Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In addition to former Deputy Age of Ohio, former DOJ spokesman,
and media coach Republican Strategists. He's with media consultants for
Daniel Penny's team, and he's joining us now once again.
Mark Weaver, Welcome again to the Mark Blazer Show. How
are you, sir.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's a great day for justice. Thanks for having me
back on Blazer.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Yeah, absolutely, so take me through. So what exactly as
you know you're with media consultants for Daniel Penny's team.
What has it been like since, well, leading up to
this and then of course post him being acquitted.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah. So I'm a lawyer and a part time prosecutor
here in Ohio, but I'm not a New York lawyer.
I work with the defense team who have been defending
Danny in court, so I've helped them with their media strategy.
I actually did the only interview that's been made public.
Danny interviewed with me, and we pushed out that video
where people could hear in his own words what happened
(00:59):
that day. It hasn't gotten to know this young man
has become a good friends. Your listeners should know. He
is a faithful young man. He's been in the word,
he's been praying. He's very humble, just waiting for this
nightmare to be over so he can continue his life.
You may recall he was going to college for architecture
(01:19):
on the GI Bill when this all happened a year
and a half ago, and had to put his life
on hold, and today's the first day where he can
maybe get back to normal.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Do you think Mark that there is going to be like,
are they going to drag this somehow back into court
with some sort of an appeal or they're not an appeal,
But will they try? Will they try to get him
with something else or some sort of other And as
you can tell, I'm not an attorney, I don't know
exactly how to word it, but I think you understand
(01:49):
what I'm trying to ask.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Of course, this is the same district attorney to charge
Donald Trump in that made up case in New York,
Alvin Bragg, so you wouldn't put it past him to
try to put Danny in prison. And again, luckily, the
double jeopardy clause of the Constitution means once you've been
acquitted of a charge, you can't be brought again for
another criminal case. Now, Jordan Neely, the man who got
(02:12):
on that subway trained and threatened to kill people that day,
including women and children. His father, who I think had
been out of Neely's life for a long time now,
has come forward and said he's going to sue Danny
for money damages. So that's not a criminal case, but
he wants money from this Submarine corpsvette college student somehow
for this case. So luckily, we have a legal defense
(02:35):
fund that we've been we've had up now for a
year and a half and gives and go and we
have raised more than three point two million dollars in
small contributions from people all across the country, and we
will use that fund to help defend Dandy against this
civil lawsuit for money.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, And I was talking to Chuck about this before
we went on, and I was saying, you know, when
you see, for instance, the the Burn Loot murder, which
is what I say it stands for, Hank Newsom, the leader,
Hank Newsome calling for black vigilantes to get active following
this acquittal, and they turned this into a white black thing.
(03:17):
And it's it's always it seems like about this, whether
or not that Neely was out of line, or any
of those things. That's what they are focusing on most.
And you know, Chuck, you said something that I was
just like, hm, you were like, there's a lot of
money to be made out there. Absolutely, there's a lot
of money. And at the root of this your thoughts,
(03:40):
Mark with regard to that is is it only really
about money? I mean you kind of set it up
there with his dad, who it sounds like more or
less is a Strangely Neely's dad, you know, coming out
with a civil suit and it's going to be all
about money.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah, hello to my old friend Chuck. There. Let's recall
this is, of course a trend. Jordan Neely shouldn't be dead.
Nobody wants to see somebody die. But he was the
one who just decided to step on that subway car
and say he was going to kill somebody on that car.
It was a tragic choice he made, but it's the
one he's responsible for. You know, It's already dangerous enough
(04:19):
in the New York City subways. Jordan Neely was on
a list that New York City kept of the most
dangerous homeless people in around the subways. Why he wasn't
being cared for in some other setting. I'm not quite
sure we'll know we're or in prison, since he had
numerous criminal convictions before this. But the notion that his
father now is somehow owed money by from Daniel Penny,
(04:40):
who stepped up and tried to protect the women and
children in that car. He had a tiger by the tail.
He's holding down this violent man. And as Danny told
me when I talked to him, he was praying. He
was literally praying for the police to arrive the moment
the subway doors opened. But it was several minutes later,
and Danny, who was growing tired of holding down this
(05:02):
very energetic, angry, violent man, just held on until police
finally arrived.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, so were you? Were you surprised at the verdict here?
And I know, like for myself as I you know, look,
as soon as you start looking at the facts of
this case right away, you say to yourself, Okay, they
got it right. There's no question the fact that the
manslaughter charge was dismissed because of a deadlock, which means
(05:31):
somebody in there thought that he was guilty of manslaughter.
And I got to be honest, in this landscape that
we live in now, and we have to operate in Mark,
and I know Daniel was thinking that in the middle
of that. Probably most likely as he's holding this guy,
he's probably in that same mindset, going, man, please don't
let anything crazy. Just let me hold this guy until
(05:55):
the cops get here, and then they can take over
and I can go on my way, or at least
give a statement or or what have you. The ultimate
clearly what he didn't want to happen is what happened.
And I think we enter the mind of a lot
of law enforcement officers in this day and age when
they roll up to a situation, especially when we're talking.
I'm just going to say it, a white officer and
they roll up on a scene where there is a
(06:16):
black purp there or somebody of interest, and you got
something that it looks like it's just going, oh my gosh,
please don't let this elevate to the unthinkable. But I thought,
I think they got it right. But at the same time,
I'm going, man, I was actually kind of surprised, especially
knowing that they're they're thinking. I feel like, you know,
(06:38):
the people in charge, all of the people in New
York City and in charge are going, man, this is
going to set off all kinds of response that we
don't want in different cities.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, it would have sent a very sad message had
they convicted him. What's really surprising to me is every
day while the jury was deliberating, deliberating outside the courthouse,
they were active this screaming for Daniel Penny. It's reminiscent
of the lynch mobs we saw outside of courthouses in
the eighteen hundreds all around the country that were motivated
(07:09):
by racial bloodlust. In this case, the races were reversed.
But anytime you hate somebody for their race, it's despicable
behavior and all of us should call it out. Nothing
that race was not part of this decision. Daniel Penny's
got involved to protect largely people of color, women and
children who were afraid on that subway car, and he
(07:32):
would have done it no matter who the person threatening
to kill these women and children were.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Were there any witnesses against him from the car, with
the exception of what the prosecutors created, I mean, were
there other people in the car that he shouldn't have
done it? Because I didn't see any of that.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Now, in fact, there's a great I think the free
press put out a great side by side of a
TikTok video meaning TikTok following the minutes, not actually TikTok
the app, but the following the minutes of Here's what
was happening for each person's video perspective, including the body cam,
and what you see is many of these victims, potential
victims of Jordan Neely, stayed behind to talk to the
(08:10):
police and say he was a hero. This man saved us.
And then several of them testified in front of the
grand jury. We have that transcript. The judge released it
and they were telling the grand jury, don't charge this guy.
He saved us. Some of them said they've never been
so frightened in their life as they were that moment
Jordan Neely said he was going to kill somebody on
(08:31):
that car.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
And in selecting the jury, was it seven women? If
I'm not mistaken on the jury, I'm assuming strategically there
you know these You've got seven people there that almost
assuredly were happy somebody stood up and protected and defended.
Did that was that a boat of contention when it
came to jury selection or did the prosecution kind of
(08:54):
overlook that and allow it without question?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
We did a lot of work on jury selection. I
flew to New York and we did a lot of
research on the kind of thing you might expect, focus groups, etc.
To see which kind of jurors would be most fair
for this case. And so it really didn't break down
by gender or race. A lot of it had to
do with how much time do you spend on the subway?
And luckily we had several of those jurors who were
on that subway daily. Where you should the record will
(09:17):
reflect now there are armed soldiers in the New York subway.
The governor had to send the National Garden after Daniel
Penny some weeks later. That's how dangerous it is in
the New York subways. They've got armed soldiers patrolling right now.
Where else in America do we have armed soldiers patrolling
public transit.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
He's with media consultants for Daniel Penny's team, Mark Weaver, Mark,
where can people go to view your conversation with Daniel Penny,
the one you spoke of.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
At the beginning.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
I pushed all these links out on my x feed
at Mark R. Weaver so they can not only see
the link to his defense fund, but also the video
that I interviewed him with where it's the only time
publicly he spoke about what happened. Now the police interviewed him.
That was played during the trial. But he's never done
any media interviews, you know, because obviously when you're in
(10:04):
the middle of a criminal trial, that's not something you
should do. But he did sit with me for an interview,
and they can find that on my x feed and
at Mark our Weaver probably from a day or two
ago is when I posted it.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Very good, all right, Mark Weaver, thanks again for jumping
on with us. Appreciate you man.
In addition to former Deputy Age of Ohio, former DOJ spokesman,
and media coach Republican Strategists. He's with media consultants for
Daniel Penny's team, and he's joining us now once again.
Mark Weaver, Welcome again to the Mark Blazer Show. How
are you, sir.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's a great day for justice. Thanks for having me
back on Blazer.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Yeah, absolutely, so take me through. So what exactly as
you know you're with media consultants for Daniel Penny's team.
What has it been like since, well, leading up to
this and then of course post him being acquitted.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah. So I'm a lawyer and a part time prosecutor
here in Ohio, but I'm not a New York lawyer.
I work with the defense team who have been defending
Danny in court, so I've helped them with their media strategy.
I actually did the only interview that's been made public.
Danny interviewed with me, and we pushed out that video
where people could hear in his own words what happened
(00:59):
that day. It hasn't gotten to know this young man
has become a good friends. Your listeners should know. He
is a faithful young man. He's been in the word,
he's been praying. He's very humble, just waiting for this
nightmare to be over so he can continue his life.
You may recall he was going to college for architecture
(01:19):
on the GI Bill when this all happened a year
and a half ago, and had to put his life
on hold, and today's the first day where he can
maybe get back to normal.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Do you think Mark that there is going to be like,
are they going to drag this somehow back into court
with some sort of an appeal or they're not an appeal,
But will they try? Will they try to get him
with something else or some sort of other And as
you can tell, I'm not an attorney, I don't know
exactly how to word it, but I think you understand
(01:49):
what I'm trying to ask.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Of course, this is the same district attorney to charge
Donald Trump in that made up case in New York,
Alvin Bragg, so you wouldn't put it past him to
try to put Danny in prison. And again, luckily, the
double jeopardy clause of the Constitution means once you've been
acquitted of a charge, you can't be brought again for
another criminal case. Now, Jordan Neely, the man who got
(02:12):
on that subway trained and threatened to kill people that day,
including women and children. His father, who I think had
been out of Neely's life for a long time now,
has come forward and said he's going to sue Danny
for money damages. So that's not a criminal case, but
he wants money from this Submarine corpsvette college student somehow
for this case. So luckily, we have a legal defense
(02:35):
fund that we've been we've had up now for a
year and a half and gives and go and we
have raised more than three point two million dollars in
small contributions from people all across the country, and we
will use that fund to help defend Dandy against this
civil lawsuit for money.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, And I was talking to Chuck about this before
we went on, and I was saying, you know, when
you see, for instance, the the Burn Loot murder, which
is what I say it stands for, Hank Newsom, the leader,
Hank Newsome calling for black vigilantes to get active following
this acquittal, and they turned this into a white black thing.
(03:17):
And it's it's always it seems like about this, whether
or not that Neely was out of line, or any
of those things. That's what they are focusing on most.
And you know, Chuck, you said something that I was
just like, hm, you were like, there's a lot of
money to be made out there. Absolutely, there's a lot
of money. And at the root of this your thoughts,
(03:40):
Mark with regard to that is is it only really
about money? I mean you kind of set it up
there with his dad, who it sounds like more or
less is a Strangely Neely's dad, you know, coming out
with a civil suit and it's going to be all
about money.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah, hello to my old friend Chuck. There. Let's recall
this is, of course a trend. Jordan Neely shouldn't be dead.
Nobody wants to see somebody die. But he was the
one who just decided to step on that subway car
and say he was going to kill somebody on that car.
It was a tragic choice he made, but it's the
one he's responsible for. You know, It's already dangerous enough
(04:19):
in the New York City subways. Jordan Neely was on
a list that New York City kept of the most
dangerous homeless people in around the subways. Why he wasn't
being cared for in some other setting. I'm not quite
sure we'll know we're or in prison, since he had
numerous criminal convictions before this. But the notion that his
father now is somehow owed money by from Daniel Penny,
(04:40):
who stepped up and tried to protect the women and
children in that car. He had a tiger by the tail.
He's holding down this violent man. And as Danny told
me when I talked to him, he was praying. He
was literally praying for the police to arrive the moment
the subway doors opened. But it was several minutes later,
and Danny, who was growing tired of holding down this
(05:02):
very energetic, angry, violent man, just held on until police
finally arrived.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, so were you? Were you surprised at the verdict here?
And I know, like for myself as I you know, look,
as soon as you start looking at the facts of
this case right away, you say to yourself, Okay, they
got it right. There's no question the fact that the
manslaughter charge was dismissed because of a deadlock, which means
(05:31):
somebody in there thought that he was guilty of manslaughter.
And I got to be honest, in this landscape that
we live in now, and we have to operate in Mark,
and I know Daniel was thinking that in the middle
of that. Probably most likely as he's holding this guy,
he's probably in that same mindset, going, man, please don't
let anything crazy. Just let me hold this guy until
(05:55):
the cops get here, and then they can take over
and I can go on my way, or at least
give a statement or or what have you. The ultimate
clearly what he didn't want to happen is what happened.
And I think we enter the mind of a lot
of law enforcement officers in this day and age when
they roll up to a situation, especially when we're talking.
I'm just going to say it, a white officer and
they roll up on a scene where there is a
(06:16):
black purp there or somebody of interest, and you got
something that it looks like it's just going, oh my gosh,
please don't let this elevate to the unthinkable. But I thought,
I think they got it right. But at the same time,
I'm going, man, I was actually kind of surprised, especially
knowing that they're they're thinking. I feel like, you know,
(06:38):
the people in charge, all of the people in New
York City and in charge are going, man, this is
going to set off all kinds of response that we
don't want in different cities.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, it would have sent a very sad message had
they convicted him. What's really surprising to me is every
day while the jury was deliberating, deliberating outside the courthouse,
they were active this screaming for Daniel Penny. It's reminiscent
of the lynch mobs we saw outside of courthouses in
the eighteen hundreds all around the country that were motivated
(07:09):
by racial bloodlust. In this case, the races were reversed.
But anytime you hate somebody for their race, it's despicable
behavior and all of us should call it out. Nothing
that race was not part of this decision. Daniel Penny's
got involved to protect largely people of color, women and
children who were afraid on that subway car, and he
(07:32):
would have done it no matter who the person threatening
to kill these women and children were.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Were there any witnesses against him from the car, with
the exception of what the prosecutors created, I mean, were
there other people in the car that he shouldn't have
done it? Because I didn't see any of that.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Now, in fact, there's a great I think the free
press put out a great side by side of a
TikTok video meaning TikTok following the minutes, not actually TikTok
the app, but the following the minutes of Here's what
was happening for each person's video perspective, including the body cam,
and what you see is many of these victims, potential
victims of Jordan Neely, stayed behind to talk to the
(08:10):
police and say he was a hero. This man saved us.
And then several of them testified in front of the
grand jury. We have that transcript. The judge released it
and they were telling the grand jury, don't charge this guy.
He saved us. Some of them said they've never been
so frightened in their life as they were that moment
Jordan Neely said he was going to kill somebody on
(08:31):
that car.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
And in selecting the jury, was it seven women? If
I'm not mistaken on the jury, I'm assuming strategically there
you know these You've got seven people there that almost
assuredly were happy somebody stood up and protected and defended.
Did that was that a boat of contention when it
came to jury selection or did the prosecution kind of
(08:54):
overlook that and allow it without question?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
We did a lot of work on jury selection. I
flew to New York and we did a lot of
research on the kind of thing you might expect, focus groups, etc.
To see which kind of jurors would be most fair
for this case. And so it really didn't break down
by gender or race. A lot of it had to
do with how much time do you spend on the subway?
And luckily we had several of those jurors who were
on that subway daily. Where you should the record will
(09:17):
reflect now there are armed soldiers in the New York subway.
The governor had to send the National Garden after Daniel
Penny some weeks later. That's how dangerous it is in
the New York subways. They've got armed soldiers patrolling right now.
Where else in America do we have armed soldiers patrolling
public transit.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
He's with media consultants for Daniel Penny's team, Mark Weaver, Mark,
where can people go to view your conversation with Daniel Penny,
the one you spoke of.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
At the beginning.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
I pushed all these links out on my x feed
at Mark R. Weaver so they can not only see
the link to his defense fund, but also the video
that I interviewed him with where it's the only time
publicly he spoke about what happened. Now the police interviewed him.
That was played during the trial. But he's never done
any media interviews, you know, because obviously when you're in
(10:04):
the middle of a criminal trial, that's not something you
should do. But he did sit with me for an interview,
and they can find that on my x feed and
at Mark our Weaver probably from a day or two
ago is when I posted it.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Very good, all right, Mark Weaver, thanks again for jumping
on with us. Appreciate you man.
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