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Speaker 1: A national fraternity at Penn State University is suspended after

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Speaker 1: the death of a student. Nineteen year old Timothy Piazza,

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Speaker 1: a sophomore at Penn State University, partied inside the Beta

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Speaker 1: Theta Pi fraternity house, left unconscious twelve hours after falling

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Speaker 1: down a flight of stairs. This is crime Stories with

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Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. Court documents at Piazza fell head first down

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Speaker 1: a flight of stairs after he was forced to Ben's drink.

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Speaker 1: A former member now speaking out, claiming he wanted to

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Speaker 1: call nine one one and no one would let him.

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Speaker 1: I was screaming at the time of my lungs. I

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Speaker 1: was like, Tima right now, Like we should call nine

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Speaker 1: on one right now. Prosecutors say A brother called nine

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Speaker 1: one one the next morning, twelve hours after the fall.

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Speaker 1: Eight two students charged eight with involuntary manslaughter. It seemed

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Speaker 1: like they just wanted to make sure that they themselves

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Speaker 1: were safe, rather than Tim truly being saved. Today is

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Speaker 1: the day showing up at a preliminary hearing in a

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Speaker 1: Pennsylvania courtroom a group of fraternity brothers. They are charged

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Speaker 1: with dozens and dozens of counts because a teen boy,

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Speaker 1: a bright star Timothy Piazza was found dead and cold,

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Speaker 1: already cold, excuse me, dying and cold, already stiffening up

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Speaker 1: in the floor of their fraternity house at pen State.

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Speaker 1: In the courtroom will be seen for the first time

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Speaker 1: video surveillance from inside the fraternity house. And can you

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Speaker 1: imagine this boy's parents sitting there watching as they see

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Speaker 1: the last moments of their son's lie unfold on video

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Speaker 1: surveillance in the court of law. I'm Nancy Grace. This

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Speaker 1: is crime stories and this should not be happening. It

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Speaker 1: went down at Penn State University at yet another drunk

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Speaker 1: party at the Beta Theta Pie house. This teen boy,

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Speaker 1: Timothy Pianza, felt was it was the night of um

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Speaker 1: final pledging and when you commit to a fraternity or sorority,

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Speaker 1: and part of that was they would quote run the gauntlet,

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Speaker 1: which means these teen boys. Now remember the legal limit

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Speaker 1: to drink in Pennsylvania is twenty one, these teen boys

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Speaker 1: would be coerced to drink at one station to the next,

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Speaker 1: the next, to the next. Receipts show they charged over

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Speaker 1: a thousand dollars of malt liquor, hard liquor, beer wine

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Speaker 1: just for one night. Yeah, vodka and this boy goes

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Speaker 1: he's an athlete, he's an engineering student, he's he's everything,

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Speaker 1: he's the apple of his parents eye and he's going

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Speaker 1: to go to a fraternity. And they probably think, oh good,

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Speaker 1: he'll have friends at school. We don't have to worry

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Speaker 1: about him being alone and sad. What they had to

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Speaker 1: worry about is traumatic brain injury and lacerations to his

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Speaker 1: abdomen so bad his stomach filled up with blood. And

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Speaker 1: then he lay there on the floor. People partiers actually

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Speaker 1: stepped over his body as he lie there in the

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Speaker 1: fetal position dying. Twelve hours passed before nine one one

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Speaker 1: was finally called. Twelve hours he could totally have been saved.

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Speaker 1: And during this time he was punched, slapped, punched in

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Speaker 1: the admomen, body slammed, had liquid poured over him. It

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Speaker 1: just goes on and on and then Alan there's the

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Speaker 1: cover up where when one kid says, guys, we gotta

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Speaker 1: call nine one one, he was shoved against the wall.

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Speaker 1: He was told to shut up, that he didn't know anything,

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Speaker 1: to just leave, and he did. And now we find

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Speaker 1: out about the cover up. Oh yes, where all the

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Speaker 1: fraternity brought, not all of them, the ones that were

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Speaker 1: charged We're on an app called group me g R

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Speaker 1: O U p m E, where you can speak to

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Speaker 1: a group, and they're talking about they're being ordered to

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Speaker 1: get in there, clean up the house, get rid of

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Speaker 1: all the alcohol, say we just found him and call

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Speaker 1: nine one one immediately because his health is their words,

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Speaker 1: not mine, paramount to us. And oh yeah, delete all

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Speaker 1: the text messages and emails we had, and oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: let's get in there and delete the surveillance video because

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Speaker 1: we could get in trouble for this. Those are their words.

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Speaker 1: We I the president of the fraternity's talking could be

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Speaker 1: charged for not calling nine one. Yeah, they knew they

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Speaker 1: were in trouble. They knew it was wrong. They even

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Speaker 1: talked about possible charges coming up with lies to tell

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Speaker 1: the cops. Alan, what's going to unfold in that courtroom?

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Speaker 1: And I'm sure with Tim's parents sitting there listening, Yes,

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Speaker 1: this is a preliminary hearing for I think about fourteen

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Speaker 1: of the eighteen defendants, and some of them waved hearing

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Speaker 1: you right, And you know, it's just the opportunity for

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Speaker 1: the evidence to be shown to the judge to see

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Speaker 1: if there's cause for going forward. The big cause they're

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Speaker 1: gonna have this video, three hours of video. There were

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Speaker 1: cameras all over the fraternity house. Unfortunately there were not

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Speaker 1: cameras in that one room. I think it was the

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Speaker 1: basement where they were running the gauntlet and having allegedly

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Speaker 1: being forced to um to take these shots over a

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Speaker 1: very short period of time. But they've got testimony for that.

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Speaker 1: But it does show around five a m. The camera

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Speaker 1: captures Piazza falling head first, head first into an iron railing.

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Speaker 1: You see that, and you can even see on the

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Speaker 1: video tape the bruising. After around seven am, he apparently

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Speaker 1: falls down the basement stairs. Well you see all that,

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Speaker 1: and he died, according to the pathologists, from severe head

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Speaker 1: trauma and ruptured spleen. And while he was dying, they

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Speaker 1: just just hid him away, just put him on the

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Speaker 1: floor or behind behind the bar, and then and then

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Speaker 1: they brought him out. But they were just ignoring this

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Speaker 1: coach to what we've talked about so much recently, you know,

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Speaker 1: the Adrian Jones case, where you see something and you

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Speaker 1: don't say something. It was only because a less intoxicated

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Speaker 1: frat brother came in into the party after it was

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Speaker 1: going and perhaps wasn't as intoxicated and eventually he knew

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Speaker 1: he was sober enough to know something was really really wrong,

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Speaker 1: but it just went on way too long, way too long. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he could have been saved. He died one day later

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Speaker 1: in the hospital. And here's the thing. His defense lawyers,

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Speaker 1: some of the defense lawyers that come out and saying,

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Speaker 1: but there's no intent, there's no intent to kill anyone.

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Speaker 1: They must be talking straight out of their rear end

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Speaker 1: or else they haven't looked it up because they're charged

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Speaker 1: with involuntary manslaughter, which specifically says no intent to kill

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Speaker 1: is required. This charge, in voluntary manslaughter are is for

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Speaker 1: cases where there is no intent to kill. It's when

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Speaker 1: you're so d a m N, negligent or reckless that

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Speaker 1: a death occurs. And that's or when you choose you

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Speaker 1: omit to act. It's specifically address that specifically addresses gross

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Speaker 1: negligence recklessness. It even says, quote, this is the law

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Speaker 1: ignoring a known danger that leads to a death. That's

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Speaker 1: what involuntary manslaughter is. Hello, And you don't have to

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Speaker 1: be a frat member ever, go to one of these

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Speaker 1: parties to know how dangerous these are. I mean, it's

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Speaker 1: not all like the John Belushi Animal House movie where

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Speaker 1: it just is all fun and games with the drinking.

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Speaker 1: We know there have been many many deaths over a

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Speaker 1: hundred and more or more years caused by this gauntlet

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Speaker 1: that they run pledges through. I gotta tell you some alan.

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Speaker 1: You know, when I like something, I just kind of

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Speaker 1: get addicted. That's how I am about the twins. Some

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Speaker 1: people say, oh, she's a helicopter mom. You know, I

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Speaker 1: refer to myself as a straight jacket mom, Like, I'll

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Speaker 1: pick the twins. And Mom, was that you driving by

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Speaker 1: in the minivan today at recess? I'm like, no, I

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Speaker 1: think my mom, we saw you? Like, oh, maybe it

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Speaker 1: was me. I have a blanket that time I saw

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Speaker 1: that in action? Uh this past weekend? Oh wait, what

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Speaker 1: tell me? What did you say? Well, when when we

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Speaker 1: were at crime Con. Uh, you know, you were taking

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Speaker 1: pictures with fans, you're talking, you're giving your speeches, but

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Speaker 1: about every two minutes, there was this this turning of

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Speaker 1: your neck. Where are the twins? Where are the twins?

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Speaker 1: And then it was like nobody could get between you

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Speaker 1: point A where you were, in point B where where

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Speaker 1: you thought they were. You were just a beeline. And

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Speaker 1: then you just grabbed your arms around them, and you

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Speaker 1: were and you kept them there. I thought that was great. Yes,

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Speaker 1: And what I'm saying is that's why I don't drink now.

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Speaker 1: and thank you for being our partner. Now, I want

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Speaker 1: to go back to our story. Alan, I've just seen

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Speaker 1: so many cases. It really affected me because, you know,

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Speaker 1: I started prosecuting felonies and I was fairly young in

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Speaker 1: the grand scheme of things. And I will never forget

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Speaker 1: this gorgeous stock broker came in and she was in

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Speaker 1: prison blues. She was shackled hand and foot, which I

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Speaker 1: thought it was a little too much, but I was watching,

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Speaker 1: and she took a plea, a guilty plea, and it

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Speaker 1: was lie. You know, she got She's already been in

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Speaker 1: jail for like six months waiting for a case to

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Speaker 1: be resolved, so she got time served. She was addicted

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Speaker 1: to alcohol, and she had had a crash. Nobody got killed,

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Speaker 1: but I forgot that, all the facts of it. She

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Speaker 1: lost her stockbroker's license, she could never practice again. She

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Speaker 1: her fan, her husband had finally divorced her. She was

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Speaker 1: on limited visitation with her children. She they managed to

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Speaker 1: lose their home during all this, couldn't make the payments

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Speaker 1: because she couldn't work, and here she was in shackles.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, dear Lord in heaven. And that was just alcohol,

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Speaker 1: you know what, I don't even know what what about drugs,

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Speaker 1: That's a whole another candle worms. But I mean when

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Speaker 1: I see what it's done to other people and they

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Speaker 1: can't they can't stop. They're addicted. It's an illness. It's

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Speaker 1: not like they want to be an alcoholic. For Pete's sake,

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Speaker 1: they can't stop. And this is an even alcoholism we're

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Speaker 1: talking about. This is alcohol intoxication because and some of

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Speaker 1: these kids, these are freshmen generally or sophomores, and they

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Speaker 1: might not have had a drinking history, probably did, but

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Speaker 1: may not have had much of it. And this is

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Speaker 1: maybe something they're not even used to, and then they

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Speaker 1: are encouraged or forced through peer pressure to become intoxicated,

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Speaker 1: uh in a very deadly way. So this preliminary hearing

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Speaker 1: is very simple, as Alan correctly stated, all a preliminary

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Speaker 1: hearing is is you put evidence in front of the

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Speaker 1: judge and the judge decides whether the case has enough

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Speaker 1: facts that there is an issue a question of fact

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Speaker 1: for a jury to decide. That's all it is, and

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Speaker 1: then he she the judge will bind the case over,

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Speaker 1: which means sends it, send it to the direct court

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Speaker 1: to the core excuse me correct core i E. Is

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Speaker 1: it a felony, then it goes to felony court, it

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Speaker 1: goes to a grand jury. Is it a misdemeanor, then

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Speaker 1: it's going to go to misdemeanor court. That's all the

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Speaker 1: judges doing, not deciding guilt or innocence, but just simply

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Speaker 1: is there an issue of fact that needs to go

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Speaker 1: to a jury. But this is this one is going

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Speaker 1: to be probably particularly complicated. You'll need a big spreadsheet

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Speaker 1: because there are one thousand charges against eighteen young men

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Speaker 1: and they range from involuntary manslaughter to hazing which is

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Speaker 1: against law, to UH forcing somebody to drink, to providing

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Speaker 1: my a minor with alcohol to aggravated assault. This odyssey

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Speaker 1: went on for over twelve hours, and the medical examiner

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Speaker 1: said there is absolutely clear evidence that his death could

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Speaker 1: have been prevented easily, prevented easily. I mean, this is

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Speaker 1: what I keep thinking about. I keep thinking about my children,

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Speaker 1: and you know, Alan, I try, God help me to

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Speaker 1: do it all. Two help them make good grades, to

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Speaker 1: get them to church when I don't feel like it,

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Speaker 1: to make them go to Sunday school, to make them

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Speaker 1: go to piano classes, to try to get out in

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Speaker 1: the yard and try to teach them how to play basketball.

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Speaker 1: If you can only imagine that, Okay, try to I

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Speaker 1: get out in the yard and trying to teach them

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Speaker 1: how to play soccer. It's it's embarrassing. But they're too

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Speaker 1: young to know how dumb I look. So I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'm just trying everything, you know, their little projects. I

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Speaker 1: help them with their projects, blah blah blah, anything to

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Speaker 1: help them along their way to succeed, to do better,

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Speaker 1: you know, to get along in the world where you

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Speaker 1: have to fit in with your peers, blah blah. And

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Speaker 1: and to think that one day I would be sitting

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Speaker 1: I'm just crossing myself. God, please don't let this happen

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Speaker 1: to me sitting in court watching video surveillance of the

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Speaker 1: last moments. That is what this family that the dad said,

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Speaker 1: they treated him like roadkill, just stepping over him. That's

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Speaker 1: exactly right. That's exactly what it looked like, like like

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Speaker 1: he wasn't a human, that he was just a an

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Speaker 1: animal laying on the floor that had been hit by

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Speaker 1: a car. That they didn't do, you know, they just

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Speaker 1: keep on going. Just when you said that, it really

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Speaker 1: hit me. I mean he had blood on his face,

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Speaker 1: he was lying in the floor, moaning, writhing in pain,

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Speaker 1: and they did nothing but literally step over him and

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Speaker 1: then think up ways to conceal the X from police.

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Speaker 1: What's in our brain that causes us to ignore somebody suffering,

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Speaker 1: somebody who's being abused. What is in our brain that

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Speaker 1: causes us to think it's not relevant to me, I

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Speaker 1: don't have to pick up the phone. He didn't die

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Speaker 1: from blood alcohol poisoning. He died from severe head trauma

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Speaker 1: and severe abdominal bleeding. That's what That was the official

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Speaker 1: cause of death. Although he was four times the legal

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Speaker 1: limit on us to point three six incredible, really over

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Speaker 1: it less and that could kill you for that's still

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Speaker 1: thirty two. Okay, the legal limit is point oh eight,

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Speaker 1: and he was between two eight and three six point

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Speaker 1: three six at the time of his death. I mean,

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Speaker 1: then the screaming match over whether to call nine one one,

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Speaker 1: and they tell the younger kid to just leave, that

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Speaker 1: he didn't know anything, just get out, and he does,

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Speaker 1: you know, he leaves, and then the boy dies Timothy

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Speaker 1: Piazza and everybody's talking about, Oh, we're gonna have stricter

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Speaker 1: rules and about hazing and blah blah, you know what

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Speaker 1: to hey with it, because nothing can bring this boy back.

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Speaker 1: They've been talking about stricter rules and no hazing as

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Speaker 1: long as I can remember, for a hundred years. This

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Speaker 1: has been going on more than a century. And I

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Speaker 1: gotta tell you something. For two of my four years

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Speaker 1: in college, I was Greek, I was a d pie,

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Speaker 1: and I never saw anything like this. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: went away to college and my friend from Making I

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Speaker 1: new absolutely I need one person, a boy from my

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Speaker 1: high school and he was in a boy's dorm across campus,

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Speaker 1: and I was in a girl's dorm on the other

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Speaker 1: side of campus. I need nobody. I hooked up with

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Speaker 1: a friend girl of mine from Making and she was

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Speaker 1: in a sorority and she said, please come to join

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Speaker 1: us and meet my friend dead. And for two years

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Speaker 1: I was part to that until I transferred, and then

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Speaker 1: I was as many people say, and I am f

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Speaker 1: and I will not feel what that stands for. But

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Speaker 1: I was independent and spent all my time working in

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Speaker 1: the library and getting ready for law school. Um after

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Speaker 1: Keith's murder. But I never saw anything like this. I

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Speaker 1: mean when I pledged, they sent me cars with violets, okay,

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Speaker 1: and I mean that was that was it, and they

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Speaker 1: were we were would have like surprise pancake breakfasts and

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Speaker 1: be like whoa, okay, nothing like this. I mean I

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Speaker 1: don't know where. And then I saw fraternity parties and

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Speaker 1: this was not going on. Of course I wasn't there

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Speaker 1: during the pledging. Well, when we were in college, eighteen

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Speaker 1: was the legal drinking age. I still didn't drink. People

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Speaker 1: would bring me a beer and I poured in a plant.

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Speaker 1: Poor plant. I'm sure it's dead now now, Okay, so

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Speaker 1: what happens now? Let's talk about if people are gonna

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Speaker 1: plead guilty and roll over on each other, because that's

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Speaker 1: what I predict that I expect some of that could happen.

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Speaker 1: I'm thinking, well, I'm already seeing that some of these defendants,

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Speaker 1: their lawyers are pointing the fingers, saying it wasn't me,

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Speaker 1: it was him. That's already happening. They're trying to drag

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Speaker 1: other people in, for example, the advisor to the fraternity.

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Speaker 1: They're saying, hey, you should have charged him, not me.

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Speaker 1: You know, he let me get you ready, Alan, before

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Speaker 1: you blurt this out, Voluntary intoxication is not a defense

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Speaker 1: to this charge. The law specifically states that, for the

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Speaker 1: most part, voluntary use of drugs or alcohol is never

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Speaker 1: a defense unless you're commentos to the point you can't

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Speaker 1: move and then you're not acting anyway. So, generally speaking,

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Speaker 1: voluntary use of drugs or alcohol never a defense. So

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Speaker 1: they're not going to be able to claim I was drunk,

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Speaker 1: I didn't know what was happening, that ain't working, or

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Speaker 1: I never handed him a drink. He got his own drink.

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Speaker 1: That's we've already were already hearing that one. Yeah, probably

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Speaker 1: probably after he has taken to the hospital. The fraternity

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Speaker 1: members delete text messages, they try they get in there

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Speaker 1: and try to erase the surveillance video. People not know

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Speaker 1: that doesn't work anymore unless they can tell you did it. Hello, Yeah, exactly,

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Speaker 1: it's digital people. It's on this hard drop. Do you

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Speaker 1: see Harry Potter? Have you seen all of them and

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Speaker 1: read all the books? Because I have no. I've not

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Speaker 1: seen a single moment. It's wrong with you. I don't have.

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Speaker 1: You are not qualified to be on this podcast. If you,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure I'll do it. My grandkids are too and

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Speaker 1: Littlena had her fourth birthday this weekend. Too young, they're

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Speaker 1: too young for that. My daughter missed that. But let

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Speaker 1: me tell you why I'm saying this. There's an episode.

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Speaker 1: Jackie here is in the studa. She's shaking her head.

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Speaker 1: She knows the deal. Do you remember when Professor Slughorn

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Speaker 1: had his memory, he altered his memory, and then when

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Speaker 1: they went back to try to look at what happened,

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Speaker 1: it didn't make sense. Don't people know if you hamper

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Speaker 1: with surveillance video, when it is finally viewed, they can

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Speaker 1: tell you've tampered with it. Okay, it doesn't work. So

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Speaker 1: they're in there trying to tamper with the surveillance video,

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Speaker 1: erase it and quote if need be, tell cops we

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Speaker 1: found him behind a bar the next morning around ten am,

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Speaker 1: freezing cold. We call nine one one immediately because this

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Speaker 1: kid's health was paramount, I mean, and he texted that

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Speaker 1: that that's what they were supposed to say to the police.

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Speaker 1: That's gonna hurt. Didn't anybody see what Richard happened to

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Speaker 1: Richard Nixon? The cover ups, the whole thing up. You know,

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Speaker 1: Rosemary Would's eighteen and a half minute gap in the

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Speaker 1: tape is no No matter what was said on the

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Speaker 1: eighteen and a half minutes, it couldn't have been as

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Speaker 1: damning as the fact that we know there was an

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Speaker 1: eighteen and a half minute gap that he claimed his

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Speaker 1: secretary accidentally see. I mean, you know what he could

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Speaker 1: have said, He could have said, and of course this

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Speaker 1: is a line. I'm not advocating this. You know what,

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Speaker 1: some of my supporters were over zealous and they gained

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Speaker 1: access translation broke into burglarized UH Democratic National Convention headquarters

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Speaker 1: to snoop E. Steele campaign secrets, and I didn't want that.

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Speaker 1: See if he had just come out and with something

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Speaker 1: instead of trying to cover the whole thing up that

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Speaker 1: how many times have we heard it's the cover up,

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Speaker 1: The gadget and here is the cover up. Okay, we're

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Speaker 1: waiting to find out what happens in the Penn State

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Speaker 1: fraternity manslaughter trial. And yes, I feel sorry for the

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Speaker 1: guys that are charged because many of them look so young.

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Speaker 1: But when I look at Timothy Piazza, I know why

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Speaker 1: Lady Justice wears a blindfold because she makes these decisions

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Speaker 1: just us must be blind to your appearance, your age,

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Speaker 1: your background, your race, your sex, your religion or lack thereof.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. What matters is the truth. And that

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Speaker 1: is what I want. And you know what else I want? Alan,

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Speaker 1: I drink No, I have my hot tea with skim

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Speaker 1: milk right here. I want peace and comfort for Timothy's

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Speaker 1: parents because I know the pain I'm living with a

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Speaker 1: life cut short for a over a criminal reason is just.

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Speaker 1: But I can't imagine losing your child. I don't even

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Speaker 1: want to put those words out in the universe because

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Speaker 1: it's so scary to me. But God be with Timothy's

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Speaker 1: parents and everyone involved in this case. Amen, and I'm

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Speaker 1: leaving crime stories right there. Goodbye, friend,