Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / US Banker takes family on Anguilla vacation, charged with felony after struggle with hotel maintenance man who enters family hotel room AND a new bombshell in the case of Jussie Smollett

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US Banker takes family on Anguilla vacation, charged with felony after struggle with hotel maintenance man who enters family hotel room AND a new bombshell in the case of Jussie Smollett · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Authorities tell the Associated Press
0:14
Speaker 1: that Hapgood's young daughters were in the hotel room when
0:18
Speaker 1: Kenny Mitchell was killed. Investigators have not reported a motive
0:21
Speaker 1: for his death, and in Guillian officials say they're struggling
0:24
Speaker 1: to find answers to the many questions that remain in
0:27
Speaker 1: this case, and Guilla's police department says officers were called
0:31
Speaker 1: to investigate Kenny Mitchell's death shortly after four pm on
0:34
Speaker 1: April thirteenth. The twenty seven year old father worked at
0:40
Speaker 1: a luxury resort on the island's west end, and autopsy
0:43
Speaker 1: report shows he was beaten and choked to death. Three
0:46
Speaker 1: days later, police charged Scott Hapgood with manslaughter. The forty
0:50
Speaker 1: four year old from Connecticut was vacationing on the island
0:52
Speaker 1: with his family and staying at the hotel where Mitchell
0:55
Speaker 1: was allegedly employed as a maintenance worker. A spokeswoman for
0:58
Speaker 1: Hapgood says the workers show up unannounced in uniform at
1:01
Speaker 1: the hotel room, claiming he was there to fix a
1:04
Speaker 1: broken sink before carrying out his sudden violent attack on
1:07
Speaker 1: the family. She alleges he was armed and demanding money.
1:11
Speaker 1: Mitchell's uncle victor says that's not true. Hapgood was originally
1:14
Speaker 1: denied bail from prison, but later released on a seventy
1:18
Speaker 1: four thousand dollar bond following an appeal from his attorney.
1:21
Speaker 1: Local reports say many Anguillans are angry and demanding Hapgood
1:24
Speaker 1: return to the island to face justice. How did a
1:27
Speaker 1: UBS investment banker, a forty four year old father of
1:32
Speaker 1: two little girls, vacation in Anguilla with his wife and children,
1:37
Speaker 1: end up being charged with homicide? What happened in that
1:42
Speaker 1: luxury hotel room? I mean, see, Grace, this is crime stories.
1:45
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us. I'm talking about dad
1:48
Speaker 1: and husband, Scott Hapgood. The facts are very, very murky,
1:54
Speaker 1: but this much I do know. The father, Scott Hapgood,
1:59
Speaker 1: was in his own hotel room. His two little daughters
2:03
Speaker 1: were also in the hotel room when the maintenance worker
2:08
Speaker 1: comes in. I know that much, and those facts alone
2:13
Speaker 1: tell me a lot. I know this father wasn't out
2:17
Speaker 1: drunk at a bar getting into a fistfight. I know
2:20
Speaker 1: he didn't run the guy down on the side of
2:21
Speaker 1: the road. I know there wasn't a gun involve which
2:25
Speaker 1: in my mind lends itself to a certain degree of premeditation.
2:30
Speaker 1: The father was in his own hotel room on vacation
2:35
Speaker 1: with his two little girls when a male maintenance worker
2:40
Speaker 1: comes in the hotel room. Let's just jump off from
2:44
Speaker 1: there with me an all star panel. Bobby Chicone, FBI
2:48
Speaker 1: Special Agent, doctor William July, licensed clinical Psychologist, doctor Chris Sperry,
2:55
Speaker 1: former chief Medical Examiner, and John Linley Crime online dot
2:59
Speaker 1: Com investigative reporter Okay Lemley. How does a well respective
3:05
Speaker 1: investment banker, forty four year old husband and father of
3:09
Speaker 1: two end up charged with homicide when he was in
3:13
Speaker 1: his own room in a hotel with his children with
3:16
Speaker 1: the door locked. The story we hear, Nancy is that
3:19
Speaker 1: the round four pm, late afternoon, a security worker at
3:23
Speaker 1: this luxurious resort was alerted by other employees that there
3:27
Speaker 1: was some commotion going on in one of the hotel's suites.
3:31
Speaker 1: And when he arrives, the security guard and other members
3:35
Speaker 1: find Scott Halfgood on top of this maintenance worker, Kenny Mitchell,
3:41
Speaker 1: has him in a choke hold with his knee and
3:43
Speaker 1: Mitchell's back, And as we've heard in that news clip,
3:47
Speaker 1: Halfgood's children and wife were right there in the room.
3:50
Speaker 1: In fact, his wife was reportedly filming the incident on
3:54
Speaker 1: her cell phone. Wait, whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa? Wait
3:56
Speaker 1: wait wait, Bobby to come, I special agent. The wife
4:02
Speaker 1: is filming the incident. That tells me it's not something
4:06
Speaker 1: nefarious on the dad. Have Good's fault because why would
4:11
Speaker 1: your wife film you doing something wrong? I mean, chacone,
4:17
Speaker 1: help me out. That's right? And yeah, you're exactly right, Nancy,
4:20
Speaker 1: And that's this is going to be the lynch pin
4:21
Speaker 1: to this case. I mean, what's on that tape? I've
4:24
Speaker 1: heard it from several different sources now that this was happening.
4:27
Speaker 1: So I'm assuming the authorities have seen this tape. If not,
4:32
Speaker 1: I'm assuming his lawyers have Good's lawyers have at least
4:36
Speaker 1: seen the video. What's on that phone? And that's going
4:38
Speaker 1: to really be a major major piece of evidence in
4:41
Speaker 1: this case. Okay, call me provincial, but I get very
4:46
Speaker 1: nervous when a US citizen goes abroad and suddenly they
4:50
Speaker 1: catch a homicide charge. How does that happen? Okay, I
4:55
Speaker 1: just scared myself. Doctor Chris Berry, former chief medical Examiner,
5:00
Speaker 1: you and I prosecuted a lot of homicides together. Well,
5:04
Speaker 1: you didn't prosecute you were, you know, an objective purveyor
5:08
Speaker 1: of the truth. But I just caught myself using defense
5:12
Speaker 1: attorney language. You catch a charge like somebody just throws
5:15
Speaker 1: it at you. Typically you do something very very bad
5:19
Speaker 1: to be charged with a felony. But this guy's in inguilla.
5:23
Speaker 1: He's now charged with beating and strangling or asphyxiating. This
5:28
Speaker 1: mentionance worker did, how do we know? How can you
5:31
Speaker 1: look at a body, doctor Sperry and determinus asphyxiation, strangling, suffocation. Well,
5:37
Speaker 1: usually there's the presence of injuries around the neck that
5:42
Speaker 1: would show that there has been compression of the neck
5:45
Speaker 1: of some way. There has been fingers, fingernails, fingernail marks,
5:51
Speaker 1: something like that. And what we'll see is also what
5:55
Speaker 1: are called particual hemorrhages or little pinpoint hemorrhages on the
5:59
Speaker 1: surfaces of the eyes or the face, and then the
6:01
Speaker 1: lips and those especially the adults, are very reliable external
6:07
Speaker 1: size that there has been some kind of neck compression,
6:10
Speaker 1: a strangulation, something like that. Let me ask you a question,
6:14
Speaker 1: doctor Chris Berry, when you say, if you are asphyxiated,
6:17
Speaker 1: and that could be smothered with a pillow, it could
6:20
Speaker 1: be a plastic bag over your head. I think that's
6:22
Speaker 1: one of the first cases you and I had where
6:25
Speaker 1: a woman was asphyxiated with a laundry bag over her head.
6:30
Speaker 1: She breathed the laundry bag up into her nose and mouth,
6:33
Speaker 1: and I remember asking you, what are those particles around
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Speaker 1: her nose and mouth, and you said, oh, that's where
6:40
Speaker 1: we had to pick the plastic off her face because
6:43
Speaker 1: she had breathed in the laundry bag trying desperately to breathe.
6:47
Speaker 1: So smother asphyxiation strangulation, be it manual with your hands
6:54
Speaker 1: or ligature with a let's just say a nylon stocking.
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Speaker 1: But all of those cases, do you have the hemorrhaging
7:02
Speaker 1: of the particular in the eyes and what is that
7:05
Speaker 1: the little pitpoint hemorrhages The potiquii come from pressure. That's
7:11
Speaker 1: either pressure on the veins in the neck that prevent
7:15
Speaker 1: the blood from flowing back down into the heart and
7:17
Speaker 1: so little blood vessels rupture. And they're also caused by pressure,
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Speaker 1: intense pressure in the chest if a person is struggling
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Speaker 1: to breathe and can't and when they when this happens,
7:31
Speaker 1: the pressure inside of the heart extends up into the
7:36
Speaker 1: veins in the neck and the face and causes these
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Speaker 1: little ruptures. So with smothering and strangulation, ligature strangulation, manual strangulation,
7:47
Speaker 1: we see the particular hemorrhages very very frequently. With something
7:51
Speaker 1: like a plastic bag over the face, it can be
7:53
Speaker 1: much more difficult. They usually they usually are some potiquii,
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Speaker 1: but sometimes very very few. It could be very difficult,
8:02
Speaker 1: and if the perpetrator removes the plastic bag after the
8:05
Speaker 1: person is dead, it could be almost impossible to determine
8:09
Speaker 1: why the person died. Well, it doesn't make sense to me,
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Speaker 1: doctor Williams. Do you lie psychologists joining us why a
8:15
Speaker 1: forty four year old dad would attack someone without read
8:20
Speaker 1: for no reason in his hotel room, in front of
8:23
Speaker 1: his two little girls and his wife. Well, Nancy, I
8:26
Speaker 1: certainly agree with what you said earlier. I think it
8:29
Speaker 1: all gives us the creeps when we hear a story
8:31
Speaker 1: like this, because when we're traveling abroad, it's our worst
8:33
Speaker 1: nightmare for something like this to happen. I want to
8:35
Speaker 1: preface what I say with that people have a behavioral
8:42
Speaker 1: history which usually not always, not always, but usually indicates
8:47
Speaker 1: a pattern of behavior or at least some red flags
8:51
Speaker 1: or maybe some yellow flags of things that they might
8:53
Speaker 1: be capable of doing in the future. So I would
8:57
Speaker 1: be interested if I were involved in this case as
9:00
Speaker 1: a psychologist, of going back through his psychological history and
9:04
Speaker 1: story at psychological type story, what if any indication or
9:10
Speaker 1: evidence is there that he would do something like this.
9:13
Speaker 1: And it's usually you have to talk to collatibal interviews
9:15
Speaker 1: with people that know the person, because there are things
9:18
Speaker 1: that people the average person will miss that I probably
9:20
Speaker 1: wouldn't miss. The father was in his own hotel room.
9:25
Speaker 1: His two little daughters were also in the hotel room.
9:30
Speaker 1: When the maintenance worker comes in, the father, Scott Hapgood,
9:35
Speaker 1: ends up charged with homicide when he was in his
9:39
Speaker 1: own room in a hotel with his children with the
9:42
Speaker 1: door locked. We'll have another ten bit a piece of
9:44
Speaker 1: the puzzle to doctor Chris Sperry. This is very very important,
9:49
Speaker 1: doctor Sperry. He didn't die from strangulation. He died from
9:54
Speaker 1: asphyxia because of position positional asphyxia. Like when a little
10:01
Speaker 1: baby is put to sleep in a car seat and
10:03
Speaker 1: its little head bends down toward his chest, it can
10:07
Speaker 1: actually suffocate that way because if it's position. That tells
10:13
Speaker 1: me a lot. Explain why that's so significant, Doctor Sperry, Well,
10:17
Speaker 1: that indicates that either the suspect had control over the
10:23
Speaker 1: person like is described here behind him with a knee
10:28
Speaker 1: in his back and an arm across his chest, and
10:32
Speaker 1: by putting pressure on his back, had him in a
10:35
Speaker 1: position where he just could not breathe adequately. And sometimes
10:40
Speaker 1: this can extend to be even very complicated, where someone
10:43
Speaker 1: is tied in a hog tie position with their hands
10:46
Speaker 1: tied behind their back and their feet brought up and
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Speaker 1: tied to the hands, and if any at that point
10:52
Speaker 1: they're helpless, and if any weight of any sort or
10:55
Speaker 1: pressure is put on their back, that is positional asphyxia
11:00
Speaker 1: and will cause the person to die from inability to
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Speaker 1: breathe properly. Take a listen to this. Still a lot
11:06
Speaker 1: of questions about what led to this deadly incident inside
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Speaker 1: Halfgood's hotel room, but today a spokesman for the Royal
11:13
Speaker 1: and Guilla Police Force confirmed his young daughters were there
11:16
Speaker 1: at the time. This video shows Gavin Scott Halfgood in
11:22
Speaker 1: handcuffs while on vacation in am Gwilla, charged with the
11:25
Speaker 1: death of an employee at the hotel where Halfgood was
11:28
Speaker 1: staying with his family. The victim twenty seven year old
11:31
Speaker 1: Kenny Mitchell, a maintenance worker at the five star Molly
11:34
Speaker 1: o'hannah resort. Mitchell's death certificate shows he died from prone restraint,
11:39
Speaker 1: asphyxia and blood forced trauma to his head, neck and torso.
11:44
Speaker 1: Mister Mitchell Katy was a hard walking young man, fun
11:48
Speaker 1: and entertaining, but most of all he was a son,
11:52
Speaker 1: a brother, and uncle, and more importantly a father. Hayden
11:57
Speaker 1: Hughes is a former member of Parliament who's become the
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Speaker 1: spoke person for the group now working for justice for Mitchell.
12:03
Speaker 1: Hapgood was initially denied bail but later released on seventy
12:07
Speaker 1: four thousand dollars bond. Angering many people in Anguilla. Has
12:13
Speaker 1: pleased to spot late on the views of justice, and
12:16
Speaker 1: it is apparent that there's a real need for criminal
12:18
Speaker 1: justice reform. Halfgood is now back in the United States.
12:22
Speaker 1: He works as a financial advisor for UBS, which issued
12:25
Speaker 1: this statement. We are aware of the recent events in
12:28
Speaker 1: Anguilla and are following the situation closely. As you will appreciate,
12:31
Speaker 1: it would not be appropriate for us to provide any
12:34
Speaker 1: comment in relation to an active criminal proceeding. Half Good's
12:37
Speaker 1: attorney did not return calls for comment. Halfgod is expected
12:41
Speaker 1: back in court in Anguilla on August twenty second. You're
12:44
Speaker 1: hearing from our friend Maurica Altar at News twelve, Connecticut.
12:47
Speaker 1: I just got to tell you something, and everybody held
12:49
Speaker 1: onto your hat. I don't believe that's the way this happened,
12:52
Speaker 1: because I don't think that this is a murder. And
12:56
Speaker 1: I'll tell you why. There may be facts that suggest otherwise.
12:59
Speaker 1: Is the case develops. But this guy is in his room,
13:03
Speaker 1: minding his own business with his wife and his two
13:05
Speaker 1: young daughters, his hotel room with the door locked. He's
13:09
Speaker 1: a forty four year old man who is the aggressor.
13:14
Speaker 1: The twenty seven year old maintenance worker is the one
13:16
Speaker 1: who comes in the room. He did not seek this
13:19
Speaker 1: guy out. He didn't have a fight at a bar,
13:21
Speaker 1: blah blah. As I've already described. The maintenance worker comes
13:25
Speaker 1: in the room, a father almost twice the guy's age,
13:31
Speaker 1: picks a fight with a twenty seven year old maintenance worker. No,
13:36
Speaker 1: and what is even more compelling to me is the
13:39
Speaker 1: mode of death, the cause of death. It is not
13:43
Speaker 1: a knife wound, It is not a bullet. It is
13:47
Speaker 1: positional asphyxia. For some reason, this forty four year old
13:51
Speaker 1: husband and dad had the guy on the ground holding him,
13:55
Speaker 1: and because of the position in which he was being held,
13:59
Speaker 1: he suffocated. That shows me there may not have been
14:02
Speaker 1: intent even to kill, but to restrain. To Bobby Chicon,
14:08
Speaker 1: retired FBI Special Agent way In, Yeah, I think the
14:12
Speaker 1: difficult part in this case is going to be because
14:16
Speaker 1: of what you said in the positional asphyxia. We're going
14:19
Speaker 1: to really need a good friends examination that room, and
14:22
Speaker 1: in some of these farm cases that I've involved in,
14:24
Speaker 1: we haven't gotten that. And so people people entered that room,
14:27
Speaker 1: security personnel, hotel personnel. We're gonna want to know where
14:30
Speaker 1: the position of the furniture is, the condition of the
14:32
Speaker 1: furniture beyond what's on the may be on the wife's
14:34
Speaker 1: cell phone video, and we're gonna want to know the
14:37
Speaker 1: forensics of that where where blood may have been on
14:40
Speaker 1: the carpet, things like that, and uh, you know, I
14:43
Speaker 1: hope that there was a very good friends examination done
14:46
Speaker 1: of that room, But like I said, in some of
14:48
Speaker 1: these farm cases that I've worked, we just haven't got
14:51
Speaker 1: that forens And once that scene has been contaminated, it's lost,
14:55
Speaker 1: and so you're going to have he said, She said,
14:58
Speaker 1: if you don't have definitive evid it's on that video.
15:01
Speaker 1: On a small island like this, those hotel personnel and
15:03
Speaker 1: those security for the hotel are going to be under
15:06
Speaker 1: tremendous pressure, public pressure, as you've already seen with one
15:09
Speaker 1: of the radio DJ's host down there. I'm putting tremendous
15:12
Speaker 1: pressure on finding this guy guilty. And so you know,
15:16
Speaker 1: you may not beginning the honest from the hotel personnel
15:19
Speaker 1: that we're in that room with something else. You said,
15:22
Speaker 1: Bobby chican Is, I don't necessarily trust other police departments
15:26
Speaker 1: in other countries to perform a sophisticated forensic sweep of
15:32
Speaker 1: the room, exactly what I mean. And that's true and
15:36
Speaker 1: smaller jurisdictions in the US because they don't do it
15:39
Speaker 1: every day. It's something new, and I don't know what
15:43
Speaker 1: methods they have to say that forensic evidence. But I
15:45
Speaker 1: can tell you this, and once you take a listen
15:47
Speaker 1: to my buddy at CBS two, Tony Aella in an
15:49
Speaker 1: idyllic suburb, A family nightmare. Longtime Darien resident Scott Hapgood,
15:54
Speaker 1: a high school football star in the early nineties. Now
15:57
Speaker 1: charged with manslaughter. Police and Will say on April thirteenth,
16:01
Speaker 1: Halfgood killed hotel worker Kenny Mitchell, beating and choking him.
16:05
Speaker 1: It happened at the upscale Mali Ohama resort, where Mitchell
16:09
Speaker 1: worked as a maintenance man. Now a statement from a
16:12
Speaker 1: spokeswoman for Hapgood quote, attacked without warning in his family's
16:16
Speaker 1: hotel room by a maintenance worker who was armed and
16:18
Speaker 1: demanding money. Scott Hapgood acted in self defense to protect
16:22
Speaker 1: the lives of his young daughters and himself. The spokeswoman
16:25
Speaker 1: says Mitchell came to the room on a pretense before
16:28
Speaker 1: attacking Hapgood quote. The Hapgood family is traumatized by the assault.
16:32
Speaker 1: They survived and are thankful to be alive. Eighteen hundred
16:36
Speaker 1: miles from Dry Anne, people in Anguilla are closely monitoring
16:40
Speaker 1: developments in the case. Mitchell has described as a gentle
16:44
Speaker 1: family man who doated on his daughter and loved his job.
16:47
Speaker 1: Some find it hard to believe Mitchell Wood suddenly turn
16:50
Speaker 1: to violence. There's also anger. Hapgood was granted bond and
16:53
Speaker 1: allowed to fly back to the States. He's under orders
16:56
Speaker 1: to return for a court date in August. You know
17:00
Speaker 1: telling you when you prosecute a case. After you get
17:02
Speaker 1: your case ready, the next thing you do is you
17:06
Speaker 1: anticipate what the defense is going to do so you
17:08
Speaker 1: can prepare for it. And I am telling you right now,
17:12
Speaker 1: the fact that this maintenance worker died of positional asphyxia,
17:17
Speaker 1: that he is the one that came into their room,
17:21
Speaker 1: according to them, demanding money and armed with a knife.
17:26
Speaker 1: I don't think the state's got a very strong case.
17:29
Speaker 1: I'll go out on a limb. I don't think how
17:31
Speaker 1: good is guilty And it'd be a cold day and
17:36
Speaker 1: you know where before I would go along with having
17:39
Speaker 1: my husband extradited back to Anguilla for a little home
17:43
Speaker 1: cooking barbecue by a local jury in Oh. I don't know.
17:49
Speaker 1: I agree with you, Nancy this, Chris. I've seen a
17:53
Speaker 1: lot of kind of combinations like this before. But the
17:57
Speaker 1: head injuries, nick injuries, positional asphyxia, with his wife and
18:01
Speaker 1: kids there, that all sounds like a struggle that he
18:04
Speaker 1: managed to, you know, get control over the guy um
18:08
Speaker 1: and unfortunately the guy died. But that's that's really what
18:13
Speaker 1: it sounds like, the knockdown, drag out fight. One thing
18:15
Speaker 1: we didn't talk about is that the security guard warned
18:18
Speaker 1: the other staff members not to intervene in the fight
18:21
Speaker 1: because his wife was filming the inside. I'm with you, guys,
18:25
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't. I'm never a big believer in
18:27
Speaker 1: uh in motive, you don't have to prove it from
18:29
Speaker 1: most statutes. But I'm struggling with what could possibly be
18:33
Speaker 1: the motive of this guy with his wife and two
18:35
Speaker 1: kids in the room, to you know, to brutally attack
18:37
Speaker 1: this guy unprovoked, you know, so what you know, the
18:41
Speaker 1: motive has been proffered that you know, it was a robbery,
18:44
Speaker 1: that's understandable. But the opposite motive of why this guy
18:47
Speaker 1: would just unsolicited, you call this guy who was room
18:50
Speaker 1: lure him to a room so he could beat him
18:52
Speaker 1: to death in front of his wife and kids, that
18:53
Speaker 1: just doesn't seem like a believable motive. Yeah, I agree, Chris.
18:57
Speaker 1: One thing we're going to have to look at is
18:59
Speaker 1: a day the guy came to the room to fix
19:01
Speaker 1: a broken sink. Was there a complaint for a broken sink?
19:05
Speaker 1: Was he really dispatched for that reason? There's so many
19:07
Speaker 1: more facts, and I just do not trust any foreign
19:11
Speaker 1: government to give the a US citizen a fair trial
19:14
Speaker 1: I just sorry, I just don't trust them. I think
19:26
Speaker 1: Jesse Smillett should come clear because of truthful set him free.
19:30
Speaker 1: Bold words from the attorney of Abel and Ola Osan
19:33
Speaker 1: Darrow brothers, who spent hours talking to prosecutors in a
19:36
Speaker 1: grand jury. They are the same men, police sayer in
19:39
Speaker 1: this surveillance photo and its evidence, Jesse Smilette told Robin
19:43
Speaker 1: Roberts shows his attackers. I don't have any doubt in
19:47
Speaker 1: my mind that that's there. The Empire actor who told
19:52
Speaker 1: police two mass men beat him yelling racial and homophobic
19:56
Speaker 1: slurs in Chicago Streeterville neighborhood is now charged with his
20:00
Speaker 1: own alleged crime, the Cook County State's Attorney's office saying
20:03
Speaker 1: Smilette faces one felony count of disorderly conduct stemming from
20:07
Speaker 1: filing a false police report. I think that Jesse's conscience
20:10
Speaker 1: is probably not letting him sleep right now, so I
20:12
Speaker 1: think he should unload that conscience and just come out
20:15
Speaker 1: and tell the American people. Would actually have. Smilett's lawyers
20:18
Speaker 1: fired back, releasing his statement saying, quote, like any other citizen,
20:22
Speaker 1: mister Spilett enjoys the presumption of innocence given the circumstances,
20:26
Speaker 1: we intend to conduct a thorough investigation and to mount
20:29
Speaker 1: an aggressive defense. That's Robbie Glass at Chicago ABC seven.
20:36
Speaker 1: Jesse Smoilett, as you know, the disgraced actor, the star
20:40
Speaker 1: on the Hitch Show Empire. He's in a hole, heap
20:45
Speaker 1: of trouble after he stages an alleged fake hoax hate
20:51
Speaker 1: crime on himself. Now all of his charges has seemingly
20:56
Speaker 1: been dropped. The prosecutor has been put under subpoena by
21:01
Speaker 1: a sitting judge wanting to know why the charges were dropped.
21:05
Speaker 1: Not only that, the two brothers Osandaro brothers have in
21:09
Speaker 1: the last hours filed a lawsuit against the Empire actors lawyers,
21:16
Speaker 1: including Mark here Goes, because of the way they claim
21:20
Speaker 1: they the brothers have been portrayed in this whole thing.
21:24
Speaker 1: Now that's a bombshell for many reasons. I mean, as
21:27
Speaker 1: he grace this his crime stories, thank you for being
21:29
Speaker 1: with us at this hour. The lead prosecutor, Kim Fox,
21:33
Speaker 1: has been ordered to appear in court over the Jesse
21:38
Speaker 1: Smilette scandal. The judge slapping the prosecutor with a subpoena
21:42
Speaker 1: over the way she handled the smilette case after she
21:45
Speaker 1: drops all six steam charges against the Hollywood star, joining
21:52
Speaker 1: me all Star Pandel, Bobbi Chico, an FBI special agent,
21:55
Speaker 1: doctor William July psychologist, doctor Chris Sperry medical examiner, and
21:59
Speaker 1: John Linley Crime online dot Com investigative reporter John. What
22:03
Speaker 1: is happening? Well, where to begin? Will begin with Kim Fox,
22:06
Speaker 1: Chicago's top prosecutor that you just mentioned. She has been
22:10
Speaker 1: subpoena to appear at a court hearing regarding her handling
22:14
Speaker 1: of the Jesse Smilette attack. I put that in air quotes.
22:18
Speaker 1: The state's attorney was hit with the subpoena by a
22:22
Speaker 1: retired a Pellet judge who's seeking the appointment of a
22:25
Speaker 1: special prosecutor to look into how Kim dealt with this
22:29
Speaker 1: super controversial case. Well, let's just start at the beginning.
22:33
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the actual case itself. Jessee Smlette,
22:37
Speaker 1: the Empire star, had been out of town. He flies
22:40
Speaker 1: home to Chicago, gets to his penthouse apartment around two o'clock,
22:45
Speaker 1: according to him, in sub zero temperatures. Smilette decides he's
22:50
Speaker 1: got the thungrease. Okay. He puts on his coat and
22:55
Speaker 1: goes out again to am subzero temperatures in Chicago, that
23:00
Speaker 1: right to go to subway. Okay, it's his theory, Smolett,
23:06
Speaker 1: that someone had been sending him hate mail and death
23:09
Speaker 1: threats to work and that these same nefarious near duels
23:16
Speaker 1: were waiting for him at two am near the subway
23:21
Speaker 1: sandwich shop knowing I guess he was going to have
23:25
Speaker 1: a subway attack. He had to have a subway sandwich.
23:31
Speaker 1: Now how they knew that, I do not know and
23:34
Speaker 1: why they agreed to brave sub zero temperatures to beat
23:38
Speaker 1: up Jesse Smolette don't know that either. But video surveillance
23:42
Speaker 1: doesn't show the actual attack, but it does show the
23:45
Speaker 1: two Osandara brothers leaving the attack, and Smolette says on
23:50
Speaker 1: National TV to our friend Robin Roberts that they are
23:53
Speaker 1: his attackers. Well, it turns out they're also his friends
23:56
Speaker 1: that he has been paying for very rolls like as
24:02
Speaker 1: a trainer. Take a listen to George Stephanopolis on GMA.
24:08
Speaker 1: He knew it was the brothers, didn't he? He did not.
24:10
Speaker 1: The attackers were masked. He only saw one of them.
24:13
Speaker 1: One of them approached him from behind, and he was
24:16
Speaker 1: wearing a mask, and so he did not identify them.
24:20
Speaker 1: He initially had a really hard time believing that they
24:22
Speaker 1: could be involved because he knew one of them, and
24:25
Speaker 1: we can only speculate estimilization. You know, the police say
24:28
Speaker 1: they have phone records of him talking to the brothers
24:30
Speaker 1: an hour before the attack, absolutely hour after the attack,
24:33
Speaker 1: and while they're in Africa after not an hour after
24:36
Speaker 1: the attack that they said, that's completely false. And I've
24:39
Speaker 1: seen the phone records and they've been produced. And one
24:41
Speaker 1: thing I do also want to put out there, and
24:43
Speaker 1: you're saying he did talk to the brothers, He absolutely
24:45
Speaker 1: talked to them because he had just hired the one
24:47
Speaker 1: brother to train him for his upcoming music video for
24:50
Speaker 1: training a nutrition, which the brothers have now confirmed that
24:53
Speaker 1: that's actually what the check was for. And this is
24:55
Speaker 1: again one of the misstatements out there that Eddie Johnson
24:58
Speaker 1: went and held his press conferences said that the check
25:00
Speaker 1: was for the stage at a time. Their lawyer did
25:02
Speaker 1: tell me that. But you're saying he talked to them
25:04
Speaker 1: an hour before the attecht absolutely them that attacked them, absolutely,
25:07
Speaker 1: and the reason he talked to them was there were
25:09
Speaker 1: if you look at the text messages leading up to
25:11
Speaker 1: the night of the incident. There's ample texts about training,
25:16
Speaker 1: a nutrition, and they were supposed to actually train that night.
25:18
Speaker 1: Jesse was flying in from New York and his flight
25:20
Speaker 1: was delayed for four hours, so he was constantly texting
25:23
Speaker 1: and communicating about their planned training session. They were supposed
25:26
Speaker 1: to train that night as well as the next morning.
25:28
Speaker 1: And he eventually texted him when he landed and said,
25:33
Speaker 1: now it was way too late. And he texted him
25:34
Speaker 1: and let him know that he landed late. They actually
25:37
Speaker 1: spoke by phone as well, and so he absolutely knew
25:41
Speaker 1: that he was on his way home. And if the
25:44
Speaker 1: brothers are saying that he helped them stage this attack,
25:46
Speaker 1: you're saying the brothers are lying. Absolutely, they're not telling
25:48
Speaker 1: the truth. No, Okay, that's our friend George Jefanopolis at
25:51
Speaker 1: GMA speaking to one of the last lawyers, Tina Giandian.
25:56
Speaker 1: So he's texting with the brothers just before they attack him.
26:01
Speaker 1: How did they know to be there at two am
26:02
Speaker 1: outside the subway sandwich shop? Okay? And also what about
26:08
Speaker 1: those letters if the crazy death threats he was getting
26:13
Speaker 1: at work. Now, hold on just a moment, I want
26:16
Speaker 1: you to hear our friend Nick Smith at Fox five
26:20
Speaker 1: regarding what the brothers say. The adjusse Smallette case is
26:22
Speaker 1: back in the headlines, this time because the actor's legal
26:26
Speaker 1: team is facing a lawsuit. Fox Five's Nick Smith joins
26:29
Speaker 1: us slide from the newsroom with these latest developments. This
26:31
Speaker 1: is a story that just does not end. Blake so
26:33
Speaker 1: many twists and turns. Now, the latest twist involves the
26:35
Speaker 1: two brothers who say they were paid to help Smolette
26:38
Speaker 1: stage an attack against him. Tonight, those personal trainers are
26:41
Speaker 1: suing Smallest lawyers for defamation, the two brothers saying they're
26:44
Speaker 1: filing the lawsuit because Smallest attorneys lie to the media
26:47
Speaker 1: and try to make it appear that they were the
26:49
Speaker 1: culprits in a real, homophobic and racist attack. Now the
26:53
Speaker 1: suit doubles down, saying the brothers never knew Smallette would
26:56
Speaker 1: go to the police because he was simply staging the
26:58
Speaker 1: attack for social media. They were asked to do something
27:02
Speaker 1: by a friend who they trusted, and at the end
27:04
Speaker 1: of the day, that friend betrayed their trust. They've realized
27:08
Speaker 1: that it was wrong, they've apologized for it, and they've
27:12
Speaker 1: expressed more than once that they are tremendously regretful for
27:16
Speaker 1: the role that they played in it, but make no mistake,
27:20
Speaker 1: they had no role in calling the police and they
27:23
Speaker 1: had no role in defrauding the police department. The brothers
27:28
Speaker 1: say as a result of the alleged defamation, they suffered
27:30
Speaker 1: extreme emotional distress, humiliation, anxiety, and damages to current and
27:35
Speaker 1: prospective business relations. Now TMZ reports that the brothers have
27:38
Speaker 1: also had a tough time finding work both as actors
27:41
Speaker 1: and personal trainers in the wake of the scandal. Now,
27:44
Speaker 1: one detail that has many scratching their heads tonight Blake
27:47
Speaker 1: the fact that these brothers did not sue Jesse Smolette. Instead,
27:51
Speaker 1: they're targeting his legal team crime stories with Nancy Grace.
28:09
Speaker 1: You know, doctor Sperry, I would come in from one trial,
28:13
Speaker 1: one jury trial, very often with you as a witness,
28:16
Speaker 1: to my office and find typically one hundred and fifty
28:19
Speaker 1: brand new felonies for me to start working on. I
28:22
Speaker 1: assume it was the same way at the medical examiner's office.
28:25
Speaker 1: Oh yes, yeah, yeah, when one case ends, five order beer.
28:30
Speaker 1: Oh yes. And what is driving me so crazy about this,
28:32
Speaker 1: doctor Sperry, is that by Smollette telling cops he was
28:38
Speaker 1: the victim of a hate crime because he was gay
28:41
Speaker 1: and African American. Dozens of detectives were working in that
28:44
Speaker 1: case night and day. It was a high profile hate crime,
28:49
Speaker 1: and that takes police and detect gives away from real crimes,
28:54
Speaker 1: real victims who were looking for answers. Doctor Sperry. Absolutely,
28:58
Speaker 1: that's you know, there's all so many police, and you know,
29:02
Speaker 1: if they're overburdened or if they're charged with going after
29:06
Speaker 1: something like this where it's chasing ghosts, they spend thousands
29:10
Speaker 1: of man hours and doing that. It's the same way
29:12
Speaker 1: with medical examiners. You know, if we get you know,
29:15
Speaker 1: we have to Sometimes we're told we have to go
29:18
Speaker 1: down a certain path because a certain set of circumstances occurred,
29:22
Speaker 1: when it never did. We waste a lot of time.
29:25
Speaker 1: You know, I want to go to doctor William July. Psychologists.
29:28
Speaker 1: What do you make of the fact that the brothers
29:31
Speaker 1: are suing Smolette has never sued saying, hey, all these
29:35
Speaker 1: claims were fake. It's hurt my reputation. I demand justice.
29:40
Speaker 1: The brothers are the ones saying you lied about me,
29:43
Speaker 1: not Smolette. Yeah, it sounds like the story is unraveling
29:47
Speaker 1: and people are running for cover, which is what we
29:50
Speaker 1: see in situation like this. These guys, for whatever reason,
29:54
Speaker 1: are now saying, Hey, we've had enough and now we're
29:57
Speaker 1: going to tell our side of the door before we
30:00
Speaker 1: get dropped into grief thrown under the butt. Yeah. And
30:03
Speaker 1: I think the one that's demanding the truth come out
30:05
Speaker 1: is the one who's not afraid of the truth, and
30:07
Speaker 1: that would be the Oceandaro brothers. You know. To doctor
30:10
Speaker 1: Chris Sperry Smilett's injuries, I'm looking at them immediately after
30:14
Speaker 1: the alleged hate crime outside his Chicago apartment. He has
30:20
Speaker 1: one cut underneath his right eye, and other than that
30:25
Speaker 1: one laceration, he was in pretty good shape, even smirking
30:33
Speaker 1: during a FaceTime conversation. Bottom line, he wasn't hurt, Doctor Sperry, No,
30:38
Speaker 1: and Nancy. The thought I had when I saw those
30:41
Speaker 1: photographs was that I was underwhelmed. In other words, it
30:45
Speaker 1: I did not see. This is not the evidence of
30:47
Speaker 1: a beating. In fact, I can tell you many times
30:50
Speaker 1: over my career I have seen what are called factitious
30:53
Speaker 1: or self inflicted injuries that are done in order to
30:57
Speaker 1: try to implicate the involved of another person, and usually
31:01
Speaker 1: someone specifically, but just to show that to try this
31:04
Speaker 1: to gain or a foot of the police basically into
31:08
Speaker 1: thinking that this person has been beaten or assaulted with
31:11
Speaker 1: In fact, the injuries are self inflicted. And I think
31:14
Speaker 1: that's is exactly what happened here, you know to John Limley,
31:17
Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong, But Smillett says that his
31:21
Speaker 1: unknown assailants beat him up and put a rope around
31:24
Speaker 1: his neck because he's African American and he's gay. All right.
31:30
Speaker 1: When he gets home, he's not the one that even calls.
31:33
Speaker 1: He doesn't even call nine one one. His manager. He's
31:37
Speaker 1: on the phone with his manager and the manager gets police.
31:41
Speaker 1: And when the cops get there, however, many minutes later,
31:44
Speaker 1: he's just sitting there with a rope still hanging around
31:47
Speaker 1: his neck. I mean, the first thing I would do
31:49
Speaker 1: was get a noose from around my neck, John Lamley,
31:52
Speaker 1: all of this was just a mere matter of weeks
31:56
Speaker 1: after a suspicious envelope or ran purportedly for Jessie Smilette
32:02
Speaker 1: at the studios Chicago's Center Space Studios. Have you have
32:06
Speaker 1: you seen the hate? Have you seen the death threat?
32:08
Speaker 1: It's like somebody's playing hangman, the letter game where you
32:13
Speaker 1: come up with the word, and every time the person
32:15
Speaker 1: wrongly guesses a letter, you put a hangman, you put
32:18
Speaker 1: his head, then you put his torso it looked like
32:21
Speaker 1: a little hangman. And then a gun out in the
32:25
Speaker 1: distance with a bullet like a round ball going through
32:28
Speaker 1: the air. That's the hate mail. And now this so
32:33
Speaker 1: bottom line, John Lemley, what's happening with the prosecutor? I mean,
32:36
Speaker 1: number one, she was recused off the case because she
32:40
Speaker 1: had had contacts with Smilette's family, okay, with the alleged
32:46
Speaker 1: victim's family, the Empire Stars family, talking about lenient treatment
32:51
Speaker 1: for him before anything even happened in the case. Then
32:55
Speaker 1: after she's refused or taken off the case, she continues
33:00
Speaker 1: texting about how she wants the charges dropped on Smolette.
33:05
Speaker 1: I mean, do I have it right? What's happening with her?
33:07
Speaker 1: Why has she been subpoenaed to appear before a judge?
33:10
Speaker 1: Her conversation continues, maybe one sidedly, even after she's been
33:16
Speaker 1: taken off the case. She's been harshly criticized ever since
33:20
Speaker 1: her office dismissed all sixteen counts against Smolette over this
33:25
Speaker 1: alleged attack. And this retired judge reportedly wrote that Fox's
33:29
Speaker 1: handling of the case was plagued with all sorts of irregularities,
33:34
Speaker 1: and that Fox misled the public into believing that Smolette's
33:38
Speaker 1: case was handled like any other prosecution and without influence
33:43
Speaker 1: John Linley. Isn't it true? The judge is curious why
33:46
Speaker 1: another case where a woman was charged with false report
33:48
Speaker 1: like Smolette did, is getting a very different treatment than
33:52
Speaker 1: the Hollywood star Nancy. That's exactly what happened. Cook County
33:56
Speaker 1: judge has slammed Cook County States Journey Kim Fox for
34:01
Speaker 1: prosecuting a woman for filing a false police report while
34:05
Speaker 1: letting Smilette off the hook, despite the woman's case being
34:09
Speaker 1: quote a lot less egregious than Smolet's. Cook County Judge
34:14
Speaker 1: Mark Martin presided over the case of twenty one year
34:16
Speaker 1: old Candice Clark, who's facing a single felony count of
34:20
Speaker 1: making a false police report. Transcripts show Martin slammed prosecutors
34:25
Speaker 1: and said, and again, I quote here, I'd like to
34:27
Speaker 1: know why miss Clark is being treated differently than Jesse Smilette.
34:31
Speaker 1: It's a disorderly conduct case, a lot less egregious than
34:35
Speaker 1: mister Smilette's case, I have a problem with it, and
34:38
Speaker 1: it's very interesting what Candice Clark herself added, saying, I'm
34:43
Speaker 1: not Jesse Smilette. I wish I was, but it's okay.
34:46
Speaker 1: I'll get my justice. Take a listen to the Chicago
34:49
Speaker 1: Police chief as he responds. As I look out into
34:53
Speaker 1: the crowd, I just wish that the family's a gun
34:56
Speaker 1: violence in this city got this much attention, because that's
35:00
Speaker 1: who really deserves the amount of intention that we're giving
35:02
Speaker 1: to this particular incident. But this morning, I come to
35:07
Speaker 1: you not only as the superintendent of the Chicago Police Department,
35:11
Speaker 1: but also as a black man who spent his entire
35:14
Speaker 1: life living in the city of Chicago. I know the
35:18
Speaker 1: racial divide that exists here. I know how hard it's
35:21
Speaker 1: been for our city and our nation to come together,
35:25
Speaker 1: and I also know the disparities, and I know the history.
35:29
Speaker 1: This announcement today recognizes that Empire actor Jesse Smilett took
35:35
Speaker 1: advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote
35:39
Speaker 1: his career. I'm left hanging my head and asking why
35:45
Speaker 1: why would anyone, especially an African American man, use the
35:49
Speaker 1: symbolism of a noose to make false accusations. How could
35:55
Speaker 1: someone look at the hatred and suffering associated with that
36:00
Speaker 1: and see an opportunity to manipulate that symbol to further
36:04
Speaker 1: his own public profile. How can an individual who's been
36:09
Speaker 1: embraced by the city of Chicago turn around and slap
36:12
Speaker 1: everyone in this city in the face by making these
36:16
Speaker 1: false chart claims Augus police reports calls real harm. They
36:23
Speaker 1: do harm to every legitimate victim who's in need of
36:26
Speaker 1: support by police and investigators, as well as the citizens
36:30
Speaker 1: of this city. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace
36:34
Speaker 1: Harm Stores, signing off Goodbye Roone