Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / TV 'Empire' star hate crime a hoax??

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TV 'Empire' star hate crime a hoax?? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. The vast majority of people have been supportive
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Speaker 1: and loving and understanding. And then as time has gone
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Speaker 1: on and that there's no you know, it's two o'clock
1:47
Speaker 1: in the morning, you're going the subway. Subspies open twenty
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Speaker 1: four hours. Like people kill me when they say things
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Speaker 1: like that, because it's like, the subway is open twenty
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Speaker 1: four hours for a reason, so that when you're hungry
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Speaker 1: at night and you ain't got no food, you go
2:00
Speaker 1: to subway the camera facing north. How is that my issue?
2:05
Speaker 1: It feels like if I had said it was a
2:10
Speaker 1: Muslim or a Mexican or someone black, I feel like
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Speaker 1: the doubters would have supported me a lot much more,
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Speaker 1: a lot more. And that says a lot about the
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Speaker 1: place that we are in our country right now, the
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Speaker 1: fact that we have these fear mongols, these people that
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Speaker 1: are trying to separate us, and it's just not okay.
2:37
Speaker 1: It's just not okay. And for all of the people.
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Speaker 1: The next time that you see someone report something, maybe
2:45
Speaker 1: well after the fact that it happened, and you say
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Speaker 1: to them, why are you waiting till now. Just remember
2:53
Speaker 1: that mine was reported right away and look what has happened.
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Speaker 1: You are hearing TV star see Smilette talking to Superstar
3:02
Speaker 1: Robin Roberts on GMA at ABC talking about people who
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Speaker 1: have doubted his story that he was attacked by I
3:13
Speaker 1: believe it started as two white males. It changed at
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Speaker 1: some point wearing red maga hats. I believe is how
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Speaker 1: the story started. That also has changed. At two am
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Speaker 1: in the morning coming out of a subway sandwich shop.
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Speaker 1: According to Jesse Smilette, everyone knows him big star on Empire.
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Speaker 1: He was attacked the purps through acid on him, put
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Speaker 1: a rope around his neck. It's my understanding. He called
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Speaker 1: his manager and not nine one one. When he walked
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Speaker 1: back home. He then called nine one one. When police arrived,
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Speaker 1: they found him sitting there and roughed up and the
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Speaker 1: rope still around his neck. What is the truth. If
4:01
Speaker 1: this is the truth, who attacked him? If it's not
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Speaker 1: the truth, will the Empire star go to jail for
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Speaker 1: pulling a hoax? When he talks about his detractors dividing people,
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Speaker 1: is he the one that's dividing people? And again, this
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Speaker 1: is not about politics. I think all politicians lie, every
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Speaker 1: single one of them. This is about a potential hoax
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Speaker 1: on police or a horrible hate crime. I Nancy Grace,
4:38
Speaker 1: this is crime Stories. Thank you for being with us,
4:42
Speaker 1: with me an all star panel of forensics expert, and
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Speaker 1: boy do we need her now. Karen Smith out of
4:47
Speaker 1: the Florida jurisdiction, renowned criminal attorney, DARYLD Cohen, a former prosecutor,
4:53
Speaker 1: joining me from Atlanta, Join, joining me from La psychoanalyst
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Speaker 1: doctor Bethany Marsha and joining me right now crime online
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Speaker 1: dot COM's Ellen colorin Ek. Let's just start at the beginning. Now,
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Speaker 1: Typically when I'm hungry at two o'clock, I get something anything,
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Speaker 1: usually the wrong thing, out of the fridge, eat it,
5:15
Speaker 1: and go back to sleep. All right. Usually I don't
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Speaker 1: feel like getting up and even going to the fridge
5:20
Speaker 1: because I'm exhausted. But let's just start with a two
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Speaker 1: am subway sandwich call. Go. Well, it does appear that
5:29
Speaker 1: Johnson small It had arrived to the airport in Chicago Leaps,
5:33
Speaker 1: so I don't think this was a matter of him
5:35
Speaker 1: waking up at the middle of the night and going
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Speaker 1: out to the freezing cold in the subway. It was
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Speaker 1: a very cold day though, and he's he tells police
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Speaker 1: that he's on his way home with his subway sandwich.
5:45
Speaker 1: Wa wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait this
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Speaker 1: is in Chicago, correct, that's right? Yeah? So how cold
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Speaker 1: is it? Alan, g While you're out there sick, sitting
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Speaker 1: back with your latte with a twist and a pinch
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Speaker 1: of cinnamon and organic soy milk. Blah blah blah, Hey
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Speaker 1: look that up for me, if you don't mind, Alan,
6:09
Speaker 1: What was the temperature exactly the day that Jesse Smollett,
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Speaker 1: the Empire Star went out at two a m. In
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Speaker 1: the morning to get a subway sandwich. Do I have
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Speaker 1: Alang with me? Are you lounging somewhere off in the cyberspace? Ups? Ups?
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Speaker 1: What was the champ Alan, ellen klaurin it? We were
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Speaker 1: pretty sure it was below free temperatures. This was during
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Speaker 1: a very very very cold spell in Chicago. I don't
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Speaker 1: know the exact internet, doctor, Bethant. He must have been
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Speaker 1: very hungry, very hungry. Indeed, his tummy must have been
6:45
Speaker 1: growling at two in the morning, because you know, Chicago
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Speaker 1: has those that windshell factor. So if it's twenty degrees
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Speaker 1: out regular temperature, the wind starts blowing. It's forty fifty
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Speaker 1: degree below Windshill. I did my undergraduate work there. Nobody
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Speaker 1: goes out at two. Daryl Cohen, renowned Atlanta criminal defense attorney,
7:06
Speaker 1: is gnashing his teeth and twitching his tail right now
7:09
Speaker 1: because he thinks attempt has nothing to do with any
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Speaker 1: of this. But that's where I always like to start Daryl,
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Speaker 1: not with just the temperature, but the beginning. The beginning
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Speaker 1: is he wakes up, according to his story, at two am,
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Speaker 1: and instead of getting left over peats out of the
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Speaker 1: fridge or a whole chocolate cake or whatever the matter,
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Speaker 1: maybe he goes out in forty below to get a
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Speaker 1: subway sandwich. See, I start right there. That's where I
7:39
Speaker 1: start the story. And I think that's crazy. I'm not
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Speaker 1: saying it didn't happen. I just think that's Craig. Craig Well,
7:46
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if the subway was actually open at two
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Speaker 1: in the morning. Yeah, they're twenty four hour. Yeah, I
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Speaker 1: love subway. Although I did have a mini boycott for
7:55
Speaker 1: a weed after Jared was, you know, busted on child porn.
8:01
Speaker 1: I guess it was their spokesperson. But long story, short,
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Speaker 1: Daryl Cohen, I mean, a defense attorney would argue that
8:08
Speaker 1: has absolutely nothing to do with it. I don't think
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Speaker 1: it has anything to do with it. I think what
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Speaker 1: has to do with it is did it or did
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Speaker 1: it not happen? And as far as I can see
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Speaker 1: from all of the evidence that's been presented to me,
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Speaker 1: this guy is looking for more publicity for whatever the reason,
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Speaker 1: and he is about to get it. Well, he's getting it,
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Speaker 1: all right, Okay, ek let's just go with the premise
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Speaker 1: that it's true, because the official, the official statement from
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Speaker 1: Chicago PD is he is being treated as a victim
8:38
Speaker 1: because he is a victim. Before we go one step further,
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Speaker 1: if Alan Jet would ever establish the temperature he's had
8:46
Speaker 1: like three minutes. Now, have you ever heard of this thing?
8:48
Speaker 1: It's called Google g O O G l E. You
8:51
Speaker 1: just punch it in and you put in it right now.
8:55
Speaker 1: I'm just a little a little slow out here, right, Okay,
8:58
Speaker 1: he said it, Jackie did not say it. He said it. Guys.
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Speaker 1: partner the phone. When did you, because as you said,
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Speaker 1: it was an acrid account of the timeline valuable information,
10:41
Speaker 1: When did you make that information available to the police.
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Speaker 1: We gave, We had to give the phone records, which
10:49
Speaker 1: they didn't originally ask for my phone records. They asked
10:52
Speaker 1: for my phone. They wanted me to give my phone
10:55
Speaker 1: to the tech for three to four hours. I'm sorry,
10:59
Speaker 1: but I'm not gonna do that. Why Because I have
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Speaker 1: private pictures and videos and numbers, my partner's number, my
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Speaker 1: family's number, my cassinates number, my friend's numbers, my private emails,
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Speaker 1: my private songs, my private voice memos. I don't know
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Speaker 1: what that's going to be to hand over my phone for.
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Speaker 1: And honestly, by then, inaccurate false statements had already been
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Speaker 1: put out there. You are hearing our friend superstar Robin
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Speaker 1: Roberts at ABC's GMA. She's awesome, and she is talking
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Speaker 1: to Jesse Smollette, the Empire star Everybody Loves Empire, the
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Speaker 1: Empire star who claims that at two am in the
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Speaker 1: morning in Chicago. He decided he was hungry, goes out
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Speaker 1: to subway sandwich, gets a sandwich, and is attacked by
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Speaker 1: two guys that threw acid on him or bleach bleach rapper,
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Speaker 1: a rope around his neck, attack and for being black
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Speaker 1: and homosexual. He manages to get home and call police.
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Speaker 1: He says, he calls his manager from the scene. Now
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Speaker 1: I think that is why they wanted the phone, to
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Speaker 1: confirm that he called his manager and not nine one one.
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Speaker 1: They are being clear why they want the phone, but
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Speaker 1: they want the phone, so I think distantly I'm hearing
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Speaker 1: the dingy ding ding of Alan Dieck. So Alan, do
12:25
Speaker 1: you finally have the temperature? It was a bomby nine
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Speaker 1: degrees below zero? Ouch? Okay this morning I made the
12:35
Speaker 1: twins and oh they hated it. Were two coats to
12:37
Speaker 1: school because it was going to be forty degrees. This
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Speaker 1: is nine below Okay. Back to you, Kam, Sorry, we
12:44
Speaker 1: haven't even gotten off the weather and the two am
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Speaker 1: sandwich call. Yes, subway was open. And answer to Darryl
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Speaker 1: Cohen's question, hold on real quick at Karen Smith journey
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Speaker 1: me forensics expert out of Florida, Why do they want
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Speaker 1: Why do they want Jesse Smolette's phone. Listen, when you're
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Speaker 1: dealing with an alleged victim or alleged perpetrators, the best
13:04
Speaker 1: way now in the world of social media and texting
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Speaker 1: is to get the phone of the victim. You can
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Speaker 1: look at text messages and Instagram and Facebook and Twitter
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Speaker 1: and all of those things, and text messages especially. Listen,
13:17
Speaker 1: if nothing happened, and I understand, you know, the privacy thing,
13:21
Speaker 1: and there's phone numbers and emails and whatever that he
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Speaker 1: didn't want release, But the police are not. They're not
13:27
Speaker 1: going to go into that. That's not their interests. Their
13:29
Speaker 1: interest is looking at communications between Jesse Smollett or Smollett
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Speaker 1: and these other alleged perpetrators if there was any, if
13:38
Speaker 1: there was any, the phone call that he made to
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Speaker 1: his manager, what time did he make it, where did
13:43
Speaker 1: he make it from. All of those questions have to
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Speaker 1: be answered, and they have to have the device. They
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Speaker 1: can't just take somebody's word for it. That's not how
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Speaker 1: life works anymore, not anymore. Giro Cohen, Atlanta criminal defense attorney,
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Speaker 1: former prosecutor, felony prosecutor in the jurisdiction where I also prosecutor.
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Speaker 1: I just missed him, Daryl. At the time when we
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Speaker 1: were when I first started prosecuting, we did not have DNA,
14:07
Speaker 1: we did not have cell phone pinging. We did at
14:10
Speaker 1: old school, okay, and we did it now with the
14:14
Speaker 1: advent of cell phone triangulation GPS tracking. When he is
14:21
Speaker 1: saying that he won't hand his phone over, that is
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Speaker 1: a problem to me. I don't have a problem with
14:29
Speaker 1: anything else he's saying. But when he says find you
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Speaker 1: know what, I don't have to explain why it's ungry
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Speaker 1: at two am or goes out in sub zero below freezing.
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Speaker 1: That's a personal decision. But when you don't hand your
14:40
Speaker 1: phone over to cops, that is a big red flag
14:45
Speaker 1: to hey, with your private communications. If you have had
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Speaker 1: bleach poured on, you, beaten up, have a rope tied
14:53
Speaker 1: around your neck out on the street, you're handing your
14:57
Speaker 1: phone over because you want those people caught, right, I mean,
15:00
Speaker 1: have I lost my mind on that one thing, Daryl, Well, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: I'm having a very big problem with finding out why
15:07
Speaker 1: he would call his manager to the last time I checked,
15:10
Speaker 1: was not a law enforcement person, was not a bodyguard.
15:14
Speaker 1: Why would you not call the police, any of us.
15:17
Speaker 1: Any of us, whether we're an actor, whether we're a lawyer,
15:20
Speaker 1: whether an Indian chief, whatever we may be, we are
15:23
Speaker 1: going to call the police if something bad happens. So yeah,
15:26
Speaker 1: I've got a real problem with him not turning over
15:29
Speaker 1: his phone. This guy is Jesse, but he thinks he's
15:33
Speaker 1: Jesse James. He is having you were right now. He's
15:37
Speaker 1: having a real problem. You probably stayed up all night
15:41
Speaker 1: coming out that he's not Jesse, he's Jesse James. Okay,
15:44
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm going to just pass over that one.
15:46
Speaker 1: You know, Um, it's a big deal to me. Darryl,
15:50
Speaker 1: and I know you're a famous defense attorney now, but
15:53
Speaker 1: in my mind, you'll always be an incredible felony prosecutor
15:58
Speaker 1: because you could get a jury eating out of your hand.
16:01
Speaker 1: You're always prepared. You need the law, you need the facts.
16:05
Speaker 1: You knew it all when you went in front of
16:07
Speaker 1: a jury. And in this case, when you have a
16:11
Speaker 1: victim that does not cooperate with police, that is a problem.
16:15
Speaker 1: I don't care who he is. I don't care who
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Speaker 1: he sleeps with. I could not care less. I don't care.
16:23
Speaker 1: But if you don't cooperate with police. Then that is
16:27
Speaker 1: a problem with me. What's your problem? There's a problem
16:31
Speaker 1: with me as well. I've got another problem with that.
16:35
Speaker 1: How in the world in the middle of the night,
16:37
Speaker 1: two am, nine degrees minus nine degrees it's about the
16:41
Speaker 1: same frozen do you get mugged by two people who
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Speaker 1: know you're obviously black but you're homosexual? Really and you
16:51
Speaker 1: well because he's a famous, famous TV star. So here's
16:56
Speaker 1: the thing, this is another wrinkle in this to Ellen
17:00
Speaker 1: k Lauren crime online dot Com and hold on, I'm
17:02
Speaker 1: going to write this down. Here's the thing. So, if
17:05
Speaker 1: they were targeting Jesse Smolette, okay, hold on, If they
17:10
Speaker 1: were targeting him and this was a hate crime, how
17:14
Speaker 1: do they know to be outside the subway at two
17:19
Speaker 1: am with bleach and rope? Or were they just hanging
17:23
Speaker 1: around to get a sandwich and they happen to have
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Speaker 1: bleach and rope with them? If they were targeting Jesse
17:31
Speaker 1: smolett ek, were they casing out his apartment? Why were
17:36
Speaker 1: they there at two am? And I haven't even touched
17:40
Speaker 1: on these two guys. Is two Nigerian guys that work
17:45
Speaker 1: out in his apartment building Jim that know him, that
17:51
Speaker 1: have been extras on the set of Empire, or at
17:54
Speaker 1: least one of them has that have been questioned and
17:58
Speaker 1: released and allegedly are now saying they were paid to
18:03
Speaker 1: do the attack. But first of all, I want to
18:05
Speaker 1: get to the theory, Ellen Clauren. So the perps were
18:11
Speaker 1: what waiting outside the subway sandwich shop for him? I mean,
18:14
Speaker 1: what's the theory here? How did they know he was
18:17
Speaker 1: going to be getting a sandwich at two am if
18:19
Speaker 1: he was the one targeted for a hate crime? Well, Nancy,
18:23
Speaker 1: they may have not known that he was going to
18:25
Speaker 1: get a sandwich at two am. But Jesse hasn't an
18:29
Speaker 1: Instagram account, and he's a very active social media user,
18:32
Speaker 1: and we learned over the weekend that he had been
18:35
Speaker 1: in New York during the previous days and he was
18:38
Speaker 1: on He had flown back to Chicago that night, but
18:42
Speaker 1: his flight was delayed and he came in much later
18:45
Speaker 1: than expected, and he posted a couple of Instagram stories
18:49
Speaker 1: on his Instagram account talking about how his flight was delayed.
18:54
Speaker 1: So someone who had to have had a little bit
18:57
Speaker 1: of information about what was going on with him that day.
19:01
Speaker 1: If they wanted to track his movements, they could to
19:04
Speaker 1: a certain degree. Through his social media activity. Okay, let
19:08
Speaker 1: me ask you this ek regarding Jesse Smilett. Now that
19:13
Speaker 1: may make it make more sense that he was out
19:15
Speaker 1: at two am? Was he was his flight so delayed
19:19
Speaker 1: he was just getting home from the airport at say
19:21
Speaker 1: one o'clock and hadn't eaten. Do we know the timing
19:25
Speaker 1: of that? Because that makes although the Chicago airport is
19:29
Speaker 1: full of food, but I don't know if it would
19:32
Speaker 1: be open. The food stands will be opened that late
19:34
Speaker 1: at night. So if he gets off a plane from
19:36
Speaker 1: New York and he gets in midnight, gets to his
19:39
Speaker 1: apartment at one, he may very well be hungry. And
19:43
Speaker 1: there is a theory out there that that is how
19:47
Speaker 1: he communicated to set up the attack through posting, you know, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,
19:55
Speaker 1: that these two brothers could actually see his movements by
19:59
Speaker 1: looking at at his Facebook or Instagram. So okay, but
20:01
Speaker 1: do we know what time he got in from his flight.
20:04
Speaker 1: We don't know exactly what time he landed or got
20:07
Speaker 1: back to his apartment, but it does We don't have
20:11
Speaker 1: a lot of very clear information at all, Nancy, But
20:14
Speaker 1: it does seem as though it's likely that he did
20:17
Speaker 1: stop off at his apartment first. But like you said,
20:20
Speaker 1: he has been away the middle of the night. He
20:24
Speaker 1: probably hasn't eaten. He's on the flight for longer than expected.
20:27
Speaker 1: The food court could have been closed at the airport,
20:30
Speaker 1: so he went to the closest closest place that he
20:33
Speaker 1: could that he knew that would be open. Clime stories
20:43
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace. What do you feel people need to
20:48
Speaker 1: hear the most from the story? I think that what
20:51
Speaker 1: people need to hear it's just the truth. It's just
20:56
Speaker 1: the truth because everybody has their own idea. Some are
21:02
Speaker 1: healing and some are hurtful. But I just want young people,
21:09
Speaker 1: young members of the LGBTQ community, young black children, to
21:15
Speaker 1: know how strong that they are, to know the power
21:18
Speaker 1: that they hold, and they're little pinky. It's been two
21:21
Speaker 1: weeks since that night left actor Jesse Smolett bruised but
21:25
Speaker 1: not broken, and he's still processing the raw motions. Have
21:29
Speaker 1: you ever been threatened before? Yeah? I get threatened all
21:33
Speaker 1: the time on Twitter and Instagram and dms and things
21:37
Speaker 1: like that. But you know, I'm a public figure. I'm
21:45
Speaker 1: very outspoken, sometimes maybe too outspoken, but it's who I am,
21:54
Speaker 1: you know, So I get the idea of pissing people off,
21:58
Speaker 1: that you're gonna rub people the wrong. In fact, a
22:01
Speaker 1: week before the attack, police confirm a letter was sent
22:04
Speaker 1: to the Fox studio in Chicago with threatening language, at
22:07
Speaker 1: least with powdery substance likely. Tyler, all, do you think
22:11
Speaker 1: there's a link between the letter and the attack? And
22:15
Speaker 1: you did mention it to the police right away on
22:18
Speaker 1: the letter? Absolutely, just because on the letter it had
22:23
Speaker 1: a stick figure hanging from a tree with a gun
22:25
Speaker 1: pointing towards it, with the words that said small at Jesse,
22:28
Speaker 1: you will die black. There was no address, but the
22:31
Speaker 1: return address said in big red you know, like caps maga.
22:36
Speaker 1: Did I make that up too? You're hearing our friend
22:40
Speaker 1: Robin Roberts at ABC's GMA speaking with Empire star Jesse Smillett.
22:44
Speaker 1: And right now we know that the police investigation is
22:47
Speaker 1: going on. Police chief has confirmed the two guys that
22:50
Speaker 1: allegedly are identified in the video that police believe committed
22:56
Speaker 1: the act the attack on Jesse Smilett have been apprehended,
23:01
Speaker 1: questioned and released with no charges. What about these letters?
23:09
Speaker 1: What are the letters that he claims he got leading
23:13
Speaker 1: up to this attack? Threatening letters? Yes, one exactly one
23:18
Speaker 1: week before the night of the alleged assaults, a letter
23:23
Speaker 1: was sent to the studio where he filmed the show
23:26
Speaker 1: Empire in Chicago, and it contained direct death threats, homophobic
23:32
Speaker 1: and racist language. There's two things about the letter that
23:36
Speaker 1: are coming up more recently in the discussion around this case.
23:40
Speaker 1: One of those is that some unidentified sources who have
23:44
Speaker 1: access to the set and may even worked with Jeff
23:48
Speaker 1: have told CBS News that he was unhappy about the
23:52
Speaker 1: response to the letter and the threat that he got,
23:54
Speaker 1: that he felt that there wasn't it wasn't taken seriously enough,
23:59
Speaker 1: and that he was angry, and that they're questioning did
24:02
Speaker 1: he set up this orchestrate this purported hate crime as
24:07
Speaker 1: retaliation for that. The other thing that we're learning, and
24:11
Speaker 1: again these are not official law enforcement statements. These are
24:14
Speaker 1: unidentified sources you're talking to New thoughtlets. But we're learning
24:19
Speaker 1: that the letter was made out of and you can
24:21
Speaker 1: see it in the photos. The letter was written sort
24:24
Speaker 1: of like a ransom type of letter, with cutout letters
24:26
Speaker 1: from a magazine. And we're hearing that when investigators went
24:32
Speaker 1: and rated the apartment of these two brothers who have
24:35
Speaker 1: been identified as possibly involved Ausiness attack, they took away
24:39
Speaker 1: a magazine. Wait a minute, Wait a minute, doctor Bethany Marshall.
24:43
Speaker 1: Are these threat letters like the kinds you see on
24:46
Speaker 1: Agatha Christie and Erkil Parrot, like in the movies where
24:52
Speaker 1: you cut out letters from the newspaper and you stick
24:56
Speaker 1: him on a piece of paper instead of divulging your
24:59
Speaker 1: hand and writing. And also we are learning for sure
25:04
Speaker 1: that in a follow up visit by investigators, Smilette says,
25:07
Speaker 1: the attackers mentioned something about this as Maga Country, which
25:12
Speaker 1: relates back to the Trump campaign. Right, So the whole
25:17
Speaker 1: situation is fluid, but I can tell you this. Remember
25:20
Speaker 1: the runaway Bride when she lied about getting kidnapped, she
25:25
Speaker 1: got to cut grass into community service out in the
25:28
Speaker 1: public for I forgot how long other people have done
25:31
Speaker 1: jail time, hard jail time for bringing police in on
25:36
Speaker 1: a hoax of an investigation, because who knows what crimes
25:40
Speaker 1: were really happening at the time of a hoax, and
25:44
Speaker 1: instead of dealing with the real crime, cops are out
25:47
Speaker 1: spending thousands and thousands of dollars and man hours trying
25:52
Speaker 1: to solve a fake call. And this one, if it
25:55
Speaker 1: is fake, is a whopper. Now, what do you make
25:59
Speaker 1: Dr Bethany Marsh the studio, the Empire Studio had assigned
26:03
Speaker 1: him bodyguards, we've been told, but according to sources, he
26:08
Speaker 1: was unhappy with the reaction to the letters. Does that
26:10
Speaker 1: mean what they didn't get enough attention? What does that
26:13
Speaker 1: mean to you, doctor Bethany, Well, you were mentioning the
26:16
Speaker 1: runaway Bride and these crimes where we find out it's
26:20
Speaker 1: a hoax in the end. And I don't know if
26:22
Speaker 1: this was a hoax or not. But in forensic interviews,
26:26
Speaker 1: one of the things we're trained to do with crime
26:29
Speaker 1: victims is to find out if they're doing something called malingering.
26:33
Speaker 1: Malingering is when you make up medical symptoms or you
26:38
Speaker 1: exaggerate medical symptoms for some external reward. It's that simple. Now,
26:43
Speaker 1: in twenty percent of criminal cases, malingering is involved in
26:48
Speaker 1: some way, twenty percent of PI cases, as you can
26:51
Speaker 1: imagine malingering, thirty percent of disability cases. The sicker I am,
26:56
Speaker 1: the more I'm going to get some kind of reward
26:59
Speaker 1: or attention or I'm going to get out of some consequence,
27:04
Speaker 1: Like you're not going to send me to jail, I'm
27:06
Speaker 1: not going to have to go to the military. So
27:08
Speaker 1: what's so interesting to me about this story is the
27:12
Speaker 1: exaggerate two aspects. The exaggerated nature of his symptoms. He's
27:17
Speaker 1: sitting on the sidewalk, bleach on his clothing, the rope
27:21
Speaker 1: around his neck. Wouldn't you pull a rope off? No,
27:23
Speaker 1: he's sitting there, you know, with the clear sign that
27:27
Speaker 1: he's been accosted. He talks about being black, gay, LGBTQ,
27:31
Speaker 1: anything that could paint him in a sympathetic light. He
27:34
Speaker 1: keeps putting out there. The second aspect is the fuzzy
27:38
Speaker 1: nature of the timeline. When somebody malingers, they usually obstruct
27:43
Speaker 1: the investigation process. They do not want the investigators to
27:47
Speaker 1: know clearly what happens. So if I have a patient
27:50
Speaker 1: in my practice, who's malingering? You know, doctor Marshall, I was,
27:53
Speaker 1: I don't know. My boss keeps yelling at me. I
27:55
Speaker 1: want to bring a lawsuit. You know, I'd say, well,
27:57
Speaker 1: what did your boss say? Well, I don't know. I
27:59
Speaker 1: just can't don't remember. So malingering is associated with very
28:03
Speaker 1: fuzzy dk Is it true? Ek Ellen colorin crimaline dot
28:07
Speaker 1: com investigative reporter that Smolette had been in New York
28:11
Speaker 1: to audition for a role in the play that is
28:15
Speaker 1: very oddly similar to his alleged attack. What do we
28:21
Speaker 1: know about the play for which he was auditioning? He
28:27
Speaker 1: was at a reading. Actually it's in an audition. I
28:29
Speaker 1: believe he's already part of the cast. But that's what
28:32
Speaker 1: he was doing in New York. He was flying back
28:34
Speaker 1: to He was flying back to Chicago from New York,
28:36
Speaker 1: and he was in New York because he was doing
28:38
Speaker 1: a reading of the script of this play. And the
28:42
Speaker 1: character in the play is a person of color, it's
28:45
Speaker 1: a gay, it's a celebrity, a sports star in the
28:48
Speaker 1: cave in the case of the fictional character. But he
28:51
Speaker 1: is someone who the character someone who has been the
28:56
Speaker 1: victim of hate crimes that, according to the reports that
28:59
Speaker 1: we're reading, have some similarities in the crime that was
29:04
Speaker 1: allegedly committed against him. Just that within hours of him
29:08
Speaker 1: riding back to Chicago after the same wording, the same slurs,
29:13
Speaker 1: awful slurs. If this is true, it is a hate crime.
29:17
Speaker 1: I'm learning also Daryl Cohen, Atlanta criminal defense attorney, former
29:21
Speaker 1: prosecutor in felony court that he Smilett did not call police.
29:27
Speaker 1: It was a close associate about forty minutes after the attack,
29:30
Speaker 1: according to the New York Times, and I think that
29:32
Speaker 1: was his manager. He did not call police, And when
29:36
Speaker 1: Cox got to his place, he still was wearing the
29:39
Speaker 1: rope around his neck. Help me, Well, I can help you, Nancy,
29:44
Speaker 1: because it sounds to me like a setup. Did you
29:46
Speaker 1: also pay attention to his voice. This is a guy
29:51
Speaker 1: that's reading a script. This is not someone who's upset.
29:55
Speaker 1: This is not someone who's been attacked. If you're attacked,
29:58
Speaker 1: you're not going to be called home and gentle. Add
30:01
Speaker 1: that to the cocktail. Add the fact that he's not
30:04
Speaker 1: giving his phone to the police to the cocktail. Add
30:08
Speaker 1: the fact that all he can do is say, oh
30:12
Speaker 1: my gosh, I was attacked and this is terrible. But
30:15
Speaker 1: he has a noose around his neck forty minutes later. Really,
30:20
Speaker 1: this is a guy who was Look many times, Nancy,
30:25
Speaker 1: people equate stars on television or on the big screen
30:29
Speaker 1: with intelligence. Sorry, not the same. Some are, some are not.
30:34
Speaker 1: This guy is reading a script. He saw a way
30:37
Speaker 1: to get even, perhaps, he saw a way to make
30:40
Speaker 1: more money. Perhaps, but what he didn't see is that
30:43
Speaker 1: he's not as bright as he believes himself to be.
30:46
Speaker 1: So he's not shakes take a listen to CBS Chicago
30:49
Speaker 1: reporter Charley DeMar brothers Ola and Abel Osandaro captured on
30:54
Speaker 1: streeterville surveillance cameras, told detectives their role in the reported
30:58
Speaker 1: January twenty ninth attack on actor Jess Smolette, according to
31:02
Speaker 1: multiple sources. Those sources say Smolette paid the brothers thousands
31:06
Speaker 1: to carry out a staged attack. In attack, Smlette reported
31:10
Speaker 1: to police saying two men slinging racial and homophobic slurs,
31:14
Speaker 1: dowsing him in bleach and placing a rope around his neck.
31:18
Speaker 1: The Osandaros were arrested and later released by Chicago police. Simultaneously,
31:23
Speaker 1: the FBI is looking into a threatening letter Smolette received
31:26
Speaker 1: just days before the reported attack. The words pieced together
31:30
Speaker 1: by magazines and a drawing depicting a rope around a
31:33
Speaker 1: stick figure's neck. Days later, Smolette said that's what happened
31:37
Speaker 1: to him during the reported attack. During a raid of
31:40
Speaker 1: the brothers home last week, only CBS to his cameras
31:43
Speaker 1: were all out inside. Among the items, investigators walked away
31:46
Speaker 1: with a magazine, a piece of paper, along with a
31:49
Speaker 1: writing sample, and a wallet with stamps. Multiple sources say
31:54
Speaker 1: Smolette was upset the threatening letter didn't receive a bigger reaction.
31:58
Speaker 1: That's when he orchestrated the attack with the brothers. The
32:01
Speaker 1: rope used by at least one of the brothers purchased
32:04
Speaker 1: at the direction of Smilette. Sources say the brothers are
32:07
Speaker 1: friends with Smolette, ola playing an extra on Empire. Last week.
32:12
Speaker 1: In a televised interview, Smolette had this to say about
32:15
Speaker 1: the scuffle with his attackers. He said, this Maga country
32:20
Speaker 1: punches me right in the face, so I punched the
32:22
Speaker 1: ass back. I noticed the rope around my neck, and
32:25
Speaker 1: I started screaming. The brothers, who were first seen in
32:28
Speaker 1: Greeny surveillance video, now coming into focus speaking exclusively with
32:33
Speaker 1: me over the phone, saying we were not racist, we're
32:36
Speaker 1: not homophobic, and we are not anti Trump. We were
32:39
Speaker 1: born and raised in Chicago and our American citizens. You're
32:43
Speaker 1: hearing our friend at CBS Chicago reporter Charlie Damar reporting
32:48
Speaker 1: about what Chicago police took when they rated the brothers home,
32:53
Speaker 1: claiming that Smolette was upset that his threatening letters did
32:57
Speaker 1: not get the attention he had assumed that they would.
33:01
Speaker 1: I Nancy Gracis's crime stories thank you for being with us.
33:03
Speaker 1: If this is a hoax, it's a whopper. People that
33:07
Speaker 1: make false claims to police, much less to this extent,
33:10
Speaker 1: usually land behind bars if they're regular mortals like all
33:16
Speaker 1: of us. If your Hollywood star, maybe you get different treatment.
33:20
Speaker 1: Jesse Smollett, superstar on the cast of Empire to Ellen
33:25
Speaker 1: Lauren Crime Online dot Com investigator reporter where we have
33:29
Speaker 1: all breaking crime in justice and use Ellen, what can
33:32
Speaker 1: you tell me about these two guys. Everyone refers to
33:35
Speaker 1: them as Nigerian. They're American, That's right, Nancy. They were
33:39
Speaker 1: board and raised in Chicago. The reason I believe that
33:42
Speaker 1: people are getting calling them Nigerians because they for reasons
33:46
Speaker 1: that have not been explained and I do not understand,
33:49
Speaker 1: apparently flew to Nigeria the day after the attack and
33:53
Speaker 1: came back to Chicago last week where they were met
33:56
Speaker 1: with investigators at the airport. That has not been explained
33:59
Speaker 1: why that happened or if it has anything to do
34:02
Speaker 1: at all with the alleged assault. UM. And I also
34:07
Speaker 1: wanted to point something else out since we're talking about
34:10
Speaker 1: the rope and the and the phone. UM. A lot
34:14
Speaker 1: of the things that have come up in recent days
34:16
Speaker 1: really don't look look good like they look very suspicious,
34:20
Speaker 1: and and things are starting to really maybe fall apart
34:23
Speaker 1: here in this story. But a couple of things I
34:25
Speaker 1: think are not suspicious that happened here. I don't think
34:28
Speaker 1: it's suspicious that he did not want to hand over
34:32
Speaker 1: his entire phone immediately. He's a public figure, he's a celebrity.
34:36
Speaker 1: You who had allen? Have you ever been attacked at
34:40
Speaker 1: two am? Had a rope tied around your neck and
34:43
Speaker 1: bleach port on you? Because if you have, I'd like
34:46
Speaker 1: hear about that, okay, because if that happens to you
34:49
Speaker 1: and your life is in danger, and cops say we
34:51
Speaker 1: need your phone, you go here whatever I mean? From
34:55
Speaker 1: the cop pulls me over, which has happened? I say,
35:00
Speaker 1: whatever here, take it all? Okay? He just plays lead
35:04
Speaker 1: my children behind whatever. I don't want a problem with
35:07
Speaker 1: a cop. Okay. Nobody should be above the law. And
35:12
Speaker 1: if they want your phone, give your phone. But you
35:15
Speaker 1: know what, that's you and this is me, So go
35:18
Speaker 1: ahead with your analysis, okay. But what I wanted to
35:22
Speaker 1: also say is that I believe he did agree to
35:25
Speaker 1: hand over the phone records. Whether he's done that or
35:27
Speaker 1: not yet, we don't know about the rope. What we
35:31
Speaker 1: heard him in the beginning of this narrative was that
35:34
Speaker 1: he kept the rope around his neck as because he
35:37
Speaker 1: didn't want to sort of disturb the scene and he
35:39
Speaker 1: wanted the responding officers to see what had been done.
35:44
Speaker 1: That was the explanation for the rope of being left.
35:48
Speaker 1: You know what, I hear you. And he could have
35:52
Speaker 1: claimed that he did not want his DNA his I
35:57
Speaker 1: don't think you get prints off rope, but any of
35:59
Speaker 1: his fire was your DNA on the rope or to
36:02
Speaker 1: ruin any evidence on the rope, So I can understand that.
36:06
Speaker 1: Now it's my understanding that he did hand over phone records,
36:12
Speaker 1: but that they were heavily redacted. Now, according to TMZ
36:16
Speaker 1: our friend Harvey Levin, the phone records were handed over
36:22
Speaker 1: and the cops rejected them. The cops rejected them, Daryl Cohen,
36:26
Speaker 1: are you sitting down? The cops rejected them, saying that
36:31
Speaker 1: they were so heavily redacted that they were basically I'm
36:36
Speaker 1: no use. What about handing over your phone records the
36:39
Speaker 1: cop and you redact them. Oh, come on, Nancy, this
36:44
Speaker 1: is absurd. If you have a victim of a crime,
36:47
Speaker 1: First of all, I want to go back to the
36:49
Speaker 1: net of the noose. If I've got a noose around
36:52
Speaker 1: my neck, oh my god, I'm going to rip that
36:54
Speaker 1: off as quickly as I possibly can, because I am
36:57
Speaker 1: freaked out. This guy was not hurt. This guy was
37:00
Speaker 1: not attacked. He is looking for publicity. He may have
37:04
Speaker 1: won an Emmy for Empire, but the news outlets in
37:08
Speaker 1: Chicago are going to win a news Emmy for their
37:11
Speaker 1: coverage of this guy who doesn't recognize the truth from
37:15
Speaker 1: a lie. He is scripted, and he's gotten himself into
37:19
Speaker 1: a problem. He's a walking living soapy problems. Well, the
37:22
Speaker 1: whole reason they got interested in the phone records to
37:24
Speaker 1: start with is that Smolette said two cops he was
37:28
Speaker 1: on the phone with his manager at the time of
37:30
Speaker 1: the attack, and that the manager says he heard the
37:35
Speaker 1: racial and homophobic slurs being thrown, and they want to
37:40
Speaker 1: authenticate that that call was in fact made. They Askemalant
37:44
Speaker 1: for the records about two weeks before they got a
37:48
Speaker 1: PDF file. Now. Police also say their cameras everywhere in
37:53
Speaker 1: the area, But there is a sixty second gap in
37:56
Speaker 1: the video where you don't see the Empire start there's
38:00
Speaker 1: no video of the actual attack. I've looked at shots
38:03
Speaker 1: of the video and you see two persons of interest
38:06
Speaker 1: in surveillance footage. Now, this is what is telling to me,
38:08
Speaker 1: Doctor Bethany Marshall. These two guys that everybody calls Nigerians,
38:13
Speaker 1: they're Americans, let's be very clear on that. Who take
38:16
Speaker 1: off to Nigeria the day after the attack. They work
38:20
Speaker 1: out in his building. At least one of them does
38:24
Speaker 1: in the gym in Smolett's building, his apartment building. One
38:28
Speaker 1: of them has been an extra on the set. They're
38:30
Speaker 1: totally buff. They look like their bodybuilders. I've seen their
38:33
Speaker 1: photos and I never see them wearing a shirt. I
38:36
Speaker 1: mean not judging, but they are totally buff. So you
38:39
Speaker 1: can see they work out all the time. They take
38:42
Speaker 1: off for Nigeria. The day after the attack, they come back,
38:45
Speaker 1: they're met by the cops, they are questioned, they are released,
38:50
Speaker 1: Doctor Bethany, no charges, and after meeting with them, cops
38:55
Speaker 1: say they want to reinterview Jesse Smolett. What does that
38:58
Speaker 1: say to you, doctor Bethany. Well, first of all, the
39:01
Speaker 1: trip to Nigeria, they're now thirty five hundred dollars richer
39:04
Speaker 1: because they just got paid for the attack, right, And
39:08
Speaker 1: some people do not think ahead when they collude with
39:12
Speaker 1: somebody who's drawing them into a crime. So they thought,
39:15
Speaker 1: may have fought, no big deal, we'll rough them up,
39:18
Speaker 1: we'll put a rope around his neck, we'll take a vacation,
39:20
Speaker 1: we'll come back, this will have all blown over. But
39:23
Speaker 1: you know what, they talked to the police, and as
39:25
Speaker 1: I was saying about malingering, the whole story does not
39:28
Speaker 1: shake out. The timeline is not consistent, and so the
39:31
Speaker 1: police are going to look to Jesse. And I would
39:34
Speaker 1: wonder what is Jesse's reward in all of this When
39:39
Speaker 1: people malinger symptoms? You know, I was roughed up, I
39:42
Speaker 1: was a victim. They do it for a reward. Is
39:45
Speaker 1: he trying to up his Twitter following? Is he negotiating
39:51
Speaker 1: a contract right now and he wants to prove to
39:54
Speaker 1: the EP of the show that he is the center
39:58
Speaker 1: of a national news situation. Is he wanting to take
40:03
Speaker 1: somebody else's role in empire? You know, I think that
40:07
Speaker 1: there's a reward there somewhere, And if you follow that trail,
40:10
Speaker 1: the whole thing begins. Well, I've been looking and researching
40:13
Speaker 1: and following and asking questions. According to CBS Chicago, who
40:19
Speaker 1: is there on the scene, coots want to speak to
40:21
Speaker 1: Smilette again based on quote new evidence they learned from
40:25
Speaker 1: the two friends the two guys. Now, according to CBS,
40:30
Speaker 1: two sources told them that Smolette pay the two guys
40:35
Speaker 1: thirty five hundred dollars to stage the attack. But let's
40:38
Speaker 1: take a listen to our friends at CBS. This is
40:41
Speaker 1: Jeff Glore talking about Wait, are we playing one or two?
40:47
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Okay, hold on, this is CBS This Morning
40:51
Speaker 1: anchor John Dickerson. Take a listen to what they see
40:54
Speaker 1: on the video. Police are looking for two potential persons
40:57
Speaker 1: of interest in impossible hate crime against to Jesse Smolette.
41:01
Speaker 1: Police say a surveillance camera took these images of the
41:05
Speaker 1: two men on the night. Smolette says he was beaten.
41:08
Speaker 1: The star of the TV drama Empire said his masked
41:11
Speaker 1: attacker attackers yelled racist and homophobic slurs. Dean Reynolds is
41:16
Speaker 1: tracking the investigation. Investigators are hoping the FBI can enhance
41:21
Speaker 1: those images to provide some distinguishing details. Now, the men
41:25
Speaker 1: are not considered suspects, but the police do want to
41:28
Speaker 1: know who they are and what they were doing when
41:31
Speaker 1: Smolette says he was attacked. Sources tell CBS News the
41:35
Speaker 1: two figures seen in these dark surveillance images were also
41:38
Speaker 1: spotted sitting on a bench when Jesse Smolette walked past
41:42
Speaker 1: them across the street. They then appear to get up
41:45
Speaker 1: and follow him, although the three of them are never
41:47
Speaker 1: seen on camera together. About a minute later, investigators say,
41:51
Speaker 1: another security camera captured Smolette returning to his apartment with
41:56
Speaker 1: a noose tied around his neck. The rope was untied
42:00
Speaker 1: but still on his neck when police arrived, forty five
42:03
Speaker 1: minutes after he says he was attacked. You're hearing our
42:06
Speaker 1: friends at CBS, So let me close with this thought.
42:09
Speaker 1: When I was a new prosecutor, I worked on one
42:12
Speaker 1: of the very first hate crimes I had ever seen.
42:15
Speaker 1: We didn't even call him hate crimes then murderers of
42:18
Speaker 1: black gay men across the city of Atlanta. That case
42:23
Speaker 1: and I wrote the appeal for it and argued it
42:26
Speaker 1: to the Georgia Supreme Court was held. That conviction was held.
42:31
Speaker 1: Gay blackmails all over the city of Atlanta, victimized simply
42:35
Speaker 1: because their color and their sex orientation. If this is
42:39
Speaker 1: a hate crime. Let the perps rot in hell. If not,
42:44
Speaker 1: Jesse Smillett, You've got some explaining to do. Nancy Gray's
42:48
Speaker 1: crime story, signing off, Get my friend. The search is
42:59
Speaker 1: on for a missing mom. Savannah Spurlock, just twenty three
43:03
Speaker 1: years old, vanishes. It's the first night she goes out
43:07
Speaker 1: after giving birth to infant twins. Her first night out,
43:11
Speaker 1: she goes to a restaurant bar. She's seen leaving. I
43:14
Speaker 1: think she looks incoherent or dazed as she leaves. Joining
43:18
Speaker 1: me right now, Commander of the Cajun Co Search and
43:22
Speaker 1: Rescue Tony Wade is with me. Commander Wade, please tell
43:26
Speaker 1: me about the search for Savannah Spurlock Well Stadley. At
43:30
Speaker 1: this point all of the search and rescue teams have
43:33
Speaker 1: pulled out. Richmond PDE is continuing with some search efforts.
43:36
Speaker 1: You know what kind of all I'll stand by at
43:38
Speaker 1: this point for some new leads and new case Saturday,
43:41
Speaker 1: the case of just you know, the search efforts that
43:43
Speaker 1: have gone cole were just no new information. Company in law.
43:46
Speaker 1: You know, Savannah Spurlock goes missing that evening, her first
43:50
Speaker 1: night out after giving birth to twins. She also has
43:53
Speaker 1: a four year old son. Noah. You know what's interesting
43:58
Speaker 1: to me to Tony Wade, commander of the Cajun Coach
44:01
Speaker 1: Search and Rescue, Tony, is that we've got her on
44:05
Speaker 1: video leaving with two guys. It turns out there's a
44:10
Speaker 1: third one in the car with her. They go to
44:13
Speaker 1: a rural area, a home. The guys say she was there,
44:18
Speaker 1: but she left at some point the following morning. They
44:22
Speaker 1: can't tell us what time. They can't tell us how
44:24
Speaker 1: she left. She didn't have her car, it was still
44:27
Speaker 1: parked at the restaurant that's where the trail runs cold.
44:31
Speaker 1: Tell me about your efforts with me, Commander Tony Wade
44:35
Speaker 1: of the Cajun Coach Search and Rescue. You know, you
44:39
Speaker 1: know that doesn't disturbing goes that she just disappeared like
44:42
Speaker 1: her phone had been turned off about eight thirty that morning,
44:45
Speaker 1: so we know she didn't call it for a ride.
44:46
Speaker 1: You know. We put extensive search hours into the area
44:49
Speaker 1: surrounding the rural area where she was, and it's turned
44:52
Speaker 1: up new evidence whatsoever. It's very disturbing at this point
44:54
Speaker 1: that we just don't know, you know, how she left,
44:57
Speaker 1: if she left her on her own. We know she
44:58
Speaker 1: didn't leave walking temperatures with oh, she wouldn't dressed for it,
45:01
Speaker 1: and a lot of mysteries around in that portion of
45:02
Speaker 1: it is to acts exactly what time she would have
45:05
Speaker 1: left the home. You know, no witnesses saw her leave
45:07
Speaker 1: or you know, or anything else. People at the home
45:08
Speaker 1: said she woke come up one dner where she was,
45:10
Speaker 1: and then they told her they went back to sleetman
45:13
Speaker 1: said when she woke up, she was gone. I think
45:15
Speaker 1: there's positively a lot of holes in that story. Oh
45:17
Speaker 1: there's a lot of holes in that story. But with
45:20
Speaker 1: nothing to go on, the police have to rely on
45:23
Speaker 1: people like you, Commander Way, to try to find some
45:27
Speaker 1: trace of the missing mom. Savannah Spurlock, if you have information,
45:31
Speaker 1: please dial eight five nine six two four seven seven
45:36
Speaker 1: six repeat eight five nine six two four four seven
45:39
Speaker 1: seven six. We're talking about a beautiful young mom who
45:42
Speaker 1: just gave birth to twins, Savannah Spurlock. As Commander Tony
45:47
Speaker 1: Wade has just told us a search group heading back
45:51
Speaker 1: home after spending hours and hours in Gerard County searching
45:56
Speaker 1: for the Richmond mother of four, they have found no sign.
46:01
Speaker 1: I guess the good news from that is they know
46:03
Speaker 1: where she is, not Tony Wade. So by process of elimination,
46:08
Speaker 1: what does that mean to you? Well, you know, we
46:11
Speaker 1: haven't given up hope that she's maybe out there a
46:13
Speaker 1: lot somewhere. You know, we haven't found any just say
46:17
Speaker 1: she's not, you know, and we've cleared We've cleared miles
46:20
Speaker 1: and miles and miles of land trying to try to
46:23
Speaker 1: any spread of and you know, like you said, we
46:26
Speaker 1: know where she is, not we just don't know where
46:28
Speaker 1: she is. Uh, you know, we're we're frantic wanting a
46:31
Speaker 1: new tip, for a new league to come in that
46:32
Speaker 1: we can give us a search direction because we'll go
46:34
Speaker 1: right back. You know, the Richmond Police Department has worked
46:37
Speaker 1: hand in hand with us since we since we were
46:39
Speaker 1: contact to the help of the case something. They're doing
46:41
Speaker 1: an outstanding job. But just just everything is running into
46:43
Speaker 1: dead ends and it's frustrating everybody involved. There's just no
46:46
Speaker 1: new information coming in. And we know somebody out there
46:49
Speaker 1: and knows something. We just urge any small us tip
46:52
Speaker 1: call us and maybe just what we need. Go to
46:54
Speaker 1: crime online dot com and see the video of Savannah
46:59
Speaker 1: Spurlock as she leaves that restaurant that night with two guys.
47:03
Speaker 1: We find out a third was in the car. It
47:05
Speaker 1: reminds me so much, Commander Tony Wade, off when Natalie
47:10
Speaker 1: Holloway got in the car leaving Carlos and Charlie's bar
47:16
Speaker 1: down in Aruba, never seen again. Now, these guys, she
47:21
Speaker 1: did not know them before that night, did she, Tony, Well,
47:24
Speaker 1: we haven't novel established for a fact that she didn't
47:26
Speaker 1: know them, But you know, during the FaceTime conversation with
47:28
Speaker 1: her mom, her mom didn't recognize any of the individuals,
47:31
Speaker 1: and she stated that she knew pretty much all of
47:33
Speaker 1: Savannah's friends. So we haven't come to the point conclusion
47:36
Speaker 1: to prove in one way or the other day she
47:38
Speaker 1: didn't know them priorly. If she did, I don't think
47:40
Speaker 1: they were extremely close friends. Every indication says that she
47:43
Speaker 1: met them that night. That's still one of the many
47:45
Speaker 1: questions that we have in this case. You know, another
47:46
Speaker 1: thing that bugs me, Commander Wade, is that if you
47:49
Speaker 1: look at the photo that we have in crime online
47:51
Speaker 1: dot Com, it looks like she's got her pocketbook on
47:54
Speaker 1: her shoulder, but it's hanging wide open. To me, she
47:57
Speaker 1: looks cold, she doesn't have a coat on, she looks
47:59
Speaker 1: Dishovel old and more than that. In her face, she
48:02
Speaker 1: looks disoriented, like just a blank stare. I'm wondering if
48:07
Speaker 1: something was slipped in her drink. Commander Wade, how does
48:11
Speaker 1: it affect you when you have to leave a search
48:14
Speaker 1: without finding the person. That's extremely difficult on us. You know,
48:18
Speaker 1: we can locate something or even some then we can
48:21
Speaker 1: leave knowing that, you know, we help them some way
48:23
Speaker 1: in the case. And leaving with this many unasked questions
48:26
Speaker 1: and nothing. It's really hard on us because we get
48:28
Speaker 1: home and we beat ourselves up over it. Did we
48:29
Speaker 1: do our job correctly? Did our dogs key on something
48:32
Speaker 1: that we missed? We second guess ourselves really really hard.
48:35
Speaker 1: It's hard on it really is like it causes a
48:37
Speaker 1: lot of grief and a lot upset and that we
48:39
Speaker 1: just don't know and we go out to client answers
48:41
Speaker 1: and we can't find anything. It's troublesome to us. If
48:43
Speaker 1: you have information on missing Savannah's for a mother of four,
48:47
Speaker 1: dial eight five nine six two four four seven seven six.
48:51
Speaker 1: Thank you, Commander Way.