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Jane Velez-Mitchell

10-Year-Old Locked Inside Box Dies; Casey Toasting Freedom?; Billy Bob Thornton`s Daughter Convicted of Aggravated Manslaughter

Aired July 29, 2011 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, ISSUES HOST: Tonight, stomach-churning violence against a child. Cops say a 10-year-old girl was dead after being tortured with hot sauce and locked inside a box as punishment for stealing a Popsicle. Now, these people are accused of first degree murder. Even more horrific, investigators say this wasn`t the first time little Ame had been forced into the tiny box for misbehaving. How could this happen?

And chug-a-lug Casey? TMZ says a video taken just hours after Casey Anthony was released from jail shows her on a private jet with a beer bottle. Is Casey toasting her freedom or is she headed back to her party girl past?

Also, movie star Billy Bob Thornton`s daughter is convicted of aggravated manslaughter in the death of her 1-year-old god-daughter.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All the things I`m missing out of her life, so, there`s no price great enough to pay.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, in an Issues exclusive, I`ll talk with the little girl`s devastated mother about the shocking details of her daughter`s death at the hands of her best friend.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You should never e-mail photographs of yourself in a Halloween costume, especially not to any co-workers because it is inappropriate.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Another Congressman bites the dust in the latest political sex scandal. David Woo`s dramarama comes on the heels of Anthony Weiner, Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Edwards. I`ll have the very latest. Issues starts now.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The way they used to punish the little girl, make her walk up and down the street barefooted and stuff.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: The story that the girl was playing hide and seek and climbed in the box and suffocated, police now say was a lie.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About two hours of back bends, she was forced to physically exercise.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Accused of forcing the girl inside the chest and locking it with a padlock overnight.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s places that she would squeeze into that I wouldn`t think my dog could squeeze into.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: And why is that woman laughing? Intense, painful, constant abuse leaves a little girl dead with four of the child`s relatives arrested. How could this have happened without anybody stepping in to stop it. Good evening, I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell coming to you from New York City with one of the most gut-wrenching horrific stories of abuse in recent memory.

Police say this child in Phoenix, Arizona, 10-year-old Ame, was locked in a trunk overnight and left there to die. Yes, she died. Look at this precious little girl. It gets worse. She was put there, allegedly, by relatives who were angry at her for taking a Popsicle from the freezer. At first, the relatives claim the girl died accidentally during a game of hide and seek. Listen to her aunt try to cover it up in the days following the child`s death.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was an awesome hider. Let me tell you, you know, there`s places that she would squeeze into that I wouldn`t think my dog could squeeze into.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, that woman`s now laughing tonight. She`s been charged with some serious stuff. Police soon discovered this was no accident. Ame`s abuse had been going on for well over a year. The details are beyond revolting.

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SERGEANT TRENT CRUMP, PHOENIX POLICE DEPARTMENT: She was fed hot sauce. She had dog fecal matter rubbed on her when she wouldn`t pick it up in the back yard and forced to eat it. She was deprived of food.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ame`s cousin, Samantha Allen and her boyfriend were arrested and charged with first degree murder. The two older women -- yes, that`s the guy there -- uh, her grandmother, 62-year-old Judith Deal and her aunt, Cynthia Stoltzmann, were charged with kidnapping and child abuse. Straight out to Lori Jane Gliha, reporter, KNXV. What else do we know tonight?

LORI JANE GLIHA, REPORTER, KNXV: Well, after looking through the court paperwork, we found out that there`s been lots of abuse in this child`s history. Witnesses came forward and talked to the police saying that she had been hit with a wooden paddle called a butt buster, you heard about the hot sauce with lots of different hot sauce, the hottest of the hot sauce that had been put in her mouth.

She was forced to do back bends for about two hours before being put in that box and if she would fall down, this person would get her back into position. Crush cans with her bare foot. She had actually been padlocked into that box and people actually fell asleep while she was in there. When they actually found her, she had been pressed up against the box, there were marks on her body as if she had been trying to get out.

Let me just give you an idea of this box. The height of the box was 31-1/2 inches. This girl is 50 inches tall so you can imagine being crammed into this area. They found her soiled and sweaty and the -- the report that I read said that she did not even have a bed in this house, that she would often be forced to sleep in a shower stall because as punishment for wetting the bed at times so, and you heard the dog feces that she was forced to eat dog feces because she didn`t properly clean up some of the dog feces in the area where the laundry was done, near the clothesline.

So, a big history of -- of -- of abuse that has happened and just questions about why -- why this didn`t get stopped earlier.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, a lot of questions about that. Trent Crump, you are with the Phoenix Police Department. Thank you for joining us, Sir. They originally claimed oh this was a game of hide and seek. How did you learn the truth, the horror?

TRENT CRUMP, PHOENIX POLICE DEPARTMENT: Well, there were actually about three ways in which this started to unravel in the past few weeks and that is that we had people come forward in the community. I think it`s a guilty conscience if you will, hopefully. But, we also had investigators that stayed on this and continued to interview the players that were involved and you also had kids that were involved in this and as we did forensic interviews on these kids, you know, they`re not very good liars if you will and things started to surface and so two or three things started coming to light in the past few days that helped us realize this wasn`t a game of hide and seek that they had conjured up, this was them trying to cover their tracks on their criminal activity.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, well listening to some of the details that law enforcement has uncovered, the horror that this poor child, this innocent precious little girl, 10-year-old Ame was subjected to, check it out.

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CRUMP: It is my understanding that the activity before or prior to the chest was about two hours of back bends, she was forced to physically exercise, jumping jacks, run circles in the yard.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Again, the history of abuse, she was forced to eat the hottest of hot sauce, had dog feces rubbed on her, beaten with a wooden paddle, and then kept in locked spaces, shower stall, locked in a trunk. I want to bring in someone who wants to remain anonymous but who was abused as a child and I understand that there are commonalities with what you experienced and what this child experienced. Can you tell us about that.

ANONYMOUS: Sure, Jane. First, I have to say my heart is broken, just broken, thinking about what this girl went through. When a child is given a punishment like hot sauce, as I was when I was a kid, many, many times, it`s not only a huge betrayal that the child feels by the step-parent in my case and/or by the parent, it`s humiliation and then the isolation with that pain coursing through your body where you really don`t have anything to think about but the pain is enormously damaging and I thought I was the only one that this was done to. My mother denied it. My step-mother denied it. And it wasn`t until I saw a news program about a year ago of a little boy that was getting this punishment that my jaw dropped and I was in an emotional state of distress for about one week remembering how terrible it was.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I`m sorry you had to relive it again but we are trying to make this horror a teaching moment so that this poor little girl did not die in vain, so that we can learn something from this. Dr. Jenn Berman, first I want you to listen to this sound bite because we need some psychological help on this horror story. There were neighbors, there were people, there were apparently a bunch of people living in tents in back of this house who saw horrible stuff. Nobody called the Department of Children and Families or Police. Listen to this.

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LOWETA WEAVER, NEIGHBOR: We knew right away it wasn`t.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

WEAVER: Because the way they used to punish the little girl, make her walk up and down the street barefooted and stuff. Oh yeah, used to do a lot of stuff to her.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Dr. Jenn, I -- I don`t understand. There are no words.

DR. JENN BERMAN, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: There -- there really aren`t. There`s no way to explain someone seeing this kind of abuse and not reaching out in some -- what tends to happen in this kind of situation that the people around them collude, that they become part of the pathology within the family that creates this kind of terrible abuse and oftentimes there is mental illness, a lot of the time there is substance abuse but there -- it -- it is incomprehensible even for me as a mental health professional.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mr. Crump, spokesperson, Phoenix Police Department. Where are the child`s mother and father? Apparently, these people felt like, well, she`s not really biologically ours and that that was allegedly a motive for them abusing her. But where`s her -- where was her mom, where was her dad?

CRUMP: Well, unfortunately, we haven`t been able to find her mother still. We have not located her but we understand that this is the father`s side of the family and he has come and gone from this house. He is part of this investigation. He is also somebody that we`re looking at but he, too, has taken absolutely no responsibility for her or any -- or any responsibility for her care whatsoever. But, it`s important to note that Cynthia did adopt her as her legal guardian and so she has custody, for whatever those reasons may have been years ago but that`s something that we`ve still got to try to figure out.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok, Cynthia is the aunt who is now charged with child abuse and kidnapping and there are two in this family, John Allen and Samantha Allen who are now charged with first degree murder. Hang in, we`re not done with this very upsetting story. But, also, we will have for you also, Casey, is she reverting back to her party animal ways? You won`t believe some new information just coming in. Again, this unbelievable tragedy, a little girl found dead, locked inside a box.

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CRUMP: This crime has absolutely made our seasoned investigators sick to their stomachs with what we have learned in the past few days.

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WARNER: The way they used to punish the little girl, make her walk up and down the street barefooted and stuff.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: The story that the girl was playing hide and seek and climbed in the box and suffocated, police now say was a lie.

(VIDEO CLIP)

CRUMP: About two hours of back bends. She was forced to physically exercise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Accused of forcing the girl inside the chest and locking it with a padlock overnight.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s places that she would squeeze into that I wouldn`t think my dog could squeeze into.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: And that hideously laughing woman is the aunt of this little child who was found dead and that woman is now charged with child abuse and kidnapping and two others charged with first degree murder after this precious smiling child, this beautiful little girl who has done nothing wrong, a total innocent, was locked, according to cops, in a storage box, a tiny little toy box, and they all went to sleep and she died, and this followed a lot of abuse.

I want to bring in David Pelzer, who is a New York Times best-selling author and who has courageously written about the abuse that he suffered, the severe abuse, at the hands of his own mother. David, thank you for joining us. We don`t understand how this can happen. We do not, even the psychotherapist, nobody can understand how a human being can do this to another person, another child. How does it happen?

DAVID PELZER, AUTHOR: Well, Jane, one, good evening to you and to your audience and the first thing I want to say because I`ve thought about this and prayed about this because I know you do a lot of shows on this.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes.

PELZER: .and, you know, I try to work in the field of prevention and awareness and in service training and -- and what breaks my heart and I just have to get this off my chest is -- is I want your audience, because we have a lot of parents out there, we have a lot of good people who -- who view your show and I think the first thing that I have to say is -- is that once again that we need to recognize the fact that -- that the streets of heaven are just filled tonight with too many angels and -- and when you look at the Casey Anthony case and what`s been revealed in the last few hours of how she`s going to pay her rent and -- and the loss of that beautiful child and then the loss of this little girl, it`s just -- I think in a word it`s horrendous and -- and listening to the information that I have and -- and -- and viewing it, you listen to the aunt who`s 44 and laughs like she`s watching a Seinfeld episode.

Because they are, and this is the thing is these people are so disconnected, it is a pattern, it feeds off itself and -- and -- and they`re reasons, because the couple related, "well, the child wasn`t exactly related to us," which means they`re so disconnected it`s no big deal to them and I know that these detectives have already asked the basic questions and I`m sure, I`m assuming that the perpetrators, the suspects at least, they say well, we`d never abuse our child and that`s in part because it`s an animalistic behavior.

It -- it starts with a form of control, maybe discipline, maybe control, and then it`s -- it -- and then it spins out of control that it`s an escalating dehumanization.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So, what -- what I`m hearing from you is that these people resented taking care of somebody else`s child, which often happens - - often happens. We`ve seen that in numerous cases, whether it`s a step- parent or.

PELZER: Yes.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: . the girlfriend or the boyfriend of somebody, they resent it, they don`t want to have this child and so they start torturing the child basically and they use the excuse of discipline.

PELZER: (INAUDIBLE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: They claim it`s discipline but it`s abuse, it`s torture.

PELZER: Yes, and -- and -- and these people use that as an excuse because it`s going to come out. It`s going to -- people will say, well, you know, golly Jane, the economy is -- is in the toilet or golly gee whiz there`s not a lot of state and federal grants to help out. No, no, no. These people, I mean, Bill Cosby said it perfectly. He says, "Hurt people hurt people." And they`re going to go back to the aunt, to the grandmother, to these very young parents at age 23 and find out that there was some abuse there but then that doesn`t excuse why they do.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But look at their faces. I want to show their mug shots again, these people. They deprived her of food. They made her eat feces and hot sauce. But look how, not so much this guy, but look at -- look at their faces. They`re not starving. They`re not starving these folks.

PELZER: No, they -- they`re -- they`re not.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: They`re actually -- could use a -- to lose a few and they -- they then they starve this -- and they stick her in a box because she ate a Popsicle. I have to jump in and get to Lori Jane Gliha, reporter who is out there on the scene. Something that struck me is there are very strange living arrangements. There were reports that there were four adults living in tents in the back yard that saw this for months. Who has people living in tents in the back yard of their house?

GLIHA: To my understanding, after reading some of the paperwork, some of these people are kind of relatives to t hem and it `s very unusual, this whole circumstance in the first place of who is actually related to who and, you know, the aunt in this case that was charged is actually the legal guardian so it`s kind of unusual in how everybody is related but at least one of the people that was living in the tent was somebody that was related.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, were there other kids there and what is happening to these other kids, Lori?

GLIHA: There are other kids. In fact, those are -- some of the kids were actually playing hide and seek with this little girl at the time and there`s indications in this paperwork that some of them may have also been coached to stick with the hide and seek story when the police were investigating them and then as the investigation continued then the actual story came out. At this time, I`m not sure exactly where the kids are, but .

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m sure they`re in protective -- protective custody.

GLIHA: . I`m guessing they are in the custody of somebody.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Dr. Jenn Berman, help us. Help us understand. I can`t -- I can`t handle t his kind of pure evil.

BERMAN: I know.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: It just throws -- throws us all.

BERMAN: In -- in the -- in the absence of caregivers having tools and an understanding of child development they resort to manipulation, fear, and abuse to control children and then you add in what looks like it must be mental health issues, possibly substance abuse issues and you have these kind of disasters and in this country five children die from child abuse every day. There are 3 million child abuse reports on average every year. Child abuse is a huge problem in this country and this is an extreme example.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And this is why I say if you are not committed to taking care of a child all the way through college don`t have one. Where is the mother? Where is the father? And where were the neighbors? Why didn`t they report it? It -- they say it takes a village. Well, it takes a village to report child abuse. If you see something that seems suspicious take the risk and call the cops. You may save a life.

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CASEY ANTHONY: I know we`re going to see Caylee. I know she`s coming home. I can feel it. Hi. (LAUGHTER). I`m good. Laughter is one of those things that can get you out of whatever you`re feeling, even when you`re at your lowest point. I can`t feel guilty for -- for, you know, laughing. In my gut, I know she`s still ok. I can feel it mom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, booze, big bucks, a new video allegedly shows Casey Anthony`s post jail alcoholic drink of choice and there`s a new half-million dollar deal on the table, an offer from Hustler magazine. But, it doesn`t sound like Hustler`s really interested in the interview part if you know what I mean. And, if you wonder what Casey was doing on that airplane after she walked out of jail in Orlando, new claims tonight she was downing a brewsky and cracking jokes. There`s allegedly video to prove it. Straight out to my buddy, TMZ`s (INAUDIBLE) editor, Mike Walters. So, Mike, is it true? Have you actually seen the video? Can you identify Casey Anthony on it?

MIKE WALTERS, TMZ, EDITOR: I can and I have seen the video, 100% it is Casey Anthony. She is wearing the clothes she wore when she got out of jail. This is a few hours after she got out, arriving at the location where they took her, which I am told it is a beach house, you know, a few hours away from where she was in Florida. I can tell you that in the video she is exiting a private jet which looks very luxurious inside. She is holding a Corona Light beer and as she gets out she smiles at the camera and the camera, whoever was behind it, talks about something you can`t hear and then she says, "I concur, I concur." Probably some legal language she learned over her trial and years -- years in jail.

But, anyway, so, what`s interesting about the video is that -- two things. One, I think a lot of people are upset and we`ve been getting that here at TMZ that she`s tooling around in a private jet, that she`s drinking, that, you know, she`s doing things which people, I think, feel inside they don`t want her to do. They don`t want her to have a good time, they don`t think she should be tooling around in a private jet, and they don`t think that she should be hanging on, you know, at the beach at the beach house watching he waves crash.

People think that she should be remorseful and have, you know, issues with what happened still so the video is a interesting look at the day after.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let -- let me ask you this, by the way, HLN reached out to Jose Baez, we haven`t heard back but they`re always invited on to explain and tell their side of the story, who is pitching this? I don`t need names but who -- how did you get ahold of this and what does it say about her attempts to negotiate a deal?

WALTERS: Well, all I can tell you is that it is people related to her camp, people that obviously have access. I know that just a small number of people have access to Casey Anthony right now and where she is located, especially the day that she got out of jail but what I can also tell you is I think that Casey Anthony and her people are hearing it loud and clear, some of the people who don`t want her to profit off this interview. I`m told, obviously, they had network interviews in New York. There was, you know, talk of this interview and offers on the table but I am told that this could change drastically that Casey Anthony and her people are hearing the message and I`m not exactly sure how this will all end up.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: In other words, it`s not going to necessarily get a big deal and then you`ve got this whole Larry Flint thing. She was -- he was on Nancy Grace saying that she could make half a million and plus 10% of the profits and, just, you`ve got to wonder if she would possibly end up doing that. We don`t want to make assumptions but.

WALTERS: Right, you`ve got to see.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: .. it`s kind of devolving a little bit in terms of the offers. Hey, great talking to you as always. Mike Walters.

WALTERS: All right Jane.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: A horrific story up next. You won`t believe it.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEATHER MURPHY, ONE-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER DIED OF HEAD TRAUMA: All the things I`m missing out of her life. There is no price great enough to pay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, a mother`s heartache and betrayal. A precious one-year-old girl dies while in the care of her mom`s best friend. What happened in the hours before little Olivia Garcia`s death in 2008?

Her mother, Heather Murphy joins me tonight in an ISSUES exclusive. We are so happy to have you here. Her closest friend, Amanda Brumfield was convicted of aggravated manslaughter in the girl`s death. Amanda is the estranged daughter of Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton.

She told police that Olivia hit her head trying to climb out of a playpen. But prosecutors said that short of a fall could not have caused Olivia`s fatal head injuries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have anything to say, Amanda?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The medical examiner says that it is just not adding up, Amanda. Why can`t you tell us?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Just as the world fixated on the Casey Anthony trial, this tragic case was unfolding inside the very same courthouse. In fact, Amanda Brumfield faced the same three felony charges Casey did. But you didn`t see any lines outside the courthouse for Amanda`s trial. Nobody had a protest demanding justice for this precious child.

This little girl deserves as much attention as Caylee Anthony. And that`s why I am so honored to have her mom, Heather Murphy, on our show tonight.

Also joining me, CNN producer Alan Duke.

First of all, my heart goes out to you. I`m so sorry that you`ve suffered this absolutely unimaginable loss. What strikes me, reading about your case, is that this woman used to be your best friend.

So I understand that you initially defended her. What happened? What did you learn that started making you think this wasn`t just a simple accident she claimed it was?

MURPHY: Well, secretly, she lawyered up and never told me. And we didn`t get the autopsy back for six months after she died, so initially I thought it was an accident and I wasn`t going to accuse somebody else just because I lost my daughter.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Alan Duke, you studied this case -- CNN producer. Prosecutors say she had a three-and-a-half inch fracture on her skull with bleeding and swelling, and they are saying that it was impossible for her to sustain that kind of injury in the kind of fall Amanda, the defendant, described. Tell us about that.

ALAN DUKE, CNN PRODUCER: Yes. And as Heather has said, the injuries are not consistent with a fall; perhaps a slam with a baseball bat or being hit against a wall at 65-miles-per hour, those kind of injuries. We are talking about a tongue that was bitten, almost completely severed.

The circumstances of this case are very disturbance, and there are so many parallels to this and the Casey Anthony case. And as a journalist, it is remarkable to me that it was in the same courthouse at the same time and yet didn`t get the attention.

So I`m glad we are having Heather Murphy talk to us today.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, yes. Law enforcement in fact said exactly what Alan Duke said. That Amanda`s story did not match the injuries that this precious child sustained. Check this out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This story just did not make sense. She cannot conclude that the baby could have suffered that bad a fracture to her head from that distance beyond the playpen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, you used to be best friends with her, and then because you learned new information as this case unfolded about your daughter`s injuries, this huge fracture in the skull, you realized no, this couldn`t be the accident that she claimed it was. She behaved very strangely after she claims the child fell. Tell us about that, and tell us what you believe really happened.

MURPHY: She had sent me very strange text messages when it occurred, saying that she had wanted to keep my kids again. We found out through the trial that when the investigators and the first responders showed up at the house, Amanda was nowhere near the body. She wasn`t attempting to revive her. So if you weren`t trying to bring my daughter back to life, you obviously knew that there was no life left.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Heather, I can see that you`re struggling with this so much. This has got to be the ultimate betrayal. This was the woman you trusted most. What goes through your heart as you think about that betrayal?

MURPHY: It`s hard because I had had a gut feeling and I had started to pull away from the family. And the only reason Olivia stayed that night is because Amanda asked if the girls could sleep over. And I said yes. If Amanda had never asked, the girls wouldn`t have been there and we might not have been in that situation.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I know you don`t want to make this about her famous father Billy Bob Thornton and neither do I. But I had been reading that they were estranged and that she grew up without her dad.

Was Amanda troubled? Did you see anything? Was there drug abuse? Was there alcohol abuse? Was there any inkling that this woman who was your friend -- because we all have friends and we all know that our friends have character defects -- was there anything now with 20/20 hindsight you say there was something wrong with her?

MURPHY: To look at her now, I have to wonder if there were signs I didn`t see and why -- why I didn`t see them. And the way that she`s acting, the things that she`s doing and the lies that are being told.

As far as being estranged from her father, you know, maybe she is, maybe she isn`t. I think maybe something else might be involved in the relationship when this came out.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I know she has a public defender, but I`ve also read you suspect that perhaps she might be getting some help from her wealthy, famous father?

MURPHY: Well, they paid for defendants in the case to testify on their behalf. It was close to $20,000. So the money had to come from somewhere.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, witnesses, yes. We don`t know that, we can`t independently confirm that. If anybody from Billy Bob Thornton`s camp wants to talk about that, they are welcome to come on.

I understand that her sentencing is coming up. First of all, you have to be gratified somewhat given that she faced identical charges to Casey Anthony and Casey Anthony walked. Is there any sense of gratification that she got convicted of aggravated manslaughter?

MURPHY: There is a sense gratification, but there`s also the reality that something terrible happened to Liv. And in my mind, I wanted to believe that it was an accident, you know. But when all the evidence came forward and all the things came forward, something awful happened in my daughter`s last few hours.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Alan duke, tell us about that. There`s bananas, toe nail polish; what happened?

DUKE: It is really bizarre. As I talked to Heather I think I probably got the best description as I talked to her about it. The 911 call wasn`t made for quite awhile, and it was Amanda`s husband when he came home from work. He saw what was going on and he placed a very -- he immediately placed a 911 call. But there was a lot of text messaging going on that one would wonder was Amanda trying to cover her tracks, trying to create an alibi by her actions that she took before her husband came home?

But you`re right. It was really bizarre what apparently she was doing when the child may have already been dead.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So she claims that this child was in her playpen and was fooling around in the playpen and accidentally fell off and dropped to the ground. She seemed ok, she fed her bananas, did her toe nails and then they both went to sleep and then when she woke up the child was limp.

First of all, if a child falls and has a three-and-a-half inch fracture, who in their right mind -- who would give them bananas and do their toe nails instead of rushing them to the hospital, Heather?

MURPHY: I don`t know. It doesn`t -- you don`t have to be in the medical field to know. And from falling 28 inches, you`re not going to sustain a three-and-a-half inch skull fracture. That is part of the story that`s impossible. We don`t know what really happened the night when Liv died.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Her sentencing is coming up. I know her sentence carries up to 30 years. But you`re afraid she might get something very lenient. Are you going to speak in court and what would you say before the judge and this former friend?

MURPHY: The biggest thing that I think that I`m going to say is that I really want the truth at this point. And to be honest, my daughter Isabella and I, our sentence started October 4th and our sentence will end when we die. So it doesn`t matter to me if she gets 13 or 30 years, it doesn`t bring Liv back.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I feel so bad for you. I just -- my heart goes out to you. There is no way -- people talk about closure, but there is no closure, right, Heather?

MURPHY: No, ma`am, there`s not.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh. My heart goes out to you. It really does. I pray that you get at least justice and at least some answers. Thank you.

MURPHY: Thank you.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Keep us posted.

Thanks, Alan.

On the other side of the break, yet another political sex scandal.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know that she is about 18 years old, that she called Mr. Wu`s congressional office back in the state, sounded distraught on the phone, and said that she was the subject of an unwanted sexual encounter with him.

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ANTHONY WEINER, FORMER CONGRESSMAN OF NEW YORK: I apologize to the many other members of the media that I misled. I apologize first and foremost to my wife and to my family.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, no, he didn`t. Yes, he did.

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ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, FORMER GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA: We are taking one day at a time.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: I would love to hear what Maria`s family is saying right now as Arnold comes clean about his secret love child with a staffer.

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MIKE WALTERS, ASSIGNMENT MANAGER, TMZ: And for over 10 years, he had a child that his wife and his didn`t know about.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to again offer my deep, sincere apologies to all those I have let down and disappointed with these actions from my past. I am completely responsible. And I`m so very, very sorry.

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BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody a lie, not a single time, never.

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SCHWARZENEGGER: We both love each other very much. We`re very fortunate to have four extraordinary children. And we`re taking one day at a time.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Politicians all of them but even they can`t compare to the horrific sex scandal involving -- are you sitting down -- U.S. President Grover Cleveland, our 22nd and 24th president.

That`s right. We`re talking rape and unwanted child, illegitimacy, a cover up, insane asylum, shocked? Don`t be. Political scandals are as old as time.

Oregon congressman, David Wu just the latest to resign over a string of bizarre incidents. Take a look at this photo of Congressman Wu dressed like a tiger from the "Seattle Weekly". Wu sent this to a staff, and many of them quit. And then a teenager reported she experienced an unwanted sexual encounter with Wu.

What is it about men in power that makes them do crazy things, like have a secret love child with the cleaning lady and get the cleaning lady pregnant at the same time as your wife is pregnant?

You can`t make this stuff up. A team of Hollywood script writers working around the clock couldn`t invent half this stuff.

Straight out to my dear friend, "Inside Edition" executive producer, Charles Lachman; he`s the author of this fantastic new book, "A Secret Life, the lies and scandals of President Grover Cleveland". I have to tell you, this is a page turner. There`s a lot of scandal in here. And it really made me realize Charles that it is not just today, because everybody is saying why are all these scandals happening today? They have been happening since time immemorial.

CHARLES LACHMAN, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, "INSIDE EDITION": Exactly, Jane. First, thanks for having me. What I found is sex scandals and politics go way, way back. But the scandal that I write about in "The Secret Life" is about 125 years old and is really the first of the presidential sex scandals that we`ve become so familiar with. And my research really uncovered a lot of really fascinating information.

Throughout history, Grover Cleveland has gone down as the epitome of political courage, a man of -- a statesman, man of great moral depth. But what I found is something quite to the contrary that in fact, he fathered an illegitimate child when he was an unknown lawyer practicing the law in Buffalo, New York. And he used his political powers and his allies to snatch the unwanted son from the mother, threw the kid into an orphanage, and then threw the mother into an insane asylum.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow.

LACHMAN: Yes, it is amazing.

When the scandal came out ten years after the birth of the child in 1884, when he was running for U.S. Presidency, there was an eruption. There was a great chorus of outrage. But the bottom line is that he won the election, and the reason he did is that he defamed the women involved; that he and his allies went overboard in terms of -- they didn`t use the word "slut", but in current terminology, that`s what they called her. They claimed that she --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And wasn`t there this cartoon or this chant, "Ma, ma, where`s my pa?"

LACHMAN: Right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s what they were actually chanting, his opponents, because they knew about the sex scandal. But despite all that, he managed to blame the victim and get elected.

Now, I want to segue to a high-tech modern day sex scandal. I`m talking of course about Anthony Weiner. And he, of course, was sending photos of himself, sexting I guess, is the way you put it these days -- very different from Grover Cleveland, at least a century off, but there`s something very similar about it. Check this out.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a photograph of you?

WEINER: We`re trying to find out where that photograph came from, whether a photograph was manipulated that was found on my account, whether something was dropped into mine.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: So Dr. Jenn Berman, you have two different centuries. Actually, that was so long ago. And they didn`t have texting, they didn`t have any Smartphones back in the day of Grover Cleveland, but there`s a lot of commonality here. And one of the big themes is lying. It is not just the sex scandal, it is lying about what you did, right, Dr. Jenn?

DR. JENN BERMAN, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Absolutely. Also when you look at the type of personality that tends to be successful and drawn to politics, we`re talking about charismatic people who believe they can make a difference. That same personality in its extreme tends to be narcissistic, grandiose and entitled.

And then throw in that power, that belief that you`re not going to get caught, and a bunch of testosterone, and you have these kind of sex scandals.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And, by the way, we have new information on John Edwards. He just found out that his civil trial over the alleged sex tape he made with his secret mistress, Rielle Hunter, there is a lawsuit about that. And that has been pushed back to next year so that his criminal case can go forward because he is also accused of using almost a million bucks of campaign funds to hide his secret mistress and their love child.

So it is very similar. It is similar to Grover Cleveland. It is unbelievable that nothing seems to change.

All right. When we come back, we`re going to talk about Arnold and his sex scandal. You won`t believe it. We have more details, a lot breaking. Stay with us.

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JOHN EDWARDS, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There`s no question that I have done wrong and I take full responsibility for having done wrong. And I will regret the rest of my life the pain and the horror that I have caused others. But I did not break the law and I never, ever thought I was breaking the law.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: But despite his claims that he didn`t think he was breaking the law he`s got legal troubles on two fronts. There is this civil trial, his secret mistress once upon a time, Rielle Hunter wants property back. And reportedly it includes a sex tape that he made with her. And there`s also the criminal case where he`s accused of using almost a million dollars of campaign funds to funnel around.

There you see Rielle and the love child -- I hate that phrase "love child" -- that`s a young lady who`s going to grow up hopefully and live a wonderful life. But unfortunately, this child was born in the center of a scandal.

And Charles Lachman, then of course, there is the Arnold and Maria scandal. You have Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former governor of California involved in this very messy divorce with Maria Shriver. It`s unbelievable because I guess the most salient point is that when Maria Shriver was pregnant with their youngest son he also impregnated the housekeeper and had a child out of wedlock with the housekeeper. And there you see the housekeeper.

And when the housekeeper finally told her son who the daddy was, his son said, "Cool". But for the rest of the world, it`s not so cool. That`s what strikes me as so amazing, it`s not just the affair and the lying, but then you bring other children in, and that`s what happened with Grover Cleveland. A child was born.

LACHMAN: Right, and this child, as I said earlier, he was thrown into an orphanage and what happened to him was very interesting. He was actually adopted by the physician who delivered him at birth. And this physician had recently lost his own biological daughter.

And there`s this whole drama about how Grover Cleveland arranged this private adoption and used his political power to take the child, the unwanted child away from the mother, put him into an orphanage, and then had his crony, this physician adopt him. Now fortunately the physician and his wife raised the child lovingly and gave him a great home and he actually became a very prominent physician on his own.

But going back to Arnold Schwarzenegger, what`s so egregious about that, what`s so mind-boggling to me is that Christopher, Arnold and Maria`s eldest son now 16 was born and five days later came the birth of his so- called love child.

So you can figure out the math there. It really is just amazing.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, Dr. Jenn Berman, you were talking about a certain personality type that makes a politician. I was thinking about it and I was thinking maybe they are just hooked on power. In other words they`re addicted to power and within that addiction is a power of -- a desire for sex whenever they want it.

In other words a desire for being dominant, being sort of king of the hill, king of the world and they can do anything and they say that they`re in a no consequence zone to themselves. They say that they`re invincible, that they`re bulletproof, but they`re not. Thank you.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: It`s a cops and robbers game, only dogs are playing it. Take a look at this incredible YouTube video.

This adorable pup named Rosie runs up to play with her friend, and then she falls down dead. And then after a couple of seconds, I`m playing dead here, I`m going to get up and do it all over again, because this is my favorite game.

This is exactly what kids do. I know that dogs know how to do this, because I had a dog who used to do the same thing when I passed a good friend`s house. She loved visiting that friend because she always had a good time there. She would do exactly this every time she walked by her house.

That`s why I say, I`m an animal rights activist because animals are just like kids. They are intelligent and they are innocent and they are full of love and they are powerless. And they need to be protected by us, the human adults. Nobody else is going to do it, it`s up to us.

"NANCY GRACE" is up next.

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