Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - CASEY ANTHONY'S LAWYER Reveals How To Get Away With Murder (INSANE STORIES)

Episode Date: March 17, 2024

CASEY ANTHONY'S LAWYER Reveals How To Get Away With Murder (INSANE STORIES)

I'm making the story update county corrections, never investigate this. I know for a fact, Casey Anthony did not, that little girl. Nah, they go in and he steal millions of dollars. Allegedly, allegedly, allegedly. Because I said my guy didn't do it, he's not guilty. You want me to go to the country of Cambodia. You don't know their last names. They don't have cell phones.

You don't have an address. Nothing. He goes, no, you're going to have to find him. Here he was, coming through the fall. It's about an 11-hour boat ride. at night, and I think he's going to kill me. I said, Lewis, listen, there's a whole bunch of lawyers. I want to take a case for free.

They can get you millions. And he looked at me with the serenity that only an old man can have. And he put his hand on my shoulder. He said, the last time I went to court with a lawyer, a good one, I got 27 years in prison. I don't ever want to see a courtroom or a lawyer or a judge. for the rest of my life did you know from the beginning like hey I want to be I want to be a lawyer no no okay no I grew up in a rural area it wasn't a kind of it wasn't a

tough place but it wasn't a kind of high school where kids were college bound right everybody went into a construction job an electrician job the sod land job some kind of machinery very manual labor type blue collar stuff and during high school summers and stuff I would work on a construction site I'm not a carpenter in any stretch of the imagination. But I would tote lumber, coat wood, lay sod, trim bushes, whatever I had to do to make money, and we were poor. And I didn't know one I wanted that.

I knew there was a big world outside of where I grew up, but I knew nothing about it. I couldn't tell you where the pyramids were. I could tell you the Great Wall of China was in China because it was the Great Wall of China, but I had no worldly experience and I knew I didn't want to go to college I did not want to study an isosceles triangle or figure out what Renee Descartes

you know meant when you just nothing I wanted nothing to do with that but I didn't really want to work I have nothing but respect for guys who work hard like that but I didn't want to do it so I joined the army and I was going to join Marines and I went down to the recruiters office

all four branches were in one spot and I thought the Marines were the toughest. I love my Marine brothers, but they are not the toughest. The Army Rangers are. And the Marine recruiter tells me, well, the Marines can put you anywhere we want. I said, wait a minute, I could be a cook or a mechanic. I can do that right here. I can go get a job at the Waffle House. Right. I don't want to do that. So I kind of left there my junior high school dejected, and I remember his name to this day, Sergeant Everson Green. I think he was originally from the islands because he had that unique island accent.

Right. And he kind of looked at me, give me a young book. I got something. I want to show you. And he showed me a video of infantry, hand grenades, flame throwers, landmines, jumping out of helicopters. I said, sign me up. So my dad knew I wanted more than something than just a central Florida rural town.

And it was a good chance. My father served in the Navy. I didn't want to go to the Navy. He signed the waiver. Nine days after high school, I was at Fort Benning, Georgia. So the waiver is what? Because you were, what, 17? I was 17.

Yeah, yeah, I got a picture of me at Fort Benning, Georgia, when I was 17. Nobody believes it's me. I've aged pretty bad. But it was terrible. I didn't know when I got myself into, because I was just a good kid. Yeah. You know, I went to high school. I bagged groceries after school and on the weekends.

You know, I went out to the woods with our trucks. You know, we had beers. We chased girls, normal stuff. I was a good kid. I wasn't a troublemaker. And I remember I got off the bus at Fort Benning, Georgia. and the drill sergeant started kicking all our stuff around and found a condom in my wallet.

And he said, what is this? I said, well, I don't even had to respond. I'm six minutes into the army. Can I use a bad word, man? Yeah, yeah. He said, did you come here to fuck me? I said, what? No. He goes, yes, you did.

That's why you brought this condom. No drill sarden. He says, are you saying I'm too ugly to f***ing? No drill sarden. So you are a homosexual waltz. You came here to fuck me. I mean, no. And I thought, what did I get myself into?

Three weeks later, I'm blown off an M-16, an M-60-50 cow, and now it was hooked. So my basic training was 14 weeks, it wasn't eight, and it was all combat arms. We didn't learn a single skill, but to shoot and kill. That was it. And after that, they... What year is this? 84. 84.

Okay. So then they said... Oh, yeah, this is like, this is the middle of the Cold War, like the Soviet, the wall hasn't come down there's not even cracks yet no and i actually marched checkpoint charlie when the wall was the wall that one it was thirsty to go knock a chunk out of yeah this is regan this is they're dumping money yeah yeah it was a great time to be in the military and uh then they said who wants to go to paratrooper school i signed me up i couldn't get enough of the army that was young eight 17 i was 18 when i got to airborne school and they said who wants to go to ranger school and all this other stuff

So I kept signing up, signing up, taking a bigger challenge, taking a bigger challenge. I wanted nothing to do with college or paperwork or suits. I wanted to be Rambo. I want it to be G.I. Joe. No part of college or anything white collar was anywhere on the horizon. And I had a great time. I had a lot of friends. You know, I had a good friend of mine.

I hope he watches just David Stanley. He's up in Wisconsin now. And Dave was from, he called him Stan. He was from Prattville, Alabama. But he had a 1968 Mustang. So we would throw our sleeping bags in the trunk. And if we got a four-day weekend, we got the hell out of Dodge. We went to whatever college town was there, Athens, Georgia, Tuscaloosa, Baton Rouge, wherever we could find a college town.

And we chased the college girls. Right. And after four years of that, I had already done G.I. Joe for four years. Right. I said, let me go see what college is about. And at the time, if you got out and went to college and came back in, the four years you spent in college counted towards your time and service.

So I said, I'm going to get out and be a college student. I'd never been an adult before in the civilian world. I went from 17 to under the thumb and the tutelage of the U.S. Army. When you go to school? First I got out and I went to Northwestern University. Being from Central Florida, I came home now. that summer.

Northwestern was a challenge. I was not the most academically lifted kid. Most of my classes in high school were agricultural classes. You know, that was the genre of our school. Yeah. To put people out into labor-type jobs. So I came home and I got a job at a local gym.

I was diesel back then, you know. I was all jacked up and I walked on to the UCF football team and I made it. and then the track coach came over and was looking for strength athletes shot foot hammer and i did the hammer throw so i was on the track team and the football team we weren't very good back then but i had a great time so i had the greatest four years and i was done with the military you know i was never no no no no but the military pay for school it did i had a scott this was the best part if you got out and you had had the qualifications, you got your GI Bill.

Now, you used your GI Bill to pay for college. But since I got the Athletic Scholarship, I got to put the GI Bill in my pocket. So it was the first time in my whole life, I didn't have to work. I could just concentrate on school. And I had a little on-campus job. I don't know what it was.

It's a student Veterans Association, signing people up for their GI Bill. So I had a time of my life. I had the best four years of, you know, the four years of college was one of the best chapters of my life. There's no question. And as I started spending time in college,

academics came rather easy to me. I was a pre-law major. I loved it. I was going to be an environmental engineer, but I hated the math and the science. I said, there's no way I want to do a career in this. And I took, as an elective, a pre-law course, and I loved it.

I said, this is it. This is what I want to do. This is exactly what I want to do. That was the first time you'd ever even thought about that going that path? Yeah, I was going to get out and be an environmental engineer and build green power plants and green car. Before green was cool. I'm going to the 80s. So I was green before green was cool.

I was going to be green. And then I realized he had to take Calc 3, applied physics, and it just wasn't exciting. It's just not exciting. It's an exact science. And I'm not a linear thinker. I'm lateral. Right. I like the law because an argument can be made.

on every word. Does that word really mean what it means? Is that what the legislature's real intent was? Is that what he really did? So I decided to go to, I got a very good LSAT score the law school admission test. I had very good grades. I had, you know, a lot of accolades in college. I made who's who among American colleges and universities. So I got into NYU. I did my first year at NYU and I took a job down on Wall Street. um back in the 90s i thought i wanted to be a big wall street lawyer walk up those steps with my five thousand dollar briefcase and you know little cufflings with my initials on it and all that stuff absolute worst set of human beings i've ever been around right complete mental miscreants

just they would screw their own mother over right and he wouldn't even have to be a dollar a penny i said this is miserable and i uh I went up there with my girlfriend. I was all in love, man. We were going to go. She wasn't in law school, but we couldn't be apart. I couldn't breathe without her. She's coming with me.

We're going to live in New York. We're going to walk through Central Park. And I had a dog walking job. One of the professors saw me and goes, how'd you like to walk my wife's dog? I didn't know who he was or his wife. But I knew to, you know, brown knows a little, but I'd been in the Army.

I knew that, yes, sir, no, sir, three bags full worked well. So I still, I have to go to this apartment. The elevator, this is on Fifth Avenue. The elevator opens up into their apartment, not the hallway. They own the entire floor. I don't know how many square feet, because I'm not good with that, but it was one hell of a big, plush apartment. This terrible Jack Russell is attacking me.

I'm trying to get this fucking thing on the leash, and I'm walking down the street, and it's biting me all the bonfire of the vanities, all the neurotic, oh my God, God, you walk miss so-and-so's dog? Do you have a card? I didn't have a card. I'm just guessing my professor's ass. Right. That made me even more valuable because you had to know me.

They all trusted me because I'm walking so-and-so's dog. And I had a, just, my phone rang off the wall. So I would go to school, and one day I came home, and I thought we were robbed. Why? So I started looking around, and the only thing missing was hers. Oh. She left. No, left me. I mean, dog me now. Totally dog me out. Totally. Cleaned out the bank account. Everything. So I'm, I joined this, Jim. Do you know why? No, never got a note. Nothing. Flew home. I knocked on her mother's door. Can I please speak with Jennifer? And she's like, I'm sorry. She doesn't want to talk to you. And I'm like, I'm like, Ben, what's that guy, not Ben Stiller? The guy and something about Mary, remember when he's leaving?

That's Ben Stiller, right? Is it Ben Stiller? Yeah. Okay, Ben Stiller. And he's just, and he just saw it. That was me leaving. I just got back on a plane. I went to New York, climbed in the fetal position, and thought I was going to die. It was heartbreak. I never felt that. And I didn't want to be in New York. New York, NYU was a very, very challenging school. I was the only person in the first year that went to a state university. Everybody else was from Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Stanford. I am from UCF. And it was that professor who had me walk his dog. He was the only one who approved my admission, but apparently he carried a lot of weight, so I was glad to walk his dog, but it worked out. So I walked, uh, um, Bert Young's dog, you know, Paulie from

Rocky. Right. Cheryl Teague's dog. I walked Madonna's dog one time to a commercial. I mean, I didn't know them. Yeah. But you know, hey, you're the guru. Come over and sometimes a concier would let me in and get the dog and go for, you know, I used to just try to look around these. Some of them were two stories. You know, they had no ceiling. Just enormous wealth, opulent wealth. And I hated New York. I hated the fact she left me. The first year of law school sucks no matter where you go.

And I'm broke. So I join this gym called Johnny Lats. And everybody every night was shooting steroids in the locker room. And I'd walk in it, go, stereas. Like, I'm the virus. I mean, I can't make a friend. I can't talk to him. I'm a man's man.

I get along with gym guys, no one will talk to me. Why? So I don't like law students. And finally this guy, I can say his name, Paul Verdiglione, he was my savior.

He comes up to me, he's a wise guy. He goes, ain't nothing, are you the DEA? I'm the DEA, no. He goes, well, I saw all those law books in there. I come to my first year law student in law school. He goes, I'm going to check you out.

I said, all right, check me out. So he comes to my apartment that night. He's just checking me. I'm trying to make friends, you know? I got the welcome flag I don't want to be friends with the people in law school they're neurotic

they hate me they're all whacked out super intelligent but have no socials not the kind of people I want to hang around and uh he was you're not the DEA

he goes oh yeah I can introduce you to everybody so I don't know if you ever saw the guy with the world's biggest arms Greg Valentino he has this big huge puffed up arms Did he tear his bicep at one time? Yeah yeah

I know you're talking Greg and Paul were best friends So now I got plugged in with Greg and Paul. They were into really weird stuff. I'm not going to say it on the video, but they were into some seriously weird, wild stuff. And I'm just hanging around here. I'm just a guy looking for a Friday night buddy.

I don't want to be in New York City, bro. And they made New York palpable. So Greg had written an article in muscular development. And he was saying, yeah, Attorney Mike Walsh got me off. I was coming through TJ with 10,000. and files of Scipian 8. Total lie. I love him to death.

Greg, love you. But they were totally... And my phone started ringing. Hey, can you get me off this steroid case and I'm not a law student? I'm in my first year of law student. Just weird stuff. And they...

They introduced me to a lot of guys like them. And I was just in. And despite how many times I would explain, I'm not a lawyer. I don't even know where the courthouse is. much less what to do or what courtroom to walk in. No, but my mother, the landlord's raising the man. You got to do something.

So I'm doing what I can. I'm in the law library. You know, nothing, but these guys love me and I love them, and they made it good, but I hated New York. So I left, and I went to the University of Miami. Go you. And I got an internship at the Public Defender's Office. And in Florida,

if you've taken certain prerequisite courses, you can start trying cases before you ever graduate law school. Get out. Yeah. Is that still to this day? Oh, yeah. It's called Rule 11 certification. Yep.

So my supervisor, who's one of the best friends ever had in the world, Terry Lenneman. Terry was a public defender, and he was just considered a pit bull, crash to it, no matter how ugly the case was. Terry had guts and Terry had skills. And he just go, let's go. We'll go in a trial. I did 10 life felonies, not death case, but life felonies, before I ever walked across the graduation stage. And I remember my first trial was a prostitution case.

I was representing a prostitute. This is after you graduated. This is still while I'm in school. Oh, okay. And I don't know what to say. I've never done a trial before. And he says, well, you're going to cross. You're going to do it all.

I'm going to sit in the back and you do the trial. So I won't say her name, but she was. really down and out. She was a sad case. She was strung out on drugs. Who knows what happened to her life. And she was probably 80 pounds. And I remember she looked at me. She goes, ooh,

you're going to eat this cop's lunch. I'm thinking, I'm a sick of your lawsuit. I'm going to do all I can to eat this cop's lunch, but I don't know what I'm doing. So his A-form was like, I've been watching the defendant pace and wave at cars for 30 minutes. I knew she was doing a prostitutioner thing, so I weighing up, but I did the pre-taire.

how much for this and how much for that. And then I sprang the trap. I'm really a cop. I didn't like that. Come on, man. What are you doing springing that on? You know she's that. So wash the tread of your tires with her toothbrush.

If you give her a dollar, she's only doing that because she's got no other way to feed her drug habit. Some of my first question to him was, you're a pervert, aren't you? He goes, what? I said, no, no, no. You like to look at prostitutes for 30 minutes.

It did not take you 30 minutes to figure out what she was doing. You watched her, and you liked it. And another thing, why do you have a bobwired tattoo on your arm? You know, Hyaliyah's a neighborhood, Matt? I go, you're part of the Hiaia Barbies? What? What?

And the judge's like, it's cross-examination. She's signing warrants or whatever she's doing. She's not paying attention. And we won. I don't know how we won, Maccas. We didn't raise a single defense. I remember as soon as he went, she was, oh, baby, you come out to the park.

I'm going to blank, blank, blank, you're blank. And jury just looked at her. I'm like, no, no, no. I'm an intern. I'm happy just getting experienced. But I was hooked. That was it. All I wanted to do after that was challenge the government.

I absolutely love my country. I absolutely hate my government. Right. Both sides. Both sides. I don't trust anything that comes from Tallahassee, City Hall, or Washington, D.C. Absolutely nothing. And I saw that in a very small way, I could play a role as the last champion of liberty.

I could defend Mr. or Miss persona non grata and just crash into the alphabet police, the DEA, the FBI, the IRS, whatever they're a little homicide, you know, the rid unit, the robbery interview, all these little acronyms that they love to eat or the cops of cowboys. They love all that shit. And I love to stick it in their face. and I was hooked. So I got out and I got a job and then Terry, the guy who was my supervisor

at the public defenders, he said, let's get out and hang a shingle. Neither one of us knew anybody in Miami. We weren't from Miami. We had no connections to Miami. We had no money. We knew new bonds.

I remember he had $7,000 on an American Express. I said, let's do it, bro. He goes, do you have a phone? I said, well, I have a cell phone. He goes, we need an office phone. We need an office. And remember, he put, we maxed that credit card out in two days. We got an office.

We got an office. And we looked at each other like you and I are looking at each other waiting for the phone ring. And at the time I had met. What year was this? 2000. 2000. Oh, 2000. Oh, 2000.

2000. Mid-deleet, okay. No, right at, right between 99 and 2000. Yeah, okay. So here we were in Miami, two briefs. goes no you know we had public defense we we had experience we just had no experience in business right and before i left it was a new hire at the public defenders i'm going to say her name michelle walsh because she later became my wife and we're divorced now but we get along but

whatever um that was a love of my life no question about it um and she was pure ivory tower blue blood honors graduate from boston college law review at northwestern law school rich for daddy's you know richer than god but good good people they never had an attitude and i remember why i went in on a saturday and i met this guy named paul brandreth i'll say his name because he's dead and his street name was big polly balls he was supposed to be a hit man for the gambinos and all this of the nonsense the government, you know, painted with. But he was an exciting guy. And I'd never quoted a fee before and I was kind of shaking. Because remember, I'm a poor kid from the trailer park. I'm a poor kid in the Army. I'm a poor student athlete of college. I'm walking dogs in New York City.

This is going to be my first time I've ever quoted a fee. And what he did is he went down to Key West and he went into the Bahamian neighborhood. There's a little Bahamian, like it's called Little Baham or whatever it is in Key West. And he wanted to buy a little marijuana. And he gave this guy 20 bucks and a guy ripped him off so he went upstairs to the guy's apartment beat the hell out of him and his partner i mean beat the hell out of these guys threw him in a dumpster and lit the dumpster on fire but the dumpster didn't really catch into an inferno seems excessive oh he was vicious but he was exciting he was my favorite client of all time um but it didn't really catch on fire a few pieces of paper didn't it went out so he comes in and he's a tough guy from new york paul had a very tough

life he was on the streets in 1984 uh during the crack epidemic when it first hit and paul was doing sexual favors for money when he was 13 and then by the time he became 17 or 18 he became a big vicious kid he was a street kid and he started instead of performing sexual favors just robbing the tricks just taking a robbing street deals whatever so he kind of got a reputation on the street of being a tough guy now he's a transplant in miami and i tell him okay paul 30 $5,500. He goes, no problem in the hand. I could have charged him $70, but I didn't know, man. I didn't know. I didn't know what to be.

Listen, every time I quote would, when I ever I quote somebody something for, I'm like, oh, it's going to be to do a speaking engagement. I say $8,000 and they're like, I'm so glad that you're coming. I always think, oh, damn it. I missed that one. I was too low. But you know what? I really would have done the case

for a dollar just so I could say I made a dollar. And then he left and I remember my wife was there and she fist bumped. She said, you did it. You did it. You're a real private lawyer. And I was hooked. And I was banging away on cases, cases, cases.

How does his case turn out? We won the Key West case. And then everybody Paul knew was an arch criminal. Right. Everyone. So now he's telling everybody. He's telling everybody. He said, they ain't getting a, he'd go to a Dolphins game

and we're in a Jets, Jersey next to you know, somebody's, you know, punched out in the bathroom, just exciting stuff, but we just kept winning. And then his brother Keith was killed. And Paul believed this guy named Steve Chattrangle helped set it up. And they were in the ketamine business. Paul and his crew, Miami crew,

went just south of Tijuana, Mexico. and bought a compounding pharmacy. We're not talking about like a bathtub mix, a real compounding pharmacy. And they were doing about two million bottles worth of ketamine a month. So they're able to make... They were making pure pharmaceutical-grade ketamine

with a car. And then he would traffic it to New York, L.A., Chicago. He was connected to everything. And they had to take out Steve. Paul says he didn't do it. This guy, Tom did, whatever. So there were four guys in a Coral Gamble's apartment, and Steve came over.

But Steve was a big guy, too. So you know one of those stunned batons? It's like a baton with this. They smacked him in the face and broke his nose, but the guy started fighting. So they're trying to taser him two or three guys, and they're trying to fight him, and they're trying to kill him,

but this guy's fighting back. Finally, a gun went to the guy's lower back and shot him. It didn't kill him, but it paralyzed him from the waist down. So the guy's kind of, trying to, like, crawl around the floor like a seal, you know, in his hands. Why, why, why, why, why, why are you doing this? And he said, because you're a fucking rat. You're a fucking rat.

You set my brother up. So Steve got killed. This is in Coral Gables. That's not a neighborhood where gunshots and stuff go off. Right. I mean, I raised my kids in Coral Gables. It's a nice hair, it's pretty well. They hear a gunshot.

They're calling the police. Nobody called the police. So they said, what are we going to do? So they got to take him out, but it was daytime. So let's go to Home Depot and get some stuff the sleeping bag and some rap and all right. But Steve was a big juice head too. Right.

So they get him, they got this little narrow stair case. They got to bring him down. Paul says, I'm going to ride on top of him like a toboggan. Bhab, blah, bab, bab, bab, bach. Hits the bottom in the stairs. The sleeping bag opens up, and the guy's arms fell out. There's a lady, Pat, that we still, to this day, she testified, we only know as the dog.

walker. If you told me her, I cross-examine her, but I don't remember her name. She was just known as a dog. So she sees this, this, not the blood, but the arms. Yeah. Yeah, fall out of a sleeping bag with a rat. And she's right there. She's 10 feet away. She goes, oh, my God. He goes, don't worry, ma'am. We're Miami dolphins. He's just strong. So they load him up in a vehicle, and they take him out to the Everglades to dump them. So I'm figuring, okay, the Everglades is pretty far out there. There's a lot of woods and swamp out there. Matt, they went like a hundred yards north of the casino or west of the casino. They didn't even put them over like the dyke or the dam.

They laid him right there in a sleeping bag. What were they thinking it was going to happen? He goes, I thought the alligators would eat him. I said, all right, well, this is all after the fact. I said, I went out to the scene. I had the detector show me. It was for me to that young man right there from the road, a big 275 young guy. But here's the thing.

They also wrapped him up in a blanket. So these Cuban fishermen This is total Miami Crime that goes on In Miami doesn't go on anywhere else You can't invent Truth is stranger than fiction So they wrapped them up in a nice

Like a Persian or oriental rug or something So these Cuban fishermen are out there In the Everglades And they see this rug And they go oh shit This is nice Let's take it home They pull it and outroll Steve's body

They're undeterred It's a nice rug They go home they get it in the house and there's blood all over the thing and the guy's wife says get that the hell out of here so they take it to a dumpster

to dump in the dumpster but there's a cop watching the dumpster for illegal dumping so he's totally unwittingly Cuban fishermen throw the bloody rug into their dumpster and they'll say ha ha we're catching you

with the dumpster police you're in trouble and there it goes so Do they, do those cops think that they have no idea, but they see the blood now and starts to look, the body is found as soon as a light comes up, you know, anyway. Do they grab those guys? Do they charge them with the murder? No, because they said, look, you know, it was what we found. They knew they were telling the truth. You know what I mean?

But they didn't know it was Brandreth and that crew. So fast forward, I'm defending Paul on mold. different cases. His girlfriend is this. And of course, Paul has a suspended driver's license. I mean, Paul, get your fucking license fixed, man. You know, I know you're riding dirty. I know the car's full of guns. You've been to prison twice. He went to Elmira. He's been to Rikers. And so Paul's done some very hard time, right? Multiple convicted felon. And I know he's got an arsenal in the car. He gets stopped. They're going to pull him out of the car and arrest him for the drivement license. Then do an inventory search of the car the whole mother load of weapons the cash and weapons and a veritable cornucopia of drugs are going to pop up

They're going to bust him. I don't know this at the time But he's up on the wire with the DEA the DEA's wire in his phone So this is on the ketamine stuff remember he's got a bunch of different lines in the water different scams different right? Yeah, yeah Now I don't know this but my secretary so i say paul please just just get a license man you know drive the speed limit try not to get too wild you're going to get by it didn't matter if i told him not to break the law he was going to break it he goes nope if a cop calls me over i'm going to wait till they walk up and i'm going to shoot him right in the face now but you know the way a lot of tough guy wanted he was going

to do it man yeah yeah he would have absolutely shot that cop in the face right so my secretary denise calls me mike mike mike paul brandre's on the phone he's on the phone he's on the phone, he's getting pulled over. I'm like, holy shit. Paul, what are you doing? He says, now, I don't know, I'm on the wire. Remember, I don't find out till nine months later. Right. This phone calls wired by the feds. I start yelling. I'm listening, you fucking pussy, you better park that car. Get out and run. I don't want him shooting a cop. No, no, I don't want him shooting a cop. I don't want some innocent cop. No, but I also don't want him crashing a soccer mom full of, you know, girls leaving a soccer. This guy's a wreck. Yeah, but with the DEA's

hearing is a lawyer saying to evade. Of course. If the judge catches you, that judge's going to fuck you. And I'm telling him, and I don't know this. We beat that case. Then later on, the feds bring him in on the ketamine. And halfway through the straw,

there's the tape, Matt. Right. You fucking pussy. Mr. Morse is on the next table. Wow, that's bad. But I was saving life. I mean, I don't care. Fleeing and eluding on foot with no gun is one thing. Shooting a cop in the face or going into a hundred mile an hour speed chase with an arsenal full of weapons and crashed into some old lady crossed in the streets

and other. You know, I'm between the devil and the deep blue sea. I got to give my best advice at that critical moment. And I remember the judge said that's the best advice you ever gave anybody. And then during the trial, Paul had a lot of girlfriends. He was a very good looking guy, very charismatic, Bill, larger than life, had rented Lenny Kravitz, as I home on South Beach. You know, they got Lambeaus, Aston Martins, stretch hummers, party going on every night, ketamine, ecstasy, the whole club dignity, all the club owners, they were living the life. And I said, Paul, you ever just want to calm down?

He goes, Mike, I'd kill myself. I had you a boring life. You got a great wife, but she's only one girl. You go to work all day and then you go home. He goes, I can't live that life. I said, all right. You can't live that life. And one of his girlfriends, Lisa, was a Brazilian brouha, a Brazilian witch, like into Santa Ria and shit.

So she was always stacked out. Stuff was always falling out of her clothes at the federal trial. So I remember this real piece of garbage named Armandie Angeles. He's a real piece of work. He was a real federal scumbag. He was ripping old people off their life-saving. pretending he was a church, just straight ripping, honest old people out of their money. So he was a scumbang.

So he comes up in the middle of this three or four week trial as a jailhouse confession rat. Right. Man, I know for a fact, Paul, would never confess. Right. I can't even say the words he said it. But when the DEA arrested him on the ketamine, They tried to do the scare tactic. You're going to go and away for 100 years.

You're the only way out of us to cooperate. He's like, go get me a sub, you fake, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There's no way he confessed. But this guy Armandianoglis gets on the stand, and he's like, yeah, he came into, oh, let me back up. While he's in the jail between the murder and the ketamine, in case the murder of the triangle, one of the cops goes and visits his girlfriend, Lisa. So Paul decides to write that cop a little. letter. Listen, you fucking pig. You ever talk to my girlfriend again? I'm going to

fucking kill you. I'm on the six floor to Dade County Jail. Call my attorney Mike Walsh to set up the fight. Why did you write that he goes, I'm never getting out of here? I just beat a cop's ass before I go away. Really? But Jeff put my name in the letter. I don't want to be any part of that stuff. I'm not a hitman letter guy. I'm a regular lawyer. I'm legit. Ah, fuck him. He's doing all this stuff. So the prosecutor in a case was a nice guy. He's a U.S. attorney, so he's cut from that cloth. But his name is Ben Greenberg.

And I like Ben. Ben's a good guy. He's a pretty straight pro. Ben will give you his whole file. He'll be up front. He won't pull that slimy stuff. He'll prosecute you because that's his job. Right.

But Ben doesn't play dirty puns. Neither did he learn Kirkpatrick. So this guy, DeAngelis, gets on the stand. He goes, yeah. He said he was going to kill that no good Jew fuck Ben Greenberg and Kevin Bliss. the bodies were going to pile up in the driveway like totally lying and i can feel you know paul's sitting next to me and i can feel just the ire and the rage building up in him all right he says do i have any more money with you i said nope he was i'm going to need you for one more case

look buddy i'm always telling you to follow the law but you've never followed my advice i don't think you're going to follow it now i don't know how he got the marshals to do it but he got a whole of them and the receiving and discharge and put him down on his stomach and sat in the middle of his back and then put his hands under his chin and broke his back. Yeah.

So the next day they come in, coming in the court, right? We'll bring in all the little boxes in and getting ready. And the prosecution comes over to me like the cats that ate the canaries. We got him now. We got him now.

We got him for witness tampering. I said, what do you mean you got him now? He broke Armandianz's back. I said, what happened? So the judge had a hearing. And Paul goes, I did not break his back because he testified against me. Remember my girlfriend, Lisa that was hereless?

And you couldn't forget Lisa because I think she was wearing two threads of string in the ice cold courthouse. Right. I mean, whatever. She was blessed with good looks in her body. And it was all showing. So he said, Armandie Angeles told me, A Paul, Lisa's looking really good.

I'm going to keep that pussy warm for you when I go to, when you go to jail. Nobody liked Armandie Angeles. Like, no one felt bad that he got his back broke. No one. Right. He was the kind of scumbagged oxygen thief that needed his back broke.

Maybe not by Paul. You know, you're ripping old people off. Come on. Yeah. Come on. Go do your rackety, see, Paul would never heard an innocent person, ever. If he saw an old lady walking across the street,

he'd help. But if you get into the rackets and the mismatch that he's into, then you got a dangerous fellow. But he was so exciting, everything. He had his girlfriends, he had transsexuals. In the case, one of the tapes was by this tranny in Miami called Delicious Red. And she's like, hi, this is Delicious Red.

I'm a nine-inch fully functional tranny. And I'm like, you're into that? Whatever, man, I don't even want to hear it. You're not going to tell anybody. I think the whole courtroom just heard it on the wiretap, Paul. Nah, nobody knows. All right, nobody knows. You know what I mean by exciting?

Just one onion peel after than that. Yeah, you still don't know what's going to come out of his mouth. If you're going to be a criminal defense line, he never whined, he never complained, he never wanted to me, he never wanted to plea. He wanted to go to trial and everything. We lost a federal ketamine case. He had a bunch of other shit in that too, but the ketamine charges we lost, and he got 19 years. Then we had to go over to the murder trial, which was in state court, and we won that. So we only had to what trial?

The murder trial. The feds didn't pick up the murder on Satrangelo. Okay. They just picked up the drugs and the bribing the border guards and all the stuff. Right. You cannot move two million bottles across that border a month, every month for consecutive months, unless you got somebody in the inside giving info.

Right. You know what I mean? I mean, that's a, I don't know what two million bottles of ketamine looks like a month, but it's got to be a lot. Right. Anyway, so he was an exciting guy. And then he was my in to bigger, exciting cases. And he was a hell of a lot of fun in defense.

He always paid his bills, always, never called you. What's going on with my case? Can you get me pro? None of that. So just tell me when the trial is. Don't tell me nothing about the case. You want to go over discovery, Paul? Nope, I already know they're lying.

Okay, they're lying. God. No, we see everybody's lying in defense. It was great. You'd have to like massage this ridiculous story, this ridiculous machination of nonsense. Right. I mean, he never gave you that. He did it.

He never told me, I didn't have to ask him. But I did ask him one time, I go, Paul, why did you leave Citranglo's body right there by the side of the road? He goes, listen, I'm from New York. I'm afraid of alligators. I'm not going to that swamp. He goes, I thought the alligators would come over meet him. But it was February. Maybe they were in hibernation, you know, they're cold-blooded animals.

I mean, wait, that's the reason why you left a body on the side of the road? Alligators are cold-blooded animals and it's February? He goes, yeah, who would have thought, huh? Yeah, who would have thought? But it was like that every time. He was entertaining. And my ex-wife was terrified of him. When we went to the Key West case, she came, and he pulls out a wad of $10 bills, and they're all counterfeit.

So we're going, this is before the sun pass, you know, or maybe there was sun pass. But we had to pay tolls to get down to the keys, going down to turnpike from Miami. He goes, what are you doing? We're going to pay with these. And we are not, listen to me, I'm going to be on campbell. You do whatever you need to do with your stack of tens. I am not handing a counterfeit 10 to a state agency on camera.

No, we'll just pay. So we start to tell my poor wife who's innocent. My wife has never said a profane word, never smoked a cigarette, never had a drink. She's nerdy. She's sweet. She's innocent. Extremely intelligent.

she's not a bubblehead but she grew up in a very protective bubble right so she's in the back seat and i'm driving it's her outy and polka's hey michel you ever been in a khole she's like know what is that i kind of know what it is he goes you know when you do too much k you're going to a khole oh my god no she's six months out of law school mat he goes yeah i had my brother keith rolex on last night right and i'm going into a khole over a crowbar nightclub and i see this motherfucker he's clocking the watch so I pick up a bottle of crystal and I smash him in the face I remember my way saying she wanted nothing to do with that right that's how I knew I loved her she's innocent she was pure he was terrible and that was my end that was my end to cases

that was how I started getting in the FDC and uh so that was that's kind of he's my break in case into what more larger cases more federal cases because was there press a lot more press It was a ton of press on it. I mean, and then while he was in FDC, I won't say this guy's name because he's still alive and he's still in custody. He was a very, very, very wealthy banker. And he went over to the country of Cambodia. And the law in the U.S. is if you're a U.S. citizen

and you go to another country and you have sex with a minor, we'll bring you back to the United States. I don't care what the age in that country is. You're a U.S. citizen. You got to imagine. Blue Passport, you're over 18, she's under 18, your ass is getting prosecuted here, which I agree with. Yeah, which I've heard that.

Of course, listen, man, leave the kids alone. Do what you've got to do. There's plenty of freaks in the world. Leave kids alone. So I go see the guy. He goes, oh, you were an Army Ranger and all and stuff. He goes, I need your help. What do you need?

He says, I'm charged with human trafficking. Now, human trafficking, you know the way the feds, if you jaywalked, they would call it terroristic interference within their state mobility or something. You know, they like to, if you go overseas and you have commercial sex, pay for play with a minor, that's called human trafficking. So it's not like trafficking where he was buying and selling. Now, one of my charges is aggravated identity theft. Right, because it was a real person.

I mean, why can't it just be identity theft? What's aggravated? What is, okay. Sounds worse. Right. Whatever they can do to make it sound really worse. this way, you know, it scares the hell out of the jury. Ladies and gentlemen, the defendant's been

indicted for human trafficking. Yeah. He's already guilty, right? So, I said, what do you need? He says, well, the girls who are all 18 on this three of them, and they're all 18. I said, all right, well, why don't we just go get them and get them passports and bring them over and show the government IDs and it should go away?

He goes, well, I don't know where they are. They're Vietnamese prostitutes in California. Cambodia. How does the government know they're under 18? How are they proven they're under 18? What they do is they bring an expert to say based on bone structure to have these skin. Oh, no, no, it's terrible. That's fucking ridiculous.

But here's the deal. An 18-year-old Cambodian or a Vietnamese girl looks like a 9-year-old girl with little body parts. I'm not into that, but they're different. Their nourishment's different. Their genetics are different. And they look young. They look really, really young. A 15-year-old and a 25-year-old look like twin sisters.

Yeah. I said, wait a minute. You want me to go to the country of Cambodia. You don't know their last names. Nope. They don't have cell phones. There's no cell phones in the country. You don't have an address, a brothel, nothing.

He goes, no, you're going to have to find him. But he's got a lot of money, man. I've never been to Cambodia. I'm like, let's go. You know, I've been a ranger. I've been around the world. I've been in combat. I've been in combat situations.

You know, I fought for the country. Let's go. I'll make an effort. Let's go. Pays me a lot of money. I get over there, and I land. The worst flight of my life. I flew a coach, Miami to San Francisco,

San Francisco to Taipei, Taipei to Bangkok, Bangkok to Phnom Penh. And when I got to Phnom Penh, I knew I was in a land that time forgot. You came down the walk, you know, didn't have like the... And you just walked past a desk

and there was no electronic. They just stamped your past, sport and you went in. No cabs. You got to find a little somebody with a scooter and you got to ride on the back. So we had hired an interpreter from an interpreter agency. The problem is none of the interpreters spoke English. They could say, hi, how were you, sir? Would you like a glass of water? Beyond that, that's all the English they spoke. How am I going to find these girls? I don't even know where I'm like. There's no streets. This is pen on pen. There's no street lights. This is just a dirt

poor, the jungle's overgrowing the city. And I'm supposed to find Vietnamese prostitutes in a country that doesn't like Vietnam. You know, during that whole Pol Pot regime, Pol Pot was Ho Chi Min's right hand man going to the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

He didn't endear him. No, and the Vietnamese oppressed the hell out of the Cambodians. Right. So the Cambodians want nothing to do with the Vietnam. They're very agrarian, very peaceful people. They don't have armies. They don't have any of that. You know, none of So I'm trying to find, Matt, I'm not fluent in Spanish or German, but when I go to Europe, the alphabet's the same.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. It doesn't take me long, and I figure out when shall and check means exit. Right. You know what I mean? W.C. is bathroom water closet. It's not hard. This is a completely different alphabet.

Yeah. I've not seen an English alphabet letter. I've not heard English. There's no app for translating You're gone, you're gone No, because you know, you don't even have to say it So I'm like, wow I don't know what I'm going to tell this guy

I'm near three weeks I'm at this little French cafe Because there's no real restaurants And all of a sudden this French guy comes up And puts a phone number and goes Call him, he'll help you, don't talk to me He gets on a scooter and takes off That's all I got to go on

I go back to my hotel and I call This guy answers in the English language you know, and I said, I'm looking for Sonny. He says, this is Sunny. I said, Sonny, I'm in Cambodia. Do you speak Cambodian? They don't call it Cambodian. They call it Campuchia.

I'm Camptuian. Yes, Michael. Mike, I need you. I'll pay you. I'll pay you. The average Cambodian makes about $300 a year. I will pay you $500 to spend two days with me. I'll pay an American dollars, whatever you want.

He says, well, I'm in a town call. seem reap. It's far away. I'll have to take a boat down. And we're talking about like one of those you know those little like long canoe kind of thing. Like you see in Rambo, we're not talking about like, you know. It's not a ferry. No, the intercoastal express. Yeah. He says, I'll meet you at the foreign correspondence club in Phnom Penh. I don't have any money. Michael, if you're not there, I'm going to owe these guys I could be thrown in. I said, I swear to God, I'm going to camp out on the dock. I have not spoken to anybody that speaks English in this country

and Campuchin or Khmer or Hmong because there's so many different dialects and the next morning there he was coming through the fog just like a movie right out of apocalypse now you could hear a little with the motor he goes Michael I'm like Sonny

I grab him I go you're not leaving my side I tell him who I represent I said we got to find Han Yip and you whatever the names are he goes okay I see where were we going to find him he says we'll go to tool cock and a couple of the

jungle brothel slave cams geez that sounds good jungle brothel slave camps yeah no no it's bad over there it's dangerous so here is this 2005 2006 yeah like iPhones aren't like there is no apps

it doesn't matter you got no phone there's no cell phone over there well I can't have a seat of you did in general I was thinking maybe you get a thing where you can say you can you can type in what you want it translates or nothing there's no service right there's no cell phone towers over there right okay 90% of the country doesn't have electricity or plumbing mm hmm 95% of the country's illiterate in their own language so there's nothing much just don't leave this guy sunny turned out to be a godsend

is your client still in jail oh yeah he's not going any other guy I'm not a human Trafficking, not going anywhere, but plus you've got passports, you've got bank accounts in China. He was an American. Right. Like I said, very wealthy Miami banker, but he got tripped up in that. So I'm going to these camps. We're out in the jungle. We're riding little scooters.

Yeah. You know, there's no cars. There's no Uber. There's no car to rent. You're on scooters. So, so he goes, give this guy two bucks. He's going to let you use a scooter for the week. I have five, you know?

How do we know when to give it? back to me because I don't know he'll just find this right they know how to find this so go out to these slave camps this is disgusting i remember i walked in there was a long barn shape building and it had to be about 200 young girls and ages from eight to maybe 18 and i came in off this dusty trail i'm fat i'm bald i'm sweating you know i got all the dust from the jungle coming off me every one of those girls were looking at me like please don't pick me but i wasn't there for I'm like, no, I got to find these girls. And he's translated, he goes,

oh, they're in prison. They're in prison and praise our prison. I'm like, okay, all right, at least we know what they're at. Right. I don't know their real names. But maybe we go to the prison and talk to them. Right. You know, maybe get a video, get a video interview.

They're in adult prison and showed a jail card. I'm still thinking American. Yeah. I said, let's go to the prison. suddenly goes we're not going anywhere near that prison we'll end up in that prison and sunny's sharp he matt he's a sharp and intelligent and perceptive as anybody i met and he knew the lay of land over there he knew the language he knew how the ebb and flow because if you ask a cambodian something and they don't understand or like your question he'll just look at you like each shit

they won't respond it's not western civilization it's a totally different Mo, the earth spins different on its access over there. It really does. And he goes, we got to go see this lawyer named Long Dara. I'm like, all right, let's go see the lawyer. Finally, there's somebody with at least a Western title. Right. So I finally say, okay, we're still, I'm near three weeks, man.

Yeah. I'm going to Sharky Bar, Heart of Darkness. I'm sorry, I'm going to all these places, and I'm striking out. I'm saying, I have a picture of a girl. Every single girl, 18 years old, and Cambodian looks same. There's no makeup, they've got dark eyes, white skin, and straight black hair. Right. I'm not saying everybody looks same.

What I'm saying is they don't have the same look. Yeah. You know what I mean? They don't. There's no... But you know where they are now. You said, you know, they're in prison, right? So we go to this guy, Longdara's office.

And I look up on the wall. I've done a little history on Cambodia. You know, I like to try to be an American ambassador, learn to say thank you and please. Right. I don't go over to my American chip. I try to go and be humble. So I know what Pol Pot looks like from pictures. And the current

Prime Minister at the time is Hung Sen. Hengsen was Pol Pot's right-hand man, but flipped on him and had Pol Pot turned in. So, but he was part of the Camer Rouge. Right. I look up on the wall, and there's Longdera in the killing fields with Pol Pot. And he's screaming and pounded

in a desk and pointing his finger at me. And Sonny goes, he's pretending like he's interpreted, he goes, just to ignore him. He says he's going to cut your fucking balls off and feed him to you. How dare you come in his office? I'm like, let's just leave, Sonny. I mean, this guy could cane me right now, and no one's going to know. This guy was running around with Pol Pot in the 70s.

Right. There's no way I'm staying in here. He goes, no. He says, I'll get the girls out of prison and have him here in my office tomorrow, but you owe me $5,000. And I had money hidden all over me, but I wasn't about to pull $5,000. I said, well, I don't have that. You know, my client had given me enough money because,

Not bribe, but you've got to pay for this stuff over there. I said, you're going to get the girls out of prison. He says, yeah, they're in prison with their moms. I say, can you get their moms too? You know, I figure if I get a mom and the adult child, you know what I mean? If they're really 18, be able to show legitimacy. He didn't human traffic a minor. He had whatever kind of sex he had with a consenting adult, none of your business government.

Right. But I think this guy's completely giving me a snow job. I mean, I don't care how much you paid me. I cannot go to a prison mat and bring someone in my office tomorrow. Yeah. Can't do it. I maybe get you in

after we fax in and get approval from the ward and all that. But I said, I'll be here tomorrow with you $5,000. Next day, there they are. I can tell it, Sim, because I have the picture of the one. So Sonny's, where are the others? She said, well, we're in prison, but the third is back in a small town

that has no name in Vietnam. I said, okay, okay. But we got two. We got two of the three. We're hitting, you know, we're doing good. Now, how do I get them passports or IDs? I don't know anything about the Cambodian government. Are these girls saying they're like 19 years old?

So you've asked them, hey, how old are you and they're saying? He's interpreting, right. And the mother's saying, and when I'm looking at, there's enough of a similarity between the mother's face and the daughter's faces that I don't need a DNA test. That looks like your daughter. Right. And the mother looks to me about 45 or 50. So I'm thinking, okay, because they have kids at 13 or 14.

15, you're an adult in Cambodia. So by 14 or 15, you have your own family. You don't go to college. There's no college is there. I'm like, holy smokes, he's got them. All right. What do we do? You're missing one, though.

Right. So I'm like, damn, the one that I don't find. So suddenly he goes, all right, we got to go down to Camposong, which is on the Gulf of Thailand, to the Vietnamese embassy and get them passports. I said, all right, well, how do we do that? Because I know how to get a U.S. passport. You need documentation, you need an ID,

you need your birth certificate. Matt, these girls are born out in a rice paddy during the rainy season of the year of the snake. They have these things called family books. I don't know what the Vietnamese embassy needs to issue passports. I have no idea, but I'm taking them to the government. We're not going to do some shady shit on the side. These are going to be Vietnamese embassy

issued, they're terrified to go back to Vietnam because they probably have warrants for their arrest. So that night, they go in there, I start to go into Vietnamese embassy and a soldier hits me right in the chest with his AK-47, turns it around, and it's pointing it at me, and he's yelling at me. I got my hands up and I'm walking backwards,

you know what I mean? There's no, you know, the government runs everything over it. They don't, you know, there's no IAA, there's no Inspector General. They kill you. You must have been doing something wrong at the gate. He's trying to go, step back.

We have to do this. We have to come back in four days. My God, we got a couple days to kill. I said, how are we going to find the other one, Han or Hugh or Yip or Wing? I mean, I'm not trying to make fun. It was one of those names. He says, well, I can't go to Vietnam because I'm Campuchin. But I can find you what they call an engineer.

It's not an engineer like we have here. An engineer engineers things and can make things happen. I said, all right. Will he go get her? He says, you have to go with him. I said, I'm going to be a note. He said, yeah, you're going tonight on a boat. Your only time, I've been at this guy pays you a fucking shitload of money.

A lot of money. Made a couple years worth. Okay. Right, but I'm kind of, but I want to make this happen. You know, I'm not coming back feeling. You know, refuse to fail. I got to get, I'm an Army Ranger. I got to get this done.

Right. I mean, I want to get this done. I want to, you know. So, he brings this old guy out. Absolutely, the most, and I've been in combat, the most scared I've ever been when I was on this dock. There's no lights, not even on a dock. It's like a little plank of wood sticking out in this river,

the Tonelly Sap River. And a guy gets off a boat and half his body is completely burned with napalm. He was in the South Vietnamese army, fighting the Vietong, the NBA. He got caught, he escaped Cambodia, but he knows how to get around Vietnam still, right? We're not talking about go on their social media. It doesn't exist.

Their zip code is here. There's little zip codes. Yeah. You know? So he comes up to me, he goes, metta, metta, I love you. You love me, right? I love you. So he told me his name, but no matter how many times he said it,

I just said, look, can I call you Ho Chi Men? Okay, you call me Ho Chi Men. And I'm figuring, wait a minute, how long is it going to take us to go down the Tonle-Sat River, down the Mekong River, into Vietnam, and find these? Sonny says it's about an 11-hour boat ride at night. I'm getting on this thing. I just met this guy three seconds ago. And he looks like he just came out of a napalm burn unit.

And I think he's going to kill me because I got money. I'm like, look, if he wants someone, I'll just give him now and leave. I'm not dying for money. we're going down this river these are like pirates man they're like river pirates right there's all kinds of illegal shit going on in the river

you hear machine guns going off I'm like I don't even have but now I'm too far gone you know what I mean there's a famous book about Cambodia by amit galboa called Off the Rails and Nampen and I'm off the rails

I'm on this river it's just like an apocalypse now with the fog and, you know, villagers with no tops on, some that geo shit. But I get into Vietnam, and he says, come on, I know where she's in a village. How do you know this? Right. How do you know this?

We're at least 400 miles from where we started. There's a village with no name on a rice paddy. You found it? Let's go find it. He says, look, you got to come with us. So we get in this, now that a general, or I'm going to say a general, some high-ranking military official pulls up in a Jeep that knows Ho Chi-Minn.

And he starts yelling at me, I got to give money. So remember, I got money hidden everywhere. So I pull out one pack of money and give it to him. And he tells the girl getting a Jeep, we're going back to Cambodia. So the general's driving. Ho-Chim-in's in the front of the Jeep. Me and this little girl are in the back.

And she looks terrified. Like, I just bought her. Right. Like, you're now mine. You're my property. And I don't have Sonny to interpret. Ho Chi-Minn speaks 10 words. that I love you

You love me That's it And he's not coming on to me He means like You're gonna be straight with me I could read between the lines She doesn't know what's happened Has no I can't speak to

I don't speak a word of Hmong She didn't speak a word of English I can say Akun That's thank you in Cambodia She's like okay She looks terrified She's got a little bag with her And I'm like this is so

Out of sorts Right What the hell am I do I'm not doing anything illegal because, I mean, I got the military with me. You know, I'm not trying to sneak her across. We get to the Cambodian border, and the general calls up some soldiers.

They pull guns on the Cambodian border guards, and we drive right through. We're driving through a minefield. You can see the mines. We're driving through a minefield in the rice paddy, about a mile into Cambodia with the Vietnamese general. I'm calling him a general, for lack of a better rank. And then we come back.

And he goes back. I'm like, holy shit. This is her But now we're still going to take the river up Through the pirates and all that stuff And I don't mean the pirates of the Caribbean I mean some There's a lot of methamphetamine odor

And they smoke it for days These pirates and then they rob people So I would have to crawl down in this little hole In the boat with her And Ho Chi Minh would do whatever he did To get us through the pirate points I'm thinking if they catch me on her They're gonna waste me and just throw me in the river

Right I'm gonna be some kind of alligator crocodile bait and some Cambodian-Vietnamese river. We get back and we get them. Four days later, we get them passports. We call the government. We've got them.

We've got the girls. They're like, no, I'm like, yeah, yeah, we got it. And we're taking them to the U.S. embassy to get U.S. visas. Because they're essential witnesses in the trial. They're quote, unquote, the victim. Yeah. They're not the victim.

Right. I believe they're 18. I mean, they don't look 18 to me. What are their passports from Cambodia say? No, they can't get, can't remember, they're Vietnamese. Vietnamese has, there's no immigration between Vietnam and Canada. But I'm saying the Vietnamese issued them something for them to fly over here, right? So they issued some kind of pay for it.

I mean, I couldn't read a word on it because I don't read. Do those say that they're 18? Yes. Okay, well, right. But now I know something from the government, from the, from the Vietnamese government? That's what I'm saying. The Vietnamese government, we didn't bribe them. We paid.

And funny goes, give me 20 bucks. 20 bucks for 3 passports, that's not bribing somebody. No. That's whatever, I mean, you've got to pay more than, you've got to pay the passport office here, more than that. I got them. Yeah. They call a judge, the judge issues a parole visa.

We get them. But I need this other lawyer to come too, because we need somebody to explain Cambodian law. That these are, you know, he went into the Vietnamese embassy. He knows this is legit. Like if they say, who at the embassy did it? I don't know. I got hit in the chest with an AK-47 and told the back. the fuck up I back the fuck up I'm not challenging that guy you know they didn't back down

from us when we invaded him right they fought us pretty tooth and nail yeah and this guy's sweating like he's all chopped up on the stuff called yamba that's what they call the meth over there yamba and they don't have needles so they cut themselves with a sword and then they just pour it in oh you see thousands and thousands of scars and you see thousands so you know they're the yamba slaves they all got all the soldiers had they're all hopped up on stuff and i'm want no part of it. I just want to get legitimately government-issued IDs and get them back. And we get them over here. They all testify. He's found not guilty of all the girls, or one of them died. I'm sorry, one of them died of AIDS before the trial. Oh, my God. Remember, there's no medical treatment over there.

Right. There's no medical treatment. So they still, the government still takes him to trial? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Because according to the government, I didn't see this. You know, I don't want to see. there were hundreds of pictures of like eight or nine year pre-pubis and girls that he was having fun with in his in his camera okay so that's what nailed him but he didn't get found guilty of the work I did right I couldn't be his lawyer because by the time I came back Matt to the United States where all this I ended up becoming a witness right I couldn't do you know what I'm saying yeah yeah how did you find the girls I went to an attorney long there there he is his office he whatever he did to get him at a prison maybe that's legal over there right maybe he

lawyer can say bring me my client back yeah i don't know maybe it was just a fine he paid the fine whatever it is whatever it is so um but the guy went to trial and lost and he got 40 years with the first 30 men man he got hurt bad but but he got off on your on with the ones with the yeah because they were legit in other words do usm trust me they went behind me and make sure i didn't go to some backyard photo shop i wasn't going to do that wait i'm bringing these women over through U.S. immigration customs to the United States District Court, the judge was at Alberta Jordan, who I have the absolute utmost respect. I would never pull a fast one. Right. These had to be legit, or we weren't going to do it. Right. We couldn't get legit stuff.

You said, buddy, you know what? You did what you did. You get what you get, and you should have damn well known it. Right. I remember did everything you asked me to do. But I found him at, took me three months. Oh, my God. Three months of riding around with no. And didn't dare drink the water. I only ate it at a Japanese hotel. I ate the same thing every day. Same thing. But that Ho Chi Minh was going to kill me that night if I didn't pay him.

And we got back. I'm like, look, I'm going to give him a thousand bucks. So he's like, no, and that's too much. I'm like, nah. We got, what's her name? Take her to the embassy. You had to wait four days. They went in and did whatever paperwork they did in four days later.

And then we brought him here. I don't want to say his name either, but a very wealthy friend of my clients, the banker, owned Al Capone's house. Over on the islands, but he lived in Al Capone's house. So instead of putting these young girls up in a hotel,

we put him at that house. He's safe. He's gay. He's not a pet of law. They're not, they weren't kids anyway, but when I went over there, she was eating cat food.

She thought she was eating cat. Like it was like, yeah, yeah. Like a little friscied. didn't realize it was for the cat opened it and didn't realize it was they couldn't conceive feeding an animal food the animal was on its own we eat animals we don't feed animals I didn't have the heart to tell him saying yeah it's good she can want some like no no little friskeys for me they were nice but they had no idea I said to sunny because sunny I had to bring

sonny over to us look there's nobody that speaks come here in English yeah if he's not here the girl says you know I have to go to the bathroom or I need to female items right whatever happened to those girls they go back they send them back yeah they didn't want to be here it was way beyond anything they could handle man i'm sorry right it was way we're talking about people who had never been to an airport much less on a plane they probably shit their pants when they landed at m i a after flying from an on pen to bangkok Bangkok to Heathrow Heathrow to LaGuardia

LaGuardia to Miami And they never said nothing like this They never been in a car Everything scooters are little bikes and scooters This is not China or Vietnam This is Cambodia Right I mean you're off the grid

Remember in the movie Goodfellas Yeah Remember the left hands of ice Yo Jimmy Yeah yeah Jimmy The same exact thing happened in Miami With Laftanzaheis Commerce Bank in Germany

Gathers all the time tourist dollars. You go over there, you turn your dollars into euros. They fly this money back on Lufthansa and they fly it to places that have a Federal Reserve Bank, like Miami, New York, San Francisco, wherever. Right. When this money would land in Miami, they would take it to a play. It wouldn't even be counted. It would just be in duffel bags, you know, and you couldn't have a gun out there because you're not going to have a shootout on a tarmac with 747s and elementary school in the area to save some dollars right we're not going to risk kids lives to save dollars not going to do it so my guy's crew got together my client's name and i

can say his name new because he's dead now jeff boat right Cuban probably the single dumbest client i've ever represented and i've represented people who are mentally incompetent right so his sister is cinnamon monzon's okay her husband jeff's brother-in-law is carl's monzone one of the guys who uh drives for the wells fargo you know the the armored trucks yeah say listen i got the easiest gig in the world we just got to umrush this gate snatch all these duffel bags and get out of you there's no cops there's no guns you're in you're out and you got duffel bags of cash straight out of Goodfellas. I don't even think they saw Goodfellas, but the opportunity was right there. So Carl's is sort of the mastermind. I mean, Carl just gets off the boat from Cuba a little while

earlier, doesn't speak English, and it's a total scumbag. He's alive and he's going to see this, and you're a scumbag, Carl's. So they all have a role to play. Matt, they go in and they steal millions of dollars in duffel bag money. Right. They didn't even know how much. The feds like it's $7 million, it's 11. It's way more than that. You know, this time they underinflated. Right. The money was never counted.

They counted here. They just come over and they went and they take it to the Federal Reserve Banks and they burn that money and issue clean dollars. Purely got away with it. Nobody knew who did it. Nobody. The FBI did not have a clue. It was the perfect crime for people who didn't have two working brain cells

Just Jeff was born here, but he's of Cuban descent. And Carl's had just gotten here from Cuba. Millionaires. Overnight cash money. That end of itself is a problem. Right. Giving stupid people a bunch of money. Illegal money, they very quickly blow it.

Or do start doing stupid shit. And I'm going to tell you exactly why you're so right. Okay. So Jeff, Jeff likes cane. He likes strippers. Jeff's about 400 pounds. It's pure lard. Jeff is a fat slum.

Right. But you know, you got to like Jeff. If you knew Jeff, you liked him. He was just a likable idiot. You couldn't help it. And so Jeff starts taking his money and he's going to goal rush, which is a 24-hour titty bar in Miami. And he's just staying in the VIP room for three, four days straight with Coke and

strippers going through 50, 75, 100 grand a day. you know, doing stuff. So Carl's, his brother-in-law, says, you know what? Look at this motherfucker what he's doing. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to fake a kidnapping him. So he hires a kidnapper,

who's not really a kidnapper, but he's going to kidnap Jeff, pretend he's holding him for ransom. Meanwhile, he's calling Carl's for the ransom money. Carl's going to pay him 25 grand, but he's going to tell Jeff, Hey, Jeff, I had to put up a million dollars a year money to get you lose. You understand?

Yeah, yeah. He's already got millions. This guy just gets off a boat and he's got millions and millions, but he wants another million dollars. Because he feels like that guy's wasting his million. But Jeff can do whatever he wants his money, right? All right. Remember now, they had totally gotten away with it.

Right. I know this because later on when they get caught, I talked to the FBI. They didn't have a clue. So we'll call it kidnapping number one. Carl's hires a kidnapping crew to kidnap Jeff hold him in a warehouse

beat him up a little bit and he's going to pay him $25 grand and then they're going to let Jeff go he's going to go look Jeff I had to pay him a million bucks you got to give me a million of your share what a piece of shit right

he's doing his own brother-in-law they do it Jeff's into weird shit he's into the Santeria stuff he goes to a hotel with a couple of strippers in a suitcase with four $400 grand cash.

They, of course, put a slip of Mickey in his drink, and he passes out for a day, and when he wakes up, he's got no clothes, he's got no briefcase, the hotel's kicking him out, he's wrapped up like a toga on the banister of the bed sheet. Girl, come get me, whatever. This is how dumb Jeff is. And then he believes somebody put a, you know,

the only way to find those girls and get his money back is to pay a Santa Ria priest. He pays her $180,000. She's going to do chicken bones or whatever they do. Jeff's absolutely going to blow through his money in two years. All seven men, he's going to blow right through it. Blow right through it. But whatever.

It's his money. He can do what he wants. He played a part. The kidnappers realize, you know what? This fucking little family has got some money. They don't put two and two together, Matt.

But they suspect something. Yeah. Let's really kidnap him this time. So the first kidnapping was a stage kidnapping. The only one who thought it was a real kidnapping was poor Jeff. The same crew that kidnapped him the first time says, let's

really kidnap him. So this time they kidnap him, and they call Carl's. I said, motherfucker, you got some money. You better pay the fuck up. Oh, we're really going to hurt him. Carl's goes, I don't give a fuck what you doing. Kill him, right.

They're like, oh, shit, we got to do something. So they're torture and Jeff. They're pulling his fingernails off on the phone. Jeff says, let me call my mom because I'll say it A lot of Jeff's money Was buried in her backyard and coolers Right

You can take that money and put in the bank So now he's got to call mom and let mom on mommy You need to go 10 paces from the big oak tree Turn right four more paces dig a hole And you're going to find money And these guys are pulling my fingernails off Well as you know every single kidnapping case Automatically goes to the FBI

It doesn't matter if you're in podunk USA say, if it's a kidnapping, they go and they don't need wiretaps, they don't need search forms, they can go up on the wire, the sun pass, everything. They don't need anything. If it's a kidnapping, they can wiretap everything. Right. So now

it's a kidnapping. It's a real kidnapping. Carl's doesn't give a shit. Sinman doesn't know, his sister. Poor Jeff's getting now he's really getting the shit beat out of Minert. And his crew's like, we want a fucking money. We know you got, I don't know what you got. They didn't know it was the left

hands eyes. But you got money. You're going to pay up. The mother, of course, calls the police. My son is kidnapped and it goes up on the FBI. So now the FBI who's tracing the phone calls, listening to everything. And that was the first time it came up.

These are the left hands of guys. If they didn't do the kidnapping, never would have gotten caught. Never would have gotten caught. Never would have gotten caught. Ever. So the kidnappers are taking Jeff out to the Everglades to kill him. So the FBI's got to sweep it.

No, I don't know if they were going to. They pulled his fingernails. These were mean guys. No, if you're pulling fingernails, you're over that line. Yeah, yeah. You're going to cut this guy up and throw him in the Everglades. Right. So the FBI takes it down.

And of course, Jeff's singing like, you know, he's tied up in the back and handcuffs with a hood over his head. And Jeff sings like a bird about the kidnapping, but nothing about the left hamster. So here's where it gets kind of comical. Again, I feel bad for Jeff. I wish she were alive. You were really nice. He was a fun client, but he was just dumb.

Right. So, Carl's, right, we're all going to go to trial. Everybody's going to shut up and go to trial. There's really no proof. There's really no proof. It's a bunch of idle chatter on a thing and a couple flips. We can beat the flips and we can win this at trial. I go into the FDC to see Jeff one morning and I see Carl's his lawyer walking Carl's to the igloo.

That's the rat room. Then in Miami they call it the igloo because it's called the igloo. because it's cold. If you're going to the igloo, you're going in for one reason to debrief. And you know debriefing means to sit down and sing like a bird and rat your ass off.

Right. Whatever. Look at that son of a bitch. He's the lead. So the FBI contacts me and go, look, Carl's debriefing against Jeff, but we know Jeff's the lowest common denominator.

We're not asking him to be a flip, but we want him to flip on Carl's and we'll show him the tapes of Carl's flipping on him. Now, I would do that, man. If I'm going away for life, cooperating might be my only way out. I get it.

But if somebody's trying to throw me under the bus, oh, no, no, no, no. You're going to throw, no, no, no, no. We're ride or die, or, you know, it's you or me. We're either ride or die together, or it's you or it's me. That's it. So the day before the FBI comes out to Jeff,

his sister's sinamins, pleads guilty before Judge Graham. Pleads guilty admits it, the whole proffer. you know in a guilty plea the government says if this case would have proceeded to trial the United States of America would have proven beyond a reasonable doubt and then they go through this factual proffer

Simmons says I totally agree with that I'm totally guilty find me guilty that Jeff's all excited because they're going to bring him a little sandwich and Jeff's hungry so they have this I don't know why I think this is funny but I do they have this little

carton of juice called jungle punch it's actually called jungle punch and it's got a red cartoon lion with a crown and the king of the juices and said Jeff comes out and he's so heavy they can't even put him in one set of cuffs they've got to do like a bunch of links you know six handcuffs because he's too big

they can't get him by him so he comes out and he's all happy I go look Jeff your brother Carl's ratting out I've seen the tapes he's ratting out he looks at the FBI and he goes do I have stupid motherfucker written on my head

And everybody looks, he goes, yeah, you do. Look, your brother-in-law, Carl's, he set you up. We're playing the tapes from the first kidnapping. I mean, the second kidnapping about the first. No, they were real kidnappers. No, they weren't. Carl's paid them to do it, so we get them and we have them on tape admitting it. Right.

No, Carl's would never sell me out. So the FBI goes, all right, look, he doesn't get it. Let's go to his sister. And the FBI's getting pissed because he's completely just fucking straight line them. Right through his teeth. Every word he says is complete prevarication. So the FBI goes, we want to talk to you about your sister.

Remember, the day before she pleads guilty. Right. Jeff says, I don't even know why you have my sister in this case. She's totally innocent. She's already pled guilty. Already played guilty. Everything, right? The FBI goes, that's it, you fat bastard.

You're going back to FDC. And he starts clamping cuffs on him. But Jeff's not finished with his jungle punch. So he's like refusing to be cuffed, but not to be refused to be cuffed. So he's trying to drink the judge. jungle punch. And they're pulling him jungle punches. And he's going, Mike, help

me, help me. All he wants to do is eat a sandwich in the jungle punch. That ain't more about going to jail or nothing. Oh, geez. He's a sad case. So, Carl's gets a 5K rule 35. Poor Jeff's at sentencing. Now, everybody's completely flipped. It's just Jeff.

He's still not believing that they flipped? Or is it at some point, does he realize they're... To this day, he's dead now, but I don't think... I'm like, here is the tapes, bro. You're let's not. your brother's voice. It's your brother's voice. He's telling you,

I paid you the first time. I'm not paying. He never paid, bro. Everybody knows this. Your sister told you. Man, you guys must think

I'm stupid motherfucker. And he had this big tattoo down his arm. He liked that big stay puff marshmallow and it just said it'll need you. And that was his son. And Jeff did love his kid.

Jeff was a loving guy. Jeff was not a bad man. And he would come to court when he'd see his son. He'd smile. And he had the big fat cheeks so we would get like this. slits for eyes and he ain't waving

stuff's going on he's about to get 30 years he's waving to his son like he's just oblivious to judge Graham says I'm going to give him acceptance of responsibility which for your viewers you know is three levels off that's a lot when you start getting over level 20 three levels can become three five six seven years

real quick he goes I want you to tell me what she did with the money he goes well I spent hundreds of thousand dollars in gold rush I bought the girls jewelry, everything like that, and then he wouldn't admit to being ripped off by the strippers.

I said, if you have to tell the truth, who the fuck cares? Right. He goes, I don't want the judge to know. I'm a sucker like that. You're at your sentencing, bro. You got caught because you're own family. The cat's out of the bag, bud.

Right. The cat is out of the bag, Jeff. And who cares what Judge Graham thinks of you? Do you want your three levels? You better tell them. truth. He said, I woke up a couple days in a hotel. All my clothes were gone. My phone was gone. I had to wrap myself up in a bed sheet and ask somebody to use their phone. How embarrassing is that? Just goes, okay, I'll credit you with that. I'll credit you with that. You know,

they're trying to get the money back. Yeah. He tells him where the money is buried in the backyard, so they get some of that back. You're not getting it. You're not getting your money. You want to buy a lot of scooter pies? You have a lot of scooter pies. Or you can get some, some time on. What do you want to do, pal? We'll get you a lower level and stuff like that. And it just goes, okay, I want to know where that 180 went. He won't tell them the name of the Santa Ria priest. I'm going to look, Jeff. I don't know how to tell you this, buddy. I know we have freedom of religion here, but there is no Santa Ria priest. It's a scam, bro. Let me remove all that. Your Santa Ria priest has no mystical magical powers

Now that she killed a chicken and has a ground up crow's foot. It's a scam, bro. Oh, it's a scam, okay? The beads, it's all bullshit. He goes, no, it's real. I said, okay, we'll just tell him the name. He goes, what do you mean? I said, I don't know.

Rosa Perez, Esmeralda, you know, Hernandez. What does I just give a name? Tell him the name. He goes, no, man. I can't. He goes, not only you're not getting acceptance. You're not getting the downward. You're not getting the lower level.

and he whacked him out. He didn't whack him out. Judge Graham treated him fair. He gave him low into the guideline, but he gave him low into the guy. But he's known. 20-something years. I don't remember, maybe 22, 20th.

Somewhere in that ballpark. I don't remember the exact... What do you have gotten? Fifteen? Oh. And if he would have told everybody it was Carl's idea to do this, he could have gotten out in less than 10.

But he wouldn't... And I understand that. Look, you don't want to go against family. I get it. I get it. Your family just rolled over on you. Your family set you up. Right.

Forget him about. not bringing in, whatever. Who cares? If you come up with a, if you hatch a scheme, Matt, and I go in with you, we're in for a penny, we're out for a pound together. I get that. And we don't want to flip on each other because you're my brother-in-law and you're, I get all that. But when you know the whole reason you got kidnapped and the whole million dollars you gave him, I'd be like, I'll tell you right now. That's whose idea was, this is what we did, this is how we did it. This was the split, everything. And then he died. How long did he? I don't. He did. He did.

died years later. I found out about it because this is a special on Netflix. It's called Money Plain Heist or Money Heist Plain Miami. Right. And it said that Jeff had died. That's how I found out. Oh, okay. But I felt bad for Jeff. He was just such an easy mark. You know, he was buying these necklaces for $25,000. It's a crucifix. And it's got a bunch of crusted diamonds. I mean, it looks opium. It looks like it's three or four hundred thousand dollars. They sell them all over Flagler Avenue at the C-bolt building

for $1,500. He was paying $25,000. He's like, I'll call my jeweler. He's like, yeah, I'll give me this one for 20. Give you this one for 25. Just totally took him. Stupid. Stupid. That's too bad. Yeah, because I felt bad because he was easy.

You couldn't... Jeff would have never gotten a crime if someone didn't approach him. Yeah. He would just kind of go happy, go lucky through life. He would have been a tire changeer at a tire shop, would have been happy to do it, listen to his music, dance, well, he was happy.

Jeff never, he didn't even go to prison, man. He was just a really happy guy. I was going to say there's those people that you, you know, that the, what is it, is it, the DEA would go to and they'd get, they'd get some, one of their snitches that's working with them. And they'd have the snitch go, find some guy who's unemployed and said, yeah, and said, hey, there's a stash house. Salvin Cherry, I know the case won't.

Yeah, but it's not one. They did it all the time. And I beat him every time. George Jordan, before he went from the Southern District of Florida to the 11th Judicial Circuit Court of Appeal appointed me on the last one that they were doing that. And we just absolutely gutted them on it. Like that guy sitting on the couch, would have never done anything if you hadn't approached him and said basically if it's walk in here and get 100,000. No, you're going to take it from here. You're going to drive three blocks.

And you're going to get 150 grand. Come on, man. I might do that if times are hard. Right. I know. They did it to my client, Salvin Cherry, and we won that. And I would ask the cops,

aren't there enough drugs and guns and bad guys that you don't have to go bait people who aren't guns and bad guys? Yeah. I mean, there's not enough crime in Miami. You got to manufacture it? Right. I mean, you're kidding me, right?

Because I can go get drugs 24 hours a day in 30 different neighborhoods, and I don't need to know anybody. I can pull up right now. So if I can do it, You can't, and I look like a cop. Right. Nah, this is nonsense.

It's just nonsense, you know, and I didn't like that. But going back to my partner, Terry, Terry loved death penalty cases. He loved him. He is just diametrically opposed to the death penalty. And I know the defense bar is going to hate me if they hear me say it is, but I'm totally for the death penalty. Right. Totally for it. You're a bad guy.

You hurt somebody's kid. You got it coming, buddy. but there was a guy who was an easy mark too like Jeff and he just come from Cuba and his you know they got the Santanderas

the Bavalaos the Palos they got all these different hierarchy in the different sect because there's supposed to be the light sect and then there's a dark evil sect I don't there's a difference and no distinction in my view That's just my view Other people can have all the religious right they want

And do whatever they want And God bless them But I don't believe in an ounce of that stuff Okay Just don't His name was Henry And his priest Babelow sent them dada

Apollo whatever it was Told Henry You got a zombie on your soul You're never getting to heaven You're fucked You got a zombie on your soul and I can get it off. It's a total rip-off.

You find an easy mark. You tell your mark, you've got a zombie on your soul. They believe it. They're never going to heaven. They're going to, you know, just drift around forever and like a ghost, you know, never going to hell, never going to heaven, just drifting, not being part of life anymore, unless they pay to the bomb allow to do these rituals, you know, takes a year, a year and a half, two years after they spend their life savings.

The zombies off go find somebody else with a zombie But this Bob Alow Was a ruthless gangster And he knew this guy owed a money So what he did is he told Henry Look, you've got a zombie on your soul I can get that zombie off

But the only way I'm going to get the zombie off If you go waste this guy in his family And sounds like a bargain You know waste a family of four No more zombie. Okay. Again, an easy mark. And he's coming down the street with the loaded gun.

This is any town, USA. This is suburbia. This isn't the ghetto or, you know, out in the boondock somewhere where murders. This is any street, USA in Miami. And he just walks through the front door and blows a family a four away at the table. You know? I felt bad, Henry, because his father in Cuba used to hold him over banana stalks and burn him and burned his eye out

when he was a little kid you know and I'm not a psychologist but in my line of work I believe this because I've seen it I believe you can take a child who's young enough damage and hurt them and abuse them long enough

that you kill the soul and the spirit in him right turn him into a monster you know yeah yeah it's terrible yeah absolutely terrible You know, and it's just not good. And, you know, when the person who's supposed to protect you to most, your father,

is the one burning you over banana socks and punching your eye out with a screwdriver when you're just a little boy because he didn't clean your room or some innocuous little de minimis thing like that, wasting a family of four ain't that big a deal. It just ain't that big a deal. I've had a lot of cases that involve that religion and that's what you believe, that's what you believe. God bless, you're entitled to it.

But I just find that there's probably a lot of good people in that religion, but I don't get to meet those people because as a criminal defense lawyer, I only get the shit that washes up on my beach. You know, I'm not getting the happily ever after cases. Nobody comes to them off, so wants to pay me, they don't have bond hearings, they don't have any hearings, they don't have all that stuff, they got problems.

But Terry got me into murder cases, and I like to murder cases way more than the federal. Feds are all rats and conspiracies and guidelines. There's nothing exciting about it. Right. You know, sometimes there is. Well, I was going to say, so how do they connect him to that murder? I walk right down. I mean, this is, again, this is Suburbia, USA.

I'm walking down the street with a handgun. You know, we're not talking about a midnight shooter. This family, it's 5.30, 6 o'clock in the evening during the summertime. Sun's out, people are, kids are playing in the yards, family's going to eat. Here comes Henry walking down the street. Boom, boom, boom. You're big 45 blowing four holes in people. You're not trying to run down the street, no getaway car.

You know, I felt bad for him. I know it's weird because he did a terrible thing. I'm not just, but I don't think he deserved a death penalty. I don't. But they put him on trial for the day. Well, it got waived. I mean, you know, if you can show, we had to go down to Cuba. If you're on a death penalty case, there's two trials within the one case.

Right. There's the guilt, not guilt, and then there's a penalty phase in front of the same jury. First, the jury has to find capital or premeditated first degree murder. Then it goes to the penalty phase, and the jury decides whether to recommend death or recommend life. So you get two trials. if you can show enough mitigation you know how did this terrible crime happen

how did we get here you know how did we get to this point where there's a family of four with bullet holes at them at their dining room table in suburbia USA that's not supposed to happen that scares a shit out of people and people demand justice which they should

but having done enough death penalty cases with Terry again seeing it from his person perspective. He is diametrically opposed to death. He's just against state-sponsored death. Doesn't care what the client did. You're not killing somebody too. Right. I get that. I can agree to disagree with that standpoint. You know, he just doesn't believe that the state should be killing people. Okay. Differences of opinions. But in some of those murder cases, I mean,

some real bad stuff. Yeah. You know? I think there's some people that just don't, don't deserve to be alive anymore, you know? I agree. Now, you know when I always, you know what, you know when it's September and it's football season and it's the first night of Monday night football and you hear the song come on and you know, you got a pizza or maybe you're at the prison, you don't get that experience anymore. You don't get to walk out on the spring day and feel the sunshine on you. Right. I believe you've given up your right to breathe good air. Yeah. But that's what I believe. Most defense lawyers don't. A lot of people don't, but I can agree to disagree without being disagreeable.

I just think that some people did something so bad, that you got to go, man. Right. You know, you got to go. You forfeited your right to... Yeah. You mean, you torporch to somebody. Yeah.

You know, my last homicide case was the Presidente's Supermarket Murder case. I don't know if you know about that. Mm-hmm. Okay. You're aware of a food chain of President of Day supermarkets? In Miami? All over.

Yeah, they're up in Broward, they're in Palm Beach. mainly in Miami. I mean, some of the presidency supermarkets in Miami are even bigger than Publix. There's some huge ones.

You know what? This is starting to sound familiar. There was a guy that started the chain, right? He was like, was he like an immigrant? Yeah,

that's my case. Okay, yeah, yeah. So. And it became super, super big right away because he was catering to like the Latins and there was no other real chain

that was catering to them. Right. You had Sedanos and you had president. They had president. They were stomping Sedanos. The guy's name is Manmore. Marin and he married a Colombian lady named Jenny and Jenny liked to have affairs with Camilo,

a professional frisbee player, very good looking guy. That's a profession? Apparently, I mean, let's put it this way. Jenny was much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much younger than Manuel. Okay. And Camillo was more, I don't know their ages. Right. But they were closer.

I don't know. You know. Good looking frisbee guy. And she liked him. Right. She fell along with him. But she wasn't going to leave Manny because Manny's got a lot of money. Yeah, yeah.

I'm thinking the Frisbee guy doesn't. No. Doesn't make a time money. He probably makes a living, you know. So Manny confronts Jenny and says, look, you're going to bring a lot of the space to the family. You're going to knock this shit off, but she doesn't. And then he confronts Camilo about a year before the murder. and says look

you need to leave my fucking family alone I'm not playing around you mess with a family this isn't my girlfriend this is the mother of my babies you're putting your little pecker inside a family you just need to cut it

you know Camillo takes off but they don't stop they don't stop have any affair no allegedly allegedly which I said my guy didn't do it

he's not guilty right he sees my guy working. The state says my guy is the leader of the Latin Kings. He's not, but they said he was. He hires my guy to put a crew together, and they're going to

kidnap the lover. They're going to kidnap Camilo. And they're going to give him an ass kicking and teach him a lesson once and for all. And I guess marriage is going to be wonderful at the Marin House. Well, man, he goes over to the Bahamas with his family.

And he's supposed to come back the next day, the day of kidnapping, right? They're going to kidnap the lover. They're going to take him somewhere, whip his ass, teach him a lesson, and blah, blah, blah. So allegedly, my guy and a former UFC fighter get together, and he gets some flex cuffs,

and he kind of look like cops, and he kidnapped Camilo. And you're waiting for Mani to get back, because they want to go to Mani and you'll see us whip his ass, and we'll get a lot of money, And, you know, we'll teach his fucking guy a lesson. Stay the hell out of, stay at the hell out of this family. But, man, he can't make it across the Florida straight from Bimini because the seas are rough. You know, what normally would be a three or four-hour ride is not going to take 12 to 15. So what are they going to do?

They already kidnapped him that morning. They got to do something with him for 12 or 15 hours. So the state says they tortured him. They took a blowtorch and blow-torched his penis and balls on. I mean, that'll do it. like that's the end of the romance yeah you know I hate to say it's biblical

successive yeah and then beat his ass and stuff and then the rat the UFC fighter um manny gets back to his house and lighthouse point these guys are doing all their

little gangster shit down in Miami and they got to meet manny wants to take a few jabs at the guy too I imagine man he didn't go to trial with us. It was just my guy and his co-defendant. But the co-defendant was at a UFC fight. He's a UFC fighter

too, but he was in Vegas. He only came into conspiracy. Poor Camillo is being driven around in different locations, getting his shit kicked at him, package being burned off, what have you. Gangsta shit. And when they get back, they go up, you see Manny's cell phone

coming down I-95, it's all cell phone tower locations and these guys are coming up and they meet around the golden glades exchange and they take him from one vehicle to the next and they can take him out to the everglades and take him out to the everglades the guy starts escaping he starts breaking out of his bands and man he's an old man and my client ain't the youngest spring is chicken in the world and this again you know i don't think he's buff but camillo was a professional athlete yeah he's gonna outrun these two no he beat the hell at him if you want to

So they're chasing him with a baseball bat, and they're beating his ass and the hemblades with a batter. Of course, you know, he's got his stuff packaged off. He's burnt up. So they try to cut his head off, but he can't get through the neck bone. So the head falls back, and you can see down into the chest cavity. To fuck it, we'll burn it, nobody will find the body. So they light it on fire, a big plume of smoke comes up. The DEA and the drug units were a few hundred yards away trying to do this drug interdiction thing,

they see this fire going off they call the fire department they get the hell out of there my guy and his you know in the other many they get the hell out of there and the cops come and put out the fire and of course there's camillo's charred body right nasty case right nasty case they only came back with second degree murder so they couldn't give the death penalty yeah

so what happens I mean so what happened they don't make an arrest man for eight years nothing nothing thing. Ariel Gandulu, he's the UFC rat. He was the guy

supposedly participated in the kidnapping with my guy. And he had cell phone tower, evidence out to Wazoo. Escapes and hides. My client's hiding right there in plain sight. He didn't do anything wrong. He's totally innocent. He doesn't need to hide.

He doesn't need to go into cover. But Ariel takes off and goes to Canada. So Canada gets him and he starts to see the news clips here. Canada says to the U.S., you know, we got a guy you got a warrant for. The prosecution flies up to Canada and cuts a deal with him.

Gendulu's got the murder charges, the kidnapping charges, and a separate drug trafficking case. They give them the world, Matt. They say three years for everything and you can stay in the country. Right. You're going to do three years for a murder.

Right. A torture, a kidnapping, and then separate and apart a drug trafficking case which has got a three-year midman and he just need to cooperate against this guy All he did is get on a stand and point in the finger Right

That's it And his name was Ariel Gandhulu Um And he did he testified Right But I don't know if the jury believe He was the guy who put the icing on the cake Because he would have been eye witness

To the torture And the binding of the hands Not the cutting of the head off But that was self-evident I mean the head was flipped back they tried to cut his head off from the front and then head flipped back and you can see that I mean you didn't need to be a forensic scientist to know what the hell happened so what does your guy get he got double line right so double line so what happened with the owner who what the guy who

hired him he didn't go to trial with us what happened is because it was an eight-year-old case the state always suspected it was our guys but they couldn't link it up They had all the cell phone tower evidence in the world But they needed somebody to say He had his cell phone That's us I had my cell phone is you know on all the map The GPS sends a signal every second and a half

They had the Sun pass lanes with the cameras on So the UFC guy couldn't connect them? He did But he didn't until he in remember He got caught in Canada Right And that's when they flew up there

eight years later and it cut him that deal. So what are you saying? There was a statute of limitations or something? No, not on murder. There's not statute of limitations. But what I'm saying is it took, why did it take eight years to bring it? You had that evidence eight years ago. Right, right.

You couldn't cut a deal with him eight years ago, but you did. So they just never prosecute him? No. It was Gail Levine's last case. She's a very skilled homicide prosecutor. She's been doing it 30 plus years. Sharp is attack. Brilliant and vicious.

Gail comes with fangs and claws out. So we knew we were in for trial. I mean, the plea offer was life. Before I go spend life, I'd like to watch a trial even if it's my own. Right. You know, it's not like I'm rushing to go do commissary in the kitchen and stuff.

But I'm going to go spend a couple decades in prison. I might as well watch my own trial and I can play around with the appeals and a rule of three. Yeah, yeah, you keep certain rights. Right. You take a plea. Yeah.

The only thing he got is an effective assistance counsel. My lawyer told me to do that. I was misadvise. So on those kinds of cases, the judge does it pretty thorough colloquy. We had a great judge, Miguel Dela O, and I hope he gets on the federal bench because he was 10-point accurate on the law and is fair and gave us a fairest trial in the world.

There's no question he gave us every opportunity to present every defense we wanted, but it didn't matter. You got 12 hours of cell phones. plus the victim's cell phone ended up at my client's house. All right. So the supermarket chain guy, do you think that the state attorney didn't bring a case against him because, I mean, if it was just an average Joe who's going to end up with a public defender, they'd have probably brought the case, and that he, because he had enough money to mount a solid defense, do you think that's part of it? He hired a lawyer named Kinyon, very good lawyer. Kinyon's a very good lawyer.

Been in the game a long time, really knows what he's doing. I consider myself pretty good, you know what I did was at the time, Mani, the rich guy, he supposedly was on the lamb. He was hiding in Cuba, he was hiding in Spain, wherever. They couldn't find him. My guy never left Dade County because he's like, screw you, I didn't do anything wrong. I don't need to go hide. Eight years goes by

He thinks he's out of it Then they take So when I realized They were trying to extradite Gandulu, the UFC rat Back to Miami I thought oh shit

That's gonna hurt and hurt bad Because that's at least You know I can do a good job Cross-examine But I'd rather cross-examine No witness than a witness Because maybe they don't think he's lying Plus everything he's saying

It's gonna match right upon the evidence Yeah You know what I mean? We went on this road, the cell phone towers showed that. We went on this road, the cell phone towers show that. So I filed a demand for speedy trial. I waived discovery. I didn't take any depots.

Gail Levine said, look, I'm going to give you Gandoulou on a silver platter. You can take his depot all day long. I'm not going to constitute that a waiver of your demand for speedy. So it was my client and his co-defendant, the UFC fighter in Vegas, who was only charging the conspiracy, that went to trial together on the debate. demand for speedy trial. After we went to trial and lost,

Mani came back in, and he went to trial by himself and still lost. You know, if you only have a few minutes of cell phone tower, and that can be explained. Wait a minute. Mani, the... Owner, yeah, I'm sorry, I didn't explain it. Okay, so I was going to say,

so he did go to trial. Not with us, yes. Okay. I followed my demand for speedy trial, thinking I'd be able to beat the extra... Because I figured the more time it comes, the more shit they're coming with. Yeah. It's not like I'm waiting for a witness to die off.

Yeah. They did not have what they needed on the day I filed a demand for speedy trial. You know what I mean? It's kind of like dealing with an extradite Columbia. And sometimes you want to file a demand for speedy trial before they can get all that evidence of witnesses from Columbia up here. Right. You want to play the game. Yeah.

Can I beat them, you know. With what they have right now. Right. If I can, let's go. Because it sure is hell isn't going to get better. If Manny shows up, it sure is hell isn't going to get better. better if they bring in a duel of that. I mean, we're all going to ride or die, but it ain't going to get better. But man, he lost anyway. Yeah, everybody did. Yeah, what he get. You remember?

Life. Life? Yeah. He can't burn somebody's package off. No, not with witnesses that are ready to point you out and sell towers. And, you know, in defense of Camillo, he wasn't a bad guy. I mean, he should not have been sleeping men and married woman. Yeah. But he wasn't a persona non-garde on society. Yeah, yeah. You had a beautiful wife. She was there the whole time. I mean, they hated me. They hated me.

De Salazar family hated my guts. If you could kill someone with this there, I would have been disintegrated. Because, I mean, you know, I'm doing my thing, Matt. Listen, you know, we're not going softening. We're not massaging. Right. You want to bury my client for the rest of his life in prison,

maybe even up it to death penalty. I don't know. And my client, we're not negotiating. We're either all the way home or all the way in. We're, you know, so I remember when I had the wife on the stand, I'm like, did it look like, I got the tape on the, I got it on the phone somewhere, but I'm cross-examining it. I'm like, did it look like your husband just burnt someone's penis off in the Everglades?

Objection sustained. I'm like, what do you mean, sustained? The prosecutor just said in his opening statement, they burned his penis off. Right. He said he lit it on fire. We're not talking about a bick here. We're talking about, you know, lighter food. Yeah, I mean, you know, if you're going to do it, you're going to do it all the way, right?

Yeah Ugly That was sad Because the whole courtroom Was completely packed Right Because it was Gail's last case And like I said

If you want to see A really good prosecutor Right You know Work her craft You watch Gail a trial She's been doing it 30 plus years She's done hundreds of homicide trials

You know But it's fun to go up against her Because Forgive me if you see this Gail But you're kind of a bitch And I kind of like that bitchy shit Like, I don't want to get along with the prosecutor during the trial. Right.

I don't. You're my mortal enemy. I'm your mortal enemy. You stay on your side of the court. I'll stay on mine. We'll be professional because we have to. But this is real-life poker. And you're trying to bury a guy for the rest of his life.

We're not playing with chips here. We're playing with guy's life. And, yeah, he didn't do it. And that's where we went. But the jury found, you know, because the torture time, according to the cell phone tower location, went on for 12 hours. they know

if they pull our cell phones that young man yours mine's all here in your house and they can pinpoint that shit really close and when it's maybe one or two minutes of kings or tracking that can be explained by defaults but 12 hours plus

the cell phone tower location shows he's going through the sun pass lane at 1257 And at 1257 on the sun pass, there's a picture of the truck going right through. I mean, it just matched up. Because they didn't have the gas to burn him in the Everglades. They dumped him. They beat him up with baseball bats, and then when they try to cut his head off,

they said, holy shit, we can't just leave him here. We don't have troubles. Let's go back on the road, get some cans of gasoline, and light it up and basically disintegrate him in the Emberglades, which at the time was probably a good idea. sense that you can't just leave yeah but you can't you also they also didn't realize that a few hundred feet away a hundred yards away that's what i always tell people that that's the problem is the fly in the way i mean the one thing you cannot account for you know the best lawyer i know period

is a guy named mel black if i were ever really in front i don't know if mel's practicing but my entire career i absolutely consider mel black the guru of any type of criminal case he brought me into some federal cases and mel told me one time anytime anytime you commit a crime there's 50 ways to fuck up and get caught and if you're a genius you'll think of 25 of them right you know this is yeah like the brander thing what the hell you got the blanket you know a couple cuban fishermen rolling out in it you know didn't even call the police You imagine that unrolling a blanket and a stiff comes out And you say, well, this is still going to look good in the bedroom

Fuck the fishing, let's go home decor. What happened with the Casey Anthony trial? Like you were one of the attorneys on that? Up in the beginning. What happened was when that case went to trial, it was Jose's case And Jose Baez and I are extremely close friends, extremely close. I had already done a bunch of homicides a mid-death penalty certified and then Jose excellent lawyer tremendous trial lawyers everybody knows

didn't have the experience he wanted to get experience since we were close friends he brought me in but before the trial started I had to jump off that case and get on my best friend in the whole world uh I won't say his name because he's out now and he's living a private life somewhere really well but he got charged with I don't know hundred counts of mortgage fraud. There is no mortgage fraud. It's wire and bank fraud. But if it relates to mortgage fraud, we call it mortgage fraud.

I would say that. People are like, oh, I was convicted of mortgage fraud. I'm like bank fraud. You were convicted of bank fraud or wire fraud. Sure. Financial institution fraud. But I know this for a fact. And it's not because anything Casey said to me.

I know for a fact, Casey Anthony did not kill that little girl. And it's not because anything she ever said to me, when Jose and I were work in the case, we had some of the best forensic scientists, not cops, not criminal, not CSI, scientists. The head

honchos, Dr. Biden, Dr. Lee, from the O.G. I mean, top, top, top, top, top, warm-round guys. And we kept waiting for them to give us bad news. You know, sometimes you hire an expert, you look for loopholes, and they say, I've you know, looked at this a thousand different ways,

and there's only one way to look at it. Matt, you did it and that's it and that's it you stuck you know um but you need to know that and every one of said i don't think she did it i'm like wait what because and i'm guilty of this i was kind of swayed by her initial reaction to maybe not responding to the missing child like a hysterical mom right i mean if my daughter's son went missing i'd be hysterical right hysterical right hysterical you couldn't console me um so you know to me that kind of looked like well maybe you did but you know and she never told me she did it she just kind of nonchalantly no i didn't right and so i kind of had my jury my personal internal jury was out right but when i started hearing

from the top dogs in the world on this man we're not listening all due respect to k c Anthony, you know, she's not good enough to fool the best forensic scientists. None of us are. Right. You've got to be better than the best. And she's never committed a crime before. She never even had a speeding ticket. You know what I mean?

She just was a young woman who didn't react the way a lot of people would react. Right. She clearly had some other issues going on. I mean, she, you know, watching those videos of her just lying to the cops. Yeah, yeah, no. She's like the, she was like, path. It seemed like almost. You know, she just couldn't seem to...

She couldn't tell the truth. We'll all admit that. Right. She didn't. But you know what? She was found guilty of that. Nobody denied that. We never came in and said, oh, she told the cops of truth.

Yeah. That was a given. You know, Zenaida, Zenaida, the babysitter. I work at Universal Studios. I know it. Yeah, yeah. Right. But that's the thing.

You know, it's kind of like the guilty man fleeth when no man pursueth. Why are you lying if you have not? I understand why you might remain. silent. But why would you lie in a way that's going to be so patently obvious? I mean, these lies are going to explode in your face. You know, I met her at a nightclub one time. I mean, I met her at a coffee shop. You know, that can't ever be proven. But we were both employees at Universal Studios. What do you think the detectives did go out to Universal Studios? Well, I'm sure you've dealt with people that are pathological. Like, I've, I've wrote a story about a guy that's

pathological. And he would look at you and lie to you about things that you'd just blatantly lie. And then you go, you pull out the paperwork and say, well, this is what this is. And it would be another cascade of life. Right. And then he'd go, oh, I see why you, well, I see why you're confused. I'm confused because you're lying. You just said this wasn't true. No, no, of course that's true. See, what happened? And you're like, wow. I know. I know. Um, but you know, the forensic thing, what kills me is I had a guy interviewed. Um, his name is a Wade Williams. and it was a it was a self-defense right like he was in his house the guy attacked him he had a concealed weapons permit they get into a huge fight in his kitchen he's like I can't get

out of the kitchen you know what I'm so like there's only one way out I can't get past the guy the guy wedges them up in the corner they're he's punching him he's kicking at him they're fighting a guy hits him in the head several times finally Wade pushes him back you know pulls a gun shoots him three times boom boom boom the problem is then when he immediately calls a police cops get there guys dead um the police do a forensic analysis and if you read the forensic and this is way you know we'll show you we'll tell you and uh and i've see he he sent me the documents everything it says that wade's story doesn't make sense there's there's there's nothing in the kitchen that shows that there was a um a scuffle wade's uninjured

way like it's just one thing after another after another after a other, that nothing he says makes sense. And so he's looking at this thing doesn't make sense. So then luckily, Wade had about $100,000 in his 401K. So he's able to hire the best attorney in South Carolina in his area. That guy hires a forensic accountant to come in. They get the cop's body cameras, which also show the photographs and everything. Then when they see that And they look at Wade when he gets immediately afterward, there's marks on his head. And it's the scalp where he's been punched. He's obviously got bruising, scratches.

There's scuffle marks on the refrigerator. There are cups knocked over. There are like everything that they're saying isn't there. It's clearly there was a scuffle. Clearly he had been punched multiple times. There was, you know, marks on the, on the, the deceit. Like everything that they that their version, the cop's version said wasn't there was not only there, but it was there on their own body camera. And then the photographs, which they said had been lost, they unfortunately the camera, the SD card made a mistake, blah, blah, blah, turns out that that was bullshit and that those eventually were forwarded to his lawyer where they show, here's the photos, knocked over this, broken this.

bash that he's like wow like had he not had a good attorney who followed through who got the body camera who had enough money to hire a forensic accountant i mean forensic a um person to go through everything and he put together the what really happened eventually they just get it but this is a couple years later this goes on for years eventually the new u.s attorney comes in they put together is it a white page white paper or something they go in and they show him here's what we've got here we know what you've got here's what we've got they show them their defense Yeah, like it reverse proper. Right, and the new state attorney looks at it and a couple days later calls his lawyer and says,

we're dropping the charges, bro. This is self-defense. You're right. Castle law, self-defense, whole thing. So I see what you're saying about what they'll present and then what your guys will present. They work for the police. They do work for the police. Of course they do.

The case that changed me, that now that you just said that, was Luis Diaz. Luis Diaz was what they call a Wajito, like a redneck or a hick from Cuba. He came over to Miami in the 70s, and around 7778, there was a serial rapist in the Bird Road area of Miami. And back then in the 70s, Bird Road was cowpastured. And it was known as the Bird Road rapist.

Whoever this was, Matt, is clearly... Long Bandy Twizzler's Candy keeps the fun going. The fun going. Twizzlers, keep the fun going. The rapist. These were housewives. Remember, when the 70s, they weren't parking lot cams and cell phones.

And he would drag a housewife. Whoever did this would drag a housewife, like pull up at public's drag her pulling her men, beat her within inches of her life we're talking about semen in the anus the vagina rape this was not a date rape these women were beaten with an inch of her whoever did this

is exactly why we built prisons and exactly why guys in prison do to these guys what they do right this was an animal eight different women brutally raped all by the same person there was no DNA back then so

1977 I was in middle school I mean, I clearly was, I don't want to do nothing. And he had a court-appointed lawyer, Roy Black. Roy Black's a pretty good lawyer. Yeah. You know, he's a heavy hitter. He knows what he's doing. And he got appointed because it was a high-profile case.

And Roy took him to a bunch of trials. And he got convicted around him because it was a confession. And there was confessions with the kind of details that only the rapist would know. Right. Right. They go to hire Mel Black. In 2000, Mel being my mentors, you know, I don't want to say it's beneath him, but he's trying to groom me, he's kicking smaller stuff to me.

He says, I don't know what you can do with this, see what you can do. So the family comes over, and I'm looking at a, you know, 33-year-old son, 29-year-old. They were little babies when your daddy went away for eight life sentences. So I go represent him at a parole here. And, of course, there's no more parole now, but if you got sentenced back when parole was active, you still were eligible for parole. Right. We got this not beat out of us. I mean, the parole commission was nasty to me. How dare you bring this request? I'm like, wait a minute. Don't you get paid to do this?

Right. You're not doing me a favor. I didn't ask you to do me a favor and give me a hearing. You get paid by the taxpayer to do this. Right. So sit down, earn your little statue of liberty check and let's have a hearing. Right. But you don't need to be mean about it. We're looking at it. We're looking at it. And man, I'm sweating on. I thought the guy didn't it, because how did you know these types of details and the confessions? Right. I go out to Everglades jail.

He'd been in the same prison for 27 years. Never had a DR. That's impossible to me in a state prison for 27 years and never get a DR. Right. And I remember when I went out there, the warden met me. And he said, look, I don't think this guy did it. I said, what?

I've never had a warden me. So what? He's been in my facility. He says the same thing every day. With God and I get up, with God, I go to sleep. I go see him. And he doesn't really have a cogent story other than I didn't do it

and the detectives told me to. That's a little simple. You know, you got to meet that out. I mean, it might be true, but he didn't have the wherewithal to be able to flesh that out. I didn't do it.

The detectives told me to say that. Right. They told me to let me go, what do you mean? Do you believe that? You're going on a date? All right. I thought he did it.

And still a young lawyer. I'm just out in private. I have a practice a year or so now, and I call over to the crime lab. They have evidence. They have the semen. Right. They have the pubic hair. They got skinnail scrapings.

Guess what's in all of those? DNA. So I call over to the Innocence Project, you know, Barry Sheck's over there at Cardoso School, Law, Yeshiva University of New York, and they send me down the kit. And we go in there. man he didn't do it it's not close DNA immediately separates half the population

if you're xx you're female there's no way you're male you're female and if you're xy you're male right so if there's an xy chromosome there's no question it came from a male you can eliminate 52% of the population right there and then it's called DNA fingerprinting or DNA mapping

and they do strands they do these loci on this whatever I won't get into but they do this it's like a fingerprinting of DNA If any point is not exactly the same, it's absolutely not him. It only takes one to not be him. Right. The only thing Luis Diaz had in common with whoever was as son of a bitch rapist. Male.

That's it. Every strand was different. And the state's looking like, what, what, what? And I felt, man, I felt guilty. I kind of felt like the guy I did it. Yeah, 27 years. 20 as a rapist And didn't do it

We're not talking about he might not We're not telling oh they fucked up the DNA They had the DNA And they swabbed his cheek He's probably got holes in his cheek still They didn't do one DNA test They did about 400 to make sure they got it right Right

It wasn't him It wasn't even close It's not even close So we go back to court On newly discovered evidence Because DNA wasn't there Now it's there It's newly discovered right

And the state drops them all And are you gonna go find that detective and throw him in prison for 27 years. No, he's probably, they gave him, probably gave him a medal. Right? Right?

And this, I never do anything to the guys. Again, you know, going through the progression of time is when people ask me all to how do you defend those people you know, did it? It's not about that guy. He jaywalked, he committed capital murder. I'm there to guard the guard. I'm there to make sure that son of the bitch

has a leash on him. And when those guys with the white hats come to the dinner, table of justice, they got clean hands. You're not violating the Constitution to get to him. You're not doing false confessions. You're not framing. You're not doing all that shit. They did that to him, Matt. So I remember he came to my office the next day and made the newspaper and stuff. I never forget it. I never knew what he looked like as a young man. I only knew what he looked like as an old man. I saw a picture. It was about 43 or 45 when he went away. late 60s 70s hard life you know

27 years in prison take a toll on anybody but it said victory and it was like that coming out of the quote but what bothered me was when he came to the office and said what did you do what was the first thing you did what was the very first thing you did when he got out of prison go have sex with your wife go to your favorite restaurant what 27 years

he said as soon as we pulled off of everglades prison I told my family stop the car I'm getting out I want to walk in one direction for an hour straight I don't care if I get 10 feet or 10 miles I just want to walk for one hour in one direction

without a wall without a door without a barbed wire without an electric fence I thought how often I take just being able to walk in a direction for as long as I want I go outside your house

And walk back to Miami if I want. Anyway, I had gotten a million calls from big-time national firms. Not these hack firms, commercial firms, really heavy duty. Like, we get millions. I said, Lewis, listen, there's a whole bunch of lawyers that want to take your case for free. Not hacks, good ones. Right. Don Russo, some of the really big, heavy hitters.

They can get you millions. And he looked at me with the serenity that only an old man. can have and he put his hand on my shoulder and said the last time I went to court with a lawyer a good one I got 27 years in prison I don't ever want to see a courtroom or a lawyer or a judge for the rest of my life I understood that you know what I mean you know he's a wahito so he came over he was a blacksmith hardworking guy honorable work you know I don't know what the hell it takes to put shoes on horses, but I think it's probably pretty hot, sweaty, smelly,

probably banging nails, you know, probably hit the thumb with the hammer a few times, I guess. Right. I can't be easy. I don't think it's like, you know, fill in a copier like I do. The toughest thing I face is a paper cut at work. Right. You know? What do you do that guy?

Well, what do you do? What do you tell the women who for 27 years think the son of a bitch and what about the guy who did it? He probably took off when he saw him get busted, and he's raping women in San Antonio or Des Moines, wherever, you know he went to the city. A serial rapist ain't going to stop. They got a taste for that, and they like it.

And in the 70s, you didn't have the Internet, and interpolling on it, so they probably didn't link it up. Maybe he got busted. Maybe one of the girls shot him. But, oh, can I go back to a story on Big Polie Balls that just hit me? Yeah. Now, this is good. So I'm going in the courtroom one day, right?

He didn't have court. And I'm not going to say his name, but a good friend of mine, I'm making this story update county corrections, never investigate this. Corporal was outside, and he was pacing, he's a friend of mine. He's a court, what's up? He wouldn't talk to me. He's a court, what's up? He's got water in his eyes, man, like anger water in his eyes.

You see the fucker in the box? And when I say the box, when they bring the inmates out to court, they have him in a box in the courtroom. Right. You see some mission in the first row? I said, yeah, what's up? He said, he tried to drag my 14-year-old daughter in a car yesterday, kidnapper. Oh, fuck him.

So I just happened to share information with balls. I didn't tell balls to do anything. I see that guy right there? He tried to kidnap the corporal's daughter. I don't know what happened. I heard he got killed. I don't know. But I go out to the jail one night.

If you go to the Dade County Jail, the elevator opens on two to six floor at the Central Control, and then you have the wings with the cell. So when you get out, I don't know what I was smelling that night, but it smelled like something out of a Cheech and Chong's movie. The smoke was billowing into the elevator. And somebody behind the Central goes,

Hey, Walt, you don't smell any weed, do you? I don't smell shit. I'm walking down the wing to see Michael and I, like, yo dog, you tell that motherfucker carproom. Somebody fuck with his daughter, we got to smoke in Once it's fucking big. I don't know how it got in there. I don't know why I got in there. But, you know, there's a purpose for guys like that.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Balls would never hurt a child, never heard a woman. You know, he had this girl, I want to say her name because I represented her too, but she's still around. But she used to slap him. And he would take it. He would never raise his hand to a woman.

He would never hurt an old lady. Never heard a child? Right. But you're running around trying to kidnap the corporal's daughter. Right. That's some problems. Yeah, man. There's the justice system.

and then there's a real justice system. And there's a place in a world for guys like that. I just remembered that, though. I'm sorry to say, wait. No, I just remembered that. But yeah, that guy, Louis Diaz spent 27 years in jail. He didn't do it. The detective that fed him that confession.

Because I didn't believe in false confessions. Oh, I totally do. So do why. I heard it. I'm listening to the confession. I'm listening to it. And I know it's false. I know scientifically DNA.

It's 100% false. It's a pervarication. It's completely fallacious. There's no, there's nothing, you know. What was the guy's name? What was the guy's name I interviewed? Do you know, remember what I'm talking about? He's in New York.

He's a lawyer now. He was 17 years old. A classmate gets killed. He knew her. He had a couple classes with her in high school. He's kind of an oddball, you know. Has a couple, some friends in his little neighborhood. Jeffrey Desovic.

Yeah. So Jeffrey, um, the cops go to the go to the so a girl from the neighborhood or girl from the school is walking cutting through a little forested area between complexes comes across it ends up getting murdered and raped bodies left there semen there's semen laying around everything the cops investigate it they take samples everything they end up going to the school and say they're obviously the person knew her because there was like a I think there was something over her face, which in their mind meant that guy was, he knew her, he was ashamed, whatever. Point is, they make it up, no. Yeah, they go to the, they go to her friends. Do you know anybody that had a fixation on her?

And they were like, no, anybody weird around, anybody, well, there is this one guy here, like, he says hi to her. They know each other to say hi. I don't know, he's odd. Okay. They go, they get him. They talk to him a few times. Very nice, very polite.

can you help us he's like and he wanted to be like a police officer one day he's like you know so they take him down finally they take him downtown keep them they basically uh interrogated for for six or eight hours you know his mom has no idea where he is um they take him there they question him eventually the one cop is playing bad cop the one cop's good cop and the good cop is saying like they're outside yelling and screaming the cops in his face everything he gets him out of the room the good cop says, listen, man, I don't even know if I can get you out of this police station, but I need to get you out of here. These guys want to kill you. They think you raped and murdered this poor girl. Just give me a confession. And I can get you out of here. He's so terrified.

He thinks this guy's trying to help me. He's just trying to get me out of the building. These guys want to hurt me. He writes a confession. He said, based on what they've told me, they've been telling me what happened. So he writes a confession. He said, obviously, I don't go home. I get processed. I get, you know, I get booked and processed and goes to jail. Of course, he ends up going in front of, you know, he goes to trial. Eventually, he gives it a lawyer. The lawyers are, you know, lawyer, his lawyers don't really believe him. He doesn't think.

He goes to trial, found guilty. He writes the Innocence Project, by the way, multiple times. Now, a decade or 15 years has gone by. And finally, what he realized is, oh, by the way, at the trial, when they test the DNA, it doesn't match him. And all they say is, oh, that's because the girl was promiscuous and had had sex earlier in the day. Make it up as they go.

Make it up. And that that was the boyfriend's DNA. And they say it in a way that makes them, makes the jury think that they've tested the DNA and they know that it's the other boyfriend. Truth is, there was no other boyfriend. It was not his DNA. And so he finally comes back 15 years later. He's, Innocence Project has turned him down several times.

He's written them several times. And he's saying, look, all I'm asking is. The DNA wasn't mine. All I'm asking you is that there was no national database when this happened. Please just test the DNA against the national database. Keep in mind the two detectives who patted them, broke each other's arms trying to pat each other on the back, right? They think they're amazing. While you framed this innocent boy and sent him to prison as a rapist, God knows what happened to that fucking guy.

So while that happened, the person that you didn't catch ended up raping and murdering a school teacher with two daughters or two children. He raped and he ended up getting found guilty for that because those detectives did their job. So finally, it's funny, he'd been turned down so many times, by the way. So he kept writing the Innocence Project. Finally, some low-level intern. start took at the innocence product took on his case and begged them let me i'm telling you i think this guy's got something they finally test it when she comes to see him it took her about he said it took her about i want to say an hour or two to convince him tomorrow you're being let go because

for him he was like the DNA wasn't supposed to be tested for another few months he is because you're in line and it gets tested slowly, you know, he said, but they had gotten it done earlier. And I was like, no, you don't understand. No, it's not being done until, you know, until May. And she's like, no, it got done the other day. And he's like, no, you don't understand. This is how it works. And she's like, no, she's like, he's like literally took almost the whole time. He's like, finally, as our meeting was wrapping up, she's like, listen, you don't have to believe me. I'm just letting you know, pack your shit up, tomorrow morning we're going in front of the judge and you're getting out he's like okay he's like i didn't believe it until they called me in the morning right and they get out he

said it was the most surreal thing ever and of course he sued it was new york he got a little chunk of money but yeah could you imagine what a disservice those detectives are it's bad enough you're framing in this guy but you know there's a rapist out there doing that and you let him go come Come on, guys. Imagine the two kids that your mother was raped by the guy that these fuckers let go because they didn't want to do their job because it was easy for me to bully a 17-year-old kid into admitting he did something that doesn't make sense. Oh, and he had an alibi, by the way.

Like he was with his friends over here. You know, but they squash it. Yeah, they squashed that. No, he could have still done this. He could have. What are you talking about? When you get to be a professional witness like a cop and even understand fears, They always hide behind the term based on my training experience.

That means, trust me, you ignorant jury, I know better. Right. You don't know jack shit, bro, because you got the wrong fucking guy. Right. And you don't give a shit. I think every one of those detectives, when they get a false confession like that, should have to do some time. Oh, yeah.

Listen, if they all did a little bit of time and were treated even half as bad as some of the inmates. And I'm not saying some, listen, some of these guys are just complete scumbact. Of course. Like, you know, I went to prison. Trust me. I don't, 99% of the guys in prison, I don't want to live in my neighborhood. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, we build prison for a reason. Right, right.

Right. Right. Right. But, yeah, when you hear about, like, that guy's, like, Jeff's story. Oh, my God, bro. I know. It's, and it's so, you know, and I'm sure he got a chunk of money. It doesn't matter what he gets. It's never going to make up for what happened. No. They think, you know, oh, we'll give him 200,000 a year. On false confessions like that, I represented a kid in juvenile court. the former mayor of Hailea's name was Raul Martinez.

He was kind of a famous guy because he's the mayor with his shirt off, punching the guy on the beach during the Elie and Gonzales thing. He's kind of been in the news a few times. He's been indicted betterly he beat him. His car was burned in his driveway. Okay. They had no idea who did it. So they went around and they picked up this little Mexican gang.

My kid was a punk. My kid was a punk. He was a gangbanger here from Mexico. Bad kid, bad seed. But he didn't burn the car. Right. So there's five of them that get pinched burning the car, right? They say, oh, yeah, we burned the governor's car.

They don't know. Oh, he meant the mayor. Yeah. Matt, there's no way if you gave all five of these guys a piece of paper, your confessions would mirror each other. These confessions were perfect. And your confessions were, we broke the windows of the car out. Then we took gasoline, soap, rags to them inside, and let the car on fire.

I bring the fire. chief. The captain who was on the truck. I said, were those windows broke out when you got there? No, the first thing we do when a car is on fire is break the windows so it doesn't heat up and explode. So there were no gasoline soap rags in the car with broken windows. But the cops didn't know that. No, because it's stupid. Right. When they got there, they were broken out. I'm gang control. Right. And you got this ridiculous. The kid was so stupid. It was terrible because we had a female judge who spoke Spanish. And I didn't know enough Spanish. But they had a baseball In Spanish, it said, the women I know love it up the ass.

I would have told him to take it off. But he comes in and she goes, Mr. Walsh, do you know what your client's hat says? No, speak Hispanic. You know what I mean? No, I don't. Are you fucking serious? Like, you speak English? That's what you weren't in front of a female judge?

So again, he was a punk. Yeah. Wait a minute, bro. Somebody's burning people's cars. Yeah. Maybe you're going to burn a home and kill a two-year-old in a crib. Right. What are you doing, falsifying?

You know you did. Those guys did not do that there. These were five more. They couldn't spell SAT. And their written confessions were perfect. And you know what? Judge still found him guilty. Because it was all Martinez and it was political.

Yeah. Round up the usual suspects. They want somebody. They want to be able to tell the papers. We got this guy. Yeah. You're the mayor of Haile. You're looking at Chief Bolanos, you know, of the chief of the Highley.

You didn't catch any of? no, we did, and we got written confessions. That didn't happen. It didn't happen. And these guys would have never been slick enough to write a false confession, you know, cover up the real one. No way. No, no, no.

We're talking about 15, 16-year-old punks. Yeah. I know guys that are the same exact event and couldn't, and every one of their stories would have been different. And it's all true. And they all of them would have been different. Of course. Johnny said this.

I didn't say that. Tim said that. Oh, was it Tim? Oh, okay. You know. yeah what was it no the dirtiest prosecution I was ever on was my friend Joe

he was a former plantation cop he drove around in patrol units he went swat terrific cop great cop great cop he and I became friends he left the police department because he was making a killing you know as he was driving around it was the height of the real estate boom

You know, you could go put a contract on a home and sell it that afternoon to make $15,000. Right. You know, we're not talking about skin, Trump. That was just a bubble. And he caught it right in the beginning. So he left the police department. He made millions. He brought all his friends in, you know, to make money, FBI, Sunrise, Police Department, BSO, blah, blah, blah.

And then he had, oh, my God, forgive you. I want to say 188 properties. Oh, geez. There's a lot. Yeah. All of them were fully paid off, profits to the bank, except, eight. By the time the bubble burst, it was only

eight mortgages that weren't paid, out of 188. We're not talking about mortgage fraud. We're not talking about the bubble just burst. And the beds came after him and charged him as a ringleader. I think there were 39 defendants. The trial was five and a half months long. Not the pre-trial.

My practice went under. I mean, Monday through Friday, 9 to 5 for five and a half months. No going out to the jail. No going out to crime scenes. No going to depots, no going to hearings, strictly a federal case. And we won. But then they came back in and died at his mother and his wife. So I literally walked in and said, what do you bastards want?

Seriously. Stop. Stop with the bullshit. Just tell me what you want. We want him to plead guilty and do 28 months because we beat him. And if he doesn't, you're going after his mother and wife? his mother's a retired nurse she doesn't know anything about

it's not a stupid woman by any stretch very very very bright woman but totally unsophisticated in the borrowing lending and mortgage business you know and uh that was a single dirtiest prosecution I've ever been in involvement

to this day he must have busted somebody's son when he was a patrolman we went back to the plan police department and pulled every ticket and every arrest form he ever made and tried to make a connection to say this is a witch hunt you know you're going after him because he busted your kid you're 18 year old son right before he went to college had a little now he loses his pelagrant or a scholarship or whatever you know he's doing his job you know again you do what you do you get what you get

now you don't you don't get to break the law with impunity you break the law any time you fuck up and break the law there's 50 ways to get caught right Back then, Matt, the law was in the mortgage fraud cases, you can't bring lender negligence in. In other words, the lender can leave their front door open. You still can't go in the house and steal their jewelry. Right. So, you know, the liar, liar loans, the stated, stated, stated loans. You know, I make $900,000 a year.

I'm an elementary school teacher. Okay, we believe he has a mortgage for $2 million, you know, whatever, all that nonsense that they did. so when we weren't allowed to raise it I had to do something that was nothing that doesn't even make sense by the way oh no but the law was clear it in the 11th Circuit said you cannot

even raise lender negligence it's irrelevant and I think it's unfair but understanding reasoning if I go on vacation for two days and leave my front door open that is not a license to come in and steal my wife's jewelry so I understand but the loan

officers often you might come in as the school teacher comes in and she says oh this is what I make and you go okay thanks and then you put down whatever you want that's exactly what happened right that's exactly what happened and then they would come back two days later and it would have the little green sticky arrow sign sign sign sign it was a point and sign beautiful at that I put my hand right over the documents they wouldn't even have flip sign here flip sign why would I use you if I didn't trust you right I gave you all my docs you made my dream come true yay honey we got the mortgage sign sign the respa the tiller all that

bullshit you know um they were burning them and he wouldn't let him go so I said fuck this I gotta think of something for about 65 70 days into the trial I'm like I gotta do something you know for seven and a half hours every day

all I heard was my friend is a piece of shit and then the last half hour of days and the other 39 defendants alike But, I mean, we heard his name 400 times a day. And whose signature is that on the 1003 uniform residential Rona? That's Joe Blow. And what about this?

And whose signature? You know, just over and over. They were killing it. They were 108 properties. You know this. 288. I'm sorry, 288. There's a lot of documents and his name's on everything.

But we're saying, wait, we gave legit stuff. And the mortgage brokers, Matt Guller, and Renee Rodriguez, rooked and cooked it. We didn't come back and look. Yeah. You know what I mean? Anyway, you understand the scheme. But I couldn't bring in the lender negligence.

So I started getting real, you know, medieval in my mind. You know what I mean? Right. Like, I'm going to fuck somebody's lunch up bad here. So we called first Magnus. And I started getting into the questioning, and the judge said, Mr. Walsh, you ask one question about another. Like, you didn't know.

How did you write this loan? No one had to Jimmy the hobo that doesn't have $450,000 and it's 401. Right. You know, you can't do that. You should, but you can't. The law wouldn't allow you even bring that up. I said, no, Joe, I mean, no, judge. My client isn't a conspiracy.

The whole, I was in front of the jury. With the banks themselves, they're in on it. They're not negligent. They're complicit. They're in the conspiracy. And he goes, are you kidding me? go with that. I said, yep, there's all the way could get it in. Right.

Joe goes, I hope you know what you're doing. I said, do you want to sit here for another two months and hear what a piece of shit you are? Yeah. I mean, is that what you want? I mean, we could do that. But he trusted me. And he's my best friend in the whole war. I love this guy. I do anything for him, anything. And he was totally innocent, totally innocent. But they didn't care. There was nothing I could do. We brought him in. We brought the families. We brought the people. When the Houses went upside down. He came out of his pocket,

$5 million to satisfy these mortgages so they wouldn't completely foreclosed. They were upside down. He only made the money. Right. He paid it back. Come on, except 280 properties the last date he didn't because he was out of money.

The son of scammer. Right. That's somebody who just a bubble burst. Right. And you've got to take a haircut too back because you were out there doing it. So I get the guy in the stand. I'm like, so this is a document?

you got from my client? Yes. We learned that that was serious fraud. Really, you lion's sack of shit. Because here's an internal document. You bundle sold that on Wall Street two weeks before you even underwrote it. You had already sold that in a bundle package.

Now let's look at what the bundle packages are. Here's your internal documents selling this. How did he go from $400,000 and $4.01, which you did you? You say he's fraudulent to $800,000. I want to consult with a lawyer. They brought in teams at these big Wall Street firms. Judge was good. He goes, nope, nope, nope, nope.

He's on the stand. He's got problems. You can ask him anything you want. You can even go into whatever you want. You have prosecutions coming out of their asses. John, this violates whatever. the Ramirez's decision out and you're like, no, no, no, no, I'm not saying the negligent.

I'm saying Joe's any conspiracy with the, which there was no way he could be. These were all secondary internet lenders. He would have had to know somebody. These fuckers were selling those loans before they even wrote them. We'll get you $40 million worth the loans next week. They're going to be good loans.

Yeah, they haven't even been made yet. They haven't even made. They already saw their own in a bundle. You know, they were earning a bundle. They were earning a bundle. They were going down the road. They were so I don't care. I don't care.

You talk about that, not just straws, but what's the other word they use? Straw buyers, or are you talking about... Well, there's straws, but what's synthetic people? Synthetic identity. They didn't care if it was synthetic a straw. They just wanted a loan that they could upsell

on Wall Street and get... Listen, if I give you 10 bucks, you can give me 20 bucks, I'll give you 10 bucks all day long and twice on Sunday. Why wouldn't I? And luckily, we just crushed it. But we made some legal magazines on it. Walsh pierces the banks bail. And I felt really good about that.

Because you know what? Our government, the U.S. attorneys, did every single thing they could to protect those scumbag banks. Right. I'm like, don't you prosecute equally? Yeah, no. I don't know after Joe.

Yeah. But you just, I just proved to you with internal documents that they're ripping it too. Nobody from the banks went to jail and all that stuff. Yeah. They didn't care.

They didn't care. The government was a bought and paid four whore, a bought and paid for a whore, and they had their henchmen out. They had everybody on that. Eduardo Rakeo. He owns Eduardo Rakeo trucking. He goes from Miami

to Brownsville, Texas, which is right across the border from Matamoros. Big drug hub. Matamoros, Rinoza, and Nuevo Laredo are the Gulf Cartel. It's all coming through that. So he's coming Eastbound now on his way back and a DOT officer pulls him over

with a dog well dog smells the 3,500 kilos and takes a shit so they bust him but he doesn't know what's going on yet, you know so we went down where's the 3,500 kilos

in a semi I'm sorry he's an 18 wheeler it's in an 18 wheeler it's in soda cans on pallets right so he's just a trucker who picked up a pallet of They're saying, no, right, right, no, I'm bullshit. You know, they want to get someone. If they say that, all they can do is seize the cocaine,

they want somebody's neck in the news. Yeah. You're driving the truck, you knew about it. Yeah. Okay. Well, you know, so I'm like, wow, I do not want to be in Pensacola. We had Judge M.K.C. Rogers, who was very nice to me and very professional, but she was known as a hanging judge.

If you were found guilty, you were getting hung, hung, hung, 3,500 kilos. You're getting this, you're getting 3,500 lives. You know what I mean? And you are in a retired Navy town and a conservative. And he believed the government. And I got a guy that doesn't even speak English. I'm like, damn, man, would you pick this stuff that bad?

And he's like, H.E.B. Foods. That's a huge public of South Texas. So I go over there and I bring my investigator. And we go into the loading air. The drivers aren't leaving to go back. You back up to a stall or a hole and you wait in your truck, they loaded up with pallets, put a lock on the door and tell you, here's your bill of late and go.

You're not even allowed to go back and look at what they put on. Right. You know what I mean? You didn't even know. Okay, so now we've got to go over to Mexico. They'd deal with that end up. We're doing an investigation. So the DOT officer says, I'm coming with you.

I said, okay. Right. And he's like Barney Fife. Yeah. You know, Andy, Andy, I got my bullet, you know. He's Mr. Scoopulous. Right. He's McGruff.

He's going to take a bite out of crime, Matt. He's got his little DOT bad. He's a federal officer, stepchild of federal officers, but he's a federal officer. So we go into Mexico. And as soon as we go into he and I get arrested. Now, the day... Why?

It's so bad. So the day before, we couldn't go into Mexico because it was a riot. The federalies shot it out with the drug cartel And 200 cops were killed Okay So we couldn't even go in So we go in there the next day, right?

So as soon as we get over there We get taken in this jail And it's just like Andy Griffith There's two cells, you know, the Mayberry jail But it's a dirt floor So I'm gonna go, alright This is a shakedown, I don't give a shit I mean, whatever

And he's nervous So there's a guy that comes in from the streets He goes, Amigo, get too guinea, Ganja, Eroin Hey too Geree, I'm like, no, no, I don't want anything. And so I look at the guard and I go, what am I in here for? He goes, you're selling drugs in Mexico.

I said, I'm selling drugs. What about him? And he goes, get out of here. He goes, you sold him his drugs. So I want to buy him back? He goes, yeah. So the DOT guy goes, what am I in here for? Please ask him.

So I said, what isn't he for? And the guy spoke in the English. The guard comes down and looks at him, disgusting. And he goes, Jew, she here? Because you started the riot yesterday. You're getting life. He goes, oh, oh, oh, oh, you got to get a man. I go, will you shut the hell up?

You know what I mean? Stop, it's a shakedown. We've got to pay him a bribe, and we're going to get out. So he goes, okay. So I go, how much is the fine for selling drugs in Mexico? He goes, $200. I said, no, I didn't sell that much drugs. I think it's only $100.

He goes, okay. So he goes, what about me? I go, you're fine is $400. And give me your ATM. I ain't got the money, you know, I don't care. So I go, give me your ATM, I'll go do it. Now, if you shake that, listen, you want to stay and get shook down, you want to go there?

I'm going to pay. Look, it's nothing you can do. Yeah. You're in a jail cell. It's Mexico. You're paying, you want to go down to central jail downtown? I'm not going there. I'm not going to a border town jail.

Yeah. I'm not going to pay my hundred bucks. So he gives me, and the guy goes, Amigo, don't make it run for the border. I go, relax. I got his ATM card. I'm going to get you $400. I give him the $400,

and the commander comes in, right? I didn't pay my hundred. I took my hundred out of his 400. Right. He only had to pay three, but you're paying my bribe, too. And a commander comes in. And there's no computer.

Man, it's like a desk like this with a little dirt floor, right? And he goes, commandante, you want me to put their names in the computer? I said, oh, yeah. The computer, huh? You're going to run us?

And he goes, you've been here before, huh? I got a couple times. So he puts his arm around me, He puts his arm around the FD guy and we're leaving. He goes, what do you guys want? You want boys, you want girls, you want guns. And he goes, he just, I just want to leave.

I'm going back. But I called him to the witness stand. I'm like, what happened to us when we went to Mexico? Right. Go ahead and tell us all about Lawrence. And he's like, it was terrible. They arrested us. They framed us.

They made me pay bribes. They said I started a riot and killed 200 people. You know, bro, you just don't get it, do you, man? You don't get the world. You think you understand the world of drugs because you found 3,500 kilos on a truck passing to Pensacola on I-95 East. You don't know how those drugs get on there.

I tell you, I know the drugs are down there. You know the drugs. Let's leave my car on the border, and let's all go do some raids on the border and bust a bunch of drugs. We'll get you 35,000 kilos this afternoon with guns and bad guys and murders. That ain't what they want, man. They want a cherry pick.

They want the low-hanging fruit. And then they want to make a big example of it. So I was telling you earlier, you know that Spanish, Spain Spanish, is different than Cuban Spanish. So my guy didn't speak any English. Eduardo didn't. So we had a Cuban interpreter

and a Spain-Spanish interpreter. So I told the Cuban interpreter. When I'm doing my director, my client, make sure you interpret and when he's cross-examining used a Spanish- Spain interpreter so she would I don't know how to say it I'm just going to say it the only way I know how

she was using some third-party tense but I know that's not how it was being translated so my guy's got the headphones on you and the interpreters like blah blah blah blah and he's like kin can't who he's talking about who he's talking about he goes well

you know you and blah blah blah but she's interpreting it totally different and all of a sudden my client goes God damn it, Chico, tell me the name of the third guy. You've been talking about this third guy for 10 minutes, and I don't know who it is. The jury is only hearing the English part of it. Right. I'm literally holding my water. I'm going to pee my pants because it's so funny.

He's got a big gray Cuban beard, good-looking older guy, and it looks at this thing with. And the prosecutor's like, you want me to tell you who the third guy is, Mr. Brkeho? You want me to tell you who the third guy is? He's like, you keep talking about this third guy? Who the hell is it? know what you're talking about it totally got lost in translation but it went over real well with the jury right you know we brought in truck drivers to say whatever but i mean do i think my guy knew about it i don't know he either did or didn't i mean it's that clear cut but you can get real caught

up and some dirty shit driving a truck now so what happened with uh we won you won you got it thrown out we got not guilty yeah got not guilty across the board but i tell you what when we left there that you could feel the tension going during the trial because they didn't you know I don't want to say you've never seen a lawyer like me. That's too egotistical. They'd never seen that style before. Right. That aggressive, liar, liar, pants on fire.

You're full of shit. You're an alcoholic, wife-beater, tamper with evidence. They're not used to that. You know what I mean? They are not used to that. Do you used to, and then what happened to the opposite? Right. Oh, okay.

No further questions. What are you talking about? No further questions? I've got to rip this guy's head off. Right. You know, I've got to bleed him out. I've got to bleed him of all these lies. And, oh, he got through the Falfurius checkpoint.

Falfurius, Texas is the number one drug check. Number one border drug checkpoint in the world. You go in and just type in Falfurier, it's the number one. He got the truck through with the 3,500 kilos. They cut open the lock. It's a seal lock on the door. And then they put a customs when the Cetus went through. So when Pensacola, DEA, and FDOT cut it,

they were cutting off of U.S. customs. I mean, wait a minute. This thing got through four, because we went there. I'm like, Nicole, was my investigator at the time. We're going to go there. You're going to film the shit of everything you can as quick as you can

because they are going to lose their marbles when they see us filming. Right. I didn't tell anybody I was coming out. We just cold called up to Fulfurius. Nicole gets out with the chance. camcorder, you know, before cell phone, and is filming everything. I'm like, Mr. Walls, get back in the car, get back of the car, freeze me, drop the camera.

What are you talking about, man? We're filming you. Right. What if you're pointing a gun at my head for? Aren't, aren't you working for me? Aren't you a public servant? Don't you get a statute of liberty check? Do you get a statute of liberty check to point guns at my head and my investigator?

We're filming you guys working. Right. What the hell are you talking about? You got your own cameras up. We want our cameras up. I want to film my government not hard at work. Right. You know what I mean?

But they don't like that. They don't like their shit. They do not like you looking underneath their rug. And I like he got through four dogs, a complete U.S. checkpoint, the number one checkpoint. How did he know was there? If he got it through Falferius, DE agent, because I live when they do that shit, you know. They're all special agents. I don't let him get away with that.

I'm a special agent Mike Walsh with the drug enforcement administration. I'm a special agent Mike Walsh with the drug enforcement administration. I'm a special agent Mike Walsh or the federal bureau. So my first question is, why did you tell the jury your special agent? Right. You're a regular agent. You had special the day you graduated the academy.

You hadn't even made one caller and you already a special agent. You're a regular agent who just calls himself the special agent, right? They don't know what to do with that question. Nobody asked that. I don't mean like I'm special, Matt, but, you know, like we're going to start from square one. You said your name was special agent, Matt. Matthew Cox. So I want to know, let's start right off with special.

Let's find out what's special about you. There's nothing special about you. And the jury needs to know that. And then they come up with their shit, man. And they have these scripts that they go on. You know, the narcotics business is, you know, it's dark. It's a dark web. And it's hard to navigate.

No, you just have no evidence. It's not hard to navigate. You just have no evidence. So you tell them the jury. And the jury's like, yeah. That's a scary world. I don't know where 3,500 kilos came from. But I remember it was getting ugly.

And the head agent was an asshole. He was a real asshole. And, I mean, we just, we pulled a Miami on it. And we did it honestly. We didn't pull any fraud. But we just Miami'd that whole courtroom that day. They didn't know what to do. They weren't ready for a fight.

They were pissed. And the agent kept looking at the process. They were going, object. Object. Object. God damn it, object! You know what I mean? I got a chew tobacco out here.

I'm chewing in corals. This is great, because I like to chew tobacco. You know what I mean? And this is at home. Nobody's saying anything. All 12 jurors showed up for six days wearing suits. I've never seen that anywhere, man. I've been a lot.

I've been over 120 jury trials. Countless bench trials. Have I ever seen every juror, everyday wear a suit? Why? What's with the suits? It's all retired Navy up there, they believe. And I respect that.

They are good Americans. I don't mean that they are doing. They listened to the evidence and they ruled on what should have been. Right. This guy went down and picked up a load, right? Right. And I got my friend Stan,

and I was talking about my buddy from the Army. He was a truck driver for years until he had a heart attack. He's alive, but he can't drive trucks anymore. And I said, how would he not know? He goes, are you kidding me? When you pull up to a warehouse like that, A lot of times you like driver

There's a lounge over it You know like a trailer You can go get a shower in or snacks or something But you're not allowed back in the loading dock Because insurance won't do it You know you gotta have the forklift or the union Whatever you got I said wait how many times have you pulled up

And not known what's on your truck He says 99% of the time Right They knock on the door driver you're loaded Here's your bill of lading It says I got lays potato chips You pull out you know it ain't lays potato chips Because you pull in ceiling tile

You can feel that if you're a driver Right But if it feels like Lays potato chips, it must be Lays potato chips. Right. And for them, you just swoop in and take down people like that. That's wrong. Yeah. And you know there's a lot of truck drivers that have been fucked on that route before.

They don't hire a good lawyer. Like, I didn't know the shit was there. Which, even if you're guilty, you're going to say that. You're not going to get out of the truck and go, yo-hoo, DOT. I got a ton of keel. I got a ton of coal in the back of my truck. Right. You can do that.

So the innocent and the guilty have this. same defense. I didn't know that was there. Yeah, that's not a very good defense. That's a shitty, shitty situation. Wait, but what do you do when that is your defense? You pull up to H.E.B. Foods, you know, Brownsville, Texas. It's called a hook and drop, too. You drop your trailer on one side, you pull around on the other side, and the trailer's already ready. It's already sealed. Yeah, you don't know what. You got truck number 176J, and you look at the numbers on the trail, you back up. It's called a hook and drop. I had to learn a lot about it. I had to learn a lot about that. But I wonder how many people are sitting in jail from hauling a ton of

in a truck. They had no idea. Yeah. You know, they didn't want to hear anything. We won't meet with him. We offered my guy to meet with the, you know, and tell him who we met. No, no, no, he knew. What do you mean he knew? How do you know that? Are you clairvoyant? Yeah. Do you have a crystal ball? Do you read the tea leaves? How do you know he knew? they have to they have to act with 100% certainty to sleep like babies at night when you're putting innocent people in prison I couldn't do that I put a guilty guy in jail in heartbeat you're a scum bag I'll bury it I used to always say that was a nice thing about me being in prison was I knew I was 100% maybe I don't agree with the time but I definitely need to be to prison yeah you know right like I you know

you meet some guys where you're like wow like I see how you got yourself charged because you're an asshole. Right. You know what I'm saying? Like you made some major mistakes during the investigation. You were just a dickhead. But being a dickhead shouldn't end you up in prison. You know what I'm saying? But it does sometimes. Sometimes they're coming at you and you're being an asshole because you think you're innocent so you think I'm good. I can be a dick. Jeff Boatwright. Jeff Boatwright. 20-something years in jail, all he had to do is give them to if I weren't Jeff, I would have made up a name. I wouldn't have, not to lie. But I'm at sentencing. Yeah. And you want the name of my.

Santa Maria priest Yeah Esmeralda Hernandez Yeah Whatever it is I would tell it But Hmm

I don't know her name Oh okay Yeah you can do an extra Seven years I'm not gonna lie to the judge I'm not telling you I'm telling you to give the name You know like that

And he didn't get it That was a guy He was going to prison For what he did But he had double the time Because of the way he handling Right I was in prison with the guy

God, I can't believe I can't remember his name. Because I do remember he got exactly the same. He got 26 years. He went to trial because he had done a bunch of no doc loans. And his defense was, or he tried to be his defense, was I had a mortgage broker. I went into the mortgage broker. He knew my information. Like, he's like after the first couple of houses that we bought and we were renting out and sometimes we're buying them, flipping them.

Sometimes we're doing different things. He said after the first or the second one, he's like, I'm now just going in signing. Right. A point in sign. He's like, you know, he has my information. Point and sign close. Of course. He's getting, he's getting 100%. I wish I, then his name is on the tip of my tongue. But, you know, he, yeah, he got 26 years. Went to trial because he said, I went to trial because he said, they were offered me like three years. He's like, I went to trial because he said, I didn't do anything wrong. And it was like, oh, if only, you know, I would say, look, if you're guilty, you're 100% going to go to prison. If you're innocent, you still got about an 80% chance. Right. Especially you're on a conspiracy. charge. Yeah. That's why I said, of all the conspiracies that wrap up innocent people, mortgage fraud was the most.

Because you'd have some mother co-signed something for her 40-year-old son, and they'd bring her in. Yeah. She had no idea. She thought she was doing her adult son in favor by using her credit. Right. You know what I mean? We're talking about somebody who never did any. Oh, I got a good case.

The maid in Stanford. The maid. Let's hear about the maid. All right. This is a good one. And by the way, that guy taught the real talk the guy I'm talking about. He taught yoga. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Which one? He was in, no, no, not quiet. There was a quiet talker, Mark. Yeah, Shilda Mercer? No, he was. Mike's Valley? No, it was, shoot. You would know him.

He was, I guess you wouldn't know him. But anyway, yeah, he taught yoga. Like, he was at peace. He was the most peaceful person I've ever met that got 26 years. But anyway, sorry, go ahead. No. the maid. I won't say her name. She never had a license, never drove. She was a maid at the Lake Monroe Motel 6 in Sanford, Florida. Hard working woman her whole life. Single mother to a young

girl. When her daughter was about 13 or 14, her, the mother's boyfriend was the daughter. Neither the mother nor the daughter were very sophisticated. It was a different time. Sanford floor was the sticks. They were black. They didn't trust. white justice, said he really didn't want anything to do it. So they gave the guy two years prison. He gets out, man. The son and the bitch does it again. He rapes the daughter again.

Bites her nipples, bites her lip, hurts her. This time mom comes home from her maid job. Heavisept black lady, sweet, old southern woman. Sees the daughter in the bathtub shaking. Knows a son bitch did it. She didn't put bite marks on her own breast. This time she says, you go on over to grandma, my mom's child.

Don't tell nobody what happened. Mama's going to take care of this for you, once in parole. Got the daughter dressed, daughter walked out of the home over the grandma's. She calls up the boyfriend. What's going on, sugar? What's going on, baby? Why don't you come on over and get some of this, Shaniquas over grandma's house? I got some good stuff for you.

He has no idea what he's in for. She takes a 41. I didn't even know there was such thing as a 41 magnum. 41 magnum with a hollow point. If I live 100 years, I'll never forget this. She propped the coffee table. She sat on the couch. She put her feet up on there.

It was 11 feet 3 inches. Ask me that 20 years from her. 11 feet 3 inches from the door. Come on in, baby. He opens up the door and she blows his fucking face through the back of his head. Blows it clean off. Calls 911, full confession,

everything like that. that seems that seems like justice right the state attorney falls capital murder capital premeditation they want to give her the death penalty and see the plea off for us 25 years this hotel made cleaning up shit sheets at the motel 6th never been on welfare never scammed anybody never heard anybody just trying to clean up and raise her daughter as a single mother very very very very honorable woman simple but honorable hard working a lot harder than me I'm going up So I had this little bratty snot as a prosecutor. So I'm from Central Florida.

So I go into court and I put a big fat shoe of Levi-Garrett. Counsel, he's got a little, I want you know how unprofessional that is. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, right? Yeah. Just in a minute, she said, I'm going to tell the judge, I was going to spit it out before her to, just in here, all rise. Matt, I got nowhere to go. Your honor, your honor, your honor, depends counsel's chewing in the court. He goes, come here, boy, what's you got?

I said, I got some leave back here. I said, all right, let's get this trial in the way. So the cops come in with, with cowboy boots. And I'm like, you guys know she did a public service. She, a, a minor rapist. Right. A child rapist. You know, sir, I don't believe I ever read that woman her rights.

Confessions gone. 911 tape. I'm like, officer, you can understand coming home and seeing this dead guy all over your porch. You might make a false. I go, I probably would. Yeah. I never seen somebody dead like that If I never seen somebody's headbuck

They're totally helping her The whole time she's got her Bible out At the fence chair We got her all dressed up The church ladies came and brought in And she's like Oh Lord, what did I do? I'm like, will you be quiet?

I know central Florida Matt, I grew up there A lot of racism going on Oh good old boys don't hate Hardworking black women They're going to hate a black rapist I got all guys overalls,

durn tootin, I'm a rebel, the gun racks and anything. My partner, Terry's like, we gotta get I said, we ain't get nowhere and trust me, these are my people. We offered no defense. We basically just put on the what. And the jurors are looking, so they find her not guilty. Huh?

How'd you get the rip in? The state put it in for the motive. They're like, and the reason she killed him was because he wrote her daughter. I'm like, We would have never gotten that in. Thank you. Thank you. The dead guy.

Let's kill him. You know what I mean? I mean, it's the he needed killing defense. You can't raise that. But judge is just looking. And I mean, I had my whole staff come up from Miami. And we parked out in a parking lot since 6 o'clock. I should mark down every single vehicle.

You see some, because Sanford was pretty small. It's still pretty small. But it had a little tiny courthouse right on the lake back then. You know? It was like 2001, 2002. I said, mark it. who's got that? He goes, he's got a rebel flag

and he's got a thing saying, you'll take my gun when you pry my dough dead cold fingers off you know, all that first and the second I wanted those guys so they find him not guilty. He go, Your Honor, Your Honor,

can we talk to the defendant right now? Oh, go ahead and there, this trial's over and she's like, oh Lord, one guy walks and goes, honey, you did the right thing. I'd have blown that some bitch's dick clean off. And here comes little miss fucking, you know, prep school from law school. You can't take the law.

He goes, listen, here, you little bitch. If that some bitch comes down to my name, but I'm drag goddamn there and hang it. He used a bunch of racial epitaph. He goes, I'm sorry, honey. She goes, it's okay. I remember we're walking out. Oh, I said, Judge, can we just go from here?

We don't need to go back to the judge. Go ahead, she's free to go. I remember we came out on the steps, and I called the manager at the hotel. I said, we won. He goes, can she start working again tomorrow? So you want your job back tomorrow? She goes, oh, Lord, I need some bus pass.

We gave her the bus pass. She blew that. guy's head off and she did a public service and they were trying to charge her with a deputy come on Matt come on bro where was that prosecutor from she went to because I was going to say anybody who was raised in South Florida

I can't imagine it's a central Florida I mean or sorry South Central Florida I can't imagine anybody bringing those charges they ain't brought the death penalty they brought the death penalty they weren't going to get it but here's what happens do you know why they'll file death penalty and then waive it

now here's the way it happens In order to be a juror on a death penalty case, you have to be what they call death penalty qualified first. Right. So you're doing your jury selection. Before you get into, can you be fair and impartial, do you believe everything, all that shit. You first got a death qualify. And what that means is this, man, if you believe this was heinous, atrocious and cruel, coal calculated permit, hack CCP, heinous, atrocious and cruel, cold-calculated treatment, hack CCP, heinous, atrocious and cruel, cold-calculative. or there's aggravators like you torture them got to vote for death if somebody says no one to

no cert they're gone right so you only get people that will vote for death that's a hanging fucking jury and then you go to the regular jury selection right you get what i'm saying yeah so what they do a lot of times is so file for death to get a death qualified jury and then just before the end they go the state waves death takes all that pressure and then the get on one fucking We can find her guilty now if she's only going to get life. You know what I'm saying? It's a motherfucker move. It's a motherfucker move.

That's exactly what it is. It's, you know, stick it up your ass. But I will never forget that. You know what I mean? And we've raised no defense. Like, did you read her, right? Also, I'll remember it. He did.

He totally did. It's on the tape. And the prosecutor's like, here it is on the tape. He goes, hmm, I'll remember that. I'm like, come on, guys. Guys, you know she's never broken along. This guy's fucking into prison. He comes out of his daughter again.

And they knew it. You know what I mean? She was a nice young teenage girl. Yeah. She did not invite that. Did she not deserve that? Go on over to grandmas now. Mama's going to take care of everything.

11.3 feet. 41 Magnum Hollow Point. His face went through the back of his head. You know what that thing must have been like when it hit his face? I think it was going 37, 125 feet per second and that thing mushroomed up at 11 feet I would totally I was going to say we good I would totally live next to it yeah yeah oh yeah um I'm not afraid of it no I'm saying are you you good um yeah yeah listen thank you so much for coming this is great thanks for having me a guest

in your house yeah or your studio all right well hold on was that you're that it you guys watching if you like the video do me a favor hit the subscribe button hit the bell so you get notified of videos just like this please consider joining my patreon um do you have any social media or anything you got nothing no no no no law firm no no i'm suspended right now oh please yeah i am please hit the please hit the subscribe button i appreciate you guys watching see yeah i should have put that out i'm suspended right now but not not for any bad reason all right Yeah.