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Could Talking to Oprah or Dr. Phil Get You Arrested?

Tue., Apr. 20, 2010 5:31 PM PDT by Leslie Gornstein

Dan Herrick-KPA/Dan Herrick/ZUMA Press; Marc Bryan-Brown/Getty Images

I saw on Oprah that Mo'Nique's brother confessed to molesting her. Could Oprah end up sending that guy to jail?
—Olivia, San Marcos, Calif., via the Answer B!tch inbox

Well, Oprah pretty much does everything else, from curating the nation's leisure reading material to—according to the paranoia contingent—crowning a president.

So, hey, why not throw a few bums in jail by fielding their confessions in front of millions? It would certainly fall under Oprah's general do-gooder brand umbrella.

And now Gerald Imes confirmed on The Oprah Winfrey Show that he did sexually abuse Mo'Nique when the two were kids, one would hope there could be some kind of justice...

For the record, Maryland has no statute of limitations for the rape of a child under 16, according to Cynthia Orr, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. Imes was pretty vague about went on in his family home, but if he ever admits to rape, prosecutors could jump in and arrest Imes with or without Mo'Nique's participation. A molestation admission could be a different story. (Imes did get a 12-year jail sentence in connection with the molestation of another girl.)

But that doesn't mean there hasn't been some justice served via a talk-show set, namely, via Oprah's one-time protégé, Dr. Phil McGraw.

Just last month, a Southern California couple, Matthew and Nora Eaton, were sentenced to jail time by a federal judge. The two had appeared on McGraw's show, bragging about their exploits as expert shoplifters.

The show was broadcast in 2008; prosecutors later said the thieves fenced more than $100,000 worth of stolen goods online between August 2006 and March 2009. (The judge who sentenced the Eatons also went off on Dr. Phil: "What a charlatan this man is," the District Judge Irma Gonzalez said during one hearing. "What a terrible, terrible situation to put people in.")

What do we learn from all this?

If hanging with McGraw can land somebody in the slammer, you can bet that—statutes of limitation notwithstanding—a day with Oprah could do it, too. And probably with more style.