Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kirby Ferris from Ferris Riling Pitch joining us. Now. I
know you've got to be in court. What I'd love
for you to stay with Wandle and I would have
that discussion. But if you can, that'd be great. If
you if you've got to get to court, I.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Understand that is gonna be mad at me if I'm like, give.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Me his number. Let's get a continuance. Sorry, can we
great to see you. It's been a while you've been
I mean every every week, it seems for the last
month or so, it's trials and all kinds of depositions.
I can't do it.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
And football season is how many days? Why? Just a
few days away?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Look, we're like, you know, well, camp is underway now
for college. The NFL had their first free season last week.
So I mean it's here. We're at the doorstep. Yes,
let's go. I can't wait, man, So we listen. I'm
telling you we may change your day from coming in
on Thursdays. Are you open on Fridays? Are you are
you Fridays? I thought you were kind of pulling back
from working on Fridays and come spending more time with
(00:48):
the family at the lake. The biggest choke.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
In my office is that I'm pulling back on Fridays.
You haven't really camp. Things keep popping up on the calendar.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Okay, well good, if you're going to be in town,
maybe you'll come in on Fridays talk about the games
and uh, you know so funny the secret sound and
Mackenzie's got I mean, she's got a lock on this game.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Only I've only played it one time and it was
so much fun. She's good that.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Well, yeah you got that. Damn. I'd like I tell you.
You know, she's best producer, her words. And the biscuit
is what we play for. And you've got a lot
of credit because you bring biscuits for everybody when you
come here, so you're way ahead of the game. So
but anyway, let's talk about First of all, we get
your thoughts on this shooting and this attorney that's in
town representing the family, a guy named Ben Crump. He's
(01:30):
an out of towner. He is does he try cases
or is he just kind of a spokesperson for the
you know, big events.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I don't know the answer that I have never known
of him in a major trial. But that doesn't mean he.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Has some people have said to me, he's like an
Al Sharpton kind of an attorney. He comes in, represents
the family. Uh, he's a big civil rights attorney. Uh
he's out front and uh stirs things up and uh
you know, Uh somebody even said, you know this guy
when he comes to town, he's just gonna not let
(02:01):
it die. He's somewhat of a troublemaker. And you know,
here we go. Yeah. With that said a lot of
discussion on the investigation. When the officer pulled the gun,
he said there was a gun. The family and the
attorneys came out of the gate right away and said
there was no gun. How do you make statements like
that without having seen the body cam and clear enough,
(02:23):
Danny Carr showed him the and Eliyah showed them the
video and there was a gun. And I don't know how,
first of all, you jump out and have recommendation from
attorneys saying there's no gun when they don't know the
answer to that.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Well, it's that's a that's a great question. And I
will say this, as you know, I live in Homewood,
and I love living in Homewood, right, and this has
been a story that I've been following fairly closely because
I did want to see what happened. And Danny Carr
is a friend of mine, somebody that I know personally.
He is of high integer, a real good a fantastic job. Yes,
(02:58):
and if he says that this was a justifiable shooting,
that I believe it.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well, here's the thing, and they can't scream racism because
the cop was black, Danny Carr is black, and they
looked at the video. Aliah got the investigation, and one
of the biggest things that a lot of people complained
about was it took too long to release the video.
And look, you try cases all the time. The process
(03:23):
of discovery and looking for everything you need before you
present to the family, the public or whatever. You got
a lot of behind the scenes work to be doing, right,
So in a case like this, I understand that the
reason it took so long. And I didn't hear this
from the DA or anybody, but the gun that this
kid had was a stolen gun. So they're trying to
(03:45):
find the background of the gun and that takes some time. Right,
So you know, are you a myth at how long
it took? Does this bother you or is this kind
of normal in the legal world.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Now, this length of time for something this serious does
not than me at all. I'm in fact glad that
they took their time, because let me tell I've been
doing this thirty two years now, and I have gotten
out over my skis a time or two when I
was a young lawyer and said things and thought things
that I couldn't back up and work correct and you
end up in a bad situation. And I have learned
(04:18):
to be patient. Let the police do their job. We
have accident cases that it takes sometimes a month or
more to investigate, and you just have to let people
do their job and know that they're doing it correctly.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Well, Danny Carr says, we're done. Cases closed, there's no
charges going to be filed against the officer. It's a
clean shoot, end of story here. But this attorney, Crump says, Eh,
not so fast. They're still not satisfied with this. I
don't know what they're claiming on this. That they didn't
see the whole video, it was potentially edited and all this,
and does does that have any legs in this or
(04:55):
is this over?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
You know they can I think there will probably be
a lawsuit filed here. And the course will have to
vet some of those things that are being claimed. I
would be I would be shocked to find if that
was acting.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
We're going to take a break. Can you stay one
quick more segment? Okay, I do want to talk to
you about this whole situation with inmates and lawsuits and
how if they're abused or wronged like a you know,
a plane, if in the case it's a bit different
than if you're on the outside than it is on
the inside, it's a big imbalance. I wanted to get
your thoughts on this. I saw this story. Inmates seem
(05:31):
to get the short end of the stick when it
comes to settlements if they've been wrong. For instance, if
a guy's beat up, you know, in jail and he's
wrong by either staff or inmates, or it's negligence on
protecting inmates and he's raped and he's almost beat to
a pulp and death, you know there's there's grounds for
lawsuit there, yes, outside the jail that may be settled
(05:53):
for you know, five million dollars inside the jail, it's
more like five thousand, right, Why you know, j T.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
When we look at cases and you know, this is
what our firm does. And when you look at cases,
you have to look at a lot of different things.
You have to look, for instance, at the county you're in,
because some counties in Alabama deliver verdicts that are more
substantial than other counties. You have to look at the
conduct of the defendant often, so for instance, if you've
(06:22):
got somebody who was drinking and causes an accent, if
you have the exact same action and exact same injuries,
the alcohol will push the value of that case up tremendously. Now,
this was a fantastic, well done article. Thank you for
sending it to me. I was very surprised by the
attorney's phase element of this.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah, the amount of money is kind of it is off.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
It's really off. I mean I'm seeing fifty seven million
dollars in attorney's fees over a period of less than
five years, and the settlements just don't seem to.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Match more than the actual victim.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Way way way more. And in my world, you know
where you've got businesses looking at accident cases and they're
running them as businesses. You you see the injured people
always getting money than the lawyers that are involved.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Well, this is it's a state facility. Prisons are okay,
so and the attorneys have been handed over to uh, well,
the cases are handed over to private practice and not
judicated through state appointed attorneys. Corrected, right, which is different
that that.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Just changed fairly recently, and I didn't know about that
changed until this article. And you know when when you
have an employee, state employee working a case as an attorney,
they're getting paid a salary, but when you hire private lawyers,
they're going to bill you hourly. So there's a there's
a built in motivation.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
What can change is legislation. Is that what it is?
I mean, because there's these are taxpayer dollars that we're
talking about that go to these attorneys.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Well one of these big settlements. One thing that's got
to change in our state is our prison system. It's
a disaster and that's why we see these things happening.
I read one part of this space where there was
a bunch of people out in the yard and they
had one guard out there watching them, and a murder
occurred and the guard didn't even know what happened. Because
you got one poor guy watching the whole yard of
(08:24):
the whole yard, And we've just got and it's such
an unpleasant topic in our legislature. You know, they're afraid
of the blowback if they go in and try to
fix some of these problems. But they're problems. Yeah, and
they're costing us a lot of money. Expensive problems. O. Yes, well, Kirby,
good to see it. I appreciate you.
Kirby Ferris from Ferris Riling Pitch joining us. Now. I
know you've got to be in court. What I'd love
for you to stay with Wandle and I would have
that discussion. But if you can, that'd be great. If
you if you've got to get to court, I.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Understand that is gonna be mad at me if I'm like, give.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Me his number. Let's get a continuance. Sorry, can we
great to see you. It's been a while you've been
I mean every every week, it seems for the last
month or so, it's trials and all kinds of depositions.
I can't do it.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
And football season is how many days? Why? Just a
few days away?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Look, we're like, you know, well, camp is underway now
for college. The NFL had their first free season last week.
So I mean it's here. We're at the doorstep. Yes,
let's go. I can't wait, man, So we listen. I'm
telling you we may change your day from coming in
on Thursdays. Are you open on Fridays? Are you are
you Fridays? I thought you were kind of pulling back
from working on Fridays and come spending more time with
(00:48):
the family at the lake. The biggest choke.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
In my office is that I'm pulling back on Fridays.
You haven't really camp. Things keep popping up on the calendar.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Okay, well good, if you're going to be in town,
maybe you'll come in on Fridays talk about the games
and uh, you know so funny the secret sound and
Mackenzie's got I mean, she's got a lock on this game.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Only I've only played it one time and it was
so much fun. She's good that.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Well, yeah you got that. Damn. I'd like I tell you.
You know, she's best producer, her words. And the biscuit
is what we play for. And you've got a lot
of credit because you bring biscuits for everybody when you
come here, so you're way ahead of the game. So
but anyway, let's talk about First of all, we get
your thoughts on this shooting and this attorney that's in
town representing the family, a guy named Ben Crump. He's
(01:30):
an out of towner. He is does he try cases
or is he just kind of a spokesperson for the
you know, big events.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I don't know the answer that I have never known
of him in a major trial. But that doesn't mean he.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Has some people have said to me, he's like an
Al Sharpton kind of an attorney. He comes in, represents
the family. Uh, he's a big civil rights attorney. Uh
he's out front and uh stirs things up and uh
you know, Uh somebody even said, you know this guy
when he comes to town, he's just gonna not let
(02:01):
it die. He's somewhat of a troublemaker. And you know,
here we go. Yeah. With that said a lot of
discussion on the investigation. When the officer pulled the gun,
he said there was a gun. The family and the
attorneys came out of the gate right away and said
there was no gun. How do you make statements like
that without having seen the body cam and clear enough,
(02:23):
Danny Carr showed him the and Eliyah showed them the
video and there was a gun. And I don't know how,
first of all, you jump out and have recommendation from
attorneys saying there's no gun when they don't know the
answer to that.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Well, it's that's a that's a great question. And I
will say this, as you know, I live in Homewood,
and I love living in Homewood, right, and this has
been a story that I've been following fairly closely because
I did want to see what happened. And Danny Carr
is a friend of mine, somebody that I know personally.
He is of high integer, a real good a fantastic job. Yes,
(02:58):
and if he says that this was a justifiable shooting,
that I believe it.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well, here's the thing, and they can't scream racism because
the cop was black, Danny Carr is black, and they
looked at the video. Aliah got the investigation, and one
of the biggest things that a lot of people complained
about was it took too long to release the video.
And look, you try cases all the time. The process
(03:23):
of discovery and looking for everything you need before you
present to the family, the public or whatever. You got
a lot of behind the scenes work to be doing, right,
So in a case like this, I understand that the
reason it took so long. And I didn't hear this
from the DA or anybody, but the gun that this
kid had was a stolen gun. So they're trying to
(03:45):
find the background of the gun and that takes some time. Right,
So you know, are you a myth at how long
it took? Does this bother you or is this kind
of normal in the legal world.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Now, this length of time for something this serious does
not than me at all. I'm in fact glad that
they took their time, because let me tell I've been
doing this thirty two years now, and I have gotten
out over my skis a time or two when I
was a young lawyer and said things and thought things
that I couldn't back up and work correct and you
end up in a bad situation. And I have learned
(04:18):
to be patient. Let the police do their job. We
have accident cases that it takes sometimes a month or
more to investigate, and you just have to let people
do their job and know that they're doing it correctly.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Well, Danny Carr says, we're done. Cases closed, there's no
charges going to be filed against the officer. It's a
clean shoot, end of story here. But this attorney, Crump says, Eh,
not so fast. They're still not satisfied with this. I
don't know what they're claiming on this. That they didn't
see the whole video, it was potentially edited and all this,
and does does that have any legs in this or
(04:55):
is this over?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
You know they can I think there will probably be
a lawsuit filed here. And the course will have to
vet some of those things that are being claimed. I
would be I would be shocked to find if that
was acting.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
We're going to take a break. Can you stay one
quick more segment? Okay, I do want to talk to
you about this whole situation with inmates and lawsuits and
how if they're abused or wronged like a you know,
a plane, if in the case it's a bit different
than if you're on the outside than it is on
the inside, it's a big imbalance. I wanted to get
your thoughts on this. I saw this story. Inmates seem
(05:31):
to get the short end of the stick when it
comes to settlements if they've been wrong. For instance, if
a guy's beat up, you know, in jail and he's
wrong by either staff or inmates, or it's negligence on
protecting inmates and he's raped and he's almost beat to
a pulp and death, you know there's there's grounds for
lawsuit there, yes, outside the jail that may be settled
(05:53):
for you know, five million dollars inside the jail, it's
more like five thousand, right, Why you know, j T.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
When we look at cases and you know, this is
what our firm does. And when you look at cases,
you have to look at a lot of different things.
You have to look, for instance, at the county you're in,
because some counties in Alabama deliver verdicts that are more
substantial than other counties. You have to look at the
conduct of the defendant often, so for instance, if you've
(06:22):
got somebody who was drinking and causes an accent, if
you have the exact same action and exact same injuries,
the alcohol will push the value of that case up tremendously. Now,
this was a fantastic, well done article. Thank you for
sending it to me. I was very surprised by the
attorney's phase element of this.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah, the amount of money is kind of it is off.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
It's really off. I mean I'm seeing fifty seven million
dollars in attorney's fees over a period of less than
five years, and the settlements just don't seem to.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Match more than the actual victim.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Way way way more. And in my world, you know
where you've got businesses looking at accident cases and they're
running them as businesses. You you see the injured people
always getting money than the lawyers that are involved.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Well, this is it's a state facility. Prisons are okay,
so and the attorneys have been handed over to uh, well,
the cases are handed over to private practice and not
judicated through state appointed attorneys. Corrected, right, which is different
that that.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Just changed fairly recently, and I didn't know about that
changed until this article. And you know when when you
have an employee, state employee working a case as an attorney,
they're getting paid a salary, but when you hire private lawyers,
they're going to bill you hourly. So there's a there's
a built in motivation.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
What can change is legislation. Is that what it is?
I mean, because there's these are taxpayer dollars that we're
talking about that go to these attorneys.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Well one of these big settlements. One thing that's got
to change in our state is our prison system. It's
a disaster and that's why we see these things happening.
I read one part of this space where there was
a bunch of people out in the yard and they
had one guard out there watching them, and a murder
occurred and the guard didn't even know what happened. Because
you got one poor guy watching the whole yard of
(08:24):
the whole yard, And we've just got and it's such
an unpleasant topic in our legislature. You know, they're afraid
of the blowback if they go in and try to
fix some of these problems. But they're problems. Yeah, and
they're costing us a lot of money. Expensive problems. O. Yes, well, Kirby,
good to see it. I appreciate you.
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