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The Judge Speaks + Part Two: Karmelo Anthony's Parents · The Breakfast Club

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Coming out Part two of my exclusive conversation with Carmelo.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Anthony's parents would not stopped fighting for justice for my son.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: But first, the judge who presided over the trial is
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: speaking publicly for the first time since diverted.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: And I know I made people mad, but I'm not
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: here to make them happy either.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: It's Monday, June fifteenth, from the Black Effect Podcast Network.
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  Speaker 3: I'm Mimi Brown. This is front page. Stay with me.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: So the judge and the Carmelo Anthony case, Judge John
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Roach Junior, is speaking out for the first time since
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Anthony was convicted and sentenced to thirty five years in prison.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: In a new interview, Roach defended some of his most
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: controversial decisions that he made during the trial. Let's go
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: through them so on keeping the camera out of the courtroom,
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  Speaker 1: the judge said his only concern was making sure both
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the prosecution and the defense received a fair trial.
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  Speaker 3: Let's listen.
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  Speaker 2: I hope that the metcalf I think that their son
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: got a fair trial in this courtroom, as do I
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  Speaker 2: hope that the Anthony family thinks their son got a
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: fair trial in this courtroom. I certainly think he did.
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  Speaker 1: He also addressed the criticism surrounding the jury, including concerns
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: that there were no black jurors who were ultimately seated.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Now for me, he doesn't quite answer the question. But
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: I'll let you listen.
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  Speaker 4: You denied the defense and dismissing of three jurors who
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: at least identified as African American on their bioforms. What
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: did you make of that moment? I'm sorry, the defense
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: raised an objection.
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  Speaker 2: Raised an objection. Yeah, they have raised an objection. Like
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  Speaker 2: I told you before, as long as I follow the law,
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  Speaker 2: I sleep well at night. And I'm telling you I
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  Speaker 2: follow the law in that case. Did I know what
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  Speaker 2: the perception was going to be?
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  Speaker 4: Sure?
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  Speaker 2: I knew in the back of my mind what the
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  Speaker 2: perception was going to be. But I'm not here to
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  Speaker 2: satisfy perceptions. I'm not here to satisfy agendas. I'm not
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: here to do any of those things. I'm here to
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  Speaker 2: follow the law, and I did it.
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  Speaker 4: To a t.
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  Speaker 1: He's also rejecting rumors that he had a personal relationship
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: with the metcalf family. He calls those rumors falls, and
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  Speaker 1: when asked about Carmelo Anthony himself, he describes him as
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  Speaker 1: a nice guy who committed a crime and is now
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: facing the consequences. And he also says that Colin County
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  Speaker 1: should serve as a model for how courts should handle
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  Speaker 1: high profile cases.
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  Speaker 3: Let's listen to that.
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  Speaker 2: The case that we tried here in Colin County was
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  Speaker 2: a well oiled machine. I mean Colin County. It should
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  Speaker 2: be the model for high profile cases from here on out.
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  Speaker 2: We constantly came together and met to make sure that
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Colin County was going to be a focus for a minute.
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  Speaker 2: And we wanted to make sure that everybody understood that
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  Speaker 2: Number one, don't come around and mess with Colin County.
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  Speaker 2: And one thing that does worry me a little bit
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  Speaker 2: is people go, oh, this is a five day case
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  Speaker 2: with the evidence. Five day case. It must have been
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  Speaker 2: cut and dry. I don't know if that's true or not.
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  Speaker 2: That watch five days because I wasn't wasting anybody's time.
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  Speaker 2: Our community needed to heal quickly. They needed this case
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  Speaker 2: over one way or another. But the case had to
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  Speaker 2: be fair for but we accomplished that. But it was
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  Speaker 2: a gargantuan effort. And so we're very very proud of
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  Speaker 2: our county, all of our employees, everybody, and getting this
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  Speaker 2: case tried quickly. Because our community needed it to.
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  Speaker 1: Heal, all right, so the community needed to heal. Let
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  Speaker 1: me push back on that just a little bit. A
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  Speaker 1: trial is not a healing ceremony. A trial is a
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  Speaker 1: search for the truth, and the truth does not move
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: on a timeline. It just seemed like it all moved really,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: really fast. The case was tried fourteen months after a
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: teenager died. I asked a defense attorney, David Otunga, who
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: joined me last week, if that was normal. He said
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  Speaker 1: it was normal for that sort of timeline for a
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: trial to proceed. The jury, though, was seated in two days.
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  Speaker 1: The defense had less than two weeks to put on
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  Speaker 1: its case, and the verdict came back very very quick.
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  Speaker 1: The sentence came back even quicker. I don't know who
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: this speed is serving. I know when you file an
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  Speaker 1: appeal that takes time, that can take years. I've covered
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: cases where defendants got years of pre trial motion, multiple continuances,
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  Speaker 1: expert witnesses flown in from out of state, lots of
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  Speaker 1: very different scenarios than this particular case.
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  Speaker 3: So I just need to push back on that just
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  Speaker 3: a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: So here is part two of my exclusive interview with
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  Speaker 1: Carmelo's parents. It was recorded hours after the sentence came down.
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  Speaker 1: If you miss part one, go back to Friday, but
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  Speaker 1: here it's part two. So even when you noticed there
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  Speaker 1: were no black jers, it gave you pause, It made
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: you want to say something, but you were still going
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: along with the process.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. I was going along with the process because you
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  Speaker 4: don't know. There's a lot of times and I hope
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  Speaker 4: this don't be controversy. But that's the first thing they
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  Speaker 4: do is they try to say we emotional. They don't
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  Speaker 4: follow instructions, right, So we did everything that was advised
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  Speaker 4: and told to do, and look what happened.
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  Speaker 3: So who was that you said that they told you?
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  Speaker 3: Who was they?
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  Speaker 4: Was it your Yeah? So we were because about him
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  Speaker 4: being eighteen. So what they did was they kind of
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  Speaker 4: played everybody against everybody, if you could say, I'm not
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  Speaker 4: going to say they played us against each other, but
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  Speaker 4: it's almost they you know, they had him scared, like, hey,
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  Speaker 4: you know this, I'm a lawyer, you know this, this
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  Speaker 4: this this as me being a father. All right, you're
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  Speaker 4: the guy. I'm okay with playing my position and I
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  Speaker 4: don't want to overstep any boundaries. Everybody kept saying, hey,
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  Speaker 4: the beat this, the beat this. I even went to
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  Speaker 4: some black attorneys. They're like, oh, you need a white
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  Speaker 4: you need a white attorney to go out there to
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  Speaker 4: fight out there. Remember they were telling us that. They
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  Speaker 4: kept telling us that, So everybody like whyle y'all there,
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  Speaker 4: everybody was telling us, okay, so then we we get it.
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  Speaker 4: They basically tossed them old a lot of a lot
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  Speaker 4: of objections wasn't done. It's a lot, it's a lot.
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  Speaker 4: It's a lot that wasn't done.
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  Speaker 3: So do you believe your son received a fair trial?
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely? Absolutely not. And we're gonna keep fighting. We would
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: not stop fighting for justice for myself.
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  Speaker 3: Hmm.
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  Speaker 4: It's it's it's very it's it's hard for us right
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  Speaker 4: now and I've had my moments. We want our children
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  Speaker 4: to do better, right We look at our y ns.
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  Speaker 4: This wasn't y N. So what we do about this
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  Speaker 4: is not y N. We can make more y N. Now,
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  Speaker 4: you got a kid, like I just told you. Everything
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  Speaker 4: that we're telling you right now is verified. Two jobs
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  Speaker 4: with the HTV foot locker, that's who came to the
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  Speaker 4: buying his g p A. He still graduated through all this.
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: He still graduated high school. He still graduated. The lady
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  Speaker 4: that that he the kid, he said, that's this stuff
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  Speaker 4: really happened. Uh, he was in trouble and know he
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: was never suspended for no life, but they had Actually
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  Speaker 4: what I learned was they had a smear campaign that
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: they did. I wasn't familiar with that, like you know,
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  Speaker 4: and a lot of people that we were reaching out with.
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  Speaker 4: I understand business, a lot of people, you know, they
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  Speaker 4: got a lot of things going on, so it was
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  Speaker 4: reaching out. I was emailing, but everybody want to go
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: through you know, it's kind of a circle thing, which
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  Speaker 4: I understand. But I realized through this Black entertainment is
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: going to have to be a black network is going
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: to have to be done because I'm looking for people
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  Speaker 4: who would not would never understand it, no matter how
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  Speaker 4: much you do, no matter how much you do, they
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  Speaker 4: would never see it.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you're saying that as you were watching the trial,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: as you were in there, you know, you didn't want
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  Speaker 1: to question the process.
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  Speaker 3: You wanted to let it play out.
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  Speaker 1: But was there at any point that you felt the
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  Speaker 1: outcome was heading in this direction?
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  Speaker 4: No, everybody, look at the report. Everybody, everybody is called
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: its portray perjury Perjurd that everybody did basically just did
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  Speaker 4: it with no and they never was called out on it.
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  Speaker 4: I mean literally they told within an hour when it happened,
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  Speaker 4: it was two to three people. When they got to
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  Speaker 4: the trial as oh, no, you know it was, I'm like,
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  Speaker 4: wait what and I don't get wrong. The defend say, hey,
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  Speaker 4: did you say this here? Everybody? One girl made up
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  Speaker 4: a lie, said it was over a race. Then my
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: son walked up. This this craziness is yeah, one said
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  Speaker 4: on the stand and said yeah, he just walked up
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  Speaker 4: to him and said, what you want a race? It
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  Speaker 4: didn't even make sense. Then they asked did you lie?
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  Speaker 4: She was like, understand nothing.
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  Speaker 3: Why didn't the defense Paul Moore witnesses.
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  Speaker 4: That's not my department, and I apologize for that. I
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  Speaker 4: don't know.
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  Speaker 1: I just I'm just you know, as you as you
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  Speaker 1: look at it, and you you know, I'm not an attorney,
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  Speaker 1: but i mean, I'm hearing you when i'm you're telling
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  Speaker 1: me all these wonderful things about him, and I'm just wondering,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: did the jury get to hear you know, all of
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  Speaker 1: these wonderful things about Carmelo.
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  Speaker 4: No, they didn't. When they even when the one kid
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  Speaker 4: who was the corporate of all this, meaning the kid
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  Speaker 4: who invited him to the tenth, he lied on the
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  Speaker 4: stands say he didn't even know. And they had pictures,
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  Speaker 4: pictures with his grandmother, with his grandmother, like here's your grandmother,
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  Speaker 4: my son, your grandmother. Their whole family got multi time,
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  Speaker 4: play basketball, got all kinds of different things.
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  Speaker 1: Say yeah, I mean all of those witnesses statements and
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  Speaker 1: stories were inconsistent.
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  Speaker 4: So we thinking that the jury is going to notice that.
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  Speaker 4: But they already had their mind.
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  Speaker 2: Made up when they sat in that courtroom.
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  Speaker 4: Their mind was made up already.
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  Speaker 1: How big of a role do you guys believe that
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  Speaker 1: race played into how this haste was publicly viewed and
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  Speaker 1: how this outcome, this sentence was handed down.
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  Speaker 4: They had a big part race politics all that. I'm like, man,
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  Speaker 4: the kid don't even vote. How he got into it.
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  Speaker 4: But it was a days talking about the left side
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  Speaker 4: and the right side, like what these are kids they
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  Speaker 4: put every I feel like you had a certain group
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: that they of course they go blame us that strategically
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  Speaker 4: made this about this because they knew they could do
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: that smell campaign. Like they said, we went and bought
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: a new car and house, and it hurt me with
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  Speaker 4: all my people. My people really believed instead of them
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: going and doing their proper research, they had people really bashing.
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  Speaker 4: I'm like, y'all really believed that who could buy a
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: house in photos buy a house and photos by I
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: know we may sometimes we may not make the right decisions,
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: but come on now, like that that that didn't even
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: make sense. They said it was doing on a stravagant trips.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: It's a lot of things that they did to us
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  Speaker 4: that just.
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  Speaker 3: You know, there was a lot of misinformation that was
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: going around, especially you know in the beginning.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: And you know, I know your family had to move
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: a couple of times because you were ducks, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: I can't even imagine how Carmelo going through that, trying
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: to finish school, fighting you know, force freedom and and
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: you guys have other children, you know, so much on
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  Speaker 1: you as parents.
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  Speaker 3: How's your your your your other children handling this?
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  Speaker 4: And we we had taking them out of school because
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: they had TikTok videos with my son with seeming coming
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: out as well because there was him saying go get
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: raped in jail, and it's just like that was mom
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: my daughter, my princess, she she had go through that.
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: The other boys we was we was in. We was
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: in a pretty blessed community. That's why I hope a
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: lot of people get dismissage. It don't matter where you're at. It,
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: don't meddle with you at like because like we was
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: in the been the safest place. But it's like they're
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: telling us that you could be assaulted, but you better
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: out right back. That's what this This is what this
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: case saying. They don't care. It could be two, three
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: people size, they don't matter. So that's that's what this
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: case is really about. The family is saying, now I
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: just got a message. They saying they will rob now.
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: They will rob now.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: Mind you if they as in the Metcal family.
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: They just just got this thing just popped up saying
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: they seeing people they ride. If we don't get the
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: message now, and it's not because it's our child, we
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: would never get it. This is the most crucial time ever,
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: especially if you have kids, because again you see the
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: child I'm telling you about right now. We all have
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: kids like that. We sent them off to school, We
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: sent them off just not looking for it. Again, he
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: didn't go look for this, That's why they try to
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: paint that picture. They painted a picture and he didn't
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: look just walk into his life.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Again. I want to thank the family for trusting me
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: with their story. We'll cover more on tomorrow's episode of
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Front Page, so make sure you're tuned in, but for today,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: that is your front Page. I'm me Me Brown. Follow
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: me at Memi Brown TV, and send me an email.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Let me know what you think of the interview today's episode.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Email me at front Page with Memi at gmail dot com.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: This podcast was brought to you by the Black Effect
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  Speaker 1: Podcast Network