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Nancy Grace
Texas Woman Hires Hitman to Kill Firefighter Husband
Aired March 09, 2012 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, live Houston. A brunette beauty with covergirl good looks, a mother of two, plans to renew wedding vows with her firefighter husband, gushing on line he`s the, quote, "greatest guy ever."
Bombshell tonight. Instead of reenacting those wedding vows, think reenacting the crime. All the while she`s planning that second wedding celebration with tons of friends and family, cops say she`s hiring a hitman to murder the husband. This runaway bride will get a free ride in a paddy wagon!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) charged with putting out a hit on her own husband.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you have this kind of evidence...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For one Houston firefighter...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bizarre.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You blame the hitman.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While police say the real danger to him...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 24-year-old describes herself as a mommy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The notes from her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Role model and friend of the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "What a guy," she posted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was right under his own roof.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say that woman, Brittany Martinez, told the would-be hitman that she didn`t care how her husband of five years was killed...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Killed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Killed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just that she wanted him dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She wanted it to be done at work where it would look like it was work-related.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Authorities say she allegedly gave a friend 1,000 bucks to arrange the hit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She said her husband had recently noticed some money was missing from the family bank account and suspected she might be up to no good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even a family picture to make sure the hitman got the right guy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Here`s my husband`s work schedule. I want him killed near the firehouse. Make it look like it`s work-related. Here`s $500. I`ll give you another $1,000 or $2,000 when he`s dead. Here`s the $500 down payment for the murder. If you can`t kill my husband, I`ll find someone who can. I don`t want to meet or come in contact with the person who`s going to kill him. I want my husband dead soon, before he finds out the money I took from the bank to have him killed. Park a block away from the firehouse and kill him in the back parking lot. I don`t care what kind of weapon you use, I just want the job done."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "My boobs are bigger and my hips are wider. My husband says he loves my new body."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, live, Texas. A couple devotes their lives to raising their beloved autistic son, Taylor (ph). At age 19, he makes new friends and moves to a group home. But within days, Taylor has a broken jaw. Mom and dad plead for help from supervisors at Meadow Creek group home. They even call child services after bruises and even burns. Mommy covertly installs a nannycam, and what we saw makes me sick. And tonight, I want justice!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You promise this child when they`re born that you`re going to love them forever and you`re going to protect them!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shocking video, the beating of a 22-year-old autistic man caught on tape.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This hidden camera video shows he suffered repeated beatings allegedly at the hands of a caretaker.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s right, the caretaker!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The family documented bruises on Taylor`s ears and legs, as well as burns on his arms.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He beats the man with his fist and a toy gun, pounding him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My son is being beat and treated horribly!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Hartleys (ph) secretly installed a hidden camera in Taylor`s room.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But no one was prepared for what the video would show.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I felt so guilty that I didn`t -- we didn`t do the camera earlier!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: May he rot in hell!
Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. Thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. A brunette beauty, covergirl good looks, a mother of two, plans to renew her wedding vows with her firefighter husband, gushing on line he`s the, quote, "greatest guy ever." But all the while, while she`s planning that second wedding celebration, the big blow-out with tons of friends and family there, all the while, cops say she`s hiring a hitman to murder the husband.
We are taking your calls. Straight out to Michael Board, WOAI. Michael, what happened?
MICHAEL BOARD, WOAI (via telephone): Brittany Martinez was living a double life, Nancy. On line, she was writing in her blog how much she loved her husband. She was excited, saying, I`m excited about our renewing our vows, and in real life, giving 500 bucks to a middleman to have someone to kill her husband.
And total payment -- Nancy, get this. She was willing to play about $3,000. Is $3,000 it? Is that all she can afford? Is that all his life was worth?
What`s amazing about this, Nancy, is Brittany worked as an emergency medical tech, an EMS worker. That obviously means she has some regard for human life.
GRACE: Exactly.
BOARD: How could someone with -- who cares about the wellbeing of people pay someone to kill her husband? It doesn`t make sense.
GRACE: Joining us now, Joe Gomez, joining us live from Texas, senior investigative reporter, KTRH. Joe, this is right in your backyard. What happened?
JOE GOMEZ, KTRH: That`s right, Nancy. It`s pretty shocking, isn`t it. I mean, one minute she`s posting on her blog saying that she`s excited about renewing her wedding vows, even going so far as to say, quote, "what a guy."
But then police say that was all a facade. She went to the manager of a local Mexican restaurant, the Casa Ole, promised this guy $500 up front and another couple of thousand dollars, Nancy, when he got the job done. Just shocking!
GRACE: You know, to Ellie Jostad, chief editorial producer. Ellie, this is not like the spur of a moment, where she suddenly is impassioned or angry and pulls the gun and shoots. This is a long, drawn-out process. When did it start? And what`s the evidence?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Right, Nancy. Well, police say that this actually started all the way back on January 17th, that that is the first day that Brittany Martinez approached this guy she knew who managed a Mexican restaurant and complained to him about her marital problems, asked him if he could kill her husband.
They say that a couple weeks later, she made a down payment. A month or so after that, she returned with another $500. She continued to talk about this plot for about two-and-a-half months, Nancy.
GRACE: Take a look. This seems on the outside like a perfect family. Mom is a mother of two, beautiful, married to a firefighter husband. They`re planning to reenact their wedding vows. She goes -- what does -- she keeps talking about her body on line, Ellie. What`s that all about?
JOSTAD: Nancy, she was on this mommy blog, where she was talking about -- the headline was about how a firefighter is going to get fit after pregnancy. She talked about how she was so happy with her sexy new body, how she`d lost all the weight in her firefighter training. And there`s a bunch of pictures of her, you know, posing next to a fire truck, that kind of thing.
GRACE: Let`s see those shots, Liz. So Ellie, what was the point of all the talking on line about her new body? I don`t get it. What am I missing in this equation?
JOSTAD: Right...
GRACE: Says she got pregnant and she lost the weight.
JOSTAD: The blog that she was on, Nancy, is one of these blogs where moms go on line to, you know, exchange tips and information about pregnancy and post-pregnancy. So this was like a little personal story about how a woman -- Brittany Martinez, in this case -- lost the weight she had gained during her pregnancy.
GRACE: Everybody, you are taking a look at shots of Brittany Martinez, a beautiful young mom of two, seemingly had everything in the world.
Back to Joe Gomez. So how does she manage to end up at, what is it, Casa Ole Mexican restaurant? Now, when I go to a Mexican restaurant, I`m looking for chips and dips. I`m not looking for a hitman. How do you just go to a Mexican restaurant and approach somebody and go, Hey, you look like a good hitman?
GOMEZ: That`s a good question, Nancy. But apparently, she knew the manager of this restaurant. But it still is bizarre that she would go to this guy just out of the blue, ask, Hey, by the way, I`m having marital problems, can you kill my husband for about $500 right now, and I`ll pay you a couple of grand later?
Now, apparently -- apparently, the guy said that he wasn`t going to commit to it, he was going to get some other guy involved. She said, That`s all right. And then afterwards, she -- she demanded that the hit happen now. This is allegedly, according to police. She demanded the hit happen, and that`s when he turned her over to authorities, Nancy.
GRACE: So she just knew him from a Mexican restaurant and approaches him to kill her husband?
GOMEZ: No, she -- apparently, they were friends beforehand, and he had worked in this Mexican restaurant, and she had went there. She had gone there to go inquire about a hit.
GRACE: All right. Stop right there, Gomez. What do you mean friends? Friends before? Because you`ve got to be extremely close to someone to trust them to murder your husband.
GOMEZ: That`s exactly right. And apparently, this guy -- I mean, it took a while. It took at least a couple of months until this man, you know, turned over a recording that he had with Brittany to police. So I don`t know exactly went on there. Were they really good friends? Was he thinking about it before he turned her over to cops? What was going through this manager`s mind? That`s what I`m interested in knowing, Nancy.
GRACE: Joining me right now, Paula Bloom, clinical psychologist. Paula, I don`t get it. You just go up to someone you know casually at a Mexican restaurant and start talking to them about murdering your husband? Yes, I know she knew him before. I don`t get it. And then to be to the point where you`d bring in a third party? I mean, she wanted this guy dead, and we have no history of any domestic abuse, nothing.
PAULA BLOOM, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Right. Right. We have no idea. I mean, on some hand (ph), like you were saying before, Nancy, it has to do with this is a long, drawn-out process of hiring someone and thinking about it. It`s not some instant thing. So you`d think, Oh, that`s pretty reasonable.
Well, there`s some logic to it in that she`s doing all of this, but on the other hand, it makes no sense. It`s completely not a good idea, yes.
GRACE: Well, Paula, I really appreciate the fact that you, as a psychologist, think it doesn`t make sense, but that is not a defense under the law.
To C.W. Jensen, retired Portland police captain. C.W., a lot of people don`t know this about you. You`ve actually gone undercover in hitman cases before. Explain to me how cops put this thing together.
C.W. JENSEN, RETIRED PORTLAND POLICE CAPTAIN: Well, Nancy, these kind of cases overwhelmingly are very amateur, as you would expect. And people reach out to somebody, and generally, I found that they would get scared and then they would call the police and snitch on the person that wanted them to kill someone.
So then they would call us. And like, for instance, I would go undercover. I would meet with the person and say, What do you want done -- either wired up with a microphone or just, you know, meet them. And that`s -- these things 99 out of 100 times are just ridiculous and the people end up getting arrested.
But there`s a motive behind this, Nancy. Whether it`s romance, money or something, there`s always motive.
GRACE: Romance, money -- OK, Joe Gomez, it`s in your back yard. What`s the motive here? Because if you take a look, as I did, on her on- line blogs, she blogs and blogs and blogs -- I don`t know how she has time to do anything else -- about how happy she is, how great her husband is, I mean, gushing about him and her new body and how he loves her new body and they`re going to reenact the wedding vows, blah, blah, blah.
I don`t get it. What`s the alleged motive?
GOMEZ: That`s a good question, Nancy. I mean, police are still trying to find a motive. I mean, look, you just said she`s blogging on her Web site, saying how she can`t wait to renew her vows, bragging about her kids.
Nancy, she`s got two kids, for crying out loud! She`s bragging about her new body. Why is she -- why does she want to kill her husband? I mean, if she`s taking out large chunks of money like that and her husband, you know, hasn`t caught on yet and -- I don`t -- I don`t get it. What`s motivating this woman to commit...
GRACE: Well, you know what?
GOMEZ: ... an atrocity like this?
GRACE: Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something, Joe. A lot of guys and a lot of women completely allow the other partner to do all the banking. You know, you get direct deposit and you get automatic debit on your house payment and your car payment, you feel like you don`t really need to look at the bank account sometimes. And apparently, that`s what this firefighter husband was doing, working all day as a firefighter, trying to raise two children, a boy and a girl, got a wife to support. Boom! She`s hiring a hitman with his money!
Unleash the lawyers. Joining me, Anna Sigga Nicolazzi, prosecutor out of New York, Renee Rockwell, defense attorney, Atlanta, Bradford Cohen, defense attorney, Miami.
OK, Renee, undercover cop. You know what that means. That means wiretap. That means he was wired the whole time, Renee!
RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, I don`t know that there was an undercover cop. I`m almost wondering if they didn`t jump the gun. What you have here is purportedly an unindicted co-conspirator, if it goes that far. Did she communicate with the guy at the restaurant? Did he hold onto the tape (ph)?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Brittany Martinez.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The all-American mom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her husband, firefighter Adrian Martinez.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her husband of five years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Houston firefighter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They appear to be the picture of happiness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prosecutors say Martinez has spent the last three months asking a confidential police informant for help hiring a hitman to kill her husband.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: According to court documents, Stephen Roland (ph), a boxer and mixed martial artist, is the man Martinez allegedly gave a thousand dollars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: According to court documents, Martinez told the informant she wanted the killer to park a block away from the fire station. It says she also made it clear she wanted that murder to be committed in the employee`s back parking lot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even warning him about the location of security cameras.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She did not want to know specific details. She said she wanted to know when the job was done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Take a look at this young bride and mom, mom of two, married to a firefighter husband. She`s planning their wedding reenactment, to renew their vows. inviting friends and family to a big upscale blow-out celebration. All the while police say she is hiring a hitman, via a friend at a Mexican restaurant, to kill her husband.
Back to the lawyers, Renee Rockwell, Bradford Cohen, Anna Sigga Nicolazzi. Anna, explain to me how this state is going to prove this case.
ANNA SIGGA NICOLAZZI, PROSECUTOR: What it looks like so far, I think very easily. They`re going to have the testimony of the friend, the hired hitman. They`re going to be able to easily go into her bank account and get those records that`ll show the thousand dollars that she`s taken out.
And then they`re going to have their biggest piece of evidence, that rock-solid recorded call that was set up by police, where they`re not only going to have to trust the words of this so-called friend or hitman, they are going to hear her talking about her husband`s physical description, exactly where she wants it done, that she doesn`t care how, just wants it done.
They`re going to have the physical evidence of the document she gave to the guy, which are these photographs of her husband, his work schedule with the circles (ph).
And I`m quite sure as we hear more about this, Nancy, we`re going to hear more about motive, whether it is insurance money, whether there`s another guy waiting in the wings or whether it has to do with she just doesn`t want to deal with a custody battle and a divorce. I`m quite sure the state is going to be able to pull this one all together.
GRACE: OK, Bradford. Weigh in.
BRADFORD COHEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I don`t think that`s true. There`s nothing easy in the world, and especially in criminal cases. You don`t know whether or not this tape is going to come in. You don`t know whether or not the police set it up. In fact...
GRACE: Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Wait!
COHEN: ... just the opposite.
GRACE: Wait! Wait!
COHEN: It sounds like...
GRACE: Stop!
COHEN: Sure.
GRACE: Stop, stop, stop. Bradford...
COHEN: Yes?
GRACE: ... you can`t just throw something out like that. Like, I don`t think the tape is going to come in. Why?
COHEN: I didn`t say that. I said...
GRACE: Do you have even...
COHEN: ... we don`t know if it`s going to come in.
GRACE: ... a shred of evidence...
GRACE: Well, why wouldn`t it?
COHEN: I said we don`t know if it`s coming in. We don`t know...
GRACE: Yes, my question to you...
COHEN: ... the tape quality.
GRACE: ... is why wouldn`t it?
COHEN: We don`t know if it`s complete. Why wouldn`t it? The tape quality...
GRACE: Yes, I want to see his face!
COHEN: ... why it was made, if it`s a complete tape, how it was made. We don`t know any of that.
GRACE: So tonight, when you go to bed, you`re going to pray, Oh, dear Lord, please don`t let the tape quality be very good. You know what? It is. Plus, juries don`t mind a scratchy little tape!
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One thousand to get it done.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s a bizarre scenario.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She gloated about her family on the Internet, especially her firefighter husband.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-four-year-old Brittany Martinez is an EMT and mom of two.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charged with putting out a hit on her own husband, a Houston firefighter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say this woman allegedly tried to hire a hitman to kill her husband.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, a good place to carry out the murder, the parking lot behind his fire station.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She wanted it to be done at work where it would look like it was work-related.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: we are taking your calls. Straight out to Catherine in Virginia. Hi, Catherine. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was trying to find out, how in the world would you want to kill somebody if you`re planning a reenactment of your wedding vows? I mean, for crying out loud, $3,000? Don`t you think with that money, you can get a dead-on (ph) divorce instead of killing the father of your children, if he`s a damn good man?
GRACE: Tell it, Catherine! Straight out to Wilbur Smith, attorney for Kimberly Alters, his client also accused of hiring a hitman to kill the husband.
Wilbur, Ow much does a divorce cost these days, if you can get one on line, you know, the uncontested ones? How much?
WILBUR SMITH, ATTORNEY FOR KIMBERLY ALTERS (via telephone): Well, uncontested divorces are probably around $1,500. But divorce lawyers are taking cases pretty cheaply today because of the economy.
And you know, she`s married and has a couple of kids and she`s making income, the husband`s making income. Alimony`s probably not going to be an issue. Child support`s not going to be a big issue. So you can get even a contested divorce for $4,000 or $5,000. That`s -- that`s just not a problem. What every one has said is kind of the common thread here...
GRACE: Hey, Wilbur?
SMITH: Yes?
GRACE: Wilbur, where -- what`s your jurisdiction? Where are you practicing law?
SMITH: In south Florida.
GRACE: South Florida. You know, you sound pretty smart. I`m going to make sure my husband never gets your phone number. So Wilbur Smith, I`ve seen billboards when I`m driving down the interstate that says "Divorce $500."
SMITH: No, Nancy...
GRACE: Pretty good deal, huh?
SMITH: ... it`d cost your husband a lot more than $5,000 (sic). I`m talking about people like these, are fireman or EMTs or -- you know, people that are just -- people with limited income. It`s not expensive to get a divorce, and it`s not difficult.
But the common thread that runs through these cases -- and I`ve heard everyone on the show saying it -- is it doesn`t make sense. It`s crazy. The officer said it`s amateurish. These cases are amateurish. And they usually are.
My case is. In my case, we feel very strongly it was entrapment. Doesn`t look like that in this case. But what you need to look at are two things...
GRACE: Oh, I bet you do, Wilbur Smith! I`m sure you`re convinced Kimberly Alters had nothing to do with hiring a hitman to kill her husband. Wilbur, not a comment on your client, Kimberly Alters, but how easy is it going to be able to prove this case? Adrian Martinez -- I mean, she`s making plans to kill her husband in a Mexican restaurant, for Pete`s sake!
SMITH: Need to look into the alleged hitman.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Promise this child when they are born that you`ll love them forever, and you are going protect them. ?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shocking video, the beating of a 22-year-old autistic man caught on tape.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This video shows that he suffered repeated beatings allegedly at the hands on of a care taker.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is right, the care taker.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s a family documented bruises on Taylor`s ears and legs as well as burns on his arms.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He beats the man with a fist and toy gun, pounding him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My son is being beat and treated horribly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They hardly secretly installed a hidden camera in Taylor`s room.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But no one was prepared for what the video showed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then I just feel so guilty that we did not do the camera earlier.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: I didn`t want to watch this video and I physically turn away from it over and over and over again. Then I made myself watch it. Because I wanted to know the facts. And when I think of one of my children in this position, this autistic young man has a minds of about a four or 5- year-old, that`s the age of my twins. Look at what is happening.
I`m going go out to our reporters in just a moment. But first I`m going to go to this young man`s mother, Karen Hartley. This is Taylor`s mother. And Ms. Heartily, I know that you are in preparation to go forward in trial. And I realize that there are going to be some questions, and I don`t know what they will be yet, that you cannot answer because you do not want to jeopardize the trial.
KAREN HARTLEY, TAYLOR HARTLEY`S MOTHER (via telephone): Yes.
GRACE: But my first question to you is, where is your son tonight? Where is Taylor right now?
HARTLEY: He is in -- at his day hob center.
GRACE: So, is he living back at home with you?
HARTLEY: No. He is in a new group home.
GRACE: A new facility.
HARTLEY: Yes.
GRACE: Because, you know, a lot of people --
HARTLEY: A new provider.
GRACE: A lot of people understand that you raised Taylor in your home until he was nearly 20 years old.
HARTLEY: Yes.
GRACE: And then, wanted him to have some degree of independence. Some life outside your home and you look into and a range for him to go a group home. Tell me what happened?
HARTLEY: Mostly the reason he is in a group home is we were in different programs where they are supposed to provide help for me to take care of him and I just could not get a staff together that would be here with what I needed because he has to have one on one supervision and I never could get a staff that would stay, they would call in sick for three days, I could not get backup, I paid them more than they would get paid in a group home situation.
GRACE: Tell me when you first became suspicious that your son, Taylor, was being beaten?
HARTLEY: January 2010.
GRACE: What happened?
HARTLEY: His teacher called me and he had looked like belt marks on his back side. She took pictures and called CPS or you know the protective services agency. CPS then, because he was not 21, and then I was contacted by a CPS operator and she asked me if the bruises could have taken place from Taylor scooting down the school bus steps and I said absolutely not.
GRACE: What is his mental capacity?
HARTLEY: Four to five years.
GRACE: Joining me right now is JD Miles with CNN`s affiliate KTVT. Also with us, Conner Hammett, reporter with "Allen American" broke the story on the beating.
Connor first to you, tell me the timeline, what happened?
CONNER HAMMETT, REPORTER, ALLEN AMERICAN: Well, the police were notified in June of 2011 which I believe is when Ms. Hartley turned over the footage that she had captured to the police.
GRACE: Joining me now is JD Miles with KTVT. JD, let`s take it from the top. What do we know?
JD MILES, REPORTER, CNN AFFILIATE KTVT: Sure. Well, Nancy, we know that that video exists. That the parents captured two weeks of what looks like just repeated abuse at the hands of the care taker and it came after six months in this home. So they obviously think this abuse was going on the entire time that Taylor was there. And it would have kept going on because every time they went to authorities, it seems like there was an excuse from care take or from same authorities, or from whoever was diagnosing Taylor. Finally, the tape and those images, those haunting, disturbing imagines tell the story.
GRACE: So, explain to me, how the mom finally got the secret camera into the home?
MILES: The mother Karen Hartley and her husband, they actually went to the home after getting so many excuses, they would buy those excuses. They finally bought a hidden camera that was disguised in an alarm clock we are told. They distracted the group home owner for a while, installed it in his bedroom and they were able to capture these imagines that show Taylor at times in his room for seven to ten hours without food and going unattended as well being abused.
GRACE: Take a look at the stunning video images. A mother concerned about her young son realizes the worst. Installs a hidden camera, and this is what she finds.
Out to CW Jenson, retired Portland police captain. CW, explain to me how the hidden camera works.
CW JENSEN, RETIRED PORTLAND POLICE CAPTAIN: Well, Nancy. Luckily, as we know, the technology has gotten to the point where you can put a camera in all sorts of different things like a clock or difference appliances that look like they belong there, but you is have the camera. And I think the message to all your viewers should be this. We give our children to different people. Doctors nurses, teachers coaches counselors caretakers, and if you think something is wrong, you have to act on it. You have to act on it.
GRACE: Back to Karen Hartley, this is Taylor`s mother. Karen, explain to me how you physically went in and placed the hidden camera in the room?
HARTLEY: On a regular -- we normally pick up Taylor every other weekend and we had been making more visits and picking him up more often because we -- we suspected abuse and were not getting any answers and authorities were not doing anything either.
So, my husband actually goes in Taylor`s room when we bring him home for the weekend and pack his bags and my husband just plugged in the camera on the dresser, that was in their next to the television set that was in his room.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The beating of a 22-year-old autistic man, caught on tape.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He suffered repeated beatings.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Promise this child when they are born
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allegedly at the hands of a caretaker.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is right, the caretaker.
HARTLEY: Who is going to protect him --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 39-year-old Michael Reginald Fuller, repeatedly beats the man with his fists and a toy gun. Pounding him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taylor`s autism and size as he got older made it difficult to stay with his parents so Karen and Michael Hartley moved Taylor to several homes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taylor Hartley seems cowering from his attacker.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For months, the family documented bruises on Taylor`s ears and legs and as well as burns on his arms.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taylor`s parents reportedly get a call from the dentist letting them know that Taylor suffered a compound fracture of had his jaw.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Hartley secretly installed a hidden camera in Taylor`s room.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one was prepared for what the video showed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two weeks later the family saw the video of Taylor cowering on his bed, just about every time a care taker entered the room.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Straight to special guest, Holly Robinson Peete, founder of Hollyrod foundation. She is an autism advocate. She is the mother of a young son, diagnosed with autism.
Holly, I know that this breaks your heart, because you have been through so much with your son. Give me your analysis, Holly.
HOLLY ROBINSON PEETE, FOUNDER, HOLLYROD FOUNDATION, AUTISM ADVOCATE (via telephone): I had Nancy, like you. I had a visceral reaction when I saw the video. It made me physically ill. I felt like little bugs were crawling over my skin. It was so disgusting.
But, you know, what really troubles me most about this, you know, when my son was three years old, and he was diagnosed, I have boy girl twins like little Lucy and John David. I have little Ryan Elizabeth and Rodney. And they are 14 now.
But when he was three, my son, who has autism, was they told us, he may not be able to live on his own one day. So, like most parents of a child with autism, my biggest fear is what will my son do when I`m not there or I`m gone? Who is going to keep him from harm? Who is going to know his corps? Who is going to protect his heart?
You know, and it just keeps me up at night that you know, this would happen, what sickens me is that this group home was supposed to be caring for him and the issue is unfortunately thousands of these children like, you know, I so feel for Mr. And Mrs. Hartley, thousands of them will age out of their parent`s houses then we are going to hear more and more about the abuse like this.
You already suffered a mountain amount of guilt. And she took care of her son for years for even having to put your son in a group home and their need. These punishment with this people who treat people with special needs like this and probation is not going to cut it.
GRACE: Also, with us, Lawrence Carter-Long, public affairs specialist with the national council on disability.
You are all familiar with him. He was literally the poster boy for, handicapped children for many, many years.
Lawrence, it`s so great to talk to you and Holly Robinson Peete today.
When I saw this video Lawrence, like Holly, I could not watch it for the longest time, and we are only showing you selected portions. It is extremely graphic, extremely upsetting.
And Lawrence, I`m going to go back to Holly shortly. This mom and dad did everything that they could, they went to child protective services, got nothing. They went to the people that ran this home, got nothing. And -- what is the name of the home, JD Miles?
MILES: It`s the Meadow Brook Home, it`s actually in a residential neighborhood and their bedrooms, each bedroom is for a separate resident who is either mentally or physically disabled.
GRACE: So, Lawrence Carter-Long, what do you think?
LAWRENCE CARTER-LONG, PUBLIC AFFAIRS SPECIALIST, NATIONAL COUNCIL ON DISABILITY (via telephone): Yes, Nancy, what these parents have uncovered is a culture of abuse. What happens, I cannot speak to this particular home, but over and over again, what we are seeing is people committing abuse at one home, no real action being taken they get fired. They go to another home. They do the same thing over again.
We have a national database for sex offenders. We need to have a database of people who work in these care homes. Because what is happening in here is something that most people do not know about and you would not know about it if these parents had not had the ingenuity to put the camera out there. Remember, they were told over and over again, from the home itself, from authorities, that nothing was going on. So they had to take action.
That is what we need is that kind of ingenuity and that kind of doggedness to really put this abuse out there. What we have to do also is deny this culture that says, people with disabilities are less than fully human.
You know, we can`t -- we do not have to just throw the book at this guy. We have to throw the bookcase at this guy, we have to put the whole library at this guy and make an example of him and say this is not acceptable in this society.
GRACE: Out to Kayla. Hi, Kayla, what`s is your question dear?
KAYLA, CALLER, MICHIGAN: My question is, what is going to happen to the person that assaulted the child?
GRACE: You know, the guy`s name is Michael Fuller, age 39, care taker at the group home. Allegedly, the person in this video repeatedly attacking Taylor Hartley. You know, I want to find out more about him, what do we know, JD?
MILES: Well, we know he worked at several of the homes operated by these owners and they claim he had a good record. But when authorities arrested him, they found out he had an outstanding charge for a drug related offense. So he --
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, wait. Wait, wait, wait.
MILES: He was a convicted drug offender.
GRACE: He had a convicted, he is a convicted drug offender?
Unleash the lawyers. Ana (INAUDIBLE), Renee Rockwell, Brad (INAUDIBLE).
All right Renee, a drug offender. Sounds like a big fat lawsuit to me against Meadow Brook home. I hate to say the word home here, for hiring this guy with a drug offense, to beat these young people to a pulp? This guy is autistic. He cannot speak, he has the minds of a 4-year-old.
RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, not only because they have got a guy that might have a conviction, but once you go to the home and you say, I think something is going on, the home is then on notice. So, this is not going to be a case that will go to a jury trial for the criminal offense, but I see big numbers in a civil case by the parents of this child.
GRACE: It is Meadow Creek Home. To Dr. Michelle Dupre, medical examiner, forensic pathologist. Dr. Dupre, he gets a fracture compound -- a compound fractured jaw, covered in bruises, even gets burns. Look, he is beating him with an object Doctor, how do you prove the case, Dr. Dupre?
DOCTOR MICHELLE DUPRE, M.D., MEDICAL EXAMINER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: This is the case of blunt force trauma, Nancy. And pattern injuries and the history of dating the injuries are the continuity of doing that, should make a substantial case.
GRACE: A cautionary tale to every mother and father out there and now CNN heroes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take away from us Lord. Take it Lord.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As the storms tore through the Midwest and south last weekend, taking 40 lives, emergency recovery teams scrambled to respond to devastated communities across ten states. Among the relief workers heading into the destruction zone was CNN hero, Tad Agoglia, and his first response team of America.
TAD AGOGLIA, FOUNDER, FIRST RESPONSE TEAM OF AMERICA: Let`s go ahead and get this debris cleared enough so we can get the claw in here. We have here, just a few hours after the tornado struck the community. We have cleared the road, we have provided the light towers, we powered up the grocery store, we powered up the gas station to provide the essentials that this community needs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since 2007, Agoglia`s team has crisscrossing the country providing recovery assistance that thousands of people at 40 disaster sites for free. This week, they`ve worked tirelessly for days, restoring services and clearing tons of debris.
AGOGLIA: See if you can grab the claw, actually cut the roof right in half.
It`s very hard for traditional equipment without the claws to actually grab this debris. That`s why you need specialty equipment like this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you do with it?
AGOGLIA: We remove it from the community. But time is of the essence. There are a lot of people that want to get back in here. They`re looking for anything they can salvage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do you do this? Why did you choose this road?
AGOGLIA: When I`m watching the super cells go right over the small communities, I want to be there to help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ll let you get to work. You do good stuff.
AGOGLIA: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, Tad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: What a week in America`s courtrooms. Take a look at the stories and more important the people who touched our lives.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Court papers say Thomas Joseph Presley lost control beating Blake to death.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Didn`t quite add up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators say Blake was severely beaten.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Physical injury just wasn`t consistent with the car accident.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Child abuse severely beaten. Beat to death. The little boy was killed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The cops say Presley tried to cover it up staging a hit-and-run accident.
GRACE: Anyone that loves children, that cares about what is right and what is wrong, must be heard tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just didn`t quite add up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Authorities say evidence pointed to murder.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not one, but both of her children were being absolutely, absolutely abused from this guy and what did she do? She didn`t even tell her preacher about this.
GRACE: Why this woman had to have a man so badly that she would tolerate someone beating her little boy like this. It wasn`t the first time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Emergency crews have been called in this clinic as many as 30 times in one month, alone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A witness says they actually saw this evil nurse apparently try to get bleach into a syringe, looking around suspiciously to make sure nobody saw her and then she injected, this according to two witnesses, injected it into two dialysis patients.
GRACE: Why isn`t she behind bars? What`s happening?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Next to what the jury is going to call the instrument of death.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re not looking at somebody who`s just a killer, we`re looking at a serial killer.
GRACE: We are just getting news on the missing family, the Meskger family. Timmy 33, Sabrina 34. Joshua just 4 months.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The family is fine.
GRACE: Where are they? Why did they disappear?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Let`s stop and remember army sergeant first class Matthew Kahler, 29, Granite Falls, Minnesota. Killed Afghanistan. On a third tour. Two bronze stars. Two purple hearts. Five army commendation medals.
Loved camping, canoeing, riding horses, restoring cars. Leaves behind parents, Colleen and Ron, stepfather, Shelley, brothers, Doug, Brian, Jesse, Justin, and Jared. Sister, Patrice. Widow, Vicki. Daughter, Allison. Matthew Kahler. American hero.
Thanks to our guests but especially to you for being with us. And a special good night tonight from the New York control room. Brett, Liz, hi, gang. And, there`s Bonnie and Liz on the end.
Happy anniversary tonight to Fayetteville, Georgia, friends, Ann and Chuck Lynch. They have beat the odds. Married for 55 years. What an inspiration to me.
Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern, and until then, good night, friend.
END
