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Nancy Grace
Pianist Finds Daughters Dead in Home; Killer Bride in Hot Water After TV Interview; Arkansas Public Defender Arranged for Sex with Child at Local Hampton Inn; Remembering American Hero South Carolina Officer Allen Jacobs; Dozens Killed, Hundreds Injured in Brussels Terror Attacks. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired March 22, 2016 - 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, live, Texas suburbs. A world- renowned concert pianist comes home to find his two little girls, ages just 5 and 1, dead, murdered in their own bed, his wife covered in stab wounds.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A world-renowned concert pianist.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vadym Kholodenko is was accustomed to being in the spotlight, but not like this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two deceased children, ages 5 and 1.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The cause of their deaths still unknown.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A Florida beach beauty marries her dream man, set to live happily ever after. But what the bride doesn`t know -- the hitman she allegedly
hires to murder the groom is a cop. That`s right, cops sting the bride on video, breaking down in hysterical tears, crying over the dead husband.
But what the killer bride claims is that it was all a reality show acting gig.
Tonight, bride Dalia Dippolito in hot water after she breaks all the rules, again, and does a star turn in an ABC "20/20" interview. And will her
lawyer be thrown off the case?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DALIA DIPPOLITO, CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER: I didn`t do anything!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
DIPPOLITO: I didn`t do anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re going to jail.
DIPPOLITO: I didn`t do anything. I didn`t do anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Then an Arkansas public defender, a practicing defense lawyer, arranged for sex at the local Hampton Inn with a child he meets on-line.
Well, that child turns out to be an undercover cop. Busted!
Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight, live to Texas suburbs. A world-renowned concert pianist comes home, he finds his two little girls, the loves of his life, ages just
5 and 1 year old, both dead, murdered in their own bed, his wife covered in stab wounds.
All we know right now is that the cause of death is homicide. We are waiting for manner of death. The mother in the hospital with all of those
stab wounds.
Straight out to Robyn Walensky, senior news anchor, The Blaze. Robyn, thank you for being with us. Let`s take it from the top. First
investigative question. Where was Daddy when the children were killed?
ROBYN WALENSKY, THE BLAZE RADIO NETWORK (via telephone): He was in town, Nancy.
GRACE: To Chris Spargo joining us, reporter with Dailymail.com. Chris Spargo, when the dad comes home, the door -- it`s around 9:20 in the
morning -- is unlocked. It`s not open, but it`s unlocked, correct? Is that right?
CHRIS SPARGO, DAILYMAIL.COM (via telephone): That is correct.
GRACE: Chris, was there any sign of forced entry in the home?
SPARGO: No, police found no sign of forced entry after an investigation.
GRACE: OK. To Dr. William Morrone, forensic pathologist joining us out of Madison Heights, renowned medical examiner and toxicologist. Dr. Morrone,
I want to talk about the fact that as of this hour tonight, we still don`t know manner of death. We know homicidal violence, but we`re also learning
from our police sources that police are saying they can`t look at the body and determine the cause of death.
Another thing. You`d think by now -- by now, Dr. Morrone -- it`s been several hours -- the medical examiner would be able to tell if the girls
were asphyxiated, correct?
DR. WILLIAM MORRONE, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: If they were asphyxiated through a ligature or strangulation, there would be marks. And based on
other blood tests, there`d be lack of oxygen or hemorrhages. So you`re correct. You`re correct.
GRACE: Well, you know -- oh, look at -- look at your monitor, if you can, Dr. Morrone. This little baby has just turned 1 year old.
For those of you just joining us, a world renowned concert pianist comes home 9:20 in the morning to find both of his little girls murdered in their
beds, his wife covered in stab wounds. She is still in critical condition in the hospital with the stab wounds.
So what I`m saying, Dr. Morrone -- when I said asphyxiation, I didn`t necessarily mean ligature strangulation or manual. What about smothering
with a pillow? That would not leave ligature marks, but -- obvious to the naked eye, but any doctor in his or her right mind could look at the eyes
and determine if there were hemorrhaging to the petechiae, correct?
[20:05:06] MORRONE: Correct. They may not be telling us other things about the condition of the body because they don`t want to give certain
things away.
GRACE: OK, let me go back to Chris Spargo with Dailymail.com. So Chris, the dad, Niko (sic) Kholodenko, comes home -- and this guy, by the way,
Spargo, I don`t know if you know this, had won the international Van Cliburn contest. That is one of the -- it`s like the Olympics for
pianists. I mean, this guy is known all over the world, and he and his family live in the Texas suburbs.
So he comes home, 9:20 AM, wife covered in blood, both children dead. OK, tell me what happens when he walks in the door, Chris Spargo.
SPARGO: After finding his wife and then his two daughters, he immediately calls 911, hysterical. This is such a random act. He has no explanation,
what`s going on whatsoever. They come there, police. They begin their investigation. And they said he was a grieving father who just was -- did
not know what had happened.
GRACE: Guys, you`re seeing a shot of the mom. This is Sofya Tsygankova -- beautiful. She is a concert pianist herself. In fact, they met when they
were studying music together at the conservatory. There`s the dad with the older little girl, now 5. This guy is wanted all over the world for his
talent, his pianist talent. But nothing -- with all of his talent, all of his training, all of his education -- can save these two children when he
gets home.
So I want to get into the details. Joining me, in addition to Walensky, Spargo and Morrone, Matt Zarrell. So he comes in the door. What`s the
first thing he sees? Is the mother ambulatory? That`s a very important question for me.
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): We do not know where the mother was or what condition she was in when he found her. But we do
know, Nancy, that police say that when he found the daughters, it looked like they were just sleeping in their beds.
GRACE: Hey, guys, let`s go dip into the police presser right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are still looking at all avenues. We`re being very careful and very diligent as far as looking at all possible projections on
this case. But at this time, we are -- we don`t believe that there`s any immediate risk to anybody in the neighborhood.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: What that says to me is that this family was targeted. If there`s no risk to anybody else, that says this family is targeted. You are seeing
the floor plan there in the home. It`s in the Texas suburbs, very, very low crime rate.
Unleash the lawyers. Sue Moss joining me out of New York, David Lee Windecher, author of "American Dream: HisStory in the Making," defense
attorney out of LA, Margie Mow, defense attorney.
OK, Sue Moss, right now, we understand the theory police have been working under is they are interviewing all the neighbors to determine if there`s
any possibility that there was an armed intruder. They have not found a weapon used to stab Sofya, the wife. She was brutally stabbed, covered in
blood.
But they are saying this. It`s very significant. The father is under no suspicion whatsoever. And that`s usually your jumping off point right
there. You know what? There`s no forced entry. Nothing is stolen. There`s no sex attack here in this suburban home. I don`t like it. I
don`t see any signs of a forced entry.
SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: This case is going to come down to one -- one fact! Where the stab wounds on Mom superficial? Did they appear as if
she`s the one who did them on her own body? If she did, then we know the answer.
How unlikely is it that somebody comes in, kills the children, but does not kill the mother? If these are superficial wounds, this woman is all sorts
of guilty. And there can be no -- no -- insanity claim because if she was smart enough to make an alibi, regardless how flimsy it is, then she would
have known the difference between right and wrong! This would not be insanity...
GRACE: Hold on just a moment.
MOSS: ... and this woman would be guilty!
GRACE: What we are talking about tonight -- David Lee Windecher, the police have been functioning under the theory that there may have been an
armed intruder. I`m not buying it. What do you have to convince me, Windecher, that it`s an armed intruder?
DAVID LEE WINDECHER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, if it`s not -- if -- it has to be an armed intruder, Nancy, because if these wounds are self-inflicted,
a person who inflicts themselves with wounds that are critical and require surgery is going to have time to hide the weapon. And they -- they didn`t
find any weapon, so she...
[20:10:03] GRACE: You know...
WINDECHER: It had to be an intruder.
GRACE: ... that leads me to another point. To Robyn Walensky with The Blaze, senior news anchor. Robyn Walensky, I`ve got one very narrow
question, and that is, Was the mom ambulatory? Was she walking around? Did she come to the door? How severe were her wounds? Because we`ve been
told she was in critical condition because of her stab wounds.
WALENSKY: I will tell you, Nancy, that I have made calls out to the police, and they will not confirm what kind of condition she`s in, only
that she is currently, as we speak, in the hospital.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:15:10] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Five-year-old Nika and 1-year-old Michaela were both found in bed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Kholodenko was the person who initiated the 911 call.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The cause of their deaths still unknown.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He found the mother in an extreme state of distress and discovered the children in their state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Dad comes home. It`s about 9:20 AM, the door unlocked. He finds both of his little girls dead, murdered, ages just 5 and 1 year old. They
were the loves of his life.
He has been pulled out and replaced with the symphony. He can`t go on. We are talking a world-renowned concert pianist. His name is Kholodenko, and
he is known all over the world. He and his family have made Houston, Ft. Worth, Texas, their home.
Long story short, he comes home, the children are dead and his wife is covered in stab wounds. I`m just hearing in my ear right now, we are
getting information, Dr. Morrone. They`re saying the autopsy on the two babies is inconclusive? How can that be? How can you have a dead child
and not know the COD -- cause of death?
MORRONE: What they`re looking at is possible multiple causes of death, and they have not yet decided which one happened first. That`s the hard part,
is determining was there a stabbing and then a suffocation (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: Wa-wa-wa-wait! Back it up. Back it up.
MORRONE: And they have to be able to determine...
GRACE: Morrone! Morrone!
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Morrone!
MORRONE: Yes. Yes.
GRACE: I appreciate your mind. I do, OK? Do I understand it? Not always. So dummy down, my friend. I`m just a trial lawyer. When you`re
talking layers of cause of death -- number one, we know they weren`t stabbed. They`ve already told us that. There was nothing to the naked eye
that would suggest the cause of death. So what`s the hold-up?
MORRONE: Well, to see exactly what happened and to look at the data and the autopsy. They want to determine time. So they`re going to be doing
temperatures on the bodies. When they look at the body and they take a temperature, they`ll go deep in the core. Usually, they go to the liver.
And the difference in the temperature between the two children...
GRACE: Wait, wait, wait!
MORRONE: ... will be which one died first.
GRACE: Wait! What do you mean, they take the temperature in the liver?
MORRONE: I mean, they go all the way in with a probe, like a needle, and they go down to the liver. And electronically, they look at the
temperature of the liver...
GRACE: Why?
MORRONE: ... as the -- because that is the closest you can get to extrapolate back to room temperature as how long have they been dead.
GRACE: OK, hold on.
MORRONE: It`s the difference in temperatures between...
GRACE: Let me just try to internalize what you`re saying. So they take the temperature in the liver...
MORRONE: Yes.
GRACE: ... and they extrapolate based on the ambient air in the room and they determine because of that how much the body degree has dropped, the
temperature has dropped based on a 98.6 temperature combined with the ambient air. So that doing that...
MORRONE: You just translated. You just translated...
GRACE: ... they can figure out -- thank you. I`m trying my best. They can figure out time of death. Is that what you`re saying?
MORRONE: Exactly.
GRACE: Got it. Got it. Now, you know, that leads me to an interesting point. Hold the thought, Morrone.
Unleash the lawyers, Moss, Windecher, Mow. Margie Mow, you guys are arguing that there was a forced entry, that there was some attacker that
came in. But Mommy may be in hot water, and I`ll tell you why. If Morrone is right and they can determine that, for instance, the killings of the
children happened at 1:00 AM or 5:00 AM and Mommy`s ambulatory with stab wounds, why didn`t she call 911, Margie?
MARGIE MOW, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: She was injured. She was in distress. Her children were dead. Just because it wasn`t signs of a forced entry does
not mean that an intruder did not come in. She was from another country. Maybe she was trusting of whoever came to the door. She opened the door
for them, let them in...
GRACE: You think the crime rate is lower in Moscow?
MOW: This is a world-renowned pianist. You said it yourself, world- renowned. He gave an interview with "The Sun Telegraph" talking about how they had relocated to Ft. Worth. In addition to that, he had won $50,000
in the Van Cliburn competition. So obviously...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: You bring up a good point, Margie Mow. They said one of the reasons that they left their studies in Moscow and came here is because
they were being harassed by the government there, so they come here.
You`re seeing video of Kholodenko playing piano from Marinsky (ph) Inn (ph).
OK, back to you, Morrone. What can I tell from the bodies? Is there any way that I can tell who was killed first? I don`t think there is, but
maybe.
[20:20:06] MORRONE: If one of the bodies is significantly warmer than the other one in the children, that one was killed last. The coldest child,
based on the temperature difference, will be the first -- and nobody said that they had to be killed, like, right away and then -- there might be an
hour between.
GRACE: In their beds. Can you imagine coming home and finding your children dead in their beds? And the police say the children were lying
there like they were asleep.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vadym Kholodenko is accustomed to being in the spotlight, but not like this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 911 caller discovered the scene, two deceased children, ages 5 and 1.
[20:25:02] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were both found in bed. They were not stabbed, like their mother, who survived despite multiple wounds.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Let`s go straight into the police presser.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Kholodenko was the person who initiated the 911 call yesterday morning at 9:27 AM. He had an appointment with the mother
of the children to pick up the children at 9:20 AM, which was their regular practice, as far as we can tell.
Once he arrived there, he found the mother in an extreme state of distress and discovered the children in their state. He has been cooperative in
this investigation. He is not considered a suspect at this time.
As far as Mrs. Tsygankova, she is recovering from her injuries at John Peter Smith (ph) Hospital, and she is being held on a mental health
evaluation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: OK. Now it`s all becoming very apparent. She knew her husband was coming over that morning to pick up the children, 9:20 AM. She leaves the
door unlocked so he will come in and find his children, who he thinks to be asleep in their beds, dead.
Just coincidentally -- unleash the lawyers. Sue Moss, David Lee Windecher and Margie Mow. David Lee Windecher, did you know -- we just heard the cop
say she`s going for a mental evaluation. It`s extremely coincidental, wouldn`t you think, that he has filed for divorce. She didn`t want the
divorce, and this Friday, they`re supposed to exchange financial records. She`s not working. The money train is leaving the station, Windecher, and
suddenly, both children end up dead and she claims she`s crazy.
WINDECHER: Nancy, they`ve been working together through the divorce. He`s been picking up the children. There`s been no issues with them. It`s been
an amicable split. It`s a contested divorce...
GRACE: (INAUDIBLE)
WINDECHER: ... but here`s the thing. One thing that we`re not consider is that we`re saying the mental health evaluation -- she`s not insane. She
doesn`t have any neurological disorders. What if she would have had a love interest at the house? We have completely disregarded that possibility.
There`s a possibility that she had a love interest in the house who committed these crimes by allowing the children to ingest something.
GRACE: Then why is she having a mental evaluation, Mow?
MOW: Because her children were just murdered. I would be in a mental -- having a mental evaluation if my child was murdered.
GRACE: I would call 911. Did you hear what they just said, Sue Moss? She`s recovering from her physical ailments. She`s just fine.
MOW: (INAUDIBLE) did she know to call 911? She`s not from this country.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: She does speak English.
MOW: Then how...
GRACE: Robyn Walensky, The Blaze, doesn`t she speak English? I mean, she`s an extremely educated woman.
WALENSKY: She is. And she plays the piano and she speaks English.
GRACE: OK, Sue Moss, she is ambulatory. That is what is so significant to me. He comes home, they`re dead, she`s got stab wounds. They`re not
critical. She is now recovering. She could have called 911, but she didn`t.
MOSS: Absolutely! And look at the picture of that neighborhood. The houses are close to each other! If there had been some intruder or some
love interest who came and did this horrific crime...
GRACE: She knew.
MOSS: ... there would have been screams!
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Put her up, please.
MOSS: Somebody would have called 911!
GRACE: You Know, Chris Spargo, this says to me -- based on what we just heard and what Windecher reiterated, this was a common routine. She knew
he was going to be there at 9:20 to get those girls, Chris Spargo, and she made sure they were dead and he would be the one to find them.
SPARGO: I mean, it`s certainly true that the father kept a very tight schedule, was always there at the same time to pick up his daughters.
[20:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: A Florida beach beauty marries her dream man and they set to live happily ever after. But what the bride doesn`t know, the hitman she
allegedly hires to murder her groom is a cop. That`s right. Cops sting the bride on video. She breaks down in hysterical tears crying over the dead
husband, but the so-called killer bride now says all that was just a reality show, an acting gig.
Well, tonight, bride Dalia Dippolito in hot water after she breaks all the rules, again, when she does a star turn on T.V. in an ABC "20/20" interview
and, will her lawyer now be thrown off the case?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DALIA DIPPOLITO, ACCUSED OF HIRING HITMAN TO KILL HUSBAND: It was a murder- for-hire episode. They were accusing me of trying to have my husband killed and I -- I didn`t.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She also haven`t (ph) been honest all along.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That`s from ABC`S "20/20". To jog your memory, take a look at Dalia Dippolito, who clearly, if you believe the video, hires a hitman to kill
her husband. Here she is in hysterical tears after she learns he is dead.
FRANK RANZIE, BOYNTON BEACH POLICE OFFICER: ... Ranzie. I`m the one who called you. Thank you for coming. I`m sorry to call you. Listen, we had a
report of a disturbance at your house and there were shots fired.
Is your husband, Michael? OK. I`m sorry to tell you, ma`am. He`s been killed.
DIPPOLITO: (CRYING)
RANZIE: He`s been killed, ma`am.
DIPPOLITO: No! (CRYING)
[20:35:00] RANZIE: Try to calm down. Right now we need to get you to the police station. I can`t let you go in there, ma`am. We have to do our job.
We need you to calm down. You need to go to the police station, OK? You need to go with these officers. Is there anyone who want to hurt ...
DIPPOLITO: (CRYING)
RANZIE: OK. Is there anyone who wants to hurt him? (Inaudible) that he saw a black male running from here. I can`t let you see it ma`am. Ma`am, I
cannot do this right now. Ma`am, I can`t.
DIPPOLITO: (CRYING)
RANZIE: I need you to take her to the station.
DIPPOLITO: (CRYING)
RANZIE: I can`t. Go with the detectives. If you want to help your husband, OK? If you want to help your husband, you need to go to the station with
these gentlemen and tell us everything you know about who he knows, who he`s connected to.
Don`t worry, we`ve already taken care of it with an animal control right now. Everything is under control, and we`ll take care of everything else,
OK? Thank you, guys.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible)?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know.
RANZIE: Hey, (Dan), are her keys in the truck? OK. Make sure we secure that. Just secure it for now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I just wanted you to see the bitter end where she pauses getting into the car, just to make sure everybody sees her crying and holding her
runny little nose, OK, to make sure everybody sees her in great pain, doubled over in grief after she, according to police, hires a hitman to
kill her husband.
And if you notice, when they tell her, her husband is dead, one cop is going - I mean, because they all know that this is being videoed to get her
reaction.
Straight out to Daphne Duret, criminal courts reporter with "The Palm Beach Post" in court for Dippolito`s testimony. OK, Daphne, thank you for being
with us. Explain to me how Dalia Dippolito broke the rules again and landed on T.V. in a "20/20" interview. Isn`t she under house arrest, Daphne?
DAPHNE DURET, "THE PALM BEACH POST" CRIMINAL COURTS REPORTER: Thanks for having me, Nancy. Yes, she is under house arrest and the judge in the case,
Judge Glenn Kelley, said that she was allowed to go to the offices of her Miami attorney to prepare for her retrial coming up in May.
But what he did not want her to do, and what she ended up doing, was going down to the offices for an interview for ABC`s "20/20". And the
prosecutors, after the judge brought it up, the prosecutors now have asked the judge to either revoke her bail and send her back to jail or raise her
bail so that she`ll have to pay more money to stay ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Wow! Wow. So, Stacey Newman, how did police figure out where she gave the "20/20" interview? I mean, how did they know for sure that she
violated the terms of her house - well, first of all, Stacey, she should never have had house arrest to start with, OK? Because she is charged with
hiring a hitman to commit murder, all right?
And, according to the husband`s lawyer, the then-divorce lawyer, she had tried to kill him before by poisoning him in a Starbucks tea, all right? So
this woman should never, ever have been on house arrest, she should have been in jail. But how did the cops ever figure out that she left the house
to do the interview?
STACEY NEWMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Nancy, they used satellite images and they were able to compare aerials ...
(CROSSTALK)
NEWMAN: ... they were able to compare aerial of her attorney`s office with video from the ABC "20/20" ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Wow!
NEWMAN: ... interview. That`s how they figured it out.
GRACE: That`s how they did it. OK, let`s take a listen to Dalia Dippolito clearly trying to tank the jury pool with a "20/20" interview. Take a
listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMY ROBACH, ABC`S "20/20" NEWS JOURNALIST: Did you want your husband dead?
D. DIPPOLITO: No, absolutely not.
ROBACH: Did you hire a hit man to kill your husband?
D. DIPPOLITO: No.
ROBACH: How do you explain what we have all seen and heard on those video tapes?
D. DIPPOLITO: I`d like to be able to explain that to you right now, but I can`t because the attorneys legally have told me that we`re saving that for
our day in court.
ROBACH: Did you ever love Mike Dippolito?
D. DIPPOLITO: I married him because I love him.
ROBACH: And now?
D. DIPPOLITO: Now, I wish I never would have met him.
MIKE DIPPOLITO, DALIA DIPPOLITO`S HUSBAND: I feel the same way. I wish -- I wish I would have made a left, not a right. Trust me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That`s from ABC`s "20/20". I want to go to Ben Levitan, telecommunications expert. How the they were they able to figure out just
by looking at her in this interview that she had broken the rules yet again, and given a very lengthy and interesting, I might say, ABC "20/20"
interview.
How did they figure out where she was so they could prove in court she violated house arrest?
[20:40:00] BEN LEVITAN, TELECOMMUNICATIONS EXPERT: Well, Nancy, I`m not so sure that this was a super high-tech solution. Yes, they could have figured
it out from where her office was and some clues, but it seems like there was some human intelligence here, Nancy. I don`t think this was a high-
tech, you know, Google search, for the attorney`s office.
GRACE: Right. Unleash the lawyers. Sue Moss, Windecher, and Margie Moe. OK, Margie Moe, she gets on "20/20" and talks about how much she loved her
husband and how she`s innocent.
At one point, she is compared to sweet, hard candy. I mean, really? Just in the hopes that some juror would see this and get sucked into it, Margie
Moe.
MARGARET MOE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, you are talking about her tainting the jury pool, but isn`t that essentially what you are doing, by convicting
her when ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Put her up.
MOE: ... her conviction has actually been overturned.
GRACE: Put her up. Put her up! She is going back to trial. She is still under attempted murder charges, Margie Moe. And let me remind you, look
around, Margie. Are you in a courtroom? I think you are in a T.V. studio.
I`m not under an order by the judge and neither are you. And isn`t it true, Sue Moss, under our Constitution, courtrooms are open and we can freely
discuss cases in court. That`s our constitutional right.
SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: Oh yeah, Freedom of Information Act. But the reality is this woman admitted in videotape her plan to hire a hitman
to kill her husband!
But now, what we are talking about, look, if a guy has a robe, you got to do exactly what you are told. She was given very strict instructions of
what she can and cannot do and she violated it. Look, it`s like being pregnant. When you are told something from a judge, you don`t do it a
little bit. You are not a little bit pregnant. You have to follow the word exactly as you are told.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. DIPPOLITO: Mohamed was on an episode of "Burn Notice" and we were trying to simulate the episode that he was on. It was a murder-for-hire episode.
It was somebody who had faked the murder prior. And it wasn`t -- it was an actor who had faked it.
RANZIE: Listen, we had a report of a disturbance at your house and there were shots fired.
Is your husband, Michael? OK. I`m sorry to tell you, ma`am. He`s been killed.
DIPPOLITO: (CRYING)
RANZIE: He`s been killed, ma`am.
DIPPOLITO: No! (CRYING)
RANZIE: Try to calm down. Right now we need to get you to the police station. I can`t let you go in there, ma`am. We have to do our job.
M. DIPPOLITO: Then what the (BEEP). You said you want to have me killed, I heard that.
D. DIPPOLITO: It`s not true.
M. DIPPOLITO: What is your problem?
D. DIPPOLITO: That is not true.
M. DIPPOLITO: How is it not true?
D. DIPPOLITO: How can you believe that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Did an Arkansas public defender, a practicing defense lawyer, arrange for sex at a local Hampton Inn with a child? Cops say he meets
online. Well, that child turns out to be an undercover police officer. You`re busted!
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Detective used an undercover profile to make contact with Stewart. Stewart is searching for a young guy, or son. The detective
told Stewart he was a 42-year-old male with a 13-year-old son. Stewart said he was interested in sexual contact with both of them.
According to the Probable Cause Affidavit they agreed to meet at the Fort Smith Hampton Inn. Stewart was the managing attorney and had worked in the
office for more than two years.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight to Darren "Maverick" Minor with KWHN. So, this guy has been practicing law for quite some time and he`s not just a public defender,
defense attorneys handled a lot of cases in that jurisdiction, he`s in charge of the Public Defenders Office. What happened, Darren?
DARREN MINOR, KWHN, NEWS DIRECTOR: Yeah, he`s the chief public defender, actually, of the office. It has eight public defenders in the office and
he`s got probably about 140 or 150 cases he`s working right now or was working right now.
And like I said, they set this all up, first of all, online upon their county sheriff. They have got to be -- they got to be happy. This is one of
several that they have been able to with their online crime ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait. Hold the picture. Hold on. Hey, back it up. Back it up. Forget the
cat. I want to go back to the other one.
Apparently, Darren Minor, joining me from KWHN, this guy is a world traveler, check it out. That looks like some Mayan ruins right there. I
think I saw a koala bear, there he is coming up from I don`t know, the catacombs?
All right, I just saw a shot of him that he has online of him -- there you go. I would say that`s Thailand, the child sex trade capital of the world.
It probably meant nothing until tonight.
So, Minor, let me ask you this, I don`t want to hear any arguments about entrapment. Who started this thing? Who started sex -- looking for sex with
a child?
MINOR: Well, he actually placed an online ad, and the folks in the Faulkner County Sheriff`s Online Crime Unit were trolling the ads, found the ad and
thought they found it interesting because it`s a guy looking for a young guy or a son-type. So they ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Did you say son, with an S-O-N, like father/son?
MINOR: Yes, like father/son, yes. And so they contacted ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Oh, there he is at some kid event. OK, that`s scary. Go ahead.
MINOR: Yeah. And they do what`s called "Family Play", which is basically a three-way with a father and a son. And so they set up, started talking
online and ...
(CROSSTALK)
[20:50:00] GRACE: Wait. Whoa! Whoa! OK. OK, whoa! Unleash the lawyers. Sue Moss, David Lee Windecher, Margie Moe. Let`s go to you Windecher. "Family
play"? He wants a man to bring his 12-, 13-year-old son along to meet up at the Hampton Inn? Did you hear that?
DAVID LEE WINDECHER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: What?
WINDECHER: ... these cases are despicable but let me tell you something, they are all ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Tell me.
WINDECHER: ... over American jurisdictions and guess what they end up in? A reduction. You know why? Because these people, while they have sick, sick
communications with a child, they don`t ever fall through with them. It becomes a sick fantasy ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Put him up.
WINDECHER: ... some taboo thing. It`s no way ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Don`t follow through? He shows up at a Hampton Inn with a duffel bag full of porn and sex tapes.
WINDECHER: He tried to ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: He shows up.
(CROSSTALK)
WINDECHER: ... back out of it. He tried to back out of it.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: When? When?
(CROSSTALK)
WINDECHER: He -- he said that ...
(CROSSTALK)
Windecher: ... to the investigator saying that he wasn`t feeling well and he didn`t want to do it. The investigator ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: That`s not what he said.
(CROSSTALK)
WINDECHER: ... pushed him to go forward.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: That`s not what he said. Margie Moe, what he said was he had not been feeling well earlier and he couldn`t do a two-hour drive to get to
their child molestation session but then they were welcome to drive up to him and they ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
Grace: ... and they said, sure. And he goes to the local Hampton Inn. That is what happened, Margie.
MOE: And he had a change of heart. First of all, let`s back up to the ad.
GRACE: When?
MOE: The ad said he was looking for a son or a younger man. It didn`t say a child. He`s 47 years old. His son could have been 20 years old. He wanted
somebody younger, a younger male to have sex with.
GRACE: OK.
MOE: There is no evidence that he wanted ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Let`s follow through.
(CROSSTALK)
MOE: ... a 30-year-old child.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Good point, Margie Moe.
(CROSSTALK)
MOE: ... entrap him.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Oh, she`s still talking. Margie, you made your point. Hold on. Michael Christian, what exactly was said? Was it -- didn`t he know the kid
was 13?
MICHAEL CHRISTIAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: He did, Nancy. The undercover officer said that he was a 42-year-old male with a 13-year-old son. He
asked this suspect if he was into "family play", meaning having sex with both of them at the same time and he responded that he was, according to
the police affidavit.
GRACE: Dr. Ish Major is joining me, Psychiatrist, author of "Little White Lies". Doctor, let me ask you this, this guy is a veteran defense attorney.
He had to know how stupid this was, but he couldn`t stop himself.
ISH MAJOR, PSYCHIATRIST: Absolutely, Nancy. Listen, our subconscious` drive for sexual gratification is a million times stronger than any conscience
intelligence that we have telling us not to do this. So he couldn`t stop it even if he wanted to.
[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Faulkner County Sheriff`s Office arrested former Sebastian County Public Defender Daniel Stewart during an online sex sting.
Without Stewart in the office, there are eight full-time public defenders left with his case work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It could potentially delay cases, which potentially delays the prosecutor`s work load, as well.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Darren "Maverick" Minor, KWHN, I guess you heard the defense lawyers, not you, Sue Moss, but the defense lawyers arguing, he
tried to back out.
Actually, he didn`t try to back out. For those of you just joining us, a veteran public defender, a defense lawyer, now charged and trying to
arrange underage sex at a local Hampton Inn.
Darren Minor, he didn`t try to back up, he showed up. All he did was ask them to come to him.
MINOR: Yeah, he actually walked into the hotel, walked up to the front desk when they were about five minutes away, he got a text saying we`re five
minutes away, we`ll meet you at the front desk.
He walked there to the front desk and there were five officers there including the officer that had been communicating with him all this time, a
couple of federal agents there too, so he was all in.
GRACE: So, Ben Levitan, telecommunications expert out of Raleigh, a lot of their communications were on Kik Messenger, can that be saved?
LEVITAN: No, Nancy. Kik is a small company, really popular with teenagers. It lets you instant message with people, and you can send messages and
video. It would be saved on the officer`s phone. He has the capability to do that. But Kik itself does not save this stuff. The other complication is
this is a Canadian company so you have to go through some Canadian ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Right.
LEVITAN: ... subpoena process ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Red tape.
LEVITAN: ... to get the information.
GRACE: And Sue Moss, bottom line, this guy is clearly going to be disbarred if he`s convicted, but what this means is that all the cases he has worked
on, Sue Moss, all those people sitting in jail are now going to say, we want our cases reversed because he`s a convicted felon.
MOSS: Not just everyone that he was the head prosecutor for, but everyone he`s ever, ever been involved with as a defense lawyer is going to say, I
had an ineffective counsel.
I mean, he didn`t go to the Hampton Inn just for the free breakfast. He was there for one purpose and one purpose only. I guess we`ll see how good of a
defense lawyer he really is now.
GRACE: Everybody, let`s stop and remember American hero South Carolina Officer Allen Jacobs, 28. Killed in the line of duty. Iraq war vet,
Greenville police SWAT. Dreamed of being FBI. Started landscaping and fence business with his Army buddy. Leaves behind a widow, two sons, a third
child on the way. Allen Jacobs, American hero.
Tonight, thoughts and prayers to the victims of a horrific terror attack in Brussels. Dozens killed, hundreds injured. We remember those who lost their
lives and those fighting for their lives.
And happy birthday, Mary-Michal, loves hanging out with friends, shopping and volunteering at church. Happy birthday, too, Mr. George, from Ghana.
Loves his wife and two children, his daughters and his church.
"Forensic Files" next. Thank you to our guests but most important tonight and every night, thank you to you for being with us. Nancy Grace, signing
off. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8 o`clock sharp, Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Murder mystery, dinner shows are often a fun way for amateur sleuths to ...
[21:00:00]
END
