Return to Transcripts main page

Jane Velez-Mitchell

Actor Accused of Gunning Down Wife; Cops Caught on Camera; Sleeping with the Enemy

Aired May 20, 2014 - 19:00   ET

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


JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST: Tonight, shock from coast to coast as a well- known TV and movie actor who`s been in everything from "Forrest Gump" to "Law & Order" is accused of gunning down his wife, and cops say it all happened right in front of their two young kids.

This man, Michael Jace, you know his face. He`s famous for his long- running role as a cop on the TV show "The Shield." But in a shocking twist, he`s now the one cuffed and charged with homicide.

Cops say he called 911 last night and told cops his wife had been shot, and when they got to the couple`s L.A. home, she was dead. Their two young kids, under the age of 10, inside the house when it happened.

Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, coming to you live.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Los Angeles police have arrested and charged the actor, Michael Jace, for the shooting death of his wife.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When police got to their house late last night, they say they found April Jace shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is something that is related, according to the investigators, to domestic violence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His roles as a cop on TV series like "The Shield."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who painted that "S"?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The irony is that this man was an actor who played a lot of police officers. They booked him on a homicide charge, accusing him of shooting his wife to death.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: It is ironic. Actor Michael Jace has pointed a gun so many, many times on TV. But tonight cops say this time it was a real gun. And he shot his wife April dead. The mystery is why.

Now we`ve been digging, and we`ve uncovered documents that uncovered some secret money troubles that might have pushed him right over the edge into violence. Plus, we`ve learned he has a history of alleged abuse against women.

They look like such a happy couple. We`re going to show you pictures of this couple. There they are. What on earth happened?

What do you think? Call me: 1-877-JVM-SAYS, 1-877 1-877-586-7297.

Straight out to the Lion`s Den. We`re going to bring in our producer also, who has new information. But let`s start with L.A. radio personality and attorney, Eboni Williams. You`re in Hollywood. What is the reaction in the entertainment community to this stunner?

EBONI WILLIAMS, RADIO PERSONALITY: Jane, this has been absolutely shocking out here in Hollywood. People are texting my phone left and right, saying, "Oh, my God, can you believe it? What has happened?"

This was an actor with a fairly low profile after his run with "The Shield" ended in 2008, and has been pretty low-profile. So we`re completely shocked and blown away by this, Jane.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. Some actors if you would hear this, you`d say, "Oh, yes, I saw this coming." But nobody saw this coming.

However, that`s nobody in the public, nobody who knows him on a cursory level.

Tonight, again, he is accused of gunning down his current wife, April. And we`re going to show you some pictures of them throughout the next few minutes, of them happy and smiling together. She is dead now. She was a financial aid counselor and mother of his two youngest children.

He and his previous wife divorced a dozen years ago. And we`ve just gotten our hands on those divorce documents. In them, a friend says under oath she saw this actor hitting and choking his now ex-wife. Listen as read by one of my producers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "I was in the house and witnessed the first episode of physical abuse by respondent against petitioner. Respondent choked and hit petitioner and slammed her against the wall while Jordan screamed in his crib next to her. Respondent was raging and out of control, and seeing the extent of his anger was one of the most terrifying things I have ever seen."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ironically, his last gig was last year, approximately, on "Southland," a TV show about dealing with crime in L.A.

Straight out to my senior producer, Selin Darkalstanian. You`ve been digging for secrets. What have you found?

SELIN DARKALSTANIAN, HLN PRODUCER: Jane, what`s incredible is that he had, you know, in his divorce papers from his first wife, we have uncovered a declaration by April Jace, saying that, you know, he`s a good father. He provides a stable home. And she is coming to his defense in a nasty custody battle that he was in with his first wife.

And now he has allegedly shot and killed her. It is pretty unbelievable in these -- in these papers what -- you know, she`s defending him as being a good father.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So in other words, the woman who he`s now accused of killing was defending him in his battle with his ex. And I understand in that relationship, according to a declaration I read with my own eyes, a good friend of his ex-wife said -- we just heard it: "Oh, I saw him choking his now ex-wife." Tell us about that.

DARKALSTANIAN: That`s right. There is accusations of severe abuse in the house. She`s accusing him of abusing his first wife in front of their young son, who was in the house.

So does he have a violent past? Well, based on the divorce documents that we`ve uncovered, you know, that tells us a lot.

We also know that, you know, he had financial troubles. He hasn`t had a steady gig. The TV show -- the popular TV show he had a steady gig on, which was "The Shield," has been off the air for years. So we know that, you know, he hasn`t been having a steady job. There have been financial issues. He does have a history of violence, and this is the result. You know, it all resulted in what happened last night.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And I`m looking at this declaration of the friend of the first wife, and it bears repeating: "I witnessed physical abuse by respondent" -- that means Michael Jace -- "against petitioner." That`s the ex-wife. "Respondent choke and hit her and slammed her against the wall while Jordan," which is the child, "was screaming in his crib next to her. Respondent was raging and out of control. And seeing the extent of his anger was one of the most terrifying things I have ever seen."

Vinny Parco, private investigator, there`s a parallel here, because that was happening in front of his then little boy, who is now a teenager. What happened at his house now with his now-deceased current wife was also in front of their two children, Vinny.

VINNY PARCO, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: Well, you know, he`s got a history of violence. He`s probably had a fight with his wife about finances, because going bankrupt, he hasn`t had a good job. So he has a perfect storm of violence and an argument about finances. And he probably just lost it. That`s all I could think of.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Michael was a working actor for 22 years with roles in big blockbuster movies like "Forrest Gump."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL JACE, ACTOR: We are here to offer protection and help for all those who need our help, because we, the Black Panthers, are against the war in Vietnam. Yes, we are against any war where black soldiers are sent to the front lines to die for a country that hates them. Yes, we are against any...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: There he`s playing a Black Panther, and he`s obviously a very good actor.

Even though he`s had really a long list of roles, he never quite hit stardom. and now we`re learning he had some serious money problems, OK?

Three years ago, listen to this -- three years ago, he declared bankruptcy. Half a million dollars in debt. He only made $80,000 a year, and he owed 400 grand on his home. And he`s nearly defaulted on that or might be in the process of defaulting.

Dr. Tiffany Davis Henry, psychotherapist. As Vinny said, it`s a perfect storm. You have a temper problem. You have a history of alleged domestic violence. You are going into default on the home you`re currently living in. And then the wife comes in with the two kids, and that probably reads money, money, money, money, money, going out the window. And boom, all of a sudden, wow.

TIFFANIE DAVIS HENRY, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Right. And this guy was probably stressed. All those things that you mentioned, it makes sense that he would be stressed. I mean, come on. When your money is funny, things just don`t seem to be going right.

And this is a guy who has had a lot of good acting gigs, but they`ve been kind of few and far between. And his last big, big gig was "The Shield." He has some bits and pieces everywhere else.

But if you`ve got a mortgage on a $400,000 home, and you`re only bringing in $80,000, Jane, you do the math. That will make a person stressed out.

And coupled with that, maybe -- we don`t know. We suspect that it`s money issues, but could have been any number of things that he was upset about on that day. It could have been infidelity; it could be jealousy. It could just be anger. He and his wife could have been arguing for a long period of time. We just don`t know.

ELURA NANOS, STAR OF "STATEN ISLAND LAW": History. Let`s not forget, this guy has a history of domestic violence. Because many, many people, particularly right now, are involved in serious money problems. Many people are filing for bankruptcy. Many people have marital problems. This guy had a history of D.V.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And they don`t shoot their wives.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

WILLIAMS: And they don`t shoot their wives. And what we know is domestic violence is one of the most unreported crimes in our country.

NANOS: Exactly.

WILLIAMS: Only about 70 percent of the time it happens it even makes it to a courtroom. So we can only imagine. And in that affidavit you read earlier, Jane, by the friend of the former wife, she said that they were three or four different instances that she witnessed, you know, of this type of violence from him.

So again, while he doesn`t have a conviction on his record, we see there is documented instances that he has a history of this.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That habit is hard to break. If you have a habit -- and I don`t see any reason why this friend had a reason to lie. That`s something that`s going to come back, unless get real deep therapy treatment, some kind of treatment for that kind of rage.

Let`s go to Bob, Pennsylvania. What do you have to say, Bob, Pennsylvania?

CALLER: Hi, Jane. My question is this. Was he ever -- do you know if he was ever in jail for being domestic violence to anybody before this happened?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: No. And that`s why everybody was taken by surprise. The first thing that we asked cops is, did they ever go to the home, this particular home, with this wife on domestic violence calls? And the answer was no. So at first we said he has absolutely no history of domestic violence.

But then we began digging up the -- and there`s the body. There is the body of this woman. His wife. Being taken to the coroner`s office.

How many times was she shot? Where did he get the gun? Was it a legal gun? And what else we`re going to talk about: Did his use of the gun over and over again in his movie and TV roles somehow impact and create a predilection to use the gun?

And remember, we`re only hearing that he`s accused of shooting his wife. We haven`t heard what he`s going to plead. And there may be a lot more to the story. We don`t want to convict him. He`s going to get his day in court. Right now he`s behind bars, unable to make bail.

Later, incredible surveillance video. Cops raid a tanning salon. You won`t believe what happens. It`s an outrage.

But first, we`re just getting started. Calls coming in. It`s just blowing up the phone lines. A TV star accused of gunning down his wife in front of the couple`s two young kids.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have two young children that, you know, lost their mom and now their dad, you know, is in jail and most likely will be in prison.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Los Angeles police have arrested and charged the actor, Michael Jace, for the shooting death of his wife.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A domestic dispute at the south Los Angeles home that Michael Jace shared with April Jace.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You might know Jace best for his roles as a cop in TV series like "The Shield." He also had roles in films like "Forrest Gump."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You definitely know his face. He also had a role in the hit movie "Boogie Nights" where -- and this is really, really chilling -- he played an abusive husband. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACE: Think you (EXPLETIVE DELETED) movie star (EXPLETIVE DELETED). You`re going to tell me. Tell me or I`ll break your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) jaw.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t know what you want the me to...

JACE: I want you to tell me that you have (EXPLETIVE DELETED) all the men in the movies, huh?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You`ve got to wonder. Amy Palmer, CEO and founder, PowerWomenTV.com, did something like that happen in the home? Look -- look at all these famous actors accused of killing their wives. Robert Blake, "Beretta" star, he was acquitted in the criminal trial. And then you also had, of course, the most famous of all, O.J. Simpson, accused of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, and he was also found not guilty in the criminal trial.

Is there some kind of Hollywood syndrome here with famous actors and their wives and ex-wives?

AMY PALMER, CEO/FOUNDER, POWERWOMENTV.COM: Well, I mean, these guys are treated like kings. They have everything, you know, at their fingertips. And sometimes they think they`re invincible.

I also think, Jane, that a lot of actors are typecast, you know? It`s a very rare actor who can get into a role and really become someone else. So these actors are typecast.

And he`s been playing a cop. He`s been playing a criminal who has guns and is easy to believe that he has a gun. So why not have it be like this in real life?

I mean, it`s just -- it`s just something that I`ve been seeing in Hollywood over and over again. They think they`re playing a role. They think they`re invincible. So sometimes it gets to the brain of an actor like, "Hey, I know how to do this."

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Absolutely.

PALMER: "I know how to be abusive. I know how to use a gun."

NANOS: But let`s not forget...

PALMER: ... could happen.

NANOS: Sure, that`s true. But let`s not forget that the incidents of this kind of domestic violence, even going so far as murder, is really probably not any more prevalent among Hollywood types as it is among regular people. This is simply an epidemic in our society.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you took the words out of my mouth, with the idea that maybe all these handlings of toy guns or fake guns that are very realistic-looking on all his TV shows somehow got into his subconscious.

His longest running role on the FX police drama "The Shield." Eighty-nine episodes. He played a rookie cop for the inner city of Los Angeles who rose to become a detective. But take a look. He -- he uses a gun a lot. Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Shoe"? What are you doing here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told you, I only needed two minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He bumped into me.

JACE: Who painted that "S"?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I couldn`t scrub off the "ho," so I figured that was the next best thing, you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. This guy played a gun-toting cop in so many shows, not just "The Shield." We`re also talking about "CSI," "NYPD Blue," "Law & Order." I mean, the irony is stunning.

Eboni K. Williams, you`re a radio personality and attorney. And you`ve got to wonder. If I hold up a toy gun, on my subconscious level, I don`t know it`s a toy. It could be ingraining me psychologically to be familiar, and what`s he doing with a gun in the first place?

WILLIAMS: Well, I see what you`re saying, Jane. But respectfully, a good actor, a professional actor, always maintains a distinction between his character and his reality, right?

We also know that character in "The Shield" also played someone who was confused about his sexuality. I don`t think that we would give him a pass on all of a sudden being confused in real life about that.

So I think it`s important that we hold our actors, as well as anybody else in our society, to that same level of accountability. You`re not excused simply because you play one on TV.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Absolutely. But Dr. Tiff, does it impact, if you`re playing that all of the time? For example, you know, I talk on this show, and sometimes I`m in a restaurant. People are like, "Please use your indoor voice," because there`s that natural -- there`s a term for it. It`s called professional defamation (ph).

DAVIS: Right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: There`s actually a term for it.

DAVIS: Right. Right. And I see where you`re going with this, Jane. But I have to respectfully disagree a little bit here, too. Because if you think about someone that always plays, let`s say, a doctor on TV. If somebody is, you know, in need of a tracheotomy, they`re not the first ones to jump in and try and perform it, right? They know their role, and their role is on camera.

And so I think that maybe he did get a little bit of confidence maybe wielding the gun. But I don`t think he thought for one minute that he had the right to do what he did. Otherwise he might not have called the police.

NANOS: I agree with Amy. I think this could be a chicken and egg situation. I think it`s far more possible that he`s an aggressive guy and that that characteristic rose to the surface, and that`s maybe why he was cast in those roles. We see many other actors always cast in roles as police or as criminals or as bad guys. And none of them are running around murdering people.

So I feel like in this situation, I don`t know that I would say that it`s the acting that rubbed off on him. It might instead be that he had that characteristic, that the casting people picked up on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that`s a great point.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I will tell you this. I lived in Hollywood, worked in Hollywood for 18 years. Actors are out of work quite often. It`s called being on the beach. And there`s a lot of them on the beach. And they never know when they`re going to get their next role, and there`s a lot of anxiety.

But again, that`s like half of Los Angeles. Every waiter is an out-of-work actor, essentially. Or waiting tables so he can act at some point down the road or she can act. So whatever financial trouble he was experiencing, it`s definitely shared by millions of people in L.A.

And the fact is that he may have been living beyond his means. We`re going to talk about that on the other side. Why such tremendous financial anxiety when he`s got such a huge, huge list of credits?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told you, I only needed two minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He bumped into me.

JACE: Who painted that "S"?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I couldn`t scrub off the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) so I figured that was the next best thing, you know?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s not clear if they saw the shooting, but they were at least inside the home. They`re now with family members. Just so very unfortunate. I mean, that a domestic incident like this occurs. We have two young children that, you know, lost their mom and now their dad, you know, is in jail and most likely will be in prison.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: "Southland," "CSI," "The Shield" star. Take a look at him, Michael Jace, behind bars in Los Angeles, accused of gunning down his wife. He had money troubles. Selin Darkalstanian, our senior producer, you`ve been digging, learning more every minute. What have you got?

DARKALSTANIAN: Jane, what`s interesting is, so we have said that he filed for bankruptcy in 2011. And when he filed at that time he was in debt to the government. He owed $22,000 in taxes. Holding the papers right here.

And he owed $16,000 to credit-card companies, and he owed on two mortgages. That`s when he filed.

Now what`s interesting is, since then, he was keeping up with all of his payments until late last year, when one of his creditors filed a motion saying that he owed them $2,800, and he had fallen behind. So even though he filed for bankruptcy in 2011, he was keeping up with his payments until just late last year. So it looks like his money troubles were pretty recent. You know, things got pretty bad, because he stopped keeping up with the payments.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Vinny Parco, private eye, you`ve seen so many of these cases. Somebody who has been prominent, then on maybe what a downward spiral to a certain degree. Doesn`t know where his next job is going to be. The money and the bills keep piling up. And the frustration can be directed at the wife and the kids.

PARCO: Well, I think also, why would he have a gun in the house? One of the things they may have had an argument about was, he might have been looking to commit some crimes with the gun, either drug dealing, robbery, whatever. And they might have had an argument about that. And then that precipitated him shooting this woman.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We don`t know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s a bit speculative.

PARCO: We don`t know until -- unless he -- the only people are going to know is he and the deceased. Unless he confesses and he tells the whole story, we`re really not going to know.

But whatever happened, it was something that was out of the -- out of the ordinary for that couple. And he just couldn`t handle it. He lost it. That`s all. He just lost it.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, listen, in the documents that regard the divorce of his first marriage, a friend of Michael Jace`s ex-wife says that it was very clear that his career always came first. Listen to this. Our producer is reading it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "There was not only the physical threat but respondent made it clear that his ambition was by far the most important thing to him. And certainly not his son and wife."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So Dr. Tiff, your career comes first, and the career is hurting. That says a lot, doesn`t it?

DAVIS: That statement says a whole heck of a lot, Jane. Because think about it. In regular people lives, right? With -- if I`m really successful at this great job, but now I can`t find work, what do we do? We go and find another job. Whatever job might be available at that time.

And maybe he just didn`t want to do that. Maybe he didn`t want to step down. Maybe he wanted to continue to be up here, high and mighty and have his acting gigs and be thought of, well thought of, well liked, well praised.

And maybe his wife is just saying, "Look, brother, I need you to get your butt off the couch and go get a J-O-B so we can...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You are so right. I`ll tell you what. As a person on TV, it`s very hard if you have been on TV to suddenly get a job...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tell me about it.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... as a real-estate broker or selling cars, because people are like, "What are you doing here?"

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You do what you`ve got to do.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Michael, Indiana, what do you have to say?

CALLER: Yes. I was wondering, is this just a part of the culture in Hollywood? I mean, you`re up one minute; you`re down the next? Like you were saying, I don`t know about the -- what the investigator said, but it just seems to me like, just being -- just like being in the real world, you know. You lose your job and you`ve got bills mounting up. And then you get frustrated. I was just wondering, if the culture in Hollywood is starting to catch up with what`s going on in the real world.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For sure.

WILLIAMS: I`d like to speak on that, Jane, if possible.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Sure.

WILLIAMS: I`d like to speak on that. Because there is something to be said for in an ordinary citizen loses their job, as Dr. Tiffany pointed out correctly, you reapply, you get out in the work force, and you get something else.

There`s something different about the Hollywood culture. When you have been what we call notable. You have a face recognition with society. You have a certain notoriety that comes along with that. And that`s a lot of pressure emotionally.

And so it`s something to be said for when you have a little fame, but you`re also broke. And that`s something that doesn`t really sit well, and it causes a lot of anxiety. Not an excuse but it`s a rationale.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I agree. It super-sizes the angst and the sense of humiliation. And the stress.

Nancy Grace has more on the case. Stay with HLN for that, top of the hour. Her crew is digging.

But first, unbelievable. Just released surveillance video. Cops raid a tanning salon, and now that owner is suing because, well, you`ve just got to see it and hear it for yourself. It`s outrageous!

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re not a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) American. You`re not a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) American. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and send you back to wherever the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you came from.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ll take this place and then whoever owns it will (EXPLETIVE DELETED) because they don`t care about you, ok?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A Chicago police officer hitting a handcuffed kneeling woman in the head during a raid. An undercover officer was allegedly offered a sex act by a masseuse in the back room of the salon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So mind your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) business before I shut this whole (EXPLETIVE DELETED) place down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Both of her wrists, both of her legs are bruised up. She`s got bruises on both of her arms. She has got an abrasion on her forehead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, truly shocking, just released video. A woman says cops raided her Chicago tanning salon, put her in handcuffs, verbally and physically assaulted her. And screamed that she wasn`t an American and she should go back to where she came from in a box. She happens to be a naturalized American citizen of Chinese descent and this was all caught on tape.

Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re not (EXPLETIVE DELETED) American. I`ll put you in a UPS and send you back to where the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you came from. No, you`re not a citizen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No you`re not. No you`re not. I hear it all of the time. So mind your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) before I shut this whole (EXPLETIVE DELETED) place down. I`ll take this place and then whoever owns the place will (EXPLETIVE DELETED) kill you because they don`t care about you.

I`ll make one call and I`ll take this building. You`ll be dead and your family will be dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow. Chicago cops say they raided the salon after an undercover cop who was allegedly offered a sex act during a massage alerted them. They claim the owner, Jianqing Klyzek who goes by the name "Jessica", the woman seen in the video, was being uncooperative. They claim she hit and scratched the cops. But those charges have been dropped.

We reached out to police for comment about this video and we`re told, quote, "The alleged conduct and comments are reprehensible and completely intolerable in our police department. We have codes of conduct that apply to officers and if the allegations are proven accurate, appropriate action will be taken."

Hello. "If the allegations are proven accurate" -- it`s on tape. We`re hearing their voices. You know? I mean, really. I want to go to Torrey Hamilton. This is our exclusive guest, you are the attorney representing Jianqing -- also known as Jessica -- Klyzek, the woman in this video.

First of all, that`s what I don`t get. The video kind of speaks for itself. If the allegations are proved true, you hear them on tape saying basically you`re going to go home in a box. You don`t belong here -- threatening to kill her. What kind of investigation is need?

TORREY HAMILTON, ATTORNEY FOR JIANQING KLYZEK: Well, I mean, you know, as you know, police officers, they`re actually all members of the union, so there`s going to be -- they have certain rights, and they have the right to a hearing. But, yes. I agree. I don`t think the investigation should certainly take as long as the Chicago Police Department`s internal investigations usually take. I`ve seen them take as many as five years. So I hope that this one doesn`t take that long.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, what happened to the cops? We have been trying to find out, well, were they suspended with pay, without pay, put on desk duty? I mean this is serious stuff. To say that you`re going to go home in a box, I`m going to -- one word, I`ll have you killed, and I mean --

HAMILTON: Yes. So that`s just the words that were spoken. And the words are bad enough, right? But, you know, right before those words were spoken, one of the officers, you can see on the video, you can see him hit her in the head while she`s handcuffed, kneeling, and subdued. He hits her in the head.

So the police, you know, they`re allowed to use reasonable force. But certainly hitting a 5`2" and 110-pound woman who is handcuffed and subdued in the head is not reasonable. And, in fact, if you look at that portion of the video and it`s available on, you know, YouTube at this point. It looks like he`s hitting, like, an errant dog. And that, I think, is sort of how they`re treating her throughout this whole video.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let`s listen again to the surveillance tape because to me, that`s horrifying. And they, of course, claim she was putting up a struggle. You can see she`s not exactly thrilled, to put it mildly. But it`s the words -- the words that I find just disgraceful. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, you`re not a citizen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, you`re not. You`re here on borrowed time. So mind your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) business before I shut this whole (EXPLETIVE DELETED) place down. And I`ll take this place and then whoever owns it will (EXPLETIVE DELETED) because they don`t care about you.

I`ll make one call and I`ll take this building. You`ll be dead and your family will be dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Elura Nanos, former prosecutor, star of "Staten Island Law" it sounds like he`s threatening to have her killed.

NANOS: This is absolutely ludicrous, Jane. I mean this is not what we generally see police doing, even in a tense situation. And I mean, come on, in a massage parlor? This was not exactly, you know, high drama police work or it didn`t need to be.

And here you have police that are just -- they`re utterly unprofessional. Obviously, you could tell by this guy`s language that he was on some kind of a power trip, because his words kept saying "I`m going to do this, and I`m going to have this happen. And you aren`t a citizen," as if he would even be in a position to know anything about it. I think it`s just disgusting and ridiculous.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Vinny Parco, private eye, there are so many murders in Chicago.

PARCO: In Chicago, right. They should be working -- this is very inappropriate. Listen, I`ve worked privately and I work for the government. And we busted massage parlors. And you don`t go through the whole thing like that. That`s ridiculous. They overreacted. There was a SWAT team, go in there, all that testosterone. And they`re all -- they got that adrenaline and they want to -- they want to make a big deal out of it.

Now, they did treat her roughly. They were very inappropriate. They were not professional. I can`t see why they`re not going to get punished for this. They have to get some sort of reprimand. Maybe get a four or five day rip or something.

But now they`re going to be faced with a lawsuit. Let`s face it. What they did was not appropriate. And they put their hands on this woman and when they shouldn`t have.

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ashley, California.

NANOS: They have time to do better things.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ashley, California -- because the phone lines are lighting up on this one. Ashley?

ASHLEY, CALIFORNIA (via telephone): Yes, hello?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hi, go ahead.

ASHLEY: Hi. I think they were a little bit too rough on her. They shouldn`t have done what they did. And I think police, honestly, take advantage of their authority. And I think that`s just wrong.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me say this. You know, I`m a big fan of police. When they do things right, they never get any coverage. It`s when they make a mistake. I love cops. I want them in my neighborhood protecting me. I don`t think that -- I think this is an aberration but that`s why we`re covering it -- it`s an aberration.

Dr. Tiffanie Davis-Henry, I mean this is obviously -- I would say falls in the category of racism.

DAVIS-HENRY: Oh, for sure.

PARCO: Definitely, yes. Definitely.

DAVIS-HENRY: Absolutely. Because there`s no reason to even bring race into it in my opinion. They were there to do a bust. I mean it`s a rub and tub establishment. They were there to do their job. They could have done that and not ever even uttered a word about race or shipping anybody back. They didn`t have to do that. But they brought race into the conversation.

NANOS: This is clearly how these police perceived these victims here. They clearly perceived them as some kind of lesser humans. And maybe it`s because of race. But given the body language and the actual language and the violence going on here, I get the sense that these policemen were on a power trip and they would have used any kind of insults at their disposal.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: No, no, I`m sorry. I respectfully disagree with you, Eboni Williams. They say you`re not a citizen. You`re on borrowed time. We`re going to put you in a UPS box and send you back to wherever the bleep you came from. I mean come on.

WILLIAMS: That is a clear -- no, Jane, you`re right. That is a clear racist agenda at play, if you`ve ever heard it. What I`m so grateful for though, Jane -- I love that you`re calling this viral justice -- is it`s actually on tape. And we know that these officers tried to find this tape and get their hands on it probably to destroy it so that we would never know this happened.

PARCO: Oh definitely.

WILLIAMS: But thank God this is on tape and we have to have -- yes, we have to have this type of -- because people like integrity sometimes. And if they`re not being watched, we clearly don`t know what they`ll do. So thank goodness. I love camera phones, I love surveillance and we need more of it.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know Torrey Hamilton, our exclusive guest, attorney representing this young lady, this woman. They actually became aware at one point, and then they then couldn`t find the tape. Tell us about that.

HAMILTON: They`re all standing around, like eating the candy on the counter, and then all of a sudden they seem to notice that there`s a video. And at the end of the video, you can see them they`re trying to find out where the tape is. They`re trying to figure out how to make it stop. And, of course, it was being recorded off-site. So they were not able to do so.

But, you know, this -- I know that maybe this is a case of, you know, one bad apple. But, you know, the good apples are supposed to be watching out and speaking out about the bad apples. And in this case, you can see all these other police officers on the tape just kind of standing around and eating candy and watching and doing nothing.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. Well, we want to find out, what is happening to these officers, and it`s shocking that we won`t -- we`ll get that in one official statement that says very little. Are they off -- are they on desk duty? Are they suspended with pay or without pay? I want answers.

On the other side, a man convicted of repeatedly raping his wife after drugging her. He`s not going to serve any jail time. This sentence is so outrageous. It`s unbelievable. Stay right there. When you hear the story, it involves Xanax, it involves a cell phone camera, just -- you`ve got to hear it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANDY BOARDMAN, VICTIM: Never in a million years did I think that my rapist would be walking out the door that I`m walking out of. He should have been walking out wearing orange while I went home and I watched TV and I lived my life. He gets to go home and do the same thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOARDMAN: I trusted him with everything that I had.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A woman says she was drugged for at least three years, raped in her sleep and her attacker recorded it on video.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He slipped his wife at the time, Mandy Boardman, Xanax and other drugs so he could take advantage of her in the middle of the night.

BOARDMAN: One evening, I woke up to my husband standing over me with a flashlight administering a liquid type medicine to me while I was sleeping.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a sicko who was drugging his wife in his own bedroom, raping her, and videotaping it, obviously because this is the kind of thing that turns him on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s not right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, a story that has women screaming in outrage. An Indiana woman accidentally stumbles across video on a cell phone of her husband of 12 years raping her while she is unconscious. She now believes he did it hundreds of times. She takes him to court. He`s convicted. But he is not sentenced to jail.

Listen to Mandy Boardman tell her horror story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOARDMAN: I always knew something was happening. Because I -- on those nights that I would have that medicine taste in my mouth, I would also wake up the next morning feeling like I had had sex. Feeling like something had happened to me that night prior. And I had no recollection. One night I woke up in the middle of the night and there was a pill dissolving in my mouth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mandy. Mandy spent years trying to get her now ex- husband, David Weise, prosecuted for drugging her she says with prescription pills, including Xanax and then sexual assaulting her over years, she said. He was convicted of rape and five counts of criminal deviant conduct. For these crimes, he could have gotten a century behind bars. The prosecutor wanted 40 years. And he is serving zero years behind bars. Instead this judge sentenced David to 20 years of house arrest and then said you only have to serve eight.

The same judge, you`re looking at him there -- kind of looks like the guy, doesn`t he -- tells Mandy, "You need to forgive your attacker and move on." Even more disturbing, this convicted rapist is now fighting for visitation rights so he can see the couple`s two kids. Mandy who is I believe remarried says her ex-husband has never apologized and revealed to her he started drugging her for sex because she was, quote, "snippy". Snippy. Oh, my gosh.

"Lions` Den" -- I mean this story makes my blood boil. I guess I`ll start with Elura Nanos but I know we`re going to around the around with anger and outrage.

NANOS: This is beyond outrageous. I mean at least I suppose we have to be happy that the guy got convicted even if sentenced to basically nothing. I don`t know what`s worse.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Nothing.

NANOS: I don`t know what`s worse. That, you know, instead of it being a violent rape, that because he drugged her, that`s somehow considered not as bad or it`s not as bad because it`s his wife that`s the victim. Either way, it`s horrible. This judge is ridiculous.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me tell you something. Marital rape was legal in every state until the mid 1970s. How quickly we forget. It`s the old boys` club, Eboni K. Williams.

WILLIAMS: To that point, Jane, I think this is a point of judicial activism. This is a judge who doesn`t like the legislation change. He doesn`t like that a man can be convicted in a law of court -- a court of law, excuse me -- for raping his wife and by giving this menial sentence, this nominal sentence, his way of being judicially active and it`s absolutely inappropriate. And the voters should vote him out of that position next election cycle.

PARCO: This judge is going up for election, you know. I think this is going to get him off the bench. And he should be off the bench. And he should be --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We`ve got his photo. Why don`t we put up his photo?

PARCO: He should go to jail and let them rape him in jail and see how he likes it.

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We contacted him. He won`t comment. We also attempted to reach out to the husband, the attorney, any of these people -- either man. The judge or the convicted rapist invited on our show any time. You can do a phoner. We have questions for you.

Mandy divorced David after she found these sickening videos. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOARDMAN: I didn`t know for sure what was happening until one day he had left his phone at home, and I decided to go through it. And when I went through it, I found videos of him raping me when I was passed out. I found him multiple times administering drugs to me without my permission. And I confronted him each time. I asked him multiple times to stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Unbelievable. Now she discovered these videos in 2008, made a DVD copy. She got divorced. She didn`t tell cops about it until a couple years later, because she was trying to get a protective order against her ex, claiming he had been harassing her.

Eboni K. Williams, this is, in my opinion, if indeed he did this hundreds of times, that`s obviously a sexual compulsion fetish. He`s not sentenced to treatment, to deal with this fetish or this compulsion.

WILLIAMS: Absolutely. I mean, look, if that was -- he should have been, for sure.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Right.

WILLIAMS: But again, there is judge`s discretion and then judicial activism. This judge was not using proper discretion. The jury clearly found this guy guilty, and a judge should have been put an appropriate sentence on him, not house arrest. That is utterly ridiculous.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Look, this is not a bad-looking guy. He could go out and find another woman. Who`s to say that he won`t do this again? He`s sentenced to house arrest, not prison. What is this judge thinking? We`re going to talk about that on the side. Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Time for Pet of the Day. Send your pet pics to hlntv.com/jane. Lurleen -- look at you. Oh my gosh, that outfit. Sam -- he says "I`m simple and pure and I get down to basics." Stone -- oh, so regal. And Baylee -- oh you`re not wearing a haley (ph), Baylee.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt there is no difference if she knew him or not, if she invited him into her bed or if she didn`t. Because when she laid down that night, she wasn`t in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was in her home with her children with her husband, asleep in her own bed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: A husband convicted of rape of his wife. There is the couple in perhaps happier times. She said, while they were married, he would drug her and rape her and she accidentally stumbled upon the video.

Let`s go to the phone lines. Jason, Louisiana, what do you got to say?

JASON, LOUSIANA (via telephone): Yes, I have to say several things. First thing, rape is rape is rape and no is no is no.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you.

JASON: You know, simply the fact that this judge is letting this man get away with this is an atrocity to our society, an atrocity to who we are as a nation and an atrocity as to who we shall be today, tomorrow and the next day. And for that I think that he needs to be dealt with as the judge. I think the man needs prison time.

And being the fact that I`m a husband, I have a wife and three kids at home, I think this is disgusting on the part of men. As a man, I`m ashamed to call him a man.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: There`s the judge, and I got to tell you, he bears a stunning resemblance to the husband. That`s what I find fascinating. Could he have somehow gotten confused because they look like brothers almost? Judge -- shame on you. You should know better.

Nancy`s next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END