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NANCY GRACE

Lohan Says Cocaine in Pocket Wasn`t Hers

Aired July 25, 2007 - 20:00:00   ET

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


NANCY GRACE, HOST: Tonight, breaking news. Twenty-one-year-old Hollywood superstar Lindsay Lohan busted just two weeks out of a luxury rehab and just weeks after her last arrest, Lohan facing charges on DUI well over the legal limit and felony cocaine possession, Lohan`s early morning arrest just five days after her last court date on a Beverly Hills DUI hit-and-run crash also allegedly involving cocaine. But this time, police say the "Herbie Fully Loaded" star actually carried cocaine in her pocket into the jailhouse for her mugshot.
Headlines tonight. Lohan rips back at the press, claiming the cocaine in her pants wasn`t hers and that she`s really the victim. Police say Lohan blew a .12 breathalyzer after drunkenly chasing another woman who then frantically called 911.

What good was that luxury $48,000-a-month Malibu rehab, complete with 500-thread-count sheets, gourmet meals, smoothes, yoga and an oceanfront view? Lohan complaining she wants her privacy, this after posing in everything from designer duds to string bikinis. Word to the wise. Remember, three strikes, you`re out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Actress Lindsay Lohan is proclaiming her innocence, saying the cocaine she was carrying when she was arrested yesterday was not hers. In an e-mail to "Access Hollywood," Lohan wrote, quote, "I am innocent, did not do drugs. They`re not mine." She also said she was almost hit by the mother of her assistant, though it wasn`t clear if she was referring to the reported pre-arrest car chase.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I received a phone call letting me know that she was arrested again and there were drugs found on her possession. I didn`t know whether to believe it or not. I was very taken back. And then, after that, I became overwhelmed. Just -- I couldn`t believe it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And tonight, an all-American family of four victims of a home invasion, taken hostage inside their upscale Connecticut home, the early morning marathon crime spree ending in the murders of a young mom and her two daughters, their well-known and beloved doctor dad barely escaping his own blazing home with his life, his wife and daughters dead inside the home. And the middle of this vicious crime spree, the suspects forced mom at gunpoint to withdraw thousands of dollars from their local bank.

With mile-long rap sheets, why were these two repeat offenders back on the streets, one described in court documents as a cold, calculating predator, now just living two miles down the road from the victims?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Connecticut`s parole board is re-examining its policies after two parolees allegedly killed three people during a home invasion in the town of Cheshire. The board says neither suspect had a history of violent crime, but both are certainly facing several serious charges now. Authorities say they beat a prominent doctor and held his family hostage for hours, then they allegedly strangled his wife and killed his two daughters by setting the house on fire. The husband is still in the hospital, and as you can imagine, neighbors are just stunned. Police say the suspects were caught in the family`s car.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Lindsay Lohan lands back in jail, but tonight claims she is the victim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just one day after her bust on charges of DUI and cocaine possession, troubled actress Lindsay Lohan`s speaking out, denying those drugs are hers. There`s also that DUI charge, which is, of course, the second in three months, and a very serious charge that is. This could, in fact, land Lindsay Lohan from behind bars.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Billy Bush from "Access Hollywood" e-mailed Lindsay Lohan, asking her if she wanted him to relate any information to the public. And she said yes. She wrote back in an e-mail, "Yes, I am innocent, did not do drugs. They`re not mine. I was almost hit by my assistant Tarin`s mom."

This does raise skepticism on more than one point because why in the world would she be carrying someone else`s cocaine in her pocket? And also, the Santa Monica police said that Lindsay was the one doing the chasing, not the other way around. So Lindsay obviously has a very different story. She`s not taking responsibility. And bottom line, her blood alcohol level was between .12 and .13. Those other points aside, it was well over the legal limit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Straight out to CNN correspondent Sibila Vargas. Let me get this straight. In the middle of all of this, Lindsay Lohan facing serious jail time, writes "Access Hollywood" and says she`s the victim, and PS, the cocaine in my pants wasn`t mine?

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, she`s innocent. And you know, it reminds me of this character that she played in this new movie that`s coming out on Friday, who`s basically saying that she`s not that person. Yes, she`s pretty much denying the whole thing. It`s not -- you know, she`s innocent. It was not her drugs. Well, whose drugs was it? Why are you carrying drugs for somebody else? That`s the big question. Everyone`s thinking -- you know, scratching their heads, What are you thinking, Lindsay?

GRACE: Out to David Caplan, senior correspondent with VH1 24sizzler.com. David Caplan, why Billy Bush? Why "Access Hollywood"? Why not her lawyer or the judge, the prosecutor, somebody other than "Access Hollywood"? No offense, "Access."

DAVID CAPLAN, VH1 24SIZZLER.COM: Lindsay -- she almost is a little bit like Britney Spears, where a lot of these girls, they like -- these women -- they like to deal directly with the media. She has a relationship with "Access Hollywood," so to her, that seems the most direct way to get the word out there.

And you know, the funny thing I just have to add about the cocaine in the pants -- actually, a friend of the Lohan family today said that Lindsay swapped jeans with her friends, and that`s why the cocaine was there. So very weird.

GRACE: Oh, the plot thickens!

CAPLAN: I just had to get that in there because it`s so outrageous.

GRACE: A jeans swap!

(LAUGHTER)

GRACE: OK, hold on. Let`s unleash the lawyers. I know they want in. Joining us, Susan Moss out of New York, defense attorney Renee Rockwell out of the Atlanta jurisdiction and Richard Herman, also out of New York. Sue Moss, that`s a unique one, a jeans switch. The cocaine in my pants wasn`t mine.

SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: They aren`t her jeans? What`s her next defense, they`re not her legs? Those jeans seem to fit quite well. It just makes no sense. And the reality is, with the severity of these charges, she is going to jail. She has shown no remorse for what she`s done. She`s shown no responsibility. And she`s in rehab now, but apparently in rehab, she has an e-mail account that she can go and write "Access Hollywood"? That`s not the rehabs that I know.

GRACE: Well, there`s another problem, Renee Rockwell. If you take a look into the background, there appears to be another incident at the Ivy (ph) -- the famed Ivy restaurant a with Mr. Ortega (ph) in 2005, where he claims she hit him and left. And then April 26, 2007, another woman claims that Lohan and her bodyguard, a male named Jazman, both conducted U-turns and swiped her car.

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, it`s just a little too much, but...

GRACE: What do you mean, it`s a little too much?

(CROSSTALK)

ROCKWELL: Well, it`s too much contact with the police. But as far as the cocaine, Nancy, it doesn`t make sense that she would go to jail with the cocaine in her pants when she probably had plenty of time to get rid of it. She could have put on somebody else`s bluejeans. It`s happened to one of my clients before. He grabs the wrong coat off the rack at work, and he`s...

GRACE: She was in an SUV, driving in a parking lot. When was she changing clothes, Renee?

ROCKWELL: When she got...

GRACE: Hold on. I want to see Renee Rockwell`s face. Explain this, please. And I like that euphemism, too much contact with police. You mean...

ROCKWELL: A little too much contact with police.

GRACE: ... possession of cocaine charge?

ROCKWELL: Nancy, but she is not going to go to jail, not yet, because unless you can keep someone in jail forever, you need to fix the problem. She`s not going to go to jail forever, so why don`t they give her some extended rehab, monitor her and just fix the problem?

GRACE: Question. Question for Miss Rockwell.

ROCKWELL: They can hang jail over her head.

GRACE: Come back down to earth, Miss Rockwell. Do you know where she just came from?

ROCKWELL: Not a rehab.

GRACE: Rehab! Rehab!

ROCKWELL: Not a rehab.

GRACE: Second rehab!

ROCKWELL: Nancy, that wasn`t rehab if it didn`t work. She needs to go somewhere where she`s got 18 months, and she`s got prison hanging over her head if it doesn`t work.

GRACE: OK. Somehow, I`ve gotten lost in an alternative universe. To you, Richard Herman. It`s -- there it is right there. I want to go on a vacation there. It`s Promises rehab. Now, I want to go back to the theory that somehow, these were not her bluejeans, and Renee`s theory, which I`ve seen many, many times. It`s kind of a Hail Mary at the end of the case, when the defense attorney has nowhere to go, they go, They`re not that stupid. They wouldn`t have gone into jail with cocaine in their pants. They were framed.

But don`t you think, Richard Herman, that her e-mail today to Billy Bush saying, Those weren`t my drugs in my pants -- don`t you think that kind of admits she had drugs in her pants, that the police didn`t stick it down there to frame Lindsay Lohan?

RICHARD HERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, that`s why you don`t talk, Nancy. That`s why you put duct tape on these mouths of these people because they run their mouths and they get themselves in trouble.

But Susan is wrong. There`s no way Lindsay Lohan is going to prison on this case. Absolutely not. There`s a drug diversion program...

GRACE: Oh, hold on. Are you looking at your monitor? There`s Lindsay in another string bikini, wanting her privacy.

HERMAN: There`s a drug diversion program in California for first offenders. It was a small amount of cocaine. There`s no way she`s going to prison on this one, Nancy.

GRACE: Out to the lines. Diana in Ohio. Hi, Diana. Diana, are you there?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... love your show.

GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is, is can`t any of these establishments that she`s going to be held responsible for serving her and she`s underage?

GRACE: Guess what? She just had a birthday over July the 4th holiday. She`s no longer underage. Before that, yes. And we brought that up, Diana, and you know what? The last I heard, they are forming task forces to look into it, and nobody`s heard another word. Your idea, which is an excellent idea, just got sucked into a black hole, and nobody`s heard another word about looking at the bars that serve underage.

Everyone, I have a very special guest joining me tonight, Glenn Beck from Headline News, and of course, from his own syndicated radio show, Glenn Beck, the expert on politics, on what`s going on in Washington on so many areas -- or at least he says he`s an expert on those areas.

(LAUGHTER)

GLENN BECK, "GLENN BECK," RECOVERING ALCOHOLIC: (INAUDIBLE) I`m an alcoholic.

GRACE: Long story short, he has faced a lot of demons and overcome them, and I wanted to talk to him about Lindsay Lohan`s story tonight. When you heard this, what first went through your mind?

BECK: Throw her in jail.

GRACE: Why?

BECK: Because I think, Nancy, that you only have -- you really only have a couple of places to go, and that is to a coffin or to recovery. When you get to the place that Lindsay Lohan is, or soon will be, you have a choice of life or death. And when you get to that place, that`s when you can heal and recover. She doesn`t -- I mean, you know, the only person who is responsible for this is Lindsay, and anybody who cuts her any kind of slack is enabling her.

GRACE: You know, Glenn, when prosecuting, I would have people show up, DUI, usually, I would get them when they were habitual violators and they had run somebody down, mowed somebody down, killed somebody, crashed. It was their fifth, eighth, tenth offense. They had been through rehab. We had given them state-paid halfway houses. At a certain point, there`s nothing left but jail. I`ve seen people come before me and before a judge. I remember my first one. It was a lady stock broker, beautiful, in her mid-30s, lost her husband, her three children, her home, her stock broker`s license because she had an alcohol problem. How do you beat it?

BECK: You have to be at that life-and-death place. I was at a place, Nancy, to where I looked at myself in the mirror every day and I actually had to turn the mirror in my bathroom towards the wall because I couldn`t stand looking at myself anymore because I thought I was the weakest, most pathetic human being. And then I started lying to my kids. And that was my bottom.

And when you hit your bottom, then you really know, I`m either going to die because I can`t live this way, or I`m going to change my ways. And when you really want to do it -- you can`t do it alone, but when you really want to do it, you`ll do it because you`ll do anything you can to stop drinking. I stood in a basement of a church and I said, I don`t know if I`m an alcoholic, because I didn`t want to admit it. I don`t know if I`m an alcoholic, but I know I just don`t want to drink today. And I started crying, and they said, That`s it. That`s all you have to do. Just don`t drink until midnight tonight.

GRACE: You know, I know you in such a different way, and to hear you talk about not being able to look into the mirror and lying to your children is very hurtful for me to hear that about you and imagine what you were going through. So is it that much of a hardship to just get through one day without drinking?

BECK: I tell you, Nancy, I -- my mother committed suicide when I was 13 years old. She was addicted to drugs and alcohol, completely out of control. And I really thought that I was going to repeat her life. And I get so crazy when people say it`s genetic. It might be genetic. I might be an alcoholic because my mother was an alcoholic. I don`t know. I don`t care. It is still your choice to drink or not to drink. And it is so powerful. It runs your whole life.

GRACE: When you say it runs your whole life, what do you mean?

BECK: You live for the drink. See, my little secret was I never drank until it was 5:00 o`clock in the afternoon. And if it was 5:00 o`clock in the afternoon, well, no alcoholic -- you know, alcoholics drink in the morning. I never drank in the morning. And so at 5:00 o`clock, I don`t care where I was, I had to be at a bar. And I would look at the clock and wait for that second hand because in my twisted mind, it made it OK if it was 5:00 o`clock. And then I pounded them all night.

GRACE: Do you really think Lohan has gotten to the point where she`s rock bottom?

BECK: No.

GRACE: If she`s writing to Billy Bush, saying, That doesn`t -- my pants wasn`t mine, I`m the victim, that`s BS.

BECK: Yes. No, there`s -- she hasn`t hit rock bottom. Unfortunately, and this sounds really harsh to say, but some people`s bottom is death. And you have to be there to help them when they turn and say, OK, I`m there. I want help. But you can`t help them until they say that.

GRACE: Out to the lines Amanda in Oregon. Hi, Amanda.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Love your show.

GRACE: Thank you, dear.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is, did they test Lindsay for cocaine in her system at the time of her arrest?

GRACE: Excellent question. To David Caplan. David, she is saying to "Access Hollywood," Billy Bush, said, I do not do drugs. Those were not my drugs. But certainly, they did a blood alcohol on her and took her blood when she was arrested, David.

CAPLAN: Yes, they did do a blood alcohol test, but I don`t know, though, about the cocaine, actually, in her system at the time. And actually -- and with her first DUI, the -- you know, the cocaine was also in the car, but they didn`t say anything about in her system.

GRACE: You know, that leads me to another question, David Caplan. The last offense, where she -- what did she run into, a tree?

CAPLAN: Yes, she ran into a tree.

GRACE: Yes, that`s hard to miss. Runs into a tree, gets out of the car, starts running, ends up I think at a hospital, and they find alleged cocaine in the car. They still say they don`t know if it`s cocaine or not. What`s the holdup?

CAPLAN: Yes, for that first one, they`re just -- I mean, I think for the first one, police sources were saying that it was cocaine. The official line they`re saying, though, is that it was a white powdery substance. But I`m hearing, though, internally, they know that that was cocaine and that...

GRACE: Well, when are the charges coming down on that one?

CAPLAN: Lindsay was formally booked this past week, you know, before the current DUI arrest, for the first one that took place in Beverly Hills, and that`s going to be August 24 she`ll be (INAUDIBLE)

GRACE: And what are those charges exactly?

CAPLAN: The first one is for DUI. Those are her charges for that one.

GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa. I`m not hearing anything about cocaine.

CAPLAN: Right. No, there`s no -- there was no cocaine charges for the first one.

GRACE: Why? It`s in her car. She`s driving.

CAPLAN: I think she was fighting, saying that it was in the glove compartment, so there were still issues of proving whether or not who exactly it belonged to.

GRACE: OK, very quickly, Renee Rockwell, right down the line, yes, no. When several people are pulled over and there`s contraband in the car, they all get charged, and they can all fight it out in court. I never heard...

ROCKWELL: Tell it to the judge. Tell it to the judge. That`s what the cops say. Book them out, and tell it to the judge.

GRACE: Yes. So do you think she`s getting some kind of preferential treatment? Because I have never seen -- you find 30 bags of crack in the trunk, and everybody goes, Oh, oh, it`s not mine! What, you let them go because they all point the finger? That doesn`t even make sense!

ROCKWELL: First of all, the reason she hasn`t been charged yet, if she`s going to be charged, is maybe Because there`s no lab test yet. You know how long that takes, Nancy. But either the cops arrest them all or they let them all go. Maybe it was too much trouble that night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just one day after her bust on charges of DUI and cocaine possession, troubled actress Lindsay Lohan speaking out, denying those drugs were hers. There`s also that DUI charge, which is, of course, the second in three months, and a very serious charge that is. This could, in fact, land Lindsay Lohan behind bars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: There`s Lindsay Lohan pictured again, wanting her privacy. That`s what she said today in an e-mail to "Access Hollywood," this after being arrested again for DUI and alleged possession of cocaine. That is a felony.

Out to Jo in Tennessee. Hi, Jo.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. Does the judge have the power to select which rehab people like this should be part of, instead of the designer rehabs that still allow people to have contact with the outside world?

GRACE: You know, Jo, that is an excellent question. And I remember - - remember in the Paris Hilton case just recently, that judge, Judge Sauer, ordered -- he wrote it in his order, no paid jails where the defendant gets to pick a particular jail, no rehab, no this, no that, no home arrest. It seems to me, since the state-ordered rehabs are under state control, the judge may have a way to order a particular rehab. But what if that rehab is full? I don`t know if it could feasibly work out.

Beck is shaking his head no. Glenn?

BECK: It won`t work. You don`t understand the mind of an alcoholic or a drug addict. Every -- the world is against you. I mean, I`m going to rehab. I mean, I fooled some of the best doctors around. If I can lie to myself for my whole life, you don`t think I can lie to a doctor? I can fool any doctor in any rehab. It must come from the individual. They have to want to be there. You can sentence me to a rehab in the former Soviet Union, it won`t make a difference.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I received a phone call letting me know that she was arrested again and there were drugs found on her possession. I didn`t know whether to believe it or not. I was very taken back. And then after that, I became overwhelmed. Just -- I couldn`t believe it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Out to the lines. Let`s go to Trish in Maine. Hi, Trish.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello?

GRACE: Hi, dear. You`re on. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. I just have a question. Where is her mother? I hear a lot from her dad, but I haven`t heard a single word from her mom, nor have I...

GRACE: Last I heard from her mom, she was trying to get into a club for free with Lindsay Lohan to go partying. The dad just got out of jail. He`s turned himself into a preacher. He wants to reunite with the family. As to the mom, there`s been a lot of criticism of her, Caryn Stark.

Hold on, Caryn. Let`s go to Sibila Vargas. What can you tell me about the mom?

VARGAS: Well, she has this horrible reputation here in Hollywood for wanting to party with her daughter. She`s acting more like a teenager than a mom. And I think that`s been the biggest problem for Lindsay because Lindsay`s 21 years old, but you know, you look to your family to try to help you out, and she`s just not getting this help. Her dad, you know, he has his problems. And I think he -- if anything, he has been the bad person, but in this case, I think he`s got good advice for Lindsay and let`s him admit he`s been in jail. And you know what? It helped him, so it might help his daughter.

GRACE: Caryn Stark, she`s 21 years old. What were you doing when you were 21?

CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: I wasn`t doing what she`s doing, Nancy. I was...

GRACE: I mean, did you have a job?

STARK: I had a job. I started to have a job when I was 16 years old.

GRACE: So you know, a lot people ask about the mom, and I think it`s because she seems to have been partying with her daughter underage. But at age 21, can you really still blame mommy and daddy?

STARK: Well, you can blame the way she was raised originally, Nancy. And if you take a look at her altered reality, this is a kid, like a lot of these children were raised in Hollywood, who doesn`t -- they don`t really get to deal with the real word. And on top of that, they have parents who aren`t strict...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Sounds like you`re making an excuse for felony possession of cocaine.

STARK: No, no. I`m just saying what led to today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Billy Bush from "Access Hollywood" e-mailed Lindsay Lohan, asking her if she wanted him to relate any information to the public, and she said, yes. She wrote back in an e-mail: "Yes, I am innocent, did not do drugs. They are not mine. I was almost hit by my assistant Tarin`s mom."

This does raise skepticism on more than one point, because why in the world would she be carrying someone else`s cocaine in her pocket? And also, the Santa Monica police said that Lindsay was the one doing the chasing, not the other way around.

So Lindsay obviously has a very different story. She is not taking responsibility. And bottom line, her blood alcohol level was between 0.12 and 0.13. Those other points aside, it was well over the legal limit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Why is it that in every picture she`s holding out her leg or holding up her leg or stepping forward with her leg with one of these things on? If you take a look at this on the inside -- this is the prototype that she was wearing the other night. Here on the inside of it are the sensors that pick up perspiration even in minuscule amounts. This immediately is put on like a bracelet, this immediately goes to -- it is saved and then once the person goes to the modem, it is downloaded and sent to, in this case, her attorney.

What good did that do? Out to the lines, Caroline in New York. Hi, Caroline.

CALLER: Hi.

GRACE: What`s your question, dear?

CALLER: I was wondering, if Lindsay was caught driving on a suspended license, why would she not go to jail if Paris Hilton went to jail for driving with a suspended license?

GRACE: You know, that`s an excellent question, Susan Moss. She was on a suspended license, we also have the cocaine and the DUI. It`s incredible to me that she has actually bonded out.

SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: Well, with respect to Paris Hilton, remember, it wasn`t that she was caught driving with a suspended license once, she was caught twice. Remember, the first time she was caught driving with a suspended license, allegedly the only thing she got was the cop`s telephone number asking her for a date.

So it isn`t a surprise that she wasn`t put in jail for that one offense. But when you look at the string of things she is now charged with, two felony charges related to the cocaine, hit and run, two DUIs, driving with a suspended license, she`s going to see jail time now.

GRACE: And back to you, Richard Herman. You have also got the 2005 alleged incident at Ivy Restaurant, the 2007 incident alleged between Lohan and her bodyguard and another young woman, Crash. It`s really stacking up. My question to you is, the e-mail she wrote to Billy Bush at "Access Hollywood," that will very likely come in at a trial if there is a trial.

RICHARD HERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Oh, you know that, Nancy. That`s absolutely admissible. And that`s why these people have to keep their mouths shut. They just never, ever learn. But, Nancy, this is going to be plea-bargained out. It`s just too risky for her to take a shot on this one. That first...

GRACE: Hey, Winona Ryder went to trial.

HERMAN: Yes, and Mark Geragos made a major mistake doing that, horrible.

GRACE: And to you, Renee Rockwell, by her writing this one single e- mail, there goes "the cops framed me" defense. That`s what happened with Ryder, she tried to say a security guard framed her on shoplifting. Bye- bye frame-up. This one e-mail blew that.

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, this is -- I agree with Herman. This is not a case that`s going to go to trial. He will -- her attorney will plead this out to some kind of drug diversion.

GRACE: You know, to Don Clark, former head of the FBI Houston bureau, Lohan`s attorney may challenge that field sobriety test. How and will it work?

DON CLARK, FMR. HEAD, FBI HOUSTON OFFICE: Well, you know, Nancy, what they`re really going to do with that, is that if you don`t take the test, they`re going to cart you off to jail. And then once you take the test, it is going to give them the blood alcohol level and find out what types of levels that she had there.

Now that other bracelet that she had on, that thing doesn`t do anything. It doesn`t prevent anything whatsoever. But it does give them a signal, and no one really knows for sure at this point how effective that that one may be. But the sobriety test that they take is very efficient. And if they take it in time, and find out the quantity of alcohol she had in her system, she`s going to be charged with it.

GRACE: Out to Madison Heights, Michigan, standing by, Dr. William R. Morrone, medical examiner, forensic pathologist.

Dr. Morrone, cocaine, is it physically, emotionally, or mentally addictive? And what about alcohol?

DR. WILLIAM MORRONE, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Cocaine is Schedule II substance in a list of controlled substances. It can only be appropriately handled by eye, ear, nose and throat surgeons. There is no standard of care to give it to the population because of its addictive quality.

And cocaine will push you to the limits and impair your judgment. Guess what alcohol does? Alcohol reduces your inhibitions, which allows you to push your judgment to the limit. Your judgment is impaired. Take the two of those, put them together, and you have really got a bad outcome.

GRACE: Joining me tonight, Jan Withers (ph), the victim services chair of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, on the national board. Jan`s 15- year-old daughter was killed by a drunk driver.

Ms. Withers, when you hear people say about Paris Hilton, about Lindsay Lohan, about Nicole Richie, nobody got hurt. She didn`t hurt anybody. What does that do to you?

JAN WITHERS, VICTIMS SERVICES CHMN., MADD: It rips at my heart, Nancy. Because when my daughter Alyssa (ph) was killed 15 years ago, I was a changed person. And I will never be the same again. So for anyone to get behind the wheel of a car while driving impaired, that puts everyone on the roads at risk. And could -- she could either kill herself, harm herself or kill the innocent people on the roadways.

GRACE: I want to go back to Glenn Beck, my colleague and friend here at HEADLINE NEWS.

Glenn, do you remember the moment that you said no to a hit of booze?

GLENN BECK, HOST, "GLENN BECK": I -- well, there`s two that come to mind. I know the moment when I decided to stop drinking, and it was when I was at the breakfast table with my kids. And I couldn`t remember even tucking them in at bed and telling them a story. That`s when I wanted to stop. That`s when I knew it was over.

Then I was sober for about two years and was really struggling. I was out on my own, I was divorced now. And I was praying to God for about a week that I can`t do it, I can`t do it anymore. Just please put a roadblock in my way. On Thursday night I`m going to a bar and going to order Jack and Coke. And I did. I went to the bar, it was Thursday night. He hadn`t put up a roadblock.

And I was challenging him. I told you, it`s your fault. And I ordered a Jack and Coke. And I had it in my hand and was about to drink it. And I turned around and I saw there in the bar my wife Tanya, who I had met briefly two times before, and I don`t believe in coincidence.

And I was overwhelmed with the feeling this is your roadblock. And I put the drink down and I asked her if she would go someplace and have a cup of coffee with me. And I haven`t had a drink since and we haven`t been apart a day since.

GRACE: When you tell that story and you look at Lohan, do you think she`s there yet?

BECK: You know, you can`t judge somebody else, because everybody has a different bottom. But boy, I`ve got to tell you, just from what I see, no. And what is so frightening is, you`re playing with fire. You know, anybody who is watching and thinking, you know, well, maybe I`m not an alcoholic. If you`re asking the question, you`re an alcoholic.

And you just -- what you`re doing is you`re playing with, how close to death are you going to get? And for a lot of people, pass the line. You will die before you get help. Unfortunately -- you know, I was talking to Danny Bonaduce about this. People like Danny Bonaduce, people like Lindsay Lohan, they are surrounded by people who make money off of her being sick.

They need her to be this way. You ask what that device did for her on her leg. I tell what it did. It made her money, people bought the pictures of her wearing the device.

GRACE: Out to the lines, Amy in Pennsylvania. Hi, Amy.

CALLER: Hi, Nancy. My question is, regarding Lindsay`s little brother and sister. Lindsay is an adult now. And being that her mom Dina has notoriously been a Hollywood party mom and a bad influence on her daughter, what are the chances of like a CYS, child and family services investigation?

GRACE: I can tell you right now, slim to none. Slim to none. Although, Amy, I agree with your concern. Before we switch gears, I just want to thank my friend Glenn Beck for being with us tonight.

And when we come back, a home invasion turns deadly in an upscale community, Cheshire, Connecticut. A young mom and two daughters lose lives to repeat offenders. Their beloved doctor dad barely escaping with his own life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While neighbors slept, members of the Petit family were fighting for their wives. Three a.m., police say two men forced their way into the Petit home. Inside, William Petit Jr., a prominent Connecticut doctor, his wife, Jennifer, a nurse, and their two daughters, Hayley and Michaela, ages 17 and 11.

Police say the men tied the family up, then around 9:00 a.m., broad daylight, one of them reportedly drove Mrs. Petit to this bank to withdraw cash, a critical moment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A member of the residence was able to relay to the bank teller that they were being held captive and that the family was being held captive. The bank teller notified the police department.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: One of the daughters said her dream was to become a doctor like her dad, because when she was 4 years old, he gave her a toy doctor kit. And her whole live was all about going to medical school and following her father`s footsteps. That will never be now. She, her sister and her mother all dead after a fatal home invasion by two repeat defenders, say police. Out to Amy Tali, the police reporter with The Bristol News.

Amy, what happened?

AMY TALI, POLICE REPORT, THE BRISTOL PRESS: Well, Nancy, the police report that at about 3:00 Monday morning, two men broke into the Petits` home. Apparently, according to reports from the police, it awakened Mr. -- or Dr. Petit.

He then went down to find out what the noise was, he was beaten about the head with a baseball bat by one of the suspects. And he was then tied up and put down into the basement of the home. The suspects then went and tied up the three female members of the family, the two daughters, 17-year- old Hayley, and 11-year-old Michaela, and the wife, Jennifer.

Shortly before 9:00 -- or after shortly after 9:00 Jennifer was then taken to a local Bank of America branch. She withdrew $15,000, somehow managed to relay to the bank teller her family was being held hostage. That bank teller acted quickly and notified Cheshire police who both responded to the bank and the family`s Sorghum Mill Road (ph) home.

GRACE: The two suspects, Joshua Komisarjevsky is aged 26, and Steven Hayes, aged 44, is it true they met in a halfway house?

TALI: According to Department of Correction records, that is the case. They don`t have any record of the two ever being in the same jail at the same time. So it is believed at this time that they did meet some time after June of 2006 at a halfway house.

GRACE: My records show that they spent about five months together on and off at two halfway houses. Out to Don Clark, former head of the FBI Houston bureau.

Have you seen their rap sheets? The younger one comes from a very wealthy, wealthy family and had been arrested multiple times for invading homes while people were asleep, even with night goggles to steal I think over $20,000 of video equipment, TV equipment. And there he was living two miles from this family.

CLARK: Nancy, you`re going to find out that there`s going to be a lot of looking into this when the background -- these people have extensive criminal records. Now no, they hadn`t used extensive drugs -- and I won`t say they hadn`t used it, but they hadn`t been convicted of it. But burglaries and other types of crimes.

How many times do you have to commit these crimes and get convicted and then you get to a halfway house and you learn how to do it the right way with some of your buddies and get out. Talk about joining us -- putting together task forces and looking into why were these people out?

CLARK: These people -- we have got the three-strike rule in a lot of places. And myself included, I`ve said sometimes it`s overused, but it`s not overused in a case like this. These are critical crimes, they should not have been out. And I think somebody needs to take look into that.

GRACE: I just -- I can`t believe it. Rosie, if we put up their rap sheets for the viewers to see this. It is incredible. There are multiple, multiple offenses on these rap sheets for both of these mean, one 26, one 44. I want to go out to Susan Moss.

Susan, you don`t see any violent crimes in their rap sheet. But still, going into a home when people are in there is exactly what happened this time.

MOSS: Absolutely. Any crime can take a turn to end with deadly results. And that`s exactly what you`re seeing here. They went into this place presumably not to hurt anyone, but things change when you have a criminal motive, and unfortunately with deadly results.

GRACE: Dr. William Morrone, medical examiner, forensic pathologist, the mom died of strangulation. The -- from our -- from what we have learned, the two daughters, one on her way to Dartmouth -- you know how hard that is to do, get to Dartmouth? One was tied to the bed. Both of them -- one of them was sexually assaulted apparently by both men, we believe, at this juncture. They both died after smoke inhalation before the cops could get there. What toll does that take on your body, a slow death by smoke inhalation?

MORRONE: Well, the first thing is going to be confusion. You`re going to be unaware of the circumstances around you. But the death is actually caused by the toxic fumes of the combustibles around you and the thermal damage of inhaling the very hot fumes. It`s not a pleasant death in any way. But the autopsy was good enough to confirm, probably with histology, this.

(GRAPHIC, "JENNIFER HAWKE-PETIT, CAUSE OF DEATH: ASPHYXIA DUE TO STRANGULATION)

MORRONE: And that is very important.

GRACE: You know, to psychologist Caryn Stark. Caryn, everyone makes a big point of saying they didn`t have violent offenses in their history. You know, neither did Scott Peterson. Neither did Ted Bundy. Neither did the Green River killer until he finally started killing people. And I don`t understand why that`s some sort of a defense?

CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: It doesn`t make any sense to me either, Nancy, because if you take a look at their rap sheets, eventually it was going to lead to something. And you take two criminals, you put them together in a circumstance like that, studies show that people will turn to violence when they`re in groups and someone keeps suggesting it. So it was a really volatile situation

GRACE: Out to Janet in Connecticut. Hi, Janet.

CALLER: Hi, Nancy, thank you for taking my call. I have two quick questions. I wanted to know, did they have an alarm system? Also, did any of the family know any convicts?

GRACE: To Amy with The Bristol News, did they have an alarm system? And did they know these people? Had they ever worked in the home or any connection?

TALI: Nancy, those are great questions. Police have been keeping several of the details very close to the vest so as not to jeopardize their investigation. So at this time, whether or not there was an alarm system and whether or not it was activated, police have not yet released.

As far as whether or not these two men worked with the family or for the family at any time, police have also not released that information.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: To HEADLINE PRIME`s Glenn Beck. Hi, friend.

BECK: Tonight, there is a shocking new development in the case of border agents Ramos and Compean. It appears that the illegal alien drug dealer, drug cartel member that helped put those guys behind bars, given an all-access pass into the United States after the trial. We`ll have the latest in just a bit.

Then, the University of Colorado`s Ward Churchill is not at the University of Colorado anymore. He`s the rogue professor who got what he deserved and I`ll tell you why.

And I`ll talk to "American Idol" winner to Taylor Hicks. It`s all part of our psychotic kind of episode tonight. All that and more next.

GRACE: A Connecticut family loses three of their lives in an early morning home invasion. Out to the lines. Karen in Colorado. Hi, Karen.

CALLER: Hello, Nancy. I have a question. I read today that the -- she was at the bank at 9:30. And I wanted to know how much time passed between when the police were notified and they actually showed up at the family`s house?

GRACE: Karen, that was one of my original questions too.

Amy Tali with The Bristol News, I thought she got to the bank at 9:00 and police were at the home at 9:30.

TALI: Nancy, that`s correct. And actually, I`m sorry, I work for The Bristol Press newspaper.

GRACE: Ah, thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

TALI: And according to what police told us so far, it was shortly after 9:00 when the suspect took Mrs. Petit to that branch that was located nearby. Within a few minutes they were back at the home. The bank teller did immediately notify police and Cheshire police did respond to both the home and the bank. And they were there at around 9:30.

GRACE: Everyone let`s stop, stop to remember Army Sergeant Keith Kline, 24, Oak Harbor, Oho, killed, Iraq, on a first tour. Also served Kuwait and Africa. Enlisting straight from high school, he lead the wrestling team to a district championship, also state wrestling finalist. A smile that lit up a room, and a heart of gold. He loved the Army and helping others. Country star Toby Keith once dedicated his hit song "Love Me If You Can" to Kline. Leaving behind grieving family, Mom Betsy (ph), uncles Alan (ph) and Gary (ph), Aunt Paulette (ph), childhood friend Joe. Keith Kline, American hero.

Thank you to our guests, but most of all to you for inviting us into your homes. See you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp, and until then, good night, friend.

END