Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 06-13-2024 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton

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06-13-2024 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton · Ask the Lawyer

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the power of Payson on your side. The power of it is a twenty
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two on five eight WCCHS the Voice of Charleston. Good morning. I'm Jeff
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Jenkins and Tom Payton is here are the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro. Any
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questions about out the law, the lines are open three oh four three four
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five fifty eight fifty eight. Three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty
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or you can text this Tom at three oh four nine three five five zero
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zero eight again. Yeah, that's yeah, that's three oh four nine three
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five five zero zero eight. Three oh four nine three five five zero zero
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eight. That's good. Yeah, last week we'd misplaced the number. We
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probably got kinds of calls. Sorry about that, Yeah, caution, yeah,
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sorry about that. Good note. A lot of people like to text,
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especially younger people these days, and it's we don't take credit cards that
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are office stiller debit cards, which is unusual for any business these days.
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And I kind of held off on that to make sure people know, and
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you know, we're not really a volume business, meaning we're not having hundreds
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of customers run through a day, which would obviously require it you'd accept credit
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cards. I'm probably gonna have to switch soon, just because these young folks,
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they don't they don't have a check book. My son doesn't even use
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he's twenty one, won't you hardly use cash, And they use these well,
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they have their cards, but mostly they're using like Apple Pay or Google
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pay or some other service that transfers money. And it's quite convenient until it
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gets hacked. But but yeah, you're I'm gonna start getting twenty somethings.
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They're gonna turn into thirty some things who are gonna want to have a state
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planning done things like that, and uh so we're gonna have to switch our
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mode of operation there, I think, yeah, pretty soon. Let me
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give that again, Tom three oh four nine three five five zero zero eight.
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That's the text line, three oh four nine three five five zero zero
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eight eight. I wanted to get at the top of the show here Herman
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Kennedy. Yeah, longtime circuit judge in Kanaw County passed away. Yeah,
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you know, I didn't want to. I want to mention that for sure.
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I'm pro you know, my heard a lot of good things about just
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Kennedy, and obviously he was a groundbreaker to a certain extent in the African
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American community. As far as getting into the the legal realm, I didn't.
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Actually, he may have come back as senior status a couple of times,
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but I don't recall I had cases a sign to Judge Kennedy because I
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remember seeing the name on the complaint after it was filed. But you don't
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get into court when you file it. And I was I passed the bar
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at law school and then was licensed to practice law in October November two thousand
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and one. And I think Judge Kennedy retired right at the beginning maybe of
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two thousand and two, so I didn't overlap really to get in front of
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him. So I don't have any experience with him as a as a jurist
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or in the courtroom. But I've heard nothing but good things. And so
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yeah, our thought some prayers grow out to his family and Mary Claire Judge
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Acres had some commentary here on w Metro News which I thought was really good,
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and he gets tied praise and from her, and I give her a
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lot of credibility. So yeah, it's too bad old he got he was
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sweat in his seventies, maybe even eighties. So yeah, I mean,
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just think about this that I didn't know this about Herman Kennedy. He was
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a first African Americans stitudent at Charleston High School, you know, so after
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you know, I would guess Garnett close and they had the sure and for
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somebody my age, like that's like almost incomprehensible that you don't you know,
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I mean, now you think about, well that was only nineteen what probably
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in the was it sixties, fifties, fifties, fifty eight or something like
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that, which isn't that in the grand scheme of history is not very long
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ago, but yeah, I mean that was all that was not an issue
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by the time I got into school, but yet to go into a school
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as the only that's what you know, it's hard conception, Like I could
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not I can't imagine being a minority or sain African American person in that situation,
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because you can't even if I were to where, you know, have
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a costume designer change my image or something, I always have the option to
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come back, So there's no way you can ever, I mean, I
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can never go into that other person's mind in that situation. And to me,
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it would just be difficult for an adult, let alone a high school
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kid to go in as the only African American person and what was probably a
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pretty large school back in the fifties, Charleston High. Oh yeah, yeah,
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groundbreaking for sure. Yeah, good jurists, great juriss haven't heard anything
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bad about just Kennedy in all the years. I think he probably maybe retired
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a little bit early, because that's been twenty some years ago now, and
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I don't remember the reasons or anything like that. But yeah, I thought
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some prayers out to judge Kennedy, great, great, great jurist and really
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groundbreaking person. Yeah. And then a part of your father's childhood would be
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Jerry West. That's right. Yeah, that's another one that I never saw.
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I was born in nineteen seventy six, two years after he retired from
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my NBA. Yeah, so he had any four year right, and so
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I never really got to see Jerry West play. But I listened to sports
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Line for a while last night at the gym and just all kinds. I
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mean, Pat O'Brien, you need the coach, the coach, Pat Riley,
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he was the manager. He was a coach for the Lakers, manager
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for the Miami Heat, won multiple NBA championships. I mean, just had
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accolades after accolades from all kinds of the people, from the from the highest
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highest towers. So that's too bad. I wish I would have had the
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opportunity to see Joe. I heard Charles Barkley talking this morning, I think
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on w B Metro news. It's just all over the place. This is
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Charles Barkley play one time in Charleston, West Virginia. They came in the
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seventy I was a kid, I was probably twelve somebody probably remember it was
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mid late eighties. The seventy six ers. Maybe they were the Charleston Gunners,
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were the semi approaching here. They might have been in an affiliate of
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seventy six. Seventy six came playing an exhibition game. Yeah, I came
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play an exhibition game. We sat in the front row. So that was
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got a kick out of that. Unfortunately, never got to see Jerry West
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play, and actually haven't seen a whole lot of his play on TV.
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I need to go back and watch some of it on YouTube. Yeah,
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yeah, I don't have a grasp even on his style of play. Obviously
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he could do everything. Yeah right, yeah, yeah, so yeah,
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I want to pass that along. But the lines are open three oh four,
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three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Three oh four, three four
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five fifty eight fifty eight. If you want to call any questions about the
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law for Tom or again, our text line is three oh four nine three
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five five zero zero eight. Three oh four nine three five five zero zero
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eight. Last week we talked about the Trump conviction. This week the Hunter
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Biden conviction, right right, and that seemed to be well, I don't
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know, it seem to be a pretty simple case, right, sure it
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is. I mean I've not gone in and bought a new firearm and had
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to fill out the forms. But I mean a part of the case and
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let's see what happens on the pel always thought it was kind of a vague
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area of the law in relation to the questions they ask about are you it's
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about the drug addiction question, because you're not supposed to possess or purchase firearms
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if you're addicted to drugs or using drugs, I think, And so that's
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the question I think you get. And they're saying he lied on the form
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to get the pistol, and so, but that's basically the question. I
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mean, you're asking somebody yes or no, are you do you use or
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are you addicted to drugs or controlled subtions or something like that, And I
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guess he checked no and at the firearm. And then there's all this what
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you see more in public anecdotal evidence that he was on drugs and maybe addicted
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to drugs, certainly doing illegal drugs around that time frame. And so that's
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the The seedy part of the trial is that the part of the prosecutor's case
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was they had to prove that he was in fact that they lied on that
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form, and so you had all kinds of testimony from his I think it's
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really sad, sad because he's going down a rabbit hole of drug addiction and
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you can see it and it's all now laid out for the public. I
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mean, it goes from I think he got divorced during the pro he ends
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up having a relationship with his deceased brother's widow and in really bad circumstances where
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I think maybe through trial it came out they were both using drugs like not
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marijuana, like crack and some of the you know, that's what I heard
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anyway, And so yeah, I mean I don't I don't know if there
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was a whole lot of defense there when you when you because this is the
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one I believe that started with a plea deal being reached in principle right,
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and it made me encompass some other charges as well, maybe some tax issues
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that then blew up either the prosecutor pulled it off the table or for some
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reason it didn't go through, could have had something to do with the judge
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not wanting to accept it, and so then these you know, when you
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when your plea deal falls through, and if the prosecutor still wants to push
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it, all your charges come back up, not the ones you were going
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to just plead to. And so I think it's what he had three charges
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all around that same issue with the gun convicted of all of them, I
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would say he had a really good chance, if there's no mandatory minim for
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that, to get some kind of probation or alternative sentence, because it sounds
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like at this point he's rehabilitated himself. He's essentially going to accept responsibility and
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that will help him when he gets to the sentencing stage. We'll have the
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opposite of that with Trump and see how that that plays out because Trump also,
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though has he's an older person, has no prior criminal record and that
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kind of thing. So we'll see how he's not going to accept any responsibility
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and he's not going to show any remorse unless he does a about face,
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but he's not going to do it, and so we'll see how that kind
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of factor plays in with the judge in Trump's case. I don't think they've
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set Hunter Biden's sentencing yet. They may have, I didn't see. It'll
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probably be in the next few months. We'll see how both those play out
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from a sentencing level. And we also had a case here and Tom Payton's
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with us at the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro. We also had a case
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here in Kannak County, just a terrible case of the murder of a nineteen
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year old tobacco store clerk and fourteen year old charge. Actually there's a second
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fourteen year old charge who has not been transferred to adult status hip, but
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the one who has he had a it appeared to deal in prince a plea
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deal in principle, and then that shows you it's not final until it's final.
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That person I think is still only is the only fourteen. He's only
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fourteen. Yeah, so been moved to adult status. As two lawyers.
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This is the awful one. I think the young man who died. His
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name was Kayden Martin made But it's the one where they have a surveillance video
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and the it's like a vapor tobacco shop and it looks like whatever robbery was
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occurring, the point of it had been concluded, and then there was a
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gratuitous, just unexplained shooting of the clerk, which is Caden and so it's
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it's when you have that type of evidence and that type situation's awful. But
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when you reach a plea deal, generally on serious cases, at some point
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there's the documents put in writing, preferably if it's a serious case, pretty
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much all of them. And then you you know, maybe somebody calls it.
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I said, hey, we got an agreement, but the judge oftentimes
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doesn't even know what it is until they get out on the bench and say,
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all right, tell me what the agreement is. And then it's what
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they call spread on the record. The whole agreement is laid out so it
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can be typed into the record, and then the judge has to have unlike
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most hearings where the judge talks to the lawyer, they don't talk to your
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client. You know, you're you're the spokesperson. The judge will have to
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have some back and forth with the actual client during a plea hearing for a
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serious case, and so that way, if there's been you know, if
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there's any hesitation or maybe some miscommunication between the attorney or maybe it's just said
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in a different way by the judge in relation to what the terms of the
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deal are. You know that that the client has every right to say they
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don't want to go through with the deal at that point, and I think
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that's what happened here. And then there was some back and forth about whether
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they need to have another mental evaluation done for him. I think his lawyers
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want to have a different evaluator. I think that's Judge Acres as well.
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She said no, let's but send it back to the same either psychologists or
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psychiatrists for another review, to look at it one more time. So there
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could be some issues about whether there's competency. Although there's competency issues, he
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really can't enter a plea deal. It's a contract, so that issue is
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resolved. We don't know what to report the mental evaluation reports said, but
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I think we can assume that it didn't say what the defendant might want it
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to say. Certainly didn't say he was incompetent, right, which there's two
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different levels there you get when you get analyzed. You can one you can
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hire. I mean, I assume he has appointed council, so the state
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will fund, if there's good cause for it, an expert, so he
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could hire a psychologist or psychiatrist expert to do maybe an evaluation to see whether
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he had the mental capacity to form criminal intent at the time it happened,
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if he had a mental disease or defect at that time. So that's that's
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the insanity defense you hear. But then there's also a second level. You
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have to be competent to even stand trial at all, and so you have
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to understand the players in the courtroom, and you have to be able to
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assist your attorney in your defense. So if you have a mental uh defect
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that's so severe you can't do that. That's that's where they delay everything until
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you can get rehabilitated and assist your counsel. And I don't know that there's
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a It probably is a time limit at least constitutionally, but I'm not here
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for sin sure. They generally will hold folks that don't have competency until they
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get some report that they're rehabilitated in four years. I mean, I've seen
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them dismiss some years later. Right right, Three oh four three four five
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fifty eight fifty eight, it's eight thirty six. That's our number. Tom
14:41
Payton to the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro three oh four three four five fifty
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eight fifty eight our text line want a text three oh four nine three five
14:50
five zero zero eight. That's three oh four nine three five five zero zero
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eight. Back with more with Tom in a moment on five eighty double chs.
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fifty seven forty six. Welcome Weirdos. Every Sunday night at eleven on five
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eighty WHS join Darren Malar for Weird Darkness, dove into stories of the paranormal,
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supernatural, legends, war crime and conspiracy. Listeners rave about the show,
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you on a journey through the mysterious and unexplained. Don't miss Weird Darkness Sunday
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Night's eleven one The Voice of Charleston Fave eight WCHS. Make sure you're retirement
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local city branch to schedule a complimentary review of your current accounts. Good morning.
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Here's your traffic update. Congestion and delays on I sixty four East at
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mile marker fifty eight at Virginia Street. Maintenance on I seventy seven North at
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mile marker eighty four to mile marker eighty five. Right there at Cedar Grove,
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the northbound right lane is closed and bridge inspection work. On I sixty
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four East at mile marker fifty five at Canall Turnpike, the eastbound left lane
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is closed. I'm Chapel in the WCCHS Network Traffic Studio. Put the power
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need we never give up. We're prepared to fight for your rides. When
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you need action, count on us, PUS on your side. Eight five
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eighty dou would you see hs the Voice of Tross And that's not just a
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jingle. The power of Payton in at least half the powers here that are
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half is actually can go the other way. You can conduct us at the
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office other than giving us a call or stopping buys. Go to our Facebook
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page. And I actually threw up a new cover photo, Yester. It
17:19
was a throwback to Dad. I'm in the background fishing in candidate. So
17:23
he's making his annual trip to Crooks Lake. It's traveling today, Yeah,
17:30
traveling today being a place called Goose Bay that I never would have known if
17:33
I hadn't been there fishing way up. It's like old NATO. There's still
17:37
maybe a partial NATO base there, but it's pretty far north. And then
17:41
you truly take a puddle jumper in one of those planes with the floats on
17:45
the bottom out of one big lake, fly about forty five minutes to an
17:51
hour, depending on the weather, and then land in a smaller lake miles
17:55
and miles away. No roads used to be. We didn't have any conduct
17:57
at all other than there was some kind of radio that could get out for
18:02
emergencies and you'd come out of there not knowing what happened a week later.
18:06
I mean, most inter thing I had we went in Dad and I went
18:08
into camp when Tyson was getting ready to fight Evander Holyfield. Yeah, and
18:12
maybe the second time maybe was it ninety six. Anyhow, we came out
18:17
of the camp not knowing what happened. And that's the event when Tyson bite's
18:22
ear. Who could have predicted that. Yeah, it's amazing. But he'll
18:26
be there all week, but he'll he'll and so he'll be gone next week
18:30
as well. But I wanted to talk and in this impacts folks. Uh,
18:37
and it's it's it's must reading for some folks, you know. Uh.
18:41
I heard a conversation recently about, hey, somebody's name was in the
18:45
paper for not paying their taxes or it was you know they saw some of
18:49
those Yeah, yeah, exactly. So explain what I mean, what does
18:52
because it's a little bit of a process. That is a process, and
18:56
so actually that the process has changed in the last two years, so legislature
19:02
modified that process, I think, an attempt really to kind of streamline it.
19:06
It's still it was always kind of convoluted. It was old statutes,
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and now they've redone it so that it I believe most of the processes through
19:15
the State Auditor's office versus or auditor, I believe. So this is if
19:21
you haven't paid your property right. See, if you haven't paid your real
19:22
property taxes on your land. Then used to be a certain time in the
19:27
falls and when you would be published in the paper and then it would go
19:30
up for auction through the sheriff's office. Now the state auditor is doing it,
19:36
and it's at different intervals, so it's not always that same fall time
19:41
slot. In fact, I saw some published for Putnam County last week.
19:44
So if and what that means is it doesn't mean you're going to necessarily lose
19:48
your property. But they will have sales where and I've been to them there.
19:55
Sometimes a lot of people will show up. There's a lot of a
19:56
lot of these properties, and so they'll be having sales at the court else
20:00
and if your property's sold at that sale, you don't lose your property.
20:06
Basically, a certificate is given to the tax lean purchaser and then there's a
20:11
period of time where they that purchaser has to give all interested parties, people
20:18
that are interested in the property, owners of the property, lean holders in
20:22
the property. So if somebody has a judgment against you and it's recorded and
20:25
it's against that property as well. The person who's trying to buy it and
20:29
get a deed through a tax sale has to notify all those folks of the
20:33
right to redeem, the right to pay all those back taxes and have the
20:36
property basically be restored to the way it was before the taxes went delinquent.
20:41
And so that used to be a year and a half time period where you
20:47
had to redeem it. Now it's a shorter time period. I'm not sure
20:51
of the exact time period, but you still get or to get notice.
20:56
Now it's not that necessarily somebody at attack so has to hire a private investigator
21:00
and go try and figure out who all the interested parties are. It's mostly
21:03
based on what is found at the courthouse through a regular title search. And
21:07
so if you get noticed that you have a right to redeem, you just
21:12
got to figure out whether it's something worth it or not. Because if you
21:15
pay the redemption but you own it, let's say it's airship property, own
21:18
it with ten other people, you're going to pay probably the whole thing in
21:22
order to get it restored back to where it was. And obviously you're paying
21:25
on behalf of others and you can't necessarily back on getting that money back.
21:27
So there's an analysis there. But yeah, if your name is in the
21:32
paper, that's a long ways from actually losing your property. Now, if
21:37
you get notice, or if the person that purchased it does a reasonable search
21:41
and gives notice of the right to redeem to everyone they could find that has
21:45
an interest in the property, and you fail to redeem it, then eventually
21:49
a deed will be issued from the government to that tax purchaser and then they
21:53
will own it. Now, there is a statute limitations, which I believe
21:59
is two years from the time they get a deed, where any of those
22:00
interested parties could come back and file a lawsuit and try and set it aside
22:06
saying I didn't get proper notice. So you have a two year what's three
22:10
years? I think it's two now it might be three years actually after the
22:12
deed tax deed comes out where it's not like the right to redeem, it's
22:17
not automatic, but those owners or previous owners would have an opportunity to file
22:23
a lawsuit and say, hey, we want this deed set aside because we
22:26
didn't get notice of the right to redeem. Now that if you win that
22:30
case, you got to pay all your back taxes back or you don't get
22:33
it back. So that's the process. Now there's also a provision that lets
22:37
somebody to taxial file a lawsuit after they get the deed to quiet titles.
22:41
So if I want to I bought what I think is a nice piece of
22:45
property to tax seal. I think I did all the notices of the right
22:48
to redeem properly. Now I want to market. I want to be able
22:52
to have people borrow against it because there's a good title to it. I
22:55
don't necessarily have to wait that two or three years for the statute of limitations
22:57
to run. I can fillo a laws suit myself asked the court to declare
23:02
that I gave everybody proper notice, so I own it free and clear,
23:06
good to go. Right now, you've got to join everybody in that lawsuit
23:08
that had the notice of the right to redeem. So sometimes I've never filed
23:12
that because I'm not using it on that side of the equation. But it
23:17
can wake sleeping dogs and backfire, and then there maybe there are notice issues
23:21
that the tax purchaser wasn't aware of and they've become aware of them, and
23:22
then they lose the property, So you've been on more of the side of
23:26
people who maybe been notified or Yeah, I've had folks that a lot of
23:30
times. It happens where you know, when you get a deed to property,
23:36
you buy it, the taxes the next summer come out the way they
23:40
were July first of the summer before. So if you do a real estate
23:44
closing on July thirtieth, for example, next summer, the tax tickets mist
23:52
likely going to be mailed and will still be in the name of the previous
23:53
owner. So if you don't take some affirmative action or they don't give it
24:00
to you, or your taxes aren't an escro with your lender, you can
24:03
miss that one because it didn't never came to you, it went to somebody
24:07
else. And now I don't know that they'll let you pay subsequent years taxes
24:11
when the previous year wasn't paid. But I've had that happen multiple times,
24:15
and folks get behind because they missed that when they just redeem it and get
24:18
caught up. But yes, I usually I am on the side of the
24:22
the owner that had a delinquency issue, and sometimes it's health problems, physical
24:29
mental health, other issues. But if you see, you know, if
24:33
you didn't get if you didn't get noticed and you didn't know if you're right
24:37
to redeem or didn't receive notice of it, you always have a potential case
24:40
and it's worth calling around to see if maybe we can help you out.
24:42
Yeah. Yeah, it sounds just like I know they tried to clean up
24:45
a little bit that it was kind of an imperfect system. I mean,
24:48
I know it works stelf out, but it's just maybe it's just the nature
24:51
of it. It can't you cause it's property. It can't go real fast.
24:56
Well, no, it can't go real fast. And you know it's
24:59
one it's gone, and somebody's improving it. I mean that's the other thing
25:03
you got. What if they become much more convoluted when somebody buys Let's say
25:07
it's an old apartment that was run down or duplex and they've put fifty thousand
25:12
dollars into it in those two years of cash money they had to renovate.
25:17
Well, then somebody comes and has set aside, so you get a whole
25:19
mess. Well what about the increasing value of the property the person put into
25:22
it when they're I've seen it go both ways? Well, they waive their
25:26
right to get that value because they decided to take the risk and build on
25:30
it when they didn't really have concrete title for sure at that point. So
25:34
it can become complicated. But and you see a lot of a lot of
25:40
the purchases of tax deeds that are not like just me going out or you
25:44
going out just to see what's there. It's companies that buy a lot of
25:48
them, and then if it's something junkie, they just let it go back.
25:52
But you know they get a gym every now and then where somebody just
25:55
there's a mix up in airship or something, and you get a good,
25:57
high value property for low price, and if you can get good title,
26:02
then they can make some money on it. But it's not as easy.
26:06
A lot of folks clients of mine and and friends of mine, like,
26:08
well let's buy a property to tax sale. Well, you don't own it.
26:11
There's a lot to do after that. You've buy that certificate to get
26:15
good title. It's not that easy. The safest things to hire a lawyer
26:18
to do a thorough title search and make search is done right, But you're
26:21
going to spend some money to do that. Add a lot of times people
26:22
buying properties at tax sales. They're buying them there because they don't have money
26:26
to spend on lawyers, and so we some I've had to come in after
26:30
the fact and correct issues to make sure they do get the property they were
26:33
trying to buy as well. But yeah, it's it's still a convoluted system.
26:37
As this new collection scheme in the statutes gets in place for a few
26:44
more years and we see how it plays out, I think it will make
26:48
the process simpler and more streamlined and clarified. But we when you're trying to
26:53
implement statutes and there's a lot of practical elements to it, logistics, people
27:00
have got to figure out how to do it right. And that's you know.
27:02
I mean, I think they brought a whole when they did the big
27:04
sale in Putnam last year and one of the first ones under this new statute.
27:07
I mean, there were a lot of employees there from state office because
27:11
they had to come down and just try and get it all organized, and
27:14
it was it was busy, right, So it'll get more streamlined, right.
27:18
Eight forty nine three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty number to
27:22
call with Tom Payton on the Peyton law Firmer Nitro our text lines three oh
27:26
four nine three five five zero zero eight. Three oh four nine three five
27:30
five zero zero eight. I wanted to ask you about this is another Canawh
27:36
County case and kind of a expect you're going to start here in just about
27:40
ten minutes of hearing. This is on the Systemville shed case and the article.
27:45
Yeah, the two defendants I think Donald Lance and Jean White Feather charged
27:49
in connection with you know, their adopted kids putting them in a shed.
27:55
And but there's whole, this whole kind of under lying thing about their original
28:00
bond and how they got the money. So I'm not one hundred percent sure
28:04
of the current procedural status. To me, it sounds like they were charged
28:10
in probably through master court initially and hadn't been presented to the grand jury yet,
28:15
which ultimately is what will happen because of felonies. And now they've been
28:22
indicted. But the indictment is more charges than they were initially charged with.
28:26
Now that's not uncommon. So when you get charged in magistrict court in West
28:30
Virginia's criminal system, if it's a felony, it's almost just to get folks
28:36
under bond and make sure they know they're charged, they're not committing more crimes
28:41
because that would be a violation of their bond. But and the masterrates can
28:44
hold a preliminary hearing, you have a right to it, but that's just
28:48
a probable cause hearing, and it's not guilt or innocence. And if you're
28:52
charging master at court, for example, and the master that finds no probable
28:56
cause, the prosecutor can still indict you on the same charges laid. So
29:00
it's a I've had clients that you really don't want it to be dismissed at
29:04
of preliminary hearing because, for example, you paid a bail bonds when to
29:07
post your bond. Well, if if it's dismissed, your bonds released,
29:11
But when you get indicted, you're charged again, you got to post another
29:14
bond, So you might just want to stay on bond and let it go.
29:18
But so I think what's happened here is they've gotten additional charges when it
29:22
got to the indictment stage, which is not at all unusual, but it's
29:26
also in a sense a new case. Most of the time, I would
29:30
say, in my experience, when you're indicted, if you've already posted bond,
29:36
the circuit judge will just keep the bond in place that you'd already posted,
29:41
and most of the time the charges are the same, were very very
29:42
similar to the ones you were charged with in my aster courd. Anyway,
29:45
in this case they've got multiple felonies charge in addition to what they were charged
29:51
with before that are of course just allegations at this point, but extremely serious.
29:56
So their bonds were two hundred thousand lawar's cash apiece a piece. So
30:03
Judge Acres, seeing the new charges, has modified the bond and increased it
30:10
from two hundred thousand dollars cash apiece to five hundred thousand dollars cash apiece.
30:12
Then you're like, and they have appointed lawyers and they were able to post
30:17
two hundred thousand dollars cash bond apiece. What gives there? How can you
30:22
don't get an appointed lawyer in a criminal case unless you're indigent. You fill
30:26
out forms and tell the court system your financial status, and if you qualify
30:30
and there's jail time possible, then you get a lawyer appointed to you,
30:34
paid for by the state. But this posting bond with cash in those amounts,
30:42
questions, Well, how would they get appointed lawyers if they have that
30:45
much castling around it. But it looks like the prosecutors figured out that they
30:51
have the mail defendant has a brother in Montana who sold some seve hundred fifty
30:59
thousand dollars worth of produit and right after that that's when their bond got posted
31:03
in February. UH. Now they're not they haven't done to post the bond
31:07
that was just set yesterday. But there's some I'm not sure it's the crux
31:12
of the hearing today. I guess we'll see, but there's some allusion to
31:18
the prosecutor trying to connect that bond money back to UH, saying it's contra
31:23
fruit to it's contraband, it's the fruit of crime, relating it back to
31:29
these allegations of child trafficking and child labor and things like that, which is
31:33
what they're alleging now be some neglect with where the kids were essentially, So
31:37
they're basically saying it's dirty money, right, that's right, and they're they're
31:41
but I'm not sure what they're saying. They want to have happy, they
31:45
want the I think they want the judge who's Mary clear Akers to arrest you
31:51
know, which is kind of a different term. They want to arrest the
31:53
funds. Yes, that's right, and there was some some reference to putting
31:56
it into trust fund for the kids or something. Based on what I read
32:00
in the article on w Metron, it is what the prosecutor is saying.
32:04
I don't think that's going to get anywhere I've had I mean, especially if
32:08
the money came from the sale of property at least partially owned by somebody else.
32:15
In Montana, if they want to make a gift by posting a bond,
32:19
then they're allowed to do that. And I don't that's to fourfoot somebody's
32:23
money or property. I mean, there's a whole nut. Forfeiture is an
32:27
issue in West Virginia. If you have something that is an instrumentality of a
32:31
drug deal or something like that, like a vehicle, a truck, or
32:36
the sheriff or the prosecutor can file forfeiture and try and seize it and take
32:39
it. It's a whole process with discovery and potential jury trials. So I
32:44
don't I think this is interesting. I don't think it's going to result in
32:47
that money being what I would call clawed back or taken by the state.
32:52
And used or direct it in any particular form. I don't think it will
32:54
happen. I will. I had the case I had recently with down in
33:00
Cabal County where my client's son was killed and some deputies were injured in a
33:06
shooting. It was long before I was involved in the case. His bomb
33:09
was set at three hundred thousand dollars cash. He was in jail for a
33:13
few weeks, but he had actually members of a religious organization gathered up funds
33:20
and deposited the whole three hundred thousand dollars in cash, so he was able
33:23
to stay out on bond in that case went on for years and when he
33:28
was convicted and Judge Howard then remanded him the day of the verdict to jail
33:32
and revoked his bond. Now that three hundred thousand dollars then was released because
33:36
his bond's not posted any longer. But he I was appointed in that case
33:39
and so with the other lawyers. But it wasn't his money, you know,
33:44
somebody else had gratuitously posted that bond for him and he didn't have access
33:50
to it beyond that, so he was still eligible for appointed counsel. But
33:53
that's well it'll be interested to see how that plays out. You know,
33:57
if the if the man defendant in this case in Systemville also owned an interest
34:04
in that Montana property, he should have disclosed that on his it's an affiday,
34:08
but basically under you know, financial affidavit, you know, he should
34:12
have disclosed that he either owned the property an interest in it, or he
34:15
was getting cash from the sale, and probably wouldn't be entiled to a point
34:20
of lawyer anymore. So I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, Ja Jakers
34:22
has been around for a while and she can ask whatever questions she feels are
34:27
appropriate. So I wouldn't be surprised if you don't get some conversation about that.
34:30
Well, now, if it was his brother's property and not he his
34:34
name wasn't on it, then I think it's nothing will happen in that regard.
34:37
Oh, they're going to they'll be in jail unless they can kind of
34:39
post the five yes, the five hundred thousand, which may just be an
34:43
additional three hundred for each of them, which is still a substantial bond at
34:46
least by West Virginia standards. Right right, Wow, it's a it's an
34:51
interesting case and just has some twists and turns in it that you don't often
34:54
here. Three o four three four five fifty eight fifty eight three oh four
34:58
three four five fifty eight Tom Peyton with a Peyton Law Firm in Nitro.
35:02
You mentioned it earlier in the show, but again the best way to get
35:06
a hold of your contact you can Yeah, you can call us at the
35:08
office. It's three zero four seven, five five five, five, five
35:13
six seven, bunch of fives and a six, and you can stop by
35:17
twenty to one first Avenue. Stop by anytime normal office hours. We try
35:21
and be there by eight in the morning and then we lock the front door
35:23
at five o'clock. You can also go to our website at Peyton Lawfirm dot
35:28
com and submit a question that goes right to my computer and dad's computer,
35:31
so you can email us any question you have, responses to initial questions,
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calls office consults if you happen to run into us when you stop by.
35:40
We never charged for that. If we're ever going to charge it, we're
35:43
gonna let you know ahead of time and engage in actual representation. And then
35:50
you can go to our Facebook page, which is pretty good too, So
35:52
we got try and keep it updated. And you can see a throwback picture
35:57
of Dad holding a rather large fish in Canada right now if you go to
35:59
it. But yep, those are the best ways to get ahold of us.
36:04
We did kind of started to touch on this last week because it's one
36:07
of those things you don't think about. We do a decent amount of condemnation
36:09
cases or eminent domain cases, and I didn't have any. And that's where
36:15
the it doesn't have to be the Department of Transportation, Department Highways. That's
36:19
probably that's the most common, that's the one I've dealt with the most.
36:21
But when any time the government wants to utilize land not owned by it,
36:27
by owned by private citizens for a public use, they have the right of
36:30
what's called eminent domain, come and take property. And normally that's just about
36:36
and the government's allowed to do that generally, and then they have to pay
36:39
for it, and so normally it's just about what kind of compensation are you
36:44
going to get because most of the time you can't stop the government from taking
36:47
your property. Can I read a text? Oh yeah, yeah, this
36:52
is this is a complementary text from a Texter named Joe. Oh well,
36:54
you got to read that. Yeah, we use Payton Law Firm a few
36:58
months ago for a state planning very kind to us, reasonable costs. Enjoyed
37:01
working with them. Joe test of that. Yeah, we're try and make
37:07
our estate planning appointments as painless as possible. But yeah, that's and we
37:09
do a lot of the state planning too. We don't have much time left
37:13
right here, probably so, but yeah, if you have an a state
37:15
planning issue, it is pretty you know, I had multiple folks in this
37:19
week already and probably half of them say, well, that wasn't that bad.
37:22
And I guess growing up with a lawyer and being one all my adult
37:27
life for the most part, you forget how it can be intimidating for folks
37:30
sometimes to come in. But what you hear in the radio is what you
37:34
hear in the office, So you know, you really do kind of know
37:36
us when you listen to the radio show. But it's it's pretty simple.
37:38
With a state planning You call our office, set an appointment. First appointment
37:42
usually takes half hour forty five minutes. You really don't need to bring anything.
37:45
You have to have an idea of who you want to get things when
37:50
you pass away and we take it from there and then you have one more
37:52
short appointment and we have everything done, usually a month or so later.
37:55
So it's pretty pretty harmless process, and it's just one of those things everybody
38:00
puts off and it's not too late till it's too late. So I think
38:04
most people leave our office when we get their estate planning done, relieve that
38:07
that's one more thing they don't have to think about getting done. Good seeing
38:10
you time, appreciate it all right. Paint Law Firm dot Com three oh
38:15
four seven five five fifty five fifty six. ABC News is next on five
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