Tag: criminal justice

“Locked Up and Put Away” Coming to AUXIO.TV

New original series hosted by former juvenile detention counselor Booker Geez will explore what happens after young people leave the system.

A new original series is coming to AUXIO.TV with a perspective rarely heard from both sides of the juvenile detention experience.

Locked Up and Put Away, hosted by former juvenile detention counselor Booker Geez, will feature candid conversations with people whose lives intersected with the juvenile justice system at a young age.

Drawing from his own experience working inside juvenile detention, Geez will reconnect with people he encountered during those years — only now, they are adults with the opportunity to tell their own stories.

Where did life take them after detention? What choices changed their lives? What obstacles followed them home? What do they wish they had understood when they were younger? And what can today’s young people learn from their experiences?

Those questions are at the center of Locked Up and Put Away.

Rather than focusing solely on the circumstances that led someone into detention, the series looks at what came afterward: consequences, setbacks, growth, accountability, redemption and second chances.

The show will also give Geez an opportunity to reflect on his own experiences working with young people inside the system and revisit those relationships from an entirely different perspective years later.

Each episode will be built around honest conversation rather than sensationalism, allowing guests the space to explain their experiences in their own words.

From Podcast to Documentary Storytelling

Locked Up and Put Away is being developed as more than a traditional podcast.

Episodes will be professionally filmed and produced as an original video series, creating a growing collection of firsthand conversations that can ultimately serve as the foundation for expanded documentary storytelling.

The series represents another step in AUXIO.TV’s development of original programming centered on distinctive voices, authentic experiences and stories capable of reaching audiences beyond traditional media.

Locked Up and Put Away, hosted by Booker Geez, is coming soon exclusively to AUXIO.TV.

Real stories. Real journeys. Life after juvenile detention.

September 24, 2026
Raymond Santana and Exonerated Five Continue Defamation Fight Against Trump

Raymond Santana’s decades-long effort to clear his name has entered another legal chapter, this time through an ongoing federal defamation case involving President Donald Trump.

Santana, along with Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Korey Wise, is suing Trump over statements he made during the September 2024 presidential debate. The five men, formerly known as the Central Park Five and now commonly called the Exonerated Five, contend that Trump falsely said they had pleaded guilty and had killed someone in connection with the 1989 Central Park case.

The men never pleaded guilty, and no victim in the Central Park jogger case was killed. Their convictions were vacated in 2002 after another man, Matias Reyes, confessed and DNA evidence supported his account. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office subsequently moved to vacate the convictions and dismiss the indictments.

A federal judge ruled in April 2025 that significant portions of the lawsuit could proceed, rejecting Trump’s effort to have the defamation and false-light claims dismissed. The court did dismiss the plaintiffs’ separate claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The litigation has since moved into the federal appeals process.

In May 2026, Trump expanded his appellate legal team with attorneys from DLA Piper as he continued challenging the case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. His attorneys have argued that the lawsuit should be barred under legal protections involving political speech and Pennsylvania’s anti-SLAPP law. Attorneys representing Santana and the other plaintiffs have opposed that effort.

The dispute remains unresolved.

For Santana, the case adds another chapter to a story that began when he was just 14 years old.

Santana and the other four teenagers were convicted in 1990 after interrogations that became a central focus of later criticism of the prosecution. The Innocence Project states that false confessions and faulty forensic evidence contributed to the wrongful convictions. Santana spent years incarcerated before being released and later exonerated.

In the years since, Santana has become an advocate on wrongful convictions, criminal-justice reform and the long-term consequences of incarceration.

He has continued speaking publicly about healing and rebuilding life after exoneration. A recent rebroadcast of an interview with Santana focused on the psychological toll of his wrongful conviction, forgiveness, community support and his advocacy work.

More than three decades after the original case captured national attention, Santana’s legal battle over how that history is publicly described is still unfolding.

The current lawsuit does not revisit whether Santana and the other men were guilty of the 1989 attack. Their convictions were vacated and the indictments dismissed more than two decades ago.

Instead, the case now centers on whether Trump’s later statements about the Exonerated Five were defamatory and legally actionable — a question that remains before the courts.

September 12, 2026
New York State Assemblyman Joseph DeStefano is backing an effort to change New York’s bail laws in cases involving alleged harm to children.

The proposal originates in the Senate as S.10679, introduced by State Sen. Dean Murray. DeStefano is backing the Assembly version of the measure, although a separate Assembly bill number has not yet been publicly identified.

The legislation would make crimes in which a defendant is alleged to have caused physical, psychological or emotional harm to someone under 18 eligible for bail consideration.

The proposal does not require judges to impose bail. Instead, it would give courts the ability to consider bail in qualifying cases involving children.

The push follows a case involving 12 William Floyd Middle School students who were hospitalized after consuming THC-infused gummies.

According to the official announcement supporting the legislation, the defendant prosecuted in connection with that incident was released because the charges were not bail-eligible and later fled Long Island before being apprehended.

DeStefano said the case demonstrates why judges need greater discretion when children are alleged victims.

“New York’s laws should never tie a judge’s hands when a child has been physically, psychologically, or emotionally harmed,” DeStefano said. “Senator Murray’s legislation restores common sense discretion to the courts by making these serious crimes bail-eligible while still allowing judges to consider the facts of each individual case.”

Supporters of the legislation argue that New York’s current bail laws can prevent judges from considering bail even when circumstances involving children raise concerns about public safety or the possibility that a defendant could flee.

For DeStefano, the proposal is about restoring another tool to judges rather than mandating detention.

The Senate measure, S.10679, still must move through the legislative process. DeStefano is supporting the corresponding effort in the Assembly, where a separate bill number has not yet been publicly identified.

New York State Senate Bill S.10679⁠

It is sponsored by Sen. Dean Murray, was introduced August 14, 2026, and is currently in the Senate Rules Committee. The page includes the full bill text and a PDF download

September 7, 2026