How Tuxedo Park Explores Power, Corruption and the Pursuit of Justice

0:00 Speaker 1 Well it’s Sunday morning. Well, by accident, I met a good friend of oz and on last Saturday. Uh and his name is Thomas Caniff and he is was a district attorney. He worked with Janine Pirot. His real claim that he did really great on is saving that marine that got in trouble, for protecting the subway writers that

0:25 the marine Daniel Penny. And Daniel Penny was sent to jail for helping the subway writers. And then I guess you you wrote, Thomas who wrote the book right after that, and tell us about your book, tell us about that that marine, because that case became a really big case nationwide.

0:49 Speaker 2 Yeah, you know it was. And you know, I appreciate you. First of all, John, thanks for having me on. It was great seeing you in Southampton this past Saturday. I appreciate the breakfast invite. What a great crowd. Katie McFarland was incredible. It was just a great morning. But yeah, you know I got the well, you know, I actually

1:11 started writing the book well before the Daniel Penny trial. And you know, of course it takes place. You know, my writing took place in fits and starts because I got a busy life I got kids, I got a law career. There’s trials that get in the way, but I never really you know, I never stepped away from

1:29 it completely, and I always go back to it. It’s called Tuxedo Park. It’s a legal political thriller about a young prosecutor in a race against time as he begins to unravel a kidnapping and murder conspiracy that leads back to the incoming president of the United States. So if you like legal drama like the Daniel Penny case, and

1:50 you like political drama and intrigue, I think this is the novel for you.

1:55 Speaker 1 Well that sounds pretty good. I mean it sounds like you’re going to make a movie about it someday.

2:00 Speaker 2 Well, you know, I certainly hope so, for no other reason than in my publishing contract. Everything in the movie, right. But one of the cool things now, you know, there’s so much being done, as everybody knows with AI, So publishing companies like Post to Press that has my book started putting together these movie trailers, which in the past

2:24 you couldn’t do because it would cost, you know, five hundred thousand dollars to produce one of these things. But now you can do it. With AI, you know, in a relatively short amount of time and a relatively low cost.

2:35 So the pr company that works with the publisher put together a book trailer that looks like a movie trailer that that basically, you know, lays out the plot and tells the story in sixty seconds. And it’s just it’s fantastic, you know. I see it and I’m like, jeez, you know, I want to make this movie myself.

2:53 Speaker 1 Well, I went on these Instagram and I signed up to one of these movie production items, and it shows that how the big flood was made, and how the ships are sunk, and how the the and it’s all AI.

3:11 Speaker 2 You know, it’s fascinating. I’ve never been, you know, on the forefront of technology. If I didn’t have my amazing piro Leegal Kiabeth, I don’t know what I would do. But you know, you start tooling around on this stuff and it’s amazing. It’s inspiring, but it’s also scary because you say to yourself, what’s going to be left for

3:28 any of us to do?

3:30 Speaker 1 Now? I’m many talk about your book one more time. It’s Tuxedo Park, uh, and you know what there is yourself. Thomas Canniff K E, N, N, I F F and you could. I guess you can buy it an Amazon.

3:45 Speaker 2 It’s it’s on Amazon, and it’s on Barnes and Noble, it’s on Target, it’s on Walmart. It’s in pre sales right now, so you’ll actually get your copy in and in the middle of the month.

3:55 Speaker 1 Tuxedo Park Well, so does it have a website?

4:00 Speaker 2 Yeah, Tuxedo parkbook dot com. Couldn’t be easier to.

4:04 Speaker 1 Taxedoedo Park book dot com. And now tell us you’re a lawyer, You’ve been around, you’re writing a book about a president. Uh, and what’s going on with your legal profession in America? I always ask all the lawyers about that.

4:23 I mean, do you feel that you go you’re you’re gonna get You’re going to go to trial and be in the right and get a fair trial.

4:32 Speaker 2 I you know, on a macro level, yes, I am a big believer in the jury system and anybody who cares about freedom and justice. You know, when you next time you pray to your God, thank him for her that the Founding Fathers included that right in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, because it is I think that

4:54 the single greatest bulwark against tyranny, because you know, we have so many issues with weaponization of prosecutors in this country at the state, local, federal level, you name it. We saw it in the Daniel Penny case. Frankly, we’ve seen it a lot of I represent a lot of the January sixth clients as plaintiffs. Now, you know, and

5:19 whatever your thoughts are on January six I’m not condoning whatever happened at the Capitol or didn’t happen, But what some of these people were put through, who were convicted or charged with nothing more than a simple trespassing offense, It’s just awful. And it was selected.

5:36 Speaker 1 There was pictures and there was video of people letting them in, security guards letting them in.

5:43 Speaker 2 You can’t imagine what I saw. And we need a whole other segment. I mean absolutely, Look, I don’t you don’t have to ascribe to the greatest you know of the conspiracy theories, but you know, at the very least, you know, if you care just about justice, you know, regardless of what side of the the al you’re on.

6:04 I mean, somebody who commits a trespassing offense shouldn’t spend months, years in some cases in solitary confinement be deprived, the right to take communion be deprived, the right to get a haircut. These are things that we don’t do that to people charge with first degree murder in New York State.

6:22 In fact, they’ve abolished solitary confinement in Rikers Island. Doesn’t matter what your crime was. So you know, I served, I also served in the military. We couldn’t treat terrorist captives like that, nor should we have, you know. So it is just so the biggest concern I think today twenty twenty six with our legal system is doing more

6:47 to make prosecutor prosecutors excuse me, accountable because right now there is no accountability, have absolute immunity. Everybody came to us after Penny case. Why didn’t you sue? Why didn’t you see what you see? Well, because there’s no path, there’s no passage, just to all the prosecutor accountable. In fact, we tried, and while we’re in the process of looking

7:05 for a path, the federal court dismissed Jose Alba’s case. Of course he was the poor bodega.

7:11 Speaker 1 Let’s let’s continue this discussion in the future. Thank you for coming on this Sunday morning. Tuxedoparkbook dot com. Thank you so much and we’ll catch up against you.

7:21 Speaker 2 Thanks for having me, John