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Jane Velez-Mitchell
What Happened to Baby Daphne?; Has Amanda Bynes Hit Rock Bottom?
Aired July 23, 2013 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST: Tonight, breaking news just in. A frantic search under way as we speak for a beautiful toddler. Tonight, where is baby Daphne?
New information is just coming in. This 21-month-old vanishes as her dad says he runs into the store, leaving his little girl in the car with her 87-year-old grandmother, who just happens to suffer from dementia. And when he comes out, baby Daphne is gone.
But tonight, questions about his story. What happened to this adorable toddler? Is he telling the whole story?
I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, coming to you live.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KIANA DAVIS, DAPHNE`S MOTHER (singing): Each though my heart is breaking...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Daphne Webb is just 21 months old. Her father reported her missing.
KIANA DAVIS: There`s no way to express how you feel when your child is missing.
JOHN WEBB, DAPHNE`S FATHER: These passing days have been the worst nightmare of any parent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They left Daphne in the car while he went into this store last Wednesday. When he came back, she was gone.
WEBB: I`m just a home body. I mean, even before all this happened, I never really went nowhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody else saw Anthony with Daphne.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody knows something.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Little Daphne`s dad -- you saw him right there on the surveillance cam video. He claims she disappeared two weeks ago tomorrow. And again, here is the dad, John Webb, on convenience store surveillance video, buying an energy drink.
He says he walked out of the store, and his little girl is gone and so is Grandma`s purse. Was Daphne kidnapped? Was this a stranger abduction? Does his story add up?
And now we are just getting new reports in that relatives are telling us they had not seen baby Daphne for more than two weeks -- two weeks -- before her father reports her missing. But the dad responds that`s because, well, he doesn`t really leave the house.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WEBB: I`m just a home body. I mean, even before all this happened, I never really went nowhere unless I just had to leave the house for something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Why? Why does he stay at the house all the time? Do you buy the dad`s story? What do you think? Call me: 1-877-JVM-SAYS, 1- 877-586-7297.
Straight out to Henry Lee, reporter with "The San Francisco Chronicle."
Henry, what is the very latest?
HENRY LEE, REPORTER, "SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE": The very latest, Jane, is that at one point, John Webb was in jail in custody for child endangerment, but the district attorney`s office did not file charges, so he`s a free man.
He, in fact, showed up, Jane, at a vigil for missing Daphne Webb outside the store where he says he last saw her. Police are still looking for this little child, and he is saying he has nothing to do with her disappearance.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: HLN contributor Jon Leiberman, you`ve been investigating. You`ve been making calls; you`ve been digging. What have you learned?
JON LEIBERMAN, HLN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, at this point, Jane, it`s very interesting. Police have released a photo of the little girl and her father, because they`re trying to put a timeline together of when they were last seen together. Because family and friends say that they weren`t seen together for -- until two weeks before the little girl went missing, and police are skeptical that this was a stranger abduction in broad daylight, in late morning while this man was in the convenience store for all of a few minutes. So they`re trying to put together this timeline to see if the dad`s story adds up.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Here`s the problem. The big problem with the father`s story. Police say the last confirmed sighting of baby Daphne -- and look at this adorable child -- it`s from late June. And we`re well into July, people. Despite the dad says, oh, she disappeared July 10.
So there`s a gap of about two weeks when the family sees this little girl and when he says, "Oh, she disappears while I get an energy drink at the convenience store."
When the dad reports his toddler missing, he was then jailed by authorities -- you just heard that -- for child endangerment, because he left a toddler alone in a car with a woman who suffers from dementia. But again, those child -- those charges were not filed against him, so he has been released.
Now, we have an exclusive interview with Kevin Davis. You are the grandfather of this missing toddler on the mother`s side. First of all, thank you for joining us. I know you must be heartbroken and absolutely torn apart. This is an adorable toddler. We want to help find her.
Do you buy the dad`s story? You`re part of this family. Do you buy the dad`s story?
KEVIN DAVIS, GRANDFATHER OF DAPHNE WEBB (via phone): Well, first of all, thank you for having me on. And for us to have a chance to put this on air.
There`s some questions that I have about it. And basically, that`s the question -- one of the questions is, went in the store, came out. The baby seat -- the car seat is a little difficult to take it loose. So you need a few minutes to take that off and get the baby out.
But even more so, there was an adult in the car. Even though she had dementia, you can`t really see dementia on the face of a person. So the question I have is who was bold enough to take the baby out of the car with an adult in the car present?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, if you could stand by, sir, let us go to the Lion`s Den, because this -- a maternal grandfather is raising very good questions.
And I`ll start with Vinny Parco. Vinny, he makes the point that yes, Grandma had dementia, but how does anybody know that Grandma had dementia, unless you had a crystal ball?
VINNY PARCO, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: I don`t think -- you know, this whole story sounds very fishy. No. 1, the wife is in jail -- is in rehab. She has a drug problem.
He claims that he`s home as a home body. What is he -- how is he making his money? I -- I smell drug -- I smell drugs all over this case. And maybe he`s a drug dealer. Maybe somebody took the kid as revenge because they beat him on a deal. Who knows?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well...
PARCO: The story is very fishy.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I don`t want to attack this dad. I mean, he is the father of this child.
And Marc Klaas, you`re the president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation. You are the leader in this nation in seeking missing children. Your own precious daughter was abducted and murdered, so you know that it can happen. And sometimes parents, when they report something like this, they`re treated with skepticism.
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT/FOUNDER, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Well, they`re going to be treated with skepticism, because the numbers always take you back to two things: the last person to see the child, and the person -- the child`s family, their parents, because the statistics are very clear that, in the vast majority of cases, parents are involved.
I think something else, just to add on to what Kevin said. There are degrees of dementia. The fact that she has dementia doesn`t mean that she`s completely and totally zoned out all the time by any means. She might have slight episodes. She might be coherent and cognizant the vast majority of the time. So I think that Kevin`s absolutely correct.
I think something else that needs to be pointed out is that that, first of all, is a very mean street, that location, at 79th and International Boulevard. But there`s also a lot of businesses there, so there are going to be a variety of surveillance cameras in and around that neighborhood. And to think that nobody caught anything, either him parking, him getting out of the car, or somebody leaving with that little child, I think speaks volumes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Lisa Bloom, legal analyst, Avvo.com, one would think that, even though the grandma has dementia, maybe she comes to enough to answer the question "Was the baby ever in the car?"
LISA BLOOM, LEGAL ANALYST, AVVO.COM: Well, that`s right. And wouldn`t the baby have screamed bloody murder if she`s being abducted by a stranger? Wouldn`t the grandmother, even suffering from dementia, potentially have screamed at a stranger coming into the car and taking a child?
You know, look, the man is innocent until proven guilty. And let`s give him every benefit of the doubt, because his daughter has disappeared. But he has a lot of questions to answer.
The biggest red flag for me is the two-week period when nobody saw that little girl. It reminds me very much of Casey Anthony, whose daughter was not...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, yes.
BLOOM: ... seen for several weeks till she was reported missing. We all know how that turned out.
So I really wonder how you can be the single father of a baby under the age of 2 and nobody sees the baby. If the only other adult is somebody with dementia, you have to take the baby out with you when you go buy food...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well...
BLOOM: ... when you go buy...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What about play dates? What about play dates? A 21- month-old child.
Listen, we`re going to go to Officer Johnna Watson, who is with the public information office of the Oakland Police Department.
What else can you tell us? You`ve been hearing our dialogue here. We are trying to find this precious child with these big, big, big eyes. What do you know, Officer?
OFFICER JOHNNA WATSON, OAKLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT (via phone): Well, first of all, I want to say thank you and especially from the Oakland Police Department, for shining a light on this case.
The true focus is locating baby Daphne. That is our focus of the investigation. It`s still very active. And we continue and have never stopped the search since she was reported by her father, John Webb, on July 10.
We continue to reach out to the community, and our focus at this point of the investigation is really narrowing that timeline down. A lot of conversations with a lot of speculation, and obviously, the investigation is very broad-based. So we`re taking into a lot of account...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me ask you this, Officer. Did you give this guy, this dad a polygraph?
WATSON: I can`t share that information with you, because it still is an active investigation. I can`t go into...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. OK.
WATSON: ... the type of investigative tools we`ve used. And additionally, I can`t go into any conversations that took place between the investigator...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Does he have a rap sheet? Does he have a criminal record? What does he do? What does he do for a living? I mean, he says he spends most of his time at home. What father of a toddler spends most of his time at home with a toddler? I mean, there`s daycare. There`s play dates. There`s preschool. There`s a million things. Kids have to go outside. I don`t get that.
I mean, at least the neighbors would probably have had to have seen the child playing in the yard. The fact that the family has not seen the family for two weeks prior to when he reports her missing.
Let me put it this way -- and I know you have to be very circumspect in how answer a question -- are you investigating the father`s story?
WATSON: Absolutely. So let me share with you where we are in the investigation. We really have three parallel investigations.
One focuses on the missing kidnapping portion. The second focuses on if there should be foul play and who would factor into the foul play. And thirdly, the child endangerment and reports of the child not being seen by family or neighbors or just even the community at large. And some of the factors that weigh in. So we`re really looking at different areas of this investigation as a whole.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I know this is public information, so maybe you can answer this: Have you executed a search warrant on the father`s home?
WATSON: Yes, we have. We did that immediately, the father`s home, along with other areas, vehicles associated and other areas, as well. Those were initiated immediately.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Officer Watson, thank you so very much. I know you`re busy; I know you`re trying to find this precious angel. Look at her with her little bow and her big eyes. Innocence, innocence. And it`s such a tragedy when we report these cases. This poor little thing, what happened to her?
Now we have information on the other side. We`re going to go back to the maternal grandfather and ask him what does he know about the dad. What does this dad do for a living? Why is he saying that he`s at home all the time? Maybe there`s a good reason. Maybe he works on a computer out of his house. A lot of people do. I know a lot of people who do.
Stay right there. We`re taking your calls on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WEBB: I`m just a home body. I mean, even before all this happened, I never really went nowhere. Unless I had to leave the house for something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIANA DAVIS (singing): I have fears, even though my heart is breaking.
(speaking): I`m not worrying about people seeing me cry. You have no idea how heartbreaking this is, how devastating it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That is the mother of this missing child, and we have an exclusive interview once again with that woman`s father, the maternal grandfather of the missing child.
Kevin Davis, thank you for joining us, sir. OK, the father of this child -- look at her; she`s so adorable. OK. The child is in the car with the mother, the grandmother, who has dementia. Dad goes in to get an energy drink, comes out and say, "Oh, she`s missing," and you know what? You haven`t seen her for two weeks prior to that disappearance. He says, "Well, the reason for that is, I`m always at home, unless I absolutely have to go out." Why is he always at home? What is the story with this dad? What does he do for a living, sir?
KEVIN DAVIS: Well, I know he`s on disability, and he takes care of his mother. He gets paid for taking care of her. So she is constantly under his care, and under his watch. So that`s one of the reasons he`s always at home. We happen to live in two different cities, separated probably by about 50, 60 miles. So that`s one of the reasons we haven`t seen her.
But they are a private couple, and we usually make arrangements to go and see her. Right before all of this happened, he just happened to change his number, so we weren`t able to get in touch with him.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Whoa, whoa. That`s a big, big thing that you just said. Prior to all of this happening, he just happened to change his phone number. Why? Do you have any idea why?
KEVIN DAVIS: No, I don`t.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. Again, you heard a good and decent explanation for why he says he`s at home most of the time. He takes care of his elderly mother. That would be a good thing. So we don`t want to attack this man. He`s already devastated, because his child is missing. But there are questions about the story.
You just heard the police say they executed a search warrant at his home and on the vehicles and that they are investigating his story. So that being said, Vinny Parco -- in fact, let`s go out to the Lion`s Den and we`ll debate this.
Vinny Parco, what do you think? Now that you find out that the reason he`s at home most of the time and that the other relatives haven`t seen him is they live in another town and he`s mostly taking care of his elderly mother.
PARCO: That`s a nice thing, that he`s taking care of his mother, but you know, he has other -- he has time to do other things, also.
Again, this story is so fishy. Otherwise we wouldn`t be on this show talking about it, let`s face it. But you know, I don`t know. I don`t know enough about this case.
LEIBERMAN: Jane, we should -- Jane, we should point out why the father had primary custody, as well.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to get to that. Let me get to that, and then we`ll debate it. Baby Daphne`s mother, OK, responded to people who actually criticized her for not being emotional enough, in their opinion, at a vigil for her missing child. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIANA DAVIS: I`m not worried about people seeing me cry enough. You have no idea how heartbreaking this is, how devastating it is. There`s no way to express how you feel when your child is missing, and you don`t know where they are and you can`t find them and you can`t hug them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Now that woman -- well, her child, the child is now missing, had been living with the father on whose watch the child disappeared, and that father`s mother, the grandmother with dementia since February, because the woman you just heard from, that woman there in the sunglasses, the child`s mom, went into treatment for substance abuse. OK? So she went into some kind of rehab.
Now, local affiliates report this 31-year-old mother, Kiana Davis Webb, was convicted of child endangerment and possession of a controlled substance after she was found passed out in a car with the child in the back seat. She reportedly took Vicodin without a prescription and drank alcohol before getting behind the wheel. Never a good idea. That is a dangerous combination.
The mom reportedly had limited visitation with her daughter before the disappearance. Police have said she is not a suspect. I want to confirm she is not a suspect.
First of all, let me go back to her father, Kevin Davis, our exclusive interview. You`re the grandfather of the missing toddler. You`re the father of this woman, the mother of the missing toddler that we`re talking about. I want to give -- I want to be fair here.
Going into rehab is a good thing. I`m a recovering alcoholic with 18 years of sobriety, and any time somebody acknowledges that they have a problem with substance abuse and they get help for it, I applaud them. So I`m not -- I`m not passing judgment.
KEVIN DAVIS: Thank you.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But I just want to know what`s going on with your daughter and her relationship with the father, and her own daughter?
KEVIN DAVIS: Just to clear up a couple of things. She lives -- she is married to John. They live in the same home. She wasn`t there because she was in rehab. So he`s not a single parent raising this baby. The baby was most of the time with the mother. He was with my daughter all the time. She was the one always taking care of her while John focused his attention on his mom.
So it wasn`t until she went into rehab that he had to bear the burden of taking care of both of them. So she is very active in her daughter`s life. But because she had went away to rehab, that was why she hadn`t seen her. So the -- it was given the appearance that she wasn`t in the baby`s life, but she really was in her life. She was just away taking care of this matter.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Can I ask you this question? Again, I speak as a recovery alcoholic. I`m not passing judgment here, but sometimes when you`re a person with a drug problem or alcohol problem, the person you`re living with also has a drug and/or alcohol problem. Question, do you think, Kevin Davis, the dad has any kind of a substance abuse issue or not?
KEVIN DAVIS: I don`t think so. Now, if he does, he`s kept it hid from us. But I don`t think so.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, that`s good; that`s good to know. Listen, we`ve got so much more on the other side. We`re just getting started. This is a mystery, and this father reported his child missing.
There`s also a suspect that we haven`t even gotten to. Not a suspect in terms of somebody we know. It`s a description of somebody who was seen walking around with a child who matches the description of baby Daphne. So was she abducted by a stranger? On the other side of the break, we`re going to dive into that, and we`re taking your calls.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody seen something. Somebody knows something. And whoever knows something, just the family is pleading with them to let us know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN DAVIS: These past few days have been the worst nightmare of any nightmare and for me, as baby Daphne`s grandfather. This is a troubling and deeply anxious time.
We have been deeply troubled that over the past few days it seems the focus has suddenly shifted from bringing our baby home to other issues that are not central to our one and only goal, which is the safe return of baby Daphne.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation, you tragically lost your precious daughter and you`ve turned your heartache and heart into a force for good. This mom, who lost her little child who`s missing, has been criticized for not being emotional enough. I mean, is that fair?
KLAAS: There`s nothing fair about pillorying this young woman for her daughter being kidnapped. These are two entirely different issues.
She was in a rehab at the time. This has nothing to do with the fact that that little girl has disappeared.
But I would like to point out that the Bay Area was in the middle of an extraordinary, extraordinarily good weather during the time from -- the time that she was last seen to the time that she was reported missing. And it just -- I find it difficult to think that anybody would spend all of their time indoors when the weather is glorious outside over an extended period of time.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Very briefly, Henry Lee, reporter, "San Francisco Chronicle," what about this suspect? The so-called suspect?
LEE: Well, there was a citizen reported that a woman in the area may have been seen walking away with a little girl that matches Daphne`s description. But we haven`t seen (UNINTELLIGIBLE). In east Oakland, there are lots of little children who might resemble each other. The Oakland police, tellingly, in their dispatch announcements every single day, repeatedly says on the air there are no suspects. So whether or not they really believe this is a credible lead remains to be seen, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, and look at this precious child with the big eyes. What an adorable little baby. If you have seen her, please call police in Oakland, California, immediately. And let the dad, hopefully, prove that he`s telling the truth and so they can pursue anybody who may be responsible for this missing child, baby Daphne.
All right. On the other side of the break, whoa, you want to talk about a crazy story? Amanda Bynes, yes, the Nickelodeon star, the former child star, you will not believe, but it involves a fire. It involves a pants leg going on fire. It involves a commitment to a mental institution. Stay right there. We`ll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened to this Amanda?
AMANDA BYNES, ACTRESS: What`s wrong with me? I don`t know. It`s shocking how it`s become popular to go to rehab, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My client completely denies ever having thrown anything out the window.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amanda is certainly not in a good place.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amanda, how are you feeling today?
BYNES: I don`t want to blow what I`ve worked so hard to, you know, to achieve.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Breaking news tonight, as troubled former child star Amanda Bynes sets a fire allegedly and ends up locked in a mental ward where she remains tonight as we speak. The former Nickelodeon star taken to a California hospital and involuntarily committed for psychiatric evaluation after she allegedly set a fire in a stranger`s residential driveway -- an elderly lady who says she doesn`t know who Amanda Bynes is. A witness noticed this bizarre scene and called 911.
Check this out.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ok. What`s on fire?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s like a small piece of cloth and a gasoline tank, which is why I`m calling 911.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ok. And where is it? Is it in the roadway?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s in a driveway.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: According to that witness, Amanda`s pants leg was on fire -- en fuego -- but she appeared to be unhurt. Fortunately the gas tank -- that little red gas tank that she was allegedly carrying around did not explode. Nobody else was hurt, either.
Just hours before she was hospitalized, Bynes was spotted shopping at a Santa Monica, California Bloomingdale`s and it appears she was not wearing any pants. There you see it -- and we`ll take one more look at that. This is just hours before the fire she allegedly set.
And the night before that, Bynes was accused of trespassing in an L.A. area retirement community. Cops were called to the scene after management turned a seemingly intoxicated Bynes away. This is just the latest strange incident for a former child actress -- a woman who rose to fame as the star of Nickelodeon`s "The Amanda Show" when she was just a kid. Take a look at her in better times.
Well, apparently that`s not much better times. That was her arrest and she appeared to have shaved part of her head and was wearing a wig. You know, my heart goes out to her. She`s obviously severely troubled. She also has a DUI case pending in California and is facing three misdemeanor charges for allegedly throwing a bong out of a Manhattan high- rise apartment back in May.
CNN has reached out to her attorneys. We are awaiting comment. Her family, her attorney, her representatives invited on the show any time. I want you to call me 1-877-JVM-SAYS, 1-877-586-7297. What do you think is going on with her?
Straight out to TMZ`s Mike Walters -- Mike, you broke this story. What have you learned? What is going on with Amanda Bynes?
MIKE WALTERS, TMZ: Well Jane, I think a lot of people are sitting at home thinking, you know, this is what was coming. Her behavior has been increasingly erratic, bizarre, and finally something happened, and we know the 5150 law, Jane. Something happened where she is a threat to herself or someone else.
Lighting a fire in someone`s yard where there`s gasoline I think falls in that category. And the fire department and the sheriff here in Los Angeles feel the same way. They took her on a 5150 hold.
What`s interesting about this story, Jane, I can tell you, we reported that she was thrown out of the Ritz Carlton in New York. She was there for nine days, was thrown out, came back to Los Angeles. Now, she has a home here, and where this incident took place, once she got home, or I would say near her home, she lit this fire and has now been hospitalized.
So where she was, Jane, is about a block away from her parent`s home. So it almost seems like she was trying to get home or going near where she grew up and this is what happens. But a lot of people like I said at home thinking finally she`s getting the help she needs and hopefully these doctors here in Los Angeles will diagnose her and she`ll get the help.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well look, I don`t know what`s wrong with her. I know that she has a driving under the influence case pending in southern California and a pair of separate hit and run charges against her were dismissed last year. We don`t know whether this is a mental issue and/or a substance abuse issue or both.
WALTER: Well Jane thank about this.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Go ahead.
WALTER: Think about this, Jane. They`ve already in New York, the one you`re talking about with the bong, they took her to the hospital, thinking just by looking at her and the way she sounds that she could be mentally unstable. But the doctors in New York, they looked at her, they talked to her, she answered the questions and they cut her loose. They didn`t feel that she was a threat then, and I`m told by people in her family and her legal team that she just doesn`t fit the criteria to be locked up or have a conservatorship.
So Jane, she`s in that level where hopefully nothing bad happens, but I can tell you they`ve been trying and I think now they`ll finally get what they need to get her some help.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Mike, great seeing you and congratulations on breaking this story although my heart goes out to her. Again I mean this young woman appears deeply troubled.
Let`s go out to "The Lion`s Den" and debate it with our fantastic panel. Of course, we have to start with Dr. Judy Ho, clinical psychologist. What do you think is wrong with her?
DR. JUDY HO, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Jane, it`s so sad what`s been happening to her, you know. This has been a progressive decline in terms of her mental state. And it`s taken a little while for somebody to actually take her in for an evaluation, but I actually think that she should have been taken in a long time ago.
You know, I think what`s she`s experiencing is a psychotic break. I mean you can see that she`s become a little delusional. If you`ve been following her Twitter feed, they`ve become increasingly erratic, you know. The things that she says doesn`t make sense. They`re tangential meaning that she jumps from topic to topic. And a lot of times it just seems like a non sequitur conversation. And you don`t know who she`s carrying that conversation out with.
And so, you know, I feel like a lot of this is really initiating phase into possibly a full-blown. I think we see the delusions already. I think we see that she`s not taking care of herself.
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But why is it -- why is it we see this so much with former child stars? Amanda Bynes currently hospitalized right now on an involuntary hold -- that`s called a 5150. That means she`s on lockdown for a mental evaluation for a minimum of 72 hours. And she is not the first big star to be held in a mental ward against her will.
We all remember Britney Spears was famously hauled into the hospital on a 5150 during her own public meltdown back in 2008. And you remember Britney attacking the paparazzi with an umbrella and we all remember her shaving her head. Her dad came to the rescue placing Britney under a conservatorship. There`s the video of Britney going to the hospital after she was taken in.
And you know, Lisa Bloom, Amanda Bynes also shaved her head recently, and we have even photos showing some of that from her Twitter account and now she`s under an involuntary hold. I mean the commonalities here are unbelievable. Two gorgeous child stars turned superstar/actresses, both shaved their head and then both of them end up in an involuntary hold. What`s going on?
LISA BLOOM, ATTORNEY: You know, Jane, I come from a family with several close family members who had serious mental illness. And I can tell you people like that often have big charming personalities when they`re not having these terrible problems that we`re seeing now with Amanda Bynes. So it makes perfect sense that they would gravitate towards the entertainment industry, that they would be child stars.
And what breaks my heart is seeing people making terrible, mean comments, making fun of her online. I mean this is a very, very troubled young woman who needs help, who needs our compassion and understanding. We don`t really understand mental illness very well in our culture. She needs help clearly. She`ll probably be in for a few days, then she`ll be released, then she`ll have more problems. Then she`ll be back in.
I mean God forbid she harms somebody or harms herself. She really needs serious treatment.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Amanda hasn`t appeared in movies or TV since the hit the comedy "Easy A" more than two years ago. Remember this from Screen Gems?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMANDA BYNES, ACTRESS: Olive, that`s your name, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. We`ve got nine classes together.
BYNES: There`s a higher power that will judge you for your indecency.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tom Cruise?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Alexis Tereszcuk, entertainment editor, RadarOnline, you know what I`m talking about with former child stars. They seem to have a tendency or propensity to have serious emotional problems.
ALEXIS TERESZCUK, ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR, RADARONLINE: And it`s been so heartbreaking. What it is, is these kids are given so much freedom when they`re so very young and so much money. Nobody ever tells them no. And any problem that they might have had would be brushed under the rug so that people can continue to make money off of them. It`s never in the best interest of the actor or the actress to be put under care -- under a doctor`s program, because this would then take away from the money that everybody else that`s around them needs -- parents, managers, publicists.
So they`re very protected and unfortunately they go untreated. And so we see this with men and women that when they get in their 20s and the money is there, all of a sudden they don`t have anybody telling them what to do or stopping them -- they really get out of control.
But the good thing is about Amanda that she is here in California and her family actually does want to get a conservatorship for her. They`re working on that. They`re trying to make sure that they can help her.
We actually learned at RadarOnline that she was out of money in New York City, which is why she came back to California. She had nowhere to live. She didn`t have an apartment. She didn`t have any money to stay in a hotel. So she came back here. The thing is her money is separate. She hasn`t been able to touch all of it so she is not destitute like say a Lindsay Lohan is. But she`s going to be able to get help.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And you know, she looks like a child, but she`s 27 years old, which I find shocking. I looked at that and I was like 27? She looks like 13 -- one of the reasons she was able to play an ingenue.
More on the other side. We`re just getting started and we`re taking your calls.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
A.J. HAMMER, HLN HOST: Have you ever been to jail?
BYNES: No. Not yet.
HAMMER: Rehab?
BYNES: No.
HAMMER: No rehab. Amanda Bynes, what kind of a starlet are you?
BYNES: I know. What`s wrong with me? I don`t know. It`s shocking how it`s become popular to go to rehab, right?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What is wrong with Amanda Bynes? She`s on an involuntary hold after allegedly setting a fire with a little gas tank outside an elderly woman`s house in Thousand Oaks, California. What is going on with this troubled young woman? We`ve got some experts who have inside information on the other side.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BYNES: I`m very lucky I have a great family and I just have my eye on the prize, which for me is a long career, and I just don`t want to -- I don`t want to blow what I`ve worked so hard to, you know, to achieve.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow. Well, Amanda Bynes allegedly set fire outside a stranger`s home, in their front yard, some elderly lady who has no idea who this woman is. And she`s now committed under involuntary hold at a mental facility in Los Angeles.
And you know, she`s been documenting her downward spiral on Twitter, posting rants. And take a look at this bizarre video she posted, and it`s on Vine video and it`s called, "I`m sucking on a sour patch kid, listening to music, getting ready for tonight." Look at this. Look at this. Oh, this is scary. I didn`t see this before until just now. You know what? This really upsets me. No, this really upsets me.
Dr. Judy Ho, this is not -- this is not -- oh, something really, really bad is going on. Let`s see it again, because I want you to analyze it. What do you think is going on with this video? Feel free to look at the monitor.
HO: Well, Jane, I mean, this is somebody who has really just completely gone down the deep end. She doesn`t even make sense anymore like she`s not constructing sentences that make sense, that she`s posting this. Everybody`s watching.
You know, I think one of the things about child stars that you guys were talking about earlier. It`s important because most children are not susceptible to the type of stressors that child stars are so early on. They`re dealing with competition, they`re dealing with rejection at a much earlier age and with much bigger stakes. And depression and child fame is really linked. You see that all the time.
And you know, the other thing I think that`s important is, you know, Amanda, she was kind of brought up in this world of fame with her show so early on and then her career started to slump a little bit. After "Easy A", we didn`t hear very much about her, and I think that was really a big stressor for her.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you`re right. I mean she started acting professionally at the tender age of seven. She joined the cast of Nickelodeon and that sketch show "All That" when she was barely 10 and she was squeaky clean, adorable, just like another child star we know -- Lindsay Lohan. And very, very similar parallels -- Lindsay`s downward spiral has included many court appearances as well. Remember this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LINDSAY LOHAN, ACTRESS: I know that I was ordered to go once a week. But I wasn`t missing the classes. I`m not doing anything like that. I was working, mostly in Morocco -- that trip I was working with children. It wasn`t a vacation. It wasn`t some sort of a joke. And I respect you and I`ve been taking it seriously.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And I believe that`s the incident where she had that "FU" written on her fingernails, Alexis Tereszcuk. You know, we`re all looking at this, and there`s a lot there to look at. It`s sad, because they`re gorgeous, they`re famous, they`re rich -- they have everything that everybody else in the world crave. They live in California. The entire world wants their life. And yet their life is hellish.
TERESZCUK: First of all, I don`t think that we should compare Amanda Bynes to Lindsay Lohan. Lindsay Lohan is all kinds of a mess and she has been in and out of trouble for years and years. Amanda`s break has been very recent and it`s really very -- it`s heart breaking. As a young who is all alone in this world, nobody is trying to help her unlike Lindsay Lohan who has Tina Fey trying to help her all the time.
No one is there trying to step in and help Amanda Bynes except for her family. And she`s had just a lot of situations in the past couple of months that she hasn`t been able to deal with very well. And so really the only people that are going to be able to step in and help her are her parents who are here in California, who since she`s on this 5150 hold are hopefully going to be able to get some help for her.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Get control. Give her the boundaries that she`s longing for. She never had a chance to have a childhood. And children want uncomplicated affection and they want structure -- very simple. And she didn`t get it as a child because she was a star and now she needs it. I hope her parents give it to her.
But there are other issues, and we`re just getting started. What about the DUI? What about her allegedly throwing a bong out of a high story window in Manhattan? Does she have substance abuse problems?
Stay right there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BYNES: You know the puff scene and drinking doesn`t appeal to me. So it`s actually easier for me not to do it. I`ve never even been offered drugs. And people, you know, when I told them that --
HAMMER: What town do you live in?
BYNES: I know because I don`t go -- I`m never -- I mean even if I`m there, I`m surrounded by people who aren`t interested in that. Birds of a feather flock together and I definitely don`t fly with that crowd.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Time for "Pet of the Day". Send your pet pics to hlntv.com/jane. Beau -- whoa, whoa, whoa Beau. And there`s Chowder. Chowder, I want to shout it louder and louder -- Chowder. Jasper you are magnifique, so aristocratic. And here`s Gator -- he says I`m just an average guy but look at my blue eyes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAMMER: Do you see yourself looking forward being somehow involved in the world of stardom and celebrity for the rest of your life? Is that something you can imagine?
BYNES: I don`t know. I can tell you I don`t know if I will be able to take it for rest of my life. It is, you know, it`s very stressful and there are --
HAMMER: Intense, right?
BYNES: It is really intense. And I think as long as I`m, you know -- I don`t know. I guess as long as I`m surrounded by positive people it will, you now, it will be ok. But as I get older I definitely want to have a family and step away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s her six years ago. She seems totally together and this more recently. And now we`ve learned tonight -- breaking news -- that she`s been involuntarily committed after setting a fire on some elderly stranger`s front yard on her driveway. Our heart goes out to her. We hope she gets the help she needs. But I`m trying to figure out what exactly ails her.
Now of course, I speak as a recovering alcoholic. She says she doesn`t drink but she does have a DUI case pending in California. She says she doesn`t party but she`s accused of throwing a bong out of a window in New York City. Lisa Bloom, doesn`t exactly mesh with her statement.
BLOOM: No, it doesn`t. Those statements as you point out, are several years old, things may have changes although it looks to me like her major problem is a serious mental illness problem. A lot of people with mental illnesses self-medicate as you know, they take drugs, they take alcohol to try to make themselves feel better. People generally don`t want to admit that they have a serious mental illness that requires pharmaceuticals, that requires treatment. I mean we just have a long way to go in addressing problems like Amanda`s.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Although I will say that alcoholism and drug abuse can make you do very crazy things and you can look like that because you world is upside down. You don`t know what`s going on. It makes you crazy. That`s why people stop drinking and stop using because their lives have become unmanageable and this is unmanageable.
More on the other side. We`ll debate it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Psychologist Dr. Judy Ho, is the solution for Amanda Bynes to leave Hollywood?
HO: I think so. I think she needs to get back to -- well she never really had a real childhood so I guess she needs to have an actual childhood. Have some time being able to just relax and not be susceptible to the types of stresses of Hollywood. Unfortunately, I think she`s attracted to it, you know. It`s like she hates it and she loves it. You could see that from her interviews.
She gets extremely defensive about when people make accusations of her. She gets extremely defensive about who she is because she`s very vested in protecting that child actor, goody two-shoes personality that everybody associates her with. And so whenever anyone challenges her with that, she really fights back with them.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ten seconds Alexis Tereszcuk, can she make it back to full glory?
TERESZCUK: Absolutely. She can of course make it back. She needs some intense help though which I think she`s going to get. But I think Hollywood will welcome her with open arms.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. We wish you the best, Amanda. Get well soon.
Nancy Grace is up next.
END
