(KMN) 6.9: Discretion - Hour 4

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thank you, John. It is eight oh five here at
Kentucky Hada's Morning News on News Radio eight forty whas
Nick Coffee with you, Scott Fitz Jared alongside. We've got
the Johns as well, John Shannon and John Alden, so
full crew here as we get the week started. If
you are just now getting your day started, I hope
you had a good weekend. We've had a lot to
recap from the weekend. We'll talk coming up here around

(00:20):
eight thirty with Roy O'Neal of NBC News get the
latest on the ice protests going on in La as
well as San Francisco. Obviously that's a big story that
we'll continue to follow as those protesters still going on.
Also a big story from last week that was the Shenanigans,
if you will, and I'm not talking about the business
that's near the Highlands called Shenanigans. I'm talking about the

(00:41):
late nights streets being shut down on Barchtown Road near
the Highlands. And obviously there was a lot of emphasis
last week from the Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg as well
as Chief Humphrey of LMPD to put preventive things in
place to keep that from happening from a third straight weekend,
and it sounds like overall that that was pretty success.
We also discussed some news from from over the weekend.

(01:03):
Russ Smith getting a DUI and a person of that
status celebrity getting arrested for DUI is always going to
probably end up in the local news. But Russ getting
a DUI despite not blowing above the legal limit has
had a lot of folks scratching their head thinking, wait
a second, what's going on here? How did he get
a DUI if in fact he didn't blow above a
point zero zero eight. Well, what it comes down to

(01:25):
is he did agree to go through field sobriety tests
after telling the officer who pulled him over that he
had been drinking, and he blew a zero point zero seven,
which again has below the legal limit, But it's really
the officer's discretion at that point as far as what
he wants to do. And Russ has hired an attorney,
Steve Romines, who is the same attorney that represented Scotti Scheffler,

(01:45):
which of course got a lot of attention not just here,
not just here locally when it comes to Scheffler's arrest,
prior to the PGA Championship, but also nationally. So I
think one thing to keep in mind here is that
Russ cooperated with law enforcement by I wouldn't say volunteering,
because I'm not sure he brought it up first, but
they asked, would you want to go through some field

(02:07):
sobriety tests, which he did, which she didn't have to do.
And some are making the point that because he cooperated fully,
which nobody's disputing that, that because he below the legal limit,
that maybe they would say, okay, well you can't drive
because we do send some impairment, but despite you not
blowing a zero point zero eight or above, we're going

(02:28):
to have to have somebody come and get your car,
and you're going to need to get a ride. I
think some are suggesting maybe that would have been the
way the officer should have gone about it, but again
it's the officer's discretion. But Scott, you and I were talking.
You made a good point. You know, if you are
somebody that is in that position in law enforcement, you would,
I guess technically have the out of Well, I went
through these tests and he didn't blow above the legal limits,

(02:49):
so we didn't arrest him but then also, you know,
people would claim, well, why did this guy get a pass,
and they would say, well, it's because he's a guy
who brought helped bring a national championship here so too,
and you.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Were saying that in what we find out through the story.
And I really appreciate you bringing all these facts to light, Nick,
because I got the text from my son and he
was kind of famboying it with me, and he initially
was like, rust is getting picked don here, which I'm
not saying anything to that point. But did he He
failed some of the physical tests, right, so he was
a little his motion was a little off.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
It's really just the judgment of the officer when he
puts them through those field sobriety tests, because I'm not
sure if it's truly just a pass fail. It's just
sort of what they take away from it.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
So that's why I'd like to talk to a law
enforcement officer, because I don't know, none of us really
know what do you doing that. Let's say, okay, for example,
the blood alcohol level was right below the legal limit,
so you take that factor, combine that with the fact
he was a little wobbly. As you mentioned earlier, he
had two Burman neats, which that's I put me under,

(03:49):
to be honest with.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
You, same here, right.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
And so when you put all these together, if you're
that officer, do you feel good even though he below
the legal limit, do you feel comfortable with letting him
just kind of go and move on?

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Well, especially if something was to happen after the after
being pulled over. It's sure reason that he was still
you know, I guess out there, and again I guess
at that point there's no way they would have let
him leave driving. But still, it's your call, and let's
be honest. I think regardless of how you decide to
go here, there would be room for people to criticize you,
right saying, okay, you gave this guy a pass because

(04:27):
he's a level basketball player, a former level basketball player,
or if you end up in the situation we're in
now where he was in fact arrested the There's two
things here that two I think important factors that probably
should be discussed more than what's just being spread across
social media. One is the officer had every right to
do what he did. It's not as if they just

(04:48):
decided to pick on Russ and say, well, yeah, he
blew close enough to point zero zero eight, so we're
just going to haul him off the jail. That wasn't
the case they I mean, the officer technically followed protocol
here and that's what he It was his call. Also,
those who think that the same officer who accused Scotty
Scheffler of running him over, that is not the same
guy who took Russ Smith in on this dui, which

(05:09):
there's there's a connection, certainly, but it's not the actual
guy who again alleged that he was run over by
Scotti Schffler and he ripped his pants and they needed
to be replaced. It's a different guy. But this officer
is Kyle Willis of LMPD. He was the guy who
they later determined it was his bodycam footage that had
leaked and it ended up of course, you know, getting
all accroupt. Mean, it became a national story even before

(05:31):
the video had leaked. But according to memorandum Willis drafted
and provided to Internal Affairs, he knew at some point
he would have to testify and explain his actions, so
he used his cell phone to record part of the
part of the bodycam footage to help him remember his
interaction with Scheffler. Speaking to investigators, Willis said he texted
the clip to Jay Moss, a former officer he considered
a mentor seeking advice, and that officer ended up sharing

(05:54):
it with somebody who then later put it out on
the internet. So this officer was reprimanded for the footage
from his cell phone getting out. But he's that's his
level of involvement here. He wasn't actually the one that was.
He did. He did take him to jail, so he's involved,
but it wasn't the one. You know. I know a
lot of people saw the headline yesterday and saw the

(06:14):
Scottie Scheffler stuff and said, you gotta be kidna me.
You can't make me. You can't make this stuff up.
So there you have it. All right. We got another
update of traffic and weather coming your way right here
on News Radio eight forty whas it is eight sixteen
here at Kentucky this morning news on News Radio eight
forty w HS. Just some some more quick details here
on the on the Rustmith the UI that we've discussed

(06:35):
this morning is he was stopped after making an illegal
U turn near the intersection of Baxtra Avenue and Highland Avenue.
That was just after midnight, and that's what led to
him being pulled over, and he also had expired tags.
But the DUI situation again, he was he was asked
to do field sobriety test I would assume, and he agreed.
Nobody's disputing his cooperation. But since hiring Steve Romans yesterday,

(06:58):
Romans does claim that when it comes to witnesses and
body cam footage, I assume that's what he means when
it comes to things that he believes will help Russ's
case to where maybe these charges will get dropped. Romans
claims that, yeah, evidence that his witnesses also surveillance footage
will prove that Smith did nothing wrong. So we'll see

(07:20):
how that shakes out. Also, don't forget coming up at
eight thirty, we are going to bring in Rory O'Neal
of NBC News to get the latest on the ice
protest going on in California, mostly in Los Angeles, but
also in San Francisco as well.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
I think there's another one scheduled nick for Baltimore. Okay
Man Scott Wikoff was reporting now at WBAL that they're
getting wrapped peaceful protests mind you as well, Okay what
he said, And I would imagine if these are going
to become some steam around the country, whether we're going
to see anything locally here, but you can envision these
coming out.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
No doubt. I wouldn't. I would not be shocked if
there's more that pop up in different places. One thing
we talked about towards end of last week that really,
like many things in recent years, has been a moment
where you reflect, is this really happening? Am I? Is
this a dream? And that was the Internet fight between
Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Well, Elon Musk has since
deleted the ex post slash tweet that claimed Donald Trump's

(08:13):
name appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein file. So I'm not
sure if that's a sign of conceding here, but you know,
it's going to continue to be a talking point. And
just again, the back and forth in a twenty four
hour window between these two very powerful people, it's just
not to you know. It's one of those things where
you think to yourself, is this real and then you realize, okay,

(08:35):
yeah it is, and it really shouldn't be that surprising
given who we're dealing with here. So anyways, that's the
latest on that, and I know it's been It's been
mentioned throughout the morning, and it'll be mentioned throughout the
day all week, really if you're a Louisville fan. But
dam McDonald and his program punching their ticket to get
back to Omaha. You know, college athletics has changed so
much in recent years. And we did get the Big

(08:58):
House settlement on Friday, which we discussed a little bit earlier,
but nil and the transfer portal has made it to
where the job of being a head coach at a
college program it is. It is a different job than
when you got it, unless you're somebody that's like brand
new in the profession. So with that, you know, there
are there are a lot of different obstacles, different challenges.

(09:19):
I mean, you've got to you got to manage your
roster differently. You got to I don't want to say
baby your players, but players have way more power than
they've ever had at the college level, right Like they
used to have no power. They couldn't even have job.
I mean, I don't act like they were going without
because they did obviously get a free education. They had
cost of living. I mean, some of these guys lived
great lifestyles playing college athletics, but also millions billions actually

(09:42):
was was was earned as far as revenue from college
sports that these athletes didn't see any didn't didn't get
a piece of. So the biggest I guess noticeable difference
is free agency in sports, with players transferring to different
high level college football programs in college basket programs. But
baseball is not one of those sports that gets near

(10:03):
the attention as a as a football or even a basketball.
And there have been a new There was already a
lot of challenges with college baseball just because the limitations
you have with scholarships. That's been that way for a
long long time. Well, now in this new world, there's
a fresh set of challenges for baseball coaches like Dan
McDonald and it's just great to see that he built
the Louisville program to be a successful one of powerhouse

(10:26):
in the previous era and now that he has broke
broke through here with another trip to Omaha in the
new world with a bunch of transfers and having to
manage your roster and just do things differently. Not only
is it a great thing for Louisville fans, but what
a great sign for Dan McDonald, and I'm sure this
one felt a little bit more well should I'm sure
they all feel special, but this one I'm sure is
a little different for him than the others. But now, yeah,

(10:48):
six straight or not six straight, but six and nineteen
years that's pretty impressive, and especially knowing that Louisville Baseball
had not won an NSAA postseason game ever until he
was hired nineteen years ago. So it's to dam McDonald
and his team. I know a lot of Loisal fans
really excited about seeing what this team can do in Omaha.
All right, we got another update of trafficking weather coming
your way, as well as another update on sports with

(11:09):
Scott right here on news Radio eight forty whas it
is eight forty six er Kentucky had his morning news
on news Radio eight forty whas Nick Coffee the other
voice you hear just he's wanted to belt out like
it's karaoke. That's right, it's mister Tony Venetti. How about
dam McDonald.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
It's fantastic. It is sometimes good things happen to good people,
because most of the time that's the opposite story. But
you know, he's just he's like one of the greatest
human beings. Yes, ever, he used to work out at LAC.
This is fifteen years ago, and I saw him in
the sauna room and I just left him alone because
I thought in his head, I thought, in my head,

(11:49):
I said, he's here working out instead of working out
at U of L because he wants to be you know,
nobody to bother him, right, But that's the opposite with him.
He's fan And look, man, I told you we were
starting to ask is he worth him and his coaching
staff worth the money they're spending on him, because they're
one of the highest paid staffs in the country. And

(12:11):
the results aren't it there anymore? Because that's what we
do in radio and talk.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
So whatever I think the all the hires that were
made by Tom Jorge, I mean you could, really you could.
You could really break down a few of them and
make the case that this was the most impactful. I mean,
to be honest, this wouldn't come to mind for a
lot of people. But like the timing of Charlie Strong
and when Louisville football became respected again as the musical

(12:36):
chairs was going on with conference re alignment, that was
really important. Obviously bringing Rick Patino here and getting Louisville
basketball relevant once again right away just because you hired
the guy. Obviously, he had a lot of success along
the way. You know, Tom Jorge made a lot of
really good hires, but Dan McDonald to me, seems is
the one that really put the program quite literally in
a different planet than it was prior to him taking

(12:58):
the job. Obviously, you could make the same case for
Jeff Walls with the lois of women's program, but this
is now six trips to Omaha in nineteen years for
Dan McDonald, and to do it previously whenever you already
had obstacles and challenges. As a baseball has just been different.
They don't have the same amount of scholarships as other people.
I know, there's certain schools like Vandy they can get
around that, but there's always been built in challenges with

(13:19):
sports like baseball. But then you have you know, you
have him turning down jobs to State loisvill because a
few years ago he's thinking, well, I've already got was
it Mississippi State or something like that, and all miss
at interest as well, so he's thinking, well, yeah, those
schools they really prioritize baseball more than we do around here.
But you know what, I've already proved that I've got
a program that has been knocking on the door for

(13:40):
an actual national championship many times. Now, why would I
shake it up and start over? Well, then those types
of schools having resources money makes it to where they
could they could they could benefit from it. And here
he is in the New World doing it for the
sixth time. But this one's different because again there's new
challenges that are there and for him to be able

(14:00):
to prove that he can he can be successful in
the old world and also now have this moment in
a new world. That's that just speaks to how good
he is as a coach.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
Okay, but the other World Series, his teams were were
just studs everywhere, right, I Mean they how many games
do they lose in the regular season this year? Was
it twenty?

Speaker 1 (14:17):
Yeah? I mean they were I don't know their exact record.
They improved this year compared to previous years, but it
was nothing like that run they had where they were
they were just I mean, they were a powerhouse.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
They were demolishing people. Uh So that's why that's why
this one is extra special, because we're all starting to
go what direction is is he going to.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
Be able to do it in this era? And sure enough?

Speaker 3 (14:39):
And again baseball, like a lot of spores are that
one inch? You know, it's that speech and every any
given Sunday where there's inches everywhere, uh, and you got
to go fight for your inch. That that was that game.
You knew one mistake was going to win this game.
And that kid that tried to get to that ball, yep,
and it was off the front of his mit. And
I looked at Jackans and that was the mistake. That

(15:00):
was it. That was the mistake, and now we got
to hold on. Was that not the most nerve wracking
ninth inning? I was, Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
You felt I mean, I'm glad they don't do this
in baseball. And that's like the win probability because that
pops up because I felt like they were in pretty
good shape. But then again, you've got two on and
two outs, and you know anything could happen. They're only
up one run. But how about back to back innings.
I think it was where each team had bases loaded
and got nothing out of it. I mean it it

(15:28):
was a nail bier. And maybe this is just me
getting older and whatnot. But when you can see that
the players are energized not only by the moment but
by the crowd and the fans, like when they were
chanting Eddie at as Eddie King Junior was at second
base after he had a phenomenal He's had a phenomenal
postseason thus far. I mean, it just one of reminded

(15:49):
me that we don't fill up that place a lot
during the regular season, but whenever they're hosting a regional
or a super regional, it's a really tough ticket to get.
And the atmosphere was great. The line, the picture of
the lines to get in the last few days over there.
We do big events around here.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
Yeah, but let's again you go old school what the
program used to be. I just talked to Taylor, she's
the sales executive here for us at iHeart she played
soccer at U L. I said, do you know what
the uniforms the new uniforms for the U OFL women's
team was every year?

Speaker 2 (16:20):
She was no.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
I said, it was the boys uniforms from last the
year before. So the girls team would get a bag
of uniforms from the boys and they would be dirty
like the guys didn't even watch the uniforms, and they
would have to get it, get this back up and
try to real no, and try to find a uni

(16:41):
that fit like close. It was all it was the
last year's boys uniforms. The budget wasn't there. The baseball
team played at old Cardinals Stadium nowhere near campus. A
collective four people watched a U of L baseball game
for twenty straight years before they moved into Patterson and
hired hired disc guard.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
I mean, I feel like it's safe to say Tom
Jurch kind of threw U OFL Athletics in the microwave
right because he did. There wasn't longstanding generational traditions. It was.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
I mean, he was on one of the greatest runs
for hiring coaches ever by any ad ever, I mean crazy.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
And to be fair, we're still benefiting from that in
a major way. Good stuff, all right, Tony Dwighter up
next right here on news Radio eight forty whas