Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Larry King Live
The Desperate Search For Jessie Davis
Aired June 19, 2007 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight --
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
PATTY PORTER, MOTHER OF JESSIE MARIE DAVIS: Oh my god, something's wrong.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KING: -- a mother, nine months pregnant, missing since last week.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
PORTER: My daughter's gone. She's due in two weeks and my grandson is alone and this whole house has been ransacked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now a day old infant has been found abandoned in a basket on a doorstep 45 miles away.
Could it be hers?
Chilling words from earlier 2-year-old son, left alone in the ransacked house.
Is he the only witness?
And her family canceled all media appearances after a sheriff's press conference just three hours ago.
All the latest from Ohio on the desperate search for Jessie Davis, including the reporter who spoke today with the man police questioned last night, a cop married to another woman who is the father of Jessie's 2-year-old son. It's all next on LARRY KING LIVE.
Good evening.
A little background.
Jessie Davis, nine months pregnant, has been missing from her Canton, Ohio home since last week. Her mother talked to her 26-year- old daughter by phone Wednesday night and then went to the home Friday after she hadn't heard from her.
She found her 2-year-old grandson Blake alone and he may be the only witness to what happened.
Police say they have no suspects in the case. The father of the 2-year-old, and possibly the unborn child, is a Canton police officer, Bobby Cutts, Jr.
Investigators have searched Cutts home and truck. He is on paid administrative leave because of stress dealing with Davis' disappearance.
Joining us here in Los Angeles is famed attorney Gloria Allred and in Pittsburgh is Dr. Cyril Wecht, the former coroner of Allegheny County.
What do you make of this so far, Gloria?
GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY, CLIENTS INCLUDED SCOTT PETERSON'S EX- GIRLFRIEND AMBER FREY: Well, Larry, this is heartbreaking. Of course, we don't know whether the baby that has just been found is, in fact, the baby of the missing pregnant woman. And we all hope that she's safe and that the baby is safe.
KING: They took DNA of that baby, right?
ALLRED: Yes. They took the DNA of the baby, but they have not yet announced whether that is her baby. And so they'll be investigating that. And how terrible for the family and for the little 2-year-old. You have two little beautiful boys and I'm sure, you know, this is heartbreaking for any parent or family to know that their loved one is missing, particularly a
9-month pregnant woman. It reminds me of Laci Peterson, may she rest in peace.
KING: Dr. Wecht, how long before they will tell us whether this DNA is a match?
DR. CYRIL WECHT, FORMER CORONER, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA: They'll have their answer, Larry, within 48 hours at the most, but whether they announce it and tell you and everybody else is, of course, another matter, as you know. But they'll know within a couple of days, processing this expeditiously. And they'll also, of course, be able to have an idea how the baby was born, whether by cesarean or vaginally by the molding of the head and a few other perinatal features. That's going to be very important in trying to ascertain with some reasonable conjecture what may have happened to its mother.
KING: Here's the 911 tape of Jessie's mother calling in with some alarm.
Listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
PORTER: We need help at 8686 Essex.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 8686 what street? PORTER: Essex.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's the problem?
PORTER: My -- my daughter is gone. She's due in two weeks and my grandson is here alone and this whole house has been ransacked.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How old is he?
PORTER: My grandson is two.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he's gone?
PORTER: He's here alone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How is the child that is left alone?
PORTER: She didn't leave him alone. My god, something's wrong. She's due in two weeks and she's just missing. Her car's here, her purse, her house is trashed and she's not here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Jim Acosta joins us, our CNN national correspondent on the scene in Canton, Ohio.
What's the latest, Jim?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest today, Larry, is that major discovery in the county just to the West of here, Wayne County. Last night around 7:30, a couple that was out having dinner came home, found on their front porch that carriage, that basket carrying this -- a little newborn baby girl.
They have not yet positively identified that little girl, but she was rushed to the hospital, where she's now in good condition. And, as you mentioned, they took those DNA swabs to see if they can test for a match with Jessie Davis.
KING: Are they saying anything about this police officer who apparently is the father of the 2-year-old child and not known if he's the father of this infant or the -- or whether he's involved in the pregnancy of the woman that's missing?
ACOSTA: They have said flatly from the beginning that he is not a suspect. But having said that, they did search his house last night, local authorities, along with the FBI. And today, we understand they searched his car, as well.
So, they are looking at him. But the police say they are also looking at other what they call associates. They're not using the word suspect or persons of interest at this point, but clearly they are looking at Mr. Cutts while he's on administrative leave, but no more or less than others, so they tell us.
KING: Todd Porter is a reporter with ""The Canton Repository."" He talked with Bobby Cutts, Jr. the Canton police officer.
Do you know him, Todd?
TODD PORTER, CANTON REPOSITORY REPORTER, INTERVIEWED FATHER OF MISSING MOM'S SON: Yes, I've know him, Larry, for about the last, oh, I don't know, three years here, just from the local sports scene. He's a local athlete. And just coming in contact with him, I know Bobby Cutts, the local football player. I know Bobby Cutts, the local police officer. I do not know Bobby Cutts the husband. I do not know Bobby Cutts the boyfriend.
But the Bobby Cutts that I saw today was clearly stressed out. He was clearly shaken up. His life has been turned upside down.
Tomorrow -- in a few hours here, we'll have those audiotapes from that interview on our Web site, Cantonrep.com, that everyone can listen to. He was pretty forthright in answering our questions. He steered away from answering specific questions as it relates to the disappearance of Jessie and as it may relate to a case or investigation. But he did tell us today, he did tell ""The Canton Repository"" today that he had flatly said that he had no involvement with her disappearance.
KING: Is he the -- is he -- is it known that he's the father of the 2-year-old boy?
PORTER: The word that he used today was "possibly." I asked him how many kids he had with how many women. He has three kids, three different women. Possibly, he said, he has a second child with Jessie Davis.
KING: Now, we don't want to jump the -- we know this, Gloria, this could be dangerous to jump to conclusions. Everybody is innocent -- this guy isn't even charged with anything. Just because he may have fathered other children doesn't mean he had something to do with absconding this woman.
ALLRED: Well, that's true. I wouldn't necessarily say that everybody is innocent, but I would agree that everybody --
KING: Well, everybody at this minute is presumed (INAUDIBLE) --
ALLRED: -- is presumed to be innocent.
KING: Well, what else can you --
ALLRED: Well, unless --
KING: You're not going to judge anyone guilty, are you?
ALLRED: Right. Unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.
KING: In a court, correct. ALLRED: And that's absolutely right. And so, but -- and I think it is probably too early for the police to identify a person of interest or a suspect, because they're going to want to gather all of the facts that they can before they identify anyone, if they can identify anyone.
But obviously anyone who has been having an intimate relationship with the missing person would be a person that law enforcement would want to interview and possibly investigate, as well as any other acquaintance that she might have had or come into contact with.
KING: The public should not presume this guy is involved just because he was involved with the woman.
ALLRED: Well, the public can come to any --
KING: Or else you're (INAUDIBLE) --
ALLRED: -- conclusions that they wish to come to.
KING: But as a good lawyer, you would tell them not to.
ALLRED: But I would say that he -- that in a court of law, each and every person has a right to be presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty.
KING: Should this guy get a lawyer?
ALLRED: I would say that, that I'm -- from the family's point of view, my sense of it is that they would want him to be forthcoming, to give all of the facts. I'm sure that they would want anyone that had had an intimate relationship with her to take a polygraph test and to give the specifics, as well as general statements. But, yes, it would be wrong to draw conclusions if he does not, because he has a right not to.
KING: We'll take a break and be back with more. A puzzlement continues.
Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF DEPUTY RICK PEREZ, STARK COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT: Jessie Davis was last talked with last at 9:00 p.m. Wednesday evening, June 13th, 2007. When the mother arrived at the residence Friday morning, she couldn't locate her daughter, but found her daughter's 2-year-old son, Dwight Davis, in his room.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
PORTER: Something's wrong. She's cue -- she's due in two weeks and she's just missing. Her car is here, her purse. The whole house is trashed and she's not here. (END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PEREZ: In the master bedroom of the residence, a bottle of bleach was on the floor and bleach had been spilled out onto floor.
Deputies interviewed Blake Davis, who stated that mommy was crying, mommy broke the table and mommy is in rug.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Todd Porter of "The Canton Repository" is with us in Canton, Ohio. Dr. Cyril Wecht, the former coroner of Allegheny County, is with us from Pittsburgh.
Joining us now in San Francisco is Candice DeLong, the former FBI profiler.
Candice, we know the place was ransacked. We apparently only have a 2-year-old witness.
What can we read this early?
CANDICE DELONG, FORMER FBI PROFILER: Well, one of the things that struck me about this -- struck me hard -- was the fact that, according to the 2-year-old -- that's reliable information -- there was some kind of a struggle. If she was wrapped in the bedspread that's missing and he misinterpreted that as the rug, then it seems that she probably was unconscious and taken out of the house. That's a very important thing.
Men that break into homes and kill women generally don't take the body out. And another thing that struck me as very significant was the bleach apparently having been used, probably, possibly, to cover up evidence -- blood. So that indicates somebody that is -- is trying to make this look like something that it wasn't, simply maybe trying to make it look like a disappearance than something much worse. And that leads me into the general direction that she knew her killer and probably knew her killer well.
KING: Dr. Wecht, with what you know -- what early conclusion can you make?
WECHT: Well, Larry, consistent with what your previous guest has just stated, let me make a couple of observations.
A 2-year-old child is left unharmed. Someone is concerned about the newborn baby. The baby is delivered and placed in a bassinet or basket of some kind and on a doorstep, presumably of a home where they know --
KING: If they -- if that's the baby. WECHT: Well, yes. OK. Yes. I am working on that assumption. It's a heck of a coincidence for a 1-day-old baby to be found 30 miles away.
Now, this leans very strongly toward someone who is not a stranger who has just come upon this house to rob and rape and pillage. It argues strongly for somebody who has some concern, some sensitivity and who is not desirous -- in fact, is more interested in saving the life of the newborn baby.
I think that this case is going to be solved, because I do not believe that you're looking for a total stranger. The house will have been thoroughly examined for any DNA, forensic biological trace evidence of a third party. If none is found, that is going to argue strongly against someone other than the missing woman or her male friend. The absence of any DNA trace evidence in her vehicle of any third party is going to argue strongly against that.
I think, indeed, that this is someone who knows her and what exactly the circumstances are that led to this kind of a situation, with her being taken out of the house, the baby being delivered and so on, I'm not going to engage in further conjecture on that at this point.
But I think we can very strongly assume that this is not some kind of a stranger.
KING: Todd Porter, how involved, to your knowledge, was Bobby Cutts with this family?
PORTER: With Jessie's family?
KING: Yes.
PORTER: I'm not sure he was real involved with Jessie's family. I think he knew them probably more on an acquaintance type of a level, you know, not the way that you would probably expect to know someone. I mean she was his girlfriend. He was married. So, I mean, I'm not sure he knew her family real, real well, as some people might expect.
But I do know, he did tell me today --
KING: What does he say about --
PORTER: He did tell me today that he has been in communication with them since Friday, just to check how they're doing and sort of vice versa.
KING: What does he say about the 2-year-old boy, if anything?
PORTER: He told me he has spoken with Blake, his 2-year-old son. He said that his son is doing about as well as can be expected under the circumstances, that his -- that Blake misses his mom, though.
KING: What does he think happened to the young lady that's missing? PORTER: You know, that was one of the questions that, on advice from legal counsel, that he declined to answer at this point, other than to say that he had no involvement with her disappearance. He declined to answer what he thought happened. But he did say that he was hopeful that she would be found alive.
KING: We'll take a break and be back with more.
Candice and Dr. Wecht will be back with us later. Candice will be back with us later.
When we come back, Jeanine Pirro will join us, the former district attorney for Westchester County, and Michael Cardoza, the high profile defense attorney.
Todd Porter remains and Gloria Allred comes back.
Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PORTER: You feel (INAUDIBLE). You're thinking (INAUDIBLE) and you're hanging onto any (INAUDIBLE). And you cannot believe anything had happened to such a beautiful girl.
JANE DAVIS, SISTER OF JESSIE MARIE DAVIS: There's a hole there and it just -- it hurts my heart because I mean, you know, she's the one you look up to. She's your big sister. And she's such a strong person. And you can't imagine that anything would ever happen to her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back.
Todd Porter remains.
Gloria Allred returns.
Joining us now in New York is Jeanine Pirro, the former district attorney of Westchester, a former county judge. In fact, her expertise was domestic violence.
And in San Francisco, Michael Cardoza, a high profile defense attorney, a frequent guest on cases like Scott Peterson and Michael Jackson.
Jeanine, what is a district attorney doing at this point or are they doing nothing until more turns up?
JEANINE PIRRO, FORMER D.A. WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NEW YORK: Well, generally what happens, Larry, is the district attorney will give legal assistance to the police investigating the case. And I suspect that if there are any search warrants, if there are any wiretaps or anything else that the district attorney would be involved, because ultimately he or she is the person who will have to prosecute the case, if there is a prosecution.
But, you know, Larry, I have to tell you, what's so interesting about this case is the fact that when we talk about the pools of Clorox on the floor, assuming that there was a struggle and it's corroborated by the condition of the house, why would someone want to clean up the blood or forensic evidence?
Because, clearly, we know she lived there. It's quite possible that the other person was injured, as well, which is why the Clorox would be used in a case like this, to clean up all the evidence.
KING: Michael Cardoza, should Bobby Cutts -- he's not anything. He's not a person of interest. They've just questioned him.
Should he be securing attorneys?
MICHAEL CARDOZA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I've got to tell you, Larry, when they say he's not a person of interest or not a suspect, I don't believe them for a second. I mean, think if you were heading this investigation, who would be the prime suspect?
Should he lawyer up?
Absolutely, he should lawyer up.
And why?
Because, even as Gloria said, you know, you want him to be cooperative. He can be cooperative through his attorney. Believe me, there have been plenty of cases where people that are accused of crimes can give information through the cops. And if they don't, that information is often twisted into something that's very negative for that person, even though they meant it very positively.
And then I heard Gloria talk about a lie detector test. You know, I've got to tell you, I don't understand that. They're not admissible in court. Courts don't allow them. So why should someone take a lie detector test?
I had a client about six months ago took a lie detector test, failed it, before he came to see me, and the police were after him. They arrested him. One week later, the person who committed the crime walked in. And that guy failed the lie detector test.
No way should he take a lie detector test. And that's why he needs a lawyer to let -- to guide him through this investigation.
KING: Gloria, are you expecting the worst here?
ALLRED: I might add, spoken like the excellent defense attorney that he is.
KING: But you're a defense attorney, too, Gloria --
CARDOZA: (INAUDIBLE), Gloria.
ALLRED: No, I'm not. Actually, I'm a victims' rights attorney.
KING: Oh.
ALLRED: But having said that, I'm sure the D.A. Would wish he wouldn't lawyer up, would hope that he would take a lie detector with a reliable polygraph operator and then provide the results to them --
KING: But would that -- if he passed it --
ALLRED: -- whether or not it's admissible in court.
KING: -- would that, then throw him out as a suspect?
ALLRED: I would think that it wouldn't throw him out.
KING: Well, why take it?
ALLRED: But it would be a factor that they would consider.
KING: What -- the question, Gloria, is do you expect the worst?
ALLRED: I think that anyone who looks at the facts that we know that are reported at this point would have a bit of trepidation in their heart and in their minds because, if, in fact, mommy was in the rug, as it is reported that the 2-year-old said -- maybe the 2-year- old had referred to the comforter. If, in fact, the lamp was tipped over and there was broken glass, a table, as is reported, then maybe there was a struggle. And that does not bode well.
KING: Todd, if the assailant was wiping up his own blood, wouldn't the police have looked at Bobby Cutts to see if there were any damages to him?
PORTER: I'm pretty sure they would. And we've got to remember, Bobby Cutts is a police officer, so he's very familiar with the legal system. He's very familiar with the process. I saw Bobby today. He did not appear to have any cuts on his arms. He wasn't hiding any part of his body. He had a cutoff t-shirt. The biceps were exposed. He had on basketball shorts. I saw no cuts whatsoever on the man's body.
I didn't give him the forensic once over, as some of the experts might. But, I mean we have to remember, though, that he was -- he is a Canton police officer. He's very familiar with the legal process. And he told me today that he's absolutely not surprised that he's the first person that they looked at because that's what -- that's what police do. That's what investigators do. You look at the girlfriend, the husband, the wife. You look at the love triangles. You look at those people first.
KING: Would you say that he's genuinely concerned?
PORTER: I would say that he is genuinely concerned about three things. I think -- what I saw today in him was a fellow who was mourning three things. He was mourning the loss of life as he knows it right now. He can't walk outside of his home. He can't coach the youth football teams and the high school football teams that he does. He can't -- he can't go to work. He can't do the normal things that he's accustomed to doing. He's mourning the loss of life as he knows it. He's mourning the loss of a woman that he obviously cares for, who he has one child with, the disappearance of that woman. And he's mourning the uncertainty of this unborn baby right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
ALLRED: Yes, I'd like to inquire as to whether you asked him of whether he has any prior history of violence, whether he has any convictions for trespass or any act of violence against any other woman or any other person; and, if so, what his response was.
PORTER: Yes, we did talk about that. When he was either college age or just above college age, he had an altercation with a girlfriend at a home that I believe, in which he lived. He was locked out of the home, he said, and he kicked the door in to get in. That was pled down to criminal trespassing. And two years later he became a police officer. So that was already on his record.
So I would have to assume that there was a thorough background check done on him before he was hired for the police squad.
KING: Jeanine, do you fear the worst?
PIRRO: You know, I do, Larry. The truth is -- and, god, we all hope that she's found and that she's healthy and that the baby is healthy. But look at what we've got here. We've got an individual -- and certainly we all know that one is likely to be injured or killed by a member of their family or someone close to them than by any other category of person.
Number two, you have a situation where you have a 2-year-old who is describing something that we all know is almost -- hopefully not lethal.
And we've got a scenario where the boyfriend is someone who was convicted of a crime in 1998. He was still admitted to the police force in the year 2000. There have been restraining orders gotten against him by an ex-girlfriend as recently as this year, Larry. And, indeed, he was fired from the very police department he works for because he lied about his own weapon and whether or not he had given it to his cousin or whether it was stolen.
So what you have here is a continuing course of conduct, which raises a great deal of questions. And when the police say that he is not a suspect, I think it's curious, Larry, because what you've got is an individual where they say openly, he is not a suspect. But within 24 hours, they're searching his house, they're searching his car with a canine unit.
KING: Let me get a --
PIRRO: So you have to ask yourself, why are they doing that?
They're doing that, Larry, because I don't think they don't want it to appear that they are focusing on him. KING: Well put.
We'll take a break and come right back with more.
This panel will be us in the next segment.
Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PEREZ: The Stark County Sheriff's Office was notified by the Wayne County Sheriff's Office that a 1-day-old infant was left at a residence south of Wooster in a wicker basket on Monday, June 18th. 2007. And follow-up is continuing with the Wayne County Sheriff's Office in reference to this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Until we get back with our panel, let's check in with Thelma Soares. Thelma is the mother of Lori Hacking. That's the young pregnant woman who went missing in Utah in July of 2004. Her husband, Mark Hacking, was later found guilty of her murder. You remember that story. They were going to go east to college. And Thelma is with us in Midvale, Utah.
What were your thoughts, Thelma, when you heard this case?
THELMA SOARES, MOTHER OF LORI HACKING: Well, I felt like I had an enormous block of ice in my stomach. And I just immediately relived those horrible, horrible days when Lori was missing and I didn't know where she was.
KING: Any advice you would give to Jessie's mother?
SOARES: Just hang on as hard as you can. You know thousands and thousands of people are praying for you as they did for me, and somehow that enabled me to hang on, and live through that. And that's what she must do. These are just awful days and hours where you do not know where your child is.
KING: Now you lived through a lot of disbelief about the suspect at the time, didn't you?
SOARES: Oh, yes. That was such a terrible shock to all of us. I certainly learned that things are not always as they seemed to be. And that shock and the disbelief -- you know, the immediacy of all of that dies with time, I guess. It sort of goes away. But, you know, the first couple of days, we didn't know anything about that. We still thought that Lori had been abducted.
KING: Yes.
SOARES: So that didn't come until the latter part of the week. And that just compounded the disbelief because, you know, it was just a double whammy, just believing that Mark did that and lied to us.
KING: And we have to think the worst here, don't we, Thelma, I mean logically?
SOARES: Oh, I'm afraid so. It's awful to contemplate. And I immediately also thought of Laci Peterson who was pretty much nine months pregnant. Lori, of course, was not that far along. And I thought of Laci and Sharon. And it's an awful club to belong to. Nobody wants to belong to that club.
KING: You're in that club too and it's a sad club.
SOARES: It is. It is.
KING: Thank you, Thelma. Thelma Soares in Midvale, Utah.
Todd Porter wanted to respond to something Jeanine Pirro said -- Todd?
PORTER: Yes, what she said wasn't completely accurate because he was fired initially from the Canton Police Department. But he was acquitted in a trial and then reinstated to the police squad for that service revolver issue.
PIRRO: No, my understanding is that he was fired but then he was reinstated by an arbitrator, which is very different from an acquittal. But in any event, it is the continuing restraining orders that an ex-girlfriend gets against him, including one as recent as this year that concerns me.
PORTER: Yes, I'm not here to defend Bobby Cutts, but I'm also not here to try and convict him. I think that's what the legal process is for. And we're what, five days, into this investigation, going on our sixth day and it seems like everyone wants to try and convict him. I think we need to keep an open mind as far...
KING: Yes.
PORTER: ...where this thing may lead.
(CROSSTALK)
PIRRO: There no question that we have to keep an open mind. And it's quite possible that this may be a prenatal abduction as well. But I think that we have to look at the backgrounds of the individuals involved to get a sense just as the police are doing. I mean if he were not considered someone of interest they would not have taken a K- 9 unit to his house or his truck.
KING: Michael, are we in danger of here of prejudging?
CARDOZA: Oh, absolutely. Are we in danger? They've already have done it, Larry. It's not we're in danger. We're right in the throats of it. I mean look at Gloria's question when she asked, gee, does he have a criminal record? Gloria, you knew the answer to that question. Yes, he does. And you knew exactly what it was. So what were you implying and what did you want people to infer, that he's got that criminal history and therefore, he did it. So...
(CROSSTALK)
CARDOZA: ...certainly, he's someone that should be looked at, but you know things aren't always what they appear to be. Let's give this guy a break for a while.
ALLRED: Michael, here's the answer: why didn't that come out until I asked it. And why is it not relevant? Of course no one...
CARDOZA: Did you know the answer, Gloria?
ALLRED: No one should jump to a conclusion of guilt based only on one fact, a prior conviction.
CARDOZA: Gloria, you knew what you were using that question for. You knew the answer.
ALLRED: Of course, any lawyer asks the question unless they know the answer.
CARDOZA: Well, I beg to differ with you there.
ALLRED: Michael, in all fairness, it was interesting that the person who appears to be an advocate for Mr. Cutts didn't present that affirmatively and didn't disclose that to the public until I asked it. And of course, Jeanine is the one who brought up the restraining orders.
CARDOZA: Who's the advocate, Gloria?
ALLRED: And why wasn't that brought up?
CARDOZA: Gloria, who's the advocate?
KING: He's a reporter.
CARDOZA: That's right.
ALLRED: You know what, but still, it was not disclosed.
CARDOZA: You're twisting it, Gloria. You're doing exactly what you did to Scott Peterson.
ALLRED: He's presenting him in a light most favorable to him. Maybe that's not what he intended...
KING: Wait a minute...
ALLRED: ... I think all of that should be...
KING: All right. Can you unequivocally say, Gloria, you have not prejudged this guy at all; he is, in your mind, totally innocent?
ALLRED: I am saying, Larry, that I like to know all of the facts before I make a conclusion.
KING: But you're not -- you're only saying you haven't prejudged him?
ALLRED: I would like to know all of the facts. I would think that that's exactly what law enforcement wants to know.
KING: And CNN can't confirm what Jeanine said either. In other words, we'll be back with more and stay with this panel for a while. Don't go away.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
PATTY PORTER, MOTHER OF MISSING PREGNANT GIRL: We need help at 8686 Essex.
911 DISPATCHER: 8686, what street?
P. PORTER: Essex.
911 DISPATCHER: What's the problem?
P. PORTER: My daughter is gone. She's due in two weeks and my grandson's alone and this whole house has been ransacked.
911 DISPATCHER: How old is your...
P. PORTER: My grandson's 2.
911 DISPATCHER: And he's gone?
P. PORTER: He's here along.
911 DISPATCHER: OK. And how old is the child that was alone?
P. PORTER: She didn't leave him alone. My God, something's wrong. She's due in two weeks and she's just missing. Her car's here, her purse, and her house is trashed and she's not here.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back. Todd remains with us. Jeanine, Michael and Gloria will be back in a little while. We'll have another segment with Candice DeLong, our former FBI profiler and Dr. Cyril Wecht, the former coroner of Allegheny County.
Candice, are we hanging a pre-noose around Mr. Cutts?
DELONG: Well, Larry, it's always wise to start an investigation of a missing woman or known to be murdered woman with the men closest to her. We know this. There is certainly a lot of very, very interesting things about this case. There's -- it can be very dangerous times for women in various types of relationships. And it is a sad fact that the leading cause of death among pregnant women in America is murder.
We don't know that that's what happened to her, but it isn't looking good.
One thing that has occurred to me, the woman, who the baby was left on her door step, is a nurse. And according to her, I heard her interviewed on another show, she was under the impression that this child, this baby that was left, was probably no more than 24 hours old. Jessie was taken or showed up missing last Wednesday or Thursday. If that baby was born Sunday and it's Jessie's, that raises a lot of very interesting questions...
KING: Yes.
DELONG: ...as to -- she certainly would have had to have been alive. It could turn out that baby is not hers. Also, I'd be interested in knowing how much did Jessie weigh at the time she went missing. For example, if this crime possibly was committed a by woman -- if she was unconscious, how did they get the body out. I'm guessing, based on the pictures, that she weighed at least 150 to 160 pounds, possibly more. If she was unconscious or God forbid dead, how did somebody get her out unless they're a very, very big person. There's all kinds of interesting things to look at here.
KING: Dr. Wecht, what about fetal abduction?
WECHT: Well, if she -- let's assume for the purposes of this discussion, that the newborn baby is Ms. Davis'. That means that she was not killed at the scene. The baby would not have survived. It's highly unlikely that she was rendered unconscious severely so that is so as not to regain consciousness later because although a baby can be born to an unconscious woman, it's not so easily accomplished, especially outside of a medical setting.
So you have to think about certain things, that the Clorox or bleach could also have been used to cover up embryonic fluid. If, in a moment of stress, and in a physical alteration, that baby could have been delivered spontaneously, unexpectedly at that time. Clorox then being used to clean up the afterbirth.
The FBI agent makes a very good point. Some days have elapsed. If indeed the nurse on whose doorstep the baby is left is correct, which is this is just 24 or even 48 hours old, then that doesn't quite fit in with the period of time since Ms. Davis was abducted.
With regard to the police officer, I want to make a couple of observations. I know Canton. I've been there many times. It's a relatively small town. You know the friends and family, and where people are, and he's been involved in community activities. He also had a police car, presumably. And 60 miles round trip to Wooster is not an insignificant amount of mileage. The odometer on his car because policemen get their cars filled up at certain places; there are a lot of things that could be checked out very... KING: I've got to interrupt you, Cyril. A lot of time -- we'll be doing a lot more with you. We thank you and Candice.
Todd Porter will return with us along with Jeanine Pirro, Michael Cardoza and Gloria Allred.
Reminder, one week from tonight, Sir Paul McCartney with his fellow Beetle Ringo Starr, with John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono and George Harrison's widow, Olivia Harrison. All of them together, a historic interview celebrating the one year anniversary of Cirque du Soleil's Beatles tribute show live. It'll be live on location from Las Vegas, Tuesday, June 26, a week from tonight on LARRY KING LIVE.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back with Todd Porter remaining, joined by Jeanine Pirro, Michael Cardoza, and Gloria Allred.
We have an e-mail from Mike in Orange, California. "What does Jessie Davis do for a living?" Todd, do you know?
PORTER: She works at an insurance agency. I'm not exactly sure what she does at the insurance agency but it's about 45, 50 miles north of here.
KING: We've got a call from Green, Ohio -- hello.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, Larry.
KING: Hi.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd like to ask you and the panel, do you think the police department could be protecting Mr. Cutts of this point because he is one of their own?
KING: Michael Cardoza, is that possible? CARDOZA: Well, anything is possible. But do I believe that, no, I don't believe that. But one thing that I found very curious, Larry, was I read in a number of different articles that Cutts took place in one of the searches around the house for evidence. And I thought that to be very, very strange, why the police would let someone that apparently is a suspect partake in the search.
ALLRED: I don't under that either, Larry. And also, what I don't...
KING: Hold it, Jeanine.
ALLRED: ...don't understand -- what I also don't understand is why if he had a criminal conviction that he was later hired to be a police officer.
PIRRO: I think the answer, Larry, to the question, that was just called in is that indeed the FBI and other state agencies are involved in the case. So initially, you would expect the jurisdiction -- the police department, which has jurisdiction to handle the case -- and I agree with Michael, that he should have been kept out of there. But now you got other agencies brought in to protect the integrity of the case and hopefully present skepticism of this investigation.
KING: Todd, do the police tend to be protective of him? Have you talked to other cops?
PORTER: I haven't talked to other cops. But he's been placed on paid administrative leave so I'm not sure if they're being protective of him. And I might add that I believe that the FBI and the Stark County Sheriff's Department are doing the bulk of the investigation here not the Canton City Police Department, which is where he works.
KING: Effingham, Illinois, hello.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello. My question is Jessie's 2-year-old son is of mixed race. Is the newborn that was found of mixed race also?
KING: Good question. Do you know? Does anyone know? Todd, do you know?
PORTER: That's to -- there's no answer as of yet. They're doing DNA testing right now. It has been explained to me as a Caucasian female. But with biracial babies, I think sometimes it's awfully difficult to determine the race of the baby in the days after birth.
PIRRO: And what's also interesting about that case, Larry, is that the baby was delivered in a wicker basket with formula, with diapers. There was clearly a lot of thought that went into to delivering this baby to a family where the mother was a nurse. You know my instincts are that it's not connected to this case but maybe it is.
ALLRED: And she's also due to give birth on July 3 and yet, of course, this baby was born earlier. Now, of course, babies can be born earlier but that's just an interesting fact.
KING: Michael?
CARDOZA: Larry?
KING: Yes?
CARDOZA: Yes, you know what's interesting to me, and it's not going to bode well for Mr. Cutts, it that it was a baby girl and that Jessie was pregnant with a little girl that she was going to call Chloe.
And I can imagine that Gloria, as a prosecutor or at least thinking as a prosecutor, and Jeanine, would be thinking, you know, Cutts may want to get rid of Jessie, may want to murder her, but certainly not get rid of his own child. So that would be motive to keep the child alive. So that doesn't cut well for Cutts.
ALLRED: I would be interested in whether or not he has an alibi and if he does, what it consists of.
KING: Alibi for what. You don't know of any time of death or...
ALLRED: Well, for what happened on that day, where he was on that day that she went missing.
KING: We'll take a break and be come back with more moments on this fascinating story. Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Jessie's son, Blake. He was found by himself on the first floor. Upstairs in the master bedroom, the scene was chilling.
P. PORTER: Her comforter was off and her mattress was pushed over. The nightstand was knocked over and the lamp was knocked over. And somebody had poured bleach all over her carpet.
COOPER: The evidence is disturbing, so are the words of 2-year- old Blake. During a local T.V. interview with the grandmother, Blake can be heard in the background saying "Mommy's in the rug."
P. PORTER: The smell was really strong in the house. "Mommy's in the rug," he keeps saying.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Todd porter, what's going on now? Is there -- like in the Laci Peterson matter, is there a vigil, is there an all-out search?
PORTER: There have been all-out searches periodically over the last few days, particularly over the weekend. I think right now it's mostly police work, mostly investigative type work that's being done.
Bobby did tell me today and people can listen to these on CantonRep.com in a few hours, these interviews, that when the police and the FBI did go through his home and his cars, that they found nothing. But he also told me that he knows that he's still a suspect. He knows that they're telling people that he's not a suspect; he's not a person of interest. They labeled him today after I talked to him, an associate. But he's looking at himself as a suspect right now.
KING: That's CantonRep.com, right, in a couple hours to see and hear your interviews with him?
PORTER: Yes, that's correct. Thank you.
KING: Jeanine, is he right in considering himself of interest? PIRRO: Oh, I don't think there's any question, Larry. I mean not just statistically. But you know you have to understand, you have a guy here who is married with two children of his own, who has a child with another woman in California who got a restraining order against him, who has a child with Jessie and one on the way, and doesn't have a real relationship with Jessie's family. I mean all of this really doesn't bode well for him in terms of his relationship vis-a-vis Jessie. And so, he has to consider himself a suspect.
I think the police are being very generous in saying he's not. And by the way, Larry, I don't think it's up to Cutts to say that the police found nothing of interest. In fact, they spent two hours in his home. They came out carrying some items. And I think that that's all relevant. But this is all unfolding as we speak and time will tell what the truth is.
ALLRED: And being that he is a police officer, Larry, he, of course, knows that the police would be interested in him and his whereabouts?
KING: Michael, are we going to resolve this, you think?
CARDOZA: I think we are going to resolve this, Larry. It's going to be done the old fashioned way with hard police work and with some luck and with bad luck being, you know, the breaks in the case. But I can't help but think this thing is sort of unfolding like Scott Peterson and Laci Peterson did.
You know like I say, I got to tell you, the emotion is starting to build in this case and everybody is pointing to Cutts. I mean listen to Jeanine when she said and here's a guy who has a restraining order against him. OK, but that doesn't mean he did it here.
PIRRO: Of course not...
CARDOZA: Let this play out to see what happens instead of inciting people to think this guy did it. Things are not always what they appear to be.
PIRRO: There's no question, Michael, and I couldn't agree with you more. And the job of law enforcement is to make sure that they have evidence. And I really can give kudos to the police department for not going overboard here. They are moving methodically, slowly, bringing in other agencies to get...
(CROSSTALK)
CARDOZA: I agree.
KING: Thank you all. We'll be doing a lot more on this. Thank you all. Thanks.
Last night we had a great show with Judge Judy. We asked you, "Would you want Judge Judy to preside over your court case?" Eighty- three percent voted yes. Thursday night's guest is comedian Kathy Griffin, so our question tonight is "Do you think Kathy Griffin is going to be Rosie O'Donnell's replacement on 'The View'?" Text vote your cell phone -- through you cell phone to CNNTV, which 26688. Text King A for yes, King B for no and we'll have the results Thursday with Kathy Griffin.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com