http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1803/26/ptab.01.html
BANFIELD: Good parents care for their kids and sometimes friends of their kids as well. But the buck often stops at bringing those friends along on the family vacation, right? The buck definitely stops if the kid`s friend is invited on family vacation and only the dad is going on the vacation.
That would be creepy, right? That is why Kevin Esterly is in a lot of trouble tonight with the law and maybe even more importantly, with his wife, because she is steaming mad that she was found in Mexico with a 16- year-old girl and not just any girl, a close friend of one of their four daughters. And if you are wondering how mad she is, mad enough to go on "Good Morning America" and air his dirty laundry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STACEY ESTERLY, WIFE OF SUSPECT: I was worried. You know, my children would cry every night asking when daddy is coming home. It was very heart breaking, you know, to have to see your children go through something like this. I never thought in a million years we would ever be in this situation, let alone my children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: The something like this that she is talking about is that her husband was spotted cuddling reportedly, possibly, with that 16-year-old,
Amy Yu on a one-way flight to Cancun before the authorities tracked them down. And now he is facing felony charges of interfering with her custody.
And his wife has another custody case in the works as well. With Stacey Esterly filing now for divorce and aiming to keep Kevin from seeing his kids, especially after learning that he spent weeks pretending to be another girl`s stepdad. Even renting an apartment around the corner from Amy Yu`s house.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ESTERLY: Those times that he was, you know, signing her out of school early. While, me and my children, you know, were waiting for him at home.
Where was he and Amy? And what were they doing?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: What were they doing indeed? A good question for Jaccii Ferris, reporter for CNN affiliate WFMZ. What were they doing, Jaccii?
JACCII FARRIS, REPORTER, CNN AFFILIATE WFMZ: Well, it has been speculated that a secret relationship had begun many months going back and Stacey said, she started to notice things that weren`t exactly what you would call fatherly.
[18:25:10] And when she brought them to the attention of Kevin Esterly, he, you know, blew it off and everything and ultimately, Stacey said she had to make a decision for her family. You know, they were at home, Stacey and their four girls, ages, you know, from 2 years old up to 14. They were at home waiting for Kevin a lot of the times whenever he was with Amy Yu and they would wonder where he was and finally Stacey said she put her foot down and she talked to Amy Yu`s mother and talked to Kevin and everyone was in agreement that they would no longer see each other, but that certainly did not turn out to be the case.
BANFIELD: Well, that was -- that was after this relationship may have had quite an opportunity to blossom, because as we have learned, they were spending so much time together as a family which is weird. Amy Yu was often with Esterly`s family. You know, the oldest is 14-year-old was here, some say was her closest, dearest best friend and others say great friend. And they often went on family vacations together. Amy would join the Esterly`s on their vacation. Have a listen to what Stacey told GMA.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ESTERLY: We took Amy, on a lot of family vacations, a lot of family outings. First time for skiing, first time to the beach. Like I said, we took her in and treated her as part of our family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Well, now in retrospect, I`m sure that Mrs. Esterly doesn`t think that was such a good idea, because she has since discovered at least since December, found out in December that Kevin Esterly had rented an apartment just four blocks from Amy`s house. Here`s what she said about that to GMA.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ESTERLY: In December, I had found out that he had rented an apartment, four blocks away from Amy`s house. That was devastating to me and my children as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Jaccii, my guess is that -- that apartment is now empty. At least, Kevin is not spending any time there, he was extradited not just from Mexico to Florida, but then from Florida to Pennsylvania. What`s his status now?
FARRIS: Well, he is now at the Lehigh County Correctional Facility, where he is on $500,000 bail. But, I can tell you, Stacey is not going to bail him out any time soon. An attorney that represents Stacey said, that Kevin has actually been calling Stacey from jail. And Stacey is done, she is not taking his calls. She is not talking to him, you know who she is talking to? She is talking to a divorce attorney, because she wants to end this marriage, focus on her girls, and move on, because she said after what Kevin has done to her, enough is enough. And she`s gonna just basically make sure her girls are OK. And of all the girls, the oldest, the 14-year- old, the one that is the friend of Amy Yu, Stacey said her daughter is feeling betrayed and she is really having a tough time with the feelings that have come out from all of this.
BANFIELD: Can you just -- I mean, think it through for a minute, can you imagine, a, what it`s like for long suffering Stacey Esterly now finding out that all these weird moments and the time away from her daughters, her four daughters and her and the oddness of how Stacey or of how -- her husband was acting around Amy Yu only to find out there is the apartment and they have run off together potentially and now this is the case.
The interference with custody. Here`s what John Waldron said, this is Stacey`s attorney. Horrifying is the least of it, right? John Waldron,
Stacey`s attorney said, that Stacey was really starting to notice that this was no longer a young girl who is coming along on the family vacations and -- no longer a young girl who was best friends with her oldest daughter. There was something odd going on. Here`s how John put it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN WALDRON, ATTORNEY FOR STACEY ESTERLY, WIFE OF SUSPECT: That it was clear, because of the way they would behave with each other. It was clear in a woman`s, you know, intuition.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: I want to bring in if I can, Defense Attorney Kenya Johnson, she is live now with me from Atlanta. Kenya, it`s such a weird story, there is an odd developments as well, that when Amy was brought back from Mexico and repatriated in Pennsylvania, she didn`t go home. She went to a place -- well, first to the hospital and then after the hospital, she went to Kid`s Peace Family Center. Which is a place for at risk kids, kids with disabilities, it`s a place that offers psychiatric help, residential programs and she is apparently still there. Her mother had just told us and this is breaking news, that Amy is still there and Amy is angry. Amy does not want to see her mother or her family or quote, talk to us, which I can only imagine what it means to her brother, John, 14-year-old brother John who spoken to us before, and her mother.
What are their rights? I mean this is a 16-year-old girl. They have custody of this 16-year-old girl. She is a child. What are the family`s rights at this point, Kenya, in seeing and talking to their 16-year-old girl?
KENYA JOHNSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, there are two standards. There is a legal standard for the age of sexual consent which is age 16, but then there is also the public standard of emotional maturity.
And so even though the young lady does not want to go back home, she may be under duress, she may be brainwashed by this older, more mature man that she may look at him as a father figure, feel very comfortable with him.
So even if she willingly participated in the activities and legally traveled with him, the parents still have rights because she is a minor and you can`t interfere with the custody of a minor. You can`t transport a minor across state lines.
BANFIELD: That may be the least of his worries, Kenya. Honestly, this wife has just told GMA that she found out about the apartment that Kevin had.
She found out about it in December. Amy`s birthday where she turned 15 was December 9th.
So, if this apartment existed before December 9th and if it was being used for anything sexual with Amy, now what charges is Kevin Esterly facing on top of interference with the custody of a child?
JOHNSON: If he had sex with this young lady before she turned 16, he is looking at statutory rape which is a felony charge. He is also looking at a battery which is an offense of touching. She could have been under duress, kidnapping, false imprisonment.
The key question is going to be how much did she participate willingly in this activity and then her parents will come around and say even though she participated willingly, she was under some sort of undue influence.
BANFIELD: I wish -- I wish I could see the evidence gathering in that apartment. What they are looking for in that apartment and whether certain DNA to be disgusting in that apartment might actually show that there was a statutory rape because honestly, you got nine days in December where is illegal and the rest of December where she is legal by the statute. So, story continues.
My thanks to Jacky Farris (ph) and also Kenya Johnson. I`m going to ask you to stick around.
