James Lepotka (Prosecutor)

This American Life

858: How to Tell a Dumb American Story

Let me try and dig this out. A hundred pages of comments from Facebook, articles from the New York Times. I got a text message from somebody who's not my friend on Facebook saying, you racist piece of shit, you will not try that stupid white supremacist bitch because she's white, you're garbage.

This American Life

858: How to Tell a Dumb American Story

1897.827

I tried to assure them, like, I'm not a white supremacist covering up a homicide for my white supremacist friend. Like, that's not what this is about. And I think I got some of that through to them, but I think that they were also, you know, a little righteously upset that we weren't moving faster.

This American Life

858: How to Tell a Dumb American Story

1966.076

Um, she did a lot of videos and a lot of pictures of her, a lot of selfies, and they were, um, rather innocent kind of like little kid, it made me like Micah a lot more.

This American Life

858: How to Tell a Dumb American Story

2066.692

I was kind of excited. I'm like, hey guys, look, we did it. Look, I have all this stuff. This is what we've got. Let me show you the whole thing. And then this is the timeline and what to expect. That's how I felt that meeting was, what that meeting was for.

This American Life

858: How to Tell a Dumb American Story

2201.752

I will readily acknowledge that in hindsight, we should have not let her remove evidence from the vehicle while we're doing an investigation. That should not have happened.

This American Life

858: How to Tell a Dumb American Story

2294.385

Yes. It might have taken a little longer, and it might not have been as good. I think eventually we would have brought charges. Honestly, the amount of media attention made it easier for me to get help from people. So our case... Ended up being better because of what they did, but they didn't have to do that to get my attention.

This American Life

858: How to Tell a Dumb American Story

2539.076

Sonny's attorney came to us a couple of weeks back and wanted to talk about what we think would be a fair resolution to this case. But we wanted to consult with you before we made any formal offer.