Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / MOM "ALL DOLLED UP" TAKING SELFIES, TOT-SON, 3, DROWNS, SUES WATER PARK
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. According to witnesses, Mommy is
- 0:08Speaker 1: all dolled up, taking countless selfies and singing into her
- 0:14Speaker 1: iPhone while her top son, just three years old, drowns,
- 0:19Speaker 1: and tonight she's suing the water park. Good evening, I'm
- 0:24Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being
- 0:27Speaker 1: with us. The water park just got sued. But according
- 0:31Speaker 1: to witnesses, Mommy was in a completely different area, left
- 0:35Speaker 1: her son alone for over an hour while she took
- 0:39Speaker 1: selfies and sang into her iPhone. I never thought about
- 0:43Speaker 1: putting on a mouthful of red lipstick to go to
- 0:45Speaker 1: the water park with the twins, but to each her own.
- 0:49Speaker 1: Joining us an all star panel to make sense of
- 0:52Speaker 1: what we are hearing right now, this is what we
- 0:56Speaker 1: understand as to how the day started.
- 1:00Speaker 2: It's a beautiful Mother's Day weekend when Jessica Weaver and
- 1:04Speaker 2: her three year old son Anthony arrive at El Paso's
- 1:07Speaker 2: Camp Cohen water Park. The little boy is playing in
- 1:10Speaker 2: a four feet deep section of the pool while his
- 1:13Speaker 2: mother is lying out in the sun. Jessica entertains herself
- 1:16Speaker 2: with her phone while Anthony is seen eating chips and
- 1:19Speaker 2: spitting them out in the water as he plays. His
- 1:22Speaker 2: mother doesn't seem to notice or care as other parents
- 1:26Speaker 2: get frustrated at the disgusting addition to the water.
- 1:29Speaker 1: Joining me and All Star panel straight out to Elaine
- 1:31Speaker 1: Aadiaz investigative reporter, Alaine, thank you for being with us. Okay, So,
- 1:36Speaker 1: the first sign of trouble was when all the other
- 1:39Speaker 1: moms see the little three year old spitting his food
- 1:44Speaker 1: back into the water.
- 1:45Speaker 3: Right.
- 1:46Speaker 4: In fact, one mother actually called the police and reported this,
- 1:51Speaker 4: this is not something you want to endure after spending
- 1:56Speaker 4: all this money to go into a water park have
- 1:58Speaker 4: a good time, you have an expectation of clean water.
- 2:02Speaker 1: You know, although when you know there are a bunch
- 2:04Speaker 1: of children in the water, I mean aligne. They all
- 2:09Speaker 1: tete in the pool. So I'm not sure what potato
- 2:13Speaker 1: chips spit back in the water, how that's going to
- 2:15Speaker 1: change anything. But it's very overt that the child is there.
- 2:19Speaker 1: It's not the child's fault. And how long did that go?
- 2:24Speaker 5: Well, go ahead, I mean, I think that's a good example.
- 2:27Speaker 4: That his mother was not monitoring him, right, Because yes,
- 2:33Speaker 4: it is a huge water park, has a capacity of
- 2:36Speaker 4: you know, hosting fourteen hundred people, and so you know,
- 2:40Speaker 4: kids are having a good time, But where was Jessica Weaver,
- 2:45Speaker 4: the boy's mother, while this is happening, And so you know,
- 2:49Speaker 4: he's out there plane and she's on her phone the
- 2:52Speaker 4: entire time, according to witnesses.
- 2:54Speaker 1: You know align On Idias joining us high profile investigative
- 2:58Speaker 1: reporter Aligne. When the children, my twins were taughts, I
- 3:04Speaker 1: remember specifically being at Disney and I think they have
- 3:08Speaker 1: something called typhoon, lagoon something like that, and every X
- 3:13Speaker 1: number of seconds waves come out. They actually make waves,
- 3:20Speaker 1: and I kept telling them no, no, no, no, you
- 3:22Speaker 1: can't go there. They wanted to get in so badly.
- 3:25Speaker 1: I was a nervous wreck watching the trying to watch
- 3:29Speaker 1: two at the same time when those waves would come.
- 3:33Speaker 1: The thought of them being alone in the water, I
- 3:37Speaker 1: mean to Karen started joining me, our renowned psychologists joining
- 3:40Speaker 1: us from the Manhattan Jurisdiction, TV radio trauma expert. I
- 3:44Speaker 1: guess that's a personal fear because I had a water
- 3:47Speaker 1: accident as a young girl and almost drowned. That said,
- 3:52Speaker 1: don't we as humans have an innate fear of the
- 3:56Speaker 1: water where we're kind of on our guard.
- 4:00Speaker 6: Well, it's not natural for us to just dive in
- 4:03Speaker 6: the water. And usually when you're very young, unlike what
- 4:07Speaker 6: happened to you, Nancy, you wind up taking away that
- 4:10Speaker 6: fear goes away. You learn how to slim or be
- 4:13Speaker 6: in the water, to do something that keeps you alive. However,
- 4:17Speaker 6: in this situation, we're talking about a three year old
- 4:20Speaker 6: and a parent that's not being vigilant, and that goes
- 4:24Speaker 6: against that innate desire to protect your child and make
- 4:28Speaker 6: sure they're not.
- 4:28Speaker 5: Going to be in danger.
- 4:30Speaker 1: You know, we're learning a lot about what witnesses are saying,
- 4:33Speaker 1: but listen to this.
- 4:34Speaker 7: The fun sounds of children playing at Camp Cohen water
- 4:37Speaker 7: Park is interrupted by lifeguard's blowing whistles telling everyone to
- 4:41Speaker 7: get out of the pool. An unconscious boy not wearing
- 4:44Speaker 7: a life jacket is pulled out of a four foot
- 4:47Speaker 7: deep section of water. Multiple signs at Camp Cohen state
- 4:51Speaker 7: that children six and younger must be directly attended by
- 4:54Speaker 7: a swimming adult at all times, and must be supervised
- 4:58Speaker 7: by an adult within arms reach. Parents gather around as guards,
- 5:02Speaker 7: but again life saving measures, but the victim's parents aren't found.
- 5:06Speaker 1: You know another thing. Eric Fattus joining me, criminal defense attorney,
- 5:11Speaker 1: civil litigator founding partner Varner fattest Elite Legal. Eric, you
- 5:17Speaker 1: know you can't judge a book by its cover. Not judging,
- 5:22Speaker 1: don't care. I have seen defendants that are gorgeous and beautiful.
- 5:28Speaker 1: I've seen them looking like they have just rolled out
- 5:31Speaker 1: from under a bridge or just rolled out of bed.
- 5:34Speaker 1: I've seen all sorts of defendants, but that is certainly
- 5:38Speaker 1: a look for the water park. A mouthful of red lipstick,
- 5:43Speaker 1: the long fake nails, the face full of makeup, the
- 5:47Speaker 1: sunglasses back on the hair. I'm not going to refer
- 5:51Speaker 1: to her declotage. That's none of my business. But Eric,
- 5:54Speaker 1: it doesn't look like she ever intended to get in
- 5:56Speaker 1: the water.
- 5:57Speaker 8: Well, you know, in looking at her appearance, you know
- 6:00Speaker 8: that could just mean that she likes to be presentable
- 6:02Speaker 8: when she goes out. Look, she's a woman in her thirties,
- 6:04Speaker 8: she's a single mother. She was just going to get
- 6:07Speaker 8: a reprieve of being a single mother by entrusting the
- 6:11Speaker 8: care of her child to this amusement park. And then
- 6:15Speaker 8: lo and behold, here we are. I think there's another
- 6:17Speaker 8: story here.
- 6:18Speaker 1: Eric, question, do you have children?
- 6:20Speaker 9: I do not?
- 6:21Speaker 10: Uh?
- 6:21Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, because what you just said is completely crazy.
- 6:26Speaker 1: You just said taking your child to a water park
- 6:30Speaker 1: is a reprieve for her? Hl n No, uh huh.
- 6:35Speaker 1: I've never been more freaked out in my life than
- 6:39Speaker 1: when I have the children at a water park. Not now,
- 6:42Speaker 1: but when they were this age. One time I dove
- 6:45Speaker 1: into the water while the twins were with the swimming instructure.
- 6:51Speaker 1: The instructor had John David Lucy's screen. Mommy, I was
- 6:55Speaker 1: fully dressed. I just got off h ol Anthropete's say
- 6:58Speaker 1: straight in choose the works. What do you mean taking
- 7:03Speaker 1: your child to a water park is a reprieve for mommy.
- 7:09Speaker 1: I've never been so jacked up in my life. I
- 7:11Speaker 1: might as well have been trying to triple homicide. Then
- 7:13Speaker 1: seeing those two in the water and it's my duty
- 7:16Speaker 1: to watch them. You think I trust some sixteen year
- 7:18Speaker 1: old boy to save my child? No, what are you
- 7:22Speaker 1: talking about?
- 7:22Speaker 11: Man?
- 7:23Speaker 8: You know, getting a break from single mother does not
- 7:25Speaker 8: mean that that you just completely ignore the child's well
- 7:29Speaker 8: being in safety.
- 7:29Speaker 12: That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is every
- 7:32Speaker 12: single mother every year. It is entitled what.
- 7:34Speaker 1: Are you saying getting a break from being a mom
- 7:37Speaker 1: at a water park?
- 7:38Speaker 8: I'm saying that everyone is entitled to a little breather
- 7:41Speaker 8: here and there, and a common activity would be to
- 7:44Speaker 8: take your child to some amusement facility like this, and
- 7:48Speaker 8: that's not unreasonable to me.
- 7:49Speaker 1: Eric, you know you're not gonna get away from saying
- 7:52Speaker 1: this was a reprieve for mommy, But I'm gonna give
- 7:55Speaker 1: you a moment to regroup and gather your thoughts. Joining me,
- 7:59Speaker 1: Doctor Tom Griffiths joining us from State College in Pennsylvania,
- 8:02Speaker 1: Drowning Expert, President, founder Aquatic Safety Research Group, co host
- 8:08Speaker 1: of The Drowning Files. Okay, that just scared the crap
- 8:12Speaker 1: out of me, The Drowning Files, Doctor Tom's Lifeguard Vision
- 8:17Speaker 1: app author of Doctor Tom's Lifeguard Chronicles, Safer Beaches, Better Beaches,
- 8:24Speaker 1: and the complete swimming pool Reference. It goes on and on,
- 8:28Speaker 1: Doctor Tom Griffith, thank you for being with us. Can
- 8:30Speaker 1: you understand what Eric Fattis just said? Because if he
- 8:35Speaker 1: says that in front of the civil jury, they're gonna
- 8:37Speaker 1: laugh him straight out of the courtroom. Mommy had a reprieve,
- 8:41Speaker 1: got a break from being a single mom by dumping
- 8:44Speaker 1: her child at a water park and then singing into
- 8:48Speaker 1: the cell phone and taking selfies. Uh huh.
- 8:50Speaker 13: Unfortunately, Eric is right in some ways that's the biggest
- 8:55Speaker 13: fear of lifeguards and water park managers. Parents come to
- 9:02Speaker 13: the facility assuming that the lifeguards are perfect and they
- 9:06Speaker 13: are going to guarantee patron safety. But lifeguards, no matter
- 9:10Speaker 13: how well trained they are, no matter how vigilant they are,
- 9:14Speaker 13: they can't watch every child all the time. They can
- 9:17Speaker 13: only watch one child at a time. So in this case,
- 9:22Speaker 13: you're using human beings to watch other human beings, and
- 9:25Speaker 13: this woman was not watching apparently based upon eyewitness accounts.
- 9:31Speaker 13: And the lifeguards are looking, but sometimes they're not seeing.
- 9:35Speaker 13: Even the best trains lifeguards, we wouldn't be here today
- 9:39Speaker 13: if the child was in a properly fitting coast Guard
- 9:42Speaker 13: a proof life jackets. We've never found a single child
- 9:46Speaker 13: drowning in a water park who is wearing a properly
- 9:49Speaker 13: fitting coast Guard approved life jacket.
- 9:50Speaker 1: No are Tom Griffins. I know you've written all these
- 9:52Speaker 1: books about swimming, but I think that's total bas to
- 9:57Speaker 1: say that people go into a water park assuming they
- 10:02Speaker 1: don't have responsibility for their own three year old child.
- 10:06Speaker 13: They parents subconsciously rely upon the lifeguards. Not all parents,
- 10:12Speaker 13: many parents are great. In fact, most parents are great.
- 10:15Speaker 13: But when you see these professionally dressed and very active
- 10:19Speaker 13: lifeguards pointing and blowing their whistles, you're assume that you
- 10:23Speaker 13: have this layer of protection that's impenetrable, and it's not.
- 10:28Speaker 13: No one's perfect. Whenever you have human beings watching other
- 10:31Speaker 13: human beings, we're gonna miss some. But most parents are good,
- 10:34Speaker 13: vigilant parents like you certainly were with your children. But
- 10:39Speaker 13: not everyone is like that. And so Eric does speak
- 10:44Speaker 13: or address some of those adults.
- 10:47Speaker 1: Okay, well we'll see if jury agrees with doctor Tom
- 10:50Speaker 1: Griffiths and Eric fattest. I will say this Fattest, and
- 10:55Speaker 1: just because it is done doesn't mean it should be done.
- 11:00Speaker 1: And I go uh with the twins to our community pool.
- 11:04Speaker 1: I see a whole string of drunk moms. Now I
- 11:08Speaker 1: don't even see any dads anywhere. I don't know where
- 11:11Speaker 1: they are, but I see a string of drunk moms
- 11:14Speaker 1: almost asleep getting a sun tan. I guess I don't
- 11:19Speaker 1: know the sun causes cancer. But that said, and all
- 11:23Speaker 1: the children are in the pool. I mean, I feel
- 11:27Speaker 1: like I have to watch them. But just because they
- 11:30Speaker 1: do that doesn't mean it's right.
- 11:33Speaker 8: It doesn't, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's criminal either.
- 11:36Speaker 12: That's the distinction.
- 11:37Speaker 8: There are varying levels of attention that a parents may
- 11:40Speaker 8: give this in this scenario, the criminal law does not
- 11:43Speaker 8: require them to be super superman and superwoman parents. And
- 11:47Speaker 8: that's just not what the legal threshold is.
- 11:50Speaker 1: We look at you. They don't have to be super
- 11:53Speaker 1: mom to keep your eyes open and off your cell phone,
- 11:56Speaker 1: to watch your child in the water over its head.
- 11:59Speaker 1: That's that's not super mom. That is a normal mom.
- 12:04Speaker 1: That's a responsible mom.
- 12:06Speaker 8: Well, I saw in that video you played earlier where
- 12:08Speaker 8: mother Jessica Weaver, moments before her child died, apparently was
- 12:12Speaker 8: filming her child going down the slide, and so to
- 12:14Speaker 8: say she was completely an attentive seems contradictory to the evidence.
- 12:17Speaker 1: Defense attorney Eric Fattus says, it's okay if mommy comes
- 12:22Speaker 1: to a water park with her three year old child
- 12:25Speaker 1: that obviously can't swim, for a reprieve, for a time out,
- 12:31Speaker 1: for a respite for mommy to chill while her son
- 12:35Speaker 1: paddles around in the water and drowns. Well, the district
- 12:39Speaker 1: attorney disagrees.
- 12:41Speaker 14: Listen, there's numerous witnesses that have come forward who have
- 12:45Speaker 14: given their account that they were there at the park,
- 12:47Speaker 14: they were watching, they saw her not paying attention to
- 12:51Speaker 14: her child, and that the child ended up drowning.
- 12:56Speaker 7: Witness one said a woman matching Weaver's description was on
- 12:59Speaker 7: her sitting outside of the pool for over an hour,
- 13:03Speaker 7: saying she was never looking up or paying attention to anything.
- 13:07Speaker 7: Witness too said she saw a boy without his mother
- 13:10Speaker 7: and that she saw Weaver laying down and singing along
- 13:13Speaker 7: to her phone for approximately seven minutes before the toddler
- 13:17Speaker 7: was pulled out of the water. Witness iree said a
- 13:19Speaker 7: woman matching Weaver's description encouraged the toddler to go into
- 13:23Speaker 7: the pool before walking away and leaving the boy by himself.
- 13:26Speaker 1: Some of that from our friends at Kate Fox fourteen
- 13:35Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace straight out to Elaine Autadiaz
- 13:43Speaker 1: joining US investigative reporter, Elaine, all these witnesses are coming forward,
- 13:48Speaker 1: what is your understanding of the timeline that happened that day?
- 13:52Speaker 4: So they go to the water park. It's a soft opening,
- 13:58Speaker 4: which means they're kind of getting ready their big, you know,
- 14:02Speaker 4: grand opening was going to be two weeks later for
- 14:05Speaker 4: Memorial Day weekend, and so that day they go, there's
- 14:12Speaker 4: about four hundred and sixty six people at this park,
- 14:17Speaker 4: which actually holds one thy four hundred and sixty people. Now,
- 14:22Speaker 4: the thing is she the mom goes, finds a lounge chair,
- 14:27Speaker 4: hangs out, and this is witness after witness after witness
- 14:32Speaker 4: tells investigators that she was not paying attention to her
- 14:38Speaker 4: boy while he was going through the lazy river and
- 14:42Speaker 4: the other thing.
- 14:43Speaker 5: To note a lazy river.
- 14:45Speaker 1: Wait a minute, elne out Adias, did you say lazy river?
- 14:49Speaker 1: Those currents are strong? What was this baby able to
- 14:54Speaker 1: get into a lazy river? It's not lazy.
- 14:59Speaker 4: It's lazy meaning you don't have to do any work
- 15:03Speaker 4: because it will take you.
- 15:05Speaker 5: The current takes you around and around.
- 15:08Speaker 4: And he did not have a life jacket, according to
- 15:13Speaker 4: witnesses and police.
- 15:16Speaker 5: And you know, at three years old.
- 15:21Speaker 4: There is a sign that says children under six should
- 15:24Speaker 4: have life jackets.
- 15:26Speaker 5: So you know, again something that's going to be brought
- 15:30Speaker 5: up in court. I'm sure you know.
- 15:32Speaker 1: Faddess Jackie here in the studio with me, saved two
- 15:37Speaker 1: children at the pool when she was there with her
- 15:40Speaker 1: little boy. When mommy's and dads weren't watching. I've saved
- 15:45Speaker 1: one when mommy wasn't watching. Get you know where mommy was.
- 15:49Speaker 1: She was on the side of the pool drinking alcohol
- 15:53Speaker 1: in a big red solo cut. Okay, I could smell it.
- 15:59Speaker 1: I say, not judging, but I am judging here because
- 16:04Speaker 1: in this case, the child is dead. Did you hear
- 16:08Speaker 1: what Elaine out Adiez just said. There are signs everywhere
- 16:12Speaker 1: that says under six years old, your child must wear
- 16:14Speaker 1: a life jacket.
- 16:15Speaker 8: Well, according to Jessica Weaver's attorney, the company actually prohibits
- 16:19Speaker 8: people from bringing their own life jackets. You'd have to
- 16:22Speaker 8: use the life jackets there. This was the first day
- 16:24Speaker 8: of this place was open. It's unclear how many extra
- 16:27Speaker 8: life jackets were available and what the process was for
- 16:30Speaker 8: distributing those to people who enter. Perhaps they should have
- 16:32Speaker 8: been distributed immediately upon entry.
- 16:34Speaker 12: That did not happen. And thank Kevin's you were there
- 16:37Speaker 12: to save those kids.
- 16:38Speaker 8: That this company should hire you all as lifeguards because
- 16:40Speaker 8: the lifeguards who were there failed in their role of
- 16:44Speaker 8: protecting these jugs.
- 16:44Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I can't do that. I'm busy dealing with you.
- 16:47Speaker 1: Faddish Elaine Aidias, that's not true because according to not
- 16:53Speaker 1: only the police investigation, but what the cityvale Passe was
- 16:56Speaker 1: saying back, there were plenty of water jackets, right.
- 17:00Speaker 4: There was a third of the people in there in
- 17:03Speaker 4: the water park. So the city is claiming that there
- 17:08Speaker 4: were more than enough life jackets, and the mother is
- 17:14Speaker 4: saying that there were not.
- 17:16Speaker 2: Another witness saw Jessica Weaver sitting by the pool on
- 17:19Speaker 2: the outside concrete area which separated the Lazy River and
- 17:22Speaker 2: the jungle gym with a slide, and that Weaver was
- 17:25Speaker 2: not in the water at any point and he never
- 17:28Speaker 2: saw her with a child. What caught his attention was
- 17:31Speaker 2: the way Weaver was acting, how she was all dulled up,
- 17:34Speaker 2: sitting outside the pool on her phone and taking pictures
- 17:38Speaker 2: the entire time he saw her. The man said, when
- 17:40Speaker 2: the child was pulled out of the water, Weaver was
- 17:43Speaker 2: still in the same spot and had not moved. She
- 17:45Speaker 2: only got in the water after her son was pulled out.
- 17:48Speaker 1: I can tell you this, Eric fattasaw. You're a criminal
- 17:51Speaker 1: defense attorney, boy, does she need one? The digital evidence
- 17:55Speaker 1: in this case is going to be the steak in
- 17:58Speaker 1: mommy's heart. Of course, she's presumed innocent if and until
- 18:02Speaker 1: she is proven guilty in a court of law. But
- 18:06Speaker 1: if this witness is correct, and I have no reason
- 18:09Speaker 1: to believe all of these witnesses lined up against her, Okay,
- 18:13Speaker 1: I love arguing that to the jury. What you believe
- 18:16Speaker 1: him or her over the eight witnesses that don't even
- 18:21Speaker 1: know her? Are they all lying and she's the only
- 18:24Speaker 1: one telling the truth? Okay, you could argue that to
- 18:26Speaker 1: a jury, But how are you going to argue fattest
- 18:30Speaker 1: the digital evidence? And what I mean is when the
- 18:34Speaker 1: alarm is raised, I guarantee you there's a time and
- 18:38Speaker 1: accurate time as to when the child was first spotted
- 18:44Speaker 1: face down in the water. They're going to take her phone,
- 18:47Speaker 1: or they should take her phone and look at what
- 18:51Speaker 1: time she was taking selfies. Did you see that selfie
- 18:55Speaker 1: of her with a mouthful of red lipstick? Okay, that
- 18:57Speaker 1: selfie didn't take itself. Okay, she's doing that. That's what's
- 19:01Speaker 1: happening right there while her son is drowning. And they're
- 19:06Speaker 1: going to match up the time that she was listening
- 19:09Speaker 1: to music and singing into her iPhone and taking selfies.
- 19:14Speaker 1: They're going to match it up to the exact time
- 19:17Speaker 1: her little boy died.
- 19:19Speaker 8: That'll be an issue with which defense has to contend.
- 19:21Speaker 8: But what was everyone else doing during that time too,
- 19:24Speaker 8: that's also important, right, And it turns out some of
- 19:26Speaker 8: the lifeguards were directed to be cooking churos and attending
- 19:30Speaker 8: to the sour cream and making sure the place makes money.
- 19:33Speaker 8: This is a matter of corporate greed that really infused
- 19:37Speaker 8: this horrible set of circumstances and contributed substantially to what
- 19:41Speaker 8: happened here. So certainly her phone is is a problem.
- 19:44Speaker 8: But what these folks were doing in the concessions, these lifeguards,
- 19:47Speaker 8: that's also a problem.
- 19:48Speaker 1: I don't know that I would call her phone a problem.
- 19:50Speaker 1: I don't think her phone was the problem. I think
- 19:53Speaker 1: she's the problem. And you're saying, what about all the
- 19:58Speaker 1: other people? Okay, Eric, I hope you don't mean passers
- 20:04Speaker 1: by or other people lounging outside the pool with their
- 20:09Speaker 1: own children, taking care of their own children. I assume
- 20:13Speaker 1: you're saying that the lifeguards were the ones busy cooking truros.
- 20:17Speaker 1: Is that what you're saying?
- 20:18Speaker 12: According to Jesscuaver's attorney.
- 20:20Speaker 1: Yes, okay. Can I ask you, do you believe that
- 20:26Speaker 1: the lifeguards, according to her, that were in doing kitchen duty?
- 20:31Speaker 1: Are responsible for Weaver not watching her child? You're saying
- 20:36Speaker 1: the tot is their responsibility, not her responsibility.
- 20:41Speaker 8: What I'm saying is we're talking about, in the criminal
- 20:43Speaker 8: law context, who caused this death, and but for these
- 20:47Speaker 8: lifeguards not doing their job, they would have swooped in
- 20:51Speaker 8: and done what they were paid to do, what they
- 20:53Speaker 8: were ostensibly trained to do, although there's some question.
- 20:56Speaker 12: I swear they got adequate training whatsoever.
- 20:59Speaker 8: And so we're talking about causation here, and we're talking
- 21:02Speaker 8: about blame, and I think that we need to take
- 21:04Speaker 8: a broader look at that when we're talking about all
- 21:06Speaker 8: the actors involved and how this culminated into this orrible event.
- 21:09Speaker 1: Eric Fadas, this is a yes.
- 21:11Speaker 11: No.
- 21:11Speaker 1: Do you think I just fell off the turnip truck? No? Okay,
- 21:15Speaker 1: that was wise because you are trying to mix civil
- 21:19Speaker 1: law with criminal law. Causation and a nexus between actions
- 21:25Speaker 1: and results are for civil liability. What we're looking at
- 21:30Speaker 1: right here is mother's criminal activity, neglect and abandoning her
- 21:38Speaker 1: child in a dangerous situation. Again, it's just like throwing
- 21:42Speaker 1: you in the ring with a bunch of Rottwilers and
- 21:44Speaker 1: saying have a nice day. And then singing along with
- 21:48Speaker 1: your iPhone.
- 21:49Speaker 12: Fancy.
- 21:50Speaker 8: Throughout the course of human history, there have been horrible
- 21:53Speaker 8: accidents that happen to children while they're in their parents' care.
- 21:56Speaker 8: Not every single one of those accidents is a prosecutable murder.
- 22:00Speaker 8: Sometimes these are just horrible events that happen, and it's
- 22:03Speaker 8: more appropriate to litigate them in the civil realm. And
- 22:06Speaker 8: that's what the mother is trying to do with her
- 22:08Speaker 8: lawsuit against the city of el Pass.
- 22:10Speaker 1: Defense attorney Eric Fattis calls it mommy's time out, mommy's reprieve. Well,
- 22:15Speaker 1: the district attorney calls it a first degree felony. Joining
- 22:19Speaker 1: me now, special guest Doctor Thomas Coyne, Chief and Medical
- 22:24Speaker 1: Examiner and District two in the state of Florida, which
- 22:30Speaker 1: is packed with water parks, forensic pathologists, neuropathologist, toxicologists. You
- 22:36Speaker 1: can find him at doctor tmcoin. Doctor Coin, thank you
- 22:40Speaker 1: for being with us. You just heard Elaine Autodias report
- 22:43Speaker 1: that the child, according to witnesses, was alone for about
- 22:47Speaker 1: an hour, where other witnesses observed later identified to be
- 22:51Speaker 1: mommy taking selfies, lying in the sun, singing into her
- 22:57Speaker 1: iPhone and more anything but being with the boy an
- 23:02Speaker 1: hour Dodger coin. How long does it take for someone
- 23:06Speaker 1: to drown?
- 23:07Speaker 9: Very fast? Actually, you know, for an adult, the loss
- 23:10Speaker 9: of consciousness probably occurs that around a time when you
- 23:13Speaker 9: can no longer hold your breath, So for adults that
- 23:15Speaker 9: may take about three minutes, but for kids much faster
- 23:18Speaker 9: than that, probably in around one and a half minutes.
- 23:21Speaker 9: But that may even be faster if the child has
- 23:24Speaker 9: in a panic and starts to aspirate or breathe in water,
- 23:28Speaker 9: which will cause you know, a spasm of the larynx,
- 23:31Speaker 9: preventing further breathing. So I mean it could possibly be seconds.
- 23:36Speaker 9: But on the other hand, we're also assuming that this
- 23:38Speaker 9: child was awake when it became submerged. But playing around
- 23:41Speaker 9: in a water park like this is very common for
- 23:43Speaker 9: a child to get concussed, elbowed by another child, fall
- 23:47Speaker 9: comes down a slide, hits his head, so he maybe
- 23:49Speaker 9: knocked unconscious and then become submerged, and then of course
- 23:53Speaker 9: death probably occurs within three minutes. The heart will stop
- 23:56Speaker 9: once not enough oxygen is going to the brain as
- 23:59Speaker 9: well as at the heart.
- 24:00Speaker 1: Doctor coin. The state of Florida is dotted with water
- 24:05Speaker 1: parks and pools for children. How many swimming deaths do
- 24:10Speaker 1: you see a year approximately, Well, i'll tell you.
- 24:13Speaker 9: In terms of our practice, it's the second leading cause
- 24:16Speaker 9: of accidental death amongst children. We see a large volume
- 24:20Speaker 9: of pool related deaths. Most of the cases we see
- 24:24Speaker 9: are in home pools. You know, the classic story as
- 24:28Speaker 9: a parent becomes distracted maybe with other children, allowing let's
- 24:32Speaker 9: say a toddler to gain access to the outdoor Lenai,
- 24:35Speaker 9: and then they fall into a pool. These are course
- 24:38Speaker 9: of preventable deaths. In most cases, it's because the proper
- 24:42Speaker 9: safety measures weren't in place. But yeah, unfortunately, every year
- 24:45Speaker 9: in Florida, we see a large number of these unfortunate deaths.
- 24:49Speaker 1: Doctor Coin, we were talking about how long it takes
- 24:52Speaker 1: for a person to drown, and you mentioned that the
- 24:55Speaker 1: child could have been concussed or had fallen asleep in
- 24:58Speaker 1: the sun after playing the water for so long. Let's
- 25:03Speaker 1: pretend that he was not concussed and that he was
- 25:06Speaker 1: not over exerted from playing by himself for so long
- 25:11Speaker 1: in a typical drowning. How long does that take?
- 25:15Speaker 9: Generally it would take around I say a child this
- 25:18Speaker 9: age probably a minute to a minute and a half.
- 25:20Speaker 9: And the reason being is because once the child goes
- 25:23Speaker 9: into the water and becomes submerged, of course your initial
- 25:26Speaker 9: reflex is to hold your breath, but then panic ensues.
- 25:30Speaker 9: Your heart rate goes up and it's natural for you
- 25:32Speaker 9: to try to take a breath, and water is aspirated
- 25:35Speaker 9: into the mouth and that causes a reflex closing of
- 25:38Speaker 9: your larynx which would stop breathing. And so that really
- 25:42Speaker 9: the time to loss of consciousness is how much oxygen
- 25:45Speaker 9: reserve does this child have. This child is very young,
- 25:48Speaker 9: high metabolic rate, probably running around all day, so I
- 25:51Speaker 9: would assume that this process is much smaller. So I
- 25:55Speaker 9: would bet you probably in about a minute of being
- 25:57Speaker 9: submerged too, lost consciousness and then just under the water
- 26:01Speaker 9: waiting for someone to find him an extract.
- 26:03Speaker 1: Doctor Tom Griffiths agree or disagree?
- 26:05Speaker 13: Well, I agree with the doctor definitely. It can be
- 26:07Speaker 13: as little as ninety seconds. Traditional drownings may take for
- 26:11Speaker 13: adults four to six minutes. But it's he's spot on.
- 26:17Speaker 13: It can happen in seconds and again anywhere from ninety
- 26:20Speaker 13: seconds in my mind, to a longer period of four
- 26:24Speaker 13: to six minutes. But younger kids usually go sooner than later.
- 26:27Speaker 1: So doctor Tom Griffiths. Knowing that a child can drown
- 26:31Speaker 1: from A to Z start to finish in less than
- 26:36Speaker 1: two minutes, you still stand by your theory. Agreeing with
- 26:42Speaker 1: Fattest that it's okay for mommy to be on her
- 26:46Speaker 1: cell phone taking selfies for an hour, I did.
- 26:50Speaker 13: I did not agree with Fattest. I just agreed with
- 26:52Speaker 13: him stating that sometimes parents do this negligent behavior. I
- 26:57Speaker 13: don't agree that it's acceptable parents do this. I'm trying
- 27:01Speaker 13: to point out that we have well trained lifeguards in
- 27:04Speaker 13: good numbers at these water parks, and the training agencies
- 27:08Speaker 13: like Ellis and Associates are excellent, but they can't overcome
- 27:13Speaker 13: parents who neglect their children. I don't agree with Fattus.
- 27:16Speaker 13: I'm just agree that they're not negligent. I'm agreeing that
- 27:20Speaker 13: this does happen. This is the important point. Parents need
- 27:24Speaker 13: to watch their children. I agree with the way you
- 27:27Speaker 13: behave when your twins are at the water park.
- 27:29Speaker 1: Well, you know, I'd like your objective opinion, doctor Tom Griffiths,
- 27:35Speaker 1: because I'm overly protected because in my world, not only
- 27:43Speaker 1: can something conceivably go wrong, it will go wrong, because
- 27:48Speaker 1: in my world, it's gone wrong before. After the murder
- 27:52Speaker 1: of my fiance, so I see the world in a
- 27:55Speaker 1: different way. Okay, I think it's very likely that something
- 28:00Speaker 1: will go wrong, But for normal people, what is your advice?
- 28:06Speaker 1: I mean, you've written all of these books, Doctor Tom Lifeguard,
- 28:10Speaker 1: Vision app Doctor Tom's Lifeguard Chronicles, Safer Beaches, Better Beaches,
- 28:16Speaker 1: and the complete swimming pool Reference, which is pretty amazing.
- 28:22Speaker 1: You can find Tom at Aquaticsafetygroup dot com. That sounds
- 28:28Speaker 1: a lot like the group we found to teach the
- 28:31Speaker 1: kid our children to swim. We went through swimming twice
- 28:35Speaker 1: when they were about I don't know, two and a half,
- 28:38Speaker 1: then when they were a little older, and then I
- 28:42Speaker 1: went with them for both of them to get their
- 28:46Speaker 1: Scout Merit badge in swimming, which was no easy thing,
- 28:50Speaker 1: was very rigorous. In fact, Doctor Griffiths, I know this
- 28:55Speaker 1: was overdoing it. But when they went out of town
- 28:58Speaker 1: to scout camp, I jumped in the water and did
- 29:03Speaker 1: the know. I know they must have been humiliated, and
- 29:06Speaker 1: did the swim test with them that would allow them
- 29:10Speaker 1: to be around the water. You know. For the rest
- 29:13Speaker 1: of the week I was so worried, frankly about my
- 29:16Speaker 1: daughter being able to have the stamina to finish the
- 29:20Speaker 1: swim test for Scout Camp because there's really a long test.
- 29:25Speaker 1: I had to stop in the middle of dog paddle
- 29:27Speaker 1: before I could finish the thing. So reasonably speaking for
- 29:32Speaker 1: a normal person, what do you advise at a water park?
- 29:37Speaker 1: Because that's a lot different than a pool in my mind,
- 29:40Speaker 1: because water parks are crazy. There are so many children,
- 29:44Speaker 1: there's a slide, there's music, there's people yelling, there's people eating,
- 29:49Speaker 1: there's a lot of commotion, their birthday parties going on
- 29:53Speaker 1: that people are singing, happy. It's crazy. It's a lot
- 29:56Speaker 1: different from just being alone with your child in the pool.
- 30:00Speaker 1: What should parents do?
- 30:02Speaker 13: You're right, there's so many distractions at a water park.
- 30:05Speaker 13: Number one, they should put their cell phone away. We
- 30:09Speaker 13: like to say texting is neglecting. If you're on your phone,
- 30:12Speaker 13: you're not watching your kids. If you're taking video of
- 30:16Speaker 13: your child, you're really not watching your kid. We've had
- 30:19Speaker 13: we've lost children while the mother was taking photos of
- 30:22Speaker 13: their child. But a coast guard, a proof life jacket
- 30:26Speaker 13: I believe, we believe should be required at these water parks.
- 30:30Speaker 13: We don't think parents should be given the choice. I
- 30:32Speaker 13: know everyone likes free choice, but for non swimming children
- 30:36Speaker 13: under the age of six six and under or under
- 30:39Speaker 13: forty eight inches tall, they should be in a properly
- 30:42Speaker 13: fitting coast guard prove life jacket, because the life jacket
- 30:46Speaker 13: is more vigilant than any parent or any lifeguard could
- 30:49Speaker 13: ever be. So we believe in a note and float
- 30:52Speaker 13: mentality where you note your child as a non swimmer
- 30:55Speaker 13: and you float them in a coast guard a prove
- 30:57Speaker 13: life jacket.
- 30:58Speaker 1: You know what's interesting, I was talking about that community
- 31:00Speaker 1: to be a pool where all those moms were out
- 31:01Speaker 1: getting a son tan cancer and their children were unattended
- 31:08Speaker 1: to be in the pool. I believe you should have
- 31:13Speaker 1: a swimming test before you're in the pool. But that said,
- 31:16Speaker 1: a lot of the children are too young to be
- 31:18Speaker 1: able to swim. They should be in the kiddie pool.
- 31:20Speaker 1: But I want you to hear doctor what mommy has
- 31:25Speaker 1: to say.
- 31:26Speaker 10: Like watching a slow train wreck because they weren't prepared.
- 31:31Speaker 10: They didn't know. Really, it was panicking and chaos.
- 31:34Speaker 1: That's my friends at k Fox fourteen. But Elaine Autodiaz,
- 31:38Speaker 1: she says it was just like watching a slow train wreck.
- 31:42Speaker 1: She wasn't watching even when medics were working on her son.
- 31:49Speaker 1: He was pulled out of the water, and all the
- 31:51Speaker 1: other parents were gathering around. They didn't know who the
- 31:53Speaker 1: mom was, much less the dad. Dad wasn't there, but
- 31:56Speaker 1: they didn't even know who the mom was. So she
- 32:00Speaker 1: wasn't watching any slow train wreck, right.
- 32:05Speaker 4: Witness after witness say that she was lounging. She was
- 32:13Speaker 4: just staring at her phone. I believe one witness even
- 32:17Speaker 4: had she stared into her phone for seven minutes, and
- 32:23Speaker 4: that is just repeated over and over and for the
- 32:27Speaker 4: longest time, she had no idea what her child was doing.
- 32:31Speaker 1: How would a witness know that mommy was looking at
- 32:34Speaker 1: her phone for seven straight minutes.
- 32:36Speaker 4: Because she's all dolled up at a water park. And
- 32:40Speaker 4: I get it, you know, especially if you're going with
- 32:43Speaker 4: your girlfriends, you're turning it into a thing. You're gonna
- 32:46Speaker 4: get dressed up in your best swimsuit. But she's a
- 32:50Speaker 4: mother to a three year old, and she was, you know,
- 32:57Speaker 4: all dulled up as they say, and you know, I
- 33:01Speaker 4: mean she's wearing this yellow top. I mean you cannot
- 33:05Speaker 4: look away. And so I think you know, someone watched
- 33:10Speaker 4: her for seven minutes, because that's what was reported to police.
- 33:20Speaker 1: Crimes tours with Nancy Grace.
- 33:26Speaker 15: Investigators looking into the Mother's Day weekend drowning death of
- 33:30Speaker 15: three year old Anthony Malave are stunned to find out
- 33:32Speaker 15: the mother of the toddler is filing a lawsuit against
- 33:35Speaker 15: Destination al Paso, the company that runs the city's water parks,
- 33:39Speaker 15: and against the City of El Paso, alleging gross negligence
- 33:42Speaker 15: and wrongful death. The lawsuit has been filed on behalf
- 33:45Speaker 15: of Jessica Weaver by a Houston law firm and claims
- 33:47Speaker 15: that during the park's soft opening, the city and Destination
- 33:51Speaker 15: al Paso we're too concerned with packing the water park
- 33:53Speaker 15: with people and ensuring that the live band was playing.
- 33:57Speaker 1: Well, let's hear it from the Horse's Mouth.
- 33:58Speaker 10: City.
- 33:59Speaker 16: You know had this soft opening to get their operations going,
- 34:04Speaker 16: but it cost my son because they weren't ready.
- 34:07Speaker 10: They weren't ready.
- 34:08Speaker 16: For a drowning and more children trying to save children.
- 34:12Speaker 16: And I understand, you know, they're like they're young lifeguards,
- 34:16Speaker 16: but at least have someone who's done this before.
- 34:20Speaker 1: Karen start with me. Renowned psychologists joining us from the
- 34:24Speaker 1: Manhattan jurisdiction. Karen, when I analyzed her words, the city
- 34:31Speaker 1: had a soft opening but it cost my son. They
- 34:35Speaker 1: weren't ready. She goes on to say that the lifeguards
- 34:39Speaker 1: looked young and inexperienced. I mean, when you go to
- 34:42Speaker 1: a water park with a single most important thing in
- 34:46Speaker 1: your world, which is your child, shouldn't you look at
- 34:50Speaker 1: the lifeguards and you, as the parent, assess whether they
- 34:54Speaker 1: are capable.
- 34:56Speaker 6: Not only that, Nancy, of course, the lifeguards should have
- 34:59Speaker 6: been trained in However, this child should have been wearing
- 35:03Speaker 6: a vest. She doesn't even mention anything about a life vest.
- 35:07Speaker 5: You've been at pools. I've been at pools.
- 35:09Speaker 6: All little babies, three year olds are wearing those water wings.
- 35:13Speaker 6: In addition to it, it's very interesting to me that
- 35:16Speaker 6: she's all dialed up at that pool, but during this
- 35:20Speaker 6: interview she looks much more conservative, pulled together, and it
- 35:26Speaker 6: doesn't seem like there's any grief. I've seen so many
- 35:30Speaker 6: parents talk about dead children and they're tearing up and
- 35:34Speaker 6: crying while they're talking.
- 35:35Speaker 12: About that child.
- 35:36Speaker 6: And here I see, honestly, the same narcissism, the narcissistic
- 35:42Speaker 6: neglect that you see at that pool, and somebody who
- 35:46Speaker 6: is very composed, ready to defend herself and deflect the blame.
- 35:51Speaker 1: You know, what I think you're right, Karen start. Let's
- 35:53Speaker 1: take a look at mommy. Here she is at the
- 35:55Speaker 1: pool as opposed to speaking for her lawsuit.
- 36:01Speaker 10: Listen watching a slow train wreck because they weren't prepared.
- 36:06Speaker 10: They didn't know. Really, it was panicking and chaos.
- 36:09Speaker 1: From our friends at Kay Fox fourteen. And now listen
- 36:14Speaker 1: to Mommy's next claim.
- 36:16Speaker 2: Two months after Jessica Weaver filed her wrongful death lawsuit
- 36:20Speaker 2: and almost four months after Anthony's death, thirty five year
- 36:23Speaker 2: old Jessica Weaver is arrested in her home state of
- 36:25Speaker 2: Indiana on a fugitive warrant out of El Paso, Texas.
- 36:29Speaker 2: Waving extradition.
- 36:30Speaker 1: She is transported to.
- 36:31Speaker 2: El Paso, where she is let out of jail with
- 36:33Speaker 2: a one hundred thousand dollars bond. Weaver's attorneys claimed the
- 36:37Speaker 2: arrest of Weaver is retaliatory tactics for her lawsuit.
- 36:41Speaker 1: Okay, Elene Autodios, let me understand. She's arrested and now
- 36:47Speaker 1: the civil attorney, which is a lawyer not defending you
- 36:51Speaker 1: on a crime, but is seeking money damages for you.
- 36:56Speaker 1: The civil lawyer is claiming Mommy was arrested out of
- 37:00Speaker 1: revenge for the lawsuit.
- 37:02Speaker 4: Well, let's take a look at the timeline. So Anthony,
- 37:06Speaker 4: three year old Anthony dies on May thirteenth, twenty twenty three.
- 37:12Speaker 4: Then about six weeks later, on June thirtieth, the civil
- 37:17Speaker 4: lawsuit is filed. And then September fifth, twenty twenty three,
- 37:25Speaker 4: she's arrested. But then in Texas she's just arrested. Her
- 37:30Speaker 4: indictment came in December, so it's been it's been a
- 37:35Speaker 4: bit of a timeline. And so they are saying that
- 37:39Speaker 4: because she filed a million dollar lawsuit against the city
- 37:44Speaker 4: of El Paso, that they in turn went and arrested her.
- 37:48Speaker 1: Okay, she got indicted.
- 37:50Speaker 17: Listen, Jessica Weaver indicted in the death of her three
- 37:53Speaker 17: year old son, and if convicted, could face life in prison.
- 37:56Speaker 17: The indictment states Weaver failed to provide care for her son,
- 37:59Speaker 17: did not give her toddler a life vest, did not
- 38:02Speaker 17: get in the water with her son, she did not
- 38:05Speaker 17: follow park rules, she did not keep her son in
- 38:08Speaker 17: her sight, and allowed Anthony in the water soon after eating.
- 38:12Speaker 1: As Mommy blames the city of El Paso and the lifeguards.
- 38:16Speaker 1: This is what the district attorney has to say.
- 38:18Speaker 14: Lifeguards at our water parks are not babysitters. They are
- 38:23Speaker 14: there to try to provide life saving treatment, but they're
- 38:29Speaker 14: not there to babysit. It is a parent's responsibility to
- 38:33Speaker 14: take care of your children.
- 38:34Speaker 1: Now from our friends that Kate Fox at fourteen, it's
- 38:37Speaker 1: not the first time that a mom has been criminally
- 38:42Speaker 1: charged for ignoring their child in the water.
- 38:46Speaker 11: Ayas allegedly asked the hotel staff to open this indoor
- 38:50Speaker 11: pool so Caitlin could swim. The workers warned her there
- 38:53Speaker 11: was no lifeguard on duty, mom, says a watcher. Meanwhile,
- 38:58Speaker 11: Ericabias has a five month old son that she left
- 39:01Speaker 11: alone in the hotel room. Still five month old boy
- 39:04Speaker 11: left alone in the hotel room. Seven year old girl
- 39:07Speaker 11: left alone at the pool while mom goes to the bar.
- 39:09Speaker 11: Bias went to check on the little girl. They found
- 39:12Speaker 11: her quote floating lifeless in the pool, according to the
- 39:15Speaker 11: district attorney, But instead of leaping right in to get
- 39:19Speaker 11: her daughter, Bias took her time, allegedly removing her shoes
- 39:23Speaker 11: and socks and making sure her phone won't get wet
- 39:25Speaker 11: before jumping in to save her daughter.
- 39:27Speaker 1: That is a senior editor with the Daily Wire Ash
- 39:31Speaker 1: short So in that case. Also, Eric Fattus, we see
- 39:36Speaker 1: mommy using the pool as a babysitter, while she actually
- 39:41Speaker 1: asked the hotel staff to let the child in so
- 39:46Speaker 1: she can have alone time before she retreats to the bar.
- 39:49Speaker 12: That's correct in that case.
- 39:51Speaker 8: You know, I'm also aware of a case where this
- 39:53Speaker 8: woman essentially just let her child walk around the neighborhood
- 39:57Speaker 8: for an hour or so longer and was charge with
- 40:00Speaker 8: child abuse in that scenario.
- 40:02Speaker 12: So where is the line?
- 40:03Speaker 9: You know?
- 40:03Speaker 8: I understand that that we need attentive parents, but that
- 40:05Speaker 8: doesn't mean you need to have your eyes glued to
- 40:07Speaker 8: them every second of every day, especially if you've entrusted
- 40:11Speaker 8: their care to another.
- 40:12Speaker 1: Okay, number one, I don't trust your rendition of the
- 40:14Speaker 1: facts that a child walked for one hour and mom
- 40:18Speaker 1: was arrested. I'd like to know how old a child is,
- 40:21Speaker 1: and I'd like to point out that there's a big
- 40:24Speaker 1: difference in a child I don't know the age because
- 40:28Speaker 1: you conveniently left that fact out. A child walking in
- 40:31Speaker 1: its own neighborhood amongst neighbors, breathing air, and being left
- 40:37Speaker 1: alone in a life threatening situation water where you can die.
- 40:41Speaker 1: I mean, didn't you say Thomas Coin that a person,
- 40:45Speaker 1: much less a child can die in less than two
- 40:48Speaker 1: minutes in the water.
- 40:50Speaker 9: That's correct, that fast?
- 40:51Speaker 1: Yes, yes, doctor, So there's a huge difference in the
- 40:55Speaker 1: two scenarios you're laying out fattest. I mean, give me
- 41:00Speaker 1: something real if you want to, don't bring a knife
- 41:04Speaker 1: to a gunfight. Okay, I don't let you think about
- 41:07Speaker 1: that for just a moment. Try to figure out what
- 41:09Speaker 1: that means. The phone. In Dubaya's case, mommy's on the phone.
- 41:14Speaker 1: In this case, mommy's on the phone. So to doctor
- 41:17Speaker 1: Tom Griffiths, whats with that?
- 41:20Speaker 13: Parents shouldn't be on the phone and parents, like kids,
- 41:24Speaker 13: are addicted to their phones. There's water parks in Western
- 41:27Speaker 13: Australia that have the parents shoot a QR code as
- 41:31Speaker 13: they enter the facility and it says welcome to our pool.
- 41:35Speaker 13: Now get off your phone and watch your kids. We
- 41:38Speaker 13: have to be more aggressive about warning parents, adults, caregivers
- 41:45Speaker 13: to stay off their phones, turn them off and keep
- 41:48Speaker 13: them away because they've got to not only be off
- 41:51Speaker 13: their phones, but they have to be in the water
- 41:53Speaker 13: with their children. The phones are a problem, Apple watches
- 41:58Speaker 13: are a problem. Any handheld technology around the water is
- 42:02Speaker 13: a real problem because we don't have enough discipline to
- 42:05Speaker 13: stay off them.
- 42:06Speaker 3: Katherine Bodom leaves her eleven month old daughter, Cecilia and
- 42:09Speaker 3: her two and a half year old son alone in
- 42:11Speaker 3: the bathtub with the water running, to go downstairs to
- 42:14Speaker 3: shop online for shoes. Botom's ten year old daughter says
- 42:17Speaker 3: after nineteen minutes, the two year old boy comes down
- 42:20Speaker 3: the stairs saying there's a problem. Mom stops shopping long
- 42:24Speaker 3: enough to go upstairs and find Cecilia unconscious and turning blue.
- 42:28Speaker 3: Botom is charged with second degree manslaughter.
- 42:30Speaker 1: Eric fat Is joining US high profile criminal defense lawyer.
- 42:33Speaker 1: What about that mommy shopping online for shoes while the
- 42:37Speaker 1: children are in the bathtub. I guess that's mommy getting
- 42:41Speaker 1: time out and a reprieve, as you call it.
- 42:44Speaker 8: I think what it goes to show is that these
- 42:46Speaker 8: cases are factually dependent.
- 42:48Speaker 12: We've got to take them on a case by case basis.
- 42:51Speaker 8: There weren't any lifeguards in that bathroom where those children
- 42:54Speaker 8: were in the bathtub, and so certainly there are different
- 42:57Speaker 8: facts that we'll have bearing on each individual case. But
- 43:00Speaker 8: the facts here suggest that there are other folks responsible
- 43:03Speaker 8: besides just this single mother who lost her son.
- 43:05Speaker 1: Karen, start joining me psychologists, Karen, the fixation on iPhones,
- 43:11Speaker 1: shopping online while your children are in the water. I
- 43:16Speaker 1: guess the next thing Fats is going to argue is
- 43:18Speaker 1: that mommies and dads were addicted to their cell phones.
- 43:23Speaker 6: Well, this is crazy, because people are addicted to their
- 43:27Speaker 6: cell phones, Nancy, but when it comes to their children,
- 43:31Speaker 6: there's nothing more important than your children. So we're talking
- 43:34Speaker 6: about really someone who's narcissistic and not equipped to be parenting.
- 43:40Speaker 6: Not an hour, I don't care how long you're on
- 43:44Speaker 6: your phone and your child is in the water without
- 43:47Speaker 6: you being there, and you're taking pictures.
- 43:50Speaker 1: And let me ask you this, Karen start. I don't
- 43:52Speaker 1: mean just being rude and having your phone out at
- 43:55Speaker 1: the dinner table. I mean it is being online addiction
- 44:01Speaker 1: like alcohol or drugs, where it completely takes over your
- 44:04Speaker 1: life and you're unaware of what's happening around you. I mean,
- 44:07Speaker 1: I know it's a bad habit, but is that I
- 44:11Speaker 1: don't see that it can be an addiction to that extent.
- 44:13Speaker 6: Well, I don't know. It's sort of becoming an addiction,
- 44:17Speaker 6: but that's really not what we're talking about here. I
- 44:21Speaker 6: don't think we're talking about someone who's addicted. I think
- 44:23Speaker 6: we're talking about someone who's narcissistic and self involved.
- 44:27Speaker 1: But I'm saying, Karen, that I could see a defense
- 44:31Speaker 1: when their first defense fails, their second defense fails. First
- 44:35Speaker 1: they're going to say the lifeguards were cooking uros okay.
- 44:39Speaker 1: Then they're going to say there were not enough lifeguards.
- 44:41Speaker 1: Then they're going to say they didn't put the life
- 44:45Speaker 1: jacket on my child because we now know there were
- 44:48Speaker 1: lifejackets there that the child wasn't wearing. Then they're going
- 44:53Speaker 1: to be witnesses claiming she was on her phone. I
- 44:57Speaker 1: know it's far fetched. I know it sounds laughable in stark,
- 45:01Speaker 1: but I could see her arguing that she has a
- 45:04Speaker 1: phone addiction, a digital addiction, social media addiction, and that
- 45:11Speaker 1: it blinded her to what was happening around her, including
- 45:14Speaker 1: her child drowning. Do I think it makes sense? No,
- 45:17Speaker 1: of course not. But what else can she say?
- 45:20Speaker 6: Yeah, but I don't know anything in the DSM right now, Nancy,
- 45:24Speaker 6: which actually says the Diagnostic Manual for Psychologists and psychiatrists,
- 45:29Speaker 6: but it actually says that there's such a thing as
- 45:31Speaker 6: a phone a social media addiction. They're making that up.
- 45:35Speaker 6: I don't see how Okay.
- 45:37Speaker 1: You heard it, Eric Fattis, don't tune up. Second verse
- 45:40Speaker 1: same as the first. And there's more. It happens every day,
- 45:46Speaker 1: Olivia Miller.
- 45:48Speaker 4: Listen, No, we're not trying to treat dios.
- 45:53Speaker 1: I don't know.
- 45:54Speaker 4: Maybe as the rest of my life, for this break
- 45:57Speaker 4: magm Son, I would never imagine him.
- 46:00Speaker 5: Like we are literally just having the first time I
- 46:02Speaker 5: did here today.
- 46:03Speaker 10: Well, I believe in like heaven and stuff.
- 46:07Speaker 8: I don't believe that it was his time.
- 46:09Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't believe that anything knows clever right, he
- 46:13Speaker 1: was supposed to come up. What is she saying? Okay,
- 46:17Speaker 1: First of all, she says, I think that she's being
- 46:21Speaker 1: treated like an animal in that case. Fattest, as I
- 46:25Speaker 1: was talking about the digital trail of evidence that mom
- 46:30Speaker 1: was on the phone for twenty one straight minutes before
- 46:34Speaker 1: calling nine to one one her child died. Thoughts more
- 46:40Speaker 1: of a little break, a little time out for mom.
- 46:42Speaker 12: You know, I think that there's a distinction there.
- 46:44Speaker 8: On the phone for twenty minutes, you're actively engaged in
- 46:47Speaker 8: a conversation, You're listening, you're receiving information, you're putting information
- 46:51Speaker 8: out there as opposed to just sort of scrolling one's phone.
- 46:53Speaker 8: I think anyone who has a phone would say those
- 46:55Speaker 8: are different activities. Now doesn't mean that one person should
- 46:58Speaker 8: be guilty and one person shouldn't be guilty. I can't
- 47:01Speaker 8: go that far, but I'm saying that there are little
- 47:03Speaker 8: factual nuances that matter in each of these cases.
- 47:06Speaker 1: You know, Elaine Attidiaz joining US investigative reporter. I've been
- 47:09Speaker 1: taking a look at the defendant in the case in chief,
- 47:14Speaker 1: and like Karen Stark said, there's no indication that she
- 47:19Speaker 1: is upset about her so uncertainly she must be. I mean,
- 47:21Speaker 1: I'm just maybe projecting onto her, but she seems pretty calm,
- 47:25Speaker 1: cool and collected talking about how it's everybody else's fault.
- 47:30Speaker 4: There is never a perfect victim. There's no rule book
- 47:34Speaker 4: on how grieving parents react.
- 47:37Speaker 1: I think, oh, wait, are you saying that mom is
- 47:39Speaker 1: the victim?
- 47:40Speaker 5: I am saying, I'm just giving you facts that you
- 47:45Speaker 5: just said.
- 47:45Speaker 1: There's no perfect victim. The victim in this case is
- 47:48Speaker 1: a three year old child that was left alone in
- 47:51Speaker 1: the water at a crowded water park while mommy took
- 47:54Speaker 1: selfies and reapplied lipstick. That's the victim. Mommy's not the
- 47:59Speaker 1: victim here, but.
- 48:00Speaker 5: She's being charged.
- 48:02Speaker 18: She is a defendant, and so that's right, you know,
- 48:06Speaker 18: you know, and so she is going to come at them.
- 48:12Speaker 4: With everything she has because this is serious. She can
- 48:15Speaker 4: go to prison for life, and so you know she's
- 48:20Speaker 4: going to go after.
- 48:22Speaker 1: I know that she's the possibility of life behind bars.
- 48:27Speaker 1: Am I supposed to feel bad about that? What I
- 48:29Speaker 1: feel bad about is a three year old? You know,
- 48:31Speaker 1: to you, doctor Coyne, what is it like to drown?
- 48:34Speaker 1: What does a victim go through when they drowned? Doctor
- 48:36Speaker 1: Thomas COINMT. So that's a little boy.
- 48:38Speaker 9: To me, I can only imagine it must be horrible fear.
- 48:40Speaker 9: I mean in that moment, the anxiety that you are
- 48:43Speaker 9: wrought with because you know, as you begin especially to
- 48:47Speaker 9: aspirate or inhale water and suddenly realize you can't reade.
- 48:50Speaker 9: I mean me, just as a person with asthma, I
- 48:52Speaker 9: know I have a really bad asthma attack. My anxiety
- 48:55Speaker 9: picks up pretty fast if I realize I can't breathe.
- 48:58Speaker 9: And so in that moment that I just just must
- 49:00Speaker 9: have had complete fear and horror.
- 49:02Speaker 1: It must have been horrible, you know, doctor Coyne, I
- 49:06Speaker 1: recalled distinctly two incidents of near drowning. One when I
- 49:12Speaker 1: was about three and my mom was talking to another
- 49:17Speaker 1: lady about four feet away from me the moment I
- 49:20Speaker 1: went underwater. She jumped in in her clothes and saved me. Okay,
- 49:24Speaker 1: I was just sitting on the steps of a pool
- 49:28Speaker 1: and was playing a game and jumped off the step
- 49:31Speaker 1: and went immediately underwater and didn't know how to swim
- 49:35Speaker 1: yet she saved me. The second time, I was about
- 49:38Speaker 1: thirteen at a big lake and went under and that feeling.
- 49:42Speaker 1: I immediately gulped in a lot of water. It was
- 49:45Speaker 1: way over my head with a lake, you know, the
- 49:48Speaker 1: surface at the bottom is uneven and I was walking
- 49:51Speaker 1: out and immediately went under. And I remember the feeling
- 49:55Speaker 1: you're describing, and it was scary. It was horrific. I remember,
- 49:59Speaker 1: like it happened yesterday, Doctor Coin.
- 50:01Speaker 9: Yeah, I had the same thing. Happened when I was
- 50:02Speaker 9: two on the Jersey Shore. I had a wave that
- 50:04Speaker 9: took me under. Thankfully my father was watching me. It
- 50:07Speaker 9: came ran over and pulled me right out right away.
- 50:09Speaker 9: But I can still remember that if I closed my eyes,
- 50:12Speaker 9: just the fear of the moment, I think it stays
- 50:15Speaker 9: with you for life.
- 50:16Speaker 1: We wait as just a sun falls. Goodbye friend,