Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Corrupt Cops Frame Party Promoter for 51 Years

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

Despite being framed by corrupt cops and sentenced to 51 years to life over a wildly exaggerated case tied to his nightlife success, Anthony Baptiste refused to give up, taught himself the law from prison, and ultimately fought his way to freedom.⁣ ⁣ Anthony's links - ⁣ https://www.instagram.com/tonelegacy/⁣ ⁣ Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://www.insidetruecrimepodcast.com/apply-to-be-a-guest⁣ ⁣ Get 10% sitewide for a limited time. Just visit https://GhostBed.com/cox and use code COX at checkout. ⁣ ⁣ Send me an email here: [e-mail]⁣ ⁣ Do you extra clips and behind the scenes content?⁣ Subscribe to my Patreon: https://patreon.com/InsideTrueCrime ⁣ ⁣ Check out my Dark Docs YouTube channel here -⁣ https://www.youtube.com/@DarkDocsMatthewCox⁣ ⁣ Follow me on all socials!⁣ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/⁣ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthewcoxtruecrime⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart⁣ ⁣ Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox ⁣ ⁣ Check out my true crime books! ⁣ Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF⁣ Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM⁣ It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8⁣ Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G⁣ Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438⁣ The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K⁣ Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402⁣ Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1⁣ ⁣ Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel!⁣ Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX⁣ ⁣ If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here:⁣ Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69⁣ Cashapp: $coxcon69⁣ ⁣ CHAPTERS: ⁣ 00:00 - From House Parties to Hip-Hop Promoter⁣ 05:06 - The Investigation That Changed Everything⁣ 09:37 - Arrested After Months of Surveillance⁣ 15:51 - Offered 8 Years Instead of Life⁣ 24:34 - Fake Trial Tactics and Pressure to Plead⁣ 29:48 - Inside the “Circus” of the Courtroom⁣ 1:08:27 - Hearsay, Corruption, and Fighting the System⁣ 1:10:26 - Learning the Law Behind Bars⁣ 1:13:26 - Filing His Own Motion From Prison⁣ 1:20:42 - Discovering His 51-Year Sentence Was Illegal⁣ 1:26:08 - The Resentencing That Led to Freedom⁣ 1:29:12 - Uncovering Alleged Fraud in the Asset Forfeiture Case⁣ 1:33:46 - Rebuilding Life After Prison and Finding Purpose Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Not available in all states. Have you ever wondered why songs on the radio are popular? Why does certain movies get made, even though the premise seems completely random? Why are concert tickets costing you $3,000, but nobody makes any money touring? Well, on my podcast, breaking down the biz, we answer all those questions and more. I'm Seth Schachner. I have over two decades of experience in the entertainment and the music industry, and every week I talk to insiders that lend insight and expertise on the media

you know and love, past, present, and future. Subscribe now on your favorite podcasting platform or watch us on YouTube so you never miss a beat. Let's make sense of this industry together. I was doing big parties. We're talking about future, fabulous, French Montana. They found about like $700,000. Ultimately, they gave me 51 years to life.

This is the thing the world don't see. No, no, the world watches Law & Order. They believe Law & Order. You know, it started just wanting to buy clothes, right? You know what I mean? So my parents, you know, my parents was not trying to buy all the stuff. You know, I'm going to public school.

You see kids having all the cool stuff. And it was like, yo, fucking, let me get it. I want the jacket, right? Right. So I started selling weed. You just keep on scaling after that, right? Right. You get one thing, all right, it's snowball effect.

You just, all right, okay, got the jacket. I want some pair of Jordans now. I want some sneakers, right? And then you just start looking at everybody what they're doing. And it's like, you've got that mind that you're just trying to learn and understand. You see other people doing what they're doing.

Like, oh, shit, they're not selling weed right there. So I'm gonna see what they're getting into. And you tap into that and then years down the line, it's just evolved to whatever it did. I never aspired to be like some big hustler dude. You know what I mean? It was like a means to the end. Another thing I started getting into was like the party life.

I started doing parties when it's like in high school. In Long Island they had like teen night parties, right? Yeah. So I used to go to teen night parties and stuff like that. It was like 13 to 17. And in there I would learn, and there I would see like the whole program on what they're doing. That's nothing. It's like everything I'm seeing, I'm spending money on. I'm trying to figure out how to fuck I can make the money that I'm spending, right? Right. So I'm seeing everything

like, okay, they got security, all right, charging $15 at the door, whatever. So I like kind of emulated the same thing, made my little flyers, did that at my house. You know, that was first time I did the first house party. I was like, this was in high school. I made like $900 and I was like, okay, this thing could work. You know, charging $3 for them, females, $5 for guys. And I was like, all right, so that was kind of like the seed that got planted in my head. And fast forward, like, before I getting locked, before actually getting locked up, I was doing, I was doing, like, big parties. We were talking about high in celebrities, stuff all over the radio.

You know what I mean? Like, talking about, you know, future, future, fabulous, French Montana, all these big names that everyone know. And yeah. And that kind of, like, created a notoriety that made it, I guess, seem. made people, like the law enforcement, I should say, make it seem like whatever else I was doing on the side must be some big shit, because I got all these big things going on, right?

So then they just put this, they just kind of paint this picture. You have high visibility to them. You look like you're rolling in it. Yeah. You're really just marketing your party, the marketing yourself. So they see everywhere. Exactly.

People see me all over TikTok and Instagram. They think I'm driving a Lamborghini. You see what I'm saying? Like you driving a Lamborghini. Like that a 2007 truck. What are you talking about? Yeah. And even if you're just coming out nice,

it's just like everyone just like, oh, like someone else can come out nice. Like, oh, we come out nice. No, you come out nice. And so, no, oh yeah, he got to be whatever. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. So, I mean, I was playing the part a little bit as far as like being in the hip hop world, right? So once I started breaking out my shell and the parties, like, remember, I was doing parties since, I say high school,

I'm talking about like 2000. One was the house. party. 2015 is when it really like broke. Like I really like really broke out my shell and was really getting noticed. But you know how it is. People don't see all the years that you put in to actually get to a certain point. So when it hit, it kind of hit hard.

And it's just kind of like, yo, who is this guy? You know, you got celebrities reposting your stuff. You know, they let people get people getting to look that. Now they're looking at you because those people are looking at you. And it's just like, all right, now this guy got to be some big players. or something. And then so, you know, when you, now when you put yourself in a certain category, that's when you've got to be more mindful of other shit that you do, right? Obviously, that's not how I was thinking before. I was just like trying to make everything work.

So they'll take something minute and because you're doing something big over here, you know they're going to exploit it to make it, they're going to create that look like it was something major going on. Right. And that's kind of like how, leading to this like drug case and everything right so so we fast forward so 2015 was like my breakout year with the party scene um coincidentally that's the same year the investigation started so for nine months they had an investigation on me had one co-d i mean one co-conspirator is it just you or it's you and they've got you should you and one other guy yes but you're they're thinking you're the main guy you're not just one of five other people no no no two of us two of us

my coca spirit is not even from long island this how this big ass case you know what I mean on paper is really is what's really going on behind this big ass case so I'm in contact with my boy that's in that's in that's from the city they ties from phone calls and make it a conspiracy and at the end of that road they make it seem like some one big major drug ring. Now, we won't get into the details in between, but just real quick, is just that I went to trial by myself. I want to trial by myself and really how they exploited this is like, I'm going, so I got a drug ring going on.

Right. Right. Well, so what happens? So there's a, so is this a task force of, you know, 10 people, or is this two or three cops? They just start watching you. they get you on some drug transactions. Do they, is there a control buy?

They get somebody to do four or five control buys. And then instead of saying, hey, we got four controlled buys, they turned it into, he's working hand in hand with the cartel flying in. You know what I'm saying? Is that what it is like? I'll tell you, like I said the other day on another interview, it was like, with all the taxpayers money they spent, you would have thought they was going after El Chapo.

Right. You know what I mean? So, so what happened was it was a control buy situation. Controlled by through a person that CI, you know what I mean? That they kind of, I mean from, like I like to talk about I got on black and white, but just kind of from a CI that they supposedly see I just is random CI person this situation happened and the undercover got involved through the CI and the control by happened with the undercover. Okay, right? With the midst of this nine months investigation there was only there was only sales to the control by to the undercover and there was really no evidence to show that there was no major drug sales to anybody else.

We're talking about they got wiretaps, GPSs. How large are these sales? These $15? We're talking about, yeah, you've got sales as low as $15. You got sales as, you know, $100, $50 and stuff like that. So they've got nine of them. They're just adding them up. Adding them up.

And the major drug, the actual sales to the undercover was a felony sale, right? So to put in perspective, what they do, right, I try to, well, my lawyer and I first was going to try to run with the entrapment charge, right? Because if the investigation shows that the sales is at a certain level, and now you find that you get an undercover to come around and convince you or talk you to go get some high, like, hey, listen, can you fulfill this order or something like, let's fulfill this order. and then now you go get an a, now you go serve an a felony worth of drugs. Then it's like, okay, boom, we got them. Now we can tie the conspiracy because you need an a felony for the conspiracy.

And it was never going to even be a major drug trafficking case until they happened to stumble across a whole lot of money in a jurisdiction outside of Long Island. So, go ahead. Okay, no, go ahead. All right. So now, to paint this all up, because it's like, whoa, what's going on, right?

All right, so now I'm on investigation. On February, I got locked on February 24th, 2016. On February 23rd, they go to the civil court. Now, every drug case, every drug case that's on the investigation, there's like two prongs, there's like two parts to it.

There's a civil part of it and the criminal side, right? Because they want to seize all the assets and everything like that. Right. So while I'm still in the street, they go to the civil, just go to the civil court. And it's a civil forfeiture proceeding that they ask in the judge, hey, listen, we feel that in nine months, this case right here,

you know, just as a valuation, act like it's a stock market. In nine months, we project with the street value, and with the phone calls we made, he made $324,000 in nine months. What that is, why they do that is so when you go and cop out and take a plea deal, usually people forfeit. part of the cop out is a forfeit. So to satisfy that $300, in my case, that $324,000 judgment,

it was already saying like, all right, there was really thinking whatever they sees, which is going to be probably less than that, when we cop out, when he cops out, he's going to forfeit whatever it is to satisfy that judgment. So February 23rd, that happened. The next day, every 24th,

they locked me up, lock my COD up. How do they come get you? So they was following me, driving. Right? So I left the residence. They just followed me up the block and blocked me up. So. They pulled you over?

No, no, no. This is all from the wiretaps, GPS. I just left Queens. Yeah, I just left Queens, whatever, right? So in their minds, they feel the transaction just happened. They're trying to tie up the case. This is how you could tell us all about the money. They're trying to tie up the case because they just got the judge's judgment.

that they could seize the $324,000. It's like, all right, boom. So now let's just go see what we could get our hands on. Okay, I understand, but I'm saying, did they pull a marked police car behind you and pull you over like it was speeding, or did they cut you off and there were four cop cars and they lock up and pull their guns on you,

throw you on the ground? Like, what happened? Did they ask you to politely come down to the police station? When you get up tomorrow morning, well, you know, like, was it a letter? I got you, I got you. All right, so I went out to Queens. Really, to have a conversation,

kind of conversation with my COD, right? And now as they had a hold, they had the vans out. They had vans across the street, and I'm learning all this in my trial. Right. Because you didn't see any of this? Like, you weren't even paying attention.

It's like 2.30 in the morning. It's raining. It's raining. We had to chop it up about something. And, you know, based on when I see it in trial, they had a van, an unmarked van outside with cameras. pointing out of it. They had another car on the side of the street.

Camry's pointing out the direction where we're at. And when I left, when I left, this is Queens. Long Island is about like a 30 minute. It's like a 35 minute drive. They're following us. And it's like, it's crazy because like my girl at the time, you know, she's like telling me too. She's like, like, yo, I feel like somebody's following us or something.

I'm just like, I'm like kind of like, nah, what the fuck you're talking about, right? And it's like the whole time she's like, I think somebody's following this. So I stop at a house. Stop at the house. They'd for like probably 25 minutes. When I leave, when I leave, there was a marked police car that stopped me. Once they got me out, patting me down,

then you just start seeing all the Ds coming. A bunch of D cars. And it's crazy because one of the detective cars that I seen was a car that was actually, I remember one time outside my house, and they're like parked up right behind my car. like, you know what I mean? Yeah. So they actually drove off when they drove off.

I'm like, yo, who the fuck is that? So, you know, I'm thinking as someone, I'm not thinking it's the police. You know what I mean? So I actually go follow the car. Stop at the stop sign. I'm just looking at, they got the car tinted up crazy. I got the car tinted up crazy. And they just kind of like start revving the engine a little bit.

I'm like, yo, who the fuck is? Is that kind of weird shit is this going on? And they just kind of drove off. And it's funny. Like, it's like they knew I remember that shit because they just, that car just pulled up in front of us and just kind of like just started smiling and shit like

oh yeah like it was us the whole time watching you you know what I mean so that's how that that's how that encounter it was smooth it wasn't no it wasn't no running out

you know getting chased down and nothing like that but um so they did they brought us to the precinct brought into the precinct had me in the precinct

for like in that room for like like five hours seeing nobody nothing like that And what they, then the guy comes in and he's just like, he's like, start asking me like simple questions. So I'm trying to, at first I'm just like, all right, let me see what he knows, right? So while he's asking me questions, he's like, so where did you come for whatever? I'm just asking him like, I mean, what are you talking?

I was just in my bed. So I'm like playing stupid with him. He's getting aggravated and shit like that. But as he's talking, I'm piecing together like that I'm narrowing down everything that was going on as he's talking. And then it just came to a point It was like I just don't feel comfortable talking I don't feel like to feel comfortable talking without a lawyer And at that point he just kind of got up

And just walked out Right And that's I guess you know I learned later that's typically how I was supposed to go So I'm not going to say like you know It wasn't Everything kind of went by the book I could say for me and that part

Go to the from there One thing he was saying though was like You know you're in a lot of trouble I'm like trouble In my mind I'm like Man what the fuck they talk about I'm here in Suffolk County. Like, I know I wasn't doing nothing crazy, right?

He's like, you know, you're in a lot of trouble. He's like, yo, you know, your family, you know, when you come outside, your family's gonna be here, it's gonna be the news station, all that. And it's like, yo, my mind, I'm like, yo, holy shit, man. Like, what the fuck is going on right now? You know what I'm saying?

You know, it's one thing, you don't want your family or get caught up in all this kind of stuff. But it's like, yo, you know, you got to stick to the code. You can't say nothing. Once you say something, it's over. You know, once you start writing statements, anything, it's over, you're done. So the whole time I'm there, still staying in the room.

Now it's about like 7, 8 o'clock in the morning. Comes like, are you ready? So in my mind, I'm thinking there's about to be a whole news cast station outside, the whole news station outside. I'll go outside, open the door. I'm like, what the fuck? She's empty. You ain't nobody out there, nothing.

So I'm like, yo, what's going on here? Bring me out to, bring me to the court for arraignment. So I had a friend, well, a lawyer friend, you know, he has a couple, like, celebrity clients and stuff like that. That's the only person I seen to call. I chose to call and walk inside the courtroom, come stand next to him, and the chief narcotics bureau lady,

she's in there. And then she starts talking about like, yeah, Anthony Baptiste facing a major drug trafficking case, facing life in prison. What I was the fuck? I'm thinking like, hold up, I'm here. I'm here for, I'm here like, hold up. Probably call it a little hand-in-hand or something like that.

Right. Yeah. Oh, the judge's like, oh, yeah, we're saying to bail $5 million bill, $10 million bond. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on? So I had to go back in the cell. So obviously I wasn't bailing out nowhere. So went back in the cell and it's like, oh, your shit, what the fuck's going on, right?

That's where I'm in the court for 18. I'm in the jail for 18 months. Within that 18 months, so much bullshit was happening that kind of led to me not taking no plea deal. So, first thing was... What plea deal are you gonna take?

You just said they were fucking talking about a life sentence. So yeah, so look, right? This is how... The plea gonna be?

30 years? Like... No, right? You would think so, right? So they gave me a plea. They was trying to give me a plea for eight years.

Right? So, I mean, everyone's thinking like eight years, okay, yeah, take that compared to this life sentence shit. But if the eight years is some bullshit, right? If the case is some bullshit,

why the fuck am I taking eight years, right? You're not, you didn't, why are we not starting at eight years and start bringing it down, right? This is not no major drug trafficking case. Right. So what happened was there was time, moments, I was going to take the plea deal.

So one time I was going to take the plea deal, and it was like, I was walking. I was talking to my boy like, yeah, I must go take this plea deal right now. We all chained up. And it's like they got like a chain game. It goes from the jail, like through a tunnel and then you go to the court. So we're saying, I'm just saying like, yeah, I'm going to take this plea right now. whatever and as I'm talking someone next to us that's chained up he's like he's like yo you baptize I'm like yeah he's like yo he's like yo you cold he didn't cop out because that's what

they was telling me they was telling me that my in order for to get me to cop out there's telling me that my co-dee copped out oh yeah he's ready to testify against you he's exactly exactly so you know me not knowing nothing about the law just a little shit like that you know that was enough like i right the bullet do that so when he told me that I went I'm walking so usually you know you see your lawyer before you walk out to take a plea deal. And I'm asking him like, yo, did, um, yo, I was told that my COD copped out. And he's like, what? He's like, he's like, nah, you can cop out.

I'm like, hold on. What the fuck? So what the fuck is going on right now? And now at that point, you know what I mean? I guess at that moment, he's probably like, yo, don't play with them. They're going, ah, ah, you know, like basically what happened, I guess what he was assuming was going going to happen, did happen. But I'm like, I'm not taking shit

like blindly. Like, you know what I mean? Like, what's going on? I'm getting lied to now and all this shit. Went inside the courtroom. I'm like, listen, I don't trust nobody no more, right? Like, Yana, I'm not getting rid of my lawyer. I want to see all the evidence against me. I'm not taking no plea deal. That shit, then there's just a snowball effect after that.

A few months down the line, they're like, listen, if you don't take this plea deal, whatever, we're going to start trial. I'm like, all right, well, I need to see it. the evidence against me. I just don't feel comfortable taking no deal without no evidence. It's crazy because fast forward in New York, they end up changing discovery laws and everything so people could. It's like, your lawyer was blindly like defending you without even seeing all the evidence against you, which is crazy. I mean, this is me thinking logically, I'm not even,

this is my first time in jail. I'm like, so y'all really taking deals to this shit? Well, people are under the misconception that all lawyers are equal and all of them are looking out for you. And all of them are doing their due diligence and they're looking through all the documents. And usually they're not doing that until just beforehand, just before they have to do anything. They have so many cases. Exactly. And they typically just believe whatever the government told them you did. Well, we got them on this and this and this and this.

Okay, well, that's what they got them for. Okay. Well, hey, it sounds to me like they got, I was talking to the U.S. attorney or the district attorney, he said he got you on this and this and this and you're like, what? And he's not asking for, and most of the clients are lying to them anyway. So why would I double check? You're just another lying client. Exactly. Why would I go out on my way?

I got to listen to, they got 250 hours of wiretaps on you. You know how long it takes to listen to 250 hours of wiretaps? 250 hours. At a minimum. Do you see what I'm saying? So it's like, that's 250 hours. I'm working 40 hours a week. Even if I'm working 50.

That's five weeks. To find what? You're probably lying anyway. Exactly. Do you see what I'm saying? So one minute, I always feel like the lawyers are scumbags. And the other, on the other hand, I think, they're overwhelmed. Exactly.

You know, how this one lawyer can compete with the 75 people that put together this case, they can't even listen to the wiretaps. And, Matt, you get it. And it's like it takes understanding the law to understand all these little aspects of it. What a horrible position you're in. Exactly. Right. So, of course, at the time, I was on some like, yo, fuck everybody. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, whatever. But in time, understanding how this legal stuff really is. And everything you're saying is like, I understood. Like, this is just the game. And you get yourself in the, you get yourself playing in this game. This is how it's going to go, right? And especially if you're not legally savvy at all, it's like you're going in there. It's really, your fate is really in other people's hands, right? But your fate isn't someone's hand also that has. Matt, a whole bunch of other cases

that has to listen to 250-hour wiretaps. You know, so it was like, come on, let's be realistic, right? You can't have the expectation that he's going to be able to do all the due diligence that you want him to do. Right. You know, and that came, I started realizing that later on. But at the moment, you know, all it was just like, yo, I mean, I was always a self-thinking.

I'm not just going to take a plea deal. after hearing somebody lying to me and my, you know, this is my first fence and stuff like that. I'm like, you know, I'm not just going through this shit. You know, I got a reputation to hold as well, not even on some, it has on doing some street shit,

but you know, when you're doing business with people, legitimate business with people, and now you've got this stain on your back that your finances, how you're making money and stuff like that, you know, people of course want to back up off you. You know? So if I was going to make this decision, it had to be a clear decision on what's going on.

I'm not just going to take this shit and just, all right, time it's like, all right, taking this is now. This is what your future is right now. No, it's not you're trying to explain. So nobody's trying to hear that, yo, you know what happened? What happened was. Right. You know what I mean? All right.

So after that, I was saying about how, you know, got caught, you know, some people lined to me, whatever, plea deal. A couple months down the line, they saying we're going to trial. I'm just like, all, whatever, you know, if we're going to do what we do. Right now, I'm ready. I'm in. You know what I mean? I was like, fuck,

we're going to move forward. Is it the same lawyer? Because I thought you said, you were getting rid of my lawyer. So I got rid of the lawyer. So in the meantime, so now it's like, you know,

I got no funds, fucked up. They, it's like, I'm in transition to them actually assigning me what they call it, in New York,

they call it 18B. So it's like a private attorney who has to do like some pro bono stuff. Right, right. Well, the court typically pays them. Don't they typically pay? Yeah.

But they're getting, they're getting like, yeah, they're getting, Yeah, exactly. What is it? Because they're not public defenders, because public defenders actually work for the public defender's office. These are private attorneys that get a set fee to represent, to represent defendants, right?

Like, it's like $6,000 for this, $12,000, $30 if they go to trial. Yeah, and it's, and they have to do a certain, I guess they have to do a certain amount every year. Oh, do? Okay, I didn't know that. Yeah. So New York is like, as an 18B. Because pro bono is like free. Yeah.

So, yeah, so you can't use the word pro bono, right? They actually getting paid to do it, but they have to do a certain amount of these cases every year. Right. So obviously it's a fraction of the cost that they're going to. Of course, I'm sure they fucking hate it. Yeah, you know what I hate it? Oh, this motherfucker, one of these guys. See, I got to do another one of these.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, of course, you definitely not going to expect someone getting paid, whatever, they're getting paid to go through 250 hours of wiretaps, right? Yeah. But, yeah, so I end up getting 18B, but in transition of that, it's like, they, kind of was like not trying to, they were stuck on me trying to take a plea deal. And even that was like,

yo, y'all don't care about what the fuck? y'all don't care about me so much. Why are you trying so hard to get me a plea deal, right? So let me tell you, right, this. So the next day, the few days later, after they say we go on the trial, I go in the courtroom. Well, before I go in the courtroom,

I'm in the ballpen. I don't know what you guys call it down here. That's like the holding area. Yeah. All right. Same shit? All right, cool. So I'm in the ball pin.

Nobody is a ballpin? What do you say bullpen? I thought it was bullpen. bullpen like the bowl where they keep the bull you know what you think it's probably bullpen right is it bullpen right is it bullpen yeah yeah they're all walking around the room you know I guess it's a good thing this shit's starting to fade away already right so yeah it is all county talk right so I'm in a bullpen right it's me and then someone else in like the PC sell right nobody else did or so I'm saying they they called me out all right going to trial whatever

they have the room set up for trial Like, literally got to set up, you know, the DA table on one side, me and my attorney on the other side. I'm here thinking I know about law. I pull out of Black Lord's dictionary like that shit's going to, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, I'm thinking whatever. You know, I don't know shit about it, but I'm trying to figure it out. So I'm like, all right, we're going to take it, man. We're going to keep this in God's standing and keep it moving. So while we're, while I'm sitting down, I'm like, everybody's just going through fiddling through papers and stuff.

I didn't notice at the time. It was until after the fact, I'm like, all right, they kind of like, look and. at me, kind of trying to see what my reaction is and stuff. I'm just saying here like, all right, we're going to do this, we're going to do this, right? So the judge announcing is like, all right, bring the jury in. So now I'm just hearing all the footsteps coming in. It's like, holy shit. You know, if you haven't ever experienced that shit, you know, that shit is like, that shit's like,

oh, now this shit is freaking really going on, right? All beating and stuff. The room fills up. It's probably like 60, 70 jurors in there, right? Potential jurors. And the judge is like, all right, everyone, how are you doing? I'm about to start trial. They're standing third.

And he's like, okay, after lunch, we're going to have 45-minute lunch. We're going to recess and we're going to come back and start the trial. All right, empty them out. I'm just like, all right. Now they just, everyone's still just like quiet for like another two minutes. I'm like, what the fuck is going on? Like, what's happening, right? They're like, all right, we're going to adjourn this.

He had his little attitude or something. He's like, no, he didn't say adjourn. He's like, we're going to come back after lunch and start the trial. I go back in the back. 45 minutes later, what they do, the person that's sitting across with me, another black big kid, you know, I used to be 300 pounds and stuff back in the day.

So another big black kid that was sitting across from me in the bullpen, right? He goes out to the courtroom. So what they was basically trying to do was trying to scare me to want to take a plea deal, take a plea deal, and that trial, that whole job, jury situation, all that shit had nothing to do

it. That was even for me. Okay. This is the type of shit. I got the transcripts to all this stuff too. So just to try to scare me to take a plea deal. Now my question, now I'm asking myself, I'm going back in my cell. Like, what the fuck they're going, why are they trying to go so hard to have me take a plea deal, right? So even more is making me even double down some more. Like, fuck that. I'm not taking no plea deal, right? So now the next thing that pops up that I don't

take a plea deal that's making me like making me more resistance to taking a plea deal. They have something called an omnibus motion, right? So that's basically like a motion that they, right before you actually go in a trial that you're asking for like the pre-trial hearings and stuff like that. So it's a collective of most of different hearings and stuff that you're asking for. In that motion, in response to my lawyer's motion, I have the 18B now, the ADA says that oh we provided we provided

Anthony Baptiste's attorney a copy of his rap sheet and it shows it reflects that I have basically saying I have seven prior felonies I've never been locked up a day in my life right so you know me you know I'm trying to hold on to everything

you know anything that could be something I'm like yo the fuck is this oh fraud biz da da da da talking to my lawyer my lawyer is kind of like brushing like well you know I mean It's probably an error, but it's probably like a mistake or something like that. You don't think it's, you know what I mean? He's trying to brush the shit all. So I come to realize later, you know, they're not supposed to be in a presumption that someone is doing some type of fraudulent act because everyone took this oath, right?

Right. You know what I mean? So unless there's really some hardcore proof that there's something to support that situation, I mean, there's really not much he can do. This is what I know now. But at the time, of course, I'm like, yo, what the fuck is? You know, the hell's going on, right? I'm not taking no plea deal. Go to trial.

Fast forward. You end up going to trial. You know, two days was like, I think it was like four days before my trial. They finally give me, I'm not even all my evidence, but they finally start giving me some evidence on the case. And tell me like, all right, here, stack of papers like, okay, this is what you've been waiting for. Oh, so you give me this shit. I've been here, I've been in this county for 18 months. You wait until, you know what I'm saying?

Four or five days before trial to give me all this paperwork. So another thing with the law changes, right? That was the whole discovery thing that they stopped doing that. They actually changed the discovery laws in New York saying you can't wait until last minute. Right. To give all the evidence to people, whatever. But this is the shit that they was doing all the time. You know what I mean?

I didn't know that. You know, first just getting into this whole system. So go to trial It's a circus and trial What I mean about a circus In trial There was a couple of situations that happened That was just like oh this shit is a fucking

TV show So one of the jurors Right so that fact In my truck This episode is brought to you by FedEx These days The power move isn't having a big metallic credit card to drop on the check

At a corporate lunch The real power move is leveling up your business with FedEx intelligence and accessing one of the biggest data networks powered by one of the biggest delivery networks. Level up your business with FedEx, the new power move. They actually closed off. Most of my trial was closed off to the public. The excuse was that some of the detectives had some ongoing undercover work.

Right. So now nobody could really come in there and see the circus. Right. So in that circus, right, so they only allowed my parents to come in for most of the trial. One of the jurors was like came in and basically said that, hey, they found a note. They found a note on their car that said someone with a black coat put something under, put, went under the car, like they put something under the car. like they put something under there, and there's a dark-skinned man with a black long coat.

Coincidence, my dad has a black long coat, right? And the judge is like, watch you, I mean, nobody's about fairly have no criminal history and none of that shit, right? And it's how the judge is trying to, like, say it, like, oh, yeah, well, you know, there's no, we can't, this is not credible. And then the guy says, and where the car was located in the parking lot at the court, the cameras didn't catch, the cameras couldn't catch anything. So I'm like, you're telling me like, shit, I'm going to start hustling.

I'm going to just hustling the course parking lot. If that's the case, you know what I'm going to hustle the court's parking lot. Coincidentally, you know, the court's parking lot, there's a little, the spot where the car is at, there's no cameras to see what's going on. Right. You had another juror. And mind you, they like trying to, they're selecting, like, trying to, they, they're selecting who to do this shit with, right?

So you had this other Spanish lady that came and said, like, oh, someone passed and she woke up. She heard a car last night, pulled in front of her house and screech off, and then she woke up and seen that someone threw a rock through her car window. Right? So they're trying to, like, paint this picture,

like some witness intimidation kind of thing. Like, really trying to make me look like freaking El Chapo's underling or some shit. Right. Like, you got people out there trying to intimidate the jury. Exactly. And even when they shut off, when they close the doors down

for people to come inside the, I mean, from stopping people from, I'm coming inside the court outside. My mom was telling me they got police out there with AKs and shit like that. So you walk it past the door. You got a police officer with an AK-47. The jurors is looking at this shit like, yo, who the fuck is inside this?

Now, this guy must be guilty, right? Right. You're a dangerous criminal for sure. Exactly. Right. This is the theatrics. This is what I got convicted on. The show house wasn't the evidence, you know what I mean?

It wasn't the evidence. So now we go, so now, whatever, my lawyer, you know, my lawyer put it out there, like, listen, everything you just showed here was this street level, mid-level drug dealer, it's nothing to raise the level of major drug trafficking and all that. Now, what was, it seemed to be what kind of, what kind of really what they was trying to hone on to kind of make it, make me look like this major drug trafficking is the money that they found in Queens. outside of their jurisdiction. So, I'm saying how they said that, they said the case they believed was three, they made a valuation of $324,000 on the case. Yeah.

So when, after I got arrested, that same night, they raided, you know, where I was staying, my place, my mother's place, you know, in Long Island. And through, you know, phone calls and stuff like that, They was able to narrow down a location in Queens. Landlord let them in. Over there, they found about like $700,000. So remember, they only have a judgment, a permission,

to take $324,000. So now they must be in there scratching their head like, yo, fuck. Like how the fuck we want to, like we only get to take $324,000. So someone came up with a clever idea to submit a supplemental ex parte motion. So the original motion to ex parte said it was $324,000. Right. So someone came up with the idea, we're going to go back in the court

with a supplemental ex parte motion and say, oh, your honor, and throughout our investigation, we uncovered more evidence. And what they did was, I got locked up February 24th, 2016. In October of 2015, there was some other major drug trafficking case.

They basically conflated their case with mine in this supplemental motion to now make it seem like it was a big major drug trafficking case and that money that was seized in Queens outside of jurisdiction was made in Suffolk County. It's subject to being seized. Yes, because it now, basically what it looks like in this civil court is that, oh no, it wasn't originally, now it wasn't

$3204,731,000 made so we could now we you know we have the wiggle room to seize this money right right now because that's in all in the civil court and I only had like a criminal attorney at the time right what people don't understand with the drug cases like it's two folds you got the civil it's everything the civil court criminal court all this ex parte stuff and I didn't have no one to really dig into it like I'm in I'm in jail and still getting served papers and whatever case may be but nobody's there no attorney is there to dig into that stuff. So usually some drug cases, they'll have their criminal attorney adopt that responsibility. Right.

To try to go in there or you go hire yourself a civil attorney to take care of that. So that whole story I didn't know about, but that was the reason, like the reason why they had to make this case look like how it was over the money. So I'm sitting in trial Well like I said now my lawyer My lawyer it did end up Like all the bullshit The circus that was going on Yeah

And then yeah So I get found guilty on On 14 out of 16 charges We can add insult to injury The only two charges that was found out guilty for It was the two misdemeanors Okay You know what I mean

It's crazy right But um So now You know my lawyer come see me Well, what evidence did they, they just showed the buys and then they did a calculation on how much money? So it was, all right, in New York State, you have to prove, New York State you have to prove that it's in six months, it's nothing like the feds. It's really not that hard to make someone a major drug trafficker. Six months you have to prove that a person made $75,000 or more, either in sales or like possession value or if someone is,

has like a distribution ring, then they'll just add whoever, everyone that they're in control of any sales that they all made. Right? My case, they say that it was in sales. So, in my case, what they did was

they used the actual value of what they felt was the value of the possessions possession that was found inside of a house, completed that with the sales, sales that made that was made with the undercover and then try to use the street value of phone calls that they had that was not actually like physical sales that they basically had like they're just

listening conversations then it was just like oh this person called this person he called this person this guy wanted $50 worth or something you know what I mean oh he said 50 or so they interpreting what the conversations are now I heard in I heard in like the feds they could kind of play around with it like ghost money stuff and all this kind of shit ghost ghost dope where they say he sold he sold you know uh whatever you know five ounces here then he sold five ounces then he sold five ounces and then they go okay so he did that within a month that's 15 ounces like okay and how long's you and then they'll talk to the informant how long you've been buying drugs from them five years oh okay so he's been doing that for five and then they just do the calculation next thing you know it's it's like

it's 40 kilos of, and you're like, 40 kilos. Like, we're talking about. They're like, yeah. And it's like, and they didn't even catch you. They never caught you once with, not anything ever. They actually caught the informant. He just said that he was buying it from you. Yeah.

The feds. Right. And then you're like, you guys are in there going, you know. Yep. I know, like, and that's it. And then they give them 40 and whatever. Then they get 30 years or whatever. That's it.

It's over. Yep. Well, good thing. New York State don't work like that, right? So you need to have proof of any sale. You're not going to say a sale as long as if there's no agreement between someone has to working with law enforcement. You know what I mean? There has to actually be a product or something like that. So you can't do that. But they were so, you know, my lawyer pointed itself all out in the trials. In six months, in the six-month investigation within the few months of wiretaps, whatever you had. I mean, bro, you probably came up with like $12,000 worth of sales. Right. So now you're doing all this other shit. Phone calls between me and my code D. We're talking about bottles for the club. Like, oh, no, yeah, the bottles,

that was him going to pick up some drugs and something. So you're trying to use... He's using code. That's code. Yeah. But, I mean, that's not even a sale, right? Then what is that then? You're talking about, all right,

if you're talking about me and my code D talking about getting some drugs, you're like, oh, the drugs that day was obtained. The street value is this. and it's going to sell. So you're training this shit like the stock market where you're projecting what we're about to get that we're going to probably sell. And you don't got no evidence to support that.

And in my trial, it was, it was, or it had to be like at least like 12 officers that testified against me. One undercover that, okay, the controlled-bought sales happened. And every other detective was part of the surveillance team. every single detective stated in the record that within the nine months every single one of them said that they've seen no money

or no drugs and just seen two cars pull up to each other okay this is this is what the trial looked like and in order to make the $75,000 you're doing you're using value of possession conversations with me

me and my lawyer was like yo this is all bullshit right here obviously there's nothing to to show that whatever but you remember that saying like you know the lifestyle everything going on is like who knows what the fuck somebody's in there saying so you you have to make this stick now right and judge is basically like all right listen we're going to leave that all up to the jury you know that's their famous line yeah yeah let the jury let the jury let the jury look at it and and let him

let them figure it out or they do something completely they do something completely you know that they're not allowed to do. And then they go, well, harmless error. It's like, Your Honor, we found out that the detective on the case stood up there and lied. He's already admitted lied. And we've indicted him on another case. And he completely lied. And they go, ah, harmless error.

Harmless error. Harmless ever. Yeah. Shit is crazy. It's crazy. But yeah. And this is the thing that you see, you know, you know from experience how this thing works. So this is the world don't see.

No, no. The world watches law and order. They believe law and order. They believe that McCoy, the district attorney McCoy, finds out that the guy didn't actually murder the person. And he immediately calls the judge at home at 11 o'clock at night and says, Your Honor. It turns out that Bradley Johnson didn't kill him. And they go, oh, my God, we've got to get him out of jail immediately. I'm going to write up an order.

And then they write up an order and they go to the judge's house and he hands it to him. And then they drive at 1 o'clock in the morning to the prison. And they forced them to open it and they get him out of this cell. And they say, my God. And then McCoy apologizes and said, Bradley, we're going to fix all this. And I'm so sorry you lost your house and your children and everything. But in reality, when he finds out that Bradley, that the DNA didn't match, he says, well, he was just working with somebody else. It's just there's two of them.

He was there. We know he was there. No, no, we don't have to provide that to anybody. He's already sent him. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. Don't worry about it.

No, he'll be fine. Obviously, he had a partner. Yeah, it's a partner's DNA. And they say nothing And Bradley does fucking 40 years And you know You know it's so fucked up too Get sidetrackers

When you think about it right Not that I don't love Law & Order It is a great show That is a dope show I like that too That's my thing It's just you know It's a fantasy

Yeah Not only is the law A paradox And there's just so much like Aspects to it Like I said Everyone just watches Law & Order

Yeah Which is a great show Right Right But it's just like it's not as straightforward. You know what I mean? This system been around for hundreds of years. There is some type of sophistication in this.

If it was so straightforward, it's like you wouldn't need lawyers to be in law school for 10 years, 8 years. There wouldn't be really no strategy to this. There wouldn't be no back and forth, right? So it has to be something more than just, all right, well, you got locked up. I mean, they got the evidence. Yeah, it must be guilty. It must be guilty. If it was that simple, right?

Or if there was that simple, why is there so many people after 15, 20 years? Oh, he was found innocent. And that doesn't make you scratch your head to see how much, how many more people is actually innocent inside there that didn't get that opportunity to get proven innocent. You know what I'm saying?

And that's the things like society kind of has to kind of look at. But, well, for clarification. you're not innocent No No no no no But you're But and here's what people Understand is that

People are like well He's still guilty Yeah okay He's guilty But if you steal a candy bar Then you get scolded And maybe you have to go Sweep the parking lot

You don't get your hand chopped off Exactly So now it becomes It's like oh well he's still guilty Yeah but they chopped his fucking hand off Yeah So this is how I use it And I'm just clear

Any conversation, any interview that I have, I was to make sure I'm transparent and about everything, right? Right. Everybody's going to come around and start trying to say, oh, I say this and say that, right? My case is a case of wrongful conviction, right, which is different than someone being actually innocent. Right. You know? And when it comes to the actual innocent part, I can say the top charge of major operating as a major drug trafficker, I'm actual innocent of that. Yeah.

And based on all the scandalous stuff that they had to do to prove that charge supports that I'm innocent of that. Right. And this is the same narrative that my attorneys and anyone, whoever looked at the paperwork shows as well, right? But, you know, obviously what they hide is once they get that, once the jury, the knowledgeable jury of the law, right, finds you guilty. The 12 people that couldn't get themselves out of jury duty. Yeah, I couldn't get them out of those jury duty. Man late, hungry. Right.

Pissed off at you for talking so much and for dragging this thing out for four days. Exactly, right? Found you guilty of the crime. Then that's what it is. Right. So how much time did you get? Sorry, I'm sorry, did we miss anything yet? So we're about to go into the time right now.

Okay. Right? So I get found guilty. You know, that part right there, you know, like I said, I mean for anybody, right? Just not just being, being the first time in trial, which everyone. A lot of people is the first time in trial. Soldiers. After 42 jury notes,

42. It sounds like there's some confusion. Yeah. It's a circus in there. It's like they're trying to, they're trying to play detective now in there. You know what I'm saying? Not knowing how a law works.

After 42 jury notes, they now, they, you know, again, I get convicted. 14, found guilty on the 14 charges out of 16. My lawyer comes to seize me. You know, like, all right, yeah, this is what's going on. You know, still give you, you know, the lawyer was trying to give you that a little bit of possibility of hope.

Like, oh, yeah, some mitigating factors, yeah. They tell you everything that you're kind of like, oh, yeah, this, yeah, this is bullshit. Yeah, yeah. They know, you know, it's not a major drug trafficking case, whatever. I'm putting the mitigating, whatever. So I was like, all right, you know, you're not being sad. You know, you're not being knowledgeable, and you're always going to think you're going to try to any type of hope you can find.

Right. You're going to hold on to it. So you're walking into this. Now I'm getting a sentence. you're walking into this with this kind of hope like, all, yeah, we all know it's bullshit. And then you hear the judge says, all right, based on everything that's heard, whatever,

basically giving you the max on everything. So I got sentenced, first-time offender for a nonviolent drug charge, one coax bearder, nothing but detectives, nothing but law enforcement testified against me in trial. Not no CI, not one other person breathing coming to the trial

that testified against me. He told me I sold them any drugs. And ultimately they gave me 51 years to life. All this matter of fact, let's put it in perspective. I mean, let me add some insult to injury. I'm sorry. I was sent to 46 years to life. But then they messed up on a calculation.

And let me know, oh, no, it wasn't 46 years to life. Oh, no, it was 51 years to life. To add insult to injury, yeah. So now you got this news article that comes out, right? And, as a fact, the next morning, after I got sentenced that, they wake me about 5 o'clock in the morning. You already know what type of shape I'm in after that, right? You know, you just hear some shit like that. I'm trying to hold on to this, you know, this faith.

You know what I mean? Like, all right, all the signs, there's signs that led to this moment. It's like, all right, we're not doing this. We're not staying here. You know, they're saying about the, when people are intimidated and just like, it's kind of what kind of heart do you have, right? What kind of person are, what kind of spirit you have, right? So I'm like, all right, so I'm still a little broken and shaking up that morning. Obviously, call me at 5 o'clock in the morning.

I'm looking how I feel, right? Like, oh, you got to take a picture and stuff like that. I'm like, all right, whatever. They take a picture of me that morning. That 5 o'clock picture looking crazy is on all the news throughout the tri-state. Right. By 4 o'clock, I mean, by 5 o'clock that afternoon. Major drug ring dismantled.

46 years to life this, then and the third, whatever, whatever, right? Now the semantics, right? A ring, who's thinking that you could have a one-person drug ring that was dismantled?

Right. You know, this is when they play with the legal terms and everything like that. Like, oh, no, well, technically, yeah, ring property, but the world's not seeing that. They're thinking it's a whole major drug trafficking ring going on to a bunch of people and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, you got 40 code defendants.

Yeah, right? So, I mean, so remember the whole narrative still has to stem to this money that we have to make this look like a drug trafficking case, big case, whatever, and then keeping this whole narrative going. So even, even to take it back just a little bit, even when they held the press conference that held the press conference. So I didn't, when I got arrested, it wasn't until like two months after that that they actually put me on the news. Now, when they put me on the news, it was, and we're going to go into the DA and the police chief at the time. So when they put me on the news, it was, they had a picture of, on one canvas of my co-conspirator, one picture on big canvas of me, and that morning they made an arrest, mine was two months after I got arrested, that morning they made arrest on this other major drug trafficking case,

and they had a big canvas, they had one canvas of the whole, whole drug trafficking ring and on that one canvas. So it gave the perception if you look at it. That you were connected. It's all connected to these people. It's really just you and another guy. Me and another guy. Now verbally they said it was two

it was two major drug trafficking rings, you know what I mean, that they found. That they basically unraveled or whatever you want to call it. And what they did was on one table, they had the table they had like the money, jewelry and stuff like that, behind like our canvas and then right next to the table this other case you had fed involved the person's

neighbor the mother and daughter died odeed and everything like that but you look at it it looks like we're the suppliers right supplying this thing visually now they call you the did they call you the the batista drug organization oh yeah not i would love that it's like that's fucking serious they should have right right but you know it's the funny thing right in this front all this big front page news stuff they had a paragraph on my case there's a paragraph they had a three page spread on the other one oh but there's another major drug traffic case the who's looking like the supply they had a paragraph of information to put out there oh nine-month investigation it was untangled yeah and over over 600,000 dollars was seized this is what this is what you had to

give the people right right so i say that to say this at that at that point this press conference thing This is Suffolk County now. You're probably familiar with Suffolk County because of the Gilgo Beach killing. Yeah, yeah. It's all in the news now. News, Netflix, all kind of stuff. That's Long Island.

At the time of the guilt when the bodies were just discovered, was like, I think that was like 12, 13. Yeah, like 2012, 2013. The district attorney and police chief at the time, DA's name was Thomas Bull. and the police chief was James Burke. Now, these names is floating around this story because at the time the feds were trying to, like,

you know, you found a bunch of dead prostitutes and stuff like that. You know, of course the feds were going to be like, yeah, we're trying to get involved. Thomas Porter was like, hold on, no, no, we got this. Taking care this. We don't got to get involved in a night. Ever since they did that, there was kind of on the radar, like, what do you mean you don't want to sit involved?

Right? So I think that kind of put a target on his back For whatever reasons, I don't know, whatever, you know, there's all types of theories that I can't prove or anyone can prove, so I'm not going to say anything moving further than that. So I think that put a target on his back. Fast forward around the time I get arrested,

he's under investigation because the police chief ends up getting arrested, ends up getting arrested by the feds but like beating up some kid or something like that. And the Thomas Boulder is basically under investigation for covering it up. Right. So they both like step down or something and then the chief comes up? Well, it wasn't stepped down.

They got arrested and went to jail. Oh, okay. We went to jail. You know, they went to, yeah, water just a resign. Yeah, that resign ain't saved nobody. And so they end up going to the feds, right? So just show you the atmosphere, the temperature, like what kind of... These guys aren't rules followers.

It's probably short of... Yeah, it's a little bit short of rule followers, right? You know? And yeah, so these guys are people in charge of this whole casing going on. So what makes it interesting is, like, at the time, you know, I don't know shit about what's going on. I'm not, you know, first I'm getting locked up. I'm not in the papers and stuff like that. So I'm not knowing all the season of investigation and stuff like that going on.

What he does and what he does and what he's... he's trying to do at this point is trying to regain public confidence because now elections is coming up so he's looking for anything too so it was like everyone had like the personal invested interest in making this look like something crazy everyone that got their hands on the money want the money right you got a DA that's trying to get back reelected right so he needs to looks, he needs to make shit look like he's cleaning up the streets and whatever case for me. So you have all this money. You got all, you got this case right here, fan, nothing.

Like, all right, so it could look like, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. We got to make it look good for TV. Now everyone is turning into Steven Spielberg and shit and just want to, you know, make it look good for TV, right? So, so that was like his motive and stuff like that. Fast forward going at the end of the trial. A week before I was actually sentenced is when the Fed.

came and locked up Thomas Borda, the DA. And, you know, that was just like, the timing was just crazy because, you know, I said, I had buddies in there. And the whole time saying, like, yo, listen, this shit's going to get, something's happening. So in my mind is like,

I already foresee, like, the Fed is going to come in and lock these dudes up. And it's just like, right after my trial, if that happens, then get sentenced, whatever. And end up going, you know, after that, the sentence to 51 years of life and get shipped upstate.

I'm upstate. That was in December. I'm upstate by January 2nd, going straight to Clinton. Yeah, Clinton. Okay. Yeah. And is this a medium? So, Clinton is a maximum correctional facility.

So that's probably another place you probably... Oh yeah, you got so much time. Yes. It's not the violence or anything like that. It's a time. Going with the big dogs. Yeah. So you're probably familiar with Clinton because the movie escaping Danamo.

Don't remember that movie? No, but I think I've heard a couple of guys that we've interviewed have said Clinton. Okay. You know, so I, yeah. So that's top knots. I mean, Tupac was there. You know, a lot of celebrities. Like, that's, like, that's at the year all the way up in the mountains,

Claymaxon correction facility. Sounds nice. I love the mountain. Yeah. Get real comfortable, right? They're going to get you real comfortable over there. Snowboarding. Snowboard.

Yeah. Yeah, so that's where the bid started, man. And that shit was, that was something else. Like, that shit was experiencing itself. Like, you know, my first day going out to the yard, you know, I'm coming from suburban, Suffolk County Jail. You get shipped up there. And, you know, first time I'm coming out of the yard after doing the whole reception thing.

I'm on the phone. So I'm talking to my mom at that. Like, yeah, yeah, you know, everything seems cool and stuff like that. To my left, I look to my left. First, I see the two guys, like, kind of walking past. I'm just like, you know, I'm just looking at everything like what's going on. And there's a dude right next to me. There's a dude like two phones down for me.

And the guy just come over and start stabbing the guy up. Stabbing the guy up. I see a guy even got stabbed in his eye. Like I'm looking at this whole shit on the phone with my mom. And my mom was like, hey, what's going on? You know, I can't tell her. Oh, yeah, I'm just looking at some guy gets stabbed in his eye right next to me. So that's when it was like, oh, no, this shit is real.

Like now I was like, oh, no, it's, that was like my first experience with seeing like, okay, I gotta get the fuck up out of here. Yeah. Like tomorrow, right? When I first got to the medium, I had a, they called like, recall, recall. And I just met my cell, like 10 minutes, 20 minutes earlier. A little Mexican guy, he comes running up to me. And he goes, and he said, hey, man, he's like, you got to go to the cell.

We got to go to the cell. I'm like, okay, well, what's going on? What's going on? I'm out. I'm walking. I'm going on. He's like, oh, he said they, they stabbed the guy in the rec yard. And I go, they, because I might.

mind, I thought they killed, that you know, you get stabbed, you get killed. They just killed a guy? I go, someone just got killed him on rec yard? And he goes, he goes, nah, they just stabbed them up a little bit. And he did that motion. And I said, you're in a place where they say stab them up a little bit. Yeah, just a little, it's not a big deal. And I just, and that same thing, I thought, I got to get out of here, bro.

You are not prepared to survive in this fucking environment. If they're saying, stabbed him up a little bit. And he did, I remember, did the motion, like, like he had experience. It's like, this is how you do it, Sally. In the case you need to, no, I won't be needing to. Yeah. But you sure, you don't want one of these, look. You probably pull out a whole ensemble with shanks and samurai stores and shit.

Like, which one do you want, right? Yeah, I was like, I was like, nah, this shit is, hell no, not me. I'm out of here, you know. But, you know, I thank God that my 10 years was smooth. You know, I think, you know, you carry certain energy with you. I mean, you know, like I said, anything can happen to anybody, right? You know, you could be waking up. Your neighbor's a serial killer, and he's just having a bad.

day you know he didn't have his fucking uh his chocolate milk this morning so right i would have colby he's heard this before i had a guy come to me one time you know the doors are you know how heavy the doors are yeah yeah you close it you just kind of push it and it you boom yeah right you don't have to push it hard yeah um and uh i had a guy come to me i've been in the unit six months you know i was i'm working as a gED tutor okay uh so i'm never in the unit yeah and the guy comes guy comes to me, he's like, hey, Cox, can I talk to you for a second? I'm like, yeah. And he goes, oh, listen, man.

He said, you know, and I don't know him. I couldn't tell you I've seen him. There's 150 guys in the unit. I go to working back, but he knows my name. And I'm like, yeah, what's up? And he goes, listen, man, he said, let me talk for a second. I said, okay, I said, do you? And I don't know what he said, but I figured I looked at how I go, are you, are you, are you in this unit?

And he goes, because he said my name, I think. And he goes, yeah, man, I'm your next door neighbor. I was like, oh, okay, I'm sorry. I don't pay a lot of attention. I'm sorry. He goes, yeah, yeah. He said, listen, man. He said, I'm taking anger management.

And I thought, no fucking conversation ever gone well. When the dude started with, I'm taking anger management. And I mean, that was my first thought, oh, this is bad. This is bad. And he goes, he said, and I'm trying to, you know, I'm trying to do, uh, uh, I forget what he said. but basically, you know, conflict resolution, you know. And I'm thinking, how am I involved in this conflict resolution? What did I do?

That was class two. Yeah. He started to use class two. And he says, he tells me I'm slamming the door. Every time I leave the, he's like, you slamming. He said, I'm, and I'm, you know, and look, man, I'm bipolar. I think, this is bad. It's so bad, you know.

And he said, and in my mind, and I know, I know. you know, he's, and he's like, he's like, and I know, I know, I know, you know, he's crazy, bro. Yeah, like, oh shit. I know that I know it ain't, it ain't right that what I'm thinking, but I feel like you're doing on purpose. And I'm thinking, I don't even know we're in the same unit. I could never, I don't know you. And I, but I mean, I don't want to say that.

Like, you're crazy. I don't know you. You can't say it like that. Yeah, of course. Yeah. So I'm like, oh, wow, man, I had no idea. I'm so sorry. You know, the doors are heavy.

And I apologize. And that's, that's my fault. My bad. You know, I learned the term my bad. By now, I just spent six months, I know. I know my bad. My bad, bro. I'm going to, I will make an effort not to do that anymore.

I apologize. Oh, all right, all right. Yeah. And I did for like a day or two. Like, and then I fucking slam the door again once or twice. And then my cellie came to me and said, you're going to get stabbed. Remembering this stabbed up a little bit? I was like, you're going to get stabbed up a little bit.

You're going to get the, you're going to get the. Remember that? This is you sharpening a shank right now. I'm telling you, he came to me to try and talk to you. I'm like, oh, fuck, I forgot. I'm sorry. And that's like a, that's a nice interaction. Yeah.

You know? Because it was diffused. But yeah, it's, yeah, it's, you know. And look at me. Like I'm, and I wasn't, this was not a, this was a federal medium. I can only imagine a state pin. I'm not going to do well. I'm not, it's not designed for someone like me, you know.

Yo, man. You're saying they're stabbing the guy up in the fuck. fucking phone, but it's not good. It's a bad situation. Yeah. Literally like, it was like, you know, you know, you could always just hype yourself up, right? You know, walk with your head up. Like, all, you know, I got to say, you know, did your little 50 pushups.

You know what we're going to stop, right? There was never a point where I thought, yeah, I can handle it. I can handle it. I remember a guy one time told me, he said, look, man, Cox, he said, you've got to have some problems, you can't do it. He said, I mean, I'm sure you can handle yourself. And I said, you're wrong? No, you're wrong about that.

No. I'm exactly what I'm a soft white guy. I'm exactly what you think I am. There's no, it's not like I have a black belt. Like I've been hiding my jihitsu fucking talent. No. No, man. No, no.

But it's real shit though. Like this is like, yo, this is like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, my boyfriend, I met him from the county and stuff like that 10 years ago. But it's like, it's, yo, the dynamics of people don't realize what's going on inside there, right? The experience and shit. But. But I was just got caught up one. I was still stuck on that one right there.

I would like this in there, but I threw some bass in my voice. I had, you know. Oh, yeah. You know, I didn't act. So I tried to act a little bit. You know, like, what's, what happened? I was a little bit. I was a little bit more stiff, a little bit, a little bit.

But everybody knew. They knew. Like, Cox, I know. You threw some bass in your voice. You're trying to do a tough guy thing. Nobody believes you. But you can't, you can't, you can't, you know. I tried to get side.

You don't know this. I try to get guys to call me chainsaw. For a while, nobody would call me chancel. Like, Cox, you're not call you. No, that's exactly what they would say. Cox, listen, I get it. I get it. We're not calling you chainsaw.

Relax, relax. Let's go call you Cox. That's exactly what it was Cox. I could never get a cool nickname. I didn't get a shitty nickname. Like Ian Bick, like Ian Bick. Like Ian, they hit Mcloven. They called him Mick Lovin.

The whole fucking time he was there. Like, I didn't get that. I was lucky. It was just Cox, but that's not. Sorry. Go ahead. Oh, man. So yeah, so

Yeah, so Whatever got sent to the thing Went up to Clinton Same routine In the law library And in the waste shack You know what I mean? So that's kind of like

I just kept that going My whole bid Really, that's all it was It's kind of like Just put myself in a bubble And Are you fighting your own case Or do you have

Did you get an attorney Assigned to you? Yeah, so at that time When I just went to Clinton So now it's the appeal So in New York State, you know, it's your right to have an attorney assigned to you. That's nice. Yeah, right?

Saw him once. He did, saw him once, saw him no time. No time. One phone call after, you know what I'm saying? So, you get signed an attorney, right? So my first, I got signed the first appeal attorney from the legal aid society. And after four or five months is when they contact me and tell me, oh, sorry, there's a conflict of interest on the case because they're saying in the grand jury

proceeding, I guess someone that I sold some drugs to basically like street level drugs or whatever, he had testified and they had represented that client in the past. So that created conflict of interest. So you have me saying you for five, six years, just having bullshit legal call conversations just to write me a letter and say, all right, whatever, you know. Right. Yeah, sign the next attorney. this attorney

another four or five months past tell me oh shit I was representing your co-defendant so another four five months past like it's like

you can't make this shit up right so you get off the case conflicted interest so I finally get another attorney now this one dragged it dragged out for like another

god knows like freaking like basically throughout the whole series of all the shit is like freaking it's like years it's not until 2023 i came up to 2018 it's not until 2023 that i actually get a decision on the appeal right and the appeal you know is basically like a reflection of you know your lawyer's arguments and stuff like that which was you know like i said it was sound arguments but like i was telling my boy earlier it's like how they designed the trial even your attorney and whatever d and stuff like that it's like

I feel my personal opinion that there's certain lines that's not going to get crossed. You know, they're not going to aim to probably get another attorney, probably in trouble to the point to get disbarred or something like that. You know what I mean? If anything, the police might have to catch one, but they're not getting someone, they're not aiming to get someone disbarred or something like that, right? So they will structure things to get things preserved on the record to move forward.

So it's not like, I'm not to say, like, you know, my lawyer didn't have some sound art. arguments, but he didn't go all in. He didn't go all in, right? I just know he didn't go all in because I went, got my own records and seen, and I'm going all in right now, right? Right. So, so whatever. So they get, so my appeal gets denied. Piel gets denied, but some sound arguments. The big argument was just the, you know,

well, you went to the fed, so you know about confrontation clause. So, you know, he was asking like, all right, so how did you, how did you even get arrested and stuff like that? So this mysterious CI, my lawyer was arguing during my trial, like, yo, I mean, we don't got nothing, no statements, no nothing from the CI, like, what's going on? So in New York State, New York State, not to take back to the trial quick, but this is an interesting fact, though. In New York State, at one point, now that, you know, it's crazy because Trump's in office and he's like, you know, kind of like, you know, kind of giving rights back to people in a way when it comes to the government versus the people, right? So in New York State, they had 44 exceptions to the hearsay rule. I mean, you have 44 bullshit reasons

why you could admit hearsay into a trial. Right. And the wording they used was like, because they're mentioning like, the undercover's mentioned like, oh, I got this information from so-and-so who bought drugs from so-and-so.

That's hearsay, right? Yeah, yeah. Let's bring him in here. Let's have him talk about it. Why are you talking about it? Yeah. US versus Crawford, federal stuff, confrontation clothes and all that. You know, it goes back, right?

So my lawyer's like, yo, all right, Same thing you just said. That's what's going on. Yeah. Or they have something called like certain hearings, done away hearings, like, I won't be present. Questions can be asked with this. Just do anything.

So he's like, oh, no, we're not using it to take it for truth. It's to complete the narrative of a story. The fuck does that mean? The jury's still hearing it. Yeah. And then you know what they do? Oh, all right, so this is how we're going to cure it. Because you know, they let the jury, like they argue now.

It's like, all right, this is how we're going to cure it. I'm going to let the jury know not to take it for truth. It's just to complete the narrative. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So that was a big issue in the case, whatever case may be. Obviously, the appellate court didn't care to hear it, right? So there's a whole other story.

That's a whole other situation. But so about like two and a half, three months after I got my pill denied, I'm going back in the law library. You know, I'm living in the law library. And I tell people that's where the magic happens because even, you know, First, you know, obviously we got to get stage one out the way, right? Learn how to use the system. Yeah.

And all that stuff, right? So you're ready past that. So at that time when my appeal got denied, I was in Green Haven Correctional Facility from Clinton. Now, it's a big difference from how they treat you all right in those mountains and how you are in Greenhaven. You kind of have a little bit more liberty. And I say that, like, to compare the law libraries in Clinton, you're all in law library. and we're sitting right next to each other, we're not allowed to talk to each other.

So now, and then you have like a few law clerks, say you got four or five law clerks and 15 people and 15, 16 people in the law library, you know they're not running around helping everybody. Right. And you know they have their priorities and all that kind of stuff. So now you're a person I don't know shit about the law.

You got to bring some books of stamps. You get what I'm saying? Yeah. You know what's going on. Yeah, to kind of get the priority. And on top of that, I mean, you know, what we said, People are going to be people, right? And people are definitely going to be people inside there.

So you could be paying a law clerk. Who knows what's going to happen, right? So this is what they expect you to do, right? Okay, you're fighting this case. It's kind of what you were saying before. It's you versus a whole administration. You have about you got an hour, hour sitting down. I got twice a week that they try to give you.

Don't let there be a big-ass freaking war going on. You're not leaving your selling, no shit like that. So now you got deadlines. You got all this going on. and because you have the right to, was it right to, um, access to the law library.

Yeah. So yeah, that's enough to fight your case, whatever, but you can't even talk to the person next to you. No law clerks, whatever, you just got to figure this out.

That's Clinton for you. Now, Greenhaven, the big difference with that is, you're in that law library. That shit is a think, take, debate room. Everybody's able,

you're able to walk around, move around, you're figuring it out. And this is where, and all that going on and all that debate and all that talking and stuff like that is where things are getting figured out. And it's why there's been a lot of, in New York there's been a lot more people getting successes in doing motions in Green Haven than a lot of other facilities.

So, till get denied, whatever, getting shucking up a little bit. You know how that should go? They basically... I start thinking you might have to be here a little bit. Yeah, you know that. Might be here for 51. Yeah, you know that. Minus 15% of good time.

That left side of brain starts kicking in. Like, holy shit, this shit might really have it. You better put in for one-man sell and join the softball team. So, yeah. I might need to start reading the Game of Thrones series. Yeah. Come on out of time. Yeah.

But at that point right there, like, you know, I was pretty sturdy in there. You know what I mean? Like I said, everyone kind of, like I said, you, I mean, myself, you bring your energy wherever you go. I mean, it always worked out for me on the outside. side of the same person I was, I brought in, came inside there. There's enough like, you know, you know, it's a small world out there too. So once they, you know, I knew enough people that it's like, okay, I don't got to sit here and sell myself for nothing.

I don't got to try to act like nobody that I'm not. I always been good just being myself, you know? So that's why, like I said, I thank, but I thank God, like, bro, this shit, you know, fucking boy getting stabbed in the eye and shit like that, you know what I mean? It's like, you can happen to anybody, right? So, so three months later. or whatever, I end up putting in my own motion, challenging the legality of this sentence. And the new administration actually conceded to my motion.

Okay. Which led to my time cut, which led to my time cut being down to 15 years to life. Because basically they had to run everything concurrent. What do you mean the new administration? I mean, you filed paperwork. Are you saying that the, the, because, This is all state. This is all state.

Yeah. So you're saying there was a new, when you say- New District Attorney. Okay, the new District Attorney Administration. Yes. They looked at it, or when they saw your motion, they read your motion and said, fuck it, we're not going to fight this?

Or did the court decide? Did the court, did they, did they, you know, file a rebuttal and the court decide? Or you're saying they looked at your motion. They looked at my motion. They said, fuck it, man. This is insane. No, they looked at the motion.

said, fuck it legally, we can't say nothing to it. And we got to concede. Oh, that's, that's. Yeah, it wasn't like a, it wasn't a, oh, oh, we're sorry. Yeah. No, no. That's, that's, that's, that's our, that is our, that is, I'm sorry. For them to not fight it, that is as best you're going to get.

Yeah, because, I mean, you know, it's so, you know, it's so fucked up, right? They just got to put like a few couple paragraphs to something that kind of looks like it makes sense. Right. And the judge grants it, right? You, your shit has to be so airtight. Mm-hmm. Not no wiggle room, no paradox, no nothing.

Or it to be like, shit, we're in the corner where you can't. And even at times at that, they'll still try to come up some bullshit, right? But I guess whatever. With that motion, you know, there's other reasons too. Like, you know, another reason I found out just knowing how, like, how this game is played, sometimes that they fight certain things and it ends up going to the higher courts. Like, say New York State, like in the Fed, you know, everything goes on the computer once,

you know, things are filed in the state. It's not until it goes to the appeal level. that it really becomes like precedent based on whatever is going on, right? Whatever situation. So some situations, it probably is in their best interest not to let it go to the appeal level.

No, because then it affects everybody. They don't want that to happen. It means to be mass exodus. You know, there could be 10,000 guys might be walking out the door in the next month. Exactly. People don't see this, right? People don't see this parts of the game. And the things that kind of go into decision-making

and stuff like that. So for whatever their reason, whatever they conceded better to let you go than the other the other two thousand guys that are doing time unjustly you feel me right they're on their own they got file their own shit shit's crazy yeah that's really how yeah so so that led to my time being cut to 15 years to life which is how much it is for the major everything ran concurrent to the top charge so major drug trafficking as a first-time offender is 15 years to life runs to that

it being a nonviolent drug charge in New York State I'm eligible for my merit which basically cuts my time merit parole which basically shows says that I only have to do

two thirds of my time just like good time but just more good time you get a little bit more off than regular like good time they call that conditional release in New York State CR date

but merit isn't Married is you're not like conditional reason you kind of like you could get that like you know I mean you can't just you have to fuck that up to to take that way merit you actually have to go to a parole board and they have to see if they'll grant you that. Did you go to a parole board? Yeah, went to the parole board got it my first time got my merit parole 10 years. I have a question you filed your paperwork yeah how do you get notified that they're going to did you first of all first how did you get notified that they weren't going to?

going to fight it um or they were agreeing with you they response they responded to you just got the response in the mail i got their response they put a motion in responding because there was there was like two parts to the motion so they fought one part and though the part that actually they conceded to was the the actual time cut of that all these people to legally run concurrent based on um based on they use i mean in order you say i was major drug trafficking for sales and you use the actual sale, the sales that was done to prove the major drug trafficking charge, right? So technically, under what they call it, under the double jeopardy clause, you can't charge. If one charge is an element to another charge, you can't run them consecutive,

because technically it's kind of like I'm getting charged twice. Right. I'm serving two sentences for the same thing. Exactly. I mean, it's kind of straightforward. Yeah. It's just that the major drug trafficking charge in New York is still a nuance, because that's the charge they just came out with in, like, 2012.

It's not like something that I've been around, like the feds or something there. So there's no precedent on it. There's more precedent now that probably would have helped the way my trial would have went back then. But there's no precedent at the time. So it's kind of just giving it. They got free range to kind of interpret the law, how they want, make the square fit the triangle, you know. Yeah. Still, what I'm saying is so you get a letter at mail call.

I get a right. I got a, no, yeah, I got to sign for legal mail. I get the opposition. This is the opposition, affirmation opposition. All right. Reading this. Myself,

you know, first you got to tell you a little breather. I never just opened the thing right away, right? You know what? I was like, let me just get said to you. Because it's like, I don't file so much, so much motions.

Yeah. It's just getting denied left and right. It's just kind of like, you learn it's like, you can't even be super hype on your own work no more, right? You're just like doing shit just like,

all right, let me see if this is going to work. Let me see if this is, it's going to stick. You know what I mean? They know how to break your spirit. You know what I mean? They definitely know how to break your spirit in that shit.

So it's like, but you just got to keep on going, right? So yeah, open up the mail. I'm reading it. And they're saying, yes, we agree that Anthony Baptiste's

sentence was illegal. And I'm like, what the fuck? You know, I had to read that shit. You know, you know, like three times.

Like, hold up. Yeah. I was like, you know, because I don't have been through everything. red shit, you know, it's like, it's like, when you want to, when you hoping for something, your eyes will interpret shit to, oh yeah, yeah, to think some other shit that's not. So I was like, nah, all right, hold on.

We read this shit again. Yeah. It's like, acceding to that, acceding that, whatever that is supposed to run concurrent, to the 15 years, whatever. And I was like, holy shit. Now it's like, all right, two months down the line, judge gives the decision. and yeah he's like based on based on the motions

is correct that the you know what I mean that these things are supposed to run concurrent so you tell me when this motherfucker gave me and he doesn't retire and I mean he doesn't retire with he's out he's the judge that's whatever when this fucking guy gave me 51 years of life

I mean nobody should have been 15 max you know what I mean like nobody nobody seen this yeah I go through a I go through a trial, go through appeal, everything gets denied.

These attorneys put in all this. All the legal scholars, not one of them said, hey, wait a minute. This doesn't, I don't think you can do this. Out of the 12 lawyers that read over all the motions. So, you know. And are getting a check. And getting a check, right? So it's like, it's like, I don't, look, I'm not like, all right, like I said,

baseline. I'm not stupid, right? You know what I mean? I'm not no genius, though, right? You know what I'm saying? It's like, you know, I just know how like, okay, one plus one equals two. And I could read something and be like, okay, and apply it. I guess it's a simple concept, right?

But then he's like, fucking guys is freaking lawyers. Like, I can't take, I can't accept that me not being a lawyer. You know what I mean? As I'm saying, I'm not even overthinking too much highly in myself. Me not being a lawyer. It's sitting in jail. You guys have all the stuff. I mean, that you guys can't see it.

this shit. And it's crazy, but some people are talking like, I'm talking to some people, even other turns that became, you know, befriending and started getting cool with and stuff like that. It's like, said, no, don't think too highly of, of everybody just because of the positions that they're in. Right. And also another fact that that plays in is like we was talking about four. And I always, I'm asking this all the time, don't ever think someone's going to fight for you. Like, you're going to fight for yourself. Oh, yeah. You're, You heard me say, I always said, listen, you have to be your own advocate. Nobody's, nobody's going to look out for you like you.

That's it. But that's what happens with guys. They get a lawyer and they kick back and think, my lawyer's got it. Your lawyer's priorities are not you. They've got two kids and a husband or a wife. You know, they're going through the motions to try and get a check from the government or from whoever. They're not thinking out. So they're not, you think they're laying in bed at night, toss it and turn and going,

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They took it to their wife. Like, oh my God. Over dinner. Discussing your case now. Stop to, like, you know, they have an argument that. I was like, you're about to get divorced over in your case and say like that. So when the judge makes a ruling, they don't bring you back. They just, you just got it in the mail.

Boom. Your new sentence is. Good question. So, supposed to get brought down. That was actually, I made sure to clarify that in my emotion, right? So when the judge made, they, they. decision, I actually did a re-argument because I, well, in New York State, I just don't know what the rules are everywhere, so like that.

Yeah. So if you mentioned, in order to do like a motion re-arguarded, there's something that they missed or missed, it's like if they misinterpreted or misapprehended or overlooked something on the original motion, then you do a re-argument to bring it back up. So what they wanted to do was just, like you said, put in the mail, write your time cut, or the case may be. But no. My case, I mean, I've mentioned it, CPL 383.40, you guys still remember it and stuff,

that I'm supposed to be brought down and resentenced, giving me an opportunity to put things on the record. You know, we're really, we actually redoing the whole process. So I did a motion to re-argue, put that in there. And I said, eventually, yeah, end up coming back down, old new person, left it, left there, this 300-pound kid, came back. I'm actually advocating for myself more than this assigned attorney and stuff like that. You know, now I know the law and stuff like that. And, yeah, put some things on the record and officially got my time cut. And this was the, that was the trickle effect that led to me even being out right now.

I mean, I'm 10 weeks home right now. So, right. So you get that, you go back to, what was the, where? Suffolk County. You go back to Suffolk? Suffolk County, yeah. No, no, the jail you were at. Oh, oh, I get the, the decision.

or I mean when I went back down? Yep. Where were you where the law library was a whole, the guys were able to talk? Green Haven. So you go back to Green Haven. You go to the court, you get resentenced, you go back to Green Haven. Yes. And then how long do you sit before you actually go and see the parole board?

Oh, so the parole board. So I still had to do 10 years. So this is 2023. 2023, I got the decision. Remember, it was 15 in life. I do two thirds of the 15 of life. This is my merit. Yeah.

That's 10 years, but you've already been locked up 10 years, right? No. I got released on my 10th year, February 18, 26. I got arrested February 24th, 2016.

Oh, okay, okay, okay. Yeah. So February 20, so in 2023, this is when all this transpired. And I was, while I was upstate, you know, like I said,

I was trying to find a technicality to see if they, any of the money that they seized in, in Long Island, which was with the new jurisdiction, I was just trying to see if there was any way I could get the money back.

And the reason being, reason being I was even trying to see that is because I was reading inside, they called it the lawyer's co-op for New York State. It's kind of like, it's kind of like the lawyer's handbook. Right. And it's saying like in civil cases

that any evidence that they don't use in trial, they're not supposed to just hold on to. Like you're just not holding on to shit if it's not something that's necessarily needed. In my trial, you know, I'll tell you how they seized over like them to $700,000.

They only showed pictures of their money. Right. No money. Oh yeah, this is $700,000. I mean, a photograph. A photograph of money, right? So when I seen that, I wrote, I wrote something that's called

a demand of property, you know? Like I said, I'm not, you know what I mean? I'm not stupid, right? I'm not saying I'm a super genius, but I just know how to read and just apply it, right? You know what I mean? Yeah, let's bring it into court.

Let's see the money. Let's where's the money? Yeah, right? So all I had to see was like, all right, anything that they're not used. So I wrote them, I wrote the court. So I wrote the, not the court, the DA office, actually demand the property. Like, listen, based on this statute, if you're not using, if you don't need something for trial, you'd hand that shit back.

They didn't even disagree with me. But they said that there was a pending lien due to the civil forfeiture. That's how I even know, that's how I started finding about this whole civil forfeiture thing. They said, there's a lien on it. due to a pending civil forfeiture proceeding. So, you know, I never took no plea deal. So I'm in the appeal courts and stuff like that.

So that's why they're trying to say they're still holding on to this money. That's all the guy. You know what? Fuck it. Let me do a FOIA request of the asset forfeiture file to see if there's any type of technicality. So by this point right now, mind you, this was like the 10 years. This is, so I started the full request like two years prior to my release. Now you see how you get things in two or three weeks?

It took me a whole year to actually get the records. You know what I mean? In New York State, that's what you're dealing with in New York. If you're not dealing with like two or three pages, it's going to take that's how much time. They're going to just keep on delaying, delaying, delaying. So the first set of records was only like 300 pages and going through the asset for which are proceeding.

And that's when I've seen the supplemental motion that was talking about, the supplemental ex parte motion. I'm seeing a bunch of names of people that's not part of my, case. I'm reading it and now I'm pushing together and how and they're saying like how the 324 is I mean it's not $324,000 no more it's $731,000 that that was made all these guys names on the case so I'm like hold up nah nah how that my people's how are my people's is like yo listen I need all my records so I put the four requests out long story short I get 4,000 pages of documents. I go in my cell, fine comin, fine comin, taking pieces out. So now I see, I noticed

that that supplemental motion, though, it wasn't signed, right? So I write the courts. First, I write the course like, hey, do you have a signed copy of the supplemental thing? They're like, nah, what you try to do is contact the DA office. You know, they got their own records too. I write them like, hey, do you have a photocopy or whatever? I get a reply letter personally from the ADA, who's the Bureau Chief of the Asset Forfeiture Department, whose name is also on that motion. And he writes me and tells me, oh, no supplemental ex parte motion was ever filed in this court. I mean, on this case, I guess, you know, that's the deniability because it's not signed, right?

Right. So now you want to play this legal game with me. I'm like, all right, little did he know. I also got my court files. So, you know, the court clerk files is, the clerk files is different than, you know, ask them to DA's personal files or whatever. Right.

You know, everything in there is legit. There's no, nothing not being signed or anything like that. In there, there's a motion called order to show course to confirm, which is basically like, I use an example of, like, and someone puts a lien on somebody. That's an ex parte proceeding because that's one person going to the court.

You're not part of it. And then you get a judgment, right? Same concept when how they got the judgment for the money. Now, another part of that proceeding after that judgment is you have to now we go through a process to serve the person to kind of let them know, hey, this is the judgment that happened to you. In New York State, that's called requesting an order to show calls to confirm. In that order to show course to confirm by that Bureau Chief under the penalty of perjury,

he asks the judge to confirm the decision on the ex parte motion and the supplemental ex parte motion that you said that you never filed. Right. So you got me scratched my head. Hold on. You write me a letter. Mind you, I got all this on my website too. Right.

You know what I mean? You can, everything get downloaded, all the evidence. write me a letter saying that you didn't file a supplemental ex parte but you're asking the judge to confirm the decision on something that you didn't file right and now's the nail in the coffin I needed to put my motions in I was able to submit the motions kind of right before I was released and actually I put something up on the Instagram I made a April 2nd they're supposed to respond um to I put two more is one for the civil court and one for the criminal court. Civil courts is basically saying how they committed fraud on the court by taking this, by telling them that this whole big case, whatever, this whole other, evidence from another case put it in there, and the ADA said that he didn't file this, but he wrote you guys, I mean, he put a motion to you guys,

asked you guys to confirm this decision, right? Kind of straightforward. They were supposed to answer that April 2nd. Now, on April 14th, I called him. And I was actually sitting down having a meeting with a founder of this organization called a Second You Foundation. That's the organization I'm in with right now. It does like, it's like a reentry program. And they actually get a lot of people certified as personal trainers to get them in corporate gyms.

And that's kind of like how I'm in that loop right now. But it was with him and a TV producer named Matt Levine. I was just kind of talking about certain things. Oh, yeah, I just signed a model contract last week and stuff like that. So been a busy, been interesting 10 weeks. It's been interesting 10 weeks. You know, we interviewed Jeremy Meeks. You know who Jeremy Meeks is?

Oh, the green eye dude? Yeah, yeah, remember the hot felon? Yeah, everyone says that, yeah, his mug shot went viral and stuff like that. He's a fucking full-time model for this day, this and he acts and plays golf five days a week or something. Yeah, it's funny because if you're like, you know, he can't feel like, oh, you should do it, should do it, right? Just kind of told me, I was like, all right, let me just go do this audition shit. Right. And I tell me all the time.

So I had to do like the runway thing. I had to do a little monologue. I'm using chatGVT to help me memorize these lines and shit. Right? Then you had to do the runway. And I'm like, damn, I went on YouTube real quick, try and see like, how do you walk and shit like that? Like I really don't know nothing about this whole thing.

I just got my nice little finish shirt, you know, got my little pump up, you know. Got the bowhead thing going. Like, fuck, I'm going to just be this new Tyrese going, right? They might need a new Tyrese in the game or something, right? So I'm like, you know what? I know how I'm going to do this runway. So you know, you know when you get a visit. I don't know how it is in the feds, right?

That shit's just like a runway walk going to visit. Everyone got their, you know, everyone got their fitted shirt on, they pump on. Everyone got their walk, right? Everybody looking clean. I'm like, come on, I've been doing this for 10 years, right? Hit the runway, hit the runway with the jail walk. That shit, then they called me the next day like, oh, yeah, we're going to need you to take some acting classes. Yeah, you look like, yeah, we got to get you in the commercial.

models, stuff like that. So this is, that's all just fresh. I mean, now just kind of like one of those, hey, fuck it, why not situations that now. It's like I got multiple agencies. I got, I had to go do digitals, get photo shoots and all that. It's great. So it's been interesting 10 weeks, to say the least, right? I'll start working at Lifetime Fitness.

That's like a corporate club, you know, in New York State. They got a couple of situations. They got me right, their lifetime? Yeah, it got a lifetime everywhere. Every big, every big, like, state is like LA Fitness, right? I feel like I've seen it. No, no, no, no. No, it's high end, more high end?

Yeah, yeah, you might catch your favorite basketball player. Doing some squads over there or something. The best they got at L.A. fitness is me. You might find some hedge fund executives working out over there. You know what I'm saying? That's the Lifetime Fitness. So, you know, that's a blessing through that Second U Foundation I was talking about, hector being another person that, he's all over to CNN and stuff like that with the programs that he did.

Yeah, so spoke about the 4,000. pages already. I got that in the courts right now. They were supposed to respond and it's like, you know, I said you called. You said you called. Yeah, so I called him. I called them. I called them. And then I'm just like, yeah, asking the courts like, yeah, did they, did they electronically filed this or anything? I didn't get no, no opposition, nothing. I know they've been trying to request to have it electronically filed. And the judge has been denying them. The judge has been denying them. So I don't know. I don't know if it's because it started with physical copies. It's just wanted to end that way. I don't know. But they didn't respond.

They didn't respond. So do you put in a motion to say? No, I mean, they didn't respond. They just said we're just waiting for the judge's decision. We're waiting for the judge's decision with no opposition to my motion. Well, then it sounds like the motions are, uh, that, that is their response. They didn't respond. They don't have an argument. So your argument should stand, right? That's what we're waiting on right now. As we speak. as I look at the time and not try to think too hard on it, right?

Do you think they'll just mail you a check or they'll go find the actual money? Get with a big garbage bag, fucking two marshals show up and just dump it out or you think it'd just be a check? Oh, no, man. If it's a, I mean, if it's a money,

just I'm one in the old 20s, you're right? One in the old 20s. But it's sad, I mean, you know, when it comes even to the money part, right? Legally, if they feel that it's not in the interest of justice. It's crazy. They still don't have to give you the money, right?

But I was going to say, but I don't understand how they could hold it because you're saying, and you've said in this story that you made that you were working doing the house parties, and that was a whole thing that you've been doing for years and years. So how can they say, oh, this is illegal proceeds. It's not illegal. You already said what you agreed to the illegal proceeds was the $324,000. So if that's, you can say that. Maybe you can argue that, but you're saying the other part isn't.

And the worst that I think they could do is say, well, you need to prove where you got this. And the way to prove that is to file taxes. And if you said, well, he never filed taxes. Okay, well, fuck, I was locked up. I would have filed taxes, you know, whatever. So you could maybe you could. But even then, why would you file tax? It's been 10 years.

Your statute of limitations. I don't have to fucking file taxes. Give me my money. You didn't know that the IRS never made a claim. Nobody made a claim. I would have filed taxes. I didn't. I'm more than happy to pay, you know, 25% of the remaining $374,000 or $76,000.

And I'll give you a little, write you a little... Took notes on that? You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't understand what the argument is there. That sounds like a sound argument right there, right? You know? I don't see what the argument is there for them to say that it's not your money. I mean, I know what the argument, the argument is, well, he could, he could,

would need to file taxes. And you're really telling the IRS where I got it. Where I got it is I got it from these parties. And it was cash. The fucking people, believe it or not, back then, 10, 15 years ago, kids don't show up with a fucking cash app. You know, they don't have, you know, they were giving you money to get in the party. It's cash, cash, cash.

These are fucking high school kids or 20-year-old, 25. I don't know exactly what it is. Yeah. But that makes sense. So, no, worst case you have to file taxes, which you don't have to file anymore. There's a statute of limitations. I mean, logically, I mean, you know. if I'm going to put something on paper, that's exactly, I mean, with all this stuff, I mean,

take some notes on that. That sounds like, that sounds like a nice two-page argument right there. Well, because that's what they argue. You understand when I've had, sorry, I'm sorry. Go ahead. You know, when guys go through the, go through like the airport and they'll, and they get, you know, they get called to be checked out, right? Like a dog sniff them or whatever it is.

They pull them over and they go, hey, we want to search your bag and they go, fuck. They search the bag and they go, there's $40,000 here in cash. And they'll say, what, where did you? get this from and they go, oh, I, I, I'm a, I'm a lawn care guy or I wash a card or whatever they come up with. And they're like, okay, well, that's fine. You have to prove that. We're going to seize the money. Whenever they contact a lawyer, because I'm like, well, what did you do? They're like, well, I contacted a lawyer and the lawyer's like, listen, what they're going to want you to do is file taxes to say, I own a business. This is it. I file taxes. They're going to

have you file taxes and you pay for the tax. That's fine. Then we can, I can go. I can go. and I can try and get, I can get you the money back at that point. They're like, the problem is that at that point, they're going to be pissed, and now they're going to look into you for drug trafficking. You see what I'm saying? So most of the time, the lawyers are like, look, don't do it. Yeah, you always got to see what you know. But that is the argument.

Yeah. The argument, and at this late date, it doesn't matter what you think I've done. You can't prove it. And even if you could prove it, it's too late to charge me with anything because the statute of limitations is up. And you have my money, give me my money. So the worst case scenario is you could file taxes, which, which, you don't have to do at this point. But you could if you wanted to.

So let me just give you the little details with that. So with the money at the residence, I mean, but I mean the good point that you made was like, you know, I kind of got to go to when you start mentioning statute of limitations. So regardless of what they feel the facts or proof was, I don't have nothing. I don't need to defend anything because at first it was a, that residence in Queens,

the whole, the whole situation was there was no evidence of me even actually ever being there. Right. Right. It was a phone call that happened and based on the wiretaps, a co-defendant and stuff like that, right? And now it's kind of like they angle with it, even though you used it against me in trial. So that's why in my, in my motion, I was basically saying how this is a, because they,

but on the motion on the civil side is my company, my promotional company, which, like I said, I started off throwing parties. I mean, I was parties when I was in high school. But before I got locked up, I was doing events, 5,000. people and stuff like that oh okay so it expanded to oh yeah yeah yeah did i mean did you say that i missed yeah you did say it i fucking missed it sorry so like but yeah so right before i got locked up that's when that's when that's when we was talking about the um just had that look you know i mean they said called and okay the ladies they're like oh now this fucking guy he got to be fucking you know what i mean

but they're not thinking that there's a legitimate business going on over here yeah they're not assuming that okay he's probably smart enough to put this together or that i learned the business I'm buying event property on certain events, scaling it. You know what I mean? There's like the whole thing. And also just a sidebar, I mean, when they did actually kind of look into my company, when it comes to the clubs, you know, the door is cash, right? But when it comes to the bar, you know, that's all a taxable income.

So the club owners, they're not just paying you cash on your piece of the bar. That's money that gets to get wired to your account and everything like that. So after the fact is when they realize like, holy shit, this guy actually You do got a legitimate business going on. I mean, they got caught up in the same hype that I was basically marketing and selling. You know what I mean? Right. You know, in the hip-hop world, it's like, you can't be talking like you're doing big parties and doing stuff.

And you're not, and you're trying to attract a certain kind of crowd. And you're not looking up to part. I mean, it's the same thing. Like, say, you're in real estate or something, right? You want somebody to buy a million-dollar home, but you're coming through in a Honda Accord. You know, it's funny. I saw a TikTok the other day with a re-exam. Realisher talking about how his sales like tripled when he started pulling up in like a $100,000 Mercedes.

I used to pull up in like a fucking 10 year old Toyota Corolla to show properties. He is the moment I started. And it was by, I think he said it was like it was by accident. Like he had to drive his bosses, the guy that owned the broker, the owner of the brokerage business. He had to drive his car for like a week or three days. His car was it like you let him use his car. He said immediately he started getting sales. And he realized like.

When he pulled up in the 100,000 on Mercedes, they thought, oh, this guy knows what he's doing. Yeah. I want to deal with this guy. Yeah. He's like, I'm the same guy. He wasn't even my car. He's, I immediately went out and bought a nicer car.

And he said, all my sales tripled. I'm telling you. And it's like, when I was doing the parties, I'm used to just being low-key in the cut and stuff like that. So I have a whole production. My promoters there, and the ones on the stage, they're the ones looking, you know what I mean, in front of the screen and everything, it was cool.

But like I said, once you're, and this is like marketing and branding one-on-one. Like once your brand starts reaching a certain level, then it has to be a face for that brand, right? And if you are branding something a certain way, then you have to be a reflection of what you're standing for, right? So I'm throwing, I'm not throwing little bullshit parties at this point. Like in 2007, I had an opportunity to get into the, like,

the, I'll say, mainstream promotion in New York City. And I actually went from, I went from doing bars and local little bars I was in Long Island to doing the number one college night in Avalon. I mean, it's called Avalon. It used to be back in the day called Lomlight. People watching, they're going to know what that shit is. Like, oh, shit. Like, so I was doing the number one college night over there.

And that's when I started learning the game, like really learning how to scale this business, you know, buying event properties. You know, the taxable income, certain things that you could kind of do and all this kind of stuff. So nobody's seeing all that. You know, it's somebody like, you know, all the 10 years before that gets to a certain point, nobody sees all this thing. that you were doing. So yeah, right before I got locked up, I mean, I'm doing big events. And then now it's like, people need to see a face to this, right? I have people trying to find out who's the one throwing these parties. So it killed me one day. I'm not going to say his name, whatever, but someone went to my birthday party. I had a big birthday party. So artist named Fabulous.

I did it. Did it in Long Island. And he's like, yo, we want to find out who's the one that and throw this party and stuff like that. And I had like a little, I had like a little like Ultima, I was running around in, right? And guy pulls up in a Bentley. So that was like my first, first, like, encounter when it's, like, this conversation that he's like, he's here trying to, like, probably like, try to poke a hole what's going on like, all right. So, all right, who, like, so who you work for?

You know what I'm saying? Right. So who do you work for? Because the level of how the brand was looking, I wasn't matching that, right? So you have to kind of scale what your shit just so it makes sense. So it's believable. Even though, you know, some people, they do it in reverse, right? They looking like they sound crazy and they shit is really not, you know,

and they really underpaid, but look over like, you know what I'm saying? So it was like, I had to kind of like, it was just, but in doing that, eyes and attention and everything. So I'm doing this now, you know, to track. This is like little promotion marketing one-on-one, right? So now it's attracting the kind of clientele that I want, putting myself out there, looking good, you know, I'm able to afford it. So I'm, you know, looking clean and all that stuff.

stuff and it's also attracting that comp it's also attracting the attention of obviously law enforcement right you got you know you're over social media so you now you got who's like this guy that all these celebrities are reposting and all this kind of stuff and now you know like i was saying if you got you can't have like one foot in and one foot out and something because what you doing so well just off the bat they're gonna want to look and make sure to see what's going on you know what i'm saying yeah and if you give them any time type of reason to take anything you have, they're going to take that shit. I mean, you see it going down to celebrities all the time, right?

All it takes is like this little, this one little thing. And it's like, all right, good, that's all we need. Seize everything. Sees the cost, sees the assets and all that shit, what this little bullshit situation. So that's, yeah, that's kind of what led to them kind of really like focusing on what's going on. So somebody wants to find you. Where can they find you? You go to Instagram at Tone Legacy or go on or go to my website, a baptistory.com.

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