Behind the Bench | James Harrington | January 21, 2026

You know, I gotta tell you, a special treat tonight to have Judge Cunningham with us. Yeah, got a love of him. Comes down to the studio. It's awesome. More of batters be. I mean, the new face and love of flood law. Everyone needs to know she's a brilliant, amazing lawyer. And we took her from the dark side over on that defense side. Put her on the plaintiff side. You know, she's fighting for the people. Yeah, unleash me. Yeah. Yeah. It should be. I've known a few people. Switch size recently. That's right. Yeah. And we got Kyra Newman. I mean, got a love Kyra. Got a love Kyra. What's not the love? Exactly. That's what I say. Yeah. That sounds like sarcasm, but it's for real. You know, sometimes you got a distinguish between, you know, but it is real. It is real. It is real. It is. Yeah. Absolutely. We have one of the best lawyers in the state of Michigan. James Harrington. Are you with me, my man? Hey, what's up, Todd? Thank you so much for having me here. Man, that's good to talk to you. Oh, yeah. Well, I love working with you. You know, we, uh, what's our, what's, uh, you know, we got the DMC. We're going after tenant and and we'll Fredo, but I want to talk about I. My staff gave came to me today. I didn't get the chance to listen to all the press conference by prosecutor worthy. I call it. I keep a call on her judge. Once a judge. Always a judge. She's, uh, to me, uh, you know, one of the finest of not the finest prosecutors. We're blessed to have her in Wayne County. We're blessed to have that team in Wayne County. Um, and she put a team together and has been going at it now for quite some time. Five new counts. James five new counts on, uh, Wilfredo, the serial rapist who was a nurse at, um, DMC. But I don't know if you pick this up. Uh, they're investigating. We don't know. We just know they're investigating a few employees for failure to report. Yeah. Yeah. I did see that. And here's the thing, Todd. You and I talked about this, you know, several months ago, we talked to the press exactly about this concept of the failure to report. Because everybody needs to understand that every single, you know, person inside of that hospital receiving a paycheck is a mandatory reporter under the law. And I think this is a concept and issue. Um, that, uh, the DMC, um, uh, Sinai Grace is, is really, you know, under, not I want to say under reporting, but under appreciating the gravity of that. And, and, and again, you and I called it you and I said it to the people that this is exactly what's going to happen. And, and prosecutor worthy. I give her a lot of credit for the courage to bring these charges. And as you and I've said, I don't think they're done. I think that this as, as the survivors come forward and they tell their story. It's, there's going to be more and more and more of these. I mean, the depths of this. We're just scratching the surface, right? I, I agree. The thing that, you know, so disturbing and, and dealing with the survivors, the trauma, the ugliness for which they walk through the brain doesn't have a digestive system. So once you go through it, you know, you just have to manage it, right? And figure out how to deal with that. A lot of therapy, a lot of counseling. But you brought this up. What did they know? This was your quote. What did they know? When did they know it? And what did they do about it? I remember the press conference and I remember, you know, you bringing out. And that's, to me, we don't know. It's tea leave reading. But this was just too prevalent. I mean, more, how can you like, I mean, we have now, prior, prior four, now five more, nine. And there's at least 40 victims that have like joined on to the civil lawsuit. This guy, judge, was raping the women who were either in the psych ward or the addiction ward and no one believed them, right? And he just, he continuously and got away with it. And to both of your points, right? How do you, how do you have someone in a medical facility that goes hours and hours and hours without any nursing notes? Anyone coming to check in? I mean, everybody knows you can't get any rest at those places, right? I've read a couple hours are coming to check your vitals, no matter what you're there for. And there are just these gaps in time. Right, right. There's a charge that prosecutor worthy brought on. I thought was a really interesting charge. It's a statute that came place in 2023 came into effect that dealt with, you know, basically I use floodisms, you know, the guy was faking medical treatment. And he would go into a room and everyone was like, what the hell are you? Why are you going into that room? You know, you don't belong in that room. So there was a statute that he got charged with for violation of that. So, is that the misrepid medical records? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So. Well, and Todd, the, you know, the issue on the on the mandatory reporting, you know, because that was one of the things that everybody was discussing, you know, how did they know how did they know and then now we're seeing that this mandatory reporting is becoming an issue. I mean, that is in and of itself, prima facie evidence for the, you know, the claims on notice, right? I mean, these are going to be some extremely high hurdles for the defense to overcome in our case. And, and, you know, I'm so excited to be working with you. We've got, you know, summer shorts on the case. We've got the key firm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's not just, it's not just one Aiden Hutchinson coming after you. You got four Aiden Hutchinson's from all sides coming after you on this. I'm a little dady for, you know, for Aiden. But I used to be able to hit. I always hit. Got a lot. I love you. You can be Blake. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Michigan, Michigan. Yeah. More of a defensive back guy. You know, Aiden. I mean, he's a monster beast. He is. And so are you, Todd. So are you. We'll come up with a dandy player for you. Yeah. Give me a dandy player. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. So, how many, how many do you know, how many survivors you have right now going at it? Well, they're still, I mean, we're still adding to it and we, we filed, you know, multiple lawsuits. And I think right now, Todd. And correct me if I'm wrong, but right now we, we're on the clock with working towards the certification with the class action. And so, you know, one, if that happens, I think it's likely to happen. I know it'll be opposed. And, you know, we're going to, they'll probably in my estimation hundreds, if not thousands of people. I mean, remember with Henry Ford with Dr. A jazz, you know, that was a class of about 8200 people. And that class was defined from January 1st of 2018 all the way through, I believe it was 2020, three. And so, I mean, we're, I think that the numbers in this is going to be upwards of thousands. That would be wild. But I will say this, I will say this, I am close friends with the people that are prosecuting on the criminal side. And Ken Vowry from Detroit Police Department is working tirelessly with all these survivors. Kim Wurley's team, Kim, as put, you know, her top people around it as well. And so, I think the survivors out there, you know, she gave some some great advice, make sure you're contacting, you know, the law enforcement, make sure that you're getting it out there because I have. Yeah, so important. I really think as more of it comes out, more investigation will come out as the failure to report, which is really, you know, we, that message has to be out there as well. And it's important because, you know, survivors from this type of abuse, you know, are scared. And, you know, they're afraid. And look, they were in a place where trust was so important. They're all so very vulnerable. And so there's, I'm sure certain that there's feelings of being scared to opening themselves up to talking to the, you know, to the police to getting this to the prosecutor. But, you know, as more and more come out, you know, it's my prayer that, you know, they get strength, you know, to get the justice that they're entitled to. You know, there's, there's justice through the civil courts. There's justice through the criminal courts. And, you know, hopefully, you know, with the courage of some, it'll help empower others to speak up and tell their story because every individual story is so important. I agree. I agree. That's, that's the big part of it. And just thinking about how this person took, you know, advantage of those that were in a weaker spot. That, you know, we need, we need to make sure the resources are there for all the, all the survivors and the courage and standing up to, to what happened. They need to, they need to, they need to get better. They need to be better. They need to be proactive. and hopefully they can learn from this and help ensure that our community is safe. Yeah, absolutely. I will say this, everyone thinks we all think that this hospital administration, CEO's, all the exact. It's not going to happen in my shop. This is not the place. When you have criminal activity, it only takes one, right? And that's why the antennas, that's why we have the cameras, that's why we have the reporting, that's why we have the documentation, that's why we have crossing your teeth and dotting your eyes, that's why it's so important. So, amen to you, bro, for making sure that. You know, God, I got to say something, though. It's one thing for them to all say this can never happen, this could never happen. But it does. And it's another thing to implement the policies and procedures, the policies and procedures to keep our families safe when they're at their most vulnerable. And frankly, in this case, the system failed. True, true. I just got a text from my wife just off now here. You ready more? I'm ready. Beans alone, because I love him. But he's not to any teeth, though. I can't win for losing. Sadly, we still were still whatever. I'm trying to find one. It is. Doug Flutey, five foot eight, one national championship. That's a good one. You know who that was, Karrie? No, I think that's a little bit before my time. Boston, Calis. I mean, mine too. He had good hair. How he still does. He's in commercials. Hey, I'm very fast. Hey, I'm very fast. Hey, I'm very fast. There you go. Doug Flutey, that's you. Well, listen, brother, I love working with you. I love your firm and what they do. And all the work you do out there. We, you know, Godspeed. We'll, we'll keep on fighting the fights. Absolutely, man. Stay after it. Stay in the fight. And we'll talk soon, brother. Take care. All right. So I got to tell you that's kind of a crazy story. Judge, I mean, think about that firm on the right. The fact that this happens. I mean, you know what we see more? We see it happen at schools, elementary schools. We see it. I mean, yes. And yes, and doubling down on it too, right? Right. I think of a couple of cases that we have right now like that. Yeah. Yeah. We do. We do. Going to facilitation on a couple. Yeah. Yeah. Have you seen any of those much work that is a class action for one judge? Just a lot of work. That's what I'm thinking about. Yeah. Right. Have you had a class action case? I've had one that wanted to be certified. You deny it. I don't know if I don't know the status of the cases. But, um, but it would, but it's, I mean, it was a lot of work to, to dive into all those issues. And, um, you know, and it's a lot of work for the lawyers to, there are great lawyers on both sides. Yeah. Great facilitator to imagine trying to fit everyone in a courtroom. With what you said, or the thumbs were earlier. I wouldn't fit in my courtroom as I've been told many times. One of the best class action lawyers, and I think the country is in our backyard, Powell Miller. You know, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, uh, I think the world of him. Uh, he was with a, he did the AIG case. Yeah. You know, when Michigan became lead counsel, he was, he was the go to guy in our state. He's got a lot of great people at that firm. He really is. Yeah. I want super smart. Yeah. Yeah, good lawyers. I love the team up with them. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, have you ever done a class? You ever worked on a defense side when you were at that silk stocking firm? That's still. I have not. I never dain't to my silk stockings. I got you. You know, I got to tell you, Kyra, I love having you here. Oh, thanks, Todd. I love being here. Hey, Kyra. You know, it's rising star. We're going to see you. I just, you know, remember us when, you know, yeah. Okay. I don't worry. I'm going to be there. All right. How could she forget? I could never forget. Judge Kenney, we got to go out for cocktails. Let's do it. All right. Mora, love you. Love you. Love you. Flood is a lot. Flood laws a lot better having you on the team leading the team. So we'll be back next time with Behind the Bench. Thanks for having us.