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Man impregnates underage teen girl THEN ALLEGED RAPIST GETS CUSTODY OF BABY · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Greece. I feel like Alice in
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Speaker 1: Wonderland where everything is upside down, or there was a
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Speaker 1: series of Batman mini books I would read to the
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Speaker 1: twins and they were little, and there was a world
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Speaker 1: called Bizarro World where everything literally was the reverse. Do
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Speaker 1: I have this right? A rape victim is ordered to
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Speaker 1: pay her rapist child support and the rapist has actually
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Speaker 1: gotten partial custody of the child that was born of
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Speaker 1: a rape. I Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank
0:54
Speaker 1: you for being with us here at Fox Nation in
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Speaker 1: series X one eleven. I've never seen anything quite like this,
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Speaker 1: And let me tell you, having prosecuted nothing but violent
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Speaker 1: felonies for over a decade, I've seen a lot but
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Speaker 1: forcing a rape victim to pay her rapist. Take a
1:15
Speaker 1: listen to our friend Chris Stakamoto w b RZ. He
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Speaker 1: offered to bring me home that night because my friend
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Speaker 1: wanted to leave early. Christa Abel Seth knows all too
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Speaker 1: well about overcoming adversity. The thirty two year old is
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Speaker 1: the mother of a sixteen year old who we are
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Speaker 1: not naming. We're identifying because she's a miner. She was
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Speaker 1: also born from a rape and It was a thirty
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Speaker 1: year old man and I was sixteen. Abel Seth recalls
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Speaker 1: meeting this man, John Barnes, at a bar in Hammond,
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Speaker 1: back in two thousand and five. He offered to take
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Speaker 1: her home instead of bring me home. He brought me
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Speaker 1: to his home, and once inside, he proceeded to rape
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Speaker 1: me on his living room couch. Abel Seth did not
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Speaker 1: know Barnes before that night, but came away from it
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Speaker 1: preg everybody else, just as soon goes from a boyfriend.
2:03
Speaker 1: And I just let them believe that I have twins,
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Speaker 1: boy girl, twins. They are fourteen, they are about to
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Speaker 1: turn fifteen. This then a little girl was about a
2:15
Speaker 1: year older than my little Lucy. What is a thirty
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Speaker 1: year old man doing with a teen girl having sex
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Speaker 1: on the sofa of his home. That's rape. That is
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Speaker 1: statutory rape. There's no other way to state it. That
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Speaker 1: is rape. A child that age cannot enter a contract,
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Speaker 1: can't buy a car, can't buy a house in many juristics,
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Speaker 1: just still can't even work, can't get booze, can't buy cigarettes,
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Speaker 1: much less weed or anything else because they're not old enough,
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Speaker 1: much less not old enough to get picked up at
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Speaker 1: a bar and taken home and rape. And now fast forward,
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Speaker 1: she keeps the baby, raises the baby, and suddenly she
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Speaker 1: has to pay her rapist child's support. Help me understand
3:13
Speaker 1: how this case has been turned, So bass ackwards with
3:18
Speaker 1: me an all star panel to make sense of what
3:20
Speaker 1: we know right now? And boy do we need this one?
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Speaker 1: Sarah Ford, Legal, director of South Carolina Victim's Assistant Network,
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Speaker 1: and she focused on crimes against women as a prosecutor.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Mendy B. Mechanic, professor's psychology, and boy do we
3:37
Speaker 1: need a shrink Emeritus, California State University, Fullerton forensics psychologists
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Speaker 1: focusing on trauma and victimization, sex partner violence, stalking, and
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Speaker 1: sex assaults. Doctor Monte Miller, Director Forensic DNA Experts specialists
3:55
Speaker 1: and sex assaults and murder former scientists for Texas Department
3:59
Speaker 1: Public say, but first, a special guest joining us, Chris Nakamoto,
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Speaker 1: Anchor in chief investigative reporter wb RZTV, Chris, what am
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Speaker 1: I missing in this picture? She's raped at age sixteen
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Speaker 1: by thirty year old man. And under the law, you
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Speaker 1: don't have to beat the rape victim and tear her
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Speaker 1: clothes off and leave her with a bloody lip and
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Speaker 1: broken bones in her face. At that age, this child
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Speaker 1: still qualifies as protected under the law. That's statutory rate.
4:35
Speaker 1: No matter how you slice it, you are one hundred
4:38
Speaker 1: percent right. We're talking about Louisiana. Our food, our music,
4:41
Speaker 1: our culture, our corruption, even our craziness is different here.
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Speaker 1: And we first heard about the story about a month ago.
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Speaker 1: We were just so aghast by the allegations. We started
4:52
Speaker 1: doing some digging. We've been looking into this now for
4:54
Speaker 1: about a month and a half. And then when we
4:57
Speaker 1: started trying to vet what was happening, doing or due diligence,
5:01
Speaker 1: talking to the sheriff, talking to the judge evolved. No
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Speaker 1: one wanted to talk. See I wonder why. I wonder
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Speaker 1: why nobody wanted to talk. They must all be embarrassed
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Speaker 1: of what is happening under their noses. And that judge,
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Speaker 1: hold on, I'm about to show him any rear. End.
5:23
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our cut three our friends at
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Speaker 1: w b r Z seven years ago. When July of
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Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, Able seth press charges against Barns. This report
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Speaker 1: she followed with the tangentbeho pair of Sheriff's office for
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Speaker 1: simple rape. Details everything that was done to her. Why
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Speaker 1: did you so long to follow? Well, like I said,
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Speaker 1: I was young and I didn't know the law at
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Speaker 1: the time. I didn't think I had any time more
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Speaker 1: time to do it. I thought if I didn't do
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Speaker 1: it right after it happened, like the next day, then
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Speaker 1: there was nothing I could do about it. And like
5:54
Speaker 1: I said, I went to that trauma counselor and he
5:57
Speaker 1: informed me, no, you have thirty years after you turn eighteen.
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Speaker 1: From twenty fifteen until now, nothing has happened with the report,
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Speaker 1: and the Sheriff's office tells us it's still open. It
6:08
Speaker 1: was never assigned to any detective, and nothing was ever investigated. Okay,
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Speaker 1: I don't understand why nothing was ever done. Maybe Chris
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Speaker 1: Nakamoto joining me from w b RZ, you can tell
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Speaker 1: me what the sheriff has to say about that. They
6:24
Speaker 1: had been radio silent up until so much pressure came
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Speaker 1: on them this week, where numerous other media outlets after
6:31
Speaker 1: we aired this Monday, began asking questions as well. Late yesterday,
6:35
Speaker 1: they issued a news release they're not doing any interviews,
6:38
Speaker 1: where they admitted their department absolutely dropped the ball. They
6:42
Speaker 1: claimed they need to own their mistake. They said that
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Speaker 1: this mistake has never been a problem before and we
6:48
Speaker 1: need to keep it that way. But then they started
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Speaker 1: victim shaming, which is really interesting. They blamed the victim
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Speaker 1: for not following up on the case after she followed
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Speaker 1: that report in twenty fifteen that went nowhere, And so
7:00
Speaker 1: it's really interesting to see the tactics that they're taking
7:03
Speaker 1: right now. But their mistake led to extraordinary consequences. And
7:08
Speaker 1: if this had been dealt with seven years ago, this
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Speaker 1: custody issue might not even be an issue. Their mistake,
7:15
Speaker 1: their mistake. Well, as it turns out, the baby daddy
7:21
Speaker 1: in this case has a fairly substantial background. Who is he?
7:29
Speaker 1: He runs a company called Gumbo Digital Branding. They go websites.
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Speaker 1: On Monday when we did the story, he had his
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Speaker 1: whole little client list published and one of them just
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Speaker 1: happened to be the local police department in the jurisdiction
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Speaker 1: where this happened. And after we heard the story, he
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Speaker 1: deleted that whole page that has all of his clients
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Speaker 1: on there. So his clients include the sheriff's office the
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Speaker 1: police department in that jurisdiction. Guys, take a listen to
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Speaker 1: our cut. Four Our friends at w b r Z.
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Speaker 1: A quick search of John Barnes shows he owns Gumbo
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Speaker 1: Digital Branding, a web company in Ponchatoula. Barnes website shows
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Speaker 1: the police department as his client. Court records in the
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Speaker 1: Tangebeho Parish Courthouse showed John Barnes admitted in June of
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Speaker 1: twenty eleven that he's the biological father of the child.
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Speaker 1: This year, he was granted full custody of that child,
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Speaker 1: even though a criminal complaint was followed against him in
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Speaker 1: twenty fifteen. Mysteriously, those records are under seal, hidden from
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Speaker 1: public view. When I found out that she was a
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Speaker 1: rape victim and found out that this rapist could potentially
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Speaker 1: get full custody, that was when I stepped in and said, no,
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Speaker 1: something has to be done about this. Stacy Trish works
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Speaker 1: for the nonprofit Save Lives. She's hoping able seth through
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Speaker 1: this dark and tangled web that allowed her perpetrator to
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Speaker 1: get custody of her child. I just can't take in
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Speaker 1: what I'm hearing. A rapist gets custody of the child
9:01
Speaker 1: and the rape victim has been forced to pay child support.
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Speaker 1: So let's go back in time, just a moment to
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Speaker 1: the time of the rape. Take a listen to our
9:11
Speaker 1: cut to our friends at w BRC Ablesth had a
9:14
Speaker 1: healthy baby girl and everything was fine until John Barnes
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Speaker 1: learned sometime in twenty eleven that he might have a daughter.
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Speaker 1: When my daughter was five years old, he found out
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Speaker 1: about her. And once he found out about her, he
9:29
Speaker 1: basically pursued custody and wanted to take her away from me,
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Speaker 1: and they granted him fifty fifty custody despite the fact
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Speaker 1: that it was caused through rape. This DNA test is
9:43
Speaker 1: part of court documents that showed with ninety nine point
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Speaker 1: nine seven percent probability John Barnes as the child's father.
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Speaker 1: Problem is, Barnes was thirty years old and able Seth
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Speaker 1: was sixteen, making it illegal even if it were consensual.
9:58
Speaker 1: Ableseth maintains it was never consensual. Okay. First of all, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: this is Jackie. Let me jump in here. John Barnes,
10:05
Speaker 1: the man accused of raping Apple Seth, flatly denies that
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Speaker 1: he raped the then sixteen year old world. He says
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Speaker 1: he thought that she was an adult because she was
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Speaker 1: in a bar, using a fake ID. Okay, in my mind.
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Speaker 1: To Sarah Ford, Legal director of South Carolina victim's Assistants network.
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Speaker 1: In my mind, this is an open shut case of
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Speaker 1: statutory rape because it's my understanding in that jurisdiction, and
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Speaker 1: all you Louisiana people correct me if I'm wrong. A
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Speaker 1: child sixteen or under cannot consent to sex, period, So
10:39
Speaker 1: even if there was consent, it's still statutory rape. The
10:46
Speaker 1: defense I thought she was eighteen. That doesn't cut it
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Speaker 1: in our world. Maybe over in Afghanistan that's okay, but
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Speaker 1: not here in the US, certainly not in Louisiana. So
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Speaker 1: in my mind, Sarah, the DNA test alone proves the
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Speaker 1: case because you've got the mother who's sixteen years old
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Speaker 1: at the time, you've got the father who was thirty
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Speaker 1: years old at the time, and you've got the baby.
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Speaker 1: The DNA test shows it's his baby and she's the mom.
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Speaker 1: And they didn't teach me math in law school. But
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Speaker 1: I can add and subtract really well. That proves the
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Speaker 1: DNA test alone proves sex with a minor, the statutory rape. Sarah. Absolutely, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: it is mind boggling that the sheriff, I guess the
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Speaker 1: quote unquote dropped the ball with this investigation because this
11:41
Speaker 1: seems like one of the cases where they would be
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Speaker 1: absolutely ready and willing to investigate this with evidence that's
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Speaker 1: so clear and convincing that a rate actually occurred. There
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Speaker 1: is an evidence in the DNA test. This is absolutely
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Speaker 1: mind boggling that nothing went for with that investigation, and
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Speaker 1: then they call it a quote mistake. It's not a mistake.
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Speaker 1: It as a huge failure of the system. Time stories
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Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace to doctor Mendy B. Mechanic, professor's Psychology Emeritus,
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Speaker 1: California State University, Fullerton, Doctor Mechanic, thank you for being
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Speaker 1: with us. Dropped the ball. That is certainly putting perfume
12:36
Speaker 1: on the pig. Quite the ephemism. Dropped the ball. That
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Speaker 1: makes me think of me out in the front yard
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Speaker 1: with my twins playing ball, kicking the soccer ball, playing basketball,
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Speaker 1: and I dropped the ball. This is not dropping the ball.
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Speaker 1: It's sugarcoating a horrible situation. Never remitate. Yes, I mean
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Speaker 1: she's been the victim now three times. It sounds like
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Speaker 1: she was the victim of the original rape. She's the
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Speaker 1: victim of the criminal courts or the Sheriff's department who
13:12
Speaker 1: are egregiously not taking appropriate action in terms of the
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Speaker 1: criminal case, and then she's now battered by the family
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Speaker 1: court who gives who gave partial custody and required her
13:26
Speaker 1: to pay child support to her rapists. So this is
13:32
Speaker 1: probably one of the most insane outcomes I've ever seen
13:37
Speaker 1: in a case like this. But you know, victims of
13:40
Speaker 1: sexual or dender based violence, it don't always fare that
13:43
Speaker 1: well in family court. And there's been a long history
13:48
Speaker 1: as you well know, about victims being shamed and blamed
13:53
Speaker 1: in criminal courts when they bring forward allegations. I don't
13:56
Speaker 1: know anything about Louisiana and the way it works, but
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Speaker 1: I could only say some kind of politics or corruption
14:02
Speaker 1: as that play here. You know, Doctor Mechanic with me, guys,
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Speaker 1: Doctor Mende B. Mechanic, Professor psychology emeritus in California. I've
14:10
Speaker 1: dealt with so many rape victims, child rape victims, sexual
14:13
Speaker 1: molestation victims, and they all tell me the same thing,
14:20
Speaker 1: different words. During the rape, a child goes out of
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Speaker 1: her body. She looks down on her body as she's
14:32
Speaker 1: being raped. They have an out of body experience. I've
14:37
Speaker 1: heard that many times. I've heard sitting alone with rape victims,
14:43
Speaker 1: child molestation victims, how the feeling of helplessness is the
14:50
Speaker 1: worst of all, the worst thing of all. I've got
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Speaker 1: this person raping you, and you're a child. There's nothing
15:00
Speaker 1: you can do about it. I've had many of them
15:05
Speaker 1: where they blame the mother because the mother did nothing
15:08
Speaker 1: to stop the rape. In this case, a sixteen year
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Speaker 1: old girl is rape and nobody does a darn thing
15:17
Speaker 1: up until to day today, they're still not doing anything.
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Speaker 1: And I'm hearing Sarah Ford, this victim, Krista Abbleseth, who
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Speaker 1: has gone public, saying at the time, when I didn't
15:32
Speaker 1: call the cops that day, the next day, I thought
15:36
Speaker 1: I couldn't go forward. Victims get all sorts of things
15:39
Speaker 1: in their head. She can go to law school. She
15:41
Speaker 1: doesn't know about the tolling of Statute of limitations. She
15:44
Speaker 1: knows nothing about that. When she's later told by a
15:48
Speaker 1: trauma expert she's obviously still having trauma, as most rape
15:51
Speaker 1: victims do. She finds out, hey, you can do it now,
15:55
Speaker 1: and she marches herself down and files a police report
15:59
Speaker 1: and nothing happens. Sarah, it's not unusual at all for
16:04
Speaker 1: there to be delayed disclosure in cases like this. It
16:08
Speaker 1: is a huge, huge failure for this investigation It absolutely
16:14
Speaker 1: is unimaginable that this young woman reported this seven years
16:18
Speaker 1: ago and now is being revictimized not only by the
16:22
Speaker 1: lack of investigation into incredibly serious rape charges, but as
16:27
Speaker 1: now being forced by our family courts to not only
16:32
Speaker 1: interact with her rapists, but to turn her child over
16:36
Speaker 1: to him and pay him child support. It is absolutely
16:39
Speaker 1: a huge, huge failure to doctor Monte Miller, director or
16:43
Speaker 1: Forensic DNA Experts LLC, specialist in sex assaults and murder.
16:49
Speaker 1: Doctor Miller, again, if I could get my hands on
16:54
Speaker 1: this case, I would bring on the victim, the chain
16:59
Speaker 1: of custody person and the DNA expert, the scientist to
17:05
Speaker 1: tell me this victim is this age, here's the baby,
17:10
Speaker 1: and there's the daddy, and the subtract jury. He was
17:15
Speaker 1: thirty and she was sixteen when this happened. Case closed
17:18
Speaker 1: a statutory rate under the law. Explain to me, doctor Miller,
17:22
Speaker 1: how do you extract DNA from I mean, what do
17:28
Speaker 1: you do? You get a bugle squab at which is
17:32
Speaker 1: likely take a really long queue tip and you swab
17:35
Speaker 1: the inside of your mouth with it, and then you
17:38
Speaker 1: take that and you get DNA. How does the whole
17:41
Speaker 1: thing work? How do I know for sure John Barnes,
17:44
Speaker 1: now forty six had sex with a sixteen year old girl. Well, basically,
17:50
Speaker 1: you know, the DNA that you have starts when with concession,
17:53
Speaker 1: which just one one sperm and one egg, and the
17:57
Speaker 1: DNA and your body is the same. Anywhere. We can
17:59
Speaker 1: get it from your cheek, we get it from your blood,
18:01
Speaker 1: we get it from your sperm. You're going to donate
18:05
Speaker 1: half of your DNA to your child, and the mother
18:09
Speaker 1: will donate half of her DNA to the child. So
18:12
Speaker 1: if we get a buckle swamp from inside your mouth
18:15
Speaker 1: or a blood sample or any sample, and we run those,
18:18
Speaker 1: we can compare them. The child's half of their DNA
18:21
Speaker 1: will come from their mom, and what's left over had
18:25
Speaker 1: to come from the dad. From a legal perspective, that
18:29
Speaker 1: report alone demonstrates with certainty, without like you've said, without
18:34
Speaker 1: anything else even being looked at, that he's the dad
18:37
Speaker 1: unless he has an identical twin. You know, this establishes
18:40
Speaker 1: that they had sex. I mean, and again it's it's
18:44
Speaker 1: mind boggling, As you guys have said, it's a huge failure.
18:49
Speaker 1: It's it's unthinkable. I mean, that's the kind of evidence
18:52
Speaker 1: that they use regularly to condict somebody. If I were
18:56
Speaker 1: the defense guy here exactly in statutory rank case is
19:00
Speaker 1: what oh I was going to say if I were,
19:01
Speaker 1: if I were working for the defense here, I would say,
19:04
Speaker 1: there isn't it. I mean, he's the dad and she's young.
19:08
Speaker 1: It's case closed, case closed. And doctor Monty Miller, director
19:13
Speaker 1: forensic DNA experts, tell me the percentage of accuracy in
19:18
Speaker 1: this case, Like, what's the likelihood he's the dad? Well,
19:22
Speaker 1: the likelihood if they wrote it all out. I mean,
19:24
Speaker 1: I think I saw something that said nine nine point
19:27
Speaker 1: ninety seven, But that's well beyond reasonable certainty. It's it's
19:34
Speaker 1: would be so unlikely to for someone at random to
19:38
Speaker 1: be the dad and then to pick him out, say
19:41
Speaker 1: if that guy's the dad and have him have him
19:43
Speaker 1: be the dad is just unthinkable. I remember when I
19:46
Speaker 1: would prosecute DNA cases, there would be numbers like one
19:51
Speaker 1: and four trillion likelihood this is not his DNA. What
19:59
Speaker 1: kind numbers are we looking at here? Well, generally we're
20:02
Speaker 1: looking at you know, ninety nine point nine percent, where
20:07
Speaker 1: you know it's like you know, a billion to one,
20:10
Speaker 1: one billion to one, Well, yeah, yeah, those are the
20:14
Speaker 1: numbers I mean, yeah, you have to actually look at
20:16
Speaker 1: the fact that she picked him out. That's a substantial fact.
20:20
Speaker 1: Here is that so unlikely? And then to pick someone
20:23
Speaker 1: out and say that's the guy. That guy right over
20:26
Speaker 1: there has the winning lottery ticket. Is what you're saying,
20:29
Speaker 1: something unlikely like that, and then they have it. And
20:31
Speaker 1: it's not just that, Chris Nakamoto, Chief investigative Reporter w
20:35
Speaker 1: b RZ. It's not just that it's one in a
20:39
Speaker 1: billion likelihood ninety nine point nine nine nine according to
20:45
Speaker 1: a DNA do you all survive by nu clak acid test?
20:49
Speaker 1: He's the father. Not only that proves it, but he
20:53
Speaker 1: gets custody of the child, showing that he ohs this
21:00
Speaker 1: is his baby. That is damny. How I mean, there's
21:04
Speaker 1: your case for statutory rape. I don't know why the
21:07
Speaker 1: sheriffs in the DA's office are sitting on their thumbs
21:10
Speaker 1: or their thumbs straight up their rear end. But Chris Nakamoto,
21:16
Speaker 1: I understand that the mom who endured the rape actually
21:22
Speaker 1: gave her daughter a cell phone, and somehow that was
21:27
Speaker 1: used as evidence in losing custody. Take a listen to
21:30
Speaker 1: our cut five our friends at w b RZ. Things
21:34
Speaker 1: took a dramatic turn this year when they say a
21:36
Speaker 1: judge granted Barnes full custody of the child. It happened
21:40
Speaker 1: after Barnes alleged abel Seth gave her daughter a cell phone.
21:43
Speaker 1: Abelseth says she was also ordered to pay him child support.
21:47
Speaker 1: She's been forced to pay her perpetrator. She's been forced
21:51
Speaker 1: to pay the rapeist child support, she's been forced to
21:54
Speaker 1: pay his legal fees, and she's been forced to give
21:58
Speaker 1: up custody of this child that's a product of the lake.
22:04
Speaker 1: It just makes no sense. We brought this case to
22:07
Speaker 1: the Louisiana Foundation against Sexual Assault. You can't consent, You're
22:11
Speaker 1: too young, It's what the law says. Their lawyers say,
22:14
Speaker 1: not only is this egregious, but they've never seen a
22:17
Speaker 1: case like it. It seems pretty straightforward, not only that
22:22
Speaker 1: a crime took place, but that as a result of
22:25
Speaker 1: that crime, that this person shouldn't have custody of this child.
22:28
Speaker 1: To Chris like Amoto, w b r ZTV chief investigative reporter,
22:34
Speaker 1: how did Christa lose custody every little girl? So in
22:39
Speaker 1: this goes back about till about twenty eleven when he
22:43
Speaker 1: realized he first had a child, and then he that's
22:46
Speaker 1: when he went and took this DNA test to try
22:49
Speaker 1: to get fifty fifty custody. He gets fifty fifty custody,
22:53
Speaker 1: and then, according to unfueled court documents, in about twenty sixteen,
22:57
Speaker 1: the judge orders the victim to pay the perpetrator about
23:01
Speaker 1: one hundred and seventeen dollars per month in child support
23:06
Speaker 1: to raise this child. Then this year there are new
23:10
Speaker 1: allegations after she was prohibited from giving her daughter a cellphone.
23:15
Speaker 1: John Barnes alleged that the daughter got another cell phone,
23:19
Speaker 1: and Christa maintained she never gave the daughter another cell phone.
23:23
Speaker 1: But that's what the judge used as the impetus to
23:25
Speaker 1: revoked custody and award full custody to John Barne. Are
23:31
Speaker 1: you sure, Chris Makamoto, then that is why mom lost custody,
23:35
Speaker 1: because she gave her daughter a cell phone. Yes, we
23:38
Speaker 1: pulled the unsealed court records after we aired the story
23:40
Speaker 1: on Monday. There was so much public outcry, Well then
23:44
Speaker 1: I'm going straight to hell because I've given both of
23:46
Speaker 1: my children a cell phone. Well, why is that a
23:48
Speaker 1: grounds to lose custody? They claim that the daughter was
23:51
Speaker 1: using it to do TikTok? Right. They all do TikTok? Right,
23:56
Speaker 1: Even the President is using TikTok exactly Nancy's chequlent me
24:00
Speaker 1: jp In again, John Barnes claims that the reason his
24:04
Speaker 1: daughter's cell phone was taken away and the issue with
24:07
Speaker 1: the cell phone given to her by the mom, was
24:09
Speaker 1: the fact that the girl was using the cell phone
24:12
Speaker 1: to sext her boyfriend, send sexy messages to her boyfriend,
24:16
Speaker 1: and also using it to post sexually explicit material on TikTok.
24:22
Speaker 1: Are you sure Chris Lokomoto didn't no beanie, no starving,
24:26
Speaker 1: no locking air in her room for days on end,
24:29
Speaker 1: nothing like that. The documents do not say anything about
24:32
Speaker 1: the mom being abusive or anything towards the daughter. In fact,
24:37
Speaker 1: in January of last year, the child Guidance counselor notified
24:42
Speaker 1: the state that the father was actually there were allegations
24:46
Speaker 1: that the father was abusing. Now this child, that's the
24:49
Speaker 1: product of a rape and so DCFS and tpso the
24:53
Speaker 1: Tangible Hope Heir of Sheriff's office apparently launched an investigation
24:57
Speaker 1: into that, which was unconclusive, and then as recent as
25:01
Speaker 1: February of this year, the minor child alleges that she
25:04
Speaker 1: was sexually assaulted by the father who raped the mother.
25:08
Speaker 1: She was brought down to New Orleans to Children's Hospital,
25:11
Speaker 1: where she was evaluated and the doctor confirmed at that
25:13
Speaker 1: time there was evidence of worst entry. Can grue up
25:16
Speaker 1: with a sexual assault on the child. I mean, this
25:20
Speaker 1: is just extraordinary and to think nothing has happened is
25:24
Speaker 1: just mind blow one. Guys, take a listen to our
25:26
Speaker 1: cut fourteen our friends at crime online dot com. In
25:30
Speaker 1: January twenty twenty one, the child's school counselor notified DCFS
25:34
Speaker 1: as a mandatory reporter that the child alleged Barnes physically
25:38
Speaker 1: and mentally abused her. Abeleseth requested that barness custody be limited.
25:42
Speaker 1: Judge Cash denied that motion. By November, Barnes filed motions
25:46
Speaker 1: to have Ableseth held in contempt over a cell phone.
25:49
Speaker 1: On February second, twenty twenty two, Cash found Abeleseth in
25:53
Speaker 1: contempt over the cell phone and ordered her to pay
25:55
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars. Abeleseth was instructed not to provide her
26:00
Speaker 1: with a cell phone. That same month, court records note
26:03
Speaker 1: for the first time that the child was conceived from
26:06
Speaker 1: a rape It's also alleged that Barnes drugged and sexually
26:09
Speaker 1: assaulted his daughter on February twenty twenty two and February twenty,
26:14
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. She was transported to New Orleans where
26:17
Speaker 1: she was evaluated and the doctor confirmed that there was
26:20
Speaker 1: evidence of forced entry congruent with sexual assault. On March eighteenth,
26:24
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, Judge Cash dismisses all of able seth claims,
26:29
Speaker 1: saying all criminal charges have not been accepted and the
26:32
Speaker 1: evidence does not support the allegations made by the daughter.
26:35
Speaker 1: I am so embarrassed right now to even be part
26:40
Speaker 1: of a so called justice system for this. Teen girl
26:45
Speaker 1: reports sex abuse by her bio dad who raped her mother.
26:52
Speaker 1: The guidance counsel reports it. She's taken to a doctor.
26:57
Speaker 1: The doctor says there is quote forced entry. My goodness again,
27:03
Speaker 1: what a way of white washing the truth? Exactly what
27:08
Speaker 1: does that mean? Sarah Ford, Legal Director, South Carolina Victim
27:12
Speaker 1: Assistant Network. Forced entry. It makes it sound like somebody
27:16
Speaker 1: jimmy the front door. It means she was raped. There's
27:19
Speaker 1: evidence of trauma within her vagina. I'm not sure what
27:23
Speaker 1: it would be. What are they saying? Sarah Nancy, these
27:27
Speaker 1: new revelations are just astounding. You know, for there to
27:30
Speaker 1: be any sort of physical evidence with the rape examination
27:35
Speaker 1: kit that was obviously done on this child, and for
27:38
Speaker 1: there to be physical evidence of I would assume some
27:40
Speaker 1: sort of tearing or something of that nature, which would
27:44
Speaker 1: certainly show this child had been sexually abused in some way.
27:50
Speaker 1: I mean, to have that evidence is incredible, and then
27:53
Speaker 1: for it to be completely ignored by the court. There
27:57
Speaker 1: really aren't words for that. I mean, there's an absolutely
28:00
Speaker 1: astounding that this mother has alleged that she was raped
28:03
Speaker 1: this child is obviously evidence of that, and that she's
28:07
Speaker 1: also saying that this same man, her father, assaulted her
28:13
Speaker 1: as well, and the court just ignores this. It is shocking,
28:18
Speaker 1: It is alarming, It is inexcusable. Nancy Jackie, here one
28:22
Speaker 1: more time. John Barnes again denies raping Christa Ebelseth. He
28:28
Speaker 1: also denies assaulting his daughter. It still should go to
28:32
Speaker 1: a jury. They are the ultimate fact find or credibility.
28:36
Speaker 1: It's the sole promise of a jury. How could this
28:40
Speaker 1: be happening? Take a listen to our cut seven, our
28:43
Speaker 1: friends at w b r Z. He's well connected, he's
28:48
Speaker 1: threatened me multiple times, saying that he has connections in
28:52
Speaker 1: the justice system, so I need to be careful and
28:56
Speaker 1: that he can take her away from me anytime he
28:58
Speaker 1: wants to. And I don't really believed him up until now,
29:02
Speaker 1: because it's happening. It's happening. I spoke to John Barnes
29:05
Speaker 1: on the phone. He admitted the daughter with Krista as his,
29:08
Speaker 1: but referred all questions to his lawyer, who did not
29:11
Speaker 1: get back to us. The Tangent Behoe Parish Sheriff's office
29:14
Speaker 1: says the case is still open and we reached out
29:16
Speaker 1: to the judge who made this decision. A woman in
29:19
Speaker 1: his office told us his judicial canons prevent him from
29:22
Speaker 1: talking about it. Wow, that's convenient. Time stories with Nancy
29:40
Speaker 1: Grace to Chris Nakamoto joining US chief in US to
29:47
Speaker 1: get a reporter w b r Z. You guys are
29:50
Speaker 1: all over this case, thank goodness. Clearly the criminal justice
29:55
Speaker 1: system there and Potitoola Louisiana is not in hand it themselves.
30:01
Speaker 1: I don't understand how the mom has lost custody. I
30:05
Speaker 1: don't understand why prosecutors are not taking the case away
30:10
Speaker 1: from the local sheriff for cop and handling it themselves.
30:13
Speaker 1: But first let's start with the judge. Who is the
30:17
Speaker 1: judge Macameto. The judge is Judge Jeffrey Cash. He is
30:22
Speaker 1: a family court judge. And after we aired the story
30:25
Speaker 1: this week, we've been flooded with other complaints of people
30:28
Speaker 1: in that parish, in that judicial district, where people are
30:32
Speaker 1: saying they've had other similar instances where things were not
30:36
Speaker 1: the way they should be. Here's what's really perplexing about
30:39
Speaker 1: that issue involving the daughter. When she had gone to
30:43
Speaker 1: the hospital about the rape kit, there was a detective
30:46
Speaker 1: that went and collected that evidence. Her name is Lisa Riley.
30:51
Speaker 1: On June first, just a couple of weeks ago, she
30:54
Speaker 1: bile the TROS seeking a protective order from being asked
30:58
Speaker 1: certain questions about any thing that's open. RICTA and the
31:02
Speaker 1: nonprofit that she's working with to kind of bring this
31:05
Speaker 1: to light told us that rape kit and the evidence
31:08
Speaker 1: tied that is now missing. I waterested in that missing
31:12
Speaker 1: sexual assault kit. How can that be missing? There's a
31:16
Speaker 1: chain of custody and every person that has had hold
31:19
Speaker 1: of it then has to sign it out to somebody
31:21
Speaker 1: else and to hand delivery, sign in, sign out whoever
31:26
Speaker 1: has a copy of that that can be tracked. There's
31:28
Speaker 1: a whole La Riley the last person. Lisa Riley was
31:33
Speaker 1: the last person who put her hands on that sexual
31:35
Speaker 1: assault kit. And she's the one who filed two weeks
31:38
Speaker 1: ago that she doesn't want to be asked about anything
31:41
Speaker 1: pertaining to an open investigation. Wait a minute, who is
31:44
Speaker 1: Lisa Riley? Lisa Riley is the detective with the tangent
31:47
Speaker 1: Behoe Harrish Sheriff's office that went and picked up the
31:50
Speaker 1: rape kit. Okay, and he has to burn that out
31:53
Speaker 1: to somewhere. She has to have it in her possession
31:57
Speaker 1: or manually sign it to somebody else. It can't be missing.
32:01
Speaker 1: She has it or she raised it up somebody. Christa
32:04
Speaker 1: and Stacy said through their attorney, they learned that that
32:07
Speaker 1: evidence is gone. They don't know where it is, but
32:10
Speaker 1: Lisa Riley was the last person who had her hands
32:13
Speaker 1: on it. Who is the district attorney? The district attorney
32:16
Speaker 1: is Scott Parileu. How do you spell that? Pe r
32:19
Speaker 1: r I l l o u X. We reached out
32:22
Speaker 1: to him yesterday. He did not get back to us.
32:24
Speaker 1: My first question would be is why is a rape
32:28
Speaker 1: case being handled in Family Court number one, the district
32:34
Speaker 1: attorney Scott PARILEU Is that how you're saying it? Chris
32:38
Speaker 1: correct should immediately seized this file and get busy if
32:43
Speaker 1: he is at all interested in seeking justice? What is
32:47
Speaker 1: he one of the John Barnes suspects clients too. It's
32:52
Speaker 1: a good question, you know, a minimum. Now that all
32:54
Speaker 1: of us has come to light, it's pretty easy for
32:56
Speaker 1: the judge, as easy as he unsealed these documents to
33:00
Speaker 1: do his order. And so as each day passes and
33:03
Speaker 1: the right thing isn't done, the race has even more
33:06
Speaker 1: questions about what the political corruption is tied to all
33:09
Speaker 1: of these people that are all now covering for each other.
33:13
Speaker 1: Chris Nakamoto, What can be done? What is being done?
33:16
Speaker 1: If anything? When I spoke to Scott Plow last week,
33:20
Speaker 1: he told me that he had not heard anything about
33:23
Speaker 1: this case. What Nothing had been turned over to him?
33:25
Speaker 1: Nothing had been turned over my rear end. Nobody turned
33:30
Speaker 1: over evidence to me either. When I was prosecuting, I
33:33
Speaker 1: would get out on the street and find the evidence,
33:37
Speaker 1: beating the bushes, go to the crime lab, find the witnesses.
33:40
Speaker 1: What do you mean turn over the evidence to him?
33:43
Speaker 1: What is he talking about He said he was unaware
33:46
Speaker 1: of this case until we brought it to his attention.
33:48
Speaker 1: After our story aired Monday, he said he was launching
33:51
Speaker 1: an internal review, and then late yesterday the Sheriff's office
33:55
Speaker 1: announced that they turned everything over to him internal review.
34:01
Speaker 1: So hey with an internal review, he needs to convene
34:03
Speaker 1: a grand jury on the initial rape case, and then
34:08
Speaker 1: the same grand jury needs to hear evidence on the
34:12
Speaker 1: second alleged sex assault on the daughter. This is not
34:16
Speaker 1: a who's done a case. John Barnes admitted he's the father.
34:20
Speaker 1: The DNA to test admits that he's the father. This
34:24
Speaker 1: is a clear, open and shut case that needs to
34:26
Speaker 1: be rectified down and then you've got the whole can
34:30
Speaker 1: of arms, the whole case regarding the daughter that has
34:33
Speaker 1: been put in his custody. She's made an outcry, she's
34:37
Speaker 1: seen a doctor. There is evidence if they say forced
34:41
Speaker 1: entry in other words, sex assault or the girl and
34:43
Speaker 1: she's naming the dad. That's a whole another case. Guys,
34:48
Speaker 1: take a listen to our cut six. Our friends at
34:50
Speaker 1: wb RZ. Lawyer Sean Cassidy says, even in two thousand
34:55
Speaker 1: and five, when the rape took place, that's felony rape
34:58
Speaker 1: in Louisiana, consent or not, it was illegal for a
35:01
Speaker 1: thirty year old to sleep with a sixteen year old.
35:03
Speaker 1: If a child is born from a felony rape that
35:09
Speaker 1: the law mandates says shall the abuser shall not have
35:14
Speaker 1: visitation or any contact with that child, much less custody Tonight.
35:18
Speaker 1: Abeleseth says for years she tried to go about this
35:21
Speaker 1: case the right way through the courts, but having her
35:24
Speaker 1: daughter taken away weeks ago over allegation she gave her
35:27
Speaker 1: a cell phone left her with a lack of confidence
35:30
Speaker 1: that she'll ever get a fair shake with justice impossible
35:33
Speaker 1: to find for the past sixteen years. Sixteen years. Annals
35:38
Speaker 1: narrow cut nine WBRZ new Today details about Judge Jeffrey
35:43
Speaker 1: Cash's decision forcing Abeleseth to pay John Barnes' child support.
35:48
Speaker 1: Abeleseth says she was sixteen when she met Barnes, then
35:51
Speaker 1: thirty at a bar, was raped, then got pregnant, now
35:55
Speaker 1: paying him one hundred and seventeen dollars per month. Barnes
35:58
Speaker 1: even going after her when she fell behind on payments.
36:02
Speaker 1: Things took a dramatic turn this year when Judge Cash
36:05
Speaker 1: awarded full custody to Barnes, saying the mother was in
36:08
Speaker 1: contempt for providing the child with a cell phone. But
36:11
Speaker 1: that's not all. A month before the judge gave full
36:14
Speaker 1: custody to the father, the child reported she was sexually
36:17
Speaker 1: assaulted by Barnes for two nights in a row. The
36:20
Speaker 1: teenage girls sought treatment at a hospital in New Orleans,
36:23
Speaker 1: where a doctor confirmed there's evidence of a sexual assault.
36:27
Speaker 1: Chris Nakamoto, I'm actually speechless about what is happening in
36:32
Speaker 1: your jurisdiction. Does Christa abel Seth have a lawyer? Yes,
36:37
Speaker 1: there is a hearing scheduled for July the fifteenth, in
36:41
Speaker 1: hopes that parental rights will be terminated for John Barnes.
36:45
Speaker 1: But with all of this attention that has now been
36:47
Speaker 1: brought to this case, why do we need to wait
36:49
Speaker 1: till the fifteenth? It seems like this is pretty clear
36:52
Speaker 1: cut and it can be undone right now. And where
36:55
Speaker 1: is the girl right now? The daughter? The daughter is
36:57
Speaker 1: still in the custody of the father, Dear Lord or heaven.
37:02
Speaker 1: The daughter still with the father. Has Abele Sess lawyer
37:06
Speaker 1: considered an immediate hearing an emergency hearing? Has anybody thought
37:13
Speaker 1: of that? I think they filed for it, and the
37:15
Speaker 1: earliest date they got was July the fifteenth. Who gave
37:18
Speaker 1: them the July fifteenth to date? I'm just curious. I'm
37:21
Speaker 1: assuming they had checked their schedules at the courthouse and
37:24
Speaker 1: that's what was issued to them. I'll tell you one thing,
37:26
Speaker 1: if my daughter were in this home, the courthouse would
37:30
Speaker 1: fall down until I got that emergency hearing on the calendar,
37:36
Speaker 1: not wait a full month, leaving her in the hands
37:41
Speaker 1: of a man she claims molested her with a trite
37:45
Speaker 1: record of raping her mother. You know, at this point,
37:50
Speaker 1: what else can we do? Sarah Ford? This is such
37:53
Speaker 1: a clear violation of the victim rights. I mean, Louisiana
37:57
Speaker 1: has a statutory and constitutional right to victims, and this
38:00
Speaker 1: has completely blown those rights out of the water, made
38:03
Speaker 1: them completely meaningless. I agree, Nancy. An emergency order or
38:10
Speaker 1: emergency hearing needs to happen, and those can normally be
38:13
Speaker 1: normally scheduled within twenty four hours in family court. So
38:17
Speaker 1: certainly waiting a month for this is absolutely ridiculous, and
38:21
Speaker 1: certainly with these circumstances that not only have come about
38:25
Speaker 1: but now being investigated in these additional allegations, of the
38:28
Speaker 1: abuse of the child that is still in the custody
38:31
Speaker 1: of the father. This is not something that can wait.
38:34
Speaker 1: There has to be an emergency hearing and it needs
38:37
Speaker 1: to happen now. Chris Nakamoto, I think I know why
38:40
Speaker 1: the hearing isn't until July fifteen. I think it's because
38:44
Speaker 1: this same judge set the hearing down. His Caldor Clark
38:49
Speaker 1: set the hearing giving another full month. I mean, I
38:54
Speaker 1: don't understand why her abele says, lawyer isn't appealing this.
38:58
Speaker 1: But let me ask you this, what can you tell
39:00
Speaker 1: me about this Judge Jeffrey Cash. Judge Jeffrey Cash, again,
39:06
Speaker 1: he did set that hearing and this case is going
39:09
Speaker 1: to go before him. You know, just recently, judges had
39:13
Speaker 1: to start producing their financial disclosure forms, so we started checking,
39:19
Speaker 1: you know, some of his background donors and things like that,
39:23
Speaker 1: and the companies who he's affiliated with, and we weren't
39:27
Speaker 1: really able to pinpoint a connection, which is what really
39:30
Speaker 1: makes this whole thing very mysterious. I will tell you
39:34
Speaker 1: the sheriff in that jurisdiction is the governor of the
39:39
Speaker 1: State of Louisiana's brother and the state entity that operates
39:44
Speaker 1: under the direction of the governor is the entity the
39:48
Speaker 1: Department of Children and Family Services that is overseeing these
39:52
Speaker 1: child support payments to this perpetrator. So we asked the
39:55
Speaker 1: Governor's office two days ago for a statement. We also
40:00
Speaker 1: asked the Department of Children and Family Services for a
40:03
Speaker 1: statement about how they could be mandating these child support
40:07
Speaker 1: payments to this perpetrator when we all know what the
40:12
Speaker 1: facts are now. And they said, all our job is
40:15
Speaker 1: is to enforce a court order and we're just made
40:18
Speaker 1: by it too, but we have to follow a court order.
40:21
Speaker 1: And so I said, well, certainly your attorneys within that
40:24
Speaker 1: agency would see some ethical problem with us, right, And
40:27
Speaker 1: they said, we have to just enforce support order. So
40:30
Speaker 1: we asked the governor first statement, and we have not
40:33
Speaker 1: heard back for two days, which is very out of
40:35
Speaker 1: character for him to not respond or his communications people
40:40
Speaker 1: to not respond to us. I'm also concerned about the
40:43
Speaker 1: parish sheriff because no charges have been filed yet, and
40:47
Speaker 1: they blame the fact it was never assigned to a
40:49
Speaker 1: detective and nothing has been investigated. Well, I've learned enough
40:53
Speaker 1: right now in the last forty minutes to know for
40:57
Speaker 1: a fact that this man is the bio dad of
41:00
Speaker 1: this little girl, and that the mom was underage at
41:03
Speaker 1: the time they had sex. And I'm doing air quotes
41:06
Speaker 1: because that is statutory rape. Nancy. Once again, John Barnes
41:09
Speaker 1: denies raping a a Seth. He says the allegations against
41:12
Speaker 1: him are lives. He said he did meet the sixteen
41:15
Speaker 1: year old at a bar, and he did offer her
41:18
Speaker 1: a ride home, but he also thought that she was
41:21
Speaker 1: a college student because that was what she had been
41:24
Speaker 1: telling people in the bar. She was also using a
41:27
Speaker 1: fake ID. He says he believed that she was an adult. Okay, everybody,
41:34
Speaker 1: are you trying to just hearing about crime? Do something
41:37
Speaker 1: about it? Calls Scott Parilott, the elected district attorney Nancy.
41:42
Speaker 1: The phone number to the District Attorney's office is nine
41:45
Speaker 1: eight five seven four eight seven eight nine zero. You
41:50
Speaker 1: know what, I'm just going to dial that number right
41:52
Speaker 1: now myself. I want justice. Goodbye, friend,