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Ex-NYPD Detective Faces Lesser Charge, Mississippi Lawsuit, LSU Rape Case · The Breakfast Club

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: A retired NYPD detective accused of killing a man on
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the George Washington Bridge is facing a lesser charge than expected.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Now the victim's family is demanding answers.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: I am upset. I'm hurt. And I'm not pleased with
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: this court system. But in God we will trust.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: And a Mississippi town is back in court over its
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: police department just days after settling a civil rights case
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: with the Justice Department. This time, it's over something a
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: man was doing with his cell phone. And President Trump
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: is taking aim at LeBron James. This time, something LeBron
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: did during the national anthem has the president calling him
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: a disgrace.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Unrelated to the game, how do.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: You feel, again, that Trump tried to take shots at
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: you at his speech tonight while you were playing?
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. It's a slow news day at the office.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: It's Monday, October 26th. From the Black Effect Podcast Network,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I'm Amy Brown. This is Front Page, and here are
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the day's biggest stories. Stay with me. The family of
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: a New York man shot and killed on the George
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Washington Bridge wants to know why the man accused of
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: killing him is no longer facing a murder charge. The
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: victim is 46-year-old Karan Irving. He was on his way
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: home from work when prosecutors say he had a close
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: call with another driver while changing lanes onto the bridge.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: That other driver was Victor Romero, a retired NYPD detective.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Prosecutors say both men hit their brakes to avoid crashing.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: But instead of letting it go, they said Romero chased
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Irving in his black Range Rover, driving up right behind him.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Surveillance video shows Romero tailgating Irvine before allegedly firing a
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: gun into his car and driving away. Irvine was killed.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Now here's why his family is upset. Romero was originally
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: arrested on a murder charge. But when he appeared in court,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: he was charged with manslaughter instead. And there's an important difference.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Murder generally involves intentionally killing someone, while manslaughter can involve
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: killing without the same level of intent required for murder.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Both are serious crimes, but manslaughter generally carries a lighter punishment.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Irvine's family say they don't understand why the charges were changed,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: especially given what prosecutors say happened on that bridge.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: I am upset. I'm hurt. And I'm not pleased with
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: this court system. But in God we will trust. Karan
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: was on his way home from work. Hard day's work.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: And stayed overtime. Yet you had a retired police officer
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: intentionally fired a bullet and killed him. And instead of
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: it being murder, it's called manslaughter. But again, in God,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: we will trust.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: The family's attorney, Keith White, says he believes Romero received
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: special treatment because he used to be a police officer.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: White claims Romero's identity was scrubbed from the Internet before
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: his arrest. He says Romero went to work the day
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: after the shooting and was later allowed to walk into
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: the police precinct on his own rather than being taken
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: into custody. White called it, quote, preferential treatment.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: So Victor Romero's complete identity was scrubbed from the Internet
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: prior to him being arrested. Now, we know that there
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: are cameras every 25 feet on that George Washington Bridge.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: How long do you think that it took for NYPD
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: to identify whose vehicle it was and who was driving?
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: However, Mr.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: Romero was allowed to go to work the next day.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: And then he was allowed to come in to a
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: precinct to ask questions. That's preferential treatment. Did you see
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: him do a perp walk in there just now? That
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: was a modified perp walk.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Karan Irvine leaves behind his wife, Patricia, and their two children,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Leah and Hero. And a GoFundMe page has been set
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: up for the family. There's a simple message about the
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: kind of father and husband he was. Quote, his family
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: was his world. And a small Mississippi town that just
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: settled a major civil rights case with the Justice Department
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: is being sued again over its police department. The town
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: is Lexington, Mississippi, and this latest lawsuit involves a 29-year-old
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: man who says he was arrested simply for recording police
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: officers with his cell phone. His name is Terrence Gibson.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: The Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU of Mississippi
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: filed the lawsuit on his behalf. And here's what they
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: say happened. Back in May of 2024, Gibson was using
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: his cell phone to record officers while they were working.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: According to the lawsuit, he was standing a safe distance
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: away and was not interfering with what police were doing.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: But the lawsuit says Officer Robert Boyd approached him with
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: a taser, threw him to the ground, and arrested him.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Gibson was charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. He
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: was initially found guilty in court, but when the case
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: went before a higher court, a judge threw out both
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: charges for good. And here's why this matters. In general,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: people have a First Amendment right to record police officers
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: doing their job in public as long as they aren't
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: interfering with the police work. The lawsuit argues that's exactly
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: what Gibson was doing and that officers violated his rights
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: by arresting him. And finally, the president is going after
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: LeBron James again. This time it's over the national anthem.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: And here's what happened. LeBron was getting ready for his
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: first game with Philadelphia Tuesday night against the New York Knicks.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: And while the national anthem was playing, video shows him
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: swinging his arms, making what looked like a golf practicing
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: swing and going through the shooting motion. Most of his
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: teammates were standing still. Well, somebody posted the video online
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: and it started making the rounds. And it later caught
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: President Trump's attention and he wasn't happy. Trump shared the
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: video on True Social and accused LeBron of disrespecting the country.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Trump wrote, quote, While listening to our national anthem, LeBron
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: James disrespects our country. I said right from the beginning
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: that he is no good, a total disgrace. He went
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: on to say LeBron should apologize to, quote, great American
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: warriors and heroes who died for the American flag.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Say that again?
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Unrelated to the game, how do you feel, again, that
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Trump tried to take shots at you at his speech
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: tonight while you were playing as well?
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. It must have been a slow news day
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: at the office, you know. Slow news day in the office.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: But this isn't the first time he and the president
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: have gone back and forth. Their feud goes back nearly
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: a decade. In 2017, LeBron famously called Trump, quote, you bum,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: on Twitter. Then in 2018, Trump publicly took a shot
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: at LeBron's intelligence. And just this past July, after LeBron
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: signed with Philadelphia, Trump suggested LeBron might be, quote, a racist.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: He also said, quote, I only like people that like me.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: So for now, the national anthem has become the latest
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: issue between them. That's your front page. I'm Mimi Brown.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: This podcast was brought to you by the Black Effect
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Podcast Network.