Sex Crimes Case Against Son of Housewives Star HEATS UP

KJ Biermann, son of reality TV star Kim. Zolciak, is sitting in a detention. center facing seven felony sex crime. charges. But now, his legal team have. made a major move that could change the. whole trajectory of this case. And that. is what we want to talk about. What is. inside this motion that we just got our. hands on. This could determine whether. KJ walks out of detention or stays. behind bars. We are breaking it all down. with criminal defense attorney Bradford.

Cohen. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by. Law & Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. KJ Biermann is 15 years old. His mother. is reality TV star Kim Zolciak. His. father, Kroy, played in the NFL. A lot. of attention. Right now, he is sitting. in a detention center facing seven. felony sex crime charges. That could. essentially put him behind bars for a. very, very long time. But now, his.

lawyers have made a big move in this. case, and it could change the whole. outcome here. So, we got to talk about. it since we only briefly mentioned about. it yesterday. So, the defense wants this. case out of adult court and move to. juvenile court. And they have been. asking a judge to close the courtroom, to seal the records. And now, KJ's. attorney, Jason Sheffield, has been. fiercely pushing this juvenile argument. from day one. And we just got our hands. on this motion, which lays out exactly. why he believes this case does not.

belong in adult court. And this argument. comes as we look ahead to tomorrow's. bond hearing that will determine whether. he walks out of a detention center or. remains behind bars. And I have to. imagine that the arguments that you're. hearing in this motion may play a factor. and maybe argued in the detention. hearing. Now, we're going to get into. all of this with acclaimed criminal. defense attorney Bradford Cohen in a. little bit, and he's handled. high-profile cases, celebrities. But. just first, briefly, KJ Biermann was. arrested on August 17th. He's been held. at the Metro Regional Youth Detention.

Center in Atlanta without bond. On. September 3rd, a Fulton County Grand. Jury officially indicted him on seven. felony charges: aggravated child. molestation, aggravated sodomy, aggravated sexual battery, three counts. of sexual battery against a child under. 16, and false imprisonment. And this all. has to do with an alleged incident that. police say occurred back on April 23rd. at Lifetime Fitness in Alpharetta, Georgia. So, K.J. was 14 years old at.

the time. The alleged victim in this. case was a apparently a 15-year-old. female classmate. This girl apparently. told investigators, per the arrest. affidavit, that K.J. began touching her, that she said no, that he allegedly. forced her into various sexual. activities before she said she was able. to get away from him and make him leave. Now, here is what's striking. According. to the police report, the sexual assault. kit showed no male DNA. That is a. significant detail. I talked about that.

in our show yesterday when I brought on. Professor Marion Bracha about what that. means evidentiary-wise, how that could. be a potential problem for the. prosecution. But, K.J.'s attorney, Jason. Sheffield, maintains his client's. innocence. He even said in a statement. to Page Six that he has proof of prior. false allegations allegedly made by this. victim. Now, K.J.'s mother, back to her, Kim Zolciak, a well-known Bravo reality. TV star, one of the original cast. members of The Real Housewives of.

Atlanta, she spoke out calling the. allegations reckless, deeply troubling, says her son denies ever being involved. with this girl or doing anything with. her. All right, real quick, this is for. anybody who owns a business or runs a. business. Look, you don't need me to. tell you that running or managing a. business is tough enough. The question I. have is why make things harder by doing. things manually or relying on dozens of. apps that don't really talk to each. other, right? Well, that's where our. sponsor Odoo comes in. So, Odoo is an. all-in-one business management platform. with a full suite of integrated apps.

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case. Uh knows this inside out. Uh. Bradford, thank you so much for coming. on. It's always good to see you. Just. general thoughts about this case because. it has a lot of different angles to it. And also, look, the celebrity angle, the. high-profile angle, the idea that these. accusations quite serious, but there is. now a battle both in the court of law. and a court of public opinion. Uh people. maybe are already have their minds made. up, but this is a very, very um. uh very, very disturbing set of. allegations, but it raises a lot of.

different issues. Just talk to me about. your general impression before we get. into the specifics. >> General impressions are what they always. are with these cases. Sex cases. themselves are never good, right? The. allegations are not good. Um Um, the the. individuals that are involved are. usually individuals that it may. immediately goes to the newspaper. because of the type of allegations that. they are. If you couple that with the. fact that his parents are are famous, of. note, uh it's really a horrible time for.

everyone involved. Uh the victim the. victim's family, the family of the. accused, um obviously the accused as. well because at this point we don't know. what is true and what's not. And when. you're 15 years old and you're being. accused of this type of crime and this. type um of accusation, it is really. really tough for everyone involved. Now, if the allegations are true, obviously. there's a lot more to go on there, but.

right now we sit with the cloak of. innocence as everybody knows. There's. accusations made, there's police reports. that are made, an individual gets. arrested, but until a jury or until a. plea comes in, that individual is to be. considered innocent. And that's why this. type of press doesn't help anybody. before we even get into the motion that. was filed. >> Let's get Let's get into the motion. Let's get into the motion. And I want to. start Well, the motion starts by laying. out what's at stake here because it.

says, quote, "The aggravated charges carry a. mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years. in prison up to life." Goes on to say, "If convicted, the sentence in court. cannot probate any portion of the 25. years. K.J. similarly would not be. eligible for parole. He would have to. serve every day of each 25-year sentence. if run consecutively." And that's. important to lay out, right, Bradford? >> Sure. And and and the reason why they're. laying that out is because they're. making that argument where an individual.

is so young that this isn't an. appropriate type of sentence that could. be passed down if this individual went. to trial and lost. And a lot of states. have what's known as a youthful offender. statute where if you do get in trouble. and you do get charged as an adult, they. can still sentence you as a youth or. they can depart from these minimum. mandatories and give you 5 years instead.

of 25 years. So, that's a real important. distinction. Not every state has it. >> Right. >> Um if if they're in a state where there. is a youthful offender statute and they. can depart, then that makes the argument. in the motion a little bit weaker. But, >> Right. >> if you're in a state that it's not, then. it's a very strong argument to make who. someone who's 14 years old when these. accusations came up, no matter how. horrible the accusations are. >> Really? It It So So So, in other words,

does it matter what the charges are? Because these are quite serious. >> Yeah. So, in in Georgia, Georgia has, you know, a lot of states leave it up to. the discretion of the state attorney. And a lot of states, including Florida, they can charge as an adult after a. certain age. You can't charge an. 8-year-old as an adult. You can't charge. a 10-year-old as an adult. But, after a. certain age, I think it's like 13 or 14, they can charge them as an adult at. their discretion. >> Got it.

>> Georgia's a little bit different where. they hold an actual hearing and they. consider several factors that are. involved. And those factors go into a. weighing of whether or not the. individual should be charged as an adult. or should be charged uh as a juvenile. I. think one of the arguments, obviously, is the punishment that's involved. But, it also works both ways. You know, you. say, "Hey, this is such a serious. allegation, such a serious case. He. should be tried as an adult." It goes. both ways, which is kind of dangerous.

It cuts both ways that it's so serious. it should be tried as an adult. At the. same token, it's so serious he should be. tried as a juvenile. It's one of those. things that I'm not sure which way the. judge will go on that. >> Let me you talk about Georgia law, let's. talk about it because it gets into the. specific statute the the motion sites. It says, quote, OCGA 15-11-5-60. expressly authorizes the superior court. after indictment investigation by the. state to transfer to juvenile court a. case involving a child between 13 and 17.

charged with among other offenses. aggravated sodomy, aggravated child. molestation, and aggravated sexual. battery. And then it lists 11 factors. the court has to consider. Those being. age of the child, seriousness of the. alleged offense, whether protection of. the community requires transfer, whether. the offense involved violence or was. committed aggressively or with. premeditation, impact on the alleged. victim, the child's culpability, whether.

the offense is part of a repetitive. pattern, the child's record and history, sophistication and maturity, programs. available to juvenile court, and whether. the child can benefit from treatment or. rehabilitation. As I'm list- listing. this out, which factors do you think. Bradford weigh in favor of. KJ and which ones weigh in favor of the. prosecution? >> Great question. So, the ones that I. think weigh in his favor are obviously.

the age, the maturity, the type of. programs that he can enter into as a. juvenile. His prior criminal history as. far as I know, I haven't heard of any. prior criminal history. Um and if he has none, that obviously. weighs in his favor. Um the things that. weigh against him obviously are the. seriousness of the offense, protection. of society, uh those type of issues, how serious it. is, the effect on the accused uh on the.

accuser, uh how that would affect her or him. I I. we don't know what kind of victim it is. Those type of things weigh against him. And here's the here's the X factor that. no one likes to talk about, but I have. to talk about it in in generally a lot. of my cases, is the the notoriety, the. the press is watching this. The the you. know, I don't want to say the people's. court, but really the people's court, you know, the the the general consensus.

of what how this is. being. determined, how this is being held, it. always affects a court. People say it. shouldn't, it doesn't, it does. >> They they they pay attention to that? The court The court looks at how high. profile it is and the reporting on it? >> They will never admit it. Sure, a judge. will say this, but you know, Judge Ito. didn't just like clocks, right? He. And all of a sudden he has a million. clocks on his desk. You know, in the YSL. case, the the judges earrings went from.

little tiny earrings to, you know, two. carat earrings over the course of the of. the trial. So, yes, cameras matter, public opinion matters, especially in. high profile cases. I've done enough of. these, I've had enough of these trials. where I know it affects, one way or the. other and usually not in a good way, the. judges decisions on certain motions that. are filed, certain. issues in terms of things coming in. against the accused. All those things go.

into a judge's decision. Whether they. want to admit it or not, I'm just giving. you the straight, you know, I'm giving. you the. >> Behind the scenes. Behind the scenes. I. get it. I I guess the question is. there's no exact science to this, right? I mean, is there a formula? Is there a. standard by which the judge weighs these. different factors? >> No, there's no exact science and that's. the thing, you know, when you come to a. lot of these cases with a lot of these. motions that you file, you know, you. just saw the Tate brothers get their. motion denied for, you know, being sent.

over being released until they get sent. over to England. You see these cases. where it's basically the discretion of. the court where this falls. Yes, there's, you know, they'll say it's. clear and convincing or or preponderance. of the. you know, preponderance of the evidence. They always give kind of the the. baseline, but it really comes down to. how the judge looks at the case, how the. judge feels about the case, what the. public opinion is, although they won't. admit it. All those different things,

you know, these judges are up for. election every six or eight years. That. matters to them. They don't want to say. it matters, but it does. So, in cases. where especially where there's a sex. assault alleged, um I think it's very difficult to make. those choices, but good judges do it. Some good judges There are there there. are judges out there that just don't. care what the press says and they do the. right thing. This is a tough one cuz I. don't know all the allegations. I don't. know what the victim's status is, if.

there was a special relationship between. the two, that could work either in his. favor or against him. There's so many. different issues here that will come out. during a closed hearing. that will weigh on the judge. >> You talked about a number of factors. So, here's another interesting part of. this motion. Um defense attorney. Sheffield argues that the seriousness. of this charge or charges cannot be the. only consideration. The motion says "If. it were, there would be no transfer. statute. Every case eligible for. transfer begins with an offense the.

legislature considered sufficiently. serious to place initially within the. jurisdiction of the superior court." It. goes on to say the general assembly has. already determined that even allegations. as serious as those contained in this. indictment may be appropriately resolved. or maybe appropriate to be resolved in. juvenile court. I mean, that's a That's. what you just said, Bradford. That's. what you just said before. Um that that. it's not about it. And it does raise. another interesting question in terms of. for KJ, right? Like and we'll get into. this a little bit more.

Whether it goes to juvenile court or. adult court, those are vastly different. potential outcomes for somebody in his. position, right? >> Oh, yeah, vastly different. Um you know, I had. in my younger days, I did a lot of. juvenile cases. I mean, a lot of. juvenile cases. That's kind of where a. lot of defense attorneys cut their. teeth. Um are juvie cases and the. person's. not going to prison for the rest of your. life. So, you're a couple of years out. of the state attorney's office, you're.

taking a lot of juvie cases and. misdemeanor cases to really cut your. teeth on. So, when you look at these. juvie cases, um you see the vast difference between a. juvie case where usually the maximum. punishment uh in different states, it's. sometimes it's levels, sometimes it's. programs, but the difference is is that. okay, they can hold you till you're 18. and then they essentially let you out or. they can hold you till you're 21. depending on the state and then let you. out or keep you on probation till you're.

21. So, there's different restrictions. there and don't forget, your juvenile. record essentially gets sealed from. public opinion. So, you can't get. someone's juvenile record unless you. represent them or you're filing an. appeal on them. The general public will. never get a juvenile record. Uh. governments can sometimes get a juvenile. record if you apply for a government. position, but the general public will. never get a juvenile record as opposed. to going to adult court where you're.

looking at serious prison time or felony. probation and or a registered sex. offender with selling felony probation. And I will tell you, being a registered. sex offender by itself is a lifetime. punishment. You know, that that you. never get away from that and um. rightfully so a lot of those people that. have been tagged with that um should. have been tagged. And then but there's. also like the Romeo and Juliet's where, you know, there's an 18-year-old who's.

dating a 16-year-old in high school and. the mom doesn't like it and he gets. tagged for life as a as a sex offender. There's a lot of that goes into these. cases and you just don't know until you. see the facts. >> Let's go back to this motion for a. second cuz it also gets personal about. KJ and I do wonder if this is going to. play a factor. It says, "KJ is not an. adult offender who happens to be young. He is an adolescent whose development is. ongoing and can demonstrate his ability. for understanding, growth, and change. and whose future cannot reliably be.

predicted merely from the labels. attached to the allegations against. him." Then it says, "At 15 KJ's story is. not finished. That proposition is not. sentimental. It is developmental reality. and it is embedded in Georgia's. statutory scheme." What do you make of. that, Bradford? And how do you think a. judge is going to respond to that? >> I think that's the argument to make on. all these on any case that has a. juvenile with a serious crime that you. want to put back into juvenile court or.

reassign to juvenile court. I think. that's basically the argument. You know, individuals from 12 to I think I don't. know, 13 to 20 they I there's some. studies that go as high as 24 years old. that the mind is still developing that. they the urges and the things that. happen in these individuals um between. those ages they can't control. Uh. there's certain things that. psychologically they're not up to snuff. with. It could be that a 14-year-old is. thinking like a 10-year-old. You don't.

know, but that is the argument to make. Without more facts, without a uh you. know, a psychiatrist or psychologist. looking at KJ and telling us, "Hey, this. is where he falls on the mental scale, this is where he falls on the maturity. scale." I think all those things are. going to have to come out at a hearing, but that's the argument to make in these. cases. >> Um and also we kind of were talking. about the motion also asked for the. court to close the courtroom to seal the. records. It says neither child chose. this attention, yet both must now live.

beneath it. And then it also goes on to. argue that publicity this large, this. intense could threaten privacy, could. affect witnesses. Um. Bradford, how do you see this? Because. look, this is not just an alleged sexual. assault case, right? This is also. involving minors. And so this becomes a. question. um that I feel like the court has to. consider that and perhaps even in a case. where there is this much interest and. there is this much idea of we should.

have. uh access to the information in it. There's a serious consideration here as. well that the court needs to think. about. >> Yeah, I I don't even think it's a. question in my mind. I think he close. the courtroom for at least this hearing. And then if the judge decides, "Okay, it's going as an adult," that's a. different story, but I think at least. for this hearing, for the testimony for. this hearing, the testimony from I'm. sure they're going to hear from doctors. um that have, you know, evaluated KJ, um they're going to hear the incident.

that happened and the and the. allegations that happened. I think for. at this stage, you still seal it and you. uh ban cameras from the courtroom. I. think after you make that decision, if. it's going to be an adult case, it's an. open courtroom. I think if it's a juvie. case, obviously, it is not an open. courtroom. Juvies have a certain amount. of um anonymity when it comes to their. cases. That's why they don't allow them. to be on film, they don't allow cameras. in the courtroom. There's certain things. for juvie cases that just don't happen.

Now, him being 15, he should get some of. that consideration at this point until. the judge makes his decision. >> Now, uh the motion ends with this, regarding transfer, KJ's developmental. trajectory remains unfinished. His. history, ability to respond to. beneficial education, maturity, individualized risk, rehabilitative. potential, and the resources available. through the juvenile justice system must. therefore matter. Georgia law does not. require this court to choose between. accountability and rehabilitation. It.

permits both, which is what we've talked. about so far. And we are looking at a. bond hearing tomorrow. So, as we. consider this motion, and we think about. bond, what are you going to be looking. out for? What should we be watching out. for? >> I think when it comes to bond, you know, it's going to be tough to make these. allegations cuz that's going to be an. open courtroom unless they seal it for. bond purposes. Um you know, they're going to be arguing. about the certain. you know, allegations. If it's me, I.

would show some of the weaknesses in the. case. I would also show where he's going. to be placed, how he's going to be. placed, electronic monitor, what kind of. school he's going to be in, how he's. going to attend that school, what kids. he's going to be around, what kids he's. not going to be around. Really, this. requires, for me, um you probably need. to home school him for a period of time. because letting him out into into, you. know, middle school or high school at. this point is probably not a good idea. for him, for his mental health, and for.

his safety. Probably not a good idea. I. would probably home school him, have a. plan of electronic monitor with, you. know, certain requirements, a curfew. I. would as a defense attorney, you go into. these bond hearings with a complete plan. of how you intend on keeping him away. from bad things and bad things being. kept away from him. >> Yeah. >> That's how you go into the bond hearing. That's what I would be looking for. In. the next hearing, I'd be looking for, I'm sure there's going to be doctors. that are going to testify, affidavits.

going to be filed, witnesses are going. to come in. If it's me, I'd have. witnesses to testify as to his character. and as to how he's going to be, um, you. know, rehabilitated. I'd have him in a. program immediately if he gets a bond. Uh, all these different things that. defense attorneys do to mitigate, that's. what I would be doing if he gets a bond. If he doesn't get a bond, then you have. to address whether or not those programs. are available in the jail. And that cuts. both ways. If they are available,

immediately get him into those programs. The the pro the uh state attorney might. say, "Hey, he's already in a program, Judge, and he's doing great." So, that. works against you. Um, but I would. immediately get him into a program if a. program is available. He's probably. being held in a juvenile facility, and. sometimes those programs are available. But, I would do everything that I could. to mitigate the situation, to let the. judge know, "Hey, listen, we have a plan. in place. The kid's got no prior. criminal history, and this is what our. plan is, and, you know, a very strict.

plan until we can flesh out what's going. on with the case.". >> All right. Well, we'll see, cuz we want. to stay on top of this one. Uh, since it. broke, we've been covering it. So, Bradford Cohen, thank you for taking the. time. Always appreciate your insight, particularly in these very high-profile. cases, cuz as you said, number of. different factors, number of different. things the courts could be thinking of. Uh, there's different battles going on. So, thank you for taking the time, sir. Always good to see you. >> Thanks, Jesse. >> And that's all we have for you right now. here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so. much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple.

Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should. get your podcast. You can also check us. out on NBC's Peacock, as well. If you. want to follow me, X, Instagram, my. NewsNation show, Jesse Weber LIVE, Monday through Friday, 11:00 p.m. Eastern. I'll see you next time, everybody.