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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield

Wife Stabbed 123 Times, Man Blames Cold Meds; Horrifying Details; Inside With Chris Cuomo; Inmates File Lawsuit; Shocking Mug Shot. Aired 8- 9p ET

Aired October 18, 2017 - 20:00   ET

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


UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ma`am, ma`am, this is a serious matter.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST (voice-over): A bone-chilling call to 911.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And (INAUDIBLE) is not -- is no way in the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) she left my babies dead.

BANFIELD: A mother reporting her two kids dead and burned by the oven.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was laying on my (INAUDIBLE), my youngest son (INAUDIBLE) and my other son was laid out on the floor with his brains laid

out on the floor!

BANFIELD: But cops say she didn`t find those boys in the oven. She put them there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My baby`s dead!

BANFIELD: And the father says what Mom did next was even worse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My kids are dead. She (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s worse than I thought it was.

BANFIELD: Perhaps the understatement of the year.

An aspiring pastor says he blacked out on cold medicine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, so bad. There`s no (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s no excuse for this kind of behavior.

BANFIELD: And woke up with his dead wife covered in blood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, God!

BANFIELD: Now her autopsy reveals how she died.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

BANFIELD: Stabbed not once, not twice, not even 20 times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) did it (INAUDIBLE) Why?

BANFIELD: Try 123 times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know what -- oh, God.

BANFIELD: What else does the autopsy tell us that he himself can`t?

Oklahoma police say this man raped and married an 11-year-old girl, then ran off with her to Mexico.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m telling the truth.

BANFIELD: For nearly two decades, she says she was held captive, bearing nine children, telling "People" magazine...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was going to get away. (INAUDIBLE)

BANFIELD: And finally, she got her chance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`ve been waiting my whole life for somebody to find me.

BANFIELD: Now he`s back in the States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most of her lies, 99 percent are lies.

BANFIELD: He claims he didn`t rape that 11-year-old girl but simply made love to his wife and that all those kids are lying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They`ve been manipulated and they`re lying.

BANFIELD: Tell it to the judge.

It`s a smash TV hit, burning up screens across the country, but now someone is messing with "Empire."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The party is over.

BANFIELD: Fox is being sued by inmates who claim they were locked down to make way for cameras.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Forget whose house this is.

BANFIELD: Now a judge says the detention center may be on the hook.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Good evening, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is PRIMETIME JUSTICE.

Atlanta police have a case on their hands that would make even veteran officers shudder. A 23-year-old mother of four is in their lockup after

being charged with killing her baby boys, ages 1 and 2. But it is the way that she may have killed them that is making headlines. And they are

simply bewildering headlines. The autopsies aren`t in yet, but the crime scene sure does have some ghastly clues.

The children were said to be badly burned, and an oven was removed from the apartment by investigators. Lamora Williams herself yielded a few clues

when she dialed up 911 and in a very calm voice, she told them she had something serious to say. She said she`d left her kids with a cousin, whom

she did not name, and that she`d come home from work to find them dead, though neighbors said she had no job.

Listen to her call, but be sure to note how many times she mentions that she doesn`t want to go to jail and how many times she refuses to give them

her address and how often she tells them that she just returned from work to find those kids dead. You be the judge if she`s telling the truth with

apparently two dead children on the floor in front of her.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: Atlanta 911. (INAUDIBLE) What`s the address of your emergency?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, ma`am, ma`am, I have a question, and this is a serious matter. I just left my cousin in the house with my kids. She left

my kids in the house when I came back from work. And my kids -- two of my kids are dead. What do I got to do? They dead. She left them dead in the

house by themselves!

[20:05:06]911 OPERATOR: OK, ma`am. Where are you now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m here at my house. She left my door open. My baby boy, my oldest baby boy is the only one that`s here and the only one

that`s alive. She left them in the house by themselves. She left them in here, and they`re not that old. Can you listen? When I came in, the stove

was laying on my son (ph), my youngest son`s head and my other son was laid out on the floor with his brains laid out on the floor. I don`t know what

to do! I just came to work from this and she just left my babies dead!

911 OPERATOR: OK. Ma`am, I`m going to get EMS and I`m going to get police and fire at the location. Can you tell me where you`re located?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ma`am, I can`t even talk. This is so serious. I`m so scared. I don`t want to get locked up because I was at work!

911 OPERATOR: OK, ma`am...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I don`t -- I don`t (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: I understand that you`re scared. I completely understand, but I need to get some help out there to you now. Can you tell me where

you`re located?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I understand that, but can you please help me? Like, can you please tell me -- like, I don`t want to get locked up because this

is not my fault. I had just came home from work. I just came home from work!

911 OPERATOR: Yes, ma`am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just came home from work!

911 OPERATOR: OK. Ma`am, the first thing that I need to do is get some help out there to you. I understand that you`re upset and you`re scared...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`ve been here dead. Like, it`s not -- it`s no way in the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) she left my babies dead. And I don`t have

no way to reach her.

911 OPERATOR: OK. If you`re not sure -- if you were at work...

(CROSSTALK)

911 OPERATOR: Ma`am, listen to me. If you were at work while this happened, then the responsibility is going to fall on your sister, if

that`s who you left them with. OK? So where are you...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: Can you tell me where you are? Where are you located now? Where are you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m located in 979 Howell Place.

911 OPERATOR: OK. Hold on one moment because I`m going also to get EMS on the line, as well, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, please!

911 OPERATOR: Hold on one moment. Yes, ma`am. Stay on the line with me, though. Hold on one moment (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

EMS: EMS. What`s the address of the emergency?

911 OPERATOR: EMS, the caller (INAUDIBLE) 979 Howell Place southwest. That`s 979 Howell Place southwest.

EMS: All right, ma`am, what`s the phone number you`re calling from?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 404 -- (DELETED).

EMS: OK, tell me exactly what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I just came home from work, my babies was (INAUDIBLE) in the stove! (INAUDIBLE) came home from work and my cousin

was baby-sitting my kids and left my kids dead in my house. And no telling how long they`ve been in this house.

EMS: All right, wait. So you -- is your -- is your child (ph), is he obviously dead? Is he breathing at all? Can you tell me (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s dead! He`s burnt! Both of my children are dead. Their head is burnt. Their skull is laying on this floor! The

stove is (INAUDIBLE) pulled over and everything!

EMS: All right. Atlanta, can we get (INAUDIBLE) to this location? I`m operator 839.

911 OPERATOR: Yes, we have PD and fire already en route to that location. I`m 7054.

EMS: All right. Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please help me! Oh, please!

EMS: All right, ma`am. I`m en route, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Thank you so much.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BANFIELD: 911 got another call that night, too, but it came from the father of those babies. The officers say Lamora Facetimed the images of

his dead children to him. And here is his call to the police.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just received a call from my child`s mother that two of my youngest -- two dead babies, my sons are dead in an apartment.

911 OPERATOR: OK. Did she call 911? What`s the address?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, she didn`t call 911. She called me and she video called me and showed me this. And I seen it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Dr. Daniel Bober is a forensic psychiatrist and assistant clinical professor at Yale`s School of Medicine and he joins me from Fort

Lauderdale.

Dr. Bober, and I wanted to get your thoughts when you heard that voice on the 911 call calmly saying she had something serious to say, and before

ever mentioning anything about her children being dead, she had a full story about a cousin, then a sister leaving those children to die. What

are your thoughts?

DR. DANIEL BOBER, FORENSIC PSYCHIATRIST: I mean, it`s so disturbing. It`s horrific. I don`t think she really helped herself with that 911 call. Her

first concern was about herself and getting in trouble, and she seemed to have some sort of a guilty conscience about it.

[20:10:11]But you know, if it turns out that what she said wasn`t true, certainly lying about it isn`t going to help her in the eyes of the law.

BANFIELD: So you know, to play the devil`s advocate, there`s a woman who is despondent, maybe confused, maybe afraid of authority. Maybe that`s the

reason that she said I think two times, I don`t want to get locked up, said that she had just come home from work eight different times, when her

neighbor said she doesn`t have a job, and didn`t give the address four times after being asked.

Is it possible there could be any other reason that she would behave that way on a call other than having killed the children herself?

BOBER: Well, you know, Ashleigh, it all depends on how you tell the story, right? The prosecution is going to take the set of facts and they`re going

to say that she was lying and she was deceiving, and the defense is going to take the facts and say that she was obviously in distress and confused.

But there`s so many missing pieces to this puzzle -- we don`t know, for example, if this woman had a history of mental illness, if she had a

history of post-partum psychosis. When I see the ages of these children, it eerily reminds me of Andrea Yates. And I think about, you know, her

mental illness and how it impacted her ability to know the difference between right and wrong. So I`m not saying that that necessarily applies

in this case, but obviously, we don`t have all the facts and so we shouldn`t rush to judgment.

BANFIELD: But does it -- without question. Doctor, does it help you that her family has said that she has suffered mental illness in the past, that

she was overwhelmed with four children under the age of 6 at age 24, and that this was something they thought could happen, all of this from her own

family.

BOBER: Yes, absolutely. And I believe I read something that the father had left three months prior. So she clearly was overwhelmed. And we know

that people can snap and sometimes can experience, for example, a psychosis where they don`t know the difference between right and wrong or they have

literally a break from reality. So there`s just a lot more information that we have to gather here before we come to any conclusions.

BANFIELD: Dr. Bober, I want to play a little bit more of what the father said to the police. And this part of the tape includes some of what you

heard before, but there`s something key that he says at the end of his call that I want to ask you about because, to a lot of people, it`s

unfathomable. Have a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just received a call from my child`s mother that two of my -- my youngest two dead babies, my sons are dead in an apartment. I

just received a call that two of my kids are dead inside of an apartment.

911 OPERATOR: OK. Did she call 911? What`s the address?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, she didn`t call 911. She called me and she video called me and showed me this, and I seen it.

911 OPERATOR: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to know if they actually -- I want to know if they`re actually dead. Please, please give me a call. Please give me a

call back as soon as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Dr. Bober, you`re a forensic psychiatrist. Call me back and let me know if they`re dead? I think most people would say if they`ve seen the

video call that he says he got of his children dead on the floor, he`d have been on his way there.

BOBER: Yes, a lot of very bizarre responses, not the responses we would predict if you and I perhaps were in this situation. So it seems like

there`s just a lot of missing pieces here. I just find his response to be absolutely bizarre. I would think that, like you said, he would want to

know exactly where they are, exactly what happened, and he would get in his car and be driving 90 miles an hour to get there to see what happened

himself. So...

BANFIELD: It`s odd.

BOBER: It is very bizarre, yes.

BANFIELD: Defense attorney Jonna Spilbor is here with me live in studio, as well. Just quickly, most people on hearing the headlines -- and I hope

to God when all of the facts are in it doesn`t look like what happened...

JONNA SPILBOR, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right.

BANFIELD: ... happened. It looks like something else happened, other than those children being killed in an oven. But most people would say the

worse it gets, the closer you get to insanity as a defense. Why not maybe in this case?

SPILBOR: I don`t see it in this case because her 911 call clearly lets us know that she knew the difference between right and wrong. She says

numerous times, I was at work. I didn`t do it. It is serious. I don`t want to go to jail. Ashleigh, if you don`t want to go to jail, you know

that something happened that clearly was against the law, and that 911 tape is going to kill her insanity defense.

[20:15:00]BANFIELD: Once again, and when those facts ultimately do some in -- we do have to wait for an autopsy to find out what the cause of death is

on these children -- we will know more about how this case unraveled and what`s going to happen to Ms. Lamora Williams in a court of law. Thank

you, Jonna. Thank you, as well, to Dr. Daniel Bober.

A beautiful young bride found stabbed to death in her bedroom and not just a few times. We`re starting to learn the details now of what that husband

says he may have done because of cold medicine. He says he remembers nothing about it. But the autopsy -- well, it is crystal clear.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: It takes a lot to do something 123 times but that`s how many times a new autopsy report says the beautiful young wife in North Carolina

was stabbed, 44 times in her head and neck, 24 times in her torso and 55 times in her arms.

[20:20:10]Married less than a year, her husband was arrested for her murder, and he said he had taken too much cold medicine, that he doesn`t

even remember killing her, that he just woke up to find her dead and that he realized what he had done. Here he is describing that moment, and I

should tell you that the voices on the 911 call were altered by the police.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: 911. What is the address of your emergency? Tell me exactly what happened.

MATTHEW PHELPS, ASPIRING PASTOR: I think I killed my wife.

911 OPERATOR: What do you mean by that? What happened?

PHELPS: I had a dream, and then I turn on the lights and she`s dead on the floor.

911 OPERATOR: How? How? How?

PHELPS: I have blood all over me, and there`s a bloody knife on the bed, and I think I did it.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BANFIELD: But Lauren (ph) Phelps apparently wasn`t dead yet. She was still alive on the floor, likely feeling every single one of the 123 stab

wounds that her own husband may have given to her, but he told police that she was dead.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

PHELPS: She`s not moving. Oh, my God. Yes, it`s so bad. There`s so much blood. I don`t know what I -- oh, God. My God. I mean, I can see her,

but -- oh, my God!

911 OPERATOR: Just look at her right now. Tell me what you see. Is she moving? Is she breathing? Anything at all?

PHELPS: No, she`s not moving at all! She didn`t deserve this! (INAUDIBLE)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Police say they found Lauren in a fetal position clinging to life before she died in the emergency room, a beautiful newlywed Sunday

school teacher seemingly happily married. But now Matthew Phelps is charged with first-degree murder. Here he is making one of those first

appearances, looking very sullen, all of this because he told police he`d been having trouble sleeping.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

PHELPS: I took more medicine than I should have.

911 OPERATOR: What medicine did you take?

PHELPS: I took Coricidin Cough and Cold (INAUDIBLE) Cough and Cold because I know it can make you feel good. So a lot of times, I can`t sleep at

night.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Pat Lalama is the managing editor for "Crime Watch Daily With Chris Hansen," and she joins me live from Los Angeles. This is pretty

astounding to hear 123 stab wounds. I think many of us who saw this originally when that call came out thought that maybe there were several

stab wounds, that maybe one of them was lethal, but this many?

PAT LALAMA, MANAGING EDITOR, "CRIME WATCH DAILY": You know what, Ashleigh? You took the words right out of my mouth because it`s so much different to

actually read this autopsy report. It gives you such a different sensation. You know, we talk 123 stabbings or -- you know, into her body

with a sharp object, 44 of them alone to her head and neck. And I`m talking the carotid artery, the jugular vein, the torso, the left lung.

Name a part of the body where she didn`t get stabbed! And you know what else really gets to me, Ash? A 108-pound teeny weeny young lady.

BANFIELD: Oh, my God! 108?

LALAMA: There were many, many -- 108 points. And there were several defensive wounds which means this poor young woman was trying desperately

to stop this.

Now, of course, as you mentioned, he talks about the Coricidin. I just want you to know I was speaking to an expert today, an expert in this very

field. And she does saying something that I hadn`t heard before. She said -- well, we already did discuss the last time, that people have abused

the active ingredients in this cough medicine. It`s a college party drug oftentimes and can be abused.

But she also mentioned that if a person has underlying psychotic illness, just, you know, regular underlying psychotic illness and you`re also

abusing this drug, that it very well could lead you to do something this (INAUDIBLE)

BANFIELD: So I`m glad you mentioned that. In a minute, I`m going to ask Dr. Bober about that because he`s, you know, a forensic psychiatrist. He

could problem weigh in on it.

Before I do, the notion of an underlying psychotic illness might have some evidence playing towards it in that the Oxygen network and "Inside Edition"

have come up with some pretty fascinating...

LALAMA: Right.

BANFIELD: ... social media on this aspiring pastor, Matthew Phelps. What did they find?

[20:25:00]LALAMA: Well, what I found particularly -- well, he called himself some sort of a dark radical -- I can`t remember the next name...

BANFIELD: Marty radical.

LALAMA: Yea, thank you.

BANFIELD: Marty radical, dressed in black.

LALAMA: OK. All dressed in black. But what was more significant to me, which you`ll talk to the doctor about, is that he, on Tumblr,I believe,

talks extensively about having a lifetime of night terror, nightmares, hallucinations. This has been going on, if you believe his post, which

happened before the death of his wife, all his life.

Perhaps he was untreated for some psychotic disorder, and then he goes to maybe self-medication, which many people with mental illnesses do, try to

self-medicate. He gets really involved in this Coricidin because it gives him the feeling he wants, and then suddenly, he`s taking too much of it and

the psychotic disorder -- I mean, just a guess. What do I know?

BANFIELD: It`s weird.

LALAMA: But it seems to make sense to me.

BANFIELD: So there`s an Instagram (INAUDIBLE) and apparently...

LALAMA: Is it a defense, though? Is it a defense, though? That`s the question.

BANFIELD: I don`t know.

LALAMA: That`s going to be...

BANFIELD: This stuff is likely to make it into any case that he has to, you know, defend himself in. In Instagram, apparently, according to these

reports -- I can`t get out of bed. There`s evil in my head. Just let me be, which is a lyric from (INAUDIBLE) Also posted on Tumblr that he suffers

from these nightmares and terrors and sleep walking, hallucinations, and controlled dreams since he was little.

Hold it for a second, Pat. I want to bring back in Daniel Bober, doctor of forensic psychiatry joining me again. So Doctor, can you just sort of

dovetail off what Pat just told us about the underlying psychotic illness coupled with the Coricidin, and then of course, these social media posts

saying that he`s had all these difficulties and that`s he`s called Marty radical? Does it start to make sense to you, or not in the least?

BOBER: You know what, Ashleigh? Dextromethorphan (ph) is in over 140 cough and cold preparations in a dose of about 15 to 30 milligrams. It`s

known as a poor man`s PCP when it`s abused because it affects a chemical in the brain called glutamate, which is involved in learning and memory. At

high doses, it can act like PCP. People can have aggression, agitation, paranoia, lose touch with reality and feel an out of body experience.

So his explanation that the drug affected him this way is not completely out of the realm of possibility. And your guest is correct that if he did

have a pre-existing psychotic illness that this drug could have brought it out. The problem that they`re going to run into with the defense is

voluntary intoxication, meaning he chose to take the medication and he took it at a much higher than recommended dosage.

I believe I heard a 911 call where he said that he had taken it for sleep and had heard that it would make him feel good. I don`t think that you

actually played that part when you played your call. But I do think that the problem he`s going to run into is the fact that he decided to take it

himself. It wasn`t as if it was prescribed by a physician.

BANFIELD: Or dropped -- yes, or dropped it into his drink in a bar, which is a good point.

BOBER: Right. Exactly.

BANFIELD: We`ve actually played that part a couple of times because we`ve been covering this case for a while.

Hold on. I want to bring Jonna Spilbor back because as you just heard the doctor (INAUDIBLE) kind of thing that bars well, or bodes well in a defense

because it was voluntary. But cold medicine, even voluntarily taken, even in high amounts, has never, ever, you know, amounted to causing someone to

stab someone 123 times. So there`s a difference between, I`m going to take some PCP and you know -- you know, devil may care what happens...

SPILBOR: Right.

BANFIELD: ... or I`m going to take a lot of cold medicine. I don`t sleep well and it makes me feel good.

BANFIELD: I think...

BANFIELD: Isn`t there?

SPILBOR: ... the toxicology in this case is going to be critical for that reason because the immediate thought I had was we`ve had Ambien cases in my

office where somebody takes a prescribed amount of Ambien, gets up in the middle of the night, gets in the car, drives into the neighbor`s house.

And when you have situations like that, they take the prescribed dosage. It has an effect on them. It`s not voluntary. They don`t have the intent

to commit the crime. And that is a defense. It`s a little different in this case.

BANFIELD: But if you take these different reports that Pat just mentioned and that Dr. Bober just mentioned, he may have an underlying psychotic

illness. He took Coricidin because he`s got these sleep issues, took a lot because it does make him feel good. But God knows cold medicine can make

you psychotic. If he didn`t know that that was a potential side effect, is that a defense? But does it become a defense?

SPILBOR: It takes this from a voluntary intoxication situation to more of an involuntary intoxication that eliminates his mens rea, eliminates the

criminal intent. He may have a defense in that vein.

BANFIELD: Pat, do you have any idea where this stands right now? I mean, I`ve kind of heard nothing from this defendant other than a very short

blurb in court, which was almost like a "yes," but nothing else. Are they putting forth anything in the public? Has he got an appearance coming up?

Are there...

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: ... with the prosecutors?

LALAMA: I believe he has an arraignment coming on Friday, so we`ll know more, hopefully, you know, within time what kind of a defense there might

be on his behalf.

But it`s interesting because prosecutors, defense attorneys not returning calls, keeping mum, I`m sure the defense attorney wants it that way for

sure at this point, until he or she decides what they got, what they`re dealing with. He`s undergoing a lot of medical testing and psychiatric

testing and all that kind of thing.

BANFIELD: I wouldn`t doubt it. This is going to be a big deal for people of Raleigh, North Carolina --

LALAMA: It`s going to be interesting.

BANFIELD: -- especially if there`s a jury --

LALAMA: Yes.

BANFIELD: -- that has to be pulled from that community. Pat, always good to see you. Thank you so much.

LALAMA: Thanks.

BANFIELD: Nice to have you. Dr. Bober (ph), thank you. Jonna Spilbor, I`m going to ask you to stick around, if you will.

An Oklahoma man charged with rape and child molestation flatly denies that he did anything wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HENRI MICHELE PIETTE, CHARGED WITH RAPE AND CHILD MOLESTATION: I never raped any children. I made love to my wife. We were married.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Yes. Here`s the problem. That wife, disgusting, that wife that he thinks he was married to was an 11-year-old girl and he was in his 40s. And

look at all those children that were produced. She escaped. Her story is next.

This Friday, my friend Chris Cuomo takes us to the front lines of America`s opioid epidemic in New Hampshire, the state that President Trump called a

drug infested den.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, TELEVISION JOURNALIST (voice-over): New Hampshire`s firefighters were surprised to find themselves on the front lines of the

opioid epidemic. These guys get plenty of calls, but they are rarely fires.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can tell you, this isn`t your father`s fire department anymore. Primarily right now is this crisis or epidemic or whatever you

want to call it, it`s hit us like a ton of bricks in Manchester.

CUOMO: You`ve never seen anything like it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never. Never. This really takes up a good solid half my job.

CUOMO (voice-over): It`s not the job the Chief Dan Goonen (ph) signed up for.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back when I started in this business, if you did CPR once a month, that was a lot. Now it`s every single day. There are days

that I think that, what`s next? How many more people can we bring in?

CUOMO (voice-over): And you can have a dozen calls like this a night?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, absolutely. Last night they had a dozen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: "Inside" with Chris Cuomo premiers Friday at 9:00 p.m. only on HLN.

[20:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: He says he never raped his wife. He said they made love. But no matter what he says, it`s going to be a really tough road to clear his name

because the wife that he appears to be talking about is his own stepdaughter.

And here`s a picture of the happy couple reportedly taken at her 13th birthday celebration that he threw for her. She told People that she became

his wife and his victim when she was just a child.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALYNN MCGINNIS, KIDNAPPED AND HELD CAPTIVE BY STEPFATHER: I remember going to my bedroom and going to sleep. I remember waking up in the middle

of the night when somebody was touching me in my private parts. And I woke up and he left and I went back to sleep, but the next morning I figured I

had a bad dream. That was the first time he ever touched me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: This is Rosalynn McGinnis as a child. That was her as a grown up. She says her stepdad married her at the age of just 11. He took her and

held her hostage, she says, for 19 years, raping and sexually assaulting her almost every single day.

Now as a grown up, she is speaking out, saying that she escaped this filthy tent location in Mexico where she was living with the nine children that

she bore him. And if you`re thinking that this guy is a monster, he says he`s just been made to look that way, from court where he is charged with

rape, molestation, and physical abuse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Piette, do you have anything to say about the allegations against you?

PIETTE: Most of them are lies. Ninety-nine percent are lies. I`m telling the truth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you have to say about the children who say that you abused them violently and heinously for years and decades?

PIETTE: They have been manipulated and they`re lying.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`re lying about what you did to them? You never raped any children?

PIETTE: I never raped any children. I made love to my wife. We were married.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Elaine Aradillas is a staff writer for People magazine. People has been following the story of Rosalynn McGinnis`s rescue since it broke.

She is here with me live.

Elaine, the story is -- I mean, there`s no other way to put it. It`s unbelievable.

ELAINE ARADILLAS, STAFF WRITER, PEOPLE: It is. You know, I had a chance to sit with Rosalynn and it`s shocking and horrifying to sit there and listen

to her tell you her story, that went on for 19 years.

BANFIELD: So many people would say there`s got to be

[20:40:00] something wrong. Nobody would stay, certainly in a condition like this and bear child after child after child if they weren`t locked

down. But did she explain why or how she spent 19 years suffering horrific abuse and, again, becoming impregnated over and over and over again? Why

she wasn`t able to run sooner?

ARADILLAS: She was nine years old when she met him, and then he abducted her when she was 12. So, already there`s, you know, years of abuse

happening and then he takes her and he beats her over and over again. So, you know, just because you`re not chained physically doesn`t mean you`re

not chained mentally.

BANFIELD: And you make a great point about being nine years old at the time he began this alleged abuse of her, lifelong abuse of her. I want to just

play a couple of these amazing moments of your interview, particularly the point about being married.

Because there`s so many levels of sick, but effectively, this was her mother`s boyfriend and he was destined to marry the mother, but Rosalynn

says he sort of swooped in and married her first and then married the mother the next day. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCGINNIS: It got to the point where ended up marrying me. This was right before he ended up marrying my mom. I can`t remember exactly what age I

was, but it was between 11 and 12. He said that because he had already touched me that he needed to marry me or it was a sin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: And Elaine, that marriage -- I mean, no authority would ever perform a marriage to an 11-year-old girl, but what did she say happened?

How did this happen?

ARADILLAS: He took her. She told me that it was a hillside area. He drove her there. His oldest son was with him. And they -- you know, he wanted it

to be like over a hillside sort of situation.

BANFIELD: In a van?

ARADILLAS: Yes, in a van. And he opened up the bible, read some passages, and said, OK, now you`re my wife. And to him, that is what he presented to

others for the rest of her captivity.

BANFIELD: And then did he introduce -- he had three children of his own.

ARADILLAS: Yes.

BANFIELD: Did he introduce this 11-year-old girl as the new mommy to the children?

ARADILLAS: That is what -- yes, that`s what she told, you know, the federal officials.

BANFIELD: All of these things that she had to process at such an early age, at 12. I want to talk a little bit about about this miscarriage that she

described. I can`t even imagine if she knew what was happening to her at 12 years old. Here she is talking about the moment that she discovered she had

a miscarriage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCGINNIS: I went to go to the bathroom and I felt something and there was a baby in my hand. I didn`t realized exactly what it was until I walked up

and showed him. Seemed shocked. He looked down and said, go flush it down the toilet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Elaine, that`s one miscarriage at age 12. She`s now 33, nine kids. Did she say if there were other miscarriages?

ARADILLAS: No. When I asked her about how many children she had, she said, I have nine living children, and then she told me the story about the

miscarriage.

BANFIELD: She has got eight of them out of Mexico. Where is the ninth?

ARADILLAS: No. She has been reunited with the ninth one. The ninth one is with her.

BANFIELD: And do they all tell the same story about what they endured at the hands of their father?

ARADILLAS: They have severe PTSD. And when I spoke with Jaycee Dugard who has actually worked with Rosalynn --

BANFIELD: Another young woman who was captured at age 15 and held in a shed. She bore two children to her captors, a man and a woman, but clearly

they would have a lot in common.

ARADILLAS: Yes. And so she said, you know, that they`re in intense therapy. So they are all suffering.

BANFIELD: When you hear Rosalynn McGinnis`s voice, I mean, the first thing I thought was that she sounds very hoarse. She seems unable to speak and it

became crystal clear in the interview as to why. Apparently this is because of the beatings that she alleges happened day after day and year after

year, much to her throat. I want you to listen to how she described what happened to her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCGINNIS: The beatings got worse, the rape got worse. He stabbed me, choked me unconscious, would beat me with baseball bats. He shot me. And I still

have a bullet in my ankle and in my back and in my head. The bullet had to be removed because it got infected.

[20:45:00] It didn`t go really deep but it went into the side and is lodged in my skull. It was the worst nightmare you could ever think of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Rosalynn goes on to say that she was concerned about her children`s safety and that when any of the physical abuse approached her

children, she then started to find her authority and push back, but here`s what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCGINNIS: I walked up to him and pushed him and I said, don`t you ever put your hands on my kids again. And he punched me in the throat. I fell to the

ground and I couldn`t breathe. I thought I was suffocating.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So is this the reason that she is unable to speak and will that change?

ARADILLAS: Yes. That is the reason. When he punched her in the throat, she was never able to speak the same way again. It damaged her vocal cords. But

when she escaped and moved back to the United States, she was given surgery. She`s had surgery to repair her vocal cords.

BANFIELD: By the way, this picture we`re looking at would be after they had been married two years and he`s throwing her a 13th birthday party. Just

like that. Like a bride.

ARADILLAS: Exactly.

BANFIELD: He`s throwing his 13-year-old wife a birthday party in that photo. Tell me about these little kids. How are they? Did you get to meet

them?

ARADILLAS: No. We -- I did not meet them, but she, like any mom, showed me photos, you know, on her phone which is new to her.

BANFIELD: She didn`t know Google.

ARADILLAS: When she first went to the consulate, they said, oh, well, Google, Facebook. She said, I don`t know what this is. She had been living

in tents in the worst conditions you can imagine, as you can see by that photo.

BANFIELD: If you put that photo up, we`ve blurred the children`s face, obviously, but you can see it. It`s utter filth and we took the blur off

the faces, you would see that even their little faces are so dirty.

But under that blur, they are smiling. And so there is hope that they`re going to OK despite what they`ve gone through and what they witnessed. And

like you said, the counseling that they`re undergoing.

I`m going to leave you with this one quick moment from the courtroom where Henri Piette, the alleged rapist and abuser, of these children was asked in

court what he thinks about what everyone is saying about him. Have a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Piette, do you have anything to say about the allegations against you?

PIETTE: Most of them are lies. Ninety-nine percent are lies. I`m telling the truth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you have to say about the children who say that you abused them violently and heinously for years and decades?

PIETTE: They have been manipulated and they`re lying.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`re lying about what you did to them? You never raped any children?

PIETTE: I never raped any children. I made love to my wife. We were married.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Like I said, that`s going to be a tough one to tell to the judge and he`ll have to explain it to the judge. Great work, Elaine. Thanks so

much for coming and talking about the story. I really appreciate it.

ARADILLAS: Thank you for having me.

BANFIELD: The hit show "Empire" spent several days shooting their new season at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center. And that`s all great

for the show, but the actual inmates who live there are now suing Fox because they say that their rights have been violated.

[20:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: "Empire" is one of the most popular TV shows right now. It`s built around the drama of the entertainment business, but now the show

itself has some real life drama of its own, and the network could be paying for it.

Because family members of inmates at a juvenile detention center in Chicago has sued Fox and Cook County, saying that their kids were confined in their

cells for days, so that the hit show could shoot scenes for Season 2 like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see that? They`re bringing in Freda Gatz (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: The inmate`s suit claims that "numerous areas of the center designed for and essential to its mission of educating and rehabilitating

the children housed there were placed off limits, so that Fox`s agents and employees could use them to stage and film the show."

The inmate`s families say they were kept from the school, the rec yard, the chapel, the family visiting area, and even the infirmary. During the 15

days that the suit says "Empire" was filming, the family says "the children for whom these utilities were intended were ordered to remain in their

cells or were confined to jail-style "pod" areas just outside their cell doors and told to sit for days on end."

The lawsuit says these kids have suffered psychological damage and that their rights were violated. And now they`re speaking undisclosed damages.

Fox`s lawyers have asked for the suit to be tossed out, claiming that they weren`t responsible for the lock down.

But a judge has just decided that parts of this case should move forward, saying that there is evidence that Fox may have "colluded" with the

facility to cause the lock down and even profited from it.

[20:55:00] The county is denying any allegations of wrongdoing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: We see plenty of mug shots every day that makes us do do a double take, but this one, you really have to wonder what in the world was

Christopher Wilson thinking when he got this tattoo. There it is front and center right across his forehead.

And it says, I`m not kidding here, I`m a porn star and I (bleep) teen sluts, which is an interesting choice considering this young man is booked

on assault and sexual imposition charges. How do you hide that from the judge?

JONNA SPILBOR, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, COLUMNIST, AND LEGAL ANALYST: Some people wear their hearts on their sleeves.

[21:00:00] This guy is wearing his guilt on his forehead, it`s an admission.

(LAUGHTER)

BANFIELD: Thank you, Jonna Spilbor. Nice to have you with us tonight. Thank you, everyone, for being here as well. Stay tuned. "Forensic Files" is

coming up right now.

END