Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 01/08/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey Peyton

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01/08/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey Peyton · WCHS Network Podcasts

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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 five adwchs it's
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  Speaker 1: employees or WVRC media of Courts.
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  Speaker 2: Oh created equal. Well, mass come here and a Kate.
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  Speaker 3: Can drop up.
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  Speaker 4: And with that, welcome to five adw CCHS, the Voice
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  Speaker 4: of Charleston. I'm Jeff Jenkins, filling in today for Delle
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  Speaker 4: Cooper and Harvey Payton is here because when you hear
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  Speaker 4: that music that open, that means it's time for the
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  Speaker 4: Peyton Law Firm, a Thursday morning institution on this ninety
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  Speaker 4: eight year old radio station, five ADWCHS.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we've been here for more than a quarter of
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  Speaker 2: your existence, then, is this is a year like maybe
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  Speaker 2: year twenty seven, and I am now relegated to the
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  Speaker 2: role of filling in for Tom Payton. You fill in
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  Speaker 2: for Coop, I fill in for Tom. It's really great
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  Speaker 2: to be here this morning. It was a little foggy
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  Speaker 2: down in the valley, but so I left early and
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  Speaker 2: it turned out not to be foggy traveling up the interstate,
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  Speaker 2: so I had time to go by. You're familiar with
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  Speaker 2: Charleston breads, Yes, South the lower end of Capitol Street. Man.
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  Speaker 2: They have the best cookies in the world. And my
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  Speaker 2: wife always says, please don't go there, but I like
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  Speaker 2: to take cookies back to the office. I take some
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  Speaker 2: down to the ladies at the courthouse as well. But
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  Speaker 2: it's so I was. It was only about seven forty
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  Speaker 2: five when I crossed the Elk River bridge. There. Well,
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  Speaker 2: I'll just brother Charleston breads. They're out in the car.
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  Speaker 2: But I couldn't help it. I want cookie.
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  Speaker 1: There you go.
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  Speaker 4: That's why she doesn't want you to get the cookies.
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  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's a big reason. So we had a
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  Speaker 2: sad thing happened in the legal community here. The Western
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  Speaker 2: State Bar puts out the Bar Blast and the Western
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  Speaker 2: Bar Association also has an i Memorium section where, updated
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  Speaker 2: on a regular basis, are attorneys who have practiced in
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  Speaker 2: West Virginia to pass away in the preceding year, and
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  Speaker 2: they're there in the sort of chronological order. The last
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  Speaker 2: entry for twenty twenty five, sadly was James McQueen, one
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  Speaker 2: of those lawyers who's dot high Z. You didn't see
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  Speaker 2: Gem's picture on billboards, you didn't see him on TV,
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  Speaker 2: but he was probably one of the best most ethical,
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  Speaker 2: studious civil law practitioners in this region. I mean he
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  Speaker 2: was from well More, a mate wand so he was
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  Speaker 2: from Mingo County. He attended the Naval Academy, where he
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  Speaker 2: was on the same team with Roger Staubach. Jim then
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  Speaker 2: gradually law school practiced in Huntingdon. I actually did defense
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  Speaker 2: work for a long time with major firms, and then
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  Speaker 2: we like to say, well, Jim, you saw the light.
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  Speaker 2: He came over to the good side, and so he
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  Speaker 2: engaged in some pretty major civil litigation. It's one of
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  Speaker 2: these people you really hate the wait. You know, every
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  Speaker 2: life has value, but Jim mc queen, as far as
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  Speaker 2: the law business in this area known by all in
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  Speaker 2: a real asset of the profession. He died at twenty
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  Speaker 2: second of December after about with pancreatic cancer. He was
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  Speaker 2: eighty two, you know, but I still I consider that
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  Speaker 2: young now now that I'm seventy six. I told my
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  Speaker 2: wife the other day, if something happens to me, don't
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  Speaker 2: let him put in the paper elderly Putnam County man
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  Speaker 2: lasses away. I don't want to be classified as elderly.
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  Speaker 2: Although the news currently can certainly put some age on
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  Speaker 2: you in this age of stress. One of the things
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  Speaker 2: I read about yesterday. Looked at some video, read again
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  Speaker 2: in the New York Times this morning in the Post
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  Speaker 2: and the Wall Street Journal, and saw some commentary terrible
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  Speaker 2: thing in Minneapolis yesterday we had an officer involved incident
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  Speaker 2: where a thirty seven year old woman, Aspilion was killed
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  Speaker 2: apparently by a gunshot, a gunfire from an ICE agent
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  Speaker 2: Immigration and Customs Enforcement. I CE, although we don't even
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  Speaker 2: know that yet. Right, I'm looking at this and thinking,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the failure in this situation, there's a failure somewhere.
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  Speaker 2: Things just don't usually happen for a single reason, and
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  Speaker 2: the occurrence certainly calls for a thorough and complete investigation.
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  Speaker 2: It did not call for You've got officials like the
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  Speaker 2: Secretary of Homelands or whatever she is Homeland Security of
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  Speaker 2: his known gave a purportedly factual account of the occurrence,
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  Speaker 2: which turned out after some time to be inaccurate. Now,
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  Speaker 2: so the first thing people say is, well, that's a lie. Well,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if it's a lie. A lie is
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  Speaker 2: generally wilfully stating of false, but but over anxious, irresponsible,
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  Speaker 2: maybe not competent disclosure of unverified information it's dangerous. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: we saw that with the FBI director talking about the
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  Speaker 2: Brown University shootings and the sad and tragic occurrences of
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  Speaker 2: our guardsmen in DC. But I'm looking at this thinking
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  Speaker 2: from the stand how how would this be looked at
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  Speaker 2: by lawyers, by practitioners who are really good at what
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  Speaker 2: we do, people like us at the Peyton Law Firm,
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  Speaker 2: people like Jim McQueen, people like Bobby Warner or Steve Farmer,
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  Speaker 2: Scott Siegel. How what would you do? Well, First of all,
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  Speaker 2: there was airbag deployment on the vehicle. For the listeners
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  Speaker 2: who haven't heard of this, a lady in Minneapolis who
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  Speaker 2: was allegedly as a part of a protest against ICE
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  Speaker 2: activity in the city, had her car parked partially blocking
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  Speaker 2: traffic on a residential street which was viewed by and
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  Speaker 2: apparently it was an area to which ICE wanted access.
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  Speaker 2: Now we don't know that, but that's what it looks like.
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  Speaker 2: The car was approached by masked and uniformed individuals, one
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  Speaker 2: of whom made an attempt to open the door, and
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  Speaker 2: it would appear that the driver was distracted and looking
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  Speaker 2: to her left, when at about the same time, a
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  Speaker 2: third apparent law enforcement officer approached from the opposite direction
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  Speaker 2: of her field of vision, stepped in front of the
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  Speaker 2: car and drew a weapon, which was then discharged at
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  Speaker 2: some point. The car then rapidly accelerated and collided with
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  Speaker 2: another vehw air bag deployment occurred. The lady was pronounced
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  Speaker 2: dead at the scene. Now, there are a lot of
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  Speaker 2: things there that you could assume, if you want to
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  Speaker 2: assume things. I thought the mayor of Minneapolis got way
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  Speaker 2: over his skis yesterday. I think the word murder has
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  Speaker 2: been used a number of times. What the accurate phrasing
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  Speaker 2: is is a homicide was committed. There was a homicide.
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  Speaker 2: Homicide is the killing of one human being by another.
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  Speaker 2: It's not a murder. It's not necessarily a crime. It
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  Speaker 2: is a fact. It is a manner of death. The
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  Speaker 2: manner of death was homicide. Maybe maybe the vehicle crashed
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  Speaker 2: into another vehicle, an air bag deployment occurred. Now that
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  Speaker 2: doesn't require a lot of force, but air bags in
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  Speaker 2: and of themselves and cause significant injury to occupants to drivers.
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  Speaker 2: So until we get a you know, an accurate and
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  Speaker 2: thorough postportum examination report which states the cause of death,
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  Speaker 2: all this is a bit premature, and the appropriate way
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  Speaker 2: I think that we should be looking this at this
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  Speaker 2: as Americans, regardless of your partisan view, is well, let's
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  Speaker 2: wait till we get the facts, because here's what really
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  Speaker 2: good lawyers who litigate automobile cases and trucking cases. No,
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  Speaker 2: every modern automobile sold in the United States has a
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  Speaker 2: vehicle data recorder mounted generally under the passenger seat. It's
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  Speaker 2: called a black box. It's just like the black box
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  Speaker 2: in an airplane, and it keys. It's constantly recording on
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  Speaker 2: a loop. Is the is somebody's foot on the brake,
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  Speaker 2: is the seat belt fastened? What's the engine RPMs? What's
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  Speaker 2: the speed of the vehicle, what is the degree of acceleration?
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  Speaker 2: It measures about six different functions including yaw on pitch,
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  Speaker 2: you know, and it keys all but it constantly loops.
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  Speaker 2: But then it keys on air bag deployment when the
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  Speaker 2: air bag deploys. When the sensor that deploys the air
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  Speaker 2: bag first begins in that microsecond to pick up enough
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  Speaker 2: force to deploy the air bag, then that data recorder
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  Speaker 2: freezes the previous minimum of five seconds of information relative
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  Speaker 2: to the vehicle. So now we've got film and you've
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  Speaker 2: got a result. You've got the beginning, which is an
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  Speaker 2: agent getting out of a car and approaching the driver's door,
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  Speaker 2: and we've got an ending, which is an air bag
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  Speaker 2: deployment collision. Now, those air bag deployment records are printed
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  Speaker 2: in milliseconds, not seconds, but milliseconds. So you take that
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  Speaker 2: and you look at the at the various videos, and
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  Speaker 2: then you do a third thing. You get somebody we
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  Speaker 2: use or have used in the past, a company from
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  Speaker 2: a Phoenix that comes in and they set up sensors
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  Speaker 2: GPS sensors all around the scene and simply just scan it.
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  Speaker 2: And thereby you have every fixed object that is visible
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  Speaker 2: in that video. It's frozen in a digital depiction of
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  Speaker 2: the scene. So you take this is and they can
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  Speaker 2: do this. I mean, this is really great stuff. I've
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  Speaker 2: seen it. I've been involved in cases where we did it.
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  Speaker 2: You go start back from that deployment and you can
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  Speaker 2: time place every movement of every person within that digitally
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  Speaker 2: defined area to the millisecond, and then you correspond those
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  Speaker 2: movements with the timing. So when you can see an
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  Speaker 2: officer draw his weapon, where was the accelerator in the car?
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  Speaker 2: What was the engine rpm? When you can see a
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  Speaker 2: muzzle flash. Where was the engine rpm? When did the
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  Speaker 2: acceleration commence? When did the direction of travel change? Which
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  Speaker 2: you can see on the data recorder. So this is
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  Speaker 2: not an occurrence that happened just on a street corner
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  Speaker 2: where there was an interaction between well, what happened? What happened?
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  Speaker 2: That was in Kansas City where there was an officer
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  Speaker 2: involved shooting. They were out of the car, they were
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  Speaker 2: on the street, there was a scuffle, somebody was shot.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, those rely exclusively on eyewitnesses, which are notoriously
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  Speaker 2: inaccurate in aggravated situations. This is an occurrence, if everybody
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  Speaker 2: will just stop and make the statement, this is under investigation.
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  Speaker 2: This is a serious and tragic event. We cannot rule
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  Speaker 2: out officer misconduct or a failure of training. We can't
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  Speaker 2: rule out accident. We can't rule out anything, but we
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  Speaker 2: believe we will be able to know where everything was
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  Speaker 2: to the millisecond now starting five seconds back, and I've
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  Speaker 2: looked at the video, it's well within a you think
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  Speaker 2: it's a long time. You look at you ask somebody, well,
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  Speaker 2: how long did it take? Oh, gosh, a minute. Well,
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  Speaker 2: lawyers love that because generally it's about three seconds. I
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  Speaker 2: mean from first impact to fatality. The last really terrible case,
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  Speaker 2: I was involved in an involved reconstruction out of Mason County.
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  Speaker 2: A wonderful woman, a school teacher from West Virginia working
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  Speaker 2: over in the Ohio side. Some drug handle bum rear
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  Speaker 2: into her car and pushed her into another vehicle and
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  Speaker 2: the ultimate results she was ejected. But all of that,
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  Speaker 2: which took over two hundred and fifty feet of a roadway,
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  Speaker 2: took place in less than three seconds. You're alive, you're dead,
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  Speaker 2: and that's unfortunately the way it happens. Then you take
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  Speaker 2: that then you really got to work with the medical
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  Speaker 2: examiner because I noticed there was sudden acceleration of the vehicle. Well,
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  Speaker 2: if the victim was shot in the head, and that's
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  Speaker 2: the report, and again that's just the report. One of
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  Speaker 2: the reasons that officers are cautioned against shooting at moving
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  Speaker 2: vehicles is there can be a microlonic nerve reaction to
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  Speaker 2: a blow of the head or a shot to the head.
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  Speaker 2: It can cause a person to slam on the brakes
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  Speaker 2: or if their foots on the accelerator, to suddenly accelerate.
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  Speaker 2: It's not a life intentional it's a neurotic reaction to
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  Speaker 2: a brain injury, So is that what happened? I mean,
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  Speaker 2: until we know all that, I just think it's a
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  Speaker 2: rush to judgment. I will see this my conclusion, at
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  Speaker 2: least in my mind, and looking at the videotape, I
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  Speaker 2: don't know what was in the mind of the officer
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  Speaker 2: who pulled the trigger, if that was in fact the
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  Speaker 2: cause of death. But unless he somehow had formulated a
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  Speaker 2: malicious and specific intent to kill this person before the
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  Speaker 2: occurrence commenced, it's not a murder. It's a homicide. It
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  Speaker 2: may be a justifiable homicide, which is self defense. It
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  Speaker 2: may be unjustifiable, but not murder, not delivered and intentional,
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  Speaker 2: not malicious, So it might be a manslaughter. Well, we
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  Speaker 2: just have to wait and see. And you know, it's
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  Speaker 2: just hard for me as a lawyer. I'm sure for
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  Speaker 2: other lawyers who read this and look at this. If
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  Speaker 2: you do the kind of work that we do and
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  Speaker 2: have done for decades at the Payton Law Firm and
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  Speaker 2: say well we can figure this out, everybody calmed down,
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  Speaker 2: and nobody's going to like the result. But there's enough
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  Speaker 2: data there from what I saw. These interactions mean you
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  Speaker 2: can get every video. I would think the FBI suspect
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  Speaker 2: the special agent in charge there in Minneapolis, seize that
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  Speaker 2: vehicle right now. Don't let anybody in that car the
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  Speaker 2: get the download, take custody of the black box, get
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  Speaker 2: it out of there, get it into a secure location.
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  Speaker 2: Get everybody that you can identify, every phone that you
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  Speaker 2: can identify from a cell tower that was there at
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  Speaker 2: the scene, and go to that person and ask to
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  Speaker 2: see their phone and see if they've got a new video.
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  Speaker 2: Put them all together. I mean, look, what we figured
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  Speaker 2: out was the supruder film. On the supruder film, which
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: was an old what sixteen millimeter or eight millimeter a
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  Speaker 2: film taken by an amateur photographer on a knoll on
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  Speaker 2: a Friday afternoon of November in Dallas. We were able
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  Speaker 2: to figure out because there was an open microphone on
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  Speaker 2: a motorcycle about one hundred feet away that picked up
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  Speaker 2: the gunshots. We were able to sync those together and
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  Speaker 2: can can put together sequence of the murder of John Kennedy.
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  Speaker 2: So if we could do that that's been what sixty
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  Speaker 2: plus years ago, sixty two years we will know that
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  Speaker 2: there's sufficient data at least from what I saw and
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  Speaker 2: from the people I have worked with and the work
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  Speaker 2: product I've seen that we will have a three dimensional
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  Speaker 2: artificial intelligence generated accurate to the millisecond recreation of what
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  Speaker 2: happened on that street in Minnesota. We should have it
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  Speaker 2: within sixty ninety days, right, and then once you have that,
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  Speaker 2: then let's see what happens. But that's one thing a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people just don't realize about the car wrecks.
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  Speaker 2: That vehicle data recorders. They weren't really universal before about
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  Speaker 2: the year ninety eight or two thousand, but they're universal now.
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  Speaker 2: And they're also universal in over the road I mean
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  Speaker 2: every vehicle over the road trucks. It's harder to download
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  Speaker 2: over the road trucks they use a different A lot
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  Speaker 2: of them are volvos or offshore. They use a little
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  Speaker 2: bit different software. But you can get the information. And
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  Speaker 2: so this is not one we can't figure out. It's
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  Speaker 2: just using words like murder or prorism, or attempt to
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  Speaker 2: kill an officer or just at this point I think
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  Speaker 2: unjustified and really disrespectful not only to the woman who's dead,
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  Speaker 2: but to the officer who's involved, which is how you
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  Speaker 2: have to judge these cases. I mean, you have to
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  Speaker 2: judge that officer's conduct based upon what he saw right,
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  Speaker 2: what he reasonably perceived, not what he just perceived because
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  Speaker 2: he wanted to perceive it, but what a reasonable person
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  Speaker 2: in the law enforcement business would perceive the risk to
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  Speaker 2: have been at the moment he discharged his weapon. He
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  Speaker 2: may have been wrong, but if his perception was reasonable
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  Speaker 2: to act upon, then it's not a crap. It's not
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  Speaker 2: even civil liability for a police officer. It would be
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  Speaker 2: for civilian, but not for a police officer.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, that's Harvey Payton, and that's what they do, some
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: of the things they do. Harvey talking about there, what
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: happened up in Minneapolis, and that's that's that's good information.
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: Our lines are open. Three O four three four five
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: fifty eight fifty eight. Three oh four three four five
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: fifty eight fifty eight. Harvey is here, it's eight thirty nine.
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: Will be back in just a moment here on five
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: to eighty w schs the Force of Charleston.
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: If you've been injured, you need a lawyer who knows
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: West Virginia because they live in West Virginia. Tom and
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: Harvey Peyton were born and raised here. They've spent decades
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: fighting for injury victims and they know how to get results.
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: At the Peyton Law Firm, you get straight talk, strong representation,
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  Speaker 5: and local attorneys who care. Call seven five five fifty
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  Speaker 5: five fifty six today or visit Peyton Lawfirm dot com.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: The attorney's referenced in this ad or lifelong residence and
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  Speaker 1: are licensed to practice law in the state of West Virginia.
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  Speaker 4: Welcome back to ask the lawyer with Harvey Payton at
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  Speaker 4: the Payton Law Firm in Nitro. Three oh four, three
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  Speaker 4: four five fifty eight fifty eight is our number, and
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  Speaker 4: you can get a hold of the Peyton Law Firm
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: a couple of ways.
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  Speaker 2: Harvey Well, of course our telephone number three oh four
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  Speaker 2: seven five five fifty five fifty six. We're always available.
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  Speaker 2: We return every call every day if we can. If
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  Speaker 2: we're not available to take your call when you call in,
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: it's harder and harder all the time to do that
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  Speaker 2: because the volume of business sometimes dictates otherwise. We try
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  Speaker 2: and return every call as soon as we possibly can,
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  Speaker 2: and if we don't, if you call the office, sometimes
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  Speaker 2: message and you don't get a call back from either
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  Speaker 2: me or Tom, you can just call a radio station
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  Speaker 2: near the next week and shame us. You know, we're
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: not afraid of that. We put our name out here
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: every day and you can call and ask questions about
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: our work. We're not fall law, law, law law or
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: anything like that. We're not just the person signature on
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: a billboard or really now in this day and age,
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: the best way is Peytonlawfirm dot com. Peytonlawfirm dot com.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: That's our website. You can see pictures and bios of
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: Tom and I and our staff and our office, what
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: we're about, what we do. And the best thing is
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: there's a a tab on the website where you can
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: send an email question and then that only comes to
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: my desk or Tom's desk. It doesn't go to a
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: clearing house or it's not looked at by anybody else,
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: any other personnel. So there's really good confidentiality there if
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: you if you don't want to give your name, some
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: people give a first name or initials. Folks will say
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: it has an issue on there. How do you want
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: to be contacted? Some folks say, we'll just email me
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: back or send me a text. Some folks don't want
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: to get a phone call. And you can upload a
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: document and send it to us to look at. But
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: you know that gives Tom or I the ability any
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: hour of the day or night to sit down and
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: look at my cell phone. I can see the emails
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: and he and I will communicate who wants to respond
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: to this, We'll get right back to you, and I
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: sit down. A lot of times, I usually get up
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: about five o'clock in the morning. Here the dog has
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: to go out, and well, you know it is you
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: got to get ready to go to work and decompress
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: a little bit. And I'll spend maybe from five until
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: five point thirty looking at the emails. If there's a
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: question there that Tom hasn't answered because we see the responses,
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: and I'll just say I'll take this one and I'll
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: send them a response. It's a really good way to do.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: And the thing is, like most law firms that are
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: on the plane of side as we are, we don't
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: charge people to see if you have a case, to
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: see if it's something we can help you with. I
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: mean spend a lot of time talking to folks on
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: the telephone or looking at documents they may send us.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: And whether it's an accident report for a car wreck,
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: whether it's an insurance policy where there's been a claim denial.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: I personally do a lot of litigation relative to the States.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: You know, if there's a dispute between airs or a
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: question about the validity of a will send me the information.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: I can look at it. I can go online and
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: look at official records, and then we can get back.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: And then if I look it over and think, you know,
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: you're not going to like to answer. But I do
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: not think there's any way I can help you, because
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: here's what the law is, no charge for that. You're
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: welcome to go somewhere else. We don't really have an
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: attorney client relationship. You're just asking if it's something we
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: can help you with, then hey, let's let's get together
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: face to face. You'll talk to either me or Tom.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: You won't talk to a pair of legal or a clearinghouse.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: And yeah, we will talk about here's what we can
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: do for you. Here's how long it's going to take
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: reasonably to get this done. Here's about what it's going
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: to cost, About what it's going to cost. Nobody can
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: predict that with great accuracy. If we've ever dealt with
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: a contractor building a house, you know there's always a
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: glitch in there somewhere, but we're pretty accurate about it.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: And you know Thomas. I listened to Tom's show last week.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: He talked about the fact that even though we do
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: probably eighty percent of our time or the office's time,
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: is involving with automobile accidents, employment law claims from the
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: employee side, we don't really represent banks or insurance companies
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: or large corporate interests. It's just never been what appeals
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: to us because we're on the side of the non
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: vested interest those people who suffered some wronger injury. Although
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: I've represented a lot of really rich people who have
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: suffered some injuries and we've done pretty well. I mean,
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: it's not a qualifying factor. That's about eighty percent of
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: our work, and we're really really good at that, as
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: you can tell from our knowledge about how you analyze
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: an occurrence to find out what the facts are. But
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: probably twenty percent of what the whole office does, and
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: more than that of what I do, is people need help.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: People come in and say, you know, I don't need
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: to write a will, or my dad's sick and he's
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: kind of failing. I need to get a power of
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: attorney done. You know, last week I drew out the
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: Fellow's house. I mean, the man just needed help. Well,
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: you know, all right, I don't want to make a
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: habit of this, but you know he's nice, sincere people
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: hard work and the man was kind of circling the drain,
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: and so we which is something that's getting harder and
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: harder and harder for the public to access. Unfortunately. You
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: know we I've talked about this on the air before.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: You know, attorney advertising, of which this show is a part,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: obviously is protected speech. Commercial speech is free speech under
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: the First Amendment. So long as it's not false or misrepresentative,
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: it's protected. You can't even require a long disclaimer on
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: a legal commercial because if the disclaimer eats up more
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: of the time than the actual ad pitch, then that's
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: a restriction on free speech. But when the first case
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: in the nineteen seventies came out from the United States
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: Supreme Court which prohibited bans on lawyer advertising, they were
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: bar associations all around the country universally who said you
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: cannot advertise, and the public was just that the will
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: and pleasure of the legal community. You had no idea
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: what you couldn't go look for an ad about well,
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: how much is it going to cost me to write?
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: Will how much is it going to cost? What kind
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: of work does this person do? It was a legal
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: aid society in Arizona that brought the case. Well, the
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: purpose was we can drive down costs, we can make
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: consumer choice better. Well, yeah, that was the stated purpose.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Now what's the result been. The result has been that
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: barriers are lowered for a lot of people who really
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: shouldn't be doing some of the things they're doing. Advertising
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: lowers barriers. You can be a twenty eight year old kid,
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: two years out of law school with no real experience.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: You can go buy an ad, borrow one hundred thousand
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: dollars and run some TV ads and dump yourself up
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: some business like you're qualified to do the work that
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: I'm qualified to do because I've been doing it for
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: fifty two years. But at the same time, it doesn't
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: tell the public anymore about where you can go to
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: get some help for an everyday problem. Well, if you
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: have an every day problem, I'm here to tell you.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: I know we can get some help. You can call
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: or email the Peyton Law Firm. But I find it difficult,
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: really really difficult. Disheartening the paucity of lawyers who practice
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: sea level law that helps John Q Citizen or Jane
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Hugh Citizen on Main Street. I've spoke to the former
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: dean of the law school two of the lastings. I
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: don't know that. I don't think they have a new
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: dean yet. There's still an interim who's a really good person.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: By the way. I have sent some cases with her,
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: but said, why don't you have a track up there
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: for town practice. I mean when I was in school
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: law school, which is a long time ago, the faculty
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: made no bones about it. We didn't have a bar exam.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: It's at our job, and they were pretty ruthless. I
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: mean they brutally failed out thirty or forty percent of
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: the people who got in. It's at our job. As
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: we say, it's not to educate lawyers to go to
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: Pittsburgh or New York or Washington, d c. Our job
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: is to educate lawyers that might go to Glenville or
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: Moorfield or Mullins and help people who need help. And
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: we've gotten away from that. You can make a decent living.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: But the idea that every lawyer ought to be able
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: to hit at a big lick on a truck wreck
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: and get rich and go live in Saint Croix is
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: just overblown and harmful to the public. But that's me.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've been really lucky, blessed. I've been doing
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: this for fifty two years, and I'm not wealthy by
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: any stress of the imaginations, but I got enough money
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: left to live the rest of my life, I think
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: comfortably because we worked hard, I mean, and the hard
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: work and dedication and the ability to.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: Wait.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: I'll just say, I'm not dumb either, the smartest guy
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: in the world, but I'm smart enough. I mean, once
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: you've got to figure out when you're a lawyer, is
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: you know what's the risk involved here for my client?
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: How could I minimize that risk in the most economical
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: and efficient way period? I mean, you learn how to
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: think like a lawyer.
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: And sometimes in many times, Harvey, you've had to tell
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: people how you tell people the truth, so that you
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: tell them something that they may not want to hear.
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: That's just part of it.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Well, I've settled across the table in my conference room
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: a lot of times just and now you know the
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: truth is better than fiction. I'm just going to tell
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: you here's what I think. Now you don't have to
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: agree with this, and you're not going to agree with it,
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: but here's the deal, and you know eighty ninety percent
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: of the time said well, I hate to hear that,
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: mister Peyton, but you know I trust you. I mean,
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: if that's what you say, I just had to see
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: if there was anything I could do. So well, I'm
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: not telling you there's nothing you can do. That's my opinion.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: So no, no, and that's it. It doesn't. I mean, I've
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: seen the worst thing you can do, and the public
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: needs to be gone guard against this ping ponging. You
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: go to a lawyer and they don't want to sit
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: there and give you bad news. Well, I don't know,
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: but that's a really great case you've got. There could
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: be really good. But you know I'm busy. So go
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: see so and so.
• 31:29
  Speaker 6: So.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: You go see sow and so and say, well, you
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: know that's not I'm studied up on that. We might
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: know you've got a really good one. The fact is,
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: maybe they'll get down the line to the everybody says,
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: we'll call Harvey said, okay, well I don't mind talking
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: to you, but here's what happened. I just tell what's
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: happened to you. You've been ping ponged any lawyer worth
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: his salt can look at this set of facts on
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: the first day and know that you don't really have
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: a case here, and they just don't want to tell
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: you that. Now I don't want to tell you that either,
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: but that's the truth, and ninety percent of the time
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: they'll say okay and go. So one of the things.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: But another thing that you know, I've had used to
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: do a lot of criminal law when I was practicing
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: pretty actively. Tried a dozen murder cases or homicide cases,
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: some kidnappings, unfortunately, a lot of abuse and robbery. There's
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: an issue about extradition. This fellow Maduro who's down there
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: in Venezuela, and we snatched him. There was a warrant
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: outstanding for his arrest because of an indictment in the
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: Southern District of New York back in twenty seventeen. Actually,
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: the Trump administration at that time put a fifteen million
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: dollar bounty on the guy. The Biden administration raises twenty
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: five and Trump uped at the fifty. Which makes me think,
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: you don't think, President of trouble try and get that money.
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: Do you.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: Now, that's just an evil thought. So we snatched him
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: in a really keen or well orchestrated, well planned military
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: operation for which iron men and women in uniform and
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: in the intelligence community are to be applauded. There was
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: unfortunately loss of life on the Venezuelan side, most of
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: Cubans who are there, with some forced thuggery on behalf
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: of Maduro. It probably wasn't as difficult an operation as
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: the Obama administration's simply execution of Osama bin Lad. They
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: attracted me, and that was in a hostile territory. From
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: a hostile territory to a hostile territory. We lost a
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: piece of equipment. We had a helicopter we had to
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: blow up and leave on the ground. But no fatalities
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: in this case. I guess one soldier was shot up
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: pretty bad and seven others were injured. So but he's
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: in New York. He's up there in Brooklyn in a
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: detention center along with his wife. Now, almost universally, the
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: law in the United States is how you get to
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: the jurisdiction is not relevant to the ability of that
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: jurisdiction to prosecute you. I mean people who have watched
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: the goofy show dog, the bounty hunter. The guy who
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: I mean who would not know he was coming, right.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, if you're a fugitive and you're in hide
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: down some small town in like Iowa, do you think
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: dog the bounty hunter can just drive up and nobody's
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: gonna notice it. It's not going to happen. But we've
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: got I think here in West Virginia, we've got a
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: long history back in the early Lady eight nineteen thirty
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: twentieth century, when the McCoys in the Hatfields were busy
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: trying to kill each other down there in Mingo County
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: and Pike County, of the governor of West Virginia just
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: wouldn't sign warrants the extradite the hat Fields from West
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: Virginia to Kentucky. And likewise, the governor Kentucky was hesitant
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: tit for tat. I think, if I'm not mistaken in
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: some he could certainly correct me that the only Hatfield
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: who was successfully prosecuted and executed in Kentucky for murder,
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: I think a sort of a private detective slash bounty
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: hunter from Kentucky came over here and kidnapped him and
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: put him back across the river. I'm not saying that
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: that's a good thing. But that's the law. So the
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: fact that mister Maduro or President Maduro and his spouse
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: were brought to this country to a military operation that
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: may have may have been in violation of international law.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm not an international law lawyer, but
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: as far as the Southern District of New York, it
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: seems to me the ultimate ruling will be, well, you're
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: here and you were indicted here, so we're going to
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: try you here, which also presents the distinct possibility that
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: it would be found not guilty. Right, I mean, the
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: man's events presumed me to me said well he brought
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: him to justice. Well, now you've brought him to the
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: system of justice. There's a lot of difference said well,
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: we brought this man to justice. Well that will happen
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: if this justice system provides him with a trial. He's
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: now entitled to every right under the Constitution of the
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: United States, period paragraph and until he's proven guilty beyond
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: a reasonable doubt every element of any crime choice against him,
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: he may walk. Now. I don't know if that's going
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: to happen. It didn't happen with the president of Honduras,
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: he'd be in prison in the United states, the President
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Trump hadn't pardoned him, and I don't think Manuel Noriego
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: was ever released. I think he died in prison in Florida,
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: the former president of Pennawa. So we'll see. It's interesting
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: from a lawyer's standpoint, because that question, as far as
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: state court is answered, you know, other than extreme extreme
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: circumstances of some unlawful or criminal misconduct in another state
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: to get a person into this state, the law is
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: if you're here, you're here, how you got here. If
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: you want to sue the person who kidnapp were unlawful
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: detainer or whatever, but you're here and we're going to
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: try you. That's what's going to happen.
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: All right, Harvey, we're winding down here. Best way to
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: get a hold of you and Tom here.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: Well, the best way to get a hold of tomorrow, Well,
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: you can stop by the office at twenty eight oh
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: one First Avenue. We have a really nice office. It's
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: only about twenty minutes from the studio here or from
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: Hurricane or Cross Lane Saint Albans. Stop in. If Tom
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: or I are there and available, we'll see you. If not,
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: Melody or one of the ladies will take your info.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: We'll call you or go online to Peyton Lawfirm dot com.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: We're here to help Pete. We want to help you.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: If you're hurt, you're injured, if you have just something
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: you want to talk to somebody about that, you can
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: try contact the Peyton Law Firm.
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: All right, yep, the phone number is great seven five
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: five fifty five fifty six seventy five five five five six.
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: He paid a lot of money for that.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: Not really happens in the old days when you can
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: just go to the phone, got the office and ask
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: for a number and the lady said, let me give
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: you what. It's easy to remember and works. It's hard
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: to say, easy to remember.
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: Peyton Lawfirm dot Com to Peyton Lawfirm dot com. See
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: Harvey good.
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: Sends You're really good seeing all right here yourself?
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: All right, appreciated. ABC News is next. This is five
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: AD double c hs.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: H five AD w c H S A M ninety
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: six point five. That then Charleston one oh four point
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: five Cross Lane a w VRC media station. We're proud
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: to live here too.