http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/11/21/nancygrace.sued/index.html

Quote :

"On her show in September, Grace asked Duckett where she was on the day Trenton went missing. Duckett said she did not want those details to be made public. "Why aren't you telling us and giving us a clear picture of where you were before your son was kidnapped?" Grace asked. Later, she told Duckett she was not divulging her whereabouts "for a reason." "The spitfire questioning, fist-pounding and cross-examination tactics, all in hopes of obtaining a public confession, were despicable," said Eubank attorney Kara Skorupa. Just hours before the interview was supposed to air, Duckett shot herself in a closet of her grandparents' home, the attorneys said. "Even after learning of Melinda's death, CNN and the show's producers made the decision to air the interview between Melinda and Nancy Grace," Deratany said. "It was with complete disregard for the family and without their consent or authorization, which is morally repugnant." "Three or four hours after Mindy had died, I was still in a state of shock," Jerry Eubank told CNN affiliates WESH and WPTV. "I'm watching this woman banging the table and screaming about 'Why aren't you telling us this, or that.' She was judge, jury and executioner." "

SUMMARY: Woman has her son kidnapped. Nancy Grace offers to interview the woman to help her find her child. Nancy Grace gets the woman on her show and accuses her of murdering her own son. Woman commits suicide hours before the show is scheduled to air and CNN still airs the show anyway. Family sues CNN and Nancy Grace for causing the woman's death.

Personally, I think Nancy Grace is a loud-mouthed pretentious bitch so I hope the family wins.

11/22/2006 2:47:36 AM

I found the transcript of the taping and it's pretty clear that Nancy Grace had them pegged as murderers from the beginning. I'll quote out the best parts:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0609/08/ng.01.html

Quote :

"JOSH DUCKETT: I immediately started asking questions, and the officer that notified me had no information to give me, so I got dressed and left straight from my house and went straight to the Leesburg Police Department. GRACE: You got dressed. Why were you undressed? JOSH DUCKETT: I was in bed. I mean, I was ready for bed. GRACE: Where do you work? JOSH DUCKETT: So... GRACE: Where do you work? JOSH DUCKETT: I work for Doneright (ph) Electric in Wildwood (ph). GRACE: Do you get up early in the morning to go to work? JOSH DUCKETT: Yes. GRACE: What time do you get up in the morning? JOSH DUCKETT: I normally leave my house by at the latest 6:00 o`clock. GRACE: So you were already in bed at 9:45. How far away from the home do you live? JOSH DUCKETT: I`m an hour away from Leesburg."

Quote :

"GRACE: Out to Trenton`s father, Josh Duckett. Have you taken a polygraph? JOSH DUCKETT: Yes. GRACE: You pass it? JOSH DUCKETT: They didn`t say whether you pass or fail, but the response was favorable, they said. GRACE: What questions did they ask you on the polygraph? JOSH DUCKETT: Just if I knew where he was, if I had anything to do with it, just everyday questions that they would ask in case like this. GRACE: Did they strap you into the machine? JOSH DUCKETT: Yes. GRACE: Who was there? JOSH DUCKETT: FBI agents. GRACE: Did you have a lawyer with you? JOSH DUCKETT: No. GRACE: Did you feel like you needed a lawyer? JOSH DUCKETT: No, not at all. GRACE: Do you currently have lawyer? JOSH DUCKETT: No."

Quote :

"GRACE: Out to Melinda Duckett. This is Trenton`s mom. Melinda, have you taken a polygraph? MELINDA DUCKETT: I`ve spoken to the investigators, and Joshua is on the outside loop of it, and as far as the investigative techniques are concerned with polygraph, stress test, physical searches, interviews, et cetera, my family and I have fully cooperated with local law enforcement and... GRACE: Have you taken a polygraph? MELINDA DUCKETT: And locally, they don`t have enough necessary experience, and that`s why the FBI was called in to begin with. I`ve been instructed to only speak with them, with their unit, and anything that they release to the media or public is up to them. Now, as far as... GRACE: Have you taken a polygraph? MELINDA DUCKETT: ... or anything -- like I said, I mean, anything that I do or anything is in cooperation with them. I`m doing everything they want me to. But as far as details and everything, I mean, I`m leaving everything up to them. GRACE: Right. Have you taken a polygraph? MELINDA DUCKETT: I`ve done everything they`ve asked me to."

Quote :

"GRACE: Melinda, my producers tell me police say they offered you a polygraph and you haven`t taken it yet. MELINDA DUCKETT: Well, I`m not sure what the police are doing. I`m not working with the police. But everything with the FBI is being handled. GRACE: Have the FBI offered you a polygraph? MELINDA DUCKETT: I beg your pardon? GRACE: Have the FBI offered you a polygraph? MELINDA DUCKETT: Everything that they have done (INAUDIBLE) and asked and everything, we`ve cooperated with. Just like with my husband, obviously, you know, there`s nothing coming up with anything. GRACE: To Josh Duckett. That`s Trenton`s father. You say the FBI poly-ed you? JOSH DUCKETT: Yes."

Quote :

"MELINDA DUCKETT: We had been all through Lake county and up into Orange. GRACE: Doing what? MELINDA DUCKETT: Basically just shopping, going around driving. GRACE: Shopping where? MELINDA DUCKETT: Well we didn`t go anywhere specific. GRACE: Well I mean if you went shopping you had to go into a store. What store did you go into on Sunday? MELINDA DUCKETT: We went throughout the county. GRACE: Any store? I`m thinking of video cameras Melinda. I mean maybe they have a picture of someone watching you, following you back out to your car. I mean what store did you go to, Wal-Mart, JCPenney`s, what? MELINDA DUCKETT: I`m not going to get in any specifics. GRACE: Why? MELINDA DUCKETT: Because I`m not dealing with media very well. GRACE: Well can you remember where you were that day? MELINDA DUCKETT: I can remember perfectly well where I went that day. Just like I have spoken to the FBI with it. But as far as anything else goes we haven`t had very good dealings with any of them. GRACE: Well don`t you think it would be a great idea, for instance if you were at a local JCPenney`s or Sears Roebuck to tell the viewers right now this is where we were. Did you see anything? Did you notice anything? Here`s your child`s picture? Here`s my picture. Help me. Where were you? Why aren`t you telling us where you were that day, you were the last person to be seen with him? MELINDA DUCKETT: And we have already gone out and distributed the fliers and spoken to -- GRACE: Right, why aren`t you telling us and giving us a clear picture of where you were before your son was kidnapped? MELINDA DUCKETT: Because I`m not going to put those kind of details out? GRACE: Why? MELINDA DUCKETT: Because I was told not to. GRACE: Ms. Duckett, you are not telling us for a reason. What is the reason? You refuse to give even the simplest facts of where you were with your son before he went missing. It is day 12. MELINDA DUCKETT: (INAUDIBLE) with all media. It`s not just there, just all media. Period."

Quote :

"GRACE: Let`s go to Dr. Lillian Glass, psychologist. Weak spots? GLASS: This doesn`t make any sense to me. And the fact that she`s skirting around the issue and can`t get to the point concerns me a lot. Her reaction is not the typical reaction of a mother who has a missing child, whose child was taken from the bed when she says I don`t cry my eyes out. Most people would be emotional about it and the fact that she`s been skirting the issue through this entire interview concerns me."

Quote :

"KLAAS: Well yeah, you know Nancy, there is some really petty stuff going on here right now and I think -- GRACE: I don`t think it`s petty. I`m sure I understand what you`re referring to, but not giving details about the disappearance of your child that could help find him if I may add, if he is still alive, I have a big problem with that. KLAAS: Nancy, in these kinds of cases the media is never the problem. The media is always a friend, it`s about sharing information. It`s about transparency, it`s about working with the authorities. It`s about working with the media and it`s about getting over that hump that people are looking at you. And quite frankly, Melinda is not doing that very well at all. GRACE: Marc, let`s just get real. And I don`t want to bring up any painful memories for you or Mark Lunsford. Ok, you know that, I would never do that to you. But the reality is, this is day 12. The reality is this child statistically is very well dead. And for that mother not to cooperate and not to give a timeline doesn`t make sense to me."

11/22/2006 3:08:37 AM

wow...even more reason for me to never watch that piece of shit show again. what a fucking waste of time. she is not a cop...it's not her job to personally investigate every missing child in america. she needs to let the authorities do their jobs and let the families cope with their tragedies without being harassed.

is she responsible for that woman's death? i don't know, but she is definitely a pretentious bitch.

11/22/2006 3:27:53 AM

After the family of four was murdered on the tollway in Florida I caught a show of her interviewing investigators and ex-cops about the case.

They all were saying that they needed to find out more about the family's history and what went on before they moved to Florida 2 weeks prior to the murder.

Nancy Grace bitched them out because they wanted to find out more about the victims instead of wanting to find out who killed them.

I wanted to bitch slap through my TV.

11/22/2006 3:40:52 AM

It's an interesting case. In general I think Nancy Grace should lose, and lose big.

The obvious counterpoint to the family is that the media is a public market of ideas and, well, entertainment, and therefore Nancy Grace was entitled to her free speech rights and the network to its agenda. Caveat emptor for the woman who went on the show; she bought and she lost.

For me, though, I look at the situation and think -- what gross negligence. If someone is standing on a ledge, ready and willing to jump, and you stand below yelling "Jump! Go ahead, I dare you!" -- well, that's way out of bounds. That is the very definition of yelling fire in a crowded theatre.

Clearly someone interviewing a distraught mother on national television has some responsibility for her emotional state. It's not a total responsibility; a media interview isn't supposed to be pleasant. But playing judge, jury, and executioner, cross-examining the woman -- well, that's unethical in the worst case and borderline criminal in the best.

Maybe Ms. Duckett was responsible, but even that wouldn't clear Grace of this charge. The law rightfully considers suicide an abortion of justice; that's why, for instance, there are suicide watches.

So much for closure.

11/22/2006 4:02:29 AM

Personally, I think Nancy Grace is a loud-mouthed pretentious bitch so I hope the family wins.

11/22/2006 7:16:14 AM

Quote :

"Personally, I think Nancy Grace is a loud-mouthed pretentious bitch so I hope the family wins.but since that isn't illegal in this fantastic country, I hope they don't award the family shit."

11/22/2006 7:44:15 AM

being a supposed former prosecutor or judge or whatever, she should have stopped her line of questioning here:

Quote :

"MELINDA DUCKETT: I`m not going to get in any specifics. GRACE: Why? MELINDA DUCKETT: Because I`m not dealing with media very well. GRACE: Well can you remember where you were that day? MELINDA DUCKETT: I can remember perfectly well where I went that day. Just like I have spoken to the FBI with it. But as far as anything else goes we haven`t had very good dealings with any of them. .... MELINDA DUCKETT: Because I`m not going to put those kind of details out? GRACE: Why? MELINDA DUCKETT: Because I was told not to. "

now i'm not sure why Duckett was on Nancy Grace to begin with (i guess the original idea was to raise awareness or something), but obviously anybody who's right in the middle of a federal investigation has countless rules from their lawyers and the FBI of what they should and shouldn't make public at that time. Grace should have accepted "The FBI instructed me not to discuss details of the case with the media" as an answer and shut her mouth.

11/22/2006 9:33:37 AM

Yes, she should have stopped asking her right there, because she was told not to mention it. But I don't see how that makes her liable for this ladies suicide. Nearly every person who commits suicide has a reason, but we're not going to start suing people who turned them down for the prom or called them ugly. This is absolutely frivolous.

11/22/2006 9:40:50 AM

but i think we can all agree that she is, at the very least, a huge bitch

11/22/2006 9:41:39 AM

ManLaw

11/22/2006 9:46:20 AM

Somebody should interview Nancy Grace and grill her about pushing a depressed, desperate mother over the edge.

11/22/2006 11:54:52 AM

Quote :

"Personally, I think Nancy Grace is a loud-mouthed pretentious bitch so I hope the family wins."

11/22/2006 12:24:14 PM

I've seen follow up shows since where she clearly says that the suicide is proof of guilt.

11/22/2006 1:08:41 PM

oh my god.

11/22/2006 1:24:43 PM

"if anything, i would suggest that guilt caused her to commit suicide"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=f62sqnii7zc

11/22/2006 1:42:26 PM

Oh god...

"And police are agreeing with me now...."

"And for an hour, Melinda Duckett would not take a polygraph..."

"No I do not [feel responsible]."

The entire clip ^ is basically a smear campaign by Grace against the woman instead of apologizing for hard-lining the woman on TV.

What a total bitch..... seriously how does she sleep at night? The reporter is like "do you feel there is any responsibility?" nancy completely dodges the question and launches into saying that guilt caused her to commit suicide....

11/22/2006 2:08:54 PM

Not to mention, at the beginning of the interview she defended the clip by saying something like "that was a short clip taken at the very end of a nearly hour long interview", then a minute later she she defended herself by saying that there is no way her "15 to 20 minute interview" could have caused suicide

11/22/2006 2:11:26 PM

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8O_F8_Fl9oE&mode=related&search=

aahahah this clip is great

"Nancy Grace is the BIGGEST BOTTOM FEEDER ON ALL OF TELEVISION."

"I dont care if the woman did kill her, you don't do that on TV"

"Nancy Grace trades decency for ratings..."

"It is digusting and if CNN had ANY decency they would pull the plug on this woman."

11/22/2006 2:13:16 PM

Oh and:

http://www.nancygraceisastupidbitch.com/

11/22/2006 2:18:51 PM

^^ hmm, best thing i've ever seen on Fox News (which, of course, is no coincidence is a CNN competitor, and is not much better themselves by having blowhards like O'Reilly and Hannity on their onw chanel....)

11/22/2006 2:37:31 PM

God, I think the bitch is heinous too, but honestly

Quote :

"What a total bitch..... seriously how does she sleep at night? The reporter is like "do you feel there is any responsibility?" nancy completely dodges the question and launches into saying that guilt caused her to commit suicide...."

Do you really expect someone who is being sued over it is going to go on record saying "It was probably my fault"??

Come on now.

11/22/2006 3:17:22 PM

She even acted like a bitch on Celebrity Jeopardy.

11/23/2006 1:04:22 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q51UZvGrRks&NR

"nancy grace, you are a big bitch"

11/23/2006 10:31:54 AM

gg to that (^) guy that called in

i want to bitch slap her so bad

11/23/2006 9:57:08 PM

nancy grace - one hell of a troll job

A++++ Poster

11/24/2006 1:19:53 AM

so did they end up finding the son?

11/24/2006 1:24:22 AM

Yeah, he was in the mom's trunk.

just kidding, I don't know.

11/24/2006 8:21:16 AM

nancy grace killed the son too, it makes perfect sense

seriously though, she can go ahead and die

11/24/2006 5:44:50 PM

at least shes hot

11/24/2006 5:50:07 PM

I'm not a big fan of Nan since her foul treatment of the Duke Lacrosse victims - but it's clear in this matter that legally, there is no case.

Dismissed.

11/24/2006 11:33:07 PM

really. woman kills herself. and the family sues nancy grace over it? wow. just. wow.

11/25/2006 10:51:34 PM

^If someone is standing at the edge of a building and you yell "jump!" are you not responsible?

11/26/2006 1:09:17 AM

^ no, you are not responsible


the person on the ledge has the choice to either jump or not jump nobody else can choose for them


and youre ridiculous if you think otherwise

[Edited on November 26, 2006 at 1:20 AM. Reason : f]

11/26/2006 1:17:50 AM

unless you startled them and they fell off, then I think you would have some part in it

11/26/2006 2:03:53 AM

i don't think they have much of a case against her. i think yelling "jump" is a poor analogy, as nancy grace wasn't encouraging suicide, just being a bitch.

11/26/2006 7:07:38 AM

Yeah, seriously, its more like someone is standing on a roof because they lost their keys up there and you call them a jackass and they go jump.

That is not your fault.

11/26/2006 11:26:02 AM

thats a much better comparison

because baby=keys

11/26/2006 4:48:08 PM

Fine, substitute keys for baby and the comparison still works.

11/26/2006 7:02:14 PM

Quote :

"i think yelling "jump" is a poor analogy, as nancy grace wasn't encouraging suicide, just being a bitch."

How was she not encouraging suicide? Get real, dude.

Let's assume for a second the mother was innocent. Her son is gone and very possibly not coming back. Then she goes on TV in a desperate effort to get him back. Then Nancy Grace tries to make her look like a killer to all of America; she can't handle the pressure. Because, uh, you know, losing your son is kind of a seriously traumatic event?

And that's not encouraging suicide? What would be? Nancy Grace actively handing her pills on the set?

Of course if she were guilty, the encouragement aspect is even more obvious. At any rate, it was a situation to be handled delicately and Nancy Grace, well, didn't. There's culpability here. Having said that, the resident lawyer is probably right; there's no way the family will win. Our society's track record with holding the media accountable for anything is pretty bad.

[Edited on November 27, 2006 at 5:30 AM. Reason : foo]

11/27/2006 5:29:41 AM

Quote :

"How was she not encouraging suicide? Get real, dude."

Because it wasn't encouraging suicide. She asked her where she was the night her son disappeared and why she wouldn't talk about it. Now, she was a bitch about it, but it certainly didn't encourage suicide.

The only reason you think it is encouraging suicide is because the woman killed herself. Had she killed someone else because the pressure was too much, would it then have been encouraging homocide? Get real, she was being a bitch to her, but deciding to off yourself about it is not the fault of the bitch. Culpability my fucking ass. People like you are what is wrong with America.

11/27/2006 8:00:04 AM

Quote :

"How was she not encouraging suicide? Get real, dude."

let's ask nancy grace if she knew that duckett was suicidal before the interview took place. if she did, then perhaps i could see that she yelled "jump".

11/27/2006 9:05:16 AM

^That would make sense. If before she came on they told Grace "This bitch is about to off herself, go light" then I can see a culpability argument. Without a hint of that, she couldn't have known she would go off herself over it.

11/27/2006 9:06:46 AM

The part that bothers me is that before she even came on the show Nancy Grace had decided that she was definitely guilty and thought that she could get great ratings if she could get this woman to confess or to at least make herself look like a murderer on tv. The fact that she would ambush a grieving mother, guilty or not, is pretty horrible.

Nobody even did that to OJ.

11/27/2006 10:20:08 AM

Horrible = yes
Liable = no

11/27/2006 10:51:58 AM

if there is a hell, nancy grace is going there.

11/27/2006 2:35:24 PM

Quote :

" The only reason you think it is encouraging suicide is because the woman killed herself. Had she killed someone else because the pressure was too much, would it then have been encouraging homocide? Get real, she was being a bitch to her, but deciding to off yourself about it is not the fault of the bitch. Culpability my fucking ass. People like you are what is wrong with America."

First off, you don't know shit about me. So stop being a stupid punk. I've been posting on these boards for almost six years. Go search and get a good cross-section of my views before you talk about "people like me."



For another thing, what you're saying doesn't make any goddamned sense. Any reasonable person with any amount of common sense can see that when someone is severely traumatized and is then dragged through the dirt on national television, they may very well commit suicide. There is a direct, well-known, causal link between the feeling of helplessness and suicidal thoughts. It's called severe depression.

Nancy Grace wasn't just "being a bitch." She was insinuating on national television that this woman killed her son. Let's not mince words here. And therefore, she was very much intentionally creating that causal link between helplessness and suicide.

If "people like you" -- whomever "you" are -- believe the media has no special responsibility to people in times of distress, then that's just sad. Your head is buried too far up your ass to see anything.

Hell, let's take your position to its logical conclusion -- let's just turn CNN into al Jazeera and broadcast some dead, dismembered troops. Then when the grieving family members complain, we can all just sit back and say that the media was "being a bitch."

[Edited on November 28, 2006 at 3:15 AM. Reason : foo]

11/28/2006 3:14:14 AM

Quote :

"Hell, let's take your position to its logical conclusion -- let's just turn CNN into al Jazeera and broadcast some dead, dismembered troops. Then when the grieving family members complain, we can all just sit back and say that the media was "being a bitch.""

Lets take your position to its logical conclusion. If they cancel Barney and you feel helpless about it so you throw yourself in front of a train, it is the fault of the producers that canceled the show.

GFTO with your bullshit. There is no culpability here. Sorry that she offed herself for her depression, but I wonder if its going to come back that she was busy smoking crack when her son was taken OR that she may have actually been involved. In that case, it was guilt driving her to suicide. The only thing Nancy Grace might have encouraged is assault on Nancy Grace.

You've been here 6 years? Whoopdie fucking do, I can tell that you are what's wrong with America simply from your stance on this issue. The whole country is so fucking litigious and thin-skinned that it is ridiculous.

11/28/2006 7:25:26 AM

^

Quote :

"If they cancel Barney and you feel helpless about it so you throw yourself in front of a train, it is the fault of the producers that canceled the show."

The producers of a show can't reasonably think someone would kill themselves because they cancel the show. No sane person does that, unless they're just fucked up.

Someone under severe stress who goes in front of the nation and is then knowingly lambasted -- after having her expectations set otherwise -- well, duh.

Why is this so hard to understand? I don't get it. Why?

Quote :

"I can tell that you are what's wrong with America simply from your stance on this issue. The whole country is so fucking litigious and thin-skinned that it is ridiculous."

Where the fuck did you come from?

11/30/2006 3:26:31 AM

It is so hard to understand because you're incorrect. How is THAT so hard to understand?

11/30/2006 7:25:17 AM