It's my pleasure to be here. It's been a while since I've been here. I think it's before the pandemic, actually. And I'm here because I wanted to just make an appearance, and also I wanted to address a few things, but let me just tell you something about me, and the reason why it's important is because I want you to understand where I'm coming from when it talks about certain cases that we've been doing lately, hearing about it's not it's on, is it? Yes, all. Okay, closer. Okay. So as you probably know, I started in the Wayne County prosecutor's office when I was right out of law school. Stayed there for almost 12 years, and the last six of those years, I prosecuted mainly homicides. So I'm a veteran of over 100 homicide juries, 1000s of trials, 1000s of hearings. And after that, I came and I ran for the bench, and at that time, is to Detroit recorders court, and then it morphed into, or morphed into, the Wayne County Circuit Court. I was on the bench for almost nine years. Please don't do the math, and then I've been elected for this is my 21st year. And the reason I say that is because I want to just talk about a little bit about process and procedure. And this is probably not news to most of you. Most of you are probably well versed in this, but I just want to go over it anyway. We have a Public Integrity Unit in our office, and that is a group of prosecutors who are specially trained to do cases where police officers are shot or killed and or people who shoot and kill police officers, as well as police officers who discharge their weapon. And I think you know that when we do these cases, we always expect whatever police jurisdiction is is involved. Of course, here's Detroit, but of course, we have 43 cities in Wayne County, so we deal with over 90 police agencies, not just the 43 cities, townships and municipalities, but also we do a lot of work for the feds. We do a lot of work for the state. We do the Mental Health Board, we do the airport, we do many, many other entities within the city, within the county. And so when we have a case that happens, we always encourage that police department to make sure an outside entity looks at those cases. And so then they will do their investigation, they will then make the recommendation to us, and we will re interview everybody that they have submitted to us. So these cases generally take a long time. I know the public is really apprehensive and wants us to move faster than we move, but I am sure all of you within the sound of my voice would prefer that it's done right instead of being done fast. I've been often criticized for years, decades, probably for taking too long, but I feel very, very strongly that the power of the prosecutor to sign their name to a warrant is an awesome power, and we should be right when we do it. The prosecutor is the gatekeeper to the entire criminal justice system. We are the ones to decide which cases get into the system in the first place, and I am not afraid under any circumstances, even if we believe someone is guilty as sin. If we can't prove that case beyond a reasonable doubt, then we don't issue it. And we take a lot of criticism for that too. So it's not helpful when we have certain cases, the public, people in this room, but mainly the public who like to criticize the work that we're doing now. Don't get me wrong, I can take criticism from anybody. That's not my problem. But when we have cases, especially high profile cases, and we have everybody having their opinion and making their their their predictions about what's going to happen and how long it's going to take, or they want us to issue it within about two or three minutes after it happens, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but by not, not by much, because they think that what they've seen in the media, what they've been told by public officials and others is true, and so therefore, why aren't we making our decisions? We are the ones that have to stay, stand up in court and prove cases beyond a reasonable doubt, and we want to get it right. So we often will have cases that are high profile on nature, and I'll just take the DR Hoover case. I heard a lot from some of the people in this room, as well as the public who were saying things about that case that were not true, that were wondering why we were taking so long that riled up the public about the case, that poisoned our jury pool and our jury pool to come, because that case has not yet gone to trial, and when I announced the charges in that case was over a year after that case had happened, but if we had made our decision based on the information we knew at that time, it would not have been right. It's not sustainable, because when we issue these charges, we want to make sure that we can go into court and prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. So we're not just looking at the arrest, we're not just looking at the investigation, we're looking at what we can sustain to a judge andor jury, because I'm not interested in violating anybody's rights, even if we know that person is not someone that we'd all be want to be around. They've committed murder, they've done whatever they want to do, or what's not what they want to whatever they've done. But by the same token, we are not going to issue those charges unless we are sure that we can prove this case, but don't be on a reasonable doubt. And what happens when people let their opinion be known or ask questions and forums about cases that they do nothing about, because I'm sure that all of you know that half of the things that you know disrespect to any reporter that may be here, but a lot of things you read in the paper about a case when I'm looking at it, when I'm reading about it, I don't recognize it because most of it isn't true. And so we can't base our decisions on what people may like, what they may not like how fast they want us to move. And so it's just appreciate. Just be appreciated if we let everybody know that please don't make opinions now, because when it comes from people with with some authority, when it comes from public officials, when they start talking about a case that they do nothing about, it really helped. It really handles it so it doesn't it doesn't help, and it really hurts what we're doing, and so I would appreciate your assistance in that. So when you hear someone that should not be talking about a case, especially if it's a high profile case, then I hope that you will caution them. The other thing that's a little disturbing to me is the cases that we get, and no offense to anybody's race or anybody's ethnicity, but it seems to me, when you have high profile cases, the cases that get all the attention are cases when a white person has been killed or mutilated, and then we don't seem to look at or care about, and I'm not saying we don't care, but we just don't hear the firestorm about young African American boys and girls that are killed. And so I really would like us to really be temperate and to really be strong about our emotions and really, really respect the decisions that we make and the time it takes to get there. And that's why I started by telling you about my background and what we knew we know what we're doing. We work with our police agencies. We work very well with the Detroit Police Department. We work well with the other 42 agencies that I have to work with. And sometimes it takes time. We get impatient. I get that, I understand that, but you want me to get it right, I'm sure. And that is why, also we have a conviction integrity unit, because oftentimes it's been gotten wrong, because people are rushing to judgment. They're talking about cases, charges are being made, juries are being had, people are being convicted, and it's not always the right thing to do. So we have spent over the last seven years, five years maybe we have exonerated and or given new trials to 35 different men, all of them African American men, except for one. So that's what happens sometimes, when you have situations where people rush to judgment, don't take their time. I will take the criticism any day and any night when you when I'm accused, not the people in this room, of taking too long. We want to make sure that we get it right. And that goes from the Samantha wall case to the DR Hoover case to the many, many others cases that we do. If you take the work that we do in the Wayne County prosecutor's office, Michigan has 83 counties, and if you take the other 82 counties and add up all the cases they do, it's gonna be less than the one Wayne County. We do 70% of all the criminal trials in the state of Michigan. We do 67% of all the jury trials. So we are the ones that are faced with all of this work to do, but we still want to take our time on each and every case to make sure that we get it right. So I want to just talk a little bit about one more case that we are probably going to announce in the next couple of weeks, and that's a case where the and again, the bailiff went to it's a 36 District Court bailiff. They were not Detroit police officers that fired any shots. And so we want to talk about this, because we want to make sure that we understand that when we prosecute cases, or we're looking at cases to prosecute, we do look at the agency that they're from, whether they're from Detroit or Westland or Wyandotte or developed or wherever they're from. But in this case, this was a 36 District Court bailiff, so I understand there was some chatter from this body, as well as other people, of wanting to us to release the body camera. Let me, let me just tell you something about that I am not a proponent of releasing evidence that I'm going to use in trial. It doesn't do anything that credits the jury. It's never the whole story about a case. It's a piece of evidence that we look at, and we cannot prosecute and subject people to prosecute life in prison without the prosecutor, parole if we're looking at pieces of evidence. So whenever you see body cam footage or any other footage on TV or otherwise, it's not the whole story. And so there's only a piece of evidence, whether it's DNA or forensics or Shot Spotter or anything, it's a piece of evidence that we put together during that investigation along with our law enforcement partners to make a case and be able to prove that case beyond a reasonable doubt. So I can tell you when there's resistance, usually about the body cam evidence, it's coming from me, because I can only advise lots of law enforcement. I can't tell them what to do, but I would prefer that it never be released until we make a decision. Now, there are cases that are exceptional, but again, one of the cases where we've received a lot of blowback is a bailiff case. We will release that when we make a decision, like I said, we are very close to making a decision, maybe in the next couple of weeks. And so it doesn't help when people in positions of authority keep badgering me or anybody about releasing body cam material. We want a jury to look at the evidence, make a decision, make the correct decision. We want to make sure we have the right person that we're prosecuting and not based on what people think or what they may have seen on TV. This is not law and order. This is not a legal procedural. We do not have 44 minutes from the time that the case happens until the time it finishes in trial. That's not reality. It's probably a good representation of what happens in the legal system, but it's not reality. And let me give you one quick example when it comes to DNA, for example, you example, I am sure that most people think you can get DNA in a snap, and we have done much better over the years in Lessing the time that it takes. But if you watch a regular Law and Order episode, you'll see the crime happens. Two homicide detectors go out. They go and see the medical examiner. The medical examiner happened five minutes ago. The medical examiner already has the DNA results back and not only did they have the DNA results back there, but picture of the guy who did it. So examples like that. When we talk about forensics and every type other types of evidence, that's just not reality. We have to do things right. We have to set a course. We have to maintain our positivity and our sense of justice. And to me, and I think you know anything about me, it doesn't matter who you are, what you do, what you look like. If I can prove the evidence against you beyond the reasonable doubt, then I'm going to prosecute you. Now we then I also just want to mention on the other side, before I conclude my remarks, we also have, and I'm only going to mention this because you probably don't know, we also have 15 diversionary programs in our office. So if you've done your first term offender and you've done something that's a minor crime, we have in the Wayne County prosecutor's office in the last 15 years, diverted 25,000 people from the criminal justice system because we believe in second chances. We believe in giving people options, and whether it's mental health or homelessness or veterans or a sobriety court or drug court, I think I said mental health court already. We want to make sure that people have a full, full and fair opportunity to get their lives together before they're saddled with a criminal conviction. So we do that on the one side, we have some very different things that we're doing that other offices in the country. And let me just remind me, when I came in as the assist, as the elected prosecutor in 2004 I was laughed at and ridiculed because I wanted to approach the criminal justice system a different way. I wanted to give people a second a chance at second chances to make sure that we had people that we can they can continue with their jobs, continue with their lives, without being having a criminal conviction. But on the other hand, if you kill somebody, you murder someone, you carjack someone, you molest a child, you have an unsecured weapon in your house, and a child gets killed. We're going to go at it a different way. But each time, no matter how heinous the crime may be, we're going to approach it the same way, to make sure that we have all the evidence, if we look at it, that we make the right decisions. It doesn't matter what the outside noise is. It doesn't matter how many protesters we have at the door. It doesn't matter how many hate letters I get. It doesn't matter about that at all. What matters is justice and fairness and morality and whether we can prove that case beyond a reasonable doubt. So the reason I go through all that is because I want to just make sure that people understand sometimes justice takes time. Sometimes doing the right thing takes time, and I can withstand the noise and the criticism, because that's not what's important. It isn't about me. It's about the system of justice and making sure whatever the family is going through, let's say it's a loss of a loved one to make sure that they get the justice they deserve. But first years also have a secondary function that's just as important as the first we represent all of the people of the state of Michigan, not just the ones we like, not just the ones who we fancy, not just the ones that are famous, everyone. That means also that we have a responsibility toward each defendant in a case, we have to make sure the prosecutors have to make sure that justice is brought to each defendant. They have to make sure that due process is examined, due process is done. Due Process is the name of the game. We are just as responsible for that as we are in prosecuting cases. So I just wanted to stop by here and say all that. But please, I implore you, when you hear about something on the news and it seems open and shut to you, and it seemed Why is Kim worthy taking so long to charge this crime? Why is the police department taking so long to charge this crime? It is because we want to get it right. It used to be when we had when I was trying cases back in the day, and I asked you not to do the math and figure out how old it was, but when I was trying cases, we didn't have the internet, we didn't have body cameras, we didn't have social media. We didn't have any of the things we have now. We didn't have shot spotted. We didn't have DNA when I started. So you know how old I am, so we didn't have the forensics that we have, and forensics are changing every day, so we could walk into court and make a decision fairly quickly based on the evidence that we had at the time. So but now it's different. Now one single prosecutor may have 27 boxes of materials that they have to go through, 3000 pages from Facebook, another 2000 pages from Instagram and on and on, plus all the body cam footage, plus the shots the body cam, the green light, the surveillance, the Dash Cam, it takes time. The last thing we want to do is bring injustice to the family. We want the families and the citizens of Wayne County, in my case, not just Detroit, but Wayne County. We want to make sure that they are heard, that they are seen, and that they are represented fairly and efficiently. So that's kind of what I wanted to say today. I'm here to answer any questions that you may have. As you know, I feel very strong about doing the right thing that we can we are not perfect. We are human. There is no perfect system, everybody. My office is not perfect. We try pretty doggone hard to get it right. We will take the criticism. That's okay, in my view, as long as justice is done,