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Three beautiful woman make horrific false accusations and get busted · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Serious x M Triumph
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Speaker 1: Channel one. Two serious felony accusations, people's lives at risk,
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Speaker 1: jail time, hard jail time. And then suddenly we discover
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Speaker 1: the accusations are faults, made up, fabricated today three examples, known, examples,
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Speaker 1: tried and true. Three women make heinous charges against innocent people.
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Speaker 1: But why, I'm Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank
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Speaker 1: you for being with us. What acts like this do
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Speaker 1: to the criminal justice system is really hard. It's hard
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Speaker 1: to measure because every time the jury sits in a
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Speaker 1: box and tries to determine guilt or innocence, they remember
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Speaker 1: cases like this. For instance, let's just start with Brianna Harmon,
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Speaker 1: nearly twenty years old. She rushes into a small church
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Speaker 1: in Dennison, Texas, wearing only a shirt, a bra, and
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Speaker 1: her underwear, screaming and crying, claiming she had been kidnapped
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Speaker 1: from her car, raped by two men in the woods
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Speaker 1: behind the church while a third man held her down.
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Speaker 1: Joining me right now, Jennifer Zikowski with heavy dot Com
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Speaker 1: one of my favorite sites, Jennifer, what can you tell
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Speaker 1: me how? Let's just start at the beginning, so everybody's
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Speaker 1: sitting in church there in Dennison, Texas and in MS.
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Speaker 1: Bring on a gorgeous young girl covered in blood. Yes,
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Speaker 1: take it all, Jennifer. Absolutely, as you said, the heinous um. Nowadays,
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Speaker 1: I guess it's not that shocking to me unfortunately, which
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Speaker 1: is very sad. With all the stories that I cover. Um,
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Speaker 1: by all accounts, Brianna truly appeared to be living a
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Speaker 1: life that so many would dream of. She was young,
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Speaker 1: she was attractive, she had a handsome fiance, and you
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Speaker 1: know what, what really could have been the start of
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Speaker 1: a great future. Um. Brianna's fiance, while obviously now an
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Speaker 1: x fience after what she put him through. His name
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Speaker 1: is Sam Hollin's word. Um, he isn't sure of what
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Speaker 1: her motive was, even he didn't know. One thing I
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Speaker 1: do know is that Brianna's fon fiance was set to
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Speaker 1: join the army and and he of course may have
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Speaker 1: had to move for that reason. Nancy. Here's what the
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Speaker 1: former fiance had to say on Fox four. There are
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Speaker 1: a lot of people or its gangs for us that
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Speaker 1: was hurt. It was hard to take in whenever I
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Speaker 1: found out about everything. Someone who actually I've actually trusted,
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Speaker 1: and it was plan on spend the rest of my
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Speaker 1: life with and actually do something like that to me
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Speaker 1: and everybody else in this community. And I spoke with
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Speaker 1: a friend of her fiance, Autumn Jones. She said that,
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Speaker 1: you know, this had been Sam's dream for a very
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Speaker 1: long time Army, and for whatever reason, Rihanna was wholeheartedly
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Speaker 1: against it. She did not want to move, and they
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Speaker 1: had really been arguing about it. So the only thing
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Speaker 1: and see that I can come up with is if
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Speaker 1: she felt like she could make him feel really horrible, Um,
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Speaker 1: if if maybe she made up this horrible, horrific crime,
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Speaker 1: that he would somehow be at her becking call, that
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Speaker 1: he would need to make her comfortable as possible, not
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Speaker 1: want to hurt her any more than she already had been,
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Speaker 1: you know, meanings he wouldn't crush her her to move
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Speaker 1: as he had wished or even maybe as he would
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Speaker 1: have been inspired to do through the arty. So I
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Speaker 1: really think it was her way of gaining control of
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Speaker 1: the situation. And what's so, well, it's all odd. It's
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Speaker 1: all odd with me. Jennifer Sakowski with Heavy dot Com
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Speaker 1: investigative reporter Wendy Patrick, California, prosecutor, doctor Chloe Carmichael, clinical
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Speaker 1: psychologist and founder of Asked Doctor c c dot com,
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Speaker 1: and Troy Slayton, veteran defense attorney Jennifer Zakowski. I want
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Speaker 1: to establish a few more facts before I open it
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Speaker 1: up to her panel. This I mean it was so
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Speaker 1: well planned out because it all started with a man
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Speaker 1: calling nine one one, the fiancee and frantically telling police
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Speaker 1: that Talbot's vehicle had been found in a parking lot
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Speaker 1: of Creek More apartments there on tek Sooma Parkway, where
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Speaker 1: the driver's door wide open, hanging open. Her keys, her phones,
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Speaker 1: her cell phone were in the car, and she artfully
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Speaker 1: found near the car as if she had been dragged away,
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Speaker 1: kicking and screaming, digging her heels in, then carried off
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Speaker 1: into a wooded area behind a church. She bursts into
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Speaker 1: the church. I'm looking at the church right now. I
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Speaker 1: can only imagine where these giant doors were opened up,
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Speaker 1: people were in there. I guess it must have been
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Speaker 1: a Wednesday night. She breaks in, covered in blood, wearing
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Speaker 1: a short abroad and underwear, screaming that she had been
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Speaker 1: attacked and raped by a group of men. All right,
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Speaker 1: the havoc that caused. But the reality Jennifer Zakowski, this
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Speaker 1: took a lot of planning to stage the scene. I mean,
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Speaker 1: with the car door wide open, like she had been
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Speaker 1: carjacked and somebody dragged her out of the car, even
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Speaker 1: thinking that special touch of leaving her shoe beside the
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Speaker 1: car Jennifer, Yes. And how someone could go through that
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Speaker 1: and go through all of that planning, um, I cannot
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Speaker 1: even imagine, and then to come up with, uh, with
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Speaker 1: the story that she did, that she was raped by
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Speaker 1: three blacks men. Of course, that that cost a huge controversy,
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Speaker 1: a huge sturt online. Um. There were so many headlines,
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Speaker 1: horrible headlines that actually I don't want to repeat all
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Speaker 1: of them right now, but as you can imagine, all right, Jennifer,
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Speaker 1: blame the black man. Here's Dennison, Texas Police Chief Jay Birch.
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Speaker 1: Information out there with respun out of control. H A
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Speaker 1: lot of our citizens became fearful. There were rumors that
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Speaker 1: there was either individuals or groups of individuals that were
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Speaker 1: randomly going around town of ducting women, and that just
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Speaker 1: that just wasn't truly the many people saw it on
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Speaker 1: social media and but almost immediately from our police perspectives,
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Speaker 1: for our investigators just we're not able to put the
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Speaker 1: pieces of the puzzle together as he would report to us,
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Speaker 1: and what happened as a result, we really found no
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Speaker 1: evidence of kidnapping and no evidence of the sexual assault.
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Speaker 1: So the crime scene, as we believe, starting with her vehicle,
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Speaker 1: all the way to the point that she walked into
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Speaker 1: the church, the stage, the injuries that she had, the
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Speaker 1: cuts and the bruises she confessed herself in printed. There
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Speaker 1: weren't all suspects, even thongishly. People were supplying us a
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Speaker 1: name here and there as possible persons of venture. Our
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Speaker 1: investigators actually checked one or a few people just leave
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Speaker 1: behind they very quickly. We're found to have albies that
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Speaker 1: we were ready to confirmed. So from the early stages
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Speaker 1: we kid through our diligence and following up. Reminds me
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Speaker 1: of Susan Smith. She's all flung up with her rich boyfriend.
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Speaker 1: She he doesn't want a ready made family, says she
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Speaker 1: drowns all her children, buckles him into the car and
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Speaker 1: pushes the car in the lake, then blames the black man.
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Speaker 1: I'm telling you what I'll never forget, Jennifer. When that happened,
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Speaker 1: I was sitting in court, Troy Slaton, You're gonna love
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Speaker 1: this story. You've been in quart a million times like me.
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Speaker 1: I'm sitting in court with my partner, a tall, thin
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Speaker 1: black male, and all the reports come out, and I
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Speaker 1: looked at the sketch, Troy, and I looked over at Harm.
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Speaker 1: I said, herman, where were you? The sketch looked exactly
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Speaker 1: like herman, who, I might add, as now a judge.
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Speaker 1: And he looked. He went, oh, dear Lord in Heaven,
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Speaker 1: the black man has done it again. I mean, it's
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Speaker 1: just such a click. She to blame the black man,
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Speaker 1: so she runs in to the church. Troy, I'm sure
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Speaker 1: you're about I'll set to defend her and blames three
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Speaker 1: non existent black guys and what that did to that community?
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Speaker 1: I mean, Troy, what is your defense? This is clearly
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Speaker 1: a girl who is suffering, suffering from what self aggrandizement,
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Speaker 1: self centeredness? What is she one of the ultimate main girls?
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Speaker 1: I mean, suffering from what I noticed she paused right there,
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Speaker 1: suffering from Let me think, Let me think, let me think,
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Speaker 1: let me think. What was she suffering from some sort
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Speaker 1: of mental disease or defect where she would go to
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Speaker 1: such an extent where she would actually cut her body.
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Speaker 1: The reports are that she caused cuts and lacerations that
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Speaker 1: resulted in blood dripping from her entire body. That is
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Speaker 1: not something that a person who is in control of
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Speaker 1: their faculties would do. Nancy, Yes, I agree with you.
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Speaker 1: Not in control of her faculties. Or maybe she was
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Speaker 1: just a self centered little well I'm not going to
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Speaker 1: do it either, I've hey, but all up, Well, I
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Speaker 1: had to wins my sailor mouth is gone. Wendy Patrick,
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Speaker 1: California prosecutor, please help me throw me a bone here, because, uh,
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Speaker 1: just to me self inflicted wounds. I mean, you can
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Speaker 1: spot on a mile away, number one, but number two,
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Speaker 1: this is the height of self cinderness. A possibly trying
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Speaker 1: to make your boyfriend give up his military career he's
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Speaker 1: dreamed of his whole life and stay in town with you.
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Speaker 1: Get attention. It's all about me, me, me me, and
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Speaker 1: then blame the black community who's minding their own business
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Speaker 1: until Brianna busts up in there blaming them. Yeah. Absolutely, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: I've got the easier argument on this one. Poor Troy.
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Speaker 1: That is the what. That is what the defensive has
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Speaker 1: to struggle with in cases like this if you've got
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Speaker 1: someone suffering from pathological narcissism to the extent that they
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Speaker 1: will actually go And and by the way, I suppose
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Speaker 1: it's good that we have an admission to go with
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Speaker 1: all this, just to make sure. But the level of sophistication, planning, drama,
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Speaker 1: and willingness to subject a community to a false belief,
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Speaker 1: where like you said, Nancy, you are looking with suspicion
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Speaker 1: at people that might fit the profile, is just beyond
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Speaker 1: the pale. And that's one of the reasons that when
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Speaker 1: we have righteous claims of kidnapping, you have these crying
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Speaker 1: wolf incidents that make people less able to to actually
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Speaker 1: look at righteous claims in the light that they should
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Speaker 1: be looked at, because we're suspicious when people like this
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Speaker 1: do what they did. Well, I guess I've I've lost
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Speaker 1: my mind here because I'm going to a reporter, a prosecutor,
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Speaker 1: and a defense lawyer on this. I've got a shrink people.
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Speaker 1: Dr Chloe, no offense, guys, because you're all unique and
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Speaker 1: special in your own individual way. Dr Chloe Carmichael asked
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Speaker 1: dr cc dot com clinical psychologist, this woman has confessed
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Speaker 1: that she did this. She made it up. She itself
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Speaker 1: inflicted the wounds. So it's not like I'm speculating she
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Speaker 1: made it up. She admits she made it up. After
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Speaker 1: the police and the sheriff's in that town say, we
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Speaker 1: don't think three guys kidnapped her. We think this was
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Speaker 1: staged and there's no indication she was raped. She broke
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Speaker 1: down and confessed. Dr Chloe take a listen to this.
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Speaker 1: Of course, the problem with this being a hoax is
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Speaker 1: it made our community, at least on our community variable,
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Speaker 1: And even though we know the story now to be
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Speaker 1: a hoax, there's gonna be people down the road that
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Speaker 1: remember this and they may have remember the outcome, and
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Speaker 1: that may put us thing on our community that we
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Speaker 1: can't get real that's always concerned was Rann a Talum
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Speaker 1: host was insulting to our community and startedly insulting to
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Speaker 1: our American unity in her description, and so calls us
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Speaker 1: it's you know, hopes and the anger and her center
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Speaker 1: called from such a Hopes are difficult and satellite so unnecessary.
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Speaker 1: This is never needed to have them, and it's it's
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Speaker 1: unfortunate that it's nowt to this direction too. Ways, the
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Speaker 1: police office police perform in time, we put all of
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Speaker 1: our cases, all back barns that we are currently working.
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Speaker 1: So we've been have not been able to perform our
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Speaker 1: duties for our other citizens in our community because we've
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Speaker 1: been so focused on this stuff a large crop. Dr Chloe,
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Speaker 1: please make sense of it, absolutely, Nancy. It sounds of frankly,
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Speaker 1: very much like sociopathy. So a sociopath would be someone
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Speaker 1: who has absolutely no regard for the for anyone else
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Speaker 1: except for themselves. And it's certainly does sound like she
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Speaker 1: had a motivation um to be seeking sympathy and claiming
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Speaker 1: a victim role so that her fiancee would make special
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Speaker 1: allowances and accommodations for her. Moreover, it doesn't sound like
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Speaker 1: she um you know, confessed out of guilt. It sounds
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Speaker 1: again very um self motivated that she realized basically that
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Speaker 1: she had been caught and it was now time to
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Speaker 1: switch and play a different type of victim card. And
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Speaker 1: you know, maybe claim that she's mentally disturbed or something
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Speaker 1: like that, but she sounds actually like someone who's very
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Speaker 1: much in control of her faculties. To me, man, can
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Speaker 1: you imagine Wendy Patrick when this girl grows up? Oh,
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Speaker 1: dear lord, she's just she's just UM, well, I can't
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Speaker 1: curse some let me think, um an evil mastermind in training? Okay,
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Speaker 1: did she still attain? What's going to happen when she's
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Speaker 1: grown up and has real problems like bills and chill
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Speaker 1: aldren and a house payment, a car payment. What's going
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Speaker 1: to happen? Then? Yeah? I gotta tell you. One of
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Speaker 1: the things that just struck me is what your last
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Speaker 1: guest said, a different type of victims, switching different types
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Speaker 1: of victim roles as she grows up. Nancy, what is
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Speaker 1: that going to look like? Unless this cycle is broken
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Speaker 1: right now? Who knows how bad this could get because
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Speaker 1: we already know by like you said that absolutely having
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Speaker 1: not the kind of remorse, guilt, shame that one would expect,
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Speaker 1: having put on this type of an elaborate show gone
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Speaker 1: to the extent that she did, staging the car and
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Speaker 1: the shoe and all the rest of it. I really
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Speaker 1: hope she gets the help she needs before we learn
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Speaker 1: what kind of an adult she's going to become. I
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Speaker 1: just love that the shoe. I mean that that's the
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Speaker 1: icing on the cake for me. Take a listen to this.
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Speaker 1: Can you would be a little bit more specific about
16:49
Speaker 1: some of the things that you said just weren't adding
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Speaker 1: up about the story. UM, I'm thinking, you know, maybe
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Speaker 1: along the lines of her injuries or are there any
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Speaker 1: other things that you can touch on that maybe kind
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Speaker 1: of took off and say, you know, these were some
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Speaker 1: of the red flags right off the bat that didn't
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Speaker 1: make sense. I'll give a couple of UM. First of all,
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Speaker 1: the apartment complex where this happening is a is a
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Speaker 1: very good and safe apartment complex. We just we don't
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Speaker 1: have that many calls after m And the location within
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Speaker 1: the apartment complex, if if you looked at it, there's
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Speaker 1: only one place in one place out. This allegedly occurred
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Speaker 1: at the very far back of the in the cold
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Speaker 1: stacked area of the accomplex, which would not be typical
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Speaker 1: of somebody who's trying to grab somebody and get away quickly.
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Speaker 1: Typically they're not going to go deeply into such a
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Speaker 1: complex where it may be difficult for them to get out.
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Speaker 1: The second part of the original allegation was the time
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Speaker 1: of day when this allegedly had heard. There's it's broad
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Speaker 1: their life. It's around the time kids are getting out
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Speaker 1: of school and getting home in school. There's a lot
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Speaker 1: of people around. UM, and that again, isn't just not
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Speaker 1: typical that someone would grab somebody and brought day like
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Speaker 1: that would be good chance of being seen about witness
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Speaker 1: And of course we talked to everyone around there and
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Speaker 1: no one saw her, had even heard of anything at
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Speaker 1: that time. Make us believe it? Back to Jennifer Tikowski
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Speaker 1: with Heavy dot com investigative reporter, So, Jennifer, she admits
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Speaker 1: that she made the whole thing up. She was charged
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Speaker 1: with two counts of tampering with physical evidence, to counts
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Speaker 1: of tampering with a government record. Three of the charges
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Speaker 1: are felonies, and Carrie a maximum of ten years. What
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Speaker 1: she did is absolutely terrible on Like you said that
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Speaker 1: only to those around her, her loved ones, her fiance,
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Speaker 1: but to the black community itself. Um for her to
19:24
Speaker 1: get off with something like probation, I think it would
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Speaker 1: really be offensive to those who have actually gone through
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Speaker 1: a horrible assault like she had lied about going through. Alan.
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Speaker 1: What's the end of this story? What happened? Nancy Brianna
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Speaker 1: Harmon has entered a plea of guilty to four felony
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Speaker 1: charges of tampering with physical evidence and government documents. Her
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Speaker 1: lawyer says she's quote very remorseful for what she did
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Speaker 1: and what she said, and that's why she's decided to
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Speaker 1: plead guilty, and the Dennison Police chief says his department
19:59
Speaker 1: will be taking restitution from Brianna. We've spent, uh that's
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Speaker 1: an infant amount of costs and resources to pursue this case.
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Speaker 1: In fact, in our meetings that we've had over the
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Speaker 1: last couple of weeks, I think we put as much
20:19
Speaker 1: and more into this as we do a murder in
20:22
Speaker 1: this digitch. So that's how serious we believed it was,
20:26
Speaker 1: and we've we've accepted it for that um once we
20:32
Speaker 1: found out and confirmed it was a hubby. I think
20:40
Speaker 1: it's all like fairer from a taxpayer, perfective that we
20:42
Speaker 1: asked for those costs to be reimbursed to us because
20:47
Speaker 1: we we've spent to demitate taxpayer money on regular time
20:51
Speaker 1: and over time wanted these case and we also want
20:54
Speaker 1: to send a message that if you want to lie
20:57
Speaker 1: e police and make it a story, especially a later story,
21:01
Speaker 1: life is that is what our called quality of lifetime.
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Speaker 1: Brianna Harmon shall be sentenced on March twenty, and prosecutors
21:13
Speaker 1: have agreed to a plea deal with two possible punishments
21:17
Speaker 1: for the judge to choose either regular probation or deferred adjudication.
21:23
Speaker 1: That's where it would allow the conviction to be dismissed
21:27
Speaker 1: from her criminal record after she successfully completed the probation period.
21:32
Speaker 1: Of course, the offense once that deferred adjudication. Well, the
21:37
Speaker 1: reality is that what this does is hurt so many
21:41
Speaker 1: legitimate victims. Legitimate victims are now going to be testifying
21:49
Speaker 1: in front of juries with this in the gerards minds
21:54
Speaker 1: Brianna Harmon and now we had to south to talk
21:58
Speaker 1: it A gorgeous on girl like long beautiful Jack. You
22:03
Speaker 1: look at this girl, long, beautiful, dark brunette hair, um,
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Speaker 1: perfect skin, a perfect little cupid bow mouth. Just she's
22:14
Speaker 1: just precious in every way, much like the Brianna girl.
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Speaker 1: Just a gorgeous, beautiful physically who knew about the snakes
22:25
Speaker 1: writhing in their heads. This university student claims that she
22:34
Speaker 1: is dragged into a bathroom at a party and raped
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Speaker 1: by two football stars. Never been arrested, never had a problem,
22:47
Speaker 1: and both of them, both of the football players had
22:51
Speaker 1: great grades. Never been caught driving and drinking, urinating in public,
22:58
Speaker 1: causing a disturbance, speaking in windows, disorderly, Jiva nothing squeaky clean.
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Speaker 1: Joining me right now, Jennifer Zakowski with heavy dot Com,
23:11
Speaker 1: Wendy Patrick, Dr. Chloe Carmichael, and Troy Slayton right now.
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Speaker 1: Defense attorney Jennifer Zakowski, What happened with Nikki Vino? I
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Speaker 1: what it really sounds like to me? She wanted to
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Speaker 1: get on. She was hoping to win the sympathy of
23:30
Speaker 1: another male student, and so she came up, Oh no,
23:34
Speaker 1: not all this for a guy again. If you gotta
23:38
Speaker 1: work this hard to get a guy, just forget him.
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Speaker 1: Moved to the next one. They're like busses. There's a
23:44
Speaker 1: new one coming along every fifteen minutes. No offense, Troice Layton,
23:49
Speaker 1: don't take it the wrong way. Okay, sorry, I interjected,
23:52
Speaker 1: Go ahead, Jennifer. You were just saying, Jennifer Zakowski, that
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Speaker 1: this is all to get the attention of a boy. Bad.
24:01
Speaker 1: It's it's just disgusting that you could, you know, for
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Speaker 1: three months, because it was It did take three months
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Speaker 1: for her to recant her story. These men, these football
24:14
Speaker 1: players who had so much going for them, they were
24:18
Speaker 1: seen as monsters because of her false accusations. Um, of
24:23
Speaker 1: course she's claiming to be suffering from a psychiatric illness. UM.
24:28
Speaker 1: So it's it's kind of tough to say what's really
24:31
Speaker 1: going to pan out in the end. And as far
24:36
Speaker 1: as you know, why did she do this? You know,
24:41
Speaker 1: was she a pathological liar? I was thinking about that,
24:45
Speaker 1: and cathemological liars they lie without reason or purpose. Again,
24:51
Speaker 1: you know, without reason or purpose. She had a reason.
24:56
Speaker 1: Nicky had a reason, and in mind opinion, that was
25:00
Speaker 1: selfishly to put her own lost over that of two
25:05
Speaker 1: young football players. Again, those football players who had everything
25:10
Speaker 1: going for them, um, and any owns of integrity that
25:15
Speaker 1: she may have had went out the window at that
25:19
Speaker 1: moment when she made that choice to make these false accusations.
25:23
Speaker 1: It's been reported that these players lost their football scholarships,
25:29
Speaker 1: and that means a lot because I remember when I
25:33
Speaker 1: met my fiance, Keith, he was on baseball scholarship and
25:37
Speaker 1: that paid for him to go to college, and that
25:42
Speaker 1: means a lot to people. My sister went to university
25:45
Speaker 1: on scholarship. It's another harrowing case, uh, a rape occurring
25:53
Speaker 1: at a college party where underage students are drinking. This
25:58
Speaker 1: girl claims she was repeatedly assaulted by two Sacred Heart
26:03
Speaker 1: University football players in a tiny little bathroom where the
26:07
Speaker 1: party was going on outside. The players were dismissed from
26:13
Speaker 1: the team. They withdrew from school. Uh reportedly lost their
26:20
Speaker 1: football scholarships. Her lawyer insisted that she was horribly assaulted
26:30
Speaker 1: when suddenly a new line, a new theory, line of
26:35
Speaker 1: facts appear. Did she make the whole thing up to
26:41
Speaker 1: gain the attention of ape boy friend? Okay, Troy Slayton,
26:46
Speaker 1: you're the veteran defense attorney. What are you gonna do
26:49
Speaker 1: with this? It's gonna be difficult, Nancy. Just like all
26:52
Speaker 1: of these cases where a person like this is accused
26:57
Speaker 1: of upending our entire them of justice, where we'd rather
27:02
Speaker 1: a hundred or a thousand guilty people go free than
27:06
Speaker 1: rather have one innocent person suffer a false accusation. We
27:12
Speaker 1: need to look at what it was, all the things
27:15
Speaker 1: in her life that brought her to this, and maybe
27:18
Speaker 1: instead of incarcerating her in jail, we craft approbationary sentence
27:23
Speaker 1: that gets her the help that she is obviously screaming
27:27
Speaker 1: out for and needs. Uh. You know what, Wendy Patrick,
27:32
Speaker 1: I think she can't get help behind bars. They're not
27:34
Speaker 1: mutually exclusive No, that's absolutely correct. And you know, Chroice,
27:38
Speaker 1: that really hit it on the nail on the head.
27:40
Speaker 1: He she did this, she upended the system of justice
27:42
Speaker 1: and that deserves punishment plus rehabilitation. Of course she can
27:47
Speaker 1: get it behind bars, and there has to be a
27:49
Speaker 1: punishment more than counseling for this kind of the behavior
27:53
Speaker 1: because of the damage it could potentially do in the community.
27:57
Speaker 1: We see cases like this, and like you said earlier,
28:00
Speaker 1: it delegitimizes victims that actually are raped in bathrooms to
28:05
Speaker 1: have people falsely claim that they're not, so that we've
28:08
Speaker 1: become desensitized to these allegations as a community, as a society,
28:12
Speaker 1: and jurors will have forefront in their minds these false
28:16
Speaker 1: claims instead of listening to when it does actually happen.
28:19
Speaker 1: So these are great points, and I'm glad we're talking
28:22
Speaker 1: about this, Nancy, because people need to Well. I got
28:24
Speaker 1: an update for you, Andy, I got an update for you,
28:27
Speaker 1: Wendy Patrick. She just rejected a plea deal. Miss Thing
28:32
Speaker 1: has rejected a plea deal. Wendy. I know you, like me,
28:36
Speaker 1: have tried and investigated so many rape cases. I don't
28:41
Speaker 1: even remember how many. I remember a guy named nicknamed
28:45
Speaker 1: the red rapist because he always wore red on every
28:49
Speaker 1: rape and he'd leave a red rose in the room
28:52
Speaker 1: after he raped the lady. Um and these it was
28:56
Speaker 1: very difficult for these victims to relive it on the
29:00
Speaker 1: stand um. Some of them could barely speak. I've had
29:06
Speaker 1: rape victims bend over in half on the stand in tears.
29:12
Speaker 1: They couldn't even sit up. I had one woman, uh refuse.
29:19
Speaker 1: She told everybody about her rape, the evidence supported her rape.
29:24
Speaker 1: She was beating horribly when her husband came in the courtroom.
29:28
Speaker 1: She would not say she was rape because of her culture.
29:32
Speaker 1: That made her quote unclean and dishonorable. And I can't
29:37
Speaker 1: even tell you what we had to go through. It
29:41
Speaker 1: just the shame and the stigma attached to rape victims.
29:46
Speaker 1: Then I had one victim, and I remember Court TV
29:52
Speaker 1: wanted to cover this serial rape case live and I
29:56
Speaker 1: immediately said, no, I've got a camera in the court
30:00
Speaker 1: room on these ladies. It got back to the women
30:04
Speaker 1: and one of them looked at me and said, why,
30:07
Speaker 1: I'm not ashamed. I didn't do anything wrong. Yeah, put
30:11
Speaker 1: it on TV and show his face, not mine, or
30:15
Speaker 1: show mine, and he is I don't care and you
30:18
Speaker 1: know what. I went back and I said, well, there's
30:21
Speaker 1: been an unusual change of events. We are we will
30:23
Speaker 1: do it. And she was right. She was right. It's
30:27
Speaker 1: not her fault. And what this woman does, it attacks
30:33
Speaker 1: the credibility of every rape victim. Listen to this Jennifer
30:38
Speaker 1: at Szagowski heavy dot com. Uh, you brought my attention
30:41
Speaker 1: to this guy's. The case of this former Connecticut college
30:45
Speaker 1: student who was charged with lying about a rape by
30:49
Speaker 1: two star university football players is headed to trial. It's
30:56
Speaker 1: reported that nineteen year old Nikki Yaveno reject did a
31:01
Speaker 1: plea deal. They offered her a two year prison sentence,
31:06
Speaker 1: and a judge offered a one year prison sentence. One year.
31:15
Speaker 1: I mean the reality Troy s Layton on one year.
31:18
Speaker 1: One year. Now, it's important they said one year versus
31:20
Speaker 1: twelve months, because if the sentence reads twelve months, that
31:23
Speaker 1: means it's a misdemeanor. When they say one year, that
31:27
Speaker 1: means it's going to be regarded as a felony. So
31:31
Speaker 1: they offer her one year. You know what she would
31:34
Speaker 1: do on that Troy with this kind of charge, she
31:36
Speaker 1: might do maybe two months, eight weeks behind bars before
31:40
Speaker 1: they cut her loose to open up that bed for
31:43
Speaker 1: a violent felon or a drug dealer, right am, I right, Troy.
31:47
Speaker 1: It all depends every jurisdiction, Troy, as to how long
31:50
Speaker 1: they're gonna keep somebody. But Nancy going to trial, uh
31:54
Speaker 1: is is possibly a good thing for the defense here
31:57
Speaker 1: as far as strategy, because in order to get a conviction,
32:00
Speaker 1: they need all twelve jurors to agree beyond a reasonable doubt.
32:04
Speaker 1: But as a defense attorney, we know that all we
32:08
Speaker 1: need is to turn one juror and that's a hung jury,
32:11
Speaker 1: which is a win for the defense. Police say she
32:15
Speaker 1: admitted to making up all the claims because she was
32:18
Speaker 1: worried another guy would lose interest in her when he
32:23
Speaker 1: found out about the voluntary sex encounter in the bathroom.
32:30
Speaker 1: Oh kay. To Dr Chloe Carmichael, clinical psychologist and founder
32:37
Speaker 1: of Ask dr cc dot com, Dr CC helped me
32:42
Speaker 1: out here in Nancy, I'm I'm appalled. I mean, really,
32:46
Speaker 1: the thing that people are missing, I think when it
32:48
Speaker 1: comes to you know, quote, the help that they need
32:51
Speaker 1: these women, what they need is consequences. What they're suffering
32:55
Speaker 1: from is um is a sense of entitlement and the
32:59
Speaker 1: way that we care entitlement is to provide consequences. Um,
33:04
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's very it's wonderful that in our community,
33:07
Speaker 1: of course, people want to rally around a rape victim
33:12
Speaker 1: and and bolster them as much as we can. And
33:15
Speaker 1: so for somebody to then just glam onto that and
33:19
Speaker 1: make up a rape because they just want the support
33:23
Speaker 1: of the community, or in this case, this woman wanted
33:25
Speaker 1: to kind of um, ignite the protective side of a
33:29
Speaker 1: man that she knew that she thought maybe this would
33:31
Speaker 1: help him to become very protective and carrying towards her.
33:37
Speaker 1: The fact that she would exploit that tendency in a man,
33:41
Speaker 1: or exploit those tendencies in a community, I think one
33:45
Speaker 1: year is Um, it's an insult to the honor of
33:48
Speaker 1: the men that she has defame. You know, you're right,
33:52
Speaker 1: and I'm very surprised. I mean, let's just get real
33:55
Speaker 1: for a moment. Once she is convicted, which I think
33:58
Speaker 1: she will base it, she's as to everything, um, and
34:01
Speaker 1: there was no proof that a rape had occurred. What
34:06
Speaker 1: she is convicted Troy Slayton. Don't you think that there
34:12
Speaker 1: will be a civil suit by these guys against her? Absolutely? Uh?
34:18
Speaker 1: And in a civil suit in a case like this,
34:21
Speaker 1: if she is convicted, then the only issue is of
34:24
Speaker 1: how much money. Once a conviction occurs, liability has been
34:28
Speaker 1: determined and the only issue will be how much money.
34:32
Speaker 1: But they don't even have to file a civil suit
34:34
Speaker 1: if there is a criminal conviction because they can recover
34:38
Speaker 1: all of their monetary damages from restitution that can be
34:45
Speaker 1: ordered by a criminal judge that's enforceable as if it
34:48
Speaker 1: were a civil judgment. Guys, we are waiting for this
34:51
Speaker 1: to unfold, but as of right now, Nikki Yuvino has
34:54
Speaker 1: rejected plea deal Nancy. Although Yovino's lawyer insists she denies
34:59
Speaker 1: lying about the sex assault and she stands by her
35:01
Speaker 1: original story, a police Hava Davit just made public says
35:06
Speaker 1: that she told investigators that she quote made up the
35:09
Speaker 1: allegations of sexual assault against the football players because it
35:13
Speaker 1: was the first thing that came to her mind and
35:16
Speaker 1: she didn't want to lose another male student as a
35:19
Speaker 1: friend and potential boyfriend. The police warrant also says that
35:23
Speaker 1: she stated she believed when the other male student heard
35:26
Speaker 1: the allegation, it would make him angry and sympathetic to her.
35:31
Speaker 1: Yovina is charged now with second degree false reporting of
35:35
Speaker 1: an incident and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. The
35:40
Speaker 1: tampering charge is a felony and she could get up
35:43
Speaker 1: to five years in prison for that. She has been
35:45
Speaker 1: freed on one fifty dollars bond. She is presumed innocent
35:53
Speaker 1: until proven guilty, and now the state will take on
35:56
Speaker 1: that burden to prove the case. Now wet to Tusca
36:00
Speaker 1: Loosa and a woman who was now under arrest. Police
36:05
Speaker 1: say there's no doubt about it. She lied about her
36:08
Speaker 1: ex coming in home, invasion, tying her up, and assaulting her.
36:15
Speaker 1: Another scary aspect of this. She's a mom. I wonder
36:19
Speaker 1: what effect all of this is having on her child.
36:21
Speaker 1: To Jennifer A. Tzikowski with Heavy dot Com, an investigative reporter,
36:26
Speaker 1: what can you tell me about what goes down at
36:30
Speaker 1: five pm on a lovely tree lined street, gray Stone
36:36
Speaker 1: Drive and twenty five year old Mariah Jordan's smith. What happened? Jennifer? Well,
36:42
Speaker 1: you know, she she called police. She claimed to have
36:46
Speaker 1: been raped and tied up by an ex boyfriend. And
36:50
Speaker 1: that's sure if that was for revenge or what a
36:54
Speaker 1: motive could be behind putting in such a terrible allegation
37:01
Speaker 1: towards someone accusing them of something so terrific. And the
37:06
Speaker 1: reason I say, she's really not smart and she didn't
37:12
Speaker 1: even realize that he was actually out of pound. So
37:16
Speaker 1: police from the beginning they found discrepancies in her story. Um,
37:23
Speaker 1: but once they were able to verify that the ex
37:26
Speaker 1: boyfriend had been out of state, you know, her story
37:30
Speaker 1: was destroyed and she had to come clean. And so
37:35
Speaker 1: with that said, again, this goes back to when you're
37:42
Speaker 1: giving a false accusation of rape, you're hurting every single
37:46
Speaker 1: true sexual assault victim out there. It's appalling and I
37:52
Speaker 1: favor as someone Nancy, who was a very close family
37:56
Speaker 1: member who was kidnapped, she was brutally rape. This is
38:01
Speaker 1: my sister, m This type of behavior, it's offensive to
38:07
Speaker 1: my sister, to those who have actually lived through the
38:11
Speaker 1: reality you know, of a true rape, a total and
38:15
Speaker 1: utter nightmare. And with this woman, I believe they need
38:21
Speaker 1: to make an example will of all of these women,
38:24
Speaker 1: but also with Maria, they need to be punished to
38:27
Speaker 1: the full extent of the law. No, not only you know,
38:31
Speaker 1: as an example, but to prevent the destruction of other
38:35
Speaker 1: lives so that maybe someone else who is thinking of
38:38
Speaker 1: doing something so absolutely crazy. We'll stop and think, oh,
38:44
Speaker 1: you know what Mariah went through, and what Brianna went through,
38:48
Speaker 1: what Nikki went through, and maybe they'll stop and think
38:52
Speaker 1: what the consequences are and hopefully not go through with
38:56
Speaker 1: destroying more lives. Wendy Patrick, Southern California prosecutor, Dr. Chloe Carmichael,
39:03
Speaker 1: and Troy Slayton, veteran defense attorney. The facts laid out
39:07
Speaker 1: by police or as follows. Tuscaloosa police were sent around
39:11
Speaker 1: five in the afternoon to a gray Stone Drive home
39:14
Speaker 1: with a report of sex assault. The alleged victim, Ryan Smith,
39:18
Speaker 1: tells them there's no doubt about the idea of the
39:22
Speaker 1: perpetrator that it was her former boyfriend who enters her
39:25
Speaker 1: home uninvited through an unlocked door. That's steal a burglary
39:29
Speaker 1: goes in her bedroom. Now catch this the level of detail.
39:34
Speaker 1: He ties her legs to the bed, ties her hands together,
39:37
Speaker 1: and rapes her and then leaves the home. Well, it
39:44
Speaker 1: didn't take long for them to find out he wasn't
39:48
Speaker 1: in the state at the time. He was out of
39:52
Speaker 1: the state the entire time. Hood The police chief corroborates
39:58
Speaker 1: his alibi with low law enforcement, and she hadn't been
40:01
Speaker 1: so uh dead sure as to the perp. They may
40:06
Speaker 1: have been on a wild goose chase for the real
40:09
Speaker 1: for the real purp in quoties, but she was sure
40:13
Speaker 1: positive she I date her ex boyfriend, no doubt about it.
40:17
Speaker 1: He was out of the state. What's interesting to me
40:21
Speaker 1: to Dr Chloe Carmichael, founder of dot Asked dr cc
40:26
Speaker 1: dot com, is the level of detail in these lies.
40:30
Speaker 1: When I would prosecute or cross examined, I would listen
40:35
Speaker 1: to the level of detail in various people's stories because
40:41
Speaker 1: that takes him thinking, you know, to make up a
40:43
Speaker 1: lie rich with detail, It certainly does. She did that here,
40:48
Speaker 1: Dr Chloe, Yes, it certainly does, Nancy. And the level
40:52
Speaker 1: of detail, um, in this case, it almost suggests, frankly,
40:57
Speaker 1: on the level of fantasy. UM. You know, which is
41:00
Speaker 1: something else to consider as well. UM. You know, it's
41:03
Speaker 1: the what type of relationship or what type of attention?
41:07
Speaker 1: Um you know that that she might have been seeking? Um.
41:10
Speaker 1: We we really don't know. But the level of detail,
41:13
Speaker 1: I agree, is absolutely captivating. And I'll tell you, Nancy,
41:17
Speaker 1: as a clinical psychologist in New York City, I have
41:22
Speaker 1: had women come into my practice and in their you know,
41:27
Speaker 1: privacy of closed doors, confessed to me that they have
41:30
Speaker 1: absolutely made up a rape or made up a sexual
41:34
Speaker 1: harassment because they wanted to get some money out of
41:37
Speaker 1: their company or whatever the case may be. So these
41:41
Speaker 1: things really do happen. And as has been said before,
41:45
Speaker 1: and I agree a percent, it really cheapens um. You know,
41:49
Speaker 1: the the pain that actual victims of harassment and actual
41:54
Speaker 1: victims of rape do go through. And I'm so glad
41:57
Speaker 1: that you're finally breaking the boo because as a society,
42:02
Speaker 1: we have such an emphasis on believing the victim, which
42:05
Speaker 1: is important, but we have to remember that sometimes the
42:09
Speaker 1: victim is actually a perpetrator. To Roye Slight and defense
42:13
Speaker 1: attorney in this one, it was that absolutely rock hard,
42:17
Speaker 1: solid positive idea of her X that did this story in. Normally,
42:26
Speaker 1: I criticized police for engaging in what I call a
42:32
Speaker 1: confirmation bias, where they are looking for evidence to confirm
42:38
Speaker 1: that they believe a certain person committed the crime. But
42:43
Speaker 1: here the police actually did some real good old fashioned
42:46
Speaker 1: police work and we're able to uh disapprove several of
42:53
Speaker 1: the allegations that she made, the biggest one being that
42:57
Speaker 1: her boyfriend wasn't even in the state. But as we
43:01
Speaker 1: move as a society into too, uh, really a different
43:05
Speaker 1: phase with the entire me too movement. I think this
43:10
Speaker 1: is an excellent story because a lot of men have
43:14
Speaker 1: had a lot of clients who have been wrongly accused,
43:19
Speaker 1: and we're we're at a point where people are just
43:25
Speaker 1: automatically believing every accused. We'll hold on, hold on just
43:29
Speaker 1: a moment. See Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor. This is the
43:33
Speaker 1: problem now we're starting, We're talking about all these guys
43:37
Speaker 1: who are claiming They're like, oh, yeah, I was wrongfully accused.
43:42
Speaker 1: B s. Okay. This is few and far between. And
43:46
Speaker 1: with the technology we have today, as you can scientifically
43:51
Speaker 1: prove whether or not someone was raped. In many cases,
43:57
Speaker 1: a rape kit shows that a nurse at a exam
44:01
Speaker 1: can determine trauma in the pelvic area. Uh. There's so
44:05
Speaker 1: many ways to corroborate the story, and the guys are
44:09
Speaker 1: claiming in so many cases the same old thing, it
44:12
Speaker 1: was consensual. Another issue here is this is a young mom,
44:18
Speaker 1: this tuscalooth a mom arrested for false report after she
44:22
Speaker 1: admits she lied about her ex raping and tying her up.
44:26
Speaker 1: She is a nurse. I mean, do you want her
44:30
Speaker 1: hovering around your bed? I mean, if she's gonna lie
44:34
Speaker 1: to police about this. You know there was a jury charge, Wendy,
44:39
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you've heard it. If the jury believes
44:42
Speaker 1: a witness, be it defendant, victim, or witness, has lied
44:47
Speaker 1: in part on anything, even if it's small, the jury
44:52
Speaker 1: can then discount their testimony in its entirety. Oh absolutely, Nancy.
44:59
Speaker 1: And you know this one the things I'm glad you
45:01
Speaker 1: brought up is false reports are few and far between.
45:04
Speaker 1: I'm glad we're publicizing them today because they actually do exist.
45:07
Speaker 1: But the fact that there are few and far between
45:09
Speaker 1: and as important component of this whole me to mix
45:13
Speaker 1: where more people can say, oh, yeah, I was also
45:15
Speaker 1: falsely accused. The reason these ones came to light that
45:19
Speaker 1: we're discussing is diligent police investigation caused the original stories
45:23
Speaker 1: to begin to unravel. That is not the case in
45:27
Speaker 1: many of the crimes that we see. They are corroborated forensically, Nancy.
45:31
Speaker 1: As you say, they are corroborated through other witnesses, through victims,
45:35
Speaker 1: through a patterns make the predator type of uh. Serial
45:39
Speaker 1: victims sometimes. In other words, there's far more than just
45:42
Speaker 1: one statement in isolation that can then be matched with, well, gosh,
45:48
Speaker 1: where was the perpetrator who saw him? What other evidence
45:50
Speaker 1: is there? So the fact that these are few and
45:52
Speaker 1: far between should be kept in the mix, because it's
45:55
Speaker 1: not true that every time we get another allegation we
45:58
Speaker 1: should automatically assume it's false just because we've caught some
46:01
Speaker 1: of the false ones. I'm glad we've caught some of
46:03
Speaker 1: the false ones because we don't want anybody to be
46:06
Speaker 1: accused unjustly. We also don't want it to affect the
46:09
Speaker 1: legitimacy of the real allegations and the true allegation exactly now.
46:16
Speaker 1: I want to point out that these ladies are innocent
46:21
Speaker 1: until proven guilty or until they plead guilty, And especially
46:28
Speaker 1: this one concerns me. I don't know what was going
46:31
Speaker 1: through their minds when they thought this was a good idea,
46:33
Speaker 1: or how smart they thought they were that they could
46:35
Speaker 1: pull this off. But one of these ladies has a
46:39
Speaker 1: little girl, a child she is raising, and one day
46:44
Speaker 1: she's going to have to explain this to that child,
46:46
Speaker 1: and that's going to be a conversation I don't want
46:48
Speaker 1: to listen to Nancy Grace, Hoping justice will prevail crime stories,
46:56
Speaker 1: signing off goodbye friend,