No Way, José Ep12 A.C. Pt 5: Javier wanted you to hear the accusers—Just not Anthony's

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In the fifth and final installment of our investigation into Anthony Christopher Rocko, the question is no longer whether there was information about his past that PRETEND’s audience could have been told.

The question is:

How much information can exist about a source before an investigative journalist has an obligation to examine it?

Over the previous four episodes, we have looked at contemporary reporting, lawsuits, business disputes, allegations involving money and real estate, and claims about Anthony Christopher’s efforts against LaDonna Humphrey.

Now we arrive at the most serious allegation of all.

Anthony Christopher was accused of rape.

That statement requires an immediate and important qualification.

An accusation is not a conviction.

We have not established that Anthony Christopher committed rape.

But this series has never been about assuming every allegation against Anthony is true.

It has been about whether PRETEND applied the same level of scrutiny to one of its own sources that it applied to LaDonna Humphrey.

And that is where this allegation becomes impossible to ignore.

A sexual-assault allegation existed

David McClam previously discussed the allegation on We Are Not Afraid, identifying Anthony Dewey as the alleged victim and Anthony Christopher as the accused.

McClam later specifically referred to the existence of a police report concerning the allegation.

Again, that does not establish guilt.

But PRETEND did not limit its examination of LaDonna Humphrey to criminal convictions.

Javier Leiva interviewed people with grievances.

He explored accusations.

He examined lawsuits.

He revisited interpersonal disputes.

He presented unproven claims as material his audience could consider when evaluating Humphrey’s credibility.

If allegations were relevant when they concerned LaDonna Humphrey, then allegations involving one of the people helping PRETEND scrutinize her should also have been examined.

Anthony Christopher’s broader history

The sexual-assault allegation did not exist in isolation.

By the time Anthony Christopher appeared in PRETEND’s narrative, there was already a documented history that should have invited serious source vetting.

Jennifer Powers

Jennifer Powers filed a verified lawsuit against Anthony Christopher a/k/a Anthony Rocko in Washington County Circuit Court.

Powers alleged that Anthony accepted $8,000 from her for what she believed was her share of a real-estate purchase in Cave Springs.

She alleged that she later discovered the property had not been purchased, was not for sale, and that its owners had not discussed selling it to Anthony.

Her lawsuit included a cause of action titled:

TORT OF DECEIT

She alleged that Anthony made false representations, intended for her to rely on those representations, and caused her financial harm.

Those were allegations.

But they were allegations preserved in a verified court filing.

Eureka Live

Another Arkansas lawsuit later named Anthony Christopher as a defendant in the dispute involving Eureka Live.

The plaintiffs alleged conduct involving:

Interference with contractual relationships

Conversion

and

Civil conspiracy

Court exhibits also included promotional material announcing Anthony Christopher as Eureka Live’s “new owner” after the plaintiffs alleged they had been deprived of control of the business.

Again, those allegations were not automatically proven simply because they appeared in a complaint.

But they were part of the history available to anyone seriously examining Anthony Christopher as a source.

Dennis McCaslin’s allegation

Then there is Dennis McCaslin, publisher of Today in Fort Smith.

McCaslin publicly alleged that Anthony Christopher offered his publication substantial money to help “bury” LaDonna Humphrey.

McCaslin says telephone and text communications existed surrounding that approach.

That allegation goes directly to motive.

If another publisher says a source previously attempted to put money behind a media effort against the same woman that source would later discuss with PRETEND, that is exactly the kind of information an investigative journalist should want to examine.

Not because it automatically makes the source dishonest.

Because it may help explain why the source is talking.

Then add the rape allegation

Now put all of that together.

PRETEND’s audience heard Anthony Christopher make allegations concerning LaDonna Humphrey.

Listeners were encouraged to evaluate Humphrey partly through Anthony’s perspective.

Meanwhile, Anthony Christopher himself had been the subject of serious allegations, including a reported sexual-assault allegation associated with a police report.

So the question becomes unavoidable:

Why wasn’t Anthony Christopher subjected to the same scrutiny?

Allegations cannot matter only in one direction

This is not an argument that every allegation against Anthony Christopher must be true.

That would repeat the exact mistake we are criticizing.

A complaint is not a verdict.

An accusation is not a conviction.

A police report is not proof of guilt.

But allegations were repeatedly treated as relevant information when PRETEND was examining LaDonna Humphrey.

That means the standard cannot suddenly change when the allegations concern one of PRETEND’s own sources.

If people accusing Humphrey deserved airtime, then Anthony Christopher’s accusers at least deserved investigation.

If lawsuits involving Humphrey were relevant, lawsuits involving Anthony Christopher were relevant to evaluating him.

If motive mattered when examining Humphrey, motive mattered when examining Anthony.

The standard has to work both ways.

Five episodes lead to one question

After five episodes, the questions for Javier Leiva are straightforward.

Did he know Jennifer Powers accused Anthony Christopher of tort of deceit?

Did he know about the $8,000 property allegation?

Did he know about the Eureka Live litigation?

Did he know about Dennis McCaslin’s allegation that Anthony offered money to help “bury” LaDonna Humphrey?

Did he know Anthony Christopher had been accused of sexual assault?

Did he know David McClam says there was a police report connected to that accusation?

Did he ask Anthony Christopher about any of these matters?

And if he did, why weren’t those answers part of the story?

If Javier knew

If Javier knew about this history and chose not to tell his audience while using Anthony Christopher to help evaluate someone else’s credibility, then listeners deserve an explanation for that editorial decision.

If Javier did not know

Then another question becomes unavoidable:

How thoroughly was Anthony Christopher investigated before PRETEND relied on him?

Because source vetting is not optional.

You cannot spend an entire investigative series digging through one person’s history while treating the history of the people accusing that person as irrelevant.

You cannot argue that unproven allegations are worth examining when they concern your subject, then suddenly decide allegations require a conviction before they matter when they concern your source.

And you cannot ask an audience to evaluate someone through the testimony of a source without giving that audience information that could materially affect how it evaluates the source himself.

The question PRETEND should have asked

For five episodes, No Way, José has opened records and examined allegations that existed before Anthony Christopher became part of PRETEND’s case against LaDonna Humphrey.

We have looked at contemporary reporting.

Court records.

Verified complaints.

Business disputes.

Allegations involving motive.

And now a reported sexual-assault allegation.

None of those records alone tells listeners what to believe about every accusation Anthony Christopher has ever faced.

Together, however, they raise a serious question about the depth and consistency of PRETEND’s source vetting.

Javier Leiva spent an extraordinary amount of time asking:

“Who’s afraid of LaDonna Humphrey?”

Maybe before asking millions of listeners to rely on Anthony Christopher, there was another question that needed answering first:

Who the hell is Anthony Christopher?

Because PRETEND’s audience deserved that answer before being asked to believe him.

No Way, José.