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Jane Velez-Mitchell
Baby Lisa`s Mom Was Drunk Night Lisa Went Missing; Will Casey Anthony Speak?
Aired October 17, 2011 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH BRADLEY, MOTHER OF MISSING BABY: The only thing I could think of is maybe somebody wanted a baby and she...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where is the baby?
NANCY GRACE, HLN ANCHOR: I`m always concerned when someone comes into the home and takes the baby, while one of the parents or caregivers are there.
BRADLEY: She`s everything. She`s our little girl. She`s completed our family. Our two other boys are waiting for her. Please. Just drop her off anywhere. We don`t care. Just somewhere safe where she can come home, please.
GRACE: I`d like it find out how much of that big honking box of wine mom bought was recovered. Was she out cold?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just keep praying. Just keep praying, please, please, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The truth is going to come out eventually. It always does.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST (voice-over): Shocking new developments in the search for missing baby Lisa. As the National Guard is called out to hunt for the missing 11-month-old girl, an adorable child, "People" magazine is reporting tonight that Lisa`s mother was quite possibly in a drunken blackout -- that`s right, a drunken stupor -- the night this beautiful, angelic, precious, helpless child went missing. Is that why the little girl`s mother is now changing her story and changing her time line?
Originally, Deborah Bradley said she put little Lisa to bed at about 10:30 p.m. But now she is claiming that she actually put Lisa to bed at about 6:40 p.m. Hello. That is a difference of about three hours and 50 minutes. That is huge. What could account for such a wild discrepancy? Could it be that she`s now admitting she probably had more than five glasses of wine that night?
Deborah is now flat out -- that`s right -- admitting she was drunk that night. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you drinking that night?
BRADLEY: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How much?
BRADLEY: Enough to be drunk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you were drunk?
BRADLEY: Mm-hmm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of people are going to say, "Deborah, you were drunk that night. Is there any chance you did anything to hurt your daughter that you`re just not telling us?"
BRADLEY: No, no, no. And if I thought there was a chance I would say it. No, no. I don`t think that alcohol changes a person enough to do something like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, alcohol definitely changes someone when you`re in a blackout. You don`t know what you`re doing.
Deborah was seen buying baby food and box of wine with her brother less than two hours before she allegedly put Lisa into her crib for the last time. So what really happened to baby Lisa between that visit to the store and when her dad came home from work at 4 in the morning?
Do you believe Deborah`s latest story? Give me a call. We`re taking your calls tonight: 1-877-JVM-SAYS. That`s 1-877-586-7297. We`ll put you on as soon you come in.
Straight out to Jim Spellman, CNN reporter. You are live in Kansas City. What is the very latest tonight?
JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jane.
Well, earlier today the family brought on an attorney, Joe Tacopina, a high-powered attorney from New York City. You may remember him from the Joran Van Der Sloot case. He immediately tried to reset the perceptions of this case and move the attention away from Deborah Bradley and back to police, encouraging them to do more searches.
I thought one of the fascinating things he brought up was about her admitting being drunk. He suggests that, look, if she was so drunk could she possibly have pulled off this disappearance, baby Lisa gone without a trace?
And on the flip side, suggesting that if somebody did break into the house, and she was out cold drunk, that`s a reason why she wouldn`t have heard it. Very interesting day today here as they try to really change that perception of Deborah -- of Deborah.
Back to you, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, yes, I watched that news conference and Joe Tacopina, who`s an excellent lawyer, ferocious in his defense of this family, but what`s ironic here is that the attention gets focused on the mother primarily because of her own words and things she has told the media.
"People" magazine interviewed Deborah, and "People" magazine says, quote, "She has no recollection of whether or not she checked on her daughter or turned off the house lights before she went to bed." When asked if alcohol caused her to black out, she said, quote, "It`s a possibility." Quote, "I had several glasses of wine." "More than five?" "Probably."
And when asked if she saw anything wrong with drinking while her infant was in her care, Deborah said, quote, "She was sleeping. I don`t have a problem with me having adult time," end quote.
Hello? Getting drunk is not having adult time when you`re in charge of three kids. A tiny little helpless baby along with a 6- and an 8-year- old boy, who were also in the house at the time. HLN law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks.
MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I`m telling you, what if the house had of caught on fire, Jane? Would she have been able to get her kids out of there? No, absolutely not.
And, you know, his whole thing today, it was very strange. You first saw Bill Stanton, who is a private investigator from New York, get up there and say, "Well, I`m leaving, but another New Yorker is coming here," and then he introduced Joe Tacopina. It was very, very strange.
And then, you know, Joe went on to say, also, that the members of law enforcement had been insensitive during interviews of the parents. Well, you know, sometimes you got to play hard ball, if you`re law enforcement, to try to get to the truth. And that`s what it`s all about, Jane. Law enforcement getting to the truth.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Absolutely. And again, she is the one who was seen on surveillance video buying the wine, which in and of itself, there`s nothing incriminating about that. But not even two full hours before she allegedly put this helpless, helpless child, 11 months old now, ten months old at the time, to bed, she`s seen on tape buying booze at a local store. O, that happens at around 5 in the evening.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REBECCA GUERRERO, SAW MOM AT STORE: They pretty much asked me, you know, if she was depressed, you know. If she seemed depressed. How she acted around the baby. You know, if she, you know, seemed stressed out. Pretty much questions that, you know, would -- I would know because she would talk to me a lot, you know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what did you tell them?
GUERRERO: I pretty much told them she never looked depressed around me, you know. She always seemed to have a smile on her face when her kids were around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK, there`s the clerk talking. You can see the boxes of wine behind her. Deborah Bradley purchased one of those boxes of wine at about 5 p.m. Now she is saying that she put her child to sleep at about 6:40 when she had originally said 10:30. It seems that she`s confused about the timeline.
I want to go out to Wendy Walsh, psychologist and the new co-host of "The Doctors." Congratulations on that post, Wendy.
I`ve got to say. I want to emphasize that I have experience with this, and I`m not proud of it. I have the dubious distinction of being an expert in this area because I am a recovering alcoholic. Sixteen years ago when I had my last drink. More than that, actually. It`s coming up on 17 years in April. Knock on wood I make it. One day at a time.
WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: Congratulations on that.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But I do know what blackouts are like. And I know that you don`t remember what happens after a certain point, and then sometimes you get little flashes, like flashes of "Oh, I think this happened. I think that happened." And sometimes things come back a couple of days later.
They do these jokes with it, like, "Dude, Where`s My Car?" where people forget where they parked their car. But this is not a laughing matter. This is a very, very, serious matter. And I can tell you that, having experienced it myself, when you`re a n a blackout, you don`t know what the heck you`re doing. And so you can`t say, "I did this, that and the other," because you don`t know what you`re doing, Wendy.
WALSH: That`s so true, Jane. And congratulations to you for almost hitting 17 years. It`s a very tough walk.
This woman is doing -- has done what appears to be a kind of binge drinking behavior. If it`s true that she had more than five glasses, we don`t know how much food she had with it. We don`t know the whole timeframe, where she consumed it. But the inconsistencies in her story about the timeframe, and as you said, Jane, do lead us to believe that, potentially, she was in a blackout state and unable to remember the exact details.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, and maybe that`s why she says that cops gave her a poly, and she failed when they asked, "Do you know where the baby is?" Because on some deep recess of her mind, it`s a possibility.
And I`m not -- listen, she is not considered a suspect. I`m just talking about how blackouts work. When you`re in a blackout, there is some part of your mind that`s registering what`s happening. You just can`t remember it. Because sometimes, and this has happened to me, thank God more than 16 years ago, but it did happen to me, where you remember things hours or even days later.
I want to go out to the phones. Carla, Texas, your question or thought, Carla?
CALLER: I just don`t understand how she doesn`t remember if she put the baby to bed at 7:40. But she tells the cops it was 10:30. I mean, that`s three hours. But I don`t know -- I don`t drink, so I don`t understand blackouts. But I have four children, and I have a baby who`s one. And three, six and seven. I know when they go to bed every night. And I just don`t understand how she doesn`t know. I mean, I guess because she was drinking. But I don`t get -- I just don`t understand it. How does she not know when she put her baby to bed?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I think it`s interesting, because what happens is that you lose track of the time. So you think -- you might be thinking it`s 10:30 at night, but it`s 6:30. Or you might be thinking it`s 6:30 at night but it`s 10:30.
I want to go back out to Jim Spellman, who`s a reporter there on the scene. She was on the stoop, apparently, drinking with a neighbor. And at 10:30, the neighbor leaves. Can you tell us about that? Paint a picture of what was going on, from what you know.
SPELLMAN: Sure. About 10:30, the neighbor that she had been drinking with, leaves and tells her that she saw the lights go off in her house, that Deborah turned off the lights in her house.
Now, of course, when Jeremy, the father, comes back around 4 in the morning, the lights were on. So that creates some question marks there.
But also, you know, I wanted to touch on that three- or four-hour gap now that she`s created by changing her story. That`s really significant because as police have been questioning people and getting the word out in the public, people have had in their head, what happens from 10:30 on. The difference between 6:30 when people are coming home from work and 10:30 when people are going to bed is really huge in people`s has perceptions of what was going on at that time. It`s really different. The sun is out at 6:30; it`s down at 10:30. That is a huge gap that really has created a big problem for investigators here, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And it`s interesting that her original thing was, "Oh, I last saw the baby at 10:30." Now, we`re hearing, no, she saw the baby at 6:40. But her friend, with whom she`s drinking on the stoop of her house, leaves at 10:30. So maybe she assumed that she had checked on the baby after the friend left. But what happens after 10:30 when her friend leaves?
Now, we also understand that authorities have been removing some -- some items from the homes around there. We`re going to get to that on the other side, and we have an exclusive interview with somebody who`s right in the thick of all this.
And we`re taking your calls: 1-877-JVM-SAYS. Why does the mother`s story keep changing?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re hanging in there. Thank you very much. And just keep praying. Just keep praying. Please, please, please, keep praying.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The infant`s mother is seen on this video buying baby supplies from a local market on the very day her child went missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see Deborah Bradley, Lisa`s mother, and another man walk into this grocery store, which is about a mile or so away from this neighborhood here. And they walk away. Everything looks very calm.
GUERRERO: She`s the sweetest little girl I`ve ever seen. She`s always smiling. When you go up to her and you tickle her, she starts laughing.
BRADLEY: She`s everything. She`s our little girl. She`s completed our family. She -- she means everything to my boys. And we -- we need her home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, they`ve lawyered up, as they say, in the trade. Lisa`s mom, the missing baby`s mother and father, appeared with a very famous lawyer, Joe Tacopina, today. Joe Tacopina spoke. They just stood there holding hands and listening, the media just peppering them with questions.
The mother has not been shy about telling the world that the cops told her she failed a polygraph, even as she complains that people are focusing on her. One of the reasons they`re focusing on her is because she has told that. The cops didn`t say it. She did.
Listen to this from ABC`s "Good Morning America."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRADLEY: "... you failed."
I said, "Failed what? What question did I fail?"
He said, "You failed the one where you know where your daughter`s at."
And I said, `That`s not possible. I don`t know where she`s at."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: It seems to me odd, Mike Brooks, that she is the one telling everybody that cops told her she failed a polygraph, because cops refuse to confirm that. They`ve also refused to say that she is a suspect.
What do you make of my theory that possibly the blackout from alcohol could be the reason that she failed the polygraph?
BROOKS: Well it could very well be, Jane. But it also could be an investigative technique, that they`re not getting all the answers that they think they should be getting.
And, you know, we heard Joe Tacopina today say that he didn`t like the way that law enforcement was handling her.
So she`s the one saying that, though. I mean, maybe she did. But they think that she knows where the baby is located, and she`s saying she doesn`t. It could be an investigative technique or she may have actually failed the polygraph. But law enforcement aren`t going to say, "She failed the polygraph." We heard that from their spokesperson.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And Deborah also said that during this interrogation, cops used some, well, you might say controversial techniques, in an apparent bid to try to get her to say something. Listen to this from ABC`s "GMA." This is pretty fascinating.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRADLEY: During interrogation we found this. They showed me burnt clothes. She showed me a Doppler thing with pings from a -- that my cell phone. And I`m led to believe at this point that none of that was real. I hope the burnt clothes weren`t real.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And another perplexing piece of this puzzle is that the cell phones that the family had in the house, they say, whoever they believe broke into the house through a window, turned out all the lights took their cell phones.
And we don`t know anything about whether the cell phones had any pings, although you believe the mother, the cops tried to use the cell- phone pings in their interrogation.
I want to go to a very special guest we have. Janice McConnell, she works at One-Eyed Jack`s Tavern. What a colorful name, Janice, for a tavern. I know that everybody in that area is frantic about this helpless precious child who is missing.
I understand that one of the people that police interviewed and later exonerated but thought might be a suspect at one point, a homeless man that goes by the name...
JANICE MCCONNELL, ONE-EYED JACK`S TAVERN (via phone): Jersey.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, what was the name?
MCCONNELL: Jersey.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jersey. That`s what it was. Jersey. You saw him in your pub. Tell us about that, if you would, Janice.
MCCONNELL: Well, he really didn`t come in here to our bar at all. And I know that he was in there the Saturday night before the baby went missing. And he was on the patio with one of our customers. And I guess he was going around spitting on people. Kind of crazy.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Spitting? Did you say spitting?
MCCONNELL: Yes, spitting on people.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Lovely.
MCCONNELL: And we had never seen him before -- before that night. And my bouncer went out and asked him to leave. And that`s really the last time -- the first and last time that we`ve seen him. And so they`ve been talking to us about it, because they -- it appeared that that was the last time that he`d been seen. And then the baby went missing, I guess, that Monday. So...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And apparently, this guy lives in a well?
MCCONNELL: Well, I guess he`s homeless. And so there are several houses around here that are abandoned. And I guess he`s like, you know, moves from one house to the other, you know, living in them. One of them was the one that had the well in the back yard that they went down to see if they could find a baby. As soon as they got done doing that, they bulldozed the house.
And then on Saturday, and I`m not sure. I haven`t really heard whether or not, but the police caught him on Saturday night. And at the same time they were talking about this abandoned house that had the dirty diapers in it. They talk about...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hang on. We`re going to get more on the other side. But that guy`s been eliminated as a suspect.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE TACOPINA, LAWYER FOR LISA`S FAMILY: Assume for a second she had nothing to do with the disappearance of Lisa. She`s a mother who is in a high state of trauma, who trembles every day and cries. And if her recollection sometimes isn`t what it should be regarding certain times of events, I don`t think we can really be too harsh on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: The family of the missing child has lawyered up with that lawyer, Joe Tacopina. Very famous attorney indeed. Even as they insist they are completely 100 percent innocent.
Now, surveillance footage has given the father an alibi. He was working on a Starbucks that was under construction, and there`s apparently surveillance video of him. Listen to this, from ABC`s "Good Morning America."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s actually kind of done the opposite. You know, we spent, you know, every waking moment together since this happened. It`s actually made us a lot closer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well he`s sticking by his wife, who was the last one to see the child.
Rebecca, Georgia, we`re going to the phones. Rebecca Georgia, your questions or thought, Rebecca.
CALLER: Hello, Jane. I watch you every night.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you, thank you. Keep watching.
CALLER: And my thought is it`s like a repeat of Mr. Croslin. It`s like her. She was in another room when the little girl was taken, and she was also in bed with their son. And the lights were on also.
And the father came home just like Lisa`s father, to find the baby missing. I think she knows what happened to baby Lisa and who has her. Has anyone thought of the similarity?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Rebecca, you have made some great parallels there between these two cases. And of course, the disappearance of little Haleigh Cummings remains a mystery to this day. Even as the mother, or the girlfriend of the father, Misty Croslin, remains in prison on drug charges, as does the missing baby`s father, Ron Cummings. They`re both in jail. And still, we don`t know what happened to that child. It`s a total mystery, and I agree with you.
Wendy Walsh, what perplexes me about this case, is that it appears, according to published reports, that Lisa is not allowing police to re- interview the two older children in the house, the 6- and the 8-year-old boys, saying she doesn`t want to upset them any more. Do you buy that explanation?
WALSH: You know, Jane, I actually do. She`s a mother. She`s trying to demonstrate that she`s protective of her children. She is probably -- I mean, assuming that her story is true -- let`s take that stance first -- she`s probably in a great deal of shock. She`s been undergoing a lot of police investigative techniques that could have caused her a lot of stress and anxiety.
And now she`s doing the one thing people are saying that she didn`t do with the baby, which is try to protect her son, so I get it. I totally get it.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jim Spellman, CNN reporter. You`ve got Lisa`s mom, the baby`s mother, buying wine with her brother. What do we know about this brother?
And also the neighbor. What did the neighbors see when she left? Because I understand she saw lights going off.
SPELLMAN: She saw lights going out. She left about 10:30, Jane, and saw lights going out and told Deborah this. And of course, when Jeremy, the father, came back, the lights were on.
Now, this neighbor is somebody we haven`t been able to get to, and they haven`t named her yet. Several of the neighbors here have put up "no trespassing signs" on their front yard and made it clear that they don`t want to talk to anybody. We do know that several neighbors, including her next-door neighbor...
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. We are out of time. Thank you so much, fantastic panel.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CASEY ANTHONY, ACQUITTED FOR MURDER OF DAUGHTER: Can someone let me - - come on. Nobody is letting me speak. You want me to talk then give me - -
CINDY ANTHONY, MOTHER OF CASEY ANTHONY: All right, I`ll listen to you.
CASEY ANTHONY: -- three seconds.
CINDY ANTHONY: Go sweetheart.
I found out my granddaughter has been taken. She has been missing for a month. Her mother finally admitted that she`s been missing.
JOSE BAEZ, ATTORNEY FOR CASEY ANTHONY: She can be 13 years old, have her father`s (EXPLETIVE DELETED) in her mouth and then go to school and play with the other kids as if nothing ever happened.
CASEY ANTHONY: I just wanted to let everyone know that I`m sorry for what I did. I take complete and full responsibility for my actions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is disgusting. The baby -- what about her?
CROWD: Justice for Caylee. Justice for Caylee. Justice for Caylee.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As to the charge of first degree murder, verdict as to count one, we the jury, find the defendant not guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty.
CASEY ANTHONY: I have no clue where she is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure you do.
CASEY ANTHONY: If I knew in any sense where she was, this wouldn`t have happened at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN HOST: Is Casey Anthony finally ready to talk? Last night Casey`s attorney Jose Baez went to dinner with Barbara Walters at Orso, a very fancy Manhattan restaurant. And TMZ was there to catch it all on tape. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Baez, how are you? How are you Miss Walters?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is mine here.
BARBARA WALTERS, ABC NEWS HOST: Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You all right with this?
WALTERS: No, no, we have one. He`s here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Baez, how was dinner?
Miss Walters, how was it?
WALTERS: Just fine, thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s good. Are you looking forward --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone wants to know, how much was the interview of Mr. Baez?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So was it just a friendly dinner or were they talking business? Barbara Walters already interviewed Baez back in July for an ABC News special about the Casey Anthony trial.
Let`s listen to him talk about his famous client back then.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALTERS: Describe Casey Anthony. You know her now probably better than anyone else.
BAEZ: I think Casey is an extremely intelligent, kind, warm-hearted individual. I think the biggest thing about Casey is that she`s most -- she is very misunderstood by many people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok. Straight out to my dear friend, TMZ executive producer, Harvey Levin; Harvey you and I were having dinner last night and you told me about this video. And of course, I went home and immediately looked at it. And I said we got to talk about this.
I thought Casey was toxic and that we couldn`t do an exclusive interview with her because of the backlash that any organization would get?
HARVEY LEVIN, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, TMZ: Well, Jane, you know that`s not true. You know that anybody who could get Casey Anthony for a sit- down, they are going to want it because it would draw huge ratings.
So Barbara Walters took Jose out. The pretext of it was, it was his birthday. So she took him to see a play on Broadway with Frank Langela and then he ended up going to dinner with them.
Here is the best part of this Jane. What we are hearing is their official thing is it was a birthday party. I don`t think Barbara is that good of friends with Jose Baez; she wants the interview. But when they walk out Jane -- when they walk out and they see the cameras, the one thing you may not have heard is that Jose Baez leaned over to hug Barbara Walters and as soon as she saw he was doing it, she just blanched and she said, no, no, no, not that. Because the last thing she wanted was a shot of her hugging Casey Anthony`s lawyer when TMZ`s camera is there. So she literally recoiled and her excuse, it`s raining. I don`t know what that means.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: It`s raining. Don`t hug me, it`s raining.
LEVIN: It`s raining.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Harvey, Ok. Never hug me when it`s raining ok. I want you to keep that in mind.
LEVIN: Right.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: By the way, we contacted ABC and they said "no comment". Earlier today I got text message on my phone. I got it from Jose Baez. And he wrote, regarding the TMZ story, last night was not about Casey Anthony. We were all discussing the play, "Man and Boy". Frank Langela was captivating."
You buy it, Harve?
LEVIN: Well, let`s thing. So Barbara Walters knows Neil Simon. She knows every other playwright in New York City. Jose Baez is a really good lawyer but no offense, he is not a Broadway critic. And I would think that if Barbara Walters wanted to discuss a play at Orso, she would have come with somebody else.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And let`s face it, Casey Anthony needs the money. Let me ask you. Do you think -- and I`m not saying anybody`s going to pay her. But do you think she`s going to do this exclusive interview and, if so, when? We have about 10 seconds.
LEVIN: I think she`s going to do it. Not now, I`m told. But I think this her big payday. And they will figure out some way of paying her indirectly Jane. But I think ultimately she will sit down and she will get money.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. It`s always great seeing you Harve. By the way, I love Jose Baez too. He`s a good lawyer.
LEVIN: He is.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: No offense, we just have to discuss this. Right.
LEVIN: A good lawyer, just not a great Broadway critic.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, maybe in his next life. All right. Thanks, Harve.
And we have another very special guest with us here tonight. Somebody who was actually at last night`s dinner with Barbara Walters and Jose Baez. Famed defense attorney Linda Kenney-Baden. Linda, thank you so much for being here with us.
LINDA KENNEY-BADEN, FORMER LAWYER OF CASEY ANTHONY: Hi Jane. You worked with the Casey Anthony defense team until just last year and you were at the dinner with Jose Baez and Barbara Walters last night.
Tell us what was the purpose of that dinner, what was the subtext of that dinner? Because everybody in the world is looking that dinner -- go ahead.
KENNEY-BADEN: I`m going to show you the purpose since I am the one who set this up several months ago. So bear with me because it`s going to go in front of my face. I don`t know if your camera can see it. They have a good picture. Frank Langela`s play, "Man and Boy", at the Roundabout American Airlines Theater.
Frank is a very dear friend of my family. So we thought that since Jose was coming in, it would be great to take him to Frank`s play, again, "Man and Boy", at the American Airlines Theater. I know. I set it up because it was a personal affair. It was a family affair.
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, I know, I know, I know. But excuse me, Linda, I love you but most people would assume that Barbara Walters doesn`t do anything with a high profile person like Jose Baez without there being some purpose. This is reactivated talk that there is this huge competition for the first exclusive interview with Casey Anthony. Can you address that?
KENNEY-BADEN: Jane, Jane -- Jane, Jane, I read in the papers that NBC had the interview on Friday when Jose had dinner with you, there were no interview stories. I mean, let`s face it, Frank Langela is a much more high profile person than Jose Baez. And you`re forgetting, my husband was there too. I don`t want to leave him out.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s not true.
KENNEY BADEN: Dr. Michael Baden. He was there too. And the video --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Casey Anthony is the most transfixing figure in America right now. I love you, Linda.
KENNEY BADEN: I love you too Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But let`s face everybody wants to hear from her. There was talk originally when she was first acquitted that she was too toxic to even do an interview with; that there would be backlash. Now the dust has settled and people are saying, "Hey, she is keeping her value up."
Case in point: Casey was last seen, when she arrived at a deposition, or agreed to do a deposition via Skype, for Zenaida Gonzalez lawsuit. That was October 8. Not so long ago.
Now remember, she shows up in disguise, ok. She`s wearing a braided wig. On top of that, she`s got a Phillies baseball cap and she`s also wearing huge sunglasses. Now, the speculation was that she did this to preserve her image and keep it at a premium, keeping the value of her image up.
Everybody in America is wanting to know, where is Casey? What is she doing? What does she look like? What did she have to say?
Are you really telling me that there isn`t a competition among high- profile media types like Barbara Walters to do an interview with her?
KENNEY-BADEN: Read my lips. It was about a play. Dinner at Orso`s was great. If you want to know what everyone had, I had the linguini and clam sauce. I will give you one other secret tonight, vote for Nancy Grace on "Dancing with the Stars".
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, we are doing that. We are all rooting for Nancy Grace and I think she can win it.
But good try, Linda. We`re back to Casey Anthony. You know, she may have been acquitted of murder charges. But in fact she was convicted of lying to police. Casey is an infamous liar. Even her defense attorneys have admitted that.
So let`s listen to an example of her lies in 2008 jail conversation with her parents, very briefly. Then we`ll get your side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CINDY ANTHONY: None of us (INAUDIBLE) -- dad`s blown up with the media.
CASEY ANTHONY: Yes, I heard.
CINDY ANTHONY: Well, someone just said that Caylee was dead this morning, that she drowned in the pool. That`s the newest story out there.
CASEY ANTHONY: Surprise, surprise.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, Linda. Is Casey considering -- telling her story, possibly selling her story, is there a competition, yes or no, for the first Casey Anthony interview.
KENNEY-BADEN: Doesn`t look like it to me. Doesn`t look like it to me. If there were, I think you would see Casey Anthony in New York having dinner at Orso`s, not myself, my husband, Frank Langela and Jose Baez and his wife. Let`s not forget that.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you know, everything I say is within the context of I`d admired Jose Baez as a defense attorney for a long time. I think he did an excellent job and that`s always something that I keep in the mix. So Jose, if you are watching, you know that I have defended you for those who would confuse you with your client.
All right. Thank you, Linda Kenny Baden; great to see you as always.
KENNEY-BADEN: Thank you Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Come back soon.
And we`re going to have more Casey Anthony news right here on ISSUES coming up.
Next month, amazing, the prosecutor of the case, Jeff Ashton -- remember him? He is going to speak to me first exclusively about the case and about his amazing new book about the case. So tune in to me, here on ISSUES for that riveting interview. It is coming up in November. Again, Jeff Ashton, the prosecutor`s going to talk us first right here on ISSUES.
All right. Switching gears. A very sad story and hunt for missing child. A mother found murdered in her home and now her precious 11-month- old (SIC) son is missing. This boy is missing. We have to help find him. What happened to William McQuain?
We are taking your calls, 1-877-JVM-SAYS. Let`s find this little boy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF TOM MANGER, MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLICE DEPT: Detectives entered Miss McQuain`s residence and found her deceased in her bedroom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His mother was a kind, actually very supportive lady. He was a good kid.
MANGER: 11-year-old William McQuain is still missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want him to come home safe with no injuries. And if you know where you are, just please let him come home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: September 30th, that was the last time he was seen.
MANGER: Our priority, our focus right now, is to locate William McQuain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: A woman slain in her own home, on her bed. And her 11-year-old son has not been seen in weeks. Did her husband commit the brutal murder and did he then take the child who is now missing?
This is terrifying. This little boy is 11 years old. Our hearts go out to him.
On Wednesday a friend of this woman, 51-year-old Jane McQuain, filed a missing person`s report. Police in Maryland were dispatched, they raced to her home and this is what they found.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANGER: The district detectives entered Miss McQuain`s residence and found her deceased in her bedroom. There was evidence of trauma to her upper body. Her son was not found in the apartment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But now police have to concentrate on the living, specifically this handsome youngster who is missing -- the murdered woman`s son. His name is William McQuain. If you have seen him -- if you think you`ve seen him, contact police immediately. He hasn`t been seen in school since September 30th.
Now cops are searching for him all over the D.C. area and beyond. So far they haven`t found a thing. But this man we are about to show you may hold the key. This is Curtis Lopez. He was married to Jane McQuain. Police found him after searching for him with the victim`s car all the way in Charlotte, North Carolina, so way south. He was arrested and charged with her murder.
But the question still remains tonight, and it is an alarming one. What happened to the little boy? What happened to this precious youngster?
Give me a call, 1-877-JVM-SAYS. I want to hear what you think.
Straight out to Captain Paul Starks of the Montgomery County Police; Captain, I understand that Curtis Lopez is under arrest. He is charged with the murder of this woman. But he is not telling you anything about where this little boy might be?
CAPT. PAUL STARKS, MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLICE: No. Since Thursday morning when he was arrested by North Carolina authorities, he has opted not to speak us to and he did waive extradition this afternoon and we will have him transported to Maryland in the next few days.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Have you been able to do any kind of DNA, forensic, look at the car to see if there is blood, to see if there is any evidence of this child?
STARK: I`m not able to speak about the specifics of this investigation. But that is something that would be protocol in an investigation of this type.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me ask you this Captain Starks, just to cut to the chase because I know we are both short on time. Do you think he did something untoward with this child? I hate to think that way, but we want to find out what is really going on here.
STARKS: You know there`s some basic questions we want to ask him. We want to ask him when he last saw William and what happened next.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. I want to bring in Pastor Darin Brown and this is an exclusive interview. He is with Journey`s Crossing Church and he knows the woman who was murdered and he knows this little boy. And honestly, it is just making me sick to my stomach to think that this child may have A, witnessed his mother being killed; and B, he may be out there somewhere or something horrible might have happened to him at the hands of this guy allegedly. Pastor?
PASTOR DARIN BROWN, JOURNEY`S CROSSING CHURCH (via telephone): Yes. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family as well. And from the very beginning, it is just a gut-wrenching thing. This is a family that`s been with our church for three years. As soon as we heard the reports, we organized a prayer vigil which we held on Friday evening.
And we are, like everyone else, just sickened by it and just waiting for news. We even have William`s e-mail address and we have just tried everything, tried to reach out even in that way in hopes that maybe he would contact us.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well Pastor, I`m going to jump in. We want to find this child. Here is the route taken by the accused murderer. First he starts at Germantown, Maryland. That`s where his wife is found dead. Then he is arrested in a hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina. That`s about 400 miles away.
So unfortunately, that`s got to make the police investigation much tougher because the child could be anywhere. It`s not like they are just searching a small area.
Pastor, do you have any idea why the day this child didn`t show up at school, they didn`t immediately go to the child`s house, at which point they would have found whatever they needed to find, a lot sooner. And that makes me crazy.
Pastor, I guess we don`t even have time for that. But I got to say, I`ll answer my own question. When a little boy doesn`t show up immediately, consider it an emergency. Now a child is dead -- a child is lost and his mother is dead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANGER: According to witnesses, Mr. Lopez was recently seen in the area of Miss McQuain`s residence and was seen removing property from the residence and loading it into the victim`s vehicle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. We got some breaking news that`s just coming in literally as I speak. We`ve just gotten on our blackberries and iPhones word that they have found a child in Cleveland -- a boy alive. And I want to go out to Captain Paul Starks. I pray this is this child. It would be so wonderful. Do you know anything about this? Wow?
STARKS: No, I don`t know anything. Investigators from the beginning operated on the hope that young William is still alive. We have to follow evidence where it takes us and that`s why we`ve been doing searches in the last couple of days. But the other part of this investigation is still focusing on the hope and on evidence that he is alive.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well let me ask you. Ok. We just saw the route from the D.C. area down where he was found, the suspect, in Charlotte. So, I`m just trying to get a sense how far Cleveland, Ohio is. Is there any way -- listen the child disappears. Last seen at school September 30th, the mother is found dead October 13th.
First of all I would like to know why somebody from the school didn`t immediately go to the house the day after the child doesn`t show up, but that`s a lot of time for this guy to drive all the way around anywhere and even across country if he wanted to. So it`s very possible that he might have gotten to -- we don`t know. I don`t want to raise false hopes but Cleveland, Ohio -- that`s drivable, isn`t it, Captain?
STARKS: It is. We did get a late start on being notified by an acquaintance that Mrs. McQuain was missing. Once we were notified on Wednesday we`ve been hitting the ground running. Detectives literally have not stopped working on this case through the night.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And I`m asking our producers here because they are just sitting here right off camera, any other information? Because again we don`t want to raise false hope but they found a boy in Cleveland, Ohio. We don`t know if it matches the description of this boy, we don`t know how old this child is. We`re going stay on top of this, obviously.
Meantime, Jamilla, Tennessee, your question or thought, Jamilla?
JAMILLA, TENNESSEE (via telephone): Yes, hi Jane. What I want to do is I wanted to find out. I have a question about the school. The schools are not taking responsibility. They are supposed to automatically contact the parent. And I`ll tell you if this happened to me, that my son was taken by his dad for a few days and he was not even reported. I mean he was not even reported. He was truant. I had to call and ask them to go out and find out because I was unable to go and find out why isn`t my son in school.
They still didn`t follow up and they claim they sent a letter. So these schools need to be more responsible for these children.
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You`re making so many good points. I`ll say that I`m looking at a photograph that has just come in of this little boy. I can`t tell. I mean literally I`m looking at the photograph right now and I want says that the boy, his name is Michael Williams. So that`s different -- different name. I don`t know if he looks the same. I`m not the expert to say that. He was born May 27th, 1998. So I don`t know if this is the same child.
We`ll stay on top of it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, more uproar in the Michael Jackson death case. We got some breaking news to tell you about even though court was dark today.
It would seem that the defense has to grapple with another stunning new prosecution report. Basically what happened was the defense decided it`s no longer going to argue Michael Jackson chug-a-lugged Propofol out of a juice bottle that was left on the counter. They`re going to go with ate eight Lorazepam pills and injected himself with Propofol.
Well, the prosecution hears that and they do another test trying to prove that no, he didn`t have eight Propofol pills in his body. There`s a lot of drama surrounding that and another thing that they are going to fight over with the battle of the experts.
So, I want you to check all of this out because it is complicated and you can go to our blog site. And we`re going to put up the address of that blog, hlntv.com/MichaelJackson. Check it out.
"NANCY GRACE" next.
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