Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Corrupt Lawyer Gets Locked up with his Client

Episode Date: June 19, 2025

In this episode with Matt Cox, Michael McAlister reveals how a massive federal grow-op hunt—including Blackhawk helicopters, ATF raids, and RICO charges—upended his life. He survived a near-fatal off-road crash, federal prison, and the betrayal of his own lawyer. Through survival tactics and mental resilience, he turned his sentence into a turning point—writing a true-crime book (“Catch 420”) and redefining his purpose behind bars.Catch 420 https://a.co/d/5APWlbHhttps://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/catch-420-mikal-mkali/1146500122Get 50% sitewide for a limited time. Just visit https://GhostBed.com/cox and use code COX at checkout.Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7Send me an email here: [e-mail] you extra clips and behind the scenes content?Subscribe to my Patreon: https://patreon.com/InsideTrueCrime Follow me on all socials!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthewcoxtruecrimeDo you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopartListen 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/B0851KBYCFBent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TMIt's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5GDevil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3KBailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel!Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WXIf you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here:Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69Cashapp: $coxcon69

My lawyer is trying to sell me out. They said we had a $30 million operation. So my first day in federal prison, I'm having records with a lawyer that was overseeing my whole kids. All of us now are on the same playing field. The corruption's everywhere. Selling smoke since I was 16. We ended up meeting a girl and moving to Sacramento for five years.

The first year I'm there, I'm working, I'm saying, I've been there since February. And it must have been like around, it was around, it was actually right after Fourth of July. around July 9, 14th, I got into an off-road vehicle accident, popped my intestines, lost half my blood, almost died. We're hour and a half away from the nearest hospital. Off-road vehicle?

Like a four-wheel or something? A rhino, a Yamaha rhino. And what did you do? Hit a tree or something? No, so the, I got up early because it was, so me and the guy that worked the grow, we get to take every other week or every two weeks or something. We get one week off of the month.

We get to go home. so I was in central central California so one week I get to go home see my see my lady see my you know whatever go home handle bills but it was my week to go home so I got up early in the morning 530 in the morning or so got on the rhino the back tire was bald and low on air so I filled up with some air right on to the rhino started driving and the the roads just hug hug the mountain and as I was coming around a corner I'm probably going a little too fast.

I hit a, you know, how there's like washboard and stuff that the rain makes into the dirt. So there was a groove. The back tire caught the groove. And when it caught the groove, it started pulling me and I felt the thing shifting like it was going to fall. So I stepped on the gas and tried to correct it. It wasn't going to happen.

So I grabbed the roll bar and I was going to throw myself out. But when I was doing that, I felt like Michael Jordan when he said everything slows down. it was like everything was going at like it was crazy how slow things were going for me and in that moment i was like what if this thing lands on my neck and don't throw myself out far enough so i pushed myself back in i landed on my on my on my ass with my legs out the bar came down and hit me right in the stomach so my first reaction was literally i remember saying to myself i pop my bladder and i crawled out from under it i was embarrassed i tried to flip it back over

I couldn't pick it up. It's heavy. So I went about 10 feet in front of it, lay down the grass or whatever it was. And I go, am I poisoned oak? Or poison, yeah, poison oak. And I was like, I better get up. So I get up. And I walk 10 feet above where the thing slipped over, leaned up against the mountain.

My buddy comes flying around the corner and goes, and he goes, what happened? How did you get there? And now he throws me. Well, I walk into his truck. At this point, I'm in shock, but I'm still move. Walk and got into his truck. we drove back to the cabin i'm sitting there um i walk into the cabin i lay down on the bed and i'm telling my feet are going numb and so out of nowhere this guy vick shows up which he never comes over this guy

never ever ever shows up to this to his part where we're at this cabin and he sees me he goes you need to get him to the hospital he's dying so i get up grab a gallon of water walk myself right back into the truck get in the truck we drive down the mountain about an hour and a half to the hospital we get to the first town my buddy doesn't have gas in the truck he doesn't have money so we ran into someone at the gas station give us 10 bucks we put that in the gas tank on the way to the to the next town where the where the where the hospital is it's actually Howard Howard Memorial Hospital which is where sea biscuit the owner of Sea Biscuit. Have you ever seen that movie? So his son died from the same accident I was in.

He remember he took the truck and he rolled the truck. So he made a hospital up there for this. So I showed up to that hospital. I had drank half a gallon of water. She never did that. You ever seen the movie, No Country for Old Men? Yeah. Remember when they were in the truck scene when everyone got shot up

and the Mexican guys were in the car and they're going, Agua, Agua. You think you're thirsty when you're actually dying. Right. So it was like, it's like, the cartoons with uh bugs bunny when they when they're drinking the water starts pouring out the holes yeah it was literally pouring into my out of my intestines into my body which was poisoning me right and um we get to the hospital i walk out the truck i walk about 10 feet to lean against the wall until i can't go no more he runs in they come down at the gurney they put me to bring me in

they're pushing on my stomach asking me where it hurts out of the corner of my eye see a curtain drawn around. And I go, what's going on over there? And they said, there's a little boy that got the daughter, the little boy's daughter, or excuse me, the little boy's sister was taking the baby out of the, out of the car seat, dropped it on its head. So they had, they had the baby in this little curtain drawn over here. And that's the last thing I remember. I woke up, I think the surgery was like 10 hours. I had hoses coming out of me every which way. And first thing I said when I woke up was, what happened to that baby? And they said, oh, they flew to UC Davis and it's fine.

But it was like my brain wasn't even thinking about me. I don't know subconsciously. I was trying to distract myself, but that's where I was at. And then the whole situation when I did wake up, my mom was there. So my buddy, he went home, which is a five-hour drive when we're at, gets the call that I got an accident, picks up my mom and my ex-girlfriend at the my girlfriend at the time, and drives them back. So my mom is at the edge of my bed, nodding off.

She's just a head addict. Right. So I started screaming, who let this fucking bitch in here? I was, I was livid. It was just like, I was embarrassed. I was just, it was just too much for me to take. Later on, I calmed down, and I had to realize my mom was there for me. And that's the most important thing.

But it took me a second to actually bring it down, notch. before I went to that point. That's the first year I was there. The second year I'm there, that's when the feds came in with a Black Hawk helicopter. Six undercover white Mustangs. Don't know how they got back there because the roads were not made for low,

I don't know, the muscle car, I guess, what you call it? They weren't made for that, but they had six undercover white Mustings. We had built a cabin. That year, we built a new cabin. for us to stay in because before we were sleeping in pretty much tents and in an old cabin we called the shit bee cabin which was basically rat infested until we bleached the walls and stuff and it was it was basically a shell and that's where we first were at so this year we built a that year we built a new cabin and as i was um watering the gardens it must have been like 630 in the morning i see a black hawk helicopter flying above me now my friends said to see that that there was a grow going on yeah and so that they've spotted that right now they're coming in to get these guys was that what happened something like that it gets really it gets

from from from what you're saying is what I was thinking yeah okay so at the time at really I was thinking that it was camp California against mer I don't know minisital whatever some patrol right And so they said that they weren't, they're not trying to get us, they're just trying to clear out the gardens. So I wasn't worried about my, my well-being or getting in trouble. I was just going to run. So I grabbed my, I was with my dog or watering, the Black Hawk Heltar comes around. There's a guy, the side door's open. He's like looking out and everything.

I hide behind one of the bushes. The bushes are like seven feet high, seven feet wide. Probably produced around six to seven pounds. I ended up back up to the cabin because I had a backpack up there with. all my, um, with my, my, my wallet, things that can identify me. So I ran back up there to pick that up. Once I grabbed all that, I run out of the cabin and now I'm on the corner, um, the far corner of the cabin and it's, it's look, basically looking to a, a mountainside. It's going straight down into a ravine. And I'm there with my dog and I see six undercover white mustings

pull up to the cabin. Everyone, these guys jump out with, I don't know, assault rifles. They all swing around the whole, they all literally surround the whole cabin with the guns. You can hear them, and I'm looking, they don't even see me, which is crazy because their adrenaline must have been running so, their adrenaline must have been pumped so high that they didn't even bother to look over here.

They went straight to the cabin. And I'm literally right there, you can see me. And my dog started charging them, and I'm screaming at my dog because I don't want my dog to get shot. My dog turns around finally. We both start running down the side of the mountain. I'm doing

somersaults, landing on my feet like a cat, about four times. And then finally I decided to slide and I'm wearing shorts. So I slide down into the ravine, grab my dog. There's a big rock, it's like a huge rock. I'm going to like an eight foot rock like this. And I grabbed him. We went under the rock and we were hiding. And as we're hiding, the helicopter was coming down and trying to push the brush to try to find us. And I can hear a lot of people on foot. I can hear people talking my dog's growling i'm muslin them and then uh it stops and i'm like okay i don't know what's going on right now my adrenaline was going through i was i was i was my adrenaline had taken over my whole body like i couldn't even think straight i said well i'm

gonna run out of this ravine across the meadow drop down to the ill river and then i'm gonna make my way that way and get away from these people as i because we're the cabin's up here i'm down here. It's like 20, 30 feet drop. I'm thinking they're not down here. Well, there was another cabin across the way. They were already there, and I didn't know this. There was more of them than I thought there was. So when I came out of there and started running across a metal, I heard, click, click, click, click, click, better stop, we're going to shoot your dog. So I stopped. I turned around slowly. They said, lease your dog and come walk towards us. So I did that, walk towards them. They took me to the cabin down. That was down below. They sent me there,

They're rummaging through my backpack. They're taking pictures of me and my dog from all angles. And they're talking, however, they're talking with each other. And one of them asked me, is there anything this backpack that you guys want to, that you want to put on your discovery, that you want, you know, for your belongings? Again, I couldn't think straight. I was like, no. But I had a Gucci watch in there, and I had a $30,000 ring that's this Indian lady from an indie casino gave me.

They took that. I never seen it. They kept it. You had an opportunity. Right. And then they take me, handcuff, and shackle me. I tell them if they can leave my dog inside the cabin so someone could pick him up. So they put the dog in the cabin.

Little did I know, I found out later, they maced his ass. And he wasn't aggressive. Right. But he might have been growling, though, because he was protective of me. So they put him in the cabin. They drove me to the top of the mountain to the first cabin from the year before. They told that it that was like a shell. They took me up there.

They have me sitting in chairs right outside the cabin. There's like three other guys. I don't even know who they are. One of them I did. They called them Mexican Dave. The other guys, I didn't know who they were. So I'm listening to the, I don't think there. There's marshals, firearms, was it a fire tobacco, what they called?

ATF. And then there was the Marshall's ATF and then it's federal agents. And then there was a local sheriff. all congregating around this cabin talking yeah so it's like a task force yeah and they were talking shit like they were saying these guys come up here and they do this and they grow and they make all this money he goes and what do we he goes they get women they do this and that and they're this they go and we look at our jobs what we get we don't get nothing and it's and that whatever and i was like and then they mentioned i heard someone say fresno and i'm like the hell fresno and then it dawned on me

that this, the marshals were from, the feds were from Fresno, because that's what they were stationed at. So I didn't realize, and then they call Mexican Dave up, and they start talking to him. He comes back and go, what's going on? He goes, oh, they have search warrants,

and your name is on the search warrant. I go, for what? I go, everything I were doing up here is legal. I have, it's Prop 215. I'm legal in the state of California. There's nothing that I'm doing that's not illegal. We're under the count of plants. I don't even know why the feds would be involved.

So they ended up taking me to put me in a cop car and took me down to the next town. And from there, they started interrogating me. And as they're interrogating, they're asking me questions about my buddy Dave, who is the main guy in my case. So he was the one funding the money. He's the one that leased the land. And he's basically the finances. He's got some problems.

There's a lot of stuff in Dave's name. No, nothing was in Dave's name. Oh, I thought you said he just leased the land. He did, but he leased it from a friend. Okay. So, and I'll give you the whole backstory right now. I'm sure his friend was like, that's died. I'll lease that for Dave.

Well, so. So, yeah, so they're asking me questions. What does Dave do for a living? It works at UPS. What else does he do for a living? Oh, he's on workman's comp right now. What else is he doing? I go, oh, I think he's taking his real estate license testing.

And they're like, well, what else does it go? I go, can I just get a lawyer? And the guy goes, that's the smartest thing you said. And I'm like, whatever. I go, I was like looking at them and they throw the paperwork in front of me. Paperwork says 15 to life. I go, 15 to life for growing? And they said, no, we know you had labs up there, you know, for speed and whatever.

And I'm like, what? And so I was like, I go, you guys are funny. I go, I'm legal in the state of California. What I'm doing? Do I even look? I have pulled my hands up. Do I look like I'm scared? My hands aren't shaken.

I go, I don't know what the hell is wrong with you people. They take me again, put me in the car, drive me down to the next town. so sorry let me so why are you going to explain why that like did somebody give him your name so so going back this is where i was going to go with that right now so so going back so they stumbled upon us through four different situations one and the the in 2000 or 2000 2000 2000 in 2000 before i was up there so my my buddy that owned the land his partner came up missing

He went to pick up $150,000 in cash. When he left, his car was found at the side of the 101, never seen again. So that was one situation. The dad, the family was, you know, they were reaching out to all the police departments, the feds. Anybody will listen to them, radio stations. I remember listening to the radio station one day, and I hear their names, and go, what the hell? And, you know, we're still not thinking anything because we know my boy, no everyone's innocent. No one did anything to this guy.

Right. But, you know, so we're just continuing. on with our operations, not even paying attention to that. So that's, that was one thing. Then back in my hometown, this guy got in trouble, what did you call it, selling yay. Right. And then another guy, he used us for leverage, by the way. And then another guy got pulled over $30,000 in cash. And his partner that he was driving with happened to half speed and tucked it into the seat. and so from that situation that guy used us

used our names for leverage to get himself off of his you know give him information try to get his sentence reduced or whatever done so that was three the fourth was the same guy they got pulled over with the 30K his cousin was dealing with this guy Oscar who was being

surveillance by the feds for like two years he was taking Mexican smoke from Arizona and distributing it all over the United States. He was taking Mexican herb and distributing all over the United States. So your name keeps getting mentioned over and multiple investigations. Well, my name was never even mentioned. That's the thing. My phone wasn't in my name. It was through those people that were talking, my name was brought up. Yeah. So yeah. That's what I'm

saying. Yeah. And multiple investigators. Like we grabbed this guy over here. Right. Right. And mentions you this guy but the last one with oscar that got wire he was already wiretapped oscar's phone was so he got they intercepted the conversation with with the other with the other friend of ours right that led him back daisy chained it to my friend dave who was like i said the main guy so if your name is if your name keeps coming up in multiple investigations they think you guys are big players of course but the crazier part about how the feds operate is that they actually knew that we weren't the players they were looking for they knew that Oscar was dealing with the cartel

but since they tied that in they said oh that's more to bunch up now we got Oscar and his group which could be like 10 to 12 people and then they got our group which is 10 to 12 people now they got like 20 something people now they look like they have a huge case and they're throwing the RICO

so this is kind of how everything snowballed and how they kind of basically stumbled upon us accidentally I always say but I mean who was who knows it was accidentally or not but then they ended up sending like I said the task force for you know for speed

up to Mendocino to bust a girl they didn't have they had they had actually they had the informants they were had people following us they had wiretaps

and then they had girls going to festivals with us so we didn't even know they were hanging out with those that were informants and all that they still didn't have enough they still had enough information

so they the prosecutor told the judge that we had labs up there and that's how they got their search warrant. So it was this kind of, I don't know, it was when you're legal in the state of California and you're still, even to this day, it's illegal with the feds no matter what.

So this is why I call, by the way, my book, which is what I'm here for today. Anyways, my book that I wrote, it's called Catch 420 for that reason because it's a Catch-22, but it's not really cash 22 because it's about, you know, the... You're very clever. Smoke law.

Yeah, right. So, yeah, that's pretty much how that came. All right. If I'm just playing word playing with my words is because there's mona, how you say it? We're trying to make sure we stay monetized. Monetized, thank you. But so, yeah, that's how they came across us. And then I had to deal with the whole process after that, which was insane.

Took me from Yucaya, California, where once I got to that, when I got to that jail, another friend of mine who was working with us, he was at his home in Yucaya. They showed up to his house. He has two kids, his wife, two dogs, and they basically rushed the house. They thought we had weapons. They thought, they just, I don't know what picture they were painted, but they really thought that we were huge, and they figured out we had nothing. and they ended up sitting his wife and him on the couch

while they searched the house and they were talking to them, chatting it up like they were buddies, and then they ended up taking him to Yucaya jail, and that's when I got there, I seen him there. So I was like, I'm seeing a familiar face finally, so I'm starting to get, I feel a little more comfortable, but I was, I was rugged.

It was, you know, you get busted, you get, you're running, I'm bleeding, my legs are bleeding from sliding down a mountain. I'm just like, I'm out of, breath. I'm filthy. And on top of that, I hadn't showered in, like, a week. So, like, my arms were, like, black. There's no shower in the cabin? No. No. There's a shower, but you have to get the water pressure going and stuff. So, again, I was getting ready to go home. I was going to go home that time, too. The second year, I was getting ready to go home. And then my buddy, the one that was already home, supposed to come back, asked if he could stay another week. And that's

why I was there. Otherwise, I wouldn't even have been there. And it would have been a better deal for me because then I wouldn't have been caught on the property right but that's where I was at when they caught me so um so what what happened what does your lawyer say um they so I'm the only one that had a appointed attorney a public pretender whatever you want to call them and um everyone else had high-powered 30,000 50,000 lawyers they got their lawyers from San Francisco uh from Tony Sarah who's a government activist, who is a very famous lawyer. He's represented, like Huey Newton of the Black Panthers. He's represented the leader of the Ku Klutz Klan.

He's represented the people that actually had something to do with Ted Binion from the Binion Casino. He was representing Barry Bond at the time for the Balco case. And then he ends up, my friends all got lawyers from his firm. And Tony at the time was like 74 years old. we show up to they take us from yucaya to san francisco me and freddie that was the guy that was in the cell with in yucaya they take us to um to san francisco and we're going to the process there when we get to go see the judge freddie had our attorney from from uh from tony's um law firm already on retainer so we asked for her another lawyer that was from that same from that same firm

overheard us talking he walked over he see because he knew she wasn't there he ended up representing both of us to the judge and at the judge has asked where you want to fight this case you want to fight it in san francisco you want to fight it back in fresno central california well central california is conservative san francisco is not we'd have better chances in san francisco so we said san francisco so they ended up sending us to san an arena county um holding facility for feds and for state and we're sitting there for two weeks going back and forth to court and stuff and then finally

everyone had homes to put up property I didn't so they did a signature bond for me and it was agreed upon but the attorney the prosecutor back in central California she had the three o'clock that day to deny it and I'd have to go through the whole process again

so we all go back to the holding cells at Santa Rita going through that to get before we get to ourselves and as we're in the holding cell a guard comes in he starts calling names so there was there was one two three it was four guys plus me they called all their names except me so i watched them all walk out and they're all looking at me with the saddest face because out of all these guys maybe not all of but i'm one of the least culpable no they would think them they would think that I'm the one that couldn't take jail as good as the others probably you know what I'm saying they thought you could couldn't oh okay they thought you were you weren't

prepared they're like that's how they all of us this is not the guy that needs to be here right or it's going to do well exactly so what why I mean are they are they all big tough guys no I have no family okay I had I had I had no representation right like the odds were against me you know I mean it's like so they just looked at me like a weak link And they were scared for not just me, scared that I was going to say something on their account, too. So, which didn't happen. But you guys need to put some money on my books. You guys need to start taking care of me. Yeah, that didn't happen either. See, that's the problem. It was everyone for their selves at the time. Somebody needs to start looking out for me. Right. And the thing is,

I'm the most loyal out of, I'm a loyal friend. And I'm the one that's breaking my back left the right to make sure everyone's good. And then when it came down to this situation, everyone forgot who I was. Yeah. You know, so that's what was happening at that moment. And then they all, they ended up all getting out. I ended up staying an extra week. And then they were transferring me because then the prosecutor actually denied my signature bond. So I had to go through the whole process again. And they were taking me back to central California. But they didn't take me directly to central California. No. They made it, they made it like I was a mob leader and they didn't want, they didn't, they don't let people follow their movements. Basically, they're moving me

places without telling anybody where I'm going. Right. So I ended up getting on a, I'm going to go on Travis Air Force Base, getting on a con air. There's must have been 300 inmates on this thing, shackle and handcuffed. Everyone's going to a different location. I don't know where I'm going. So they ended up, I heard the plane flies for about 45 minutes and it's, it's touching down somewhere. okay, I don't know where we're at, but it doesn't seem like I was too far. We happened to be in, I think, Victorville maybe, or Edwards Air Force Base, somewhere in that area. They call my name out finally. I'm thinking that I'm going to get on one of these buses, and I did, but it wasn't taking me to where I was going.

It took me to Bakersville, California, to a holding facility. The day that I was leaving Santa Rita, I started feeling something on my side here. hip and I showed my cellmate and he goes that could be a you know it was like a scratch or something but it was itching real bad he goes that could be a brown recluse bite or that can be um staff infection and me being ignorant at the time I'm like hey no staff infection you know so I don't know what a staff infection is so I'm just like I'm not dirty so I ended up uh we get to Baker'sfield I was telling the nurse about it and she said you'll be fine we'll give you medication So I get to my first pod

There's like 30 inmates in this pod And one of this guy comes over starts talking to me Asking me all these questions of what I'm here for this and that And I was already told not to tell people too much information Because people like to gather information And then turn around and snitch on you about it So I was just kind of like being real weary with them But then I said, hey, have you ever seen this before?

I showed up this thing He goes, that's a staff infection And so I went back to my room And then about 10 minutes later He comes up there, he goes, hey, you need to go ring the, uh, hit the buzzer and tell the, tell the guards that your life is being threatened right now because you need to get out of here. So I did that because they, you know, I didn't know, but obviously it spreads. Yeah, yeah. And so I go and I do that. They put me in, um, a waiting

area outside, like a, like a basketball court or something. It's freezing. And, um, until they put me in another pod. And as they came to another pod, they said, don't tell anybody what you got. We'll have meds to you in the morning. And said, okay. So then I started getting on the meds. And then a week later, they sent me to Fresno, California. Did it get better? Oh, no. Not until I got to Fresno. That doctor started giving me more meds.

It went from a small to a hole and it was pussy. It was shooting all the way down my crotch. And then it basically ate a hole in me. And then all my boxers, they gave me, which is really crazy, they're all white boxers, bloodstains and all the boxers until it finally, it finally cleared up and went away. But I still have a, I definitely have a little bit of an indention on my hip. yeah where was that but it's um yeah that's something that i would never want to have again

that wasn't a fun situation but i was there in fresno and i ended up getting the cell that i was in with the main guy david he was already there because he was in fresno when they found him so he's in fresno and in uh the fresno county jail i show up as i'm going in he sees me he's pacing back and forth he's acting oh he's acting psychotic right but so I get in there and then he sees me and gives me a hug and everything we go and we start talking and um you know he's I at this point I have been in now in the system now for almost a month like three weeks I lost 25 pounds in that three weeks so I looked I was I looked really smoked and um he started giving me top ramen started giving me food and a week into that I got out my

ex was my ex-girlfriend because we had broken up about three months prior to to me getting in trouble her her family put up a house for me to get out so it's like a fight my case on the outside I got out the day before my birthday and that was amazing so that's kind of how all that went down so you got out what what I mean so I got out to fight my case right which I ended like I said I ended up with a going through pretrial then I'm dealing with the guy they gave me a lawyer Phil Churny and They were like, this guy... Public defender?

Yeah. They were... They were telling me, they go, when I got to the pretrial, the lady goes, oh, you got a good lawyer, I said, I do. She goes, yeah, and she's names, and I go, okay. And she goes, did you ever hear about the Dana Yule case? I go, yeah.

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Visit bemo.com slash ViPorter to learn more. He murdered his, he hired someone and him, they went in, they murdered the family so he can get the inheritance. And she goes, yeah, well, he represented Radovich, which was the guy that he helped him. And I go, yeah, didn't that guy get life in prison? He's like, well, yeah, but he didn't get the death penalty. That's that, okay.

Is that to win? Yeah. So we went from, it went from that. And then I was going to court, and then all the lawyers would gather and talk. They would all talk. We'd all congregate in a room afterwards. The only time I could hang out with any of my co-defendants, we'd all congregate in a room together with our lawyers. Your lawyers had to be present.

And there was a couple guys, this guy, Joey, the one I told you that got busted with the EA. he had a lawyer because he was they brought them in on the case he would never go to that room and then the other guy that got pulled over the 30k he would never go to that room right they're cooperating they're cooperating right off the jump and um so we kind of knew this and then as everyone's talking tony tony sarah the lawyer he comes over to me and he says hey look we're going to have your your lawyer fall a suit with all of us you're going to be fine um going back um i don't know if I said it already, but Tony, Tony was so famous, they made a movie about him. Right.

And it's called True Believer. And James Wood plays Tony. Robert Downey Jr. plays the assistant. This is how famous this lawyer is. I don't know if it's California or a weapon lawyers in the lawyer world. He's a very, he's a very well-sought-out lawyer. Right. And I think we did a podcast interview of him.

He was 92. he was 74 or 75 when he took on our case so we interviewed and he was still fighting cases in his 90s which is wild I didn't know what else to do not ready to retire no he's sharp as a whistle he looks like he looks very fucking not gonna be very sharp when I'm 70 I tell you that I'm already fucking

my mind's already slipping I see these guys in their 70s and 80s who were sharp as fucking tax and I'm like fuck I'm already fucking slipping I can't remember shit What are we talking about Exactly Thanks for coming by Yeah so

Tony tells me if he's going to fall suit and everything Eight months later As we're fighting the case Tony goes away to federal prison for tax evasion To Lompoc prison camp That'll happen Yeah four months later I pled out

15 months But then they took me to, I went to a probation officer for the, first I did the, where the debriefing. Didn't give me any information on that. They were pissed, dude. The debriefing was wild. I'm sitting there. My lawyer's trying to sell me out, by the way.

He's already went from 15 alive to 10 years to eight years to four years to two eight, two years, eight months. I'm going, there wasn't even any, the things were barely flowering. There was not even no, no bud on anything. It was like, I don't, it made no sense to me, but they weighed everything. with the soil, the plant, and they said we had a $30 million operation. I was like, $30 million operation, I would have retired last year. I wouldn't even be doing this.

So this is how they're coming at us. And as, so anyway, I go to the front of the, then I go to the, I had to do a PSI report. Right. You know what that is? Of course. Why do I know what that is? Right. Right.

So the PSI, well, I didn't write mine. I had, I could do yours. Yeah, I had a paralegal do mine. So she did it like. I mean, I always tell people, remember when you were in fifth and sixth grade, I'd do a state report. She did it like that, like laminated, everything was like, it was so on point. When I sat there in front of the probation officer, he's like, he'd asked me a question. I go, that's on page eight.

He asked me a record, that's on page 10. And he's flipping through it. And he's just like, this is the, he shuts it. He goes, this is the best PSI report I've ever seen. And I go, this is my life we're talking. You don't even understand. I go, people come in here, didn't do any of it. I had to sit there asked a question to write it down as as we're going.

We're here for hours. Well, most of the time, the PSI person just comes in and questions you right then and you just tell them the answers and they write up the report. But your lawyer said now, we're... Well, they handed me the paper way in advance. Oh, okay. So I had it already, and I call my friend who was a paralegal, and she just gathered it all, gathered my information, and she did it all and labeled everything.

I mean, it was categorized. It was everything. Color coordinated. It was pretty, it was pretty impressive, I had to say. and I wouldn't even know that until sat down with that probation officer and what he said, but they were like as they're reading it, him and my lawyers

over my shoulder and he goes, so you're telling me you were, it says in here you were conceived on acid. I go, yeah, my mom said that I was conceived on on that. She was on acid. Yeah. And so they're like, wow, all of a sudden they start softening up. Right. And my lawyer who has never been

in my corner the whole damn time to it was a point where he said, I'm going to, he goes, I'm going to, um, you should fire me. I, I don't even want to represent you. I'm going to, I go, guess what? I'm not going to fire you because I'm just going to fire you. Because I'm just going to keep you. You already know what's going on. And he pissed him off because he couldn't get rid of me. And then at this point, he starts softening up. And as we're leaving the, the probation officer, he goes, we're going to recommend to the judge a year and a day. And I go, why a year and a day? He goes, well, because you need a, you need over a year. So you can get your,

good time, which is 46 days off of the year. And so I went from 15 to life when they started figuring out they didn't have what they thought they had. And they kept getting dwindling and dwindling and dwindling to now from 15 to life to a year and a day. And the only reason I did that, because I didn't have property or anything to give to the feds because they want money. And if you don't have money, you've got to give them time. So this is where I was at. As we're leaving the probation officer's office, my lawyer turns to me and starts talking about his daughter getting married and this. He's just like giving me, I'm looking at him going, where was this dude? He would call me and I'd be trembling every time this guy called me. I didn't even want to answer the phone because it was

always something like, okay, they're going to give you eight. Eight years ago, for what? Like every time, it was something crazy. He even brought me into a sit down at a table, all these people in here. I didn't even know half of them. And he's going to have me. me signed for over four years and i looked at him and said i ain't signed of nothing and he that's when he got mad so you need to fire me i said no no dude i'm not firing but i'm not signing nothing and um yeah so i ended up with a year and a day what happened your dog my dog i'm sorry so no no i'm less concerned about you i'm still worried about this fucking dog they tied up and left in a fucking you see that right there yeah that's my dog's that's my dog's um caller and this so he passed

passed away in 2017 so during the time though he went from the cabin he broke out the cabin ran all the way around the mountain four miles there side of the mountain to the cabin that he was actually born in and my friend my friend randy was there and then so when i when i go to santa rita i call up i called up my godson's mom because she's a vet tech and that's who i got the dog from and that she was married to freddie the one that i was that we got we met up in yukaya and they took us san francisco together she was married to him at the time And she tells me, she goes, we got, I went up there and I picked up, my dog's name of Sunny. Went up there and we picked up your dog.

He's fine. He's getting acupuncture right now. And I'm going. Fucking California. I go, I'm in, I'm in jail and some orange scrubs. And my dog is getting acupuncture right now. I'm dying of fucking staff. Right.

Dogs laid out getting massages and acupuncture because he's stressed. Because he's stressed. I was like, this is great. So, yeah. so that's that's what happened with him and he ended up staying up in the mountain with his brother with his mom and his dad um his real dog siblings right and um he ended up staying up there with them and um why the whole time i didn't when i went away right but um yeah it was it was tough where'd you go i was sorry go ahead so yeah so for so after after after after i did my year and a day

where'd where'd you do a year and day um well i'm going to say that right now i was going to say well first of all you've already been locked up the whole time. Yeah, if it's time served. It's only a month time served, though. It's only a month. I only been gone. I only been locked up for a month. Because you got out. I got out. The ex-ist family put a house up for me. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I know. I remember. I still for some reason thought you had been locked up a considerable amount. No, no. It was just a month. And then I got, then I get out and I find my case. And then I get a year and a day. And then I had to turn myself in. So my turning in date was, um, they were trying to give me in September. My birthday is on

beginning of October. So I asked them if they can give me more time. to get my to get my finances my gather my stuff whatever together and they said yeah so they said at october 6th i was like perfect so i didn't have spent i got out the day before my birthday to fight my case and i went in after like oh five days after my birthday so i was really i was really happy about that and where did you walk yourself in did you so you so i walked myself into longpaw california and that's where tony was doing time so my first day in federal prison i'm having breakfast I have records with a lawyer that was overseeing my whole case. Right.

You know? You can't imagine this. Counselor. This is why I say there's so many layers, you know, to this story that it just sounds so intriguing that can be a movie. It's just, there's just no way. If you've seen a movie like this, you go, that's all made up. No, this isn't made up.

I do have quite, so, I mean, as soon as you go in, you're such short time. Did they put you in immediately for a halfway house? No. They never put you in for a halfway house after eight and a half months. I got a month off for time served. I got a month and a half off for good behavior. So then I had eight and a half months to serve there. And then a month of halfway house.

So it added up to a year and a day. Okay. So, but I tell you what, before they change the rules there, because they put an RDAP program into Longpock. Before they had the RDAP program, and they didn't have the RDAP program, they could ask me, Do you want to spend your last month here? Do you want to go to Halfway House? And I would have been like, I would do my last month here. I had a routine.

You know what I mean? I was comfortable. I was fine. Plus Halfway House just in general sucks. When I got there, it was black mold. It was disgusting, dude. It was the worst, it was the worst situation. I was lucky and fortunate enough to have a friend of mine who had a job waiting for me.

So I had talked to the people in charge of the halfway house. They said, usually we don't let nobody leave the halfway house for a month before we let them go. get a job and I said I'm only here for a month right I go I have a job lined up you guys take 30% of my check I go wouldn't it be beneficial for you guys to start getting paid for me being here so within four days I got to leave and I would stay gone until I can come until I had to come back I would never you know if I left at five in the morning I wouldn't be back to like six o'clock in the afternoon and so I didn't spend the least the least amount of time at this place because it was it was disgusting I really wish I would have spent my last month in federal

Plus, there's a lot of staff members. Like, if you're in prison, I always tell these guys, like, in federal prison, state prison, it's different. In federal prison, you don't have to have a lot of interaction with the cops. You know what I'm saying? You don't have a lot. I'm like, you see them, but you don't really have to talk to them. You don't have to, they don't, they're not yelling at you all the time. They're not there.

So it's very little interaction unless maybe you're going to see your counselor, you know, when you first get there. And then maybe a few months later when they put you for a halfway house or whatever. Right, right. But it's very, hey, what's up. Yeah, this is what's going on. You're putting me. Okay, yeah, I'll sign here. And you leave and you don't, you know, but you go to the halfway house and they're fucking on you all the time and want clean and count and do this and do that.

Come over here and piss in this cup and do that. God, you guys are sign in, sign out. We got to search you. It's like, Jesus, this is a nonstop. I mean, that's how it was the halfway house where I was at. It was just they were on us all the time. Like I said, I was fortunate. And if I come in when these guys were pretty much, one of them would get off shift to be a girl working.

And it wasn't, I couldn't, you know, obviously, like, for instance, I had to put bleach in a water bottle because my room was so nasty. And, you know, they won't let you bring that stuff in there. But I, I needed cleaning supplies. My shower was black mold. It was gross. So I had to go clean that. Ours was super clean because if you didn't have a job, you had to clean so many hours a day. They'd block everybody up.

They call, and then they tell everybody, like, you don't have a job, you don't have that. come on for the next hour you're going to clean clean these three tables mop this that staff would take you out to clean their offices with vacuum this office back and they'd stand there and watch you vacuum take out the garbage you for like an hour and then they put you back in they'd count let you back out for a couple hours and they'd lock everybody else up again grab everybody so it's like you want to get a job did you um was yours was yours co-ed yeah I met my wife there that's like crazy she just fine she's fine Five years for a meth conspiracy.

I'm sorry. She did five years for an ice conspiracy. Well, that's hilarious. Yeah. That's hilarious. When I was there, I had the girls that were hitting on you. And then it was even more crazy was guys would actually want to, would leave, would risk their time to go get alcohol and get fucked up. And then hop back over the fan.

I go, what's the point? I go, you know. There's just knuckleheads. I just can. No, there's, the IQ level is, is not, it's not even what you would think would. be you know and this is this are these are federal yeah this is this is they're this the top of the shit right right right like they're the i was in there's one guy who is who was counterfeiting money yeah and they it looked real yeah and he got busted he goes he he bought a lot of rolexes

and so he when he got out he had he had stuff to sell and money to make with it's money to make but they had nothing to do with the because he you know he laundered it yeah into something else but it was just listening to some of the stories of some of the people in there it was it was pretty wild but I couldn't I had girls hitting on me I'm sitting there eating my food you eat so sexy and I go how do I eat sexy that wasn't my wife is my mouth closed yeah I like a man who knows how to chew without yeah it was it was my wife I was hit on my wife and she's and she's just like I would never date you like you would never you don't know what I'm gonna be when I'm out of here That's what I was like.

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I'm going to, I'm going to figure out how to self-publish them. I want to do some kind of a true crime, you know, like a true crime podcast, like a podcaster big. Like, I don't really know what that is. I've never been on YouTube. Right. But people told me, I read some articles. I'm like, yeah. I'm like, yeah, I don't.

There's an iPhone. Like I'm, I'm, I'm, you're hitting the fucking thing. Okay, no, swipe, Matt, swipe like a caveman. Swipe. What do you mean, swipe? And they're like, no, no, gently. It's horrible. But she, I'm telling all this.

And she's thinking, head it. Yeah. She's thinking, this guy is so. full of shit she'll tell you show oh i thought you were so full of shit like you didn't write any books you're not gonna do like what is you don't even got money on your books yeah what are you talking about now we're flying to fucking vagus to go watch fucking uh to go watch jelly roll concerts and you know going on vacation and stuff and i'm like what you and you you didn't you didn't you didn't want to date me and she's like all right this enough about you keep mentioning it you know

Rub it in. Remember he said, I would never date you? Are we married? You're like, you know, you keep bringing this up. Why are you living in the past? Right. That's what made us. Yeah.

You're talking about. Yeah. No, I didn't get hit on in the fucking in the halfway house. But there were, there were guys that, like, the chick would leave. And then the guy would leave, like, 20 minutes later. And they'd meet in a parking lot somewhere. It's like, what are you doing? Right.

Yeah, they get caught together. somebody's car it's like come on like it would it's it's not that serious yeah yeah you can wait another right but people but people couldn't yeah it was funny i even i even so more funny was our halfway house was right next door to the strip the strip club nice and um so when i got out my buddy came and got me and he came with two girls we went to the strip club and i'm so i'm desensit i'm desensit i'm desensitized at this time i'm like i don't even want to be around women right now i was so focused on myself I was like, it took me eight months to even think about hooking up with a girl or even trying to be around a woman because I was so, when people asked me how my time was served when I went to

federal, I said it happened to be probably the best year of my life. And they're like, what are you talking about? And I was like, there was no bills. There was no girl worries. I go, I could focus. Here out here, I thought I had ADD. I go, but I don't because as soon as I got in there, I read 50 books. I wrote a book.

I was on the softball team. I took a court on course. I'm a certified chef now. I go, I actually benefited because I can focus. Yeah. I don't wake up in the morning and worry about my bills and stressed and what I have to do. I have to go to work. And what time do I have for myself because there's not much.

I have to do this. I have to do that my responsibilities. And you're in there, it's just you. And it's all about you. Unless you make it otherwise, but, you know, you can do your time negative. you can do a positive well i think it it's it's a great it really categorizes people too right like you you you know i mean guys i've i was in there writing books and writing stories and and and there there were other guys they'd hear me that or this guy yeah this guy matt he wrote a true crime

book he did this he's doing that he's writing this guy's book he's writing this but he wrote a bunch of stories and they yeah man i'm i'm going to write a book when i get out when you get out and then they said they they talk then they say yeah yeah i'm gonna write my own book when i get out and i go Yeah, I've been thinking about it. I definitely, I got a good story. I'm like, why don't you write it now? Well, I'm going to do it when I get out. I got a computer.

I don't, you know, and I'm like, bro, how long you've been locked up? Seven years. How much more time you got? I've got about four more years. And I'd say, you're never going to have this much time in your life, ever. Right. If you can't write it now with a pencil and a piece of paper from commissary or steal the shit out of the fucking out of the library, like if you can't put it together now,

you will never put it together. So you do it now because you won't do it on the street. Like, I'll do it on the street. Right. But I'm motivated. Right. I've done it in here. I'll figure out how to do it on the street.

Right. And they would say that. And you could always tell, you'd sit down and talk with somebody. Like, this guy spends all his time playing handball and cards. You know, you're not going to do anything on the street. You're going to go right. You're going to be selling drugs. You're going to be back here in two years.

You know, you've been in out of your whole fucking life. So, and you're talking about writing a book. And you've got an interesting story. Right. But you can't do it. Now you're going to wait until you get on the street. Cut the fucking shit. Right.

So, or you got the guys, they don't want to write a book, but, God, I forget Justin. I forget Justin's last name. But Justin wrote an entire, he comes up with a concept. He comes up with a complete app. He writes out the code, everything for the entire app, what it's going to do. He gets out. He puts the app together. He goes out and raises money and starts a comfort.

He's got like 30 people working for him right now and they're blowing up. I mean, you meet these guys every once while that they go in there and they put together a plan and it's like, you're a drug dealer. Like you've been a drug dealer for 10 years. And how did you come up with it? Well, I mean, I thought about it and I met a guy and I thought, I could do this. I thought there's probably a reason for it. So I ordered a, I had my ex-girlfriend order me a couple books and it's like you trained

yourself without you to have an entrepreneur right inside of right and his whole thing was is like yeah I was selling drugs on the street but that was a easy way to make money and it was young kid same thing he was raised with nothing right so he's doing this for a few years till he gets caught goes to prison says yeah I can't do this anymore right and figures it out like but then there's other people that you realize like they're they get in there and it's like the one it's a gift that the feds gave you because for the first time is that they you've you've all the time in the world to put together a plan. And if you don't take that time to do something with it, then you're going to have a hard time in life. Like if, if, unless you just say, hey, I want to get out

and I want to get out and I want to be a plumber. I just want to get a regular job, get a, girlfriend, make her my wife, and have a couple kids. And that's all I want to do. That's, listen, if that's what you want to do with your life, you know, God bless you, right? Like, that's middle America. I want you to do that. Like that's, that's, because for some, people, and Colby's heard you say this before, for some people, that's their measure of success. Can I be a middle class American? And that's all I want to do. And if that's what your goal is, there's nothing wrong with that. Like God bless you. Right. I wish that's how my life had gone. Not me. Right. Well, I understand. But I'm saying, you know what I'm saying, but it didn't go

that way. Because I know guys that, I know a few guys that are never be content. You see, that's the problem in it. That's what I'm saying is that I wish that had made me content because I know several guys that that's what they do and they're perfectly happy. Like they're the happiest guys I know. And I know guys that have millions of dollars and Lamborghinis and all the vehicles and they drink every night. They don't really spend any time with their kids. They're super unhappy. And you're like, you're worth fucking $30 million. You should be. fucking ecstatic they don't i know a guy right now he's probably worth 30 or 40 million dollars tons of real estate single um kids don't talk to him ex-wife hates his guts

he's extremely unhappy you're worth fucking 30 or 40 million dollars they take it for round but they forget what it's like not to have right i think that guy would benefit from throw him in jail for four years get his fucking head straight he'd be a happy he'd probably get out and be happy the rest of his life. I was in there with a guy named Lance Malone. He was a city councilman in Vegas. He gets there. And we're

talking about, you know, this guy has subway subway sandwiches. He has all kinds of things going on. His wife's ahead of one of the casinos. Like, he's doing, he was doing very well. Got in trouble because the mob actually used him for leverage and said that, you know, he was basically

threw his name in the mix when they probably threatened him to do what he had to do. right and then they turned around and snitched on him so that's how they got you know their sentence reduced he ends again five years shows up in camp you don't get a pillow you got to figure out a way to get a pillow you got to figure out how to make a pillow or that so he has a pair of pant he's rolled up he's been sleeping on if you sleep hot at night you know how disruptive that can be whether you're having trouble falling asleep you're waking up sweating in the middle of the night or all of the above that's where ghost bed can help as the makers of the coolest beds in the world ghost bed is your go-to for

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to save a whopping 50% off site wide. Well, I'm there. I already got the gist of this place. And I've been there at this point. I had already been there like six months, maybe five. So when someone was leaving, hey, can I get your pillow? And they're like, yeah, sure. So I get their pillow.

So then when people would show up and if I liked you, here, bro, here's a pillow. So I gave Lance a pillow and he looked at me like I just gave him a gold brick. Like he was like, I could, he was a, the look on his face. This said at all. You're talking about a guy who's had everything given to him, you know, whether he earned it or not, but on the outside, he wouldn't even talk to me. Do you know what I mean? Oh, yeah. But on the inside, when you hand someone some of a pillow, they're looking at me like, I'm a God. And it was crazy to see the reactions because we're all, all of us now are on the same playing field.

It's a great equalizer. He's, Colby's Herbie's out, obviously. Prison's a great equalizer. You can be a crackhead and your sally used to own four banks. Right. You know? What's great, too, is that that guy's never going to be in the same. room with that guy. Now they can have conversations. I get a chance for you to elevate yourself. Right. Of course. And you should and you should be learning right you're there. And that and honestly that that billionaire, it's probably a chance for him to realize, hey, I'm gonna, I'm lucky. Humble. Yeah, humbling. Humble. This guy was raised in the projects, never left the projects.

His mom's a crack whore. His dad's in and out of prison. Never really knew him. All of his family members in and out of prison, never left the state, you know, I got it pretty good. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's humbling. 100%. Even with the guards that are there. The guards aren't getting paid nothing. Yeah.

Those guys are going to pay. The state gets paid, the correctional officer's the state get paid three times the amount as a Fed agent. Really? No way. Yeah. Not in Florida. Well, maybe California's outrageous.

But the feds were only at the time, $30,000 a year. That's what they're getting paid. Oh, yeah. What year is this? Oh, six. Yeah. So when I was there, the starting salary was 35. 35, you don't even have to have a high school education. Right. You just had to be, you had to, they gave you 18 months to get a GED. And you could get it extended. There were guards that had been, they've been working for three years and still hadn't got their GED. But the starting for a state, it matters what state you're in, around 60. That's insane. So it's like, and then every one of us, every one of us inmates at that time was worth about 40, 40. $35,000 on books, each one of us. So, of course, they want to fill it up.

Almost prisons are, what do they call it, privately owned, even though they're being, you know, almost like subcontracted out with the feds or whatever they're working with, state, whatever it is, but they're owned by private entities. So it's a lucrative business, you know, pharmaceutical and prisons. Those are your number two, one and two in the United States. Yeah, I was just say, I know guys, I know a guy who has a couple hundred thousand on his books and then the they'll the warden will like bring him in and say you've got to move this money like what are you doing before he went in he had it set up so one of his retirement plans would just send money and he's like what am I going to they keep mailing the check like what am I supposed to do I'm not out there I can't go sign the papers I can't they're going to and they're like we we got to get this money moved right you know you got to you got he's like what am I going to do unless if he had a restitution right what he

He doesn't. He doesn't. But, I mean, you can only spend, what, $350? Yeah. $300. Well, mine was $300 and then $50 for the phone. Yeah. It's like $350. Yeah. So he, it was not him, but what I was going to say is, you know what we did, we would do. We get a pillow. And the pillows that you can eventually get are just crap, right? And so guys in the, guys in the craft department would go to. Get a working camp to blick. No, no. No, this was just like you. painting, leather shop. Gotcha, got you. They would order from the Blick catalog.

Blick is, it's a catalog for... It's like Amazon. Yeah, it's, well, it's for crafts, right? Like paints, oil paints, leather. They would order cotton, stuffing. So they could make pillows. And then they could make... So you'd go to them and you'd have a pillow that I'm telling you right now,

like, it's an embarrassment to say... You basically had a pillowcase. Right. And there were some crap in there. Right, right, right. And you'd go to them and be like, bro, I need a pillow. and they'd be like God,

that's going to be at least $10 worth of stuff. That's four books of stamps. Oh, exactly, exactly. And that's what they did.

You got to give me four. I'll stitch it up. It'll be perfect. I'm going to order. It's going to take a month and a half and you get it. And then you get this stuffed good pillow. Horrible.

Right. But it's a whole process. Right. Well, the towel they give us too. It was like the one at the Motel 6. It was like a real thin hat that short, the mid-sized towel.

That's what we were getting. And then we'd go to the airport. force base and because I was I was electrician on on location so you guys had like we had a truck so we can take off oh you weren't even in prison bro I was in a camp I know but I was in the camp that's what I'm saying my god dude we would take we had a truck and our our our our whatever you want to call I guess it would be our office was off near the medium so we meet my partner give the morning we drive over there our boss would be there is a correction officer and Mr. Manfredi and we would sit there and he literally has feet

up on the desk doing nothing all down day and then we get a call a the warden need you to wire some stuff or there's new washer and dryer so we'd have to go to their their houses and crawl under the under the house and drag wire and it's like it was this is what we did it was like and then we had or we had to change the light bulbs in the medium or the low or the high whatever was we had to change light bulbs and it's just stuff you know basically small manageable stuff that we can do that was not too too crazy did the guards all have like nicknames no but I had nicknames for a lot of the guards yeah I was like all our guards had I literally wrote a whole script not a script but basically the outline so like a what do you

call it a treatment okay of a of a of a story because the guards are hilarious and this could be a comedy this could be like Hogan's heroes but but just with the guards we had a they were they were getting money and they were buying hummers and then and then all of a sudden they were getting audited so they had a take take back all the arms back to the dealerships. They were trying to get the money back on the books. Then we had the secretary that was working inside their office. She went on vacation for two weeks and she gets paid vacation. But she wrote in the books, how whoever she wrote it was, she was still there. So she was getting double-dipped. She was paying for paying for the

hours she was there. And then they escorted her out in handcuffs. So we're watching all this happened. We're the inmates. We're going, this is pretty shady. This is funny. Like it was a There was a lot of comical stuff happening around, man. This is funny. We'd go to the freezer, and the freezer would have food from chilies, like chicken breasts. They're in these plastic containers. It looked like stuff you would take to, if you were in a spaceship, like if you're, like, there was vacuum sealed. Yeah, it looked just like that.

And then when you look at the date, this is in 06, and it would say, 1999 or something, you're going, dude, this is like hell of old. Yeah. But, you know, it's, they don't care. Yeah. Like, it was a, this, this is a lot of, the warden, the warden at the time, our warden, he looked like, uh, do you ever seen, um, um, oh my gosh, what's it called, uh, House of a Thousand Corpse? Yeah.

Remember the clown? Yeah. He looked like him. He looked like him, I swear. He was scary looking. And he was, he was, he was a prick. Like, you didn't want to mess him. He'll say he was the hole, no matter what.

I got lucky one time. And we, someone made me a, a makeshift knife so I can cut up vegetables at my locker. And I'm sitting there cutting them up and he's standing right over me. And I look at such, and I said, and I said, he didn't say nothing. He kept walking. I was like, I must have caught him on a good day or something. You know, if they'll make those out of, they'll take the lid of a can lid, right, something, and they'll bend it over or something.

You know what I'm saying? Like, these guys will take stuff that you're just like, how did you even? Think about that. Yeah. How did you, it'll break apart a plastic? Lens for something and take the plastic and melt it down and then they'll make it sharp and next thing you know You've got a cutting device they had um when I was in county the showerhead was this like a one Like a spray this one shot like a like a laser they took a they take a lid off of a lotion bottle

And then they would they cut the other side out and they stick it on there and then I'll go And it was spray and I'm going I the genius I go you can you go you can guys have a lot of time in your hands. You go, if you're using these same skills on the outside as you are in the inside, you wouldn't even be your... Yeah, you would be able to do something legal. But everyone on the, like I said, again, when you're on the outside, you aren't thinking because you can't think. It's designed that way, I believe. And I was telling, I was telling Mike Dow, I was telling him that they should make a camp that you can go to, that you're, that you're, the government pays for your bills for two months, and you can go to reset. And they should make that

available to people because when after I did my time I was like this was the best reset of my life just like you said it was like the best year in my life I got the focus on myself if they gave someone two months out of the year just to do that I think that would put things a lot in perspective people will think half the time they I need these drugs or on to be on to focus to this and that or you know I'm ADD or I'm ADHD or whatever else they think and then they get there they're like I'm none of this i can actually focus we interviewed a guy i'm not going to remember his name but he was uh he was hooked on h uh he and his brother got together with a guy they started just kind of running scams right so they just running scams well they and then i think i don't think his brother i think maybe it

wasn't his brother but he ends up hooking up with a guy who's running the scams and it was an iphone scam, right? So the guy teaches him the scam where you go get a homeless person or he was ended up, he immediately turned it into an organizationally. He's got a van. He'd go pick up six guys, drive them around all day to get iPhones in their name for multiple iPhones, right? So you could go in and get approved. You only needed like a 550 credit score or no credit score and whatever. You knew what to say. They'd give you six lines. So it'd get six phones from that one. Then you go to T-Mobile. Get six more. Then you go somewhere else. Get five. You go somewhere. else and then eventually they said well we can give you one so they end up with each guy's getting 10 15 of

these phones they would pull like the sim cards or whatever out of them and then they would they'd give the guy like 100 bucks a phone and then they would sell them to this guy for 500 bucks that guy sells them overseas and this guy's doing this he's getting 50 60 phones 80 phones a day he's making tons of money he does this for on and off goes to jail comes back goes to jail comes back eventually he goes to to jail, gets a decent amount of time, and in jail, he's in his cellie is a guy who's like a lifer or something along those lines, because he's been out of jail, so his custody level's pretty high. And the guy tells him, he's like, what are you doing, bro? Like, a lot of these guys are clowns. They're, they got fucking 80 IQs. Like, they're never going to be anything. They're,

they're just coming back. You're like, but you could be something. Like, you're smart. Like, you could, you got to stop doing this. Like, you gotta get your, you'll be off the drugs because you're clean now like get out of here and do something with your life for god's sakes you're still young he was like 30 something 34 35 he gets out he goes back to school get student loans goes to school gets a BA goes and then ends up getting his degree his uh an engineering degree gets a master's degree goes to work for Elon Musk and SpaceX as an engineer I forget how many years he worked there. He works for another place now. Because when they went from California to Texas, they were going to give him like a $50,000 bonus or something to move. And his wife

didn't want to move. She said, come on. He's like, talking about. I'm looking for, we're going to the move. I mean, we're going to, we're going to Mars. Like, what are you talking about? This is great. And the guy covered with tats. And but he ended up taking a test for, so he said, at least trying another job. So he said, he went and he took a test. He's like, yeah, I'll make it. I went to to test someplace else, thinking they're going to turn me down and I'll have to move. I'll stay with SpaceX. Immediately they offer them the job. Boom. And it was more money. He's like, I had to stay. Like, what am I to tell my wife? We're going to move our whole family across the country. When these guys are offering more money to stay here and my kids stay in school and you

can keep your job, he was like, fuck. So he stayed. But the point is, is like, if you sat here and listened to his story for two hours, you'd be like, this guy's. And if you looked at him, You'd say, oh, he's done. He's done. Just one day. One of those events, he happened to sit in a cell with the right guy who said the right thing at the right moment. And then he spent six years getting his master's degree. And now he's making $150,000, $200,000 a year.

What else do you have to do when you're there? Yeah. But you know what people do. They dick around. They gamble. They try and get drugs in there. Alcohol. They play handball.

They just, they piss away that. It's an opportunity. They pissed away the opportunity that was given them. Because a lot of them don't see it as an opportunity.

Right. You know what I mean? It's like when everyone was going to the movies on movie night which would be Friday and Saturday

I'd stay behind and I'd write or I'd read. I just felt like I needed to do something that was educating myself. I couldn't,

I just didn't I can watch movies at home and that's just how I felt why am I going to watch movies here? It doesn't make no sense to me or watch movies

with a bunch of guys and yelling at the screen or whatever else they're doing. So I just didn't it's it's the mindset it's just where you're at you you you like you said the IQ levels your environment whatever it was how you got there what you're doing while you're there a lot of these guys you know are there from you know I had guys there from Guam from Hawaii

and they were they were iced and that's what they you know so who knows how twisted that stuff does to you I don't know I don't do it so I don't know but I would imagine it probably does a little something to your brain just like all the other heavy ones do you know oh yeah it's it's a it's a game jam you know it'll it'll it'll when these guys get off it their dopamine levels are so low and they may they stay so low that you ever know you talk to somebody who's been on ice for a long period of time when you talk to them it takes a year or so before they kind of level up for a year or so they're just like like monotone everything is monotone right doesn't matter right smart or not they're just like zombies they're like zombies they're they're very they have no real real

emotional emotions or but after a year or so usually they can kind of it'll start to kind of go back up that's if they can go that long this is like i said it really matters what what and where and when for me um my last so my uh they had a going away party for me um it was like it was like my birthday party and going away party so my birthday is the first of october so it was like we i was going in the sixth so there was a birthday party going away party so i had this girl put a box out and she and collecting money. And so I think I went in with like $700. Like I collected $700 from everyone collected for. I didn't collect it. She did. Collected it for me. And then all I was doing was so when I was having the party, I said I'm not, I'm just inviting girls. So I

literally invited nothing but girls. Any guys that went to it, there was all word of mouth. They heard about it. So they would show up. But everyone would call me. So what do you want to bring for your birthday? Bring a bottle. So everyone brought up. So I had a full two banquet tables full of alcohol everyone brought so we just had a mass party um going away party for me and then uh one of the girls that i met there the night before i was leaving she works at an indian casino as a car dealer she shows up to my house at two in the morning she's i'm gonna come to your house at two in the morning i'm i'm leaving at six in the morning to to turn myself in to three and a half hour drive or something whatever i'd rather be there by three o'clock and i wanted to stop along the way to

the coast and you know enjoy some of the sites while before i go in um waiting for her i'm like how am i going to stay up i'm i'm tired well the only thing that doesn't when you test it doesn't come through is um can i say mushrooms yeah mushrooms yeah and i took those and i stayed up for But that shit messed my stomach up. She showed up to the house. We're going, you know, this is my last hurrah for I'm going away. So we're messing around. I had to keep leaving.

I didn't tell her I was on them. I had to keep leaving the back. I had gas blown at the bathroom coming back. And then when it was time to leave, I was still on a good one. And we ended leaving. I turned myself in and I was on a good one. So it was like, you know, the people asked, you turned yourself in, you were on mushrooms.

So, yeah, I was quarter deep. Right. So, you know, that's not a game changer. It's not a brain, but I really did feel after two, a year of pretrial and then whatever else I was dealing with, I can't remember. But it had been so long as I did anything that I wanted to do something to escape the situation. But it was a, that was an experience to step into a, to step into, because you know, you know, when you turn yourself in, you don't go straight to the camp. You got to, I had to turn myself into the medium.

So I'm dealing with the guards there. And then I'm going in there. As I'm dealing with the guards there, they're going to exchange my clothes. They're going to give me my jumpsuit, whatever they're giving me, the shoes. It was greens there. We had greens. So we looked like Army, look like Army guys. Yeah.

And boots and everything. So, and I was going through the process over there. They're emptying my pockets out. I remember the guard goes, or sitting there. And I brought with me just to be a smart ass. the monopoly get out of jail free card I mean this is my sense of humor

I'm always going to no matter what situation I mean I'm going to try to find something something funny in the situation so they're taking all my stuff I slapped it on the table bam this work here

he looked at it he started laughing he goes yeah the only person I've ever seen to do that shit here so now I'm in a good spirit go back into the back and there's a lady correction officer and a guy

and they start oh so they're reading my thing oh so you're here for you're here for a smoke this and that oh was it white widow was and they started naming all these things all blueberries and then I go uh you know and then so then she says I'm not talking because I'm now I'm tripping right and I'm tripping on two things you know I mean I was like so what what is they doing you know and then uh oh you're not gonna cooperate we're gonna put you in the we're gonna put you in a shoe you're going into the shoe

right when you get here you're going right into the hole when I was like I didn't even know what that was right so it's this was my first this is this is the first experience I get right when I'm there and then they put me in a golf cart and they take me over to the to the camp but it was like a you know this it was a little bit of mind fuck they do a little bit which they do a lot of but you know just I guess I was really I was tripping I guess that's the whole point of the thing but my brain was uh my brain was in a different place and I my brain's always in a different place like as far as the friends I was around I never thought how they thought I was always

Book Club on Monday Jim on Tuesday Date night on Wednesday Out on the town on Thursday Quiet night in on Friday It's good to have a routine And it's good for your eyes too Because with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers

You'll know just how healthy they are Visit Spexavers.cavers.cavers.cai to book your next eye exam Eye exams provided by independent optometrists. Thinking something bigger. You know, they were content. And we were talking about being content with things. Right. People are content with where they're at.

I'm never content where I'm at. I know that I'm here for a purpose. And I just, I needed, I needed a break from my own self because I'm always overthinking. I'm always high-strung. So I thought doing that would be something I could escape for. a little bit and it was probably a bad move to do uh we actually speaking of turning yourself in we interviewed a guy yesterday who's turning himself in today at two o'clock oh wow yeah he's for 54 months at coleman right at the street an hour where it's about an hour away from here

depressing that is depressing yeah how is that place um oh it when i was there it was there it was It was great. My understanding, I'm not great. Oh, but I even, yeah, I get it, though. It was doable. But now, since I left and COVID hit, everybody, everybody there is like, bro, this is state prison. Like, this is horrible. Like, the, people are just like this, the, the warden's horrible. The guards are horrible. Like, nobody, they, none of these people want to do anything. Things break. They stay broken. They, they stay broken. They, they, the food is 10 times as bad. They don't have the, they're not giving them the money. Yeah, the ACs have broke, had, like, the, he's got, they're like, there's no AC. You keep my C. You keep my. You keep my. in Florida that's like a must like he's like can you imagine trying to sleep with no AC in these there's no ventilation that's crazy so they're there um so you got to think it could be the

it's in the middle of night and there's sweat dripping off of everything and you're dying of sweat and it's 110 degrees in the middle of the night on a mattress spreading like wildfire but i mean i don't even mean COVID i mean right now i'm saying anything right yeah it's it's just horrific When you go to a regular jail, it's like 46 degrees in this damn thing. And like you were saying, the guards are paid so little money now. Drugs are everywhere because the cars are bringing in drugs. They're bringing in cell phones. They say every time they have a sleep, they'll find 100 fucking phones.

Right. When I was there, I bet you there weren't four phones on the whole compound. Right. Now it's 100 phones in every single cell. Like it's a state prison. My quote-unquote cousin, I'm not talking to him right now, but he's in federal right now. He's got a phone driving people crazy with that damn phone. People I know that need to call and tell me how they go,

they're just going to get, he's just going to get another one. Yeah. It's like they don't care. It's like I'm like so lost. I'm like, that would never happen when I was there. That's crazy that they even let them get away with it like that.

You know, what's so funny about the phones. When I was there, these guys would pay a couple thousand dollars for a phone. Now there's so many phones. They're paying like four or five hundred bucks for a phone. I mean, it's like,

like that's because that's how prevalent they are and how many how many of the guards are bringing them in right so you know it's in the drug there's just ever so when i was when i was there the the the guards would get um you know um your budget so they would have to make so they'd have to spend all their budget so they get less next year yeah so they can ask for more for the next year so my my guard i worked with um manfredi he would tell me he goes yeah we'd have like $10,000 left in the books and we throw a party and we do a correctional officer of the year giving light 10-year acts and I'm like what yeah that way with the next year we can ask for more money so we spent that we need more money I was like wow this it's the crookedness never stops

like it just the corruptions everywhere you know we're inmates in here but yet the corruption is on is with the system as well yeah oh I remember the assistant ward there was a hurricane that some of the roofs had gone bad right and it was like leaking inside some of the units when I was there there would be like all these you know leaks in the ceiling right like the drywall there's holes and there there's the bucket sitting here you guys get the hurricanes out here too yeah well I don't know if it passes through passes this part I know I know Florida gets hit but I don't know if it goes what parks you know yeah yeah every if you anybody's vulnerable in Florida yeah if you when you were driving in here if you look yeah there's still houses with tarps on them

I think I did see that. It's like a tonned. Yeah, I think about that, this is a year later. Right. It's a year after that hurricane hit last year. And these, that, so most of those roofs were just sheared right off. Anyway, so there was a hurricane when I was there. A month or so later, the assistant warden's walking around with, with the, um, with her assistant.

Mm-hmm. Because the inmates really are running everything. And she's walking around and she would go into the, like the lead, uh, what they call them, the main guy in each unit has a, um, head orally. And she's walking around and she's like, okay, this leak right here. And they're photographing. She's like, that happened during the hurricane. He's like, that's been here two years.

And she goes, no, that happened during the hurricane because FEMA was paying to replace all the roofs. Right. So she's walking around saying, uh, the fence here was damaged. The fence has been, what do you talk? It's been like that for, no. The hurricane. So you're actively working.

with other inmates who are who are defrauding FEMA right now because you people spend the money but FEMA was defrauding everybody right I understand but my point is is like the fraud in the government is it's just it's it's it's just it's it's just rolls downhill it's like everyone's doing something they said when there was a new warden that got to a Coleman one time and he was like look the tree line is approaching the fences right like it's getting closer and closer and he said we need to get we need to get somebody out here to trim all of this and so they call around they call a couple of tree people right a thousand dollars a tree yeah and that well first they call up and they go look we need to pull these things back by about 20 feet you know can

you come out and give an estimate and one of the guys that they call he said I'll absolutely as soon as you guys cut me that check for $40,000 you've owed me for five years from the last time I trimmed the back. Wow. And because what can you do? Who do you sue as the federal government doesn't pay you? I mean. And so these guys are like, oh, okay, they hang up the phone and call the next guy. Who do we get next time? We'll get another guy to come out. Trimelman. You know, to their, to their defense, they can't, they, they, they don't even have the pool. You know what I mean? Whoever's making the calls, he don't have the pool. He just wants to get the job down. No, I understand that. But I'm saying, like, that's how, like, they're just, it's just,

you know, it's just such a broken system. Oh, no. It is. It's 100%. Like it's almost a guarantee that whoever is running like the cafeteria knows somebody who owns a restaurant. Because I've talked to so many guys that would work there and they said the trucks would show up. They'd unload a whole bunch of stuff. And then there'd be boxes that are steaks and lobster or whatever. And they'd pull them off and they'd stick them in the truck of the guy who runs the cafeteria.

And he drives to his buddies, to his buddy's restaurant and gives them to him or sells him. And every once in a while, they'll bust these guys. Right. They'll, the guy got, you know, he's been stealing for 10 years. He owns his own restaurant. His family owns a restaurant. He's half the budget of the restaurant is coming from the prison. And it's like, of course you're being fed dog food because he's selling all this.

He's ordering. And people don't really realize how they, like, they literally give like the warden a budget. He's got like a checkbook. Of course. He can pay whoever he wants. Right. So you think, oh, no, it can't be that easy. Yeah, it's that.

Oh, it's that easy. He don't care about it. He don't care about the enemies. He's having friends and family set up corporations. He can write a check to a corporation for 2,000, 1,500,000, 1,000, you know? And then at the end of the day, they're like, oh, we don't have the money to replace the, I know that you guys have three microwaves in the unit, but we don't have the money to replace them. Well, maybe if you weren't cutting checks to your cousin Louie for deliveries that aren't being made or whatever.

yeah that's yeah the system is really broken for real there's not enough money for everybody to go around no so they have to generate money somehow so this is what they do so that's why when that's why you pay two dollars and eighty cents for a snickers bar that's crazy and three dollars for uh well it's more like more like 15 bucks for a six pack of soda that i could go to grocery store get for 80 cents a piece you know what i'm saying like it's every Everything is marked up two, three times. You just named it off the price of a candy bar right now. Right.

They're like two bucks. I mean, I remember my mom saying, oh, I remember candy bars were a nickel. I remember when candy bars were a quarter. Yeah. I go, now for $2 for a damn candy bar, that's not worth it. It's insane. Yeah, the economy is effed up bad. So what are we doing, man?

Are we, what are we wrapping this up? What's going on? I don't know. It's nice. Thanks for coming by. Oh, this is my book right here. Yeah. catch 420 yeah by the way that's not probably going to come in it get into the prison anyway

no remember we were talking about that even if it wasn't no because of that yeah yeah true true true true story true yeah for sure yeah that is the truth be told there it is yeah I try to think how you can you got up yeah and I have my cousin um he's a life he's a lifer in there and um I can't send it to him yeah just to print out an entire copy and paper bind it and send it it in. Yeah, I can do that. Or just mail it in. Which would be easy because I already have the whole thing already in format on my Google box. How many pages is it?

I don't know how many pages is it. What is it? What is it? What is the back page? I think it's two something. 196 or something? Okay, so roughly 200 pages. You print that out front and back on your computer and that's 100 pages and you mail it to them. Yeah.

I'll get it. He's butt hurt of me. He's butt hurt in me anyways. He wants to download these apps, and I can send him pictures. So I go download the apps, and then it starts, and then the thing comes wrong saying, people have been, this has been, what do they say, compromised, and people's information has been stolen.

Yeah, I'm probably not going to do this one. And my sister's like, it's just your name and their phone number. I said, yeah, though, how are they getting, how is it compromising? And how are they taking all your information? That makes no sense to me. I don't know. Hey, you guys, I appreciate you watching.

Do me a favor. Hit the subscribe button at the bell. So get notified of videos just like this. Also, we are going to be putting all the links to catch 420. We'll put the links in the description box. So you can click on it. It's on Kindle, Amazon, Barnes & Noble. So you can click on the link and go there and buy a copy.

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