Return to Transcripts main page
Nancy Grace
Girl Rescued in Idaho, Kidnapper Shot; 6-Year-Old Girl Ordered to Live with Sex-Offender Father
Aired August 12, 2013 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, live, San Diego suburbs. A nationwide Amber Alert after a girl`s mother and her 8-year-old brother found burning dead in Uncle Jim`s home, kidnapper 40-year-old computer expert James Lee "Jim" Dimaggio.
Bombshell tonight. Miracle, 16-year-old Hannah Anderson alive, rescued in a James Bond-type helicopter move on the top of a mountain staring down steep, rugged terrain. Jim Dimaggio shot dead by the feds.
Tonight, how Hannah was saved and the twisted details of how 40-year- old Dimaggio forced her up the side of Idaho`s Cascade Mountains in nothing but her pajamas. Hannah`s family with us live and taking your calls.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hannah is safe, and that was the best outcome that we were hoping for.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Terrifying week on the run with her captor, James Dimaggio.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hikers spotted two people they thought resembled Dimaggio and Anderson.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They went back to their place, turned on the television, recognized the people right away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told my wife, I said, That is that girl we seen on the mountain.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For us to be there at the precise time, it`s one chance in a trillion.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Agents moved in to rescue Hannah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hostage rescue teams had to hike for more than two hours across rugged terrain to reach the pair.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dimaggio did have a shoulder weapon and fired at least one shot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The suspect is deceased.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this point, everything points to the fact that this is a kidnapping, that she left against her will.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She said, Looks like we`re all in trouble now, or, We`re in real trouble now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have nothing that indicates that she went voluntarily.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It looked like he had his arm around her waist. She did appear frightened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sixteen-year-old Hannah Anderson recuperating from a hellish experience.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Closes a terrifying chapter that included the deaths of her mother and brother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which she was not aware of it until (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re excited to have our daughter -- our granddaughter home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, live, Oklahoma, a 6-year-old girl ripped away from her mother and sent by a judge to live with a registered sex offender whose last victim was his own 6-year-old stepdaughter. Oklahoma judge Howard Haralson sends a defenseless 6-year-old girl to live with her sex offender father when he gets out of jail!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Outrage! A judge awards custody of a 6-year-old girl to her convicted sex offender dad!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 6-year-old`s mother -- she`s at a loss to explain why the judge awarded custody to her ex-husband.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The worst part is imagining what could be happening to Sarah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What`s the judge thinking?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s nothing prohibiting him from giving custody.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I spent all of my money on attorneys.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Orders the little girl to move in with her father, who lives across the country!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t have -- I lost my car and everything. And so they used that against me, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mom only sees her daughter via Skype chat every Sunday!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we`re not sure what is happening in California while she`s been asleep, or you know, not really knowing what was going on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We may never know why the judge ruled as he did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But it certainly is unusual.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will justice be served? Will the little girl go home to her mom?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. San Diego suburbs, a nationwide Amber Alert miracle, 16-year-old Hannah Anderson alive, rescued in a James Bond-type helicopter move on top of a mountain, staring down rugged terrain, James Lee "Jim" Dimaggio shot dead by the feds.
Straight out to Paul Vercammen standing by on the scene, CNN correspondent. Paul, what happened?
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Nancy, as you might have heard, it all unfolded slowly. It was last Wednesday that two couples on horseback, very savvy couples in the back country, came upon Hannah, the 16-year-old, and dim Jim Dimaggio. They were putting together a makeshift campsite. They saw them near a river. They said their behavior was rather odd, Nancy. And then later on at night, they looked at the television, there she was, Hannah Anderson.
GRACE: OK, whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Paul...
VERCAMMEN: One of the horseback riders...
GRACE: Paul! Paul! Paul!
VERCAMMEN: Yes?
GRACE: See, you know all the facts like the back of your hand! You got to fill it in for rest of us. Connect the dots. When you say they were acting odd, what do you mean? Like, she was wearing her pajamas, for one thing? What else?
VERCAMMEN: Well, one of the witnesses on horseback said that it was either pajamas or sweatpants. They say they wouldn`t engage them in conversation. Another one of the horseback riders said that Hannah looked like she was scared.
And of course, the biggest thing is they just stood out. They had brand-new camping equipment. They had set up this makeshift campsite in an odd place on a ridge, where it was away from water. It would (ph) have been (ph) a lightning bolt.
They said about Jim Dimaggio, he may have been an outdoorsman in California but he certainly was not an outdoorsman in the vast Idaho wilderness. And they also said the fact that they sort of refused to engage them in conversation -- that struck them as extremely odd. And as they went away, the horseback riders said that they heard Hannah say, We`re in trouble now.
So later that night, an ex-sheriff as well as...
GRACE: Well, hey, Paul...
VERCAMMEN: ... ex-Army Ranger...
GRACE: Didn`t they...
VERCAMMEN: Yes?
GRACE: ... ask them, Where are you guys headed? Which is a normal thing for hikers to -- you stop and you talk to each other, typically. They said, Where are you headed? He goes, Salmon River," but Salmon River was the other way.
VERCAMMEN: Correct. The Salmon River was in the wrong direction from where they said they were headed. That was another red flag for these back country horseback riders. They knew something was odd. So yes, that did, indeed, raise a red flag, Nancy.
GRACE: With me, Paul Vercammen there on the ground at the scene. Now, tell me this, so they get back -- they notice everything is strange, Paul. They get back home. They see the Amber Alert being publicized. They go, Hey, she looks like the girl we just saw. And they call authorities.
I want to get to the part where authorities go looking for them.
VERCAMMEN: OK. Well, first off, they also tried to find that car, thinking that would help looking for them. So they discovered the car on Friday. It`s covered brush and the license plates had been pried off. So about six to eight miles from this trailhead at this camp area, authorities are now trying to find the couple. And of course, they`re extremely worried about...
GRACE: Hey, wait a minute!
VERCAMMEN: ... Dimaggio...
GRACE: Paul! Paul! Paul! Sorry to break in, but...
VERCAMMEN: Yes?
GRACE: ... we`re showing the viewers how Dimaggio covered that car up. It`s like he had built a hut around it. He really covered it up after he removes the license tags. I guess they identified it by the VIN, the VIN number?
VERCAMMEN: Exactly. They used the VIN number to identify the car. And of course, that car is a key piece because then they can get a sense for just where they went on the trailhead. And then they had the eyewitness testimony from those horseback riders.
So they then got to the air to observe where this campsite might be, knowing that Dimaggio was possibly armed. They knew that Dimaggio was essentially armed, possibly with homemade bombs. They`d seen the fire at his house and they believed, of course, he was a double murderer because of the death of little Ethan Anderson and his mother, Christina.
So after they had watched them for a while and determined where the campsite was, they went into the wilderness with a helicopter and members of the FBI hostage rescue crew, moved in stealthily, quietly. They snuck up on the campsite. In talking to the sheriff...
GRACE: Now, hold on! Let me...
VERCAMMEN: ... off camera just a short time ago...
GRACE: Let me -- let me break in right there. Isn`t it true, Mark Evans, KOGO, that they actually came down -- they -- the terrain is so rugged that they dropped people about two hours` hike away so Dimaggio would not see them?
MARK EVANS, KOGO (via telephone): No, they came if from an area where they could sneak in and get close enough where they could take him out. They had to hike with all this heavy gear on their backs for hours until they got to this site where they spotted them overhead in the plane.
So they actually spotted a girl on the ground. They could tell there was a girl down there. They saw the blond hair. They saw the campsite. So they knew exactly where they had to go, but it was a rugged, rugged hike in.
GRACE: Now, did she even have her shoes on, Mark Evans? Because those campers said they saw her with her feet in the water.
EVANS: They were dangling in the lake. And one of the horseback riders even asked her, he said, Why are you soaking your feet in the lake? She didn`t respond, but they thought that was odd. They said all along that it did not look like they were equipped to be hiking in the back country of Idaho.
GRACE: And isn`t it true, Mark Evans, that Dimaggio bought all this hiking equipment two weeks before the abduction?
EVANS: Yes. It even looked like to these horseback riders that it was brand-new equipment, like it had never been used. So that was another red flag. And...
GRACE: Back to you...
EVANS: ... he did buy it...
GRACE: Go ahead, Mark.
EVANS: Yes, he did buy it before. Now, there was a press conference just moments ago in San Diego, where they did not talk about a motive yet. They did not talk about pre-planning. But it looks like this was pre- planned.
GRACE: Back to you, Paul Vercammen. Nobody is talking about how they got Hannah on the top of that mountain and why Dimaggio was shot dead. What happened?
VERCAMMEN: Well, here`s what happened, the sheriff revealing that when they got close -- and absolutely everything that was said before is right. They hiked in for two hours. When they got close -- and they found later that Dimaggio was armed with a rifle and a handgun -- apparently, Dimaggio drew the rifle on the agents and shot once. They returned fire, of course, Nancy. And that was with lethal force, killing Dimaggio right there in the mountains.
GRACE: And where was Hannah at the time the gunfire ensued?
VERCAMMEN: According to sheriff, in very close proximity.
GRACE: With me right now is the grandfather of Hannah and Ethan Anderson. Chris is joining us from El Segundo, California, the father of victim Christina Anderson. His daughter was murdered in that fiery blaze of Dimaggio`s home, and his granddaughter is home alive.
Sir, thank you so much for being with us.
CHRIS, FATHER OF MURDERED MOTHER (via telephone): OK. You`re welcome.
GRACE: Can you hear me, sir?
CHRIS: Yes, can I hear you.
GRACE: Tell me -- tell me how you first found out that Hannah was safe.
CHRIS: You know what? With all the things I`m trying to remember -- I think my sister that lives in New Mexico had heard it first and had called me. But then within a matter of minutes, I had several other phone calls. But I believe it was my older sister in New Mexico that had first called.
GRACE: I want to extend our sympathy to you, the nation`s sympathy on the loss of your daughter. By all accounts, she was a fantastic mother.
But when it came to this Dimaggio guy, I mean, she thought of him as one of the best friends of the family. He was like an uncle. He had been one of the husband`s best friends. He had known the children since before they were born. She really had no reason to believe or even suspect he would ever harm her children.
CHRIS: Right. This is true. If my daughter would have suspected in any manner or form that there was anything going on or he had any type of feelings like this, it would have been cut off, and probably -- depending on what she heard reported. So it`s just -- you know, it`s a tragedy.
But on the same token, I`ve been trying to get these media to put out that all of these young teenagers or children, that when a friend confides in them something this important and makes them promise not to tell anybody, they need to go tell somebody or they`ll be going through this same scenario.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m so glad she`s safe!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Me, too!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That she`s OK. She`s such a (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: James Lee Dimaggio was shot and killed. Hannah Anderson was located with Dimaggio. She appears well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The FBI team moved in on foot to confront James Dimaggio.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The area where these two individuals were seen is about 30 miles from Cascade.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only way to access it is by helicopter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The pair was spotted first from the air near their campsite. Teams on foot then moved in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back. For those of you just joining us, miracle tonight, 16-year-old Hannah found alive, James "Jim" Dimaggio shot dead by the feds on top of the Cascade Mountains. There he had dragged the girl in her pajamas up the side of the mountain. And it was thanks to Amber Alerts and viewers like you putting the word out about Hannah, and then some very observant hikers that put two and two together, thanks to local authorities and the feds, Hannah is alive tonight.
We are learning that she had no idea during her ordeal that her mother and her little brother had been murdered and left burning.
With me right now, her grandfather. Her grandfather is the father of her mother, now deceased. Chris, again, thank you for being with us.
CHRIS: OK.
GRACE: Chris, did authorities explain to your family that Hannah was with Dimaggio and had no idea her mother or little brother had been murdered?
CHRIS: I had called the San Diego Police Department when this first happened, and I never heard a word from them. I was never contacted, even though they said they would.
GRACE: To Clark Goldband. Can you confirm, Clark, that police are now saying Hannah had no idea her mother had been shot, her mother was dead?
CLARK GOLDBAND, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Yes, Nancy, we can confirm. CNN is reporting that, in fact, she did not know her mom or her brother were dead until she was discovered by law enforcement.
GRACE: Back to Hannah`s grandfather, Chris. We`re all trying to figure out how the mom, your daughter, got lured over to Dimaggio`s place. How did the whole incident begin? Have police told you yet?
CHRIS: No, the police have never even contacted me through this whole thing. But from what I understand...
GRACE: They`re probably dealing with Hannah`s father, would be my guess, her biological father.
CHRIS: Yes, and I understand that. That`s where they should be, you know, for Hannah and that. But I believe that he had lured them over because of the foreclosure of his house, telling them that he was moving out of state, and from what I understand, had begged (ph) them to come over.
GRACE: Right, for one last good-bye.
OK, let`s go straight to the presser now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRETT ANDERSON, KIDNAPPED GIRL`S FATHER: Thank you all for coming. I would first like to thank all of the branches of the law enforcement involved in their quick actions and professionalism in all aspects of this investigation. I would also like to thank Mary and Mike Young, Mark and Christa (ph) John, for without you, who knows how long this would have gone on. My family and I are eternally grateful.
As a family, we offer a special thank you to our local sheriff department and the individuals from them and the FBI who have been by our families from the beginning for their tireless efforts. I want to thank all who spread the word, shared their hearts and thoughts through social media across the country. Because of you, this reached across and beyond the U.S. Have no doubts that this did make a difference.
Though relentless, I would also like to thank you, the media. All of your coverage, keeping the issue alive and -- helped with bringing my daughter home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sixteen-year-old Hannah Anderson recuperating from a hellish experience.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s definitely going to need our support through all of this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can`t even cry anymore, I`m so happy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her father now with her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The way it ended up for both Hannah and Jim, it`s (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back. For those of you just joining us, a tragedy ends in a miracle. Hannah is alive after the uncle, the family friend, murders her mother and her 8-year-old little brother and takes her high above the mountains, the Cascade Mountains. After a James bond-type maneuver, the feds save Hannah and shoot Dimaggio dead.
Joining me right now, special guest Andrea Dearden, PIO of Valley County sheriff`s office. Thank you so much for being with us, Officer.
ANDREA DEARDEN, VALLEY COUNTY SHERIFF`S OFFICE (via telephone): You`re welcome.
GRACE: Andrea, how did this whole thing play out, particularly the rescue?
DEARDEN: Well, it was -- I know that it may have felt a little bit kind of slow to people who were waiting, of course, anxiously on pins and needles to bring Hannah home, but watching it unfold was actually incredibly impressive. I mean, given the steep, mountainous terrain, it was a very challenging rescue.
But once they spotted who they really firmly believed was Hannah and Dimaggio from the air, once they saw them on the ground, then the hostage rescue team moved in very quickly. As you talked about, they had to hike in about two, two-and-a-half hours. They did wait until there was enough space between Dimaggio and Hannah to safely move in and make that rescue of her.
GRACE: Tell me about the area where they were found.
DEARDEN: Probably best described -- steep, mountainous. There are some deep canyons, rugged peaks. It is very challenging terrain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I said to the girl that was soaking her feet, I said, What are you doing with your feet in the water? I said, Don`t you know there`s fish in there? Kind of joking. And then as we turned to ride away, she didn`t -- she didn`t make any comment. And we started riding away and then she says, It looks like we`re all in trouble now.
QUESTION: She said that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have no idea what she meant, maybe she was in trouble because she was killing fish with her feet in the water or something. I don`t know. I just said it jokingly.
QUESTION: And so what was it you heard her say?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She said, Looks like we`re all in trouble now, or, We`re in real trouble now. And then we rode on out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Loud enough to hear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was loud -- loud enough to hear, but it was mostly to herself. And I thought it extremely strange that they were up there packing when all of their gear looked like it was brand-new. That was another little flag that just wasn`t normal or natural.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Bombshell tonight. A tragedy has turned into a miracle. Welcome back, everybody. I`m Nancy Grace. And I want to thank you for being with us.
After Hannah was stolen from her home by her own uncle, or the uncle that the mom and dad had trusted since before Hannah`s birth, Mommy`s dead burning body was found in Dimaggio`s home, along with the body of this little boy, her 8-year-old son. The object of DiMaggio`s affection, 16- year-old sister Hannah. He forced her up the side of a mountain after hiding his blue Nissan there in the mountainous terrain, and the girl was only saved when the feds and local authorities pull off a James Bond-type maneuver as the two are up on the top of the Cascade mountains.
Joining me right now, hold on, I`m hearing, we got more of the presser. Let`s go straight back in before I go back to the PIO of Valley County sheriff`s office, Andrea Dearden, let`s go to the presser, please.
BRETT ANDERSON, FATHER: As a country, there are many missing children, and though some of them, sorry, some of you might find the Amber alert annoying, please, pay attention, keep your eyes open, let`s bring those children home. No one should have to go through this.
Now, it`s time for us to grieve and move on to the healing process. I respectively ask you to give me, all of our family and our friends the respect and time to allow this to happen.
As for my daughter, the healing process will be slow. She has been through a tremendous, horrific ordeal. I am very proud of her and I love her very much. She is surrounded by the love of her family, friends and community. Again, please, as a family, give us our time to heal and grieve. Thank you.
GRACE: Straight out at you, Andrea Dearden, the PIO of the Valley County sheriff`s office, Andrea, again, thank you for being with us. Let`s show a picture of the terrain. The FBI and the local authorities came down on the top of this mountain to save 16-year-old Hannah Anderson. The difficulty of searching that area, incredible. Agents were forced to land about two-and-a-half hours away to avoid making DiMaggio suspicious. Is that correct, Andrea?
DEARDEN: Right, a two to two-and-a-half hour hike away. Of course the distance not being that far, but because it is so rugged and because it is so mountainous, it takes quite a while to get across that treacherous land.
GRACE: Andrea Dearden, Valley County sheriff`s office, tell me again, what was it about their activity when the other hikers, I believe they were on horseback, when they saw Hannah and her kidnapper, 40-year-old DiMaggio, what was so odd about them?
DEARDEN: I think they said there were things that just didn`t add up. They said when they see people on the trail, they`re usually very friendly, willing to talk, they exchange stories about where they had been, where they were going. They said these two did not want to talk. Hannah turned away from them. They said they thought maybe she was frightened by the horses. But she apparently looked as if she did not want to engage in conversation or even have any kind of interaction with them at all. And so that made them think that was pretty odd.
GRACE: Andrea, another question. I want to talk about the final confrontation between the feds and DiMaggio. What happened?
DEARDEN: That is exactly what the FBI shooting response team is here to determine. They will speak to everyone involved in that. They will collect every bit of evidence, all that information, and piece together exactly what happened in the minutes before and immediately following Hannah`s rescue.
GRACE: Joining me right now, president and founder of KlaasKids Foundation, Marc Klaas. Mark, I always wonder, when a child is found, I know it`s bittersweet for you. Sweet that the child is found alive, regardless of what they may have been through, but bitter that Polly, your daughter, was not found alive. Tell me what her dad must be going through right now.
KLAAS: Well, my goodness, the last week, he has observed his beloved wife and son get murdered by the most trusted person in their life, who also stole his daughter because he had an unnatural attraction towards her. So, obviously, you know, the full range of emotions, and obviously he`s got to be terribly satisfied with the fact that she has been rescued.
But I`d like, if I could very quickly, Nancy, Chris said something very important. And he said that if girls find themselves in this situation and they confide to somebody that somebody has an unnatural attraction to them, that they need to go and tell a trusted adult. And I think that`s true. Because what this does is it totally turns over the paradigm of stranger danger. This was an instance where somebody very, very close, whether it`s a real uncle, a fake uncle, a coach, a teacher, a priest, took advantage of this child, groomed this child, and snatched this child. And it was strangers, absolute strangers that helped get her out of this situation.
And in the vast majority of cases, it is somebody that`s known to the child that victimizes them, and strangers are the kinds of people that really can help and are willing to help a child get out of a difficult situation.
GRACE: You know, Marc Klaas, you are absolutely right. Because she felt these horrible feelings about DiMaggio for a long time, but because her mother and dad trusted him, she was actually afraid to say anything. She didn`t want to rock the boat. This was the dearest friend of her mother and father. And she was having these feelings of dread and fear and uncomfortable around him, but she didn`t want to say anything.
To Dr. William Morrone, medical examiner, forensic pathologist joining me out of Madison Heights. She has immediately gone for a physical. What type of physical?
DR. WILLIAM MORRONE, MEDICAL EXAMINER: There`s going to be five short parts to the physical. The first will be a psych evaluation to calm her down and help her relax. Then there will be a history and physical similar to what anybody would have once a year. Then there will be a criminal sexual conduct exam by an agent, gender matched nurse to reduce any trauma, and X-rays, really important, in case there was falls or traumas or any damage, and then because they were outside, dehydration, and access to exposure from the elements. We have to make sure that she didn`t suffer just because of frostbite or anything like that, those are the five parts of an important physical.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Jason Oshins in New York, Kirby Clements, Atlanta. First to you, Jason Oshins. He was looking at the death penalty before the feds took care of that. Jason, what about seizing any of his assets? I don`t think there is going to be very many.
OSHINS: No, Nancy, you are right. He was in foreclosure, losing his home. So whatever equity was there is shot. And whatever personal belongings he might have, if he did have a will, it would go to his beneficiaries. If not, it will go to his -- the public administrator or someone to administer his estate.
GRACE: To Kirby Clements, you were a prosecutor before you became a defense attorney. The truth is, without tipsters, without people helping us, this case would never have been solved. Hannah would likely have been dead by now.
CLEMENTS: Oh, absolutely. I think that a lot of times people are afraid to get involved. But this is exactly when you see that not only observing something out of the ordinary, but also reporting what you saw, saved this young lady`s life.
GRACE: To Paul Vercammen, joining me there on the scene, Paul, where is the dad and the daughter now?
VERCAMMEN: Well, we understand that Hannah is here in San Diego, and then very quietly, and, of course with the help of detectives, Mr. Anderson left here without being seen. What they did is, once he finished with his statement, there were no questions to Mr. Anderson. He walked through the back way here. So we are not clear where he is.
But we want to say this, Nancy, all of the members of the Anderson family are thankful for the media and people like yourself for putting this out there, but they also are asking that their privacy be respected. Of course, they lost little Ethan and they lost their mother. And another thing that they have been expressing, this includes her grandparents. They are thrilled in some ways that there will be no trial, no testimony from Hannah and no tales of let`s say Mr. DiMaggio having a troubled childhood. In very many ways, Nancy, this ended not with a jury verdict but with a verdict by bullet.
GRACE: Well put. To Greg Cason, psychologist, joining me out of L.A. What is this going to be like for her? Because, basically, her mother and little brother were killed. So he could get her, DiMaggio could get her. I wonder for the rest of her life, she is going to think, oh, is it my fault, did I lead him on? Did I somehow engage him to make him think this was possible? She`s just a child.
CASON: Yes, no, absolutely, Nancy. This is probably one of the worst traumas a person can go through. And she`s going to have to carry this the rest of her life. And she is going to have something called survivor guilt, that she lived when her mother and brother died in this trauma. But also, you are exactly right. She may wonder what she did, and that`s going to cause her further trauma down the line.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A judge`s shocking decision to give custody of a 6-year-old girl to her sex offender dad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nicolas Elizando (ph) was convicted of raping their other daughter six years ago in California when she was Sarah`s age.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He orders the little girl to move in with her father, who lives across the country. The mom only sees her daughter via Skype chat every Sunday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What`s worse is Sarah Jewell (ph) also lives with her half brother. She told her mom he molester her while she was in the bathtub on her last visit to California.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are not sure what is happening in California, while she is going to sleep or not really knowing what is going on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Their family and friends are determined to do whatever it takes to win the battle to bring her home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: What a miscarriage of justice. A judge orders a 6-year-old girl, this girl, straight into the arms of a child sex predator, her own father. Her father, convicted of lewd and lascivious behavior, felony behavior with his step-daughter, at the time just 6 years old. Straight out to Jose Gaspar, reporter KBHA, what happened, Jose?
JOSE GASPAR, KBHA CORRESPONDENT: That`s what everybody wants to know, Nancy. Everybody sort of left scratching their heads, what happened? How is it that a judge can award custody of a 6-year-old to a registered sex offender who lives right here in Bakersfield? Now, while judges don`t normally place children in the same home as a sex offender, legal experts tell me there is nothing to prevent it.
GRACE: Let me ask you a question, Jose, is he a registered sex offender?
GASPAR: Yes, he is. You can look him up on Megan`s Law website, which is the website here in California. His picture is on there. He is a registered sex offender. And his picture is out there. And he was convicted back in 1995 for lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14.
He was married at that time to another woman. She had a 6-year-old daughter at that time. And she claims that -- and her court documents say she caught him in bed with her 6-year-old daughter, and that when she confronted him, that he acted very nervously -- had, literally, caught him with his pants down. And according to police, that when they arrived, he came out of the bedroom in a very excited fashion, you might say.
GRACE: Well, are you trying to say he had an erection?
GASPAR: Yes, Nancy.
GRACE: OK. I`m a grown woman, married with two children, so you can say erection, it`s OK. Jose Gaspar, KBAK, now, it`s not just what his wife claimed, his ex-wife claimed. He pled guilty, did he not, Jose Gaspar?
GASPAR: Yes, he did. There was a slew of charges filed against him by the Bakersfield police department in this particular case. As a matter of fact, there were a total of originally there were 11 felony counts, most of them lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age, one charge of continual sexual abuse of a child, and also one charge of exhibiting harmful matter to a minor. All of these felonies, but eventually, it was whittled down to him pleading to -- pled no contest to a misdemeanor.
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, he got six years.
GASPAR: He got six years. That is correct. That is correct.
GRACE: How can a misdemeanor be six years? A misdemeanor is 12 months, or under. It had to be a felony.
GASPAR: You are correct, I was looking at another page there, but it got whittled down to him pleading no contest to one child --
GRACE: Hold on. Unleash the lawyers. Jason Oshins, Kirby Clements. Don`t start with me about no contest. All right? Nolo Contendre (ph). That`s Latin for I don`t contest it. I don`t admit it, I don`t deny it. But what it boils down to, Jason Oshins, is guilty. He was sentenced to six years behind bars, and the charge says illegal touching of a child for your own sex gratification. And as Gaspar said, even when the cops got there, he still had an erection coming out of the bedroom, the little girl`s bedroom. The mommy woke up, fell something was wrong, went, looked in the bedroom, and there he was, she called police. Six years in the penitentiary, Oshins, and now he has got a 6-year-old little girl with him. Judge Howard Haralson, you are in contempt. Now, what were you going to say about a nolo?
OSHINS: Nancy, all I`m saying is sometimes when you take a plea, you are looking at all the charges that are against you. And sometimes under the advice of counsel, that`s the best that you are going to do right there, and that`s what he did.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: With me now, the mother of the little girl, Lisa Knight. Lisa, thank you for being with us.
LISA KNIGHT, MOTHER: Thank you.
GRACE: I am stunned. Why did the judge do this?
KNIGHT: I have no idea. I just --
GRACE: I know that you have a hearing impairment. Let me go to Judy Coomer (sic), the cousin. What is going on? I`m in shock.
JODY COOMER, COUSIN: It`s Jody. And we are all in shock. No one was ready for that ruling to come down. We have all the evidence. The state, as soon as she told us what happened, it was our biggest fear that that would ever happen. Wasn`t even happen -- he was with her, but she says he didn`t do it, and he says his 20-year-old son did it this time. And so we called -- of course, we called the child abuse hotline, and the next thing we know, instead of having his visitation in spring break, she`s served with court papers and he`s trying to take sole custody from her.
GRACE: So you`re saying that someone in the father`s home has already molested the little girl?
COOMER: Yes, ma`am. Substantiated by --
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Did you take her to the doctor and have her examined?
COOMER: We did not. She said that it was over the clothes, and there was -- she was in the bathtub when she told us, and there was no visible signs of trauma that we could tell.
GRACE: OK, wait. Jean Casarez, what can be done now?
CASAREZ: Well, it went to the Department of Children and Families, this allegation of fondling by his son, and the report came back that it was substantiated. But it appears as though the judge in Oklahoma was not concerned by that.
But remember, little Sarah is now living in the same state, in the same city as this son. Although there is a no contact order.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: We remember American hero, Marine Private Victor Dew (ph), 20. Granite Bay, California. Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon. National Defense Service Medal. Parents Tom and Patty. Siblings Kyle, Katie, Carolyn, Casey, Darrell, and Jason. Victor Dew, American hero.
And now, back to one of the most stunning miscarriages of justice I have ever seen. A 6-year-old little girl being told, forced by a judge to go to her sex-molesting father, a registered sex offender.
Out to you, Marc Klaas. We first heard at the beginning that there`s nothing under the law that stops this man from having custody of his 6- year-old little girl? His last victim was 6 years old.
KLAAS: This is unbelievable, Nancy. How are the best interests of this child served by this action? First of all, she`s dragged away from the only family she`s ever known, so she feels abandonment. And then she`s put into the clutches of a known sexual offender, who has been convicted. Regardless of whether the guy says he`s innocent or not, he did it.
GRACE: You know, not only that, but he pled to it. Marc Klaas, you`re right. Brett Larson, investigative reporter. What can we do now? Who in the hey is Judge Howard Haralson?
BRETT LARSON, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: You know, Nancy, it`s funny you should bring him up. He has awarded custody to other people. There was a mother that I was reading about who said her child was given to a convicted cocaine dealer. Now a petition has been started. They have thousands of signatures to try and get back in front of this judge and say this is not the right thing for you to have done.
GRACE: He did this to another mother? He gave the child to a cocaine dealer?
LARSON: I read about two incident where that had happened, Nancy. Just terrible things with these mothers coming forward and saying yes, it happened to me, too.
GRACE: I`m just -- my children, as you know, Brett, are 5 1/2, they`re about to turn 6. I would machine-gun whoever had my child.
Back to the mother, Lisa Knight, and cousin Jody Coomer. Lisa, what are you going to do?
KNIGHT: We`re trying to get it together and figure out --
COOMER: We`re going back to court. I mean, we`re going back to court. We have -- we have attorneys. We`re building a case. We have to get a hold of the transcript, which they`re holding on really tight to because they don`t want it out, to where he went directly against the DHS ruling and called mom a liar to her face, and said that she made these charges up.
GRACE: Well, let me assure you, ladies, we are not giving up. Judge Howard Haralson hasn`t heard the last of us. As we sign off, happy birthday to friend of the show, Erin, mother of twins, wife of a cancer survivor. They`re all well and alive today because of her. Happy birthday, Erin. Dr. Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night. 8:00 sharp, Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.
END
