Law&Crime Sidebar - YouTuber Ran Over Pedestrian While Livestreaming, She Says

Starting point is 00:00:00 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. Oh my God, are you okay? I didn't see her. Is this a case of distracted driving? A woman live streaming on YouTube apparently runs over a pedestrian and keeps streaming. We're taking a closer look at the collision and an apparent lack of consequences with Beverly Hills attorney Mietra Hurrian, and California Police Sergeant Kyle Schoberg.

Starting point is 00:00:33 Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Okay, so we don't have a ton of information about this, but I will tell you what we do have is very interesting. A woman known online as Vegan Patriot, or VP, is taking a lot of heat after she appears to run over a pedestrian while she's out driving in Los Angeles, California. Now, so far, again, we haven't been able to even confirm VP's actual identity, but what we do have are some accounts of her live streams. And in her live streams, VP often smokes cannabis. She's allegedly doing just that before this collision. She's since removed the live stream containing the actual incident.

Starting point is 00:01:20 But as you know, once something is online, it is there forever. So let's take a look. He does hear those voices. They're not fake. But I wonder, so... Oh my God, are you okay? No. I didn't see her.

Starting point is 00:01:41 Why are you looking? I was looking. I didn't see you. What the f***? I'm telling you, I did not see you. Okay, Ed? What the f***? Just tell me how I can help.

Starting point is 00:01:52 Well, I don't know. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay, okay. Oh my God, you guys.

Starting point is 00:02:04 I don't know what just happened, but it wasn't good. So VP pulls over to the side of the road. She ends the live stream. But later that day, she's back with some updates. All I'm going to say is I've been blessed. And I'm very grateful for choosing to not be a piece of shit today. Guys, I don't have a charge. I don't have a ticket.

Starting point is 00:02:29 You know why? Because I literally wasn't a piece of shit. And that's all I gotta say. It was really scary. And the sun was in my eyes and you can go look at this stream. I was not even looking at chat. So, yep. Actually, the cop literally told me he was like,

Starting point is 00:02:51 literally comes up and claps me on the shoulder and he goes, just so you know, I know how hard that was. He's like, do you know how many head runs we have out here? So VP, she goes on to answer questions from people in that chat that you see on the side there. She says that the girl is fine, presumably the person that she allegedly hit, doesn't really elaborate on that. She says multiple times that the sun was in her eyes, that she wasn't even looking at the live stream chat. She says, it's okay if the victim sues her because she has insurance. No, there won't.

Starting point is 00:03:19 There wasn't an official report filed. You're not listening. She didn't have damages that were deep enough for an official report. she didn't want to press charges and uh what was the other reason there were three reasons i don't know but there's no report today i realized that no matter how f*** scared i am um i obviously didn't do those things i would be ashamed of doing like driving off when a person could have been dying on the streets yeah no vp then goes back rewatches what happened on her earlier stream and says that she is in shock while people in the chat are the ones really in shock that she didn't seem to get in any kind of trouble for her actions.

Starting point is 00:04:02 Well, let's talk about it. So I'm joined right now two special guests. I did that. It looks like I have four, but I really have two special guests. Beverly Hills attorney, Mietra Hurrian, as well as Kyle Schoberg, Sergeant with the Citrus Heights Police Department out in California, co-instructor of the Patrol Survival Tactics Seminar and host of the Shots Fired Podcast. Great to have you both here. Mietra, I'll start with you. Are you surprised that there are no charges, that she wasn't arrested?

Starting point is 00:04:28 You know, seemingly, if you hit somebody, you'd be arrested, right? Well, what an interesting world we live in, right? So years ago, everybody was sort of worried about Big Brother filming them doing everything, and now we're doing it to ourselves. So, yes, you know, caught on camera, so to speak. But it was a very interesting exchange between her and the pedestrian. The pedestrian sort of sounded more shocked than anything. And you do truly see her reaction, the driver's reaction, where she, you know, is saying things

Starting point is 00:05:00 that are consistent with the story that she tells later about the sun being in her eyes. She really didn't see her. So the fact that she wasn't arrested, all that tells me is that there isn't probable cause. The tricky thing with DWI, sorry, driving under the influence of drugs, the tricky thing of that as compared with DUI, where we have, you know, first of all, vehicle code in California gives you the defined limit of what is over the limit, and that's 0.08 blood alcohol content. We don't have that with drugs. There's no level. There's no reliable testing. Marijuana stays in your system much longer. It could be, you could have smoked and, you know, up to two

Starting point is 00:05:44 weeks up to months. If you're a habitual smoker, it could stay in your system. It's notoriously one that stays in your system for a long time. How do you check the level? With alcohol, we have the field sobriety test. We have blood alcohol. We have breathalizer. All of those things, you know, while a defense attorney can really poke holes in it, they're relatively reliable, at least in terms of probable cause and being able to, even if something is taken, you know, hours later at the police station, of course, sergeant could speak to this more. know certain things about how quickly alcohol leaves your system with some degree of certainty. We don't have that with marijuana. So just to quickly answer your question, which I'm getting to,

Starting point is 00:06:25 about, you know, if I'm surprised, I'm not surprised because there isn't that reliable testing. And this happened hours after she smoked. And she seems to be somewhat cognizant, you know, on the video. So if, you know, if there's not enough there for probable cause, then I would not be surprised that the officer did not place her under arrest. Yeah, Kyle, I'll throw it back to you. You heard Mitra talk about what some of the challenges could have been in understanding what substances or were in her system or were not in her system. Talk to me about that. Yeah, so oftentimes in law enforcement, our role when we show up to a scene like that is to figure out, is the driver under the influence of either a controlled substance, drugs, marijuana, or alcohol, like she had

Starting point is 00:07:06 stated. And unless that officer would have reasonable suspicion to believe that she was under the influence. He probably in that type of circumstance, you know, it didn't seem like maybe she was hurt that bad. Maybe they obviously they didn't take a police report, which is pretty accurate of a lot of agencies where they're not going to take police reports on minor traffic collisions unless there is an injury or someone's being transported to the hospital. But in this case, if the officer shows up, he's not seen any signs of her being under the influence, then exactly how what mitya just stated i'm not surprised that the officer didn't uh take her to jail or even take a report for that matter now if you do suspect her to potentially be under the influence of

Starting point is 00:07:48 either drugs or alcohol then it would be the officer's responsibility to run her through a series of field sobriety tests they are different drugs are different than alcohol uh the tests are different so in that case if he were determined if she's impaired which that's all he would have to prove is that she's impaired and she was involved in this collision she then then could be placed under arrest, taken back to the police station. If you assumed that it was drugs, they would then take her blood and she would be then booked in jail. And if there was any type of injury to this pedestrian that she struck and they determined her to be out of the influence of drugs, that then would be a felony. And what does this story make clear?

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Starting point is 00:09:31 without even having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit for the people.com, slash LC sidebar or by dialing pound law. That's pound 529 on your phone. There is limited reporting and information on this. A lot of this were taking from her own account. Does it seem strange to you that statement? She goes, yeah, the officer came up to me, put his hand on my shoulder.

Starting point is 00:09:54 I was like, you know how many hit and runs I've seen? And, you know, I know this must be emotional for you. Does that seem odd to you? Nah, not really. You know, I mean, as a cop you respond to these calls where someone hits a pedestrian, that's pretty that could be very traumatic for somebody and so you know there's nothing wrong with cops showing empathy and in making sure that the drivers of these cars if you know they truly suspect it was an accident making sure that

Starting point is 00:10:16 she's okay she's probably shaken up you can clearly see in her reaction the video that that's an authentic reaction from her she is shaken up so to show empathy I don't think that's a bad thing you know I think if people are concerned about that then they you know the department would need to take a look at and go is this is this this officer's typical behavior his character on how he's treating people, or is he treating her differently because maybe he finds her attractive or something, you know, but I go back to just showing empathy. Yeah, I did think it was interesting.

Starting point is 00:10:46 She's like, there's your live content for the day, guys, but look, she might have been in a nervous reaction. I'm each, I want to ask you this. So her statement was it was really scary, you know, describing what happened. And she said this, like you mentioned, the sun was blinding her and had nothing to do with any drug use or looking at the chat, not that she was distracted. She says, you can look at the stream. I was not even looking at the chat.

Starting point is 00:11:09 If Sun blinds you, can you still be legally responsible? She talked about how, hey, sue me. She doesn't seem to be facing charges, but is it a driver's legal responsibility to make sure that their vision is not obstructed by the Sun? If substances were not at issue here and she was not distracted by the chat, let's take it there. Does she face any kind of legal liability, whether on the criminal front or the civil front. Yeah, that's something that would be handled in the civil courts. And, you know, we see that

Starting point is 00:11:39 all the time, distracted drivers. It could be anything, you know, even looking at a text or not paying attention or, you know, you could be the best of drivers, but looking in the wrong direction, you know, at the wrong time. It takes a split second, you know, for you to hit somebody if you're not looking. That's why texting is so dangerous. And so, you know, that's something that then everyone calls their insurance companies. In California, you're required to have insurance. So the insurance companies get involved, there is some recourse for anyone that is injured. Again, if there's no injury here, you know, an injury can be defined in many ways, but if there's no real injury, then the insurance claim would fall through as well. And then the pedestrian

Starting point is 00:12:21 would have to decide, is it worth suing this individual, you know, outside of the insurance system, which, you know, if we don't have a significant injury, nine times out of ten, no, unless it's some sort of quick cash grab. But that's something that would be handled in the civil courts and not on a criminal level. And from a legal point of view, Maitra, the fact that she didn't drive away but apparently stayed there, that would help her case, right? That really always does, right? Because the hit and run really escalates everything.

Starting point is 00:12:51 And whether that means someone is more guilty or less guilty is, you know, another question. But the fact that you left the scene really shows. sort of a lack of taking accountability for your actions and also concerned for the other person. That's not somebody we want on the roads. Yeah. And she talked about in the video how I don't remember if it was a family member or somebody who was close to her. She claims was actually a victim of hit and run.

Starting point is 00:13:17 Somebody did that. And so she would never do that. Kyle, do you think that the videos of that incident and the video she posted afterwards, police are looking at those at all? Does it change your perspective? I mean, you saw the video of her hitting or legendary. hitting this person. What do you think happened? I mean, just she didn't see it. She was blinded by the sun. Do you think her reaction afterwards

Starting point is 00:13:38 is going to affect anything in this investigation? I don't think there is investigation, but you tell me. Well, look, I think the videos are pretty telling because if you actually go to her YouTube channel and you watch some of her videos, which, by the way, I did do that and I will never get those minutes of my life back. But here she is video herself on live stream with her boyfriend and they're just doing drugs. They're talking about doing fentanyl, methamphetamine. They're driving around in a car, which is very disturbing to me that she's clearly under the influence of drugs while live streaming with her cash app monogram on there,

Starting point is 00:14:14 asking for people to donate money to her, which people are donating money to her in these videos. And I hate to break it to you, but she's not going to use that money to go get a hotel room like she's claiming. She's using that money to keep up with her habit. of purchasing more drugs and so the fact that she's doing this while driving and putting all these people at risk that to me is is is more concerning and yeah i do think that the police department should look into that knowing that they have these videos now they need to look into it because

Starting point is 00:14:44 someone like that is an extreme danger to the public and clearly she's got no regard and it's kind of sad to me that people are doing that on on live stream youtube just for the views i'm sorry but But I think that's sad, and I think that a police department should look further into that. Look, we live in a day and age where people are doing anything for views or clicks. But Maitra, let me just end this with you. If she wasn't actually looking at the chat, but the live stream was going on nonetheless, can that be a distraction from a legal point of view? You know, we talk about it how there was all the issue with people on their phones, right?

Starting point is 00:15:20 But if she's not directly looking at the chat, but it's the idea of she's engaging is she's focused more on that than she is at the road. Is that an argument that could be made in court? I think that's a tough argument. You know, we're having conversations with people sitting next to us. Right. In cars all the time. We're listening to radio.

Starting point is 00:15:36 We're listening to podcasts. I mean, I think we're used to a certain level of distraction. And arguably, somebody who does this every day and has a camera on her all the time and it's sharing so much of her life is able to kind of tune out that distraction. And it might not be as distracting for her as it might be for. for, you know, somebody like you and I who were sitting in the car and we're not used to a camera being on us and, you know,

Starting point is 00:16:00 thousands of people watching us. Yeah. Well, I am, but not in the car. Are you too? When you're driving? Yeah, not what I'm driving. Not what I'm driving. Mitra, Kyle, thank you both so much for coming on. Really enjoyed the discussion and hopefully no more accidents. She's safe. Everybody's safe.

Starting point is 00:16:16 It's just a very interesting situation to say the least. But Mitra, Kyle, thanks so much for coming on. Thank you, Jesse. And that is all we have for you right now. now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. As always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. or Spotify.

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Law&Crime Sidebar - YouTuber Ran Over Pedestrian While Livestreaming, She Says

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