Speaker 1: By Billy Cunningham, The Great America.
Speaker 2: Welcome this Friday afternoon in the tri State, getting ready,
Speaker 2: of course for Reds baseball tonight in Saint Louis. Three
Speaker 2: games set in Saint Louis, and back room for the Yankees.
Speaker 2: The Yankees are trembling about playing the Reds at my ballpark,
Speaker 2: the Great American, and we have a conversation coming up
Speaker 2: late of the Paul O'Neill, who has his foot in
Speaker 2: both camps. He considers himself more of a Yankee because
Speaker 2: he is a minu in and minument park in center field.
Speaker 1: That's the reason. Rather than the Reds.
Speaker 2: One of the worst trades the Reds ever made was
Speaker 2: trading Paul O'Neill for Roberto Kelly. Whatever happened to him.
Speaker 2: But nonetheless, more important matters are a foot right now.
Speaker 2: Joining you and I now is State Representative Cidny Abrams
Speaker 2: of the West Side of Town and Sidney Abrams, Welcome
Speaker 2: again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And relative first to
Speaker 2: the Patrick Herringer situation, who was murdered in his home
Speaker 2: and this can you tell the American people at this
Speaker 2: point there's an investigation under way about what happened in
Speaker 2: the state. You're of your foot also in both camps.
Speaker 2: I don't know how many lawmakers have been Cincinnati police
Speaker 2: officers as you've been and a lawmaker somewhat unusual, But
Speaker 2: who dropped the ball a notifying the local authorities about
Speaker 2: the walking around with a knife of Mordecai Block that
Speaker 2: resulted in the murder of Patrick Herringer. What what was
Speaker 2: the circumstance that happened that caused that to occur.
Speaker 3: Well, first of.
Speaker 4: All, thank you for having me on today, and I
Speaker 4: will tell you that when I woke up the next
Speaker 4: morning and I read about, you know, the horrific murder
Speaker 4: of Patrick, I immediately started to ask questions and figure
Speaker 4: out what happened and how can I, as a lawmaker
Speaker 4: make positive change so that this does not happen to
Speaker 4: someone else. Now that being said, to answer your question,
Speaker 4: there's nobody in the General Assembly that was a Cincinnati
Speaker 4: police officer, So there's that. So I went to work
Speaker 4: immediately asking questions. You know, I talked to all all
Speaker 4: the parties involved, and the bottom line is this, and
Speaker 4: I will start by saying this, there are so many
Speaker 4: politicians that just stand around and take pictures with the
Speaker 4: police and say we support you, and but when push
Speaker 4: comes to shove, actions speak louder than words.
Speaker 3: We were all taught that as kids, at least I was.
Speaker 4: And at the end of the day, I am not
Speaker 4: just standing around saying, oh, I support you guys and gals.
Speaker 3: I actually take action. So what am I doing? Well,
Speaker 3: I am.
Speaker 4: I've done some research and I found out that at
Speaker 4: the end of the day, there was no protocol.
Speaker 3: That's what they told me, the Adult par Authority.
Speaker 4: There was no protocol for them to notify that they
Speaker 4: had to notify local law enforcement when they entered the warrant.
Speaker 4: For I call it escape. It's not escape, it's a
Speaker 4: wall or absconding. So when he cut the ankle monitor
Speaker 4: off and decided not to go along with the conditions
Speaker 4: of his release because he was a targeted violent defender
Speaker 4: at CBO, when he walked away and decided he's going
Speaker 4: to to go, you know, live his best life doing
Speaker 4: god knows what, murdering people, that was a violation. So
Speaker 4: at that point, the Adult Pearl Authority has to enter
Speaker 4: the warrant in Leeds, okay. And so what I'm working
Speaker 4: on is it's going to say that the adult parole
Speaker 4: authority shall and you know in the ORC when it
Speaker 4: says shall, that means you have to. There's no other
Speaker 4: way about it. You shall enter that warrant within twenty
Speaker 4: four hours into leeds. And you also shall notify local
Speaker 4: law enforcement of this violent offender on the run. And
Speaker 4: what I mean by local law enforcement your city, your county,
Speaker 4: your township, your village, and the public safety answering point
Speaker 4: which is our communications center. That is the law that
Speaker 4: I'm working on.
Speaker 2: Good more and more Kai Black's case, A little birdie
Speaker 2: told me that he committed numerous felonies in prison in
Speaker 2: the nine and that years he was in prison. In fact,
Speaker 2: he's been locked up seventeen of his last eighteen years
Speaker 2: in prison. That he committed numerous felonies in prison. So
Speaker 2: why wasn't he prosecuted for felonies go over the list?
Speaker 2: Selling and using methanphetamine, shanking inmates, fights in prison, and
Speaker 2: no point in prison was he indicted for those felonies
Speaker 2: which would have kept him longer. Why wasn't he indicted
Speaker 2: for selling meth in prison?
Speaker 3: Well, what I see is he was under the influence
Speaker 3: of hooch.
Speaker 4: He was making who he was fighting he was not
Speaker 4: obeying the guard's orders. He was under the influence of
Speaker 4: K two and so again I'm also looking into that,
Speaker 4: like why wasn't he charged with the additional crime in
Speaker 4: prison and in the correct in the Administrative Code Department
Speaker 4: of Corrections, they can charge him. The question was why
Speaker 4: wasn't he I don't know, maybe make that in law too,
Speaker 4: I will.
Speaker 3: Tell all right.
Speaker 2: Now another issue, he was out and he cut it
Speaker 2: off within about a month of him being out, he
Speaker 2: cut it off. And to get out, to have the
Speaker 2: ankle monitor put on, he had to identify where is
Speaker 2: he's staying, Who's he's with, who are your friends? Next
Speaker 2: of ken, next of In other words, looking ahead to
Speaker 2: him cutting it off, they would have had his address
Speaker 2: next to Ken, phone numbers, et cetera.
Speaker 1: People to research.
Speaker 2: He committed a terrible burglary like three weeks before the murder,
Speaker 2: and at that point the victims of the burglary in
Speaker 2: Cincinnati OTR notified the police Mordecai Black is the guy
Speaker 2: that did it, and a no point a CPD say, okay,
Speaker 2: let's find out.
Speaker 1: Let's go get Mordecai Black.
Speaker 2: We have his last known address, we have his friends
Speaker 2: and associates, he's living in OTR. Why didn't CPD say, okay,
Speaker 2: we got this guy, let's go find him before the murder.
Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you.
Speaker 4: When you enter a warrant into leads, you have to
Speaker 4: have all their information, So everything about them, named data, birth,
Speaker 4: everything you mentioned. Okay, the crime they're convicted of, everything, Okay,
Speaker 4: And so yes, officially that LEADS that warrant for absconding
Speaker 4: and going a wall was in there at the time
Speaker 4: that they're investigating this other burglary that he was a
Speaker 4: suspect of the issue is this times have changed sadly
Speaker 4: over the last you know, twenty years in law enforcement,
Speaker 4: and they're short staffed.
Speaker 3: I mean, I remember when I took the test. There
Speaker 3: were thirty five hundred people there at.
Speaker 4: The convention center to take the test, and they chose
Speaker 4: eighty of us. And so look, there's less young people
Speaker 4: that want to do this job. But what I think
Speaker 4: the biggest issue is is they don't feel law enforcement.
Speaker 3: Our cops don't feel that they're supported.
Speaker 4: So if they go out and again, look at the
Speaker 4: shooting that just happened, right, I'm not going to any
Speaker 4: of the bad guy's names because I'm not gonna give
Speaker 4: them any air. But I tell you that officer waited
Speaker 4: what a month to be cleared.
Speaker 3: For doing your job, doing your job.
Speaker 4: So again I think that they're short staffed. Yes, we
Speaker 4: do have the CIGIC and they have the task force,
Speaker 4: and they go out and round up bad guys and felons.
Speaker 3: But again, like I.
Speaker 4: Said, if this was put notifying them and saying, hey,
Speaker 4: here's what we got, go get them, I think that
Speaker 4: that would we would absolutely prevent that murder.
Speaker 2: Culturally, cops and you were one thirty five hundred for
Speaker 2: eighty spots. Now CPD goes into the community to advertise
Speaker 2: the fact please make an application. And so at this
Speaker 2: point the cops are told directly indirectly, don't be aggressive,
Speaker 2: don't take a handful of warrns. I was told twenty
Speaker 2: years ago the cops would show up, not much going on,
Speaker 2: I take a handful of warns, go find these guys.
Speaker 1: That doesn't happen anymore, right, That's.
Speaker 3: Right, we did that. I mean, whether it's that or
Speaker 3: whether it's stolen cars.
Speaker 4: I mean I remember again back in the day, you
Speaker 4: would tape all the license plates and making models of
Speaker 4: every stolen car that's in the area, so you would
Speaker 4: go look for those two and you had time.
Speaker 1: Don't do that.
Speaker 4: But again, like I said, now, I mean, are you
Speaker 4: supportive when you get a stolen car and get in
Speaker 4: a pursuit of a felon and then they run from
Speaker 4: you and full of gun I.
Speaker 3: Mean that's the question.
Speaker 2: Well, this cop waited six weeks to be cleared, and
Speaker 2: he was on desk duty for a while and the
Speaker 2: message was sent.
Speaker 1: Was he close to getting indicted? I don't think so.
Speaker 2: I think Connie Pillach did a good job at the
Speaker 2: news conference and laid it out. But the next next
Speaker 2: time might be a little closer, might be quick. You
Speaker 2: have to make a split second life and debt decision.
Speaker 2: Make the wrong one, your life is over. So the
Speaker 2: law will be called? What to Sidney Abrams? What will
Speaker 2: be the law called? When this thing changes?
Speaker 4: My plan is to name it, of course, with Sarah's permission,
Speaker 4: is to name it after Patrick Patrick Karendra.
Speaker 2: Yeah act and maybe in the future there'll be something
Speaker 2: good and valuable coming of it. Let's talk briefly about
Speaker 2: the Larry Henderson Act. I know law enforcement cares about
Speaker 2: this one too. What would that do Officer Larry Henderson
Speaker 2: who was murdered by the father of the kid that
Speaker 2: was shot in the business of stealing cars. What is
Speaker 2: the Larry Henderson Act.
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: So again after that horrific, So I thought about, okay,
Speaker 4: what is current law. So, when you are convicted of
Speaker 4: aggravated murder of a law enforcement officer, this is current law.
Speaker 4: Your sentencing choices are death okay, the death bounty, or
Speaker 4: life in prison with parole. And there's you know, you know,
Speaker 4: ten twenty, thirty, forty fifty years where you can come
Speaker 4: up for parole.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 4: So then I thought to myself, first of all, why
Speaker 4: is it only law enforcement officers? You know, we should
Speaker 4: include all of our first responders, right, so every police
Speaker 4: officer right the city, county, od and our corrections troopers,
Speaker 4: everybody including the FEDS, and our first responders are firefighters,
Speaker 4: are emt are paramedic, and our military members. If you
Speaker 4: wear a uniform, this act is going to protect you.
Speaker 4: Someone kills you on purpose, they have a plan, They
Speaker 4: do it on purpose. They're convicted of aggravated murder. Your
Speaker 4: sentencing choices are death or life without parole. I am
Speaker 4: sick and tired of the assault on the people that
Speaker 4: are here keeping us safe every single day.
Speaker 2: Because at this point, if you can I'm a police officer,
Speaker 2: a first responder, someone with the fire department, whatever, you
Speaker 2: can get to life imprisonment, but it doesn't mean without parole.
Speaker 2: In fact, there was a cop killer about ten years
Speaker 2: ago who was paroled and he's now living on the
Speaker 2: beaches of California, which is incredible, and god knows, a
Speaker 2: future governor might say, it's really the death penalty largely
Speaker 2: is unused completely now and people talk about life without
Speaker 2: possibility of parole. But the governor can still issue a pardon.
Speaker 2: And we had Dick Celeste do that in mass about
Speaker 2: thirty years ago, that he took everybody off death row
Speaker 2: and gave them the possibility of parole. But this law
Speaker 2: that Larry Henderson Act would keep that from occurring.
Speaker 1: Is that true?
Speaker 2: Or could a future governor down the road say, anyway, well,
Speaker 2: even though Sidney Abrams would like to have somebody in
Speaker 2: prison for the rest of their life, after all, this
Speaker 2: guy was young, he was disadvantaged, he's already been serving
Speaker 2: thirty thirty five years and as a consequence, let's pardon him.
Speaker 2: Does that eliminate the governor's part in power.
Speaker 4: No, but I guess the question would have to be asked, like,
Speaker 4: as governor, are you going to live with that when
Speaker 4: they come out and kill again?
Speaker 3: But you have to live with that in my opinion.
Speaker 2: All right now, all you can do is a lawmaker
Speaker 2: is do the law and then whatever the well, it
Speaker 2: is despicable and last night another kid was killed and
Speaker 2: over the rhine last night again every day, and we're
Speaker 2: told by city fathers and mothers they have to have
Speaker 2: pure of all that it's a safe community. You know,
Speaker 2: there's about twenty thousand shots fired every year according to
Speaker 2: shot Spotter in the city of Cincinnati, twenty thousand shots fired,
Speaker 2: only five hundred people are wounded. It's a terrible circumstance.
Speaker 2: It begins with law enforcement. And when there's one cop
Speaker 2: between the Ohio River and North otr at three o'clock
Speaker 2: in the morning, that's a problem. And the fact that
Speaker 2: cops are reticent about doing their job because of fear
Speaker 2: of retribution, that's a problem. Let's move to issue number
Speaker 2: two if we can. Tony Bender, many others may have
Speaker 2: a dog and what is the dog bill? I know
Speaker 2: it's called the aver rebill, And what is the dog bill,
Speaker 2: We had some of these vicious pit pulls running around
Speaker 2: biting people, killing people, biting off parts of their body.
Speaker 2: And what does the new dog Bill do if anything?
Speaker 4: Well, so what happened not just down here in Cincinnati,
Speaker 4: but across the state. We had devastating, horrific people that
Speaker 4: were severely injured or killed by these dogs running around
Speaker 4: with no supervision from their owners.
Speaker 3: There was a older woman over in Circleville. She was
Speaker 3: out literally just pulling the weeds in her front garden
Speaker 3: bed and she was mauled to death.
Speaker 4: And so that whenever something horrific happens, of course it
Speaker 4: gets you know, the attention of lawmakers to take a
Speaker 4: look at Okay, now, what are we doing here? And
Speaker 4: what all this comes down to? This personal responsibility. That's
Speaker 4: all it is. You have a dog, you are responsible
Speaker 4: for that dog. And we're not talking about if someone
Speaker 4: is messing with the dog, you know, you're wrestling with
Speaker 4: the dog, or you're provoking it. No, we are talking
Speaker 4: about unprovoked attacks. Just like Avery. She was eleven years old.
Speaker 4: She went over for a playdate at her friend's house
Speaker 4: and these the dogs mauled her so horrifically. She was
Speaker 4: severely injured. She's had multiple surgeries, and let me tell you,
Speaker 4: if you have a few minutes, you need to watch
Speaker 4: Public Safety Committee when she came in and she gave testimony.
Speaker 4: She is a strong twelve year old young lady and
Speaker 4: we are so proud for sharing her story. And so
Speaker 4: what this bill does basically is it holds dog owners
Speaker 4: accountable for unprovoked attacks.
Speaker 3: You're responsible for that dog. If you let it.
Speaker 4: Run around the neighborhood and it bites a running or
Speaker 4: walking or a kid riding its bike, shame on you.
Speaker 4: It's going to be a criminal penalty. You'll have a
Speaker 4: misdemeanor if it's serious injury and I'm one, and if
Speaker 4: it kills, if your dog kills somebody, it's going to
Speaker 4: be a felony of the fourth degree. We're tired of it.
Speaker 4: We're sending a message and it's going to give the
Speaker 4: dog warden the authority to take the dog, and then
Speaker 4: you're going to have due process in court. Every will
Speaker 4: have their court and the judge will declare whether that
Speaker 4: dog's going to be put.
Speaker 3: Down or not.
Speaker 2: So the one bite rule is done. One bite is done.
Speaker 2: A person with a vicious dog is held accountable. You
Speaker 2: buy everything that dog does.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: Lastly, head on a lawmaker. It might have been the
Speaker 2: speaker Matt Huffman about a week or two ago. And
Speaker 2: there's a vote we're going to have in Ohio in
Speaker 2: November or in May that will eliminate all real estate
Speaker 2: property taxes. You give the American people a chance to
Speaker 2: eliminate real estate property taxes, they're likely to do it.
Speaker 2: And that means there goes the funding for the schools,
Speaker 2: police and fire, et cetera. And then he said that
Speaker 2: if that goes out the window, that the sales tax
Speaker 2: will be twenty percent. So that means everybody that has
Speaker 2: a big purchase will go to Covington, will go to Batesville,
Speaker 2: they'll get the hell out of Ohio to buy something
Speaker 2: because who's going to pay twenty percent sales tax? Getting
Speaker 2: rid of real lif state taxes. That's a great idea. However,
Speaker 2: what's the downside?
Speaker 4: Well, actually it sounds the folks that are collecting signatures.
Speaker 4: I would caution everyone. I would say, please do not
Speaker 4: sign that petition. And here's why, listen, I live in Harrison, Ohio.
Speaker 4: They're fiscally responsible here, they're conservative, they're not wasting money.
Speaker 4: If property taxes were totally eliminated, we would not the
Speaker 4: City of Harrison would not be the City of Harrison
Speaker 4: as it is. Now, what do I mean by that?
Speaker 4: Their police, their fire, their streets department, you know, the
Speaker 4: guys that come out and keep our roads safe and
Speaker 4: fill potholes and whatnot. While the snow, all of that
Speaker 4: would be totally gone, and the property taxes are used
Speaker 4: to pay for things like I just mentioned, please fire roads,
Speaker 4: right and the whole nine yards, our schools educating our children.
Speaker 4: So yes, the speaker is totally right. We the General
Speaker 4: Assembly would have to say, Okay, well, how are we
Speaker 4: going to fund all these things? Because I mean, at
Speaker 4: the end of the day, you have to now what
Speaker 4: I will say in the budget. And we're working on
Speaker 4: the Conference committee. Now I'm not in the conference committee.
Speaker 4: It's three House members, three Senate members, and they're working
Speaker 4: on the differences between the House and the Senate budget.
Speaker 3: But at the end of the.
Speaker 4: Day, we are trying to deliver property tax relief for ohiolands.
Speaker 3: We get it, We also pay it.
Speaker 4: We all have a tax bill that we pay, and
Speaker 4: so we are trying to deliver property tax relief to
Speaker 4: ohiolands while still funding schools, our local government fund, medicaid,
Speaker 4: the Department of Corrections, Department of Youth Services, state patrol,
Speaker 4: you get the program.
Speaker 3: I mean the state pays for a lot of.
Speaker 2: Things, yeah, including police and fire and getting the streets
Speaker 2: under control. But once again State Representative sending Abras, thanks
Speaker 2: for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show this Friday afternoon.
Speaker 2: The budgets all that stuff important, and we have people
Speaker 2: like Mordecai Black running around OTR, which is a almost
Speaker 2: like Tombstone. It's like the Ok Corral, and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, a good man and a good woman, a
Speaker 2: man's life's taken defending Sarah against his fish's criminal because
Speaker 2: this State to Ohio and city police together did not
Speaker 2: go find this guy, and after he burglarized his ex
Speaker 2: girlfriends him. I can't imagine being the ex girlfriend of
Speaker 2: Mordecai Black and she identifies him as the person that
Speaker 2: did it and is simply laid there. And three weeks
Speaker 2: later he murdered Patrick Herringer in his home. Something's got
Speaker 2: to be done. But Sidney Abrams, thanks again. Continue to
Speaker 2: have a great day, and we'll talk later and after
Speaker 2: the budget has approved and Sidney Abrams, thank you for
Speaker 2: coming on the Bill Cunningham Show.
Speaker 1: And you're a great American.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, thanks for having me. Let's continue
Speaker 2: with more if a line becomes available. Five one, three, seven, four, nine,
Speaker 2: seven thousand. Bill Cunningham, the great American with you every day.
Speaker 2: You're home of the Reds and so much more. News
Speaker 2: Radio seven hundred WLW