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CNN Live Saturday

Toogood Expected to Surrender to Police Within One Hour

Aired September 21, 2002 - 17:10   ET

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

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


RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Now to northern Indiana, where a nationwide hunt for a woman caught on videotape apparently beating her little girl is nearly over. Madelyne Gorman Toogood is expected to turn herself into police today. She's also expected to bring in her 4-year-old daughter. CNN's Gary Tuchman joins us from Mishawaka, Indiana with the latest. And Gary, this surrender was initially supposed to happen this morning, and then it was maybe earlier this afternoon. Here it is, 10 after 5:00 Eastern time. What's the latest on this?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Renay, we are still awaiting the arrival of Madelyne Gorman Toogood. And as you said, she was expected to come, based on her lawyer's advice to us, this morning. Then the lawyer told us it would be early this afternoon. Now we're being told sometime within this hour.

Now, you may be wondering how the prosecutors and police officers who are in the police station behind me here in Mishawaka, Indiana saying maybe she's not going to surrender. No, the contrary, they are saying she definitely will be surrendering. There are a few complications, nothing major, but they are convinced that this woman, who was seen in this video attacking her 4-year-old daughter by the name of Martha eight days ago, will be inside this building very soon.

The reason she's surrendering? Well, her lawyer is very blunt about it. Her lawyer says it's the combination of the fact that she found out three days ago that this was caught on video and it was being released all over the country and shown to people, and she realized it was the right thing to do to surrender, especially after a warrant was issued for her arrest yesterday.

What will happen? She will come here with her 4-year-old daughter. Now, the lawyer, Rocket Roseen (ph), he is a lawyer out of Houston who is representing her, tells us the girl is in good shape. However, there are child welfare specialists here. They want to take a firsthand look at this girl to see if she's OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once the child arrives, obviously we're going to want to make sure that the little girl is safe, that she's not hurt. At that point, child protective services will take over. They are a separate agency. They will be working with the judge who has jurisdiction over these matters to ensure that the little girl is safe. And obviously, there's going to be a lot of evaluations done about the mother/child relationship, because we want to be sure that the child's not returned to a situation where she may be hurt again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: The 25-year-old mother's attorney tells us that she is well aware that for the time being, she will not have custody of this little girl. But they will be fighting to give custody to the girl to another family member for the time being. This woman who is married, she is married to a man by the name of Johnny Toogood. It's not clear, though, what will happen if custody will be given to a family member, or perhaps to the state for the time being.

What happens here after she's questioned at this police station, they will travel 15 minutes away to the county jail, which is located in South Bend, Indiana. It's been expected she'll pay a $5,000 bond, and immediately be bonded out. An arraignment will likely be scheduled for this Monday. Renay, back to you.

SAN MIGUEL: Gary, one question for you. The idea that she has taken so long to surrender to authorities, we had heard that there were some threats delivered to both her and her attorney. Could that be playing into the delay here?

TUCHMAN: Well, I think what it comes down to is that there are a lot of things to figure out before you get yourself involved in the judicial system, where it's likely you'll end up with some prison time. So we're being explicitly told by the prosecutors and police officers here that this is nothing to worry about, she's not backing out of the deal. They fully expect that she'll arrive anytime, and that it's nothing major.

SAN MIGUEL: All right. Gary Tuchman, reporting live from Mishawaka, Indiana. We'll be monitoring the story along with you there. Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired September 21, 2002 - 17:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Now to northern Indiana, where a nationwide hunt for a woman caught on videotape apparently beating her little girl is nearly over. Madelyne Gorman Toogood is expected to turn herself into police today. She's also expected to bring in her 4-year-old daughter. CNN's Gary Tuchman joins us from Mishawaka, Indiana with the latest. And Gary, this surrender was initially supposed to happen this morning, and then it was maybe earlier this afternoon. Here it is, 10 after 5:00 Eastern time. What's the latest on this?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Renay, we are still awaiting the arrival of Madelyne Gorman Toogood. And as you said, she was expected to come, based on her lawyer's advice to us, this morning. Then the lawyer told us it would be early this afternoon. Now we're being told sometime within this hour.

Now, you may be wondering how the prosecutors and police officers who are in the police station behind me here in Mishawaka, Indiana saying maybe she's not going to surrender. No, the contrary, they are saying she definitely will be surrendering. There are a few complications, nothing major, but they are convinced that this woman, who was seen in this video attacking her 4-year-old daughter by the name of Martha eight days ago, will be inside this building very soon.

The reason she's surrendering? Well, her lawyer is very blunt about it. Her lawyer says it's the combination of the fact that she found out three days ago that this was caught on video and it was being released all over the country and shown to people, and she realized it was the right thing to do to surrender, especially after a warrant was issued for her arrest yesterday.

What will happen? She will come here with her 4-year-old daughter. Now, the lawyer, Rocket Roseen (ph), he is a lawyer out of Houston who is representing her, tells us the girl is in good shape. However, there are child welfare specialists here. They want to take a firsthand look at this girl to see if she's OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once the child arrives, obviously we're going to want to make sure that the little girl is safe, that she's not hurt. At that point, child protective services will take over. They are a separate agency. They will be working with the judge who has jurisdiction over these matters to ensure that the little girl is safe. And obviously, there's going to be a lot of evaluations done about the mother/child relationship, because we want to be sure that the child's not returned to a situation where she may be hurt again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: The 25-year-old mother's attorney tells us that she is well aware that for the time being, she will not have custody of this little girl. But they will be fighting to give custody to the girl to another family member for the time being. This woman who is married, she is married to a man by the name of Johnny Toogood. It's not clear, though, what will happen if custody will be given to a family member, or perhaps to the state for the time being.

What happens here after she's questioned at this police station, they will travel 15 minutes away to the county jail, which is located in South Bend, Indiana. It's been expected she'll pay a $5,000 bond, and immediately be bonded out. An arraignment will likely be scheduled for this Monday. Renay, back to you.

SAN MIGUEL: Gary, one question for you. The idea that she has taken so long to surrender to authorities, we had heard that there were some threats delivered to both her and her attorney. Could that be playing into the delay here?

TUCHMAN: Well, I think what it comes down to is that there are a lot of things to figure out before you get yourself involved in the judicial system, where it's likely you'll end up with some prison time. So we're being explicitly told by the prosecutors and police officers here that this is nothing to worry about, she's not backing out of the deal. They fully expect that she'll arrive anytime, and that it's nothing major.

SAN MIGUEL: All right. Gary Tuchman, reporting live from Mishawaka, Indiana. We'll be monitoring the story along with you there. Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com