Transcript

Event Date(s): 02/27/2000 | Description: (Repeat broadcast of MNBC-WM-20000225-0002.) 07:00:00 MSNBC Weekend Magazine anchored by Stone Phillips. 07:00:07 Preview of upcoming videos. 07:05:12 Phillips introduces the next clip. 07:05:49 NBC News correspondent Hoda Kotbe reports on a Dateline NBC package titled"Sweet Charity." A clothing rack packed with donated clothes is wheeled out of a truck. Men carry a donated children's Jeep out of back of car. Workers sort through donated clothes in barrels. Close up of a donated fur coat hanging on a rack seen. A woman carries bags of donations out of the trunk of her car, she places bags down next to truck at a donation drop-off site and she asks for a receipt. Close up of person writing a receipt seen. Workers handle bags of donated goods at donation drop-off site. Hidden camera clips of man carrying a donated television out of donation drop-off site and putting it in the trunk of another man's car seen. A man stops that car and asks the driver where he's going with the television set. A donation drop-off site in Houston seen. Hidden camera clips of workers carrying donated goods out of the back door of drop-off site seen. In press conference President of Feed The Children Larry Jones says donated items are not perks for employees. Trucks seen parked outside Feed The Children's warehouse in Nashville, Tennessee. A truck with the Feed The Children logo on it seen. A forklift carries box of donated goods into freight truck. Boxes of donated goods in warehouse seen. A reporter asks a motorists about things they saw being carried out of the store (where they sell donated goods), Sign for The Salvation Army Thrift Store seen. Hidden camera clips of Salvation Army Thrift Store manager carrying a box of donated goods out of his store, carrying box of goods to his car, walking out of his store with bag, placing a donated bicycle in back of his car, and a man bringing a donated television and boom box into the manager's (previously mentioned) store seen. Close up of a tracking device (was placed inside the television and boom box) seen. Hidden camera clip of the store manager carrying donated boom box out of store seen. Exterior shot of the store manager's house seen. Panning shot of workers sorting donated clothes as clothes moving along clothing rack, and workers (some wearing face masks) placing clothes on conveyor belt seen. Dateline's Hoda Kotbe reports on camera next to those workers sorting donated clothes at a warehouse. Still of four sisters (Faye, Bonnie, Ellen and Dale), who are serving time for embezzling money from the Goodwill stores they managed, seen Exterior shot of a Goodwill store in the San Jose, California area seen. Exterior shot of another Goodwill store in the San Jose area seen. Panning shot of porcelain and ceramic dolls and figurines (worth thousands of dollars) that the sisters collected seen. In interview Deputy District Attorney in California's Santa Clara County Steve Lowdy (PH) says these people aren't supposed to have spare money for these types of things. Lowdy walks inside the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office. Close up of porcelain figurines seen. Exterior shot of Goodwill office seen. Lowdy says he was overwhelmed by the depth of the conspiracy and the complexity of it. Still of the four sisters seen. Separate shots of donated good in boxes and barrels seen. Overhead, panning shot of Silicon Valley seen. Workers place bags of donated goods in back of truck at a drop-off site. Lowdy says the conspiracy and the embezzlement grew with the county and took on more people, more donations, more cash as the county grew. Close up of still of one the sisters Faye Marcil, who was the ringleader, followed by separate stills of her younger sisters Bonnie, Ellen and Dale seen. Exterior shots of Goodwill Stores seen. A cashier at a Goodwill store opens the cash register and puts money inside. Panning shot of customers browsing in a Goodwill store seen. A worker sorts out donated clothes in a barrel. Panning shot of workers sorting clothes in barrels at a wholesale warehouse seen. A worker pulls empty barrels. Panning shot of empty barrels stacked up on top of each other seen. Back door to a Goodwill Store seen. Panning shot of barrels seen. Lowdy explains that the dealers would secretly pay the sisters thousands of dollars for the best goods and they pocketed the profits. He says this happened everyday, says they created a business within a business, and says they generated cash week after week. A worker takes donated goods out of plastic bag and sorts them in barrels. Silhouette of a worker working in Goodwill Store seen. Slow-motion clip of a worker pulling an empty barrel seen. Faded shot of cash seen. A worker sorts donated clothes. Shadow of a person counting cash over a worker putting donated clothes on a hanger seen. A worker pulls a barrel of clothes in back of truck as faded shots of cash being counted seen. Lowdy says people were long timers in this conspiracy and really invested a lot of their lives in it. Still of the four sisters seen. In interview Bonnie's husband Jeff Marcil says Bonnie worked Monday thru Saturday and sometimes Sundays, 14-15 hours a day. Still of Jeff's older brother Ray Marcil (married to Faye) seen. Close up of photos of Jeff and Bonnie on their wedding day, and of Ray and Faye at their wedding reception seen. Jeff walks outside. Close up of a pile of twenty dollar bills seen. Jeff says he wouldn't worry about having $50-60,000 cash in the house, admits he was enjoying some of this money. Still of two of the sisters with a bag from Nordstrom's department store seen. Exterior shot of one of the sister's modest home seen. Close up of still of Faye and of her with her sisters and other family members seen. A waitress serving a plate of food to customer seen. Close up of a glass of wine being poured seen. A person pushes button on slot machine and the machine dispenses coins. Still of Bonnie and Jeff with their baby daughter seen. Jeff says Bonnie would buy CD players for every child in the family. Photo of Jeff and Bonnie on their wedding day seen. Jeff says there was a wall of animosity being built up because all he wanted was a family life and for his wife to spend more time with their children. Jeff seen speaking on phone seen. Close up of cash in envelopes seen. Extreme close up of a bank record showing deposits of $2,000 and $6,000 and of a bogus payroll check seen. Jeff sits outside. Jeff says he was wrong (he let the sisters use his inactive video business as a cover-up) but figured that they were at least paying their taxes on money that they were earning. Jeff walks outside with Kotbe. Close up of still of Faye seen. Faded shot of cash over still of the sisters seen. Still of one of the sisters with her son seen. Close up of still of Jeff and Bonnie's daughter seen. Jeff says he had had enough. Jeff sits outdoors. Exterior shot of office building seen. Door to San Jose's Federal Bureau of Investigation office seen. Exterior shot of Goodwill office building seen. Jeff sits on benchin front of sprouting water fountain. Jeff says he doesn't feel like either the hero or the rat, says it's a very tough position to be in. He says he didn't want his wife to go to jail and for his daughter to lose her mother. Still of Bonnie with her daughter seen. Still of investigators carrying box of evidence (from one of the sister's house) in truck seen. Still of autographed Joe Montana jerseys in frames with faded shot of list of everything that was confiscated seen. Panning shot of porcelain and ceramic figurines which were also confiscated seen. Still of a confiscated antique chair with close up of it's Goodwill price tag seen. Still of money wrapped in envelopes seen. Still of wrapped money with faded shot of list of confiscated cash seen. Lowdy says the cash was easily identified as Goodwill cash because it was wrapped in Goodwill wrappers seen. Inserts of mug shots of the sisters seen. Still of the sisters in court seen. Still of the sisters' immediate supervisor, who committed suicide days after her house was searched, seen. Exterior of her home seen. A Goodwill truck seen. Goodwill employees work in the shipping area. Goodwill truck drives away. In interview president of Santa Clara County's Goodwill Hugh Barnett (PH) says the fact that this could've gone on for so long was appalling. Barnett and Kotbe walk through one of Goodwill's warehouses. Overhead, panning shot of warehouse seen. A worker unpacks a bag of donated goods. Still of the four sisters seen. Ladies Apparel section in a Goodwill Store seen. A Goodwill cashier rings up a sale. Barnett says there was no reason to suspect the sisters of wrong-doing given what they were doing for Goodwill, and asserts that they were trusted. Sign"Goodwill Donation Station" seen. People dropping goods off at Goodwill Donation Station seen. Slow-motion clip of a barrel seen. Lowdy says if you ever popped into one of the sister's stores on any occasion you could see their operation in progress, and says it was done right in the open. Panning shot of Goodwill store seen. Hidden camera clip of Goodwill store seen. Barnett says he never witnessed any wrong-doings during site visits, and says he doesn't take blame for being involved in the conspiracy but says he takes responsibility in making sure this doesn't happen again. Hidden camera clip of donated clothes hanging on racks in a Goodwill warehouse seen. Shots of surveillance cameras in Goodwill locations seen. Salvation Army truck drives away. Goodwill employees sort clothes in a warehouse. Close up of Jeff outside seen. Barnett says he doesn't feel grateful for what Jeff did, says he was still one of the perpetrators. Jeff works on a laptop computer."Goodwill" sign at headquarters seen. Workers carry rack of donated clothes off Goodwill truck. Still of the sisters in court seen. Jeff walks outside. Still of Bonnie on her wedding day seen. Separate stills of the sisters in court seen. Jeff says he feels like he did the right thing, says he doesn't feel like he's the good guy because his wife is in prison and his daughter doesn't have her mother, and says but at least he can sleep at night. Still of Jeff with his daughter seen. 07:21:18 Phillips introduces the next clip. 07:21:40 NBC News correspondent Dr. Bob Arnot reports on a Dateline NBC package titled"What Makes Sam-E Run?" Graphic supered"What Makes Sam-e Run?" and"Producer Daniel Slepian, Editor David Ewing" seen. Extreme close up of former sufferer of clinical depression Lisa (only name given) seen. Lisa in voice over discusses trying to find happiness and still feeling very painful from her depression. Tree lined walkway in park seen. Lisa walking outside in slow-motion. In interview Lisa says she started getting depressed when she was 12-years-old, and states she was crying and felt sad all of the time. Lisa opens medicine cabinet and grabs at Prozac medication. Panning shot from wooden floor, to Lisa sitting at table and reading seen. Lisa says the medications she was taking didn't work for her. Lisa seen inside library doing research on her depression, and looking in books. Overhead shot of library interior seen. Opened book with information about depression medication S-Adenosylmethionine (Sam-e) seen. Close ups of Lisa looking at research, and of research documents seen. Close up panning shot of Sam-e medication box seen. Dissolving shot of pills and Lisa doing research at library seen. TV monitor showing Sam-e commercial seen. Columbia University psychiatrist Dr. Richard Brown talks on telephone inside his office. Shot closing in on book authored by Brown"Stop Depression Now" seen. In interview Brown says he was convinced about Sam-e from clinical experience during treatment of patients. Brown takes bottle from medicine cabinet. Brown in mostly voice over says Sam-e works as well as the standard anti-depressant and faster in many cases. Point of view shot of pills being poured into a bottle seen from the bottom. Graphic animation of a human head focusing in on brain, and electronic impulses in the brain seen. Brown says the bottom line is what makes the patient feel better, not the theory that it does. Pills seen. Graphic documents of a study on Sam-e from Germany and supers"Treatment of Osteoarthritis" and"Therapeutic Potential in Liver Dysfunction" seen. Pills seen. Panning shots of vitamin supplements on shelves seen. Sam-e dietary supplements on display seen. Cashier works cash register and money drawer opens. Bottles of Sam-e seen. Sam-e information on the Internet seen. Arnot reports on camera from inside a hospital. In interview New York State Psychiatric Institute Depression Clinic Executive Director Dr. Fredric Quitkin says he thinks it's absurb. Quitkin walks outside the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Quitkin says the evidence supporting Sam-e is dubious and it is a public health menace, and notes there are seriously ill people who might avoid treatment because of Sam-e. Graphic showing study documents on Sam-e seen. Quitkin enters his office, and works inside his office. Quitkin says an unimpressive collection of studies is not that easy to find. Close up point of view shots of books, published study on Sam-e, and hand grabbing for bottle of Prozac seen. Lisa sits on park bench and reads. Sam-e medication boxes seen. Low shot of pills pouring from bottle seen. Lisa takes pill with bottle of soda. Lisa talks on telephone and laughs. In voice over Lisa says she felt something that was different (when taking Sam-e). Quitkin says the feelings Lisa is having could be a fortuitous event that is unrelated to Sam-e. Draw full of Sam-e, and pill being pushed out from packaging seen. Lisa talks on phone. Close up of record album playing on turntable seen. Lisa reads and listens to music. Lisa says she almost didn't come out of this alive, adds she's now thankful for an average day because that was something she could never achieve for one day before (the Sam-e).