Bill Cunningham, the Great America, and welcome the Thursday afternoon in the Tri State. I would note that if it's seventeen degrees, public schools shut down. We can't operate. The metro bus system is fine, the buildings are fine. But if it's seventeen degrees, CPS says we're done. We're not going to educate today, which by the way, is totally ridiculous. Continuing as we always do. Kentucky's my home state. Rob
Sanders is the prosecutor of Kenton County. We spent the last day or two talking about homelessness under bridges and the fact that it's likely the homeless encampments have caused the difficulties in I four seventy one. The official report not out yet, coming out either today or tomorrow. We're told maybe on Monday, but until then, Rob Sanders, welcome
again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And Rob, is there a policy in Covington or Kenton County to your knowledge, in which, in writing you tell Covington cops in Kenton County and all the other law enforcement agencies in Kenton County there are certain laws we're not going to enforce.
One of them being criminal trespass. The City of Cincinnati has told it's cops, which is a great unit of CPD Kenkobra, etc. A great unit, saying to them, you shall not enforce criminal trespass statutes unless in other crimes being committed. In other words, there's some criminal laws we violate, we will prosecute some we will not. Is there any indication in Covington or Kenton County that Rob Sanders says ordering Covington police do not arrest somebody for certain offenses.
Absolutely not, Willie. Thanks for having me back on.
I heard your interview yesterday day before with the new FOP president.
At least he's new to me. I haven't met him yet.
Didn't realize that Lieutenant Dan wouldn't ran anymore. But nevertheless, the instructions they've been given are not instructions that we give police on the South side of the River. I think that's one of the reasons that we maintain a very high standard and quality of life for our residents. We have a great community to live, work and raise a family, and that's why people enjoyed open to the South side of the River.
Willie.
That's why we still have that big condo down on the Covington Riverfront with your name on every You're in the people's judge just waiting for you to move in.
Well, I'll tell you what happens when someone is homeless in Covington. Do you allow them to sleep on business fronts? Do allow them? And overpasses to allow them?
In parks?
Andbury Park and Mount Washington has a terrible problem. How does Covington handle the criminal act of invading a park and occupying it using drugs, fornicating, urinating, and all the rest.
Why is that the what happens in Covington?
If that occurs, generally speaking, the folks that decide to take up camp in a public space, in a park or in a business entrance or something like that, are are moved along by the police. They generally aren't arrested unless they're committing some other kind of offense, but they are encouraged to move on down the road or else. There's going to be a problem because we can't have this.
We can't have homeless shutting down our businesses. We can't have homeless folks discouraging people from visiting all the fine businesses and eating establishments and night spots in the Covington business district. Recently, the Covington legislature passed what's commonly been
known as House Bill five. And although it's been probably the greatest criminal justice for form in terms of improving public safety in my lifetime, in terms of treating violent offenders as violent offenders, and totally redoing Kentucky's parole structures so that violent offenders actually have to stay in prison for the majority of their sentence, all kinds of great
things came out of House Bill five. What got all the attention was the portion of House Bill five that allowed police to make an arrest for camping on public property, which is not something that we've had a giant problem with.
I don't want to say we've had no problems with it, but it's not been nearly the problem in Northern Kentucky as it has been in places like Louisville and Lexington, and where police were being given messages much like the ones that the Cincinnati police apparently been given, and that's to not arrest people for certain offenses, to not enforce certain laws. In northern Kentucky, to my knowledge, we've been doing it all along. And I realized that Covington's born
the brunt of a lot of that homelessness. There's been a long ongoing debate in the City of Covington about burdening the city with more than its fair share of the social service organizations and things like that that tend to congregate in Covington, because that's understandably where most of
the homelessness is. But Covington is long encouraged other Northern Kentucky cities to do their part in taking on social services so that we can move these folks into shelters, that we can find them housing, that we can get them off the streets, out of the parks, and at the very least out of the public eye, so that if there has to be a homeless encamp and the last place we want it is on main Street or right in the middle of our entertainment district or right
along the interstate. It's visible to everybody that comes and goes from our fine towns. So we've been doing that for a long time. It's always worked. We've never really had a big problem with it. It's never been real controversial, and I don't understand why other cities can't learn from that and do the same thing.
Well, we need mental hospitals, which we don't have those facilities anymore. We used to have large mental hospitals. We really don't have them anymore. And as a consequence, you have group homes voluntarily taking drugs or not taking drugs. But this particular encampment, the city was told a year ago by ODOT check the overpasses to make sure there's not homeless encampments there, because across the country there's many fires and other circumstances, and that wasn't done. The finger
pointing every which way is unbelievable. But as a consequence, you have four to five hundred million dollars in repair costs born by the taxpayer. You have millions and millions of man ours, a wasted time, and it's all because this city's not paying attention to what's happening in their overpasses.
It's a failure of compassion.
Is not compassionate to tell someone mentally ill it's okay to live outside, take drugs, panhandle, go back under the bridge, set fires underneath four seventy one, no consequences. Ken Kober basically said yesterday it was a homeless encampment, and we're told more or less to leave them alone, and so we're not going to rouse them away from bridge overpasses
when the city doesn't want us to prosecute. In fact, if we disregard a directive from the city manager's share along, if we disregard it, we might face discipline in a sense. So hell, we're not going to put ourselves out there. And the other thing of Rob Sanders that cops do not want to rouse a whole bunch of homeless individuals because the homeless homeless shelters they don't want to go
into because there's rules and regulations. You can't do what you want to do and a homeless shelter, but damn it, society has rules you have to follow.
Now.
Secondly, there was an article in the inquire about possible death threats against Rob Sanders having your throat slit. What can you tell us about with that? I know it's a sense of theive issue. What can tell us about that? If anything, Willie?
I don't want to go into a whole lot of details except that this is an unfortunate reality that a lot of public officials face in many different realms, but especially in the criminal justice system. Certainly not the first death threat that I've received. I'm not special by any means when it comes to that. I know other prosecutors had received death threats as well. Assistant prosecutors to get death threats. Cops get their lives threatened all the time,
Judges get death threats. But in this case, when you have a very specific death threat about a location that I do in fact frequent in terms of that attack being planned at the gym that I go to, and he had the right gym, and he was a member of that gym, did have access to that gym, that
obviously raises red flags. And when the police start looking into it and people that know this suspect this individual start indicating the police that he's not acting right, that he hasn't been home in days, and that he's having some sort of mental break.
Obviously, that is when things go to a whole other level that it's not just my life.
That is at stake, It is the lives of anybody that's around me, whether it be my family, whether it be my co workers, whether it be other court workers or other people around the courthouse, or even other people in the gym. Will it's just nobody wants to be around any kind of violence like like that. Nobody wants
the violence like that. And frankly, if we tolerate that kind of violence and those kinds of threats, nobody's going to be willing to take the job a prosecutor, and nobody's going to be willing to take the job of judge. We're already having trouble finding people that are willing to take the job a police officer, and understandably, so, you know, we take it very seriously.
In Kenton County. Anytime somebody tells the.
Police officer that when I get out of here, I'm gonna find you, or I'm gonna find your family and I'm gonna hurt you, or I'm gonna hurt them, or any number of different threats they can make.
You know, for a long time, police.
Officers endure things like that and people just think it's part of the job. But not in Kenton County to take it very seriously because the police officers don't have they don't deserve to have'll be looking over their shoulder all the time. So anytime somebody makes threats like that against a police officer, it might be something they're saying out of anger, out of drunkenness out of drug intoxication
while they're being arrested, and they're pissed off. But we take that very seriously because it doesn't excuse that behavior. And I don't expect the police to take it any more or less serious when it happens to me than I do when it happens to them. And I anticipate in this case, like any case that we have against the life of a police officer, it'll be taken very seriously. Ultimately, it'll probably have to call in a special prosecutor to handle the case because I'm gonna end up being a
witness in the case, I'm sure. But once we get this case bound over the grand jury, we'll contact the Journey General's office and let the justice system run its course.
I know one thing.
If you threaten to judge, have you threatened to kill a cop or a prosecutor, the system will arise and make sure that person number one is full due process rights. Okay, we got to make sure you have the rights of this and the rights of that. You got the fourth, you got, the fifth, you got, the seventh, got the eighth, got the ninth, got the tenth, got the fourteenth, get
all the amendments. A guy or the woman gets all the benefits of the criminal justice system, but once you're convicted, now you're dealing with different circumstance.
Yeah, it's unfortunate, will it that Kentucky law right now treats of retaliation against participants in the legal processes. What's the technical term of that that threat that crime is called? It treat it as a non violent offense. And I can tell you that it's certainly violent to me when it's my life that's that's at stake, when it's my
throat that's being threatened to be slashed. I'm sure it's violent to all the judges and all the police officers that have been threatened in other cases, and the judge that was threatened in this case. But you know, that's
something that Kentucky law needs to revisit. And I don't know, maybe maybe it'll take legislators having their life set in which I know probably happens from time to time or on occasion, but maybe that's something that we can convince them to revisit before it's a legislator's life that is threatened, so that we can treat it as a violent offense.
As it should be, is it should have been treated all along.
Now lastly, and we spoke off there about this about Brian Thompson, the CEO who was a murdered, an assassination, really a political killing. Deny, defend and depose those rewards put on the shellcasings on the nine millimeter semi auto that ejected from his pistol. He wanted to send a message. This is in Manhattan, Brian Thompson's CEO of United Healthcare. Deny, defend and depose. There's not much shall we say, room
on a shellcasing you put that. Just as an investigator, what do you think about that?
Well, certainly somebody's trying to send a message there, William right.
I don't know enough about United health Care in their situation to know if that's a very specific person that may have wronged in some way, or at least that person felt as though they had been wronged by that company that was apt to get revenged on the CEO of the company, or if perhaps this was strictly a business deal gone bad of some sort, somebody putting a hit out on a CEO of a company and just putting those words on a shellcasing in order to throw
investigators off and make them think it was a disgruntled customer of some sorts or something along those lines. But as you and I talked off their it's very unusual to have and what appears to be at least a professional killing or a very intentional hit that somebody put on the CEO. It's unusual for a hit man to leave evidence behind, and oftentimes somebody committing a heinous crime like this would use a revolver because it doesn't eject
the shells like a semi automatic weapon would do. But in this case, when they're carving messages into the shell casings, not only are they leaving those pieces of evidence behind, but they're doing it very intentionally to send a message, to convey a message of some sort to the rest of the world about the purpose behind this killing. And certainly it's too fresh and too new for us to
know exactly what that message means. But that's something I'm sure investigators are working hard on to trying to try and solve.
We'll see what happens at Rob Sanders, I know you're in Kentucky teaching other prosecutors how to prosecute you just got elected. Tony Benner told me you had a tough race, barely one in November.
You snuck in.
What can you tell me about how the citizens of Kenton County dealt with you because there was a concern maybe you couldn't make it.
What happened, well, Willie, I was very fortunate I was up for re elections. Just I'm in the process of finishing up my third term, my eighteenth years.
He elected to come on with attorney here in Kenton County.
But I've just been fortunate enough, left enough by the voters in Kenton County to be erected elected to my fourth six year term. Was the lucky beneficiary of running a post. But nevertheless name had to appear on the docket, on the docket, on the ballot, and I'm proud to say that I got more votes than any other person running for any office, including President Donald Trump. He didn't even get as many votes as Rob Sanders did. So this was a great outcome from me. Very proud of
the work that I do, that my staff does. Fortunate and blessed to be the kamalth attorney in Kenton County. So now all fifty seven comalth attorneys We're on the ballot in Kentucky just this past November and we had eighteen newly elected comalth attorneys. So I'm in Lexington, Kentucky today training some of my new fellow comonwalth attorneys, including my new neighbor next door Mike Zimmerman, who'll be taking over the kamal with attorney's office in Campbell County and
his office in Newport. He's down here with me, and of course Lewis Kelly from Boone County. He's been around for a term. He just got reelected his second term. Lewis is down here teaching the newcomalalth attorneys alongside me.
So it's a nice little day trip for us.
To get out of the office and meet our newest elected comalth attorneys, sell any prosecutors, and to come all out of Kentucky. And we're giving them a few pointers on how to run things, hopefully not screw anything up, you.
Know, learn from our mistakes along the way, that sort of thing.
But I'm blessed and fortunate that I'll be around, be doing more interviews with you, Willie for the next couple years, and I'm looking forward to well, how.
About you running for Attorney General US Senate. You're undefeated, untied on scored on. Why don't you run for something else? Or are you happy?
You know?
People say to me, why don't you do this?
Do that?
And I said, look, I have what I seek. I want happiness, fulfillment. I like to do what I'm doing. Somebody pays me a few bucks to do it. I'm motivated to do the job. Why do I want something when I already have happiness and peace and joy. I know Kamala Harris gave me a lot of joy in this election. But nonetheless, have you thought about running for something bigger and better? Or is this the best it can be? And if you're happy with what you're doing, if you have what you seek, don't move.
Well, Willie.
I love what I do and I could die to come on with attorney in Kent and Kenny and didn't have spent my entire career there, and I.
Will die happy. I love my job, I love the people I work with.
I love serving the citizens Kent and County, working with the awesome police departments that we have in Kent County and all in northern Kentucky.
So I'm happy where I am.
But most importantly, I'm not about to turn my office over because some Democrat, you know, soft on crime, hug at the pointe that Andy Basheer would have taken.
My place if I were to step down and move on to some other office.
So until we have a Republican governor, I won't even think about any other offices or any other jobs. Not saying that I'm thinking about any other jobs as it is, but I promise you I'm at least here until we get a new governor. So the next governor's race not till twenty twenty seven, that's Andy basher you know, runs for mitchim McConnell's seat or something.
Along those lines.
Maybe then we end up with a new governor, one that would appoint a replacement from within my own office. I would have a number of different assistant prosecutors that worked for me that I would entrust with running my office. But I'm not going to turn it over to somebody who I have to wonder what they're going to do and what kind of policies they're going to install, and how much of a threat that would be the safety ally, So up here for at least the next several years
and God willing a lot longer after that. Lord knows, if I was doing another job, I might not have time to do your show, and I'd know that.
The thing is, I know you're an honorary Kentucky colonel. I'm a I'm a Kentucky colonel. I could see Colonel Sanders for Kentucky. I see those signs, Colonel Sanders. Who in the hell would vote against Colonel Sanders for Kentucky. Just an idea, It's something to think about. Billboards all over Colonel Sanders for Kentucky.
A chicken wing in every pot?
We got? What do you think I'm gonna have to jump on that website.
Colonel Sanders, chicken wing in every pot?
I mean it would, colonels in Kentucky.
You wouldn't but dominate.
You get all the votes against an opponent, you get one hundred percent of the vote.
I'm gonna have to change my campaign signed to red and white stripes though, so you know that branding.
But we'll work on that, Willie, We'll work on that.
That's a brilliant IDEA chicken wing in every pot? All right, Colonel Sanders, you're the best thing. Can I call you? Colonel you're an honorary colonel. Everybody in Kentucky's an honorary colonel. Right, I got a.
In a Kentucky colonel, Willie.
It got that for me, that designation when I was just a little.
Kid, Colonel Sanders, for Kentucky. It believe me, you would not lose, all right, Rob, Colonel, thank you very much for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. Gets your eye on, get your head on a swivel, Look left, look right, Okay, just keep looking around.
We're working on that, Willie.
I appreciate the thought though, and the all the expressions support that I've received from everybody all around Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati. It's really been nice to have folks reach out, and it's good to know that people care.
But certainly we're gonna be real careful going forward.
Please please, colonel, thanks for having me.
Will you have a great day.
Thank you, Colonel, thank you.
Let's continue with more chicken wing in every pot on news Radio seven hundred WULW