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Nancy Grace
California Man Left to Die in Airplane Bathroom. Aired 8-9:00p ET
Aired April 21, 2015 - 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. A mother of five plays naked Twister with her teen daughter and the daughter`s friends during a
drunken party at their home. Bombshell tonight. Then to cap it all off, Mommy has sex with one teen boy in the bathroom and another teen boy in
Mommy`s bed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lanehart (ph) played naked Twister in the living room.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pot, alcohol and the party game naked Twister all mixed into one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That commercial from YouTube.
And tonight, a loving husband and father heading back home on a business trip catches a Southwest flight from Oakland to Orange County, but
that loving dad never makes it off the flight alive. Tonight, claims a Southwest Airlines crew leaves the dad of three locked in the plane`s tiny
bathroom, Daddy screaming, moaning, crying in pain after they decide he`s a, quote, "unruly passenger."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His favorite role was this.
RICHARD ILOZYSZYN, FATHER: Going for our first walk!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As husband and dad.
R. ILOZYSZYN: Today`s Sunday pancake day! What are you making?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m making a pancake.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kelly says her 5-year-old daughter, Sidney (ph), will know how much her daddy loved her.
KELLY ILOZYSZYN, WIFE: I miss him. I love him so much. And he was my world!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And love-crazed or gun-crazed? Was Shayna Hubers a love- crazed woman who couldn`t let go of her boyfriend, or was Ryan Poston a gun-crazed lawyer who snapped under the pressures of a high-powered job?
Twenty-nine-year-old Ryan found dead on the marble floor of his dining room, six bullet wounds to the face, arm, chest. Twenty-four-year-old
Shayna Hubers says she shoots in self-defense, but police say she shoots in cold blood, that Poston wanted out, wanted to stop the sex and dating with
Hubers, but she wouldn`t take no for an answer.
Tonight, we obtain more secretly recorded interrogation video where Hubers blurts out, Who`s going to marry me now when they find out I shot my
boyfriend?
Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. A loving husband, a loving father heads back home from a business trip. He catches a Southwest flight from Oakland to Orange
County. But Daddy never makes it off the flight alive.
Tonight, claims mounting that a Southwest Airlines crew leaves the dad of three locked in the plane`s tiny bathroom, screaming, moaning, crying,
crying tears of pain after the flight crew decides he`s a, quote, "unruly passenger."
Now, this father was one of the top businessmen in his region, but his real role was Daddy. Look at this. This from CBS News.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
K. ILOZYSZYN: The last thing he said to me was, I can`t wait to get home to see you girls. That was the worst! My daughter and her father
were so close.
R. ILOZYSZYN: You and me going to the zoo, honey?
K. ILOZYSZYN: I just said Daddy`s not coming home. Daddy went to heaven.
R. ILOZYSZYN: I`m going for a walk for coffee. This is probably the first of very -- a lot, very many. You can see Wrigley Field up here.
It`s Saturday night. She`s hungry and tired, so let`s get to it. That`s your oatmeal!
K. ILOZYSZYN: Should have been helped on the aircraft. If they just would have gotten help -- one flight attendant said that she opened the
door and she saw the top of my husband`s head, and his head was down and he was just whimpering, and left him there. Medics should have met the
aircraft. Absolutely. Absolutely. And he would be here today.
[20:05:02]R. ILOZYSZYN: March 11th, we`re going for our first walk!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to John Phillips, host, KABC. John, it`s so hard for me to take in that this father -- you know, your husband leaves. He
goes on a business trip. You`re at home, working, taking care of your family, expecting everything to run, everything`s copacetic. All of a
sudden, you find out, out of the blue, your husband`s dead? What happened?
JOHN PHILLIPS, KABC: Well, Nancy, as you described, he was up in the Bay area for a business trip, gets on a Southwest Airlines 747 plane for a
short hop. That`s a quick, hour-long flight to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, Orange County area.
About 10 minutes before the plane landed, he goes into the back lavatory and locks himself into the restroom. When he`s in there, he`s
screaming and yelling and crying, which, of course...
GRACE: Well, wait a minute. Right there, John Phillips, KABC...
PHILLIPS: Yes?
GRACE: I don`t really like the way that you said he locks himself in the bathroom. Of course, you`re going to lock the door when you go into a
plane`s bathroom. Of course he locked it. I mean, the way -- when I was - - you know what? Hold on. Liz, pull this for John Phillips to hear. You probably already heard it, but when the flight crew calls, they go, Oh,
he`s locked himself in the lav. Of course, he locked the door. Do you have that for me, Liz? Listen to this, John Phillips.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. This is (DELETED) Southwest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a plane coming into gate 18. It`ll probably be here in about five minutes. Apparently, there`s a passenger in
-- locked himself in the lav and is screaming and yelling and...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Male, female?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe it`s a male.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Male. And he`s Southwest, gate 18?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What`s your name again, sorry?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Apparently, the pilot said he was going to make everybody stay seated, so...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... get on the plane and head right back there, or wherever they are.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Plane coming in to gate 18. A passenger locked himself in the restroom and he`s screaming.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: So John Phillips, when they call, when they radio down, though, what`s happening, they don`t say anything about, I need a crew, I
need a gurney, I need a doctor. Nothing.
I mean, also, if you look back in some of the reports, there are allegations they call him an unruly passenger. One of the flight
attendants says she looks in, all she could see is the top of his head. He was bent over in pain!
PHILLIPS: Right. Well, I think that`s what created the confusion because the flight attendants, of course, are safety professionals, not
medical professionals.
When they went back to check on him, they didn`t know if he was having a psychological episode or a medical episode. Being 10 minutes away from
the airport, they made the call that it would be in the best interests of the safety of the passengers on board to let the professionals take care of
it on the ground.
The problem is when they called it in, they only sent members of the Orange County Sheriff`s Department down to the plane. They did not send
EMTs. That caused a 30-minute wait because they deplaned everyone on board before they sent the responders...
GRACE: Right.
PHILLIPS: ... back to the plane to get him out of the lavatory.
GRACE: Joining me right now, a special guest, Richard`s wife, the mother of that baby girl that you see. Kelly Ilozyszyn is with us. Kelly,
thank you for being with us.
KELLY ILOZYSZYN, WIFE (via telephone): Oh, thank you for having me.
GRACE: Kelly, when you hear the word "confusion" -- you know, in my mind, when somebody is moaning and crying in pain, they`re bent over in the
bathroom, all you can see is the back and the top of their head, that`s says to me if you`re confused about whether there`s a psychological or
medical problem, you ask, Sir, do you need any help?
It just so happens not only are you his widow, you`re a flight attendant, right?
ILOZYSZYN: Correct. I`m a flight attendant...
GRACE: I want to...
K. ILOZYSZYN: (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: I want to hear your response to "confusion."
K. ILOZYSZYN: I have no words. They didn`t assess him correctly. He needed medical assistance. He was not an unruly passenger. There was no
conversation, ever. My husband never said anything to the flight attendants to make them feel that he was unruly. How can you be unruly
when there`s no communication?
GRACE: Kelly, tell me, how did you first find out that something had gone terribly wrong?
K. ILOZYSZYN: I didn`t find out until 11:45 that evening. A sheriff called me from my husband`s phone.
GRACE: And said what?
K. ILOZYSZYN: Are you Richard Ilozyszyn`s wife. And I said yes. And he -- and I`m, like, What`s going on? And he -- the first question he
asked me is, was does my husband do drugs. And I said, Absolutely not. What are you talking about? What`s going on? Is he arrested? What`s
happening?
[20:10:14]And he goes, Ma`am, we are trying to figure this out. We don`t know what is going on. All I can tell you is your husband was
without oxygen for at least 30 minutes, maybe more. And then -- and that blink of an eye, my life...
GRACE: OK, whoa-whoa! Let me back it up, Kelly. Everyone, Kelly`s husband, the father of this beautiful baby you`re seeing, was left --
according to reports, left to die locked into a Southwest Airlines bathroom. And the guy`s in there crying, crying tears. You can hear him
crying, moaning, actually screaming in pain.
Nobody helps him. Nobody checks on him. Then they leave him locked in there. They deboard the plane. You know how long that takes? Then
they show up with sheriffs, like the guy`s done something wrong. He`s dying. Nobody`s even said, Do you want some water, or, Can I help you, Can
lay you down flat? Nothing.
And Kelly, they call you, and the first question is, Does your husband do drugs?
K. ILOZYSZYN: Correct. Correct.
GRACE: Then what happened?
K. ILOZYSZYN: And then I just was -- I think I just went in shock, and I started pacing because my daughter -- because we went to pick up my
husband at 10:15, and we were circling. And my daughter wanted her father and she starting crying, and during the circling and circling, she finally
fell asleep.
And then I came home hoping that I just missed my husband and he took a cab home. And he was not there. And then I just brought my daughter out
of the car, laid her on the couch. And then the police called me, and then I -- I just -- I just went into shock.
I just -- I was asking -- I didn`t understand why -- because we have medical equipment. Why didn`t the flight attendants help my husband? And
he just -- and he told me, not knowing that I was a flight attendant, that the flight attendants told him that they couldn`t get off their jumpseat
due to FAA regulations, which is complete untrue.
GRACE: Oh, OK. He dies of a massive pulmonary embolism. With me right now, the lawyer on the case, Andrew Spielberger. Andrew, thanks for
being with us. I mean, it`s very clear in the 911 call where their frame of mind was, what they thought was happening. What`s your take on this,
Andrew?
ANDREW SPIELBERGER, KELLY`S ATTORNEY (via telephone): Well, Nancy, when I first got the case, obviously, I go to experts in that field to
determine if -- you know, their perspective on this. So I talked to flight attendant experts who quite frankly were just outraged at the conduct by
this crew on this flight. They were just flabbergasted, the way they handled the situation and the way they treated Richard.
GRACE: Well, as a matter of fact, Andrew, my father had a heart attack on a plane, and he`s alive tonight. I can tell you that. One of
the reasons, because the way the flight crew handled it, they saved his life.
Take a listen to this 911 call. You`ll see what I mean.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, it`s Southwest again. (INAUDIBLE) 18, the pilot said that they are going to keep the cockpit locked and closed, and
it will be the aft lav on the FO (ph) side. And the flight attendants have been instructed to stay in their seats.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And all the passengers, of course, off the plane.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. So they`re going to be pulling up to the gate itself, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, gate 18.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. I`ll let them know. OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: `Bye.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:18:26]R. ILOZYSZYN: I`m going for a walk for coffee. This is probably the first of very -- a lot, very many.
K. ILOZYSZYN: The last thing he said to me was, I love you, and I can`t wait to get home to see my girls.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Apparently, there`s a passenger in -- locked himself in the lav and is screaming and yelling.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Imagine circling the airport to pick up your husband -- you`ve got your baby in the back seat -- to meet Daddy at the airport from a
business trip, and it never happens. And you get a call from a sheriff, and the first thing they say is, Does your husband do drugs?
Well, what`s not what happened here, OK? According to his widow, Daddy dies locked in the tiny bathroom on a Southwest airplane after the
crew decided without ever speaking to him that he was an unruly passenger.
Isn`t it true, John Phillips, KABC, that they heard him screaming, crying in pain, tears, moaning? How did they make the determination he was
unruly and leave him locked in there to die? How did that happen?
PHILLIPS: Well, they, of course, didn`t know that it was the blood clot situation that was going on. They just heard the screaming and
yelling. One of the flight attendants then goes back to the lavatory and is able to get the door open. That`s when his head goes down. They see
the top of his head. And he`s in there crying.
[20:20:00]GRACE: Well, I still am not, I guess I -- I am disconnected because I don`t understand when you see a grown man in the bathroom crying
and moaning, why you would assume they`re unruly, as opposed to there`s something horribly belong, I`ve got to help them. Thank God, you know,
they didn`t think my father was unruly when he had a heart attack on a plane.
Dr. William Morrone, forensic pathologist -- Richard died of a pulmonary embolism. What is that exactly?
DR. WILLIAM MORRONE, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: What happens is blood clots are created in the body, and they fill up the arteries that go to the
lungs. And they come in different sizes. Say this is the internal caliber of the inside of the arteries and the veins. And if your blood clot is
this big, then it`s probably not a big deal. If it`s a little bit bigger, if it`s this big, it is a big deal.
And if he had a massive pulmonary embolism, his blood clot filled up the whole vasculature, which caused a complete breakdown in blood pressure.
And what he was feeling was massive chest pain, massive shortness of breath, tremendous anxiety and a sense of impending doom.
And he may have been nauseous and he thought if he went to the bathroom, he could relieve himself. But it just gets worse.
Now, his blood clot started because they don`t start in the lungs, started in his thighs and in his groin, and it was big and it broke off and
it went up to his lungs. And that`s the way they are. Twenty-six percent of all pulmonary embolisms are fatal. And they needed to get him chest
compressions and oxygen...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:25:42]UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His favorite role was this.
R. ILOZYSZYN: We`re going for our first walk!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As husband and dad.
R. ILOZYSZYN: Today`s Sunday pancake day! What are you making?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m making a pancake.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kelly says her 5-year-old daughter, Sidney (ph), will know how much her Daddy loved her.
K. ILOZYSZYN: I miss him. I love him so much. And he was my world!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Just imagine what this family has been through. They find out Daddy has died of a pulmonary embolism, extremely painful. It`s a blood
clot. This was a giant blood clot -- screaming, crying, moaning in the bathroom after the flight attendants decide he`s just unruly, never even
questioned him.
Take a look at the lawsuit they are filing. Approximately 10 minutes before landing, Richard, in distress, goes to the bathroom, adult male in
distress, crying, moaning, quickly closes the bathroom door. Members of the crew treated it as involving an improper disruption by a passenger.
Members of the crew falsely inform OC Sheriff`s Department boarding the plane that he had barricaded himself in the bathroom.
Sheriff`s Department personnel made the decision to deboard all the passengers and crew on the plane before they even opened the door. Doctors
say Richard had been deprived of oxygen to his brain 33 minutes. On the Southwest plane, that`s about the time it took to deboard. Somebody had
gotten him out of that, laid him on the floor and rendered assistance, I bet he`d be alive today.
Clark Goldband, what does Southwest Airlines say? What`s their defense?
CLARK GOLDBAND, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Well, Nancy, our show reached out to Southwest, and here`s what they tell us. They say
according to crew reports, it appears to have been an unfortunate medical event, and they believe their employees handled it appropriately and
professionally.
They say the crew, Nancy, made unsuccessful attempts to pry open that lav door to try to reach the man and provide assistance. They also note
their pilots arranged for first responders to meet the flight as soon as it arrived in Orange County. And they cite the privacy of the deceased,
Nancy. They do not want to share any other additional details. They are...
GRACE: With me is Richard`s widow, Kelly Ilozyszyn. What do you say to Southwest`s response?
K. ILOZYSZYN: I`m lost for words, Nancy. I can`t -- I don`t even know how to calm (ph) it to that -- I -- there`s no way they think their
crew did an appropriate job for my husband. There`s no way. There`s no way.
GRACE: Well, one thing they said, Kelly, is they tried to pry the door open. But earlier, we heard that the flight attendant said she opened
the door and looked in there and saw the top of his head. So how could that be?
K. ILOZYSZYN: We are trained. We know how to open the door. We are trained. Those doors are not heavy doors.
GRACE: No, they`re not. In fact, every time I`m in there...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... somebody opens the door. Let me ask you this.
K. ILOZYSZYN: Right.
GRACE: Kelly, how do you open...
(CROSSTALK)
K. ILOZYSZYN: ... that could have helped.
GRACE: How do you open a door if someone is in distress in those little bathrooms? How do you do that?
K. ILOZYSZYN: How do you open the door?
GRACE: Yes, how do you -- someone`s in there in distress. How does the flight attendant get that door open?
K. ILOZYSZYN: You -- there`s a pen. There`s a little hole on the outside of the lavatory door that you can press that unlocks it, that opens
the door.
GRACE: See, I did not know that. So all this business about prying it open...
K. ILOZYSZYN: Right.
GRACE: And plus, they`ve already said they saw the top of his head.
K. ILOZYSZYN: Right.
GRACE: So how can they then say, We tried to pry it open, and we couldn`t get it open? So what do you think should have been done, Kelly?
K. ILOZYSZYN: They should have assessed my husband properly. They should have got him medical attention. He needed help. The first thing I
would have done was got on the PA and asked if there was any medical personnel on board. Help me, come to the back of the aircraft, come
assist.
GRACE: Kelly, tell me how your little girl is doing.
ILOZYSZYN: She`s doing okay. She`s -- she`s -- she misses her dad. You know, but I just think she`s so young that she just doesn`t realize
that he`s just gone forever.
GRACE: How do you explain to her that he was not coming home?
ILOZYSZYN: I told her that he was going to heaven. And then that`s when she replied back to me, daddy`s dead. And at that particular moment,
I just, I kind -- I just started crying. And she was, and then my mom came in to take her, to calm her down and so much of a fog at that time.
GRACE: This from CBS News.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ILOZYSZYN: The last thing he said to me was I can`t wait to get home to see you girls. That was the worst. My daughter and her father were so
close.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Me and you going to the zoo, honey?
ILOZYSZYN: I just said daddy`s not coming home. Daddy went to heaven.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:36:00]
GRACE: Love crazed or gun crazed. When Shana Huber a love crazed woman who couldn`t let her boyfriend go or was Ryan Posten a gun crazed
lawyer who snapped under the pressures of a high powered job? 29-year-old Ryan found dead on the floor of his dining room. Six bullet wounds to the
face, arm, chest, 24-year-old Shana Huber says she shoots in self-defense, but police say she shot in cold blood. When he wanted out, to stop the sex
and dating with Shana. We obtain more secretly recorded interrogation where she blurts out, who`s going to marry me when they find out I shot my
boyfriend?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This man`s almost 30 years, she`s 19.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was fear in her voice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Two inmates make an appearance with damning testimony. Listen to what the female inmates have to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did she ever at times, laugh? About certain parts of the incident that happened on October 12th of 2012?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Which parts did she laugh about?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About shooting him in the face and giving him the nose job he always wanted. She says she`s going to plea insanity, but
then she said she was too smart because she has an I.Q. of Einstein, up to the I.Q. of Einstein, so she`s going to plead the wife battered syndrome.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have no idea whether or not she`s guilty or not, do you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know what she told me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay, and so, from that, you`ve decided she had no remorse and therefore, she`s guilty. Am I right or wrong?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, if somebody tells you they pulled the trigger in somebody`s face, they`re guilty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what if that person (inaudible) and they do it to save their life?
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: So, Trinity Hundredmark, Alex Sanchez, to you, Trinity, would you put Shana Huber on the stand to explain how this could possibly have
been self-defense?
HUNDREDMARK: You know, Nancy, she`s not the best client you`d want to have, particularly with some of her statements, but I think in self-defense
cases specifically, juries want to hear what actually happened, and I think if you don`t put them on the stand, as risky as it may be, I think juries
just aren`t happy with it. They are not satisfied without knowing what went on. You`d certainly have to prepare her, but I think it`s something
you`d really have to consider.
GRACE: Trinity is right, Alex. To put her on the stand, you`ve got to prepare her, but can you? Because she seems like the kind of witness
you cannot prepare. For instance, the nose job comment. Laughing about shooting him. You can`t prepare somebody not to say the wrong thing.
SANCHEZ: This is an uphill climb, but I`m concerned about how this case is being defended, myself. I would handle it differently. I think it
should have been a combination of mental health defense and self-defense, because if she would have brought in a lot of evidence showing she has some
type of history of extreme emotional disturbance, it may have been beneficial.
GRACE: Didn`t she hear what she said? She wanted to do an insanity defense, but since she has the I.Q. of Einstein, she ruled that out. Isn`t
that what happened, Melissa Neeley, WLW, she told her female inmate she wanted to plead insanity, but she`s just too brilliant for that.
NEELEY: That`s right, and she also told them she shot him on purpose, so her stories have changed and she told her cell mates something different
that what the defense is presenting.
GRACE: What did she tell her cellmates that was different?
NEELEY: She says she shot him on purpose because he smirked at her, and then she shot him. That is not what they`re saying on her behalf right
now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:44:44]
GRACE: Bombshell tonight. A mother of five plays naked twister with her teen daughter and her friends. The daughter`s friends at a drunken
party mommy throws at their own home. Then to cap all that off, naked twister, with your teen girl, and her friends, girls and boys, with mommy
naked playing twister -- hold that thought, hold that image -- then mommy tops it all off having sex with one of her daughter`s teen boyfriends in
the bathroom? And then has sex with another boy in mommy`s bed? Okay, it`s almost too much to take in. You`re seeing exclusive photos of Rachel
Leonard. Take a look at these. There`s the home where the party took place. These photos from dailymail.com.
Rita Cosby, investigative reporter, WABC, I`m having a hard time. How do you come up with the idea, you know what? I looked up after this, naked
twister story, did you know there`s live streaming naked twister on something called pornhub? And now, this mom is throwing a drinking party
for her girl with all of her friends, they`re all naked playing twister?
RITA COSBY, WABC: It is a wild story. I couldn`t believe it at first, either, Nancy. This mother and she`s a mother of five. She`s got a
child as young as 4 years old. She`s got an oldest daughter, who`s 16. And the 16-year-old daughter, Nancy, messages her and says, mom, could I
bring some friends over? She sends a message back, saying sure, come over, let`s party. Then they have this drug and marijuana fueled party, where
the mother ends up getting naked during this naked twister, goes in the bathroom with this 18-year-old, comes back and then also plays with sex
toys and shows naked pictures to her daughter of her having sex with another guy, and then as you mentioned, ends up passed out in the bedroom,
and she claims she woke up to having her daughter`s boyfriend having sex with her. It`s an unbelievable story.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Joining me, Alex Sanchez, defense attorney in New York. Trinity Hundredmark, defense attorney, Atlanta.
Also with me, Joe Schrank, interventionist, founder Rebound Brooklyn. First to you, Alex, give me one good reason this mother should not have
every one of her children taken away and put in foster care until she can get her act together.
SANCHEZ: Nancy, some people just can`t handle alcohol, and that`s all there is to it. She didn`t commit some major felony here. It`s very poor
judgment, and if she gets some treatment, she gets some counseling and resolves her alcohol problem, she will be able to have her children back.
It`s as simple as that.
GRACE: Trinity Hundredmark, kind of look like you`re in shock, all right? Let me ask you, Alex, did you have a good relationship with your
mother? Is there anything in there that I need to know about? Any monsters in the closet like you don`t get along, you don`t talk to her?
Because can you imagine your mother throwing you a naked twister party? And that`s okay? In what world is that okay?
SANCHEZ: I don`t think it`s okay in any world, but in the world that this woman`s living, she didn`t commit a crime by having a naked twister
party. She committed a crime by serving alcohol and marijuana.
GRACE: I completely disagree. To Valerie Rowell, Augusta Chronicle, what`s the mother charged with?
VALERIE ROWELL, AUGUSTA CHRONICLE: She`s charged with two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for providing the alcohol and
marijuana.
GRACE: Two counts. What can that get her?
ROWELL: Those are misdemeanors, so she can get up to $1,000 fine and a year in jail for each one.
GRACE: Let me understand this, Rita Cosby, was everybody there naked playing twister?
COSBY: We know that a number of them were naked. Then we know that the mother goes to have sex with this 18-year-old and then comes back and
uses sex toys, shows them in front of all these kids, and then shows pictures of herself naked with some other guys.
GRACE: I understand, Valerie Rowell, that she used a sex toy in front of the other party goers?
ROWELL: That`s true, according to the police report.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:54:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Played naked twister in the living room.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pot, alcohol, and the party game naked twister, all mixed into one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Put up Rita Cosby, please. Rita is joining me from WABC, investigative reporter. She comes out of the bathroom with sex toys and
proceeds to use them in front of the children.
COSBY: Yes.
GRACE: When was the 4-year-old at this time?
COSBY: We believe that the 4, 6, 8, and 10-year-old, and the 16-year- old daughter were all in the house.
GRACE: Okay, what I don`t understand, Valerie Rowell, is why she`s only charged with two counts. What about the sex with a 16-year-old boy?
ROWELL: If I understand the law correctly here, 16 is the legal age of consent. And the report also states that the younger children were all
with their father.
GRACE: Excuse me. All the younger children were what?
ROWELL: Were with their father at the time.
GRACE: Joe Schrank, interventionist, founder of Rebound Brooklyn, weigh in, please.
SCHRANK: Well, look, this woman obviously has serious problems, not just alcohol. She should be held accountable without question. Child
protective services should do an extensive investigation. I don`t know that she`s a felon, I don`t know that incarceration will help her in any
way.
GRACE: You`re seeing shots inside the home. Do we know, was it there in the living room, Rita, where they had the naked twister?
COSBY: Yes, it was in the living room. Then she went to the proceeding bathroom and claims she passed out when she woke up and found
another guy on top of her later.
GRACE: I find that hard to believe. Can you put Rita up again? Rita, for a hard-nosed reporter, you`re fudging on the facts with me. A,
she didn`t come out and display sex toys. She came out and used them in front of everybody. That`s a proud moment for any young teen daughter, to
see their mom in the living room with a sex toy.
COSBY: Absolutely.
GRACE: Then not only that, she`s having sex with the 16-year-old, and you`re saying she woke up and he was there. I find that very hard to
believe?
COSBY: Yes, I do too. This is what she`s alleging. She`s saying she woke up, she passed out, and she woke up feeling somebody was on top of
her, and it turns out to be her daughter`s boyfriend. Different from the 18-year-old. This is what she`s saying. I find it hard to believe too.
GRACE: Michael Christian, is the age of consent 16 in that jurisdiction?
CHRISTIAN: That`s correct, so there`s no sex charges in this case at all.
GRACE: No sex charges whatsoever. You know, another issue I have with that, to Valerie Rowell, it may not be a sex offense in that
jurisdiction, but when you have a duty, like you`re a parent or you`re a teacher, doesn`t that imbue you with another duty to the children?
ROWELL: I`m sure it does. In my experience and legal profession, as well as my experience as a parent, I would think there`s an extra duty.
GRACE: And Valerie, how did all of this come to light?
ROWELL: It came to light, because authorities began investigating this incident after they heard about it in an emergency child custody hearing
called by her estranged husband.
GRACE: Now, I understood that mommy`s AA counselor called authorities as well?
COSBY: Yes, indeed. First there was this family custody hearing. When the paternal grandparents heard about this, they went ballistic, there
was a family hearing. Kids got taken from her. Then mommy said she was going to get help. She said she`s been drinking since she`s been going
through this divorce with her husband, who is an Iraq veteran with posttraumatic stress. In this confession to an AA sponsor, she said I
started drinking and I did something really bad. Let me tell you about this naked twister night, and the AA sponsor couldn`t believe it, and then
called authorities immediately.
GRACE: To Patricia Saunders, clinical psychologist, if mommy is playing naked twister where mommy and all the teenagers are naked, there
are other children in the home, in my mind, that makes me wonder what else has been going on that I don`t know about? How does your sense of what is
right and wrong bringing up your children get so crazy?
SAUNDERS: Well, you`re right. It`s a matter of her competence as a parent. If she goes to this extreme, Lord only knows what she`s done
before with the children. She can blame it on her husband`s PTSD, and that`s a lot of BS.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was arrested for furnishing alcohol and marijuana to at least two 16-year-olds. And that was not just what the AA
sponsor told us but what was told to us was also corroborated by witnesses that were in the home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Let`s stop and remember American hero Army Sergeant First Class Scott Nisely, 48, Marshall town, Iowa. Two Bronze Stars, Purple
Heart, also served Marines 22 years. Loved drums and martial arts. A post office set to be named in his honor. Parents J.C. and Norma, three
siblings, widow Gerri, son Dustin, daughter Sarah, Scott Nisely, American hero.
And tonight a special good night from friends Phyllis and Marty. Aren`t they a beautiful couple? And tonight, a special good night to
friend students Farah and Erika. Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night at 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.
END
