Latest / Beyond The Horizon / Murder In Moscow: John Judge Says Allows Cameras To Remain With Conditions
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. In
- 0:05Speaker 1: today's episode, we're going to talk about Judge John Judge
- 0:08Speaker 1: and the hearing that he held on Friday, November 3rd.
- 0:12Speaker 1: And while we've talked about the IGG ruling, we have
- 0:16Speaker 1: to talk a little bit more about the cameras, because
- 0:19Speaker 1: Judge Judge certainly looks like he's leaning towards having these
- 0:22Speaker 1: cameras in the courtroom. However, that's going to come with
- 0:26Speaker 1: a certain amount of responsibility for the legacy media. And
- 0:30Speaker 1: hopefully they can handle their business like professionals and not
- 0:35Speaker 1: try and fire off a bunch of salacious BS. Because
- 0:39Speaker 1: if they don't follow Judge Judge's guidelines, forget it. He's
- 0:42Speaker 1: going to remove those cameras. And then we're going to
- 0:44Speaker 1: have to rely on people to give us a secondhand
- 0:47Speaker 1: report about what went down. And the only silver lining
- 0:50Speaker 1: in that is the fact that the reporter up there
- 0:54Speaker 1: in Idaho, Nate Eaton, does a really good job when
- 0:57Speaker 1: it comes to courtroom reporting. And he really hit it
- 1:00Speaker 1: out of the park covering the Lori Vallow case. But
- 1:03Speaker 1: even so, I want to be able to see what's
- 1:05Speaker 1: going down for myself. And I'm sure that most of
- 1:08Speaker 1: you out there want the same thing. Today's article is
- 1:11Speaker 1: from Fox News and the headline. Brian Kohlberger case. Idaho
- 1:16Speaker 1: judge allows cameras to remain in the courtroom. Judge John
- 1:21Speaker 1: Judge has not yet issued a formal order on the matter.
- 1:24Speaker 1: I'm sure he has, and it just hasn't hit the
- 1:26Speaker 1: docket yet. Remember, there's always a delay. as far as
- 1:30Speaker 1: court documents go, when they're getting filed, and when they
- 1:34Speaker 1: actually hit the docket. And then if they're filed under seal,
- 1:37Speaker 1: we're never going to see them. So there could be
- 1:39Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff going on behind the scenes, as
- 1:41Speaker 1: far as documents filed under seal, that we just don't
- 1:45Speaker 1: have any information about. But if and when these orders
- 1:48Speaker 1: hit the docket, obviously, we'll get them added to the catalog.
- 1:53Speaker 1: This article was authored by Michael Ruiz. At a recent
- 1:56Speaker 1: hearing for Idaho student murder suspect Brian Kohlberger, Latah County
- 2:00Speaker 1: District Judge John Judge urged the media and other courtroom
- 2:04Speaker 1: spectators to have some dignity and some restraint, while stating
- 2:09Speaker 1: he was not going to ban cameras from the proceedings.
- 2:12Speaker 1: So in other words, what he's saying is, I'm going
- 2:14Speaker 1: to give you all enough rope to hang yourselves with,
- 2:17Speaker 1: and if you act like a bunch of mutants, then
- 2:19Speaker 1: cameras are gone. That's basically what the judge is telling
- 2:22Speaker 1: the the media, and anybody else who decides that they're
- 2:25Speaker 1: going to go up here and watch justice unfold. I
- 2:29Speaker 1: haven't put a decision out yet, but what I'm going
- 2:32Speaker 1: to do is take control of the cameras in the courtroom.
- 2:35Speaker 1: I'm not going to ban cameras in the courtroom, he
- 2:37Speaker 1: said at the start of the hearing on Friday, but
- 2:40Speaker 1: I need to have more control over what the cameras
- 2:42Speaker 1: are doing and what media or people who are not
- 2:45Speaker 1: media are doing with the filming. That is a monumental task.
- 2:50Speaker 1: Once those videos get out there, Once the pictures get
- 2:53Speaker 1: out there, you can't really control what people on social
- 2:56Speaker 1: media do. You can't control what people are, you know,
- 2:59Speaker 1: photoshopping or using AI for nowadays, right? You don't know
- 3:05Speaker 1: what's real or what's fake. Even videos now are altered
- 3:08Speaker 1: to a point where it's very difficult to ascertain if
- 3:11Speaker 1: it's real or not. That's how good some of these
- 3:14Speaker 1: deep fakes are. So while the judge can control the
- 3:17Speaker 1: cameras in the courtroom, no doubt about that, Once that
- 3:20Speaker 1: video gets out there, once that content gets out there,
- 3:23Speaker 1: then it's into a black hole, basically, and social media
- 3:27Speaker 1: is going to do what social media is going to do.
- 3:30Speaker 1: Judge Judge has taken issue in the past with how
- 3:34Speaker 1: the media and other spectators have recorded and used courtroom images.
- 3:39Speaker 1: And both the prosecution and defense urged them in court
- 3:42Speaker 1: filings to kick cameras out. And usually when you have
- 3:45Speaker 1: the prosecution and the defense agreeing on something, especially in
- 3:49Speaker 1: a capital punishment case, the court will defer to what
- 3:53Speaker 1: they want and do what they want. But in this instance,
- 3:57Speaker 1: Judge Judge recognizes how important it is for there to
- 4:00Speaker 1: be some transparency here. Considering the shroud of secrecy that
- 4:03Speaker 1: this has been covered in, as far as leading up
- 4:06Speaker 1: to the trial, it's always good to have transparency when
- 4:09Speaker 1: we get to the destination where we're trying to go.
- 4:12Speaker 1: And that destination, obviously, is the trial. The move set
- 4:16Speaker 1: the table for a constitutional balancing act as the court
- 4:19Speaker 1: weighs the public's First Amendment rights alongside Koberger's Sixth Amendment
- 4:24Speaker 1: and Fourteenth Amendment rights to a fair trial. And historically,
- 4:28Speaker 1: this has been one of the most difficult balancing acts
- 4:31Speaker 1: for judges who are put into situations like this. You
- 4:35Speaker 1: have to respect everybody's rights, whether it's the public's rights
- 4:39Speaker 1: to have a look at what's going on or especially
- 4:42Speaker 1: the person who's on trial. Their rights, their Sixth Amendment rights,
- 4:46Speaker 1: and their Fourteenth Amendment rights, they supersede our First Amendment
- 4:50Speaker 1: rights in situations like this, and that's according to the
- 4:53Speaker 1: Supreme Court. So the fact that Judge Judge is willing
- 4:57Speaker 1: to balance on a knife's edge here is commendable. He
- 5:01Speaker 1: could have just done the easy thing and banned cameras.
- 5:04Speaker 1: There is also massive public interest in the case, and
- 5:07Speaker 1: taxpayers are footing the bill all the way around, and
- 5:11Speaker 1: they mean that literally. Kohlberger's attorneys are being paid for
- 5:14Speaker 1: by the taxpayer as well. He didn't have any money
- 5:17Speaker 1: to hire his own team, so they gave him and
- 5:20Speaker 1: Taylor and the team that he has around him right now.
- 5:24Speaker 1: So the state of Idaho is on the hook for
- 5:27Speaker 1: the bill all the way around. And that's why you
- 5:30Speaker 1: saw the governor give them that injection of money, that
- 5:33Speaker 1: injection of cash down in Latah County, so that they
- 5:35Speaker 1: can continue with their investigation and continue to meet their
- 5:39Speaker 1: budgetary constraints. I know I can only control so much,
- 5:43Speaker 1: and that's why I continue to urge people to be
- 5:45Speaker 1: patient and have some dignity and some restraint, Judge said.
- 5:50Speaker 1: The court has already issued a restrictive gag order on
- 5:53Speaker 1: the case, barring lawyers for both sides, investigators, and even
- 5:57Speaker 1: expert witnesses from discussing details beyond the public record. And
- 6:01Speaker 1: that's what Shannon Gray was trying to challenge when he
- 6:04Speaker 1: asked to be exempt from the gag order. And then
- 6:07Speaker 1: obviously Judge Judge, in a 32-page ruling... denied that request
- 6:12Speaker 1: and said that Shannon Gray has to act under the
- 6:16Speaker 1: constraints of the Idaho rules and under the rules of
- 6:19Speaker 1: the gag order. We don't want to have a trial
- 6:22Speaker 1: in the media or in the public, Judge said during
- 6:25Speaker 1: a June 27th hearing. We want it to be in
- 6:27Speaker 1: the courtroom. In that hearing, he told photographers not to
- 6:31Speaker 1: focus on the tabletops where lawyers place their notes and
- 6:35Speaker 1: not to focus continually on the defendant. In his latest instructions,
- 6:39Speaker 1: he also told photographers... not to take photos or video
- 6:42Speaker 1: when the court is not on the record. So these
- 6:46Speaker 1: are all pretty basic instructions that Judge Judge is giving
- 6:49Speaker 1: to the media, and hopefully the media members who are
- 6:53Speaker 1: present in court are going to take them seriously. Prosecutors
- 6:57Speaker 1: have also asked to have cameras removed from the Kohlberger case,
- 7:00Speaker 1: although court filings showed that they were also open to
- 7:03Speaker 1: keeping them under certain restrictions, such as removing them during
- 7:07Speaker 1: some sensitive witness testimony. And mainly, when the surviving roommates
- 7:12Speaker 1: were testifying, that was their fear, that they'd clam up
- 7:16Speaker 1: because there were cameras on, and they know that those
- 7:18Speaker 1: cameras are going to broadcast their image around the world.
- 7:22Speaker 1: So not everybody's comfortable in front of a camera, and
- 7:25Speaker 1: the prosecution wants to make sure that there are some
- 7:27Speaker 1: restraints in place for them to use, or for the
- 7:30Speaker 1: judge to use, in case they have sensitive testimony that
- 7:34Speaker 1: they don't want the public to hear. And from what
- 7:36Speaker 1: Judge Judge is saying earlier in the hearing here, It
- 7:40Speaker 1: seems like that's the way he's going to go. If
- 7:42Speaker 1: he has control over those cameras, then he's obviously going
- 7:45Speaker 1: to make the call on what's going to be broadcast
- 7:48Speaker 1: and what's not going to be broadcast. And I think
- 7:50Speaker 1: that's the right way to do it. The judge should
- 7:53Speaker 1: make the decision, have him be in total control here,
- 7:56Speaker 1: and then all sides are just going to have to
- 7:58Speaker 1: live with it. Koberger is accused of fatally stabbing four
- 8:02Speaker 1: University of Idaho students in the early morning hours of
- 8:05Speaker 1: November 13th, 2022. Kaylee Gonsalves and Madison Mogan, 21-year-old best friends,
- 8:12Speaker 1: were discovered dead in the same third-story bedroom of their
- 8:15Speaker 1: off-campus rental house in Moscow. On the second floor, police
- 8:19Speaker 1: found the bodies of housemate Zanna Kernodle and her boyfriend
- 8:23Speaker 1: Ethan Chapin, both 20. On the knife sheath under Mogan's body,
- 8:28Speaker 1: investigators allegedly recovered a DNA sample that led them to Kohlberger,
- 8:33Speaker 1: according to a probable cause affidavit. Authorities have said that
- 8:37Speaker 1: at least some of the victims were sleeping at the
- 8:40Speaker 1: start of the ambush. A surviving housemate told police that
- 8:44Speaker 1: after overhearing the struggle, she saw a masked man with
- 8:47Speaker 1: bushy eyebrows walk out the back door. And that's still
- 8:50Speaker 1: just so crazy. We're going to need to hear that
- 8:54Speaker 1: whole entire story, and I think we're going to, once
- 8:57Speaker 1: the trial starts. Because there's no doubt that we're missing...
- 9:01Speaker 1: A bunch of details, we're missing a bunch of key
- 9:03Speaker 1: pieces of information, and we're certainly missing a lot of context.
- 9:08Speaker 1: Judge entered not guilty pleas on Kohlberger's behalf to four
- 9:12Speaker 1: charges of first-degree murder and a felony count of burglary
- 9:16Speaker 1: at his arraignment in May. He also denied Kohlberger's attempt
- 9:19Speaker 1: to dismiss the indictment last week. Kohlberger said through an
- 9:23Speaker 1: attorney after his arrest in Pennsylvania that he looked forward
- 9:27Speaker 1: to being exonerated. You know, that's funny that he says that.
- 9:31Speaker 1: As a New York Jets fan, I look forward to
- 9:33Speaker 1: the New York Jets winning the Super Bowl every year.
- 9:36Speaker 1: And then guess what? Every year, I'm disappointed. And I
- 9:40Speaker 1: have a funny feeling that's going to be the fate
- 9:43Speaker 1: of Brian Kohlberger as well. Unless there's some kind of
- 9:46Speaker 1: huge change here, folks, and there's something introduced, or we
- 9:50Speaker 1: find out about prosecutorial misconduct, or something along those lines,
- 9:55Speaker 1: I have zero idea how Brian Kohlberger and his team
- 9:58Speaker 1: think they're going to get off. When you have all
- 10:01Speaker 1: of the evidence that we see here, whether it's the
- 10:03Speaker 1: circumstantial evidence or the DNA evidence that ties all that
- 10:08Speaker 1: circumstantial evidence together, it all leads to the same place,
- 10:11Speaker 1: in my opinion. And that place is Brian Kohlberger being
- 10:15Speaker 1: found guilty. All of the information that goes with this
- 10:20Speaker 1: episode can be found in the description box.