April 22, 2025 • 39 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
The American Heritage Museum and What It Offers, with President & Financial Director of the American Heritage Museum Rob Collings.
John Wilson – MA father accused in the “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal & author of "Varsity Blues - The Untold Story of The Scandal Within the Scandal." joined Dan.
Gen Z grads say their college degrees were a waste of time and money as AI infiltrates the workplace. Jon Schultz - Technology & AI Expert - founder and CEO of ezLocator explained.
Karen Read’s Retrial Begins! Phil Tracy – Criminal Defense Attorney checked in!
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
The American Heritage Museum and What It Offers, with President & Financial Director of the American Heritage Museum Rob Collings.
John Wilson – MA father accused in the “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal & author of "Varsity Blues - The Untold Story of The Scandal Within the Scandal." joined Dan.
Gen Z grads say their college degrees were a waste of time and money as AI infiltrates the workplace. Jon Schultz - Technology & AI Expert - founder and CEO of ezLocator explained.
Karen Read’s Retrial Begins! Phil Tracy – Criminal Defense Attorney checked in!
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Night's Eyes with Dan Ray. I'm telling you razy
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thank you very much, Cherry, welcome everybody. Welcome on into
a Tuesday evening edition of Night Sime from eight and
to midnight right here on wb Z, Boston's News Radio. Sherry,
great job is always. Thanks again. We will move right
into our first hour. Remind you that back in the
control room at the Broadcast Center, the broadcast headquarters, of course,
(00:28):
is Rob Brooks, who is with us virtually every night
of the year as well. Like myself. We'd take a
couple of nights off here and there, but not many.
A little bit later on tonight, we're going to spend
an hour talking about the beginning of the Karen Reid retrial.
Got off to a quick start today with the openings
by both the prosecution and the defense. Some witnesses were called.
(00:51):
We'll talk with Phil Tracy at eight forty five about
his take of this retrial for Karen Reid. And then
later we're on tonight at ten o'clock we're going to
talk with Professor Gregg Staller. He's a professor at Boston
University's Questum School of Business. It was a wild day
on Wall Street yesterday and an equally wild day today.
(01:11):
And there's been some developments on the economy and on
the tariffs. And Greg is a great guest and we
will have him back tonight at ten o'clock. But first off,
first order of business is the Nightside News Update, in
which we highlight for interesting events indoor stories for you.
(01:33):
Are going to start off. For those of you who
live in the Greater Boston area, some of you have
probably never heard of what we're about to talk about.
It's called the American Heritage Museum. And with us is
Bob Collings. Bob is the head of the American Heritage Museum.
And Bob I know it's in Hudson, Massachusetts, but I
(01:56):
fear that a lot of my listeners might not be
aware of it. So tell us a little bit about
the history of the American Heritage Museum, which will be
reopening for the summer and fall. Its closes up during
the winters. I understand it correct.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
No, Actually, American Heritage Museum is open twelve months of
the year.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
WHOA, Okay, well there's something I didn't know, So okay,
going on, all.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Right, Yeah, we're open twelve months of the year. Five
days a week. We're just closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
A side of this week is at school vacation in
a lot of vacation weeks, so we hope everyone will
have a chance to come out. The museum itself is
relatively new. We opened in May of two thoy nineteen,
(02:43):
but the Colleens Foundation, the parents of the museum, goes
back to nineteen seventy nine of preserving living history events
and or recently, this museum is highlighting the Jacques Littlefield
collection in Jacques was the world's large tank collector and
contributed all of the vehicles to the American Heritage Museum
(03:06):
just a little over ten years ago.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
So how big a property are we talking about? I
must admit I've never ventured out there, although I'm familiar
where Hudson is right, a little bit outside of Boston,
kind of a little northeast of Worcester and whatever, maybe
the little northwest of Boston. You're close to fort ninety five.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Right, Yeah, we are in the town of Stowe and
the entrances in the town of Hudson. So actually the
property spans two towns and it's one hundred and thirteen
acres that allows us not only to have the sixty
seven thousand square foot museum which highlights artifacts from World
War Two to the present day. So we have a
(03:47):
World War One trench experience where people go inside of
and they can see the first American tank, the m
nineteen seventeen, and going through the museum, you go through
in a chronological order. You see the call an effect
of these different events and everything is very very immersive
as you go through, so it's not just seeing a
(04:09):
tank or an airplane with a sign in front of it.
You get to really step back in time, so they said,
with World War One trench and a lot of audio
visual presentations that showcases what these vehicles meant technologically, where
they fit in geopolitically, but most of all, what's the
human side of it. What was it like for the
(04:31):
people who served in them and their personal stories all
the way up through the present day. But not only
do you see them in the museum, but we have
different events through the course of the year, and that's
where the summer months we do start to look outside
as well as inside. We have tank demo weekends, aviation weekends,
and World War two reenactments to utilize the full property.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Wow, this is interesting now, I know that. Do you
do school tours and stuff like that as well, or
it is your clientele primarily moms and dads and kids
or teenagers or adults. Who's your clientele?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
The clientele is everybody. Yes, it is a lot of
families that are coming through the museum, and that is
so important this time of the year. It's a lot
of school groups and you know we have school vacation
right now, so families are coming through. But also we
have our New Hampshire schools that are coming through the
museum as well. So it draws from a very broad
(05:36):
range of schools that come in to learn this history
and to see it and touch it firsthand. A lot
of it really fits into the Massachusetts state curriculum for education.
We do have some amazing artifacts, like an original German
railcar from the Holocaust with a very very poignant video
(06:00):
presentation inside of it of what that was like.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
All the way through.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
We have two cells from the Hanoi Hilton, the prisoner
of war camp during the Vietnam War, and everyone's going
to recognize the name John McCain. He was one of
those men who was in prison there when he was
shot down during the Vietnam War. And there's only one
other place in the world where you can right now
see an original cell from the Hanoi Hilton, and that's
(06:27):
in Hanoi. So this is amazing.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
These are non replica cells. These are actual cells that
American POWs were held in isolation, in many cases for
several years.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Absolutely, these two cells are original cells from Wallow the prison,
which we colloquially know is the Hanoi Hilton, that were
disassembled back in the nineties and then brought to America
and then it's more recently reassembled here.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I'm sure it's amazing the story of how this foundation,
how all of these Uh I shouldn't say souvenirs, memorabile you,
whatever you want to call whatever word would be appropriate. Uh,
we're actually acquired. What a what a collection you have?
So how can folks who are interested what's give us
(07:20):
the website so people can go peruse the website and
find a time of day or or or a weekday
or a weekend or vacation or whatever to come up there,
because I think it's you've certainly intrigued a lot of
our listeners with your your description and the breadth of
of what you folks have there. It's it's it sounds
(07:43):
like what a what a collection? So how what's What's
the website?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
American Heritage Museum dot org is the website. We do
have one of our first special events coming up for
the year, which is on Memorial Day weekend, the Saturday
and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. It's the Tank Demonstration Weekend.
So these vehicles are not just static. Will have a
(08:12):
lot of vehicles outside in a special tank driving area,
including the well known Sherman tank from World War Two,
but a lot of other vehicles that will be on
display and running that weekend. And not only can you
see them, drive and feel them, you can even go
for a ride or drive one of these tanks. We
(08:33):
have driving programs and we have ride programs where people
can get hands on and see what it was like
for these these eighteen nineteen year old kids that were
operating these things during World War Two. It's an absolutely
incredible experience.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Now that's a little bit beyond that. In order to
drive or ride in one of those there there's an
additional cost there. So want I don't want my list
who's going up figuring that for the very reasonable admission price,
they also can you engage.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
In Yeah, that you are absolutely correct that that is
definitely an additional item. But in this day and age,
people really like that hands on it.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure, but I want to make
sure that no one goes up there and is disappointed.
For me, I'm very happy just to just to observe.
I know what those what those tags look like, and
I've seen them. I spent I spent a few years
in the military. Never have been in any danger, trust
(09:37):
me on that, but I see a lot of it.
And this sounds like a fabulous museum. So Rob Callings,
the president and the financial director of the American Heritage Museum,
thanks for the information, and we'll do something again, maybe
sometime in May an advance a Memorial Day weekend and
tribute to veterans.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Okay, Dan, wonderful being on.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Very welcome, Ron, thank you so much. We're going to
take a quick break here as we get ready for
our next guest, who is really going to be an
interesting guest. His name is John Wilson. He was indicted
in the Varsity Blues College admission scandal, and he was
his conviction was overturned and he is now suing USC
(10:23):
and Netflix over the coverage and the fallout of the
Varsity Blue scandal. We'll talk to John Wilson. I believe
he's a Massachusetts resident if I'm not mistaken, So again
I would suggest stay with us here on Nightside. You know,
there's a lot going on with WBZ and with iHeart.
(10:45):
We have a great app that we like to tell
you about. To pull down our ie hot app and
you can listen to the not only WBZ, but any
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(11:08):
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iHeart snagged fourteen wins. We couldn't be proud of. Want
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(11:30):
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Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on wbzs Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Welcome back everyone. I'd like to welcome an extraordinary guest,
John Wilson. Wilson, Welcome to Nightside. You have done what
very few people have been able to do, and that
is successfully appeal an indictment and a conviction in federal court.
(12:15):
So congratulations on clearing your name. People might remember your
name from the so called Varsity's the Varsity Blues college
admission scandal. No, we only have a few minutes, but
I'd like you to explain what you and your family
went through when their accusations leveled against you and your
(12:36):
family that you believed were absolutely unsubstantiated.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
Yeah, so thanks for being here. It's literally been a
daily nightmare for over six years for my entire family.
This case not only affected me, but my wife who
had to watch our children every day suffer and literally
I had to watch her cry herself to sleep almost
every night. And our children were attacked not by schoolyard bullies,
(13:07):
but by federal prosecutors who falsely smeared them as being unqualified.
And my daughters, I had twin daughters. They're only sixteen
when this happened, and my son was just twenty one.
They were all in school. My daughters were in high school,
my son was in college. And it's been devastating this
entire time.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
So the indictment came down in what year?
Speaker 5 (13:30):
I came down in twenty nineteen, so just over sixteen.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
That's six years ago. And the trial was held in
federal court here in Boston, one of a series of trials. Frankly,
and I must tell you, as a lawyer, I know
how difficult it is to be in federal court on
the defended side of the bar, because the Feds have
(13:57):
a very high success rate. Who was the the US
attorney that brought the case, and it was who was
in charge of the office that brought the case at
that time.
Speaker 5 (14:05):
When it was first brought. It was Andrew Lelling. He
was the lead US attorney in Boston. And it is
a dramatic experience. The federal government has a success rate.
They have a conviction rate of ninety nine point six percent.
And so when you're taking on the federal government, those
are the odds that the lawyers. My lawyers told me,
and it was a very difficult decision. They said, the
(14:26):
government has a ninety nine point six percent conviction rate.
It's going to take years. It's going to cost you
millions of dollars to fight them, even if you're innocent.
That was a set of decisions we had to make.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
But you did fight them. You were convicted, but it
was overturned on appeal.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
Right, our case was fundamentally different than every other case,
every other parent here. So to put this in perspective,
Singer had three thousand parent clients. Right, Singer was the ringleaders.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
This was the guy that's the singer when you say
singer of just in my audience recalls who claimed an
ability to get pique people into school by hooka, by craft,
It's really good colleges by hooka by krunk. Correct.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Yes, he was the ring, ring leader and central com
man in this figure. But again to put in perspective,
he had three thousand clients, only thirty two were charged.
He had what they called dark side accounts and wholesome accounts.
His dark side accounts were only one percent of his clients.
Ninety nine percent of his accounts were never charged. They
were wholesome parents like me that didn't do anything wrong.
(15:31):
So what happened is these thirty parents were all convicted.
They all played guilty. Thirty parents played guilty, and they
had very bad facts. Our facts were completely different. Those
parents had kids who weren't qualified, so they were cheating
on tests. They were bribing coaches and their falsifying academic
and athletic profiles for their children to get their unqualified
(15:53):
children into colleges. We didn't do any of those things.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
And yet you were sort of the fish that was
sneered in the net. I guess would be the way, unfortunately,
to describe it.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
I think it was worse than that. I think they
actually purposely went after us because of Singer's three thousand clients,
there was only one in Massachusetts. So the Massachusetts prosecutors,
the federal prosecutors base in Massachusetts, they first uncovered this
case from a tip, a random, unrelated tip from a
person in Connecticut on a separate crime. They quickly started
pulling on that thread, they found Hollywood celebrities and other
(16:29):
rich and famous people from California. But they needed to
get jurisdiction if they wanted to bring this high profile
case to Boston, and so part of their battle the
turf battles between offices would be dependent upon having at
least one defendant in Massachusetts and then declaring a false
conspiracy so then they could bring the trials for Lori Laughlin,
Felicity Huffman, and all the other people in California to Boston.
(16:52):
So they needed one Boston parent to help make that
conspiracy case and to help make the trials take place here.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Did anybody move change of venue since the majority of
the defenders, I guess we're California based or West Coast base.
It makes all the sense in the world that that
case should be tried in California, and you would have
had to go back, and you know, you have had
the inconvenience having to go to California for your case,
But it seems to me unfair and inappropriate that all
(17:19):
of those other people had to had their case tried
here as well.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
Yeah, it was challenged multiple times and the end it
ended up being two hundred and fifty people who had
to fly back and forth. When you include the witnesses,
the defendants, and the lawyers and the FBI between California
and Boston. Two undred and fifty flew back and forth.
And I was the only one parent in masses. It's
so I was driving to the courtroom. It would have
been much easier for me to fly to California if
that was really what they wanted to do, but that
(17:45):
clearly wasn't what they wanted to do. They wanted to
have all the trials in Boston, the Boston prosecutors, so
it didn't matter my having overwhelming evidence.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
And these are the most part we're college we're West
Coast colleges too, USC most of so the good right,
So the good news is that this unjust conviction of
you and your family overturned. But then I guess there
was a Netflix story which incorporated you and did not
(18:18):
appropriately characterize what was the final result in you. Okay,
so you're suing Netflix in USC. You've also written a book,
and I hope that some of our listeners will purchase
that book. Give us the name of the book. Is
it out yet or no?
Speaker 5 (18:33):
Is it a vailable It just comes out today. It's
out today on Amazon and all the other websites. It's
called Varsity Blues, the Scandal within the Scandal, and all
the proceeds in the book go to three charities. It's
not about making money. This is about clearing the record
and clearing our name and getting the truth out there.
And so one of the things that made us very
different than the other parents was our children were all qualified.
(18:55):
My twin daughter's got a perfect score and a nine
ninety percentile score on the ACT. Fewer than five thousand
kids out of one point eight million get a perfect score,
and they didn't cheat. My son was a Division I
level player who had a world record in swimming and
who was playing on Stanford club teams for six years
year round, whose high school coach recommended him for the team,
and he joined the USC team and played on the team.
(19:17):
And so we didn't do the things these other parents did.
But we were lumped in for venue and then we
were smeared falsely by Netflix. And so Netflix they issued
a movie they called it a documentary, that was released
three months before my trial, and so they poisoned the
jury pool. They have an audience, they have two hundred
and eighty million subscribers, five hundred million, half a billion
(19:37):
viewers in one hundred and ninety countries, and they put
together a film with a dozen parents who played guilty
and me, and we gave them a warning letter before
the movie came out. We said, because it was pre announced,
We said, if you're gonna put John Wilson, here are
the facts. We gave him a five hundred and fifty
page warning letter with all of the facts, and they
ignored it. And they included all of our facts, including
(19:59):
a polygraph. I voluntarily took a polograph test with the
head of the FBI Polygraph Division and the head of
the CIA Polygraph School and polygraph program worldwide. I passed
two days of polygraph test fully with flying colors. They
had all of that evidence, and they just ignored it
and went with their movie anyway, which smeared me and
polluted the jury.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Well, hopefully they will. They will pay the piper. John.
We've run out of time here, but I got to
tell you the integrity in your voice, you hear it
in your voice. Congratulations, and I wish you continued success,
and I hope that you get your day in court
against Netflix, uh and uh, and whoever whoever defamed you
(20:41):
and your family pays the price. And obviously Netflix at
this point I think is going to be called, be
called in front of the bar of justice. Ironically. Thank
you so much, John. Again, the book book comes.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
Out to today today, Just come.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
My Varsity Blues Scandal within a scandal, Netflix everywhere rather
Amazon dot Com everywhere, And I know I'm gonna try
to get a copy because I want to. I followed
those cases, but I did not follow them as closely
as I would have liked. That was in my role
as a talk show host, not as a TV reporter.
If I'd been a TV reporter, I probably would have
(21:19):
been in court there every day watching the case unfold.
Congratulations to you and your family.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
Thank you very much, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
You're very welcome. All Right, we're gonna take a break
new that's a great interesting story. I mean to actually
win even on appeal in federal court. That's a hill
to climb. Back on Nights side with two more great
guests and two more great topics, and then we'll get
to the phone call portion of the program, and we're
going to start off talking about the Karen retrial, which
(21:49):
restarted today.
Speaker 5 (21:53):
With Dan Ray.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I'm Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
All right, thank you very much. Let's get to our
next guest, John Schultz. He's a technology in an AI
artificial intelligent expert. He's founder and CEO of a website
called easy Locator, and he's going to talk to us
about jen Z graduates. So these would be people who
(22:21):
have really just graduated from college. They would be in
sort of the twenty two, twenty three, twenty four, twenty five,
twenty six, twenty seven range. People who were born after
two thousand and twelve. No, I may be wrong on
I get my dates mixed up on this. I'm sorry.
Gen Z people were born from ninety six to twenty twelve,
(22:44):
so they could be anywhere from I guess twelve to
twenty eight is the eighth So there are some of them.
I got the right age, but a lot of them
are younger. John Schultz, Welcome to NIGHTSID. Sorry about that confusion.
How are you tonight?
Speaker 4 (22:59):
I am wonderful tonight. How about yourself?
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I get my gen Z, my millennials, my boomers, my
gen X, sometimes my gen y sometimes mixed up. These
are the people who were born from ninety six to
twenty twelve. So a lot of them are still in
junior high school, but some some are on the older
end of the spectrum here, could have actually graduated from
a two year or a four year for that matter,
(23:24):
even done some graduate degree work. And they feel, or
some of them say, their college degrees were a waste
of time and money. How do they know that at
this point they're just out of college.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Well, I think what they're doing is they're looking at
their predecessors.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
And you know, one of the things that you know,
I look at, and I look at from an education perspective,
there's some fault within the education system, you know, especially
in the college ranks, that I don't think really adequately
prepare people for the fast pace of the business world.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Technology in the nineties.
Speaker 6 (23:59):
You know, it was really kind of when it started
to take off tremendously, when the Internet was starting to
roll out and things.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
Of that nature.
Speaker 6 (24:05):
Information with really going at light speed. And what I see,
and I even saw that with my own educational you know,
I've got a Bachelor of Science and mechanical engineering, and
I look back and I say, you know, I have
never ever designed an air conditioner I've never ever built
a bridge, and here I am in the midst of
the technology boom that wasn't even talked about when I
(24:29):
was in college. So, you know, I think that the
piece that I look at if I'm counseling a young
person looking at trying to basically launch a career, is
keep your eyes in the ears open.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
You know. I view that the education.
Speaker 6 (24:43):
Market has a credentialing issue. You know, if you look
at you know, universities and colleges, it's all about basically,
you know, credentially, you know, it's all about ten years.
It's all about that, and it's not really reacting to
the marketplace, you know, so you see that kind of lagging.
Now there is going to some requirements for credentially, you know,
I think, you know, medical doctors is one maybe the
(25:05):
legal profession of things of that nature. But there's so
much information at your fingertips. In fact, you know, I've
gone to the doctor and have kidding he said, Okay,
we're about ready to perform this procedure here. Did you
check that out on YouTube last night and get the
latest egos? In some cases I've actually heard yes, they said,
you know that information is out there and available to
them instantaneously that may have changed. So so again that's
(25:28):
the biggest challenge is is that things are changing so
quickly that education is becoming very costly and it's really
not producing the results that a student may want want
to do. You know, I'm a big fan of micro
and his dirty jobs and you know, and what he's.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Trying to promote is make sure trying to promote.
Speaker 6 (25:48):
Is you know, we don't have enough skilled people in
the workforce. And I can use you know, any kind
of skilled trade out there. Electrician, be it an HVAC,
person of learning air conditioning, being a plumber. The technology
is being introduced into those trades at lightning speed, and
so a person that adapts to that and opens their
(26:09):
eyes and basically is willing to learn, then they're going
to basically be way ahead and be very successful. You know,
I remember the day when you know, parents wanted their
children to go to college because they didn't have the opportunity. Well,
now that parents have had that opportunity, I think many
of them are starting to get disillusioned regarding that. And
therefore I would if I had you know, a young child,
(26:30):
a gen z er looking at going to college.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
I would actually say, what do you want to do
in life? What do you know? How do you view success?
Speaker 6 (26:38):
And get those kinds of thought provoking questions out there
and start focusing on the critical thinking, which I think
is very, very important for everybody to do.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Yeah, I think we have undervalued you know what we
used to call trade schools of voke at schools or
kids at the age of you know, boys and girls
thirteen fourteen, fifteen are introduced to you know, shop and
people look the most successful people in the country. I
(27:08):
think in the next you know, twenty years, in the
next generation are going to be people who run their
own plumbing businesses, electrical businesses, roofing businesses, HVAC businesses. Every
time anyone from any of those businesses visit my home,
they walk out with a check of five hundred and
six hundred dollars. It just, you know, it's mind boggling,
(27:29):
But you need them and those of us who have
no mechanical aptitude like myself. I'm not going to fix
my I'm not going to mess around with my electricity.
I'm not going to go up on my roof and
bang some shingles or replaced gutters. So that's that's where
the goal is these days, in my opinion, if you're
(27:50):
talking about finances. The other question is if you're going
to go to college, go to college which is going
to give you not only good liberal arts education underpinning,
but also helps train you for some thing. I know
so many people who come out of colleges with archaeology degrees.
I've had discussions with kids, Well, you know, archaeology is
a great field to study, but how big a demand
(28:12):
are there for archaeology majors. I don't think it's that
that intense, And so we're on the same page. The
micro argument is the argument that I firmly believe in,
and obviously you do as well. And it's interesting that
gen Z grads are now sort of in the forefront
of this. And look at the amount of money that
(28:36):
colleges charge these days. There's a lot of stuff going
on in this country which I think is going to
change perceptions of colleges and universities in the in the
months and years ahead.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
I agree wholeheartedly, you know.
Speaker 6 (28:50):
So you know, in my industry, I'm in the golf industry,
and easy Locator provides a really a good function for
the superintendent, help him find that optimum daily whole location
and help enhance the health of his green, and most importantly,
UH help the player have a tournament like experience every day.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
One of the easy Locator could could show me where
the ball is in the woods and the right of
the woods in the left.
Speaker 7 (29:16):
Well, I wish, I wish I could.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
I wish we could locate it real easily.
Speaker 6 (29:21):
But but what we can do is we can tell
you where that hole is and where.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Except what I'm more than would have like fifty yards
in the woods, sometimes the pit has disappeared. To be
honest with you, Look, John, I appreciate your time tonight.
How can folks get more information? Everybody likes to give
a website? Or have you written a book on this subject?
Tell us how how you came to stop by tonight?
What can we do in turn for you?
Speaker 6 (29:49):
Well, the easiest way is is to UH to check
out our website. It's easylocator dot com.
Speaker 5 (29:54):
Real simple as.
Speaker 6 (29:55):
Isn't Edward zs and zabralocator dot com.
Speaker 7 (29:58):
UH.
Speaker 6 (29:59):
You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. All of
those handles are basically easy Locator.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
I wish I could say, I wrote a book.
Speaker 6 (30:07):
But I've talked to several people and if I wrote
that book, they put it in the fiction category because
nobody would believe it. So I've led a very interesting life,
and I to me, my advice to the young people is,
you know, what you started out doing may not be
what you're doing. You know, twenty or thirty years down
the road. I started out in engineering. The Internet wasn't
(30:29):
even invented yet. I now own a successful software company.
So all of the things I'm using today weren't around
when I was a young teenager.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
So you know, think about.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
It and you adjusted it. And one of the things
that I think young people should do is be on
the lookout. Be aware that there will be some people
along who are going to come into your life who
are going to give you some good advice. There what
I like to call them your mentors. Happens if you
can look back on your life, I'm sure and find
four or five people who gave you really critical advice.
You have to keep your eyes open and in your
(31:00):
ears open and think about other opportunities as well. Life
is not a linear experience. It has its ups and
downs and its little diversions to the left and the
right from start to finish, simple as that. John Schultz,
thank you so much for your call and your time tonight.
I really enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
You bet my pleasure. Have a great evening. Thank you,
right back at you.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Okay, you too. We came back on talk with criminal
defense attorney Phil Tracy about the opening of Karen Reid's
retrial started today.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Well, Karen Reid retrial, it's underway today with all of
the legal jockeying of the last few months, is uh,
it began again today with us as criminal defense attorney
Phil Tracy. Phil has handled many cases like that, Phil,
Good evening, How are you, sir? Well let me let
(31:59):
me play just a portion of the opening statement by
Alan Jackson, Read's defense lawyer. And I don't know if
how much of a time today between your own work
you had a chance.
Speaker 7 (32:12):
To wa Yeah, I've watched the cave.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah yeah, okay. So there's a little bit of Alan Jackson.
This is Karen Read's defense lawyer. Cut number twenty four
A please, Rob.
Speaker 7 (32:22):
So how did we end up here?
Speaker 8 (32:24):
How'd Karen Reid end up sitting in that chair on
trial for something, for an event that literally never happened. Well,
the evidence is going to explain it, and it can
be summed up in the following text message at the
very beginning of this investigation, a text message of a
now fired Massachusetts State Police officer.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Named Michael Proctor.
Speaker 8 (32:49):
He was the lead investigator on this case, and he
was talking about a fellow officer, a fellow cop who
owned the property where John O'Keefe's body was found. Text
message with a buddy question, is the homeowner going to
catch any answer? Nope, he's a Boston cup too. That
(33:14):
quote defines the lack of integrity of the Commonwealth's entire case,
its entire investigation, and this prosecution.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
I thought Jackson had a pretty good opening today. I
was wondering what your thought was.
Speaker 7 (33:31):
Well, I thought, in a case this long, and I'll
cite the O. J. Simpson case for instance, a case
that goes on this long, the opening is forgotten. The
closing is more important. Now, if you have a two
day trial, you know the opening is very important. But
in this case, there's so much confusion, both inside and
(33:54):
outside the court for about what's the proper way to proceed.
What are the rules? And obviously, you know it's a
circus atmosphere out there and inside the courtroom. The judge
has to keep the lid on everything. And I found
out that or I heard as you did too, that
she was angry about something that the defense had done.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, there was some discovery or some information about a
couple of witnesses.
Speaker 7 (34:24):
With the really spect of you. I don't know, it's
not cronyism because they are claiming the police it's cronyism,
but there's something Terribleutts, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Well, I think she's accusing the defense and she's accused
him before. Kind of gamesmanship, I think would be the
proper term.
Speaker 7 (34:47):
Yeah, and many.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Not going to be pleased with that, as you better.
Speaker 7 (34:52):
As you know, they're not going to be you know.
But I thought Brendan did a good job himself, so
I think they sort of cancel each other out at
that point. But I think the big thing from today
is the picture of her played for the jury, and
she does not seem to be in any way sorry
(35:17):
about the death of this man who was her boyfriend.
And you know, if I was on, if I wouldn't
have let her talk, but they did. And now, of
course they were under a gag order, so she's talking
all the time. But I would have said say things like,
I'm terribly sorry about this terrible accident, but I didn't
(35:38):
do it, and my boyfriend has gone and his mother's
lost a son. And the guy was a great guy.
He adopted two children from his sister who had died.
So I mean this, I don't like it all. That's
it looks like he's glorying in her nineteen fifty minutes
(36:00):
of fame. But I'm argument.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
No, no, I'm just saying you would think that that
her lawyers would have cautioned her. Maybe they should have.
Would have many lawyers would have said, uh, you're not
doing interviews until this trial is over. But if she insisted,
they should have had someone sit with her and prep
her and all things like that to make sure that
(36:26):
there wasn't something like this. And that is that's an
area that the new prosecutor, Hank Brennan, is gonna.
Speaker 7 (36:34):
Matter that wasn't there in the first trial. And I
think that's that's a piece of evidence that's gonna gonna
hurt her side. Now, whether it can overcome proof beyond
a reasonable doubt and that in the bad behavior of
all of the police involved in the case. Now you've
got a real balance between proof beyond the reason that
(36:57):
which is a very hard thing because it's not an
absolute doubt, as as you already know, and it means
it has to be enough doubt that you would raise
your eye brow. And in this case, it may be
built into the case. You know, so that prosecution is
at a disadvantage because of so many lateral issues going
(37:19):
on with the case.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Well, it's gonna it's going to take a few weeks
and eventually, hopefully there will be a verdict one way
or the other. I am still amazed, Phil, and I'd
love to you know, you've you've handled some high profile cases,
and I realize all the arguments that are made, but
I'm just stunned that this case is drawing so much attention,
(37:43):
not just regionally.
Speaker 7 (37:45):
But national news. David Muir on The News knocked about
the impanelment.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
There's a lot there's there's a lot of high profile cases. O. J. Simpson.
I get, you know, actor, football star, Heisman Trophy winner,
and I get, but boy, there's something about this and
maybe we're too close to see it, but I couldn't
imagine a case let us say out of Seattle or
(38:18):
San Francisco, you know, or would be Galveston, Texas where
there's another accident that they'd be struggling over. I don't know. Phil.
We will have you back, you know, throughout this always. Yeah,
let us hope so it can come to a conclusion
(38:40):
and hopefully Justin will be justices. By the way, we
are going to talk about this in the next hour,
Phil Out, I'm going to save you for your expertise
area and we'll open up phone lines right after nine
o'clock to see what people think about the retravel the case.
Thank you, my friend, we'll talk to him. Phil. All right,
My name is Ray and this is Nightside and we
(39:02):
are ready to go to the conversation part of the
program right after the nine o'clock news, and it's going
to talk about the Karen Reatrout. I have a lot
of the opening sound from the prosecutor, Hank Brennan, the
special prosecutor in this case, and the defense attorney, the
lead defense attorney, Alan Jackson, and but most importantly I
want to hear from you. What do you think Do
you think it will be it will be a different result,
(39:23):
and in which way will it fall. I can't imagine
we're going to get into the hung jury. I certainly
don't think we could deal with that. Hopefully we will
get either a series of acquittals or a series of convictions,
or some combination thereof. Back on Nightside, right after the
nine o'clock news,
It's Night's Eyes with Dan Ray. I'm telling you razy
Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thank you very much, Cherry, welcome everybody. Welcome on into
a Tuesday evening edition of Night Sime from eight and
to midnight right here on wb Z, Boston's News Radio. Sherry,
great job is always. Thanks again. We will move right
into our first hour. Remind you that back in the
control room at the Broadcast Center, the broadcast headquarters, of course,
(00:28):
is Rob Brooks, who is with us virtually every night
of the year as well. Like myself. We'd take a
couple of nights off here and there, but not many.
A little bit later on tonight, we're going to spend
an hour talking about the beginning of the Karen Reid retrial.
Got off to a quick start today with the openings
by both the prosecution and the defense. Some witnesses were called.
(00:51):
We'll talk with Phil Tracy at eight forty five about
his take of this retrial for Karen Reid. And then
later we're on tonight at ten o'clock we're going to
talk with Professor Gregg Staller. He's a professor at Boston
University's Questum School of Business. It was a wild day
on Wall Street yesterday and an equally wild day today.
(01:11):
And there's been some developments on the economy and on
the tariffs. And Greg is a great guest and we
will have him back tonight at ten o'clock. But first off,
first order of business is the Nightside News Update, in
which we highlight for interesting events indoor stories for you.
(01:33):
Are going to start off. For those of you who
live in the Greater Boston area, some of you have
probably never heard of what we're about to talk about.
It's called the American Heritage Museum. And with us is
Bob Collings. Bob is the head of the American Heritage Museum.
And Bob I know it's in Hudson, Massachusetts, but I
(01:56):
fear that a lot of my listeners might not be
aware of it. So tell us a little bit about
the history of the American Heritage Museum, which will be
reopening for the summer and fall. Its closes up during
the winters. I understand it correct.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
No, Actually, American Heritage Museum is open twelve months of
the year.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
WHOA, Okay, well there's something I didn't know, So okay,
going on, all.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Right, Yeah, we're open twelve months of the year. Five
days a week. We're just closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
A side of this week is at school vacation in
a lot of vacation weeks, so we hope everyone will
have a chance to come out. The museum itself is
relatively new. We opened in May of two thoy nineteen,
(02:43):
but the Colleens Foundation, the parents of the museum, goes
back to nineteen seventy nine of preserving living history events
and or recently, this museum is highlighting the Jacques Littlefield
collection in Jacques was the world's large tank collector and
contributed all of the vehicles to the American Heritage Museum
(03:06):
just a little over ten years ago.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
So how big a property are we talking about? I
must admit I've never ventured out there, although I'm familiar
where Hudson is right, a little bit outside of Boston,
kind of a little northeast of Worcester and whatever, maybe
the little northwest of Boston. You're close to fort ninety five.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Right, Yeah, we are in the town of Stowe and
the entrances in the town of Hudson. So actually the
property spans two towns and it's one hundred and thirteen
acres that allows us not only to have the sixty
seven thousand square foot museum which highlights artifacts from World
War Two to the present day. So we have a
(03:47):
World War One trench experience where people go inside of
and they can see the first American tank, the m
nineteen seventeen, and going through the museum, you go through
in a chronological order. You see the call an effect
of these different events and everything is very very immersive
as you go through, so it's not just seeing a
(04:09):
tank or an airplane with a sign in front of it.
You get to really step back in time, so they said,
with World War One trench and a lot of audio
visual presentations that showcases what these vehicles meant technologically, where
they fit in geopolitically, but most of all, what's the
human side of it. What was it like for the
(04:31):
people who served in them and their personal stories all
the way up through the present day. But not only
do you see them in the museum, but we have
different events through the course of the year, and that's
where the summer months we do start to look outside
as well as inside. We have tank demo weekends, aviation weekends,
and World War two reenactments to utilize the full property.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Wow, this is interesting now, I know that. Do you
do school tours and stuff like that as well, or
it is your clientele primarily moms and dads and kids
or teenagers or adults. Who's your clientele?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
The clientele is everybody. Yes, it is a lot of
families that are coming through the museum, and that is
so important this time of the year. It's a lot
of school groups and you know we have school vacation
right now, so families are coming through. But also we
have our New Hampshire schools that are coming through the
museum as well. So it draws from a very broad
(05:36):
range of schools that come in to learn this history
and to see it and touch it firsthand. A lot
of it really fits into the Massachusetts state curriculum for education.
We do have some amazing artifacts, like an original German
railcar from the Holocaust with a very very poignant video
(06:00):
presentation inside of it of what that was like.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
All the way through.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
We have two cells from the Hanoi Hilton, the prisoner
of war camp during the Vietnam War, and everyone's going
to recognize the name John McCain. He was one of
those men who was in prison there when he was
shot down during the Vietnam War. And there's only one
other place in the world where you can right now
see an original cell from the Hanoi Hilton, and that's
(06:27):
in Hanoi. So this is amazing.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
These are non replica cells. These are actual cells that
American POWs were held in isolation, in many cases for
several years.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Absolutely, these two cells are original cells from Wallow the prison,
which we colloquially know is the Hanoi Hilton, that were
disassembled back in the nineties and then brought to America
and then it's more recently reassembled here.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I'm sure it's amazing the story of how this foundation,
how all of these Uh I shouldn't say souvenirs, memorabile you,
whatever you want to call whatever word would be appropriate. Uh,
we're actually acquired. What a what a collection you have?
So how can folks who are interested what's give us
(07:20):
the website so people can go peruse the website and
find a time of day or or or a weekday
or a weekend or vacation or whatever to come up there,
because I think it's you've certainly intrigued a lot of
our listeners with your your description and the breadth of
of what you folks have there. It's it's it sounds
(07:43):
like what a what a collection? So how what's What's
the website?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
American Heritage Museum dot org is the website. We do
have one of our first special events coming up for
the year, which is on Memorial Day weekend, the Saturday
and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. It's the Tank Demonstration Weekend.
So these vehicles are not just static. Will have a
(08:12):
lot of vehicles outside in a special tank driving area,
including the well known Sherman tank from World War Two,
but a lot of other vehicles that will be on
display and running that weekend. And not only can you
see them, drive and feel them, you can even go
for a ride or drive one of these tanks. We
(08:33):
have driving programs and we have ride programs where people
can get hands on and see what it was like
for these these eighteen nineteen year old kids that were
operating these things during World War Two. It's an absolutely
incredible experience.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Now that's a little bit beyond that. In order to
drive or ride in one of those there there's an
additional cost there. So want I don't want my list
who's going up figuring that for the very reasonable admission price,
they also can you engage.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
In Yeah, that you are absolutely correct that that is
definitely an additional item. But in this day and age,
people really like that hands on it.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure, but I want to make
sure that no one goes up there and is disappointed.
For me, I'm very happy just to just to observe.
I know what those what those tags look like, and
I've seen them. I spent I spent a few years
in the military. Never have been in any danger, trust
(09:37):
me on that, but I see a lot of it.
And this sounds like a fabulous museum. So Rob Callings,
the president and the financial director of the American Heritage Museum,
thanks for the information, and we'll do something again, maybe
sometime in May an advance a Memorial Day weekend and
tribute to veterans.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Okay, Dan, wonderful being on.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Very welcome, Ron, thank you so much. We're going to
take a quick break here as we get ready for
our next guest, who is really going to be an
interesting guest. His name is John Wilson. He was indicted
in the Varsity Blues College admission scandal, and he was
his conviction was overturned and he is now suing USC
(10:23):
and Netflix over the coverage and the fallout of the
Varsity Blue scandal. We'll talk to John Wilson. I believe
he's a Massachusetts resident if I'm not mistaken, So again
I would suggest stay with us here on Nightside. You know,
there's a lot going on with WBZ and with iHeart.
(10:45):
We have a great app that we like to tell
you about. To pull down our ie hot app and
you can listen to the not only WBZ, but any
iHeart stations around the clock around the world. Just go
to iHeart dot com and pull it down. Also, we
have some news from iHeart because iHeart we're proud to
(11:08):
tell you has just been named the twenty twenty five
Podcast Company of the Year by the Webby Awards. The
Webby Awards are also known as the Oscars of the Internet.
iHeart snagged fourteen wins. We couldn't be proud of. Want
a shout out to the International Academy of Digital Arts
and Sciences for this incredible honor. You can find all
those award winning podcasts on that free iHeart app that
(11:30):
I just mentioned to you. So pull it down, go
check it out, and you'll never and make us your
first preset. You'll never be more than a finger tip
away from listening to Nightside and WBZ from anywhere in
the world. Three sixty five, twenty four seven. Back on
Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on wbzs Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Welcome back everyone. I'd like to welcome an extraordinary guest,
John Wilson. Wilson, Welcome to Nightside. You have done what
very few people have been able to do, and that
is successfully appeal an indictment and a conviction in federal court.
(12:15):
So congratulations on clearing your name. People might remember your
name from the so called Varsity's the Varsity Blues college
admission scandal. No, we only have a few minutes, but
I'd like you to explain what you and your family
went through when their accusations leveled against you and your
(12:36):
family that you believed were absolutely unsubstantiated.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
Yeah, so thanks for being here. It's literally been a
daily nightmare for over six years for my entire family.
This case not only affected me, but my wife who
had to watch our children every day suffer and literally
I had to watch her cry herself to sleep almost
every night. And our children were attacked not by schoolyard bullies,
(13:07):
but by federal prosecutors who falsely smeared them as being unqualified.
And my daughters, I had twin daughters. They're only sixteen
when this happened, and my son was just twenty one.
They were all in school. My daughters were in high school,
my son was in college. And it's been devastating this
entire time.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
So the indictment came down in what year?
Speaker 5 (13:30):
I came down in twenty nineteen, so just over sixteen.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
That's six years ago. And the trial was held in
federal court here in Boston, one of a series of trials. Frankly,
and I must tell you, as a lawyer, I know
how difficult it is to be in federal court on
the defended side of the bar, because the Feds have
(13:57):
a very high success rate. Who was the the US
attorney that brought the case, and it was who was
in charge of the office that brought the case at
that time.
Speaker 5 (14:05):
When it was first brought. It was Andrew Lelling. He
was the lead US attorney in Boston. And it is
a dramatic experience. The federal government has a success rate.
They have a conviction rate of ninety nine point six percent.
And so when you're taking on the federal government, those
are the odds that the lawyers. My lawyers told me,
and it was a very difficult decision. They said, the
(14:26):
government has a ninety nine point six percent conviction rate.
It's going to take years. It's going to cost you
millions of dollars to fight them, even if you're innocent.
That was a set of decisions we had to make.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
But you did fight them. You were convicted, but it
was overturned on appeal.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
Right, our case was fundamentally different than every other case,
every other parent here. So to put this in perspective,
Singer had three thousand parent clients. Right, Singer was the ringleaders.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
This was the guy that's the singer when you say
singer of just in my audience recalls who claimed an
ability to get pique people into school by hooka, by craft,
It's really good colleges by hooka by krunk. Correct.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Yes, he was the ring, ring leader and central com
man in this figure. But again to put in perspective,
he had three thousand clients, only thirty two were charged.
He had what they called dark side accounts and wholesome accounts.
His dark side accounts were only one percent of his clients.
Ninety nine percent of his accounts were never charged. They
were wholesome parents like me that didn't do anything wrong.
(15:31):
So what happened is these thirty parents were all convicted.
They all played guilty. Thirty parents played guilty, and they
had very bad facts. Our facts were completely different. Those
parents had kids who weren't qualified, so they were cheating
on tests. They were bribing coaches and their falsifying academic
and athletic profiles for their children to get their unqualified
(15:53):
children into colleges. We didn't do any of those things.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
And yet you were sort of the fish that was
sneered in the net. I guess would be the way, unfortunately,
to describe it.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
I think it was worse than that. I think they
actually purposely went after us because of Singer's three thousand clients,
there was only one in Massachusetts. So the Massachusetts prosecutors,
the federal prosecutors base in Massachusetts, they first uncovered this
case from a tip, a random, unrelated tip from a
person in Connecticut on a separate crime. They quickly started
pulling on that thread, they found Hollywood celebrities and other
(16:29):
rich and famous people from California. But they needed to
get jurisdiction if they wanted to bring this high profile
case to Boston, and so part of their battle the
turf battles between offices would be dependent upon having at
least one defendant in Massachusetts and then declaring a false
conspiracy so then they could bring the trials for Lori Laughlin,
Felicity Huffman, and all the other people in California to Boston.
(16:52):
So they needed one Boston parent to help make that
conspiracy case and to help make the trials take place here.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Did anybody move change of venue since the majority of
the defenders, I guess we're California based or West Coast base.
It makes all the sense in the world that that
case should be tried in California, and you would have
had to go back, and you know, you have had
the inconvenience having to go to California for your case,
But it seems to me unfair and inappropriate that all
(17:19):
of those other people had to had their case tried
here as well.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
Yeah, it was challenged multiple times and the end it
ended up being two hundred and fifty people who had
to fly back and forth. When you include the witnesses,
the defendants, and the lawyers and the FBI between California
and Boston. Two undred and fifty flew back and forth.
And I was the only one parent in masses. It's
so I was driving to the courtroom. It would have
been much easier for me to fly to California if
that was really what they wanted to do, but that
(17:45):
clearly wasn't what they wanted to do. They wanted to
have all the trials in Boston, the Boston prosecutors, so
it didn't matter my having overwhelming evidence.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
And these are the most part we're college we're West
Coast colleges too, USC most of so the good right,
So the good news is that this unjust conviction of
you and your family overturned. But then I guess there
was a Netflix story which incorporated you and did not
(18:18):
appropriately characterize what was the final result in you. Okay,
so you're suing Netflix in USC. You've also written a book,
and I hope that some of our listeners will purchase
that book. Give us the name of the book. Is
it out yet or no?
Speaker 5 (18:33):
Is it a vailable It just comes out today. It's
out today on Amazon and all the other websites. It's
called Varsity Blues, the Scandal within the Scandal, and all
the proceeds in the book go to three charities. It's
not about making money. This is about clearing the record
and clearing our name and getting the truth out there.
And so one of the things that made us very
different than the other parents was our children were all qualified.
(18:55):
My twin daughter's got a perfect score and a nine
ninety percentile score on the ACT. Fewer than five thousand
kids out of one point eight million get a perfect score,
and they didn't cheat. My son was a Division I
level player who had a world record in swimming and
who was playing on Stanford club teams for six years
year round, whose high school coach recommended him for the team,
and he joined the USC team and played on the team.
(19:17):
And so we didn't do the things these other parents did.
But we were lumped in for venue and then we
were smeared falsely by Netflix. And so Netflix they issued
a movie they called it a documentary, that was released
three months before my trial, and so they poisoned the
jury pool. They have an audience, they have two hundred
and eighty million subscribers, five hundred million, half a billion
(19:37):
viewers in one hundred and ninety countries, and they put
together a film with a dozen parents who played guilty
and me, and we gave them a warning letter before
the movie came out. We said, because it was pre announced,
We said, if you're gonna put John Wilson, here are
the facts. We gave him a five hundred and fifty
page warning letter with all of the facts, and they
ignored it. And they included all of our facts, including
(19:59):
a polygraph. I voluntarily took a polograph test with the
head of the FBI Polygraph Division and the head of
the CIA Polygraph School and polygraph program worldwide. I passed
two days of polygraph test fully with flying colors. They
had all of that evidence, and they just ignored it
and went with their movie anyway, which smeared me and
polluted the jury.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Well, hopefully they will. They will pay the piper. John.
We've run out of time here, but I got to
tell you the integrity in your voice, you hear it
in your voice. Congratulations, and I wish you continued success,
and I hope that you get your day in court
against Netflix, uh and uh, and whoever whoever defamed you
(20:41):
and your family pays the price. And obviously Netflix at
this point I think is going to be called, be
called in front of the bar of justice. Ironically. Thank
you so much, John. Again, the book book comes.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
Out to today today, Just come.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
My Varsity Blues Scandal within a scandal, Netflix everywhere rather
Amazon dot Com everywhere, And I know I'm gonna try
to get a copy because I want to. I followed
those cases, but I did not follow them as closely
as I would have liked. That was in my role
as a talk show host, not as a TV reporter.
If I'd been a TV reporter, I probably would have
(21:19):
been in court there every day watching the case unfold.
Congratulations to you and your family.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
Thank you very much, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
You're very welcome. All Right, we're gonna take a break
new that's a great interesting story. I mean to actually
win even on appeal in federal court. That's a hill
to climb. Back on Nights side with two more great
guests and two more great topics, and then we'll get
to the phone call portion of the program, and we're
going to start off talking about the Karen retrial, which
(21:49):
restarted today.
Speaker 5 (21:53):
With Dan Ray.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I'm Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
All right, thank you very much. Let's get to our
next guest, John Schultz. He's a technology in an AI
artificial intelligent expert. He's founder and CEO of a website
called easy Locator, and he's going to talk to us
about jen Z graduates. So these would be people who
(22:21):
have really just graduated from college. They would be in
sort of the twenty two, twenty three, twenty four, twenty five,
twenty six, twenty seven range. People who were born after
two thousand and twelve. No, I may be wrong on
I get my dates mixed up on this. I'm sorry.
Gen Z people were born from ninety six to twenty twelve,
(22:44):
so they could be anywhere from I guess twelve to
twenty eight is the eighth So there are some of them.
I got the right age, but a lot of them
are younger. John Schultz, Welcome to NIGHTSID. Sorry about that confusion.
How are you tonight?
Speaker 4 (22:59):
I am wonderful tonight. How about yourself?
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I get my gen Z, my millennials, my boomers, my
gen X, sometimes my gen y sometimes mixed up. These
are the people who were born from ninety six to
twenty twelve. So a lot of them are still in
junior high school, but some some are on the older
end of the spectrum here, could have actually graduated from
a two year or a four year for that matter,
(23:24):
even done some graduate degree work. And they feel, or
some of them say, their college degrees were a waste
of time and money. How do they know that at
this point they're just out of college.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Well, I think what they're doing is they're looking at
their predecessors.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
And you know, one of the things that you know,
I look at, and I look at from an education perspective,
there's some fault within the education system, you know, especially
in the college ranks, that I don't think really adequately
prepare people for the fast pace of the business world.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Technology in the nineties.
Speaker 6 (23:59):
You know, it was really kind of when it started
to take off tremendously, when the Internet was starting to
roll out and things.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
Of that nature.
Speaker 6 (24:05):
Information with really going at light speed. And what I see,
and I even saw that with my own educational you know,
I've got a Bachelor of Science and mechanical engineering, and
I look back and I say, you know, I have
never ever designed an air conditioner I've never ever built
a bridge, and here I am in the midst of
the technology boom that wasn't even talked about when I
(24:29):
was in college. So, you know, I think that the
piece that I look at if I'm counseling a young
person looking at trying to basically launch a career, is
keep your eyes in the ears open.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
You know. I view that the education.
Speaker 6 (24:43):
Market has a credentialing issue. You know, if you look
at you know, universities and colleges, it's all about basically,
you know, credentially, you know, it's all about ten years.
It's all about that, and it's not really reacting to
the marketplace, you know, so you see that kind of lagging.
Now there is going to some requirements for credentially, you know,
I think, you know, medical doctors is one maybe the
(25:05):
legal profession of things of that nature. But there's so
much information at your fingertips. In fact, you know, I've
gone to the doctor and have kidding he said, Okay,
we're about ready to perform this procedure here. Did you
check that out on YouTube last night and get the
latest egos? In some cases I've actually heard yes, they said,
you know that information is out there and available to
them instantaneously that may have changed. So so again that's
(25:28):
the biggest challenge is is that things are changing so
quickly that education is becoming very costly and it's really
not producing the results that a student may want want
to do. You know, I'm a big fan of micro
and his dirty jobs and you know, and what he's.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Trying to promote is make sure trying to promote.
Speaker 6 (25:48):
Is you know, we don't have enough skilled people in
the workforce. And I can use you know, any kind
of skilled trade out there. Electrician, be it an HVAC,
person of learning air conditioning, being a plumber. The technology
is being introduced into those trades at lightning speed, and
so a person that adapts to that and opens their
(26:09):
eyes and basically is willing to learn, then they're going
to basically be way ahead and be very successful. You know,
I remember the day when you know, parents wanted their
children to go to college because they didn't have the opportunity. Well,
now that parents have had that opportunity, I think many
of them are starting to get disillusioned regarding that. And
therefore I would if I had you know, a young child,
(26:30):
a gen z er looking at going to college.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
I would actually say, what do you want to do
in life? What do you know? How do you view success?
Speaker 6 (26:38):
And get those kinds of thought provoking questions out there
and start focusing on the critical thinking, which I think
is very, very important for everybody to do.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Yeah, I think we have undervalued you know what we
used to call trade schools of voke at schools or
kids at the age of you know, boys and girls
thirteen fourteen, fifteen are introduced to you know, shop and
people look the most successful people in the country. I
(27:08):
think in the next you know, twenty years, in the
next generation are going to be people who run their
own plumbing businesses, electrical businesses, roofing businesses, HVAC businesses. Every
time anyone from any of those businesses visit my home,
they walk out with a check of five hundred and
six hundred dollars. It just, you know, it's mind boggling,
(27:29):
But you need them and those of us who have
no mechanical aptitude like myself. I'm not going to fix
my I'm not going to mess around with my electricity.
I'm not going to go up on my roof and
bang some shingles or replaced gutters. So that's that's where
the goal is these days, in my opinion, if you're
(27:50):
talking about finances. The other question is if you're going
to go to college, go to college which is going
to give you not only good liberal arts education underpinning,
but also helps train you for some thing. I know
so many people who come out of colleges with archaeology degrees.
I've had discussions with kids, Well, you know, archaeology is
a great field to study, but how big a demand
(28:12):
are there for archaeology majors. I don't think it's that
that intense, And so we're on the same page. The
micro argument is the argument that I firmly believe in,
and obviously you do as well. And it's interesting that
gen Z grads are now sort of in the forefront
of this. And look at the amount of money that
(28:36):
colleges charge these days. There's a lot of stuff going
on in this country which I think is going to
change perceptions of colleges and universities in the in the
months and years ahead.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
I agree wholeheartedly, you know.
Speaker 6 (28:50):
So you know, in my industry, I'm in the golf industry,
and easy Locator provides a really a good function for
the superintendent, help him find that optimum daily whole location
and help enhance the health of his green, and most importantly,
UH help the player have a tournament like experience every day.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
One of the easy Locator could could show me where
the ball is in the woods and the right of
the woods in the left.
Speaker 7 (29:16):
Well, I wish, I wish I could.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
I wish we could locate it real easily.
Speaker 6 (29:21):
But but what we can do is we can tell
you where that hole is and where.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Except what I'm more than would have like fifty yards
in the woods, sometimes the pit has disappeared. To be
honest with you, Look, John, I appreciate your time tonight.
How can folks get more information? Everybody likes to give
a website? Or have you written a book on this subject?
Tell us how how you came to stop by tonight?
What can we do in turn for you?
Speaker 6 (29:49):
Well, the easiest way is is to UH to check
out our website. It's easylocator dot com.
Speaker 5 (29:54):
Real simple as.
Speaker 6 (29:55):
Isn't Edward zs and zabralocator dot com.
Speaker 7 (29:58):
UH.
Speaker 6 (29:59):
You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. All of
those handles are basically easy Locator.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
I wish I could say, I wrote a book.
Speaker 6 (30:07):
But I've talked to several people and if I wrote
that book, they put it in the fiction category because
nobody would believe it. So I've led a very interesting life,
and I to me, my advice to the young people is,
you know, what you started out doing may not be
what you're doing. You know, twenty or thirty years down
the road. I started out in engineering. The Internet wasn't
(30:29):
even invented yet. I now own a successful software company.
So all of the things I'm using today weren't around
when I was a young teenager.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
So you know, think about.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
It and you adjusted it. And one of the things
that I think young people should do is be on
the lookout. Be aware that there will be some people
along who are going to come into your life who
are going to give you some good advice. There what
I like to call them your mentors. Happens if you
can look back on your life, I'm sure and find
four or five people who gave you really critical advice.
You have to keep your eyes open and in your
(31:00):
ears open and think about other opportunities as well. Life
is not a linear experience. It has its ups and
downs and its little diversions to the left and the
right from start to finish, simple as that. John Schultz,
thank you so much for your call and your time tonight.
I really enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
You bet my pleasure. Have a great evening. Thank you,
right back at you.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Okay, you too. We came back on talk with criminal
defense attorney Phil Tracy about the opening of Karen Reid's
retrial started today.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Well, Karen Reid retrial, it's underway today with all of
the legal jockeying of the last few months, is uh,
it began again today with us as criminal defense attorney
Phil Tracy. Phil has handled many cases like that, Phil,
Good evening, How are you, sir? Well let me let
(31:59):
me play just a portion of the opening statement by
Alan Jackson, Read's defense lawyer. And I don't know if
how much of a time today between your own work
you had a chance.
Speaker 7 (32:12):
To wa Yeah, I've watched the cave.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah yeah, okay. So there's a little bit of Alan Jackson.
This is Karen Read's defense lawyer. Cut number twenty four
A please, Rob.
Speaker 7 (32:22):
So how did we end up here?
Speaker 8 (32:24):
How'd Karen Reid end up sitting in that chair on
trial for something, for an event that literally never happened. Well,
the evidence is going to explain it, and it can
be summed up in the following text message at the
very beginning of this investigation, a text message of a
now fired Massachusetts State Police officer.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Named Michael Proctor.
Speaker 8 (32:49):
He was the lead investigator on this case, and he
was talking about a fellow officer, a fellow cop who
owned the property where John O'Keefe's body was found. Text
message with a buddy question, is the homeowner going to
catch any answer? Nope, he's a Boston cup too. That
(33:14):
quote defines the lack of integrity of the Commonwealth's entire case,
its entire investigation, and this prosecution.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
I thought Jackson had a pretty good opening today. I
was wondering what your thought was.
Speaker 7 (33:31):
Well, I thought, in a case this long, and I'll
cite the O. J. Simpson case for instance, a case
that goes on this long, the opening is forgotten. The
closing is more important. Now, if you have a two
day trial, you know the opening is very important. But
in this case, there's so much confusion, both inside and
(33:54):
outside the court for about what's the proper way to proceed.
What are the rules? And obviously, you know it's a
circus atmosphere out there and inside the courtroom. The judge
has to keep the lid on everything. And I found
out that or I heard as you did too, that
she was angry about something that the defense had done.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, there was some discovery or some information about a
couple of witnesses.
Speaker 7 (34:24):
With the really spect of you. I don't know, it's
not cronyism because they are claiming the police it's cronyism,
but there's something Terribleutts, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Well, I think she's accusing the defense and she's accused
him before. Kind of gamesmanship, I think would be the
proper term.
Speaker 7 (34:47):
Yeah, and many.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Not going to be pleased with that, as you better.
Speaker 7 (34:52):
As you know, they're not going to be you know.
But I thought Brendan did a good job himself, so
I think they sort of cancel each other out at
that point. But I think the big thing from today
is the picture of her played for the jury, and
she does not seem to be in any way sorry
(35:17):
about the death of this man who was her boyfriend.
And you know, if I was on, if I wouldn't
have let her talk, but they did. And now, of
course they were under a gag order, so she's talking
all the time. But I would have said say things like,
I'm terribly sorry about this terrible accident, but I didn't
(35:38):
do it, and my boyfriend has gone and his mother's
lost a son. And the guy was a great guy.
He adopted two children from his sister who had died.
So I mean this, I don't like it all. That's
it looks like he's glorying in her nineteen fifty minutes
(36:00):
of fame. But I'm argument.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
No, no, I'm just saying you would think that that
her lawyers would have cautioned her. Maybe they should have.
Would have many lawyers would have said, uh, you're not
doing interviews until this trial is over. But if she insisted,
they should have had someone sit with her and prep
her and all things like that to make sure that
(36:26):
there wasn't something like this. And that is that's an
area that the new prosecutor, Hank Brennan, is gonna.
Speaker 7 (36:34):
Matter that wasn't there in the first trial. And I
think that's that's a piece of evidence that's gonna gonna
hurt her side. Now, whether it can overcome proof beyond
a reasonable doubt and that in the bad behavior of
all of the police involved in the case. Now you've
got a real balance between proof beyond the reason that
(36:57):
which is a very hard thing because it's not an
absolute doubt, as as you already know, and it means
it has to be enough doubt that you would raise
your eye brow. And in this case, it may be
built into the case. You know, so that prosecution is
at a disadvantage because of so many lateral issues going
(37:19):
on with the case.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Well, it's gonna it's going to take a few weeks
and eventually, hopefully there will be a verdict one way
or the other. I am still amazed, Phil, and I'd
love to you know, you've you've handled some high profile cases,
and I realize all the arguments that are made, but
I'm just stunned that this case is drawing so much attention,
(37:43):
not just regionally.
Speaker 7 (37:45):
But national news. David Muir on The News knocked about
the impanelment.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
There's a lot there's there's a lot of high profile cases. O. J. Simpson.
I get, you know, actor, football star, Heisman Trophy winner,
and I get, but boy, there's something about this and
maybe we're too close to see it, but I couldn't
imagine a case let us say out of Seattle or
(38:18):
San Francisco, you know, or would be Galveston, Texas where
there's another accident that they'd be struggling over. I don't know. Phil.
We will have you back, you know, throughout this always. Yeah,
let us hope so it can come to a conclusion
(38:40):
and hopefully Justin will be justices. By the way, we
are going to talk about this in the next hour,
Phil Out, I'm going to save you for your expertise
area and we'll open up phone lines right after nine
o'clock to see what people think about the retravel the case.
Thank you, my friend, we'll talk to him. Phil. All right,
My name is Ray and this is Nightside and we
(39:02):
are ready to go to the conversation part of the
program right after the nine o'clock news, and it's going
to talk about the Karen Reatrout. I have a lot
of the opening sound from the prosecutor, Hank Brennan, the
special prosecutor in this case, and the defense attorney, the
lead defense attorney, Alan Jackson, and but most importantly I
want to hear from you. What do you think Do
you think it will be it will be a different result,
(39:23):
and in which way will it fall. I can't imagine
we're going to get into the hung jury. I certainly
don't think we could deal with that. Hopefully we will
get either a series of acquittals or a series of convictions,
or some combination thereof. Back on Nightside, right after the
nine o'clock news,
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