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this was a lengthy trial 100 Witnesses 1,200 pieces of evidence how how do you make sure that the the victims are not
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forgotten you know one of the things that we really pride ourselves on is the inspiration that we get in the names of
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these victims Seeking Justice for them and you're right sometimes the victimization what happens to people and
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the way in this case for instance they were tortured and targeted could have been anyone we know and care about and
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even when we sit with family members sometimes in the courtroom through this laborious methodical way that we have to
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get to the core of what a case was about and explain it in a simple way an understandable way to a jury that will
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only hear it once um is very difficult for them they have to really trust us as an office as
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advocates as truth Seekers as Justice Seekers that we're going to do that for them and we're going to do it for the
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ones that they've lost in terms of of the criminal element What was Maya Emmy like back in 1995 it was probably one of
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the worst times for this community because uh I don't know if you remember Time Magazine and others called us
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Paradise Lost and a lot of it had to do with our tourist murder robbery rate it was just off the charts and we just kind
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of came off the cocing cowboy days of the the late 80s early 90s and uh we just we were just the tourist
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destination for a lot of these criminals and I don't know if you remember this but the German and English councils told
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all their citizens and their countries do not go to Miami it is the murder Mecca of the world and so we had an
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incredible cancellation of flights our hotel occupancy rates you know just our real estate values trunked everybody in
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town was talking about how are we going to address our our criminal our crime rate that was increasing and also you
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know restore a sense of safety everybody working together police prosecutors the
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business Community uh our whole uh tourist industry working together to try to build back the reputation of a safe
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Vibrant Community we had to do that so we struggled for uh 3 to five years under that cloud and I like to say now
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we're Paradise found I was surprised that your office has such a unique uh relationship with the Homicide Bureau
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your ASAS meet detectives at the crime scenes at every time we do it for all police shootings for all homicides some
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of our sex batteries but with the homicide DET it's really so valuable because you're all on the scene at the
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same time you see where the body was you can see where so and so was standing there's Witnesses on the streets maybe
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their Witnesses looking out their windows and apartment buildings you know you're Gathering the evidence together
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taking fresh statements they're making those decisions together you know as good as the police are and as good as
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prosecutors are together they're even a better team because you got everything working all the heads and all the
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intelligence gathering you know the knowledge of the law all working together