#JusticeForKatiePalmer: An Analysis of the BodyCam Footage, Part One

On April 21st, 2020, John and Katie Palmer went out for an early morning walk around 7:30am. Within 15 minutes, their lives would be forever changed. They were hit by a F250 driven by Cory Todd Foster, which knocked them out of their shoes and sent them flying through the air. Katie’s injuries were fatal as she passed away in the early hours of April 22nd. John was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit with severe injuries. Cory Foster was uninjured and, to this day, he has not been held accountable for his actions. Today marks the one year anniversary of the incident that killed Katie Palmer. This episode, a first of two, will begin to look into the body camera footage from Trooper Tarif Alkhatib shortly after the crash. #JusticeForKatiePalmer

Full Bodycam Video: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7p9j5botdyiga90/AACKdAPiM8lJYxVKtTQCjgcua?dl=0&preview=Tarif+Alkhatib_20200421_08_17_WFC1-019806_Traffic+Crash_95841220.ts

Justice for Katie Palmer Social Media:

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/justiceforkatiepalmer
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/justiceforkatiepalmer
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/for_palmer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justiceforkatiepalmer

The Katie Palmer Project: https://www.katiepalmerproject.com

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RESOURCES
https://www.kxii.com/2020/10/22/christmas-light-project-honoring-denison-teacher-killed-in-crash/
https://www.heralddemocrat.com/story/news/crime/2020/08/19/no-indictment-in-wreck-that-killed-denison-teacher/42519447/
https://www.kxii.com/2021/01/27/family-of-denison-school-teacher-killed-in-car-crash-voice-support-for-coltons-law/
https://www.kten.com/story/42519215/justice-for-katie
https://www.kxii.com/2020/08/19/grand-jury-declines-indictment-in-death-of-denison-teacher/
https://house.texas.gov/members/member-page/?district=105
https://capitol.texas.gov/reports/report.aspx?ID=author&LegSess=87R&Code=A3455
https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=87R&Bill=HB1287
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Episode Transcript

(00:15):
Well, hey, they're friends andwelcome back to the show. I'm your
host, Melanie Peterson. Just aquick note, if you haven't listened to
last week's episode yet, I wouldurge you to do so before listening to
this one. Today, we're goingto dive more into the investigation surrounding the
crash that killed Katie Palmer and severelyinjured John Palmer, as well as the

(00:35):
crash itself and the immediate aftermath.This is Part one, which will be
my own take on the bodycamp footagefrom a civilian point of view. Part
two will include what should and shouldn'thave happened during Trooper Tarif al kateiv's initial
questioning of Corey Foster. By havingan anonymous source helped analyze the bodycamp footage

(00:58):
in order to keep this person anonymous, I will be reading quotes of their
impressions of the body him footage throughoutthe episode. And I have to tell
you, friends, this case reallyburns me up. This whole situation never
should have happened the way it didif people were doing their jobs and holding
the right person's accountable instead of seeminglygiving them pass after pass after pass and

(01:21):
excusing their reckless behavior. The wrongperson was protected in this case and given
the benefit of the doubt, andit's something that simply cannot be ignored.
Katie's friends and family will never stopfighting for justice, and I plan to
stand right beside them until they getjustice. Buckle up, my friends,
this one is going to be abumpy ride. This is mask of Sanity.

(02:10):
Last week I was fortunate to bejoined by Katie's husband John and her
mother Ronda to talk about Katie andwhat they've been trying to get done for
the last year. Today marks theone year anniversary of the crash that killed
Katie Palmer, and I really hopethat you all got a good feel for
the kind of person Katie was.That episode I'm sure difficult to listen to.

(02:37):
This one will be as well.We'll be going through the initial crash
investigation as seen in the body campfootage. We're going to talk about the
failings of those involved with the investigationand where to go from here. This
will likely possibly make you angry atthe very least, and I hope that
it ignites a fire in someone tohelp to get involved, to call out

(03:01):
injustices where you see them, andfight for those who need your help.
In one of my first conversations withJohn, I asked him how long his
stay in the ICU was, towhich he confessed, quote, I spent
one day in the ICU. Theywanted me to stay for an additional two
to three days, but I toldthem that I had to go see my
kids and visit Katie one last time. Quote. Now, I'd like you

(03:25):
to put yourself in John's shoes.This was not just a little crash.
This wasn't a fender bender. Thiswas a fatal incident. Katie Palmer died
from the injuries she sustained when shewas hit by this truck after it crossed
over to the wrong side of theroad and plowed into both her and John

(03:45):
because the driver chose to drive blindfor more than half a minute because his
windshield had condensation on it. Andas if this wasn't horrible enough, it
wasn't enough to lose his wife.It wasn't enough for their children, Bella
and Brandon, to lose their mother, for Katie's parents to lose their daughter,
for her students to lose their teacher, for family and friends to lose

(04:05):
someone who radiated light and love.What happened in the minutes after the accident
are so troubling. So here's whatwe do know. John and Katie were
walking down the road facing traffic likeyou're supposed to do. The Ford F
two fifty truck driven by Corey Foster, veered across the road into the opposite

(04:27):
lane, which would have been towardsoncoming traffic if there had been other cars
on the road at the time,and hit the Palmers from behind at approximately
seven forty five am on April twentyfirst, twenty twenty. The responding officer
was Texas Department of Public Safety trooperto Reif Alcatep. Paramedics and the Metavac

(04:49):
helicopter were already on scene when Alcateeparrived around eight fifteen. Alctep initially made
his way over to John, whowas already on a gurney inside an a
and spoke to him briefly. Hetalked with some of the paramedics and emergency
personnel who were tending to Katie,and then he made his way over to
the driver of the truck, CoreyFoster. During their conversation, Alcatib commented

(05:14):
that he could smell alcohol as hestood there with Foster. How much as
you ever run? Nothing? Mysong? Oh I didn't found alcohol?
Oh yeah, I mean I hadsome. I had a couple of rikis
was that? Um? But aboutsix o'clock seven, seven o'clock, Yeah,

(05:36):
that was a ring he had him. I mean I went to bed
early? Okay? Um? Soyou had how many class yesterday? I
mean the artfray? I don't know, okay, okay, I mean always
about what time? How many?Always up in it up? My daughter's

(05:57):
been running fever, so yeah,I mean I was up and down.
Oh, I'm just I'm throwing apretty drawn from the flowing the brig today
is while I'm acting now white,I'll like to drag it up. I'll
just spob seven. In the bodycampfootage belonging to Alcative, Foster stated that

(06:18):
he thought he hit a telephone polland couldn't see because of the fog.
This word fog is used several timesthroughout the footage. But I want to
just clear something up here, whetherwas not a factor in this incident at
all. The sun was out andshining. There was no fog in a
meteorological sense anywhere to be found.The fog that Foster and at times alcative

(06:44):
referred to in the bodycamp footage iscondensation on the windshield and if you drive,
you've likely experienced this. And whileit can be annoying if you're sort
of in a rush to get going, it's an easy fixed. You just
turn on your wipers, you turnon your defroster, and warm up your
windshield so that that condensation dissipates andyou can see. It takes no more

(07:05):
than a few minutes to do this, but Foster chose not to and instead
immediately began driving down Glenwood Drive,claiming that after the crash he couldn't see
because of this fog, which meansfrom the time he left his driveway until
the moment of impact he was drivingblind. He skipped that step in making

(07:26):
sure that his vehicle was safe todrive on the road, and as a
result, he hit two pedestrians,killing one of them. That is terrifying
and that is absolutely infuriating. Afterthe accident, when an estimated speed between
thirty three and forty three miles perhour was determined by an accident recreation team

(07:46):
hired by the District Attorney's office,that would indicate that Foster was likely speeding
because the posted speed limit on thatroad is thirty miles per hour. The
district attorney hired the accident Recreation teambecause the Department of Public Safety and Trooper
to reef Alcatype chose not to.In fact, the entire scene wasn't analyzed

(08:07):
or marked at all, despite twopeople being seriously injured, one of whom,
as we know, Katie Palmer,would pass away from the injury she
sustained just hours later. Using thatestimated speed, it took about thirty five
seconds to drive that distance, sothat means that for approximately a little over
half a minute, Corey Foster wasdriving down the road at an elevated speed,

(08:33):
unable to see where he was going. And just this alone would be
enough to infuriate someone, but unfortunately, it seems like there's even more that
contributed to this fatal crash. Duringthe forty five minutes of bodycam footage,
Foster is asked to take a PBT, a portable breath test, in which
he blew a point Z six nearlyfifty minutes after the crash. The PBT

(08:58):
is just a preliminary screening for alcohol, and blood tests are definitely used to
make a more accurate assessment of one'slevel of intoxication and also to detect whether
or not there are other substances inthe body that could have contributed to a
level of impairment. And in mypersonal, non law enforcement opinion, as

(09:22):
I stated last week, I believeit should be mandatory, especially when the
crash results in serious injury like thisone. Alcaty also conducted a field sobriety
test on Foster, which again Ihave no experience in, because one,
I don't drive under the influence intoI am not law enforcement. But watching

(09:43):
the footage as a layperson is concerning, especially when I learned that this footage,
and not the dash camp footage,which hasn't been released, by the
way, was used for the grandjury. In the body camp footage,
you cannot clearly see Corey Foster's faceduring most of it. You cannot see
his eyes following Trooper Alcatibe's finger.And yet it's alleged that this was stated

(10:07):
as fact during the grand jury,that the members of the jury could see
Foster's eyes in the bodycamp footage.Now I've watched this footage many times,
I can't see it, so I'mnot exactly sure what is going on there,
but it sounds like a little bitof leeway was taken with that particular

(10:31):
information. So this, plus thefact that Foster didn't appear to be as
sober as Trooper alcatib led his supervisorto believe, I have to wonder what
the motive was here. And ifyou want to see what I'm talking about
for yourself and what I will bediscussing throughout the rest of this episode,
I have linked the bodycamp footage inmy episode notes for both last week's episode

(10:54):
and this episode, so you canwatch for yourself to see what I'm breaking
down and what I'm talking about here. Okay, Hey, I'm doing this.
Okay, it's gonna It's to protectyou too, okay, both ways.
Okay. I want to roll outthat, Hey, you're not talking
to tick Okay, do that?Uh, And I want you to be

(11:16):
able to be hey, roll out, Hey I'm not taught again or anything,
okay, which I'm not saying thatyou are. Okay. So now
he told me the guy was ableto talk well and stuff. He said
we were on a facing traffic walkingeast and he come up from behind him,

(11:39):
so he was on the wrong sideof the road. Too and hit
him in his left headlock and stuffwith him. But he's in an F
two fifty and he said he thoughthe hit a telephone. Oh He's like,
I didn't even know what I hitbecause he said my windshield was real,
uh misty and stuff and fogged up. And he's driving towards the sun.

(12:01):
So yeah, he does. Helives down the road farther. Yeah
so, but I mean based offhis field sobriety, how he did and
everything, I mean, it's justgonna be a happy drinking on him.

(12:24):
I mean, because he get reallygood on everything and it crapping, crap
and crap. And then it gotto No. Six. I mean I
could smell the smell it when Iwhen I walked up, you know.
A bit later on in the footage, another DPS officer on scene asked to

(12:45):
reef Alcative if he was going toget a blood test done on Corey Foster
to determine his impairment. This isthat exchange any back six post. But
as the blood we're not going toto that was still from last time,

(13:13):
and to go even further choosing notto get a blood test done instead of
sending Foster to the hospital for ablood test. To reef, Alcatibe gave
him a lift home. On herway. See on her way, man,
I'll give you a ride. Now, I'll give you ride. Man.

(13:33):
Okay, uh, here's your loss. Man. Yeah, here,
I'll give you ride home. Weain't no problem, Trooper Alcatbe declined in
a crucial error in judgment, which, like I spoke of last week,
if Texas House Built five fifty eightis passed, it will require any motorist

(13:56):
who hits and severely injures or killsa pedestrian and to submit to a blood
test. The fact that Foster wasn'trequired to do this is concerning for several
reasons. In the thirty minute periodprior to Alcatep's arrival, from the moment
the incident happened to his arrival,Foster had already tampered with the crime scene.

(14:18):
He moved his vehicle at least once, and moved John and Katie's shoes
again. They were hit so hardthat they were knocked out of their shoes
as they went flying through the airafter being struck by the front left side
of his truck. Now, toplay devil's advocate a little bit, I
know, some of you might bethinking, well, he just hit someone,
he might be distraught. He's collectingtheir belongings, he's trying to help,

(14:41):
And I get that angle. However, because he moved his car and
moved their shoes, this tampering ofthe evidence at the scene would make it
nearly impossible to determine just how fasthe was driving in the posted thirty miles
per hour speeding zone, as wellas just how far John and Katie were
vaulted into the air after being hit. Plus again, this is not a

(15:03):
fender bender. This is a seriouscrash that caused grave bodily injury to two
people. It should be treated likea crime scene, and you don't move
evidence at a crime scene. Now, granted, Foster is not law enforcement,
he's a civilian, because they needto be able to have an accurate
depiction of what happened in the momentsleading up to and including the crash.

(15:28):
Well, I was I was leavingthe house to go get a couple of
guys that were going to help mebe support today, and I was just
clearing my windshield. It was realfaulting, yeah, and then I had
I had him on a high anduh, I just couldn't see because the

(15:50):
blayer was the bad Yeah, whichI shouldn't have driven. Yeah, I
should have waited at the house ofgame. What side of the road where
they on that you noticed? Ididn't know. I thought I hit a
telephone hole. I never saw.Yeah. I tried to gather their shoes

(16:11):
and stuff, but yeah, Ithink it's all in that bag. Okay,
they come out of their shoes.Yeah, yeah, I wonder if
they were running walking. I don'tknow. He just was trying to tell
me kind of where he was.Honestly, I just never saw. Yeah.
Well, I mean you are goingdirectly to the east. That's see

(16:33):
where that sun's out now, allabout that time, it was probably just
right at the top of that tree. Yeah, so yeah, I mean
it's right right in your face.Oh yeah. And then that dense fog
this morning, and I had mywipers on high. Yeah, but by
the time, you know, oneswipe, it would fall right back up.

(16:57):
So there was no accountability of Fosterduring the time before DPS arrived.
No one had eyes on him,nothing to account for what he did or
didn't do during that thirty minute periodof time before Trooper Alcatif arrived. That's
not to say that there wasn't thepossibility to do that. There were witnesses.

(17:17):
There were people who lived on GlenwoodDrive who came to the accident scene.
There were the paramedics and emergency personnelwho were attending to Katie. There
were other people there who could havehelped paint a picture of what happened.
And yet none of these people werespoken to. I'm gonna handle him,
okay, I just wanted to hear. At the end of the day,

(17:42):
Corey Foster was never officially charged withanything relating to the accident, not even
so much as a speeding ticket orreckless driving, just because of how poorly
executed the investigation and the marking ofthis scene was done by trooper Alcative.
Now, and any of you explainto me how that makes sense in any

(18:03):
way, shape or form, becauseI can't wrap my head around it now.
I'm sure one of the big questionson your minds right now is why
why wasn't the scene treated like acrime scene? Why does it feel like
steps were purposely skipped or ignored whendealing with Corey Foster. Why wasn't there
an emphasis on making sure that theseriousness of the crime was at the forefront

(18:27):
of the investigation. Why has Katie'sfamily been left defend for themselves in the
pursuit of justice in her tragic andpreventable death. Now, again, I'm
not law enforcement. This is notmy job. I don't know the ins
and outs of being in that field, let alone what goes into investigating a
crash. I only know what Ihave read in news articles, the information

(18:52):
that I've been provided by John andRonda my conversations with them. I never
had the pleasure of meeting Katie,and I will regret that for the rest
of my life because after learning whatI've learned about her, she sounds like
one of the most amazing people.And I do support law enforcement in general,
but I also recognize that there hasbeen an injustice that needs addressed,

(19:17):
and this situation is a big one. Nothing about the crash was treated as
a crime scene. The dismissive attitudeof both Foster and Alcity during that initial
questioning is horrifying to me, includingthe part where they laugh at a woman
who was running towards where Katie Palmerwas lying on the gurney before paramedics put

(19:37):
her into the Metaback helicopter. Nowyou may not have watched the entire forty
five minute footage, but there isa moment in there where there's a woman
in the background running towards where thehelicopter is, towards where Katie is.
Back up, Hey, back up, I underfering, But don't all them

(20:14):
okay. One And that woman,in case anyone is wondering, is Katie's
mother, Ronda Nail, running towardsher daughter. This was a mother running
towards her gravely injured daughter, fearingthat her son in law and her grandchildren
were also hurt or worse. Andthese two men laughed. It shouldn't matter

(20:40):
who that woman was. This doesn'tstrike me as a laughing situation. But
that's just how little both of thesemen seem to care about or recognize the
seriousness of the incident and the severityof the Palmer's injuries. Watching the body
camp footage and looking at their bodylanguage throughout it. If I didn't know
that this was a fatal crash,I feel like their conversation could have been

(21:03):
at any routine traffic stop. Didy'all buy this place or something? Yeah?
I didn't, Okay, I wasin he just moved out here.
Yeah, okay, okay, yeah, I was in negotiations for it,
for to buy it, but yeah, I never could get right on numbers.
So did the other owners still haveit? I guess or what?

(21:25):
Okay? The me deals? Okay, everything that's in there that you don't
want to get out, it's allgonna be listed down our inventory. Okay,
text Oma Auto Pairs, get it. Let's get those pistols out.
Yeah, let's get those out forsure. Do you want to do it
or you want no? No,you can get them ploded. Yeah,

(21:45):
you've been do any good with aYeah. Let me just let's get what
they are so we can put themon this inventory that we're taking them out.
Okay. Two blocks huh. Yeah, and I'm not even a block

(22:21):
fan. Yeah, yeah, Itake those magazines and stuff. Not once
throughout the entire video did Corey Fostershow any kind of concern for the two
people he hit. Not once didhe ask how they were doing or worry
about anyone else besides himself. EvenTrooper Alcative seemed a bit dismissive about the

(22:44):
severity of their injuries, saying thatJohn was a little banged up and that
Katie. Yeah, yeah, shejust whacked her head real good because there's
hair and stuff on top of thehood. No, sir, she didn't
whack her head. She didn't dothis to herself. Foster hit her with
his truck, and the last timeI checked, getting hit by a truck

(23:07):
in the head isn't just something thatpeople get back up and shake off.
That is serious bodily harm treated assuch. It shouldn't be dismissed. It
shouldn't be downplayed by you. Youare there to find out what happened,
not to minimize injury or tell yoursupervisor that it doesn't seem to be as

(23:30):
serious as it really is. Yeah, I thought the best I did it.
You're up the helicopter though, huh. I wonder thaying you wait up
there. I'll try to stay waitingthe b So when did you say you
put drinking or right and not ona cavern? I don't know. I

(23:53):
watch the movie. Well, youmust a drink a lot last night though,
because it's still going up from there. You're under the limit, but
you just still have that the systemthat many hours later that day. Yeah,

(24:14):
Hey, is there anything else youwant me to do before I let
this guy go. I wait,we've inventoried the truck. The stuff that
he got out of it, inventoryit U. I let him get a
couple There was a couple of gunsin there, so I let him get
those out and h and stuff.I mean, everything was recorded, you

(24:45):
know, when we were talking.But I mean, he flat out says,
he goes, I can't I couldn'tsee which I when I leave my
house, I dropped directly to theeast. And it was prior to this
crash happened or after, And yeah, I couldn't see. I couldn't even
see the road because I couldn't getthe fog off my windshield, and then

(25:06):
the sun driving into the sun.You know, I mean, I get
it he was blind, But Imean he's on the wrong side of the
road too, you know. Soyeah, I mean, yeah, that's

(25:26):
it. I can't believe he wasthat high. Still today he said,
he's like, man, I quitdrinking, like I eight o'clock last night,
which I'm not really buying that tobe that, you know, at
this time of day, but ohyeah, oh yeah, Well so he

(25:49):
is diabetic too, so diabetic anddrinking whiskey. So all right, despite
smelling alcohol on Foster's breath. DespiteFoster not being clear about when he stopped
drinking, and then Alcity telling hissupervisor that he doesn't necessarily believe Foster when

(26:12):
he says he stopped drinking between sevenand eighth the night before, he still
chose not to obtain a blood testand therefore failed to grasp the seriousness of
this incident. In August twenty twenty, a grand jury heard evidence about the
incident to determine whether or not tomove forward with charges against Corey Foster.

(26:32):
They declined. They declined to havecharges filed based on what was shown to
them, which essentially meant that Fosterwould not be held accountable for what he
did. DPS did not order theaccident reconstruction team, despite severe injuries that
resulted in one fatality. The distancethat John and Katie were vaulted was estimated

(26:53):
too. It was approximately seventy feet, but because Foster moved their shoes and
his car are and the scene wasn'tanalyzed properly, there's no way to know
for sure. The District Attorney's officeis who ordered the accent reconstruction team,
and it seems like a good thing. However, the DA has basically made

(27:15):
it abundantly clear that they have noreal desire to pursue charges in this case
because it's not winnable due to thefact that to reef Alcity failed to properly
conduct a thorough investigation, and becauseof this it helped a repeat offender with
a thirty year record of driving relatedoffenses get away with killing a woman.

(27:40):
I mean, we're human. Weall make mistakes, right, It's part
of life. But the important thingwhen making mistake and I don't mean to
preach because it's difficult for everyone,myself included, But no matter how big
or small the mistake is, theright thing to do is own up to
it and try to correct our behavior. There's no excuse for avoiding responsibility when

(28:03):
the decision you make severely impacts someoneelse, especially like this, especially when
there's loss of life. We can'tignore taking responsibility for the mistakes we make,
and in this situation, the willfulambivalence towards behavior that caused a person's
death, the lack of awareness inwhat your behavior has done and has affected

(28:26):
a family, the lack of integrityin running an investigation when you are in
a position that is in service tothe public. We can't avoid owning up
to mistakes because we're afraid to fail. A DA shouldn't judge whether or not
they're going to pursue charges based onhow it's going to affect their potential reelection.
And yes, with that statement,I am completely speculating, but a

(28:48):
district attorney is an elected position.You are elected by the public because they
believe that you are going to servethem the best, and that's not what's
happening here. Now, before youmake any judgments about John Palmer and his
family, I want you to putyourself in his shoes again. Imagine how
you would feel if your spouse waskilled and the person responsible for their death

(29:11):
hasn't been held accountable. If youdon't have a significant other, then imagine
it's the person in this world thatyou love the most. How would you
feel. Would you feel betrayed?Would you feel overwhelmed angry? Would you
try and take all of that energyand channel it into action. Would you
do whatever you can within the lawto ensure that the people responsible for such

(29:36):
a miscarriage of justice were made toanswer for their decisions, and then sure
that this doesn't happen to someone else. That's exactly what John Palmer is trying
to do. Help him, supporthim, help him and his family get
justice for Katie Palmer. This familyneeds our support and please keep them in
your hearts, especially today. Ithas been one year since Katie Palmer was

(30:00):
taken from them and they have beenunable to properly grieve, partly because of
COVID and partly because injustice still stands. Please join me for part two of
this episode, where I will beanalyzing the bodycam footage with the input and
knowledge of an anonymous source who isfamiliar with Texas Department of Public Safety procedures.

(30:22):
There's a lot of information to getthrough and I want to do this
right, so that part will bereleased in the next few days. All
I ask is that you be patientwith me. Thank you all so much
for listening. Until next time,Stay safe, friends,