Return to Transcripts main page
Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield
Urgent Manhunt for Facebook Killer; Judge Praises Rapist as Victims Listen; Missing Teacher`s Wife Says She Still Loves Her Husband; Student Shot At School Says He Brought Knives For Protection; Dad Of Casey Anthony Speaks Out; Man Kills Wife, Then Ties Himself Up And Blames Intruder; Girl Implanted With Birth Control On School Trip. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired April 17, 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] CHIEF CALVIN WILLIAMS, CLEVELAND POLICE DEPARTMENT: Obviously, he`s got deep, deep issues.
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HLN HOST, (voice-over): It could be the understatement of the year.
WILLIAMS: We need to bring this to a conclusion.
BANFIELD: A gunman accused of shooting an innocent man, then posting it on Facebook.
WILLIAMS: We don`t know where he`s at.
BANFIELD: The dragnet widens as police hope to stop him before he picks another victim.
WILLIAMS: And we`re not going to stop until he`s in custody.
BANFIELD: It`s not often you hear a rapist described like this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The court has no doubt that Mr. Vallejo is an extraordinarily good man.
BANFIELD: Would you believe it`s the judge himself doling out the praise?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But great men sometimes do bad things.
BANFIELD: All the while, the rape victim is forced to listen in court. Now it`s the tone-deaf judge getting an earful.
A wife shot three times, her husband tied up yet spared, but police say his story doesn`t jive and point the finger at him. Just wait until you hear
how he describes the so-called intruder`s voice.
A teenager`s mom says she was blind-sided...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just did not expect this!
BANFIELD: ... when her daughter came home with a birth control implant.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now this is in her arm for three years!
BANFIELD: How is this legal, especially since her school played a part?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just feel like my rights as a parent were violated.
BANFIELD: The wife and daughters of a teacher on the run with a 15-year- old girl in a tearful plea to ABC News.
JILL CUMMINS, WIFE: He was so ashamed of what had happened, he couldn`t have faced me.
BANFIELD: His wife divorcing him, his daughters forgiving him.
CUMMINS: And I do love him, but I don`t trust him anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, he just shot the kid!
BANFIELD: Waving a knife at school, a teenager is shot by police. Now he`s talking about his battle to recover.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you miss school?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want to go back, though?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Not there.
BANFIELD: While his mom says her bullied son should never have been shot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What makes the school officer think that it`s OK to shoot my son?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: Hello, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is PRIMETIME JUSTICE.
And we`re following breaking news tonight. The search has gone coast to coast for the man who executed an elderly father in cold blood on a
Cleveland sidewalk and then posted the murderous video on Facebook, and it`s police who say that man is Steven (ph) Stephens -- Steve Stephens.
They have fanned out in a multi-agency hunt for him.
The drama began to unfold on Easter Sunday. Stephens, his camera rolling, stepped out of his car and announced he was going to kill someone. Then in
the video, you can see a gun pointed at 74-year-old Robert Godwin`s head before police say Stephens pulled the trigger. We`re only going to show a
still image from that post because the video is just simply too gruesome.
But investigators say several people did witness it and reported it, the chilling post on Sunday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: We`re almost -- we`re a little over 24 hours away from when this incident started, and we definitely want to get it resolved as fast as
possible. The victim`s family -- they deserve that and the community deserves it. Our reach now is basically all over this country. Our
federal partners, our local partners have reached out to their contacts all over the country, and this is what we would consider a national search for
Steve.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: In another Facebook video, Stephens says he killed more than a dozen other people, but police have no evidence yet that he`s actually hurt
anyone else. His mother says that Stephens told her that he was shooting people because he was angry at his girlfriend. Investigators say they did
make some contact with the 37-year-old but that it was not long after the shooting and that they were unsuccessful in convincing him to turn himself
in.
As for the victim, police say Robert Godwin was simply walking down the sidewalk when he encountered Stephens. Godwin was returning from having an
Easter meal at his children`s home when he was murdered.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This man right here was a good man! And I just -- I -- I hate he`s gone, you know what I mean? I don`t know what I`m going to do.
It`s not real!
[20:05:00]UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Feel like my heart is going to stop, I feel like.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`ll be all right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It feel like it`s going to stop.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Just moments ago, police released two 911 calls that were made by people who saw Robert Godwin on the ground just moments after being
shot.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s dead!
911 OPERATOR: OK, ma`am, listen to me!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s laying there!
911 OPERATOR: And what`s your address?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, Lord, have mercy! Oh, my God!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) three times (INAUDIBLE) dead, been shot (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: OK, where was he shot at?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s been shot in the head or ear or something.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
BANFIELD: CNN correspondent Brynn Gingras has been working this story all day, and she joins me live now from Cleveland. It is so disturbing to hear
those calls and to know that they weren`t the only people who saw this. There were people who saw this video on Facebook, and now it is a coast-to-
coast search. So tonight, are they any closer finding him?
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, they`re not. You heard the chief of police I believe just talk when you had that intro for me, and
he said they`re more than 24 hours after this horrific public killing and still no signs of Steve Stephens.
Now, I can tell you, we`ve been driving around Cleveland, and almost every billboard we see has his picture, has his description, has a description of
the car they still believe that he is traveling in, a white Ford Fusion.
We also know a $50,000 reward is now on the table. Authorities are hoping that will be some incentive to lead to some information that will lead to
his arrest. They want to talk to this guy. He`s also been urged by authorities to call his relatives, call friends, talk to them, get some
sort of connection, but mostly, Ashleigh, just turn himself in at this point in the investigation.
BANFIELD: And in fact, you just mentioned that. I want to actually play for you this appeal from the police to Steve Stephens to reach out and
contact his relatives, whether it is his mother, girlfriend, any members of his family. They really, really pushed that hard this afternoon in the
news conference. I want to play for you that small moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Early in this investigation, we did have contact with him, direct contact with our detectives. They tried to, of course, convince him
to turn himself in, and of course, that hasn`t happened to date.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: And again, let me play for you the other sound bite I wanted you to hear, Brynn. This is the moment -- and there`s a reason. There`s a
method to my madness here. There`s a reason I think that they`re doing this. There`s a reason they`re asking Steve Stephens to call his family
and to call anyone else who he might be connected with. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: We`re still imploring Steve to turn himself in, definitely to contact a relative or a friend because there are a lot of folks out there
that want to talk to him, want to get this resolved peacefully. So Steve, if you`re out there listening, call someone, whether it`s a friend or a
family member or a pastor. Give them a call because they`re waiting on you to call them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So Brynn, is this the only way they think they`re actually going to find him, or do they have another trick up their sleeve, because right
now, it`s going to be real hard to get this guy out of the shadows?
GINGRAS: I mean, at this point, those are the pleas that you`re hearing. They really do believe, hopefully, he will contact someone, or hopefully,
someone will actually spot him because I said there is just information about him everywhere at this point and now countrywide.
We do know that that girlfriend that he told his mother he was doing this killing for, or because of -- she has been cooperating with authorities.
She has not had contact, as far as we know, with authorities (sic) at this point. So we do know he`s made contact with people and even authorities in
the beginning of the investigation, but he`s gone dark since. And at this point, they just really want to hear from him. A big reason why, Ashleigh,
I can only assume, and it`s also just to ask him questions. Why did he do this? This is a huge question that so many people, including the Godwin
family, are asking tonight.
BANFIELD: I mean, the Godwin family -- I can only imagine what they`re going through at this point. This is so incredibly senseless. Just
quickly, Brynn, before I let you go -- it is a coast-to-coast search, as we mentioned before, as the police were quick to mention this afternoon. But
at the same time, they have released five different states that they say are on alert, and let me read them out. Cleveland, obviously,
Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana and Michigan. If you look, they`re all within driving distance. But do they think that that map might expand, as
well?
GINGRAS: Well, they certainly expanded it nationwide because there hasn`t been any sort of information to say exactly where he might be. There are
certainly states that they knew he had family in, and it`s possible he would contact family.
I will tell you, though, earlier today, police cautioned family members if they did hear from him, don`t help him. He needs to turn himself in, so
they need to call authorities. So that caution is out there as that encouragement is out there for Stevens to make some sort of phone call and
eventually, hopefully, turn himself in, Ashleigh.
BANFIELD: Want to bring in James Gagliano, who`s a retired FBI supervisory special agent. James, when you`re looking for someone like this and you
release these five states, you`re still in the focal point of Cleveland. This is the -- I mean, Ohio is still where they said was the last known
sighting of him.
[20:10:12]How do they decide to go out in this pattern, and when do they decide to make that pattern much broader, other than just dictating (ph)
it`s a coast-to-coast search?
JAMES GAGLIANO, RETIRED FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Sure. Great question, Ashleigh. I think what happens is the investigators start out
with concentric circles. So right within the midst of where the murder took place, they trace that out to where the victim (sic) might have
worked, where the victim lived and they start rapidly expanding those concentric circles.
Obviously, the digital exhaust is given off by his cell phone. If it pings in a tower in Pennsylvania, they can also track him that way. I think if
he turns the cell phone off, he knows that there`s a dragnet out right now. What is -- what is so confounding to investigators is the fact that here`s
a 37-year-old man that the most egregious thing he did before this depraved crime was get a parking ticket.
BANFIELD: Yes, he`s got no criminal record. I mean, we all sort of were confounded about this today, given the fact that he is alleged to have
execution-style murdered a complete stranger on the sidewalk. You don`t start your crime there, typically.
GAGLIANO: It is utterly baffling. And the behavioral analysts at the FBI are trying to put together a profile of this guy. He worked at a
behavioral health agency. Everyone he worked with, came in contact with, said he was just a marquee employee. His family members, his ex-
girlfriends -- there`s nothing that led up to this. This guy is obviously homicidal maniac. He`s a narcissist. That`s why he uploaded the video,
the gruesome video to Facebook.
I think that his need for attention is going to ultimately be what ensnares him. And I guarantee you this. With the Marshals Service, the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the FBI and all the local and state officials, they`re going to catch this guy soon.
BANFIELD: So this is one of the reasons, and if our viewers are frustrated because they`re not seeing sort of the heart of this story, which is that
he put on Facebook, allegedly, a cold-blooded murder, it`s for that very reason because copycats are a concern. This is not something that you want
to celebrate in any way. And this may be the exact reason why he did it, although he said on another post that he just snapped.
I want to bring in Danny Cevallos and Caroline Polisi on this one. Guys, this is on video. This is on video. Turn yourself in -- there`s really
not much that he`s going to be able to do to defend himself. There`s video.
DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN/HLN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, the thing about social media -- and I just wrote a piece about this -- is that it entices people
to post things on line and try to get viral infamy. But at the same time, on the other end of the equation, it creates this treasure trove of digital
evidence that later on creates an air-tight case, where otherwise, there might not be one.
BANFIELD: Right, the thing you think is your tool (ph) may ultimately trip you up. But do you think that`s something -- it looks to me like he is not
a rocket scientist here, Caroline. If he`s broadcasting to the world what he`s done and announcing he`s on to his 14th, which is what he said in that
post, he may be just dumb enough to digitally lead us to where he is.
CAROLINE POLISI, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Absolutely. And unfortunately, we`re seeing more and more of these so-called performance crimes cropping up
really across the board. And the question is, to what extent is social media...
BANFIELD: (INAUDIBLE) performance.
POLISI: ... really, you know, breeding a new breed of criminal?
BANFIELD: Did you just coin that, performance crime, or is that...
(CROSSTALK)
POLISI: I didn`t. I didn`t...
BANFIELD: Performance crime.
POLISI: ... but it`s a thing now, and it`s becoming a real epidemic. And the idea that the psychology of this man is addicted to the social media
attention that he gets from posting these types of crimes on line...
BANFIELD: Performance crime. Well, you`re not going to get your audience here. Performance crimes won`t be broadcast like that. It`s really
astounding. And you know, this is continuing as the breaking news here. We`re going to update you as the night continues.
In the meantime, we got a Utah judge who -- I think the only way you can really say this is that he startled the courtroom because he praised the
defendant. The defendant was a convicted rapist -- not just one time, but multi-time rapist, and the victim was sitting right there!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDGE THOMAS LOW: The court has no doubt that Mr. Vallejo is an extraordinarily good man. And great men sometimes do bad things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Yes. The court might have no doubt, but the rest of us now (ph).
Plus, a shocking admission from the wife of Tad Cummins, who says that she still loves her husband even though he`s been on the run with that girl,
his 15-year-old student, for the past six weeks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:18:56]BANFIELD: Normally, when a judge hands down a sentence, he or she is less than complimentary of the defendant. But in one courtroom in
Utah, apparently that is not exactly how things work. This is Keith Vallejo. He is a former bishop in the church of Latter Day Saints. So
you`d think that he`d lead a pretty clean life, right? And if you do, you`d think wrong because Keith Vallejo raped and sexually assaulted two
female relatives.
And after the jurors convicted him, the judge in the case, Judge Thomas Low, did something pretty jaw-dropping. He decided to heap praise on the
rapist.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LOW: That being the case, the court will impose 1 to 15 years in state prison on each of the second-degree felonies and five years to life on the
first-degree felony.
(END VIDEO CLIP)a
BANFIELD: Yes, I think that was sniffles you heard. Judge Low was not done there. He was getting a little misty as he read the rapist`s
sentence, actually paused for about 30 seconds, struggling, struggling to get through it.
[20:20:10]And by the way, while you`re listening to him agonizing over punishing the bishop rapist, I want you to imagine for a moment how it felt
listening from the gallery because that is where at least one of his victims was sitting.
Oh, we don`t have that sound bite? Oh, and it`s a good one, too.
You know, this wasn`t the first time that Judge Low appeared to show Vallejo or -- special treatment or whatever you want to call what he did
out there. He apparently allowed that convicted rapist to go home for two whole months until his sentencing date. Needless to say, several victims`
rights groups in Utah are now planning to file complaints against the judge.
And if you thought that that case was jaw-dropping, I want to tell you what`s going down in upstate New York. A jury convicted James Bailey on
charges that he repeatedly raped his own little sister, starting when she was just 9. The assaults continued for nearly four years. And although he
confessed to the police, during his trial, he claimed that he had not actually sexually assaulted his sister, he had just been a little curious.
Curious.
Nobody was buying the curious crap. The jurors didn`t buy it. The judge didn`t buy it. His family didn`t buy it. But it wasn`t until just a few
days ago when Kathryn -- there she is -- now 23, decided to muster the energy and the courage to confront her older brother face to face in that
courtroom. And during the sentencing hearing, she looked at James Bailey and unleashed her fury on him for what had happened while he was supposed
to be looking out for her and taking care of his little sister.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATHRYN BAILEY, BROTHER REPEATEDLY RAPED HER: Just when I thought the memories and the way I felt was enough to make me cold and numb inside, and
managed to damage and hurt me again. My anger wasn`t -- it wasn`t (INAUDIBLE) towards the right person. (INAUDIBLE) It is what you did was
sexual abuse. It was not curiosity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: A judge sentenced James Bailey to 32 years in prison for sexually assaulting his little sister. By the way, that is the maximum
punishment allowed by the law in New York state.
I want to bring in Kathryn Bailey, who joins me now live. Kathryn, you are one very brave and very honorable young lady. That must have been so -- I
mean, I watched you and I found it wrenching. I couldn`t imagine what it was like for you doing that.
BAILEY: It was incredibly, definitely a vulnerable position that I was in, but I felt empowered and strong because that day has finally came for me
where I could actually say what I wanted to say to my brother, and I believe I said the right thing to him.
BANFIELD: Did you feel like you were facing your brother or did you feel like you were facing some stranger, some convict?
BAILEY: I mean, no. He is what he is. He`s my brother. He`s sick. And I don`t feel pity for the 32 years he was given. I don`t know. I don`t --
he is a rapist and he`s an abuser, and I see him as that. But he also is my brother. I want nothing to do with him, but he is still my brother.
BANFIELD: So as I see these details, I almost feel like I need to double check them with you because they don`t seem possible. You were 8 years old
when he began molesting you?
BAILEY: Yes.
BANFIELD: And it went on until you were 12?
BAILEY: Yes.
BANFIELD: And am I correct he was 17 when he began his assaults and went on until he was 21?
BAILEY: Yes, around that time. Yes.
BANFIELD: What would he do? Was he doing? And how did this begin? And how did it change?
BAILEY: Well, it initially started with oral abuse and then eventually led to vaginal and anal intercourse.
BANFIELD: And you were four years -- I mean, you were 8 years old. For four years, you endured this.
BAILEY: Yes.
BANFIELD: Lest anyone think, as it appears some judges might, that maybe rape isn`t so tough. I thought of you -- I thought of you immediately
today when we got the news of Judge Low, aptly named, in Utah. What did you think of it?
BAILEY: That infuriates me, not just being a survivor from sexual abuse but the fact -- listening to that and reading the article of what he said,
I would like to think that throughout my case, the judge that worked with me, who gave my brother the highest sentencing he could give, was an
honorable man.
[20:25:06]He was a judge worth having in a case with abuse, of sexual abuse. Those women today with that judge did not get the right that they
deserved. That judge is...
BANFIELD: He...
BAILEY: He makes me mad.
BANFIELD: Me, too, and I`m not in your shoes. And I`m livid. I can`t imagine how you feel. We were actually about to play a second moment from
Judge Low from his courtroom and how he addressed Keith Vallejo, the rapist, the bishop rapist, and now we have it. So I actually want to play
it and I want to get your reaction after that. Let`s listen.
BAILEY: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LOW: That being the case, the court will -- the court will impose 1 to 15 years in state prison on each of the second-degree felonies and 5 years to
life on the first-degree felony.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So he was sniffling through this. And Julia Kirby (ph) was sitting in the gallery. And Kathryn, I wanted to hear -- I wanted you to
hear Julia Kirby and what it was like for her to sit in the gallery, having been victimized by Vallejo and then hearing the judge heap all this praise
on him. Here is Julia and what she had to say about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That judge, he shouldn`t have done that. He shouldn`t have said those things. He never once said to Keith that you are
guilty, and you need to own up to these crimes. He said that, You are a great man and I believe that you`re this wonderful person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Kathryn, it just seems as though I`m covering a lot of these stories lately. I`m covering a lot of judges who don`t seem to think that
what happened to the victim is a big, big deal, from Stanford rape to Judge Robin Camp up in Canada who suggested that perhaps the accuser should have
kept her knees together. He`s, of course, apologized profusely. I believe he`s stepped down from the bench now.
But these are the kinds of things we`re seeing a lot of. And I wonder if you have any hope, having gone through what you went through and seeing
your judge do the right thing, if it`s going to continue to happen the way poor Julia Kirby and the other victim had to endure in Utah.
BAILEY: Well, I hope to God that this stops happening with these type of judges. I think these judges should not be not in the positions that they
are in if that is their mindset. They should not be justifying these perpetrators, these rapists. They are despicable human beings, and I feel
like if you ask me personally, the judge is no better than the rapist, honestly. That`s my perspective. He thinks that justifying and praising
him is good, he`s just as bad as the rapist, if you ask me.
BANFIELD: So a lot of people say this is the issue that so many women who suffer through rape have to deal with. Do they come forward and report it
and then end up in this boat, hearing the rapist as a good guy, the bishop rapist, I might add, where he is expected to be even better because he has
more trust lavished upon him among his victims.
Do you think that this is going to continue to chill victims to come forward and actually report these crimes? Because they are grossly
underreported, and a lot of it might have to do with this crap!
BAILEY: I hope that this case with the bishop -- I really hope it doesn`t discourage victims from coming forward. I hope cases like the one I went
through, where I am today, that I hope that helps bring light onto where they could potentially be.
There`s a ton of help out there with advocacy centers that are helping the victims in this case with the bishop. And I hope that it really brings
light on how there are other people out there to help these people who have been victimized, like the advocates, and I think they are huge.
BANFIELD: Let me tell you, Kathryn Bailey, you`re a hell of a lady. And I appreciate what you did in that courtroom. I appreciate you coming on TV
to talk about this stuff because this is the way that tone-deaf judges might actually hear the message that it is unconscionable to speak like
that, and that they got to get with the program and actually get with the millennia.
Thank you so much for being with me tonight. I really appreciate it. And good luck to you as you go on your journey. I appreciate you.
BAILEY: Thank you.
BANFIELD: Judge Low, I don`t know if you`re going to see this tonight live or if you`re going to see it on the YouTube, but you are tone-deaf. You`re
not the only one who`s out there. I get it. There`s a cadre. But you know what? To anybody else out there sitting on the bench, know this
happened. You end up on the TV and on the internet.
Tonight, another story that we`re following. The search for Elizabeth Thomas is now entering the sixth week, and there are still no signs of that
missing 15-year-old. She was last seen March 13th, and she`s believed to be with her 50-year-old teacher, Tad Cummins. And now Tad Cummins`s wife,
who has filed for divorce from him after three decades, and his own daughters are speaking out about his disappearance. And they`re doing so
with ABC News.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:30:03] JILL CUMMINS, WIFE OF MISSING TEACHER: I think he left because he was so ashamed of what had happened. He couldn`t face me or anyone and
he didn`t want to face the consequences, and so he thought that was his only choice was just to leave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: And Jill Cummins dropped this bombshell about her relationship with tad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Cummins: I go from feeling really so hurt I can`t even function to really mad. It`s very selfish of him to have done this to us, so I`m mad part of
the time and then sometimes I have this peace that comes from god and I do love him, but I don`t trust him anymore. He is totally betrayed me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Tad Cummins and Elizabeth Thomas were last seen in an Oklahoma Wal-Mart two days after he disappeared and the trail has virtually gone
stone cold. Cummins teen daughters are also pleading for him to come home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERICA CUMMINS, DAUGHTER OF MISSING TEACHER: No matter where you are, daddy, no matter what you`ve done, we want you to come home. We miss you
so much. We`re here for you any time, any place, anywhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Investigators are asking for anyone that might know anything about their where about to please contact the authorities.
In Reno, Nevada, Logan Clark, the student who was shot by a school police officer after he waved around two knives at the school has spoken to CBS
this morning about what happened that day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you went to school that day, did you feel like you had to protect yourself?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Police say Clark had been involved in a fight with another student when he pulled out knives and began threatening others on campus.
This is what his mother had to say about the incident.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHERYL PITCHFORD, LOGAN CLARK`S MOTHER: I`m not defending my son bringing knives to school whatsoever, but what I ask myself is what makes the school
officer think that it`s okay to shoot my son?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Clark suffered a stroke after he was shot and reportedly sustained brain issues, which is why he wears that helmet. He also talked
about what comes next for him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In this school?
LOGAN CLARK, SHOT BY POLICE SCHOOL: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you miss your friends?
CLARK: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want to go back, though?
CLARK: No. Not there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: In another case we`re following, the trail of Casey Anthony in the death of her 2-year-old daughter Caley was something that I think we
can all agree captivated the nation and now Casey Anthony`s father is speaking out and saying some pretty astounding things. In an investigation
discovery special, George Anthony is dismissing the argument by Casey`s defense that little Caley died in the family pool. He also says he and his
daughter are estranged and he has no plans to see her again. He says he also thinks that Casey gave little Caley street drugs like Xanax.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Am I ever going to speak to my daughter again?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we`re done. When this happened, I lost my daughter and granddaughter. I lost them both. Justice would be for me to have my
daughter behind bars and have her suffer like Caley suffered.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Casey`s mother Cindy said she and her daughter are working on a relationship and that she thinks justice was served in the case. A murder
mystery in Connecticut, a beautiful wife and mother shot dead inside her home. Her husband allegedly leading a double life planning to leave her
for his pregnant girlfriend but then he is found tied up so why is he now charged in the crime?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: From the outside, they look like they had the perfect marriage. And how many times have you heard that, when something goes horribly wrong.
That is what people said about Richard and Connie debate but that talk of the wonderful marriage came to an end just before Christmas 2015 when
police found Connie dead from gunshot wounds to her head with her husband`s gun. The weird part was that, he was fallen in the kitchen floor one arm
and one legs secured with chair with zip ties, he had knife wounds. He first told the investigators that a masked men wearing camouflage shot his
wife and tied him down and he only escaped because he burned the house with a torch. Police say the story was a mess riddled with pesky lies he told
them and changed and told them again. Prosecutor says he murdered his wife so that he could be with a long-time girlfriend who was pregnant, also
known as bum, bum, and bum.
David Owens is a reporter for Hartford Courant and he joins me live from now from Hartford, Connecticut. David thanks for being with me. As I
understand this, Richard debate just didn`t tell one or two little inconsistencies, he had a whole list, didn`t he?
DAVID OWENS, HARTFORD COURANT REPORTER: He did. When he began talking to the state police giving them his version of what happened, it just kept
changing and there were inconsistencies everywhere and immediately the state police detectives were suspicious because it didn`t add up.
BANFIELD: They sent the canine unit into the house and they are good at finding the scent of a stranger and what did the canine`s find.
OWENS: Exactly. They tried four different dogs and they all went from where his wallet was found in the backyard with the money still in it to
the front door of the house. One of them followed him, debate to the ambulance about to take him to the hospital.
BANFIELD: Ok. There is this other problem that he had when the girlfriend`s pregnancy is discovered. Did he tell the police the
girlfriend -- get me straight here, because it`s a bit of a puzzle. Did he tell the police that the girlfriend was a surrogate?
OWENS: The wife wasn`t described as a girlfriend. She was described as a surrogate because the wife wanted to have a child. That story evolved into
a girlfriend and eventually into her being pregnant and they would co- parent and his wife was all in on this. Her friends when the police interviewed him said are you out of your mind? Show she would have nothing
to do with this.
BANFIELD: I read this, I`m not 100 percent convinced but you have to tell me what you found out, that he told the police that the intruder had a
voice like a big Hollywood star Vin Diesel. Did he truly say that?
OWENS: That was about the only consistent thing he said in the statement to police. The intruder sounded like Vin Diesel and dressed in camouflage.
That was his story.
BANFIELD: On Connie`s cellphone, on your iPhone you have a note section on her phone. She had a particular list on her iPhone, as well, right?
OWENS: She did. She had a list of reasons to divorce Richard debate and it contains a variety of grievances. He lies a lot. He spends money very
recklessly. He never properly cared for the children. Basically, he left everything to her. She was carrying the -- her claim is she was basically
doing everything in terms of supporting the family, raising the children and being the responsible adult in the marriage.
BANFIELD: I want to bring in Danny and Caroline again because, you know, in the business sometimes this is what you call a bad set of facts. But a
lot of them can be explained away, I mean, as a good defense attorney would say, you`re nervous, your wife just died, of course you`re not thinking
straight.
CEVALLOS: Do not talk to the authorities. Now, if you want to see a conviction, you want people like this to talk to authorities because they
are not particularly good at it. Defense attorneys will continue giving this advice until the end of the next millennium. People will continue to
ignore it. And people will continue to try to talk their way out of trouble with police.
BANFIELD: Also, they should watch "forensic files." if you try to stage a crime. You guys All right way smarter than we are.
POLISI: This guy is as likable as Scott Peterson. It really goes to the premeditation here. He went to great lengths to cover up this crime to get
away with murder and it`s not going to play well.
BANFIELD: Sometimes too many lengths because it will protest too much often times and sometimes forensics don`t match up. We`ll continue to
watch and see what happens in that case. My thanks to David Owens, appreciate that.
An Oklahoma teenager went on an after school field trip, right? We all do. But she came home with birth control. And not just any birth control, the
kind you can`t get out. Now her mom wants to know how on earth this could happen without her permission.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Remember those school trips you took as a kid to the state capital or museum or historical site, something fun? There is a mother in
Oklahoma who says if she knew where her daughter was headed on her school trip, she would never have let her go. Mrs. Miracle Foster says her
daughter ended -- attended a sex education lecture at a high school and that wasn`t so bad but the daughter apparently was interested and wanted to
learn more. So the school arranged for a group called youth services of Tulsa, they handled the discussion to take students off campus to a clinic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIRACLE FOSTER, DAUGHTER IMPLANTED WITH BIRTH CONTROL: I just did not expect this and like I said, that was not a choice. My child went on a
field trip and she came back with this in her arm and now this is in her arm for three years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So what did the clinic put into the 16-year-old`s arm? A three- year Norplant birth control implant, all without mom as consent, needless to say, Ms. Foster is livid.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Had I known that this field trip was for her to get that done, I would not have allowed her to go. I just feel like my rights as a parent
were violated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: You probably feel the same way. Here is what is crazy. Apparently youth services, that group, didn`t break any rules or didn`t
violate anyone`s rights or did not break the law. Under federal law, children as young as 12 can receive various forms of birth control without
a parent`s consent. Deborah Rothman is a human sexual educator and consultant and author of "Talk to me first" and she is also one of Time
magazine top parenting experts in the 21st century. She is live from Baltimore. Ok. Get me off the cliff Debbie, because it seems to me there
is just a million degrees of wrong with what happened to Miracle Foster and her daughter.
DEBORAH ROTHMAN, TIME MAGAZINE: Well, one could certainly understand her outrage. Parents and I have total empathy for her as someone especially
who works with parents all the time around these issues. We like -- we want to first instinct is to protect our children. We want to know where
they are, we want to know what is happening in for these lives and we want to be in control to the extent we can around those --
BANFIELD: I get all of this. All of this makes perfect sense but if my daughter came back to me with a Norplant implant that requires a scalpel to
get under your skin, under your arm, I would sue anybody I could actually touch. Am I wrong?
ROTHMAN: Well, there is more to it than that. There is nothing to object to whatsoever in this parent`s response as what I would expect and what
most people would feel in their situation but I want to paint a bigger picture here. These laws go back to the 1970s. They were originally
passed in a number of states throughout the country, Maryland was one of them so I`m very familiar with this and I worked in the field since the
1970s and what was going on is of course, if you`re a minor, they can`t give you Tylenol in school without your mother`s permission or guardian but
what was happening and is that positions, public health positions and others were seeing a kid showing up with problems and they selected four in
our state and you get right away why these four were selected. They were things kids did not feel comfortable talking with their parents about --
BANFIELD: I`m going to stop you there. I completely agree with you that kids don`t feel comfortable and I get why get the law is pass. Danny and
Caroline, help me out here. Give the kid a condom. A lot of parents will object to that but at least you`re not getting surgery and not having
something implanted into your blood stream. Where -- why am I wrong saying you can`t cut into my child without calling me?
CEVALLOS: We may have jumped into a legal loophole because federal regulations allow a minor 12 and above -- they are allowed to consent to
this, then the consent is to contraception and if contraception includes these implants, then --
BANFIELD: So is this a gray area? Like a legal loophole? I get the contraception argument. I`m not arguing that. I`m saying you cannot
perform surgery on my kid. How do I know what your clinic is and you sterilize things? How about, I don`t want my daughter having sex without a
condom, because there are other things that could happen to her.
POLISI: Absolutely, what we see here is that we have two (inaudible) which really is a child`s right or adolescent rights to have anonymity and it`s
budding up against the parental right to know what is going on in a child`s life. You`re absolutely right.
BANFIELD: The surgery, there is plenty of contraception out there that don`t require a scalpel. The school helps facilitates this, if I were
Miracle Foster I would be hiring a lawyer real quick and you know what -- there are a lot of parents angry about this, needless to say, I`m one of
them and it didn`t happen to my daughter. We`ll be back right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: It`s been very nice to have you here since these guys had to pull me off the ledge a million times tonight. I will really lose it.
Caroline thanks for being here.
CEVALLOS: Take it easy.
BANFIELD: I think they will take me out for a milk shake now. Thanks for being here. I will see you tomorrow night at 8:00. PRIMETIME JUSTICE.
Stay tuned. Next "HOW IT REALLY HAPPENED" with Hill Harper.
END
