Speaker 1: This is Dan Kaplis, and welcome to today's online podcast
Speaker 1: edition of The Dan Kaplis Show. Please be sure to
Speaker 1: give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
Speaker 1: and to subscribe, download, and listen to the show every
Speaker 1: single day on your favorite podcast platform. Well, you're going
Speaker 1: to be glad you're here for this one.
Speaker 2: We're going to start with somebody who is fighting for
Speaker 2: the American way in all of the best senses, and
Speaker 2: that is a woman named Heather McCormick.
Speaker 3: And she's going to tell you a story. Even if you've.
Speaker 2: Heard it, you haven't heard it from her. She's going
Speaker 2: to tell you a story that will infuriate you and
Speaker 2: you will want to demand action right now. And that's
Speaker 2: good and that's why we've asked Heather to come on,
Speaker 2: because every good Colorado across all lines should want action
Speaker 2: taken on this. And then we're going to be reporting
Speaker 2: on a very big story today. Mike Johnston, mayor of Genver,
Speaker 2: now spending two million dollars of Denver taxpayer money on
Speaker 2: a big fancy DC law firm for what purpose, Well,
Speaker 2: pretty clearly protect Mike Johnston. So we'll get to that
Speaker 2: in a bit, but let's come out of the gate
Speaker 2: with a woman named Heather McCormick. And Heather McCormick has
Speaker 2: spoken out publicly at this point too. Shan Boyd in
Speaker 2: a CBS four story about a situation at Columbine High School.
Speaker 2: You won't even believe. And if you're already familiar with
Speaker 2: the story, Heather, we'll add some more detail. Heather is
Speaker 2: friends of the family involved, friends of the parents who
Speaker 2: have had to endure something that has to be a nightmare,
Speaker 2: absolutely heartbreaking for them. And I'll turn it over to
Speaker 2: Heather now. Heather, thanks for joining me. Sure, appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Thanks happy to be here.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Well, if you would please just tell people this story,
Speaker 2: your understanding of it, and then obviously you've been in
Speaker 2: touch with the family and that's where you get your perspective,
Speaker 2: but please just take the floor and bring people up
Speaker 2: to speed.
Speaker 4: Well, I guess we have to start all the way
Speaker 4: back in the school year twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, when
Speaker 4: this student was in Partney's ap was for ap Street class.
Speaker 2: Heather, may I interrupt for a second. Don't mean to
Speaker 2: be rude, but we have a bad connection. Does the
Speaker 2: cell sound okay on your end?
Speaker 4: It does have a pay on my end.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah. So what's going to happen now, Heather
Speaker 2: is our amazing crew of engineering wizards are going to
Speaker 2: try to modulate some stuff behind the glass and hopefully
Speaker 2: we can get the sound quality better. So why don't
Speaker 2: we pick it up from your point that twenty eighteen
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen school year.
Speaker 3: What happens then?
Speaker 2: Okay, we're making those adjustments, and trust me, you're really yeah,
Speaker 2: you're really going to want to hear from Heather on
Speaker 2: this because Heather's going to tell you a story about
Speaker 2: what happened to Columbine that I couldn't even believe when
Speaker 2: I first heard it. Heather, let's pick it up with
Speaker 2: the twenty eighteen twenty nineteen school year.
Speaker 4: Okay, hopefully you can hear me out.
Speaker 3: My lord, it sounds like you're in the same room.
Speaker 4: Okay, great, during that school year, this is the school
Speaker 4: year that the student was in Carney's history class, and
Speaker 4: so that's where they first met. That was twenty eighteen,
Speaker 4: twenty nineteen school year. And the teacher also at that
Speaker 4: time discussed with the speech pathologist Ashley Thomas at the school,
Speaker 4: just inquiring about how a student can be declared homeless
Speaker 4: to contact. So that's kind of where it all started out.
Speaker 4: If you fast forward a little bit to the twenty
Speaker 4: and twenty one year, that's when the parents later found
Speaker 4: out as they're going back and investigating and trying to
Speaker 4: figure out what all happened, that there were over two
Speaker 4: twenty thousand text messages exchanged between this teacher and their child,
Speaker 4: and like over forty hours of talking on the phone.
Speaker 4: So there was clearly more in this relationship than should
Speaker 4: have been between teacher and student. And so anyways, if
Speaker 4: we go to April twenty twenty two, this is her
Speaker 4: senior year and kind of where everything sort of spirals
Speaker 4: out of control for the family when they start finding
Speaker 4: out all of the things that have been going on
Speaker 4: behind their backs. So Ashley Thomas has reported some of
Speaker 4: this information, filling in some of these gaps that she
Speaker 4: was asked to take in this student. She had previously
Speaker 4: taken in a homeless student. Well, when they met with
Speaker 4: Christy and he said this the Scott Christy, the principal,
Speaker 4: I call it my high school, and he said that
Speaker 4: she had taken in homeless. You speak before, of course
Speaker 4: the parents' first responses, but my kid isn't homeless, so
Speaker 4: why would this be even on the radar. And so
Speaker 4: at this point they didn't realize that what had been
Speaker 4: happening is that their daughter had talked to her counselor
Speaker 4: expressed as most teenagers do their you know, their frustrations
Speaker 4: with their home life, and instead of talking to this
Speaker 4: student working through it, and or if they felt there
Speaker 4: was a real concern reporting it the way they are
Speaker 4: mandatory reporters that have reported it to Child Protective Services,
Speaker 4: instead they pursued this homeless status for this student so
Speaker 4: that she could move out and in with a teacher.
Speaker 2: Lord, let me ask you about a couple of names
Speaker 2: for those not familiar with the story. You mentioned a
Speaker 2: Kerney in the beginning. Is that Leanne Michelle Kearney a teacher?
Speaker 4: Yep, she was a teacher? Uh huh?
Speaker 2: And Ashley Thomas then, how again does she fit into it?
Speaker 4: So, Ashley Thomas was the elogist at Columbine at that time,
Speaker 4: and she had spoken with Karney. Well, Karney had spoken
Speaker 4: to her about this because she had previously taken in
Speaker 4: a child who was actually homeless, and so then when
Speaker 4: they brought her back into the fold, she kind of
Speaker 4: assumed that because the principal had known what was going on,
Speaker 4: and the counselor had known what was going on, that
Speaker 4: this was something that you know, they were in communication
Speaker 4: with the parents about. So she went through the motions. Now,
Speaker 4: Ashley Thomas is a speech pathologist, and this student was
Speaker 4: a great student. She had a four point six gpa,
Speaker 4: she was top ten percent of her class, She was
Speaker 4: state swim, she was on the state so she was
Speaker 4: a great student there. She wasn't there was no reason
Speaker 4: for her to have any contact with the speech pathologist
Speaker 4: at the school.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: And when you say that she had taken in a
Speaker 2: homeless student before, do you mean the teacher Kearnie or
Speaker 2: Ashley Thomas.
Speaker 4: Ashley Thomas had taken him before. That's why Kearnie had
Speaker 4: talked to her about what that looked like, how to
Speaker 4: declare her homeless and who took contact to do that?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 2: And then is the belief at this point that Kearnie
Speaker 2: had been having some type of intimate relationship with the student.
Speaker 4: Yes, now, in hindsight, with all the information they have
Speaker 4: and the text messages and that you know, the hours
Speaker 4: of talking and things they if now and currently she
Speaker 4: is they have moved out of state and continued a
Speaker 4: relationship post graduation.
Speaker 2: So so this student now lives with Kearnie, the former
Speaker 2: teacher she did.
Speaker 4: I can't say first certain right now they live in
Speaker 4: the same state, but I they were after they left here,
Speaker 4: they moved to California. So the the family has a younger,
Speaker 4: a sibling, So this student had a brother at school
Speaker 4: with her at the same time that all this was
Speaker 4: going on, and so after she graduated, he had heard
Speaker 4: that his sister had moved to this small town in
Speaker 4: California and son then they pieced that together that she
Speaker 4: too right.
Speaker 2: And obviously Kearnie at this point has not been charged
Speaker 2: with any crime, presumed innnicent of any crime, et cetera.
Speaker 2: But what really concerns me just as a citizen of
Speaker 2: the community and as a parent, because I think about
Speaker 2: the parents, the heartbreak they must be suffering. And if
Speaker 2: you can stay for another segment, Heather, I'd like you
Speaker 2: to talk about some of what the parents have been
Speaker 2: through that the whole situation just cries out for more,
Speaker 2: more investigation, more action. I'd like to talk to you
Speaker 2: about has anything been done, any consequences for any of
Speaker 2: the folks, at Columbine.
Speaker 3: I'm a huge fan of Columbine, but I.
Speaker 2: Know even great institutions sometimes fail horribly. And you know,
Speaker 2: is there an ongoing investigation of Columbine. So can you
Speaker 2: stay with us for another segment? Absolutely great, Well, we'll
Speaker 2: be back with Heather McCormick. And the more you know
Speaker 2: about this story, I think the more you're going to
Speaker 2: want answers for the good of everybody in the community.
Speaker 3: You're on the Dan Caplas Show and now back to
Speaker 3: the Dan Kaplass Show podcast. Oh wow, Ryan, maybe your
Speaker 3: best ever.
Speaker 2: We're talking to about a story at a Columbine that
Speaker 2: should concern everybody in the state. We're fortunate to have
Speaker 2: Heather McCormick with us. She's a friend of the family
Speaker 2: involved and a friend of the parents whose daughter and
Speaker 2: we've heard the Sean Boyd CBS story. We've heard what
Speaker 2: Heather just said. Heather will continue in a second. But
Speaker 2: their daughter four, well close to a four point zero student,
Speaker 2: I believe, a successful athlete. Their daughter a student at
Speaker 2: Columbine back in twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen. And then according
Speaker 2: to what Heather's telling us in the Sean Boyd's story,
Speaker 2: and it sounds as if there were over twenty thousand
Speaker 2: texts between this teacher and the student, and then the
Speaker 2: student ends up after graduation moving with the teacher.
Speaker 3: Out of state.
Speaker 2: And in the middle of all this, if I understand
Speaker 2: it correctly, Heather, in the middle of all this, it
Speaker 2: is discovered that there were a number of people in
Speaker 2: authority at Columbine working together to have this student declared homeless,
Speaker 2: even though she has a home, she has a mother
Speaker 2: and a father and a brother in the school, she
Speaker 2: has a home, she's doing well in school, she's doing
Speaker 2: well as an athlete, and they're working together behind the
Speaker 2: parents' back.
Speaker 3: It sounds like to have her declared homeless. Is that
Speaker 3: what occurred here?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 4: And I think that, like this part is so it's
Speaker 4: so crazy to me that it made it through so
Speaker 4: many levels of people without anybody reporting anything, either to
Speaker 4: child protective protective services or contacting the family to make
Speaker 4: sure that they were doing the right thing for this student.
Speaker 4: So yeah, the counselor that the student had at the
Speaker 4: time was working together with the family liaison from the
Speaker 4: district her hownless. And the craziest part is that not
Speaker 4: only were they doing this, but they specifically mentioned, don't
Speaker 4: contact her on the phone number that's a INFINET campus
Speaker 4: because that's the parent's phone number.
Speaker 3: Don't use the.
Speaker 4: Address of her home, use the school address or the
Speaker 4: district address, So very specifically leaving the parents out as
Speaker 4: they did this, and clearly on purpose, so as my
Speaker 4: friend had said, like they would have preferred that they
Speaker 4: called child chective services on them, so that they would
Speaker 4: have shown up at the door and figured out that
Speaker 4: this was not correct and we could have avoided this
Speaker 4: whole thing. So the fact that they didn't, and also
Speaker 4: there was another student at that school and at other
Speaker 4: schools in jeff Coo that lived in this home that
Speaker 4: they never checked in on. If it was a big
Speaker 4: enough of concern to declare her homeless, maybe they should
Speaker 4: have checked on the other kids in the home well.
Speaker 2: And if it's a big enough concern to declare homeless,
Speaker 2: don't you have to call child protective services. I don't
Speaker 2: practice criminal law, so I don't mean this as a
Speaker 2: comment on the law. But aren't there mandatory reporting requirements
Speaker 2: if you believe a child's in danger, which from everything
Speaker 2: I've heard it's the opposite that the child had a
Speaker 2: very stable, supportive family, and hey, anybody who's ever had kids,
Speaker 2: anybody who's ever had teenagers, there's occasionally going to be
Speaker 2: a bump in the road. But it's not for the
Speaker 2: school to declare them homeless hide it from the parents.
Speaker 2: And isn't part of this story that the mom eventually
Speaker 2: found some evidence that the teacher and the child had
Speaker 2: been kissing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, first with the homeless the homeless paperwork, actually,
Speaker 4: the mom also discovered so she had set up an
Speaker 4: appointment with Scott Christie, the principal at the school, to
Speaker 4: discuss sort of this. She had sent the teacher, mss
Speaker 4: Carney a text message saying, please don't contact my student
Speaker 4: any further. I never heard back from the teacher, never
Speaker 4: heard back from anybody. So they went and talked to
Speaker 4: the principal and the principal said that he was aware
Speaker 4: of the text message that should have been a red
Speaker 4: flag for him, and that you know, this teacher, you know,
Speaker 4: has worked with other homeless students before. And the mom
Speaker 4: was like, well, my kid's not homeless. And so the
Speaker 4: very next day the mom found the homeless paperwork underneath
Speaker 4: her daughter's bed in her house, and otherwise she would
Speaker 4: have never known that this was even filed. Oh my lord,
Speaker 4: So she did find also, in reference to what you
Speaker 4: were talking about, she did find some evidence of that.
Speaker 4: So this student was hired on at the gym that
Speaker 4: this teacher works out at. And she said that when
Speaker 4: the mom found evidence of her saying that they had kids,
Speaker 4: she said that it was a journal tree and it
Speaker 4: was a dream. She was writing about a dream. She
Speaker 4: just kind of wrote it off as as that the
Speaker 4: student did.
Speaker 2: But yeah, and the twenty thousand texts between the teacher
Speaker 2: and the student, how does the school explain that?
Speaker 3: How does the school justify any of this?
Speaker 4: Honestly, they don't. Scott Christy honestly, during their meeting with
Speaker 4: him several times just said that's a good question.
Speaker 3: Oh my lord. Wow.
Speaker 2: And was there some comments somewhere about referring to the teacher, Oh,
Speaker 2: she's helped students navigate their sexuality before something like that.
Speaker 4: Yes, Scott Christy did say that about.
Speaker 2: The teacher, that she has helped other students navigate their sexuality.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that she takes interest in helping students navigate their sexuality.
Speaker 2: Wow, we're going to try to get mister Christy on.
Speaker 2: I think Ryan has already invited him because we sure
Speaker 2: want to hear his side of this, because anybody listening
Speaker 2: to this story and listening to the great work Sewan
Speaker 2: Boyd did in that piece, and I've read the police
Speaker 2: report has to be horrified, and I'd really like to
Speaker 2: know how the school can possibly justify any of this.
Speaker 2: And have there been investigations, Have there been investigations by
Speaker 2: a professional society, investigations by law enforcement? I mean, obviously
Speaker 2: I've seen the police report, I know what they did
Speaker 2: with regard to the teacher, But what about the people
Speaker 2: at Columbine. And I'm not saying anybody committed a crime.
Speaker 2: I don't know the bottom line answer, but there's a
Speaker 2: hell of a question. Has anybody investigated that question?
Speaker 4: Well, definitely, I mean, I would imagine that fraudulent filing
Speaker 4: of homework homeless paperwork for the purpose of filling out
Speaker 4: fast that paperwork would be illegal and not reporting and
Speaker 4: not you know, as a mandatory reporter, if you don't,
Speaker 4: if you fail to report according to the state, yes,
Speaker 4: there are you know, consequences for that. So but no,
Speaker 4: the district did sort of an internal investigation, but they
Speaker 4: didn't they didn't pursue anything. So Carney.
Speaker 5: The teacher.
Speaker 4: Quit when she got back, she's she was deployed until
Speaker 4: so the student graduated in May, and this teacher was
Speaker 4: deployed until about October in the fall, and when she went,
Speaker 4: you know, when she was coming back, she just chose
Speaker 4: not to come back to Jeffco. So she wasn't fired,
Speaker 4: she wasn't asked to leave. And then once she was gone,
Speaker 4: the districts kind of just wiped their hands of it.
Speaker 2: Well, what I'd love to do, Heather, because this story,
Speaker 2: this story has to stay alive, it has to continue.
Speaker 2: We have to get to a bottom line on this.
Speaker 2: If it be comes just the accepted norm that if
Speaker 2: the school did everything that it sounds like they did,
Speaker 2: they can just get away with that, then that's crazy
Speaker 2: for society, it's crazy for these kids.
Speaker 3: So why don't we do this?
Speaker 2: Can we get you back on air sometime in the
Speaker 2: next few days, talk about consequences, what the parents would
Speaker 2: like to see. And in the meantime, what I'd like
Speaker 2: to do is like to try again to get mister
Speaker 2: Christy on the show. We'll reach out to Ashley Thomas,
Speaker 2: We'll dig into the law enforcement side of it as well.
Speaker 2: So thank you Heather for being with us today and
Speaker 2: we'll look forward to visiting with you again soon. Sure,
Speaker 2: thanks so much, and thank you for shedding light on
Speaker 2: this because this is so important for I think the
Speaker 2: parents and for every parent out there and every kid
Speaker 2: out there.
Speaker 3: So Heather, thank you.
Speaker 2: When we come back, big breaking news about Mayor Mike
Speaker 2: Johnston in Denver, You're on the Dan Kapla Show.
Speaker 3: And now back to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 2: What you just heard Heather McCormick on our show courageously
Speaker 2: speaking out Sean Boyd's tremendous piece on this these allegations
Speaker 2: about Columbine, that you had a top administrator and others
Speaker 2: working together to have a student declared homeless who had
Speaker 2: a very solid, stable home with great parents, and this
Speaker 2: student getting over twenty thousand text exchanges with a female
Speaker 2: teacher who she then moves in with after she graduates,
Speaker 2: and everybody no disciplinary action we know of.
Speaker 3: Everybody's still sitting there with their jobs. What's going on here?
Speaker 2: Well, George Brockler, the DA first DA in the twenty third,
Speaker 2: kind enough to join us, and George, I know you've
Speaker 2: spoken publicly through social media a little bit about this,
Speaker 2: So appreciate your take as a DA, as a parent, as.
Speaker 3: A guy who who knows the world, But what's your
Speaker 3: take on all this?
Speaker 6: I shocking?
Speaker 5: I mean, this is shocking, shocking stuff. Not as shocking
Speaker 5: that a teacher would try to groom a child, unfortunately,
Speaker 5: you and I have seen that a bunch over the years,
Speaker 5: and that's offensive. But the role that administrators seem to
Speaker 5: have played in trying to facilitate it, and the steps
Speaker 5: that were taken. I mean, Sean Boyd's piece is explosive,
Speaker 5: and Dan, two things are going on simultaneously, and it's
Speaker 5: just like you. I mean, you've been in this game
Speaker 5: so long that when people start telling you things, your
Speaker 5: brain is broken to start analyzing them from.
Speaker 6: What are the lead?
Speaker 5: You know, what's the liability, what's the duty, what's the
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, you.
Speaker 3: Just start doing it.
Speaker 5: When I watched the story from Sean Boyd and she
Speaker 5: does such an incredible job, I'm like, hang on, hang on,
Speaker 5: hang on, hang on. Maybe there's nothing here, but instantly
Speaker 5: I want to know what federal forms were filled out
Speaker 5: and were they forged? Was their misinformation placed on them?
Speaker 6: You know, there's a kidnapping charge that.
Speaker 5: Exist for kids under the age of eighteen when they
Speaker 5: are taken to different places without the consent of their parents.
Speaker 5: And there's some other words in there, but this feels
Speaker 5: to me like something that at least ought to be
Speaker 5: looked at. And if there's a crime there, all the
Speaker 5: steps these other administrators take, arguably don't know that, it's
Speaker 5: for sure, are conspiratorial. They're part of this whole thing,
Speaker 5: whether they're accomplices or conspirators or both. It just feels
Speaker 5: like there's something that needs to be done there. So
Speaker 5: you know, again, Alexis King is a veteran prosecutor out there.
Speaker 5: She has some great prosecutors that work for her that's
Speaker 5: out in the first judicial district. It just seems to
Speaker 5: me this is one of those things where someone wants
Speaker 5: to ask, Hey, did you guys look into this right?
Speaker 5: Did anybody bring you a filing? Did the sheriff's office,
Speaker 5: who has combine, did they bring you a filing or what?
Speaker 2: And what about a grand I don't know, Jurie, can
Speaker 2: you speak to that, George. I know they're not that common,
Speaker 2: but it seems like if anything's going to be important
Speaker 2: enough to justify grand jury, it's going to be.
Speaker 3: The safety of children in Jeff COO's schools. And when
Speaker 3: you have.
Speaker 2: Something like this, it's very much about this individual student,
Speaker 2: but it's about all students. It's about what the standard is,
Speaker 2: what's going to be accepted as the new norm. And
Speaker 2: if this is the new norm, then I think people
Speaker 2: want to run fleeing, right. And I know there are
Speaker 2: a lot of great things going on in Jeffco's schools.
Speaker 2: But if this is acceptable, then people need to think twice.
Speaker 5: The grand jury and any jurisdiction that has an excess
Speaker 5: of three hundred thousand people and it has a standing
Speaker 5: grand jury, and I know Jeff co does.
Speaker 6: When we were in the eighteenth we.
Speaker 3: Used to have two.
Speaker 5: That grand jury exists for things where they're superpowers, and
Speaker 5: the grand jury has superpowers, most of them subpoena powers,
Speaker 5: whether it's for documents or testimony or both, where you
Speaker 5: need that to get to some information in the truth.
Speaker 5: And this is the kind of case where that could happen.
Speaker 5: You can compel testimony. There is certain immunities that a
Speaker 5: prosecutor can extend to certain witnesses who are like, hey,
Speaker 5: I don't want to talk about this because I think
Speaker 5: it exposes me to criminal liability. And you can say
Speaker 5: that's okay, I'm not looking at you for that, or
Speaker 5: I'm not going to use this against you.
Speaker 6: I want to get information on the other person.
Speaker 5: This case, superficially to me, seems like it's built for
Speaker 5: something like that, especially if the goal is to try
Speaker 5: to determine if this is widespread, like is this a
Speaker 5: common practice or was this specific just to this individual kid?
Speaker 3: Yeah, boy, George Brockler, our guest.
Speaker 2: And the one thing seems absolutely clear there is no excuse,
Speaker 2: no rationale whatsoever for not doing a full investigation, getting
Speaker 2: to the absolute bottom of this, putting it out there
Speaker 2: for the public to see, because at this point people
Speaker 2: need that information to make safety decisions for their own students.
Speaker 6: Oh my gosh, Dan, one hundred percent. I mean I
Speaker 6: grew up in Jeffco.
Speaker 5: Columbine was the next school down from where I graduated.
Speaker 5: I graduated from Bear Creek. I can tell you if
Speaker 5: this had happened at my school or call, my parents
Speaker 5: would have framed. But you know, Jeffco has changed hands
Speaker 5: here in terms of partisanship and politics, and I just
Speaker 5: simply can't believe that there can't be appropriate pressure brought
Speaker 5: on the school board to say you need to do
Speaker 5: something here, and if you've done something and you came
Speaker 5: to an answer, you've got to give that answer to
Speaker 5: the public. This isn't one of those well we looked
Speaker 5: into it.
Speaker 6: Nothing to see here, that's not this moment.
Speaker 2: Well, and what we appear to know, George and I
Speaker 2: may be wrong on some of this, but we appear
Speaker 2: to know that mister is it Christy Is that his
Speaker 2: name right in the middle of it, if I understand
Speaker 2: the story correctly, is still in his position. My understanding
Speaker 2: is nobody's lost their job over it. The teacher voluntarily
Speaker 2: left after a deployment. How could that be? So it
Speaker 2: seems to me that's the big issue right now. My
Speaker 2: heart breaks for the parents and everything they suffered through,
Speaker 2: But right now the issue is what is the standard
Speaker 2: in Jeffco.
Speaker 3: Is this the acceptable stand Jeffco?
Speaker 2: Because it's either yes or no to that, right because
Speaker 2: if these people all still have their jobs and there
Speaker 2: have been no major negative consequences, that's just the jeff
Speaker 2: Goo School District saying, hey, every other teacher, every other administrator,
Speaker 2: you can do this. This is acceptable, and if it's acceptable,
Speaker 2: they won't have five students left in their schools.
Speaker 5: Cool, you've hit the nail on the head, Dan. The
Speaker 5: only two options here are either this was legal and
Speaker 5: we need to now have a serious conversation about changing
Speaker 5: the law or people moving on from that school district.
Speaker 5: Or it was illegal and if it was illegal, there
Speaker 5: has to be consequences. Yeah, this isn't a one off
Speaker 5: shrug it off and be like, oh, well, you know
Speaker 5: they're happy together now in southern California. That's just not
Speaker 5: how this can play out. It's crazy.
Speaker 3: Sorry.
Speaker 2: I didn't mean to interrupt you there, George. But let
Speaker 2: me ask you about this text, Dan, what if this
Speaker 2: had been a male teacher and a female student out
Speaker 2: that things would be handled differently. What's your immediate reaction
Speaker 2: to that?
Speaker 5: Not in the twenty third I can tell you that, right,
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, no, But I can tell you there is
Speaker 5: a bias out there and it still persists, and it
Speaker 5: even persists around some prosecutors too, And that is this
Speaker 5: notion that somehow the standard is different one when it's
Speaker 5: a female teacher. But I worry about the fact that
Speaker 5: this has become one of these politically sensitive issues because
Speaker 5: of the lesbian issue. Yeah, like Oh, well, you know
Speaker 5: it's the sexuality.
Speaker 3: Who cares.
Speaker 5: You're talking about an innocent sixteen year old student and
Speaker 5: a teacher. Any teacher that exploits their position for sexual
Speaker 5: gratification or even romantic gratification, ought to be done in
Speaker 5: That's it over.
Speaker 2: Which goes to another text, And this comes from Abe,
Speaker 2: who has always texts crazy stuff.
Speaker 3: This is the first one that's ever made any sense
Speaker 3: to me.
Speaker 2: It says Dan, I smell a bunch of liberal school employees,
Speaker 2: excuse me, enabling an adolescent lesbian relationship.
Speaker 3: That's abe suspicion. Do you share that?
Speaker 5: Yeah, but that text actually is right in line with
Speaker 5: what you were just asking about in this way. Can
Speaker 5: you imagine the same administrators facilitating this kind of thing.
Speaker 5: If it was a male teacher, we'd all be like,
Speaker 5: oh my god, are you crazy? But when it's a
Speaker 5: woman teacher, and then a woman teacher and a woman's student,
Speaker 5: people are like, well, you know, she's helping her explore
Speaker 5: her sexuality. I read that somewhere and I thought, if
Speaker 5: I ever hear of a teacher trying to help my
Speaker 5: kids explore their sexuality, there's going to be a trial.
Speaker 2: But it's going to be mine well, and this I'm
Speaker 2: sure this story should horrify people across all party lines
Speaker 2: in Colorado.
Speaker 3: But got to speak the truth as I see it.
Speaker 2: And in so many different situations, I see the left
Speaker 2: putting their politics, their ideology, their agenda ahead of the
Speaker 2: interest of children in ways large and small. And that's
Speaker 2: my spider sense as to what's going on here.
Speaker 6: I think you're right.
Speaker 5: I think, depending upon how far back this goes, the
Speaker 5: statue limitations has not expired, not even close, and I
Speaker 5: mean even for the administrators, And so without indicting them
Speaker 5: here on the radio, because I don't know and they're
Speaker 5: presumed in us, we need to know wherever the truth
Speaker 5: takes us.
Speaker 3: We need to know.
Speaker 5: We got to know. But the investigation can happen and
Speaker 5: people can be brought to account, and that's the purpose
Speaker 5: of this. If this is the way it seems to you,
Speaker 5: to me, to the listeners, then it seems to me
Speaker 5: this is the case where you go so over the
Speaker 5: top hardcore and accountability, so that anyone that ever dreamed
Speaker 5: of doing this would say not worth it.
Speaker 2: Amen, and every parent, every child in the Jeffco School
Speaker 2: District deserves an answer to this. I wish this was
Speaker 2: in the twenty third it's not, but we'll try to
Speaker 2: get the DA Alexis King on and have her comment
Speaker 2: on this as well. But George really appreciate your expertise
Speaker 2: and look forward to the next one.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 2: Thank you, my friend. That is George Bronckler. What a
Speaker 2: tremendous resource. Eight five five four zero five eight two
Speaker 2: five five the number text d an five seven seven
Speaker 2: three nine your thoughts on this and I think a
Speaker 2: very very important story about Mayor Mike Johnston. Have it
Speaker 2: for you after the break you're on the Dan Kaplas show.
Speaker 2: Enormously important story. This one brand new. When Ryan sent
Speaker 2: it to me today, I couldn't believe it. I thought
Speaker 2: it was April Fole's Day or something. But I can't
Speaker 2: wait to get into it with you and what it
Speaker 2: means in my opinion, which is a lot not my opinion.
Speaker 2: Who cares about that, right? I hope you care about
Speaker 2: my logic and facts and reasoning. But the point is,
Speaker 2: I think this story tells us a lot about the
Speaker 2: kind of trouble that Mayor Mike Johnston thinks he's in.
Speaker 2: Listen to that, Denver seven package.
Speaker 3: Please have it.
Speaker 7: The City of Denver is bracing for a fight in Washington,
Speaker 7: and to prepare the mayor, City Council approved a two
Speaker 7: million dollar contract with an elite law firm, Covington and Burling, LLP.
Speaker 7: Says they will perform services for the city at a
Speaker 7: discounted rate of one thousand dollars per hour, including preparation
Speaker 7: in advance of the hearing and initial work related to
Speaker 7: document and review. March fifth, Mayor Mike Johnston is being
Speaker 7: asked to go to DC to defend Denver's immigration policies
Speaker 7: by the US House Committee on Government Reform city policies
Speaker 7: that were adopted back in twenty sixteen under then Mayor
Speaker 7: Michael Hancock. Council members approved the funding in a block
Speaker 7: vote along with other bills last night. The only council
Speaker 7: member to comment with Sarah Parity. She spoke about the
Speaker 7: possible need to expand support of the Denver Immigrant Legal Services.
Speaker 8: Fund really for reasons that are at their heart similar
Speaker 8: to why we're approving this legal bill for this DC
Speaker 8: law firm today, which is that we're going to continue
Speaker 8: to defend our entirely legal local policies, not to do
Speaker 8: the dirty work of deportation for the federal government, and
Speaker 8: not to ignore the overarching international human rights law that
Speaker 8: says that when people are fleeing really of businal circumstances,
Speaker 8: they have a right to claim asylum.
Speaker 7: Part of the contract between the law firm and the
Speaker 7: city states quote the parties mutually agree that investigative activity
Speaker 7: is likely to continue following this hearing, and that city
Speaker 7: Council may be asked to approve war funding beyond the
Speaker 7: two million dollars already approved. So we have questions today
Speaker 7: for the Mayor and City Attorney about the necessity for
Speaker 7: such an expenditure at taxpayer expense for hearing that is,
Speaker 7: by all accounts optional. In a statement, the city attorney's
Speaker 7: office said, quote, this legal council allows the City of
Speaker 7: Denver's leadership to focus on delivering the high quality services
Speaker 7: residents expect and deserve while navigating complex legal matters, including
Speaker 7: federal government actions.
Speaker 3: Context here.
Speaker 7: Denver has never officially called itself a sanctuary city. It
Speaker 7: was given that title during Trump's first administration in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 7: His administration asked for so called sanctuary cities like Denver
Speaker 7: to help ices crack down on immigration. In response, than
Speaker 7: Mayor Michael Hancock signed and executive order directing city agencies
Speaker 7: to help immigrants living in the country illegally and to
Speaker 7: set up a legal defense fund. In the order, Hancock
Speaker 7: called Denver a safe and welcoming city, but never used
Speaker 7: the word sanctuary enough.
Speaker 2: For that nonsense. First of all, sanctuary city for Denver.
Speaker 2: That term but began long, long, long before anybody ever
Speaker 2: thought of Donald Trump running for president. So that part
Speaker 2: of the story is just completely inaccurate. And it's so
Speaker 2: interesting to me because great story, the first part, but
Speaker 2: then apparently launching into this defense.
Speaker 3: Of the mayor. Let me give you my take on this.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is my opinion as a guy who's practiced
Speaker 2: law for forty years.
Speaker 3: Take it or leave it.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's right or wrong, but I
Speaker 2: obviously believe it's correct.
Speaker 3: Two million dollars right, and this is they made it.
Speaker 2: Clear this is a first installment, right, because that statement
Speaker 2: you heard, Red, Hey, this investigation may continue, et cetera.
Speaker 3: Two million dollars at a.
Speaker 2: Discounted rate of one thousand dollars an hour. Well, by
Speaker 2: my math, Ryan, that's two thousand hours, right, Yep. Two thousand,
Speaker 2: thousand equals two millions, so two thousand hours. So is
Speaker 2: somebody trying to suggest to you that it's going to
Speaker 2: take two thousand hours of Washington DC attorney time to
Speaker 2: protect Mayor Johnston, to prepare and protect Mayor Johnston at
Speaker 2: this hearing? Well do the math right? My constitutionally protected
Speaker 2: opinion is this has something to do with the hearing,
Speaker 2: but mostly this has to do with Mike Johnston and
Speaker 2: others in power and den are trying to protect themselves
Speaker 2: from criminal prosecution. I'm not telling you that Mike Johnston
Speaker 2: has committed any crime. I don't know if he has
Speaker 2: or not, but this tells me he's worried about whether
Speaker 2: he has that he now at this time, Ryan, have
Speaker 2: you called nine to one one in Denver lately and
Speaker 2: the people working there do a great job, but you
Speaker 2: can call now and get a recorded message sometimes because
Speaker 2: the city has so little money, and Mike Johnson's going
Speaker 2: to spend, for starters two million of taxpayer money on
Speaker 2: lawyers to advise Mike Johnston, and not just any lawyers.
Speaker 2: According to this Denver Right piece I'm reading, Mike Johnston
Speaker 2: has decided to hire Dana Remis. I think it's pronounced
Speaker 2: ori em us. Previously, the story says the White House
Speaker 2: counsel for President Joe Biden, So.
Speaker 3: Diamond Mike, right, I nicknamed him that a long time ago.
Speaker 3: When it comes to your money, Hey, Diamond.
Speaker 2: Mike's a big spender. So he's not going to some
Speaker 2: great Denver law firm. And you have a lot of
Speaker 2: great Denver law firms who do that kind of work.
Speaker 2: I do catastrophic injury. There are others who do that
Speaker 2: kind of work, you know, criminal and government, et cetera. No,
Speaker 2: he's going straight to Joe Biden's former White House Council
Speaker 2: because when Diamond Mike's in trouble, hey, money's no object, right,
Speaker 2: as long as it's your money eight five five for
Speaker 2: zero five eight two five five texts d An five
Speaker 2: seven seven three nine.
Speaker 3: That's my take on it, Ryan.
Speaker 2: He is concerned that he may have violated the law,
Speaker 2: and he may be continuing to violate the law.
Speaker 3: I think is his concern.
Speaker 2: I think city council members, other in others in charge
Speaker 2: there are worried about the same thing, and I think
Speaker 2: they're worried about potential prosecution.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 5: I think you nailed it and these were sanctuary cities
Speaker 5: until they weren't.
Speaker 3: Democrats were once very proud of that term.
Speaker 5: Dan shouted it from the mountaintops.
Speaker 2: And it's still a sanctuary state thanks to Jared Polus
Speaker 2: and the rest of these left he So, I want
Speaker 2: to come down and get your reaction to this story.
Speaker 2: Break it down in more detailed text. Does d An
Speaker 2: seven three nine thousand bucks an hour? You're on the
Speaker 2: Dan Kapla Show.