Welcome back. This week we are
celebrating 70 years of 12 news.
It's hard to believe and we've
been looking back all week at our
history and honoring some of the
great people who made 12 news.
What it is today.
Yeah, we've had some really
special guests and all week and
we have some more special guests
joining us at 6:00 o'clock tonight.
Tonight we're joined by Lou
Rogero and Rich Robertson.
And it is honestly it's such a pleasure
to have both of you guys in here.
Let me just say off the
top that both of you guys.
Were really inspirational for me
as a reporter because you both
did it the right way, thorough,
fair from A-Z 100% and you've both
transitioned into what seems to
be basically in our conversation
before we came on the air.
A pretty natural progression,
which is private investigators.
It is, yeah, we we do all kinds
of investigations now and and
it's the same kind of work.
We're using the same skills that
we always had as journalists.
We gather facts and we tell stories.
And I'll ask each of you
during your time here at 12
News working as investigators,
what were some of the stories
that stood out to you the most?
Well, obviously there were the
the very large stories like the
Phelps Dodge copper strike in 83.
The Mecum impeachment in the mid
80s as scam at the legislature.
The Symington fraud trial, the Amtrak
sunset on Sunset limited all of those.
The Oklahoma City bombing and the tide
of Kingman, all of those stand out.
But I want to correct one thing, Rich said.
I mean, yes, I'm an investigator,
but always Rich was the I team.
I was general assignment.
I was the B team. Oh, no,
no, no, no. Come on.
I was the guy. I was the guy who
who who you know went out there every
day Rich of you know, Rich had but with
the same. Well, yes, but. But see, after
you do this long enough,
you start to learn from people
like Rich and you start to you,
you see things and you go wait a
minute and then you start following
up on that and it ends up looking.
Like, I'm an investigator when in fact
I'm a general assignment reporter.
I'll do whatever comes down the road.
And Lou, one of the things that I,
I, I had mentioned that I,
I respect both of you so much.
And one of the things that I
loved about your reporting, Lou,
is that you were never afraid
to get down on the muck to
tell the story the right way,
including the time when Phoenix PD
first got stun guns on the force.
I want to roll a little piece of tape.
Take a look at the monitor, Lou.
The Green recently produced an
informational tape about stun guns.
There are three basic claims
about what it does to attackers.
The subject experiences instant
disorientation, loss of balance,
and is rendered dazed and passive.
To check out claims about
the stun gun stopping power,
Sergeant Darwin Berry of the
Maricopa County Sheriff's
Office agreed to a field test.
However, I don't find myself
particularly stunned or dazed.
After that.
The element of surprise was gone.
Several states outlaw these stun
guns altogether, and if you restrict
them only to police agencies,
The Phoenix Police Department considered
using these a couple of years ago,
but decided against it because
they weren't reliable enough.
But other Valley law enforcement agencies,
including the Sheriff's Office, do use them.
You know, it was after that,
Lou, that Phoenix PD decided
not to use the stun guns.
Now my wife has one.
It's like a typical day at the office.
You didn't expect you to fight back.
No. And that. But the point was,
is that we were trying to show that
it didn't just instantly disable you,
that a person that wanted
to fight back had a chance.
Now obviously we weren't.
It wasn't life and death at that point,
nor was I facing a felony arrest.
But you know, it doesn't just instantly.
It's not. It's not the silver
bullet just by touching.
Although when she tried to sign me
the other night it did disable me.
It's because I have the
the newest modern version.
Yeah, I've got the modern
version that was the old that was
the old hand Taser. Yeah.
Now they have the the Taser guns with
the the probes that come in and does
you said something really interesting to me.
You said that once you moved out
of doing investigations for TV
and you moved into the π world.
You said the things that you learned.
You said you wish you had known because
you would have been a better reporter.
Yeah, it's there's so much nuance in
the criminal justice system that,
you know, I was not aware of,
even after all the years of covering
the criminal justice system And and
to understand more about how it
works behind the scenes, you know,
we are involved in it behind the scenes now.
We have direct contact with our clients
and and to understand them as people.
Not just as suspects or not them as
demonized on the news unfortunately.
So we get to know them better and
and I think it gives us a different
perspective and that I wish I had known
and I I think I would have been a better
way. Which do you guys find more fulfilling
when you when you solve the case as a
Pi or when you turned a great story.
Well you know what I liked
about journalism was that we
could take us a systemic view.
Of what's going on.
So you you take that 30,000 foot
view and now we're down working
with a person and and it's a
life and death sometimes because
we work on death penalty cases
and for that individual person.
So it's it's different in that saying and
both of them I think are very important.
So I think it's really important
for for news to do what it does
and for us to do what we do.
Yeah it's it's like I can I can tell
you I have investigated for years.
A major case from 1994,
the armored car robbery out at,
I remember the movie theater,
it was Dillard's out at the Arrowhead Mall,
Okay a Bell Road.
Basically what's now the 1:01 that that
ended up with the arrest of three people.
And of course, as a journalist,
I covered that.
But you're you're kind of,
you're hitting here,
you're hitting there.
But in 4 1/2 years,
I got to know that case intimately,
and I don't think it happened.
Quite the way the police thought it happened,
and that's a public record now,
but I don't want to get into all the details.
But I mean, who
did it? I don't know. But how it happened?
Where were you? Where were you the
night of March 4th, 19? 93
you guys are you guys are working
or you have done some work on a very
big case that's happening right now.
The Lori validate case talk just about that.
Yeah. So we got hired as private
investigators to try to find the kids.
The grandparents hired us
when the kids were missing.
And so well before law enforcement
was involved and everything.
So we started trying to find all
the people and that were involved
in that and try to find the kids.
And it was the result of that
information that we notified law
enforcement that there was going to,
there was some kind of a problem.
And so that's what led to all
of the charges and stuff.
But we were in the very early
stages of that case and have been
obviously following it ever since.
Well
guys, so many years of of great
reporting for 12 news and we are
better off for it for having you both
as part of our reporting staff and.
It is. It has been.
We talked about it last night.
The best part of this week celebrating
70 years is seeing and reconnecting
with with all of these people who
you admire and cared for during the
years that you work together. Don't
be too easily amused. Mark
Lou, you know
I've set the bar pretty low as
we all have to do it there.
I am. Thank you both.
It's, it's a pleasure to
see you both. Thanks guys.