The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 12.19 "BRO GOT REJECTED BC HES WHITE!" The Truth About "Cornell Kid", NYPD Made Up A Murder Confession, &

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

Just go to https://www.zocdoc.com/phil and download the Zocdoc app for FREE. Then find and book a top-rated doctor today! To get a 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D3K2 + 5 individual travel packs, here! https://drinkag1.com/defranco  Go to https://BeautifulBastard.com for up to 90% OFF and $10 Mystery Items. – AG1 is multiple nutritional supplements bundled into an ultimate all-in-one nutritional formula. With 75 vitamins, minerals and whole food-sourced ingredients focusing on immune support, gut health, energy and recovery. It’s an extremely absorbable multivitamin and multimineral with the extra benefit of having pre-and probiotics, digestive enzymes, super greens complex adaptogens, and more without the need to take multiple products and/or pills. You would be hard-pressed to find more high-quality nutritional content in one place, making AG1 one of the MOST COMPLETE products on the market. Its daily formula has the perfect amount of micronutrients, absorption and taste to jumpstart our daily health routine.  AG1 is also available in the US, Canada, UK and Europe. –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Right-Winger Twists Viral TikTok of Teen Rejected From Cornell 04:44 - Jonathan Majors Ousted at Marvel After Guilty Verdict 07:20 - Mass Amounts of Data and Footage Leaked After Insomniac Games Hack  08:38 - Sponsored by ZocDoc 09:53 - VA Cuts Program for Veteran Homeowners, Resulting in Countless Foreclosures  14:12 - Census Bureau Floats Controversial Proposal That Could Shrink U.S. Disability Rate 16:47 - Over 100 Million US Consumers Are Eligible for Google’s New $630M Settlement  19:12 - Sponsored by AG1 20:20 - Woman Sues NYPD for Fabricating Crime Confession 26:53 - Your Thoughts on Yesterday’s Show ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxx Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  Associate Producer for Veteran Homeowners: Star Pralle Associate Producer for NYPD Confession: Lili Stenn ———————————— #DeFranco #JonathanMajors #Wolverine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Y'all, today we're talking about the NYPD fabricating a murder confession, why tons of U.S. veterans are now losing their homes despite the promises that were made to them, and break down the Jonathan Majors guilty verdict. We absolutely have to talk about the truth around the Cornell application kit, because the reality of what's happened there is ugly, it's disgusting, and we need to talk about it. So we're going to be talking about all that and actually so much more on today's extra large Philip DeFranco show. So buckle up, hit that like button if you like these daily deep dives into the news, and let's just jump into it. Starting with...

This bullshit pisses me off. Context is king. It's one of the most important things. It changes how what you're about to read or listen to or see, how it is received. And when mistakes will inevitably happen if you're in this space long enough, and there are ways to remedy that, unfortunately, in a world that incentivizes engagement bait, a lot of people have been playing fast and loose. With the most recent example being this 17-year-old kid, John from Lakewood, Ohio. Because John, he's had a dream about attending Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration. And so he applied early for

it. When he got a response from the university, he filmed his reaction live for TikTok. He's sitting at his computer, he's wearing a Cornell sweatshirt his parents are looking on. And as the tension builds, the caption lists all his qualifications, 4.6 GPA, 1460 SAT, 460 plus hours community service, summer college courses, built investment portfolios, $160,000 scholarships, skipped a grade, played clarinet for 10 years, was on the news, led environment preservation projects. Then they were all replaced by the single caption, but it was still not good enough. And the video ends as John just stares in disbelief, his hand to his mouth, his parents consoling him. So all in all, you know, like a pretty normal TikTok for the, you know, share everything generation.

But then in walks this fuckhead, Josh LaCache. And he posts his video on Twitter, X, whatever the hell you want to call it. But he shares it with the caption, the lens, the context of, Bro got rejected because he's white. Elon Musk should hire him. Now, let me be clear. There is one, absolutely no indication based off of anything else we know right here, that race had anything to do with John's rejection. And two, biggest thing here, John has never even suggested anything of the sort himself.

And as places like the Daily Beast have pointed out, Cornell's acceptance rate is actually less than 8%. And apparently when you apply early, it's even more competitive. And notably regarding the SAT score, which by the way, John, if you happen to see this, you did better than me, is 1460 still below the median for the university. So it's not absolutely wild to think that he got rejected. And on Twitter, he even had people joking, no, he got rejected because another white kid

from a family that donates millions to Cornell took his spot. But with all that said, it didn't matter that John didn't frame it this way, didn't say it this way, because Josh's repost, it got over 30 million views, way more than John's measly 500,000. So that whole race narrative, it caught traction,

both with people that wanted to turn John's story into like he's the poster child, as well as people who were consuming this and going, hey, fuck this kid for throwing out this narrative. Which again, he did not. So we saw people like the former mayor of Reno, Texas saying, this young caps lock white male busted his ass to excel at everything he did in high school with one goal, get into Cornell University. But his skin color and gender kept him out.

But then people posting things like his parents most likely voted for this and dude just got radicalized. And then on the other side, you had people saying, hey, fuck this kid. Dunking on him saying maybe he should have studied more for the SAT rather than played clarinet. Just a bunch of bullshit. You also had people using it as a way to say, hey, it's not white people that get pushed down. It's Asian kids with higher SAT scores that are still getting declined. And then, of course, all of that then connecting to the affirmative action getting struck down by the Supreme Court. But as all of that was playing out, it got us to this point where Josh ended up actually deleting the video.

With him tweeting, I deleted the post about the Cornell University kid at his request, showing a screenshot of the now deleted tweet along with a DM he had with John. With John appearing to reach out to Josh first and saying, my life is being turned inside out because of this whole scenario. I didn't say it was because of race. If anything, it was my extracurriculars ability to spell out a story of what I wanted to do. I am begging for you to take down this post because it has completely jeopardized my future. And so Josh, you know, he did actually remove the post, but he acted as if it was John's fault, writing, I hope you realize that you need to be careful about what you post online in the future. And trying to frame his post as meaning to be satirical and humorous,

but unfortunately you can't control how people perceive things online. While the most popular reply to his post was simply, you are a bad person. You also had others smacking him upside the head with some words saying things like, I love the idea of a random kid you reposted being like, please stop, you are ruining my life

and giving them a pompous lecture about how they should have anticipated you ruining their life. Like you're a wild dog or something and have no agency over it. And yeah, because in no way is this on John. This is some kid sharing a letdown for something that he's been working towards and something that I fucking, I hope John, that you see is just one small speed bump. Very few people get that W on the first one. Usually got to take a lot of L's. If you learn from them, you grow from them. These are building

blocks. But that's ultimately where I'm going to leave this because really a huge part of the reason I'm even talking about this fucking dumpster fire is that the one true thing that josh said in all this is that people will move on to the next thing but i want to make sure that before people move on to the next thing they realize that john didn't fucking start this fire because the internet makes everything live forever and we live in a society of fucking headline readers but you know if we continue to make efforts maybe the truth can still fucking matter sometimes and then jonathan majors is now out at Marvel after a jury in New York found him guilty of both reckless assault in the third degree and harassment. Though he was also notably found not

guilty of intentional assault and aggravated harassment. You know, all of this coming after his trial had been making headlines for the past few weeks. His ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabari, testifying that he struck her back in March, claiming that they were in a car when she saw him receive a flirty text message from another woman, saying that she grabbed his phone out of his hand, saying that he then pulled and twisted her arm, saying she felt a hard blow across her head, with then surveillance footage kind of vaguely showing what went down both inside of and outside of the car in the aftermath. Where he's also testifying that he was regularly manipulative in their relationship, with wild text messages and audio getting released, including one where Majors threatened to kill himself where he

called himself a monster, as well as a clip of Majors yelling at Grace to suggest she's not worthy of him. Grace has to be in a certain mindset to support Coretta Scott King. You know who that is? That's Martin Luther King's wife. Michelle Obama, Barack Obama's wife. I'm a great man, a great man.

The woman that supports me, that I support, that needs to be a great woman. But then on the other side of this, you had Majors' team throughout this trial arguing that Grace's case was just built on lies, saying she was the actual aggressor and she now wants to ruin his reputation. But of course, all of that playing out with the jury finding him guilty on two of four counts. And with that, a lawyer for Grace released a statement thanking the Manhattan DA as well as the jurors and judge and adding, we are gratified to see justice served by today's guilty verdict. Ms. Jabari testified publicly and truthfully, even though reliving these traumatic events on the witness stand was obviously painful. We hope that her actions will

inspire other survivors to speak their truth and seek justice. And then on the other side, you had Majors' lawyers releasing a statement, and they had kind of a mixed reaction to the verdict, saying, it is clear that the jury did not believe Grace Jabari's story of what happened in the SUV because they found that Mr. Majors did not intentionally cause any injuries to her. But then adding, we are disappointed, however, that despite not believing Ms. Jabari, the jury nevertheless found that Mr. Majors was somehow reckless while she was attacking him. Going on to say that Majors is grateful for his family, his friends, his fans for their support. And in no world is this whole situation over because they say he is in the process of fully clearing his name. So we're likely going

to be looking at appeal. But for now with this, you know, his sentencing is set for February. And right now he's looking at a situation where he could end up in jail for a year or he could just be handed probation. Though arguably in the meantime, the biggest consequence for him in this trial has come from the court of public opinion. Because already leading up to this, he was dropped by his management and PR team. He was easily one of the biggest emerging actors in Hollywood. I mean, just recently he had Quantum Mania, Creed 3, the whole new season of Loki. I mean, they were building the MCU around him as Kang. But now it looks like the studio is remapping that phase of the MCU. Avengers Kang Dynasty is reportedly now being known as Avengers 5. And so yeah, for right now, it seems like the next big date here is going to be in

February. And in the meantime, of course, I pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here? And then, Somniac Games was hit with a massive ransomware attack. And the scale of this thing is absolutely wild. And not just saying that the hack included over 1.3 million files and over 1.6 terabytes of data, but because it resulted in the leaking of not only things like their upcoming games like Spider-Man and Marvel spinoffs, like the one about Wolverine,

they also got employee Slack messages and secret details about like Marvel licensing deals. Now, because of the nature of the attack, I'm not gonna be diving into like the actual videos that got leaked or any of that. But that obviously has taken over social media. But instead, I want to talk about how this went down. Because reportedly, this actually started a week ago. The hacking group Rycita demanding 50 bitcoins, which is about $2 million in ransom. When their week deadline passed, they dumped all of this data. Also,

the Australian cybersecurity site Cyber Daily actually reported that the hacker group only uploaded 98% of the data and saying it appears that some data was fact sold, and that wasn't uploaded. And the group went out of its way to target Insomniac, with a spokesperson saying it was an easy target. And with all this, regarding like the reactions online, well it's definitely been mixed. On one hand you have a lot of gamers excited about these Marvel spinoff games, though also regarding those games you have people saying these leaks are ruining them, or with some of the leaks showing major plot points, and even the ending of one, which is also why I have people feeling bad for just the people that work at this company, or the projects they've been working on are undercut. Someone's

been going through all their stuff. But also with all this, you have Sony, which owns Insomniac Games thinking, you know, this is the end, at least for now, saying they're investigating the leak and adding, we have no reason to believe that any other SIE or Sony divisions have been impacted. And then, y'all, it is that time of year. It feels like everyone's getting something from the common cold to like the knock you out fluke. So for that, or maybe something else, you might be on the hunt for a new doctor. With that, you know, you start asking people for the recommendations or you're just lost. You know, you want and you deserve a good doctor who gets you, listens to you, makes you feel super comfortable and doesn't take six months to get an appointment with. And well, here I've got you

covered or rather the fantastic sponsor of today's show, ZocDoc has you covered. You know, you just start by downloading the free app that millions of others are using to find and book amazing doctors online who are right for you and take your insurance. I mean, I'm talking about booking appointments with thousands of top-rated patient-reviewed doctors and specialists. You can also filter specifically for ones you take your insurance or located near you and treat almost any condition you're searching for. The average wait time to see a doctor booked on ZocDoc is between just 24 and 72 hours. Sometimes you can score same-day appointments with doctors who have verified reviews from actual real patients, not bots. I mean, this app is so easy to use, and it's

not just about finding your general practitioner. You can find specialists too, dermatologists, dentists, psychiatrists, eye doctors. I can go on, and it's all so convenient. So just go to ZocDoc.com slash Phil and download the ZocDoc app for free and find and book a top rated doctor today. That's Z-O-C-D-O-C.com slash Phil. ZocDoc.com slash Phil. And then imagine you serve your country. You are a patriot of the United States of America. And then you come home and you can just lose your home because that is the reality for thousands of veterans right now. And that's despite the promises that were made to them. Because specifically, during COVID, thousands of homeowners across the country lost their jobs and they turned to mortgage forbearance,

which is a program set up by Congress that allowed those who lost income to skip mortgage payments during hard times. One of the specific families I want to talk about here are the Queens in rural Oklahoma. They were able to buy their house through the VA loan program. You know, that's been long established. It was set up in the 1940s to help veterans like Ray Queen. You know, he was wounded in Iraq during a service in the US Army. Then he comes home, this helps him buy a home. But then in September of 2021,

Ray's mother-in-law died to COVID. And then his wife, Becky, had to take an extended leave from her position before ultimately losing her job. And so as their savings dwindled and dwindled away, they turned to the company that managed their mortgage. And they were told, hey, don't freak out. You can skip six months of payments

until you get back on your feet. With the VA's Partial Claim Payment Program, or PCP, those missed payments would just be applied to the end of their loan term. Right, meaning they would not be expected to pay this massive lump sum once they started paying again. And their mortgage would just stay the same. We're talking about this shit show on my godforsaken show,

so you know that's not how things actually happened for the Queens. Instead, what we saw is last year in October, the Department of Veterans Affairs, they ended the PCP program against the warnings of the mortgage industry, housing advocates, and veterans groups. And nobody even told the Queens until this September. Yes, of this year. And that was when they were told they needed to come up with over $22,000 or their house was going to be foreclosed on.

And so with this, you had Ray Queen saying, how does this happen? This is supposed to be a program that you all have to help people in times of crisis so you don't take their house from them. And while Ray's story is heartbreaking, it is not an isolated incident. This is not limited to the Queens family. With, for example, Christy Kelly, a consumer lawyer in Virginia, saying that she has heard similar stories from countless veterans and added, the homeowners entered into COVID forbearances. They were made certain promises and there were certain representations that were made. The VA essentially pulled the rug out from under everybody. According to data from ICE Mortgage Technology, there are 6,000 homeowners with VA

loans who use COVID forbearances that are currently in the foreclosure process. And then there's another 34,000 that are delinquent in their payments. And while that doesn't mean there's going to be a 100% rate of foreclosure, it does absolutely mean at the very least financial troubles. Right. And to break it down some more, right, according to Kelly, many of these homeowners have mortgages with a 2% or a 3% interest rate. With a PCP program, it would have stayed that way. But after forbearances to keep their homes, they may have to get loan modifications at today's interest rate of 7.5%. With Kelly saying that for most people, these payments are going to increase by $600 or $700 a month. All because the VA decided to end the partial claim program.

Now with it, as far as why the VA canceled the program, they say they had no choice. With John Bell, Executive Director of the Veterans Benefits Administration's Loan Guarantee Service, saying, We had a short-term authority for that specific program during COVID. It wasn't part of our normal authority. However, it should be noted, there are some that say they definitely had the authority to at least extend the PCP program. But regardless, now the VA says that they're developing a new program to replace it. Saying that it'll work differently, but also have a familiar effect as the PCP program. Though big caveat here is that Bell says it will take at least several months to get it up

and running. And with this, I want to note following the publication of NPR's investigation into this whole situation, we actually had a group of senators sending a letter to the VA secretary asking that the Department of Veteran Affairs put an immediate stop to the foreclosures. And in their letter, they said, without this pause, thousands of veterans and service members could needlessly lose their homes. And adding in that, the VA's new program isn't going to help the veterans already facing foreclosure during the months that it takes to implement. Explaining in the meantime, tens of thousands of veterans and service members are left with no viable options to get back on track with payments and save their homes. While the VA did call for a pause on the foreclosures until May of 2024, for some,

it was already too late. I mean, many veterans saw that their only course of action was to take loan modifications. Like for example, you have 69-year-old Marine Corps veteran Ed O'Connor. He was recovering from getting his leg amputated last year when the foreclosure letters hit. And after his wife lost her job during the pandemic, they turned to forbearance and were told that the payments would be added to the end of their mortgage. But in October of 2022, with the ending of the PCP program, O'Connor was told that he needed to catch up on $32,000. So now, check out these fucking numbers.

They're paying today's interest rates. He used to pay $1,750 a month, but now it's $2,400. So then that's forcing them to fall behind on other bills. Right, whoops, sorry car payment. Whoops, sorry credit card bills. You had Ed saying in an interview with NPR, you know, they give you promises and then they give you an empty cup. I'm just kind of disgusted with it all.

You know, with all that said, that is where we are right now. We're obviously going to keep our eyes on this situation, see how the VA implements their new plan in the coming months, see if there are any other updates. You know, with this situation, of course, I'd love to know your thoughts, but if you or someone you know has been affected by this, I'd love to hear from you. And then, you are not actually disabled. That is not me at the beginning of a really weird pep talk, but rather what the Census Bureau actually wants to say to a number of people right now. And in fact, they may be about to shrink the U.S. disability rate by 40%.

And this, they say, is part of an ongoing effort to both enhance the quality of disability data and to bring them more in line with other countries' numbers. But with this, we're seeing the Bureau getting some backlash. Specifically, over their plan to stop asking people yes or no questions like, do you have serious difficulty with hearing, seeing, concentrating, or other abilities? And instead, they plan to ask them to rate their difficulty level. And notably with that, new estimates of the number of disabled people in America would only be based on people who report a lot of difficulty or cannot do at all. So those who

say some difficulty would be left out entirely. And when I heard that, well, I thought, you know, that sounds like a minor change. It turns out that the Census Bureau actually tested this idea back in 2022. And they actually found that that idea alone would nearly half the estimated population with any disability. We'd go from 13.9% to just 8.1%. And so as a result, we've seen a lot of disability experts and activists saying this will be incredibly harmful. This including Alice Wong, a disabled author and activist who told NPR, millions of disabled people will no longer count, which is just the latest in the historic struggle to be seen as a significant community that matters. Members of the Bureau's National

Advisory Committee also echoing that, with one saying the proposal is not inclusive and will miss many individuals. You know, the consequences of missing people in the once a decade count are super significant, because the census, while an incredibly boring prospect and idea, it's incredibly important. It's used to determine allocations of funds, or for things like housing, healthcare, resources,

as well as the enforcement of civil rights protections against discrimination. Then we jump to the other side of this debate, where you have supporters of the proposal arguing that it will actually help Americans with disabilities, like with Daniel Monk, the CEO and co-founder of the Center for Inclusive Policy, who also served on the board of the organization

that developed this idea, arguing, "'I think it can help advocacy "'by showing how the more functional difficulties you have, "'the more barriers you face, the worse your outcomes are. "'And I think that can help us design policies.'" Beyond that, he also argued that by more closely aligning with international standards, the US will actually be able to do a better job

of measuring its policies against other countries to determine if it's doing a good job at reaching people with disabilities or making it more of a one-to-one comparison. But also, even he noted that there are limitations with the proposed changes, pointing out that, as is, they don't adequately address certain folks or people with psychiatric disabilities or chronic health conditions, though they are saying that minor changes to the proposal could help and actually increase the rate of disability, noting that Bureau research found that just allowing respondents to report having some difficulty on the survey

could more than double the current disability rate. But as far as what is actually gonna happen, it's important to note this proposal is in its early stages. With the Bureau telling NPR that while today is the last day that it's accepting comments, people will also have a chance to weigh in on the matter in the spring. With final approval needed by June 1st, 2024 for the changes to appear starting in 2025.

As you know with this story, I'd love to hear from you, especially if you're a part of the around 14% of the people that this is impacting. And then in a landmark case about Google's alleged monopoly, they just agreed to pay a massive $700 million settlement. And that money actually may be headed towards you, though it's probably going to look a lot different because it's a settlement that involved over 100 million consumers. But, you know, if you've made a purchase through Google Play, you might actually be eligible for a payout. And all of this stems back to when the lawsuit was initially filed back in July of 2021. It was brought by the attorneys general of 36 states and D.C.

Though since then, the other states and even the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico jumped on board. And the states reportedly argued that Google had unfairly used contracts to close off the Google Play Store from competition. By doing so, they left developers no choice but to accept Google's high fees. Because Google charges up to 30% for all payments made through their Play Store. And if any of this sounds familiar, it's because we actually knew that a settlement had been reached back in September. In fact, they were supposed to litigate this case alongside Epic Games this fall. But then they, along with Match Group, the owner of Tinder, they settled and withdrew. We didn't get all the

details that we have now until now, because the judge ordered them not to release the terms in order to prevent any influence on the jury in the Epic case. And so as far as the actual terms, Google agreed to pay $700 million, notably $630 million going to over 100 million eligible consumers across the state. And this pertaining to buying an app or any in-app purchases, with those needing to fall between August of 2016

and September of this year. And notably, the settlement says that the majority of those affected by this won't actually even need to file a claim to receive their payment. Here, of course, is the kicker. Because it's affected so many people, we're talking about people getting payouts

of like $2 or more, depending on how much they actually spent. But also beyond a few more dollars in your pocket, with the kicker. Because it's affected so many people, we're talking about people getting payouts of like $2 or more, depending on how much they actually spent. But also beyond a few more dollars in your pocket, with the settlement, Google has also agreed to simplify the process for users to download apps from outside the Play Store. That's typically known as sideload. And they've also agreed to give developers the option of allowing users to make purchases through a third-party payment system, rather than Google's own billing system, and offering a discount for payments made this way. While you have the state attorneys general calling this settlement a win, you have Epic CEO calling the settlement, quote, an injustice to all Android

users and developers. And you have places like The Verge here pointing out that each of the changes in the settlement are only promised for a handful of years. Like the side loading, that's actually only good for seven years. And the use of a third-party in-app payment service, that's only good for five years. With a third-party payment, there's places like The Verge noted while developers can choose to implement it, calling it user choice billing, they only actually get a 4% discount from Google's usual fee. And Google, they're reserving the right to not allow developers to link outside the app

to give users a discounted rate. With a settlement reading, Google is not required to allow developers to include links that take a user outside an app distributed through Google Play to make a purchase. So with that, while we're still waiting for approval on this agreement, which is scheduled for the beginning of February,

it's important to note that Google's still facing two anti-monopoly cases from the Justice Department. One regarding their dominance in the online search space and another about their control of online ads. So there's more to come. It's going to be very interesting to see how this plays out. And for those of you out there who are Android users, what are your thoughts here? And then genetics. Some of us were blessed with good genes, some of us and not so much. But one thing that everyone has in common, we all share the same basic foundational needs like nutrient replenishment, gut optimization, stress management, and immune support. And that's where the fantastic sponsor

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drink I've found on the market. So don't wait, especially because they're giving you added immune system support with a free one-year supply of vitamin D3K2 plus five individual travel packs with your purchase. I mean, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more comprehensive supplement. So go to drinkag1.com slash DeFranco, or just click that link down below to get a one-year supply of vitamin D drops and five travel packs with your first purchase of AG1. And then NYPD officers fully made up the confession of a woman they charged with murder. That's what's being alleged in this absolutely explosive story and lawsuit where you got truth, justice, and the integrity of law enforcement all on trial. And at the center of this, you have Tracy McCarter against the New York Police Department. Because McCarter,

who's a nurse at New York Presbyterian, was arrested by the NYPD in March of 2020 following the death of her estranged husband, James Murray. And here, you know, the lawsuit paints the picture of a troubled relationship. According to the documents, Murray struggled with alcoholism and repeatedly abused McCarter physically while he was drinking. He also had a history of expressing violence towards others and had been arrested at least twice before on assault-related charges. And according to the filings, on the night of his death, on March 2nd, 2020, Murray went to McCarter's apartment in a drunken rage and demanded money. At one point, Murray grabbed McCarter's purse, he put her into a chokehold and pushed her into a large mirror, which then fell on them, forcing him to let go.

And then Tracy grabs a bread knife. She holds it in front of her and demands that Murray leave. But he refused. Even when she put the knife to his neck and nicked him, he refused. So she got scared because that didn't work. And she agreed to give him the money, but she couldn't find her wallet, which then apparently made him even more angry. And the lawsuit saying here that he lunged toward McCarter and she reached behind her and quote, blindly grabbed a

kitchen knife from the open knife drawer and held the knife out in front of her to deter Murray from continuing his attack. But saying as Murray came at her, he tripped and fell into the knife. And very notably here, this is a key thing. The documents also state that the account of his accidental death was backed up by forensic experts hired by both the defense and prosecution teams. With McCarter, who again, is a medical professional, saying that she pressed on his chest to stop the bleeding and then called for help from a neighbor who called 911. A team of NYPD officers then responded,

including an officer by the name of Samantha Cortez, who also, according to body cam footage, told the other police at the scene that McCarter, quote, said he tried to take her money and she stabbed him in the chest. But the lawsuit says McCarter never actually said that last part. And notably, that was actually backed up by a transcript of the police body cam footage that was obtained by The Intercept. With The Intercept reporting that the transcript showed McCarter very distressed, begging officers to help with Murray and screaming, Jim, please stay with us. Oh God. Oh God. Why did you do this, Jim?

Why did you do this? Why did you do this? He tried to take my money. Why did he do this? Oh my God. But it does not show her saying that last part. You know, the admitting to stabbing a person part. And to go even further, the filings also say that McCarter quote, can be heard on police body camera recording, flatly denying that she made that statement. And the lawsuit saying based on that fabricated confession, the officers placed plaintiff in handcuffs, removed her from the scene, arrested her and charged her with second degree murder in New York criminal court. And not only did officer Cortez tell the other officers that McCarter had admitted to stabbing Murray, she repeated the lie in her official police report.

And even then, she still changed it from the way she had initially told her colleagues. With a writing that McCarter had said, I let him stay the night I was trying to help. He went for my purse and I stabbed him. Which again, is not in the body cam footage transcript. And the next day, an NYPD detective swore to a criminal complaint charging McCarter with second degree murder based on Cortez's fabricated witness statement.

And that complaint gave authorities enough probable cause to arrest McCarter. But it also failed to include her account of being attacked by murder. So neither the court nor the prosecutor were aware that she had repeatedly said she acted in self-defense during her arraignment. And so as a result,

they locked Tracy away in Rikers Island. And this was during the peak of the pandemic until September when she was then released on house arrest. Also, reportedly, Cortez repeated the fabricated line again while being interviewed by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, with investigators then relying on that confession to obtain probable cause for eight search warrants for McCarter's property. Cortez repeated the lie again at a preliminary hearing and in testimony before a jury, though also she changed it up a bit, recounting a few different versions of what she claimed McCarter had told her. And actually, at one point, when pressed by a defense attorney about

whether McCarter had actually said the line about the purse to her, Cortez admitted she hadn't, claiming McCarter may have said it to somebody else and she had just heard that on body camera footage. But regardless, the jury ultimately voted to charge McCarter with murder. But then, just days before her trial was supposed to start, a new Manhattan DA who had taken over from the previous leader dismissed the case, arguing that there wasn't actually enough evidence to charge her. But then also, the story doesn't even end there. Once after the case was dismissed, Tracy learned that the DA's office had been improperly withholding information about its surveillance. And according to the lawsuit, just this year, Google notified McCarter that it had complied with a search warrant

requiring the company to turn over access to an email account that she had used to communicate with people who were trying to advocate for her. And that's massively significant because under New York law, prosecutors are required to turn were trying to advocate for her. And that's massively significant because under New York law, prosecutors are required to turn over all documents concerning her case. And while they did give her lawyers documents for other search warrants, those records never mentioned that specific one, which would be a direct violation of the law. And what's more, the Intercept reviewed the public database

for the Civilian Complaint Review Board. It's an independent agency that investigates police misconduct, and they found all of the officers named in McCarter's suit had previous complaints filed against them. Cortez specifically had a CCRB complaint for abuse of authority in September of 2021 that was closed pending the outcome of the criminal case. Another officer had three complaints against him, including one for abuse of authority that was actually substantiated. And the detective who signed off on the search warrants and criminal complaint had a complaint for abuse of authority. While he was exonerated there, he was named in a lawsuit

the next year claiming he had filed false police reports and given false testimony, with that then resulting in a $27,000 settlement where he didn't admit to wrongdoing. But then the NYPD later disciplined him for knowingly filing, quote, inaccurate and factually incorrect departmental reports on 19 different occasions, as well as making, quote, incomplete and inaccurate entries into the department memo book. And then yet another detective facing six complaints for offenses like use of force and abuse of authority. While none of those were substantiated, as he had the intercept explaining, these complaints are exceptionally hard to prove. So that doesn't always mean that it's because there was no misconduct. With all that said, going back to the actual case, it's

unclear what exact accountability we'll see outside of McCarter's lawsuit, where she's notably asking for unspecified damages, saying she sustained serious physical and psychological harm as a result of being wrongfully arrested, charged, imprisoned, searched, and prosecuted. With that including being diagnosed with PTSD and suicidal ideation for which she racked up expensive medical bills, experienced major financial loss from not being able to work, and missed out on big life events, and that's among other things. And while we'll wait to see, you know, what sort of compensation she might get, there is a concern among many that there won't be actual accountability. Because according to Jenveien Wong, a staff attorney with the Cop Accountability Project at the Legal Aid Society, the majority of lawsuits against the NYPD end up just getting settled. With her explaining,

it seems like unless the story makes it to the press somehow, cops are not actually paying the price for their perjury or for their false statements that are made in investigations. And to make it even more fucked up, like, it's not like they're paying for it. It's the New York City taxpayers who are paying for it. And it's not like it's a negligible amount or a little. According to the Legal Aid Society, New York City is set to pay more than $100 million for these kinds of lawsuits this year alone. And the Intercept reporting that that number is separate from the $30 million the city paid to settle lawsuits ahead of litigation. And this is 16 of the 20 officers named in the lawsuits with the highest payouts have been promoted. So you really don't need to identify as a cynic or a pessimist to think that nothing is going to change.

But hey, maybe hell will freeze over tomorrow and we'll wait and see. And then your favorite segment, if you're a beautiful bastard that comes here daily. Let's dive into our segment yesterday, today. Though I'm going to treat it a little bit more as a community segment today. The first being a few episodes ago, I talked about like, I don't even know what the fuck Night Agent is. Apparently it's one of the most popular shows on Netflix.

Burp, burp, burp, burp, burp. Y'all in the comments are like, it's actually really good. Started watching with my wife. You did not lie. On the third episode, loving it. Thank you for the recommendations. Especially because I was being kind of dismissive then.

Also, I want to say in advance, I'm going to miss you. After today's show, we only have two more scheduled show on the books for 2023, with the official plan being after putting out the Wednesday and Thursday show that the Philip DeFranco show will go on a hiatus. But it's coming back on January 9th. Though I will say, turn all notifications on for this channel and or join the text line 813-213-4423. I have a feeling that as much as I want this break, there might be times where I get very complacent and I might put out an old school PDS, you know, no editors, no team, but I'm not making promises because I'm going to be

focusing on me during that time. I allow myself over Christmas break to be very selfish about my time. But then as far as comments on yesterday's stories, one, if you happen to miss yesterday's show because you didn't get to it really early, it seems like YouTube suppressed it. You can never fully tell just because they demonetized it. But then, regarding comments on yesterday's show, I'm going to have to reword some of your comments. Because I think that Ruby Frankie story, given the subject matter, is part of the reason yesterday's show got suppressed a little after it got released. Beyond her saying things like pleading guilty to that thing she pleaded guilty to

and admitting she was manipulated is no excuse. She shouldn't get a lightened sentence for that. Others just saying, I'm so glad Ruby Frankie's actually facing repercussions. Anyway, honestly, I hate how many other YouTube families have gotten away with everything short of murder, like simply getting their channel banned. Though others saying Ruby doesn't even seem like she acknowledges she did something wrong, saying that's disturbing. And finally, we had Dani saying,

Does Ruby not understand we watched her treat them horrifically before Jodi was ever introduced to the narrative? I understand Ruby wants to push her own accountability aside and put the blame mostly on Jodi, but saying that Jodi gave her a distorted moral compass, which is rich considering that her entire channel was based on truth and not living in distortion, LOL, is honestly completely BS. We saw her admit to all those things. She's not innocent.

She's far from it. But that is where today's show is gonna end. As always, thank you for being a part of these daily dives into the news. For more news you need to know that you might've missed, I got you covered right here. You can click or tap, or I got links in the description. And hey, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco.

You've just been filled in. I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.