a former nfl player in the middle of a teen sex scandal. he's accused of having sex with girls as young as 14. young girls that he coached, mentored at school. and the guy is married, father of three. so he's accused now of taking advantage of girls the age of his own kids. and an obese woman squashed her boyfriend to death. she sat on him. she weighs about 350 pounds. he weighed 120. what does she get for crushing, killing the father of her children? not jail time. just three years' probation. welcome once again. i'm mike galanos. this is "prime weekend." those stories coming up in a bit. first how about this one. here's the title of it. stripper pole dad. he's not the stripper, by the way. cops in pennsylvania say he told his teenage son to round up his friends for a drinking party. off to a great start, aren't we? then he yelled at teen girls there at the party, cheerleaders, get on the pole. yes, the stripper pole he has installed in his basement. stephen russo is his name. cops say he was playing dj, telling teens of his stories of sexual exploits. apparently his room even has a room called the cave just for sex. we're told there's a picture of the dad with two teen girls giving him a kiss. his own son got so sick drinking he was puking and cops say there was a 4-year-old in the house as well. earlier i covered this with reporter j.d. malone who wrote this for "the express times," erv mclain, and also vinnie politan, attorney and host of "in session" as well as a radio show on sirius xm. it looks like they have the goods on your client. what's your defense for this guy? >> at this juncture, we're not -- i can't discuss the -- all of the elements of our defense simply because we can't -- we're not entitled to do that at this moment. all we're looking for is a fair trial. and that was what i believe led to your inquiry at my office. >> right. you want a change of venue because of the publicity, because he's known as the stripper pole dad, correct? >> absolutely. as even in your intro, it was stripper pole dad. you look -- if you look on the internet, there are -- if you put in stripper pole dad, you get 106,000 hits, all referring to my client. and the -- the depth of coverage of my client has been substantial. and the -- all of it has always been referred to as stripper pole dad. >> right. i mean, that's the information we have to go on, i'll say that. vinnie politan, let's get you in on this. is that enough from what you're hear from erv mclain to get a change of venue? is that going to make a difference? >> every day we cover the highest profile cases in the country and guess what, all of these people are able to get fair trials. the judge and lawyers are able to seat 12 fair and impartial jurors. the test, mike -- of course the defense should make this motion if they feel there's a problem locally. at the end of the day, even if someone heard about the case, the test is can you put aside what you know about the stripper pole dad and base your verdict on what's in court and jurors can do it. michael jackson got a jury that could do it and so did o.j. simpson. >> your client, he already pled guilty once, right? and how do you backtrack out of that? help us understand that portion of it. >> the -- there was a guilty plea entered into. that was done after long and arduous discussion and consideration. the guilty plea was rejected by the court. and we're prepared to go to trial. my client steadfastly denies the allegations. he's been charged with furnishing alcohol to minors. he's been charged with corruption of minors and charged with endangering the welfare of minors, all of which he denies. >> let's bring in j.d. malone again broke the story. j.d., did i miss anything? what allegedly happened at the russo house? >> according to court documents, basically on december 12th, mr. russo allegedly hosted a party after a local high school basketball game involving his son and at least eight other teenagers, from ages 14 to 16. one 14-year-old according to police said she was drinking red bull and vodka and had to sneak out of the house because there was an unwritten rule if you drank at the russo house, which apparently children did often, you had to sleep over because steve didn't want to get in any trouble. >> you're saying, j.d., this wasn't a one-time thing. this was the party house? >> according to what kids told police, this was a regular activity at russo's house. >> regular activity. vinnie, how bad could it get for this guy? >> it could get pretty bad. you're talking about what the evidence is here. obviously, there are plea negotiations. the judge rejects the plea. now you're at this trial. but you talk about an ongoing -- what's happening time after time and time again, then you've got all these witnesses. and the witnesses are going to be the kids that are at the party. but here it is. i mean, will there be conflicting versions of what took place? because one thing we know about watching trials is that eyewitness testimony can vary. and that might be some room here. but if it's ongoing more than one night and they can talk about this is the place we knew where to go, that's a problem. >> we haven't even talked about the allegations that cheerleaders there were encouraged to do a strip tease number on a stripper pole. more on this coming up. keep it here. welcome back. continuing a conversation about a man known as -- this is the headline, stripper pole dad accused of having a party with teenagers. his son, 17, told him to round up some of your friends. allegedly served up vodka, rum, beer. there were a couple of cheerleaders there, we're told, and were egged on to perform some sort of strip tease on a stripper pole. a couple of facebook comments. luckily no one was killed when they drove home. danielle writing this. he should have to wear a cheerleading outfit and strip for the prisoners. charlene is with us in louisiana. your thoughts on this one. >> caller: my thoughts on this one is he's not a stripper pole dad. he's a pervert. and for him to be giving alcohol to 14 and 16-year-old children, something needs to be done about him. does he get them drunk and make them sleep there so that they don't know what's going on? >> not sure to that level, charlene, but i hear your fire. thanks for the call. let's get in the charges, official charges mr. russo is facing. nine counts of endangering the welfare of children. eight counts of furnishing alcohol to minors and nine counts of corruption of minors. obviously -- let's bring in his attorney, erv mclain. your client is already in jail. why is he in jail now, erv? >> there was another case totally unrelated to this case in which he was convicted. and he's serving a sentence for that. >> okay. let's bring back j.d. malone. j.d., i'm sure there's some infuriated parents. any of the parents talking -- i couldn't imagine someone whose kid was actually at this house. what are they saying? >> we have not spoken to any of the parents, mike. >> how about community reaction here? are folks upset, j.d.? >> you know, we have had quite a bit of community reaction. this has been the most popular story on our website this past year. every time we write a story about mr. russo, it tends to generate a great deal of comments, many of them similar to your caller who just phoned in to the show. >> it fires you up when you think of a dad doing this. vinnie, as you look at this and, again, from a layman, me, it looks like they got the goods. what do you see? do you think it's a relatively easy case for a prosecutor? >> no case is easy for a prosecutor. a couple of things tell me it might not be. if the judge rejected the plea agreement, that tells me the prosecution was giving up something in his agreement and the judge thought that the penalty wasn't enough. so he rejected it. that tells me sometimes as a former prosecutor maybe i don't have all the evidence i need. maybe there are some conflicting stories. but the bottom line, if he's convicted, i would not want to be this man in front of this judge who rejected the plea deal because obviously he thinks he needs a more harsh sentence. >> what kind of evidence do you need? do you need stories to link up? >> you need a picture of the stripper pole to begin with. then you're going to need some testimony. did you gather any evidence of these kids actually being under the influence or are they going to have to come in and say we were furnished this booze. then you have to connect the booze maybe left over at the house with the kids. a lot of testimony from kids. that's the problem. that's the weakness. don't forget, these kids were probably drinking themselves. so how reliable is -- >> how about the cheerleaders and the stripper stuff because that leads to the title. was there nudity in the whole bit? >> as far as i understand, there was no nudity. i believe one girl did remove her cheerleader top and she had some sort of sports bra underneath and she was waving the cheerleader top. it was all kind of uncovered by the cheerleader head coach. >> we've got to run, guys. we have some more bad parenting from stripper pole dad to mom who makes her son kill his beloved hamster. yeah, little 12-year-old comes home with bad grades. how does mom punish? makes him use a hammer to kill the hamster. unbelievable. you know this little guy is going to be scarred for life after that one. we'll deal with that one. now this. heart wrenching images have been coming out all week from haiti. the international community is responding in a big way to the tragedy. cnn heroes wants to pay tribute to their most powerful force for hope, the people of haiti themselves. >> reporter: one of the worst ever natural disasters in the western hemisphere couldn't have chosen a more fragile target. through it all the haitian people have rallied their strength and persevered. people dig through rubble with their bare hands searching for trapped relatives and rescuing neighbors. >> we have to go to the hospital. >> is she alive? is she okay? >> yeah, she's okay, she's alive. >> reporter: survivors share food and water. and in the ruins, a new sound, hope. >> i'm not afraid. i'm not afraid. because god is with me. >> reporter: in the midst of grave tragedy, the haitian people remain hopeful, embracing life and each other. welcome back to "prime news" on hln. what parent does this? kid comes home with bad grades. cops say mom made him kill his pet hamster for punishment. the little guy, he's 12 years old. this happened in warm springs, georgia. so he had some bad grades. you don't force him to kill his pet and do it with a hammer? it's sick. take your calls, 1-877-tell-hln. back with us, lisa bloom, legal analyst for our sister network cnn. also michelle golland, clinical psychologist. read more of her comments on momlogic.com. lisa bloom, again, kids have bad grades. yes, there's a punishment. what were your thoughts when you first read this? forcing a kid to kill his hamster with a hammer. >> i prosecuted cases of child abuse for many years. this is one of the sickest examples that i have heard. i would say based on this alone, this parent is an unfit parent. why? because what they're doing is breaking the child of the natural compassion that every child has for animals. and we know that people who abuse animals, much less people who would make a child abuse an animal, don't have that compassion. they're lacking in that very important bond that most of us have to feel some sympathy. for example, with the dog that we were looking at in the creek earlier today on hln. and thank god that dog was rescued and we all breathed a sigh of relief because we have compassion for animals, animals that fear suffering and pain and fear just like we do. so to take a child and to force the child to abuse an animal in this way is the kind of memory i suspect that child will have 10, 20, 50 years from now. this is outrageous. >> no doubt scars for the rest of their life. we love our pets now but it was ten fold when we were kids. they were our friends. even a hamster like this, i'm sure this 12-year-old loved the hamster. michelle, golland, talk about this, the scars, repercussions possibly for the rest of his life. >> it's horrible. lisa is completely accurate in her assessment of this. what this mother did is beyond cruel and the impact is going to be great. that child is going to be -- it's really creating this level of fear for their mother. and i would predict that there was other abusive behavior. you don't get to the point of being a mother that has her child do this without other things going on. serious, serious things must be happening in that home. >> i'm sure no one doubts that. let's get a call in. joan with us in california. your thoughts on this one. >> caller: yes, i'm here. >> go ahead, joan. >> caller: i think the woman should be in jail. i think she should go to jail. >> hear, hear. >> yes. >> joan, thanks. agreed. let's talk about that end of it. what kind of punishment do you see coming down here for mom, lisa? >> animal cruelty charges, child abuse charges, child endangerment charges. this is a very serious crime, as far as i'm concerned. it's not just about the hamster. it's bad enough what happened to the hamster, because she made the child kill it by hitting it with a hammer over and over again. so we know, as michelle said, that people who abuse animals also tend to abuse children and abuse women. that all goes hand in hand. the studies are very clear on that. without a very comprehensive home study, i would say this mom has to be separated from the child immediately. >> another call in, lisa in florida. go ahead. >> caller: i'm actually -- i just wanted to reiterate what lisa just said. there have been studies that have shown that people are psychologically disturbed start out killing animals and the next up would be murdering of people. what else has this mother actually done and her actions that are being placed on her son. how is he going to be psychologically damaged. >> you wonder what seeds have been planted. with that said, michelle, what can be done so these seeds don't take hold of this kid? he did tell authorities about this, so obviously there was remorse. that's a good thing, i have to think. >> i was going to say the thing that gave me hope was the fact that he went to a teacher. so that he's reaching out. he was disturbed by this. and he also wasn't so in fear of authority that he didn't reach out. so my hope is that they can get separated, that he can get counseling to work through. because, again, my concern is that there is other abuse in this story. >> yeah. lisa bloom, you mentioned it. they should be separated. but does mom -- will a mom really lose custody over this? do you really see that happening? >> well, it depends on what else is going on in the home, whether she takes parenting classes and improves, whether she's genuinely remorseful. but in my view, this alone -- if someone forced me to kill a beloved pet as a child or even now as an adult, that would be a scar very difficult for me to get over. i think we can all feel the same way. we want to encourage kids to have compassion, we don't want to deprive them of it. that's exactly what she's done here. >> we hit it on that end. michelle, real quick on the mom. what would make a mom do this? we talked about the effects on the kid. why would the mom go there in the first place? >> i have to say lisa hit on something as well. my concern is this woman seeps seems associate yoe pathic. you don't get to the level of killing an animal or forcing a child to kill an animal without really a lack of empathy and compassion one for the animal and for your child. it's really sociopathic behavior. it's highly disturbing. >> it's sad. thanks, guys. former nfl player accused of having sex with teen girls. we're talking about one victim as young as 14. welcome back. continuing our conversation. we're talking about a former nfl player, played a couple of years for the lions. 38 years old, tommie boyd is his name. accused of having sex with teen girls as young as 14. 15, 16-year-old alleged victims, could be more. he's facing obviously some serious charges. the guy was a teacher, track coach, person of power. joining us to talk about this, gordon wilczynski, staff writer of macomb daily. as the story goes, how persistent was he in being the aggressor with a girl as young as 14? >> one girl was 14 years old, a freshman at frasier high school. she was on the track team. since he was her coach, she got quite close to him. the allegations are he would often grab her from behind, grab her buttocks and hold her right tight and kiss her. then when she was 15 years old he went to her house and allegedly did the same thing. >> disgusting. >> of course it is. if the allegations are true. at this point, i think we all know these are kids making allegations. and i understand another young lady from the same high school has filed a written report with the frasier police department, frasier department of public safety and they plan to interview her on monday. >> okay. here's the statement from frasier public schools. since the allegations first arose in early january, mr. boyd has been removed from contact with frasier students by both the school district and the contract services firm that employs him. he has not been working at frasier or in any michigan school since the allegations arose. so a clear picture we're getting from gordon. innocent until proven guilty, but as this is playing out, we wonder how does a married man, father of three, go there. >> and, you know, he can't use the excuse that you hear guys use in our culture, i didn't know she was so young. he knows what grade they are in. he's coaching them. i should also add young girls are developing much earlier than they ever have. families are making the mistake of sexualizing their daughters and dressing them older than they should. so in some cases, men need to understand that the girl they're looking at is not a woman, emotionally, intellectually, she's a child. >> we're talking high school there. here's the statement from tom boyd's attorney -- here's the statement. right now we're in the infancy of this case and plan to try the case in the courtroom as opposed to the media. lisa bloom, where do you begin to defend a guy like that? >> that's a pretty bland statement. to me the translation of that statement is, we don't really have anything yet. but, look, everybody is entitled to a defense in our system. he's kind of stuck with his first attorney's statement that there was consent, which says to me he's admitting to at least one of the acts. now he has to wiggle out of that i-a say it didn't happen at all. you hold the prosecution's feet to the fire. make them prove beyond a reasonable doubt. if prosecution doesn't prove the case, then it's a not guilty. but i don't know what his defense is going to be other than i didn't do it. because if he did it, there's no defense to say she looked older or i didn't know, blah, blah, blah. none of that is going to affect him at all. they're 14, he's 38. he had sex with them. that's it, end of case. >> leave it there. wendy, lisa, gordon, appreciate it. something could up, indiscretion on a grand scale, john edwards. we know he's now admitting, yes, i did father a little girl with my mistress. well, he makes this statement right before his former aide's book comes out. the former aide andrew young is talking. hear what he has to say. whose plan was it for him to take the bullet? i think it was john edwards. welcome back to "prime news" on hln. getting ugly. finally hearing from john edwards' former aide, the man behind the new tell-all book about the former senator's mistress, love child. andrew young is the author. he was going to take the bullet for edwards. he pretended he had the affair with rielle hunter, he was the baby's father. this ex-aide has a wife and three kids, yet he goes along with it, says it was the senator's idea. here's andrew young on abc's "good morning america." >> the senator made the full pitch not just for me. he didn't have to just convince me that i was going to take paternity. he also had to convince rielle that she would publicly claim that i had been the father. >> all right. then he goes on to say former senator edwards is no doting father. take your calls, 1-877-tell-hln. back with us, wendy walsh, clinical psychologist, momlogic.com. also with us andy barr, reporter at politico, welcome back stephanie miller, radio talk show host. andy, as you hear this, does it surprise you to hear that john edwards immediately in the crisis mode and he's going to try and lobby rielle hunter and young for young to take the bullet here? >> i mean, it's not surprising at all that he's coming out and saying this. edwards is a guy who propped up andrew young to make him take a fall and all sorts of stuff. and all of a sudden turned his back on the guy, didn't really help him out in the way that he promised he would. andrew young has this book coming out. he's saying edwards is only making this admission now because that book was going to drop. there's so much bad blood involved in this little feud here that they have that there's just -- you know, i can't say that i'm surprised by any of the exchanges between the two guys. >> why the bad blood? let's clarify? because andrew young goes along with the idea, right? >> right. >> and what happens -- you correct me if i go astray. according to the story he gets money, he and his wife and three kids get relocated to santa barbara. where does it go bad? >> you have to go back further. even when senator edwards was a senator, he was a doting staffer, obsessed with edwards, committed to him in every way you possibly could be. he, because edwards knew he was the one that would possibly go along with this agrees to go along with this scheme. and it all boils up in the guy's face. he has his life ruined by edwards, who ruined his own life along with it. so he's got -- after years of loyalty, really has no reason to do anything kind to john edwards anymore. >> stephanie miller, were you ever an edwards supporter and what were your thoughts as this was unfolding and here we are today? >> no. and let me just applaud my own good judgment on that, mike. boy, your show today is like an edition of men behaving badly. i don't think this is even partisan, is it? >> no, it's not. >> this is indefensible. i've had elizabeth edwards on my show. in my opinion, she couldn't be a warmer, kinder person. and how can you not look at her life and just -- this story just gets worse and worse and worse. >> it does. >> it is really one of the most selfish things i could have heard. he could have taken down the whole democratic party. forget his family. it's unbelievable. >> wendy walsh, let's pick up on that point. how does a man who is so well respected -- i mean -- and he took the stage by storm back in 2004. how do we get to this? help us out. >> you know, i like to say this is a very american scandal. in france, this would barely make the headlines where powerful men, especially politicians, have mistresses and children on the side. but us americans, we want to keep it clean all the way. i'm reminded of alan greenspan's quote when he said, if you have what it takes to be president, you probably don't deserve to be president. it's sort of this hypocrisy that exists in our political system. and while i think what he did is a tragedy and travesty to the family, i do think that tiger woods was a lot worse, because he potentially brought deadly germs into his family's household, which is worse than heartbreak and loss of money. >> here's john edwards, here's a statement from john edwards as again he finally admits that he's the father of little quinn. it was wrong for me to ever deny she was my daughter and hopefully one day when she understands, she will forgive me. andrew young had an answer for that, again appearing on "good morning america" saying john edwards is no doting father in this case. let's listen. >> the senator made the full pitch not just for me. i mean, he didn't just have to convince me that i was going to take paternity. he also had to convince rielle that she would publicly claim that i had been the father. >> okay. there again, talking about the pitch he'd made. he goes on to say, talking about andrew young, that's garbage. let's listen -- do we have that? let's go to it again. he's saying it's bull. let's listen. >> it's been 2 1/2 years, and for it to come out a week before my book is coming out, i've expected it for a long time. i expected that they were going to do a public relations campaign to promote him, which i'm very skeptical of. all of a sudden he's a doting, loving father of quinn. i'm skeptical of it. >> stephanie, what do you make of all this, john edwards going to haiti, john edwards making the statement that he is -- wants to be a supportive father now? >> the whole thing just makes me want to vomit, to be honest. if you're going to go to haiti, don't talk to people on camera about it. then just do it. to do this at the same time, i mean it literally, mike, it just does get worse and worse. what struck me about the statement is he didn't apologize. what about his own children with elizabeth and what about apologizing to elizabeth? i mean, it just -- i guess the whole thing is just stunning. >> exactly. wendy, what about that? that's another great point that stephanie brings up. there's kids in the mix here. there's obviously the older daughter, but you've got a 9-year-old and 11-year-old. how do you begin to explain this to them? >> this kind of emotional damage in a family affects families for generations. young children start to believe that that's what love is, that's what marriage is. or they may even unknowingly live out those kinds of relationships themselves or pass it down to their grandkids. now there's a 2-year-old out there who doesn't really know who her father is. the damage to the children is the worst of all. >> all right. guys, we have to leave it there. wendy, andy, stephanie, great to have you guys aboard. appreciate it. coming up we'll take your calls on this one. talk about a headline. a woman who weighs 350 pounds sits on her boyfriend, squashes him. he ends up dead. does she get any jail time? we'll talk about it coming up. it's a wednesday afternoon at gospel water branch baptist church near augusta, georgia. but some parishioners aren't here just for the gospel. they're here to lose weight. >> i didn't drink any sodas. i ate more salad. even i ate raw vegetables. >> i really made a big effort to walk. >> reporter: it's called the fit body and soul program. initially part of a study by the medical college of georgia and now an indispensable program for churchgoers and community members alike. >> and we do not want our health, our weight to hinder us from doing what you have willed for us to do in this world. >> we're trying to educate folks on the point of, you know, the high incidence of diabetes, hypertension, cardiac disease, cancer and stuff amongst african-americans. >> reporter: the tenets are simple -- diet, exercise, food journaling and community support. all of it resting on the backbone of faith. >> in everything we do, we always pray. we're here to support each other with prayer and with scripture. >> reporter: and the results, they have been promising. >> i lost 30 pounds. my wife lost about 25 pounds during the whole thing. blood pressure went down, cholesterol level went down. so we were very pleased. >> my goal was like seven or eight pounds, but i've reached ten pounds and kept it off for like a year and a half. >> reporter: but pastor robert ramsey says there's no secret to their success. >> food can be a powerful temptation and you need that inner strength to overcome that temptation. so i think every congregation can do it and should endeavor to do it. >> reporter: dr. sanjay gupta, cnn, reporting. my jaw hit the floor when i heard about this next story. a woman so big she actually squashed her boyfriend to death. she weighs about 350 pounds. there she is. reportedly too heavy to be weighed on the police scale. sat on her boyfriend during an argument at their home in cleveland. he was laying face down on the couch. he weighs about 120 pounds. she ended up killing him. they have three children together. there is a history of domestic abuse between the two. and we know this, the victim's family obviously devastated here. >> i just want to let you know how much you have hurt us by taking miguel away from us. >> i just want to say i'm sincerely sorry about the situation. i wish i could set it back. >> all right. there you see her crying. she pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter. the judge sentenced her to three years probation, 100 hours of community service. you think that's fair? should she have gotten jail time? we'll take your calls, 1-877-tell-hln. back with us lisa bloom, legal analyst, sister network cnn. mike eiglarsh, former prosecutor, criminal defense attorney. i know you see it differently. lisa, i'll start with you. should she have gotten jail time or not? >> i don't understand how this is involuntary manslaughter. that's the low level charge that got her just three years' probation. if you're suffocating someone to death, it generally takes two to five minutes. during the time that that's happening, the victim is struggling. it's that fight or flight mechanism. fight with everything they've got to take a breath. and at every second she had to make that determination. no, i'm not going to get up. i'm going to stay on top of him and continue cutting off his air supply. to me, that's intent to kill. that's either involuntary manslaughter or intentional homicide like a murder charge. i don't see how she got off this easy. >> mark eiglarsh, disagree with that? >> she is so creative. i didn't read any of those facts in anything that i read. what we have here -- >> you didn't read that she squashed him to death and suffocated him? because that's what happened. >> that part i got. but law enforcement, who are very close to this case, found that what was intentional was e this case found that what was intentional was sitting on him. that act resulted in a death. they didn't believe that she intentionally killed him. just that she intentionally committed, let's say, a battery, because he didn't consent to her sitting on him, and then that led to the death. that's different. i agree with you. she should be punished severely, a lot more than what she got, if she intentionally, if she meant to kill him. he did not. >> mark, how did you sit face down -- how do you sit on somebody with their face down on the couch and not intend to do some harm to them? what do you think is going to happen? >> are you suggesting that the law enforcement officers who charged her, and the prosecutors and judge somehow are conspi conspireing? >> this was a plea bargain, my friend. >> they know some things that we don't know. and that is that this woman did not intend to harm him, didn't intend to kill him or else it would be charged as a first-degree murder. >> you don't know what the possible charges are. all we know is what she was allowed to plead to. >> lisa, let me follow up on your point. it's a good one, basic one we can all understand. you don't suffocate in 30 seconds. it would take a couple of minutes. obviously, mark, the guy flailed a little bit. at that point, she knows she's hurting him. don't we start heing into intent at that point? >> let's add in the history of domestic violence. facts are missing here. maybe right before she did this, there was again another time where he came at her, where he did something, where he again placed her in fear and then she did this act. i know there's more to this case. >> now you're making up facts. >> more to this conversation. >> i am, you're right. >> want to hear from you. jump in. 877-tell-hln.