Law&Crime Sidebar - High School Rapist Walks Free in Shocking Plea Deal

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

Jesse Mack Butler, a high school baseball player from Stillwater, Oklahoma, pleaded guilty to a series of horrific sexual assaults against teen girls he dated — including rape and strangulation. Butler ended up taking a plea deal — resulting in a shocking sentence that has sparked outrage. Law&Crime's Jesse Weber breaks down the chilling court filings and Butler’s controversial plea with YouTuber Justin Shepherd of JustinTheNickofCrime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Well, if this don't set you on fire, I guarantee your wood's wet, because it makes you upset. Anybody that listens to this is going to be absolutely upset. There is outrage in Oklahoma right now as a teenage rapist who could have gotten almost 80 years in prison for violent attacks. acts instead doesn't have to spend any time behind bars at all he is being called the new brock turner as you have parents community members at least one lawmaker they are crying foul over this sweetheart deal we are going to be sitting down with a content creator and reporter

who has been covering every aspect of this case to try to figure out what happened here welcome to sidebar presented by law and crime i'm jesse weber a high school baseball player out in Stillwater, Oklahoma just accepted a deal that means he won't spend any time in prison after pleading no contest to some of the most heinous charges there are. Charges like rape, forced oral sodomy, assault and battery by strangulation. According to graphic arrest affidavits that were filed in Payne County Oklahoma Court, then 17-year-old Jesse Mack Butler targeted at least two teen girls that he dated. And many of these accusations, they are right out of a horror movie, okay?

So now, before we dig into this, before we dig deeper into these affidavits, I got to tell you a little bit more about Butler, who turned 18 in August. So he attended Stillwater Public Schools, played for the high school baseball teams and other regional outfits. This is according to reporting from the Daily Mail. Stillwater is the home of Oklahoma State University, and Butler, by the way, comes from an influential sports family. The Daily Mail reports that his father, Mack Butler, was the OSU football team's director of operations from 2001 to 2004, and then again in 2009 until 20, He was then hired as the assistant athletics director for Stowater Public Schools. Butler's mother, Jackie Butler, is a coordinator for cowboy sports properties at OSU. This is again, according to the Daily Mail.

Family members of Butler's victims described him as seemingly like, quote, the perfect boyfriend when he dated their 16-year-old daughters. But these affidavits, they reveal that behind closed doors, Butler was essentially a violent predator who refused to be told no. I'm going to take a look at this paperwork, okay? Now, we're not going to be getting into some of the more graphic parts of the affidavits, but this will give you an idea of the grave seriousness of this case. Now, according to the first affidavit, a 16-year-old identified by her initials, LS, told a school resource officer in September of 2024 that she had dated Jesse Butler for a few months earlier in the year, and that during that time,

he physically and sexually assaulted her multiple times, multiple times, including trying to rape her inside his car outside of an ice cream shop the previous February. The affidavit reads, L.S. reported she yelled and told him no, repeatedly and tried to push him off of her, but was unable to overpower him. L.S. reported Butler told her he was sorry for what he had to do, but he had to do it. L.S. recalled hyperventilating because Butler intended to have sexual intercourse with her and she did not want to. Now, according to LS, a woman must have heard her screaming because she walked up to the car and interrupted them. L.S. told police that Butler told her that if the police came, they would both be in trouble. He reportedly took her back

to his home where her car was parked and then tried to rape her again. The affidavit says Ellis told Butler she needed to get home, but Butler pulled her on top of him and told her, you're not going until I'm finished. L.S. said she was eventually able to get out of the car and get home. Now, the victim told police that Butler forced her to perform oral sex on him in the parking lot of a planet fitness despite her saying no. And unbelievably, during the assault, the affidavit says that Butler took a call from his mom, told L.S., she had to be silent or he would hurt her. There's another assault that happened at Butler's home in what's referred to as a movie room. According to L.S., she believes Butler's mom heard her crying and saying no as Butler tried to

have sex with her. And she apparently came to the door asking if everything was okay. But it seems that's as far as this mom's interaction went because the affidavit just says that Butler drove L.S. home at that point, except he didn't take her all the way home. No, he apparently parked nearby, tried to sexually assault her for nearly two hours. The affidavit says that when she finally managed to get to her house, he followed her and continued. trying to assault her inside of the home. And the abuse just kept getting worse because, according to LS, in late February of 2024, Butler reportedly strangled her because she refused to have sex with him.

So the affidavit says, quote, L.S. reported she was hyperventilating and then recalled her vision being blurry and she was dizzy. She reported her head immediately hurt and she was confused about what occurred. She was scared of Butler. But when she regained consciousness, Butler was laughing at her. Following this incident, L.S. reported she had a handprint. an injury on her neck. Now, L.S. was examined by a sexual assault specialist, confirmed the teen had been a victim of sexual and physical abuse. This is according to the affidavit.

I got to say, by the way, this is a prime example of what we try to do here on Sidebar. We're trying to understand the legal system. We're trying to understand the law. And I have to say, I am so happy that this show is sponsored by legal experts, Morgan and Morgan, right? This is America's largest injury law firm. This is a firm with over 1,000 attorneys. they know how the law works. You know why they're so big? Because they win all the time. Listen to this. They have recovered over $25 billion for more than 500,000 clients. Think about that. In the past few months, you have a client in Florida that received $12 million after the insurance company offered just $350,000. Out in Pennsylvania, a client was awarded $26 million.

That is, 40 times the insured $650,000 offer. You have another client in Pennsylvania that received $29 million after being offered only $500,000. And even if you think your case isn't worth. millions of dollars, why not just start a claim and fight for what you deserve? Morgan and Morgan, they make it so simple. You can start a claim from your phone in just eight clicks. So if you're injured, you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash LC sidebar by clicking the link below or scanning the QR code on screen. So Butler and Ellis, they apparently broke up in March of 2024. He started dating chaos and his disturbing and aggressive behavior, that allegedly continued. You have a second

affidavit that details assaults that K.S. says she suffered during this relationship. Quote, K.S. reported she engaged in sexual intercourse with Jesse Butler throughout the term of their relationship and did so to prevent physical aggression from him. When K.S. told Butler he was hurting her, he did not care and would not stop. Because of his aggressiveness, she was scared to tell him to stop. She expressed she was scared not to do what he wanted because of how physically violent he had been with her. Chaos reported Butler had left bruises on her hips from squeezing her so tightly. Chaos reported the intercourse was extremely aggressive,

but she reported she quickly stopped fighting it because Butler would overpower her and hurt her to get his way. Chaos explained she learned what to do and not to do to avoid being hurt by Butler. According to KS, Butler would pin her down and she was physically unable to get him off of her. KS stated this would often lead her to hyperventilate, which Butler thought was funny.

So not only is it horrific, but you're seeing how these accounts are very similar. to one another. Now, according to this affidavit, Butler also strangled chaos and so bad, so long, that she eventually passed out. She reported she woke up on the floor of the living room in a house where she was apparently house-sitting, and she claims Butler was livid that she wouldn't have sex with him in someone else's home. But after strangling her, chaos claims, Butler raped her three or four times. Later that same week, chaos reported that Butler strangled her again. And if it's possible to even believe this,

It was an even sicker power play. The affidavit says, chaos stated, Butler told her he wanted to strangle her so he could film it on his phone. And if you can believe it, police found that video on Butler's phone, which showed him choking chaos until she passed out. What these girls went through, what they endured is just unimaginable. But then you get to the consequences, and that too is seemingly unimaginable. Why? So Jesse Butler was charged in March of 2025 as an adult with 10 felony counts. We are talking rape. We are talking attempted rape, sexual battery, assault. He was later hit with an 11th charge when he apparently violated a protective order. He was facing almost

80 years in prison for these crimes. He ended up entering into a no contest plea, okay? This is where everything changes. This is where the big shock comes when he entered that plea in August. His case had apparently been downgraded from adult court to youthful offender status. And because of that, he would spend no time behind bars. So instead of his 78-year prison sentence, that was deferred. It's deferred as long as he complies with his, quote, rehabilitation plan. According to News Nation, until his 19th birthday, Butler has to do these daily check-ins, these weekly counseling sessions. He has a curfew. He has a curfew. He isn't allowed to be on social media.

He asked to complete 150 hours of community service, and if he does that, no prison time. The district attorney's office released this statement, per the Daily Mail. The youthful offender sentence imposed against Jesse Butler requires him to complete his rehabilitation plan successfully, including an aggressive schedule of therapy with a specialist in sex offender treatment, and should he fail, he faces reclassification as an adult and a sentence of 10 years in prison. So this complete 180 on punishment for this apparent sexual sexual, predator, as you can imagine, has caused quite the outrage in the city of Stillwater.

And now, across the world, as the story spreads, there are calls for the judge who approved this plea deal, special judge Susan Worthington, to be reprimanded, to be removed for okaying this. And even the state's legislature could possibly be getting involved here. Oklahoma State Representative Justin J.J. Humphrey appeared on Ashley Banfield Show on News Nation this week, and he is fired up. But I keep coming back to how it happened. Sir, do you think that the courts are corrupt? Is that how you think that this deal was maneuvered? Oh, absolutely.

We're working on grand juries right there. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. I think we're going to see more cases like this. I think we're going to see I'm working on a case that may be as shocking as this. We're trying to get the Payne County grand jury because of this kind of action. And so, yes, I mean, absolutely, there's a lot of problems. We're meeting with, you know, great resistance from their court and from our Oklahoma government. I mean, we're meeting with great resistance on trying to get that grand jury and hold these people accountable.

So, again, until they're held accountable, the laws are there, but what do you do when they, you know, don't follow their own rules? When they don't follow justice, they took an oath to justice. Does this sound like justice? And again, here's what I'm saying, shouldn't we investigate? Should we not investigate? Was there political favor done here? Was this done as a result because the positions the father has

or because people knew each other? I would think that it would warrant investigation. And again, it's all allegations. We don't know what happened until we go in and investigate it. But, golly, I'm mad as I'll get out and we're trying to have other things there in that same county investigate.

I mean very, very corrupt things going on in this time. county and really across the state. There's all kinds of things. So I want to bring in Justin Shepard, host of Justin, the Nick of Crime. So happy to have you on here to talk about this. You've been following this case closely. You helped shine a national spotlight on this. How did you first hear about this case? So actually a friend of mine, another mutual social media creator, he goes by missing in USA. Literally, his content is all, for the most part, missing people in stories and they work behind the scenes and actually research his stuff. He lives

in Stillwater and he sent me this story and that night I was actually getting ready to go live on YouTube to talk about completely well three different cases and I was like I'm after I read that story I was so enraged that I was like I'm going to scrap what I'm talking about right now because these cases have been you know cold for years and we're going to talk about this and I was infuriated I called a friend of mine who's an attorney is like hey can you hop on right now because I want to talk to you about some stuff ask some questions so she did as well and then from there apparently i opened the floodgates and and still water oklahoma um you know from there i you know i got it sent over to the people over on news nation it's like hey you guys might want to

talk about this and but basically dan had initially sent me that story and it was like something needs to be done about this but when you see somebody getting charged with the charges that he had and what we can get into those a little bit more here in a moment but originally being sentenced to 78 years and then walking away with 150 hours of community service that is just a miscarriage of justice there's just no other way to look at it i haven't seen anything like this neither near this and and from your research from speaking with experts from speaking with attorneys what's the what's the what's the rationale here what have you learned here about how this is even possible because i will tell you there is a lot of speculation online right now that the butler family may have

connections that may have helped him get this so-called sweetheart deal? We couldn't confirm that. What can you tell us? So I've spoken with some of the families, the families as well, of actually both victims who came forward against Jesse. There is a third victim who, if she hasn't come forward, but can you blame her when you look at this as the justice that they get? So there's a third victim.

And kind of like you said, the speculation is that Jesse McButler's father is a man by the name of Mack Butler. And he was the head of football operations at OSU for, I forget how many years, but for a pretty long time, he's kind of a staple in that community. And when we're talking about Stillwater, Oklahoma, we're talking about OSU for people who don't know.

Stillwater is the town that Oklahoma State University is in. So there's a lot of things tied to that. You know, Mac Butler, it seems that he grew up there. His wife currently works for OSU. His daughter works for the public school system there. he was apparently had been hired as like a coach of some kind for Stillwater High School as well. So somebody with deep-rooted ties into the community, and that then leads you to the judge in this case, or one of the judges in this case, Judge Susan Worthington, between her and her father,

the Worthingtons have had a hold on that bench for over 50 years. So while you can't necessarily say definitively that, hey, there's this connection here because he's deep-rooted in football, you know, she's a judge, they all grew up in the same town, that there's this kind of connection. But it's not really many difficult mental gymnastics to make that leap, right, that, hey, this is a town that, you know, requires the college, needs the college to survive. It's very deep rooted into the system that they're very much supportive of OSU for this whole kind of thing to be very close-knit. And that's kind of what's being speculated, to the point that even it's now gotten the attention of one of Oklahoma's law. lawmakers representative uh j j humphrey who's also running for lieutenant governor um i'm actually going to be speaking with him later tonight a little bit more details but yeah and and if you can i don't know if you

spoke with them already but representative humphrey is talking my understanding is about a potential investigation into this is this true is there going to be a formal investigation into what happened here it sounds that way yeah he so he you know he kind of looks at it from the same way he was telling me he's got a lot of background, you know, in the court system and investigation before he got into politics. And he said, you know, basically kind of the same thing that we were just talking about that. Can he say definitively or can he prove right now that there's a connection? No, but his exact words, but it sure is hell smacks like it. You know, and so he's like, it's worth an investigation. So he basically he's thinking about, you know, wanting to put a grand jury

together to do an indictment possibly, you know, the conversation we had, which will go a little more in depth. And I don't know if that could bring additional charges against Jesse because when you look again at the litany of charges, there are some that should have been on there that weren't. Like, in my opinion, as not a lawyer, why he wasn't charged with attempted murder when one of the girls was near death for what he did. And so those are kind of the conversations, but he feels that not just Stillwater, that that entire county, Tang County and then other places in Oklahoma, there's a lot of, I mean, he said it flat out. There's corruption. And he's He believes that this is no different than that.

And it merits of investigation. What is the community saying? What is the community feeling about this? Are they up in arms about it? Yeah, they are. So there's a protest they're planning sometime next month, I think November, I want to say November 5th. But they're planning a protest, but they don't think that it's fair. And, you know, what's been very interesting about this is that since, like I said at the beginning, I opened the floodgates on this.

Since I started talking about Jesse, I've gotten no less than 20 to 25 messages, whether it's, you know, through Insta or direct email or even messenger or people saying, hey, here's my experience with, you know, Judge Worthington. Here's my experience with this DA. Here's my experience in, you know, the judicial system in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and Payne County.

And what's been interesting about all these stories, I've kind of started to compile them together and like to one thing so I can kind of analyze them. And a lot of these, not all, but a lot of them have the exact same players in every one of them. There's another case, for example, that Judge Worthington and I think Michael Culling

I think, don't hold me to the last one, was on it. And basically, this was a guy, he was a teacher, got arrested for 16, a 13-year-old girl, was sentenced to 10-year-old. Not just that, he was also stalking her trying to break into her house. This is a grown man, okay, an educator. And he gets sentenced to 10 years, which sounds great, right? He does eight months and gets out. While he's out, he rapes a 16-year-old girl. the family gets an EPA an emergency protective order against her

protective order he violates it 11 times each time Judge Worthington gives him a $500,000 fine the girl doesn't feel safe she wants to get out of that town as quickly as she possibly can as soon as she graduates and just be out of still water and this is another case I'm actually probably going to be doing something today on it or tomorrow but this is another case

that again it's the exact same players and there's a lot of them with it and I was telling Representative Humphrey about that as well Like, you know, this is not just a one-time singular incident when it comes to these predators. Yeah. First of all, you talk about violating a protective order, okay? My understanding is something happened with Butler violating a protective order, and I think that would, you know, speak to a lack of concern, a lack of consequences. Correct.

You just mentioned in this other case. What can you tell us about that? So I believe, so obviously because the victims were minors, we'll leave their names out, but for one of the victims, he wouldn't stop harassing her, wouldn't stop calling her. wouldn't stop threatening her despite the fact that the court told him not to do it and he i mean he didn't even get you know he got that charge but nothing really happened for it when you're at that point and you're facing the charges um that he's facing you have to take that very seriously especially when they're strangulate you know there's strangulation charges on this and even though there was two charges that happened there were three strangulations on two at least

two of the victims so one of those victims too had to have surgery i don't know if you've seen the pictures on that but had to have surgery to correct the damage that he did and her medical physician said i think that he said 30 seconds from death but let's just say you know he basically say that she is very near death on what he did and this is also a guy who strangled one girl to the point of unconscious each and each strangulation was a point of unconsciousness and one of the one of those points once she woke back up he had set his camera up because he wanted to film it he did it again to the point of unconsciousness to this girl caught it on camera and actually when they searched his devices,

they found that video. So it's not like hearsay. It's actually there. So when you have that and you have, you know, young 16-year-old girls, you know, who had to just go through this horrific ordeal, you look at pictures of Jesse Butler. He's an athlete.

He's a big guy, you know. It's an issue of he can easily overpower these people, you know, using tactics of fear, coercion, things like that, based on what we've heard, you know, what are these girls supposed to do when you don't have a judicial system that's protecting them, when he blatantly disregards what the court has said, I think that that speaks volumes, and I think it speaks even more when the courts do nothing about it. And I want to highlight something. So one of these victims, talk about the

victims, one of the victims submitted a victim impact statement to the court for the sentencing hearing. And according to KOCO and Oklahoma outlet that reviewed the court paperwork, she wrote, I've had to explain bruises, explain silence, explain why I started isolating from people who love me. You didn't just strangle me with your hands. You strangled my voice. my joy, my ability to feel safe in my own body. The Daily Mail spoke with the mother of one of the girls that Butler attacked, calling her only Amber, she told them, it's appalling. I received similar punishments for breaking curfew when I was a teenager.

It's a complete injustice to these girls and to future victims because, unfortunately, statistically, it won't end. Not only are you giving a slap in the face to those survivors, you are potentially putting other women at risk by not holding him accountable. Now, Justin, some people are calling Jesse Butler the new Brock Turner, because back in 2015, Turner was this 19-year-old star swimmer at Stanford University, sexually assaulted a woman while she was unconscious. He was convicted in 2016 of three charges of felony sexual assault. But at his sentencing, you had Santa Clara County Superior Court judge, Aaron Persky, sentenced him to just six months in jail, followed by three months of probation. He was required to register as a sex offender for life.

he ended up being released after just three months for good behavior. The judge in that case, by the way, ended up being recalled by local voters in 2018. The case influenced California's legislator to require prison terms for rapists whose victims are unconscious and change the definition of what rape means to include digital penetration. So there was an outcome there. But I feel like that's a fair kind of comparison, no? I think it's a great comparison because you have, you know, rate by instrumentation, which is pretty much the same thing as, you know, digital penetration.

and I agree with you. And I think that with Brock Turner, who, by the way, I have been told, I've not researched on my own that he has changed his name to Alan Turner so that I guess he can survive a little bit better, you know, that was another travesty just because these girls, they have to live with this for the rest of their life, what happened to them. And these people get off scot-free, what kind of message does that send? And I think that when you look at somebody like Jesse Butler, I agree with you. And, you know, you've covered enough case.

I've covered enough cases to know that people like this, they reoffend. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. And I know that there's a belief that we both know some of the same people. And Galli Petito's family, you know, they've really gone into domestic violence awareness and things like that, changing the law as well. Jim Schmidt, her stepdad, had told me that when somebody puts their hands around your neck, there is a 750% increased chance that they will kill you. So for Jesse Butler, somebody who is now comfortably strangled girls at least,

least three times to the point of unconsciousness filmed it what's what's going to happen next what's going to happen when he's now in college and all of this stuff is expung from him which by the way i don't know if you were aware of them you probably were that when he turns 19 less than a year from now all of the stuff is expunged it's all completely gone nobody knows about except for what it's found on on the web but you know what's going to happen when he's at college and now he's got alcohol He's got access to things like roofies, you know, inebriated states of some of these girls who are partying that should feel safe. What's going to happen when he's there and he does that and he takes somebody's life? Who's going to be held accountable then?

And look, that's the importance of reporting on this and keeping it in the public eye. So it's not put, you know, in the waist bin and no one knows what happened here. Something real happening here. And by the way, you and I cover these cases all the time. You know how difficult it is for survivors to come forward and, and, and, explain what happened to them if there's not digital evidence to support it, if they don't have corroborating witness accounts, if there's not surveillance footage to, it's mostly based on their accounts. So not only being, coming forward and going through the process to explain

what happened and going through the legal process, and now this is the result. You know, Justin, that's why the work that you do is incredible. It is really incredible. And I can't highlight what you do enough. From what you've seen so far, do you, do you, How are these victims and their families doing? I mean, how are they responding to this? What was their reaction to all this? I explained it a little bit, but for the best that you can tell, I mean, how are they moving forward?

You know, it's interesting. So when you talk about the victims, I've spoken with Amber. I talked to her, you know, almost daily at this point. And what people have to remember, too, is that when something like this happens, it's not just the girl that's the victim. It affects the entire family, right? So now you have a mom and a dad, you know, advocating for their child, you know, and then people always say the same thing. And I say it even too. And I'll take a step back. Like, you know, I even told

Amber, I was like, I don't know how you and your husband, you know, y'all are better people than me because I don't think I could, I could just let somebody walk. Like, I would be okay catching charges. And she was like, you know, we had that conversation, but we need to be on this side of some gates so that we can continue to help and advocate. for her. But it affects the entire family. I think that despite all of this, what I'm learning is that I've not spoken to the girls, obviously. I'd rather speak to the parents because they're young. But from what I understand from the family, they are not letting this guy take their voice. They're not letting him have the power over him. And I think that that's a pretty

incredible thing because that's what a lot of this is about, right? It's about the ability to have power and control. And I feel, too, that with this story now getting more of the public attention, it was being swept under the rug that they also feel so much more supported not only by their community who's now more aware of this but you know somebody said yesterday made a comment on one of my videos that oh i saw this on our morning news report in oslo norway and so this is made yeah this this made it all the way overseas and i think that for these girls they finally feel like you know even if the court's not giving him justice this he can't escape this he can't run from this Yeah. And by the way, just so I know, have you heard anything from him, his family, his side? Have they reached out to you at all or anything like that?

No, but I mean, but if they did, I would talk to them. You know, I'd let them have that opportunity. But no, they haven't. My guess is they're probably laying pretty low right now. What I have heard is that there is a group, a Facebook group, and I would send a couple screenshots of it where the family was reaching out to the administrator of that Facebook group. basically talking about how they're now being threatened and how they're being harassed and things like that. And basically that this was this was a big thorn in their side is how I will word that. That's my words, not theirs. But, you know, I'm not saying that people should harass or threaten people at all. I don't, I don't agree with that. But for it to be a thorn in their side, good. I'm okay with that. Well, I think more answers are warranted. And I'm very curious to see what happens with your conversation with Representative Humphrey to see what this investigation

will look like. Justin, for anybody who's out there wants to see more of the work that you do, not just with this case, this story, but other stories that you cover. Let everybody know where they can find you. Because I think, again, you do really important work. Well, thank you. So I'm on pretty much every platform you can think of TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, substack. And it's all the same name, just in the nick of crime. So just kind of how it sounds. And I also have a website just in thecrime.com, which will lead you to all of my socials as well. So that's kind of where you can find it and what we do. And I do different things on all the platforms depending.

But, you know, this kind of stuff, this type of awareness is important. It speaks for victims everywhere. And if I can, too, plug this. I'm also working. This case kind of got me fired up a little bit to the point, you know, we cover a lot of things like this where you see predators get plea deals like this. And right now it's kind of a blanket statement. But I started a petition, which in two weeks has broken over 50, I think it's a 54,000

signatures right now to stop these predators from getting plea. deals. And I realize that that's a very broad statement, which once we have enough signatures, we can whittle it down to get a little bit more specific. But if anybody wants to sign that, that slink through any of my bios as well. And once I get to 100,000, we can start taking it to some of the bigger representatives. That's great. That's great. Justin Shepard, thank you so much for taking the time. And just on a different note, great lava lamp. You know, nobody does the lava lamp anymore. And that, you know, that takes courage in and of itself. I mean, that's a great, Look at that back there.

Nobody does a lot of line like that. This is the biggest one you can buy. Is that right? It is. It's like 27 inches or something like that. Well, now you're just showing off. Now you're just showing off about your lava lamp and everybody sees that. I went into a store and they were on clearance.

And the woman was like, well, if you buy two of them, I'll give you a better deal. It's basically two for the price of one. But I have another one downstairs as well. Fantastic. I love it. Justin Shepard. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Thank you for having me. And that's all we have for your right. Right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can follow me on X or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.

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