Nolan Wells Fallout: Lawyers Make Al Sharpton An Offer He Can't Refuse | Jason Whitlock Harmony

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**Jason Whitlock** (0:26)
Welcome to Harmony. Man, do I have a great show planned for us today. You know, we've been trying to cover this Nolan Wells racial hoax fiasco as best we can here. We've been on this topic for at least the past month. And today, wow, I'm honored to be joined by Tyler Cox and Andrew Edward, Edward Andrew Paltzik. These guys are lawyers that have been representing the families that have been smeared, the young boys that have been smeared, Nolan Wells' friends that were on the boating trip on the weekend, the July 4th weekend with him that just for being there, they've been accused by Ben Crump and Al Sharpton. And in my view, I don't want to put words in these guys' mouth, but Christine Wells-Wansley and Elmore Wansley, I think in my view, this is me talking, just as inappropriate as Ben Crump and Al Sharpton. Well, they're representing the three boys and their families. And really, in my view, representing Ocean Springs, Mississippi, which has been unfairly smeared. Just the state of Mississippi has been unfairly smeared. A young kid apparently drowned in a tragic way that happens all the time with young kids on these holiday weekends and lake or ocean activities. But because this happened in Mississippi and because Nolan Wells was black, and because his three friends were white, we've had all these irresponsible accusations of, well, they must have done something to Nolan Wells because, you know, kids never drown on holiday weekends in lake or ocean activities. But anyway, Tyler Cox, Edward Paltzik, welcome to Harmony. Thank you guys so much for taking the time.
Tyler, I'm going to start with you because you live right there in the Ocean Springs area. You're connected to the community.
When this thing first happened, before, did you already know the families involved here? Because Ocean Springs is kind of a town where everybody knows each other. Or what got you involved in this case? How soon were you on this case once these accusations started flying?

**Tyler Cox** (2:58)
Well, I got involved pretty immediately. So what happened was two of our client's parents were out of town that weekend. And from the very beginning, when our clients were asked by investigators to come in and speak to them, set up a time and speak, their parents called me. And so I got a call about 10 o'clock at night on July 5th saying, hey, we're out of town. Our kids, they want to be interviewed by the Jackson County Sheriff's Department, but we're not there and we don't want them to go by themselves. And as you know, one of the boys I represent, his stepmother is a judge.
And so she knew it was prudent.
And I think your audience knows it's prudent. Whenever you get a call from investigators to come speak with them, no matter who it's with, you better have an attorney there. That's just good practice. And so that's how I got involved in this. I went with my clients to interviews with the Jackson County Sheriff's Department, turned over information and all the documents that we had, Snapchat videos and the like. So I've been involved since the very beginning.

**Jason Whitlock** (4:22)
And so many people have tried to read into, oh, she's a judge.
Clearly, law enforcement is going to show favoritism towards her and her son. Could you speak to that initial immediate allegation?

**Tyler Cox** (4:41)
Well, I can understand when you don't have any other information, how people can connect those dots. But if people would have just waited a second and thought about it a little bit longer, they would have realized that Judge Cole does divorces and child custody.
She doesn't interact or have any dealings with any criminal investigation. The closest thing she comes to any sort of law enforcement is CPS. So her role in her transfer court judicial practice is far and away from anything that's going on in any sort of death investigation. So the two are not intertwined here and never has been.

**Jason Whitlock** (5:31)
And she's also just flat out smart enough to know like, hey man, if law enforcement wants to interview you, you should have representation. That's whether you're guilty, whether you're innocent, whether you're an angel in heaven, here on earth, if law enforcement wants to talk to you, you should bring along your own representation because, and particularly when they're kids, you're clueless.