be able to sue the host which is kind of akin to this. but again, that was by legislation, and hopefully the new jersey legislature will take some action on this. jon: and also part of this, esther, is apparently the person who is sending the text has to know that the person receiving the text is behind the wheel. and reading. with it s not just know, it s know or should have known. no, no. so it s an extra burden. no, they specialize knowledge, they re actually reading the text while they re driving, that s what the opinion says. jon: well, again, personal responsibility seems to be going out the window. we ll see what the supreme court of new jersey decides if this case gets there, and you think it will, fred? i think they re going to have to take it. jon: all right. esther, fred, thank you both. thanks for having me. thank you. alisyn: and speaking of driving, jon, which u.s. city has the worst drivers in the country? there s a new study out with the hard numbers.
license in my wallet, and i can tell you this was what s called an ea pill late division case. first of all, there s a national conversation that really has to deal with how we re going to deal with the intrusion of our live into this electronic, all the electronic devices. let s put that aside for a minute. all this court held, and it was dicta. because they let that young woman off the hook. if you have specialized knowledge or actual knowledge that the person receiving the text is going to read them not just get them, read them while they re driving that s reasonably foreseeable that that s going to distract them and cause an accident. i don t think it s such a huge leap, and i don t think it s going to stand. jon: esther, you don t live in new jersey, so let s say you text right now somebody who is living in new jersey, and that person gets in an accident. is new jersey going to come after you? it might, or the person who was injured has a right to sue me. i think this is a r
even if you are not the one behind the wheel? a new jersey court has ruled that anyone who knowingly texts a driver could be held liable if that driver crashes. is that fair? let s bring in our legal panel today, esther panich, fred tecce is a former federal prosecutor. all right, let me wrap my mind around the this, fred, if i can. this applies, this ruling comes out of a new jersey case. a couple was on a motorcycle it s fairly well known case they were on a motorcycle. a teenage driver who was engaged in a text conversation with his teenage girlfriend, he slammed into them with his pickup truck. they lost parts of their legs, this couple did, and they sued. now an appeals court in new jersey has affirmed that if you knowingly text somebody who is behind the wheel and they get in an accident, you re responsible. is that fair? well, first of all, a couple things, jon. you know, i live in new jersey, and i have a new jersey driver s
suffered from any mental illness. if he s ever been in trouble before. all these factors need to be taken into account before you expose a 13-year-old to life in prison. esther panich and sunny hostin. thank you, ladies. i appreciate it. just into us at cnn. the discovery at the home of a real life mobster. police say they found, quote, material, material, whatever that may mean, at the home of jimmy the gent burk. one of the characters in the good fellas movie. could that mean human remains? a live report next.
completely failed at that. and i m sorry, this woman is trying to get off scot-free, and she has made every possible mistake you can make. i guarantee you her lawyers have told her this is not the way to go, because if you wanted simply to avoid the death penalty she would have been telling a completely different story. jon: there is also word that the public defenders who are handling jodi arias defense have racked up $900,000 in legal bills to this point. esther this is going to be a million dollar case, and the taxpayers of arizona are going to have to pay for that in these days of tight budgets, what do you think about that, esther? well, i think if the state is going to go after the ultimate punishment then they need to provide a fair and reasonable defense. this case has been lingering for five years now. so these two public defenders who have been working very hard with very bad facts deserve to be paid just as much as the