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Nancy Grace
Disfigured 3-Year-Old Asked to Leave KFC; Jell-o Shot Mom in Court
Aired June 16, 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. We go live. Did staff at a local Kentucky Fried Chicken kick out a 3-year-old little girl, the victim
of a savage pitbull attack? Did they actually kick the child out of KFC, claiming her face scared the other diners away?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Disbelief when she and her granddaughter, 3- year-old Victoria Wilcher, were asked to leave a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Jackson.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The lady came over and she said that we`d have to leave. Victoria`s face was disturbing other customers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Suffered the loss of her right eye, a broken jaw, broken ribs and several puncture wounds when she was attacked by three
pitbulls.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And Glendon (ph), Minnesota, a mother of three arrested for DUI. And catch this. When Mommy is arrested, she still has three Jell-o
shots stuffed in her pockets. In the last hours, Jell-o shot mom in court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Minnesota mother of three is due in court following her latest arrest for drunk driving. Twenty-eight-year-old Kathy
Sanchez (ph) was slurring her words, had bloodshot eyes and smelled like liquor. Inside her pockets, they say they found three Jell-o shots.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And live, South Carolina. Did a 38-year-old hubby set his wife on fire and then claim it was all just a barbecue accident?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not her face, Lord, not her face.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say a husband who doused his wife with gasoline and set her on fire is blaming the whole thing on a grill
accident, when the grill was cold.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can`t imagine anybody pouring gasoline on someone and setting them on fire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And Grove City, a dad takes his 9-year-old boy to the bathroom at Walmart, but just seconds after Daddy leaves, an adult white male grabs
the little boy standing at the sink from the waist from behind, shoves the screaming child into the men`s stall. Tonight, attack on a 9-year-old boy
in the Walmart men`s bathroom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was inside this Walmart store state police say 27-year-old Sean Miller (ph) of Grove City grabbed a 9-year-old boy and
tried to pull him into a bathroom stall.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s scary. You can`t go shopping. You have to be aware of that kind of stuff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But he didn`t realize video surveillance cameras took clear pictures of him inside the store.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. We go live. Did staff at a local Kentucky Fried Chicken kick out a 3-year-old little girl, the victim of a savage pitbull
attack? Did they actually kick the little girl out of KFC claiming her face scared the other diners away?
Look at that little girl. She`s beautiful to me. She`s not scaring me. What`s scaring me is KFC and the fact that they allegedly kicked this
child out claiming her face scared the other diners away. I`m stunned!
Dave Mack, syndicated talk show host, what happened?
DAVE MACK, SYNDICATED TALK SHOW HOST (via telephone): Nancy, it`s a shocking display of insensitivity if it`s not just the diners but KFC going
along with it. They actually looked at this beautiful 3-year-old that had been attacked by pitbulls and turned on her by saying that she -- that
customers were scared by her, that it somehow upset their dining experience, and the KFC backed it up and made the girl leave!
GRACE: You know, I`m stunned. When you say KFC backed it up, what do you mean? Now, we`ve got to be careful here. What do you mean KFC backed
it up and made the little 3-year-old girl leave, telling the little girl -- and just so you all know, before KFC allegedly did this, yes, the child had
been mauled by pitbulls. I`m going to tell you about that in just a moment. But she didn`t know that there was anything wrong with her face.
She didn`t realize that she has been disfigured until KFC did this.
Now she knows. Now she won`t even get out of the car to go in a store or anywhere else. She`s 3 years old. She`s embarrassed. You know what?
At play school now, they don`t even say the word F-A-T. You don`t even say that. You don`t say U-G-L-Y. You don`t say F-A-T. Why? Because you
don`t want children to get a bad image of themselves that young in life. They`ve got the rest of their life to feel bad about themselves.
And now KFC, what, did they walk over to the table and go, Hey, you`re ugly, get out, kid? What happened, Dave?
MACK: It was even worse than that, Nancy, because it wasn`t ugly or - - it was, You are scaring people. You need to leave. This little girl has gone through the most traumatic thing of her life. She`s 3 years old.
She`s only 3, Nancy! They were on their way home from the doctor. She has a feeding tube, and the KFC -- the reason I say KFC got behind it is
because if other customers did complain, if that what really happened, then a KFC manager had to come over and say, Excuse me, but we`ve got customers
complaining. That`s why I say they backed it up. Now, I know KFC...
GRACE: Did you see that picture of her with the...
MACK: ... has tried to defend themselves...
GRACE: ... the tube in her trach? This child almost died of the injuries.
To you, Matt Zarrell. What happened with the actual pitbull attack?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Yes, Victoria was attacked by pitbulls at her grandfather`s home. She was actually playing inside a
bedroom, when three of the dogs forced the door open and dragged her into the back yard...
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait! Did you just say the little girl is in her bedroom...
ZARRELL: Correct.
GRACE: ... and 3 of 10 pitbulls the father has -- the grandfather has, they actually break in the bedroom door and get the little girl out?
ZARRELL: Correct, yes.
GRACE: And do what?
ZARRELL: Well, they apparently drag her into the back yard and begin mauling her face. Both her upper and lower jaws were broken. Her nose was
broken. She needs a feeding tube, as we talked about. She lost her right eye, as well. Her face is paralyzed. She`s going have -- need -- she`s
already had multiple surgeries. She`s going to need more of them when the bones in her face more develop more as she gets older.
GRACE: I`m reading directly from the police report right now. The grandfather tried fighting the pitbulls off. He picks up his
granddaughter, just 3 years old, and puts her on top of the washing machine, on top of the washing machine, because by this point, the pitbulls
had gotten through her door, her bedroom door, dragged her out. The grandfather risked his own life to fight off the beasts, gets the child up
on the washing machine, tries to get them away from her, calls 911.
It didn`t end there. When police get there, isn`t it true, Matt Zarrell, that the dogs, two of the dogs had been shot dead in the back
yard, and beside their bodies, all her clothes are, where they had -- the dogs had literally ripped the clothes off her body.
ZARRELL: Yes, you`re right, Nancy. And in the back yard and on the house floor, washing machine, there was blood everywhere.
GRACE: All right, you know what? The grandfather nearly got killed himself trying to save the granddaughter. I want to focus not on the
grandfather and why would anybody have 10 pitbulls in their house. What I want to focus on is why KFC told this little girl, 3 -- 3 -- that, You`re
scaring the diners here? You`ve got to leave.
All right, unleash the lawyers. Joining me from LA, Areva Martin. Also with me from Atlanta, defense attorney Parag Shah, author of "The
Code." OK, Areva Martin, Parag Shah, don`t even start telling me she`s not going to remember this because my children, they remember things that
happened when they were 2-and-a-half. They definitely remember at 3, this little girl.
So this is a traumatic`s event, Areva. She`s going to remember it. She`s got the rest of her life to remember not only the dog mauling itself,
but then this, just to top it all off, KFC kicking the child out, claiming she scared the other diners. Let`s hear your defense, Areva?
AREVA MARTIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, first of all, Nancy, I think we need to be more careful with the facts because I haven`t read anything or
seen anything that says that KFC, its management team, condoned the conduct of this employee.
GRACE: Well, OK, then let`s back it up...
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: What`s being reported is that an employee asked the young girl to leave, and then KFC responded from a management standpoint and
responded with an apology and an immediate donation to help with her medical care.
GRACE: Whoa! OK, wait! Wa-wait! Dave Mack, the first thing you told me was that KFC backed it up.
MACK: That`s why I said it, Nancy, is that, yes, they came back with an apology at the corporate level. We`re talking at the local level in
Jackson, Mississippi, that a manager had to tell them they needed to leave, not some hourly checkout...
(CROSSTALK)
MACK: ... the decision to tell a 3-year-old girl she was scaring people.
GRACE: Put up the lawyers, please.
MACK: ... and make her leave.
GRACE: OK, Areva, it wasn`t the dishwasher. Frankly, under the law - - to you, Parag Shah -- it`s not going to matter...
MARTIN: Nancy...
GRACE: ... because if they are employed by KFC or if they are there in the scope of their duties working and they do something like this, they
are, in fact, representing KFC. So it wasn`t the dishwasher. It wasn`t the guy -- the grease (ph), it was the manager that asked this little girl
to leave because she was scaring away the other diners. So don`t say it`s not KFC. It is KFC. Parag Shah, I`m talking to you.
PARAG SHAH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I think they`re obviously looking at some liability, and that`s why they`re coming out in front of this by
apologizing, trying to offer some money to try to rectify...
GRACE: $30,000.
SHAH: ... the situation.
GRACE: Matt Zarrell, if you don`t already know, can you look it up for me? How many millions and millions of dollars does KFC make a year?
And they offered this girl $30,000.
With me right now, Dr. Salvatore Lettieri, Mayo Clinic physician, serving as chief of plastic surgery at the Maricopa Medical Center. And
I`d also like to point out that Dr. Lettieri worked on a little boy. Let`s see our little boy that we worked -- that we highlighted. That`s Daniel
Vincente (ph). And he was the plastic surgeon that turned this child`s life around after a vicious mauling.
Doctor Lettieri, thank you for being with us. What is it that`s so ghastly and horrible about this child that it would make diners at a KFC
leave?
DR. SALVATORE LETTIERI, MAYO CLINIC PLASTIC SURGEON (via telephone): Well, to be honest with you, I`ve actually looked at the photographs that
are available on line, both of her as she is right now, and there`s actually a photograph of her when she was in the hospital on the
ventilator. I think that she actually looks extraordinarily good with the current pictures. They`ve done a very nice job with the reconstruction.
And also, they did one of the things that I like to do, is put an eye patch on the patient because I think...
GRACE: She lost her eye, Dr. Lettieri. She`s completely lost her eye to a bunch of pitbulls.
LETTIERI: Right. And with devastating eye injuries and eyelid injuries, it`s more acceptable to the public to have an eye patch on
because people will accept that, rather than looking at the deformities and the asymmetries.
GRACE: Let me ask you a question. What about a glass eye?
LETTIERI: Oh, sure, no, that`ll be down the road. I think that the general course of action for this would be to allow her to heal, restore
the orbit, the eye socket bone and tissue in the regular position as it is compared to the opposite side, and then a glass eye.
GRACE: Why does she need a feeding tube?
LETTIERI: Well, I`m making a supposition here based on looking at her photographs. With the injuries to the lower jaw and the upper jaw, I will
make a guess that her mouth is wired shut, or there is a significant amount of injury inside her mouth, which will make it relatively unsafe in the
early period to eat.
GRACE: Doctor -- Dr. Lettieri -- with me, the Mayo Clinic physician serving as chief of plastic surgery, Dr. Salvatore Lettieri. Doctor, when
you have a glass eye, it`s matched almost perfectly to your other eye. Don`t the muscles within the eye socket actually control the glass eye, and
it looks back and forth like the natural eye?
LETTIERI: Well, yes and no. I can`t really tell you in this particular patient if the eye muscles are there.
GRACE: I understand. Dr. Salvatore Lettieri with me. Now with me, Dr. Grey Stafford, the director of conservation at the Wildlife World Zoo
and author of "Animal Trainer." Grey, I know this pains you to hear that animals did this to this child, and on top of it, what KFC did. But why
would pitbulls -- why should you, A, have 10 of them at home? But B, why would they break all the way through her bedroom door and drag the child
outside?
GREY STAFFORD, WILDLIFE WORLD ZOO: Well, Nancy, 10 is a big number for any breed of dog, especially something as strong and powerful as a
pitbull. And as far as why they might break in -- well, you know, the home contains Mom and Dad and access to food and water and maybe play toys and a
place to live. So I`m not surprised that they want to get inside from time to time.
And my understanding is this little girl was visiting her grandparents, so the dogs may have interpreted her as some sort of
intruder, some sort of threat to their space.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: A local Kentucky Fried Chicken asks this little girl -- no, they don`t ask her, the manager comes out and tells this 3-year-old little
girl that she`s so horribly disfigured that she`s scaring the other diners and she`s got to leave.
This child is the victim of a pitbull attack at her grandfather`s home. He had 10 animals. Three of them broke into her bedroom, where she
was with the door shut, dragged the child out. The grandfather tried to save her. When police arrived, he had shot two of the pitbulls. One`s
still alive. There in the back yard, the child`s clothes in shreds. In addition to the injuries that you see, she also completely lost her right
eye and much of the muscle issue surrounding it.
She had no idea that she was disfigured until the manager at the KFC told her how horrific she looked, according to the manager. She doesn`t
look horrible to me. I remember when my children just 3 years ago were that age right there.
We are taking your calls. And to Dave Mack, syndicated talk show host. How much did they offer this child?
MACK: They actually gave her $30,000 towards her medical treatment, Nancy -- $30,000.
GRACE: Well, let`s find out...
MACK: That would be (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: ... how much her medical treatment is going to be. To Dr. Salvatore Lettieri. Dr. Lettieri, how much do you expect over the years
Victoria`s family will have to spend to get her back to normal, if she ever can be back to normal?
LETTIERI: Two things on that. The overall cost will be in the six- figure range, mid-hundreds of thousands of dollars. The prosthesis alone will be about $5,000.
GRACE: Did you say hundreds of thousands of dollars?
LETTIERI: Yes.
GRACE: Hundreds of thousands of dollar. The prosthesis -- you mean the glass eye.
LETTIERI: Yes, the one that you mentioned earlier, to have that made.
GRACE: Are they, in fact, glass?
LETTIERI: They are a type -- or actually, it`s an acrylic, and it`s more like a contact lens that fits over the top of the tissue in the eye.
GRACE: When you`re saying several hundred thousand dollars -- like, give me a ballpark, $200,000, $20,000, what, how much?
LETTIERI: Based on looking at her with what she`s going to need in the first two years, it`ll be a couple of hundred thousand dollars. And
then it`ll be life-long observation and touch-ups here and there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: And now to Glendon, Minnesota. A mother of three arrested for DUI. But when she`s arrested, she still has three Jell-o shots stuffed in
her pockets. In the last hours, Jell-o shot mom in court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Minnesota mother of three is due in court following her latest arrest for drunk driving.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She reportedly had bloodshot eyes, slurs her speech and smells like alcohol.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And her driver`s license had been taken away, but authorities say that this time, not only was her blood alcohol level well
over the legal limit, but she actually had three Jell-o shots in her pockets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Sheryl McCollum, former director of MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Georgia, now director of Cold Case Research Institute --
Sheryl, so she still had three Jell-o shots stuffed in her pockets. Do you know what her blood alcohol was, Sheryl?
SHERYL MCCOLLUM, FMR. DIR. MADD GEORGIA (via telephone): It was twice the legal limit, Nancy. It was about .18.
GRACE: It was .136. So I`m not sure how many drinks she had had. I know that this was a Saturday night. It was around 2:00 AM. Allegedly,
there was a baby-sitter with her three children. I can`t confirm that. She had picked up some guy at a bar. She was driving his car. She gave
the cops a fake name, gave the friend a fake name, and still had three Jell-o shots in her hoodie. I guess what, Sheryl, was she just going to
drink those at book-in?
MCCOLLUM: Absolutely. What she was planning to do is just slingshot them as soon as she got an opportunity. And Nancy, again, what happens is
her blood alcohol might have been a little bit lower when they tested her the first time. But if she had actually taken those last three Jell-o
shots, that would be the equivalent of another three full drinks, so her blood alcohol would have gone through the roof, given another hour.
GRACE: OK, I`m not judging, but that`s certainly something to be proud of, Mommy`s in jail, and she`s got Jell-o shots stuffed in her
pockets. But Dan O`Donnell, isn`t it true -- Dan, anchor joining me from WISN -- that when she was arrested she immediately blurted out to police
she already had five DUI arrests.
DAN O`DONNELL, WISN: Yes, she did. And a subsequent check of her record revealed that it was only three DUI arrests. But she was already...
GRACE: Did you just say "only" three DUI arrests? Did you just say only had three, so this is her fourth? OK. I guess it`s all a matter of
perspective, Dan O`Donnell. Go ahead.
O`DONNELL: Yes, I guess so. That is obviously terrible, especially when you consider that`s one DUI arrest for every young child she has at
home. She was also arrested and convicted of carrying an illegal firearm about five years ago, and is now charged with a couple of felonies, Nancy,
for this latest DUI.
GRACE: OK, so Mommy has Jell-o shots stuffed down her hoodie pockets. She`s blowing a .136 and she`s got a concealed weapon. All right, Michael
Christian, a Jell-o shot. What is it?
MICHAEL CHRISTIAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Made like regular Jell-o or gelatin, Nancy. It`s very similar. You take Jell-o, you
take boiling water, but the difference is instead of adding ice cubes or chilled water to set the Jell-o, you use chilled liquor, normally vodka.
Now, vodka doesn`t have a lot of taste on its own, so when you`re tasting it, when you`re drinking this or swallowing it down, it tastes like a Jell-
o cube. But boy, are they deadly because that alcohol really sneaks up on you quickly.
GRACE: OK, so how much alcohol, Sheryl McCollum, is in a Jell-o shot?
MCCOLLUM: Oh, honey, it can be ounces. And again, if you`re taking it so quickly, it gets into your system immediately. It`s not like nursing
a drink over, you know, 15 or 20 minutes walking around at a party. You`re taking it instantly. So with those three, she would have had the
equivalent of three full drinks in her within 15 seconds.
GRACE: So Dan O`Donnell, I know in court, she did not make bond. Her bond is set for $20,000. She`s got a public defender. When -- did we
learn when the case is going to trial today, Dan?
O`DONNELL: I believe the case is going to head to trial in the next couple of weeks, Nancy.
GRACE: OK, everybody, you`re seeing a shot right there of Kathy Sanchez, 28 years old, three children. She says she has five previous
DUIs. She had the Jell-o shots still stuck down her shirt when police arrested her.
And Sheryl McCollum, for every time a DUI person is apprehended, what is the estimate in how many times they`ve been driving drunk?
MCCOLLUM: About 30, Nancy. She has driven drunk almost every time she`s ever been in a car because each time she needed to possibly get a
DUI, she just wasn`t caught that day. But having five and already losing her license, she has a serious addiction.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Now, live, South Carolina, did a million-year-old husband set his wife on fire then claim it was all just a simple barbecue accident?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She called me and she said, it finally happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A South Carolina man claims an accident with a grill set his wife on fire, but police say it was actually the husband who
doused his wife with gasoline and set her ablaze.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Katie is fighting to survive in a Georgia hospital. Third-degree burns cover more than 70 percent of her body.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: With me right now, special guest Dan and Ruby Cook, the parents of Katie Cook. Reports are 50 percent to 70 percent of Katie`s
body has been burned. Dan and Ruby, thank you for being with us.
DAN COOK, FATHER: Thank you.
RUBY COOK, MOTHER: Thank you for having us.
GRACE: You know, I noticed something that you said. You said it finally happened. What did you mean by that?
DAN COOK: Well, you know, I had been very -- I just suspect of this domestic issue with Katie`s husband and I had not had any idea how the --
the violence that was going on. My wife did and we had talked about this for a number of times over the past two years and so that`s exactly what I
said is ruby had called me that morph she was on her way to work and said it finally happened and I knew exactly what she was talking about.
GRACE: I`m just sick. How is Katie tonight?
DAN COOK: Right now she just got out of her I believe it`s her 15th surgery and they continue to fight infection. That`s a big thing when you
have burns this large. She`s on kidney dialysis and has a tracheotomy and continue to watch her lungs, blood clots are also very, very big issue.
Her heart is has been strong and that`s been one of the biggest things -- why she survived is because of her age and also the strength of her heart.
GRACE: I had no idea that so many of her organs were affected by this. You said dialysis. Tracheotomy. Lungs, blood clots. I think I
heard Ruby, this is Katie`s mom, Ruby, was that you, Miss Cook?
RUBY COOK: Yes, and I just want to make it clear we have not been able to talk to her. She`s been sedated for a month. She will come out of
it a little bit and she will nod so she has been aware that we have been there with her. But she`s been sedated for a whole month.
GRACE: Everyone, Don and Ruby Cook are with us, and now that I hear them describing what has happened to their daughter, Katie Cook, third-
degree burns over about 70 percent of her body. She`s on dialysis, she`s having to use a trach. Her lungs are impaired. Blood clots and they are
fighting infections and if I heard correctly she`s just had her 15th 1-5, 15th surgery as a result of this guy, according to police, setting her on
fire, our reports as she lay in the bed then telling police it was a barbecue mishap and speaking of police, joining me right now, Deputy Jimmy
Watt, PIO of the Oconee County sheriff`s office. Deputy, what happened?
DEPUTY JIMMY WATT, OCONEE COUNTY SHERIFF`S DEPARTMENT: Well, Nancy, back on the evening of May 16th, our 911 office received a call regarding a
house fire with a female trapped inside. Where the fire occurred was an area on your Seneca, South Carolina, what was referred to as the Utica Mill
Hill. This area was an area where an old textile plant was opened at one time that has closed down several years ago. So our officers, fire
department, medical personnel, paramedics all responded to the scene. When those officials got on the scene, Nancy, they found a female according to
our instant reports who was lying on a porch of the neighbor and had burns on her body as you mentioned before. Katie was able to tell our deputy and
tell other officials that were on the scene that her husband had did this to her but she didn`t know why or couldn`t tell us why and it was actually
droning through spontaneous utterances to us concerning the barbecue grill and trying to set that grill on fire with gasoline and the fact that the
grill exploded, but as our investigation went on, evidence from inside the home, evidence that we received from Katie telling us things that Dr.
Dronning (ph) did this and he didn`t have any visible injuries we were able arrest him on attempted murder.
GRACE: That`s a good point. With me, Deputy Jimmy Watt from Oconee. Your people went and touched grill. It was cool, it was cold to the touch
and if the grill had blown up while he was barbecuing, he would have at least had singed air, and what about the state of her bed? Is it true he
set her on fire as she lay in bed?
WATT: Now, that`s one thing, Nancy, that I was not aware of to be honest with you, so I really -- I can`t comment on that because --
GRACE: I guarantee you there will be evidence there, as well. Joey Hudson joining us, WGTK. Has this guy been arrested before, Joey?
JOEY HUDSON, WGTK: Well, Nancy, yes. There`s evidence that they`ve had a rocky relationship for a number of years now. If you look back in
August of 2009, you see from Minnesota court records where there was a 911 call by Katie Cook saying help me, help me, my husband has a gun on top of
me, help me and then the phone call was disconnected. A few moments later Jacob called and said his wife were involved in a verbal argument and that
she was drunk and that there wasn`t a problem.
GRACE: You know what, I don`t believe a thing this guy says, look at this record. Ridiculous. To Dr. Michele Dupree, medical examiner,
forensic pathologist. I know you heard Dan and Ruby Cook outline their daughter`s injuries. Why do so severe burns result in having to be on
dialysis and injuries to the lungs and possible blood clots?
DUPRE: Nancy, one of the biggest things, our skin is the largest organ in our body, and when that is affected, all other parts of the body
are also affected. Hydration, of course, is important, but infection is the key thing, and when we get infected, our kidneys process all of that.
The kidneys are working more than double time now, as are her lungs and many other bodily organs.
GRACE: To Dan and Ruby Cook, these are Katie`s parents. What is your understanding of what happened? And I know it doesn`t matter why, but what
set him off this time? And do you have information like we do that she was actually lying in bed when this happened?
DAN COOK: No, I -- you know, we don`t have any more information than what we`ve been given by the police and as far as, you know, what happened
at that house that particular night. You know, so, no, we know that --
RUBY COOK: I know that he was depressed prior because he was fired from his job. And he actually called me three weeks before he did this
horrible thing, and I thought I was talking to a depressed man who had lost his job. I didn`t realize what was going on and when he called the first
thing I asked, is everybody okay, are you guys okay? Because I was dreading the moment that something was going to happen and he just went on
and on about tell me what to do. Tell me what to do. I thought he was talking about his job and then at the end of the conversation he said, you
know what, I love her just as much as you do and then three weeks later he did this.
GRACE: Oh, oh. You know, Dan and Ruby Cook, our prayers are going out to you and for Katie tonight. I know you haven`t been able to talk to
her but have -- has she seen you? Does she know you are there?
DAN COOK: Well, we`ve -- we don`t know -- we know from talking to the nurses that they`ve told us that she recognizes and she hears our voices.
They say that her long-term and short-term memory will be -- it`s all in question as far as what she remembers and what she won`t remember. But,
you know, we are spending as much time. We`ll head back to Augusta tomorrow and do whatever we can do to help Katie.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: And now live to Grove City, a dad takes his 9-year-old little boy to the bathroom at Walmart, but just seconds after daddy leaves, an
adult white male grabs the little boy, he is standing at the sink, he grabs the boy from behind at the waist and shoves the screaming child into the
men`s bathroom stall tonight. Attack on a 9-year-old boy in the Walmart men`s bathroom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Miller followed a father and two young sons into the bathroom inside the store. After the man and his younger son left the
restroom, police say Miller grabbed the 9-year-old around the waist from behind as he was washing his hands. The child screamed and Miller let him
go. Miller then ran from the store.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Walmart has exceptionally good security. We were able to get some still photos from that video. Get it out to the media.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Rich Zeoli, host of the Rich Zioli Show, WPHT. Rich, thank you for being with us.
What this guy doesn`t understand that Walmart and Target, NASA could learn from them with their surveillance video. Let`s see their
surveillance because he can`t say he was not in the bathroom. Because he`s busted. He`s on tape going into the bathroom at the same time the little
boy is there. Then you`ve got the little boy, the boy gets away and he drags him back into the bathroom, Rich. So at some point people hear the
little boy screaming. That is a lot of circumstantial evidence. What more do we know, Rich?
ZEOLI: Well, we know, Nancy, that he`s basically admitted that he did this to police. Now he`s claiming that this was because the boy was
screaming and the boy was angry at this and the boy was whiny, but the boy was angry because the guy was pulling him into the bathroom. Twice.
GRACE: So he`s claiming the little boy sassed him and was mouthy to him, so what, he tries to grab the boy by the waist, pull his pants down
and shove him into a stall. Is that how it works, Rich?
ZEOLI: He`s trying to claim that, but, Nancy, anything the boy did was completely self-defense. And the cops are not buying his excuse
whatsoever, which is why they`ve charged him now with these two charges, and I`ll tell you, Nancy, this is every parent`s worst nightmare, the idea
you send your kid into a bathroom at a place like Walmart and there could be some sicko in there ready to grab him. That`s why parents have to
always be careful even at a store like Walmart.
GRACE: I can tell you this much, Rich Zeoli, the closest I ever came to divorce yet, we`re not that far into it, is when my husband let my son
John David go in the men`s bathroom by himself.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A sex offender locked himself inside a Wendy`s restaurant bathroom with a 10-year-old boy, stabbing the boy multiple times
as the child fought back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Law enforcement says a 29-year-old man sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy in the bathroom of a Texas McDonald`s.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A nine-year-old girl was allegedly beaten and nearly killed in the women`s bathroom in a Florida Best Buy. Police say a
Walmart worker lured a five-year-old boy into a store bathroom, allegedly asexually abusing the boy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This young child was brought to a public rest room at a campground where he was with his family by an aunt.
GRACE: How was she supposed to know that Brandon Wilson was in there. He slit the child`s throat from ear to ear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And now at a Walmart bathroom, a white adult male attacks a nine-year-old little boy. From what I understand, Mark Klaas, the
president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation, the father went in with him, but I guess they both used the bathroom. The father washed his hands
and walked out, the little boy was still in there. The father had no reason to think anything would go wrong, nobody else was in there then.
And the perp apparently went in right at that moment, Mark.
KLAAS: Well, that`s exactly right, Nancy. And I don`t think that hovering over your child 24/7 promotes good parenting skills.
GRACE: What?
KLAAS: That`s what I said. I don`t think hovering over your child 24/7 promotes good parenting skills. You have to let children be
individuals, and you have to trust in the goodness of humanity at some point in time.
GRACE: Well, you know what? I`m going to let everyone else trust the goodness of humanity but when my children have to go to a public bathroom,
I`m going with them.
KLAAS: Well, your children are six years old, Nancy.
We`re talking about children that are a little bit older here.
GRACE: Mark, this guy had no record. That`s hard for me to believe, but it`s true. He has no record, and I wonder if there have been other
incidents but the children didn`t speak out.
KLAAS: I think that that`s entirely possible. And I think when a child finds themselves in this situation, the child needs to make
themselves as big as they humanly can. When I say that, they need to be loud, they need to be aggressive, they need to fight, bite, do whatever
they can to get away, just like the little boy in the Walmart store did, so that justice can take its course.
GRACE: To Dr. Patricia Saunders, clinical psychologist, joining us today. What do you make of this? He is an archetypal loner, a single
white male approaching his 30s.
SAUNDERS: And the favorite hunting ground are public bathrooms for these men. Most kids don`t know how to talk about it, they don`t know how
to explain it to their parents, and they`re too ashamed or embarrassed or they are afraid that they did something wrong. So it doesn`t get reported
to parents, and it doesn`t get reported to police. That`s why this guy has no record.
GRACE: You know what`s so scary, though, Pat Saunders, is that he did not complete the act on the little boy. He could get out in 12 short
months.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Okay. Just FYI, Walmart, Target, some of the best surveillance in the world. This guy, a single white male at a Walmart,
caught on their surveillance video, and they`ve got surveillance all over the whole place. Trust me on this. Goes in the bathroom. In the
bathroom, a nine-year-old little boy. According to the boy, this guy grabs him from behind, Shaun Miller, grabs him from behind at the waist, tries to
force him into the men`s stall, the bathroom stall. The little boy screams, runs away, he gets him and drags him back in. The boy attacked in
a Walmart stall. Rich Zeoli, what time of the day was this?
ZEOLI: Well, Nancy, that`s the thing. It was in the afternoon on a Thursday afternoon. You know, father takes his kids to Walmart. And the
mistake he made here was just letting his nine-year-old son go in the bathroom, something parents do all of the time, but the worst nightmare
came true, which is a sicko pervert waiting in the restroom who then drags his nine-year-old into the stall not once but twice.
GRACE: Just think to figure it out, Rich Zeoli. Right now he`s charged with simple assault on that. That is 12 months. But then there`s
the unlawful restraint.
Unleash the lawyers, Areva Martin, Paragh Shah, we all know that the requirement under the law of, and I`m quoting from the law, asportation is
a minimal amount of movement for a kidnapping. What about what I`m asking you about, Paragh Shah, I`m asking about asportation. That is the legal
technical term used for movement required in a kidnapping. This can be a kidnapping case to keep this guy behind bars. He`s looking at 20 years on
a kidnapping.
SHAH: I`m going to disagree. It has to be a significant type of asportation in this kind of situation.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: It`s not about the criminal code?
SHAH: This is not a kidnapping. This was incidental movement and therefore it`s not kidnapping.
GRACE: Let me ask you something, you`re familiar with the kidnapping code, right?
SHAH: Yes.
GRACE: You`re familiar with asportation, correct?
SHAH: Yes.
GRACE: And you also know there is no requirement as to the length of the movement, you do know that, right?
SHAH: There are a number of factor to take (inaudible) determining asportation. There are a number of factors to take into consideration when
determining asportation.
GRACE: Very much (inaudible) were upheld by the appellate court. I advise you both to go home and read the code on kidnapping.
Everyone, let`s stop and remember American hero, Army Corporal Scott Dimond. 39, Franklin, New Hampshire. Bronze Star, Purple Heart, also
served as a police sergeant at home. Loved football, coaching. Parents Leland and Marie, brother Leland Jr. Widow Jennifer, four children, Scott
Dimond, American hero. And tonight, a special good night from friends of the show, Alison and Craig. Aren`t they beautiful? Everyone, I want to
thank you again for being with us tonight. I`m very grateful you joined us. Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until
then, good night, friend.
END
