A black woman has a miscarriage, a miscarriage. She gets charged with a felony. There's no dispute it's a miscarriage. Put up the picture full mass. [00:00:15] According to WKBN, the felony case against 33-year-old Brittany Watts of Warren, Ohio will in fact go before a Trumbull County grand jury after investigators discovered a baby stuck in a toilet at her home. [00:00:33] This is how they're characterizing it, a baby in a toilet at her home September 22. This was after she suffered a miscarriage and delivered stillborn, all right? Stillborn, that means no viability of life. Watts is now out on a $5,000 bond and entered a not guilty plea. [00:00:51] If convicted, she faces two years in prison. So prosecutors have charged Watts with felony corpse abuse. That's what they charged her with, accusing her of attempting to plunge the toilet after her miscarriage delivery of 22 weeks. [00:01:08] According to Warren Police Detective Nick Carney, quote, she said she felt the baby come out and there was a big splash. Yeah, it's called a miscarriage, all right, so very emotional and very traumatic thing for most women. [00:01:25] So Dr George Sterbenz, excuse me, a forensic pathologist, testified that an examination revealed no injury to the fetus and said Watts' fetus died before going through the birth canal. [00:01:44] He noted that Watts' medical records showed she visited the hospital twice before the birth, giving significant context that she did not try to do anything harmful to the fetus. [00:02:02] She was responsible in her visits. There was no injury to the body itself, it was stillborn. It was already nonviable as it relates to life. So the doctor said before the court, this fetus was going to be nonviable. [00:02:23] It was gonna be nonviable because she had premature ruptured membranes. Her water had broken early, and the fetus was too young to be delivered. It's called a miscarriage. Tracy Timko, Watts' defense attorney said, quote, [00:02:40] this 33-year-old girl with no criminal record is demonized for something that goes on every day. However, put him up. Warren Assistant Prosecutor Lewis Guarnieri contended [00:02:58] that at issue wasn't, quote, how the child died or when, but that the fetus was left in a toilet and was large enough to clog it, and she went on her day. [00:03:14] Okay, they want to paint this picture. Now, here's the judge. The judge has the authority to do the right thing here. He can dismiss this on frivolous grounds, okay? Where's the act of abuse? This is an unfortunate situation. [00:03:30] Yes, the mother is obviously emotionally distraught. So the judge, Terry Ivanchak of Warren Municipal, found probable cause to bind the case over. That means kick it to the higher court. WKBN reported saying in quote, [00:03:47] there are better legal scholars than I am, end quote. That's what he told those who were assembled. Then he says, to determine the exact legal status of this fetus, corpse, body, birthing tissue, whatever it is, end quote. [00:04:09] She's in trouble. These are the individuals in charge of this case, okay? The judge is admitting, I don't really know the law here, so I'm going to bind it over. That's typically not why you bind things over as a judge. [00:04:27] You bind things over because of what? Evidence, you have enough evidence to bind it over to the higher court. No, no, no, it's not about evidence. It's about the fact, him don't know. This is insane. This woman has had her life completely turned upside [00:04:48] down already experiencing a traumatic situation, to have the prosecutor decide, no, we're going to now ruin your life inside of our criminal justice system. [00:05:07] Doctor, when I saw this initially, I said, as soon as this gets to a judge, right? Because this is a overzealous prosecutor. But as soon as it gets to a judge, a judge is going to see this for [00:05:24] what it is and say, listen, dismiss. All right, the woman had a miscarriage. And the expert testimony is congruent to what she said happened, absolutely no adverse issue when it comes to the narrative. [00:05:40] So the prosecutor decides, okay, we're gonna to get you on the corpse now, insane. What are your thoughts, sir? >> Speaker 2: Vote, everybody vote. >> Speaker 1: Yeah. >> Speaker 2: Because judges really matter. I mean, I completely agree. [00:05:57] As part of my medical training, right, I did six months of OB-GYN. This does happen all the time. People have miscarriages and it's a tragedy. It's a horrible, horrible tragedy. And people then dispose of the miscarriage in ways that [00:06:15] are the most salient at the time. You would be locking up an awful lot of people. I mean, an awful lot of people. But I will also say that, think of the terror around the question of birthing practices, abortion, contraception, everything right now. [00:06:31] I mean we've got, in Texas, somebody almost legally being forced to carry a nonviable pregnancy to birth. We've got today, as we film this, the Supreme Court's gonna hear a case about mifepristone. And what it creates, all those things, is not just injustice. [00:06:48] This also creates a lot of terror in the system, [COUGH] excuse me, that people don't want to. Doctors don't know what they do to stay out of jail right now. So everybody's terrified in this system because of this issue. [00:07:03] And it all goes to judges. And judges are appointed, believe it or not, by the people you elect. And so for people who are thinking about sitting out this election or not voting, I'm hearing this a lot. I mean, this is why this election matters, is because we've got versions of this [00:07:21] kind of attitude of this judge or this court all across the country right now. And we need to reverse that, it's really urgent. >> Speaker 1: Yeah, if you don't vote, America may elect a dictator. If you do vote, America may elect the guy that you [00:07:38] would prefer to not see as president, being Biden. But regardless, okay, your vote is going to count one way or the other.