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Nancy Grace
Babysitter Fakes Tot`s Kidnapping; Drunk Driver Plows through House
Aired May 30, 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, Ohio. A 26-year-old baby-sitter makes a frantic 911 call to report 1-year-old toddler William missing from the playground. Bombshell tonight. In a stunning twist, baby William found, all right, hidden in the baby-sitter`s closet miles away, his tiny body wrapped in a sheet inside a plastic bag, baby William dead for days.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He didn`t deserve what happened to him!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In America`s heartland, the unthinkable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say this woman, Marquita Burch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The baby-sitter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Called them here saying William had gone missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I came back out, (INAUDIBLE) when we were about to leave to go get him, like, Come on (INAUDIBLE) little boy say he probably walk over that way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A five-hour search for 1-year-old William.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A frantic search.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But when detectives questioned her, she changed her story.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shocking claims!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Claims the 1-year-old fell down the stairs, was given Ibuprofen, and he went to bed. The following morning, the boy was dead!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: hey found him in a closet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Authorities say the child could have been dead for two days!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don`t let nobody baby-sit your kids. Nobody. Trust nobody!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The baby-sitter has not yet been charged with murder. Why?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, 4:00 AM on a work morning, a 20-something boozed- up brunette in a red Mercedes plows through the home of a 96-year-old grandma and her 94-year-old sister, the home declared a complete loss, condemned, the kitchen stove all the way in the back yard. She`s four times the legal limit for alcohol. Tonight, we want jail time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Out of control, a car plowing through a home, why police say the driver never should have been behind the wheel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why didn`t you stop at that stop sign?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prosecutors say the woman who drove a car through a Long Island home had a blood alcohol level nearly four times the legal limit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That field breath test is inadmissible in a court of law.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say a drunk woman drove a Mercedes through the house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They just heard a big explosion. They were sleeping. They had no idea what it was. They walked out to see the car halfway in their back yard. There was, like, brake lights in the back yard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say 21-year-old Sophia Anderson reeked of alcohol when they arrived at the scene, where both Anderson and the elderly woman were lucky to be alive. But Anderson reportedly told cops it was the car, not her, that was responsible for the 4:00 AM crash.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. A 26-year-old baby-sitter makes a frantic 911 call to report 1-year-old toddler baby William missing from the playground.
In a stunning twist, baby William found, all right, dead, hidden in the baby-sitter`s closet miles away, his tiny body wrapped in a sheet inside a plastic bag. The baby had been dead for days. All the while she, the baby-sitter, faking his kidnap.
Straight out to Brant Schulz, reporter with 700 WLW. Brent, what happened? What do we know?
BRANT SCHULZ, 700 WLW NEWSRADIO (via telephone): We know that Marquita Burch reported William Cunningham missing on Friday night. That led to a frantic search, at least 100 police officers from the Covington Police Department looking for this 1-year-old child, who everyone thought had gone missing at this housing complex, had possibly crawled away, had possibly been abducted. No one knew.
GRACE: So the baby reportedly goes missing from the apartment playground. And what`s so stunning is there you see her speaking to police, speaking to TV cameras, starting to search for the 1-year-old baby boy toddler, William. She even goes looking for the baby.
And her story is rich with details about how the baby was outside on the playground playing with other children. She goes on and on and on.
So to you, Dave Mack, morning show talk show -- morning show talk -- morning show talk host, joining us, WAAX. Dave, what more do we know about her? And where`s the mother in this scenario?
DAVE MACK, WAAX: Well, OK, let`s address that one first. The mother is -- they`re friends to the point of, you know, referring to one another as cousins. You know, that`s the relationship here.
But what we do know is that Marquita Burch actually, according to friends, beat her own kids. Now, not bad enough that they needed to call in, you know, human resources or anything or that the kids wouldn`t go to school, but she`s been known to have done that.
Also, a year ago, she was involved in a domestic battery case. The case was dropped eventually, but she stabs her significant other with a pencil in that one. So we know enough about her to know that this should have been a big red flag from the very first phone call.
GRACE: Thanks, Mom. Thanks, Mom!
Clark Goldband joining us, also on the story. Clark, the mother leaves the 1-year-old toddler with the baby-sitter, Marquita Burch, for a period of time. She frantically calls 911, and apparently, everybody in the neighborhood, there in the apartment complex, is going along with the story. Everybody`s out looking for the 1-year-old.
What do we know? What have we learned about Marquita Burch, for instance, from social media? What does she say about herself on her Facebook or on MySpace or Twitter?
CLARK GOLDBAND, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Nancy, we did do some research on her social media, and we were able to find one Web site. Now, I have it in my notes. I just want to make sure I quote it to you properly. Here it is. It`s from the site Mbuzzy.com (ph). And she says, "I`m higher than an elephant`s ass, if you want to know." That is her social status we believe to be her on the Web site Mbuzzy.com.
GRACE: All right, Clark, I don`t think I understand what you`re saying. What now? What`s the Web site?
GOLDBAND: OK, Nancy. The Web site is Mbuzzy.com. It`s a social networking site that would be, you know, in common or similar to MySpace for Facebook. You can place your status on this Web site. You can say, I`m happy, I`m excited, I`m upset. Her status -- and this was last accessed some years ago, based on what we found -- was, "I`m higher than an elephant`s ass, if you want to know."
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Becca Crumrein joining us, family law attorney, Bradford Cohen out of Miami, defense attorney, Darryl Cohen, former prosecutor, defense attorney out of Atlanta.
All right, Darryl. "I`m higher than an elephant`s ass, if you want to know." What`s your defense, Darryl?
DARRYL COHEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, my defense is very simply that frightened people do foolish things, and they do things they should not do.
GRACE: Put him up!
DARRYL COHEN: So what in the world...
GRACE: OK, let -- let...
DARRYL COHEN: ... would cause her to do what she did?
GRACE: Stop. Now, just stop. Because, you know what, Darryl? No matter how handsome you may think you are, no matter how debonair, how articulate, whatever grades you made in law school, let me just refresh your recollection about criminal law 101. Frightened is not a defense.
All right, let`s let Bradford Cohen have a try.
DARRYL COHEN: But it`s an explanation, Nancy.
GRACE: Yes. It`s not a defense!
DARRYL COHEN: Clearly an explanation.
GRACE: I asked you what your defense is. I didn`t ask you to ramble or wax poetic.
I want to hear a defense, Bradford Cohen, all right? Hit me. Something legitimate...
BRADFORD COHEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: A defense is that...
GRACE: ... something that can actually be argued in a court of law, please.
BRADFORD COHEN: Sure. Sure. A defense is that it was an accident, that the accident led to her then being frightened, just like Darryl said, and then she did stupid things after that.
The defense as to what charges she`s charged with right now, frightened isn`t going to work because you have the fooling around with the car...
GRACE: Bradford...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Bradford...
BECCA CRUMREIN, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: That`s ridiculous! What did she think she was going to do, put this child in a closet for two days and resurrect him somehow? It`s absolutely inexcusable to treat a child who, evidently, she treated as one of her own, and left him for dead in a closet.
GRACE: Bradford Cohen...
CRUMREIN: There`s no excuse!
GRACE: ... you said accident, then fear. But if she`s afraid, why is she smiling in her mug shot? Let`s see the mug shot, please, Liz. Why is she smiling if she`s so afraid, Bradford?
BRADFORD COHEN: Well, because a lot of people have different reactions to a lot of things. When people get nervous, some people smile...
GRACE: Please put him up!
BRADFORD COHEN: ... some people cry, some People get scared. There`s a lot of different reactions to those things. When I`m nervous, I get angry. So you know, I`m not getting angry now because I`m not nervous with you.
GRACE: Bradford, that doesn`t even make any sense that she would smile and be happy in her mug shot.
I want to go back to Clark Goldband, producer on the story. Clark Goldband, why is she smiling in her mug shot?
GOLDBAND: Well, that`s certainly a good question, Nancy. But I have some more information on the condition of the body of this 1-year-old boy. We`re now hearing that due to decomposition, he may have been inside of that closet for up to five days until his body was discovered.
GRACE: Joining me right now, speaking of the condition of the body, is a very special guest. It`s Lakshmi Sammarco, Hamilton County coroner, who conducted the autopsy on baby William`s body.
Doctor, thank you for taking your time from coroner to be with us and explain to us the injuries this little baby suffered at the hands of the baby-sitter.
DR. LAKSHMI SAMMARCO, HAMILTON CTY. CORONER (via telephone): I thank you for having me. Yes, the baby was found, as you know, partially decomposed. And upon preliminary autopsy, he had evidence of head trauma. He had a subdural hematoma or hemorrhage, and that`s blood around the brain inside the skull.
GRACE: You say the body had been decomposing for days. How do you get blood to the skull? Isn`t that from a traumatic blow to the head?
SAMMARCO: It can be from any kind of trauma to the head that would cause a leaking of the veins in that area.
GRACE: Were there any other bruises or contusions anywhere else on the baby`s body?
SAMMARCO: There may have been additional injuries. Because of the ongoing investigation, I`m not at liberty to discuss those at this time.
GRACE: Well, you`ve already told me he`s got a blow to the head and bleeding to the brain. So how does bruises on the rest of his body hurt the investigation anymore than you already have?
SAMMARCO: Well, what I said was he has evidence of head trauma, and the nature of which or how that happened, we don`t know yet. And that`s part of the investigation.
GRACE: Why do you believe the body had been decomposing for several days?
SAMMARCO: We believe, judging by the condition of the skin and his overall appearance, that it had been at least 48 hours and somewhere in the range from two to five days. But unlike, you know, some of the forensic science shows out there, it`s really oftentimes very difficult to pinpoint an exact time.
GRACE: With me is Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco, the Hamilton County coroner who conducted the autopsy on the baby`s body. She says the baby had been decomposing from two to five days inside that closet.
We are taking your calls. The coroner is taking your calls, and we`re very, very fortunate to have her with us.
Joining me right now is another special guest. The child`s mother, Kiara Carter, is joining us right now. Ms. Carter, thank you for being with us.
KIARA CARTER, WILLIAM`S MOTHER (via telephone): Thank you.
GRACE: Ms. Carter, first of all, being a mother myself, I cannot even imagine what you have gone through after the loss of your 1-year-old child. How long had baby William been in the care of Marquita Burch?
CARTER: I was gone for, like, two weeks. (INAUDIBLE) my baby to come home! (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: So she had the baby for two weeks?
CARTER: Yes, she had him before. Well, she had him before that. Like, I had him, but she had him before that. Like, every time I asked my child to come home, she always brought him home. But this (INAUDIBLE) was so different. I want to know (INAUDIBLE). Why? Why?
GRACE: Well, Ms. Carter, why would you leave your baby with somebody else for two weeks? What were you doing during that period of time?
CARTER: No, no, no. This is not the first time. This is not the first time he was with her. He`d been with her before (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: But why would you leave the baby there for two weeks?
CARTER: Every time she had him, every time she stopped at my house, I always seen him. But it wasn`t just the two weeks where I wasn`t allowed to see him. And every time she had him, every time she stopped by my house or if I asked to see him, she always brought me to see him.
GRACE: Ms. Carter, do you have other children?
CARTER: Yes, I got a 2-year-old and a 2-month-old.
GRACE: Let me ask you, Ms. Carter, why would she keep baby William for such an extended period of time like two weeks?
CARTER: Because she was always helping me out, like, always helping me out as far as baby-sitting because sometimes it was hard for me to get vouchers for day care. And she (INAUDIBLE) I started classes. But when I got my vouchers, (INAUDIBLE) could she bring him home so she could start -- so he could start school, and she said, yes. And the next day (INAUDIBLE) was drunk when I texted you. I changed my mind (INAUDIBLE) when the kids get out of school. And I`m arguing, like, Why, and I never got a response back.
GRACE: Well, you know what, Ms. Carter? It would just be a cold day in hell before somebody didn`t bring my baby home, number one, if they had my baby to start with. But for two weeks? That`s an extended period of time.
Now, you`re saying that you would see the baby whenever she brought him by. What we know tonight is that the baby was found beaten to death, with traumatic blows to the head resulting in bleeding to the brain in the baby-sitter`s closet, wrapped in a sheet and a trash bag, been there for days. This while the baby-sitter calls 911 and pretends the baby is kidnapped, tells the mom the baby is kidnapped.
And with us is the mom, Kiara Carter. Did she tell you the baby was kidnapped, Ms. Carter?
CARTER: No. (INAUDIBLE) I actually told her to bring him home, which is my birthday. She said, OK, I`m going to bring him when I go fill out this application at Holiday Inn, OK? And I call her at 2:00. She said (INAUDIBLE) right now. And I kept calling and kept calling, kept calling. Got an answer after 6:00. And that`s when she said my baby was missing. And when I got up there, I had an instinct (ph) why my baby is not here. My baby is somewhere else. There`s something wrong (ph) with him. That`s all I kept saying!
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Welcome back. A baby-sitter, a trusted baby-sitter, calls 911 to report toddler 1-year-old William kidnapped from the playground there at the apartment complex. Then, the worst, the baby`s body, traumatically bruised around the head, bleeding to the brain, found wrapped in a sheet inside a plastic trash bag, stuffed in the baby-sitter`s closet. According to the coroner, who is joining us tonight, the child could have been decomposing anywhere between two and five days.
We are taking your calls. Out to Christina in California. Hi, Christina. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I love you so much!
GRACE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is -- I love you. My question is that, is the baby -- is the mother a relative of the baby-sitter?
GRACE: Good question. Let`s go to the mom, who is joining us. Ms. Kiara Carter is with us. Are you actually related to Marquita Burch?
CARTER: We was like sisters. We started off as best friends and we just ended up like sisters.
GRACE: So I`m taking that as a no, you were not related. Did you have any idea she had stabbed her boyfriend with a pencil after a domestic dispute? Any idea about that?
CARTER: (INAUDIBLE) she told me who she stabbed was her son`s father.
GRACE: And you still let her baby-sit your baby?
CARTER: This was before I even found out -- this was after she was baby-sitting him.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say Burch moved the boy`s body to throw them off. They found him in a closet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The baby may have been dead for two days before the child was even reported missing!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just want to know why. This child couldn`t help himself. We just want to know why.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The unthinkable!
CARTER: Nobody can be trusted. I lost my son (INAUDIBLE) someone I trust.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shocking claims! The baby-sitter reportedly calls police to let them know that 1-year-old William Cunningham is missing!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say this woman, Marquita Burch, called them here saying William had gone missing.
MARQUITA BURCH, BABY-SITTER: I just went upstairs to get some clothes. When I came back, there was kids everywhere. There was kids going in the woods. There was kids at the park, kids over there getting wet, kids at the bench, kids at the basketball court. When I came back out, I told the kids, because we were about to leave, to go get him. Like, Come on, y`all, we`re about to leave, like. And the little boy say he saw him walk over that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are back and taking your calls. A 911 call reports a 1- year-old toddler missing from the playground, but then that toddler found dead, wrapped in a sheet in a plastic bag in the baby-sitter`s closet.
Out to Dr. Caryn Stark joining us out of New York. She gave this long, detailed explanation of the child`s disappearance to police and for the news cameras. Did you see that?
CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: I did, Nancy. And there is something rotten in this state of Denmark, believe me, in Ohio. Something is really wrong in this story because, first of all, what is the mother doing, leaving a child for two weeks? I understand that she didn`t have money, but there are other people that exist who don`t have money and are able to take care of their own children. They work it out. You don`t let go of your child.
And then the whole story with the baby-sitter and missing and her background -- it really is very suspicious. It`s very suspicious. And this poor little boy being handed over to somebody who`s not trustworthy, who hit a boyfriend with a pencil and stabbed him -- it`s not good, Nancy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUITA BURCH, BABYSITTER ALLEGEDLY FAKES TOT`S KIDNAP, HIDES TOT`S BODY: Go get him, like, come on, the little boy said he saw him walk over that way.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A five-hour search for 1-year-old William.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A frantic search.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But when detectives questioned her, she changed her story.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Shocking claims.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The child was (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Claims the 1-year-old fell down the stairs, was given ibuprofen and he went to bed. The following morning the boy was dead.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They found him in a closet.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Authorities say the child could have been dead for two days.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don`t let nobody babysit your kids. Nobody. Trust nobody.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The babysitter has not yet been charged with murder. Why?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police say Burch moved the boy`s body to throw them off. They found him in a closet.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The baby may have been dead for two days before the child was even reported missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just want to know why. A defenseless child can`t help himself. We just want to know why.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The unthinkable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody can be trusted. I lost my son. Someone I trust.
BURCH: He was at the park with the kids. I got out of the car and I let him -- we came down the side panel right here, and I watched him go towards the kids. I just went upstairs to get some clothes. When I came back, there were kids everywhere. There were kids going in the woods, there was kids at the park, kids over there getting wet. Kids at the bench, kids at the basketball court.
When I came back out, I told the kids, because we were about to leave, to go get him, like, come on, you-all. We`re about to leave. The little boy said he saw him walk over that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST: Back to to the lawyers. Becca Crumrine, Bradford Cohen, Darryl Cohen.
I`m concerned about leaving a baby for two weeks somewhere. I`m not saying this mom is responsible for the baby`s death. What I am saying is that to leave your child for two weeks with someone that you claim is as close to you as a sister, that`s disturbing.
What about it, Becca?
BECCA CRUMRINE, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: Absolutely. I mean there`s absolutely no reason for two weeks not to know where your child is, and when she`s saying that she wouldn`t return him, clearly she could call 911 and get the child back.
GRACE: Well, how about taking the Patton Turner? Pat the string and turn the corner? Walk over there.
CRUMRINE: Absolutely.
GRACE: And get your baby.
CRUMRINE: Get your own child. Get your child. There`s no --
GRACE: All right.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Let`s hear it, Bradford.
BRADFORD COHEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I agree with you. I mean she could have just walked over to the house to find out what was going on. We don`t know --
GRACE: You`re the defense lawyer.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Hey, hey, Cohen.
B. COHEN: Yes.
GRACE: Don`t just repeat what I just said. It`s not an echo. What`s the defense for the mom?
B. COHEN: The defense for the mom is you have no reason to know why she left her there -- why she left him there for two weeks. Maybe she was out of town. Maybe she had something going on that wasn`t in the neighborhood. We have no idea. She didn`t explain it to you.
GRACE: You know what, that`s a good point.
B. COHEN: She didn`t explain it to anyone.
GRACE: That is a good point. Darryl, why? Explain to me what would be a defense for the mom?
DARRYL COHEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, she said that she is the mother of another two children, one of them is 2 months old.
GRACE: Yes.
D. COHEN: So just perhaps she is nursing that other child, she has her hands full. She has a trusted neighbor, a girl that she considers her sister or a family member, and she says the baby comes over, I see the baby every day or when I want to see the baby, and so the mom has now figured out --
GRACE: Put Darryl up.
D. COHEN: -- that she can have her child taken care of as she is taking care of her young child.
GRACE: Darryl.
D. COHEN: She said she saw the baby when she wanted to other than when she asked her baby to be returned, so she was very vague and she`s a young mother who has too many children, obviously, and not able to take care of them the way that she wanted to or the way she should.
GRACE: To Dr. Bill Lloyd, can you talk some sense to these people, Dr. Lloyd?
DR. BILL LLOYD, BOARD CERTIFIED SURGEON AND PATHOLOGIST: Yes, it`s very, very worrisome about the fact that this dead baby was then wrapped up and then hid away in the closet. This took intent and it took time then to go confabulate the story.
What`s most important, Nancy, is the family is planning on cremating the remains of the baby, and that means the last bit of evidence is going to go up in smoke. So it`s very important that Dr. Sammarco and her team do a very thorough autopsy to include the eyes because there are vital clues present in the eye that can help differentiate accidental trauma from violent trauma.
GRACE: Like what, Dr. Lloyd?
LLOYD: There`s two in particular. If this was a situation involving a shaken baby, there`ll be specific hemorrhages in the eye towards the retina that would indicate that this had happened. That doesn`t happen when you fall down a flight of stairs. The other problem is called Tersen syndrome. You get a clunk to the back of the head. That subdural hematoma which is caused by trauma leads to hemorrhage inside the eyeball.
Both of these can be found in an experienced eye pathology laboratory. There`s one right there at the University of Cincinnati.
GRACE: To a special guest joining us now, Lieutenant Anthony Carter, public information officer with Cincinnati Police.
Lieutenant Carter, you`ve heard a lot of back and forth tonight. I want to know what the police believe are the real facts. How did it unfold, Lieutenant?
LT. ANTHONY CARTER, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, CINCINNATI POLICE DEPARTMENT: Well, Nancy, it`s an ongoing investigation and, to be honest with you, the facts and circumstances, as our investigators believe, I can`t release at this time. They`ve taken the information from Covington PD. They`ve taken the information from Miss Burch, and that has led them to charge her at this time with the tampering of evidence and abuse of a corpse.
Their ongoing investigation in consultation with the prosecutor`s office, the Hamilton County Coroner`s Office will lead to any --
GRACE: What is that, Lieutenant? What is abuse of a corpse?
CARTER: The abuse of a corpse, you know, in this case it would be that the body of William being placed in that closet. It`s not properly taken care of a decedent.
GRACE: Lieutenant Anthony Carter with us.
Lieutenant Carter, how long do you believe the baby had been in the care of the babysitter, Marquita Burch?
CARTER: Our investigation will have to rely on the findings of the coroner`s office on that. We rely on them to give us the cause, manner, and time of death.
GRACE: Well, can you -- where was the mother during all this time?
CARTER: The only information that we have is that she was preparing for some training, and that she was (INAUDIBLE) some daycare arrangements. The specifics I don`t have at this time.
GRACE: Was the mother in school?
(CROSSTALK)
CARTER: General information regarding her whereabouts, her location, activities.
GRACE: Yes. Was the mother in school at some -- somewhere?
CARTER: Well, all I have is that she was preparing for some type of trade school. Whether she was actually enrolled, I don`t have that information.
GRACE: So preparing not in school.
Can I ask you tonight, where are her other two children?
CARTER: That I don`t know. I know we`ve had some consultation with our job and family services, our child care facility, the agency that works with children and family issues. So, you know, the exact location, again, I`m not sure of.
GRACE: A quick break, everyone, but tonight a different kind of American hero. Nine-year-old Massachusetts boy Brendan Haas wins a trip to Disney after playing "Soldier for Soldier." But he gives his dream trip away to 2-year-old Liberty Hope who lost her father, Timothy, serving in Afghanistan.
Brendan Haas, kid hero.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRENDAN HAAS, GAVE AWAY TRIP TO DISNEY WORLD: The guy, how he traded a red paper clip up until he got a house. And we wanted to do something.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Little people can do a lot of things if they put their mind to it. Sorry, he`s not little.
HAAS: I`m not little.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A stunning car crash involving an alleged drunk driver.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A young woman fueled up on alcohol --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The red Mercedes convertible took everything in its path.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why didn`t you stop at the stop sign?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Blood alcohol level nearly four times the legal limit.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The impact was so violent it sent a gas stove hurtling through the air, a pile of kitchen appliances pushed onto the back patio amid pasta and sugar?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Driving out the other side --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never thought in my wildest dreams a car would go through all the way through that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A 21-year-old brunette plows her car, a red Mercedes convertible, through the home of a 96-year-old grandma, asleep. There also in the home her 94-year-old little sister.
Straight out to Robyn Walensky, anchor and reporter with theblaze.com. What happened?
ROBYN WALENSKY, REPORTER, WDBO RADIO: Nancy, this girl was totally blitzed. She had eight to 15 drinks, and she gets behind the wheel of the car, the Mercedes-Benz, blows through a stop sign, ends up blowing through the house like a bulldozer and doesn`t stop until the car hits a tree in the backyard.
GRACE: To Kat McCullough, also on the story. Kat, what did you learn?
KAT MCCULLOUGH, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: The 21-year-old decides to go drinking in the fancy Hamptons with her 23-year-old boyfriend who is a bartender. They borrowed his parents` red Mercedes convertible. Trying to get it back home before they noticed it was gone. They drive straight through the house, all the way to the other side, taking out the kitchen sink.
GRACE: Lisa Lockwood, the whole home is condemned. She had over four times the legal alcohol limit. And there she was coming home from a party in the Hamptons with her bartender boyfriend. They now are trying to blame the power steering in the car in a red Mercedes.
LISA LOCKWOOD: Of course they are. When you`re -- when you`re charged with a DUI, driving under the influence, you are going to pull every single stop, and that would be one of them to say it was a defect in the vehicle. So it`s going to be simple as this. The police are going to tow that vehicle on a flat bed, take it to a garage, check everything that they need to, power steering fluid, anything with the steering wheel components, and determine whether or not that`s true.
GRACE: To Dr. Bill Lloyd, could you tell me how much she had to drink, if she was four times the legal limit?
LLOYD: Not right away, Nancy, because everybody is different. Your body weight, your past drinking history, what you`ve had to eat, can all influence it. As a general rule, though, you think of 0.02 for each drink so if she was 0.30, like we heard earlier, it could be as high as 15 drinks.
Nancy, every year over 11,000 Americans die from drunk driving.
GRACE: Joining me right now is the former president of MADD, Mothers against Drunk Driving, lost his son to a drunk driver. Glynn Birch is joining us out of Orlando.
Glynn, what do you make of this?
GLYNN BIRCH, FORMER PRESIDENT, MADD, MOTHERS AGAINST DRUNK DRIVING: Nancy, you know how I feel about this. This is unbelievable. First of all, she`s not taking ownership for her decision and that`s a choice that she made is to drink heavily, and then get behind the wheel. You know you`re more likely to be involved in a car crash within five miles of your home.
I think this raises the bar. How about in the comfort of your own home. Think about the victim, and luckily she was not injured or killed, but what could have happened. You`ve got to own up to your responsibilities and the ownership of your decisions. And this has gotten to be really ridiculous.
GRACE: To Howard Samuels, addiction expert, founder of the Hills Treatment Center, joining us out of L.A., she doesn`t seem to think she has a problem, Howard, but she plowed through a 96-year-old grandma`s house, the kitchen sink was in the backyard.
HOWARD SAMUELS, ADDICTION EXPERT, FOUNDER, THE HILLS TREATMENT CENTER: Well, Nancy, it`s a joke. I mean this is alcoholism and denial at its finest. I mean, here you have a 21-year-old who, you know, obviously, you know, had way too much to drink, who`s a party girl from all reports, and her boyfriend who not only also was drunk but was arrested for selling ecstasy to an undercover cop three years ago.
So you know, you`ve really got, you know, two young people who are involved with drugs and alcohol to an extent, that is dangerous to society. And what the problem is, Nancy, is that there are so many people out there in this age group who were in so much denial about drinking and drugs and that, to me, is the crisis going on in this country today and this just symbolizes it.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They just heard a big explosion. They were sleeping. They had no idea what it was. They walked out to see the car halfway in their backyard. It was like brake lights in the backyard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Out to the lines. Lisa, South Carolina. Hi, Lisa. What`s your question?
LISA, CALLER FROM SOUTH CAROLINA: Hi, Miss Grace. My question is, is, you know, they were trying to get the car back, but common sense says, you know, you`ve had one too many. I would rather get a slap on my wrist from my parents than risk driving drunk anywhere, because it`s just blatantly stupid. I mean, I`m surprised nobody else`s life was taken along with that.
GRACE: To Guy in West Virginia -- I agree with you, Lisa. What`s your question, Guy?
GUY, CALLER FROM WEST VIRGINIA: Thanks for taking my call, Nancy. I`d like to just say, you know, when are they going to start throwing the book to these people because this is just unbelievable. And what kind of restitution is going to be made to these -- these elderly people that have lost their home?
GRACE: Yes, the whole home was condemned.
To Dr. Caryn Stark, psychologist in New York, why is it that in DUIs or habitual violators they never get the book thrown at them?
CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: Because they`re not taking it seriously, Nancy, and it has to be taken seriously. Look at what happened. It`s reprehensible. And that`s going to happen next? She has an addiction problem. They should really scare her. She should definitely be treated much more seriously than this.
GRACE: A 21-year-old party girl, a brunette bombshell, plows her red Mercedes vehicle, a convertible, to the home of a 96-year-old grandma as she and her little sister, age 94, are sleeping.
Everybody, as we go to break, I want you to take a look at some new video of John David and Lucy. Here they are at swimming lessons, getting ready for the summer with Coach Sam (ph) and Coach Cathy (ph).
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Go, Lucy. Go, Lucy. Look at her go. Jump in, big boy. Wow. Look at you go under water. She needs Grandma Lucy? OK, Lucy girl. Look at her. Yay. I don`t believe I caught your head go under. Can you do it? My baby girl. My baby boy. Woo-hoo.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A car plowing through a home while police say the driver never should have been behind the wheel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why didn`t you stop at that stop sign?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Prosecutors say the woman who drove a car through a Long Island home had a blood alcohol level nearly four times the legal limit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That field breath test is inadmissible in the court of law.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police say a drunk woman drove a Mercedes through the house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They just heard an explosion. They were sleeping. They had no idea what it was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Ellie Jostad, our chief editorial producer. Ellie, what more do we know about this girl?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE CHIEF EDITORIAL PRODUCER: Nancy, she is a waitress, a recently unemployed waitress, but she is from a very tony area called Deep River in Connecticut. Her parents, however, say they don`t know how they`re going to make her bond and they think that her high $50,000 bond was actually politically motivated. Her attorney also says that she only had three beers that night.
GRACE: Politically motivated?
JOSTAD: Yes. I don`t know where she --
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: By who? What? Capitol Hill? A drunk driver in jail. Can you imagine that?
JOSTAD: Right.
GRACE: The high bond? She`s driving a red convertible Mercedes after a party in the Hamptons. It`s $5,000. All right? Somebody`s got some money somewhere, Ellie.
JOSTAD: Right. Well, exactly. And like I said, her attorney says only three beers were drank that night by his --
GRACE: That`s a lie.
JOSTAD: Right. And he says he`s going to fight those DUI results. He doesn`t believe that they`re accurate on the breathalyzer.
GRACE: You know, it`s amazing to me, all you defense lawyers, Becca, Bradford, Darryl, why do you always say three beers? Have you ever thought of going with four beers or two beers? What about it, Cohen? Why it always, I just had three beers?
(CROSSTALK)
B. COHEN: I don`t know --
D. COHEN: But first of all, Nancy, they usually say -- two beers.
B. COHEN: But the fact is --
D. COHEN: Having said that, the truth of the matter is, let`s just convict her for doing something there`s no evidence at this point. The preliminary breath test, the PBT --
GRACE: Is that what I asked you?
D. COHEN: -- is absolutely not admissible. There`s no evidence.
GRACE: You know whenever you don`t like the answers, you guys always say that`s not admissible. Guess what? Look around you. You`re not in court. You`re in a TV studio. All right?
D. COHEN: Court of public opinion.
GRACE: We`re talking about the truth. The facts that we know.
What about it, Becca? We know what they say her blood alcohol was. It was four times the legal limit.
CRUMRINE: Let`s not even care about the blood alcohol level. She ran through an entire house. There was not a brake. Her friends had told her that she passed out in the subway just two weeks ago. She`s obviously got an alcohol problem.
GRACE: I think she needs team defense work from Becca Crumrine, Bradford Cohen and Darryl Cohen.
Let`s stop and remember, Army Major Jeffrey Calero, 34, Queens Village, New York, killed Afghanistan, on a second tour. Bronze Star, Purple Heart, three Army Commendation medals. Loved football, reading sports, his 1970 GTO. Leaves behind parents Raymond and Rose Elle, brothers Dennis -- brother Dennis, sisters Irene and Joyce.
Jeffrey Calero, American hero.
Thanks to our guest but especially to you. And good night from Jamaican friend, Alfia. Isn`t she beautiful?
And happy 15th birthday to Sydney, loves singing, piano, cheerleading and her dog Harley.
And happy birthday to Jack Silverman, 106 years old. Secret? He doesn`t date older woman.
Stay tuned for "DR. DREW." I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
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