Speaker 1: Bill Cunningham, the Great America, and welcome the Thursday afternoon
Speaker 1: in the Tri State. I would note that if it's
Speaker 1: seventeen degrees, public schools shut down. We can't operate. The
Speaker 1: metro bus system is fine, the buildings are fine. But
Speaker 1: if it's seventeen degrees, CPS says we're done. We're not
Speaker 1: going to educate today, which by the way, is totally ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Continuing as we always do. Kentucky's my home state. Rob
Speaker 1: Sanders is the prosecutor of Kenton County. We spent the
Speaker 1: last day or two talking about homelessness under bridges and
Speaker 1: the fact that it's likely the homeless encampments have caused
Speaker 1: the difficulties in I four seventy one. The official report
Speaker 1: not out yet, coming out either today or tomorrow. We're
Speaker 1: told maybe on Monday, but until then, Rob Sanders, welcome
Speaker 1: again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And Rob, is there
Speaker 1: a policy in Covington or Kenton County to your knowledge,
Speaker 1: in which, in writing you tell Covington cops in Kenton
Speaker 1: County and all the other law enforcement agencies in Kenton
Speaker 1: County there are certain laws we're not going to enforce.
Speaker 1: One of them being criminal trespass. The City of Cincinnati
Speaker 1: has told it's cops, which is a great unit of
Speaker 1: CPD Kenkobra, etc. A great unit, saying to them, you
Speaker 1: shall not enforce criminal trespass statutes unless in other crimes
Speaker 1: being committed. In other words, there's some criminal laws we violate,
Speaker 1: we will prosecute some we will not. Is there any
Speaker 1: indication in Covington or Kenton County that Rob Sanders says
Speaker 1: ordering Covington police do not arrest somebody for certain offenses.
Speaker 2: Absolutely not, Willie. Thanks for having me back on.
Speaker 3: I heard your interview yesterday day before with the new
Speaker 3: FOP president.
Speaker 2: At least he's new to me. I haven't met him yet.
Speaker 3: Didn't realize that Lieutenant Dan wouldn't ran anymore. But nevertheless,
Speaker 3: the instructions they've been given are not instructions that we
Speaker 3: give police on the South side of the River. I
Speaker 3: think that's one of the reasons that we maintain a
Speaker 3: very high standard and quality of life for our residents.
Speaker 3: We have a great community to live, work and raise
Speaker 3: a family, and that's why people enjoyed open to the
Speaker 3: South side of the River.
Speaker 2: Willie.
Speaker 3: That's why we still have that big condo down on
Speaker 3: the Covington Riverfront with your name on every You're in
Speaker 3: the people's judge just waiting for you to move in.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you what happens when someone is homeless
Speaker 1: in Covington. Do you allow them to sleep on business fronts?
Speaker 1: Do allow them? And overpasses to allow them?
Speaker 4: In parks?
Speaker 1: Andbury Park and Mount Washington has a terrible problem. How
Speaker 1: does Covington handle the criminal act of invading a park
Speaker 1: and occupying it using drugs, fornicating, urinating, and all the rest.
Speaker 4: Why is that the what happens in Covington?
Speaker 3: If that occurs, generally speaking, the folks that decide to
Speaker 3: take up camp in a public space, in a park
Speaker 3: or in a business entrance or something like that, are
Speaker 3: are moved along by the police. They generally aren't arrested
Speaker 3: unless they're committing some other kind of offense, but they
Speaker 3: are encouraged to move on down the road or else.
Speaker 3: There's going to be a problem because we can't have this.
Speaker 3: We can't have homeless shutting down our businesses. We can't
Speaker 3: have homeless folks discouraging people from visiting all the fine
Speaker 3: businesses and eating establishments and night spots in the Covington
Speaker 3: business district. Recently, the Covington legislature passed what's commonly been
Speaker 3: known as House Bill five. And although it's been probably
Speaker 3: the greatest criminal justice for form in terms of improving
Speaker 3: public safety in my lifetime, in terms of treating violent
Speaker 3: offenders as violent offenders, and totally redoing Kentucky's parole structures
Speaker 3: so that violent offenders actually have to stay in prison
Speaker 3: for the majority of their sentence, all kinds of great
Speaker 3: things came out of House Bill five. What got all
Speaker 3: the attention was the portion of House Bill five that
Speaker 3: allowed police to make an arrest for camping on public property,
Speaker 3: which is not something that we've had a giant problem with.
Speaker 3: I don't want to say we've had no problems with it,
Speaker 3: but it's not been nearly the problem in Northern Kentucky
Speaker 3: as it has been in places like Louisville and Lexington,
Speaker 3: and where police were being given messages much like the
Speaker 3: ones that the Cincinnati police apparently been given, and that's
Speaker 3: to not arrest people for certain offenses, to not enforce
Speaker 3: certain laws. In northern Kentucky, to my knowledge, we've been
Speaker 3: doing it all along. And I realized that Covington's born
Speaker 3: the brunt of a lot of that homelessness. There's been
Speaker 3: a long ongoing debate in the City of Covington about
Speaker 3: burdening the city with more than its fair share of
Speaker 3: the social service organizations and things like that that tend
Speaker 3: to congregate in Covington, because that's understandably where most of
Speaker 3: the homelessness is. But Covington is long encouraged other Northern
Speaker 3: Kentucky cities to do their part in taking on social
Speaker 3: services so that we can move these folks into shelters,
Speaker 3: that we can find them housing, that we can get
Speaker 3: them off the streets, out of the parks, and at
Speaker 3: the very least out of the public eye, so that
Speaker 3: if there has to be a homeless encamp and the
Speaker 3: last place we want it is on main Street or
Speaker 3: right in the middle of our entertainment district or right
Speaker 3: along the interstate. It's visible to everybody that comes and
Speaker 3: goes from our fine towns. So we've been doing that
Speaker 3: for a long time. It's always worked. We've never really
Speaker 3: had a big problem with it. It's never been real controversial,
Speaker 3: and I don't understand why other cities can't learn from
Speaker 3: that and do the same thing.
Speaker 1: Well, we need mental hospitals, which we don't have those
Speaker 1: facilities anymore. We used to have large mental hospitals. We
Speaker 1: really don't have them anymore. And as a consequence, you
Speaker 1: have group homes voluntarily taking drugs or not taking drugs.
Speaker 1: But this particular encampment, the city was told a year
Speaker 1: ago by ODOT check the overpasses to make sure there's
Speaker 1: not homeless encampments there, because across the country there's many
Speaker 1: fires and other circumstances, and that wasn't done. The finger
Speaker 1: pointing every which way is unbelievable. But as a consequence,
Speaker 1: you have four to five hundred million dollars in repair
Speaker 1: costs born by the taxpayer. You have millions and millions
Speaker 1: of man ours, a wasted time, and it's all because
Speaker 1: this city's not paying attention to what's happening in their overpasses.
Speaker 4: It's a failure of compassion.
Speaker 1: Is not compassionate to tell someone mentally ill it's okay
Speaker 1: to live outside, take drugs, panhandle, go back under the bridge,
Speaker 1: set fires underneath four seventy one, no consequences. Ken Kober
Speaker 1: basically said yesterday it was a homeless encampment, and we're
Speaker 1: told more or less to leave them alone, and so
Speaker 1: we're not going to rouse them away from bridge overpasses
Speaker 1: when the city doesn't want us to prosecute. In fact,
Speaker 1: if we disregard a directive from the city manager's share along,
Speaker 1: if we disregard it, we might face discipline in a sense.
Speaker 1: So hell, we're not going to put ourselves out there.
Speaker 1: And the other thing of Rob Sanders that cops do
Speaker 1: not want to rouse a whole bunch of homeless individuals
Speaker 1: because the homeless homeless shelters they don't want to go
Speaker 1: into because there's rules and regulations. You can't do what
Speaker 1: you want to do and a homeless shelter, but damn it,
Speaker 1: society has rules you have to follow.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Secondly, there was an article in the inquire about possible
Speaker 1: death threats against Rob Sanders having your throat slit. What
Speaker 1: can you tell us about with that? I know it's
Speaker 1: a sense of theive issue. What can tell us about that?
Speaker 1: If anything, Willie?
Speaker 3: I don't want to go into a whole lot of
Speaker 3: details except that this is an unfortunate reality that a
Speaker 3: lot of public officials face in many different realms, but
Speaker 3: especially in the criminal justice system. Certainly not the first
Speaker 3: death threat that I've received. I'm not special by any
Speaker 3: means when it comes to that. I know other prosecutors
Speaker 3: had received death threats as well. Assistant prosecutors to get
Speaker 3: death threats. Cops get their lives threatened all the time,
Speaker 3: Judges get death threats. But in this case, when you
Speaker 3: have a very specific death threat about a location that
Speaker 3: I do in fact frequent in terms of that attack
Speaker 3: being planned at the gym that I go to, and
Speaker 3: he had the right gym, and he was a member
Speaker 3: of that gym, did have access to that gym, that
Speaker 3: obviously raises red flags. And when the police start looking
Speaker 3: into it and people that know this suspect this individual
Speaker 3: start indicating the police that he's not acting right, that
Speaker 3: he hasn't been home in days, and that he's having
Speaker 3: some sort of mental break.
Speaker 2: Obviously, that is when things go to a whole other
Speaker 2: level that it's not just my life.
Speaker 3: That is at stake, It is the lives of anybody
Speaker 3: that's around me, whether it be my family, whether it
Speaker 3: be my co workers, whether it be other court workers
Speaker 3: or other people around the courthouse, or even other people
Speaker 3: in the gym. Will it's just nobody wants to be
Speaker 3: around any kind of violence like like that. Nobody wants
Speaker 3: the violence like that. And frankly, if we tolerate that
Speaker 3: kind of violence and those kinds of threats, nobody's going
Speaker 3: to be willing to take the job a prosecutor, and
Speaker 3: nobody's going to be willing to take the job of judge.
Speaker 3: We're already having trouble finding people that are willing to
Speaker 3: take the job a police officer, and understandably, so, you know,
Speaker 3: we take it very seriously.
Speaker 2: In Kenton County. Anytime somebody tells the.
Speaker 3: Police officer that when I get out of here, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna find you, or I'm gonna find your family and
Speaker 3: I'm gonna hurt you, or I'm gonna hurt them, or
Speaker 3: any number of different threats they can make.
Speaker 2: You know, for a long time, police.
Speaker 3: Officers endure things like that and people just think it's
Speaker 3: part of the job. But not in Kenton County to
Speaker 3: take it very seriously because the police officers don't have
Speaker 3: they don't deserve to have'll be looking over their shoulder
Speaker 3: all the time. So anytime somebody makes threats like that
Speaker 3: against a police officer, it might be something they're saying
Speaker 3: out of anger, out of drunkenness out of drug intoxication
Speaker 3: while they're being arrested, and they're pissed off. But we
Speaker 3: take that very seriously because it doesn't excuse that behavior.
Speaker 3: And I don't expect the police to take it any
Speaker 3: more or less serious when it happens to me than
Speaker 3: I do when it happens to them. And I anticipate
Speaker 3: in this case, like any case that we have against
Speaker 3: the life of a police officer, it'll be taken very seriously. Ultimately,
Speaker 3: it'll probably have to call in a special prosecutor to
Speaker 3: handle the case because I'm gonna end up being a
Speaker 3: witness in the case, I'm sure. But once we get
Speaker 3: this case bound over the grand jury, we'll contact the
Speaker 3: Journey General's office and let the justice system run its course.
Speaker 4: I know one thing.
Speaker 1: If you threaten to judge, have you threatened to kill
Speaker 1: a cop or a prosecutor, the system will arise and
Speaker 1: make sure that person number one is full due process rights. Okay,
Speaker 1: we got to make sure you have the rights of
Speaker 1: this and the rights of that. You got the fourth,
Speaker 1: you got, the fifth, you got, the seventh, got the eighth,
Speaker 1: got the ninth, got the tenth, got the fourteenth, get
Speaker 1: all the amendments. A guy or the woman gets all
Speaker 1: the benefits of the criminal justice system, but once you're convicted,
Speaker 1: now you're dealing with different circumstance.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's unfortunate, will it that Kentucky law right now
Speaker 3: treats of retaliation against participants in the legal processes. What's
Speaker 3: the technical term of that that threat that crime is called?
Speaker 3: It treat it as a non violent offense. And I
Speaker 3: can tell you that it's certainly violent to me when
Speaker 3: it's my life that's that's at stake, when it's my
Speaker 3: throat that's being threatened to be slashed. I'm sure it's
Speaker 3: violent to all the judges and all the police officers
Speaker 3: that have been threatened in other cases, and the judge
Speaker 3: that was threatened in this case. But you know, that's
Speaker 3: something that Kentucky law needs to revisit. And I don't know,
Speaker 3: maybe maybe it'll take legislators having their life set in
Speaker 3: which I know probably happens from time to time or
Speaker 3: on occasion, but maybe that's something that we can convince
Speaker 3: them to revisit before it's a legislator's life that is threatened,
Speaker 3: so that we can treat it as a violent offense.
Speaker 2: As it should be, is it should have been treated
Speaker 2: all along.
Speaker 1: Now lastly, and we spoke off there about this about
Speaker 1: Brian Thompson, the CEO who was a murdered, an assassination,
Speaker 1: really a political killing. Deny, defend and depose those rewards
Speaker 1: put on the shellcasings on the nine millimeter semi auto
Speaker 1: that ejected from his pistol. He wanted to send a message.
Speaker 1: This is in Manhattan, Brian Thompson's CEO of United Healthcare. Deny,
Speaker 1: defend and depose. There's not much shall we say, room
Speaker 1: on a shellcasing you put that. Just as an investigator,
Speaker 1: what do you think about that?
Speaker 3: Well, certainly somebody's trying to send a message there, William right.
Speaker 3: I don't know enough about United health Care in their
Speaker 3: situation to know if that's a very specific person that
Speaker 3: may have wronged in some way, or at least that
Speaker 3: person felt as though they had been wronged by that
Speaker 3: company that was apt to get revenged on the CEO
Speaker 3: of the company, or if perhaps this was strictly a
Speaker 3: business deal gone bad of some sort, somebody putting a
Speaker 3: hit out on a CEO of a company and just
Speaker 3: putting those words on a shellcasing in order to throw
Speaker 3: investigators off and make them think it was a disgruntled
Speaker 3: customer of some sorts or something along those lines. But
Speaker 3: as you and I talked off their it's very unusual
Speaker 3: to have and what appears to be at least a
Speaker 3: professional killing or a very intentional hit that somebody put
Speaker 3: on the CEO. It's unusual for a hit man to
Speaker 3: leave evidence behind, and oftentimes somebody committing a heinous crime
Speaker 3: like this would use a revolver because it doesn't eject
Speaker 3: the shells like a semi automatic weapon would do. But
Speaker 3: in this case, when they're carving messages into the shell casings,
Speaker 3: not only are they leaving those pieces of evidence behind,
Speaker 3: but they're doing it very intentionally to send a message,
Speaker 3: to convey a message of some sort to the rest
Speaker 3: of the world about the purpose behind this killing. And
Speaker 3: certainly it's too fresh and too new for us to
Speaker 3: know exactly what that message means. But that's something I'm
Speaker 3: sure investigators are working hard on to trying to try
Speaker 3: and solve.
Speaker 1: We'll see what happens at Rob Sanders, I know you're
Speaker 1: in Kentucky teaching other prosecutors how to prosecute you just
Speaker 1: got elected. Tony Benner told me you had a tough race,
Speaker 1: barely one in November.
Speaker 4: You snuck in.
Speaker 1: What can you tell me about how the citizens of
Speaker 1: Kenton County dealt with you because there was a concern
Speaker 1: maybe you couldn't make it.
Speaker 3: What happened, well, Willie, I was very fortunate I was
Speaker 3: up for re elections. Just I'm in the process of
Speaker 3: finishing up my third term, my eighteenth years.
Speaker 2: He elected to come on with attorney here in Kenton County.
Speaker 3: But I've just been fortunate enough, left enough by the
Speaker 3: voters in Kenton County to be erected elected to my
Speaker 3: fourth six year term. Was the lucky beneficiary of running
Speaker 3: a post. But nevertheless name had to appear on the docket,
Speaker 3: on the docket, on the ballot, and I'm proud to
Speaker 3: say that I got more votes than any other person
Speaker 3: running for any office, including President Donald Trump. He didn't
Speaker 3: even get as many votes as Rob Sanders did. So
Speaker 3: this was a great outcome from me. Very proud of
Speaker 3: the work that I do, that my staff does. Fortunate
Speaker 3: and blessed to be the kamalth attorney in Kenton County.
Speaker 3: So now all fifty seven comalth attorneys We're on the
Speaker 3: ballot in Kentucky just this past November and we had
Speaker 3: eighteen newly elected comalth attorneys. So I'm in Lexington, Kentucky
Speaker 3: today training some of my new fellow comonwalth attorneys, including
Speaker 3: my new neighbor next door Mike Zimmerman, who'll be taking
Speaker 3: over the kamal with attorney's office in Campbell County and
Speaker 3: his office in Newport. He's down here with me, and
Speaker 3: of course Lewis Kelly from Boone County. He's been around
Speaker 3: for a term. He just got reelected his second term.
Speaker 3: Lewis is down here teaching the newcomalalth attorneys alongside me.
Speaker 2: So it's a nice little day trip for us.
Speaker 3: To get out of the office and meet our newest
Speaker 3: elected comalth attorneys, sell any prosecutors, and to come all
Speaker 3: out of Kentucky. And we're giving them a few pointers
Speaker 3: on how to run things, hopefully not screw anything up, you.
Speaker 2: Know, learn from our mistakes along the way, that sort
Speaker 2: of thing.
Speaker 3: But I'm blessed and fortunate that I'll be around, be
Speaker 3: doing more interviews with you, Willie for the next couple years,
Speaker 3: and I'm looking forward to well, how.
Speaker 1: About you running for Attorney General US Senate. You're undefeated,
Speaker 1: untied on scored on. Why don't you run for something else?
Speaker 1: Or are you happy?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 4: People say to me, why don't you do this?
Speaker 3: Do that?
Speaker 1: And I said, look, I have what I seek. I
Speaker 1: want happiness, fulfillment. I like to do what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: Somebody pays me a few bucks to do it. I'm
Speaker 1: motivated to do the job. Why do I want something
Speaker 1: when I already have happiness and peace and joy. I
Speaker 1: know Kamala Harris gave me a lot of joy in
Speaker 1: this election. But nonetheless, have you thought about running for
Speaker 1: something bigger and better? Or is this the best it
Speaker 1: can be? And if you're happy with what you're doing,
Speaker 1: if you have what you seek, don't move.
Speaker 2: Well, Willie.
Speaker 3: I love what I do and I could die to
Speaker 3: come on with attorney in Kent and Kenny and didn't
Speaker 3: have spent my entire career there, and I.
Speaker 2: Will die happy. I love my job, I love the
Speaker 2: people I work with.
Speaker 3: I love serving the citizens Kent and County, working with
Speaker 3: the awesome police departments that we have in Kent County
Speaker 3: and all in northern Kentucky.
Speaker 2: So I'm happy where I am.
Speaker 3: But most importantly, I'm not about to turn my office
Speaker 3: over because some Democrat, you know, soft on crime, hug
Speaker 3: at the pointe that Andy Basheer would have taken.
Speaker 2: My place if I were to step down and move
Speaker 2: on to some other office.
Speaker 3: So until we have a Republican governor, I won't even
Speaker 3: think about any other offices or any other jobs. Not
Speaker 3: saying that I'm thinking about any other jobs as it is,
Speaker 3: but I promise you I'm at least here until we
Speaker 3: get a new governor. So the next governor's race not
Speaker 3: till twenty twenty seven, that's Andy basher you know, runs
Speaker 3: for mitchim McConnell's seat or something.
Speaker 2: Along those lines.
Speaker 3: Maybe then we end up with a new governor, one
Speaker 3: that would appoint a replacement from within my own office.
Speaker 3: I would have a number of different assistant prosecutors that
Speaker 3: worked for me that I would entrust with running my office.
Speaker 3: But I'm not going to turn it over to somebody
Speaker 3: who I have to wonder what they're going to do
Speaker 3: and what kind of policies they're going to install, and
Speaker 3: how much of a threat that would be the safety ally,
Speaker 3: So up here for at least the next several years
Speaker 3: and God willing a lot longer after that. Lord knows,
Speaker 3: if I was doing another job, I might not have
Speaker 3: time to do your show, and I'd know that.
Speaker 1: The thing is, I know you're an honorary Kentucky colonel.
Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a Kentucky colonel. I could see Colonel
Speaker 1: Sanders for Kentucky. I see those signs, Colonel Sanders. Who
Speaker 1: in the hell would vote against Colonel Sanders for Kentucky.
Speaker 1: Just an idea, It's something to think about. Billboards all
Speaker 1: over Colonel Sanders for Kentucky.
Speaker 4: A chicken wing in every pot?
Speaker 3: We got? What do you think I'm gonna have to
Speaker 3: jump on that website.
Speaker 4: Colonel Sanders, chicken wing in every pot?
Speaker 2: I mean it would, colonels in Kentucky.
Speaker 4: You wouldn't but dominate.
Speaker 1: You get all the votes against an opponent, you get
Speaker 1: one hundred percent of the vote.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna have to change my campaign signed to red
Speaker 3: and white stripes though, so you know that branding.
Speaker 2: But we'll work on that, Willie, We'll work on that.
Speaker 1: That's a brilliant IDEA chicken wing in every pot? All right,
Speaker 1: Colonel Sanders, you're the best thing. Can I call you?
Speaker 1: Colonel you're an honorary colonel. Everybody in Kentucky's an honorary colonel. Right,
Speaker 1: I got a.
Speaker 3: In a Kentucky colonel, Willie.
Speaker 2: It got that for me, that designation when I was
Speaker 2: just a little.
Speaker 1: Kid, Colonel Sanders, for Kentucky. It believe me, you would
Speaker 1: not lose, all right, Rob, Colonel, thank you very much
Speaker 1: for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. Gets your eye on,
Speaker 1: get your head on a swivel, Look left, look right, Okay,
Speaker 1: just keep looking around.
Speaker 2: We're working on that, Willie.
Speaker 3: I appreciate the thought though, and the all the expressions
Speaker 3: support that I've received from everybody all around Northern Kentucky
Speaker 3: and Greater Cincinnati. It's really been nice to have folks
Speaker 3: reach out, and it's good to know that people care.
Speaker 2: But certainly we're gonna be real careful going forward.
Speaker 4: Please please, colonel, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: Will you have a great day.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Colonel, thank you.
Speaker 1: Let's continue with more chicken wing in every pot on
Speaker 1: news Radio seven hundred WULW