In any criminal justice system, there is bound to be abuse. No system is perfect, not even close. But the case discussed in this episode is one of the most egregious top-to-bottom failures of law enforcement in New York history. Rights were violated, and at every turn where someone could have taken responsibility and ended the parade of injustice, they just doubled down.

Listen as colleague and law partner Robert Gottlieb joins Paul to discuss the 1989 case involving five boys aged 14-16 who would come to be known as the Central Park Five.

These five black and Latino boys were causing trouble in Central Park, in Manhattan, on the night of April 19, 1989. They were assaulting people, robbing them of their wallets and food, and generally carrying on. They were part of a larger group of between 20-30 kids total. They had all been arrested between 10 and 11 pm that evening for various low level offenses and were detained in the local police precinct.

A 28 year old white investment banker named Trisha Meili was jogging in the park between 9 and 10 pm that night. She was assaulted, dragged off the running path, brutally sexually assaulted and left for dead. She was in a coma for nearly 12 days. Hours later her unconscious body was found and the focus immediately shifted to the five boys already in custody.

Extreme and illegal police tactics were used to coerce confessions from four of the five boys. Interrogations of minors took place with no parent or attorney, they were denied food, water, and sleep over nearly 30 hours. In the end, four made videotaped confessions which would later become the only evidence in the trials against them.

Listen to the breakdown of how a media landscape contributed to the piling miscarriage of justice, how law enforcement failed the city it swore to protect, and how even when the truth came to light, it was over a decade before any small semblance of justice was attained.

Enjoy.

Hello Listeners and Friends,

In this installment of In Summation, we discuss the Doomsday Mom, Lori Vallow Daybell, a woman who serves as proof that religious extremism is exceptionally dangerous. These cases have it all, extramarital affairs, assassination attempts, mental disease, fanaticism, money, you name it. And you get TWO cases this time, isn't that grand?

Lori Daybell was married 5 times, but only accused of killing one ex-husband, and two of her kids, and her 5th husband's wife, and trying to kill her nephew-in-law, and stealing social security benefits...and possibly even her brother, though evidence linking her to that hasn't been established.

This episode is a complicated story of how twisted beliefs can be used to justify truly horrific behavior. Enjoy!

Welcome back! The wait for a new episode is over.

In a triumphant return, Paul breaks down the federal case against Sean "Diddy" Combs. Combs was charged with RICO, sex trafficking, and interstate transportation for the purposes of prostitution.

In this episode, we discuss what overcharging looks like, how fame affects criminal cases, and how to know when to put a case on as a defendant.

Sean Combs need no introduction, he has been a household name in the United States since the 1990s. We have witnessed the evolution of the man from an upstart rapper talking about his life on the streets and his impoverished childhood to becoming one of the most successful cross-industry entrepeneurs in the world.

But with all that fame, fortune, and money came vices. Combs notoriously hosted wild "freak off" sex parties, and some participants in those parties came forward to claim that they were not willing participants, that they were forced into commercial sex acts, and that Combs controlled them through a criminal organization using violence, coercion, financial malfeasance, and even arson.

Was Sean Combs a sex trafficking, criminal mastermind? Or was he simply an abusive boyfriend with ex-girlfriends trying to cash in on his status?

Listen and learn what the Sean Combs prosecution was about, and how the defense team kept the focus where it needed to be.