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PRIMETIME JUSTICE WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Off-Duty Cop Versus Rude Teens/Man Caught on Video Brutally Whipping 7-Year-Old. Aired 8-8:30p ET

Aired February 23, 2017 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST (voice-over): An off-duty cop fires off a round after being knocked to the ground by a group of teenagers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Someone came and they shot (INAUDIBLE) and he shot the gun there.

BANFIELD: Police say it all started because someone stepped on his lawn, hundreds taking to the streets in protest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whose streets? Our streets!

BANFIELD: But was the cop out of line, or is this just another case of teens behaving badly?

Shocking doesn`t even begin to describe it, this man caught on video hitting a 7-year-old not once, not twice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He struck this child 62 times.

BANFIELD: And it didn`t take police long to track him down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`ve been charged with assault of a child.

BANFIELD: Why officers say he pulled out that belt in the first place.

A desk-flying (ph) argument inside a Florida school, a teacher suspended after grabbing a student who hit him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to be supported by our superiors, and that`s not happening.

BANFIELD: Could a judge`s ruling put Coach Joe (ph) back in the classroom?

A mom says her son bumped into a classmate at school and wound up like this. Body slammed and knocked unconscious, this 12-year-old had broken

bones to his face and bleeding on his brain. What can be done to stop kids attacking kids?

An urban legend or something truly sinister?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw a flannel on my windshield.

BANFIELD: A flannel shirt stuck to a woman`s windshield. Is this how criminals are luring women out of their cars?

A DUI stop like none you have ever seen! An accused drunk driver can`t seem to walk a straight line, but she sure can do cartwheels!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Hello, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is PRIMETIME JUSTICE.

When you were growing up, you probably heard somebody yell at you or your friends, Get off my lawn. And that`s exactly what may have led to a very

bad fight between an LAPD cop off-duty and a group of teenagers. But this was not your typical neighborhood dispute. That officer grabbed a

teenager, pulled a gun and fired it. Nobody was hurt, but the neighborhood is rattled, and the whole thing is pitting angry adults against misbehaving

teens.

Somebody shot almost the entire incident on a cell phone. But I do want to warn you about this. The language is pretty salty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me go. You`re not a cop. You`re not a cop. If you are, are you going to hurt me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) you hear?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I heard you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then why you got (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You back up! You`re the one (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) (INAUDIBLE)

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s just a kid!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Police say the off-duty officer told them that he thought he heard that teenager say, I`ll shoot you. But the kid says he threatened to

sue him, not shoot him. And you can hear him explain that a little later on in the tape, too.

But that incident sparked hundreds of people to take to the streets last night in Anaheim, and the protests were definitely heated, and they got

violent, too, with people smashing windows, damaging cars and then spraying graffiti on a neighbor`s house.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is no justification for somebody to pull a gun out! And that -- he pulled it out and around a crowd of children. Those

are all children. If he is a police officer, he should know better!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A child should not be handled like that. Like, as a child, like, as a young person myself, like, I`m being empathetic towards

that situation. It`s appalling. It`s disgusting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Police say about two dozen people ended up arrested, everything ranging from misdemeanor charges, failing to disperse, resisting arrest and

all the way to battery of an officer. Wow! Pretty intense pictures coming out of Anaheim.

[20:05:08]John Baird is a reporter for KNX 1070 news radio, and he joins me live now from Santa Monica. So John, help me understand how we ended up in

this circumstance in the first place because as reports started coming in, it appeared this wasn`t the first time, that there was bad blood between

the kids and this officer.

JOHN BAIRD, KNX 1070 (via telephone): Well, apparently, from what we understand, they have been mixing it up over the fact that they kept

crossing his lawn. He didn`t like it. But they wouldn`t go around. That`s what we understand was the source of the dispute.

And then something boiled over on Tuesday afternoon when he got into it with the teens. He then says that that kid, the 13-year-old, threatened to

shoot him, so he grabbed him. And you saw the video -- long time he`s pulling him down the street. It didn`t actually happen in front of his

house, it happened a few houses down.

So he`s got this pack of kids, these teenagers, surrounding him as he`s pulling this kid. They`re trying to free the kid. In fact, some of them

throw some punches at the officer. One of them charges the officer. And then at some point, when he feels threatened, he kind of kneels down, he

pulls his gun down and he fires a shot into the ground. The kids scatter.

And then after that video goes viral, I mean the place just goes crazy. The big protests started, and last night, there was the vandalism. So

that`s how we got to this place right now.

BANFIELD: All right, so I`m going to get into it in a little bit regarding, you know, what the officer did, what the LAPD says he`s allowed

to do, warning shots, et cetera. But before I do that, you mentioned something key. This happened down the way, I believe, from his house. And

I think we have a picture of some of the vandalism. Someone spray painted a garage with pretty awful stuff. And it wasn`t his garage. I think it

was a neighborhood -- a neighbor`s garage. Do you know, like, who got vandalized and why?

BAIRD: Well, basically, we interviewed that neighbor, and he told us that he had come back to his house last night. It was sometime I think around

dinnertime, and the police told him that he needed to get out because they had heard rumblings that his -- he was being threatened. His house was

being threatened.

And the thought was it was a case of mistaken identity, that the teens thought that the officer lived there. And from the thing that was scrawled

on the garage, you would think that was probably true. But they threw a big rock through his window and spray-painted graffiti on the garage at

this house down the block, and it didn`t even belong to the officer.

BANFIELD: All right, hold on for a second. I want to bring in Sergeant Daron Wyatt. He`s the public safety information officer for the Anaheim

Police Department. Hey, Sergeant, thanks for being with us tonight. Can you help me understand what the circumstance is regarding this off-duty

officer? What is his story?

SGT. DAMON WYATT, ANAHEIM POLICE DEPARTMENT: Hi, Ashleigh. So the incident began around 2:40 in the afternoon on Tuesday afternoon. This

officer lives in that area. He`s had ongoing issues with juveniles walking across his lawn. There have been prior verbal confrontations about this.

On Tuesday afternoon, a group of juveniles walked across his lawn again. That resulted in a verbal altercation. Ultimately, the 13-year-old boy who

was arrested later that afternoon is alleged to have told the off-duty officer that he was going to shoot him, and he had his hand in his pocket.

At that point, the off-duty officer had already called the Anaheim Police Department. We were on our way. But the juvenile began walking away. He

decided he was going to detain him until we arrived.

It`s really at that point, several minutes after the incident begins, that this videotape that`s gone viral begins. So the video does not show all of

the incident that occurred. It only shows that portion once the officer has already put his hands on the juvenile in what he says is an attempt to

detain him until our officers could arrive on the scene.

BANFIELD: So what is the circumstance for that officer? If he felt threatened, does he have the right to pull a gun and fire a shot? I`m only

going to guess here that he`s saying this is a warning shot. Is he even allowed to do that?

WYATT: Well, I`m not going to get into policy and procedures of the Los Angeles Police Department and warning shots, et cetera. What I can tell

you is that this is really based more on the legal actions or the law as it applies to making a citizen`s arrest, detaining somebody and then

protecting yourself through the means of force.

And again, this is an ongoing investigation. My statements are not designed to condone or justify the actions. I`m just saying that we`re

continueing to investigate. We`ll present the entire package to the district attorney`s office, and they`ll be the ones who make the

determination as to whether this rises to the level of a criminal action on his part and be charged.

Many people -- we`ve seen the same video. We`re also very concerned by it, but we have the luxury of having more information, including the body

(INAUDIBLE) camera video from our officers who responded, the statements from all of the parties involved.

[20:10:00]So that`s kind of where we`re at. That`s why he wasn`t arrested that day and the juveniles were because we had clear, convincing evidence

that they had committed a crime. On his part, there wasn`t convincing evidence that his actions had lead to the level or risen to the level of a

crime at that point. We`re still investigating.

BANFIELD: OK. So understanding the two that were arrested were a 13-year- old and a 15-year-old. One of those arrested was the one in the hold, and the other one, as I understand it, was the one who did that sort of bull

(ph) charge.

I do want to play one piece of tape, if I can. And that`s of the 13-year- old who was in that hold, as he describes what the incident was like for him. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He tackled me and he was (INAUDIBLE) and he had me -- he was choking me like this on the ground. And then I managed to, like,

escape it. But it took -- we were right there, and then had me, he still had me on, but I pushed him. I was, like, keep on pushing him. Someone

came (INAUDIBLE) make him let go of me, and that`s when he -- he was trying to pull (ph) me and he shot the gun near me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: OK, want to bring in real quickly Rachel Kugel and Joey Jackson on this. You heard the sergeant describe his circumstance. Obviously, the

investigation continues. I`m not surprised that that`s where they are with that, but that officer hasn`t been charged.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN/HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Right.

BANFIELD: What are the odds that officer will be charged? what are the odds he had the right when he started to feel closed in on to fire a

warning shot?

JACKSON: No odds. And I want to separate two things quickly. Number, one protesting is fine. First Amendment rights, OK, but to be, you know,

ruining things and criminal mischief, that`s unacceptable.

But I want to segue that out from what the officer`s conduct was. You`re not allowed -- I don`t know what happens in California, but in New York,

you don`t fire warning shots. Why? Because someone could be hurt, someone could be killed.

I`m concerned about this incident, Ashleigh, on multiple levels. Who`s the adult, who`s the child, who`s trained, who`s not? Who knows about

deescalation and who doesn`t?

And when you have an officer who`s drawing his firearm and then it`s discharged, this could have led to horrific consequences. And I don`t

think there is justification for it. I won`t prejudge...

BANFIELD: I hear you.

JACKSON: ... but I`m very concerned about it.

BANFIELD: I hear you, but children are children. And when you have a group of teenagers, it`s not so much children anymore, and he might have

felt threatened. Is his perception critical here?

RACHEL KUGEL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It`s critical. However, I`ve watched that video. I`ve watched it in its entirety. There`s some from other angles,

as well. I don`t see -- with all due respect to the information officer who just spoke, I don`t see how you can possibly say that he was threatened

in that moment. I don`t see anything that that child does that looks threatening...

BANFIELD: Look at this, jumping over the hedge...

KUGEL: ... reaching for a gun...

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: ... and if I`m so concerned that he was going to shoot me, why am I pulling...

(CROSSTALK)

KUGEL: And in the moment, he`s not a cop. He is a regular person in civilian clothes in that moment. You couldn`t do it. I couldn`t do it.

He couldn`t do it.

BANFIELD: OK. I`m going to have to leave it there, but we`re going to watch the story, obviously. The investigation continues, and as we heard

from the sergeant, you know, there still could be charges -- we don`t know -- for this officer. Hold that thought.

The search for the killer or killers of the Indiana teenagers Abigail Williams and Liberty German who were on a hike in a wooded area is really

growing more intense tonight because the authorities have increased the reward for information leading to an arrest to $50,000.

So far, state police have received about 4,000 tips, and about half of them came in after police released that haunting audio from Liberty`s cell

phone, the voice very possibly belonging to the primary suspect captured in this haunting picture.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the hill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the hill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the hill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the hill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the hill.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Listen carefully to that voice. Volunteers ended up finding the bodies of these two girls, 14-year-old Liberty, 13-year-old Abigail, on

Valentine`s Day after family members reported them missing.

When will people realize that cameras are everywhere? And what officers saw while trying to catch people illegally dumping garbage simply made

their stomachs turn. They say this man beat his girlfriend`s son dozens upon dozens of times with a belt, that little boy just 7.

Plus, a coach`s job on the line after a classroom fight with a student. But did the school rush to judgment in suspending him? You`re going to be

surprised to hear what the judge said and what the school board said.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:16:26]BANFIELD: We show you a lot of stories that are caught on hidden video, surveillance, dashcam, even an officer`s body camera. But this

piece of video is a first. Police were monitoring a camera that they set up to catch illegal garbage dumpers when, instead, they saw this. It a man

hitting a boy over and over and over again, using a belt to do it. Just how many times the officers say that man whipped that child is

unbelievable. And what`s more unbelievable, this child was not even his. That story`s next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Police in Houston have come up with a pretty crafty way of catching people illegally dumping their garbage where they shouldn`t be

dumping it. It was simple. They set up a hidden camera. But what they captured on that video was something far, far worse. In fact, it was

downright sickening.

A man gets out of his car, yanks out a 7-year-old boy, and then raises his belt and begins whipping that child. And he does not just do this a few

times. He does it over and over again, and the number of blows that this child endured is nothing short of staggering. Here is the Houston

constable working the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN ROSEN, HARRIS COUNTY CONSTABLE: He struck this child 62 times, put him in a headlock and knocked him over on numerous occasion with the blows.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[20:20:00]BANFIELD: The beating goes on for five minutes. You`re only seeing about 15 to 20 seconds of the video released. It took the officers

just a couple of hours to track down the license plate of the man in the video. They say his name is Kordarell Williams. He`s been charged with

injury to a child and he could go to prison for 10 years.

To make the case even worse, the officers say that 7-year-old boy that was beaten doesn`t even belong to Williams. That child belongs to his

girlfriend.

Constable Alan Rosen joins me now. Constable, thanks for being with me. This is just an astounding case. I think what might be even more amazing

is how you actually came upon it. There was an off-duty officer who just wanted to check the monitoring of that video and happened to spot this?

ROSEN: Yes, our -- good evening, first. Our investigator wasn`t home and was actually checking a live feed from some of the cameras that we have

deployed throughout Harris County and noticed the car come into the frame and thought he had an illegal dumper. And he waited, and the suspect got

out of the car and actually opened the back door and took a child out.

And at that point, he thought that the child may have had to use the restroom or something they had stopped for, but he then proceeded to take

the child around, take his belt off and just beat him mercilessly.

BANFIELD: So constable, the video that your department has released is only a matter of, you know, 15 or so few seconds. What`s on the other four

minute 45?

ROSEN: It`s just a brutal beating of an innocent child. It actually turned all of our stomachs. You know, people in law enforcement, you know,

are always accustomed to bad things. That`s what we do. But this was particularly tragic.

This 7-year-old held his hands up and attempted to ask for mercy, and this guy just proceeded to beat him and beat him and beat him. And

so we knew how important it was to get him into custody and find the child to ensure the child was safe and OK. And so that`s what we proceeded to

do. We actually were about to issue an Amber Alert for the child in the vehicle, but we were able to locate this guy within three hours. We had

him in custody, and then we, of course, tended to the child, who is a wonderful, wonderful young man.

BANFIELD: A 7-year-old boy whose only crime allegedly was to have been accused of taking a cell phone charger. I want to play, if I can, the

appearance in court of Kordarell Williams and what the court authorities said happened to that little boy. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They observed the complainant to have bruising on both eyes, a swollen right eye, welts on his buttocks, legs, and welts on his

chest, redness and bruising on his neck.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Constable, is it true that he actually admitted to doing this? And did he fully admit to what you saw on the video?

ROSEN: No, he didn`t fully admit. When we questioned him, he admitted to hitting the child a few times, and then he would change how many times he

actually hit the child. But we, obviously, during our investigation discovered that he had actually struck the child 62 times, knocked him...

BANFIELD: How many did he admit to? Did he say how many times he thought he`d struck that little boy?

ROSEN: Yes, 14 to 16 times. You know, I think we`ve all seen, you know, as we grew up, punished -- get punished by our parents, and so forth. But

this is much more than punishment. This is abuse.

And we knew how important it was to find this child and make sure he was OK. And yes, he -- this doesn`t appear to be the first time this has

happened. He took him to an area where there is no homes, there`s -- it`s really a desolate area, so if the child were crying or yelling, he probably

wouldn`t be heard. So it was very rare that you`re going to find a case where actually the entire case is caught on video like this.

BANFIELD: It`s unbelievable.

ROSEN: And so it`s just -- it was just an incredible case, and we`re so fortunate to have solved it, and more importantly, saved the life of a

child, a sweet child.

BANFIELD: Well, this man has a rap sheet that goes back to 2011. At only 27 years old, he`s facing up to 10 years for a new third degree felony.

He`s got an assault already from 2011. Just take a look at your screen. There`s Kordarell Williams`s rap sheet. Look in the middle there, assault

on a family member. This could be the worst one added to it.

Constable, thanks for being with us, and say thanks to your colleague who did a little homework and was able to track that down, thank God, before

any other incidents like this could happen in that family. Thank you, sir.

ROSEN: I totally agree with you. Thank you so much for having me.

BANFIELD: Good to have you.

A high school teacher and a student come to blows in a Florida classroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[20:25:00]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you understand me? Don`t you ever put your hands on me! Don`t you ever, ever put your hands on me!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Ultimately, this incident put that teacher`s job on the line.

And this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Face that direction for me with your full body. We`re not doing yoga. I don`t know what you`re doing. Put your hands down. OK,

I didn`t ask you to do a somersault. And if you continue to do this, I`m going to take this as a refusal...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Yes, that`s an accused drunk driver and she doesn`t seem to be able to walk that straight line she`s being asked to walk, but boy, can she

do cartwheels. Think that was helpful?

[20:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST OF CNN "PRIMETIME JUSTICE": Tonight in Florida, a school board meeting has been electrified by parents and students and

teachers who are locked onto one topic, a teacher caught on video fighting with a student.

Coach Joe Nathaniel was let go by the school after he ended up in a tussle with an unruly and violent student. But he appealed that firing and a judge

backed him, recommending that that coach get get his job back. Tonight, the school board had to decide whether or not to accept or reject what that

judge advise. I want to show you the video first, so that you can weigh in on the decision.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you going to do something with your hands? I`ll suggest you get your hands behind down. Don`t you ever put your hands on

me. Do you understand that? Don`t you ever put your hands on me. Don`t you ever, ever put your hands on me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get off me, man.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sit down. Sit down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey.

BANFIELD: That fight happened in November of 2015, and this student involved in the fight, Isaiah Speights, 18-year-old at the time, was

arrested. He`s actually now serving a year probation on a criminal mischief charge connected to that. The school was not so kind to Coach Joe. They

suspended Coach Joe with pay after their investigation.

But last month, a judge weighed in on it, reviewed the case, and sided with the coach in all of this. Take a look at the video, so you can get a really

good feel for it. And tonight at the school board meeting, a support for Coach Joe, the teachers and the students and family members all stepping up

to the mike telling the board members why Coach Joe needed to be reinstated.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To be honest in that situation, once the student had started to act up, had Coach Joe not stepped in and kind of put himself

kind of in the way, that could have turned into a much worse situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Karen Curtis is a news anchor for WFTL. She joins me from Boynton Beach, Florida. Karen, what happened? Did they make the decision?

KAREN CURTIS, NEWS ANCHOR FOR WFTL: It`s been going on since November 2015. And tonight, the school board met in Vero Beach and the Indian River County

school board heard a lot of support for Coach Joe, and they said you can return to your job. You can return as soon as Wednesday.

He`s been in the school district since 2003, he makes about $48,000 a year. There are actually two videos. There was another video after that

altercation in the classroom. The student went into the office to make a phone call and Coach Joe went in there and prevented him from making that

phone call.

And the judge said he was right to do that too because it was during class time and the student shouldn`t been making a phone call. And the judge also

recommended that the school board do what it did deny and give him the job back because they said that Coach Joe or Nathaniel was standing tall to a

violently aggressive student.

BANFIELD: So obviously, one of the first reactions you would want to hear is from the man himself, from Coach Joe, Joe Nathaniel, who joins me live

now from Sebastian, Florida. Hi, Coach Joe. React. Are you surprised?

JOE NATHANIEL, INDIAN RIVER COUNTY TEACHER: Well, I was convinced that the truth was going to come out from the beginning. There was several minutes

that wasn`t recorded when you saw me react. And, so, you know, at the end of the day, I had a feeling that, you know, the cooler heads was going to

prevail and the truth was going to come out. And it`s been a long road so I`m glad it`s over because I`m exhausted.

BANFIELD: So coach, the video says a lot, shows us a lot, tells us a lot. And it doesn`t. You know, sometimes it`s a blessing and a curse in all of

this. What do we not see on this video? What did this student do to you?

NATHANIEL: Before the cameras actually came on, the student had already put his hands on me several times. That never really came up because there was

no investigation done. Basically, the HR guy saw the video, showed it to the board member, and that was it. This video clicked on and off several

times and it was just basically not enough evidence there. I had actually told the young man four times to go and sit down.

[20:35:00] And he had already put his hand on me. I was paying attention to his right hand. He was clenching his fist. And the kid -- I really believe

that the kid was gonna strike me again. And, you know, I just couldn`t allow that to continue to go on.

BANFIELD: Did he punch you in the gut?

NATHANIEL: Yes. Before the camera even came on, he did some type of hawk- type motion, did some growling, and then he pushed me. And it took me a minute to react. I was pretty much in shock that this kid actually put his

hands on me.

BANFIELD: Is that him throwing the desk or is the desk sort of (inaudible) of the whole incident?

NATHANIEL: That`s him. He actually threw two desks. In the beginning, everybody thought it was me, but I`m right-handed. If I flipped the desk,

it would wind (ph) the other direction. And I think that`s what helped exonerate me because when the desk flipped, I never moved. So when we made

contact again of course, that was him attacking me, and not me attacking him.

BANFIELD: So, I got to ask you. Because we`ve doing a lot of these stories, coach, about kids acting up, kids getting violent, kids just being

remarkably profane in schools, "F" bombs everywhere all the time, anytime doesn`t matter who to. And the notion that a lot of guys like you, teachers

and educators, feel tireless, that you`re losing the upper hand, that you`re just not getting the backing that you need.

Does what happened tonight, you getting reinstated, changed any of that or do you still feel like you`re climbing up a mountain and you`re never gonna

get to the top with these kids?

NATHANIEL: This particular case is monumental, because this happens in school districts throughout the United States where kids are abusing

educators. And, you know, enough is enough. It`s one thing to take verbal abuse but it`s another thing when somebody physically attacked you.

You know, you have the right to defend yourself at all cost. We need training but we also need support of -- you know, we`re trying to cut down

on suspending kids and kids pretty much realize I can do anything I want and I`m going to get away with it. And it shouldn`t be that way. It

shouldn`t be that way.

BANFIELD: Coach, can I ask you a question? You know, Isaiah Speights was 18 at the time this happened. He was a grownup. He got charged as a grownup.

He got convicted as a grownup. He got sentenced as a grownup. He`s 20ish I believe now. Obviously, this has all caused a great deal of unrest in your

life. As an educator and as someone who I can only assume has some sympathy for any kid who comes through your class, do you have anything that you

want to say to him?

NATHANIEL: Well, Isaiah and I had an opportunity to meet in the mall. One of the parents set up a meeting between him and I. And, you know, I pretty

much tried to convey that, you know, he needs to change his attitude. You know, don`t be so quick to get violent. I didn`t have any problems with

Isaiah at all.

You know, I never pressed charges against him. I never really got into how many times he punched me, how many times he kicked me, because it`s a ton

that`s missing with this whole story. And that`s why when the judge gave his ruling, it was so much more evidence that came out. You know, the

second video showed another teacher.

The other problem was it`s like six different copies of this video. So, you know, when people have preconceived notions that you`re an angry black man,

it`s pretty easy to paint that picture once you look at the video. That`s not the case at all.

BANFIELD: Coach, I can tell you, I admire you for the work you do. You and your colleagues working in today`s schools. I would be an angry white woman

of I had to deal with those kids.

(LAUGHTER)

BANFIELD: . in what I have seen. But, sir, congratulations on getting your job back. And, you know, keep up the good fight. You and your teaching

colleagues, you`re on new front, man. I hope you prevail and continue to prevail.

NATHANIEL: God is good. So, you know, I had a lot of people praying for me. And we had the faith that this would turn out alright. If I had to be the

poster child for teachers across America to stand up for people to realize that we go through a lot, you know.

BANFIELD: Boy, do you ever.

NATHANIEL: We go through a lot.

BANFIELD: Boy, do you ever. I want you to come back on the show sometime. This is a theme we`re talking about a lot these days, and I hope you`ll

come back and be a guest again.

NATHANIEL: By all means.

BANFIELD: Thanks, coach. Take care.

NATHANIEL: Thank you.

BANFIELD: I want to switch topics for a moment. A police officer in Albuquerque really got a lot more than he bargained for when he tried to do

one of those field sobriety tests. And the person he was trying to do that test with was 23-year-old Bryelle Marshall.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Face that direction for me. With your whole body. We`re not doing yoga. I don`t know what you`re doing. Put your hands down. Okay,

I didn`t ask you to do a somersault. If you continue to do this, I`m going to take it as a refusal of a sobriety test.

[20:40:00] BANFIELD: Bryelle apparently could not walk a straight line, but she certainly could do her cheerleader cartwheels. She was allegedly found

passed out in her car by that officer. He repeatedly tried to get Bryelle to follow his direction and just wanted her to do this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put your hands down.

BRYELLE MARSHALL, ARRESTED AFTER DOING CARTWHEELS ON FIELD SOBRIETY TEST: I got it. I got it. I got it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Face this direction. With your body. There you go. Just like that.

MARSHALL: No (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay, I`ll walk and demonstrate it for you. Right foot in front of your left, hands at your sides. You`re doing somersaults. I

don`t know why you`re doing somersaults. Or cartwheels whatever it`s called.

MARSHALL: Yeah, I don`t know either.

BANFIELD: Well, Bryelle, it didn`t work out so well for you. Ms. Marshall ended up charged with battery, aggravated DWI, and also having an expired

license plate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: A fight in an Illinois middle school left a 12-year-old boy in a coma and this.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEY HARDACRE, POSTED WARNING ON SOCIAL MEDIA AFTER SHE FOUND A FLANNEL SHIRT ON HER WINDSHIELD: I got to my car, I got out of my car, locked the

doors, and I saw a flannel on my windshield.

BANFIELD: A woman alone at night in a mall parking lot, find a strange flannel shirt on her windshield. Was this just a strange prank or was this

something very sinister and very, very dangerous?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[20:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: I`m going to show you a picture. I want to introduce you to 12- year-old Henry Sembdner. This is Henry in the hospital, beaten up, body slammed in a middle school hallway. After his parents say that he bumped

into the wrong boy. We`ve got an update on how Henry is doing now. And what could happen to the eighth grader who is accused of doing that to him?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: In Michigan, a young woman got off of work late one night and found something weird on her car.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

HARDACRE: I got to my car, I got out of my car, locked the doors, and I saw a flannel on my windshield.

BANFIELD: A flannel shirt, weird, right? What would you think if you saw that? That was our Ashley Hardacre, and she said that flannel shirt wasn`t

just sort of on her windshield, it was wound around her wipers, like real hard to get off. She said what scared her most of all was that she not

alone.

She decided to post this story on Facebook to see if she can get some reaction from other people. This is what she said. There were two cars near

me and one was running so I immediately felt uneasy and I knew I could not get out to get it off, meaning get that flannel shirt off the wiper.

HARDACRE: I drove around the building to get to a safer place because my mom had told me about human trafficking and how this was something that

they could use to lure you in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So Ashley says that she reported that incident to the mall security and they`re investigating it. But her post has been shared more

than 100,000 times. She says she hopes that by sharing this story, she might be able to raise awareness to others that this might be a ploy, don`t

fall for it, keep your wits about you.

Middle school is confusing, it`s complex, and it`s really scary for some kids as well. Especially in those crowded hallways between classes. But

when one student bumped into another in their Illinois middle school, both of their lives changed forever. What happened in the moment after that bump

left Henry Sembdner looking like this.

His family says Henry suffered multiple facial and skull fractures and bleeding on his brain after an eighth grader body slammed him and then beat

him in that hallway. Doctors had to place that 12-year-old in a medically- induced coma for three whole days.

[20:50:00] Until they could actually remove his breathing tube. The 14- year-old who is accused of attacking Henry has been charged with a felony aggravated battery and a misdemeanor battery. But that child is going to be

tried in juvenile court.

He could get anything from court supervision or five years in juvenile detention. Lance Northcutt is the attorney for the 12-year-old beating

victim, and he joins me live now from Chicago. Lance, first of all, how is that child doing today?

LANCE NORTHCUTT, LEAD ATTORNEY FOR FAMILY OF BEATING VICTIM: Well, physically, he`s making an astounding recovery. One of the things that

obviously they were most concerned about is what the immediate aftereffects of the injury would be. This was a very severe traumatic brain injury.

Henry was in a brain coma. There was brain swelling.

And there was a period of time where his parents just didn`t know first of all if he would recover and what he would be like once he got out of the

come. I`m happy to report that Henry has gotten home. His spirits are very high. And he`s functioning as well as can be expected after an injury of

this kind. And he`s very hopeful for the future. So obviously being a seventh grader.

BANFIELD: Yeah, what about that future? What are the long-term possible effects here? What`s the prognosis?

NORTHCUTT: Right now, we just don`t know. What we do know is he`s very optimistic. He`s very anxious understandably to get back to school. But as

far as what effects he`s going to have physically, mentally, psychologically long-term, it`s just too early to tell right now.

BANFIELD: Henry is 12, this other boy 14. You know, I understand how hard it is for school systems to release information about juveniles. But what

information is your -- you know, your client, the family of Henry getting with regard to what`s gonna happen to this 14-year-old boy? What do they

want?

NORTHCUTT: One of the things that they`ve been struggling with since this began was just getting answers to simple questions. They wanted to know

first and foremost what happened to their son. How did he go to school a happy, healthy 12-year-old boy and end his day in a coma in a hospital? And

those answers have been extraordinarily slow in coming.

It was only this week when we had a meeting with myself, the family, and members of the school board and the principal and other school officials

that we even got some broad strokes about the factual background as to how the attack occurred.

BANFIELD: There`s no history between the kids, right? They don`t have some long brewing animosity?

NORTHCUTT: No, no. That was one of the baffling things about this case from the beginning because it raise the question was he targeted? Was this a

bullying incident? Was there some sort of catalyst which gave rise to this attack? And the answer from across the board has been no. Henry didn`t know

this child. And the school officials have confirmed as of this week that this was not a targeted attack.

But what is confounding the parents and what we`re still struggling with and not getting answers to is the question of was the school aware that

this other child had problems, and it was explained to the family on the very night that Henry was taken to the hospital and was lying in a coma

that this was a big surprise, that they had no idea that this child would have any problems or he had no history of problems or words to that effect.

BANFIELD: It`s very strange to have such a mysterious encounter like this. Hold on for one minute. I want to bring in Rachel and Joey on this. Rachel,

I get it, when you`re 14, you`re in the juvenile system, not always, but for this particular circumstance. But it seems incredible that little Henry

could have a lifelong injury, debilitating injury, and this other boy at age 14 could get supervision.

RACHEL KUGEL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It`s shocking. This type of attack, I mean, to have that kind of injury, I mean, the fact that there is not that much

information forthcoming I think is bad on the part of the school as well. The cover-up is always worse in some sense than the crime. And I think

that`s what, you know, I would be concerned about here.

BANFIELD: You want answers. If my kid was lying like that hugging his teddy bears in the ICU, I want to know exactly what was happening.

JOEY JACKSON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, CNN AND HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Of course you do, Ashleigh. But where is the humanity? When did we become a

society where a kid pulverize someone else and just brutally beats him to a pulp. The focus of course of the juvenile system is on rehabilitation more

so than punishment. Maybe there is some hope for this person who would engage in this. Where have we gone as a society where someone turns around

at 14 and just completely annihilate someone and leaves him, Ashleigh, in that condition?

BANFIELD: Two years younger.

JACKSON: It is horrific. What is the significance of that?

BANFIELD: And what you just said, and I have to wrap it up, but you just said that they don`t like to incarcerate. In fact, the state attorney says

they do everything they can to keep the children out of the juvenile detention system. But this case, though?

JACKSON: Right. You know, because it`s one of the (inaudible) when you`re dealing with juveniles is to deal with rehabilitative aspect of the system

as opposed to the (inaudible).

KUGEL: (inaudible) children away either. There has to be a balance, but certainly on balance, this one looks bad.

[20:55:00] BANFIELD: Let me ask you guys real quick, schooling. He`s apparently in another school, but I can only assume that they`re being

very, very careful about the kids that he`s exposed to as he`s going to be adjudicated.

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: Right.

BANFIELD: You think, right. Rachel, thanks. Joey, thanks.

KUGEL: Thank you.

JACKSON: Thank you, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Thank you all for watching as well. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. See you back here Monday night at 8:00 "Primetime Justice." Stay tuned. Next is

"Forensic Files."

[21:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END