Good day, Crime Talk afficionados. We have a great show as we roll into the weekend. First, John Bolton, and we’re not getting political, but guess what? He confessed in court and admits plead guilty to retaining classified information. Uh the Utah judge sanctions the prosecutors in the uh case regarding the death of Charlie Kirk.
And of course, the defense wants the death penalty dismissed because that’s all they’re going to ask for. uh that was denied. Anyway, prosecutors have challenged the reversal and they have a bid to reinstate Adam Montgomery’s murder conviction and a Colorado mom charged with murder in her daughter’s alcohol death. 173 bottles of alcohol discovered.
Um fake cancer scam. A woman sentenced to jail after defrauding her friends. A New Jersey teacher indicted, guess what? faces 12 counts of, you know what, uh, a taser in the face. That’s right. Security guard charged after a bar patron shooting. We’ve got this day in legal history, our legal quote of the day, and our dumb criminal.
Let’s talk about it. Lawyer, lawyer, lawyer. Good day, everyone. My name is Scott Rich and this is Crime Talk. Thanks for joining us. You know the drill. Subscribe if you haven’t. Like if you do, leave me a comment below. and make sure you hit that little bell for notifications when we go live or put up new content.
Now, before we get to today’s show, let me remind you before we get to today’s docket, let me put on my lawyer hat for a second because this one matters. We talk a lot on this channel about who’s responsible when something terrible happens to kids. Well, here’s a question the courts are finally starting to ask. What happens when the harm comes through the phone in your child’s pocket? The lawsuits are real, folks.
Families all across this country are coming forward, alleging the social media platforms Instagram, Tik Tok, Snapchat were built to be addictive and that they were and that they fueled anxiety. Instagram, Tik Tok, Snapchat were built to be addictive and that they fueled anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and self harm in our teenagers.
If your child or someone you love has struggled with any of that after heavy social media use, you may have a claim, and you may be entitled to compensation, and it costs you nothing to find out. Click the link below for a free confidential case review. No obligation, no pressure, just answers. All right, ladies and gentlemen, let’s go ahead and open the record for uh Friday, June 26, 2026.
Ladies and gentlemen, can you believe it? The year is um almost more than half over. All right, let’s go ahead and open the record for June 26, 2026. And first on the docket, John Bolton, that’s right, admits to retaining classified information. Ouch. So, there probably should be a lot more people charged with this type of crime, but they don’t.
But, uh, this may be a serious shot across the bow to tell people, hey, if you have national security information, you got to keep it secret. I remember seeing people prosecuted for this in the military, but yet all these civilians do it and nothing ever freaking happens. So, I’m kind of happy that this happened. All right.
So, John Bolton, who served as a national security adviser during uh President Donald Trump’s first term, entered a plea of guilty today in federal court in Maryland, resolving part of a criminal case involving retention of classified national security materials. Now, Bolton, who is 77 years old, plead guilty to a single count of illegal retention of classified information under a plea agreement with the Justice Department.
Now, the deal reached earlier this month significantly narrows the original 18count indictment filed back uh last October, which alleged that Bolton retained and shared roughly 1,000 pages of diary-like entries containing highly sensitive details, including top secret intelligence on foreign adversaries, attack plans, human sources, and methods, and covert action programs with family members via personal email and messaging applications.
ations between 2018 and 2019 while preparing to write his memoir. What arrogance that they think they could get away with this uh type of stuff. Clearly, he thought he could. Anyway, during the court appearance, Bolton confirmed the accuracy of the factual summary presented by the prosecutors, responding affirmatively after consulting with counsel.
And as part of the agreement, he consented to a debriefing with the national security uh community and the justice department. And the plea carries a potential sentence of up to 60 months in prison, a fine of $2.25 million, and 100 hours of uh community service. Now, the case originated from an investigation initiated under the Biden administration and handled by career prosecutors.
An FBI raid occurred at Bolton’s Maryland home back in August of 2025, which agents recovered materials. Now, Bolan initially pled not guilty, which is standard in federal court, to all charges upon his surrender back in October of 2025, and he described the prosecution as nothing more than politically motivated.
Well, court records indicate the documents in question were retained at his residence in Maryland following his departure from the White House. Now, Bolton was released on conditions that included remaining in the United States and that he had to surrender his passport. Now, the former adviser, a quite vocal critic of President Trump after his dismissal from the administration, has maintained that no classified information appeared in his published book.
And the plea deal represents a substantial reduction from the potential decadesl long sentence he would face if he was convicted at trial of all counts. So, this matter is now scheduled for sentencing at a much later date with the judge expected to consider uh the cooperating terms outlined in the agreement and the resolution now concludes the criminal proceedings against Bolton without further litigation uh once those charges are dismissed and first sentencing.
Like I said, ladies and gentlemen, I saw people in the military being prosecuted for stuff like this all the time. They had no problem taking down, you know, some young enlisted uh person who, you know, didn’t lock a safe, maybe left something out on their desk or something like that. But then, you know, oh, your national security adviser, you can do whatever the hell you want. Yeah.
I mean, there was there some politics involved in this. Oh, I’m sure there was. Uh, but he pled guilty in court, so I guess you can’t really say it’s all political at this point. Next, a Utah judge sanctions the prosecutors but preserves the death penalty in the Charlie Kirk assassination case. That’s right.
The Utah judge has held one county prosecutor in contempt of court for violating a pre-trial publicity order in the uh high-profile murder case against Tyler Robinson, who is accused of assassinating um Charlie Kirk. Now, the ruling issued today addresses claims by Robinson’s defense team that prosecutors made unauthorized public comments about the case, potentially prejudicing uh potential jurors.
And the defense attorneys had sought to bar the state from pursuing the death penalty as a sanction for the alleged violation. Now, while the judge agreed that one prosecutor breached the court’s orders and issued a contempt finding, he denied the motion to remove the capital punishment portion as an option. Prosecutors will be permitted to continue seeking the death penalty as the case advances.
Now, Robinson faces aggravated murder charges for the September 10th, 2025 shooting death of Kirk at Utah Valley University. He has not entered a plea. In fact, we are still scheduling the preliminary hearing in this particular case. Now, the court’s decision had to balance enforcement of trial integrity rules with the merits of the prosecution in a matter that’s drawn obviously a lot of attention.
Now, the case remains active as Robinson’s preliminary hearing approaches next month. So, let’s be honest with you, ladies and gentlemen. Should the prosecution have violated the gag order? No. It’s stupid. It’s common sense. You don’t do it. Shouldn’t have said a thing. Now he’s got to uh you know basically pay the attorney’s fees uh for the other side for them to bring the uh motion for contempt. I get it.
The big issue is and I’m telling you this ladies and gentlemen and we’re getting some inside baseball stuff. All right. Now here you saw oh my gosh they violated the gag order. The remedy is dismissal of the death penalty. Now where else did we see this? Where else? H oh baby Brian Cobberger. Right. Oh my gosh.
The uh uh we even saw in the Lorie Balow case. The the uh prosecution uh didn’t turn over discovery. Uh they didn’t do this on time playing this kind of game of gotcha gotcha gotcha. And then they say and the remedy is dismiss the death penalty. Okay. Why do they do this? Ladies and gentlemen, I’m telling you inside baseball stuff.
They’re doing this because that’s right. Their only goal in a death penalty case is to save their client’s life. They know they’re cooked. They know the evidence is overwhelming. So they play this little game of gotcha and they say, “Aha, you turn over discovery. You violated the gag order. Now we must do the only thing possible, the extreme sanction.
I mean, we’re not going to ask for dismissal of the case in its entirety, judge, because that would be a drastic remedy, a draconian remedy perhaps. So, we’re just going to ask you to dismiss the death penalty. That’s all we really want, judge. And we’ll be happy with that. Denied. Okay? Because it is an extreme remedy.
Prosecutor, don’t do it again. Play by the rules. You got the court order. I got my own feelings on gag orders and the first amendment. But guess what? Unless you’re going to challenge them, Mr. Prosecutor, you need to comply with the rules. Next, the prosecutors um seek reinstatement of Adam Montgomery’s murder conviction. That’s right.
The New Hampshire prosecutors have filed a motion with the state supreme court requesting a reconsideration and reinstatement of Adam Montgomery seconddegree murder conviction in the death of his 5-year-old daughter, Harmony Montgomery. Now, Montgomery was convicted back in July of 2024 on multiple charges, including seconddegree murder, seconddegree assault, falsifying physical evidence, witness tampering, and abuse of a corpse.
The child’s remains have never been recovered. His wife, Cayla Montgomery, testified against him during the proceedings. And Montgomery acknowledged participating in the dismemberment, storage, and disposal of his daughter’s body, but maintained that he was uh covering up actions he attributed to his wife.
Anyway, earlier this month, the New Hampshire Supreme Court overturned the murder conviction, determining that the trial court improperly joined the murder charge with a separate assault charge, and the court affirmed Montgomery’s conviction on the remaining counts. Now, in the motion that was filed yesterday, prosecutors argued that the Supreme Court should reconsider its decision and they contend that the defendant initially requested joiner of the charges and only sought severance after his wife agreed to testify against him. The filing asserted
that the court applied an incorrect standard of review by examining the full trial record rather than limiting its assessment to the pre-trial evidence as the severance motion was not renewed at trial. Now, prosecutors further maintain that the determinations of uh witnesses credibility and the weight of the evidence are reserved exclusively for the jury.
Montgomery’s post incident conduct such as concealing and disposing of the body provides substantial evidence of culpability. The state also emphasizes that the original joiner was reasonable and did not prejudice the defense, particularly given the defendant’s strategic decision at the outset of the case. Now, Montgomery remains in custody, serving sentences totaling decades in the upheld convictions, including weapons related charges.
Now, like I said, this motion comes after the Attorney General’s office had previously indicated plans to pursue a retrial on the murder charge if the conviction is not reinstated. Now, the New Hampshire Supreme Court will um now consider whether to grant that reconsideration. Let me just give you a quick heads up, ladies and gentlemen.
Uh let me see here. I uh New Hampshire Supreme Court justices, we would like you to reconsider your order and admit that you were wrong. Uh most motions to reconsider are denied for that various reason. District Court judges, you know, trial court judges, they don’t admit that they’re wrong.
Appela court judges don’t like to do that. And since you’re at the top, you’re at the Supreme Court, no, they they they have spoken. They have spoken. I wouldn’t even wasted my time if I was the prosecutors there. I’d be like, “Let’s get Mr. Montgomery into trial immediately. Next on the docket, a Colorado mom is charged with murder in the their daughter’s death because of alcohol. That’s right.
A Colorado mom has been charged with seconddegree murder following the death of her 16-year-old daughter whose body was discovered with 173 empty alcohol bottles hidden in her bedroom. Now, Gretchen Leanne Ryan of Arvvada, Colorado, faces the charges in connection with the death of Grace Elizabeth Ryan.
Now, the teenager was found unresponsive back on March 9th of this year at the family home in um Arvvada. Now, an autopsy attributed the cause of death to aspiration pneumonia resulting from chronic alcohol abuse accompanied by evidence of a fatty liver. So, according to the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office, investigators recovered 173 empty bottles of various brands and sizes of hard liquor concealed under the daughter’s bed in and in her closet.
There was also text communications reportedly indicate that Ryan arranged regular alcohol deliveries to the home beginning back in September of 2025 and participated in consumption with her daughter including marijuana use while uh taking steps to conceal the activity from the girl’s father who primarily resided in the basement of the home.
Well, the daughter had been unenrolled from high school back in April of 2025 to pursue online classes and exhibited significant physical decline, including episodes of vomiting blood and difficult eating and walking and the use of diapers prior to her death. Prosecutors alleged that Ryan continued supplying alcohol despite awareness of all these health concerns.
Now, Ryan was arrested and booked into the Jefferson County Jail where she’s being held on a $500,000 cash bond only, and the charges were filed on May 15th following the investigation by the Arvvada Police Department. Um, I don’t know, ladies and gentlemen. Um, this may be one of those unique legal uh theories that they’re trying to go forward on.
I mean, almost sounds like, hey, this girl was an alcoholic and mom contributed to it. So, I guess anybody that enables or continues to help an alcoholic drink and they die, they could potentially be charged. Now, I get it. There may be some child neglect issues, but murder, I think I need to know a little bit more before I uh want to slam the jail house doors on her forever.
Next pro legal tip. Hey, let’s not do a fake cancer scam. That’s right. A woman who has admitted to deceiving friends by pretending to have a uh pancreatic cancer and fabricating job opportunities has been sentenced to only 30 days in jail following her guilty plea to a felony theft charge. Now, please meet Haley Knight and she was sentenced yesterday uh in Las Vegas.
Now, the court ordered her to serve her jail term with self-surrender required by July 1st. Isn’t that nice? Anyway, she must pay $19,78712 in restitution to victims and comply with probation terms. Successful completion of these uh conditions may allow her to request reduction of her felony conviction to a misdemeanor.
Now, according to the court records and the victim’s testimony, Miss Knight solicited funds from friends by claiming they had secured content creator positions with a non-existent company called Four Seasons. She created fake contracts, docuign agreements, and communications purporting to come from a legal team collecting deposits for training and promising trips.
She then claimed a pancreatic cancer diagnosis, prompting additional donations, gift cards, food deliveries, and offers of babysitting support. Well, the victims included uh Corey Frink, uh Sydney Frink, who Knight had known since high school, and their mother, Leanne Frink. The victims described substantial financial losses, disrupted careers and education, and profound breaches of trust.
Now, in imposing the jail sentence, which exceeded the terms initially discussed in the plea agreement, the judge noted that the need for consequences beyond financial repayment due to the erosion of trust. Knight expressed remorse during her statement acknowledging her actions and expressed a desire to make amends and to uh support her family.
Now, I don’t know. It’s one thing to just be a horrible person, I guess, and take, you know, the $10 on the desk as a crime of opportunity, but when you swindle your friends out of money, and it’s a lie, nothing given exchange for it. Oh, I want to do this. You going to do this? Oh, and then I get pancreatic cancer. And everybody knows nobody really lives from pancreatic cancer.
Oh, the gig is up. I don’t know. I just I got a real problem with these people that uh raise money and it turns out to be a scam. How is it not fraud? Well, it is just like this, right? And if you say you’re going to get money from somebody and you’re going to use it to do project A, guess what? If you use it for project B, C, D, E, or F, you’re not using it for what the people said that you could use it for.
And that is fraud, ladies and gentlemen. Next on the docket, a New Jersey teacher indicted for guess what? So, a former middle school teacher in New Jersey has been indicted on 12 criminal counts, including multiple allegations of first-degree sexual assault of a minor as um police expand charges um in a case involving a former student.
So Ashley Fiser, 36, who taught at the Orchard Valley Middle School, was initially arrested back in March of this year and has remained detained without bail at the Salem County Jail. The Glouester County Prosecutor’s Office announced a superseding indictment on June 26th that includes six counts of first-degree sexual assault on a minor, secondderee endangering the welfare of a child, secondderee official misconduct, secondderee pattern of official misconduct, firstderee manufacturing child sexual abuse materials, thirdderee possession of child sexual abuse
materials, and thirdderee distribution of obscenity to a minor. Prosecutors alleged that Miss Fiser engaged in a six-year pattern of grooming and manipulation with specific claims on at least four sexual assaults occurring in her car and classroom between 2021 and 2022 while the student was a minor. Investigators recovered 7,500 pages of text messages, explicit photos and communications, including an offer to purchase a sex toy, and discussions that continued after the student left her class. The victim, now an adult, cuz you
remember he was in junior high. I don’t know. When I went to junior high, it was grades seven, eight, nine. Unbelievable. Anyway, Miss Fistler began her career with the Washington Township School District back in 2014 and left her position in 2023. She has not entered a plea agreement as charged and the most serious charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years.
Obviously, we’ll give her the presumption of innocence. Now, Miss Fistler originally said, “Hey, these text messages, you lack the contents, and this is basically a financial shakeddown by the accuser.” While the authorities maintain the evidence demonstrates a deliberate pattern of abuse and position. So, once again, ladies and gentlemen, teacher student boundaries, big deal.
Shouldn’t um even be something you would have to think about in today’s world. And I think the thing that’s most surprising to me is how many women are somehow into junior high kids. Like what the heck, man? I don’t get it. Next, a security guard is charged after a little spat with a taser and a um patron. That’s right.
Out in California, a security guard has been arrested on two felony assault charges following an incident in which he allegedly fired a taser dart point blank in the face of a bar patron. Now, David Marquez of San Marcos was taken into custody by the Carlsbad police officer after witnesses flagged them down regarding an altercation at Park 101 on June 25th.
Now, the encounter captured on video, of course, by a bystander and subsequently posted on social media where it went viral shows Marquez discharging the stun gun into the young man’s face during an interaction with security staff. Now, the patron fell to the ground in visible distress and was assisted by a bystander before being transported to the Tro Center for treatment.
Now, the extent of the injuries has not yet been publicly disclosed, but the police confirmed that the officers reviewed the video evidence prior to the arrest. Marquez now faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon and assault with a stun gun and he’s been booked in the Vista County Jail. Now, police stated that the investigation remains ongoing.
obviously going to try to determine what led to the deployment of the stun gun and um no additional statements from anybody else is involved and we’ll give them the presumption of innocence. If you’ve seen that video, not good. Not good. If I was legal counsel for that firm, I’d say you got to go. We’re going to fire you.
That’s right. Uh we need people that can diffuse situations. Right? If you ever had to buy hire If you’ve ever had to hire a bouncer, you would think the first thing you want to do is you want some guy that’s like 6’10, 350, muscles as big as you could possibly find. And yes, that is partially true. But you also want to be able to find somebody that can deescalate situations without resorting to violence.
The last thing you need is some meatthead who wants to fight everybody or pull tasers and put it into somebody’s face. You need somebody to deescalate. Talk it down. I think Yeah. Whoever hired that guy, if it’s a private security company, you better get ready to get the old checkbook out. Right.
Next, this day in legal history, June 26th, 2015, uh, United States Supreme Court decision, uh, Oberg fell versus Hajes. That’s right. The United States Supreme Court issued a 54 decision holding that the 14th Amendment requires all states to license and recognize same-sex marriages, legalizing marriage equality nationwide, and overturning prior restrictions in many states.
Just as Anthony Kennedy authored the majority opinion. We’ll just leave it at that. Next, how about this date? 2003. Lawrence v. Texas. In a 63 ruling, Supreme Court struck down Texas sodomy law invalidating similar statutes in 13 other states. And the decision established broader privacy rights for consenting adults and their conduct and explicitly overruled the 1986 president in Bowers v.
Hardwick which was said, “Yeah, you can have those sodomy laws.” All right. Next, our uh legal quote of the day has to do with um failures to appear. Failure to appear. All right. All right. A failure to appear when lawfully ordered by the court constitutes disobedience of a direct order and is viewed as an affront to the dignity of the court.
This is why Colorado courts routinely issue bench warrants upon non-appearance. Right? Um let’s just put it this way, ladies and gentlemen. I have always lived by the motto that early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable. Learned that in the military. Always tried to do it. Now, am I late sometimes? Yes.
And why am I late sometimes? Probably because like today when I’m sitting in court and I tell the client, “Be there early at 8:15 so we can go over your plea paperwork cuz I’ve got other places to be. I’ve got to be out of the federal detention center to meet an interpreter, right?” And so while I’m there at 8:15 and the client rolls in at 9:45 acting like no big deal.
All right, he’s going to he’s ruined my day. So the time that he didn’t show up just delays everything. It’s like the flights that get delayed, right? It just drives me bonkers. A little 10-minute delay here creates 20 minutes. By the end of the day, it’s like 2 hours late. And where am I supposed to make up those two other hours that I couldn’t do work because I thought I’d be back at the office, but I wasn’t because I was delayed because of this knucklehead.
Unbelievable, ladies and gentlemen. Unbelievable. Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable. And yes, a bench warrant should issue. There were judges that used to be like, man, at 8:00 they started calling the docket, and if your client wasn’t there, they started issuing failure to appear warrant, and they were remanded when they went to custody.
And I’m telling you, and I hate I must be getting old and turn into an old kromagin. But we need to bring some of that stuff back instead of this. Well, is he late? Oh. Oh, does he probably need transportation? Did somebody give him a voucher or something? Unbelievable. Unbelievable. And finally, our dumb criminal of the day.
In a feat of ingenuity that would make even the most creative Somier raise his eyebrows, 48-year-old Monnique Mcchini of Michigan has secured her place in the annals of questionable decisionmaking. Arrested for trespassing at the CVS pharmacy in Grand Traverse, Miss Meguchini apparently decided that a standard booking process was far too mundane.
Instead of leaving her contraband behind, she opted for an unconventional storage solution, concealing a full unopened halfpound bottle of cupcake vineyards pino grigio inside her body. The plan, alas, proved as effective as attempting to age wine in a microwave. And during the booking process at the jail, a corrections officer discovered the unexpected vintage during a routine check.
Our dumb criminal of the day, displaying remarkable compliance under the circumstances, removed the screw top bottle herself. The contraband was subsequently destroyed as a biohazard while her limited range of motion understandably hindered by the concealed cargo required assistance to maneuver her into a squad car.
Well, our dumb criminal has since plead guilty to a felony contraband count facing a potential 5-year prison sentence, though prosecutors dropped additional charges in the plea deal. and she has been held since her May 10th arrest on a $5,000 bond that was not reduced. Truly a case where the only thing more impressive than the smuggling attempt was the sheer audacity of thinking it might work.
Cheers to creative problem solving, though perhaps next time stick to the grape expectations. All right, ladies and gentlemen, you just can’t make this stuff up. Have a wonderful weekend. We’ll see you next week. And remember, the Constitution matters.
Disclaimer : This content may be created by AI for entertainment purposes. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or places is coincidental.
