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Dr. Drew
Sterling Banned for Life, Fined $2.5M
Aired April 29, 2014 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. DREW PINSKY, HLN HOST (voice-over): Tonight, banned for life after his racist rant. Now, does he have a new mistress and a billion dollar deal? Ms. Ali and the behavior bureau breaks it down.
And, did a father go too far? This skateboard shove has gone viral.
Let`s get started.
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PINSKY: Good evening.
My co-host is Samantha Schacher.
We`ve got a lot to get to tonight. We`ve got Frank Taaffe and, of course, Ms. Ali standing by to talk to us about the latest Sterling news and the possibility that more audio clips will be released. A friend of V. Stiviano, the woman at the center of this scandal, will join us later tonight.
SAMANTHA SCHACHER, CO-HOST: I expect some fireworks, Dr. Drew.
PINSKY: We have so much stuff between Ali and Taaffe. I mean, just bringing those back again it`s sort of enough for me.
SCHACHER: And you think you`ve heard everything about the Don Sterling story. But, no, they`re going to hear more today. So, stick with us.
PINSKY: All right. Fair enough.
First up, we`ve got the Clippers owner, Donald Sterling, out. He`s been censored. But there`s still outrage over the racist rants attributed to him.
Watch this. We are starting with audio from Deadspin.com.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD STERLING: Don`t come to my games. Don`t bring black people and don`t come.
HARVEY LEVIN, TMZ: I am told that it is a very apparent at the beginning of the tape that Sterling knows he`s being recorded.
ADAM SILVER, NBA COMMISSIONER: Effective immediately, I am banning Mr. Sterling for life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the court of public opinion, he`s guilty of being an ignorant racist putz in the first degree.
SILVER: I`m also fining Mr. Sterling $2.5 million, the maximum amount allowed.
SHAHRAZAD ALI, SOCIAL COMMENTATOR: Black people go around this country, they are constantly talking about the racism they have to endure, all of their racist bosses, every time they find out about one, it`s shock-a-du- to! He`s a racist!
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PINSKY: All right. Joining us to discuss: Anahita Sedaghatfar, defense attorney, Segun Oduolowu, social commentator, Loni Coombs, former prosecutor, author of "You`re Perfect and Other Lies Parents Tell."
Segun, the NBA has imposed sweeping bans on Sterling. Is that enough?
SEGUN ODUOLOWU, SOCIAL COMMENTATOR: Well, no, Dr. Drew. Earlier today, I was in Los Angeles, in south L.A., a predominantly black area of town, and barbershop, surrounded by a cross-section of black people from all ages, and that didn`t bother us at the NBA was kicking him out and saying that was enough, but to use a term from Anahita, fruit from a poisonous tree, to allow his family to still be a part of it, when they`ve heard him say this around the dinner table, and known for 30 years, the NBA is walking a really fine line, because he`s the longest tenured owner, but they`ve known he`s this way.
So, to still allow his family to be a part, I don`t think it`s enough. More needs to be done.
PINSKY: Anahita?
ANAHITA SEDAGHATFAR, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Dr. Drew, that`s the most severe sanction that they could place on this man. So, I`d say kudos to the NBA. I think they did the right thing. They made it clear racism has no place there.
But I`d like to change the subject a little bit here, and I`m really shocked at the individuals that are somehow praising his mistress, that woman you see, I don`t know what you want to call her, for releasing this tape.
ODUOLOWU: I believe the word is skunk.
(CROSSTALK)
PINSKY: Wait, we shouldn`t attack her. Let`s see what you have to say. Go ahead.
SEDAGHATFAR: It`s an attack on her. I don`t agree with what she did, because here`s the thing, she`s not doing this for a noble cause, Dr. Drew. She`s not doing this to say, hey, world, let me uncover this racist. You should know about him.
She`s doing this for one reason and that is to make money, to get attention, to get fame, because she lived with this man for four years knowing that he`s a racist.
PINSKY: Anahita, where are the other hundred hours?
SEDAGHATFAR: Right. Well, here`s the thing, so I hear to my point that she`s now retained an attorney, she is in negotiations with Sterling`s attorney, trying to get money in exchange for not releasing the additional 100 minutes of the tape.
PINSKY: Hold on, hold on.
SEDAGHATFAR: That`s extortion.
PINSKY: Wait a minute, she`s talking about extortion.
SEDAGHATFAR: Absolutely.
ODUOLOWU: It is extortion.
PINSKY: Loni, I haven`t heard from you. First of all, do you believe Anahita?
SEDAGHATFAR: I have my sources, Dr. Drew.
PINSKY: These are allegations. What do we do with this sort of bomb shell?
LONI COOMBS, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, look, yes, there are allegations she`s in negotiations now, that he came to her on Sunday and said, what can we do to stop all this and she referred him to her attorney.
Now, for extortion, property has to be willingly given under the inducement of a threat of either fear or force. So, the big question, did she release these tapes, is she the one involved, and she`s saying and her attorney is saying she did not release these tapes. She has nothing to do with it.
(CROSSTALK)
PINSKY: One at a time! Hold on, stop, I`m going to turn everybody`s mikes off. Unless, we go one at a time.
Sam, right now, go.
SCHACHER: Thank you very much, Dr. Drew. Of course, she released these tapes. As Anahita said, this woman is motivated by one thing, that`s money. Just visit her Instagram account, picture after picture after picture has hashtags of publishing companies because that`s what she wants, too, is a book deal.
SEDAGHATFAR: She`s trying to get a book deal.
PINSKY: Anahita, I know your point of view. I`m going to hear Segun.
Do you defend this woman, or not?
ODUOLOWU: Yes. Dr. Drew, we`re treading dangerous ground by killing the messenger. I`m not saying she`s a great person. What she has exposed is a horrible thing. If we focus on what she exposed, that`s one thing.
Who she is, what she did it for, we shouldn`t be discussing that here, because it doesn`t really deal with Donald Sterling. He`s a despicable man who did a despicable thing. What she might have done, leave it alone.
PINSKY: Is it possible she`s done us a service in spite of the nefarious circumstance?
COOMBS: Absolutely, absolutely. She started this discussion, she`s exposed what`s gone on here and a lot of people were saying about the NBA, hey, they should have known this about Donald Sterling.
PINSKY: They did.
COOMBS: Because they have these prior lawsuits.
But they do say, and he`s said this in his press conference today, look, in the first lawsuit where the Justice Department sued him for racial discrimination, he settled for $3 million and was allowed to continue to deny any racist allegations. And in the Elgin Baylor lawsuit, Elgin Baylor at the last minute pulled back the racist discrimination allegations and only looking forward --
PINSKY: Hold on a second. Put that tweet back up there from Georgette, because I think that`s one of the big tensions. Yes, there`s details of previous stuff, there`s this guy says and does and thinks terrible things, but is speech under attack?
I`m going to say something that you guys would say to me, hey, Drew, I`m going to say inflammatory here, which is -- if this guy says horrible things, does he deserve to have his property taken from him, Loni?
(CROSSTALK)
COOMBS: Because Silver said today, now, we have concrete evidence. We didn`t have it in the past, now we do. But the concrete evidence is this language, is his personal beliefs about racism, and it`s an interesting line we`re now crossing, even what they are saying of, you know, we need to take this team away from him. There`s going to be a lot of legal issues coming up.
PINSKY: We got to leave it there, and I`m saying I will now back pedal on what I just brought up and say, we can`t allow hateful impulsive thoughts to go unaddressed. How we do it, I think what`s on the table here.
Next, the Sterling women, a wife, mistress, now, there`s another one. Behavior bureau joins us to discuss.
Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALI: Don`t nobody want an 84-year-old man but an 84-year-old woman, so she was a gold digger. She set him up, she robbing him and ripping him off and that`s how that is.
V. STIVIANO: Did you know you have a whole team that`s black that plays for you?
STERLING: Do I know? I support them and give them food and clothes and cars and houses. Who gives it to them, does someone else give it to them?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PINSKY: That audio was from Deadspin.com. I`m back with Sam Schacher. We`re talking about Donald Sterling`s ban from the NBA.
Let`s bring in the behavior bureau. I`ve got Judy Ho, clinical psychologist, Ms. Shahrazad Ali, social commentator, author of "The Blackwoman`s Guide to Understanding the Blackman", Wendy Walsh, psychologist, author of "The 30-Day Love Detox."
And if you would like to join this conversation, tweet us right now @DrDrewHLN, #BehaviorBureau.
Sam, how many women are there with this guy?
SCHACHER: I know, right?
PINSKY: Do we even know?
SCHACHER: Yes. OK, this is what I know. I know -- we all know of his wife, Rochelle.
PINSKY: Are they estranged? Are they in trouble?
SCHACHER: We thought they were estranged, but they were off to dinner the other night. We know of Vanessa Stiviano, the mistress.
Well, back in 1999, he was also in a relationship, or in an arrangement with a girl, he met her in Vegas. Her name was Alexandra Castro, and apparently he would give her $500 for every time they had sex. He also gave her in her name and mother`s name a property title. As soon as she broke up with him or ended their arrangement, he sued her, Dr. Drew, for that property title back.
PINSKY: It`s so weird.
SCHACHER: Crazy.
WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: Terrible.
PINSKY: Wendy, you said that with your tongue in your cheek.
WALSH: No, I did not.
PINSKY: Good. You were just telling us all sex has a cost.
WALSH: That`s right.
PINSKY: I don`t know, that was shocking to me. That was a terrible thing to say.
WALSH: You don`t think you pay for sex every time you have it?
PINSKY: Something called mutuality, thank God, in my marriage. Maybe we both pay in different ways, but it`s mutual.
WALSH: Exactly, you both pay in different ways. And you probably pay the highest price possible for sex, which is care and commitment.
Sex has all kinds of costs. This is a high status woman. This is a cat fight between the primary wife and the mistress, and the primary wife did not like $2.8 million worth of stuff leaving the communal property.
PINSKY: And I would say, back me up on this, I think one of the things that really motivated comments is he was threatened by these men around his chick. Do you agree?
ALI: Yes, yes. You heard all the rumors. He was not around no black men. I want to deal with his sentence.
PINSKY: Yes, go ahead. Go ahead.
ALI: I want to deal with his sentence. He has to pay $2.5 million. He probably say, here, put it on my credit card.
PINSKY: You`re right.
ALI: He got a slap on the wrist, that`s nothing.
PINSKY: Unfortunately, let me say something, that was the maximum they could, given the constitution that the NBA had. The censorship won`t allow him to be around an NBA game, or a stadium, or a player. A lot of these guys own these clubs because their ego. They want to be -- hey, that`s my team down there, you know? He can`t be seen around the NBA.
SCHACHER: So, not only that, the money is going to foundations that support antidiscrimination causes. So, that`s awesome, in my opinion. I thought that the commissioner did a really great job of setting a precedent of no racism.
PINSKY: Ms. Ali.
ALI: Yes, listen, they say he`s banned for life. What are we talking about, 24, 36 more months, the man is 84 years old.
(LAUGHTRER)
PINSKY: Ms. Ali --
ALI: He can look at the game. He can look at the game at home on his own private TV in his TV room. He got a home theater. So, he`s going to have a proxy there. He`s the owner.
That`s not how white men do business with each other. He`s not going to be completely banned from having control when he`s the owner.
PINSKY: All right. I want to show, guys, video of Sterling and his wife Sunday night. This is just hours after she made a public statement condemning his racism, then insisted he wasn`t a racist. Ms. Ali, I`ll have you comment. There it is right there.
What is the wife -- does the wife have any duplicity in this, does she have a role to play? Should she be calling him out more? She knows how he thinks.
ALI: Yes.
PINSKY: Go ahead.
ALI: No.
PINSKY: Yes, no, go ahead.
ALI: OK. Well, here`s the thing, see this is the problem with having a woman on the side. She`s never satisfied. He bought her two Ferraris, she`s got a Bentleys, she`s got a condo, diamonds, mink furs, but it`s never enough. Once a woman found out that the man is not going to leave his wife, then that`s when she takes him to hell and try to destroy him.
WALSH: Actually, Ms. Ali, you have that wrong --
ALI: Doing what white women do, I keep telling you, she`s standing beside her man. That`s what she should do and what black woman ought to do beside their men. I don`t care what he do, standing beside him, because that`s still is her husband and the father of her children.
PINSKY: We are looking at an Instagram of her by her Ferrari that he gave to this woman.
Judy, help straighten this out for me.
SCHACHER: She got a DUI, too. She got a DUI in that Ferrari.
WALSH: Let`s stop vilifying her.
JUDY HO, PSYCHOLOGIST: This is what he wants. Sterling is somebody who wants adventure, who wants people that get him in trouble, because that`s the kind of person he is. He`s trying to seek attention and adventure and he`s upset and he`s jealous because actually he`s afraid some of these more athletic, younger players, who happen to be black, might take away his mistress.
But I agree about sort of what I`ve been listening on Twitter, too, is like what is this type of punishment? Is it really a punishment to fine him and to say, you know, you might have to give up this team? Because that --
PINSKY: He might profit. He might profit, too.
HO: He stands to gain $500 million. Just because you fine him and reprimand him, so what? He`s not going to change his attitude or behaviors. He`s still going to be a racist.
PINSKY: Speaking -- hold on, speaking of changing behaviors. I`m bringing in one of your favorite -- what shall we call him --
WALSH: Nemesis.
PINSKY: Nemesis, thank you. Very appropriate. But he says he`s changed.
SCHACHER: Wow.
HO: What?
PINSKY: I know, Judy`s outraged.
SCHACHER: I`m hopeful.
PINSKY: Ms. Ali is hopeful. Ms. Ali is not going to give him a chance.
We`ll see, we got Frank Taaffe --
ALI: I`m not hopeful.
PINSKY: -- standing in the wings.
We`re also going to address whether or not comments made, you know, freely in a free society should cause somebody to lose their property or their freedoms or how far do we go with all this. Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK CUBAN, DALLAS MAVERICKS OWNER: Let`s kick him out. I don`t want to go that far, because that -- it`s not about Donald, it`s not about his position, it`s about who`s next? What Donald said was wrong, it was abhorrent. There`s no place for racism in the NBA.
I think you`ve got to be very, very careful when you start making blanket statements about what people say and think as opposed to what they do. It`s a very, very slippery slope.
In this country, people are allowed to be morons. When you start trying to remove people from the NBA or any organization based off of their private thoughts that they have at home. That`s damn scary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PINSKY: That is Mark Cuban. He`s one of the team owners who will vote on whether Don Sterling should be forced to sell the Clippers.
Today, Cuban tweeted, "I agree 100 percent with Commissioner Silver`s findings and the actions taken against Donald Sterling."
Again, Sam, this is that whole issue of freedom of speech versus people having hate in their heart and saying stupid things. We are a little too tolerant of people`s hate, because hate becomes action as we found with last week we reported on somebody killing people he thought were Jewish because he hated them.
SCHACHER: We`re seeing this multiple times. We`re seeing this over and over and over again. So, I think that this is -- I know it`s a slippery slope, but this is the right decision, though.
PINSKY: Oh, yes.
SCHACHER: There can`t be any hate tolerated in the NBA.
PINSKY: All right. I`ve already got reaction form the panel. Let`s bring back Ms. Ali, and welcome social commentator Frank Taaffe and Vanessa Barnett.
Ms. Ali, are you ready to respond? Go ahead.
ALI: Yes, I wanted to say that last night people charged me with saying all white people was racist. That`s not what I ever say.
So, tonight, I want to make it clear I was not talking about white people. I was talking about a hundred -- all white people. I was talking about 175,385,229 white people.
I have quantified it so you can`t say I`m talking about all the white people.
PINSKY: Vanessa, what does she mean? Help me.
VANESSA BARNETT, HIPHOLLYWOOD.COM: Who knows what Ms. Ali means?
(CROSSTALK)
PINSKY: She`s saying a percentage, Frank, a percentage of white people.
(CROSSTALK)
BARNETT: We can go back to the tape, she said very clearly all white people are racist. Now she`s backtracking because she got --
PINSKY: Well, I will give her that opportunity. She`s entitled to clarify herself. She got excited yesterday.
BARNETT: Yes, I`m listening.
ALI: Vanessa, don`t pop your wig.
(CROSSTALK)
ALI: I said a certain amount.
BARNETT: Don`t pop that hat off. Let`s talk about the facts.
FRANK TAAFFE, SOCIAL COMMENTATOR: It`s a crown.
BARNETT: Let`s talk about the facts. You were wrong last night. I called you on it.
ALI: You shouldn`t have said that.
BARNETT: We need to be smart in the way we use our words. We can`t run the risk of looking just as bad as the racist.
ALI: You don`t tell me what words to use, shut up.
BARNETT: I`m not going to be catty. I`m going to rise above the fray and I`m going to say, we need to look at the facts.
TAAFFE: Rise above, Ali. Rise above.
BARNETT: What Silver said was what need d to be done, and that was the most he can do.
(CROSSTALK)
PINSKY: Stop, stop, everybody`s mike`s off. That`s it, I`m saying it. Everybody, only my mike on right now.
Here`s what we`re going to do. Ladies, calm, I get it, I get it.
SCHACHER: And Taaffe.
PINSKY: And everybody. You, too. Even you, Sam, but your mike is working now.
I want to get back on track here and ask Frank a question, and that is, do you think that punishment was appropriate for what this man has said?
TAAFFE: The audacity. There was nothing despicable in what he said, and where do we get off monitoring other person`s conversations and then going out and selling them? He did not say anything racist.
I heard the tapes. He used the word black. He didn`t even use the "N" word, Ali. Get real with yourself.
PINSKY: Frank, Frank, whenever you talk, Ms. Ali, you`re confirming everything Ms. Ali believes.
SCHACHER: Amen.
PINSKY: Vanessa, help me straighten this out -- Vanessa.
TAAFFE: I`m in the 175 million, Ali, and can only a white person --
ALI: That`s right.
TAAFFE: -- be racist? No. Absolutely not.
BARNETT: Some races can be racist, but it takes more than just the "N" word to be racist.
TAAFFE: Like what?
PINSKY: One at a time.
TAAFFE: Tell me, what makes a racist? You tell me what makes a racist. What makes a racist?
BARNETT: When he just said there and said, don`t bring people around, don`t bring black people to my game, when you take a certain section of people and have a general thought about them, a negative general thought about them, that is racism.
TAAFFE: There isn`t a single black person that has any racism towards a white person?
PINSKY: No, that`s not what anybody`s saying.
BARNETT: Did I ever say that? Now you`re making wild accusations to prove a point.
PINSKY: Ms. Ali, I don`t think you said that, did you?
ALI: OK, listen, no. This is the thing. The NAACP has been giving him the lifetime achievement award since 2009.
TAAFFE: Why?
ALI: Even after what happened with him in 2012. And he has donated to the Indians, Native Americans, to Jewish organizations, to black colleges, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which is the last organization that black people agree they can use the word colored, because white people giving them and donating so much money. So he`s been paying his way.
TAAFFE: Oh, man, give it a rest.
BARNETT: You`re not happy with anybody. You`re just going to say completely disregard anything that anybody does because you`re mad this didn`t go the way you wanted to. What Silver did was right, it may be just a slap on the hand, but this is no longer about just Donald and what he did.
TAAFFE: It`s wrong. It`s wrong.
BARNETT: This is proving a point that they will not tolerate racism. They did the most they could do.
TAAFFE: What did he say that was racist?
PINSKY: One at a time. Hold on, turn the mikes off again. Mikes off. Thank you -- Sam.
SCHACHER: Oh, my goodness. Can they hear me? Let`s talk.
I have so much anxiety listening to them. I know this is an important conversation to have, but I would love to hear -- I don`t understand why Frank would think that what Donald Sterling said is not discriminatory.
PINSKY: All right. Let`s hear that. Frank, how is what he said -- I found what he said not only racist, confusing. It was like bizarre and confusing to me.
TAAFFE: Dr. Drew, he`s more of a paranoid than a racist. He`s a control freak, OK. He`s a self made billionaire. He don`t care if you got to go sell that team. Who cares? He bought it for $15 million in 1981 and it`s worth over $600 million. So he`s going to tell you to take it and stick it, OK?
PINSKY: OK. Hold on, Frank, I will
But, Ms. Ali, follow that up.
ALI: I`ll tell you something else. Wait.
PINSKY: Yes, I`m ready.
ALI: I`ll tell you something else, Dr. Drew.
PINSKY: Yes.
ALI: There is not going to be any boycott. There`s going to be no boycotts of the NBA, because all other people that follow those games, they are not going to boycott that game.
TAAFFE: Who do you think attends those games?
(CROSSTALK)
ALI: So, they are not going to do that.
TAAFFE: Ali, I got a percentage for you.
PINSKY: Frank, you`re going to have to hold it, because I now need to -- I think I need to take Vanessa and she and I need to go have a calming tea somewhere.
BARNETT: I can talk it out with someone with some sense.
TAAFFE: Why don`t you have some black tea?
PINSKY: Stop it.
TAAFFE: Have some black tea.
PINSKY: You two -- I think they are more like each other than they know. That`s all I`m saying.
All right. Hold on, guys. Later, more on the story. We`re going to be visited by one of V. Stiviano`s friends, and she has a lot of details about what this all is and how it goes down. This is all so damn confusing for me. But next -- deep cleansing breaths, deep cleansing breaths.
Next, a father gives a skateboarding son just a shove off the half pipe. Find out what he`s saying about the shove that`s now gone viral.
Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Channel 4 newsroom was flooded with calls and e- mails this weekend about this Instagram video that`s gone viral. It shows a father apparently kicking his child down a ramp at a skate park. This is the ramp where the incident in question happened. The skate park owner tells us that it`s 13 feet here from the top all the way down to the bottom.
MARTIN RAMOS, SKATE PARK OWNER: It`s hard to look at. I mean, you see something like that, and it takes your breath away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because of the viral video, DCF is now looking into the family.
JOHN HARRELL, FL DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES: Florida Department of Children and Families is thoroughly investigating this case, not just the incident that happened, but also to see if there`s any other concerns regarding the family in this home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DR. DREW PINSKY, DR. DREW ON CALL HOST: I`m back with Sam, we are joined now by SiriusXM host Jason Ellis, Judy and Vanessa are back with us as well, and that 6-year-old boy was not injured. Both the local sheriff`s department and the Florida DCF continue to investigate. Vanessa, what are your thoughts?
VANESSA BARNETT: I`m just appalled that -- I believe the father said that he was just caught up in the moment. What moment on earth possesses you to kick a 6-year-old down what has to be well over 30, 40 feet down a ramp.
SAMANTHA SCHACHER: It`s 13 feet.
BARNETT: Still. Yeah.
PINSKY: He wasn`t pushing him off a cliff. He`s pushing him down a skateboard ramp.
BARNETT: Dr. Drew, I believe -- I`m sorry, but I think you`re making excuses. This is -- he`s clearly on the edge. If you push him, he is going to fall.
PINSKY: All right. Judy.
JUDY HO, PH.D.: Well, Vanessa, I think I have the explanation for why this dad did what he did. And I think that, this dad, like so many parents, is using their kids to work out their own issues and their own unforgotten and unachieved dreams. So, this guy, he`s from a big skateboarding family. He - - they talked about that, and maybe he didn`t have his skateboarding dreams fulfilled when he was younger. Maybe he was a child that chickened out when he was 6, and didn`t go down the ramp. So, now he`s pushing his kid. And you know what? That`s not fair. Children cannot be parents` do over. That is so wrong.
PINSKY: Well, now, Jason, I`m feeling weird kind of guilty here, Jason, because I`ve taken my kids up on like heavy duty, like black diamond ski runs, and we`re still going.
SCHACHER: You pushed them down?
PINSKY: I didn`t push them down.
SCHACHER: You pushed them?
PINSKY: I made them go with me, and we went down.
SCHACHER: There`s a difference.
PINSKY: But I`m just saying, I have a weird, weird, guilty, frankly, sort of reaction of this thing. What do you say?
JASON ELLIS: I don`t think that`s the same thing. I think, like Judy said, he wants this dream for his son to be a pro-skateboarder. Maybe it`s not his son`s dream yet, but at 6 years old, I grew -- I lived in those for 20 years. If somebody kicked me in the back off that, and I was like top three in the world at one point, if you kicked me in the back and did that to me, I would assume that you`re trying to fight me or you`re trying to break my leg. I mean, a 6-year-old that gets pushed off that, if he landed a little bit further out, he could had a really serious injury. You could kill a kid doing that.
(CROSSTALK)
SCHACHER: And the irony here is, apparently he told one of the other skateboarders who confronted him, why did you do that to your son, he said it`s because I wanted him to learn. Well, guess what? Now, this kid is probably more fearful of this ramp that`s 13 feet high.
ELLIS: I talked about this on.
PINSKY: You talked on your show and what?
ELLIS: I talked about it on my show about people called in, and said that their parents threw them into the pool to teach them how to swim and now, they are scared to go to pool parties. Not the pool, just the party.
PINSKY: That`s how -- you are as competitive NCAA swimmer.
SCHACHER: Yes.
PINSKY: I have seen swimming, training professionals throw kids in the pool.
SCHACHER: No. Dr. Drew, somebody threw me into the pool, I wouldn`t have been a collegiate swimmer. I mark my word.
PINSKY: I`ve got to bring in Martin Ramos. He`s the owner of this skate park where the incident occurred. Mark, you`ve been talking to the actual - - the father who did this. What`s his mental state?
RAMOS: You know, he`s definitely remorseful about what`s going on and admiringly kind of caught up in the glamorization of trying to get his son out there and be a big time skateboarder.
PINSKY: Is he frightened by all the viral and social media activity he`s getting? People actually, sort of -- I mean, people on social media are just vicious. Are they threatening him in any way?
RAMOS: Oh, you just said it right there. They are vicious on social media, and they`re threatening him and until we, you know, as a skate park made a statement, we were getting threats, as well, and hate phone calls from literally around the world.
PINSKY: What did you do?
BARNETT: I don`t believe he`s remorseful. He`s upset he got caught, but this is not the first time he`s done that. He`s way too casual. This is an on-going thing and he put -- probably pushes all of his kids way before.
PINSKY: I am more concerned by a mob mentality that will go out and try to harm a skate park owner and a dad who is under appropriate investigation. What is up with us? What is going on, Jason?
ELLIS: What does the owner do? I don`t understand what the owner did. He made a skate park.
(CROSSTALK)
PINSKY: We have this hideous mob mentality, just because people can talk through social media, they feel like they have to destroy people who behave in ways. Listen, in a way of the NBA story is a little bit of that, too. We`ve got to destroy and take his property away for about -- we become -- we have a crazy mob mentality in this country today. Let the DCFS take -- do their job. Let the sheriff`s department do their job. They will take care of this dad and make him a better dad, not take his damn kid away from him and not threaten him and his family and the skate park owner.
BARNETT: Shouldn`t be taken away, but this mob mentality comes from years and years and years of people feeling not heard and people feeling like you have all these people who are supposed to be there to protect you, as in the case with Omaree and things still fall through to the (inaudible) and he died. So, that mob mentality is if overcompensation for feeling like we`ve been failed so many times.
HO: Right. And to Vanessa`s point.
(CROSSTALK)
PINSKY: Got to go to break. A little boy dirty and locked in a cage. This one, actually worse a little on social media action. This kid in that cage with his hands rolled in. We have exclusive interviews with the neighbors right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michele Springer will not soon forget what she saw last weekend looking out from the back porch of her home. On the front porch of the house next door, a little boy crying.
MICHELE SPRINGER: He was screaming, no, no, no, and that`s when they put him inside of the cage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police tell us those two females were the boy`s mother, 24-year-old Crystal Jean Hostetter and her girlfriend 30-year-old Sarah Elizabeth McClain. They admitted to police they put the 6-year-old boy in a dog cage to punish him for bad behavior. Police chief Chris Womack says, the women also poured syrup and cat litter on the boy and made him hold a brick over his head for 15 minutes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PINSKY: Reminder, we are going to get back to the Sterling story in just a couple minutes. We have someone, a witness of all that has gone down and some of the details about how that world operates that Sterling lives in. But now, I`m back with Sam, Jason, Anahita, Segun. The boy, thank God, is in custody of Child Protective Services, the mother and girlfriend face felony charges of child cruelty. Police say both women admit to caging the boy because, Segun, he needed discipline.
SEGUN ODUOLOWU: Dr. Drew, here`s what really bothers me, because here we have a clear case of child abuse, but that last panel was talking about the father who pushed their kid down a ramp. Half of us learned how to swim by being thrown in the deep end or riding down a hill with no brakes on the bicycle. When you have a real case of child abuse, let`s deal with that and not lump the two together. Because now, we sometimes lose the anger we should feel towards these women for what they did. They are appalling and if their next door neighbor hadn`t been strong enough to call child services, we may never have found this out, but there was no tape on it. Come on, save out vitriol for where it counts. These two women, monsters.
PINSKY: Jason, I agree with Segun.
ELLIS: I disagree in the first statement. Kicking a kid off a skateboard ramp is child abuse, but these girls to me seem like they might be a little envious and they`re just trying -- they really hate men and this is like a payback thing because they can`t pee standing up or drive a stick.
PINSKY: I`ll let that sort of slide. I don`t have time to deal with that one. I want to bring in Michelle Springer. She is the family`s next door neighbour, and witnessed the entire incident. Michele, what did you see and hear?
SPRINGER: I saw the little boy on the front porch. He was crying, he was in trouble. I asked if he was in trouble, and he said, yes. The next thing I knew, the two women, they came out of the front porch. I watched as they poured syrup on his hands and feet and covered him with kitty litter. The both of them were yelling and hitting him.
SCHACHER: Oh, my God.
SPRINGER: They made him hold bricks above his head. He cried, do you love me, do you two love me? Please don`t kill me.
PINSKY: Oh, my gosh.
SCHACHER: The mom grabs him by the back of the neck and just shoved him into the cage. She locked the cage, and he was just screaming, no, no, no.
PINSKY: Anahita, what do we do with people like this?
ANAHITA SEDAGHATFAR: Oh, Dr. Drew, yeah, this is a tough one.
PINSKY: Do you see what Segun is saying, there`s such a difference between what`s disturbing Jason and a case like this.
SEDAGHATFAR: Yeah, I see it. I mean, they`re gonna -- their defense is gonna be this is discipline.
PINSKY: It`s not discipline.
SCHACHER: Oh, my God. Lock them in a cage! This is disgusting. This is nauseating.
SEDAGHATFAR: Why are you shooting the messenger? I`m trying to explain.
PINSKY: Go ahead. Finish, my dear.
ODUOLOWU: Because the messenger is wearing a target.
SEDAGHATFAR: Right. No, well, obviously, they are going to have a defense, as is every criminal defendant, and I think that their only defense really is going to be that this was punishment. We have a right to punish our kids. Now, having said that, do I think this is punishment? No, I think this is clearly child abuse and what this woman just said right now is that they were actually hitting him. That wasn`t in the initial report, so, in the initial report the police officer said it was more verbal abuse, and just.
(CROSSTALK)
PINSKY: Still, it`s the physical abuse.
ODUOLOWU: Locking a kid in the cage?
PINSKY: And then it`s torture, and next up we`ve got another child story with a drunk driver with a baby on her lap. Mom, who`s out of control, and a reminder. You can find us at any time on Instagram @DrDrewHLN. We`ll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PINSKY: Samantha Schacher, a 28-year-old woman, very drunk woman, slams her car into a tree, but here`s the problematic part, she had her 2-year-old on her lap driving drunk. She also had a 6-year-old in the back. Both children ended up having significant head injuries and this is the most tweeted story of the day for us. I`m back with Loni, Wendy. This is how it happens here, and Segun. Yes, that`s exactly what happened.
SCHACHER: She`s so lucky. The two are alive.
PINSKY: Here`s what she said to the officer, wait a minute, it gets worse. In this part, Segun, you`ve been breathing -- I beg your pardon, but, Segun, breathing fire today, but I`m going to Wendy with this. I just -- she says this. This woman after she smashes the car, really very drunk, I just washed the car and now the child put his bloody handprints all over my car. Wendy.
WENDY WALSH, PH.D.: You know how much I care about attachment, and I`m always err on the side of don`t you ever take children away from the mother because of the bonding, but Dr. Drew, these children could die if she has them for one more minute. These children need to be removed from her custody. Drinking and driving with children in the car is not only a felony, she needs to.
PINSKY: She needs treatment. She needs treatment. Loni, she`s now bonded out of jail. She`s back with her kids can`t the court.
LONI COOMBS: Why did they give the kids back? I don`t get it.
PINSKY: Can`t the court take the kids away to mandate treatment? I`ve deal with a lot of women drinkers that are motivated when they lose their kids.
COOMBS: Yes. They can and they should. Look, we impound the car when somebody`s driving drunk. We can`t save the children from this woman who`s clearly dangerous? And she didn`t think about her children at any time when she has them in the car with her, on the passenger seat, on her lap, and then when they actually crashed, and they are bleeding, and they`re trying to give them medical attention, she refuses, because she just want to get out of there. She doesn`t care if they`re bloody. She says I`m a nurse, I`ll take care of them. She knows that she`s drunk and she`s about to be arrested, and she`s thinking about herself.
PINSKY: I`m not sure she knows what the hell is going on. There was a tweet next to you, and why we are talking that I thought was very astute. Segun, your mic is now working.
(CROSSTALK)
PINSKY: You`ve been breathing fire, my friend. Let`s go. Come on.
ODUOLOWU: You know, I wish Anahita was here for some fake lawyer move, where she`s going to defend us here.
PINSKY: Well, Loni`s here.
ODUOLOWU: OK. So, Loni -- so, here`s my thing, Loni. Is this one prior bad act? Do we know if it`s a series? Because you`re saying that we wanna steal or take this woman`s kids away from her, for one act that we know of. Now, listen, I agree it was reckless, it was stupid. And anytime, kids.
(CROSSTALK)
COOMBS: They could be dead! They are lucky to be alive!
ODUOLOWU: Any time kids are in danger. We should always act with their caution at mind, but you are all both saying take the kids away without any knowledge of her past. What if this was a one-time mistake?
COOMBS: I don`t need to know her past. I don`t need to know her past. This is enough right here. These circumstances were enough. She needs to be proving that she is safe before they put the children back with her.
ODUOLOWU: But how does she do that?
COOMBS: So, that protective services goes in there and investigates and finds out what kind of circumstances are they living in, can she take care of these children?
(CROSSTALK)
ODUOLOWU: Loni, as a lawyer, Loni, you know the child services and foster care is not always the best thing for the kid.
PINSKY: All right. Hold on, Segun. Sam.
SCHACHER: Segun. OK. Clearly, this woman is in need of severe treatment. She blew a .26.
PINSKY: And by the way, Wendy said that she shouldn`t have the kids because of the attachment issues, but when you`re loaded like that you`re not attached to your kids either.
SCHACHER: Right. She`s only thinking about one thing, and that`s to get her next fix. She`s not thinking about the best interest of these children. So, I think having a court mandated treatment and then once she gets clean -- once she`s been clean for a year, yes, I would love more than anything to see her to be reunited with her children, but not right now.
PINSKY: Guys, I heard Segun agree. We have to leave it at that, because we have an exclusive coming up. We`re going to hear from one of the friends of the woman at the center of the controversy in the NBA scandal. We have new details from this woman, who is very close to the Donald Sterling scandal. She knows the woman who is directly involved with this. She has direct knowledge of who calls when this woman is with African-American men and how that all works. Stay with us. I got a lot of questions. Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
DONALD STERLING: You go to Israel. The blacks are just treated like dogs.
V. STIVIANO: But do you have to treat them like that, too?
STERLING: The white Jews, there`s white Jews and black Jews, do you understand?
V. STIVIANO: And are the black Jews less than the white Jews?
STERLING: A 100 percent, 50 percent, 100 percent.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
PINSKY: That was from deadspin.com. I`m back with Sam, Loni, and Anahita. We`re gonna return to Donald Sterling`s racist comments to his then- girlfriend V. Stiviano. We have this just in, we have some breaking information. V.`s attorney gave this statement to the LA Times, just now, quote, my client is devastated that this got out and she never wanted to harm Donald, unquote. She`s also, quote, very saddened by the NBA`S decision to ban him from the sport for life. And we have a special guest joining our panel. Her name is Karrine Steffans. She knows Sterling`s ex- girlfriend, who actually made those recordings. Karrine, before I go to you, I have to go to Anahita who was laughing at the Sterling -- attorney`s statements. Do you want to tell me why you were laughing?
SEDAGHATFAR: I mean, Dr. Drew, I just find that very disingenuous. That she have nothing to do with the release of these tapes. We`ve heard this before with celebrity sex tapes and things like that. Again, I`ve heard some reports, and some inside scoop that she is in negotiations with Mr. Sterling to try to get a settlement to not release additional audio recordings.
PINSKY: OK. All right.
SEDAGHATFAR: So, I find that disingenuous.
PINSKY: All right. So, Karrine, so it`s a perfect question for me to start up with you, is she -- do you know if she is in negotiations that likely? Do you really think that she is saddened by what has happened here?
KARRINE STEFFANS, FRIEND OF V. STIVIANO: Is V. Stiviano sad? Absolutely. She`s been sad for a while. She`s been hurt before this even started she was hurt.
PINSKY: Why? By what?
STEFFANS: Think about the allegations against her and think about how they`ve been able to continue with the lawsuit and as close as she has been to Donald Sterling, as his trusted adviser, as his friend, as an employee of his, how he did nothing to stop these allegations and this court case. I believe she`s been hurt.
SCHACHER: So, Karrine, are you referencing the litigation that`s brought on by Donald Sterling`s wife, Rochelle, calling her a gold digger and saying that she was taking advantage of Donald Sterling? Is that what you`re referencing to?
STEFFANS: Absolutely. And I feel and I know, just from the conversations that she has been hurt by that.
PINSKY: And Karrine, you just saw V. just a few hours ago. How was she holding up now?
STEFFANS: V. is strong. V. is strong and she`s resilient and she`s resourceful, but, of course, she`s pained. She`s not happy about what has happened to her before this, and I think that sometimes hurt people hurt people.
PINSKY: Karrine, I think I have two jaded attorneys to your right. I`m gonna give Loni a chance to respond because she had a funny look on her face, too. Go ahead.
COOMBS: I do have a question for you, you know, apparently she`d been recording these phone calls for hours and hours. Did you know that she was recording these phone calls, and did she ever tell you why she was doing it?
STEFFANS: Was I aware of the conversations, the recordings before the scandal? Yes, I was. V. has not explained to me why she does this. I have been told that she is an archivist, and you know, as a writer, and someone who writes and archives things, in nonfiction, and that`s my forte, I archive a lot of things, as well.
PINSKY: Anahita?
STEFFANS: I understand that.
PINSKY: OK.
SEDAGHATFAR: Would you, Karrine, as her friend since she`s so saddened, and you`re representing, she`s so sadden by this. She didn`t want these tapes released. Would you be able to get her to go on the record and say that she would not try to profit one penny, not a dollar, not two dollars, one penny from this entire relationship she had with Mr. Sterling? Would you be able to get her to go on the record and say that?
STEFFANS: OK. So, listen, I`ve been acquainted with her. I`m not her best friend, she has a best friend. I am not her -- I have not known her long enough to even claim to be a friend. Was I over there? Yes. Am I going to tell her what to do with this? No. I would never have done this. This is not something that I think is profitable. Even if it`s financially profitable, it`s not spiritually profitable. It`s not humanly -- it just feels very dirty.
PINSKY: And Karrine, I`ll ask you your comments about, what -- who are the people calling and keeping track of things and worried about her going out with African-American men? Who is that?
COOMBS: Yeah.
STEFFANS: I`m not sure of the worry is whether or not she`s going out with African-American men. I know that while her boss is away, she`s representing him, and so, if he asks some questions about did she go to the game? Who is she bringing?
(CROSSTALK)
PINSKY: Who we`re these eyes and ears? I`ve got five seconds. I`m sorry, in which I`ve got more questions.
STEFFANS: Eyes and ears are everywhere. It`s an organization, name somebody.
PINSKY: All right. Well, hopefully, we`ll keep this conversation going and DVR us right now, you can watch this any time. And of course, we`re followed right now by Forensic Files. It`s up next.
END
