By Billy Cunningham, The Great America.
Welcome this Friday afternoon in the tri State, getting ready, of course for Reds baseball tonight in Saint Louis. Three games set in Saint Louis, and back room for the Yankees. The Yankees are trembling about playing the Reds at my ballpark, the Great American, and we have a conversation coming up late of the Paul O'Neill, who has his foot in both camps. He considers himself more of a Yankee because he is a minu in and minument park in center field.
That's the reason. Rather than the Reds.
One of the worst trades the Reds ever made was trading Paul O'Neill for Roberto Kelly. Whatever happened to him. But nonetheless, more important matters are a foot right now. Joining you and I now is State Representative Cidny Abrams of the West Side of Town and Sidney Abrams, Welcome
again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And relative first to the Patrick Herringer situation, who was murdered in his home and this can you tell the American people at this point there's an investigation under way about what happened in the state. You're of your foot also in both camps.
I don't know how many lawmakers have been Cincinnati police officers as you've been and a lawmaker somewhat unusual, But who dropped the ball a notifying the local authorities about the walking around with a knife of Mordecai Block that resulted in the murder of Patrick Herringer. What what was the circumstance that happened that caused that to occur.
Well, first of.
All, thank you for having me on today, and I will tell you that when I woke up the next morning and I read about, you know, the horrific murder of Patrick, I immediately started to ask questions and figure out what happened and how can I, as a lawmaker make positive change so that this does not happen to someone else. Now that being said, to answer your question, there's nobody in the General Assembly that was a Cincinnati police officer, So there's that. So I went to work
immediately asking questions. You know, I talked to all all the parties involved, and the bottom line is this, and I will start by saying this, there are so many politicians that just stand around and take pictures with the police and say we support you, and but when push comes to shove, actions speak louder than words.
We were all taught that as kids, at least I was.
And at the end of the day, I am not just standing around saying, oh, I support you guys and gals.
I actually take action. So what am I doing? Well, I am.
I've done some research and I found out that at the end of the day, there was no protocol.
That's what they told me, the Adult par Authority.
There was no protocol for them to notify that they had to notify local law enforcement when they entered the warrant. For I call it escape. It's not escape, it's a wall or absconding. So when he cut the ankle monitor off and decided not to go along with the conditions of his release because he was a targeted violent defender at CBO, when he walked away and decided he's going to to go, you know, live his best life doing
god knows what, murdering people, that was a violation. So at that point, the Adult Pearl Authority has to enter the warrant in Leeds, okay. And so what I'm working on is it's going to say that the adult parole authority shall and you know in the ORC when it says shall, that means you have to. There's no other way about it. You shall enter that warrant within twenty four hours into leeds. And you also shall notify local
law enforcement of this violent offender on the run. And what I mean by local law enforcement your city, your county, your township, your village, and the public safety answering point which is our communications center. That is the law that I'm working on.
Good more and more Kai Black's case, A little birdie told me that he committed numerous felonies in prison in the nine and that years he was in prison. In fact, he's been locked up seventeen of his last eighteen years in prison. That he committed numerous felonies in prison. So why wasn't he prosecuted for felonies go over the list? Selling and using methanphetamine, shanking inmates, fights in prison, and no point in prison was he indicted for those felonies
which would have kept him longer. Why wasn't he indicted for selling meth in prison?
Well, what I see is he was under the influence of hooch.
He was making who he was fighting he was not obeying the guard's orders. He was under the influence of K two and so again I'm also looking into that, like why wasn't he charged with the additional crime in prison and in the correct in the Administrative Code Department of Corrections, they can charge him. The question was why wasn't he I don't know, maybe make that in law too, I will.
Tell all right.
Now another issue, he was out and he cut it off within about a month of him being out, he cut it off. And to get out, to have the ankle monitor put on, he had to identify where is he's staying, Who's he's with, who are your friends? Next of ken, next of In other words, looking ahead to him cutting it off, they would have had his address next to Ken, phone numbers, et cetera.
People to research.
He committed a terrible burglary like three weeks before the murder, and at that point the victims of the burglary in Cincinnati OTR notified the police Mordecai Black is the guy that did it, and a no point a CPD say, okay, let's find out.
Let's go get Mordecai Black.
We have his last known address, we have his friends and associates, he's living in OTR. Why didn't CPD say, okay, we got this guy, let's go find him before the murder.
Well, I'll tell you.
When you enter a warrant into leads, you have to have all their information, So everything about them, named data, birth,
everything you mentioned. Okay, the crime they're convicted of, everything, Okay, And so yes, officially that LEADS that warrant for absconding and going a wall was in there at the time that they're investigating this other burglary that he was a suspect of the issue is this times have changed sadly over the last you know, twenty years in law enforcement, and they're short staffed.
I mean, I remember when I took the test. There were thirty five hundred people there at.
The convention center to take the test, and they chose eighty of us. And so look, there's less young people that want to do this job. But what I think the biggest issue is is they don't feel law enforcement.
Our cops don't feel that they're supported.
So if they go out and again, look at the shooting that just happened, right, I'm not going to any of the bad guy's names because I'm not gonna give them any air. But I tell you that officer waited what a month to be cleared.
For doing your job, doing your job.
So again I think that they're short staffed. Yes, we do have the CIGIC and they have the task force, and they go out and round up bad guys and felons.
But again, like I.
Said, if this was put notifying them and saying, hey, here's what we got, go get them, I think that that would we would absolutely prevent that murder.
Culturally, cops and you were one thirty five hundred for eighty spots. Now CPD goes into the community to advertise the fact please make an application. And so at this point the cops are told directly indirectly, don't be aggressive, don't take a handful of warrns. I was told twenty years ago the cops would show up, not much going on, I take a handful of warns, go find these guys.
That doesn't happen anymore, right, That's.
Right, we did that. I mean, whether it's that or whether it's stolen cars.
I mean I remember again back in the day, you would tape all the license plates and making models of every stolen car that's in the area, so you would go look for those two and you had time.
Don't do that.
But again, like I said, now, I mean, are you supportive when you get a stolen car and get in a pursuit of a felon and then they run from you and full of gun I.
Mean that's the question.
Well, this cop waited six weeks to be cleared, and he was on desk duty for a while and the message was sent.
Was he close to getting indicted? I don't think so.
I think Connie Pillach did a good job at the news conference and laid it out. But the next next time might be a little closer, might be quick. You have to make a split second life and debt decision. Make the wrong one, your life is over. So the law will be called? What to Sidney Abrams? What will be the law called? When this thing changes?
My plan is to name it, of course, with Sarah's permission, is to name it after Patrick Patrick Karendra.
Yeah act and maybe in the future there'll be something good and valuable coming of it. Let's talk briefly about the Larry Henderson Act. I know law enforcement cares about this one too. What would that do Officer Larry Henderson who was murdered by the father of the kid that was shot in the business of stealing cars. What is the Larry Henderson Act.
Yeah?
So again after that horrific, So I thought about, okay, what is current law. So, when you are convicted of aggravated murder of a law enforcement officer, this is current law. Your sentencing choices are death okay, the death bounty, or life in prison with parole. And there's you know, you know, ten twenty, thirty, forty fifty years where you can come up for parole.
Okay.
So then I thought to myself, first of all, why is it only law enforcement officers? You know, we should include all of our first responders, right, so every police officer right the city, county, od and our corrections troopers, everybody including the FEDS, and our first responders are firefighters, are emt are paramedic, and our military members. If you wear a uniform, this act is going to protect you. Someone kills you on purpose, they have a plan, They
do it on purpose. They're convicted of aggravated murder. Your sentencing choices are death or life without parole. I am sick and tired of the assault on the people that are here keeping us safe every single day.
Because at this point, if you can I'm a police officer, a first responder, someone with the fire department, whatever, you can get to life imprisonment, but it doesn't mean without parole. In fact, there was a cop killer about ten years ago who was paroled and he's now living on the beaches of California, which is incredible, and god knows, a future governor might say, it's really the death penalty largely is unused completely now and people talk about life without
possibility of parole. But the governor can still issue a pardon. And we had Dick Celeste do that in mass about thirty years ago, that he took everybody off death row and gave them the possibility of parole. But this law that Larry Henderson Act would keep that from occurring.
Is that true?
Or could a future governor down the road say, anyway, well, even though Sidney Abrams would like to have somebody in prison for the rest of their life, after all, this guy was young, he was disadvantaged, he's already been serving thirty thirty five years and as a consequence, let's pardon him. Does that eliminate the governor's part in power.
No, but I guess the question would have to be asked, like, as governor, are you going to live with that when they come out and kill again?
But you have to live with that in my opinion.
All right now, all you can do is a lawmaker is do the law and then whatever the well, it is despicable and last night another kid was killed and over the rhine last night again every day, and we're told by city fathers and mothers they have to have pure of all that it's a safe community. You know, there's about twenty thousand shots fired every year according to shot Spotter in the city of Cincinnati, twenty thousand shots fired,
only five hundred people are wounded. It's a terrible circumstance. It begins with law enforcement. And when there's one cop between the Ohio River and North otr at three o'clock in the morning, that's a problem. And the fact that cops are reticent about doing their job because of fear of retribution, that's a problem. Let's move to issue number two if we can. Tony Bender, many others may have
a dog and what is the dog bill? I know it's called the aver rebill, And what is the dog bill, We had some of these vicious pit pulls running around biting people, killing people, biting off parts of their body. And what does the new dog Bill do if anything?
Well, so what happened not just down here in Cincinnati, but across the state. We had devastating, horrific people that were severely injured or killed by these dogs running around with no supervision from their owners.
There was a older woman over in Circleville. She was out literally just pulling the weeds in her front garden bed and she was mauled to death.
And so that whenever something horrific happens, of course it gets you know, the attention of lawmakers to take a look at Okay, now, what are we doing here? And what all this comes down to? This personal responsibility. That's all it is. You have a dog, you are responsible for that dog. And we're not talking about if someone is messing with the dog, you know, you're wrestling with the dog, or you're provoking it. No, we are talking
about unprovoked attacks. Just like Avery. She was eleven years old. She went over for a playdate at her friend's house and these the dogs mauled her so horrifically. She was severely injured. She's had multiple surgeries, and let me tell you, if you have a few minutes, you need to watch Public Safety Committee when she came in and she gave testimony. She is a strong twelve year old young lady and
we are so proud for sharing her story. And so what this bill does basically is it holds dog owners accountable for unprovoked attacks.
You're responsible for that dog. If you let it.
Run around the neighborhood and it bites a running or walking or a kid riding its bike, shame on you. It's going to be a criminal penalty. You'll have a misdemeanor if it's serious injury and I'm one, and if it kills, if your dog kills somebody, it's going to be a felony of the fourth degree. We're tired of it. We're sending a message and it's going to give the dog warden the authority to take the dog, and then
you're going to have due process in court. Every will have their court and the judge will declare whether that dog's going to be put.
Down or not.
So the one bite rule is done. One bite is done. A person with a vicious dog is held accountable. You buy everything that dog does.
Now.
Lastly, head on a lawmaker. It might have been the speaker Matt Huffman about a week or two ago. And there's a vote we're going to have in Ohio in November or in May that will eliminate all real estate property taxes. You give the American people a chance to eliminate real estate property taxes, they're likely to do it. And that means there goes the funding for the schools, police and fire, et cetera. And then he said that if that goes out the window, that the sales tax
will be twenty percent. So that means everybody that has a big purchase will go to Covington, will go to Batesville, they'll get the hell out of Ohio to buy something because who's going to pay twenty percent sales tax? Getting rid of real lif state taxes. That's a great idea. However, what's the downside?
Well, actually it sounds the folks that are collecting signatures. I would caution everyone. I would say, please do not sign that petition. And here's why, listen, I live in Harrison, Ohio. They're fiscally responsible here, they're conservative, they're not wasting money. If property taxes were totally eliminated, we would not the City of Harrison would not be the City of Harrison as it is. Now, what do I mean by that?
Their police, their fire, their streets department, you know, the guys that come out and keep our roads safe and fill potholes and whatnot. While the snow, all of that would be totally gone, and the property taxes are used to pay for things like I just mentioned, please fire roads, right and the whole nine yards, our schools educating our children. So yes, the speaker is totally right. We the General Assembly would have to say, Okay, well, how are we
going to fund all these things? Because I mean, at the end of the day, you have to now what I will say in the budget. And we're working on the Conference committee. Now I'm not in the conference committee. It's three House members, three Senate members, and they're working on the differences between the House and the Senate budget.
But at the end of the.
Day, we are trying to deliver property tax relief for ohiolands.
We get it, We also pay it.
We all have a tax bill that we pay, and so we are trying to deliver property tax relief to ohiolands while still funding schools, our local government fund, medicaid, the Department of Corrections, Department of Youth Services, state patrol, you get the program.
I mean the state pays for a lot of.
Things, yeah, including police and fire and getting the streets under control. But once again State Representative sending Abras, thanks for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show this Friday afternoon. The budgets all that stuff important, and we have people like Mordecai Black running around OTR, which is a almost
like Tombstone. It's like the Ok Corral, and all of a sudden, a good man and a good woman, a man's life's taken defending Sarah against his fish's criminal because this State to Ohio and city police together did not go find this guy, and after he burglarized his ex girlfriends him. I can't imagine being the ex girlfriend of Mordecai Black and she identifies him as the person that did it and is simply laid there. And three weeks later he murdered Patrick Herringer in his home. Something's got
to be done. But Sidney Abrams, thanks again. Continue to have a great day, and we'll talk later and after the budget has approved and Sidney Abrams, thank you for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show.
And you're a great American.
Thank you very much, thanks for having me. Let's continue with more if a line becomes available. Five one, three, seven, four, nine, seven thousand. Bill Cunningham, the great American with you every day. You're home of the Reds and so much more. News Radio seven hundred WLW