WEBVTT 00:00.511 --> 00:06.693 [SPEAKER_08]: This series deals with troubling topics, including suicide, drug overdosing, and dependent adult abuse. 00:07.433 --> 00:17.095 [SPEAKER_08]: If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, call or text 988 right now and speak with a counselor for free. 00:20.036 --> 00:22.317 [SPEAKER_08]: Previously, on the quarterback and the con artist. 00:23.117 --> 00:26.938 [SPEAKER_05]: Courtney wrote a 304 page history of her and Eric's relationship. 00:28.329 --> 00:44.616 [SPEAKER_05]: And in that document, she admits to the court appointed attorney that she was stealing money from Eric's account without his permission without his knowledge, but that they discussed it and that he was okay with it, but that she won't do it again. 00:45.377 --> 00:52.800 [SPEAKER_08]: But despite the legal confines of a conservatorship, Courtney Barrett still manages to continue stealing Eric's money. 00:53.689 --> 01:10.509 [SPEAKER_08]: in the plain light of day, and she masterfully tricks attorneys and judges into doing her bidding by manipulating a mentally incapacitated Eric Kramer instructing him on what to think, what to do, and what to say. 01:11.462 --> 01:28.710 [SPEAKER_01]: So we have a vulnerable person who is parading the language, the vernacular of his or her abuser, and then the port of point of attorney takes down the language of the vulnerable person and reparits that to the judge. 01:29.090 --> 01:37.474 [SPEAKER_01]: So basically what the judge is listening to as the primary message is the wishes and the language of the abuser. 01:37.714 --> 01:39.695 [SPEAKER_08]: It's like a con artist game of telephoto. 01:40.378 --> 01:47.361 [SPEAKER_08]: Exactly, but what Conard is Courtney Beard isn't planning on is Eric's recovery. 01:48.162 --> 01:50.943 [SPEAKER_05]: Almost three years from the time that Eric shot himself. 01:51.783 --> 02:00.968 [SPEAKER_05]: So the brain is starting to rewire itself, starting to heal, starting to do whatever it needed to do in order to understand or get a little bit more comprehension. 02:01.918 --> 02:08.021 [SPEAKER_08]: Eric suddenly realizes Courtney hustled him into marrying her, and that she's stealing from him. 02:08.782 --> 02:15.925 [SPEAKER_08]: He calmly tells her he wants a divorce, and he wants her out of his house, but instead of leaving. 02:16.746 --> 02:19.427 [SPEAKER_00]: Courtney Bear starts a whole new con. 02:24.906 --> 02:31.653 [SPEAKER_03]: Former NFL quarterback Eric Kramer is in jail tonight, arrested at his Los Angeles area home on domestic violence charges. 02:57.744 --> 03:01.882 [SPEAKER_02]: Do you swear that the evidence you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so I'll be gone. 03:02.123 --> 03:02.344 [SPEAKER_07]: Yes. 03:03.984 --> 03:07.447 [SPEAKER_07]: I couldn't have been standing more than five feet from him. 03:08.028 --> 03:09.289 [SPEAKER_07]: I don't remember him being there. 03:09.929 --> 03:11.531 [SPEAKER_07]: I don't remember a word he said. 03:12.451 --> 03:16.034 [SPEAKER_07]: Anna had to show me the transcript to show me he was there in talk. 03:16.415 --> 03:18.096 [SPEAKER_07]: She had to show me the ice book. 03:18.797 --> 03:23.721 [SPEAKER_08]: Eric Kramer is recalling one of the many conservatorship related court appearances. 03:24.121 --> 03:27.664 [SPEAKER_08]: He had to endure while he was mentally incapacitated. 03:28.365 --> 03:37.934 [SPEAKER_08]: He didn't recognize Detective Dave Lingshite in court on this particular day, even though Lingshite had interviewed Eric for several hours just two months earlier. 03:38.775 --> 03:40.056 [SPEAKER_08]: I don't remember him being there. 03:40.837 --> 03:43.799 [SPEAKER_08]: It sounds like you were a zombie. 03:44.860 --> 03:45.501 [SPEAKER_08]: Correct. 03:45.621 --> 03:49.364 [SPEAKER_08]: That's a great descriptive term, like the walking dead. 03:51.406 --> 03:51.827 [SPEAKER_08]: Pretty much. 03:52.960 --> 04:06.215 [SPEAKER_08]: but worse than just being a zombie, Eric was actually a married zombie, unduly influenced into sharing his life and his home and his money with a con artist. 04:06.756 --> 04:08.358 [SPEAKER_07]: We're living under the same roof. 04:09.821 --> 04:14.882 [SPEAKER_07]: but we are literally throughout the day and evening having little to no contact. 04:15.642 --> 04:35.986 [SPEAKER_08]: Even though Eric Cramer was mentally incapacitated when Courtney Beard coerced him into marrying her in late December of 2016, looking back now in his right mind, he remembers a lot of strange and unusual things, and while he couldn't make any sense of them at the time, he can now. 04:37.370 --> 04:44.382 [SPEAKER_08]: and Eric realizes, living with Courtney Beard as his quote-unquote wife was bizarre. 04:45.507 --> 04:47.968 [SPEAKER_08]: and it really wasn't a marriage at all. 04:48.568 --> 05:10.116 [SPEAKER_08]: They were like two ships passing in the night, barely ever saying a word to one another, because Eric was mentally incapacitated, and as long as Courtney could keep taking his money, she thought it was better to just stay quiet than to say something that might jeopardize her cushy yet tenuous situation. 05:10.616 --> 05:11.797 [SPEAKER_08]: I can't remember one conversation. 05:12.970 --> 05:14.511 [SPEAKER_08]: Meanwhile, she's just spending your money. 05:15.472 --> 05:16.553 [SPEAKER_08]: Sorry, stealing. 05:16.833 --> 05:17.674 [SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I'm like, yeah, stealing. 05:19.275 --> 05:24.019 [SPEAKER_08]: Boy, what a miracle it is for you to be sitting here talking to me as a regular person again. 05:25.300 --> 05:25.961 [SPEAKER_07]: Just a miracle. 05:26.041 --> 05:32.887 [SPEAKER_07]: It is as the days go by and more things in my life, I dive into and take part in. 05:35.069 --> 05:36.610 [SPEAKER_07]: Every now and then, like right now. 05:38.070 --> 05:39.371 [SPEAKER_07]: only because you brought this up. 05:40.232 --> 05:41.694 [SPEAKER_07]: I'll have to go away in a minute. 05:42.194 --> 05:43.595 [SPEAKER_07]: I'm not even supposed to be here. 05:43.796 --> 05:44.116 [SPEAKER_08]: Yeah. 05:44.676 --> 05:46.919 [SPEAKER_08]: I mean, you're here against all odds literally. 05:47.499 --> 05:47.739 [SPEAKER_08]: Yeah. 05:48.160 --> 05:48.460 [SPEAKER_08]: Yeah. 05:48.720 --> 05:54.486 [SPEAKER_08]: What did it feel like when you started coming to you started remembering? 05:54.786 --> 05:55.987 [SPEAKER_08]: Where were you what were you doing? 05:56.067 --> 05:56.748 [SPEAKER_08]: How did it happen? 05:56.768 --> 05:57.469 [SPEAKER_08]: What was the feeling? 05:59.298 --> 06:00.359 [SPEAKER_08]: I have no idea. 06:00.620 --> 06:03.063 [SPEAKER_07]: I don't remember when I started remembering. 06:04.264 --> 06:06.767 [SPEAKER_07]: I don't have a clue when that day happened. 06:07.868 --> 06:10.892 [SPEAKER_08]: Eric's brain capacity doesn't return all at once. 06:11.593 --> 06:17.200 [SPEAKER_08]: It creeps back, ever so slowly, in dribs and drabs, over the course of years. 06:18.441 --> 06:30.432 [SPEAKER_08]: It's a series of tiny moments of realization, interspersed by days, and sometimes weeks, and each more soul of lucidity on its own doesn't really mean anything. 06:31.093 --> 06:36.838 [SPEAKER_08]: But as they compound over time, Eric suddenly begins to see the big picture. 06:37.599 --> 06:40.962 [SPEAKER_08]: One of those seminal moments happens in May of 2018. 06:42.383 --> 06:48.087 [SPEAKER_08]: right before Eric is set to take a trip to Illinois for a Chicago Bears Alumni Golf event. 06:48.707 --> 07:02.997 [SPEAKER_08]: Remember, Eric was the quarterback for the Chicago Bears from 1994 to 1998, and just before that trip, Courtney convinces Eric that he needs to buy a new house for them to live in. 07:03.657 --> 07:07.982 [SPEAKER_08]: Keep in mind, there was nothing wrong with the house Eric was living in at the time. 07:08.642 --> 07:11.906 [SPEAKER_08]: Courtney just wanted some real estate with her name on it. 07:12.446 --> 07:19.493 [SPEAKER_08]: So she induced Eric to get a realtor and make an offer on a new $1.5 million home. 07:23.612 --> 07:34.323 [SPEAKER_07]: Eventually the owners and I came to an agreement on what was not only the price but the terms. 07:36.245 --> 07:43.852 [SPEAKER_07]: And eventually after agreeing to that, the home was not going through. 07:44.133 --> 07:45.494 [SPEAKER_07]: The purchase was not happening. 07:47.957 --> 07:55.723 [SPEAKER_07]: and I didn't know why, and then an occurred to me, I'm concerned, I'm concerned because of Courtney. 07:57.504 --> 08:00.186 [SPEAKER_07]: So this all happened about a week before I left. 08:00.826 --> 08:09.432 [SPEAKER_07]: That's when this kind of feeling came over me that, hey, wait a minute, you're stealing from me. 08:10.253 --> 08:12.634 [SPEAKER_07]: So I didn't, during that week, 08:14.096 --> 08:19.318 [SPEAKER_07]: Even though we lived in the same house, her daughter was there, her dog was there, rabbit was there. 08:21.518 --> 08:24.459 [SPEAKER_07]: We didn't have any communication, like not even high. 08:26.159 --> 08:30.701 [SPEAKER_07]: And I knew internally that you're stealing for me. 08:31.981 --> 08:38.143 [SPEAKER_07]: And I left thinking that I'm coming back to get into worse. 08:42.480 --> 08:48.024 [SPEAKER_08]: So Eric flies off to Chicago for four days to play golf with his former bear's teammates. 08:48.725 --> 08:53.749 [SPEAKER_08]: And when he gets back to LA, things take a crazy and unexpected turn. 08:56.611 --> 09:08.961 [SPEAKER_07]: I got out of the cab from the airport in the night before, at about 11.30 at night, Courtney and her daughter were asleep every night, 09:12.204 --> 09:41.043 [SPEAKER_07]: meaning Courtney by 9 9 30 mind you while I'm gone we don't have a phone call nothing so i get home and she springs off of the couch and says how was Chicago once i find and now she's walking toward me she says well how was your trip fine is everything okay 09:42.298 --> 09:42.999 [SPEAKER_07]: Everything's fine. 09:43.299 --> 09:44.300 [SPEAKER_07]: I'm just getting a divorce. 09:44.940 --> 09:46.081 [SPEAKER_07]: That's how you sprung it. 09:46.301 --> 09:46.461 [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. 09:46.882 --> 09:47.662 [SPEAKER_07]: Everything's fine. 09:47.722 --> 09:48.763 [SPEAKER_07]: I'm just getting a divorce. 09:48.803 --> 09:50.665 [SPEAKER_07]: I'd love my luggage there. 09:51.145 --> 09:54.488 [SPEAKER_07]: I'd watch shrimp bed and went to sleep. 09:55.089 --> 09:55.789 [SPEAKER_07]: And I shut the door. 09:57.330 --> 09:59.652 [SPEAKER_07]: And sometimes after I was asleep, she opened it to the door. 10:01.574 --> 10:04.376 [SPEAKER_07]: And says, oh, I guess you don't want me sleeping in here. 10:04.476 --> 10:05.017 [SPEAKER_07]: Now mind you. 10:05.677 --> 10:07.659 [SPEAKER_07]: In all the time, she lived there. 10:09.513 --> 10:11.855 [SPEAKER_07]: She didn't sleep in that bed. 10:12.455 --> 10:16.799 [SPEAKER_07]: Not one time, so I said, no, I guess I don't. 10:17.640 --> 10:20.902 [SPEAKER_07]: So she shut the door and went downstairs. 10:29.049 --> 10:33.993 [SPEAKER_07]: So I get up in the morning and now it's probably six o'clock in the morning. 10:35.452 --> 10:37.294 [SPEAKER_07]: and I don't even acknowledge her. 10:37.394 --> 10:38.696 [SPEAKER_07]: She's on the couch. 10:39.817 --> 10:40.918 [SPEAKER_07]: I'm not even sure she slept. 10:42.240 --> 10:45.323 [SPEAKER_07]: And I go about making offy. 10:48.382 --> 10:58.004 [SPEAKER_07]: And I got the actual newspaper and made some oatmeal or something and went out in the backyard like that table to eat. 10:59.084 --> 11:04.865 [SPEAKER_07]: And there was a sliding glass door that you had to go in and out of. 11:06.526 --> 11:10.487 [SPEAKER_07]: And there was like one of those brown, long wooden dowel sticks. 11:10.707 --> 11:11.847 [SPEAKER_07]: That was the lock for the door. 11:12.307 --> 11:16.628 [SPEAKER_07]: She eventually comes out, she sits down and she says, I'd like to talk about this. 11:17.383 --> 11:18.343 [SPEAKER_07]: And I said, talk about what? 11:19.204 --> 11:20.985 [SPEAKER_07]: And she says, you're getting a divorce. 11:22.265 --> 11:22.685 [SPEAKER_07]: Where do you go? 11:22.926 --> 11:23.646 [SPEAKER_07]: What's there to talk about? 11:24.867 --> 11:27.488 [SPEAKER_07]: She goes, well, where am I going to go? 11:28.568 --> 11:32.510 [SPEAKER_07]: And I said, well, you should have thought of that before you started stealing from me. 11:33.591 --> 11:36.532 [SPEAKER_07]: She says, I can steal from you and she stands up. 11:37.652 --> 11:39.313 [SPEAKER_07]: And she walks a few steps. 11:42.289 --> 11:50.413 [SPEAKER_07]: I get up and I literally walk towards her saying, and I touch her shoulder and I said, what would she just go back inside? 11:52.395 --> 11:57.878 [SPEAKER_07]: So she kind of shrugs her shoulder is though I'm touching her. 11:58.578 --> 11:59.458 [SPEAKER_07]: Like don't touch me. 11:59.498 --> 11:59.799 [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. 12:00.499 --> 12:01.640 [SPEAKER_07]: And then she walks inside. 12:02.720 --> 12:07.443 [SPEAKER_07]: And then she shuts the sliding glass and she drops that Dallas ticket. 12:08.534 --> 12:09.455 [SPEAKER_07]: So now I'm locked out. 12:09.795 --> 12:12.557 [SPEAKER_07]: I'm thinking, all right, how am I now gonna get in the house? 12:13.118 --> 12:15.240 [SPEAKER_07]: Well, I said I'll figure that out later. 12:16.000 --> 12:18.022 [SPEAKER_07]: So I went back to the paper. 12:20.204 --> 12:26.889 [SPEAKER_08]: At some point while reading the paper, Eric hears that Dowstick being lifted from the track of the sliding glass door. 12:28.451 --> 12:31.113 [SPEAKER_08]: So he gets up and goes back inside. 12:33.330 --> 12:51.819 [SPEAKER_07]: She's upstairs now and as a little confirmation to myself, I realize, you know, there's some pictures in here that she's in and I'm going to go scoop them up and stack them up and eventually I'll figure out what to do with it. 12:51.839 --> 12:52.420 [SPEAKER_07]: So I did that. 12:52.440 --> 13:00.004 [SPEAKER_07]: There's about six or seven and I put them in that entryway somewhere and I go back, now 13:05.008 --> 13:08.612 [SPEAKER_07]: So she comes down stairs and she sees these stack pictures. 13:09.012 --> 13:10.474 [SPEAKER_07]: And she starts putting them back up. 13:11.455 --> 13:13.317 [SPEAKER_07]: Again, there's no words exchanged. 13:14.518 --> 13:18.842 [SPEAKER_07]: I get up and I start taking those same pictures and throwing them out the front door. 13:21.865 --> 13:24.248 [SPEAKER_07]: At some point, she says, I'm calling the police. 13:27.489 --> 13:40.354 [SPEAKER_07]: So eventually she does and I swear within 5 or 10 minutes, 8 cop cars come swarming up my street and I'm standing in the front door way with the door open. 13:40.914 --> 13:48.737 [SPEAKER_07]: There's two guys that come walking up two cops in one of them says something to the fact of hey looks like we've had a rough morning here. 13:55.339 --> 14:00.964 [SPEAKER_07]: And I'm thinking back to the time I was in the back yard when I put my hand in her shoulder, and I said, yes. 14:01.885 --> 14:04.567 [SPEAKER_07]: And he said, okay, put your hands behind your back. 14:05.588 --> 14:06.789 [SPEAKER_07]: And come with me. 14:10.472 --> 14:23.803 [SPEAKER_08]: Eric Kramer never hit Courtney Bear that day, but in Los Angeles County, all any cop or sheriff's deputy needs is a wife claiming her husband hit her for them to immediately arrest the husband. 14:25.174 --> 14:36.160 [SPEAKER_07]: Now, I'm walking from the front porch to the cop car, handcuffed and by the guy who handcuffed me says, you can thank OJ for this. 14:36.953 --> 14:38.854 [SPEAKER_08]: Retired NFL running back, O.J. 14:38.914 --> 14:43.616 [SPEAKER_08]: Simpson was charged with the brutal murder of his ex-wife back in 1994. 14:44.336 --> 14:47.937 [SPEAKER_00]: The body of 34-year-old Nicole Brown Simpson, ex-wife of O.J. 14:47.977 --> 14:52.219 [SPEAKER_00]: Simpson, was found after midnight in the sidewalk outside her West Los Angeles home. 14:52.999 --> 14:59.342 [SPEAKER_08]: And it later came out in the press that she had called police many times over the years to report that O.J. 14:59.602 --> 15:05.704 [SPEAKER_08]: was beating her and posed a grave threat to her life, and they didn't really do much about it. 15:07.159 --> 15:18.491 [SPEAKER_08]: and ever since the gruesome murder of Nicole Brown Simpson that day back in 1994, Los Angeles authorities take claims of domestic violence very seriously. 15:19.092 --> 15:22.215 [SPEAKER_08]: They don't need to see blood, or bumps, or bruises. 15:22.816 --> 15:26.039 [SPEAKER_08]: They don't require any evidence of an assault at all. 15:26.760 --> 15:45.349 [SPEAKER_08]: If a woman in LA County calls 911, saying her husband hit her, cops show up and arrest the husband, whether there's evidence of an assault or not, there wasn't one single bit of domestic violence that went on that morning. 15:49.755 --> 16:00.342 [SPEAKER_07]: Yet this lying thief had been stealing from me for years and I'm arrested for doing nothing. 16:01.783 --> 16:03.524 [SPEAKER_07]: It's such a perverse system. 16:05.293 --> 16:11.657 [SPEAKER_08]: And it's how and why Eric Kramer winds up in a jail cell that morning back in June of 2018. 16:12.498 --> 16:20.143 [SPEAKER_08]: And the diabolical clincher is, deputies don't allow Eric to grab his wallet before they cart him off to the station. 16:20.864 --> 16:25.687 [SPEAKER_08]: And while he's in jail, Courtney snatches his wallet from his nightstand. 16:27.288 --> 16:32.752 [SPEAKER_08]: And steals nearly $20,000 over the course of just four days. 16:33.738 --> 16:35.659 [SPEAKER_05]: She charged Taylor Swift ticket. 16:36.760 --> 16:40.223 [SPEAKER_05]: She paid for her daughter's soccer for the whole entire year. 16:41.144 --> 16:43.285 [SPEAKER_08]: Eric's childhood friend, Anna Durkin. 16:43.886 --> 16:49.250 [SPEAKER_05]: She paid for storage fees, for insurance, her health insurance, for her daughter. 16:50.470 --> 16:55.995 [SPEAKER_08]: Courtney also used her own PayPal account to charge $10,000 to Eric's credit card. 16:56.753 --> 17:04.921 [SPEAKER_07]: They were 10 different PayPal transactions, all for $1,000 to Courtney Beard, Seabair, Seabair, Seabair, Seabair. 17:07.143 --> 17:13.069 [SPEAKER_07]: So the one and only person that should have gotten rest of that morning got left with my credit card. 17:15.451 --> 17:18.074 [SPEAKER_05]: And they didn't even do a check on her. 17:18.775 --> 17:20.396 [SPEAKER_05]: If they would have done a check on her. 17:21.467 --> 17:28.332 [SPEAKER_05]: any one of those sheriffs, they would have seen that there was still an open investigation for her theft. 17:31.113 --> 17:35.436 [SPEAKER_08]: So Eric gets charged for domestic violence, and news outlets from TMZ 17:38.285 --> 17:43.608 [SPEAKER_08]: to CBS run stories about it, tarnishing Eric's image in the Court of Public Opinion. 17:44.268 --> 17:53.153 [SPEAKER_08]: And now the chances that Con artist Courtney Beard will ever be criminally charged for what she's done to Eric seem infinitesimal. 17:56.418 --> 18:03.460 [SPEAKER_08]: Eric spends the following two and a half months in a nearby hotel because he's not allowed back home. 18:04.080 --> 18:22.146 [SPEAKER_08]: Courtney tells the judge that she fears for her life and that's what gets reported in the press and everyone including lawyers and judges and the court system in general gets fooled by her and she was able to convince the family log judge and 18:23.679 --> 18:27.322 [SPEAKER_05]: to give her $20,000 to move out. 18:28.063 --> 18:30.405 [SPEAKER_08]: That's $20,000 of Eric's money. 18:30.745 --> 18:39.793 [SPEAKER_08]: And Eric has to spend thousands more to hire a lawyer to defend against his bogus domestic violence charge that Courtney invented at a whole cloth. 18:40.373 --> 18:43.456 [SPEAKER_08]: And his adamant is Eric is that he did nothing wrong. 18:43.957 --> 18:46.339 [SPEAKER_08]: His lawyer doesn't appear to believe him. 18:46.899 --> 18:51.481 [SPEAKER_08]: He appears to believe the statements Courtney made in the incident report from that day. 18:52.161 --> 18:59.583 [SPEAKER_08]: And he actually starts negotiating a no contest plea with the judge in that case on Eric's behalf. 19:00.664 --> 19:06.826 [SPEAKER_08]: Keep in mind, a no contest plea in a criminal case is a tacit admission of guilt. 19:10.121 --> 19:19.103 [SPEAKER_07]: My attorney asked, unsolicited by me, to talk to the judge, in his chambers, with the disc attorney. 19:19.443 --> 19:25.945 [SPEAKER_07]: In that meeting, he told the judge, and the disc attorney, that I was guilty. 19:26.885 --> 19:36.567 [SPEAKER_07]: But because it was my first time of fence, we're the judge, agree, that with domestic violence 19:41.540 --> 19:44.481 [SPEAKER_07]: could the judge appoint that as a diversion program? 19:46.822 --> 20:10.492 [SPEAKER_07]: So here again, is another lawyer in the system that does not represent my best interest, that sold me out, and sold me out 20 minutes after I told him the last time of probably 10, that there's going to be no such deal, and yet he did it anyway. 20:16.377 --> 20:19.940 [SPEAKER_08]: At this point, Eric is still not 100% back yet, mentally. 20:20.420 --> 20:24.523 [SPEAKER_08]: He's regaining his faculties, but he's still somewhat easily influenced. 20:25.844 --> 20:33.910 [SPEAKER_08]: Thank God, on a Durgan is sitting in court that day, watching this all go down with a look of abject horror on her face. 20:35.131 --> 20:35.931 [SPEAKER_05]: I'm in shock. 20:36.332 --> 20:39.174 [SPEAKER_05]: I'm like, what the fuck am I just hearing? 20:39.814 --> 20:43.277 [SPEAKER_05]: That is not what we just discussed 20 minutes ago. 20:44.803 --> 20:46.444 [SPEAKER_05]: And the judge goes, Eric, do you understand? 20:46.944 --> 20:48.645 [SPEAKER_05]: Do you agree, Eric was silent? 20:49.666 --> 20:50.366 [SPEAKER_05]: You didn't say anything. 20:50.866 --> 20:56.590 [SPEAKER_05]: All of a sudden, you see, Eric's attorney, lean his head over and whisper something in his ear. 20:57.890 --> 21:06.255 [SPEAKER_05]: And then Eric slowly and took a few beats and said reluctantly, yes. 21:08.756 --> 21:10.297 [SPEAKER_05]: And I'm living at this point. 21:15.855 --> 21:18.936 [SPEAKER_05]: The charity comes out and I lay in on him. 21:19.716 --> 21:21.256 [SPEAKER_05]: I literally lay in on him. 21:21.496 --> 21:27.518 [SPEAKER_05]: I was cursing on my voice was raised and I basically said, what the fuck did you just do? 21:29.178 --> 21:36.320 [SPEAKER_05]: I go, this is gonna be in the media and he's gonna be viewed as a domestic violence. 21:37.961 --> 21:39.301 [SPEAKER_05]: Abuser when he didn't do it. 21:41.434 --> 21:42.774 [SPEAKER_05]: Where did you go to law school? 21:43.035 --> 21:49.757 [SPEAKER_05]: I just avoided it from any legal ramifications this and that low law and the public's not gonna know about it because it's all confidential. 21:51.817 --> 21:52.558 [SPEAKER_05]: Am I kidding you? 21:52.618 --> 21:54.258 [SPEAKER_05]: This is what he's saying. 21:54.898 --> 21:58.620 [SPEAKER_05]: This was on April 15th, 2019 that all this went down. 21:59.260 --> 22:08.243 [SPEAKER_05]: On April 20th, 2019 are beloved TMZ, Eric Kramer avoids jail time in domestic violence case. 22:08.977 --> 22:14.579 [SPEAKER_08]: But it was after that initial hearing on April 15th that on a Durgan jumps into action. 22:15.419 --> 22:23.502 [SPEAKER_05]: I immediately that day had air right in email to that attorney and tell him you want to resend whatever you agree to. 22:24.768 --> 22:26.870 [SPEAKER_05]: and get the file, get your file. 22:27.490 --> 22:29.592 [SPEAKER_05]: At that point, I had to find another attorney. 22:30.213 --> 22:39.581 [SPEAKER_08]: And the attorney on a Durgan Fines is none other than Todd Melnick, arguably, one of the greatest criminal defense attorneys working today. 22:40.282 --> 22:45.707 [SPEAKER_08]: If you saw that Netflix documentary, long shot, then you know who Todd Melnick is. 22:46.387 --> 22:50.471 [SPEAKER_08]: People say, my God, that's such an incredible story in the guy I got, I thought, what is going on here? 22:50.531 --> 22:51.612 [SPEAKER_01]: I was implored it in my, 22:52.271 --> 22:56.715 [SPEAKER_08]: If you haven't seen long shot on Netflix, I highly recommend checking it out. 22:57.315 --> 23:04.141 [SPEAKER_08]: Basically an innocent Los Angeles man is charged with murder based on erroneous eyewitness testimony. 23:04.662 --> 23:13.690 [SPEAKER_08]: Todd Melnick is hired as this guy's attorney and secures footage of his client in the stands at a Dodger game the night of the murder. 23:14.270 --> 23:29.081 [SPEAKER_08]: That footage came from Larry Freaking David, who happened to be shooting an episode of HBO's Curb Your Induosiasm, that night at Dodger Stadium, and Todd Melnick used that footage to get his client off. 23:30.882 --> 23:35.946 [SPEAKER_06]: The judge dismissed the case, and everybody in the gallery started clapping and cheering. 23:36.967 --> 23:38.508 [SPEAKER_06]: At least, it was just a great moment. 23:38.528 --> 23:40.169 [SPEAKER_06]: It was a great moment. 23:41.782 --> 23:51.148 [SPEAKER_08]: So, I'm actually setting up in Todd Melmick's office right now in awe of his reputation and legal acumen. 23:52.009 --> 23:59.614 [SPEAKER_08]: I overhear him as he's finishing up a phone call with another client after having made a huge break in that case, too. 24:00.074 --> 24:02.376 [SPEAKER_08]: I swear, this man does not rest. 24:03.737 --> 24:09.841 [SPEAKER_06]: Seriously, like the most pressure criminal defense attorney can deal with is knowing that your client is innocent. 24:10.487 --> 24:35.013 [SPEAKER_06]: it rests on you to be able to uh... exonerate and whether it's a misdemeanor or a felony or even a murder case it's the stress in the pressures always there but you are like a miracle worker but the Netflix talk you're talking about long shot where you found him in the ballpark with off footage from Larry David like 24:36.431 --> 24:37.551 [SPEAKER_08]: How do you think of these things? 24:38.531 --> 24:40.492 [SPEAKER_08]: Talk about outside the box thinking. 24:42.492 --> 24:44.112 [SPEAKER_08]: Yes, it is outside the box thinking. 24:44.132 --> 24:45.973 [SPEAKER_08]: Does it come to you while you're taking a shower? 24:46.013 --> 24:48.773 [SPEAKER_08]: Like, what word does this happen in your brain? 24:49.353 --> 24:55.355 [SPEAKER_06]: Sometimes it can happen, I get like these epiphanys to look somewhere or do do something. 24:57.315 --> 24:59.495 [SPEAKER_06]: And it doesn't necessarily have to be with a case. 24:59.515 --> 25:02.856 [SPEAKER_06]: Sometimes I'm trying to solve an issue for something else. 25:04.377 --> 25:07.979 [SPEAKER_06]: just the idea pops into my head, you know, when I give it some thought. 25:09.160 --> 25:22.969 [SPEAKER_08]: There is simply no one on earth better suited or more qualified than Todd Melnick to prove to the court that Courtney Beard is lying and that Eric Kramer did not assault her that June morning back in 2018. 25:24.249 --> 25:28.552 [SPEAKER_06]: Took us a while to get all the wrongs right in this case. 25:29.292 --> 25:29.653 [SPEAKER_06]: For Eric, 25:35.061 --> 25:38.042 [SPEAKER_08]: from what I hear from on an Eric, you believed him. 25:38.562 --> 25:42.802 [SPEAKER_08]: You looked at everything and you said, I can see what's really going on here. 25:44.263 --> 25:48.764 [SPEAKER_08]: Like, how did you sus that out when others don't seem to have that ability with this woman? 25:48.944 --> 25:51.384 [SPEAKER_06]: Well, I started putting things together. 25:52.084 --> 25:54.124 [SPEAKER_06]: Statements that she had made that were inconsistent. 25:54.925 --> 25:56.985 [SPEAKER_06]: The story, I think he came back. 25:57.005 --> 26:00.726 [SPEAKER_06]: He was coming back from Chicago that particular day after a golf outing. 26:01.726 --> 26:01.926 [SPEAKER_06]: And, 26:04.086 --> 26:09.391 [SPEAKER_06]: It didn't make sense that they got into that kind of a fight at the time. 26:09.751 --> 26:27.828 [SPEAKER_06]: You know, he was outside, having coffee, and she comes out and claims that she got pushed into the barbecue, and that's it in terms of physical violence, or he actually put hands on her, which didn't make sense to me from where the chairs were to where the barbecue was. 26:29.339 --> 26:34.367 [SPEAKER_06]: and her statements about that Eric was throwing things at her. 26:35.088 --> 26:39.612 [SPEAKER_06]: and her daughter, when she made some prior statements that the daughter wasn't there at the time. 26:40.533 --> 26:41.514 [SPEAKER_06]: This one's a biggie. 26:42.135 --> 26:50.202 [SPEAKER_08]: Courtney initially told Sheriff's deputies on scene that morning that her daughter was asleep upstairs, while Eric threw things at her and missed. 26:50.803 --> 27:00.152 [SPEAKER_08]: And then, days later, in a family law court filing, she said her daughter was actually standing right beside her while Eric threw things at them both and missed. 27:02.122 --> 27:04.643 [SPEAKER_08]: Each one of these statements is a lie. 27:04.984 --> 27:06.445 [SPEAKER_08]: And they contradict one another. 27:06.985 --> 27:12.328 [SPEAKER_08]: Also, if you think about it, Eric Kramer is a celebrated NFL quarterback. 27:12.448 --> 27:23.834 [SPEAKER_08]: Kramer's ride, Eric Kramer back, looking finds Willie Green touchdown, 32 yards at, who got paid millions of dollars to accurately throw passes across entire football fields. 27:24.795 --> 27:26.816 [SPEAKER_07]: If you're standing 10 feet for me. 27:32.187 --> 27:35.329 [SPEAKER_07]: What are the chances of me not hitting you? 27:36.050 --> 27:37.431 [SPEAKER_07]: Zero are the chances. 27:38.211 --> 27:39.872 [SPEAKER_08]: Absolutely zero. 27:40.533 --> 27:52.742 [SPEAKER_08]: And yet, even with these kinds of blatant inconsistencies and contradictions in Courtney's story, the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office continues prosecuting Eric Kramer for domestic violence. 27:53.362 --> 27:55.724 [SPEAKER_08]: They just refuse to drop the charges. 27:56.304 --> 28:00.368 [SPEAKER_08]: They're probably hoping Eric will acquiesce and take a plea deal. 28:00.948 --> 28:04.611 [SPEAKER_08]: But with Todd Melnik on the case, that's never going to happen. 28:05.172 --> 28:08.855 [SPEAKER_08]: He knows, in his bones, Eric Kramer is innocent. 28:09.455 --> 28:12.057 [SPEAKER_08]: And he knows, he can prove it to a jury. 28:12.758 --> 28:15.020 [SPEAKER_08]: Well, we were pushing the case to trial. 28:16.521 --> 28:22.466 [SPEAKER_06]: And I knew that her lawyer was never going to let her testify. 28:23.318 --> 28:26.129 [SPEAKER_06]: She didn't want her to purchase herself and make things worse for herself. 28:26.600 --> 28:33.106 [SPEAKER_08]: because she was caught lying, saying the daughter was with her when the things were being thrown at her and then in earlier she said, no, she was alone. 28:33.686 --> 28:38.610 [SPEAKER_06]: So she was clearly going to be impeached by statements that she had made. 28:39.791 --> 28:42.634 [SPEAKER_06]: Eric was obviously going to testify at that point. 28:43.054 --> 28:46.818 [SPEAKER_06]: The prosecution did not want to go through with the trial. 28:46.858 --> 28:48.919 [SPEAKER_06]: They were going to be unable to prove the case. 28:49.700 --> 28:53.984 [SPEAKER_06]: And so when it came time for trial, there was a motion to dismiss the charges. 28:55.726 --> 28:56.686 [SPEAKER_06]: and we all went home happy. 28:57.126 --> 28:57.326 [SPEAKER_08]: Yeah. 28:58.007 --> 29:01.147 [SPEAKER_08]: But then the crappy thing is, that's not in the news. 29:02.007 --> 29:02.188 [SPEAKER_08]: No. 29:02.848 --> 29:04.268 [SPEAKER_08]: You know, that's the word. 29:04.488 --> 29:07.209 [SPEAKER_08]: There's no headline with Eric Kramer charges dropped. 29:07.229 --> 29:08.509 [SPEAKER_08]: Domestic violence was bogus. 29:08.549 --> 29:09.069 [SPEAKER_08]: Like, no. 29:09.369 --> 29:11.190 [SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, that doesn't go away with a whisper. 29:11.250 --> 29:12.470 [SPEAKER_07]: You don't get clicks for that. 29:12.590 --> 29:12.790 [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. 29:12.990 --> 29:15.191 [SPEAKER_07]: The harm is done, you know, she worked the system again. 29:16.051 --> 29:22.272 [SPEAKER_08]: And to think, Eric's previous attorney wanted him to plead no contest in this bogus case 29:26.012 --> 29:29.254 [SPEAKER_05]: I hope during this podcast, we are educating people. 29:29.995 --> 29:30.535 [SPEAKER_08]: On a Durkin. 29:31.336 --> 29:34.938 [SPEAKER_05]: Don't rely on anyone other than yourselves. 29:35.158 --> 29:48.588 [SPEAKER_05]: If you believe you have been unjust, like crucified or stolen from whatever the case may be, you have to be your own advocate, you have to be your own investigator, you have to be your own detective. 29:49.702 --> 30:07.318 [SPEAKER_08]: and remember the conservatorship that Eric was under from January of 2017 on an Eric fight like hell to get him out of it and to free him from a system that appeared to always be ignoring conauders Courtney Beard's actions and not listening to Eric's family and friends. 30:07.719 --> 30:10.001 [SPEAKER_07]: How did you get out from under this conservatorship? 30:10.021 --> 30:10.801 [SPEAKER_07]: How did you get out of it? 30:12.563 --> 30:14.685 [SPEAKER_07]: I eventually got a letter of capacity. 30:15.720 --> 30:26.887 [SPEAKER_08]: The conservatorship of Eric Kramer is officially over in November of 2018, but the other legal fights that had sprung up because of Con artist Courtney Beard were many. 30:27.547 --> 30:34.632 [SPEAKER_08]: With help from his childhood friend Anna Durgen, Eric sues that court appointed conservatorship attorney for malpractice. 30:35.372 --> 30:37.234 [SPEAKER_05]: I personally served court appointed counsel. 30:37.454 --> 30:39.215 [SPEAKER_08]: Like you walked up, you've been served. 30:41.052 --> 30:42.032 [SPEAKER_08]: What was his reaction? 30:42.773 --> 30:49.515 [SPEAKER_05]: I think it was more angry that his receptionist didn't tell him who was here and what they were here for. 30:50.715 --> 30:51.956 [SPEAKER_05]: That way, you can avoid service. 30:52.176 --> 30:52.516 [SPEAKER_08]: Right. 30:52.976 --> 30:56.177 [SPEAKER_08]: And all the evidence that Anna and Covers is stunning. 30:57.427 --> 31:06.153 [SPEAKER_08]: It appears to depict inconsistencies in that court-appointed conservatorship attorney's representation of Eric Kramer compared to another case. 31:06.854 --> 31:21.705 [SPEAKER_08]: For starters, while he was appointed to represent Eric and Eric's best interests, this attorney never contacted Detective Linkshite about the criminal investigation into Courtney Beard's theft or the scam marriage Courtney tricked him into. 31:22.165 --> 31:28.127 [SPEAKER_08]: and he never talked to the neurologist who found Eric to be mentally incapacitated. 31:28.827 --> 31:37.950 [SPEAKER_08]: And this court appointed conservatorship attorney actually made the case to the court that Eric was of sound mind and should not be conserved at all. 31:38.690 --> 31:45.612 [SPEAKER_08]: And that could have given his new wife Courtney access to the millions of dollars, Eric had locked away in a trust. 31:46.492 --> 31:57.098 [SPEAKER_08]: According to this court appointed conservatorship attorney's deposition testimony, that Anna is reading from now, he said it was not his job to call any of those people. 31:57.759 --> 31:59.840 [SPEAKER_05]: It's not my job to call the detective. 32:00.681 --> 32:05.403 [SPEAKER_05]: The conservator has the job of looking into the elder abuse and looking into the financial abuse. 32:05.904 --> 32:07.965 [SPEAKER_05]: And that sort of thing, it's not my job. 32:10.065 --> 32:20.427 [SPEAKER_08]: And yet, in another conservatorship case that Ana digs up, this same court appointed conservatorship attorney made it his job to call everyone and their mother, literally. 32:20.447 --> 32:35.511 [SPEAKER_05]: So in the matter of Teresa, an 82-year-old woman who her family and friends were saying was suffering from dementia and had this apartment complex on PCH worth $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 32:36.713 --> 32:45.275 [SPEAKER_05]: was basically letting people live their free, was giving away money, was previously swindled by someone for $200,000. 32:45.995 --> 32:56.698 [SPEAKER_08]: During her investigation, Anna finds out that the same court-appointed conservatorship attorney in Erick's case was also the conservatorship attorney in this previous case. 32:57.298 --> 33:03.059 [SPEAKER_08]: And he completely contradicts the statement he made in the Eric Kramer case that it wasn't 33:06.520 --> 33:12.025 [SPEAKER_08]: Because in this other case, he made it his job to call everyone. 33:12.746 --> 33:32.664 [SPEAKER_05]: The court appointed attorney, interviewed 12 plus people, including Teresa, including her family members, including her doctors, including the detective, including the bankers, including her state planning attorney, friends, tenants, 33:33.306 --> 33:35.847 [SPEAKER_08]: God says a night and day, procedure. 33:35.987 --> 33:38.767 [SPEAKER_05]: On Eric's case, he only interviewed Eric and Courtney. 33:39.407 --> 33:41.468 [SPEAKER_05]: He was given the Sheriff Linkshide's phone number. 33:42.248 --> 33:43.588 [SPEAKER_05]: He was given my phone number. 33:43.828 --> 33:45.729 [SPEAKER_05]: He was given Raymond James's phone number. 33:46.169 --> 33:46.909 [SPEAKER_08]: He didn't talk to anyone. 33:47.229 --> 33:47.869 [SPEAKER_05]: Nobody. 33:48.769 --> 33:49.389 [UNKNOWN]: Why, though? 33:50.209 --> 33:51.450 [SPEAKER_08]: Because he met with Courtney. 33:51.610 --> 33:53.990 [SPEAKER_08]: So Courtney just snowed him in, like convinced him. 33:54.790 --> 33:55.491 [SPEAKER_08]: She's that good. 33:57.211 --> 34:02.072 [SPEAKER_08]: So it appears this court appointed conservatorship attorney was con by Courtney Bear II. 34:03.568 --> 34:07.191 [SPEAKER_08]: and according to his deposition testimony, Anna is reading from. 34:08.352 --> 34:11.013 [SPEAKER_05]: Did you find Courtney credible? 34:12.114 --> 34:12.475 [SPEAKER_05]: Answer. 34:13.195 --> 34:15.437 [SPEAKER_05]: Yes, you found her to be credible. 34:15.977 --> 34:26.545 [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, a lot of that is at a gut feeling, but there's nothing that stuck out to you like, okay, this is a little fishy or this seems odd or nothing like that. 34:28.426 --> 34:31.108 [SPEAKER_05]: No, she seemed totally credible. 34:33.337 --> 34:37.900 [SPEAKER_08]: This conservatorship attorney doesn't know it yet, but he's about to ruin the day. 34:38.120 --> 34:41.162 [SPEAKER_08]: He ever laid eyes on Con artist Courtney Beard. 34:41.802 --> 34:44.504 [SPEAKER_05]: And then there was a whole fight for five months over confident she had. 34:44.544 --> 34:45.924 [SPEAKER_08]: Right, he didn't want you to tell anyone. 34:46.024 --> 34:46.905 [SPEAKER_05]: Didn't want to tell anybody. 34:52.989 --> 35:02.054 [SPEAKER_08]: If you were someone you know is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, call her text 988 right now and speak with a counselor for free. 35:10.557 --> 35:17.299 [SPEAKER_08]: Look, there is some crazy stuff about to go down in the next episode, and you're going to want to leave us a five-star review. 35:17.779 --> 35:18.719 [SPEAKER_08]: But why wait? 35:19.180 --> 35:25.641 [SPEAKER_08]: Just do it now when get it over with, and then tap that share button and text this entire series to your cousin Michelle. 35:26.102 --> 35:30.283 [SPEAKER_08]: She needs to hear this, then text it to anyone else you think needs to hear it too. 35:31.123 --> 35:48.347 [SPEAKER_08]: The quarterback in the con artist is produced, written and hosted by me, Jonathan Walton, for Jonathan Walton Media, executive producers, Eric Kramer, and Anna Durgen, audio engineering by Justin Longerbeet, editing and sound design by Hansdale Sheet. 35:49.287 --> 35:53.248 [SPEAKER_08]: Legal counsel provided by Ken Sterling from Sterling Media Law. 35:53.908 --> 35:57.889 [SPEAKER_08]: We've got a lot of incredible stories in the works that Jonathan Walton Media 36:01.010 --> 36:01.077 [UNKNOWN]: You