TRENTON DUCKETT - 2 yo (2006) - Leesburg FL

Trenton Duckett turned 2 years old on Aug. 10, 2006. On Aug. 27,
2006, just 17 days after his birthday, he was reported missing from his
home shortly after 9:00 P.M. Although there have been hundreds of leads
and tips investigated, to date, Trenton's whereabouts are still unknown.
Trenton was last seen with his mother, Melinda Duckett, age 21, while
leaving her grandparents home in Lady Lake, FL at approximately 4:15
P.M. on Sat. Aug. 26th. After getting gas at approximately 5:30 P.M. in
Leesburg that same evening, her & Trenton's whereabouts are unknown
until the following day, Sun., Aug. 27th at approximately 4:00 P.M.
when Melinda was seen at her apartment complex alone by an
acquaintance.
The accounts of Trenton's father, 21 year old Joshua Duckett's
whereabouts had been seemingly satisfied by investigators through
witness statements and a passed polygraph. The investigators were still
substantiating the details given by Melinda of driving around in her
silver Mitsubishi Eclipse with Trenton on Sunday and visiting family
and friends. Melinda had not yet agreed to a polygraph exam. The
investigation was hindered when tragically Melinda took her own life at
the home of her grandparents on Sept. 8th, less than two weeks after
Trenton was reported missing.
To date, investigators are still trying to piece together the timeline
for Melinda Duckett between the hours of 5:30 P.M. on Aug. 26, until
approximately 8:15 A.M. on Aug. 27th, 2006.
If anyone has any information regarding this investigation, they are
encouraged to call the Leesburg Police Department at 1-352-787-2121 or
1-800-423-TIPS (8477).

Courtesy: http://helpfindtrenton.com/index.htm

The father of Trenton Duckett, the Leesburg
toddler who went missing in 2006, will hold a candlelight vigil on
Thursday in downtown Leesburg to mark the third anniversary of his
son's disappearance.

The vigil will start at 8 p.m. at Leesburg City Hall, on West Main Street, between Fifth and Sixth streets.

Trenton Duckett was reported missing by his mother, Melinda Duckett,
from the bedroom of their Leesburg apartment on Aug. 27, 2006.

Melinda shot herself at her grandparents' home in The Villages about a
month later. Trenton's father, Josh Duckett, was estranged from Melinda
Duckett.

Josh Duckett said the vigil is to help bring awareness to missing
children and help families with their searches. Leesburg Police
investigators plan to attend Thursday's vigil.

Retired Det. Still Looking For Trenton


Detective Believes Missing Boy Is Dead

POSTED: Wednesday, August 26, 2009
UPDATED: 7:50 pm EDT August 26, 2009




LEESBURG, Fla. -- The now-retired detective who began the search for Trenton Duckett three years ago said he is dedicated to finding the missing boy.
VIDEO: Third anniversary Of Disappearance

Trenton was 2 years old when he disappeared on Aug. 27, 2006, and Leesburg Police Department Detective Rich Giles was assigned to the investigation.
"I made a promise early on that is really taboo for a police officer or police detective to do. You never promise the family of a victim that you're going to find their child," Giles said.
Giles said despite that, he made a promise to Trenton's family and told Trenton's father and grandmother he would do everything possible to bring the toddler home.
"If I made a mistake in the investigation, it's that I let myself get a little too close to the family," Giles said.
Giles retired from the Leesburg Police Department last year after 30 years in law enforcement, but he has not stopped looking for Trenton.
Giles said his personal opinion is that Trenton's mother, Melinda Duckett, killed the toddler, possibly by accident, and then tried to frame her estranged husband, Josh Duckett.
Melinda Duckett committed suicide less than two weeks after Trenton was reported missing.
Giles said evasive interviews Melinda Duckett gave police still keep him up at night.
"I've got them on audio. I'll go back and listen to them to see if there was anything I missed the first hundred times I listened to them. I go back through phone records," Giles said.
Melinda Duckett's cell phone pings have led Giles to suspect she did not dispose of her son in the Ocala National Forest, which was the focus of early searches, but instead, that Trenton could be much closer to Leesburg.
"The two incoming calls and the two outgoing calls place her very close to her apartment. She was hitting off of her home tower," Giles said.
Giles said he thinks that whatever happened to Trenton happened in the apartment.
Based on this suspicion, Giles said he occasionally pokes through swamps and forests looking for Trenton.
"Just checking out a hunch. Out driving, or whatever, and say, 'You know what? Since I'm over here in this area, let me stop by here and look,' " Giles said.
Giles said he is currently working on creating a map of the most likely places Melinda Duckett hid her son's body.
As a new member of Texas Equusearch, a group that famously assisted in the search for Caylee Anthony, Giles eventually plans to recruit the organization to help finally bring Trenton home.
Trenton's family is holding a vigil Thursday night to mark the three-year anniversary of his disappearance.
The vigil will begin at 8 p.m. near the fountain on Main Street in downtown Leesburg and the public is invited.

The three-year anniversary of Trenton Duckett's disappearance will come
today with no sign of the child. But thoughts, prayers and efforts to
find him remain.

Friends, family and parents of other missing children will gather in
front of the Leesburg City Hall at 8 p.m. today for an annual
candlelight vigil. And Trenton's father, Josh Duckett, will unveil a
truck he helped designed that showcases the faces of 57 missing
children across the nation.

A portrait of Trenton is plastered across the hood.

Duckett said he will be displaying the truck at missing children
events, truck shows and other community activities to draw attention to
what police call a national problem.

The multi-colored, customized, 1998 Chevy SS-10 can be compared to
an ongoing Amber alert for Trenton and all missing children. The
vehicle includes dates for the missing children as well as contact
phone numbers.

"What better way to get the message out there?" asked the
24-year-old Duckett on Wednesday, when he was still working on getting
the vehicle prepared for tonight's showing.

Trenton was 2 years old when he disappeared.

Melinda Duckett, Trenton's mother and Josh Duckett's estranged wife,
reported the child missing Aug. 27, 2006, from her Griffin Road home.
Melinda killed herself two weeks later as suspicion began to mount
against her in the child's disappearance.

The case made headlines across the nation and the search expanded
across the globe. An allegedly hostile interview with the mother by TV
talk show host Nancy Grace resulted in a wrongful death lawsuit against
her by Melinda's parents.

Posters of Trenton, including an age-progressive photo, still hang
on the front door of the Leesburg Police Department. Police Maj. Steve
Rockefeller said his department continued to received tips on the
child's whereabouts during the past year, but nothing leading to a
break in the case.

"The case has definitely cooled," Rockefeller said.

Duckett said he still hasn't given up hope on finding his son.

"We're not going to stop until we bring him home," Duckett said.

Rockefeller said officers will be at the candlelight vigil to show the department's support.

HLN's Nancy Grace makes her living interrogating guests under the white-hot glare of television cameras.
So it's ironic that the host of HLN's highest-rated show doesn't want
video cameras to record her when she's questioned in a wrongful death
lawsuit brought by the estate of a former guest on the "Nancy Grace"
show.
The estate of Melinda Duckett,
the mother of missing 2-year-old Leesburg, Fla., boy Trenton Duckett,
is suing Grace, accusing the legal commentator and her show of
"intentional infliction of emotional distress" that led Duckett to
commit suicide.
Grace's attorneys, who also represent CNN in the lawsuit, filed
an emergency motion in U.S. District Court in Ocala on Monday to bar
cameras during Grace's scheduled deposition Thursday. The judge is
expected to rule on the motion today.
By keeping video cameras out, Grace's lawyers argue they would
avoid "annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, and undue harm should the
videotape be released prior to trial for purposes unrelated to the
litigation," according to the motion obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.
"It is indeed ironic," Kara Skarupo, one of the attorneys who
represent Duckett's estate, her parents and sister, told ABCNews.com.
"They allege we've been courting the media, which is completely
ridiculous. The irony is she is out there on TV every day."
Skarupo said Grace's lawyers would like video cameras to be
stricken entirely, but if the judge does allow her deposition to be
recorded, they "want us to sign a blood pact that it won't get out."
A spokeswoman for CNN declined to comment on the matter.
Grace was a prosecutor for nearly a decade in the Atlanta-Fulton
County, Georgia District Attorney's office on felony cases involving
serial murder, serial rape, serial child molestation, and arson.
Duckett's parents, Bethann and William Eubank, along with her
aunt Kathleen Calvert, filed a lawsuit against Grace two months after
Melinda's Sept. 7, 2006 appearance on the "Nancy Grace" show.
During Grace's interview, which was taped with Duckett on the
phone, the talk show host pounded her desk and demanded, "Where were
you? Why aren't you telling us where you were that day?"
The following day, Duckett shot herself in the head just hours before her interview with Grace was broadcast on HLN.
Investigators had also questioned the 21-year-old mother about her missing son. The boy has never been found.
Grace was unapologetic when she appeared on "Good Morning America" a week after Duckett's suicide.
"If anything, I would suggest that guilt made her commit suicide,"
Grace told ABC News' Chris Cuomo. "To suggest that a 15- or 20-minute
interview can cause someone to commit suicide is focusing on the wrong
thing."
Duckett's family says otherwise. "We're alleging that Grace
caused her death and caused emotional distress for her family," Skarupo
said. "It's a hard thing to prove but we think it's important. They
lost a daughter unnecessarily."
Grace defended her hard-line stance to GMA.
"Any interview followed hours and hours of police interrogation
of Melinda Duckett. Unfortunately, Melinda Duckett had attempted
suicide in the past," she said.
"While I sympathize with her family and know as a first-hand
victim of crime myself, you look for somebody to blame, anybody," she
said at the time. "And today the family is blaming me. & But I
would suggest their efforts go toward finding this baby."

ORLANDO -- A judge has ruled that talk show host Nancy Grace can be videotaped while answering questions in a wrongful death lawsuit in Central Florida.
Lawyers representing Melinda Duckett’s family,
however, cannot share the recording with “any third party” or disclose
any portion of the testimony without the federal magistrate’s
permission.Grace’s lawyers wanted to bar the videotaping to spare Grace embarrassment.Duckett’s
family is suing the host of HLN, formerly CNN Headline News, blaming
her for inflicting emotional distress on the 21-year-old Central
Florida mother during an appearance on her talk show in 2006 after her
son, Trenton, went missing. Grace accused Duckett of hiding something.Melinda Duckett shot and killed herself the day the taped interview was scheduled to broadcast.

Full Story at Link: http://www.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=84807

A federal magistrate says an upcoming deposition by cable television host Nancy Grace in a Florida civil case can be videotaped, but cannot be made public.
Magistrate Gary Jones refused to bar cameras from Thursday's deposition in Atlanta, which is part of a lawsuit accusing Grace of badgering a woman into committing suicide.

Estate attorneys said they found it "ironic" that Grace fought the presence of cameras in her deposition since she freely used deposition video in her extensive coverage of the disappearance and death of young Caylee Anthony in Orlando.

LEESBURG, Fla. -- Melinda Duckett is the only
person Leesburg police named as a suspect in Trenton Duckett's
disappearance more than three years ago.The little boy's father,
Josh Duckett, said he believes talk show host Nancy Grace didn't push
Melinda over the edge. He said it's the mother's guilt that lead to her
suicide."I don't feel Nancy Grace did anything wrong," Josh Duckett said.Josh
Duckett believes Grace didn't hammer his ex-wife Melinda Duckett with
any tougher questions than he endured when put in the hot seat about
Trenton's disappearance in 2006.

"She asked questions that really honestly need to be answered," he said.The day after being grilled by Grace, Melinda Duckett shot and killed herself in her grandparents' closet.Her family blames Grace in a newly filed lawsuit, seeking more than $15,000."They didn't force her to do the show," Josh Duckett said."I only wish I would have questioned her more," Grace said.Grace
is set to give a videotaped deposition in Atlanta Thursday morning, but
a judge has ruled, at Grace's request, that the tape cannot be released
to the public without the court's consent.Duckett feels that's fair."If it does get leaked, it's going to turn my son's case into a three-ring circus," Josh Duckett said.Investigators
said in the last year they've only have five leads on potential Trenton
sightings across the country, and consider it a cold case.Josh Duckett said he is still focused on finding his son alive -- not on the courtroom drama over Melinda's death.Grace is scheduled to be deposed in Atlanta.A CNN rep said Grace has no comment.

A woman who pulled her openly gay son out of North Tonawanda High
School citing bullying and death threats almost five years ago is
gearing up for yet another legal wrangle.

Rhonda Mangus’ case
has raised interest outside of the state of New York and prominent
Illinois attorney Jay Paul Deratany recently offered his help free of
charge.

Michael Mangus suffered at the hands of what his mother,
a substitute teacher at the district, said was chronic physical and
emotional abuse by his peers including at least one death threat. The
situation prompted her to remove the then 13-year-old boy from school
and begin home-schooling him.

The abuse started after Michael
decided to speak freely about his sexuality. His mother has for years
charged that school officials failed to provide a safe environment for
the teen.

But Mangus was instead herself charged with
educational neglect after the school board prompted the Niagara County
office of social services to get involved. An administrative law judge
in a 2008 proceeding leveled the charge, it appears without taking
testimony from Michael himself.

Rhonda Mangus, who had not then
hired an attorney, appealed the decision only to have her request
thrown out. Deratany — who has won numerous judgments in the past 12
years specializing in child injury and human rights cases — is awaiting
paperwork required to again appeal the decision at the New York state
level.

Named Top Lawyer of 2007, 2008 and 2009 by Chicago
Magazine — Deratany is taking Mangus’ case pro bono after an employee
in his office who knows Mangus briefed him about her ongoing fight to
clear her name. In 2008, Deratany — with a track record of volunteer
community involvement — wrote a play produced in Chicago called “Haram
Iran,” which depicts the true story of two young homosexuals on trial
in that country.

Among several high profile cases to his credit,
he is currently suing talk show host Nancy Grace regarding the entirely
separate matter of a Lockport family.

Melinda Duckett, who had
moved to Florida, appeared on the show after producers invited her to
gain publicity in the case of her missing son. Grace ambushed Duckett
and asked her if she was indeed responsible for her child’s death.
Duckett committed suicide shortly after the interview and her family
said it was because of the humiliation suffered on Grace’s show. The
woman’s child, Trenton Duckett, age 3 at the time, was never found.

OCALA - A filing in a federal lawsuit against Nancy Grace
says an employee of the cable talk show knew Melinda Duckett had once
been involuntarily committed for mental instability before the Florida
mom was grilled on the show.The documents, filed by lawyers for
Duckett's estate in a wrongful-death claim, also says Keren Schiffman,
who booked guests on Grace's show, misled Melinda Duckett's lawyer,
Kimberly Schulte of Leesburg, about the nature of her client's
appearance.Duckett reported that her 2-year-old son, Trenton,
was missing from his bedroom of their garden-floor apartment in
Leesburg on Aug. 27, 2006. She then committed suicide at her
grandparents' home in The Villages on Sept. 8, 2006, hours before her
interview was scheduled to air on Headline News or HLN, a division of CNN.Grace,
the host of a self-titled show on HLN, formerly CNN Headline News, is
being sued by Duckett's family. They blame her for inflicting emotional
distress on Melinda Duckett during a taped interview for the show.Jay
Paul Deratany, a South Florida lawyer representing Duckett's family,
argued in the court document that Schiffman's testimony is important
because it suggests negligence and can help prove that Grace and her
show's employees "tricked" Duckett's lawyer into allowing the
21-year-old mother to appear on the program.Lawyers for Grace,
including Judith Mercier of Holland & Knight's Orlando office,
submitted a written response Friday in federal court, describing the
estate's filing as "filled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations."Schulte, who testified at a deposition Dec. 21, was not told that Grace planned to interrogate Duckett.According
to the filing, Schulte "testified that the CNN booker/producer
represented to her that the purpose of the show was not to interview or
question Melinda Duckett about the disappearance, but that it was 'a
picture show to help find Trenton' and that they 'wanted pictures, to
put pictures on the show to help to try to find Trenton.' "Schulte was later "shocked, upset and dismayed…to the point that she swore at Ms. Schiffman."Grace,
who testified in a deposition Jan. 28 in Atlanta, said she was not
informed of Schiffman's representations to Duckett's lawyer and did not
read any pre-interview notes Schiffman made about DuckettGrace also testified that she routinely throws out pre-interview notes.Trenton Duckett remains missing.Leesburg police have labeled Melinda Duckett as the lone suspect in the boy's disappearance.The trial in the wrongful-death lawsuit is set for July 6 in federal court in Ocala.

A former Mascotte Police officer has lost an appeal that would have
gotten him off death row for murdering an 11-year-old girl.James
Duckett has been in prison for 21 years for the sexually assaulting and
killing Teresa McAbee in 1987.In his appeal, Duckett, 51,
challenged the testimony of some witnesses and evidence in the case
against him.According to the Orlando Sentinel, however, the court
ruled all of Duckett’s claims “lacked merit.”Duckett is the
grandfather of Trenton
Duckett, who has been missing since 2006.He has been in
prison since Trenton’s father, Joshua, was a child.

Melinda Duckett, the mother of missing Leesburg toddler Trenton
Duckett, prepared "talking points" for her interview with cable TV
host Nancy
Grace, according to a motion filed by lawyers for Grace and CNN,
who want a judge to throw out a wrongful-death motion filed by
Duckett's estate in federal court.

Lawyers for the estate claim that Grace's aggressive interview Sept. 7,
2006, was an ambush that pushed the young mother to suicide the
following afternoon – hours before the taped interview was to be
broadcast.

Trenton, then 2, was reported missing Aug. 27, 2006, by his mother who
told Leesburg police that he disappeared from a bedroom of their
garden-level apartment in Leesburg. The boy, who would be nearly 6,
remains missing.

"The only person who was not surprised during Melinda Duckett's
appearance on the Nancy Grace program was Melinda herself," argued
Orlando lawyer Judith M Mercier of Holland & Knight, which
represents Grace and the cable giant. "Melinda scripted her own
performance…"

Grace, a former prosecutor, hosts a nightly justice-themed show on HLN, a
sister network of CNN, which employs her.

The filing, which seeks summary judgment or dismissal of the civil
lawsuit, includes hundreds of pages of documents, investigative reports
and sworn statements, including parts of a deposition given by Grace,
who has denied responsibility for Melinda Duckett's death.

Kara Ann Skorupa, a south Florida lawyer representing the estate and
Duckett's adopted parents, said CNN and Grace's motion was an expected
legal maneuver as the trial date draws closer. The trial is set for Aug.
30 in federal court in Ocala. Skorupa said the estate's lawyers will
file a response this week or next.

Skorupa and law partner Jay Deratany represent the Melinda Duckett's
estate and her adoptive parents, Bethann and William Eubank of Lockport,
New York, who never met Trenton. Melinda Duckett's grandparents, Nancy
and Billy Eubank, reside in The Villages, where she committed suicide
with a shotgun.

Seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, lawyers for Grace and CNN argued that no
one believed Duckett was suicidal – including her parents, grandparents
or lawyer, Kim Schulte of Leesburg, who had advised her not to appear
on Grace's show.

Grace and network officials said they did not discover, until the
lawsuit was filed, that Melinda Duckett had run away from home several
times as a child and was admitted to a youth mental hospital at age 16
after cutting her wrist with a knife in her parents' presence.

Lawyers for Grace and CNN also dismissed Melinda Duckett's involuntarily
admission in April 2005 to LifeStream Behavioral Center in Leesburg,
which followed a threat to "end it all." They argued that Melinda
Duckett blamed the incident on her estranged husband, calling it one of
his "dirty tricks" in their custody dispute.

Melinda Duckett had insisted she had only threatened to end their
marriage.

The voluminous filing also refers to law-enforcement documents,
including an FBI
summary of the case that was prepared in December 2006, which outlines
previous "abusive/assaultive" behavior by Melinda Duckett against her
son, herself and others.

The FBI summary also concludes that Duckett's appearance on Grace's show
was "entirely self-serving, motivated by (Duckett's) need to manipulate
the panel (of guests), and thereby the American public into viewing her
as a sympathetic victim of crime."

The filing cites portions of the deposition of the TV personality, who
had fought to bar cameras from recording her interview, taken under
oath, and whose lawyers persuaded a federal magistrate to limit its
disclosure.

Grace said she didn't know "until the last minute" that Melinda Duckett
would appear on the show, which also featured Joshua Duckett, Melinda's
estranged husband and Trenton's father, and special guest Mark Lunsford,
father of Jessica Lunsford, the 9-year-old Florida girl who was
abducted, raped and murdered in 2005 by John Couey.

"It was such a hurry," Grace said in her deposition. "We were gathering
all of the stuff to take down to the studio and somebody said that they
had been making - - Melinda Duckett and Josh Duckett had been making
claims on each other. Their split got really bitter, nasty and it made
me very angry, and I recall distinctly stopping and turning and said,
'That is not what we are about. We are not here to drag up a bunch of
claims on the victims…Keep this about Trenton. I don't care what they
are saying about each other."

CNN lawyers claimed that Melinda Duckett embarked on a press campaign
that included an unsolicited call to the "Doc & Johnny Morning
Show," a radio broadcast on WXXL-FM in Orlando, on the morning she was
scheduled to tape the interview with Grace.

The co-host of the radio show, Jeff Duncan – better known to listeners
as "Doc Holliday," said Melinda Duckett informed them that she was
taking the search for her son "national" with her cable TV appearance.

According to court documents, Duncan, who earlier had remarked that
Melinda Duckett seemed "very calm for someone who is missing a child,"
then asked her on the air if she would be willing to take a lie-detector
test.

"She responded, 'I'm not going to get into that" or with similar words,"
he said.

According to documents obtained from federal court, Leesburg police
detective Richard Giles, who was the lead investigator on the case until
he retired in July 2008, recovered documents from Melinda Duckett's
laptop computer that demonstrated she prepared talking points for the
appearance on Grace's TV show.

He said she scripted responses for issues ranging from marital problems
to possible suspects.

Melinda's notes included a summary of the night her son disappeared. She
said she fed him dinner, put him to bed and welcomed two friends to the
apartment to watch movies. After watching "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking
Barrels," she peeked in on her son about 9 p.m. only to find him missing
from his toddler bed.

"I searched the premise, but with him unfound, my friend called the
police. I went to a deputy's apartment in my complex, called family and
friends, and then everyone showed up and it was a mad house," she wrote
in her talking points. "Investigators scrambled around, (crime) tape was
put up, my family was in distress and there I was, a bawling fool in
the mist (sic) of it all, not helping with anything. That is part of the
reason why I am so determined to stay on track now. I have had a few
distraught and overly emotional moments in public, but if my eyes are
shut with tears, they're not open to look for him."

Of possible suspects, she wrote, "Personally I do not want to point the
finger and publicly humiliate anyone. I am too emotionally involved and
my assuming of events would be biased and wrong. Everyone is a suspect
in this matter, no one has been excluded, and since I am the mother, the
FBI would personally contact me first if any solid leads came up."

After the suicide, police concluded Melinda Duckett was and still is the
only suspect in her son's disappearance.

I hope Nancy doesn't get in trouble for this interview with Melinda Duckett-no one forced her to appear on Grace's show. I believe Ms. Duckett killed herself because she felt guilty for the role she played in her son's disappearance.

A lawyer suing CNN
and TV personality Nancy
Grace over a televised interrogation of Melinda Duckett, mother of a
missing Leesburg
toddler, contends the boy's fate remains a mystery because of the
network and its bombastic talk-show host.
"This child may never be found because the Defendants deliberately
tricked a mentally ill woman into coming on the show and then publicly
berated her to the point where she committed suicide," South Florida
lawyer Jay Paul Deratany argued in a new filing in federal court, where
the dispute is set for trial in August.
Deratany claims CNN and Grace were more concerned about ratings than
"the human beings involved," citing e-mails from a network producer
crowing about Grace's "grilling" of the mother and how her show's
audience grew.
"Audience loved it," wrote producer Clark Goldband, describing Grace's
performance as "fiery."
Lawyers for the network and Grace asked a federal judge in Ocala last
month to dismiss the wrongful-death lawsuit, arguing that Melinda
Duckett had prepared for the interview with the cable TV host and former
prosecutor by scripting "talking points." They also contend Grace and
the network are protected by the First Amendment.
Grace hosts a nightly, self-titled, justice-themed show on HLN, a sister
network of CNN, her employer.
Duckett, 21, who had reported her 2-year-old son missing from his
bedroom Aug. 27, 2006, killed herself with a shotgun at her
grandparents' home in The Villages on Sept. 8, 2006, the day after
taping the interview.
Trenton, who would be nearly 6 today, remains missing.

CNN policies at issue
Leesburg police say Melinda Duckett is the only suspect in the boy's
disappearance, a fact that Orlando lawyer Judith Mercier, who represents
CNN and the talk-show host, have pointed out repeatedly in their
defense.
CNN and Grace declined comment through a spokeswoman. Mercier did not
return calls for comment.
Lawyers for the estate, Melinda Duckett's adoptive parents and her
grandparents, who have sued for wrongful death and intentional
infliction of emotional distress, insist Grace and the network abused
their "media power."
"Ms. Grace knew exactly what she was doing when she took advantage of a
scared, confused and mentally ill woman who was under tremendous amounts
of stress," Deratany argued in the 52-page court filing.
He also claims the show's producers knew Melinda Duckett was emotionally
unstable but tricked her into appearing on the show — against her
lawyer's wishes — by promising to broadcast photos of the missing boy.
Deratany accused Grace and the show's producers of ignoring written CNN
policies and procedures for dealing with "bereaved persons," which
reportedly state that they "should be handled with great care and
judgment."
He described Grace's fist-pounding interrogation as outrageous.
During the show, which was broadcast after Melinda Duckett committed
suicide, Grace berates her for refusing to take a polygraph, repeatedly
screams questions at her and blurts out, "The reality is this child
statistically is very well dead."

Media's 'monopolizing power'
Deratany pointed out that Janine Iamunno, a spokeswoman for the Headline
News host, also dispatched an e-mail from her Blackberry to the
program's producers after the broadcast, warning them of possible
backlash.
"Just in case you get any direct calls from media re the Duckett
situation, please don't answer any questions at all, even off the
record, and have them call me," the e-mail read. "There were a couple of
complaint calls to the newsroom this morning saying we were overly
tough on the woman when we interviewed her and possibly insinuating that
could have contributed to her course of action. Obviously that's
ludicrous."
But lawyers for Duckett's estate argued a similar point in the filing.
"The media has a monopolizing power over the news and communications,
and can spin a small-town story into a national phenomenon at the drop
of a hat. CNN had complete control over who would hear about the missing
child, and with that power, they solicited Melinda to appear on Nancy
Grace," Deratany said.
He claimed that Grace, using her skills as a former prosecutor, hoped to
"intimidate and frighten Melinda Duckett, perhaps into giving an on-air
confession." As a result, he alleged in the filing, "Melinda killed
herself."
Network lawyers contend the program was focused on finding the missing
boy.
In May, when they asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit, lawyers for
CNN and Grace argued the estate's claims "run afoul of the First
Amendment — and sound public policy — which fully support the news
media's efforts to enlist the public's help to find a missing child and
to report the news that his mother had killed herself while he was still
missing."

A trial date in the civil case that the estate of Melinda Duckett has
brought against talk show host Nancy Grace and CNN has been pushed back.
Kara Skorupa, one of two attorneys for Duckett’s estate and her adoptive
parents, requested the delay in order to recuperate from recent knee
surgery.Defense attorneys do not oppose the delay;
Hodges has set a pre-trial conference for Oct. 20.Duckett,
the mother of still-missing Leesburg boy Trenton Duckett, killed
herself with a shotgun at her grandparents’ home in The Villages on
Sept. 8, 2006, shortly after being interviewed on Grace’s criminal
justice-themed cable television show about the disappearance of her then
2-year-old son.Duckett’s estate argues that Grace misled the
20-year-old mother into believing her participation on the show would
enlist the public’s help in locating Trenton, but instead bullied her
with veiled accusations that she was responsible for her son’s death.On
Aug. 27, 2006, Duckett reported to authorities her son’s disappearance
from his bedroom. The child would be 6 years old today.In late
2006, a lawsuit seeking damages for Duckett’s death and intentional
infliction of emotional distress was filed in federal court.
CNN and Grace deny the allegations and claim the TV celebrity
conducted herself without any intent to harm her guest.
Initially scheduled to start Aug. 30 in Ocala, the trial is now set
for Nov. 1 after Senior U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges
granted the plaintiffs’ attorney’s motion for a continuance.

Report: Nancy Grace Settles Suit With Duckett Family

Trust To Be Created To Help Find Missing Toddler

POSTED: Monday, November 8, 2010
UPDATED: 3:53 pm EST November 8, 2010

OCALA, Fla. -- CNN's Nancy Grace has settled a lawsuit with the family of a woman who killed herself after appearing on Grace's show to discuss her missing son, a local newspaper reported.According to the Ocala Star Banner, Grace reached a settlement with Melinda Duckett's estate to create a $200,000 trust dedicated to locating Duckett's missing toddler, Trenton.Trenton was 2 years old when he disappeared from Leesburg more than four years ago. Melinda Duckett killed herself shortly after appearing on Grace's talk show.The jury trial in the wrongful death lawsuit was scheduled to begin next month. A federal judge in Ocala must approve the settlement.Click here to read more about the story.
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/25674405/detail.html

Candlelight Vigil for Trenton Duckett missing 6 years

Posted by Kats
Monday, August 27, 2012 at 8:29 AM

Press Release

Event: Candlelight Vigil for Trenton Duckett missing 6 years.

When: 8/27/12

Time: 7:30 PM

Where: City Hall, Leesburg, Florida 501 W. Meadow St., Leesburg, FL

Vigil location is actually behind City Hall at the fountain which is between N. 5th & N. 6th Street on Main Street

Contact: Josh Duckett - (352) 427-7959

http://www.chathousenews.com/2012/08/candlelight-vigil-for-trenton-duckett.html