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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield

Man Sets Gas Station Attendant on Fire/Inside the Mind of the Man Who Murdered his Wife and Baby/Joe Mixon Apologizes; Football Player in Tears; Cop`s Arrest Tactics Questioned; Guy in Santa Mask Robs Memphis Credit Union; Man Dressed as Santa Arrested on Drug Charges; Cop Suspended for Posting Pic of Handcuffed Family. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired December 26, 2016 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA BLOOM, GUEST HOST (voice-over): A manhunt tonight for a killer of a convenience store clerk in California.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doused Mr. Wicks with a flammable liquid, let him on fire.

BLOOM: But this wasn`t a robbery. Someone walked into the gas station, sprayed him with a flammable liquid and set him on fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s horrible.

BLOOM: New details tonight in the murders of a mom and her 3-month-old son.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He may have had the mindset to commit this kind of crime.

BLOOM: The mounting evidence police say led them to Dad as the prime suspect.

A football star`s tearful apology.

JOE MIXON, UNIV. OF OKLAHOMA RUNNING BACK: (INAUDIBLE) to apologize to Ms. Molitor.

BLOOM: Two-and-a-half years after punching a female student, breaking bones in her face. Oklahoma`s Joe Mixon finally addresses the assault.

MIXON: It`s never, never, never OK to retaliate and hit a woman the way I did.

BLOOM: But is "I`m sorry" enough to put this issue behind him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My son is 7 years old. You don`t have the right to grab him, choke him behind no paper that he threw.

BLOOM: Many tonight questioning the amount of force a police officer used to arrest a woman in Texas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shut up! Shut the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) up!

BLOOM: Police called the officer`s actions rude, but not racist.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just recorded everything!

BLOOM: Why the woman`s attorney says Ft. Worth police need to prove it

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The officer was not at all interested in the assault of the 7-year-old child.

BLOOM: And he might have looked like the jolly old elf, but police say this Santa was more naughty than nice. The search tonight for the St. Nick

who robbed a bank.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLOOM: Hello, everyone. I`m trial attorney Lisa Bloom, and I`m in tonight for Ashleigh Banfield. Happy holidays. This is PRIMETIME JUSTICE.

A manhunt tonight in northern California for the person investigators say walked into a convenience store and killed the clerk by setting him on

fire. Sheriff`s deputies say the person, wearing yellow rain gear over a black hoodie and gloves, was caught on this surveillance video walking into

the store near Burney in Shasta County, California, last Wednesday night. And what happened next was horrific. And the whole thing took less than 20

seconds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. TROY CLEGG, SHASTA COUNTY SHERIFF`S OFFICE: He walked out -- walked into the store briefly. He doused Mr. Wicks with a flammable liquid, and

then unfortunately, lit him on fire. He immediately turned and walked out of the residence, got onto a Beach Cruiser-style bicycle and headed

westbound away from the gas station. When we arrived at the business, we found the victim, David Wicks, an employee at the location, with severe

burns to his body.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: The victim, David Wicks, died shortly after the attack. He`d worked at the gas station with his wife for more than 10 years.

Tom Perumean is the editor and an investigator reporter for the AdvocacyReport.com. Tom, what is the latest in this investigation?

TOM PERUMEAN, THE ADVOCACYREPORT.COM: Well, they`re still continuing with this investigation and the manhunt for this man. They did find the rain

gear in the garbage, in the trash. We don`t know if that was relatively close to the scene or just somewhere around in the community of Burney.

That`s a little town with about 3,100 people living in it.

So the investigation is still hitting high gear, still a lot of questions involved in this case, trying to find out what exactly that flammable

liquid was that was used to start that fire and get it going.

Other questions -- was Mr. Wicks targeted specifically? We don`t know. Local people know the Wicks couple, particularly Mr. Wicks. They said they

never had a problem with him. So you know, Shasta County investigators, they`ve got a stone mystery on their hands.

BLOOM: Yes. I mean, listen, everybody probably has somebody out there who doesn`t like them. But to commit this kind of horrific, violent attack,

setting him on fire in his workplace, is really beyond the pale.

I`m very interested that you said that they got the rain gear that the perpetrator was wearing. Do you think there`s any hope that there`s some

DNA evidence, hairs, fibers, something of the perpetrator on that rain gear that will help ID him or her?

PERUMEAN: Well, we certainly hope that there`s something that would help - - you know, help CSI investigators in one way or another. But given just how fast this took, the fact that he`s covered himself with a hoodie...

BLOOM: Yes.

PERUMEAN: ... there`s just no way of recognizing -- you know, you`ve got to have people take a look and see if they can recognize this person by his

body style, by the way he may be walking, by the way he may have been acting. Maybe somebody will recognize, Hey, I know that body style. It`s

this guy that I know.

[20:05:12]BLOOM: Yes.

PERUMEAN: And something might come to fruition that way because right now...

BLOOM: And we don`t know male or female, but it looks like male...

PERUMEAN: Exactly.

BLOOM: ... looks like a male body, so I`m going to say male for purposes of this program. Now, we know there was a second clerk on duty that day.

Does she have any information about this perpetrator?

PERUMEAN: Surprisingly, not much has come out about that. She was in the back of the store at the time. So who knows what could have happened had

she come out and this man may have attacked her, as well.

BLOOM: And here`s what some of the customers had to say about this horrific attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL LYONS, CUSTOMER: It`s horrible. I really can`t think of anybody that would ever do this to him.

SHARON HANSEN, CUSTOMER: I would see him regularly coming here and -- he was just always smiling and -- we all have bad days and we all wake up on

the wrong side of the bed, but he always made you feel better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: And that`s the kind of guy that this victim was. It`s just horrific. Well, joining me now is trial attorney Wendy Patrick, and

defense attorney Yodit Tewolde. Thank you both for joining me here today.

Here`s the question for the lawyers. Here`s what jumped out at me as a trial lawyer. We know that Mr. Wicks, when he was found, when the first

responders came, he couldn`t speak. I mean, the man had been set on fire, and he only had a short time left to live. But they asked him if he

thought the attack was intentional, and he nodded his head. He nodded his head yes, that he thought it was intentional.

Wendy, is that going to be admissible, assuming that we catch this perpetrator and the perpetrator is put on trial?

WENDY PATRICK, TRIAL ATTORNEY: It most probably will, Lisa, under a couple of different theories. One of the things that makes that most important in

a case like this, where motive matters, although legally, you don`t have to prove motive, that`s what`s helping investigators in deciding who did this.

We live in a day and age where social media allows community members to be literally the eyes and ears of law enforcement when it comes to searching

for somebody like this. The fact that he was able to nod and tell us that`s an intentional act -- that`s going to be something that`s going to

give a huge clue to law enforcement in trying to decide, did anybody have anything against him, who would have wanted to have torched the place, et

cetera.

So not only will it probably be admissible in court, it`s also a huge piece of evidence in leading us to the killer.

BLOOM: Well, Yodit, obviously, this was an intentional attack. I think that`s probably the easiest part of the investigation. You have somebody

who`s dressed in a disguise, who brings a flammable liquid, who goes in, throws it at this poor man, puts it all around him, and ignites him in

flames. Obviously, it was an intentional act.

So I think if you`re defending the defendant who ultimately gets put on trial, I don`t know how important that particular piece of evidence is to

you.

YODIT TEWOLDE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I mean, it isn`t. I mean, there is no defense. This was someone who had an idea to go into the store -- I mean,

obviously, he prepared. Like you said, he had the proper attire on. He knew how to execute this plan.

I believe that Wicks just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Had he been in back...

BLOOM: Really?

TEWOLDE: ... and his co-worker out in front -- absolutely -- if it was anybody else there at the time, they would have been the ones that would

have been burned.

BLOOM: So Yodit, spell that out for me. Like -- you think that this perpetrator just went up to a random person who was a clerk in a gas

station and set him on fire?

TEWOLDE: Well, I mean, as of right now, we don`t know anybody that had anything bad to say about this young man, right? And so there are people

who just want to do bad things to bad people.

BLOOM: That`s true.

TEWOLDE: Those are -- they -- they -- right. So no one has to have a reason to do these things. I believe, just from the way things just are

planned out are laid out -- I mean, he was in and out so quickly and then rode off on a bike -- it just seems like he just wanted to hurt somebody,

and he did.

BLOOM: Yes, and Tom, let`s talk about that bike. This is the getaway car. It`s a Cruiser. It`s a bike. It doesn`t even have speeds. I mean, this

is bizarre to me that this perpetrator would commit such a horrific murder and then this is the getaway vehicle.

PERUMEAN: Absolutely. It might also be a truth telling that if he rode a bike, he`s nearby. He may live in the immediate area around that gas

station. Once again, this is a community of about 3,100, so everybody knew this guy. Everybody knew Mr. Wicks.

And as for riding around on a bike, it`s good for getting into tight places. This is a logging town in northern California. There`s a lot of

undergrowth. There`s trails, things like that.

BLOOM: It looks hilly.

PERUMEAN: So it`s -- yes. So it`s an alternative way of getting around without having to stay on the main street, which is highway 299 that runs

through there.

BLOOM: OK. But Tom, has the bike been found?

[20:10:02]PERUMEAN: Not yet.

BLOOM: I mean, what`s the explanation for why this guy would be on a bike in a hilly community? I mean, I guess you`re saying he can get into some

narrow area. But I mean, we don`t generally see people commit crimes and then try to get away on a bike.

I mean, maybe this is some kind of -- actually, let me go to Yodit on this. Yodit, does this look to you like some kind of evidence of a mental defect,

that somebody would use a bike for this kind of crime?

TEWOLDE: Possibly, or a youth. It can actually tell the age of maybe the assailant because we don`t know what this person looks like whatsoever. So

this may be someone who couldn`t drive, who didn`t have a license and just had a bike. So that can also be a clue.

BLOOM: OK. And Tom, last question to you on this story. What`s next for these investigators? What are they looking for?

PERUMEAN: Well, they`re certainly getting -- trying to get as much information out of the community as possible on who might have had

something against David Wicks or the Shell gas station, to try find out who this is, who would have done this.

And they`re looking, of course, at all angles. Why the bicycle is obviously one of the -- one of the more important ones. You know, where is

this bicycle? Where did they find the clothes, the yellow clothing that this perpetrator wore? That`s pretty bright clothing to be riding around

on a bike in a dark -- you know, in the dark of night a few days before Christmas...

BLOOM: Yes, but I`m thinking...

PERUMEAN: ... and pulling off something like this.

BLOOM: ... that that slick rain gear is the kind of thing that DNA does not necessarily stick to, and he`s got the hoodie on underneath.

So listen,anybody out there who has any information about this, please contact law enforcement immediately, any information whatsoever, even if

you think it`s insignificant.

And up next -- a mother and her 3-month-old son brutally murdered, the husband and father charged with their deaths now. The evidence that caused

police to turn their sights on Craig Vandewege.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:15:47]BLOOM: Two new developments tonight in the murder of a mother and her 3-month-old son in Texas. Not only have police released details

about the evidence found inside the home where Shanna Vandewege and little Dedrick (ph) were killed, there is new information on what led police to

suspect her husband is responsible.

Included in the now public arrest affidavit, questions about a staged crime scene and potentially damning co-worker interviews. You are not going to

believe these. Craig Vandewege was arrested late last week -- there he is -- more than 900 miles away in Colorado.

Jeffrey Boney is the associate editor of "The Houston Forward Times." Thank you so much for joining me. Let`s talk about the arrest affidavit.

I want to start with some of the quotes that he had given that the police are now quoting in the arrest affidavit, quoting him.

The first one is that he says he wishes that he could push her down the stairs. Take a look at this. He told his co-worker that his wife was

pregnant and that he wished that he could push her down the stairs and kill her that way.

Let`s go to the second one because I think this one is probably the most significant, and it`s just horrific. He said to his co-workers that he had

a dream that he sliced the heads of his wife and father like bologna. I mean, good grief! This is not real far from how these victims were

actually killed.

JEFFREY BONEY, "HOUSTON FORWARD TIMES" (via telephone): Yes, absolutely. I mean, this is just very disturbing information. According to a Costco

employee, when interviewed by one of the detectives, Craig Vandewege constantly talked negative and complained about his wife and her

appearance. And in the employee`s assessment, he always talked about how she couldn`t do anything right and that she dressed and wore her hair

poorly.

He was upset with his wife because she moves his personal things around. And he said that the only way he could tolerate his wife was by drinking.

And he, of course, told the employee shortly after starting work at Costco that his wife was pregnant and that he wished that he could push her down

the stairs, as you aforementioned, and kill her that way.

And he recounted a dream approximately two to three days before his wife and child were killed that he would slice -- he wanted to slice the heads

of his wife and father like bologna in the dream.

And he said that recently, he had started taking a prescription medication that he had previously been taking, and that this medication made him hear

voices that told him to kill people.

BLOOM: So Jeffrey, what is the motive that the police are working on? In other words, what`s their operative theory as to this crime?

BONEY: Well, I mean, there are several things that they`re looking into. But at the moment, it`s looking as if he clearly wanted to kill her. You

know, a few days prior to the murder, Craig asked if she had insurance on her jewelry, and he told her that if she ever wanted money, all she had to

do was fake a robbery. And so there`s reason to believe that he simply did not want the child and that he wanted to be done with his wife.

BLOOM: Yes, and he even talked about her being asleep. Take a look at this from the -- again, from the arrest warrant affidavit. He said -- it

says it appeared that she, Shanna -- that`s his wife -- was either asleep or unconscious when the wound was inflicted.

Yodit, let me go to you because I understand that if a man comes home and his wife and baby are killed, he`s going to -- and he`s innocent, he`s

going to say a lot of things, he`s going to do a lot of things that might sound odd that doesn`t make him feel (ph) guilty.

But on the defense side, how do you get around a guy telling people before these killings that he essentially dreamed or fantasized about cutting the

necks of family members like bologna, and his wife and baby, in fact, had their necks slashed?

[20:20:00]TEWOLDE: It seems like he was trying to sort of set up an insanity defense in the event that he would actually get caught, talking

about how he`s hearing voices because of the medication. But his actions translated into a guilty conscience because, I mean, he`s talking about how

his wife can`t do anything right, and how he`d wanted -- you know, essentially get rid of her.

And then he`s found in Colorado with his wedding ring and condoms stuffed in his pocket on they way to Vegas doesn`t necessarily sound right. He`s

telling officers that, you know, he was -- he went to work that day of the murders on time, where, you know, his co-workers actually say, Well, no, he

actually came in 45 minutes late.

I`m actually upset at the co-workers because it`s more than just saying, You know what? My co-worker is acting kind of weird. Why would you not

report someone who is actually talking about wanting to shove his wife down the stairs and kill her that way or slicing her head off? Doesn`t make any

sense to me.

BLOOM: And you know, Wendy, let`s not gloss over an important little fact that Yodit just mentioned, which is that he had a condom in his pocket

shortly after his wife and his little baby are murdered. And he drives hundreds of miles away, and he doesn`t forget to put a condom in his

pocket, which could only mean one thing, that he`s thinking about having sex with somebody, right?

PATRICK: You know, that`s right, Lisa. And adding to those very good observations, it`s also the fact that, remember, he fell asleep at the

police station when they were questioning him. His behavior after the murder is so atypical that in and of itself it`s suspicious.

But there`s an interesting twist also to, is he setting up an insanity defense? Remember all the steps he went through to make it look like an

accident. He called the police -- to make it look like he didn`t do it. He called the police. He reported there were pry marks.

It was good investigation that actually uncovered some of the loose ends that were missing. In other words, the pry marks appeared to have been

done while the door was open. The rest of the story didn`t add up forensically. And then when you add all of that to the statements that the

two of you have just mentioned, it sure does look bad for him. But...

(CROSSTALK)

BLOOM: None of it adds for the defense, right? It all adds up, I think, for the prosecution in this one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thus far.

BLOOM: Once I heard (INAUDIBLE) that he had told other people, I think it`s really over for him.

Well, coming up next -- you`ve probably seen this video, college football star Joe Mixon punches a female student. And now, nearly two-and-a-half

years later -- now he apologizes. But is his tearful "I`m sorry" enough?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:26:34]BLOOM: When celebrities and athletes mess up, they sometimes issue a public apology. Lena Dunham recently apologized for a bad joke

about abortion. And this summer, Ryan Lochte said he was sorry for telling a tall tale about a fictitious robbery in Rio. Remember that?

Well, Joe Mixon is no different. I want you to listen to the University of Oklahoma football star`s tearful apology. It wasn`t for a bad joke or a

story, but a punch that left a young woman with broken bones in her face more than two years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE MIXON, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL PLAYER: (INAUDIBLE) apologize to Ms. Molitor (INAUDIBLE) I apologize to (INAUDIBLE) and (INAUDIBLE) my

teammates, most of all, you know, my family. And I let a lot of people down.

It`s never, never, never OK, you know -- you know, never, never OK to, you know, retaliate and hit a woman, you know, the way I did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: Oklahoma suspended Joe Mixon for the 2014 football season, and he reached a plea deal on assault charges for that punch. Then last week, the

Oklahoma supreme court ruled the video needed to be a part of the case`s public record.

So here it is. Everyone gets to see for themselves the brutality involved in this incident. And although he still faces a civil suit, Mixon is now

back on the field and is scheduled to play for Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl on January 2nd.

But just because an athlete -- ugh, there it is -- just because an athlete or a celebrity issues an apology, you know, many people are very quick to

forgive and forget.

Joining me again, Wendy Patrick and Yodit Tewolde. You know, Wendy, one of the things he says in this apology is, "It`s never OK to hit a woman,"

right? And I think that`s something that most people, most decent people would probably agree with. But he says she was aggressive towards him

first, she took a swing at him first, she swatted him, she hit him first, and he just kind of reacted.

In court, that would be something of a defense, that he was acting in self- defense, wouldn`t it?

PATRICK: It`s an unreasonable use of self-defense. Lisa, you and I have seen too many cases like this. She is sorely mismatched physically, and

that is one of the things that a jury would have to consider in criminal court, surely, is what measure of self-defense, if any, would have been

necessary given the threat that she posed.

It`s the same thing in any case of self-defense. It cannot be a use of unreasonable force.

BLOOM: OK, and Yodit, I think we all agree on the law. What we see there is that she shoves him in the shoulder area and then she slaps his face,

and then he hauls off and punches her. And he did break bones in her face. He hit her really hard. Would he have a defense here?

TEWOLDE: You know, I kind of have to agree with Wendy. I mean, the amount of force is unreasonable. But -- and I`m going to say this first because I

don`t want anybody thinking that I`m justifying what Mixon did.

But there are two people that were wrong in this situation, and no one is prosecuting this young lady for assaulting him because, like you said...

BLOOM: Right. Right.

TEWOLDE: ... she pushed him and she slapped him. No one...

BLOOM: OK...

[20:30:00] TEWOLDE: ... man or woman should put their hands on anybody. Now, he`s already suffered the consequences by being on probation,

suspension for a year. I mean, what more do we want this...

(CROSSTALK)

BLOOM: Listen, speaking of an apology, I want to show our viewers a longer version of his apology, because he didn`t just say I`m sorry, he really

went into some detail. Take a look.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

JOE MIXON, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA RUNNING BACK: It really don`t matter, you know, what she did that night, it`s all on me. You know the reason why. You

know, I`m in this position right now, and I take full responsibility on what happened. It`s never okay, you know, to hit a woman, never. I will

preach that to anybody. It`s never okay.

Hopefully, you know, people around the world, you know, learn, you know, from my mistake, and I`m willing to teach. I apologize to my mother. My

mother, you know, growing up, a single parent, two brothers, three sisters, 16 nieces and nephews. They all look up to me. It haunted me. It still

haunts me to this day. I dream about it.

If I could go back, I would do whatever I could, you know, to change the outcome of that situation. Definitely would walked or ran away and went

about the situation differently. I wouldn`t have been in that situation. Now, I wouldn`t be in that situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: You know, I like this apology. I got to say, listen, I represent domestic violence victims. I have for 30 years. And I still do. And nobody

is tougher on domestic violence perpetrators or any kind of violence against women perpetrators than I am.

But this young man, who did a terrible thing, he does seem to me to be acknowledging it, saying it`s not okay. He says his lawyers prevented him

from apologizing until now, Wendy, and, you know, what they probably did, because we lawyers don`t like people to acknowledge guilt.

And, oh, I mean, the video is awful, as we keep looking at -- it`s awful. But I think he did a good thing here by apologizing. Now, he says he wants

to go work with kids and advocacy groups against violence. I don`t know if that`s really the right approach, do you, Wendy?

WENDY PATRICK, TRIAL ATTORNEY: Well, it depends. And one of the things that you accurately point out is it really does appear to be heartfelt. He

appears not only to be clearing his reputation, but clearing his conscience. Because let`s face it, athletes are role models, whether or not

they want to be.

So the way he`s dealt with this incident is admirable. It appears to be genuine, and if it is, who is to say he can`t help other young men who find

themselves in other types of scenarios? Not only it`s a public relation disaster each year for being sports figures, but it is also potentially an

anger management issue that he may be able to share some insights. They can prevent this kind of thing from happening again.

BLOOM: Well, you know what? His actions going forward are going to be what defines him. If he never repeats an incident like this, if he really does

avoid violence in the future and stressful situations, then we`ll see how real that apology is.

Coming up next, the cell phone video of an officer wrestling a Texas woman to the ground has raised a lot of eyebrows, including mine. But were these

actions rude or racist? Well, that depends on who you ask.

[20:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLOOM: A police officer in Forth Worth, Texas is on restricted duty after a video surfaced showing his actions while responding to an argument between

a woman and her neighbor. That woman, Jacqueline Craig, claimed the neighbor choked her 7-year-old son when he littered and refused to pick it

up. But in the video shot by her daughter, Craig gets angry when the officer asks why she didn`t teach her son not to litter.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you keep yelling at me, you`re going to piss me off and I`m gonna put you in jail.

BREA HYMOND, JACQUELINE CRAIG`S DAUGHTER: We are on live. Don`t grab her. Don`t grab her.

BLOOM: Moments later, the officer wrestled Craig to the ground and pulled out his taser, aimed it to Craig, and then her daughter made a move to

intervene.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: I want to bring in syndicated talk show host Dave Mack. Dave, this is all very disturbing on a lot of different levels. First of all, if

somebody takes my 7-year-old son and chokes him for any reason, regardless of what he did, I have an expectation that I can call the police and the

police are going to go over and talk to him and not hassle me and my family. What am I missing here?

DAVE MACK, SYNDICATED TALK SHOW HOST: You`re not missing a thing. Actually, this is bad all the way around. When I first watched this video, my first

thought was, what is wrong with this guy? This cop needs to talk to Joe Mixon. He`s wrong from the very get go when he first escalates the

situation.

Anybody tells me about how to parent my kid, they`re going to be pulling me off of him. I can`t believe it`s not worse that it actually is. And this

cop, he needs to go back to school.

BLOOM: Well, yeah, this is very, very disturbing to me. Let me bring in S. Lee Merritt and Jasmine Crockett. They are the attorneys for the Craig

family, joining me from Dallas. Is there going to be a civil suit here?

S. LEE MERRITT, ATTORNEY FOR ARRESTED CRAIG FAMILY: We right now are focused on four goals primarily before we can really get into the

possibility of a civil suit. We`re looking at giving the charges against our clients dismissed. Understand that we have juveniles involved in this

case who still are facing criminal charges as a result of them being brutalized by an officer after calling the police for help.

We`re looking for charges to be brought against the neighbor who assaulted the 8-year-old boy. We`re looking for -- we`re also looking for charges to

be brought up against the officer and for him to be terminated from the position. Until those four things are done, we`re really not considering

the civil suit at this point.

BLOOM: Okay. And let`s take a look at the video of the arrest because we don`t have wonder. We don`t have to speculate.

[20:40:00] We don`t have to talk to a bunch of different witnesses although it`s always good to do that to get different perspectives. But we have the

video itself. Let`s take a look.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

JACQUELINE CRAIG, CALLED POLICE FOR ASSAULT AND ARRESTED BY POLICE: My son is 7 years old. You don`t have the right to grab him, choke him behind no

paper that he threw. What you should have done because we have been living here for years so you know that my house is a door in between doors. You

could have come to me. Don`t put your hands on my son.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why don`t you teach your son not to litter?

CRAIG: I didn`t. He can`t prove to me that my son littered but it doesn`t matter if he did or he didn`t. it doesn`t give him the right to put his

hands on him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not?

CRAIG: Because he don`t.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What`s that?

CRAIG: Because he don`t. Why would you ask me, um, why don`t I teach him. You don`t know what I teach him. And whatever you teach your kids don`t

mean that they go by your rules when they`re not in your sight. Because you just pissed me off telling me what I teach my kids and what I don`t.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you keep yelling at me, you`re going to piss me off and I`m gonna put you in jail.

HYMOND: We are on live. Don`t grab her. Don`t grab her. You are on live. Don`t move, you`re on live. Everything you just did is on live, I promise

you that. You`re on live. I got this whole thing recorded.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get in the car.

HYMOND: I just recorded everything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay, you`re going to jail too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOOM: Jasmine Crockett, I want to ask you about the officer`s camera, because what we see here is a bystander cell phone video, which thank

goodness the bystander -- other daughter made that video so that we can all take a look at it now. But what about the police? Do they have badge cams?

Do they have a camera on their car? And are we going to have access to that video?

JASMINE CROCKETT, ATTORNEY FOR ARRESTED CRAIG FAMILY: As you heard during the press conference that the law enforcement agency decided to do, they

have no intentions of releasing any body cam footage or any dash cam footage.

BLOOM: Why not?

CROCKETT: Most likely -- most likely or what they say is because of the number of juvenile that are on those videos. It`s problematic to release

video footage like this as far as a law enforcement agency is concerned when there are so many juveniles in those videos.

BLOOM: Okay. Listen, I represent families in use of force cases here in California. It seems to me that every time they have a reason to not

release the police video, and it can be very frustrating, don`t you represent the family with those juveniles and can`t you tell them, you

know, we authorize a release, we`re going to waive any privacy issues, at least to the family, shouldn`t they be giving you that video?

MERRITT: So the laws in California are a little different in Texas. In Texas, there`s a specific state law that prohibits that release. That

notwithstanding, we do believe that oftentimes in cases like this, you`ll hear law enforcement say well, don`t believe what you see, don`t believe

what`s in the video.

BLOOM: Right.

MERRITT: . the truth is that video covers every interaction between the police officer and the individual. So everything that you need to see is

there. So there`s really -- if you can believe what you see with your eyes, we all know that this was a crime perpetrated against those citizens.

CROCKETT: I do want to point out, this was when school was being released. In fact, what happened is our clients were actually walking home from

school on this day. And so there were a lot more children than just our client`s children.

BLOOM: I see.

CROCKETT: . that were out there.

(CROSSTALK)

CROCKETT: Right.

BLOOM: Let me go quickly to Yodit. Yodit, we know that the police are saying that his behavior was rude but it`s not racist. Your response?

TEWOLDE: I think that`s so premature at this point. I get why the police chief is saying this isn`t racist. All politics and optics (ph), fine. But

to reduce it down to it being rude, it`s just like the pastor in Forth Worth said, you know what? Being rude is cutting someone off on the road.

Bumping into somebody and not saying I`m sorry or excuse me. That`s being rude. The action of this office was beyond rude. We`re not talking rude at

this point. But we need to go and see what the investigation is going to come up with.

BLOOM: Yeah, you know, it reminds me a lot of the Sandra Bland case where the police officer escalated a bad situation instead of deescalating. And

he`s got an angry mama and the things he`s saying are getting her angrier and angrier and he`s making no efforts to bring down the stress level of

the situation, which many police department are trained to do, what they should be doing, instead of making situations worse. All right.

TEWOLDE: Right.

BLOOM: Christmas might be over, but get this, now Santa is a wanted man, and not because he brought the wrong gifts.

[20:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLOOM: It takes a real grinch to put on a Santa Claus mask and then go rob a bank. And that`s exactly what happened at the Memphis City Employees

Credit Union last week. It takes him a couple of seconds to get down to business. You can see the suspect walk up to the teller and offer her a

candy cane.

He also offers a candy cane to another customer. Oh, gee, what a nice guy, that seems great, right? And then, he comes back to the counter and we see

his true grinchy nature shining through. He hands the teller a note and tells her that he`s robbing her.

Joining me again, Wendy Patrick, Yodit Tewolde, and Danny Cevallos. All right. Here`s what we know about the suspect. He is a black male, 5`9", 150

pounds. He was wearing that Santa mask, a red shirt, black pants, black shoes, and police are still looking for him.

[20:50:00] So Danny Cevallos, is it time to say that people just can`t wear masks out in public anymore?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yeah, Lisa, I don`t know where you get your information from, but that`s clearly a white

male, white beard, about 300 pounds. The identification is way, way off. If this goes to a lineup, this guy is walking, I can tell you right now.

But I agree, Lisa, we live in an era where we need to stop with the Halloween shenanigan and the Santa Claus shenanigan. If you walk into a

bank, we should be able to see who you are because, listen, banks get robbed. It`s a scary job.

BLOOM: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, Wendy, this is just so wrong. It is so wrong to put on a Santa mask and rob a bank, right? I mean, what about

the kids? What about our image of Santa? Is nothing sacred? Can we not have just one nice thing Santa Claus? Should there be some kind of extra

punishment for this guy when he gets caught for wearing the Santa mask?

(LAUGHTER)

PATRICK: You know, Lisa, this thief stole both cash and cheer. The Christmas spirit was just quashed in that bank. And what`s really sad about

this scenario is Halloween and Christmas give criminals a license to wear costumes and not be looked at twice. This man took advantage of that

opportunity. So absolutely, no doubt it will be used as an aggravant of when, I`m not gonna say if, when we find this thief.

BLOOM: An aggravant, an aggravating circumstance. Threw the book at him. And I would say this is something you don`t see every day, but there are

actually more Santa Claus crimes than just the one we`re talking about. A guy dressed up as Santa was actually caught with a bunch of drugs.

And another crime, he had a truck and he had molly, ecstasy pills, marijuana. He was arrested in Jacksonville, Florida last week. Isaac Geiger

was arrested with possession of drugs and intent to sell and resisting arrest. Danny, Danny, what are we gonna do with these guys?

CEVALLOS: Look, I don`t know. Delivering presents worldwide I guess is a stressful job. I don`t know why people turn to a life of crime. I don`t

what we`re going to do. I mean, we can`t really get rid of the Christmas spirit entirety because of a few bad I guess naughty apples. But look, it`s

a problem. You know, grown people, maybe we shouldn`t be in costumes.

BLOOM: Listen, it`s tough covering crime stories. They are also heavy and sad. At least, nobody was hurt in either of this just so we can make our

corny holiday jokes. Thank you so much. Sharing a snap chat story has a New York cop in hot water. The plot line behind this picture that has a lot of

people, especially the family in it, fuming.

[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLOOM: A New York police officer is in hot water for allegedly posting two snap chat photos of a Brooklyn family handcuffed in their living room. The

police, who were out serving a search warrant, busted into the home searching for a man called J.D. Blue. One little problem. The family that

was in the apartment says they don`t know any J.D. Blue and the police didn`t find him there either.

So now the family is crying foul for having their picture posted on social media. Yeah, you think. So the first photo shows the family and friends

handcuffed on the couch. The message on the photo, Merry Christmas, it`s the NYPD. The second photo says, warrant sweeps. It`s still a party SMH,

shaking my head. Yeah, I`m shaking my head.

Joining me again, Wendy Patrick, Yodit Tewolde, and Danny Cevallos. So, Yodit, the police officers who did this, who were like gloating about

handcuffing people who by the way turned out to be innocent, those were viewed and they`re suspended. What should happen to them?

TEWOLDE: Well, we don`t actually know that the house was the wrong address. Just because they didn`t find the person they were looking for doesn`t

actually mean that person doesn`t actually live there. But I will say that the officers did act obviously unprofessionally and recklessly.

And if it actually does prove -- if there`s information that the house was actually incorrect and it was the wrong one, then I would say there`s some

civil rights violations, obviously some privacy issues. And some of these people might have lost their jobs because of this Snapchat post.

When do cops actually have time to do that kind of thing? I don`t understand. They`ve got to suffer some sort of consequences internally for

sure.

BLOOM: Yeah, I would think so. Danny, there`s got to be a policy against posting things to social media. What about all these privacy concerns we

hear about when the police camera footage doesn`t get released like we talked about, you know, a couple of minutes ago, because they`re so

concerned about privacy. How dare police officers take a photo of suspects, whether they`re innocent or guilty, and post it on Snapchat.

CEVALLOS: You know, you`re right, so when you think about. On the one hand, we`re not going to release our shoulder cam videos, but we are going to

snap chat some of these arrests, and maybe with little filters with the antlers and little doe eyes, and it does seem a little inconsistent that

they`ll not release the official video but be willing to snap chat and thereby risk their job just for a laugh.

BLOOM: You know, I`ll tell you something, we hear a lot of these stories about, you know, rogue (ph) cops. Of course, there`s a lot of wonderful

cops out there risking their lives for us every day and God bless them. But when we talk about the bad cops, there`s usually a warning sign, right?

There`s something they did in their past and then later there`s something bad and we say what about that warning sign? Nobody paid attention to it. I

think this is a warning sign. When you take pictures of people that you handcuffed and posted them on Snapchat with little snarky comments, I think

that`s a big warning sign.

Well, thanks for watching today. I appreciate it very much. Ashleigh Banfield, thanks for letting me fill your chair for tonight. I will be back

here the rest of the week. I will see you tomorrow at 8:00 for "Primetime Justice." I`m trial attorney, Lisa Bloom. "Forensic Files" starts right

now.

[21:00:00]

END