Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Coming out Part two of my exclusive conversation with Carmelo.
Anthony's parents would not stopped fighting for justice for my son.
But first, the judge who presided over the trial is
speaking publicly for the first time since diverted.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And I know I made people mad, but I'm not
here to make them happy either.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
It's Monday, June fifteenth, from the Black Effect Podcast Network.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I'm Mimi Brown. This is front page. Stay with me.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
So the judge and the Carmelo Anthony case, Judge John
Roach Junior, is speaking out for the first time since
Anthony was convicted and sentenced to thirty five years in prison.
In a new interview, Roach defended some of his most
controversial decisions that he made during the trial. Let's go
through them so on keeping the camera out of the courtroom,
the judge said his only concern was making sure both
(00:54):
the prosecution and the defense received a fair trial.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Let's listen.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I hope that the metcalf I think that their son
got a fair trial in this courtroom, as do I
hope that the Anthony family thinks their son got a
fair trial in this courtroom. I certainly think he did.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
He also addressed the criticism surrounding the jury, including concerns
that there were no black jurors who were ultimately seated.
Now for me, he doesn't quite answer the question. But
I'll let you listen.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
You denied the defense and dismissing of three jurors who
at least identified as African American on their bioforms. What
did you make of that moment? I'm sorry, the defense
raised an objection.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Raised an objection. Yeah, they have raised an objection. Like
I told you before, as long as I follow the law,
I sleep well at night. And I'm telling you I
follow the law in that case. Did I know what
the perception was going to be?
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I knew in the back of my mind what the
perception was going to be. But I'm not here to
satisfy perceptions. I'm not here to satisfy agendas. I'm not
here to do any of those things. I'm here to
follow the law, and I did it.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
To a t.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
He's also rejecting rumors that he had a personal relationship
with the metcalf family. He calls those rumors falls, and
when asked about Carmelo Anthony himself, he describes him as
a nice guy who committed a crime and is now
facing the consequences. And he also says that Colin County
should serve as a model for how courts should handle
high profile cases.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Let's listen to that.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
The case that we tried here in Colin County was
a well oiled machine. I mean Colin County. It should
be the model for high profile cases from here on out.
We constantly came together and met to make sure that
Colin County was going to be a focus for a minute.
And we wanted to make sure that everybody understood that
Number one, don't come around and mess with Colin County.
(02:42):
And one thing that does worry me a little bit
is people go, oh, this is a five day case
with the evidence. Five day case. It must have been
cut and dry. I don't know if that's true or not.
That watch five days because I wasn't wasting anybody's time.
Our community needed to heal quickly. They needed this case
over one way or another. But the case had to
be fair for but we accomplished that. But it was
(03:02):
a gargantuan effort. And so we're very very proud of
our county, all of our employees, everybody, and getting this
case tried quickly. Because our community needed it to.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Heal, all right, so the community needed to heal. Let
me push back on that just a little bit. A
trial is not a healing ceremony. A trial is a
search for the truth, and the truth does not move
on a timeline. It just seemed like it all moved really,
really fast. The case was tried fourteen months after a
teenager died. I asked a defense attorney, David Otunga, who
(03:35):
joined me last week, if that was normal. He said
it was normal for that sort of timeline for a
trial to proceed. The jury, though, was seated in two days.
The defense had less than two weeks to put on
its case, and the verdict came back very very quick.
The sentence came back even quicker. I don't know who
this speed is serving. I know when you file an
(03:56):
appeal that takes time, that can take years. I've covered
cases where defendants got years of pre trial motion, multiple continuances,
expert witnesses flown in from out of state, lots of
very different scenarios than this particular case.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
So I just need to push back on that just
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
So here is part two of my exclusive interview with
Carmelo's parents. It was recorded hours after the sentence came down.
If you miss part one, go back to Friday, but
here it's part two. So even when you noticed there
(04:38):
were no black jers, it gave you pause, It made
you want to say something, but you were still going
along with the process.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Yeah. I was going along with the process because you
don't know. There's a lot of times and I hope
this don't be controversy. But that's the first thing they
do is they try to say we emotional. They don't
follow instructions, right, So we did everything that was advised
and told to do, and look what happened.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
So who was that you said that they told you?
Who was they?
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Was it your Yeah? So we were because about him
being eighteen. So what they did was they kind of
played everybody against everybody, if you could say, I'm not
going to say they played us against each other, but
it's almost they you know, they had him scared, like, hey,
you know this, I'm a lawyer, you know this, this
(05:26):
this this as me being a father. All right, you're
the guy. I'm okay with playing my position and I
don't want to overstep any boundaries. Everybody kept saying, hey,
the beat this, the beat this. I even went to
some black attorneys. They're like, oh, you need a white
you need a white attorney to go out there to
fight out there. Remember they were telling us that. They
(05:46):
kept telling us that, So everybody like whyle y'all there,
everybody was telling us, okay, so then we we get it.
They basically tossed them old a lot of a lot
of objections wasn't done. It's a lot, it's a lot.
It's a lot that wasn't done.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
So do you believe your son received a fair trial?
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Absolutely? Absolutely not. And we're gonna keep fighting. We would
not stop fighting for justice for myself.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Hmm.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
It's it's it's very it's it's hard for us right
now and I've had my moments. We want our children
to do better, right We look at our y ns.
This wasn't y N. So what we do about this
is not y N. We can make more y N. Now,
you got a kid, like I just told you. Everything
that we're telling you right now is verified. Two jobs
(06:40):
with the HTV foot locker, that's who came to the
buying his g p A. He still graduated through all this.
He still graduated high school. He still graduated. The lady
that that he the kid, he said, that's this stuff
really happened. Uh, he was in trouble and know he
(07:01):
was never suspended for no life, but they had Actually
what I learned was they had a smear campaign that
they did. I wasn't familiar with that, like you know,
and a lot of people that we were reaching out with.
I understand business, a lot of people, you know, they
got a lot of things going on, so it was
reaching out. I was emailing, but everybody want to go
through you know, it's kind of a circle thing, which
I understand. But I realized through this Black entertainment is
(07:25):
going to have to be a black network is going
to have to be done because I'm looking for people
who would not would never understand it, no matter how
much you do, no matter how much you do, they
would never see it.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
You know, you're saying that as you were watching the trial,
as you were in there, you know, you didn't want
to question the process.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
You wanted to let it play out.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
But was there at any point that you felt the
outcome was heading in this direction?
Speaker 4 (07:56):
No, everybody, look at the report. Everybody, everybody is called
its portray perjury Perjurd that everybody did basically just did
it with no and they never was called out on it.
I mean literally they told within an hour when it happened,
it was two to three people. When they got to
(08:18):
the trial as oh, no, you know it was, I'm like,
wait what and I don't get wrong. The defend say, hey,
did you say this here? Everybody? One girl made up
a lie, said it was over a race. Then my
son walked up. This this craziness is yeah, one said
on the stand and said yeah, he just walked up
to him and said, what you want a race? It
(08:39):
didn't even make sense. Then they asked did you lie?
She was like, understand nothing.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Why didn't the defense Paul Moore witnesses.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
That's not my department, and I apologize for that. I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I just I'm just you know, as you as you
look at it, and you you know, I'm not an attorney,
but i mean, I'm hearing you when i'm you're telling
me all these wonderful things about him, and I'm just wondering,
did the jury get to hear you know, all of
these wonderful things about Carmelo.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
No, they didn't. When they even when the one kid
who was the corporate of all this, meaning the kid
who invited him to the tenth, he lied on the
stands say he didn't even know. And they had pictures,
pictures with his grandmother, with his grandmother, like here's your grandmother,
my son, your grandmother. Their whole family got multi time,
(09:28):
play basketball, got all kinds of different things.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Say yeah, I mean all of those witnesses statements and
stories were inconsistent.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
So we thinking that the jury is going to notice that.
But they already had their mind.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Made up when they sat in that courtroom.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Their mind was made up already.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
How big of a role do you guys believe that
race played into how this haste was publicly viewed and
how this outcome, this sentence was handed down.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
They had a big part race politics all that. I'm like, man,
the kid don't even vote. How he got into it.
But it was a days talking about the left side
and the right side, like what these are kids they
put every I feel like you had a certain group
that they of course they go blame us that strategically
(10:20):
made this about this because they knew they could do
that smell campaign. Like they said, we went and bought
a new car and house, and it hurt me with
all my people. My people really believed instead of them
going and doing their proper research, they had people really bashing.
I'm like, y'all really believed that who could buy a
house in photos buy a house and photos by I
(10:42):
know we may sometimes we may not make the right decisions,
but come on now, like that that that didn't even
make sense. They said it was doing on a stravagant trips.
It's a lot of things that they did to us
that just.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
You know, there was a lot of misinformation that was
going around, especially you know in the beginning.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
And you know, I know your family had to move
a couple of times because you were ducks, and you know,
I can't even imagine how Carmelo going through that, trying
to finish school, fighting you know, force freedom and and
you guys have other children, you know, so much on
you as parents.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
How's your your your your other children handling this?
Speaker 4 (11:27):
And we we had taking them out of school because
they had TikTok videos with my son with seeming coming
out as well because there was him saying go get
raped in jail, and it's just like that was mom
my daughter, my princess, she she had go through that.
The other boys we was we was in. We was
(11:49):
in a pretty blessed community. That's why I hope a
lot of people get dismissage. It don't matter where you're at. It,
don't meddle with you at like because like we was
in the been the safest place. But it's like they're
telling us that you could be assaulted, but you better
out right back. That's what this This is what this
case saying. They don't care. It could be two, three
(12:10):
people size, they don't matter. So that's that's what this
case is really about. The family is saying, now I
just got a message. They saying they will rob now.
They will rob now.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Mind you if they as in the Metcal family.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
They just just got this thing just popped up saying
they seeing people they ride. If we don't get the
message now, and it's not because it's our child, we
would never get it. This is the most crucial time ever,
especially if you have kids, because again you see the
child I'm telling you about right now. We all have
(12:47):
kids like that. We sent them off to school, We
sent them off just not looking for it. Again, he
didn't go look for this, That's why they try to
paint that picture. They painted a picture and he didn't
look just walk into his life.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Again. I want to thank the family for trusting me
with their story. We'll cover more on tomorrow's episode of
Front Page, so make sure you're tuned in, but for today,
that is your front Page. I'm me Me Brown. Follow
me at Memi Brown TV, and send me an email.
Let me know what you think of the interview today's episode.
Email me at front Page with Memi at gmail dot com.
(13:32):
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