Ralph claims (via Geno apparently) that he was offered the misdemeanor
Whoever his supposed source was definitely wouldn't have been Geno, because Ralph's comments about it
yesterday on that prominent Dabbleverse show sure to be a gamechanger (
heh) were referring back to when the same topic came up with Geno sitting right there in
the Biscontes' Killstream appearance the other day (starting at 4:56:30). It was a mostly unwatchable 101 minutes to slog through but worth it for one exchange where Keanu felted Ralph a bit about his "two different" "reputable" sources (whom he claims are not the Rekietas) having no clue what they're talking about. She also let slip some new hints about what someone (presumably Aaron) told her about plea discussions with the state thus far, with a noticeable reluctance to get into specific details at first as if she'd been told in confidence, before pretty much spilling the beans in the end:
Ralph: I've been told, by a couple different people - now again, it's not verified - but that he's turned down a plea deal already. And if you look at what they have on him, just by what you guys have said, and -
Keanu: I'm gonna stop you there and say there's a reason for what you're saying.
Ralph: That he turned down a plea deal? Yeah, because he'll have to serve 90 days in jail automatically, because he has a -
Keanu: No, no, not that, Ethan.
Ralph: Oh, oh.
Keanu: But there's a reason for what you're saying, you know, so - and that's fine, that's fine, that's Rekieta telling you, you know. That's the Rekieta spin on whatever it is, and that's fine. Eugene and I will go right to Minnesota and sit there and say the exact fucking thing we did.
Geno: And I'm going to -
Ralph: No, I'm not - I'm not saying - Rekieta didn't tell me he was going to jail. I'm saying that if they have - if he turned down a plea deal, and, because it's hard to prove intent, right? And that's how they got him on harassment thing, right, or the felony charge. Usually a revenge porn charge is a misdemeanor. Mine was. And so I was shocked that he had a felony count on that.
Ralph: I was told by two different people - now again, I can't prove this but they were reputable people and it wasn't the Rekietas, I'll say that for the record - that Aaron turned down a plea deal that would have dropped the felony count, and he would have had to plead to the misdemeanor.
Keanu: *shakes head*
Ralph: Now he has a 90-day - and this may be wrong...
Keanu: *shakes head*
Keanu: Why wouldn't he just plead to the misdemeanor?
Ralph: Well, I know, it doesn't make sense to me, so it might not be - it might not be true -
Keanu: Because it's not true.
Ralph: OK, well if you know - if you're saying for a fact that's not true, then you know, I'll take your word on it. You know him far better than I do -
Keanu: I like you a lot Ethan, I'm sorry if I'm being sassy. It's like, it's not even -
Ralph: No, no, I don't mind at all. I'm just saying, if he did, that was really dumb, but you're saying it didn't happen, and you know him better than me. I'll just take that as, OK, he didn't do that. Well, OK then, they're playing hardball though...
Ralph: They seem to be preparing for trial, alright, not preparing to cut a deal. I could be wrong, because like I said, usually they always end in a plea deal, but -
Keanu: The thing is: why would you take the deal that says we'll give you a felony, and then maybe remove it later? Would you take that deal?
Now granted, as always with anything coming from Geanu everyone has to put on their "tard whisperer" hat to come to different interpretations, but taking all of the above together I'd submit one interpretation that the plea deal on the table (or at least one of them in the course of various counteroffers) was for a stay of adjudication somewhat similar to Nick's, whereby Aaron would bite the bullet and enter a plea of guilty to the felony
but have the case left open with no actual judgment of conviction of the felony, and with an agreement that the felony count would be amended for conviction of the misdemeanor
if and when Aaron successfully completes a period of probation.
That would be precisely consistent with what Keanu spontaneously blurted out as if she was told as much at some point, and interestingly it would not be
entirely inconsistent with what Ralph has been told if you allow for some finer details having been lost in the proverbial game of telephone. What may have been told to Ralph (or to his sources) was that Aaron would
end up with a misdemeanor in the end, which actually would be an accurate description of how a stay of adjudication works, but one or another especially retarded link in the chain of gossip misunderstood that to mean that Aaron would
plead to only the misdemeanor in the first instance, and then someone passed along the misunderstanding from there.
If such a stay of adjudication is what Keanu was describing, then on its face it would have been pretty dumb for Aaron to not take that deal either, since all he'd have to do is not fuck up for a couple of years to get rid of the felony. Perhaps he just figured the eventual conviction of the misdemeanor was pretty cold comfort when in the interim even a convictionless plea to the felony could cause problems for the ongoing SafeSport process and/or problems for his "radio guy's" alleged progress in striking a deal for a return to radio that Aaron's been teasing about over the past week without getting into details so as to not "jinx it." Immediate collateral consequences like those could have made a felony plea unacceptable even though it would nominally be temporary, and meanwhile any counteroffer from him for a straight plea to the misdemeanor (even with sentencing concessions to sweeten the pot) could easily have left the state concerned about a known recidivist's amenability to probation without the "teeth" of a stay of adjudication hanging a felony over his head, so off to trial it goes.
Anyway, there were a couple more minor highlights from that show FWIW:
1. While Keanu has already said recently that the photo was taken by Aaron rather than sent in the categorically private Signal chat like the complaint alleged based on apparently false statements in the Rekietas' police report, she is definitely doubling down on that and added some detail about how the Qover had
so many different lewds floating around that identifying the one sent to Geno was like looking for a needle in a haystack, so Nick and April were frantically texting Keanu trying to narrow down which lewd was the one in question, and ultimately they never found out. From the context of Ralph's question that brought up the topic, it sure sounds like Keanu has been given good reason to believe that the photo itself was never recovered forensically and that is why the Biscontes' testimony is so outcome-determinative as to need interstate compulsory process now:
Ralph: They may have recovered something from somewhere. He didn't flat-out say that, you know, he's beating around the bush a little. And if they -
Keanu: They don't even know what the photo is. They texted us, April and Nick texting us, going, "could you describe the photo? We have many that we think it could be, but we can't figure out which one it is." They don't have it, so -
Ralph: Yeah, but you guys have admitted that it happened, you know what I mean? So they know that there was a nude photo exchanged, "your boy didn't do so bad did he," right? I mean, it's right there -
Keanu: Right, everyone knows that. No one's denying that.
Ralph: Yeah, so they have him, but the intent to harass -
Keanu: No no no, it's not their photo. They don't know what it is because it's a photo that she posed for, for Aaron.
Ralph: Yeah I know what you're saying, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I get what you're saying, that he took the picture himself.
2. So far the Minnesota court's February 11th certificates still don't appear to have scared Geanu into any giving any assurances of voluntary compliance, and they remain defiant until they actually "have to" show up, which still isn't the case until the prosecutors get off their ass and make the necessary filings in New York:
Ralph: There's two things they could be doing. One: they're just showing him "we're not fucking around, and you'd better take whatever deal we eventually offer - if he didn't turn down the deal like I was told before - and here, we have everything, we have you nailed. Or: they're actually gonna take him to trial, in which case I think that they probably have everything they need to convict him, definitely on the misdemeanor, and -
Keanu: Unless me and Eugene don't show up.
Ralph: Well, y'all had better -
Keanu: I'm teasing, if we have to go we'll go.
Ralph: Please don't say that, don't say that Keanu. For you guys' sake I hope he cuts some kind of deal, because then you won't have to show up obviously.
