You're listening to kf I AM six forty wake Up Call with me Amy King
on demand on the iHeart Radio f K five and kost HD two Los Angeles
and Orange County. A good ball, your host, Aby King. October
ball is here. Dodgers start playing again on October seventh, all the way
to the World Series. Baby. This is your wake up call for Monday,
October two. Good morning, I'm Amy King. Thanks so much for
waking up. Did you feel the fall chill in the air this morning?
Maybe I haven't. You probably haven't been outside yet, but when you do.
I felt this little chill and I was like, oh, yeah,
fall is here. Of course. Then I got a forecast coming up for
you. It's gonna be like one hundred degrees this weekend. But that's a
whole other thing. A sure sign. Holidays are right around the corner.
I got my Amazon Christmas catalog, Amazon's Holiday Dash, all the hot toys
the kids gotta have, Foolish Little Mermaid, stuffed animals, Spiety and his
amazing friends, lots of cool stuff. Hey, we had a fabulous day
at the Pacific Air Show yesterday. I'm gonna be telling you more about that
coming up. But in the meantime, I do encourage you to check out
my Instagram at Amy K King to see who I ran into. And here's
a hint. I feel the need the need for speed. It was a
really fun little encounter. I will tell you about that in a minute.
Here's what's head on the wake up call say after In the Hollywood studios are
scheduled to sit down for negotiations for the first time since actors walked out in
mid July. AI A big sticking point. California Governor Newsom has vetoed a
bill that would have paid unemployment benefits to striking workers. He rejected the bill's
Saturday. He said California's unemployment Trust Fund is already near twenty billion dollars in
debt and now is not the time to increase that. The lights are on
at the US government. Lawmakers passed a continuing resolution Saturday to keep the government
running through mid November. The big question now is whether Kevin McCarthy can survive
as speaker after that vote. We're gonna be talking with ABC's Stephen Portnoy about
this in just a couple of minutes. Don't away. At six oh five.
It's handled on the news. The governor has appointed a replacement for Diane
Feinstein. Einstein just passed away on Thursday night. Let's start with some of
those stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. At least twelve
cities in La County have filed a lawsuit to stop the new zero bail policy.
Representatives from the cities noted in their filing late Friday that the new policies
a threat to public safety. Is zero bail for most non violent offenders started
yesterday with the blessing of the county's presiding judge and the Board of Supervisors,
but cities like Whittier, Downey, and Industry joined Glendora, Palmdale, and
Arcadia along with others to put a stop to the new policy. It's not
clear why the city's waited until the last minute, but it's expected more cities
will join the lawsuit. Steve Gregory caf I News. At least four people,
including an LAPD officer, have been hurt during a protest in Boil Heights
over proposed rent increases for city housing. The Los Angeles Tennant Unit Union says
LAPD officers rushed from behind protesters yesterday outside Boyle Heights City Hall. No arrests
were made. The union said it is planning its next march for early November.
Governor Newsom is named a replacement for Senator Dianne Feinstein, who died last
week. Appointing Democratic strategists Lafonza Butler to fill Diane Feinstein's seat fulfills Governor Gavin
Newsom's promise, and he would appoint a black woman. Many thought it was
going to be Congresswoman Barbara Lee until Newsom said he would not have point anyone
currently running to fill the seat as to not disrupt the primary process. ABC's
Alex Stone says Lee is running for the seat next year. Butler will be
the only black woman in the Senate. She'll be the first openly LGBTQ senator
to represent California. Opening statements are said to begin in New York in the
fraud case against former President Trump. The civil trial against the former president begins,
with the judge already having declared last week that there is enough evidence that
Donald Trump committed fraud by lying about the value of his assets and inflated his
net worth by as much as two point two billion dollars. ABC's Sonia Rincon
says the trial will determine penalties. She says Trump good face finds up to
two hundred and fifty million dollars and could lose control of some of his properties
in New York. The Nobel Prize for Medicine has been announced in Sweden.
The Nobel Assembly at Carolinsky Institute that has today decided to award the twenty twenty
three Nobel Prize in physiolog your Medicine. Jointly Secretary of the Nobel Assembly,
Thomas Pearlman says the award goes to two scientists for discoveries that allowed for the
development of MR and A vaccines against COVID nineteen. Katalin Kariko is a professor
at Sagan's University in Hungary and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Drew Weissman did his research with Kuriko at the University of Pennsylvania. Nobel announcements
are going to continue this week with the Physics Prize tomorrow, Chemistry Wednesday,
Literature on Thursday, and the Nobel Peace Prize, the big daddy of them
all, will be announced on Friday. Let's say good morning now to ABC's
Stephen Portnoy. Stephen, on Friday when we talked, it looked like a
shutdown was imminent, but at the very end of our talk you said anything
could happen, and it did. I'm so glad you remember that. I
was gonna say it if you didn't listen, I was right. No,
listen. What happened over the weekend was Speaker McCarthy knew that the only way
to avoid a government shutdown was to have by partisanship. He put on the
floor of bill that actually surprised Democrats and for a while they were suspicious of
it and said they needed to spend the time reviewing all seventy one pages because
it was done without coordinating with Democrats, and he put it on the floor.
It was a clean continuing resolution that did not include money for Ukraine,
but did provide an additional sixteen billion dollars for disaster relief, and after Democrats
initially aired their suspicions and even objections, they said, you know what,
We'll take this deal. And it was sent to the Senate with three hundred
and thirty five members of the House voting in favor and eighty eight members of
the Senate voted to the Senate of the President's desk, and he signed it
with leus than an hour ago, so no government shutdown. Government agencies are
funded through mid November. The question now is what are the ramifications for Kevin
McCarthy's Speaker of the House for essentially, I won't say striking a deal with
Democrats because again Democrats were caught off guard here. But he worked with Democrats
to get this done. And in fact, more Democrats than Republicans in the
House voted to send this bill to the Senate. Most Republicans voted for it,
but ninety voted against it. And among the ninety or some of the
loudest critics in the Republican conference, Matt Gates. Yeah, right, So
Matt, Matt Gates is today, as early as today, going to go
to the floor of the House and put up a motion to vacate the speakership.
It could trigger a vote within forty eight hours. It could happen as
early as today. That vote the first of what will likely be a few
votes. McCarthy yesterday said, or a Saturday said, bring it. He
is of the mind that first of all, he enjoys the support of about
two hundred of the two hundred and twenty one House Republicans. At best,
Gates has maybe maybe about twenty Republicans who are willing now to vote to oust
McCarthy as speaker. We'll see how it all shakes out. But the bigger
question is what are the Democrats going to do? Because the House of Representatives
currently as four hundred and thirty three members, the House chooses its speaker,
the House decides whether it oust the speaker. A lot has been made about
Matt Gates, but Matt Gates can't do it alone. He can only do
it if the Democrats side with him. So the question is, will the
Democrats join up with Matt Gates to devolve the House into chaos or will the
Democrats to reject Gates's motion? Or will Democrats sit on their hands, avoid
the vote, or simply vote present, which adjusts the math in the House
of Representatives, leaving it entirely up to Republicans. And if they do that,
well, then there's no doubt that McCarthy's position is safe, okay,
because if they vote present, and you've got the two hundreds who support and
the twenty against, then that's all that counts. That's exactly right. Then
the vote would be two hundred and twenty. Let's just say okay. Or
they could say, you know, he did us a solid by keeping the
government open, let's continue down this path, or on a motion to table
or a motion that would raise a question of consideration. There a whole bunch
of different parliamentary tactics that can be used here. But the point is Democrats
have a couple of options to derail gates effort. If they want to propagate
it, they simply have to vote along with him okay. And then Gates
said, oh, I'm gonna I could do this every day. Yes,
it sounds like a big waste of everybody's time. Well, and that's why
it's not likely to succeed in the end. But but his perspective is well.
Over time, as more Republicans wake up to what it is that McCarthy's
done to undermine our our principles and violate his promises and all these things,
well, then the numbers could grow. But there's also a move to maybe
talk about ousting Gates from the House. He's got a pending Ethics Committee investigation.
That's true. You know, I just love our talks because it's just
never a dull moment. Thank you so much, Stephen, and I'm glad
that you were right on from you. Bet all right, take care,
all right, good bye, all right, let's get back to some of
the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Negotiators for actors
and the major studios are expected back at the bargaining table. Sag AFTER and
the AMPTP have not held official talks since the actor's strike began in July.
The union's demands include general wage increases, protections against the use of actor images
through artificial intelligence big sticking point there, higher compensation for successful streaming programs,
and better health and retirement benefits. Members of the Writers Guild of America are
set to start voting on whether to approve their new contract with the studios.
The tentative deal was announced just over a week ago, following five straight days
of negotiations. It would officially end the strike that started in May. Retail
workers at Ontario International Airport have walked. They're gone. They've gone on strike
following months of negotiations with the Hudson Group. The union says previous contracts expired
three years ago and negotiations stalled out in January. Workers say they're tired of
working full time and not making a livable wage. A bill from an assemblywoman
in Fullerton to prevent certain people from owning a gun has been signed into law.
The bill from Assemblywoman Sharing Quark Silva, closes a loophole that allowed criminal
defendants who suffer from mental illness to own or possess guns. The law prevents
people in pre trial mental health diversion programs for a felony or specified misdemeanor charge
from owning a firearm until they successfully complete diversion. A completed diversion program can
prevent criminal convictions allowing a person to get a gun anyway, but the new
law signed last week allows prosecutors to petition the court to prohibit gun possession if
the person poses a threat to themselves or others. In Fullerton, Corbin Carson
kf I News, a former employee of the Eli County DA's office, is
suing the county. Brett Sereno claims he was driven out of the office by
intolerable conditions after the election of DA George Gascon. Serreno now works in it
for the county Fire Department. At least nine people in northern Mexico have been
killed when the roof of a church collapsed during mass. About fifty people were
hurt. Yesterday, rescuers were still searching through the rebel. Late last night,
dogs were being used to look for possible survivors. The cold and flu
season is right around the corner. At Nutritionist doctor Michael Gargo says boosting your
immune system will help you get ready for it, but a good balanced diet
you want to stay hydrated, sleep and rest. I don't know why some
people brag I only need three hours of sleep. Stress management easy for me
to say, hard to do. Garko says getting enough sleep and managing chronic
stress not only helps your body recover, but also strengthens the immune system.
He says you might want to also consider vitamin supplements. Okay, have you
bought the new iPhone fifteen? I don't have it yet. But they're getting
a lot of complaints that these little guys are overheating, and they're saying that
they're overheating when they're charging. They're overheating sometimes, like when you're playing an
intensive thing like you're doing gaming. Certain apps and Apple hadn't made an official
comment, but now looks like it's responding and saying we're going to work on
that, and it may have to do with the new operating system, the
iOS seventeen. I believe it is. So they said that they're addressing it,
and if it does have to do with the operating system, then they'll
send out a fix soon. I think I'm gonna hold off on buying the
fifteen for a little bit until they fix it. Governor Newsom has appointed Democratic
strategist and adviser to Kamala Harris's presidential campaign, Lafonza Butler, to fill Diane
Feinstein's Senate seat. Feinstein just died last week at the age of ninety.
With the appointment, Newsom made good on a promise to appoint a black woman
to fill the seat. Bus drivers in Santa Clarita could soon be going on
strike that could interrupt bus service in the area, including for many high schools.
Because the buses contract with the schools, LA County has eliminated cash bail
for most crimes, most people arrested for non violent or non serious events is
will be cited and released in the field, or booked and then ordered to
appear in court at a later date. People considered a danger to the public
or a flight risk will have their cases reviewed by I had judge at six
oh five. It's handling the news. You're gonna want to stick around for
Bill talking about this. One of the nineteen people, including former President Trump,
charged with allegedly trying to overturn the election results in Georgia has cut a
deal. Bill's going to talk about what that could mean for Trump. Right
now, let's say good morning to ABC's Jim Ryan. Jim, I've never
heard of this before and it kind of caught my eyes, so I wanted
to have you explained it to us. We've got saltwater from the Gulf of
Mexico flowing upstream. Yes, all right, so tell us what that is
and what it means. Well, the Mississippi River, of course, is
freshwater. The headwaters are way up in Minnesota. It actually step across the
Mississippi River where it begins. It's life. By the time it makes it
down to the Gulf of Mexico, it's wide and it's raging, and you
know, you can read a lot about it from Mark Twain. But right
now, because of a drought, the mouth of the Mississippi River. There's
such low pressure there from lack of rain that the salt water from the Gulf
of Mexico is making its way up into the Mississippi River. So it's gradually
creeping up. They're pushing against what normally would be pretty strong pressure. It's
not strong pressure, and so you've got what amounts to a saltwater wedge on
the bottom of the river moving gradually creeping up in towards some populated areas,
communities like Burus, Louisiana, Placamun's Parish, eventually perhaps New Orleans if there
isn't a sustained solid rainfall in the next few weeks. Okay, so what
is the what's the effect of that? Though? Well, so much of
the somebody of the communities there along the Super River draw their drinking water from
the Mississippi, so it's brought in, it's cleaned, it's chlorinated, it's
sound out into people's homes and businesses, and everything's great. Dealing with salt
water, there's a different animal, you know. The saltwater causes problems,
causes damage to the water treatment facility equipment, not to mention in people's homes
if they if it actually makes it out into your home. It causes issues
there and you can't drink it anyway, you could shower with it. But
in the long term there are some major, you know, effects from this,
not only New Orleans, but in those communities down south toward the Gulf,
toward the mouth of the Mississippi. Is it mainly small communities that you
said it could hit New Orleans, but otherwise as it mainly small licens,
small communities. Burausts is when I've been to Bureausts before us down and it's
kind of a fishing community, fairly closed to the Gulf of to the mouth
of the Mississippi. But the local paper has published a calendar essentially showing that
on October thirteenth, it could be in bell Chase. This saltwater could have
reached that far north in the Mississippi, which isn't too far from New Orleans,
then Saint Bernard Parish, then eventually New Orleans and Algiers, which is
on the east bank of the Mississippi River. So they're looking at this and
really hoping to get the heavy rainfall to wash away this salt water, and
the short term solution is kind of interesting. They're gonna put a fresh water
on barges up north, the up river on the Mississippi. So they're going
to go on the water and bringing water down exactly to bring it in by
barge that'll be put into the water treatment facilities to kind of keep the salt
water from getting in there. So yeah, I think it's interesting they're they're
using the source of the problem in Mississippi to kind of solve the problem at
least in the short term. And then are they bringing in like drinking water
and stuff and bottled water. Yes, they're urging people not to go out
and start panic buying and buying up all the bottled water in the stores,
which means they are will you oil. Probably it's going to look something like
that before a hurricane comes and everybody buys up all the bottled water and canned
food. You know. Kind it's so weird, Like in New York where
they had eight inches of rain in a day, You're like, if you
would have just shifted that down south a little bit and a little bit,
Yeah, whatever, Could this happen in other areas of the country too,
Well? It could. I mean, the Mississippi is such an iconic I
mean, it's it runs all the way the north south from Mississippi from Minnesota
down to the Gulf of Mexico. I think this one. And then there
are are the rivers. I'm sure that this could cause some problems too.
The Arkansas River, which flows into the Mississippi, may have these issues the
Missouri there, But I suspect that this is the most dramatic because this empties
right out into the Gulf, the gulf Ish saltwater. It's pushing against the
fresh water in the Mississippi, and for right now it's winning that little tug
of war. Okay, with the saltwater flowing up. I mean, are
they seeing like sharks in the Mississippi and stufford you get that anyway along the
Mississippi coast there in mississ state of Misissippi, they have nerth sharks there occasionally
Louisiana coast to Louisiana says, see some of that. The Mississippi River.
You know, there was a dramatic earthquake that happened one hundred years ago or
so, and the river actually flow the opposite direction for its time, So
you know, it's susceptible to two weird things that happen in the environment.
Okay, well, we're going to hope for some rain for Mississippi or for
the Mississippi River and along that so they don't have to barge the water down.
That's bizarre, but hey, modern technology, if we can do it,
let's do it modern like barges. All right, Thanks so much,
Jim Ran, appreciate you explaining that to us. See you. All right,
let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty
four our newsroom. Employees at Kaiser Permanente could go on strike this week now
that the labor contract for seventy five thousand unionized healthcare workers has expired. Ninety
eight percent of union members who voted voted a couple of weeks ago to approve
a three day strike if an agreement wasn't reached before the expiration. A spokesperson
for Kaiser says progress has been made at the bargaining table and is urging workers
to reject all calls for a strike. We're gonna have to wait and see
on that one. Governor Newsom has veto to bill that would have let striking
workers collect unemployment benefits. His Vito message to California has paid over three hundred
and sixty two million dollars in interest on a federal loan used to provide benefits
during the pandemic, and he says he has a deep appreciation and respect for
workers, but now is not the time to increase costs or incur as sizable
debt. The three year pandemic pause in federal student loan payments has expired.
That means twenty eight million people will now have to start making those payments again.
Average federal student loan borrower owes more than thirty seven thousand dollars in debt
payments, averaging between two hundred and three hundred dollars a month. ABC's Elizabeth
Schulzy says a lot of borrowers had hoped President Biden's loan forgiveness plan was successful
in court. The Biden administration says it is still exploring options for debt forgiveness
through a different law called the Higher Education Act. A craving for tacos is
paid off big for a couple near Sacramento. They had just returned from an
overseas trip when they stopped at their favorite taco truck and Patterson Tim Dine says
he usually runs over and gets a lottery scratch it from across the street when
he gets the taco, So he did that too. That scratcher was worth
a million dollars, and that's just you know, that's just a pittance compared
to Powerball. There was no winner on Saturday nights, so the Powerball jack
bodies up again over a billion dollars. The estimated jackpot is worth one point
zero four billion dollars. Four tonight's prize I would tie it as the fourth
largest powerball prize. Sag After and the Hollywood Studios are scheduled to set down
four negotiations for the first time since actors walked out in mid July. AI
and streaming continue to be big sticking points. Former President Trump is expected to
be in New York City today for his civil fraud trial. New York Attorney
General Letitia James has accused Trump and his family of fraud for inflating his net
worth, which James said gave Trump better terms than he deserved from lenders and
insurers. A full length film about Beyonce's Renaissance World tour is in the works.
Reports say the singer is teaming up with AMC to release the documentary December
first. Taylor Swift's Era's concert tour hits theaters later this month. I think
on October thirteenth. It sold twenty six million dollars in pre sale tickets on
the first day they were available. At six oh five, it's handle on
the news. Zero bail goes into effect in La County. Actually it was
effective yesterday at least a dozen cities or pushing back and suing to get the
new policy blocked. At five fifty, We're going to be talking with the
executive director of the Innocent Center who helped free that man in southern California who
was wrongly accused and convicted and spent twenty eight years in prison for a crime
he didn't commit. His sentence was just overturned and he has been exonerated and
is now a freeman. Let's get back to some of the stories coming out
the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. President Biden has signed a bill to keep
the government running, which gives Congress another forty five days to agree on a
spending plan. Quite frankly, I'm sick and tired. I'm sick and tired
of the brinksmanship and so an American people. The temporary bill does not include
the steep spending cuts that some conservatives wanted. It also cut out more than
four billion dollars Democrats wanted for Ukraine. Republican Congressman Matt Gates has threatened to
remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker for working with Democrats on the temporary spending bill and
not reigning and spending. I am relentless and I will continue to pursue this
objective. McCarthy says he'll survive. Bring it on, let's get over with
it, and let's start governing. Gates says he will use a procedural tool
called a motion to vacate to try to strip McCarthy out of his office as
soon as this week. Two men from Riverside have been arrested for allegedly distracting
an elderly woman outsider home in Huntington Beach while one of them stole fifty thousand
dollars from her purse. The seventy nine year old was approached two weeks ago
when she got home from the bank. Police say that type of crime is
known as bank jugging, where thieves pay attention to bank customers who withdraw cash
and then follow them home to rob them. At least twelve cities in La
County have joined together to sue the county over its new zero bail policy.
The group of cities filed a last minute complaint on Friday. Beginning yesterday or
most nonviolent offenders are going to be given a citation by police on the spot
and then just released. County officials say the new policy equalizes an unbalanced bail
system. Critics say the new program is a threat to public safety. Some
people who got Apple's iPhone fifteen Pro and Pro macs have complained the new devices
get too hot, both while using and charging the devices. Some users say
they believe the issue could be triggered by certain apps running in the background,
such as Instagram or Uber. Apple Tech support has referred customers to an old
support article on how to handle an iPhone that feels too hot or too cold.
The notice says overheating could occur when using intensive apps, charging, or
setting up a new device for the first time. Time to check in now
with ABC News correspondent Tom Rivers, Good morning Tom. This one has kind
of flown under the radar. Armenian refugees are fleeing their homes by the thousands.
Can you tell us why they're going and what's happening over there? Good
morning Abby, Yeah, well, don't you know what you think? Back
this has been a sore spot going back about thirty years, but it really
really ramped up just over a week ago in Azerbaijan in essence, fired volleys
of artillery shells in and basically after twenty four forty eight hours, the Armenians,
the ethnic Armenian said enos enough and they're packing their bags. Total population
ethnic Armenians about one hundred and twenty thousand, and by the latest count,
over one hundred and five thousand have now split down a mountainous road to Armenia
proper. So yes, it's it's kind of game over. And these people
have left their homes, small businesses, livestock fill in the blank, packing
whatever they have on their backs or in cars or in busses, and that's
it, saying that they can't carry on any longer there and Azerbaijan will in
essence take over within the next day or two at city Hall. And these
are this isn't like a military stronghold. It's just an area where people are
living Is that correct? Yeah, exactly. I mean you look at Azerbaijan.
Armenians are a different background, Christian background, and basically, why why
have they left? Why didn't they hang around and say, well, we'll
make some compromises. They're fearing reprisals, they're fearing as well, losing their
freedom to use their language, to practice their religion, et cetera, et
cetera. So again, by the latest count, eighty five to ninety percent
have already left the UN after something like thirty years. But they're back monitoring,
kind of twiddling their thumbs, watching this exodus, this outflow of humanity,
and not a whole lot they can do. Is the US helping at
all? Not really, just if you will, rhetorical support for the ethnic
Armenians. But but that's it, And the Armenians are calling it ethnic cleansing.
They are, they're using that language. In fact, the leader in
Armenia itself who's using that particular phrase, and you know others have been saying
today, you know, what can the UN do? What can the US
do? At this stage? All you can do is maybe put some financial
aid in the way of the pockets of the ethnic Armenians that have now left
that are going to have to start over and create a new life in Armenia
itself. But it doesn't look like they're going to get the support to like
say, oh hey, you guys can come back. It's like you're out,
You're gone, see you right, Yeah, when no one is egging
for a fight as it is, over, game over, the horses bolted.
That's just crazy if you think of that, like if that happened here,
Yeah, exactly, you know here, we're gonna move you out.
We're gonna start bombing you. We're gonna clear out Huntington Beach. You know.
I'm taking over your host, host, Amy, goodbye, have a
nice life in Phone, Nebraska wherever you Yeah, exactly. All right,
Tom Rivers, thank you so much. Appreciate your time today. Take care.
It's really disturbing. Hey, flipping over to a happier things. Nick,
Paulo Chini and I went out and about to the Pacific Air Show yesterday.
Good morning Nick, Good morning Amy. Yeah. So this was fun.
I haven't been to an air show in a long time. I've been
wanting to go to the Pacific Air Show because it's just so great. And
then Kafi is involved with it and we've had so many great stories about it,
and I tell you it did not disappoint yesterday that was amazing. That
show was rocking so and it's obviously it's over now, but just kind of
put it on your radar, put in the back of your mind for next
year, like it's it's worth the trip. And we saw F fifteens,
F thirty five's for a Hornet, FA eighteens, the Canadian Snowbirds, the
Air Force Thunderbirds of course, and then I know you got to kick out
of the cow fire see one thirty. Oh my gosh to see one thirty.
And you have to check it out on Instagram either Nick poly'keiny this week
I with Nike, Amy k King or even Ka five AM six forty,
all of those have it. It was wild and they were showing exactly how
they respond as a fire and rescue vehicle and so they can bring up to
three one thousand cubic I don't know square feet of water something in that effect.
In it's a lot of water, and we saw a lot of water
that was being poured over Huntington Beach. That was amazing. Also, we
saw the paratroopers when we were for showing up to the evenge oh yeah,
and like exactly yeah. And then the thing that was the best is you
saw a couple of friends, right I did. Okay, So you guys.
So we're sitting there and they have the little uh they're the Gators.
They're like a hopped up golf cart and these two guys on the back of
it, and I go, jeez, that looks a lot like Maverick and
Iceman. And I was like, holy cow, it's Maverick and Iceman and
these guys. I know they're actors, let's be straight, but these guys
were like dead ringers for Tom Cruise and Valkan. It was well and it
was you know them thirty years ago when when Top Gun first came out,
and so I ran up to him. I'm like, hey, I mean
and they you know, they waved and pointed, and then they did they
stopped and took pictures with people a little bit later, and so we ran
over there. So you gotta go check out my Instagram. I'm totally fan
girl these guys. But it's at Emmy Kiking And did you put it up
in yours? Tunic? Did I have a different It been us so yeah,
so that's over there also Nick poly O'Kenny or This Weekend with Nick.
Yeah, so check it out. So that was really just a fun treat
and like smart of the air of the air show to do that, I
think it was fun for everybody. So there was fun on the ground,
there was fun in the air, and it was just a spectacular show.
Even of a FedEx seven fifty seven did a fly by and that's a huge
plane flying right. Yeah, it was so cool. So and you know
they have they have it goes on for like a mile along the coast,
so there's tons of areas that you can just go and watch it, and
then there's the actual air show area where you can hear you can hear the
music and the announcers and really get the play by play of what's going on.
But either way, it's just a fabulous way to spend the day.
It was so great, So highly recommend that for next year. Right now,
let's say good morning to the executive director of the Innocent Center, Michael
Samancheck. Good morning, Michael, good morning, and thank you for having
me. Oh, thank you for making the time to come on this.
This came out last week and I was like, we got to get these
guys on because this is this is a story that made me incredibly happy and
incredibly sad at the same time, and that was that Gerardo Cabanius is now
a freeman. He was wrongly convicted and served twenty eight years in prison.
How how'd you get him out? Well, mister Cabanius was wrongfully convicted.
He had twenty eight years ago. He was brought in by a detective and
falsely confessed to the crime, and that false confession was then used to convince
the victims that to make a bad eyewitness identification. And so about two and
a half years ago, three years ago, we were lucky enough to get
some DNA testing going and the DNA testing, the test results came back and
excluded him from from being involved in the crimes he was convicted of, and
we worked with the Los Angeles Just District Attorney's Conviction Integrity Unit to reverse the
conviction and we got about okay. And had mister kevani AS's case been on
your radar because you said two and a half years ago you got some DNA
evidence, But had you been trying to figure out things for him before that
time or is that kind of when he came to your attention. We started
working on his case five or six years ago. It takes a lot of
time, energy, and resources to reverse the conviction in the United States.
It's just on average, I think it takes roughly about sixteen years for a
person to get their conviction reversed in the US. And that's so that's just
as we really just believe in finality in the US, and it makes it
all the more difficult to reverse these convictions even when they're is okay, So
take us back a little bit, because I want to talk about mister kevany
As. He was eighteen when he was arrested, and it was a pretty
heinous crime. Yeah, So there was the he was just a child.
There were there were two men that were committing crimes in January of nineteen ninety
six. They were they would go and find people sitting in cars in a
park and they would they would rob them. Sometimes they would sectually assault women
if they were in their cars. And that's what happened in two instances in
nineteen ninety five. And and so the victims had reported their crimes to police
and a few days after one of the crimes happened. Mister Kabaneus was standing
on a corner wearing red pants. One of the one of the witnesses had
described perfect for wearing red pants, and that's how he initially got picked up.
And then they got him in there and he didn't have a lawyer with
him, and they said confess, and he did. Why did he confess?
Yeah? So he was made a lot of promises by this detective that
was known for eliciting false confessions, and he he was always going to get
home, and he was told, hey, why don't you just just just
confessed to this one little robbery and then and then you'll be gone and you'll
you'll be home on probation. And so he is in there for hours,
seven hours, and eventually just decides, like as an eighteen year old katie
trust law enforcement says, final, well, I'll say I did this so
I can go home, and says he does it. They bring in another
detective and then they start recording and it's at that point he finds out that
it's not just a robbery, it's actually all of these crimes where he's you
know, kid napped a woman and sexually assaulted or in a house, all
stuff that he didn't he had no knowledge of, but he had confessed because
he thought he was going home. Okay, and in nineteen ninety six,
we didn't have the availability of the DNA evidence, so there was no way
to disassociate him from the crime basically, and he had confessed, So why
wouldn't they can right? Yeah, right, I mean, we had DNA
testing, but it required a lot of genetic material in order to develop a
profile. And so, yeah, we have this confession, and who wouldn't
believe a confession because at the time we didn't really have all of the data
that we have. Now we know that about twelve percent of the thirty three
hundred roleful convictions in the United States have involved a false confession. And yeah,
that DNA wasn't quite good enough at the time to get a full profile
from the evidence that existed. Okay, So Michael, you must get people
saying every day I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't
do it, and they did. What convinced you that this guy was telling
the truth? Well, like all of our cases, you have to go
and do an investigation and make an assessment as to whether or not it deserves
limited resources to try to get somebody out, and in this one, it
had all the hallmarks of a false confession. So as we already mentioned his
age, the fact that none of it was recorded, the fact that this
detective had done this in other cases and there was we had evidence to suggest
that he had been involved in a listening false confessions and others. The fact
that none of the confession really added up and made sense. Yeah, and
then we knew that there was this DNA that we could go out and test.
And so once the results came back and it confirmed what we thought that
in fact he was he had falsely confessed, it became a whole lot easier,
and it was just a matter of fitting it together and figuring out what
had happened, and that that part happened by working with the Los Angeles District
Attorney's office. That's got to be so like exciting for you when you go,
we've got one who really and we've got a chance at getting him out,
Like doesn't kind of makes all the work worthwhile. Absolutely, Yeah,
when you was you know, there's been a couple of days where you know
that stick out of my mind. When the DNA results come back and you
get chilled, and at the same time, it's it's also like, you
know, it's kind of like it really you have to put your foot in
the gas because you at the absolutely know at that point the person's innocent and
they're sitting there like you might have had an inkling for a while, but
then you've get that confirmation and it's like, wow, we've really got to
get working fast here. And then the day, the moment that you walk
up her person out of prison is really just one of the best days of
my life and certainly of their's. Yeah, and so what's next for mister
Keviny is, you know, like a lot of people that spend almost three
decades in prison, he's got to learn to live back on the outside again.
And prison is a is a challenging place. It's emotionally and mentally draining,
and you live a different life in prison. So he's gonna, hopefully,
you know, slowly but surely, figure out how best to live his
life on the outside and and catch up a family that he hasn't really been
able to see When he went to prison. His daughter was eight months old
and she's almost thirty, and so spending time with his daughter and his loved
ones that he hasn't really had a chance to see for the last three decades.
Yeah, well, certainly give give him our best. And you know,
I'm all for bad guys serving time for the bad things that they do,
but every once in a while, when you get someone like this,
it's so like it's just gratifying to hear that you're you're able to get them
out. So thanks, thanks for the work that you do. Michael Semanchik
with the Innocent Center, we appreciate your time this morning. Yeah, thank
you again for having me and go to the Innocent Center dot org and support
our work. We take donations and we'd love to have everyone insight. You
got it. Thank you so much, Michael. Than what a story.
Isn't that amazing? And gosh, I can't even imagine like relearning the world
on the outside after all this time. I mean, and I know that
cell phones get into jails and that kind of stuff, but just everything that's
going on now that wasn't around thirty years ago. We lead local live from
your KFI twenty four hour newsroom. I'm Amy King. This has been your
wake up call and if you missed any wake Up Call. You can listen
anytime on the iHeartRadio app. You've been listening to Wake Up Call with me
Amy King. You can always hear Wake Up Call five to six am Monday
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