A Group in Alameda County wants a 30 Dollar an Hour Minimum Wage

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Speaker 1: And we continue at one oh five in the afternoon on the John Phillips Show, Mister Randy Weggs in Culver City.

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Speaker 2: John, based on the last hour, do you think Tom Steyer is going to be buying any ads anytime soon? On KABC or KSFO.

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Speaker 3: I like Big.

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Speaker 1: He should He's not in the top two right now.

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Speaker 2: Hey, you got to put your face in your name where people aren't already paying attention to you.

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Speaker 1: I just edited something that I was going to say, and you should be very proud of me.

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Speaker 3: I am so proud. I like it Big.

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Speaker 1: Eight hundred two two two five two two two is the telephone number? What eight hundred two two two five two two two. Yesterday we had Dan Walters on the program, who's the dean of the Sacramento Press Corps, columnist in cal Matters, longtime observer and writer on California or in your politics, and he talked about a university study that took place at you see Santa Cruz that took a look at the minimum weight for fast food workers in California that is now at twenty dollars an hour, and they tried to figure out just exactly what impact that would have on the fast food industry, and what they found was it caused more automation to happen. Now, when you go to a fast food joint, you'll probably order it a kiosk or on an app on your phone. You'll probably pay on your phone as well. Some of these shops have robots doing the cokes, filling the cokes, whereas in the old days it would be someone there with the cup at the coke dispenser filling your cup up with soda before they handed it to you. Those jobs are now gone in many places. They found that there are fewer workers working in the fast food industry because of the autumn, they don't need the same number of people, so people are getting laid off. And they also found that even though there are fewer people working in that industry, prices continue to skyrocket. So for the consumer, even though budget cuts usually mean cheaper prices, that's not what happened. You're getting less service now when you go to a fast food joint, and you're paying more for it. By any objective standard that fast food that twenty dollars an hour. Fast food regulation at fast food restaurants in California has been a complete and utter disaster, a disaster for the industry, a disaster for the employees, and a disaster for the consumer. So therefore, after reading that report, a group in Alameda County thought, let's raise the minimum wage to thirty dollars an hour.

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Speaker 3: Here.

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Speaker 2: You remember when Barber Lee was running for Senate, she said we should have a fifty dollars an.

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Speaker 3: Hour minimum wage.

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Speaker 2: Quite frankly, oh yeah, well, we're not going that far. But labor groups in Alameda County say it's too expensive to live there, except in East Oakland, but it's kind of dangerous.

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Speaker 1: Kind of.

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Speaker 3: Do you can get a place for four hundred k?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that being said, it's very expensive to live in Alameda County. So that's why they want a thirty dollars an hour minimum wage across the board.

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Speaker 1: What could go wrong?

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Speaker 3: For more on this, we go to NBC in the.

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Speaker 4: Bay dat to help people make it in the Bay as we talk about more stories about affordability for you. This morning today at the Bay is Barbaradelle joining us. Live in Alameda County, So, Bob, this is where we're seeing a demand for a thirty dollars an hour minimum wage.

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Speaker 3: Correct.

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Speaker 5: So later today at noon during a press conference and group of workers and members of the community and labor movement.

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Speaker 3: It's a labor union. That's always a labor union doing this.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they're the ones with the microphones and the media contacts and the know how of.

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Speaker 5: Workers and members of it.

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Speaker 2: It was the labor union representing airport, food service workers and hotel workers to get the minimum wage for just those industries jacked up to thirty dollars by twenty twenty eight because Olympics in Los Angeles, and apparently that's got every other labor union in the state a little jelly bread.

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Speaker 1: Well, because the Democrats control all of these cities, and many of them are elected with backing from the unions, how can they say no.

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Speaker 5: Of workers and members of the community and labor movement. They're going to announce they are filing a new initiative to ask voters here, specifically in Alameda County, to pass lot I would pay people who work at grocery stores like the one behind me and other businesses and restaurants thirty dollars an hour.

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Speaker 2: That it's going to be a ballot initiative. Oh boy, there's going to be so many things on the ballot this year.

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Speaker 3: It is going to be so confusing.

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Speaker 1: Well, and how many totally destructive things are going to be on the ballot too, But because you know who is going to write the title in summary, at least for the state wide ones, people are going to be confused and you're going to be tricked into voting for the most destructive thing imaginable.

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Speaker 3: I know who, Bob bonta.

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Speaker 5: Thirty dollars an hour. That'd be the minimum wage they are asking for voters to pass this this November. If past large businesses we're talking about businesses with one hundred plus employees one hundred million dollars on revenue would have to pay that thirty dollars an hour minimum wage by twenty thirty.

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Speaker 2: Which means even the janitor at Kaiser is going to be making thirty bucks an hour.

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Speaker 5: Chu ching plus employees one hundred million dollars on revenue would have to pay that thirty dollar an hour minimum wage by twenty thirty to every worker in Oakland and here in Alameda County. Small businesses, those with twenty five or fewer employees would have ten years to hit that thirty dollars minimum wage.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but if the big businesses have to do it. The small businesses are going to lose all their employees unless they go up to thirty as well.

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Speaker 1: Okay, let's just think this through here for a second. Okay, what's the number one concern among California voters right now headed into this scubernatorial election.

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Speaker 3: Afordability.

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Speaker 1: That's right, And affordability is determined by a number of factors. But let's just focus on one particular thing. Let's talk about Kaiser because Kaiser is based out of Oakland, and we know that Kaiser is an important employer in that community, a big employer.

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Speaker 3: So let's say that the.

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Speaker 1: Minimum wage now goes to thirty dollars an hour across the board. That means the people who are sweeping the floor get thirty dollars an hour, the people who are answering the phones get thirty dollars an hour, the people who are doing medial tasks get thirty dollars an hour. If you are someone with an education, and you are someone with some kind of specialized degree, because not all of them are doctors, you have various healthcare professionals with various degrees, various titles. In between the doctors at the top and the people that sweep the floors. At the bottom, you have people who are X raytex, you have people who are physical therapists. You have different degrees of nurses, and not all of them make thirty dollars an hour. So if suddenly you're paying the nurses the same as the janitors, what do you think.

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Speaker 3: The nurses are going to do next?

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Speaker 1: Because they have to have a license, and they have to have college degrees, and they have to have resumes and experience, and they have to have a clean record. If they don't have a clean record, they won't hire them. What do you think they're going to do? Well, of course, they're going to demand a raise. And how about if you're an X ray tech and you have an education, and you have responsibilities that are beyond sweeping the floors, and you now get paid the same as the guy who's sweeping the floors, you're going to demand more money. And across the workforce, everyone is going to demand more. And when the nurses get paid more, the doctors are going to say, now, wait a minute, why is it that there's not a whole lot of daylight in between us and the nurses. We need to raise and.

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Speaker 3: Across the board.

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Speaker 1: Everyone's going to get a raise because everyone's going to demand one in that community. It's a heavily unionized workforce. You don't have a lot of non union employees at a Kaiser facility. Okay, so everyone gets the raise. Well, that's wonderful. We're happy for them. The doctors get paid more, the nurses get paid more, the ex rat texts get paid more, the people who sweep the floors get paid more. Everyone gets paid more. What could go wrong? Well, you show up to that facility and you're going to get sticker shocked what everything costs.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 1: I know the economics are different at Kaiser than they are for PPOs and HMOs and Medicare and other forms of insurance, but the costs are going to skyrocket. Your healthcare costs, which I'm sure you probably already think are too expensive now for what you get, are going to shoot through the roof. And if they try to contain those costs, or they try to make it so it doesn't cost as much as it otherwise would, what are they going to do. They're going to limit the number of services that you are eligible for, or they will lay people off, or they will just say, we're not covering X, Y, and Z, so it's going to cost you more for less. That's what's going to happen if the minimum wage suddenly shoots up to something ridiculous like thirty dollars an hour.

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Speaker 2: Well, and not only that specifically, when you're talking about Kaiser, it was just yesterday that a whole bunch of Kaiser employees had a one day strike because they're upset that Kaiser is adding so much AI that's replacing jobs. And there's plenty of jobs at any hospital organization that could be done by AI. Do you think this is going to accelerate that process? Because I do, Oh yeah, and think about it. AI is coming, and of all the industries that exist, that one is probably gonna get hit the hardest because let's just say you're a radiologist and you're looking for cancer on a skin. What do you think is going to be more accurate? AI technology or forty six year old eyes.

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Speaker 5: Currently, the minimum wage in anlomated county is just under seventeen dollars an hour, Oakland just over seventeen dollars an hour. The organizers they call themselves Oakland Analomated County living way.

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Speaker 2: There's also something that you have to think about. And the fast food workers found this out the hard way. It sounds great, and look, I understand it's very expensive and these are hard jobs. But when you get bumped up that much, all of a sudden, you're now paying taxes all of a sudden, you don't qualify for a lot of the benefits that you did qualify for, including medical.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and in some cases you're gonna get bumped into a new tax bracket.

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Speaker 5: Organizers they call themselves Oakland and Alameda County Living Wage for All campaign. They cite the MIT Living Wage Challenge calculator, which we checked online, and it does show that in a two parent, two child household, both parents must work and each must earn over forty four dollars an hour.

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Speaker 2: And this is the other thing. Even if this goes through, and we've seen these go through in Los Angeles, it's still not enough to live comfortably. So there's still going to be a whole bunch of people complaining that it's too expensive to live here, and by a whole lot of other circumstances, it just got more expensive.

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Speaker 5: They cite the MIT Living Wage Challenge calculator which we checked online, and it does show that in a two parent, two child household, both parents must work and each must earn over forty four dollars an hour to cover the basic cost of living here in Alameda.

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Speaker 2: County unless you want to live in East Oakland. Just do all on East Oakland. It's fascinating, you might recall.

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Speaker 5: Los Angeles already requires hotel and airport workers to be paid thirty dollars dollars an hour by July twenty twenty eight.

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Speaker 2: And by the way, that one is so strange because if you work at a restaurant, you don't qualify for that thirty dollars an hour. But if you work at the restaurant inside a hotel or the chilis to go at lax, now you qualify for thirty dollars an hour.

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Speaker 1: There is no way people can understand these insane rules well.

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Speaker 3: And the unions do this on purpose.

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Speaker 2: They've realized that they cannot at the ballot box just raise the minimum wage for everybody for everything, because it does not it hasn't passed. It failed the last time. So what they've learned to do is get municipalities like Los Angeles with their DSA city council putting forth these minimum wages for specific categories, and then you're petting workers from different industries against each other because if the fast food workers get twenty then the nurses say, well, we need to get twenty five, and the hospital workers say we need to get this. It's a never ending fight. And that's what goes on at every single city council meeting in la and I'm sure the same thing is going on in every other major city in the state as well.

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Speaker 1: Here's the other issue, and you mentioned AI technology, it's not just AI technology that's a threat to these sorts of laws. When the cost of living gets to the point to where no one can afford to live there, or you can't afford to live there comfortably. Let's say, because this is going to bring everyone down. They think it's going to lift everyone up. It's going to bring everyone down because it's going to cause the cost of goods and services to go up across the board. But not everyone gets the raise. In the old days, you pretty much had to live where your job was, and there were very few exceptions to that. My grandpa lived in the same city as his job. He couldn't live in another city or a state. It just wasn't possible. He didn't have a computer, he didn't have a smartphone. There was no internet at the time that people had access to. That didn't exist. My dad had to live where he worked, although he lived in a different county. Think about the jobs that exist today. I don't live in the same county as my job. I work from home. I'm sure the generations after me will probably have access to the ability to work from home or to work remotely. You go on a cruise ship these days and you're at a port that's one of these ports that the cruise ships go to all the time. You go to Cosmel or whatever, and you go to one of these bars that shut down on the ship.

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Speaker 3: What do you see.

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Speaker 1: It looks like a Starbucks in a big city where you have people with their laptops out and they have their headphones in and they are working a job that is in some other city, and they are on a cruise ship, but they are working their job. States and cities do not have a monopoly on their population anymore. Where you can't move, you can't go someplace else. The nature of how people of how people are working is changing and with so many people working remotely or working from home, or however you want to call it, checking in on an irregular basis. They can move wherever they want and they don't have to stay there and live in that misery.

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Speaker 3: And I think that's part of.

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Speaker 1: The reason that you're seeing so many people flee the Blue states. The governor of New York just recently was on camera telling former New Yorkers who left the state, do the right thing, do the patriotic thing. Come back, Go to Palm Beach, find your friends, tell them to come back.

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Speaker 3: We have generous social.

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Speaker 1: Services here, but if the rich people aren't here to pay for it, we're going to collapse. So you need to get them to move back to New York. And she was begging them two years ago. She told them to get the hell out, and now she realizes she can't do what she wants to do without the money being there. And you don't own that money. That money is very mobile. Those jobs are mobile. People can leave, and they are and not just people but businesses. Yamaha is leaving California. Elon Musk left California, Peter Tile left California. Chevron is writing letters to the state legislature and the governor saying they're about to go have options. And I don't think that these unions fully understand that. And they think because they control the politicians that make the decision decisions, they hold all the cards, and they don't because guess what, if your tax base leaves, you may be able to make the decisions, and you may be able to control the politicians that are in the positions of power. But if there is no money, there is no money. There's no money. Honey dollars an hour.

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Speaker 5: By July of twenty twenty eight, New York City considering thirty dollars an hour for workers in that city. You might recall that Back in twenty twenty four, however, Californians, by a slim majority, did say no to a ballot measure that would increase the state's minimum wage to eighteen dollars an hour.

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Speaker 2: I think it was eighteen plus. It would go up with inflation like the gas tax, which would have been fascinating.

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Speaker 1: I am shocked. We voted it down.

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Speaker 5: Over concerns that they would increase the cost of goods and services. Here's a quote from the co executive director of the Black Organizing Project we'll be speaking of today's news conference today. Quote, it is an incredibly expensive expensive to live in the East Bay. Many people, especially black people, are no longer to afford able to afford to stay. This is unacceptable. So we're putting living wages on the ballot in twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 2: I don't know why they had to bring race into it, but there you go. The proposed thirty dollars a minimum wage that might be coming to your ballot in Alameda County.

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Speaker 1: Eight hundred two two two five two two two is a telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. If you'd like to email the show, you can do sell at Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny Don't Like show at gmail dot com. And you could listen to us tomorrow in Fresno.

00:19:53
Speaker 2: If you need something to do at noon on a Saturday, you might need to get some friends. But if you don't have any and you want us to be your friends, we'll be your friends for an hour on KMJ and Fresno, our sister station covering the entire Central Valley five eighty on the AM dial one O five point nine FM. You can stream it at kmjnow dot com. It's the Fixed California Our replay, a best of of all this nonsense for one hour Saturdays at noon on KMJ.

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Speaker 1: Coming up later on on the program, Curtis Sleewa joins us, and we're also going to check in with former Los Angeles mayor and current candidate for Governor Antonio Via goso O night. But right now it's time to open up the California crime bladder.

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Speaker 6: It's happened yet again.

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Speaker 3: Nice see. Time for the California crime blodder and Randy.

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Speaker 1: This one involves the world's oldest profession.

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Speaker 2: A police officer in Hayward has been buck for taking bribes and free trips to the brothel he was protecting from law enforcement. Uh oh, wonder if he had a punch card for mar Here is KTVU Fox two in the Bay.

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Speaker 7: In Hayward tonight, a veteran police officer is facing charges. He's accused of protecting a local brothel. In exchange, he was given both money and free access to sex workers.

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Speaker 1: So it was for money and barter.

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Speaker 2: You figured they just take the whole thing out in trade. But he also got cash, although maybe that was just an insurance policy for him, because sure, sure, sure, you can get of all the trips to the brothel you want, but at some point you're gonna have to go to the doctor and get treated for crabs, and that costs cash money.

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Speaker 1: And apparently it was worth his pension.

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Speaker 7: In exchange, he was given both money and free access to sex workers. Our crime reporter Henry Lee first broke that story and joined us live from the department with details.

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Speaker 6: Henry Claudian. Investigators say they matched up this Hayward officer's visits to the brothel with surveillance photos and his own text to the woman who helped run the operation downtown.

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Speaker 2: You know, for a veteran police officer, this guy's not too bright.

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Speaker 1: I wonder who sold him out. I bet you he was a bad tipper. I bet you he thought because he got the services for free, he didn't have to tip, you.

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Speaker 3: Have to tip.

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Speaker 8: I've always thought that was like a legitimate business or something, because I see like it just looks a legitimate teams quiet.

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Speaker 6: This was, indeed wants a business in a quiet part of downtown Hayward, But the Alameda County Prosecutors say it was far from legitimate because it was an illegal brothel, and Hayward police officer Benjamin Yarborough, who's the brother in law of the top cop, has been charged with accepting one thousand dollars bribe and free access to sex workers in exchange for the the officers promised to protect the brothel.

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Speaker 2: Now, when you are figuring out the charges to go after this guy, do you have to put a muddy value on all the free sex.

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Speaker 3: That he had?

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Speaker 1: You might have to, I guess.

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Speaker 2: Because this could go to a very, very very big charge depending on how many times he took them up on this. Well, one thousand dollars isn't a very big bribe, No, it's not.

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Speaker 6: In exchange for the officer's promise to protect the brothel, which operated under the radar near Maine and Warren Streets.

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Speaker 9: I've never seen any I.

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Speaker 3: Wonder how many.

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Speaker 2: I don't think this is that prevalent, but I wonder how often it does happen where because there are so many businesses that it is obvious that it's a whorehouse, massage, parlors, anybody. And why is it that nobody's taking them down? Why is it that these places are not getting shut down or busted. Could it be that one the city likes the business taxes and two someone in law enforcement's on the take.

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Speaker 1: Oh, it's not just law enforcement. I'm sure it's code enforcement. I'm sure it's the electeds. I'm sure it's the people who work for the electeds. It's everyone. And you think about that.

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Speaker 2: If you're the proprietor of the whorehouse, you're the madam, you're the pimp. Think how much horing you have to give away for free just to make sure that everyone's off your back.

00:24:20
Speaker 1: Randy, it's called gentlemen's massages.

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Speaker 9: I've never seen any activity like that.

00:24:29
Speaker 10: So we walk by here every day.

00:24:30
Speaker 6: Alejandro Gerabe, who lives in the area, is in shocked. But did wonder what the business formerly known as flame ac Wellness was all about, especially Acu Wellness.

00:24:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's code that sounds medical to me.

00:24:43
Speaker 6: Especially because it was open for twelve hours a day, seven days a week before it closed last year.

00:24:48
Speaker 3: These places are not hard to spot.

00:24:52
Speaker 1: You can't find an urgent care that's opened that much.

00:24:55
Speaker 6: The buildings now for sale.

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Speaker 8: Sometimes I do see like guys like walking in and out, But like I said, maybe it's just like just like businessmen like, I don't know what they do. I thought like maybe there's some sort of like ac or Mays, sort of like plumbing.

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Speaker 2: Yalbro's been a yeah, that's what they were doing. They were doing some kind of plumbing.

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Speaker 8: Ac or Mason sort of like plumbing.

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Speaker 6: Ylbro's been a Hayward officer for about twelve years after working as an officer in Modesto. I've learned Yarbrough's wife is the sister of Hayward Police Chief Brian Matthews.

00:25:26
Speaker 3: Oh, this just got a lot more awkward.

00:25:30
Speaker 1: Can you imagine what Thanksgiving is going to be?

00:25:32
Speaker 3: Like? Oh, wait a.

00:25:33
Speaker 1: Minute, Easter's right around the corner.

00:25:37
Speaker 3: I don't think he's invited.

00:25:39
Speaker 6: I've learned Yarborough's wife is the sister of Hayward Police Chief Brian Matthews. In a statement, the chief said, in part, any criminal you.

00:25:47
Speaker 2: Know at least he saved money on Christmas gifts because this holiday season he got his wife HPV.

00:25:55
Speaker 6: Any criminal conduct on the part of any Hayward Police Department employee will not be tolerated, regardless of any personal relationships that may exist. The dast and core documents y'allbro accept, I mean.

00:26:05
Speaker 2: I got to imagine that the police chief is going to do everything he can to ruin this guy now because he screwed over his sister.

00:26:14
Speaker 1: Well, I wonder if he did the guy a favor by bringing him over from Modesto in the first place.

00:26:23
Speaker 6: The dast and core documents, y'arbro accepted ten one hundred dollar bills in a red envelope.

00:26:31
Speaker 3: That's not suspicious, not at all.

00:26:34
Speaker 6: The dast and core documents. Y'allbro accepted ten one hundred dollar bills in a red envelope from a woman that runs the brothel and use both as personal and work cell phone, so Range for free sexual services.

00:26:45
Speaker 3: He this is why you need a burner phone. It's not that complicated.

00:26:50
Speaker 1: I wonder if the madam had an app.

00:26:53
Speaker 2: So he's using his work phone, which is the phone he has with the department that you would imagine is subject to public records and all kinds of access to scheduled dates with the prostitutes.

00:27:08
Speaker 1: Well, if your brother in law is the police chief, you feel like your bulletproof. And if you feel like your bulletproof, you get real sloppy.

00:27:15
Speaker 6: And use both as personal and work cell phone Sorange for free sexual services. In exchange authority, say he promised to provide protection, investigate.

00:27:23
Speaker 3: Competing hopefully he wore protection.

00:27:26
Speaker 6: Probably not in exchange authority, say he promised to provide protection, investigate competing brothels, and provide intel about law enforcement activity.

00:27:35
Speaker 3: Oh I love that.

00:27:36
Speaker 2: So not only is he making sure that if anyone sniffing around this brothel, he makes her to shut down that investigation. He probably was like the guy responsible for shutting down all the other brothels in Hayward.

00:27:50
Speaker 1: Well, it sounds like both he and the madam requested the combo.

00:27:53
Speaker 6: Platter investigate competing brothels and provide intel about law enforcement activity. The officer allegedly wrote in a text quote, I don't bust, I protect and keep safe.

00:28:04
Speaker 3: Don't say anything, I protect.

00:28:09
Speaker 6: And keep safe. The woman in turn agreed in a text that the officer was quote a dirty cop.

00:28:18
Speaker 1: And I love that these people put all of this in writing too.

00:28:21
Speaker 6: Yep, these women work at a dentist office next door to the brothel.

00:28:26
Speaker 2: We were so surprised, I mean, by people are getting drilled at both places.

00:28:34
Speaker 4: We were so surprised, I mean we kind of had a feeling based on their hours.

00:28:42
Speaker 2: Legitimate places that do acupuncture, that do cop therapy, that do massages are not open until eleven o'clock at night, and they usually don't have black bars on the windows, and they usually not in a strip mall.

00:29:04
Speaker 1: I'm trying so hard to be good, but it.

00:29:07
Speaker 7: Was definitely.

00:29:09
Speaker 3: Kind of a shock once we it was cleared out.

00:29:14
Speaker 6: Now the officer's attorney and the mayor Hayward decline a common Today, the forty year old woman tied to the brothel has been charged by Santa Clara County prosecutors with pimping at a sister location in San Jose, where this investigation first began Live and Hayward Henry KTVU Fox two years.

00:29:31
Speaker 2: So she had a franchise going and or she got busted at the San Jose location, and that's how they found out about the Hayward location.

00:29:40
Speaker 1: Okay, if you're that business minded and you're willing to take out a franchise, why not take out a Chick fil A.

00:29:47
Speaker 3: She was probably making more than you can make on a Chick fil A.

00:29:50
Speaker 1: Probably eight hundred two two two five two two two is a telephone number. One eight hundred two two two five two two two. If you'd like to email the show. You can do so at Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com. And Randy eremonitor in the mail bag.

00:30:10
Speaker 2: This one comes from someone who liked to remain anonymous. I wonder why, no, wonder happy endings are so expensive. It's all those complimentary sessions for corrupt government officials. They got to make it up somehow.

00:30:26
Speaker 1: All right, it's time to reopen the California crime Blodder's Cash's dummy.

00:30:33
Speaker 3: We shouldn't make this stuff up. If we tried, I said.

00:30:36
Speaker 11: Hell no, briny boy, let me get up one out of here.

00:30:40
Speaker 3: It's the California Crime Blowder and Randy.

00:30:44
Speaker 1: This one involved a domestic dispute.

00:30:47
Speaker 2: A wild crash in Covena has some very interesting backstory because it wasn't an accident. It was a husband trying to run his wife down with his car.

00:31:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that violates some of the vows.

00:31:04
Speaker 2: For more, here's ABC seven Eyewitness News in Los Angeles.

00:31:10
Speaker 8: Meantime, we have new details on a destructive crash early this morning on the streets of Covina.

00:31:15
Speaker 9: Investigators are telling us four people were hurt when a husband trying to chase down his wife caused a five car pile up.

00:31:22
Speaker 2: I now, obviously he's in the wrong here, and this guy is a buffoon and a jackass and could have killed his wife, and I think the daughter was in the car. But I do want to know the last thing she said to him.

00:31:36
Speaker 1: Well, it sounds like this guy might be a match for Tiger Woods.

00:31:40
Speaker 9: X eyewitness news reporter said, Garcia's live in Covina with more on how police track that suspect down sid.

00:31:49
Speaker 11: The intersection here at Cyprus and Hollibek has been clear. But man, what a message looked like early this morning and that suspect to police say caused the crash he's in. This was the scene around eight o'clock this morning when Covena police arrested the man they say caused the crash that sent four people to the hospital. He was hiding a short distance away in the backyard of a house when residents informed police that he was wandering around their homes.

00:32:17
Speaker 2: Hey, there's a bloody guy in my backyard. Can you get him?

00:32:23
Speaker 3: Well.

00:32:23
Speaker 1: Covena is still one of these cities that answers nine to one one calls.

00:32:29
Speaker 11: Covena PITIPD got the call just before six this morning of this horrific crash. Security video provided to us from a couple of neighbors shows the suspect running behind a house moments after the crash, and in another sequence, the suspect is seen wandering around the neighborhood not far from the intersection. Some two hours after the crash, the suspect was taken into custody. Five to six cars were involved in this horrific crash.

00:32:55
Speaker 3: Here's what we know.

00:32:55
Speaker 11: Covina police telling us that this is a domestic violence incident.

00:33:00
Speaker 3: Oh boy, you know what that means? John?

00:33:02
Speaker 1: What's that?

00:33:03
Speaker 3: This is a nonviolent crime?

00:33:06
Speaker 1: How would you like to be the marriage counselor of this couple?

00:33:09
Speaker 11: What Kavina Peds put together so far is that the suspect was chasing his wife at a high rate of speed in his car at the intersection of Hollibuck and Cyprus. He allegedly rammed his car into his wife's car. A wife and her teenage daughter inside the car was inside the car with her. A wife's car flipped over on its side. Other cars were involved in this crash and you can see the wreckage.

00:33:32
Speaker 2: If the thing she said before was I'm leaving you. She was in the right, boy.

00:33:38
Speaker 3: This is full on dukes of hazard.

00:33:40
Speaker 11: Four people were taken to the hospital and according to police, they were transported with non life threatening injuries. We spoke to the neighbors who shared their surveillance video with us. They described what they heard and saw.

00:33:55
Speaker 12: I just came out and I saw all the cops and you guys running out that way the backyard. So I ran over there and everybody started pointing this way. I said, oh, my house. I had the door open, so I came to look, and next thing I knew, he was right next door, hiding behind the gate. The cops got a mountain.

00:34:16
Speaker 3: Hey, I found him.

00:34:18
Speaker 1: This may be one of those cases where they're better off single.

00:34:22
Speaker 12: It's crazy. I never seen this here before.

00:34:24
Speaker 10: I heard somebody on the side of my house and so I looked checked my camera.

00:34:27
Speaker 3: It was him.

00:34:29
Speaker 10: So he was on the side of the house. He had been watching the officers from the fence over there, and then he went around to my backyard. And at that point that's when I, you know, I have my son in my house, so I didn't want to just leave him by himself, so I.

00:34:41
Speaker 3: By the way.

00:34:42
Speaker 2: Just to make this even worse than it is, if you picture the scene here, he is chasing his wife in a car, he crashes into her, which causes a massive six car crash. Then as everyone's injured waiting for help to get ambulances and do get transported to the hospital, he doesn't try to help his family that he just hurt. He runs and hides in the neighbor's yard.

00:35:08
Speaker 1: Well, imagine if you were someone that just got sucked into this drama. When you're out running your errands, you know, I little do you know? You're right in the middle of the War of the roses.

00:35:19
Speaker 10: You know, I have my son in my house, so I didn't want to just leave him by himself. So I ran to the front of my house on the porch and I yelled at the media that was here to get the police over here. And the police went over there and they were able to get him.

00:35:30
Speaker 1: I guess.

00:35:31
Speaker 3: So there you go.

00:35:32
Speaker 2: That's what happened in Covena, where a disgruntled husband tried to run down his wife with a car, causing a major accident that he himself got hurt in and he got busted. I don't think they're going to make it to the next anniversary.

00:35:50
Speaker 1: You know, after hearing this story, the first thing that popped into my mind was that I'm glad Liza Minellie doesn't drive. Do you remember reading those stories when she and David Guest divorced one another? Why don't you remind us? Okay, So these are his claims, which she disputes. But he claimed that she used to drink vodka and that the vodka gave her superhuman strength, and when she would drink that vodka and get the superhuman strength, she would want to fight them and she would beat the living hell out of them. That's what he claimed.

00:36:36
Speaker 2: Well, if those allegations were true and she was busted for domestic violence, it's good to know that domestic violence is a nonviolent crime in the state of California.

00:36:48
Speaker 1: Well, I think she has a bad hip. She has a hitching her gidde up, so I don't think that she drives anymore, certainly not a stick shift. But could you imagine her and a car chasing him down the street. That would be a sight, Although I doubt that one would happen in West Colvina, might happen someplace else.

00:37:15
Speaker 3: I don't know.

00:37:16
Speaker 1: What it is about domestic disputes that just makes them as nasty as possible. I'm sure it's because they you're capable of loving someone a lot, you're capable of hating them a lot too. So if you decide that they have disrespected you or wronged you in some fashion, then I guess to getting even takes on a life of its own.

00:37:44
Speaker 2: Sometimes when a relationship ends, one person wants out, the other person doesn't want out, and that's where it gets real ugly, real fast.

00:37:55
Speaker 1: And then sometimes one of them once the other one hosed off the grill of their car. That happens occasionally. That apparently happened recently in West Covina. What are you going to do? Don't do that, kids, Divorce is an option, and that won't cause your auto insurance to go up.