Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to the Crime Round Up. I'm Cheryl McCollum, and
today I have the incredible, beautiful, fantastic, peerless Nancy Grace.
How are you, sugar?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Okay, that was a lot better than the last time.
And I want to point out that I'm dragging something.
I'm dragging as we taught wreaths to put it on
the front gate. Okay, spring reaths. I just took down
a bunch of easter bunnies. I got it, dollar tree, Okay,
here we go. Seawn comes Cassie Ventura.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well, I'm going to tell you right now a star
was born when you have somebody testify that correctly. It
was that much composure that is backed up.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Excuse great my video, text messages and emails boom star witness.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Well, can I tell you something. I've had a few
rape victims that good on hones standing A few, not
a lot, because they're usually so worn up they can
hardly walk, much less the usually seeing their accuser for
the first time so rape, so they go through HTL.
(01:30):
Now in her case, let me tell you I just
got off a program on two B with Harvey Levin,
Ebony Joe Tacopina, who I haven't seen a really long time,
you know, in person, and of course Mark dere goes
now Mark and Joe Tacopina. As you can imagine, I
(01:55):
wanted something out. I didn't like it, but it's true,
and it's thing that we have to deal with, and
that is that. Cassie Ventura sent a series of texts
to Shawn Comes saying I'm up for a free off
any time. I love you. Just a lot of things
(02:18):
that are contrary to what the state is saying. Now.
I know it's hard to make sense of it, but
a lot of times women who are in an abusive relationship,
they try to just keep the peace, you know, they
(02:39):
just try to make everything work without any more violence
or abuse. For instance, I had a case I prosecuted
where the wife was highly educated. Okay, of course, abuse
goes across all socioeconomic levels. It doesn't matter you're rich,
you're poor, middle income, got a PhD, you got a
(03:03):
seventh grade education. Same scenario plays out. And Cheryl I
trained and trained at the Battered Women's Center to be
a volunteer on the hotline, and I heard it in
my head. But for those of us that are not
in or never have never been in an abusive relationship,
we think things like, well, don't you just leave, But
when you're in it. For instance, with the women that
(03:26):
I dealt with, they thought, and they were probably right
by the way. We just said that they would lose
because to thee of their children, which I'd go through
almost anything to stay with the twins. You know, let
me amend that I'd go through anything to stay with
the twins. They think they'll lose their children, their home.
(03:51):
It's so much to lose, right their jobs, any CASTI
venturer's position, she was afraid she would lose her livelihood.
That was her fear. So that's what she was dealing
with if she didn't go along with Shawn comes Also
(04:12):
at the beginning, she was trying to get his skull affection.
That's what she wanted, and I think that she believed
playing along with his freak offs would make that happen.
And I can't crawl her head and figure out what
she was thinking. But nothing good, I continue that much.
(04:32):
Nothing good.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I tell you, there's a reality that she knew when
she tried to leave once his security chased her down,
And she knew when she dated a rapper that you know,
Sean Combs said, I'm gonna blow his gar up and
then shut up his car blew.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Up, got blown up. You're right, we.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Can get to me even if I'm not with him.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Well, and she was absolutely right, of course, So that
is what Cassy Material was dealing with. But the reality is,
for our purposes, the state has to deal with those issues,
and I don't know how they're going to deal with them.
These prosecutors don't normally do violent crimes like we call
(05:23):
them state crimes, because state court, the highest court in
every state, is the superior court, the felony court, and
violent crimes are usually relegated and handled by the state. Okay,
like you and me, they handle different types of cases.
(05:44):
So I'm sure they've got the sense to bring in
an expert in the batter women's syndrome. And it's blained
why she would go along with it. And I'm telling you,
you think, oh, I would never do that, Well that's
what I think. I would never do that, But I
don't know what I would do in order to keep
the twins.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
And when your life is on the line, of course,
you're going to try to get along and go along
and make things better. Maybe he won't beat me if
I'm agreeable.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I've got an example that was me. I had a
judge who shall remain name. What's one I'll tell you
off the air when I when I see you again
in the flesh well number one. It was a trunk.
Let's just start with that. Horrible and more import it,
horrible judge, all the wrong rulings. I would just sit
(06:35):
there and look at him, thinking, what are you doing.
I would have to zerox the law and then yellow
highlight it and then hand it to him to get
the right ruling. And then sometimes he'd be irritated that
I had to hand him as Zero's copy of the
wall because he didn't know it and rull against me. Okay,
I don't expect to be ruled with every time, but
(06:57):
when I give you the black and white letter of
the law and you still don't follow it, I mean.
He was horrible, but he was still a superior court judge,
and some of my cases would be asside to his court,
so I'll ever get he quote walked me to my
car one evening and then put a liplock on me.
The last thing I wanted was to kiss that saggy
(07:17):
old man. I just closed. I've never closed my teeth
tighter in my life. But what did I do? I
didn't want to be black bald, I didn't want to
lose my job, and I did not want any of
my cases with the other judges to be affected. So
I just shut the hay up and kept going. I
(07:40):
never mentioned it to a soul. I tried to avoid
his court room at all costs. I did whatever I
thought I had to do to quote, get through it.
I wasn't the only one, of course, you know, it
wasn't just me. But lot story short, you do what
you have to do. My cases were more important to me,
and that's how that worked out. So people may say,
(08:04):
why did you do that? I wouldn't to quote whatever
fill in the blank. But people do what they have
to do to get through. So somehow the state's got
to explained all that to the jury.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
How could a beautiful, young first grade teacher be stabbed
twenty times, including in the bat, allegedly die of suicide? Yes,
that was the medical examiner's official ruling after a closed
door meeting. He first named it a homicide. Why what
happened to Ellen Greenberg a huge American miscarriage of justice.
(08:45):
For an in depth look at the facts, see what
happened to Ellen on Amazon. All proceeds to the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
When he beat her in the hotel, Sean Holmes tried
to buy off the police officer with a water cash.
He tried to buy you know, miss Vanjura off with
twenty million dollars. He wanted everybody to keep quiet, and
he kept blackmailing people. And let me just say this,
and I hope the prosecution brings this out. There were
a bunch of people that were abused. He was violent
(09:22):
toward other people, and grown men kept quiet. So it
wasn't just her, It wasn't just the girl. There were
grown men that never talked about him holding people over
a balcony and beating people and raping people and all
the other things that happened during these freak offs that
injured people. And you and I talked a long time
(09:43):
ago that we knew there were drivers and assistants and
housekeepers and all these people that had to see evidence
of these things. And I think they have laid a
beautiful foundation. They have done an incredible job with the victim.
She was stellar, So.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Now where are we going from there? Now? Geargos and
I have gotten into it now, I think on three occasions,
he keeps claiming what she was running away from the
interc Intercontinental Hotel, beating that she was running away because
she had become aggressive on Combs after being jealous and
(10:25):
having an outburst about him getting text from another woman.
She says she was running away from a free cough
and she didn't want to do it anymore. Now, how
can we corroborate what she is saying and disapprove? Geargho
says his daughter is the main trial lawyer for Comes
Tenny Gearghos, and how are we going to do that?
(10:49):
This is how I think we're going to do that.
When the security guard went to the room to help
Cassie get her bags, he saw at least one other
mail in the room, so that corroborates cassie story that
Comes was forcing her to have sex while he watched
(11:11):
and masturbated or whatever he did that supports that corroborates
her story. Now, I don't know if the state has
found that mail. I hope they have so he can
further corroborate Cassy story. Now we keep hearing Harrol in
the knees. Yes, they've proven Sean Comes as a vile person,
(11:33):
but have they proven their case? What a lot of well,
and they shouldn't get it. What lay people don't get
is the state's case is a ridico normally reserved for mobsters,
drug enterprises ahead that you know, think about Sopranos. That's
the easy way to do it. Tony Soprano ran the organization.
(11:55):
It was a loose confederacy of thugs to carry out
in criminal purpose. Their purpose was murderer, drugs, strip bars,
laundering money, theft. That was their purpose. Okay, In this case,
Antoni Soprano was the head of the snake. In this case,
Seawan Combs is the head of the snake. And all
(12:16):
the people that worked for him. The quote security guard
that chased down Cassie Ventura physically dragged her back to Combs, Well,
that's part of the enterprise. The people that arranged travel
for sex workers from out of state, they're part of
the enterprise. Everybody that worked for Combs and knew what
(12:37):
was going on. If you bought baby oil, if you
did the lighting, if you did the video, you got
the GHB, gamma hydroxy but rate to drug the women.
If you did any of that, you're part of a
criminal conspiracy. So when they're talking about this bodyguard did this,
this person arranged travel, those are unindicted co conspirators the
(12:59):
state that's proving its case. People just right now, don't
see that. That's what that is.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
If you watch the video, when she's trying to leave
that hotel room, she in no way looks aggressive. She's
got a bag that she sits on the ground, she's
looking through it. She's waiting on the elevator to come.
He's the one that runs out of the towel. She
doesn't buck up on him. She in no way tries
to defend herself. She doesn't go after him. She's attacked again.
(13:30):
So that video is a money tree.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yes, you're right, that is the money tree. If you
want to call it that, you're right, it is. It's
pretty amazing. And another part of Gerrengos's argument is that
that she is the aggressor. She is the one giving
comes a good old fashioned technical legal term ass whipping. Okay,
(13:55):
that's that she is the aggressor. Oh, look to him.
I could not believe that.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
And said that, but he did, so yeah, it was
such a fight. His towel didn't even come on.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Come on now, And you know what we showed yesterday
on Crime Stories, which is let's see It aired last
night at sixty nine o'clock on merrit msm SO at
six o'clock sharp Eastern. It then goes to YouTube. We
played the rest of that video and I got to
tell you the rest of the video shows for she's
(14:28):
holding her face with one hand and she's holding up
her little left she can't weigh more than ninety pounds.
She's holding up her left hand to protect herself, holding
up that one little hand to try to keep fight
off Sean Combs who's beating the hay out of her.
(14:50):
So you know that just holding up that one little
hand just kind of broke my heart. Trying to defend herself.
I don't know, it just.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
It's just upsetting to me when he's kicking her and
then drags her back just around that corner. You know,
not only did that not in he was just getting
ramped up.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Oh yeah, totally just getting ramped up. So yes, I'm
with you on that. So you know, they've got a
lot of explaining that they've got to do. How are
they gonna do it? I'm not sure, but they're gonna
need an expert. I can tell you that much. I
can tell you that less. Cher I'm gonna call him.
And I do have to mention one thing.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
You have got something in your house right now that
you didn't have a week ago. You got double eagle
Scouts in your house. Congratulation.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
I can't believe it, Cheryl. I actually there were so
many times we'll see. I think they went from cubs
to eat, you know, to regular scouts. Got so when
they were in the sixth grade. So it's been six seven, eight,
nine eleven that they've been doing this, camping out every summer,
(16:08):
camping out in the winter, digging holes in the dirt
and cooking this amazing meal in a hole in the
dirt in the middle of nowhere. I'm talking about. They
know how to make apple cobbler in a hole in
the dirt. Lucy Uld pitch a tent faster than anybody
I know. And I'm really proud of something that John
(16:31):
David did a couple of years ago. They both got
there swimming Merrick Badge, which requires swimming one hundred and
fifty yards NonStop. And you know, when Lucy had to
take her tests, I jumped in the lake too. I
thought I was going to die, but that said I
had to keep going because everybody's watching me. Oh lord,
I can't and that up now. I don't know how
(16:53):
much lake water I swallowed, but I just kept going.
But John David went to a pool party in our neighborhood.
This was about two months after he had gotten his
swim merit badge, and a little boy who did not
know how to swim came to the party and jumped
in and nobody noticed he was drowning because you know,
(17:16):
music was playing there, playing games, everybody's yelling, there was
hot dogs being cooked, and the mom ran out. I
don't know that she could swim, but she saw him
and scream John David. Nobody heard her. John David looked
over and saw the little boy. He jumped in the
water and saved the little boy's life. That happened. I've
(17:38):
never been And of course he didn't even say anything
about it. The mom told me later, and then I
asked him and then he told me what had happened.
I'm so proud of him, and I'm so proud of
Lucy because you know how much she hates speaking in
public or doing anything in public. She's just very beautiful
and smart and articulate. She just I don't like to
(18:00):
speak publicly, that little thing. Oh. I love her so much.
When she did her Eagle project, it was making one
hundred blankets for the homeless to distribute through Trinity Kitchen
Trinity Missions in Inner City Atlanta, and she would at
(18:23):
each volunteer workshop workday, she would have to stand up
to a group it could be five people, it could
be fifteen people, and explain how to make these blankets.
Because part of Eagle is you don't do it on
your own. Part of the Eagle process is you enlist
(18:43):
other volunteers to help you, and then you manage a
project like a work site. I didn't know it's so complicated,
but I would just sit there and watch her and
she glanced. I repented me a couple of times, but
I didn't jump in like I wanted to. Oper She
did it on her own. She led one, two, three, four, five,
(19:08):
either five or six workshops, and I was so proud
of her because you know, she's like me, like at
a party or get together I'd rather be in the
kitchen and fixing the food or cleaning the dishes. Unless
I'm talking about a case, I don't really like to talk.
But she did it. I was so proud of her,
(19:28):
and you know, she had a chance. You know, you
can be a girl scout, no offense. They're awesome. But
her girl Scout trip was basically having cookies after school
and learning a craft. So she wanted to go on
five mile hikes and learn to swim one hundred and
fifty yards without stopping in a coal lake and pitch
(19:51):
a tint under the sky to start a fire with nothing.
I mean, she did all that, both of them did,
and I'd like to add to nobody asked. John David
won two sharpshooter awards. What was what they call the
quarter where you shoot five five shots at I forgot
(20:13):
how many one hundred feet into a quarter forty feet,
I don't know what it was. And then he won
the dime where he shoot ten shots into a dime
at the same distance. They're amazing. Of course, you know
how I feel how I feel about guns, but I'm
still proud of them. So they had really really I
(20:34):
don't know how I got so blessed. I don't know
how those two came out of me, but I saw
it happen. I know they weren't switched to birth. I
know that for a fact. So man, you guys, Eryl,
thank you for giving me a chance to brag on them.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
An amazing accomplishment. Absolutely, and the whole family earned it.
I'm just so was their scout masters.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
My goodness, Miss Leslie and mister Harry. I'm telling you,
they never gave up on the twins. They never judged
them when they missed meetings, and they missed meet a
lot of meetings over the years. They you know, they
just supported them the whole way. And just I can't
thank them enough. I really can't. Yep, Yeah, I'm proud.
(21:15):
I'm proud. You're gonna be at that eagle ceremony, you
know that, right. We're gonna put a big old Shending
in like we like to say, we're gonna put on
the dog.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
But on the dog that's been earned. Honey. Absolutely, I
believe in celebrating all accomplishments. This needs to have fireworks
and some pony rides.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
It is a big I see on the backside. See yeah,
I see you at the salad wheel.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yes, my love, Bye honey,