Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - ACCUSED: Alabama Chiropractor Doses Wife With Lead

Episode Date: March 9, 2023

Hannah Pettey starts taking a new dietary supplement recommended by her chiropractor husband. The vitamins are supposed to boost her immune system but Pettey ends up at the University of Alabama at Birmingham hospital for a diagnosis and treatment. Pettey’s diagnosis was lead poisoning. For two months, Pettey is hospitalized. The question is, however, how does an adult woman get lead poisoning?   Joining Nancy Grace today: Matthew T. Mangino-Attorney, Former District Attorney (Lawrence County), Author: "The Executioner's Toll: The Crimes, Arrests, Trials, Appeals, Last Meals, Final Words and Executions of 46 Persons in the United States" Caryn Stark- Psychologist- Trauma and Crime Expert; Twitter: @carnpsych   Robert Crispin - Private Investigator, Former Federal Task Force Officer for United States Department of Justice, DEA, and Miami Field Division; Former Homicide and Crimes Against Children Investigator; “Crispin Special Investigations;” Facebook: Crispin Special Investigations, Inc. Dr. William Morrone – Toxicologist, Chief Medical Examiner (Bay County Michigan); Author: "American Narcan: Naloxone & Heroin-Fentanyl Associated Mortality" Caitlyn Becker- Senior Reporter for Dailymail.com; Twitter: @caitlynbecker See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. They're young, they're handsome and beautiful. The husband's got this fantastic chiropractor business going the wife has an incredible thing going on professionally as well beautiful home everything so how does she end up near death i'm nancy grace this is crime stories thanks for being with us here at fox nation and sirius xm 111 who are these people take a listen to our friend Dave Mack at CrimeOnline.com. Dr. Brian Mann seems to have it all. He's married to Hannah Petty for five years and the couple have two children, a boy and a girl,

both under four years old. Reportedly, Mann takes good care of his family, handling the family expenses, cooking for the household, and looking out for the family's well-being. He went so far as to recommend vitamins and supplements to his wife to boost her immune system. The Alabama chiropractor's business is also going well. Reviews on a website for doctor recommendations are all positive, nothing less than five-star reviews. You know, I looked online at the chiropractic practice he has, and it's very highly rated. It seems to be very popular. What more do we know about the family? Take a listen again to Dave Mack.

Hannah Petty used a new dietary supplement for about nine months. She began her new meal regimen in the spring and continued through the rest of the year. The vitamins were supposed to boost her immune system, but something was wrong. Petty was experiencing unexplained pain to the point that she ended up in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital getting a diagnosis and treatment. It was nearly two months before the mom of two was released healthy. Joining me right now is a renowned medical examiner and toxicologist out of Michigan, author of American Narcan, and you can find him at recoverypathwayllc.com,

Dr. William Maroney. Dr. Maroney, what is lead poisoning? Lead poisoning can happen because you're exposed to particles, powder, dust. Sometimes it comes from the soil. Sometimes it comes from old water pipes. It's also one of the top 10 chemical substances in the world that we try to avoid. It's so toxic at some point that if you're old enough, you remember we used to have leaded gasoline. We had to take the lead out of the gasoline because we didn't want people breathing lead. And the worst possible thing you can get in

lead poisoning is it goes to your brain. One of the things is it changes your personality. It puts you in chronic pain. And then it goes to your kidneys and your blood, and it makes you anemic, and it goes to your stomach, and it creates gastrointestinal pain because it goes to the nerves and it damages it's toxic it kills brain cells and spinal nerves and peripheral nerves it leaves you with numbness in your feet and hands it can leave you with headaches and our sources of lead in america and in developing parts of the world are in paint. The number one source of lead poisoning in the past was old homes because lead is so toxic. They added it to paint and houses don't deteriorate with lead paint because the lead kills bacteria. You know, what I've ever heard about lead poisoning, Dr. Maroney, is about children

that will eat paint. You know, children eat everything. I'll never forget in kindergarten, one little boy ate paste all day long. I mean, the thick kind of paste that comes in a big drum. I don't mean like Elmer's glue that you can squirt out. He ate it all day long. Children will eat anything. And I remember as a child seeing commercials on TV about the dangers of eating paint with lead in it. Hold on. You got to hear this. Take a listen to our cut. See. Hannah Petty was listening to her chiropractor husband when he suggested she take a dietary supplement that would help strengthen her immune system. However, after

taking supplements for months, Hannah found herself so sick she ended up at UAB hospital. So sick she wasn't strong enough to leave the hospital for two months. But eight weeks at UAB and doctors had Hannah ready to get on with life. But the diagnosis of what put her in the hospital to start with was a bombshell. Lead poisoning landed Hannah Petty in the hospital. But how does a 23-year-old mother of two from North Alabama get lead poisoning? And I can't say enough about UAB because when other hospitals turned my father down, he's a very high-risk heart patient, they took him, we airlifted him there, and they saved his life. And just thinking about this, Dr. William Maroney, I'm going to bring in the rest of the panel in just a second. But Dr. Maroney, two months in the hospital?

Two months? Why? Well, the first part was the diagnosis. And the worst thing you can say about lead is there is no safe concentration of lead. But so they kind of have to figure out how much is there and what to do. And the second part would be to see how much organ damage there is, how much brain damage, how much nerve damage, and the kidney damage leads to dysregulation and high blood pressure. And high blood pressure can be very dangerous because the lead damages the kidneys so there's probably a couple weeks where they put into how much lead is here what organs is it and then

it's not real successful but lead like mercury and some other heavy elements we try to chelate it out what is that chelate ch Chelation is a technique where you give medicine, a chemical or a drug that attaches to the lead and it's easier to excrete or metabolize when you chelate it. It's like going in and attaching something and then pulling it out. What do you mean excrete? Urinate it out? Yes. It doesn't ordinarily come out in your urine, but if you can chelate it. What does it do to your brain?

What does it do to your brain specifically? It destroys the nerve connections between the nerve cells, between the brain cells. Hey, Dr. Moroney, hold on one moment. With me now, senior reporter with DailyMail.com,

Caitlin Becker. Caitlin, thank you for being with us. Do we know if this young woman, Hannah Petty, mother of two, man, she got in the lottery. Awesome husband. Great job. Good looking. Loving father. Boy, girl.

Beautiful home. I can guarantee you they did not have lead paint or old pipes or any of the things Dr. William Roney was just talking about in that new home. I can guarantee you they did not have lead paint or old pipes or any of the things Dr. William Roney was just talking about in that new home. But did she have long lasting, permanent disability from this? Or do we know that? At this point, Nancy, we don't know yet. It's too kind of early to tell. I mean, the poisoning, the alleged poisoning started happening in 2021 for about six months before she was hospitalized. So where that will land her in the long term kind of remains to be seen. But as you just mentioned there, she's a successful woman that kind of picture perfect life from the outside. But I'm curious what the medical professionals say about the type of long

lasting nerve damage you can have because she is an esthetician. She's a skin care expert. She does facials. So I don't know if something like this would impact her ability to do her job. Well, I was thinking more along the lines of can she walk and talk and think and use her arms and hands. What do you think about, Dr. Maroney,aitlin becker just told you i mean how can she have the hand-eye coordination to you know perform aesthetic procedures on somebody's eyes or i don't know but how long does it take to figure out if you've got long-term damage dr maroney well not only the long-term uh

hand-eye coordination but she may not be able to feel the tools of her trade. And she has to be able to feel the in in order to make judgments. You know, whether it's liposuction or microblading, you have to have a sense. And somebody with lead poisoning, if it's too bad, instead of sensitive fingertips, feeling things and texture differences, it'll be like trying to touch somebody with a baseball bat full of sand. You know, Dr. Maroney, do you know how much I respect you? I care about you. We have the same fate. I love photos of your family.

When you pop up on a text, I smile. But you know what? Sometimes I just hate when you start talking. Because it's always bad, Maroney. It is. It's always bad. It is terrible. But I'm not going to kill the messenger.

So, guys, I want you to hear more. Take a listen to our friend Dave Mack and our cut C. Hannah Petty's diagnosis was lead poisoning. In adults, lead poisoning can cause high blood pressure, joint muscle pain, headaches, difficulties with memory or concentration, and abdominal pain. Many of the symptoms that led Petty to see a doctor to begin with. The question is, how does an adult woman get lead poisoning? Lead poisoning can be hard to detect as the symptoms don't usually manifest themselves until dangerous amounts of lead have already accumulated in the body.

Higher levels of lead can damage the kidneys and nervous system. Very high lead levels may cause seizures, unconsciousness, and even death. Doctors realize the only change in Petty's routine was the new dietary supplement given to her by her chiropractor husband. Uh-oh. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. With me is Karen Stark. She is a prominent psychologist joining us out of

Manhattan. You can find her at karenstark.com. Karen with a C. Do you know how every single day David Lynch, my husband, chases me with a vitamin C tablet? The kind you chew. And not only that, he also tries to give me benadryl all the children both of the children they run when they see him he's an otc freak he thinks you know benadryl and the xyz and the this and the pseudofed is the answer to everything i think they're all horrible i won't even take a vitamin c what do people are people obsessed with dietary supplements yeah the dietary supplements are very popular now. I actually take supplements.

I know we've had long conversations about all your supplements on the set of Court TV, but I'm sure you're still at it. Did I ever tell you that I prosecuted some cases when I was with the Federal Trade Commission when I did antitrust and consumer protection where so-called supplements, and I said they were air quotas were being sold out of a pill factory down in Fort Lauderdale aka Fort Liquordale before I could get down there and shut them out shut them down they had already shut themselves down and opened up under a new name I had to start all over things to make you skinny things to make your hair grow I'll never forget

metabolite something something something was supposed to make you lose weight. None of it worked. And I thought I was going to lose the case because a nun, Sidney, a nun jumped up and said it worked for her and she lost 30 pounds. How am I going to fight with a nun on the stand? Anyway, that said, supplement, supplement. I think you can get obsessed with it, Karen Stark. You can definitely get obsessed, Nancy. And, you know, that isn't me. But the truth is supplements, they don't replace eating well, having a good diet. Do you know what Lucy eats every single day for lunch? Pizza.

Pizza. I have to give her a whole plate of veggies when she gets home. Okay, I want to go back to the case in chief, but very quickly, Matthew Mangino with me, high profile lawyer, and Robert Crispin, very well known private investigator, but Dr. William Maroney, what about supplements? How can a supplement, that's the only change in our dietary routine, how can they give you lead poisoning? The only way a supplement can give you lead poisoning is the lead has been added to the supplement. It is very easy. You know, you're making my head hurt. How do you add lead to a supplement? You can add it to the coating and it's not unusual to buy a machine to make pills and have it pressed into it but more

than likely you could spray or roll and dust the powder on to the supplement but if the supplement's a capsule you can open the capsule and add the lead to the powder and then reclose the capsule. There's all sorts of ways you can do this. Okay, why are you making it so difficult? I hate to even stir the tang. Okay, what's the easiest way? What's the easiest way to add or infuse a supplement? I assume it's a tablet, but you know, it could have been something in a drink but let's pretend tablet what's the easiest way to infuse it with lead easiest way talking regular people talk maroney not doctor talk okay the easiest way is to get a big mixing bowl put put lead powder in it, and take the tablets and roll them around in the lead powder, and then put them on a cookie sheet and bake them at 200 for about 10 minutes.

Matthew Mangino, high-profile lawyer joining me, author of The Executioner's Toll. Matthew Mangino, wouldn't you agree that anybody that did that has definitely exhibited premeditation? Well, yeah. Clearly, if someone is going to go through the process of contaminating the vitamins with the lead and going through the whole process of infusing it. Where do you get lead powder? Does anybody beside you, Maroney, know where to get lead powder?

I've never purchased lead powder. Sid, look it up. Where can I get lead powder? If it's outlawed and it's so... Googling it right now, Nancy, and you can get lead powder online. Oh, dear Lord in heaven. Where, Caitlin? There's a bunch of different websites.

Some golf website has it. A lab company has it what would you possibly want to do with lead powder okay back to maroney remember maroney speak and regular people talk i think man gina is probably the only one that can understand you where would you get lead powder well the first thing i would do is i would go to amazon and google it. And then I would have it delivered to my house. Do you know who you just reminded me of in a very spooky, scary way? Cult mom, Lori Vallow, who goes on her soon-to-be dead husband's Amazon and orders her wedding ring and a, quote, beach, B-E-a-c-h wedding dress and a whole outfit for a would-be groom

and lo and behold two weeks later she's on the beach getting married to somebody else because her husband is dead and his wife is dead it's so funny how those Amazon orders are held in the iCloud. Isn't that true, Robert Crispin? Private eye. Oh, absolutely. Your entire world is up in an iCloud. You know, we have some friends that are so afraid the government is listening to their Alexa. I'm like, you know what, feds?

Please, I insist you listen to everything that's happening at this house. Your ears will bleed. But everything you order on Amazon can be pulled up, Robert Crispin. Crispin is PI, former Federal Task Force Officer for DOJ, DEA in Miami. Certainly no lack of business there. Former homicide, crimes against children. It goes on and on and on. He's at Crispin Special Investigations.

Amazon, you know what? Maroney's right. I guarantee you somebody would be such an idiot that ordered on Amazon. So listen, so Amazon is just a small piece of the puzzle because these types of cases, Nancy, are very hard to prove. And they're a long-term investigation because a majority of these happen in one of two places. They either happen inside the home or they happen inside the workplace. And normally it's over the course of time before we realize what's going on, kind of like a Munchausen syndrome case where we put hidden cameras in to catch the mom, you know, poisoning the formula before she gives it to the child.

In these particular cases, and I would surmise long- term, I'm sure that they got the pills. We talked about how do you get the lead in the pills. You can purchase these capsules empty and you can make your own pills and you can inject or you can fill those pills with whatever substance you want. That's probably what happened here. Or like the doctor said, rolled them in the powder dust and baked them. It could be a number of different ways. You know, that's a lot of work to go through. But I can tell you this.

I just got an urgent message from CrimeOnline.com's Jackie, who wants me to know you can get lead powder at Walmart. Okay, there you go. There you go. Matthew Mangino, I'm circling back to you, but I understand Dr. William Maroney may have a client, a patient coming up very quickly. Dr. Maroney, when do you start noticing you're ill if you're getting lead poisoning? Well, if this is correct and she dosed for nine months,

you would notice it in the first one or two months. What would be your first symptom? Well, it would upset your stomach, but it's hard to absorb. And within two or three months, you'd have blood pressure problems and numbness in your hands and feet. And after three or four months, you'd have headaches and tremendous pain. Blood pressure high or blood pressure low? Low. Sorry, it goes high. You can't regulate it.

You can't filter things out of your blood and urine anymore. Your kidney doesn't work. Your pressure goes up. Look, I know you've got to go deal with your patient. I don't want them to complain since they're dead. Dr. Maroney, just two quick things. You say she would start noticing after about two months. Is that what you said?

Yeah. Okay. I still don't understand what lead actually does to your organs. And number two, can she ever be restored to complete health? She will never be restored to complete health because it's so hard to get out. There's no safe level, but we can try the chelation therapy. The hardest part is mental functioning. She may never get back. And then the damage it does to blood is that you become anemic.

Your body, the poisoning in your bones and in your kidneys prevents you from making healthy blood cells. And you become anemic. Guys, we are talking about an, I mean, gorgeous, young, 24-year-old mom. I'm looking at a picture of her. It looks like maybe Christmas morning. They have on Christmas PJs with her boy and girl in front of a fireplace. And there's a pot-bellied stove off to their left, our right. It's just a beautiful, happy home.

I'm not sure exactly how this whole thing happened but i want you to take a listen to our cut two days after she left the hospital hannah petty dropped a bombshell accusation of attempted murder and filed for divorce from her husband brian mann mann is accused of giving his wife hannah what he said was a dietary supplement for several months that he said would make her immune system stronger. What the pills were actually doing was poisoning Petty as they contained particles of lead. Just days after she left the hospital, Petty dropped her bombshell accusation of attempted murder and filed for divorce, detailing the one point three million dollars in life insurance policies that he held against her and another $1.5 million in two additional insurance applications that were denied.

Okay, I was just coming to you, Matthew Mangino, high-profile lawyer, about the two parallel investigations going on here. You've got a divorce proceeding, and now you've got a potential criminal proceeding. But I've got to get another fact from Caitlin Belin becker senior reporter dailymail.com what did i just hear about 2.8 million dollars in life insurance life insurance policy that seemed to have raised my eyebrows as well when we discovered that apparently he had 1..3 million in life insurance and policies taken out on her already. And that additional number, that 1.5, were two other insurance applications on her, and those were denied. So it seems that he was trying to take out millions and millions and millions of dollars

on her life. Okay, Matthew Mangino, high-profile lawyer joining us, author, former district attorney, hit me. Well, Nancy, you know, on the surface, this doesn't look good for Brian Mann. Okay, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Okay, you do know lead poisoning can make you go blind. Was that some sort of a sick pun? It doesn't look good.

Well, you can say that again, Mangino. It looks bad for him. Right. But as in every case, we can't rush to judgment. In this situation, you know, there is evidence that obviously she's suffered from lead poisoning. We don't know specifically if they have the pills. We know that this divorce action really started the whole case and the discovery process where they began to ask Brian Mann questions about different aspects of their marriage and, you know, this ideas with

regard to these supplements that his lawyer then stepped in and said, hey, we've got to stop this. I believe I heard Matthew Mangino actually, use the words, rush to judgment. This is what I know. The woman has lead poisoning. She's just 24 years old.

She's got a little boy and a little girl. One is under four that I know. Maybe both. Who could be left without a mother. I also know that he took out life insurance policies on her out the

yin-yang. I'm pretty sure, but Karen Stark, psychologist joining me out of new york a chiropractor is not a medical doctor are they no they're not but they are allowed to manipulate people no okay so robert kristen let's follow up on what mengino just said oh quick question to caitlin becker senior reporter dailymail.com did Did Hannah know her husband was taking out all these insurance policies on her life? It seems that she knew some of it and not all of it.

So I feel like when she got out of the hospital, she was sort of learning these things as she was looking into divorcing him. So that 1.5 million that he attempted to take out and was denied seemed to be a surprise to everyone. Now, Caitlin Becker, I asked if she knew and you said she knew about some of it. That's like the elephant in the room. I may know about the $1.3 million life insurance policy, but I don't know about the $1.5 million one he's trying to get.

Didn't the insurance company actually turn him down on one of those? Two of them, actually. They turned him down on two policies that totaled that $1.5 million. And, I mean, Nancy, having an insurance policy out on you in a marriage, especially when you have children, is not odd. But it's when we start adding these pieces together that it seems to be problematic, and it's what ultimately seems to have led the police to Brian. Robert Crispin joining me, private investigator at Crispin Special Investigations. You can find him at crispininvestigations.com. Robert, how do we go about proving this case? This is all going to

come down to science and blood work and testing. No, no, no, no, no, no. I don't mean that. Maroney got me covered on that. UAB, University of Alabama, has got enough medical reports to show she was lead poisoned out the yin-yang. But what I'm trying to prove is, did he give her the lead poisoning? That's the thing.

How can we prove that? Unless we've got an Amazon trail or a Walmart trail or some trail showing me he bought lead powder. Find out that she's turned over to law enforcement the pills that he was giving her or the alleged vitamins he was giving her. And I'm almost positive that the lab has come back and shown traces of lead in those particular capsules. They've tied those capsules back to him because unless you have a video and you only have one person's testimony, it's kind of tough. You know that as a prosecutor. So whether we have a hidden camera that they installed, law enforcement did a warrant, put a camera in there with the consent of the mother or the victim rather, or they have actually seized the pills from him, from his car,

from his pocket, from his office, from his bedroom, somewhere in that house. Yeah, he had those pills stashed somewhere. Unless he got rid of them while she was in the hospital. Speaking of having him on video, take a listen to our Cut 9, our friend Irene Cruz, ABC7. Radiologist Jack Chen says he noticed a chemical taste in his drinks in March. He set up a hidden camera in their kitchen, capturing video evidence of his wife, Yu Yu, allegedly taking Drano from under the sink and pouring it into his lemonade in three separate instances in July.

A doctor diagnosed Chen with two stomach ulcers, gastritis, and esophagus inflammation. And more from our friend Amy Robach at GMA Cut 10. These surveillance images show the moments a California man says he was secretly poisoned by his wife. The images, part of a restraining order filing by Dr. Jack Chen against his wife of 10 years, Dr. Emily Yu. This poisoning occurred over a period of time that caused him in part to suspect his wife was poisoning him. And so he placed surreptitious recording devices in the home. The 45-year-old dermatologist was placed under arrest and later released on $30,000 bail. In that case, the alleged perp is a female dermatologist.

In the case we're looking at right now, we have put the husband chiropractor under the microscope. But now, it's not just me looking at him. Take a listen to our cut three, our friends from Crime Online. An Alabama grand jury indicted 33-year-old Brian Mann. He's now been charged with attempted murder after officials say he intentionally tried

to poison his wife. Court documents show that Mann is accused of using lead to poison his wife and that she spent nearly two months in the hospital

because of it. The couple were undergoing divorce proceedings, but those were halted until the criminal proceedings are complete. Mann has since been arrested on the attempted murder charge. Okay, so let me understand this to Caitlin Becker joining me, senior reporter at DailyMail.com.

He has actually been indicted by a grand jury. Is that correct? He has been arrested, and this situation is very interesting, Nancy, because he was arrested. He was freed on bond, then failed to give his passport and then got arrested again or got taken back into custody because he failed to give over his passport. And now he's out again all on these charges that he attempted to murder his wife with lead poisoning. So, first of all, he is indicted with attempted murder. Caitlin Baker is exactly correct. Take a listen to our cut 5 WHNT. The Hartzell man charged with attempted murder after officials say he poisoned his wife is back in the Morgan County Jail.

Brian Mann was re-arrested Thursday for failure to appear. Court filings show, as part of the former Decatur chiropractor's bond conditions, he has to surrender all firearms and his passport to the Hartsell Police Department on those conditions. Records show he turned in the weapons but said he could not find his passport. Mann was then instructed to appear before Hartzell police to report the missing passport, but he failed to do so. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Robert Crispin, private investigator.

Please, just stop. I lost my passport. Do I have to say the name Caitlin Armstrong to you? Remember the glamorous yoga instructor who was accused of killing her boyfriend's love interest? Mariah? Remember Mo Wilson, the world-class dirt biker? She comes into town. They have an innocent get-together, and suddenly Mariah's dead. Caitlin Armstrong then changes her appearance, dyes her hair, gets a nose job, so forth and so on, and flees the country. And now we've got this husband jumping up saying,

I lost my passport. Are you kidding me? Well, the passport is the last ticket to escape once it really starts to come down to crunch time or a plea or a sentencing. This is going to allow him to get out. I can see he's right in Alabama. Don't you know, he'd hop right on over to Marriester or Fort Walton where they have all those flight academies? And it wouldn't be the first time. And he would be long gone and have a pocket full of money and bye-bye. He'd be in Costa Rica or I don't know where he would be because he would have his passport. Or to a country that's not going to extradite him back. Oh, yeah.

You're so right about that. Guys, take a listen again. Take a listen to Our Cut Six, Crime Online. would have his passport. Or to a country that's not going to extradite him back. Oh yeah, you're so right about that. Guys, take a listen again. Take a listen to Our Cut Six, Crime Online. The Decatur chiropractor accused of trying to murder his wife by poisoning her with lead particles has been released from jail according to court documents. Judge Charles Elliott reluctantly granted the motion for Brian Mann to be freed from custody on a half million dollars bond, but with strict conditions. He said so much as a speeding ticket would result in a rearrest. Mann was released on a half-million-dollar bond after his initial arrest in September. One condition of that bond was providing his passport, preventing him from fleeing.

However, after failing to do that, he was placed back in custody. Judge Elliott was adamant that Mann remain in custody despite numerous attempts and personal letters to have his bond lowered, believing he was a fly risk. The judge now says the case is at a crossroads and with Mann in jail, he can't pay child support and alimony, keeping him in custody, inadvertently punishing his estranged wife and children. Okay, to Caitlin Becker, senior reporter with Dailymail.com, Caitlin, as I tell my children, and we all know this, if it feels wrong, if it just doesn't feel right, then you're not supposed to do it. Okay. That is, according to me, the Holy Spirit in you trying to tell you, screaming, you don't do this. It's wrong. Some people call it a conscience. So if the judge was so hell-bent saying,

if you even get so much as a speeding ticket, you're revoked. I've heard judges chew out the defendant, really tear them a new tail hole, and then let them go on bond. And that's what this Judge Charles Elliott did. Please tell me this guy is behind bars. This guy is not behind bars. He is on a conditional release right now. His parents swore to the judge that they did an exhaustive search and that the passport is nowhere to be seen.

And because Brian owes $8,000 in back child support, the judge, like you heard there, reluctantly agreed to release him. The terms are very interesting. He has to go to jail on the weekends. He has to report from Friday to Monday morning. He has to wear a GPS monitor. He has to stay home from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., but he's allowed out during the day. He's not allowed to have alcohol or drugs on his person, but I don't, personally, I mean, I don't know what you think, but I'm not sure how he's going to make up that $8,000. I'm not going. I don't care what his reviews are on Yelp. I am not going to the chiropractor who has an ankle monitor who's out on bond for attempted murder.

Karen Stark joining us from Manhattan. Jump in, Karen. You know, in addition to the fact that it just doesn't make any sense that they would release him because I don't understand how he's going to be able to earn a living at this point. Just like we said just before, you know, he's wearing an ankle monitor. Who's going to come to him to use him as a chiropractor? But in addition to that, this guy sounds like a psychopath. He feels like he's above the law. That's not unusual. He doesn't have his passport. He has no problem saying, oh, I just can't find it. So how

in the world can they trust somebody like that to be responsible and not skip town? Forget all that. I agree with you. But Karen Stark, he's accused of poisoning his wife and her dietary supplements over months and months. How can you trust him to do the right thing? You cannot. And this judge, I've seen judges do it a million times, Matthew Mangino, high profile lawyer, I'm sure you have too, the judge chews the defendant out and then grants leniency, lets him go out on bond, gives a light sentence, as if that defendant gives a flying fig about what this judge is saying. No. Why? I mean, he's already $8,000 behind on child support.

So why do we think suddenly he's going to pay child support? But Nancy, you know, everybody who's charged with a crime other than a capital offense is entitled to bond. So she said, this judge said a 500. Entitled to a bond hearing. And he said a bond of $500,000, which, you know, that bond has been posted. And it's not as though, you know, this guy's necessarily walking free. He has an ankle bracelet. He has to spend the weekends in jail.

You know, it makes sense. Number one, that he's accused of a crime, that he has the opportunity to continue to work and that he can support his children and support his wife. Again, if someone's going to go to a chiropractor with an ankle bracelet, he's accused of trying to murder their wife. I understand all that. But, you know, we live in a system where you're accused of a crime, bail is to ensure you appear in the future, and that's what's been imposed here. Guys, take a listen to our cut for Margo Gray, WAFF. A martial chiropractor accused of trying to kill his own wife is out of jail.

Court records show 33-year-old Brian Mann was released on a half-million-dollar bond. Mann is facing an attempted murder charge. Mann's wife claims she was poisoned with lead, resulting in her having to be hospitalized from January to March. Under a court order, Mann has to wear a GPS monitor, stay at home from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., and undergo drug screenings. Robert Crispin, an ankle monitor, really? How many times have ankle monitors been beat? And I can tell you why, because nobody's monitoring the ankle monitor. That's how people get away. There's not enough cops and investigators right now to stop the crime, the violent crime happening on the street. Who is standing by watching the ankle monitor blips and beeps on the screen?

Be honest with you, Nancy. They all go into a system and there's alerts that come once you breach your geofence. And the problem with these ankle monitors is I would never tell you how you can get out of it, but I know how these people are getting out of these ankle monitors and they leave them within the house and before law enforcement or supervised release officials know that you're missing or you're gone, you've got sometimes eight, 12, 24 hour head start. I can get to Europe in eight 1⁄2 from Miami. See ya. Crispin, I've seen so many times people get away,

leave the jurisdiction, because they've been monitored by, so-called monitored by an ankle monitor. Caitlin Becker, I'm almost afraid to ask, but where does the case stand right now? You know, Nancy, before I get into that, I just wanted to flag really quickly that this reminds me so much of another case we've been talking about. Brian Walsh, who's accused of killing his wife, Anna, while he was on house arrest with an ankle monitor. You know, my concern isn't as much that he would flee, but that maybe he would allegedly try to finish the job he started.

I mean, his wife and children have moved out and they're in an apartment. But he is out and about. He is under the terms of his release. He is not allowed to have contact with her. But people might not listen to that. So that's my concern. And right now he is out for those hours that he is allowed to be out. And a jury trial is scheduled to begin

on October 23rd. Yeah, you brought up a great example of Brian Walsh. Anna Walsh's body still has not been found. She leaves behind three little boys. He was on an ankle monitor and what a great alibi. Look, my ankle monitor was at home the whole time. I couldn't possibly have done it. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.