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Nancy Grace
Deadly Kayak Accident or Murder?. Aired 8-8:30p ET
Aired May 04, 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. We go live to a deadly kayak accident where 46-year-old groom-to-be Vincent Viafore, slips between
the icy waters of the local Hudson River, his bride-to-be devastated.
But bombshell tonight. After a string of unusual Facebook postings, police now honing in on the bride?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw him struggling a little bit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say the couple was out kayaking.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was trying to figure out how to paddle the waves.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) called 911 and say Viafore`s kayak had capsized in the choppy water.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just saw him flip.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Graswald claimed Viafore capsized and drowned.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, multi-million dollar Hilton Hotel heir, Paris Hilton`s brother, allegedly going berserk on an airplane ending up
handcuffed to his seat by flight captain`s orders When Hilton reportedly dismantles the bathroom smoke detector to smoke weed, threatens to kill the
flight attendant and screams, I will f-ing own you, peasant! Is it true Hilton money speaks again, the Hilton heir, subject (ph) to inherit
millions, threatens flight attendants in the air on an international flight, is getting straight probation? if that was us, we`d be under the
pen!
And in the last hours, stunning twists. Even after a judge gives the Hilton Hotel heir special treatment, allowing him to post bond and walk
free, he still jobs (ph) the system, testing positive on a drug test. It never ends with these Hiltons!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hilton heir Conrad Hilton ignores court orders after a sweetheart deal following his meltdown.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s a scary thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prosecutors are asking he get straight probation. That`s right, no jail time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m a scumbag. Me. OK?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, after multi-millionaire NLF superstar Michael Vick busted on horrific charges he masterminds a brutal dog fight
operation, where dogs electric-shocked, brutally beaten, female dogs forced to breed, tonight, vicious dogfights back in full force, a different
defendant, different location, same atrocities.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vicious pitbulls trained to kill each other and anyone who gets in their way crowded in a fighting pen, just waiting for
battle. They potentially killer dogs are seized in a raid on the illegal dog-fighting operation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. We go live to a deadly kayak accident where the groom-to-be, Vincent Viafore, slips between icy waters of the local Hudson
River, his bride-to-be devastated. But after a string of unusual Facebook postings, police tonight honing in on the bride.
The first thing I want to do, Liz, is let me see the video of her going to the yacht club -- this is within 72 hours-ish after his death --
and playing with a kitten, OK? And I believe we have her voice, Liz. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now, this is just a couple of hours after he`s dead!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 9/22 is the date that we left, isn`t it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Are you kidding me? She`s playing with a boa? They haven`t even found his body! Help me understand!
Straight out to Noam Laden, news anchor, WABC. I hope you can see the monitor because they haven`t even found her groom-to-be`s body, and she is
going along in her car, taking videos, saying, Oh, what a gorgeous day it is. Hello! Hi! Viafore`s body has yet to be found!
[20:05:05]NOAM LADEN, WABC (via telephone): It does seem awfully odd, Angelika Graswald posting -- she keeps changing out her picture on
Facebook, her profile picture. She`s putting up these videos on Facebook. And meanwhile, her husband-to-be, Vinny (ph), has not been found. He`s in
the river somewhere. Searchers are out there looking for him.
And friends of Vinny are also looking at her Facebook page, initially posting how sorry they are that his body has gone -- that he hasn`t been
found and he`s likely dead, but they can`t figure out why she keeps changing and updating her picture, and they think it`s awfully odd. And
then, of course, the police start to connect the dots and say, Wait a minute, she might be behind why he`s missing.
GRACE: Now, hold on! Hold on! Everybody, you are seeing a string of photos and videos. Now, you may think they`re unrelated to this case.
There`s a dog. Why is a dog in the middle of a deadly kayak accident? It`s because she`s posting these photos and videos within, like, 72 hours
of her husband-to-be slipping beneath the icy waters of the Hudson River.
Now, let`s get the story straight. Noam Laden, I`m not going to judge her by her postings of herself doing yoga and herself out kayaking within
24 hours after he goes missing in the water -- not judging yet. I want to hear her story. Piece by piece, Noam Laden, what does she say happened?
LADEN: OK, so it`s one of the first most beautiful days of spring two weeks ago. They`re out -- they`re both outdoors people, Angelika and
Vinny. They decide to go for a kayak ride.
Amid that kayak ride, Angelika says they hit rough waters, and Vinny`s kayak, and so does hers, for that matter, tips over. She tries to get to
him to save him. He yells to her, I don`t think I`m going to make it. This is according to her. He goes missing. She gets rescued by a boater
who picks her up. She`s suffering from hypothermia. She then tells the...
GRACE: OK, wait, wait, wait, wait, wa-wa-wait! Noam, hold on. Let me backtrack just a tiny bit. Now, this woman, Angelika Graswald, says
that she`s out kayaking with her groom-to-be. They`re out at night, about 7:00 PM, on the water of the Hudson River.
I`ve been exactly where she`s talking about. See that right there? That is a very -- I think it`s Bennefield (sic) Castle. And let`s see a
picture of that again, please. And people swim there. They boat there. Nobody lives there. It`s in decay. But it`s just a spot to go to.
So they`re out -- what I don`t understand, Noam Laden, they`re out. It`s 7:00 o`clock at night. It`s cold outside. The water is still very,
very cold. She has on a life vest. He doesn`t. And they`re in two separate kayaks. Now, what does she say happened?
LADEN: Well, she says, all of a sudden, they hit rough water. That`s her explanation.
GRACE: Wa-wa-wa-wait!
LADEN: They hit rough water...
GRACE: Noam! Noam!
LADEN: Yes?
GRACE: This is a river. It`s not like they`re out in the ocean. What does she mean they hit rough water? Because I`ve been in that exact
spot. Rough water what?
LADEN: It does seem that`s one of the parts of the story that doesn`t make a whole lot of sense. The second one is the one you just mentioned.
Friends of Vinny say he never, ever, ever would have gone out into the river without a life jacket on because he was an outdoorsman and he
respected the outdoors and understood that anything at any time could happen. So they thought that was very odd, that he had no life jacket on
but she did.
GRACE: And they`re out at night, at night! So she`s beside him in the kayak. He`s the sports person. He goes underwater. He falls off his
kayak, I guess. And then what does she say happened?
LADEN: She says that she reaches out, tries to get to him, but she can`t because she`s in trouble, as well. And she claims his last words to
her is, I don`t think I`m going to make it. Now, this is a guy who is an outdoorsman, has been his whole life. He`s a strong guy. People describe
him as being physically fit, has been somebody who was in the water all the time. So it seemed odd that those last words would have been, I don`t
think I`m going to make it.
GRACE: I mean, how could you in the -- drowning say that? Liz, if you could back it up and let me show Bennefield`s Castle again because Noam
Laden -- from aerial, aerial, if don`t mind, Liz -- because the point I`m making is, if you`re at Bennefield -- Bannerman castle, if you are there
and you`re off, you don`t have that far to go to get to a point where you can walk.
See, all around the little island, Bannerman Island, you can get out and walk from -- you know, it becomes shallow. And then on either side,
you know, you can swim that far. So tell me what she said that made cops suspicious, other than these crazy postings?
[20:10:09]LADEN: Well, you know, she -- first of all, she told one story, and then she told a completely different story to another officer.
And the stories just didn`t start to add up.
And there is another connection. That island that you`re describing there -- she volunteered there as a gardener and knew that area inside and
out and had been volunteering there for three years, planting flowers, doing gardening, that type of thing.
GRACE: When you say her stories were different, how were they different? In what aspect did they differ?
LADEN: You know, police didn`t give us, like, explicit detail because they`re still not even giving us explicit detail of why they`re suspicious
of her. They haven`t found Vinny`s body.
GRACE: OK, so bottom line, tragic, deadly kayak accident, or did the bride murder the groom and fix it up, stage it to look like an accident?
Listen to what the bride says.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I saw him -- I saw him struggling a little bit. He was trying to figure out how to paddle the waves because they were
getting crazy. And then I just saw him flip.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:15:55]UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At first, police believed Angelika Graswald was the survivor of a tragic accident.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw him struggling a little bit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But now the 35-year-old is charged with murder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the beginning, her story -- there were some minor inconsistencies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And while they have recovered his kayak, the search for his body continues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Tonight, what happened to Vinny Viafore, the groom-to-be -- there you see him with his fiancee, the bride-to-be. She claims that he
was having a, quote, "little bit of difficulty." Well, we can`t find his body tonight. Tonight, police, troopers asking for your help, hikers,
boaters, everyone, anyone near Bennefield castle the day Vinny goes missing. Cops want to her from you. What happened?
Now, this is what allegedly first brought cops` attention to the bride. Take a look at what she`s posting. This is within 72 hours after
he`s dead, after she sees him slip under the icy waters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) are you all right?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m ready. We`re ready. Whoo! Yay! Good job!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: OK. Unleash the lawyers, Troy Slaten, Jeff Gold. Did you see that from Facebook? First, I`m going to go to you, Troy Slaten. We
haven`t even found his body, and she is posting videos of herself doing cartwheels. Help me.
TROY SLATEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I mean, so what, Nancy? Bizarre behavior does not equal murder. There`s nothing that says how somebody`s
supposed to act when a horrible tragedy like this happens. We don`t even know for sure if he`s dead. So to convict her just based on, you know,
albeit bizarre Facebook postings and other social media postings is really inappropriate.
GRACE: OK, let me ask you this, Troy Slaten. Her stories are inconsistent. Now, if you can remember the single most traumatic event in
your life, I`m sure when you have recounted it that your story hasn`t changed. It may have been embellished. You may add more facts to it as
time goes on, or under correct questioning. But for your story to actually change is very unusual.
Liz, could you please roll that video again of her doing cartwheels? This is about 48 hours after she sees her groom-to-be go underwater, whose
body has not yet been found.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re ready. We`re ready.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: OK, Jeff Gold, what about it?
JEFF GOLD, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It`s pretty bizarre. People do bizarre things, though. It still is not evidence. I`d like to know what the
discrepancies were, how relevant they really were. You know, I don`t know if the guy actually got in the kayak at all, so we just don`t know much
about this case...
GRACE: Wa-wait! Wa-wait! That`s what she says. She says he was in the kayak. And isn`t it true, Noam Laden, that she also says that she
believes cops think she tampered with his kayak?
LADEN: Yes, they`ve recovered both of the kayaks. Again, they -- they`re not giving us a whole lot of detail, but they say there was
something up with his kayak.
GRACE: Let`s go out to Woody Tripp, former police commander, polygraph expert. Tripp worked the streets as a beat cop. He worked
narcotics. He worked drug paratrooper, drug storm trooper.
Woody Tripp, I want you to look at this video -- could you just show him the kitten with the feather, the boa? Woody, how many murder scenes
have you and I worked? I never saw a single murder victim happy, playing with a boa with a kitty cat.
WOODROW TRIPP, FORMER POLICE COMMANDER: No, Nancy, I haven`t either, maybe wearing one, but certainly not playing with one and a kitty cat after
the demise or suspected demise of her partner.
[20:20:09]GRACE: I mean, Tripp, I have seen people laying in the floor, screaming. I have seen murder victims` families get up in the
casket and have to be removed. This? No, I`ve never seen this before. What about it?
TRIPP: Oh, absolutely. Everything from passing out, climbing in the casket, literally trying to close the lid, all of that and then some. And
probably, with her story, she could have started it off with, "Once upon a time in a land far away."
GRACE: Everyone, the tip line -- and the police are begging for your help. We don`t know what happened to him. And by now, by now, Tripp --
you and I have also worked a lot of underwater cases where bodies have been thrown over bridges, weighted down, evidence thrown under water. If she is
giving the exact location where he went underwater, you can, based upon the currents, very easily find the body, Tripp.
TRIPP: Absolutely, Nancy. And throw in cadaver dogs, also sidescan sonar. So you`ve got a lot of tools there that you can use if, in fact, he
is in the water.
GRACE: Everyone, tip line, 845-457-1388. 845-457-1388.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:25:50]UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m going to cartwheel, all right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Videos and pictures posted on Angelika`s Graswald`s Facebook page show her smiling and embracing her fiance, Vincent
Viafore. Police believe the 35-year-old killed Viafore while the two kayaked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re trying to piece together exactly where the best places to try to locate on the river were and what may have led to
what occurred. Some inconsistencies in the accounts that she gave of those last minutes led investigators to be suspicious.
She made statements that implicated herself in the intentional causing of his death. From the beginning, her story -- there were some minor
inconsistencies that, each taken individually wouldn`t have amounted to much. But the statements she made were the catalyst for the arrest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Where is Vincent Viafore? The last person to see him alive was his loving fiancee, pictured here.
To Noam Laden, WABC news anchor. Noam, what did we learn from her diary?
LADEN: Well, in one section of her diary, she talks about how Vinny beat her up and how he wanted threesomes. He wanted to invite a third
woman into their relationship.
GRACE: And isn`t it true -- to clinical psychologist Dr. Ramani Durvasula -- Dr. Ramani, she said that she was fed up with his requests for
threesomes, and she wanted him dead.
RAMANI DURVASULA, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, I mean, he`s not here to answer to these charges, so obviously...
GRACE: I`m talking about her diary.
DURVASULA: OK, so -- but the fact is, she`s even recording these kinds of thoughts. You don`t know what kind of story she set (ph) out
(ph). Either A, it`s true, or B, she`s starting to tell a story in preparation for this. We don`t know. But obviously, this is the kind of
stuff, if it was really happening, could have shattered her. But B, if it wasn`t happening, it`s a great story to tell by means of a motive. This
story is still telling itself.
GRACE: Troy Slaten and Jeff Gold, what about the fact that she says in her diary, I want him dead? Troy?
SLATEN: You know, people have all kinds of ideations, and people write all kinds of things in a diary. People say...
GRACE: No, they don`t.
SLATEN: ... I hate you. I could just kill you.
GRACE: No, they don`t.
SLATEN: It doesn`t mean that she did it.
GRACE: Do you write things like that about your wife? Oh, I want to kill her. I want her dead.
SLATEN: No, but that doesn`t mean that she did it.
GRACE: OK. All right, let`s go to you, Jeff Gold. You`re still married, right?
SLATEN: You know, Nancy, look, if you...
GRACE: Would you write that about your fiancee or your wife, I want her dead?
SLATEN: If a fiancee or a wife says if I leave that toilet seat up one more time, they`re going to kill me, that doesn`t mean they`re really
going to kill me. Sometimes people just say those things. It`s just a phrase.
GRACE: OK.
GOLD: It doesn`t mean they`re going to kill you.
GRACE: All right. Let`s (ph) all agree (ph) with that, OK? So, I want him dead -- she`s the last one with him. Her stories have changed.
And she`s videoing herself turning cartwheels about 30 hours after he dies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. They probably had some probable cause, Nancy. I think there`s something that she said that we don`t know about.
And when I know about that, I`ll be able to evaluate it. And that cartwheel, as a defense attorney, turns my stomach, I`ll tell you what. No
defense attorney wants that cartwheel played.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:33:30]
GRACE: Multi-million dollar Hilton Hotel heir, Paris Hilton`s brother goes berserk on an airplane. Conrad Hilton ends up handcuffed to his seat
by flight captain`s orders when Hilton reportedly dismantles the bathroom smoke detector to smoke weed, threatens to kill the flight attendant, and
screams, "I will f-ing own you, peasants," to the rest of the plane. Is it true that Hilton money talks? The Hilton heir is subject to inherit
millions, threatens flight attendants in air, on a flight overseas, coming home to the U.S., is actually getting straight probation? If that were us,
we`d be under the penitentiary. In the last hours, a stunning twist. Even after a judge gives the Hilton Hotel heir special treatment, allowing him
to post bond and walk free, he still jabs (ph) the system, testing positive on a drug test. It never ends with the Hiltons.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hilton heir and brother to Paris Hilton, Conrad Hilton is on house arrest after admitting to smoking marijuana.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any comments, anything?
CONRAD HILTON: You`re a scumbag.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m a scumbag?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hilton was supposed to stay clear of illegal drugs, but it seems he couldn`t resist.
PARIS HILTON: Just don`t pay attention to any of the nonsense that`s around.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m the scumbag.
CONRAD HILTON: Yes. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Me? Okay.
[20:35:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s on house arrest. The Hilton heir must be in his home every night from 10:00 to 5:00.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Okay, to Candace Trunzo, senior news editor, Dailymail.com. The rumors are rampant about Paris Hilton smoking weed all the time, but
now she has been topped by her Hilton heir brother, who allegedly barricades himself in a bathroom on a plane. Can you imagine if I had the
twins on that plane, age 7, on an international flight? So he could smoke weed in there? Then he turns around to all the other people and says, I
could f-ing own you, you peasants?
TRUNZO: And Nancy, he must have used the f-word on that flight 25 to 30 times, threatening, threatening punching both the flight attendants and
the co-pilot out, threatening passengers. It was, it was a flight from hell. He went berserk. His behavior was erratic. He was pacing. He was
abusive. And, you know, he got off with a real pass.
GRACE: You know, he said that his father paid like $300,000 to get him off the last time he got in trouble. And now, this. To Dr. Tim
Gallagher, forensic pathologist joining me out of Daytona Beach, Florida. Thanks for being with us. His claim is that he was taking a sleep aid?
Isn`t that supposed to be maybe -- what was he supposed to be taking, Justin? He said he was taking Ambien or something.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A sleep aid for the long flight.
GRACE: So Dr. Gallagher, what is he smoking right there, for pete`s sake. What does it mean when you take a sleep aid, you go berserk and you
actually punch the flight attendant?
GALLAGHER: Well, Nancy, a sleep aid is generally a central nervous system depressant, so it will decrease your inhibitions and can lead to
this violent behavior, can lead to an altered perception of reality, which can result in this violent behavior.
GRACE: How about this, Dr. Gallagher. He stunk up the whole plane with weed. So it doesn`t sound like an Ambien to me, it sounds like a big,
fat doobie. And he`s locked in the bathroom of an international flight. And Candace Trunzo, Dailymail.com, I want to get back to him punching the
flight attendant, and now after he gets special treatment because he`s rich, because his father`s Conrad Hilton relative, he gets straight
probation, and he`s still testing positive for drugs?
TRUNZO: That`s the thing, Nancy, this is incredible, because there were conditions to this. And part of the condition was that he had to be
drug tested. They did a drug test. They found marijuana. He admitted to it, and now, it`s just another slap on the wrist. He has a curfew. He
can`t go out between 10:00 and 5:00. But there`s a lot he could do at home. And I don`t know.
GRACE: Yes, you know what, Candace Trunzo, there is a lot he can do at home, like get home delivery of weed. Unleash the lawyers. Troy Slaten
and Jeff Gold.
So Troy Slaten, now how does this make the rest of us feel? That he, you know, I`m afraid to even ask for peanuts. You know, they go peanuts or
pretzels, and I go, nothing, I`m fine. Just the air is perfect for me, just to be near you, because the flight attendants have all the power.
They got the peanuts. So I wouldn`t even speak to one of them and bother them. He actually punched one. That is a federal offense, and then to
barricade yourself in the bathroom to smoke weed? What`s the rest of us supposed to think about that?
SLATEN: Nancy, he may be a jerk. He may be undesirable, but his attorney got him no special treatment. The prosecutors weren`t even
thinking jail. And the pretrial services that tested him for drugs, in this case marijuana, said they don`t even want his bail revoked. They
don`t think he`s a flight risk. He`s pled guilty to this case.
GRACE: A flight risk, of course he`s not a flight risk, Jeff Gold, why should he be a flight risk? All he`s got to do is lay around his
mansion, have pot delivered to the front door, and charge it to his daddy. Why would he be a flight risk? Of course he`s not a flight risk. The
point is he violated the terms.
GOLD: He did violate the terms, Nancy, but on the other hand, are we giving it much more attention because of his status? Probably so. Had he
been Joe Schmo, a nameless guy that wasn`t rich, that did not have power of some sort, would we be talking about it? No. So he got the kind of
treatment you get when it`s a minor offense. That`s all there is to it.
GRACE: When you punch a flight attendant on an international flight? Are you kidding me? After 9/11, I`m surprised everyone didn`t turn on him.
[20:40:05]
GOLD: I`ll leave it to the U.S. attorneys. They`re no slouches. They have got plenty of time to put it to a case if they wanted. They
didn`t think it deserved it.
GRACE: Everyone, very quickly, this is mental health awareness month. HLN`s Red Flag follows two families dealing with mental illness. Kelly,
who has bipolar disorder, facing the reality that if she doesn`t get help, she may very well lose her family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`ll be back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where are you going?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s terrifying knowing that she will jump in the vehicle and just drive off when she`s not in her right mind.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My family needs me. They deserve a better mom. I don`t want them to turn out like this. I need help. I want somebody to
help me.
I need to be a strong mother for Isabella and JJ. I don`t want to lose them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any comments? Conrad, anything you can say?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Conrad, any comments? Do you regret your actions? Any comments? Do you regret your actions? Conrad, are you worried about
the charges?
Certainly. But you hit my camera.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:46:30]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One dog critically injured with puncture wounds all over his chest and his legs covered in blood. (inaudible) on the verge
of starvation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: After multi-millionaire superstar Michael Vick busted on horrific charges, he masterminds a brutal dog fight operation where dogs
are electric shocked, brutally beaten, female dogs forced to breed. Tonight, vicious dog rearing back in full force. Different defendants,
different location, same atrocities. It`s very, very difficult to believe. Look at what these animals have been put through. We`ve obtained a photo
of the pen where they were forced to fight. It`s covered in blood. Can you imagine? Here in this country? People paying to see dogs maul each
other until they`re dead? But that`s just what police say that they busted, a horrific dogfight ring. Noam Laden, WABC, I can`t believe after
the Michael Vick drama, where Vick, a multi-millionaire, lives in a gigantic mansion, had a whole dogfighting operation going, over what? He
nearly lost it all, Noam, and people are still doing it?
LADEN: Truth be told, I could probably do this story once a week from my news desk. It happens a lot. There`s a lot of money involved in the
gambling ring. And in this case, these officers showed up at what they thought was an auto detailing shop. And they heard people screaming and
yelling, they heard dogs whimpering, and sure enough, when they opened the doors, there were dogs fighting inside.
GRACE: With me, special guest, chief John DeCando, animal control officer. Chief, thank you for joining us.
CHIEF JOHN DECANDO: Thank you, Nancy.
GRACE: I`m stunned. Because we covered live the Michael Vick case. And a lot of people thought he was going to walk. He was a highly popular
football player, a great football player, multi-millionaire, good looking guy, beautiful mansion, man, he had it all, Chief DeCando, he was in
dogfighting. So is it about the violence, is it about the high of gambling? What do you think, Chief DeCando?
DECANDO: All I can tell you, Nancy, it`s unbelievable how in this day and age, that people would just take an animal and throw it away like
yesterday`s garbage by fighting them. It doesn`t make sense at all. What we`ve seen in Patterson on Friday night was unbelievable. They were called
there for loud music inside of a warehouse. And when police got here, they rang the doorbell, knocked on the door, and the officer asked the guy what
was going on, and the guy turned around and said we`re watching a dog fight. And when the cops walked in, a lot of people booked out the back
door and took off. And they contacted animal control and we responded.
And Nancy, you would not believe what I saw when I walked in there. You had a dog thrown away off the ring on his side, laying in his own
blood, bleeding to death. It was unbelievable. I mean, it was just -- it was just -- you want to just -- I can`t explain to you how upset I am about
this.
[20:50:10]
So what we did is we rushed the dog to the animal hospital just to save the dog`s life. I mean, that was so close by having the dog humanely
euthanized. But Nancy, the dog actually started wagging its tail, laying in a puddle of blood, and he started licking my hand. Nancy, you can`t put
a dog like that to sleep. The dog is absolutely beautiful, Nancy.
GRACE: I can`t believe what you just said, Chief DeCando, that the dog was bleeding to death and you come over there and he starts licking
your hand?
DECANDO: Yes, the dog looked like he didn`t even put up a fight. The other two dogs that were there have hardly any kind of bruises on there,
except all bruises on him. It looks like the dog just laid in the ring and just took what he got coming. I mean, it`s pitiful.
I tell you, the Patterson police department did a remarkable job. Three people are arrested. They seized four different brand new vehicles.
And they also had steroids there, and they also had penicillin there, and right on the bottle it says, for veterinary use only. So these people were
charged with six counts of animal cruelty and also dogfighting, which in New Jersey is an indictable offense. So they went to municipal court
today, and it was sent off to grand jury.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:55:55]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vicious pitbulls, trained to kill each other. And anyone who gets in their way. Crowded in a fighting pen, just waiting for
battle. The potentially killer dogs are seized in a raid on an illegal dogfighting operation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: After the debacle with NFL superstar Michael Vick, who has millions of dollars but still was part of an illegal dogfighting operation.
Joining me tonight, Chief John DeCando, animal control officer. Chief, tell the viewers just joining us about dog fights to the death still going on.
Liz, can you show that bloody pen? What happened when you got there, Chief?
DECANDO: Well, when we got there, it was a homemade (inaudible), and there were cheers all over there, and it was blood over the place, and it
is just unbelievable what you you see. You see steroids there and you see all kinds of needles there. And you see the dog that is bleeding to death,
he`s laying on the side. When the cops came there, everybody took off. It was a gruesome sight. And I -- in this day and age, it should not be going
on.
GRACE: Chief, what was amazing to me, you said when your guys got there, they go to the door, they go, what is going on? What is with all
the loud music? Oh, they said, we`re watching a dogfight. Come on in. They didn`t get that it is not okay to do this to innocent animals?
DECANDO: Well, Nancy, there is no such thing as bad dogs in the world. There are bad people in the world that allow this to happen. And
the fines they`re facing, you`re talking $7,500 fines for each one, and three years in jail, each count. And that is still not enough. Really,
you have no idea, I mean, this dog, when he saw us, was crying for help. And the reason why the music is so loud, Nancy, is to drown the suffering
and the pain and the crying that the dog was doing. There is no reason why this should be going on. Like I said, no such thing as bad dogs in the
world. There are bad people in the world. They should put them in jail and throw the key away and say good-bye.
GRACE: You know what I`m thinking about, Chief John DeCando, and again, I want to thank you for being with us and explaining what you
observed. It is what the animal, the poor animal, he or she hears the loud, crazy music, they see all these angry, horrible, blood-loving people
around them, thirsting to see the animals rip each other apart. They`re thrown in this pen covered with their own blood and are made to fight to
the death. You know, another thing, Chief DeCando, you said $7,500 fine each. But this brings in a lot of gambling money.
DECANDO: Nancy, you`re right. I agree with you 100 percent. And you know, some people do it for money, some people do it for kicks. But it`s
the dog that was just laying there lifeless, I mean, when -- we were petting the dog on top of the head, it was wagging its tail and actually
trying to lick you and kiss you, and he knows that we were there to help him. I mean, our job is to protect our four-legged friends, and that is
what we do in Patterson, New Jersey, and dogfighting is illegal in every state.
GRACE: All I can say is --
DECANDO: This needs to stop.
GRACE: Thank goodness they have you and people like you that care, Chief DeCando. Let`s remember American hero, Marine Lance Corporal Eric
Valdepenas. 21, (inaudible), Massachusetts. Purple Heart, left engineering studies at UMass to enlist, loved lacrosse. Two student
scholarships named in his honor. Parents Jesus and Ann Marie. Two brothers, five sisters. Eric Valdepenas, American hero.
Drew is up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.
END
