Nicholas Sandmann's Family Makes Major Move Against Media After Being Smeared | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This informational nugget was sent to me by Ben Shapiro, who represents the Daily Wire, and since this is one of the most topical news events, it should be published on BCN.

    This post was written by Ryan Saavedra @REALSAAVEDRA.

    The family of 16-year-old Covington Catholic student Nicholas Sandmann has hired a high-powered lawyer who specializes in going after media organizations for libel and slander.

    WCPO reports that the family has hired L. Lin Wood, whom disgraced former journalist Dan Rather described as the "attorney for the damned," and who is known for "aggressive libel and slander suits against media organizations."

    The family made the announcement in a statement released by the Hemmer DeFrank Wessels law firm, The Enquirer reported.

    "...Todd McMurtry, the family's legal counsel, conducted an extensive search to find a nationally-recognized attorney skilled in the fields of libel, defamation, and the First Amendment," the release said.

    Wood has a history of representing high profile clients in major cases including the family of JonBenet Ramsey and others.

    "Mr. Wood brings an unrivaled record of success in the courtroom, having represented such clients as the family of JonBenet Ramsey, former Rep. Gary Condit and Richard Jewell in lawsuits against the media," McMurtry wrote. "Mr. Wood visited with the family today in northern Kentucky. He is committed to bringing justice to 16-year-old Nick Sandmann and his family. Further announcements should be expected in the next few days."

    Sandmann was thrust into national spotlight over the weekend after far-left activists and left-wing journalists spread a selectively edited video clip of an interaction between him and Native American Nathan Phillips. The Daily Wire reported:

    The three-minute video was posted online by a group of Native American protesters who claimed they were harassed and intimidated by a group of Covington Catholic High School students waiting for their bus near the Lincoln Memorial. The video is heavily clipped at the beginning and end, and shows only an apparent "confrontation" between a protester named Nathan Phillips and a Make America Great Again-hat wearing teen. ...

    Saturday night, a two-hour long, full video of the confrontation became widely available on social media, and that video shows a very different interaction than the one initially portrayed. The video, taken from the point of view of a second group of protesters who witnessed the interaction, shows that Phillips approached the teens - not the other way around, as Phillips claims - and that the teens were relatively peaceful during the incident, laughing and clapping along with Phillips' drumming, and occasionally asking questions like, "what is going on here?"

    The Covington Catholic students were verbally attacked by a designated hate group that called them "Child molesting f**gots," "Dirty a*s crackers," "Future school shooters," and "Incest babies."

    WATCH:

Tucker Carlson highlights what happened to the high school boys from Covington Catholic High School that the media failed to show pic.twitter.com/xg7uqaRi12

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) January 22, 2019

    Rob Sanders, a prosecutor for Kenton County, Kentucky where Covington Catholic High is located, told Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Wednesday night that a criminal investigation against those who threatened the students is "already underway."

    WATCH:

Kenton County Prosecutor Rob Sanders says the process is "already underway" in filing criminal charges against people who have made threats against the Covington Catholic students on Twitter pic.twitter.com/PhiGLeenk8

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) January 24, 2019

    Full transcript of Ingraham's interview with Sanders provided via Fox News:

    INGRAHAM: Covington Catholic School has reopened but the violent threats against the students have not stopped. In fact, the Covington Diocese received a suspicious package just tonight. We share tweet after tweet with you from celebrities, liberal commentators calling for attacks and even the death of these teenagers. Tonight some hope that this hate speech will not go unpunished.

    Joining me now exclusively for his first national television interview, is Rob Sanders. He's a prosecutor for Kenton County, Kentucky where Covington Catholic High is located. Rob, it's good to see you. What kind of charges could realistically be filed and against whom?

    ROB SANDERS, KENTON COUNTY, KENTUCKY PROSECUTOR: Well, we have a number of different charges in Kentucky that might apply. The one that jumps out the fastest is terroristic threatening. Now there's three different degrees of terroristic threatening in Kentucky, two of them are felonies.

    The most common one, I think that might apply in this situation is terroristic threatening second-degree, that's any time that someone threatens death or violence against a educational institution in Kentucky or any student in the educational institution in connection with the school function.

    Now that is a Class D felony. It's one to five years in the state penitentiary. That could rise to five to ten years in a Class C felony if the person threatens that violence or death in connection to an educational institution in it the use of a device of mass destruction or weapon of mass destruction.

    INGRAHAM: Yes. Well, you have - this is happening on Twitter though.

    SANDERS: --that would double up the--

    INGRAHAM: Mr. Sanders, this is happening on Twitter from different states.

    SANDERS: Yes, ma'am.

    INGRAHAM: --different locations, does that hinder the prosecution? I mean you don't really need an - I mean, you have to interview these people, they're in different states. You're going to have to get to them somehow.

    SANDERS: Well, it makes it much more difficult. It makes it much more difficult, much more complicated, #1. There's a number of misdemeanors that could apply in a lot of these cases, but we can't reach across state lines and extradite for misdemeanors--

    INGRAHAM: Right.

    SANDERS: --which means, we would have to wait for the person to come back to Kentucky or make a stop in Kentucky before we could ever arrest them. But when it comes to the offenses that rise to the felony level, we can extradite.

    Now it's not as easy as staying a Twitter handle. We can't reach out and just arrest someone who - half the time they're using a fake name, fake profile picture that sort of thing. We have to go through a process of issuing subpoenas, search warrants, getting--

    INGRAHAM: Are you going to do this?

    SANDERS: --information that goes with - it's already underway. I've had detectives in and out of my office all day today. We were starting with some comments, some threats that were made in state, because those are people that we don't even have to extradite. And we are moving on then to the ones that are out of state.

    We've had the detective that works in my office has already been busy issuing Grand Jury Subpoenas and composing search warrants for detectives at other agencies.

    INGRAHAM: Good.

    SANDERS: --sending out, so we can get the information associated with the ownership of these accounts.

    INGRAHAM: All right.

    SANDERS: We get the IP addresses that are registered--

    INGRAHAM: You got to get these people.

    SANDERS: Then we find out.

    INGRAHAM: I mean, it's only - you are only one office--

    SANDERS: That's right, we find out who uses the internet, those IP addresses.

    INGRAHAM: Yes, we get the IP addresses. We're going to follow-up with you later in the week to find out where you are on this. But--

    SANDERS: Yes, ma'am.

    INGRAHAM: --this has to happen. Because, until people--

    SANDERS: Well, it's going to happen. Everybody's got to realize that these- -

    INGRAHAM: --have to got jail. They have to go to jail. That's got to hurt. Otherwise someone is getting hurt and I fear - we're about to talk to Steve Scalise who felt it in a different way. Someone is going to get hurt or someone is going to get killed. Prosecutor, I really appreciate you joining us.

    SANDERS: Yes, there is no doubt.

    INGRAHAM: And we'll have you back. I know it's a longer segment. We've got a lot of people to talk to, so we appreciate it.