[00:00:00] I don't want to set the world.
[00:00:11] I just don't even know why the heart uprisings hold the country, maybe there will be.
[00:00:18] To chase at least for a moment Trump and the maggots off the stage.
[00:00:30] There needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there's unrest in our lives.
[00:00:36] Trump, I think you need to go back and then punch him in the face. I thought he should have punched him in the face.
[00:00:38] I feel like punching him.
[00:00:39] The guy's like to take him behind the gym if I were in high school.
[00:00:42] You're in high school, I take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of them. I will go and take Trump out tonight.
[00:00:47] Take him out now, baby.
[00:00:49] When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?
[00:00:52] They're still gonna have to go out
[00:00:53] and put a bullet in Donald Trump.
[00:00:55] Show me where it says that protests
[00:00:56] are supposed to be polite and peaceful.
[00:00:58] I have thought and off a lot about blowing up the White House.
[00:01:11] Please, get up in the face of some Congress people.
[00:01:15] People will do what they do.
[00:01:17] I want to tell you, Lord Dutch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay a price.
[00:01:27] We're gonna go in here, we're gonna...
[00:01:28] Well, this is just a warning to you, Trumpers.
[00:01:33] Be careful.
[00:01:35] Walk lightly.
[00:01:36] And for those of you who are soldiers, make them pantry.
[00:01:43] We are your lizard, over the Lord. Please make them pet.
[00:01:49] We are your lizard overlord.
[00:01:53] Stop listening to these...
[00:01:55] preppers.
[00:01:59] Nurture crickets.
[00:02:02] Fight in the streets.
[00:02:04] Own... Nothing. And love. in the streets. Own
[00:02:05] Nothing
[00:02:07] and love.
[00:02:15] We are the proper broadcasting network.
[00:02:29] Well, well, well, we made it again another week. Welcome to the Rising Republic.
[00:02:30] I'm El Douglas Hogan, your host and your fellow Freedom Lover.
[00:02:33] Have you ever wanted to get inside of the mind of a legal professional to see what makes
[00:02:37] him tick?
[00:02:38] Well, I have.
[00:02:40] So especially with all the activist judges and the bought and paid for lawmen that we
[00:02:43] have going on right now, I mean, probably in your own local community on the national
[00:02:48] stage, you name it, they're probably out there.
[00:02:51] Well, I have a guest today, assistant states attorney Daniel K. Cochram, and he is currently
[00:02:56] running for the resident circuit judge in Franklin County, Illinois where I live.
[00:03:00] We've been discussing, talking with each other here in the last few minutes, and he is built
[00:03:04] on integrity and honesty, and I'm really with each other here in the last few minutes. And he is built on integrity and honesty.
[00:03:06] And I'm really excited to have him on the show here today.
[00:03:09] So without any further ado,
[00:03:10] I wanna introduce you guys to the man,
[00:03:13] the myth, the legend, Daniel K. Cochram.
[00:03:15] Hello, Dan, how you doing today, sir?
[00:03:16] I'm doing very well.
[00:03:17] Thank you for having me.
[00:03:19] Not a problem at all.
[00:03:20] Hey, I'm really excited that you're here.
[00:03:22] I was checking you out.
[00:03:24] I've been seeing a lack of posts and different things.
[00:03:29] Everywhere I go, there's political signs posted up everywhere.
[00:03:33] I don't see anything that says Daniel K.
[00:03:37] Cockerman.
[00:03:38] I went to your Facebook page because I heard that you were running and I wanted to see what was going on.
[00:03:42] I found out that you're physically conservative.
[00:03:44] Tell me a little bit about that. Well yes that's what
[00:03:47] when it comes to this campaign there's a couple ways to go out of campaign and
[00:03:51] one of the ways is to have a committee that goes out there and just hawks
[00:03:55] money from everybody you can get and that allows you to buy a lot of things. You
[00:04:00] can litter every blade of grass on right away inside your county with a sign
[00:04:04] with your name on it
[00:04:06] Or there's the other way to do it. I was raised by blue collar parents. I'm a first-generation lawyer
[00:04:11] So the other option of that is you get out there and you do it by hard work that that goes to knocking on doors
[00:04:16] That with the money that you do have available to you through your own funds or my parents help quite a bit because family is
[00:04:23] Just paramount to us then we get out there and we use that very conservatively the same way we ran budgets
[00:04:28] in our household when I was a kid.
[00:04:30] Every dollar was earned by working hard for it.
[00:04:33] So you made sure it was spent appropriately.
[00:04:36] You didn't just go out there and blow it because you think I can go out and get more.
[00:04:39] I'll just have somebody else donate to it.
[00:04:42] To me, whenever you get too much money involved in politics,
[00:04:45] and especially in a small county election,
[00:04:47] it always concerns me with money comes with strings.
[00:04:51] And whenever someone gives you money,
[00:04:53] typically they expect something in return.
[00:04:55] And whether they do or not, that's not a risk I'm willing
[00:04:58] to take because the being a judge,
[00:05:01] you need to be above reproach on an issue like that.
[00:05:04] People need to know that you are there to enforce the law and that there is no agenda,
[00:05:09] that there's not a favor you owe somewhere, that the only reason you're there is to follow
[00:05:14] the law and see that it is handled appropriately.
[00:05:17] I love it.
[00:05:18] You touched on spending money and disappearing real quick and everything like that.
[00:05:21] It seems like you're from the same generation I am, even before us.
[00:05:24] I call it the crockpot generation, right?
[00:05:26] Like we're okay with patience and waiting and saving money
[00:05:30] and taking our time to get something that we can earn,
[00:05:34] something we can work for and earn,
[00:05:35] but there's a new generation that's come after us
[00:05:38] that I call the microwave generation, right?
[00:05:40] They just, they need everything right now.
[00:05:42] Like everything is instantaneous,
[00:05:43] because we live in an age of information.
[00:05:45] Nobody has to wait for anything anymore.
[00:05:47] You and I had to go to a library to crack open a book to find something where we
[00:05:51] wanted to learn something, right?
[00:05:53] These kids literally just pop open their phone and they grab everything's right
[00:05:56] there. There's no, there's, I feel there's a, there were missing something in, in, in all of that.
[00:06:01] But I'm glad you touched on that.
[00:06:03] Cause really interesting.
[00:06:04] There's a gap. Well, I think it's funny that you see that because I'm glad you touched on that because really interesting there's a gap.
[00:06:06] Well, I think it's funny that you say that
[00:06:07] because I'm at my house right now
[00:06:09] and my wife is literally making something
[00:06:11] in a crock pot tonight for dinner.
[00:06:13] That's been in here cooking all day,
[00:06:14] that as soon as I walked in the house,
[00:06:15] that smell hits you.
[00:06:17] And you see that the best things are worth waiting for.
[00:06:20] They take some work, they take some patience.
[00:06:22] And that's what makes them all the more enjoyable
[00:06:24] whenever you get to realize them. But yes, I'm definitely still from a generation where we used
[00:06:28] to have to go to a library for information and things were done the hard way. And I'm glad that
[00:06:35] I've been able to be a part of both generations that yes, it's handy now especially to do legal
[00:06:40] research that I can flip open a phone or a laptop, and I have all the information
[00:06:46] I could ever look for in a library right there at my fingertips.
[00:06:49] But knowing what it used to take to get that information makes you respect having that
[00:06:53] ability now so much more.
[00:06:55] Yeah.
[00:06:56] And so with a newer generation that never had to live like how we do when we were young,
[00:07:00] they don't have that respect for it.
[00:07:02] But you mentioned, you mentioned something I want to talk on for a second here.
[00:07:04] You mentioned work in patients. Now, I can't imagine,
[00:07:08] can you tell me a little bit about because you, I saw through your education, you went
[00:07:11] to SIU School of Law? Yes, I got there. Actually, my undergraduate degree was from SIU there
[00:07:20] at Carbondale. And I have a degree in education that I was actually certified
[00:07:25] to be a secondary education in history.
[00:07:29] So to teach high school students and going through that, I've always been a firm believer
[00:07:34] in studying history and learning from it.
[00:07:37] And as that went, I became more interested in the law.
[00:07:40] And then after my senior year and undergraduate and graduated and got my certification, I
[00:07:46] decided that I wanted to go to law school. And I started clerking that summer at a small
[00:07:52] firm here in town and sat for the admittance exam. And then I took off there at SIU and
[00:07:59] got my degree there in Carbondale. Were you your first job after that? At what point
[00:08:04] did you become a public defender
[00:08:05] in Hardin County, Illinois?
[00:08:07] I took my first position as a public defender.
[00:08:09] I had been out of law school just a little less than two years.
[00:08:14] Somewhere between 18, 20 months, I had been an attorney
[00:08:17] in a small firm, and then I was offered the position
[00:08:19] to become the public defender in Hardin County,
[00:08:21] which is a small county.
[00:08:23] But it was a chance to get out on my own,
[00:08:25] as well as run my own private practice,
[00:08:28] because it was a part-time public defender position,
[00:08:30] so I could run a private practice with it as well.
[00:08:33] Okay. So you're just not fiscally conservative, right?
[00:08:36] Do you have other conservative values?
[00:08:38] Oh, absolutely.
[00:08:39] How did you...
[00:08:41] Is that something you knew before you became a public defender,
[00:08:43] or is it something you picked up along the way?
[00:08:45] It's something I've picked up. I'll just be honest that the older I get, the little more conservative that I become in pretty much everything.
[00:08:53] It started off, you know, being fiscally conservative was just a lifeline. That's how we learned to survive.
[00:08:59] That's how the family came along and that's how we got to where we are. But then as I get older, you start to see some of these things that when you don't have
[00:09:09] a conservative mindset, it seems that we stray off from what's important that's going on,
[00:09:14] that we get sidetracked from the issues that actually affect us day to day.
[00:09:20] So it's important to me to have those values as well as then passing them on to your children.
[00:09:25] Because as you get older, you have kids, you realize, I'm not just doing things that are
[00:09:29] affecting me.
[00:09:30] Now it affects my life, it affects my children.
[00:09:33] And in order for that to be passed on to them, that's just more conservative you get as you
[00:09:38] get older.
[00:09:39] Right.
[00:09:40] And that's a stark contrast to what we got going on today because with the progressive
[00:09:43] left movements that's out there, it seems like everybody is only interested in themselves and their own personal
[00:09:48] agenda. That's why we get the personal pronouns and everything. It doesn't matter. They want
[00:09:53] because they feel that they have like a claim on reality. You have to acknowledge their
[00:09:59] pronouns and you have to acknowledge that they're a cat or you have, you know, see what I'm saying? And the difference, the difference is when you're a parent and you have conservative
[00:10:08] values and you have, you understand that you have to teach those to them.
[00:10:12] Elsewise, they're going to wind up being influenced by those same kind of characters at school.
[00:10:18] And they're going to do the same thing down the road.
[00:10:19] If you can't instill inside of them, you're on values.
[00:10:23] And we do that as well as we're big on teaching them
[00:10:26] that you're your own person,
[00:10:27] that just because it's popular
[00:10:29] or there's a group of people doing it
[00:10:31] doesn't mean that that's what's the right thing to do.
[00:10:34] You have to do what you know is right
[00:10:35] based on the way you were raised.
[00:10:37] You know, you don't have to be out there
[00:10:41] harming someone else or opposing them
[00:10:43] because they feel that way you have a right in this country to feel and believe anything you want. But it doesn't mean that you can impose that
[00:10:49] onto the people around you. Right. So in a nutshell, because we got some more questions to cover here,
[00:10:56] how was it being a public defender? Was that a difficult job? It can be a difficult job.
[00:11:01] But I found and my intention was with my career, I realized very early on that I would want to sit on the bench one day.
[00:11:08] But in order to do that, you need to be able to see the law from every angle and every aspect.
[00:11:13] And one of those that's often overlooked is the public defender position, because as the public defender, you don't pick your cases.
[00:11:20] You're assigned to them because people, no matter who they are and what they've done, they have a constitutional right to have an attorney represent them in any case where
[00:11:28] they're free, it might be at stake.
[00:11:30] So those are the times that I've been in, sat with clients and prisons and county jails
[00:11:35] in small meeting rooms and you learn to hear their stories.
[00:11:40] You meet with their families and understand more of how this system actually affects people and not
[00:11:45] just the person that's the defendant in a case that would affect their family and the community
[00:11:50] around them, which then assisted me and whenever I became a prosecutor and became a state's attorney,
[00:11:56] that I know what the other side of that is like. So now every time I look at a case, when I read
[00:12:01] a police report, I immediately read it from both sides. How does this look from a defendant's standpoint? How does this look from a prosecutor's standpoint?
[00:12:09] And how do we find justice somewhere in between?
[00:12:11] That's why I intrigued me so much about you. And I was looking and reading like some of
[00:12:16] your bios and your posts and things. I saw how you had in the past, you knew that you
[00:12:21] early on that you wanted to sit on the bench at some point like this this election is
[00:12:25] Like the endgame for this is where you wanted to go and you've been setting yourself up
[00:12:30] You've been playing chess for a lot of years moving the pieces around setting yourself up for this because a good leader knows every position
[00:12:36] Under them there should be no person leading a part another person another career path
[00:12:41] And they have no knowledge of what that person's supposed to be doing if they never worked at themselves
[00:12:44] And you touch on something I respect very much person another career path and they have no knowledge of what that person is supposed to be doing if they never worked at themselves.
[00:12:45] And you touch on something I respect very much.
[00:12:48] Absolutely.
[00:12:49] And whenever I was young, there was a couple of guys that I grew up with that had dads
[00:12:54] that were judges before I was even interested in the legal career.
[00:12:58] And you see that to do that job well meant that, I mean, to an extent, you are separating
[00:13:04] yourself from your community a little bit because you have to be able to have any person come into your
[00:13:08] courtroom and apply the law to them fairly and unbiased.
[00:13:11] So, no matter who they are, where they're from, what their last name is, that's important.
[00:13:17] But to be able to do that, you need to be able to see their position as well as the
[00:13:21] person that's on the other side of the aisle from them in a courtroom. So I knew early on that I would have to take different jobs and do different things in order
[00:13:30] to gain that experience. So there have been choices times in my career where I've had to
[00:13:35] sit down with my wife and we discuss things that it may not make as much money to do some of these
[00:13:40] parts of the law. But that knowledge was going to be important. So if I ever wanted to sit on that bench, I could honestly tell people I've handled these types of cases.
[00:13:49] I got involved with them and made sure I had an experience so that if I ever was to hear
[00:13:54] one of these cases, I have experience with that. I know what I'm looking for, what I'm
[00:13:59] hearing in a courtroom, as well as it's made me focus on watching other judges throughout my career on what
[00:14:05] do they do well?
[00:14:06] What do they do poorly?
[00:14:07] How could we do this better?
[00:14:10] I respect that as well because I don't know if this is a Christian based podcast, you know,
[00:14:15] and Jesus didn't hold no punches.
[00:14:16] I don't hold no punches either.
[00:14:17] So let me just throw this out there that Jesus said he didn't stay in Nazareth.
[00:14:20] All right.
[00:14:21] He actually he left because he himself said that profit has never accepted
[00:14:25] their own country. That's because they see him grow up. They see the young man, they see
[00:14:29] the carpenter kid, they see him and they will never respect him as who he is. And so when
[00:14:33] you're, if you were to stay in that area, and you, I think you're very wise, your decision
[00:14:38] to leave, to leave Hardin County and move on, it was very wise decision. You went from there
[00:14:44] to being an assistant state's
[00:14:45] attorney, right?
[00:14:47] Yes, I took a short stop in private practice.
[00:14:49] And then as soon as there was an opening here in Franklin
[00:14:52] County, which is home, I took that to come back here
[00:14:56] because that was a place where I could do the most
[00:14:58] for the community at that point.
[00:15:00] I could use my experience in prosecuting cases,
[00:15:03] assisting my local law enforcement officers
[00:15:05] because I know what it's like to be on call 24 hours a day at whenever the guys are on the
[00:15:10] side of the road and they need some type of advice. I wanted to know if they've got someone
[00:15:14] there that they can call and that works for a judge as well. When you're a judge, you're on call
[00:15:19] 24-7 if you're not specifically on vacation days because search warrants happen all times the night
[00:15:25] I was going to say that being a police officer myself all my listeners know I'm a police officer
[00:15:31] There comes times and they happen you can always plan out a search warrant a lot of times
[00:15:37] Something happens in the moment and centenious and you got to be able to reach out to that judge and say oh judge
[00:15:43] We need to search warrant on this.
[00:15:45] And here's why and lay out all the elements leading up
[00:15:49] to the reason why you need search warrant.
[00:15:50] Because one of the fourth amendments
[00:15:51] warrant our most protective amendments,
[00:15:53] the right to privacy.
[00:15:55] And it's highly protected.
[00:15:57] And everything needs to be laid out before we contact you,
[00:15:59] right?
[00:16:01] How's that going?
[00:16:01] Absolutely.
[00:16:02] Yes, the judge, before it gets to the judge,
[00:16:04] you have to have your probable cause laid
[00:16:06] out, showing that there is evidence in our possession or that we believe we can show
[00:16:11] to you that says we have a reason to overcome someone's constitutional right to privacy.
[00:16:16] So the officers do the work, the groundwork to put that report together.
[00:16:21] They then contact a prosecutor, typically the state's attorney or an assistant
[00:16:25] state's attorney, who then assists them to present that to the judge in a light to show
[00:16:29] judge we have a valid reason to overlook someone's constitutional right at this moment because
[00:16:35] that should never be done without firm thought process and taking into account the right,
[00:16:41] your overriding whenever you issue that search warrant.
[00:16:44] into account the right you're overriding whenever you issue that search for it. Right, because the law of the land is our U.S. Constitution. And I talk so much on this podcast
[00:16:51] about our rights in the Constitution and they're not to be taken lightly. So I respect that that
[00:16:56] you have such a high criteria for it. How long have you been a state's attorney here in
[00:17:00] Franklin, Assistant State's Attorney in Franklin County?
[00:17:03] I've been here back here in Franklin County. Let's see going on 14 months
[00:17:07] now as the first assistant here in Franklin County. Okay, perfect. So and you're running,
[00:17:13] you're currently running for the for the for the circuit judge or yeah, that's correct,
[00:17:18] resident circuit judge. Now, I was the resident circuit judge. What can you tell me what a
[00:17:22] resident circuit judge does versus just a circuit judge? Sure. Okay, so a resident judge, the resident circuit judge is a circuit judge. So
[00:17:30] our circuit consists of this circuit, the second judicial circuit consists of 12 counties. So we
[00:17:36] have 15 total circuit judges. There's one resident judge elected from each of the 12 individual
[00:17:42] counties that are elected by those counties alone.
[00:17:46] Then we have three at large circuit judges
[00:17:48] that are elected from the entirety of the circuit
[00:17:51] when they run.
[00:17:53] The resident circuit judge of a county,
[00:17:56] here's cases in that county,
[00:17:57] but also is responsible for the appointment
[00:18:00] of the public defender,
[00:18:01] which is actually done by a vote of the other circuit judges,
[00:18:05] but typically it is their nomination that has been approved.
[00:18:08] They handle the budget for those public defenders who are hired on to handle that position,
[00:18:13] both the main public defender as well as we have two assistant public defenders that
[00:18:18] are part-time positions in this county.
[00:18:22] The judge also is responsible for assigning other judges that are assigned
[00:18:26] to the county. Like we have four courtrooms in our courthouse. We're typically running
[00:18:31] three courtrooms four days a week and then one or two on Friday. So those other judges
[00:18:37] that are assigned to the county by the chief judge, the resident judge then assigns them
[00:18:41] to hear whether it's the family docket orders of protection juvenile criminal traffic
[00:18:47] That judge has to decide who's going to hear what cases when they're in that county
[00:18:51] So you need to have an experience in those cases to know who's going to be the best person to hear these
[00:18:56] Who's going to do the best job and has the most experience with those types of cases?
[00:19:01] So people have a judge who is knowledgeable about what they're hearing that day
[00:19:04] That's what my next point is actually getting ready to throw up you you walked right into it with those types of cases. So people have a judge who is knowledgeable about what they're hearing that day.
[00:19:05] That's what my next point
[00:19:06] is actually getting ready to throw up.
[00:19:07] You walked right into it.
[00:19:08] So that's perfect.
[00:19:09] Cause you just can't,
[00:19:11] for my listeners that mind, I know you just can't
[00:19:13] throw traffic court into juvenile court
[00:19:16] and everybody's crammed into the same space.
[00:19:18] It don't work that way.
[00:19:19] There's certain days and times set aside
[00:19:21] for juvenile court, there's certain days and times set aside
[00:19:23] for traffic court.
[00:19:24] There's certain days and times set aside for juvenile court, certain days and times set aside for traffic court, there are certain days and times set aside for criminal court, right?
[00:19:28] So all this is very important.
[00:19:30] And a lot of your, we don't have to talk about names, but some of your, the people who are
[00:19:35] also challenging you in the primaries, the Republican primaries for this position, don't
[00:19:39] have the same experience you do.
[00:19:41] And you have by far, in my opinion, the most experience. And
[00:19:47] you're lying out better, in my opinion. And you also have been working for a long time,
[00:19:52] kind of like I said, playing chess, where other people, it just seems like impromptu
[00:19:56] decisions. I think I'll run for a resident circuit judge this year. You've been setting
[00:20:01] it up for a long time and I respect that greatly Thank you
[00:20:06] And that's what it is important that it's not just a willy-nilly decision that you just decided
[00:20:12] You know today
[00:20:13] I'm gonna move on to do something different in my same career field that you need to be prepared for that because there's a
[00:20:21] Lot that goes with it to being a judge and in my opinion, if you do it correctly, being a judge done appropriately is as much a burden
[00:20:29] to bear as anything because you're going to make decisions for people that they obviously
[00:20:33] couldn't make for themselves, especially in civil court, whether it's child custody,
[00:20:38] when you're separating property in an estate, disputes between neighbors over where the boundary
[00:20:43] lines of their property are.
[00:20:50] You're going to leave typically, no one's going to leave their real happy with what happened, and you're the person that's going to have to make that decision for them. So it's a
[00:20:54] weight to carry with you, as well as in criminal cases. If you're going to sentence someone,
[00:20:59] you need to be aware of those consequences and how that affects those people and the families,
[00:21:04] as well as the victims in a case and the general public. And that's what's been so good about
[00:21:09] being able to do all these different career parts of the law in my career that let me see that from
[00:21:17] those positions. I'm able to take into consideration how these decisions affect each of these groups
[00:21:22] of people. Let's talk a little bit about that.
[00:21:25] I have some questions.
[00:21:26] You interested in answering some questions for me?
[00:21:27] Sure.
[00:21:28] And these will kind of give you a chance to expound on your current platform.
[00:21:34] I want to hear everybody that's local is going to be listening to this podcast once
[00:21:37] to hear what your position is on the things that this will be an opportunity to talk about
[00:21:42] that.
[00:21:43] And then from there, I just kind of want to expand out to maybe some state issues and go out even broader
[00:21:47] to some country issues, which the broader part of my list
[00:21:53] or base is going to be most interested in,
[00:21:55] although I think there's something out of all of this
[00:21:58] for them.
[00:21:58] But let's start with this.
[00:21:59] First question.
[00:22:00] What inspired you to become a judicial candidate?
[00:22:03] From early on, like I said, I saw as a kid, you see some of my guys I grew up with had
[00:22:09] some dads that were judges and you know, you start to notice them, how they carry themselves,
[00:22:14] how people look at them that you realize that they need to be able to respect that position
[00:22:19] by being above reproach that what you're always doing is what's in the best interests of the people that come into your courtroom. Then as I went through law school and
[00:22:29] I've practiced in the law, I started early on seeing that some judges obviously do
[00:22:35] a very good job of maintaining control of their courtrooms. They move their
[00:22:39] dockets efficiently so that cases are done quickly and they don't languish for years
[00:22:45] But then you also run into the other side of that coin and you see the job that gets phoned in
[00:22:51] You want to continue this case today great if it gets done
[00:22:54] I don't really care because you get the paycheck either way and that's not what it is
[00:22:59] It can't just be a paycheck because you see what it takes for people to participate in the legal system.
[00:23:05] It's expensive and the longer that case goes, yeah, the attorney keeps getting paid,
[00:23:11] but the person who's there probably on average, that's every dollar they have to participate in
[00:23:16] this to try and protect whatever right or property, whatever's involved in their case,
[00:23:22] it's all the average person can do to hire an attorney to represent them.
[00:23:27] So the longer you allow that case to drag out,
[00:23:29] the more likely it is that person is no longer going
[00:23:31] to be able to secure representation in that courtroom.
[00:23:35] And Abraham Lincoln once said a man
[00:23:37] who represents himself as a fool for a client.
[00:23:41] And I agree with that because the way I explain people
[00:23:43] my career is we're not a bunch of rocket scientists
[00:23:46] We're just typically playing a game
[00:23:48] You don't know the rules too and that's where that attorney comes in and
[00:23:52] The more those fees rack up the more times they appear in court and something doesn't get completed
[00:23:58] The more it drains from those people that are breaking their back every day at their job
[00:24:04] those people that are breaking their back every day at their job, just to be able to afford to fight to protect what they have. And that's not fair to them. Whenever the
[00:24:10] attorneys can just, you just keep coming back, you know, you're going to be back another
[00:24:13] day. So someone has to make sure that those cases get completed. And that eventually falls
[00:24:19] on the on the judge on the court to say, listen, folks, if you're going to settle this, that's
[00:24:23] great. I'm happy for you. But if not, we're setting this for a hearing you're both going to put on evidence,
[00:24:28] and I'm going to rule on these issues. And we're going to resolve this matter.
[00:24:32] I kind of felt that Abraham Lincoln quote because I immediately thought I'm an author. I've wrote
[00:24:37] probably 15 books, but I know author should be editing his own books. It's the same way with
[00:24:44] representing yourself in the courtroom.
[00:24:46] And so that Abraham Lincoln thing, it really clicked with me
[00:24:49] because you're not going to see your own thoughts.
[00:24:51] You're not going to see your own mistakes.
[00:24:52] You're going to read right past them, overlook them.
[00:24:54] You need to be represented by somebody else.
[00:24:55] Somebody else needs to look at your book
[00:24:57] and edit it up properly and do the proper markups
[00:25:00] and get you settled.
[00:25:01] I love it.
[00:25:02] Absolutely.
[00:25:02] Question number two, what is your experience
[00:25:04] with law and legal system? We kind of touched on that. You can elaborate a little bit more.
[00:25:08] Okay, so I started off at a small private practice. And in there, it was a general practice firm,
[00:25:14] which is what a lot of small town law firms are. You handle a lot of different matters.
[00:25:19] Started off, I've handled divorces, child custody matters, orders of protection, child support that comes along with it.
[00:25:27] It's when I got my first taste of some juvenile cases, as well as with real estate law.
[00:25:33] I've actually tried two trials in a field on boundary line disputes between neighbors, where we actually attorneys, witnesses, the judge, the court reporter, we actually went out to fields to
[00:25:45] have these trials, which is a pretty unique experience.
[00:25:48] It's a great sound for me.
[00:25:50] But I really enjoy it because it was something that I would love to do as a judge, especially
[00:25:55] in those situations where being able to view on site, which isn't always going to work,
[00:26:00] but it works well in the boundary, dying dispute.
[00:26:03] It's no longer pictures or videos.
[00:26:05] And the first one I had, the judge, we started putting on evidence, said stop guys. I can't tell
[00:26:10] East West, North, South, I don't even know what you're talking about. Go home and put your boots on.
[00:26:14] I will see you at that property in two hours. And that was the first time that took off.
[00:26:20] Criminal cases started off with criminal defense. I tried my first felony DUI trial
[00:26:25] Probably around a year at a law school and was able to get a win there
[00:26:30] What I what's nice now is that officer is still with the sheriff's department
[00:26:35] And he and I work together regularly now and it's great that I've been able to be on both sides with some of these officers over the years
[00:26:42] I'm kind of partial police officer myself, but I look forward to working with you someday.
[00:26:47] That'd be really, really cool.
[00:26:48] But like, we were talking before,
[00:26:51] you know, the interview started,
[00:26:53] and I've actually been in your driveway a few times,
[00:26:55] even in my driveway, our daughters are really good friends.
[00:26:58] They kind of hang out with each other.
[00:27:00] Yes.
[00:27:01] And we'll talk later on about some more stuff,
[00:27:03] but you got some upcoming events later on.
[00:27:04] We'll also cover that.
[00:27:05] I want to move on to question number three.
[00:27:07] How do you plan to ensure impartiality and fairness in your rulings?
[00:27:12] Because there's a lot of that going on right now across the country.
[00:27:15] Activist judges and such.
[00:27:16] So how would you specifically ensure impartiality and fairness in your rulings?
[00:27:22] Well, at the circuit court level, we are not active.
[00:27:26] We don't change the law, modify the law.
[00:27:30] It just is what it is, what's written on the books.
[00:27:32] If you want to change what the law is,
[00:27:34] you talk to your legislators.
[00:27:36] You may want to see cases, you may hire someone
[00:27:40] to fight your case through to the Supreme Court,
[00:27:43] but at the circuit court level,
[00:27:44] we have the laws that are but at the circuit court level,
[00:27:45] we have the laws that are written, the rules that are written, and then those have been
[00:27:48] interpreted by the appellate courts, the Illinois Supreme Court, or even the U.S. Supreme Court
[00:27:53] that tells us how that law is to be applied at this point in time.
[00:27:58] And as long as you focus on the law is the law, and it doesn't matter who the person
[00:28:02] is challenging it, whether it's a man, a woman,
[00:28:05] your friend, someone you've never met or people you've never heard of. The law applies to them
[00:28:10] equally. So as long as you read that law and your ruling is consistent with what the law actually
[00:28:16] is, you just don't let yourself be moved by your outside biases. We all have a bias to certain
[00:28:23] things to certain issues, but you have
[00:28:25] to leave that behind as a judge because that's the only way to rule fairly and impartially in every
[00:28:30] case is you have to leave that behind when you put that robe on.
[00:28:34] Okay, I have kind of a follow-up question to that because you mentioned just now that you don't,
[00:28:39] there's no, did you say there's no new laws are written? You just, the laws are what they are, correct?
[00:28:46] Yes, like a judge is not going to be decide that
[00:28:50] because they don't like a certain law.
[00:28:52] You may disagree with it personally,
[00:28:55] but when you're on the bench,
[00:28:56] you have to enforce it as it is written,
[00:28:58] whether you like it or not.
[00:28:59] Okay.
[00:29:00] Because you don't have the power to change that to say,
[00:29:03] I don't like this law, so I'm not going to enforce it.
[00:29:05] Whereas a prosecutor has unfettered discretion
[00:29:10] to prosecute or not prosecute a case,
[00:29:12] to complete it down, you can charge it any way you want,
[00:29:15] you can have a crime that you decide
[00:29:18] that you don't agree with that law,
[00:29:20] so you decide I'm not gonna charge someone
[00:29:22] with a violation of it.
[00:29:23] As the judge, if that charge comes through,
[00:29:27] and a criminal case is a little easier scenario here to use,
[00:29:30] it doesn't matter whether you agree if it's appropriate or not,
[00:29:34] if it's a law and it's constitutional,
[00:29:37] then you have to apply it as it's written.
[00:29:39] And a judge doesn't get to just decide this is unconstitutional.
[00:29:42] That has to be raised to the court through
[00:29:45] emotion or other process. The judge is not active and decides what to do. If the judge
[00:29:51] makes the decision based on what the parties bring to them.
[00:29:55] That should be the rule. I understand based on what I'm going to tell you, there's exceptions.
[00:30:00] That exception is this. Again, I'm not saying wrong. You're right, absolutely
[00:30:05] right. But this person I'm already talking about is wrong. The Epic Times reported that
[00:30:09] just yesterday, Cook County Circuit Judge Tracy Porter ruled that Trump, for example, was
[00:30:14] disqualified by engaging in insurrection, completely removed him off of the ballots.
[00:30:20] I don't know, you know, how a circuit judge can do that or make that decision. The
[00:30:25] Constitution has two qualifications. You have to be 35 years of age and you have to be
[00:30:32] American-born. There's anything about being a criminal. And so what, if he did, there's
[00:30:38] been no trial, this is a side note, there's been no trial, you're just assuming he's
[00:30:42] an insurrectionist, so you're making this declaration, this fiat
[00:30:46] that he's, he can't be on a ballot.
[00:30:48] And that's what seems to be the argument there is.
[00:30:51] My opinion on how that went down is something
[00:30:54] that I can't give out as a judicial candidate
[00:30:56] because it is a pending litigation at the moment.
[00:30:59] And we are bound by the same judicial code of conduct
[00:31:03] that elected judges are. When we become a candidate, we are bound by the same judicial code of conduct that elected judges are.
[00:31:05] When we become a candidate, we are informed
[00:31:07] and we know that we can't give a comment
[00:31:10] on how we believe something should have been ruled on
[00:31:13] or how it will be ruled on as pending or litigation
[00:31:17] that even is likely to become pending.
[00:31:20] So in general, the challenges of these,
[00:31:24] because we've been dealing with them in this local election, they muddy the water.
[00:31:29] So I'm a firm believer in free and fair elections that people have a right to vote for who they want to vote for.
[00:31:35] I think I can say that without committing to which way I would have ruled.
[00:31:40] And in that case, I don't know what was the evidence, what was put before that judge.
[00:31:45] But as a general rule, I am a firm believer in free and fair elections that people have
[00:31:49] a right to vote for who they want to vote for.
[00:31:52] Fair enough.
[00:31:53] Thanks.
[00:31:54] Question number four, how do you view the role of a judge and the judiciary in society?
[00:32:01] During the day, in their private life, I think I've realized that to do it well, you have to carry
[00:32:07] yourself in a way that never brings disrespect or a lack of confidence in the bench, which means
[00:32:14] people need to be able to see you, that in your personal life, in your practice, leading up to being
[00:32:20] a judge, that you have always been open, honest, and fair with people, that you don't
[00:32:26] pretend to be things that you're not, that you don't try and sway opinions one way or
[00:32:31] another. It's somewhat stoic in that response that you can't show that you're inclined one
[00:32:37] way or another on certain topics because people should never feel like a judge is biased one
[00:32:43] way or another when they walk into their courtroom.
[00:32:45] You need to be able to believe that that judge is fair and impartial regardless of what the
[00:32:50] case is, what the topic is, and who the parties are. So that plays out in your personal life,
[00:32:56] as well as in the courthouse. And while you're there, again, it's never showing favoritism to certain attorneys, certain parties, as well as showing
[00:33:07] courtesy and respect to all the other people that work in that system who work very hard
[00:33:14] in order to make that system work, which are everybody from the guy that cleans the floors at
[00:33:19] nights, to the circuit clerk's employees that manage the files and make sure the dock is run smoothly.
[00:33:26] All of these people play an important part in showing that the court respects them
[00:33:31] the same way you should give respect to the court. It is a situation that I find very important
[00:33:37] that you're not above anyone as the judge. You are there to settle disputes in the law,
[00:33:42] and that's all. Perfect, because the demand for your left or if you're right
[00:33:46] Yeah, good liberal conservative. You're bound by the letter of the law exactly
[00:33:50] Question number five. What is your approach to dealing with difficult or controversial cases? Well, it's it's somewhat
[00:33:57] Easy for me to say that because whenever the case is brought to you
[00:34:02] You first hear what the evidence would be in a case,
[00:34:05] what the arguments of the parties are gonna be.
[00:34:08] You then take that information,
[00:34:10] you research the issues on how has this law
[00:34:13] been previously interpreted by appellate courts
[00:34:16] and by the Supreme Courts,
[00:34:18] and then you apply the law in the fashion
[00:34:20] as it's been written and interpreted
[00:34:22] at the circuit court level.
[00:34:23] If someone doesn't agree with that past precedent, that's what we have appellate courts for. The circuit judge rules
[00:34:29] the way they are bound by the law and those previous precedents. And then with the party
[00:34:34] that disagrees with them has the ability to appeal that decision if they wish. And then
[00:34:39] once you move up that ladder, that's where that precedent may change someday. But it
[00:34:43] doesn't change at the circuit court level.
[00:34:47] How would you handle a situation where your personal beliefs conflict with established
[00:34:51] law or legal precedent?
[00:34:53] The legal precedent takes, it trumps that every time to use a good term there, but that's
[00:35:00] what it has to be.
[00:35:02] Whatever your personal beliefs are on something, when you become a judge,
[00:35:05] you're agreeing to set those aside in favor of the law
[00:35:09] because the law has to be equal, unbiased,
[00:35:12] and fair to everyone.
[00:35:13] So even if you personally disagree with a law,
[00:35:17] for instance, a guy comes in in a criminal case
[00:35:20] and the judge disagrees with the law in the books.
[00:35:23] I don't like this law.
[00:35:25] However, they are presented with evidence and testimony
[00:35:29] that this person has violated that law.
[00:35:31] A jury finds them guilty.
[00:35:33] You will sentence them and you will uphold
[00:35:35] that guilty finding.
[00:35:37] There was actually a judge removed from the bench.
[00:35:40] I was reading just a few days ago
[00:35:41] from a county northwest of here
[00:35:43] and I can't recall the county
[00:35:52] because a jury convicted a man of sexual assault, I believe, and then at the sentencing hearing, the judge just decided to personally vacate that conviction of a jury of their peers and say,
[00:35:59] his time in the county jail was time enough. Well, that far exceeds the authority a judge has.
[00:36:04] You do not have the ability to step in and do that because the law doesn't give you that power.
[00:36:09] And that judge was actually removed from the bench for stepping so far outside the bounds
[00:36:13] of his power. So as the judge, it doesn't matter whether you like it or not, you will
[00:36:18] enforce the law as it's written.
[00:36:19] All right. Let me see your next question. What are the most pressing community issues related to the courts and law enforcement?
[00:36:27] Well, for the courts and law enforcement right now, the biggest issues we see and I talk
[00:36:32] with my officers regularly, it's become pretty cyclical.
[00:36:36] That starts with drug addiction that typically then leads to thefts to support that habit.
[00:36:43] Those thefts will proceed onto a burglary at some point
[00:36:47] in time. During this process, the person will often become homeless and then spirals further.
[00:36:54] Then we get them in the county jail and we try to get them treatment when we can because the
[00:37:00] addiction is the underlying problem. And I've dealt with a lot of the research on this
[00:37:05] and experience I prosecute our drug court program.
[00:37:08] We started drug courts in this state over a decade ago,
[00:37:13] but they've become more popular
[00:37:14] and we're supposed to have them in every county in the state.
[00:37:18] And part of that is a immediate consequences reward
[00:37:22] for doing a good job, sanction for doing a bad job.
[00:37:26] And those are progressive based on how well
[00:37:28] or how poor let you do, trying to eradicate the addiction,
[00:37:32] which is the underlying problem.
[00:37:33] Because if all we do is fail to treat the problem
[00:37:37] and only punish the action, then the addiction remains.
[00:37:41] Person gets back out of the county jail, out of prison.
[00:37:44] They still have an addiction, So they will feed the addiction, which then leads back to being homeless,
[00:37:49] thefts, burglaries back to the county jail on to the Department of Corrections. And it's a
[00:37:54] terrible drain on our resources. Our officers spend an exorbitant amount of time. You know about
[00:37:59] this. Oh, yeah. You know, there are certain names and certain addresses that when they come across
[00:38:03] the radio, you know, great, I'm going out there, they're high again, we're going to have a fight on
[00:38:08] our hands and it'll go through the process, they may go to prison, but the same people
[00:38:13] will come back out until we address the problems there.
[00:38:16] Every shift.
[00:38:17] And this last question is kind of related to that one.
[00:38:19] What are your thoughts on alternative dispute resolution methods such as meditation and
[00:38:24] arbitration?
[00:38:33] So mediation is in some civil cases actually required any case that has a child custody or visitation time at issue in the state of Illinois has to go through a mediation process if the
[00:38:39] parties haven't already agreed on a lawful disposition of the amount of parenting time
[00:38:45] each parent will receive.
[00:38:47] So I'm a firm believer in it.
[00:38:48] I think it's a great way to try and problem solve.
[00:38:52] We actually have on the second circuit for indigent parties that can't afford to pay
[00:38:57] that third attorney to come in and mediate.
[00:39:01] Judges on the circuit are appointed to cases they're not hearing to attempt to
[00:39:05] mediate those matters between the parties. And when they come to mediation, in those
[00:39:10] situations, they actually come without their attorneys, which often is good, because some
[00:39:16] attorneys or problem solvers others realize that there's more money to be made the longer
[00:39:20] this problem goes on. And I've never enjoyed that about this profession.
[00:39:25] So, I believe that it's a wonderful process. You do your best to get things done at mediation
[00:39:31] because an agreement is always better than a ruling to me because then everybody got
[00:39:36] something they wanted. If you leave it up to the court, you may get nothing that you
[00:39:40] wanted out of this. It could be a situation where the ruling is not good for you,
[00:39:45] and it doesn't work with your schedule,
[00:39:47] but a judge has to rule based on just the information they have,
[00:39:51] which they're never going to have all the information
[00:39:53] from your life.
[00:39:54] But it's always important to try those alternative dispute
[00:39:57] resolution paths to me if you can.
[00:40:01] In some cases, you're never going to get parties close enough.
[00:40:03] They're just not going to agree. Sometimes both of them are hard-headed. Sometimes it's just one. And those are the
[00:40:09] situations where the court says, we're not just going to talk about this forever, folks. We're
[00:40:13] going to have a hearing on this. So we're going to get a hearing date and you can keep talking and
[00:40:18] trying to resolve these matters through mediation arbitration issues. But at the end of this,
[00:40:23] we're going to have a hearing if you don't have an agreement and the judge will settle it for you.
[00:40:27] Very good. Let's move on to some broader issues. Now that we know how you stand on certain
[00:40:33] things, I'm curious because we've, we've, the 35,000 legal immigrants in Chicago alone
[00:40:40] as reported by Fox News here in the last couple of days. Our state has spent $470 million on them
[00:40:47] and they're blaming Texas for it.
[00:40:48] It's just a matter of time,
[00:40:49] because we know in New York City,
[00:40:51] I see the news footage, I see the videos,
[00:40:55] private people are taking out their cell phones,
[00:40:58] everything's accessible anymore.
[00:40:59] And you see all these recordings of violence
[00:41:02] and things on the streets,
[00:41:03] and these, I think two or three police officers were beat down by
[00:41:07] Venezuelan's illegal immigrants, and they were arrested, and they were
[00:41:11] released the next day with no bail.
[00:41:14] And it's frustrating for law enforcement officers, and that kind of
[00:41:18] something like that happens.
[00:41:19] But eventually, because there's a lot of men in Illinois already, they're
[00:41:22] going to start trickling down to, we got a lot of plants, a lot of facilities, a lot of places, a lot of jobs down here in
[00:41:29] Southern Illinois. And it's just married time before, I'm not saying they're all bad, they're
[00:41:33] certainly not all bad, but the first act of getting here was committing a crime, right? Coming over
[00:41:37] into our country illegally. So amidst that, these individuals are a fringe group of nasties.
[00:41:46] And some of them are currently unidentified.
[00:41:48] Some of them are terrorists.
[00:41:49] Some of them are Chinese nationals.
[00:41:51] But eventually, some of these individuals
[00:41:53] were wind up in the criminal elements, wind up in our county.
[00:41:58] How would you as a judge handle some of these cases
[00:42:01] when these individuals are arrested?
[00:42:03] Well, as a judge, we are currently bound by the modifications the safety act made to
[00:42:10] our criminal justice system and to the laws of criminal procedure.
[00:42:13] And a big part of that is the no cash bail that we are adapting to.
[00:42:18] We're doing our best.
[00:42:20] We've worked really hard here in Franklin County to be able to still detain people that we believe are dangerous to themselves, to the community and to others.
[00:42:30] However, our hands are tied in a lot of cases right now and judges hands are tied as well. If an offense is not a detainable offense, which, you know, for drug possessions, for instance, it has to be a class X felony amount, the highest level of felony for us that detain them pending a trial.
[00:42:48] Some domestic batteries land on there.
[00:42:51] A lot of these cases, burglaries, thefts,
[00:42:54] aggravated batteries, even whether it's to a person
[00:42:57] where you've caused great bodily harm or gunnot in public
[00:43:00] or aggravated battery because it's a police officer,
[00:43:03] an EMT, a firefighter, we
[00:43:05] can't detain those offenses now. The only way we can detain them on those situations
[00:43:11] is if they're a flight risk. And proving that someone's a flight risk is difficult.
[00:43:16] I've managed to detain two people in Franklin County because they came here from out of
[00:43:21] state, committed a crime. And we would have had to have caught them loose the next day or within 48 hours. However, both of them made statements
[00:43:30] to my officers that as soon as I get out of here, you're never going to see me again.
[00:43:36] So then I could present that to the judge that judge, I've got a flight risk here.
[00:43:40] And then our judge was able to say, yes, we can detain them because you've committed an offense
[00:43:44] that makes you detainable if you are a flight risk.
[00:43:47] But had they not been, then we could never have detained them.
[00:43:50] However, we have been able to be successful with repeat criminals.
[00:43:56] So you get released on pre-trial release. You didn't have to pay any bond.
[00:43:59] Part of those, the pre-existing law is that if you commit another class A misdemeanor or higher offense,
[00:44:06] your bond in the case you were released on can be revoked based on that new charge.
[00:44:12] So, if we have to release someone for drug possessions, these battery cases that used to,
[00:44:19] we could have set their bond at an appropriate and fair amount to ensure they come back to court.
[00:44:25] Well, now I can at least file to revoke that pretrial release in the previous case, and
[00:44:30] I can detain someone at that point.
[00:44:32] And we've detained a number of individuals.
[00:44:34] I detained a guy yesterday that had been released for possession of a stolen motor vehicle and
[00:44:41] on a theft case.
[00:44:43] And then we found officers found him in possession of another stolen motor vehicle
[00:44:47] Well, I couldn't keep him in custody on the new case
[00:44:50] Was able to revoke his bond on the previous case because he'd gone out and committed another offense of that higher level
[00:44:57] Which explains why?
[00:44:59] Crimes and violent crimes are up. I mean we're catching these guys are putting them in jail and they're getting
[00:45:03] I'm not talking about forceful felonies and things like that,
[00:45:05] but just, you know, say simple battery and things like this.
[00:45:08] People are being caught, you know,
[00:45:10] and they're being released and they're,
[00:45:12] I'm not, I'm gonna spare you the agony
[00:45:14] of having to answer some of this stuff,
[00:45:15] because I know you can't with a safety act and all that.
[00:45:18] I'll talk about that on the show,
[00:45:19] let everybody know what the safety act is.
[00:45:21] But violent crimes are up and I'm sure you're seeing a lot of it.
[00:45:24] I wanna move on to just one more thing before I can almost spell your wife's crock-pock cooking over there
[00:45:30] It smells good
[00:45:32] Executive there's a lot of executive fiat. How does that because I know you're bound by law. I'm bound by law being a police officer
[00:45:40] When when a governor or a president writes an executive order, we both know, meaning you both know that that's not long.
[00:45:46] That's not he can't do that. He can't write law. That's not his job. That's a legislator's job to write law.
[00:45:52] It's Congress's job to write law. How does it work for a judge when an executive?
[00:45:58] It will say in this case, a governor or even a president writes something like that.
[00:46:04] How are you bound by that?
[00:46:06] Well, it would depend on the situation
[00:46:08] and it's hard to comment on that without it landing
[00:46:10] in one of these potential litigation
[00:46:12] or pending litigation issues
[00:46:14] because we're still dealing with some of those.
[00:46:16] We did just go through those with COVID
[00:46:19] and those orders and there's still some things
[00:46:21] bouncing around in litigation.
[00:46:23] So it really prevents being very specific on that. So what you have to do in those situations though is again as a circuit
[00:46:30] judge challenges to some type of order, you would go back to what's the previous precedent. What is
[00:46:36] the law on how executive orders are applied, how have the appellate courts and the Supreme
[00:46:42] Courts instructed us to take that based on a certain set of facts
[00:46:47] that are then analogous to what we have here.
[00:46:50] And at the circuit level, you're required to rule in order with what that previous precedent is.
[00:46:56] And again, that's when people have an option that if they don't like what that precedent is to appeal that decision,
[00:47:01] and that's what starts that process of potentially changing what that previous precedent was.
[00:47:06] It may or it may not,
[00:47:08] but the circuit court isn't the one that makes that decision.
[00:47:10] So you're bound by the previous decisions
[00:47:13] on how those orders are enforced.
[00:47:16] Perfect.
[00:47:17] I get it.
[00:47:18] Thank you Daniel Kate Cochram for Franklin County
[00:47:20] raising judge.
[00:47:21] It's been an honor talking to you.
[00:47:23] You do have some events coming up. Can you elaborate on some of the things you got coming up?
[00:47:28] Yes, we are actually having an event this Saturday in Thompsonville at the Aiken Masonic Lodge
[00:47:33] from 430 to 7. We're having pulled pork and baked beans and chips. My wife makes cookies that
[00:47:40] are absolutely delicious that everybody local knows about. We'll have some of that there, but it's light on the politics,
[00:47:47] good on the fellowship of people being around.
[00:47:49] I like to shake hands.
[00:47:50] I want people to know who their judge would be,
[00:47:54] who I am as a person outside of that suit that I wear all the time,
[00:47:57] because to me, that's really just a uniform I put on every day.
[00:48:00] We're also going to have an event in Cessar coming up the next Saturday that I'll be putting
[00:48:06] some flyers out here soon and making some announcements on Facebook's with times and
[00:48:10] places.
[00:48:11] And in between those events, I'll be out knocking on people's doors doing this the old-fashioned
[00:48:16] way so they can meet me, know who I am as a person, ask questions, because they need
[00:48:21] to know that judges are regular people.
[00:48:24] They make difficult decisions, but they need to understand that you can make
[00:48:28] those decisions because I came from the same place they did.
[00:48:31] I grew up in a household with two working parents, the same way my wife did.
[00:48:36] You know, I'm first generation to wear a suit in my family.
[00:48:39] So when people come into that courthouse, they can understand, I know where you
[00:48:44] came from. I know how hard you worked for what you have,
[00:48:46] because that's what got me to where I am.
[00:48:48] Your model is actually a working-class judge
[00:48:50] for working-class people.
[00:48:51] I love it.
[00:48:52] Yes, that's exactly right, because that's
[00:48:55] what I come from.
[00:48:56] And those are the people that I support.
[00:48:59] Perfect.
[00:48:59] I will be there March 2nd at the Aiken to Sennec Lodge,
[00:49:03] number 749 105 South
[00:49:05] Main Street Thompsonville Illinois between 4 and 7. If you guys are listening
[00:49:09] to this your local come out and meet Daniel K. Cochram if you never met him yet
[00:49:12] I've I like I said I've been in his driveway he's been in mine I plan on
[00:49:16] rubbing shoulders with him at the event shaking his hand and meeting face to face
[00:49:18] Daniel I want to thank you again for coming out here hang tight after I close
[00:49:22] out here on a close things out with you and chat for another minute or two.
[00:49:26] And thank you, everybody, for listening to The Rise of Republic.
[00:49:28] I am Al Douglas Hogan.
[00:49:30] We'll catch you next week.