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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield
Caught on Camera; Family Demands Justice; Adam Walsh`s Legacy; CNN Heroes. Aired 8-9pm ET
Aired July 27, 2017 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the trip of a lifetime, a 39-year-old woman from Utah was killed on board.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a lot of blood.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The woman lay dead on the deck just below.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The little girls (ph) from that room came running out, calling for help, that her parents had been in a fight. She sounded pretty
desperate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard terrible screaming. I mean, just -- you knew it wasn`t normal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we`re (EXPLETIVE DELETED) alive, bro!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re talking about saving his life and crashing into a cop. And this is it, this is the end. And I`m worried he`s going to
hurt somebody.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ryan Stiles wanted the world to see.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Broadcasting his high-speed chase with Clearwater police on Facebook, putting hundreds of families in fear and drinking
behind the wheel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) drink up!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Haley (ph) was too young to die. Charge of murder against Mr. Lara (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lara (ph) was a part-time public safety officer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The campus is large in a very wooded area.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now her family has filed a civil lawsuit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was beloved by her family and friends.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My heart breaks for the family.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She will be missed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOEY JACKSON, GUEST HOST: A pleasant good evening, everyone. I`m Joey Jackson, in for Ashleigh Banfield. And this is PRIMETIME JUSTICE.
Murder on the high seas, a woman killed during an Alaskan cruise, and the FBI says there`s no doubt who did it, her husband. Now, investigators say
it went down around 9:00 PM when passengers heard yelling coming from the couple`s cabin. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLES ROLAND, PASSENGER: (INAUDIBLE) turned in, and my wife was taking a shower. And I heard terrible screaming. I mean, just -- you knew it
wasn`t normal. And sounded like two or three ladies, or girls, definitely women screaming.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The little girls from that room came running out, calling for help, that her parents had been in a fight. She sounded pretty
desperate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JACKSON: So security personnel rushed into the room and they found 39- year-old Kristy Manzanares, you see her there, she was dead. Now, she had a nasty head wound, and members of the security team say there was blood
all over that room. And according to their report, Kristy`s husband had blood on his hands, as well as his clothing.
The ship has since moved to the next port, but without Kenneth Manzanares. That`s her husband. You know why? He`s behind bars. He`s facing a murder
charge.
Steve Helling is a staff writer for "People" magazine. He joins us from Orlando. So Steve, break it down for us. How did this occur? When did it
occur? Why did it occur?
STEVE HELLING, "PEOPLE": Well, we know it was, you know, in the evening as, you know, things are winding down. You know, they had -- this couple
had some girls, some daughters. So you know, it was the end of the day. And some sort of argument happened. We don`t know what the argument was
about. We don`t know how long the argument went on, but what we do know is that it ended with the husband allegedly hitting and hurting his wife and
she died.
And then, of course, he was distraught. There was some question of whether he was going to jump overboard. There was all sort -- it was just an ugly,
awful, tragic situation that all happened in a beautiful place.
JACKSON: No doubt. I mean, a cruise there. So Steve, what do we know about witnesses and what they`re talking about in terms of what they
actually saw and can later testify to?
HELLING: Well, the witnesses are very consistent with each other, with what they`re saying. They`re talking about hearing yelling and screaming,
hearing -- you know, seeing one of the girls come running out and saying, My parents are having a fight, seeing, you know, the husband ready to jump
overboard. You know, he actually put his butt up on the rail as if he was going to go over.
So you know, they all saw this chaotic situation, and that`s what they`re going to be able to talk about.
JACKSON: And Steve, I know it`s early, but is there any indication of a motive yet or a back story about -- you know, was there drama before the
cruise occurred? What was going on in the family? Anything you can tell us that you`ve learned so far?
HELLING: Well, we don`t know exactly how much drama had been going on beforehand, but we do know that in this instance at this time, something
that one of the affidavits says is that he, the husband, said, you know, She wouldn`t stop laughing at me. So it sounds like he just flew into some
sort of rage, and you know, acted out against her and she ended up dead. So we know that that happened. We don`t see a pattern of that history yet,
but it`s still early right now.
JACKSON: Steve Helling, staff writer, "People" magazine, we appreciate you.
Going to Charles Harris now. He`s a former chief of security for Carnival Cruise Lines. He joins us from Midland, Texas. And so I ask you, how does
a cruise -- when this occurs, what type of investigation goes on? How does it affect other passengers? Do they put the ship on lockdown? Take us
through that, if you can.
[20:05:02]CHARLES HARRIS, FORMER CARNIVAL CRUISE LINES CHIEF OF SECURITY (via telephone): Well, basically, what you`re talking about is a -- your
security team there is a mini-police force, in a way. A lot of them now since 2014 and 2012 with the new laws have received training in this.
So you know, once the security force has entered the area, they`re going to secure the area, secure the room, start taking witness testimonies and
doing everything necessary, notifying the staff captain, getting the Federal Bureau of Investigation notified and getting them all set up for
the crime scene investigation teams to get in there.
And you know, the biggest thing is here, looking at this, you know, this looks like a domestic violence case. And you know, you`ve got a small city
there, so this isn`t an uncommon occurrence. And I have to say that the cruise line did an excellent job and looking at what they`re doing and
notifying the people, compared to in the `80s and `90s, which is different now since the new rules.
JACKSON: Charles, let me ask you this because you`ve made reference to new rules and new laws. What are you referring to? And I`ll get to the
lawyers momentarily. We`ll talk about that more. But when you reference new rules and they`ve been trained accordingly, what new rules and laws are
you referring to?
HARRIS: We`re talking about the Security Act of 2010 and 2014 passed by the United States Congress stating that certain regulations are
requirements on the cruise ship, such as security cameras, such as the crew being required and the security teams being required to know how to secure
evidence, and the procedure of notifying the Federal Bureau of Investigation on any crimes that are committed on their ships.
JACKSON: And Charles, in that regard, what happened is, as I understand it, is it also had a reporting requirement where the cruise lines now have
to report officially the crimes that occur.
And I think we have a full-screen of the distinction between before the law went into effect and after, as far as the uptick in the amount of
instances. And you`ll see once we get to the full-screen how there`s a significant increase. Now, could you just tell us, based upon that
increase, is it because we`re seeing more crime on cruise ships, or is it because of the new reporting requirements and we see it there? So if --
what we`re seeing -- and I don`t know if you see this, Charles...
HARRIS: Yes.
JACKSON: ... but in 2015, it says there were 28 crimes reported. In 2016, there were 92 crimes reported. Now, in 2014, I understand that`s when they
then were obligated to have reporting requirements. Take us through that.
HARRIS: Well, you know, 2014 is the obligation that came out in the reporting of the crime. Previous to this act, they were called (ph) in `88
and `90 that the cruise lines had to turn out a report, but it wasn`t mandatory.
This report now is mandatory, facing criminal and civil penalties should they not report violence on a cruise ship. So you`re going to see a high
peak in the first years, and it should level out. But there is crimes on these ships. You must understand these are small cities, passengers, just
like a small town in any rural area. So you`re going to have crime and you`re going to have violence.
JACKSON: And let me ask you this...
HARRIS: (INAUDIBLE) rate that it`s happening now for the first time.
JACKSON: Oh, you mean the reporting? It`s good that the reporting is occurring?
HARRIS: Yes.
JACKSON: OK. And we have two great lawyers standing by. I`m going to get to them momentarily. But just let me ask you this. How do you keep
passengers calm? Obviously, you want to alert passengers that something is amiss on the ship, something terrible happened, but you can`t announce to
passengers that someone`s dead, can you? So what do they do in this instance?
HARRIS: Well, a lot of the times, it is the staff captain, the crew and then also the cruise director that keeps people calm. And it`s the way
they handle the situation, cool, calm and collected. Don`t get people excited. Talk to the people. Isolate the area. And use whatever
techniques to keep people calm and away from the area.
And then start inquiring gradually people that have seen the incident and start doing your background work and investigative work.
JACKSON: And you`re satisfied, Charles, that that`s what happened in this instance.
HARRIS: Really, what I`ve seen so far on some of the back sides (ph) of it, I think they`ve done an excellent job. I am very proud that they`re
starting to do this. I have enjoyed reading about the training that they`re getting competent at protecting these passengers that are
traveling.
JACKSON: Charles Harris, stand by. We appreciate that insight. And obviously, the more training, the merrier. Joining us now from Los
Angeles, two great attorneys, Margie Mow and Darren Kavinoky. It`s been so long, Darren Kavinoky!
(LAUGHTER)
JACKSON: Too long.
DARREN KAVINOKY, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It`s been a while Joey, yes. Great to see you.
JACKSON: Indeed. Good to see you. Margie, not as long with you. So Darren, let me ask you starting out, obviously, there seems to be some
pretty compelling evidence. You have witnesses here who were -- seemingly, something is amiss, right?
[20:10:07]And then you have another witness who sees the husband, who is alleged to have engaged in this crime, sitting on a railing. Who knows?
Was he trying to kill himself? How do you begin to defend something like this.
KAVINOKY: Well, exactly by describing what`s just been described, Joey, which is there`s a lot more questions than there are answers right now.
And it`s a huge leap from there seems to be something amiss to it`s a murder and this is the guy that did it.
And one of the challenges that you`re dealing with in this environment is the integrity of the crime scene and the integrity of the evidence. So
you`ve got this small city, as we`ve been hearing about, that -- thousands of people and what`s essentially a moving crime scene that`s going from
port to port. You have the dangers of witnesses talking to each other because they`re not necessarily segregated from each other. So those
stories can evolve and thereby become contaminated over time.
You`ve got the possibility of evidence degrading as things are being moved around. It`s a real legitimate challenge for investigators to maintain
that, which means there`s lots of opportunities for defense lawyers to do their work of poking holes in it.
JACKSON: Well stated. So Margie Mow, how do you begin to deal with that? Obviously, the defense is going to argue, you know, about this moving crime
scene and things can get contaminated and witnesses can sort of spill into each other. How do you deal with that from either prosecution`s
perspective or defense perspective? Take us through it.
MARGIE MOW, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, on the prosecution side, they caught him red-handed. Yes, it`s a small city, but it`s an even smaller cabin.
He was in there. They heard them yelling at screaming at each other. Then they come in, he`s bloody, she`s dead. He`s trying to throw her overboard.
So it`s pretty much a slam case for the prosecution.
And I`m very concerned about the wellbeing of the child. Their children were there on this anniversary cruise, and at least one of their children
witnessed this horrific murder. And he definitely should be punished to the highest extent of the law for his crime.
JACKSON: So Margie, stand by. Darren, I have another question for you. But I understand that, Charles, you have something, Charles Harris?
HARRIS: Yes, back into what both the attorneys have said, they`re correct. You`ve got witnesses that (INAUDIBLE) there`s the statements of the
children that were in the room, the next-door neighbor. It is hard to preserve the crime scene, but that is part of the requirements that came
out of this new law, to require them to have the training which to preserve it and to have it for the crime scene people.
(CROSSTALK)
JACKSON: Go ahead, Darren.
KAVINOKY: No, sorry to interrupt Charles. But as somebody who has personally misbehaved on cruise ships before, albeit in a much milder
fashion...
JACKSON: Lighter fashion than this.
KAVINOKY: Yes, indeed. Indeed. And the statute`s long since passed. But it`s really more of a surprise, frankly, that we don`t see more criminal
prosecutions and misbehavior on these cruise ships. You`re dealing with a lot of alcohol being poured, a lot of problems of enforcement, as you`ve
got a ship in international waters. There`s a lot of challenges for those in the law enforcement community.
And you think about the number -- the thousands of people on each ship and the number of ships on the high seas every day, and frankly, it`s
surprising to me that the numbers aren`t higher.
JACKSON: Well stated. Stand by. Just moving on. An alleged drunk driver live streams his wild ride down a Florida beach. Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one on the beach. We remain in contact with that individual due to the fear that he may...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JACKSON: And now he`s sitting in jail, facing a laundry list of charges. We`re going to talk about it. That`s next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:17:56]JACKSON: This next story is a real head scratcher. Police in Clearwater Beach, Florida, say a guy led them on a chase on the road and
then on the sand, and then he was accused of drunk driving. And while he was drunk driving, he was also livestreaming on Facebook the entire time.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we`re (EXPLETIVE DELETED) wired, bro! Hey! Whoa! (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Crash parade, bro! We`re going to Goddamn die! We`re
on the Goddamn beach and we`re going to die! We`re going to die, bro! Oh (EXPLETIVE DELETED) protect (INAUDIBLE) Oh (EXPLETIVE DELETED) man! My
transmission just went out, guys. I`m going down. I`m going down. I`m going down. That`s it. That`s it. That`s it. They know I`m (EXPLETIVE
DELETED). Bro, we`re going to drink up!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JACKSON: Investigators say that the wild joyride lasted a full nine minutes, and then they say that he was arrested. That`s 27-year-old Ryan
Stiles that you`re looking at now. And what stunned them most was that he was driving on the beach, as you saw. Take a look.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Now, is he saying that he`s intoxicated?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, he`s drinking on Facebook Live video. He`s drinking Canadian Mist and Budweisers.
911 OPERATOR: OK, so Canadian Mist, is that whiskey?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it is. And he`s talking about saving his life and crashing into a cop, and this is it, this is the end, and I`m worried
he`s going to hurt somebody. You guys need to get as many officers out there because he`s talking about protecting families from the cops.
[20:20:02]911 OPERATOR: Does he have any weapons that you`re aware of?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not that I`m aware of.
911 OPERATOR: OK. Is he known to be armed?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s known to be violent, but not armed that I know of. He`s borderline suicidal, and I know he has a personality disorder.
911 OPERATOR: OK. Does he take any kind of medication that you`re aware of or is he...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
911 OPERATOR: (INAUDIBLE) anything?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He won`t get help and he keeps using drugs. I tried to help him by bonding him out and making him stay at home. But he won`t
stop driving a car and he won`t stop drinking and doing drugs.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
JACKSON: Roger Schulman is the news director for AM 860, "The Answer." That`s WGUL. He joins us from Tampa, Florida. So what in the world? What
was his blood level? What brought this about? What occurred? How were police able to gain him under control? So many questions, and I know you
have some answers.
ROGER SCHULMAN, AM 860 WGUL (via telephone): Well, I do. And compliment to the Clearwater Police Department. If it wasn`t for their
professionalism, he probably would be dead now because he was trying to commit suicide by cop.
This guy was -- you saw on the video, he was drinking from a flask of whiskey as he was driving over people`s umbrellas and chairs and other
things at the beach. People were running for their lives. This is an exceedingly dangerous situation, and he didn`t care one bit.
JACKSON: And Roger, just to be clear, yes, he would be dead, but more importantly, someone else might be dead because of his activities there.
Do we know what he blew, or did he refuse or what`s the -- what are the logistics behind that?
SCHULMAN: He refused to blow initially. I don`t know what it came out to be, but it was obvious from his behavior that he was drunk, and he was
charged with drunk driving, among other things. He is still in jail. His conduct is so erratic and dangerous that he remains in jail.
JACKSON: And that`s exactly where he belongs, Roger. And just a couple more questions. I know we have the chief here, as well. But in terms of
any close calls with people as he was rolling through the beach and going nuts and drinking that we know of?
SCHULMAN: Absolutely. I`ve been here since 1972, and nothing like this has ever happened on Clearwater Beach. This is a first, nine minutes going
through a populated beach area on a sunny, beautiful day. People were actually running for their lives. Once it was over, some of the tourists
thought it was pretty neat seeing it. I guess they thought it was kind of the entertainment. But this is something that does not happen ever.
JACKSON: Yikes! Roger Schulman, that`s a very good thing. I hope it doesn`t happen again. So we have -- stand by. We have Chief Daniel
Slaughter of the Clearwater Police Department. He joins us now from St. Petersburg.
So Chief, what can you tell us about this? Kudos to your men for bringing him under control and not harming him and him not harming anybody else.
What was this all about?
DANIEL SLAUGHTER, CLEARWATER POLICE CHIEF: Well, he ended up indicating that he wanted to end his life and he was going to go out in a blaze of
glory. The thing that`s very unique about this case, of course, is the Facebook Live streaming and that we have an in-progress crime that`s
getting reported to us not only from our own residents in city of Clearwater but from people in a county north of us and people as far as
California.
JACKSON: And just to be clear, it seems to me he wanted to end his life, but ironically, it came to an end when he drove the car into the water. So
if he wanted to end his life, I mean, he could have easily continued to drive. That didn`t happen, did it?
SLAUGHTER: No, I mean, thankfully, he -- obviously, when people are in a manic condition sometimes, they eventually come to their senses, at least
to the point where they don`t necessarily want to actually follow through with it. This did go on for, as you pointed out, nine minutes. Had he
made a left turn on Clearwater Beach, as opposed to a right turn, it`s a much, much more populated segment to the beach to the south. He went
north. And unfortunately, we did have a contingency plan available, in case he was to turn around and start heading back to the more populated
area.
JACKSON: Yikes! Any injuries to your men, Chief, in bringing this under control?
SLAUGHTER: We`re very thankful that none of the officers were injured, none of the citizens were injured and Mr. Stiles was not injured, as well.
JACKSON: Amen to that. And also, in terms of his alcohol level, was that ever able to be determined? Did you get a warrant to draw any blood?
Would that have been possible even?
SLAUGHTER: In this particular case, he`s still a misdemeanor. He only has one prior conviction of DUI and there was nobody injured, so we documented
it as a refusal because he chose not to give us a sample, a breath sample.
JACKSON: OK. And how willingly the person who wanted to kill himself did he go ultimately, when your fine men surrounded him and stopped him?
SLAUGHTER: He actually -- he succumbed to their authority at that point. Once his vehicle became disabled and they were able to pinch his vehicle to
keep it from going anywhere further, the officers gave him some commands, and thankfully, he just chose to follow those commands and didn`t get into
a scuffle with the officers, which he does have a history of doing in the past. So we were grateful for that.
JACKSON: Now, when you say history of the past, Chief Slaughter, what do you mean? What past are you referring to?
[20:25:00]SLAUGHTER: Not too long ago, he -- it wasn`t an incident with our agency, but he was arrested for some type of disorderly conduct,
alcohol-related incident at an establishment in Pinellas County, and he resisted the officers at that time. So he does have a history. And you
could even -- one of the call takers that called into the dispatch even was sharing that information that he had a history of that violence.
JACKSON: Yikes! And Chief, I want to get to the lawyers momentarily, but just let me ask you this. In terms of the observations of your men, even
though he didn`t blow -- and by men, I mean fine men and women of your police department -- were there -- what were those observations? Do you
have them do a field sobriety test, you know, touch your nose, stand on a leg? Was he capable of doing any of that?
SLAUGHTER: He surely was uncooperative and volatile, even in our booking cell. You may have heard that while he was in our booking cell, he was
verbally abusive to the employees and ended up punching and taking a belt and smashing one of the windows to the booking cell. So he really wasn`t
in a cooperative nature to comply with instructions to do field sobriety. In this particular case, of course, there`s a litany of other charges. And
so we`re pretty comfortable that he`ll see some significant convictions.
JACKSON: I`m pretty comfortable with these facts, Chief Slaughter, that he will, too. And we certainly appreciate you and the men and women of your
police department that do this.
Stand by for one minute, if you can. I just want to get to the lawyers, Darren Kavinoky and Margie Mow just taking us through this. And so Margie,
I`ll start with you. Defense?
MOW: Well, I`ll let Darren do the defense since I can see he`s...
(LAUGHTER)
MOW: He`s ready to go on that. And I`ll take the prosecution.
JACKSON: I can`t wait to hear you, Darren. I cannot wait to hear your defense, Darren. Go ahead, Margie.
MOW: As far as the prosecution`s side, I mean, this man is a danger to society. He should not have been released. They should have known that he
was dangerous when he got arrested the first time. He was resisting arrest and being aggressive towards the officer. They still released him, I`m
presuming, on bail. This time, he shouldn`t be given bail.
And the other issue is, given the society that we live in today and all of the officer-involved shootings, you have to ask yourself, if this was an
African-American male, would he be alive today? And I believe the answer is absolutely not. And I think that he thought he was going to go out in a
blaze of fire, and that wasn`t the case. And I have to wonder if race was not a factor in that.
JACKSON: Aha! So Darren, I got to go to you. Margie raises some good points here. On the issue of bail, though, I`ll take that one. The bail
issue, right, is to ensure your return to court, right? Not to gang up on you, Margie, but ultimately...
MOW: Not just that.
JACKSON: ... it`s you want to get him to court.
(CROSSTALK)
KAVINOKY: I`ll actually going to help Margie out on this one. Margie, hang on for a second. So bail is the -- is usually the only circumstance
where the court actually presumes that you`re guilty not innocent, as in every other phase of the criminal justice system, and them fixes bail in an
amount necessary to secure your attendance, as you point out, Joey, but also to ensure the safety of the community.
JACKSON: Wonderful.
KAVINOKY: And that`s probably where this defendant didn`t meet the criteria. And of course, Facebook -- we can debate whether social media
now provides just a new opportunity for people to be stupider on a broader level. I`m sure in the case of prosecutors, they love having that video as
a tool that`s available. And frankly, as a defense lawyer, as well, you`re able to have a much more frank "come to Jesus" conversation with your
client when the crime`s been captured on video footage.
JACKSON: I think what Darren Kavinoky is saying about "Come to Jesus" conversation is to say, Take the plea now so that we don`t have to move
forward. But I`m going to let Margie have the last word in one moment. But Darren, your best defense. In 20 seconds, your best defense. And
then, of course, prosecutors have to close it out since they have the burden, so I`m going to give the burden to her. But you tell me, 20
seconds.
KAVINOKY: So -- so here`s the deal, that this isn`t about guilt or innocence. This is about how the system regards this human being. He`s
going to have a release date, and unless something happens to affect the way this guy views the world, the thinking that leads to his decisions and
actions, he`s going to be a repeat customer of the justice system.
So instead of just warehousing him with people who think the same broken way, why don`t we do something innovative, admit that what`s been going on
so far hasn`t been working and try and solve the underlying problem and not just the symptom?
JACKSON: Margie, 10 seconds, last word.
MOW: Hard to rebut that. However, the DMV should suspend his license for at least a year, if he was in California, for refusing to give a chemical
test sample.
JACKSON: That`s the least they can do. Wow! Glad people are not dead.
Stand by, Darren Kavinoky and Margie Mow, as we move on because in Oklahoma, a city councilman, speaking of which, is out of a job after
allegedly driving drunk and then appearing to try to use his position to pressure the police to go easy on him. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sit tight just a minute.
J.J. VANCE, ARRESTED FOR DUI: City council.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What`s that?
VANCE: City council.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What about city council?
VANCE: I`m on the city council.
JACKSON (voice-over): Now, Vance then proceeded to fail a field sobriety test that was taken in, and he was booked where again he tried to sway the
officers.
VANCE: All I can tell you all is you all just be as nice as you can to me because I am on the city council. If you call can just fine me and let me
go home, I will (beep) raise all kinds of money for your (beep).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ll do what we can do, but we don`t make deals.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, that`s not how it works.
JACKSON (voice-over): Now, cops say that Vance offered to pay $5,000 directly to the police department in exchange for being released. The chief
of police says that`s not how the legal process works at all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you`re a city council member or another elected official or a member of some sort of other city or governmental agency,
that does not make you above the law.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JACKSON: Now, J.J. Vance was charged with aggravated driving under the influence. He submitted his resignation to the Anadarko City council this
afternoon.
And in Oregon, a coed is allegedly killed by security guard at her college. Now the school is being sued. Why? For hiring a suspected murderer as the
family demands justice. Stay tuned.
[20:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JACKSON: The family of a murder victim is now suing the college that hired her accused killer. Police say that Kaylee Sawyer was kidnapped one year
ago after accepting a ride from a campus safety officer in Bend, Oregon. According to the lawsuit, Kaylee had been at a bachelorette party and she
called her boyfriend for a ride.
Apparently, the two argued and she went for a walk around the Central Oregon Community College campus, and investigators say that`s when Edwin
Lara, you see him there, a security officer, well, he offered her a ride back to her apartment.
That`s when the lawsuit claims that Kaylee turned down Lara`s advances and alleges that he refused to let her out of the car, strangled her into
unconsciousness, hit her with a rock, raped her, and then crushed her skull with an even larger rock. Look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s really scary to think that that could happen to any one of us. I`d love to go on walks since I take my dogs all the time.
If something like that would happen just out of the blue, I mean, it`s really scary to think about.
It`s just really scary especially because Bend is such a safe town and all the policemen here are so nice, you know, public safety officers are so
nice. Then to hear that somebody`s meant to keep us safe is the person of interest, it`s really freaky.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JACKSON: Now, police arrested Edwin Lara and he`s facing murder charges. But as for Kaylee`s family, they want and deserve justice for their
daughter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN HUMMEL, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, DESCHUTES COUNTY: Our community is grieving the loss of a beautiful soul today. Kaylee`s family and friends want to
share how much we love Kaylee and miss her already.
We are appreciative of our community and the support we have received throughout this investigation, and we ask that you keep us in your prayers.
We also want to thank the members of the major crime team for their work on this case. We`re proud of our law enforcement and think they did a great
job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JACKSON: Craig Fronek is a freelance reporter working on the story. He joins us from Medford, Oregon. So, tell us, what do you know? What`s the
latest involving the criminal case?
CRAIG FRONEK, FREELANCE REPORTER (via telephone): Joey, thanks for having me. I followed this case a year ago when it broke. I`m 170 miles away from
the Bend Redmond area. And we just couldn`t figure out why a campus safety officer would be involved in this. He originally claimed he mysteriously
hit her with the vehicle.
There wasn`t any evidence until it just came out he was high speed chase, he was caught in California, he was extradited back. We`ve had to wait.
This is -- they were seeking the death penalty in Oregon. But then the information starts coming out.
You know, he and his girlfriend, wife, they were both in law enforcement. She was newly hired by the Bend police. You seen things on the surface seem
to be okay, and then I only can say what I said a year ago, he just cracked. He just cracked. He saw a drunk young lady and I think he took
advantage.
JACKSON: Anything in his background that might give the indication that he would do this? I`m wondering why he was on that security team.
FRONEK (via telephone): Well, it`s interesting, he had taken some criminal justice classes in the past. He was seeming to like his work. He was
working graveyard. And, however, however, they now found that he had -- he`d been on since 2014. There had been some issues that he`d been accused
of approaching a couple of women.
The college didn`t seem to do anything. But also, he had applied for more law enforcement agencies and failed the psychological examination. Now,
this didn`t come out until later. And there`s unusual behavior and mannerisms that were starting to question his ability.
JACKSON: Craig Fronek, it boggles the mind. We appreciate. You stand by because we also have Tim Williams. He is the attorney for the Kaylee Sawyer
family. He joins us here right now. Thank you so much for being here.
[20:40:00] So, take us through -- first thing I have to ask you is how is the family at this point?
TIM WILLIAMS, ATTORNEY FOR KAYLEE SAWYER`S FAMILY: Well, you know, thanks, Joey. They`re getting along. You know, it was certainly just a
heartbreaking situation for everybody involved. She has a split family.
Her father and mother -- biological father and mother divorced years ago. Jaime (ph) Sawyer is her father. He`s married to Crystal Julie (ph). Van
Cleave (ph) is her mother. She`s married to Chris (ph).
JACKSON: Right.
WILLIAMS: And they all loved her so much. They`re doing better. The one- year anniversary is really tough for them.
JACKSON: Absolutely.
WILLIAMS: They found some solace in the fact that we filed on the one-year anniversary of her death.
JACKSON: And I want to talk about that, because I read through this lawsuit. Very well done. Just take us through some of the claims that you
have and what you`re seeking to get as a remedy for some of these claims.
WILLIAMS: Sure. Well, there`s 12 claims in total. Three of which are civil rights claims. And I actually brought a civil rights lawyer a bit ago who
specializes in that area of law.
JACKSON: Because he was working for the municipality and as a result of that he was acting under the color of law, is that the claim?
WILLIAMS: You got it, yes, absolutely.
JACKSON: OK.
WILLIAMS: In addition to that, we have several state rights claims including negligence of the college itself, gross negligence of the
college.
This goes into the policies and procedures they really had in place, some of the actions they overlooked of others, a personnel of the college
including one individual placing a camera in the women`s locker room and they didn`t call the police. They just gave him his camera back and --
JACKSON: Who was on staff?
WILLIAMS: Yes.
JACKSON: Really?
WILLIAMS: Yes. And then in addition to that, the Bend Police Department had issued warnings about 18 months before Kaylee`s death that they were in
violation of the law. They were acting outside the scope of what a non- commissioned police officer or security officer was allowed to do. And they essentially ignored that advice and continued on the process.
JACKSON: Ouch.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
JACKSON: So take us through the training and experience or lack thereof that someone like this officer had or did not have that might have led to
this.
WILLIAMS: Right. Well, to my knowledge -- and again I have to be very careful what I say --
JACKSON: Of course.
WILLIAMS: -- because, you know, there are two active lawsuits. The civil case and the criminal case. I don`t want to prejudice either.
JACKSON: Thank you for that, of course.
WILLIAMS: So I have to be cautious. But it is pled in the complaint, in the civil complaint, that Mr. Lara was DPSST certified by the Department of
Public Safety that the state of Oregon runs.
He had gone through some preliminary training but the training he goes was nothing along the line of what a commissioned police officer would go
through. The testing is nothing along the lines what a commissioned police officer would go through including any psychological testing.
JACKSON: And just briefly on the issue of supervision, how could a supervision help prevented something like this?
WILLIAMS: Well, when you have employees that are questioning the behavior of Mr. Lara, questioning whether he`s fit for the job, either -- we don`t
know yet. The discovery is just now starting.
JACKSON: Yes.
WILLIAMS: Either reporting it and is being ignored or failing to report, maybe they had a policy where they fail to report, that causes some real
concerns.
And, you know, allowing these campus security officers to drive cars with cages in them, allowing them to make arrests when they`re not allowed to do
so under Oregon law, allowing them to wear bulletproof vests and look exactly like the Bend Police Department, it causes some real concern in
terms the of what they`re being -- how they feel they can act in terms of their entitlement and their abilities.
JACKSON: Needless to say, Tim, we certainly -- our hearts go out to the family, of course. We wish you luck in the lawsuit. I know lawsuit`s not
only about money but about some long-term structural changes that could perhaps save other people`s lives from people like him.
WILLIAMS: Absolutely.
JACKSON: Thank you for being here. Appreciate you. Thank you, Tim. So in 1981, the disappearance of Adam Walsh`s sent -- well, we see him there,
Adam Walsh`s sent shock waves across the country and changed the way that parents really parent their kids. So straight ahead, Adam`s brother,
Callahan Walsh, he joins us to talk about his family`s latest chapter in their ongoing pursuit for justice.
[20:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JACKSON: This Sunday, the fourth season of "The Hunt with John Walsh" premieres at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Walsh has made the search of fugitives, his
life`s work. This week, he`s on the hunt for an accused rapist who forced his 17-year-old victim to marry him and then psychologically tortured her
for years. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I never loved him, but over the next two years, I started to bond with him. And I knew that this was not a normal bonding. I
didn`t want to be with him. But it felt like I had to go along with his demands.
JOHN WALSH, THE HUNT SHOW HOST: This is Stockholm syndrome. Stockholm syndrome bends your thinking. It bends your ability to get away. It bends
you into submission and bends you into compliance to stay alive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It felt like he was unraveling. He called himself the last voice of the church age. And he told me that he was a prophet of God.
Once time he made me watch videos of executions from war conflicts. He told me that`s what I`ll do to you if you leave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:50:00] JACKSON: Dino Curcio is currently on the run and you can help track him down by watching "The Hunt with John Walsh" next Sunday night at
8:00 p.m. Eastern.
So, Callahan Walsh is a senior specialist with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. He also is the son of John Walsh who is the
host of "The Hunt with John Walsh," in America`s most wanted. He joins us, you see him there, from Washington, D.C. So it`s great to have you here.
And I do want to get into your work, but before I do, if you don`t mind, if I can ask you just from a personal perspective, you know, growing up in a
home where your family endured such a tragedy and just made so much of it, how was that for you?
CALLAHAN WALSH, SENIOR SPECIALIST, NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN: Well, growing up, I always knew about Adam. You know, there
wasn`t a moment where my parents just dropped a bombshell on me one day sitting on the couch. You know, we celebrated Adam`s birthday.
I knew his favorite movies and his favorite sports, which is "Star Wars" and baseball. We really wanted to make sure -- and I was always told this
by my parents -- that we make sure that Adam did not die in vain. And if the songs to continue that we must do the singing.
The creation of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which my parents co-founded after Adam`s abduction, I`m very proud to work there,
I`m honored to work there with with many great individuals that their whole mission is to bring missing children home.
You know, my parents received so many letters of parents from other missing children that weren`t getting the attention that Adam`s case got. Adam`s
case changed the way missing children`s cases were thought of, investigated, publicized.
Adam`s case just got the attention that many cases weren`t. Because of that, my parents created the National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children, and we`ve helped bring home over 232,000 missing children.
JACKSON: Now, that`s amazing, Callahan, as we look at your wonderful young brother, played little league and run around the bases there. Just amazing
to see. So, you know, really your family has turned this into a mission that helped so many.
How have you been able to help these other families? What systems have you designed there to provide not only support but action with these missing
children?
C. WALSH: Well, over our 30 years of incorporation, we got some great operations there at the national center. We have a kick butt missing
children`s division, our case analysis division, and our exploited children`s division.
The other half of the house is the exploited side. You know, that deals with children caught in sex trafficking rings or children that are being
used for child pornography that spread across the internet. It`s very vast what we do for parents of missing children, for the victims.
We really encourage any parents who are going through something like that to reach out to the national center. All of our resources are free, law
enforcement as well. We have great programs like "Project Alert" and "Team Adam" which are deployed on site when a missing child goes missing. The
resources there at the national center are top notch.
JACKSON: No doubt about it. So tell us about the show, if you can.
C. WALSH: Oh, absolutely. You know, I was a producer for my father for a number of years and happy to see "The Hunt" continue. You know, he`s had
this mission since day one. But he wasn`t in television before Adam was kidnapped, but he really took it upon himself to make sure that, again,
Adam didn`t die in vain.
I can honestly say that my father is my role model. He`s somebody who has made a difference. He used to end every show with "you can make a
difference" and he (INAUDIBLE) individual that is gone out there and brought home thousands of criminals that would still be out on the streets
if wasn`t for great shows like "America`s Most Wanted" and "The Hunt" that is really harnessing the power of the public to do the right thing, make
the call.
People don`t want murderers and rapists living next to them. Using the power of the public and harnessing them, you know, they saddle up, they
make the call, and that`s how we get the arrests.
JACKSON: Without question. Just briefly, how significant is that to have that media attention, the exposure to get people and communities involved
in saying, you know what? I have information?
C. WALSH: It`s everything. It`s what we called the white hot spotlight. Oftentimes the police are so overrun with cases. They don`t get the funding
that they deserve oftentimes. And sometimes these cases can go cold. Over time the interest in these cases goes away. Although some of the cases can
be a little bit older, justice delayed is not justice denied.
JACKSON: Without question. Callahan Walsh, we appreciate what you do, what your father does, what your family does, what missing for exploited
children does, and of course what "The Hunt" does too. So, thanks for joining us.
C. WALSH: Thank you very much.
JACKSON: OK. And again "The Hunt with John Walsh" premieres this Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. We`ll be right back.
[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JACKSON: This week`s CNN hero is from Southeast Asia. With his wire rimmed glasses and mild manner, he could be described as a Malaysian Clark Kent.
This wildlife biologist is a superman of sorts who is a defender of the world`s smallest bear, the sun bear, which is on the threat. Meet Siew Te
Wong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIEW TE WONG, CNN HERO: (INAUDIBLE) twenty years ago, no one has ever studied sun bears. The more I learned about them, the more I care. The more
I care, the more I worry. I have to help them. And this is why I want to be the voice for the sun bear. To fight for the sun bear. To ensure the
survival of the sun bear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JACKSON: To see more of these adorable sun bears, the world`s smallest bear, find out, well, how Wong is just helping them and doing it right, go
to cnnheroes.com and while there, you can nominate someone that you think should be a 2017 CNN hero.
[21:00:00] On behalf of Ashleigh Banfield and the entire HLN "Primetime Justice" team, I`m Joey Jackson. Thank you so much for watching. "Forensic
Files" starts right now.
END
