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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield
9-Year-Old Choked on School Bus; Dad Shoots Twin Girls Dead; Caught on Camera; Cow on the Loose; "Toxic Tush" Case; CNN Heroes. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired March 28, 2017 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[20:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He can`t defend hisself.
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HLN HOST (voice-over): A school bus monitor caught on tape choking a special needs child in a harness.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s riding a special needs bus.
BANFIELD: Thanks to a plea deal, she won`t spend one day in jail. But is anger management enough for this attack on a 9-year-old?
RANDALL COFFLAND, FATHER: I just shot and killed my two kids.
BANFIELD: He put a gun to the heads of both of his twin teenage girls.
ANJUM COFFLAND, MOTHER: He killed my (INAUDIBLE) (EXPLETIVE DELETED) He killed my (INAUDIBLE)
BANFIELD: He then shot his wife in the leg so she`d suffer through the bloodbath.
R. COFFLAND: And I shot my wife.
BANFIELD: Tonight, the bitter divorce and the secrets a psychotic father used to lure his estranged wife into the kill zone.
Extreme surgery with extreme results.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I could have died, and I know that now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s the cement that got me more than anything because, I mean, it was such a concoction of things.
BANFIELD: The black market doctor who injected victims with Fix-a-Flat and Super Glue finds out how long she`ll be jailed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do have other victims coming forward.
BANFIELD: How her victims are recovering and why anyone would do this kind of surgery in the first place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get on your back. Get on your back. Get on your back.
BANFIELD: Dangerous job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) going to hurt me. Damn it!
BANFIELD: A sheriff`s deputy turned superhero.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can`t walk. We have to get you away (INAUDIBLE)
BANFIELD: And rescues a driver whose car burst into flames.
And recognize this guy? He breaks the cardinal rule of crime school. Yes, the mask goes on before you rob the store. Smile for your close-up, fella!
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: Hello, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is PRIMETIME JUSTICE.
You put your kids on the school bus in the morning, and you expect a couple of things are automatically in play. The driver will drive safely, and the
monitor will protect your kids from anything else. What you don`t expect is that the kids are going to need protection from the grownups on the bus.
But they did in Kentucky.
A special needs bus in Jefferson County Louisville had a big probe on board last month when a 9-year-old little boy started fussing with his harness.
The monitor responded, and not in the way you would imagine. School officials checked surveillance video, and for sure, there it is, Ramona
Pait putting her hands around the child`s neck and then shaking him and then choking him.
You can see her yelling at the child, screaming or yelling. He seems to be wincing. His mom, Allyson Purcell, says because he was strapped into his
seat, her son was helpless.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALLYSON PURCELL, MOTHER: He`s riding a special needs bus in a harness, locked from his arms to his waist. He can`t defend hisself. And all that
he can do to defend hisself is his words. And luckily, the tape is on there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: That bus monitor was charged with fourth degree assault. That is a misdemeanor. And this week in court, Ramona Pait entered a no contest
plea to those charges. Because she decided on a plea, it means she will not spend a day in jail, her 180-day sentence suspended. Instead, the 60-
year-old will just have to stay on the straight and narrow and attend anger management classes.
So what do you think the mom thinks about all of that? Allyson Purcell is with me now live from Louisville, Kentucky. Allyson, thanks so much for
being with me. Your reaction to this plea deal.
PURCELL: I`m kind of shocked. Originally, I was kind of told a different plea deal was set in place. I was very unaware of her taking an Alford
plea.
I can`t understand how someone can see theirself on tape attacking a child and still choose to not admit guilt. At some point, you have to stand up
and be an adult and you have to say that you did something wrong. I`m actually rather shocked by not knowing that she was going to be able to
take that deal.
BANFIELD: And what sort of a deal were you under the impression she would actually take? What did you think she was going to get as a punishment?
PURCELL: Originally, it was a two years probation deal. She was going to be on probation, and she was going to plead guilty to fourth degree assault
and to child abuse. I knew she had to take anger management classes, but I was just kind of thinking still it was a slap on the wrist. But at the
same time, I just am still shocked by the Alford plea. I never saw that one coming because to me, I mean, the proof was right there. There`s no
reason for her to have a voice in saying that she didn`t do anything to my child.
[20:05:02]BANFIELD: Well, we`re watching the video, Allyson, of what happened to your little boy. And it is really hard to see this. How did
you become aware that this had happened? And how did the video ultimately end up surfacing? Take me from the moment we`re looking at her actually
assaulting your son and tell me what happened after.
PURCELL: She actually had came and approached -- my son came running in the house that day. And she came and approached my door, and I told her
she was more than welcome to come in. When she came in, she did not address me. She didn`t say hello. She told me that every child on the bus
was going to beat my child up.
So I asked her how that would be possible, considering that my child is in a harness and she`s the bus monitor, and you`re there to protect the
children. She started a bit of an argument with me back and forth as I continued to tell her that I had been complaining about the bus and its
actions on the bus with other children for the past few weeks.
The argument led out into the driveway, where she took some personal shots at my child, telling me that she didn`t like my child and that he was the
worst one on the bus. So at that point, I walked into the house, and I started to look for my child. My child was hiding.
When I found my child, he had some marks around his neck that were visible. And I asked him what happened and he asked me, Did she leave? And when I
asked him who, he said, Ramona. So after I told him yes, that she had left, my child just started breaking down crying, saying that, Mom, she
wouldn`t stop choking me and hitting me.
So at that point, I called JCPS transportation and I asked them to pull the videotape and I would like it to be sent to the school. Maybe three or
four days later, I got a phone call from the assistant principal telling me that Dr. Floyd (ph) from JCPS was advising that the woman was to be locked
up by the Shelby (ph) police department, but I was not allowed to see the video.
BANFIELD: So I just want to make sure that our audience knows that JCPS is Jefferson County Public Schools. And they`ve actually...
PURCELL: Yes, ma`am.
BANFIELD: ... given us a statement. They said, "We immediately removed her from her position once this came to light, and she has since resigned
while it was being investigated."
Now, clearly, it won`t be an issue with her working there now, and certainly, she`s got her legal issues in front of her, too. But there is
this other situation that you have mentioned you`re concerned about. Your son was able to articulate to you, as a special needs child himself, what
had happened.
What other kinds of kids are on that bus with him? What sort of conditions do they have?
PURCELL: They range from all different type of disabilities. The bus is full of children who have different special needs. Some are in harness,
along with my child. Some children are able to not be in harness. Every child`s disability and special needs, it just varies. The age limits
varies on the bus. He had a friend last year that was on the bus that was 17 years old. So it`s -- there`s different children of all types on the
bus, so it`s kind of...
BANFIELD: And Allyson, are they all able to communicate? I`m just sort of wondering, are there some children with special needs who just can`t talk,
might not be able to say (INAUDIBLE)
PURCELL: I`ve never actually -- I`ve never actually gotten onto the bus because, usually, if there`s a problem of any sort, they will come and get
off of the bus. So I`m not for sure if there`s any children on there that can`t verbally speak for themselves.
And that was moreso why I decided to speak out and take the action that I did because there are children on other special needs buses and maybe his
bus that can`t speak out. And you know, without those cameras being on the bus and without -- you know, if your child can`t speak, then you will never
know unless you actually pay attention to your child.
You know, your child will always show you some sign, just some sign of a different characteristic change, just any type of -- just any sign that`s
different than what they`re used to. You should definitely pay attention to it because if my son wasn`t verbal, I would have just assumed what she
said went on the bus that day had happened.
BANFIELD: So I want to show our audience, if you`ll permit me, the picture that your son drew. And it`s kind of tricky to make out. But tell me if
I`m right here, Allyson. This is him on the bus under a rain cloud? Is that what...
PURCELL: Yes, ma`am.
BANFIELD: Is that what I`m seeing? And then I`m also seeing "my sister," who looks like an angel. Can you explain to me what this tells us?
PURCELL: He drew that in class. They were told to draw, I guess, how they were feeling for the day. And his teacher got emotional and she sent it
home to me. And when I asked him about the picture, he said that the day that he was being hit on the bus, all he could think about was his father`s
daughter, who had passed away many years ago, and he felt like she was an angel in the sky and that even though it was raining on him and everything
bad was happening to him, he still could see her, and that`s why he still felt protected.
[20:10:10]BANFIELD: I want to bring in Danny Cevallos, who joins me now, a defense attorney, works with me here at HLN, as well. So Danny, Allyson
plans to file suit tomorrow. We have this Alford plea, which is effectively, she takes the heat for it, maybe doesn`t take the blame, but
admits that they have enough against her for a conviction, so she takes the heat for it. How does that translate into a civil suit if Allyson is
filing tomorrow? That certainly can`t hurt.
DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN/HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it`s not the exact same as a guilty plea for the civil purposes. And the whole point of a plea like
that in state court is to avoid the preclusive, the automatic effect of a guilty plea on civil liability for this lawsuit that`s going to come
afterwards. So typically, you need permission from the prosecutor to enter into what you call an Alford plea. I love that.
That`s what they call it in federal court, and in state court, it`s the same exact idea. You enter this "no contest" type plea, and your guilty
plea never existed, so it can`t be used against you. You`re liability has to be proven in the state court case.
BANFIELD: So still an uphill battle, but certainly, Ms. Pait will not be on that bus anymore. Allyson, thanks for being with us and thank you for
sharing your story with us. And I hope your little guy is OK. I know he`s been in counseling and I know this has been hard. But you know, I
certainly do hope you guys are going to be OK after all of this.
PURCELL: Thank you very much.
BANFIELD: Allyson Purcell joining us live.
Police in Miami say they have detained several people in connection with an ambush, an ambush shooting on two of their detectives who were sitting in
an unmarked car. At least two people approached the car last night at an apartment complex, and they just opened fire and -- you know, you can see
for yourself the damage that the bullets did. The bullet holes are evident.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you know something, if you saw something to say something, today`s the day that you need to stand up, bring justice for
what occurred here because these individuals not only shot at these officers and struck our police officers. These people, if they`re willing
to do that to our own officers, are causing havoc in our community, causing chaos in people`s lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: The detectives were conducting surveillance for gang activity. One of them is listed stabilized in his condition, and the other was
treated and released, remarkable given the number of bullets that riddled that car.
New details in the investigation into that heart-breaking double murder of twins by their own father. Their mother was also shot but not killed,
specifically not killed. He wanted her to live her life without those girls.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
A. COFFLAND: Oh, my God!
911 OPERATOR: Ma`am, where are you at?
A. COFFLAND: Oh, my God!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Also in Kentucky, police are searching for this man after a dramatic grab-and-go at a Home Depot store. It left that woman chasing
after him to get the goods back, and ultimately left her on the hood of his car! Find out how this ends in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:15:18]BANFIELD: Police in Crescent Springs, Kentucky, need your help tonight, and they want to catch a guy, really a brazen shoplifter who was
caught on camera doing this. He`s allegedly grabbing the goods. He`s not allegedly, he`s doing it, whoever he is. He`s grabbing the goods. He`s
bolting out the door. And behind him, that undercover employee is in hot pursuit.
She tries to stop him, but she ends up on the hood of his car as he runs her down. Eventually, she falls off that hood of the car, and he leaves
her there, lying motionless on the ground in the parking lot. He feels, and other shoppers rush to help her. Fortunately, happy to report she was
not seriously hurt, but she was taken to the hospital and she has since been released.
Investigators say that suspect driving that car doing that is a male approximately in his 30s. Get a good look. Take a look at the outfit, the
hat, all of it, approximately six feet, 180 pounds, driving a silver Hyundai Accent. Anyone with information, you`re asked to please contact
the police.
Back in a second.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Divorce is an ugly business any way you slice it. Just ask 50 percent of the married couples who`ve gone through it. And while almost
everyone will tell you it`s the children who suffer the most, there are few people who can tell you the same story as the Coffland family. And that is
a really good thing because the Coffland family doesn`t exist anymore. 75 percent of them are dead, murdered in an ugly and twisted bloodbath.
I want to take you back to when Randall Coffland moved out. He was living apart from his wife, Anjum, and it was a pretty fancy part of suburban
Chicago. Randall was holding out hope that the two could work it out. Anjum not so much.
And on the morning of March 10th, police reports detail how things spun right out of control. Coffland sent his wife messages threatening to kill
himself. And then he demanded that she come over to his home where the two twin teenage daughters were also living, so that he could show her, quote,
"some secrets."
And she did. She went there. And then a very short time later, the 911 calls began rolling into dispatch.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: 911.
R. COFFLAND: I just shot and killed my two kids, and I shot my wife.
911 OPERATOR: (INAUDIBLE)
R. COFFLAND: I`m going to kill myself now. I`m going to kill myself now, too.
911 OPERATOR: Sir, sir, sir...
R. COFFLAND: (INAUDIBLE) and I`m going to kill myself.
911 OPERATOR: Sir, sir, sir...
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Coffland followed through on that promise. He shot himself dead after he had put a gun to these girl`s heads, each of his daughters,
killing them in cold blood execution-style. But he only shot his wife, Anjum, in the leg because he, quote, "wanted her to suffer" like he did.
Anjum, shot and bleeding, then discovered her dead daughters, and Anjum then made her call to 911.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
[20:20:22]911 OPERATOR: 911.
A. COFFLAND: Please, I need help now!
911 OPERATOR: Where do you need help at?
A. COFFLAND: St. Charles.
911 OPERATOR: Where in St. Charles?
A. COFFLAND: Oh, my God, my husband shot my kids! Open the door! Call 911!
911 OPERATOR: Ma`am, what address are you at?
A. COFFLAND: Oh, my God!
911 OPERATOR: Ma`am, where are you at?
A. COFFLAND: Oh, my God!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Anjum Coffland told the police that Randall had threatened to kill these girls before, but that she`d never taken him seriously. And now
she is the only surviving member of the Coffland family.
Rob Martier is an anchor and a reporter for WGN radio. He joins me live from children. Rob, this story is just unbelievable, especially when you
hear it play out in real time on the 911 call. What possibly could have been the trigger? Was it just the notion that she refused to get back
together with him?
ROB MARTIER, WGN RADIO (via telephone): It`s tough to say. You certainly touched on it in your intro, that divorce is never easy under the most
ideal circumstances. This certainly was not that. St. Charles is a tony little suburb about 40 miles west of Chicago, a very high-end community.
It`s one of those communities where, quite frankly, people and neighbors say, I can`t believe that this happened here.
So what triggered this gruesome turn of events? It is tough to say. I mean, clearly, he was not of sound mind and then he took it out, obviously,
on his daughters. And as you stated, clearly, he wanted his -- what was going to be his ex-wife to suffer.
BANFIELD: And I want to just play a little bit more of the 911 call. I mean, obviously, he hung up, and Randall shot himself almost immediately,
and the 911 call was very short. We played it all. But Anjum`s call was longer, and there is more to it. Listen as she explains that she has now
found her daughter, Brittany, on the sofa dead, but she can`t find Tiffany, the twin. This is how she related this to 911. Have a listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Where are you shot at?
A. COFFLAND: I don`t know, on my leg.
BANFIELD: And you`re in apartment 406, correct?
A. COFFLAND: Yes! Brittany, Brittany, Brittany?
911 OPERATOR: Are you safe where you are?
A. COFFLAND: He shot me.
911 OPERATOR: Ma`am, are you safe where you are? Do we know where he is?
A. COFFLAND: I`m going into shock.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Rob, it`s just chilling to hear her as she even knows that she is fading, bleeding profusely from the leg. She was able to tell the
investigators quite a bit about this scene. I mean, the police report is thick with details when they finally rescued her.
MARTIER: Well, it`s an understatement to say that it was a gruesome crime scene. The police entered the apartment, entered the condominium, again,
in a high-end area of St. Charles. They discovered that the first teen was dead on the couch, covered with a blanket. Second teen in a back bedroom,
head on the pillow, apparently had the laptop in front of her, as well.
It`s just -- you go through your mind and you can almost walk through the crime scene with the investigating officers. And it just paints a very
grim picture of what was a tragic end to a marriage obviously that was -- was at an end.
BANFIELD: And Tiffany, the other twin -- she was apparently in a bedroom? I believe if I read the details right, Rob, she was also covered in a
blanket. But it appeared as though she`d been shot while she was just maybe surfing on her laptop.
MARTIER: Correct. Yes. That`s the information that`s available to us right now. And you know, clearly, this is what he wanted to do. As far
as, you know, why the blankets were involved, I don`t know if we`re ever going to know that. I don`t know if it was maybe something, you know, he
couldn`t bring himself to look at and realize that he`d actually gone through with it.
This is all speculation on my part, obviously. But yes, it was -- it`s just -- it`s something that I don`t think that a lot of people in the
community, I don`t know a lot of the police that are investigating this are going to forget anytime soon.
BANFIELD: Anjum tried to give as many details as she could to 911, but at the same time was dealing not only with the shock of her loss but the fact
that she was also, again, as I mentioned before, losing a lot of blood. But again, you can hear her trying to revive Brittany, not knowing where
Tiffany is. Have a listen to that part of her call.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
[20:25:14]A. COFFLAND: He killed my girls. He just (EXPLETIVE DELETED) killed my girls!
911 OPERATOR: OK, ma`am, and I can help you, but I need you to calm down. Where is he?
A. COFFLAND: He`s in a bedroom. I don`t know what he`s done. (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: OK. Is he still in the apartment?
A. COFFLAND: Brittany! Tiffany! Brittany!
911 OPERATOR: What`s his name?
A. COFFLAND: Randy.
911 OPERATOR: Randy? What`s his last name?
A. COFFLAND: Coffland. I`m going into shock. I`ve lost a lot of blood.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Rob, it`s just so unbelievable. The neighbors have sort of a disjointed, sketchy puzzle of what might have happened before Anjum got
there. Is it the prevailing wisdom that he called her saying he had secrets to tell her, and ultimately, it was only about 45 minutes before
she got there that some neighbors thought they heard gunshots and that that might have been when those twins were murdered?
MARTIER: That`s exactly right. In fact, that`s when police first started getting calls as to what was going on in that condo. Obviously, when they
arrived, you know, what played out is what you just played in the 911 tapes.
What`s really interesting is kind of this contrast that you get from the estranged wife, Anjum, who would say in one breath, you know, how he had
these secrets he wanted to tell her, how he wanted her to suffer and making comments to her about killing himself.
But then at the same time, she also said that Randall loved the girls and that he spoiled them. So it`s -- so it`s a unique kind of two sides of the
same coin. And again, we`ll never know what was going through his mind. We just won`t. And it`s just -- it`s a very tragic scene.
BANFIELD: I`ll say. Rob, I know you`ve got another live report that you have to do right away, so I`m going to let you go.
Want to bring in Danny Cevallos real quickly. Danny, those comments that she made to the police, that she had heard him threaten to kill the girls
before. There`s just nothing really you can do that`s actionable on that, is there? Could she have done anything to prevent this with just these
sort of threats during a divorce when everything is so in upheaval?
CEVALLOS: The one thing that you find -- that litigants find is that people in a divorce say some of the nastiest things to each other. And
unfortunately, judges, attorneys, everybody in the family court system, the juvenile dependency system, they`re used to it. And unfortunately, in some
families, parents start using the court as a tool. And courts are very mindful of that when they`re being used as a weapon against the other
parent. So just the mere allegation in a divorce that, Hey, you know, the other spouse is saying they`re going to do something nasty -- you would
hope it would be taken seriously by law enforcement, by the courts, by the litigants...
BANFIELD: But it wasn`t taken seriously by her. Even she said (INAUDIBLE) that she didn`t take it seriously, that he made those threats and...
CEVALLOS: But she might have feared having them taken away from her.
BANFIELD: You never know.
CEVALLOS: You know, when you get the courts involved, that`s what happens.
BANFIELD (on-camera): It`s just such a sad story in the Chicago area.
I`m going to switch gears to Maryland because there are authorities who are there revealing some unbelievable details about a high school student, and
not just any high school student, an honors student with alleged plans for a Columbine-style mass shooting.
Police say they searched Nichole Cevario`s home and found all of these things -- shotgun, ammunition, material for pipe bombs. They say this 18-
year-old -- yes, 18, you know what that means, grown-up -- that she may have carried out the attack which she wrote extensively in her diary if
only her parents had not alerted the police -- parents calling the police.
The sheriff says Cevario planned the attack for early April.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, this investigation is very much focused on her diary and the detail in the diary that clearly planned out a mass
shooting event at the high school.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s no doubt in our minds that we averted a disaster up there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Nichole Cevario even gathered information about the school`s emergency plans and the school`s shooting response procedures. Nichole was
taken to the hospital for evaluation. A warrant for her arrest includes charges that could get her up to 25 years in prison if she`s convicted on
these charges.
Some criminals -- I don`t think you need to hear me say it, but they`re not the brightest bulbs in the box. Case in point, guy strolls into a D.C.-
area convenience store, proceeds to rob the place. The only problem is, see where his mask is? It`s up on his head. He forgot to pull it down.
Oh, and then he kind of has that moment at the counter when, like Homer Simpson, Guess I better put this thing on. Down goes the mask, but you can
see he`s already been caught on camera.
[20:30:00] Mystery Man`s wanted for armed robbery, and anyone who knows anything and recognizes the fellow that you clear saw before he pulled his
mask down, you`re asked to give the police in D.C. a call. Dummy.
In Temple, Texas, a police officer got more than he bargained for when he tried to coral a runaway cow. I want to show you the pictures
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Because you won`t believe it until you see him. The cow is wandering around some nearby field enjoying his freedom and the officer
responding follows him to his cruiser until he sees his chance to take him into custody or so he thinks. So then the cow gets into a fenced in area
with the officer behind him who has just enough time to close the fence or so he thinks. And he looks up. And has to get out of the way real fast.
Watch this. Here he goes. Hold on.
(LAUGHTER)
BANFIELD: Looks like we have a body cam on the cow. The cow starts charging. Oh, who would have think that when you`re a police officer, you
got to watch for charging cow. Here we go. He closes the gate, closes the gate. Hang on. Oh, dear, no, no, no.
(LAUGHTER)
BANFIELD: He`s okay.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: The cow is reportedly still on the loose, so Temple police tell us. He was last seen on Friday night heading east to town. Cow on the
loose. And that officer, wow, he`s a real cowboy now.
The story you`re gonna see next is just sort of one of those unbelievable head shakers and if you didn`t have the pictures you probably wouldn`t
believe it. A shady plastic surgeon. Someone who said she was a plastic surgeon and she wasn`t. And she got sentenced for using of all things, Fix-
A-Flat to plump up her patients in a whole bunch of different places.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Fake doctor. This is her. She did it to herself. Really. She had the work done on herself. This is not Photoshop. This is not Photoshop.
This is the woman who said she was a doctor, she wasn`t. This is the woman who performed the surgeries. Would you let her make a cut on you? And then
there`s this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you walk? We`ve got to get you away. Get on your back. Get on your back. I know it`s going to hurt. Dammit.
BANFIELD: Superhero cop, an injured driver, and a car in flames that could blow any minute. This story and its resolution in just minutes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Plastic surgery is a billion dollar business in these days. You can pretty much change just about any part of your body that you find
unpleasant. But it ain`t cheap and there`s a good reason for that. It`s dangerous. And it requires licensed medical professionals to make sure you
don`t get hurt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: This woman is not one of them. Nevertheless, Oneal Ron Morris performed dozens of illegal surgeries on patients who wanted something
fixed, but couldn`t afford the mainstream meds. Morris is transgender and for years, she injected a sickening concoction of super glue, Fix-A-Flat,
and cement into just about any place her so-called patients wanted a boost. Eventually in 2012, it led to a death and yet for years, Morris has
proclaimed her innocence.
ONEAL RON MORRIS, FAKE DOCTOR: They didn`t catch me doing anything. So it`s just allegations. I`m innocent. I`m innocent or whatever. It sounds bizarre
but I just don`t think how can America feel like a person could even put cement in somebody`s body. These allegations.
BANFIELD: It appears that Morris didn`t just perform the procedures on others but maybe on herself as well, because you can see the effects in
these photos when she`s standing up. And this week, it all unraveled and caught up with her. Oneal Ron Morris was in court taking a plea deal in the
manslaughter case against her. She pleaded no contest to the charges. And she was sentenced. Wow, those pictures are unbelievable, to 10 years behind
bars. And still, she was adamant that she didn`t do anything wrong.
MORRIS: I`ve been found guilty by the media and outside sources based on lies. I have never ever or would dare ever to inject or have injected any
human with any type of unknown substance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: One of her so-called patients has been dealing with the after effects of these black market procedures for about 12 years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Rajee Narinesingh began seeing Morris for cosmetic treatments. She`s also transgender and wanted to look more feminine. About a year into
the treatments, bad reactions started. One morning, she woke up with the only thing she can describe is a huge boil on her face that kept getting
bigger and more painful until it actually burst, leaving her face deformed. Desperate for help, she went on the TV show "Botched."
RAJEE NARINESINGH, VICTIM OF ONEAL RON MORRIS, TRANS COMMUNITY ACTIVIST: It was devastating. I`m sorry. When I walk in public places, I see the way
people look at me, you know, it hurts.
[20:40:00] Sometimes I don`t even want to look at my old pictures because I start to feel like, why did I do it and, you know, I get regretful. But I
keep pressing on and I`m so thankful to God that I`m still here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Dr. Paul Nassif is a plastic surgeon and he joins me from Beverly Hills. He also worked on that particular case. Dr. Nassif, thank you so
much for being with me. I just have to ask, why would anyone go to a black market plastic surgeon other than the notion that it`s cheap?
PAUL NASSIF, PLASTIC SURGEON: Well, I tell you, these pump parties are something that a lot of patients go to especially the transgender community
knows about these pump parties because it`s a way to get inexpensive let`s say body modification, adding more hips, adding more volume in the
buttocks. It happens all the time because a lot of patients don`t know that it`s dangerous. That`s what happens.
BANFIELD: So, it`s remarkable that I read this list of the concoction that this woman used to inject into her patients. Here it is. It`s bathroom
caulking, cement, super glue, and Fix-A-Flat mixed with mineral oil. How is it, doctor, that that didn`t kill these people?
NASSIF: I tell you, she`s very lucky. What happens, many patients will get a bacterial infection from this first initially, and that can cause
something called sepsis, which is septic shock where you have bacteria in your bloodstream and that can kill you. Besides, it can do other bad things
to your body and even can cause disability, you won`t be able to walk, all kinds of horrible things.
BANFIELD: One of those -- one of those so-called patients ended up dying a couple of years later. And this is what they -- the family members and
friends of hers said in court today about this particular case. And this so-called doctor. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She got three kids! No remorse.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As far as I`m concerned, 15 years is not enough.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My daughter died the most inhumane death, 18 months she suffered, with not knowing the full of what he put in her body.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So that was the person, doctor, who ultimately ended up dying. But there are many other patients as well. Stand by for a minute. I want to
just take our viewers back to the images that we showed of one of those victims named Rajee who was ultimately your patient on the show "Botched."
Some pictures of her years later.
She was incredibly injured by her botched surgeries, but now things are very different, and she has come out of this looking very different. And
she is standing by live right now. And when we come back, the big reveal of how Rajee is doing and how her life has changed. That`s coming up in just
minutes.
[20:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: The transgender wannabe doctor who illegally injected super glue and Fix-A-Flat into the backsides and breasts and face of plastic surgery
patients is now going off to prison.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Oneal Ron Morris took a plea deal on manslaughter charges five years after one of those so-called patients died. She is going to go away
now for 10 years. Before the break, we told you about the case of Rajee Narinesingh. She had to -- she decided to go on the popular TV show
"Botched" to fix the procedures that Morris had performed on her. And listen to her explain why she got these injections in the first place.
NARINESINGH: I went for what I thought was medical silicone. And I thought I was going to finally get the look that I wanted. About seven or eight
months into the injections, the whole left side of my face felt like it was a boil coming to a head. And then the nodule started. It became very
painful. I felt so distorted. I didn`t want to go out in public. That`s when I found out that these black market injections that I had been getting
were a concoction of things like cement, tire sealant, and glue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So how does Rajee Narinesingh look now? She joins me live from Fort Lauderdale. Rajee, you look incredible. You really do look great. But
I want to go back through your journey and find out what this has been like for you as you now learn that the woman who did this to you is going to
prison for 10 years.
NARINESINGH: Well, I`ll tell you, I have mixed emotions at this point. I actually -- I was getting ready -- getting dressed this morning. And I saw
it on the news and literally, I stopped in my track. I had to actually sit down because of, you know, in order for me to move on from all of this, I
really did have to find some sort of forgiveness within myself and -- so in an odd kind of way, I know this is going to sound a little ridiculous to a
lot of people that are watching. But I feel sorry in a way for her because
[20:50:00] you know, I am a trans activist, I`m a transgender woman myself, and I just can`t even imagine how it`s going to be when she has to go to a
male prison. So there is a lot of different emotions that I`m going through. I suffered for more than 10 years.
BANFIELD: And Rajee, I will say, you know, you really have come out of this looking incredible given what you`ve been through in the photos that we saw
before. And it is incredible, Rajee, that you say you are -- you want her to be punished, but you don`t think it`s fair that she as a convicted
transgender woman will be going to a male prison because your states doesn`t recognize that the fact that she`s transgender, which is -- I think
it`s very magnanimous of you.
I want to ask you about the notion of the discrimination that played into your decision to get black market treatments. It wasn`t just a financial.
NARINESINGH: Yeah.
BANFIELD: . issue alone, it was financial because of discrimination. Can you explain that?
NARINESINGH: Sure, sure. Well, okay, so, first and foremost is financial because, you know, when you have money, there`s a lot more resources that
are available to you as a person. But as a transgender woman, male to female, I`ve endured great discrimination and it was a combination of
feeling peer pressure from other trans women who were looking so beautiful. And I myself wanted to achieve more of an effeminate look. And also, just
being able to go out in public and feel like the person that I really felt like inside, kind of like match my inside with my outside.
BANFIELD: Did you find that there were doctors who wouldn`t perform the kinds of procedures that you wanted because you were trans?
NARINESINGH: Well, you know, we`ve come a long way in the last few years, thank God. You know, the transgender community and the transgender civil
rights movement has really seen some, I would say advancement in the last few years. But, I mean, I`ve been pounding the pavement for over 18 years.
Being transgender, kind of living on the fringes of society, many of us did that. To even go out into public was hard, let alone going into a doctor`s
office and literally being laughed at. I mean, it`s got a lot better now, thank God. We`re talking, you know, a number of years back.
BANFIELD: Given the fact that you have basically been recovering from these procedures for a decade, how are you? I mean, I`m only assuming from your
pictures that you might have had some work done on your chest. I mean, are you okay? Are you safe? Are you out of the woodwork? Are you fully
recovered?
NARINESINGH: You`re so sweet. Sorry, I had a little problem with my earpiece. But, yeah, actually, it is really a day-by-day thing. Because the
thing about having foreign substance in your body is that at any given time you can have a flare-up or reoccurrence. Your body can actually start to
reject.
So for now, I`m stable. But really, you know, to be honest about things going forward, I don`t know what I`m going to have to face. I mean, I have
my -- I`m sorry. I have injections in my breasts and in my hips and my buttock. And for now, I`m stable. But, you know, like I said, going
forward, who knows what I`m going to be facing. I try to stay optimistic, though.
BANFIELD: Yeah. Stay off the plastic surgery maybe is another, you know, I probably don`t need to tell you that after what you`ve been through. Rajee,
thanks so much for being on the show and for being so open and candid and I hope you feel some justice after the sentencing today. Thanks so much for
being here.
NARINESINGH: Thank you for having me. Thank you so much.
BANFIELD: Rajee Narinesingh joining us from Fort Lauderdale live. I want to switch gears and take you to the remote and sometimes frigid Navajo
Reservation where supplied and services can be hours away. And the elderly among the Navajo often struggle, all alone. And this sweet CNN hero has
spent 30 years trying to find them, trying to help them, trying to help them survive. Her name is Linda Myers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LINDA MYERS, CNN HERO: You find elders without food. Many don`t have running water or plumbing. On one of our main goals is to keep the elders
warm through the winter. It can get down to zero here at night.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
MYERS: You`re welcome. They need fires going all the time. If they don`t, there`s greater chance they could freeze to death.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:55:00] BANFIELD: To see how Linda is helping the Navajo nation, you go to cnnheroes.com and while you`re there, you can nominate somebody you
think should be a 2017 CNN hero. Thanks for watching, everybody. I`m Ashleigh Banfield.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Big thanks to Danny Cevallos for stopping by to help us out with the analysis tonight. Excellent job.
CEVALLOS: Thank you for having me. I love being here.
BANFIELD: Thanks so much. We`ll see you again at 8:00 tomorrow for PRIMETIME JUSTICE. In the meantime, stay tuned. "FORENSIC FILES" starts
right now.
[21:00:00]
END
