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Wendy Williams Judge: 'Your Career Is Over!' Fans Outraged · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
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Speaker 2: Well, the judge in the Wendy Williams case has done
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Speaker 2: it again, spouting off with completely inappropriate and uncalled for
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Speaker 2: remarks aimed at Wendy Williams, the TV superstar.
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Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank you for
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Speaker 1: being with us. In the last days. Things get even
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Speaker 1: more weird and even more intense. In the Guardianship Battle
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Speaker 1: TV star Wendy Williams is waging in court. According to sources,
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Speaker 1: the judge says to Wendy, quote, your career is says
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Speaker 1: to Wendy, your career is over. You have no hope
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Speaker 1: of restarting your career. Why would this judge, Judge Lisa
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Speaker 1: Sokoloff say that. This is after Wendy shows up in
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Speaker 1: court and appears. The judge went on to rail on
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Speaker 1: Wendy's niece Alex Finney, accusing her of leaking information and
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Speaker 1: threatening her with sanctions. Okay, wait a minute, what's wrong
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Speaker 1: with reporting what happened in court? What is wrong with
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Speaker 1: this judge? Okay, let's start at the beginning. Let's start
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Speaker 1: with Wendy Williams.
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Speaker 3: Wendy Williams celebrates a victory in her controversial guardianship battle
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Speaker 3: as a judge reportedly allows the ex talk show host
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Speaker 3: queen to move from a senior living.
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Speaker 1: Facility living facility. My roar in it is more like
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Speaker 1: a prison, Wendy had stated over and over. She's surrounded
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Speaker 1: by seventy, eighty and ninety year olds. No offense. But
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Speaker 1: that is not Wendy Williams' style. And I don't like
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Speaker 1: the way this judge is talking down to Wendy Williams.
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Speaker 1: Uh uh n oh, you know, a little power is
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Speaker 1: a dangerous thing, judge, listen to this.
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Speaker 3: Photographers frequently crowd below Wendy Williams window at Koderie Hudson Yards,
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Speaker 3: where the sixty year old resides in the memory care unit.
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Speaker 3: One such photographer watches as Williams throws the scrap of
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Speaker 3: paper from her window, scribbled on the note help Wendy.
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Speaker 3: The paparazzi calls for a welfare check, and hours later
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Speaker 3: NYPD officers escort Williams out of the facility into a
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Speaker 3: waiting ambulance.
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Speaker 4: Where I lived at this memory unit on this floor.
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Speaker 4: You know, I just needed a breath of fresh air,
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Speaker 4: you know, And I'm saying I needed to see the doctors.
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Speaker 5: So that's why I went to the hospital.
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Speaker 1: That's from our friends at ABC. I am on Wendy's
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Speaker 1: side here. Why is it she's got a guardian watching
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Speaker 1: out for her that she has to send up a note,
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Speaker 1: throw it out her window and the paparazzi get it
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Speaker 1: and they get her out with police escort. That doesn't
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Speaker 1: sound right to me? Does it sound right to you
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Speaker 1: that she has to throw a help me note out
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Speaker 1: a window? Where's a conservator? Why has Wendy been in
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Speaker 1: lockdown for all this time? Listen?
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Speaker 3: Wendy Williams says she feels like she's in prison as
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Speaker 3: she continues her fight to end her court appoint a
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Speaker 3: guardianship as if almost on cue. Williams may have proved
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Speaker 3: her point when the assisted living facility where she resides
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Speaker 3: on the fifth floor, Coterie, calls police, claiming the sixty
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Speaker 3: year old TV host has been kidnapped by her niece,
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Speaker 3: Alex Finnie. The report Coterie filed with the NYPD, claims
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Speaker 3: Finny evaded staff by taking her aunt Wendy out of
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Speaker 3: the building to eat an Italian restaurant.
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Speaker 1: Uh uh huh ann oh, joining me in an All Star panel.
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Speaker 1: First to Jessica Fann joining me, senior investigative reporter at
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Speaker 1: the US SUN who was at the courthouse as Wendy
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Speaker 1: is battling for her freedom and got some incredible exclusive shots.
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Speaker 1: Wendy is walking, she's talking, she's smiling, She's flanked by friends, relatives.
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Speaker 1: I don't like this one bit. That the niece of
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Speaker 1: Wendy goes and takes her out to a simple lunch
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Speaker 1: and then the assisted care facility I a lockdown, actually
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Speaker 1: calls the police with a kidnapped claim on the niece.
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Speaker 1: Are you serious? It was a.
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Speaker 6: Wild scene for sure. So basically what had happened is
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Speaker 6: that Wendy was just released from the hospital after being evaluated.
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Speaker 6: Her niece, Alex Finney, comes to pick her up to
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Speaker 6: take her back to the living facility, but on their
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Speaker 6: way back, they go to dinner and apparently the living
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Speaker 6: facility decided that it wasn't approved.
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Speaker 1: There was a conflicting reports.
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Speaker 6: Alex says that they knew that they were going out
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Speaker 6: to dinner. The living facility allegedly said that this outing
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Speaker 6: was not approved and at some point threatened to call
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Speaker 6: the NYPD to file a kidnapping report.
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Speaker 1: Joining me, doctor Bethany Marshall, renowned psycho Alice joining us
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Speaker 1: from the LA jurisdiction, author of deal Breaker. You can
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Speaker 1: see her now on peacock and you can find her
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Speaker 1: at doctor Bethany Marshall dot com. Doctor Bethany Marshall, it's
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Speaker 1: my understanding that you agree with the judge who seemingly
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Speaker 1: continues to threaten Wendy Williams like she's a petulant child.
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Speaker 7: Nancy.
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Speaker 8: People in cognitive decline notoriously, do not realize what's happening
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Speaker 8: to them.
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Speaker 1: So let's hold that in.
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Speaker 7: The back of our minds.
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Speaker 8: Sokoloff is basing her decision on criteria, not personal opinion.
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Speaker 8: Wendy william probably had cognitive testing, neural psych testing, and
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Speaker 8: the testing showed that she was a danger to self
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Speaker 8: or others and that she had lacked EIGHTLS, meaning activities
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Speaker 8: of daily living. The judge is looking at that criteria.
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Speaker 1: Okay, question to you, yes, did you perform a test
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Speaker 1: on Wendy Williams. Did you, Bethany Marshall, perform a cognitive
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Speaker 1: test on Wendy Williams.
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Speaker 8: I did not, But usually a baseline test is given
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Speaker 8: initially so that we get a baseline on the patients.
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Speaker 1: So you're just speculating, are you not? I am speculating, yes, Okay,
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Speaker 1: So the fact that she has recently passed a cognitive
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Speaker 1: test does that mean anything to you? Are you just
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Speaker 1: almost sucking up to a judge that is talking down
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Speaker 1: to Wendy Williams like she's a five year old that
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Speaker 1: grabbed a handful of jellybeans.
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Speaker 8: Hey, Nancy is the family who said says she's passed
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Speaker 8: away buying colors? What the family not? The not the
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Speaker 8: physician who admits to stirred the test?
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Speaker 1: Us the media? Have you ever heard of hippa? You
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Speaker 1: think the judges, you think that the docter's going to
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Speaker 1: go out on the steps of Mount Sinai, which I'm
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Speaker 1: very familiar with, had all my prenatal tests there, was
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Speaker 1: going to have the children there until I suddenly gave
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Speaker 1: birth in Atlanta. Mount Sinai. That's where she took the test.
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Speaker 1: And what do you expect her doctor to go out
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Speaker 1: and say, hey, she passed everybody, let me go out
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Speaker 1: to special guests joining us. Elizabeth mcinturf, attorney specializing in
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Speaker 1: guardianship issues, a partner at Selzer Gervich. Elizabeth Thank you
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Speaker 1: for being with us. What can you tell me about
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Speaker 1: this type of care facility where all the elevators are
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Speaker 1: locked and you have to have a chaperone to take
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Speaker 1: you down the elevator, and you go to lunch with
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Speaker 1: your niece and suddenly they accuse the niece of napping
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Speaker 1: reportedly and call police. What about it, Elizabeth?
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Speaker 9: It sounds like very typical precautions that happen in a
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Speaker 9: memory care unit where a person who has cognitive decline
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Speaker 9: or cognitative abilities need to have a more structured environment
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Speaker 9: with more security measures, including, you know, preventing somebody from
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Speaker 9: eloping or wandering out.
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Speaker 1: I hear what you're saying in Elizabeth, and this is your specialty. However,
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Speaker 1: when if it were being told is true, and I
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Speaker 1: have no reason to think it's not true. If they
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Speaker 1: have to unlock the elevator and chaperone her down the
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Speaker 1: elevator to her niece, that is inconsistent within calling police
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Speaker 1: and threatening to file a kidnap allegation. That's a criminal
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Speaker 1: complaint against the niece. They had to let her down
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Speaker 1: to go meet the niece. So why are they doing
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Speaker 1: this just because Wendy Williams wants to have lunch, let's
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Speaker 1: learn a little bit more.
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Speaker 3: Feels like you're screaming for help.
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Speaker 6: Are you allowed to go out in the last thirty days?
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Speaker 4: I went out twice.
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Speaker 3: This sounds more like a prison than independence.
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Speaker 5: I want my right back, I want my freedom back.
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Speaker 1: That was our friend Harvey Levin at TMZ. They've got
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Speaker 1: a new documentary on TMZ Saving Wendy. You know, when
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Speaker 1: I listened to her speaking very coherently, I agree with Harvey.
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Speaker 1: I think this is wrong. And she is having to
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Speaker 1: launch a major legal battle what to go have lunch
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Speaker 1: for Pete's sake, and submitting herself not only to testing
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Speaker 1: at Mount Sinai, which according to her and others, she passed.
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Speaker 1: So why is she still going to be moved to
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Speaker 1: a restrictive condo? I mean, did you hear where she's
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Speaker 1: been at the care facility? No personal belongings or electronics.
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Speaker 1: She cannot receive calls, cannot leave her room without a
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Speaker 1: staff member unlocking the door. Visitors have to be pre approved.
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Speaker 1: In other words, they want to give the appearance they
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Speaker 1: want you to see before you get in to see
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Speaker 1: your loved one. And to top it all off, I
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Speaker 1: don't like the way this judge is talking down to
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Speaker 1: Wendy Williams and basically threatening her, saying things like and
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Speaker 1: I quote, I've always contended that Williams be given the
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Speaker 1: independence she can handle. I really judge it. When were
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Speaker 1: you a shrink? I question how well she has handled
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Speaker 1: the independence she has been given. Really, what did Wendy
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Speaker 1: do wrong? Have it played apasta? You don't like that, judge,
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Speaker 1: And she goes on to threaten Wendy, stating to the lawyer,
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Speaker 1: tell your client, if she wants a jury, she should
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Speaker 1: refrain from trying to poison the jury pool. Ret row.
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Speaker 1: Sounds like somebody's impinging on Wendy Williams freedom of speech.
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Speaker 1: Oh there's that pesky little Bill of rights judge Crime
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Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace. Hey, judge, one word for you
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Speaker 1: r E c U S E. Recuse yourself now before
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Speaker 1: you're publicly thrown off the Wendy Williams case. Your comments
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Speaker 1: are totally uncalled for and inappropriate, and you're making quite
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Speaker 1: the record in Wendy's favor in this guardianship battle. In
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Speaker 1: the last days. The judge says to Wendy, quote, your
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Speaker 1: career is over. Well, I highly disagree with that. Who
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Speaker 1: does this judge think she's talking to? Listen?
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Speaker 10: After a successful trial run of The Wendy Williams Show,
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Speaker 10: the talk show is broadcast internationally and Garner's two point
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Speaker 10: four million daily viewers. Williams trades off with Ellen DeGeneres
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Speaker 10: as the number one female daytime television host for years.
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Speaker 10: The daily show runs for twelve years straight, while Williams
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Speaker 10: starts her own reality TV production company with her manager
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Speaker 10: and husband, Kevin Hunter.
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Speaker 1: Oh did I just hear? Husband? Manager? Wait? Jessica Finn
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Speaker 1: Senior investigative reporter us son who got us awesome photos
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Speaker 1: of Wendy going to court? Jessica there at the courthouse
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Speaker 1: when this goes down? Husband? You mean the guy that
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Speaker 1: took all that money from the Wendy Williams Show. Him
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Speaker 1: the one that was having a year's long affair with
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Speaker 1: what was missus and then had a baby, living what
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Speaker 1: nine or ten miles away from Wendy. I think he
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Speaker 1: even had his name on her mailbox. That guy, That's
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Speaker 1: what we're talking about.
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Speaker 6: Yeah, they are actually still fighting it out in divorce
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Speaker 6: court over money. He claims he's owed as partly as
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Speaker 6: executive producer for the Wendy Williams Show. There was a
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Speaker 6: stipulation in their divorce that he was going to get
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Speaker 6: basically a severance package from Wendy, and then once Wells
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Speaker 6: Once when he was put into this guardianship and the
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Speaker 6: bank took over her accounts, Wells Fargo shut down her accounts,
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Speaker 6: his payments stopped. So they're actually backfighting it in divorce court,
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Speaker 6: and Kevin's been in part not only trying to get
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Speaker 6: his severance payments to resume, He's also been really trying
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Speaker 6: to get access to Wendy's financial records, and in part,
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Speaker 6: I think what he hopes that's going to show is
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Speaker 6: what is happening with her money since she's been placed
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Speaker 6: in the guardianship.
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Speaker 1: So while Kevin is all doing moment, didn't he Jessica
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Speaker 1: give up any rot to get all up in her
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Speaker 1: money when he cheated on her with that girl and
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Speaker 1: had the baby. And Wendy's the one making all the
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Speaker 1: money working. You know, I've been on her show several times.
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Speaker 1: That woman worked like a mule and was surrounded by
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Speaker 1: people parasites sucking all her money. Every time I went.
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Speaker 1: Everybody around her was just kicked back, lounging, having a
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Speaker 1: lot of time while she's out there working. Now, why
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Speaker 1: would he get access to her money.
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Speaker 6: Well, he was the executive producer for the show, and
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Speaker 6: he did a lot of work behind the scenes. Right exactly,
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Speaker 6: absolutely was and so in their divorce.
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Speaker 1: Agreement ended all that when he started having sex with
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Speaker 1: a mistress.
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Speaker 6: But in their divorce agreement he did. There was an
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Speaker 6: agreement for him to continue to get severance money from
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Speaker 6: Wendy's estate. And so while yes, absolutely I understand the
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Speaker 6: idea that because he did have a baby with another
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Speaker 6: woman in that they would you would think that they
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Speaker 6: would stop that this was part of.
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Speaker 1: Their divorce, Jessica, He did have a baby with him.
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Speaker 1: Here you say, Jessica fan, they went to walmartin brought
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Speaker 1: on a baby. That's not believe to Wendy getting all
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Speaker 1: that money and there he is sleeping with somebody else
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Speaker 1: and has a baby.
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Speaker 6: A thousand percent that is exactly why they got divorced
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Speaker 6: because of the baby. That is a thousand percent what happened.
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Speaker 6: But they worked together, They worked together, so that is
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Speaker 6: that is why he I believe that's why it's in
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Speaker 6: their divorce agreement because they did work together, they built
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Speaker 6: the brand together.
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Speaker 1: I believe Jessica Fan that you have gone so far
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Speaker 1: as to refer to her husband, the one that she
15:42
Speaker 1: didn't have the baby with the massage therapist, as an
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Speaker 1: unsung hero.
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Speaker 6: Yeah, this is not the public opinion that people would
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Speaker 6: think of. But quite frankly, Kevin really kept the wheels
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Speaker 6: on the track during Wendy's time on the show. He
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Speaker 6: was the one that made sure that she was up
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Speaker 6: and ready to tape and doing the right thing, despite
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Speaker 6: the fact that she was very much involved in alcoholism
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Speaker 6: at that point. And Wendy, from everything that we've learned,
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Speaker 6: knew about Sharena. She knew about the other woman for
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Speaker 6: many years before Kevin had a baby with Sharena, so
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Speaker 6: she looked the other way. So while everybody was blindsided
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Speaker 6: when Kevin had the baby, the public was blindsided when
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Speaker 6: Serina had the baby, and Wendy did file for divorce
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Speaker 6: based on that she had known for years that Kevin
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Speaker 6: had this woman on the side. And Kevin really again
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Speaker 6: did keep the wheels.
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Speaker 1: Going on the track.
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Speaker 6: And once Kevin was out of the picture, it was
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Speaker 6: really hard for Wendy to keep the show going without
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Speaker 6: having that kind of firm hand and direction and keeping
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Speaker 6: her grounded, and that's essentially what happened in season thirteen.
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Speaker 6: Everything went to poop and she wasn't even able to film.
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Speaker 6: She wasn't able to attend the tape.
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Speaker 7: Dang.
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Speaker 1: Well, let me be clear. The ex husband has not
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Speaker 1: been charged with any crime or any wrongdoing or any
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Speaker 1: taking of her money that was not part of a contract.
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Speaker 1: Let's just be very clear about that. I'm just very curious. Also,
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Speaker 1: with all these people that quote were working with her,
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Speaker 1: they didn't notice that she was getting sick or was she.
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Speaker 11: In twenty seventeen, Williams passes out during a taping of
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Speaker 11: the show, and in the following years, phills months of
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Speaker 11: several seasons with a guest host due to struggles with
17:34
Speaker 11: her health issues.
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Speaker 5: I am not cognitively impaired, you know what I'm saying. No,
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Speaker 5: but I feel like I am in prison. I'm in
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Speaker 5: this place where the people are in their nineties and
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Speaker 5: their eighties. I have breakfast, lunch, and dinner right here
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Speaker 5: on the bed.
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Speaker 4: All right, A wind Bilt.
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Speaker 5: I talk on the phone.
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Speaker 3: I said, you're cognitively impaired and you're incapacitated.
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Speaker 4: Do I see that way?
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Speaker 12: No, you've been You've been calling her five times a
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Speaker 12: day for the two weeks.
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Speaker 3: No, you don't see that.
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Speaker 1: You are hearing Wendy on the phone at the breakfast
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Speaker 1: club speaking to Charle Manne the god okay, Bathidy, because
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Speaker 1: you are my lionears.
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Speaker 8: Me, because I'm a professional. And just because she sounds
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Speaker 8: intact doesn't mean she is. I think she's a danger
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Speaker 8: to self and others when she goes out. I think
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Speaker 8: the reason Wendy is in lockdown is that she makes
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Speaker 8: poor choices when she goes out. Prefrontal temporal dementia is
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Speaker 8: a progressive disease, okay, so it means that at the
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Speaker 8: beginning the person can look intact even when they're having
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Speaker 8: cognitive decline. And the reason she's in an old folks
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Speaker 8: home is those are the places that have memory care facilities.
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Speaker 8: You start when you're at the beginning of dementia and
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Speaker 8: you graduate to the memory care unit, so it is
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Speaker 8: an appropriate place for her.
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Speaker 1: Wendy Williams had one of the highest rated daytime talk
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Speaker 1: shows there has ever been routinely thrashing the Ellen Show
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Speaker 1: and even the View. So out of the blue, this judge,
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Speaker 1: Judge Suckloff, starts berating Wendy and trashing her career, claiming, yeah,
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Speaker 1: you had a great career, but it's over. You'll never
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Speaker 1: have a career again. Quote it's done. What is wrong
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Speaker 1: with this woman? What expertise does she have in the
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Speaker 1: entertainment industry? And why would she trash Wendy this way? Well,
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Speaker 1: that said, let's look at the facts themselves too, Jessica
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Speaker 1: Finn joining me, Senior Investigative Report of US Son. What
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Speaker 1: exactly have been her diagnoses that we've been told anyway?
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Speaker 6: Okay, so we know that she has We know that
19:53
Speaker 6: she's been diagnosed with frontal temporal dimension. That diagnosis came
19:58
Speaker 6: sometime in twenty twenty three. That was a diagnosis that
20:01
Speaker 6: was released by her guardian basically in response to the
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Speaker 6: Lifetime documentary Where is Wendy Williams Now? Before that, at
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Speaker 6: the US Sun, we were able to confirm that in
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Speaker 6: twenty nineteen, Wendy Williams was diagnosed with alcohol related brain
20:20
Speaker 6: damage and that diagnosis happened during a rehab stay in
20:25
Speaker 6: Delray Beach, Florida in twenty nineteen, and that was a
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Speaker 6: diagnosis that was given to her along with her husband
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Speaker 6: at the time, Kevin Hunter, and her son Kevin Hunter Junior,
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Speaker 6: and the doctors warned her that if she continues to drink,
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Speaker 6: she will continue to lose her memory, she will continue
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Speaker 6: to lose her cognitive functioning. And as we know, Wendy
20:48
Speaker 6: continued to drink despite the diagnosis. Now you know here
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Speaker 6: we are. We have this prontal temporal dementia diagnosis, which
20:57
Speaker 6: is what Bruce Willis has a degenerative disease. But Wendy
21:03
Speaker 6: seems very very fine these days, so it's very hard
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Speaker 6: to really believe that the frontal temporal dementia diagnosis is
21:12
Speaker 6: actually correct and accurate.
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Speaker 1: I've got so many questions right now. But doctor Kendall
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Speaker 1: Crowns joining me, renowned medical examiner joining us out of
21:24
Speaker 1: Terran County. That's Fort Worth. Never a lack of business there,
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Speaker 1: A steamed lecturer at the Burnett School of Medicine at
21:31
Speaker 1: TCU has performed literally thousands of examinations. Doctor Kendall Crowns
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Speaker 1: got a question regarding the frontal temporal dementia and the
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Speaker 1: alcohol related brain damage all allegations. First of all, frontal
21:50
Speaker 1: temporal dementia, do you get that from blows to the head.
21:54
Speaker 1: I was just thinking about Bruce Willis and all the
21:56
Speaker 1: stunts he performed.
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Speaker 12: So you can get it from the chronic uh brain trauma.
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Speaker 12: But one of the main things is chronic alcoholism, which
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Speaker 12: is alcohol is a neurotoxic or it causes it's a
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Speaker 12: poison to your brain in long term do the same thing.
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Speaker 1: Hold on, I don't want to make samples and oranges. Look,
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Speaker 1: you're the noow medical examiner. I'm just a trial lawyer.
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Speaker 1: So can I address one and then address the other?
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Speaker 1: Or are they one and the same? The frontal temporal
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Speaker 1: dementia and the alcohol related brain damage is that? Are
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Speaker 1: they the same thing?
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Speaker 12: Frontal temporal dimension and alcohol related brain damage can be well.
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Speaker 12: Frontal temporal dementia can be associated with chronic alcohol abuse
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Speaker 12: and the what you're talking You may.
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Speaker 1: Have gotten that frontal temporal dementia from alcohol abuse. It's
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Speaker 1: possible to get it. And that not just blows to
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Speaker 1: the head. Okay, so blows to the head.
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Speaker 12: You have to remember what blows to the head. It's
22:54
Speaker 12: a chronic like you take multiple times you're getting hit
22:57
Speaker 12: in the head over a long period of time. In
23:00
Speaker 12: something you get from just a couple bumps to the head.
23:02
Speaker 1: Okay, we see it with Britney spears right, she got
23:06
Speaker 1: out of her conservatorship, and what does she do. She
23:08
Speaker 1: immediately strips down naked starts twirling around on Instagram. So
23:11
Speaker 1: what okay? There she is? Keep that top on all right?
23:15
Speaker 1: This is g rated Britney. That's on Britney's official Instagram page.
23:19
Speaker 1: Sometimes she comes out dancing and all you can see
23:21
Speaker 1: is like a little pasty flower over her nipples and
23:25
Speaker 1: private parts. That's her business. If she wants to twirl
23:30
Speaker 1: around naked on Insta instead of making millions and millions
23:33
Speaker 1: of dollars doing the same thing on a Vegas stage,
23:35
Speaker 1: that's her business. If Wendy Williams wants to go out
23:39
Speaker 1: with her niece and have a excuse me, have a
23:42
Speaker 1: glass of wine, nobody set a bottle of wine. Have
23:45
Speaker 1: a glass of wine. That's her business. And then this
23:48
Speaker 1: judge jumps up and says, i'm I have always contended
23:55
Speaker 1: Williams will be given the independence she can handle. I
23:59
Speaker 1: question and how well she has handled the independence she
24:02
Speaker 1: has been given? Really? Is that your business that she
24:07
Speaker 1: had a glass of wine with her niece. I don't
24:11
Speaker 1: know doctor Kendall Crown's about these diagnoses, because it's hard
24:17
Speaker 1: for me to believe that she has advanced dementia when
24:22
Speaker 1: she carries on extensive conversations Sue Sponte, spontaneous, not rehearsed,
24:31
Speaker 1: which you can try to read lines, But when you're
24:34
Speaker 1: having like a fluid conversation like we're having right now,
24:37
Speaker 1: you have to think with all cylinders. She conversed with
24:41
Speaker 1: Harvey Levin that super smart. That's not easy to do.
24:47
Speaker 1: She conversed with Charlemagne the God, also super smart. And
24:50
Speaker 1: what I observed, what I observed with my own eyes,
24:55
Speaker 1: is that whenever I was around Wendy, she was smarter
24:57
Speaker 1: than anybody else in the room. And I don't like
25:00
Speaker 1: thinking they've got their hands in her pocket. How do
25:03
Speaker 1: I know she's got dementia, doctor.
25:05
Speaker 12: Crowns, Well, I mean you are just noticing one aspect
25:09
Speaker 12: of her personality. She's able to carry on a conversation.
25:12
Speaker 12: You don't know what else is going on in her
25:14
Speaker 12: life that other people have noticed a cognitive decline. One
25:18
Speaker 12: function of her brain may still be going on. Hey,
25:22
Speaker 12: I'm not diagnosing her, and I have no problem with
25:24
Speaker 12: her being released to her own recognissance, because you know,
25:28
Speaker 12: my job is dependent on people doing dumb things and dying.
25:31
Speaker 12: So I'm okay with whatever is occurring, but I'm just
25:34
Speaker 12: giving you what's what.
25:36
Speaker 13: You're going with that Crowns he had those tests, she's
25:39
Speaker 13: been gene she is not incapacity.
25:41
Speaker 12: For buying colors. I know.
25:45
Speaker 1: He's have independent results.
25:47
Speaker 13: I would be very disappointed and I would be very
25:49
Speaker 13: concerned if the judge has an issue with those tests.
25:53
Speaker 1: That's for our friends at Fox five in New York,
25:55
Speaker 1: and you're hearing Gina Montroso claiming that Wendy had the
26:01
Speaker 1: test and she is not incapacitated. Williams shines in I
26:06
Speaker 1: PASSI Flying Collars. Rosanna Scotto, our friend and New York
26:10
Speaker 1: says I know, and the medical advocate Gina monterro So
26:16
Speaker 1: goes on to say they are independent results. I would
26:20
Speaker 1: be very disappointed and very concerned if the judge has
26:24
Speaker 1: an issue with those tests. But of course the judge does.
26:31
Speaker 14: A source says while Judge Sonkoloff approved, the talk show
26:35
Speaker 14: hosts moved to an unsecured floor, she was not convinced
26:38
Speaker 14: that Williams tests at Lennox Hill proved that she is
26:42
Speaker 14: not incapacitated. Sokoloff reportedly said the test only showed that
26:47
Speaker 14: Williams was coherent, cognitive and alert. Williams will have to
26:51
Speaker 14: undergo a full cognitive work up and neurological examination.
26:55
Speaker 1: Jessica Fann, senior investigative reporter us Son who was camped
26:59
Speaker 1: out at the courthouse to greet Wendy Williams. So the
27:02
Speaker 1: judge is still not happy with what Lennox Heil said.
27:06
Speaker 6: Yeah, the judge basically said that this was not enough.
27:09
Speaker 6: This cognitive test was just to make sure she was coherent.
27:12
Speaker 6: The test included questions like who is the president, what
27:15
Speaker 6: is your birthday, what's your full name? These were really
27:18
Speaker 6: basic questions and it was a ten question test and
27:21
Speaker 6: it didn't delve. According to the judge, it didn't delve
27:24
Speaker 6: deep enough into Wendy's diagnoses to really give an accurate,
27:29
Speaker 6: full picture of what Wendy is dealing with. In the
27:32
Speaker 6: coming weeks, it sounds like the judge is going to
27:34
Speaker 6: be having her do another more extensive, thorough psycholological evaluation
27:40
Speaker 6: to determine exactly where Wendy's cognitive abilities are at this
27:44
Speaker 6: point and see how that's going to change the guardianship,
27:47
Speaker 6: because it's going to change the whole nature of the guardianship.
27:50
Speaker 6: It could get her out of the guardianship. If she
27:52
Speaker 6: does really well, she could end up in a less
27:55
Speaker 6: restrictive situation. She could end up with a different guardian.
27:58
Speaker 6: So this next test is really good to be the
28:01
Speaker 6: big moment for Wendy and to see how our guardianship
28:05
Speaker 6: is going to go moving forward.
28:06
Speaker 1: Joining me now is Ashley Ward Law PI, probably investigator
28:11
Speaker 1: chief operation officer at Nathan's Investigation and has extensive experience
28:17
Speaker 1: investigating conservatorship issues. Ashley, thank you for being with us.
28:23
Speaker 1: This is very concerning to me and I'll tell you why.
28:27
Speaker 1: If Britney Spears and Wendy Williams have to fight tooth
28:32
Speaker 1: and nail to get out from a conservatorship, what about
28:36
Speaker 1: the rest of us regular people? How could we get
28:40
Speaker 1: out of it? If we're wrongfully put in a draconian
28:44
Speaker 1: or harsh conservatorship where you can't even get phone calls,
28:50
Speaker 1: your room is locked, you have to throw notes out
28:53
Speaker 1: for a stranger to find to help you get out.
28:56
Speaker 15: Yeah, Nanthy, things like this happened quite often where pis
29:01
Speaker 15: get hired by families or other concerned individuals who want
29:05
Speaker 15: us to investigate. You know, the well being of this
29:09
Speaker 15: person that's being held in a case like this, For
29:13
Speaker 15: Wendy in particular, I think a private investigator will need
29:16
Speaker 15: to think outside the box because this is very complex.
29:19
Speaker 7: Okay, So we don't only do surveillance.
29:22
Speaker 15: We actually conduct undercover visits at these facilities to see,
29:26
Speaker 15: you know, if she's being mistreated, if she's being denied,
29:29
Speaker 15: you know, certain things. We also investigate or do surveillance
29:34
Speaker 15: on her when she's going out to show that you know,
29:36
Speaker 15: she's capable of making decisions and taking care of herself.
29:41
Speaker 15: But you don't limit the surveillance to only one person.
29:45
Speaker 15: You have to keep your mind open because it could
29:47
Speaker 15: be other individuals who may have a.
29:49
Speaker 7: Hand in this. And you don't want to leave any
29:52
Speaker 7: stones unturned.
29:53
Speaker 15: Okay, you might miss the golden ticket to actually save Wendy.
29:57
Speaker 7: So as a PI, you know, you look at the.
29:59
Speaker 15: Lifestyle people who are close near to her or who
30:03
Speaker 15: might have a hand in.
30:05
Speaker 7: This whole ordeal. What was your lifestyle before.
30:08
Speaker 15: This happened, this whole ordeal, and what is your lifestyle now? Okay,
30:12
Speaker 15: you also want to look into finances. Okay, were you
30:17
Speaker 15: living a lavish lifestyle before this or are you living
30:20
Speaker 15: a lavish lifestyle. Now, so the main concern a PI
30:25
Speaker 15: would have is is she being treated fairly and also
30:29
Speaker 15: investigating those individuals who might have a hand in this
30:34
Speaker 15: whole ordeal.
30:34
Speaker 7: Is this something that's being orchestrated?
30:36
Speaker 15: What evidence can we get as a PI to help
30:40
Speaker 15: save Wendy.
30:41
Speaker 1: You know what you just said, Ashley Wardlaw, It's very convincing.
30:48
Speaker 1: You have to look at her lifestyle before her lifestyle.
30:51
Speaker 1: Now you have to look at other people that are
30:55
Speaker 1: injecting themselves into Wendy's situation. Do they have a dog
31:01
Speaker 1: in the fights, get in the game? Does it benefit
31:04
Speaker 1: them for her to stay in a lockdown or in
31:07
Speaker 1: a controlled environment? Speaking of money, how her money is
31:13
Speaker 1: being spent? This lockdown that the judge had her in
31:19
Speaker 1: was costing nearly a quarter million dollars a year. I
31:25
Speaker 1: don't blame Wendy. I'd want out of it too, Listen.
31:27
Speaker 5: I want to get out of Guardian.
31:28
Speaker 4: It's been over three years. You know what I'm saying,
31:31
Speaker 4: It's time for my money and my life to get
31:35
Speaker 4: back to status club.
31:37
Speaker 1: From our friends at ABC Crime Stories with Nancy Grace,
31:53
Speaker 1: all around the world, the public is keenly interested in
31:57
Speaker 1: Wendy Williams. For instance, in a two B documentary Saving Wendy,
32:03
Speaker 1: there were huge viewership numbers. Outlets have reported on her
32:08
Speaker 1: practically every day in her attempt to end her Drayconian guardianship.
32:15
Speaker 1: At this juncture, it's reported that trial attorney Joe Takapina
32:18
Speaker 1: may very well take the case to a jury if
32:21
Speaker 1: the judge, in her wisdom, doesn't end it. Elizabeth mcint
32:27
Speaker 1: her specialist a guardianship and conservatorship issues. So let me understand,
32:37
Speaker 1: the judge is saying, if you want a jury trial,
32:41
Speaker 1: don't speak to the press. So in her mind does
32:45
Speaker 1: she think she could deny Wendy Williams a jury trial.
32:50
Speaker 1: Isn't any comment to the press something you would ask
32:54
Speaker 1: jurrors on vadier So she.
32:56
Speaker 9: Can't deny a jury trial if Wendy Williams has a
32:59
Speaker 9: right to a jury trial.
33:00
Speaker 1: I think more what.
33:01
Speaker 9: She's doing is what the judiciary does in a lot
33:04
Speaker 9: of situations, is which caution against public statements that can
33:08
Speaker 9: kind of influence the outcome of a case. We're making
33:11
Speaker 9: opinions right now based on what Miss Williams is stating
33:15
Speaker 9: or saying, or what we're stating or saying, and the
33:18
Speaker 9: Court of an acsence warning is if you want you know,
33:22
Speaker 9: your neutral jury, we need to make sure that we're
33:24
Speaker 9: not making an argument in.
33:27
Speaker 1: Public Opinia, whoa, whoa, Elizabeth. That's not what she said.
33:31
Speaker 1: She didn't say, if you want a neutral jury, don't
33:34
Speaker 1: poison the jury pool. That's not what she said. She said,
33:37
Speaker 1: If you want a jury trial, tell your client not
33:42
Speaker 1: to speak to the press, if you want a jury trial.
33:45
Speaker 1: As if the judge could take away Wendy Williams right
33:49
Speaker 1: to a jury trial.
33:50
Speaker 9: If she has a right to a jury trial, she
33:52
Speaker 9: has a right to a jury trial.
33:53
Speaker 1: Correct, exactly. And let's just take a look at the
33:57
Speaker 1: biography of Judge Lee set sockle Off. She was primarily
34:03
Speaker 1: a personal injury litigator. You know, some not me, of course,
34:08
Speaker 1: but some would call that an ambulance chaser, you know,
34:12
Speaker 1: personal injury slip and fall, personal injury car crash. She
34:18
Speaker 1: also practiced in family law, divorce, custody of children, splitting
34:26
Speaker 1: up assets. For more than one third of her career.
34:31
Speaker 1: She was an appellate lawyer. Translation, she sat in a
34:35
Speaker 1: cubicle and researched. That's what that means. A pellet lawyer. Interesting.
34:47
Speaker 1: And now she tells Wendy Williams, hey, hey girl, if
34:51
Speaker 1: you want a jury trial, you better not speak to
34:53
Speaker 1: the media. If she feels that way, she could issue
34:57
Speaker 1: a gag order once legal proceed have started. But this
35:01
Speaker 1: sounds very much like a threat. And then to state, Elizabeth,
35:07
Speaker 1: I have always contended Williams will will be given independence
35:11
Speaker 1: she can handle. I question how well she has handled
35:16
Speaker 1: the independence she has been given. I'm curious, Elizabeth, what
35:23
Speaker 1: has Wendy Williams done to deserve that comment from the judge?
35:29
Speaker 1: I question how well she's handled the independence she has
35:32
Speaker 1: been given. What did she do wrong? Why would they
35:36
Speaker 1: just say that to her?
35:37
Speaker 9: The court is concerned with the actions that Wendy Williams
35:41
Speaker 9: is taking right now, including the fact that she may
35:43
Speaker 9: have had a boozy lunch, that she is potentially trying
35:47
Speaker 9: to win a.
35:50
Speaker 1: Court of public.
35:51
Speaker 9: Opinion instead of caring about her own health.
35:55
Speaker 1: Right now, Elizabeth, come on place, court of public opinion.
36:00
Speaker 1: I could put a parrot up there in a cage
36:03
Speaker 1: to just parent court of public opinion. Court of public opinion?
36:07
Speaker 1: So what there are every celebrity courts the press, and
36:12
Speaker 1: they don't get a threat by the judge.
36:14
Speaker 9: Celebrities do court the press, but this is a different
36:16
Speaker 9: situation than your normal celebrity. We're in a situation right
36:19
Speaker 9: now where we have a guardianship where we have concerns
36:22
Speaker 9: about miss Williams and her health, with her mental health,
36:25
Speaker 9: with how she's been treated in the past and currently,
36:29
Speaker 9: and so the court is going to have that overwriting
36:31
Speaker 9: concern and they want to make sure that she's protected.
36:34
Speaker 1: You got me over the barrel, Elizabeth mcinturf about the alcohol,
36:40
Speaker 1: but I hardly think that a glass of wine with
36:43
Speaker 1: her niece constitutes the judge stating, I don't know how
36:48
Speaker 1: well you've handled your freedom. Isn't the jury the sole
36:55
Speaker 1: decider of the facts. Isn't it their province alone, not
37:00
Speaker 1: the judge, to establish and analyze the facts.
37:06
Speaker 9: It'll always come down to the trier of facts to
37:08
Speaker 9: determine whether or not, you know, this old guardianship is
37:11
Speaker 9: appropriate or not, and that is one of the things
37:14
Speaker 9: that they will take into account.
37:16
Speaker 1: Wendy Williams, This by far is not the first time
37:20
Speaker 1: a celebrity has fought to be free from a draconian conservatorship.
37:26
Speaker 1: Britney Spears, for instance, what's the Biggas. I'm thinking a
37:32
Speaker 1: lot about her residency in Vegas. Did she want that? No?
37:41
Speaker 14: No, they worked her.
37:42
Speaker 1: I was a machine. I was a machine, not even human.
37:48
Speaker 1: They literally killed me.
37:51
Speaker 16: They basically worked her. She did rehearsals, she did the
37:58
Speaker 16: whole thing, but she could not get them assighed.
38:02
Speaker 1: She cannot go to a restaurant. Talk about isolation. That's
38:06
Speaker 1: where my friends at Fox Nation. When I was taping Trapped,
38:10
Speaker 1: I was speaking to le Ane Spears, a close relative
38:14
Speaker 1: of Britney Spears. You know. Let me ask doctor Kindall
38:19
Speaker 1: Crowns and doctor Bethany Marshall about hysteria. Hysteria female hysteria
38:27
Speaker 1: actually a diagnosis in the nineteenth century for a behavior
38:33
Speaker 1: or symptom that made men usually uncomfortable. It could be depression, infertility,
38:42
Speaker 1: a fondness for writing. According to historical documents, I'm very
38:49
Speaker 1: curious how much Wendy is being penalized because she's not behaving.
38:56
Speaker 1: You ever heard of that diagnosis, doctor Kendall Crown. It
39:00
Speaker 1: led to a lot of mistreatment by women, A lot
39:04
Speaker 1: of mistreatment of women, for instance, putting them in asylums,
39:08
Speaker 1: subjecting them to all sorts of experiments and treatments.
39:13
Speaker 12: Well, yeah, I mean it's part of medical history is
39:15
Speaker 12: the diagnosis of hysteria with women. In fact, the surgery
39:20
Speaker 12: of a hysterectomy was believed that if they remove the
39:24
Speaker 12: uterus that the woman's issue would go away. So it's
39:27
Speaker 12: called a hysterectomy because of hysteria, hysterectomy, et cetera.
39:31
Speaker 1: So that is something no offense Crown's but I think
39:36
Speaker 1: to alleviate the problem, it shouldn't be the uterus to
39:39
Speaker 1: be removed. It should probably be the husband. Doctor Bethany Marshall,
39:46
Speaker 1: can you jump in on that female hysteria, because I
39:50
Speaker 1: believe Wendy is being judged because she's a woman and
39:55
Speaker 1: she has an orthodox behavior.
39:57
Speaker 8: You know, a hysteria is like a a transient emotional
40:02
Speaker 8: state that goes away. It's not a sign of anything deeper.
40:05
Speaker 8: And there can also be something called pseudo dementia where
40:08
Speaker 8: a person appears to have dementia on the surface but
40:11
Speaker 8: they don't really have it. I think the thing about
40:13
Speaker 8: Britney Spears Nancy is that the problem is they placed
40:17
Speaker 8: her in a conservatorship with her father. Families are notoriously
40:22
Speaker 8: money hungry when they have a star in their midst
40:25
Speaker 8: and in this case, what the judge is doing is
40:28
Speaker 8: removing her from the family and putting her with a
40:31
Speaker 8: neutral party who has no skin in the game. This
40:34
Speaker 8: person is not going to profit financially off of Wendy Williams.
40:39
Speaker 8: I think the elephant in the room, Nancy, I really do,
40:42
Speaker 8: is the sign getting paid, Yes, but not millions of dollars.
40:47
Speaker 8: She can't do to Wendy Williams what Britney Spears father did.
40:51
Speaker 8: That is the big difference. And Nancy, the judge is
40:54
Speaker 8: getting it right in one respect for sure, and that
40:57
Speaker 8: is she's sending Wendy Williams back for further time testing.
41:01
Speaker 8: In that case, she will see the progression of the disease,
41:04
Speaker 8: which will then be compared against the baseline.
41:08
Speaker 1: Well, doctor Bethany Marshall, you got me over the barrel
41:13
Speaker 1: with her drinking. If in fact she has alcohol related
41:17
Speaker 1: brain damage. This judge socle Off has some sort of
41:22
Speaker 1: problem with Wendy Williams, and she really recused herself from
41:26
Speaker 1: the case. She does not appear impartial and even if
41:29
Speaker 1: she can control herself on the bench now, it's very
41:33
Speaker 1: apparent she has ill feelings toward Wendy Williams. I wouldn't
41:39
Speaker 1: want her on my case.
41:41
Speaker 2: We wait as justice unfolds. Free Wendy Williams, Goodbye friend,