The partial transcript of Geraldo Rivera's interview with the mother and father of missing five-year-old Haleigh Cummings is below. It was provided by Fox News Channel to the Times-Union.
INTERVIEW # 1 WITH RONALD CUMMINGS
FEBRUARY 21, 2009
[00:00:13]
RONALD CUMMINGS : This is uncalled for.
GERALDO RIVERA : Chad and Marcus told me that during the vigil, you told them you were 75 percent sure who took Haleigh.
RONALD CUMMINGS : There is no way -- I do not know who took Haleigh. If I had -- if I had, uh, five percent of where Haleigh was at, I would be there now and not here.
[00:00:43]
GERALDO RIVERA : Did you tell them that, though? Maybe you weren’t -- maybe you were just [OVERLAP] were just -- are they lying?
RONALD CUMMINGS : Yes, they’re absolutely lying. No, for no reason have I ever told anybody that I have any clue where my child is at. If I had any clue where my child -- you know, national TV, they’re a bunch of liars. Chad and whoever told you this are a bunch of liars. I never even spoke with them.
GERALDO RIVERA : They told -- they told me that you hit Haleigh. Is that true?
[00:01:13]
RONALD CUMMINGS : No. Never, ever have I ever hit my child. Me and my child have an agreement. Daddy, daughter. She has been spanked on her behind the way DCF says that you can take care of disciplining your children.
GERALDO RIVERA : You never backhanded her to the face?
RONALD CUMMINGS : [OVERLAP] Never. Never have I ever backhanded my child in the face, ever.
GERALDO RIVERA : Did you hit Crystal when she was pregnant?
[00:01:37]
RONALD CUMMINGS : No. I did not. Never.
GERALDO RIVERA : You didn’t hit her in the back of the head and kick her?
RONALD CUMMINGS : No. No. I never have.
GERALDO RIVERA : You swear to God you never hit your pregnant woman?
RONALD CUMMINGS : [OVERLAP] Never. Never, never have I ever hit any woman, period. Never. And I’d like to know where all these allegations are coming from because I would like to talk -- talk to law enforcement and have these false allegations, um, known that, um, the false allegations against me, somebody needs criminal charges pressed against them.
[00:02:02]
GERALDO RIVERA : What about the allegations of cocaine use, methamphetamine use?
RONALD CUMMINGS : There’s nothing. I do not do drugs.
GERALDO RIVERA : You don’t do drugs? All those arrests were all --
RONALD CUMMINGS : No.
GERALDO RIVERA : Do you work for the police? Are you an informant?
RONALD CUMMINGS : No, I am no an informant. I do not work for the police. I work for PDM, which is a, um, bridge building company. That’s who I work for.
GERALDO RIVERA : And you’ve never been involved in the drug trade?
RONALD CUMMINGS : No.
GERALDO RIVERA : And when they tell me they saw bricks of marijuana that you had in the house, plants all around the house, is that a lie?
[00:02:31]
RONALD CUMMINGS : It is absolutely a lie and I would like to know where the information is coming from so that I can get, um, the proper authorities to take care of this.
GERALDO RIVERA : You’re -- put all this stuff aside. If some associate of yours, some associate that had something to do with drugs and this is not about drugs but if these people are on the dark side of life, don’t you think that you should share that information? Share -- tell us about -- when you told Marcus and Chad that you were 75 percent sure and you had your gun ready and your -- and you had your gun ready and you were gonna go get em, didn’t you say that? Isn’t that a fact, Ron?
[00:03:09]
RONALD CUMMINGS : No, it is not a fact.
GERALDO RIVERA : Why would they make that up? Why would they make that up?
RONALD CUMMINGS : I don’t know why they would make [OVERLAP] for you. But I -- I am fixing [OVERLAP] to have the law called right here, right now because you’re making up things or they’re making up things and you’re getting into --
GERALDO RIVERA : I am -- I am relating to you what they are saying.
RONALD CUMMINGS : [OVERLAP] My face, man.
MALE : You need to back off, man. That’s my son.
[00:03:29]
GERALDO RIVERA : Alright. Well I’m sorry -- I am sorry for what has happened.
FEMALE : No, you’re not sorry. [OVERLAPPED CONVERSATION]
MALE : You need to go.
FEMALE : We are -- [OVERLAPPED CONVERSATION] Listen. You wanna come up here and make [OVERLAP] allegations. Why don’t you go back to --
GERALDO RIVERA : These are not my allegations, mamn. These are not my allegations. You have to understand that.
FEMALE : [OVERLAP] Okay. [OVERLAP] All we care about --
[00:03:46]
GERALDO RIVERA : You have to understand this is not my allegation. Don’t touch him, don’t touch him, please. We’re leaving. Come on, let’s go. Let’s go.
RONALD CUMMINGS : [OVERLAP] I wanted you to see that all this is about is my daughter. I love you, baby. [OVERLAP] If you are out there, I want you to know that I love you and I will find you, baby. I love you. And two, whoever -- whoever has you, please bring my daughter home to me. I love my daughter. I love you, baby. I will find you.
[00:04:15]
GERALDO RIVERA : You believe she’s alive then?
RONALD CUMMINGS : I’m always gonnd believe that my daughter’s alive until they find her. [SILENCE]
[END OF TRANSCRIPT]
INTERVIEW #2 WITH HALEIGH’S MOM CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD & HALEIGH’S GRANDMA MARIE GRIFFIS
FEBRUARY 21, 2009
[00:00:08]
GERALDO RIVERA : When Ron Cummings is seen on television, most often, he is crying or in mourning or other conduct appropriate to a father whose daughter has gone missing. But the family on the mother’s side tells a much different story and a much different image emerges of Ron Cummings. Crystal, is not a fact that he was abusive to you?
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD : Yes he was. He -- when I first got pregnant with Haleigh, he punched me in the back of the head and before then, he was verbal. I mean he was just very abusive.
GERALDO RIVERA : What did he call you?
[00:00:43]
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD : Stupid [BLEEPED: *****.] You stupid [BLEEPED: — —.] You [BLEEPED: *****]. I mean you name it, he said it.
GERALDO RIVERA : Describe when he punched you when you were pregnant.
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD : We were living in Leesburg at his mother’s house. And I had just found out I was pregnant. We were both doing cocaine and I stopped and I walked in the bedroom and he was doing it.
[00:01:14]
And I was like, you know, how are you gone do this in front of me after I just found out I was pregnant and I just stopped? And he got very ****** off and I had my -- I was facing -- I had my back turned to him. He punched me in the head and then I turned around and he kicked me off the bed.
GERALDO RIVERA : And he knew you were pregnant when he kicked you?
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD : Yes he did. He knew.
GERALDO RIVERA : And was he abusive, basically, throughout your relationship?
[00:01:43]
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD : The whole time. I mean his mother knew, his granny knew. His granny even told me once, um, I don’t know why you’re with him.
GERALDO RIVERA : Why did you stay with him?
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD : Because I was scared to leave.
GERALDO RIVERA : Are you frightened of him even today?
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD : Yes I am.
GERALDO RIVERA : Why?
[00:02:02]
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD : Just because of all the things he’s done to me.
GERALDO RIVERA : Are you fr-- frightened that he’ll come after you?
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD : Sometimes I am. I mean he’s called and wanted me to come back several times and I have went back a couple times just to be with my kid and he was still the same and I left. It hurt to leave em but I’m not gonna put myself through that.
[00:02:30]
GERALDO RIVERA : Do you believe his story about what happened?
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD : No, I don’t. I mean I know he loves Haleigh and -- [PAUSES] -- his temper, I mean it could get bad enough for him to hurt Haleigh. But I do know he loves Haleigh. Haleigh is his heart and everybody knows that.
[00:03:02]
GERALDO RIVERA : Has he ever hit Haleigh?
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD : Um, my cousin, Candice, told me when we got down here for this incident, that, um, he come to her house -- it was Ronald, Haleigh, Junior and Misty. And Haleigh bumped into him or smarted off to him and she said he just backhanded her. And she fell flat on her face on the porch.
[00:03:29]
GERALDO RIVERA : Marie, you have a picture of Haleigh.
MARIE GRIFFIS : Yes.
GERALDO RIVERA : Do you want me to see it?
MARIE GRIFFIS : Yes. You get it.
GERALDO RIVERA : Alright this is a picture, a disturbing picture, that shows Haleigh with an obvious black eye, a cut on her nose and the -- a bruise that goes from the top of her left eye all the way down to the left side of her cheek.
[00:03:58]
Now I understand the school records indicate that she had an accident at school. Are these injuries the result of that accident?
MARIE GRIFFIS : Uh, that’s what we were told, that she fell at school and -- or who was pushed at school by -- by another child and that she fell catching the sidewalk and that was the results of it. But if you fall on the sidewalk, why didn’t her hands get skint, her knees get skint?
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD : [OVERLAP] The nurse said that all she had was a scratch on her nose.
GERALDO RIVERA : So you -- you -- do you believe that Ron Cummings hit this child?
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD : I don’t know if he hit her or if she fell down or any other incident happened. But that did not happen at school. The nurse said she had a scratch on her nose.
[00:05:22]
GERALDO RIVERA : And you have witnesses that he has hit this child?
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD : Yes.
MARIE GRIFFIS : Yes.
GERALDO RIVERA : Do you believe that Ron Cummings knows who took Haleigh?
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD : Yes. I mean he’s told my brother and my fiancé that he knows -- he’s 75 percent sure he knows where his daughter is. He said on TV that he had no enemies.
GERALDO RIVERA : Is that true?
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD : No. He’s got plenty of enemies.
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD: I KNOW WHEN HE’S REALLY CRYING, THAT IS FAKE
[END OF TRANSCRIPT] source
Sunday, February 22, 2009
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