MBA: "Ryan Ferguson Released From Prison" — Transcript

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1. 0:01breaking news tonight on abc 17 news at
2. 0:04five you are looking
3. 0:06at the boone county courthouse in
4. 0:07columbia the missouri attorney general
5. 0:08in the last 15 minutes filed a court
6. 0:10order saying it would not retry ryan
7. 0:13ferguson and what that means is ferguson
8. 0:16will soon be a free man after his
9. 0:18conviction was thrown out last week for
10. 0:19the 2001 killing of columbia tribune
11. 0:22sports editor ken heithold ferguson left
12. 0:24the jefferson city correctional center
13. 0:25about an hour ago abc 17's daniel nguyen
14. 0:28is live at the boone county jail right
15. 0:30now where family and friends of ferguson
16. 0:33have just started showing up and daniel
17. 0:35just spoke with ryan ferguson's father
18. 0:37daniel
19. 0:40yeah stephanie it's about to get very
20. 0:42exciting here at the boone county
21. 0:44courthouse right now ryan ferguson
22. 0:46expected to be brought to that sally
23. 0:47port right there behind us crews already
24. 0:50setting up family members you can see
25. 0:52right here in this van they are arriving
26. 0:55several cars have family members and
27. 0:57supporters we're expecting bill ferguson
28. 1:00here in just the next couple of minutes
29. 1:01he is two three four minutes away we're
30. 1:03told he is not very far away at all ryan
31. 1:07ferguson we do not know where he is at
32. 1:09this point we're expecting them here
33. 1:12shortly though after like you said
34. 1:13stephanie just 15 minutes ago 4 45 this
35. 1:17afternoon attorney general chris cost
36. 1:19did file papers at the boone county
37. 1:21courthouse saying he would not continue
38. 1:24this case and ryan ferguson will be a
39. 1:27free man shortly
40. 1:29reporting live at the boone county
41. 1:31sheriff's department daniel nguyen abc
42. 1:3317 news all right thank you daniel and
43. 1:34when he leaves there he'll head for a
44. 1:36news conference scheduled to begin at
45. 1:38six abc 17's ryan tate is live at the
46. 1:41tiger hotel where the news conference
47. 1:43will take place on ryan it didn't take
48. 1:44long for the family to get him out of
49. 1:46prison
50. 1:48yeah no it certainly didn't stephanie
51. 1:50here's how we got to this point last
52. 1:51week we were here at the tiger hotel for
53. 1:54a news conference as the family and the
54. 1:56legal team
55. 1:58were talking to the media after the
56. 1:59missouri western district court of
57. 2:01appeals vacated fergus's sentence that
58. 2:03means that the state had two weeks to
59. 2:05decide if it wanted to retry ferguson it
60. 2:08only took one week to make that decision
61. 2:10at about 1 30 this afternoon attorney
62. 2:12general chris coster sent out this
63. 2:14statement quote after studying the
64. 2:16appellate court's opinion in ferguson v
65. 2:18dormeyer and carefully reviewing the
66. 2:20remaining known evidence in the case the
67. 2:22attorney general's office will not retry
68. 2:25or pursue further action against ryan
69. 2:27ferguson at this time that set into
70. 2:30motion this afternoon's events which
71. 2:32will end with a news conference right
72. 2:33here at the tiger hotel stephanie we
73. 2:35will keep you updated on any new
74. 2:37developments down here and let you know
75. 2:38when the news conference is set to begin
76. 2:40reporting live in columbia ryan tate abc
77. 2:4317 news all right thank you ryan and
78. 2:45when the family arrived at prison in
79. 2:47jefferson city ryan's father bill
80. 2:48ferguson spoke briefly to the media abc
81. 2:5117's evan millward was there he joined
82. 2:54us now to tell us what he had to say oh
83. 2:56yeah and the whole family was packed
84. 2:57into that free ryan ferguson car that
85. 2:59we've been seeing around town the past
86. 3:00couple of months stephanie we were there
87. 3:02as they pulled up onto militia drive
88. 3:04about to turn into the jefferson city
89. 3:06correctional center around three o'clock
90. 3:08today they were actually initially
91. 3:10turned away from the same barricade that
92. 3:12had been put up to keep us the media
93. 3:14away from j triple c but it was just a
94. 3:16matter of getting a security clearance
95. 3:18to get them in since the attention on
96. 3:20this case has been so monumental you can
97. 3:21see it there just about every major
98. 3:23network was there plus all of us local
99. 3:25news folks
100. 3:27this is when we caught up with bill and
101. 3:28leslie ferguson about their reaction to
102. 3:30hearing the news just this afternoon
103. 3:38and we're leaving the prison
104. 3:40i was surprised because i i thought that
105. 3:42they'd wait until the very last minute
106. 3:45of the last day which is today
107. 3:49now this has no doubt been a little
108. 3:50challenging for that family today but
109. 3:52they do tell me they've waited now nine
110. 3:53years another couple of hours isn't
111. 3:55going to be that bad
112. 3:57all right thank you evan like we said we
113. 3:59will continue to follow this we do have
114. 4:01them very quickly it is and if we see
115. 4:03him released we will continue to go back
116. 4:05out to the ben county jail thank you
117. 4:06evan we have breaking news tonight on
118. 4:09abc 17 news at six ryan ferguson is
119. 4:12officially a free man tonight for the
120. 4:14first time since his arrest back in 2004
121. 4:17it was just minutes ago that we saw him
122. 4:20leave the boone county jail in the free
123. 4:23ryan ferguson car now we told you
124. 4:25earlier today just after one the
125. 4:27attorney general chris coster was not
126. 4:29going to retry ferguson for killing
127. 4:31columbia tribune the columbia daily
128. 4:33tribune sports editor kent heitholt back
129. 4:36in 2001. it wasn't until shortly before
130. 4:39five o'clock that he officially filed
131. 4:41that paperwork
132. 4:42in the boone county the boone county
133. 4:44courthouse this is video that was shot
134. 4:47six minutes ago that is ryan ferguson
135. 4:51leaving the boone county jail
136. 4:54officially a free man he as we expect is
137. 4:57on his way to the tiger hotel we told
138. 5:00you earlier today a press conference was
139. 5:02scheduled for six o'clock that's where
140. 5:03we're going to find abc 17's ryan tate
141. 5:06he's joining us now ryan what are you
142. 5:08hearing at the hotel is he on his way
143. 5:11well we understand he is on his way
144. 5:14right now it is very busy in here not
145. 5:16only are we here getting ready to see
146. 5:19ryan ferguson and team ferguson getting
147. 5:21here but there's also local media here
148. 5:23there's statewide media and network
149. 5:25media and also there's a lot of friends
150. 5:27and family who are here right now you
151. 5:29can't see them i'm looking right at them
152. 5:30now there's about three rows of chairs
153. 5:32about five or six deep and they are all
154. 5:34full mostly people that are sitting here
155. 5:37waiting to see ryan ferguson really for
156. 5:39the first time now as you just said we
157. 5:42just showed you some video of ryan
158. 5:43ferguson leaving the boone county jail
159. 5:45abc 17's daniel nguyen has been really
160. 5:48tracking
161. 5:49ferguson's uh all these movements all
162. 5:52afternoon long he's now joining us live
163. 5:54from the boone county jail daniel
164. 5:56right now
165. 5:59we are closer than ever to from here to
166. 6:02hearing from ryan ferguson at this point
167. 6:04he left this sally port here at the
168. 6:05boone county jail just about seven or
169. 6:08eight minutes ago he is now on his way
170. 6:10downtown to the boone i'm sorry to the
171. 6:12tiger hotel where he and his family will
172. 6:15hold a press conference it's been a very
173. 6:17confusing afternoon first of all we were
174. 6:19told that ferguson was on his way to the
175. 6:21boone county courthouse then we found
176. 6:23out it was actually the boone county
177. 6:24jail here and then kathleen zellner came
178. 6:28out
179. 6:28she went back in she didn't say anything
180. 6:31then the family showed up we had bill
181. 6:32ferguson here and bill ferguson said
182. 6:34that ryan was somewhere
183. 6:36in between
184. 6:37jefferson city and columbia then we
185. 6:41finally had ryan ferguson arrive
186. 6:43zellner came out again and told us ryan
187. 6:45had
188. 6:46already left the premises already left
189. 6:48the jail and then three minutes later we
190. 6:50saw ryan ferguson come out of this sally
191. 6:53port right here behind me
192. 6:55they are headed downtown right now to
193. 6:57the tiger hotel where uh my colleague
194. 7:00ryan tate is standing by ryan
195. 7:10again we are live here at the tiger hill
196. 7:12hotel waiting for ryan ferguson and team
197. 7:14ferguson to arrive here we certainly
198. 7:16expect a different set of emotions than
199. 7:18we saw this time last week remember we
200. 7:20were here when when the team ferguson
201. 7:23was here answering questions from the
202. 7:25media we're actually in a different
203. 7:26ballroom than we were the last time the
204. 7:28last time we were on the same floor on a
205. 7:30different side in a much smaller room
206. 7:32this is a much bigger room if you're
207. 7:33familiar with the tiger hotel it's a big
208. 7:35ballroom on the second floor
209. 7:37the ferguson family really they
210. 7:39certainly had a i don't know a reserved
211. 7:42kind of confidence last week as after
212. 7:44getting that ruling from the western
213. 7:46district court of appeals this time
214. 7:47though we are not
215. 7:49expecting them to be very reserved with
216. 7:50their emotions we expect a lot of smiles
217. 7:53now that ferguson is out only one person
218. 7:56remains in prison for the death of ken
219. 7:58heithold back in 2001 a murder that
220. 8:00happened really only a couple of blocks
221. 8:02from where i'm standing right now and
222. 8:04that person still in prison is chuck
223. 8:06erickson we've tried to contact him
224. 8:08earlier today and eric chuck erickson is
225. 8:11not doing any interviews he's in a state
226. 8:13prison in the south central part of the
227. 8:15state right now
228. 8:17when ryan ferguson arrives we will let
229. 8:19you know and at this point we are still
230. 8:20in a waiting game this news conference
231. 8:22was supposed to start at six o'clock but
232. 8:24as we saw last week with team ferguson
233. 8:26these things
234. 8:28these things these things certainly
235. 8:29cannot can uh can wait a little bit
236. 8:32let's go now to abc 17's julian fertig
237. 8:35who is at the boone county courthouse
238. 8:36has been there most of the afternoon
239. 8:38jillian
240. 8:43well this is where it all started in
241. 8:452005 and bill ferguson says this is
242. 8:47where it's going to end he and ryan and
243. 8:49the rest of the family are expected to
244. 8:50come here and ring the bell today now
245. 8:52we're not sure yet if he's coming here
246. 8:54first or they're going to the tiger
247. 8:55hotel first but we'll be out here
248. 8:57keeping an eye on everything live in
249. 8:59columbia julian furtick abc 17 news
250. 9:02all right thanks jillian now some of the
251. 9:05confusion that we've been trying to work
252. 9:06out here in abc 17 newsroom is part of
253. 9:09the
254. 9:10well the the the order written by the
255. 9:13western appeals court that uh granted
256. 9:16that overturned conviction last week to
257. 9:18ryan ferguson it was in their ruling
258. 9:21today that had us confused about why he
259. 9:23wasn't being released from the jefferson
260. 9:25city correctional center earlier this
261. 9:27afternoon as per the family's
262. 9:29expectations as well instead he was
263. 9:31brought up here he was supposed to go to
264. 9:33the boone county courthouse he then got
265. 9:35switched over to the jail where his
266. 9:37father came out about quarter after five
267. 9:40this evening saying that the only reason
268. 9:41he had not been released yet he was
269. 9:43waiting on a signature from a judge who
270. 9:45was unfortunately in saint louis it was
271. 9:48that what we were waiting on before he
272. 9:50officially was released tonight