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Guest:Gerry Spence
Author of “Police State: How America's Cops Get Away with Murder”
Website: Gerry Spence's Website

Gerry Spence is a legendary trial lawyer who has been practicing law since 1952 and has never lost a criminal case. Spence is known for going after systems of power that victimize innocent Americans. He remains famous for his defense of Karen Silkwood, Randy Weaver, and Imelda Marcos, among many others. He lives in Wyoming - where he founded the Trial Lawyers College - with his wife, Imaging. Police State is his seventeenth book.

THE BOOK: “Police State: How America's Cops Get Away with Murder”

We all want to feel safe. But safe from what, and from whom? In his 60-plus years as a trial lawyer, Gerry Spence has never represented a person accused of a crime in which the police hadn't themselves violated the law. Whether by covering up their own corrupt dealings, by the falsification or manufacture of evidence, or by the outright murder of innocent civilians, those individuals charged with upholding the law too often break it, in ways more scandalous than the courts have dared admit. The police and prosecutors won't charge or convict themselves, and so the crimes of the criminal justice system are swept under the rug. Nothing changes. Too many police officers are killers on the loose, and every uninformed American is a potential next victim. Police culture is mired in the dead weight of precedent and ruled by trigger-happy tyrants. Power will march our nation over the police state precipice unless We the People take action. The FBI's massacre of the Weaver family at Ruby Ridge; the killing of mortally wounded Fouad Kaady by a group of police officers; the torture of teenaged Dennis Williams by cops seeking a murder confession - again and again, the question arises: When the very men and women we pay to protect us instead persecute us, how can we be safe? In Police State, Spence issues a stinging indictment of the American justice system and puts forth a plan to restore liberty and justice for all.

Guest: Wendy Ruderman and Barbara Laker
Author of “Busted: A Tale of Corruption and Betrayal in the City of Brotherly Love”
Website: Wendy Ruderman and Barbara Laker's Website

Wendy Ruderman, born in Cane Place, NY and raised in Cherry Hill, NJ has been a newspaper reporter for more than 15 years. After graduating from Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) with a bachelor's in communications in 1991, Ruderman earned a master's from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1997. She worked in the statehouse bureau of The Trenton Times, Associated Press, and Bergen Record. She joined the Philadelphia Daily News in 2007. As of May 2012, she is the police bureau chief at the New York Times.

Barbara Laker a native of Kent, England, Barbara Laker came to the United States when she was 12. She graduated from the University of Missouri Journalism School in 1979. She worked for theClearwater Sun, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, theDallas Times-Herald and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer joining the Philadelphia Daily News in 1993. At the Daily News, she has been a general assignment reporter, assistant city editor and investigative reporter.

THE BOOK: “Busted: A Tale of Corruption and Betrayal in the City of Brotherly Love”

In the vein of Erin Brockovich, The Departed, and T. J. English's Savage City comes Busted, the shocking true story of the biggest police corruption scandal in Philadelphia history, a tale of drugs, power, and abuse involving a rogue narcotics squad, a confidential informant, and two veteran journalists whose reporting drove a full-scale FBI probe, rocked the City of Brotherly Love, and earned a Pulitzer Prize . In 2003, Benny Martinez became a Confidential Informant for a member of the Philadelphia Police Department's narcotics squad, helping arrest nearly 200 drug and gun dealers over seven years. But that success masked a dark and dangerous reality: the cops were as corrupt as the criminals they targeted. In addition to fabricating busts, the squad systematically looted mom-and-pop stores, terrorizing hardworking immigrant owners. One squad member also sexually assaulted three women during raids. Frightened for his life, Martinez turned to Philadelphia Daily News reporters Wendy Ruderman and Barbara Laker. Busted chronicles how these two journalists—both middle-class working mothers—formed an unlikely bond with a convicted street dealer to uncover the secrets of ruthless kingpins and dirty cops. Professionals in an industry shrinking from severe financial cutbacks, Ruderman and Laker had few resources—besides their own grit and tenacity—to break a dangerous, complex story that would expose the rotten underbelly of a modern American city and earn them a Pulitzer Prize. A page-turning thriller based on superb reportage, illustrated with eight pages of photos, Busted is modern true crime at its finest. 

Jack Girardi, Partner at Girardi Keese, is one of America's Finest Trial Lawyers and our Co-Host, as always, brings out the most important key elements to the success of today's guests. He and his firm have been dedicated to working hard and getting the best possible recovery for its clients.

Girardi Keese's mission is to provide aggressive representation of individuals and businesses who have been injured in sous way, whether by physical harm, property damage, damage to business, or damage to economic interests. Girardi & Keese has two offices in California: Downtown Los Angeles and San Bernardino. www.girardikeese.com

Contact:

Guest: Gerry Spence
Author of “Police State: How America's Cops Get Away with Murder”
Website: Gerry Spence's Website

Guest:Wendy Rudeman and Barbara Laker
Author of “Busted: A Tale of Corruption and Betrayal in the City of Brotherly Love”
Website: Wendy Rudeman and Barbara Laker's Website

Jack Girardi
Co-Host
Website: www.girardikeese.com

Steve Murphy
Executive Producer and Host
Website: www.lbishow.com