Good Day Uncut: A Family Fighting for "Joey's Law"

All right Philadelphia, what's going on everybody? Jersey, Delaware, Southeastern PA, this is Uncut. I'm your host Hank Flynn. We have a special one today, a story of pain, a story of process, a story of working to make the world better, all of it through the eyes and voices of Pipersville's Kaye family, and that is where we are today, Pipersville out in Bucks County. I am with the Kaye family led by Sue Kaye and her daughters, Lauren, Shannon, and Megan. They're all here to tell the story, very painful story, of the passage of their brother, their son Joseph, a little bit more than two years ago. Shannon, let's please start with you, and thanks so much. You guys remember this is a half-hour show and a whale of a thing to try to get done in it, so thanks everybody in advance. Shannon, tell me the story, or begin to if you even can, and thank you. So two years ago, on June 1st, 2024, we were getting together as a family for a birthday party, and Joe was so happy that day. He was thrilled to be the host. He was thrilled to have all of us with our children. We are a really close family, Hank, and he went so far as to order special pizzas for our kids that he knew that they'd love, special food, and we had a wonderful night. It was a beautiful night out. It was just a time when we were all able to be together. The kids were running around. They were playing and having fun, and at the end of the night, all of our kids hugged him. We hugged him, and we said, bye, Joe. We love you. We'll see you tomorrow, fully believing that we would, and not eight hours later, our family was shattered by something that was absolutely preventable, selfish, and horrific. His life was violently taken from him when a drunk driver had fled police and flipped an off-road vehicle. Joe was the passenger, and at four o'clock in the morning, I received a call from my parents saying that Joe was killed. It was the worst moment of my life. I screamed, and my husband came running down the hall. He was in our son's room. He thought our youngest daughter, who was preemie and newly home from the NICU, was dead, and I told him, no, unfortunately, Joe died. We couldn't believe it. We were just with him. To know Joe, he was so full of life. He was joyful. He was lighthearted. It didn't seem like this was real. It seemed like this was the worst nightmare that you couldn't even begin to allow your brain to explore. Mom's words to us were, Joe was killed. It wasn't even that we lost him. He was gone. He died. He was killed, and it was the most accurate description of what happened that night. After that, we gathered at Joe's house as a family, and people started to pour in for hours. They poured in to hug us, to love us, to cry and remember Joey. These are people that Joey loved to host over the years. Joey was a very social person. He loved having people in his home. He loved to cook for them. He loved to make other people happy. I'm not wrong on that. It takes a certain guy. I feel like the world makes you a certain way for him to have been the son, the one son of this generation. How many sisters? Are you all even all of the sisters? Yeah, we are. I'm the oldest. It goes me and then Lauren. Joe was third and then Meg. He was the last K. Not only was he the only son, he was also the only grandson with the last name K. Our family died with Joey. Susan, Joey was your only son. He was. He's critical to the family just because of his nature, because of the way he was built, the way he was always willing to help you, your daughters, his sisters. He was also the scion of the family's business. He was going to be taking over because he knew everything. Not only was he the son, he was the perfect right guy to do it because he had been at your husband's feet, at his right hand for years and years. He knew exactly what to do. I think the point I'm trying to make is in addition to an appalling, a confounding personal loss, this loss also threatened your family in other ways. Yes, it did. Hold that microphone up, Susan. I'm sorry. He ripped my husband's heart right out of his body the night that we found out. We have been preparing for 40 years of our business for him to be ready to take it. He was excited. He was motivated. He communicated with everybody in the company. We have 19 men and they were all excited for him to come aboard and start that process. And that quick it was taken. That week, that week that he died, he had his desk and boxes in the office ready to assemble to take over that new role. That was actually in the process of happening. Yes. Sue, how have you processed this? Have you been able to at all? Tell me what you've been through since Joey passed. Yeah, I'm shattered. I'm devastated. I'm lonely. I've changed. I'm no longer the Sue that everyone knows. The loss has been profound for me. He was my buddy. He was my right hand man when my husband couldn't be. He was always there for mom. We had a very special bond. Our bond was close. He came almost every day to see me after work to talk his day through. I have a lot of health issues. I've been very ill and Joe has been there for me, sitting at my bedside, taking turns with my daughters. I needed him with me. He's my strength. When I always say is that my husband is my heart. My son is what makes my heart beat and my heart is no longer there beating. It's just a wither pump and who my being is are my three daughters who stand for who I am. They're strong women. They're women that know what it takes to be a mom because they have children themselves and I watch them suffer every day trying to get through the day to be the normal quote unquote mom to love and to raise and to discipline their children when they're struggling with the death of their brother. Susan, thank you. I know that's incredibly hard. Thank you. Guys, I got to go to a quick break but when we get back we're going to find out exactly what happened to the fellow who was driving that ATV that when it flipped killed Joey but more importantly we're going to find out what happened after that when this family found some of its power and began to make phone calls in order to make some kind of change out here in the world, change we can all benefit from. Give me two minutes. We'll be right back with more on Cut. All right guys, back out in Pipersville with the Kay family. Megan and so many of these young have different names now that they've married but Megan, talk about the fact, less about that night and we know a ton about that night and we could literally spend the whole show talking about all of these moments. Talk about the prosecution of the convicted Mr. Wallers. Sure, so October 15th of 2025 was the day that we went into trial with Mr. Wallers. Before that we spent a year, a year and a half working with ADA Bukowski going over the case, going over the facts, seeing the evidence that he had. We each wrote victim impact statements. We are very fortunate that we have a lot of ties in this community and hundreds of Joey's friends and family came out to the courthouse. It was a packed courthouse that day and so many incredible people wrote victim impact statements on behalf of Joey. Now to be clear, we're talking about the sentencing here, right? The sentencing, correct. Because I want to be clear as well guys, I am your witness as well. I was there the day of the sentencing. Biggest courthouse in Doylestown, biggest courtroom in Doylestown, packed to the gills with people supervising the doors from both sides, but a ton of Joey people. Yes, a ton of people supporting Joey, supporting us and throughout the whole process, I think what was eye-opening for us was just learning the guidelines and the sentencing around drunk drivers and yes, the homicide by DUI. Well, it's all local. I mean, it's Pennsylvania stuff. None of it's federal or whatever. What did you find out? Correct, that the minimum is three to six years and that is a very common sentencing for vehicular manslaughter with DUI. For us, that was jarring. I mean, that is somebody killing your loved one and that's what they get. It seemed so light. It seemed like it didn't fit the crime. Okay, so he's drunk. He's driving an ATV that's not registered for the road. Correct. And he's running from police as well. And we're talking about three to six for that? Correct. That does not seem to be, and I feel like people get a lot more for less. Correct. And we had to fight for him not to be a part of two different programs that would have lowered his sentencing time. And so we pleaded with the judge that that was not the case because what we found in his, what we were fighting for so hardly was what they would consider aggregating factors. He blew a BAC level of a 0.19. Which is sky high. Which is almost two and a half times over the legal limit. He was going roughly 60 in a 40 miles an hour zone. He was fleeing and evading the police. And in the video of the chase, because it is all on camera. Yes. It is all on body footage camera of the police officer. Which was shown at the sentencing, forgive me. It was, yes. And through all of that, there was multiple times where the driver could have made a decision to stop. He could have made a decision to pull over. And there was many decisions made that night that caused Joey's death. So when he was given three to six years, it was eye opening to us. We were upset because that's Joey. That's our brother. That's our son. That was somebody's best friend. I mean, we heard many people tell us Joey was sometimes the only friend that some people had in this world. And so to hear that he got three to six was just so upsetting. So we came together as a family and thought something needs to be done. We have to make a change because what if people didn't have the support that we had or we don't want another family to have to fight for what we had to fight for and not have a driver applicable to these other matters that they could have gotten sentencing below. And when you look at local states around us, they do have harsher punishments, harsher sentencing. And so it really opened our eyes to sit here and say, you know, we need to make a change on behalf of Joey. We have to make his name known. We have to give him a legacy. That's what he would do for us. Well said. I don't know if you've got it at your fingertips. New Jersey, I hear, is an example of a state that has far stiffer penalties for this. If this had happened across the river, what do you think would have happened? So in the state of New Jersey, they have outlined aggravating factors. In the state of Pennsylvania, we do not. So part of Joey's law is to outline those aggravating factors. So New Jersey, it does outline a BAC level. The minute they exceed it, it's aggravating. If there's a child in the car, that is an aggravating factor. So we kind of took similar guidelines of the state of New Jersey and put them into Joey's law. Okay, bam. And that did it. Thank you, Megan. She said it guys, those two words, Joey's law, Joey's law. That's why we're here today. When we get back from this break, we're going to talk in depth about it. Representative Shelly Labs has written it up. Ann Harrisburg comes off its summer break at the end of September, when hopefully that goes through committee and goes to a vote. Women making a change for a better world in the wake of their own tragedy. We'll talk about exactly what Joey's law is, and more importantly, what its chances are this fall. Coming up, we'll be right back. All right, everybody, back out in Pipersville with the women of the Kay family mourning and taking action after the passage of their son and brother, Joseph, who, in addition to being a volunteer fireman and an electrician and a guy that everybody relied on for everything, was actually a pretty good race car driver as well. He's a really colorful guy. It would have been a fun guy, I would imagine, to know. Again, it's not wasted time to talk about Joey, but we're trying to keep it on the tracks here. Megan was telling us about Joey's law, that is a thing that came out of that sentencing, and just the complete lack of satisfaction your family has with the comeuppance of the fellow who was driving this ATV in which Joey was killed. How does that all start? How do you all shift from one place to another? You must have felt, coming out of that courtroom, you couldn't have been happy. Right. We were very thankful for everything the DA and ADA Bukowski did for us. They did everything they could in the power of the law. They did a great job there, but we were really just dissatisfied with the sentencing. We knew something had to change. We could have easily moved forward to process this grief and his death, but we realized that we need to make a bigger change for the state of Pennsylvania. We realized that other families will be going through this, and that's devastating. We just felt like the sentencing wasn't strong enough. It wasn't holding these people accountable for the actions and decisions they make when they decide to get behind the vehicle and drive impaired, especially when they kill someone. So we reached out to local state rep, Shelby Labs, to discuss creating a law or a house bill that would strengthen the homicide by vehicle DUI charges. She would have known about this. I mean, yes, very much so. My parents live in her district. My brother was actually a constituent in her district as well. So she was very well aware of the events that occurred with Joey's death. She was very supportive from the moment we reached out to call for a meeting to see if we could discuss strengthening these laws. All right. Forgive me, Lauren. I just want to know what that process is because there's other people out there that want to make these kinds of changes as well. There's a lot of people that feel like their government is, as much as they're supposed to be available, they don't necessarily feel like they are. And that would have been a strange thing for you to do, but you felt called to it. Right. Legislation and politics is not something that we are very involved in. So the basic first step is to reach out to your state representative, call for that meeting, be a thorn in their side until they answer your call to grant a meeting with you. You have that right as a constituent in their district to ask for a meeting. She opened us in with open arms. And what we told her was that we were looking to increase the minimum sentencing for homicide by vehicle DUI charges. We were looking to increase sentencing for those that have multiple DUI offenses and then will then kill somebody. Sure. If they got a track record, yeah. Exactly. Yeah. We didn't find it to be acceptable. And like Megan said, we wanted the aggravating factors to now come into play. We found that when we walked in that courtroom that day, we thought the fact that his high BAC and fleeing from invading police would automatically bump him up to the next- I feel like those are safer assumptions. Yes. Right. But unfortunately, in the state of Pennsylvania, the law does not dictate that. So what we asked her to do is, well, first of all, this Joey's Law House Bill 2495 will now charge a person with felony one instead of felony two if they get behind the vehicle and drive drunk and they kill somebody with their vehicle. Not only that, the minimum would increase from three years to five years for a first-time offender. And then- You got to go for what you can get, right? Exactly. You have to remember this is politics. Sure. And we were told very early on that we could have asked for a higher sentencing. However, the politicians may have tabled it. They may have never moved through. So we are trying to have change. We're not trying to have this just be tabled and the politicians not even discuss this. Good stuff. And thanks for breaking that down, Lauren. Continue with it though. How do you like your odds coming out of summer recess? I feel like this is a thing that both sides could get behind. Yes. I don't see it getting hung up. Right. So we've done a lot of work advocating for this bill. We've reached out to numerous legislators throughout the state of Pennsylvania. It is a bipartisan bill, which is really important. So we have both Republicans and Democrats co-sponsoring this bill, which is huge. We have also reached out to numerous organizations, prosecutors, different communities throughout the state of Pennsylvania to garner that support. So not just only in the Bucks County or Eastern part of the state, but in Harrisburg. And I might have missed it. Mothers Against Drug Drivers as well. I mean, you got to have a lot of friends on this and you have them. They have been with us really since sentencing of this case. And we reached out to them early on, letting them know that we're developing this bill. And they have been huge supporters, really helping us communicate with the legislators. They put out a release on the two-year anniversary of Joey's death, stating that they're supporting this bill a hundred percent and helping us with the background information on how to contact our state legislators. What have you learned from it personally through that process? It's difficult. It is a long road. We've realized this is a marathon, not a sprint, that this process can take quite a while. So like you said, the state senate and house representatives is currently on their summer break. They don't go back until September. So you're working with limited timeframes to get this done. So our goal this summer is to really advocate for this bill, reach out to as many legislators, associations, organizations that can garner rally support behind us so that when they come back into session in September, that we can potentially get this thing voted on. The other thing when it comes to legislation is when you create a bill, it will then be presented to a committee within the house. So currently, the bill is sitting with the judiciary committee and we are waiting for them, specifically the chairman, to present it to the committee so they can discuss the bill make any changes that they see fit and then they vote on it and then it can be sent to the house for a full floor vote. Lauren, thank you. I really appreciate it. Sue, you heard everything she said and everybody knows all bets are payable come the day the governor Shapiro gets in on his desk, picks up a sharpie and signs it into law. But based on what you've heard Lauren say, based on what you know about this particular bill, I know you don't get Joey back, but does it give you anything? As a mother, it gives me the feeling that I helped another family. I helped another mom and dad and the siblings go through such excruciating pain that there will be justice at the end of that tunnel. Joey will never come back. There's going to be a day that I want to look at his eyes again. I want to see his smile and the only way I'm going to do that is when I meet him in heaven. Until then, we have to do our best and that's what the Cave family's about. We're about giving back and helping others. That's what the Cave family does. All right. Thank you, Sue. Guys, let's take one more last break and we'll be right back here with the incredibly powerful Cave family, the women at Cave family, guys, and the lessons that they learned. Give me a quick break and we'll be right back. Thanks, Sue. All right, guys, back with the Cave family out here in Pipersville. Yeah, the sadness is palpable. It's incredible, but so is the power of doing something about it so that somebody else doesn't go through the same pain. Megan, we were talking about you, the first one to bring up Joey's law in here, Joey's bill, I guess it would be, but what's the best way to get it across the finish line? What's the best way to get it signed into law? I mean, we've got a certain amount of time. I think it's got a good shot, but this is also Harrisburg politics we're talking about. Nothing's ever super simple. Yep. So what we're really asking people in the call to action is really to use their voices and help us speak out, reach out to representatives, whether that's through an email, through a phone call, ask for a meeting. But, you know, the more that we can spread awareness around this, around the state of Pennsylvania, not just here in Bucks County, not just in the closer Philadelphia area, but across the entire state. If you have friends that are near Pittsburgh, please ask them to reach out, just help speak up and really raise awareness. Everyone's voice is powerful. Every email made, every phone call made, every meeting asked for is just another notification on their desk of somebody wanting to support this bill. So that when it goes into session in September, they're very well aware of this bill and that they are, you know, seeing the constituents in their area that are wanting their support. Right. And the consequences for not acting on it, they should be well aware of as well. Correct. Yes. Good stuff. All right. Shana, what do you think? I agree with what Megan said. And I think that the more voices is more powerful. I think that it's important for our representatives to know where we stand, to let them know that it's unacceptable for what our family's been through, what other families will go through. And the more they hear that message, the more that they're going to have to make a change. I know we're on limited time, but have you run into other families that have walked down this same path that you all have? Unfortunately, we have. Our family and our story, unfortunately, is not unique. And it is unique to us because it was Joey that we lost. And it is important to us that other families know that if you're walking this path too, we support you. We're here with you, linking arms together, and we're not going to let this continue. I always wondered, all right, guys, we got to go. We'll see you.