Return to Transcripts main page
Jane Velez-Mitchell
Cousins Missing for One Month; Teacher Guilty of Having Sex with Students; Rihanna` Brand New Confessions to Oprah Winfrey; Keeping Sharks Off the Menu
Aired August 17, 2012 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN HOST: Tonight, a frantic search for a Marina Del Rey, California, woman. Her husband says the last time he saw her, she was wearing a wet suit and driving off to go diving in the ocean.
But tonight the missing woman`s family say things don`t add up to them. In a moment, we`re going to talk to the missing woman`s brother.
Tonight, a search by land and sea for a beautiful missing woman. Cops say Rebecca Weiss vanished off the California coast while diving near a popular resort, her diving gear and car found near the water, but Rebecca nowhere to be seen.
Was this a terrible accident or could there be more to the story, as her mother believes? Why does her mom say her son-in-law`s behavior is very strange? And what about the mom`s claim that her daughter recently told her, her husband was cheating on her?
Then new developments in the search for little Lyric and Elizabeth, the Iowa cousins who vanished last month while riding their bikes. What are cops saying about the attempted abduction of a fifth grade girl in the very same region? Is there a connection? Or could the powerful drug methamphetamine be behind their disappearance?
The FBI believes the girls are still alive. So where are they? Their aunt joins me tonight.
And new revelations in Rihanna`s tearful interview with Oprah. Tonight, you`ll hear why the pop superstar calls the brutal assault she suffered at the hands of her then-boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, humiliating. If it was so humiliating, why did she also say she more concerned about him? Is this a classic sign of co-dependency? We`re analyzing it tonight.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VILMA CAUSEY, REBECCA WEISS` MOTHER: It`s like there`s somebody missing. It`s my daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Relatives of the missing Rebecca Weiss flooded the South Bay area with her picture.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): No word on what may have happened.
V. CAUSEY: Up to the Philippines they`re all praying for her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): The woman`s husband, Alan, did meet with homicide detectives last night.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): She left their condo to go free diving off of Rancho Palos Verdes.
LT. HOLLY FRANCISCO, L.A. CO. SHERIFF`S DEPARTMENT: Looking for video, trying to contact anybody that could have seen her in that general area.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Her husband allegedly had marital difficulties.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): He says when she didn`t come home, he went looking for her and only found her car and belongings.
V. CAUSEY: She drowned in there. She has to come up some time, right?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight a desperate search for a missing California woman. Her husband says she went out diving in the ocean and never came back. So why is her family now disturbed by his behavior?
Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell. Rebecca Weiss vanished last Saturday. She was apparently an experienced diver and according to her husband, she went out alone to go free diving in a cove. Free diving is when you hold your breath without any scuba gear or snorkeling equipment. But tonight there are new questions about exactly what kind of diving she was doing.
Rebecca`s husband says her gear bag and several personal items were found on this beach. He says he went there to search when she didn`t come home. And he claims her BMW was also found nearby.
Since then her family has been frantically searching for her, especially her distraught mother. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
V. CAUSEY: I feel like she`s OK. That`s all we can do. Everybody prays for her. Up to the Philippines they`re all praying for her.
VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): Reporters have tried to talk to Rebecca`s husband, Alan Weiss. Watch what happens when a reporter from affiliate KTLA went to his door in Marina Del REYNOLDS: .
CAROLYN COSTELLO (PH), KTLA: Hi, it`s Carolyn Costello (ph), KTLA.
ALAN WEISS, REBECCA WEISS` HUSBAND: No, I`m not interested.
COSTELLO (PH): Can you give us any statement at all?
WEISS: Yes. Get out of here.
VELEZ-MITCHELL (ph): Get out of here. Hmm. After that, the reporter claims the missing woman`s husband called security. Now, we tried to contact Alan Weiss ourselves, but his phone just rang and rang. He is invited on our show any time. And police insist tonight he`s not a person of interest in his wife`s disappearance.
Straight out to a very special guest, the missing woman`s brother, Roberto Causey. Thank you for joining us. Clearly this is a very difficult time for you and your family. Our hearts go out to you. You have said to us and our producer that things don`t add up for you.
What do you mean by that? Spell it out for us.
ROBERTO CAUSEY, REBECCA WEISS` BROTHER: Well, Jane, if I may begin by saying that my family`s just overwhelmed by the tremendous response and support by everyone. So on behalf of my entire family, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to all of you.
Jane, her bag -- her gear bag, was found at -- there`s a trail that leads from the resort to the beach area. And so her bag was found off the trail, not -- that doesn`t make sense to me. What would make sense more to me is that the bag would be closer to the water`s edge.
So when you`re snorkeling and, you know, Rebecca, when she`s snorkeling, I mean, you have an opportunity to look up once in a while and find that the bag is still there.
Where it was found you cannot see that from the water. There`s shrubbery behind it -- I mean, in front of it. So you don`t have a clear view of her bag gear.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Roberto, let me ask you this. You mentioned snorkeling, but we had heard that the husband -- her husband said she went free diving. That`s a discrepancy there. Sort that out for us.
R. CAUSEY: No, if you -- you know, if you read your -- I know you did; if you look at the earlier articles, it was mentioned snorkeling. So that`s where I`m going. And you`re absolutely correct. There`s quite a difference between snorkeling and free diving. And I`m going to go off with the snorkeling.
Yes, you know, my sister also does scuba diving. But of late because she`s very close to her -- she`s very close with her dog and she has taken up paddle boarding so she can take the dog with her. So she has curtailed her activities with regards to, you know, snorkeling and scuba diving, that type of activity.
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Roberto, could I ask you to standby for one second? We want to get -- we have a bunch of experts in investigation here with us to help answer some questions. So stand by. We`re going to get back to you in a second.
After Rebecca disappeared, police interviewed the husband. But they say he isn`t a suspect or a person of interest. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCISCO: He cooperated fully and provided a statement, which was the same information that he reported when he talked to Alameda (ph) sheriff deputies.
VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): Alan Weiss, the husband also sent a text to our affiliate, saying, quote, "I am very concerned. Rebecca is a great diver. We have been all around the world. This just is not what I ever expected."
Now, Pete Demetriou, KNX 1070 NewsRadio, you are in Los Angeles. Reports are that the L.A. County Sheriff`s homicide detectives are now investigating. What`s the significance of that? And what do you know?
PETE DEMETRIOU, KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO: Well, the indications are when you bring sheriff`s homicide in it`s because the initial search and rescue aspects of the search for this person are over.
Divers, from the time she was reported missing, went down to that area near that point and then expanded the search outward several hundred yards into the water and up and down the coast in a place where a person normally would try to do either snorkeling, scuba diving or free diving, did not find any sign of her.
Even if she had weights on her body and that had weighted her down, she probably would have been found within an area of that cove. The currents aren`t that great.
Once you get a search and rescue operation over with and missing goes beyond a certain point, homicide detectives get in because they believe there`s a possibility that person is not alive and they`re going to exercise every option they possibly can in an effort to find information as to where she was, where she went into the water, at least according to her husband, and the information found at the scene.
And they can also ask more probing questions as well as go back and do research as to what actually was going on between these two people, emotional ties, any monetary problems or anything else. You bring in more experienced investigators.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, actually Rebecca`s mother has made a very startling accusation against her son-in-law. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
V. CAUSEY: (Inaudible) that she found it on the computer. She has -- he has a girlfriend.
VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): According to published reports, the missing woman`s mother claims that Rebecca told her recently that she went on her husband`s computer and found out that he had a girlfriend.
Obviously we have no independent confirmation of this. Rebecca and Alan have been married for almost two decades.
I got to ask you, Jon Lieberman, HLN contributor, investigative journalist, well, obviously police can look at that computer to find out if there`s any truth to those claims.
What else can they do to explore this?
JON LIEBERMAN, HLN CORRESPONDENT: Well, and I know a lot of these L.A. County Sheriff`s homicide detectives, they`re the cream of the crop. Here`s what they`re doing right now.
They`re also looking for surveillance video in the area near the water and also outside of where they live. And they`re doing that because of this. They have Alan`s statement. So they have a base of what to go off of. Now they`re trying to find information to either corroborate or contradict this man`s statement, now that they have his formal statement.
So you`re talking about the computer information; they`re looking at all of his relationships, but they`re also looking at facts, like if they can get the surveillance video, they know where this woman was at a certain time. They`re going to talk to friends of the couple, everything like that.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And why did she go into the water alone?
On the other side we`re going to talk to her brother and other experts about whether that is a practical hypothesis. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
V. CAUSEY: She drowned in there. She has to come up some time, right? Can only wait. But I just hope nothing happens to her bad.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Alan Weiss claimed to have found his wife`s bag and belongings on the beach. But the missing woman`s mother finds that strange. Listen to this.
V. CAUSEY: Her driver`s license and credit card on it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the middle of the beach?
V. CAUSEY: Yes, on that bag that was found on the beach.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that`s very unlike her?
V. CAUSEY: Very unlike her.
VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): All right. So, Holly Hughes, criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor, you`ve been listening to all of this.
We`re also hearing from the family that she was trained from growing up in the water with her brother not to swim alone. What do you make of it?
HOLLY HUGHES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, we know that even though she had great training, sometimes she did, in fact, go out on her own and swim and free dive solo. And the police will -- they`ll be talking to all her friends, Jane, to verify this, because this is a statement included in what the husband told us that, yes, she went out there alone.
So they`re going to talk to all her friends, find out if this was a practice she engaged in, because, at this point, she could have been abducted or accosted right there on that beach where they found her bag.
I know her brother was telling you it`s unusual the area the bag was found in. So it`s highly possible that when she got there, there was a predator there. And she just happened into a very bad situation at the wrong place and wrong time and never made it into the water.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, she lives in Marina Del Rey. Now I know Marina Del Rey very well. I lived there for 18 years. Take a look at this map. This is the route basically every takes to get from Marina Del Rey to the resort in Rancho Palos Verdes. You got to get on the 90 and then you got to take the 405 South. And let me tell you, most of these roads along that way have cameras on them.
Why do I know this? Because I`ve gotten tickets with a photograph of my face going through a red light from those cameras.
So, T.J. Ward, private investigator, if indeed, as her husband says she got into her BMW in a wet suit and took off for Marina Del Rey all the way south to Rancho Palos Verdes, wouldn`t there be a picture or some kind of confirmation of that?
T.J. WARD, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: Yes, there would be. And I find it a little strange that her husband, the way he`s acting as far as the media -- as you`re well aware, I`ve done a lot of missing persons cases. And his behavior of not wanting to talk to the media is a little strange. He should get out and get as much exposure as he can.
And even though the police have mentioned that he`s not a person of interest, rest assured getting the computer, doing the background, finding out they had domestic issues and so on and so forth is going to become an issue.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. Now Alan Weiss, the husband, says his wife would free dive in a cove, and that`s when you don`t have all the equipment except you do have weights to kind of keep you below the surface and counteract the body`s natural buoyancy.
However, free diving isn`t your typical dive, OK. Free diving is done by holding your breath as long as possible without any oxygen tanks or any snorkeling gear. And free divers, again, they use weights.
Now, why is it significant potentially, Jon Lieberman, whether or not she was free diving or snorkeling?
LIEBERMAN: Well, for a lot of reasons. One, you mentioned the weights. So if she was free diving and she had the weight belt on, that could be one reason why her body hasn`t come to the surface right now. Also with free diving --
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But wait a second. Let me jump in there. Then wouldn`t all the searchers who have been looking for her have found her at the bottom of the ocean?
LIEBERMAN: Well, maybe. And maybe not. It depends how far she went out. It depends all of the circumstances here.
I mean, we don`t know also if she might have wanted to commit suicide. I mean, could she have found out -- could she have found out about these domestic problems with her husband, and so that`s another thing that police are looking into, too. But with free diving, most of the time it`s a buddy system, one buddy up above the water while the other buddy dives.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, on the other side of the break we`re going to come back and talk to the brother again. We are looking at every possibility, because we want to find this beautiful missing woman from Marina Del Rey. And her husband says she got in her BMW in a wet suit and headed out to go diving. And the family says it doesn`t add up. The brother on the other side.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
V. CAUSEY: I find that weird. You know anybody, we`re looking for her, would she be the only one on the beach to swim? There`s got to be more -- other people to swim, especially where, in that resort.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one saw her?
V. CAUSEY: No one saw her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That is a devastated mother of the missing woman, Rebecca Weiss. Where is she? And mom`s saying that she finds the missing woman`s husband`s reaction all this odd, that he`s not considered a person of interest, according to police.
I want to go to missing woman`s brother, Roberto Causey.
Was your sister depressed at all, Roberto?
R. CAUSEY: No, ma`am. I had conversation with her. That didn`t even come up in our conversation.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, I want to go back to Pete Demetriou of KNX NewsRadio.
Her keys and phone were missing. What do you make of that?
DEMETRIOU : Well, I`ll tell you one thing, Jane, I`ve done free diving in the past. And what you try and do -- at least I have -- is that you carry some of the items with you on your person in a small watertight container, driver`s license, keys, things like that, that you don`t want to leave it on the beach along with cash that someone can pick it on up and do that.
But the fact that it wasn`t found in the bag or anything else, I don`t find that unusual. What I find unusual is the idea, if we have an experienced diver here, why there wasn`t a buddy with that person when they`re doing free diving, because it`s actually more dangerous than some people think.
You get underwater, you fill your lungs with air, you`ve got a little bit of an assist going down from the weight. So you can take a look at everything that goes on down there.
But at the same time it takes a lot more effort to bring you up, because when you`re doing scuba you`ve got a buoyancy compensator, you can put air in there, the bladder, it brings you on up. Free diving, it`s all you. And if all of a sudden you`re running out of air, you got trouble.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. A woman disappears snorkeling. If it sounds familiar, well, remember American tourist Robyn Gardner, she vanished in Aruba. She traveled there with Gary Giordano, a man she met on the Internet. She vanished while snorkeling. Her body was never found. He was detained but never charged.
Then there was Tina Watson, who died scuba diving in Australia with her new husband, Gabe Watson, served 18 months in Australia for manslaughter. But an American judge acquitted him on capital murder.
T.J. Ward, why do they say that the ocean is the most challenging crime scene?
WARD: It`s because of the current and the waves and the weather is why the ocean`s a very, very terrible place to try to find somebody. When we did this, when we were in Aruba looking for Natalee Holloway, we had all sorts of problems in trying to locate different things and pinpoint where she may have been put in the water.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, we hope, Roberto Causey, you find your sister. We`re going to stay on top of the story. Please call us with any developments.
And call police if you have information.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously something bad has happened.
VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): The mystery deepens into what happened to these two young cousins.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My stomach`s just in knots over it. And I can imagine everyone else feels that way, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They`re thinking more and more that this was an abduction.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just pray that the children are OK. If they`re hurt, I don`t care if they`re hurt. Just let us have them. We`ll deal with that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`ve taken our kids. Just bring them back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you don`t find out anything, what happens next?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have no idea.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like maybe they were taken.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s very difficult to picture how any kind of abduction might happen here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just want our children brought back. I don`t want to know who you are. I don`t care who you are.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just desperately want them home.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Is an attempted abduction in Iowa linked to the disappearance of these two adorable cousins, the girls, then 8-year-old Elizabeth and 10-year-old Lyric, vanished over a month ago? They were last seen riding their bikes in Evansdale, Iowa.
Now just two and a half hours away, police say there was an attempted abduction of a fifth grade girl.
It happened yesterday morning. The little girl was waiting for her school bus. She told cops a deep purple-colored van with three black stripes on the side and tinted windows pulled up next to her.
The male driver told the girl to get in. And that`s when the child darted toward her house. And the guy drove off. So bravo to that young girl for not getting in that van.
The weapon of choice for abductors is a van. Since Elizabeth and Lyric disappeared, there have been a string of attempted abductions throughout Iowa. Cops are telling us tonight this incident in Waukee, this attempted abduction, does not appear to be linked to the missing cousins` disappearance.
How do they know that? That`s what I`d like to know.
Jon Lieberman, HLN contributor, investigative journalist, you`ve been looking into this. How can they say so quickly nothing to see here?
LIEBERMAN: Quite simply the FBI believes they have a theory of what happened to these girls. They believe these two girls are still alive. And based on the information -- which they haven`t released publicly; they`re keeping it close to their vest -- they believe they know how this went down. And this other attempted abduction does not fit into their theory of what happened to these two cousins.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And by the way, there have been kind of a slew of attempted abductions in this general region within about two and a half hours from where the little girls disappeared. So I`d like to know what is going on there. It`s very, very disturbing.
Now, federal authorities tell us Lyric`s mom, Misty, was sentenced in 2003 for conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine. Last September she violated the terms of her supervision and served another five months in prison. She was released in January and went to a halfway house. And she got out of the halfway house just a few months ago.
We`re talking about the mother of one of the missing girls. As is standard procedure, police have given everyone in the family a polygraph. And Misty says she passed hers. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MISTY MORRISSEY, MISSING GIRL`S MOM: It feels kind of awkward. You know, you know that you don`t really have any information to give up, but I also know that it needed to be done.
Former prosecutor, criminal defense attorney, Holly Hughes, if she has just gotten out of a halfway house, is it possible that she met somebody in that halfway house who is a problem? Somebody who may have bad intent? Somebody who may have found out where she lived?
HOLLY HUGHES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Absolutely because not everybody is going to be in there for the same offense. It`s not all going to be drug-related. You could have child predators in that halfway house -- even female, yes, I know what everybody`s thinking. They`re not going to mix male and female in the halfway house, but it could be somebody that she befriended who has a man in their life who is a predator.
There are all sorts of possibilities when unfortunately you`ve got a whole bunch of folks convicted of a crime put into one place. And they`re going to talk. And some of them are not reformed. They`re still looking for the next gig, the next scam, the next way to get over.
And unfortunately if this lady came out and still had ties with some of her old drug connections, we could see some type of an abduction because they`re mad about something that happened in the past. She ratted on somebody.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And of course, we only explore that because we`re trying to find these girls. By the way, you`re looking at some just generic boaters. Cops have been looking for somebody who was on that kind of boat in the lake near where the bikes were found. And they still haven`t been able, my understanding is, to talk to that person.
Tammy Brousseau, you`re the aunt of the two missing girls -- thank you so much for joining us tonight --
TAMMY BROUSSEAU, AUNT OF MISSING GIRLS (via telephone): Yes, thank you.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What have authorities been telling you? What is the latest? Because they were so quick to say that this attempted abduction two and a half hours away of a little girl yesterday had nothing to do with the disappearance of your two nieces. Do you think that that was correct in other words that they could discount that so quickly?
BROUSSEAU: Well, to be honest with you, I don`t keep up with the media. I haven`t watched any interviews. I haven`t -- I don`t read the paper. I tend to just steer clear of it because a lot of what I hear, you know, is so far off the beaten path that it just kind of -- it kind of sickens me to sit and listen to it.
But it`s ok. People are going to have their opinions. And there`s no getting around that. So I just --
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tammy, what have authorities told you? What have authorities told you? They have said to us that they think these girls are alive. What do you know?
BROUSSEAU: Well, of course they`re going to say that they`re alive, number one, because we don`t have two dead bodies. And of course, we all want to believe that the two children are still alive. That`s our hopes. We want our children returned to us alive, yes.
They have no other leads that they`ve told us. And if the FBI does have any leads or something that they`re going off of, they`re certainly not going to tell us because they don`t want to botch up any situation that could potentially lead to the abductor and to getting our kids back.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tammy, it`s difficult for me. I don`t want to go through some of these unpleasant details. But unfortunately we must to cover this story.
And the fact is that Lyric`s dad -- he has a criminal record that involves methamphetamine. And he`s appeared in court numerous times. He`s due back in court in a little over a week. He insists he had absolutely nothing to do with the girls` disappearance. And he has said in the past that he felt like he was being treated like a suspect.
Let`s listen to this. I want to get your reaction to some developments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAN MORRISSEY, MISSING GIRL`S DAD: You`re telling the truth and they say you`re holding something back and you`re not, what more do you have to talk about? You know. We can go over and over and over it, you know. So I don`t know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did it make you feel like a suspect?
D. MORRISSEY: Well, it made me feel like -- yes, they were looking at me like a suspect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So, Tammy, he said, the father of Lyric, that he felt he was being treated like a suspect. Has that changed?
BROUSSEAU: No, Jane. I hope for every individual including Misty, Heather, Drew, everybody, I hope everybody is looked at as a suspect until we have the return of our children, you know. That`s proper and standard procedure. So no, let`s keep the ball rolling. Let`s stay on top of it.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tammy, published reports claim that after being separated for years, Lyric`s parents, Misty and Dan, you just heard from Dan, were preparing to file for divorce. Is that true?
BROUSSEAU: That`s true.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: At the time the girls disappeared they were finally preparing to divorce?
BROUSSEAU: That is true. But they hadn`t been in a relationship for at least over a year.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Do you think that that might be a factor here?
BROUSSEAU: We can throw it into like a 2 percent factor, you know -- maybe even a 1 percent. It`s very, very low factor that Dan or Misty`s criminal drug history had anything to do with the disappearance of these two little girls.
Lyric lived in Waterloo and Elizabeth lived in Evansdale. It was a secluded area where the girls came up missing, you know. My thoughts just tend to continue to lean towards a pedophile; he got his opportunity.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Tammy, I want to thank you for joining us. Our hearts are with you and your entire family. We`re going to stay on top of this case. And if you know anything, if you`re watching, please call police immediately.
Now, for an update on an unbelievable story -- we brought you earlier this week a female high school teacher accused of having group sex with her students was just found guilty. A Texas jury needed less than an hour to convict 28-year-old Brittni Colleps. The mother of three now faces up to 20 years in prison.
Remember, the students that she had sex with, according to prosecutors, were all 18 years old or older. Jurors were shown graphic cell phone video of Brittni having sex with as many as five 18-year-old male students. Texas prohibits sex between teachers and students regardless of their age even though all the males were of age -- 17 is the age of consent in Texas.
Astounding.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And your "Viral Video Pick of the Week" -- take a look at this pooch. He jumps into the water to hang out with some of his friends. And his friends are, believe it or not, dolphins. Yes, these two species can get along and have fun. Why can`t we? Maybe we can learn something, people.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rihanna`s brand new confessions to Oprah Winfrey about Chris Brown.
RIHANNA, SINGER: I hate this part. It`s amazing how lonely you can feel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oprah Winfrey`s out pushing her blockbuster Rihanna tell-all that will air this coming Sunday on her network, OWN.
RIHANNA: It was embarrassing. It was humiliating. I lost my best friend.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rihanna and Chris Brown definitely have a relationship. I think that Rihanna will be truthful about it.
RIHANNA: It became a circus. And I felt protective.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all want to hear what Rihanna has to say, especially about her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown.
RIHANNA: He made that mistake because he needed help. I`m like, who`s going to help him?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight: the truth pouring out about Rihanna`s beating at the hands of her then boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, in a tell-all interview with Oprah. Rihanna wants people to know that the person who suffered the most was her. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RIHANNA: I was hurt the most. Nobody felt what I felt.
OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: You were hurt the most because it happened?
RIHANNA: It happened. It happened to me. And it happened to me in front of the world. It was embarrassing. It was humiliating. It was hurtful, you know. It`s not easy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: She really opened up. But if Rihanna is so humiliated, why does she feel so protective of Chris Brown, her attacker?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RIHANNA: He made that mistake because he needed help. I`m like who`s going to help him? Nobody`s going to say he needs help. Everybody`s going to say he`s a monster without looking at the source.
WINFREY: Yes.
RIHANNA: And I was more concerned about him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: This is Rihanna looked after that assault three years ago. You can barely recognize her.
Straight out to producer/director Duncan Roy, former cast member of VH1`s "Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew"; Duncan, a few months after being assaulted, Rihanna made claims on ABC`s "good Morning America" that she had experienced and witnessed I should say domestic abuse in her household when she was growing up. Could that have anything to do with her instinct to protect Chris Brown?
DUNCAN ROY, PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: I think a lot of people who`ve suffered abuse at the hands of somebody they`ve loved can give very confusing messages to people who ask about that relationship. As a victim of violent abuse at home, I was still very protective of my stepfather who did terrible things to me. And people find it very confusing.
And I think, you know, if you`ve loved somebody, you`re prepared to forgive them. And I think that a part of that is a part of the healing process as well when we try and forgive those who have done terrible things to us. And, again, if you hear that, sometimes that can be very confusing.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, in her interview with Oprah, Rihanna actually talks about wanting to shield Chris Brown from attack. Even after the assault. Watch this from OWN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RIHANNA: I lost my best friend. Like everything I knew switched -- switched in a night. It became a circus. And I felt protective. Like I felt like the only person they hate right now is him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: He hit her, but she felt protective about him. She was worried about people not liking him. Duncan, you are so familiar with co- dependency, does that sound like classic co-dependency to you?
ROY: It is classic co-dependency. It`s also like Stockholm syndrome where people are taken hostage in an airplane and end up feeling sorry for their hostage takers. I think that`s really what you`re witnessing here in these kind of desperately confined relationships especially among celebrities where they are forced together because they can`t live very normal and open lives. They have very intense relationships.
And so when things go horribly wrong they end up having to protect each other. She ended up having to protect him in order to protect herself in a way. So that`s a classic case of co-dependency.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Duncan, you`re an abuse survivor. That`s one of the reasons why we`re talking to you. And you gave the public -- you really opened up about your recovery when you appeared on VH1`s "Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew". Let`s watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROY: I feel utterly powerless because I was.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You were?
ROY: No social services were going to come in on their white horse and save me. It wasn`t going to happen. So consequently, it just all got worse and worse and worse.
DR. DREW PINSKY, HLN HOST: Nothing worse could happened -- even death.
ROY: That`s right. In fact, you`re already dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You obviously benefitted a lot from opening up. Do you think that Rihanna should do therapy as well to get through this abuse drama?
ROY: Yes. Yes, I do. Obviously therapy helps in so many different ways. I mean we don`t know whether she is getting therapy or not. But I mean, you know, what happens when you`ve had those kind of childhood traumas is that you can often go out and rediscover them with other people. I`ve had quite difficult and tormented relationships in my adult life because of the abuse that I suffered when I was a child.
And, you know, reading about Chris Brown as well. Reading about Chris Brown as well, he`s obviously had a lot of abuse. And, you know, the two of them found a perfect symbiotic relationship where abuse was -- sorry.
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And Duncan, I have to say that they have spoken about witnessing abuse as children. But that can be traumatic as well. Thank you, Duncan Roy.
Amazing story on the other side.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And it`s time for our pets of the day. Tucker, you`re a lover. Let`s see who we got. Princess -- wow, that`s a -- isn`t that a tennis ball? Something like that. All right. Blossom, you`ve got some kind of cool accoutrement. And Bogey. Send us your pet pics.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shark populations are crashing around the world. Roughly a third of all shark and ray species face some threat of extinction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re supposed to have a certain number of sharks to be able to control all of these animals which are below them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Millions die by finning to feed the growing demand for shark fin soup in Asia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sharks -- they`re not the monstrous killers that they get the bad rap for being --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, there`s a war going on in our oceans, day in, day out, against one of the most amazing and beautiful sea creatures, the shark. We have all heard about "Shark Week" -- watch this from the Discovery Channel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 25th anniversary of "Shark Week" and to celebrate history, we`re making history.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, this is "Shark Week", but it`s more than just a TV fad. Despite the hysteria about shark sightings and sharks attacks, these creatures have so more to fear from us from what the human race is doing to them than we have to fear about any kind of shark attacks. An estimated 70 million sharks, minimum, are captured and slaughtered every year. Mostly in the name of sport fishing because of demand for shark fin soup
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILIPPE COUSTEAU, ENVIRONMENTALIST/ ANIMAL ACTIVIST: Three sharks every second, killed; 200,000 sharks every day, gone. Up to 73 million sharks every year, dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Straight out to Liz Karan, manager of Global Shark Conservation at Pew Environmental Group. How can we get Americans to stop massacring sharks and demonizing sharks?
LIZ KARAN, MANAGER, GLOBAL SHARK CONSERVATION, PEW ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP: Yes, well sharks are primarily killed, as you said for shark fin soup. Shark fin soup, primarily the demand comes from China and Asia, but it`s also served here in the United States. Pew Environment Group actually teamed up with scientists from Stony Brook University and the Field Museum in Chicago to test shark fin soup in the United States and see what species are being found there.
We found that there is actually the endangered scallop head in soup sold in the United States. That`s endangered, according to the International Union of Conservation of Nature. They`re red listed endangered species. So one thing that Americans can do is really to think twice before ordering this soup. It sounds small but it really could be key for the survival of certain species.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: It`s a stupid soup; we`ve got to get rid of it. There`s no taste in a shark fin, there are plenty of alternatives.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COUSTEAU: And there were 12 shark fatalities around the world and yet we kill 100 million sharks a year on average for shark fin soup mostly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. We see sharks as monsters. We have been demonizing them for years. It picked up speed, of course, when the movie "Jaws", that big hit, came out 35 years ago from Universal Pictures. We all have seen this clip, but let`s look at it again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(EXCERPT FROM "JAWS")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: This is nonsense, here`s the reality. You are more likely to be struck by lightning; you are more likely to win an academy award than you are likely to get attacked by a shark. And yet, every year, every summer, because somebody sees a fin in the water, we create, Liz, this hysteria were people then come to fear these creatures and regard them as the enemy.
We`ve got to get rid of shark fin soup. It`s been banned in California. It`s been banned in Washington. But it`s still legal in New York. I know there`s an effort to get rid of it in New York. But we, most of all, have to get rid of the mentality that it`s us versus them because if all the sharks go, it`s going to devastate our ecosystem.
How is it going to do that? How is it -- why is it important for sharks to remain in this world, Liz?
KARAN: Sharks play a really key role in the marine environment. They`re at the top of the food chain and they basically regulate the health, everything below them from the smaller fishes, commercially important fish and also the coral reef systems. You know, without sharks doing what they do and have done for over 400 million years, our oceans won`t look like they do today.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: It`s unbelievable when you look at the video of people slicing off the fin, the top fin of a shark, right there, and often they throw the shark in the water and leave the shark to writhe to death. And this is happening at a rate of 73 million sharks a year.
Shame on the human race for allowing this to happen. Let us realize that we`re on the same side, us and the sharks. Let`s save them.
Nancy`s next.
END END
