Return to Transcripts main page
Nancy Grace
Casey Anthony Heading for TV Interview?. Aired 8-9:00p ET
Aired June 01, 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. After tot mom Casey Anthony walks free on murder charges in the horrific death of her 2-year-
old little girl, Caylee, Caylee`s tiny body decomposing just 10 houses from the Anthony home, and after being caught on video at Target buying push-up
bras, lingerie, cases of beer with somebody else`s checks, after tot mom tries her best to sell books and TV appearances, bombshell tonight. Is tot
mom, Casey Anthony, finally talking?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing for a living now, Casey?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is tot mom Casey Anthony set to give her first big interview?
CASEY ANTHONY, CHARGED WITH MURDER: Nobody`s letting me speak!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: TMZ has posted a video showing a woman who they claim is Casey Anthony arriving in New York City for a big interview.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Casey, how are you?
CASEY ANTHONY: You keep asking me the same questions 500 times over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, the wildly popular TLC reality show "19 Kids and Counting" featuring the ultra-religious Duggar family in a tailspin after
one of the Duggars, Josh Duggar, now 27 years old with three children of his own, accused of molesting young girls.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For years, America watched their family grow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re the Duggars.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And our children.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Duggar life documented in the hit series "19 Kids and Counting," claims that Josh Duggar molested five children when he
was a teen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We chose Jan and John David. Why thought why not have a double date?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are from Arkansas!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That`s from TLC.
And tonight, you may think sitting next to a priest on a flight could calm your nerves. But according to one woman, Catholic priest Marcello
Jesumaria (ph) does just the opposite. In fact, she says he molested her multiple times during the flight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A priest is accused of sexually assaulting a woman on a flight. The woman claims that during the flight, the priest touched
her breast, buttocks and had his hands between her legs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight an apparently spoiled brat, 18-year-old Victoria Bascom (ph), takes a cab ride and stiffs the driver in the end. Tonight, a
judge`s controversial sentence forcing her to walk 30 miles as punishment. That`s right, she`s taking the pad (ph) and turner (ph) -- pad the street
and turn the corner!
Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. After tot mom Casey Anthony walks free on murder charges in the horrific death of her 2-year-old little girl, Caylee,
Caylee`s tiny body decomposing just 10 houses from the Anthony home, after being caught on video at Target buying push-up bras, lingerie, cases of
beer with somebody else`s checks, tot mom apparently tries to sell books and TV appearances. No takers.
But tonight, is tot mom finally talking? She has been spotted, according to TMZ, in New York. Now, when she was asked, Hey, are you Casey
Anthony? She said, No, I`m not. But it looks like her to me. You be the judge.
In a moment, you`ll get a glimpse of her face. Now, this guy she`s with has reportedly been identified as a PR person she used way back when,
during her first round of interview attempts.
Now, let me go out to you, Robyn Walensky, anchor, reporter with The Blaze, author of "Beautiful Life" -- interesting, tot mom is not going to
give an interview -- if that`s what she`s doing in New York. She`s not going to give an interview unless she gets paid, right? Because when she
tried to publish a book right after the acquittal in Caylee`s death, she got an offer, I know, from St. Martin`s Press for $10,000 or $12,000, and
apparently, that wasn`t enough for her.
ROBYN WALENSKY, THE BLAZE (via telephone): That`s right, Nancy. (INAUDIBLE) listen, she filed bankruptcy for almost $900,000. So she`s
shopping her story around for as much money as the market will buy. And I want to tell you something. She owes Jose Baez $400,000...
GRACE: Oh, no, no, no, Robyn. Robyn Walensky, friend, do your fact checking. She doesn`t owe anybody anything because she declared
bankruptcy. And all the numbers you`re talking about -- what was it, 900 grand or whatever -- she`s off the hook, scot-free, doesn`t...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Go ahead.
WALENSKY: He was worth the $400,000, as you`re aware, because he got her off. And the Orange County sheriff`s office, $150,000 and all these
other people, Texas Equusearch, another $100,000. So like you say, now anything she makes going forward is hers to keep because she`s been living
off of everyone else`s dime for the last four years, Nancy. She`s, you know, scot-free and living large in Florida.
[20:05:19]GRACE: Yes. Joining me right now is a private investigator, Bill Warner. Robyn Walensky from The Blaze is joining us
there on the scene in Florida. Bill Warner, a private investigator, has been investigating tot mom and has found out she`s living the high life,
according to Warner, partying at bars, going out.
She must -- Bill Warner, thank you for being with us. She must have somebody supporting her.
BILL WARNER, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR (via telephone): Yes. Hi. How`re you doing? I`m on the west coast of Florida, in the Sarasota, Siesta Key
(ph) area. And The rumors were that she was in the Siesta Key area at the bars, partying, having a good old time on somebody else`s dime.
Now, what`s really interesting, last year from the court records and in her bankruptcy, the judge agreed to allow her full access to all -- all
her, you know, as long as $25,000 was paid to the estate (ph), which is the court. That gives her the right (INAUDIBLE) publicity and commercial issue
of the whole story about Casey Anthony.
So somebody paid the 25 grand. Like you said before, she`s scot-free, doesn`t owe anybody any money. She has the rights to her story. She can
put it out there. And from what I heard before, it was E! entertainment in New York City, and there`s been a lot of discussion over the phone, phone
records indicating that her lawyer, Casey -- what`s his name there?
GRACE: Oh, Cheney Mason, the one that shot a bird at everyone.
WARNER: (INAUDIBLE) New York City. So possibly, that`s what they`re doing today.
GRACE: OK, whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on! Was that one of the times Cheney Mason shot a bird at everybody? Because I kind of missed it. He`s
done it so many times. Now, Cheney Mason -- there you go, at his finest. That`s her defense team.
Now apparently, Alexis Tereszcuk, senior reporter, Radaronline.com, not only this, tot mom in New York, according to TMZ for an interview deal
-- that`s what the speculation is -- but she popped up also on Mother`s Day, of all days, at a race. What happened?
ALEXIS TERESZCUK, RADARONLINE.COM: You`re exactly right. Casey Anthony popped up. It was a 10K race. She was posing with some other
women. And it was on Mother`s Day, a day that most people would be celebrating. But she doesn`t have to do anything anymore because she has
no responsibility because her only child is dead.
And the thing that we noticed that was telltale about it is that she had a fitbit (ph) around her arm. It`s a fitness tracking bracelet. And
then she had a couple of other bracelets...
GRACE: Hold on. Look, Alexis. That`s what we`re talking about right now. Look at your monitor. There`s her fitbit, with a slew of other
bangle bracelets on the other hand. None of them have the "Remember Caylee," nothing like that. So tot mom is out at another, what, dinner,
lunch, bar on Mother`s Day?
TERESZCUK: Yes, she is. And that`s how, you know, we noticed that it was her. She denies always whenever anybody ever speaks to anybody that
represents her, she never says that it`s her. she won`t tell anybody it`s her. But if you match up the bracelets, it`s the same woman, and that`s
Casey Anthony.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Joining me out of New York, Alex Sanchez. Out of Atlanta, Parag Shah, lawyer and author of "The Code."
OK, Alex Sanchez, you know this is all wrong. If she is in New York to do an interview -- I imagine a primetime interview for money, lots of it
-- I mean, if she turned down a book offer for $12,000, how much would it cost to get her to talk?
ALEX SANCHEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know, Nancy, you know, criticize her all you want, you know, this is America and she has a right to try to
take advantage of any opportunity she can to make as much money as she can.
And by the way, if you really want to get angry at her, watch that show because she can get up on that show and she could say, You know what?
I did kill my daughter, and nothing can happen to her because of double jeopardy.
GRACE: Put him up!
SANCHEZ: So if you really want to get aggravated...
GRACE: I can tell you one thing.
SANCHEZ: ... watch the show.
GRACE: I can tell you one thing that can happen, Parag Shah. Even though she took the easy way out on all the debt she owed everybody, all
the money that she gets from this alleged primetime interview -- I mean, really, who is going to watch that? Who would support a network that is
going to have an interview with tot mom Casey Anthony?
But whatever she does get paid, I hope the tax man is in on it because that money should go back to the people that investigated that crime, to
the lawyers that defended her, to all the experts that came on, apparently free since she declared bankruptcy. Right, Parag Shah?
[20:10:00]PARAG SHAH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, any money she gets as income will be taxable. But here`s the thing. Not guilty. She was not
guilty. She can do whatever she wants. I don`t understand why we`re even talking about this. Who cares what she`s doing?
GRACE: OK. Then you know what? I will just simply not include you on the rest of the conversation if you can`t understand what`s wrong.
You know, Matt Zarrell, let`s try to explain to Parag Shah what`s wrong. Let`s explain. You and I lived through the trial together, Matt.
We were there in Florida at the scene. We saw where that child`s body was dumped, there at her old hangout at one of her earlier elementary schools,
10 houses from her home.
We know that the knockout drug, gas, was used on this child in the trunk of tot mom`s car, and that it happened months -- six weeks or so
before anybody even knew about it while she was out, living the high life, partying, while her daughter`s body was rotting.
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Yes, it`s unbelievable, Nancy. And one thing that`s really important here is that
the public reaction has not changed. The people that are down there in the community where Casey Anthony lives are furious that she is there. They do
not want her in the community. If they see her, they`re all telling her to get out, don`t live here, we do not want you here.
GRACE: You know, I`ve got another question, Robyn Walensky, author and reporter with The Blaze -- book, "Beautiful Life." Robyn Walensky,
it`s my understanding she has totally severed ties with her family.
And I want to remind you, many people, as if you didn`t know, many people believe that her mother, Cindy Anthony -- say what you want to about
her -- that her mother got on the stand and took the fall for all of tot mom`s computer searches about knockout drug, about how to kill somebody,
about how to create the knockout drug. And her father, let me just remind everybody, as part of her defense, was accused of molesting tot mom. And
he sat there in court and took that.
Now, she severs ties with them? Are you kidding me, Robyn?
CASEY ANTHONY: I will tell you, Nancy, she has no contact at all with her father. He was not involved. That was a made-up story.
GRACE: Awful.
CASEY ANTHONY: That was a concoction by Jose Baez to get her off, and it worked. And in terms of her mother, she took the hit, Nancy. If you`ll
remember, she was a nurse and logged in at a hospital at the time. She was not at home searching for how to make chlorophyll (ph).
And I just -- to Matt Zarrell`s point. The people here -- I am here today in Tampa right tonight, right in the area where the jury was
selected. People here are furious that she has gotten away with murder.
GRACE: I am just sick!
CASEY ANTHONY: They call her the female O.J.
GRACE: You know, Robyn and Alexis -- let`s see both of them, please, Liz. We all went through the trial together hoping for justice. We did.
And I don`t think we got it. And I`m not going to change my opinion on that until another killer stands up and confesses.
So bottom line, the fact that she would now make money potentially off an interview -- I mean, really? Look at tot mom. Did you see that push-up
bra and the blue dress? And I`m fine with that. Dress however you want to. But there she gets off a plane in New York City with a briefcase and a
PR person and she`s dressed like a CEO of a company.
I mean what`s all that for, Alexis Tereszcuk? Come on. Please.
TERESZCUK: Well, it seems like that Casey has always pretended to be something that she`s not, and so maybe now she`s just play-acting,
pretending that she`s somebody that`s very smart and is wheeling and dealing while up in the Big Apple instead of really sitting in Florida
suffering.
GRACE: If not suffering, at least remembering, all right?
(CROSSTALK)
TERESZCUK: ... on Mother`s Day, right?
GRACE: Bill Warner, private investigator who`s been on tot mom`s tail -- I am just beside myself by the fact that you seem to have uncovered her
hard partying, going out, never paying the tab, basically surrounded by enablers, never being held responsible for anything, not working, still
doesn`t have a job.
WARNER: Yes. Who was financing all this fun and games for her for all that time period? It appears to me that the lawyers backed her 100
percent. As soon as they got an acquittal, the money machine started. You know, how do we promote this? How do we get paid back for defending Casey
Anthony?
GRACE: Hey, guys, you know those pictures we`re showing you of tot mom partying and dancing? It looks like she was kissing another girl. You
can run them, Liz. This is all happening after Caylee goes missing, while Caylee`s body is rotting, rotting, rotting! These are the photos that were
taken.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:15:02]CASEY ANTHONY: Will someone let me -- come on!
CINDY ANTHONY, MOTHER: Casey, hold on, sweetheart. Settle down, baby.
CASEY ANTHONY: Nobody`s letting me speak. You want me to talk, then...
CINDY ANTHONY: All right, I`ll listen to you.
CASEY ANTHONY: ... give me three seconds to say something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is tot mom Casey Anthony set to give her first interview? TMZ has posted a video showing a woman who they claim is Casey
Anthony.
[20:20:00]CASEY ANTHONY: I`m extremely excited.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reports surface Anthony is living in a 2,000- square-foot home in West Palm Beach just steps from the ocean.
CASEY ANTHONY: The end of the first. It`s just the beginning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That is video from YouTube of tot mom Casey Anthony`s so- called video journal. I`m going to show you that in a moment.
Let me understand this. Robyn Walensky, reporter, anchor with The Blame, author of "Beautiful Life," let me understand this. So she`s living
in a 2,000-square-foot house by the beach in Florida, not working, not doing anything. And her parents have lost their house. They gave
everything to her. She wrung them dry. What about helping them, at the least?
CASEY ANTHONY: It is such a shame. They reportedly, Nancy, had a garage sale and reportedly gave away and sold for money little Caylee`s
toys. It is so sad, Nancy. Do you know that this August, she would be 10 years old, that little girl? She was everyone`s daughter, everyone`s
granddaughter. She`s older than your twins. It is such a sin what is going on.
And keep in mind, for people that don`t know all the geography, you know, the parents had the house in Orlando, but she`s running around over
in West Palm, and she was spotted over at that women`s race over in that area across the coast. So she`s not even around on this side of Florida.
GRACE: To Bill Warner, private investigator who`s been following tot mom, Casey Anthony. What about the parents, Cindy and George Anthony, who
-- the trial took such a toll on them. I mean, you`d think if tot mom does land this interview -- woe to the network that gives her a primetime
interview -- but wouldn`t she give some of that money to them after all they did for her? I mean, they`re completely broke. They`ve been thrown
out of their home.
WARNER: Well, you would think she would, but I kind of doubt it. Given her lifestyle and the way she`s been acting over the last four or
five years, she`s in for the money. She`s not going to split it. She does -- look, she`s still got to pay back the lawyer, Cheney Mason. He`s been
supporting all this almost three years now.
There`s money owed to the lawyers. They`re going to get a cut of whatever deal she got, OK? I don`t know the numbers yet. I`m sure it`s
going to be large. But you know, there`s people that do have to get paid. She`s been living with different people. She`s been carted all over the
state of Florida. She doesn`t have a driver`s license. You know, she`s always taken someplace by somebody else.
So there`s people that -- you know, benefactors that need to be paid back. The mother and father, they`re going to get stiffed.
GRACE: Also reports that tot mom, Casey Anthony, is trying to choose a man with whom to have a baby, claiming that having a baby will, quote,
"redeem" her. Take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CASEY ANTHONY: I don`t know whether to look directly at myself or look up or -- oh, man. I don`t know. It`s just a little surreal how much
things have changed since July and how many things haven`t changed.
But the good thing is that things are starting to look up and things are starting to change in a good way, which is what they say, that things
stay good and that they only get better. They`ll only get better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:27:45]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing for a living now, Casey?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: TMZ reports video shows a woman believed to be Anthony arriving for a big interview.
CASEY ANTHONY: But the good thing is that things are starting to look up and things are starting to change, in a good way.
Can someone let me -- come on!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That video you saw earlier from YouTube of tot mom, Casey Anthony`s, so-called video journal.
I want to go out to you, Bill Warner, private investigator. Is it all about the money?
WARNER: Oh, absolutely. Lookit, Casey Anthony is not smart enough to have put this whole deal together. She has no connections. She has no way
of doing any of this. The lawyers, Cheney Mason and his whole crew, the minute she got acquitted, the money train starts. How do we get paid back?
How do we get what we need from her, from this story, either through a book or through a movie deal or whatever they`re looking at right now?
I don`t know. We`ll find out soon enough, I`m sure. And it`s disgusting. It`s sickening that she`s doing this all on the back of the
death of her daughter. It`s just disgusting.
GRACE: You know, Alexis Tereszcuk, Radaronline.com, she`s in New York doing something business-wise based on her appearance. She`s walking along
with reportedly a PR guy. Who would pay for a televised interview, and/or if there is an interview about to go down, how much money do you think
we`re talking about?
TERESZCUK: I don`t know who would pay this. I`m sure that you have heard this. I`ve heard this when I expressed interest in wanting to
interview her, that I have gotten threats on the Internet, on phone calls. People do not want to hear from Casey Anthony, and they don`t want to get
money.
She is obviously angling for a huge payday, probably, you know, $500,000. If she turned down $200,000, she`s going to want easily double
that. But it`s going to be a tough way if somebody is going to cover up that they paid for her, even if they used the phrase they licensed pictures
or anything like that.
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, what do you mean by that, Tereszcuk?
TERESZCUK: Well, a lot of times, what you can do instead of paying somebody for an interview is you license photos from them. And so
somebody`s going to pay her for never-before-seen photos of maybe her with Caylee when she was little. That could be one way that they could get
around actually paying her.
GRACE: Oh, so you -- they -- the person getting the interview would not, quote, "pay for the interview," they would pay this large sum and
claim it was for -- oh, that was a licensing fee for the photos she gave us, right? Is that what you`re saying?
TERESZCUK: Right, exactly.
GRACE: And Matt Zarrell, what about this journal that she`s been keeping religiously?
ZARRELL: So we talked about a book and we don`t know if a book deal could still happen because it could still happen. But there are reports
that Anthony has kept a journal ever since Caylee disappeared and hoped to turn the contents of that journal into a best-selling book.
GRACE: I`m telling you, if she is paid for an interview, that is blood money. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She could be out of the country or anywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mom, I don`t want to have this going to the same thing that it`s always been, so please stop it. This is why -- this is one
of the main reasons that I chose dad is because he won`t sit there and keep asking me the same questions 500 times over like you and Lee have done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:35:50]
GRACE: The wildly popular TLC reality show "19 Kids and Counting" featuring the ultra religious Duggar family in a tailspin after one of the
Duggars, Josh Duggar, now 27 years old with three children of his own, accused of molesting young girls.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)c
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the story of my family. We`re the Duggars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More troubles for the Duggar family and their reality show, "19 Kids and Counting." Just some of the latest fallout after
reports surfaced that Josh Duggar, the 27-year-old charismatic older child was accused of molesting several girls starting when he was 14.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Josh is our oldest. He married Anna and they had our first grandchildren.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s a girl.
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Alexis Tereszcuk, my head is absolutely spinning. Alexis, 19 and counting, I`m having a hard time getting my mind around the fact that -
- everybody, what you`re hearing and seeing is from TLC -- is that this guy, Josh Duggar, who a lot of people feel like we know him, right, because
he`s on this family value show, where they have got 19 kids and counting, and he`s one of those children. Now basically grown up with children of
his own. What exactly are the allegations? Let me understand exactly what he is charged with, Alexis.
TERESZCUK: So he was never charged with anything. But what the allegations are is that he forcibly fondled five girls. They weren`t women
at the time, they were girls.
GRACE: Okay. So it`s my understanding -- everybody, you`re seeing video from TLC. Clark, what do we know about the victims?
GOLDBAND: Nancy, we know he`s accused of molesting several girls, including some family members. Now, CNN is reporting this, Nancy, through
of course -- this allegation first surfaced through "In Touch" magazine which claimed they obtained a police report. In that police report some of
these allegations came forward. Josh Duggar, his parents, the elders of the Duggar family and Josh Duggar`s wife then issued statements on
Facebook, Nancy, seemingly acknowledging these allegations, saying that Josh was sent for treatment, and they are putting their faith in God,
trying to learn from past mistakes and move forward.
GRACE: Okay. What happened at the time of the incidents, Clark? Hold on, let me get Alexis on that. Alexis Tereszcuk, how did this finally
-- was there a police report, let me ask you that. Did anybody go to the police?
TERESZCUK: Yes. But Mr. and Mrs. Duggar, Michelle and Jim-Bob knew about this allegedly in 2002. They waited a year before they went to the
police. They did not go to the police until 2003. But then the mother and father both gave very extensive interviews to the police. And they
revealed very graphic details about what their son had told them and what some of the other girls had told them.
GRACE: Everybody, you`re seeing video from TLC. This is "19 Kids and Counting." I think we`re going to be able to actually show you a picture of
the family. This has become a mainstay of TLC network until in the past few days, allegations that one of the Duggars molested young girls. Okay.
Clark, I`m not hearing a lot about a police report. So how did this whole thing come to light? I mean, did he get treatment? Was it reported to
police? What happened?
GOLDBAND: Well, Nancy, in the document that "In Touch" magazine obtained, they say, quoting the parents in this document, say that he
sought treatment. He sought hard work, hard labor, and then after the treatment came back into the home. Now, Nancy, how these allegations
reportedly surfaced were the Oprah Winfrey show was apparently preparing a special on the large family, and they received an anonymous letter with
some allegations in it. The Oprah show then forwarded in 2006 these allegations to law enforcement, and that`s where this alleged document
surfaced from, Nancy.
[20:40:00]
GRACE: Everybody, you`re seeing video from the TLC network. Okay, Alexis Tereszcuk, so Josh Duggar has never done a day of jail time and has
never been actually accused in a court of law.
TERESZCUK: Yes. The parents said that they -- they`re a very religious family. They said that they sought counseling with their church
elders and that they prayed and that they asked for forgiveness, and that Josh understood what he had done was wrong and that he also asked his
sisters for forgiveness. The Duggars have said in their statements that it was a teenage mistake and that their family did go through counseling, and
the result was that they all became actually closer to God after the situation.
GRACE: Okay, all right. Now hold on. You said a teenage mistake. How old was Josh Duggar when these molestations allegedly happened?
TERESZCUK: Apparently it happened over a period of time, from about when he was 12 until he was 14, so almost two years.
GRACE: Nobody can find the police report anymore. That seems to have disappeared. You`re seeing video from TLC. Take a listen to Josh Duggar.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH DUGGAR: Ginger was chosen as our chaperone and then she had to be pulled off because the movie we were going to see, you had to be over
18. It was a preview screening of a good movie, and anyway that`s the reason why Ginger was not our chaperone. So we chose Jan and John David.
Why not, have a double date.
We`re from Arkansas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That`s from TLC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the story of my family. We`re the Duggars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More troubles for the Duggar family and their reality show, "19 Kids and Counting." At least four advertisers now
withdrawing their support of the show, including General Mills, Choice Hotels, Payless Shoe Source and now Walgreens. Several petitions on
change.org are calling for TLC to cancel the series. Just some of the latest fallout after reports surfaced that Josh Duggar, the 27-year-old
charismatic oldest child, was accused of molesting several girls starting when he was 14.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:46:30]
GRACE: You may think sitting next to a priest on a flight could calm your nerves, but according to one woman, Catholic priest Marcello Jesumaria
(ph) does just the opposite. In fact reporting the priest molests her multiple times during the flight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The priest said he loves women and was only flirting with the woman. At first the victim thought the touching was an
accident, but when it continued, she realized it was much more than that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Alex Sanchez and Parag Shah. Flirting? Flirting? This woman says she was so afraid, she got up and ran to the
ladies bathroom and pushed the button for the flight attendant to come because she was afraid to even raise her hand with the guy next to her.
He`s a priest, flirting. He had his hand down between her legs and -- put them up, please. And on her breasts. Parag Shah, how is that flirting?
SHAH: Well, that`s not what he says.
GRACE: Oh, okay.
SHAH: He says that he was simply touching her hand and doing some flirting. He never touched her breasts or groin or any inappropriate area.
And that`s his defense, and that`s what he`s going to testify to.
GRACE: Really, really. So who am I going to believe, Alex Sanchez, her, who has nothing to lose, or him, who has everything to lose? I mean,
you`ve got to look at credibility. Who`s got a dog in the fight, who`s got skin in the game. Him!
SANCHEZ: I don`t know how something like this could occur on a plane.
GRACE: Really?
SANCHEZ: Without anybody seeing this. Aren`t there like attendants walking up and down the aisles, aren`t there other people sitting in there.
GRACE: We had a CEO the other day, Alex--
SANCHEZ: And people saw that. On a plane, there`s no corroboration except her testimony. But aside from that--
GRACE: Alex, the other day a CEO took a poop on a food tray, okay? So a lot happens on planes.
SANCHEZ: You have the corroboration, you have the poop.
GRACE: That`s true. That is true. But, you know, your argument -- all right, you cracked me on that one.
To Dr. Ramani Durvasula, clinical psychologist in L.A. You know, Dr. Ramani, when I first started trying rape cases, believe it or not, we did
not have DNA. The best I could do forensically is if I had a pubic hair, I could do blood type and show to a jury that the perpetrator has the same
blood type as the defendant, and I always heard the same argument, and that was it`s her word against his. I`ve been hearing that since I got out of
law school. Really? Will it ever end?
DURVASULA: And it`s still happening and it`s still happening. It`s still that women are afraid to come forth. In a case like this when the
perpetrator is a priest --
GRACE: A priest!
DURVASULA: -- that makes it even harder. It makes it even harder. And good for her for speaking up. This is horrifying. If someone touched
me like that on an airplane, they`d pull back a stump. That`s unacceptable.
GRACE: Reach out a hand and pull back a nub. Noam Laden, WABC, joining us. OK, Noam, what are the facts?
LADEN: This pervy priest, Father Marcelo, he gets on this flight. He`s just spoken at a benefit for the poor in Philadelphia. He`s getting
on a flight to go back to Los Angeles. He sits down in an aisle seat which you would think is the greatest seat you could have on a flight, the aisle
seat. He then says he spots this woman, who ends up being this victim. He moves his seat to her aisle, the middle seat.
[20:50:00]
So he takes a middle seat next to her. Then as the flight goes on, he starts touching her, first he touched her breast, then he touched her groin
area. And when he gets more aggressive, this woman finally gets up and she`s had enough, she goes to the bathroom and she reports him.
GRACE: What do you mean when he finally starts getting aggressive? I mean, one touch on her nipple should probably have set off the red bell of
alarm. But she, from what I read, she at first thought, wow, okay, did he mean to do that? And then there were four occasions where he actually
squeezed parts of her body, and she jumped up.
LADEN: Well, we don`t know if she knew right away that he was a priest. Assuming let`s say that she did, maybe she thought, well, this has
to be accidental, and maybe she thought the first couple of touches were just that, accidental. Then she realized pretty quickly it wasn`t.
GRACE: Noah Laden, let me address what you just said. He has got his hand, this priest, Marcelo Dejesus Maria (ph), has his hand down between
her legs. Did you just say it could have been an accident? I heard the word accident come out of your month. I`m positive I heard you say
accident.
LADEN: You did. I said, maybe she thought it was accidental at first, but then she realized very quickly it wasn`t accidental.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:56:10]
GRACE: And tonight an apparently spoiled brat, 18-year-old Victoria Baskum takes a cab ride, then stiffs the driver in the end, a 30-mile cab
ride. Tonight, a judge`s controversial sentence forcing her to walk 30 miles as punishment. That`s right. She`s taken the pat and turner. Pat
the street and turn a corner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you can`t afford a cab, what were you going to do? What would you do if you didn`t have a cab?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Walk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Walk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 18-year-old Ohio resident Victoria Baskum was arrested after she took a 30-mile cab ride but allegedly stiffed the
driver. She could have served 30 days in the county jail. But due to some creative sentencing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it`s only appropriate that you walk for 30 miles.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: She actually complained about it. I don`t understand the whole complaining aspect of this. Michael Christian, you know, cab
drivers, drivers, Uber drivers, they work all kind of hours, all the time. Day in, day out. To take somebody 30 miles and then they stiff you? And
won`t pay? Explain to me this, Michael Christian, has this judge given other controversial sentences? I`m glad she`s got to walk it off.
CHRISTIAN: He has, Nancy. He`s known for it. His name is Michael Ciccanetti. He`s actually known by a lot of people as creative Ciccanetti.
He`s done this many times. He did this with another defendant the same day he sentenced this woman. She had, this other defendant, has apparently
pepper sprayed somebody in the face, and he offered her jail time or the victim could pepper spray her in the face. She chose the pepper spray. It
turned out the judge only used water. It wasn`t pepper spray. But he`s done lots and lots of this. And he`s very popular for it. People love it.
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Look at the monitor. Look at this. Is this Kim Kardashian? I want to see her photos she is posting with the
nails and the hair. That`s not it. Okay? So let`s go to Alex Sanchez and Parag Shah. There you go. She actually complained she had to walk, Alex
Sanchez.
SANCHEZ: You know something? I applaud this judge. I like this creative sentencing stuff. We know jail doesn`t work. Here`s a judge
making this woman walk 30 miles. She`s getting in shape. I think it`s perfect.
GRACE: (inaudible), she complained. She is in shape. All right? I`ve seen just about everything there is to see. What`s wrong with the
sentence? Why is this woman apparently a spoiled brat complaining?
SHAH: Well, what is this, the Scarlet Letter? The Eighth Amendment says that sentences can`t be cruel and unusual. They have to be statutory.
There has to be something that`s with regard to the sentence, probation or something.
GRACE: Please make your point. I don`t even know what your point is. Every time you`re between a rock and a hard spot, Shah, you start quoting
the Constitution. Guess what, my viewers know the Constitution probably better than all of us. Okay. You know what, power to you, judge.
Let`s stop and remember American hero Lance Corporal Anthony Butterfield, just 19, Clovis, California, National Defense Service Medal,
Purple Heart, loved family, friends, sports, children. Brother Jeremy, sister Bailey, parents Brittany and Glenn. Anthony Butterfield, American
hero. Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
END
