December 17, 2025 • 35 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 1 (12/17) - Royal Oakes from ABC News joins the show to talk about Nick Reiner's first day in court. More on the complex issues regarding Nick Reiner and Rob Reiner.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We are here like always one to four o'clock in
the afternoon that you can listen to us on KFI
and also streaming on the iHeart app. You can also
hear the podcast after four o'clock, John Cobelt's show on
demand on the iHeart app, and that's where you listen
to what you miss because it's the same as the
radio show and eventually you'll be able to hear every second,
(00:30):
every minute of the program. We will start with the
Nick Reiner case of the son of Rob and Michelle Ryder,
who were brutally murdered. He's up on two first degree
murder charges and he made his first court appearance today
and they didn't allow any video or photos of him
(00:53):
wearing his suicide desk, but there was audio of him
wave his right to an immediate arraignment. The attorney Alan Jackson,
he asked for a continuance until January seventh. And we're
going to talk now a Royal Oaks ABC News legal
(01:14):
analyst about this royal. Before we start, I want to
play about forty five seconds. This is Alan Jackson. It's
about the only public statement he's made about Nick Reiner.
And listen, and I want you want to start with
you reacting to it.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
This is a devastating tragedy that has befallen the Reiner families.
We all recognize that our hearts go out to the
entire Reiner family. There are very, very complex and serious
issues that are associated with this case. They just need
to be thoroughly but very carefully dealt with and examined
(01:58):
and looked at and analyzed. We asked that during this process,
you allow the system to move forward in the way
that it was designed to move forward, not with the
rush to judgment, not with jumping to conclusions, but with
restraint and with dignity and with the respect that the
system and this process deserves and that the family deserves.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Now, Royle, I think the average person listening to this saying,
the hell are you talking about? Don't rush to judgment,
don't jump to conclusions. There's no question, I think factually
that we're going to find out he definitely did it.
I think he's talking about what state of mind Nick
(02:42):
Reiner was in.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Absolutely that's what's going on, though, We've seen reports from
three or four outlets that in fact, there was blood
all over Nick Reiner's hotel room. So it's likely that
there is strong evidence that he did it. And as
you say, then the big question becomes what's state of mind?
And here's what's happening. You know, all of the nice
words vi alent Jackson there. What it boils down to
(03:06):
is he wants more time to get to his arms
around the mental issue. One question is is he going
to plead not guilty by reason of insanity? That usually
doesn't get rolled out at the arrangement on January seven,
but it might. Another question is is Jackson going to
ask the court for a competency hearing where a bunch
of shrinks examine Nick and talk about his understanding of
(03:29):
what's going on. Is he even able to stand trial?
Whereas he just so whacked out? So the whole ballgame
is about his mental state, because if he knew what
he was doing and it wasn't purely a result of
drugs or addiction or mental health, then murder is a
likely outcome. On the other hand, manslaughter would be a
(03:50):
gigantic advantage for the defense because he might get just
a few years behind bars under ten as opposed to
sitting in the cell for the rest of his life.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
When people plead insanity and it actually sticks, what's the
legal definition of insanity.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
You don't know right from wrong, that's the essence of it.
If you act in a guilty way, you try to escape,
if you try to do some sort of cover up,
that's a recognition that he did something wrong. But at
the moment of the crime, if you can demonstrate through
psychiatric testimony that he didn't know right from wrong, that
is not guilty by reason of insanity. Country And what
(04:32):
happens John, then is they don't go home. They go
to the mental hospital, kind of like John Hinckley was
shooting Ronald Reagan back in the eighties and he was
there for decades. So it's not clear how long a
person would have to be confined if they were found
not guilty by reason of insanity, but that certainly would
be the gold standard. And it's so weird to think
(04:52):
about this, John, And you think of the Menendez case.
The extended family members that supported the sons and helped
finance the defense. They hated parents because they thought the
parents were monsters. But here nobody's hating Rob and Michelle.
And so you say, well, why would the family, you know,
help to hire Alan Jackson. It's probably happened. It's because
they've seen Nick as you know, a little kid. They've
(05:14):
known him for his whole life. They see him as
a victim in a way because of his addiction. They
don't want him to rot in prison or be executed.
They want him in a mental facility to get help,
or have a short manslaughter sentence and then get help.
So that's the whole ballgame that Alan Jackson's trying to arrange.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
And by the family, I assume you're talking about the
surviving sister and brother, right.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Yeah, or anybody in the family who has a significant relationship,
you know with Nick. I mean you ask yourself, because
we don't know who hired Alan Jackson. And he's one
of the most you know, the powerful criminal defense lawyers
on the planet, Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein. You know,
he doesn't come cheaply. I mean, back in the day,
(05:58):
Meneda's brothers were able to spend part of their fourteen
million dollars estap from their parents on fancy lawyers and
plus you know, a spending spree because they hadn't been
convicted of killing the parents yet, therefore they had for
a while access to the funds. After a while, the
court system said, okay, that you have had your fund
no more money because it looks like you may be convicted.
(06:19):
So who knows who's running the show in the rein
Or family, But it's probably unlikely that Nick reached out
in his rolodex and said, oh, well, I'll call Alan Jackson.
I imagine somebody else helped. Again. Their goal is to
get help for this young man and not just have
him brought in prison.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I would be if I was a family member, I'd
be terrified that he comes out and he'll come and
kill me, because.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Anything can happen.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, because they don't cure a lot of people who
are in mental institutions. They might say they do, but
it's impossible to know.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Well, that's right, and even if they can cure, then
we know from stories about people with schizopher they're fine
on their meds, but they don't like their meds and
they go off and then suddenly they're violent again.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Now all right, that's insanity. Now, something we touched on
earlier this week. If you could explain further this this
this other plea where it's not it's not insanity so much,
but maybe the drugs affected his ability to make rational decisions.
(07:26):
I'm not articulating it right, but you know the legal
terminology for this. If you could explain the terminology, Yeah,
go ahead.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Yeah, you're onto it. So here's the deal. It's so
hard to prove insanity because you know that you're going
to believe that, oh, he didn't know right from wrong.
How convenient. You know, you don't want to go to prisoner,
you don't want to be executed. The better option is
what you're talking about, which the law calls voluntary intoxication.
So if you kill somebody because you voluntarily chose to
go on to drugs and alcohol and then you were
(07:55):
whacked out and you killed somebody, it is not a
basis to be found not guilty, but it is a
basis and this is the whole ballgame to drop it
down from murder to manslaughter, because murder means you intended
to kill, You formed an intent in your normal, healthy
mind to kill. If you didn't have a normal healthy
mind because of the voluntary intoxication, and you intend to
(08:16):
kill but it was really because of the drugs and
the metal illness and so on. That justifies dropping it
from murder to manslaughter, which is, yes, he intended to kill,
but he can't be held legally responsible for that intent.
And that means like three six, nine eleven years in
prison for manslaughter as opposed to twenty five years life
in prison or maybe even the death penalty if you're
(08:37):
convicted of murder.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Stories I'm reading and you know, in the last few
days there have been a number of stories that turned
out to be wrong. So and some of these come
from the New York Posts, so you got to put
an asterisk. But they say that the whiners took him
to the Christmas party because his behavior was so erratic
in recent weeks. They didn't trust him being alone. They
(09:03):
didn't know what would happen. Didn't say what specifically they
were afraid of. If they thought he was going to
kill himself, burned down the house, didn't say, But that's
why they took him to the party. And then he
started acting bizarrely there and they had to leave, and
then the murder happened. How does that play into it?
What does that suggest when you have a read because
(09:24):
obviously there were times he did act rationally in life,
and I don't know if his mental illness was in
and out of its schizophrenia, if it was depending on
the amount of drugs he was taking. But there were
times he was normal and times he went apparently through
episodes where they couldn't leave them alone. And as that
comes out, does that send this plea or a trial
(09:45):
into a different direction.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
I think what it means is that they were fully
aware of the fact that even though they made that
movie together a decade ago about a son with troubles
and a prominent dad, they felt that at least it
was safe for him to interact with people, but you know,
keep them close to possibly prevent problems, encouraging to take medication.
(10:09):
I think what it says is that they of course
had no idea that he might have this potential for violence,
because otherwise, why would you subject all that, you know,
all the guests at Conan O'Brien's holiday party to somebody
who could spin out of control. I think, you know,
the bottom line is a person like that is a
loaded gun. You just never know when it's going to
go off. You know, you love them, you struggle to
(10:30):
try to help them. You work with them in terms
of therapy and medication, but there's only so much you
can do if he's just going to aspire a lot
of control.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
There is no legal option when you have an adult
in your family who's consistently erratic, either a drug addict
or mentally ill, and they won't voluntarily get treatment or
take their medication, whatever the reason is, and you're living
with them, and there's nothing you could do other than
throw them out of the house.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
And I hope they don't come back and kill you. And
I just find that people get.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Trapped in just terrible situations because there isn't an outlet
in society or in government to care for these people
and force them into treatment.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
No, you're right, it's a real tragedy. Now there is
a stopgap measure, you know, the sixty one fifty hole
the people talk about, where if somebody is a danger
to themselves or others, you can go to the court
and say, hey, your honor, we want them civilly committed
to be evaluated by some shrinks and get some medication
into them, so you can temporarily get them off the street.
(11:36):
But that only lasts for seventy two hours hours. Yeahmstrat Yeah,
an even higher level of risks. So yeah, it's just
I mean, when you see people, you know, driving around
LA with a homelessness situation, you know that a good
chunk of these folks they're not living lives, they don't
really have a brain, They've got awful mental illness. They're
in the grips the throes of addiction, and you drive
(11:59):
by and nobody doing anything for them. I think that's
why a lot of people john are sympathetic to the
idea that, look, let's lock up some people against their will,
like they did, you know, before Ronald Reagan changed the
rules back in the sixties and early seventies. Because you know,
the government, you know, the government takes half of your money.
If you make a lot of money, why can't the
(12:19):
government do some other things to protect you, to protect
public health. So you know, it's a big debate going on.
But you know a lot of libertarians say, no, you know,
the government should be locking you up.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
If they had one of these guys in their family,
they might change their mind. It's easy to have a
theoretical objection it's something abstract, but when it's actually in
your house.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
That's a whole different story.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Now. I agree. I think what's going to happen here
is that the family is going to push super hard
to present all the evidence of addiction and mental health
problems to at all costs avoid the murder conviction. And
then if he deserves to spend some time in prison, okay,
but the important thing is to get the guy help.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
All right, Royal Oaks, ABC News Legal Analysts, thank you,
Thank you for coming on.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
All right, we'll do more on this coming up.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI A
M six forty.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Moisteine for Friday eight seven seven Moist eighty six eight
seven seven Moist eighty six, or use the talkback feature
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
We just had.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
We just had Royal Oaks on for BBC News the
legal analyst, because it's really important to understand the legal
pathways from here for Nick Reiner. First of all, there's
there's no question obviously that he committed the murder. So
what does a defense attorney do. Why would you pick
(13:43):
Alan Jackson, who's who's very expensive obviously highest level cases
that he handles, including Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein, and
so what could they possibly say not guilty by rest
of insanity. Well, if you plead that, you have to
(14:04):
prove you didn't know right from wrong, that you really
had a psychotic break from reality and you didn't know
what was going on and you didn't know what you
were doing. And I don't think that's the case. But
then you have this voluntary intoxication defense, which can strongly
(14:29):
affect your judgment and cause you to do things that
you ordinarily wouldn't do, that you didn't plan or intend
to do. It sounds murky, doesn't it, But it's going
to be that kind of defense if there is one.
(14:51):
It's about an intent to kill and when the intent formed,
and how compromised was his mind, how diminished was his
mind when he decided to do that. None of these
are easy paths. But Alan Jackson might decide to go
(15:11):
down that road or threaten to go down that road
to get a plea deal which eliminates the death penalty
or perhaps gives his nick rein or parole at some point.
So some of that is legal strategy, and that's why
he wanted to take three weeks until the official arraignment day.
On January seventh. To look at all the possibilities here. Now,
(15:33):
if you look, they didn't have photos or videos allowed
in the courtroom. But I'm looking at the New York
Post and they have an old fashioned courtroom sketch. I
would have thought courtroom sketch artists were an extinct species,
but they did them in color. Now, and here is
(15:54):
one of Nick Reiner, and he's wearing the suicide smock,
which in the sketch it looks like he's wearing a
purple sleeveless dress.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
It really is a smock.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
It comes down to his knees, his legs are bare,
his arms are bare, his hands are shackled together. And
I don't know what the smock is made of, but
it makes it impossible for him to use his arms,
or you use any kind of clothing, right, because you
could hang yourself with your the sleeves of your shirt
(16:27):
or your pant legs, and there are no sleeves, There
are no pant legs here, so I guess it really
is just a one piece.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
It looks ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Actually, in the sketch it looks like he's wearing a
summer dress, some kind of purple plaid number. He apparently
sat stone faced. He was behind a glass panel, and
god knows how many drugs he was on. And I
don't know how, you know, do they just go cold
(16:58):
turkey in prison if he's got some horrific withdrawal situation
going on, I don't know that either. But there are
new details coming out on how Rob and Michelle were found.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
A massage therapist arrived at.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
The home and they were supposed to give Robin or
Michelle Reiner a massage and then later on Robin Michelle,
We're gonna have dinner with Barack and Michelle Obama and
other people in just a few hours. And this is
the day after the party. The massage therapist got no
(17:42):
answer at the gate. That's when she called the couple's daughter,
Romy Reiner, who came in with a roommate. Romy walked
in found her father's body and obviously it was really horrific.
They had their throats slit by all the blood must
have come out. She ran away outside and didn't realize
(18:06):
that her mother had also been slaughtered in the same way.
Somebody connected to the family provided some information to The
New York Times yesterday on condition of anonymity and this person,
(18:28):
and again I've seen multiple conflicting reports. This person said
that nothing in recent weeks suggested that Nick would be
capable of such violence, and this person disputed accounts that
the family had been especially apprehensive in the weeks before
Reiner's behavior. I've seen other reports which suggested otherwise, but
(18:51):
who knows. But he definitely behaved erratically that evening. He
was running up to people and saying, what's your name,
what's your last name? Are you famous? In a very
aggressive manner. Rob Reiner j scolded him a couple of times,
and that caused tension. Varying reports just how intense, how
(19:15):
loud the exchange was. But that's when the Rhiners decided
to leave. And like I said to Royal, they took
him there because they didn't want to leave him alone.
It's very possible that you had many, many years of
really really erratic, crazy, unpredictable violent or near violent behavior,
(19:40):
and guys thirty two years old and they're at the
end of the rope, like what.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Do you do? And it's inconceivable to me.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
It is absolutely conceivable that in the state, in this country,
we don't have an outlet when there's a family member
who is acting insane, even though that's not the legal
definition of insanity, that you can't forcibly take them somewhere
and lock them up. Some people need to be in
(20:12):
a mental institution. Some people need to be forcibly medicated.
It's always been that way, and for fifty years now
that option has been difficult to access and it's just stupid.
And I know there's all these libertarian types or ACLU
types who think everybody ought to have the freedom to
(20:33):
do anything, and that's just not possible in the real world.
That's in their fantasy, utopia, academic, abstract world. It's not
in the real world. You got to get them out
of the house, you got to get them off the streets.
You have to force them into treatment.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
A lot of the.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Treatment doesn't work, it doesn't that's you know, all these
rehab centers wildly over sold. A lot of them are criminal,
they're cruks. But there's got to be a better way this.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
We are on every day from one until four o'clock.
You could follow us at John Cobelt Radio and social
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(21:28):
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Speaker 1 (21:37):
Coming up after two o'clock.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Los Angeles Times had had several stories today as we
head towards the one year anniversary of the great Bass
Newsom fire in the Palisades and in Altadena, and Karen Bess,
since she's running for reelection, is going on the podcast tour.
She did an out well, I'll be very specific. She
(22:02):
did a sixty two minute podcast that you could find
on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
It's called The Fifth Column, but.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
It was originally a sixty six minute podcast. There was
four more minutes. She thought the podcast had ended and
she started telling the truth. And for a while that
version was up online, but Karen Bass didn't want you
(22:31):
to see or hear her say the things she did,
and the LA Times must have gotten hold of the
original cut, and I'll tell you about it.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
But the Best staff.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Went to some lengths to make sure that make sure
that was off YouTube, and now nobody wants to talk
about it on either side. We'll explain all that coming up.
And we also have Katie Grimes on the show after three,
and Katie's from californiaglobe dot com and she's gonna tell
(23:06):
us about all the disasters up in Sacramento with Gavin Newsom.
There's a massive budget deficit, among other things. We'll go
through the list. The list is lengthy.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Now.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
On the Nick Reiner case, which we were talking about
for the first half hour, we're talking about his state
of mind because besides the guilty not guilty options, there
is guilty not guilty by reason of insanity or not
or guilty but with a and I'm gonna call a
diminished mind. It's or voluntary intoxication. You take drugs, messes
(23:46):
up your brain so much you can't make a rational decision.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
You didn't really have intent to kill.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
And these are the options that Alan Jackson is looking at,
which is why he wants another three weeks. The arrangement
didn't happen today. Some clues about his state of mind.
There's a couple of videos and one of them shows
Nick Reiner walking down Santa Sente Boulevard. There's a gas
(24:15):
station there at the Sinclair Station. It's on the corner
of twenty sixth Street. It's a station that I go
to sometimes. You know, has one of the dinosaurs. Oh,
in fact, this was the place where the dinosaur was kidnapped.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
You know their mascot. I forgot what it.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Was made of, but you remember some thief stole it,
threw it in the back of a pickup truck and
ran off and there was such an outcry. Maybe he
decided he couldn't sell it because everybody was looking for it,
and so he brought it back. Well, it's the same station.
It's odd the station has been in the news twice
in the last few weeks. Well, there's surveillance cameras on
(24:52):
the station property, and it caught Nick Reiner walking by
casually just before midnight on Saturday. Now New York Posts
said this was hours before Rob and Michael Rob and
Michelle Ryder were killed, and they lived not far from
that gas station, and so I was thinking, it's like, well,
(25:15):
what time did they come home from the Christmas party?
And did he leave and then come back Because he's
walking normally. You wouldn't have noticed him twice if you
were driving by. Was this after he did the killing,
because they haven't released a timeline, and so they haven't
(25:39):
released when they left the party and when they went
to bed, if they were killed while in bed or
killed before they went to sleep. But he's walking calmly,
and if you're using that photo to give an assessment
of a state of mind, he looks completely normal.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
Now.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
The second photo is definitely after the killing, because this
is the photo where he buys a drink at a
gas station near Exposition Park, and that's where he was
found by police and arrested and handcuffed. And this was
(26:21):
Sunday night, and he was waiting to purchase a drink
something in a can inside the convenience store. And if
you look at the clip, he's dressed normally, just jeans,
a striped jacket, baseball cap, red backpack, reaches into his
(26:41):
pockets to grab his wallet to pay, and it's just
a short time before he gets arrested by the police,
and the video shows him holding his arms up surrendering
as police cars pulled to the sidewalk.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Again.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
In both videos, one if these if all this is accurate.
Saturday night at the Sinclair Station, Brentwood. Sunday night at
this convenience store near Exposition Park, he's completely relaxed and calm,
like if he was truly psychotic, you think he'd be
acting like one of the lunatics we see in the streets.
(27:23):
I mean, you can drive around in LA for an
hour and you'll see one hundred and fifty guys acting
far more menacingly, far more crazy than you saw.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
In Nick Reiner.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
So again I questioned this idea that there's you're going
to be able to sell this impaired mind or this
voluntary intoxication defense.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Now, there was also a story in.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
The post about he would go on meth binges, and
if you've ever ever well, actually, I was going to say,
you don't have to know somebody on a meth binge. Again,
you just drive around Los Angeles for an hour and
you'll see dozens of people on a meth binge. These
are the menacing, aggressive, violent, craziest of the crazy out there.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Most of that is meth.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Because you take heroin or fentanyl that knocks you out,
you're not functioning. Those are the people that are either
laying on the ground, or they're slightly bent over in
a locked position. What gets you crazy can be cocaine,
but certainly meth. I saw a guy on meth once,
(28:42):
a homeless guy, and he gotten loose inside my son's
little league baseball the facility they had, they had several fields,
and all the baseball fields were caged off. They had
chainling fences separating and it kind of created a labyrinth.
(29:03):
You could walk on these paths in between the fencing
for the fields. And he was in there, and my
son was on a team and they were about to
have a practice and he's on the loose. The dads
and the coaches get scared, so everybody grabbed baseball bats
and started chasing this guy. Now, this guy is in
(29:24):
his mid forties, gray hair, he's got a paunch, not
athletic in any way, but he's on the meth. And
he jumped on the chain link fence, which was at
least twenty feet high, if not more, and in a
blink of an eye, climbed all the way to the
top of the fence and then swung his legs around
(29:48):
and then quickly climbed all the way down the fence
at a shaped, graying, paunchy, middle aged guy put on
this Olympic style performance, and then he ran across the street,
across the pulit of Boulevard into traffic and disappeared. And
it's the first time I understood what I normally just
(30:11):
read about about the incredible amount of superhuman energy that
can be released in your body when you've taken this
much myth. You don't see that in the Nick Reiner
photos or videos, either on Saturday night or Sunday night.
But apparently that's what caused a lot of mayhem at
(30:31):
the Reiner's house. He was living in the guest house
behind behind the main house. That's a lot that's why
the family members rolling fear, especially when he was when
he was on the meth, which, from what I understand,
you get on that, you get addicted to that, that's
nearly impossible to get off of the pull. What it
(30:52):
does to your brain, what it does to the receptors
in your brain, is so powerful, so damaging. It's like
you're really screwed. You're you're gonna You're gonna have those
desires for ever. And maybe that's why he went, you know,
seventeen years and eighteen rehabs and couldn't get straight.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
It wouldn't stick all right. Well, when we.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Come back, Karen Bass stayed a little too long in
a podcast and said some things that now she doesn't
want anyone to know about. So she got it cut
out of a podcast, so we can't see it and
we can't hear it. But the La Times somehow got
a hold of it and described it, and I'm going
to tell you about it coming up after two o'clock.
(31:33):
And next segment, if you run into a guy you're
hiring at a school and you have a guy who
shows up to be your girls cheerleader coach, don't hire him.
Tell you about that.
Speaker 5 (31:50):
Next you're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Coming up after two o'clock, I'll tell you about the
podcast video that Karen Bass had removed from YouTube and
she doesn't want you to hear or see it, but
the La Times explained it, and I will tell you
what it's about, coming up right after Brigida's News at
two o'clock. Okay, So there's this guy, Eric Joseph Christiansen,
(32:21):
and he shows up in Orange County to be a
cheer coach he was working at He'd been working around
the country as a cheer coach, and he got a
job as a South Orange County YMCA sleepaway camp counselor. Okay,
(32:48):
when guys show up to take care of kids, call
the police right away. Middle aged guys show up and
they want to take care of anything from teenage girls,
teenage boys, little kids. Get him out of there. Here's
what happened. He's facing one hundred and fifty years in prison.
He just got convicted of twenty three felony counts of
(33:08):
molesting several girls, some of them as young as nine.
The charges go back to nineteen ninety eight. He was
arrested in twenty twenty three in North Dakota. His name
is Eric Joseph Christiansen, forty six years old. Eleven counts
of louton lucidius acts on a minor under fourteen, four
charges on a child aged fourteen or fifteen, six counts
(33:33):
for a minor under eighteen I mean all kinds of
sexual perversion charges here and what he did. According to
Todd Spitzer, the Orange County da IS, he used cheerleading
gyms in Orange County and across the country as kind
of a perverted catalog from which to select the next
young girl he was going to molest. He was arrested
in Kansas in twenty twenty two, extra dieded to Daytona Beach.
(33:57):
He was working at Champion Elite Legacy cheerleading gym in
South Daytona Beach, which they've closed.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
News came.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
People learned of the news, and a victim I guess,
recognized his name because of his arrests and contacted Orange
County authorities said Christensen forced her to have sex during
her school lunch, taking her to home, to his home
or on the beach in California. From nineteen ninety eight
to six, he was molesting kids. He was a competitive
(34:29):
cheerleading coach at Magic All Stars of Anaheim for three
years in the two thousands, an assistant cheer coach at
Mission Viejo Tribucle Hills High School from four to six
and at tribuco Is, where he gained access and ended
up molesting eight young girls. He was also a South
Orange County YMCA sleepaway camp counselor hiding in plain sight,
(34:54):
said Spitzer, And all you have to do is when
a middle aged got shows up wanting to lead the
girls cheerleading team. You kick him out, you call the police.
There's no middle aged guy who wants to do that.
There isn't. It's got to be trouble. It has to
(35:17):
be And I am just shocked. And this what's wrong
with people. You do have to stereotype, you do have
to profile, you have to use your freaking common sense.
Guys who want to spend their time with young girls
and teaching them to cheer, Really, you need instruction on this.
(35:40):
More coming up Karen Bass what she doesn't want you
to see in here? Hey, you've been listening to The
John Cobalt Show podcast. You can always hear the show
live on KFI AM six forty from one to four
pm every Monday through Friday, and of course, anytime on
demand on the iHeartRadio app
I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We are here like always one to four o'clock in
the afternoon that you can listen to us on KFI
and also streaming on the iHeart app. You can also
hear the podcast after four o'clock, John Cobelt's show on
demand on the iHeart app, and that's where you listen
to what you miss because it's the same as the
radio show and eventually you'll be able to hear every second,
(00:30):
every minute of the program. We will start with the
Nick Reiner case of the son of Rob and Michelle Ryder,
who were brutally murdered. He's up on two first degree
murder charges and he made his first court appearance today
and they didn't allow any video or photos of him
(00:53):
wearing his suicide desk, but there was audio of him
wave his right to an immediate arraignment. The attorney Alan Jackson,
he asked for a continuance until January seventh. And we're
going to talk now a Royal Oaks ABC News legal
(01:14):
analyst about this royal. Before we start, I want to
play about forty five seconds. This is Alan Jackson. It's
about the only public statement he's made about Nick Reiner.
And listen, and I want you want to start with
you reacting to it.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
This is a devastating tragedy that has befallen the Reiner families.
We all recognize that our hearts go out to the
entire Reiner family. There are very, very complex and serious
issues that are associated with this case. They just need
to be thoroughly but very carefully dealt with and examined
(01:58):
and looked at and analyzed. We asked that during this process,
you allow the system to move forward in the way
that it was designed to move forward, not with the
rush to judgment, not with jumping to conclusions, but with
restraint and with dignity and with the respect that the
system and this process deserves and that the family deserves.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Now, Royle, I think the average person listening to this saying,
the hell are you talking about? Don't rush to judgment,
don't jump to conclusions. There's no question, I think factually
that we're going to find out he definitely did it.
I think he's talking about what state of mind Nick
(02:42):
Reiner was in.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Absolutely that's what's going on, though, We've seen reports from
three or four outlets that in fact, there was blood
all over Nick Reiner's hotel room. So it's likely that
there is strong evidence that he did it. And as
you say, then the big question becomes what's state of mind?
And here's what's happening. You know, all of the nice
words vi alent Jackson there. What it boils down to
(03:06):
is he wants more time to get to his arms
around the mental issue. One question is is he going
to plead not guilty by reason of insanity? That usually
doesn't get rolled out at the arrangement on January seven,
but it might. Another question is is Jackson going to
ask the court for a competency hearing where a bunch
of shrinks examine Nick and talk about his understanding of
(03:29):
what's going on. Is he even able to stand trial?
Whereas he just so whacked out? So the whole ballgame
is about his mental state, because if he knew what
he was doing and it wasn't purely a result of
drugs or addiction or mental health, then murder is a
likely outcome. On the other hand, manslaughter would be a
(03:50):
gigantic advantage for the defense because he might get just
a few years behind bars under ten as opposed to
sitting in the cell for the rest of his life.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
When people plead insanity and it actually sticks, what's the
legal definition of insanity.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
You don't know right from wrong, that's the essence of it.
If you act in a guilty way, you try to escape,
if you try to do some sort of cover up,
that's a recognition that he did something wrong. But at
the moment of the crime, if you can demonstrate through
psychiatric testimony that he didn't know right from wrong, that
is not guilty by reason of insanity. Country And what
(04:32):
happens John, then is they don't go home. They go
to the mental hospital, kind of like John Hinckley was
shooting Ronald Reagan back in the eighties and he was
there for decades. So it's not clear how long a
person would have to be confined if they were found
not guilty by reason of insanity, but that certainly would
be the gold standard. And it's so weird to think
(04:52):
about this, John, And you think of the Menendez case.
The extended family members that supported the sons and helped
finance the defense. They hated parents because they thought the
parents were monsters. But here nobody's hating Rob and Michelle.
And so you say, well, why would the family, you know,
help to hire Alan Jackson. It's probably happened. It's because
they've seen Nick as you know, a little kid. They've
(05:14):
known him for his whole life. They see him as
a victim in a way because of his addiction. They
don't want him to rot in prison or be executed.
They want him in a mental facility to get help,
or have a short manslaughter sentence and then get help.
So that's the whole ballgame that Alan Jackson's trying to arrange.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
And by the family, I assume you're talking about the
surviving sister and brother, right.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Yeah, or anybody in the family who has a significant relationship,
you know with Nick. I mean you ask yourself, because
we don't know who hired Alan Jackson. And he's one
of the most you know, the powerful criminal defense lawyers
on the planet, Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein. You know,
he doesn't come cheaply. I mean, back in the day,
(05:58):
Meneda's brothers were able to spend part of their fourteen
million dollars estap from their parents on fancy lawyers and
plus you know, a spending spree because they hadn't been
convicted of killing the parents yet, therefore they had for
a while access to the funds. After a while, the
court system said, okay, that you have had your fund
no more money because it looks like you may be convicted.
(06:19):
So who knows who's running the show in the rein
Or family, But it's probably unlikely that Nick reached out
in his rolodex and said, oh, well, I'll call Alan Jackson.
I imagine somebody else helped. Again. Their goal is to
get help for this young man and not just have
him brought in prison.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I would be if I was a family member, I'd
be terrified that he comes out and he'll come and
kill me, because.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Anything can happen.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, because they don't cure a lot of people who
are in mental institutions. They might say they do, but
it's impossible to know.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Well, that's right, and even if they can cure, then
we know from stories about people with schizopher they're fine
on their meds, but they don't like their meds and
they go off and then suddenly they're violent again.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Now all right, that's insanity. Now, something we touched on
earlier this week. If you could explain further this this
this other plea where it's not it's not insanity so much,
but maybe the drugs affected his ability to make rational decisions.
(07:26):
I'm not articulating it right, but you know the legal
terminology for this. If you could explain the terminology, Yeah,
go ahead.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Yeah, you're onto it. So here's the deal. It's so
hard to prove insanity because you know that you're going
to believe that, oh, he didn't know right from wrong.
How convenient. You know, you don't want to go to prisoner,
you don't want to be executed. The better option is
what you're talking about, which the law calls voluntary intoxication.
So if you kill somebody because you voluntarily chose to
go on to drugs and alcohol and then you were
(07:55):
whacked out and you killed somebody, it is not a
basis to be found not guilty, but it is a
basis and this is the whole ballgame to drop it
down from murder to manslaughter, because murder means you intended
to kill, You formed an intent in your normal, healthy
mind to kill. If you didn't have a normal healthy
mind because of the voluntary intoxication, and you intend to
(08:16):
kill but it was really because of the drugs and
the metal illness and so on. That justifies dropping it
from murder to manslaughter, which is, yes, he intended to kill,
but he can't be held legally responsible for that intent.
And that means like three six, nine eleven years in
prison for manslaughter as opposed to twenty five years life
in prison or maybe even the death penalty if you're
(08:37):
convicted of murder.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Stories I'm reading and you know, in the last few
days there have been a number of stories that turned
out to be wrong. So and some of these come
from the New York Posts, so you got to put
an asterisk. But they say that the whiners took him
to the Christmas party because his behavior was so erratic
in recent weeks. They didn't trust him being alone. They
(09:03):
didn't know what would happen. Didn't say what specifically they
were afraid of. If they thought he was going to
kill himself, burned down the house, didn't say, But that's
why they took him to the party. And then he
started acting bizarrely there and they had to leave, and
then the murder happened. How does that play into it?
What does that suggest when you have a read because
(09:24):
obviously there were times he did act rationally in life,
and I don't know if his mental illness was in
and out of its schizophrenia, if it was depending on
the amount of drugs he was taking. But there were
times he was normal and times he went apparently through
episodes where they couldn't leave them alone. And as that
comes out, does that send this plea or a trial
(09:45):
into a different direction.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
I think what it means is that they were fully
aware of the fact that even though they made that
movie together a decade ago about a son with troubles
and a prominent dad, they felt that at least it
was safe for him to interact with people, but you know,
keep them close to possibly prevent problems, encouraging to take medication.
(10:09):
I think what it says is that they of course
had no idea that he might have this potential for violence,
because otherwise, why would you subject all that, you know,
all the guests at Conan O'Brien's holiday party to somebody
who could spin out of control. I think, you know,
the bottom line is a person like that is a
loaded gun. You just never know when it's going to
go off. You know, you love them, you struggle to
(10:30):
try to help them. You work with them in terms
of therapy and medication, but there's only so much you
can do if he's just going to aspire a lot
of control.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
There is no legal option when you have an adult
in your family who's consistently erratic, either a drug addict
or mentally ill, and they won't voluntarily get treatment or
take their medication, whatever the reason is, and you're living
with them, and there's nothing you could do other than
throw them out of the house.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
And I hope they don't come back and kill you. And
I just find that people get.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Trapped in just terrible situations because there isn't an outlet
in society or in government to care for these people
and force them into treatment.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
No, you're right, it's a real tragedy. Now there is
a stopgap measure, you know, the sixty one fifty hole
the people talk about, where if somebody is a danger
to themselves or others, you can go to the court
and say, hey, your honor, we want them civilly committed
to be evaluated by some shrinks and get some medication
into them, so you can temporarily get them off the street.
(11:36):
But that only lasts for seventy two hours hours. Yeahmstrat Yeah,
an even higher level of risks. So yeah, it's just
I mean, when you see people, you know, driving around
LA with a homelessness situation, you know that a good
chunk of these folks they're not living lives, they don't
really have a brain, They've got awful mental illness. They're
in the grips the throes of addiction, and you drive
(11:59):
by and nobody doing anything for them. I think that's
why a lot of people john are sympathetic to the
idea that, look, let's lock up some people against their will,
like they did, you know, before Ronald Reagan changed the
rules back in the sixties and early seventies. Because you know,
the government, you know, the government takes half of your money.
If you make a lot of money, why can't the
(12:19):
government do some other things to protect you, to protect
public health. So you know, it's a big debate going on.
But you know a lot of libertarians say, no, you know,
the government should be locking you up.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
If they had one of these guys in their family,
they might change their mind. It's easy to have a
theoretical objection it's something abstract, but when it's actually in
your house.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
That's a whole different story.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Now. I agree. I think what's going to happen here
is that the family is going to push super hard
to present all the evidence of addiction and mental health
problems to at all costs avoid the murder conviction. And
then if he deserves to spend some time in prison, okay,
but the important thing is to get the guy help.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
All right, Royal Oaks, ABC News Legal Analysts, thank you,
Thank you for coming on.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
All right, we'll do more on this coming up.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI A
M six forty.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Moisteine for Friday eight seven seven Moist eighty six eight
seven seven Moist eighty six, or use the talkback feature
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
We just had.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
We just had Royal Oaks on for BBC News the
legal analyst, because it's really important to understand the legal
pathways from here for Nick Reiner. First of all, there's
there's no question obviously that he committed the murder. So
what does a defense attorney do. Why would you pick
(13:43):
Alan Jackson, who's who's very expensive obviously highest level cases
that he handles, including Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein, and
so what could they possibly say not guilty by rest
of insanity. Well, if you plead that, you have to
(14:04):
prove you didn't know right from wrong, that you really
had a psychotic break from reality and you didn't know
what was going on and you didn't know what you
were doing. And I don't think that's the case. But
then you have this voluntary intoxication defense, which can strongly
(14:29):
affect your judgment and cause you to do things that
you ordinarily wouldn't do, that you didn't plan or intend
to do. It sounds murky, doesn't it, But it's going
to be that kind of defense if there is one.
(14:51):
It's about an intent to kill and when the intent formed,
and how compromised was his mind, how diminished was his
mind when he decided to do that. None of these
are easy paths. But Alan Jackson might decide to go
(15:11):
down that road or threaten to go down that road
to get a plea deal which eliminates the death penalty
or perhaps gives his nick rein or parole at some point.
So some of that is legal strategy, and that's why
he wanted to take three weeks until the official arraignment day.
On January seventh. To look at all the possibilities here. Now,
(15:33):
if you look, they didn't have photos or videos allowed
in the courtroom. But I'm looking at the New York
Post and they have an old fashioned courtroom sketch. I
would have thought courtroom sketch artists were an extinct species,
but they did them in color. Now, and here is
(15:54):
one of Nick Reiner, and he's wearing the suicide smock,
which in the sketch it looks like he's wearing a
purple sleeveless dress.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
It really is a smock.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
It comes down to his knees, his legs are bare,
his arms are bare, his hands are shackled together. And
I don't know what the smock is made of, but
it makes it impossible for him to use his arms,
or you use any kind of clothing, right, because you
could hang yourself with your the sleeves of your shirt
(16:27):
or your pant legs, and there are no sleeves, There
are no pant legs here, so I guess it really
is just a one piece.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
It looks ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Actually, in the sketch it looks like he's wearing a
summer dress, some kind of purple plaid number. He apparently
sat stone faced. He was behind a glass panel, and
god knows how many drugs he was on. And I
don't know how, you know, do they just go cold
(16:58):
turkey in prison if he's got some horrific withdrawal situation
going on, I don't know that either. But there are
new details coming out on how Rob and Michelle were found.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
A massage therapist arrived at.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
The home and they were supposed to give Robin or
Michelle Reiner a massage and then later on Robin Michelle,
We're gonna have dinner with Barack and Michelle Obama and
other people in just a few hours. And this is
the day after the party. The massage therapist got no
(17:42):
answer at the gate. That's when she called the couple's daughter,
Romy Reiner, who came in with a roommate. Romy walked
in found her father's body and obviously it was really horrific.
They had their throats slit by all the blood must
have come out. She ran away outside and didn't realize
(18:06):
that her mother had also been slaughtered in the same way.
Somebody connected to the family provided some information to The
New York Times yesterday on condition of anonymity and this person,
(18:28):
and again I've seen multiple conflicting reports. This person said
that nothing in recent weeks suggested that Nick would be
capable of such violence, and this person disputed accounts that
the family had been especially apprehensive in the weeks before
Reiner's behavior. I've seen other reports which suggested otherwise, but
(18:51):
who knows. But he definitely behaved erratically that evening. He
was running up to people and saying, what's your name,
what's your last name? Are you famous? In a very
aggressive manner. Rob Reiner j scolded him a couple of times,
and that caused tension. Varying reports just how intense, how
(19:15):
loud the exchange was. But that's when the Rhiners decided
to leave. And like I said to Royal, they took
him there because they didn't want to leave him alone.
It's very possible that you had many, many years of
really really erratic, crazy, unpredictable violent or near violent behavior,
(19:40):
and guys thirty two years old and they're at the
end of the rope, like what.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Do you do? And it's inconceivable to me.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
It is absolutely conceivable that in the state, in this country,
we don't have an outlet when there's a family member
who is acting insane, even though that's not the legal
definition of insanity, that you can't forcibly take them somewhere
and lock them up. Some people need to be in
(20:12):
a mental institution. Some people need to be forcibly medicated.
It's always been that way, and for fifty years now
that option has been difficult to access and it's just stupid.
And I know there's all these libertarian types or ACLU
types who think everybody ought to have the freedom to
(20:33):
do anything, and that's just not possible in the real world.
That's in their fantasy, utopia, academic, abstract world. It's not
in the real world. You got to get them out
of the house, you got to get them off the streets.
You have to force them into treatment.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
A lot of the.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Treatment doesn't work, it doesn't that's you know, all these
rehab centers wildly over sold. A lot of them are criminal,
they're cruks. But there's got to be a better way this.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
We are on every day from one until four o'clock.
You could follow us at John Cobelt Radio and social
media at John Cobelt Radio, and you can subscribe to
our YouTube channel. That's where we put on put up
longer segments and you subscribe by going to YouTube dot
com slash at John Cobelt Show. YouTube dot com slash
(21:28):
at John Cobelt Show to subscribe. And it's a little
different at John Cobelt Radio to follow us on the
rest of social media.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Coming up after two o'clock.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Los Angeles Times had had several stories today as we
head towards the one year anniversary of the great Bass
Newsom fire in the Palisades and in Altadena, and Karen Bess,
since she's running for reelection, is going on the podcast tour.
She did an out well, I'll be very specific. She
(22:02):
did a sixty two minute podcast that you could find
on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
It's called The Fifth Column, but.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
It was originally a sixty six minute podcast. There was
four more minutes. She thought the podcast had ended and
she started telling the truth. And for a while that
version was up online, but Karen Bass didn't want you
(22:31):
to see or hear her say the things she did,
and the LA Times must have gotten hold of the
original cut, and I'll tell you about it.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
But the Best staff.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Went to some lengths to make sure that make sure
that was off YouTube, and now nobody wants to talk
about it on either side. We'll explain all that coming up.
And we also have Katie Grimes on the show after three,
and Katie's from californiaglobe dot com and she's gonna tell
(23:06):
us about all the disasters up in Sacramento with Gavin Newsom.
There's a massive budget deficit, among other things. We'll go
through the list. The list is lengthy.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Now.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
On the Nick Reiner case, which we were talking about
for the first half hour, we're talking about his state
of mind because besides the guilty not guilty options, there
is guilty not guilty by reason of insanity or not
or guilty but with a and I'm gonna call a
diminished mind. It's or voluntary intoxication. You take drugs, messes
(23:46):
up your brain so much you can't make a rational decision.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
You didn't really have intent to kill.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
And these are the options that Alan Jackson is looking at,
which is why he wants another three weeks. The arrangement
didn't happen today. Some clues about his state of mind.
There's a couple of videos and one of them shows
Nick Reiner walking down Santa Sente Boulevard. There's a gas
(24:15):
station there at the Sinclair Station. It's on the corner
of twenty sixth Street. It's a station that I go
to sometimes. You know, has one of the dinosaurs. Oh,
in fact, this was the place where the dinosaur was kidnapped.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
You know their mascot. I forgot what it.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Was made of, but you remember some thief stole it,
threw it in the back of a pickup truck and
ran off and there was such an outcry. Maybe he
decided he couldn't sell it because everybody was looking for it,
and so he brought it back. Well, it's the same station.
It's odd the station has been in the news twice
in the last few weeks. Well, there's surveillance cameras on
(24:52):
the station property, and it caught Nick Reiner walking by
casually just before midnight on Saturday. Now New York Posts
said this was hours before Rob and Michael Rob and
Michelle Ryder were killed, and they lived not far from
that gas station, and so I was thinking, it's like, well,
(25:15):
what time did they come home from the Christmas party?
And did he leave and then come back Because he's
walking normally. You wouldn't have noticed him twice if you
were driving by. Was this after he did the killing,
because they haven't released a timeline, and so they haven't
(25:39):
released when they left the party and when they went
to bed, if they were killed while in bed or
killed before they went to sleep. But he's walking calmly,
and if you're using that photo to give an assessment
of a state of mind, he looks completely normal.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
Now.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
The second photo is definitely after the killing, because this
is the photo where he buys a drink at a
gas station near Exposition Park, and that's where he was
found by police and arrested and handcuffed. And this was
(26:21):
Sunday night, and he was waiting to purchase a drink
something in a can inside the convenience store. And if
you look at the clip, he's dressed normally, just jeans,
a striped jacket, baseball cap, red backpack, reaches into his
(26:41):
pockets to grab his wallet to pay, and it's just
a short time before he gets arrested by the police,
and the video shows him holding his arms up surrendering
as police cars pulled to the sidewalk.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Again.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
In both videos, one if these if all this is accurate.
Saturday night at the Sinclair Station, Brentwood. Sunday night at
this convenience store near Exposition Park, he's completely relaxed and calm,
like if he was truly psychotic, you think he'd be
acting like one of the lunatics we see in the streets.
(27:23):
I mean, you can drive around in LA for an
hour and you'll see one hundred and fifty guys acting
far more menacingly, far more crazy than you saw.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
In Nick Reiner.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
So again I questioned this idea that there's you're going
to be able to sell this impaired mind or this
voluntary intoxication defense.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Now, there was also a story in.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
The post about he would go on meth binges, and
if you've ever ever well, actually, I was going to say,
you don't have to know somebody on a meth binge. Again,
you just drive around Los Angeles for an hour and
you'll see dozens of people on a meth binge. These
are the menacing, aggressive, violent, craziest of the crazy out there.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Most of that is meth.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Because you take heroin or fentanyl that knocks you out,
you're not functioning. Those are the people that are either
laying on the ground, or they're slightly bent over in
a locked position. What gets you crazy can be cocaine,
but certainly meth. I saw a guy on meth once,
(28:42):
a homeless guy, and he gotten loose inside my son's
little league baseball the facility they had, they had several fields,
and all the baseball fields were caged off. They had
chainling fences separating and it kind of created a labyrinth.
(29:03):
You could walk on these paths in between the fencing
for the fields. And he was in there, and my
son was on a team and they were about to
have a practice and he's on the loose. The dads
and the coaches get scared, so everybody grabbed baseball bats
and started chasing this guy. Now, this guy is in
(29:24):
his mid forties, gray hair, he's got a paunch, not
athletic in any way, but he's on the meth. And
he jumped on the chain link fence, which was at
least twenty feet high, if not more, and in a
blink of an eye, climbed all the way to the
top of the fence and then swung his legs around
(29:48):
and then quickly climbed all the way down the fence
at a shaped, graying, paunchy, middle aged guy put on
this Olympic style performance, and then he ran across the street,
across the pulit of Boulevard into traffic and disappeared. And
it's the first time I understood what I normally just
(30:11):
read about about the incredible amount of superhuman energy that
can be released in your body when you've taken this
much myth. You don't see that in the Nick Reiner
photos or videos, either on Saturday night or Sunday night.
But apparently that's what caused a lot of mayhem at
(30:31):
the Reiner's house. He was living in the guest house
behind behind the main house. That's a lot that's why
the family members rolling fear, especially when he was when
he was on the meth, which, from what I understand,
you get on that, you get addicted to that, that's
nearly impossible to get off of the pull. What it
(30:52):
does to your brain, what it does to the receptors
in your brain, is so powerful, so damaging. It's like
you're really screwed. You're you're gonna You're gonna have those
desires for ever. And maybe that's why he went, you know,
seventeen years and eighteen rehabs and couldn't get straight.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
It wouldn't stick all right. Well, when we.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Come back, Karen Bass stayed a little too long in
a podcast and said some things that now she doesn't
want anyone to know about. So she got it cut
out of a podcast, so we can't see it and
we can't hear it. But the La Times somehow got
a hold of it and described it, and I'm going
to tell you about it coming up after two o'clock.
(31:33):
And next segment, if you run into a guy you're
hiring at a school and you have a guy who
shows up to be your girls cheerleader coach, don't hire him.
Tell you about that.
Speaker 5 (31:50):
Next you're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Coming up after two o'clock, I'll tell you about the
podcast video that Karen Bass had removed from YouTube and
she doesn't want you to hear or see it, but
the La Times explained it, and I will tell you
what it's about, coming up right after Brigida's News at
two o'clock. Okay, So there's this guy, Eric Joseph Christiansen,
(32:21):
and he shows up in Orange County to be a
cheer coach he was working at He'd been working around
the country as a cheer coach, and he got a
job as a South Orange County YMCA sleepaway camp counselor. Okay,
(32:48):
when guys show up to take care of kids, call
the police right away. Middle aged guys show up and
they want to take care of anything from teenage girls,
teenage boys, little kids. Get him out of there. Here's
what happened. He's facing one hundred and fifty years in prison.
He just got convicted of twenty three felony counts of
(33:08):
molesting several girls, some of them as young as nine.
The charges go back to nineteen ninety eight. He was
arrested in twenty twenty three in North Dakota. His name
is Eric Joseph Christiansen, forty six years old. Eleven counts
of louton lucidius acts on a minor under fourteen, four
charges on a child aged fourteen or fifteen, six counts
(33:33):
for a minor under eighteen I mean all kinds of
sexual perversion charges here and what he did. According to
Todd Spitzer, the Orange County da IS, he used cheerleading
gyms in Orange County and across the country as kind
of a perverted catalog from which to select the next
young girl he was going to molest. He was arrested
in Kansas in twenty twenty two, extra dieded to Daytona Beach.
(33:57):
He was working at Champion Elite Legacy cheerleading gym in
South Daytona Beach, which they've closed.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
News came.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
People learned of the news, and a victim I guess,
recognized his name because of his arrests and contacted Orange
County authorities said Christensen forced her to have sex during
her school lunch, taking her to home, to his home
or on the beach in California. From nineteen ninety eight
to six, he was molesting kids. He was a competitive
(34:29):
cheerleading coach at Magic All Stars of Anaheim for three
years in the two thousands, an assistant cheer coach at
Mission Viejo Tribucle Hills High School from four to six
and at tribuco Is, where he gained access and ended
up molesting eight young girls. He was also a South
Orange County YMCA sleepaway camp counselor hiding in plain sight,
(34:54):
said Spitzer, And all you have to do is when
a middle aged got shows up wanting to lead the
girls cheerleading team. You kick him out, you call the police.
There's no middle aged guy who wants to do that.
There isn't. It's got to be trouble. It has to
(35:17):
be And I am just shocked. And this what's wrong
with people. You do have to stereotype, you do have
to profile, you have to use your freaking common sense.
Guys who want to spend their time with young girls
and teaching them to cheer, Really, you need instruction on this.
(35:40):
More coming up Karen Bass what she doesn't want you
to see in here? Hey, you've been listening to The
John Cobalt Show podcast. You can always hear the show
live on KFI AM six forty from one to four
pm every Monday through Friday, and of course, anytime on
demand on the iHeartRadio app
The John Kobylt Show News
Host
John Kobylt
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