Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 02/22/2024 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton
Transcript
- 0:00Our area's most beautiful properties deserve the finest Wilters Meeks Realty Group. We focus
- 0:05on buying and selling residential and commercial properties throughout the Tri State area. Contact
- 0:09Meeks Realty Group online at Meeks dot us or call three oh four four four
- 0:13zero one one zero one. The views and opinions expressed on this program do
- 0:18not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight whs it's employees or WVRC
- 0:24Media. Put the power of Peyton on the side. We have the court
- 0:31room experience that you need. We never give up. We're prepared to fight
- 0:37for your rights. When you need action, Count on us. Put the
- 0:46power of Mason on your side. The power of began on five to eighty
- 1:00WCS, the Voice of Charleston. Good Thursday morning too. You. I'm
- 1:03Jeff Jenkins and Tom Payton is here with the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro.
- 1:07And that means the lines are open for your calls three oh four three four
- 1:11five fifty eight fifty eight. Three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty
- 1:15to talk to Tom anything about the law. Good morning time. How you
- 1:19doing great, Jeff? How you doing? I'm doing well. As always,
- 1:22there's legal things in the news happened with the legislature in so we've got
- 1:26a lot of bills floating through on it seems like the less important issues as
- 1:32usual, but social hot buttons, especially in an election year. I haven't
- 1:38seen a ton on liability issues that I don't know that there's there's some something
- 1:44milling through now about And I didn't read the details of the bill about capping
- 1:48certain types of lawyers fees or something. I didn't it wasn't. I don't
- 1:53know it'll get it anywhere. I haven't read through it in detail, and
- 1:57see I can't without reading. Indeedis y all know whether it's a good faith
- 2:00attempt to control a real issue or if it's just what it probably is,
- 2:05some large trade group funded by big insurance and big business trying to find a
- 2:12way, a backdoor way to limit normal people's ability to get in court and
- 2:15even the playing field, which is what we I worry about at the legislature
- 2:19every year because that's one of the only avenues where a person that works for
- 2:25the railroad or works are low coal convenience to work and stand toe to toe
- 2:30with the wealthiest insurance companies and corporations in the world, and so folks with
- 2:36the money don't like not being able to control things. So they don't like
- 2:38having trials by jury where they sit there just like an everyday person and have
- 2:45to be confronted with six or twelve people sitting on a jury if they have
- 2:49no control over and when they go back to deliberate. And you're seeing some
- 2:53of that play out in the national level with this Trump thing because some of
- 2:55these charges, some of these cases I don't think are the strongest against Trump,
- 3:00but you know, if you get enough evidence and you can get over
- 3:04legal hurdles and get to a jury, We're judging some circumstances with Trump,
- 3:07and it's going to come to a head at some point. These aren't these
- 3:10are real cases. This isn't fake news. It's made up or I mean,
- 3:14it's we'll see how that one, how that whole scenario plays out.
- 3:16Is this really going to be a legal mess. But we got some action
- 3:21here from the legislature and we got a commentary on some of it from Hoppy
- 3:27this morning that I heard, and it's it's about so when somebody gets arrested,
- 3:31when you get booked, meaning if not with a citation, if you
- 3:37get a traffic ticket or something like that. If I give you a citation,
- 3:39generally you can go in and pay it, and it's fairly difficult for
- 3:44someone even to find that on your record. But if you contest it,
- 3:50or you actually get arrested, where you have to either post a bond,
- 3:53may not may not pay money, but you might post a personal recognizance bond.
- 3:57You get to that point where you're getting finger printed and you get your
- 3:59picture taken, goes in a database, goes to the jail. So what
- 4:03we have out there, and I think is what the legislature is trying to
- 4:08cure. All it's going to be very difficult legally, is different profiteering companies
- 4:14that grab those pictures electronically as soon as they're available in some public domain,
- 4:19and then they shop them as a part of their website like arrest pictures dot
- 4:26com or something like that, and then you know, that's of course,
- 4:29as most people know, although often forgotten, everybody when they're initially arrested or
- 4:35presumed innocence, so they're not guilty of anything at that point legally, and
- 4:39so you've got those photos imediately being put up and then you know, oftentimes
- 4:46those folks end up having their cases dismissed or they're found not guilty. But
- 4:48once that gets out there, it's it's very difficult. So you'll have these
- 4:55companies. I've never dealt with them in this regard, but what I understand
- 4:58is they if you get arrested and you're concerned about it, you don't want
- 5:03it out there. You can contact these companies as soon as possible, and
- 5:06maybe they make you pay and we will take us off the website. You
- 5:10know, if you pay X amount of dollars, which is the future and
- 5:15employers might be searching and find your mugshot, and yeah, it's that.
- 5:19I mean, I think I would be less concerned about future employers. Could
- 5:26certainly be a problem if that's floating out there readily on the internet, because
- 5:30you know, if you hire somebody and you have a customer come in like,
- 5:32oh, that's the person Tom's got, somebody sitting at the front desk,
- 5:36because all over the internet could but they might not be guilty of anything,
- 5:40or they might have been found not guilty, and so there's been attempts
- 5:44by and then you have First Amendment issues, because that's where it gets sticky,
- 5:47wicked. I mean, you can't just bar and you say, well,
- 5:50let's create some more defamation law or something, so if they post that
- 5:55kind of picture. But that's real difficult because of the First Amendment. I
- 5:58mean, that law is pretty flushed out on what you can or can't do
- 6:01from a constitutional standpoint. So if you can go it used to be the
- 6:06Regional Jail authority was separate from the Division of Corrections. Now it's all one
- 6:10deal. So you can go to one website now operated by the government.
- 6:13You can search, you can do an offender search by name, and search
- 6:17anybody incarcerated in the in the state system, because we only have prisons and
- 6:23jails at this point basically, and so the jails are pre trial detainment and
- 6:29misdemeanor convictions and then everybody else is supposed to end up in a prison somewhere.
- 6:33But you know, these websites have bots or some kind of computer way
- 6:38to just kind of pull these images off the Internet when they pop up,
- 6:41and so there's been a constant attempt by the government to prevent that in West
- 6:46Virginia, and it's been done by screening out. So when you go to
- 6:50these websites anyway, you can go and search somebody. You can also do
- 6:53daily incarcerations where you can click on something and see eBay, like in after
- 6:59midnight for example today through now if they haven't posted bond, you'll see their
- 7:02picture, their mugshot up there with some details of their crown. Now,
- 7:06before you can see that, you have to go through a little bit of
- 7:11a hurdle, which shouldn't be a problem for a human being, or at
- 7:14least most of us, but apparently helps deter these bots from coming and pulling
- 7:19up the pictures. So you have to now you click, I'm not a
- 7:21robot. Sometimes you'll run into these where you have nine different pictures and pick
- 7:26out the one that has a fire hydron in it or something like that,
- 7:29right, And that's probably helps some but obviously hasn't hasn't deterred it. So
- 7:32the legislature, I guess, has got a bill in place trying to somehow.
- 7:39I think they're basically trying to make mugshots kind of like not in the
- 7:44public domain and make them a concluding including the media won't be allowed to happen,
- 7:48right, yeah, yeah, So that's I mean, I see where
- 7:53they're coming from. You have to take pictures. I think you're going to
- 7:56have to to identify people when they get booked. I mean, that's pretty
- 7:59obvious common sense. Usually people don't have their best look there when they're getting
- 8:05their mugshot taken. So that's another you know, if whether you're guilty or
- 8:11not, if you get some minor misdemeanor, but you look disheveled and terrible
- 8:15in a picture and it's all over the internet, I mean, you're probably
- 8:16gonna try and get it off there. But we'll see what a legislature does
- 8:18with it. I mean it's a Now, that's an interesting problem that most
- 8:24people would agree needs a solution because folks that haven't been convicted yet and are
- 8:28simply have a charge. I mean, I don't think letting some profiteering company
- 8:33pull that off the public domain and then sort of extorting. Yeah, I
- 8:37mean, you know, where do you go from extoration versus regular, good,
- 8:41aggressive business tactics. I don't know, but yes, it's you know,
- 8:43everybody wuld kind of agree with that. The problem is this may be
- 8:46one of those social problems that there just isn't really any solution for because of
- 8:50the First Amendment. So I'll be interested to see if the legislature comes up
- 8:54with something you know that that is smart and works around the Constitute no problems,
- 9:00and tries to solve a real, real problem here. I kind of
- 9:03doubt we'll get anywhere with it, but well, it's it passed the House
- 9:07Judiciary Committee late Tuesday night, and now it goes to the full floor of
- 9:11the House and then it has until next Wednesday to pass the House. So
- 9:16it would be on track to pass the House by next Wednesday because it's crossover
- 9:20day, and then get over the Senate. See if the Senate wants to
- 9:22deal with it in the last ten days of the session, if they want
- 9:24to deal with it, and then you know what the government wants to do
- 9:28with it. If there's constitutional problems, I mean, you got all kinds
- 9:31of public issues when you've got somebody, I mean, there's there not only
- 9:35the defendant has a right to a public trial, you know, it's also
- 9:37a right for the public so they know what's going on and things like that.
- 9:41So I think if they pass a bill, then the problem will be
- 9:45can't it pass constitutional muster, you know, legally afterwards, because it will
- 9:50be challenged by members of the media. I'm sure, And I'll just share
- 9:54too that you know, I'll get calls maybe a couple times of month,
- 10:00maybe handful of times every six months from someone who had been arrested, who
- 10:05had been charged. Sometimes maybe we have their muckshots, sometimes not, but
- 10:11their name is in a story. You know. I just got a call
- 10:13from a guy quite honestly was it was eight years ago and he was a
- 10:18witness to a crime, was never charged with anything, but he was there
- 10:22and that his name was mentioned in the sentencing different things, and he asked
- 10:26me if we would remove it from the website. And then so we look
- 10:31at it and we make a decision. And I mean, there's hardly any
- 10:35I won't remove, you know what I mean, if you can, that's
- 10:39probably the most legitimate media is. And that's the problem though, is the
- 10:45legislature are they're going to recognize that and crash up. That makes some sense,
- 10:50So you have try and find a legitimate uses and versus the ones who
- 10:56simply wanted to try and create profit off that desperation of people to get their
- 11:03picture off off the internet so they can keep working and not be their reputation
- 11:07tarnished persons permanently around the community. It can be real obviously, if you
- 11:15have some kind of certain offenses. We all know that once it's out there
- 11:18on the internet and your pictures, there is hard to get away from it,
- 11:22whether you're found, and sometimes we don't. We choose, we make
- 11:26an ed tortoises not to use a mug shot. I mean depends on quite
- 11:28not. It depends on the charge. I mean, we're not going to
- 11:31use a mug shot for just a simple I mean, you know, any
- 11:37fellow, any serious but you know what I'm saying. I mean, it's
- 11:39it just kind of depends. Yeah, would be in this bill, like
- 11:43what what prompted it? If there's some studies or something like that to see,
- 11:46you know, if there's a is the problem with the media is the
- 11:50problem only really with these other companies. Now we had not the current shriff,
- 11:54but at one point, I'm not sure it was the sheriff's policy,
- 11:56but it was coming from the Sheriff's Department's uh FAIO page. They were taking
- 12:01their own pictures, like sitting around it looks like a mugshot. Sometimes maybe
- 12:05they were, but sometimes it would be like here, sit on this couch
- 12:09while we get ready to do your fingerprints and take a picture of somebody and
- 12:11just throw it up on the Facebook page where it's readily shareable, and that's
- 12:16sometimes it was when they were handcuffed but hadn't even been to the magistrate yet
- 12:20to be arraigned. And I found that real problematic for some of my clients
- 12:26and had them take it down. And then I think they started doing it
- 12:28again with some disclaimer or something. But I thought it was in pretty I
- 12:33thought that was poor taste to get something out there like that, because you're,
- 12:35you know, it's just you're getting people at their weakest moment a lot
- 12:39of times, and they're not guilty of anything yet, and some of them
- 12:41are never guilty of anything. I think supporters of the bill and the media
- 12:45question might say, well, we're not preventing the media from taking their own
- 12:48photo at magistrate court or on a purp walk. Yeah, okay, something
- 12:52like that. Are you going to order you know, the jail to or
- 12:56the law enforcement officer or the magistress to call the me the year put out
- 13:00a public notice this person's being walked to the van out of the courthouse to
- 13:03go to the jail. I mean, you don't get purple walks all that
- 13:07often a lot of times we find out about someone being arrested when the press
- 13:11release comes out and says someone's been arrested, right, and then we independently
- 13:13go and get them if they win. And if they I mean when they're
- 13:18arraigned and booked, which is sometime after the release comes. It might be
- 13:22several hours after the release comes. Then you get you know, then you
- 13:24get the mug shot. Yeah, one thing that you know, just brainstorming,
- 13:30that's actually thinking it through, you know, the it was the lost
- 13:39track. What I was gonna say, Sorry, let's take a break.
- 13:41The sorry it might come back to you during the braill. So we're going
- 13:45to take the break. Tom Payton here Payton Law from a Night Rode.
- 13:48Lines are open. Any questions about the law, Tom can answer them.
- 13:50Three O four three four five fifty eight fifty eight lines are open if you've
- 13:54got a question. I was going to talk about a couple other things here
- 13:56coming up, So stay tuned three or four three four five fifty eight three
- 14:01or four three four five fifty eight fifty Back with Tom in a moment on
- 14:03five eighty WHS. I'm Chris Walters, and you know me who guided the
- 14:07Uber bill through the Senate to combat drunk driving. Chris Walters did that.
- 14:11Who led some of the largest tax cuts for working West Virginians. Chris Walters
- 14:16did that. Do you enjoy Sunday brunch and outdoor sidewalk dining? Chris Walters
- 14:20did that and much more. I'm Chris Walters, and I'm the only proven
- 14:24conservative Republican candidate for Kanall County commission and I look forward to representing you.
- 14:30So vote for me, Chris Walters for Kannall County Commissioner, because you know
- 14:33me paid for by Chris Walters for Commission. Put the power of payde on
- 14:39the side. We have the court room experience that you need. We never
- 14:46give up. We're prepared to fight for your rights when you need action.
- 14:52Count on us. What's the power of Patson? I Hey, thirty seven
- 15:11oh five eighty hs the voice of Charleston. Jeff Jenkins with you and Tom
- 15:13Payton of the Paytent Law Firm in Nitro three oh four three four five fifty
- 15:18fifty eight three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight lines are open
- 15:22for your costs. Talk about anything about the law. And Tom's been talking
- 15:26about the mug shop bill. Yeah, yeah, And I was starting to
- 15:28think about a solution and a backtrack. But anyway, while I was going
- 15:33with it was and you can't get your record expunged if you're It's almost automatic,
- 15:37although not completely automatic. If you're found not guilty, your case is
- 15:41dismissed. Not as a result of a plea agreement. They don't even charge
- 15:45you a filing fee. You file it and then you can Now the judge
- 15:48can deny, but they have to have good reasons to deny. And you
- 15:50can get certain convictions expunged. It's and when you do that, the circuit
- 15:56court orders different. The law enforcement agencies involved, the state police supposed to
- 16:00send it to the International Crime Center database and all that. But I do
- 16:06you know, I wonder if they couldn't put a provision at the end of
- 16:07that statue, just saying like, if Tom Payton has his record expunge for
- 16:11a particular charge and he's third parties still have mug shots up on the internet,
- 16:15you could use that order and you know, be kind of like an
- 16:18automatic injunction. Those parties aren't party to your expungement, so that would probably
- 16:23create some hurdles there as well. I was just thinking a way to trying
- 16:26to tack that on the back end. If you ever got out of a
- 16:30case where your record was actually a spunge, then it's not only are you
- 16:33not guilty, it's supposed to be as if it didn't happen. He still
- 16:36have these third parties with websites out there, but it's hard to stop people.
- 16:40There's so much media out there today, even privately, and we're seeing
- 16:42that now with what's on the news last night and this morning with h the
- 16:47secretary of the Department of Transportation. Yeah, so he If you haven't seen
- 16:52he last night, I guess fairly late. I think Tuesday night. It
- 16:56was a Tuesday night, Okay, Tuesday night. I didn't see it last
- 17:00night. I yeah. Just a little background. So the media we received
- 17:03the media received an email with photos and video of his car. What we
- 17:10learned was his state issued vehicle pulled over on I seventy seven in the straight
- 17:14stretch. Really were near the Moose Lodge Okay, Okay, heading toward Kanas
- 17:18City, Okay. Several cop cars there and later identified as his car.
- 17:22And then the governor comes out yesterday said yeah, it was Jimmy pulled over,
- 17:26but they let him go. We understood. The governor said they let
- 17:30him drive off. I think more accurately it's someone came and picked him up.
- 17:33And then soon after that city police released the release saying they're looking in
- 17:40internal internal investigation about what happened right right to see if the proper procedures are
- 17:44followed by their officers. And that was the governor's briefing yesterday yesterday, but
- 17:48it happened the night before Thursday night. Still apparently didn't know very much about
- 17:53it when that question was they just found out a couple of minits before the
- 17:56briefing. Yeah, yeah, so you got some issues there. There is
- 18:00the radio traffic, some of it between dispatch and the law enforcement officers is
- 18:04generally recorded, so that one of the news media orgizations I don't remember if
- 18:08it was, if it was you guys, hear somebody else, but they've
- 18:11already gotten a copy of that, and it's it's basically, uh, you
- 18:17know, back and forth with nine one one dispatch and really bad driving like
- 18:21a ratic, like on curves, stops on the grass, making a turn
- 18:26wide, unsafe is what I got out of. I mean, this is
- 18:27we got a really big issue here. Then it says you know that was
- 18:33a caller that wasn't right. It was be on lookout, be on lookout,
- 18:36and there was some reference to that being maybe a retired or an off
- 18:38duty law enforcement officer. Now they're saying maybe it wasn't. In any event,
- 18:42there's pictures and video and so, uh, then they you can see
- 18:48where they canceled the the BOLO to be on lookout because Charleston p D has
- 18:52the state issued vehicle pulled over. I think maybe that's why it garning an
- 18:56interest from the public initially, like on the scene or on the road beyond
- 18:59the back driving from the emailer who was even quite honestly, I mean he
- 19:03took the video, took the photos, and I'll just say it to me,
- 19:07he said he circled back right because it was a state to see it
- 19:11again, it's got a state tag and that kind of thing. So I'm
- 19:14not sure he knew it was who it was going to be. When that's
- 19:17also a question, right, I mean, it doesn't matter because it is
- 19:21what it is, and that objectively did happen. So you think I thought
- 19:26it was ten o'clock at night or something or maybe Okay, so you know,
- 19:30you got a time period when you know, it's more likely somebody would
- 19:33be driving on paired if they've gone out and had some drinks after work or
- 19:37something like that. But apparently then the radio traffic stops once they have someone
- 19:45pulled over, and then you know there's no arrests or anything like that.
- 19:48And and then what the governor alluded to, he thought that he alluded to
- 19:55in his press conference that it was his understanding that the police, you know,
- 20:00stopped him in some analysis or whatever evaluation and let him continue to drive.
- 20:04And what it looks now this is anecdotal because I haven't seen any official
- 20:11reporter than legitimate media reports that he didn't drive off, but someone came to
- 20:17pick him up. But I don't know what happened. Maybe in somebody else
- 20:19drove his vehicle. Mean, there's a lot of details we don't know.
- 20:22And so I think those set of facts have caused Charleston p D who has
- 20:27a brand new chief, right, please chiefs, I think it's to deal
- 20:32with this now. I guess to do an internal investigation to see what happened
- 20:34there. And so we don't know right now other than the erratic driving.
- 20:41That doesn't mean it was DUI. I mean he could have had a medical
- 20:42emergency or other distracting issues. Yes, you know, you'd think the government
- 20:48would get a full briefing on this and then see but you know, there's
- 20:53just no details about the interaction between the officer on scene and him right now,
- 20:59So you have no I mean, it's complete speculation on what was he
- 21:02given a breaphalyzer? Was he you know? Yeah? Was it necessary?
- 21:04So what I see when I do criminal defense cases and traffic stops and UIs
- 21:08and things like that, is you get a erratic driving officer comes up to
- 21:12the window. Now almost classically, well, I see signs of impairment,
- 21:17uh slurge, speech, glassy eyes, big one, odor of alcohol.
- 21:22So we you know, if if a person has a clear medical emergency,
- 21:29you know they got in UH seizear disorder and they got something wanted to show
- 21:32that they have that problem or or something like that, then it's not you
- 21:37really can't get people out and start doing uh field sobriety tests and other impairment
- 21:45type tests if they have a reasonable explanation for what happened. Now, I
- 21:48don't know, if they're driving so bad at a certain time at night,
- 21:49it might be probable cause to get somebody out of a vehicle, even if
- 21:52they have an explanation to do some testing. But normally, you know,
- 21:57we'll see and then he you know, that's just on the scene. If
- 22:02it all depends on how Secretary Riskdom wants to handle it, because if he
- 22:07has concern about a criminal prosecution, he probably doesn't want to give anybody the
- 22:15details for example, of where he was and what he was doing and who
- 22:18he was with leading up to all that. At the same time, an
- 22:21employer has a right to ask about that. So we'll see how this falls
- 22:26out. Obviously, he has an absolute right from the criminal side to not
- 22:30make a statement, and the fact that he didn't cannot be used against him.
- 22:33That doesn't mean there can't be some consequences in relation to his employment if
- 22:37he decides to take the Fifth Amendment and not provide information. So we'll see
- 22:44how that one plays out. Obviously we're going to know more at some point,
- 22:45perhaps when it comes out of this internal investigation. I mean, it's
- 22:48not too late to charge somebody, but the evidence is gone. If he
- 22:52was DUI now you know now of course, was there a call made?
- 22:59Did they know who he was? That modify that his status, for example,
- 23:03working high levels of government calls law enforcement to operate different than they would
- 23:07otherwise. We don't have any clue about that right now. That's what the
- 23:11internal investigation is hopefully going to find Yeah, hopefully that I'll find out,
- 23:15and maybe even just internal police. I mean, listen, in reality,
- 23:21do law law enforcement officers have a lot of discretion. But they don't have
- 23:23to charge every person with every crime they see. I mean obviously they would,
- 23:26you wouldn't have enough police to do that, so they had They do
- 23:30have discretion. I mean just because they don't charge somebody when somebody else thinks
- 23:33they should charge somebody, is not necessarily anything wrong with that. I mean,
- 23:37they have discretion, and sometimes if they have borderline cases, they'll take
- 23:40them to the prosecutor and have the prosecutor review them to see whether it warrants.
- 23:47Have you ever heard of or had a case where somebody was come allowed
- 23:51somebody to come pick them up. Well, I don't usually have those cases
- 23:52because they let somebody come pick them up. Yeah, right, right right,
- 23:56But don't think that happens. Oh yes, no, there there are
- 23:59definitely I've had folks call and described that happening. Very rarely these days because
- 24:08there's for this very reason, you know, and probably folks won't remember,
- 24:14but you know, when Jack Whitaker won the big lottery, I mean it's
- 24:17three four, but he got a d U I R two or something.
- 24:19And then back then DMV controlled the license revocation part and the officer did state
- 24:25trooper didn't shut up for that, so he was able to keep his license,
- 24:27and there was allegations that, you know, well, why did he
- 24:32not shut up for that hearing? And sometimes there's deals on that, you
- 24:34know, maybe criminal side, there's a conviction, but the officer, you
- 24:38abiel gree they won't push the license side, and mister Whitaker might have got
- 24:44the benefit of that. But that changed. Policies in relation to officers attending
- 24:48those type hearings changed after that almost universally. You know, they were subpoena
- 24:52to these hearings and made to come. And actually, at some point before
- 24:59they dissolved the process, the Attorney general. It used to be the officers
- 25:02would be there only with no lawyer before hearing examiner. Then they had Attorney
- 25:07General's assistant Attorney General's show up at the hearings and basically represent DMV, So
- 25:11it changed everything in that regard, and so you don't see a lot of
- 25:14that letting people drive off anymore, or let somebody come pick somebody up if
- 25:18they haven't PARAMAU. It doesn't happen very often, but no, in reality,
- 25:22does it happen. Does it happen frequently? Probably? Now The question
- 25:27and on this one is was he treated differently because of his status or not?
- 25:30And that'll be interesting to see. And if there's it depends too,
- 25:33I mean, if he's from the radio traffic, the driving was really really
- 25:38really bad, I mean like not what I mean is I see a lot
- 25:41of them where well the vehicle was left of center or you know, the
- 25:47vehicle swerved a little bit. This is much more. I also wonder,
- 25:51just this inquiring mind, we're just talking here about city police last night put
- 25:56out information that it was not an off duty officer. You know, I
- 26:03don't know, I don't know how that came up at the beginning, because
- 26:06that was the that was the that was the traffic, that it was an
- 26:08off duty officer, maybe even a trooper, but it was an off duty
- 26:12officer. But did that person in the call describe him or herself as an
- 26:18off duty officer and why you know what I'm saying, They had the plate,
- 26:22they had everything, you know, so that makes me that is the
- 26:25call itself under investigation, the initial call, right, Yeah, that's true,
- 26:30and I know they backed off that they did. I mean, I
- 26:34don't know what that means, because what maybe he wasn't a trust in PD,
- 26:37off duty officer or state trooper. Maybe he was some other kind of
- 26:41me and R or I mean, there's there's different Maybe it may be a
- 26:45security officer, could be yeah, it would be something like that. But
- 26:48I mean, that's true how that came about initially. But you know that
- 26:53when you read the radio traffic that the bat, you believe what that person
- 26:59is saying about the detailed, erratic driving, So then you figure that's probably
- 27:03true. And then you have you know the pullover was true because you've got
- 27:07pictures of it. Now, whether there's video of the drive, bad driving
- 27:08or not, I don't know, but yeah, it's that interaction there once
- 27:14he's pulled over, and see what happens. I mean, I don't and
- 27:17I don't know whether there's Oh there's been a four year request for any body
- 27:19cam or or video of it, which I don't know what Charleston p d's
- 27:25policy is on that. Apparently they have some but because it's under quote investigation
- 27:30at this point, they're not turning that that over, so that that may
- 27:33come out at some point too. Because normally the the body cames, they
- 27:37were on the chest, have a lot of most of them have audio with
- 27:41them. I mean, I've had I have a DUI case right now where
- 27:44I'm representing somebody who's alleged to be impaired when they were driving and there was
- 27:48actually a little collision. I don't think anybody was hurt, but there's the
- 27:53full the police have the body came on the entire time, and it's,
- 27:56you know, it's great evidence for them because it's you're on the scene,
- 28:00you see what's going on. And then actually the officer on this one leaves
- 28:04it on the entire time when he's driving the fellow to the to do the
- 28:08breathalyzer and all that, so you have a good record of what happened.
- 28:12I have a big proponent of body games. I think they should have him
- 28:18equipped on every officer just for officer protection. I think so the breath of
- 28:22lisers happen at the scene, there's too different, Yes, and not at
- 28:26the scene. So they at the scene, they can give a what's called
- 28:29a preliminary breath test. That's the little little thing. Blow. It's portable
- 28:33and they got to make sure you don't ingest anything for fifteen minutes and there's
- 28:37some parameters for it, and then you blow into it. Now, I
- 28:40think that little machine will supposedly give you a blood alcohol percentage, but it's
- 28:44under West Virginia law, it's only supposed to be used as a probable cause
- 28:48tool. So you got Jeff Jenkins there and he's doing these fields sobriety tests
- 28:51they're hard to do anyway, he's kind of questionable, and un let's give
- 28:55him the primary breath test and if it shows it's positive, although we'll give
- 28:59a per but it's not accurate. Uh, then that's probable cause and make
- 29:03an a rest. Take you back to the station. Now, that's when
- 29:06they do the intoxicizer five thousand or whatever you call the device there and there's
- 29:11some other parameters. I got to follow disposal mouthpiece and then that's where it
- 29:15gives you the specific but alcohol. But you mentioned there's a lot of discretions,
- 29:19so there might have been at any place, you know, as they
- 29:23would not have. They're not required to give him a priminary breath test at
- 29:26the scene, and that probably only happens about half the time, and the
- 29:30du as I see, usually they do the field sobriety tests though, and
- 29:33those if you try the field sobriety tests on your own, I mean,
- 29:37sure I could do them, I think, but certainly there's a lot of
- 29:41my clientele that that have health issues or weight issues or other issues that make
- 29:47it very difficult to walk heel to toe, almost like on a balance beam,
- 29:49but you're on the floor nine steps and then spin when you turn and
- 29:53do the same line coming back and standing on one leg with your arms out
- 29:57and counting to thirty. They're just tests that are supposed to doing any visual
- 30:04cues of impairment, and so did they do those with him, I don't
- 30:07know. There's tons of discretion there with officers about whether somebody quote passes or
- 30:12fails, I mean, did they follow directions and all this stuff? So
- 30:17yeah, we'll see they may never have gotten any of that point. I
- 30:19don't know. We'll see what And there's no indication that they even knew who
- 30:22he was. I mean, we don't know that that's right. We don't
- 30:26know that yet, but we'll I mean, who picked him up? And
- 30:30I mean that's the other thing you look at. Well. I guess if
- 30:33he had a medical issue, that's probably the primary explanation that would relieve him
- 30:41of culpability. But obviously there was some issue there because they had it appears
- 30:45now that someone else had to come pick him up he was not able to
- 30:48do or they did not permit him to continue to drive, as the governor
- 30:52thought when he made his statements yesterday. So well, but the governor was
- 30:56very clear on how he feels about I guess he was referencing driving out of
- 31:00the influence. It was a little convoluted his statement, but you know he's
- 31:03so strongly about that. So I guess if there's evidence of that, he'll
- 31:07take swift action. We'll see. Interesting. Interesting, Yeah, interesting,
- 31:11and yep, so we'll continue to follow it in again. The latest City
- 31:17City Police are doing an internal investigation and Jimmy Riskin is not the release of
- 31:21any statements. He won't have a mugshot because he didn't get right arrested.
- 31:25You know, he got the benefit of that. Yeah, that's the question.
- 31:27I mean, is there if they knew I mean, did he get
- 31:30a benefit that you know, an everyday person wouldn't get if they were pulled
- 31:34over in the same situation. I mean, I've seen I thought I couldn't
- 31:38tell from the radio traffic. I thought maybe if I read that and didn't
- 31:44know anything other than what I was reading on the radio traffic, I thought,
- 31:47like the officer was trying to stop him. Maybe at one point he
- 31:49wasn't stopping. That's kind of what I got out of it. But I
- 31:52guess that was maybe not an officer trying to pull him over. They were
- 31:56just following him, referencing that he's still going, right, because I mean
- 32:00I've had less than that charge is fleeing if you don't pull out fast enough
- 32:05for an officer, No, I mean if you got on it, Leon
- 32:07Sullivan, which is kind of the indication, then I mean, it's only
- 32:10a couple of miles up to where they pulled him off, so by the
- 32:13time they got the traffic, you know. So right, yeah, all
- 32:16right, Well, well we'll continue to follow it and that'll be of interest.
- 32:21We'll continue to follow on the news and report any new developments, all
- 32:25right, three oh four, three four five fifty eight fifty eight three h
- 32:28four three four five fifty eight fifty Tom Payton's here Peyton Law Firm in Nitra.
- 32:34Yeah, so if you don't want to call in on the radio and
- 32:36ask a question, but you can get ahold of us at the office about
- 32:39calling us there at three oh four seven five five five five five six,
- 32:44or you can get on our website at Peyton Lawfirm dot com and you can
- 32:46do a little Facebook Messenger chat. I was chatting with some folks last night
- 32:52about a potential legal issue where you can also hit the email submission button and
- 32:59sends an emailed to my computer and dad's computer and we try and get back
- 33:02with you the same day if we can, or the next day, and
- 33:05there's no charge for that initial conversation. So somebody asked me about, well,
- 33:07I don't know about these consultations, like, well, it was a
- 33:12will issue. Actually want me see the document, get it to me somehow
- 33:15and then it won't take me long to look it over, and we have
- 33:17a initial consultation by phone. It's no charge, but you know, I
- 33:22can probably depending on what's happening, at least I can steer them in the
- 33:25right direction with that initial consultation. If they want to hire us for something
- 33:29that needs a lawyer to attend to, then we make arrangements after that.
- 33:35But I really shouldn't hesitate to call. And this is a person just kind
- 33:37of feeling out their rights. It's one of these again. I mean,
- 33:42I was actually have notes sitting here from months ago. When I came I
- 33:45found still sitting here on the desk, but it was self help. Wills
- 33:51are bad in my old notes. So I'll say it again. If you
- 33:53have assets that are worthy of trying to do it will, you really should
- 33:57conduct a lawyer and try and get it done exactly. Our prices are real
- 34:00reasonable to get some simple wills done. But the one that you know,
- 34:05the conversation I was in on the chat board there was, you know,
- 34:09somebody obviously had done this form will from staples or off the internet or something,
- 34:13and it was just not witness correctly, bad language. And it probably
- 34:21is a will, although it might be difficult to prove it. When I
- 34:25say will, I mean meets the legal mandates to be qualified as a will
- 34:30and transfer ownership of property when you pass away. It's notarized, but a
- 34:35will doesn't have to be notarized. It just has to be witnessed by two
- 34:38people while the other person, the person whose will it is called the test
- 34:42dator, is signing. Notary is just what helps it go through easier when
- 34:45you pass away. It's like an half a day butt so that you don't
- 34:47have to have witnesses come and prove the will after someone passes away. But
- 34:52I just do it. I do an awful lot. I really encourage people
- 34:54to get their basic of state planning done. You're you're really almost better off
- 34:59sometimes to just don't have a will if you know if you're going to try
- 35:02and handwrite one yourself. We have holographic wills in Westernia, so as long
- 35:07as it's not filling out a form, that doesn't count. But if you
- 35:09have a piece of paper, I could sit and write my will right now,
- 35:13as long as it's all my own handwriting, signed by me, and
- 35:15it clearly is a will, meaning it expresses my intent for where my property
- 35:21goes when I pass away. I don't encourage that at all, right,
- 35:24and they always not always, but oftentimes those are what get folks in litigation
- 35:29because it could be a will if it meets those parameters. But then the
- 35:31problem is what did you say? Because wills are the language of wills is
- 35:37extremely important because it basically you can think of it with land as serving as
- 35:42the deed. So whatever that language says in the will will control how land
- 35:45is disposed of, which if it's convoluted and you can't tell what somebody meant,
- 35:51it creates a whole title mess, and then you're back putting your family
- 35:52in a position where they're getting in lawsuits just to have the court tell them
- 35:57what to do with the property and who owns it. Just a PSA there
- 36:01again, And we do a lot of state planning and basically state planning.
- 36:06If you need that done, we can. We can get it done.
- 36:08And it's a very simple process conduct the office. If you have a particular
- 36:12question about something a little complex, I can get on the phone or something
- 36:15give an answer. Otherwise, you said, an initial appointment usually takes a
- 36:19half hour forty five minutes. We have you come back in about a month
- 36:22later, and with all the documents ready, takes about another forty five minutes
- 36:25and you're done. Yep, yep, that's the way it's done. And
- 36:30oh we've got like thirty seconds. Oh right, law firm of Nitro.
- 36:32Yeah, oh we can stop by. It's one first avenue in Nitro.
- 36:36But yeah, we've talked about different things today that we think will have interest.
- 36:39But if you are bread and better civil litigation trying cases and mostly for
- 36:45regular everyday folks or consumers or people fighting insurance companies. So if you have
- 36:49an issue like that, a friend or family member or hopefully not, but
- 36:52if anybody's passed away and you think there's some negatives contributed to it, give
- 36:55us a call and we'll check it out. And we have a lot of
- 37:00success on those type cases. ABC News is next, followed by five a
- 37:02D Live. Thanks Tom Good, seeing you. This is five AD w
- 37:06C H S H H H w C H S A W two four three
- 37:19D R F M Charlestown, W two A three HQ Cross Lanes, a
- 37:22w v r C media station. We're proud to live here too.