Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Teachers gone wild: Tad Cummins & Mary Kay Letourneau updates

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Teachers gone wild: Tad Cummins & Mary Kay Letourneau updates · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Thomas is being welcome home to Columbia, Tennessee, with
0:09
Speaker 1: signs and banners. Her family says she is comfortable and breastate,
0:13
Speaker 1: but has suffered severe emotional trauma. I'm just so overjoyed
0:18
Speaker 1: to have her home, that she's safe. This is Crime
0:21
Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace. The fifteen year old and her
0:24
Speaker 1: former teacher were found more than two thousand miles away
0:27
Speaker 1: in a remote cavity in northern California with no electricity
0:30
Speaker 1: or running water. And they said they're from Colorado, and
0:34
Speaker 1: he said he had a house fire. He pulled me
0:37
Speaker 1: aside at one point in man a statement that he
0:39
Speaker 1: was glad that this was all over. His sister says
0:41
Speaker 1: he doesn't believe he kidnapped Elizabeth. I asked him why
0:45
Speaker 1: why would he do this? And the answer he gave
0:48
Speaker 1: me is that she wanted to run away, and she
0:50
Speaker 1: wanted to leave, and he didn't want her to go along,
0:53
Speaker 1: so he went with her son, who could know that
0:55
Speaker 1: she was cited. The very latest regarding the Tennessee teacher,
1:01
Speaker 1: fifty year old Tad Cummins, who goes on the run
1:04
Speaker 1: with a little student of his, has gone into federal
1:08
Speaker 1: court and pled not guilty. He's pleading in federal court
1:12
Speaker 1: to charges of transporting a minor across state lines for
1:16
Speaker 1: the purposes of sex activity and one charge of obstruction
1:21
Speaker 1: to justice. Now, on those charges, the federal charges, he's
1:26
Speaker 1: looking at ten years minimum if he is convicted. Remember
1:31
Speaker 1: Tad Cummins, the pervy high school teacher that wants to
1:35
Speaker 1: be the quote savior of his teen girls student who's
1:39
Speaker 1: having trouble at home and at school. It's her first
1:43
Speaker 1: entry into public school after being homeschooled, and her mother
1:47
Speaker 1: has been charged with abusing her and the other children.
1:51
Speaker 1: I Nancy, Grace, this is crime stories. Thank you for
1:55
Speaker 1: being with us. The parent dyed their hair on the run,
2:01
Speaker 1: and they were ultimately found hiding out in a cabin
2:05
Speaker 1: near a commune in northern California. His lawyers arguing in
2:11
Speaker 1: a preliminary hearing that the girl went with him willingly.
2:16
Speaker 1: Now let's see, Alan, the Duke. Duke is joining me,
2:20
Speaker 1: Alan to the charges that he transported a minor across
2:24
Speaker 1: state lines, an obstruction of justice. The fact that she
2:29
Speaker 1: went with him willingly. Even if it's true, and I'm
2:33
Speaker 1: not agreeing that it was, that it is true, But
2:36
Speaker 1: even so that will not be a defense to carrying
2:41
Speaker 1: her across state lines for sex or for obstruction of justice.
2:46
Speaker 1: So his lawyer, this is completely an unfounded legal defense.
2:54
Speaker 1: It's got to be to these charges anyway. It's got
2:57
Speaker 1: to be a defense that he did not carry her
2:59
Speaker 1: across state lines. Perhaps they're saying that maybe she was
3:02
Speaker 1: driving the car. They're going to allege that, why not. Well,
3:07
Speaker 1: I was just about to say, as wacky as it sounds,
3:10
Speaker 1: their best shot on that charge would be that she
3:12
Speaker 1: drove the car boo, I don't know that that would work.
3:16
Speaker 1: Maybe they could say, well, she convinced him and she
3:19
Speaker 1: carried him across state lines. As bizarre as that is,
3:22
Speaker 1: every indication we have is that she is or thinks
3:26
Speaker 1: she's in love with him, whether that's changed in the
3:29
Speaker 1: last couple of days or not. At the time, she
3:32
Speaker 1: seemed to want to be with him. That much seems
3:35
Speaker 1: to be true. She thought it was a grand lark,
3:39
Speaker 1: and when she grows up and looks back on this,
3:42
Speaker 1: she's going to be mortified. Mortified. But sometimes when you're
3:49
Speaker 1: fifteen years old or even thirteen years old, you fall
3:52
Speaker 1: in love, and maybe it is with your teacher. It
3:56
Speaker 1: does last a while. Eventually you outgrow them. I don't
3:59
Speaker 1: know what we're up. What are you talking about? You
4:01
Speaker 1: fall in love with your teacher and it lasts a while. Well,
4:04
Speaker 1: there is the case of Mary kay La Turno. Oh
4:07
Speaker 1: you mean the woman that did jail time. I think
4:09
Speaker 1: about seven years that case. This kid waited for her,
4:13
Speaker 1: she did the hard time. They came back and they
4:17
Speaker 1: got married and it was a love story for the
4:19
Speaker 1: ages until will you tell it was statutory rape? That's
4:23
Speaker 1: what it was. But back to Tad Cummings, and I'll
4:25
Speaker 1: touch on Mary Kayla Turning who ps she and the
4:29
Speaker 1: young boy she married, I'm doing air quotees have just
4:34
Speaker 1: split up. Tad Cummins is who I'm trying to talk about.
4:38
Speaker 1: Let's get Alan Duke back in the middle of the road, Okay.
4:41
Speaker 1: Tad Cummins, the Tennessee teacher who goes on the run
4:44
Speaker 1: for five weeks with a teen girl before being caught
4:48
Speaker 1: in California, pleads not guilty to federal kidnapping charges. What
4:53
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get into is the legal defense of
4:56
Speaker 1: she went willingly. We have a statutory ray charge on
5:01
Speaker 1: the books in every state in this Union, in one
5:03
Speaker 1: form or the other because the law presumes children I
5:09
Speaker 1: cannot agree to anything. That's why children can't buy a car,
5:12
Speaker 1: because they go wreck it and then you can't enforce
5:15
Speaker 1: the contract in court. A minor cannot buy a car,
5:20
Speaker 1: A minor can't buy a house. A minor cannot enter
5:22
Speaker 1: into a service to you contracts such as an employment contract.
5:27
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, I mean I could just go on
5:29
Speaker 1: and on and on. Well, I'm thinking, though, how can
5:31
Speaker 1: they agree to go off and have sex in a
5:34
Speaker 1: commune on a dirty mattress on the floor for five weeks.
5:38
Speaker 1: They can't. My grandmother was fifteen when she got married,
5:42
Speaker 1: and why there was nothing wrong with that? Okay, think
5:47
Speaker 1: about it. Is this a new modern thing that a
5:49
Speaker 1: fifteen year old is not old enough to get married?
5:51
Speaker 1: Because it's been happening for many, many years. Okay, A
5:57
Speaker 1: they didn't get married Number one? Well they on it too,
6:00
Speaker 1: I'm sure. Well, he's already married to start with here,
6:06
Speaker 1: so they could not legally get married. And as I
6:10
Speaker 1: recall from my research, in the US, there are only
6:14
Speaker 1: a handful of states ten or less I believe, that
6:18
Speaker 1: allow team marriage, and there are certain circumstances. For instance,
6:23
Speaker 1: if the girl is pregnant, or if the parents consent,
6:28
Speaker 1: or there's already an existing child in the union. There
6:33
Speaker 1: are some very strict limitations as to when somebody can
6:38
Speaker 1: get married, and I believe Delaware and one other state
6:43
Speaker 1: have guidelines that could maybe allow this marriage, but that
6:48
Speaker 1: didn't happen. They're not married for many different legal reasons.
6:52
Speaker 1: So bringing that up, Alan is just well, I'm just
6:56
Speaker 1: saying that my grandparents and yeah, well they're not involved
7:00
Speaker 1: in this, Alan, No they're not. But why why all
7:02
Speaker 1: this sudden? It's not about your fifteen year old grandmother
7:06
Speaker 1: years ago. Why all of a sudden, in this modern
7:09
Speaker 1: age we live in, do they change the rules when
7:13
Speaker 1: before If you go back, you need you go back
7:16
Speaker 1: a hundred years, you need to go live in a
7:18
Speaker 1: country where they have child brides. I don't want a
7:21
Speaker 1: child bride. I will pack you up. Look, my wife
7:24
Speaker 1: is is no child. I don't want that. That's not
7:27
Speaker 1: for me personally. But what I'm saying, well, your advocate,
7:30
Speaker 1: I'm just saying I asked the question why did this change?
7:34
Speaker 1: It used to be perfectly fine, because women and children
7:37
Speaker 1: need to be protected from others in our society, more
7:40
Speaker 1: powerful or cunning than they are. I mean, just off
7:43
Speaker 1: the top of so, you say my grandmother wasn't protected,
7:46
Speaker 1: you're saying my grandmother wasn't protected. That's what I'm saying.
7:49
Speaker 1: She should have waited. I wouldn't My mom wouldn't be here.
7:53
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for a fifteen
7:56
Speaker 1: year old being able to marry. There are silver linings
7:59
Speaker 1: to everything, Allen. I mean, I don't even know my
8:03
Speaker 1: my father's mother got married when she was fourteen, so
8:07
Speaker 1: you know there, do I think it's right? No? But
8:10
Speaker 1: did they stay married their entire life? Yes? Yes, they
8:15
Speaker 1: stayed married for sixty plus years. So okay, that doesn't
8:20
Speaker 1: mean it's okay. Just because that's the way it has
8:23
Speaker 1: been does not mean that's the way it should be.
8:25
Speaker 1: Can we quit talking about your grandmother, who's not a
8:29
Speaker 1: party to this. We're talking about Tad Cummings, a fifty
8:33
Speaker 1: year old purv who lies to his wife and says
8:37
Speaker 1: some bs about don't call the cops. I'm going to
8:41
Speaker 1: d C to clear my head. Hey, clue to your ladies.
8:45
Speaker 1: When your husband, boyfriend lover says I've got to think
8:50
Speaker 1: I need to be alone, let him go and immediately
8:54
Speaker 1: change the locks. Think think about what Think about the
8:59
Speaker 1: fact they've been married. It's the eighties and they've got
9:01
Speaker 1: children and grandchildren together. That's what he needs to think about.
9:06
Speaker 1: Now where are you now? You're nowhere. All you want
9:09
Speaker 1: to do is advocate child marriage. I think I hear
9:14
Speaker 1: you slurping something. It's called coffee, and it's an essential
9:19
Speaker 1: thing when you're on the East Coast and I'm on
9:21
Speaker 1: the West Coast. Ten years to life behind bars, and
9:27
Speaker 1: these are just the federal charges. I just think a
9:30
Speaker 1: lot about his wife, Jill. Of course I think about
9:33
Speaker 1: the girl Elizabeth, but I think about his wife devoting
9:38
Speaker 1: her whole life to this pervy dude. Thirty eight days
9:44
Speaker 1: after their disappearance, he did not call her or contact
9:48
Speaker 1: his wife in any way. They were find hiding out
9:52
Speaker 1: in a cabin near Cecilville in northern California. Now here's
9:57
Speaker 1: the kicker. They tried to go to the commune close
10:02
Speaker 1: optional commune, and even those people kicked him out. They
10:08
Speaker 1: knew something was way wrong with this, okay, And I'm
10:12
Speaker 1: not judging them. I say live and let live. As
10:14
Speaker 1: long as you're not committing a felony, have at it.
10:17
Speaker 1: But even they didn't want the nonconformists, the anti rules.
10:22
Speaker 1: When you go to one of these clothing optional communities
10:25
Speaker 1: and you don't really know the protocol, you don't know
10:28
Speaker 1: the rules, it's a little odd. You don't fit in,
10:30
Speaker 1: you do things that aren't acceptable. But those communities they
10:33
Speaker 1: have their rules, you mean, like statutory rate. Yeah, well yeah,
10:37
Speaker 1: they don't allow that. They most of the ones I'm
10:40
Speaker 1: familiar with don't. And I'm sure you're so familiar with them. Alan.
10:44
Speaker 1: There's one in in North Georgia, you know that. Have
10:46
Speaker 1: you ever been to that? The one in North Georgia
10:48
Speaker 1: near to Lanagan? No? I have not. Since Cummings arrest,
10:53
Speaker 1: investigators reveal they believe he bought a fift dollar kayak
10:59
Speaker 1: and play and to paddle from San Diego to Mexico
11:03
Speaker 1: with with Elizabeth in the kayak. I mean, this sounds
11:09
Speaker 1: like some crazy made for TV movie a kayak to
11:14
Speaker 1: go to Mexico in a kayak from San Diego. I
11:17
Speaker 1: was in San Diego last week and I was thinking
11:20
Speaker 1: about that. I was saying what I'm experienced in a kayak.
11:23
Speaker 1: I've gone through jungles in a kayak. I would never
11:26
Speaker 1: ever think about going into the actual Pacific Ocean in
11:30
Speaker 1: a kayak beyond the beach. That's crazy. You know. We
11:34
Speaker 1: kept talking about when he went missing, could he be
11:38
Speaker 1: tracked on his GPS? And I did a ton of
11:43
Speaker 1: research regarding serious radio and how there are certain ways
11:49
Speaker 1: you can be tracked through serious radio. Now Serious radio
11:55
Speaker 1: does not really want to hand over that information, so
12:00
Speaker 1: they make the FEDS and the law and police go
12:04
Speaker 1: through the hoops a warrant, quite a few legal hoops.
12:09
Speaker 1: But there is through, sirious, and there is through. I
12:14
Speaker 1: want to say, is that north Star? Is that the
12:16
Speaker 1: name of the other other tracking device on Star? Thank you?
12:22
Speaker 1: And um you can actually track and there's a locator
12:26
Speaker 1: feature too, Serious Radio, and there's there's even more because
12:31
Speaker 1: these cars are getting so smart now his was several
12:34
Speaker 1: years old and he now they're saying he disabled the GPS,
12:40
Speaker 1: so it did have GPS. Because you and I kept
12:42
Speaker 1: going round and round about why he couldn't be tracked,
12:45
Speaker 1: he threw both of their cell phones in a river,
12:49
Speaker 1: disabled the GPS, and took on Alias's while on the run.
12:55
Speaker 1: I mean that is planning. That is for sure planning,
12:59
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Speaker 1: off your home security system. Now let's get back to
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Speaker 1: our podcast, she is refusing to go back to her family.
14:27
Speaker 1: I don't know that that's true, but reports are saying that.
14:30
Speaker 1: But I think she is with her family. But she
14:33
Speaker 1: is insistent she is in love with Cummings. Oh. His
14:38
Speaker 1: lawyers are arguing at no time did she ever say
14:41
Speaker 1: she was taken against her will. Again, under the law,
14:45
Speaker 1: that doesn't matter. Children cannot buy cigarettes, they can buy alcohol.
14:50
Speaker 1: They can't enter into a binding contract because we are
14:54
Speaker 1: protecting them from themselves, so she couldn't enter into that. Alan, Okay,
14:59
Speaker 1: let's hear your next Santy defense. I'm braced. I'm not
15:02
Speaker 1: going to defend him. I'm gonna say, keep in mind
15:05
Speaker 1: this is these are just the federal charges. Are friends
15:07
Speaker 1: down there in Tennessee have a whole set of charges
15:11
Speaker 1: that they're going to pursue as soon as they get
15:14
Speaker 1: him from the Feds. And what do those include. I
15:17
Speaker 1: think they should prosecute him for being a teacher messing
15:21
Speaker 1: around with a student. That's the big offense to me.
15:24
Speaker 1: You got to protect students from teachers, and right now,
15:27
Speaker 1: the Feds got him first, they got the first shot.
15:30
Speaker 1: At they do that, the Feds take carever. So right
15:32
Speaker 1: now this is what we know in federal court. Tad
15:34
Speaker 1: Cummins pleads guilty. No word from the wife. Do you
15:39
Speaker 1: know any I know she's filed for divorce, do we
15:42
Speaker 1: know anything else? I mean, is she going to testify
15:45
Speaker 1: against him? I don't know why she wouldn't because she's
15:48
Speaker 1: been cooperating from the very beginning. And if they need
15:52
Speaker 1: her at a trial. Do we really think this is
15:55
Speaker 1: going to a trial? I mean, if he plays not guilty,
15:58
Speaker 1: then it is, then it will go to trial. Well,
16:00
Speaker 1: he's pleading not guilty now to preserve his rights, which
16:03
Speaker 1: I'm sure his defense lawyer has advised him to. I know,
16:06
Speaker 1: you want everybody just immediately roll over, play dad, go
16:09
Speaker 1: to prison. But he's just going through the process. And
16:12
Speaker 1: by the way, I think he's got another hearing tomorrow. Yeah.
16:15
Speaker 1: I think eventually there's gonna be some kind of a
16:17
Speaker 1: plea deal on here, because how can they defend against this.
16:20
Speaker 1: They've got the goods on him. I think what will
16:23
Speaker 1: be the star witness will be Elizabeth Thomas Well his wife,
16:26
Speaker 1: the wife of the former Tennessee teacher charged with running
16:30
Speaker 1: off with a fifty year old girl, says she knew
16:34
Speaker 1: the answer, but asked anyway. Quote, I said, well, did
16:38
Speaker 1: you sleep with her? Jill Cummings said in an interview,
16:42
Speaker 1: and this was an interview with Inside Edition. Jill says
16:46
Speaker 1: that he tad come and said, yes I did. I
16:50
Speaker 1: didn't ask for any details, she says, but I knew
16:54
Speaker 1: the truth. I just wanted to hear it from him
16:58
Speaker 1: to me. And then I told him I would not
17:01
Speaker 1: be answering the phone anymore. You know that I had
17:04
Speaker 1: to break this woman's heart. I'm just sick about everything
17:08
Speaker 1: he has done. He continued to contact her over and
17:12
Speaker 1: over by phone. She went into a rage at one
17:17
Speaker 1: of the last times he called her, asking do you
17:20
Speaker 1: know what you've done to me? And you're and the
17:22
Speaker 1: children and the grandchildren, and he just kept saying over
17:25
Speaker 1: and over, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. She says, this girl
17:29
Speaker 1: is a child, you're a fifty year old man. She
17:32
Speaker 1: didn't have a choice whether to go or not, and
17:35
Speaker 1: he said, and I think this is very telling. She
17:38
Speaker 1: did have a choice. That's why I was leading up
17:40
Speaker 1: to She did have a choice. So that's going to
17:44
Speaker 1: be his defense there. It is right there. Do you
17:47
Speaker 1: want to talk about the latest news on Mary Kayla Turno?
17:50
Speaker 1: Are we going to talk about that, because you see
17:53
Speaker 1: this is what happens twenty years later. Now you put
17:55
Speaker 1: yourself in Elizabeth Thomas is shoes and yeah, she's fifteen
17:58
Speaker 1: and she thinks that this guy as James Bond double
18:01
Speaker 1: O seven reincarnated and that he's just the coolest thing
18:04
Speaker 1: on earth. Is Tad Cummins. You and I both look
18:07
Speaker 1: back and we know better. But in the Mary kay
18:10
Speaker 1: laterno situation. That was she was thirty four years old,
18:14
Speaker 1: she had four kids, and she had this affair with
18:18
Speaker 1: a thirteen year old student and she went to prison
18:22
Speaker 1: for it. But the shocking thing to me was seven
18:25
Speaker 1: years later, when she gets out they get married. That
18:30
Speaker 1: doesn't make it okay, No that it's in some people's eyes,
18:35
Speaker 1: it probably did because at that time he was twenty
18:38
Speaker 1: and she was forty one. But the latest news is
18:41
Speaker 1: now is confirmed they're splitting up. Yep, Mary Kayla Turna
18:46
Speaker 1: and Billy fill Ou have split. The teacher who spent
18:51
Speaker 1: seven years behind bars for sleeping with a student then
18:55
Speaker 1: twelve sixth grade and having two children is single because
19:01
Speaker 1: the boy, Billy Falal was not a boy anymore, files
19:05
Speaker 1: for legal separation this month. Now she was, as you said, correctly.
19:09
Speaker 1: She was thirty four years old, a married mom of
19:13
Speaker 1: four when she started having sex with this boy in
19:16
Speaker 1: her car, got pregnant with the first daughter, Audrey, when
19:21
Speaker 1: Falu was just thirteen years old, gave birth and pled guilty.
19:27
Speaker 1: The six months sentence was commuted to just three months
19:32
Speaker 1: under the condition she doesn't contact the boy anymore. But
19:35
Speaker 1: then within just a couple of weeks they were back
19:37
Speaker 1: in the car going at it, pregnant again. I mean really,
19:44
Speaker 1: So there you have it, and that's how that whole
19:47
Speaker 1: thing went down. She had just waited for I guess
19:50
Speaker 1: three more years that could have been together, right, And
19:54
Speaker 1: in two thousand and five she got out of prison
19:56
Speaker 1: and they did get back together and they became a family.
20:00
Speaker 1: Now this is interesting. He is her age when she
20:04
Speaker 1: was his teacher. He's now well, he's about thirty four,
20:08
Speaker 1: maybe a few months shy, and he does not want
20:12
Speaker 1: to be with her anymore. They've been married for twelve years.
20:16
Speaker 1: Here she is of what fifty one, No, she's fifty four.
20:22
Speaker 1: Did you know that the two of them would host
20:26
Speaker 1: reportedly quote hot for teacher knights at a local bar
20:30
Speaker 1: for several years after they've married. You gotta make money
20:33
Speaker 1: someway when you're when off your infamy. I guess that's
20:36
Speaker 1: what they were doing because you couldn't teach anymore. Okay.
20:40
Speaker 1: So I guess you're trying to say in some weird,
20:43
Speaker 1: perverted way that because they got married and are now
20:46
Speaker 1: getting a divorce, that the Tad Cummings relationship, which I
20:51
Speaker 1: call statutory rape with Elizabeth is okay because Mary Kayla turn,
20:56
Speaker 1: oh can this kid into marry her? I'm not saying
20:59
Speaker 1: it is okay. I'm just saying that it's not unusual
21:01
Speaker 1: that is putting perfume on the pig, and that it
21:05
Speaker 1: could be in the category of you know, a lot
21:09
Speaker 1: of people when they're fifteen think they're in love, and
21:11
Speaker 1: they stay in love for for a while and eventually
21:14
Speaker 1: maybe fall out. But she's fifty five, Mary, Mary Kay's
21:18
Speaker 1: fifty five now, and you know they could use you
21:20
Speaker 1: in the f d LS. Please Warren Jeff's you got
21:25
Speaker 1: the war on Jeff's approach. I take my wive's one
21:28
Speaker 1: at a time, one at a time, okay, good to know.
21:32
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21:56
Speaker 1: dot com slash Nancy, Alan Duke, Nancy Grace, Crime Stories,
22:03
Speaker 1: signing off, goodbye friend,