Latest / Justice Team Podcast / Fighting for Victim's Rights with Michael Carrillo

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Fighting for Victim's Rights with Michael Carrillo · Justice Team Podcast

• 0:02
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  being plugged into your firm's intake with real intelligence CallRail.
• 0:31
  I.
• 0:34
  Welcome to this episode of the Justice Team Podcast on the Justice Team Network.
• 0:37
  I'm your host, Bob Simon, and today we have a local LA legend
• 0:40
  lawyer, Michael Carillo on the show.
• 0:43
  Michael, how you doing?
• 0:43
  Good.
• 0:44
  Good.
• 0:44
  Thank you.
• 0:44
  That's a nice introduction.
• 0:46
  Yeah, and you know, what's your, what's your Instagram handle
• 0:49
  at Lawyer Mikey?
• 0:50
  At Lawyer.
• 0:50
  Mikey, how did you get that?
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  It had have been so early to the game and by the time I went to Attorney
• 0:54
  Bob, it laughed me off the stage.
• 0:56
  I got that very early, but I wasn't very active on it and I just held
• 0:59
  onto it and now that I'm putting out more content, it's great for it.
• 1:04
  Yeah, I've seen it get a lot of um, a lot of traction in your social handles
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  'cause you're doing a lot of work in the community, you know, as a lawyer helping
• 1:11
  a lot of folks and for people wanna.
• 1:13
  Look up attorney Mikey, um, getting big verdicts in the courtroom.
• 1:17
  I saw recently, actually, I went to your trial when you were trying one
• 1:20
  in downtown Los Angeles for, um, for some sex abuse victims at school.
• 1:26
  Um, can you just kind of break that down for us because that case was very long
• 1:30
  or very old for kind of what happened.
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  That one is one that will remain with me throughout my legal career
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  and even in my personal career.
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  I mean, I, I. We, I got referred that case by a colleague that I trust back in,
• 1:48
  where are we?
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  2025. So this would've been 2018.
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  Wow.
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  And most of our practice now is focused on child sexual abuse victims.
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  And it's really a passion of mine.
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  And this case, we started the trial in the middle of COVID in 2021.
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  It, uh, it was paused because the Supreme Court intervened on an immediate stay.
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  We went all the way up to the Supreme Court, got a published decision.
• 2:12
  We didn't like that.
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  So then we drafted a legislator to help us, Senator Kaba Iro, to help us
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  with SB 1386, which is, uh, further enhanced the Civil Rape Shield statute.
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  So I'm very proud of that.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  Uh, because it's, it's a mark that I'm leaving, not just
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  on this case, but in future.
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  Yeah.
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  Talk to us about the, um, about the rape shield statute, which
• 2:31
  you were able to do through.
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  Through the courts and being a lawyer.
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  Well, um, this judge, uh, in this particular case felt that other sexual
• 2:41
  assault incidents could be brought in, in, to allow the defense or the
• 2:45
  school district to argue that this particular victim, uh, we call her
• 2:50
  Susie, I'm not going to say her last name of course, but that Susie was
• 2:53
  later victimized, not only by her, her teacher in in fourth grade, but by a
• 2:58
  boy when she was about 14 years old.
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  The judge felt that that evidence should come in to say,
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  well, she's not as affected.
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  The laws was pretty clear, at least in my eyes, that it shouldn't come in.
• 3:09
  And we took that all the way up to the Supreme Court because she wasn't,
• 3:12
  she was going to allow that evidence in to say that our victim was not
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  as traumatized as she really was.
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  So we felt that was a total injustice.
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  And it is, and I'm glad you changed that law.
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  You know, I think, you know, I have a few cases where we've, we've been able
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  to use that as well, and some judges first wanted to not apply it and then.
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  We are actually in the middle of, um, litigation when your yours came down.
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  So what the Espb did, but I mean, so kind of walk us through like
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  what does liability look like?
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  'cause you know, a lot of people watching or listening will get a call of something
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  had happened to a kid at school and you know, first of all, what are their rights?
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  What should they do and what do you kind of assess?
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  Whenever we get calls first, I always tell them to contact the police.
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  We as lawyers can only do so much, but the police can do other things.
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  And once you contact the police, you take your child through that process as
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  traumatic as it is for your child, and to watch your child go through that.
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  Uh, it's important to hold those people accountable, be it a coach,
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  a teacher, whatever it may be.
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  Uh, in order to get that accountability and to get that justice, that person
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  needs to be put in jail first.
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  And then secondly, we have to look as civil lawyers at what accountability that
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  we can hold the school district employees who allowed this person to be around kids.
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  And most of the times in these cases, it's the coolest teacher, coolest coach.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  He grooms not only these kids to allow them, allow him to abuse them,
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  but he grooms a community to say, well, I'm just gonna hug these kids.
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  It's totally fine 'cause it's Mr. Smith or Mr. Johnson, when
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  in reality that's the one that is committing all these heinous acts.
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  And they're also building that community to say, well.
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  Coach Smith would never do something like this.
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  We see that all the time, right?
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  Um, yeah.
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  But, but so what, walk us through that.
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  Why is it, you know, how is the, the, the school accountable for
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  the bad acts of Coach Smith?
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  Well, the school can be held accountable when there's all these prior red
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  flags and say a principal or, uh, some other staff member knew that, uh, Mr.
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  Smith was having kids in his classroom against the rules.
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  Or he was having kids sit on his lap.
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  And in the case that you just brought up that, uh, we tried this year, finally in
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  2025, we got a verdict after seven years, uh, eight years after this came to light.
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  Uh, in that circumstance, the teacher had been caught, uh, in the late nineties,
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  early two thousands, uh, having kids on his lap, uh, grooming kids by having them
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  be, or by becoming the kid's godfather.
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  And this was like padrino of the first communion.
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  So he would.
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  Pay for something as part of the first communion for these kids.
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  And so we, uh, proved that the school district knew about his
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  bad behavior as early as the late nineties, early two thousands, mid
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  two thousands, and the school should have intervened and they never did.
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  Wow.
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  What happened to, uh, IIL?
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  Padrino?
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  Well, he got, uh, first convicted of eight years and then he was sentenced,
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  uh, for little Susie's case for 20 years.
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  So 28, uh, total years.
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  And eventually your client did have civil justice as well through your verdict.
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  She did have civil justice.
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  Uh, unfortunately it looks like they're gonna challenge the verdict,
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  which happens in these cases.
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  Especially with something like, like this, where we really hold
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  the school district accountable.
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  Yeah.
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  And you know, it was an eight figure verdict.
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  We'll leave it at that.
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  We don't have to talk numbers.
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  It's very impressive.
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  But it's also impressive, the work and the dedication it took for seven years
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  to even get there on the civil side.
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  Right.
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  Um, but walk us through like.
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  The school district on the other side, did they ever even offer you any type of fair
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  compensation for what happened to Susie?
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  Absolutely not.
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  Their initial approach was to question Susie's statements about what occurred
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  to say that when she first spoke to the sheriff's, uh, department.
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  Well, she didn't mention all these horrific, uh, acts, even though later
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  when she met with a detective that specializes in these interviews, she did
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  reveal all of those, these heinous acts.
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  And that's classic victimology.
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  It's it's classic, uh, victim symptoms where when you first disclose to a the
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  first officer, you may not say everything.
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  And that doesn't mean that they lied.
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  It just means that they're slowly opening up.
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  And then later she revealed more.
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  And the truth actually came out finally once and for all.
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  And so, no, the school district from the very beginning, they
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  felt that Susie was lying.
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  Uh, they tried to prove that at trial, which was a bad, bad gamble on their part.
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  And no, they didn't wanna offer fair compensation for any of these survivors.
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  Yeah.
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  And we see, you know, here in Southern California, there's people that say,
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  well, we should limit the amount of damages that a sex abuse survivor
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  can can get for no matter what the harm is to them, because it's.
• 8:04
  A public entity.
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  How do you feel about that?
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  Oh, it's, it's ridiculous.
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  It sounds like you've been following some of this recent push by the
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  legislators to, uh, reduce the amount of damages, but it doesn't allow
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  for justice for these survivors.
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  Just because you think X amount is, is a lot of money to you, doesn't mean it,
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  it pays for the suffering, the trauma that they've been through this victim
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  and you don't know what their life is like when they go home and they,
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  they, uh, clo turn the lights off.
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  They're in bed by themselves.
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  What.
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  Trauma they're going through.
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  So who are you to judge
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  and who, I mean, and for a lot of people watching or listening, you know, you
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  hear about, wow, this, this is an outlier verdict and you know, it's eight figures.
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  This is crazy.
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  But what they don't realize is how many op reasonable opportunities to settle did you
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  give the school district that were much, much, much, much lower than the verdict
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  Multiple times.
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  Yeah.
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  Two mediations.
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  I sent a demand after we changed the law and after the Supreme Court
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  decision didn't hear a Pete back leading up to the the 2025 trial.
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  There was some rumblings of, of, I guess what they felt was fair
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  offers, but it certainly was not.
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  Yeah.
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  And that's one thing that, you know, if you do any work with people's,
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  their are survivors of sex abuse.
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  It's first of all, hard for them to open up and tell their story,
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  let alone go through a trial.
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  Um, walk us through that process.
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  I mean, it's.
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  It's gotta be hard and you feel like a protector, but, but what's that like
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  for, for seven years, just helping that person through that journey?
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  This, uh, this case, I've seen these kids grow up.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  They were maybe 10, 11 years old when I met them, and I've seen them over
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  the years and we got them ready for trial one, emotionally, mentally,
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  for only, only for it to be paused.
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  And I didn't, couldn't tell him when we were gonna get back into it.
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  So, of course the parents and the kids were just on edge, anxious for years not
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  knowing when it's gonna happen again.
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  So then to get 'em prepared in 2025, I kept telling 'em, you know, things
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  may, we don't know what'll happen, et cetera, but it's really just, uh, we
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  developed a, a, an amazing relationship with these, with these folks.
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  And I, uh, I really value and respect their courage, their strength.
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  And really just as long as you're compassionate with them, and I
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  always tell the lawyers in my office lead with compassion.
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  If you do that and you, you have their, their best interest in mind,
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  their heart, and their mental stress in mind going into trial, I think
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  you'll, you'll prepare them just fine.
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  Yeah.
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  And you truly do things as a team, not only at your firm, but during trial.
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  I know when I was there, I saw your dad.
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  I saw some other family members that are there.
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  So just tell us a little bit about your, your firm, the firm structure.
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  'cause you, y'all have been here for a while.
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  Yeah.
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  Yes.
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  Well, my dad was a solo practitioner for probably 35 years, and then he
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  and I joined together on, uh, one of these bigger, uh, cases in South
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  LA where the teacher was caught.
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  Uh, putting his semen on cookies and spoon feeding it to kids.
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  It was horrific.
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  I remember that case.
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  I remember that story.
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  Mira Monte and Mark Burnt.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  Mark Burnt was the name of the perpetrator.
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  And so we teamed up there and, and uh, before that I was doing
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  family law and criminal defense.
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  Uh, Bob Hope we've never done family law 'cause it's no awful.
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  Yeah.
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  I couldn't emotionally do that.
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  Could not emotionally do family law.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  It's bad.
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  But, so I work with my dad now and there's, there's he and I, and
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  then we have five other lawyers that work in our office and.
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  It's real, it's a family shop.
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  But, uh, I love my dad and I'm grateful I get this opportunity
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  to practice law with him.
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  Yeah, I love that.
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  So, um,
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  I mean walk, because you, I mean, you've been in Southern
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  California for a long time.
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  Like what is the general, you know, sentiment about you're going and you're
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  going fighting against public entities.
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  It's not all schools that you're going against.
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  You go a lot of private entities and it's probably a different.
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  A different way we go into a private company as opposed to a school district.
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  But when you're going against a school district or a public entity,
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  you've gotta have a different way to like communicate to the jury.
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  'cause you know, jurors sit there and think, oh my God, this is gonna cost
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  me so much money as a taxpayer, I mean, you know, that's what they're thinking.
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  Absolutely.
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  And how do you, how do you get an eight figure verdict from an
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  downtown LA jury that's paying LA taxes to the public entity?
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  I mean, you gotta approach it head on in jury selection.
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  And my big thing is.
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  Whenever there's a school district employee on the jury, I always feel
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  like it brings the verdict down.
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  And lately I feel like I've gotten better at telling these jurors that,
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  look, you cannot think about the kids' cafeteria food and their pencils and pens.
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  Like that's not for you to decide, for you to decide.
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  It's just what does justice look like for this victim?
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  Yeah, a lot of people don't realize that some of these public entities
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  actually do have insurance, and you can't even say that.
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  You cannot mention it during trial.
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  The jurors will never know.
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  But a little fun fact, a lot of the times they do in fact
• 13:00
  have insurance and a lot of it,
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  very much so.
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  A lot.
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  And there are certain, uh, insurance representatives, uh, for these school
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  districts, I won't mention them by names, but some in particular
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  that I feel deny justice to.
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  Latinos and black kids more than white kids.
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  And that's just, I've been very open about that.
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  Yeah.
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  And I actually wrote a letter to an insurance adjuster last week because they
• 13:24
  just revoke revoked somebody's coverage.
• 13:27
  I mean, just like, it was unbelievable what they tried to do on some weird, his
• 13:31
  80-year-old mom was living at the house.
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  You didn't disclose her.
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  It's like, well, mom has her own license and she's 80 years old and
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  she had nothing to do with this crash.
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  Like, not really.
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  Then I found out they'd done this to a lot of other people who did
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  some quick research, and then I just emailed back the insurance company.
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  I was like, did you just do the, uh, this is a Compton zip code, so we're
• 13:48
  gonna treat somebody differently.
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  And you know, they do it.
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  Absolutely.
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  You know, they do it.
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  Absolutely do it.
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  Uh, that's a
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  whole nother show on that one, man.
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  I mean, it's, it's whatever they can get away with and a lot of times it's.
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  Uh, people that are not as educated, uh, maybe English is not their first language.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  And so they try to screw our people without thinking of the consequences.
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  It takes people like yourself and myself that have a voice
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  that can speak up for them.
• 14:12
  Yeah.
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  And I think it's why it's so important for people to have direct access to
• 14:17
  attorneys, whether it's through the dms of lawyer, Mikey, whether it's through
• 14:21
  the justice team, app, whatever it is, you should be able to find the best.
• 14:25
  Warrior for you for your specific situation, right.
• 14:29
  Public entity, sex abuse case.
• 14:31
  I'm gonna call lawyer Mikey.
• 14:32
  You know, like that's how it is.
• 14:34
  Should be.
• 14:35
  Well, and Bob, I gotta give you a lot of credit.
• 14:36
  Mm-hmm.
• 14:37
  I know I told you this off air, but just this team that you put together,
• 14:40
  justice hq and the ability for people to find a resource and attorney that
• 14:45
  covers that area or that topic, I mean, you deserve a lot of credit,
• 14:48
  Bob, for, for connecting the folks.
• 14:50
  But
• 14:50
  think about this, the people that, that you've represented.
• 14:53
  They don't know any lawyers, like people take for granted that because,
• 14:56
  oh, I'm, I'm with this in my life.
• 14:57
  I know a lot of lawyers, most people know Zero.
• 14:59
  They know one is on tv.
• 15:00
  So you, I think you owe a a duty to folks to, to make it easier for them to access.
• 15:05
  Um, but anyway, thank you for coming on this episode of the Justice Team
• 15:08
  podcast on the Justice Team Network.
• 15:10
  We're definitely gonna have you on again.
• 15:11
  Um, I look forward to doing your bourbon of proof interview once
• 15:15
  because Oh, I love to drink.
• 15:16
  Um.
• 15:17
  Some high proof spirits with Mr. Carrillo and maybe your dad.
• 15:20
  That would be fun.
• 15:21
  He hasn't drank in 35 years or something.
• 15:23
  Well then you're
• 15:24
  drinking double.
• 15:26
  I'll take his share.
• 15:26
  You got it.
• 15:27
  All right.
• 15:27
  Well, thanks for coming on the show.
• 15:28
  Appreciate it.
• 15:29
  All right.
• 15:29
  Thanks mom.