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Nancy Grace
Flight 370 Families Demand Proof
Aired March 25, 2014 - 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. Has Malaysia flight 370 finally been located? Two hundred and thirty-nine passengers and crew vanish into thin air after the flight abruptly veers off course and a mystery "Good night" from the pilot. At this hour, loved ones devastated by news, the possibility everyone on board believed dead.
Bombshell tonight. Is there a cover-up in the search for flight 370? At this hour, the search and rescue operation called off! And also, as we go to air, the Malaysian embassy stormed by family, friends, loved ones, all holding signs, screaming they want their children back, angry over the handling of the missing flight, demanding proof the crash even occurred when not a single piece of debris has been identified!
Tonight, is there a cover-up?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Outrage and fury, flight 370...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: None of those on board survived.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the beginning, they just hide everything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Search planes scouring the sea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s about the most inaccessible spot on the face of the earth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was it hijacked?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just what did take down the airplane?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re not searching for a needle in a haystack, we`re still trying to define where the haystack is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, neighbors say they had it all, a million-dollar home, a $1.2 million yacht, a luxury lake home, $3 million the bank. But tonight, they`re busted, stealing nearly $200,000 in welfare and food stamps. And tonight, they`re apparently on the lam, on their way to a luxury resort to hide out from the long arm of the law.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Colin Chism III (ph) and his wife, Andrea (ph), first started receiving public assistance for medical care.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They never reported they had moved to Florida that year to live on a $1.2 million yacht.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Astonishes me. Like, I had no idea that this could ever really happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, we go live. An 8-year-old little girl who babysat with a family friend gone. At this hour, police believe the little girl, missing from school for weeks but never reported missing, is being held by Khalil Tatum (ph), Amber Alert issued with 51-year-old Tatum`s wife found dead. And now he`s gone with a defenseless 8-year-old girl? Tonight, BOLO -- be on the lookout! At this hour, brand-new grainy surveillance video emerges. What do the clues reveal?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A new look at this little girl, 8-year-old Relisha Rudd, missing for weeks, believed to be with this man, Khalil Tatum.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amber alert out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want to know why he did it from the back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police hope this new picture, with a look at his distinctive tattoo, will help someone to spot the 51-year-old.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You are seeing video from WRC (ph) of Relisha walking down a hotel hallway with the man police are seeking.
And TV star Judge Joe Brown, reportedly pulling down about $20 million a year as a pretend judge, gets a taste of his own medicine, and it doesn`t taste good! Joe Brown thrown behind bars after he blows a gasket in the Shelby County courthouse, hauled to jail, booked, fingerprinted and mug shot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Listen. You might learn something.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s famous for being a TV court judge, but Judge Joe Brown was on the other side.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to get into this, let`s get into it. This sorry operation needs to stop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-four hours Shelby County jail for contempt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You may have a seat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Excuse me!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. Is there a cover-up in the search for flight 370? At this hour, the search and rescue operations have been called off! And also, as we go to air, the Malaysian embassy stormed by family, friends, loved ones, holding signs, screaming they want their sons and daughters back, angry over the handling of the missing flight, demanding proof the crash even occurred when not a single piece of debris has been identified!
Tonight, is there a cover-up? Straight out to CNN correspondent Martin Savidge. Marty, you know what? They`ve got a point. If it was my family, and for what, the second, third time I`ve been told, Oh, we found the plane, we found the plane, take three, we found the plane -- and they can`t show me one seatbelt, one wheel, one piece of plastic that says flight 370 on it -- nothing? Why should we believe it?
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. And many people have the very same feeling as you do, Nancy, and I can`t blame them, either. I mean, they`ve been set up so many times, and then whatever has been told to them pulled back. Now they`re being told that they just have to trust the Malaysian government, that they`ve managed with technology to determine that the aircraft and their loved ones has vanished somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and yet, as you point out, not a single piece of debris. I think that would be stretching any credulity that they would believe what they`re being told.
GRACE: Martin Savidge, I want to talk about the search and rescue and the fact that the weather now, according to Malaysian officials, is causing the whole thing to be called off! You know, it`s hard for me to believe that you could put a man on the moon, that you can have a space lab up in the air with people living in space for, you know, six months at a time, but we can`t find the black box, when it is emitting a beep for 30 days? What, when`s that going to end, the beginning of April?
SAVIDGE: Well, the problem is, yes, you`re right. There is a timeframe on this, and that they are concerned that -- look, they don`t believe there are survivors. They just simply believe that`s not an option anymore. So they want to be careful not to risk the lives of the searchers that are out there.
The weather is said to be so bad -- it`s taken a severe turn. It`s a very difficult part of the world to search. But the waves are too rough, the winds are too high, and because the planes have to fly low, they try to spot the debris, it`s a dangerous combination. So they have withdrawn for now. They`ll go back. But if you`re a family member, of course, nothing can be done fast enough. If you believe someone`s in a life raft floating, waiting to be found, it would be heart-breaking.
GRACE: Well, especially, Marty, when you feel like you`ve been lied to. That`s the way a lot of them feel. Martin Savidge joining me, CNN correspondent. If there was an emergency landing on water, can you simulate that?
SAVIDGE: Yes. Sure, we can, because, you see, I think the Malaysian Airlines is implying that this airplane plunged into the ocean, which it might have done, but it didn`t have to.
Mitchell Cassato`s (ph) the pilot here. Take us down, bring us right to the water level, and let`s see what this would look like.
You know, the "miracle on the Hudson," which everyone remembers -- that aircraft was a lot smaller than this aircraft, but it shows that airplanes are capable of landing in a water environment. It wouldn`t be ideal, wouldn`t be what you`d want it to do, but if the engines have run out of gas, if they are no longer generating any lift, it may be the only thing you can do.
So you come sweeping in over the ocean like this, and what you would want to do is begin to set up the aircraft as if you were coming in to land. But you don`t put the wheels down because if you do, they`re likely to trip you and make you flip over. Instead, you want to set it down on the smooth underbelly of the aircraft.
What speed would you like to do that, Mitchell?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) slow as possible, minimum control speed, yes.
SAVIDGE: And you`re going to try and make it so that the tail hits first, and then the rest of the plane settles down. The other thing you worry about would be the wave (ph) state (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely. We don`t know the sea state. We don`t know the winds. But they play a tremendous factor in all this.
SAVIDGE: Yes, you would try to land on top of the wave, not in the trough. You don`t have any control over that. If you have to land, you have to land. This is all assuming, of course, Nancy, that the pilots were awake and conscious to be able to do it, but it could...
GRACE: Yes, you know, Martin, I was just...
SAVIDGE: ... have been done.
GRACE: ... thinking about that because the theory -- one of the working theories is there was an emergency in the cockpit. So I don`t know if they could do anything like you guys are doing right now, if there was an emergency.
Martin, I want to go back to what you were talking about, the weather. With me right now, CNN meteorologist. You all know Karen Maginnis. We watch her all the time. Karen, explain to me why the weather is so awful that they`ve had to call off search and recovery. It`s hard for me to take that in when we have, for instance, the Navy SEALs that could practically do anything in the water. But they can`t find this plane, and they -- can they not hear the black box beeping down there?
KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: This is an area that is notorious for fierce storms. Even on a good day, Nancy, they`re looking at a pretty steep wave height. They`re looking at frequent storms, frequent changes in the wind. And then...
GRACE: (INAUDIBLE) steep wave height.
MAGINNIS: Typically, we are seeing wave heights in this area, with this latest storm system, around 20 to 25 feet. We`ve got some pictures coming up for you. And here is a picture of this boat trying to traverse through this water, and there you can see just how treacherous it is.
Now, this is on the surface of the ocean. It is called the "roaring 40s" for a reason, because this is kind of a typical day, and what enhances these storm systems, as they move through, they will kick up the winds and we`ll start to see some really strong wave heights in this region, as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Welcome back, everyone. Tonight, is there a cover-up in Malaysian flight 370? Relatives of the crash victims now storming the Malaysian embassy, demanding to know the truth. And I don`t blame them.
With me, Nate Rawlings and Martin Savidge. Nate, correspondent with "Time" magazine, what do you make of the fact that not one shred of evidence has been brought forth to show that this is flight 370?
NATE RAWLINGS, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Well, Nancy, that`s what`s been frustrating the families all along, is that the Malaysian government is saying with some semblance of authority that they know that the plane went down, that they know that it went down in the southern part of the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia, but there`s not a single piece of debris they can show these families that their loved ones are, in fact, dead.
And they have said that if they can see something, if they can see any tangible piece of this plane, then they`ll accept it. But until then, that frustration is adding to the fact that their loved ones have been missing now for almost three weeks.
GRACE: Mark Weiss with us from D.C., CNN aviation analyst, former American Airlines pilot. Mark, thank you for being with us. If the box isn`t found before 30 days, do we lose all the data in the box, or does it just stop pinging?
MARK WEISS, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: No, the data`s going to be maintained. What you`re going to do is just -- it`s going to take an incredible amount of luck over a longer period of time after the pingers stop acting (ph) active.
GRACE: You know, tonight, the families demanding proof. To James Brokaw, lost his father and stepmother in the Egyptair crash. James, what do you make of the families` demand for proof?
JAMES BROKAW, LOST FATHER AND STEPMOTHER IN EGYPTAIR CRASH (via telephone): Well, it`s absolutely crucial. When something like this happens, you find yourself immediately in an alternate universe. Unexpectedly, with no warning whatsoever, you`ve lost your mother, your father, your wife, your husband, God help us your children. And without any tangible proof, it`s -- it`s -- it`s very, very difficult to move forward.
GRACE: Well, especially one (ph) of the fact -- to you, Martin Savidge. They`ve been told on other occasions, Hey, we found it, this is it, only to turn out that wasn`t it at all.
Also, Martin Savidge, I`m hearing what Karen Maginnis is telling me about the weather. I get it. What is the plan? Are we just going to be at the whim of the weather to determine whether or not this is the flight with nearly 300 dead people hanging in the balance?
SAVIDGE: Well, they have to at least suspend from being over the crash site or the suspected crash site. But in the meantime, there is more aircraft that`s being brought in, more air crews that are being readied to go out when the weather does clear, and more specialized equipment that is being brought in.
So even though they`re not over the site today, it does mean that they are preparing, and they plan to go back with a much more robust force with many more planes and ships, if needed. So it will be bigger, they just need the window of opportunity with the weather.
GRACE: Back to Mark Weiss, CNN aviation analyst. Everybody, I see the calls are adding up. I`m going to get to you in one moment.
Mark Weiss, there have been so many theories out there about what happened, and now with the behavior of the Malaysian government, it`s not helping anything. It seems to be some sort of emergency in the cockpit. Is it true that this was the first flight the co-pilot had flown without his instructor with him?
WEISS: Yes, but I`m not sure that that`s really a significant event or that we really need to focus on that. You don`t get put into an airline seat -- left seat, right seat -- without having the qualifications and the training to be there. So even though he may have -- this may have been his first flight without an instructor pilot with him, again, I don`t -- in fact, this may be a very good time to have somebody there -- it`s always been a debate -- because now you have somebody who`s just come out of training and very up to speed, so to speak, on all the procedures that are necessary.
GRACE: Well, I guess that`s certainly one way to look at it.
Justin Green, aviation attorney, has represented airline crash victims, former Marine Corps pilot. Justin, thanks for being with us. What do you make about all these theories? And right now, Justin, they`re just theories. There`s theories that one of the pilots committed suicide. There`s theories that the cockpit broke into fire.
But based on the transmissions, the "Good night," the veering off course, the timeline that we know of, what do you make of it?
JUSTIN GREEN, AVIATION ATTORNEY, PRIVATE PILOT: Well, first of all, we don`t know anything. And as a lawyer representing plaintiffs in these types of accidents, I think that`s the first thing the families need to be told is now -- right now is the time to be with your families, to pray for the people you lost.
The legal process, the litigation is going to be, you know, down the road. You have two years under the Montreal convention to bring a claim. The lawyers that ran over to China, ran over to Malaysia from the United States right after the accident to try to sign these people up are not the lawyers you want to hire eventually. You want to hire good lawyers.
And until we know what happened -- the airline is going to be responsible, no matter what. But until we know what happened, no one else is -- Boeing -- you`re not going to be able to bring Boeing into court until we find something out.
GRACE: Well, do you agree, Justin, that whatever happened, happened in the cockpit? It`s not that somebody on row 54 lit a shoe bomb. It`s not that a fire broke out in the lavatory. The consensus is -- and I`m certainly not saying it`s right -- is that it`s something happened in the cockpit. Do you agree with that much?
GREEN: Right. Something happened to somehow least disable the pilots. Now, it could be that the...
GRACE: Gotcha.
WEISS: It could be one of the pilots did it, it could be a mechanical issue, but something happened in the cockpit.
GRACE: Back to Karen Maginnis -- Martin Savidge, don`t move a hair -- CNN meteorologist. I`m just stymied that because of the weather, we can`t find this humongous jumbo jet at the bottom of the ocean.
MAGINNIS: Well, chances are, if it made an emergency landing or ditched in the ocean, it`s going to be broken into pieces, and those pieces are going to scattered across those very turbulent ocean waves. As you can see here, this boat kind of bobbing up and down in what is a notorious "roaring 40s" environment between 40 degrees south and 50 degrees south, 20 and 25-foot waves, Nancy, will scatter the debris about.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Is there a cover-up regarding Malaysian flight 370? Back to Martin Savidge, CNN correspondent. Martin, so many people are jumping on the cover-up bandwagon, and due to the behavior of the Malaysian government, I get it. They`ve been told so many different things. None of it really makes sense. They`re dead set, they`re hell bent that this is the wreckage. They can`t show me one seatbelt, nothing!
I`m not saying it`s not the wreckage, but why are people now becoming suspicious that there is a cover-up, Martin?
SAVIDGE: I think any time that you have a lack of information when you have a vacuum and there`s just no knowledge of really what happened, this is when we begin to suspect there`s a reason we don`t know and it`s some kind of cover-up. We`ve been spoiled in this country by the work of the National Transportation Safety Board, their professionalism and their ability to, in almost every case, solve what happened to an airliner. That professionalism is what many just feel is lacking now with the Malaysian Airlines investigation.
GRACE: Well, another thing, families in this country -- and we`ve got a family member with us tonight, James Brokaw -- are distraught, they`re angry sometimes, and rightfully so, but you don`t see them storming the U.S. embassy. And there`s a reason for that, Martin. Would you like to enunciate it?
SAVIDGE: The reason is that the people, I believe, many of them, look at the Malaysian government and feel they were inept in the beginning of this investigation, and they also believe valuable time was wasted, that it was possible their loved ones could have been alive someplace, maybe in the water, and because of the delay and looking in the wrong place, they may now have died. They equate that to almost murder.
GRACE: And back to James Brokaw, lost his father and stepmother in the Egyptian air crash. James, they`ve been told so many different things. And these people are not only dealing with the potential death of their mother, their father, their child, God help them, but they`re not getting any answers. They`re getting dragged away. I mean, look at this! It is awful, the way these people are being treated!
BROKAW: Well, it`s a very dismaying situation, and it`s exponentially worse than ours, which I felt was unprecedented, certainly in my own experience. But one thing that is familiar is that even in our case, where we knew that the airplane had crashed, some debris had been recovered just within hours of the airplane being reported missing, it still took a matter of, I believe, six or seven months before...
GRACE: I mean, James...
BROKAW: ... we began seeing personal effects returned.
GRACE: James, what if -- some of these people believe that their loved one could still be alive. They`re not convinced that plane went down in the water. Can you imagine thinking, as each day passes, My loved one is stranded, they`ve got a broken leg, they`ve got a broken arm, they can`t eat, they can`t drink, where are they? A lot of people are not accepting or don`t believe this crash occurred over the ocean. They believe their family could still be alive. The anguish they`re going through is tremendous!
BROKAW: Well, it is. But I look at the satellite data reported by the British, and it does seem to show through Doppler analysis that the pings received by the satellite, that the airplane was on a southern trajectory, which takes us to the Indian Ocean.
GRACE: Yes, I know, and they`re claiming that while they can`t see it, they`re deducing this by, quote, "sophisticated mathematics."
Tonight, our prayers with the family, the crew, the passengers, the loved ones related to flight 370.
When we come back, TV star Judge Joe Brown, who reportedly pulls down about $20 million a year as a pretend judge, gets a taste of his own medicine. And believe you me, it does not taste good!
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: TV superstar Judge Joe Brown reportedly pulling down about 20 million a year as a pretend judge, gets a taste of his own medicine, and believe you me, it does not taste good.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Brown, the court finds you in contempt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here, $10. That`s all you got on me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I sentence you to 24 hours --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You may have a seat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ve never seen such a circus as they`ve got down there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You are seeing the video from the Judge Joe Brown show. Now, let`s take a look at the Judge Joe Brown that we all think we know from TV.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you listen, you might learn something.
No partying.
No. You`re not a mother if you don`t know these basic things anyone in the 21st century.
I said nothing about changing oil.
When are you going to grow up, oldest daughter?
Somebody is foolish. The point of not are they a fool, but how big a fool? Grow up, you got a five-year-old daughter. You do not have time to be hoochie mama, being fly girl and party. Act like you got a college education.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now here`s the other Joe Brown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What you drinking on over there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Double bombay sapphire, and look, I need a granddaughter like you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guess what, Judge. I`m not guilty.
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And there`s more where that came from. That`s video from WorldStarHipHop.com. Judge Joe Brown, who has chewed out many a litigant in front of him on camera where he`s pulling down about $20 million a year, has now been hauled into jail, fingerprinted and booked. Straight out to Bonnie Fuller, president, editor in chief, hollywoodlife.com. Bonnie, why was Judge Joe Brown arrested and thrown behind bars?
FULLER: Well, Judge Joe Brown certainly did not behave in court like he would want anyone to behave in front of himself. He actually became upset and verbally abusive to the judge he was in front of. He was in court pro bono, representing a child support case, a client who needed help, and instead he ended up getting so angry that he ranted about how the court had no authority, and he got charged with contempt.
GRACE: Everybody, Judge Joe Brown has been thrown behind bars when he apparently had a meltdown in Shelby County courthouse.
Unleash the lawyers. Joining me, Eleanor Odom, death penalty qualified lawyer, also with me defense attorney Peter Odom out of Atlanta, also with me Judge David Young, former TV judge, and former Miami circuit judge.
Eleanor, I don`t recall you or Peter or Judge David Young ever being held in contempt. I was once held in contempt, that`s no big secret. But from what I understand, Judge Joe Brown went crazy. Something went wrong in his contract negotiations, he lost his TV show. All right? So now he has to get out there and work for a living, like a lawyer. That`s not easy. Apparently Eleanor, he gets to court. It`s a child support matter, juvenile court, and they don`t have a record of the case. That happens a lot, Eleanor, where your case lands in someone else`s court and you show up and they go, you got the wrong courtroom. It`s not here. He goes berserk, starts screaming and yelling. The judge tried to calm him down. It didn`t work. They finally had to drag him out, Eleanor.
E. ODOM: Nancy, it`s really kind of shocking. We don`t usually see lawyers acting this way. Sometimes we`ll see defendants or litigants acting this way. But you know what? You act up in court, the judge has the ultimate authority. The only thing he did was give him was 24 hours.
GRACE: And hopefully a financial fine after we know he`s making $20 million a year. Everybody, you think you know these TV judges. No offense, Judge David Young. Take a look at the other side of Judge Joe Brown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is ltyg?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ltyg is a luscious tender young gypsy.
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Was that Judge Joe Brown`s hand on that lady`s behind, and did I just hear him use the Lord`s name in vain? you just saw a video from Worldhiphopstar.com. Judge David Young is a former Miami circuit court judge. David, what do you make of it?
DAVID YOUNG, FORMER TV JUDGE: If you know Joe Brown, it`s consistent with his behavior. Can you imagine, Nancy, if Joe Brown was the judge and somebody acted like Joe Brown in front of Joe Brown, what he would have done? He acted truly like a horse`s patoot, and I`m being nice since we`re on live television.
It`s a disgrace.
GRACE: I think when you`re in connection with a horse, you can actually say horse`s ass.
YOUNG: He`s a horse`s ass. You know, my tutor was Janet Reno. She was my boss when I was a state attorney.
GRACE: Wow.
YOUNG: And this guy wants to be state attorney in Shelby County? Really? You want to look up to some jackass like Joe Brown? You want him to mold young lawyers, future Nancy Graces of the world? I don`t think so.
GRACE: I did say you can say it once, you don`t have to overdo it, Judge. Peter Odom, you just heard Judge David Young, and I think that he`s right. Now, his TV gig where he was a pretend judge on TV, that`s come and gone. But he is claiming that he`s going to run for district attorney in Shelby County. What about this?
P. ODOM: Good luck now. Good luck after that video just came out. Look, he`s a public person. He shouldn`t have a couple drinks and then allow himself to be videotaped like that. It just shows poor judgment. But on the question of contempt, Nancy, you know, he lost his cool. I`ve lost my cool before judges before. I`ve never been held in contempt, but it happens.
GRACE: I know, and I`ve been there. I`ve seen you do it, Odom. But when you lost your cool in court, it was about a case. You were fighting for a client, you weren`t denigrating the judge. And you know there have been many times when we all thought we needed more than a judge, and we were probably right, when we were trying cases. A lot of them were political appointees. They`ve never tried a case. But you don`t lash out at the judge himself. That gets you nowhere except jail. Hold on, Peter. Judy Ho, joining me, a psychologist out of L.A. What gives the person the thought that what, they have enough money, they make $20 million a year, they can go out and put their hand on any lady`s behind and drink as much as they want and carry on as much as they want and they`ll never come back to bite you in the neck?
HO: Nancy, what`s happened is this narcissism has been building since he`s been a TV personality and an entertainer. He`s probably been able to get away with all kinds of things until today, and now finally someone is going to make him pay and put boundaries on him, and he doesn`t like it, so he`s acting out like a little child, Nancy.
GRACE: Bonnie Fuller, president, editor in chief, Hollywoodlife.com, the other side of Judge Joe Brown. What`s the chances he`ll be able to get that TV gig back? What happened to that?
FULLER: Apparently his contract negotiations broke down. As you said, he was earning $20 million a year. Maybe they didn`t want to pay him 25 million. But since he left that job, he has been very vocal about how he doesn`t do that b stuff anymore. So he hasn`t exactly been playing nice to whoever might put him back into business on TV.
GRACE: Well, I think this is going to be decided by the Shelby County voters. Judge David Young, Eleanor Odom, Peter Odom, we`ll all be right back. And when we do come back, new and grainy surveillance video emerges showing little missing Relisha walking down a hotel hallway with her alleged abductor.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Eight-year-old Relisha Rudd was missing from school for weeks. She was never reported missing. Tonight grainy surveillance video emerges. We see little Relisha walking down a hotel hallway with 51-year-old Khalil Tatum, a family friend. His wife has been found shot dead. Straight out to Michael Filippelli, news director with WCBM. What do we know, Michael? Thank you for being with us?
MICHAEL FILIPPELLI, WCBM: Thank you very much, Nancy. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has Relisha Rudd on its website yesterday. Authorities posted a $25,000 reward and they released new photos of the child and suspect, in a hunt that now stretches from Pennsylvania down to Richmond.
Like you said, the surveillance video taken from an area hotel last month, it shows a young girl walking down a hallway with a man. Police believe the girl in the video is Relisha and the man is 51-year-old Khalil Tatum. That video was taken a little after 7:00 p.m. February 26, the same day Relisha was last seen at the D.C. family shelter, the old D.C. General Hospital where she lived with her mother and her stepfather, Antonio Weaver, and where Tatum worked as a janitor.
GRACE: With me right now, special guest, columnist from the Washington Post, Petula Dvorak. Thank you so much for being with us. I`ve been doing research so much on Relisha. I read your column, and it was heartbreaking, and every word of it was true.
(CROSSTALK)
PETULA DVORAK, COLUMNIST, WASHINGTON POST: Thank you so much for highlighting this case from the beginning. That`s really important.
GRACE: What is your take on missing Relisha?
DVORAK: Well, it`s a heartbreaking story, and, you know, I still can`t believe that others like you aren`t completely in arms over this. This is national news. This should be a national manhunt for this little girl. You saw that video of her. She`s with a man. He`s 51. He`s the janitor at the homeless shelter. I spent a lot of time talking to young mothers there, and many of them had stories of him giving gifts and even cash to little girls. The older mothers there thought something was wrong. They had the spidey sense to say, hey, back off. This mother did not. And she gave her child to Khalil Tatum to have for a little while, I guess. And a month later, nobody knows where this child is.
GRACE: Eleanor Odom, also with me Peter Odom, defense attorney out of Atlanta. Peter, it`s my understanding and I`ve been told by Relisha`s family that Khalil Tatum, age 51, actually had a grandchild, a granddaughter that Relisha would play with. At least, that`s what her mother was told, so she let her go. Btu I think Petula Dvorak`s right, this child was missing for weeks from school, and nobody even reported her missing. We`re all talking about Malaysian airlines. Yes, that`s important, but this child is missing, and this guy`s wife turns up dead in a Red Roof Inn. So he`s last with his wife. She`s dead. Why was she murdered? Maybe she complained about his infatuation with an eight-year- old girl, Peter?
P. ODOM: Nancy, who knows. What I do know is this. This guy needs to turn himself in right away. He needs to go to the nearest police station right away.
GRACE: Eleanor, you and I have prosecuted a lot of child molestations, a lot of kidnappings and a lot of child murders, I`m sorry to say. But that`s what it`s shaping up to be. He`s on the lam with an eight-year-old girl and his wife is dead.
E. ODOM: That`s what it looks like, Nancy. Clearly he kidnapped her, and who knows, it might be a kidnapping, bodily injury, murder. You got to remember, he got close to her at that shelter.
GRACE: Michael Filippelli, WCBN, where does this search stand tonight? Everybody, take a look at this little girl. Everybody seemed to fail her. She was missing for weeks from school, nobody alarmed the police. Now she is off with a man whose wife has been found murdered. Michael, what`s the latest on the search?
FILIPPELLI: As far as we know, the Amber alert was issued late last week, I think on Thursday, and again, the search stretches from Pennsylvania down to Richmond, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children does have her picture up on the website, but a representative there says it`s up to local police to spread the word about Amber alerts.
GRACE: We`re spreading it right now. $25,000 reward in the search for Relisha Rudd. She`s only eight years old. Tip line, 202-727-9099. Last word to you, Petula.
DVORAK: Keep showing your Facebook page, tweet it out, let`s get her face out there. So many people failed this girl. The school, there were social workers who investigated this family, nothing came of it. There were workers at the homeless shelter who should have seen that she was missing. You know, if she had a home, if she was not homeless living in this chaotic shelter, if she had a home, neighbors, church people who knew her and knew her routine, would have known much sooner that something was wrong.
GRACE: Okay, everybody, take a look. 202-727-9099.
When we come back, a couple claims they were wealthy, Scottish aristocrats, insisting on being called Lady Andrea and Lord Colin. They did not impress federal investigators. Looks like Lady Andrea will need some food stamps of her own.
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GRACE: Neighbors say they had it all. A million-dollar home. $1.2 million yacht. A luxury lake home. $3 million in the bank. But tonight, busted. Cops say they steal nearly $200,000 in welfare and food stamps. And tonight, apparently, they`re on the lam, on their way to a luxury resort to hide out from the long arm of the law.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He created all sorts of false companies. Claimed he was a Scottish heir.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They had moved to Florida that year to live on a $1.2 million yacht.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While they are collecting public assistance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It astonishes me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a sting con. It really is incredible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Jill Ryan, investigative reporter, they are millionaires, insisting they are Scottish royalty, and they are stealing welfare and food stamps?
JILL RYAN: Yes, Nancy, this has all of the makings for made for TV movie. It does. Collin and Andrea Chisholm (ph) are accused of using public aid to pay for medical care and even food stamps, and expenses while they lived this luxurious lifestyle, and they kept it all hidden from authorities in two different states.
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GRACE: That`s a picture of their $1.2 million yacht. To Justin Freiman, is it true she insisted on being called Lady Andrea? And he was called Lord Colin?
FREIMAN: Absolutely, Nancy. They even refer to themselves like that on one of their business web sites.
GRACE: And isn`t that, Jill Ryan, investigative reporter, she had like a grooming company or a dog company for fancy dogs?
RYAN: Yes, she actually owned a breeding kennel called (inaudible) club. She bred and sold championship dogs, specifically pedigreed Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppies.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Peter Odom, Eleanor Odom, joining me, Peter out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. Eleanor, you know, I`ve seen so many children that at school, they try to get extra free breakfast because they`re not getting food at home. They are just destitute. And I`m not talking some third world country. I`m talking about right here. And then this woman is breeding championship dogs, King Charles Cavaliers, blah, blah, blah. And she is cheating and getting welfare and food stamps? She is totally going to hell. Via the women`s CI, correctional institute.
E. ODOM: Nancy, clearly she is full of fraud. Start with her name. Lady. She`s no lady, I can tell you that right now. And she is breeding these dogs. Clearly she doesn`t need any money. And she is stealing from me.
GRACE: I think she refers to herself as Lady Andrea, in the royal sense, not in the descriptive sense.
That was to you, Peter.
P. ODOM: Nancy, how did the government let this happen? How could these government people --
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: How did the government let this happen?
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: I`m calling on a shrink for Peter Odom. His response is, how did the government let this happen?
P. ODOM: Let this happen, yes.
GRACE: Right now, they are looking at 20 years behind bars and $100,000 fine. Everyone, let`s stop and remember. American hero Army Sergeant Isaac Jackson. 27, Plattsburgh, Missouri. Bronze star. Purple Heart. Two Army Achievement Medals. National Defense Service Medal. Dreamed of one day becoming an Army chaplain. Leaves behind, mother, Crystal, stepfather, Edward. Two brothers, widow, Kristen, son Enoch, daughter, Eden. Isaac Jackson, American hero.
Tonight, a special thank you to Kazoo Toys and Keith Donaldson, with, icutuout.com. Here we are, getting silhouettes of the twins there at Kazoo Toys, and they are now hanging on our walls. Dr. Drew up next, everybody. See you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
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