Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 07/20/2023 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton
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- 0:45power of Beason on your side, the power of Babi And it's a twenty
- 0:57one and this is five ad WCHS Voice of Charleston. Good Thursday morning to
- 1:00you. I'm Jeff Jenkins with Tom Peyton, the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro
- 1:06and Tom is here to enter your calls anything about the law and so our
- 1:08lines are open and we'd like to hear from you this morning. Three h
- 1:11four three four or five fifty eight fifty eight. This number to call.
- 1:17Ryan'll put you through three h four three four or five fifty eight fifty eight,
- 1:22Tom, good morning, how you doing. Good morning great, Hopefully
- 1:25get some calls today. Be good to get some action. Glad to be
- 1:27here. Yeah. The place to go this weekend is going to be Nitro,
- 1:32right, so not going on down there. Yeah, we got the
- 1:36you know, I think they're gonna have the official grand opening of the new
- 1:38kind of athletic complex. Yeah, like a community night Friday, Yeah,
- 1:42Friday, and it's it's coordinated as part of this uh pickleball tournament, first
- 1:48Responders pickleball tournament. So we got in in as a little sponsor here at
- 1:53the end. And then I'll started playing little pickleball. So I've got a
- 1:56partner if I'm gonna go, go, go try. You're an athletic,
- 1:59you're long time indoor soccer player. Yeah, I'm still trying. So um,
- 2:07you know, pickleball is something I never wasn't in my h on my
- 2:10radar at all, and then um started hearing about it last year and tried
- 2:15to play it. It's a it's a good game or sport because it's d
- 2:20say. It's a blend between tennis and ping pong basically with bad mitten a
- 2:24little bit maybe, yeah, I kind of. I mean, it's a
- 2:28slowed down game, so you know, you serve underhanded because if you play
- 2:31somebody, if you're a beginner tennis player, for example, when you play
- 2:35somebody that's very good at all, you just get killed on the serve because
- 2:38it's hard to serve well and it's hard to return a really good serve if
- 2:42you're not pretty good or experience. But pickleball is kind of underhanded from the
- 2:46beginning. You know, it's a you have to underhand serve. You gotta
- 2:50let it bounce on the on the return, so it gets the game going
- 2:53without somebody dominating at the beginning. And we've been playing a little bit so
- 2:59good. But I think they expected to have maybe one hundred, little over
- 3:02one hundred participants and they have two hundred and thirty two players. So and
- 3:07then you're right. So Friday, I think that maybe the tournament starts.
- 3:12I know, I've got to go play like eight am one Saturday morning,
- 3:15but Friday evening, I don't remember what time it starts, maybe five o'clock.
- 3:20But I think it's open to the public, open to non participants in
- 3:23the pickleball tournament event. And we're having all kinds of things. They're going
- 3:29on Friday, just a whole I thought I heard maybe Joe Stevens from patre
- 3:32is going to come on or did he was on? Yeah, he was
- 3:35on Dave. Yeah. And so the brand new pickaball courts at the new
- 3:38Athletic. They think they've got nine pickleball courts, and then they have some
- 3:42tennis courts that they redid and those can be converted to pickaball courts because pickleball
- 3:46is smaller than the tennis and you can move the net around that kind of
- 3:50thing. So yeah, it should be should be interesting. A lot of
- 3:53people really getting into pickleball. You don't need the mobility that you do in
- 3:57tennise either, so it's something if you it's a good workout. But at
- 4:02the same time, it's not like chugging along a mile. Running a mile
- 4:06is bashiking or something like that. There's you know, more short movements and
- 4:11as opposed to getting really exhausted. And if you play doubles, there's there's
- 4:15even one. I mean, you're probably moving in a ten by fifteen area
- 4:20and that's it. And now are you at the point where you've got strategy
- 4:25or you're just trying to give them across in that. Well, I'd say
- 4:30I'm a minimal strategist, so we'll see how it goes. I'm definitely a
- 4:35beginner. So they rate folks and it's it's kind of an honor system at
- 4:40least unless you've played a lot. So I'm I'm a three point is what
- 4:43I put in, which is the lowest level for this one. So right,
- 4:45I'm mistered to see folks play that are good, know what they're doing,
- 4:48they've been playing for a while and it's just one of those things I'm
- 4:51still learning. So yes, I would say I implemented a little strategy,
- 4:56but number one, get it over the that and get it in the court.
- 5:00So seem like similar rules to tennis, and so you got to keep
- 5:02it within the lines and serve cross court and that kind of that's a really
- 5:06great number of response. Oh yeah, that's that's uh overwhelming. I mean
- 5:12they have all kinds of different categories. I think most people are local.
- 5:15There's a I mean it's a it's a good fundraiser for the first responder.
- 5:18I think Johnny Rutherford, John and that, and so I don't know what
- 5:23the breakdown is for what they get but it's it's a good, good organization
- 5:29to support and yeah, two hundred and thirty two team or players is tremendous.
- 5:35So and this is the first one they've done. It's actually been open
- 5:40for use, I don't know, for a few months or something, but
- 5:43I think they're using this as to kind of been big grand opening, get
- 5:45people in there to see it. And it's not it's a public facility,
- 5:49but I think you pay a small membership fee or something to use the pickleball
- 5:55and tennis courts without limitation, is how I understand it. Pay through the
- 6:00city and then also a nitro catfish tournament on Saturday. Yeah right, yeah,
- 6:06good, Yeah, that'll be. I know they do some pretty there's
- 6:10a somebody affiliated with the city maybe that really does a great job of stocking
- 6:15that. Yeah, just got stock too, Yeah, so that'll be.
- 6:17That'll be good. Yeah, I didn't see that. They they stock it
- 6:20pretty regularly with catfish and they do the trout when in the cooler weather.
- 6:26But yeah, I haven't been up the road there to ride now for a
- 6:28while, but they got really nice paths there. You can do a little
- 6:30mountain biking there. I think they still have the dog park, and there's
- 6:35a bike park for what I think of as younger kids to use, which
- 6:40has little ramps and mobil type things stuff like that. So yeah, lot,
- 6:45lot's going on there um. So it'll be really happening Friday. So
- 6:50if you have any if you're driving over there and you got some legal questions,
- 6:54you can just stop by our office have a chat. If we're in,
- 6:57we'll be glad to talk to your into your questions. Yeah, Toms
- 7:00with his paytent law firm in Nitro three or four three four five fifty eight
- 7:02fifty eight in questions about the law three or four three four five fifty eight
- 7:06fifty eight. Time I've been you know, we've been reporting on this um
- 7:12and interested in the kind of the process the MVP pipeline right and and and
- 7:18so, uh, those in favor of it, they used like a kind
- 7:23of I don't know if it's used a lot where they you know, appeal
- 7:26straight to a justice. You know that's like emergency relief right pending final appeal
- 7:32and so to the Supreme Court. And then they're certain justices are assigned different
- 7:38circuits. So Justice Chief Justice Roberts has the fourth circuit right now, So
- 7:44back up a little bit. So the this is the pipeline project that's been
- 7:47what trying to get completed since for like six years or something like that.
- 7:54And so as a part of the uh, what was the recent passage of
- 8:00that, Yeah, it had it was a writer in that federal bill,
- 8:03the Federal Front, you know, it was that that basically couldn't challenge I
- 8:05mean, yeah, so it's a pretty extreme bill that. Yeah, it
- 8:09was a it was an ad on and so it basically, and I haven't
- 8:13read it verbatim, but as I understand it, it basically tells the regulatory
- 8:18agency to approve the pipeline, and then it limits in some manner how how
- 8:28that can be reviewed, if at all, by the court system. And
- 8:33I've read some articles that seemed to indicate it it basically removed the court system
- 8:41from reviewing the the regulatory agency's approval. Then, you know, our our
- 8:50congressional delegation has maybe found an amicus brief write a letter or something. I
- 8:54think it was probably in brief form to Chief Justice Robertson, and there's some
- 8:58indication in that that it's it's not a problem with the separation of powers.
- 9:05We're the executive branches, you know, said courts can't review this. They're
- 9:11arguing that, well, there's still a review. It's just got to be
- 9:13done in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia. It's like a
- 9:18venue or forum selection type provision. But there's still review permitted. And so
- 9:24that's the Fourth Circuit. Then, despite the new law. Then you know,
- 9:28there had been lawsuits pending already, Wilderness something or other environmental group had
- 9:35already fouled it. And say the Fourth Circuit then put a pause on the
- 9:39law that Congress just passed. And I think there's probably some separation of issue
- 9:46separation of powers issues between the court, Congress, and the executive branch.
- 9:52You know, how far can they go and limiting judicial review, I mean,
- 9:56and target one particular project like that, so that we'll see how it
- 10:01plays out. Certainly i'd see significant if there's if the review by the courts
- 10:07is limited too much and you're telling the courts what they can or can't review,
- 10:13there's probably going to be real serious separation of power issues there, I
- 10:16would think. If it is simply yeah, there's still full review, but
- 10:24you got to go to this particular jurisdiction or I guess venue to have it
- 10:28address, so you've got to go over there, and then I think there's
- 10:33less problem with it and it will probably be okay. So you know,
- 10:37four Circuit stayed the pipeline project again based on those issues and others, and
- 10:43now the developer has appealed directly to the US Supreme Court trying to get the
- 10:52stay removed. I guess penning outcome of the ultimate resolution of the case.
- 10:58So we'll see. So basically the balls in Roberts Court, right, yeah,
- 11:01and I think there's there's still some briefs I don't believe. So it's
- 11:05filed by the developer, which was the defendant in the underlying case. I
- 11:11think Justice Roberts is set until next Tuesday for the plaintiffs in the underlying case
- 11:16to file their response brief. In the interim, you've had I think uh
- 11:22Senator Mansion file to brief, and then now the other three filed something together
- 11:28on behalf of West Virginia, and so then we'll have the plaintiffs brief and
- 11:31I assume that there's usually a chance for what they call reply, So there's
- 11:35initial filing response and then a reply and then they'll be either a hearing or
- 11:41probably just a ruling in the next few weeks. I suspect see where it
- 11:46goes and and might haven't read the briefs. I don't. I don't really
- 11:50know. I mean there's just reading in the media the nature of the of
- 11:56that law and some of the language from it. There's some issues there.
- 11:58I mean, if there were an issues, four Circuit wouldn't have taken any
- 12:01action. But um, we'll see. I would say if I was guessing
- 12:09that Chief Justice Roberts will probably leave the stay in place and let it,
- 12:13let it play out. Um, but I don't know. You know,
- 12:18you just don't know that one for sure. We'll see how it how it
- 12:20comes out, right, right, how's that? I mean, there's still
- 12:22an underlying Kate. You know a lot of times on these emergency type rulings
- 12:26are not you know, the final ruling necessarily or you know, you still
- 12:31have to have a right to have your underlying case go through on the full
- 12:33appeal, and so you know, keeping the stay in place until that runs
- 12:39through the system. I would say it's probably is more likely outcome, but
- 12:45interesting to watch and see how it goes. I know it seems like it's
- 12:48been in the news for I don't know. I think they did start it
- 12:50probably into that. It probably has been about six years. I mean,
- 12:52it's close to and it's close to getting done, and it's it's it's very
- 12:56close. So yeah, we'll continue to watch that. Three or four fifty
- 13:01fifty eight three or four three four five fifty fifty eight lines are open with
- 13:05Tom Peyton and the Peyton Law Firm. Any questions about the law. You
- 13:09know, you have obviously done tons of work in your career in Putnham County.
- 13:13And the news coming yesterday that long time prosecutor Marks for Sayah is leaving
- 13:18that position of Putnam. Yeah, going to be a cabinet secretary with the
- 13:22governor. Yeah. So that's five terms basically as a prosecutor. Yeah,
- 13:26been there. I mean I don't think he's had any no opposition, I
- 13:30was listening quite not that I can recall. I remember there was some opposition
- 13:33in the early two thousands maybe or something, but didn't get anywhere. I
- 13:37mean, Mark's kind of born and raised there, I think in Putnham County,
- 13:41and so he's got a lot of connections and he's a he's a of
- 13:46course now very experienced. I always thought he was a good I liked him
- 13:50as a prosecutor. I liked and I thought it was a good level hud
- 13:54person smart, doesn't get too high or too low on on things, and
- 14:01with somebody you could always talk to reasonably. Um. So I think he'll
- 14:05do who well in the position. He's obviously kind of wanted to do something
- 14:11more statewide for some time. I kind of thought he might run for circuit
- 14:16judge um in the past, and he didn't throw his hat in that ring.
- 14:20But he's he I think he was a kididate for governor at one point,
- 14:26maybe Congress. But I'm a couple of things. He's yeah, and
- 14:28he's been on the list when there's been vacancies. You know, he's a
- 14:31put it in an application for his Spring Western Spring frot of the appeals vacancy
- 14:37just didn't happen to get it. It's always kind of wondered why, but
- 14:41because I thought he was well qualified. But uh no, good good for
- 14:45Mark. I think he'll do a good job. Um. I mean,
- 14:48you're going into something there. You've got the agencies under you, include state
- 14:52police with their internal investigation, that vacant, the corrects vacy issue. It's
- 14:56not gonna be an easy tas ask, probably, But I mean he's you
- 15:01know, when you're a prosecutor for gosh, I don't know, five terms,
- 15:05yes, and then assistant prosecutor before that, right, So I mean
- 15:07you're you're constantly inconsistently dealing with those issues, and you know, dealing with
- 15:13law enforcement, which and then um, not necessarily corrections, but I think
- 15:18those those overlap somewhat, and of course dealing with the state police too.
- 15:22So we'll we'll see what he can do. He's definitely got a tough problem
- 15:26with corrections, and I don't we never seem to be getting anywhere materially on
- 15:33correcting those those problems. But but yeah, I think Mark will do a
- 15:37good job. Congrats to him, because I'm sure he wanted one of the
- 15:41job, or he wouldn't wouldn't be getting it. And I think I think
- 15:45Governor Justice used the word he was the perfect candidate or something to that effect.
- 15:50So I don't know, well qualified, he is well qualified, and
- 15:52you know he'll do a good job. I'm confident in that. And you
- 15:56won't have any shenanigans and and so then we'll just we'll have a new prosecutor
- 16:00for the first time in a really long time. And yeah, and I
- 16:03was just thinking, I was just thinking about prosecutors sor Saia. You know,
- 16:07he was the you're talking about the I remember talking to him just a
- 16:11couple of months ago, and he you're talking about the level headedness. And
- 16:15he was the special prosecutor in that just awful case in Huntington about the little
- 16:18girl. Yeah, you know, and that was a tough one because you
- 16:22know, determined that you know, she and her friends have been drinking you
- 16:26know, under yeah, out late and kind of ran ran into the road.
- 16:32Yeah, you know, and you know he was given a kind of
- 16:34you sorted through. It took his time, and yeah, I mean,
- 16:37and he's been secial prosecutor on multiple things over the years, and that's you
- 16:42know, he he is level headed like that and he does the right thing.
- 16:45And that's the thing about having somebody around long enough and secure enough that
- 16:49they can make always make objective decisions, not based upon outside influences or something
- 16:57like that. But yeah, that's what that's what you get with Mark Shorse,
- 17:02and that's what you want with a government official. I mean, someday
- 17:04he's not um influenced by I guess special interests or or outside influences something different
- 17:11than what the evidence is. And that's I found him to be reasonable and
- 17:17real level headed over over my guess twenty some years of working with him.
- 17:22Now he doesn't a lot of his work in Putnam County is I mean,
- 17:26I think he's tried some cases here in the last ten years, but not
- 17:30a whole lot. And he has a really good staff, right love is
- 17:32administrative. Yeah, now, so you don't see him a lot down there
- 17:36anymore. But he's got we don't have a lot of turnover in Putnam County
- 17:40in the Prosecutor's office, and he's got a good experienced staff that that are
- 17:47good to work with in my opinion. And so we'll see who I think
- 17:51it's I guess the County Commission will spect mark sorsee is Republicans. I don't
- 17:57know if that controls position or not, but we'll see. Probably somebody internally
- 18:03will be promoted if fate, if they want the job, and we'll carry
- 18:08on for there from there and hopefully they'll carry on. You know, Mark
- 18:12swors is reasonableness into the future in Puttnam County. The number to call a
- 18:18stereo four three four, five fifty eight fifty eight. Tom Peyton is here,
- 18:22are the Peyton Law Firm in Nitroe, like he has every Thursday morning,
- 18:26and the lines are open for your calls. Who're going to take her
- 18:27one and only break? It's a quick one. We'll be back three or
- 18:30four, three four, five fifty eight fifty eight three or four three four
- 18:34or five fifty eight fifty eight questions for Tom in a moment on five eight
- 18:38WCHS. If you want a lawyer who has no nonsense, hard working and
- 18:44equipped with years of successful experience, you want the Peyton Law Firm. Let
- 18:48Tom and Harvey put the power of Peyton to work for you. If someone
- 18:52has injured you or a family member, contact the Peyton Law Firm before it's
- 18:56too late. Stay ahead of the game by calling Peyton Law Firm four seven,
- 19:00five, five fifty five fifty six or online at Peyton Law Firm dot
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- 20:47Charleston Jeff Jenkins with Tom Payton of the Payton Law Firm in Nitro, and
- 20:51give us a call. Three or four three four five fifty eight fifty eight
- 20:55three h four three four five fifty eight fifty eight three or four three three
- 21:00four five fifty eight fifty eight. Yeah. One of the things we kind
- 21:04of talking about law enforcement area here. Saw this, I was clicking on
- 21:08and saw the I guess there was a shooting by the Huntington, Yes,
- 21:14Huntington Police Police Department, and maybe occurred a couple of weeks ago, yeah,
- 21:18July three, Yeah, it was I guess a nine one one call
- 21:22came in of somebody threatening to shoot someone or blow up a house and shoot
- 21:29someone if they tried to stop him. Yeah, okay, yeah, so
- 21:33then uh policeman arrives and in the city of Huntington. That's a good example
- 21:41why it's good to have this have. I think it's a body camp on
- 21:45the officer and it's on, and it's on. So the video has been
- 21:49released I guess that's what. That's why it's a little bit on top of
- 21:53the news feed today is because they released the video maybe yesterday, which is
- 21:57uh. And I'm a big advocate of body cams. I don't know why
- 22:04any law enforcement agency of now you get small towns, you got a couple
- 22:11of officers, traffic patrol and stuff that's probably different. You don't have the
- 22:15budget for it. I've heard claims of high expense for bodycams. I'm not
- 22:21really sure why they would be that expensive, meaning by GoPro amounted anywhere for
- 22:26almost I mean minimal expense. I'm sure you have to have something more complicated
- 22:30and storage and things like that for official government law enforcement body cams. But
- 22:37it seems like a great investment to me, because like this incident is a
- 22:41great because this fella. Then when you watch the video, he's kind of
- 22:47laying down or up against the house something officer trying to talk to him.
- 22:52He's got his hands in his pockets and won't remove them, says he has
- 22:56a gun, and the officers, you know, completely appropriately show me your
- 23:02hands. No, I'm not going to do that. I've got a gun.
- 23:07Then something the effect of let's let's do this or something like that is
- 23:11what that guy says, and officers, no, that's your choice, but
- 23:12we're just get your hands out. And then the and the audio and videos
- 23:18on the entire time, and then this fellow gets up and charges the officer,
- 23:25and to the officer's credit, yeah, I might have taken severe action
- 23:29a little sooner if I was a police officer. But the officer's backing up,
- 23:32saying stop, stop, stop, stop, stop over and over and
- 23:34over again. And then found I mean, he gets to where I'm not
- 23:37sure the guy, the fella touched it the officer or not, but he
- 23:41was right there. And then finally the officer pulls the trigger and I guess,
- 23:45you know, the video I showed saw cut off, but I guess
- 23:48it was. Obviously it was a lethal shot because that person ended up passing
- 23:49away. Ultimately, he did not have a firearm on him or with him,
- 23:56despite the fact he threatened it. But imagine if you didn't have the
- 23:59body m Now you got an unarmed person shot by a policeman. I don't
- 24:07think utter law enforcement had arrived yet to witness a you know, I don't
- 24:10know if there are other witnesses around, so you're gonna have, you know,
- 24:14ranked speculation about what happened and and all that is. Uh. I
- 24:18mean, some of these bodycams aren't great. They don't necessarily have audio.
- 24:22They're not the best footage. This one's really good and amazing amazingly clear audio
- 24:26and video. Right, So, I don't you know how you could challenge
- 24:30what happened here as far as officer behavior and that kind of thing. It's
- 24:34you can't. I mean, I don't see if you just try and con
- 24:37treat it. There's and I don't think there's much you could do. I
- 24:40guess think about should you shoot somebody to defend yourself as an officer somewhere other
- 24:44than a lethal spot. I don't know. That's the only thing I thought,
- 24:47But he doesn't. The guy has said he had a firearm, So
- 24:49you know, that's that's Monday morning quarterbacking at it's worse. It's try you
- 24:55know, I don't think that. So, but you know, I don't
- 24:59know what Charleston pad has as far as body cams. I'm not sure about
- 25:03state troopers, and I'm not sure about like Putnam County sheriff's deputies. I
- 25:07know Cable County does not yeah, and I don't you know what I mean,
- 25:12they're they're talking about getting them in the expense, but that's something they're
- 25:17moving towards. Yeah, I mean, I don't know what city Charleston does
- 25:19though. Yeah. Yeah, so that's I mean. And so you have
- 25:22a municipality that has it, Charleston Huntington, but the county can't get.
- 25:30But I mean I do some criminal defense work, and you know my position
- 25:33is on every case like this where you have an incident with police and a
- 25:37charge and there's controversy about what actually happened and it's happening right in front of
- 25:41law enforcement, Well why don't you have body cams? Well if your claiming
- 25:48as you can't afford it, well let's then we're going to get into a
- 25:51whole deal about budget and grants and everything else. Um. Of course,
- 25:59as a a skeptic, when you're defending somebody or you know, you're you're
- 26:04you're going, well, why wouldn't you want body You know, let's say
- 26:07you can afford it, because this claim you can't doesn't hold up. So
- 26:12why wouldn't you want bodycams? I mean, do you want to have why
- 26:17do you want to have? That? Gray area there where it's he said,
- 26:21she said, in these incidents. I mean, it just would save
- 26:23everybody so much time if you just had bodycams to pinpoint, it just shows
- 26:30you what happened. You just turn it on every time and then that's the
- 26:33end of that. Yes, some have dash cams under state. Please send
- 26:36dash cams for a long time. Yeah. Dashcams, which in my experience
- 26:40in criminal defense cases all well sometimes and they just have all kinds of problems
- 26:42with them. They're not on, or they can't get it stared right or
- 26:47I mean it's just issues. But I think spending the money for bodycams and
- 26:52dash cams or that's money well spent. I mean you can get them from
- 26:56the approach to it, from turn them one right when you do a traffic
- 27:00stop. Sim you just deleted after it's done. If they're uneventful, put
- 27:04it on some cloud storage. I mean, it shouldn't be that obviously.
- 27:07I've never looked into that aspect, but this is a great example. Why
- 27:14you know you have it. I think that's why they released it too,
- 27:17obviously. I mean had it they well, but we know eventually it gets
- 27:22released either way. Yeah, because even cases that we've had here somewhat locally,
- 27:26certainly in West Virginia. I'm thinking about the one up in the Eastern
- 27:27Panhandle. You know, they're going to get released eventually because for Freedom of
- 27:33Information I requests will ultimately I think, get to that except him, except
- 27:40in Pennsylvania, which how I wanted to bring up here about the Bob Huggins.
- 27:44And by the way, Tom's Tom Peyton and Peyton Law firms with us
- 27:45again. Lines are open three or four three four five fifty eight fifty eight,
- 27:49three or four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. And we talked
- 27:53this, you know, we we've talked about the Bob Huggins case. Yeah,
- 27:56the criminal case, the DUI case, and there was a bodycam video
- 28:00to go with that. So we and I'm sure other news agencies reached down.
- 28:04Pennsylvania has certain laws are different in each state, right, So we
- 28:10went through Pittsburgh Police first denied it and then they said you there's a there's
- 28:15another way. You can go through the District Attorney's office. So we went
- 28:19through the District Attorney's office and just got denied this week because it's a pending
- 28:25case. No, because they only release video that doesn't that doesn't contribute to
- 28:32the criminal activity if you know, well, I think that is probably what
- 28:37they say. They basically said the whole video, they said, contributes to
- 28:41the criminal activity in this case that they had, so they denied its release.
- 28:45Yeah, I don't think that would be a Now what that may be
- 28:48linked to. Like in West Virginia, if there's a criminal investigation under way,
- 28:56then there's an exemption for for you, so it's doesn't have to be
- 29:02turned to. Documents do not have to be turned over, but investigations generally
- 29:07can't go on in perpetuity. So I've had cases before I request evidence and
- 29:12then they say, well no, even though it's been six months or something,
- 29:15no base charge. Well it's still under investigation. So then I'll just
- 29:18wait a little while and I send it again a few months. Eventually they're
- 29:21going to have to say, well, you know you're going to charge somebody
- 29:25or are you gonna you know, this investigation excuse can't go on forever.
- 29:30And then usually you end up getting the documents I said. And then if
- 29:33there's a pending criminal case going there, you know, discovery and a criminal
- 29:37case, what the defendant gets from the prosecution and vice versa is all controlled
- 29:42by court rules, and so once it gets an appending criminal case, then
- 29:51non participants in that case, the public, the media generally there's an exemption
- 29:56for those as well, because that would just be a work around for the
- 30:00defendant to get access to things that needs to be controlled through the prosecutor's office
- 30:06for example. So maybe one of those two issues in Pennsylvania, and and
- 30:11maybe that's what they're saying because it's part of criminal activity that video, then
- 30:15I'm not going to release it now. I don't know that that will stand
- 30:18up. Like when it sounds like Bob Hopkins is going to get this deferral
- 30:22type treatment pre trial diversion type to you, and know that that doesn't mean
- 30:26as cases ever because that probably then I'm not familiar with Pennsylvania, but it's
- 30:30gonna be some kind of waiting period where he's got to behave probation six months,
- 30:33two year. Yeah, And so that that usually the way in which
- 30:37those work is if if he were to do something to violate those conditions on
- 30:45these deferral programs, usually you go back just do the whole case again,
- 30:48like the prosecution still has a chance to just revive the original charge, and
- 30:52so they're going to probably use that excuse and refuse to turn over that video
- 31:00until they until it's completely completely done, so that might be over a year
- 31:03from now or more. And then the news decision of how relevant is it
- 31:08right, I really want to write, after it's been adjudicated, that's right,
- 31:11right, then it gets stale, and you know, what's news today
- 31:15may not be news tomorrow. So you've got that that issue. Although I
- 31:18think that one would be interesting, but um, I don't know. I
- 31:21mean, it's it's just I mean, we already know what they said,
- 31:26so I'm not sure what pretty detailed criminal complaint. Yeah, now, I'll
- 31:30tell you where it will be relevant still is if and we've had this has
- 31:34been quiet on the front since I was here last Thursday, is if Bob
- 31:40Huggins has his Cleveland law or foul some lawsuit about how he didn't resign,
- 31:45then what you're talking about, you know, that case will probably still be
- 31:49going if they foul out today a year from now, all the way the
- 31:52way it works, and so then then then things like the video become more
- 31:56relevant. That's another reason he shouldn't be moving forward that I'm hoping that we
- 32:00haven't since we haven't heard any nasty Graham's back and forth between the university and
- 32:07Huggins lawyer, that maybe this thing will just die down. From his side
- 32:12of the equation, I think that's a good inference. I mean it sounds
- 32:15like that because it was pretty hot and heavy back and forth there with and
- 32:21you commented on the case. You didn't see much of a case there at
- 32:22all, and and and I think the quietness of the last few days has
- 32:30um hopefully hopefully, but it may not. I mean, the thing is,
- 32:32you can only Yeah, writing letters is going to be a waste of
- 32:37time at this point, I think, because I don't see any amicable,
- 32:40amicable middle ground other than negotiating how his I guess deferred compensation is handled as
- 32:45a result of a resignation, but otherwise, I mean, who knows this
- 32:50lawyer could be working up a complaint to file. I mean, it doesn't
- 32:52he can file it. We never know, we'll see. I mean,
- 32:57it certainly hasn't come out and said no, we're gonna What he should do
- 33:00is come out and say we're going to drop that contention and just move on.
- 33:05We haven't seen that either, So you know, one week or eight
- 33:09days of silence doesn't mean it's gone, and I hope it is, but
- 33:15we'll we'll see how it plays out. But you know, the video of
- 33:20Bob Huggins probably depicting him in an unflattering way, we'll probably go away when
- 33:28it's available a year, year and a half from now may not be newsworthy.
- 33:31But if you're getting this lawsuit, that's just another example. It's like,
- 33:34well, the other thing is do you really want to or or he
- 33:37gets another job? Some somebody might well that's true, you know, but
- 33:40you know, you think about it. Do you really want to get what
- 33:43you're asking for? Because I'm sure there's some calls element in his contracts,
- 33:46like all right, well, I mean what benefits does Bob Huggins get?
- 33:52I mean, I think they were kind of helping him out there by allowing
- 33:55him to resign, because I'm sure he gets benefits under his contract for resignation
- 34:00that I don't know this, but you know, generally it's how it works
- 34:05that are there greater benefits than if you get fired from your you know,
- 34:08your contract terminated, your employment terminated for cause. So I mean saying,
- 34:14well, okay, you didn't resign, Well, here we terminate you for
- 34:16cause, and here's why X y Z. And you know I don't.
- 34:20I'm it's probably gonna be worse off economically if if if you go if you
- 34:25go that route, So that's a whole other I mean, you can win
- 34:29and lose the cases too. You know you all right, we're right,
- 34:32you're right. You know you didn't resign. Now you're fired. I We're
- 34:37gonna use this other cause to fire you. It's like, so you think
- 34:39we're wrong on that, then follow lawsuit for reach a contract and then we'll
- 34:43all see the video and see what happened, and you know, go back
- 34:47to the radio show thing from May and it just become a mass man here.
- 34:54Yeah, I'm sort of think that all have, you know, until
- 34:58we see something definitive, some kind of no save face type letter that but
- 35:04says, you know, we don't think it was handled right by WVU,
- 35:07but reconsidering this in their position, we're gonna move forward with the resignation.
- 35:14I mean that would be nice to have that. What's it danger here is
- 35:19any future recognition involvement with WVU if he would continue to push that right,
- 35:25I think so too. And and so if you get some kind of I
- 35:30mean, if you if you go back and just it was in the heat
- 35:32of the moment, you feel like you retreated unfairly, but you go back
- 35:37and step back and cool off and take a look at it, then have
- 35:42your lawyer right a letter just saying you know, we're gonna we're gonna have
- 35:46reconsidered all this and you know, not gonna found any lawsuits or make any
- 35:52arguments that I didn't resign any longer. I retract that, and I hope
- 35:57the university moves on and I am too, and things go well, then
- 36:00it's you know, maybe letters back behind is all that's right. But if
- 36:06you start continuing on with this what I think is in my opinion, frivolous
- 36:10arguments that just prolonged a mass for him and for the university, then it's
- 36:17gonna turn into irreparable. I mean time even time will make it. But
- 36:22I mean, Bob Huggins has won a lot of games, done a lot
- 36:25of great things for the state and the university, and so this this shouldn't
- 36:30be overlooked. But you know, you can't know them accommodating him with the
- 36:36current status of their relationship just seems impossible. In the future, you know,
- 36:40having him to games and saying right, here's Bob Bruggins sitting on the
- 36:44sideline. I mean, does that happen? I guess I can buy a
- 36:46ticket and be at the game. It'll be interesting to see how that kind
- 36:51of plays out. Okay, Tom, we've got about a minute left.
- 36:54Hey, all right, Well did a lot of talking today. Yeah.
- 36:58Um. So if you want to get a hold of us though and ask
- 37:01a legal question, or you can talk about pickleball, I guess or Bob
- 37:05Huggins, that's fine. Till you can give us a call at the office
- 37:08three or four seven five five five five five six where you can email us
- 37:14through our website and that's Peyton Law Firm dot com pe y t o N.
- 37:17That's a good way to get through to us. And if you're in
- 37:21Nitro you're driving through, then feel free to stop by. If you're coming
- 37:24off the interstate, you're gonna come right by our office. We're on the
- 37:28left. They're across from the railroad tracks on the way to the Nitro Athletic
- 37:32Complex. And if you have a legal question or an issue, you can
- 37:37come stop by. If I'm available, I'll certainly talk to you. If
- 37:39not, we have a good experience staff and they can usually answer some basic
- 37:44questions about your legal situation. All right, and seven five five fifty five
- 37:50fifty six is the number of the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro three or four
- 37:52seventy five five five five five six or Peyton Law Firm dot com. All
- 37:58right, we'll see you next week. Look forward. Good luck in the
- 38:00pickle ball What eight eight o'clock Saturday. That's your match? Yeah, we
- 38:04have. It's double elimination. I think there's seven teams in our categories,
- 38:07so maybe I'll be coming back with the trophy next week. Okay, I
- 38:08doubt it. We'll see Okay, Thanks Tom good seeing it all right?
- 38:14Stay two ABC News is up next. We'll have local news and then Dave
- 38:19Allen with five eighty Live Hoppies up at ten o six this morning. This
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