Fake News in Donna Adelson (Dan Markel Murder) Case - Records Unsealed

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:01]Hello everyone. This is Mental Lawyer.

[00:00:04]Long time no see or maybe we have seen each other recently. At least I know a few of you have seen me recently because I did a video about some information that has become public in the Donna Adelson case that was previously sealed. I did that video last week and uh actually two videos about it.

[00:00:26]And it got a few views. I think one got maybe 15,000 views, the other one got 7,000 views. Not a lot of views, but it had a lot of interesting revelations about the so-called new investigation.

[00:00:38]Now, I have become aware tonight about a troubling matter, right? My name was mentioned by a competing channel, STS, and I was called out as a hey, Mental Lawyer was the first to release this.

[00:00:53]And that's nice, you know, to acknowledge that I released this information, but the way that information was presented was completely wrong and false and it's actually quite defamatory to the clerk of court of the Leon County.

[00:01:08]So, I need to clarify all of that because in a sense, it is also throwing me under the bus. So, what happens is that the STS host and guests and the two guests because I was called attention to this and then I went to take a look. I don't know, I watched the first 5 minutes and I was appalled by what I heard.

[00:01:28]In essence, the host and the two guests, which I think were Tim Jansen and Monica Jordan, were accusing the clerk of court. They in essence said that the information that I released a few days ago, which they also released today, is information that no one is supposed to see, that they don't want us to see, but that somehow I got my hands on it and then somehow they got their hands on it through some other channel that they also gave a shout-out to.

[00:02:00]And they said, as a matter of fact, they said as a matter of fact that this doc that this document we're not supposed to see it. That is completely sealed.

[00:02:14]That Donna Adelson's lawyers don't want us to see us see those documents, and that is probably true, but it doesn't really matter because the trial already happened. Now, the trial has happened, and not everything that was sealed before the trial has been unsealed. I have been working behind the scenes to try to get those records unsealed, and that is a slow process that is still ongoing.

[00:02:39]However, there has been some unsealing done in this case already months ago.

[00:02:47]And the fact that I just reported about it, if you know, for the first time, it was just a you know, I guess I wasn't I'm not on the docket every day. So, I just happened to check the docket occasionally, and I saw, oh, here's one that has been unsealed. I've been checking, by the way, also the docket in the appellate court, not only for Charles Adelson, but also for Donna Adelson.

[00:03:11]So, I look at the Donna Adelson docket, I see some records that were previously sealed unsealed.

[00:03:20]So, I read through them, and I said, oh, this one is like super interesting. It is that one hearing where we had ended the hearing, and then all the lawyers and investigators, Georgia, then Rachmoum, everybody went to the judge's chambers. They walked away from 3G, and I followed behind, and I actually followed all the lawyers, and I went to the chambers, and I said, can I gain access as an observer? And they said, no, this is a sealed hearing.

[00:03:52]So, of course, I have been looking forward to finding out what was in that hearing, what was in that transcript.

[00:03:59]So, when I found out last week it was when I went and I looked at Donald's docket, I said, "Wow, this is unsealed. This is from August I believe August of 20 25.

[00:04:14]I I have to double-check.

[00:04:16]And I'm going to go look and and show it to you guys that it's still that it's available for anyone.

[00:04:20]So, when I saw it and I read through it, I was like, "Wow, this is a bombshell."

[00:04:23]It's got this whole thing about uh threats to Katherine McBroom, consideration of hiring a hitman to kill her um in the prison system uh about you know, the the subtle threat or the suggestion to Drena Bernhardt that guess Robert must know that if he says something bad about against her, that somehow the Mexican mafia is going to pay him a visit. Whatever that is supposed to be.

[00:04:54]And again, we don't have any personal knowledge.

[00:04:57]And I haven't done any follow-up investigation, so whether there is any truth to that or not, that's none of my business. I just reported something that has been unsealed. And then the unsealed records, it shows a lot of interesting facts about the so-called new investigation and what it has revealed.

[00:05:13]So, if you want to see those details, you can go back and look at the two videos that I already did about it.

[00:05:19]What I'm doing today is I'm going to clarify the humongous error which was done by STS and its guests.

[00:05:29]Which maybe, I don't know. I mean, obviously, you people click more. People get hooked, right? When you think, "Hey, you have access to something that no one else can see."

[00:05:38]It's more clickbaity in a sense.

[00:05:41]I don't know if that's the motivation behind it or is it pure laziness.

[00:05:46]Or pure lack of knowledge or just talking out of their, you know, butts.

[00:05:50]But, it is it is completely false and untrue that the clerk of court messed up for a period of time, released the records that were supposed to be sealed, and then I got a copy of it, and then she sealed them again.

[00:06:06]I guess I got to turn on the AC at night here. It's kind of like I'm sweating.

[00:06:10]Sorry about that.

[00:06:11]Anyway, so that is false. It is absolutely false and I'm going to show it to you guys.

[00:06:17]I'm going to access the records right here on screen, so you can take a look that this is available for anyone.

[00:06:23]So, what happened was is that a few months ago, Judge Everett, I think it was February of this year, so two and a half, three months ago, Judge Everett entered an order that said to facilitate the transfer of records to the appellate court, he ordered ser- several transcripts unsealed, because of course, there's no need for them to be sealed anymore. The trial has already happened, right? The chances that Donna Adelson will get a new trial are very slim. And even if she gets a new trial, it's probably going to be years away from now, right? This appeal process takes a long time. And then if there is a new trial, then the case would go back and there would be discovery and there would be wait. It wouldn't be an immediate trial. So, I think what I should do is I should show it to you, okay? Because what was suggested by those guests, they said it in a very defamatory way.

[00:07:20]And there's some truth to what they said, but there's also a lot of falsity.

[00:07:23]And that's what happens sometimes with laziness. And I mean, everybody makes mistakes, so it's maybe just mistakes.

[00:07:30]But, it is true that a few months ago, while the Donna Adelson case was still pending, the clerk of the court did release for a very short period of time some transcript. It could have been this particular transcript.

[00:07:44]And somebody got a hang a a hold of a transcript. I didn't. Somebody got a hold of it and reported something from a transcript that was supposed to be sealed. And then immediately sealed that document. That did happen. This was months and months ago. That was one of the reasons why, as the guests properly reported, the chief judge, Judge Almen of the circuit court, had done a letter to the Florida Supreme Court saying that it was a sort of vote of no confidence or that there was problems with the clerk's office and wanted the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, as the manager of our court system in general, to maybe do something about it. Now, I have no idea whatever ended up happening with that.

[00:08:30]But, the fact that that happened months ago doesn't mean that whatever happened now is the mess-up of the clerk. And that's what the guest says. They were like they're guessing, "Oh, I guess that the clerk messed up, released the records, realized their screw-up. In the meantime, James, you know, mental lawyer, gets those records, reports about them, and then the records are sealed again. But, we got it from another channel that somehow got it."

[00:08:56]So, that is all false, mistaken, erroneous, whatever you want to call it, lazy. Uh so, I'm going to show it to you guys. I'm going to show you the records.

[00:09:07]So, first of all, let me access the website.

[00:09:18]Just bear with me for a second, okay?

[00:09:25]All right. So, I'm going to access the website.

[00:09:28]Once I'm logged in, I'm going to look for Don R. Yeomans, and then I'll share the screen.

[00:09:33]So, >> I think there's a way I can just share the entire screen. So, let me do that.

[00:09:48]I'm going to close my email, close this other things I don't need, and we'll just get to what you guys need to see. So, let me share the screen.

[00:10:02]Share screen, and I'll share the entire screen.

[00:10:06]So, you got I think that may be the best way to do it.

[00:10:10]Okay.

[00:10:12]And I'll just go there, and you guys are going to see what I'm doing.

[00:10:15]So, here we go. So, there's Donna Adelson.

[00:10:20]Here's the docket.

[00:10:24]There's our dear Donna, and then let's scroll down to first of all, February of this year, and we're going to see the order first. Let's take a look at the order from Judge Everett.

[00:10:47]Got to find it. One second, okay.

[00:10:55]Order on sealing records. Here we go.

[00:10:58]February 10th, 2026.

[00:11:01]All right. So, here we go. So, there's an order on sealing records.

[00:11:05]And I hope you guys can see. Let me go see real quick.

[00:11:08]Yeah, I think you guys were were seeing it. So, here we go. Order on sealing records. This cause came before the court to facilitate the preparation of the record to be reviewed by in the first district court of appeal, case number blah blah blah.

[00:11:21]The clerk of court is authorized to unseal the transcripts of the following court proceedings.

[00:11:28]One, in camera motion hearing held on September 6th, 2024.

[00:11:34]Two, in camera proceedings, Rush Bomb, held on September 17th, 2024. So, let me tell you about each one. So, the first one, in camera motion hearing held on September 6th, 2024, that is the first hearing where they're discussing Robert Adelson and is done in camera.

[00:11:51]And it was about it was a much more mild motion and it had to do with the fact that Robert kind of hinted at the fact that he believed that his mom was involved and they didn't want that. I think that's the one that was released accidentally for a little bit of time. So, that's the one, I believe.

[00:12:09]Cuz I remember seeing that or seeing something about that before, but it was supposed to be sealed. So, I think that's the one that the clerk of court actually did mess up. I'm not 100% sure, but I know that there was a little mess up with the clerk that happened long ago and I think that that's the one, if I were to guess.

[00:12:25]Uh the second one, in camera proceedings, Rush Bomb, held on September 17th, 2024, that would be on the first day of trial. That would be when the judge was asking questions of Morris and Rush Bomb, the two defense attorneys for Donna Adelson, to see what was the separation that they were doing to determine whether he could allow the case to proceed forward with either one or both of these lawyers defending Donna while another lawyer would inquire or or ask questions of Charles Adelson. That's when Charles Adelson started to raise the issue of conflict of interest, the fact that he didn't waive the conflict of interest, and so on and so forth. So, so that would be those hearings in camera.

[00:13:09]Then there is one in camera hearing held on February 18th, 2025.

[00:13:15]And then there's in chambers hearing held on August 8th, 2025.

[00:13:20]Um one of those two is the one that we're talking about. I believe we're talking about the one on August 8th, 2025, the February 18th.

[00:13:31]I don't remember what it was, but I I looked at it and it wasn't anything.

[00:13:36]I think it could be one of them is about the investigator.

[00:13:41]Uh the investigator Eddie Barnes, and then the other one is the big one, the one that I reported on. And I believe that's the one August 8th, 2025.

[00:13:50]So, the transcript was put on the docket on August 18th, and it remained sealed until this order was entered in February.

[00:14:03]So, then that's when the clerk of court released that transcript. So, remember, August 8th, 2025 has been unsealed.

[00:14:15]So, now we go back to the docket, and let's go find it. August 18th, 2025.

[00:14:22]Cuz it was August 8th is when it happened, but August 18th, from what I recall, is when it was filed. So, we go to August 18th, right here.

[00:14:33]Okay?

[00:14:35]Um so, here we go. August 18th, it says transcript, document number 418, transcript of in chambers, August 8th, 2025, filed [snorts] under seal, but now it's available. So, I can just click on it. It's open for anybody and everybody to see. There it is.

[00:14:55]Open, right there.

[00:14:57]You guys can see it. This is the one that I had Ed and Victoria read for you guys. Ed was playing the role of all the males.

[00:15:08]He was playing the role of Joshua Sellman, of Judge Everett.

[00:15:13]He was also reading the introductions, who was present, and all this stuff. And um and what Victoria did she read the parts of Jackie Fulford and of Georgia Kaplan. So, this is all this is all open for anyone to see.

[00:15:36]If you guys want I can I mean I already have it downloaded.

[00:15:39]If you want to send me an email at [email protected], I'll email you this document right now.

[00:15:45]I mean anybody can have a copy of it.

[00:15:47]It's available to the public. There's nothing secret. There's nothing that I'm showing to you guys that is supposed to be kept away from you or from anybody.

[00:15:56]It's unsealed. So, now it's open to everyone for everyone to see all the shenanigans that Donna Adelson was allegedly engaged in at least according to Greena Bernhardt which included threats against Katie McBroom, which included um veiled threats against her own son uh which included a lot more.

[00:16:26]So, here's the talk about Ms. Bernhardt that she's already incarcerated. They're both incarcerated.

[00:16:33]um We did a full reading of this. So, I probably should put it in the comments and I would love to have your support and go back and watch the hard work that we do.

[00:16:48]We actually gave you the transcript instead of just BS-ing about all of this.

[00:16:53]Uh we just tell you the truth. We just read you the transcript so you can make your own judgment about credibility and about all this stuff. And of course I offer my opinion.

[00:17:01]I said that to me a lot of the things that Greena Bernhardt allegedly said about Donna are very consistent with her behavior in this case, right? I mean the fact that she was considering hiring somebody to kill Katie McBroom. Well, I mean obviously she's in trial for hiring a hitman. Number one, number two, she has obviously shown great concern about Katie's testimony, right? Including, apparently, hiring up to four different informants to hopefully testify for her. Ms. Byrd, Ms. uh Trina Bernhardt, and then those two others that never testified.

[00:17:42]So, yeah, the whole transcript is available. It is uh 26 pages long, I think.

[00:17:50]Yep. And it is right here.

[00:17:53]You guys, I think, are seeing it right now.

[00:17:56]So, I wanted to make it 100% clear.

[00:18:00]And look, like I said, anybody makes mistakes. You know, have I ever made a mistake? Probably.

[00:18:05]I probably made mistakes.

[00:18:07]Um but hopefully STS will clear that up because it and its guests, in essence, defamed the clerk of court, said that the clerk of court is not performing her duties properly, still not fixing the problems that resulted in that release of a sealed hearing long ago.

[00:18:34]So, in essence, um they were throwing the clerk of court of Leon County under the bus, and she doesn't deserve it. There was an order from Judge Everett that expressly made that record unsealed, and it allowed all of us to have access to that record. Anybody who is not lazy can just go and pull it up from the docket and share it with you guys. It wasn't any secret that you have to go through some channel to get it for, you know, from them, or it wasn't any secret that I that I any secret document that I secretly got from the clerk, or I, you know, luckily got while the clerk mistakenly unsealed and then resealed it. It wasn't anything like that. It was an order from Judge Emmett that unsealed several records.

[00:19:23]I looked through them and the only one that seemed interesting is the one that I reported on. But I have looked through all the other ones that the judge unsealed and really there isn't much interesting in the other ones.

[00:19:35]So, didn't really do much about those.

[00:19:37]But this August one from 2025, that was super important because it was that hearing like I said.

[00:19:44]Um So, it wasn't the one with that Roshomon and um and um and Morris. It was the one in August of 2025, the one that was revealing a lot of interesting details.

[00:19:57]It was with uh Josh Zeilman and Jackie Fulford where they were really doing everything possible to try to keep the testimony from Drina Bernhardt excluded from the trial. And they mostly succeeded. And you got to remember that that was their first effort to do it.

[00:20:15]But then they filed a separate motion against Drina Bernhardt, which was more successful. It was called a Henry motion. And the Henry motion in essence says that after the first time that Drina Bernhardt reported to law enforcement that she was in contact with Donna Adelson and getting all this information from Donna Adelson, what the court eventually found was that the subsequent meetings between Donna Adelson and and um and Drina Bernhardt where Drina was sucking more information out of Donna supposedly, at least that was the defense argument, that that was a violation of uh of the Constitution, of the right to counsel. And I think eventually Judge Emmett ruled in the favor of Donna Adelson in all of that.

[00:21:02]So, the testimony that Drina Bernhardt ended up giving at trial was a lot more limited than the information that is disclosed in the hearing. So, what I encourage you to do is for you to watch uh Victoria and Ed's reading of the full transcript if you want to hear all of it because there's a lot of interesting information.

[00:21:27]If you want to have the condensed version, then I did a separate video little commentary about it. So, uh nice to see you guys. I'm I haven't been here in a while, so I'm going to say hello to all my friends. Hello Tenton, nice to see you. The great Matt who has played Denmark Cal in our mini movie that we made a long time ago where we reenacted the the the divorce deposition of Donna Adelson. No, Donna. Of Wendy Adelson.

[00:21:54]Hi Matt in Australia.

[00:21:56]We have Diana Paxson from Colorado if I recall correctly.

[00:22:01]Uh South City Sunshine, hello.

[00:22:05]Oh, I'm glad that you watched Dave Thrones 400 times. That helps out.

[00:22:09]Moments in Trading, another rich guy from YouTube as well. He's a YouTuber too. And uh been a follower as of us here for a long time. Hello Veggie Girl, nice to see you again.

[00:22:22]Jean Coat, good to see you. The young women are doing a great job. I agree.

[00:22:27]>> [clears throat] >> Uh this summer we still have Victoria.

[00:22:30]Maya is got a cool job right now, but she may occasionally do some videos. We may have a new one coming.

[00:22:36]We have Anastasia who may or may not be working this summer. She kind of went on a trip to Italy, so I don't know if she got stuck in Italy or what's going on, but we also have Sebastian, a young man who's from the film school. He graduated. So, it's not just young women. There's a young guys too. There's Sebastian.

[00:22:53]Um so, yeah.

[00:22:58]Hello Raguso. Hello Clinical Science Hi. Nice to see you. Hello Lassa. Why are so many podcasts and others are talking about Don Haters and Wendy again? Is something happening behind the closed doors?

[00:23:14]Well, I I did hear that there was a lot of There's I don't know if it was STS and someone else, maybe Court TV.

[00:23:21]Couple of big, you know, bigger channels did videos about Wendy.

[00:23:27]And you never know. I mean, these people all may have sources, so you know, is there something going on and that's why they're doing these videos so they can be seen as prescient?

[00:23:38]Possible, but uh first of all, I don't procure inside information.

[00:23:45]And if I get inside information voluntarily, if somebody volunteers it to me, I don't use it on my channel because that's not what this is about, okay? I only use confirmed official information.

[00:23:58]Um hello Karen. Nice to see you. I think it's Germany, right? Unless there's a different Karen, but hello.

[00:24:06]Hello trans vaccinated.

[00:24:13]All right. And I think I said hello to everyone. Happen afterwards.

[00:24:18]So, yeah, Shayna Gardner, right? That's the case.

[00:24:22]Yeah.

[00:24:24]All right. Anyway, guys, I think I said enough.

[00:24:27]So, again, mental lawyer hasn't released records that are sealed and no one's supposed to see. No, these are records that everybody and anybody can see because Judge Everett in February entered an order unsealing those records. There was no mess up by the clerk. There was not mental lawyer quickly grabbing a transcript, clicking open, and saving it before the clerk fixed the mistake.

[00:24:57]And then me reporting about it. No, that's not what happened. I'm not disclosing stuff that is supposed to remain sealed.

[00:25:03]I was discussing in my videos things that had been unsealed by Judge Everett.

[00:25:10]I stick to ethics and that's the way that it should be.

[00:25:13]Thanks for watching. Until next time, Mental Lawyer.