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Nancy Grace
Another Woman Accuses Bill Cosby
Aired November 19, 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. He`s known as America`s dad, but comedian Bill Cosby now accused of multiple sex assaults.
Bombshell tonight. In the last hours, a new and very high-profile reality star comes forward to say, Bill Cosby raped me. How many women are we to
disbelieve? Are they all lying, and Cosby is the only one telling the truth?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For Bill Cosby, it has been a week of allegations from women who say they were sexually assaulted in the past by
the comedian.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But who`s going to believe me? Bill Cosby, the all-American dad, the all-American husband, the first Mr. Jell-O that
everybody loves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And live, Lynn City. After a young mom makes a desperate call to say she`s afraid, 25-year-old Jaimee Mendez, mom of a pre-schooler,
vanishes. Where is Jaimee? Why was she afraid? As we search tonight for clues left behind, in the last hours, we learn divers taking to the water,
searching for Mommy`s body.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police on ATVs scouring these woods in (INAUDIBLE) search, search for a missing mother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police searching the dumpster near the home of a man relatives say Jaimee was last with. He`s a level-three sex offender,
cops also towing a second van from outside his home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. He`s known as America`s dad, but comedian Bill Cosby, accused of multiple sex assaults. And in the last hours, a new and
very high-profile reality star comes forward to say, Bill Cosby raped me. How many women are we to disbelieve? Are they all lying, and Cosby is the
only one telling the truth?
And I will put it out there. I was extremely agitated and upset that none of the women came forward and went to police and filed criminal
complaints and went to court. But how many women do we disbelieve in order to believe Bill Cosby?
Straight out to Jean Casarez, CNN correspondent. Jean, the most recent reality TV star that has come out is Janice Dickinson. I was
stunned! What is her story?
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it`s 1982. And she said that she was working in Bali, and she gets a phone call from Bill Cosby, who she
knew, and he said, Come fly to Lake Tahoe. I`m performing there, and I want to talk to you and mentor you. And she had a relationship with him,
so she flew there.
GRACE: Didn`t she think she was going to get some kind of a job?
CASAREZ: I think she thought that she was going to get a job. She said that he had liked her singing and he was performing in Lake Tahoe,
which is really the Las Vegas of the north, in Nevada. And she talks about that when she got there, that he raped her. And she goes into great
detail.
Now, his attorney, Bill Cosby`s attorney, has come out saying today it is a fabricated lie. And this is Marty Singer out of Los Angeles saying
that there is no truth to this fabricated story.
GRACE: And you know, Jean Casarez, I don`t know if you`ve ever heard of Marty Singer, the lawyer. He`s a human piranha. He will eat you alive.
He`s got a great reputation of winning -- a very, very tough lawyer to go up against.
Candace Trunzo also joining us, senior news editor at Mailonline.com. What is -- and she dubs herself as the original supermodel. What is her
story? What does she say happened, Candace?
CANDACE TRUNZO, MAILONLINE.COM (via telephone): She says that when she went to Lake Tahoe, that Bill Cosby invited her out to dinner. They
had a lovely dinner. And she was complaining of menstrual cramps, so Bill said, Here, have a glass of red wine, take this pill. You`ll feel better.
And before she knew it, she went up to his room with him, where he took off his robe, exposed himself and was on top of her. And that`s the
last thing she remembers. When she woke up, she knew that she had -- or she said that she had been raped.
GRACE: You know what`s interesting, Candace Trunzo, with me, senior news editor, Mailonline.com, is that her story is very similar to other
stories that women have come forward and told, that they`re in some situation -- and I`m not projecting here, all right, but when I was trying
to get a job when I was out of law school, I would have dinners, lunches, meet with whomever, anybody I could get a job, and would think nothing
about it. You know, I wouldn`t think that, Is this wrong for me to be having this meeting with a man alone at a restaurant? I was thinking, Oh,
I hope I get a job.
Many people are saying, Well, her story`s like the others because she copycatted. But I want to think this thing through. Jean Casarez, unlike
the other ladies -- many of the other ladies, anyway -- she`s already rich and famous, OK? So she`s not suing for money. There`s no civil complaint
that this new reality star that has come forward is after. She doesn`t want money. She`s not in a lawsuit. She already has plenty of PR. She`s
famous. She can get PR whenever she wants to.
So what`s in it for her, right? Why would she do this?
CASAREZ: What she said was that with the other women coming out, that she felt compelled to come out and tell what was the truth, and one of the
biggest regrets and resentments of her life was this and what happened.
But I`ve got to tell you, she came out with a book in 2002. In that book, she describes the incident in Lake Tahoe, but she describes it
entirely differently. She says that she looked at him, that she thinks he wanted to go to with bed with her, and she said she was exhausted. And he
said, What, you`re exhausted? And at that point, he slammed the door on her and that was it.
GRACE: Well, according to her, Candace Trunzo, according to Janice Dickinson -- and everybody, we are about to be joined by Joan Tarshis, who
is one of Cosby`s alleged victims, to respond to what is being said not only about her but about the entire situation with Cosby.
Isn`t it true, Candace, that she now says she wanted to put this incident in her book -- I think it`s "No Lifeguard on Duty," but that
Cosby`s people -- let me see, talked her out of it. For some reason, she did not include it and has regretted it ever since? Isn`t that her story?
TRUNZO: Yes, that is her story. She says that in the vetting process -- she had written it into the book the way it really happened. And she
says that in the vetting process, the lawyers contacted Bill Cosby. Bill Cosby`s lawyers put the kibosh on it, and that was it.
And she was very upset by it. She`s been -- you know, she really wanted it out there, and now she feels that it`s her time to support and
join in the other women who have made these charges against him.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Joining me out of Ft. Lauderdale, Bradford Cohen, defense attorney. Out of Washington, D.C., defense
attorney Peter Odom.
All right, to you, Odom. Weigh in.
PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, there`s simply not enough evidence. Despite the fact that all these women are giving the same story,
there`s not enough evidence to bring a criminal charge because they waited so long.
GRACE: Wait, wait. That`s -- you`re mixing an apple and an orange right there. When you wait so long, you`ll both agree with me, your
statute of limitations has run.
ODOM: Well, probably...
GRACE: It`s too late for criminal prosecution.
ODOM: No, no, no. Probably -- Nancy, because there are towing (ph) provisions that would probably allow for a rape prosecution...
GRACE: Whoa!
ODOM: Oh, yes.
GRACE: Let`s be exact. Let`s be exact towing (ph) provisions apply when, for instance, you have repressed memory and it comes to you, or
you...
ODOM: Correct.
GRACE: ... you now get the ability to make an outcry, as it`s called in a rape case.
ODOM: Correct.
GRACE: These women all had the ability to go to police at the time.
ODOM: You`re right.
GRACE: There`s no repressed memory.
ODOM: You`re right, 100 percent.
GRACE: So the reason they can`t go forward now...
ODOM: You are right.
GRACE: ... is because...
ODOM: But what it does...
GRACE: But You`re right, too. It`s because the statute is told (ph). I don`t think there would be insufficient evidence because, gentlemen, all
three of us have been around the block long enough to know you can prosecute a case without DNA, without sperm, without a fingerprint.
ODOM: Sure. And Nancy, you were the kind of prosecutor that would have taken a chance on these cases.
GRACE: You`re darn right. If I believed in it, I sure would have.
ODOM: But you also know that they`re extremely difficult to prove. When there`s delayed disclosure, no physical evidence and especially when
there are contradictory statements, they`re very difficult cases, and not every prosecutor is going to take them.
GRACE: All right, Cohen.
BRADFORD COHEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think he`s right, except in Janice Dickinson`s case, I think she`s full of it. I don`t believe her one
iota.
GRACE: Why?
COHEN: That someone told her in 2002, Don`t put it in the book, she just decided not to put it in the book? The book could have come out and
she could have brought it out any time...
GRACE: You know what, Bradford?
COHEN: ... she wanted to after that.
GRACE: Let me tell you something.
COHEN: These allegations were made in 2005. Why didn`t she support those allegations when they came out in 2005? Now there`s, like, more
people that came out, so now she decides to come out. But why didn`t she come out in `05 when the...
GRACE: OK. Hold on.
COHEN: ... original person sued?
GRACE: I think...
COHEN: Go ahead.
GRACE: ... your point is actually very well taken. And I will tell you, if she`s telling the truth, why I think she`s coming out now, because
these other ladies are taking the heat. They`re being attacked for coming out. So she`s coming out to support them.
COHEN: The first victim took the heat.
GRACE: What?
COHEN: Oh, come on. The first victim took the heat. The first victim was demonized, and then she settled a civil case. Why didn`t she
come out to support her back then? Janice Dickinson would go to the opening of a door! She is looking for...
GRACE: You know what, Bradford?
COHEN: ... press. That`s what she does.
GRACE: Bradford, hold on! Hold on! I am not letting whether -- I don`t know if she`s telling the truth or not, but I am not letting a
potential rape victim be attacked that way. Now, if you`re...
COHEN: I`m not attacking her. I`m saying I don`t believe her.
GRACE: ... suggesting...
COHEN: That`s my opinion.
GRACE: ... that she is doing this for publicity, I`ve got a little headline for you. There`s a lot of ways she can get publicity other than
going after a TV icon that could squash her financially and...
COHEN: Squash her?
GRACE: ... as far as power goes. Yes. You know what? You pooh-pooh it...
COHEN: It`s one word versus another. There`s no squashing of anything.
GRACE: OK, let`s go to...
COHEN: I don`t believe her. I`m not attacking any of the other victims.
GRACE: OK. You know what?
COHEN: I think they have very similar stories...
GRACE: Second verse, same as the first.
COHEN: ... and I`m not attacking them. Janice Dickinson, I don`t believe.
GRACE: Oh! I still hear something. Oh, it`s Bradford Cohen!
COHEN: It`s me. Exactly.
GRACE: Let me go right now to a special guest joining me. It`s Joan Tarshis. Everyone, Ms. Tarshis says that Cosby sexually assaulted her.
And ever since she has come out publicly -- and listen, I took the whole thing with a box of salt because I thought, Well, what do you do with this
as a prosecutor? And I immediately thought, How would I prove this case if a lot of these women have gotten money settlements, and they`d be happy to
put their name on a civil suit but not to go to court and criminally prosecute?
But that`s actually not the case. We don`t have evidence that these ladies -- and there are now, we think, are over 10 of them. We don`t have
evidence that they took money.
There was one settlement that we know of. Joining me right now is Ms. Tarshis. Joan, thank you for being with us.
JOAN TARSHIS, CLAIMS COSBY ASSAULTED HER: You`re welcome. Thank you, Nancy.
GRACE: The first thing I want to do is say that through all the years, I`ve just, you know, loved Bill Cosby. I see him on the Jell-O. I
give my children Jell-O. I make them Jell-O. I laugh at him. He`s got that funny face that he makes. And you know, it`s a blow when you feel you
know somebody and they`re accused of a horrible crime like this.
On the other hand, how many women have to raise their hand and say, This happened to me, before they are believed? How many? What, 12 now,
14? I don`t even know how many.
How do you feel when people attack you for going public?
TARSHIS: I really haven`t been attacked...
GRACE: Good.
TARSHIS: ... by anybody. I`ve just gotten a lot of support. All my friends, people I haven`t heard from for years have reached out to me and
said, How courageous you are. Thank you. So I am not...
GRACE: Well, I`m glad to hear that, Ms. Tarshis because, Candace Trunzo, as a matter of fact, the women who have been publicly named are
being, let me just say, ridiculed, and they are being discredited as best as anybody can discredit them because everybody is so convinced they know
Bill Cosby and that they can`t believe he would do a thing like this.
And also, you know, Candace, who wants to take on a TV icon? Who wants to do battle financially or legally with Bill Cosby?
TRUNZO: Absolutely true. And these women have been afraid of the consequences. Don`t forget that many of these incidents allegedly happened
in the `70s and the `80s. You know, when things happen today, women are much more inclined to come out and talk about them.
GRACE: Right.
TRUNZO: You know, in those days, maybe not so much so.
And I just wanted to say that we spoke with the district attorney who was involved in the first case, the first woman who came forward, Andrea
Constand. And he told Mailonline that he believed that Bill Cosby was guilty, that he didn`t have enough evidence to prosecute him.
GRACE: Let me ask Ms. Tarshis a question. Do you recall, even to this day, the incident where you say you were molested by Bill Cosby? What
happened?
TRUNZO: Oh, of course I remember. And I, too, loved Bill Cosby. I thought he was very funny. I thought he was adorable. I loved his funny
faces.
And I was in LA I was writing comedy at the time for Godfried Cambridge (ph), the late Godfried Cambridge, and was taken to Bill`s
dressing room on the lot by two girlfriends of mine to have lunch.
And I was invited back a few times. And it came up in conversation that I was there to write material with Godfried Cambridge. And Bill
started to get friendly with me, and I was flattered. I mean, I liked him. He was funny. He was charming.
And then one day, Sidney Poitier came to the set. I was on the set. He introduced me to Sidney Poitier as "Midget," which was his nickname for
me, because I`m 5-3. And later that evening, after they were done shooting, we went up to his dressing room, and he made me the drink that
he`d always made for me, which was a Bloody Mary topped off with a little beer, which I never heard of before. He called it a red eye, and I really
liked it. And he made me one of those.
And the next thing I remember is I`m lying down on his couch and him taking off my underwear. And I was horrified. This was a man I had
respected and loved as an entertainer from "I Spy." I loved his comedy albums. And there I was, you know, being manhandled by him.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would wake up completely confused, half- dressed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Certainly thought that he probably did something he shouldn`t have.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And knowing that my body had been touched without my permission.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I woke up or came to very groggily with him removing my underwear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And now the headline is reality star Janice Dickinson, the original supermodel, as she bills herself, also says Cosby molested her.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANICE DICKINSON, REALITY STAR: After dinner, in my room, he had given me wine and a pill. And the next morning, I woke up, and I wasn`t
wearing my pajamas. And I remembered before I passed out that I had been sexually assaulted by this man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That is Janice Dickinson on "Entertainment Tonight" from CBS Television Distribution.
And with me now, another lady that says Cosby molested her, as well, Joan Tarshis. And we have basically had to make a flow chart -- if you
could put that up very quickly, Liz -- of the timeline going all the way back to `69. Joan Tarshis `70s, Tamara Green `80s, Beth Ferrier (ph) `82,
Janice Dickinson `86, Barbara Bowman 2004, Andrea Constand -- I mean, there are others that remain Jane Does that we have been told of. But when do
you say they`re all lying and he`s the only one telling the truth?
Joining me now is Ms. Tarshis, Joan Tarshis, who says Cosby molested her. Tough question. Why did you decide not to go to police, or did you
go to police?
TARSHIS: I was scared of him. He was a powerful man. I was 19. I didn`t think anybody would believe me. I thought, just as people are
saying now, what Does she want from this? Does she want a career move? Does she want publicity? Basically, I was just afraid and I just wanted it
to go away. I wanted him to go away.
GRACE: You know, Ms. Tarshis? Ms. Tarshis?
TARSHIS: Yes?
GRACE: When you look back on this, do you wish you had gone to police?
TARSHIS: Yes, I do. Looking back at it, I wish I had gone to somebody at that time. But I told nobody. I told no one at all, not my
parents, not my friends, no one.
GRACE: Ms. Tarshis, did you continue to associate with Cosby after that?
TARSHIS: Only once. I had told -- I was back at home. I lived with my parents. I told my mother and my father that I was writing with Bill
Cosby, I was going to. And when I got back to New York, everything was Bill Cosby this, Bill Cosby that.
And he called, I guess, a few weeks or a month after I returned, and said -- he spoke to my mother and said he wanted to invite me out to
Westbury (ph) to hear him perform the monologue that I had written with him. And she was over the moon. And I honestly, at that age, did not know
how to get out of it. And I was miserable.
He sent his limo driver to pick me up. And I thought, Well, nothing can happen. We`re going to be at a theater. We`re going to be surrounded
by people. But that was not the case.
I went out to Westbury with him, had something to drink in the limo, had a drink up in his room before we left, had a drink in the limo. And
when I got to Westbury, I started feeling very, very drugged. And I told the limousine driver that I needed to go back to the car because I couldn`t
even stand up.
And that is really the last thing I remember until the following morning, when I woke up naked in his bed with him next to me and sunlight
coming in, glaring, and glaring in through the windows. That`s all I remember.
GRACE: What you are seeing is from 20th Century Fox. And with us is Joan Tarshis.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) and I was in a white T-shirt and my panties. I really have nothing to gain by doing this except to, hopefully,
give some credibility to the women that came before me. And he was looming over me in a white robe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Everyone with us tonight is Joan Tarshis, who says Cosby, Bill Cosby, sexually assaulted her. This, in the last hours, TV reality star,
who bills herself as the original supermodel, Janice Dickinson, has come forward to claim that Cosby molested her as well. Jean Casarez, how many
women does this make?
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I was just counting them up as you were talking there. You got Barbara Bowman. You got Joan, who you have on your
show. Tamara Green, who came out in 2006, Bella Ferrer, and then the one that really had so much courage today, Andrea Constand, who did go to law
enforcement. She went a year later, but she went. And there was a civil suit with an undisclosed settlement.
GRACE: Back to Joan Tarshis, who says Cosby sexually assaulted her. Miss Tarshis, did you ever speak of it to Cosby?
JOAN TARSHIS, SAYS BILL COSBY SEXUALLY ASSAULTED HER: Never. I mean, it was -- it was almost -- like when I saw him the second time, it was almost
like -- first of all, it was horrible. I didn`t want to be there. I didn`t even want to look at him.
And he was like, no, nothing ever happened. How are you doing? Glets to Westbury, it was almost sociopathic. It was like, don`t you have
any conscience? Don`t you remember what you did?
GRACE: You know, Joan, you were saying that when you were 19, I believe you said you were, when the first incident you recall occurred. You were
afraid people would say, why is she doing this? What does she want? And you know what? You`re right because that`s what everybody is saying right
now about all these other ladies.
They`re saying that about Janice Dickinson. As a trial lawyer when I would put a witness on the stand I would assess their credibility. What
do they have to gain or lose? Who has the most to lose in this scenario? What do they have to lose if they lie? Who wants to take on Bill Cosby,
nobody?
TARSHIS: Nope. I had nothing to gain. I lived upstate New York. I lived a very quiet life. I`m not writing books. I`m not trying to sell a movie.
I`m not an actress anymore. I mean, I just really wanted to support the other women.
And this has been on -- weighing me down for so many years. And this, finally, when the op-ed appeared in the "Washington Post" I said,
this is the time. I was approached by a tabloid in 2005 and they wanted me to sell the story to them.
And I didn`t want to go that route. That`s not what I`m -- that`s not what I`m about. I`m not about to make money and sell it to a tabloid.
GRACE: I`ve got to ask you something that really struck a chord in me. When you said this has been weighing me down, what did you mean by that?
TARSHIS: Well, it`s something I`ve thought about almost every day. It`s nothing you forget. And it`s -- especially when it`s somebody like Bill
Cosby and every year after this happens, the man becomes more loved, more successful, receives more accolades. And you`re carrying this secret
inside you that you know really what this man is capable of. It`s horrible.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For Bill Cosby, it has been a week of allegations from women who say they were sexually assaulted in the past by the
comedian.
TARSHIS: But who`s going to believe me? Bill Cosby, the all-American dad, the all-American husband, the first Mr. Jell-o that everybody loved?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back. In the last hours, another woman, a reality TV star who bills herself as the original supermodel, Janice Dickinson, says she,
too, was raped, was sexually molested by TV icon, Bill Cosby. It`s hard for many to take in because so many people, millions of people feel they
know Cosby.
He has been invited in their homes, night after night, day after day over the years as America`s dad. With me, on the heels of Dickinson`s
revelation, another woman, Joan Tarshis, who says Cosby molested her when she was a teen.
Unleash the lawyers, Bradford Cohen and Peter Odom. First of all, to you, Peter Odom. If these allegations are false, then why doesn`t he
sue? True, he is a public figure and the threshold for a public figure to sue on defamation is much higher. But if one is falsely claiming rape, you
would think you would sue, right?
PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, you can`t prove a negative. He can never prove that they`re false. That`s why people don`t bring claims
for defamation. Let`s say one of these women came out and said OK, I lied. I made it all up. That may allow him to file a defamation claim. Until
that happens he really doesn`t have any kind of a suit.
GRACE: OK, first of all, Bradford Cohen, that is not the law. It may be Peter`s assessment practically speaking.
BRADFORD COHEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It`s an evidentiary reality. You can`t prove a negative, Nancy.
GRACE: Thank you, Bradford. Bradford, the standard for a public figure -- now defamation suits happen all the time, but when you are a public figure
--
COHEN: Absolutely.
GRACE: It`s much more difficult. You have a higher threshold. You have to jump over that hurdle in order to prove a defamation lawsuit. So even
so, I mean, to claim rape, really? I mean, I would sue if somebody said I had a part of a rape.
COHEN: Well, here is the thing. It`s really a double-edged sword. Do you want to file now lawsuits to drag this out and now more evidence may come
out, more statements may come out, other witnesses may come out? It`s probably smarter, if this is true, that he just lets this die and not come
out with any kind of defamation lawsuits. That`s my opinion.
GRACE: That`s one way of looking at it. Others would argue that the truth is a complete defense and that that`s why he is not suing for defamation
because the allegations are true.
COHEN: What would he get out of the lawsuit?
ODOM: The guy is 77 years old. Right. He is going to sue people with no money to prove what? Here`s the thing.
GRACE: No, if you`re really asking me a question, I`ll give you an answer.
ODOM: Sure.
GRACE: Because you do not want your children and grandchildren and great grandchildren to think, wow, you know, he didn`t sue.
ODOM: The cat`s out of the -- no.
GRACE: Why?
ODOM: The cat is out of the bag. Do you want to sue all 12 of these women?
GRACE: I don`t know.
ODOM: No.
GRACE: I don`t know the answer to that. It would be a cold day in H-E-L-L that I would not defend a rape claim or felony claim if it were not true.
I would fight it, for Pete sake. Joan Tarshis is with us, everyone, who says that Cosby molested her.
Here is my concern, Miss Tarshis. I wish we could turn back the clock because all but one of the ladies involved that we know of did not go
to police. And then when the one did go, the DA said they didn`t have enough evidence. You know what?
You can prosecute a rape case without DNA. Just FYI. But long story short, it leaves everyone with the difficult conundrum, two bad
alternatives. One, that the claims are not true and all these ladies are after money.
However, you have never sought money or two, the claims are true and this man has gotten away for years with raping people. There`s no good
outcome and having prosecuted many, many rape cases, you know, I would rather take the case to a jury and lose it and go down fighting than to not
prosecute.
I would rather a rape victim know somebody believed, somebody went to court, somebody tried. But I want to point out, Joan, you never sought
money. In fact, you would not sell your story to a tabloid, correct?
TARSHIS: That`s correct.
GRACE: Why?
TARSHIS: Nancy, I wish I had known you back then. I wish I had somebody on your side talking to me like this back then because I would have gone
and I would have fought with you, no matter what the outcome was.
GRACE: You know what else, Miss Tarshis? I would always think whenever I had a rape case that if I didn`t take it to trial and I didn`t try, even if
I lost, that some other lady or child or somebody -- somebody else was going to be a victim.
TARSHIS: That`s true.
GRACE: Miss Tarshis, why is it that you never took money? That you turned down the tabloid? Why?
TARSHIS: Because it wasn`t about money. I -- you know, I`m not a wealthy person, but that wasn`t -- that`s just not my moral compass, to take money
for something like this. I wanted a platform, if I was going to speak, that was an honest and clean platform.
And I finally was able to find that platform and now people are coming to me and they`re people that I respect, that are not paying me,
that are not offering me money, that just want to hear my story.
And I am certain, as much as I can be certain, that Mr. Cosby would probably still be doing this and may still be doing this, even at age 77.
There are a lot of young girls that are impressionable out there, just like I was.
GRACE: And, Miss Tarshis, you know, everybody getting out of school, trying to get a job, you don`t think about this when you go to dinner or
you have an evening appointment or you go to somebody`s home. You don`t think of some big setup to be molested.
This is what we know. Cosby has denied any of the -- all of these claims. He has denied he has ever abused these women and that is where it
stands today. There are no criminal complaints. None whatsoever and we are left with this truth.
Either these claims are false. And these ladies are after something else -- money, fame, spotlight, I don`t know or these claims are true and
someone has gotten away with a horrible crime. Neither of them are good alternatives.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: And now we go live to Lynn City, where we learned that divers are searching for the body of a young mom, the mom who makes a desperate call
to say that she is afraid. It`s 25-year-old Jamie Mendez, mom of a preschooler who then vanishes. Where is she? Why was she afraid?
As we search for clues, as I said, we now learn divers taking to the water in the search for mommy`s body.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Something stopped her from coming home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jamie Mendez, 25, last heard from when she called asking a friend for a ride. She was nervous about the guy she was with.
He`s a level 3 sex offender. Jamie is diabetic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They also say Jamie would never go this long without seeing her son.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s almost a recovery mission right now because there`s no way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: To Dave Maxin, syndicated talk show host. Dave, search by water. What can you tell me?
DAVE MACK, SYNDICATED TALK SHOW HOST (via telephone): They`re searching for Jamie in the area around where they found a pair of her shoes and cell
phone. The water is so murky. The divers have had trouble so they have brought in SONAR scanned by the sides to actually see if they can see her
body, Nancy. They`re actually looking for a recovery, not a find of an alive person at this point.
GRACE: Everyone, breaking news right now, divers taking to the water in the search for a missing mom, Jamie Mendez. To Michael Gaft, the founder
of the National Academy of Police Diving. Michael, thank you for being with us. What are the problems they`re encountering, looking in this body
of water for Jamie`s body?
MICHAEL GAST, NATIONAL ACADEMY OF POLICE DIVING (via telephone): Well, you`ve got depth. You`ve got the temperature of the water. You`ve got the
murkiness of the water, all of those things and the impact of a diver being on the end of a line doing a circle search or arc search or parallel
search. Any methodical search able to cover the bottom, they can cover it and they could search and be able to find it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ground search for Jaimie Mendez.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ATV vehicles.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s heartbreaking for her son. He`s asking for his mom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her sneakers recovered near this dumpster. Her phone and some clothes found along technology way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: To Mark Klaas, president of Klaas Kids Foundation. What do we do now, Mark?
MARK KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Nancy, it`s getting very time critical. Winter is coming early. Therefore, law
enforcement and search and rescue personnel have to gear up efforts to try to find her before everything freezes over and everything is stalled until
after -- until next spring.
GRACE: Karen Stark, the family is convinced she would never have left her child. He`s a preschooler and he is autistic, and she is all he`s got.
CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: Nancy, not only would she never have left her child, which I tend to believe when it`s a sick child like that, sounds
like she was a good mom. But also, she did call for help, so she sent out a signal that said she needed to be rescued. And that`s the saddest part
of the story, is that she knew she was in trouble. And no one came in time. That`s what we`re left with.
GRACE: Back to Dave Mack, syndicated talk show host. Dave, they`re pulling out all the stops looking for her. Are they searching this body of
water because it`s closest to where her shoes were found in the dumpster?
MACK: Yes, ma`am. That`s exactly why they are searching that body of water and Nancy, besides police, they have had the family with volunteers
that have been scouring since day one as well. It`s been a total community effort to try to find her. She is insulin-dependent, diabetic and has to
have insulin. I know she didn`t have any when she left the house.
GRACE: You know, Caryn Stark, what`s so irritating is people go, well, she just took a break. You know what? When you have a child and she`s got a
history of being devoted to the child, a 5-year-old autistic boy, you don`t just take a break. She`s never taken a break. That`s very, very
insulting.
STARK: Not only that, Nancy, she has the child. We know what it`s like to be a mother. And she has Type 1 diabetes. So she needs to have her
insulin. It doesn`t make sense it to say she took a break.
GRACE: To Dr. Michelle Dupree, medical examiner out of Columbia, what happens if you don`t get your insulin?
DR. MICHELLE DUPREE, MEDICAL EXAMINER AND FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Nancy, insulin is what transports the glucose into our cells for energy. If we
don`t get that, we can go into a diabetic ketoacidosis. Both these cause severe and profound dehydration and need to be treated in a hospital.
GRACE: If her body is in water, Dr. Michelle Dupree, will they be able to determine cause of death?
DUPREE: Nancy, it depends. Oftentimes we can. It`s going to depend on the condition of the body. A lot of times water actually helps preserve
the body especially if it`s cooler.
GRACE: With me Dr. Michelle Dupree out of Columbia and Dr. Caryn Stark, out of New York.
Let`s stop and remember American hero, Navy Lieutenant Michael McGreevey Jr., 30, New York, bronze star, purple heart, combat action
ribbon, a naval academy grad, dream of opening a gun range, taught himself German, parents Michael Senior and Patricia, daughter, Molly. Michael
McGreevey Jr., American hero.
A special good night from friends Cheryl Lauren and Michael, studying justice at Clayton State and -- aren`t they a good-looking bunch?
And congratulations to our friend, Ronnie, who works at Publix Grocery, loves marathon and here he is at his latest marathon in South Africa. Drew
up next, everyone. I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.
END
