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Report: NFL Star Attacks Pregnant Woman · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, ray Rice, ray Lewis, Aaron Hernandez,
0:21
Speaker 1: Lawrence Taylor. These are just the ones off the top
0:24
Speaker 1: of my head. But it goes on and on and on,
0:29
Speaker 1: and now I'm adding to that illustrious list the name
0:34
Speaker 1: Mario Edwards Junior. All pro athletes, all accused of horrible
0:43
Speaker 1: crimes on victims much weaker and much less cunning than themselves.
0:50
Speaker 1: Fly are they making millions of dollars and many of
0:55
Speaker 1: them walking free after horrible crime, including violent crimes, even
1:02
Speaker 1: caught on video. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Today we
1:20
Speaker 1: look at the case of Mario Edwards Junior, a twenty
1:24
Speaker 1: seven year old star athlete. But it's not just the
1:28
Speaker 1: case about him, it's the case of Jody Blakeney, his victim.
1:37
Speaker 1: I Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank you for
1:41
Speaker 1: being with us. Does everybody recall the most recent incident.
1:47
Speaker 1: Let's take a listen to our cut fourteen. This is
1:50
Speaker 1: angela Ye at Power one oh five point one Gianna
1:54
Speaker 1: Seahawks offensive laman Chad Willie. He was arrested over the
1:58
Speaker 1: weekend and they were called by a woman. The police
2:01
Speaker 1: would call by a woman. She had lacked herself in
2:03
Speaker 1: the bathroom, and she told a nine one on one
2:05
Speaker 1: dispatcher that she was being killed. According to the report,
2:09
Speaker 1: Chad Wheeler attacked her, dislocated her shoulder, and choked her
2:13
Speaker 1: to the point of unconsciousness, and when she woke up,
2:16
Speaker 1: she says that he was shocked that she was still alive.
2:19
Speaker 1: She said what was most terrifying was how cold he was.
2:22
Speaker 1: He thought I was dead on my bed and continued
2:24
Speaker 1: to eat dinner. When I ran into the bathroom, he said,
2:26
Speaker 1: while you're still alive, while sipping on a smoothie. Wow,
2:30
Speaker 1: you're still alive, and continued drinking his smoothie. That's not all.
2:35
Speaker 1: Take a listen to Cut fifteen CBS this morning. This morning,
2:38
Speaker 1: an NFL lineman is accused of choking and beating a
2:42
Speaker 1: woman last Friday. Chad Wheeler faces two charges of domestic
2:46
Speaker 1: violence assault. A woman survived with a broken arm. It's
2:50
Speaker 1: another example of an ongoing problem in pro football. As
2:53
Speaker 1: Jimmy Yucas reports, the woman told police she thought Wheeler
2:57
Speaker 1: was killing her. Take Cut twenty two via voice Qute
3:00
Speaker 1: thirteen and six feet and seven inches tall and over
3:03
Speaker 1: three hundred pounds, Chad Wheeler was charged today with several felonies,
3:07
Speaker 1: including domestic violence assault. Court documents paint a disturbing picture
3:12
Speaker 1: of a brutal attack on Wheeler's girlfriend that left her
3:15
Speaker 1: unconscious and with severe injuries. Wheeler allegedly made a comment
3:20
Speaker 1: himself suggesting he was surprised she was alive when she
3:24
Speaker 1: came too, and when officers asked her she thought she
3:26
Speaker 1: was going to die, she responded, quote, I thought I
3:29
Speaker 1: already did. But the reality is this three hundred pounds
3:33
Speaker 1: six foot seven inch pro athlete is walking free. But
3:40
Speaker 1: today we're not talking about him, Chad Wheeler. We're talking
3:45
Speaker 1: about Mario Edwards Junior. Joining me. John gar chief deputy
3:52
Speaker 1: of the Pitt County Sheriff's Office in Grayville, North Carolina,
3:55
Speaker 1: and he specializes in domestic violence cases. Doctor Sherry Short
4:00
Speaker 1: special guests joining us. Forensic psychologists joining us, who specializes
4:04
Speaker 1: in criminal behavior the title of one of her books,
4:08
Speaker 1: Criminal Behavior and Where Law and Psychology Intersect. Very special
4:12
Speaker 1: guests joining me out of the Carolina jurisdiction. Arcangela Mazzarello,
4:17
Speaker 1: Attorney at law, and last, but not least, the alleged
4:24
Speaker 1: victim of this violent assault, Joe and Jody Blakeney, Jody,
4:29
Speaker 1: thank you for being with us the pleasure. Thanks for
4:32
Speaker 1: having me. How long have you known Mario Edwards Junior?
4:38
Speaker 1: All right, at ten years? We met back and you
4:41
Speaker 1: met in college. Where where were you in college? I
4:44
Speaker 1: went to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and
4:47
Speaker 1: he went to Florida State. We both were athletes. I
4:50
Speaker 1: ran track and he played football, So both athletes and
4:54
Speaker 1: you were at UNC correct, yes, Charlotte. How did you
4:58
Speaker 1: guys meet? We met on squid He happened to follow me,
5:02
Speaker 1: and I just kind of was like, oh, he's kind
5:03
Speaker 1: of cute and gave him a shout out. And then
5:06
Speaker 1: from the other restless history. Did you start dating immediately?
5:10
Speaker 1: We kind of shared her some tweets back and forth
5:12
Speaker 1: in some private messages, and then he asked me to
5:15
Speaker 1: be his girlfriend, and then we started to see each
5:18
Speaker 1: other on occasion. What were you studying at University North Carolina?
5:22
Speaker 1: Sociology and criminal justice. That's ironic, Archangel and Mazzarello as
5:27
Speaker 1: a renowned lawyer joining me who is working this case
5:31
Speaker 1: as best as she can, basically taking on the NFL Mark.
5:35
Speaker 1: When did you first meet Jody? I met her last summer,
5:41
Speaker 1: I met her after her other lawyer had to be removed.
5:48
Speaker 1: He was conflicted out by the NFL. He actually boasted
5:53
Speaker 1: that he represented Michael Vick. In any event, I was
5:58
Speaker 1: blessed by getting Joe and we've been together ever since.
6:03
Speaker 1: The getting ready to do this, bring Mario to justice.
6:08
Speaker 1: Archangelo Mazzarello joining me. I want to before I had
6:14
Speaker 1: Jody tell her story, I want you to explain to
6:17
Speaker 1: the viewers and the listeners that are joining us here
6:21
Speaker 1: at Fox Nation in series eleven, what you understand happened
6:28
Speaker 1: the day that Jody was beaten so badly well as
6:34
Speaker 1: Jody said that she and Mario had known each other
6:38
Speaker 1: since actually twenty eleven. She was very excited that he
6:42
Speaker 1: was coming to North Carolina. The Bears were about to
6:46
Speaker 1: get themselves handed to them by the Panthers, the Carolina Panthers.
6:52
Speaker 1: Mario told Jody he was coming to town, you know
6:57
Speaker 1: first love her heart leapt and they started texting each other.
7:03
Speaker 1: October seventeenth came the day before the game. She went
7:08
Speaker 1: to his hotel to see him at the Hilton. And
7:12
Speaker 1: here was part of the problem, COVID. So we had
7:16
Speaker 1: two different COVID protocols in place. The NFL had just
7:20
Speaker 1: come out the day before, and the Chicago Bears Matt Navy.
7:24
Speaker 1: They called him Matt Naggy because he was so rabbit
7:27
Speaker 1: about cod protocol said that nobody could leave their room.
7:32
Speaker 1: You couldn't have third parties, you couldn't leave the floor.
7:36
Speaker 1: So Mario told Jody all of this and told her
7:40
Speaker 1: to get a room, tell her where he was, where
7:43
Speaker 1: she was, and she went and met him in his room. Now,
7:49
Speaker 1: remember this is her first love. She sees him, They embraced,
7:54
Speaker 1: They catch up. He knows her family, She knows their family.
7:58
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, she was the one that
8:01
Speaker 1: reconciled him with his mother when they were alienated. In
8:07
Speaker 1: any event, We're in a hotel room with our true love,
8:10
Speaker 1: and things happened because she was pregnant. She was almost
8:16
Speaker 1: nineteen weeks pregnant. There were things Mario wanted that Jody
8:20
Speaker 1: couldn't give them, and for the first time in their relationship,
8:24
Speaker 1: Jody said, no, okay, wait a minute, Oh wait, I
8:28
Speaker 1: know that she's pregnant, but arc you know me well
8:32
Speaker 1: enough that you can't just gloss over the facts what happened.
8:36
Speaker 1: I not understand what you're saying he wanted real sex,
8:39
Speaker 1: not Bill Clinton sex. He wanted real sex and violent.
8:43
Speaker 1: Assume Archangela that you were in court at which you
8:48
Speaker 1: have been many many times. To be clear, you are
8:53
Speaker 1: saying that because she was pregnant, she did not want
8:56
Speaker 1: to have intercourse, and he was not satisfied with oral sex.
9:02
Speaker 1: Is that what you're trying to say? Yeah, but here,
9:05
Speaker 1: let me give you one other bit of information. The
9:07
Speaker 1: last time they had been together, he was so aggressive
9:11
Speaker 1: sexually that he left her injured. And that's what she
9:15
Speaker 1: was thinking of in that hotel room. I'm pregnant and
9:18
Speaker 1: you're not going to hurt me again. So no, Mario,
9:22
Speaker 1: no means no time stories with Nancy Grace. So she
9:41
Speaker 1: agrees to do oral sex, and then what happens. He
9:45
Speaker 1: wants to go further and she said no. And I
9:50
Speaker 1: don't think Mario has heard the word no in a
9:52
Speaker 1: long time, and certainly never from Jody. So he grabbed her.
9:57
Speaker 1: He picked her up, and she's tiny, She's like by
10:00
Speaker 1: foot three and one hundred and ten pounds. He picked
10:02
Speaker 1: her up. He's a defensive end. And if you don't
10:06
Speaker 1: know what a defensive end is, their job is to
10:08
Speaker 1: knock everything out of their way. They're just big and
10:12
Speaker 1: they're brutish. He attempted to rape her, and she got
10:20
Speaker 1: away and picked up her camera and said, oh no, Mario,
10:25
Speaker 1: you know and started to video him. That enraged him,
10:28
Speaker 1: and his arm instantly went out and swung at her,
10:33
Speaker 1: hitting her in the face. In the meantime, when he
10:36
Speaker 1: had her by the waist, she was punching him furiously,
10:40
Speaker 1: trying to get him off of her and again, trying
10:45
Speaker 1: to get two hundred and eighty pounds off of you
10:47
Speaker 1: wasn't easy, but she was little enough to wriggle out
10:50
Speaker 1: of his arms. So now we have an angry bear,
10:55
Speaker 1: we have an injured Joady. And he walks out of
11:01
Speaker 1: the room while she's videoing him. She follows him, and
11:05
Speaker 1: she's young. He pretending nothing happened, and she was like,
11:09
Speaker 1: I can't believe you hit me, Mary, I can't believe
11:12
Speaker 1: you hit me. He goes on to an elevator and
11:14
Speaker 1: guess what, Nancy comes out and hits her again. She
11:18
Speaker 1: goes downstairs looking for CMPZ Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department because
11:25
Speaker 1: she had seen one of their vehicles in the lobby
11:28
Speaker 1: outside of where you check in, And when she went downstairs,
11:33
Speaker 1: she saw a uniformed officer and when she approached him,
11:37
Speaker 1: he said, yeah, I'm off duty. I am, I'm just
11:41
Speaker 1: security here tonight and she said, I need a police officer.
11:45
Speaker 1: I've just been assaulted. He told her to wait right there,
11:48
Speaker 1: he would take care of it. After he went to
11:50
Speaker 1: the bathroom. He had a break, so he went it
11:55
Speaker 1: seems not to go to the bathroom. He came back
11:57
Speaker 1: with four of the Chicago Bears represent editive and that's
12:01
Speaker 1: when it really began. That's when they started calling her
12:05
Speaker 1: a prostitute, that she was there for a booty call.
12:11
Speaker 1: What can we pay you to go away? The very
12:15
Speaker 1: person she did not want to see, Mario Edwards, they
12:18
Speaker 1: brought downstairs to apologize to her. He of course would not.
12:24
Speaker 1: He then started saying, after all I've done for her family,
12:28
Speaker 1: and it was overheard that you know, well we have
12:32
Speaker 1: something on her. Now you have something, you know to
12:36
Speaker 1: protect you. At that time, she said she didn't understand
12:39
Speaker 1: what that meant, like you both have something on each other.
12:44
Speaker 1: They want to know, did you call the police. Now
12:47
Speaker 1: here's an important thing I had left out when this happened.
12:52
Speaker 1: Jody was afraid he would grab her phone and break it,
12:55
Speaker 1: so she forwarded the video to a friend of hers,
12:59
Speaker 1: who called her back immediately because one of the first
13:03
Speaker 1: things I said is why didn't you call the police yourself?
13:06
Speaker 1: And she said, because I had my friend on the phone.
13:08
Speaker 1: I was so scared she was listening. I wanted her
13:11
Speaker 1: to listen because nobody would believe me. Once before, she
13:16
Speaker 1: had an very first breakup with Edwards in twenty fifteen.
13:22
Speaker 1: Instead of getting flowers from him trying to make up,
13:26
Speaker 1: she got a call from his agent threatening her in
13:29
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, just as he threatens me in twenty twenty
13:35
Speaker 1: one to expose her for what she is and all
13:39
Speaker 1: over their photos and whatnot. So out here in the
13:43
Speaker 1: lobby she now has all these bear surrounding her. Her
13:50
Speaker 1: friends finally gets there, she calls CMPD. Along the way.
13:56
Speaker 1: While she's being interviewed by CMPD, one of the other
14:00
Speaker 1: officers cut himself from them, saying he had to go
14:05
Speaker 1: talk to his sergeant to find out how to handle this.
14:09
Speaker 1: When he came back, all he wanted to know is
14:12
Speaker 1: tell us about the sexual encounter. Tell us about the
14:16
Speaker 1: sexual encounter. And she's like, I'm trying to tell you
14:19
Speaker 1: about being hit. You know what's amazing to me, Arc
14:22
Speaker 1: is that when he's leaving, he goes to get on
14:25
Speaker 1: the elevator and then comes back and hits her again.
14:29
Speaker 1: Did you tell me that, Arc? I sure did, Guys.
14:33
Speaker 1: It reminds me of another elevator incident. Take a listen
14:36
Speaker 1: arc at twenty one with Maggie mazz Eddie running back.
14:40
Speaker 1: Ray Rice was cut by the Baltimore Ravens Monday and
14:43
Speaker 1: indefinitely suspended by the NFL hours after the release of
14:47
Speaker 1: a new video that appears to show him knocking out
14:50
Speaker 1: his then fiance in a casino elevator last February. The
14:53
Speaker 1: incident as sparked widespread outrage and questions over the NFL
14:57
Speaker 1: stands on domestic violence. The Green video is the second
15:01
Speaker 1: release by TMZ Sports, this one from inside the elevator,
15:05
Speaker 1: showing Rice knocking Jinny Palmer off her feet and into
15:08
Speaker 1: a railing. The other video, released months earlier, showed Rice
15:12
Speaker 1: dragging his now wife out of the elevator. Rice was
15:15
Speaker 1: arrested and charged with felony aggravated assaults earlier this year,
15:19
Speaker 1: but avoided jail time by enrolling in a pre trial
15:22
Speaker 1: intervention program. In July, he received a minor two game
15:26
Speaker 1: suspension from the NFL, a decision widely criticized, prompting NFL
15:31
Speaker 1: Commissioner Roger Goodell a month later to admit that the
15:34
Speaker 1: league needed to take a tougher position on domestic violence.
15:38
Speaker 1: Join me right now, Chief Deputy, Pitt County Sheriff's Office
15:41
Speaker 1: in Gravill, North Carolina, John Guard. John, thank you so
15:44
Speaker 1: much for being with us in that incident, the Ray
15:46
Speaker 1: Rice elevator incident where he was baiting his own girlfriend
15:50
Speaker 1: and dragging or as Oot called, dragging her by the
15:52
Speaker 1: hair out. That was caught on video and it went viral,
15:57
Speaker 1: John Guard, I really believe that in this hotel where
16:01
Speaker 1: Jodi had met up with her bow who happens to
16:05
Speaker 1: be Chicago Bear Mario Edwards Junior, there had to be
16:09
Speaker 1: video in the hallways, in the elevators. Where is that?
16:15
Speaker 1: I don't know certainly that leaves there's a lot of
16:19
Speaker 1: questions there. Obviously, in domestic violence calls we answer day
16:24
Speaker 1: in day out, not just here in Pitt County and
16:27
Speaker 1: not just a North Carolina, but across the country. We
16:31
Speaker 1: aren't fortunate enough to have that kind of evidence. But
16:34
Speaker 1: in this case, you would think that type of information
16:37
Speaker 1: would be available, that there would be videos throughout the hotel.
16:42
Speaker 1: You're right, Archangela Mazzarello. Have you got subpoenaed that video?
16:46
Speaker 1: We have sent out the subpoena. Have you seen it
16:49
Speaker 1: by chance yet? I mean, John guard I think the
16:53
Speaker 1: world was first shocked in the chaudre Levy case. When
16:58
Speaker 1: schaudre Levy, we think, left her high rise apartment in
17:01
Speaker 1: DC at a certain time, but we learned from where
17:06
Speaker 1: she lived in the high rise that the cameras recorded
17:10
Speaker 1: over every seventy two hours, and by the time cops
17:14
Speaker 1: got there and asked for it, you know, after it
17:16
Speaker 1: was realized she was missing, she couldn't be found. They
17:20
Speaker 1: started looking through her apartment. They found where they thought
17:24
Speaker 1: she had left that day, and they had taped over
17:29
Speaker 1: the video, so we didn't know was she dressed to
17:32
Speaker 1: go jogging, was she dressed to go out, was she aligned?
17:36
Speaker 1: Was somebody last with her? So much evidence was lost
17:40
Speaker 1: that I think it put everybody on high alert to
17:43
Speaker 1: maintain their cameras, although one was just murdered in Piedmont
17:47
Speaker 1: Park and we find out those cameras haven't worked since
17:50
Speaker 1: about twenty eighteen. So I'm wondering if that video is
17:55
Speaker 1: actually there and what it will reveal, John Guard, As
17:59
Speaker 1: you point it out, so often you don't have any
18:02
Speaker 1: evidence like that in domestic assaults or domestic homicides, but
18:07
Speaker 1: here we've got it. You potentially, you potentially do. And
18:12
Speaker 1: it really goes back to their policy and you see
18:15
Speaker 1: the gamut out here in our investigations today. Some places
18:20
Speaker 1: store the video information in the cloud and they keep
18:24
Speaker 1: it for a lengthy amount of time, some indefinitely, but
18:28
Speaker 1: others we've seen them record over after us that time,
18:32
Speaker 1: be it a week, two weeks, or a month, and
18:35
Speaker 1: it's frustrating, but it really does point out the need
18:38
Speaker 1: to get on these cases, start the investigation as soon
18:43
Speaker 1: as you can, and run down all the leads you have,
18:47
Speaker 1: or the potential leads, because tomorrow isn't promised. Mario Edwards
18:53
Speaker 1: Junior has not been charged in connection with this lawsuit.
18:56
Speaker 1: It has not gone to twil and Edwards has not
18:59
Speaker 1: been found guilty. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Now, these
19:19
Speaker 1: two had dated on and off for several years before
19:23
Speaker 1: they had a breakup in twenty nineteen. So then when
19:27
Speaker 1: she gets the call that he's coming to town, and
19:30
Speaker 1: this would have been around October twenty twenty. She's thinking,
19:34
Speaker 1: is there going to be a reconciliation? Are we going
19:36
Speaker 1: to get back together? So joining me right now, guys
19:40
Speaker 1: is the alleged victim in this case. Joey and Jody Blakeney, Joanne,
19:45
Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. You know, I was
19:50
Speaker 1: thinking about something you did. You called your friend and
19:54
Speaker 1: you said I didn't think anybody would believe me. I
19:58
Speaker 1: have been in a lot of precarious situations investigating felonies
20:03
Speaker 1: for many, many years, and I remember on several occasions
20:08
Speaker 1: I think I did it by instinct. I would actually
20:10
Speaker 1: call my mother a long distance and say, I'm in
20:14
Speaker 1: this location and I'm going out to deliver the subpoena
20:18
Speaker 1: or try to find this witness, and you know it's
20:21
Speaker 1: it's a bad area and I'm worry, but I've got
20:24
Speaker 1: to do it. Just talk to me as I walk
20:27
Speaker 1: up to the front porch. I wasn't really thinking, you know,
20:30
Speaker 1: nobody would believe me. I wanted to feel like I
20:34
Speaker 1: was with somebody in that moment, and it happened a lot.
20:39
Speaker 1: So when you call your friend during this what was
20:44
Speaker 1: your thinking so she happened to call me once I
20:47
Speaker 1: sent the video to her. She was very privy to
20:50
Speaker 1: my relationship with him, so instant fear came over her
20:56
Speaker 1: and she acted immediately before I could even and hit
21:00
Speaker 1: nine one one. She was right there on the phone, um,
21:03
Speaker 1: just ensuring me that I was gonna be okay, because
21:06
Speaker 1: it didn't set into me that, you know, my baby
21:09
Speaker 1: at that point, like my adreneral was up. All I
21:13
Speaker 1: could think about was what I had just went through.
21:16
Speaker 1: So once I had her on the phone, I felt safe,
21:19
Speaker 1: like I could get my thoughts together and think about
21:22
Speaker 1: what my next move was, because originally it was to
21:25
Speaker 1: get out of there, like just go this leave um.
21:29
Speaker 1: But she just kind of kept me level headed and
21:31
Speaker 1: started to be my think, my thinking, and my brain
21:33
Speaker 1: is up. You know. I don't know if you've ever
21:36
Speaker 1: heard the name Ray Caruth and Shrika Adams Archandela Um.
21:41
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, guys, take a listen to our cut
21:44
Speaker 1: number to a nine on one call are your body?
22:17
Speaker 1: He were hearing the voice now to see Sharika Adams,
22:21
Speaker 1: who also was pregnant at the time. She was attacked
22:26
Speaker 1: by her then boyfriend Ray Caruth, a pro athlete for
22:29
Speaker 1: the Panthers. She died and her son was born forever.
22:37
Speaker 1: Handicap was cerebral palsy because when she was shot that
22:43
Speaker 1: night in an attempt for Ray Caruth to get out
22:46
Speaker 1: a child support, it caught off his air supply, so
22:50
Speaker 1: he has cerebral policy of course forever. So being pregnant,
22:58
Speaker 1: you would think doctor Sherry sports would keep someone from
23:02
Speaker 1: attacking a woman. But as a matter of fact, the
23:07
Speaker 1: number one cause of death among's pregnant women is homicide,
23:12
Speaker 1: domestic violent homicide. You're absolutely right, Nancy, And you know
23:17
Speaker 1: in the case of Ray Carruth and what it sounds
23:20
Speaker 1: like in Miss Blakeney's case, these are men who have
23:25
Speaker 1: absolutely no empathy for the woman, let alone for the baby,
23:30
Speaker 1: the unborn baby. You know, it's just a means to
23:34
Speaker 1: an end. You know, you are my property and I'm
23:36
Speaker 1: going to do what I want to do. And as
23:39
Speaker 1: Miss Mazarello said earlier, mister Edwards wasn't used to hearing. No.
23:45
Speaker 1: I think this is pretty much the culture right with
23:48
Speaker 1: these entertainers, because that's what NFL players are. They are,
23:52
Speaker 1: in fact entertainers, and so they know if they do
23:56
Speaker 1: anything bad, it's going to be fixed because they're a
23:59
Speaker 1: product their commodity. I want to go back to Jody Blakeney,
24:03
Speaker 1: the victim in this case. Let's just start with the
24:07
Speaker 1: moment that you guys meet up that night. What hotel
24:11
Speaker 1: was it, Tom, It was the Hillton Center City downtown Charlotte. Yeah,
24:16
Speaker 1: you know, John Guard. They definitely have video, John, no
24:21
Speaker 1: doubt in my mind I would agree. Go ahead, Joey,
24:25
Speaker 1: I'm sorry about that. So of course I'm excited to
24:27
Speaker 1: see him because I haven't seen him in almost a year. So,
24:30
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know what it is about him,
24:32
Speaker 1: but it's just always sparks. I always get like little butterflies.
24:36
Speaker 1: Whenever he texted me, I knew that he was gonna
24:38
Speaker 1: text me, so us meeting up was going to be
24:41
Speaker 1: something that I already knew what was going to happen.
24:43
Speaker 1: It's just a matter of when and how many times
24:46
Speaker 1: that I would see him while he was here, because
24:48
Speaker 1: I've never we never planned to see each other for
24:51
Speaker 1: just one day whenever we see each other, so seeing
24:56
Speaker 1: him was just, I don't know, a warm, fuzzy feeling.
24:59
Speaker 1: Regardless of how our conversations go, we always end up
25:02
Speaker 1: fine and still being able to love each other and
25:06
Speaker 1: be okay with each other. So him coming through the
25:10
Speaker 1: door and just kissed me on the forehead and you know, smiling,
25:14
Speaker 1: and it was just a little cut on his forehead
25:17
Speaker 1: that just kind of threw me off a little bit
25:19
Speaker 1: because he is a big, burly guy, but that just
25:23
Speaker 1: kind of stood out to me. He's bruised up all over,
25:26
Speaker 1: tattoos everywhere. So so, Jody, when did everything go wrong?
25:33
Speaker 1: It went wrong with us that night when the advances
25:36
Speaker 1: were turned down. I've never in my life told Mario no.
25:42
Speaker 1: That's just something I could not form my lips to
25:44
Speaker 1: say because I would drop anything for Mario, and I
25:48
Speaker 1: think he knows that. I don't think he knows that
25:50
Speaker 1: for sure that I will drop any and everything to
25:53
Speaker 1: come and aid him. So no, it's foreign to him.
25:57
Speaker 1: It's like a different language to him. So me saying
26:01
Speaker 1: no that night, I guess it kind of sparked some
26:05
Speaker 1: anger coming from him because it's not something that he's
26:09
Speaker 1: used to hearing from me. It's always yet, or how
26:11
Speaker 1: can I do it? What can I do? And how
26:13
Speaker 1: can I do it? Okay, I need you to tell
26:16
Speaker 1: me in detail what happened. I get to the hotel,
26:21
Speaker 1: and he tells me that, you know, there's the COVID
26:23
Speaker 1: protocols that he cannot break, and I am not allowed
26:27
Speaker 1: to be on his floor, in his room, He can't
26:30
Speaker 1: have guests, he can't come out to see me, because
26:33
Speaker 1: originally I said for us to just like meet out
26:36
Speaker 1: in the open to talk, just to kind of catch
26:39
Speaker 1: up with each other, and he said he couldn't do
26:41
Speaker 1: that because of the COVID protocol. So I did go
26:44
Speaker 1: ahead and get the room. So on the phone was
26:48
Speaker 1: one of my friends, the friends who actually called me.
26:51
Speaker 1: She was on the phone up until he walked through
26:53
Speaker 1: the door, so she heard the original exchange between us.
26:57
Speaker 1: Then she knew it was okay for her to hang up.
26:59
Speaker 1: So give him this the kits on the cheek, kits
27:03
Speaker 1: on the forehead. We sit down on the bed. We
27:05
Speaker 1: just start talking about his dad and just family, just
27:10
Speaker 1: catching up about my daughter, about current pregnancy, just kind
27:15
Speaker 1: of catching up as friends would do that. Haven't really
27:17
Speaker 1: talked or communicated in a while, seeing each other in
27:21
Speaker 1: a while, because we would text from here or there,
27:23
Speaker 1: but not really in debt conversation, just hey, how you doing.
27:26
Speaker 1: So we just kind of called up more in detail,
27:31
Speaker 1: and sparks fly between us. Anytime we're together around each other,
27:35
Speaker 1: sparks always fly. We had just great chemistry, great conversation.
27:38
Speaker 1: It's never really bad unless I don't do what he
27:42
Speaker 1: asked me to do. If I don't do what he
27:45
Speaker 1: has asked of me, or if I don't do something
27:48
Speaker 1: away that he's asked of me, then I could have
27:51
Speaker 1: some issues there, but it would just be how I
27:53
Speaker 1: would deal with it. So we did. We did have
27:56
Speaker 1: We did engage in intimate. We had an intimate time
27:59
Speaker 1: to other, but he tried to pursue for more, and
28:03
Speaker 1: he made his advances and I turned them down. And
28:07
Speaker 1: once it was known that hey, I'm not I'm not
28:11
Speaker 1: wanting to go there sexually vaginally, it was it was
28:16
Speaker 1: like I had hadn't seen them before. It was back
28:19
Speaker 1: to two thousand and fifteen when Nick turns no happen.
28:25
Speaker 1: So the first incident with me telling him no, he
28:28
Speaker 1: picks me up off of my feet from off of
28:29
Speaker 1: the bed, facing him, grabs me and trying to pull
28:34
Speaker 1: my pants down, and I'm telling them no, I'm trying
28:37
Speaker 1: to get away from him. He's pulling on me, snatching
28:40
Speaker 1: me down, and I'm in between his legs and he's
28:42
Speaker 1: holding me tightly so that I cannot move. So once
28:46
Speaker 1: I'm able to wiggle free, I sit back down. I
28:48
Speaker 1: pull my pants up first, and I sit back down.
28:51
Speaker 1: And then he just begins to belittle me, like all
28:56
Speaker 1: different types of names and speaking on my family, and
29:00
Speaker 1: he knows the right things to stay to break me down.
29:04
Speaker 1: He's done it before. So Mario Edwards Junior has not
29:10
Speaker 1: been charged in connection with this lawsuit. It has not
29:13
Speaker 1: gone to twial, and Edwards has not been found guilty.
29:30
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace Jody Blakeney. I know you
29:39
Speaker 1: don't like retelling this, but I need to understand exactly
29:43
Speaker 1: what happened. When you say belittling or demanding, what exactly
29:47
Speaker 1: did he say? He called me a bitch, my daughter
29:53
Speaker 1: a horror. He said that the apple did not fall
29:57
Speaker 1: fur from the tree and that my daughter was going
29:59
Speaker 1: to be a horror. He stated to me that I
30:02
Speaker 1: would never be his number one. I would always be
30:07
Speaker 1: someone that he came to whenever I was a last resort,
30:11
Speaker 1: and he'd never said that to me before. I always
30:14
Speaker 1: thought that me and him would end up together. I've
30:16
Speaker 1: been patient with him for this amount of time, So
30:21
Speaker 1: he knew saying that and knowing how I was with him,
30:24
Speaker 1: and knowing how our relationship was and what the goal
30:28
Speaker 1: was between us, he knew that he could get me
30:31
Speaker 1: to break all the way down. So okay, wait, let
30:34
Speaker 1: me understand what you're saying. First of all, how old
30:37
Speaker 1: is your daughter two? So he called your two year
30:41
Speaker 1: old daughter a whore? Yes? Okay. Then he let me
30:46
Speaker 1: understand that you think you guys were you thought you
30:48
Speaker 1: guys were going to get married eventually, with patient, with time?
30:53
Speaker 1: Yes I did. Did he ever taught you about marriage?
30:57
Speaker 1: From us, our initial us being together und beginning I
31:00
Speaker 1: fell in love with the potential of Mario. When you
31:03
Speaker 1: say he trashed your family, other than calling your two
31:07
Speaker 1: year old little girl a whoreor what else did he
31:10
Speaker 1: say about your family? He called my family broken, He
31:13
Speaker 1: stated that we were trash. He called me all types
31:18
Speaker 1: of horrors, He called us broke, he called us poverty stricken,
31:23
Speaker 1: all different types of names. I can't recall all of
31:27
Speaker 1: the names that he called my family and myself. But
31:30
Speaker 1: it was just the helping of insults just thrown off
31:33
Speaker 1: at me. And when I got to the point of
31:35
Speaker 1: my daughter, Now, wait, a minute. Let me understand. This
31:37
Speaker 1: is after you've given him oral sex and he tries
31:40
Speaker 1: to rape you and you get away and pull your
31:42
Speaker 1: pants out. Now, this is what he's saying. Do I
31:45
Speaker 1: have the chronology the sequence of events correct? Yes, When
31:51
Speaker 1: he started telling you you'll never be my number one,
31:54
Speaker 1: you're the woman I seek out as a last resort.
32:00
Speaker 1: You're now saying that he knew that would break your
32:04
Speaker 1: heart because you thought y'all were getting married. Absolutely, he
32:07
Speaker 1: knew that he would break me down. Why would you
32:10
Speaker 1: want to marry him? I think, as I said before,
32:14
Speaker 1: I fell in love with the with what he was before,
32:18
Speaker 1: in love with the potential, the things that he promised
32:22
Speaker 1: and said to me before, the version of him before
32:25
Speaker 1: the NFL is what I fell in love with, you know,
32:30
Speaker 1: dactor Sherry Schwartz see to us on the outside looking in,
32:36
Speaker 1: I'm saying, why would you even want him? But this
32:40
Speaker 1: is the pattern Archancela Mazzarello, John Guard. We all know
32:46
Speaker 1: in battered women they fall in love with the man
32:53
Speaker 1: at the beginning. And yes, it's typically the man meeting
32:56
Speaker 1: the woman when he was loving and romantic and fun
33:00
Speaker 1: to be with and caring and throughout the relationship. They
33:04
Speaker 1: continue to think about that version, not the version that
33:10
Speaker 1: rips your pants down and calls you a horn a
33:12
Speaker 1: bitch when you won't have sex. Dotor Sherry Schwartz, it's
33:16
Speaker 1: no I was going to say that, go aheadly correct.
33:19
Speaker 1: That is the cycle of domestic violence. And what it
33:22
Speaker 1: sounds like to me is there's a possibility that this
33:26
Speaker 1: is narcissistic rage. Right. This is somebody who's got this
33:29
Speaker 1: inflated sense of self importance. Everyone's always telling him how
33:33
Speaker 1: wonderful is he. Obviously is a very talented athlete. He
33:37
Speaker 1: made it to the prose, and so no one's ever
33:41
Speaker 1: really good enough for those individuals, by the way, but
33:45
Speaker 1: what they do to lure women in is they do
33:48
Speaker 1: something we call love bombing. In the beginning, it happens
33:52
Speaker 1: really fast and you're perfect for me and we're soulmates
33:55
Speaker 1: and we're going to get married, but that they never comes.
33:58
Speaker 1: And then in between the love of bombing, there's this
34:01
Speaker 1: devaluation phase where you say things to the person when
34:04
Speaker 1: you're not getting your way, like your families trash, you're
34:07
Speaker 1: two year old daughters a whore, and this back and forth,
34:11
Speaker 1: this up and down, It is actually somewhat of an
34:14
Speaker 1: addiction for the victim, right, and they keep thinking, but
34:17
Speaker 1: when it's good, it's really good. Yeah, you know, doctor Sherry,
34:20
Speaker 1: I've tried to say that before when I would be
34:22
Speaker 1: counseling people at the Battered Women's Center, that I guess
34:26
Speaker 1: your mind and you can jump in, John Guard. The
34:30
Speaker 1: victim's mind, their psyche is so used to the adrenaline
34:36
Speaker 1: of the highs and the love and the flowers and
34:40
Speaker 1: then let's get married, and then followed by a beating
34:44
Speaker 1: and then the relationship recuperation, and you're up and you're down,
34:50
Speaker 1: and it starts over again, and it gets addicting. And
34:54
Speaker 1: then when you're with a regular nice guy, you're a
34:58
Speaker 1: board because you don't well have that rollercoaster of events.
35:04
Speaker 1: You get used to that. Yeah. I think what Miss
35:08
Speaker 1: Blakeney's the story really points out when we're looking at
35:14
Speaker 1: this issue and and intimate partner violence shouldn't be as
35:17
Speaker 1: complex as we make it out to be. I mean,
35:20
Speaker 1: first of all, only the faces and names change, the
35:24
Speaker 1: behavior of the offenders are absolutely the same. The dynamics
35:29
Speaker 1: she's speaking about about going after someone's self confidence self esteem,
35:35
Speaker 1: we see isolation and things like that. And you hear
35:39
Speaker 1: people say when they talk about offenders of intimate partner violence,
35:43
Speaker 1: when it's good, it's really good. But when it's bad,
35:46
Speaker 1: it can be really bad. You when you point out
35:50
Speaker 1: the no, the offender being told no. This is all
35:53
Speaker 1: about power and control, and what miss Blakeney has done
35:57
Speaker 1: is basically revated the power and control from him. So
36:03
Speaker 1: when we look at say, domestic violence homicides across the country,
36:07
Speaker 1: and I'll speak directly to North Carolina, in twenty twenty,
36:10
Speaker 1: there was over a twenty four percent increase in the
36:14
Speaker 1: number of individuals that were killed in the state by
36:18
Speaker 1: domestic violence. So it is it is an epidemic, and
36:25
Speaker 1: it's you know, throughout society, and it's the thing we
36:29
Speaker 1: needs to drill. Well, there's another issue, John Garden, Sherry,
36:32
Speaker 1: Doctor Schwartz, and Archangela. What is Jody Blakeney think? What
36:38
Speaker 1: will she think is going to happen when she reports
36:42
Speaker 1: a crime? Take a listen. I'm sure you're on the
36:45
Speaker 1: LT Lawrence Taylor, the NFL pro went on to start
36:49
Speaker 1: on Dancing with the Stars. Take a listen to Brian
36:52
Speaker 1: Thomas ap R. Cut eighteen. Grand jury has indicted Pro
36:56
Speaker 1: Football Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor on charges of thirty
37:00
Speaker 1: gree rape and patronizing on prostitute. The indictment follows his
37:04
Speaker 1: May six the rest when prosecutors say he paid a
37:06
Speaker 1: sixteen year old girl three hundred dollars to have sex
37:09
Speaker 1: with him. The former linebacker was also indicted on charges
37:13
Speaker 1: of endangering the welfare of a child and sexual abuse
37:16
Speaker 1: in criminal Sexual Act in the third degree. If convicted,
37:20
Speaker 1: he faces up to four years in prison. First of all,
37:23
Speaker 1: she's not a prostitute. She's a sixteen year old girl
37:27
Speaker 1: that's two years, twenty four months older than my daughter.
37:33
Speaker 1: He paid not her but the guy that beat her
37:37
Speaker 1: and delivered her like a pizza to Lawrence Taylor's hotel room.
37:42
Speaker 1: That's who got the money. And when this little girl
37:46
Speaker 1: wouldn't have sex with Lawrence Taylor, she got beaten two
37:50
Speaker 1: and the four years behind bars that never happened. He
37:55
Speaker 1: walked and went on to star on Dancing with the Stars.
38:00
Speaker 1: So what are women think? What do they think it's
38:03
Speaker 1: going to happen if they report a beating by an
38:07
Speaker 1: NFL or Joe and Jody Blakeney is with me. She
38:13
Speaker 1: describes a violent assault by NFL Star Chicago Bear, Mario Edwards, Junior, So,
38:22
Speaker 1: joe An, Jody Blakeney. He's trashing you. You're trying to
38:27
Speaker 1: get your pants back on. What happened then? So after
38:30
Speaker 1: the humiliation, he I said, well, you know, I would
38:35
Speaker 1: love for people to know the type of person that
38:38
Speaker 1: you really are. And he kept questioning me, saying, what
38:41
Speaker 1: are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? Bitch,
38:44
Speaker 1: You're gonna shoot me? And I'm like, no, I'm not.
38:47
Speaker 1: I want people to know who they're actually dealing with
38:51
Speaker 1: the stuff that you're saying, the things that you're doing.
38:54
Speaker 1: So I pull out my phone to record and as
38:57
Speaker 1: soon as I read from my phone, he hits me
39:00
Speaker 1: in the face. And then after he hits me in
39:02
Speaker 1: the face, I fall backwards. He snatched me off the
39:06
Speaker 1: bed by my arm and just start to rip it
39:08
Speaker 1: my fingernails, try us to take my phone out my hand,
39:11
Speaker 1: and then he dragged me to the door. All of
39:14
Speaker 1: this is while my belly that is very very noticeable,
39:18
Speaker 1: is pressed up against him. So I'm just trying to
39:20
Speaker 1: fight my way free and he's just let the phone go, bitch,
39:24
Speaker 1: let the phone go, and dragging me to the door
39:27
Speaker 1: and once to get to the door and let's go
39:30
Speaker 1: the recording. That recording stopped. How pregnant were you at
39:34
Speaker 1: that time? I was eighteen going on nineteen weeks pregnant.
39:38
Speaker 1: What happened next? Once we get in the hallway, I'm
39:41
Speaker 1: still recording at this point, just showing us outsitching what
39:45
Speaker 1: he's wearing, so that when I do report this, because
39:49
Speaker 1: I did tell him, if you ever put your hands
39:51
Speaker 1: on me again, I am going to tell the police.
39:54
Speaker 1: So I did just I was gonna do just that recording.
39:59
Speaker 1: We're talking in the hallway and he gets on the
40:03
Speaker 1: elevator to leave, and he steps off the elevator again
40:06
Speaker 1: and he hits me again and gets back on the elevator,
40:09
Speaker 1: and from there my visions blurry in the left eye.
40:13
Speaker 1: So I go back into the room. I send the
40:15
Speaker 1: video as I'm walking. I'm going back into the room
40:18
Speaker 1: because I can't see, and my things are in the room.
40:21
Speaker 1: So I get grabbed my things, find my contact, puts
40:23
Speaker 1: them back in and I'm headed downstairs. I'm on the
40:26
Speaker 1: phone with the friend of mine and immediately, because I
40:30
Speaker 1: knew SAMPD was in the building, I said, let me
40:33
Speaker 1: go downstairs and speak with someone let me see if
40:36
Speaker 1: I can find someone help me. And I did just that.
40:39
Speaker 1: I went to go find the security that was there
40:42
Speaker 1: for help. And what happened when you get down there?
40:45
Speaker 1: So once I got down there, I encountered police officer
40:49
Speaker 1: by the name of Burton, I think it's their names Jeffrey.
40:52
Speaker 1: I encounter him and he was very chip or very
40:56
Speaker 1: nice to me, and he told me and I let
40:58
Speaker 1: him know what was going on, and he said, oh, okay,
41:01
Speaker 1: well I'll get you some help, and then he says
41:03
Speaker 1: he has to go to the bathroom. So I just
41:05
Speaker 1: kind of step up to the side because at this
41:07
Speaker 1: point I'm like, okay, well I got police with me,
41:10
Speaker 1: so I'm okay, I don't need to make any other
41:13
Speaker 1: move their decisions at this point because I have the
41:15
Speaker 1: police coming. Took him about fifteen minutes to come back,
41:19
Speaker 1: and once he came back, I had four Chicago Bears
41:24
Speaker 1: personnel at the time, had no idea who they were
41:27
Speaker 1: standing in front of me, and I just kind of
41:30
Speaker 1: look at him kind of puzzled, like, Hey, are they
41:34
Speaker 1: the police? And he's like nope, but it's the best
41:36
Speaker 1: help that you're gonna get. And so it kind of
41:38
Speaker 1: caught me off guard because I'm like, okay, well, if
41:41
Speaker 1: you're the police and the police can't help me, and
41:44
Speaker 1: this is the best police, so what's better than the
41:46
Speaker 1: actual police who serve and protect this community every day.
41:51
Speaker 1: So I wanted reassurance that I was in good hands
41:55
Speaker 1: because I knew before that. I had a conversation with
41:58
Speaker 1: Mario and he stated to me that they had people
42:00
Speaker 1: to take care of situations that happened in hotels. So
42:04
Speaker 1: I didn't want it to be a situation like that one.
42:08
Speaker 1: So I was very very I was against talking to
42:13
Speaker 1: the Bears. I did not want to talk to them
42:15
Speaker 1: at all. So once they made me comfortable and sayd
42:18
Speaker 1: that they were not with the Bears and that they
42:20
Speaker 1: were privately contracted, I agreed to speak with them. And
42:26
Speaker 1: so once I started speaking with the Bears, well at
42:30
Speaker 1: the time, I didn't know the Bears. I asked him.
42:31
Speaker 1: He said, yeah, I privately contracted. Okay, well, we're gonna
42:34
Speaker 1: make sure that everything's taken care of. If you need
42:36
Speaker 1: to call, the police will definitely take care of that
42:38
Speaker 1: for you as well. As we're talking, one of the
42:42
Speaker 1: gentlemen asked me who the player was. Found his name,
42:45
Speaker 1: and he disappears from me, and then there's another personnel.
42:49
Speaker 1: He comes over and he's very very kind. He talked
42:52
Speaker 1: to me about what's going on, asked me my relationship
42:54
Speaker 1: with them, how long I had known them, what I
42:57
Speaker 1: was doing in the hotel? Was I from the area?
43:00
Speaker 1: And then he starts asking me, is there anything that
43:04
Speaker 1: the Bears can do to make this right? Can they
43:06
Speaker 1: bring them downstairs so he can apologize? And all I
43:11
Speaker 1: wanted to do, well, wait, so wait, they tell you
43:13
Speaker 1: they're not with the Bears. They are with the Bears
43:16
Speaker 1: according to you and your lawyer, archangelum Azzarello. And they
43:21
Speaker 1: offer up to bring Mario Edwards Junior downstairs to apologize. Yes, yes,
43:28
Speaker 1: this was after I explained to him my relationship with Mario,
43:33
Speaker 1: and they kept asking was there anything they could do?
43:35
Speaker 1: And I said, well, you can call the police, because
43:37
Speaker 1: that's who I need to handle the situation. I'm gonna
43:40
Speaker 1: call the police. Archangel um Azzarello. Don't you know if
43:43
Speaker 1: she gets said, yeah, you can pay me twenty grand
43:46
Speaker 1: I'll be quiet, go away. Don't you know that would
43:49
Speaker 1: have been the first thing on the headline on every
43:52
Speaker 1: page on every newspaper. Well, that's what they're still trying
43:56
Speaker 1: to do, Nancy. That's what they're still from. I'm telling you.
44:00
Speaker 1: But your client didn't do that. Did they bring him
44:03
Speaker 1: down for an apology? Jody? They bought him down for
44:05
Speaker 1: an apology, and as soon as I saw him, I
44:08
Speaker 1: immediately told him I did not want him near me.
44:11
Speaker 1: To call the police. That was the theme. Was called
44:14
Speaker 1: the police, you know to John guard I've seen this before,
44:17
Speaker 1: and I think it's horrible where judges have actually ordered
44:24
Speaker 1: a rape victim, or a child abuse victim, or any
44:28
Speaker 1: type of salt victim to talk to the perp for
44:32
Speaker 1: an apology, and they ordered that to happen. Nobody wants
44:36
Speaker 1: to see the perp, No, they don't. It just goes
44:39
Speaker 1: to prove the manipulation that has occurred out there of
44:43
Speaker 1: how we are deficient in our knowledge of how intimate
44:49
Speaker 1: partner violence occurs and what's going on behind closed doors.
44:54
Speaker 1: O Nancy, Okay, something jump in. So here's one of
44:59
Speaker 1: the things that I learned when I first came to
45:01
Speaker 1: North Carolina. Assault on a female versus assault. I said,
45:05
Speaker 1: that's a fourteenth amen, an equal protections issue. How is
45:10
Speaker 1: it that women have more protection than men? Assault on
45:15
Speaker 1: a female. I called my constitutional law professor and she said,
45:19
Speaker 1: arcs stand down. The women in North Carolina need more protection.
45:24
Speaker 1: Look at the statistics of how many women are beaten
45:28
Speaker 1: in North Carolina daily in North Carolina. So we actually
45:33
Speaker 1: are aware of domestic violence. We are aware that men
45:37
Speaker 1: beat women here because we actually gave them their own
45:42
Speaker 1: crime and a higher penalty than assault. Assault on a
45:47
Speaker 1: female and in this case, on a pregnant female. To
45:50
Speaker 1: Juddie Blakeney, who says she was beaten and assaulted by
45:54
Speaker 1: an NFL star, Mary Edwards Junior, twenty seven years old,
45:59
Speaker 1: she targa bears, so he comes down. Did he apologize? No,
46:04
Speaker 1: So he actually did not apologize. They didn't really allow
46:07
Speaker 1: him to speak until after one of the other security
46:13
Speaker 1: that was there finished watching the video that I had.
46:18
Speaker 1: They asked him what They asked me a bunch of
46:23
Speaker 1: questions after and said, hey, it doesn't look like he
46:25
Speaker 1: did anything, could mean anything. It's just you two in
46:27
Speaker 1: the room. And then at this time I'm hearing people
46:30
Speaker 1: in the background saying that I'm a prostitute, and I'm like,
46:34
Speaker 1: wait a minute. So a lot of people are in Charlotte,
46:37
Speaker 1: I'm from here, so a lot of people are hearing
46:40
Speaker 1: that my name is associated with something that is frowned upon.
46:44
Speaker 1: So I immediately start to just yell like, hey, do
46:48
Speaker 1: you hear this Mary? Like Mario, do you hear them
46:50
Speaker 1: saying that I'm a prostitute? And he just stood there
46:53
Speaker 1: and shook his head. It wasn't until I said. And
46:56
Speaker 1: this is when one of the bears security got upset
46:59
Speaker 1: with me because he asked me what I plan to
47:02
Speaker 1: do after him and I spoke and I told him, well,
47:07
Speaker 1: I'm going to call the police. And he immediately gets
47:09
Speaker 1: mad and he storms off, and then Mario starts yelling
47:13
Speaker 1: and he becomes ird and he's back into a corner.
47:16
Speaker 1: And then this is when they're, oh, well I have something.
47:19
Speaker 1: You have something on her and she has something on you.
47:22
Speaker 1: It'll be okay, don't worry. And he's talking about the thing.
47:25
Speaker 1: I don't even know what they're talking about yet. At
47:28
Speaker 1: this point. Have I do crime stories with Nancy Grace? Guys,
47:47
Speaker 1: we are talking about Mary of Edwards. Junior has signed
47:51
Speaker 1: a three year, eleven million dollar contract eleven million plus
48:00
Speaker 1: more like eleven million, seven hundred thousand dollar contract plus
48:07
Speaker 1: a three million dollars signing bonus. I mean, this guy
48:15
Speaker 1: is in the lobby calling a longtime sweetheart on and
48:19
Speaker 1: off against sweetheart, pregnant woman, calling her a prostitute within
48:26
Speaker 1: the hearing shot. I mean, well, it wasn't marry over No,
48:29
Speaker 1: I can't even imagine that happening. Mary didn't accutely that Nancy,
48:34
Speaker 1: one of the other people around said that, and he
48:38
Speaker 1: just stood there and didn't somebody say, oh, this was
48:42
Speaker 1: just a booty call, Jody. They stated that it was
48:45
Speaker 1: a booty call, and it was a paid call, is
48:47
Speaker 1: what it was? A paid call. Archangela Mazzarello, does your client,
48:51
Speaker 1: Jody Blakeney have any criminal history whatsoever, not before this? Okay,
48:56
Speaker 1: what do you mean by that that somehow, out of
48:58
Speaker 1: this she gets charged arched yep, explained in a nutshell.
49:03
Speaker 1: In a nutshell, when she was on her way to
49:06
Speaker 1: the emergency room, the police officer that got tickets to
49:11
Speaker 1: the game got paraphernalia. We don't know what, but all
49:15
Speaker 1: of a sudden that officer took out assault charges against Jody.
49:22
Speaker 1: When she went to get her charges pressed against mister Edwards,
49:28
Speaker 1: they said to her, there's a warrant for your arrest.
49:31
Speaker 1: She said, excuse me a warrant for your arrest, Miss Blakeney,
49:36
Speaker 1: And when she explained what happened, they let her, well, here,
49:42
Speaker 1: they just give you a piece of paper. And she
49:45
Speaker 1: immediately called to the MPD and said, are you kidding me?
49:50
Speaker 1: That officer went to her house hat in hand that
49:54
Speaker 1: night and amended his report allowing Kurt to take our
50:00
Speaker 1: of full charges. Yet yet the charges against her remains
50:06
Speaker 1: and continue to remain. So let me understand this. What's
50:08
Speaker 1: the claim against her? Archangela? Are you ready for this? She?
50:12
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there forehead. She poked him in the forehead
50:14
Speaker 1: with his finger, with her finger. That's the charge against her.
50:18
Speaker 1: She posed on an nfl or in the forehead with
50:23
Speaker 1: her finger. That's the charge. That's it. Because if they
50:26
Speaker 1: were coming from anybody else but you, Archangela Mazzarella, I
50:29
Speaker 1: wouldn't believe it. But knowing you and your legal track record,
50:33
Speaker 1: I know you're telling me the truth. So that's the
50:36
Speaker 1: charge against her. And what were your client's injuries? What
50:39
Speaker 1: were JODI's injuries? Oh? Well, I don't even know how
50:42
Speaker 1: you describe what happened to her eye. It's some sort
50:46
Speaker 1: of detached retina thing. Again, there are medical records that
50:50
Speaker 1: can do this better than I. Plus, she had a
50:53
Speaker 1: concussion to her head. Complications with the pregnancy were huge,
51:00
Speaker 1: and believe it or not, a year later, she's still
51:02
Speaker 1: treating oh Nancy. Just for fun, I pulled the warrant
51:08
Speaker 1: and Officer Tye wrote that there was probable costs to
51:14
Speaker 1: believe that Jody Blakeney poking the victim and the forehead
51:18
Speaker 1: with her finger. Let me understand something aren't out and
51:21
Speaker 1: good Jody sustained a concussion? Yeah? And is that verified
51:28
Speaker 1: by medical records that she had a concussion? Everything? And
51:32
Speaker 1: a detached retina. It's not a detached retina, Jodey. Can
51:37
Speaker 1: you explain it? So what they stated it was it
51:40
Speaker 1: was a optic eye nerve injury from being hit in
51:43
Speaker 1: the eye. I guess the immediate impact was directly to
51:47
Speaker 1: the eyeball and not to the actual goal itself. But impact,
51:52
Speaker 1: John Guard, do you ever feel completely overwhelmed with domestic violence?
51:57
Speaker 1: I mean, you're the chief Jeff the Pitt County Sheriff's
52:01
Speaker 1: Office specializing in domestic violence. Because it's like here, we've
52:06
Speaker 1: got this famous guy eleven million dollars. You know, when
52:12
Speaker 1: I prosecuted I had two night jobs to make my
52:17
Speaker 1: car payment. I never I've never known anybody eleven million
52:28
Speaker 1: dollars and he has actually brought a complaint against her
52:33
Speaker 1: that she touched him in the forehead with her finger.
52:36
Speaker 1: I mean, do you ever get overwhelmed? It's like it
52:38
Speaker 1: never ends and the NFL is letting it happen. Well,
52:44
Speaker 1: I mean, I certainly get frustrated at times, and I
52:49
Speaker 1: own a lot of folks in this profession do as well,
52:52
Speaker 1: especially when we talk about this topic. But you know,
52:56
Speaker 1: it's it's unfortunate, but sometimes folks around the country see
53:02
Speaker 1: maybe deficiencies our profession may have. You know, when I
53:09
Speaker 1: went through the academy back in the early nineties, there
53:11
Speaker 1: was no training specific to domestic violence. And you're talking
53:15
Speaker 1: the second most committed crime. Second only say well, I
53:19
Speaker 1: gotta tell you something, John, I just sometimes I don't
53:23
Speaker 1: even want to say anymore. And he's being rewarded with
53:28
Speaker 1: a new contract, a three year deal for eleven million
53:31
Speaker 1: dollars and trying to claim she was the aggressor. Jody,
53:35
Speaker 1: how tall are you four? And how much do you weigh?
53:39
Speaker 1: One hundred and twenty seven pens? Okay, r? What is
53:43
Speaker 1: the status of the criminal charges and what's the status
53:46
Speaker 1: of the lawsuit you've just filed. Well, the status of
53:48
Speaker 1: the criminal charges are that Miss Blakeney's charge against her,
53:55
Speaker 1: brought by mister Edwards, has been continued to make the
54:00
Speaker 1: end of May of twenty twenty two. Thank you COVID
54:05
Speaker 1: his charges her charges against him. He has not come
54:09
Speaker 1: back to North Carolina to be served. And the complaint
54:14
Speaker 1: was filed on October fourteenth at ten o'clock in the
54:18
Speaker 1: morning as in a few days ago. Yes, ma'am, Jody,
54:23
Speaker 1: I want you to take a listen to our friends
54:26
Speaker 1: over at TMZ, and I'm talking about an NFL star
54:32
Speaker 1: named Jim Dunaway. Listen. Jim Dunaway's wife murder case is
54:37
Speaker 1: not highly publicized. Before her death, Miss Dunaway had wanted
54:40
Speaker 1: a divorce settlement that gave her eight hundred acres. The
54:42
Speaker 1: couple owned eighteen hundred dollars a month in alimony payments
54:45
Speaker 1: and half of Dunaway's NFL pension. In nineteen ninety eight, nine,
54:49
Speaker 1: Yelled Dunaway, Jim's wife was found dead in a half
54:51
Speaker 1: empty swimming pool. Although Jim wasn't indicted for the charges,
54:54
Speaker 1: the children followed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging their father
54:57
Speaker 1: was responsible for their mother's death. In twenty twelve, Jim
54:59
Speaker 1: was liable and forced to pay five hundred and seventy
55:02
Speaker 1: nine thousand dollars to achild to his own children. But
55:05
Speaker 1: she's dead. Dunaway's wife is dead. Jody. I don't want
55:14
Speaker 1: you to be just another victim at the hands of
55:19
Speaker 1: an enraged nfler. I want your case to count for something,
55:26
Speaker 1: But I thank god you didn't end up like Jim
55:30
Speaker 1: Dunaway's life. We wait as just as unfalls. We reached
55:37
Speaker 1: out to the NFL. That's right, Nancy. We did reach
55:39
Speaker 1: out to the NFL to find out how the organization
55:42
Speaker 1: is reacting and handling domestic violence cases. In twenty fourteen,
55:46
Speaker 1: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced a new league policy which states,
55:51
Speaker 1: effective immediately, violations of the Personal Conduct Policy regarding assault, battery,
55:57
Speaker 1: domestic violence, or sexual assault that in physical force will
56:01
Speaker 1: be subject to a suspension without pay of six games
56:04
Speaker 1: for the first defense, with consideration given to mitigating factors,
56:08
Speaker 1: such as a longer suspension when circumstances warrant. According to
56:12
Speaker 1: this policy, a player did not have to be charged
56:15
Speaker 1: to be suspended and for an independent investigation to be launched.
56:20
Speaker 1: According to the policy, as second defense for domestic violence
56:23
Speaker 1: would result in a lifetime ban, Commissioner Goodell said this
56:28
Speaker 1: was an issue of respect. Since then, the NFL has
56:31
Speaker 1: suspended high profile players for domestic violence and developed the
56:35
Speaker 1: NFL's No More campaign, airing anti domestic violence ads. The
56:40
Speaker 1: league says it has devoted fifty million dollars worth of
56:43
Speaker 1: airtime to anti domestic violence ads. Mario Edwards Junior has
56:48
Speaker 1: not been charged in connection with this lawsuit. It has
56:51
Speaker 1: not gone to twial, and Edwards has not been found guilty.
56:55
Speaker 1: We wait. Goodbye friend,