Alabama's Morning News with JT
Ken Belkin has our weekly legal stories right here
always good to catch up with Ken Belkin, our attorney from New York, New York, his angle, his thoughts, and his perspective on things, always bring a smile to my face. And Ken, welcome, and thanks for being here. - JT, thanks, I'm glad my thoughts bring a smile to someone's face. - Yes, yes, I continue to work in therapy with your wife. I think you're making progress, it'll be okay. All right, listen, I don't know what teachers are thinking these days, how many stories do you have to see where having sex with students is not a good idea? How many stories do you have to see where assisting kids, helping them in their private lives, not a good idea, texting kids, and dropping a girl off to get an abortion? Probably not a good movie either. - Yeah, what is this? The teacher's gone wild edition of breaking it down here, 'cause this is wild. I mean, whatever happens in the days of just grade the homework, give the test, and that's it. Take attendance, well, this teacher in New Hampshire took it to new places. She called, this teacher, I'm not gonna say he or she, called in sick to take a student to have an abortion, made the appointment. I mean, this is beyond the pale. Don't you think the parents should really be involved here? Not the teacher, not the one stalling out homework? - Hmm, unbelievable, unbelievable, sorry. Yeah, they fired 'em. - I'm wondering if there's any legal ramifications for doing something like that. I guess not legally, right? - I mean, look, I think the parents would be within their rights to sue the school. - Sure, oh yeah. - For some form of civil rights violation. You know, this is not appropriate behavior. - But not, no criminal charges. The teacher couldn't be arrested for doing that. - I don't believe so. I don't believe so that there's criminal liability here. I'm also a criminal defense attorney. I never believe there's criminal liability. That's my job. But I will say this, it is appalling though, that this person I'm reading got another state job immediately following this. I mean, she lied about being sick, which is a no-no with your employer. I know, you know, people do it all the time, but she lied to take a student to get an abortion that she arranged. She picked the place allegedly. She allegedly arranged the appointment. This is beyond. As a parent, this is beyond. - Yeah, I'd be so mad if I was a parent, absolutely. While we're talking about teachers, let's go to the other side of the country. In California, now the DA is dropping charges against this alleged drunken teacher. Apparently it's not illegal to be drunk while you're teaching kids. - Listen, this is a fun one. All things considered. No abortions, no molestation. This is just a good old fashioned booze hound of a teacher. And they originally charged her with driving drunk. And they, you know, but they said they couldn't prove it. They couldn't prove whether she drank before she drove to school or after she got to school in the teachers lounge. I always wondered what was going on in there as a kid. But the fact of the matter is, she's teaching second graders while drunk. And I respectfully, I know I'm a criminal defense attorney, but I respectfully disagree with the district attorney in this jurisdiction because endangering a child is the misdemeanor offense. And it doesn't mean that the child is putting grave, you know, grave danger, a bodily harm or death, but you are endangering them. And you are endangering. If you're a teacher in charge of 25 or 37 year olds, these are seven year olds, the second graders, you know, you should not be intoxicated. That is a danger. 100%. Now, where's the common sense in California? Oh, that's right. They don't have any out there. Speaking of community service or something. Exactly. So don't just throw it away like this. Speaking of endangering people, we know the wave of hate towards police officers in this country isn't at all time high right now. So in Louisiana, apparently they're going to go ahead and try and help fix that. And they're going to pass this law, it looks like, that will criminalize approaching police under certain circumstances and get people arrested or fined. Yeah, it's like there's this real belief among the liberal intelligentsia that we don't need police. Police are actually a hindrance to the utopia we are trying to create. It's ridiculous. I mean, let me just give you an example real quick. In New York City, the NYPD, they are routinely held as a white supremacist organization. I have never seen a more diverse workforce in my life. You can barely find a white cop. It's usually Asian, Hispanic, Black, Middle Eastern. Rarely do you see white cops in New York City? And they are criticized as being white supremacists. So hence, like all legislatures demonizing the police, they created this new law in Louisiana to criminalize approaching police while they're engaged in their official duties. Well, it's already a law in most jurisdictions, but it's sad that it has to come to this, that we need to say it out loud. You shouldn't interfere when cops are making a lawful arrest. Whether or not it was right or wrong, the courts will sort that out later. They have to make that arrest at the time. Yeah, I totally agree with you. And arguing with cops if you're being arrested, not the time to try and hold court there in the streets while they're trying to put cops on you. You're not gonna have a trial on the street. Not gonna happen. Okay, yeah, you convinced me you're free to go. Never happens. All right, hey, I appreciate you Ken Belkin. Thank you so much for being with us this morning, buddy. - Thanks, Jake.