how evil can it get? a newly wed accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill her husband? they had only been married six months. the joke was on her. that hitman turned out to be an junds cover cop. this woman is suing her college because she can't get a job. says it's the school's fault and she wants her tuition back, about 70 grand. hey, lady, blame the economy, not your alma mater. i'm mike galanos and this is "prime weekend." a mom dragging her son around a

cell phone store by his backpack leash? the felony charges she is facing. can't get over this. watching her mom drag a kid on a backpack leash through the store. employees captured the shocking video. melissa smith means was charged with a first degree felony, cruelty to children. new today, police report details her explanation for the whole thing. she says her son refused to walk and because she has health problems, she couldn't physically pick him up. more on that coming up in just a minute. we'll take your calls. joining me to talk about it, criminal defense attorney jennifer bonjean. one is she is saying health reasons. she has lupus, pneumonia, not strong enough to pick up her child so she dragged the kid through the store. the second thing she said, i believe, that he liked it. it's a backpack leash. >> he didn't seem to be bothered

all that. >> the family saying he had some laughs. do you see a felony here or not? >> absolutely not. i am not condoning this behavior, but this is not child cruelty in the first degree. in georgia what child -- in the first degree child cruelty is. this is where the person maliciously causes cruel physical or mental pain. in most cases you are talking about repeated beatings, rapes. this was an abrasion to the child. again, not condoning it, but this is not the type of conduct this statute was meant to get at. let me tell you this. that statute has a sentence range of between five and 20 years. perhaps she should get services. does anyone think this warrants a prison sentence between five and 20 years? >> we'll find out. we've got a lot of callers lined up. >> i'm sure there are people

that do. it's unbelievable to me. >> i'm seeing someone who needs parenting help. you read further into it. she was saying that -- the police officer is questioning her in the parking lot writing the report and the kid's jumping out of the van running all over the place. he was unbuckling himself on the drive over. they were looking at her for possible dui. she's got her hands full with this kid. >> i have four kids myself, okay? you didn't see what preceded this event, and my kid was thrashing about, refusing to walk, i couldn't get him to comply, i might have said, if you don't start walking, i'm going to drag you. i'm not saying that would have been my best parenting moment, if it was caught on camera, you know -- >> you've got trouble. it's bad parenting. maybe you do it for two feet, stop yourself and try to get control. erin in georgia, go ahead.

>> caller: hello? >> we are going to go back to you after the break. turn down the tv. chime in if you think it is a felony or not. are you sympathetic? you can get prime news from your inbox. sign up for my daily newsletter. you get my thoughts, opinions, stories and re-airs. join the growing prime news online community. head to cnn.com/prime news.

welcome back to "prime news" on hln. mom charged with a felony of dragging a kid. there is the video again. this is a verizon wireless show in rome, georgia. let's show you what this backpack leash looks like. it's like there is a little monkey, like a backpack then the leash tied to that. that is what we are talking about here. taking your calls, 1-877-tell-hln. erin is with us in georgia. go ahead. >> caller: i feel like if she has lupus like she says she does, she wouldn't be able to drag this kid around. i think that's why half the kids around the world are going missing because parents are getting away with stuff. >> we did talk to a doctor about that. she said, yes. if there is a lupus and pneumonia there is a weakness. she also says she would have

trouble dragging the kid around. that was her thought there. let's get another call in. penny in utah. go ahead. >> caller: hi. my comment is, i don't think she should serve any prison time. i think she needs major parenting classes. >> i agree. >> caller: my main concern is if i would have been there in that store she was at, she wouldn't have been dragging that kid. >> what would you have done? >> caller: i would have grabbed the leash and got it away from her and stopped her from doing that. >> you were that disturbed by that? >> caller: yes. absolutely. i stopped people in places before from abusing and hitting and doing things like that. it's just wrong. i don't think people should stand around and watch it either. >> according to the police report, two women were disturbed, one didn't see anything wrong with it. it's like we are getting a couple different sides of the coin here.

terry in tucson's mailed to your point saying, this is like someone being attacked on the street and no one stops to help. instead of filming the incident, why didn't the person behind the camera do something? jennifer, you are not seeing felony, but we agree she could probably use help parenting. she's got her hands full here. you don't want to do this in public. >> no. it was a low moment for this mom, no doubt. i actually agree with the caller. i have seen much worse on the subways here in new york city and said things and have made people accountable in public, shamed them. that has a much greater effect, i think, than silently recording this and posting it all over youtube. she now is the villain of this country. it is more of a story here than being told through that one snippet which can be deceiving. you don't have the preceding events. at a maximum, i think she needs

assistants and services. maybe another mom to say i know it's stressful at times, but this doesn't look good. maybe you should rethink this. >> to step in, you just walk up and say, what are you doing? it doesn't look good. you are dragging your child with a leash. >> exactly. she might have stopped and said, you're right, i'm so stressed. this child is totally misbehaving, got him on his feet, walked out and none of this would have happened. it's not child cruelty in the first degree. it's almost offensive because child cruelty in the first degree is such a serious offense. it almost minimizes what the offense is. >> we've got to run. you make a good point there. more with the kid. could you ever say no to that cute little baby? how about a fast food manager did because the baby didn't have shoes on. the manager told the baby's mom he could call the cops if they didn't leave. shoes? that little baby is 6 months old. she can't walk. power monger?

here we go. "prime weekend," not the only place you can find the best of prime news. cnn.com/prime news.

two women thankfully back with their families on u.s. soil today. two journalists held in a north korean prison for five months. they described it as the most difficult days of their lives.

it was an emotional homecoming. >> it was, mike. it was a team of people basically, but former president bill clinton was the person who actually secured the release of euna lee and laura ling. the two journalists were working on a story when soldiers arrested them near the border of north korea and china. they lived in fear every single day. >> 30 hours ago, unia lee and i were prisoners in north korea. we feared that at any moment we could be sent to a hard labor camp. and then suddenly we were told we were going to a meeting. we were taken to a location and when we walked in through the

door we saw standing before us president bill clinton. >> i don't think any of us can imagine what they felt. president clinton has flown to korea to talk to kim jong -il. their family met them at the airport this morning. ling says when she saw president clinton she instantly knew the nightmare of their lives was finally coming to an end. there you have it, mike. >> such raw emotion. it was something to watch today. >> it was. >> a great finish to that. richelle, thanks. this neck story, a cute baby booted from a burger king in missouri. little baby is 6 months old. look at her. precious. mom says the restaurant manager threatened to call the cops

because, get this, the baby was not wearing shoes. keep in mind a 6-month-old can't walk, can't crawl, too young to get the feet dirty. listen how mom explains how this whole feet fiasco went down. >> the manager was standing next to me but said you are going to have to leave if she doesn't have shoes on. he said it's against health code. if you are going to burger king put shoe once your baby. >> everybody loves cute baby feet. they are awesome. there is no stench, no funk. you squeeze them. it's part of the loving on a little baby. this is unbelievable. call in with your thoughts. joining us again, defense attorney former prosecutor mike eiglarsh. this manager took the no shoes, no service deal way too far. >> there are two sides to every issue. on one side you've got those like yourself who passionately

believe he went too far, he didn't interpret the policy correctly. on the other side of the issue, mike, there is no other side of the issue, mike. he's an idiot. this guy is just a moron. i say to him, have it your way, buddy, but not in customer service. it just doesn't make any sense. >> you and i will argue just about anything. >> you thought i was going to go on the other side. no way. no. >> a lot of folks want to dive in, get in on the phones. let me read burger king's statement on this. "our franchise, which independently owns and operates this restaurant, apologizes for this guest experience. the franchise is retraining his restaurant team in the popular use of the no shoes policy. further more the franchise is contacting the guest to apologize." i believe they invited them back. little late on that. kathy in louisiana. your thoughts here? >> caller: yes. >> go ahead.

>> caller: i think the manager was way off base. if he thinks feet funk is the problem, it's not. the insurance doesn't want to cover injury to a foot if a customer doesn't wear shoes. obviously, a 6-month-old wouldn't be walking. i wouldn't put my 6-month-old down on a floor of a restaurant. i just think it's a the matter of needing to be retained. >> exactly. kelly in north carolina. go ahead. >> caller: yeah. i've got a little comment. i think that is absurd. i've got a 4-year-old myself. children have a tendency to want to take off their shoes. maybe the child took the shoes off and the mother kept them. what in their right mind of a human being would do something like this? this is insane. does the law youallow you to do this to children? >> we've got parents upset.

did the family have any resource? i guess technically that's their policy, right? >> there is nothing they can do. it's crazy to think this manager some who would let a herd of crack addicts felty and disgusting with something arguably considered shoes to come in before they let this beautiful baby nibble on a french fry in their place. it's crazy. >> we've got an e-mail. "obviously the guy doesn't have children. have you tried to put shoes on an infant? if you are successful with that adventure, how about keeping the shoes on the infant or socks for that matter?" we've both been there. >> three times this week. if you start to put socks on the 6-month-old and that's not sufficient and he says i'll call the police still this guy should stay off anything that has to do with customer service. it's not very smart. >> another call.

arianna in pennsylvania. go ahead. >> caller: actually, you hit on a lot of points which i was thinking. you don't want anybody to step on glass. there's a lot of suits there. a 6-month-old baby can barely sit up straight. they are either on your back, in an infant carrier or sitting in a high chair. i think this guy in his own little world want to be the hero and play the fw guy. i followed the rules and he made an idiot out of himself. >> horrible pr for them, let's face it. we are all on the same side on this one, obviously. thanks for the phone calls. mark, good talking to you. how about this one? the cheating husband gets the frightening wake-up call. police say he was tied up by one of his lovers and that's when other angry women entered the room. i'll clean the pool if you clean the windows.

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the guy with at least two other lovers cheating on his wife, conning women for money. they use krazy-glue -- you get the picture on that one. glued his manhood to his stomach. let's get a call in. what's your thoughts? >> caller: i would like to say that was crazy. >> yeah, krazy-glue. >> caller: they should have taken it to court. >> it's not illegal though. >> what isn't illegal, lisa? >> it's not against the law, adultery. >> adultery is not against the law. that's the question. what could they have done?

they were going to band together to come up with a revenge plot. what could they have done that would be legal? >> well, they can't assault him and falsely imprison him. i don't think any jury is going to convict. they cannell at him, they can scream at him. she can get a divorce and take him to the cleaners. >> gail, you've got to be pretty angry to band together like this. is it normal for the wife to team up with the miss recess to get revenge? >> that is very interesting. obviously, these women were so enraged they were willing to team up. that's how enraged they were. you know, hell hath no fury. he set up a situation they were willing to surmount their competition with each other to exact revenge. however, in the real world, two wrongs do not make a right. they could have had an intervention. they absolutely could have

cornered him without assaulting him or terrorizing him. they could have confronted him and said the jig is up, buddy. we know what's going on. this is what we have to say to you so that he couldn't have continued to do it. they, frankly, probably could have verbally done something that would have shamed him, if that was what they were looking for and made it clear they weren't buying his stories. what's sad they did something self-destructive. they are now in trouble. >> the one lady, saying she was ashamed because obviously one minute you think you are in love with this guy. next thing you find out he is this con artist. then the next thing you are in jail facing a felony. >> so they shamed themselves. now they have to live with the guilt having done something every bit as much disgusting as he did. they didn't get to take the moral high ground. >> the classic case of the diminished capacity, a man comes

home and finds his wife in bed with another man, takes a gun and shoots the guy. in this case we see women standing up for themselves and banding together. we don't see that very often. i think they showed a lot of restraint. they didn't kill him. they tied him down. they glued his genitals to his stomach. i think a lot of women say they showed restraint here. >> dennis is with us from indiana. go ahead, your thoughts? >> caller: yeah, well, i completely agree with the one woman talking right there that two wrongs don't make a right, certainly. this is premeditated and it's wrong. i don't know if i agree when a man finds a woman in bed with someone they can come home and shoot him and get away with it. i disagree with that. >> real quick then we've got to run. it was premeditated. it wasn't like the surprise you laid out there, the analogy of the guy finding his wife in bed with somebody else and flips

out. this is like a premeditated plan. how much does that figure into this? >> it caused a lot less damage than some people do taking a gun into this situation. they are trying to embarrass him. >> i think they could have done that without the false imprisonment and krazy-glue. thanks so much. now to this. in another troubled marriage. you see this lady? she is accused of hiring a hit man to kill her husband. they had only been married six months. turns out that hitman was an undercover cop.

how evil can a person get? a newly wed hiring a hitman to kill her husband? police say she unknowingly hired an undercover cop to do the job. police then plan an elaborate sting operation, faking her

husband's death and calling her to the staged murder scene. they catch her entire tierful reaction on tape. in the end she is arrested and comes face-to-face not only with the hitman, but her husband who is alive and well. earlier we talked to an expert panel on this case. with us, stephanie slater. we have the video clip of the reaction. correct me if i go astray. this is the murder scene, fake murder scene is staged, cops call up the wife and tell her to come on in and break the news to her. watch and listen to her reaction.

>> all right, there it is. stephanie, were there any actual tears coming out as we listen to that? >> no. there was a lot of sobbing and her arm waivers, trembling, but no wetness in her eyes. >> how are these officers able to keep a straight face then? >> they are very good at their jobs. >> they wanted to laugh knowing what we know now. >> they did a very good job playing the role. >> let's back track a little bit. how did you get wind of this in the first place that she had this up her sleeve she wanted to allegedly kill her husband? >> okay. we received an anonymous call

friday night from a confidential informant who says dalia wanted to hire someone to kill her husband. saturday afternoon she and that confidential informant met in a car in a gas station to make those arrangements. it was at that time she gabe the confidential informant $1,200 to be given to the hitman to buy a hand gun to be used as the murder weapon. >> the confidential informant is who, a friend? >> that is part of the confidentiality. >> can't tell. okay. three people here. the wife, informant and the informant tells you guys, right? >> correct. the informanted called boynton beach police. the informants helped us put our undercover officer in touch with dalia. >> how long was this plot in the works by the time dalia got in touch with the hitman who turned out to be an undercover police

officer? >> that was monday afternoon. monday afternoon she met this undercover officer who she believed was a hitman in a car in a parking lot outside a cvs. it was during that encounter she was asked numerous times by this undercover, are you sure you want to do this? at one point she laughed and said, "i will be very happy." at that point she, again, she also said, "i'm not going to change my mind. i'm 5,000% sure i want it done. when i set my mind to something i get it done." >> wow. this is monday. when does this go down this video? >> that was yesterday morning about 6:30 in the morning. >> got to ask you this. we'll get back to the chronology of this. why was this posted on youtube? the cameras here are from the show "cops?" >> no. it was a crime scene sergeant who took the video.

the police have a youtube channel. i post all our videos on there as a way to get them to our local media because the files are sometimes too big to e-mail. anything i give to the local media i give to the public because it's a public record. >> there is no way trial case against her will be compromised that this was out before it's resolved and gone to court? >> no. public record. >> jennifer, you want in on that real quick? >> i find it very questionable tactic to post videos that are going to be used presumably as evidence against this woman at some point. i question that strategy, that protocol. i do think that can prejudice her from getting a fair trial. this specific case, obviously, she has a lot to answer to. dalia, that is. i think it's a terrible practice if the police department makes it a habit of posting videos that they take in the course of

their investigation and even arresting suspects. >> stephanie, do you want to respond to that? >> no. she is entitled to her opinion. >> the question i had and jennifer ran with it there on the front of could this not compromise the case, let's get back to a couple of other things. one thing i want to know, after with the video we saw there, she gets arrested. i believe we have a clip of her as she is being arrested denying everything. less's listen to dalia dippolito here. >> i didn't do anything. >> dalia, why did you do it? >> she denied the whole way through? never fesed up even though it seems she was caught cold here? >> correct. she never said anything. >> what happens. lay the picture out for us when you take her, i guess, to the police station and she is confronted by her husband. how did that go down? >> right. she was brought back to the

police department where she spoke with detectives and at some point she was told that the undercover she met with in the car was actually an undercover police officer. he was brought into the room and she was asked, do you know this man and she said no. then he was let out of the room. it was at that point we let her know her husband was alive and well and in the room next door. >> did they have a face-to-face? >> yeah. at one point we did walk him by the room so she could see him and see, in fact, he was fine. >> what was the like on her face at that point? do we know? >> yes. she actually said, "oh, my god," and started saying his name. >> wow. many times on "prime news" we cover rough stories. just hit a few of them. today, one that will remind you there is positive out there in the world. it centers around a program that lives by the motto "neighbors

helping neighbors." here is richelle carey. it's a hand up instead of a hand out. a program in atlanta is giving homeless men and women a second chance. samaritan house helps people with a home-cooked meal, a warm smile and skills to help them move back into the work force. we recently paid a visit to see how many people are going from poor to productive. >> reporter: ernest budler is a hurricane katrina evacuee. he came to atlanta with no job, no possessions and no family. because of samaritan house he was able to find a home and help at cafe 458. >> cafe 458 is a special place. it's where we help many women who are unable to work because of disabilities. we offer a great meal that's cooked in a restaurant environment, unlike a soup kitchen. >> what does this place mean to

you? >> it means a great deal to me. i walked through that door. i wore my clothes five days and i ate in the same dining area and they accepted me every day just the same way. after that i slowly started pulling myself together. >> reporter: cafe 458 is one of the programs samaritan house uses to help the homeless transition back into the work force. while the safe satisfies their hunger, the edge program nurtures their job search with a computer lab, clothing, storage for their belongings, showers and laundry facilities. in the meantime, there is the clean street team which provides samaritan house clients with temporary janitorial jobs until they can find full-time work. 2 1/2 years ago richard taylor was homeless living under a bridge. now he is a team street clean leader managing five workers. >> they gave me responsibility.

this place helped save my life. >> people watching, spend some real time with homeless people. what would they say? >> they would see that persons that are homeless are no different than they are. the fact is they are homeless because of their situation, but it's only a temporary situation. >> cafe 458 has a sunday brunch open to the public. the proceeds support the program at samaritan house. for more information visit their website at www.samhouse.org. for more check out essence.com.

getting out of financial trouble these days can be difficult. one woman shows you how creative thinking can save you. >> reporter: actress angela logan played many roles to earn a living. she worked as a teacher, model, hairdresser and is studying to be a nurse. when she recently fell into foreclosure on her teaneck, new jersey, home, she turned to baking. >> it was a flash of desperation. i was like, wow, we can sell these cakes they are so good. >> reporter: two years ago she hired a contractor to renovate the house.

he took his money, but he only did a portion of the work. to save her home, angela set a goal of selling 100 mortgage apple cakes in ten days for $40 each. she asked everyone she knew to buy a cake. >> the hardest part was to say, can you buy my cake, this is my problem. >> a local hilton hotel offered its kitchen so angela could bake faster. angela baked about 200 cakes, double her goal. by qualifying for the federal make home affordable program, her monthly mortgage payment is dropping by nearly 20%. other americans in a financial bind, she says, can also find creative answers to their cash crunch. >> find a talent. find something you can do. i can paint fences, you know? who needs one? >> reporter: almost any talent can generate extra cash, teaching a skill like playing an

instrument. home repairs. dog sitting for an animal lover. now she is greasing pans mass producing and share the proceeds with angela. a hole line of cakes is planned. escaping foreclosure could propel her to a new career as the queen of cakes. but back in her kitchen, she still studies nursing. knowing from experience never to depend upon just one role. >> and you can see more money and main street with rowland martin tonight at 8:00 eastern and every thursday morn on cnn. i guess people will sue for just about anything. a college graduate who just got her diploma in april is suing her school. she claims they haven't given her enough help to try and land her a job. now she wants her tuition back, $70,000. she even wants pain and

suffering money. how about that?