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November 21, 2023 49 mins
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S6 E7 -- NO MORE BS - Revisiting Justice for Katie Palmer

CW/TW - discussion of reckless driving, sexual abuse/assault, addiction and murder.

A quick recap - Katie Palmer was a 39 year old mother of two. She was a middle school science teacher, who LOVED animals and had a smile that could warm the heart of the most callous human being. It could melt a snowman. She loved ALL of her kids - not just her two children, but also was pretty much a significant source of love for the ones she taught, as well. She truly embodied kindness and her love was pure and honest. One morning, April 21, 2020, she was walking alongside a road with her husband, John Palmer, looking at a particular bird called killdeer when she and John both were struck from behind, knocked out of their shoes and thrown approximately 70 feet. The impact severely injured John, breaking his back - but he had the strength to immediately move to Katie’s side. She was barely hanging on, and we would come to find out that the impact had ended up killing her. Today we will talk to John Palmer and offer up some updates and some ways to actively help obtain justice in this case.

SOURCES -
John Palmer (Katie's husband)
https://justiceforkatiepalmer.com/about/
HTTPS://katiepalmerproject.com
File a complaint about Cpl Tarif Alkhatib - https://www.dps.texas.gov/OIG/complaint.htm#:~:text=Complaints%20should%20be%20submitted%20in,complaint%2C%20including%20all%20relevant%20facts.
Elect John Kermit Hill for Grayson Cty DA - https://www.khilllaw.com/attorney/hill-john-kermit/
Join the fb group - https://m.facebook.com/groups/justiceforkatiepalmer/?ref=share&mibextid=S66gvF


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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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(03:23):
with this Welcome to Season six.A quick recap. Katie Palmer was a
thirty nine year old mother of two. She was a middle school science teacher
who loved animals and had a smilethat could warm the heart of the most
callous human being. I mean itcould melt a snowman. She loved all
of her kids, not just hertwo children, but also was pretty much

(03:45):
a significant source of love for theones that she taught as well. She
truly embodied kindness, and her lovewas pure and honest. One morning,
April twenty first, twenty twenty,she was walking alongside a road with her
husband, John Palmer looking at aparticular bird called a killdeer when she and
John both were struck from behind,knocked out of their shoes and throne approximately

(04:10):
seventy feet The impact severely injured John, breaking his back, but he had
the strength to immediately move to Katie'sside. She was barely hanging on and
we would come to find out thatthe impact had ended up killing her.
Today we will talk to John Palmerand offer us some updates in some ways
to actively help obtain justice in thiscase. I'm Amanda Cronin and I'm Courtney

(04:34):
Fenner and a Nefarious Nightmare presents nomore BS revisiting justice for Katie Palmer in

(05:04):
season three, episode two re releasedhe drove blind down a road Justice for
Katie Palmer since then, and notbecause of us, We do not want
to take credit for this. Thisis purely because of her husband. We
have all seen some amazing things happening. Morbid Podcasts released their episode with John
Palmer on the same day. DonGandhi from Method and Madness released hers a

(05:29):
few weeks later, and so manypeople have covered this case prior and post.
This case had even been covered byVoices for Justice crawl Space, mile
Higher, Victimology, True Consequences,generation Y, Missing Fellow, textan podcaster
gone Cold, a plethora of Texasnews articles, and even fairly recently reached

(05:56):
Nancy Grace. There are way toomany platforms that have covered this movement to
list, but if you do aquick Google search for justice for Katie Palmer,
you will come up with quite abit. The point is that John
Palmer has built quite the community inwhich we all share one major sentiment,
Katie Palmer deserves justice. So you'reprobably asking yourself, well, what's the

(06:20):
big deal? Well, have younoticed that all of these platforms have covered
the same case, then it's likelythat it's one that really needs attention.
We grapple with the same sentiment thatis shared by so many victims and survivors
who are desperately needing justice enclosure.The sentiment being that the justice system has
failed them in the past. Thatthere are law enforcement officials who decide to

(06:44):
protect their own lazy people who runan entire population with the main motivation being
that of ego and I mean,we've seen that recently with the sex stortion
case back in season five, whicha brief update, we've been trying to
reach Freemont and Nebraska. So LynnWaltz, who promised to protect the victims
of sextortion by implementing a law surroundingit, and this same senator has ignored

(07:09):
our many pleas for help and support, awareness and attention, which leads us
to believe that her move was tocreate this law simply to grant more votes
for office. So what does SenatorLynn Waltz have to do with justice for
Katie Palmer Well? She shares acommon trait with Grayson County District Attorney Brett

(07:30):
Smith, who seems to be completelymotivated by ego. She, like Brett
Smith, puts on a facade ascaring and compassionate until she gets the votes.
She, like Brett Smith, hasstraight up ignored anyone who has called
them out on behaviors or simply askedfor help. So if you are living

(07:53):
in a county or city with them, as you're elected officials, you're practically
on your own well until reelection.And as you all might be aware,
Brett Smith completely failed John Palmer andhis children. A district attorney's primary role,
in case you are not aware,is to represent the state and prosecute

(08:18):
felony criminal cases. What happened toKatie Palmer was a criminal case of felony,
as her perpetrator, Corey Todd Foster, literally drove, reckless and blind
down a road, ran Katie Palmerdown, and all of which resulted in

(08:39):
her death. Not only that,though, but this negligent and reckless act
left John Palmer severely injured and dramaticallytwo children without their mother. What doesn't
kill you, though, makes youstronger, as evident to the puritanacity that
her husband has kept in obtaining justicefor her. After all, John is

(09:03):
a pure class act when it comesto his family and his late wife.
He is someone who emulates compassion andmany loved ones seeking justice for those no
longer with them. Take pages fromhis book. He's the kind of person
that would do just about anything andeverything to get the truth out there and
see closure in an ongoing plea forjustice. Silence is his enemy and truth

(09:26):
is his closest. Ally, beinga firm place in the spirit of advocacy
does not come without its challenges,as John would see, because while you
can't undo the act of reckless homicide, you are still fighting for what is
right, what is true, andwhat is just? And with Corey Foster's
team of his own allies trying tosweep it all under the rug and save

(09:48):
face looking at you, Da BrettSmith in corporal Tariff, it's challenging but
not impossible. When all of usare raising awareness, yes, fighting for
justice and seeking answers telling the samestory, then there has to be truth
in there, right And why isit that something dare we say, as

(10:11):
simple as an open and shut,reckless homicide case need to be this drawn
out? Why is it that thefact that a questionably sober man ran down
this thirty nine year old woman,but he gets to move on while her
family is still stuck without any closure. But my hands are tied, A
da might say, but the breathalyzermaybe sort of could have possibly, I

(10:33):
don't know. It sort of lookslike a three, could have been a
three. Even it looks like aneight. I saw a three, so
I'm gonna list it as a three. A corporal might suggest, No,
I wasn't drunk, I was tired. A reckless driver might say, how
is it that we are taking thesepeople at their word when a family is
still three and a half years afterthe fact, surviving and fighting for answers.

(10:58):
This serve to prove one point.Taking the easy way out most often
will lead you to the most difficultBecause the current DA is receiving so much
backlash that it could be by somesort of twisted miracle that he's reelected in
the primary in twenty twenty four.You may think you can hide things and

(11:20):
sweep them under the rug, butyou can't forever. The argument arises often
that true crime isn't political. Yousee negative reviews on platforms for bringing politics
into this, or stop bringing politicsinto this, and I just want the
Ouey Guey crime story, some commentsecho, and most often we ourselves avoid

(11:41):
politics because frankly, we don't careto get into all of that publicly.
But in cases such as this,it absolutely is political. The crime perpetrated
in this case is literally caused byan individual who is being protected by a
political figure. Our aim with thisupdate is to make you all away that
someone has challenged the current Grayson CountyDistrict Attorney, and we can leave it

(12:05):
all up to you guys to decidewhat to do with the information given in
today's episode, But we do hoperegardless of any outcome, and no matter
what you do and what you choosethat the listeners of this show are those
with huge hearts, common sense,and the understanding that this family needs a
break, this family needs answers,and this family needs a way forward to

(12:28):
move on and remember their beloved motherand wife in peace. With this,
we'll go ahead and listen to theinterview that I conducted with John, who
is Katie's husband, so that youall can hear straight from him about any
of the updates that you do needto know. Tell me a bit about
Katie, tell me where she wasborn, tell me her birthday, and

(12:50):
just tell me about her life.Katie was born here in Dennison, Texas,
May third, nineteen eighty one.Mom lived here in Denison. Her
dad lived in Kannie, Oklahoma,so she spent time between Dennison and Kane.
Grew up with the love for theoutdoors, very family centric. Her

(13:15):
mom was her best friend. Theywere together just about every single day.
She loved her dad, talked toher dad on the phone all the time.
Her love of science brought her toAustin College, which is a college
in Sherman, Texas, which isa town that's just to the south of

(13:35):
Dennison. Here there at Austin College, she studied biology. Had a love
for science, love for learning,loved orentology, loved the study of birds.
She spent a lot of time atHagerman Wildlife Refuge, which is here
in Grayson County, spectacular place.I could see why she loved to spend

(13:58):
time out there. Lots of wildlife, lots of bird watching. We met
in college and it was absolutely amazing. She was a great soul, great
great consul and we just clicked.You and Katie just had an anniversary.
We did on the twenty fourth ofthis month, so it would have been

(14:22):
nineteen years. Wow, nineteen years. Nineteen years, so you know,
we had known each other for wellover twenty and I can still consider myself
a very lucky man. You know, I found that one person, So
I found my soulmate. Can yougive a brief recap on what happened with

(14:43):
Katie? I absolutely can. OnApril twenty first, twenty twenty, Katie
and I left our house to gofor a morning walk at approximately seven thirty
am. We walked down our countryroad here in Dennis, Texas. It's
approximately three quarters of a mile.We walked down the road. She had

(15:07):
never gone walking with me before inthe morning. This was the first first
time. We started to walk downGlenwood Drive heading west and there was a
golf course right by us. Wedecided not to go walk on the golf
course. The grass was a littledewy. And this was that This is

(15:30):
when COVID started to take form asfar as lockdowns, and so schools were
essentially lockdown. So she was goingto have to log back in that morning
and do virtual teaching with her students, and she was going to go back
in and probably lay down for alittle bit. So that's the reason why

(15:52):
she wanted to go walk on thegolf course. So we went down walking
on glen Wood alongside the road.We got to close to the end of
Glenwood. She was going to showme where some kill deer were nesting.
Like I said before, Katie lovedbirds, so anytime there was any excuse
to show me birds or having togo bird watching, she absolutely she absolutely

(16:18):
jumped at it. We didn't seeany of the birds, and so we
decided to turn back around and gohome. So we started walking back towards
our house, heading east on glenWood, walking alongside the road and that's
when our neighbor, Corey Todd Fostercrossed over the roadway and hit us both

(16:41):
from behind, hit us approximately seventyfeet into that golf course. Katie ended
up passing away from the injuries thatshe sustained, and I was sent to
and I see you. It's almostlike Corey Todd Foster, Teri Falcacy,
and Brett Smith have kind of likeformed this, for lack of a better

(17:06):
term, like three musketeers of totallyavoiding accountability. Right, So would you
mind just telling me about any anyupdates regarding those three because and just for
everybody that's listening real fast, TerieFalkative was the officer that was called onto

(17:27):
the scene. Corey Foster was theman that murdered essentially Katie Palmer, who
is John Palmer's wife, and BrettSmith is Slash was the DA for Dennison,
right, so he is currently theDA. Now. I am very

(17:48):
proud to announce that there's another candidate, John Kermit Hill, who has entered
that race. So we are goingto be supporting John Kermit Hill for Grayson
County Attorney. And so proud andso happy that a leader like John Kerman
Hill decided to run for Grayson CountyDA. So can you give a brief

(18:11):
recap on how these three individuals kindof banded together and avoided accountability right,
and then any updates past that,I mean as far as beinging together,
I can. I can definitely talkabout relationships that that all all three have.
Again, terif Falcati was the officerthat was called out on scene when

(18:34):
Corey Foster killed Katie Palmer, Alkatifailed that that day, blood should have
been drawn. Again, if youremember when Alcaty was on scene, he
mentioned many times that you know howCorey smelled of alcohol, had a very
strong presence of alcohol on his breath. There were fields Brody tests that were

(19:00):
done. However, an hour hadpassed since Corey had killed Katie. Okay,
other troopers even made mention of gettingblood, and tree Falcatib decided not
to decided to not get Corey Foster'sblood. Our District Attorney Brett Smith even

(19:21):
commented on that weeks after Katie waskilled, stating that missteps were made and
stated that tree Falcatib failed on site, did not do a very good job
at all when it came to investigatingKatie's death because there were no pictures,
there was no blood, and hemade mention that his report was lacking as

(19:45):
well. So instead of taking CoreyFoster to the hospital for a blood test,
he gave him a ride at home. He loaded him up in his
cruiser and gave him a ride athome. We'd later come to find out
that it appears that the Fosters andthe Alcatives had a relationship that we didn't

(20:07):
know about. There were pictures thatwere found on social media of both families
at events together. There was onepicture where three Falcative's wife was just about
sitting in Corry Foster's lap at aparty. The wives had gotten together before,
you know, coordinated makeup and clothingfor this party, and then a

(20:32):
month or so later they were ata Christmas party together. Wives were just
about arm and arm, So therewas definitely a relationship there. Also,
through all of this and through allthe information and through all the research we've
done, we found out that BrettSmith actually represented the Foster family in a

(20:52):
DWI before he started to work atthe DA's office. That was not at
all communication to us, and Ibelieve because of that Smith should have recused
himself from this case. And shouldhave had no interaction with us on this
at all. But again that's notwhat happened. And then we find where

(21:15):
there's a link between Algaty and BrettSmith. They are related by marriage,
so there is a definitely a triangleof relationships that we found that quite frankly,
is very disturbing. So basically it'sa massive conflict of interest or almost

(21:37):
nepotism in some way, right,I would say that would be would be
right? Yes, Yes, thishappened in twenty twenty and you're still going
through it. It's just really heartbreaking. Since then, I've noticed, since
several people have put their episodes out, they've raised a ton of awareness.
So can you tell me how that'sbeen of benefit in Katie's case for justice?

(22:03):
Anytime that anybody shares Katie's story anytimethat a podcaster, And again,
Cordy, I hate using that word. I think I told you this in
person. I think of you moreas an advocate. Okay, So when
advocates like yourself tell Katie's story,when people hear Katie's story and share it,

(22:27):
it does raise awareness, and itraises awareness here in Grayson County.
Like I stated before, John kermitHill is going to run for DA and
we need to raise as much awarenessas possible because come March when the primary
happens, we need voters here inGrayson County to get out and vote,

(22:48):
and we need them to vote forJohn kermit Hill. We don't want this
to happen to another family. Wedon't want Brett Smith to treat another family
and a victim like myself the waythat he he has, and I've had
I've had victims here in Grayson Countyreach out about Smith and again, very

(23:10):
disturbing, very disturbing, how familiesand victims are treated here in Grayson County.
In March next year, I knowthat voters here in Grayson County will
come out and they'll vote for accountability, and accountability will be Brett Smith being
voted out of office. So youtouched up on several disturbing stories from others

(23:33):
where they've been through something similar.Would you mind elaborating a little bit more
on that, because I kind ofwant to drive that point home with our
listeners. Well, there are twothat I will gladly bring up. One
is a case that the Dallas CountyDistrict Attorney recused himself from and are you

(23:55):
aware of the Ricky Brush case.No, I'm not aware. I'll definitely
be looking into it. Dallas megapastorRicky Rush. So there had been stories
in the past about possible assault andsexual abuse from this pastor. Again,
those are alleged. These accusations werebrought forth by members of the pastor's own

(24:17):
congregation, and Smith was brought inafter the Dallas County DiscT Attorney recused himself,
and that resulted much like it didin our our case, where Ricky
Rush was no built. And thehandling of this case was heavily scrutinized,
so much that the that the presidentof the National District Attorney's Association stated with

(24:41):
regards to reports of Smith's office notactually speaking with victims at all, okay.
So, again, the handling ofthis case was so scrutinized that the
president of the National DiscT Attorney's Associationstated, I can generally tell you that
that it is extremely unusual for aprosecutor's office not to speak to the victim

(25:04):
before you put a matter to agrand jury. We're talking about sexual assault,
and Smith did not even speak withthe victim. And I believe that
When the president of your national associationmakes this comment, and this comment was
printed in the Dallas Morning News,and this case was also covered by Vice

(25:25):
News as well, you've got aproblem, and we've got a problem here
in Grayson County. There's also caseinvolving Roderick Tad Howard. Roderick Tad Howard
is let me start by saying thatthe victim was Blake McCoy. And I
say was Blake McCoy because Blake McCoywas murdered by Roderck Tad Howard. And

(25:48):
I'm gonna tell you how this couldhave been prevented. Okay, Roderick Tad
Howard in June of twenty twenty wasarrested for sexually assaulting a man. I've
read the police report and it ishorrific. This Roger Tad Howard literally ran
a man down in the street andsexually assaulted. Roderick Tad Howard was then

(26:11):
arrested that same day, put injail, sat in jail for three months.
Brett Smith refused the case. Okay, so this man who had a
past was put back out on thestreets here in Grayson County. Three months
later, Roderick Tad Howard commits armrobbery and then kills Blake McCoy. Had

(26:33):
had our district attorney done his job, Blake McCoy would still be alive Roderck
Tad Howard would be in prison.But that's not what happened. And because
of that, a young man likeBlake McCoy was murdered, lost his life.
Wow. So Brett Smith has failedy'all so much. Real fast,

(26:55):
can you tell me how your kidsare doing, how they're handling all of
this? This is not something thatyou get over. Uh, this is
something that you get through. Kidsare amazingly strong. And I really shouldn't
say it's amazing that that they're strong, but they are amazingly strong. Two

(27:15):
have gone through what they've they've gonethrough and just still fight for normalcy.
They're they're gonna be fighting for along time. I'm sure you can definitely
relate to this. It's hard tosee somebody that you love, especially your

(27:37):
kids, going through what mine aregoing going through. I I I just
know that they know that they're lovedand that we're always going to be here
for them. It's gonna take time, and there is no timetable. That's
that's set. Uh, we're justgonna do what we've always done, and

(27:59):
we're to take it one day ata time. And you know, we
have this huge hole in our heartbecause Katie was taken from us, but
we're going to get through it.As a family. You and your children

(28:23):
have to essentially wake up every dayand be reminded of that and the fact
that they have been so resilient askids are. You know, it's just
important to highlight all of y'all.Yeah, they are definitely victims in this.
You know, they woke up thatday April twenty first, twenty twenty

(28:51):
not being able to tell their momby she was taken. And it just
heads hard. It does, andit's, you know, again, something
that we will not get over.It's something that we're just gonna have to
continuously fight fight through. Somebody hadleft you a comment on your Facebook,
right, So there was a memberof the Justice for Katie Palmer group page

(29:15):
that had replied to a post thatI had published, and we had gotten
one hundred or two hundred comments.So some sometimes it's you know, there's
there's comments that somebody will will putput up there and just might might not
see him this this woman had posteda link that had personal information relating to

(29:42):
Brett Smith and Tariff Alkatibe. Shejust posted the link, didn't post,
you know, she didn't go outthere and write it. But it was
a it was a free website wheresome of their personal information was was made
available. And so, I wantto say maybe a month or so later,

(30:03):
I got an email from the DPSstating that there was a comment that
needed to be taken down because itlists some personal information regarding a state trooper
and that if I didn't get thisdone within twenty four forty eight hours,
then they were going to press chargesagainst me. So within about two hours

(30:30):
after getting that email, when Ifinally saw the email, immediately went on
there, located the comment, removedit, and blocked the user or the
member of our group that put iton there. And I communicated with her
what was going on, and justsaid, hey, you know, we

(30:51):
had gotten this from DPS and theyasked that I remove it, and I
removed the comment and removed you,removed you from the group, just to
make sure that there wasn't going tobe any consequences, and she fully understood.
Now what I didn't know is thatDPS launched a year long investigation into

(31:11):
this woman, you know on thiswoman launched a year long investigation on this
single mom who was putting herself throughnursing school. Okay, and actually took
her to trial because Terif Falcaty pressedcharges. So just want to make sure

(31:33):
that I that I say that again. DPS spent one year investigating a woman
for posting a link to personal informationabout Brett Smith and a DPS trooper which
was online. She didn't pay anymoney for this, it was listed online,
so they essentially went after her forposting a public link and they didn't

(31:59):
give Katie Palmer the time of day. Okay. This went to trial for
three days and in this trial threeFalconty called justice for Katie Palmer, anti
government and anti law enforcement. We'vegot officers that are on this page.

(32:19):
We've also got state representatives that area part of this page. I have
made it very clear that I believethat an overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers
do their job perfectly right, dotheir job to the best of their ability.

(32:42):
Don't give the family friends that killschool teachers at seven forty five in
the morning rides home. Don't makestatements when somebody asked you to go check
on that same school teacher's kids.Don't say things like they probably wanted to
come to the fucking door. Pardonmy language, but that's a that's that's

(33:05):
an exact quote. That's not that'snot law enforcement, right. What Tarif
did is not a true representation forlaw enforcement officers. I have utmost respect
for law enforcement officers. And thenas far as being anti government, we
have worked with the legislature here inTexas on changing laws. We've worked with

(33:30):
the government. We're not anti government. So statements like that were made over
the three days, and the jurysaw right through it and needed less than
one hour to acquit this woman ofthe charges. And again, it's just
unbelievable that the state of Texas spendsone year prosecuting this woman for a comment

(33:52):
and again will not lift a fingerfor Katie at all. Just like you
said, they're not gonna they're notgonna even lift a finger to help you
guys out regarding the murder of KatiePalmer, an innocent woman who was just
going on a walk with her husbandone day to go see some kill deer.
But they're gonna they're gonna go aftersomebody for posting a comment for a

(34:15):
year, that's ridiculous for one yearthat just goes to show you their list
of priorities and yeah, and andthere's there's there's no there's no there's no
excuse, excuse for it. II think that the leadership in DPS is

(34:37):
horribly misguided on principles, absolutely,you know. And it's a shame that
those few that have power over this, and especially the one that had power
over the investigation that that day,they continually sail and just absolutely tarnish reputation

(35:00):
of law enforcement. It is adamn shame Tree failed at doing his job
April twenty first, failed And thenyou know, we we had other officers
that day. There's a two Dennisand Police officers. One that was with
me at the hospital that was justoutstanding, just outstanding, great man.

(35:25):
You know, there are a bunchof COVID restrictions at that time, but
he made sure that every single familymember that came up there, including my
kids, had no issues getting up. And then the resource officer at Katie's
school obviously was I believe on patroldoing something for Dennis and p D since
the schools were closed down, andhe had heard what happened and broke off

(35:49):
what he was doing to come hereto make sure that our kids were being
taken care of. That's law,law enforcement. That right there to a
t is law and hosement. Andit's just it's crazy, you know.
We we had both ends of thespectrum that that day. That day,
we had one officer who just appearednot not to give a damn at all.

(36:13):
We and then we had two thatwere just the epitome of selfless service.
They're still working, are they still? I know that? Uh?
The resource officer at Katie's school stillis and a great great man, great
great community member, and just justan outstanding individual. I thought something that

(36:37):
was amazing. Brett Smith went toevery Believe High school in middle school in
this county giving a presentation on fentanyl, which was needed. And he came
to Dennis and I s t.I spoke with the district Reckon, I

(37:00):
got, you know, voiced mymy concerns over this, and especially he
was going to Scott Middle School whereKatie taught, and then he was going
to where my son was was at, and then he was going to the
high school where my daughter was at. I voiced my concerns with with the
district. From what I was told, they spoke with the DA's office about

(37:24):
it, and Smith declined to havesomebody else give that presentation. So I
pulled my son out of the middleschool and then my daughter out of the
high school that day when Brett wassupposed to be there giving a presentation.
And I thought it was amazing becausethe teachers at Katie's school, there was

(37:46):
a T shirt that was made.It was Katie's name, Katie Palmer,
but it was in the you know, it looked like the periodic table,
you know, the K and thenthe A because she was a science teacher.
So a lot of them wore thatshirt that day. And then at
the high school, one of Katie'scousins was a senior there and he got

(38:09):
a lot of the students to wearthe same shirt that we got reprinted and
he wanted to get those wanted topass those out. We had over one
hundred students wearing the Katie Palmer Tshirts when Brett addressed the student body at
the high school. Again, thatjust goes to show you how much support

(38:30):
Katie still has, and it's amazing. That is a peaceful protest. Absolutely,
and it's very proud. You know, she touched a lot of people,
those teachers that she taught with atScott Middle School and those students that
were at the high School that shehad taught in her science classes, and

(38:50):
just amazing, what a what abeautiful show of support, and just I'm
proud, you know, Katie.Katie made an impact. She absolutely did,
and she she meant a lot toher students and they showed up for
There's nothing that we can do tobring her back, but what we can

(39:10):
do is again make sure that BrettSmith is not in a position to negatively
impact another family like he's done withus, like he's done with Blake McCoy
and his family, and like he'sdone with the alleged victims of Ricky Rush.

(39:30):
Are there any current events that youwould like to highlight as far as
like media that's gonna be coming upthat everybody should be keeping their ears out
for, et cetera. Anything thatyou want to highlight. So we've got
the Katie Palmer Project and we're startingon our fourth to be our fourth season.

(39:52):
And so what Katie Palmer Project isis a friend of mine that I
went to high school with Dustin boardsField, who is a deputy fire marshall
over in Grapevine, had reached outto me Christmas after Katie died and said
that he wanted to put Christmas lightson our house. That's what he does.

(40:13):
And apparently there's a lot of firefightersthat do this and they're off off
time when they're not out saving lives. They are a good number of them
that will, you know, intheir spare time, uh, put up
Christmas lights on on houses. Hetold me this is what he does,
and he just said that he wouldlike to do it for us, and
I thought that was an extremely kindgesture, so absolutely, you know,

(40:36):
I said, man, I reallyappreciate it, and I want to say
a couple of days later, hecalled me back and said, hey,
I not only want to do thisfor you, but I want to do
this for other families that have somethat have suffered a hardship or a loss
over the past year, and Iwant to do it in Katie's name.
And man, how how beautiful isthat? I thought, Man, that's
God, that's amazing. Her personalitywas was was bright, her laugh was

(41:04):
infectious, and it just made sensewhen it came to Christmas lights that we
just wanted to keep Katie's light shiningabove that. And so we've done this
for this will be our fourth season, and it's spread. We actually did
some in UH near near Boston.We've done them in Texas, We've done

(41:28):
them in Oklahoma, I mean fromOklahoma City all the way down to UH
near Houston. So Katie's light hashas been spread far and it's shining bright.
And so right now we are takingnominations. If you get on the
Katie Palmer Project Facebook page, thereis a nomination for him. And we're

(41:51):
just looking for nominations for families thathave suffered a hardship or a loss over
the past year. And I wantto bring a smile to their face.
And these off duty firefighters love doingit, and they are truly public servants
that are just the best of us, and they're outstanding men and women.
And I'm so proud that Katie's nameis tied to such a positive act of

(42:16):
kindness. That is so awesome.I I remember reading a little bit about
it, but just hearing it,that's just really cool. I love that
it's great. Well, it's youknow, it was. It was so
unexpected and then when Dustin said that, I mean, you know, it's
funny. Uh, we'll we'll talkand you know, it's it's hard sometimes

(42:42):
to talk about this this project withwith him and not get emotional. You
know, it's such a such abeautiful way to remember a beautiful Brighton Condsole.
And I am lucky that I havea friend like like like him.
Just I'm I'm I'm very honored tocall him a friend. And then we
we still got Katie's closet at ScottMiddle School. So Katie used to bring

(43:08):
in uh, snacks for kids inher class that were hungry, and then
she would bring articles of clothing inalso, and she she she did this
because she cared about her students.And so after she after she died,
they were they they had a roomthat they remodeled and they turned it into

(43:30):
a boutique type setting and had clothesfor for kids that needed it, right,
jackets, coats, sweaters, jeans, socks, undergarments, t shirts,
anything and every everything that these kidsmight need. They remodeled this room,

(43:51):
made a boutique out of it,and and again just a just another
beautiful way that she's gonna be AndI'm so grateful and thankful to Dennis and
I d and Scott Middle School fordoing that. Just perfect, absolutely perfect.
There's just not two better ways forher name to be remembered. Are

(44:14):
there any calls to action that youwould really like to highlight? I know
we talked about voting Brett Smith out, anything at all. Really it is
we are just hyper focused on gettingBrett Smith out of office, hyper focused
on that. And my gosh,I've gotten so personally, I had my

(44:37):
god, roughly one hundred and twentyfive, one hundred and fifty signs and
I think I've got about twenty fiveleft to my car file that I've just
been getting calls and messages for peoplewanting to support another candidate and wanting to
vote Bret Brett Smith out. Yeah. You know, we were very active

(45:00):
the last election cycle when it cameto our former Grayson County Judge Bill Majors,
and we had a grassroots campaign thatstarted and my family and Justice for
Katie Palmer were very involved in thatas far as you know, getting out
any information. And we're gonna dothe same thing. But we've been doing

(45:22):
the same thing. We're gonna continuedoing the same thing with Brett Smith and
this election that's up upcoming, SoI would urge anybody to, you know,
please follow John Kermit Hill for GraysonCounty DiscT Attorney on Facebook, please
support him. And what we wantto do is we want to get Brett

(45:42):
Smith out of office so my family, the other families that we talked about
earlier, in any future families aren'ttreated the way that they that we have
been treated, and we want tobring out more positive change. Those are
just two that are I mean,I just egregious. Absolutely. It just

(46:06):
goes to show you. You know, Brent runs on this platform that he's
a workhorse, right, well,there's no excuse for not meeting with sexual
assault victims right when he comes tothe Ricky Rush case, and there was
no reason why Roger Tad Howard shouldhave ever been let out of jail.
And because he was led out ofjail, Blake, Blake McCoy paid for

(46:28):
that mistake by our quote unquote workhourseof a day with his life. So
we have Ricky Rash as victims,we have Blake McCoy, and we have
Katie Palmer and that's at least well, I think y'all are amazing I hope
you know that well. I appreciateit. And again, the support that

(46:52):
we receive from this community here inGrayson County and friends, family, and
advocates like like yourself has been amazing. I don't think well, I don't
think. I know that we wouldn'thave gotten as far as we've gotten if
it weren't for the support and helpfrom everybody. So I want to say

(47:14):
thank you to everybody, and thankyou to you as well. I appreciate
that very much. We would liketo thank John Palmer for coming back to
chat with us for this update episode. We have plenty of calls to action
that have been mentioned today. Ifyou're a resident of Grayson County and are
interested in electing John Kermit Hill tosupervene the current DA, you may do
so by visiting the site we havelisted in the show notes. You have

(47:37):
a few months to do this,as the primary election won't be until March
of twenty twenty four. If you'dlike to support justice for Katie Palmer around
the holidays, you may do soby visiting the Katie Palmer Project at Katie
Palmer project dot com. I justgot to say real fast that getting to
talk to John was awesome. Thisis our second interview that we've done with

(48:00):
him, and we've also met upand talked to him in person. We
even ran into him at a BUCkiesonce. It was pretty cool. But
John is just an amazing person andyou can tell that he truly loves his
wife and would do anything just toget justice for all of them and to
see his kids be able to moveon in peace, remembering his wife and

(48:22):
their mother. And he's just anamazing human being and just embodies the spirit
that we all can really take apage from. So thank you once again,
John for joining me for an interview. And with that, John and
Katie Palmer and their two children,all of them are bees. Bees are

(48:43):
strong, resilient, yet vulnerable.We must protect them at all costs,
for without bees, we as ahuman race cannot survive and thrive in life.
So be vigilant, for when youmess with the bees, you get
the hive. Thank you for listeningto an Nefarious Nightmare. Music used in

(49:10):
the theme was originally by ghost StoriesIncorporated, remixed by Ryan RCX Murphy.
Additional background music is provided by EpidemicSound. A Nefarious Nightmare is scripted researched
and produced by Courtney Fenner and AmandaCronin. I'm Lanye Hobbs and as always,
be vigilant for when you mess withthe bees, you get the hive.
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