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Jane Velez-Mitchell
Cops: Girl, 11, Gang Raped; Body of Missing Student Found in Spain; A Mother`s Grief; Justice; Sheen`s Krazy Korner
Aired March 08, 2011 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, a crime so horrific it`s beyond comprehension. A vicious attack on an 11-year-old girl cops say was raped by a group of at least 18 guys. The youngest suspect is just a 14-year-old boy. The oldest, 27. How could this happen? Is our society completely breaking down? And why one defense attorney`s comment is sparking outrage.
And a California family`s worst nightmare. A handsome 22-year-old American goes to Spain to study and is found dead floating in a river in Madrid. What happened after he left a night club, and where was he during the ten excruciating days he was missing?
Plus, a mother`s war of words with prosecutors in the wake of her son`s death. Was it a tragic drug overdose or something far more sinister? I`ll talk to that distraught mother live tonight.
Then, is Charlie Sheen playing the part of a cult leader in his grandiose war against network suits? The troubled actor waves a machete from the roof top and quotes Martin Luther King after he`s fired from his hit show. And he wonders why everyone thinks he`s nuts? I`ll give you the latest, from his crazy antics to his courtroom custody battle. And we`ll take your calls.
ISSUES starts now.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really rough on our families right now. That`s all I can say. It`s really hard for our families that we`re going through.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, unspeakable horror. In the Texas town of Cleveland cops there say an 11-year-old girl was gang raped by 18 men and boys. One of the suspects is reportedly just 14 years old. The others are in their 20s. This incomprehensibly violent and disturbing crime look place last November inside a dingy, abandoned mobile home in an area known as the Hood.
Cops say it started out when a 19-year-old man who has a rap sheet of drug convictions lured the little girl to go, quote, "riding around" with him and two pals. She was allegedly threatened that, if she didn`t undress, other girls would beat her up. So she did undress, and soon cops say a bunch of young men began having sex with her. Did I mention that she`s an 11-year-old girl, that she`s a child?
Cops say some of the attackers even took pictures and video with their cell phones in order to invite others to join in.
In another incomprehensibly disturbing twist, the videos went viral at Cleveland high school, where some of the students are among the suspects. That`s what triggered the investigation.
Cops now say, beyond the 18 already arrested and charged, ten more males may have committed rape. If that`s true, that would mean this 11- year-old girl was violated sexually by 28 males. Imagine the horror of this experience. Imagine the psychological aftershocks for the rest of her life.
By the way, two of the suspects are star high-school athletes. One is the son of a school-board member.
Meantime, a lawyer for several suspects reportedly said the victim, quote, "had a desire to be a willing participant," end quote.
Here`s the reaction to the prosecutor, who pointed out, rightly, that an 11-year-old cannot give consent to sex.
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JAMES EVANS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I haven`t completed my investigation, and I haven`t completed review of the D.A.`s file on the case.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: This whole story really is beyond words. An 11-year- old cannot have consensual sex, end of story. Are we living in an upside- down world here?
All of this leads me to ask tonight: is this a sign of some kind of societal meltdown? What on earth is going on here? What can we, as a culture, do to stop this from ever happening to another 11-year-old girl?
Give me a call: 1-877-JVM-SAYS. That`s 1-877-586-7297.
We`ve got an amazing panel tonight to discuss this horror story, but first we begin with Joe Gomez with KTRH News Radio in Houston.
Joe, what is the very latest?
JOE GOMEZ, KTRH NEWS RADIO: Jane, this monstrous action is unspeakable. It could happen in a small Texas town like that, makes it even worse.
With the arrest of four new suspects involved in this horrible gang rape of this 11-year-old girl, a total of 18 people now charged in this atrocity.
It happened over the Thanksgiving holiday of last year. Some boys invited this 11-year-old girl to take a ride. They took her to one of the boy`s homes, where the sexual assault began. The boys began filming it and invited other friends to join in.
Well, when the owner of the residence finally came around, one of the boy`s aunts, they escaped through a back window and threatened the girl with violence if she didn`t follow them and do what they said. They then went to a mobile home that was used as some sort of a crack den, where even more people joined in the sexual assault of this young, little 11-year-old girl. Up to as many as 28 people we`re getting word, participated in this.
The video went viral in the local school district and, then, finally this girl came to police. And here`s where we`re at now, Jane. We`re finally looking for justice, looking for justice for this 11-year-old, innocent girl.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, yes. But this goes way beyond mere crime and punishment of these 18-year-olds. And I`m going to get to that in a second. But first, technology played a major role in the snowball effect of how this horrific crime escalated into a full-on gang rape.
Listen to this.
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CINDY HORSWELL, SENIOR WRITER, "HOUSTON CHRONICLE": From the one main event apparently videotaped and photographed things with their cell phones. And so it was getting, you know, becoming a very popular viral -- went viral basically around the school, and someone reported it to the school authorities.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. Mike Brooks, this sounds like textbook crowd mentality with an element of bullying. I mean, what kind of dynamics inspire the sharing of the sexual violation of an 11-year-old girl?
MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: You can`t fathom this. And I think it has to do with our society. There`s no value of life anymore, Jane. It`s just, you know, are -- are these little girls and women just objects that some men? I mean, 14 to 27-year-old people, up to 28. I can`t even fathom this, in such a small town.
And then, you know, how is this little girl ever going to go about her life?
And I`ll tell you one thing, Jane. When these monsters go to jail, I guarantee you, inside whatever prison they wind up in -- I know we always say that they`re innocent until proven guilty, but somebody is going to jail. And when they do go to jail, I hope they get what`s coming to them in jail.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. They are innocent until proven guilty, and some of the parents are saying, "Hey, this was a sweep, and my kid is innocent."
By the way, all of this going on 50 miles south of Houston in a town of 9,000.
Now, one of the most appalling aspects of the case to me is what one of the attorneys for several of the suspects said about the 11-year-old victim. Listen to this from a reporter at "The Houston Chronicle."
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HORSWELL: He said the little girl is not -- you know, it wasn`t like she had -- was completely innocent in this case. It wasn`t like she was kidnapped or something, and whether he was indicating that she might have been a willing participant.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yet, at age 11, as you point out, an 11-year-old cannot legally give consent.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: So ISSUES reached out to that attorney for comment. He did not respond.
J. Wyndal Gordon, you`re a criminal defense attorney. Should this guy be disbarred for making such an inflammatory comment as to suggest the 11- year-old was a willing participant?
J. WYNDAL GORDON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I wouldn`t -- I wouldn`t say he should be disbarred, but he certainly should be more mindful and responsible with his comments. I think that was a terrible comment, and it smacks offense to every person who listened to it.
At the same time, I think what he simply wanted to ensure, and hopefully that`s not his defense to the case, that she somehow consented or wanted this to happen to her.
Hopefully, his defense to the case is going to be more litigation. That is get the best deal that he can possibly get and do some type of damage control.
But I will say that there is -- there are a lot of things going on with this case that give me a little pause. It does seem like there perhaps was a sweep. And I haven`t seen the videos, but I`ve heard about the case, and I do know that Cleveland, Texas is a very small town.
But I`m very concerned about, you know, there being a rush to judgment and all these gentlemen could actually -- go ahead.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, one of the things with rape is that you have DNA, generally, and DNA will hopefully tell the story one way or another.
GORDON: Right.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And -- and if there`s a lot of people here and a lot of lives are going to be destroyed, the families of all of these kids who have been arrested are obviously in crisis tonight.
Let me go to this other disturbing development. The girl is now in a foster home, because Child Protective Services says her own home is too dangerous. She is not allowed to speak to her family. The victim`s mom says people are calling the house. She believes that callers are possibly looking for retribution.
But the parents of some of the local people are accusing the parents of this victim of not keeping better tabs on the 11-year-old daughter who reportedly wore dark makeup. So what, I say, Lisa Bloom.
LISA BLOOM, ATTORNEY: Yes. Look. These attempts to blame the victim, Jane, are so shocking and disturbing to me.
On the other hand, it happens all the time. I prosecute cases of rape and child sexual abuse civilly in my practice, and this is the kind of thing I hear all the time. Blaming the child. Blaming the victim.
I don`t think this was an accident on this defense attorney`s part. I think he`s trying to poison the jury pool, plant the idea -- you know, I`ve read articles about this, Jane. It says the community is divided about this. I mean, what is to be divided about? This is an 11-year-old girl who was gang raped. I don`t care if a child walks into a room, takes off all of her clothes and says, "Let`s have sex." If somebody takes her up on it, that`s rape.
And that`s not what happened here. This poor child was imprisoned. She was not allowed to go. She was threatened. And there were a couple dozen, at least, adult men who were sexually violating her. I mean, we have to wake up to the reality of what sex crimes are in this country.
BROOKS: You even show up at that location you`re in violation, period.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, well, we`ll talk about that...
GORDON: I don`t think the law recognizes that.
BROOKS: Oh, come on, Counselor.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... and the role of drugs right on the other side of the break. And we`re also going to talk about...
BROOKS: Look, 11 years old?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Is this a sign of a societal breakdown? Something is seriously toxic when 28 males rape an 11-year-old. We`re taking your calls: 1-877-JVM-SAYS.
Plus, an American student studying abroad in Spain leaves a night club, vanishes for ten long days, turns up dead in a river. What happened to this handsome 22-year-old? His parents devastated. We`re going to bring you the latest on this mystery.
Plus, more on this unimaginable gang rape of an 11-year-old girl.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The truth? It`s true. It`s really rough for our families right now. That`s all I can say.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pain. That`s all I can say is pain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What would you think about that happening in your neighborhood? How would you feel?
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: They`re talking about the horrific, vile alleged gang rape of an 11-year-old child by 18 men and boys, the youngest 14 years old, according to police. It happened in Cleveland, Texas, a town 50 miles north of Houston.
Cops say the girl was forced to have sex with multiple men who took videos with their cell phones inside a dingy abandoned trailer home in an area called the Hood.
Lois, Kentucky, your question or thought, ma`am?
CALLER: Yes. I`ve been watching this, and I think this is horrific crime, and it`s like a pack of dogs instead of human beings.
I think part of the problem in this country is the fact that our justice system is not strict enough for crimes like this. All they get is a pat on the wrist. And I think they should send them to the full extent to prison that they can be sent, and hopefully, for this little girl she won`t have problems the rest of her life.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well, here is my big issue. And I know it`s going to be controversial. Is this a sign of a societal breakdown? I suspect yes. And the breakdown in violent values that this horrific case epitomizes is not repaired merely by locking these 18 guys up. That`s a reactive solution, not a proactive solution.
I`m not saying don`t do it. I`m saying we need to consider the possibility, for example, that the youngest suspect here is some kind of victim himself of growing up in some kind of moral vacuum. We as a culture have to move beyond mere crime and punishment and start really tackling some of the deeper social problems producing this kind of behavior.
These boys were not born evil. If they, in fact, committed this crime, and they are just accused but, apparently, somebody is not teaching somebody certain core, fundamental values about right and wrong. I don`t know if some of these kids have fathers who are absent or in prison themselves.
Now, in my book "Addict Nation" I write, quote, "In the vicious cycle of our lock `em up addiction, we destroy families by imprisoning parents and watch the unsupervised, undisciplined children grow up to become criminals themselves."
So I want to go to Lisa Bloom for her thoughts on this, because there is no simple answer. One of the suspects is the child of a school board member, but others have prior criminal records for drug sales, aggravated robbery, and manslaughter. And as we learned, two of them are high-school basketball stars. So it`s a melange of kids from different backgrounds, apparently.
BLOOM: Well, I agree with you, Jane. And I take it a step further. We have to actively teach our boys about respecting girls and about what sexual abuse of girls does to them.
I mean, I`d like to see adult women who have turned their lives around and recovered, to the extent that you can recover, from sexual violence in childhood, go to the schools and talk to everyone, boys and girls, about what it`s like about the horrific psychological injuries, because this is not fun and games. And they obviously thought that it was, because they`re videotaping it, and they`re sending the pictures around. And they think it`s funny, et cetera. They need to understand and have some compassion for this girl and for other girls.
And we as a society have to take this seriously, and we really don`t. Bless you, Jane, for covering these important stories about violence against girls and women. But hardly anybody else does.
You know, we talk about Charlie Sheen, for example. We hardly ever talk about his domestic violence convictions that he pleaded guilty to. We just talk about him as a bad boy. Wand w all just gloss over violence against girls and women, and we have horrific stories like this.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: J. Wyndal Gordon, criminal defense attorney, I mean, what is wrong, do you think, with the culture that these kids are growing up in? We`re all exposed to glamorized violence, sexually sadistic violence. This is the first generation in human history that sees something like 16,000 murders in 200,000 violent crimes, many of them glamorized, many of them against women by the time they reach 18.
Is that also having an impact on young people thinking somehow a sexual violations is just fun? They see it on -- they see it on video.
GORDON: Right. I think the videos have done a lot to -- to break down the culture in this country. I think that these young men, they need guidance. They need mentorships. They need -- they need proper parenting, and they need some education on sex, on sex and sexuality. There are so many things that are affecting these young people with the invent of technology.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mike -- I`m going to give Mike Brooks the last word. I know -- I`m not saying, obviously, don`t prosecute, but do you think there`s something we need to do in our culture to stop a next girl from getting raped?
BROOKS: Yes. It`s rape. It`s shootings. It`s -- but I`m sorry, Jane. I have to disagree with you. I think that, if they are found guilty of raping this little girl, that they do need to go to jail. I`m sorry. What are you going to do? You going to slap them on the wrist and put them back outside and tell them, "Oh, no. You`ve got to be -- you`ve got to be a good citizen. You`ve got to be a good boy. You can`t do this now. OK. You promise me you`re not going to do this again?" No. You have to send them to jail to send some kind of message to these...
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m not saying don`t send them to jail. What I am saying is let`s come up with alternatives for the next generation of kids so that they don`t make these same mistakes. I mean, this is unimaginable. It`s horrible.
Thank you, panel.
Charlie Sheen up next.
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PAM BICE, AUSTIN BICE`S MOTHER: I don`t think he was drunk. I think someone drugged him. This is my opinion only. I think he got on the metro. And I`m not sure from there. Could have been mugged.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight an international mystery becomes one family`s nightmare. The body of a missing American college student has been discovered in a Madrid river. Austin Bice`s family got the heart-wrenching news today, ten days after he was reported missing. We don`t know the cause of death yet, but Spanish police say there was no sign of foul play.
Austin had gone to a Madrid club, a night club with friends February 26. He told them he`d just get home on his own. The next morning, his friends realized Austin never made it home. They reported him missing. So what exactly happened to him? Was this a tragic accident? Was it foul play? Will Austin`s family ever get the truth? Because this is happening overseas.
Straight out to attorney Lisa Bloom.
Lisa, this poor family got this horrific news today. In fact, they were supposed to be on our show tonight to talk about the search for this young man, and obviously, they`ve gotten this horrific news. But there`s no initial signs of violence to the body, and his credit cards were in his pocket. What do you make of it?
BLOOM: That`s right, Jane. It`s a very disturbing story, and there`s really more questions than answers at this point. This is a 6`5", 220- pound young man, 22 years old, from San Diego State in very good physical health, physically fit, described by his friends as not drunk on the night that he disappeared. He winds up being found, his remains being found in a river near the discotheque where he disappeared ten days ago.
And as you say, no visible signs of foul play. There was no kidnapping or ransom demand of any kind. So there will be an autopsy and that, hopefully, will give the family some answers. But at this point hard to understand exactly what happened to him.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you look at this video, you could see it`s a very steep drop. Now, is there -- you have to wonder, maybe we could see that full. Is that just a platform? There it is. Or -- no. I think that`s a ledge. So he would have to have gone over the ledge on his own, and that is kind of odd. Why would he have done that?
There is his body being removed. How tragic, right there.
If Spanish authorities rule his death an accident, does his family have any recourse? Let`s listen to this briefly.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because of all the posters that are up in Madrid, they call him, they say it`s the smile of Madrid.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. Now the mom feels that possibly there`s something else going on here. A team of California-based investigators did go to Spain to try to find him. Can they be retooled to do an investigation on their own?
BLOOM: Absolutely, Jane. I mean, if I were the parents of this young man, I would certainly insist upon answers, and if I had to hire some private instigators to do that, I would certainly do it. And Spain is obviously a first-world country. The family has said that they have respect for the police and the investigations they`ve been doing so far, but they`ve got to get some answers here.
And a 22-year-old healthy young man does not end up dead in a river without some kind of foul play. The autopsy will hopefully give them some answers.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And of course it will give the answer about alcohol. How much was he drinking, and it comes back with a large amount of alcohol, then does that hurt their case? Ten seconds.
BLOOM: Yes. I mean, it absolutely does. This certainly could be an accident. He could have fallen off the bridge and fallen into the river and drowned on his own. There will be chemicals and fluid in his lungs that would answer that question if he drowned or whether he died before his body was placed into the river. So that`s what they`ll be looking for in the autopsy.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Excellent analysis, Lisa, as always.
Up next a mother says her son was beaten to death. She wants somebody to pay, but the powers that be that have -- they have a different opinion.
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JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN HOST: A mother`s war of words with prosecutors in the wake of her son`s death. Was it a tragic drug overdose or something far more sinister? I`ll talk to that distraught mother live tonight.
Then, is Charlie Sheen playing the part of cult leader in his grandiose war against network suits? The troubled actor waves a machete from the rooftop and quotes Martin Luther King after he is fired from his hit show. And he wonders why everyone thinks he`s nuts? I`ll give you the latest from his crazy antics to his courtroom custody battle.
And we`ll take your calls.
Tonight, a grieving mother`s battle with investigators over her son`s death gets downright nasty. Katie Granju shares her heartbreaking story with me tonight. Her 18-year-old son died last May. The official cause of death was a drug overdose.
Katie says her son Henry was also beaten and that may have exacerbated the trauma to his brain. Katie has obtained shocking and I have to say callous e-mails written by the Knoxville assistant district attorney. We are not revealing her name or the name of the local attorney.
The assistant DA sent those e-mails to but in one of those e-mails the assistant DA wonders if maybe 18-year-old Henry, quote, "Didn`t care if he died," end quote. She also wrote I think this kid had serious mental health issues apart from his drug addiction. She also criticized Henry`s family for searching for more answers in his death. Quote, "They are really traveling down the wrong road. I can`t imagine their son would want them to go through this futile process."
Are these e-mails a clear sign that prosecutors have their minds made up about this case? Is anybody outside of this now deceased young man`s family interested in finding the truth about what happened to him?
Straight out to Henry`s incredibly brave mom, Katie Granju; Katie, thank you for joining us. We are so sorry for your loss, our deepest condolences.
KATIE GRANJU, SON HENRY DIED AFTER BEATING: Thank you, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: None of us can imagine what it`s like to lose a son. You`ve been an outspoken crusader for your son since he was hospitalized last April. So give us the short version of what you think happened. He did have a drug addiction, correct, of methadone?
GRANJU: Well, he actually -- I don`t believe that he had taken methadone at all or much prior to but yes, my teenager did have a serious drug problem. He was in a lot of pain over it and really wanted to quit.
I believe that based on the conversations I`ve had, his text message, his phone records, most of which the Knox County Sheriff`s Department hasn`t looked at, that what happened was he had developed a very unhealthy and disturbing relationship with too much older adults. They are patients at a methadone clinic in another state, and they come back to Knox County where we live and they sell methadone.
In my son`s case, his text messages indicate that they actual hand delivered a large dose of methadone to my son midday on April 26th. We have a lot of corroborating evidence of that. Henry was so concerned that he had taken too much that he and two friends of his, two University of Tennessee College students got online to look to see if this 80 mg of methadone was excessive and in fact, what they found is that that could be a fatal dose.
Later that night Henry tried to call me several times. His friends described him by that time from the methadone as barely able to walk.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me -- could I jump in here because --
GRANJU: Sure.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: -- I`ve got to cut to the chase for time reasons. I had understood that you were saying that there was more to this than just an overdose, that something was done to him, that he was assaulted.
GRANJU: Correct. Yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And that you`re upset with the powers that be that they didn`t investigate the assault. So when he was assaulted?
GRANJU: Well, We were first led to believe by the sheriff`s department that the injuries that he clearly had when he was admitted to the hospital had taken place a day or two before in what turned out to be an unrelated kind of red herring situation.
The bottom line is that several people saw him get into a van on the evening of April 26th with two much older drug dealing adults. He had no visible injuries whatsoever. Fifteen hours later my teenage son was found blue, unconscious, bleeding from both ears, two black eyes, extensive bruising on his chest and also suffering from a major drug overdose that had been exacerbated by a refusal to call 911 over many hours.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, can I jump in and ask you a question?
GRANJU: Absolutely.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: There is a discrepancy I think between your account and the autopsy which says apparently no sign of trauma.
GRANJU: Yes. There is actually, I am in complete agreement with the Knox county medical examiner. My son died of a hypoxic brain injury. We are all in agreement on that. The issue in terms of the trauma for me is that the trauma was so severe and so visible, so apparent in his medical records that on top of the drug overdose it absolutely should have led the authorities to --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You`d like them to find somebody who you think beat your son up and they are saying they don`t want to do this. Let me read some of the e-mails that they tried to do it and they can`t find whoever is responsible if there is somebody responsible.
Let me cut to some of the e-mails from the assistant DA that were directed at you, Katie. Here`s one. "Someone should tell Ms. Katie to shut up. She has blogged a not-so-veiled threat after our meeting. Someone should tell her to focus on the remaining children she still has at home."
I imagine they are pretty weary of Henry`s issues at this point. Now, the Knoxville special prosecutor that we called acknowledged that these e-mails were authentic. He told us the assistant DA was expressing frustrations that you were blogging details about this case. So does that exacerbate your pain? Those seem like very callous e-mails. Whatever dispute they have with you does that exacerbate your pain?
GRANJU: Oh, my God. I can`t even describe to you how much those e- mails hurt when I saw them. I cried over them for days. They were horrible. And of course hearing from an assistant district attorney in an e-mail that someone should tell me to shut up, I`ve had those e-mails for eight months. I have not discussed any specific details of my son`s case for ten months. The inference is obvious to me that if didn`t shut up that nothing would be done.
But let me be clear the --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What exactly do you want done if you could express that simply and in a short fashion
GRANJU: I believe that the people who my gave my son an overdose beat him inside their house and left him to die over many, many hours and should be prosecuted for homicide by controlled substance which under -- in Tennessee law is second-degree homicide and in federal laws under the Len Bias law.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, I have to bring in Lisa Bloom. The authorities have basically said we went around and we tried to find out. All we found was hearsay witnesses. We can`t find any witnesses. Does this mom who is suffering so much -- does she have a case?
LISA BLOOM, ATTORNEY, BLOOMFIRM.COM: Absolutely. And, Jane, let me say this very clearly. If attorneys and prosecutors have become so jaded in their jobs that they`re telling the mother of a deceased teenager that she should shut up they should lose their jobs. I mean, if really that`s how they behave. That is absolutely appalling to me.
It`s so disrespectful to the victim. They should have a lot more respect than that.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Absolutely.
BLOOM: If they can`t handle their job, if that`s how they`ve become they should be out of there. If they have a dispute with her, they should take it up with her in a civilized way.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I hear you. I want to give Katie --
(CROSSTALK)
BLOOM: If there are bruises this has to be investigated.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Katie, if you had one thing to say -- we have 20 second -- what would you say to the prosecutors tonight that you want?
GRANJU: Please do the right thing. We have an overdose epidemic in this community. Two teenagers, my son being one of them, died on the same day of the same thing under suspicious circumstances and no arrests have been made. The laws are on the books for controlled substance homicide. We need to be prosecuting these drug dealers.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So you`re saying that we can`t just leave drug overdoses to be overdoses. We need to investigate whoever gave them the drugs and may have abused them in the process. Thank you so much for joining me.
GRANJU: Thank you, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I hope you come back as this case progresses. We`re not going to forget about you.
GRANJU: Thanks, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: The Charlie Sheen spectacle continues this time as he gears up for his courtroom custody battle. He decides -- oh, you won`t even believe it. There are no words that I can use. But two words I will. He`s waving a machete and he`s quoting Martin Luther King.
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DR. DREW PINSKY, HLN HOST: Eventually the house of cards does collapse and he will need some other kind of genuine care for his addiction. And right now he is rejecting that but people eventually aren`t within their rights to reject psychiatric care when they become dangerous and that is where he is headed now.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: What do you think about this? Call me, 1-877-JVM- SAYS. I`m taking your calls on Charlie. We`re playing the (INAUDIBLE) or losers.
It`s not just Charlie Sheen. If you`re grappling with an addiction or know somebody who is, I want to know your story. Ricky from Georgia says he started huffing gasoline when he was a teenager but he quit after meeting his fiance eight years ago. He says he has been clean and sober since then and family has become his top priority.
Puffing gasoline. Yes, that can be an addiction. Ricky, bravo for getting clean and sober; you won a signed copy of my new book "Addict Nation".
Send me your stories about overcoming addiction to cnn.com/Jane and you can win my new book.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, Charlie Sheen climbs to the top of a Beverly Hills building, drinks from a bottle of what he calls tiger blood, waves a giant machete and screams, "Free at last. Free at last."
If you have not been able to keep up with the craziness, here is the latest. Sheen was officially fired from his hit CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men" but he apparently just happened to be free and shouted from the roof tops literally.
So what is Sheen doing with his newfound freedom and the time he has on his hands now? He has decided to start his own show. Charlie has been live streaming video of himself ranting and raving from his Hollywood home. He has dubbed the show "Sheen`s Corner". The tag line -- you`re either in Sheen`s corner or you`re with the trolls. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLIE SHEEN, ACTOR: I had more than fun. I had me with it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like the way you go to ustream.com and you see - - why would you go to ustream.com.
SHEEN: It`s radical. It`s radical. And the people are doing exactly what they should be doing which is watching me and listening to you because we have all the answers. We have all the gold. We have all the solution Bob.
And keep in mind like any time I roll something out my plan is the best one in the room and people are starting to wake up and realize that. That their plan is (EXPLETIVE DELETED); my plan is gold.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow. The battle between the warlocks and the trolls rages on at least in Charlie Sheen`s world. Charlie is now attacking ex- costar John Cryer, calling him -- want to take a guess anybody? That`s right, a troll.
Of course Sheen`s Corner showed up on "Saturday Night Live". Pretty good. Take a ok.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to your "Duh -- Winning", the show for people who are tired of apologizing for their (EXPLETIVE DELETED) gnarly rock star lives and ready to celebrate being highly evolved warlocks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: He has become a running joke, but at this point I think a more important question, is his life in danger?
Straight out to NBC News correspondent Jeff Rossen; Jeff, you have been talking to this guy for a while now. You originally said you thought he was sober last week, clean and sober. What do you think is going on now? Are you starting to question his sobriety?
JEFF ROSSEN, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I am actually. It is a very good question. We actually have been speaking with experts about this, showing them the webcast that you just showed from last night saying what going on here? Is this somebody who`s back on drugs? Is this somebody who has a true, blue, bona fide mental disorder?
Some experts are saying that he may have something called hypomania, which is a physiological brain disease in which you act grandiose. You act -- your self esteem is through the roof. You don`t sleep. You have enormous amounts of energy. As one of the experts put it today, he shows all of those symptoms and believes that he could end up being dangerous down the line if he doesn`t get help. So actually a lot of people are worried for him
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. We`re going to talk a little bit with an addiction specialist, psychiatrist about whether he is manic. It looks like that to me. But you could be manic and taking drugs at the same time which would only put your mania on steroids.
Let`s take a look at more o Sheen`s Corner and we`re going to analyze this in a second. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHEEN: Everyone out there who thinks that they`ve been winning along with us, who has been supporting this entire movement, that is in fact winning I want you to go to your window. I want you to open it because we don`t -- and I want to hear you. And I want you to join our chant. Win, win, win, win, win it, win it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: To borrow a line, who are these people? Jeff. I mean he has renamed his mansion Sober Valley Lodge which is a pretty funny joke if you`re into those kinds of jokes but who are these dare I say trolls hanging out with him, enabling his behavior?
ROSSEN: Just off to the left of Charlie Sheen`s screen left is Rick who is his assistant who spends a good deal of time with Charlie. Obviously one of the goddesses, Rachel was in the back. The Rach as Charlie calls her. Then he has a lot of close, personal friends from his childhood who literally come and go in his house.
That is one thing that I was actually surprised by. At your house or my house somebody would have to come by and knock perhaps to get in. At Charlie Sheen`s house if you`re part of his inner circle, and there are about seven to ten people who are, you can literally come and go as you please.
Half the time he`s upstairs and they`re downstairs going in and out doing whatever they want. That`s sort of life inside Charlie Sheen`s house right now. Those are some of the people who are in the background of Sheen`s Corner on that first episode Saturday night that we`re looking at right now.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to get to my big issue. You raised it earlier, Jeff. Is Charlie manic? Is he suffering from what is called manic grandiosity; it`s basically this larger than life feelings of superiority, feelings of everything is great when actually it`s all going in the you-know-what? This could be a symptom of bipolar. Let`s listen to this from Sheen`s Corner, briefly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHEEN: What kind of dog is that? I say it`s a Sheen dog. What other kind of dog would it be? Its soul is inhabited by the ghost of Betty and now it`ll murder people and it will eat trolls.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Dr. Reef, 20-second diagnosis?
DR. REEF KARIM, ADDICTION SPECIALIST: It`s either long-term use of the drugs that have scramble the brain or he`s using right now and was able to pass a urine drug test or it`s a co-morbidity consistent with a manic state that eventually will subside.
Mania, pressured speech, night`s without sleeping, grandiose behavior, you get a thought into your head and it races. There are a lot of different things.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok. We`re just getting started, everybody. I know we have Belinda, West Virginia. Hang in there.
HLN`s Dr. Drew weighs in on all things Charlie tonight on THE JOY BEHAR SHOW.
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JOY BEHAR, HLN HOST, "THE JOY BEHAR SHOW": What is going to be the end for this guy? Is this going to continue on television do you think or no?
PINSKY: He looks like he`s heading a little toward more -- towards mania right now. And, boy, if he does you`re going to hear about the police coming out frequently. You`re going to hear about violent behaviors. You`re going to hear about drug arrests. That`s just where this kind of goes. It tends not to get better by itself.
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PINSKY: Eventually the house of cards does collapse and he will need some other kind of genuine care for his addiction. Right now he is rejecting that but people eventually aren`t within their rights to reject psychiatric care when they become dangerous and that is where he is headed now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, is Charlie on a fast track to a mental breakdown? He is live streaming rants from his home, calling his online show, Sheen`s Corner. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHEEN: Going to roll out an infomercial for my poetry book, "A Piece of My Mind" illustrated by Ralph Stebin (ph) -- I mean Adam Riffkin (ph) and I think it`s -- the problem is, not the problem, the solution is it was 20 years ahead of its time, bob-a-loo and now it is its time.
Now everybody is 20 years in the past behind my book catching up saying my gosh where was all this brilliance? I`m saying it was right there. You had the poetry in your magic fingertips the entire time to flip my perfect pages and read my perfect words but you didn`t go there because you judged me. You condemned me. You scoffed at me. Well, not anymore -- winning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Melinda, West Virginia, your question or thought?
MELINDA, WEST VIRGINIA (via telephone): Oh, Jane. I have so much to say about this guy. I have so been there. Ok? The defensiveness, the neuroticism; I am a 31-year-old recovering addict. I was on methadone and I was abusing the medication that I was on.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me cut to the chase, Melinda. Do you think he is sober or not? Do you think he`s clean or not? Is he using
MELINDA: Oh, absolutely not. Why has this guy not had a (INAUDIBLE) warrant taken against him?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok. Got to move on but that is a great point.
Jeff, I`ve heard sources tell me that believe it or not this guy may have money problems and that is why he is rambling to make deals, to sell a book, to do product endorsements. What do you know?
ROSSEN: Look, a lot of us would say even making $2 million an episode for quite a while on "Two and a Half Men" -- any of us would kill for that kind of salary. But living as Charlie Sheen isn`t cheap.
It is a very expensive lifestyle. You get that impression as soon as you walk into his home. It`s in a beautiful gated community high above Los Angeles. The mansion is gorgeous. He spends money on private jets. He spends money -- well, he used to -- on partying. But he has all of the niceties of life and that costs money. He burns through a lot of money.
He told me yes he needs a job and that`s why you hear, we had exclusive video of him -- home video from inside of his house holding business meetings about his new T-shirt business. This is an A-list Hollywood star talking about making T-shirts. He`s on the web and he`s, you know --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What is it going to say, "I am a winner you`re a troll?"
ROSSEN: I`d buy it.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You have to wonder what -- you know what? I have to say this. I didn`t mean to interrupt there, Jeff.
ROSSEN: That`s ok.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But Dr. Reef Karim, I think that maybe he`s white- knuckling it. I mean as a recovering alcoholic myself I know that before I had a program, when I tried to not drink for two days I would get like crazy. Do you think it`s possible he`s white-knuckling it?
KARIM: I know that that happens. But this is far beyond white- knuckling it. This is either he truly -- let`s look at his lifestyle. His lifestyle was partying, jets, wild sexual encounters. That is very consistent with bipolar disorder. That is very consistent with mania.
So, you know, I don`t know him. I don`t treat him. But I can tell you that just based on what we`re looking at we are definitely looking at either someone who`s been -- where the drugs made him look manic or someone who really is manic. Either way, there`s going to be a legal or social consequence.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jeff.
ROSSEN: And Jane -- Jane, I will tell you that the people who are very, very close to him, people who have been long time friend and handlers of his are incredibly worried about him and he stopped listening to some of those people. And they`re just hoping that --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Love you guys. Great job.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The beach was a blast. I had the best time of my life.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Joran Van Der Sloot told lie after lie after lie after Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway disappeared on his watch back in 2005. Now this cad claims he is trying to tell the truth when it comes to the death of Stephany Flores Ramirez in Peru. That 21-year-old woman who met Joran last spring and was soon found bludgeoned to death in his hotel room.
Now Joran says he is willing to admit he killed her but will plead it happened in a burst of violent emotion which constitutes temporary insanity. If that plea deal goes through, he could get out in just three to five years. This guy is a toxic waste dump of lies.
Unless Joran is willing to finally tell us what really happened to Natalee Holloway all deals should be off. They have enough evidence proof to lock him up and throw away the key which is exactly what they should do.
Nancy Grace, next.
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