Return to Transcripts main page
Jane Velez-Mitchell
New Developments in Missing Woman Case; Father Fights Brazil Court for Custody of Son
Aired June 03, 2009 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, gut-wrenching developments in the disappearance of beautiful outgoing Tracy Ocasio. Security video shows Tracy leaving a local bar with a man cops say is 28- year-old James Hataway. He reportedly has a long rap sheet, including charges of kidnapping.
Now this shocker. One woman claims he tried to strangle her in a situation eerily similar to Tracy`s. I will speak to Tracy`s distraught parents about this nightmare.
Then, movie stars and moguls of Malibu terrified by a gruesome murder. A pregnant woman and her husband brutally stabbed by an intruder in their glamorous beach house. I`ll tell you why cops think it was not a random killing spree.
And a cruel international custody battle twist. A New Jersey man`s wife fled to Brazil with their son, Sean. She died shortly after that. Sean`s Brazilian stepdad got custody. After a five-year legal battle, a Brazilian court finally ruled David Goldman would get his son back. But yesterday, he got off a plane in Brazil, only to hear the ruling was suspended. I`ll find out what`s next for the frustrated New Jersey father.
Plus, the bizarre story of a con man who kidnapped his own 7-year-old daughter. The man calling himself Clark Rockefeller is pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. But prosecutors say this Crockefeller has been using aliases to swindle wealthy aristocrats for decades. So, will he walk?
ISSUES starts now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Fast-breaking developments tonight in the case of missing Florida woman Tracy Ocasio, the beautiful 27-year-old last seen leaving a bar last Tuesday night with a 28-year-old man. Witnesses say they saw the two kissing earlier in the evening. Authorities say that man is James Hataway. He is now a person of interest in this case.
Hataway has a very, and I mean very, very, very troubling criminal history. But he insists he had nothing to do with Tracy`s disappearance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where`s Tracy?
JAMES HATAWAY, LAST PERSON SEEN WITH MISSING WOMAN: I`m innocent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened the last night with her?
HATAWAY: She left. I hung out with my father.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you guys do that night?
HATAWAY: We just hung out. She gave me a ride home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did she say to you, where she was going? Did she say anything about where she was going?
HATAWAY: No, nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But tonight, more horrifying, gut-wrenching information coming out about that guy. Police now say he is being investigated in six -- count them -- six possible cases: two missing persons cases, and four assaults.
One of them is a woman who wishes to remain anonymous. She said Hataway tried to strangle her almost a year ago after she gave him a ride home from a bar and even allegedly slammed her head onto the sidewalk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Strangling me. He told me he was going to kill me. He ended up picking me up, and he had his hands around my throat. And two people walked outside, thank God, and saved my life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: There are eerie similarities between that woman`s story and Tracy`s. Both women supposedly left the bar with this man and gave him a ride home. If Hataway did indeed attack this woman who you just came forward, you just heard from, why wasn`t he caught and prosecuted almost a year ago? Could that have prevented Tracy`s disappearance?
Joining me now, Tom Ruskin, former NYPD detective and president of CNP (ph) Protective and Investigative Group; Jayne Weintraub, criminal defense attorney; Paul Callan, criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor; and reporter Jacqueline Fell with Central Florida News 13.
Jacqueline, what is the very latest?
JACQUELINE FELL, CENTRAL FLORIDA NEWS 13: Well, Jane, right now police are offering a $5,000 reward for any information about the disappearance of Tracy Ocasio.
But let`s talk about this person of interest, James Hataway. He`s believed to be linked to several other cases in this area. Two of those cases, missing people. One, Tracy Ocasio; No. 2, a friend of his from Apopka. Police there really aren`t saying too much, except for the fact that they talked to Hataway a couple of times. And that these two cases, very, very similar.
Now, we also heard several women coming forward, saying that they were attacked or assaulted by Hataway. You just heard from one. Police have been fielding a lot of calls from other women calling in.
You know, a lot of the tips coming out here at the Ocoee (ph) Police Department have more to do with James Hataway than the actual possible whereabouts of Tracy Ocasio.
Now I also exclusively talked to one of the ex-girlfriends of James Hataway. She says there`s two sides to this guy. One, he`s out at a bar. He`s drinking, social. He seems very friendly. The other, completely different. Very dark, wants to be by himself, no close friends. Writes a lot of poetry.
Now, let`s get back, though, to this case, Tracy Ocasio. Police reports say he told police that they went back to his house after leaving a bar to smoke marijuana. Now, for some reason, we`re not exactly sure, she left. This is what he told police. But it doesn`t really add up.
We know a cell-phone call was placed in that area around 8:30 the next morning. Police searched Hataway`s house and found nothing. But we know that her car was found right around the corner from his house.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Jacqueline, excellent reporting. I will say that Tracy`s not around to defend herself against his accusations that she wanted to smoke pot. We have no idea if there`s any truth to that.
Jacqueline, stay right there. We`re going to get some more information from you in a second. But I want to bring in two very special guests, Joe and Liz, Tracy`s devastated parents.
Thank you so much for joining us tonight. I know how very hard this has to be. And we hope something we say tonight will somehow move this investigation forward.
Your daughter, Tracy, lives with you. She went out that night. She promised, "Hey, mom and dad, I`ll be home later." What happened when it got late and she didn`t return? Lay it out for us.
LIZ OCASIO, MOTHER OF TRACY: Well, she said that she would come home. And the next morning when she didn`t, when I realized that she hadn`t returned home that night, I started calling her. And I just encountered phone silence all day, which is definitely not like her at all.
So I wound up calling some of her friends. They hadn`t heard from her either, which made it even more eerie, because my daughter uses her phone constantly, either texting or talking on it.
By 7 p.m. at night, she still hadn`t turned up. Nothing had happened. I was beginning to get frantic, because I was calling everybody I could think of. And then the police found her car. They called me and told me that they had her car. And at that point I still hadn`t -- I hadn`t reported her missing yet. But as soon as I realized that they had the car, we went over. We picked up her car, came back, and I wound up calling the police and reported her missing.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, let me ask you this question, Joe. There are eerie similarities to the story of this woman who has just come forward and said less than a year ago, she also gave the same man, James Hataway, a ride home, and he tried to strangle her. She jumped out of the car, and he chased her and allegedly slammed her down against the floor, the street, and she still has injuries as a result of this attack.
And yet nothing, nothing happened to this guy. Are you in absolute disbelief that this man was out on the streets, able to have contact with your daughter and watch a Magic game?
JOE OCASIO, FATHER OF TRACY: It`s just crazy. It`s just totally crazy. I mean, she did the right thing. She filed charges. She went through the process our legal system has. And a year later this man is walking around. Not only is he walking around, he`s living with his father. Everybody knew where he`s at.
When he went to that bar, there was a police station three or four doors down. So he`s walking around, knowing that he`s not going to get picked up. We just don`t understand what happened there. If he has anything to do with it, we pray to God that he did not, this would not happen to my daughter, to our daughter.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now I want to get into this a little bit more, because it just makes my head want to explode. The woman who just came forward claimed Hataway tried to strangle her almost a year ago, said the attack occurred in Seminole County.
Now, cops apparently never got Hataway because he left that county. Tracy was last seen with Hataway in Orange County, Florida. Let`s take a look at the map. Guess what, people? These two counties are right next to each other. Even if he picked up and left Seminole County, that is no excuse not to find him, track him down and prosecute him. He only went to a neighboring county.
I have to ask Mom, Liz, are you outraged that this person of interest in your daughter`s disappearance was not prosecuted, given the previous case with eerie similarities in a neighboring county?
L. OCASIO: I can`t believe that they didn`t pick him up. They really should have looked a little harder for him and found him. If they had actually done enough, then my daughter would still be here, and we wouldn`t be going through this right now. She would be home.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me ask you, Joe, about what you know about her key belongings: her car, her cell phone, her wallet, her purse. Tell us what you know.
J. OCASIO: Well, when they found her car the very next day, they changed jurisdiction. Ocoee police took over the case, because Hataway had mentioned that she had been with him, so that put him in Ocoee. And the detective had a hound dog through that whole area and did not pick up her scent. And the thought at that point is that someone else had dropped off that car there.
And we did not know this until two days later when they served a warrant, and we went over to watch what was happening at his house and we realized that that -- the car was only about 100, 150 yards from this guy`s house.
So just all this coincidences that are happening around this man, or this animal, because that`s what he is -- what he`s done -- you know, we`re losing hope in a way. But we`re hoping that something else happened. But we also are -- we really realize that there`s more to it, and this guy knows something. Either he`s done something to her or he knows something about her that can help us solve this problem and get our daughter back.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I just want to tell you, my heart goes out to you. I know that you two are going through utter hell, and our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Joe, Liz, thank you for coming on tonight. We`re going to stay on top of this story until we get some answers. And we really, really pray that your beautiful daughter is found safe and sound.
J. OCASIO: Thank you very much.
L. OCASIO: Thank you.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, let`s turn to my fantastic expert panel. Jayne, honestly, my blood just boils when I hear this person of interest is also suspected of attacking other women, particularly another woman. She gave him a ride home almost a year ago. There`s another woman that`s come forward. There`s a guy who`s a friend of his who`s missing.
Why is it that whenever we hear about these hellish cases, there always seems to be this foreshadowing that could have turned into a prosecution, but somehow, oh, it just didn`t?
JAYNE WEINTRAUB, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, there are two reasons, Jayne. And as a prosecutor I hate to say this, but as a prosecutor we often would get on one police jurisdiction for not following up with another jurisdiction. I don`t know what it is about the territories involved...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: These are neighboring counties.
WEINTRAUB: But they don`t cooperate with one another. And that`s a generality. I don`t know if it happened in this case. But from what I`m looking at, the first thing I said was the same as you, what was going on? Did the cops drop the ball? Was it because the complainant was a girl who had been drinking in a bar? Are they making their own judgments?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That happens. That happens.
WEINTRAUB: It really does.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And it just makes me crazy. Let`s not blame the victims. Let`s not try to restrict the movement of women, because they`re the victims. They`re not the perpetrators. Let`s modify the behavior of the people doing something wrong.
I want to thank Jacqueline, for her excellent reporting. Panel, stay right there. More on this awful story in a minute. Another woman missing. When will it stop, America? Call 1-877-JVM-SAYS, 1-877-586-7297. Sound off.
Then, the frantic search for 5-year-old Nevaeh Buchanan heats up. Investigators looking for more witnesses. Strange twists and turns.
But first, cops have focused on James Hataway in the disappearance of Tracy Ocasio. I just spoke to Tracy`s parents. Here`s what her dad said yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J. OCASIO: If he hurt her and she`s alive, I just hope he comes forward and we can get her back. I don`t hold nothing against him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Strangling me. He told me he was going to kill me. He ended up picking me up, and he had his hands around my throat. And two people walked outside, thank God, and saved my life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That was a Florida woman who wishes to remain anonymous, telling reporters James Hataway, the creep you`re looking at right there, attacked her last year. Now, James Hataway, a person of interest in the disappearance of Tracy Ocasio, the 27-year-old last seen with Hataway in a bar last Tuesday. She reportedly gave him a ride home.
We are back, discussing all the latest developments in this case. Phone lines jam packed.
Beverly in Colorado, your question or thought.
CALLER: Hi, Jane. I watch your program all the time.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m so glad.
CALLER: I am wondering, here Tracy Ocasio, another Florida crime. What is with Florida? Is it the justice system? Is it the penal system? Is it the population? You know, almost all the crimes you report are centered in Florida.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, listen, I love Florida. I worked in Fort Myers my first job out of college. It`s a beautiful place. I travel there for vacation.
But Tom Ruskin, she does have a point. Some of the big cases, whether it`s the Haleigh Cummings case, the Casey Anthony case, this case, there`s been a lot of them lately. Is there anything that drives people to Florida who are looking to escape from something else?
TOM RUSKIN, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: I don`t know if it drives them to Florida. But what`s happening here is, as you pointed out earlier, the one county is not talking to the other. They`re not issuing warrants for the arrest. They`re not going -- they`re not following up. They`re not going out there on the wanted card to adjoining county and finding this guy and locking him up and putting him behind bars.
At least if he was out on bail, you would say, "Well, he`s out on bail. Should he have been out on bail?" In this case they didn`t even look for him.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. It`s just so -- it makes me angry that this guy went to another county. People commute from county to county every day for work. It`s not like he went to Australia.
RUSKIN: The good news -- the good news here is I think that the police have some leads. Her cell phone, from what the parents seem to say, was on. So it will hit the towers. If the cell phone is still with her, they may find her by where the cell phone is.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, the last thing they heard, I think, was the morning after she was last seen at 8:30 in the morning. And that ping was from near his house. So just because you hear that cell phone ping doesn`t mean she`s holding the cell phone anymore, unfortunately.
Scott in Florida, your question or thought?
CALLER: Well, yes. I`ve got a statement, first of all. This guy has an obvious pattern. My question is, have they even done any searches? I`ve been following this for a few days now, within a 50-mile radius. I think she`s still out there and alive. And my heart goes out to the family.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, yes. It`s heart breaking just to talk to them. Just made me so sad. Paul Callan, obviously they`re searching with dogs, and with teams of -- they`ve got huge numbers of people on this case. But these searches quite often are not successful. Often, you know, it`s the accidental stumbling upon something that breaks the case.
PAUL CALLAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, yes, that`s the case. And obviously, Hataway is a prime suspect. And it`s interesting they call him a person of interest. That really means suspect. So they have a starting point for their investigation. And the forensic investigation hopefully will lead to a finding here. But it`s a difficult search.
WEINTRAUB: You know, Jane, they haven`t really publicized this. Sorry, Paul. Sorry, Paul. But a lot of the problem here and delay, I am sure, is -- would be, we have an incredible drought in Florida. Especially, you know, where this incident occurred.
And the past nine days, the rain has been so incredible, that it has made up for five months of no rain. So I`m sure that that has impeded the process tremendously up there.
RUSKIN: It will also throw off a scent for a dog if they have -- if they`re using dogs as part of their search procedure. It will throw off the scent and possibly eliminate the scent for the dog.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What a nightmare.
Dan in Illinois, your question or thought.
CALLER: Well, I just would wish that, with everyone focusing in on, like, the gay marriages, they made a big stink in court, when this is the actual issue we should be focusing on. People being killed that did nothing.
I mean, no religious groups are standing up and screaming about this. This is something that we all have got to agree on.
And you know what? I`m in Illinois where Peterson is from and Stebic. And I`m telling you, you`re just sickened tired of people getting away with murder. Maybe the "CSI" show has something to do with it. They`re teaching these people how to be better killers.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know what? I`ve got to say, I applaud what he says. I mean, listen, why don`t we reserve our outrage for something outrageous, like somebody who takes someone`s life? I think that`s a fantastic insight. You know, if we took all the outrage that we save for these other issues, and put it into something like this, like a woman who goes missing, after doing nothing wrong, OK?
That`s the kind of thing that everybody in America needs to come together and express their outrage for, because until we imagine a world without violence, we won`t have one.
Thank you, everyone, for your excellent insights. Let`s hope it`s not the worst-case scenario and this woman is somehow found alive.
A cruel twist in an international custody battle. A New Jersey man arrives in Brazil to be reunited with his son after a five-year legal fight. I will tell you why Brazil gave him the bait and switch, leaving him empty-handed.
A pregnant woman and her husband stabbed to death in their beach home near Malibu. Wait until you hear why cops think the intruder targeted them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: In the "Spotlight" tonight, we thought we had a happy ending. But never mind. There has now been a terribly cruel twist to the story of a New Jersey dad`s fight to bring his American son home from Brazil.
In 2004, David Goldman`s wife left him for what was supposed to be a two-week vacation to Brazil -- two weeks -- with their son, Sean. She never came back. She died a few years later. But bizarrely, her new Brazilian husband ended up getting custody of little Sean.
After a five-year legal battle, a Brazilian court finally ruled that Goldman would get his son back. Yay! Then yesterday, after arriving in Brazil to get his boy, Goldman got the heart-breaking news that the ruling was suspended. Listen to his reaction on NBC`s "Today Show."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID GOLDMAN, FATHER FIGHTING FOR CUSTODY: I`m very frustrated that my son is still held there in this environment. And I cannot do a thing to get him out of there. I`m not giving up. He`s coming home. It`s not over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I hope he`s right. When does the nightmare end for this poor dad?
With me is Michael Cardoza, criminal defense attorney.
Michael, this case now awaits a ruling from Brazil`s Supreme Court. But my understanding is Sean`s Brazilian stepfather is very powerful, very politically connected. Even Hillary Clinton and President Obama couldn`t sway this situation.
Could this man`s influence actually extend to Brazil`s highest court? Is that possible?
MICHAEL CARDOZA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, anything`s possible, Jane. But I have friends, and I work with a woman that is from Brazil. She`s a Brazilian attorney and also licensed here. And I`ve talked to her and other people, other attorneys in Brazil. And they say that type of influence will not affect the Supreme Court down there, any more than it would affect our Supreme Court.
Keep in mind, in this case, what happened, when the mother took little Sean, it appears that she internationally kidnapped him. So now we have the stepfather, who had to know that the mother had the son, Sean, against the father`s will. He`s really an accessory after the fact. He`s helping.
So now when they argue about it, I`m thinking, wait a minute, you`re sort of part of this kidnapping, and you expect to get custody of this child away from the real father? It`s not going to happen.
My friends in Brazil also tell me that by this -- about two or three days from now, I think, this case should be decided. They say it`s going to move rather quickly through the Supreme Court down there. And because they`ve taken it, it doesn`t mean they`re going to rule against Mr. Goldman. It simply means they`re going to review it. And the attorney, as I say, that I spoke to is hopeful Sean will go back to his father.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, the U.S. State Department says there are 3,000 American children who have been kidnapped and taken mostly in custody battles like this to other countries. And the claim is that Brazil is one of the worst countries in terms of returning children. Sixty-six American children are apparently in Brazil, according to these published reports. Is there a problem here?
CARDOZA: Well, there probably is some -- some problem. Because remember, any court in any country is -- they have a predilection to protect their own first. So will there be some favor toward, or the Brazilian father? Maybe. But I think there`s enough political attention on this and enough criticism of what`s going on, I think the court`s going to do the right thing. They`re going to return Sean to his natural father.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I hope you`re right.
The frustrating search for little Nevaeh forges ahead, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Movie stars and moguls of Malibu, terrified by a gruesome murder. A pregnant woman and her husband brutally stabbed by an intruder in their beach house. I`ll tell you why cops think it was not a random killing.
Plus, the bizarre story of a con-man who kidnapped his own 7-year-old daughter after a bitter divorce. The man calls himself Clark Rockefeller and is pleading not guilty by insanity. But prosecutors say this Crockefeller has been using aliases to swindle wealthy aristocrats for decades. So, will he walk?
Tonight, frustration mounts as tips about the May 24th disappearance of 5-year-old Nevaeh Buchanan start to dry up. Investigators continue their frantic search for witnesses and a mysterious green minivan. Also, the reward for information leading to little Nevaeh`s recovery soars to $28,000.
Meantime, more shocking comments from Nevaeh`s mom in an interview with radio station WCSX in Detroit. More excuses for two sex offender buddies, one an ex-boyfriend, who was convicted of having sex with a 13- year-old girl in the past, he had contact with little Nevaeh who reportedly called him daddy George. Listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
RADIO HOST: You were getting irritated with anybody asking you about having known people like George and Roy -- that they had been registered sex offenders -- and you said that that really didn`t even matter at this point. Do you...
JENNIFER BUCHANAN: I feel that it really doesn`t matter. Not all offenders re-offend. No one ever knows if a person is a sex offender or not, unless they are labeled.
RADIO HOST: Right.
BUCHANAN: Anybody can be a sex offender.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What? Anybody can be a sex offender? I don`t know what to say to that.
Her little child is missing. And she keeps talking about these bad guy buddies who reportedly are still persons of interest.
In a related twist, James Easter, the third person of interest, is demanding an apology. He says his only connection to the case was that he parked his car near little Nevaeh`s scooter. The 64-year-old granddad who does have a prior indecent exposure conviction said cops mistreated him, trashed his house and turned his life upside down.
He wants an apology. Should the police say, "I`m sorry?"
Back with Paul Callan, criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor and Jayne Weintraub, criminal defense attorney. Jayne, should authorities apologize to James Easter?
JAYNE WEINTRAUB, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I don`t know that they should apologize to James Easter for trying to find some evidence. Perhaps they should be apologizing for not finding this child sooner.
But the real question to me is, remember, the mother is not the custodial parent here. The grandmother is the custodial parent here. And I`d like to know who lets a 5-year-old go out on a scooter, even grandma has to have...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: No, but the mom was watching the child when she went out on the scooter.
WEINTRAUB: Well, I think what the mom meant in the interview, Jane, that anybody can be a sex offender is anybody walking the streets, you just don`t know because they don`t have a label "S" for sex offender on their collar.
But what she meant is anybody in the walks of life, you don`t go up to somebody you befriend and say, "By the way, are you a sex offender? I have a child."
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, but Paul Callan, the problem with that story is that she apparently met one of these guys at her parole office.
PAUL CALLAN, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, yes. She met him at the parole office. And although she says anybody could be a sex offender, these two happened to be registered sex offenders. You can look them up on the Internet. So...
WEINTRAUB: Who does that, Paul?
CALLAN: ...it`s very clear -- it`s very clear that these two are registered sex offenders. And why she would let her child come in contact with these individuals is really beyond me.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What were you chiming in about, Jayne?
WEINTRAUB: Jane, I mean my kid will kill me but I have a 10-year-old child. And I don`t go on the Internet and check out somebody because they`re a teacher or somebody...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What do you mean? It`s a parole office. You should.
WEINTRAUB: But you know what...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Of course and you mean and maybe it`s a -- I don`t know, at church, well even then you should check. I think in this day and age you`ve got to check.
WEINTRAUB: Well, I think that`s unrealistic. I think what the problem is that this law as I`ve always said is so overbroad and encompasses people like a 19-year-old having sex with a 15-year-old or 16- year-old isn`t really considered a sex offender to me.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: It was a 13-year-old.
CALLAN: It was a 13-year-old. And I think we can put people we meet in the parole office on the suspect list. Whether they`re going to be sex offenders or whether they`re -- you don`t want your kids in front of them. So let`s be a little more careful, we`re dealing with 5-year-old children.
WEINTRAUB: He can be off parole in three or four more weeks.
CALLAN: Right, right.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: She did time.
All right, thank you ladies and gentlemen.
WEINTRAUB: That`s fine with me.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, to a really gruesome story. This is a gruesome double murder of a pregnant woman and her husband, Brock and Davina Husted, brutally stabbed to death by an intruder at their beachfront home north of Malibu. Making the crime all the more horrifying, the couple`s two young children were at home at the time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. ROSS BONFIGLIO, VENTURA COUNTY, SHERIFF`S DEPT.: The two small children escaped from the house, went to a neighbors house to report to the neighbor that their parents had been stabbed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Police say the 9-year-old boy told them the man who slashed his mother to death was wearing a motorcycle helmet, blocking his face. He also said that he saw his mom get into a confrontation with her killer.
Cops say the intruder then attacked her husband when he came rushing in to help. The couple was murdered on May 20th. And police still don`t have a firm motive.
They say now that the killings may not have been random. Brock Husted`s brother spoke to Nancy Grace last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT HUSTED, BROTHER OF BROCK HUSTED: It`s been suggested that it might be a targeted hit. But I would say that that`s a pretty liberal interpretation of what a targeted might be. They don`t have any motive.
The term targeted, they may have been targeted as people who may have had a couple of bucks, where someone targeted them to steal money from them possibly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So many unanswered questions. Straight out to my fantastic panel: back with me, Michael Cardoza, criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor; Tom Ruskin, former NYPD detective; and joining me now, Angie Crouch, investigative reporter.
Angie, you`re in southern California tracking this case. What is the very latest?
ANGIE CROUCH, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well Jane, I just got off the phone with Scott Husted who you just saw. He spoke to Nancy Grace last night. And he restated that he has a bit of a problem with the police saying that they think this was a targeted crime.
Now, when I spoke with investigators today, they say the reason they`re leaning more towards it being targeted than random is partly because of the viciousness of this crime. This couple was stabbed more than ten times. This was a very vicious attack.
And police say that this lends itself to a more personal kind of attack as opposed to a robbery motivated attack. But of course, Scott Husted, the victim`s brother says, again, there is absolutely nothing in this family`s history that would lead anybody to want to kill them in this way.
And so he says that he believes that one of the reasons police may be putting this out there, that they`re leaning more towards it being targeted, is to simply quell some of the public`s fear. Keep in mind this is a very wealthy, very exclusive area north of Malibu.
There has been a lot of fear in this community. People have been freaked out, worried that there`s a deranged killer on the loose. And Scott Husted believes that police maybe wanting to quell a little bit of that public fear by saying that they think it`s targeted.
But again, police say if they had to guess which way they`re going with this, they lean more towards targeted than random.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And let me tell you something Angie, it`s not just Malibu and Ventura County that`s freaked out.
I was in Los Angeles over Memorial Day holiday, and people as far down as Venice, California, anybody who`s living on the coast completely freaked out by this notion of people being able to walk in off the beach and attack people in their beachfront homes, because by the very nature, Tom Ruskin, of living on the beach, you are exposed.
There`s only so much you can do to block the public that has access by law to the beach.
TOM RUSKIN, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: But this is a no-brainer. First lock your house. Secondly, because you live on the beach, people feel that it`s exclusive. People can walk along the beach and come up to your house and walk into your house, especially if it`s unlocked.
You are targeted. So I think that the feeling that just because you live on the beach, that you`re more secure, is a false sense of security.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Look, I lived a near and on the beach for 18 years in southern California, and easier said than done, because people are running in and out. You`ve got the dogs. You`ve got this, that and the other. And there is this false sense of security...
RUSKIN: Right.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: ...that comes from living on the beach. The whole idea of living on the beach is to be there communing with nature. So the idea that they`re going to lock it the way we do in Manhattan when we go into our door and put the double locks with the pole and everything else, it`s a totally different mindset.
RUSKIN: It is a different mindset. But maybe this will wake up the community. We don`t know yet if it was random or if it wasn`t -- I agree with the police that it sounds to me like it was more of a target.
I don`t know if it was for a burglary, or because that something was wrong with his ironworks company. But it sounds to me like someone purposely went into that house and really targeted them. Ten stab wounds on each body is a lot of stabbings.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, here`s what I don`t understand...
CROUCH: And...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Go ahead, Angie.
CROUCH: I was just going to say, and also, Scott Husted said at the family`s eulogy over the weekend, that it was the couple`s last wish that the children not be harmed.
Now, he couldn`t expand on that. And the police would not elaborate on that today because they don`t want to give away anything that may have been said by the little boy. But we know that the little boy saw the killer inside the house, saw some kind of confrontation between the killer and his mother.
And possibly walked by the little boy on the way out and apparently chose not to harm the child.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Michael Cardoza, I know you know that area well. Because you and I met at the Michael Jackson trial, which is a little further up north in Santa Maria. And so we were both commuting back and forth through that area.
What blows my mind is how would anybody be able to escape? You`ve got the ocean on one side you got one little -- very one road and then -- and roads that lead to nowhere.
MICHAEL CARDOZA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Small highway?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes.
CARDOZA: Right. You know, who knows. Nobody knows the crimes committed. You get in the car, you get on a motorcycle and you`re out of there. I mean, so that doesn`t surprise me that whoever did this got away quite easily. And when you talk about the fear, we should all be careful.
I mean, what do we all do with our lives? Do we live it in fear or do we live it as we should? And just to be careful. That`s the best you can do.
But I`ll tell you what the police should be and I`ll bet they`re doing, is looking into the backgrounds of both these parents. There`s something in the background that will come out. And that will lead to the killer, I guarantee you.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, we`ve got to go. But I do believe that his family said he has no enemies. And he`s a good, good guy.
I want to thank my excellent panel.
Singing sensation Susan Boyle, checks into a hospital for stress after her dizzying ride to stardom. Is reality TV bad for your mental health?
And I`ll bring you the bizarre story of an alleged kidnapping con-man who convinced a whole lot of people he was a rich Rockefeller but he was really a Crockefeller.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: An accused con-man on trial for kidnapping his own daughter. I will find out if it`s a case of madness or deliberate deception.
First, "Top of the Block" tonight.
Singing sensation Susan Boyle`s crash to earth with almost as rapid as her dizzying rise to superstardom. Boyle became an overnight sensation, literally, we`re talking the day after singing on "Britain`s got Talent."
Her performance garnered tens of millions of hits on YouTube. She met with the Queen of England, she met Oprah, she`s been hounded by the paparazzi and asked about everything from makeovers to record deals.
Then on Saturday, in a truly stunning upset, Boyle lost in the final round of "Britain`s got Talent." The next day she reportedly collapsed from an emotional breakdown and has been recovering in a mental hospital ever since.
The story of Susan Boyle, who I love -- great talent -- shows the dark side of reality TV. When you throw people in front of cameras and turn them into accidental instant celebrities, sadly, it can have catastrophic results.
That is tonight`s "Top of the Block."
Turning now to the baffling case of accused kidnapper Clark Rockefeller, or should I say Crockefeller, the bogus heir is on trial for the alleged kidnapping of his 7-year-old daughter Reigh after he went on the lam with his child last year. His true identity, German national Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter came to light. But what is seriously strange about this story, for 12 years he convinced his own wife that he was a wealthy Rockefeller, with a $1 billion art collection that she never saw. And she never caught on.
Crockefeller`s ex-wife, Sandra Boss, took the stand yesterday saying despite her Ivy League education, she had a blind spot when it came to her hubby.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDRA BOSS, EX-WIFE OF CLARK ROCKEFELLER: I`m telling the jury that I was frightened, the consequences of doing things wrong in my personal life was very different than it was in my professional life. My professional life was not scary. My personal life was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: She apparently believed tons of his tall tales. For example, he said he was mute for seven years until he saw a dog and suddenly uttered the word "woofness." He sounds like a total nut to me. That`s exactly what his defense team wants us to believe.
Crockefeller is pleading not guilty by reason of insanity; a rare move in a kidnapping case.
I want to ask you at home, is he delusional or just incredibly agile liar? Give me a holler.
Straight to my fabulous expert panel: Jayne Weintraub, criminal defense attorney; Bradford Cohen, criminal defense attorney; and Dr. Dale Archer, clinical psychiatrist -- we`re so happy to have you, Dr. Dale tonight, because we need you so badly.
What is going on with this loony tunes? Why do seemingly intelligent people like his own wife, who is a millionaire business woman, get so easily scammed for so long? We`re talking more than a decade.
DR. DALE ARCHER, CLINICAL PSYCHIATRIST: Because he`s an incredible scammer. That doesn`t mean he has a psychiatric diagnosis. And I think that to hear that they`re trying to use the insanity defense here when his diagnosis is narcissistic personality disorder and delusional disorder is something that I`ve never seen. And I`ve done hundreds of sanity evals in criminal cases. This is shocking.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: He says he is a narcissist. And his defense attorney says he`s got narcissistic personality disorder. Frankly, the list of nine things that makes you a narcissist, I think, half the people who are successful in New York and Hollywood have them.
ARCHER: Absolutely.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Grandiosity, pre-occupied with success, power, brilliance, a belief that they`re special, requires excessive admiration, excessive entitlement, lacks empathy, and is arrogant, haughty. I mean, this is like -- how many people do we know like this?
JAYNE WEINTRAUB, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: All of us.
ARCHER: I was going to say me and Jayne, probably.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But Jayne, that doesn`t mean you don`t know right from wrong.
WEINTRAUB: But it doesn`t mean that you`re not delusional. It doesn`t mean that he doesn`t take on the persona he creates. He`s so wrapped up in it, he believed it. I mean he lived it.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Come on, Brad.
BRADFORD COHEN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That`s not Brad, that`s Jayne.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Brad, what do you think?
COHEN: The thing is whether or not he knew right from wrong. That`s the main thing. Whether or not he was wrapped up in it, that he was a Rockefeller, that he had $1 billion in art, and things of that nature, that`s all superfluous to the fact he knew right from wrong, when he kidnapped his 7-year-old daughter, that he knew that wasn`t wrong.
That`s going to be very difficult to prove in terms of the evidence I`ve heard so far. I don`t know if they have that. Of course, it`s always a battle of experts when it comes to those sort of things. It just doesn`t seem like it`s there.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: A lot of people have been wondering why didn`t Sandra boss leave Crockefeller sooner? Listen to what she told the jury.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOSS: The defendant controlled all of the money. The defendant spent all of the money. There were no savings. I didn`t control the checkbook. He looked at the bank accounts all the time. I didn`t know what the online passwords were. It was very, very challenging to get money without asking for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Dr. Dale archer, this is a Harvard and Stanford educated woman, who was making millions of dollars due to her business acumen, and yet he controlled her so completely. There was testimony that she wasn`t allowed to eat sometimes, that he wouldn`t let her heat up the house. Is that spousal abuse, and how does that work psychologically?
ARCHER: Well, psychologically what you have is just because you`re successful in one area doesn`t mean that you`re going to be good in all areas. And she even said that emotionally she was not very smart.
So I think that this was a case where this guy was so good at understanding his victims, knowing what buttons to push, and knowing how to control them that he was able to absolutely get inside her head and be able to exert complete and total control over her.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And it just proves...
WEINTRAUB: Give me a break. She`s sitting here calling him the defendant. I mean, how much does this woman hate him and want to get him? How much is she motivated...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wouldn`t you hate it if somebody took all your money and wouldn`t let you eat and told you they`re a Rockefeller for 12 years?
WEINTRAUB: Oh, please. That is just not happening.
ARCHER: I don`t doubt she wants to get even with him, but this isn`t the first time that a Rockefeller got over on people, or a so-called Rockefeller got over on people that were Harvard educated and higher educated. If you remember there was a Frenchman who was going around saying he was a Rockefeller and stealing everyone`s money and lied and all that.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I agree, yes. Absolutely.
ARCHER: And they all fell for it as well. The thing is it still doesn`t go prove that he doesn`t know right from wrong.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: More Crockefeller drama in one moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: The "Big Tease:" finding Nevaeh Buchanan.
Tomorrow on ISSUES, I will speak to the missing girl`s father and I will have the latest developments in the desperate search. You do not want to miss that.
Back to the scam artist we lovingly call -- or maybe not so lovingly, Crockefeller -- let`s listen to what his ex-wife said about the early days of their marriage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I say to another clinician this gentleman has narcissistic personality disorder, there`s an understanding of what that would look like and what that would mean. And again, what is interesting to me on this case is that he meets 9 out of 9 criteria and he meets them to an extraordinarily significant degree.
He also, diagnostically, he fits the criteria for delusional disorder.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok, that`s not the ex-wife. That`s one of the psychiatrists saying basically he`s a narcissist with narcissistic personality disorder and he meets all the criteria we`ve been talking about. That doesn`t mean he`s technically nuts.
Susan in Missouri, your question or thought, ma`am.
SUSAN, MISSOURI (via telephone): Yes. This fellow is really a piece of work. My comment is if he`s been able to con all these people all these years why wouldn`t he take the stand in his own defense and try to con the jury as well?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ooh. Excellent question. Bradford Cohen, what do you think?
COHEN: It`s always a risk when you put a defendant on the stand. I don`t know, and I don`t know the details of the case in enough intimate detail to say oh, yes, this guy should take the stand or not. If they feel that he is -- that you know, the battle of the experts and they prove that fact that he didn`t know right from wrong, they`re not going to put him on the stand.
WEINTRAUB: There is no way they are putting this guy on the witness stand.
COHEN: Thank you Jayne. See how she finally backs me up on something?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m amazed that he wasn`t defending himself. Usually, when these crackpots are taken to trial they decide they want to defend themselves.
WEINTRAUB: Delusional doesn`t mean dumb.
ARCHER: The only thing that I -- I would just say here that I can`t believe the defense couldn`t come up with two better diagnoses than delusional disorder and narcissistic personality disorder because those are so lightweight, they have no chance of using those to prove insanity.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: It`s kind of like saying attention deficit disorder. What?
WEINTRAUB: There`s a reason that there were supervised visits ordered from the divorce to begin with. This is not a person that was not a good father. Yes, I think that maybe the wife is already saying he`s emotionally unstable, he`s delusional, and for some reason...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You think?
WEINTRAUB: ... we don`t know what that is.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: He said he was a Rockefeller for 12 years, and his wife believed him.
ARCHER: But the important part about a delusional disorder is there are two diagnostic criteria. One, you can`t have a more severe psychiatric disorder. Two, there can be nothing else wrong other than the delusion.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: We`re not going to get to number three. That`s it for us. You`re watching ISSUES. Bye.
END
