser now, as well as that lawyer, are doing their best to get that side of the story out on
[Tv. Cho:] That's right. And some harsh words again, Zimmerman's lawyer accusing civil rights leaders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton of race baiting, saying that everything changed once they came to Sanford, Florida. Watch what they say.
[Hal Uhrig, George Zimmerman's Attorney:] On the morning of February 26th, we had a peaceful town where everybody sat together in multi-racial congregations. They stood in line in the grocery store. And we didn't have a seething town of civil unrest because of race relations. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton brought that to town. They turned this into a racial event when it never ever was one. Once all the evidence is out and you understand how the law works and what the facts are, this is a pretty clear case.
[Cho:] And some reporting from the "Miami Herald" this morning really got our attention. They are reporting that a white separatist group plans to conduct patrols in Sanford now to ensure that, quote, "white citizens will be safe from racial violence." The group says that that is meant to counter threats from the new Black Panther party that has offered a $10,000 bounty for George Zimmerman's capture.
[Sambolin:] And Alina, I know earlier you had an enhanced version, yet another, of the 911 tape.
[Cho:] You know, we've called on a couple of experts and decided to go in house again. So we actually spoke to one of our senior audio engineers right here at CNN. His name is Brian Stone, expert in this field. He enhanced the audio, using a plug in that really cleans up the ambient sound you hear in the background. We want you to listen again as we play that controversial portion of the 911 call. Watch.
[Zimmerman:] Let go! Let go!
[Cho:] It's so hard to decipher what's being said. It is widely believed that the very first word you hear is the "f" word. What is unclear is what the second word is. Now some people believe that Zimmerman used a racial slur. Another audio expert we spoke to earlier in the week suggested he was saying f-ing clothes. But our CNN audio engineer believes that Zimmerman was saying f'ing cold. Now that is important because it was unseasonably cold and rainy on the night that Trayvon Martin was killed in Florida. It was in the low 50s. It was raining, which is why it has been widely reportedly that Trayvon Martin wearing a hoodie, of course, to stay dry. So Again, there is yet another version of what we believe was said on that call. It's all so hard to hear, quite frankly.
[Banfield:] Jeffrey Toobin may have said this best on CNN last night. This just speaks to the issue of not jumping ahead of the facts and letting investigators do their work before every analyst in the books jumps on television and says this is what was said.
[Cho:] I think it's important. That was the one takeaway that I took from Zimmerman's lawyers, when he spoke when they spoke out saying, listen, this case has already been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion. And I'm not going to feed into that. Let's not rush to judgment. Let's wait for the facts. I will try this case, if it goes to trial. I think that's an important point. You're right, Critical.
[Banfield:] Alina, thanks.
[Cho:] You bet.
[Banfield:] It's great work. Thank you. And we also have some new details for you this morning about final hours of Whitney Houston's life. So much has been talked about, about the singer's death. The L.A. coroner's office is finally releasing the full autopsy report. Saying that the singer drowned, face down, in a tub of hot water that was only about a foot deep. Detectives found a white powdery substance and a spoon and other drug paraphernalia in her hotel room in the Beverly Hills Hotel. The report does not identify the powder as cocaine, but the drug was found in her system.
[Sambolin:] It's 7 minutes past the hour. Former Penn State Assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky is due in court in a few hours. Sandusky faces 52 counts for sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period. He's pleaded not guilty and is currently on house arrest while out on bail. Sandusky's attorney, Joe Amandola, is asking the court to dismiss many of the charges. CNN's Jason Carroll is live in Pennsylvania, where the hearing will take place today. How likely is that to happen, Jason?
[Jason Carroll, Cnn National Correspondent:] Well, I think a lot of legal analysts, who are at looking at this case would say, would agree, extremely unlikely. Basically what's happening during these pre-trial motions, Zoraida, it's really the opportunity for both sides to legally say what they need to say or forever hold your speak hold your peace, so to speak. So this is basically an opportunity for Joe Amandola, Jerry Sandusky's attorney to get everything out there. But basically what he's trying to say is that seven of the accusers he says that the information and the evidence that's been provided by the commonwealth, by the prosecution is not specific enough in terms of when the allegations of abuse happened, where it happened. So, he says with regards to those seven accusers, he says the charges should be thrown out. As you say, there are ten accusers here. He says with the other three, Joe Amandola says the evidence that has been provided is not specific enough, so he says those charges should be thrown out as well. Essentially he's asking for all the charges to be thrown out. For the prosecution's point of view, they say they have provided enough information and that this is still an ongoing investigation and that if there is more evidence, more information to be presented that will, in fact, be turned over in a timely manner. In all likelihood, what will happen, Zoraida, is that the judge will look at what the argument is and rule at a later point. The trial, as you know, is expected to get under way at least scheduled to get under June 5th.
[Sambolin:] Jason, also in the past we heard from Jerry Sandusky, at least outside of court. Do you think we'll hear from him again?
[Carroll:] Well, you know, we do know that Jerry Sandusky is expected in court today, his wife, Dottie, expected to be at his side and at least one of his sons as well. You remember during one of the earlier proceedings when Joe Amandola came outside this courthouse, followed by Jerry Sandusky, who proclaimed his innocence. We don't know at this point if Jerry Sandusky will speak outside the courthouse late on today, but I am told that Joe Amandola, will, in fact, speak later on this afternoon.
[Banfield:] All right, Jason Carroll live for us. Thank you very much. As angry as people are about that story, there's good point that is lawyer brings up. Believe it or not, according to the law, there's very good points that Jerry Sandusky's lawyer makes, in terms of statute of limitations, who these victims are?
[Sambolin:] So do you think he'll win some of this today?
[Banfield:] You know, look, I thought O.J. would be convicted and I thought Casey Anthony would be convicted just because of the arguments and evidence in court. I was wrong in those. You never know what a jury is going to do. When it comes to the judge who follows the law, there could be grounds on which this judge actually does toss out those charges. They don't have several of the victims. Pinpointing exactly what happened and exactly the date that it happened the date is critical, right? You got a statute of limitations. You got to know when it happened. So there are some issues there. I think it will be fascinating today.
[Sambolin:] That's just me getting all
[Banfield:] Geeked up. Here is another thing. Is it geeky for women to watch golf?
[Sambolin:] No.
[Banfield:] Well, the world's best golfers are preparing to tee off at the Masters today. It's the home course and it's finding itself in the rough. Pressure building on Augusta National again to change its long-standing membership policy that excludes women like Zoraida and me because we're women. But IBM is one of the tournament's chief sponsors and traditionally the CEOs of the chief sponsors have been granted a membership to Augusta. Now that's a woman. IBM's CEO is a woman named Virginia Romett. So everyone wants to know if she will be the first female to wear the iconic green jacket. The club chairman, not saying so. Have a listen.
[Bill Payne, Chairman, Augusta National Golf Club:] Well, as has been the case, Mike, whenever that question is asked, all issues of membership are now and have been historically subject to the private deliberations of the members and that statement remains accurate and remains my statement.
[Christine Brennnan, "usa Today" Sports Columnist:] Why wouldn't if you're Augusta National, all those guys, why wouldn't you want the CEO of IBM be a member of your club? That's the dilemma for them. More and more women in the next 10, 20 years, will become CEOs and these guys want to keep this un-equated views and ways. It's going to less than the value of the membership of their club if they keep this going.
[Banfield:] Augusta National's men only policy has been in effect since it opened in 1933.
[Sambolin:] And coming up at 8:10 Eastern on "STARTING POINT," Soledad talks with former LBGA great, Hollis Stacy.
[Banfield:] It's 12 minutes now past 6:00. Still ahead on EARLY START, the campus cops are taking some heat. Questions over whether pepper spraying students at a protest, was unnecessary?
[Sambolin:] And no, they didn't move Old Faithful to Washington. So what's behind this gusher at the White House? You're watching EARLY START.