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Nancy Grace
Teenage Girls Beat Fellow Student on Video for MySpace
Aired April 08, 2008 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Tonight, real-life "Mean Girls" takes on a whole new meaning after a brutal all-girl gang attack on a teenage honor student cheerleader, and it`s all caught on video, a gang of so-called popular girls accused of luring a classmate into a vicious beating at an upscale Florida home, leaving the girl unrecognizable even to her own father and with loss of hearing and sight. And to top it all off, the girls gone wild videotape the whole thing to make themselves the new stars on YouTube and MySpace.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A 16-year-old girl lured into a home and brutally beaten for 30 minutes, her alleged attackers six other girls ages 14 to 17. It happened last week in Lakeland, Florida. Police say not only was the beating premeditated, the girls used as many as five cameras to videotape it. And two teenage boys were also involved, acting basically as lookouts. The six female suspects were all charged with felony battery and false imprisonment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And they all joked about it behind bars, whether they`d make cheerleading practice or not the next day.
And tonight: Her lawyer`s defense, she`s too pretty for jail. Then comes a sweetheart plea deal for Florida cover girl-turned-middle school teacher Debra Lafave, Lafave convicted of repeat sex assaults on one of her own boy students. Lafave strikes a pose in court and dodges jail time. Bombshell tonight. Florida Judge J. Rogers Paget (ph) -- repeat, J. Rogers Paget -- sweetens the pot even more, slashing Lafave`s house arrest to straight probation. Hey, why even bother to have child molestation penalties if all you need is a pretty face and a set of long legs to avoid jail time?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A Florida judge has agreed to cut short the house arrest portion of Debra Lafave`s sentence. She`ll lose the monitoring bracelet in July and finish her time on probation. The prosecutor and the victim`s family are outraged. They say she`s getting off way too easy. But Lafave`s lawyer says it was all part of the original plea deal that both the prosecutor and the family agreed to.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re very satisfied with the judge`s ruling. It was a fair ruling. It was an appropriate ruling. And I think -- and Debbie is very enthused about it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The judge said July 11 is when she can take the monitoring bracelet off and get some of her freedoms back. Her attorney, John Fitzgibbons (ph), says she attended 99 counseling sessions, has completed all of her community service and has paid fines. Now, Lafave will still have seven years of probation, which means she`ll be closely watched by the Department of Corrections.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Tonight: With their parents covering for them, real life "Mean Girls" takes on a whole new meaning in a vicious girl attack on a cheerleader in an upscale seaside neighborhood all caught on video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Authorities plan to charge seven Florida teens as adults in what investigators call an animalistic attack on a 16-year-old girl. The profanity-filled attack was videotaped to be posted on YouTube. That`s according to authorities. An eighth teen who has also been charged as an adult has been released on bail. The other seven remain in custody.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s probably not well enough to go to school yet. She`s bruised from head to toe and she`s still beat up very, very badly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we had them in a holding cell. Each and every one of them were laughing and cutting up, joking. The one cheerleader`s statement to my detectives was, Am I going to miss cheerleading practice tomorrow? The others were cutting up about, I guess we`re not going to go to the beach this week. They seemed to have absolutely no remorse at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: They allegedly beat the honor student unconscious, knocking her head up against the wall. Then each one took a turn beating their classmate. She has apparently loss of vision and hearing. And her own father could not even recognize her.
Let`s go straight out to Susan Candiotti, CNN national correspondent joining us from Miami. Susan, what happened?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is just really hard to look at when you see this videotape. The first time we see this young girl, she is crawled up in a fetal position on the sofa. And you see girls beating her about the head. And then you see her standing up against the wall -- appears to be next to maybe the front door. She`s trying to get out. She can`t. They`re still beating up on her. You never see her punch back. She`s always in that defensive position.
And what you don`t see on tape is what you mentioned. This all started off when she was led into the bedroom, and they started -- they threw her up against the wall, crashed her head into the wall, and that knocked her unconscious. She told police the next thing she knew, she woke up, and that`s when she was lying on the sofa. And they started videotaping the beating after that, Nancy.
GRACE: You know, Susan, I was too afraid to even cut a class in high school. And they not only beat this girl to where when her own father goes to the hospital, he didn`t recognize his own daughter -- that`s how badly mangled her face was -- but they videoed it, Susan Candiotti! Is it true that they actually videoed it so they could put it on YouTube and MySpace?
CANDIOTTI: You hear the girls saying this on tape. They`re telling her, We`re getting back at you because you were trash talking us on your MySpace. And so we`re going to put this on YouTube, MySpace. And the question, of course, is, Can you post this stuff on MySpace? But when you go there, you see all kinds of beatings on line. There are guidelines for YouTube, for example, where they tell you you can`t put violence on here. But it`s only if someone flags it, and then they`ll take it off. But that was their plan, evidently, to put it on YouTube and MySpace.
GRACE: Joining me right now is a very special guest with us tonight, Sheriff Grady Judd, Polk County sheriff. Sheriff, thank you for being with us. Sheriff, have you ever seen anything like it in all your years in law enforcement?
SHERIFF GRADY JUDD, POLK COUNTY, FLORIDA: I must tell you, I`ve been involved in law enforcement for 35 years and I`ve seen a lot of extremely violent events, but I`ve never seen children 14 to 18 years of age engage in this conduct for a 30-minute period of time and then make these video clips that they wanted to distribute to embarrass and humiliate this very young victim.
In fact, two guys stood outside the front door to make sure that there was security. And when they became so loud on one occasion, they opened the door, stuck their head in and told the girls, Hey, you`ve got to quiet down, somebody`s going to hear you.
GRACE: Sheriff -- with us, everybody, is Sheriff Grady Judd. We`re proud to have Sheriff Judd with us. He`s the Polk County sheriff. You know, what`s unusual about this -- and I prosecuted juvenile crimes for many, many years, Sheriff -- is you usually don`t see girls doing this.
JUDD: Nancy, it`s kind of a new phenomena. And we think in our community that it`s been created by access to the Internet, access to this new way to text-message back and forth that started out as trash talk. And then these girls conspired -- keep in mind, they conspired with these two guys to get our victim into the house. And when she got in there, that`s when the beating began. And as you covered earlier, the beating you see is after she became conscious again from being knocked unconscious during an earlier beating.
GRACE: You know what`s amazing to me, Sheriff, is not one of these girls, not one of them said, This is wrong, I`m leaving, or, You`ve got to stop, you`re hurting her, this is going too far. Not one girl stood up and did the right thing, Sheriff. What kind of families do these girls come from?
JUDD: You know, believe it or not, a lot of them come from very good families. And that`s really what`s shocking. You know, you`ve got cheerleaders there. You`ve got students on the honor roll. And I can tell you, our detectives looked at this film along with us in the supervisory positions, and it made us sick to our stomach at what we saw. I mean, it was absolutely violent, absolutely animalistic. It was a pack mentality. And they really didn`t care how bad they hurt her.
GRACE: What were they saying to her during the attack, Sheriff? I can hear them screaming and saying things, but I can`t make out what they`re saying to her.
JUDD: Oh, Nancy, you can`t believe it. On one occasion, they were very concerned that they were going to break or turn over some knick-knacks on a shelf, so they were cautioning the girls to stay away from the knick- knack shelf. And on another one, you can see the girl holding the camera, and she said, 17 seconds left, make it good. Obviously, meaning they were about out of video time.
GRACE: Sheriff, what was it over? Why were they so angry with her?
JUDD: This was all about trash talk. All of these girls were acquaintances. Many of them were friends. In fact, our victim actually stayed at the suspect`s residence during spring break.
GRACE: Incredible. And they planned to be stars of YouTube and MySpace with this. They thought that this would embarrass the victim. Instead, it landed them behind bars.
With us, Sheriff Grady Judd, the Polk County sheriff. We are taking your calls live.
Sheriff Judd, is it true that when they got behind bars, they actually were saying, Can we go to cheerleading practice tomorrow?
JUDD: Our detectives said once they gathered them up into a holding area, that they were cutting up and laughing and having a grand old time about being reunited. And it was spring break week and they were talking about, Well, I guess we won`t be going to the beach this week. One of the girls actually asked the detective, said, Oh, by the way, am I going to be out in time to go to cheerleading practice tomorrow? Nancy, it is absolutely unbelievable.
And quite frankly, for the national listeners that may not understand, we would have rather not released the tape, but it`s public record by Florida law. So our best interest was to release it and then explain this is evil. But we as a society must say, This is enough. We must say, Why does YouTube run any of this, that would encourage this kind of behavior and activity? Why would we as a society not monitor our children closer?
GRACE: How badly is the victim hurt?
JUDD: The victim is hurt significantly. She has a concussion. She still has -- and this is a week later -- has a loss of vision in her left eye, has a loss of hearing in her left ear. The doctors are hopeful that once all the swelling goes down, that she will regain her vision and regain her hearing. But I must tell you, she is bruised from head to toe. We`ve got photographs of her where her eyes are totally blackened and almost swelled shut. She withstood an incredible beating by all of these girls. They would take turns beating on her and videotaping it.
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight, Susan Moss out of New York, Ray Giudice out of Atlanta, Courtney Anderson, defense attorney out of Houston.
You know, attorneys, I recall in high school, I said to my mom, Hey, what would happen if I don`t go to church with you this Sunday? And she said, Why, Nancy, I would enroll you in the Georgia Industrial Home for Girls to learn a trade. Well, believe you me, I was in the car ready to go come Sunday morning. I don`t understand it, Susan Moss.
SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: The only flips these cheerleaders will be doing will be to see who gets the deal first. This is outrageous! This is so many separate crimes that let`s just start listing them. It`s assault. It`s battery. It`s false imprisonment. It`s kidnapping. These kids are looking at some real adult time, and it`s absolutely deserved.
GRACE: To Ray Giudice, veteran defense attorney in the Atlanta jurisdiction. Ray, the reality is they are juveniles, but I predict they are going to be bound over -- that`s the legal term -- and treated as adults.
RAY GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, that`s a mixed bag because you have several of these youngsters are closer to 14 and several are closer to 18.
GRACE: I like the way you say "youngsters"...
GIUDICE: Well, if I were...
GRACE: ... because this is an adult-type crime.
GIUDICE: If I was representing the 14-year-old, he or she would be a youngster in that court and I would do everything I can as counsel to have my client treated and processed through the juvenile system, rather than the adult system, because Susan is right. If these cases are bound over to the superior court or a felony jurisdiction court, they`re really looking at long time.
GRACE: Courtney Anderson, what kind of time are they looking at?
COURTNEY ANDERSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, it`s going to depend on the jurisdiction. Certainly, these are serious crimes, kidnapping, this brutal assault. So it`s going to depend on the jurisdiction.
GRACE: You`re right. Let`s go out to the lines. Sheeba in Illinois. Hi, Sheeba.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. I just want to tell you, too, Nancy, your little babies are growing like weeds and they`re beautiful.
GRACE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But I was wondering, in reality, now -- I mean, the lawyers just went over this -- what in reality time are these little kids -- or not little, these half-grown kids, going to get?
GRACE: You know what, Elizabeth? Would you roll that video again? They look pretty grown up to me. And you should hear the mouth on these girls. It`s incredible.
Well, for kidnapping alone in a lot of jurisdictions, you can get 20 to life. With an aggravated battery, a felony battery, the difference between aggravated assault -- assault is putting someone in immediate fear of immediate serious physical injury. A battery is the actual injury. When you lose the use of a limb or a body function, you end up in a wheelchair, or in this case, you lose vision or you lose hearing, that`s an aggravated battery, which in many jurisdictions is about 20 to life. Are they going to get life? No, they`re not. Will they get some type of jail? Probably.
Out to Alexa in Texas. Hi, Alexa.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. You look beautiful, as always.
GRACE: Thank you, dear. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Obviously, these teenagers or hoodlums are in school, and I`d like to know if they`re facing any suspension or being kicked out of school.
GRACE: Excellent question. To investigative reporter joining us out of Tampa, Eben Brown. What are the consequences at school, Eben?
EBEN BROWN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, so far, I believe a lot of these kids are not back in school just yet, where some of them are just staying away, and the victim...
GRACE: Why are you calling them...
BROWN: ... however has not -- has not been back to school...
GRACE: ... kids? Because they`re girls, Eben? If they were boys that had conducted this brutal assault, beat the smithereen out of a defenseless student, an honor student like this girl, I don`t think we would be treating them so kindly, Eben Brown.
BROWN: Well, they are girls, are they not?
GRACE: Yes, they are. And I think you`re having a flip side treatment for them because they`re girls. And normally, society doesn`t expect girls to act this way. Are they going to get kicked out of school or not?
BROWN: A lot of that hasn`t been decided yet. We`re still waiting to hear from the school district and we`re still waiting to hear from those officials about what the school`s action is going to be. But at the same time, we`re still waiting on the legal action. The district attorney has not yet decided to charge -- whether they`re going to charge as adults or charge as children.
GRACE: Joining me right now, in addition to Sheriff Grady Judd, the Polk County sheriff, joining us from Bartow (ph), Florida, is Jerry Hill, Jerry Hill the state attorney prosecuting these teens accused in the videotaped beating, a vicious assault on a defenseless girl. To Jerry Hill. Thank you for being with us. And explain the bind-over procedure in your jurisdiction.
JERRY HILL, STATE ATTORNEY: Hi, Nancy. It`s good to be with you.
GRACE: Thank you.
HILL: You know, it`d be so easy just to get caught up in the emotion and say, Boy, here`s what`s going to happen. Well, you know as a prosecutor, that`s not exactly the role we play. What we`re going to do is evaluate the age of each one of these gals, their involvement and what crimes they might possibly be prosecuted for. We`re going to look at the damage, the permanent injury to the victim. And we haven`t seen the medical reports yet. We`ve got some things to do.
The law says we need to look at the sophistication and maturity of the defendants. And I -- you know, what you may find is -- believe me, if this was a popularity contest, it would be hands down, just prosecute them, throw them away forever. That`s not our role. We`ve got to look at the levels of involvement of each one of the individuals that participated in this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is animalistic behavior. It`s pack mentality. They lured her there to beat her and beat her and beat her. And they left her with a concussion. I must tell you, that makes my blood boil, and certainly, I think it will the people in our community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A 16-year-old girl lured into a home and brutally beaten for 30 minutes, her alleged attackers six other girls ages 14 to 17. It happened last week in Lakeland, Florida. Police say not only was the beating premeditated, the girls used as many as five cameras to videotape it. And two teenage boys were also involved, acting basically as lookouts. The six female suspects were all charged with felony battery and false imprisonment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And to top it all off, they videotaped the whole thing to put it on YouTube and MySpace.
Back to Jerry Hill, the state attorney prosecuting this case. Mr. Hill, you advised that you would look at what each individual young woman did. But in a conspiracy, when people act in unison, isn`t each one responsible for the acts of the other?
HILL: Oh, I think they are, to a certain extent. But we`ve got to prove this thing up. And you know, you talk about all the girls involved - - and we know that there were a number of girls involved, but your video doesn`t show that. We`ve got to be able to prove these things. And I think we can. I`m confident -- I`m going to meet with some of the sheriff`s people personally in the morning. We`re going to review the facts.
It`s not just a vote in a popularity contest. We`d have already charged them. You know that I`ve got to prove each element of the crime we charge, and you know that we need to be analytical in that process to make sure that it`s not just an emotional thing and that it`s properly done so that we get a proper result. And we`re going to work our way through it, and I think we will reach the right conclusions and move forward.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had them in a holding cell. Each and every one of them were laughing and cutting up, joking. The one cheerleader`s statement to my detectives was, Am I going to miss cheerleading practice tomorrow?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Not only did they beat an honor student unconscious, they taped the whole thing to become stars of YouTube and MySpace.
Joining us tonight, Dr. Michael Bell, Palm Beach County chief medical examiner. Dr. Bell, thank you for being with us. You know, the victim is still recovering from a concussion. What do you make of the possibility she has lost hearing and sight on one side? Is that possible from a beating?
DR. MICHAEL BELL, PALM BEACH COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER: Absolutely. Chances are, she probably has perhaps bleeding inside her eyeball or bleeding behind her eardrum, and that may be affecting her hearing, as well as her eyesight, at the moment. But that should, you know, resorb and resolve and come back.
GRACE: What kind of damage do you have to sustain to be knocked unconscious?
BELL: It takes a lot of damage. Certainly, if you fracture your skull, if you fracture your vertebral column and sever the vertebral artery or cause internal bleeding inside the brain, that will cause not only unconsciousness but death.
GRACE: With us, Dr. Michael Bell, joining us out of Miami, Florida.
Out to the lines. Sharon in Pennsylvania. Hi, Sharon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I was just wondering, where was the parents at when all this was going on?
GRACE: Oh, good question! Susan Candiotti, where were the parents?
CANDIOTTI: Not home. That`s all we know at the present time. But the grandmother at this particular house was the one who was taking care of everybody. She wasn`t home. But she did help, as you`ll hear in talking to the mother of the victim here. When the mother of the victim called this grandmother to find out, you know, what went on, that`s when her daughter had told her that the victim had told her that this had been videotaped, and the mother confronted over the telephone the grandmother with this information. And to her credit, Grandma got the video and turned it over to police.
GRACE: Yes, no, Susan. Are they out of jail tonight?
CANDIOTTI: In custody...
GRACE: In custody...
CANDIOTTI: ... except for...
GRACE: Thank you, Susan Candiotti...
CANDIOTTI: Except for one boy.
GRACE: ... Sheriff Grady Judd and attorney Jerry Hill.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Teacher turned sex offender Debra LaFave will be released from house arrest three months early if she stays out of trouble. Today a judge in Tampa said her house arrest will end in mid- July, not November. The three months she would have served are now tacked on to her seven years of probation. Under probation, LaFave is required to wear a monitoring bracelet.
She was sentenced in 2005 for having sex with a 14-year-old student. The teen`s family opposes today`s ruling.
UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: We`re very satisfied with the judge`s ruling. It was a fair ruling. It was an appropriate ruling. And I think -- and Debbie is very enthused about it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Absolutely unacceptable. First of all, she sexually assaults a 14-year-old boy repeatedly that goes there to the middle school. Then she gets a sweetheart deal with only house arrest. She can go out and work. Since that time she`s come up on a violation of house arrest and the terms of her parole, her probation. And now the judge is slashing even the house arrest.
Why even have child molestation laws on the books if all you need is a pretty face and a set of legs to woo the judge in court? This is Florida Judge Padgett, who has just slashed even house arrest.
Out to Colleen Jenkins. She`s with the "St. Petersburg Times" in court today.
Colleen, what happened?
COLLEEN JENKINS, STAFF WRITER, ST. PETERSBURG: Well, the judge actually just offered a compromise basically to the defense and the state. He granted Debra an early termination from her house arrest as of July 11th. This is actually something that was allowed for in her plea agreement that she entered into in November of 2005.
Prosecutors had said if she successfully completed two years of house arrest that she could seek to have this third year rolled over into straight sex offender probation. The judge didn`t allow Debra an immediate release today as she had hoped but he isn`t going to make her wait until November either.
GRACE: To Eben Brown, when you have the victim`s family and the prosecution opposing, slashing the house arrest -- I mean, all she had to do was be home by 10:00 and stay in the house until 6:00. That`s all she had to do for child molestation. So I hardly think that with the victim`s family and the prosecution opposing it this is any compromise.
This is playing right into what LaFave said at the very beginning through her lawyers, I`m too pretty to go to jail, Eben.
EBEN BROWN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, this was the deal that was made with prosecutors that, you know, they had agreed to with the lawyers of Debra Beasley as she`s now called.
GRACE: The deal was she could seek it, not that she would get it, Eben.
EBEN: No, the deal was that she could seek it and that the criteria would be did she successfully complete those first two years. And the judge ruled that she had. And that was eligible for this third year conversion of converting that third year of what was called community control to probation.
GRACE: Joining me right now is a very special guest. This is Deb LaFave`s ex-husband. He is the author of a book about what he went through, "Gorgeous Disaster."
Owen LaFave, Owen, thank you for being with us. Weigh in, Owen.
OWEN LAFAVE, LAFAVE`S EX-HUSBAND, AUTHOR OF "GORGEOUS DISASTER": Nancy, you know, I`m extremely disappointed obviously. I`ve been very outspoken. I believe she should have went to jail initially. I think the sentence is way too lenient. I think what it continues to point out to us and to society is that there is a double standard when it comes to female sexual perpetrator. She should have gone to jail.
And since 2005 there`ve been 11 teachers that have been arrested in Hillsborough County and one of those went to jail for 22 years. It was not Debra LaFave. It was a male teacher by the name of Mike Black.
GRACE: Out to the lines, Vicky in West Virginia. Hi, Vicky.
VICKY, WEST VIRGINIA RESIDENT: Hello. How are you, Nancy?
GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your -- I`m good, dear. What`s your question?
VICKY: My question is why is our judicial system being so lax and letting these people getting off on all these sexual charges for abusing other people`s children?
GRACE: Joining me right now is a professor of psychiatry, Dr. Joseph Deltito.
Dr. Deltito, it`s great to see you back on the airwaves again. Could you.
DR. JOSEPH DELTITO, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHIATRY: Thank you, Nancy.
GRACE: .explain to me the double standard for men and women?
DELTITO: Well, I think there`s a standard for -- double standard maybe for pretty women or cute people in some ways that they can`t really be evil, they can`t really be bad deep in their core. I heard one of your colleagues last week commenting on another case, that the child was so cute he had to be telling the truth. There`s this myth in society that these cute looking people are really OK at heart or that they`re truthful or something like that.
Also, it might not always be a double standard because when a man perpetrates it against a girl, it`s often a younger girl, coercion of a more violent type is usually used. So there may be some substantive in all truthfulness, some substantive differences between the average male and female perpetrator.
GRACE: Joining me right now is former FBI counter intelligence agent Joe Navarro.
Joe, thanks for being with us. What exactly is house arrest and how does it work?
JOE NAVARRO, FMR. FBI COUNTERINTELLIGENCE AGENT: It`s house vacation is what it is. Basically, you get to do pretty much what you want in your house and there`s really not much punishment. It would be the ideal if you had to go to jail.
GRACE: Let`s unleash the lawyers. Susan Moss, Ray Giudice, Courtney Anderson.
Susan Moss, I`m stunned. Already the woman never went to jail and now not even house arrest. What is Judge Padgett thinking?
SUSAN MOSS, CHILD ADVOCATE, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: She violated probation. Her punishment? More probation. Who created this law, Paris Hilton? It is absolutely ridiculous. She has never fully been punished for what she did. She is not allowed to have sexual relations with a young child who is a boy, girl, whoever. She needed to be punished. She wasn`t. We`ve let down the kids.
GRACE: To Ray Giudice and Courtney Anderson, veteran defense attorneys.
To Ray, have you ever managed to work a deal on a repeat child molester where you got nothing but house arrest?
RAY GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know, Nancy, the only time you really see those deals are when you`ve got a situation where the prosecuting attorney is so concerned about the long-term.
GRACE: Well, I asked you. Did you ever get such a deal?
GIUDICE: Well, I`m not going to talk about any of my clients. Let me tell you how it happened.
GRACE: OK. Never mind, thanks.
GIUDICE: OK. Fine.
GRACE: Courtney, have you ever seen a case like that before where on repeat child molestation the perpetrator gets straight house arrest?
COURTNEY ANDERSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: What, they`re extremely unusual. The question I think to ask is why did the prosecution think they didn`t have enough of a case to win a conviction at trial?
GRACE: Well, I`ll tell you, Courtney. That was not the issue.
ANDERSON: Why did they go into that plea?
GRACE: To my understanding -- Susan Moss, tell me if you understand something differently -- the prosecutors said the media attention was so severe that the boy`s mother did not want him to have to testify.
MOSS: That`s exactly right. What happened was the boy got cold feet about testifying and his parents didn`t want to put him through the media circus that surely was to happen. And apparently the prosecution got afraid and they gave her one sweetheart deal that just gets better and better.
GRACE: Out to the lines, Claire in Connecticut. Hi, Claire.
CLAIRE, CONNECTICUT RESIDENT: Hi, Nancy. How are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?
CLAIRE: Well, it kind of just came up. I`m really upset about the victim`s family being upset about this sweetheart deal. If they had stepped up in the first place, none of this would be happening.
GRACE: You know what, Claire? You`re absolutely correct. You`re absolutely correct.
Eben Brown, you covered the case way back at the beginning. Why didn`t the prosecution go forward with the trial?
BROWN: Well, the reason was, was that they had no complaining witness to put on the stand. The boy`s mother would not let him testify. He was a minor still at the time, and this boy was not going to be allowed to go in front of the jury, go in front of the judge and tell his story. The mother wanted him to move on with his life. A couple of years had passed. The boy was getting ready to apply to colleges. She wanted him to move on with what would be the rest of his life and have somewhat of a normal existence.
Without that testimony from the complaining witness, prosecutors felt they had such a weak case that if they had gone to trial there`s a very good chance they would have lost. If they had lost the case, there would have been no community control. There would have been no probation. There would have been no sex offender registry. She is a registered sex offender through all of this. She has a curfew. She has to agree to random searches of her home and other restrictions.
GRACE: You know, Eben. Eben.
BROWN: .of where she can live and that`s it.
GRACE: Eben, please, please, just stop. Having dealt with more child molestation victims than I can even count, when you just said she has a curfew, it actually made my skin crawl. So let`s just let that go. She actually has a curfew. That`s her punishment. She`s got a curfew.
To Owen LaFave, LaFave`s ex-husband and now author, do you think she`s changed at all?
O. LAFAVE: Nancy, unfortunately not. Obviously, I haven`t spoken to her in a few years now. But recently she was arrested for having an inappropriate friendship with a child that was a minor at the time and, obviously, if nothing else, she just continues to have poor judgment.
GRACE: Everybody, tonight, new photos of the twins and a major milestone for little Lucy. Remember she only weighed two pounds when she was born. She finally took -- I just took that. She finally takes her first entire eight ounce bottle of milk. There she is, a little milk drunk. While her twin brother John David, angry over the spoiler, vows that tomorrow he will take two bottles.
Going to post these on the Web site tonight. I hope you like them.
And tonight, thank you, everyone, for your thoughts and prayers for veteran trial lawyer out of New York, defense attorney Sandy Schiff. She is making progress, but she is in the fight of a lifetime.
Sandy, stay strong.
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(NEWSBREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED 14-YEAR-OLD BOY: All right. So what time are you planning on heading over?
DEBRA LAFAVE, FMR. TEACHER: Are you sure? Like, I just feel -- I don`t want you lying to your mom. I mean it`s like.
UNIDENTIFIED 14-YEAR-OLD BOY: No, it`s all right. She`s going in a sales meeting like all day.
D. LAFAVE: You`re sure?
UNIDENTIFIED 14-YEAR-OLD BOY: Yes.
D. LAFAVE: Promise?
UNIDENTIFIED 14-YEAR-OLD BOY: Yes.
D. LAFAVE: Pinky promise.
UNIDENTIFIED 14-YEAR-OLD BOY: Yes.
D. LAFAVE: Say pinky promise.
UNIDENTIFIED 14-YEAR-OLD BOY: Pinky promise.
D. LAFAVE: All right, tell me a time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: OK. That was Deb LaFave, cover girl turned middle schoolteacher, on the phone with a 14-year-old boy she repeatedly molested asking him to pinky promise with her.
With us tonight her then husband Owen LaFave. He has since remarried, has started to rebuild his live.
Owen LaFave, do you say she has not changed at all. Why?
O. LAFAVE: Well, Nancy, once again, I mean she was arrested just a few months back for having a relationship with -- and this was a friendship with a minor that was a girl. So there was nothing inappropriate sexual with the relationship but, again, she knew, given the terms of her probation, she was not allowed to have such a friendship with a minor.
GRACE: Do you recall that she was engaged? What happened to that engagement?
O. LAFAVE: You know, I think her fiancee actually came to his senses, broke it off, from what I understand they`re no longer engaged.
GRACE: So he basically ran for the hills as if he had seen a monster. Very wise.
Out to the lines, Cindy in Mississippi. Hi, Cindy.
CINDY, MISSISSIPPI RESIDENT: Hi, Nancy. Beautiful family.
GRACE: Thank you. Can you believe it?
CINDY: My question is being as it`s clear discrimination between different cases, what charges, if any, can you brought against this judge being as he has shown two different sets of standards?
GRACE: Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you but the only thing that can be done other than him be brought up to a Judiciary Committee, which they will do nothing -- it`s a bunch of judges who are ruling on indiscretions of other judges, they`re brethren -- is for the voters to actually vote.
If, Eben Brown, this judge is elected -- do we know if Padgett is elected or is he appointed in?
BROWN: I believe he is a circuit judge so I believe he`s elected. I`d have to check on that one, but.
GRACE: The only way for there to be a change is for the voters to vote him out. And based on this, you know, it`s incredible. It`s one thing for the prosecution not to force the child victim up on the stand. It`s another thing for the judge to exercise his discretion and completely cut house arrest.
Back to Ray Giudice. With house arrest, you basically only have to follow a curfew. It`s a gift from heaven for most defendants.
GIUDICE: Well, I always tell my clients to take it because it`s better to spend time in their bed and eat their food out of their refrigerator than wear the orange jump suit at the jail. So it is a very minor restriction, but on the other hand, let me defend this judge for just a second. This judge sits in the courtroom. He hears the evidence from the witnesses. The probation officer said she was a model probationer except for the one infraction. And this judge made a decision. I really think it`s wrong for all the armed chair quarterbacks who did not sit in that courtroom who starts.
GRACE: Like you.
GIUDICE: .second-guessing this judge. No, I`m not second-guessing him. I said he heard the evidence just like good judges do every day and they make tough calls.
GRACE: And you know what, Ray, I`m looking at the evidence, too, and I know for a fact that she molested a 14-year-old boy, not just any boy. A boy whose care she was entrusted. She was to take care of her students and she instead turned into a sex predator. And she got straight probation. Now, thanks to Judge Padgett there in Florida, she doesn`t even have house arrest.
Colleen Jenkins with the "St. Petersburg Times," what can you tell me about Judge Padgett?
JENKINS: Judge Padgett is actually one of Tampa`s most veteran and most respected judges. He`s been -- reelected several times and will be retiring later this year because of mandatory age retirement regulation in Florida.
GRACE: What is his age?
JENKINS: I`m not exactly sure.
GRACE: Mandatory retirement, I guess that would put him somewhere in his 60s or early 70s.
JENKINS: Yes.
GRACE: Out to the line, Sarah in Canada. Hi, Sarah.
SARAH, CANADIAN RESIDENT: Hi, Nancy. Beautiful necklace but not as pretty as Lucy.
GRACE: Thank you very much. Thank you.
SARAH: You`re welcome. OK, what I wanted to know is what would happen to her if she violated her already violated probation?
GRACE: You mean she violated her violation? You know, let`s go to Joe Navarro. What would happen if she violates it? She`s already done it once that we know of.
NAVARRO: Well, this is almost like Belushi`s double secret probation. I mean this is ridiculous. This judge needs to look at the original offense and come down hard, not to allow this to be perpetrated.
GRACE: To Dr. Joseph Deltito, professor of psychiatry, what is wrong with her?
DELTITO: Well, she claims to have bipolar disorder and that may have contributed to her crime, her interaction with this boy, although when you hear the information about the double pinky pledge or something like that, she sounds very premeditated, very much like she`s playing him in a contrived way.
GRACE: You know, I`ve noticed recently there is a string of bipolar affliction. And it often -- the onset is often immediately following a felony arrest. Everyone suddenly realizes that for years they`ve been bipolar.
Out to the lines, Cynthia in Arizona. Hi, Cynthia.
CYNTHIA, ARIZONA RESIDENT: Hi, Nancy. I love you.
GRACE: Thank you for watching, dear. What`s your question?
CYNTHIA: My question is, on the bottom of the screen, it says that LaFave must remain in the sex offenders program for eight years. After that, does that mean that she can teach?
GRACE: Interesting question.
Eben Brown, will she be able to resume teaching at the end of eight years?
BROWN: Oh, no, no, no. She has probation for eight -- seven years and I believe maybe four months, I think it comes out to now. But she is a sex offender -- on the sex offender registry for the rest of her life. She will never teach again. That`s not something we allow sex offenders to do in Florida.
GRACE: That`s her sex offender picture online right now.
Weigh in, Susan Moss.
MOSS: She violated her probation. When people violate their probation, they usually go to jail. This is the only case where you violate your probation and literally a slap on the wrist isn`t even received in this case.
GRACE: Courtney Anderson, at the end of eight years, she`ll be cut totally free, won`t she?
ANDERSON: Yes, unless the terms change or she does something else to violate it. And if up to this point except for one problem she has been a model probationer, then, yes, she`ll have served her time.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: To "HEADLINE PRIME`s" Glenn Beck. Hi, friend.
GLENN BECK, HOST, GLENN BECK SHOW: A 16-year-old girl was held against her will and then beaten senseless. We have not only the video of the entire event, but you know what, I think I actually have an answer for you. I think our children are worshipping a false god. And I will give you his name.
Also, General Petraeus gave Congress an Iraq update just as Iran released some new scary nuke news. More on that coming up.
And a sexual harassment case starring a first grader. Coming up tonight.
GRACE: We at NANCY GRACE on the hunt for parents who inspire. And now tonight`s extraordinary parent.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Children do not have the mature language skills that we as adults possess.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: When Kimberly Pressing Harris saw that her children were having trouble coping with her divorce, she found hope in art therapy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pictures were drawn and thoughts and feelings began to emerge.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Realizing the incredible healing power of art, Kimberly organized a shipment of crayons and coloring books to send to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Soon I began receiving pictures and letters drawn and written by the children who received our donations. Some shared their stories. Some just said, thank you for making us smile again.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This overwhelming response inspired Kimberly to create the foundation for coloring away pain. The organization produces coloring books that tackle many serious issues children may face.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Victim advocates from Arizona to Maryland are using our coloring books to address topics such as abuse, grief, drinking and driving and car safety. My daughter Madison often comes home telling me of a classmate or a friend who has lost a loved one or a cat, and says, "Mom, they need a coloring book."
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GRACE: Let`s stop and remember Navy Chief Petty Officer Mark Carter, 27, Fallbrook, California, killed, Iraq. Fulfilled his dream of becoming an elite Navy SEAL, awarded three bronze stars, two Navy and Marine Corps commendation medals, also served Afghanistan. An outdoor athlete, loved rock climbing, diving, target shooting. Leaves behind parents Cindy and Thomas, three brothers, four sisters.
Mark Carter, American hero.
Thanks to our guests but especially to you for being with us and a special good night from New York friends of the show, Kiara, Bryan and Arlene.
Everybody, I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
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