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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club,
yep's the world most dangerous.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Want to show the Breakfast Club Charlamagne to God just hilarious.
DJ Envy had to step out, but we have some
special guests with us right now. We have a young
lady named April Hurley and she is here with her attorneys,
Malcolm Ruff and Bill Murphy.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Good morning to you all. Good morning, Good morning, April.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I noticed might be traumatizing, but could you please explain
to the people why you are here this morning, tell them,
tell them your story.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
So I'm here with you guys today this morning. Back
in September, I became a victim of a violent attack
that occurred in Baltimore, Maryland. Jason Billingsley literally tried to
kill me. And this could have been prevented had the
(00:54):
property management company made the right decisions and taking the precautions,
you know, to check into his background and to see,
you know, what he was into prior to giving him
this role.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So he was the maintenance guy in your building, yes, right, okay, so.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
You know it was.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
It was a very very traumatizing incident and I'm just
I can't believe I'm alive even you know, to this day,
even riding up here, you know, I just thank God
every day that I'll wake up because it's a different
feeling having someone try to take your life from you.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So he I hate to be graphic with the details
without for the sake of the story. He slashed your
throat and he gets you on fire.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
Yes, wow, yeah, and actually you can see she's still.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
I mean, it's some stuff that you could never even imagine.
It's like something out of a movie where somebody who
has the ability to have access to someone's personal home.
As you know, your home is your castle. This is
the place you should feel the most safe on the
entire planet. And because of the lack of security protocols,
(02:18):
the lack of looking into mister Billians' Billionsley's background. Number one,
he was a twice convicted sex offender. He had been
released early and by all accounts, he was trying to
operate in the world, but everyone knew what he was about,
and he showed his true colors not only with April,
(02:40):
but then after this incident a few days later, which
brought so much attention to this entire situation. He ultimately
is alleged to have killed a young lady named Pavel
La Pair who was a tech CEO startup guru in Baltimore,
somebody who was really really deeply entrenched in the Baltimore
(03:01):
tech community and was very well known to government leaders
and people alike. And that's really what built the momentum
around this entire situation, is that this man was a
psycho killer. And luckily he is now in prison and
will face the music in the criminal case against him
and also in our civil lawsuit that we filed against
(03:23):
him on behalf of April. But this man was not
to be trusted to be allowed in somebody's personal space
like this, and he did exactly what his stripes showed
he would do and had done in the past, and
he did it again to April. It was really very heroin.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
If you're a resident, you know, of a building our neighborhood,
and you're a registered sex offender, you have to let
everybody in the neighborhood know. Shouldn't it be the same
if you have an employee of a building.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Shouldn't it would seem so?
Speaker 6 (03:50):
Yeah, And perhaps the law needs to be changed to
make that happen. That's a good point. And you know
there are two kinds of sex offenders, those that are
one off and those that are compulsively committed to doing
it over and over and over again. And he's that
(04:10):
kind of guy. And we've got to protect people against
people like that, and it's got to be more stringent protection.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
It's got to be. They got to be.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
Consequences when you don't protect people. And when you're a
mandatory reporter of a sexual event, you've got to make
sure you step up to the plate and report it.
And some people are too scared to do it. So
it's not a perfect system at all, and it's got
to get better.
Speaker 7 (04:36):
What I thought was said and interesting was that April's
story didn't get much light shed on it until the
murder of Pavlo, you know, and yeah, are being and
blessings and healing energy toward her family because she didn't
deserve that either. But it's just said that she was
(04:57):
a survivor. And then you know, and he didn't just
go and he was going after her. I believe he
prayed on her, because I'm familiar with the story. I
saw it. He prayed on her, but like he also had,
it was someone else. It was one of your friends, right,
your boyfriend or.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, so it was a friend at the time that
had happened to stay the night with me prior to
the morning of the incident. And you know, I don't
think that he expected anyone else to be down there
with me.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
I don't know, but you know, at that point.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
It was it was obvious, you know, that he was
there to do harm to me specifically, you know, but.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
The other person kind of spooked him a little.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Bit, I would assume, So, yes, you know, but I
can't say for.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Sure, But obviously it wasn't He wasn't a spot that
he Then he tied April ted, who was also our
client as well. They were tied up and tortured in
a basement apartment. I mean, you just can't imagine going
through something like that. And so I think we really
appreciate y'all's interests in the story because of her heroism.
(06:17):
You know, she saved this young man's life by escaping
that apartment, I mean, jumping out of a window after
being set on fire by a man who was intent
to kill you and calling for help getting John Tay
out of that apartment. She was a real life hero
that night and had to save her home life, had
(06:38):
to save another person's life, all because of somebody who
had no respect for human life whatsoever.
Speaker 7 (06:44):
And then, honestly, I felt like if it wasn't for
you going numb after a certain point of time from
all the pain that he had inflicted, Like I feel like,
you know, she could have lost her life from just
the pain, the burns and slitting her neck just to
torture because he would cut it.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Not enough to have.
Speaker 7 (07:02):
An immediate death, you know, for you to have an
immediate death, but he he like tortured her. And thank
God that your baby wasn't there, because you have a
young child. And I just I'm happy, you know, because
at one point he had asked about your child as well.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Right yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
Look, I did criminal law for years. This is the
most gruesome thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Uh it was.
Speaker 6 (07:30):
It's beyond beyond sadistic, beyond devilish, beyond any horror you
can think of, and no mercy. God had no mercy,
no compassion, no restraint. He just did his thing, and.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
It was ugly.
Speaker 8 (07:49):
Have you.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Gone on any type of healing journey from this incident?
Because you know, I can clearly look at you and
rightfully so You're visibly triggered out at the comment. I
don't even I can't even like having this conversation. But
have you started a healing journey?
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Yes, I do go to therapy weekly. I do have
group sessions that I attend.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
You know, I am.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Able to call on people that care about me and
love me and you know, just get advice or you know,
if I'm not feeling like myself or if something does
trigger me. You know, I'm learning how to cope with
certain things, you know, But the trauma, it doesn't just
(08:37):
go away, you know. So it is a it's gonna
be a long journey. It's something that I could never forget.
But you know, through hopefully through therapy and you know,
different walks of life moving forward, hopefully I can learn
(08:59):
how how to you know, feel safe again, you know.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
So that's that's what I've been working.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
One of the things she's doing is learning self defense
principles and pistol training.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Beautiful.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
And I've never been in favor of a gun control
for black folks. I think all black folks should have
a firearms.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
I agree with you. I'm two a all day.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yes, I believe owning a firearm in this country as
a black person is a former self.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
Care absolutely, because look, we don't know what's gonna happen
if Donald Trump gets elected, and revolution is something that
we've never had to talk about before, but others are
talking about it. And so when you hear enough of
that talk, you got to be ready.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
You forget even to forget Trump. Just look at what
April goes through. I got four daughters, you know what
I mean. I want them to know how to handle
a firearm and be licensed to carry it because of
situations like that.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Absolutely, I would definitely encourage every young woman to take
their safety very seriously. Whether you're nervous, whether you've never
had any experience, you know, seek professional advice, seek professional
classes to gain that confidence, learn your laws and how
(10:19):
to safely operate, you know, self defense weapons because you
never know, like never in a million years what I
had ever thought that I would wake up to something
like this, And I just thank God that my daughter
wasn't there, and it is, you know, the the fear
(10:41):
moving forward is very, very traumatizing. You know, there's points
where I wake my daughter up from her room and
have her come sleep with me because I'm nervous that
something could happen because of what happened.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
She's three.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I want to recommend my good sister, Robin Evans. She
has an organization called Chicks with Triggers, and everything you just.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Said is what she teaches. She teaches self defense.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
With firearms, knives, She teaches you the laws of the
state that you live in, all of that. So anybody
out there, if you're listening, look up Robin Evans, Chicks
with Triggers and to learn how to properly defend yourself.
If you got the four four four the angel numbers
on your neck, did you have that before this incident?
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Yes? Wow?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (11:29):
You know that means you are completely surrounded by angels.
You're being guided through whatever you are focusing on. So
when you was going through this experience, was that on
your mind?
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (11:39):
I was praying the whole time. Wow, the whole time.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
I did not stop praying.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
You know, I couldn't even cry because I was so
focused on praying because I truly believe that God has
the final say so, so I was just you know,
thinking of how how can I get out this situation
(12:08):
if the opportunity presents itself, and you know, just praying.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Thinking that.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
What was going on when I was thinking that, as
far as what.
Speaker 6 (12:24):
What made you get to go out the window like that?
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (12:30):
He thought I was dead?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah, like I you know, he had drug me across
to the other side of the room. I appeared unconscious,
but I wasn't, and I was very weak, and I
knew at that point, you know, that he was going
to set the room on fire, So I just waited.
(12:52):
He had removed the handcuffs from me, and I had
just waited for the fire to be lit. And I say,
once he runs out of this room, I'm getting out
this window. And I'm only five foot two. The window
was at least six.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Foot you know.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
I had to climb on top of things to try
to open the window, to then pull myself out of
the window while on fire, while my throat is slit.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
And that's only God.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
She went.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
She went from what she told me was literally living
her best life to being in shock trauma with terrible
burns and terrible scars, both internally and externally. And I
just can't say it.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
To you enough.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
How in all we are of your strength and your courage.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Who was the first person to come to your ad April, Like,
once you got out.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
The window, do you remember, I don't one hundred percent remember.
I just remember remember I was just in so much shock.
Like there it felt like everybody was just staring at
me for a minute, which I I wouldn't completely disagree with.
I mean, you know, this man had stripped me naked
(14:16):
prior to you know, all of this happening. So I'm
on fire, you know, throat slit and naked, screaming for help.
Speaker 7 (14:27):
I don't I'm still not staring at you. Obviously you're
in agony, you're in pain. I'm calling I'm trying to
get like because that was the part of the story
that kind of pissed me off. I'm a I'm a
very emotional person, and I'm like, why is like people
just why are people just.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Staring like you know or.
Speaker 7 (14:47):
I don't know if you can, do you remember like
anybody recording you or something?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
No, but I do remember there was a lady that
ran over she ran through everybody a town.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Yeah, and she had.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Tried to cover me up, but my skin felt like
it was falling off, like and you know at that point,
it was everything else was just blurry, you know, it.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Just Yeah, it was blank.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
You know, I did it.
Speaker 7 (15:25):
How did y'all find her? How did y'all get Bill
and Malcolm? How did y'all get in touch with her?
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Interestingly enough, April's mother, I had actually represented her years ago,
and so after they talked and kind of went over
you know what the sequence of events had happened, and
you know, them thinking about how justice could be achieved
in this case, she she called me up and we
(15:53):
went from there. We just and so we've gotten to
know each other since I guess October of last year,
after that connection was made. But I think it was
meant for us to be involved because, as you know
our history in Baltimore, this is what we do. We
stand up for people that are being wrong, catastrophically injured
(16:14):
and have it their civil rights violated. And in a way,
this is a combination of all those things, not necessarily
civil rights being violated by the government, but the rights
that you had as a tenant being violated by the
folks that you trusted to at least reasonably do what
they were supposed to do to keep you safe. And
that's why we've brought the lawsuit that we have on
(16:36):
behalf of April, because there has to be recovery. There
has to be compensation for what she went through and
the failures that happened that led to such a heinous result.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
What is the apartment complex defense?
Speaker 5 (16:49):
What are they saying, Well, it would be inappropriate for
us to talk about their defenses. At this point. We're
at the very early stages of litigation. We recently filed
a lawsuit. We're just in the opening stages of you know,
exchanging information and determining the nature of all the relationships. So,
you know, we don't want to to you know, muddy that. Well,
(17:14):
we're going to deal with the litigation as it comes,
and as we you know, do in our natural course
of business. We'll be continuing our investigation and asking the
tough questions of her landlords and their agreement not only
between the property manager and the actual property owner, but
with this gentleman, mister Billingsley, and what exactly his employment
(17:36):
relationship was with them, and how much they paid him,
why they gave him access to the common areas of
her home, and how they would allow something like this
to happen when they knew or should have known. And
that's the standard under the law is that this man
was completely untrustworthy and should never have been placed in
(17:58):
an opportunity to do this to her.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
It's just scary because you think about the people that you,
you know, letting your house on a regular basis, whether
it's a plumber or electrician, you know, anybody, h fact,
person cleaner.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
It's like, you don't you really don't know the.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Background is some of these individuals and what they're capable of.
So it's just scared to think about.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
But that's the thing you have. You have the duty
right if you're a business owner, right that you have
a great responsibility because you have the great chance of garnering,
you know, a lot of profit, notoriety, and so with
with with great trust comes great responsibility. We just finished
a trial in the Baltimore City Circuit Court dealing with
(18:40):
a security company that didn't properly vet a security guard
who ultimately shot our client and killed him by shooting
him in the mouth over an argument about a bathroom
in a convenience store. Right, and her background was such
that if they had actually just looked at a free database,
they would have seen that she was not somebody that
should have been trusted to be an armed security guard.
Speaker 6 (19:01):
This is this is leaving out that he got a
four point one million dollar verdict yesterday.
Speaker 5 (19:08):
Good we did, we did arising start. But that case
is very similar to what happened April.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Right.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
We're talking about the duty of care, the duty that
a property owner has to the people that they are
taking money from on a monthly basis to make a profit.
They at least have to make the reasonable steps to
keep those people safe based on, you know, something that's
that's reasonable and not something that's you know, overzealous or
too expensive. It would have been perfectly reasonable for them
(19:38):
to put his name into that database, which is called
Maryland Judiciary Case Search, and to find out exactly what
his record was. And if they did do that and
they still put him in this position, it's even that
much more heinous that they would have permitted him to
be in that position and.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Not let their tenants know. And you know, April, I
hope you get all the money in the world. More importantly,
I'm sad that this ever happened.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
But how did it?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
How did it impact your relationship with God? Being that
you was already such a God fearing person, Like what
did you do.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
For your faith?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
You know, I honestly believe that God does allow certain
things in our lives to happen just to test that
relationship with him. You know, if you read the Bible,
the Book of Job and things like that talk about
you know, how he lost everything but he still trusted
(20:32):
in God. If anything, had strengthened my relationship with him,
because he kept me in a situation where I shouldn't
be here right now, but I am through you know,
through God's mercy. He's seen more for me in my
life moving forward with having my daughter, you know, and
(20:56):
being the age that I am, in the spirit that
I have. You know, I would never I would never
wish this on anyone. Yeah, you know, when I heard
about Pava passing, I remember I was still in the
hospital and I remember, you know, begging, begging them to
(21:18):
find him and to make sure that this never happened
to someone else, you know.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
And I.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Always would think, like, why did this happen to me?
But you know, I pray about it, and I pray
about it, and that's what I get from it, is
that God, you know, he kept me to be able
to speak on you know, what happened to be able
to help identify the person who did this to be
able to, you know, be motivation for those who might
(21:48):
not have a relationship with God or might be thinking
that this is the end for them. You know, as
cliche as it sounds, it does get better. You know,
there is light at the end of the tunnel, you know,
and everything that we go through is not meant.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
To break us.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
So it is is definitely mind over matter, and it's
definitely strengthened my relationship with God.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
A lot question for Makama building. You know, I'm getting
slow in my old age. So after this man did
this in April, he didn't go to jail.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
He was still in the green Oh no, he's in jail. No,
I know, even jail Autter he did it that April.
Oh yeah, no, that he escaped.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
That was the reason why he sat the place on fire, right,
But that was not not only to try and I
guess get rid of evidence, right them number one, he
tried to kill them, right, He tried to get rid
of any evidence that was in that room, but it
also created the diversion he needed to get out there.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
So three days later, yes, he.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
Was at the door of Pavlo La Pair's apartment building
and somehow managed to get her alone and he sexually,
allegedly secondly assaulted her and killed her as well.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Yeah, that was exactly where I was about to go.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
Sometimes we have the same mind, and Jess, you were
I think you were kind of mentioning it earlier. But
the one of the more tragic parts of this whole
situation is that, as you know, being from Baltimore, we
have the term the black butterfly and the white l
in Baltimore City, and so it basically the white l.
(23:26):
So in Baltimore the map you can tell that the
concentration of folks that are more you know, of the
majority culture live right down the center and to the
east of downtown Baltimore, and then the rest is the
black butterfly that that kind of expands out of the
shape of the city. And so where April was was
(23:48):
a part of the black butterfly. When the police found
out what had happened to her, you would think that
they would have put an apb out and said there
is a cycle killer on the loop. Instead, what they
said was this is an arson incident.
Speaker 6 (24:07):
Knowing that it was much worse than that. Not an accident,
just a.
Speaker 8 (24:12):
Lot, two people kidnapped, tentphed, murder, tortured sexually, as tried
to burn them to death, and the police reported it
as an arson.
Speaker 5 (24:23):
Now three days three days later, literally points seven miles
away from April's apartment. But in the white l MLK,
an incident happens to a white woman, and that could
have been prevented if there was this APB and the
(24:45):
people of these neighborhoods knew exactly what was going on
and what the risk was out there and the threat
that was out there. And eventually, once after Pava's incident occurred,
I mean, they were all kinds of law enforcement officials
looking for him, and they ultimately found him at a
t brain station, and that the response was great because
they knew, everyone knew how serious the threat was. But
(25:07):
why wouldn't the police make it very clear what kind
of threat was out there when it happened to somebody,
a young black woman in the black butterfly as opposed
to a young white woman in the white l It's
just a question of equity that we talk about, right.
It has nothing to do with the lawsuit. And I'll
readily say that we have known we're not looking at
(25:29):
going after the Baltimore City Police Department in this case.
But it's something that needs to be addressed. It's something
that needs to be talked about, because there's no reason
why her incident would have been treated differently other than
than obvious.
Speaker 6 (25:44):
And that's why we're unapologetically a black firm aimed at
helping black people to rise up above and beyond our
oppression and most importantly, our oppression state of mind. And
if white folks were doing what they were supposed to
do to undo what their forefathers have have done and
(26:06):
undo what they continue to do, that would not be
a necessary attitude. There would be a partnership. But because uh,
there has never been an adequate partnership between whites and
blacks across the board to eliminate racism, we're gonna be
stuck with it for a long time.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
And because of that lack of partnership, that's why, you know,
what happened to April, something even worse happened to you know.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
And see if you if you don't have that separatist
statement where you don't read the raise the red flag
for her, it's gonna spill over into the white community.
It's gonna it's gonna hurt whites, maybe, as in this case,
worse than.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
It hurt Martin King.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Jenior said it the best injustice anywhere, a threat to justice.
Speaker 6 (26:57):
That's exactly right. And we're still stuck in the mud
of not getting enough support to overcoming.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
How did this How did this impact your relationship with jon.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
H I'd rather not comment on that.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Gotcha?
Speaker 9 (27:20):
Ye?
Speaker 7 (27:21):
What about your parents? They I know they're kind of
scared to let you out there. It's like, you know,
you're you're grown, but I know it's like because I
now remember, you know, you mentioned your dad, you know.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
And I know he was furious.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah that's baby girl.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Yeah, my my dad.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Definitely, I feel like, uh, you know, he reacted as
as any loving, caring father wood. You know, he has
four other children, you know, and I'm the oldest of
his kids, and so it definitely hit him a lot different.
And you know he's he's a tough guy, you know,
(28:06):
but I could tell that it hurt him, you know,
very very deeply, very protective, you know, needing to know
what's going on, where I'm at, who I'm with, you know,
like I'm fifteen again, but you know, I'm thankful that
I do have him, you know, to be there.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
My mother, oh my gosh, and she.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Lives all the way in Texas, so it's you know,
the constant phone calls. If I don't answer the first
or second time, she's texting everybody, Hey, have you heard
from April? You know, because she's assuming that something might
have happened again, you know, and she's so far away.
Speaker 7 (28:51):
Like you said, she's right, it happened. I mean, she
have to get on the plane and she would like
it takes time.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yes, yes, so you know, but it is a little
frustrating sometimes. But you know, I'm a mother as well,
so I think about it. Like I said, you know,
I wake my daughter up in the middle of the
night to come sleep with.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Me because.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
I couldn't imagine ever feeling what my mom had to
feel when I went through this, you know. So I'm
just I'm thankful that they have been hearing from me
and that they continue to be here for me. And
I'm just thankful for all the support that I'm getting
(29:37):
for everybody, because you know, it does help motivate me
to keep going.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Yeah, one thing I learned in therapy was that I
always said my father raised me out of fear as
opposed to love. He just simply didn't want me to
make the same mistakes that he made. I agree, like
that's what I'm trying not to do my daughters.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
But it's hard, right because of the world we live.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Right with what you've been through, the traumatic experience you've
been through, how are you raising your daughter with love
and not fear.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
It's it's interesting because, I mean, she's three years old,
so you know, she's she wants to explore, she wants
to learn, she wants to, you know, run off. She's
very social. We could be at the store and she
wants to run up to strangers and say, hey, can
I can I say hi to this person? And I
have to explain to her that, you know, it's okay
(30:32):
to be polite, but we don't know them, you know.
So I try to explain to her and the best
way that I can for her to see both sides. Yes,
you can say hello, but you need to stay next
to mommy.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
You can't, you know.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
So things like that is where I kind of try
to just help her understand those boundaries so that she
is aware of what's going on around her because.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
She is so young, you know, so innocent, and.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Like I said, you know, it just goes back to
I could never imagine, you know, being in my mother's position,
And I know I'm not God. I can't control the
world and the people in it, but I want to
do my best, like you said, to not teach her
and fear, but for her to understand. You know that
(31:26):
everyone is not a good person. You know, everybody is
not looking out for your best interests. Some people are evil,
some people want what you have. Some people are just
out of their mind and you know, react to the
first person that they see. So, you know, hopefully as
(31:47):
time goes on, you know, I'll be able to continue,
you know, just teaching her with love and understanding and
kindness and helping her set those boundaries, you know, moving
forward for herself, because I would never want something like
this to happen to my own child, let alone anyone else.
(32:09):
Hold you I'm twenty five, yes, damn ye.
Speaker 6 (32:13):
See this raised a very interesting question about trauma because
we now know that there's such a thing as epigenetics. Absolutely,
epigenetics is a mechanism in the human body that transfers
trauma from the generation where it was inflicted. To the
(32:35):
next general. And that accounts for a whole lot of
our behavior. It accounts for why our attitudes about slavery
and segregation still persist, because that trauma passes down through
body mechanisms that we are understanding for the first time.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Now, all off from Baltimore, Sir.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Yeah, I grew up in Baltimore City, but I went
to school in and around the county.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
So right around the corner, Yeah, right around the corner.
Yet it comes out one guy. I try. I try
to minimize it a little bit because you know, she
won't get made fun of like I do every day
up there. Yeah, you know, it's a time and place.
(33:28):
It's a time and place.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
It's two o'clock a night, A good time.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
Two o'clock, two o'clock.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Were talking about I love the accident.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
I don't hear it.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
You want somebody and he wanted me to come.
Speaker 9 (33:45):
On here, right, I want to like yeah, because they
say dog like nobody got.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
This sounds like it's an easy case to win billion, Malcolm,
But what are some of the obstacles y'all have encountered
since taking on the lawsuits?
Speaker 6 (34:05):
Well, whether or not, First of all, the man has
assets or insurance to pay the damages that will be
humongous in this case from what we know preliminarily the
property are on whose name I will not mention has
perhaps modest wealth and unknown insurance because we haven't been
(34:29):
able to pin that down yet, and so we are
praying for her sake that there is a mechanism to
collect the tremendous damages that any driven would impose in.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
This Absolutely absolutely, I'm sorry it's happened to you.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
I'm not It was a pleasure to have this conversation
with you, but I'm sorry that we have to have
this conversation, right.
Speaker 5 (34:53):
It's terrible, man like I think one of the things
I think about with her is this man bent her soul.
But he didn't. He didn't break it, didn't break it,
he didn't break it. And that's just the testament of her.
But even somebody's soul being bent, that that's morbid, right,
and it needs to be corrected. And so that's why
we're here. That that's exactly why she's here and being
(35:16):
the strong woman that she is despite the circumstances, because
she's she's got a game back with the with the
what the evil took from her, but the devil took
from her, We're gonna claim from victory.
Speaker 6 (35:30):
Yeah true, evil in its deepest, deepest Yeah true.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Is my final question everyone, do you want people to
ultimately take away from your situation?
Speaker 1 (35:39):
What you want them to learn from this?
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Like I said, you know, anything can happen to anyone,
So I definitely want people to be smart and the
decisions that they're making. And especially you know, when you
think you're safe, you know, it doesn't hurt to go
and and double check it doesn't hurt you. As for identification,
(36:04):
you know, sometimes the people that we think are supposed
to be doing these things are not or may not
have done it correctly or to the extent that we
would have. So take your safety seriously, you know, and
trusting God. You know, that's that's my number one thing,
(36:25):
Trusting God. No matter what you go through, celebrate the
wins and the losses.
Speaker 7 (36:38):
You both watching it, I was, I'm like, this is
where I'm from when it is happening, you know, Like
you raised the point about the black butterfly in the.
Speaker 4 (36:47):
White hel that's bullshit.
Speaker 7 (36:50):
Like I just I can't stand how we are you know,
how the butterfly is labeled you know, like it's it's
things that people that live in a black butterfly not
that important. Things that they go through are not that important,
you know. So I just I'm happy that I did
see your story. Shout out to trapping Anonymous Christal. Yeah,
he was amazing. I was like, can I get a
(37:14):
contact on her and all that? And I thought he
was gonna be like no, because you know, once you
go through something like that, you don't want to talk
to everybody, right, I don't care how big your platform
is or whatever. You don't want to relive it by
even speaking on it, you know. But I was happy
that he did tell me, well, she has attorneys, and
she was like, damn, that is so good.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
That was so good. So I love you too. Thank
you for reaching out.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
I heard it. If I told you, you heard it.
They're call to action. Is there something we could do that,
there's something to people be calling the number?
Speaker 5 (37:51):
I don't I don't know for your firm, Well, yeah, absolutely,
we're Our firm is called Murphy, Falcon and Murphy. We
have our senior founding partner, Billy.
Speaker 4 (38:03):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (38:03):
Absolutely, we're the oldest black firm in the United States.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
It's like fourth generation.
Speaker 6 (38:07):
Yes, yes, my son is an attorney as well.
Speaker 5 (38:11):
Amazing and so we were just Murphyfalcon dot com. Murphy
like m u r p h y Falcon like the bird.
You can actually find me on i G. I'm brother
with the A Underscore Malcolm E.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
S Q.
Speaker 5 (38:27):
And we certainly want want people to send best wishes
to April as we go through this legal journey to
keep UH putting attention on this. And I also want
to just add my last comment and advice to folks
would be along the lines of what.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
April said, Ask all the questions.
Speaker 5 (38:47):
You got to be your biggest advocate, especially if you're
in a relationship with a landlord or somebody that has
control over your housing space, to ask them. I want
to know who's all in your staff. I want to
know their background. I want to know how you what
kind of access you're giving them, because that is the
way that you can, you know, really protect yourself and
(39:08):
not have to rely on the landlord doing their job, which.
Speaker 6 (39:16):
Everybody everybody should put in their budget home security system
and stop relying on other people to ensure your safety.
You are your best protector and you need to make
sure that every tool in the technological toolbox that you
can afford, you implement so that your space is protected
(39:38):
and so that when you're away you can see what
is going on in your space. When you're at work,
you can see what's going on in your space. So
you got to do that too.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
You at that Landlord top not Security.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Do you have Instagram?
Speaker 4 (39:53):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (39:53):
I do.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
At at Big Term AP.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
At Big Time AP Go to April's Instagram and just
show us some love, man.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
I appreciate it. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
For in the comments.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Man, just let her know that you see her and
you hear her story and you're just sending her positive
energy and healing energy.
Speaker 6 (40:13):
Thank you for that. If anything happens to you out there,
you know how to reach us. Absolutely, Murphy Falcon and
Murphy Billy Murphy. Now from Ruth, who is, by the way,
my favorite student.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
He soaks it up like a sponge. Thank you for coming, April, Malcolm.
Thank you for having me wake that ass up in
the morning. The Breakfast Club
Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club,
yep's the world most dangerous.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Want to show the Breakfast Club Charlamagne to God just hilarious.
DJ Envy had to step out, but we have some
special guests with us right now. We have a young
lady named April Hurley and she is here with her attorneys,
Malcolm Ruff and Bill Murphy.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Good morning to you all. Good morning, Good morning, April.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I noticed might be traumatizing, but could you please explain
to the people why you are here this morning, tell them,
tell them your story.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
So I'm here with you guys today this morning. Back
in September, I became a victim of a violent attack
that occurred in Baltimore, Maryland. Jason Billingsley literally tried to
kill me. And this could have been prevented had the
(00:54):
property management company made the right decisions and taking the precautions,
you know, to check into his background and to see,
you know, what he was into prior to giving him
this role.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So he was the maintenance guy in your building, yes, right, okay, so.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
You know it was.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
It was a very very traumatizing incident and I'm just
I can't believe I'm alive even you know, to this day,
even riding up here, you know, I just thank God
every day that I'll wake up because it's a different
feeling having someone try to take your life from you.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So he I hate to be graphic with the details
without for the sake of the story. He slashed your
throat and he gets you on fire.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
Yes, wow, yeah, and actually you can see she's still.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
I mean, it's some stuff that you could never even imagine.
It's like something out of a movie where somebody who
has the ability to have access to someone's personal home.
As you know, your home is your castle. This is
the place you should feel the most safe on the
entire planet. And because of the lack of security protocols,
(02:18):
the lack of looking into mister Billians' Billionsley's background. Number one,
he was a twice convicted sex offender. He had been
released early and by all accounts, he was trying to
operate in the world, but everyone knew what he was about,
and he showed his true colors not only with April,
(02:40):
but then after this incident a few days later, which
brought so much attention to this entire situation. He ultimately
is alleged to have killed a young lady named Pavel
La Pair who was a tech CEO startup guru in Baltimore,
somebody who was really really deeply entrenched in the Baltimore
(03:01):
tech community and was very well known to government leaders
and people alike. And that's really what built the momentum
around this entire situation, is that this man was a
psycho killer. And luckily he is now in prison and
will face the music in the criminal case against him
and also in our civil lawsuit that we filed against
(03:23):
him on behalf of April. But this man was not
to be trusted to be allowed in somebody's personal space
like this, and he did exactly what his stripes showed
he would do and had done in the past, and
he did it again to April. It was really very heroin.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
If you're a resident, you know, of a building our neighborhood,
and you're a registered sex offender, you have to let
everybody in the neighborhood know. Shouldn't it be the same
if you have an employee of a building.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Shouldn't it would seem so?
Speaker 6 (03:50):
Yeah, And perhaps the law needs to be changed to
make that happen. That's a good point. And you know
there are two kinds of sex offenders, those that are
one off and those that are compulsively committed to doing
it over and over and over again. And he's that
(04:10):
kind of guy. And we've got to protect people against
people like that, and it's got to be more stringent protection.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
It's got to be. They got to be.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
Consequences when you don't protect people. And when you're a
mandatory reporter of a sexual event, you've got to make
sure you step up to the plate and report it.
And some people are too scared to do it. So
it's not a perfect system at all, and it's got
to get better.
Speaker 7 (04:36):
What I thought was said and interesting was that April's
story didn't get much light shed on it until the
murder of Pavlo, you know, and yeah, are being and
blessings and healing energy toward her family because she didn't
deserve that either. But it's just said that she was
(04:57):
a survivor. And then you know, and he didn't just
go and he was going after her. I believe he
prayed on her, because I'm familiar with the story. I
saw it. He prayed on her, but like he also had,
it was someone else. It was one of your friends, right,
your boyfriend or.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, so it was a friend at the time that
had happened to stay the night with me prior to
the morning of the incident. And you know, I don't
think that he expected anyone else to be down there
with me.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
I don't know, but you know, at that point.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
It was it was obvious, you know, that he was
there to do harm to me specifically, you know, but.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
The other person kind of spooked him a little.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Bit, I would assume, So, yes, you know, but I
can't say for.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Sure, But obviously it wasn't He wasn't a spot that
he Then he tied April ted, who was also our
client as well. They were tied up and tortured in
a basement apartment. I mean, you just can't imagine going
through something like that. And so I think we really
appreciate y'all's interests in the story because of her heroism.
(06:17):
You know, she saved this young man's life by escaping
that apartment, I mean, jumping out of a window after
being set on fire by a man who was intent
to kill you and calling for help getting John Tay
out of that apartment. She was a real life hero
that night and had to save her home life, had
(06:38):
to save another person's life, all because of somebody who
had no respect for human life whatsoever.
Speaker 7 (06:44):
And then, honestly, I felt like if it wasn't for
you going numb after a certain point of time from
all the pain that he had inflicted, Like I feel like,
you know, she could have lost her life from just
the pain, the burns and slitting her neck just to
torture because he would cut it.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Not enough to have.
Speaker 7 (07:02):
An immediate death, you know, for you to have an
immediate death, but he he like tortured her. And thank
God that your baby wasn't there, because you have a
young child. And I just I'm happy, you know, because
at one point he had asked about your child as well.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Right yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
Look, I did criminal law for years. This is the
most gruesome thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Uh it was.
Speaker 6 (07:30):
It's beyond beyond sadistic, beyond devilish, beyond any horror you
can think of, and no mercy. God had no mercy,
no compassion, no restraint. He just did his thing, and.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
It was ugly.
Speaker 8 (07:49):
Have you.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Gone on any type of healing journey from this incident?
Because you know, I can clearly look at you and
rightfully so You're visibly triggered out at the comment. I
don't even I can't even like having this conversation. But
have you started a healing journey?
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Yes, I do go to therapy weekly. I do have
group sessions that I attend.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
You know, I am.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Able to call on people that care about me and
love me and you know, just get advice or you know,
if I'm not feeling like myself or if something does
trigger me. You know, I'm learning how to cope with
certain things, you know, But the trauma, it doesn't just
(08:37):
go away, you know. So it is a it's gonna
be a long journey. It's something that I could never forget.
But you know, through hopefully through therapy and you know,
different walks of life moving forward, hopefully I can learn
(08:59):
how how to you know, feel safe again, you know.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
So that's that's what I've been working.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
One of the things she's doing is learning self defense
principles and pistol training.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Beautiful.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
And I've never been in favor of a gun control
for black folks. I think all black folks should have
a firearms.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
I agree with you. I'm two a all day.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yes, I believe owning a firearm in this country as
a black person is a former self.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
Care absolutely, because look, we don't know what's gonna happen
if Donald Trump gets elected, and revolution is something that
we've never had to talk about before, but others are
talking about it. And so when you hear enough of
that talk, you got to be ready.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
You forget even to forget Trump. Just look at what
April goes through. I got four daughters, you know what
I mean. I want them to know how to handle
a firearm and be licensed to carry it because of
situations like that.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Absolutely, I would definitely encourage every young woman to take
their safety very seriously. Whether you're nervous, whether you've never
had any experience, you know, seek professional advice, seek professional
classes to gain that confidence, learn your laws and how
(10:19):
to safely operate, you know, self defense weapons because you
never know, like never in a million years what I
had ever thought that I would wake up to something
like this, And I just thank God that my daughter
wasn't there, and it is, you know, the the fear
(10:41):
moving forward is very, very traumatizing. You know, there's points
where I wake my daughter up from her room and
have her come sleep with me because I'm nervous that
something could happen because of what happened.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
She's three.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I want to recommend my good sister, Robin Evans. She
has an organization called Chicks with Triggers, and everything you just.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Said is what she teaches. She teaches self defense.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
With firearms, knives, She teaches you the laws of the
state that you live in, all of that. So anybody
out there, if you're listening, look up Robin Evans, Chicks
with Triggers and to learn how to properly defend yourself.
If you got the four four four the angel numbers
on your neck, did you have that before this incident?
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Yes? Wow?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (11:29):
You know that means you are completely surrounded by angels.
You're being guided through whatever you are focusing on. So
when you was going through this experience, was that on
your mind?
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (11:39):
I was praying the whole time. Wow, the whole time.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
I did not stop praying.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
You know, I couldn't even cry because I was so
focused on praying because I truly believe that God has
the final say so, so I was just you know,
thinking of how how can I get out this situation
(12:08):
if the opportunity presents itself, and you know, just praying.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Thinking that.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
What was going on when I was thinking that, as
far as what.
Speaker 6 (12:24):
What made you get to go out the window like that?
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (12:30):
He thought I was dead?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah, like I you know, he had drug me across
to the other side of the room. I appeared unconscious,
but I wasn't, and I was very weak, and I
knew at that point, you know, that he was going
to set the room on fire, So I just waited.
(12:52):
He had removed the handcuffs from me, and I had
just waited for the fire to be lit. And I say,
once he runs out of this room, I'm getting out
this window. And I'm only five foot two. The window
was at least six.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Foot you know.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
I had to climb on top of things to try
to open the window, to then pull myself out of
the window while on fire, while my throat is slit.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
And that's only God.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
She went.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
She went from what she told me was literally living
her best life to being in shock trauma with terrible
burns and terrible scars, both internally and externally. And I
just can't say it.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
To you enough.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
How in all we are of your strength and your courage.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Who was the first person to come to your ad April, Like,
once you got out.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
The window, do you remember, I don't one hundred percent remember.
I just remember remember I was just in so much shock.
Like there it felt like everybody was just staring at
me for a minute, which I I wouldn't completely disagree with.
I mean, you know, this man had stripped me naked
(14:16):
prior to you know, all of this happening. So I'm
on fire, you know, throat slit and naked, screaming for help.
Speaker 7 (14:27):
I don't I'm still not staring at you. Obviously you're
in agony, you're in pain. I'm calling I'm trying to
get like because that was the part of the story
that kind of pissed me off. I'm a I'm a
very emotional person, and I'm like, why is like people
just why are people just.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Staring like you know or.
Speaker 7 (14:47):
I don't know if you can, do you remember like
anybody recording you or something?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
No, but I do remember there was a lady that
ran over she ran through everybody a town.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Yeah, and she had.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Tried to cover me up, but my skin felt like
it was falling off, like and you know at that point,
it was everything else was just blurry, you know, it.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Just Yeah, it was blank.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
You know, I did it.
Speaker 7 (15:25):
How did y'all find her? How did y'all get Bill
and Malcolm? How did y'all get in touch with her?
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Interestingly enough, April's mother, I had actually represented her years ago,
and so after they talked and kind of went over
you know what the sequence of events had happened, and
you know, them thinking about how justice could be achieved
in this case, she she called me up and we
(15:53):
went from there. We just and so we've gotten to
know each other since I guess October of last year,
after that connection was made. But I think it was
meant for us to be involved because, as you know
our history in Baltimore, this is what we do. We
stand up for people that are being wrong, catastrophically injured
(16:14):
and have it their civil rights violated. And in a way,
this is a combination of all those things, not necessarily
civil rights being violated by the government, but the rights
that you had as a tenant being violated by the
folks that you trusted to at least reasonably do what
they were supposed to do to keep you safe. And
that's why we've brought the lawsuit that we have on
(16:36):
behalf of April, because there has to be recovery. There
has to be compensation for what she went through and
the failures that happened that led to such a heinous result.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
What is the apartment complex defense?
Speaker 5 (16:49):
What are they saying, Well, it would be inappropriate for
us to talk about their defenses. At this point. We're
at the very early stages of litigation. We recently filed
a lawsuit. We're just in the opening stages of you know,
exchanging information and determining the nature of all the relationships. So,
you know, we don't want to to you know, muddy that. Well,
(17:14):
we're going to deal with the litigation as it comes,
and as we you know, do in our natural course
of business. We'll be continuing our investigation and asking the
tough questions of her landlords and their agreement not only
between the property manager and the actual property owner, but
with this gentleman, mister Billingsley, and what exactly his employment
(17:36):
relationship was with them, and how much they paid him,
why they gave him access to the common areas of
her home, and how they would allow something like this
to happen when they knew or should have known. And
that's the standard under the law is that this man
was completely untrustworthy and should never have been placed in
(17:58):
an opportunity to do this to her.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
It's just scary because you think about the people that you,
you know, letting your house on a regular basis, whether
it's a plumber or electrician, you know, anybody, h fact,
person cleaner.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
It's like, you don't you really don't know the.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Background is some of these individuals and what they're capable of.
So it's just scared to think about.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
But that's the thing you have. You have the duty
right if you're a business owner, right that you have
a great responsibility because you have the great chance of garnering,
you know, a lot of profit, notoriety, and so with
with with great trust comes great responsibility. We just finished
a trial in the Baltimore City Circuit Court dealing with
(18:40):
a security company that didn't properly vet a security guard
who ultimately shot our client and killed him by shooting
him in the mouth over an argument about a bathroom
in a convenience store. Right, and her background was such
that if they had actually just looked at a free database,
they would have seen that she was not somebody that
should have been trusted to be an armed security guard.
Speaker 6 (19:01):
This is this is leaving out that he got a
four point one million dollar verdict yesterday.
Speaker 5 (19:08):
Good we did, we did arising start. But that case
is very similar to what happened April.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Right.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
We're talking about the duty of care, the duty that
a property owner has to the people that they are
taking money from on a monthly basis to make a profit.
They at least have to make the reasonable steps to
keep those people safe based on, you know, something that's
that's reasonable and not something that's you know, overzealous or
too expensive. It would have been perfectly reasonable for them
(19:38):
to put his name into that database, which is called
Maryland Judiciary Case Search, and to find out exactly what
his record was. And if they did do that and
they still put him in this position, it's even that
much more heinous that they would have permitted him to
be in that position and.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Not let their tenants know. And you know, April, I
hope you get all the money in the world. More importantly,
I'm sad that this ever happened.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
But how did it?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
How did it impact your relationship with God? Being that
you was already such a God fearing person, Like what
did you do.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
For your faith?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
You know, I honestly believe that God does allow certain
things in our lives to happen just to test that
relationship with him. You know, if you read the Bible,
the Book of Job and things like that talk about
you know, how he lost everything but he still trusted
(20:32):
in God. If anything, had strengthened my relationship with him,
because he kept me in a situation where I shouldn't
be here right now, but I am through you know,
through God's mercy. He's seen more for me in my
life moving forward with having my daughter, you know, and
(20:56):
being the age that I am, in the spirit that
I have. You know, I would never I would never
wish this on anyone. Yeah, you know, when I heard
about Pava passing, I remember I was still in the
hospital and I remember, you know, begging, begging them to
(21:18):
find him and to make sure that this never happened
to someone else, you know.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
And I.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Always would think, like, why did this happen to me?
But you know, I pray about it, and I pray
about it, and that's what I get from it, is
that God, you know, he kept me to be able
to speak on you know, what happened to be able
to help identify the person who did this to be
able to, you know, be motivation for those who might
(21:48):
not have a relationship with God or might be thinking
that this is the end for them. You know, as
cliche as it sounds, it does get better. You know,
there is light at the end of the tunnel, you know,
and everything that we go through is not meant.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
To break us.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
So it is is definitely mind over matter, and it's
definitely strengthened my relationship with God.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
A lot question for Makama building. You know, I'm getting
slow in my old age. So after this man did
this in April, he didn't go to jail.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
He was still in the green Oh no, he's in jail. No,
I know, even jail Autter he did it that April.
Oh yeah, no, that he escaped.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
That was the reason why he sat the place on fire, right,
But that was not not only to try and I
guess get rid of evidence, right them number one, he
tried to kill them, right, He tried to get rid
of any evidence that was in that room, but it
also created the diversion he needed to get out there.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
So three days later, yes, he.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
Was at the door of Pavlo La Pair's apartment building
and somehow managed to get her alone and he sexually,
allegedly secondly assaulted her and killed her as well.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Yeah, that was exactly where I was about to go.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
Sometimes we have the same mind, and Jess, you were
I think you were kind of mentioning it earlier. But
the one of the more tragic parts of this whole
situation is that, as you know, being from Baltimore, we
have the term the black butterfly and the white l
in Baltimore City, and so it basically the white l.
(23:26):
So in Baltimore the map you can tell that the
concentration of folks that are more you know, of the
majority culture live right down the center and to the
east of downtown Baltimore, and then the rest is the
black butterfly that that kind of expands out of the
shape of the city. And so where April was was
(23:48):
a part of the black butterfly. When the police found
out what had happened to her, you would think that
they would have put an apb out and said there
is a cycle killer on the loop. Instead, what they
said was this is an arson incident.
Speaker 6 (24:07):
Knowing that it was much worse than that. Not an accident,
just a.
Speaker 8 (24:12):
Lot, two people kidnapped, tentphed, murder, tortured sexually, as tried
to burn them to death, and the police reported it
as an arson.
Speaker 5 (24:23):
Now three days three days later, literally points seven miles
away from April's apartment. But in the white l MLK,
an incident happens to a white woman, and that could
have been prevented if there was this APB and the
(24:45):
people of these neighborhoods knew exactly what was going on
and what the risk was out there and the threat
that was out there. And eventually, once after Pava's incident occurred,
I mean, they were all kinds of law enforcement officials
looking for him, and they ultimately found him at a
t brain station, and that the response was great because
they knew, everyone knew how serious the threat was. But
(25:07):
why wouldn't the police make it very clear what kind
of threat was out there when it happened to somebody,
a young black woman in the black butterfly as opposed
to a young white woman in the white l It's
just a question of equity that we talk about, right.
It has nothing to do with the lawsuit. And I'll
readily say that we have known we're not looking at
(25:29):
going after the Baltimore City Police Department in this case.
But it's something that needs to be addressed. It's something
that needs to be talked about, because there's no reason
why her incident would have been treated differently other than
than obvious.
Speaker 6 (25:44):
And that's why we're unapologetically a black firm aimed at
helping black people to rise up above and beyond our
oppression and most importantly, our oppression state of mind. And
if white folks were doing what they were supposed to
do to undo what their forefathers have have done and
(26:06):
undo what they continue to do, that would not be
a necessary attitude. There would be a partnership. But because uh,
there has never been an adequate partnership between whites and
blacks across the board to eliminate racism, we're gonna be
stuck with it for a long time.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
And because of that lack of partnership, that's why, you know,
what happened to April, something even worse happened to you know.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
And see if you if you don't have that separatist
statement where you don't read the raise the red flag
for her, it's gonna spill over into the white community.
It's gonna it's gonna hurt whites, maybe, as in this case,
worse than.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
It hurt Martin King.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Jenior said it the best injustice anywhere, a threat to justice.
Speaker 6 (26:57):
That's exactly right. And we're still stuck in the mud
of not getting enough support to overcoming.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
How did this How did this impact your relationship with jon.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
H I'd rather not comment on that.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Gotcha?
Speaker 9 (27:20):
Ye?
Speaker 7 (27:21):
What about your parents? They I know they're kind of
scared to let you out there. It's like, you know,
you're you're grown, but I know it's like because I
now remember, you know, you mentioned your dad, you know.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
And I know he was furious.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah that's baby girl.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Yeah, my my dad.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Definitely, I feel like, uh, you know, he reacted as
as any loving, caring father wood. You know, he has
four other children, you know, and I'm the oldest of
his kids, and so it definitely hit him a lot different.
And you know he's he's a tough guy, you know,
(28:06):
but I could tell that it hurt him, you know,
very very deeply, very protective, you know, needing to know
what's going on, where I'm at, who I'm with, you know,
like I'm fifteen again, but you know, I'm thankful that
I do have him, you know, to be there.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
My mother, oh my gosh, and she.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Lives all the way in Texas, so it's you know,
the constant phone calls. If I don't answer the first
or second time, she's texting everybody, Hey, have you heard
from April? You know, because she's assuming that something might
have happened again, you know, and she's so far away.
Speaker 7 (28:51):
Like you said, she's right, it happened. I mean, she
have to get on the plane and she would like
it takes time.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yes, yes, so you know, but it is a little
frustrating sometimes. But you know, I'm a mother as well,
so I think about it. Like I said, you know,
I wake my daughter up in the middle of the
night to come sleep with.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Me because.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
I couldn't imagine ever feeling what my mom had to
feel when I went through this, you know. So I'm
just I'm thankful that they have been hearing from me
and that they continue to be here for me. And
I'm just thankful for all the support that I'm getting
(29:37):
for everybody, because you know, it does help motivate me
to keep going.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Yeah, one thing I learned in therapy was that I
always said my father raised me out of fear as
opposed to love. He just simply didn't want me to
make the same mistakes that he made. I agree, like
that's what I'm trying not to do my daughters.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
But it's hard, right because of the world we live.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Right with what you've been through, the traumatic experience you've
been through, how are you raising your daughter with love
and not fear.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
It's it's interesting because, I mean, she's three years old,
so you know, she's she wants to explore, she wants
to learn, she wants to, you know, run off. She's
very social. We could be at the store and she
wants to run up to strangers and say, hey, can
I can I say hi to this person? And I
have to explain to her that, you know, it's okay
(30:32):
to be polite, but we don't know them, you know.
So I try to explain to her and the best
way that I can for her to see both sides. Yes,
you can say hello, but you need to stay next
to mommy.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
You can't, you know.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
So things like that is where I kind of try
to just help her understand those boundaries so that she
is aware of what's going on around her because.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
She is so young, you know, so innocent, and.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Like I said, you know, it just goes back to
I could never imagine, you know, being in my mother's position,
And I know I'm not God. I can't control the
world and the people in it, but I want to
do my best, like you said, to not teach her
and fear, but for her to understand. You know that
(31:26):
everyone is not a good person. You know, everybody is
not looking out for your best interests. Some people are evil,
some people want what you have. Some people are just
out of their mind and you know, react to the
first person that they see. So, you know, hopefully as
(31:47):
time goes on, you know, I'll be able to continue,
you know, just teaching her with love and understanding and
kindness and helping her set those boundaries, you know, moving
forward for herself, because I would never want something like
this to happen to my own child, let alone anyone else.
(32:09):
Hold you I'm twenty five, yes, damn ye.
Speaker 6 (32:13):
See this raised a very interesting question about trauma because
we now know that there's such a thing as epigenetics. Absolutely,
epigenetics is a mechanism in the human body that transfers
trauma from the generation where it was inflicted. To the
(32:35):
next general. And that accounts for a whole lot of
our behavior. It accounts for why our attitudes about slavery
and segregation still persist, because that trauma passes down through
body mechanisms that we are understanding for the first time.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Now, all off from Baltimore, Sir.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Yeah, I grew up in Baltimore City, but I went
to school in and around the county.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
So right around the corner, Yeah, right around the corner.
Yet it comes out one guy. I try. I try
to minimize it a little bit because you know, she
won't get made fun of like I do every day
up there. Yeah, you know, it's a time and place.
(33:28):
It's a time and place.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
It's two o'clock a night, A good time.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
Two o'clock, two o'clock.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Were talking about I love the accident.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
I don't hear it.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
You want somebody and he wanted me to come.
Speaker 9 (33:45):
On here, right, I want to like yeah, because they
say dog like nobody got.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
This sounds like it's an easy case to win billion, Malcolm,
But what are some of the obstacles y'all have encountered
since taking on the lawsuits?
Speaker 6 (34:05):
Well, whether or not, First of all, the man has
assets or insurance to pay the damages that will be
humongous in this case from what we know preliminarily the
property are on whose name I will not mention has
perhaps modest wealth and unknown insurance because we haven't been
(34:29):
able to pin that down yet, and so we are
praying for her sake that there is a mechanism to
collect the tremendous damages that any driven would impose in.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
This Absolutely absolutely, I'm sorry it's happened to you.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
I'm not It was a pleasure to have this conversation
with you, but I'm sorry that we have to have
this conversation, right.
Speaker 5 (34:53):
It's terrible, man like I think one of the things
I think about with her is this man bent her soul.
But he didn't. He didn't break it, didn't break it,
he didn't break it. And that's just the testament of her.
But even somebody's soul being bent, that that's morbid, right,
and it needs to be corrected. And so that's why
we're here. That that's exactly why she's here and being
(35:16):
the strong woman that she is despite the circumstances, because
she's she's got a game back with the with the
what the evil took from her, but the devil took
from her, We're gonna claim from victory.
Speaker 6 (35:30):
Yeah true, evil in its deepest, deepest Yeah true.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Is my final question everyone, do you want people to
ultimately take away from your situation?
Speaker 1 (35:39):
What you want them to learn from this?
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Like I said, you know, anything can happen to anyone,
So I definitely want people to be smart and the
decisions that they're making. And especially you know, when you
think you're safe, you know, it doesn't hurt to go
and and double check it doesn't hurt you. As for identification,
(36:04):
you know, sometimes the people that we think are supposed
to be doing these things are not or may not
have done it correctly or to the extent that we
would have. So take your safety seriously, you know, and
trusting God. You know, that's that's my number one thing,
(36:25):
Trusting God. No matter what you go through, celebrate the
wins and the losses.
Speaker 7 (36:38):
You both watching it, I was, I'm like, this is
where I'm from when it is happening, you know, Like
you raised the point about the black butterfly in the.
Speaker 4 (36:47):
White hel that's bullshit.
Speaker 7 (36:50):
Like I just I can't stand how we are you know,
how the butterfly is labeled you know, like it's it's
things that people that live in a black butterfly not
that important. Things that they go through are not that important,
you know. So I just I'm happy that I did
see your story. Shout out to trapping Anonymous Christal. Yeah,
he was amazing. I was like, can I get a
(37:14):
contact on her and all that? And I thought he
was gonna be like no, because you know, once you
go through something like that, you don't want to talk
to everybody, right, I don't care how big your platform
is or whatever. You don't want to relive it by
even speaking on it, you know. But I was happy
that he did tell me, well, she has attorneys, and
she was like, damn, that is so good.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
That was so good. So I love you too. Thank
you for reaching out.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
I heard it. If I told you, you heard it.
They're call to action. Is there something we could do that,
there's something to people be calling the number?
Speaker 5 (37:51):
I don't I don't know for your firm, Well, yeah, absolutely,
we're Our firm is called Murphy, Falcon and Murphy. We
have our senior founding partner, Billy.
Speaker 4 (38:03):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (38:03):
Absolutely, we're the oldest black firm in the United States.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
It's like fourth generation.
Speaker 6 (38:07):
Yes, yes, my son is an attorney as well.
Speaker 5 (38:11):
Amazing and so we were just Murphyfalcon dot com. Murphy
like m u r p h y Falcon like the bird.
You can actually find me on i G. I'm brother
with the A Underscore Malcolm E.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
S Q.
Speaker 5 (38:27):
And we certainly want want people to send best wishes
to April as we go through this legal journey to
keep UH putting attention on this. And I also want
to just add my last comment and advice to folks
would be along the lines of what.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
April said, Ask all the questions.
Speaker 5 (38:47):
You got to be your biggest advocate, especially if you're
in a relationship with a landlord or somebody that has
control over your housing space, to ask them. I want
to know who's all in your staff. I want to
know their background. I want to know how you what
kind of access you're giving them, because that is the
way that you can, you know, really protect yourself and
(39:08):
not have to rely on the landlord doing their job, which.
Speaker 6 (39:16):
Everybody everybody should put in their budget home security system
and stop relying on other people to ensure your safety.
You are your best protector and you need to make
sure that every tool in the technological toolbox that you
can afford, you implement so that your space is protected
(39:38):
and so that when you're away you can see what
is going on in your space. When you're at work,
you can see what's going on in your space. So
you got to do that too.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
You at that Landlord top not Security.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Do you have Instagram?
Speaker 4 (39:53):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (39:53):
I do.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
At at Big Term AP.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
At Big Time AP Go to April's Instagram and just
show us some love, man.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
I appreciate it. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
For in the comments.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Man, just let her know that you see her and
you hear her story and you're just sending her positive
energy and healing energy.
Speaker 6 (40:13):
Thank you for that. If anything happens to you out there,
you know how to reach us. Absolutely, Murphy Falcon and
Murphy Billy Murphy. Now from Ruth, who is, by the way,
my favorite student.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
He soaks it up like a sponge. Thank you for coming, April, Malcolm.
Thank you for having me wake that ass up in
the morning. The Breakfast Club
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