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Jane Velez-Mitchell

Young Mom Vanishes after Visiting Uncle

Aired June 11, 2012 - 19:00   ET

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jane, is there any circumstance that you think it`s OK for a parent to spank their child, as an example?

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST: Well, this is not a circumstance where it would be OK. This is a child playing catch. And I think the father may be using -- the stepfather may be using this child to work out his own issues.

And we`re starting with a very urgent story out of Alabama. A desperate search for a 19-year-old mother who disappeared after telling her family she was going to visit some friends, but there`s a very odd twist in this case. Her family joins me live next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over); Tonight, a race against time in Alabama to find this beautiful missing 19-year-old mom, Brittany Wood, last seen walking down the road away from her home. Her cell phone last pinged less than a mile from her uncle`s. But now cops say the uncle has committed suicide. Did he take the secrets of what happened to Brittany to the grave, or could this be a stranger abduction? We`ll talk to Brittany Wood`s mom live.

Also the Jerry Sandusky pedophile trial opens with a shocker. Victim No. 4 spills the secrets of what he calls his childhood sexual torment at the hands of this Penn State legend. Tonight, a famous survivor of sexual abuse gives us a peek into what these boys allegedly endured. And we`re taking your calls.

Plus, you won`t believe what our own government is doing to our nation`s wild horses and why these helpless mustangs need you to ride to the rescue.

Plus, our adventure to slim. Two new tricks right in your cupboard you never even know you had.

CHESSIE WOOD, MISSING GIRL`S MOTHER: I want (ph) you, baby. We love you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thursday Brittany Wood tells family members that she was headed to this house near Styx River to see her Uncle Donnie. Donnie Wood returned home to Fair Hope on Friday and shot himself. Brittany hasn`t been heard from since.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her uncle has committed suicide, and supposedly he was the last one she was with. And so we`re worried about that.

WOOD: I`m hoping to God, and I really don`t think he`d hurt my baby.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we haven`t talked to her in over a week, and we need some help finding her.

WOOD: You know your children`s routine. She has not done nothing routine. She always calls me. And she ain`t called me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: A beautiful young mom vanishes after visiting her uncle. Then he commits suicide. Are the two cases connected?

Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell.

Brittany Wood has been missing for nearly two weeks. She disappeared from Mobile, Alabama, leaving her 2-year-old daughter behind. Look at this beautiful pair.

She told her family she was going to visit friends. But her last cell phone transmission happened less than a mile from this rural area where her uncle reportedly had a home near the Styx River. Now she reportedly told her friends that she was visiting her uncle there. When she didn`t return, her frantic mother called the cops.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOOD: Brittany, come home. We love you. Please come home to your family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: This is Brittany`s uncle, Donald Holland, the man Brittany was said to be visiting before she disappeared. He is dead now. Just as she was reported missing, he kills himself with a shotgun. Now Brittany`s parents don`t know what to think. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her uncle has committed suicide, and supposedly he was the last one she was with. And so we`re worried about that.

WOOD: I`m hoping to God. And I really don`t think he`d hurt my baby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Call me: 1-877-JVM-SAYS, 1-877-586-7297. What are your thoughts about this mystery?

Straight out to our exclusive guest, Chessie Wood, the mother of missing Brittany Wood.

First of all, our hearts go out to you. I know this is such a difficult time. There are no words. We want to be of help. So let`s start by clarifying a key issue here. When your daughter walked out of the house, where did she tell you she was going, and how did she plan to get there?

WOOD (via phone): She was going to her friend Courtney`s (ph). I believe Courtney (ph) was supposed to come get her, but Courtney (ph) never -- never saw her.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What are your fears as to what has happened to your beautiful daughter?

WOOD: I`m just fearing that something is wrong with her. She has a 2-year-old baby that she hasn`t contacted. And ever since that baby has been born, that`s my daughter`s heart and soul. So it just don`t seem right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, there`s definitely something wrong. We`re going to try to figure out what happened.

Now, one of the big challenges of this case is nobody really knows where Brittany was headed when she vanished. Listen to her father talk about Brittany`s final cell phone pings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the last place her phone was pinged. They found the signal bouncing off one of these towers, and we haven`t talked to her in over a week, and we need some help finding her.

WOOD: You know your children`s routine. She has not done nothing routine. She always calls me. And she ain`t called me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Brittany left from this location, her mother`s house in Tillman`s Corner. But then she supposedly went all the way to another area, Styx River, which is over 30, almost 40 miles away. That`s where she reportedly met her uncle, but her uncle then returned to his home in Fair Hope, and then he committed suicide. So this case is literally all over the map.

I want to go to Stephanie Hanke, another exclusive guest of ours tonight, Brittany Wood`s stepmother.

Do you have any knowledge -- did you know this uncle at all?

STEPHANIE HANKE, STEPMOTHER OF BRITTANY WOOD: Yes. I`ve met him on several occasions. He`s been to my home. Very nice man. He was not only close with Brittany; he was close with the other children.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Did he have any reason to commit suicide? Did he have any financial problems, relationship problems, despondency?

HANKE: That I would have no idea of.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, Chessie, did he have any -- did Donald Holland have any reason to commit suicide right after your daughter disappears?

WOOD: Well, we really don`t know that. That`s what we`re trying to figure out. I mean, I`m pretty sure he has financial problems. I believe we all do. At this time.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let`s take a look at the route that Brittany might have taken. She was last seen walking on foot from her mom`s house in Tillman`s Corner. Then her cell phone pings under a mile from the house her uncle was at, apparently, reportedly, by Waterworld Road, which is more than 40 miles away from her mom`s house.

If you look, the route she most likely took was near Interstate 10. So if she was abducted on I-10, she could be anywhere. It stretches coast to coast. In fact, just recently we`ve been covering a case right here on the show of another beautiful young girl, Mickey Shunick, who went missing near Interstate 10 in Louisiana.

And I actually went down to New Orleans and did a ride-a-long with a retired cop as we tried to find her. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, with the I-10, it -- like I said, it runs -- it runs from Jacksonville all the way out to San Diego. So if anybody picked her up and put her in that car or truck, you know, there`s no telling where she could wind up. Hundreds of cities she could be in now. But this -- it runs the whole length of the country, so that`s what the problem is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Marc Klaas, child advocate, president of the Klaas Foundation, you are helping this family. The first reaction that everybody has, obviously, is if this young woman, this beautiful young woman goes to visit the uncle, and the uncle then commits suicide and she`s disappeared, there`s got to be a connection there. Something untoward. What are your thoughts on that?

MARC KLAAS, KLAAS FOUNDATION: Well, Jane, I have no idea, obviously, what happened to her.

Before I get into that a little bit, I`d like to point out some informal research that I`ve done indicates that, of children that are abducted, more than 80 percent of them are abducted within four miles of a major interstate freeway entrance or exit, which I think is kind of a fascinating statistic which I`ve not seen anywhere else.

But back to Brittany`s case, we have no idea where she is. The Klaas Kids Foundation was contacted by the family. And our search-and-rescue team, which is located here in Pensacola, Florida, is going to be assisting them beginning on Wednesday morning.

We`re working with the authorities in Mobile, Alabama, on this search, and what we will be looking for is anything that would be associated with a girl of her age. We will work with the authorities to try to find the locations that are most reasonable to search, and then look for clues. Look for her, look for clues, look for anything that might lead us to the - - to the resolution of this mystery.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Stacey Honowitz, you, as a Florida prosecutor supervise the sex crime unit. Again, what are your thoughts about this uncle suddenly committing suicide right after she says, reportedly, she`s going to visit him?

STACEY HONOWITZ, SEX CRIMES PROSECUTOR: Well, certainly, Jane, when you hear the facts of this in this scenario, you have to initially think there that has to be some kind of connection. Why else would there -- would we be talking about it, quite frankly? That`s where she said she was going. That`s where she is, and then he commits suicide. Obviously, the parents are probably thinking, does he have a secret? Was there something that we didn`t know?

But now that`s all going to be part of the investigation. Just like you mentioned before. Was he depressed? Was he having issues? What was the relationship the two of them had? Are there going to be people -- people coming out of the Woodwork now to say that there was a relationship between the two of them? But these are all part of the investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody in the family, get in touch with us and let us know that you`re OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Where is 19-year-old Brittany Wood? The beautiful woman left her mom`s house leaving her 2-year-old daughter behind. She says she`s visiting friends, reportedly. Then friends say that she told them she was visiting her uncle. That uncle later commits suicide. What is going on here?

There she is. Beautiful Brittany Wood with her 2-year-old daughter. She is missing tonight. Her family is frantic. We have exclusive interviews with her mother and her stepmother.

I want to go to Stephanie Hanke again, the stepmother. Here`s what I don`t understand. Why would she say she`s visiting friends, and then friends say she told them she was visiting her uncle?

The obvious question is, could she have had some kind of secret relationship with her uncle that nobody else knew about? Is her uncle married? What is -- what does the uncle`s wife say about his suicide? Fill us in here, so we can be of help.

HANKE: Well, as far as that -- (AUDIO GAP).

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m going to throw that same question out to Chessie Wood, because you`re Brittany Wood`s mom. We were having audio problems. Chessie, what`s going on here?

WOOD: Well, I do not believe they have a relationship. He was married to my sister. And he was -- he was -- my son has even went to their house a lot.

My sister was at that house with Donnie the Thursday night, that would be June 1st. So we don`t know if she even made it to Don`s. She was not actually seen with Donnie. The reason we`re searching that area is because her phone was pinged there.

Now if it had some relation -- something to do with my brother-in- law`s suicide, we don`t know. The Mobile Police Department and the Baldwin County Sheriff`s Department is taking care of that. We as a family and a community is just searching for Brittany.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well -- well, we did dig into the uncle`s history. And we have to say this, full disclosure, because we want to be helpful. We can`t just censor things.

We found something bizarre and disturbing on his Facebook page. He has an album of photos called "Girls at the Condo." You`re looking at the photos from that album. We`ve blurred the faces, but pretty much, it`s a bunch of beautiful young women in bikinis who are around the same age as Brittany.

Now, Jon Lieberman, investigative reporter, HLN contributor, what can we make of this collection of photos of young women in bikinis on the uncle`s Facebook page, the same uncle who later committed suicide after Brittany Wood vanished?

JON LIEBERMAN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, we`ve been digging into that a lot, too. And one thing police are doing is they`re looking at his social media footprint. And as you have there on the screen, are these pictures.

So what police are trying to nail down right now, as Ms. Wood said, is was this young lady at her uncle`s house that evening? A neighbor says that he saw her outside of that house, but never saw her with her uncle.

Now, another thing that could explain at least part of the uncle`s mindset. We found on his Facebook page, somebody posted that they believe that he had recently lost his mother and his brother. And so there was some speculation about some rampant drug use to deal with those losses. So another thing police are looking into is if drugs play any role in this case, as well.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. And again, we`re all looking at these facts to be of help, to find this missing young woman. Diane, Pennsylvania, we`re going out to the phone lines. Diane, your question or thoughts?

CALLER: Hi, Jane. How are you?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good, thanks.

CALLER: Jane, you know what? I have a couple of comments and a question.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK.

CALLER: OK. On -- first of all, she`s 19 years old, and she -- her child was left behind. You know that most mothers would not do that. And she`s missing.

And then with the uncle, Donnie, between -- I`m wondering between the different things that were going on, and he likes to look at the young girls on the computer and so forth, on -- is there anything in his background for the reason why he committed suicide? And I just want to say checking because...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you, Diane. Jon Lieberman, can you give us an update on the uncle?

LIEBERMAN: Yes, the uncle just has minor criminal charges in his background. No felonies that we could find. So that speaks to his criminal record. But one thing that police are looking at is the family dynamic.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOOD: Brittany, come home. I miss you, baby. We love you. Please come home to your family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: This poor family. Where is Brittany Wood? There she is, a beautiful 19-year-old with her young daughter.

She says she went to visit friends. Friends said she went to visit her uncle. Her uncle later commits suicide. She`s missing. What happened to this beautiful young woman?

We`re talking exclusively with her mom, Chessie Wood. What can you tell us? What would you like to say if Brittany is out there watching? What would you like...

WOOD: Not only to Brittany, but to the public. If anybody knows any information on Brittany Wood, if you`ve seen her, if you know her, give Brad a call at Klaas Kids at 1-850-525-4807.

If Brittany is watching, baby, please come home. We need you in our life, because we love you, honey. We`re worried about you. Please let us know that you`re OK.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Our hearts go out to you, your entire family. There are no words. And we are trying to get to the bottom of this. So anything we bring up, as far as facts, please understand that we`re doing it to try to be of help.

Unfortunately, we have to reveal whatever comes up. We can`t just pick and choose if we want to be helpful.

Now the uncle who committed suicide, Donald Holland, as you just heard, he has a minor record. It was in 2005, charged with operating a vessel, presumably a boat with [SIC] a personal flotation device. That`s nothing. And he`s without a life jacket.

2007 he had a traffic violation. Driving on a suspended license.

2010, three separate traffic charges.

And you heard, Marc Klaas, the family says, well, he has money problems. We all have money problems these days is what they said. Marc, you`ve heard all the facts. What -- what are you making of it?

KLAAS: Well, Jane, I think the mother`s demeanor says more than anything that we can see. She obviously has a bad feeling about what happened to her daughter.

I don`t see a lot of good scenarios coming out of this. And I really doubt that Brittany is sitting in front of a TV watching this right now. She doesn`t seem like the kind of a girl that would torture her family and abandon her young child.

So it`s really a matter of working with the authorities and combing the areas where she might be until we`re able to solve what happened to Brittany.

Of course, we all want her to come home alive. There`s absolutely no question about that. And miracles do happen. But I think it would take a miracle for her to be found alive.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, tonight we`re wishing for a miracle. We`re hoping and praying for a miracle.

And again, to the Wood family, our hearts go out to you. And we`re going to stay on this story and do everything we can to find your daughter.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Opening statements under way this morning in the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse trial.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The grand jury report is filled with details from each accuser, alleging how and when Sandusky allegedly abused them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Former Penn State assistant football coach is charged with sexually abusing ten boys over 15 years ago. He`s facing 52 counts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The report details accusations that Sandusky would take his hands and place them on their thighs as they were driving in the car. That he would tickle them and blow on their stomachs at bedtime, would shower naked with them, and would rape them.

JEAN CASAREZ, TRUTV`S "IN SESSION": All of a sudden this young man walks out from a door in the back of the courtroom and takes the stand. He`s wearing a dress shirt. He`s got a tie. He is alleged victim No. 4. He would lift them, he said, by their buttocks and then he would take his hands and rub them on their genitals real fast. That`s how he got to know Jerry Sandusky.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A tent is set up outside the courthouse to help shield some of these alleged victims, the witnesses, from the cameras.

JOE AMENDOLA, ATTORNEY FOR JERRY SANDUSKY: I find it hard to believe -- and many other people will consider this issue also -- that so many of these accusers have maintained social ties with Jerry and his wife, Dottie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight Jerry Sandusky comes face-to-face with one of his accusers, a 28-year-old man who says he was sexually abused by Sandusky for years when he was a boy.

Some of what this young man told the court in day one of this nationally watched trial is so graphic we cannot quote him on TV. But tonight, as we show you video of Jerry Sandusky going into court, we`re going to talk with somebody who was in the courtroom and heard every single word.

Here is the man at the center of it all, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. You see him there arriving at court. He`s facing 52 charges as he walked into court today. Fifty-two charges, tied to what prosecutors say was his systemic abuse of at least 10 boys over 15 years, alleged victims who had feelings of humiliation, shame and fear that kept them silent for years.

Here`s what Sandusky told NBC about allegations that he was taking neighborhood naked showers with young boys.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JERRY SANDUSKY, ON TRIAL FOR SEXUAL ABUSE (via phone): I have horsed around with kids. I have showered after workouts. I have hugged them, and I have touched their legs, without intent of sexual contact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Today it was alleged victim No. 4 who took the stand. This young man, who we`re not naming, says he met Sandusky at the Second Mile Foundation for boys at risk and says the relationship quickly escalated to sex, but he didn`t know what to do about it.

Listen as "In Session`s" Jean Casarez describes what this young man told jurors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: He took this alleged victim No. 4 along with some other kids down to the water`s edge at the park where they went on the family picnic and started lifting the little kids up in the air and down. He would lift them, he said, by their buttocks and then he would take his hands and rub them on their genitals real fast. That`s how he got to know Jerry Sandusky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: This case rocked the nation, and of course, Penn State. And when the legendary football coach Joe Paterno was fired in the fallout, there were riots. You`re looking at those riots. They overturned a news van. Paterno later died.

Now, one of his key staffers, Mike McQueary, is a key witness because he says he saw Sandusky in the showers in a sexual situation with what he believed to be a young boy. Today we found out the defense hopes to introduce evidence that Sandusky suffers from a personality disorder.

What do you think about this case? Call me. 1-877-JVM-SAYS.

Straight out to Beth Karas, "In Session" correspondent on TruTV; Beth, you were in the courtroom. What was it like to hear this young man take the stand and face this alleged monster in court?

BETH KARAS, CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Well, as you can imagine, Jane, it was very tense in the courtroom; almost 200 people filling the courtroom, listening from the public gallery.

Jerry Sandusky sitting between his lawyers staring at this young man, now 28 years old and I saw him from a side view, just looking at him. Couldn`t see emotion from Sandusky`s face, but he was staring at him.

Now this young man was very forthright, but he was very well-prepared. He met many times with prosecutors to go over this story. It had to have been painful to talk about it. But he probably said it so many times that it was more rote because he had gone over it a lot.

He described how he was just a child. No one ever cared for him before, and he knew what was happening was wrong. He didn`t want it to happen, but he also didn`t want to lose the attention and the things that he was getting. "For once, somebody was paying attention to me," he said.

He had sort of a troubled life. He was a bit of a bully. He used to get in trouble. And here is a man who was taking him to games and taking him to ball games outside of the state. He was lavishing him with gifts and sports equipment and jerseys, and he was getting lots of nice things. He had to do things he didn`t want to do, and he talked about how it escalated.

He did not want penetration, and there was a little bit, but he got away from him when there were these attempts to penetrate him. But there was a lot of other things that went on besides penetration.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Duncan Roy is a survivor of sexual abuse -- because we`re trying to understand what is it like to be in the shoes of this young man who says all this stuff happened to him for years, sexual stuff at the hands of Jerry Sandusky, and now he`s got to get up and talk about those and spill those allegations essentially in front of the world.

Now, Duncan Roy, you spoke courageously about your abuse to Dr. Drew on VH1`s "Sex Rehab".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DUNCAN ROY, SEXUAL ABUSE SURVIVOR: I felt utterly powerless because I was.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You were. No social services are going to come in on a white horse and save me. It wasn`t going to happen. So consequently it just got worse and worse and worse --

DR. DREW PINSKY, HLN HOST: Nothing worse could happen.

ROY: Nothing worse could happen.

PINSKY: Even death.

ROY: Yes, that`s right. It`s like you`re already dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Duncan Roy, on cross examination, Sandusky`s attorney grilled this young man about why didn`t you cut off contact with Sandusky if he did this to you? Can you explain the dynamic that occurs?

ROY: I think when you`re a child and you`re being abused by a family member who you trust in almost every other situation, you tend to believe that what they`re doing to you is good. And you know, you might have feelings of shame then, but as the young man explain in the courtroom, if you`re feeling less than and you`re getting gifts and you`re getting attention, then sometimes it`s probably easier just to put up with the sex abuse than to say no and lose the good things that you`re getting.

I mean, you know, the legacy of abuse is the ongoing shame that you have throughout your life. And you know, I feel for these kids, these young men that have come to testify because it`s not easy. It`s not easy to tell the truth about terrible things that you know you`ve put to the back of your mind usually. And you know that it was wrong.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So right -- it must be so difficult for these young men. Alleged victim number four, the first witness in this blockbuster trial admitted to the court that part of the reason -- you were hearing it -- he didn`t tell anybody because he enjoyed all the special attention Sandusky was giving him.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: He couldn`t believe what he was getting to do. Go to Penn State games, meet the football players, fly in the coach`s plane. He said, "I never told anybody because I was a big deal at high school, and I didn`t have very much in my life, and I didn`t want it to stop."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But clearly this was a nightmare. Alleged victim number four says Sandusky forced him to perform oral sex dozens of times and attempted penetration. And that Sandusky allegedly pressed him against the floor, stomach down and attempted to have blank sex with him.

This is what I have to understand. Stacy Honowitz, how is it possible that about half of the people on the jury have ties to Penn State? At least one, possibly two are professors. To me, given that this was an institution that failed to call 911 at a time that they should have called 911, I think that these people may feel pressure to act a certain way and decide a certain way because of their connections to Penn State.

STACEY HONOWITZ, FLORIDA PROSECUTOR: You know, Jane, it was very unusual that number one, the jury was picked very quickly in a sex crimes case, especially a very high-profile case that the world is watching. And number two, (inaudible) a lot of the people on the jury are connected with Penn State. And you`re right. There could be a feeling of pressure that we didn`t do anything before. Maybe we need to do something now.

But I can also tell you that after listening to eight to nine to ten victims come and take the stand and repeat the same story over and over again, it might not be that difficult. It is interesting to note why the defense did do it that way or left them on. Maybe they had a different way of thinking. Maybe they thought they were going to be sympathetic because he did work for the university.

But, you know, this is just one day of graphic detailed victim abuse. You`re going to hear of it for the next couple of weeks. And it`s a tough case for people have to sit on. It`s tough for people to have to listen to. Sometimes it`s good for the victims to finally come forward and talk about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: More breaking news in a moment, but first your viral video of the day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let`s go see daisy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, goodness. Hi, baby. Hi. Hi.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: I watched closely, and, you know, his back is to the gallery, but I saw a side angle. He listened to everything. He wrote some notes, but when alleged victim number four was talking about how he met him and the family picnic and how they would start to go to Penn State to do exercise and then shower, I saw Jerry Sandusky re-living some of that -- I felt I saw a faint smile on his face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Gosh. The defense has hinted he might take the stand. So you`re going to hear from Jerry Sandusky. Or maybe they`re just referring to videotape. He`s spoken on camera. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JERRY SANDUSKY, ON TRIAL FOR SEXUAL ABUSE: If I say "No, I`m not attracted to boys," that`s not the truth because I`m attracted to young people -- boys, girls.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, but not sexually. Your attracted because you enjoy spending time.

SANDUSKY: Right. I enjoy -- that`s what I was trying to -- I enjoy spending time with young people. I enjoy spending time with people. I mean my two favorite groups are the elderly and the young.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Boy, they play that tape in court, Jon Leiberman, that is going to be tough. Do you think he`s going to take the stand? And what about this histrionic personality disorder which now the defense is hinting that`s what they`re going to use as a defense. That he has histrionic personality disorder -- "attention-seeking, dramatic behavior".

JON LEIBERMAN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Yes, I mean Jane -- I mean a laundry list of all of the theories here that the defense is trying to throw up against the board here. You have history on personality disorder. They`re going to tell you that Mike McQueary misunderstood what he saw when he saw Sandusky in the shower with one of the kids. You`re going to hear that the victims just want to make money, and that`s why they lawyered up and started looking at civil action.

You`re going to hear that in Jerry Sandusky`s culture, it was, quote, "normal for coaches to shower with kids". These are all the things you`re going to hear.

What it`s going to come down to for the jury is this. This is a case with really no physical evidence because of the time. It goes back so far. You`re not going to have DNA. You`re not going to have fingerprints. This is going to come down to the pictures, the people, the victims, the real lives that these jurors saw today in front of them when the prosecution put each of the alleged victims` pictures up on the screen. If the jurors believe them, then they will convict.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: This is a cautionary tale. If a guy who is a middle- aged man starts taking interest in your kid, beware. If he starts giving your kid gifts, and this guy gave allegedly tons of very fancy sports equipment to these kids, beware. If he wants to shower with your kids, beware.

Ok. Let`s go out to the phone lines. Karen in North Carolina, your question or thought, Karen?

KAREN, NORTH CAROLINA (via telephone): Hi.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hi.

KAREN: Hi. Hi, Jane. Jane, I just wanted to say that I think Sandusky, first of all, put himself in a position to be around young boys. And I think that his family were a bunch of enablers that turned a blind side to his actions that they saw right in front of their face but chose to ignore. And I think that trickled down to the football field where because of his position, the people around him just turned the other cheek in fear of losing a position that they have.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you Karen.

KAREN: And I think that`s what allowed him to be able to continue --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Duncan Roy, sexual abuse survivor, these kind of guys go after troubled kids because aren`t they easier to manipulate?

ROY: I think a child with a broken wing, as it were, is much easier to manipulate. And probably, as you said, ignored by the family -- his own family; he turns to somebody powerful, like this guy, and would have done anything for him because there`s a certain amount of loyalty that springs up between children and adults in powerful positions. And I think, you know, when you don`t see a future for yourself and this person is promising you the world then you know, that`s a very easy position to lose yourself to.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And this victim said Sandusky wrote him creepy love letters. Here`s one. "I write because you mean so much to us. I write because of the churning in my stomach when you don`t care. I write because I hope there will be meaning to the time we have known each other." Oy, this is bad.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: We`re very excited to tell you the Daytime Emmys are coming to HLN. This show has it all on HLN. The soaps, the talk shows, the stars, everything you love, included on the red carpet. You can watch the Daytime Emmy Awards live Saturday, June 23rd, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, only on HLN.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: The U.S. government doesn`t really want to end these horrifying wild horse roundups. These beautiful horses in these pens -- look at how these majestic animals that are supposed to be wild are kept once the government rounds them up. Yes, by the tens of thousands in cramped pens.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: It`s happening again. You won`t believe what the federal government is doing to our country`s wild horses. In these economically tough times, the Bureau of Land Management is using our tax dollars to forcibly round up wild horses in Northern Nevada. The governor claims, they`re there to help the animals because they`re starving.

Critics say the move amounts to torture. It`s the height of foaling season -- that means newborn foals and pregnant mares are among the horses forcibly stampeded by helicopters right over head. Why not just bring them food and water?

The Bureau of Land Management is part of the Interior Department, the same people that botched the oversight of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Straight out to Laura Leigh from Wild Horse Education; you were right there near Jackson (inaudible) where this roundup is taking place. We`re looking at this horrifying videos. What have you seen? What`s the worst you have seen with your own eyes, Laura?

LAURA LEIGH, WILD HORSE EDUCATION: I have seen these compromised animals, these thin babies and mares that aren`t getting the nutrition that they need, stampeded towards that trap by helicopter. Bands fractures, families split up, where the baby goes into the trap or the mom goes into the trap and then they have to continue to chase these horses and further traumatize these compromised animals and rope them and get them back into the trap.

It`s pretty rough to watch this during foaling season.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, the BLM claims that drought conditions are compromising the health of the animals and it`s their policy not to supplement animal feed and only provide water. And that they have been providing water since April, but it hasn`t helped. And the helicopters have proven to be a safe and practical means to gather or remove excess horses and burros (ph) in the range (ph).

No, I can tell you with my own eyes -- we`re going to show you video - - it is not a safe and practical method. We have seen video of these horses being absolutely tapped by the helicopters. Touched, can you imagine how terrified these animals must be, to be actually tapped by a helicopter?

Laura, what do you think is the real reason behind this roundup?

LEIGH: Well, this roundup there is a drought out there. This range has been overgrazed and they didn`t do anything about it two years ago when they should have. And they were asleep at the switch and got lazy and we ended up in this situation, and we can never let it happen again.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Go to WildHorseEducation.org if you want to get involved. We`re staying on top of this story, there`s a congress member who wants to stop this and we hope that we can stop it. We`re going to try to get that congress member on and talk about this. We`re not ignoring the voiceless burros and mustangs.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: It`s not a diet. We know diets don`t work. This is a new way of life.

KATHY FRESTON, AUTHOR, "THE LEAN": We`re just going to tweak what we eat and what we do throughout our day just a little bit, very gradually.

I don`t want you to be miserable. I don`t want you to hate your life. I want you to enjoy your life.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight in our adventure to slim, we`re going nuts. Our very own health advocate, Kathy Freston here; you know her from Oprah and Ellen. She`s been guiding us on this journey with her bag of tricks to make us look and feel better and leaner.

The author of "The Lean" back now. Kathy Freston, why do you want us to go nuts?

FRESTON: Go nuts because nuts are good for you. They also help you lose weight, isn`t that amazing?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: It is.

FRESTON: Nuts, actually they`re -- yes, and it`s funny because you would think with all that fat and calories, that it wouldn`t be a good idea. But here`s the thing, scientists have found that nuts are so satisfying, so satiating that people actually eat less calories throughout the day if they have a small handful of nuts throughout the day.

So you can have almonds, walnuts, toucans, you can mix them into your oatmeal. You can just eat them by the fistful. But it appears that there`s something in nuts and scientists think that it`s argunine (ph) -- they`re not sure but they think it`s argunine that actually speeds up your metabolism and your fat oxidation. So by eating nuts, you`re actually using your own fat to burn fat. Isn`t that incredible?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I love it because I love nuts. To me that`s a treat.

Now, let`s try to incorporate that into everything we`ve learned. I am drinking eight glasses of water a day. I`m also eating the apple a day. Where do the nuts come in?

FRESTON: You know, I just have a fistful at that time when I get in the snacking mode. It might be at around 11:00, not yet at lunchtime, or maybe at 4:00 in the afternoon when I need a little hit of some energy. Nuts are also full of protein and the protein in nuts makes you feel full, makes you feel satisfied. So that`s really important.

And here`s another thing. If you can just add in two tablespoons of flaxseed -- ground flaxseed -- into your daily diet, that`s another way of crowding out the bad stuff, adding in the good stuff because flaxseed have lots of fiber in it. And just two tablespoons, about one ounce, supplies 32 percent of your daily`s need of fiber. That creates a gel-like substance in your stomach and it fills you up and it slows down the release of glucose into your bloodstream.

So, it slows down the digestion of your food, keeps you fuller for longer. It`s low in carbs, high in B vitamins; it`s an excellent source of Omega 3s, good source of Omega 6 and it`s got a fantastic cancer fighting compound called lignen (ph) which have proven really effective to lower cholesterol.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Kathy, I bought organic flaxseed, I realize I bought it like kind of thick, so I actually put it in a grinder. Not the same as a coffee grinder, a different grinder and made it nice and fine so that I can put it in my smoothie.

I love your advice. America loves your advice. I was in New Orleans, everybody`s doing it.

Kathy, come back soon.

END