Full Transcript for Drugged in Broad Daylight: Tommy Jodry Part 2

at this guy you know up and down and give you know he's he's assessing the situation yeah and he he's my brother's kind of a hard ass kind of guy you know and he's looking at him and he he what's going on here? And David Knight looked at him like this. ⁓ He's And my brother was like, ⁓ my God, what's happening here? Bill had asked guy to leave that. And then ⁓ my brother was like, huh? He's very confused about what's happening and he looks at him he goes what did you say and he goes he's dead and then my husband said i told you to leave you can come back tomorrow and give us your story what we should have done is we should have gone out and taken a picture of this guy's car we should have taken a picture of him i should have probably called the police and held him here until they came Paul DelPonte: Well, you were absorbing a lot at that moment. So don't kick yourself for should've, could'ves. William Jodry: So I know exactly. Right. So he ran to his car. My brother watched him. My brother, we discussed what happened. My brother drove us to the hospital. And of course, Tommy was gone and it was about the worst thing he could have ever seen because he fell out of a third floor window. you ⁓ know, it just was really horrible. ⁓ And the police. were right there on us wanting to know why we were there, how we knew to get there, because they hadn't called us. They said, we didn't call you, the hospital didn't call you. And then we explained to them that this guy was with Tommy and he came to our house. And we explained the whole situation when he told us, you know, he thought that Tommy got hit by a car and that, you know, he saw these lights and he says, and he said, he even tried to help you guys identify him. goes, no, no, no, one of the officers said. He absolutely identified your son. And he wouldn't give us his name, but yeah, he absolutely. And he says, in this situation here, we want you to know this was not a suicide. This was something happened in this we... ⁓ Paul DelPonte: Now did you know David Allen's ⁓ name at this point or not? William Jodry: We did, but it kind of went out of our memory banks. We were just like so shocked. We told them that he had been at that bar and the officer, one of the officers went to the bar, talked to the bartenders and they found the bar tab. They got the credit card receipt and got his name. And so they were able to figure we didn't know this right away. But they had the videos from the bar. The bar had six different cameras. So we we saw these videos months later. Paul DelPonte: Sure. William Jodry: So knew who ⁓ was that night. ⁓ One officer was good. He got all that information and he put it on the desk. This was a Saturday night. He put it on the desk of a detective, ⁓ Miguel Lozano, for to review on Monday morning. And then, you know, we were called on Monday morning to come in and talked to Detective Lozano, my brother, myself, and my husband. And so I said, okay, we went. And you have to realize I haven't slept since Friday night. I did not sleep ⁓ one iota after all this happened. I couldn't sleep. I was exhausted. And this guy's asking me all these questions. And I just told him what I told you and I said he showed up at my house and I explained how his behavior was when ⁓ was on the phone ⁓ ⁓ he was looking at us when we were melting down and he was just so fascinated and you know how weird this guy was ⁓ the whole nine yards and and he says well you know we'll have to interview him. He didn't even he already had this guy's information and he didn't have a schedule to talk to this guy and in fact he still hadn't ⁓ interviewed him for three more days after that Paul DelPonte: At this point in time, were you seeing holes in the investigation or had you not come to that yet? William Jodry: No, we were starting to because he hadn't, I called on Tuesday because they had to take Tommy into a complete autopsy. And then I said, have you interviewed David Knight? No. ⁓ And then a friend of ours came in from New York who was a private. No, he's a retired state trooper who did undercover work in New York City. And so I talked to our friend Phil and I said, look what there and he goes, you don't think that guy's doing anything? And I said, no, he goes, he should have at least had him interviewed. By this time there's no blood alcohol in the system. They had all this information the first night. This doesn't sound right. So he went down, flashed his badge at San Luis police department. They did have him talk to ⁓ the detective and explain to him. And the detective got very angry. And so he hesitantly called David Knight in the next day for an interview. And he protected David Knight in the interview. Instead of putting him in the chair where you can see him, he had him turn his back to protect his identity. So the detective's face is on the camera, but David Knight's back is facing the camera. And then he's telling him, you're not in any trouble at all, we just want to find out, you're not this, you're not that. And then he just let David Knight say, ⁓ was the kid's fault, the kid, the kid. He blamed everything on Tommy. And my friend, when he came out and, you know, talking to Detective Lozano that day, he came out to us and he said, this guy's not going to do anything for you guys. I can tell right now. But yet the other officers had really done a nice job of stacking up all the work, having it all organized. even listed all the places where there were videos that they could access and everything else and the detective would not go and get any videos from anywhere else. refused to look at any of the videos from any of the stores that were documented between the Frog and Peach and the parking structure because there's a pedestrian walkway there with a lot of stores and it would have supported or discounted the story that David Knight was telling showed what happened. Paul DelPonte: Right. And generally where there are stores, there are cameras

these days. William Jodry: Yes, yes, exactly. that one officer documented every camera and Lozano refused to look at At the scene of the crime, unfortunately, the officers did not get all the witnesses' phone numbers and stuff. The only phone numbers they had were the people who had called 911 and even not really that much was done with that one officer did call and ask a few questions to some of the 911 callers. But as we... opened up our case. started putting out flyers and then we hired a lawyer to start a civil case. We we subpoenaed all this information and looked at the videos from the body cameras. They had so much information they could have arrested him and charged this guy with involuntary manslaughter right off the bat. And I even suggested that to ⁓ Detective Lozano and he says well I don't know about that. I've never heard of that before. He treated me like I was not very smart and ⁓ you know, I know what I was talking about, but I did do my research. And he's my son. Yes, of course, of course. Yeah, it was ⁓ it was terrible. just wouldn't do anything. I mean, we were like ⁓ so we were You know, he was trying to rule Tommy a suicide right off the bat, and that's the. Paul DelPonte: And you're also grieving, you're right. William Jodry: word he was putting out. That's what he was telling us. And we're like, based on what? And because we told them that Tommy went to counseling, which was a good thing, was really, Tommy's doing really well with that, which it's a good thing to go to counseling when you're having anxiety issues and things like that. Tommy had some health problems. And he had health problems dating, you know, back to high school years. Lozano refused to talk to his counselor. He refused to talk to Eddie and Tommy's friends. He basically shut us down and he just wanted to close the case up. And and then we found some other information later. ⁓ You know, we analyzed the information in Tommy's phone and Tommy had an app on his phone called Google Timeline ⁓ and it'll track you where you go for day. So, know, Tommy would turn it on. He turned it on that day when they left the house and it showed all the different places they went to that day. And ⁓ it showed them going to the Frog and Peach and it showed Tommy trying to get away from him and where he was, where he fell in the street. When they left the bar, Tommy started running away from him. And it, you know, it showed everything. And then David Knight took the phone away from him. So then it was following David Knight. So it's a very interesting thing of events that we got we have the we showed that to our lawyer and everything was rolling along pretty well actually for quite a while we got all this information and then well some of the important points that we left out is when Tommy left the bar he was trying to get away from this guy he fell down knocked his head he came unconscious on the street somebody called 911 The 911 operator asked a couple of questions and then says, does he look like a transient? And the lady said, well, I guess so. So they never bothered sending an ambulance. David and I caught up with him, started shaking him till he woke up, walked him to the sidewalk. Tommy ran away from him again, fell in front of Starbucks. As he got up, he called out, somebody please help me. Somebody's after me. But nobody helped him. And this is like a ton of students and their parents around on wow weekend, they call it. Nobody helped him. Ran back the other direction, fell. That's when he dropped his phone. David Knight saw him, picked up his phone, stuck it in his own pocket. Then Tommy ran back the other direction, ended up in the parking structure. He fell from the parking structure within 15 minutes or so of leaving the Frog and Peach. Then David Knight, we could see the phone going to the parking structure, but we can't track it in the parking structure. But right after Tommy fell, we see that phone leaving the opposite corner, circles quickly around the block where he shows up at the scene. identifies Tommy to the police, refuses to give his name, says, don't want it to be known that I know this person, doesn't tell the cops he was with Tommy, doesn't tell him he had his phone, right, and tells him he doesn't know his street address, even though he picked him up at our house. So right away, he's lying. Then when the ambulance doesn't tell him he's been with him all evening and brought him to a bar and got him polluted. And also in the bar video, when Tommy had his head turned, David Knight switched drinks with him. Then when the ambulance gets there, David Knight starts walking back down the street towards where his car is. And in the video, can see him patting his back pockets to see if he still had his phone and Tommy's phone. And you can see it clearly in the video. walks halfway down the block. stops and he texts Tommy. Tommy, where you? He doesn't know he's all over the police body cab and he doesn't know Tommy's got a tracking device. And he's asking Tommy, where are you right after you had already identified him? Seriously? mean, and Detective Lozano didn't think any of this was a big deal. He discounted all of it as if it wasn't important. See, if you don't investigate it, it goes away. Yeah, he just wanted to close the That's actually what happens. And this guy, this detective is no longer with that police department. Paul DelPonte: I was going to ask, is the case still open or did they close it? William Jodry: It was open for a short time and then they closed it. a couple years. So then that's when we hired the ⁓ lawyer for the civil case and we reopened it and we subpoenaed all the information. And everything was like pulling teeth, getting the body cameras, getting the ⁓ phone numbers for the 911 callers, ⁓ you know, and going through all these depositions. It was very expensive. cost us about $150,000 to do all these things. They wouldn't give us anything without court orders. They

wouldn't talk to us. They basically shut us down, the police department. So then we went through that part of the case and then actually the new district attorney contacted me and by this point we also had a new chief of police and he says, hey there's a new chief of police. district attorney down down and I'd like to help you with your son's case. I said great and he says we have a new police chief and I said yes I'm aware of it. I said I called him a couple of months ago and I said I'll tell you the San Luis Police Department was not very nice to me. I told him who I was and that I wanted to make an appointment to see the new chief of police and ⁓ they said well he's very busy right now he just started and he has more important things to be doing. And I said, well, okay, take my name and number and have him call me when he can. And so the district attorney was very upset to hear that. And he contacted the new chief of police. And within a day, I got a phone call from the chief of police and they made an appointment for us to come and see them in the office. And they did reopen the case. So that was another long, ⁓ that was another long process. Paul DelPonte: And what do you remember what year that was? William Jodry: That was uh, two thousand twenty three. 1921. No, it was, it was about three years ago. It was about two and a half. It was well, was two and a half years ago, 2019 to 20 to 21, about 22 because it was two and a half years after Tommy died. Okay. And he died in 2019. He died in September. This was around May or April that we had, we had an appointment with. We presented. Paul DelPonte: Okay. William Jodry: a lot of what we've told you and even more. Paul DelPonte: It's reopened largely on the evidence you've uncovered William Jodry: Yes. ⁓ It was open largely on that. actually what they told us, we're going to sift through all what we had here in the police department and analyze that. And we offered of our depositions. There was so much that we had done already. and they didn't do they didn't go through any of that. The new detective refused to look at any of it. So they just kind of and they dilly dallyed. They took eight months to look at it. They waited till it was three months past the time of the statute of limitations. See this. And they told us there was nothing they could do. This new officer based on primarily looking at what they had and some of what we had. like statements from other victims and things like that, that we had gotten the other victims have come to us and said David Knight molested them when they were kids. Anyway, he came up with involuntary manslaughter charge. The same thing I said three years Yes, the same thing my wife had said. You could charge him with this because people had brought that to our attention. He submitted it to the DA three months after the statute of limitations ran out. He sat on it. And then they waited, they didn't even tell us right away. They waited a few more months before they

called us in and said, ⁓ by the way, we can't charge him because of statute of limitations. Well, we didn't even know that. They just said he couldn't charge him. We didn't know why until we asked for a copy of the police report. But I think that, you know, these things happen in our country every day. Young people are targets and it has to change. We know this is happening. And so many young people have already been assaulted in their lifetime. This is a pamphlet that I put together with the Rape Crisis Center of Santa Barbara. on the front it says, around one in six American males and one in four of American females have been the victim of sexual violence. So I called these people and every night on the news they say the statistic at 10 o'clock. I said where did you guys get the statistic? And they said well we're pretty sure that the one for women is accurate but the one for men is not. It's much higher than that and it could be even higher than that of women because young boys get molested all the time and in our society parents and everybody else they they don't let their boys talk about these things. You're supposed to bury these things. And really, this is the fault of all this. It starts in the home. If we see something happening to our children, we need to take them to a doctor. We need to get them help. And we need to bring charges against people who are doing this. And even if it's your own brother who's doing it to these kids, you need to protect your children and take care of them. We're not doing enough to protect our kids. And then we make our kids feel ashamed if they talk about it. And they need to talk about it. They need to get it off their chest. They need to go to counseling and do those things. And they need to tell their friends that they've actually been a victim of this. Because if you go to college and you have these statistics and you know that one in four people has been sexually violated. ⁓ That's a large support group. If you're out with these people, they should be looking out for each other. you know, the scariest time in your life is between 18 and 30, because you're no longer have your parents you really don't have the experience of watching out for yourself. And these guys are ⁓ Paul DelPonte: Right, you're on your own navigating an increasingly complex world. William Jodry: so good because you're so young, so that's exactly what they're looking for. And if they can buy you a drink and if they can put something in your drink, that's usually how it starts. And that's what I'd like to tell people. You know, don't let anybody buy you a drink. If you don't know this person, don't let them buy you drink. There's no good intention in that. You know, you can chat with these people if you wish, ⁓ get to know them but you don't have to let them buy you a drink. you just don't want to accept drink from a stranger. And if you've been at a you're out there your friends and you have a drink and you went out to do a go dancing or something and you come back, Don't drink that drink. It's been sitting there. Get a new drink. And, you know, probably try to drink a little bit less too, because that's what they're looking for is for you to lose control. And once you've lost control, they can, you know, get you out of the bar. You need to watch out for your friends. We were told by one victim, girlfriend, that this one young man had gone to the Frog and Peach bar. And he was at the bar ⁓ and this older guy was buying him drinks. And his friends out on the dance floor and they turn around and he's gone. ⁓ And then a couple hours go by, they never see him again. They notify his girlfriend. The girlfriend said, have a tracking device on phone. She goes, tracks him down at this place. in town, just a few blocks, just a few blocks away and and knocks on the door. David might answer. He said there's nobody here. He then they question further, but he calls the police and has the police make him leave saying he's harassing him. Then shortly after they see the phone moving and find her boyfriend totally incoherent with his pants down to his ankles covered in feces. totally unaware of what's going on. So obviously he couldn't stand up. They had to call an ambulance to take him to the hospital. And so the hospital just kind of got him back into good enough shape so that he could go home. He couldn't consent to a rape case. When he got home, he told his girlfriend, he says, I think that guy did something to me because I'm very sore down there. you know, and he's so they took him back to the hospital. They did a rape kid at that point. And then this young man's father said, no, not going to report it. We're not going to report it. This will bring great shame upon the family. And he pulls him out of school and takes him back to where they And actually had so many problems after that. And he had to go to get some serious mental health help. That happened eight months before this happened to Tommy. So imagine if. these people, every time these crimes happen, if they would get reported, the next person would be safe. Yeah, my son would be alive right now. Paul DelPonte: Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. And sexual assault ⁓ tops the list of crimes that go unreported because of something that you brought out is it's people don't want to talk about it. But like any problem, if you cannot talk about it, you're never going to solve the problem. And as uncomfortable as the topic is, the worst thing you can do is not talk about William Jodry: That's right. Paul DelPonte: and you're both to be commended because you really are moving forward and transforming ⁓ Tommy's life from victim to helping other survivors. And for our listeners out there, ⁓ let's fill up our comments. Let's talk about it. Let's not be afraid to say, it happened to my family. It can happen anywhere. That's what. That's what really needs to happen. mean, each day we're inundated with headlines about the Epstein case. we're

to do ⁓ is there those who are uncomfortable talking about it, and there are those who want to score political points or this point. We've got to put that behind ⁓ and focus the people who were victims because there were victims. There were many victims. There were dozens and dozens of victims. And there will be dozens and dozens of victims tomorrow. again, ⁓ Bill, Bill and Mary Jane can't commend you enough for being having the courage to come on this podcast, to come on other podcasts and speak up. Because that's really what it's going to take big picture. It is going to take, you know, occasionally you are going to get a detective and investigator who gives it their all. But not everybody in the real world is an Olivia Benson. and ⁓ is gonna take it to the limit. There are gonna be those who aren't. And it is up to us, the regular citizens, to take crime prevention in our own hands. And that's what we're doing. ⁓ So I thank you much. And again, McGruff Nation, let's fill up those comments. We wanna hear from you. We wanna hear other stories. And if you're out there and you believe you or someone you know or love has been a victim, Calling the police is never a bad thing. may not be, and they may not provide you instant gratification, but you never know where one crime leads to another, and there's one thing which is almost universally true about someone who commits sexual assault, they never just do it once. ⁓ These are repeat offenders, if we go, if ⁓ remain silent, they're gonna do it again. So thank you both for coming on. I'm going to give you a couple minutes to wrap up. In the meantime, please, if you haven't already done so, click like and subscribe. Take a trip over to the McGruff shop and get yourself a mug or sweatshirt or something. But I want to ask, in sort of closing, what message would you give to someone out there who's listening that suspects something like this happened to someone they know? William Jodry: Okay. Okay. If you suspect that something like this happened to somebody that they know I Would say talk to them Talk to your friend and say you know what's going on. I've noticed that you've been a little Depressed lately you know means there's something that we can talk about and if they open up about it, you know Let them discuss the whole situation and encourage them to go and get help. First of all, encourage them to go to the police. Sometimes if the police can get enough cases together of the same person, they can start looking for that person that's out there seeking out these people. ⁓ If they have been, if it just happened, that's the best time to take them to a hospital. and make sure that all the procedures are followed. The best thing to do though actually is if, I wrote a thing for colleges, when you go out with your friends and you go out in a group, make sure you come home in that group. Don't leave anybody behind. And if you notice somebody's talking to somebody, you know, keep an eye on them and don't let

them leave with that person. Say, hey, no, we'll. we'll check this person out another day, get their name and phone number, we'll check them out, we'll vet this person, see who they are before you ever see them again. But, you know, never leave somebody behind, ever. And, you know, yeah, and if you see somebody buying somebody too many drinks, you know, ⁓ that's the time to, you know, say, hey, do you need some help? Can I call somebody for you? You know, kind of be aware of Paul DelPonte: Good advice, good advice. William Jodry: of things that are going on. And bartenders, I have talked to more bartenders, the two bartenders that over served Tommy, 11 and a half drinks in 15 minutes. Yeah, they knew David Knight, he goes into that bar. I told you that eight months prior, he bought that other guy a drink that he roofied. And that guy did a test positive for fentanyl in his drink. just don't somebody buy you a drink. They don't have good intentions. It's kind of to think that somebody that's that much older than you wants to buy you a drink. And the other thing is we keep talking about that age group that are able to go to bars, but so many of these people that get victimized are younger than that. And sometimes these predators will Paul DelPonte: Keep your guard up. William Jodry: provide alcohol to underage people. know, that's... did that. He has two cases of that. Yeah, he's got a history of doing that. And then his youngest victim that we found from 1983 when he was a school photographer, this eight-year-old kid, he gave him a soda with some drug in it. And that kid says his memory to this day is still kind of... So... Paisy. Parents, you know, parents are helicopter parents. complain about it these days, but actually... In a lot of ways you have to watch out for your kids. need to know who's involved with their life. It's a good thing that kids are watched closely. But when it's not your kids and you young people are out there together, now it's your turn to look out for each other. And just keep an eye out for each other. Yeah, exactly. And even school age kids. Paul DelPonte: Right. You've got to keep each other's back. And a tip for people who are out at a bar, there is a code that bartenders, I'm told most of them know it, but if you ask for an order an angel shot, and it is a code that you're in a compromising or distressful situation, and the bartender will take a look out for you, call 911 if necessary. William Jodry: ⁓ that's good. Paul DelPonte: but the term is angel shot. So for anyone listening out there who's... might know it, might not, but ⁓ the more you know, the more you can protect yourself and protect others around you. again, Bill and Mary Jane, I'm so sorry you have to do this, but I am also thankful that you are speaking up and we appreciate it. ⁓ thank you again for joining us. William Jodry: And if people could go on Tommy's website. Justice for Thomas com. We're in California. There's other sites that but the one in California for our son Thomas Jodry. ⁓ Thank you very for spreading this word. Paul DelPonte: Yeah. Yes. You'll We are to do so. And for those out there listening and watching us, come in again next week as we help everybody empower themselves to take a bite out of crime. Thank you again.