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All right, good afternoon. First of all, I just want to say thank you for being here today and for uh coming out, I know that some of the information that I'm gonna put out today has already, uh made its way around several media outlets and some of the comments from social media, different platforms out there have already expressed some opinions and there was *** temptation to cancel the, the uh press conference because of all the things that had already been shared. But um I didn't want to cancel because there were some things that I wanted to say and some um for us to be able to tell our side of the story or not our side of the story, but tell the um what happened from an investigation angle. And uh, um also I just really wanna brag on my lieutenant who is in charge of this case and uh talk about all his hard work. Uh Lieutenant Long who's with me here today has spent an immeasurable amount of time on this case. Um He conducted several interviews with the suspects in this case as well as some other key players involved. Lieutenant Long has dedicated many hours to getting all the facts and to gathering all the evidence so that he could present his case to the grand jury. I'm extremely thankful for all of his hard work. I appreciate his due diligence and everything that he did to prepare this case. As well as I'm extremely thankful for all the deputies of Blount County and the corrections officers and staff who work so hard every single day for the citizens of Blount County. And I'm just, uh, I'm blessed and honored to be the sheriff here. But Lieutenant Long, he dedicated *** whole lot of time and effort and he was determined to make sure that he had everything right. When he took this case to grand jury, he takes every case seriously and he's very thorough in each investigation that he oversees. And it's because of his hard work and because of his attention to detail that he was able to present his findings to the grand jury where they returned indictments including indictments on capital murder. Our two suspects that we're talking about today are Mason Grimes and Brooklyn Page Posey Grimes. They are the two that were the, this, um, child was placed in their custody. But again, today, I just want to say, thank you to long for all his hard work and to get us where we are here today in this case and for his continued care in all of his cases here at the sheriff's office during this investigation, it was discovered that the list of defenders that we mentioned just *** minute ago that all they were li although they were living here in Blount County, they were foster parents to our victim and he was fostered out of Marshall County D hr The victim was an 18 month old child who was placed in their care. And on November the 22nd of 2023 the blunt, Kenny Sheriff's office was contacted and responded to Saint Vincent's blunt for the death of our victim. And at the time of the arrival, the victim was in the er and he was in the trauma room and the victim appeared to be emaciated to have no body mass, skin and bones. And he was um and as as we were talking to the medical staff there, they informed the investigator that at the time of the arrival, the victim was not breathing and was cold to the touch. The victim was then sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Science for an autopsy, which is standard for minors. After an unknown amount of time spent interviewing and investigating this case. Records reviews from the Marshall County D hr office and records review from several doctors and medical centers. It was discovered that *** medical appointment was attended on September the 25th, 2023 and that the child was diagnosed with several congenital disorders. Follow up appointments were scheduled for October of the same year, but the victim was not taken back to the doctor. It was also discovered by medical records that the victim had lost over 50% of his body weight. Facts of this case were presented to the Blount County Grand jury and the offenders were charged from the outcome of that Blant Blunt County grand jury with the charges of capital murder for *** child under the age of 15 intentional murder, felony, murder, and aggravated child abuse. Mason Grimes and Brooklyn Page Posey Grimes were arrested and they're being held in the Blount County Correctional facility as we see as we speak on *** no bond. This is *** very heartbreaking case where everyone who, uh, was involved in any way, whether it be the initial report taken, whether it be, um, the, the further investigation, the medical staff, everyone here at the sheriff's office, we were all touched, um, tragically by this case because let's just be honest, this precious child was *** victim and had been treated in such *** way that no human should be treated. And, um, just want to say that, uh, from all of us here at the sheriff's office, uh, we're all devastated over this, but I'm also very thankful today for the very hard work done by the deputies and investigator long for the work that was put into this case so that we could try to get some justice for our victim. Uh, at this time. That's all I have, if anybody has questions, I'll be, uh, glad now understand this investigator, Chad Long who, uh, oversees my investigative division. Uh, he has all the in the weeds details and he is *** little bit camera shy. Uh, so if you have questions, I'll be glad to do whatever I can to try to answer him. But, um, Lieutenant Long is gonna have most of the details. So I'll be glad to, uh, turn any questions that you have over to him. We saw *** Facebook page that appears to be um owned by basic rhymes and he indicates that they had had other foster parents or they had other Children that they were fostering was there. Can you verify that? And was there any concern when it came to other Children that they may have fostered? There were other foster Children in the home? Um Those foster Children have been removed from that home at the, at the beginning of this, um their safety plans were set up by D hr and those Children were, were in *** safe, we were moved to *** safe location. Was there any indication of the same type of abuse that you guys are alleging of the suspects upon the baby boy was, you know, being given to the other foster Children? No. How many other foster kids were there in the home? Um At the time, I don't remember, I don't remember exactly uh which, which Children had been previously? Adopted and which Children were under foster care? I believe there was one child that had been adopted and two other Children other than the, the baby that were in foster care. Yes, *** total of four. Yes. And you mentioned that there was some doctor's appointments that were skipped in between that time frame. Is there any indication that D hr checked in on the family? Do we know if they ever showed up to their house or try to make contact with them to check on the child? I know the, the, the rules and the guidelines from, from my understanding that I have followed up with and learned from D hr is that they are required to do uh, periodic home visits. Um, and they are required to do follow ups after doctor's appointments and, and, and other things like that. I don't know exactly what DH R's rules and requirements are. Um, it wouldn't really be fair for me to comment on that. But, uh, I know that they do individual home visits and each of the, each of the Children that were in that home had *** separate case worker. But we don't know if anyone checked for the, for that child, that child also had *** case worker and that, and they were according to their records doing uh periodic visits, I'm sure you've spoken with the two suspects. You know, Sheriff Marco has said that this is just *** horrible case. I'm sure many of you men in here are others. Do we have any indication as to why this happened? I don't, I wish I did. I wish I could understand. Um But I have, I have no no indication on why they did it. And on there, on, on the Facebook page that we found, you know, he was basically saying to *** lot of his people. Please pray for us for what we're about to endure this week. It appears to have some support from people, you know, maybe friends or family or people in their lives. What do you have to say about the people, you know, who are supporting others during this time? I'll address that because we all have, we all have friends and family that love us uh regardless of whatever situation we're in, no matter what our circumstances are even, even uh when, when, when people seem to disagree with me and some of the things that I do and, and some of the stances that I make some of the decisions that I make, there are people that will disagree with me, but I still have family and friends that love me and show support for me and out and, and openly show that support for me. It's the same in, in any situation really. Uh I don't know necessarily if the supporters were now, I know there are some out there that will never believe that any of this was possible. Um Almost all of our sex cases, uh, crimes against Children, murder cases and things of that nature. There'll be *** lot of times that people who are close family members to the offender that will say there's no way they ever did that. They're too nice. They're too sweet. They're church going. All these things that they'll give us are used for excuses as to why, um, they could never do this. But the truth of the matter is, is that the facts are the facts and the evidence is overwhelming. And, uh, if it weren't for the facts, if it wasn't for the evidence, uh, investigator along would not have been able to present that to the grand jury and come back with these indictments. And so, uh, even though I also have, um, an understanding, I can feel the people who are supporting them and love them, I can, I can feel for them and, and understand why they would continue to support their loved ones. But sometimes our support for our loved ones needs, needs to be that we're gonna pray for you through this because it's gonna be extremely difficult and you're gonna need some strength and encouragement but not saying the things of, hey, there's no way they did it or, you know, they're, they're absolutely innocent. They, their prayers and support are 100% appropriate for, for anyone. I have people who reach out to me on *** regular basis to talk about how they, they go to my website every day and they look at all of the inmates and they pray their names out loud every single inmate in my jail. So they all need somebody to love them and support them and pray for them. But also uh accountability has to be held in situations like this. Yes. And uh can you describe what that home was like that the foster parents were operating out of in ***, we were their reports that it was me. So we talked about this *** little bit this morning and yeah, it's not definitely not an Ariana resident. Uh, they, they were not living in, in Ariana. They were, uh, it's, it was *** Horton address which is just inside Blount County if I'm not mistaken. Um, but they were, it, it's hard to explain without because we don't really just want to give everything. We don't wanna lay all the facts out there because we do have to protect the, the, this, the evidence. We do have to protect the case before it goes to trial. Um, but there are, there were some questions and some concerns about the living conditions, uh for the entire family. Did they have any Children of their own biological Children or adopted Children? I believe there was one that they had, I believe there was one that they had adopted, um, as far as biological Children. Uh, none that I'm aware of. And do we know if they have any criminal background or anything that stood out to you guys, maybe D hr had flagged anything. They were, they were foster, they were foster providers, um, and their, their backgrounds and all of that stuff was, was addressed by the Marshall County D hr office. Um, there, there were no, I'm trying to remember. I, I don't believe there was any flags in their, in their criminal history that, that indicated anything negative. Are you able to share what the congenital disorders that the baby had were? I can't at this time, have they shown any remorse for what happens in *** child? I, I guess everyone has *** different interpretation of remorse. Um If you're asking me if they were crying the, the night at the hospital, I didn't see it. Um The, during the interviews that I have conducted with them, um they maintained bearing, uh they were able to answer my questions. Um And then they contacted legal representation and there were no more interviews after that. Anything else, is there anything that we missed that you might wanna say as far as this case is concerned? No, I, um again, I just want to try to protect the integrity of the case without giving away too much so that it, uh you know, and when it does go to trial that there will be um that we didn't do something to, to hurt the prosecution. Um You know, we've been very busy and, uh, had *** lot going on here lately with many different types of cases. And, uh, I just want to say again how thankful I am to the deputies and the correctional staff and everybody who works here at the sheriff's office for all their hard work. It is, you know, uh, not an easy job, especially in today's world where there seems to be, um, not *** whole lot of people that wanna work in service anymore in public service anymore and public safety. So the ones that are here, the ones that do want to do it, they're not gonna get rich, they're not gonna make, uh, themselves into, uh, *** millionaire, but they understand what public services and protecting our homes and protecting our families and doing the right thing. That's one thing that we always talk about around here is, you know, we're not perfect, we make mistakes, we, uh, sometimes, you know, stumble and fall but, you know, we wanna make sure that we're doing everything we can to do the right thing because that's the right thing to do. And, uh, I just, I extremely thankful for everybody who, who works here and does that every, every single day, uh, sometimes in the spot of, uh, *** world around us that doesn't appreciate the work that these men and women do. One last question for you. For foster Children who already don't have *** home, they don't have those parents to love them. To see this happen from people who are supposed to be loving and caring for them. How does that? It's extremely heartbreaking because there are also so few resources. So, so few opportunities for uh not just in blunt county but really nationwide for um Children in foster care, uh Children who are given up um for adoption and things of that nature. So when you see when you have *** place that, that, that has been deemed safe to put kids in and something like this happens, uh it, it is devastating on the entire community. I've had many people reach out to me today specifically this morning talking about how they were foster parents and how they had taken care of kids and this and it just made them mad and it just, and it hurt their heart and disappointed them because, you know, not only, it's just like in law enforcement or somebody in law enforcement does something uh that, that, you know, the media grabs *** hold of and spreads, it puts *** black mark on our entire profession. Uh It's the same thing what *** lot of these foster parents were saying is that this, this could be damaging to every foster parent who is doing everything they can to do the right thing for these Children to give them *** hope to give them something to look forward to, to give them *** chance in life to be successful. So it is uh it is heartbreaking for everyone. Thank you. All right. Thank you again for coming out. I really appreciate it. What's up Jed?