Law&Crime Sidebar - Photos of Bruises May Aid OnlyFans Model Courtney Clenney’s Self-Defense Claim

Episode Date: November 10, 2022

Photos released by the City of Miami Police Department show what appear to be bruises on OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney's body the day after she fatally stabbed her boyfriend Christian Obumseli. The Law&Crime Network's Angenette Levy and former prosecutor Melba Pearson discuss if the photos will support her self-defense claim in courtGUEST: Melba Pearson, Former ProsecutorLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Logan HarrisGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&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.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. I want to be like, I want to be like, exonerated, I guess, of like anything wrong. And I want him, okay, the part you start here. I want a restraining work against Christian Abramselli. That is only fans model Courtney Clennie two days before she stabbed her boyfriend Christian Abumselly to death. I'm Ann Janette Levy and welcome back to Law and Crime Sidebar podcast.

Courtney Clennie faces a second degree murder charge for the stabbing death of her now former boyfriend Christian Abumselly. Clennie claims that she stabbed Obamselli in self-defense back on April 3rd, but prosecutors have said the two had a volatile relationship. and that Clennie was abusive to her boyfriend. Clennie's attorneys say it was the other way around, though, and that she killed Abom Sully and self-defense. And there are new photos that have come to light that NBC 6 in Miami says were taken of Courtney

Clennie after, after she did this, after she stabbed her boyfriend, and they show bruising on different parts of her body. And we've heard that her mother likely took these photos. I contacted a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. they are the ones who provided the photos to us when we requested them, and we were told they didn't have the date that those photos were taken. So really the question here is, do these photos make a difference? Do they support any claim that maybe this woman was being abused, does she claimed, or was defending herself? And joining us to talk about this is Melba Pearson. She is a former

prosecutor. She actually used to work in the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, which is prosecuting this case. So Melba, welcome to Sidebar. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me, Anjanet. Melba, there is so much that has come out about this case. Let's go back first to that body camera footage that I showed at the top of the show. This is two days before Courtney Clennie stabbed Christian on Bumselli and she's asking about getting a restraining order and she knows she has to get there first. And the police say you'd get to file it first by getting to the courthouse first. Are all these new pieces of information that have come to light since this arrest was announced? So what are your thoughts on? on the case just from what we know so far? So from what we know so far, we clearly see a very toxic, violent relationship. The question is, is it one of those situations where there's one main victim all the time

being the boyfriend was always the victim and that the defendant was always the abuser? Or was it more of a mutual situation where they both were abusive to each other and harmed each other in different ways? Or is it what the defendant is claiming where he was always the aggressor and she lashed out in self-defense. We just don't know.

And each of those pieces of information that's coming out just keeps muddying the waters because, again, if you have a photo that you can't authenticate, you don't know when it was taken, you know it was taken by someone who has a vested interest in the case being the mother doesn't want to see her daughter go to jail. There starts to be questions about credibility as to who was the injuries actually tied to the victim in this case? So was he the person that actually hit her? Were these injuries self-imposed as part of a greater cover-up? Again, we don't know. But at the end of the day, I will say this. Domestic violence is something that's incredibly serious in this country.

We're seeing that the Gabby Petito case is continuing now with her family filing a $50 million lawsuit against the police department for not intervening. We know that, you know, one out of three teenagers are likely to be in a domestic violence relationship before they even leave high. So this is something that is very serious, has to be taken very seriously. And we have to make sure to examine all the pieces of evidence. And the jury is not going to have an easy time of this because there will be this volume of he said, she said, and what really happened that day in question. So we covered a lot of ground there. Let's go back, first of all, to the photos. And we can put those up and show them. That's, that was my main question here. How, how do we know that these were

inflicted upon her during some type of altercation with this guy? We don't. I don't think there's any way to know that. We don't have enough information to deduce that. Just because they, these photos were taken after this happened, according to some of the reporting, doesn't mean that they came from an altercation with Christian Albemselli. Am I wrong? No, that's absolutely correct. We don't know what the source of the bruising was. We don't know necessarily when it was taken. What would be helpful is if, let's say, she sought medical treatment or if, let's say, the mother turns over her phone to indicate, let's say, this was a photo that was taken on her mobile phone, you can go through the history and see exactly the time and date stamp as to when it was taken. She may be willing to

do that. She may not. Or if it was, you know, taken in some other means, we may not be able to get that information to authenticate it. So we don't know if this was an accurate, fair and accurate portrayal of what she looked like on the night in question unless the police department that responded to this call can verify and say, oh, when we saw her, we noted bruising on her arms, et cetera, et cetera. But if that's not reflected in the police report or if she had everything covered, then again, we have a dead end when it comes to that aspect. Something else that you said really piqued my interest and got my antenna up because we've heard a lot about this. We heard about this during the Depp case when we were covering that trial earlier this year and the fact that there are some people who believe that only one person in the relationship can be the aggressor. But then we heard terms like mutual abuse. And it sounds like you seem to think as a former prosecutor that more than one person can be the aggressor in some type of domestic violence relationship at times.

Do you believe that to be true, that there's not always, it's not always this person's dominant and this one's submissive? Can the roles change? Absolutely. The roles can change because domestic violence is not a static thing, right? So for instance, if I'm in an abusive relationship with you, heaven forbid, we were in abusive relationship, right? We would never be abusive to each other. I don't think, Malbo. That's part. That's part. But if, you know, I ended up being the primary aggressor towards you. You're mad at me. You'll stay mad at me for a week. And maybe next week you end up throwing a shoe at me because you're still upset over the way that I abused you last week. So that's how that cycle can end up getting very confusing

and it's not that traditional sort of burning bed type. The husband is beating the wife and she's been enduring that for decades. That can happen. That permutation can exist. But it can also exist where the two end up abusing each other because there's toxicity, there's anger, there's resentment. And, you know, at the end of the day, it makes these cases so much more difficult to prosecute because, again, oftentimes jury don't understand that, you know, kind of volatile relationship and say, both of you are at fault, therefore not guilt. And that becomes a huge hurdle for prosecutors to have to overcome. I know that self-defense laws in this in the state of Florida are pretty strong.

really. I mean, we've seen it kind of play out in some other cases that are pretty high profile in that state. So I'm wondering, does she possibly have a good claim? I mean, I just don't know. I feel like you can never make these judgments just looking on what you hear when something's announced, like an indictment or something to that effect. You have to look at all of the evidence and what was going on leading up in the immediate moments leading up to an altercation. Is this going to be a tough case for prosecutors to win, just given what the laws in the state of Ohio or state of Florida are, I should say, with regard to self-defense. I think it's all going to depend because as you get closer to trial and with all of the media attention, I think it is going to be very likely that different people will

come forward who were involved in relationships with either one of the parties and they can speak to the history because we do have a legal provision to be able to bring in prior bad act. So let's say, if the defendant had a long history of abusing anybody she was in a relationship with she was abusive towards, well, that's probably going to come out. And if that's the case, then that would take away from any self-defense claim that she may have. Separately, if it comes out that the victim in this case ended up having a series of abusive relationships and it was known to be aggressive and violent, then again, that could help bolster her self-defense claim. So again, it's going to depend on the evidence as it comes out. But,

keeping in mind, Florida is a stand-your-ground state, controversially so on a number of levels. And also, you know, self-defense is something that's viable. If I was her defense counsel, I absolutely would be going down the path of self-defense because, again, you can't really deny that you did it, right? So the only other option is to say, yes, I did it, but I had a really good reason why, and I deserve legal protection because of what I was dealing with, which was domestic violence. going to be an interesting case to watch as it unfolds. I know there's been some stuff that came out to Melba where Courtney Clunney apparently was using some racial slurs directed at Christian

on Bumselli. I mean, there's been a lot coming out. So there is a lot to show I think that this was not a healthy relationship. This was a toxic relationship. So we're just going to have to watch and see what happens next. Do you think it's unusual that she is still being held? Like she hasn't been given any type of bail? That is unusual, but not. I'm not overly troubled by it because many times when you have a case of this magnitude, when it comes to homicide cases, first of all, if it's a first degree murder, you're generally not getting any kind of bond. You're not getting second degree murder. If there's some extenuating circumstances, you might be released.

But again, the question is, is she a flight risk, right? Is she going to get on a plane and disappear and not come back for trial? She's an only fan's model with two million followers. It's possible that someone may give her shelter in another country. we don't know that. Is she a risk to the community? You know, is she going to go out and harm someone else or start a relationship with someone else and abuse them, potentially kill them? We don't know. So these are some of the things that a judge has to take into consideration as to whether or not they're going to give her a bond. And if so, in what amount? And even if she gets a bond, if it's a $2 million bond, she may not have the 10% to pay a bond person to be able to get out of custody. So again, just the fact that you have, you have a bond does not necessarily mean you're going to be released. So all of these factors is still in play as well. Well, Melba Pearson, thanks again at former prosecutor for coming on to talk with us about this case. We appreciate it. Great. Thank you so much, Anjanet. And that's it for this edition of

Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. It is produced by Logan Harris and Sam Goldberg. Bobby Zoki is our YouTube manager. Alyssa Fisher handles our bookings and Kiera Bronson does our social media. You can listen to and download sidebar on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcasts. And of course, you can always watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel. I'm Ann Janette Levy, and we will see you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series

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