Nithya Raman Kicked Off Homeless Committee (08/10)

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. What if the vacation you thought you couldn't afford is already paid for? That's exactly what point.mey helps you discover. First, if you have credit card points, stop wasting them in your card's travel portal. Point.mey searches 150 plus airlines and loyalty programs to help you book flights with far fewer points. It even shows you step by step how to book, making award travel simple, whether you're a points expert or just getting started. With point.me, you'll spend up to 90% fewer points on your flights. That flight you thought would cost 100,000 points could be just 10,000 with point.me. Visit point.m.me, that's p-o-in-t-t-m-t-m-t today, and see where your points can really take you. Point-dot me, turn your points into the trip you thought you couldn't afford. KFI AM 640. You're listening to the John Cobell podcast on the IHeart Radio app. KFI, AM 640, more stimulating talk radio. Hello there. Welcome, John Cobalt Show. We're on three to six every day. And after six, John Cobalt Show on demand, that's the podcast. And that's where you hear whatever you missed. We are live on YouTube, live on X. You can watch us on video. There's even a chat area for you to engage with the other listeners. Go to YouTube.com slash at John Covell Show. You can subscribe, become a member. And we're going to talk with Shira Scott Astrov right now. We had Shira on some weeks back. She came on with Sheriff Alex Vianueva because she and one other woman had come, had done a tour of Skid Row to see what was happening to the animals there. And. what was going on with the homeless. Shira has an animal rights organization that she runs. She's an actress and unfortunately was also a rape victim some years ago. Matthew Werner raped her in her house. and was convicted, sentenced to four years in prison, and he's getting out, perhaps, after only nine months. He's up for parole in October. This was on a Tinder date, and he came over her house. Shall I let her tell this story. Let's get Chera Scott Astroph on. Shira, how are you? Good. How are you? I'm good. Thank you for coming on again. Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm actually... pulled over on my way to meet Joey at another homeless encampment. Are you going back downtown? No, we're going to North Hollywood. There's another...

Kind of like a skid row in North Hollywood situation with a bunch of animals. You know, I'm being mistreated by homeless or unhoused people. Can you believe since we spoke when you were on with the sheriff how little is being done or nothing's being done by the likes of bass and ramen? Is it stunning? It's insane. Like, especially they're running for mayor. They should at least pretend to care. And if anything, I feel like they're doing the opposite. Or I guess Nivia made some fake campaign about how she cares so much about animals. Still never walked on Skid Row, never went to a shelter. Well, no, she went to one shelter, I think, once. Yeah, I know. It's strange how everything. The vagrants do is sacred. Can't be criticized. Can't be stopped. No laws apply. No, no laws at all. Now, you can go through the story about meeting Matthew Werner, and he's going to be up for parole in October after getting sentenced for four years for rape. Tell us what happened. So, in a nutshell, I mean, this was in 2015. You know, my first Tinder date, he pretended to be Sebastian Larson, who is like a very well-known soccer player. And, you know, first of all, I was young. I'm going to preface it with that. And it was a different time. So I wasn't feeling well. He offered to bring Sue. He came over and then turned into a psychopath. I was told by the DA at the time that... I basically knew exactly who he was. He was already a serial back then. But I'm the first woman who actually wanted to testify because everyone else, you know, mixture of things. And because she's like, we can't do it with just one. Like we need multiple to prove a pattern, which to this day is the stupidest thing I've ever heard because my case is rock solid. So. And I wasn't allowed to know his name, which was horrible that they did that to me. So basically, I had no idea who he was. He knew who I was. He knew where I lived. And then in about 2020, 2021, and they would call me, like, every couple of months, I get a call from a new investigator, basically being like, okay, we have another woman. She's going to come forward. And then they would drop out. In 2020 or 2021, one of the investigators or detectives said his name, and I quickly wrote it down. All of a sudden, I was allowed to know his name. So I became my own detective. There were support groups online. Are you there? I'm listening, yes. Oh, okay. Sorry. I know I'm brand-linked. No, you're not. No, you're not. It's fascinating to see how the justice system works for a rape victim. This one is insane. He has raped hundreds of women, multiple states. I mean, he is a dangerous, vile psychopath. Really? You mean literally? Hundreds? Hundreds, yeah. It's so insane. Like, I've now found out that he had a fiancé while he was doing this. Like...

It's one of those situations, like highly intelligent, makes him dangerous. He remembers all of his cons. Yeah, just incredibly dangerous hundreds of women. I'm the only one that's coming forward. So finally, because I stayed on them, I mean, I had to do all of this myself. They did find, I believe, six more women that were willing to testify. And that was in 23. So finally, he was arrested. And as we were getting ready to, and we did the preliminary hearing to, oh, right the night before the preliminary hearing, I get a call from the DA. All the other women dropped out. You're the only one. And they're like, we should just wait. I'm like, we're not waiting. We're moving forward. I'm enough. It's fine. And she was like, well, they'll probably drop the case if it's just you. And, you know, after the preliminary hearing, they held him on $3 million bail because, again, my case is rocked solid. So then, sorry, I know we're going to like run in time. No, no, that's okay. We'll just extend into a second segment if you've got the time. Yes, and tell me if you made a fast hour, but basically right before we were going to go to trial, I got a call from my ADA saying she was basically promoted and I'm getting a new ADA. She doesn't have time to learn my case. We have to do a plea deal. She doesn't have enough time to... This is an assistant DA. Doesn't have enough time to learn your case. So we got to do a plea deal. And I guess the plea deal resulted in... He only got four years. Well, no, not even that. It was a... Oh, my God, what is it called? Four years... Suspended. Suspended four years. So basically, he was like, you know, he'll mess up again. They always do. And then he gets four years, no questions asked, no shortening, like all the stuff. So then after that, I find out that no probation officer was assigned to him. I mean, it was a colossal mess. And so I did my own investigating, and I found proof that he was online. catfishing women, again, basically, like on Facebook using an alias searching for victims. And this is me doing all my detective work. So I forced that. So you proved he was, he kept violating his probation. Yeah. All right. Hang on right there. He wasn't allowed to be on any. All right. We'll stop right there. And then we'll see how he actually, you know, got the prison time because of your detective work that you did that the DA's office wouldn't do. We're talking to Shira. Shira Scott Astroff. And she was raped some years ago. And this guy, she says, has raped hundreds, but nobody ever wants to testify. She had to do her own detective work just to get him put away for four years. And now he's coming out after nine months, potentially, in October on parole. We'll talk more of Shira next. What if the vacation you thought you couldn't afford is already paid for?

That's exactly what point.mey helps you discover. First, if you have credit card points, stop wasting them in your card's travel portal. Point.mey searches 150 plus airlines and loyalty programs to help you book flights with far fewer points. It even shows you step by step how to book, making award travel simple whether you're a points expert or just getting started. With point.me, you'll spend up to 90% fewer points on your flights. That flight you thought would cost 100,000 points could be just 10,000 with point.mee. Visit point.m. That's p-o-in-t-m-t-m-t today and see where your points can really take you. Pointe dot me, turn your points into the trip you thought you couldn't afford. You're listening to John Cobalt on demand from KFI AM640. John Cobalt Show, KFI, AM 640, more stimulating talk radio. And we're on from 3 to 6. Moist Line is 877 Moist 86, 877 Moist 86. That'll be for Friday. And that's where you can work your grief out over the Eagle. Also, the talkback feature on the iHeart radio app. We're going to continue here with Shira Scott Astroff. Shira is the nightmare of having to deal after taking a long time to get this guy convicted and put it in prison. His name is Matthew Werner. He raped her. And he's now up for parole in October. After only nine months served, he was sentenced to four years in prison. And she had to do a lot of her own investigating to get her put away for the four years because the DA's office wasn't particularly interested. Once other women who'd been attacked, dropped out. And let's get to share her on here. So you, you, you, you, uh, You did a lot of detective work on your own. Found out he was constantly violating probation after that sweet plea deal he got. And you convinced the judge that he had violated his probation so many times, you ought to go to prison. Yeah. And, you know, the mean, the reason I started being very, you know, public and vocal about my case was it was never supposed to be about my case or about me. I just saw. how the justice system made women feel like they shouldn't come forward. Like almost everybody I spoke to in the legal system was like, oh, no, you shouldn't do that. You've been through enough. And I'm like, what the hell? This guy needs to go away, not just for me, but so that he doesn't keep doing this. So that was my main reason for starting, you know, to speak up. But. Now it's like this guy, I mean, there's so much more that's been kind of exposed in my case. Now I have a million reasons to speak up. You know, one of the things was after I found this violation, I got a judge that Judge Serena Raquel Marilla was horrible to me. You hear about these judges that let the serial rapists walk, and she's one of them.

She basically, like, said, oh, I find you guilty of every violation, but I think four years is too much. I'm going to give you 45 days. I'm not even joking. So, flash forward, it took a lot of violations and me being very loud to finally get him the four years. I was very happy. My goal was to find, to get more women to come forward, make sure he never leaves prison again. And nine months later, he's supposed to get out. So it wasn't a real solid four-year sentence? He could get an 80% discount? No. And that's what's insane because even the detectives on the case, they're like, we don't know how this is happening. My guess, he has a lot of money, even though he claims poverty. I don't know. And that's the other thing that I need to find out. I mean, they should know by now. I won't stop. With all the conversations you've had with people in the justice system, and I'm sure you've heard a lot of excuses and reasons, why is it that it is so aggressively biased against the women, the victims of these monsters? What drives this nonsense? Well, the biggest thing is If just one other woman, even now, would come forward, he's in jail probably for life. But I don't blame the other women because the advice that they're getting, like in all of these support groups online, every single person is like, no, you shouldn't testify. No, you shouldn't. And it's like, why would you tell them to remain a victim? Like, it feels so much better to put them away, to protect others. And that's how we stop. you know, these predators from continuing. So I wanted to change the narrative. But that's why also I don't blame them. They're getting terrible advice. You know, I walked into that courtroom and I'm like, you don't have to call me Jane Doe. I'm not embarrassed of anything. Are you worried? Are you worried about him coming after you? Eventually, he's going to get out. Yeah, I mean, it's not ideal that he now, I mean, he's, yes. You very well could, so I got to keep them there. Yeah. I mean, one of the detects just told me to get a gun. I'm like, this is our justice system. Come on. Yeah, you get a gun. They've got all the guns and all the powers, all the power, they won't use it. You have to go protect yourself. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah, and I'm not getting a gun. I can't even walk without tripping at least 10 times a day. Nobody's trusting me with a gun. But he shouldn't be getting out. I don't know why he's not even up for parole. I was told he's getting out, which is another thing. There's supposed to be a hearing. I don't understand. He's mysteriously getting out and he's not even up for parole and there's no hearing. It's like, what's going on? Yeah, I'm working on it. I'm doing my detective work, but this is why I'm so pissed now. I'm getting so loud because this is the last time I'm going to put, I mean, this is, I, this needs to end. This psychopath needs to just stay in jail. It shouldn't be this hard. No, it should. Well, I mean.

He has hurt so many. Sorry. No, no. He has. Well, Sherry, keep in touch with this, all right, as this goes on. Yeah, for sure. Because this is just an atrocity. It's horrific. Shira Scott Astroff. Now you're going to go on and try to see if you can help the dogs getting abused by the homeless in North Hollywood. Yep, yep. I'm about to meet Joey. L.A. is a great place to live, isn't it? This is my life. All right, Cher. Thanks for coming on with us. Thanks so much for having me. All right. Shera, Estra. When we come back, we'll have more on Nithya Raman being kicked out as the chairman of the Homelessness Committee, the city council president, the idiot Marquis Harris Dawson. Excuse me, Marquise Harris Dawson. That is correct. Marquise is dumping Nithya Raman. Is it they'd have normal names anymore? Because he's buddies with Karen Bass. But now they're putting, as a replacement, a huge disaster. Yisabel Harado, a DSA member, one of these communists, who represents the Skid Row District, where they're actively torturing animals and killing them every day. And Yisabelle is doing nothing to stop it. Is it Isabel or Yisabelle? I think it's Isabel. Isabel? But I could be wrong. Nithya Raman, Marquise, and Isabel. All right. You're listening to John Cobalt on demand from KFI AM 640.

KFI, AM 640, more stimulating talk radio. The John Cobalt show around from 3 to 6 after 6, John Cobalt on demand on the IHeart app. Live on YouTube, live on X, subscribe, become a member, YouTube.com slash at John Cobalt Show. Oh, we have a special on Thursday. On Thursday, on 11 a.m. We're going to do a live stream at 11 a.m. Live stream 11 a.m. on Thursday on YouTube and X. And... We need to do that because Thursday it's only a one-hour show on the radio because we have the first San Diego Chargers pre-season game. Los Angeles Chargers. Oh, God. The Los Angeles Chargers pre-season game. My brain never accepted that. You typed that in the other day when we were looking at the schedule to see how long this was going to happen for this season. Yeah. Yeah, you typed in San Diego Chargers too. Since I was a little kid. You know, it was a long time they were the San Diego Chargers to me. All right, Los Angeles Chargers. They're going to start at four with their first game. So we have a one-hour show from three to four. We're doing a special live stream at 11 a.m. on Thursday. So at least you get two hours of stuff. That's going to be on YouTube and X. Okay. On to, oh, well, first. There's another city council criminal who may be going to jail. City council member, Curran Price. Los Angeles City Council, yes, Curran Price, another one. He has officially been ordered to stand trial. This happened Friday. Twelve felony charges. And he pleaded not guilty. And... They claim he used his position on city council to financially benefit his wife and get improper taxpayer-funded benefits. Yeah, he voted on contracts and funded agencies that paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a consulting firm owned by his wife. Another one. It's like the way Gavin Newsom and his wife. are moving money around. Well, that's what they're saying. Price did for himself and his bride there. Just another criminal, possibly, Kern Price. I'm sure he might be innocent. Very likely. Now, another, if they're not criminals, they're communists, Nithya Raman is out as the head of the Homelessness Committee. Bass's friend Marquise Harris Dawson, I guess told Marquis, get that lady off the homelessness committee. And so Harris Dawson did. So now when it comes to homeless power, Rahman has nothing. It's amazing. She didn't get kicked off the homelessness committee because she wasted. hundreds of millions of dollars. She got kicked off because she's running against Karen Bass. So Harris Dawson and Bass are friends, political allies. The worst part here is Raman, who is a disaster, is being replaced by somebody who's probably a bigger disaster. Well, you think Bass is bad? Look at Raman. You think Raman is bad? Look at this one.

Isabel Harado, another Democratic Socialist of America member. You know where she represents? She represents Skid Row, where they're doing live experiments on animals as we speak. And Raman, Harado, and Bass will not stop it. Unbelievable. The Rahman, once she announced her campaign for mayor, she stopped holding homeless committee hearings. So five weeks in April and May, all the meetings were canceled. And 130 issues piled up over the five weeks. She's doing absolutely, which may be a good thing, because if she's not holding meetings, then she can't spend money and she can't make things worse. This is what we've got here. By the way, when she held meetings, she got a $62 million homeless package passed. Do you know how many people the $62 million has helped so far over the past year? Debra, take a guess. 62 million. How many homeless people were put in housing? Ten. Well, you're wildly optimistic. Oh, really? Yes. Okay, three? Yes, that's the correct answer. The correct answer is three. Sixty-two million dollars. Three people were helped. Her goal was 2000. I'm not making this up. These are the city records. that the California Post Jamie Page looked at. Jamie Page looked at the records, saw it was $62 million, supposed to help 2,000 people, and it ended up helping three. In March 2024, there was a proposal to give the city greater control over the homeless programs. It sat there for 316 days before Rahman's committee took it up. Now, if you've been tracking this, this all has to do with Lhasa. Because the city does all its homeless work through Lhasa, LA Homeless Services Authority. The federal government has cut off federal tax money to Lhasa. The county has pulled out entirely. The state has cut their money. All we got left is the idiots in the city, which would be Raman, Bass, and Harado. During the federal investigation, they found that Lhasa failed to verify 2,300 housing sites it was responsible for. 70% of those contracts tied to the sites showed no reported spending during the previous year. But Raman's committee approved another $358 million in this year's budget. And of course... The homeless rate, the mental patient, drug addict rate is up 8% in the streets. Street homelessness, 8% under Rahman, Bass, and Harado. So they're all jockeying for position. These three women are absolutely the biggest disasters that a United States government at any level has ever seen.

You couldn't get people more incompetent, more stupid, and or more corrupt. It's absolutely impossible. You could fish three frogs out of a pond, and they couldn't do any worse than bass, ramen, and horado. Boy, that's diverse, huh? Three women with IQs below 75. I'd suggest we get a guy, but then you have Marquis, Harris Dawson, who's probably also below 75. So I don't know where we go here. We come back. California Post did a special story. Jeremy Lewis on Van Nuys Boulevard. Van Nuys Boulevard used to be one of the most... One of the busiest centers of San Fernando Valley life, probably in Debra's day. Oh, yeah, when I was in high school, absolutely. That's where the Valley girls hung out. Yes. Debra was a Valley girl. Well, I was born and raised in the Valley. Right, right. Oh, my God. Yeah. Did you talk like that? No. I bet you did. No, I didn't. I really didn't. How could you not when everyone else was? I may have said some of the, you know, no, I don't think I ever said gag me with a spoon or any of those stupid things. Did you all get excited when Frank Zappa had that song out? Yeah. Valley Girl, huh? Not too many. Not too many neighborhoods get to. Yeah, it was in Sherman Oaks Gallery. I worked. I sold shoes at the Sherman Oaks Gallery. Oh, shoes. Yes. I was 16. It's been a lifelong obsession. Yes. All right. Well, Van Nuys Boulevard is, you'd probably, it'd probably would do better if somebody dropped a nuclear bomb on it. It is so disgusting and rotted out. And we're going to talk about what Jeremy Lewis wrote in the post. What if the vacation you thought you couldn't afford is already paid for? That's exactly what point.mey helps you discover. First, if you have credit card points, stop wasting them in your card's travel portal. Point.Mei searches 150 plus airlines and loyalty programs to help you book flights with far fewer points. It even shows you step by step how to book, making award travel simple whether you're a points expert or just getting started. With point.me, you'll spend up to 90% fewer points on your flights. That flight you thought would cost 100,000 points could be just 10,000 with point.mee. Visit point.m.me, that's p-o-in-t-t-m-e today, and see where your points can really take you. Point dot me, turn your points into the trip you thought you couldn't afford. You're listening to John Cobalt on demand from KFI AM 640. KFI AM 640, more stimulating talk radio. John Cobalt Show. I have a secret, but I can't tell you yet. I'll give you a little hint. There is a trip that I'm going to take a lot of listeners on, and we're going to go to some really cool places. And by Monday, I can tell you the details. So just be ready.

All right, you might want to reserve part of October 2027. And you and me and a number of other listeners are going to go on a really, really great trip. So just think about that. And then next Monday, you'll hear more about it. New York Post, Jeremy Lewis, did this story, walked around Van Nuys Boulevard for a week. Van Nuys Boulevard was the, well, he said it's the center of Valley Youth Culture back in the 70s and 80s and beyond. And now it's a disgusting, horrible, dangerous mess because of the drug addicts and the mental patients. And it was one of the central areas of Deborah's childhood and adolescence. It was not, well, yes. Okay, that's fair. It was one of the central. Sure. Central area. Yeah, right. It was where teenagers went. That was their social experience. There was a dance club on Van Nuys Boulevard. I forgot the name that I would go to. Now, would guys really drive around their hot rods back then? Yes. Yeah, that was a big scene. They drive around their sports cars. A lot of hamburger stands? I don't remember that. Those days, you were eating hamburgers. Yeah, and I just, I don't remember. I just remember going to Bob's Big Boy, which was not on. Was it on Van Nuys Boulevard? Well, the one that's left is on just down the road from us. Yeah, no, no. In Northridge, too, now. Yeah. No, it was in Van Nuys, the one that I grew up at. I always get confused where Alameda meets Riverside. But, well, anyway, what Jeremy wrote about, it's become home to hordes of drug addicts. and threatening vagrants who leave behind so much garbage that the local workers have to use leaf blowers to disperse it. There's only a few business left, he wrote. Here's a quote from George Barrack, who came from Syria. And he was working as his second day as a cashier at a 99-cent store. And he told Jeremy, it's so sad, so sad. We're in California. The best state in the United States, right? No. You have to update your index there. Talk to Aziz Saxinian dental assistant. And Aziz says that the vagrants settle in front of our businesses and customers say, oh, can't you get rid of them? No. No, they can't get rid of them because Nithya Raman and Karen Bass. thinks that's a violation of their civil rights to get rid of them. And they're more important than the business owners and residents. I mean, who wants a gathering center for all the young teenagers who live in the valley? It's better to have an open-air drug market, an open-air mental institution. That makes life better. That's what Karen Bass wants. Oh, the post walked a stretch of... the boulevard between Sherman Way and Victory Boulevard, and found a wasteland of crack pipes, needles, and empty bottles of whiskey in front of tents. Trash, clothes, jars of open mayonnaise covered the sidewalk, broken metal spoons and lighters, which is what used for heroin and crack addicts. I'm not up on drug culture and drug paraphernalia. What would the open jars of mayonnaise?

be useful with maybe ask Eric I have no clue some kind of lubrication ritual that maybe I don't want to know about I don't want to know either I've never even smoked pot I told you so I have no I know I've heard you're no fun I'm really no fun yeah it's true what do you think the open mayonnaise jars are for for mental patients and drug addicts I don't think it's for lunch. I don't know. It's for something bad, but I don't know what. Eric, you look like you're going to chime in. I was going to say, you can't say you've never smoked weed. I've never smoked weed. But you've taken edibles. I've taken a gummy here and there, but that's not smoking weed. Okay, so you can't say you've never done marijuana. I didn't say that. Here and there? I was very specific. I don't do edibles anymore. Anymore. Okay. I have. Maybe I've taken 10 my whole life. Oh. It was only to help me sleep. Did that work? Yeah. Oh, it did? It actually did, yeah. Oh, why'd you stop? Because it's not good for me. I'm trying to, I'm really trying to do things that are healthier. I think you should be on the stuff all the time. That's just my medical opinion. Okay, well, thank you, John, for your opinion. The council member for that district, Imelda Pedia, who's another complete disaster. And, of course, the post called her and she did not have a response. No comments. There you go. They don't care. They won't do anything. These people are all criminals and all the money's being stolen. I keep telling you this. We got more when we come back. Deborah Mark, and you're clean today, right? Of course, I would never come to work. No. One day. No. One day we'll both have one. Oh, really? Okay. Maybe our last day on the air? That would be the last day. True, true. Deborah Mark live in the KFI 24-hour newsroom. You've been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast. You can always hear the show live on KFI AM 640 from 3 to 6 p.m. every Monday through Friday. And of course, anytime on demand on the IHeart Radio app. KFI AM 64. More stimulating talk. What if the vacation you thought you couldn't afford is already paid for? That's exactly what point.combe helps you discover. First, if you have credit card points, stop wasting them in your card's travel portal. Point.Mei searches 150 plus airlines and loyalty programs to help you book flights with far fewer points. It even shows you step by step how to book, making award travel simple whether you're a points expert or just getting started. With point.me, you'll spend up to 90% fewer points on your flights. That flight you thought would cost 100,000 points could be just 10,000 with point.mee. Visit point.me, that's p-o-in-t-m-t-m-t-m-t today, and see where your points can really take you. Pointe dot me, turn your points into the trip you thought you couldn't afford.