August 31, 2026 • 17 mins
Willie talks with Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders about the new ways Kentucky is catching child predators, and what Cincinnati can do to better protect their children.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today billy cunningham the great america welcome this monday afternoon
the tri-state getting ready for reds baseball again the reds are.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
On a streak more or less like in april in
which they seemingly can't lose to the cubs for example
last night was wonderful and to have Jeff Brantley and
Joey Votto do the national broadcast. I wonder if we
appreciate the greatness of the commentators on 700 WLW.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
But nonetheless, kickoff tonight, I think the Padres are in
town with my favorite pronounced ballplayer of all time is
Fernando Tatis. Fernando Tatis is in town. And joining you
and I now is Rob Sanders on the south side
of the river, Kenton County Prosecutor. And Rob Sanders, welcome
again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And first of all,
are you getting ready for the 50th commemoration of the
(00:53):
fireworks display on the Ohio River sponsored by Western and Southern,
the WEBN fireworks? Where were you 50 years ago when
this began?
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Willie, good question. You'd have to ask my parents.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
I'm sure that I probably was not down at the
fireworks then. But hey, we've got to make this interview
quick today because I'm still expecting a call from the
Bengals saying they want to sign.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Me to the practice squad today. It's a big day
in Cincinnati.
Speaker 5 (01:19):
But yes, I am getting ready for the fireworks. I
was still excited to hear Joey Votto last night. I
think that was one of the best-called Reds games in
a long time. Not to scare anybody at the big
one or maybe over at Channel 5, but I think
he's definitely got a career there if he ever wants it.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Bring Joey back to Cincinnati. He's a pretty entertaining dude.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
And Jeff Brantley did the national broadcast, and he was
on ESPN for a few years, came to Cincinnati, and
the commentators about Jeff Brantley are saying, where's this guy
been the past 20 years?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Hell, he's been in Cincinnati. That's where he's been, and
nobody knows he's here.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
They're doing it the whole time just on the radio.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, it's like Mark Twain said, when the world ends,
I want to be in Cincinnati. They won't find out
for 10 years. So I'm thinking, you know, we're here now,
but a couple issues are rising. One is the predator
hunters problem. which are like vigilantes of sorts, individuals who
seek out perverts, generally men, of course, who are trying
to have sex with children. And they came to Covington
(02:16):
about a week ago. Tell me what are predators, Hunter?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
What is that?
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Willie, we've got to go easy on the word vigilante there.
That kind of draws a bad connotation to it that
the predator hunters aren't very fond of. But I've heard
of groups like this before, but not specifically this group before.
But they are an outfit that runs a YouTube channel
that I guess you just find on YouTube if you
look up predator hunters. But there's a fellow named Alex
(02:42):
Rosen who runs this outfit. And they get information from
people all across the country about pedophiles and child predators
soliciting children online. And that's what happened last week on
August 27th. A lady in West Virginia found that there
was a guy in Cincinnati named Alexander Lopez Portillo who
was text messaging her daughter on an Internet social media
(03:05):
application and called up the predator hunters. Well, they got
their investigators on this case.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
And Mr.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Lopez-Pertillo started text messaging one of their decoys. In other words,
an adult acting as a child online and claiming to
be a child online.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
And this fellow apparently was just up and going.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
Above Cincinnati somewhere and agreed to meet what he thought
was a 13-year-old girl in Covington for the purpose of
illegal sex acts. And when he got there, lo and behold,
he didn't find a 13-year-old girl. He found Alex Rosen,
and T.J. Roberts is one of our state representatives, certainly
not who I would expect to find.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Out in Covington, out and about in the middle.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
Alex Rosen is probably, I guess, about.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
6'3 and 300 pounds. He's a big dude.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
He's certainly not a 13-year-old girl. But they met this
fellow and got it all on videotape. And they turned
it over to the Covington police who obtained a warrant.
But the suspect's arrest, and that fellow, hopefully, if he's
not in jail already, will be in jail really soon
because he managed to travel quite a distance from, I believe,
(04:13):
the Monroe area of Ohio down to Covington to meet
this child for sex acts. We certainly can't have that
going on. We prefer it when the police are the
ones conducting these investigations, but we're certainly not going to
leave a pedophile loose out on the streets. when somebody
who's not a police officer brings us the evidence, we
need to put them in prison. So that's something new
in my career, Willie. I've never had predator poachers come
(04:35):
to town before or any other group conducting these kind
of investigations, but we've got them here now, and we're
working closely with them to make sure that we follow
through and don't have this happening, certainly not in Kenton
County anymore.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Did you say this was a state representative?
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Yeah, T.J.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Roberts is one of our local state representatives, good guys
from Mountain Boone County, does all sorts of different kinds
of law, and he has apparently done some work with
these predator hunters before. So when they were coming to town,
they got in touch with T.J., and he met up with.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Them in the middle of the night. I guess T.J.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
Is one of the few elected officials who works 24
hours a day because he was right there with them
when they had this fellow staked out on Main Street
in Covington.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
So I want to make this clear. T.J.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Roberts is not the pervert. He's helping the predators.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
No, no.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
He is the state representative, and he is working with
the predator hunters as a local assistant, I guess, to
show them around, give them directions. You know, with all
this bridge construction, Willie, it's kind of tougher than it
used to be to get it from Ohio to Kentucky,
which is good when we're trying to keep the criminals out.
But it can be tough when you're working with the predators.
an outfit from outside the area who's trying to figure
(05:50):
out where to pick up this suspect that was messaging
what he thought was little girls.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Secondly, I saw this guilty verdict you had. Of course,
domestic violence is a terrible thing, and you attained a
guilty verdict for a Commonwealth versus Gary Beam.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
B-E-A-M.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Beam me up, Scotty. Gary Beam. Explain what this guy did.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Well, Gary Bean's quite the character. This is a case
that was handled by two of my assistants, Willie Ryan
Oliver and Jordan Sherrod, who did a fantastic job. They
told the jury all about back on December 20th of
2023 when UC Medical Center staff called Covington Police and said,
you guys are going to want to come over here
and see this. We've got this lady who came into
our emergency room, and she's unconscious. She's in really bad shape,
(06:36):
got a lot of really bad injuries, broken bones.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
All up and down her body.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
And her, I guess, significant other, I don't think they're
actually married, a fellow by the name of Gary Beam
is telling us, well, she just fell out of my pickup.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Truck and hit her head.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
Well, she had a lot more injuries than just being
a bump on the head. And Covington police did some investigation,
found out that whatever happened to this lady happened in
the parking lot of the Taco Bell right down.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
In the 4th Street area right near the interstate.
Speaker 5 (07:04):
They got the videotape from the Taco Bell security and
found out Gary Beeman hit her with his pickup truck
and then backed over her after she had been knocked
to the ground by the first time he hit her
with the pickup truck. Then he drove forward and drove
over top of her again. then spent a good six
minutes staging the scene and cleaning up his mess and
pulling his truck back into a parking spot to make
(07:24):
it look like nothing was amiss there. And when he
called 911 and told them his wife needs an ambulance,
and when the ambulance showed up, he gave them this
nonsensical story about falling out of the truck. When they
got her into the hospital, the hospital staff was like, no,
this doesn't make sense. So when we got all the
(07:45):
evidence together, Jordan and Ryan took it to trial. They
got a conviction of Mr.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Beam.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
The jury heard about his criminal history. He was a
persistent felony offender eligible, which means he had at least
two prior felony offenses and really just did a number
on this lady. The really sad part of this story
is she was a cancer patient. and was dying of cancer,
ended up dying of cancer before this case actually went
to the jury.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
So the victim didn't get to testify.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
They had to call her daughter in to tell the
jury about everything that happened in the last months of
this lady's life. But you can imagine how much more
miserable anything can be than dying of cancer. It's having
to try and recover from all these broken bones being
run over by a truck three times while you're dying
of cancer. And sadly, she spent her last Christmas on
earth in the ICU over at UC Medical Center because
(08:36):
of Gary Beam. So he's doing the next 23 years
in prison right where he belongs. And to make it
all the more sweeter for this office, Mr. Beam had
managed to sue myself and the rest of the Commonwealth
Attorney's Office staff, I think two or three times. He's
really keeping our Attorney General's Office busy defending us in
all these frivolous civil suits. But now we got his
(08:57):
criminal case out of the way. He's off to prison
for the next 23 years. I expect all those civil
suits he filed will go away in short order.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Why was he suing the prosecutor? Gary Beam, a persistent felon,
is suing you.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Nonsense related along the lines i don't know that he
was necessarily claiming to be a sovereign citizen but if
anybody's ever heard of sovereign citizens and all the shenanigans
they pull whenever they get in our criminal justice system
it was along those lines claiming that we didn't have
you know we weren't licensed we weren't sworn we didn't
do this we didn't do that we're violating everything it's
(09:31):
just nonsense i guess when you're sitting over in the
kenton county detention center awaiting trial you got nothing better
to do than hand write a bunch of frivolous lawsuits
and file them in the Kenton Circuit Court. But fortunately,
we've got good friends with Attorney General Russell Coleman, his
office that defend us in those cases, and they do
a very good job. So I think at least one
(09:52):
of the cases has already been dismissed, and the other
ones will probably be dismissed in short order. But the
biggest question for me is where in the world did
Gary Beam get enough money? to file these lawsuits but
nevertheless maybe we'll investigate his uh his account out at
the detention center and see where all this money came from.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Well he received like 23 years in state prison in
kentucky is 23 years 23 years or is that like
10 or 11.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
No, it's 85% of 23 years, so that should put
him just shy of 20 years before he's even parole eligible.
So you can look at his picture there, Willie. He's
not exactly a pillar of health. I'll be surprised if
we see much more of Gary Beam on the outside
of the prison walls.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
He may be like Papillon, throwing a bunch of coconuts
in a cove, maybe trying to get off the island.
Other than that, he's going to die in prison staring
at the walls. So that's quite sad. But one thing
that fascinates me, is that I spent time in Boone
County recently with the good sheriff there. And, of course,
Tony Bender controls Boone County Fire Department with an iron grip.
(10:53):
And I'm looking at the massive growth of population in
Boone County, which about 20 years ago they had dirt
roads and outhouses, and now it's like a functional county.
And I imagine that especially the southern part of Kenton
County is the same way. And take Covington. My wife
and I love to travel around. And just check things out.
(11:13):
It is amazing to me how, uh, in the last
30 years, you might recall the city of Cincinnati in 1970.
had more than a half a million people. We're down 40%.
And all the counties around Hamilton County have grown in population,
and they're growing in places like Boone County and Kenton
County and Mason, Ohio, and also going into Indiana, which
(11:34):
is true of almost every major American city. That is,
the core is like a hole of a donut, and
then the rim are doing great work. But I don't
see that like in Covington or Newport. Newport's going to
get a new prosecutor, I guess Campbell County prosecutor. But
in your life and times, have you seen the breaking
out from the city of Cincinnati and Hamilton County to
(11:56):
south of the river because of the quality of life?
Boone County, I think, was unbelievable when I met the sheriff.
He's been out there for a long time. It's amazing,
the growth. Can you comment on that?
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Well, Willie, we're all over the place here. Yes, absolutely.
We're seeing growth over here.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
And the one place that you notice it the most
is really in our voter registration, because Kenton, Boone, Campbell
counties were all, and still are, all Republican-dominated counties in
terms of voter registration. But the Democratic side has actually
caught up pretty quick. And a lot of that's because
of the migration of folks from Ohio, mostly the city
(12:33):
of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, over to northern Kentucky, where
it's a different way of life. You know, we still
enforce the law. We still send criminals to prison. We
want this to be the best place to live, work,
and raise a family. And I think you see that
in the quality of life that we provide and that
our law enforcement provides and that the community that supports
our law enforcement and backs the blue that they provide.
(12:56):
It's a safer way of life. We don't have knock
on wood, Willie. You know, I don't like to jinx myself,
but we don't have all the shootings and killings on
a nightly basis like they do on the north side
of the river. But yeah, without a doubt, that's what's
driving our population growth. You know, they have it in
Boone County. We have it in Kenton County, especially southern
Kenton County. Independence is building houses and selling houses as
(13:17):
fast as they can get them built out there. You know,
even Covington's enjoying population growth after decades of population decline.
You know, housing prices are going up. I guess that's
a good thing or a bad thing, depending on whether
you're trying to buy a house or sell a house.
But Covington's more popular than ever in terms of places
to live. There's, you know, those big fancy condos down
(13:38):
along the river that I've been trying to sell you
and the.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
People's judge for the last few years.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
There's the big houses up on top of the hill
near Dubuque Park overlooking downtown. And there's all sorts of
rural or suburban living out in the south end of
our county as well. Willie, everybody likes it over here
and I can't blame them.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Well, I'm looking at this story, which is, again, sick
and it's sad, about a four-year-old girl who, by the way,
at four o'clock in the morning, no arrests have been
made in the shooting of a four-year-old girl early Sunday
morning in South Cummingsville, that city of Cincinnati. She's in
surgery as we speak. Her grandmother took her to UC
Medical Center at four o'clock in the morning for some reason.
(14:16):
She's outside on the porch playing at 4 a.m. on
Sunday morning, Saturday night. At least six gunshots were fired.
I assume she was in the crossfire. And where's the mom?
Where's the dad? How many four-year-olds are at 4 o'clock
in the morning, a four-year-old girl playing outside at 4
o'clock in the morning? And I'm reading the story, and
(14:38):
I'm thinking, this is so common, it's almost not worthy
of comment. Because it happens all the time where children
are shot or killed from one of the 20,000 bullets
that fly around Cincinnati every year. And to me, it's
just sick about a culture that's in collapse and the
incapability of the system to respond to lousy mothers and
(14:59):
fathers who give their kids to grannies to raise at
4 o'clock in the morning sitting on a porch.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
I have about a minute remaining. Rob Sanders, give me
your comments on that one.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
Well, Willie, it's certainly a sad case all the way around.
I had not heard about that, but never, ever, ever
blame the victim. It doesn't matter what time of day
or night it should be, and I agree with you.
I don't know what a 4-year-old is doing out and
about at 4 a.m., but if there weren't a bunch
of thugs in the hoodlums shooting up the neighborhood, it
wouldn't really matter. You know, the kids over here in
Kenton County, they can play out in their front yard
at 4 a.m., and they're not going to get shot.
(15:31):
Like I said, it's a quality of life that's enjoyed
over here that sadly 4-year-olds– I can't enjoy in every
neighborhood all across our country. There's just some places that
aren't as safe as it is over here. And that's
sad because even though we've got lots of questions about
why little kids would be out and about, they could
be shot at that.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Time of night.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
The bottom line is they shouldn't be shot at any
time of day or night.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
So, no, it's sad.
Speaker 5 (15:57):
Hopefully they'll make an arrest. I know Cincinnati police still
has lots of good people working over there trying to
do their job. Hopefully they'll make a quick arrest in
this case. But that's exactly why I don't read– well,
I should say I only read the Kentucky section of
the newspaper and don't really watch much TV, Willie, because
I can't take any more of the negative– press, the coverage,
(16:18):
you know, all the stories. I deal with enough sad
news on this side of the river to get my fill.
It's really difficult to watch what's going on in the
bigger cities in America, not just Cincinnati, but Louisville, Lexington,
you know, Cleveland, all across the country where the major
metropolitan areas have just been overrun by crime.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Well, Channel 5 is reporting there were several bullet holes
in homes around the scene. And neighbors said she was
just a sweet little girl. She would play in the
street all hours of the day and night. She had
a habit of going up to strangers and saying hi.
I'm thinking, what can go wrong with that? Bullet holes
everywhere at Cincinnati. Once again, Rob Sanders, perhaps I'll see
you at the fireworks this Sunday night. And if not,
(16:58):
I look forward to our dinner there at the Hitching Post.
I was there a week or two ago, and it
was fabulous. But Rob Sanders, thanks for coming on the
Bill Cunningham Show. You're a great American.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Thanks, Willie.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
I look forward to sitting in the Bill Cunningham luxury
box at the fireworks and enjoying the big show.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
But if I don't see you there, if you get busy.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
And I don't see you there, I know that you
and I are both in Tommy Pham's fantasy football league,
and we've got that draft coming up. Hopefully nobody gets
slapped or anything. The draft day is almost here.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
We'll get on it.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
All right, Rob Sanders, thank you. You're a great American.
Thank you, Rob.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Thanks, Willie.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
Take care.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Let's continue.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Four-year-old girl, bullet holes everywhere. It's unbelievable, but let's face it.
It's a common event because of the collapse of urban culture.
Bill Cunningham, NewsRadio 700, WLW.
Today billy cunningham the great america welcome this monday afternoon
the tri-state getting ready for reds baseball again the reds are.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
On a streak more or less like in april in
which they seemingly can't lose to the cubs for example
last night was wonderful and to have Jeff Brantley and
Joey Votto do the national broadcast. I wonder if we
appreciate the greatness of the commentators on 700 WLW.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
But nonetheless, kickoff tonight, I think the Padres are in
town with my favorite pronounced ballplayer of all time is
Fernando Tatis. Fernando Tatis is in town. And joining you
and I now is Rob Sanders on the south side
of the river, Kenton County Prosecutor. And Rob Sanders, welcome
again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And first of all,
are you getting ready for the 50th commemoration of the
(00:53):
fireworks display on the Ohio River sponsored by Western and Southern,
the WEBN fireworks? Where were you 50 years ago when
this began?
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Willie, good question. You'd have to ask my parents.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
I'm sure that I probably was not down at the
fireworks then. But hey, we've got to make this interview
quick today because I'm still expecting a call from the
Bengals saying they want to sign.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Me to the practice squad today. It's a big day
in Cincinnati.
Speaker 5 (01:19):
But yes, I am getting ready for the fireworks. I
was still excited to hear Joey Votto last night. I
think that was one of the best-called Reds games in
a long time. Not to scare anybody at the big
one or maybe over at Channel 5, but I think
he's definitely got a career there if he ever wants it.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Bring Joey back to Cincinnati. He's a pretty entertaining dude.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
And Jeff Brantley did the national broadcast, and he was
on ESPN for a few years, came to Cincinnati, and
the commentators about Jeff Brantley are saying, where's this guy
been the past 20 years?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Hell, he's been in Cincinnati. That's where he's been, and
nobody knows he's here.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
They're doing it the whole time just on the radio.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, it's like Mark Twain said, when the world ends,
I want to be in Cincinnati. They won't find out
for 10 years. So I'm thinking, you know, we're here now,
but a couple issues are rising. One is the predator
hunters problem. which are like vigilantes of sorts, individuals who
seek out perverts, generally men, of course, who are trying
to have sex with children. And they came to Covington
(02:16):
about a week ago. Tell me what are predators, Hunter?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
What is that?
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Willie, we've got to go easy on the word vigilante there.
That kind of draws a bad connotation to it that
the predator hunters aren't very fond of. But I've heard
of groups like this before, but not specifically this group before.
But they are an outfit that runs a YouTube channel
that I guess you just find on YouTube if you
look up predator hunters. But there's a fellow named Alex
(02:42):
Rosen who runs this outfit. And they get information from
people all across the country about pedophiles and child predators
soliciting children online. And that's what happened last week on
August 27th. A lady in West Virginia found that there
was a guy in Cincinnati named Alexander Lopez Portillo who
was text messaging her daughter on an Internet social media
(03:05):
application and called up the predator hunters. Well, they got
their investigators on this case.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
And Mr.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Lopez-Pertillo started text messaging one of their decoys. In other words,
an adult acting as a child online and claiming to
be a child online.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
And this fellow apparently was just up and going.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
Above Cincinnati somewhere and agreed to meet what he thought
was a 13-year-old girl in Covington for the purpose of
illegal sex acts. And when he got there, lo and behold,
he didn't find a 13-year-old girl. He found Alex Rosen,
and T.J. Roberts is one of our state representatives, certainly
not who I would expect to find.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Out in Covington, out and about in the middle.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
Alex Rosen is probably, I guess, about.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
6'3 and 300 pounds. He's a big dude.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
He's certainly not a 13-year-old girl. But they met this
fellow and got it all on videotape. And they turned
it over to the Covington police who obtained a warrant.
But the suspect's arrest, and that fellow, hopefully, if he's
not in jail already, will be in jail really soon
because he managed to travel quite a distance from, I believe,
(04:13):
the Monroe area of Ohio down to Covington to meet
this child for sex acts. We certainly can't have that
going on. We prefer it when the police are the
ones conducting these investigations, but we're certainly not going to
leave a pedophile loose out on the streets. when somebody
who's not a police officer brings us the evidence, we
need to put them in prison. So that's something new
in my career, Willie. I've never had predator poachers come
(04:35):
to town before or any other group conducting these kind
of investigations, but we've got them here now, and we're
working closely with them to make sure that we follow
through and don't have this happening, certainly not in Kenton
County anymore.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Did you say this was a state representative?
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Yeah, T.J.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Roberts is one of our local state representatives, good guys
from Mountain Boone County, does all sorts of different kinds
of law, and he has apparently done some work with
these predator hunters before. So when they were coming to town,
they got in touch with T.J., and he met up with.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Them in the middle of the night. I guess T.J.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
Is one of the few elected officials who works 24
hours a day because he was right there with them
when they had this fellow staked out on Main Street
in Covington.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
So I want to make this clear. T.J.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Roberts is not the pervert. He's helping the predators.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
No, no.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
He is the state representative, and he is working with
the predator hunters as a local assistant, I guess, to
show them around, give them directions. You know, with all
this bridge construction, Willie, it's kind of tougher than it
used to be to get it from Ohio to Kentucky,
which is good when we're trying to keep the criminals out.
But it can be tough when you're working with the predators.
an outfit from outside the area who's trying to figure
(05:50):
out where to pick up this suspect that was messaging
what he thought was little girls.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Secondly, I saw this guilty verdict you had. Of course,
domestic violence is a terrible thing, and you attained a
guilty verdict for a Commonwealth versus Gary Beam.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
B-E-A-M.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Beam me up, Scotty. Gary Beam. Explain what this guy did.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Well, Gary Bean's quite the character. This is a case
that was handled by two of my assistants, Willie Ryan
Oliver and Jordan Sherrod, who did a fantastic job. They
told the jury all about back on December 20th of
2023 when UC Medical Center staff called Covington Police and said,
you guys are going to want to come over here
and see this. We've got this lady who came into
our emergency room, and she's unconscious. She's in really bad shape,
(06:36):
got a lot of really bad injuries, broken bones.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
All up and down her body.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
And her, I guess, significant other, I don't think they're
actually married, a fellow by the name of Gary Beam
is telling us, well, she just fell out of my pickup.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Truck and hit her head.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
Well, she had a lot more injuries than just being
a bump on the head. And Covington police did some investigation,
found out that whatever happened to this lady happened in
the parking lot of the Taco Bell right down.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
In the 4th Street area right near the interstate.
Speaker 5 (07:04):
They got the videotape from the Taco Bell security and
found out Gary Beeman hit her with his pickup truck
and then backed over her after she had been knocked
to the ground by the first time he hit her
with the pickup truck. Then he drove forward and drove
over top of her again. then spent a good six
minutes staging the scene and cleaning up his mess and
pulling his truck back into a parking spot to make
(07:24):
it look like nothing was amiss there. And when he
called 911 and told them his wife needs an ambulance,
and when the ambulance showed up, he gave them this
nonsensical story about falling out of the truck. When they
got her into the hospital, the hospital staff was like, no,
this doesn't make sense. So when we got all the
(07:45):
evidence together, Jordan and Ryan took it to trial. They
got a conviction of Mr.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Beam.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
The jury heard about his criminal history. He was a
persistent felony offender eligible, which means he had at least
two prior felony offenses and really just did a number
on this lady. The really sad part of this story
is she was a cancer patient. and was dying of cancer,
ended up dying of cancer before this case actually went
to the jury.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
So the victim didn't get to testify.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
They had to call her daughter in to tell the
jury about everything that happened in the last months of
this lady's life. But you can imagine how much more
miserable anything can be than dying of cancer. It's having
to try and recover from all these broken bones being
run over by a truck three times while you're dying
of cancer. And sadly, she spent her last Christmas on
earth in the ICU over at UC Medical Center because
(08:36):
of Gary Beam. So he's doing the next 23 years
in prison right where he belongs. And to make it
all the more sweeter for this office, Mr. Beam had
managed to sue myself and the rest of the Commonwealth
Attorney's Office staff, I think two or three times. He's
really keeping our Attorney General's Office busy defending us in
all these frivolous civil suits. But now we got his
(08:57):
criminal case out of the way. He's off to prison
for the next 23 years. I expect all those civil
suits he filed will go away in short order.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Why was he suing the prosecutor? Gary Beam, a persistent felon,
is suing you.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Nonsense related along the lines i don't know that he
was necessarily claiming to be a sovereign citizen but if
anybody's ever heard of sovereign citizens and all the shenanigans
they pull whenever they get in our criminal justice system
it was along those lines claiming that we didn't have
you know we weren't licensed we weren't sworn we didn't
do this we didn't do that we're violating everything it's
(09:31):
just nonsense i guess when you're sitting over in the
kenton county detention center awaiting trial you got nothing better
to do than hand write a bunch of frivolous lawsuits
and file them in the Kenton Circuit Court. But fortunately,
we've got good friends with Attorney General Russell Coleman, his
office that defend us in those cases, and they do
a very good job. So I think at least one
(09:52):
of the cases has already been dismissed, and the other
ones will probably be dismissed in short order. But the
biggest question for me is where in the world did
Gary Beam get enough money? to file these lawsuits but
nevertheless maybe we'll investigate his uh his account out at
the detention center and see where all this money came from.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Well he received like 23 years in state prison in
kentucky is 23 years 23 years or is that like
10 or 11.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
No, it's 85% of 23 years, so that should put
him just shy of 20 years before he's even parole eligible.
So you can look at his picture there, Willie. He's
not exactly a pillar of health. I'll be surprised if
we see much more of Gary Beam on the outside
of the prison walls.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
He may be like Papillon, throwing a bunch of coconuts
in a cove, maybe trying to get off the island.
Other than that, he's going to die in prison staring
at the walls. So that's quite sad. But one thing
that fascinates me, is that I spent time in Boone
County recently with the good sheriff there. And, of course,
Tony Bender controls Boone County Fire Department with an iron grip.
(10:53):
And I'm looking at the massive growth of population in
Boone County, which about 20 years ago they had dirt
roads and outhouses, and now it's like a functional county.
And I imagine that especially the southern part of Kenton
County is the same way. And take Covington. My wife
and I love to travel around. And just check things out.
(11:13):
It is amazing to me how, uh, in the last
30 years, you might recall the city of Cincinnati in 1970.
had more than a half a million people. We're down 40%.
And all the counties around Hamilton County have grown in population,
and they're growing in places like Boone County and Kenton
County and Mason, Ohio, and also going into Indiana, which
(11:34):
is true of almost every major American city. That is,
the core is like a hole of a donut, and
then the rim are doing great work. But I don't
see that like in Covington or Newport. Newport's going to
get a new prosecutor, I guess Campbell County prosecutor. But
in your life and times, have you seen the breaking
out from the city of Cincinnati and Hamilton County to
(11:56):
south of the river because of the quality of life?
Boone County, I think, was unbelievable when I met the sheriff.
He's been out there for a long time. It's amazing,
the growth. Can you comment on that?
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Well, Willie, we're all over the place here. Yes, absolutely.
We're seeing growth over here.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
And the one place that you notice it the most
is really in our voter registration, because Kenton, Boone, Campbell
counties were all, and still are, all Republican-dominated counties in
terms of voter registration. But the Democratic side has actually
caught up pretty quick. And a lot of that's because
of the migration of folks from Ohio, mostly the city
(12:33):
of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, over to northern Kentucky, where
it's a different way of life. You know, we still
enforce the law. We still send criminals to prison. We
want this to be the best place to live, work,
and raise a family. And I think you see that
in the quality of life that we provide and that
our law enforcement provides and that the community that supports
our law enforcement and backs the blue that they provide.
(12:56):
It's a safer way of life. We don't have knock
on wood, Willie. You know, I don't like to jinx myself,
but we don't have all the shootings and killings on
a nightly basis like they do on the north side
of the river. But yeah, without a doubt, that's what's
driving our population growth. You know, they have it in
Boone County. We have it in Kenton County, especially southern
Kenton County. Independence is building houses and selling houses as
(13:17):
fast as they can get them built out there. You know,
even Covington's enjoying population growth after decades of population decline.
You know, housing prices are going up. I guess that's
a good thing or a bad thing, depending on whether
you're trying to buy a house or sell a house.
But Covington's more popular than ever in terms of places
to live. There's, you know, those big fancy condos down
(13:38):
along the river that I've been trying to sell you
and the.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
People's judge for the last few years.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
There's the big houses up on top of the hill
near Dubuque Park overlooking downtown. And there's all sorts of
rural or suburban living out in the south end of
our county as well. Willie, everybody likes it over here
and I can't blame them.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Well, I'm looking at this story, which is, again, sick
and it's sad, about a four-year-old girl who, by the way,
at four o'clock in the morning, no arrests have been
made in the shooting of a four-year-old girl early Sunday
morning in South Cummingsville, that city of Cincinnati. She's in
surgery as we speak. Her grandmother took her to UC
Medical Center at four o'clock in the morning for some reason.
(14:16):
She's outside on the porch playing at 4 a.m. on
Sunday morning, Saturday night. At least six gunshots were fired.
I assume she was in the crossfire. And where's the mom?
Where's the dad? How many four-year-olds are at 4 o'clock
in the morning, a four-year-old girl playing outside at 4
o'clock in the morning? And I'm reading the story, and
(14:38):
I'm thinking, this is so common, it's almost not worthy
of comment. Because it happens all the time where children
are shot or killed from one of the 20,000 bullets
that fly around Cincinnati every year. And to me, it's
just sick about a culture that's in collapse and the
incapability of the system to respond to lousy mothers and
(14:59):
fathers who give their kids to grannies to raise at
4 o'clock in the morning sitting on a porch.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
I have about a minute remaining. Rob Sanders, give me
your comments on that one.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
Well, Willie, it's certainly a sad case all the way around.
I had not heard about that, but never, ever, ever
blame the victim. It doesn't matter what time of day
or night it should be, and I agree with you.
I don't know what a 4-year-old is doing out and
about at 4 a.m., but if there weren't a bunch
of thugs in the hoodlums shooting up the neighborhood, it
wouldn't really matter. You know, the kids over here in
Kenton County, they can play out in their front yard
at 4 a.m., and they're not going to get shot.
(15:31):
Like I said, it's a quality of life that's enjoyed
over here that sadly 4-year-olds– I can't enjoy in every
neighborhood all across our country. There's just some places that
aren't as safe as it is over here. And that's
sad because even though we've got lots of questions about
why little kids would be out and about, they could
be shot at that.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Time of night.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
The bottom line is they shouldn't be shot at any
time of day or night.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
So, no, it's sad.
Speaker 5 (15:57):
Hopefully they'll make an arrest. I know Cincinnati police still
has lots of good people working over there trying to
do their job. Hopefully they'll make a quick arrest in
this case. But that's exactly why I don't read– well,
I should say I only read the Kentucky section of
the newspaper and don't really watch much TV, Willie, because
I can't take any more of the negative– press, the coverage,
(16:18):
you know, all the stories. I deal with enough sad
news on this side of the river to get my fill.
It's really difficult to watch what's going on in the
bigger cities in America, not just Cincinnati, but Louisville, Lexington,
you know, Cleveland, all across the country where the major
metropolitan areas have just been overrun by crime.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Well, Channel 5 is reporting there were several bullet holes
in homes around the scene. And neighbors said she was
just a sweet little girl. She would play in the
street all hours of the day and night. She had
a habit of going up to strangers and saying hi.
I'm thinking, what can go wrong with that? Bullet holes
everywhere at Cincinnati. Once again, Rob Sanders, perhaps I'll see
you at the fireworks this Sunday night. And if not,
(16:58):
I look forward to our dinner there at the Hitching Post.
I was there a week or two ago, and it
was fabulous. But Rob Sanders, thanks for coming on the
Bill Cunningham Show. You're a great American.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Thanks, Willie.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
I look forward to sitting in the Bill Cunningham luxury
box at the fireworks and enjoying the big show.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
But if I don't see you there, if you get busy.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
And I don't see you there, I know that you
and I are both in Tommy Pham's fantasy football league,
and we've got that draft coming up. Hopefully nobody gets
slapped or anything. The draft day is almost here.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
We'll get on it.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
All right, Rob Sanders, thank you. You're a great American.
Thank you, Rob.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Thanks, Willie.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
Take care.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Let's continue.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Four-year-old girl, bullet holes everywhere. It's unbelievable, but let's face it.
It's a common event because of the collapse of urban culture.
Bill Cunningham, NewsRadio 700, WLW.
Bill Cunningham News
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