TV ANNOUNCER: She remains the only member of the "magnificent seven" at this time training for the all-around in Sidney.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dominique Moceanu, 1998 Goodwill Games champion, Olympic gold medalist and a teenager locked in a battle with her parents.
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: They were so scared of losing me, and that was their biggest fear.
BRIAN HUGGINS, DOMINIQUE'S FRIEND: This thing has the classic fixings for a best-seller. I mean, you've got sex. You've got drugs. You've got attempted murder. You've got a famous person.
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: Money started getting into it, the career, the fame -- I mean, everything. I mean, of course he was proud of his daughter. There's no doubt. Deep down inside, he loves his daughter, and I love my father. But there's just some things you can't forgive right now, and you can't forget what happened. And you know, he tried to kill two people, and that's -- I'm never going to forget that. You know, I don't even know when I'll be able to ever forgive him.
KAGAN (voice-over): The latest chapter in this twisted tale began in November, Friday the 13th. That's the day three Houston homicide detectives came to Moceanu's apartment with a shocking story of murder for hire.
KAGAN (on camera): So they're telling you that your father has a contract. The police believe that your father has a contract on your friend and your coach.
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: Yes.
KAGAN: What did you think?
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: Well, they believe that they had him under investigation, and they had the informant wired, and my dad said it several times on tape, that "I want them dead."
BRIAN HUGGINS: How's it going to happen, car bombing? Is it going to happen by brake lines being cut? Is it going to happen by a guy driving by with an AK-47 and doing a drive-by shooting on my house?
KAGAN (voice-over): Thirty-two-year-old Brian Huggins was once a close friend of Dominique's father, Dumitru, but this year he helped Dominique run away from home, and that allegedly made him a target for murder.
DUMITRI MOCEANU: I told Brian not to be around her.
KAGAN (voice-over): Last week in court, Dumitru Moceanu was asked about the alleged plot.
ATTORNEY: Did you discuss hiring your investigator to kill Brian Huggins?
DUMITRI MOCEANU: Under the 5th Amendment, I'm not going to answer.
KAGAN (on camera): But when you're thinking about your dad, you're thinking, "OK, I know he's pulled some stunts in the past, but my dad couldn't do something like this."
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: I didn't think that. I thought he was capable.
KAGAN (voice-over): What evidence did Houston police have of the alleged murder-for-hire scheme? Tape recordings made by a confidential informant wearing a wire. A police source who's heard the tapes tells CNN they contain, quote, "a solicitation for murder" made by Dominique's father, who asked if the killing could be made to look drug-related.
KATHERINE SCARDINO, PARENTS' ATTORNEY: I haven't listened to the tapes, and the reason that I'm not allowed to listen to the tapes is because no charges have been filed. he's not been arrested. It's my understanding that is not going to happen.
KAGAN (voice-over): Police say the contracts were for $10,000, but no money ever exchanged hands.
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: They were 24 hours from catching him. That's what the police said. Then I believe that he was going to go through with it.
KAGAN (voice-over): Police took the threat seriously enough to warn Dominique and Brian Huggins to leave town.
BRIAN HUGGINS: Walking out of her apartment, it was kind of a panic. Get home, pack up some stuff and hope you don't get shot between there and the airport. Seriously.
MARCY HUGGINS: You should see the fear in his eyes. His hands were shaking. His voice was trembling. He packed his stuff in 10 minutes. Fifteen minutes later, he was gone.
KAGAN (voice-over): Dominique and Brian left Houston for Las Vegas on a Lear jet provided by a friend of Huggins's.
BRIAN HUGGINS: There wasn't an option. I got my wife and family as far away from this place as possible, and myself the other way. And that way I thought it was safer.
MARCY HUGGINS: It's hard to sleep at night. The alarm system was set every night. The gun is loaded with a bullet in the chamber and I was ready to use it.
KAGAN (on camera): Do you think it was kind of strange that when there was this contract on his life, that he left town and he left his wife and child behind?
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: His wife and child were behind because he didn't want to put them in danger. Being around them, it put him and his family in danger.
KAGAN (voice-over): In Las Vegas, they met with the other target of the alleged hit, the woman who had revitalized Dominique's career -- her coach, Luminita Miscenco.
After warning her, the pair flew on to the Cayman Islands, where Huggins friend had a condominium.
It was a trip that later raised eyebrows.
SCARDINO: Well, if you're asking me, do I have photographers of some sort of sexual relationship, no, I don't. But I am an adult and been around awhile, and I can just tell you that it does not appear to me to be realistic to think that there was a friendship.
KAGAN (on camera): Did you ever stop and think, I'm traveling with a married man who is almost twice my age, we're going off to a place that a lot of people think is romantic, this just doesn't look right?
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: Yes, I thought about that; I did all the time. But who else did I have to turn to? I mean, he was a good friend. And what choice did I have?
What would you guys do? Is there -- people forgetting that there's -- somebody's life is at stake? I was scared. He was scared. We didn't know what to do do.
I mean, of course, people say that it looked bad, or whatever. But put yourself in my shoes.
HUGGINS: I guess that what everybody wants to know is has there been an affair in the last 10 weeks that this ordeal has been going on. No. Absolutely president.
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: He's a good friend, and that's it. There's no relationship there.
And I can see where people can say that, you know, you guys are having a relationship. But that's not the fact. You know, that's not true at all . It never was, never will be.
You don''t hit your child for gaining weight or the little things like that.
KAGAN (voice-over): Telling her story has been a very painful and public experience.
At last week''s emotionally charged court hearing, she spoke of abuse at the hands of her father.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're saying your father hit you because you gained some weight?
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: Yes. He'd also hit me in front of Marta (ph) and Bela (ph) Karoyli (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And where did he hit you?
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: In the face, and before the Olympics.
KAGAN (on camera): One of the most serious allegations that you made against your dad was an allegation of physical abuse, that he hit you. Can you tell us about a time?
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: It wasn't an allegation. It was a fact. I mean, people have been there. My best friend's been there. Some other people have seen it.
KAGAN (voice-over): She says one incident occurred nearly two years ago -- New Year's Day, 1997.
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: It was late at night. And he put on the scale. And he's like "How much?"
KAGAN (on camera): How much was it? How much did you weigh?
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: Probably like 78.
KAGAN: Seventy-eight pounds.
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: Yes. And I was just like, you know, this is not right. I go -- Why? I can't eat anything.
KAGAN: So when your dad looked at the scale and he saw that you weighed 78 pounds, what was his reaction?
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: He was like "See, look. You know, you've gained weight." And he just got mad at me.
You know, I tried to block out these memories, but, you know, I just remember him getting really mad and exploding. I can't remember every single word. But I remember him hitting me in front of my aunt and uncle. Mom and my sister were there. And they were like "Stop it, Dumitru." And you know, my dad's brother went over to him and stopped him.
KAGAN (voice-over): Dominique also poke of verbal and mental abuse that she says never let up -- even when she competed in the 1996 Olympics.
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: Even when I fell on a team day in vault, you know, I was upset at myself. I didn't need my dad saying, oh, you could have won, or you could have -- I know I could have. Just be happy. I got a gold medal, you know. What more do you?
KAGAN: But what Dominique calls abuse her parents call discipline.
SCARDINO: Do you understand that parents have the right to discipline?
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: I mean, it really shocked my when Scardino in the trial said it's discipline. I was like "Discipline?"
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Dominique Moceanu.
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: I'm very disciplined and I have been all my life. I mean, I never did anything wrong. You know, what did I do wrong to deserve all this?
I was so mad. You know, discipline.
KAGAN: Yet Dominique Moceanu has her detractors, who say she's a typical rebellious 17-year-old who's using her celebrity to break away from her parents.
KAGAN (on camera): People say Dominique, she's just a spoiled brat.
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: I hate that. You know, I wouldn't be a spoiled brat. I don''t act like that. And it hurts me deep down that people just judge you by what they see. But they don''t know the facts. And you know, some people are going to believe it, some are not.
KAGAN: Like some comments, like, from maybe your mom saying, oh, we shouldn't have given her so many material things, that made her spoiled.
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: No. That is not true. I appreciate everything. But it was my money that bought, so, hello, you know.
KAGAN (voice-over): All this comes on the heels of an earlier court hearing in October in which Dominique Moceanu was declared an adult and granted a divorce from her parents.
Back then, her father talked to CNN and questioned her daughter's motives for accusing him of physical abuse.
DUMITRU MOCEANU, FATHER: All these years -- how come she doesn't say nothing until now? You know, if you look at all the interviews, she has all the TV shows, I mean, all the competition, she never mentioned to nobody. Why is she mentioning it now?
KAGAN (on camera): Some people point out that you talk about how bad it was. But when you talk about the slapping incident, you didn't leave until one year later. So if it was so bad, why did it take so long to leave?
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: I couldn't leave at the time. I just wanted to do it when I felt safe and I felt strong, because I didn't strong enough last year. I was scared. I didn't know what would happen. But I took the risk this time and I went through with it.
And you know what? In the long run, I think it's going to be the best thing.
DUMITRU MOCEANU: I believe she will wake up and she will say: Daddy, I made a mistake; those people, they pushed me and they told me to go in this direction and that's it.
KAGAN (voice-over): And as he told the media in October, Dominique's father still believes she's being manipulated by others, especially Brian Huggins.
DUMITRU MOCEANU: I don't believe this comes from her. It's from, you know, from other people. I think Dominique is -- what we see in this allegation, it's not her. We cannot recognize her.
She left, you know, and she's saying things like that. That's not coming from her. That's not Dominique.
KAGAN: Also at the root of this family split, money. Dominique reportedly earned $800,000 last year and millions over her career.
Today she suspects most of that money is gone -- spent on a world-class gym.
(on camera): Your parents might say, yes, we built this gym, but Dominique wanted a gym.
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: That's what they're saying.
KAGAN: And what do you say to that?
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: I was 14 years old. I didn't know the legalities about building a gym.
KAGAN: Do you believe that gym belongs to you?
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: I believe it was built for me and it does belong to me.
Sit, girl. Sit. Good girl. Good girl.
KAGAN: Even though she's missed school and hasn't trained in two months, Dominique is trying to take control of her life. She has a new apartment and a new puppy.
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: Bring it back. Good girl. Good girl.
I named her Sydney because I've always liked that name, and it also is Sydney, Australia.
KAGAN: The site of the 2000 Olympics games. For Dominique, i's a goal she may have to pursue without her father.
(on camera): It doesn't sound like you really want to talk to your dad right now, but if you could talk to your dad, what do you think would be the most beneficial thing you could say to him?
DOMINIQUE MOCEANU: I would just tell him, you know, why can't you just be yourself. Deep down inside, you have a good side. Why don't you just use that, you know, and keep that side and stop bringing out the bad side in you, you know, because deep down you have a good heart?
GREENFIELD: If Dominique Moceanu wants to reconcile with her father, she's going to have to do it through attorneys and a judge. The court order forbids contact between father and daughter for a period of year, even if she initiates the contact.
