Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Cop Arrested After Fatal 911 Call (The Real Story)

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

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Our middle son, he's a police officer in Mantua, they indicted Salvatore. And you'll hear from the 911 call, and you'll see the body cam footage. What's happening in the years, we're going after a police officer who did their job. I'm not just going to sit back to let them ruin his life. So now here comes my son. He was in an orange jumpsuit. When I tell you, broke us. And then the judge tells me,

Our middle son, Salvatore, is why we're here. He's a police officer in Mantua. From, like, birth, he was just born to do this job. He became a Philadelphia Police Explorer when he was 14, and that's where they train. They do a lot of field training, they, you know, PT, classroom training, and he just, that was it. He just knew what he wanted to do from that moment and studied and would go to the rank. and would practice, you know, shooting and just always brushing up on his skills, just very, very devoted and dedicated to the profession.

Did he go and get like a criminal justice or went straight in? No, so he went right into, it was like, I guess, like an alternate route, Camden Police Department in Camden, New Jersey. So he was able to get into the academy at 19. He did, he was a special law enforcement officer in Gloucester Township, New Jersey. He didn't carry a gun or anything at that time. They would do, you know, bus stops or parades and events like that. And then when he got on at 19 and working in one of the toughest cities crime-wise in New Jersey at 19.

What, I mean, was he still living at home or did he move out? He moved out when he graduated high school. He moved in with my mother and father because he wanted, I said to him, If you're going to be a police officer, go where you're going to make some money. Don't stay in Philadelphia. So he did. He moved out and moved in with them. He became an EMT.

He went to college and became an EMT. And, yeah, at 19, he did the police academy. He was hired in Camden. And he would work overnight shifts, you know, day work. The overnights always made me, you know, it would check my phone, text me when you get in. I was always worried. overnight, you know. So when he was night, when he was 19, 20 years old,

he, him and his, one of his good friends, Pat O'Hanlon, were in the academy together. They were involved in a shooting. Pat was shot. They were, he was responding to a call. There were some suspects. And Pat gave chase and one of the suspects pulled out a gun and shot him right through his thigh.

My son's in route. Meanwhile, Pat was able to, you know, apprehend him, get the gun away from him. But before he did that, the gentleman put the gun, I don't even want to say gentleman. The suspect put the gun up to Pat's head, pulled the trigger, but it jammed. So a few officers are viable in the scene. My son being one of them had a tourniquet. None of the other officers had a tourniquet. He was always prepared.

He just always researched. What did he need to keep on him to save his life? other officer's life or, you know, regular everyday people's lives. And he put the tourniquet on and got him to the hospital. And the doctor said, if not for that tourniquet, this would be a different story here we would be talking about. So he saved his partner's life. Did, Pat, did he stay on the force?

He did. He did stay on the force. He was actually, was he still in the military. He was still in the army. He was, you know, so he got deployed and then came back. Yeah, once he healed up. He had to his last deployment, and he was deployed, and he spent another year, I think, in Afghanistan or somewhere he was,

for a year, and he came back. And once he came back, he rejoined the police department. So what happened? Amaz your son, is he married during this time? He, no, he's single. He was single at this time. So he stayed in Camden for about two years, and then he was able to get to Mantua Police Department

in Gloucester County, New Jersey. So we were all very excited for that, especially me, I'm thinking small town, nice community. It's safer. Safer, for sure. The worry, it's always there. But, you know, I would always, even with him,

you know, you just give it to God, you know, keep them safe. Right. And very active police officer, Immanjua, you know, received a lot of awards. You know, he was a cop's cop. well he still is he's because he's not passed he's alive thank goodness um he was going to the night specifically of what changed our lives and why we're here to speak and you know he can't speak

up but we can on his behalf he was involved in a shooting a man that had a weapon they were called to a burglary in progress and his corporal pulled up in front of him a burglary A burglary and progress man with a weapon. And you'll hear from the 911 call, and you'll see the body cam footage. The corporal pulls up to the house and the man standing at the curb. And he's like, you know, hey, buddy, what's going on? puts his passenger side window down. And immediately the suspect extends his arm and points the gun right at the officer.

The officer says, drop the weapon, drop the weapon. And you hear him speed off, accelerate because he couldn't get to his weapon. And he's trying to put his body cam footage. on, you know, his camera, because it was new, he was newly issued and they were very challenging to get on at the time. And he pulls up and then my son pulls up behind him and he's following his corporal. He doesn't, does he not know, does he realize that? He does not know. He sees, he sees, uh, the suspect's on the phone with 911. So that's how you can hear everything that's transpiring. You hear the corporal tell him drop the gun. The guys refusing to

drop the gun. My son pulls behind the corporal. My son sees the guy extend his arm, but he thinks he's telling him, hey, the guys who were breaking into my shed just ran across the street. So he sees the corporal take off and he come to a sudden stop.

He stops. He says, yo, what's going on? He said, the guy has a gun. Now this time they're out of the car. That guy fades back into the darkness. And he's standing there. He says, well, who? Because my son don't know who's he talking about.

out. He said the guy over there. Right. He's like right there, right there. My son comes in between two cars for using for coverage. He looks and the guy's staying there with a gun like this. The corporal tells me, I drop the gun. God don't want to drop the gun. My son illuminates him with a flashlight, identifies it's a pistol, pointing at him. My son engages him. The guy goes down to the ground, still in control of the firearm, still pointing at my son. He illuminates him again with a flashlight, refusing to drop the weapon. He engages him again. He's still reaching.

And as he's moving forward, he's illuminating him. He doesn't see the gun, but this guy's aggressively trying to reach out for the gun. And on the body camera, my son's telling him, stop reaching. Stop reaching. They move up. They get the guy, cover the weapon. My son immediately goes into life-saving techniques, does CPR on a guy, chest seals. The guy's alive.

They put him in the ambulance, goes out. hospital and he succumbs to his injuries hours later right yeah and you can see like we the full body cam footage of course obviously the new jersey attorney general's office only released a small snippet of it but you actually see once um the other officers arrive on the scene and they then go and try to secure the perimeter because it's still an active scene so to speak they're still looking for you know one suspect had a gun, but who are these other suspects that the 911 caller explained and said they were breaking into his house in his shed? So they're now doing their job, and Salvatore is doing life-saving techniques and for, gosh, a good few, five, six minutes until the ambulance arrives.

And then at that time, he's still now assisting, you know, the ambulance trying to get the backboard, just, you know, amazing, just very calm and you'll hear him in the 911 call. shots fired, you know, notify the hospital, just very calm, very professional in his job, the way he handled the situation. You know, and then, then, of course, we get a- And in New Jersey, when you're involved in a police shooting in New Jersey, they use, it's not the prosecutor's office, they want an unbiased opinion. So the Attorney General's office does all police investigations in New Jersey.

and in New Jersey State Trooper shooting team does the investigation. So it's an unbiased law enforcement agency doing an investigation. Right. They investigate it. Well, wait a minute. Well, before we get to that, because that happens days later, I'm sure. That day. Oh, that day?

Yes. Well, can we, you want to, can we watch the body, the camera, the footage? Sure. Do you have an edited version of it? Yeah. So what I sent to Colby is, is the actual. what the Attorney General's has on their website.

9-11, where's your emergency? Two intruders in the back of my yard. What town did I? Mantua. Are you off Almond Avenue? Yeah. One of them had it gone for swords. Okay.

And your number's... How many word are? Do a firecracker where you get to give them? to go, but they keep coming back, like, looking to the fence. Okay, hold on for the police. I'm going to transfer you. Caller reported intruder's on the property, and he believes one of them had a gun. Hello? One of them had a gun. I saw him.

What's your address? 27 Elm. 57 Elm Avenue? 257. 257? Yeah. I mean, I came out and I little a quarter stick, they're scaring away, but they came back. Okay. How many people were there?

Two. You're on Elm, not West Elm, right? Not one Elm. Okay. How many were there, you said two? Two. That I sold, and then as I came back, there was a woman. Do you have a description of the individuals?

I'm going to say to one guy, he looked like to me maybe in his mid-60s. You got white male, black males, Hispanic males? White, long, like, thinning hair. The other guy was a black guy. So one white male, one black male? Yeah, another girl. I really couldn't get a look. She was behind the fence.

What were they doing? Well, when I looked at my window, the one guy was in my shed, getting my shed door open. And I came around to go outside to confront him, and there was a guy fucking in my truck. Can't get it open. Okay, hang on one second. Or where are they at now? It almost looked like somebody's in my truck. Okay.

Mantrault Cars County 257 Elm Avenue 257 L Avenue 911 911 phone call cars advising two subjects on his property One male was trying to get to his fed one male Possibly in his truck now

He advised that one may have Everybody going to have a house Dude because I don't know if these guys I mean I have something My grandfather passed down to me I don't know how legal it is And a will What's your name?

By Charles Sharp. Charles Sharp? Yeah. Phone number? Did you see the weapon? Did you see the weapon? Did you see the weapon? weapon? I mean, it was silver, the Moon Lake came off a bit, and I knew, I don't know what

Todd it was, but it was a handgun. Okay. Did you see it, though? Yes, sir. Caller said he tried to make contact with the individuals and saw the hang-on. So then I went back in the house. Like I said, my grandfather willed me a 45. I don't know what I'm allowed to do or do without that. So I just, I threw a couple quarter sticks out. Maybe that's not the professional thing to do, but... Are you talking about... Are you talking with my officers? Are you talking with my officers?

Sir? So the body cam footage, your son's still getting out when he's looking. You can't, it can't see the suspect. But he's already been told the guy's got a gun. And that's what the other officer is yelling. He's there right there. He says he's gone. Right.

So the body cam footage, as you know, it's on your chest. Yeah. So if your head's turned, that's not capturing the full screen. No, I can see that the guy's all. Well, on top of that, he doesn't even look. illuminated so even if it's pointed at i'm not sure you could see him because he's obviously trying talking to the other officer but so he's screaming so what you don't see that they cut the attorney general cut um was the use like a good 15 to 16 seconds of my son's body cam footage on and as he's

pulling up he starts to get out of the car because the corporal stops and then when he sees the corporal pull off because it's dark it's 1.30. in the morning, low light conditions. Then he automatically shuts the door and starts following him, thinking we're going after, you know, these bad guys, obviously, you know, somebody saying they're going that way. But he's also being cautious because he knows

that in his training that they could be trying to trick the officers and say, going this way. And remember, the call was, there was, somebody had a handgun, somebody had a gun, a weapon. So when, you know, he pulls up and he's, you know, gets out of the car, the body cam footage isn't quite obviously turned the way his body is, but he illuminates him with the flashlight. And he says, I made sure

that was a weapon in his hand before I engaged him. And he had it pointed at a 90 degree, pointed up at the officer. And it was a weapon. It was a weapon. Yeah, it was a 45 replica. It was a 45 replica gun. And he tells the, the, obviously, the 911 or the dispatcher, you know, I have a gun that my grandfather willed me. He didn't say, I have a replica gun. He said, I have a gun. It wouldn't matter. So this guy that was shot, was that was, was that the guy that was on the phone call?

Correct. Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a story takes a turn. Oh, was that yet? Have you guys not mentioned that yet? No, we didn't get there yet. Okay, well, you can continue on. That's okay. Yeah.

Yeah. So while all this is happening, obviously, um, You know, I always sleep with my phone by my bed and on because when the incident happened in Camden, you know, I got that phone call like 10.30 that night. And it was funny because I had taken the dog out for a walk and I would always talk to my son when he was on the overnight shift. And I would always say, you know, be safe. I love you.

Have a good night. Text me when you get home. And I did that that night and I went to walk the dog and I just got this sick feeling. So I texted on and I'm like, Salvatore, you know, be extra, extra character. careful. And then within like a half an hour, a friend called and said that there was a shooting officer was shot. It was either Pat or Sal, because the way they worked in that location of the shooting, they were listening to a scanner. So I, you know, hurry up and get him out of the shower. Swat's already calling him. You know, there's an officer in Camden shot. So we get in the car and obviously go up to the hospital, surrounded by all the brothers and blue. So this was and sisters. And this was another night that was about 1.30 in the morning. him. I hear my phone going off, but I couldn't find it. And when I got it, I saw the name, and I'm like, oh, my God, I know that name. That's somebody who works at my son. I wake him. I'm like, somebody's calling me. So as I'm trying to call back, they're calling me to say,

Mrs. Aldrotti, you know, I'm so-and-so. I work with Salvatore. He was involved in his shooting. And my first words, my first thought was, is he dead? Right. because I'm thinking, you're calling me, you know, to tell me something bad happened. He said, no, but he was involved in his shooting. We advise you and your husband to get to the hospital as soon as you can. So, you know, we're jumping up, getting dressed. And in my head, I'm thinking, are they just telling me he's okay

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We come from a big police family. So now I'm calling my brother, who is a police officer in Gloucester Tanchardt at that time. He's calling the chief and we're all trying to figure out what happened and, you know, get up to the hospital. So obviously, you know, we get to the hospital and he's, very like he's you know he's shaken people think you know officers aren't phased by this but you know he was faced he was definitely very upset about what happened and he just kept saying mom he pointed a gun at me and corporal late and he pointed a gun so i said you know salvatore it's you know it's going to be

fine you know we're going to get through this you know see what happens um so then the days leading you know after that he was then interviewed body cam footage was reviewed by the state police shooting response team which my husband was talking about earlier and within a few days they were looking at all the evidence because I mean just from the shooting they had to look at did he violate any use of force any policy procedures which he didn't but then they started looking into this man's history because his toxicology report came back with lots of drugs in his system, high levels. When they contacted the sister, the sister immediately said, oh, my God, is he suicidal?

Did he kill, you know, did he kill himself? Did he commit suicide because he's had some mental health struggles? Right. The neighbor across the street earlier that evening, you heard him say in that call that he threw quarter-sticking. a dynamite at these the suspects he went over to the neighbor's house the acting erratically the young neighbor was very fearful for his family because they kept hearing these explosions going off and he's throwing this dynamite scared for his family takes them in the basement but before that he tells him let the cops hear it and he saw the gun on mr sharp um and he said he was acting very erratically

let the cops handle it but what you find out was there was nobody breaking into his car Okay. So I was sitting there like it wasn't that's what I thought was happening. So initially he just called the police saying, hey, somebody's breaking in. The shed and his car. That guy's got a gun. He saw it. I'm through some dynamite to scare him off. Then while he's talking to him, he says, hey, there breaks. Someone's in my car. I have a 45 that my grandfather or father, whoever was. Yeah, grandfather willed me. I don't know if it's legal or whatever he says there. And then. When the police show up, he's walking around with the gun. He comes right up to Corporal Leight, and he's the first officer on the scene. Yeah. Rolls down his window. Before you even say anything to him, he says, yo, buddy, you call to police, he pulls out of the gun, he sticks it right to his head. You hear on 911 call, the corporal says, put the gun down, and you hear the car speeding off.

He's trying to get out of harm's way because he couldn't get his weapon out, a service weapon out, to engage this guy. Yeah, he's driving. He's in a car driver's seat. He speeds off. And my son pulls up right behind me. He sees all that. This video here is a edited copy. Yeah.

But there's another 16 seconds or so added on there. But the AG edited for their purposes to fit their narrative. Okay. So this guy's obvious, like, you know what I mean, well, I mean, I'm a fairly rational person. Like if I had a weapon and I called the police, I would not, when they showed up. Correct. Even if I said on the phone, I have a weapon. I would put it down and walk out.

Like, I'm not walking up to the police with a weapon on me. Correct. You know, because, well, they're going to take it off. Who knows what they're going to think? They're pulling up. You can't. You have, even if you, even if it's legal and unregister, you know, we carry to, you know, permit to carry. The cops are coming.

You got to put that away. You have to notify them immediately. We have a weapon. You certainly don't pull a gun out. And that was something else, the, the, off the 911, the dispatcher never told the officers that, you know, the homeowner has a weapon. owner has a weapon because he says, I have a weapon. I mean, I've had a concealed weapons permit when I was, you know, 20 years ago. And even when I would get pulled over to get a ticket and the officer walked up, I would say,

I have a concealed weapons permit. I have a weapon. Do you have the weapon here? I do. It's in the, you know, thing. I didn't want to, I didn't want to even reach in and get my registration. And they would say, okay, that's fine. You know, and the cop would say, go ahead and get it. It's fine. Put it on here.

Right. You know, but you certainly don't have it walk up with. holding the weapon, let alone pointing that to police. Yeah, yeah, that's a, that's right, twice. Yeah. So is this guy, is it, is it, do you think he's, does it come out later that he, he's suicidal or he's Yeah, so he has a history of suicidal ideations. He tried to commit suicide, two main times to count.

He was high on cocaine and methamphetamines, high levels in the system. And prescription drugs. He was, you know, possibly, according to the Emmy's report, possibly hallucinating, you know. He may believe that this was somebody who's breaking in. Maybe in his mind, but, you know, or it was, like I said, suicide by police, whatever, whatever it was. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's irrelevant. To me, it's irrelevant what's going through your head.

If you're saying, hey, someone's breaking in because you're on drugs and you've got some mental problems, you're saying someone's breaking in. And then either way, to me, when the police show up, you've got a gun, you're pointing at them. I don't know about any of that other stuff. No, that's the point. Right. It doesn't matter. I don't know who you are right now. I know there's a guy pointing a gun at me, and no person in their reasonable mind is pointing

a weapon at a police officer without the expectation of having the police officer engaged. Right. Right. So, right, because police officers are not obligated to retreat, you know, giving verbal commands when feasible. The other officer gave commands. You don't need to have all the officers give commands. You have a split second. You have an, you know, an eighth of that to assess, process, and save your life and the corporal's life as well. Or anybody that's around, that's a police officer's job, what they have to do is make split-second decisions. And sometimes, a lot of times, it's not pleasant with their job is, but their job, you know, I go to work every day. I'm a teacher, right? I know what I'm going to be

doing every single day. I can predict from in the morning to the kids leave me what I have to do and when I have to do it. Police officers don't have that luxury. They show up to work and they may have to, you know, that day they may save a life. That day they may have to take a life or they may give their life. So their profession and what is normal for them, so to speak, is totally different from the jobs that everyday Americans do. Their split second, things can change. Right.

And you have to be prepared. So you were saying that, you know, earlier you had said that when there's a shooting, they have an independent body come. Like, because obviously if Hillsborough County deputies are involved in a shooting, Hillsborough County should not be investigating that shooting. Like they have a bias. So they have a, you're saying that they have an independent body come in? And that's the same thing here?

Yeah. So I think since 2019, they started, the AG's office started. any police shootings in the state of New Jersey, we will investigate them. So it's a separate, unbiased investigation. They come in with the New Jersey State Trooper shooting team, and they do the investigation. They came in, they investigated it.

No problem. It was just a viable shooting. That was it. And my son went back to work, and he was back to work for almost two years before he was, frivolously indicted. Well, so I have a question. In between that time, did the media, you know, start up a whole campaign?

What was the sister of the, of the deceased guy? His name was what? Charles Sharp. Charles Sharp. And he was a former, you know, he was a veteran. So he was trained in weaponry. He was trained to, you know, you don't point unless you're. So was the sister or his family saying, hey, what's going up?

like he would never. They didn't blame him. No, that, and this is, so again, there's two separate parts, right? So when they investigate it, because it's what Salvatore knew at that time. When they investigated, just his actions, he was deemed, you know, cleared because he didn't violate their own attorney general's use of force guidelines. He didn't violate that. He didn't violate policy procedure, nothing.

He followed his training. But then when they interviewed the family and we have all their, you know, the discovery, we have the audios and like I said when this sister was like oh my god did he kill himself and the ex-wife her statement is very telling because the first thing she wants to speak to the detectives so the first thing she says that a detective is I know he did this I know he did this and then she proceeds for the next 18 minutes to tell the detective you know he's tried to kill himself multiple times he slid his wrists he's been in and out of um the veterans home for this she has a book all a journal documented all the times the times he's been in and out of rehab and detox

and she just sings like a canary which I and she even says that one of the first things she said was oh my God please tell that police officer we are so sorry like I want to hug him I we feel so bad we heard he's a young police officer because my son was 24 at the time so she tells them you know basically everything that this gentleman that he had a rough life you know he had PTSD he had a drug alcoholic problem um so the family is very much aware so when they when they put out the the news media at first it was very down like very down low there was a shooting blah blah blah blah it was justifiable yeah there was a there was a handgun yeah there was very little press on it at the time in terms of details but

But in New Jersey, supposedly to show transparency, all police shootings have to, well, not all, according to their policy, they don't have to, but they go in front of a grand jury. So with COVID and everything, they said they were backed up. So it was 20 months, he was back to work, became police officer of the year again, was promoted to corporal. And now all of a sudden, we were waiting for the clearance to come through because when he was cleared by a representative from the attorney general's office, they sat down and said, listen, is this a perfect shoot? No, someone lost their life, which is horrible. We're not here to speak ill will of

anyone. And then she said, but, you know, there's nothing criminal here. And they had to sit down with the chief and his captain and, you know, the people that were involved. And then once he got clearance from his doctor, blah, blah, blah, blah, he was able to permit it to go back to work. So when we found out that it was going to a grand jury, you know, next week or whatever. Almost two years later. Yeah. It was like out of nowhere.

It was just a procedural thing. There was nothing to worry about it. Everything goes through. This is a criminal. No laws are broken. No policy procedure to violate it. And if they were, that's departmental. It's not criminal.

Right. Right. And the grand jury came in and then they brought them back again and blew up life-size photos and slowed the video. down and manipulate it. Do you know the grand jury came back in? They called them back in. They brought the grand jury in twice.

One week and they didn't find anything wrong with it. So the first time they said, no, we're... Nothing's good. Everything's good. Bring them back. They bring him back the following week and they blow up these life-sized photo, slowed down the video, and then cut it. So it just shows, oh, my son just getting out of the car,

engage in this guy when that's not the truth. Right. So then it's all about how they perform it. How they set up a grand jury. Like you can indict a ham sandwich on a grand jury. And they indict them. I said, well, if you're, if it was a bad shooting, you're not sending someone back to work for two years.

You're going to lock them up. Shortly after the completion of the investigation, you're getting locked up. Is this a new, a new? So it's a new AG. So the first AG, there was an AG there. Whatever his name was. No, Kubar, Gruel was the Attorney General at the time.

And then the... And he cleared, he said, nothing wrong here. New Jersey Trooper shooting team. This is a good shoot. No problem. The Attorney General's office, fine. Matt Plankton, this Gubar guy, retires, he takes over. And he starts going back to old job due to the fund of police, police reform.

You have to remember, a lot of these AGs and people in this office were public defenders. who are now prosecutors. So they have an aster crime with police. And they put it through a grand jury. And the way you set up a grand jury, anything that's exculpatory evidence that's going to clear you, they don't have to use.

It's a low level to indict someone. And that's what they do. They didn't show, like, the families. They didn't say, hey, we cleared this officer two years ago, justifiable shooting. No mention of that. They don't mention the ME's report. The guy was high on cocaine or methamphetamines.

They don't use that. They're left on their own, basically, to go through the details of the report. But if you're not familiar with what is a dangerous amount of drugs in your system, you don't know that. You're just going by what they're giving you. Do they know that this guy's got a gun? Yeah, they showed him the gun. They mentioned the gun, but they don't never show the picture of the gun. Here's the guy's, here's the picture of the gun.

You know, they just downplayed during a grand jury. They brushed over everything. They just gave them enough. of what they wanted to get the indictment because if they would have given all the evidence and what they had, nobody would have found him guilty or indicted. Why do you think it is that you're saying

because you think they have an axe to grind? I'm sure, yeah. It's all a prostitution and misconduct. You know, it's all frivolous stuff. So. Because if you wouldn't be transparent, you would have added all these other things in. You said, hey, you would have set the scene up correctly or honestly.

Yeah, we cleared his officer. two years ago, there's nothing here. This male pointed a gun to police. Never mentioned all that. They never say the first officer in the scene this guy came out and pointed a gun to his head. They don't mention that. You know.

Yeah. Your son shows up and he's being told by his lieutenant? Is it a corporal? His corporal. This guy's got a gun. This guy's got a gun. Nothing. None of that is coming out. And that's when the media when they got, when they indicted him, so then now, of course, the headlines are officer pulls up and within seconds you know shoots and kills him and oh he just a man calling for help

but they don't tell you it was all made up it was made up he was lured yeah there was nobody in his shed and his wife even says it on her her statement i don't know if you've seen his shed but you know he has a massive lot it was never nothing was tamper with no there's car there was no there was there was no people it was a fictitious story and all the neighbors are very familiar with him in the area when they give their statements they said you know he's has a lot of issues he causes some issues. Even the ex-wife says in her statement, and I keep saying the ex-wife,

and I'll get to that, why I say that. She says he can't even drive his car because he had a DUI, and he has to blow in it. He has a breathalyge machine in his car. And he can't get it started because he's never sober enough to do it. Right, right. So then, of course, once he was indicted,

so whoever got into her ear, you know, now she's, now she filed a wrongful death civil long suit on behalf of her. son saying, and one of the, her attorney said, oh, he didn't point the gun at the officer or something in that realm. Like, he didn't do that. And I'm thinking, is she out of her mind? Does she not know? We have her audio statement that she called the detective on the cell phone. Does she not think that that was recorded? That's recorded. And when you go to court for that, for civil, see, in criminal, you have to fight to get what's in and what's at and what you can

Discovery. Civil is not like that. You present everything. But that's not even my, you know, she's got to deal with her requirement and live with what she's doing on her own. The reason why we started speaking out, well, first of all, this is all wrong. It's all politically motivated. There's an office within the Attorney General's office called the OPIA, which is the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability. So basically, it's, they go after these cops and, you know, there's certain.

There's a lot of cops and cases that have happened before my son after the Attorney General left. And right before my son was indicted in May of 2023, they went back and they indicted for officers and prison guards for an incident that happened. Again, I don't know all the details, but the summary is man was on drugs. They had to restrain him to get him to the hospital, to get him medical assistance. He winds up dying. His heart explodes of a drug addiction, of drug. you know, use, overdose. And he went back and indicted all eight of them the month before.

Now, they're waiting to see if their cases are going to be thrown out or what's going to happen with that. And, you know, we love his lawyer. And I said to him from the very beginning, I'm worried about this corruption because this, you could clearly see this not a violation. He was charged with one count of reckless manslaughter. Due to the fact, he didn't give, de-escalate the situation

and give commands to drop the weapon. Okay. And you don't have to do that. Right. It's almost pointing to gun at you. Well, he'd already been told that. Yeah. Correct.

He was told twice. Correct. This guy right there. He's got a gun. He's got a gun. Correct. That's part of de-escalation, and that's given commands. But the AG's office is violating their own policy because it says only when feasible.

And commands were given in de-escalation. So what do you have? It's a frivolous charge. A charge doesn't even fits an overcharge. Right. Reckless manslaughter would be the way. Yeah, reckless manslaughter would be like, this incident happened

and grandma was looking out the door to see what's going on and then she gets shot accidentally. That could be considered reckless. You're reckless in your action shooting someone else, possibly. But someone pointing a gun at you, you pointing a gun, that's not reckless.

You're engaging, you know, you're saving your life and your corporal's life and whoever else. That's not reckless. So what happened when they come back with the indictment? Like what happens with your son? He's at work one day?

Yep. We were getting, well, no, he was home that day, and I was at work. And we were two weeks out from my daughter-in-law's bridal shower because he was getting married September, 2023. And we were waiting for the clearance because the prosecutors that were friendly with, the officers said, listen, there's nothing to worry about here. We've already spoken about this case. This is not an indictable case.

So we were just waiting for that final clearance. and it was about like 2.30 and my hear see my phone ring and it's him and he says get home they're there they indicted salvator oh my god my heart like I just remember I don't even know how I got there I just remember walking into my principal's office and he was on the phone and I just shut both doors he's like I got to call you back I'm like I got to go they just I have to turn my son in I have two hours we have two hours to turn him into the jail to turn him in to his lawyer to turn him into the jail So, you know, we all, we go to the house, and we take him to the lawyer, and the lawyer is basically telling us what's going to happen. And I was just fit to be tied. I was angry. I was crying. I was so upset. My son's got to go to jail. Like my son, people who know him are like, they know what I'm talking about. He spent his whole life being not only a good police officer, but do. doing the right thing. There was life, you know, didn't get involved in drugs, didn't hang out with the wrong crowds because this was his goal in life. And now I have the tournament. He's got to go, he's got to spend the night in jail. And according to the lawyer, he said he'll be, this was a

Tuesday. He said he'll be in there until Friday. I'm thinking, Jesus Christ, Friday, I didn't know how I was going to do it, let alone how he was going to do it. So we go to the lawyer's office and we had his fiancee at the time and his in-laws. And my husband, myself, and my mom was there. And he's telling us everything that's going to happen. And now he goes and he has to turn him in. And we were just, like, distraught all night. We wake up the next day.

Well, the investigators who were on the first case that we're not bringing him in jail, this is wrong. Right. We're not doing it. So people who are in the only cases of all, I guess we'll have to bring him in. And these other investigators brought him in. And they refused to walk him into prison.

You know, it should never have happened. This is all politics. We told them this is not an indictable case. But they weren't trying to make a name for themselves. So they brought them in. And then they slapped them with three detainers. And I was like, detainers, what's that all about? Oh, they want to keep them in jail for 180 days.

To his trial. Until we, I said, they're not going to be ready in 180 days. You know, this is like, oh, we're going to screw you over, and then we'll have to drop the charges. But at least we put you in jail for six. Right. And that's what's happening. These progressive attorney generals are, this is what they're doing. And we're hoping that in the future that that's going to be eliminated. And we get back to letting police officers do their job. And, you know, they need to have a certain level of immunity because their job requires it. And it has to be a certain level. It can't be to abuse their power. And that's not the incident what we're having here with my son. I was going to say like I went to San Francisco probably four or five years ago and you know people are laying down sleeping in the streets there they're there it's the same thing I was

when I went to L.A. It was the same thing. I was talking to the guy in the hotel and he was saying you know these these condos beside us because there are 2.5 million and he was saying that like the guy that owns the condo he comes downstairs and walks his dog. And if his dog, if he doesn't pick up the poop, he gets fined $250. He said, but this homeless guy can shit right next to the front door and walk away. And in front of a police officer. And when I was in San Francisco, I was with a couple lawyers. And we were asking the lawyers, like these guys are literally walking into like a corner outside of buildings.

And like they're smoking, they're smoking whatever they were smoking. And we were like, okay, there's nothing like these guys have tents here. They're like, this guy's laying on the concrete for two hours sleeping. Like, there's nothing you guys could do. And they were like, there's nothing we can do. And they were so, you could see, they go. And I remember the lawyer I was with, he says, bro, he said, how frustrating is that? He has, you have no idea.

He's, I don't even know why we're here. He's like, we can't, there's nothing we can do. That's what we say. That's like our famous line. How did we get here? How are we here? Because that's the frustrating part is where we've turned what's supposed to be good. And the right thing to do, we flip.

it and now it's you can't say that you can't do that you can't you know you can't good as bad bad is good things are you know things are getting to the point where I think they're starting to collapse you know like like listen I get it like somebody's somebody has to work in a food somebody has to work in a soup bank right food kitchen you know I'm not going to do it and I'm glad that those people are willing to do it I'm not going to do it but but the fact of the matter is it's gotten to a point where they're running in L.A. All of the, I was looking to go get something, hairspray, something I had run out of

because I had a, like I was doing a podcast and when I was talking to the guy in the hotel, I was like, bro, I need to go get some hairspray. Where's the closest place? He was like, well, there was a place over here. You don't want to go there now. Well, no, he said it closed. He said it was a mom and pop place.

And I was like, okay, he said, what he ended up telling me was that the only things, the only places that were still available to go to in downtown LA were chain restaurant, I'm sorry, chain, chain companies like, like Walgreens or, you know, that type of thing. He said because they could hire, they could hire security. Right. But all the small mom and pop places had been driven out of business. It happens in Philly. Because they, because people just walking and robbing them and they can't they're afraid to stop them and they just come in they they rob the place and they take off and there's nothing you can do and they said call the cops the

cops they said he said they will arrest them they'll take them downtown they'll photograph them fingerprint them and let them immediately i think that's the frustration yeah i think it has to be like something like two thousand dollars right merchandise and that'll destroy small business so they're not doing that's why even here is CVS closed right eight closed by us other stores because they were stealing everything Well, these places are, you're collapsing an entire economy to save, what, a couple of dollars because you're trying to say, oh, that's not that big of a deal. To me, stealing anything is a big deal. Right.

So. Yeah, I mean, that's what we're facing. And we know that we have to go through the process of, you know, a trial, which we should even be here. Right. But the interesting part happens when, lay. March, I'm saying to my son, I must have on a really bad day. You know, I'm just like, you know, you wake up every day and all I think about is my son. You know, he's got PTSD.

He's not working because they suspended him without pay, stopped his benefits. So now he's getting married. He's going to be a new dad and doesn't have what he needs to support his family. Right. And I just, one day I was just so angry and I'm like, I just, I need to know this is going to okay. I don't know how long this is going to take. And then later on that night, we got a message that the head of the OPA, Tom Eicher, which we heard is the head of the sneak. He's the one going after these officers was stepping down or retiring, walking away. But in the same article, he was stepping down

with all this, how would we want to say it, like charges, corruption and all these things that where he was being accused of doing, which was... In the midst of a whole bunch of allegations against him, he's stepping down. Well, he's stepping down because of false prosecution, prosecutorial misconduct, withholding up a sculptory evidence. And I'm looking at him, like, that's exactly what's happening here. Like, what do we do?

We can't just sit back and do nothing. I'm just, you know, this is my son. Right. You know, I'm not just going to sit back a year or two, let them ruin his life, or they think they're going to ruin his life. and we're not going to say anything about this. So I started, you know, writing a letter campaign. We got a like a petition letter together.

Well, can we, can we jump back to? Sure. And this is my fault. I got us off on a whole thing. But your son had to turn himself in. So, yeah. So we had to turn himself in. And in New Jersey, they don't have bail anymore.

It's either in jail or out. There's no bail. Okay. And a lot of these progressive, AGs and DAs, that's what they do in these states. So they hit him with three detainers and I was like, what's on with the detainers?

Like I said, they want to keep them in jail for 180 days and then go from there. And they would have to probably dismiss this case because they'll never be ready. The lawyer calls us the next morning. So he calls us and as far as my, he tells my son, listen, you're going to be in jail. I don't know when we're going to get you out.

My son's like, you don't even do this criminals. I'm a police walk. This is a justifiable shooting. How is this even possible? The lawyer tells me he's like, you know, they're going to do open court. You can go on watch his arraignment. And I said, Chris, we have to get him out. He said, Barbara, I'm going to tell you he's going to be in there at least until Friday.

This was a Tuesday. He said, but I'll have him out on Friday. So he said, get on. So I'm on and I'm watching. and the judge goes off and he comes back on and I'm like, well, where is he? He said, they're getting on Zoom now. Get back on. Within two minutes, he calls me and he says, I'm getting him out.

I'm getting him out today. So now I'm just sobbing. I'm like, oh, my God, thank God. Like, you know, we're going to get him out today. And he's downstairs on his computer. I'm upstairs on my computer. I'm like, Drew, they're going to get him out. They're going to get him out.

They're going to get him out. Hurry up. Get on. He's coming on. So the judge. So when. But my son doesn't. notice he thinks he's going to be in jail for six months right right so the judge comes on with our lawyer and the prosecutor and my son's not in the picture i'm like where is he why is he not there so the judge says you know where's mr raljad he's like well we came to an agreement if he turns in his passport and his weapons you know we'll let him go home and the judge's like no contact with

the police department or the victim's family so they're just like well wait wait wait wait where is Mr. Aldrotti? And he said, well, he's still in his cell. He's in there. He's like, go get him. Go, you don't know that any of this is going on. You're doing all this. And you don't, he don't even know.

He said, go get him. So the court, whoever the court person is, is like, okay, well, judge, we'll move on with the next case. He's like, absolutely not. We aren't moving anywhere. We're going to stay right here until you get officer, Mr. Aldrotti, and bring him in. So now here comes my son. And here he's in an orange jumpsuit. Well,

when I tell you, broke us. And then the judge tells him that he's going home. My son's upset. You know, my husband's a big guy here, you know. Never seen him other than when his parents passed away or anything like that, break down. But we were just like our soul.

were gone what they're doing to him. You know, but we were able to get him home. My brother works in the courts in Camden and was able to get him, pick him up, because we had to go and turn his guns in. So we had to gather up all his guns and even guns that, like, he had sold.

They had a list, and they weren't going to let him out until every gun was accounted for. And we had to go to the police station. The police department was just a mess. They were just devastated because they love him police the mayor the city council they all love them and they even spoke up when the attorney general wanted his chief to back him on this he said absolutely i'm not backing you this is wrong like this is just wrong what you're doing um and we were fortunate to get him home and then he just had all

these you know next court date next court date um and here we are you know 16 months later we We still don't have a court date yet to bring this to trial. So you said you started, you decided that you felt like you had to. So once, yeah, so he was indicted in May of 2023. And then in March of 2024, we started hearing about this corruption and him stepping down. And I just saw it as a window of opportunity, the head of the OPIA, Tom Iker. So this is the department that's going after these cops. right and all of the corruption swirling around him and i said this is it i like i have to do

something i just can't sit back and just wait because i can't get to trial and then say oh i should have i can't go back right i have to do it now so when you saw the the report or the the article did you think hey maybe the next guy that steps in will just quash these and and just push them aside like okay we're closing out ladies we thought he would they would review it over and say like yeah there is nothing here because there's nothing here. Right. Well, we don't know. We never.

So we had, so he was indicted in May, got married in September. Last December, we had a motion to dismiss because they violated their own policy. And there was no prima facie. No crime was committed. He was cleared by the state police shooting team. We had about eight points, I think we were going to argue that day in court. So we were hopeful that maybe they would throw it out. But with the climate, you know, we didn't know if the judge would take that chance and say,

you know, let's throw it out or I don't want to be the one to do this because it's a high profile case, not like a George Floyd type of high profile. And when we got to court that day, I saw the lawyer's face and I said to him, something is wrong. You need to go over there and find out what's happening. and he basically said the judge said we're only allowed to argue these three points and not all the other ones and I was so mad because I'm like she wasn't going to hear the motion to have it dismiss she wouldn't hear the motion to have it

dismissed these lower points like Miranda warnings weren't given they violate their own policy they're the only things she would like listen to you know when they interview you you're compelled to give a statement there's a compelling statement you have to cooperate with an investigation or you can be terminated. So the next day or whatever, he's interviewed. Everything's fine. There's nothing wrong with his statements.

But you're forced to give those statements. You know, but they can't hold them against you. And people don't know that, you know. So, but they never read him in Miranda. Oh, okay. They never say, like, you're, you're Miranda. You know, they never do that. So there's a lot of issues with this case on their end.

You know, she basically says that she's not going to grant the motion to dismiss, but she says to the prosecutor, I don't know how to. you're going to proceed with this, basically, because your client was extremely intoxicated. He had a weapon. He pointed at the officers, and the officer has the right to defend himself. And I remember walking out of there just so pissed. And the courtroom was packed with all officers and people that support him. And I was just so mad. And I was frustrated because I knew I knew that this was just, this is a political move. You know, in the end, And we wholeheartedly believe he'll be cleared because there's no evidence against him.

But at that time, I'm so mad like, are they going to rig this against him? Are they what's going to happen to my son? So then fast forward to March when all this corruption started coming out and all these articles swirling around not only the Office of Public Integrity and Cannability, funny name, integrity, right? But the Attorney General's office of what they're doing. And so that's when we started with a petition. So we got a petition and I just did it from like supporters of Corporal Adradi. And we sent it out to all family and friends to send to like senators, legislators.

Anybody that would listen, Senator Joe Crying even has a bill in New Jersey that he wants to hold the OPIA accountable for all these things, this prosecutoral misconduct. And nobody will back them. Nobody wants to back him on the floor. say, let's go after him. Yeah, he wants them to lose their immunity because slowly but surely case after case after case was being dismissed or thrown out, all these frivolous cases. And one of the prosecutors on my son's case was involved in a case where he purposely withheld exculpatory evidence and an officer was arrested.

In Patterson, New Jersey. In Patterson, Jersey, only to have that case just recently thrown out. You know, it's just crazy. And so he's not all my son's case now. as other prosecutor. Yeah, and so we get the letter together. We start sending it out. And I'm just, you know, two full-time jobs,

my full-time job at home, and then coming home and just emailing people on Instagram or podcasts and anybody that I would think that would respond just begging from a mother's perspective to please help and get, you know, get this word out that what they're doing is criminal. They're going after us for criminal, but they're the ones

They're the biggest violators. Yeah, they're violating their own policies. So then we were, finally, I was able to get a hold of the gentleman from another podcast here, the anti-hero podcast, reached out to me, and they said we would love to hear Sal's story. Obviously, Sal cannot talk about any of this, but, you know, we can. So we were very fortunate to go down to Orlando and be on their podcast and then made some connections with another podcast. good cop bad cop and they put us on and then we were able to in return then come to you so yeah you need to go on the uh suffering suffering podcast yeah kevin there's so many podcasts and

it's like i don't know i need guidance i don't know who to call who to reach out to i just try to you know get to anybody that i can It's interesting that Kevin and his partner who started the podcast, I've interviewed here, and both of them were involved in shootings, and the shootings upset them in such a way that they both ended up taking stress disability, and they started a podcast about, and that's the suffrage podcast. and how, you know, the shootings affect the officers and how, you know, PTSD

and they talk about how they've affected both of them and you hear them and the funny thing is they're officers, they have a dark sense of humor like they laugh and joke and we had, like they were super funny, right? And they, and you know, you know, and actually both of them got upset when they were here, right? Like they teared up and the whole thing.

And then one minute they're doing that. and the next minute they're they're ripping on each other and the next minute they're they're laughing you know joking around you know inappropriately right um with that dark humor and um like a year later uh and they're talking about suicide like talking about thinking about suicide and this and how it affects him a year later Kevin's um I forget his name yeah Mike he had Mike his co-host um commit suicide and literally like the day before he's with his friends his family like everybody nobody nobody had a clue and yeah just yeah just like well that was one of the things when we went and talked with mike doubt he brought us over to blue magazine and they're very big not

components they're advocates very big advocates for police suicide and that when we met with them that was the one thing they said you know how was your sons mental state. And, you know, he has a lot of support. He's got a great wife and in-laws and uncles and parents and siblings that all love and support him to get him through. And some days are easier and some days are hard. And that's always something we make sure that we're vigilant on is that, you know, how are you today? You know, he just, he just wants a trial date and he wants to get this over with and get his life back. And he's not the same person that he was. He never will be. But he will definitely breathe a sigh of relief when this is over. And I think that's why it's

even more important for us to speak out because there's so many officers that are going through this. And today it's our son. Tomorrow it's somebody else's son or daughter. Because this will continue to happen until we treat the officers the way they should be on these types of calls or these situations. It doesn't have anybody that wants to be allowed. Well, that's the other thing. Yeah, it's a dead job right now. One of the best days of his life of this guy would just complied and put the weapon down

or just left the gun inside his house. But if you're suicide. He had mental issues. I mean, obviously he has got mental issues and, you know, like nobody knows that all the Nobody calls the officers and has the officers comes and then walks around pointing a gun at the officers and doesn't expect to get shot. Like how, like, I don't know, I was going to say, how serious he was about, you know, about getting himself, you know, killed. Seems like that seems pretty, pretty serious attempt. Right.

And then, like I said, when you look at the history of it, then you can draw that conclusion because they've been to his house before. They've taken his weapons. They've taken him to the VA hospital. Other officers, not these guys. Right, other officers. He has a whole history, according to the ex-wife. She has a whole notebook. And she also has video footage of him.

She said he would come home and he'd be drunk on the floor. And she had a small child. Overdose. Yeah. When you're on drugs, we know somebody that, you know, like, I know you're not going to believe this. I know a lot of derelicks. No. But we actually know somebody who every once in a while will go on a binge.

Yeah, not even alcohol. It's just drugs. So, and he will, every single time, it's pretty much the same thing. Someone's breaking into the house. He's got weapons. He's walking around the house with a gun. He's pointing. He's screaming.

There have been times he's actually going out in the street, you know, with weapons. You know, the neighbors are calling. He goes back inside. So, I mean, it's not uncommon to get on drugs and walk around and have that happen. And maybe that's what it was, but it doesn't, it's irrelevant. If you're an officer and you pull up and there's a guy with a gun. Exactly. Aside from all of that.

Yeah, I mean, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You know, you can't point guns at police officers. That's it. Right. We can't point guns at police officers. You know, we lost the respect for them. And again, I understand that not maybe every officer is as good as an officer as my son or my husband

or family and friends that we have or maybe they might be a little corrupt or abusing power. I get that that's a whole other side, but that's not what's happening here. What's happening here is we're going after a police officer who did their job. Is it tragic that someone lost their life?

Absolutely. I feel horrible for that family when you have somebody that's addicted, whether it's drugs or... That life is hard life to get through when you have family or friends who are addicted, you know, order on alcohol alcoholic. It's horrible. And I feel horrible for that family. But don't now,

you're now you're coming after my son. You're coming after him for him doing his job. And this is simply just not acceptable. This isn't that they have any evidence on him. In fact, a new head of the OPA came in once Tom Iker stepped down, Drew Skinner. So our lawyer, and I have the documents here, our lawyer wrote a letter to him explaining the whole situation, attached our use of force experts report to it. Now, we have an amazing use of force expert out of Philadelphia, who has been involved in over 800 police investigations, has had to lock up police officers who made the wrong choice.

He said the same thing. There's nothing criminal. There's no violation. He cited about suicide by police, that everything that this man has been exhibiting, that could be an option. And just, but his, Salvatore's response that day, there's nothing criminal here. And the response that our lawyer got back was, well, a jury still may find him reckless. The problem, so the problem with thinking, see, the problem with the average, citizen who watches law and order and believes everything that they hear on CNN and Fox News

and what the media is telling them is that they believe, because they haven't been through the system and they haven't watched it and been a part of it, is that they believe, well, he'll go to court and if he's innocent, he'll be found not guilty. Wouldn't that be nice? Right. But the truth is, as many times as guilty people get, you know, get found not guilty, there are innocent people that get found guilty. Correct. And that's, you get the wrong jury and the wrong judge and the wrong prosecutor. Any one of those three parts of the process can tweak it just enough to make someone look

culpable, you know, of a crime. And then this is what kills me. I don't know how it is in the state system. But I know in the federal system, this always just burns me up that the jury doesn't get to know what you're facing. So the jury will get in that box. And then, which is this is completely a, you know, it's not supposed to happen. It's supposed to be, I don't know if it's illegal or procedural, whatever. And they'll negotiate.

You know what I'm saying? Like they want to go home. Johnny here wants the guy found guilty. You know, we're saying no. you know, Paul is saying, convict him of the lower crime, and we'll negotiate, okay, fine, just so that we don't have to spend the weekend or the next three days here fighting or arguing, we'll find him guilty of this crime, the lower of the three charges, whatever it is. And they'll convince him, they'll justify it by saying, oh, he's going to get probation.

You know, maybe he's an officer, or it's a white-collar crime. And so they'll find him guilty. and then three months later they'll read the newspaper and they'll go holy shit this guy got 20 years right i never would have found him guilty i would have spent the next five hours or three days arguing had i known he was facing 20 years he didn't deserve 20 years right because they have no clue and it's so unfair and the jury's supposed to be you know people of your peers your peers they're not they're not and we got to stop this nonsense and we got to start shooting straight and telling people how it, you know, how it is. And like you said,

it's not an episode of law and order where it's a scene, drop the gun, drop the gun, okay, okay. And that's not real life. That's not policing. That's not how it goes. I don't know everything about policing because I'm not a police officer, but being in a police family, I can make that assumption because I hear about it, I see about it. I'm living it. We're living a real life drama right now, and we shouldn't be here. And it's affected his life immensely and his ability to provide for his family and to care for his family.

And we're all trying to help him get through this because we will get through this. We will win. And I'm here and I'm going to continue going on any podcast. I'm going to continue talking to any senators, any government official, anyone in the new administration, anyone in the old administration

that wants to give me a. call and speak about this, I'm available. And I'm willing to talk to you about it because this needs to stop. You're not going to have police officers. And then people are like, oh, say what? Well, guess what? In the big cities, guess where they're coming next? They're coming to steal your car. They're coming to rob your house. They're coming to, you know, victimize your children. It's, what are we doing? What are we doing? We need a whole revamping of the system. And I want it to go right to the top. Get me somebody at the top I can talk to to talk about how we can fix this.

Not just for my son, but for the future of our country, our people, our officers, our officers deserve better. Our veterans deserve better. People who fight every day for us so we can sit in our house and have a podcast or sit in our house and have a cup of coffee and be free and protect it. Who's going to protect us? Right. Nobody wants to do their job. They're going to sit back instead of acting. somebody has a woman, has a knife up to her neck.

Well, they're not going to shoot him because then they're going to lose their job in livelihood. Like my son's going through. What are we doing? We need to fix this. And this is why we're speaking out, for many reasons why we're speaking out. And the way that the news media handles things like this, we're working with a reporter now.

We sent him our first podcast. And when he got the information and he started looking into it, he was shocked. He's like, I can't believe this. I said, well, where's the investigative journalism? There's none. Where did you get this information from? Oh, the AG's office. Well, no shit. They're going to just tell you what they want you to know. Well, I mean, I figured that out when I was, I was in prison. I was writing these guys' stories. I would look up, you can literally look up the press release on the first. And then on the second and the third, the newspapers rewrite the press release, you know, that the attorney generals or U.S. Attorney's Office, or they just rewrite exactly

the same thing. And they publish it as if they've done this huge investigation, but you didn't. You took the 1,500 word or 500 word press release and you just rewrote it. And that's it. Maybe you got a quote. Maybe you called and got a quote. So you get a little something extra that the other guy. It's the narrative that they want to push. And that's, I think, hopefully we're moving away from that. We're starting to get into people are not watching the regular. mainstream media. They're coming to podcasts. They're looking at other sources to get information because they know something's not right. Something's wrong and we need to fix it. And, you know, like for example, we had a court date and I have to watch my son go to court and his suit

and his tie with all these other people that I just, you know, are true criminals. And it just breaks my heart that we're in this situation and he has to go through this. But we had a court date the end of October. We were supposedly getting our trial date because they had so much time to find a use of force expert. And from what we were told, they couldn't find one. Because who's going to put their accreditations online to say he violated the use of force when he didn't? So anyway, we go to court and that Monday and that Friday at like 115, my son gets notified from the lawyer that the attorney general's office is filing a motion. to compel? Is that what it's called?

No. A motion to have our use of force expert removed because they can't find a use of force expert to dispute any of his findings because their use of force expert said this is a justifiable shooting. This officer should never been indicted. This is politics.

You know, this case should be dismissed immediately. So since they can't get a use of force expert to find anything wrong with our use of force extra report. That sounds like a U problem. They file the motion to have him removed from the case. Right. So now we go back to court January 6th. It's a joke.

Listen, I have a list of articles from New Jersey, New Jersey articles that they're writing about this attorney general's office and all these cases that are being dismissed. There's not enough evidence. Prosecutoral misconduct. I mean, I have it. I have it all right here in my little red folder. It's insane that this is happening, but yet they're going to keep doing this because they figured, you know what, we might lose in the end. Let's rephrase that.

I will lose in the end, not us, them. But I'll do everything I can to make this kids, you know, a living hell, has life, a living hell. Until we'll make an example out of him. We're going to use him to make an example out of him. And I can't tell you, I've had officers that, you know, that are going through this situation with the corrections officer reaching out to me, like, you know, can you talk to my mom?

Can you talk, Philadelphia police officers that are going through shooting? their moms are reaching out, their wives are reaching out, thanking us for giving a voice and doing this, and they feel like they have now have someone to talk to because there's days that they're concerned about their son or a concern about themselves, or maybe they started drinking or thought of suicide because of what's being done to them.

But we have to help them and rise above this and come together because we're going to get through this and things are going to get better shortly, and we have to fight this. You know, we can't let this happen. I mean, how can we let this happen? I got a question. Yeah, I got a few questions.

The first would be, like, if you got a hold of somebody, you know, higher up, some decision maker, so, you know, what would some of your suggestions? Stop. Do you know how fast you were going? I'm going to have to write you a ticket to my new movie, The Naked Gun. Liam Nissan Buy your tickets now And get a free

Tilly Dog Not included The Naked God Tickets on sale now August 1st Before a fix Or how could this problem You know

Be resolved Well one would stop For those indictments That's the first thing You know You can't You just If it's a good shooting

It's a good shooting or whatever And then all of a sudden You sent someone back to work For years later Only to indict them on what You're not going to go back to work you're going to be on the shelf to the investigations completed and then you're going to be dealt with not go back to work you're going to put someone back to work who you think is unstable but they're back to work for two years reckless do you think you're reckless so you would basically you would think that the i mean that the solution would be to remove anybody that has a political agenda right out of that role so that you get someone that's truly independent not just saying hey we'll have these guys over here invest Yeah, but those guys should not have a political motivation to interview, you know, to further their career or do whatever.

They should pick a body that has absolutely nothing to do with it. Well, that was, that was supposed to be the state, the state police shooting team, the New Jersey State Police Shooting Team, was that non-biased opinion that the attorney general, it's their, their section, their department, that they hired to do these investigations to show transparency. So I would add to that and say, these grand juries, if you're going to have a grand jury to see if there's enough evidence to send this to the trial, then present the evidence. There's nobody there representing my son to say that's true or that's false. There's nobody there presenting his side. It's only one-sided. In a grand jury, you're not allowed to present any evidence. You're not allowed to have your lawyer present. They can even do it in secret. They don't have to notify you and allow you to present anything. Majority rules, right? It's a majority of rules in a grand jury. So it's 23 people. It was 12 versus 11.

11 said no, 12 said, yeah. You know, so it's majority of rules. Whereas in a trial, everyone has to agree. You know, 12 people have to say, yeah, yeah, guilty. Where in a grand jury, they don't. And also, too, when, if you're doing those grand jury, like we talked about people of your peers, you need somebody in there that knows whatever that line of work is, whatever you're, if it's a lawyer you're going in.

after, if it's a doctor, whatever, somebody in that grand jury needs to be familiar with it because, you know, like I said, I'm a teacher. If I bring you to my classroom and I hand you the state New Jersey standards and I hand you the curriculum, here, go teach it and you got to match it. You're going to be like, what do you talk about? Like, what do I have to do? You know the basic general idea of what I do, but you don't know the ins and outs of what I do, just like I don't know the ins and outs of police work and I know the majority of it, but I don't know all those little ends and outs. So to have somebody there that knows what the heck is going on. It's like the blind lead in the blind. And why would anyone think a grain jewelry is fair? Right. You know,

if it's only one side it, how is it fair? Yeah. All right. Another question I have with the shortened footage, the body cam footage, there was a lot of comments that are dressing, they only saw a short part. You know, and these people that saw this body cam footage, they don't have. have the full story and a lot of some of the comments were saying you know this was fired too fast what kind what more information i know you've probably already covered it in this podcast but responding to those specific comments of people that watch that original link like what information do they not have in that body cam footage that happened before or um because well yeah understand the question they're missing 16 seconds yeah right edited and they're not giving it

They don't, the body camera footage alone doesn't give you the context of the fact that that the guy had already pointed a gun at the other officer. Right. He only have their son's body camera. So he pulls up and as soon as he gets out, he's being told that guy over there has a gun. Yeah. And so, but you don't know based on the body camera that the other officer has gone, has already had the gun pointed at him. That's why he took off. And the news reports never said he pointed a gun at another officer first.

So they left all of that out. But I think what people have to understand is shit happens when you're a police officer. And sometimes you have to fire quickly. You don't have time is not on your side. The time that you're going to react could get you killed by the time that that person has those actions or those intentions. Right? Because when you could pull up, I always would tell my son, even if you're pulling over, a senior citizen. You have to expect that maybe, I don't know, maybe they're not on their medicine,

maybe there's something wrong, maybe they have a weapon in their car. Things can change in a split second. They don't have to retreat. When an officer sees a gun, they don't have to retreat. They don't have to give commands. They don't have to de-escalate. How many officers or family members would wish that their husband, wife, spouse, was still here because maybe they didn't act fast enough or they weren't aware of the situation or weren't prepared for it, and you can lose your life. Plus, you have to remember,

the body camera only tells you half the truth. Right. It's not going to show you everything. So people sit home one week, two weeks, two months, two years, the comforts of their own couch, they're not the person there that's facing a weapon pointing at them.

There's no time where I have to give you X amount of time to shoot. You already, we're told twice to drop a firearm. How many times do you tell someone drop a firearm? before you engage them. It happens in milliseconds. And that's what happened here.

Yeah. Okay. I know you guys touched on it a little bit, but I'm curious, how is your son? Like, how, how, what was his mental state? What was his emotions? He was, he was the guy. He was the training guy. He was the firearms instructor, the EMT.

He was the guy you won on your team when it hits the fan. Yeah, I'm just, I'm more so curious, how is he doing? Now, now, like, total opposite. He's taught, he's, we didn't think he was going to make it through this, to tell you the truth, to be completely honest with you, because this is all he wanted, and then you're deflated. Right. And everything they put him through, you know,

the way he's been treated through the courts, through the AG's office, everything. Everyone supports him, the mayor, city council, everyone. Yeah. But he's just having more bad days than good days right now. And I think the saving grace is the birth of his daughter. I think that's really, really helping through this. That keeps him going.

Besides his family, his in-laws are great. His wife is amazing. But I think the birth of his daughter really is his like saving grace. Right. And I tell him all the time, like you have to fight because your daughter needs her father. Like, we're going to get through this. This is rough. We're going to get through this.

But he's, you know, he's, he sometimes will say to me, you know, mom, this is all I ever wanted to do. I was good at what I did. I was, you know, making good money. I was a good cop. I had, I built such a good career for myself. And now I have nothing. And I say, you have everything. You have us.

And we're going to get it back. You know, but it's that daily affirmation that we're going to make it. You're going to make it because we're all here to support you and we're going to get through this. You know, he feels horrible. He can't provide for his family like he wants to. I mean, it's tough. Some days, you know, you feel broken and other days you feel hopeful. And every time we go to court, you know, it's like that anxiety building up what's going to happen, what's going to happen, what's going to happen.

And then to get deflated, like, listen, if you think you have the evidence, let's go, take it to court, let's get, let's, we're going to fight you in court, let's get it done. So this kid can get on with his life and his family's life. It would have been a great day if this guy would have just dropped a gun, but he didn't. He wanted a confrontation with the police, plain and simple. Jesus Christ himself came off of the cross, told him to drop the gun. He wouldn't have done it. He had his own plane.

Yeah, so it's a struggle right now. That's why we are doing what we're doing, because we want to be able to help him and be his voice and write these wrongs. Yeah. So January 6th is the next court date. What is, is it just another? This is the one where they're trying.

It's a motion for them to remove our expert, our use of force expert, because they couldn't find a legitimate use of force expert to dispute anything in our report. Yeah. So the attorney general's office had three weeks. I think their report is due this week as to why they should remove him or he should be removed. They turn it over to our attorney who has, and then another three weeks to respond. on. We go back on January 6th. She's going to look at everything, look everything over. And then she'll give us another date to come back for oral arguments. So now you're going into the new year again with this lingering. And I'm sorry if I've missed this. Do we know like the time he is facing? He's looking at 10 years in jail. Yeah. Those are the only questions I have. I mean, I'm sure the next question that Matt would have would be so people who are listening and things like that, what can they do to help?

So two things. First, obviously, is anybody that would want to contact us to help us continue spreading this message or can put us in contact with senators. legislatures, presidents, who would like to hear our story and help us out would be amazing. The other thing is we have a give-send go for him, and I know times are tough right now, but anything that anyone can donate to help us help him, because he's not getting a paycheck, he was suspended without pay, and he has a very high insurance bill. and so anything we can do to alleviate that stress for him is big because that's a big stressor right now and that's a lot he's facing time that's obviously detrimental to him but knowing that at least I can support my family right now and help out that's that's big that's big

for him do you guys have you have anything else that you want to cover or you feel good about this Listen, I have been prepared. No, I think we talked about. And I sent you Kevin's information. Yeah, I just got it. That's what I went on. I wasn't trying to be rude. I was just wanting to make sure I sent it.

Because he, I think he would be all over this. And he'll know additional podcasters in the same. Because, you know, true crime is great, but there's probably be wrong. Might be better off on one of the platform. No, right. No, and I appreciate you've taken the time to let us, you know, come down here. But I think just overall that, you know, he's a decorated police officer. You know, he's not someone that abuses his power.

He's received countless accolades for life-saving merits for his friend that was shot, Officer O'Hanlon, an old lady saving her life. You know, just he's a cop's cop. He gets in there. He does what he needs to do. And he is loved by the police community. And we need to rally around him, these heroes, and we need to support them. Hey, you guys. I appreciate you watching.

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