Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: April Hurley Opens Up On Her Attack, Trauma, Motherhood & More With Billy Murphy & Malcolm Ruff

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INTERVIEW: April Hurley Opens Up On Her Attack, Trauma, Motherhood & More With Billy Murphy & Malcolm Ruff · The Breakfast Club

0:00
Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club,
0:05
Speaker 1: yep's the world most dangerous.
0:06
Speaker 2: Want to show the Breakfast Club Charlamagne to God just hilarious.
0:09
Speaker 2: DJ Envy had to step out, but we have some
0:11
Speaker 2: special guests with us right now. We have a young
0:13
Speaker 2: lady named April Hurley and she is here with her attorneys,
0:16
Speaker 2: Malcolm Ruff and Bill Murphy.
0:18
Speaker 1: Good morning to you all. Good morning, Good morning, April.
0:22
Speaker 2: I noticed might be traumatizing, but could you please explain
0:26
Speaker 2: to the people why you are here this morning, tell them,
0:28
Speaker 2: tell them your story.
0:31
Speaker 3: So I'm here with you guys today this morning. Back
0:35
Speaker 3: in September, I became a victim of a violent attack
0:40
Speaker 3: that occurred in Baltimore, Maryland. Jason Billingsley literally tried to
0:46
Speaker 3: kill me. And this could have been prevented had the
0:54
Speaker 3: property management company made the right decisions and taking the precautions,
1:03
Speaker 3: you know, to check into his background and to see,
1:06
Speaker 3: you know, what he was into prior to giving him
1:09
Speaker 3: this role.
1:10
Speaker 1: So he was the maintenance guy in your building, yes, right, okay, so.
1:16
Speaker 4: You know it was.
1:17
Speaker 3: It was a very very traumatizing incident and I'm just
1:24
Speaker 3: I can't believe I'm alive even you know, to this day,
1:28
Speaker 3: even riding up here, you know, I just thank God
1:31
Speaker 3: every day that I'll wake up because it's a different
1:33
Speaker 3: feeling having someone try to take your life from you.
1:38
Speaker 2: So he I hate to be graphic with the details
1:41
Speaker 2: without for the sake of the story. He slashed your
1:44
Speaker 2: throat and he gets you on fire.
1:47
Speaker 5: Yes, wow, yeah, and actually you can see she's still.
1:56
Speaker 1: Yeah.
1:56
Speaker 5: I mean, it's some stuff that you could never even imagine.
2:00
Speaker 5: It's like something out of a movie where somebody who
2:03
Speaker 5: has the ability to have access to someone's personal home.
2:08
Speaker 5: As you know, your home is your castle. This is
2:11
Speaker 5: the place you should feel the most safe on the
2:13
Speaker 5: entire planet. And because of the lack of security protocols,
2:18
Speaker 5: the lack of looking into mister Billians' Billionsley's background. Number one,
2:23
Speaker 5: he was a twice convicted sex offender. He had been
2:27
Speaker 5: released early and by all accounts, he was trying to
2:32
Speaker 5: operate in the world, but everyone knew what he was about,
2:36
Speaker 5: and he showed his true colors not only with April,
2:40
Speaker 5: but then after this incident a few days later, which
2:44
Speaker 5: brought so much attention to this entire situation. He ultimately
2:48
Speaker 5: is alleged to have killed a young lady named Pavel
2:51
Speaker 5: La Pair who was a tech CEO startup guru in Baltimore,
2:57
Speaker 5: somebody who was really really deeply entrenched in the Baltimore
3:01
Speaker 5: tech community and was very well known to government leaders
3:05
Speaker 5: and people alike. And that's really what built the momentum
3:10
Speaker 5: around this entire situation, is that this man was a
3:13
Speaker 5: psycho killer. And luckily he is now in prison and
3:17
Speaker 5: will face the music in the criminal case against him
3:20
Speaker 5: and also in our civil lawsuit that we filed against
3:23
Speaker 5: him on behalf of April. But this man was not
3:27
Speaker 5: to be trusted to be allowed in somebody's personal space
3:30
Speaker 5: like this, and he did exactly what his stripes showed
3:34
Speaker 5: he would do and had done in the past, and
3:36
Speaker 5: he did it again to April. It was really very heroin.
3:39
Speaker 2: If you're a resident, you know, of a building our neighborhood,
3:42
Speaker 2: and you're a registered sex offender, you have to let
3:44
Speaker 2: everybody in the neighborhood know. Shouldn't it be the same
3:46
Speaker 2: if you have an employee of a building.
3:48
Speaker 1: Shouldn't it would seem so?
3:50
Speaker 6: Yeah, And perhaps the law needs to be changed to
3:55
Speaker 6: make that happen. That's a good point. And you know
3:57
Speaker 6: there are two kinds of sex offenders, those that are
4:01
Speaker 6: one off and those that are compulsively committed to doing
4:06
Speaker 6: it over and over and over again. And he's that
4:10
Speaker 6: kind of guy. And we've got to protect people against
4:14
Speaker 6: people like that, and it's got to be more stringent protection.
4:18
Speaker 1: It's got to be. They got to be.
4:20
Speaker 6: Consequences when you don't protect people. And when you're a
4:24
Speaker 6: mandatory reporter of a sexual event, you've got to make
4:28
Speaker 6: sure you step up to the plate and report it.
4:30
Speaker 6: And some people are too scared to do it. So
4:32
Speaker 6: it's not a perfect system at all, and it's got
4:35
Speaker 6: to get better.
4:36
Speaker 7: What I thought was said and interesting was that April's
4:42
Speaker 7: story didn't get much light shed on it until the
4:45
Speaker 7: murder of Pavlo, you know, and yeah, are being and
4:50
Speaker 7: blessings and healing energy toward her family because she didn't
4:53
Speaker 7: deserve that either. But it's just said that she was
4:57
Speaker 7: a survivor. And then you know, and he didn't just
5:00
Speaker 7: go and he was going after her. I believe he
5:02
Speaker 7: prayed on her, because I'm familiar with the story. I
5:05
Speaker 7: saw it. He prayed on her, but like he also had,
5:10
Speaker 7: it was someone else. It was one of your friends, right,
5:13
Speaker 7: your boyfriend or.
5:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it was a friend at the time that
5:17
Speaker 3: had happened to stay the night with me prior to
5:22
Speaker 3: the morning of the incident. And you know, I don't
5:30
Speaker 3: think that he expected anyone else to be down there
5:33
Speaker 3: with me.
5:34
Speaker 4: I don't know, but you know, at that point.
5:38
Speaker 3: It was it was obvious, you know, that he was
5:41
Speaker 3: there to do harm to me specifically, you know, but.
5:46
Speaker 1: The other person kind of spooked him a little.
5:47
Speaker 4: Bit, I would assume, So, yes, you know, but I
5:54
Speaker 4: can't say for.
5:55
Speaker 5: Sure, But obviously it wasn't He wasn't a spot that
5:58
Speaker 5: he Then he tied April ted, who was also our
6:02
Speaker 5: client as well. They were tied up and tortured in
6:07
Speaker 5: a basement apartment. I mean, you just can't imagine going
6:11
Speaker 5: through something like that. And so I think we really
6:13
Speaker 5: appreciate y'all's interests in the story because of her heroism.
6:17
Speaker 5: You know, she saved this young man's life by escaping
6:21
Speaker 5: that apartment, I mean, jumping out of a window after
6:24
Speaker 5: being set on fire by a man who was intent
6:27
Speaker 5: to kill you and calling for help getting John Tay
6:31
Speaker 5: out of that apartment. She was a real life hero
6:36
Speaker 5: that night and had to save her home life, had
6:38
Speaker 5: to save another person's life, all because of somebody who
6:41
Speaker 5: had no respect for human life whatsoever.
6:44
Speaker 7: And then, honestly, I felt like if it wasn't for
6:46
Speaker 7: you going numb after a certain point of time from
6:50
Speaker 7: all the pain that he had inflicted, Like I feel like,
6:54
Speaker 7: you know, she could have lost her life from just
6:56
Speaker 7: the pain, the burns and slitting her neck just to
6:59
Speaker 7: torture because he would cut it.
7:00
Speaker 4: Not enough to have.
7:02
Speaker 7: An immediate death, you know, for you to have an
7:04
Speaker 7: immediate death, but he he like tortured her. And thank
7:09
Speaker 7: God that your baby wasn't there, because you have a
7:13
Speaker 7: young child. And I just I'm happy, you know, because
7:17
Speaker 7: at one point he had asked about your child as well.
7:20
Speaker 4: Right yeah, yeah.
7:23
Speaker 6: Look, I did criminal law for years. This is the
7:25
Speaker 6: most gruesome thing I've ever seen.
7:28
Speaker 1: Uh it was.
7:30
Speaker 6: It's beyond beyond sadistic, beyond devilish, beyond any horror you
7:37
Speaker 6: can think of, and no mercy. God had no mercy,
7:42
Speaker 6: no compassion, no restraint. He just did his thing, and.
7:47
Speaker 1: It was ugly.
7:49
Speaker 8: Have you.
7:51
Speaker 2: Gone on any type of healing journey from this incident?
7:53
Speaker 2: Because you know, I can clearly look at you and
7:56
Speaker 2: rightfully so You're visibly triggered out at the comment. I
7:59
Speaker 2: don't even I can't even like having this conversation. But
8:01
Speaker 2: have you started a healing journey?
8:04
Speaker 3: Yes, I do go to therapy weekly. I do have
8:09
Speaker 3: group sessions that I attend.
8:13
Speaker 4: You know, I am.
8:14
Speaker 3: Able to call on people that care about me and
8:19
Speaker 3: love me and you know, just get advice or you know,
8:23
Speaker 3: if I'm not feeling like myself or if something does
8:27
Speaker 3: trigger me. You know, I'm learning how to cope with
8:31
Speaker 3: certain things, you know, But the trauma, it doesn't just
8:37
Speaker 3: go away, you know. So it is a it's gonna
8:43
Speaker 3: be a long journey. It's something that I could never forget.
8:48
Speaker 3: But you know, through hopefully through therapy and you know,
8:55
Speaker 3: different walks of life moving forward, hopefully I can learn
8:59
Speaker 3: how how to you know, feel safe again, you know.
9:05
Speaker 4: So that's that's what I've been working.
9:07
Speaker 6: One of the things she's doing is learning self defense
9:10
Speaker 6: principles and pistol training.
9:12
Speaker 1: Beautiful.
9:13
Speaker 6: And I've never been in favor of a gun control
9:16
Speaker 6: for black folks. I think all black folks should have
9:19
Speaker 6: a firearms.
9:19
Speaker 1: I agree with you. I'm two a all day.
9:22
Speaker 2: Yes, I believe owning a firearm in this country as
9:24
Speaker 2: a black person is a former self.
9:26
Speaker 6: Care absolutely, because look, we don't know what's gonna happen
9:30
Speaker 6: if Donald Trump gets elected, and revolution is something that
9:36
Speaker 6: we've never had to talk about before, but others are
9:40
Speaker 6: talking about it. And so when you hear enough of
9:42
Speaker 6: that talk, you got to be ready.
9:44
Speaker 2: You forget even to forget Trump. Just look at what
9:47
Speaker 2: April goes through. I got four daughters, you know what
9:49
Speaker 2: I mean. I want them to know how to handle
9:51
Speaker 2: a firearm and be licensed to carry it because of
9:53
Speaker 2: situations like that.
9:55
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I would definitely encourage every young woman to take
10:00
Speaker 3: their safety very seriously. Whether you're nervous, whether you've never
10:06
Speaker 3: had any experience, you know, seek professional advice, seek professional
10:13
Speaker 3: classes to gain that confidence, learn your laws and how
10:19
Speaker 3: to safely operate, you know, self defense weapons because you
10:25
Speaker 3: never know, like never in a million years what I
10:29
Speaker 3: had ever thought that I would wake up to something
10:32
Speaker 3: like this, And I just thank God that my daughter
10:36
Speaker 3: wasn't there, and it is, you know, the the fear
10:41
Speaker 3: moving forward is very, very traumatizing. You know, there's points
10:47
Speaker 3: where I wake my daughter up from her room and
10:51
Speaker 3: have her come sleep with me because I'm nervous that
10:54
Speaker 3: something could happen because of what happened.
10:59
Speaker 4: She's three.
11:00
Speaker 2: I want to recommend my good sister, Robin Evans. She
11:03
Speaker 2: has an organization called Chicks with Triggers, and everything you just.
11:06
Speaker 1: Said is what she teaches. She teaches self defense.
11:09
Speaker 2: With firearms, knives, She teaches you the laws of the
11:13
Speaker 2: state that you live in, all of that. So anybody
11:15
Speaker 2: out there, if you're listening, look up Robin Evans, Chicks
11:18
Speaker 2: with Triggers and to learn how to properly defend yourself.
11:23
Speaker 2: If you got the four four four the angel numbers
11:26
Speaker 2: on your neck, did you have that before this incident?
11:28
Speaker 4: Yes? Wow?
11:29
Speaker 3: Wow?
11:29
Speaker 2: You know that means you are completely surrounded by angels.
11:32
Speaker 2: You're being guided through whatever you are focusing on. So
11:36
Speaker 2: when you was going through this experience, was that on
11:39
Speaker 2: your mind?
11:39
Speaker 1: Oh?
11:39
Speaker 4: I was praying the whole time. Wow, the whole time.
11:43
Speaker 1: Wow.
11:44
Speaker 4: I did not stop praying.
11:46
Speaker 3: You know, I couldn't even cry because I was so
11:52
Speaker 3: focused on praying because I truly believe that God has
12:00
Speaker 3: the final say so, so I was just you know,
12:04
Speaker 3: thinking of how how can I get out this situation
12:08
Speaker 3: if the opportunity presents itself, and you know, just praying.
12:14
Speaker 1: Thinking that.
12:18
Speaker 3: What was going on when I was thinking that, as
12:22
Speaker 3: far as what.
12:24
Speaker 6: What made you get to go out the window like that?
12:28
Speaker 3: Oh?
12:30
Speaker 4: He thought I was dead?
12:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, like I you know, he had drug me across
12:35
Speaker 3: to the other side of the room. I appeared unconscious,
12:40
Speaker 3: but I wasn't, and I was very weak, and I
12:46
Speaker 3: knew at that point, you know, that he was going
12:48
Speaker 3: to set the room on fire, So I just waited.
12:52
Speaker 3: He had removed the handcuffs from me, and I had
12:56
Speaker 3: just waited for the fire to be lit. And I say,
13:01
Speaker 3: once he runs out of this room, I'm getting out
13:04
Speaker 3: this window. And I'm only five foot two. The window
13:09
Speaker 3: was at least six.
13:11
Speaker 4: Foot you know.
13:13
Speaker 3: I had to climb on top of things to try
13:15
Speaker 3: to open the window, to then pull myself out of
13:19
Speaker 3: the window while on fire, while my throat is slit.
13:25
Speaker 1: And that's only God.
13:27
Speaker 4: It's crazy.
13:28
Speaker 1: She went.
13:29
Speaker 5: She went from what she told me was literally living
13:32
Speaker 5: her best life to being in shock trauma with terrible
13:37
Speaker 5: burns and terrible scars, both internally and externally. And I
13:43
Speaker 5: just can't say it.
13:44
Speaker 1: To you enough.
13:46
Speaker 5: How in all we are of your strength and your courage.
13:52
Speaker 2: Who was the first person to come to your ad April, Like,
13:54
Speaker 2: once you got out.
13:55
Speaker 3: The window, do you remember, I don't one hundred percent remember.
13:59
Speaker 3: I just remember remember I was just in so much shock.
14:04
Speaker 3: Like there it felt like everybody was just staring at
14:07
Speaker 3: me for a minute, which I I wouldn't completely disagree with.
14:13
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, this man had stripped me naked
14:16
Speaker 3: prior to you know, all of this happening. So I'm
14:20
Speaker 3: on fire, you know, throat slit and naked, screaming for help.
14:27
Speaker 7: I don't I'm still not staring at you. Obviously you're
14:31
Speaker 7: in agony, you're in pain. I'm calling I'm trying to
14:35
Speaker 7: get like because that was the part of the story
14:37
Speaker 7: that kind of pissed me off. I'm a I'm a
14:39
Speaker 7: very emotional person, and I'm like, why is like people
14:43
Speaker 7: just why are people just.
14:44
Speaker 4: Staring like you know or.
14:47
Speaker 7: I don't know if you can, do you remember like
14:49
Speaker 7: anybody recording you or something?
14:51
Speaker 3: No, but I do remember there was a lady that
14:56
Speaker 3: ran over she ran through everybody a town.
15:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, and she had.
15:03
Speaker 3: Tried to cover me up, but my skin felt like
15:05
Speaker 3: it was falling off, like and you know at that point,
15:14
Speaker 3: it was everything else was just blurry, you know, it.
15:18
Speaker 4: Just Yeah, it was blank.
15:22
Speaker 1: You know, I did it.
15:25
Speaker 7: How did y'all find her? How did y'all get Bill
15:28
Speaker 7: and Malcolm? How did y'all get in touch with her?
15:31
Speaker 5: Interestingly enough, April's mother, I had actually represented her years ago,
15:37
Speaker 5: and so after they talked and kind of went over
15:41
Speaker 5: you know what the sequence of events had happened, and
15:45
Speaker 5: you know, them thinking about how justice could be achieved
15:49
Speaker 5: in this case, she she called me up and we
15:53
Speaker 5: went from there. We just and so we've gotten to
15:56
Speaker 5: know each other since I guess October of last year,
16:00
Speaker 5: after that connection was made. But I think it was
16:03
Speaker 5: meant for us to be involved because, as you know
16:05
Speaker 5: our history in Baltimore, this is what we do. We
16:09
Speaker 5: stand up for people that are being wrong, catastrophically injured
16:14
Speaker 5: and have it their civil rights violated. And in a way,
16:17
Speaker 5: this is a combination of all those things, not necessarily
16:20
Speaker 5: civil rights being violated by the government, but the rights
16:24
Speaker 5: that you had as a tenant being violated by the
16:27
Speaker 5: folks that you trusted to at least reasonably do what
16:31
Speaker 5: they were supposed to do to keep you safe. And
16:33
Speaker 5: that's why we've brought the lawsuit that we have on
16:36
Speaker 5: behalf of April, because there has to be recovery. There
16:40
Speaker 5: has to be compensation for what she went through and
16:42
Speaker 5: the failures that happened that led to such a heinous result.
16:47
Speaker 1: What is the apartment complex defense?
16:49
Speaker 5: What are they saying, Well, it would be inappropriate for
16:52
Speaker 5: us to talk about their defenses. At this point. We're
16:55
Speaker 5: at the very early stages of litigation. We recently filed
16:59
Speaker 5: a lawsuit. We're just in the opening stages of you know,
17:03
Speaker 5: exchanging information and determining the nature of all the relationships. So,
17:09
Speaker 5: you know, we don't want to to you know, muddy that. Well,
17:14
Speaker 5: we're going to deal with the litigation as it comes,
17:16
Speaker 5: and as we you know, do in our natural course
17:19
Speaker 5: of business. We'll be continuing our investigation and asking the
17:23
Speaker 5: tough questions of her landlords and their agreement not only
17:28
Speaker 5: between the property manager and the actual property owner, but
17:32
Speaker 5: with this gentleman, mister Billingsley, and what exactly his employment
17:36
Speaker 5: relationship was with them, and how much they paid him,
17:41
Speaker 5: why they gave him access to the common areas of
17:44
Speaker 5: her home, and how they would allow something like this
17:47
Speaker 5: to happen when they knew or should have known. And
17:50
Speaker 5: that's the standard under the law is that this man
17:55
Speaker 5: was completely untrustworthy and should never have been placed in
17:58
Speaker 5: an opportunity to do this to her.
18:01
Speaker 2: It's just scary because you think about the people that you,
18:03
Speaker 2: you know, letting your house on a regular basis, whether
18:05
Speaker 2: it's a plumber or electrician, you know, anybody, h fact,
18:10
Speaker 2: person cleaner.
18:10
Speaker 1: It's like, you don't you really don't know the.
18:13
Speaker 2: Background is some of these individuals and what they're capable of.
18:16
Speaker 2: So it's just scared to think about.
18:17
Speaker 5: But that's the thing you have. You have the duty
18:20
Speaker 5: right if you're a business owner, right that you have
18:24
Speaker 5: a great responsibility because you have the great chance of garnering,
18:29
Speaker 5: you know, a lot of profit, notoriety, and so with
18:33
Speaker 5: with with great trust comes great responsibility. We just finished
18:37
Speaker 5: a trial in the Baltimore City Circuit Court dealing with
18:40
Speaker 5: a security company that didn't properly vet a security guard
18:43
Speaker 5: who ultimately shot our client and killed him by shooting
18:47
Speaker 5: him in the mouth over an argument about a bathroom
18:49
Speaker 5: in a convenience store. Right, and her background was such
18:53
Speaker 5: that if they had actually just looked at a free database,
18:56
Speaker 5: they would have seen that she was not somebody that
18:58
Speaker 5: should have been trusted to be an armed security guard.
19:01
Speaker 6: This is this is leaving out that he got a
19:03
Speaker 6: four point one million dollar verdict yesterday.
19:08
Speaker 5: Good we did, we did arising start. But that case
19:12
Speaker 5: is very similar to what happened April.
19:15
Speaker 1: Right.
19:16
Speaker 5: We're talking about the duty of care, the duty that
19:19
Speaker 5: a property owner has to the people that they are
19:22
Speaker 5: taking money from on a monthly basis to make a profit.
19:25
Speaker 5: They at least have to make the reasonable steps to
19:28
Speaker 5: keep those people safe based on, you know, something that's
19:32
Speaker 5: that's reasonable and not something that's you know, overzealous or
19:35
Speaker 5: too expensive. It would have been perfectly reasonable for them
19:38
Speaker 5: to put his name into that database, which is called
19:41
Speaker 5: Maryland Judiciary Case Search, and to find out exactly what
19:44
Speaker 5: his record was. And if they did do that and
19:47
Speaker 5: they still put him in this position, it's even that
19:50
Speaker 5: much more heinous that they would have permitted him to
19:53
Speaker 5: be in that position and.
19:54
Speaker 2: Not let their tenants know. And you know, April, I
19:56
Speaker 2: hope you get all the money in the world. More importantly,
19:58
Speaker 2: I'm sad that this ever happened.
20:00
Speaker 1: But how did it?
20:02
Speaker 2: How did it impact your relationship with God? Being that
20:05
Speaker 2: you was already such a God fearing person, Like what
20:07
Speaker 2: did you do.
20:07
Speaker 1: For your faith?
20:10
Speaker 3: You know, I honestly believe that God does allow certain
20:17
Speaker 3: things in our lives to happen just to test that
20:21
Speaker 3: relationship with him. You know, if you read the Bible,
20:23
Speaker 3: the Book of Job and things like that talk about
20:28
Speaker 3: you know, how he lost everything but he still trusted
20:32
Speaker 3: in God. If anything, had strengthened my relationship with him,
20:37
Speaker 3: because he kept me in a situation where I shouldn't
20:42
Speaker 3: be here right now, but I am through you know,
20:45
Speaker 3: through God's mercy. He's seen more for me in my
20:51
Speaker 3: life moving forward with having my daughter, you know, and
20:56
Speaker 3: being the age that I am, in the spirit that
20:59
Speaker 3: I have. You know, I would never I would never
21:03
Speaker 3: wish this on anyone. Yeah, you know, when I heard
21:07
Speaker 3: about Pava passing, I remember I was still in the
21:12
Speaker 3: hospital and I remember, you know, begging, begging them to
21:18
Speaker 3: find him and to make sure that this never happened
21:22
Speaker 3: to someone else, you know.
21:23
Speaker 4: And I.
21:26
Speaker 3: Always would think, like, why did this happen to me?
21:29
Speaker 3: But you know, I pray about it, and I pray
21:31
Speaker 3: about it, and that's what I get from it, is
21:34
Speaker 3: that God, you know, he kept me to be able
21:38
Speaker 3: to speak on you know, what happened to be able
21:41
Speaker 3: to help identify the person who did this to be
21:44
Speaker 3: able to, you know, be motivation for those who might
21:48
Speaker 3: not have a relationship with God or might be thinking
21:52
Speaker 3: that this is the end for them. You know, as
21:56
Speaker 3: cliche as it sounds, it does get better. You know,
22:00
Speaker 3: there is light at the end of the tunnel, you know,
22:04
Speaker 3: and everything that we go through is not meant.
22:06
Speaker 4: To break us.
22:08
Speaker 3: So it is is definitely mind over matter, and it's
22:14
Speaker 3: definitely strengthened my relationship with God.
22:16
Speaker 2: A lot question for Makama building. You know, I'm getting
22:19
Speaker 2: slow in my old age. So after this man did
22:22
Speaker 2: this in April, he didn't go to jail.
22:23
Speaker 1: He was still in the green Oh no, he's in jail. No,
22:26
Speaker 1: I know, even jail Autter he did it that April.
22:28
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no, that he escaped.
22:30
Speaker 5: That was the reason why he sat the place on fire, right,
22:32
Speaker 5: But that was not not only to try and I
22:34
Speaker 5: guess get rid of evidence, right them number one, he
22:38
Speaker 5: tried to kill them, right, He tried to get rid
22:40
Speaker 5: of any evidence that was in that room, but it
22:42
Speaker 5: also created the diversion he needed to get out there.
22:45
Speaker 1: So three days later, yes, he.
22:48
Speaker 5: Was at the door of Pavlo La Pair's apartment building
22:52
Speaker 5: and somehow managed to get her alone and he sexually,
22:57
Speaker 5: allegedly secondly assaulted her and killed her as well.
23:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was exactly where I was about to go.
23:03
Speaker 5: Sometimes we have the same mind, and Jess, you were
23:06
Speaker 5: I think you were kind of mentioning it earlier. But
23:10
Speaker 5: the one of the more tragic parts of this whole
23:13
Speaker 5: situation is that, as you know, being from Baltimore, we
23:18
Speaker 5: have the term the black butterfly and the white l
23:22
Speaker 5: in Baltimore City, and so it basically the white l.
23:26
Speaker 5: So in Baltimore the map you can tell that the
23:30
Speaker 5: concentration of folks that are more you know, of the
23:33
Speaker 5: majority culture live right down the center and to the
23:36
Speaker 5: east of downtown Baltimore, and then the rest is the
23:39
Speaker 5: black butterfly that that kind of expands out of the
23:43
Speaker 5: shape of the city. And so where April was was
23:48
Speaker 5: a part of the black butterfly. When the police found
23:52
Speaker 5: out what had happened to her, you would think that
23:55
Speaker 5: they would have put an apb out and said there
23:58
Speaker 5: is a cycle killer on the loop. Instead, what they
24:02
Speaker 5: said was this is an arson incident.
24:07
Speaker 6: Knowing that it was much worse than that. Not an accident,
24:11
Speaker 6: just a.
24:12
Speaker 8: Lot, two people kidnapped, tentphed, murder, tortured sexually, as tried
24:19
Speaker 8: to burn them to death, and the police reported it
24:22
Speaker 8: as an arson.
24:23
Speaker 5: Now three days three days later, literally points seven miles
24:30
Speaker 5: away from April's apartment. But in the white l MLK,
24:38
Speaker 5: an incident happens to a white woman, and that could
24:42
Speaker 5: have been prevented if there was this APB and the
24:45
Speaker 5: people of these neighborhoods knew exactly what was going on
24:48
Speaker 5: and what the risk was out there and the threat
24:51
Speaker 5: that was out there. And eventually, once after Pava's incident occurred,
24:55
Speaker 5: I mean, they were all kinds of law enforcement officials
24:58
Speaker 5: looking for him, and they ultimately found him at a
24:59
Speaker 5: t brain station, and that the response was great because
25:04
Speaker 5: they knew, everyone knew how serious the threat was. But
25:07
Speaker 5: why wouldn't the police make it very clear what kind
25:11
Speaker 5: of threat was out there when it happened to somebody,
25:13
Speaker 5: a young black woman in the black butterfly as opposed
25:16
Speaker 5: to a young white woman in the white l It's
25:20
Speaker 5: just a question of equity that we talk about, right.
25:24
Speaker 5: It has nothing to do with the lawsuit. And I'll
25:26
Speaker 5: readily say that we have known we're not looking at
25:29
Speaker 5: going after the Baltimore City Police Department in this case.
25:33
Speaker 5: But it's something that needs to be addressed. It's something
25:36
Speaker 5: that needs to be talked about, because there's no reason
25:38
Speaker 5: why her incident would have been treated differently other than
25:43
Speaker 5: than obvious.
25:44
Speaker 6: And that's why we're unapologetically a black firm aimed at
25:48
Speaker 6: helping black people to rise up above and beyond our
25:54
Speaker 6: oppression and most importantly, our oppression state of mind. And
25:58
Speaker 6: if white folks were doing what they were supposed to
26:02
Speaker 6: do to undo what their forefathers have have done and
26:06
Speaker 6: undo what they continue to do, that would not be
26:09
Speaker 6: a necessary attitude. There would be a partnership. But because uh,
26:14
Speaker 6: there has never been an adequate partnership between whites and
26:19
Speaker 6: blacks across the board to eliminate racism, we're gonna be
26:24
Speaker 6: stuck with it for a long time.
26:26
Speaker 2: And because of that lack of partnership, that's why, you know,
26:29
Speaker 2: what happened to April, something even worse happened to you know.
26:36
Speaker 6: And see if you if you don't have that separatist
26:38
Speaker 6: statement where you don't read the raise the red flag
26:43
Speaker 6: for her, it's gonna spill over into the white community.
26:48
Speaker 6: It's gonna it's gonna hurt whites, maybe, as in this case,
26:52
Speaker 6: worse than.
26:52
Speaker 1: It hurt Martin King.
26:54
Speaker 2: Jenior said it the best injustice anywhere, a threat to justice.
26:57
Speaker 6: That's exactly right. And we're still stuck in the mud
27:01
Speaker 6: of not getting enough support to overcoming.
27:06
Speaker 1: How did this How did this impact your relationship with jon.
27:14
Speaker 4: H I'd rather not comment on that.
27:20
Speaker 1: Gotcha?
27:20
Speaker 9: Ye?
27:21
Speaker 7: What about your parents? They I know they're kind of
27:25
Speaker 7: scared to let you out there. It's like, you know,
27:26
Speaker 7: you're you're grown, but I know it's like because I
27:30
Speaker 7: now remember, you know, you mentioned your dad, you know.
27:33
Speaker 4: And I know he was furious.
27:36
Speaker 1: Yeah that's baby girl.
27:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, my my dad.
27:41
Speaker 3: Definitely, I feel like, uh, you know, he reacted as
27:47
Speaker 3: as any loving, caring father wood. You know, he has
27:54
Speaker 3: four other children, you know, and I'm the oldest of
27:56
Speaker 3: his kids, and so it definitely hit him a lot different.
28:01
Speaker 3: And you know he's he's a tough guy, you know,
28:06
Speaker 3: but I could tell that it hurt him, you know,
28:11
Speaker 3: very very deeply, very protective, you know, needing to know
28:17
Speaker 3: what's going on, where I'm at, who I'm with, you know,
28:19
Speaker 3: like I'm fifteen again, but you know, I'm thankful that
28:24
Speaker 3: I do have him, you know, to be there.
28:28
Speaker 4: My mother, oh my gosh, and she.
28:31
Speaker 3: Lives all the way in Texas, so it's you know,
28:35
Speaker 3: the constant phone calls. If I don't answer the first
28:39
Speaker 3: or second time, she's texting everybody, Hey, have you heard
28:42
Speaker 3: from April? You know, because she's assuming that something might
28:46
Speaker 3: have happened again, you know, and she's so far away.
28:51
Speaker 7: Like you said, she's right, it happened. I mean, she
28:55
Speaker 7: have to get on the plane and she would like
28:57
Speaker 7: it takes time.
28:58
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, so you know, but it is a little
29:04
Speaker 3: frustrating sometimes. But you know, I'm a mother as well,
29:08
Speaker 3: so I think about it. Like I said, you know,
29:11
Speaker 3: I wake my daughter up in the middle of the
29:13
Speaker 3: night to come sleep with.
29:13
Speaker 4: Me because.
29:16
Speaker 3: I couldn't imagine ever feeling what my mom had to
29:21
Speaker 3: feel when I went through this, you know. So I'm
29:29
Speaker 3: just I'm thankful that they have been hearing from me
29:32
Speaker 3: and that they continue to be here for me. And
29:35
Speaker 3: I'm just thankful for all the support that I'm getting
29:37
Speaker 3: for everybody, because you know, it does help motivate me
29:41
Speaker 3: to keep going.
29:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, one thing I learned in therapy was that I
29:47
Speaker 2: always said my father raised me out of fear as
29:51
Speaker 2: opposed to love. He just simply didn't want me to
29:54
Speaker 2: make the same mistakes that he made. I agree, like
29:57
Speaker 2: that's what I'm trying not to do my daughters.
30:00
Speaker 1: But it's hard, right because of the world we live.
30:02
Speaker 2: Right with what you've been through, the traumatic experience you've
30:05
Speaker 2: been through, how are you raising your daughter with love
30:08
Speaker 2: and not fear.
30:10
Speaker 3: It's it's interesting because, I mean, she's three years old,
30:15
Speaker 3: so you know, she's she wants to explore, she wants
30:18
Speaker 3: to learn, she wants to, you know, run off. She's
30:21
Speaker 3: very social. We could be at the store and she
30:25
Speaker 3: wants to run up to strangers and say, hey, can
30:28
Speaker 3: I can I say hi to this person? And I
30:30
Speaker 3: have to explain to her that, you know, it's okay
30:32
Speaker 3: to be polite, but we don't know them, you know.
30:36
Speaker 3: So I try to explain to her and the best
30:40
Speaker 3: way that I can for her to see both sides. Yes,
30:42
Speaker 3: you can say hello, but you need to stay next
30:45
Speaker 3: to mommy.
30:46
Speaker 4: You can't, you know.
30:47
Speaker 3: So things like that is where I kind of try
30:51
Speaker 3: to just help her understand those boundaries so that she
30:55
Speaker 3: is aware of what's going on around her because.
30:58
Speaker 4: She is so young, you know, so innocent, and.
31:04
Speaker 3: Like I said, you know, it just goes back to
31:06
Speaker 3: I could never imagine, you know, being in my mother's position,
31:11
Speaker 3: And I know I'm not God. I can't control the
31:15
Speaker 3: world and the people in it, but I want to
31:19
Speaker 3: do my best, like you said, to not teach her
31:22
Speaker 3: and fear, but for her to understand. You know that
31:26
Speaker 3: everyone is not a good person. You know, everybody is
31:30
Speaker 3: not looking out for your best interests. Some people are evil,
31:34
Speaker 3: some people want what you have. Some people are just
31:39
Speaker 3: out of their mind and you know, react to the
31:42
Speaker 3: first person that they see. So, you know, hopefully as
31:47
Speaker 3: time goes on, you know, I'll be able to continue,
31:51
Speaker 3: you know, just teaching her with love and understanding and
31:55
Speaker 3: kindness and helping her set those boundaries, you know, moving
32:01
Speaker 3: forward for herself, because I would never want something like
32:05
Speaker 3: this to happen to my own child, let alone anyone else.
32:09
Speaker 3: Hold you I'm twenty five, yes, damn ye.
32:13
Speaker 6: See this raised a very interesting question about trauma because
32:19
Speaker 6: we now know that there's such a thing as epigenetics. Absolutely,
32:24
Speaker 6: epigenetics is a mechanism in the human body that transfers
32:30
Speaker 6: trauma from the generation where it was inflicted. To the
32:35
Speaker 6: next general. And that accounts for a whole lot of
32:40
Speaker 6: our behavior. It accounts for why our attitudes about slavery
32:47
Speaker 6: and segregation still persist, because that trauma passes down through
32:54
Speaker 6: body mechanisms that we are understanding for the first time.
32:58
Speaker 1: Now, all off from Baltimore, Sir.
33:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, I grew up in Baltimore City, but I went
33:05
Speaker 3: to school in and around the county.
33:07
Speaker 4: So right around the corner, Yeah, right around the corner.
33:12
Speaker 4: Yet it comes out one guy. I try. I try
33:19
Speaker 4: to minimize it a little bit because you know, she
33:23
Speaker 4: won't get made fun of like I do every day
33:25
Speaker 4: up there. Yeah, you know, it's a time and place.
33:28
Speaker 4: It's a time and place.
33:30
Speaker 1: It's two o'clock a night, A good time.
33:33
Speaker 4: Two o'clock, two o'clock.
33:38
Speaker 1: Were talking about I love the accident.
33:41
Speaker 3: I don't hear it.
33:43
Speaker 4: You want somebody and he wanted me to come.
33:45
Speaker 9: On here, right, I want to like yeah, because they
33:54
Speaker 9: say dog like nobody got.
33:57
Speaker 2: This sounds like it's an easy case to win billion, Malcolm,
34:00
Speaker 2: But what are some of the obstacles y'all have encountered
34:04
Speaker 2: since taking on the lawsuits?
34:05
Speaker 6: Well, whether or not, First of all, the man has
34:08
Speaker 6: assets or insurance to pay the damages that will be
34:12
Speaker 6: humongous in this case from what we know preliminarily the
34:17
Speaker 6: property are on whose name I will not mention has
34:22
Speaker 6: perhaps modest wealth and unknown insurance because we haven't been
34:29
Speaker 6: able to pin that down yet, and so we are
34:32
Speaker 6: praying for her sake that there is a mechanism to
34:36
Speaker 6: collect the tremendous damages that any driven would impose in.
34:41
Speaker 1: This Absolutely absolutely, I'm sorry it's happened to you.
34:47
Speaker 2: I'm not It was a pleasure to have this conversation
34:50
Speaker 2: with you, but I'm sorry that we have to have
34:51
Speaker 2: this conversation, right.
34:53
Speaker 5: It's terrible, man like I think one of the things
34:55
Speaker 5: I think about with her is this man bent her soul.
35:00
Speaker 5: But he didn't. He didn't break it, didn't break it,
35:02
Speaker 5: he didn't break it. And that's just the testament of her.
35:05
Speaker 5: But even somebody's soul being bent, that that's morbid, right,
35:10
Speaker 5: and it needs to be corrected. And so that's why
35:12
Speaker 5: we're here. That that's exactly why she's here and being
35:16
Speaker 5: the strong woman that she is despite the circumstances, because
35:21
Speaker 5: she's she's got a game back with the with the
35:24
Speaker 5: what the evil took from her, but the devil took
35:27
Speaker 5: from her, We're gonna claim from victory.
35:30
Speaker 6: Yeah true, evil in its deepest, deepest Yeah true.
35:35
Speaker 2: Is my final question everyone, do you want people to
35:37
Speaker 2: ultimately take away from your situation?
35:39
Speaker 1: What you want them to learn from this?
35:43
Speaker 3: Like I said, you know, anything can happen to anyone,
35:47
Speaker 3: So I definitely want people to be smart and the
35:52
Speaker 3: decisions that they're making. And especially you know, when you
35:56
Speaker 3: think you're safe, you know, it doesn't hurt to go
35:59
Speaker 3: and and double check it doesn't hurt you. As for identification,
36:04
Speaker 3: you know, sometimes the people that we think are supposed
36:07
Speaker 3: to be doing these things are not or may not
36:12
Speaker 3: have done it correctly or to the extent that we
36:15
Speaker 3: would have. So take your safety seriously, you know, and
36:21
Speaker 3: trusting God. You know, that's that's my number one thing,
36:25
Speaker 3: Trusting God. No matter what you go through, celebrate the
36:31
Speaker 3: wins and the losses.
36:38
Speaker 7: You both watching it, I was, I'm like, this is
36:42
Speaker 7: where I'm from when it is happening, you know, Like
36:45
Speaker 7: you raised the point about the black butterfly in the.
36:47
Speaker 4: White hel that's bullshit.
36:50
Speaker 7: Like I just I can't stand how we are you know,
36:54
Speaker 7: how the butterfly is labeled you know, like it's it's
36:57
Speaker 7: things that people that live in a black butterfly not
37:00
Speaker 7: that important. Things that they go through are not that important,
37:03
Speaker 7: you know. So I just I'm happy that I did
37:06
Speaker 7: see your story. Shout out to trapping Anonymous Christal. Yeah,
37:10
Speaker 7: he was amazing. I was like, can I get a
37:14
Speaker 7: contact on her and all that? And I thought he
37:16
Speaker 7: was gonna be like no, because you know, once you
37:18
Speaker 7: go through something like that, you don't want to talk
37:19
Speaker 7: to everybody, right, I don't care how big your platform
37:22
Speaker 7: is or whatever. You don't want to relive it by
37:26
Speaker 7: even speaking on it, you know. But I was happy
37:29
Speaker 7: that he did tell me, well, she has attorneys, and
37:31
Speaker 7: she was like, damn, that is so good.
37:33
Speaker 4: That was so good. So I love you too. Thank
37:38
Speaker 4: you for reaching out.
37:39
Speaker 1: I heard it. If I told you, you heard it.
37:47
Speaker 1: They're call to action. Is there something we could do that,
37:49
Speaker 1: there's something to people be calling the number?
37:51
Speaker 5: I don't I don't know for your firm, Well, yeah, absolutely,
37:54
Speaker 5: we're Our firm is called Murphy, Falcon and Murphy. We
37:58
Speaker 5: have our senior founding partner, Billy.
38:03
Speaker 4: Wow.
38:03
Speaker 6: Absolutely, we're the oldest black firm in the United States.
38:06
Speaker 1: It's like fourth generation.
38:07
Speaker 6: Yes, yes, my son is an attorney as well.
38:11
Speaker 5: Amazing and so we were just Murphyfalcon dot com. Murphy
38:16
Speaker 5: like m u r p h y Falcon like the bird.
38:19
Speaker 5: You can actually find me on i G. I'm brother
38:22
Speaker 5: with the A Underscore Malcolm E.
38:25
Speaker 3: S Q.
38:27
Speaker 5: And we certainly want want people to send best wishes
38:30
Speaker 5: to April as we go through this legal journey to
38:34
Speaker 5: keep UH putting attention on this. And I also want
38:38
Speaker 5: to just add my last comment and advice to folks
38:42
Speaker 5: would be along the lines of what.
38:43
Speaker 1: April said, Ask all the questions.
38:47
Speaker 5: You got to be your biggest advocate, especially if you're
38:50
Speaker 5: in a relationship with a landlord or somebody that has
38:54
Speaker 5: control over your housing space, to ask them. I want
38:58
Speaker 5: to know who's all in your staff. I want to
39:00
Speaker 5: know their background. I want to know how you what
39:03
Speaker 5: kind of access you're giving them, because that is the
39:05
Speaker 5: way that you can, you know, really protect yourself and
39:08
Speaker 5: not have to rely on the landlord doing their job, which.
39:16
Speaker 6: Everybody everybody should put in their budget home security system
39:21
Speaker 6: and stop relying on other people to ensure your safety.
39:25
Speaker 6: You are your best protector and you need to make
39:29
Speaker 6: sure that every tool in the technological toolbox that you
39:33
Speaker 6: can afford, you implement so that your space is protected
39:38
Speaker 6: and so that when you're away you can see what
39:40
Speaker 6: is going on in your space. When you're at work,
39:43
Speaker 6: you can see what's going on in your space. So
39:46
Speaker 6: you got to do that too.
39:48
Speaker 4: You at that Landlord top not Security.
39:51
Speaker 1: Do you have Instagram?
39:53
Speaker 4: Yes?
39:53
Speaker 1: I do.
39:56
Speaker 3: At at Big Term AP.
40:00
Speaker 2: At Big Time AP Go to April's Instagram and just
40:03
Speaker 2: show us some love, man.
40:04
Speaker 4: I appreciate it. I appreciate it.
40:06
Speaker 1: For in the comments.
40:07
Speaker 2: Man, just let her know that you see her and
40:09
Speaker 2: you hear her story and you're just sending her positive
40:11
Speaker 2: energy and healing energy.
40:13
Speaker 6: Thank you for that. If anything happens to you out there,
40:17
Speaker 6: you know how to reach us. Absolutely, Murphy Falcon and
40:20
Speaker 6: Murphy Billy Murphy. Now from Ruth, who is, by the way,
40:23
Speaker 6: my favorite student.
40:26
Speaker 1: He soaks it up like a sponge. Thank you for coming, April, Malcolm.
40:31
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me wake that ass up in
40:36
Speaker 1: the morning. The Breakfast Club