Law Is Stranger Than Fiction | Episode 12 Big Brother
good afternoon and welcome to today’s
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episode of law is stranger than fiction
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I’m one of your co-hosts Barry shoal
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I’m your other co-host Steven Bergman we
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are shareholders in the Salt Lake City
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law firm of Richards brandt miller
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nelson in today’s episode of law is
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stranger than fiction involves a
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situation where big brother is always
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watching even if it turns out your big
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brother Barry that’s right Steven
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today’s story involves a former Utah
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policeman who was charged with theft by
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extortion after threatening to reveal
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incriminating photos of his ex-wife to
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discourage her from pursuing his pension
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as part of a divorce proceeding now I’m
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assuming this had something to do with
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him being caught on camera making these
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threats yes on his own police camera was
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it like his dashboard camera that you
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see or is it on his body there was a
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body cam and what was he
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doing that the body cam caught him
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confessing to extorting his soon-to-be
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ex-wife well he was responding to a
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domestic violence complaint and talking
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to the suspect sort of on the job therapy
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as it were wait stop for a
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second he was talking to the suspect yes
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let’s see if I get this straight
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so on the job police officer is called
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to a domestic violence scene
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presumably he separates the two parties
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and he’s talking to the suspect the
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person who he might be arresting for
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committing domestic violence that about
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sums it up and he starts confessing to
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him about his own actions towards his
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ex-wife that’s right he confessed to
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this domestic violence suspect that it
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sucks you got to play dirty games like
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that but that he had incriminating
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photos of his ex-wife that she didn’t
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want revealed and that he had used those
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photos or the threat of revealing those
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photos to discourage her from pursuing
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his pension did he like later try to
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explain himself to superiors by saying I
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was trying to establish rapport with the
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suspect so he’d admit what he was doing
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no okay
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and so what happened to this police
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officer well he was charged with theft
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by extortion and later resigned from the
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police force I’m assuming he didn’t turn
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his own camera in and say hey look what
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I said on camera how did this get
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discovered I believe it was just part of a
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standard review of footage from body
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cams and it was discovered there and
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then reported by one of his peers and
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did he give any explanation for why he
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was making a confession of a crime
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knowing he was recording himself none at
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all so the officer had texted his
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soon-to-be ex-wife a copy of the photo
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and threatened to reveal and share the
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photo she said she was embarrassed and
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didn’t want family members to be exposed
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to the photo and investigators
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interviewed her she admitted the the
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circumstances and subsequently
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investigators went through his ex-wife’s
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phone and through text messages and
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confirmed several dates when the photo
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was used to threaten his ex-wife so not
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only did this guy record himself
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confessing to committing a crime he sent
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incriminating evidence by text message
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to the target and created his own
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evidentiary trail his ex-wife the target
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yes some quality police work right there
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anyway how much was this over $5,000
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okay so he essentially risked his career
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trying to prevent splitting $5,000 with
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his ex-wife that’s correct
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this is an example of probably a
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divorce getting a little too down and
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dirty if you are going through a divorce
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or you need help in a family law
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situation please contact the attorneys
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at Richard’s Brandt Miller Nelson we
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have a number of family law attorneys
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who can assist you and for now this is
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law is stranger than fiction