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Nancy Grace

Drew Peterson Arrested on Weapons Charges

Aired May 21, 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: Breaking news tonight. The mystery surrounding 23-year-old mom Stacy Peterson vanishing, upscale Chicago suburbs. In the last hours, husband/cop Drew Peterson turns himself in to police after a felony arrest warrant issued, Peterson a suspect in his fourth wife`s disappearance, the suspicious bathtub drowning of wife number three officially ruled homicide.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: New developments today in the case of missing mom Stacy Peterson, the Chicago suburbs. Former cop Drew Peterson, the suspect in his fourth wife`s disappearance, turned himself into police today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Drew Peterson, the man suspected of being involved in the disappearance of his wife, Stacy, has turned himself in to police.

DREW PETERSON, SUSPECT IN FOURTH WIFE`S DISAPPEARANCE: I`m very angry. Very, angry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you`re angry at Stacy.

PETERSON: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And tonight, the biggest child protective bust in U.S. history, 462 children, 100 women rescued from an isolated Texas compound, allegations of systemic marriage and childbirth forced on girls as young as 13, abuse of young boys behind compound walls, 41 known children with broken bones.

As we go to air, Texas authorities go back, suspicious even more children are being hidden behind compound walls. But FLDS leaders shut down the search, refusing Texas authorities access to the compound. What are they hiding? This as head-to-head legal combat wages over custody of over 400 compound children. Tonight, the state of Texas versus a centuries-old cut-like religion, the polygamist FLDS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Breaking news out of Eldorado, Texas. Child Protective Services has gone back to the Yearning for Zion polygamist compound. They were said to be looking for more children. A guard at the ranch says two CPS workers and a sheriff`s deputy asked to search the compound for more kids. That guard said they didn`t have a search warrant, so he denied them access. A CPS spokeswoman says the agency is now conferring with law enforcement about the next step. Now, all this as individual custody hearings continue for 460 children removed from the ranch last month.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They lied the whole time. I knew it was coming. I knew it was coming because of a lot of things they did. While we were there, all these CPS workers get right in with the children and try to be really friendly, trying to get them to feel like it`s OK to talk to them and to open up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Tonight, breaking news. Former cop/suspect Drew Peterson turns himself in to police.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s a suspect in his fourth wife`s disappearance, and now police have arrested him, former Bolingbrook sergeant Drew Walter Peterson, turning himself in to authorities just hours ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hear Drew Peterson`s been arrested. I think, Hey, it`s about time. He`s the main suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy. And one other note. His third wife, Kathleen Savio, her death has recently been ruled a homicide.

PETERSON: In a normal case just like this, everybody would be saying, Don`t talk to anybody. Just keep your mouth shut. Be quiet. But I`m now dealing with the court of public opinion, and -- which is still my jury pool. So not only do I have to fight all the negative publicity, you know, I want people to see, you know, there`s another side to all this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Straight out to Jon Leiberman with "America`s Most Wanted." What happened?

JON LEIBERMAN, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": Well, Nancy, Drew Peterson has been released on $75,000 bail. He`s been charged with unlawful use of a firearm. Specifically, in this case, he possessed an assault rifle with too short of a barrel, according to state police and to prosecutors. It may sound minor, but it`s a class three felony in Illinois, and you`re looking at five years in prison if convicted of this crime.

GRACE: Now, what was he doing with an assault rifle?

LEIBERMAN: And that is the million-dollar question, Nancy. This was one of 11 guns that was seized with the very first search warrant that state police served at Drew Peterson`s house after Stacy went missing. This is one of the guns, also, where there was supposed to be a court hearing tomorrow to determine if Drew was going to be able to essentially give those guns to his son.

GRACE: You are taking a look at footage, Drew Peterson turns himself in to police today.

And I want to go out to you, Mike Brooks, former fed with the FBI. Could this be a police tactic? As you know, on many occasions -- and I can name several right off the top of my head -- police make an arrest on a lesser charge and they`re waiting to drop the other shoe. For instance, remember John Evander Couey down in Florida, initially held for violating probation and failing to register as a sex offender? Then he was ultimately charged with the death of 9-year-old Jessie Lunsford, the girl in the pink hat.

Then there was Steven Avery. He was arrested for possession of a firearm by a felon, then charged with the murder of Teresa Halbach. Remember the guy that worked at that big junk yard? Then there was Ben Fawley. He was arrested on child porn charges before he was charged with Taylor Behl`s murder. There was Darryl Littlejohn. I know you remember him.

MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Absolutely.

GRACE: He was held on a parole violation before he was held on the murder of a young New York girl, Imette St. Guillen. Then there was Taylor Lee Olson. He was charged with Johnia Berry`s murder. He was first arrested on a probation violation and failure to appear. All of those are examples of a police tactic, making an arrest on a more minor charge as they wait to make the arrest on murder.

BROOKS: Absolutely, Nancy. And we`re not talking about a misdemeanor here. We`re talking about a third-degree felony. But keep in mind, when Drew Peterson went before the grand jury, he pled the 5th. So could now they be saying, Well, look, you`ve got this felony hanging over your head. If you decide to go ahead and finally cooperate with us, you know, maybe we can work a deal. This could be exactly what they`re doing, Nancy.

GRACE: Out to the lawyers, Renee Rockwell, John Burris, John joining us from San Francisco. Weigh in.

JOHN BURRIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I don`t know that I agree with the analysis that you`ve given, and largely because the kind of offense that he`s been charged with, he`s out of custody. The other cases you talked about, they had the people in custody because they needed to control him. Here, they don`t have control of this man.

I think this is just a way to try to get something against him. If they ever do charge him and he`s convicted of this, they`ll be able to use that against him at some later point as a person who has a felony conviction. But I don`t think it has anything to do right now in terms of what`s going to happen in these other cases because it`s not evidence in these other cases.

GRACE: Also with us, Sue Moss. Sue Moss, what do you think?

SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: He`s got a new 22-year-old girlfriend and an illegal gun. It`s like deja vu all over again. This guy is dangerous. And this may be just the tool to help them find the missing link to lead us to the big issue, which is where is Stacy Peterson.

GRACE: Renee, could this be a police tactic to get information out of Peterson?

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I don`t think this is a guy that`s going to go to jail and crack, Nancy. He`s already out. But I want to comment on this $75,000 bond. Nancy, that is way high for an illegal weapon. He should have gotten a signature bond. I think what they want to do is put him out on bond and start monitoring his comings and his goings and making sure that he stays in the jurisdiction of the court.

GRACE: You`re seeing Drew Peterson`s mug shot, that just taken. Peterson arrested, has already bonded out on a weapons charge.

Out to the lines. Ray in New York. Hi, Ray.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, Nancy. Love your show, Nancy.

GRACE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you have beautiful little babies.

GRACE: Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The question I have is, do you think that anyone ever thought about Peterson ever having Stacy`s body cremated, with the attitude he`s got, that he`s never going to get caught?

GRACE: You know, he`s so cock-fired sure that -- for instance, remember about a month, no a little bit longer than a month, Ray in New York, when a blue barrel was spotted somewhere? And before police could even tell us what that was or who the body was -- it was in the middle of winter -- they were dead sure this was not Stacy Peterson. So your question regarding burning the body -- Mike Brooks, what do you think about it? He is so sure. Every time a body is found, every time that there is information, he`s sure that`s not Stacy Peterson. How is he so sure unless he knows?

BROOKS: That`s absolutely right, Nancy. But that whole thing about cremation -- I mean, you have to have an extreme fire, like they do in a crematory, to totally get rid of the body. Otherwise, they could possibly have uncovered some remains in some of their searches. But they have not found anything as of yet. You know, on the cremation side, he would probably would have to have someone who`s with a crematory in cahoots with him on -- to do that. So you know, the cremation, I don`t know about that.

GRACE: Well, what about burning the body, burning the body, Mike Brooks.

BROOKS: Well, we`ve seen in a case just recently in North Carolina, with the Marine, Laurean, you know, he tried to burn the body of his wife, but...

GRACE: But come on...

BROOKS: ... he was -- he was unable to do that, Nancy.

GRACE: Mike, Mike, Mike!~ He had a barbecue in his backyard. You could see where the earth had been dug up. Of course, the cops are going to look there. She was, like, six feet under the ground. The cadaver dogs could find her.

BROOKS: There`s a myriad of different ways that possibly -- you know, again, he has not been charged. He`s only a suspect. But there`s many ways you can get rid of a body, and one of them is burning the body, but most likely, that would be the harder way to do it.

GRACE: You know, Mike Brooks, why would he need an assault rifle? This is not a police-issue gun. At the very beginning, when this happened today, Joel Brodsky says, Well, he used this gun when he was on the SWAT team, inferring that it was a police -- a cop-issued gun. It`s not.

BROOKS: No. There are some departments, Nancy, that will allow you to use your own gun, if you buy it on the job. But he was issued two guns by the Bolingbrook police, and they came out earlier today and say, No, no, no, no, this is not a police-issued weapon. He was issued a Sig Sauer handgun and a Heckeren Coke (ph) MP5 submachine gun to use when he was on the SWAT team. And they got both of these back when they did the search of his home.

So this is a gun that he bought on his own. And he probably modified it, Nancy. This is a picture of this 223, this AR-15 model gun, if you will. The area in question they`re talking about is this right here. That`s the barrel. And it cannot be less than 16 inches, and the rifle overall cannot be more or less than 26 inches and it`s a violation.

Even though Joel Brodsky said, Oh, it`s only a three eighths 8 of an inch -- I`m sorry, he modified the weapon. When he`s not a cop anymore, if he wanted to take the weapon and do something else to it and put the original barrel back on to it, that`s fine. But otherwise, it`s an illegal weapon, plain and simple.

GRACE: Back to Mike Brooks. It`s the same theory behind outlawing a sawed-off shotgun. Explain it.

BROOKS: That`s exactly right, Nancy, because you talk about the overall length -- it`s very, very concealable. Now, law enforcement officers, you`ll see guns like this that they`ll carry, but because it`s easier to get around in a tactical situation. But this whole thing of, Oh, this was my gun that I used on the SWAT team -- the Bolingbrook police are saying, No go, there, Drew. We issued you a gun, and we got that back when we did a search warrant on your house.

GRACE: But the purpose, the reason we don`t allow sawed off shotguns...

BROOKS: Is because of concealability, Nancy, because a sawed-off shotgun -- and it`s in the same statute. If you modified it and sawed it off, you can put it under a coat, walk into a bank. And there`s been many, many times -- in fact, I arrested someone in Washington, D.C., when I was a rookie cop with a sawed-off shotgun underneath a raincoat.

GRACE: Well, I remember the first time I had -- it was my first kidnap and rape case that I prosecuted. I saw the gun and I said, What is that? It looked like a stick. It was a sawed-off shotgun. The whole thing was about 14 inches long, and that was the weapon that was used. So of course, there was a weapons charge added on. That`s just what we`re talking about right now.

Drew Peterson has turned himself in to police on a weapons charge. Many people believe that this is a police tactic to get him under arrest and then have some leverage over him.

We are taking your calls live. Out to Sandy in Delaware. Hi, Sandy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. How are you?

GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good. I just wanted to find out if anyone`s done any ballistic testing on the gun to find out if and when the last time it was used?

GRACE: What about it, Jon Leiberman?

LEIBERMAN: Yes, we understand that they have, in fact, tested this weapon. They tested many of the weapons that were seized from Drew Peterson. That`s why state police have had them for this long. They were conducting tests. That`s why state police argued and prosecutors argued against giving these guns back to Drew Peterson, because they said they weren`t finished testing the guns.

GRACE: To Caryn Stark, psychologist. Caryn, interesting what Ray in New York brought up about the burning of the body, and his attitude, whenever he is asked about Stacy Peterson, he is so arrogant and oh, it`s just like that, he`ll say, Oh, no, no, no, that`s not Stacy. How does he know?

CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, clearly, he knows something, Nancy. But this is a very narcissistic, self-absorbed man, and he doesn`t care how he comes across. He has no problem with morality because he doesn`t really believe in right from wrong. He`s self-absorbed and he`s narcissistic and he`s sociopathic in the way that he behaves.

GRACE: Out to Dr. Joshua Perper. You all know Dr. Perper, renowned medical examiner and author. Dr. Perper, it is six months later. Would it be of any forensic value whatsoever to go back and reprocess Peterson`s home?

DR. JOSHUA PERPER, MEDICAL EXAMINER: Well, certainly there would be some value in trying to see if there`s any evidence left, but I doubt that any new evidence is going to be discovered after they did a quite thorough search before.

GRACE: Out to the lines. Denise in Ohio. Hi, Denise.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I was just calling -- you know, I am just appalled. Why is it he`s always in the camera light, and he loves this, this limelight that you guys are giving him? I`m confused.

GRACE: You know, he really is in the limelight. He really does love it. Although I`ve noticed he refuses to go head to head with anybody that`s going to ask him any tough questions. I recall just recently, I believe he was on with Shepard Smith, and whenever Shepard tried to ask him a tough question, he`d back out of it. He wouldn`t answer it.

But the really is -- to Caryn Stark -- he does love the limelight. If he`s not appearing on some television show, he is calling in to radio shows. There was a "Date Drew Peterson" contest. He`s always calling in and bringing attention to himself.

STARK: And that goes along with that same narcissistic personality, Nancy. He doesn`t care if he gets positive or negative attention, he needs to have people pay attention to him.

GRACE: But what is so interesting -- let`s go out to the lawyers, Susan Moss, Renee Rockwell, John Burris. Wherever, for instance, Shepard Smith would ask him, throw him a tough question, really try to pin him down, he would dodge it. And that only taints a jury pool, Susan Smith (SIC). They see, whenever he`s asked a tough question -- I believe Matt Lauer tried to ask him some tough questions. He played an excellent game of dodgeball right there on the "Today" show. And it makes him look, Susan Moss, evasive and shifty. So why do they keep putting him out there?

MOSS: Because every time he goes out there, he puts his foot back in his mouth. I mean, he`s been on all these shows. He looks like a villain from the "Scooby Doo" show. I mean, every time he goes on, he makes a mistake, and he keeps on making them. Why? Because he really doesn`t care. He just wants to be seen. He wants to be known. Every lawyer in the world is telling him to not speak, be quiet. This guy can`t help himself.

GRACE: Yes. Shutting that piehole is going to be a problem. Very quickly, Renee Rockwell, John Burris -- John Burris, very often with defendants, you see the same behavior over and over and over. Here is Peterson with another gun and another 22-year-old girlfriend. What next?

BURRIS: Well, I don`t know what`s next, but it also means that the government and the police are looking at these situations very closely. I`m sure this woman will be interrogated very closely. They`re looking for an MO to see whether or not, if some point in time, if they ever get this guy, then they`re going to have the various MOs to demonstrate that he likes women of a certain age and certain things happen after a certain period of time. But until then, they don`t really have the evidence that they need, and I don`t think anything that`s happened today will ultimately move them towards that direction.

GRACE: You know, have you noticed a pattern, Renee Rockwell, with your clients? Not to ask any names, of course. But you see the same thing over and over. I would see in cases I prosecuted, I`d take a look at the rap sheet, and same thing over, over, over, over. There he goes again.

ROCKWELL: What`s it called, Nancy, a similar transaction? And it`s a defense attorney`s worst nightmare. But I can tell you one thing. Now that he`s on bond, his lawyer is telling him to shut up now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hear Drew Peterson`s been arrested. I think, Hey, it`s about time. But this is not about the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy. He turned himself in on a felony gun charge today. Now, the gun in question is a semi-automatic rifle. It`s one of 11 guns cops took from him when they searched his home back in November. Keep in mind, as I kind of alluded to, he`s the main suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy. And one other note, his third wife, Kathleen Savio, her death has recently been ruled a homicide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Drew Peterson turning himself in to police today. He`s already made bond.

Denise in Illinois. Hi, Denise.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Congratulations on your babies.

GRACE: Thank you. What`s your question, dear?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question -- I live in Chicago, and it`s just unbelievable -- not unbelievable, but I guess -- he comes in -- he goes in laughing and he comes out joking and that smirk and everything. And now our local news station said, you know, because they`ve got the "Find Stacy Peterson" Web site up, the blog has to be torn down because Drew Peterson doesn`t like what the general population has to say. Now, doesn`t that violate our rights to speak freely?

GRACE: You know, what is behind taking down that blog, Jon Leiberman? Jon Leiberman joining us from "America`s Most Wanted." What can you tell us about that?

LEIBERMAN: Well, that`s a great point. Drew Peterson and his attorney complained to even the federal authorities that they were getting threatened directly and indirectly through the blog portion of this "Find Stacy Peterson" Web site, and they did get it taken down. And you know, what your caller said, we do, we see Drew smiling and all this. But one thing we haven`t seen, we haven`t seen him out there looking for Stacy at all since the beginning.

GRACE: But Renee Rockwell, hasn`t he made himself a public figure by appearing on the "Today" show? He`s been on CNN. He`s been on Shep Smith`s show. Bottom line, he`s made himself a public figure.

ROCKWELL: He has, Nancy, but what he has indicated was that this Web site was a way that the public was spying on him, and the way he has gotten it taken off is because he`s saying that people are threatening him. So that way, he was able to shut it down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETERSON: All these people are conducting searches in fields and bushes and streams and rivers, but I have no belief that she`s there. She`s off with somebody at some beach or living life at some home anonymously, you know, in another part -- could be another part of the world, could be the next town over. I don`t know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: New developments today in the case of missing mom Stacy Peterson, the Chicago suburbs. Former cop Drew Peterson, the suspect in his fourth wife`s disappearance, turn himself in to police today, an arrest warrant on weapons charges alleging Peterson had a semi- automatic rifle with a barrel too short, in violation of state law, the weapon seized by police from the Peterson home along with 10 other guns after the disappearance of Stacy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Peterson turns himself in today to police. He`s already bonded out. Out to Pam Bosco, Stacy Peterson family spokesperson and very close friend of Stacy`s. Why is this guy always smiling?

PAM BOSCO, STACY PETERSON FAMILY SPOKESWOMAN: You know, Nancy, I first was going to make comment about the format of the Web site being changed. It had nothing to do with Drew Peterson or Mr. Brodsky. That was done on the fact that it was very time-consuming for the volunteers managing it. We never heard about his complaints to the FBI. It had nothing to do with us changing the format. It was a decision made strictly by the family and friends who run the site.

GRACE: Did he actually complain, Pam Bosco?

BOSCO: I have no idea if he`s making it up after we did just to bring attention again to himself, that they have influence on what we do. It had nothing to do with it. And please make that clear to the general public...

GRACE: I find it very difficult, Pam...

BOSCO: ... we made that...

GRACE: ... to believe that Peterson would make contact with the FBI. I think, if anything, it would be the other way around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Drew Peterson, the man suspected of being involved in the disappearance of his wife, Stacy, has turned himself into police on a weapon`s charge. His publicist says the weapon in question is an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle and apparently he used it while he was on the police force. But the publicist says police claim that the rifle`s barrel is too short under Illinois law.

Now that would be this new gun charge.

Police are also investigating the death of Peterson`s third wife, Kathleen Savio, after her body was exhumed and an autopsy found that she was the victim of this homicide.

Again, a new gun charge for Drew Peterson.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Drew Peterson, turning himself into police on an arrest warrant. He`s already bonded out. No, not on murder, yet. On a weapon`s charge.

Back out to Mike Brooks, former fed with the FBI. You know, to get an undersized weapon, you have to, yourself, size it down. Why would he size it down? And how do you go about sizing it down?

MIKE BROOKS, FMR. DC POLICE DETECTIVE SERVED ON FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: Well, what he did with this particular -- this is not like a sawed of shotgun, Nancy, where you can take a hacksaw and saw the barrel off.

In this particular gun, you can actually -- this is the receiver area. This is the guts. This is where the round is fired from. But in this particular weapon, he probably bought this after-market barrel and put it on himself, making it a shorter barrel, because the stock weapon -- this colt weapon, when it comes, it has a longer -- it has a longer barrel and comes legally.

I own an AR-15, Nancy, for target practice, but I have a full-sized, legal AR-15.

GRACE: AR stands for?

BROOKS: Automatic rifle. But it`s a semiautomatic rifle.

GRACE: Why, may I ask, do you need an automatic rifle for target practice?

BROOKS: Well, I also had to use it for personal protection one time, Nancy, because I was actually on a white supremacist hate list back when I was doing hate crimes.

GRACE: Whatever. Why does Drew Peterson.

BROOKS: You asked.

GRACE: . in a small town.

BROOKS: No.

GRACE: . need an AR? Why, why?

BROOKS: He doesn`t.

GRACE: And why does he need it sized down? Why would you typically size down a weapon of this nature?

BROOKS: Concealability. Bottom line, Nancy. And as Bolingbrook Police today -- their spokesperson said today he didn`t use this weapon for work. They issued him a Heckler & Koch MP-5 submachine gun.

So -- and also let me point one thing out, too, Nancy. He was petitioning all this time to get his weapons back from the police. Well, he couldn`t have them anyway, because as Mr. Brodsky pointed out today on "PRIME NEWS" earlier on HEADLINE, his firearms owner identification card from Illinois is revoked. He can`t have any guns, period.

GRACE: You know, and the bottom line, think about this cocktail. You`ve got Drew Peterson mixed with an AR weapon sized down. You know, nothing good is going to come from that scenario.

Out to the lines.

BROOKS: He doesn`t need it, period.

GRACE: No. Terry in Delaware. Hi, Terry.

TERRY, DELAWARE RESIDENT: Hi, Nancy.

GRACE: What`s your question, dear?

TERRY: Yes. I wanted to find out if Drew Peterson was charged with a felony. Why he -- when he was a police officer and he had the gun at the time, could he lose his pension?

GRACE: Excellent question. Jon Leiberman "America`s Most Wanted," clear it up for us.

JON LEIBERMAN, CORRESPONDENT, AMERICA`S MOST WANTED: That`s a great question. Yes, if he is found to have committed a felony while he was a police officer with Bolingbrook, his $6,000 a month pension can be taken away.

GRACE: Oh, excuse me, did you say $6,000 a month? The taxpayers are paying.

LEIBERMAN: That`s exactly what I said, Nancy. The taxpayers write him a check every month right now.

GRACE: Ouch.

Out to the lines, Drew in Nevada. Hi, Drew.

DREW, NEVADA RESIDENT: Hi, Nancy, love your show and please don`t judge me based on my first name. But I just wanted to make an observation, really, that I think that he`s using this as 15 minutes of fame and he`s not even trying to hide anything, it looks like. It`s like he`s walking down a red carpet everywhere he goes.

GRACE: You know what, Caryn Stark, Drew in Nevada is right. Everywhere he goes, there`s that same fixed showboating grin. It`s like he`s walking down a red carpet.

CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, that`s how it seems like to him, Nancy. He feels like he`s walking down a red carpet. He loves this attention, he`s basking in it. And this is a man that will constantly be doing things like that. It might be a Scott Peterson always giving interviews or wherever a criminal does that kind of thing.

GRACE: Let`s go back to the lawyers, Susan Moss, Renee Rockwell, John Burris.

Drew in Nevada put it very well. He always looks like he`s walking down a red carpet. It would seem as if his lawyer would tell him to pipe down and lay low, Susan?

SUSAN MOSS, CHILD ADVOCATE, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: Absolutely. But he is not listening to his lawyer. He`s not listening to anyone. Anyone who would have the audacity after two of your four wives are dead to go on a "Come Win a Date with Drew Peterson" radio concert -- contest is -- that just shows who he is.

But I just want to know, what was second prize for that contest? Two dates with Drew Peterson?

GRACE: You know, to John Burris -- John, you`ve had a lot of high- profile clients that you have defended, I`ve never seen them, not once, speak publicly. Why is that?

JOHN BURRIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, basically, the lawyer -- and I do this all the time -- is to advise them that no good thing can come from speaking in your case, particularly when you have been charged, because the other side is always listening and you never know how it`s going to come back to harm you and hurt you.

So I`m certain his lawyers are telling him to be quiet. But he`s a lawyer out of control -- he`s a client out of control. So best you can do is don`t talk about any aspect of the case. If you`ve got to talk, talk about whatever you want to talk about, but do not talk about the case. That`s the best control you can have, because, frankly, there`s nothing he has done so far in terms of admissions that are going to come back to haunt him.

It may be -- that maybe that they have some demeanor-type questions, but in terms of admissions, they don`t have any.

GRACE: And you know what`s interesting, Renee Rockwell, it doesn`t have to boil down to a denial of the case, even getting caught up in an inconsistency.

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Absolutely, Nancy.

GRACE: Something inconsistent about where the car was parked, what Stacy Peterson did that day, the last time he spoke to her, an inconsistency to ruin a defendant on cross-examination.

ROCKWELL: And Nancy, you will see it again, I can assure you. The games, the dating games, all that, that`s in poor taste, but what a lawyer`s nightmare is, is when they`re going to plug that tape recording in and replay something that he backs himself in a corner and commits himself to one fact and we`ll see it again and he changes his story, he`s dead.

GRACE: Out to the lines, Jackie in Canada. Hi, Jackie.

JACKIE, CANADIAN RESIDENT: Hi, Nancy. Love and bless you and your family.

GRACE: Thank you. Thank you very much. What`s your question, dear?

JACKIE: And Susan Moss is awesome. Anyway, I was wondering, how can Drew speak to the media and then not speak to the grand jury. Can they take anything they said in the public and use that?

GRACE: What about it, Susan Moss?

MOSS: Well, unfortunately, they can`t, but that`s OK because this guy just isn`t going to be quiet. He`s going to go on and on and on. He does have the right against self-incrimination, so he does have the ability to plead the fifth in front of the grand jury, but he`s going to have a real fun time on these weapon`s charges.

GRACE: But bottom line, to Renee Rockwell, if he had said anything of any substance on any of these interviews, that could be played back to the grand jury and to a petite jury, a jury of 12.

ROCKWELL: Oh absolutely. And an investigator -- because don`t forget the grand jury is only the state of 10. Drew Peterson is not going to be at the grand jury so any investigator could play anything and point out the inconsistencies to the grand jury.

GRACE: To Pam Bosco -- this is Stacy Peterson`s family spokesperson and close friend.

Pam, what do you make of Drew Peterson having a downsized AR weapon?

PAM BOSCO, STACY PETERSON`S CLOSE FRIEND AND FAMILY SPOKESPERSON: You know we can only imagine what he could have used that for or what he did use that for. But until they have more information from the Illinois state police, you know, I`ll leave that not said. I`m just happy that it did come to this point in time that they did charge him with that.

I`m just happy, period, with that.

GRACE: Out to the lines, Olivia in Colorado. Hi, Olivia.

OLIVIA, COLORADO RESIDENT: Hi, Nancy. I was wondering, if the police have had this weapon for all this time, why have they waited until now to charge him with this? Is this.

GRACE: Excellent question. What about it, Jon Leiberman?

LEIBERMAN: Today they said they wanted it to come before the hearing tomorrow, where he could conceivably get those guns licensed or transferred ownership, rather, to his son. So that`s why publicly they said it.

GRACE: Everybody, let`s break for tonight`s case alert. We have just reported a 3-year-old little Raleigh, North Carolina boy missing from a local flea market. An AMBER Alert, an all-out land search, air search, water search for little Raji Davenport. His mom had called 911 to report him missing. She said when she turned her back to put groceries in the car, he went missing immediately.

Police now say the boy was never even at the flea market. They refused to reveal his whereabouts but what we do know is that Raji is safe tonight. A full scale investigation under way.

Now when we come back, Texas authorities go back to an isolated Texas compound connected to the biggest child protective bust in U.S. history. Suspicious that even more children are being hidden behind the compound walls. FLDS leaders shut down the search. What are they hiding?

Right now, we salute our troops.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. MARGARET PONIER(ph), U.S. SOLDIER: This is Colonel Margaret Ponier from San Antonio, Texas. And I`m giving a shout out to my husband, my wonderful husband, Sergeant First Class Geraldo Ponier from San Antonio, Texas.

We love you and we can`t wait until you come home. We miss you so much and we`ve got cows out on the ranch and we`ve got horses, so hurry up home so you can take care of your family and we can show you some love.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: We have an update on that polygamous ranch. Texas child welfare workers went there to the ranch in Eldorado. They were turned away today. They were looking for more children, believe it or not. The agency was authorized to remove all children last month, but they heard reports there may still be more children living there.

A lawyer for the FLDS said the workers didn`t have a warrant and they couldn`t get into that compound.

More than 460 children are currently involved in a massive custody battle because of charges of wild widespread sexual abuse. The sect`s leaders have denied that any abuse has taken place there.

UNIDENTIFIED FLDS MEMBER: As soon as we walked in, they all stood up and then this lady read what the judge said and that they were all in state custody now. The children were and we were to go home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Straight out to Jenny Hoff, reporter with CNN affiliate KXAN. She`s been there at the FLDS ranch all day.

Jenny, what`s the latest?

JENNY HOFF, REPORTER, CNN AFFILIATE KXAN: Well, Nancy, you just missed it, but just a few minutes ago, we had two more CPS workers and sheriff`s deputies come back to the ranch to come in again. They tried again. This was just a few hours after they tried this morning.

Now CPS says the reason why they came back is because they believed Willie Jessop, who`s been the spokesperson for the FLDS sect here, told them that he would let them in if they came back. But apparently it was some sort of misunderstanding, because when they came back a few minutes ago, again, they did not have a court order, and so Willie Jessop told them they would have to leave and come back with some sort of legitimate reason to enter their private property.

GRACE: To Michael Board with WOAI Newsradio, why have Texas authorities gone back out to the FLDS ranch?

MICHAEL BOARD, REPORTER, WOAI NEWSRADIO: Well, they got a tip that there were five children on the ranch there. They don`t know if they`ve been there the whole time or if they came with some parents back to the ranch here who -- we got reports that a couple people from Utah had come back to check on their children, maybe possibly help out in some of these cases.

But you know, you really have to find it interesting that CPS came out there twice and asked twice to come on to the compound and were both times told no. But reporters can walk up and they are led around by their noses to go look at the different buildings on campus there is.

If CPS can`t get on, why are media allowed on? I think it`s because the FLDS is leading reporters around by their noses making sure they only see the things they want them to see.

GRACE: Have any reporters seen children there on the compound?

BOARD: Not that we have known today, no. No one has seen children on the compound today. We don`t know where that phone call came from that there were children, although I just got off the phone a few minutes ago with a CPS case worker. They believe that some of these kids may have come down recently, in recent days with some family members from Utah.

But CPS says, whether they came down recently or have been there all along, it doesn`t matter. They believe if children are on the ranch, then they are in a toxic environment and they should be removed.

GRACE: Back to engine Jenny Hoff with KXAN. She`s been there at the FLDS ranch all day long. Take it from the beginning. Tell me what unfolded today.

HOFF: Well, Nancy, first we started out at the courthouse in San Angelo where those status hearings continue for the next couple of weeks. And then we got word that there was another potential raid here at the ranch. So of course, we raced over here. It`s about 45 miles south of San Angelo. And we got here right as CPS workers were leaving.

Now it was not some sort of raid. It was a very peaceful, apparently, meeting. When CPS workers came up here, they talked to the gatekeeper. They said they believed children were inside. The gatekeeper told them he didn`t know of any children. They didn`t have a search warrant or a court order, so they wouldn`t be allowed inside.

Now when we were just talking -- he was just talking about the fact that reporters got a look inside. Willie Jessop gave justification for that because he said last time he allowed the sheriff to come in. He rounded up all the people in the community and he allowed the sheriff`s deputies to ask questions to them to clear up the matter.

And instead what happened afterwards is all their children were taken off the ranch. So he says he is very wary about letting them in again and finding out -- perhaps they would take another 30-year-old woman and say she was 13 or 14 years old, not believe her birth certificate, and more people from their community would be gone.

So that was his justification and the reason why he said he wanted us on the ranch is because CPS told him, as long as media was here, they were not going to conduct another raid. So, yes, he did take us on the ranch. Undoubtedly, they wanted us to see certain things.

I don`t know if they would show us every one of their secret compartments or whatever they may have on there, but he did say, go ahead, open drawers, take a look for yourself, drive around, look at what you want, and we didn`t see any children out there. I ran into a grandmother who was tending to her garden. I ran into a few men who were milking their cows. And we went into an empty schoolhouse.

If there are a couple of children from Utah and Arizona, they were inside their home with their mothers no doubt, and they were certainly not walking around on that ranch. That place is virtually empty. There`s about 30 people in there right now. So when we came back outside, that`s when CPS approached again because they believe that they were going to be allowed inside the ranch.

And as I just told you, Willie Jessop told them, hey, come back with a court order or come back with a warrant. Otherwise, you`re not coming back on to our property.

GRACE: What do you make of it, Flora Jessop?

FLORA JESSOP, FMR. POLYGAMIST & CHILD BRIDE, EXEC. DIRECTOR OF THE CHILD PROTECTION PROJECT: Well, I don`t -- I think that it`s -- these guys believe they live above the law. They`re not going to let CPS back on that compound. There are probably children there. These -- this community is comprised mostly of children.

One other thing I`d like to bring up is the fathers that are coming down from Utah and Arizona, trying to get custody of their children, these guys threw their kids away four years ago when they were kicked out of the community. Their wives and children were given to other men to be raised by them. These children have been told never to speak their father`s name again, and now their -- these men have come down and they want to claim custody of their children.

And yet they`re only going to try to get custody of these kids so they can give them back to Warren Jeffs in the hopes that they can buy their priesthood back, because the religion is more important than their children. And it always has been.

GRACE: Out to the lines, April in Tennessee. Hi, April.

APRIL, TENNESSEE RESIDENT: Hi, Nancy. I want to have a question. If they`re -- do you think they will give the kids back to the parents, or will they send they will to foster homes?

GRACE: What do you think, Michael Board?

BOARD: A difficult task. You know, you have to remember that on this polygamist compound, there are both polygamist families and monogamous families. Now those polygamist families, if they -- if the wives, the kids continue to say, we`re going to go back to that situation, it`s hard to believe any judge will let them go back to the compound.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FLDS MEMBER: My oldest son just hung on to me. And he said, I`m not -- I can`t leave you, mother. I said, you`ve got to do what they say.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Out to the lines, Jean in Washington. Hi, Jean.

JEAN, WASHINGTON RESIDENT: Hi, Nancy.

GRACE: What`s your question, dear?

JEAN: Well, my question is, if these loving mothers or caregivers are so concerned and loving and torn apart about losing their children, why is there not one wet tear amongst them?

HAMMER: You know, I`ve noticed the same thing, Caryn Stark. When they start speaking, they all dab their noses and their eyes, but there are never any tears there. What`s that all about?

STARK: Look, if you look at their continence, Nancy, these are people that don`t seem to really be feeling anything. They`re brainwashed. And so what you hear -- and you can even hear it in their voice, as somebody who`s sort of telling a story, kind of hypnotic like a brainwashed person.

GRACE: I`ve noticed the same thing, Michael Board. Have you noticed it?

BOARD: Yes, and it`s funny how they talk. They all sort of talk in this nice voice. And if you notice that they all end on the -- when they go up in their voice, I don`t know what happened to our kids, the state was wrong when they took our kids. It`s weird. I don`t really know what that is.

I mean I`ve heard reports like we all have about ex-members who say that as youngsters they were beaten down and they were told not to show any emotion. That may have something to do with -- excuse me. That may have something to do with it.

GRACE: Jenny Hoff, what`s next?

HOFF: Nancy, first, I want to respond to what they were just talking about. I don`t know. I felt the same way at first when I started (INAUDIBLE) media reports come down. But I`ve interviewed several women that have broke down crying right in front of me shaking. They try to control their emotions at first and I guess try to be strong in their own mind, but I`ve seen many women with their faces completely wet.

And in fact, they were crying because they had just given birth to a baby and they were put in a shelter right afterwards. So I kind of disagree with what I just heard over there.

GRACE: I`m glad you cleared it up.

Everyone, let`s stop and remember Army Staff Sergeant Justin Whiting, 27, Hancock, New York, killed, Iraq, on a third tour. Awarded two army commendation medals and the Bronze Star. Lost his life just hours after having breakfast with his brother, also serving in Iraq. An avid outdoorsmen, loved hunting, guitar, country music, favorite singer, George Strait. Leaves behind parents Serene and Randall, sister, Amanda, and Army captain and brother, Nathan, and best friend, Polly.

Justin Whiting, American hero.

Thanks to our guests, but especially to you for inviting us into your homes. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp, Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.

END