April 3, 2026

He Posted 693 Bodies on Facebook. Florence County Closed the Case Six Times.

He Posted 693 Bodies on Facebook. Florence County Closed the Case Six Times.
He Posted 693 Bodies on Facebook. Florence County Closed the Case Six Times.
No Tears For Black Girls
He Posted 693 Bodies on Facebook. Florence County Closed the Case Six Times.

In 1996 a South Carolina court convicted a man of promoting the prostitution of a child and sent him home with a suspended sentence. Over the next twenty-three years he filed flyers, built a DJ reputation, and accessed hundreds of Black girls and women across Florence County while law enforcement closed case after case, marked reports unfounded, and watched evidence walk in and out of their offices without making a single arrest that stuck. In 2011 a thirteen year old girl sat in a hospital and told a deputy she was afraid she had been exposed to HIV by a thirty-four year old man who paid her for sex. The case was marked unfounded. In 2018 a family member put a phone with evidence directly into a deputy's hands. The case was administratively closed. That same year six SD cards were found in a sock in his bedroom drawer while two underage girls were inside his home. He was charged with marijuana possession. He went home. His name was Jason Roger Pope. On his own Facebook page he wrote that he had six hundred and ninety-three bodies. All Black females. This is Black true crime. This is a Black women story. This is what institutional indifference looks like when it has twenty-three years to run. No Tears For Black Girls is the podcast that refuses to let these cases become footnotes. This episode is not comfortable. But it is necessary.

SHOW NOTES

Episode: He Posted 693 Bodies on Facebook. Florence County Closed the Case Six Times.

This week on No Tears For Black Girls, host Samantha Paul covers the documented case of Jason Roger Pope, a Florence, South Carolina DJ and promoter who used social media, party flyers, and local social capital to access and exploit hundreds of Black girls and women over nearly three decades while law enforcement repeatedly had evidence in hand and failed to act.

This episode covers the full timeline from Pope's first conviction in 1996 through his 2023 guilty plea on thirteen charges including five counts of sex trafficking of a minor. It examines the documented failures of the Florence County Sheriff's Office, the public health silence that followed his arrest, and the gap between the thirteen charges he was convicted on and the six hundred and ninety-three encounters he publicly claimed. It also examines why no hate crime charge and no HIV criminalization charge was ever filed despite evidence supporting both.

This is Black true crime told through the lens of institutional accountability. This is a Black women story that national media covered in a paragraph while the Black press and community advocates kept it alive for years. No Tears For Black Girls exists because these stories deserve more than a paragraph.

Content warning: This episode contains detailed discussion of sexual abuse of minors, human trafficking, deliberate HIV exposure, and systemic law enforcement failure.

Stream the music:Search No Tears For Black Girls Soundtrack wherever you stream music to find Flowers For The Living, the latest EP performed by Jayda Truth. Written for the women still here. For the ones still carrying weight the world pretended not to see.Direct link in show notes.

Read the book:Death Apnea by J.C. Reedburg, part of the No Tears For Black Girls Case Files series, is available now on Amazon. Kindle Unlimited subscribers can read it at no additional cost. Print copies available for those who want to hold this story in their hands.

👉 www.amazon.com

You can also search No Tears For Black Girls by J.C. Reedburg on Amazon to find the full catalog.

Support the show:If this episode moved something in you leave a five star review wherever you listen. Share it with someone who needs to hear it. Every review helps the algorithm push these stories to the people who need them most.

Find us everywhere:Search No Tears For Black Girls on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

This is No Tears For Black Girls. Stay loved. Stay safe. Let there be light.



CREDITS:

Created, Written, & Produced by John Reedburg

Hosted & Narrated by Samantha Paul

Production Company: John Reedburg Media

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

https://www.youtube.com/@NoTearsForBlacksGirls

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tiktok.com/@notearsforblackgirls

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Imagine this.
You are 16 years old and you are

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standing in front of a mirror
getting ready for a party.

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Not just any party, a real one,
with a DJ, with lights, with

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older people who make everything
feel bigger than your regular

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life.
Your friend texted you the

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flyer.
It looked professional.

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00:00:19,040 --> 00:00:21,640
It looked legitimate.
The man throwing it has a

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reputation around Florence, SC.
Everybody knows DJ Kid.

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You have seen his name on social
media since you were 13.

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He promotes events.
He pays girls to hand out

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Flyers.
He comments on posts.

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He slides into DMS with
opportunities that sound like

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they could actually be
something.

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Your Mama does not know you are
going.

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You told her you were staying at
your friend's house.

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She believed you because you
have never given her a reason

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not to.
You are wearing something cute.

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Your hair is done.
You feel older than you are, and

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somewhere in the back of your
mind there is a small voice

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trying to tell you something.
You do not listen to it, not

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yet, because the music is loud
and the lights are low and the

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man behind all of it has chosen
you out of everyone in the room

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to talk to.
And when someone chooses you,

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when someone with power and
presence and money in his pocket

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turns his full attention on you,
16 years old feels like the most

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dangerous age in the world.
Not because you are reckless,

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but because you have not yet
learned that attention from the

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wrong person is not a
compliment, it is a calculation.

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His name is Jason Rodger Pope
and he has been doing this since

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before you were born.
This is no tears for black

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girls.
I am Samantha Paul.

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Before we go any further, I need
you to understand something

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about this episode.
What you are about to hear is

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not a Horror Story from another
century.

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It is not a cautionary tale from
a true crime book.

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You can close when it gets too
heavy.

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It is a documented, prosecuted,
legally confirmed case that

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unfolded in a mid sized American
city over the course of nearly 3

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decades.
While law enforcement had access

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to the evidence.
While girls were going to

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hospitals and filing reports and
telling adults what was

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happening to them.
While a man used a party flyer

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and a social media page and the
social currency of being the

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local DJ to access hundreds of
black girls and women, some as

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young as 11 years old, and do
what predators do when a system

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decides their victims are not
worth protecting.

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00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:31,280
This episode contains detailed
accounts of sexual abuse of

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minors, human trafficking,
deliberate HIV exposure, and the

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compounded failures of a law
enforcement system that had

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every opportunity to stop one
man and chose repeatedly and

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over decades not to Take care of
yourself while you listen.

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00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:54,440
But listen because this story is
not over, and the conditions

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that made it possible are still
in place.

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Florence, SC sits in the
northeastern part of the state,

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about 90 miles east of Columbia
and about 70 miles West of the

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coast.
It is not a small town.

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It has a population of around
38,000 people.

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It has hospitals, a university,
a regional airport.

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It is the kind of mid sized
southern city where everybody

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knows somebody who knows
somebody.

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Where reputations travel fast.
Where a man who promotes parties

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and plays music at events can
build the kind of social capital

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that makes him feel untouchable.
Where his name on a flyer means

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something.
Where a teenage girl sees his

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profile on Facebook and thinks
he is someone worth knowing.

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Jason Rodger Pope was born in
1977.

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00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:49,360
By the time he was 18 years old,
he already had a criminal

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record.
By the time he was 19, he had

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00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:55,960
been convicted of promoting the
prostitution of a minor and

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00:03:55,960 --> 00:04:00,960
received a suspended sentence of
30 months, 30 months suspended

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for prostituting a child.
He did not go to prison.

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He went home and then he kept
going.

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What follows is not a list of
charges, it is a timeline of

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every moment.
The system had a door open wide

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enough to stop what was coming
and chose to close it instead.

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00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:24,320
December 1995 Pope is arrested
for impersonating a police

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officer.
Convicted suspended sentence of

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one year plus probation.
February 1996 Pope is arrested

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and convicted of promoting
prostitution with a minor

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suspended sentence of 30 months.
He goes home.

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August 1997 Assault and battery,
a fine, Disorderly conduct, a

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fine, Forgery, 90 days in jail,
Forgery again.

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A5 year, Suspended sentence.
Door after door, Fine after

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00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:02,960
fine, Suspended sentence after
suspended sentence.

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00:05:03,400 --> 00:05:06,520
And all the while, he is still
out there, still in the

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community, still building the
reputation that will eventually

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give him access to hundreds of
young black girls who have no

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00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:16,400
idea that the man throwing the
party has been telling the

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00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:20,400
system exactly who he is since
1995.

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00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:23,920
And the system has been handing
him back his freedom like it

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costs nothing.
Because for him, it costs

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nothing.
Now we arrive at December 4th,

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2011, Florence County. 2 girls
walk into a hospital and tell a

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deputy that they had unprotected
sex with Jason Pope.

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They are 13 and 16 years old.
He is 34.

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00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:46,600
They tell the deputy Pope gave
them marijuana and money.

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They are terrified they have
contracted HIV because they

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found out he has AIDS.
A deputy takes the report.

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00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:58,160
The case is marked unfounded.
Pope is listed as a subject.

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00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:01,960
He is not arrested.
A 13 year old child sat in a

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00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:06,040
hospital and told an adult in a
position of authority that a 34

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year old man paid her for sex
and she was afraid she had been

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exposed to a fatal disease and
the case was marked unfounded

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and closed and Pope went home.
That child's report has been

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sitting in Florence County
Sheriff's Office records since

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00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:25,280
2011.
A 16 year old girl tells

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00:06:25,280 --> 00:06:29,840
deputies that since September of
that year, Pope, now 40 years

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old, had been paying her for
sexual acts, blackmailing her to

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continue when she tried to stop
showing up at her friend's

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00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:40,560
homes, trying to find her when
she attempted to cut ties.

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00:06:41,280 --> 00:06:43,360
She says he has been
brainwashing her.

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00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:47,480
She says she knows of other
girls between 15 and 16 he has

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been involved with.
She says he tells them all the

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same thing.
He tells them his father is a

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federal judge and he will never
face consequences for anything

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they claim against him.
Deputies note evidence on a

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00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:03,760
phone showing Pope requesting
sex in exchange for money.

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The phone is logged into
evidence at the Florence County

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Sheriff's Office.
The report is administratively

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closed.
Pope is listed as a subject.

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He is not arrested.
There is a phone sitting in an

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00:07:16,120 --> 00:07:19,160
evidence locker at the Florence
County Sheriff's Office with

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messages from Jason Pope to a
teenage girl and he is not

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arrested.
May 2018 A mother calls

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deputies.
She has discovered that a man is

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00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:32,160
contacting her 15 year old
daughter through Snapchat and

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Facebook, luring young girls
with promises of prizes.

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His profile has photos of
underage girls.

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His account name is DJ Kidd, 69.
Pope is listed as a subject.

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He is not arrested.
Later that same month, one of

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Pope's own family members calls
law enforcement his own family.

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They tell deputies that Pope is
having sexual contact with

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minors, that he pays girls to
perform sexual acts and posts

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about it on social media, and
that the activity has been

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escalating.
They say they have screenshots.

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They show the deputy the
content.

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The deputy views it with his own
eyes.

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The family member is so
distressed by what Pope has been

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doing that they are experiencing
suicidal thoughts.

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The deputy calls EMS for the
family member.

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Pope is listed as a subject.
The report is administratively

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closed.
He is not arrested.

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His own family member put
evidence in a law enforcement

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officer's hands.
The officer looked at it and

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Pope went home.
November 2018, deputies respond

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to a call about a missing 16
year old believed to be with

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Pope.
Officers go to his home.

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She answers the door.
There is also a 14 year old

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inside.
Deputies can smell marijuana

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throughout the residence.
Pope has read his rights.

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He agrees to answer questions
and gives permission to search

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his home.
Inside a bedroom drawer they

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find 6 SD cards.
Tucked inside a sock they find

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cash.
He cannot explain.

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He is arrested for marijuana
possession 2 days later.

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He is charged with contributing
to the delinquency of a minor

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and convicted of two counts of
cruelty to children.

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He receives a fine, six SD cards
and a sock in a convicted

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predator's bedroom, 2 underage
girls in his home, a documented

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history going back to 2011 of
minors, paid sex, and a man who

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has AIDS and the charge that
sticks is a fine.

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He goes home.
April 2019, Pope goes to a

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Zaxby's restaurant to pick up a
17 year old girl from work.

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An argument breaks out.
He gets out of his car and

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threatens to come back and shoot
the place up.

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He drives away.
He is not arrested.

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August 29th, 2019 Jason Roger
Pope is finally arrested and

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charged with criminal sexual
conduct in the first degree,

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kidnapping and trafficking in
persons.

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He is booked into the Florence
County Detention Center and held

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without bond.
He is 42 years old.

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The first documented report of
his abuse of a minor was 1996.

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That is 23 years. 23 years
between his first conviction for

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promoting the prostitution of a
minor and his first arrest for

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trafficking. 23 years of reports
filed and cases closed and

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evidence logged and nothing done
while hundreds of black girls

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moved through his world not
knowing what he had already been

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told the system would allow him
to do to them.

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The investigation that follows
his 2019 arrest begins to reveal

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the full scope of what Florence
County had been sitting on.

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State Law Enforcement Division
agents work the case.

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Authorities seek the public's
help locating additional

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victims.
Hundreds of girls come forward.

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Arrest warrants describe
specific victims, including a

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girl recruited on social media,
courted and then confined to a

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room in Darlington where Pope
forced her to perform sex acts

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and threatened her to keep the
arrangement going.

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By November 2019, he is facing
additional charges, including

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criminal sexual conduct with
minors between the ages of 11

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00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:29,360
and 1411 to 14 years old.
In January 2020, he is indicted

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on 14 charges.
He files for a jury trial.

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00:11:33,360 --> 00:11:36,560
Bond is denied, and then his
attorneys introduce a new

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00:11:36,560 --> 00:11:39,120
strategy.
They claim he is mentally

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incompetent to stand trial.
A psychiatric evaluation is

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00:11:43,160 --> 00:11:45,920
ordered.
Pope is diagnosed with autism.

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His attorneys argue he cannot
meaningfully participate in his

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00:11:49,680 --> 00:11:53,040
own defense.
His lawyer stands in open court

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00:11:53,040 --> 00:11:57,160
in December 2021 and tells a
judge that Pope has the

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00:11:57,160 --> 00:12:00,720
mentality of a teenager.
That he believed these were his

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00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:04,080
girlfriends, that he thought he
had loving relationships with

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00:12:04,080 --> 00:12:08,000
them, that in his mind
everything was consensual and

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00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:10,440
every girl told him she was of
age.

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She asks the judge to release
him on bond so he can live with

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his mother.
The prosecution's response is

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swift.
Deputy Attorney General Heather

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00:12:20,400 --> 00:12:23,880
Weiss tells the judge that Pope
is not confused about what he

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did.
She tells the court he is

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00:12:26,200 --> 00:12:29,520
actively getting word out from
his jail cell trying to harass,

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00:12:29,520 --> 00:12:32,960
intimidate, threaten and bully
the victims he trafficked from

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00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:35,120
behind bars while awaiting
trial.

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00:12:35,840 --> 00:12:38,960
She tells the judge he does not
recognize that anything he did

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00:12:38,960 --> 00:12:42,760
was wrong and that if released,
there is absolutely no way to

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00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:44,480
protect the public from Jason
Pope.

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00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:49,000
Bond is denied.
The prosecution conducts its own

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00:12:49,040 --> 00:12:52,640
mental evaluation.
Their psychologist finds Pope

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00:12:52,920 --> 00:12:57,640
fully competent to stand trial.
But the autism diagnosis and the

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00:12:57,640 --> 00:13:01,640
successive competency motions
and continuances eat up nearly

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00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:04,440
two more years.
The trial the public had been

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00:13:04,440 --> 00:13:07,920
waiting for, the trial survivors
had been preparing themselves to

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00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:10,440
sit through, is finally
scheduled.

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00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:16,440
And then on August 30th, 2023,
four years after his initial

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00:13:16,440 --> 00:13:20,160
arrest, Jason Roger Pope walks
into a Florence County courtroom

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00:13:20,160 --> 00:13:26,920
and pleads guilty. 13 charges,
all of them against minors. 5

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00:13:26,920 --> 00:13:30,760
counts of sex trafficking of a
minor. 5 counts of criminal

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00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:34,680
sexual conduct with a minor. 3
counts of criminal sexual

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00:13:34,680 --> 00:13:37,760
conduct.
All charges tied to offenses

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00:13:37,760 --> 00:13:43,160
committed between 2017 and 2019.
Judge Brian Gibbons sentences

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00:13:43,160 --> 00:13:45,880
him to 30 years, with 11
suspended.

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00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:48,640
He will serve 19 years in
prison.

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00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:52,320
After his release, he will be on
five years of sex offender

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00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:56,160
probation, monitored around the
clock by specialized agents.

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00:13:57,080 --> 00:14:00,200
He is permanently listed on the
sex Offender registry.

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00:14:01,160 --> 00:14:04,880
He faces up to 10 additional
years if he violates probation.

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00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:08,880
Permanent restraining orders
prohibit contact with any

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00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:12,640
identified victim.
Prosecutors confirm at

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00:14:12,640 --> 00:14:15,680
sentencing that Pope
intentionally infected at least

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00:14:15,680 --> 00:14:19,760
one of his victims with HIV.
He is 46 years old at

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00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:22,960
sentencing.
He will be 65 at the earliest

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00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:26,560
possible release date.
Now hold 2 numbers in your mind

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00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:32,840
at the same time, 13693.
Thirteen is the number of

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00:14:32,840 --> 00:14:37,760
charges he was convicted on. 693
is the number of black women and

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00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:41,000
girls Pope himself publicly
claimed to have had sexual

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00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:44,880
contact with, documented in a
Facebook post in which he wrote

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00:14:45,160 --> 00:14:50,720
at age 36 that he had 693
bodies, all black females,

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00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:55,800
posted publicly on his own page
while he was walking free in

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00:14:55,800 --> 00:14:59,400
Florence County.
The criminal case covered 13

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00:14:59,400 --> 00:15:02,720
counts tied to 2017 through
2019.

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00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:07,480
Every encounter before that
window, every girl from 2011

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00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:11,600
onward whose report was closed
and filed and forgotten, every

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00:15:11,600 --> 00:15:14,440
woman before that.
None of them are reflected in

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00:15:14,440 --> 00:15:19,240
the 19 years he is serving.
The system prosecuted 13

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00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:21,800
charges.
The other hundreds of victims

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00:15:21,800 --> 00:15:24,040
simply do not appear in the
sentence.

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00:15:24,720 --> 00:15:27,480
Here is what else does not
appear in the sentence.

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00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:32,480
Jason Pope was never charged
with a hate crime, despite his

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00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:36,040
own written statement expressing
an explicit intent to target

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00:15:36,040 --> 00:15:40,720
black women specifically for HIV
exposure with the stated goal of

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00:15:40,720 --> 00:15:46,000
passing the virus to black men.
That statement circulated widely

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00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:48,440
and was reported by multiple
outlets.

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00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:51,320
No hate crime charge was ever
filed.

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00:15:52,600 --> 00:15:56,480
Jason Pope was never charged
under South Carolina's HIV

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00:15:56,480 --> 00:16:00,400
criminalization statute, despite
prosecutors confirming he

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00:16:00,400 --> 00:16:05,040
intentionally infected at least
one victim, despite the 2011

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00:16:05,040 --> 00:16:09,840
hospital report of two minor
girls who presented scared they

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00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:13,440
had contracted the virus from
him, and despite his own public

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00:16:13,440 --> 00:16:17,040
social media activity suggesting
he was fully aware of his

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00:16:17,040 --> 00:16:21,200
diagnosis throughout years of
unprotected sexual contact with

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00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:23,880
hundreds of people.
The law was there.

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00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:28,680
The evidence was there.
The charge was never filed, and

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00:16:28,680 --> 00:16:31,440
there is one more silence in
this case that must be named

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00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:35,240
before we close.
We do not know how many of the

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00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:39,800
approximately 693 women and
girls Pope had sexual contact

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00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:43,480
with were ever tested for HIV
after his arrest.

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00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:47,160
We do not know what public
health resources were offered to

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00:16:47,160 --> 00:16:50,360
the community after the scale of
the case became clear.

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00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:54,040
We do not know how many women
are living today with a

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00:16:54,040 --> 00:16:58,120
diagnosis they received because
a man in Florence County put his

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00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:01,480
name on a flyer and handed them
a drink and told them they were

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00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:04,800
special.
The public health response to

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00:17:04,800 --> 00:17:08,319
this case, if there was one, was
never made visible to the

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00:17:08,319 --> 00:17:11,040
public.
Those women are out there.

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00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:13,760
Their names are not in any court
document.

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00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:16,960
Their story does not appear
anywhere in his sentence.

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00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:20,920
Project Censored, the
organization that tracks stories

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00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:24,800
the mainstream media fails to
cover adequately, published a

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00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:28,720
report on this case in 2020,
noting that despite the scale of

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00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:32,160
the crimes and the number of
victims, coverage from major

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00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:34,680
national outlets was severely
limited.

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00:17:35,360 --> 00:17:38,280
They titled their piece with the
number Pope put on his own

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00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:44,600
Facebook page, 693 Bodies.
The black press covered it.

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00:17:44,920 --> 00:17:48,440
Community advocates covered it.
Social media kept it alive

292
00:17:48,440 --> 00:17:51,720
through TikTok and Instagram for
years, while the court system

293
00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:55,840
ran continuances and competency
hearings and the local news

294
00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:59,240
moved on to other things.
Your national outlets largely

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00:17:59,240 --> 00:18:02,360
did not follow it until
sentencing, and even then the

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00:18:02,360 --> 00:18:06,920
coverage was brief, a paragraph,
a headline, and then on to the

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00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:10,000
next story.
Now I need to speak directly to

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00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:11,920
you.
If you are a black woman

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00:18:11,920 --> 00:18:14,760
listening to this right now, I
need you to hear what this case

300
00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:18,200
is actually saying beneath the
charges and the dates and the

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00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:21,760
sentence, because the legal case
is one story.

302
00:18:22,200 --> 00:18:25,120
The real story is something
older and more dangerous.

303
00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:28,240
Jason Pope did not operate in a
vacuum.

304
00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:32,160
He operated in a community where
his victims were already being

305
00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:36,240
told in 100 different ways that
their bodies were less protected

306
00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:39,480
than other bodies.
Where a 13 year old could walk

307
00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:43,800
into a hospital and tell a
deputy that a 34 year old man

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00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:47,800
paid her for sex and she was
scared she had been exposed to a

309
00:18:47,800 --> 00:18:52,480
fatal disease and the case could
be marked unfounded and closed

310
00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:57,000
and nothing would happen to him.
Where a family member could put

311
00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:00,520
a phone with evidence in a law
enforcement officer's hand and

312
00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:03,440
the officer could look at it and
still walk away without an

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00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:07,560
arrest.
Where 6 SD cards could be found

314
00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:10,720
in a sock in a predator's
bedroom drawer and the charge

315
00:19:10,720 --> 00:19:14,640
that sticks is a fine.
That 13 year old trusted the

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00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:18,480
system to protect her.
The system looked at her report

317
00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:22,400
and decided it was unfounded.
What Pope understood, what he

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00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:27,440
exploited, what he built a 23
year predatory career on, was a

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00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:31,400
simple and terrible truth.
He knew whose children the

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00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:34,680
system would come looking for
and whose it would not.

321
00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:38,840
He knew which reports would be
filed and which would be closed.

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00:19:39,360 --> 00:19:43,240
He knew that the social capital
of being the local DJ, of being

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00:19:43,240 --> 00:19:46,480
the man with the Flyers and the
music and the money in his

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00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:49,560
pocket, would operate as a
shield in exactly the

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00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:52,560
communities where his victims
had the least institutional

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00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:55,160
protection.
He was not brilliant.

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00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:57,160
He was not a criminal
mastermind.

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00:19:57,560 --> 00:20:00,400
He was a man who understood
precisely where the gaps were

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00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:02,920
and stayed inside them for 23
years.

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00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:07,200
That gap is not closed.
The conditions that made this

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00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:11,040
case possible are not gone.
They have not been legislated

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00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:14,040
away, or prosecuted away, or
sentenced away.

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00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:17,840
They exist in every city where
black girls reports are marked

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00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:22,720
unfounded, in every jurisdiction
where HIV criminalization laws

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00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:26,920
exist but are applied
selectively, in every community

336
00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:30,200
where a predator can build
enough social currency to make

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00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:33,400
his victims question what they
saw and felt and lived through.

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00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:37,600
This case ended with a guilty
plea, but it did not end with

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00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:40,200
accountability that matches the
scale of what happened.

340
00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:43,560
It did not end with a public
health response visible enough

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00:20:43,560 --> 00:20:46,520
to reach the women and girls who
are still carrying what he left

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00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:49,440
with them.
It did not end with a serious

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00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:52,720
reckoning about why Florence
County had documentation going

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00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:58,480
back to 2011 and closed case
after case without an arrest. 19

345
00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:01,080
years.
That is what the system decided

346
00:21:01,080 --> 00:21:03,920
693 black women and girls were
worth.

347
00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:08,920
This is not a story about 1 Bad
Man 1 Bad Man cannot single

348
00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:11,960
handedly create the conditions
that allowed this to continue

349
00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:15,040
for two decades.
This is a story about what

350
00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:17,920
happens when institutional
indifference toward black

351
00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:22,040
women's bodies become so
normalized that it is no longer

352
00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:26,320
even recognized as a failure.
When it is just the way things

353
00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:29,720
go.
When a 13 year old girl's report

354
00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:33,400
can be marked unfounded and a
deputy can go home and not think

355
00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:36,800
about it again.
Jason Pope did not create that

356
00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:39,800
indifference.
He simply knew it was there and

357
00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:44,840
decided to live inside it.
Before I let you go, two things

358
00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:46,280
I want to make sure you know
about.

359
00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:49,360
The first is Flowers for the
Living.

360
00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:53,560
It is the latest EP from the No
Tears for Black Girls soundtrack

361
00:21:53,760 --> 00:21:57,440
performed by Jada Truth.
It is for the women still here,

362
00:21:57,920 --> 00:22:01,720
for the 1 still carrying weight
the world pretended not to see.

363
00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:07,120
Stream it, share it, let it find
the people who need it.

364
00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:12,440
You can search No Tears for
Black Girls soundtrack anywhere

365
00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:15,480
you stream music and it will be
right there waiting for you.

366
00:22:16,760 --> 00:22:18,480
The link is also in the show
notes.

367
00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:22,120
The second is Death Apnea, the
latest book from our show's

368
00:22:22,120 --> 00:22:25,840
creator, JC Reedberg, part of
the No Tears for Black Girls

369
00:22:25,840 --> 00:22:29,600
Case Files series.
If what you heard in this

370
00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:32,840
episode about institutional
erasure and Black bodies and

371
00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:35,840
systems that look the other way
landed somewhere heavy in your

372
00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:40,000
chest, Death Apnea is where that
same weight lives in fiction.

373
00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:44,760
It follows 19 year old Kiki
Toussaint, whose mother dies on

374
00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:48,440
New Year's Eve and is processed
by a New Orleans hospital as

375
00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:55,000
Jane Doe 2026-001, despite
having identification in her

376
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:57,480
purse.
Despite Kiki calling every

377
00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:01,120
hospital in the city, despite a
family doing everything right,

378
00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:05,160
what Kiki and investigative
journalist Samantha Paul uncover

379
00:23:05,360 --> 00:23:08,840
is not a mistake.
It is a pipeline, and it has

380
00:23:08,840 --> 00:23:12,360
been running for over a century,
from plantation hospitals to the

381
00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:16,000
night doctors to Tuskegee to the
present day, learning better

382
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:19,840
paperwork with every generation.
If you have a Kindle and limited

383
00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:23,120
subscription, the book is
available to you right now at no

384
00:23:23,120 --> 00:23:26,120
additional cost.
Print copies are available for

385
00:23:26,120 --> 00:23:29,400
purchase for those who want to
hold this story in their hands.

386
00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:33,640
To find it without clicking
anything, simply search No Tears

387
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:37,760
for Black Girls by JC Reedberg
on Amazon and the full catalog

388
00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:40,720
will come right up.
The direct link is also in the

389
00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:43,520
show notes.
If this episode moved something

390
00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:46,320
in you, please share it with
someone who needs to hear it.

391
00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:49,560
Leave a five star review
wherever you listen.

392
00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:53,480
Every review helps the algorithm
push our episodes to more

393
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people, which means more
families get heard, more stories

394
00:23:57,320 --> 00:24:01,480
get told, and more Black women
stop being footnotes in cases

395
00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:03,680
that should have had their names
at the top.

396
00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:07,480
Links to our music and our
latest books are in the show

397
00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:11,000
notes, but if you prefer to
search without clicking, find

398
00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:15,600
our books on Amazon by searching
No Tears for Black Girls by JC

399
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:19,480
Reedberg and find our music by
searching No Tears for Black

400
00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:23,640
Girls soundtrack wherever you
stream, This is No Tears for

401
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:26,360
Black girls.
I am Samantha Paul.

402
00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:32,560
Stay loved, stay safe, and
remember whenever you are

403
00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:37,000
trapped in a World of Darkness,
never allow fear to overwhelm

404
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:40,280
you.
Believe in your inner spirit and

405
00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:42,880
remind yourself of God's first
words.

406
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:44,680
Let there be light.