Transcripts For MSNBCW Dateline Extra 20180812

The binoculars were and walked up to this open view. Reporter he says they then turned and took a narrow, well worn path to the rocks. They sat there as the night fell around them. He with his back against the rocks, holding her as she sat directly in front of him. At some point, something goes terribly wrong. Yes. Reporter he says he stood up, intending to go back to the car to get wine and a blanket. For whatever reason, jody stood up, too. The edge of the rock was at her feet. What was your last glimpse of your wife . Just standing up and, you know, stumbling forward. Reporter jody had gone off the cliff. I didnt know how bad things were, but i was stunned. Reporter what did you do . I got down on my stomach. I stuck my head over and i just yelled. Jody, jody, talk to me. I just yelled down there. Reporter but no response. He grabbed a flashlight and flagged down a motorist who came here to the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police station. Lieutenant walter sery was on duty. Until he was there it was a quiet night and then all hell broke loose. Reporter the frantic man told them a woman fell from the lookout and that her husband was waiting for help. The Police Called in michael chiefy, an experienced climber. I was there as a rescue mission. I thought she was alive. Reporter he began to lower himself off the side of the cliff where the womans husband said shed fallen. Ten feet down he caught sight of a ledge. I observed a purse, two credit cards. Reporter on a ledge ten feet down . Right. Reporter it was what he didnt see that confused him. There was no sign that the womans body had also hit that ledge or any part of the cliff. Nothing. No blood, no hair, clothing, fibers, skin. Reporter by that point, officer walter sery had arrived at the lookout. Since there was nothing the husband could do to help in the rescue, sery was told to get him out of the way and drove him back down to police headquarters. On the way, stephen recounted the awful moment when his wife disappeared. We were walking and she said for me to go back to the car and get the blanket. She slipped and i didnt e see her anymore. Reporter as sery and the man arrived at the station, the rescuer made it to the base of the cliff. More than 100 feet from the top. He expected to find a woman. I said, maybe this is a hoax. Maybe she never went over the cliff. Reporter he and a rescuer began to walk along the base. Finally, 30 feet away the beams landed on something white. It was jody lying motionless next to a tree. There was a lot of blood on the tree. The blood was draining down the tree. Thats where severe impact took. Thats where she really reporter jody scharf had not survived the fall. It was clear she had slammed into that tree. As he began to move the body he noticed something else. She had the odor of alcoholic beverage that emanated from her body. Reporter when you smelled that did you think maybe she had too much to drink and fell . That entered my mind, yes. Reporter at that moment, Stephen Scharf was sitting in a room at the police station, waiting for someone to tell him what happened to his wife. Do you remember whats going through your mind at that point . How badly is she hurt . Where is she . Why isnt she calling back to me. Reporter thats when an officer walked in and broke the news. Jody was gone. I dont remember who told me. Reporter what was your reaction . Denial. How could this happen . Reporter that question would haunt him and many others. It would take years for the answers to finally come. Coming up he was rubbing his eyes to make it look like he was crying. Reporter you thought he was faking tears . Absolutely. Reporter curious behavior puts a husband under the microscope. 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His wife had died in a freak accident, off a cliff of all places. How could that happen . Thats exactly what police who were there the night of jodys death wanted to know, too. Right away, i got a feeling that there was something definitely wrong. Reporter it nagged at the rescuer. Why was jodys purse on the ledge just feet below where her husband said shed fallen. Where is she . She should be here or part of her should be here. Reporter thats the first thing that came to you . Either she should be here or the pocketbook should be down with her. It wasnt fitting. Reporter another thought dawned on him. If jody had tumbled, why hadnt she hit the side of the cliff. There was no blood or hair anywhere on the rocks. And the location of jodys body seemed off way off. She was 30 to 40 feet away from us to the north. A person falls off the cliff, usually they go south or right down. Should have been right down where i got off the ropes. Thats where she should have been. Reporter someone else was scratching his head about that night for different reasons. It had to do with stephens behavior while the search was under way. Officer sery was surprised stephen was willing to leave the lookout as rescuers were still looking for jody. Did he give any indication, i dont want to leave, my wife could be alive down there . Not at all. Reporter sery said he couldnt believe how willingly scharf got into the car. If it was my wife, girlfriend, whoever they would have had to pry me away from the scene. Reporter he willingly got into the patrol car . Without a word said. Reporter stranger still was how calm the husband seemed. When the officer heard stephen describe how his wife had fallen he made a mental note. There was no emotion in it. No emotion. Like he was reading a script. Reporter did it occur to you that he was maybe in shock . No. I have seen people who lost loved ones. I have never seen anybody act that way. Reporter it was a particular moment later, inside the station house that really caught the officers attention. He asked if he could get a drink from the water fountain. He was looking over his shoulder at me, splashing water into his face and rubbing his eyes to make it look like he was crying. Reporter you thought he was faking tears . Absolutely. Absolutely. Reporter a death scene where the pieces didnt connect. A husband who appeared nonchalant. From a cops point of view things were adding up and not in stephens favor. Not just one thing. It was like the totality of the circumstances. Everything every little thing was clicking in my mind. Im saying to myself, you know, this isnt right. Somethings wrong here. Reporter gut instinct is one thing, but evidence is quite another. People handle terrible events in different ways. The police are paid to be suspicious. Maybe their view of stephen was too jaundiced. There was really nothing to indicate that jodys fall was anything but an accident. A few months later, the ruling was in. The medical examiner concluded the manner of jody scharfs death could not be determined. An accident was as likely as anything else. Case closed. Or was it . So you didnt think this was a horrible accident . No. Reporter the suspicions grow. Was there a weapon at this romantic rendezvous . You have wine, cheese, crackers and a claw hammer. Red flags are going off, they reached the top of the pole at that point. If you told me a year ago where id be right now. Aah . I would have said you were crazy. But so began the year of me. I discovered the true meaning of paperless discounts. And the indescribable rush of saving drivers an average of 620. Why does fear feel so good . I fell in love three times once with a woman, once with a country, and finally. With myself. So, do you have anything to declare or not . Isnt that what im doing . 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But, if we dont make this move were going to have changes in our environment, and have a negative impact to hawaiis economy. Verizon provided us a solution using Smart Sensors on their network that lets us collect near Real Time Data on our power grid. colton this technology is helping us integrate rooftop solar, which is a very important element of getting us to our Renewable Energy goals. shelee if we can create our own energy, we can take care of this beautiful place that i grew up in. Reporter jodys death on these cliffs had been a horrible accident. Her husband said so. And the medical examiner wasnt arguing with him. But detectives have a kind of sixth sense about cases. It was telling james linum something sinister had just happened. So you didnt think this was a horrible accident . No. Reporter there wasnt any smoking gun really. Just something dark he thought he could read between the lines in the police notes he reviewed the day after jodys death. E he didnt react like somebody who had just lost his wife should have reacted. Reporter so the detective moved from the physical evidence to the less tangible clues. He quickly learned from jodys friends that this was a couple not in love, but in crisis. The subject wasnt wine and roses on those cliffs. It was divorce. She was going to go through with it, yes. Absolutely. Reporter jodys longtime friend told detectives that jody had been determined to take her 10yearold son jonathan and leave her husband. She was convinced stephen had been cheating on her. She couldnt prove anything, but women called the house. Sometimes theyd call and hang up on her. Reporter in fact, linum learned jody had served her husband divorce papers on september 8, 1992. Less than two weeks later, she was dead at the base of the palisades. The timing made him more eager to talk to the widower scharf. There was a sitdown with mr. Scharf. Hes consented to talk, right . Yes. Reporter two days after his wifes death, stephen was freely answering detectives questions. Yes, he told them. He and his wife were talking divorce as they had sometimes done during their tempestuous marriage. It was true. There were other women. He said there was an open marriage. He said he had been with 50 to 60 women. Reporter she was okay with it, according to him. According to him, yeah. Reporter he told detectives she and jody had become unhappy with the free love lifestyle so they came to this romantic, treacherous spot to recommit to one another. To kiss and make up. The spot where they went is not a spot you go to reconcile with anybody. Reporter detectives werent buying the story for another reason. They found something suspicious inside the car. A bag filled with items you would expect for a romantic picnic and one you would not. A hammer. You have wine, cheese, crackers, opener claw hammer. If red flags were going off, they reached the top of the pole at that point . Reporter did you think it was a murder weapon . I thought that might have been plan a. He didnt use it so he went to plan b. Reporter which he believed was to push or throw jody from the cliff. So detectives asked stephen the obvious. What was a hammer doing in the picnic bag . He said he fixed a draw in the kitchen with the hammer. He just forgot to put it back in the garage. He put it in the bag with the picnic items. It was just convenient. It was a convenient excuse for having the hammer. Reporter detectives asked if they could check out the drawer and the rest of stephens house that night. He agreed. But something potentially far more telling was happening away from the action. I said, look, im your local police department. Reporter ted aaronburg was a local officer told to keep an eye on stephen that night as detectives combed through the house. The officer said he began talking to stephen about what happened to jody when stephen interrupted him. He finally looked at me and he goes, you dont believe me. Reporter then the officer says he said something that almost knocked him off his feet. I said, i believe an accident occurred. I said, was it an accident . He put his head down and he said, no. Reporter aaronburg believes that was a stunning confession. He ran to tell the other detectives, including linum but they had spent hours grilling the man. We werent getting the feeling that a reinterview would have done anything. Reporter the detectives still believed they could find solid evidence to implicate stephen, but they didnt. We took it as far as we could go. The cause of death was listed as undetermined. So officially it wasnt a homicide. Reporter in time, the detectives moved on to other cases. Stephen moved on, too. 14 years after his wifes death he remarried. Tina said hes been a loving, ideal husband. It was like we were two puzzle pieces that were made for each other. Each of us complemented and completed the other person. Reporter even in this the happy, new life he says hes never forgotten about jody. But he might have been surprised to learn that someone else was thinking of her, too, after all these years. The county had a new prosecutor and he was eager to revisit old case files. Among them a death on the cliffs of the palisades so many years ago. The death of jody. There is a renewed push since 2002 to look into the cold cases. Reporter marcos covered the case for the record newspaper in new jersey. On one hand he said it didnt seem the prosecutor had reason to pursue the cold case. In terms of hard evidence there was nothing new. Reporter the prosecutor did have someone new. A famous fame to join the investigation into jodys death. Dr. Michael bodden, a world renowned forensic pathologist who investigated the deaths of john f. Kennedy and john belushi and testified at the trial of o. J. Simpson. He was about to turn up the heat on a cold case. Dr. Bodden reviewed the evidence and determined that it could not have been an accidental fall. Reporter in december of 2008, detectives paid one more visit to stephen. They wouldnt tell me what it was for. I had no idea what this was about. It make sense. Reporter 16 years after that fatal night on the cliff, police were back. And stephen was in for a shock. After all these years you thought it was done. Not until they reached behind and handed me this thing. This arrest warrant. Reporter coming up, the case heads into court with a surprise from the stand. Im here for my mother. Reporter stephen and jodys only son has some dark secrets to share. Did you see the abuse . I did. Come away with me barnabas but i am a simple farmer. My life is here. [telephone ring] ahoyhoy. Alexander graham bell here. No, no, my number is one, you must want two two, i say like my father before. [telephone ring] like my father before. 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If he has lied he is guilty. Reporter the state marshalled familiar facts to tell its story, starting with the crime scene where the prosecutor said the cliffs showed no sign of an accidental tumble. No debris, no clothing, no blood, no hair, no tissue. Reporter then there was the husband himself. Cool and collected in the back of a police car. I didnt see any emotion from him at all, sir. Reporter who later confessed, the prosecutor said, to killing his wife. Then i said, it was an accident . He said, no. Reporter but those facts were not where the case ended. The prosecutor argued that they set the stage for the real case a story told by the victims friends, family and most importantly, by a star witness. My opinion is that the manner of death is homicide. Reporter dr. Michael bodden, the forensic pathologist, told jurors the crime scene speak of a murder, not an accident. If a person falls accidentally, the individual will be, you know, within a couple of feet of the base of the building. Reporter that didnt happen in the case of jody scharf. Her body landed 50 feet out from the top of the cliff and 30 feet to the north. She had to have been propelled from that point. Reporter jody had to have been thrown or pushed to her death, he said. And likely from another spot entirely on the cliffs. He wasnt the only expert who saw it that way. Of the head and chest injuries are not consistent with someone that tumbles down the cliff face. Reporter dr. Clayton was the Bergen County medical examiner who first ruled the circumstances of jodys death could not be determined. Now on second look she says the victims wounds or lack of them told her something different, something vital. If jody had tumbled innocently down the palisades she would have had broken bones everywhere. She did not. There were no visible injuries on the back of her body. Reporter why would stephen have killed his wife . The biggest reason, the prosecutor argued, was that stephen did not want a divorce. He didnt want a custody fight. He didnt want to split assets with jody. And there was yet another motive for stephen, said the prosecutor, a potential payout. Usaa Life Insurance company. Reporter an insurance representative testified about a 500,000 policy taken out against jody scharf months before her death. Payable to a primary beneficiary. Can you tell us the policy owner . Stephen f. Scharf. Reporter jody scharf was worth more dead than alive. Her friend marion testified that jody feared stephen fight do something violent if she pushed for divorce. Even so, marion said, jody was determined to get away from her husband. She was going to have divorce papers served on stephen and she was very afraid of it. Reporter yet, was stephen violent enough to kill his wife . An unlikely but powerful witness was about to testify against Stephen Scharf. Im here for my mother. Reporter his own son took the stand against him. Now a businessman, Jonathan Scharf painted his father as an angry, violent man who terrorized his mother. Did you see that abuse . I did. Reporter Jonathan Scharf said he realized his father had likely killed his mother only after that arrest in 2008. This videotaped interview shows him recalling the dark past for the first time to police. She got coffee thrown at her by him. Reporter now in court, he had even more to tell about his childhood. Like the afternoon he sat cowering in the back seat of a car watching his mother suffer. My mom was driving and my dad was hitting her with the bottom of his fist. I was just begging him to stop doing it. Reporter he also remembered the last day of his mothers life. He was 10 and said his mother told his father that she didnt want to go out with him alone. She said, if i wanted to go out with you, i wouldnt be divorcing you. Reporter where was the proof that stephen planned to kill jody that night . Well, there was the hammer in the picnic bag. But there was also testimony from this woman one of stephens old girlfriends. I even mentioned to my girlfriend that it was a perfect relationship. Reporter Terry Schofield had been dating stephen months before jodys death. Did mr. Scharf tell you whether or not he was married . Actually, he said he was not married. Reporter she remembered something strange stephen said to her on the beach over that labor day weekend. He was under a lot of stress and the stress would be resolved by the end of september. Reporter two weeks later, jody scharf was dead. Terry now sees that cryptic statement in a dreadful light. I was like, oh, no, the end of september. Then the lightbulb went off immediately. Reporter it also went off for marion. In perhaps the most chilling testimony of the prosecutions case she told the jury when she heard her friend was gone she immediately remembered something jody said just weeks earlier. She said that during this conversation that i had with him, if anything happens to me, youll know who did it. She said, youll know it was him. Reporter the prosecutors position was clear. A husband with a motive. The perfect setting. The violent intent to kill his wife. Or was there another way of looking at that couple perched high on those cliffs on a summer night . Stephens new wife says the prosecution has it all wrong. My husband is not capable. Thats not the man he is. My husband is sweet, kind, loving, considerate. Reporter the defense was ready to show how Stephen Scharf, far from villain, was the real victim in this story. Coming up they destroyed the crime scene area. Reporter new questions about the evidence and was there another reason why a son might implicate his dad . 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Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum Stephen Scharf is not guilty reporter 18 years after the death of his first wife, more than a decade after the investigation stalled, Stephen Scharf was being called a killer, but his defense attorney argued there was no new evidence, no new eyewitnesses, only new opinions. Were talking about the same old facts and circumstances. Reporter he said the state was hoping to win a murder conviction by painting his client as a terrible husband. That it couldnt prove he was a killer in 1992 and it couldnt prove it today. My client, Stephen Scharf, has been wrongfully charged with her death. Reporter one reason the prosecutor couldnt prove murder had to do with Sloppy Police work, the defense attorney said, suggesting it had been like keystone cops on the palisades that fatal night. You never photographed the body before you moved it, did you . No, sir. Why didnt they take photographs . They destroyed the crime scene area. Reporter they didnt even bother to question potential eyewitnesses, he said. Instead, they cleared visitors from the lookout. There might have been someone who saw something or heard something. There might have been. Theres a possibility that might have happened. Reporter if police were so suspicious of his client two nights later, the defense said, why didnt they videotape their interview with him . That way, jurors could have judged Stephen Scharfs supposedly odd demeanor for themselves. Why didnt you . Not an interrogation. He wasnt in custody. I dont know. Reporter the defense attorney also argued that police misinterpreted what his client said in his home just hours later. My client never said this wasnt an accident. Reporter as for that hammer police thought was a weapon. The hammer was examined by the forensic experts. There was nothing found on that hammer. Reporter the defense attorney pressed the medical examiner on her flipflop. Undetermined manner of death in 93. Now it was a homicide . Really . Are you trying to say that youre learning from your mistakes on this case . You may call them mistakes, sir. I did the best i could in 1992, documenting what i had observed with mrs. Scharf. Reporter the medical examiner was helpful to the defense in one critical way though. She determined that jody had been drunk the night she fell off the cliff. Jody had a blood alcohol level of. 12. That was over the legal limit. It would be equivalent to approximately four averagesized drinks wine or beer, Something Like that. Reporter a drunken slip and fall argued the defense. To back it up the lawyer had his own heavy hitter. Famed forensic pathologist dr. Cyril wecht. He had starstudded investigations as high profile as dr. Bodden. Only wecht had a totally different take on how jody scharf died. I would call this an accidental death. Reporter in wechts version, which he demonstrated with, of all things, a teddy bear, jody fell off the cliff and onto jagged rocks below causing her mortal wounds. Her body then catapulted. Out goes the body and it hurtles into the air. Reporter into the tree canopy which then carried her through the abyss into the distant tree. This is what i think happened to explain those injuries of the chest and of the head. Reporter but there was another bubble to burst in the prosecutions case. The motive for murder. Stephen of scharf wasnt a greedy killer, his attorney said. His client never made a claim on that insurance policy. It was only after the money was turned over to the state, years later, he said, that Stephen Scharf even bothered to collect. Would it throw fuel on the fire not to do it . Well, i know i look guilty because i am guilty. I better not make the claim. Damned if you do, damned if you dont. Reporter the other alleged motive, divorce, was flimsy as well. Jody and stephen had been talking breakup for years. The divorce papers, just the latest legal salvo in an ongoing marital spat. Reporter the prosecutor paints a picture of someone who, frankly, is serious about this divorce. No one person ever indicated that my client was furious over this divorce. They had talked about divorce for years. Maybe she was, you know, saying one thing and not following through. Reporter though it is true Stephen Scharf didnt want a divorce. He said he wanted to give the marriage another chance. As for that former girlfriend, she recounted stephens mysterious statement before jodys death. Just give me to the end of september and everything will be okay. A lot of the stress will be gone. Reporter the defense attorney said that was stephens clumsy way of trying to dump his girlfriends. Speaking of which, he added, those other women did not bother jody at all. She was seeing other people herself. The person on the bottom half in both of those is who . Jody scharf. Reporter the recordkeeper of a dating service testified that jodys name was on an application. She even checked off the interests shed like to share with a mate. The attorney offered that as proof of stephen and jodys open marriage. But what really rankled the defense, what had torn at the heart of Stephen Scharf was the testimony of his son jonathan. I remember her showing me her bruises. Reporter he painted his father as a brute and possibly a killer. I never hit jody. It made me sick to my stomach. Reporter the young man wasnt to be believed, said the lawyer. For one thing, when police interviewed jonathan back in 2008, the young man described his dad as a good guy. I think he was you know, fairly decent, you know fairly decent guy. Reporter it was only after detectives told him his dad had just been arrested that the son turned on his father. She got coffee thrown at her. Before you found out that your dad was a rested did you lie . Yes. Did you lie more than once . Yes. Reporter why would jonathan turn on his father and lie . The confidence lawyer said it was jonathan, not his dad, who was motivated by greed. If Stephen Scharf was convicted, his son would get all that insurance money. Who does the money go to . It goes to me. Reporter in the end, the lawyer called Stephen Scharfs son a spoiled brat. Thats some spoiled kid. Reporter who was not a credible witness. In closing the attorney insisted this wasnt a murder case. Just a sad story about a woman who tumbled drunkenly to her death. This case is an accident. Nothing more. Nothing less. Reporter soon it would be in the hands of a jury. Coming up it was a lightbulb. You couldnt help but think, hmm, thats interesting. Reporter the jurors speak stephen, did you kill your wife, jody . The verdict. Ooh, heaven is a place on earth uhp. I didnt believe it. Again. Ooh, baby, do you know what thats worth . I want to believe it. [ claps hands ] ooh im not hearing the confidence. 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Now starting at 7. 99. Gillette. The best a man can get. Reporter 18 years after a night that ended in his wifes death off a cliff, Stephen Scharf stood accused of murder by the state of new jersey. Through it all, one thing he wants you to know is this he would never have laid a hand on his beloved jody never. Stephen, did you kill your wife jody . I did not hurt jody. I did not. Reporter did you throw her off the palisades i did not. I did not. I didnt hurt jody. I didnt push her. I didnt cause her to get hurt. I didnt kill my wife. Reporter we talked to Stephen Scharf at the Bergen County jail where he was held for more than two years after his arrest in 2008. He and his wife tina say they have paid a high price for something he didnt do. Our daughter is two and a half and has never been held by her father because we dont have contact visits. Its not just a tragedy for jody. Its a tragedy for john. Its a tragedy for my wife. For my daughter. And for myself. Reporter still, he decided not to take the stand in his own defense. But told dateline that what he first said years ago about his wifes death was the truth. I wish it didnt happen. Wish we had gone to the comedy club. But i im innocent. Reporter had the jury gotten that same message when they walked into the deliberating room for the first time, some jurors planned to vote not guilty. There wasnt enough evidence for me. Thats what it was. Reporter others were thinking guilty. It was several things. It was no one thing that made up my mind. Reporter the jurors went back and forth over the evidence. Heres what they came to believe that jody was likely drunk and that her husband knew it. If that was the case, why would he let her get so close to the edge of a cliff . As the husband, knowing that your wife was drinking, would you bring her there . Reporter the jurors deliberated three days before deciding whether Stephen Scharf should be found guilty or not guilty of a single count of murder. On the charge of murder of Jody Ann Scharf your verdict is guilty. Reporter guilty. Later, jurors said what united them was the testimony of jodys friend telling them that jody was terrified of her husband. That possibly she was telling everyone if something happens to me its my husband. Reporter it was another woman in stephens life who swayed the jury. Terry schofield recounting what stephen said to her weeks before jodys death, that his stress would soon be over. Once i heard that, that was something that pushed me towards what we decided in the end. That statement. It was the lightbulb. When she first said it, you couldnt help but think, hmm, thats interesting. Reporter to them, it wasnt jody who slipped but her husband with that menacing statement. They believed it wasnt just a fall from the cliffs. It was a coldblooded execution. Stephen scharf was sentenced to life in prison. He says the jurors condemned him, not on the facts, but for his and jodys tumultuous open marriage. You think this was a moral judgment on the part of jurors . Yes. I suppose some people would say, well, he was punished for his moral weakness. But this was a murder trial. Reporter for rescuer michael chiefy its a fitting end to a story thats haunted him since the night on the palisades. This has never left me. Its been years. I went back there myself without people knowing it several times because it bothered me. Something was wrong. Reporter for Close Friends like marion, the verdict does not remove the sting of the loss. Im angry that he took the life of a beautiful person. Thats what bothers me the most. That he would do that and think that he was going to get away with it. He wanted the insurance money. He wanted his son. Hed have whatever he wanted and she would be out of the way. I think that was sad. Thats all for now. Thanks for joining us. Im craig melvin. And im natalie morales. And this is dateline. I was robbed of my sister i had to grow up without one. In an instant she was gone. I was robbed of my sister i had to grow up without one. In an instant she was gone. And it changed everything she dreamed of a career solving crbu