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Nancy Grace
Cross-Dressing Teacher Molests Students?. Aired 8-9:00p ET
Aired July 20, 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. Reports a school ignores a teacher`s criminal history after the teacher and father of one accused of
using the school`s aerospace club to groom students and sexually abuse them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was the cool teacher. Students called him Shay-Shay.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sean Shaynak, an aeronautics teacher at an elite technical high school, now facing at least 40 charges.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Victimized six teenage girls, 13 to 19 years old.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He sent a Snapchat photo of his penis to one of his alleged victims.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And live, tony Westchester suburbs. A married police psychologist in the crosshairs tonight after her husband shot in the head
in his sleep. Did the married mom of two shoot her husband in the head as he lay sleeping to be with her married lover after the lover leaves his
wife?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The victim, Kenneth Deardon (ph), says he woke up with an intense pain in his jaw and blood on his pillow to find his wife on
the floor claiming to have been knocked down by an intruder, but that story didn`t pan out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) his wife over the incident, claiming she was having an affair.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening, I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. Reports a school ignores a teacher`s criminal history after the teacher -- he`s a father of one -- is accused of using
the school`s aerospace club to groom students and sexually abuse them.
Now, what`s so amazing to me is the school hires this guy. Here you see him dressed -- can I see the pictures, please? -- as a French maid.
That`s the teacher. And in the other picture, he`s dressed as Britney Spears. If I could see that picture? There he is in a midriff top, and,
like, a little school girl`s plaid skirt. This is the teacher they hired.
And at the time they hire him, he apparently has an arrest on his record for attacking an 11-year-old little boy, and they hire him anyway.
And the defense is, they say that, Well, he didn`t have a conviction?
OK. Now, let me just digest that for a moment because I don`t want a teacher that has attacked or has been arrested for attacking an 11-year-old
little boy to be teaching my student, my children. I don`t want that.
Straight out to Frank Morano, talk show host with "The Answer." Frank, why did they hire him?
FRANK MORANO, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST (via telephone): Oh, I mean, that`s the million-dollar question, Nancy. This (INAUDIBLE) of being not
only as unprofessional as they come, but nothing short of dangerous. If you look at the conduct that marked his entire tenure as a teacher here,
there was warning sign after warning sign. Every interaction he ever had with a student appears as if it was somewhat unprofessional, at the very
least. This is insane!
GRACE: Now, when you say the interactions he had with students is questionable, what do you mean by that?
MORANO: Well, I don`t know where to begin, Nancy. Do you want to begin with the fact that he would send photographs of his genitals, as
alleged in both the criminal complaint, and now a new civil suit, to students as young as 16 years old?
GRACE: OK, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, wait, wait! Actually, Frank, that`s a good one to start with.
Michael Christian, is this true? Frank Morano says this male teacher takes pictures of his penis and sends it to students? That`s a yes/no, OK?
MICHAEL CHRISTIAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Yes.
GRACE: That`s not an open-ended question, Michael.
CHRISTIAN: No, that is absolutely correct, according to prosecutors.
GRACE: All right, unleash the lawyers. Let`s just start with that. With me is Peter Odom, defense attorney, D.C., Anne Bremner, defense
attorney, Seattle, April Porter joining us out of Atlanta. And also joining us tonight out of Boca Raton, Jeff Herman, the alleged victims`
lawyer.
All right, I know it`s hard for lawyers to not say anything, but let`s all wait, including me, and hear from Jeff Herman.
Jeff Herman, I`m having a difficult time understanding how this man got hired, to start with, when -- even if it`s not a conviction, when you
have an arrest on your record where you have attacked an 11-year-old boy, and even if you haven`t been convicted, as he was not convicted, still, why
would you hire that person to be with students? I don`t understand that.
[20:05:20]JEFF HERMAN, ACCUSERS` ATTORNEY: Well, you`re right, Nancy. And just because there`s not a conviction doesn`t mean he`s safe. And of
course, as we now know, this guy was not safe.
You know, the photos you showed before, those actually come from the school`s yearbook. They were taken at a dance where he was supposed to be
a chaperone, and right in front of the principal at that dance, he`s flashing the girls. And so after the...
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, stop, stop, stop, stop! Wa-wa-wait! OK, I`m digesting the information right now. What do you mean -- because
maybe we have a different interpretation. What do you mean he`s flashing the girls?
HERMAN: Well, he`s dressed with a miniskirt, and he`s flashing his butt at the girls during the dance he`s supposed to be chaperoning.
GRACE: Put them up please. Please. Hold on, Mr. Herman. With me out of Boca Raton is Jeff Herman, who is representing the alleged victims`
attorney. (sic) All right, so I`ve got a grown man, a father of one. Is this when he`s dressed like the French maid, or is this when he`s dressed
like Britney Spears? Which one?
HERMAN: Those are two different dances at the school that he attended.
GRACE: All right. So he`s dressed like that, and he`s lifting his skirt in either instance and showing his naked rear end to the students?
HERMAN: Yes. Yes (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: OK. Why wasn`t he fired right then?
HERMAN: Great question. I mean, that`s part of the lawsuit we filed is that there was notice of this sexual harassment going back years now, as
soon as this guy was working there. So he should have been fired, in addition to the other things that they knew that were going on, as well.
GRACE: So -- but that`s the tip of the iceberg. That is -- for students to see a teacher flashing himself, that`s bad enough. But that
truly is the tip of the iceberg.
Jeff Herman, Peter Odom, Anne Bremner, April Porter -- Jeff Herman, what are the other allegations that this teacher, who is a father, for
Pete`s sake -- what else is he accused of doing? And he`s not been convicted yet, but what are the accusations?
HERMAN: Well, I represent actually six girls now who are alleging that after grooming them, he had sex with them...
GRACE: I`m sorry, when you said six girls, I immediately thought of my daughter, and then I went straight on to my son. I mean -- OK, what are
the allegations?
HERMAN: Sex with these girls. He would be sending nude photos, take them to sex clubs, take them to nude beaches, just the whole gamut of
inappropriate behavior, the worst thing you can imagine a teacher engaging in with a child.
But what`s really troubling is what the school knew. I mean, this was an open secret there. They knew he was having girls hang out in his class.
He`d smoke right in front of the school on the block with students, buy them cigarettes, exchange good grades to girls for special attention.
And we understand that there were teachers who complained directly to the administration about his behavior with female students, as well as
third parties in the community who saw him with girls and complained to the principal.
GRACE: Do you have any idea why they didn`t fire him?
HERMAN: What I`m told is that this is a very elite program that he ran, this aeronautical program, aerospace program at the school, and it
brought in a lot of money. And unfortunately, you know, we believe that the money was more important than the safety of the students there, and
that`s what led to this.
GRACE: Now, what do you mean -- how could a program at the school -- and true, it is -- it`s a very -- it`s a very, let me say, impressive
school. It`s got a great reputation. It`s got a lot of money coming in.
But how could -- was it an aerospace program for students to learn more about aerospace? How did that bring in money to the school? How did
that line the school`s pockets?
HERMAN: Right. Apparently, they would hold him out as, you know, the leader of this elite program at the school, and they would do fund-raising
with it. And people would donate money to the program, and they would use it to get special moneys awarded to the school.
GRACE: You know what, Jeff? Hold on just a moment. You know what`s burning me up about that, what we were talking about, an aerospace program?
Can I see Jeff Herman, please? Because when they offer special classes for my children, like, Oh, here`s an advanced science class, and I think, Oh,
OK.
True, they`re only in the 1st grade, but you know, maybe they`ll get an interest in science, and that`s going to help them one day and they`ll
get into a really great school, an Ivy League school, and then their life will be great because they`ll have everything, you know, that I never had.
[20:10:05]And parents do that. You know, you`ll work extra, you`ll make extra money to try to help your child. And if somebody told me for my
daughter or son, Hey, I can get them in an aerospace program, you know, for students, and it`s going to look great on their resume one day when they
try to go to college.
Parents will do anything to help their children advance, to do better, to be happier, to have a better life. I can just see it, Jeff Herman!
HERMAN: Yes, and that`s the mindset that you can see taking place at a school, where people are a little uncomfortable with the behavior might
look the other way. But it`s the administrator`s job not to look the other way. It`s their job to protect these kids, and they failed miserably in
this school.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. With us, Jeff Herman, representing six of the alleged victims, Peter Odom, Anne Bremner and April Porter.
All right, first out to you, Peter Odom. What`s your best defense? And cross-dressing is not a crime. But cross-dressing and flashing your
genitals at female students or any student is a crime.
PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, first let me address the big elephant in the room. This country was founded on the principle...
GRACE: Oh, dear Lord in heaven.
ODOM: ... that you`re innocent until proven guilty. I`m going to answer your question -- innocent until proven guilty, not the other way
around. Let`s keep in mind, these are allegations...
GRACE: That`s what you also say...
ODOM: These are...
GRACE: ... when you don`t know what to say.
ODOM: These are unproven...
GRACE: You start quoting the Constitution...
ODOM: To answer -- to answer your question...
GRACE: ... and the presumption of innocence.
ODOM: To answer your question...
GRACE: Go ahead.
ODOM: ... these are unproven allegations...
GRACE: There you say that, too.
ODOM: ... by people who, thanks to Mr. Herman, have a financial motivation to make the allegations.
GRACE: OK, let`s put Peter Odom...
ODOM: So let`s wait and see what plays out in a court of law. Let`s wait and see...
GRACE: ... with Jeff Herman, please.
(CROSSTALK)
ODOM: Let`s see if Mr. Herman can put his money where their mouth is and prove it in a court of law, and that has yet to be done.
GRACE: Mr. Herman, I, as a crime victim, really resent when people say other crime victims bring civil cases because of the money, all right?
Now, I never had a civil case. I didn`t know anything about the law when my fiance was murdered. But I really resent that on behalf of crime
victims.
Now, you heard Odom`s accusation, you`re only in this for the money, the crime victims are only in it, alleged victims are only in it for the
money. I`d like to hear your response, please.
HERMAN: That`s a bunch of nonsense. First of all, as you know, Nancy, the victims in a criminal case are just victims. They`re witnesses.
It`s not their case. They have no standing. In a civil case, they do have standing, and it`s their only measure of justice that they can control.
But in terms of proof in this case, the police have possession of photographs of this man`s genitals that he sent to 16-year-old students,
and so the proof is already there. There`s no question about whether this man was sending nude photos because we have the photos.
GRACE: OK. Question. How did you get the photos, Jeff?
HERMAN: Well, the police have them as evidence now. They were Snapchatted to several girls. And one of the girls, 16 years old, was
smart enough thinking -- because these Snapchats will disappear after a short period of time. She took a screen shot of this photo that she
received out of the blue from her teacher showing his genitals with his face on the photo.
And when she took this screen shot, he received a message, Shaynak, that she took the screen shot, and he sent her a photo back of his face
looking very stern. Fortunately, she reported it to her father, who contacted the authorities.
So we`ll get those. They`re in evidence. The police have recovered, we think, about 10,000 texts that he was sending to different girls at the
school.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:17:53]UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Prosecutors say Shaynak took a 15- year-old to a nude beach and had sex with three girls, an 18-year-old, 19- year-old and one who was underage. He allegedly sent photos of his private parts to several minors, grabbed them and gave them alcohol and cigarettes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Tonight, we learn that this man was hired by the school even though he had an arrest for attacking an 11-year-old boy. Now, there was
not a conviction on that at the time, but there was the arrest on his record.
You know, what I don`t really understand, Jeff Herman -- and you have advised us about all the charges, including flashing the students, the
underage students, when he was dressed up like a French maid or Britney Spears. He had nothing on under that. It was at a school dance. Having
sex with students, sending Snapchat photos and other images of his penis and genitals to students.
But what is so disturbing, in addition to all that, is that the school had been warned. The school knew. I mean, don`t they look at your arrest
record, Jeff Herman, when you hire a teacher, for Pete`s sake?
HERMAN: Well, of course they`re required to. And they skirted around that by saying he wasn`t convicted, and so technically, they could ignore
it.
But again, not being convicted doesn`t mean somebody is safe. When you`re working with kids, there is no less safe. You`ve got to go the
safest way. The safest way is not to hire somebody with this in his background. And they didn`t do that here, unfortunately.
And -- but even after not doing that, there`s all these red flags. And then there`s reports of him being inappropriate. And so in all my
experience, in all my cases, I don`t know that I`ve ever seen a school where so many people knew that this guy was inappropriate, yet did nothing
to protect these girls.
GRACE: To Michael Christian. What more do we know, Michael?
CHRISTIAN: Nancy, this was the kind of teacher that kids just loved because they got special privileges from him. Apparently, he would give
them cigarettes. He would give them booze. He would give people inflated grades...
[20:20:03]GRACE: And you call that a privilege?
CHRISTIAN: ... so they didn`t have to do any work.
GRACE: You call that a privilege, Michael Christian? As a parent, you think parents think your child getting alcohol and cigarettes from a
teacher is a special privilege?
CHRISTIAN: Absolutely not. But if you were a kid, you`d think he was the cool teacher.
GRACE: All right. What more do you know beside he hands out booze and cigarettes to students?
CHRISTIAN: According to the criminal complaint and the lawsuit, he took a 15-year-old student to a nude beach. He, again, sent photos of his
genitalia. He took one student to the Museum of Sex.
GRACE: Well, wait a minute. You say -- OK, that part I didn`t know. But when you say he sent photos, according to Jeff Herman and the documents
we have, it wasn`t one or two photos. It was thousands of inappropriate e- mails, texts, photos, Snapchats. Well, you can`t save a Snapchat.
But what did they find on his computer, Michael Christian? Let`s be exact.
CHRISTIAN: They have not revealed specifically, Nancy, other than photographs.
GRACE: OK. Jeff Herman, how many images do you think that there are?
HERMAN: Well, I`m sure they`re going to try to recover some of the images from Snapchat because that`s what he typically used. And I`ve
spoken to several girls, some of which who had saved photos and one in particular who gave a copy of a nude photo of his genitalia that he had
sent to the police.
So we know they have several photos and they have inappropriate texts. Those were saved. And so there`s a lot of information from the computers
and the phones that the police do have.
GRACE: Now, can you tell me about the complaints that have been lodged at the school?
HERMAN: Sure. What we`re being told, and my investigators are told, is that there were third parties in the community who would see Shaynak
walk around being inappropriate with high school schools, one of which came and made a complaint to the dean at the school itself and told him,
Something`s going on here, something`s wrong.
We have a teacher/vice principal who went to the principal and said, You need to fire Shaynak. He`s inappropriate with the girls. We have, of
course, all the dances he was at.
And it was an open secret that kids would skip class, they would leave their English classes or math classes or whatever, and they`d go sit in
Shaynak`s class and hang out there. They`d go in front of the school. He`d be smoking with them, open, right in front of the school for everybody
to see.
And so again, this was not a secret. This was an open secret. And unfortunately, no administrator, no responsible adult did what they`re
required to do and removed this guy.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Anne Bremner, April Porter and Peter Odom joining us, in addition to Jeff Herman. All right, Anne Bremner,
let`s hear your defense.
ANNE BREMNER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, on the civil case, what did they know and when did they know it? What does inappropriate mean anyway?
You know, I`ve had a lot of experience with these cases as a plaintiffs` lawyer for victims, had the largest settlement in the history of the
Seattle school district, and there was a lot more than this.
I mean, Nancy, come on, inappropriate, cigarettes? I mean, what, do they know about the pictures? Do they know about the texting? What does
the school know about what happened? From what I can tell, there`s not a whole heck of a lot. The cases I`ve had, there was just egregious types of
conduct that was known and ignored.
So inappropriate -- kind of amorphous. Yes, he`s bad. Yes, he dressed like Britney Spears and everything else...
GRACE: Would you think that sending photos...
BREMNER: Yes.
GRACE: ... of your penis to a little girl...
BREMNER: Sure, Nancy, because...
GRACE: Do you think that`s bad?
BREMNER: I think it`s really bad. But did the school know it and did they disregard it? That`s the question. There`s a lot of mood music here,
but the question is, What did they know?
GRACE: What about the arrest? What about his arrest prior to hiring him?
BREMNER: That I`m with Peter, presumption of innocence. It`s not like I`m just waving the flag here as an excuse. The fact is, it`s not
criminal history. So the fact is, they might not have even found non- conviction data when they looked into his background. So right now, looking at this case, I think there`s an uphill battle, and I think...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: What is your response to that, Jeff Herman?
HERMAN: Well, what I filed was a Title IX sexual harassment case. And so with the first case I filed, he was taking this girl out of class,
having sex with her during the school year, sending her frantic texts to demand that she say she`s his girlfriend. This is her teacher demanding
she acknowledge she`s his girlfriend. And so completely interfered with her right to have a non-discriminatory education.
But what the school did know was inappropriate behavior that was sexually related, about -- lifting up your skirt at a dance and exposing
your buttocks, even wearing female panties, is sexual harassment to the female students. And so that`s enough. Knowing that...
GRACE: OK, Anne Bremner, is that enough for you? I mean, would you want, if you had a little girl...
BREMNER: No!
GRACE: ... would you want the teacher, the man teacher...
BREMNER: No!
GRACE: ... to lift up his dress...
BREMNER: Of course not.
GRACE: ... and show his bare self? Is that inappropriate enough for you?
(CROSSTALK)
BREMNER: It`s beyond inappropriate.
GRACE: That`s flashing. That`s a sex assault. OK, April Porter, weigh in.
[20:25:01]APRIL PORTER, ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, what is not clear in this case is his defense attorney has asked for all of the texts and the e-
mails. There appears to be a lot of inconsistent statements. And what the defense attorney has found in this case is that these students continued --
even after the alleged assault, continued to have a relationship with him, continued to communicate with him. It`s very hard...
GRACE: OK, hold on, April Porter. Let`s not mislead the viewers as if somehow, minors continuing the relationship with a 44-year-old married
father of one -- now, are you suggesting that in our jurisprudence, a minor is responsible for this?
Are you say -- I mean, a minor cannot get married. They cannot enter a contract. They can`t buy a house. They can`t get a loan. Why? Because
they`re not responsible. Now, are you suggesting it`s the children`s fault, April?
PORTER: I`m not suggesting necessarily it`s their fault.
GRACE: That`s what you just said.
PORTER: They could have been mingled into a relationship with a man that just went too far. It appears that he was a beloved teacher at this
school.
GRACE: No, no, no! Wait, wait! Mingled in. It could be mingled in with a relationship with a teacher. What are you saying? What`s mingled
into sex on a student? What`s the mingling?
PORTER: Potentially some of these students may have wanted to have a relationship with this man.
GRACE: They`re minors.
PORTER: They may have wanted to.
GRACE: Who cares what they want, they`re minors.
PORTER: There`s no allegations that he had any sexual relationship with a student. It was a former student, who is now an adult.
GRACE: OK, hold on...
PORTER: There`s the difference.
GRACE: ... let`s clear that up. Jeff Herman, were they students? Were they teens?
HERMAN: Yes, they were students. There were several students, two that I represent right now who were students at the time he was having sex
with them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:33:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shaynak allegedly victimized six teenaged girls, 13 to 19 years old. He was first arrested for sending a naked photo to a
student. Then investigators uncovered thousands of inappropriate text messages, photos and videos.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: To Michael Christian. When they hired him, we said earlier this teacher, there he`s dressed like Britney Spears in a midriff top and a
schoolgirl plaid skirt. The other one he`s wearing a French maid`s outfit. Not judging, he is accused of having sex with the girl students. That`s
called statutory rape. Sending pictures of his penis and genitals to students. Long story short, I`ve mentioned, Michael Christian, when they
hired him, he had an arrest for attacking an 11-year-old boy. Now, that was not a sex attack. What was that?
CHRISTIAN: Nancy, apparently it was an altercation involving his home. He claimed this 11-year-old was throwing rocks at his home, and they
got into a fight over it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:36:00]
GRACE: We go live to the tony Westchester suburbs. A married police psychologist in the crosshairs tonight after her husband is shot in the
head in his sleep. Did the married mother of two shoot her husband as he lay there sleeping so she could be with her married lover after the lover
leaves his wife?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators say she shot her husband, Kenneth Dearden, in their Ponfield Road West home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cops were called here and the man of the house was carried out wounded on a stretcher.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Believes Emily Dearden was trying to kill him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s going to be fighting these baseless charges.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Emily Dearden, psychologist, now on the other side of the law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Man, is she ever. Not only is she a mother of two, she is a psychologist for the police department. She is the police department
shrink, and she stands accused tonight. Police honing in on her after her husband is shot in the head as he lay sleeping. Now, did she go with him
to the hospital? Race to the hospital to try and save his life after he is shot in the head? No. She stayed home to wash her nightie. All right,
Right there, the defense lawyers are going to have a field day saying that proves nothing. But it proves a lot to me.
Candace Trunzo, senior news editor, Dailymail.com, is it true that the psychologist, Emily Dearden, the police psychologist, refused to go to the
hospital with her husband after he`s shot in the head so she can stay home and wash her nightie?
TRUNZO: She did. Not only did she refuse to go to the hospital with her husband, Nancy, she didn`t even go upstairs to check on her daughters
after this whole -- after her husband was shot. Shockingly, she went down to the basement and she didn`t go upstairs to check on the two girls.
GRACE: Well, Candace Trunzo, dailymail.com, the fact that she didn`t go upstairs to check on her two daughters after she says she finds her
husband shot in the head, you know what that says to me? That she knew her daughters were not in danger.
TRUNZO: Absolutely.
GRACE: How does she know that? Because it could be argued that she was the shooter herself, that she`s the one that shot her husband in the
head. She knew her daughters, who were upstairs asleep in their beds, were not in danger, because she was the shooter. Let`s take it from the
beginning. All right. Candace Trunzo, tell me how this whole thing goes down. So she`s got a married lover.
TRUNZO: She has a married lover, and her husband, who is a businessman, he at 10:00 at night, he locks up the house, he primes up --
they have a security system. He sets the alarm. Before that, he walks their dog, a rottweiler. Goes upstairs, carries his daughter, who fell
asleep with his wife into their bedroom. He gets into bed with his wife. The dog gets into the dog bed, which is right by his side, and goes to
sleep.
GRACE: So the dog never raised an alarm either, which also suggests it knew the shooter.
TRUNZO: No barking, nothing, nothing. At 4:00 in the morning, he feels something terrible, some terrible pain, and he thinks maybe he`s had
a heart attack or a stroke. What he had is a bullet in the back of his head. He was shot execution style.
GRACE: Joining me right now from Madison Heights, Dr. William Morrone, medical examiner, forensic pathologist and toxicologist. All
right, she according to police, they believe she shoots him at close range in the head as he lay sleeping. What can you tell from the trajectory path
and from the angle of the bullet and from extrinsic evidence such as gunshot residue? What can you tell about what happened that night in the
home? Let`s see a picture of that home, please. Go ahead, Dr. Morrone.
[20:40:00]
MORRONE: Well, when we look at the head and you look at how the back of the head is shaped, the only way she could shoot him in the back of the
head, would be he`s laying on his side and right here at the bottom the spinal cord goes in, and you have major veins and arteries that cause a lot
of bleeding, and then you have the back of the jaw, which is where he said he felt a lot of the pain. But because this is a very thick part of the
head, this is where the bullet could lodge, and the bullet removed from his head matched the caliber of the weapons from the home. So we`ve linked the
bullet to weapons, to the home, and she`s the only other person in the house.
He`s lucky to be alive. There`s six different ways to die when you`re shot in the head. And the fact that he made it to the hospital means he`s
a blessed man and she`s a bad shot.
GRACE: Now, when you say about the trajectory path, another question. How can you tell it`s a close-range shot?
MORRONE: When a bullet enters the skull at a close range, it bevels the bone. From a distance, you`ll get more of a circular punch-out wound.
But from a close range, there`s beveling on the skull that you only see from a gunshot wound at a very close distance.
GRACE: Okay. To you, Stacy Newman, also on the story in addition to Candace and Dr. William Morrone, what do we know about the married lover?
NEWMAN: This is a man apparently in Texas, Nancy, that the husband said she had been having an affair with. He apparently had just left his
wife and she planned to leave her husband, but the allegations are it would be easier for her to stay in the marital home and have the assets if the
husband was out of the picture.
GRACE: Oh, okay. So she didn`t want the expense of the divorce. Unleash the lawyers. Joining me tonight, April Porter joining me out of
Atlanta. With me, Peter Odom, defense attorney, joining me out of Washington, D.C., and with us, high-profile lawyer out of Seattle, Anne
Bremner. Peter Odom, let`s start it off with you and let`s just put it out there. There`s the U.S. Constitution. She hasn`t gone to trial.
ODOM: I`m glad you recognize that, Nancy.
GRACE: She has not been proven guilty yet.
ODOM: Correct.
GRACE: And she`s presumed innocent unless and until the state pierces that presumption with evidence that overwhelms the presumption of
innocence. All right, I think I`ve stated that very clearly.
ODOM: Very good, very good.
GRACE: Now, let`s talk about the fact that the alarm in the home was on, right?
ODOM: Yes.
GRACE: The alarm was never tripped.
ODOM: There are some -- there are some troubling --
GRACE: She says she did not do it.
ODOM: -- there are some troubling facts here for her. But it seems to me the strong -- because most of it is circumstantial. The strongest
evidence that the police have is that caliber of bullet. As I understand it, it was a .22 or .25, a small caliber. If they don`t tie that bullet to
the actual gun that was in the house, I don`t think this case is going anywhere, and that`s a very common caliber. Lots of criminals use it. So
the strongest evidence doesn`t seem that strong to me unless they come up with a lot more.
GRACE: You know, another thing, and this is very interesting. As a prosecutor, you`re in the world of crime all day, every day. You can`t
really walk through the mud all day long without tracking a little bit home with you. And it seems to me, Anne Bremner, she was the police
psychologist.
BREMNER: Right.
GRACE: They bring her in to figure out crimes and to figure out what`s going on in a perpetrator`s head. So she`s around crime all the
time.
BREMNER: All the time.
GRACE: And I wonder at what point it clicks in her, hey, I want the money, I want the house, I want the children, I don`t want a divorce, I`ll
kill him!
BREMNER: She`d be the expert like psychologists heal thyself. But in addition to what Peter said, this is a weak case because her husband didn`t
really recognize her as the shooter.
GRACE: Did you actually just say this is a weak case?
BREMNER: It`s a weak prosecution case, because she`s not even identified. She`s not even identified.
GRACE: Because he was shot in his sleep?
BREMNER: No, because he just can`t identify her.
GRACE: You know what, let`s talk about that. Candace Trunzo joining us, dailymail.com. Candace, what is the evidence as we know it tonight?
We know they`re the only ones home, mommy, daddy, two children. We know the alarm was on. We know the alarm was never tripped. What did she say
happened? Did she try to say the perps attacked her too?
[20:45:00]
TRUNZO: Yes. In fact, when the husband, who somehow got out of bed, the bloody bed, and went to look for his wife, because he assumed that she
-- something happened to her or maybe he should have her take him to the hospital, went downstairs, and in the family room found her, what looked to
be unconscious. But she didn`t want to be taken to the hospital. He was able to rouse her easily. She seemed fine. And the alarm, which I think
is --
GRACE: There`s a picture. Could you please put up Peter Odom for just one moment. So when police get there, she has positioned herself in
the floor as if she has been attacked. But when they say do you need treatment, oh, no, no, no, I`m fine, but I was definitely attacked. All
right. Help me out there, Peter.
ODOM: I mean, that`s what the police say happened.
GRACE: Oh, okay.
ODOM: Do they have a video? That`s what the police say happened, Nancy. And now I know that you`re a former prosecutor, so am I. Your
inclination is to take the police at their word. I want to know exactly really what happened. Did they videotape it, did they audiotape it? What
was said? If her behavior is so critical, how did they document it?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:50:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The victim, Kenneth Dearden, says he woke up with an intense pain in his jaw and blood on his pillow and found his wife on
the floor, claiming to have been knocked down by an intruder. But that story didn`t pan out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (inaudible) claiming she was having an affair.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: To Candace Trunzo, please tell me again how the wife, who is a police psychologist, has positioned herself in the floor as if she`s been
attacked when police get there. I mean, what does she say? Does she act groggy? Oh, what`s happening? And yet, no, I don`t want to go to the
hospital? What happened?
TRUNZO: She claimed someone hit her in the head when she was found. But when the police came, she was fine. She didn`t want to be examined,
she didn`t want to go to the hospital. And in fact, she stayed behind so that she could do the laundry and clean what the police suspect was the
blood off her nightgown.
GRACE: OK. Unleash the lawyers. Also with me, Caryn Stark, psychologist. April Porter, so does that make sense to you? Instead of
going to the hospital with her husband, she stays home to clean up her bloody nightgown, thoughts?
PORTER: Well, absolutely, it makes sense. Nancy, what we don`t know or what has not been disclosed is the timing of her washing her clothes.
There were children in the home. She was secure in the home. She was taking care of her home with the children, and also think about this,
Nancy. Why would he press charges or file a civil case against the police department psychologist when it was after she filed for divorce? Almost
over a year later, she`s charged. So think about the timing of this. His statements have been inconsistent. What he originally told the police he
now changes his story.
GRACE: Let`s talk about that for a moment. He did not change his story. Dr. Morrone, I don`t think there`s any physical way he could have
shot himself in the head, it`s absolutely impossible --
PORTER: Nancy --
GRACE: Is your name Morrone? No offense, April Porter. Can we go to the ME? Another thing, Dr. Morrone, to suggest that he shot himself, this
is a big coverup, what about her story that the attacker hit her in the head, too?
MORRONE: What is really important is did they test her for gunshot residue? Because to shoot him at close range to the base of the skull, she
would have been in a cloud of gunshot residue. His gunshot residue would be on his clothes, would be on the pillow, but it would be all over her,
under her fingernails. Did they do the proper forensics to link her--
GRACE: Dr. Morrone, show me again on your head, not the skull, your head, where is he shot?
MORRONE: I can`t reach it.
GRACE: Gotcha. Right. So suicide is impossible. The only creature left is the rottweiller.
Caryn Stark, psychologist, joining me, in addition to Dr. Morrone. Caryn, here is the thing I was trying to say, and I think you can verbalize
it better than me. She`s around crime all day for the police. She`s their psychologist. I think at a certain point, she thinks that it`s okay, and
she thinks she can outsmart the police.
STARK: So I think what you`re saying, Nancy, is being around that so much, it made it easier for her to come up with some kind of a story,
manipulate this, and figure out what it is she wanted to do.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:58:00]
GRACE: Okay. I want to go back to Dr. William Morrone. Dr. Morrone, again, we know the rottweiller didn`t do it. We know the children didn`t
do it. The only people left in the home, him and her. There`s no explanation yet about how somebody could have gotten in and not tripped
that alarm. She`s claiming she`s innocent. But what you just showed me and demonstrated shows he could have not shot himself. The entry wound is
in the back of the head, at the base of the skull.
MORRONE: Right there. And men and women, especially men that shoot themselves, have two targets. First in the mouth. Second, something easy.
It is too difficult -- I can`t even get my hand back to the base of my skull in a position where a gun would matter. And the density of the bone
here is what damaged the bullet. They said the bullet was too damaged for ballistics. But you have the same kind of bullets already in the gun, you
just match them up to the manufacturer. So there`s other forensics available besides ballistics.
GRACE: Let`s stop and remember American hero, Staff Sergeant Jacob McMillan, just 25, Lafayette, Louisiana. Bronze Star, Purple Heart. Laid
to rest next to his high school friend, Joseph, also gave his life serving his country. Loved martial arts. Parents Catherine and Jerald. Sisters
Rebecca and Sarah. Jacob McMillan, American hero. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
END
