Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 10/15/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton

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10/15/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton · Ask the Lawyer

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  Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
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  Speaker 1: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of 580 WCHS, its employees,
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  Speaker 1: or WVRC Media. In our courts, all men are created equal.
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  Speaker 1: We're mass communicating.
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  Speaker 2: We're breaking rocks in a.
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  Speaker 1: Hot sun.
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  Speaker 3: Up on the lawn in a low one. And a
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  Speaker 3: very pleasant good morning to you. You are listening to
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  Speaker 3: Ask the Law. You're on 580 WCHS, The Voice of Charleston.
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  Speaker 3: I'm Dale Cooper. Thanks so much for tuning in one
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  Speaker 3: of this Thursday morning. I have a special show for
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  Speaker 3: you today. Tom Payton from the Payton Law Firm is
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  Speaker 3: here online. It's paytonlawfirm.com, P-E-Y-T-O-N, from Nitro, West Virginia, of course.
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  Speaker 3: Been on the air here for a long time. And
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  Speaker 3: Tom has orchestrated a special show for us this morning,
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  Speaker 3: a couple of different moving parts that we have for you.
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  Speaker 3: So I'm going to let Tom kind of take over
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  Speaker 3: here and explain a little bit about what's going on
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  Speaker 3: this morning, Tom.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, glad to be here. It's been three weeks, I think.
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  Speaker 1: Dad took the last couple weeks. But, yeah, we've got
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  Speaker 1: a special guest in the studio with us. And we
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  Speaker 1: have a judicial election, a special election, actually, to fill
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  Speaker 1: a seat where the Sitting judge had to resign for
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  Speaker 1: health reasons, and so we got an election coming up
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  Speaker 1: for Division II circuit judge in Putnam County on the
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  Speaker 1: 3rd of November, and I have one of the candidates
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  Speaker 1: here as a special guest, actually the sitting prosecutor in
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  Speaker 1: Putnam County, Christina Raines. Good morning. Yeah, glad to have
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  Speaker 1: her here. We also have a really nice... I'm not
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  Speaker 1: abandoning the Mountaineers, but I've been traveling so much to
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  Speaker 1: their games and We're going to skip the one this weekend.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm going to do a trivia giveaway here later
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  Speaker 1: in the show. Maybe we'll throw the trivia question out
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  Speaker 1: right before the one break we've got. But really great
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  Speaker 1: ticket package. So it's going to be all four of
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  Speaker 1: our season tickets. That's Section 216, Row 5. Really good
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  Speaker 1: spot to watch the game. It's in the upper level
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  Speaker 1: press box side, but it's about the 40-yard line, 45-yard line.
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  Speaker 1: So you can see the game really well. Got a
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  Speaker 1: blue lot pass, so. That's fun if you haven't been
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  Speaker 1: in the blue lot. It's a noon game on Saturday,
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  Speaker 1: which I like. I'm older because I get up there
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  Speaker 1: and I'm not really much for getting real early and tailgating.
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  Speaker 1: I get too tired when I get in the game.
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  Speaker 1: But you can get up and back on a noon game.
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  Speaker 1: So we've got the blue lot pass, our four tickets,
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  Speaker 1: and something we haven't really had available the last few years.
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  Speaker 1: We've got four Mac Lounge passes.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, my.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you use our regular tickets to get in the game,
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  Speaker 1: but then you can go down on the field. The
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  Speaker 1: Mac Lounge is in the end zone where the– it's
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  Speaker 1: actually where the Mountaineers run out, but it's on the
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  Speaker 1: side over towards where the visitors are. So you can
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  Speaker 1: be right there on the field and got your own
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  Speaker 1: private concessions. So if you want a beverage or something,
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  Speaker 1: there's usually not too bad a line. And honestly, to
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  Speaker 1: watch the actual game play, it's a bit hard because
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  Speaker 1: you're in the end zone on field level, but of
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  Speaker 1: course the big screen is right behind you. But if
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  Speaker 1: you haven't been on the field, you get to be
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  Speaker 1: down there near the players. And there's nothing like that,
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  Speaker 1: seeing the action of those football players, I mean, we
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  Speaker 1: were on the field for the Oklahoma State game, and
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  Speaker 1: it's just, you know, watching them warm up, like a
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  Speaker 1: tight end, for example. It's like, I mean, I wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: tackle that guy. Maybe I'd get in the field position
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  Speaker 1: and see if he trips over me or something. But
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  Speaker 1: we'll do the little trivia question there. But let's start
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  Speaker 1: off with Chris because she's campaigning. Why don't you just
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  Speaker 1: kind of introduce yourself, Chris, and we'll take it from there.
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  Speaker 4: Well, good morning.
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  Speaker 5: Thank you for having me this morning. My name is
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  Speaker 5: Chris Raines. I am the Putnam County prosecutor. I've been
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  Speaker 5: in the prosecutor's office since 2008, and I was appointed
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  Speaker 5: the prosecutor in 2023 when Mark Sorcea moved up to
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  Speaker 5: be the cabinet secretary.
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  Speaker 4: Of Homeland Security. So I've run the.
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  Speaker 5: Office for about three years, but again, I've been in
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  Speaker 5: the office total for 18 years. I'm the only Putnam
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  Speaker 5: County native in this race. I'm the only one that
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  Speaker 5: really has been immersed into the judicial culture. I know
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  Speaker 5: that some of my opponents have practiced in the courthouse,
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  Speaker 5: and I think they're both very good lawyers. But I've
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  Speaker 5: been immersed in the judicial culture for the entire time
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  Speaker 5: of my career there. And I've also had a real
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  Speaker 5: passion for protecting some of the most vulnerable citizens. I
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  Speaker 5: have a real passion for prosecuting cases involving children, involving
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  Speaker 5: exploitation of older people and disabled people. So those are
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  Speaker 5: two of my platforms right there.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, the judicial candidate there. A little bit
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  Speaker 1: bootstrapped on what they can say. You can't talk about
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  Speaker 1: how you'd rule in any particular type of case. You're
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  Speaker 1: kind of talking about traits and work ethic and I
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  Speaker 1: think where you come from and what you stand for.
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  Speaker 1: And I like Chris for a multitude of reasons. One,
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  Speaker 1: she's a Putnam County native too, so she knows the
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  Speaker 1: area really well. I grew up there.
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  Speaker 3: You're a bison, right? I'm a bison.
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  Speaker 5: That's right.
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  Speaker 3: Graduated from Buffalo. Yes, thank you. Purely homegrown.
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  Speaker 4: Shout out to the bison.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, there you go.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, but no, Tom and I have worked a lot
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  Speaker 5: over my last 18 years. He's a formidable opponent, and
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  Speaker 5: we are both passionate with our cases. had some knockdowns,
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  Speaker 5: but I always appreciated seeing him in the hallway after
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  Speaker 5: the next day or everything. And it's just business as
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  Speaker 5: usual and nothing's ever taken personal. But I do appreciate
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  Speaker 5: the passion that he has with his clients because I
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  Speaker 5: would exude the same passion on behalf of my victims
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  Speaker 5: or on behalf of my side of the argument as well.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, lawyers are kind of weird in that way. I've
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  Speaker 1: had cases where.
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  Speaker 4: Multitude of reasons.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll call them normal people, right? Non-lawyers are in
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  Speaker 1: the gallery watching, you know, argument or something. Not necessarily
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  Speaker 1: this reigns here, but, you know, other matters. And then
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  Speaker 1: get out of the hearing and walk out in the
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  Speaker 1: hallway and somebody approaches and says, well, I thought you
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  Speaker 1: two were going to get in a fistfight in there.
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  Speaker 1: I said, no. And then I might end up going
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  Speaker 1: to lunch later. So, you know, it's just what you
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  Speaker 1: do and you learn to kind of compartmentalize that. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: when you're doing criminal defense, sometimes you're not representing the
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  Speaker 1: best people, but everybody's entitled to, you know, an attorney
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  Speaker 1: for serious criminal offenses. And there's certainly, you know, as
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  Speaker 1: a policy matter on more of a global level, you know,
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  Speaker 1: you're defending the Constitution sometimes when you're representing a criminal
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  Speaker 1: defendant because you've got to make sure their rights are protected.
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  Speaker 1: And if you give that up, then we're all in
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  Speaker 1: trouble because you can't pick and choose who you know,
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  Speaker 1: has their constitutional rights in this country. So you get
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  Speaker 1: into cases sometimes that are hard. And, of course, I
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  Speaker 1: did some public defender type work only in Putnam County
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  Speaker 1: over the years where I was appointed. And then you
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  Speaker 1: have absolutely no choice who you have as a client. But, yeah.
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  Speaker 5: I don't think you argued any differently for the appointed.
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  Speaker 5: I mean, I think you argued just as vehemently for.
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  Speaker 2: Sure.
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  Speaker 1: You don't get paid as much. That's part of the
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  Speaker 1: problem across the state. We've got a real issue. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I'm on the State Bar Board of Governors with getting
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  Speaker 1: lawyers to represent indigent defendants, especially in the rural counties.
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  Speaker 1: They have trouble filling those roles. And it's, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the fee amount you get paid, well, I think it's
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  Speaker 1: $ 65 if you're doing work out of court, $ 85 in court.
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  Speaker 1: You say, well, that sounds pretty good. But when you
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  Speaker 1: have a law office like I've got where we've got
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  Speaker 1: advertising costs like the radio show. And, you know. decent-sized
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  Speaker 1: staff and a larger office to run, there's no overhead
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  Speaker 1: built into those rates. So it becomes really difficult to
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  Speaker 1: do that type of work. And then you get in
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  Speaker 1: the rural counties and you just don't have a lot
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  Speaker 1: of lawyers. And so folks have to travel around. And
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  Speaker 1: sometimes that can be hours of travel. And the pay
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  Speaker 1: scale is really low compared to market rates. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: that's controlled in large part by the legislature. And as
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  Speaker 1: you can imagine, it doesn't take a genius to see
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  Speaker 1: that You know, pushing a bill through to increase pay
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  Speaker 1: for lawyers who defend potential criminals isn't real politically expedient.
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  Speaker 1: So actually, there's a case from the late 80s, early
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  Speaker 1: 90s where the Supreme Court just said this is amounting
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  Speaker 1: to ineffective assistance of counsel because the rate is so low,
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  Speaker 1: you know, it's hard to justify lawyers spending that amount
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  Speaker 1: of time on those cases when they have other Other
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  Speaker 1: types of matters going on. But I always took pride
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  Speaker 1: in representing indigent defendants. And certainly I didn't put any
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  Speaker 1: less effort in those cases than I would do any
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  Speaker 1: other case. Now, it might be an issue of resources.
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  Speaker 1: Although generally, if you're indigent, it's up to the judge.
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  Speaker 1: But I've had really never had any problem with a judge,
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  Speaker 1: you know, approving an expert witness or some other costs
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  Speaker 1: related to. representing an indigent defendant. I still do it
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  Speaker 1: from time to time. Every once in a while, I'll
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  Speaker 1: have a judge ask, hey, you know, we got a
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  Speaker 1: conflict here or a situation. We can't get a local
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  Speaker 1: attorney to handle it. And I'll jump in and do
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  Speaker 1: some appointed work. And I like doing criminal defense work.
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  Speaker 4: It keeps your skills honed in, too.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a great way to cut your teeth.
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  Speaker 4: Advocacy, for sure.
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  Speaker 1: It's a great way to cut your teeth as a
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  Speaker 1: young lawyer and get in there and do some work
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  Speaker 1: in the courtroom that you don't always get in a
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  Speaker 1: lot of settings. Of course, the majority of our practice
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  Speaker 1: now civil cases, fighting insurance companies and people that get
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  Speaker 1: hurt in some way. But the prosecutor, well, yeah, they
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  Speaker 1: prosecute crimes, but they also handle all of the abuse
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  Speaker 1: and neglect cases. And you've had a good, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I think longevity and lack of turnover in office really
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  Speaker 1: helps it operate.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, my gosh.
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  Speaker 5: I am so lucky in that I work in an
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  Speaker 5: office and. pretty much inherited the people, most of the
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  Speaker 5: people that I work with. But the average amount of
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  Speaker 5: criminal law experience from all the attorneys in the office
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  Speaker 5: is 20 years. So at least 20 years of experience
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  Speaker 5: of each of these attorneys, and that's kind of unheard
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  Speaker 5: of in law. in a state where, you know, people
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  Speaker 5: start off in the prosecutor's office just to kind of
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  Speaker 5: move up and, and, and move out into the world,
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  Speaker 5: make their riches and stuff to find, um, career prosecutors
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  Speaker 5: or people that have spent a career, um, defending, um,
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  Speaker 5: criminal defendants and just knowing both sides of the coin
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  Speaker 5: is just, uh, is just wonderful. But I have, um,
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  Speaker 5: a wonderful, um, juvenile prosecutor, well, two wonderful juvenile prosecutors,
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  Speaker 5: but one especially that just does abuse and neglect, which
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  Speaker 5: has blown up all over the state. I mean, I
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  Speaker 5: think those cases have just, I think every county has
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  Speaker 5: seen an influx in abuse and neglect just with the
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  Speaker 5: addiction population in the state.
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  Speaker 4: And also, I think at least two of our high schools.
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  Speaker 5: In Putnam County have At least a third to 50
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  Speaker 5: percent of the children are being raised by grandparents or
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  Speaker 5: people other than parents. So, you know, those those are
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  Speaker 5: in the judges in Putnam County really take those cases seriously.
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  Speaker 5: Not saying that, you know, the judges in other counties don't. But,
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  Speaker 5: you know, especially I know in Putnam County, there's there's
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  Speaker 5: a very close eye on these cases. cases to make
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  Speaker 5: sure these kids don't fall through the cracks.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. So you can correct me if I'm wrong, but
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  Speaker 1: basically the way Chris has set up the prosecutor's office,
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  Speaker 1: or at least it's been maintained that way, is you
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  Speaker 1: have one lawyer, assistant prosecuting attorney that handles basically all
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  Speaker 1: the abuse and neglect cases.
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: And she's been there for probably well more than 10 years.
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 4: You know, she could pretty much do anything. She could
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  Speaker 4: key my car. She could do anything. I would still
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  Speaker 4: keep her.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think she's going to do that.
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  Speaker 4: She would not do that.
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  Speaker 1: She might need to call me.
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  Speaker 3: I'll take that advice.
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  Speaker 1: That's right. But, you know, that gives you– and, of course,
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  Speaker 1: abuse and neglect cases actually– it's a little different than
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  Speaker 1: normal where it's state versus somebody in a criminal prosecution.
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  Speaker 1: You're actually representing the Department of Health and Human Resources
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  Speaker 1: in those cases.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 1: And they're civil cases.
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  Speaker 4: And they're civil cases.
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  Speaker 5: And the prosecutor that handles those cases has DHHR as
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  Speaker 5: a client. So we don't really have whatever the department,
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  Speaker 5: whatever discretion they have or whatever lead that they want
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  Speaker 5: to take on the case, that is.
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  Speaker 4: How the prosecutor is supposed to argue the case.
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  Speaker 5: So, you know, and I guess still represent the state,
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  Speaker 5: you know, even in criminal cases, you represent the state.
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  Speaker 5: But in that particular part of the law, they represent
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  Speaker 5: the DHHR.
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  Speaker 2: All right.
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  Speaker 1: I did a, I hadn't done a juvenile delinquency case
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  Speaker 1: in probably a decade. You know, they're mostly the kids
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  Speaker 1: get appointed counsel. And, but I did have some parents
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  Speaker 1: come hire me for, for a case. And I went
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  Speaker 1: to appear at, this is Judge Stowers. So this is not,
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  Speaker 1: you know, Putnam's divided it. There's two circuit judges in
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  Speaker 1: Putnam County. There's division one, which is Judge Stowers. He's
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  Speaker 1: been there for like since 2008 and won an election last,
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  Speaker 1: two years ago. And, and actually it was the first
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  Speaker 1: time I'd done a juvenile case probably in more than
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  Speaker 1: 10 years. And I went in, I thought, well, these
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  Speaker 1: are supposed to be confidential. Cause there was like, Six
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  Speaker 1: or seven people sitting in there. They are confidential hearings.
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  Speaker 4: The public is closed off, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: That's right. So they'll close the courtroom. I thought, well,
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  Speaker 1: who are all these people here? Well, Judge Towers actually
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  Speaker 1: has like, there must have been four to five kind
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  Speaker 1: of social worker type. I don't know who all the
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  Speaker 1: players are, but there was somebody there from.
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  Speaker 4: Service providers and things like that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, which I thought was good because except for the
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  Speaker 1: most heinous of, of situations generally, um, you know, generally
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  Speaker 1: you're looking to help the child out. Some problem, maybe
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  Speaker 1: a problem at home.
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  Speaker 4: Or that's usually what, what, how it, how it goes.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. And so, you know, getting, getting help in there
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  Speaker 1: quickly is kind of been Judge Stowers mode of operation. And, um,
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  Speaker 1: and I think the judges have, doesn't he handling all
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  Speaker 1: the juvenile cases and then whoever's in division two has been,
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  Speaker 1: At least that's how it's been done the last few years.
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  Speaker 1: We'll have all the abuse and neglect cases.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: I think a lot of that, well, Judge Sauer specifically
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  Speaker 5: has a passion for those two. And, you know, he
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  Speaker 5: also runs the juvenile drug court. So a lot of
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  Speaker 5: those children that, you know, may have neglect and abuse
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  Speaker 5: in the home, but also have any substance abuse issues
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  Speaker 5: that they're all seeing there. But the other judge would
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  Speaker 5: handle that. the abuse and neglects. And that's what, I
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  Speaker 5: think that was even done before Mark Sorcea got there,
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  Speaker 5: because I think that people need to know that when
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  Speaker 5: you're the prosecutor, and if you move up to judge,
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  Speaker 5: which I think they do in many counties in the state,
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  Speaker 5: there are several terms of court or several, almost a year,
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  Speaker 5: I would say, where you can't hear any criminal cases.
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  Speaker 5: I can't hear any criminal cases that I have signed
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  Speaker 5: an indictment or that's been an investigation while I was there.
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  Speaker 5: And that makes sense because, you know, nobody wants to think, oh,
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  Speaker 5: it's rigged from day one, right? So, but the abuse
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  Speaker 5: and neglect cases are usually investigated by DHHR. And so
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  Speaker 5: if that investigation is not brought during my term as
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  Speaker 5: a prosecutor, then I would be able to start hearing
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  Speaker 5: juvenile abuse and neglect cases pretty early on in the
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  Speaker 5: term if I were to advance to the judicial bench.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So if you get elected or when you get elected,
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  Speaker 1: then I guess you'll be What you're saying is you'll
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  Speaker 1: be precluded for a little bit until those filter out.
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  Speaker 5: Correct.
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  Speaker 1: So you'll be handling a lot of civil cases.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, yes.
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  Speaker 1: Which I must say, you know, I think Chris, you know,
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  Speaker 1: she's been in the courtroom a lot. And I know
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  Speaker 1: you haven't been in private practice handling civil cases. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: if I had any criticism looking at your slate there,
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  Speaker 1: you're going to say, well, that's fair. But, you know.
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  Speaker 3: You can learn that.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure you've seen criminal cases go on because when
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  Speaker 1: you're the prosecutor, you have cases every day in the courtroom.
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  Speaker 1: So you're in there sitting, watching, seeing what's going on.
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  Speaker 1: And although I will say, too, the other two candidates
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  Speaker 1: are kind of in the same boat. I mean, you
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  Speaker 1: don't really have a candidate that has been doing a
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  Speaker 1: broad range of private practice in the civil realm. So
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: I don't think you're going to get that with voting
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: for somebody else in this election versus Chris.
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: I think that's a fair comment.
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: Actually, since I've advanced to the actual prosecutor role, I've
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: handled some civil stuff on behalf of the county. We
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: just had a forfeiture case, a drug forfeiture case, and
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: there's a statute where, you know, if there's a preponderance
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: of the evidence that funds were brought about by illegal
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: drug activity, then there is a process to go after
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: That those proceeds or any property bought with those proceeds.
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: So we had an opportunity to file a case against some.
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: We had some guys and it was totally random. This
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: guy from Detroit was robbed in Putnam County and it
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: looked like an inside job. And it turned out that
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: a rival drug operation knew that this car had been
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: transferring and delivering marijuana to Virginia. So they put a
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: tracker on the car, followed him all the way down
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: to Virginia and all the way back to Putnam County.
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: And he just happened to have to go to the
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: bathroom in Putnam County.
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: So they robbed him.
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: And so a good Samaritan came across and called 911,
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: followed the people, and they transferred the money to vehicles
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: and stuff. And anyway, our police, our sheriff's department and
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: our hurricane police department made, it was a joint investigation there.
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: And the proceeds were about $ 232, 000 that were drug proceeds.
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: And so we initiated a drug forfeiture case. So I
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: handled all that as far as following the complaint, doing some.
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: interrogatories and things like that in the civil case. So
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: that was a nice foray into the civil. And then
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: we also had a lawsuit involving one of our cases
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: that had been filed in federal court, and they wanted
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: to depose one of our attorneys and, in fact, our
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: juvenile abuse and neglect, which, again, those are confidential.
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: So I got to go to federal court.
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: And argue to judge eifert the the the judge that
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: had judge readers position yeah my district yes and uh
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: and i successfully um argued that there was uh You know,
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: it was confidentiality. There was qualified immunity and and things
• 20:07
  Speaker 5: like that. So that was that was a fun little thing.
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: You know, I'd been doing the criminal prosecution thing for
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: 26 years and I got to foray into the civil world.
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: World a little bit.
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: So, I mean, I'm not saying by all means that
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: that makes me, you know, an expert in civil. It's
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: going to be, you know, I'm going to have to
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: crack down and open up my civil procedure books from
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: law school and still look around. But, you know, I'm
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: not afraid of hard work. So I'm a quick study.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: This might seem a little naive because this is certainly–
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: I'm not a legal expert and only do this show
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: with Tom every once in a while. But one of
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: the great respects I've always had for judges and once
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: you get into a position along those lines is you
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: sort of have the weight of history that you're upholding.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: I've always felt like– it's like your job is to
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: connect whatever case it is that you're hearing, the cases
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: that you get, and find a way to slot that
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: into the precedence that comes before you, how it fits
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: into things, previous rulings, and– how yours is going to
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: be interpreted in the future when the next case comes
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: along along those lines. And to me, that's always been
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: a great responsibility. And to take that seriously, regardless of
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: It's really important, I think, to keeping the consistency of
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: the law alive and how that citizens know how to
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: interact with the law and everything else to understand how
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: that works a little bit. And to me, that's a
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: very important part of it.
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: Well, and that is definitely the cornerstone of my judicial philosophy,
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: if I would be able to take over, is that
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: people need to know consistency. People need to know precedence.
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: And that means that if, you know, if it's the
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: law of the land, either it's passed by the legislature,
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: it's passed by Congress, it's come down from the West
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: Virginia Supreme Court or the United States Supreme Court. People
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: need to know where the law stands and needs and
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: needs the judge in the case to interpret it properly.
• 22:00
  Speaker 5: I'm not in the business of creating new law. That's
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: for legislators. That's for Congress. What I need to do
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: is take the law that is handed down from one
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: of those entities and interpret it according to the facts
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: and according to a fair interpretation for the parties.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: It's a great responsibility. And that's a great answer, too,
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: because that's just something that's every time that I even
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: as a layperson reading a decision, you know, like sometimes,
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: although I don't know anything, I can tell when something
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: agrees in my head. Here's the reasoning behind it. Here's
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: what came before. It makes a lot of sense to
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: me as just nobody that knows anything. And then sometimes
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: to read something, you're like, that word hasn't meant that
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: in centuries. What do you mean that that's how you
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: came up? You know, sometimes it just doesn't feel right.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: So that seems like a great responsibility for a judge.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: My experience has been, you.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Know, where's my philosophy is, you know, if there's facts
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: that are in dispute. And of course, this is more
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: probably more in the civil realm because you don't really
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: have summary judgment motion. I mean, most case criminal cases
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: will get to a jury unless there's some technical problem.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: And so Chris is used to that. But on the
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: civil side, I kind of took after Judge Spalding, who
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: was the judge there when I first started practicing. Juries
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: are important. It's in the Constitution. And sometimes we lose
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: sight of that. And there's certain special interests that don't
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: like juries because they can't control them. It's a wild card.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: And they don't like it. But I always kind of thought,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: you know, if there's a question here, just let the
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: jurors decide. Take it to the people, yeah. And Judge
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Spalding would do that even– I had him. where both
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: lawyers agreed, well, we don't even want a jury on
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: this one. As we approached, I said, no, we're going to,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: jury's going to decide this. I'm not. And he made
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: us have a jury trial versus, it wasn't a high
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: value case, but he just really valued a jury trial.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: The other thing I found that, you know, I don't
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: think anybody likes to give other people bad news. And
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: when you're on the bench, you're, you're sentencing people, you know,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: which I'm sure is weighty on the judge's mind, putting
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: folks in prison and, Sometimes they're close calls of whether
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: this person should go to jail or not. But I
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: found that as long as people really appreciate even folks
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: that are getting sent to prison, as long as the
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: judge is reasonable and explains what they're doing and kind
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: of keeps a level head, then, you know, it went
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: over a lot better with my clients who got a
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: result that they didn't like. But as long as the
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: judge was, you know, I think generally being conscientious to
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: the lawyers and– Because, you know, if you haven't, it's
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: not easy to practice law all the time. And so
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: lawyers aren't perfect. But I think when you get in
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: there and you don't want to let people. I mean,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: I think you've got to run a tight courtroom at
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: the same time, not to be overly abusive to the
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: lawyers and then to explain things, your reasoning, why you
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: came to a decision to the parties that are there,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: not filtered through their lawyer. I think that's. That's important.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: And then, you know, work ethic, too. You know, I
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: think Chris has got that. And I think this is,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, when did you first realize that you even
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: want to be a judge?
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: So I've.
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: Wanted to be a judge since law school. I but
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: I actually wanted to be a prosecutor. So that, you know,
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: since sixth grade. So that predated that. But whenever I
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: started getting involved in mock trial and stuff in law school.
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: And then I took part in coaching at my law
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: school after I graduated.
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: So I would sit.
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: In these mock trials and have to act as a
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: judge and make calls on evidence and things like that.
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: And I was just like, I really like this. I
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: really understand the reasoning behind having to have an impartial opinion.
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: referee for this kind of stuff and how it can
• 26:05
  Speaker 5: go both ways and how it changes a lawyer's next
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: steps in the case. But that was.
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: My mindset from the beginning.
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: I was like, wow, I really like to hear both
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: sides of this and try to make a decision based
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: on what what the rules of evidence are and things
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: like that. So that's really just, you know, where it
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: kind of generated for me.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good reason to want to become judge. Yeah,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: we've got a break. Let me throw out this trivia
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: question real quick, Coop. So, and we've mentioned a couple
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: of these names. Last names will be fine. So, and
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: if nobody gets the question, we'll give it to the
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: first caller if they get it wrong. But name for
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: me the most recent four Circuit judges of Division 2,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: which is the division that Chris is running for. So
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: we're sticking with the theme here. Judges in Putnam County
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: who were either, one, elected and or appointed by the governor.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: So the difference being like we have a judge sitting
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: by temporary assignment right now, Judge Swope. He's not included
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: because he's a Supreme Court appointee, but either elected or
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: appointed by the governor. And this would be all four
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: of these judges were on the bench during time I
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: was practicing law. So that's 2001 and forward. So hopefully
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: maybe we'll take a break and see if we get
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: some calls.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: Restate the question again?
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Name the four circuit– most recent four circuit judges. That
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: would be 2001 until now. There's only four of them
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: that fit this category in that timeframe who were either
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: elected or appointed by the governor. Last names are fine.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: And if we don't– if somebody does not get it correct,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: we'll give it to the first caller who gave it
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: a shot. Does that make sense?
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: That makes sense to me.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: All right. It's a good package there.
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: It is a good package.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Hopefully somebody wants to go with their family. It would
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: be a really good trip, get down on the field,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: be close to the players, and the blue lot pass too.
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: You are listening to Ask the Lawyer this morning. In
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: the studio with us is Tom Payton with our special guest.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: That's Christina Rain. She's the prosecuting attorney from Putnam County,
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: also running for judge. We're talking a little bit about
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: that this morning. But right now, there is an offer
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: out there for you to have the opportunity to win
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: four tickets to go see this weekend's Mountaineer game. Those
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: are four tickets for that noon kickoff, including blue lock
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: passes and access to the Mountaineer Athletic Club on the
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: field level. So this is a great prize. You have
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: to answer Tom's trivia question. You can call 304-345-5858, 304-345-5858.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: Got a call today. This isn't going to be a text.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: This isn't going to be one that you can win
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: via text. So give us a call this morning, 304-345-5858.
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: We're going to take a break and be back right
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: after this. You're listening to Ask the Lawyer on 580 WCHS,
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: The Voice of Charleston. The Hudson's Pizza special for October.
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  Speaker 1: The latest in news, talk, and sports on 580 WCHS
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  Speaker 1: is brought to you by Jarrett Construction. Visit Jarrett-Construction.com for
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• 29:37
  Speaker 3: Right on time, right on budget. Nine minutes to the
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: top of the hour. You're listening to Ask the Expert, WCHS,
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: the voice of Charleston. Tom Payton is in studio with
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: us this morning from the Payton Law Firm, online, paytonlawfirm.com, P-E-Y-T-O-N,
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: Payton Law Firm in Nitro, West Virginia. Our special guest
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: this morning is Christina Rain. She is a prosecuting attorney
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: at Putnam County running for judge. And we have a
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: trivia giveaway this morning that Tom just instigated before we left.
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: This is for four tickets to go see the Mountaineers
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: this weekend with blue lot passes and access to the
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: field level Mountaineer Athletic Club. Our first caller in is
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: Dwayne this morning. And Dwayne is going to give us
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: a trial for the trivia question. Dwayne, go ahead. You're
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: on line with Tom.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: Hey, good morning. Good morning, Dwayne. Good morning.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: The most recent one, I think, was Judge Titus. That's,
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: I think, a no-brainer.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Is that right?
• 30:39
  Speaker 5: No.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Justice Titus, who I actually had on the show.
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: He was a guest here, though.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: Yes, he was a Supreme Court justice. And actually... did
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: not win the election, which I hope I don't put
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: the hex on Chris here because I had Justice Titus
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: on and Justice Ewing on. They both went and lost,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: but they won Putnam County.
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, okay.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: And so it's a little completely different race here than
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: the statewide race. But no, sorry, Titus was a Supreme
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Court justice. But if nobody gets it right, you were
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: the first caller. So we'll circle back to you.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry for the question and misunderstood. My apologies.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: Okay, no problem.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Sorry about that.
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: Dwayne, if nobody else wins, give us a call back.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: It's a little bit of a convoluted question, I guess.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: But it's hard to pick questions that people can't Google instantly.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: You.
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: Know.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: We appreciate it, Dwayne. Thanks for the phone call. Let's
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: go ahead and go to Mark, who's on the line
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: as well. He's going to give it a shot. Mark,
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: go ahead. You're on line with Tom.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Tom. I'm going to go with Mark Sorosa, maybe? Sorcea.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Sorcea, we'll give that to you.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: Sorcea, okay. Joseph Reeder.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: Um, Philip Stowers.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: No, that one. So you, you got two and then
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Stowers is actually in the other courtroom. So you got,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: you got the two most recent and there's two more
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: before that. I tell you what, you got to, you
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: probably don't.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: The other one with the other one, uh, Leslie.
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Yes. And there was one more, which we already mentioned
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: on the show.
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: You didn't say anything. They got four guesses. I mean,
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: I don't, I don't want to be unfair to Dwayne there.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: So, uh, Well, that's true.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: You just mentioned Titus. That wasn't one.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: No, no, it's not. Not it. We got anybody else
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: on the line, Dale?
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: Not right now, no.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right. Well, no, I'll give the answer out
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: towards the end of the show if we don't get
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: other calls, but we'll give it to the first caller
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: if nobody else can get it.
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: So that would be Dwayne at this point?
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Dwayne, yeah.
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: Okay, all right. All right, Mark, thanks for calling in.
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: We appreciate that. That leaves the phone line open if
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: you want.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: To give us a draw. It's kind of unfair now
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: because folks have heard the— almost got it right answers
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: but uh you know i i hate that people get
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: it wrong actually uh there used to be a host
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: here that would do he would hold pennies in his
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: hand and drop them on the table where the mic
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: could hear him and have people guess how many pennies
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: oh my god yeah it's just hard to come up
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: with questions i feel like you gotta have a little
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: bit of trivia but uh.
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: It's very difficult to not get something that somebody's not
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: Googling right away. We do that in the afternoon a
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: little bit. And usually you can get the first layer
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: of it relatively well. Like the first couple people are
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: actually at the disadvantage, of course. You're welcome to give
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: us a call, though. Dwayne, be on alert, though. If
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: we don't get another winner in here, you can give
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: us a call back. Or you know what? Our text
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: line number would work just fine.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: 304-935-5008. 304-935-5008.
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: In this case, Dwayne. If you identify yourself on a
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: text and give me, um, which would give me your
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: phone number, but you give me that information, then Tom
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: can get you the tickets if you end up being
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: the winner. So you can text that to three zero
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: four nine three five five zero zero eight. However, we
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: still have a couple of minutes left. If you want
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: to try to get in to win those tickets, three
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight three
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: zero four three four five.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Maybe we'll get another call or, um, yeah. And in
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: local news here, we've got this awful case. Um, Actually,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: Dan Holstein's prosecuting you. I think he worked in the
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: county prosecutor's.
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: Office at one point.
• 33:58
  Speaker 5: Prior to my time there, I then went to Kanawha County.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: He's a good lawyer, but he's prosecuting the Kennedy-Miller case
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: down in Boone County. It was an awful set of facts.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Just apparently, I mean, this is, layman was starved to death, basically.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: But the mother, who was the direct legal custodian, decision
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: maker for this child, has already entered a plea of guilty.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: And so now the grandmother is on trial. basically murder
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: by failing to provide the necessities for the child, right?
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: And apparently she was really just, you can imagine, emaciated.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: But it brings up an interesting question. Like, well, she
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: isn't the decision maker. The mom is. And the mom's
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: ultimately responsible, but the grandmother was living in the house.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: There's some evidence, apparently, that the daughter was even sleeping
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: in the grandmother's room. So, you know... Well, morally, if
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: you see a child being abused or neglected, especially to
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: that extent, and you're living in the same household, you're
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: a family member, you obviously have a moral duty to
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: go contact CPS or the authorities or something to help her. Now,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: of course, the question in this case would be, is
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: that a crime? When does it, I mean, if she
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: didn't actively, let's assume she didn't affirmatively do something to
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: hurt this child. She just didn't do something to help
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: the child. when does that kind of moral duty to
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: help another human being who's helpless cross over into the
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: criminal realm? And you could hear, it's on, you know,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: your guy's station this morning, there's some sound bites from
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: the courtroom and the defense lawyers saying, well, yeah, you know,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: she didn't do, there were bad decisions made and action
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: not taken, but is there that intent there to commit
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: a crime of, I think malice and intentional conduct to
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: hurt another person. So awful set of facts. I think
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: probably we'll see a conviction based on what I'm what
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: I've heard, just sound bites. But but I don't know.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, the jury's going to have to consider that
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: and figure out what's where does this cross over from
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: a moral responsibility to. criminal conduct.
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: So you can answer, because where this falls in line
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: is this then informs us going forward, right? Like the
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: question is somewhat answered here. It gives you more resolution
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: to it. And then there might be other cases, hopefully not.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: But unfortunately, there probably will be other cases in the future.
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: And this is what you have to keep in mind, right?
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely.
• 36:29
  Speaker 5: I actually spoke to some seniors in POCA yesterday, and
• 36:33
  Speaker 5: the father-in-law of the defense attorney who's also a Putnam
• 36:36
  Speaker 5: County native.
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: And I saw some of the opening statements on the
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: news last night, and both sides really put forward good arguments.
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: I mean, I know you're not supposed to argue in
• 36:50
  Speaker 5: opening statements, but they put forth some very persuasive facts.
• 36:55
  Speaker 5: So I think that that will be a very good
• 36:58
  Speaker 5: trial there. I'm not supposed to ethically comment on any
• 37:03
  Speaker 5: pending or impending cases, and that wouldn't come into Putnam
• 37:06
  Speaker 5: County as well.
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: But I have had those cases. They are difficult.
• 37:12
  Speaker 5: And I have had a trial involving a mother who
• 37:17
  Speaker 5: had a child that had.
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: A lot of medical problems. So those those are tough cases.
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: And but but seeing the the opening statements, I think
• 37:29
  Speaker 5: both attorneys are are well prepared.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we got about a minute left.
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's great information.
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. Hey, the answer to the trivia question
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: was Mark Sorcea. Now we're going to order from recent past.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: Joe Reeder. Bob Leslie, who's the one that's sometimes difficult
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: to get because he was appointed by the governor. And
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: then there was a special election similar to what Chris
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: is going through.
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: And he lost the election. And then Judge Spalding. But
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: if Dwayne will get you his phone number, he's the
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: winner because he was the fastest. There you go. Congratulations.
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: Dwayne, you can give us a call back at 304-345-5858, 345-5858.