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Nancy Grace
Christie Brinkley Testifies in Divorce Trial
Aired July 03, 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: It is war! World famous covergirl Christie Brinkley takes the stand just hours ago, testifying against her own husband, architect Peter Cook. Trouble in paradise started when Brinkley learns about her husband`s double life, a teenage sex affair, swinger Web sites and a $3,000-a-month porn habit -- Hello! -- just some of ammo in Brinkley`s arsenal of allegations. At stake, over $60 million in real estate alone, three luxury yachts, and the jewels in the crown, custody of two little children.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were considered one of the most high- powered socialite couples gracing the Hamptons, but it all came crashing down after a scandalous sex affair making headlines.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Model Christie Brinkley is on the stand today in her divorce trial. Brinkley says the day she learned her husband, Peter Cook, was having an affair with teenager Diana Bianchi -- this is a quote - - "My life as I knew it had vanished."
DIANA BIANCHI, HAD AFFAIR WITH PETER COOK: He didn`t say he was going to leave her. He just basically left it at, like, he wished things were different, he wished that, you know, he was younger or he had met me at a different time. And I mean, he never promised that he would leave her. I never asked him to leave her for me. I never was in it for that. I didn`t have any kind of intentions like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, the desperate search for a beautiful 12-year-old Vermont girl, Brooke Bennett, has ended. Police discover what they believe to be the remains of little Brooke, the 12-year-old captured on grainy surveillance video at a local convenience store just moments before she vanishes.
Headlines, federal kidnapping charges handed down against 12-year-old Brooke`s own uncle. Significance? This clears the path for the federal death penalty. And what part did another little girl play in luring unsuspecting Brooke to her own death? How is Brooke`s own stepfather connected? Tonight, we await the cause of death on 12-year-old little Brooke Bennett.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More shocking and gruesome details into the death of little 12-year-old Brooke Bennett, and newly released documents, authorities producing e-mails accusing Michael Jacques of planning the abduction of Brooke Bennett with another underage female victim, the same girl he`s charged with sexually abusing, Police also accusing Jacques of planting evidence, including some of Brooke`s clothes and even a plastic bag containing semen to make it look like a stranger had abducted Brooke.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today is a tragic day for Vermont. Our thoughts and our prayers are with the Bennett family and the people of Randolph, Vermont. This investigation is far from over. Much work remains to be done, and we will work tirelessly until the investigation is complete.
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GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Tonight, world famous covergirl Christie Brinkley takes the stand just hours ago, testifying against her own husband, architect Peter Cook. It is war!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Christie Brinkley wanted media attention by requesting (ph) the courtroom to her bitter and salacious divorce trial be open, she certainly got it today. Everywhere the supermodel went, cameras snapped and lights flashed. Cameras were not allowed inside the courtroom, but if Brinkley`s attorney wanted cheating husband Peter Cook`s dirty laundry to be aired in public, it certainly was held out to dry.
Cook broke down on the stand, admitting his bizarre sexual fantasies over the Internet and the fact that he spent thousands on porn and adult meeting sites, dirty laundry that was perhaps too much for Brinkley`s ears.
CHRISTIE BRINKLEY, MODEL: (INAUDIBLE) ever known before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The woman Cook had a steamy sexual affair with in 2005 took the stand. Just a teenager at the time, Diana Bianchi spoke of the lavish gifts and cash Cook showered her with and said he even bought her a car and agreed to pay her $300,000 to keep quiet about the details of their affair.
BIANCHI: He just -- you know, he`d make advances verbally toward me first, and then I guess it just, you know, escalated to something that I didn`t really expect. I just regret a lot. I didn`t -- I didn`t mean for this to happen at all.
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GRACE: Well, didn`t you know Brinkley was married while you were having an affair with her husband?
Everybody, straight out to Sophia Hall, reporter with WCBS radio, in court today. You know, one thing I don`t understand, Sophia, is why everyone is trashing Christie Brinkley for having a hearing, a trial in open court. This is America. We have open courtrooms. We don`t have closed, secret proceedings. So why is it suddenly her fault that her husband had sex with a teenager, according to her?
SOPHIA HALL, WCBS RADIO: Well, that`s actually coming from his lawyers. I think that a lot of people who have shown up at the courthouse, you know, just people who love Christie Brinkley or are curious, actually have sided with Christie Brinkley after hearing what Peter Cook did, which is have an affair with an 18-year-old girl. And the affair lasted for about a year. He paid her $300,000 to keep quiet. And on top of it all, he looked at a lot of Internet sex sites, including Hornyporny.com.
GRACE: You know, I think I could have gone the rest of my short life without hearing that. But thank you, Sophia, for inserting that into my brain.
(LAUGHTER)
GRACE: Horny what?
HALL: Sorry.
GRACE: What was the name?
HALL: Hornyporny.com.
GRACE: OK. And we all thought that lawyers lived up in an ivory tower. Not so, and it`s being proven right now in court with Christie Brinkley and her architect husband, Peter Cook. What happened in court today? I`m making a tally, by the way -- $300,000 to teenage lover, $3,000 a month in porn -- that`s $3,600 a month. What other expenditures did Mr. Cook have during the marriage that were inappropriate, according to Christie Brinkley?
HALL: Well, he also purchased his mistress a $2,000 watch and gave her $500. He left it underneath a rock in front of Christie Brinkley`s house. And the girl actually came to the house and looked underneath the rock. He also left her money under a painting called Zeus that was in his office. But Christie Brinkley says, You know what? He never paid for anything during the marriage. I paid for everything. He lived a great lifestyle. How could he do this to me?
GRACE: So let me get this straight. Out to Tom O`Neil with "In Touch Weekly." Christie Brinkley, the "uptown girl," is paying for everything -- the family, raising the children, the fancy houses in the Hamptons, the boats, the yachts, the everything. And he says today, Oh, she`s not a very good actress. She`s acting on the stand. He dares? If this all is correct, he dared to state -- and he stated that publicly, all right -- that she`s not a very good actress when she`s paying his bills? Am I right about that, Tom O`Neil?
TOM O`NEIL, "IN TOUCH WEEKLY": Yes. She had two bit parts in "National Lampoon" movies. And when she...
GRACE: Hey, hey, that`s more than you and I have, all right?
O`NEIL: I know. Hey, I just --
GRACE: So you call it "bit part" all you want to...
O`NEIL: I just saw...
GRACE: ... it was a mega-hit at the box office.
O`NEIL: I just saw "Hancock," which opens this weekend, and Nancy Grace has a big part in it. Don`t tell me you`re a movie star now!
GRACE: Well, I go to tell you, you know, it was really something. It was a real honor to, you know, share the screen with Will Smith. But forget about that. I want to talk about what Peter Cook is up to.
O`NEIL: Well, to add infamy to outrage already, Nancy, this gets worse because the affair took place in her other two homes, too. The affair begins -- picture this at the office -- under a photograph of Christy and the kids. This is when he starts hitting on this girl, who was 17 when he met her, hired her away from this toy store in Southampton, where she was making 12 bucks an hour, brings her to his office, this architectural firm, where she`s -- wink, wink -- in charge of the Web site, starts hitting on her right away. By the time this affair goes full bloom, they`re having it at her other two real estate properties. She has an estate in Bridgehampton, but she has rental properties in Sag Harbor and in Watermill (ph). He was taking the -- his little floozy there to her other houses!
GRACE: Now, let`s not try to put blame on the 18-year-old girl.
O`NEIL: Well, I shouldn`t say...
GRACE: And you know, I`m giving Cook...
O`NEIL: You`re right. You`re right.
GRACE: ... the benefit of the doubt when they claim she was 18.
Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight, Doug Burns, Eric Chase, Marlene Brown.
First to you, to Doug Burns. What`s the age of consent? I mean, they`re saying the affair started when she was 18, but she was hired at age 17.
DOUG BURNS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, it is 18, you`re right. So obviously...
GRACE: So if this had started at age 17, when he hired her -- and it has been stated publicly, she was hired specifically to have sex with him...
BURNS: Right. It would be not only adultery but statutory rape. That`s right.
GRACE: Eric Chase joining us out of LA, thoughts?
ERIC CHASE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I don`t think she was hired specifically to have sex with him. It was the kind of thing that happened in the course of the working relationship. But...
GRACE: Really? You know, Eric -- I`d like to see Eric Chase`s face very quickly. So how often have you had sex with an 18-year-old girl in the course of your business as a lawyer?
CHASE: Never. Never. Nancy, never.
GRACE: That doesn`t normally happen.
CHASE: Nancy, I have never done that.
GRACE: Well, you know what? That`s good to hear. Good to hear.
CHASE: Thank you.
GRACE: You want to rephrase your last answer?
CHASE: No, but the point was -- you had made the point that she was hired for the purpose of having sex, as if her employment started, you know, Come in, work for me, and let`s have sex.
GRACE: So he hired her...
CHASE: She was hired for a job...
GRACE: ... because of her credentials she accumulated at the toy store as a cashier. Is that what you`re saying?
CHASE: Well, I don`t know what her background was, but I haven`t heard...
GRACE: Well, I just told you what her background was. That`s her background.
CHASE: I haven`t heard any evidence -- I haven`t heard any evidence that she was hired for the purpose of having sex.
GRACE: What about it, Sophia Hall with WCBS radio, in court today? Wasn`t that an allegation?
HALL: Peter Cook himself admitted that she was beautiful and that`s the reason he hired her. Right after she started working with him, the affair began in his office.
GRACE: OK...
HALL: So I disagree, saying that she was hired strictly for her looks. She is a good-looking girl.
GRACE: Eric Chase?
CHASE: Well, the point is, when she was hired -- no, it`s a huge jump, Nancy, to say that the reason she was hired was just to have sex, as if he was putting an ad in an employment circular...
GRACE: I didn`t say that.
CHASE: ... saying, you know, Come work for me and have sex.
GRACE: I said that he essentially saw her at a toy store, where I assume he`s buying toys for his own children, Marlene Brown, and then based on her expertise at ringing up the toys, he decides to hire her at an architectural firm, Marlene. Explain that to me.
MARLENE BROWN, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: I`ll explain it to you. She was hired to give him access to her with a legitimate cover of saying, She works for me. So that`s why she was hired, Nancy.
GRACE: So bottom line -- to Mike Brooks, former fed with the FBI -- you know, he was this close, this close to an actual felony. He hires her at age 17. They both state under oath their affair, their sex affair, did not start until she was 18. But you know what? A few months earlier, and he would have been looking at a statutory rape charge, to top it all off.
MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Tell you what, Nancy. The bottom line is, this guy is a big scumbag, plain and simple, adulterous scumbag. This guy -- I hope he never gets his kids and never sees those kids again! I mean, right now -- you know, and then, as you said, everybody`s saying, Oh, you know, Christie Brinkley`s doing this out of anger. You know what? Good! It exposes this guy for what he really is!
GRACE: You know, I want to go out to Dr. Bethany Marshall -- everybody, we`re about to start taking your calls, hold on just one moment -- psychoanalyst and author of "Deal Breakers." You know, I`m really torn about the issue of children. Isn`t it better to have the father in their life, even though he`s been a philander and squandered thousands of her money? I mean, how would they feel when they grow up and they never had a chance to be with -- I don`t know. What`s the right thing?
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: Nancy, there is no known established link between looking at pornography and being a bad parent. And so to my mind, it does not make sense to take the children away or him away from the children simply because of this. However, the fact that he is voracious, he lacks the capacity to self-regulate, he`s impulsive, those are the types of things they`re going to be taking look at to see if that impacts on his parenting. And the fact that -- I understand, according to one written report, that part of the sexual activity was to masturbate in front of the camera on the Internet with people looking at him. So he has...
GRACE: Once again, I could have gone the whole weekend without conjuring that image up. But go ahead.
MARSHALL: You have to think -- well, you have to think about exhibitionism, and what`s part of this whole fantasy, being seen in a favorable light in the eyes of others, whether -- I know that sounds like a strange way to put it -- whether it was people on the Internet or picking someone 30 years younger than you and then acting like the big man on campus and looking fantastic.
GRACE: By leaving money under a rock? Have you ever heard of such a -- OK, out to the lines. Kathy in Florida. Hi, Kathy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, Nancy. How are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God bless you. The twins are lovely.
GRACE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Listen...
GRACE: Hey, can you believe $3,000 a month in porn alone?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am so proud of Christie Brinkley to bring this out in the public`s eye, that he can`t put it underneath the rug as it`s usually done. Now, that doctor just said about, you know, the custody or seeing the children, with some thing that he has done, I really don`t think those kids should ever to back to be able to see him until he gets some kind of counseling. And my question is, was there any pre-nup?
GRACE: Oh, excellent question. Out to Sophia Hall with WCBS radio, in court all day today. Any pre-nup?
HALL: There is a pre-nup, and according to the pre-nup, which he agreed to, he gets none of her money. That why he`s fighting over three properties and the three boats that were acquired after they were married. And I`m also told that he did not have hardly any money and he did not live in a luxurious home, even though he`s an architect, when they first got married.
GRACE: Well, maybe instead of spending so much time looking at Internet pornography and logging on to Adultfriendfinder as "HappyLaddy (ph)" and -- this is -- this is one of their homes -- and "Wannaseeall (ph)," maybe if he had siphoned a little bit of that energy used on the Internet toward his job, maybe he would have something to show for it.
Out to Marvet Britto, PR and brand strategist with the Britto Agency. You know, Marvet, I heard you on one of the morning shows suggesting that all this is somehow hurting Christie Brinkley`s brand. I disagree. To me, this is empowering her. A lot of people wrongly assume she`s just a dumb blonde. She`s not. Marvet?
MARVET BRITTO, PR/BRAND STRATEGIST: Well, we don`t want to see Christie Brinkley engaged in a war of words. I think silence is golden for Christie. I don`t think -- you know, her going back and forth -- I do think that corporations don`t want someone whose brand could be tainted in any way. I think she should be the bigger person and say nothing. His character is speaking louder than any words that Christie could ever say.
GRACE: If she didn`t take this public, nobody would ever know about his character. They would only know that Christie Brinkley failed at marriage number four. That`s damaging to your brand. I don`t know. I applaud her for going forward.
BRITTO: Well, it`s not necessarily that she won`t be able to emerge from this, but I think -- I`m looking at the children. I`m looking at the fact that, you know, it`s one thing for children to hear banter in school, but it`s a completely different story for them to hear it firsthand, from the horse`s mouth, which is essentially what they`re hearing. They`re hearing their father break down. And to be honest with you, Peter is showing some sort of humility...
GRACE: Oh, speaking of...
BRITTO: ... and humbleness.
GRACE: Everybody, I`m just getting the word from our research department the age of consent in New York is 17. So they were not even close, we don`t think, to a statutory rape charge.
Very quickly, back to Sophia Hall. Is it true he cried on the stand all day?
HALL: He did cry on the stand. And the reason he started crying...
GRACE: Oh, for Pete`s sake.
HALL: ... was because...
GRACE: Man up!
HALL: He took out his handkerchief and he`s sitting there crying, but it`s because his son, Jack, actually saw some of the pornographic images by accident. And I think...
GRACE: Oh, really? Whose fault was that?
HALL: ... that`s what prompted...
GRACE: Whose fault was that, Sophia?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did he give you a car (INAUDIBLE)
BIANCHI: He put the down payment on it, but everything was put in my name from day one, I guess, because he knew, for some reason, that, you know, he didn`t want any affiliation with it. So it kind of sketched (ph) me out a little bit.
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BIANCHI: I knew he was married. I knew -- I mean, there were pictures of his family in his office everywhere. Like, I never expected that he would take it to a different level, even though I had people in my ear telling me different. But it`s, like, I don`t know, I guess I just have -- I always -- I`m a little too trusting sometimes. I just regret a lot. I didn`t -- I didn`t want this to happen at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Didn`t want it to happen at all. Tom O`Neil with "In Touch Weekly," about how many times did "it" happen?
O`NEIL: Well, Peter claims "it" only happened 12 times. I suppose over a 12-month period, with such a highly sexually-charged guy, that might be a stretch to believe.
GRACE: Well, OK, Sophia Hall, that`s a little confusing. How does the 18-year-old claim she didn`t want "it" to happen, but "it" happened 12 times?
HALL: Well, she did say that the relationship was mutual. She said, actually, 10 times. And it happened at the office, it happened in the houses owned by Christie Brinkley. But she said she was attracted to him, taken aback at first, because basically, as soon as she was hired, he was saying, I`m attracted to you. What do you think about that? She said, You know what? I paused for a moment, and then I wanted the relationship to go forward.
GRACE: Out to the lines. Sheeba in Illinois. Hi, Sheeba.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. My husband and I never miss your show. We (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: Thank you, and thank you for calling in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, sweetie, my question is, why would this woman want her -- the other woman want her picture plastered in every newspaper and on TV? And my second question is, wouldn`t she be considered a high-priced hooker?
GRACE: Bethany Marshall, what about it?
MARSHALL: I guess you could call it that. I think it`s what we call secondary gain. She got something out of the situation. He appeared to have a lot of money. She probably thought that he was earning all that money himself, and he purposely preyed on someone in front of whom he could look quite powerful.
GRACE: Everybody, we are taking your calls live. I want to give you a "Case Alert." It`s about time, the GBI releasing secret evidence in hopes of generating leads in the search for a beauty queen-turned-history- teacher Tara Grinstead, Grinstead vanishing without a trace (INAUDIBLE) Georgia. The clue, a latex glove we told you about when the disappearance occurred discovered on Grinstead`s yard, steps from her front door, authorities revealing DNA of an unknown male on that glove. If you have any information, contact 800-597-TIPS.
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BIANCHI: He used to come in a lot more than usual, I guess. That`s what people were telling me. So I didn`t notice it until afterwards. And then after a while, business slowed down there and (INAUDIBLE) new job. So he asked me to come work for him and I didn`t think twice about it. He said he would double my salary, basically.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Doubled her salary? Did that come out in court, Sophia Hall?
HALL: Well, actually, he paid her $20,000 to type. That`s basically what she did. She copied articles into the computer for their Internet site. So she got paid pretty good. Plus, he also bought her a car, by the way, a Nissan Maxima, for $15,000. And he gave her $300,000 in the end to keep quiet.
GRACE: You know, interesting. Out to the lawyers, to Marlene Brown, family law attorney. He gave her, apparently, $300,000 as hush money.
BROWN: Right.
GRACE: But would that be equated to trying to talk someone out of testifying at trial?
BROWN: I think it could. It`s also something we call marital waste. So when the court gets to the equitable distribution portion of this trial, the court`s going to look at what he did with marital money. And I don`t think giving $300,000 to your mistress is a good use of marital money.
GRACE: Agree, Doug Burns?
BURNS: Oh, absolutely. It can be totally construed as hush money. The counter argument, though, would be that it was a settlement of a potential sex harassment claim, but I agree with what was said.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Christie Brinkley`s estranged husband admits he spent thousands of dollars on porn while they were married.
On the stand of their divorce trial yesterday, Peter Cook testified he and the model used online pornography to get in the mood, and he hasn`t accessed any of the sites since their split two years ago.
Brinkley filed for divorce after his affair with an 18-year-old became public. Cook admits hiring a teen-aged office assistant, hoping to seduce her. Eventually, he paid her $300,000, trying to keep the relationship quiet. Brinkley and Cook and fighting for the custody of two children.
DIANA BIANCHI, HAD AFFAIR WITH PETER COOK: He didn`t say he`s going to leave her, he just basically left it at like he wished things were different, he wished that, you know, he was younger or he had met me at a different time.
And, I mean, he never promised that he would leave her. I never asked him to leave her for me. I never was in it for that. I didn`t have any kind of intentions like that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Christie Brinkley, it is war. She is up against her architect husband, Peter Cook, in court. Court has just finished for the day. Thousands of dollars, just simply on porn alone, were spent of the marital assets. The most important is the custody of their two children.
To Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst and author, how do you cheat on a supermodel?
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST, AUTHOR OF "DEALBREAKERS": Well, because when it comes to sex addiction, I don`t know if this rises to that level, but really with addiction -- what you`d -- what you would see is that.
GRACE: You would call $3,000 a month on pornography?
MARSHALL: Well, the criteria.
GRACE: Happy laddy(ph) at adultfriendfinder.com? You don`t think that`s an addiction?
MARSHALL: You have a point, Miss Nancy. It`s when it really interferes with professional and personal and occupational functioning which it did. He really wasn`t working.
GRACE: You mean like your marriage?
MARSHALL: Yes, your marriage and your job. And all that money that he could have set aside for college funds for his kids and all those money that he drained out.
But really -- I`m sorry I lost track of the question. It`s like how could she cheat on a supermodel?
GRACE: Did she drain.
MARSHALL: Yes.
GRACE: I mean because she`s beautiful. She is sweet. She is effervescent. She is a multimillionaire. That doesn`t hurt anything.
MARSHALL: Because with sexual compulsivity, it`s about the conquest, it`s about addiction to excitement. It`s reconstituting what you believe is the favorable image of yourself in the other person`s eyes, intruding yourself into someone else`s life and the proverbial sex, money, and power that go hand in hand.
We saw it with Eliot Spitzer -- sex, money, and power with the aphrodisiac. Not his wife.
GRACE: Even if all the money is your wife`s?
MARSHALL: Well, look at Eliot Spitzer, look at everything that he built and everything destroyed because of it. That`s a classic sign of an addiction. It wasn`t about beauty. It was about lust.
GRACE: Back to Sophia Hall, with WCBS Radio. Sophia in court all day long.
How much more does Peter Cook want from Christie Brinkley?
SOPHIA HALL, REPORTER, WCBS RADIO: He actually wants part of those properties, and he wants the boats.
By the way, I heard he was out with his new girlfriend on the boat last weekend, and could possibly be on one of those boats this weekend also.
GRACE: Why.
HALL: So he says he has that prenup.
GRACE: Why should he get all -- why should he get more from Christie Brinkley? He`s been living off her dole the whole marriage.
HALL: Well, because he claims he helped her find those properties, and they were worth nothing until he built them up. And now one of her properties is worth $30 million.
GRACE: OK. What did he do to build up the property?
HALL: He claims that he drew the plans for the home, picked out the property itself, and made these properties and homes into gorgeous places.
GRACE: Did he, Sophia Hall, invest any of the money he brought into the marriage into these homes?
HALL: I really don`t think he had a lot of money. I was talking to Christie Brinkley`s girlfriends, and they were telling me he lives in a very, very simple, simple place. In fact, their words, they called it swamp house. It was actually very, very simple.
So I don`t think he had any money. I don`t think he was making any money. In fact, it was mentioned in court he became a big architect because of her, and she helped him move along.
GRACE: And Tom O`Neil with "In Touch Weekly," I am not suggesting that materialism is the center of the marriage, all right?
TOM O`NEIL, SENIOR EDITOR, IN TOUCH WEEKLY: Right.
GRACE: In fact, the people that I revere the most are people that eschew materialism. But the problem with that scenario is that coming into the marriage with basically nothing, but then wanting everything from Christie Brinkley, that doesn`t seem right.
Where do you think it`s headed?
O`NEIL: Well, let`s back up. For the past two years, they`ve been trying to sell these properties that he claims he had such a key role in hiking their value. They haven`t been able to sell it. The Bridge Hampton house where she lived that they want $30 million for now, I think she purchased it originally for only $7 million.
But it`s been on the market for a couple of years and hasn`t sold. The house in Sag Harbor, where one of -- where this trysts happened, mostly of the houses, that`s been on the market for a long time. And the reason, by the way, he used that for his dalliance was because nobody was renting it that summer.
Normally it rents for $300,000 for the season.
GRACE: Ouch.
O`NEIL: But it was empty.
GRACE: Out to the lines, Robert in Pennsylvania. Hi, Robert.
ROBERT, PENNSYLVANIA RESIDENT: Yes, give me the approach of the defense counsel. They seem to be kind of taking the pit bull approach. Do you think it`s possible they have or will look into getting a psychological evaluation of their client and I`m wondering what you and the panel would think of that?
I mean, in all honesty, I don`t think that given his admitted history and also in this crazy control game with the former assistant, I would think that that would nullify any kind of instinct you have of being able to be a parent.
GRACE: Interesting question. Out to Eric Chase, defense attorney. What about a psych exam? I mean is that going to be a fall-back for Peter Cook?
ERIC CHASE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, actually, the psych exams are mandatory in all divorce cases where children are involved. And my understanding is the psych exam has already been done and has found that Peter Cook has been a wonderful father, as Christie Brinkley has been a wonderful mother.
GRACE: Really?
CHASE: Until what started happening here.
GRACE: Because, Sophia Hall, it was my understanding there are a lot of allegations about how Peter Cook treated Christie Brinkley`s daughter from Billy Joel.
HALL: Yes, a very dramatic testimony from Alexa Ray, Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley`s daughter. She actually said she was in the shower. The ceiling, apparently, started leaking. Peter Cook ran into the shower, Alexa Ray was naked.
He took a bucket, stuck her head in the bucket, and said you clean up this mess. Also he used profanity towards her many at times and was just very vulgar toward her, calling her butt fat.
GRACE: How old is she? How old is the little girl? She`s grown now, right?
HALL: She`s 22, but at the time this happened, she was around 15, 16, 17. 17, 18, that`s -- you know, that`s the age that the.
GRACE: Didn`t he tell her, Sophia, that she chewed too loudly, and she ate too much?
HALL: And also she ate with her mouth open. And he thought that that was rude.
GRACE: Speaking of rude -- OK, out to the lines. Tammy in Oregon. Hi, Tammy.
TAMMY, OREGON RESIDENT: Hi. Well, first up, I think the little girl that`s getting blamed -- or not getting blamed here needs to take some blame where she took...
GRACE: Agree. Agree.
TAMMY: Yes, but she didn`t really -- she wasn`t going for a relationship. So she knew what she was going for. And that was the money.
Anyway, my question is, how long after the -- how long from the time that he bribed her was the affair still going on until the stepfather told Christie what was going on?
GRACE: Oh you know, that`s a good point.
How long did the affair go on, Tom O`Neil, and explain to the viewers -- Tom O`Neil is with "In Touch Weekly" -- how Christie Brinkley found out about the affair with the teenager.
O`NEIL: Yes, that`s the most shocking thing here of all. The affair begins in the spring of 2005. Near the end, she quits her job. She leaves him, she goes to Benson (INAUDIBLE) Brooklyn to live with her sister. He pursues her. She -- I`m being told to wrap her. But she -- the father confronted Christie at a graduation ceremony in Southampton.
GRACE: So the father, after Christie Brinkley speaks at a graduation ceremony, comes up to her and Peter Cook and says what?
O`NEIL: Says, "You tell your husband to leave my daughter alone. They`ve been having an affair." She confronts her husband and says, "Is this true?" He denies everything. But she goes home and she looks in his e- mails and she sees that, in fact, it is true.
GRACE: That`s a heck of a way to find out that your marriage is over.
To Cindy in Michigan, hi, Cindy.
CINDY, MICHIGAN RESIDENT: Hi, how are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?
CINDY: I have a question. I want to know, didn`t Christie Brinkley cheat on her husband, Billy Joel, the rock superstar?
GRACE: I don`t know about that.
Sophia Hall, do we -- is that relevant?
HALL: I didn`t hear about that. I never knew about that. In fact, I believe that Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley are still friends to this day so.
GRACE: I think you`re right about that especially in the upbringing of their daughter.
Well, it ain`t over yet, everybody. Testimony resumes on Monday.
Tonight, I ask you again to please remember in your prayers veteran defense attorney Sandy Schiff. She`s in the fight of her lifetime, not in the courtroom, in the hospital. She`s had a setback in her battle with leukemia, I saw her today, and she conveys thank you for your prayers and your well wishes.
Sandy, please get well.
When we get back, everyone, police discover what they believe to be the remains of a 12-year-old Vermont girl.
What part did another little girl play in luring unsuspecting Brooke Bennett to her death?
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The criminal complaint filed in the United States district court in Burlington was unsealed. That complaint charges Michael Jacques, 42, with the killing of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett of (INAUDIBLE) Vermont.
As you know, the body of a young girl believed to be was recovered yesterday in Randolph. The criminal complaint alleges that Jacques used a facility in Interstate and Foreign Commerce to facilitate the kidnapping of Miss Bennett. Interstate facilities alleged used are the Internet and telephones.
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GRACE: Believe it or not, the feds are actually stepping up to the plate in the case of this little girl, Brooke Bennett, 12 years old, went missing. Her remains just found.
To Matt Zarrell -- Matt, what`s the latest? What happened today?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE STAFFER: Well, Nancy, the U.S. attorney`s office released a federal affidavit in which the accused Michael Jacques of not only planning to abduct Brooke Bennett, but have been planning since a month ago, since May 28th.
They released a series of e-mails from Jacques to the teenage victim that he was accused initially of aggravated sex assault. And in the e-mails, he`s accused of creating two phony e-mail addresses to make communicate with the teen victim and making her believe that at least three men were involved in the Breckenridge program.
And in one exchange dated only five days before Brooke went missing, Jacques actually asks the teen to help -- if she was willing to help with the take down and tie-up on Wednesday morning when you get back from Cumberland Farms.
The girl responded, yes. I will help tie her down.
GRACE: But Matt Zarrell, there`s no such thing as the Breckenridge program, is there? It`s my understanding that the perpetrator created some program he told the young girl she was going to be part of in order to lure her to attack her.
ZARRELL: Well, that`s right. And in fact, the affidavit suggests that the sex program that you talked about, known as Breckenridge, was created solely by Jacques.
However, the girl was led to believe that Brooke Bennett would be initiated into this program. And by sending her multiple e-mails from multiple different e-mail addresses made her think that there were many other people involved in this phony sex ring.
GRACE: So, Mike Brooks, former fed with the FBI, if the affidavits are to be believed, this guy, her own uncle, enlisted the help of another little girl to forcibly restrain Brooke Bennett before her death.
MIKE BROOKS, FMR. DC POLICE DETECTIVE SERVED ON FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: Yes, another little girl who he had been having sex with for a number of years, Nancy. And then you also got Ray Gagnon. This is Brooke Bennett`s step-father, former step-father.
You know, I think he`s got a bigger role to play in this than we`ve heard so far -- you know, the case that he was arrested for. I guarantee that he`s got something to do with this, because, keep in mind, he is the one who changed the MySpace message from his computer at his house down in Texas.
But he came back up to Vermont. This guy has got -- some more behind him.
GRACE: Explain that, Matt Zarrell. Mike Brooks is right. He`s talking about the step-father out in Texas going into a MySpace account. Explain that.
ZARRELL: Well, yes, they traced his IP address. They checked the computers of Michael Jacques, and then contacted MySpace and MySpace informed them the only IP address used after Brooke went missing, the night of the 25th, was from an IP address in Texas.
Now the owner of that has been renting a room to Ray Gagnon. And they revealed that Gagnon was the one that went into the MySpace posting and changed the actual date of the posting to make it appear that it was posted before Brooke went missing as opposed to after, which is what really happened.
GRACE: And, everyone, Gagnon is Brooke`s stepfather. Jacques is Brooke`s uncle.
Not only that, Matt Zarrell, isn`t it true a safe was found at the stepfather`s abode, full of child pornography?
ZARRELL: Well, what he told investigators in the affidavit was that he had a safe filled of about five year`s worth of what he called Russian porn. And he admitted that he had called.
GRACE: Is that supposed to class it up somehow?
ZARRELL: No, it`s -- it was his description is what he gave.
Now, what happened was is that he -- Gagnon then told investigators that he actually called his landlord and asked his landlord to dispose of the safe. Now when the FBI went down and interviewed the landlord, the landlord said, coincidentally, that he assumed that it was child porn in the safe.
And he disposed of it in a dumpster outside of the apartment complex. Now the FBI searched the dumpster but could not find.
GRACE: OK.
ZARRELL: . the safe. So that`s where we`re at right now.
GRACE: Out to the line, Jacie in North Carolina. Hi, dear.
JACIE, NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENT: Hey, honey. I love you.
GRACE: Thank you.
JACIE: I have a question about Brooke with her MySpace. You have to be 14 to use MySpace. And she`s only 12. Was her parents even monitoring what she was doing? Or were they even aware that she was on MySpace?
GRACE: What about it, Bethany?
MARSHALL: You know what? What were these parents thinking? I think these parents were thinking about sex. I mean you have two sisters who are married to sex predators. On some level, they`re -- operating on a primitive level. They`re prioritizing the relationship with the sex predators over protecting their own children.
What kind of oversight did little Brooke have?
GRACE: It`s my understanding.
MARSHALL: Probably very few.
GRACE: . from comments the mom has made on "The Early Show" and other information that they did know she was on MySpace.
To Dr. Marty Makary, physician and professor of public health, Johns Hopkins -- Dr. Makary, it`s wonderful to see you again.
Question: the DNA turned around in about 48 hours. What is taking so long to determine cause and manner of death?
DR. MARTY MAKARY, PHYSICIAN, PROF. OF PUBLIC HEALTH, JOHNS HOPKINS: Well, they`re going to be looking for any other sources of forensic medical evidence -- hair cells, fingernail particles, any source of DNA -- to match it so they can do a perfect identification of any other cross-contamination of any other body fluid so they can nail this with one solid investigation.
GRACE: Out to the lawyers -- Doug Burns, Eric Chase.
First to you, Doug Burns, the state will probably want the testimony of the teen that was allegedly enlisted to help pull off the kidnap, rape, and murder of a 12-year-old girl. Do you assume there will be immunity for her? I do.
DOUG BURNS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, I agree. And also, the way I think this case is going to set up is, due to conspiracy laws and aiding and abetting laws, federal prosecutor will have tremendous power, for example, to possibly pressure the stepfather, for example, to crack this case wide open.
GRACE: And to you, Eric Chase, joining us out of L.A., what`s the real likelihood that the feds are going to seek the death penalty?
CHASE: Oh, I think it`s very likely, especially with the comments we heard after the recent Supreme Court ruling striking down the death penalty for child rapists alone without the murder. I think they almost have to seek the death penalty in this case.
GRACE: To Melanie in Indiana, what`s your question, dear?
MELANIE, INDIANA RESIDENT: Hi. My question is, is that, you know, I have experienced and long history of sex abuse and child abuse. And the question is how does this man continue to have access to children?
GRACE: What about it, Bethany?
MARSHALL: Well, because he doesn`t just groom the child. He grooms the entire family. That`s what sex predators do. They marry vulnerable women with children and they gained.
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GRACE: New developments in the case of the murder of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett.
Back to Matt Zarrell -- very quickly, Matt, I also understand the uncle is now believed to have actually planted evidence?
ZARRELL: Yes. What`s been revealed is that we know that Jacques was the one who initially found the items on Route 65, which turned out to be a sneaker and a handkerchief containing human blood and, in fact, semen.
What happened was that the affidavit includes e-mail from Jacques to the teen victim we`ve been talking about, asking her to collect the semen from her minor boyfriend and putting that on the handkerchief and placing that in a plastic bag.
So that`s where we`ve gotten that evidence from.
GRACE: Man, if these allegations are true, the level of premeditation is incredible.
Out to the lines, Ashley in Pennsylvania. Hi, dear.
ASHLEY, PENNSYLVANIA RESIDENT: Hi. I love your show, Nancy.
GRACE: Thank you.
ASHLEY: I want to know how does a man like this uncle only serve two years for rape.
GRACE: How did that happen, Mike Brooks?
BROOKS: That`s a great question, Nancy. You know, the laws -- you know, the cops lock them up. They go to the criminal justice system, and then they plead down to something else.
But two years -- and, you know, he`s a registered sex offender. And it just behooves me. But you know what, Brooke Bennett`s mom -- you`re going to tell me that she didn`t know that there was something going on. Just like Dr. Bethany said, you know, you`ve got two sisters, two sexual predators, unbelievable.
GRACE: And to allow the 12-year-old to be with them is unfathomable.
Let`s stop and remember Army Staff Sergeant Bryant Mackey, 30, Eureka, Kansas, killed Iraq. On a second tour. Dedicated to family and country, always put others first. Loved the Redskins, the Kansas State Wildcats, hunting, fishing.
Leaves behind parents Karen and Karl, one brother, two sisters, widow Marie, and three children, ages 10, 7, and 5.
Bryant Mackey, American hero.
Thanks to our guests but most of all to you for inviting us into your homes. And tonight a special good night from Florida friends of the show, Sharon, Sheila, Kelly, Margaret.
Aren`t they beautiful?
And thank you to Florida friends of the show, Sharon and Paul, for these patriotic outfits for tomorrow for the twins. And Chelsea, Debra, and Pam from Jacksonville State University for these books I`ll read to the twins.
As we head into the Fourth of July weekend, happy fourth, and God Bless America.
I`ll see you tomorrow night. Until then, good night, friend.
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