Law&Crime Sidebar - Top 3 Key Moments From OnlyFans Model Murder Case Hearing

Episode Date: September 6, 2022

The lawyer for OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney tried to block the release of some material related to the investigation against her for the murder of her boyfriend, Christian “Toby” Obumseli. Frank Prieto called the material on Clenney’s phone “salacious.” The Miami Herald argued against the request. Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy and Tampa-based defense attorney Bryant Camareno talk about the request and what the release of the material could mean for Clenney’s case.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Claim your SPECIAL OFFER for MagellanTV here: https://try.magellantv.com/lawandcrime/. Start your free trial TODAY so you can watch "How To Catch a Serial Killer" where a British detective goes after a suspect in a decade-old case involving a suspected serial killer. GUESTS:Bryant Camareno: https://twitter.com/camarenoLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Logan Harris Guest 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. We believe that the state attorney's office, beginning the day after Ms. Clinton's arrest, mobilized the media and utilized them as a tool. it's clear that the family of the decedent in this case also did the same. Courtney Clenny, the only fan's model accused of murdering her boyfriend, Christian Obam Selly, asked to keep the public from seeing the evidence prosecutors have gathered against her,

calling some of it salacious and sexually explicit. So what happened with this request in court and how could it impact the case? I'm Ann Jeanette Levy and welcome to Law and Crime's Sidebar podcast. Courtney Clenny is the only fans model who's back in Florida after being arrested in Hawaii. She is there to face a second degree murder charge for the death of her boyfriend, Christian Abumselli. And I know that you've all seen that video in the elevator of her hitting him and him appearing to just kind of back up and not really take part in this fight. We read court documents that showed that this was a very tumultuous relationship. So Plenty is an only fan's model.

So she's apparently got a lot of stuff on her phone that's sexually explicit. It's material of her doing things, I guess, as part of her job. And her lawyer, Frank Pietro, asked that this be kept secret. He doesn't want it out there. And he asked the court for an order limiting what would be released to the public. They did a cell phone download of Ms. Pliny's phone, which is going to contain hundreds of this degeneration. hundreds, probably thousands of text messages. It's also going to contain content that she would use on her only fan site,

which has nothing, nothing to do with the events of August 3rd, 2022, I'm sorry, April 3rd, 2022, when Ms. Plumny had to defend herself. It's going to contain, this drop of discovery I've submitted a terabyte drive from the state is going to contain personal text messages with her family, friends, third parties that have nothing to do with this case. And that's going to be subject to Chapter 119 and the media through Ed Griffith and the state of attorney's office. They're going to send links to the media. Here's your public records request link to this video, this video. And it's going to contain information that is highly inflammatory. I know it feels like there are a million streaming services.

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Magellan TV, it doesn't have ads, and it also has other shows about history, science, space, travel, and much more. You can watch Magellan anytime, anywhere on your TV, your laptop, or phone, and it's compatible with Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Google Play, and iOS. An annual membership cost $59.98. That's $4.99 per month for 3,500 hours of documentaries. Law and Crime Sidebar listeners and viewers get a one-month free trial. Just log on to MagellanTV.com slash law and crime so you can watch how to catch a serial killer. Again, that's MagellanTV.com slash law and crime. The Miami Herald was in court to argue against this request. They would think that there should be no limit on the public disclosure because this

evidence is usually available to the public in Florida. But Frank Prieto talked about an email that his office actually received discussing Courtney Clennie and her culpability. So let's listen to what he had to say about that. Judge, I received, just to talk about the impact of releasing these drips of discovery, I received somebody on August 14th was so impacted by the release of this video that they felt the need to go to my website and click on the the ability to send me an email, and it says, sorry, bud, but Courtney is going away for murder. After seeing the earlier video of that elevator, there's no way for self-defense door holds up. She's a psycho that needs to be locked up. I've got, this is not the only one, but this is the

attention of this garners. Something felt the need to go and communicate with me directly because of this video. And Courtney Clenney lost this battle. This is what the judge had to say about her request. argument presented here based on the written meetings the illegal authority and the declarations respectfully emotion of a protective order and objective relief is denied and joining me to discuss this is brian camerio he's a defense attorney in the tampa area and he's been following the case so bryant welcome back to sidebar thanks for coming on thank you bryant have you ever made a request like this in all of your years as a defense attorney to limit what the public can see from the discovery in the case? Absolutely. There have been many occasions, and this would be an example of one time

where I would try to emphasize to keep this out, because I don't think it's relevant to the case, number one. Number two, it potentially exposes the public, potential jurors to a part of her life that may not be relevant and could taint the jurors way before they're even selected. So again, some jurors are more prudish, more conservative than others, and they might just want to convict her just based on her occupation or her career alone. And so I can see why Mr. Prieto is. is moving to exclude this. But he lost. You know, he had argued basically that this isn't the old days of the newspaper just coming

out once or twice a day. We have social media now. We have social media used to drive readers, drive traffic to websites. So he's saying, we live in a different world now. But obviously, the judge is saying no dice. Are you surprised by that? No, I'm not because, well, I'm not surprised by his argument. And I'm not surprised that the judge ruled the way he did because the First Amendment,

it unfortunately trumps everything else. And so here, the Miami Herald had standing. The public has the right to know everything. But it is a balancing test. The judge would have to balance her right to a fair trial. So I think what's going to happen is he's going to, obviously he denied the request to keep that out. But during the trial, my guess is that he's going to deny being introduced as evidence. So I think the public has the right to know the whole story. Everything about her life. It's out there anyway. It's public domain. So I don't think the judge had any standing or any legal reason to preclude the Miami Herald or any news source from publishing this material. Obviously, even if it's not admitted as evidence in the case, it's still part of the public record

because of the discovery laws in the state of Florida. But I guess his concern is this could taint a potential jury pool. They may look at her a certain way. You know, there may be people who get a picture in their minds of who she is and maybe it won't be a sympathetic one. I'm assuming that's the concern here. I agree. And, and, and, again, that's why it makes perfect sense that Mr. Prieto will do this because, again, some jurors may not appreciate what she does for living. And, you know, and again, I'm not here to judge anyone, but some jurors might. They might prejudge her. And imagine they're selected. And then they carry that with them inside the jury selection, the jury box, even though they swear that

they'll only consider the evidence. We're all human. So I can see again why Mr. Prieto wants the public not to see that part of her life. So what do you expect moving forward? We know what we know about the case. I'm sure there's tons of discovery that we don't have or don't have access to. Moving forward, I guess all the defense attorney can do at this point is keep his head down and tell his client to do the same so that they don't feed the fire of whatever news coverage is out there. Right. I can expect Mr. Prieto filing several motions in limine to not only keep all of the videos out or all of the content out, but maybe even specific ones out. So, for example, the judge may find that some of these are relevant and others are not.

And so I can see the judge maybe on a case by case basis video per video. For example, let's just say there's a video out there where she's mimicking, killing someone as an example. I could see, you know, whatever context she filmed it. As an example, I can see the judge saying, well, that's going to come in because that's relevant. It could be probative to show that she had the state of mind to hurt somebody. So I can see the defense attorney's filing several motions in limine to, again,

either keep them all out or one by one, select, okay, which ones are relevant, which I'm not, without losing his objection and to keep trying to keep them all out. So lots of motions, I think, are going to be filed between now and December. Yeah, and this trial is set for December. Do you see the trial actually happening in December or do you think it gets pushed back? You know, in Tampa, for example, we're backlogged. So Miami, from what I understand, I practice in Miami. I have cases in Miami now.

They're pretty busy. But I think that this case has priority. So I'm pretty sure the judge absent any, you know, from either party, not being ready, I can see it going in December because it is a priority. case. There's victims involved. There's victim families involved. And everyone wants closure. So I can see the judge pushing this along and making sure that everything's done by December. Now, again, if either party's not ready, then I would anticipate a motion to continue, but not likely. There's plenty of time to get things done. Well, Bryant Camarillo, defense attorney in the Tampa area following this case closely,

thank you so much for coming on to talk with us about it. We really appreciate it. Thank you for having. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. It is produced by Sam Goldberg. and Logan Harris. Bobby Zoki is our YouTube manager. Kiera Bronson handles our social media, and Alyssa Fisher handles our bookings. You can listen to Sidebar on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcast. You can also watch it, as always, on Law and Crimes YouTube channel. I'm Anjanette Levy, and we will see you next time. crime series, ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.