Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / HS "HAZING" GOES WRONG: D.A. TO PERPS "TURN YOURSELF IN"
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, breaking news.
- 0:08Speaker 2: Tonight, a high school hazing goes horribly wrong. The district
- 0:13Speaker 2: attorney makes a public statement to the perpetrators.
- 0:16Speaker 1: Turn yourself in.
- 0:18Speaker 2: I Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories, and I want
- 0:21Speaker 2: to thank you for being with us.
- 0:23Speaker 3: Five underclassmen on the West Hill High School lacrosse team
- 0:26Speaker 3: are on a rare social outing with a couple of
- 0:28Speaker 3: older teammates. The occasion is unlike any other. If all
- 0:31Speaker 3: goes well, the younger teams might have a shot at
- 0:34Speaker 3: proving their worth as new players on the team. It's
- 0:37Speaker 3: a golden ticket to the highly coveted prize of social acceptance.
- 0:41Speaker 3: In the intricate hierarchy of high school politics.
- 0:44Speaker 2: Politics, social status, What does nobody get even now that
- 0:51Speaker 2: these hazing incidents end in death. Before I go out
- 0:57Speaker 2: to an all star panel, I want you to meet
- 1:00Speaker 2: someone very near and dear to my heart, and I
- 1:05Speaker 2: finally get to speak to her in person. Sherry Falts
- 1:10Speaker 2: is with us, the mother of Stone Faults, founder of
- 1:13Speaker 2: I Am Stone Falts Foundation, the mission to stop deadly hazing.
- 1:21Speaker 2: She lost her boy, her beautiful boy, Stone. Sherry, thank
- 1:30Speaker 2: you for being with us, Thank you for having me,
- 1:32Speaker 2: Miss folks, when you hear of another, and another and
- 1:36Speaker 2: yet another deadly hazing has happened, what goes through your mind?
- 1:45Speaker 4: It's just it's unbearable to say the least. You know,
- 1:50Speaker 4: we continue to hear stories. I continue to read it.
- 1:54Speaker 4: You know through Google alerts that it continues to happen.
- 1:57Speaker 4: It's happening more often in high schools. It's just it's
- 2:04Speaker 4: it's a nightmare. I remember four years ago now hazing
- 2:10Speaker 4: wasn't even spoken about. Now it's becoming more prominent. It's
- 2:15Speaker 4: in the news more often. You hear about it every day.
- 2:17Speaker 2: Joining me is stone Faults his mom. There have been
- 2:23Speaker 2: even more hazing arrests and hazing incidents since.
- 2:28Speaker 1: The case we're covering right now tonight.
- 2:30Speaker 2: But I want to remind everyone who is stone Folds.
- 2:36Speaker 1: Listen, what county name?
- 2:38Speaker 5: Well one, what does your emergency?
- 2:40Speaker 6: Hi?
- 2:42Speaker 7: The one that we know is a non response to
- 2:44Speaker 7: that you drink alcohol, like a lot of alcohol.
- 2:47Speaker 8: So where is he at?
- 2:49Speaker 9: We're how old is your friend?
- 2:54Speaker 2: Uh?
- 2:54Speaker 9: He's twenty twenty, okay, And what's he doing right now?
- 2:59Speaker 9: He's laying down on his side, and his ears are
- 3:02Speaker 9: his face is really purple, and he his pupils aren't responsive. Okay,
- 3:07Speaker 9: is he breathing? Yeah, he's breathing, but it really shallow
- 3:15Speaker 9: and he's been drinking. He said, yeah, okay.
- 3:20Speaker 1: Is he taking anything else we need to know about?
- 3:23Speaker 10: No?
- 3:24Speaker 9: What's your name?
- 3:26Speaker 8: Okay?
- 3:26Speaker 5: Hay, paga? Okay.
- 3:28Speaker 1: Are you positive he's breathing?
- 3:32Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, I'm You see his.
- 3:35Speaker 1: Chest rising up and down?
- 3:37Speaker 11: No?
- 3:38Speaker 1: No, right, no, okay, he's blue.
- 3:41Speaker 9: Yeah, Okay, then there's a good chance he's not breathing.
- 3:44Speaker 8: I want you to get down.
- 3:45Speaker 9: Is he on the floor?
- 3:46Speaker 1: Oh yeah he is. Okay, do you see his chest
- 3:50Speaker 1: rising at all?
- 3:50Speaker 2: He said?
- 3:54Speaker 1: Okay, do you.
- 3:55Speaker 9: Know how to do CPR?
- 3:56Speaker 2: Do you want me to walk you through it?
- 4:04Speaker 9: Is there somebody else there that can do PPR?
- 4:07Speaker 6: No?
- 4:08Speaker 1: No, I walk joining me?
- 4:10Speaker 2: Is Stone's mother, Sherry, miss Folts. What happened to Stone?
- 4:15Speaker 4: Stone was in his sophomore year at blind Green State
- 4:18Speaker 4: University in Ohio and he was had decided last minute
- 4:22Speaker 4: to join a fraternity. Through the process of joining the fraternity,
- 4:27Speaker 4: they were required to do several different I guess you
- 4:31Speaker 4: would call ritual's traditions and as we know now today,
- 4:36Speaker 4: as we learn have learned over time, that's that's called grooming,
- 4:40Speaker 4: So they basically groom you into thinking these things are
- 4:44Speaker 4: okay and what you have to do in order to
- 4:47Speaker 4: join a fraternity. It ended up early March where the
- 4:53Speaker 4: big little event was taken place. It is an event
- 4:57Speaker 4: that reveals the big brother for the members joining the fraternity. Stone.
- 5:05Speaker 4: He ended up going there that night and was taken
- 5:09Speaker 4: down into a basement at the fraternity house, and there
- 5:15Speaker 4: was seven other pledges that night, pledging to be in
- 5:19Speaker 4: that fraternity, and they tied a blindfold over their eyes,
- 5:24Speaker 4: walked them down the stairs to the basement and there
- 5:28Speaker 4: was really a loud heavy metal music playing, made them
- 5:32Speaker 4: very disoriented. Took them down, there was screaming yelling at him,
- 5:39Speaker 4: you know, and then they actually had them take off
- 5:42Speaker 4: their blindfold, and in front of them was standing their
- 5:45Speaker 4: big brother who had a bottle of liquor in their hand,
- 5:50Speaker 4: which they call the family bottle. It's basically passed down
- 5:55Speaker 4: as a tradition from each big brother's family bottle. And
- 6:01Speaker 4: he was handed that bottle and he was coerced or
- 6:05Speaker 4: forced into drinking that entire bottle, and throughout the night,
- 6:11Speaker 4: which was only twenty minutes, he had finished that bottle
- 6:16Speaker 4: because his big brother was cheering him on and the
- 6:22Speaker 4: other big brothers were throwing out the other pledges drinks,
- 6:26Speaker 4: you know, trying to help them out, giving them a chaser,
- 6:31Speaker 4: and he ended up basically being incoherent. He had asked
- 6:38Speaker 4: to go home. They drug him up the stairs out.
- 6:41Speaker 4: Three of the members drove him back to his apartment.
- 6:45Speaker 4: They drug him up the stairs into his apartment, laid
- 6:48Speaker 4: him on the couch, backpacked him, and for one last enjoyment,
- 6:54Speaker 4: took a video of them and you know, said that
- 6:57Speaker 4: he was snoring, making fun of him, when actually he
- 6:59Speaker 4: was diasperating and dying right in front.
- 7:01Speaker 9: Of their eyes.
- 7:03Speaker 4: They then left him there and his roommate showed up.
- 7:07Speaker 4: We don't know when, but he didn't wasn't aware of
- 7:12Speaker 4: how much or if Stone had been drinking, but obviously
- 7:15Speaker 4: the sight of him noticed, you know, uh, he was.
- 7:19Speaker 4: He was in trouble. He ended up calling Stone's girlfriend,
- 7:23Speaker 4: who you heard on the nine one one call, Maddie.
- 7:26Speaker 4: Maddie ended up calling nine one one. Uh. You know,
- 7:30Speaker 4: there was talk about fear of retaliation and what the
- 7:34Speaker 4: furniturey Do would do if you know, Stone did survive
- 7:37Speaker 4: what they would do to him or uh the other
- 7:40Speaker 4: people within the apartment. And from there you're in the
- 7:45Speaker 4: nine one one call.
- 7:46Speaker 2: Miss Falts. I noticed your delivery. When you say what
- 7:52Speaker 2: happened to your boy? I meant asked so many times
- 7:56Speaker 2: what happened to my fiance that I can now recite
- 8:00Speaker 2: it because I don't want to feel it. I don't
- 8:04Speaker 2: want to think about what I'm saying. But I know
- 8:08Speaker 2: the story enough that I can recite it. Sometimes when
- 8:12Speaker 2: people ask me, I go, well, that was a long
- 8:13Speaker 2: time ago, so I don't have to recite it again.
- 8:18Speaker 2: How do you steal yourself to tell that story?
- 8:24Speaker 4: I think you know to tell that story. I hear
- 8:28Speaker 4: the nine to one one call. You know often we
- 8:31Speaker 4: actually play it in our presentations that we delivered to
- 8:35Speaker 4: high schools and universities. Just because it is an emotional
- 8:42Speaker 4: something to hear. I think people need to hear it.
- 8:45Speaker 4: I think these young adults need to hear it because
- 8:47Speaker 4: this is real. To tell his story over and over,
- 8:54Speaker 4: it is hard. It rips the band aid right off.
- 8:56Speaker 4: But I know that by telling his story, we can
- 8:59Speaker 4: hopefully to look for change or saving lies. And that's
- 9:03Speaker 4: the promise that I made to Stone when I walked
- 9:05Speaker 4: in the icy room and saw all the tubes and
- 9:08Speaker 4: everything on him and you know, not breathing on his own.
- 9:12Speaker 4: We had a ventilator. I knew what was going on,
- 9:15Speaker 4: and I told him the one thing we could do
- 9:18Speaker 4: is to fight to make sure this does not happen
- 9:20Speaker 4: to any other family and to another student. And I guess,
- 9:25Speaker 4: and that's what I'm trying to do, is just retell
- 9:29Speaker 4: his story so that people understand this is real and
- 9:32Speaker 4: this is happening, and it has to be taken seriously,
- 9:35Speaker 4: and things need to be done that are going to
- 9:38Speaker 4: take care of hazing once and for all.
- 9:41Speaker 2: Listen to Rix eight.
- 9:43Speaker 5: Elliott join Folks joined this fraternity to network for a
- 9:48Speaker 5: resume building. He saw red flags that this wasn't good.
- 9:51Speaker 5: In that night, he was brought in. He was told
- 9:55Speaker 5: to take his tie off, They blindfolded him, took him
- 9:58Speaker 5: down to a basement along with the other player, and
- 10:00Speaker 5: forced them to drink a handle of alcohol before they
- 10:03Speaker 5: were allowed to leave. Then the active members took stone
- 10:08Speaker 5: Folts completely incapacitated stone Folts to his apartment and left
- 10:14Speaker 5: him there, left him on the couch, face down on
- 10:16Speaker 5: the couch by himself, and by the way, clear up
- 10:19Speaker 5: one quick thing. While that young woman was on the
- 10:22Speaker 5: nine to one one call, his roommate had come home.
- 10:25Speaker 5: He was a boy scout, he was performing CPR at
- 10:28Speaker 5: the time. But that's what they did. These actives forced
- 10:30Speaker 5: him to drink one hundred and fifty pound kid who
- 10:33Speaker 5: really didn't even have a long drinking history, and they
- 10:36Speaker 5: left him at the apartment all by himself, to slowly
- 10:40Speaker 5: die at the hospital hours later. His blood alcohol content
- 10:44Speaker 5: was zero point three nine.
- 10:46Speaker 2: Four that's a fifth of bourbon in twenty minutes on
- 10:51Speaker 2: a boy that had hardly ever even tasted alcohol. On
- 10:58Speaker 2: the heels of stone Faltse's death, now.
- 11:03Speaker 12: This he was taken to a remote area of the
- 11:05Speaker 12: county and at some point, by pre arrangement, people came
- 11:09Speaker 12: out of the woods, all dressed in black. They were
- 11:12Speaker 12: armed with what appeared to be at least one handgun
- 11:15Speaker 12: and at least one knife.
- 11:17Speaker 11: In Syracuse, New York, five underclassmen on the West Hill
- 11:20Speaker 11: High School lacrosse team are excited when older teammates invite
- 11:24Speaker 11: them to go to watch your rival schools lacrosse match
- 11:26Speaker 11: and dinner at McDonald's. Upperclassmen are not known for including
- 11:30Speaker 11: younger teammates and social events, and the boys see this
- 11:33Speaker 11: as an opportunity to be accepted by the older players
- 11:36Speaker 11: on the team.
- 11:37Speaker 12: The individual had a pillowcase placed over his head, he
- 11:42Speaker 12: was tied up and placed in the trunk of a car.
- 11:46Speaker 2: From our friends at Syracuse dot com, Miss Folds, does
- 11:51Speaker 2: it never end?
- 11:52Speaker 4: Unfortunately, it's not. It's I'm hearing more and more stories.
- 11:58Speaker 4: It's like I said earlier, it's heartbreaking. It's not ending.
- 12:02Speaker 4: It's it's so much more prominent in high schools and
- 12:05Speaker 4: we only hear about it when it gets reported. So,
- 12:09Speaker 4: you know, you just think about all the incidents that
- 12:11Speaker 4: are happening that are not even getting reported. It's it's
- 12:16Speaker 4: the number is outstanding and something needs to be done
- 12:20Speaker 4: about it. And I kudos to mister Fitzpatrick for doing
- 12:27Speaker 4: what he's doing. I think that's the number one thing
- 12:29Speaker 4: is we have to get these das and the judges
- 12:33Speaker 4: to understand and place a huge penalty against these these
- 12:39Speaker 4: students who are doing these acts. That need to understand that,
- 12:45Speaker 4: you know, lives are being taken from hazing, and it's
- 12:50Speaker 4: I just thank you for what he is doing. I
- 12:53Speaker 4: think it's very important. I think it starts there and
- 12:56Speaker 4: they need to be taken seriously. And that's the only
- 13:00Speaker 4: way we're gonna get hazing to end is if it's
- 13:05Speaker 4: taken seriously in our DA's and judges, as I said,
- 13:08Speaker 4: need to do it.
- 13:09Speaker 3: The night takes a turn for the young boys when
- 13:11Speaker 3: on the way home, the driver of the car suddenly
- 13:14Speaker 3: loses his way, pulling over to the side in a
- 13:16Speaker 3: secluded area. In what seems like a blink of an eye,
- 13:19Speaker 3: the boys are surrounded by masked assailants armed with knives
- 13:22Speaker 3: and possibly even a gun.
- 13:24Speaker 1: He wasn't lost. The driver pulled over intentionally for hazing. Hazing.
- 13:33Speaker 1: This is what happens. Listen.
- 13:35Speaker 12: He was taken to a remote area of the county
- 13:37Speaker 12: and at some point, by pre arrangement, people came out
- 13:40Speaker 12: of the woods, all dressed in black. They were armed
- 13:44Speaker 12: with what appeared to be at least one handgun and
- 13:47Speaker 12: at least one knife. The individual had a pillowcase placed
- 13:52Speaker 12: over his head. He was tied up and placed in
- 13:56Speaker 12: the trunk of a car.
- 13:58Speaker 2: That from our friends at Syracuse dot com and then
- 14:01Speaker 2: the District Attorney, William Fitzpatrick issues a stark warning.
- 14:05Speaker 12: You have forty eight hours to turn yourself into the Sheriff's.
- 14:08Speaker 1: Department, joining me an all star panel.
- 14:10Speaker 2: In addition to MISSUS Folks joining us, Mary Keeler is
- 14:14Speaker 2: joining US investigative reporter see in Why Central Media Group.
- 14:18Speaker 1: Mary, thank you for being with us. What happened.
- 14:22Speaker 7: What we know is that it was a serious criminal
- 14:26Speaker 7: hazing act that District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick called hazing on
- 14:30Speaker 7: steroids when he started that press conference.
- 14:32Speaker 1: You just pulled a little bit of sound from there.
- 14:35Speaker 7: But we know that eleven upper classmen, we know at
- 14:38Speaker 7: least four of them are eighteen.
- 14:41Speaker 1: From a source.
- 14:41Speaker 7: Close to the investigation, they put together a ruse that
- 14:45Speaker 7: authorities say was maybe even practice.
- 14:48Speaker 1: Or a dry run.
- 14:49Speaker 7: Was done the Wednesday night before the April twenty fourth,
- 14:53Speaker 7: That was not last Thursday, but the Thursday before that.
- 14:57Speaker 7: They were going to have younger students go to a
- 15:00Speaker 7: cross game with the upperclassmen, then go to McDonald's for dinner.
- 15:04Speaker 7: That was quickly found out to be a ruse. They
- 15:07Speaker 7: were tied at the hands, they had a pillowcase placed
- 15:10Speaker 7: over their head. They were placed in a trunk of
- 15:13Speaker 7: a car driven to a remote part of Onondaga County
- 15:17Speaker 7: and it's there. We're told that many other members of
- 15:20Speaker 7: the team are there with black clothing. They're coming out
- 15:23Speaker 7: of a wooded area in what appears to be in
- 15:27Speaker 7: a gun and a knife, and they're all wearing black,
- 15:29Speaker 7: black clothing. And we also know that this whole ordeal
- 15:34Speaker 7: was videotape, that there was a there are as a
- 15:37Speaker 7: video at least that authorities have seen that has been circulating.
- 15:40Speaker 7: But what we do know is that this could have
- 15:42Speaker 7: gone a lot worse. We just confirmed with the district
- 15:46Speaker 7: attorney before I joined this program that he believes it
- 15:50Speaker 7: based on interviews with investigators for people who have come in,
- 15:54Speaker 7: that it was an airsoft gun that was used. But
- 15:56Speaker 7: his point being that if Amber of Law Enforcement that
- 16:01Speaker 7: was on duty pulled over or drove by that scene
- 16:05Speaker 7: in that remote part of the county with some sort
- 16:07Speaker 7: of weapon drawn, whether it be real or fake, it
- 16:10Speaker 7: could have been a completely different scenario.
- 16:13Speaker 2: Joining us now, in addition to Mary Keeler and Sheer
- 16:16Speaker 2: Fols is a renowned attorney in this field representing victims families.
- 16:23Speaker 2: David Biyonki joining US trial lawyer Stuart Tillman, Fox, Beyonki,
- 16:26Speaker 2: and Kaine.
- 16:27Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us.
- 16:29Speaker 2: Did you just hear the description and this was rehearsed.
- 16:33Speaker 2: There's no way really to argue this was hazing that
- 16:36Speaker 2: got out of hand.
- 16:37Speaker 1: This was rehearsed.
- 16:40Speaker 13: Nancy, You're right, it was rehearsed, and it's unimaginable that
- 16:45Speaker 13: this still goes on.
- 16:47Speaker 6: But let me just give you my perspective on this.
- 16:51Speaker 13: I've been involved in these hazing cases for maybe twenty
- 16:54Speaker 13: five years or so, and I've seen all kinds of
- 16:57Speaker 13: bad things. At this point in time, in the year
- 17:01Speaker 13: twenty twenty five, almost every state in the country has
- 17:05Speaker 13: an anti hazing law, Every major university has an anti
- 17:09Speaker 13: hazing policy, every major fraternity and sorority has an anti
- 17:13Speaker 13: hazing policy. Yet it continues. So what we're doing to
- 17:18Speaker 13: try to stop it is not working. But you remember
- 17:22Speaker 13: six years ago at Cornell, Antonio Sianalis died after a
- 17:27Speaker 13: night of hazing and the next day they found his
- 17:29Speaker 13: body at the bottom of a gorge.
- 17:31Speaker 10: And despite the fact that it was hazing on steroids
- 17:35Speaker 10: in that case, also also in the state of New York,
- 17:38Speaker 10: no criminal charges were ever filed against anybody. So what
- 17:41Speaker 10: kind of a message does that sound? So we've got
- 17:44Speaker 10: together a very.
- 17:45Speaker 2: Very weak message, and I'm going to throw this to
- 17:49Speaker 2: our shrink. Joining us clinical forensic psychologist, visiting scholar, Boston
- 17:55Speaker 2: College and author of The New Evil, Understanding the Emergence
- 17:59Speaker 2: of Modern Violent Crime. Joining us, doctor Gary Bracato, Doctor Bricado,
- 18:04Speaker 2: thank you for being with us. What I don't understand
- 18:08Speaker 2: is why we keep sugarcoating this to call it hazing incident.
- 18:12Speaker 1: I mean, doctor Bricatto, I'm going to do something with.
- 18:14Speaker 2: You that no lawyer is allowed to do with a
- 18:17Speaker 2: jury and a criminal prosecution, and that is asked you
- 18:22Speaker 2: to put yourself in the shoes of the victim. You
- 18:26Speaker 2: just heard Sherry Foltz describe what was done to her son,
- 18:30Speaker 2: left there and mocked videoed as he was dying. Now,
- 18:37Speaker 2: in the case in Chief, you have boys assailed with
- 18:43Speaker 2: hoods put over their heads, hoods, black hoods put over
- 18:48Speaker 2: their heads, put in car trunks.
- 18:51Speaker 1: What if that happened to you?
- 18:52Speaker 2: What if the worst thing that happened to the defendant
- 18:56Speaker 2: that did that to you was that he couldn't go
- 19:00Speaker 2: to work for six months? Really, because that's what the
- 19:06Speaker 2: penalty is, Doctor Precanto.
- 19:08Speaker 14: No, it's it's awful what I find so especially horrifying
- 19:12Speaker 14: about hazing cases is that they are a perversion of
- 19:17Speaker 14: the idea of seeking affiliation, closeness, of family like connection
- 19:21Speaker 14: with a group of people. And of course the idea
- 19:26Speaker 14: is to break down the will the morality of an individual,
- 19:31Speaker 14: so they basically will do whatever it is that you
- 19:33Speaker 14: want them to do. You groom them to do that.
- 19:35Speaker 14: It's very similar to what you see in cults or
- 19:39Speaker 14: abusive relationships, things like that. And of course in those
- 19:42Speaker 14: groups there are going to be a mixture of people
- 19:45Speaker 14: who are seeking that kind of bond and who are afraid.
- 19:48Speaker 14: The greater the fear, the more likely you are to
- 19:51Speaker 14: create a cohesive bond like that. That's an ancient thing
- 19:55Speaker 14: that happens to human beings.
- 19:58Speaker 2: You know what all of this is, which is running
- 20:01Speaker 2: by like a stream. The penalty, the penalty for what
- 20:08Speaker 2: they did. You just heard one moment ago David Biyonki,
- 20:13Speaker 2: the lawyer, state that one hazing victim was found at
- 20:18Speaker 2: the bottom of a gorge dead and there were no charges.
- 20:23Speaker 2: I mean, okay, listen to this, doctor.
- 20:26Speaker 11: Players and parents of the varsity West Hill High School
- 20:28Speaker 11: lacrosse team are informed by the school district. Their season
- 20:32Speaker 11: is officially over. The reason given was not just the
- 20:35Speaker 11: hazing incident, but the increased media attention and concerns that
- 20:38Speaker 11: other teams would not want to play against West Hill.
- 20:41Speaker 1: The season is over.
- 20:45Speaker 2: That's the punishment that the lacrosse season is over.
- 20:52Speaker 6: No and no.
- 20:59Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace hazing.
- 21:05Speaker 2: In other words, murder, kidnapping, aggravator salt is not going
- 21:12Speaker 2: to end.
- 21:14Speaker 1: If the worst that happens is the lacrosse season is over,
- 21:17Speaker 1: boo oo.
- 21:18Speaker 4: And you read where parents are upset about this, and
- 21:21Speaker 4: it's like, but you don't understand what that victim is
- 21:25Speaker 4: going to face potentially for the rest of his life.
- 21:28Speaker 4: You know, that is going to haunt him. He is
- 21:31Speaker 4: going to have mental mental health issues, probably for the
- 21:36Speaker 4: rest of his life. I don't think parents and the
- 21:41Speaker 4: staff of these high schools understand the severity that is causing.
- 21:46Speaker 4: You know, they just say that these are pranks, or
- 21:49Speaker 4: you know, it's not to be meant to be harmful,
- 21:51Speaker 4: or it's just you know, unsportsmanlike conduct. These things need
- 21:57Speaker 4: to be taken seriously, and there needs to be churches
- 21:59Speaker 4: pressed and it's the only way. If there's several of
- 22:03Speaker 4: them that are eighteen, they need to be tried as adults.
- 22:05Speaker 4: It needs to be taken further, otherwise it's just going
- 22:08Speaker 4: to continue to happen.
- 22:09Speaker 15: Outnumbered eleven to one, the boy's hands are tied in
- 22:12Speaker 15: a pillowcase is placed over his head before he has
- 22:15Speaker 15: thrown into the trunk of a car at knife point.
- 22:18Speaker 15: The kidnappers taught the boy as they drive to another
- 22:20Speaker 15: secluded wooded area of the counting and dump him on
- 22:23Speaker 15: the ground a nightmare. As the boy has left alone
- 22:26Speaker 15: in feared for his life.
- 22:27Speaker 2: Joseph Scott Morgan is joining me, renowned professor forensic Jacksonville
- 22:31Speaker 2: State University, author of Blood Beneath My Fate on Amazon,
- 22:35Speaker 2: and now star of hit podcast Body Bags with Joe
- 22:39Speaker 2: Scott Morgan, but for my purposes. He is a death
- 22:44Speaker 2: investigator who has investigated literally thousands of death scenes. Just
- 22:50Speaker 2: got Morgan by putting a hood over a young boy
- 22:55Speaker 2: or anybody's face, a hood securing it around their.
- 23:01Speaker 1: Over their nose, over their mouth.
- 23:03Speaker 2: I mean, think of tot Mom's case Kelly Anthony, where
- 23:08Speaker 2: Kelly's nose and mouth were covered in duct tape. Okay,
- 23:13Speaker 2: think of the most recent case that you and I covered,
- 23:16Speaker 2: Little Miranda Corsetti, where she had something put over her head.
- 23:22Speaker 2: The dangers of putting a hood as in this case
- 23:26Speaker 2: over anyone's had much less and unsuspected high school boy
- 23:30Speaker 2: and throwing them in the trunk. What happens, of course tragedy,
- 23:35Speaker 2: just Scott, what happens when someone is hooded and thrown.
- 23:38Speaker 1: In a trunk?
- 23:39Speaker 8: Well, the first thing that happens, Nancy, is the fact
- 23:41Speaker 8: that you're putting this person in the position of suffering
- 23:45Speaker 8: from severe sensory deprivation. And when that means that they
- 23:50Speaker 8: have they're completely disoriented. And it's.
- 23:55Speaker 2: Okay, I'm sorry, Jessicott, mar you're the death investigator focused
- 23:59Speaker 2: on on deat h death when you have a hood
- 24:04Speaker 2: or a covering.
- 24:05Speaker 1: Over your nose and mouth.
- 24:06Speaker 2: I just gave you two examples, Kelly Anthony and we're
- 24:12Speaker 2: Rando Corsetti. Two examples. Their faces were covered, they died.
- 24:16Speaker 2: Can we talk about being disoriented at the end? People
- 24:21Speaker 2: died just gone with coverings.
- 24:24Speaker 1: Over their face.
- 24:25Speaker 8: So it's the important The important part of this names
- 24:28Speaker 8: that I was trying to get at is the fact
- 24:30Speaker 8: that they begin to shallow breathe, and if if an
- 24:34Speaker 8: individual is using a bag or a hood. They're also
- 24:38Speaker 8: they're shallow breathing, and then it's not going to be
- 24:41Speaker 8: porous perhaps, and so their oxygen, their oxygen is greatly reduced.
- 24:46Speaker 8: You talk about binding of hands, that they're sequestered in
- 24:50Speaker 8: a dark space and then they're set out and they
- 24:53Speaker 8: have no way of being able to take care of themselves,
- 24:56Speaker 8: and so that fear will cause an adrenaline spike in them, Nancy.
- 25:01Speaker 8: And many times an individual at shallow breathe this can
- 25:04Speaker 8: actually lead to cardiospart or respiratory arrest. That was the
- 25:08Speaker 8: point I was trying to make. And that have no
- 25:12Speaker 8: idea as to what might happen to them. You can
- 25:15Speaker 8: imagine some of the thoughts that are running through their mind.
- 25:17Speaker 8: Am I going to be beaten to death? Am I
- 25:19Speaker 8: going to be abandoned? Is it cold? Am I going
- 25:22Speaker 8: to be subjected to this? All these questions are rolling
- 25:24Speaker 8: through their mind, and all the while they're anxious, and
- 25:28Speaker 8: so the shallow breeze and they can't breede. That's one
- 25:31Speaker 8: of the things that happens that brings about death in
- 25:33Speaker 8: cases like this. Nancy.
- 25:34Speaker 2: You know what, Joe Scott, You're right. So the shallow
- 25:38Speaker 2: breathing when you're, as you say, disori and afraid. How
- 25:41Speaker 2: does that lead to asphyxiation?
- 25:43Speaker 8: Well, the airway is blocked and if you're shallow breathing,
- 25:46Speaker 8: or it's compromised. We won't say blocked, but it is
- 25:50Speaker 8: greatly compromised, and so the individual can actually go into
- 25:53Speaker 8: a cardiac arrest as a result of that. There's no
- 25:57Speaker 8: here's the problem. You have no way of understanding what
- 26:02Speaker 8: an individual's anatomy and physiology is. We're all predisposed to
- 26:06Speaker 8: certain types of responses in our body. So this young man.
- 26:11Speaker 6: He's a kid.
- 26:13Speaker 8: You have no idea the effects that are happening on
- 26:16Speaker 8: his body specific that are specific to him. It's kind
- 26:19Speaker 8: of like these alcohol poisoning cases where you have individuals
- 26:23Speaker 8: that are forced to drink copious amounts of alcohol. Okay,
- 26:27Speaker 8: you know, we commonly think that point four is lethal range,
- 26:32Speaker 8: and it generally is, but if somebody has a tolerance
- 26:36Speaker 8: for this sort of thing, they can go above that.
- 26:39Speaker 8: And I've actually seen that happen in my career. But
- 26:43Speaker 8: it impacts the individual very specific to them. So you
- 26:48Speaker 8: don't know what you're doing to this child, and he
- 26:52Speaker 8: is a child when you take him out here and
- 26:54Speaker 8: abandon him.
- 26:55Speaker 2: A hazing prank goes horribly wrong. To Barry Hudginson, joining
- 27:01Speaker 2: us twenty six years in LA law enforcement, now owner,
- 27:06Speaker 2: chief investigator, Barry and associates, Barry, thank you for being
- 27:10Speaker 2: with us. What I don't understand is when you throw
- 27:14Speaker 2: a hood, a black hood, over a boy's head, force him,
- 27:19Speaker 2: tie his hands, and force him into a trunk, why
- 27:24Speaker 2: wouldn't there be charges of kidnapping? And in the other
- 27:27Speaker 2: case we've discussed, why not murder charges?
- 27:31Speaker 1: Why?
- 27:32Speaker 6: Well?
- 27:32Speaker 16: The answer, first of all, let me say to you
- 27:34Speaker 16: everybody that's listening, there's a very distinct difference between a
- 27:38Speaker 16: prank and a felon, and what these guys did is
- 27:43Speaker 16: an absolute felony.
- 27:44Speaker 14: I mean, even if it would have been.
- 27:45Speaker 16: A toy gun, as long as that person believes and
- 27:47Speaker 16: you know this is to prosecute, as long as that
- 27:50Speaker 16: person believes that it's a real gun, and it can
- 27:52Speaker 16: be a toy gun, the laws the same. It's an
- 27:55Speaker 16: imminent threat. They believe it's an eminent threat, so they're
- 27:57Speaker 16: supposed to act according lander's the letter of law. Why
- 28:00Speaker 16: this hasn't been pursued nationwide as an actual crime is
- 28:07Speaker 16: beyond me. Because it's well beyond that, and the schools
- 28:10Speaker 16: aren't doing anything about it. They don't want their names
- 28:12Speaker 16: to be sullied.
- 28:14Speaker 2: Well, it's not just the schools, Barry, it's not just
- 28:17Speaker 2: the schools. It's law enforcement. It's prosecutors all across the
- 28:22Speaker 2: country going light on hazing incidents. So they keep happening.
- 28:26Speaker 2: To David Beyonke joining me, high profile trial lawyer who
- 28:30Speaker 2: is America's leading hazing lawyer. David, you mentioned the case
- 28:37Speaker 2: of a hazing victim found at the bottom of a gorge.
- 28:42Speaker 1: We always hear the big lead up.
- 28:45Speaker 2: Turn yourself in in forty eight hours or else. But
- 28:48Speaker 2: it's what happens after that. The purps are either not
- 28:53Speaker 2: treated as adults, of course we all know juveniles can't
- 28:57Speaker 2: be tried as adults, or they're evan like sentences. How
- 29:02Speaker 2: often in a case like this, even when there is
- 29:04Speaker 2: a death, David Biyanci, do you see a murder charge? Look,
- 29:09Speaker 2: I can't hold a gun to your face and pull
- 29:12Speaker 2: the trigger and when you're dead, I go, oh, I
- 29:15Speaker 2: just meant to scare him.
- 29:17Speaker 1: That's not the letter of the law. David, No, no, Nancy,
- 29:20Speaker 1: it's not.
- 29:21Speaker 13: And to answer your question, how many times have I
- 29:23Speaker 13: seen a murder charge where someone dies in hazing.
- 29:26Speaker 8: Never, I can tell you never.
- 29:28Speaker 17: And in many of the instances, I don't see any charges.
- 29:32Speaker 17: I come back to Antonio Sialis at Cornell twenty nineteen,
- 29:36Speaker 17: a very carefully orchestrated night of hazing, and the next
- 29:40Speaker 17: day he's found dead at the bottom of a gorge.
- 29:43Speaker 17: Not a single criminal charge filed. I reached out to
- 29:45Speaker 17: the prosecutor at Thompson County, spoke to the office, laid
- 29:49Speaker 17: out all the evidence about why they should bring the charges.
- 29:52Speaker 17: They never filed a single charge, and the universities go
- 29:57Speaker 17: light on these guys to participate. It just leads to
- 30:01Speaker 17: the same thing over and over again. It doesn't curtail
- 30:04Speaker 17: the conduct. And I don't care how many laws you pass, well,
- 30:07Speaker 17: how many seminars they have to go to.
- 30:09Speaker 10: It's not enough.
- 30:16Speaker 1: Crime stores with Nancy Grace.
- 30:22Speaker 3: His wrists and hands are bound and a pillowcase thrown
- 30:25Speaker 3: over his head as he's stuffed into the trunk of
- 30:27Speaker 3: a car. The mass men drive and dump the boy
- 30:30Speaker 3: at another secluded area as they taunt and mock the underclassmen.
- 30:34Speaker 1: I want you to hear about the case of Danny.
- 30:38Speaker 13: Listen, Danny Santully is still unable to speak. He has
- 30:43Speaker 13: massive brain damage. He's lost his eyesight, he's blind, and
- 30:47Speaker 13: he cannot walk.
- 30:48Speaker 10: They got all these pledges to come to the fraternity house.
- 30:53Speaker 10: They all had to take off their shirts. They then
- 30:56Speaker 10: were all blind told that this is all on video.
- 30:59Speaker 10: You don't have to trust what I'm telling you. It's
- 31:00Speaker 10: all on surveillance video. They then paraded them down into
- 31:04Speaker 10: the basement and down there they met their dad and
- 31:07Speaker 10: they removed their blindfolds. They were given their bottle, their
- 31:10Speaker 10: family bottle to alcohol. Many of them then had the
- 31:13Speaker 10: bottle taped to their hand. They then paraded upstairs with
- 31:17Speaker 10: the bottle tape to their hand and then started to
- 31:20Speaker 10: drink with the alcohol that was spread out around the house.
- 31:22Speaker 2: Reports eyewitnesses relate that a funnel a funnel was actually
- 31:30Speaker 2: put shoved into Danny's mouth.
- 31:34Speaker 10: WebStar comes along, puts a tube in his mouth with
- 31:36Speaker 10: a funnel, pour his beer down his throat. After he
- 31:38Speaker 10: had consumed about half the bottle of alcohol, and approximately
- 31:42Speaker 10: twenty minutes later, while Danny is still out in the
- 31:44Speaker 10: courtyard with maybe one hundred pledges and trap members, you
- 31:50Speaker 10: can see Danny start to wabble and then he collapses.
- 31:53Speaker 10: You see him fall backwards over a piece of furniture
- 31:56Speaker 10: and onto the ground. They then pick them up. They
- 32:00Speaker 10: carry him into the house and they put him in
- 32:02Speaker 10: a TV room where they have couches, and a couple
- 32:05Speaker 10: of guys bring him in and they PLoP them down
- 32:07Speaker 10: on the couch and he's still alive. He's moving around,
- 32:12Speaker 10: but you can tell he's in distress. And more so
- 32:15Speaker 10: now Danny is totally left alone. He's now flat on
- 32:18Speaker 10: the couch. He slides off the couch with his face
- 32:21Speaker 10: planted on the floor and his feet on the couch,
- 32:23Speaker 10: and he's not moving at all. They see that he's
- 32:27Speaker 10: unresponsible on the couch and they think, oh my god.
- 32:29Speaker 8: Maybe he's dead.
- 32:31Speaker 10: And they go to pick him up, and he's having
- 32:33Speaker 10: a hard time picking Danny up. So they got some
- 32:35Speaker 10: big guy to pick him up and they scoop him
- 32:38Speaker 10: up off the couch and they're not going to call
- 32:40Speaker 10: nine to one one, and they're holding him upside down,
- 32:43Speaker 10: if you can picture such a thing. And as they're
- 32:45Speaker 10: getting to the exit door, they drop him on his
- 32:47Speaker 10: head and then they have to get him back up
- 32:50Speaker 10: again and they carry him outside, put him in the car.
- 32:53Speaker 10: He's now technically dead. They get him over to the hospital,
- 32:58Speaker 10: to the er somebody can twenty hours from the eer,
- 33:01Speaker 10: they do CPR and then restart as hard.
- 33:03Speaker 2: Oh my stage, does it never end? David beyond you?
- 33:06Speaker 2: What happened to Danny.
- 33:08Speaker 13: Danny Santulli at the University of Missouri is the worst
- 33:13Speaker 13: fraternity hazing injury where a victim lived in the history
- 33:17Speaker 13: of the United States. You cannot be more seriously injured
- 33:21Speaker 13: than the injuries that Danny has. He is alive today,
- 33:25Speaker 13: being taken care of by his parents. That's their choice,
- 33:28Speaker 13: in their home. Again their choice, and his condition is
- 33:33Speaker 13: unchanged today. He still is blind, can't walk, can't speak,
- 33:37Speaker 13: will never be able to take care of himself, all
- 33:40Speaker 13: because he went through a hazing incident that's been repeated
- 33:45Speaker 13: hundreds of times around the United States over many years,
- 33:48Speaker 13: the passing of the family bottle of alcohol, and every
- 33:52Speaker 13: time it happens, everybody says, we're going to make sure
- 33:56Speaker 13: this never happens again, and it does happen again because
- 34:00Speaker 13: we're not doing the right things to stop it.
- 34:03Speaker 11: When Robert Champion was experiencing a ritual hazing at Florida
- 34:06Speaker 11: A and M. At least eighteen band members were present.
- 34:09Speaker 11: Band members described a chaotic and violet ritual called crossing
- 34:13Speaker 11: bus se. The band buses parked behind an Orlando hotel
- 34:17Speaker 11: after a game and Champion has to push his way
- 34:19Speaker 11: from the front of the bus to the back with
- 34:21Speaker 11: roughly twenty people punching, kicking, and hitting him with drum mallets.
- 34:28Speaker 9: Was he like shaking or anything like that part of it? Oh? Yeah,
- 34:31Speaker 9: he wasn't.
- 34:31Speaker 6: He wasn't shaking.
- 34:33Speaker 5: I don't know how he would tug and then you
- 34:36Speaker 5: know he was.
- 34:38Speaker 10: He was.
- 34:39Speaker 5: He was shaking it and.
- 34:41Speaker 15: Not doing anything.
- 34:42Speaker 1: Okay, he's totally lying.
- 34:45Speaker 2: The boy was not just sitting there, this young man,
- 34:52Speaker 2: Robert Champion, for peace sake, he was a member of
- 34:56Speaker 2: the band.
- 34:57Speaker 1: The band I mean data BEYONKEI.
- 35:01Speaker 2: How often do you think of the school band turning
- 35:05Speaker 2: violent and killing a band member?
- 35:07Speaker 9: Never?
- 35:09Speaker 2: Maybe lacrosse, maybe football, but the band for Pete Satan Beyonki.
- 35:13Speaker 6: No, No, you're right, hardly ever.
- 35:14Speaker 2: Doctor Bricado, even in the band Fatal Hazy.
- 35:20Speaker 14: Unfortunately, in any group of people where there are people
- 35:23Speaker 14: that are trying to come together under the umbrella of
- 35:26Speaker 14: you know, group, brotherhood, the sisterhood, whatever, it can bring
- 35:30Speaker 14: out this awful quality in people where some sadistic person
- 35:36Speaker 14: who wants you to depend upon them convinces other people
- 35:40Speaker 14: in the group to basically participate in the process of
- 35:44Speaker 14: breaking these people, so that in the name of cohesion,
- 35:48Speaker 14: you give up your will and you're abused, and it
- 35:51Speaker 14: is horrendous. And I have to tell you, Nancy, I
- 35:54Speaker 14: think it's wonderful that you're calling it out because it
- 35:56Speaker 14: is not properly prosecuted. Often I think because it's.
- 36:00Speaker 2: Not it's not darger bricado, and there's no nice way
- 36:04Speaker 2: to say it. We keep calling it hazing. This is
- 36:07Speaker 2: an aggravated assault. The other cases are murder. And what
- 36:11Speaker 2: I don't understand to Joe Scott Morgan, who is describing
- 36:15Speaker 2: what actually happens when you have a hood put over
- 36:17Speaker 2: your head, your hands are bound, you're breathing shallow lee,
- 36:21Speaker 2: and you're thrown.
- 36:22Speaker 1: In the trunk of a car.
- 36:24Speaker 2: Joe Scott Morgan, if this happened to an adult, not
- 36:29Speaker 2: a child, these would be murder and kidnapping charges. As
- 36:34Speaker 2: a matter of fact, Joe Scott, you have everybody on
- 36:36Speaker 2: this panel is going to know this nine one one
- 36:39Speaker 2: caller is lying about what happened to this young man,
- 36:43Speaker 2: the band member, Robert Champion. Listen to this, Joe Scott,
- 36:45Speaker 2: Are you with him right now?
- 36:47Speaker 1: I'm with him?
- 36:48Speaker 10: Maam?
- 36:48Speaker 9: You got okay?
- 36:50Speaker 10: Okay?
- 36:51Speaker 9: Well I want to lay him on the floor. Be
- 36:53Speaker 9: on the floor.
- 36:53Speaker 6: Okay, on the floor.
- 36:55Speaker 9: Okay. Is there anything under him? No? No man looking
- 37:00Speaker 9: on them? Okay? Is there an ad available?
- 37:03Speaker 2: Joe Scott, Morgan and ad running get one in the hotel.
- 37:08Speaker 1: It's too late for that. Robert is dead.
- 37:10Speaker 2: And that nine one one caller is lying that Robert,
- 37:14Speaker 2: the little boy on the band, was just sitting there
- 37:17Speaker 2: and suddenly died.
- 37:20Speaker 1: That's a lie.
- 37:21Speaker 8: Yeah, that's a load of crap. And you know, way
- 37:24Speaker 8: they're way past this idea that they're going to be
- 37:26Speaker 8: able to disfigulate this young man. Right now, he's just
- 37:29Speaker 8: trying to cover his tracks. Did you hear kind of
- 37:31Speaker 8: how confused he was, not really confused. He's trying to
- 37:34Speaker 8: get his damn story straight at this point in Top And.
- 37:37Speaker 6: The thing about it means he is that when mister
- 37:40Speaker 6: Champion died, there was a whole bust full of witnesses
- 37:46Speaker 6: and also participants that were egging this thing on.
- 37:51Speaker 2: You know what, Joe Scott, I'm so glad you said
- 37:53Speaker 2: that same thing here. And Mary Keeler, what are the
- 37:58Speaker 2: charges in the current case.
- 38:01Speaker 7: So, because all eleven of those players that have turned
- 38:05Speaker 7: themselves in itselves in within that forty eight hour window,
- 38:09Speaker 7: that amnesty window ultimatum that the district attorney gave last Tuesday,
- 38:14Speaker 7: what they were all given was an appearance ticket for
- 38:17Speaker 7: unlawful imprisonment. Imprisonment that is a Class A misdemeanor.
- 38:21Speaker 1: Are any of them in jail?
- 38:23Speaker 2: Let me make it, pull it down. Are any of
- 38:26Speaker 2: them in jail? Okay to Sherry Folds. You heard Mary Keeler,
- 38:30Speaker 2: None of them are in jail. That was some ultimatum.
- 38:36Speaker 2: It's never going to end unless we crack down and
- 38:40Speaker 2: sentence these perps to jail time.
- 38:44Speaker 1: Do I want to see a seventeen or eighteen year
- 38:46Speaker 1: old go to jail.
- 38:48Speaker 2: No, But what I don't want to see even more
- 38:52Speaker 2: is another dead child over hazing.
- 38:56Speaker 4: Absolutely, it's just so distrating. And I think until staff
- 39:04Speaker 4: of these high schools and parents starts with the parents
- 39:09Speaker 4: take this seriously, it's not going to change. We can
- 39:15Speaker 4: do as much education.
- 39:16Speaker 2: As When you say that, Sherry Foults, that means another mother,
- 39:22Speaker 2: another mother like you, is going to get that phone
- 39:26Speaker 2: call another mother. Do you know, Sherry, that my children
- 39:31Speaker 2: are looking at colleges right now, and every time we
- 39:35Speaker 2: go look at a college, I think about Stone, I
- 39:41Speaker 2: think about Timothy, I think about Robert Champion. It just
- 39:47Speaker 2: nothing is changing, Sherry, Nothing is changing.
- 39:51Speaker 1: It's not.
- 39:52Speaker 4: And it's very frustrating from the parents who have to
- 39:56Speaker 4: continue to watch this, who've lost their child from hazing.
- 40:01Speaker 4: And you know, we send our kids off. I sent
- 40:03Speaker 4: Stone off to college. You know, he was considered an adult,
- 40:08Speaker 4: and you expect that the university, the university president, all
- 40:13Speaker 4: the faculty, you're going to take care of them, that
- 40:15Speaker 4: they're doing what they're supposed to do in their jobs
- 40:17Speaker 4: and preventing this this type of tragedy. And unfortunately, and how.
- 40:23Speaker 2: Do you keep from just running out in the street
- 40:27Speaker 2: and screaming your head off every day?
- 40:30Speaker 4: It's it's definitely it's mental. I've learned to, you know,
- 40:38Speaker 4: just deal with it and continue to to do as
- 40:41Speaker 4: many speaking engagements that we can. We're fighting to push
- 40:47Speaker 4: more laws, you know, and and you know the federal
- 40:51Speaker 4: law has passed this previous uh last October November. And
- 40:58Speaker 4: you know, those types of laws being passed if we
- 41:00Speaker 4: can't enforce them because of the federal law is a
- 41:03Speaker 4: transparency Act and more transparency is being pushed pushed upon hazing.
- 41:11Speaker 4: But if these laws are not being enforced, it's not
- 41:14Speaker 4: going to do any good.
- 41:16Speaker 2: If you know or think you know anything about the
- 41:19Speaker 2: current hazing incident, dial three one five four three five
- 41:26Speaker 2: three zero four four. We remember American Hero Sergeant Lionel Martinez, Junior,
- 41:32Speaker 2: Almo College, PD, Texas, twenty one years in law enforcement,
- 41:38Speaker 2: leaving behind wife turned widow, Claudia, children Liza, Lionel, Kimberly, Kathleen,
- 41:46Speaker 2: and Lacy. American Hero Sergeant Lionel Martinez Junior, Nancy Grace
- 41:53Speaker 2: signing off goodbye friend B