Man Arrested for Slapping Stranger`s Child
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight. Attention shoppers, felony on aisle number 7. A young mom and her 2-year-old little girl minding their own business at a local Wal-Mart when another shopper -- a grown man, for Pete`s sake -- complains about the little baby crying. Mommy moves to another aisle as the baby girl continues to cry. The man pursues then and slaps the baby -- not one slap, not two slaps, not three slaps, but multiple slaps across the child`s face. Then he saunters off like nothing happened. That`s until other Wal-Mart shoppers stopped him in his tracks. And now it`s time for him to get a slap in the face with a big, fat felony indictment.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Attack at Wal-Mart!</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 61-year-old Georgia man is facing child cruelty charges for slapping a woman`s fussy 2-year-old.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger Stephens was arrested Monday and charged with first-degree cruelty to children after allegedly slapping the 2-year- old four or five times in the face when she wouldn`t stop crying.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He didn`t hit her once, he hit her repeatedly.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stephens then allegedly told the mother, quote, "See? I told you I would shut her up."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is a 61-year-old thinking that he could slap a 2-year-old?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Matthews told police after the slapping, her daughter started crying and screaming. The police report says Stephens admitted to Gwinnett police he hit the child because she was crying and then apologized to the mom.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Judge denied bond after his first court appearance, and he`s going to be left to sit and think about this impulse that he acted upon.</s>GRACE: And live to Ohio. A drunk driver of barrels through a Walgreen`s parking lot, crashing head-on into a cement-based industrial light pole, continues weaving through residential streets. When cops finally catch up, the perp makes a run for it, hijacking a neighbor`s car to escape police. Problem? Other than drunk driving, of course, the perp leaves a 19-month-old little girl trapped in a smashed-up car, strapped helplessly into a car seat. That`s right, the perp is Mommy.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It starts with a smash-up at a Walgreen`s parking lot, but by the end, the cops find a 19-month-old baby girl left all alone in the back seat of her mom`s car. Twenty-one-year-old Lauren Story is facing charges of child endangerment, driving intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident. Cops say Story had her baby girl in the back seat of her damaged car the entire time, even when she attempted to take her neighbor`s car to escape the cops. After allegedly driving drunk, leaving the scene of an accident, and endangering her little girl`s life, Story walks out of jail.</s>GRACE: Also, live to Oakland in the desperate search for a missing 5- year-old boy afflicted with cerebral palsy, little Hasanni apparently vanishing from the back seat of a car just outside a shoe store at a busy suburban shopping center. Now, how can he just disappear and nobody sees a thing? In a stunning twist, police arrest foster dad and mom, the case no longer missing person, but homicide. Tonight, Hasanni`s foster parents released from jail -- repeat, released. They have walked free! And in the last hours, grainy surveillance video of the last known sighting of little Hasanni emerges, four full days before Daddy says he`s kidnapped. Tonight, where is 5-year- old Hasanni?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not a missing persons case anymore, this is a homicide investigation.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shortly before 7:00 o`clock, Louis Ross (ph) emerged from Santa Rita jail with the missing boy`s foster mother, Jennifer Campbell, by his side.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know I`m innocent and I know Louis is innocent. So it would be -- it was an utter shock to me the first time, and I`m sure if it happens again, it`ll be an utter shock.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do believe that Hasanni Campbell has been murdered.</s>GRACE: Mr. Ross, I understand that you did not pass your polygraph, is that true?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have been told that my results were that I failed it 99 percent.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The investigators released surveillance video from a Fremont (ph) Wal-Mart that shows Hasanni and his family on Thursday, August 6th. This was four days before Hasanni was reported disappearing, and police say it was the last time that Hasanni was seen by anyone other than his foster parents.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are continuing to put our efforts into solving this case and potentially rearresting Mr. Louis Ross or Jennifer Campbell.</s>GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Attention shoppers, felony on aisle number 7.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Georgia man faces up to 20 years in jail after allegedly slapping a 2-year-old child in the face repeatedly at a Wal-Mart Monday.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cops say a guy, a 61-year-old man, smacked a crying child at Wal-Mart. We`re talking about a 2-year-old crying in the frozen food section.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rogers Stephens warned the child`s mother to get the toddler to stop crying, saying, quote, "If you don`t shut that baby up, I will shut her up for you." A few moments later, the child`s mother says, Stephens grabbed her daughter and slapped her across the face four or five times, causing the child to cry and scream.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This act was malicious. How do you get more malicious than this?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He slapped the 2-year-old four or five times. You`ve got to throw the book at this guy.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stephens is being held without bond and faces charges of first-degree cruelty to children.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy has no material facts to justify his offense, and quite frankly, he`s a menace to society.</s>GRACE: Straight out to Eric Jens, WRGA Newsradio. Eric, thank you for being with us. What happened? How did this escalate into a grown man assaulting a little 2-year-old child, less than 2 years old, there in a Wal-Mart in public?</s>ERIC JENS, WRGA NEWSRADIO (via telephone): Yes. Thank you. I think that`s what a lot of people are asking themselves at this time. A 61-year- old man, Roger Stephens from Stone Mountain -- he`s now charged with first degree cruelty to children, and that -- for that incident that you talked about there, where he slapped a child repeatedly, four or five times. And apparently, there`s no discrepancy in that part of the story. He`s now in custody, and he`s going to be there until at least the 8th of September. That`s his next day in court.</s>GRACE: I want to go to Marlaina Schiavo, our producer on the story. Everyone, we are taking your calls live. Very quickly, before I go to Marlaina, to Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, author of "Deal Breakers." You know, a lot of people think it`s OK to slap children in the face. And I`m not saying I`m anti-spanking. I will burn that bridge when I get there. So far, we`ve gone two years with the twins and they have never done anything, in two years that warrants a spanking, in my mind. So I haven`t -- I have not experienced the compulsion, the need, to hit a child. But here, this is a complete stranger. And if people want to pooh- pooh it, this is how child homicides happen. The baby cries, the adult has no self-control, no impulse control, shakes the baby or he hits the baby, and the baby ends up dead.</s>BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: You know, Nancy, you just described it beautifully because what happens is there`s a curious reversal. The child cries, and the cry feels like an assault on the adult. So the adult then assaults the child. And did you notice that weird facial grimacing he`s doing in court? I wonder how that fits into the picture. He may have what`s called intermittent explosive disorder.</s>GRACE: Wait, wait. Put Marshall up. Dr. Marshall?</s>MARSHALL: Yes?</s>GRACE: Do you have even a shred, a shred, a scintilla of evidence to suggest this man has any type of psychological, mental or emotional problem, anything?</s>MARSHALL: You know, I don`t. But this is...</s>GRACE: Don`t. Did I hear that? Was that a no? So you`re making this up!</s>MARSHALL: No, but you know what...</s>GRACE: OK, go ahead.</s>MARSHALL: This is a difficult one to assess is when did he cross the line from mean old man to abuser to really an attack on a child? And with intermittent explosive...</s>GRACE: You really are sugar-coating it, Dr. Bethany, because this is not an instance of a mean old man. This is an adult male as an aggressor, following a mother with a child in a public place, like a grocery store, and attacking the child. It is completely unwarranted. In my mind, it is a felony. We are taking your calls. To Teresa in Tennessee. Hi, Teresa.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I just want to say I really do appreciate you. I watch you every night, and I love your opinion, your aggressiveness. But I want to talk about this 61-year-old man. He -- first of all, I am appalled. I am in shock. He should have walked away. I have done it many times. But my question is, was it caught on tape in the Wal-Mart store?</s>GRACE: Good question. Marlaina Schiavo, what do we know?</s>MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: We know, Nancy, that all we had were eyewitnesses in this case. There was no video surveillance in this part of the store, in this Wal-Mart. We do know...</s>GRACE: Wait. Are you telling me that every square inch of Wal-Mart is not covered in cameras?</s>SCHIAVO: Well, we don`t know if every -- well, obviously, no, not every square inch. There is surveillance, but there wasn`t surveillance, unfortunately, of this particular incident.</s>GRACE: Out to the lines. Tamara in Texas. Hi, Tamara.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.</s>GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First of all, I want to tell you what a good advocate you are for our children. But my question is, how can this man slap this child four or five times and they want to give him 20 years? I can`t understand that.</s>GRACE: So you think 20 years is excessive?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I think it`s not excessive enough. I think he needs more. I think it needs to be a felony.</s>GRACE: Well, it is. There is a felony charge against him. There are several charges. A felony, aggravated assault, or cruelty to a child in this case, is, in fact, a felony. But I can assure you, even if he got sentenced to 20 years behind bars, he wouldn`t do over, I would say, maybe a year, a year-and-a-half for this. And I want to just remind everybody that a lot of children die every year because the parent says, the caretaker says the child was screaming, the child was crying, and they shook the baby or they hit the baby and the baby fell, and the baby is dead. Out to Jordan Riak, executive director at Nospank.net. What about it, Jordan?</s>JORDAN RIAK, WWW.NOSPANK.NET (via telephone): Well, I think that we really should get to the basis of the problem, and that is that children should have the same legal protection against assault and battery that everyone else has. We`ve got a double standard. If one adult hits another, if that man hit one of the shopkeepers in that store or another adult, there`d be no argument about what he did. And of course, there`s no argument here now, either. You know, there`s no argument about the facts. But this man felt that he was -- that he was in his rights to assault a child.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 61-year-old Georgia man is facing child cruelty charges for slapping a woman`s fussy 2-year-old. Police say Roger Stephens told the mom if she couldn`t shut up her crying child, he would. Then he allegedly slapped the kid several times.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Attack at Wal-Mart. A 2-year-old girl was slapped in the face by a 61-year-old Georgia man who allegedly warned the child`s mother that if she couldn`t get her daughter to stop crying, he would do it himself.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They`re in the frozen food section. She`s got a terrible 2-year-old. She has to do her shopping. She`s confronted by a complete stranger in the store who says those terrible things, and then for him to come back and confront that child again and to strike her four or five times in the face?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If he could assault a child of that age for that kind of infraction of his arbitrary rules, then we have to wonder. We don`t know what he`s capable of, but we have to be very concerned. And I`ll tell you, slapping a child repeatedly in the face or the head like that can cause brain damage.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We look at the law when we are talking about a first-degree cruelty to children case, part of the elements is, did the defendant maliciously cause a child cruel or excessive pain?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, he had a choice, and the choice was he could have left the area. But instead, he wants the world to function the way he wants to function it, even if it`s a child in the terrible twos.</s>GRACE: Attention, shoppers, felony on aisle 7. A young mother is in a local Wal-Mart with her little child, a little girl. When the little girl`s crying bothers this man, he allegedly slaps the child multiple times in the face. No, they did not know each other. There was no prior argument, no confrontation whatsoever. We are taking your calls live. To Patricia in Maryland. Hi, Patricia.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. How are you?</s>GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do we know if this -- I hate to call him -- but a jerk -- does he have any priors for children, child abuse?</s>GRACE: Good question. Out to Mike Brooks, former fed with the FBI. Mike, what do you make of it? Does this guy have a record?</s>MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: You know, we don`t know if he has any record. I don`t believe he does, Nancy. But you know what? This guy -- just like everybody says, he could have walked away, but no, he`s going to use a 2-year-old as a punching bag? Look at this guy! I mean, he looks like he`s right out of central casting for "The Grinch." You know, I hope he`s nobody`s grandfather, that`s for sure.</s>GRACE: Well, Mike, I`ve learned a long time ago not to judge a book by its cover. Believe me, if all of us who have never won a beauty contest were charged with felonies, we`d all be in the pokey tonight.</s>BROOKS: But look at that guy, Nancy. Don`t you agree with me?</s>GRACE: I do know -- no, I don`t care what he looks like. I do know he had a 1999, I believe it was, conviction on DUI. He got one year probation. That`s so far as the records. I know...</s>GRACE: But you know, What Jordan Riak said earlier, the director of Nospank, at Nospank.net, I think is integral, is key here. If he had walked up to an adult, say the manager of that store, and slapped him or her four times in the face hard, where would he be tonight? What would the charges be tonight? Back out to the calls. Beth in New York. Hi, Beth.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. How are you, Nancy?</s>GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, listen, having a 15-month-old of my own, I can`t even tell you what I would do to this man. But does he have any children of his own? And is this -- has he ever done something like this to his own children?</s>GRACE: Good question. Marlaina Schiavo, I think everyone agrees he needs a little knuckle sandwich, no mayo, give him a little of his own medicine. However, he`s being treated well tonight behind bars with no bond. He`s got a cot and three -- three warm meals and a nice warm cot. Marlaina Schiavo, does he have children, grandchildren?</s>SCHIAVO: We don`t have any information on whether or not he has children at all, Nancy. All we know is that this man was not very kind to this child, and we do know that he did have that one prior conviction, but nothing -- no violence in his past, just that</s>DUI.  GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Susan Moss, child advocate, New York, Randy Zelin, defense attorney also out of New York, and joining him, New York attorney Paul Batista, renowned defense attorney, author of "Death`s Witness." Susan, weigh in.</s>SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: I don`t care how wild, you don`t beat another child, just go to another aisle. So much for that happy Wal- Mart smile. Look, you don`t know if this child...</s>GRACE: You really outdid yourself tonight.</s>MOSS: Well, you don`t know if this child was sick. You don`t know if this child is emotionally disturbed. You don`t know the reasons why this child might have been crying. There might have been a perfectly good reason. This guy just went for vigilante justice.</s>GRACE: Zelin?</s>RANDY ZELIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I`m dying to inject a little bit of common sense into this discussion. My God, as a former violent felony prosecutor, if you had a guy beaten with a pipe, a guy stabbed, a guy beaten with brass knuckles, and then you have somebody smacking your kid three or four times, that equates to the same level of punishment?</s>GRACE: Randy...</s>ZELIN: What has the world come to?</s>GRACE: If the best you can do is compare this to more heinous or more brutal attacks -- that`s the best you`ve got?</s>ZELIN: But that`s the punishment!</s>GRACE: Let`s analyze this case, Paul Batista.</s>PAUL BATISTA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You have to take Randy`s point very seriously. The idea that this man would be exposed to 20 years in prison for this conduct just distorts the whole legal system.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 61-year-old Georgia man is facing child cruelty charges for slapping a woman`s fussy 2-year-old. Police say Roger Stephens told the mom if she couldn`t shut up her crying child, he would. Then he allegedly slapped the kid several times.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You look at the age of the child, 2 years old, you look at the element of unreasonableness, what, crying, a 2-year-old? What`s more natural than that?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where was his judgment? What happened? He didn`t hit her once, which I find absolutely unacceptable anyway, he hit her repeatedly.</s>GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Back to Eric Jens, WRGA Newsradio. Eric, what are the charges against him tonight?</s>JENS: It is, Nancy, just that single charge of first-degree cruelty to children. I believe it`s just one count against him.</s>GRACE: OK. To Polly Franks, director of the Franks Foundation. She`s a crime victims` advocate. Polly, weigh in.</s>POLLY FRANKS, CRIME VICTIMS` ADVOCATE: : Nancy, I`ve raised three children. They throw temper tantrums. I may be in a wheelchair, but if I had been there, so help me God, I`d be in jail and this guy would be in the hospital.</s>GRACE: And then to just walk off, Dr. Bethany.</s>MARSHALL: Right.</s>GRACE: What does that say to you, just walk off like nothing happened?</s>MARSHALL: Well, what`s amazing to me is he actually stalked the child. He went after the child. As your other guest have pointed out, he could have left the store, but he was preoccupied with her. She was in his sights. And when he got his way, he took off. I really think there was something -- I know you`re going to disagree with me, but I really think that there was something wrong psychiatrically, like...</s>GRACE: I`m sure you do. OK, you think there`s something wrong with everybody psychiatrically. To Lenora in North Carolina. Hi, Lenora.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello?</s>GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, first of all, I would like to preface this by saying that he is a jerk, and there is no sense in ever, ever, ever treating a child in the manner in which he did. And yes, he could have walked away. But I would really like for you to go back to Dr. Bethany Marshall and ask her about what psychoses because it is just written on his face that there is something seriously wrong with...</s>GRACE: OK, Bethany. Here`s a second bite of the apple.</s>MARSHALL: OK, here we go. With intermittent...</s>GRACE: In a nutshell. In a nutshell.</s>MARSHALL: In a nutshell, he crossed the line between impulse and action, which shows that there could be problems with the prefrontal cortex. That is the braking system in the brain. Intermittent explosive disorder is when you have excessive aggression and irritability and there`s no way to hold it back...</s>GRACE: You know what? I appreciate that, but from where I come from, we call it...</s>MARSHALL: Child abuse.</s>GRACE: ... a horse`s ass, all right?</s>MARSHALL: OK.</s>GRACE: And no, I do not believe he`s going to do 20 years behind bars, but some judge wisely let him cool his heels behind bars tonight. He is on no bond.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That child had a belief that it was going to be safe and secure and everybody was going to act reasonably toward it. Now that`s been taken away.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A young Ohio mom smashes head-on into a light pole at this Walgreens` parking lot but she doesn`t call the cops or stop to check the damage. She just speeds away. Why? She was allegedly drunk at more than twice the legal limit. Somehow 21-year-old Lauren Story manages to make it back home. And that`s where the case takes a bizarre twist. According to a neighbor, he sees the young mom driving home, debris flying off her damaged car. But when the neighbor gets to Story`s home to help and cops show up, Story jumped into the neighbor`s truck and tries to take off. Not only is an open bottle of alcohol in the alleged drunk mommy`s smashed-up car but sitting in the backseat, Story`s 19-month-old innocent and helpless baby girl. And it looks like she has a story for cops tonight. Police say she admits driving with her little girl in the car. But denies the accident ever took place. So how did Story`s Blue Mercury Cougar get this kind of damage?</s>NANCY GRACE, HOST: Incredible. Drunk, drunk driving with a child, an infant strapped in the car seat, trapped in the backseat. Mommy crashes into a cement base industrial-strength light pole in a parking lot at Walgreens and keeps going. Pieces flying off of the car. She`s dragging along behind her. Then tries to hijack a neighbor`s car to get away from police. And oops, she forgot one thing. Ruh-oh. The baby she left behind to avoid a drunk driving charge. To you, Phil Trexler, joining us from "Akron Beacon Journal." What more can you tell me?</s>PHIL TREXLER, REPORTER, AKRON BEACON, JOURNAL: Well, I can tell you, Nancy, that the charges that she`s facing are plentiful. And she`s looking at well over a year in jail if convicted.</s>GRACE: Whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait.</s>TREXLER: What?</s>GRACE: Did you say one year? She`s look at one year?</s>TREXLER: More than. More than.</s>GRACE: OK. I`m glad to hear it, because a DUI will get you 12 months, much less leaving a child, a baby, an infant, abandoned, trapped in a smashed-up car in a -- strapped into a car seat?. Was is that? Wouldn`t that be abandonment of a child?</s>TREXLER: Well, looking at child endangering is what they`re calling it here, so far. Of course, this case has not been reviewed by a county prosecutor but right now she`s looking at child endanger, drunk driving, leaving the scene of an accident. Failure to maintain reasonable control and of course, seat belt violation for herself. Apparently, she was -- the one thing she did right was keep her daughter strapped in the car seat.</s>GRACE: Well, that`s good to know. The drunken cannonball flying through the parking lot in the neighborhood. At least had her kid strapped. What if that car had caught on fire? Ellie Jostad, what more can you tell me?</s>ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER, COVERING STORY: Well, Nancy, this neighbor who saw her driving by is, as you said, dragging parts of her car as she went. He says that he followed her into her driveway, parked right behind her. They got out. He said you could tell she was drunk. She started to talk about hanging out. She said.</s>GRACE: Wait, wait, so she`s drunk.</s>JOSTAD: Yes.</s>GRACE: The car is smashed.</s>JOSTAD: Right.</s>GRACE: The baby is strapped in the car seat and she`s talking, basically, coming on to the neighbor about getting together?</s>JOSTAD: Well, I -- I don`t know what she was saying exactly to the neighbor. He said she was talking about hanging out. So he said then she got into his car and he said you know what are you doing? He says oh, this is -- I`m getting in my car. And he said, it`s my car. He thought she was joking. She kept.</s>GRACE: So she was so drunk she tried to get into his car thinking it was hers?</s>JOSTAD: Right, and he said she kept insisting it was her car. When the cops got there she put it in drive. She would have driven forward and hit her own car, mind you with the baby in the backseat, if he hadn`t opened the door and physically stopped her from doing so.</s>GRACE: OK. Here`s the scary part. Tell me where, Ellie, is mommy tonight.</s>JOSTAD: Well, she was released on her own recognizance. The baby is with.</s>GRACE: She`s probably at home having a celebration drink.</s>JOSTAD: I don`t know. But the baby is with her parents tonight.</s>GRACE: We are taking your calls live. To Glynn Birch. Glynn is the forger national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. He lost his son, I believe, before he was even 2 years old, to a drunk driver. Here is Courtney. I can`t even imagine, imagine what you went through at that time of your life, Glynn. What do you make of Lauren Story, blood alcohol .205, over double the legal limit. Driving with baby in the backseat. Smashed up in the parking lot. Keeps weaving through the neighborhood. Other children playing near the street in the neighborhood. What about it?</s>GLYNN BIRCH, MADD FMR. NAT`L. PRESIDENT; LOST 21-MO-OLD SON TO DRUNK DRIVER; VP, INNOCORP, LTD.: Nancy, you know I don`t even want to go there. When you look at our children, this woman here has a child that`s 19 months old and driving, there`s no sense why a person, be it a mother or father, would ever step foot in their car with their child. You know, talk about child endangerment. That`s child abuse. Real child abuse. I can`t even phantom that. And then not only did she drive with the child but abandoned, or was about to abandon her child. Like I said you don`t even want to go there with it.</s>GRACE: You know, Glynn, just recently, I was back home in my hometown at a book signing for the new book "Eleventh Victim." And a lady waited in line. It was about four, five hours. And when she got up front, she asked me, how are the twins? And I told her. And I said, do you have children? She said I have twins. I lost them, I think she said 12 years ago, to a drunk driver. She opened up her wallet and in her wallet all of these years later, she had a picture of her twins. And here is not just a drunk driver but a mother drunk. Out of her gourd. Smashing into fixed objects and parking lots. Smashing up her car and leaving the child. Abandoned, strapped in, helpless in the backseat.</s>BIRCH: You know I don`t think people understand what a .02. mean. How much alcohol it takes to get a .20. But then, that`s enough alcohol as I talked about to abandon your child knowing that the police is there. And you know what I would venture to say this is not her first time of drinking and driving. This is her first time that she got caught, which means that she has a history now.</s>GRACE: Now isn`t it statistically true, Glynn Birch, that for every DUI arrest, the person has driven drunk how many times?</s>BIRCH: On average of about 80 times. Before they`re caught.</s>GRACE: Everyone, we are showing you to the left of your screen this little baby lived. This 19-month-old child lived. But we are showing you children that were not so lucky. Children that lost their lives to drunk drivers. Much less a drunk mommy. Everyone, the verdict is in. Tonight`s winner of our "Number One Fan" contest. Texas friend, Evelyn. She`s not the only fan at home. Her 8- year-old little girl Alyssa also never misses a show. They even watch on weekends. Congratulations, Evelyn. You get a copy of the new thriller, "Eleventh Victim" I want to thank you, Ellen and Evelyn, and to your little girl who was absolutely beautiful. Alyssa, follow your dreams, dear. And tonight, at your request, photos of the twins. I`ll post these on the Web. Hope you like them. Here they are on our local -- local church in the mornings. As you will note they still have on their pajamas. It`s about 6:30. There`s Lucy. Water acrobat. There they are, they`re actually sitting at a table briefly like civilized humans. They loved to run and around this tree. This is all happening at about 6:15 a.m. They`re very early risers. And they want to go straight outdoors. There`s my brother and his wife playing at the train track. They`re fixated on fire hydrants. Lucy wearing my shoes. This is one of their first days at playschool. They`re kicking back. Uncle Mack. Lucy in flip-flops. My favorite. Lucy jumping out of the wind over her playhouse. That`s her new favorite thing. And John David following behind. In our swimsuits. Where`s that water coming from? July the 4th. And thank you, Target, for those great shopping carts. I promised you these. These are them for the first time on their tricycles. Here we are at Chick-fil-A comings down the Playstation. That`s Lucy. That`s the little pink blob up at the top. That`s a helicopter. And there is John Executive and my executive producer Dean trapped at the top of the Playstation. Here is Lucy with my new book.</s>JENNIFER CAMPBELL, HASANNI CAMPBELL`S FOSTER MOTHER: I know I`m innocent and I know that Louis is innocent.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ross talks about being arrested and interrogated by police. He said investigators tried to deceive him on Friday afternoon shortly after they arrested his fiancee at the Union City Bart Station without Ross` knowledge.</s>LOUIS ROSS, HASANNI CAMPBELL`S FOSTER FATHER: Jennifer was texting me back and forth. Her text messages didn`t make sense but I find out she wasn`t texting. They had her in custody. They had her cell phone texting me.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What were they texting you?</s>ROSS: Basically cautioning me to come out. Come get her at the Bart.</s>JOHN BURRIS, ADVISOR TO LOUIS ROSS AND JENNIFER CAMPBELL: I believe there was a homicide case for a long time. I think that they just adopted that position because they were not able to corroborate their own statements in what Mr. Ross said. I was pretty much shocked that they, in fact, arrested either one of them.</s>ROSS: I told them the same story that I gave the previous set of detectives. I told the same story I gave to other -- they got the same story but they were not happy with the story that they got. They wanted something else.</s>GRACE: Straight out to Sebastian Kunz, 910 KNEW, Green 960. Sebastian, the foster father and foster mother taken into custody. Everyone, you are seeing grainy surveillance video that has just emerged the last known sighting. I`m talking family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances, grocery stores, everybody. No one saw little Hasanni, a 5- year-old boy afflicted with cerebral palsy, for four days before daddy reports he`s been mysteriously kidnapped at a busy suburban shopping center. Sebastian Kunz, they`re arrested for homicide, but they`re walking free tonight. What happened?</s>SEBASTIAN KUNZ, REPORTER, KNEW RADIO, COVERING STORY (via phone): Well, basically it was Jennifer Campbell who was released on a lack of evidence on Monday. I think I told you that. And it was just yesterday that Louis Ross was released from custody, basically on the same grounds. They don`t have the evidence to hold them. And they did their best apparently. Louis Ross coming out adamant tonight, again, that he is not guilty and that he is vowing to continue the search for Hasanni Campbell.</s>GRACE: To Matt Zarrell, our producer on the story. Matt, it`s my understanding police kept hammering home to daddy that they knew for a fact this little boy, a 5-year-old, Hasanni, afflicted with cerebral palsy. He wears bracelets on his ankles. It`s very difficult for him to jump or run. Do they know for a fact he was never at that shopping mall, he was never near that shoe store? How do they know that?</s>MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE STAFFER, COVERING STORY: Well, they are saying that they know that now. What we do know is that dogs were there immediately after his disappearance. They did not pick up Hasanni`s scent in the lot where the car was that day.</s>GRACE: Matt Zarrell, explain to me again, the canine evidence. What did police say the scent dogs picked up or didn`t pick up?</s>ZARRELL: Well, the scent dogs went there and they did pick up Hasanni`s scent inside the BMW but they did not pick up the scent in the lot where the car was or moving away from the lot.</s>GRACE: Out to the lines, Julie in Kansas. Hi, Julie.</s>JULIE, CALLER FROM KANSAS: Hi. I was just wondering what has turned this into a homicide case instate of a missing person`s?</s>GRACE: It`s my firm belief -- let`s unleash the lawyers, Susan Moss, Randy Zelin, Paul Batista, and joining us, a special guest from San Francisco, renowned attorney, John Burris. He has been the legal adviser for Hasanni`s foster parents. Paul Batista, it`s my belief that after they interviewed these two, something about their stories didn`t hang. It didn`t -- mesh. It didn`t jive with the facts. The physical facts they know of because after they talked to these two, suddenly it becomes a homicide case.</s>PAUL BATISTA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, AUTHOR OF "DEATH`S WITNESS": Nancy, if they had physical facts, these two would still be in custody. They were arrested by the police. The police obviously.</s>GRACE: But, wait a minute, wait a minute.</s>BATISTA: . have a lot of real evidence.</s>GRACE: Put Batista up.</s>BATISTA: And they were released by the police.</s>GRACE: Batista, when I say physical evidence, it could be, for instance, their story doesn`t jive with whomever was inside the shoe store. If those people said well, none of this ever happened, or surveillance video reveals that they were not there. So that could be deemed physical evidence but that`s not necessarily enough, Randy Zelin, to prove a murder case.</s>RANDY ZELIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I`m going to return the compliment to Paul. They have nothing on these people. Zero. You could have held this guy if you wanted on endangering the welfare of a minor, for leaving the child alone. They are trying to get these people to say something. They have no body, no motive, no murder weapon. They have nothing. The voice of reason, homicide investigation. You`ve got me.</s>GRACE: Susan Moss?</s>SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY & CHILD ADVOCATE: I was also shocked that they let them go. I thought at least see a child endangerment charge. But the fact that a parent leaves a timeline that was given by these foster parents doesn`t seem to match up to the evidence. That`s what has caused the police to be so suspicious.</s>GRACE: To Dr. Michael Bell, he`s the Palm Beach County chief medical examiner. Doctor, police searched both the home and the car. What evidence would they had been looking for?</s>DR. MICHAEL BELL, PALM BEACH CO. CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER: Well, the most likely thing they`re going to look for is blood. Traces of blood. Any evidence of, perhaps cleaning up blood or residue like that.</s>GRACE: And Dr. Bell, if Hasanni has in fact been dead, as police believe since August 6th, the last known sighting by anyone, neighbors, relatives, anyone, you name it, what condition would his remains number now? Could you determine a cause of death?</s>BELL: Well, he`ll be decomposed. And if he`s out in the elements, he may begin to be skeletonized as well. But the cause of death may still be able to be determined.</s>GRACE: To John Burris, the legal adviser for Hasanni`s foster parents. John, I understood you came off the case. Are you back on the case now?</s>BURRIS: I never was off the case. If they were going to be charged with a crime acquired other lawyers I would had been off of that component, but they weren`t charged. They never were charged and I agree with everyone else that there was just no evidence to support this. I don`t believe there`s any factual evidence that the police have to categorically say they want a location, and there`s no evidence that the kid was dead between the 6th and the date of his -- of this alleged disappearance. So I think it`s all grasping at straws. Look, if they had evidence they could have kept it in. And the DA looked at what they had and realized there was just no evidence whatsoever. Certainly not the kind of evidence you can convict someone on. So I think the police ought to continue their investigation and let it go where it leads.</s>GRACE: Mike Brooks, what about it?</s>MIKE BROOKS, FMR. DC POLICE DETECTIVE SERVED ON FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: Nancy, that scent evidence of him being inside the car but they don`t find anything outside? It`s not adding up to me. And dad`s story and the polygraph, none of it`s adding up, Nancy.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will continue to follow up on leads. We strongly believe and we know for a fact that Hasanni Campbell never made to it Oakland on August 10th, College Avenue, at 4:15 as was previously reported.</s>GRACE: Straight out to the lines. To Coby in Missouri, hi, dear.</s>COBY, CALLER FROM MISSOURI: Hello, Miss Grace.</s>GRACE: Hi, what`s your question?</s>COBY: I`ve got a question and a comment.</s>GRACE: OK.</s>COBY: My question is, where -- where is the social worker in all of this and why hasn`t she done her job? And my comment is, this is a prime example of why the government needs to address the children in foster care system. People like us get lost in it and it`s no hope for them.</s>GRACE: Coby, you are absolutely correct. We only hear about many of these children in danger after they`re missing or dead. To Matt Zarrell. Matt, I think I`ve got you with me. How do they get placed with these people to start with?</s>ZARRELL: Well, Jennifer Campbell, the foster mother, is the biological mother`s sister. And Ross and Campbell stepped forward and were willing to take on the children. But unfortunately, it appears that Hasanni is now missing, presumed dead, and the 1-year-old sister`s custody has been taken away from them.</s>GRACE: And, Matt Zarrell, I asked the father about some angry e-mails he allegedly sent his wife. Just before Hasanni goes missing. But he told me that they were about a year old.</s>ZARRELL: No, they were actually from July 31st of this year, just a couple of days short of when Hasanni went missing. He threatened to leave Hasanni out on the Bart, which is the subway system for San Francisco.</s>GRACE: Everyone, the tip line, 510-777-8572. Let`s stop and remember Army Sergeant Velton Locklear III, 29, Lacy, Washington, killed Iraq. On a second tour. Left college to enlist. Awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Loved football, singing, cello, humble, had a heart of gold. Leaves behind parents Carmen and Velton Jr., a retired sergeant major, sister Julie and Lorie, widow Denise, children Nathan and Velton IV. Velton Locklear III, American hero. Thanks to our guest but especially to you for being with us. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend. END