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Nancy Grace
Casey Anthony Defense Move Baffles Observers
Aired March 27, 2009 - 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 in the desperate search for a 2-year-old Florida girl, Caylee. Six months of searching culminates when skeletal remains found in a heavily wooded area just 15 houses from the Anthony home confirmed to be Caylee, manner of death homicide. A utility meter reader stumbles on a tiny human skeleton, including a skull covered in light-colored hair, the killer duct-taping and placing a heart-shaped sticker directly over the mouth, then triple-bagging little Caylee like she`s trash.
While tot mom undergoes another makeover for court -- a far cry from photos showing her out of control, partying in skimpy lingerie, soul- kissing other women, dancing the night away -- where`s Caylee?
Bombshell tonight. Tot mom`s lawyers put tot mom`s best friend on the hot seat, demanding friend Amy Huizenga go under oath. But it may boomerang. The best friend was with tot mom the whole month she partied out of control while Caylee`s missing. And the friend`s an eyewitness to countless nights when tot mom actually brought 2-year-old Caylee to booze- drenched parties, even poker night parties. Tot mom told the friend a string of lies, went so far to set up an explanation for the smell of death in her car, even stealing the friend`s checks for a shopping spree at Target for beer and push-up bras.
We also confirmed four Orange County jail officers also set to go under oath, including those with tot mom when she sees live coverage of the discovery of Caylee`s remains and immediately asked for medication for herself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigative interviews with Casey`s friend, Amy Huizenga, reveal new information about a rich social life for Casey Anthony not long after her daughter was lost from the picture.
911 OPERATOR: And you last saw her a month ago?
CASEY ANTHONY, CAYLEE`S MOTHER: Thirty-one days. It`s been thirty- one days.
911 OPERATOR: Why are you calling now? Why didn`t you call 31 days ago?
CASEY ANTHONY: I have been looking for her and have gone through other resources to try to find her, which was stupid.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Huizenga tells investigators, I know she had started smoking more pot than she ever had. She would maybe eat a brownie here or there, maybe smoke every once in a great while, but she did tell me that she`s been smoking a lot more pot. That statement about Casey referred to mid-June, right around the time Caylee was last seen.
CASEY ANTHONY: Walked to the stairs. That`s where I`ve dropped her off a bunch of other times.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So many text messages Casey received and also that she sent out, and those were her favorite topics, who she wanted to have sex with, drinking and smoking pot. That seemed to be the thing she was concentrating on mostly, not about Caylee.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wasting time, valuable time that ought to be spent looking for your daughter.
CASEY ANTHONY: I truly, truly love that little girl and miss her so much. God! And I miss you guys.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Also tonight, a beautiful Hollywood wife in a heated argument with her husband, then she vanishes, not reported missing until days later, and then not by her husband but by her TV actress sister. Even though his wife missing during their planned Valentine vacation, he goes anyway to, quote, "look for her." In Mexico? Hello? Her car, her wallet, her keys, they`re all there left at the house. How she`s supposed to get to Mexico? But tonight, her husband responds on camera. Where is Lesley Herring?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you have anything to do with her disappearance?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely not.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lesley Herring, missing under suspicious circumstances, last seen by her husband, Lyle Herring, who says the two had gotten into an argument.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Couples have discussions about many things all of the time, you know? So you know, it was nothing out of ordinary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police found all of Herring`s belongings left behind, including her car. According to police, Lyle Herring went to Mexico to go look for his wife. They reportedly made plans to go there for Valentine`s Day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would describe his cooperation as fragmented and less than helpful, not someone I would expect for a grieving husband.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t feel it was a fair overview of my character.
I haven`t slept, you know? You can see my eyes. My eyes are red, you know? And I`m just totally devastated here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And to Dallas, Texas, where Mommy gets high on painkillers and Chardonnay, then leaves her 7-month-old son, Christian (ph), strapped in a carseat overnight. The next morning, the baby`s dead. This after a string of alcohol-related offenses -- DUI, hit and run, multiple public intoxications. But the baby, not the mommy, pays the price.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, Lord Jesus!
911 OPERATOR: 911. Where is your emergency?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ma`am -- where is this? I`m at 1208 Brewer Drive. I got a baby here...
911 OPERATOR: 1208...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brewer Drive, 1208 Brewer Drive.
911 OPERATOR: OK. And what`s going on there?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got a baby that`s not breathing and the body`s cold.
911 OPERATOR: How old is the baby?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How old`s your baby? She says 10 (ph) months.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell. Tot mom`s lawyers put tot mom`s best friend on the hot seat, demanding friend Amy Huizenga go under oath. But will it boomerang in court?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Casey Anthony`s friend, Amy Huizenga, tells detectives Casey Anthony told her it smelled like something died in Casey`s car.
CINDY ANTHONY, CASEY`S MOTHER: There was a bag of pizza for what, 12 days in the back of the car, full of maggots, it stunk so bad. You know how hot it`s been. That smell was terrible.
GEORGE ANTHONY, CASEY`S FATHER: It was an overpowering smell, I will admit that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: According to Amy Huizenga, before George and Cindy Anthony opened Casey`s impounded car, they were terrified that Casey or Caylee would be inside the trunk.
GEORGE ANTHONY: I believe that there`s -- something was dead back there. And I smell, and I`m, like, Oh, my God. I think I whispered out to myself, Please don`t let this be my Caylee.
CASEY ANTHONY: After about 7:00 o`clock, when I still hadn`t heard anything, I was getting pretty upset, pretty frantic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Casey gets a tattoo on her shoulder that reads, Buena (ph) Vita, "good life." The investigator says, So she got her fingernails cleaned, done up pretty and a tattoo in the week that Tony`s gone? Amy answers, Uh-huh. The investigator says, Goes out partying the 2nd and 3rd? Amy says, And the 4th because we had a 4th of July party.
CASEY ANTHONY: I wasn`t sure what I`d say about not knowing where Caylee was, still hoping that I would get a call, or you know, find out that Caylee was coming back so that I could go get her.
I lied.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got here how? To do what?
CASEY ANTHONY: Because I lied.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want you to tell me how lying to us is going to help us find your daughter.
CASEY ANTHONY: It`s not going to.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Huh?
CASEY ANTHONY: It`s not going to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Natisha Lance, our producer on the story from the very beginning. Natisha, why is the defense calling tot mom`s former best friend to the stand, a witness to night after night after night of partying while Caylee`s missing? Don`t they get it? The state will then have the woman on cross-examination.
NATISHA LANCE, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: That`s a great question, Nancy, and one of the things that everybody is trying to figure out at this point. Amy Huizenga was a witness to Casey Anthony during this time that Caylee was missing. She said that she witnessed Casey Anthony smoking more pot. She witnessed Casey Anthony getting a tattoo. She witnessed her getting her nails done, attending parties...
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. What did the tattoo say, Natisha Lance?
LANCE: The tattoo said, Bella (ph) vita, and that translates to "beautiful life."
GRACE: And when did she get -- when did mom get the tattoo?
LANCE: She got the tattoo the first week in July, between July 1st and July 5th.
GRACE: And even by her account, Caylee goes missing around July -- June 16. And she`s getting a tattoo that says, The sweet life, the beautiful life, a month later with her daughter gone? Just yes, no.
LANCE: Yes.
GRACE: Out to Ellie Jostad, our producer, who`s been researching the case from the very beginning, as well. Ellie, this woman is a minefield. She is explosive for the defense. I guess they don`t get it. Maybe they just want a preview of what she`s going to say at trial. But Ellie Jostad, what can this woman, Amy Huizenga, testify to?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Amy Huizenga was one of Casey Anthony`s closest friends. And most significantly, she was in close contact with her in that month of time from mid-June to mid-July when Caylee was missing.
Some things that Amy can talk about. She says, like Natisha said, she saw Casey actually bringing little Caylee to parties where adults were drinking, while they were playing poker. She said that during this time, Casey Anthony was happy-go-lucky, care-free, nothing seemed wrong. She told her, Oh, Caylee`s fine. She`s with the nanny.
She also, Amy Huizenga, was with -- at the home that night that Cindy Anthony finally tracked Casey down and she was witness to this confrontation. Cindy Anthony also told Amy that she, Cindy, was attempting to get custody of Caylee, that she confronted Casey about her partying, and that she and George were very concerned about that smell in the car.
GRACE: Now -- Ellie Jostad joining us. Ellie, I want to clarify something that we have not yet reported. We`re showing photos of a party tot mom attended, called the "Anything but clothes" party. And you will observe tot mom dressed in, I`m sorry to say, the American flag. I`m sure the residents at Arlington National Cemetery are spinning in their graves right now.
But that aside, can`t this friend, this best friend, former best friend, testify to a confrontation between grandmother Cindy and tot mom over the night of this party?
JOSTAD: Yes. Yes, she can. Amy says -- Amy told detectives that Cindy Anthony told her that Casey had said, Mom, I`m going to be at work. Will you watch Caylee? Cindy agreed. Then later, Cindy Anthony found these pictures from the "Anything but clothes" party on Casey`s computer and confronted her with it, and said, Hey, you said that you were at work, huh? And showed her the photo.
GRACE: And so doesn`t grandmother Cindy actually print out the photos, according to this witness the defense for some reason wants to call, and holds the photo up and goes, You said you were working. What is this? Is that right, Ellie?
JOSTAD: That`s right. That`s exactly what she did.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Casey, did you kill Caylee?
CASEY ANTHONY: I know Mom will understand this better than anyone, that there is that type of bond that you have with your kid...
LEE ANTHONY, CASEY`S BROTHER: Right.
CASEY ANTHONY: ... and it`s -- you know, it`s unexplainable.
CINDY ANTHONY: You know, that gut feeling that made call for help...
We`re talking about a 3-year-old little girl! My daughter finally admitted that the baby-sitter stole her. I need to find her!
-- it`s the same gut feeling that I know that she`s out there, and that`s why I keep calling for help to the public.
CASEY ANTHONY: In my gut, she`s still OK, and it still feels like she`s close to home.
CINDY ANTHONY: There`s certain things that we do know. There`s certain things that Casey knows that she can`t tell. But you know, frankly, there`s not a whole lot of people that we trust. I trust Casey. I trust her attorney. I trust my son. And I trust my husband.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only time that you know that he ever went looking for the body, he never called the police. Obviously, this is a tip that he really believed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... because to your knowledge, he never been out searching for the body ever before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But that doesn`t mean he hadn`t.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I said to your knowledge.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then -- but he didn`t call the police and say, Meet us out there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grandma ever ask you about a smell coming from the car?
AMY HUIZENGA, CASEY`S FORMER FRIEND: She told me about a smell...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When?
HUIZENGA: ... in car ride back to Tony`s place, after she had picked me up from Florida Mall that was. She was telling me the story about, you know, the fact that she had gotten a letter from the impound saying that the car had been impounded since the 30th. They went to go pick it up, and that the car smelled like something had died and...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grandma tells you that?
HUIZENGA: Grandma tells me that. And at that point, I`m, like, Oh, yes, Casey told me she had run something over with her car. And then proceeds -- she proceeds to tell me, she`s, like, Oh, well, you know, we didn`t know that. But proceeds to tell me the rest of the story that the impound law, because they couldn`t -- didn`t have the keys...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, but didn`t you say that Casey blamed her dad for running something over?
HUIZENGA: Is what she told me, but we now know that...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
HUIZENGA: ... nothing Casey says is true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The former best friend of tot mom who was there as the "Anything but clothes" party with tot mom is set to go under oath, on the hot seat, for the defense.
Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight, you know Gloria Allred, victims` rights attorney out of LA, Daniel Horowitz, a renowned attorney out of San Francisco, and Paul Batista, defense attorney and author of "Death`s Witness," attorney practicing in New York. Welcome, everyone.
Daniel Horowitz, why would the defense call one of the state`s star witnesses in deposition?
DANIEL HOROWITZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, I don`t have a clue. The defense usually holds their cards away from the prosecution, and here they`re tipping their hand. Plus, they`re tying themselves into a defense that is not viable. It`s just not a viable defense that she did not kill her daughter, so they`re just blowing it at this point. I think it`s just a terrible defense move.
GRACE: And to Gloria Allred -- handles many, many high-profile cases. Gloria, doesn`t he get it? Because nothing would have made me happier at trial than the defense to call one of my witnesses when I was prosecuting, and I got them on cross-exam. I remember one time they did that at the end of the day in an arson case, they had my arson investigator on the stand for five minutes of direct. I had him on five hours of cross-exam. It was a field day, a bloodbath! What is he thinking?
GLORIA ALLRED, VICTIMS` RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, I think, Nancy, that you were right when you said a little bit earlier on this program that maybe they`re trying to preview what the testimony`s going to be so that they can figure out a way to deal with it. And I can`t think of any other reason because there doesn`t appear to be any good reason why what she has to say would help the defense.
GRACE: Take a look at this, Paul Batista. You are seeing tot mom the many, many times that she has been in court -- July 17, 22, 29, August 30, October 15, Jan 8, 30, March 2, 12 and 25. Now, in many of these occasions, she`s had an extreme makeover. I assume you`ve seen the euphemistically described "party pix"?
PAUL BATISTA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I certainly have, and...
GRACE: Now, that`s some makeover. That`s something Baez can be proud of. The jury may very likely never see the photos of her partying out of control while Caylee`s missing.
BATISTA: Well, she`s certainly becoming increasingly demure in her court appearances, and there`s nothing wrong with that strategy by her and her lawyer. There`s also nothing wrong, Nancy, by the way, with the opportunity to cross-examine and get the testimony of Amy Huizenga. I think that`s a marvelous opportunity.
GRACE: He`s going to have her on direct, Paul.
BATISTA: I think that that is just a way to begin to defuse her testimony at trial.
GRACE: You said cross.
BATISTA: It`s a rare opportunity.
GRACE: You don`t call somebody on cross, typically. He`s got to call her on direct. That means he cannot ask leading questions, Paul Batista.
BATISTA: But at a pre-trial deposition...
GRACE: Trial Strategy 101. Hello!
BATISTA: At a pre-trial deposition, that itself is very unusual. I think it`s a marvelous opportunity, and I don`t blame him for exploiting it.
GRACE: Well, you know what? You call it exploiting an opportunity. I call it a boomerang in the neck in the middle of the courtroom because just for instance, if Amy Huizenga, the best friend, can`t testify for whatever reason at trial, the state will have this sworn deposition to wave under the jury`s nose about countless nights partying without little Caylee.
And to you, Lillian Glass, Dr. Glass, psychologist and author of "I Know What You`re Thinking" -- even bringing the child to booze-drenched parties, including poker night parties.
LILLIAN GLASS, PSYCHOLOGIST: Nancy, that`s horrible. That`s new information, and that is beyond horrible.
GRACE: Look, I had to bless (ph) out a guy on the sidewalk for smoking in front of our building and the twins had to breathe it, much less a booze party.
GLASS: Exactly. This is horrific. Horrific.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CINDY ANTHONY: If you think of anything that can help, don`t be afraid.
CASEY ANTHONY: Oh, I won`t hesitate to let you guys know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Being forthcoming and being truthful are two completely separate things.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you all think she was being forthcoming?
CASEY ANTHONY: As far as anything else at the moment, there`s either nothing that I can obviously give to you now, or you know, there really honestly isn`t anything I can think of at this exact moment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It spelled (ph) to me that there was reluctance.
CASEY ANTHONY: I can only do so much from where I`m at, and I want to do so much more, but I can`t!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A bombshell that will appear in the courtroom. The defense for some unknown reason is choosing to depose under oath tot mom`s former best friend, a witness to countless nights of partying, after little Caylee is dead.
I want to go to Sheryl McCollum, crime analyst and director of the cold case squad at Pine Lake Police Department. Sheryl, this is your specialty, putting cases back together after the fact. And now the defense wants to question one the witnesses with a bird`s-eye view of tot mom`s life in the hours, days and months after Caylee is killed.
SHERYL MCCOLLUM, CRIME ANALYST: Nancy, this is going to blow up in his face. You`ve got somebody that by her own testimony says, I launched my own investigation. So while she`s investigating who kidnapped her child, she`s smoking weed, she`s drinking, she`s wearing the -- you know, the American flag versus clothes. How is that helping the investigation? She`s texting and calling everybody but the police. This is going to be so damaging.
GRACE: And to Drew Petrimoulx with WDBO, standing by there at the jailhouse. This friend is also the woman from whom tot mom -- she`s been indicted for stealing checks and going on a shopping spree at Target for a case of beer and some push-up bras. There she is on video using the friend`s checks. And they want this woman`s testimony?
DREW PETRIMOULX, WDBO: She did apparently steal a checkbook out of Amy Huizenga`s car. But I think it`s important, while Amy and along with Casey`s other friends will admit that she is a thief and somewhat of a liar, a pathological liar, some would say, to a tee, they also say they cannot envision Casey murdering her daughter.
So maybe they want to get it out in the open that, yes, she may very well be a bad person but cannot picture her actually murdering her daughter. And while the state says that that is exactly what she did, maybe they`re trying to look for some counter-argument to that because pretty much everything else that Amy would say would be definitely detrimental to the defense team.
GRACE: Drew Petrimoulx, that`s an excellent point.
But to you, Ellie Jostad. Didn`t the tot mom try to set up a preemptive defense with this witness, the best friend, by claiming she had run over an animal, a dead animal to explain the death smell in her car?
JOSTAD: Yes. On June 27th, she sent Casey -- or Casey sent Amy a text that said, There was definitely part of a dead animal plastered to my car.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE ANTHONY, CASEY ANTHONY`S FATHER: I believe that there`s -- something was dead back there. And I`m like, oh my God, I think I whispered out to myself, please don`t let this be my Caylee.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was no odor in the car when it was towed down to the towing company. No odor. Maybe someone put a body in the car after it was towed to the tow yard.
CASEY ANTHONY: I got off of work, left Universal driving back to pick up Caylee like a normal day. And I show up to the apartment, knock on the door, nobody answers. So I called Zenaida`s cell phone and it`s out of service.
G. ANTHONY: My daughter was on the edge. You know that (INAUDIBLE), all of these contradictions.
YURI MELICH, POLICE DETECTIVE: We even pulled a surveillance video from an apartment complex. And they have to keep this by law for several days, OK? And we`re not seeing you over there. We`re not seeing you there at all that day. You think that we`re stupid and we`re not going to do all of this?
CASEY ANTHONY: I was getting pretty upset, pretty frantic. And I went to a neutral place still hoping that I would get a call or, you know, find out that Caylee was coming back so that I could go get her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Leonard Padilla, bounty hunter, who first posted bond for the tot mom then, launched an exhaustive search for little Caylee.
Leonard, I`ve got the readout of all of the text messages. And we see that tot mom, according to the state, setting up a preemptive defense, claiming to this best friend: "There was definitely part of a dead animal plastered to the frame of my car."
And it doesn`t even make sense, Leonard. The text right before it is about fajitas. And then she goes on to say: "And my car ran out of gas again." So she`s really trying to nail in a defense with this friend, Amy Huizenga, on the text messages.
LEONARD PADILLA, BOUNTY HUNTER: Casey lives her life 10 minutes at a time. And let me explain something to you. The body was out of there on the 24th. I know law enforcement says that she took the body out of there on the 18th. I think the body was there until the 24th when her dad almost discovered it by walking around to the back of the car.
So once the body was out there, she starts thinking, OK, how do I cover for the smell that maybe somebody smelled? Maybe somebody. And I think there were two mentions of the squirrels. Once on the 25th, and I believe another time, subsequent to that.
But let me get back to Amy Huizenga. She`s not so much interested of what Amy has to say about the checks and all of the dancing and all of that stuff, what Jose Baez is zeroing in on is Huizenga`s conversations with Richard Grund subsequent to November the 1st, during the search when Amy and Richard Grund were together, because she`s still going to go back and try to use Jesse or the possibility of Zenaida as the patsy.
She one time said that Jesse had introduced her to Zenaida. If you look back in the reports, you`ll see, Jesse knows Zenaida, "he referred me to her."
GRACE: So how will that help the defense though? Because Grund is denying that?
PADILLA: Well, we`re back to Richard now and.
GRACE: Got you. Got you.
PADILLA: . conversations he had with Amy.
GRACE: And very quickly, Leonard Padilla, what do you make of them wanting to depose the deputies, some of them with the tot mom when she sees live coverage of the discovery of Caylee`s remains where she hyperventilates and asked for medication for herself to relieve her own nervousness?
PADILLA: Baez is kind of using an oblique offense on that. He`s looking for the deputy that overheard the conversation between him and his client.
GRACE: Got it.
PADILLA: Supposedly a conversation where she described where the body was. The information was then somehow passed off to Kronk`s girlfriend who works at the jail, who passed it onto Kronk. Kronk bragged about it prior to Thanksgiving that she had given him the information.
GRACE: Well, you know I disagree with that theory. But we`ll see...
PADILLA: I know.
GRACE: . when that deposition comes down, Leonard Padilla.
Everyone, we`re switching gears. I want to tell you about a missing woman. Long story short, her husband didn`t report her missing. Her TV actress sister did. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYLE HERRING, WIFE MISSING: I enjoy the warmth of my wife. I have enjoyed everything about her, you know? So I just truly miss her right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But Lyle Herring did not notify police his wife was missing. His sister Aasha did after learning Leslie Herring had not been at work.
GRACE: Weren`t her keys, cell phone, pocketbook, and car there at the home? Yet he went on their Valentine`s Day vacation as planned and said he was looking for her in Mexico?
AASHA DAVIS, ACTOR: Exactly. Everything -- all of my sister`s belongings were still there, which is very disturbing to me. Just doesn`t sound like my sister.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re trying to find out where she is, the places that we think we would be, that`s what I was told.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It may sound suspicious and it may seem that way but I`m not going to rush to judgment and call him the suspect until I confirm it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know what happened to her? Did you have anything to do with her disappearance?
HERRING: Absolutely not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: She goes missing after a heated argument with her husband. He fails to report her missing when he wakes up the next morning. Her TV actress sister does the reporting. Joining me right now, Hollywood actress, sister of Lesley Herring, Aasha Davis. Ms. Davis joining us from L.A.
Ms. Davis, what is the latest in the search for your sister?
DAVIS: We are just keeping in contact with the LAPD. And there`s not much information more than they gave us in the past that they`re just searching for her. And we`re just trying to get the word out there. We`re trying to notify as many people as possible.
GRACE: With me is Lew Stowers, reporter with Metro Networks. He`s joining us from Huntington Beach, California.
Lew, in a nutshell, what happens when she goes missing?
LEW STOWERS, REPORTER, METRO NETWORKS: Well, when -- they did a welfare check and I really have to wonder why Aasha Davis was the person on the emergency contact list for Tyco (ph), where Lesley Herring is employed, why she was the contact.
But anyway, when they did the welfare check, they broke down the door, found all of Lesley`s belongings, even her car, which was the very first car she ever bought way back probably in the early `90s, a red Toyota coupe.
And they -- it`s just a mystery how she vanished into thin air like this. But Deputy Wendy Berdt, the supervisor of Hollywood Homicide Unit, says, well, with the disappearance going on seven weeks, there are two persons of interest that they`re focusing on, although they`re not saying who those two are, or if husband Lyle Herring is being focused on.
And they`re exhausting all clues and leads to find out the right answers and not to limit the disappearance to just Lyle, who has really done a 180 on his appearance over the past few weeks.
GRACE: You know, that`s a really good point. Back to the sister, Aasha Davis, joining us from L.A. He has done another extreme makeover. Didn`t he have long dreads and now he`s all clean-cut. He looks like a Wall Street businessman?
DAVIS: Yes. I imagine it must have been very difficult. I have friends who have dreadlocks and it`s a sacred thing, when you get rid of your dreadlocks. So I can`t imagine what he must be -- have gone through to lose those.
GRACE: Well, to Gloria Allred, Daniel Horowitz, and Paul Batista. He obviously knew, Gloria -- and he has come up with some crazy story that a gang attacked him and he cut his hair. Hello, gangs usually cut your throat, not your hair. They don`t want your dreads. Gloria, was it part of his makeover?
GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY: Well, very well could be. And it`s also, of course, very, very concerning and bizarre that he would suddenly go missing for two weeks after she goes missing. And -- and of course he`s lawyered up right away, which is his right.
But again, it`s just very, very suspicious.
GRACE: To Dr. Joshua Perper, chief medical examiner, Broward County, author of "When to Call the Doctor." Dr. Perper, I know that you are familiar with these facts. And the husband, who is not a suspect, went on a preplanned vacation to Mexico. Would it be worth investigating in Mexico forensically?
DR. JOSHUA PERPER, CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER, BROWARD COUNTY: Well, it would be certainly worthwhile and they will do that. The question is if he hide the body -- or hid the body somewhere in Mexico, or buried the body, the body never is going to be discovered though. The chances are very low.
GRACE: As we go to break, a special happy birthday to Florida friend of the show, Dorothy (ph). Believe it or not, she`s 102 today. Happy birthday, dear Dorothy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would describe this cooperation as fragmented, and less than helpful, not someone I would expect for a grieving husband.
HERRING: I don`t feel it was a fair overview of -- of my character. I haven`t slept, you know? You can see my eyes. My eyes are red, you know? And I`m just totally devastated here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know what happened to her? Did you have anything to do with her disappearance?
HERRING: Absolutely not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Boo-hoo, your eyes are red. You haven`t slept. Your wife is missing. You`re the last person to have seen her alive after a heated argument. You go on a Mexican vacation without her to look for her. Back to Aasha Davis, Hollywood actress, sister of Lesley Herring.
We want to help. What is your message tonight?
DAVIS: I just want everyone out there to know that we are going to exhaust every avenue to find Lesley. We`re not going to give up. If you know the smallest detail, if you saw anything at all, just please contact the police and let us know because we`re desperate for answers.
GRACE: The tip line everyone, 213-972-2915, 213-972-2915.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you have anything to do with her disappearance?
HERRING: Absolutely not.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lesley Herring, missing under suspicious circumstances, last seen by her husband Lyle Herring, who says the two had gotten into an argument.
HERRING: Couples have discussions about many things all of the time, you know. So you know it was nothing out of the ordinary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police found all of Herring`s belongings left behind, including her car. According to police, Lyle Herring went to Mexico to go look for his wife. They reportedly made plans to go there for Valentine`s Day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would describe this cooperation as fragmented and less than helpful, not someone I would expect for a grieving husband.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And now very quickly, I want to take you to Texas. Mommy gets high on painkillers and Chardonnay. Her 7-month-old child dies in a car seat.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CALLER: Oh lord Jesus.
DISPATCHER: 911, what`s your emergency?
CALLER: Ma`am, I`m at -- where is this? Where is this? 1208 Brewer Drive. (INAUDIBLE) I`ve got a baby here.
(CROSSTALK)
CALLER: 1208 Brewer Drive. 1208 Brewer Drive.
DISPATCHER: OK. And what`s going on there?
CALLER: I got a baby that`s not breathing and the body is cold.
DISPATCHER: How old is the baby?
CALLER: How old is your baby? She says a month.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to producer Marlaina Schiavo.
Marlaina, what happened?
MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Nancy, this woman worked all day. She was taking pain pills all day for a busted knee. Then she goes and gets some wine. Goes home, drinks the wine. Goes to pick her kids up from day care. Takes her two toddlers in the house and leaves her baby in the car. Doesn`t realize it. Drinks some more wine. Passes out on the couch.
Wakes up in the morning and says, where`s my baby? Goes outs to the car, finds her baby is unconscious. He was 7 months old. This is a 35- year-old woman who runs in the house, brings her baby in, tries to see if she can revive him. Can`t. Goes next door.
Gets a cell phone from a neighbor because she can`t find her cell phone. Waits about 15 minutes while she makes a series of phone calls, then asks the neighbor to call 911.
GRACE: Marlaina, are you telling me she did not call 911 immediately?
SCHIAVO: She didn`t call 911, Nancy. She went to look for her cell phone and couldn`t find it. And then she asked her neighbor for his cell phone, he gave it to her. She calls her cell phone from his cell phone to find her cell phone. Then tries to call her husband. Then she runs next door and asks him to call 911, which he did.
GRACE: Let`s unleash the lawyers. Gloria Allred, Paul Batista, Daniel Horowitz.
Gloria, I don`t want to pile on during this time of grief for this mother and father, but Chardonnay, painkillers, driving. She already had DUIs, public intoxication, striking a fixed object and not noticing. Basically, a hit and run. And now the baby paid the ultimate price, not the mommy.
ALLRED: And, Nancy, on top of all of that, she had two other little toddlers in the car in which she -- who she took inside. I mean, this is reckless. This is irresponsible. Right, we don`t want to pile on a mother who has to be grieving.
On the other hand, this is, really from the point of view of the law and the facts, kind of a foreseeable situation that this tragedy would occur.
GRACE: To Paul Batista, go ahead, hit me. But let`s keep in mind with the defense attorneys, voluntary intoxication is not a defense under the law. If it was, everybody up at the jailhouse would say, I was drunk.
PAUL BATISTA, ATTORNEY: Clearly it`s not a defense here. In fact, Nancy, it`s probably an aggravating circumstance. And this lady is in a world of personal pain. And the shock she`s going to receive when I think she`s going to be indicted for much more serious charges than she now faces is going to be a further world of pain for her.
GRACE: Daniel Horowitz, why is he telling me that she`s in a world of pain? The 7-month-old child is dead.
DANIEL HOROWITZ, ATTORNEY: I know, Nancy, we should start out by saying, you never abandon a child, particularly in the cold weather. When they look dead, you do CPR and you get help.
GRACE: It is only 50 degrees. It was only 50 degrees. And I don`t understand the cause of death. The medical examiner is saying it may be six weeks before they can get a cause of death on the child.
HOROWITZ: Would that be an interesting defense then, if the child died -- children live in 50, 60 degrees weather and they sleep for 12 hours without their mommies without dying. So maybe she does not have a murder charge and maybe there is not much of a neglect charge. I hope that`s the case for her sake.
GRACE: Daniel Horowitz, I`m stunned, even from you, to say there`s not much of a neglect charge. That`s saying you`re a little pregnant.
HOROWITZ: Charge. Charge.
GRACE: She leaves the child, the child is dead. She`s drunk on the sofa off of Chardonnay and painkillers. To Janette Fennell, car seat expert and president, founder of kidsandcars.org.
Weigh in, Janette.
JANETTE FENNELL, PRES. & FOUNDER, KIDSANDCARS.ORG: Well, I think, you know, there is a history with this woman of having a substance abuse problem. And it`s, you know, unfortunate that no one intervened before this time.
But the fact that she drank, she took those drugs, I don`t know what she was doing behind the wheel of a vehicle. I mean, we`re lucky that this wasn`t even worse than -- than what has already been reported.
GRACE: Sheryl McCollum, how do we put the pieces back together again on this case?
SHERYL MCCOLLUM, FMR. DIR., MADD GEORGIA: What they`re going to look at, Nancy, is they`re going to look at bottle of wine. They`re going to see whether or not it was a one drink or four that she had. They`re also going to check the prescription to see if the amount of medicine that she was actually taking. And then they`re going to see whether or not she had multiple medications at the same time from different doctors or different pharmacies.
They`re going to go back and see just how extensive this issue was for her to quote, in her words, "blackout."
GRACE: Lillian Glass?
LILLIAN GLASS, PSYCHOLOGIST: It`s just -- you`re speechless. You can`t believe that somebody would actually take alcohol with medication. It`s just unbelievable.
GRACE: Everyone, right now, "CNN Heroes."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. CARNELL COOPER, "COMMUNITY CRUSADER": As a trauma surgeon, I see a significant amount of violent injuries every year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The guy had brought somebody...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was shot with a .45-caliber gun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got shot twice...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It actually blew my leg off.
COOPER: We take care of them, and then they`ll come back again.
My colleague said there`s really just nothing we can do in these situations. I knew that wasn`t true, and I knew I could make a difference.
I`m Dr. Carnell Cooper. I`m saving lives by breaking the cycle of violence in Baltimore.
When they are here in the hospital, it represents an opportunity.
I want to talk to you about the violence intervention program.
Maybe for the first time, this individual says, I almost died.
Are you interested? Yes. OK. Good.
We say, look, we are going to help you get out of the game.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before I was into shooting people, robbing. This group has changed my life tremendously.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all got goals now. We know where we`re going at.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A GED, job training, more support.
COOPER: You guys have all done great, and I`m very proud of you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dr. Cooper, he saved me.
COOPER: Every physician`s goal is to save lives.
This is another step in that process. In my mind, it`s just what I should be doing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: What a week in America`s courtrooms. Take a look at the stories and, more important, the people who touched our lives.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Girls, guys, all together having a good time at a Halloween party. Then.
GRACE: Wait, wait, wait, wait, you call this having a good time. You know, maybe I`m crazy, but I have been to Halloween parties. And I didn`t get down on the floor with some other girl on top of me.
Right now, specialists called back to the island of Aruba to search, search for Natalee`s body.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dave Holloway became concerned that this pond -- a pond there that had been searched before had not been thoroughly searched.
GRACE: You are making the assertion, the claim, that Misty Croslin Cummings, now Haleigh`s stepmother, entertained another man in the home the night Haleigh goes missing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I don`t believe we have officially made that claim. I believe that we think a lot of things happened that night that have not been told to the media.
GRACE: It`s all about questions, questions arising whether tot mom and her lawyer are raking in money, money off Caylee`s murder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are various ways that those media companies have paid for those pictures and things. They are called licensing fees, they`re not called appearance fees, they`re licensing fees.
GRACE: Well, that`s putting perfume on a pig. Somebody said she was an unfit mother. I wonder where they got that idea? There you see tot mom on the right. She`s the caboose on that train.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Let`s stop and remember Army Private Cody Eggleston, 21, Eugene, Oregon, died in Maryland from wounds suffered in Iraq. C.J. to family and friends. Loved movies, especially old westerns, was newly married and looking forward to his honeymoon. Leaves behind grieving wife Carrie (ph), stepdaughter Reagan (ph), parents Walter (ph) and Angie (ph), stepmother Vicky (ph), stepfather Eric (ph), sister Amber (ph), brother Brandon (ph). Cody Eggleston, American hero.
Thanks to our guests, but especially to you for being with us. And tonight, a special good night from the New York control room. Good night, Norm (ph), Brett (ph), Liz (ph), everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
END
