Billy & Lisa in the Morning
Steve Cooper Live From The Karen Read Trial 7.2.24
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Right by me, right by me, I was literally between live shots, and I hear a door open. I'm thinking, "What's that?" Now, I said, "Is the guy coming running out of the side of the courthouse?" And I'm like, "Is that a prisoner?" And I said, "I think so." And then, I quickly took out my phone, and I was like, "I don't know what's going on, but I better start shooting this thing." And then, I was to a court officer run past me screaming to other court officers, and then I'm screaming to my cameraman, and then we're all running down the street, and then the bicycle cops are flying down the street. Yeah. Wow. And it was quite a scene, yeah. Wow. When you think of it with all the chaos around the courthouse, this guy was a genius. He said, "This could be my window of opportunity right here, I'm going to go." Oh, really? They caught him two minutes later. He wasn't going far, but Steve, do us a favor. Can you describe the mood around the courthouse once that mistrial was declared yesterday? Well, I got to tell you, it was weird because a mistrial, a deadlock jury, and after everything that everybody went through, it was like the air was let out of the balloon. I think people on one side wanted to know that she was guilty, the side of people wanted to find it not guilty, but I think that sense that, "Wow, so what happens now?" And I think that was sort of the mood, and it was weird because just as the judge declared the mistrial, we were outside the courthouse and it started pouring and there was thunder and there was lightning. And it was just like this torrential downpour and nobody, of course, said umbrellas. Everybody's standing outside. We have microphones set up on the courtroom steps, so people are cheering this thunder, this lightning. Wow. I can't read these attorneys about it. They start talking and everything happened in a split second. It was just a weird, weird day. Kind of like a sign from the heavens. You know, not to be spooky, but that's what it felt like, because then the sun came out later on and everyone was gone from the courthouse, but it was, I think it was just, you know, this was just, however you felt about the case, it was just draining for everybody. Everybody involved in the case, for just the people that have been out there for days and days and days following the case for people at home, I mean, knowing that the judge was going to declare a mistrial and looking, I looked around and everyone was huddled together around phones and around anything just to get that word and all of a sudden you, you hear this cheer come from the crowd and then people like, wait, why am I cheering and then you heard there's going to be another trial and then people didn't know what to say. Yeah. What are these going to happen in the next trial, Steve? I mean, they're definitely going to retry, Karen Reed, but are they going to go back to the beginning and present all the same evidence to a new jury? What's it going to be like? Well, first of all, just keep in mind that we heard that there's going to be a retrial and then last night hours later, we heard that Trooper Proctor, the lead investigator was being, you know, pulled away from this thing. So obviously when you start putting that all together, how does he get back on the stand as a whatever he's going to be by the time they try this case and can they put him on the stand and they want to put him on the stand and are they going to put him on the stand? And then the question is, where can you have this trial and where can you pick another jury or how are they going to get a jury? Because if you couldn't think they could see the jury in the last case, how are they going to do it this time around when everyone, not in America knows about, but in the world is talking about this case. Yeah. And by the way, if Proctor was going to be relieved of duty, shouldn't they have announced that during the trial? I think, you know, they probably might have wanted to, but I don't think they wanted to disrupt what the jurors were doing. You know, I think, you know, I don't think they've ever been down this road before and now the question is when they retried, they're talking about, you know, it won't be as long this time around. But I don't think anyone can imagine what all this is going to look like if and when it happens. And keep in mind, there was a case of deja vu yesterday for those of us last July, we were in the courtroom in front of the same judge when she declared a mistrial in the Lokes trial, Mike Chestnut and Vera Adams, it was literally on July 10th, after six days of deliberations, and it was the same judge and everyone involved in that case was calling me or texting me yesterday, including members of the Chestnut family, just saying, I can't believe we're watching this a year later. Wow. It's so ironic. Yeah. And then they went through another trial, as you know, and they're not, you know, that went through. That was a guilty verdict. That was just this year. And that family has been waiting for a sentencing on that killer and that hasn't even happened yet. So that's happening later on this month, Lisa, yeah. So Steve, so I guess they're not going to release the names because it was a mistrial, but when do you think we'll be able to hear from some of the jury members? Right, so to be honest with you, you know, that's what we're all working on right now. You know, the jury left. They didn't give out those jurors names, but, you know, people dropped a dime. They're talking to their friends now, someone's going to call somebody. So you can bet by some point, you know, will we hear from these people? Will they want to be public? Will they want to have, you know, you shield their names and their faces and things like that? They want to give us statements. We don't know. But again, you know, that's obviously what everyone wants to know right now. What was the what was the makeup? What was the breakdown? Wow. Was it six, six? Was it 11 to one? Was there one holdout? I mean, we're in all sorts of stories, but that really matters and it matters to everyone because if it was six, six, you know, six people four, six people again, you know, was it one holdout? Yeah. This whole thing? We don't know that, but that's the whole story right now. Well, Steve, we can't thank you enough for providing the coverage and we just want to let you know. We're going to give you a prize. You get to have lunch with Winnie at the Cheesecake Factory. Oh, thanks Winnie Winnie. Winnie Winnie. I can't wait. All right. Let's go. I can't wait for you there. I just can't. Steve, thanks so much, everybody. Steve Cooper, channel seven. Oh, yeah. Thanks, Steve. Okay. Round two. Name something that's not boring. Laundry. Oh, a book club. Computer solitaire. Huh? Ah. Sorry. I'm looking for Chumba Casino. Chumba. Chumba. That's right. ChumbaCasino.com has over 100 casino-style games, join today and play for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. ChumbaCasino.com. Nobody says it. We're working with it by law. 18 plus.