Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - CORRUPT Rikers Island Guard BUSTED for Smuggling Operation | Steven Dominguez

Episode Date: August 11, 2024

CORRUPT Rikers Island Guard BUSTED for Smuggling Operation | Steven Dominguez

For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for $5.00 plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. I am the senior officer. Nobody knows what I'm doing. I've been quiet. I've never told anyone anything.

There's not a question in anyone in the department's mind that I'm involved in this type of organization. If you're going to do something wrong, make sure that you do it right. Stephen, wake up. You gotta wake up. This is bad. This is very bad. Born and raised in New York City, my mother's of Colombian descent, my fathers of Dominican descent. They both got here in the mid-80s. I want to say my mom is slightly younger than my father. She came here. She started working for a catering company. She worked in the longomat there. She had me in 1988. I'm 36-year-old currently. All of my academic years were also in New York City. I bring that up to say that my mother started applying for New York City jobs. She got a job as a substitute teacher. When she got here from Columbia, she was able to get her student visa, she got her master's, and she got into the Department of Education. She learned English very fast. She has a heavy accent still, but she maintains and she floats through. She's helping ESL students come in, so she's gaining a lot of notoriety within the Department of Education. My father is in basically

building maintenance, sorry, building maintenance. He also has his masters, but for some reason just can't get a decent job. His English is not the best. He gets into masonry, and then he starts delving into construction where it's like granite and marble tops and things of that nature. Around five or six, they start to get into heavy arguments. I started to see this other kid. I had my own room. I was in a not great part of New York City. I'm in Queens Village, the north side of Jamaica. Crime-ridden still, but I didn't, you know, I didn't ever feel in danger. Right.

This is five or six years old. My father leaves. He moves to Harlem, which is still in New York City. The back and forth starts to happen where you'll sleep here for the weekend and then you come back. Luckily, my mom gets a steady tour and a steady position for the Department of Education as a substitute teacher. We have the same days off, so I see my mom way more often than my dad. my dad slowly starts to, like, not be in the picture. Six, seven years old at this time, and my mom, regardless of having this steady income,

she's still cleaning apartments with her friend on the weekend and the Upper East Side just to get, you know, she's hustling. I was going to say, I was going to say, she's an immigrant who comes in. She's making things work. They always work 10 times as hard as anybody born here. I can never say that I missed a meal. I can never say that I missed a Christmas. I still had a Nintendo 64, you know, things. things of that nature.

But I see this, and I see the struggle of it's just her income. I get into high school. I go to Forest Hills High School. At this time, I'm mostly just playing sports with my friends. I'm not really getting into any deep trouble. At this point, Jordan's are a thing. Getting jerseys are a thing. Having the latest, like, athletic gear is a thing.

I play baseball, basketball, football. Whatever my friends wanted to do, that's what I was into. Mom, can I get Jordan 3s that are coming? coming out this Saturday. They're $110. Take you out of your mind. You just got a Nintendo 64, like a few months ago. No, I can't.

I can't. I'm sorry. And I'm just like, okay, you know, I'm not holding it against her. But I'm wishing because I see and I know that my friends who have both parents are like, they're making it work. Even my friends that have single parents are making it work. I get into high school. It's my knife year.

I get off on Jamaica Avenue, which is like a prominent hub for hip hop. There's the sneaker stores, the mom and pop sneaker stores that sell the Jordans and the Nikes and the new era fitted and the jerseys. And you can go and get your teeth grilled and gold and you can get a Rolex watch for cheap. It's it's that neighborhood of New York City. There's many. There's Grand Concourse in the Bronx. There's 125th in Harlem. There's these little hubs where people go to get their gear in New York City.

Mind you, this is like the early 2000s. I'm walking through one day after school. and randomly I go into the new era-fitted store called Cap USA, and I'm like, hey, are you guys hiring? I'm 14, 15 at the time. Yeah, we are. Come on Saturday at 9 a.m. I didn't ask about pay. I didn't ask what the compensation was.

I didn't ask for scheduling. You want me here at 9? Perfect. I get home. I tell my mom, all right, you know, be careful. I take a dollar cap down Jamaica Avenue, which was a dollar flat at the time, less than the MTA, which was $1.50, more or less. I get on that.

I'm going to Jamaica Avenue. This is my first job. I get off. There's a beef patty and cocoa bread place. This is like a very Caribbean-infused environment. Jamaicans, Haitians, Guyanese, Trinneys. It's that nature, that side of Jamaica Avenue. This is Southside Jamaica Queens.

50 cents from Southside Jamaica Queens. I see all of this brewing, him coming out with the mixtapes. Like, I see 50, Louis Banks, all this G-U and his stuff, rap galore, right? Lamar Odom from the NBA is there. Like, it was, again, a ground for hip-hop culture. So I'm seeing these things as a 14-year-old, and it's my first day at this new era of fitness store where I'm selling fiddits for $20. He tells me, hey, listen, I'm going to give you 50 cash. You get paid every Friday.

I want you here from 9 to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, obviously, because he knew that I was in high school. took a picture of my high school ID and I started working there I met a lot of people this was great I enjoyed the money that I was making I was getting gear for half off this was beautiful the Jordans that I did want I was able to buy them myself so I gained this like uh structure that I feel started from young where I'm like okay now I have finances I'm able to not ask my mom for things and I have a little freedom you know at a very young age where kids my age are just worried about going to the park I gained this hustle mentality from my mother.

Time passes. My girlfriend in high school, she tells me, hey, listen, my mom and my dad have a job opportunity at JFK Airport where you can power wash the terminals and take away the little gum that is sticking on the terminals for the air train. It's from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and they're paying $100 a day. So I'm like, okay, this is perfect. Like, I can go right in and then like, she's like, yeah, I'll introduce your own, make it work. As a high schooler, 15 years old, making $100 a day after school and not getting in the way of my academics. My mom's for it.

It's my girlfriend's mom. So there's a supervisor level to it where my mom knows this is safe. This is real legit money. Regardless of them having me and JFK at such a young age, they made it work. Again, I'm buying myself these things. I'm gaining this notoriety of having luxury stuff at a young age. Even though my mom is struggling, I'm able to come. kind of show forth that I'm making it work.

I start noticing that this isn't going to be forever, and I need a little more money, a little more means to make it work. I want to get out of my house at this time. I graduate college. I was going to say, 15? I'm sorry, high school. I graduate high school at this time. 17, 18?

17. This is 2006. I'm working in JFK. So I started networking with the people at JFK. I'm seeing the TSA agents. TSA came about. in 2003. The towers fell 2001. TSA is a brand new element of Department of Homeland Security. So I say, hey, listen, is there a way where I can apply, where I can say, hey, listen, I already

work in JFK? And they're like, yeah, call this number and give them all your information. And I did so. I'm 17 at the time. Right. I graduate high school shortly after TSA calls me. This is beautiful. Wow, a government agency at 18 this is perfect like everything that I've worked for and that I've you know maintained this like good kid role it's paying off you know they do a deep dive they make sure I don't have any prior of us which I did for something extremely misdemeanor I didn't have my ID on 42nd Street I jumped to turnstile I went through central bookings for the weekend not a big deal right in New York City Arnold they did their investigation I passed a drug test I'm working at

LaGuardia Airport. I am the youngest TSO Transportation Security Officer in LaGuardia Airport. Everything is beautiful. I start taking other tests and other exams because my goal is when I turn 21 and I'm able to carry a firearm. I can probably go to customs, go to ICE, go somewhere outside of TSA. Even though TSA is new and I can branch out and be a supervisor quick, I want to take advantage that I'm this young because I want to to retire by 45, 50 years old. That's the American dream. Yeah. Wouldn't that be nice?

I do TSA. I'm having a blast mingling with flight attendants. Again, at LaGuardia Airport. I'm seeing the stars come in. They know me by first name. I start, again, taking these exams. No one's calling me because I'm 19 years old. I'm 20 years old.

I'm in John Jay College at this time. John Jay is one of the biggest colleges for criminal justice. criminal justice. And ironically, regardless of me wanting to go through maybe law enforcement as a path, I never wanted to be a New York City. New York City police officer because of just my upbringing. It was like, the police aren't really for us. It kind of against us. Stay clear of their way. Right. You know, this is me growing up in the early 90s, 2000s. So I kind of like void that test. I'm like, you know what? I'm not going to take that test. I'm in there for forensic psychology.

I'm kind of like borderline making it. I'm still in TSA part-time, and I'm still at my mother's house. And I have girlfriends here and there, and it's like I have such a great job, and I've got a nice car that I'm able to maintain, but I still live with my mom. I kind of want a little sense of freedom. I want my own place, you know? So I take the correction officer's exam. I'm coming out of John Jay one day.

They tell me, hey, listen, because you're a student. hear the exam is free back then it was $30 to take. And I'm like, no, you know what? This kind of goes into the same group of PD that I'm trying not to do. I'm trying to venture out, you know, whether it means me moving to Texas or Seattle, whatever it is. And they're like, hey, listen, he shows me his pay stuff. He goes, you can make some good money here, man. What do you do now? And I'm like, well, I'm in TSA. He goes, well, you know, that's okay. And at that time, I'm probably making $700, $800, $1,000 bi-weekly. Because I'm part-time.

Again, I'm still going to school full-time. And it's like $3,000, and I'm just like, wow, that's a big step up. You know, $3,000 will probably get me a studio apartment. And maybe I can, you know, venture out and still be able to help my mother. Because she's a substitute teacher. She doesn't make much, you know, she has a stability that she always gets a check. you know, every two weeks, and I'm a product of that because I understand that structure now. But if I make more than her, then I can say, hey, listen, whatever I was helping you with,

I can still do so and do my own thing. I just wanted the freedom. Single straight male, I wanted to be with my girlfriends, whoever they were, and just be able to go home after my 9 to 5 and have that structure. So I always craved it. I passed a correction officer exam with flying colors. I got like a 96 or 93. They call me right away within like three months.

This is January of 2010, and I am only 20 years old. I turned 21 in May of that year. And she said, hey, listen, they assigned me an investigator. They said, okay, after this, we're going to sign you an investigator, and we're going to do the same thing pretty much TSA there. We're going to take a deep dive into who you are, make sure that you're eligible enough and credited enough. At that time, he needed 39 credits, college credits to be a New York City correction officer.

They did all of that, and they called me in December of that year. I'm 21 at this time. Hey, would you like to go into this class? Of course. This is like a Christmas present to me, because now it's like, okay, I'll do this for a few years. I'll give this a chance. Not knowing too much about corrections, knowing a lot about Rikers just through like DVD culture and understanding that people get arrested.

and this is where they land if you get arrested within the five boroughs in New York City. I knew it was dangerous. I didn't know exactly what to expect, but to me it's opportunity, and it's an opportunity that comes once in a lifetime, so I'm going to go all in. I get into the academy. The academy's four months. When I get to the academy, I start realizing, okay, you know, this is serious. Like, you know, they plan on giving us a gun.

We're going to be in Rikers Island, the infamous Rikers Island. it's a lot of policy and procedure we're learning there's a lot of like character building that they do they want to kind of weed out the week and they weed out the week in all elements that you can think of whether it's physical whether it's psychological they try to just let you know hey listen there's going to be a lot of people that are going to test your character and we're trying to build this from start to finish and I kind of had that already from TSA even though it wasn't in that type of element because I would see people go on vacation

or people go to a major city with their loved one. It was a different element of people. This was people that you're restricting their freedom. This is serial. Gang members is the worst of the worst. And it's like, okay, you know, I come from an element in New York City where this stuff

is around me. Even though I bobbed and weaved it as much as I have, I've seen it face to face. It shouldn't be that bad. I'm 21. I'm one of the youngest people again. just like I was in TSA in my graduating class. We graduate and prior to going to Rikers, which was like an all-job training that they do two months into the academy,

and they say, hey, listen, this is an on-job training for five days. You're going to see a lot of people around you that aren't going to want to come back after this. This is the reality. This is like, okay, we've spoken enough about this place. Let's get to it. But we get there, and it's not my first time. I had visited a friend prior to, so I kind of understood what to expect.

But when you're behind that gate and you see the realism of it, it's a shock to anyone. You know, everyone's first time there. It's just a hold on, wait a minute. Now this is real. I go through on-job training. The officers that are explaining things to us are seasoned 15, 20 years in. And I'm listening. I'm just listening to everything.

seeing a lot of people, you know, bicker and saying, oh, man, you see that, you see this, you see that. The inmates are static because, you know, they know that this walkthrough is a part of, you know, pre-employment to actually being here. And they're making a ruckus. You know, they're causing that anxiety that you don't want, but you're going to get it regardless. I stood tall. I did what I had to do.

I graduated two months after. What did the inmate saying? Because we never said, we never said any. When they came in to the federal, to the prisons, I was like, we never said nothing. They're making fun of your shoes. Oh, yeah. They would, but they wouldn't do it to us. We wouldn't because we'd be afraid that something, they'd come back or they'd get a shot or something.

But a lot of times they were like hot chicks in their regular clothes. Yeah. You could check. Yeah. And Rikers has an element where a lot of these guys at our house, they're innocent to proving guilty. They're fighting. case so that there's a certain ego that comes to like I'm getting out of here soon I could talk my shit to you I'm not going to be here for the rest of my life right you know so a lot of

people didn't make it out of a class of 450 420 I want to say 360 graduated maybe so you know you feel a little prideful you know and ironically there's more women than there are men in this graduating class after this graduating class two months after another graduating class comes, and it's constant for my first two years on probation as a New York City correction officer, classes are coming back, back, back, back. And I'm like, okay, my seniority level is rising. My first day on Rikers, you know, I heard an alarm. It wasn't in my housing area. I was able to go to my housing area, which was a dormitory setting. I had to relieve the B officer. There's an A officer and there's a B officer.

The A side of the dorm is 50 inmates. The B side of the dorm is 50 inmates. That B officer has to go back and forth to make sure things are okay. If they need the hot pot open for hot water, if they need the slop sink open to clean up a mess, he or she is in charge of opening the day room, turning on the TV, putting on the phones on the phone jack to make sure that everything is working on both. sides, 100 inmates to one officer, there's a lot of, you know, that's a lot of eyes on

you. So your first couple weeks, it's like, you got to perform, and these guys know that you're new. They've been there fighting their case two, three years. Right. People don't think that you're on Rikers for that long. I've seen inmates on Rikers six, seven years fighting their case

before, way before I even got there, because I was only able to do four years and eight months. So I'm there, and And I'm on the wheel tour, which is seven to three, one week, three to 11 another, one to nine, one week, 11 to 7 in the PM, 5 to 1 PM, it's rotating. And this is a good and a bad thing because now you're learning the jail, you're learning policy and procedure, you're learning posts that if they throw you in there, you already know what to do. So you're kind of using this really as the on-job training. I'm working in the rec yard in the mess hall, and I'm getting really cool with these inmates.

And by cool, I mean I'm 21, 22 years old, Afro Latino. I'm from Queens. My dad moved to Harlem. I was able to navigate the city at a young age, just playing sports with my friends. I was very relatable. Working on Jamaica Avenue, I saw a lot of these guys that were in street life that spent their street money on Jamaica. an avenue that they would see me now and they would be like wow like don't i know you from somewhere didn't you mess with this girl and you know i become like a fan favorite in a sense i'm not bending

any rules at this time i'm still pretty by the book but i try to be as cool as i can possibly be these are kind of my peers these are sadly guys i went to high school with that made a you know a wrong decision the only difference between me and them is that i took a test and they did it right so a lot of that stemmed my respect for them and their respect back. Did I see a lot of violence? Yes. Did I let a lot of things slide on the search? If they had four pens and they were only allowed one, I wouldn't make a big deal about

because I already know being on this island and being as deserted as they are to society, they're already in hell. So why make it worse? Right. You know, and they felt that, you know. I was very approachable. Hey, did you see the next? hey, did you see the latest Mercedes-Benzor came out?

Like, I'm free and open to conversation, and they love that. They're there all day. I'm probably there with them for eight hours. I'm probably there with them for 16. So I made that work for me. Two years in, I get off probation. I finally get my personal protection firearm. They give you that access once you're off probation.

A lot of people don't make their probationary period as a CO. regardless of you having that firearm you still get the firearms training you just don't you're just not able to take it home with you finally i'm able to buy my clock 19 i'm able to take it home with me i'll bring that up later why that's so pivotal now i see these inmates there they have been with me there just as long as i've been there fighting their case these guys kind of like grew up with me in these two three years that i'm there i'm tired of being on the wheel so i put in for a study post and That is the one to nine post and the R.H.U unit of Rikers Island in C-73, where I worked in,

which is a high-intensity mental observation unit on Rikers where these guys are heavily monitored on their mental health because they're schizophrenic, they're bipolar, on top of them being extremely violent, extremely violent. You know, they've cut COs, they've cut other inmates, they have red IDs which shows that they're predicate cutters. They've been called with contraband and things of that nature. And they're in the box and their mental health observation. So it's just a slew of things that these inmates are extremely high classification. If and when they behave, they're able to get dayroom time. And you're going to be in charge of that from one to nine if you apply for this steady tour. You want a steady tour, you don't want to be on the wheel anymore, this is all we have.

Right. You've only been here two years. There's people that have been here 15 years that can't get recreation posts just because they're not. They're just not great officers. I'm one to not give infractions. I never gave an infraction as an officer again. I was very cool. Guys respected me just because I gave that respect back.

And I said, well, how bad can this be? These are the same guys that I've housed that just got in trouble. And they're in the box. It's not that serious. These are mental patients. They're coming from, they're coming from asylums all over the city. And they just have felonies. And they're just like being weeded through the system.

Yeah, but these are the guys that throw shit on you and spit out. Yeah, they're just. They're setting their mattresses on fire. And you're like, how do they get matches? I'm like, no, they don't get matches. They get a battery and they get a paper clip and they make it work. So I'm around these guys. And even then, I'm like, I still make.

get and manage to, like, glide through things. I have not had an altercation with an inmate physically, verbally all the time, physically up until this point. So the warden, the assistant deputy warden, this is like their baby. And they're very proud that this unit is working with me as a one to nine steady officer. I am not on the floor.

I'm just an escort at this time. So if they need to go to the mental health clinic, if they need to go to the regular clinic, they have a visit, they have to see their lawyer, law library, I'm escorting them through general population hallways as a high mental health patient. Regardless of these mental health labels that these guys get, they're still gang related as well. A lot of them are crib, a lot of them are blood, their Latin cane, their trinario. And it's like, they get word from the general population guys that I'm a cool guy. You know,

regardless of their A officer in the post or the B officer that's steady on the floor with them, as an escort officer, don't disrespect me because I'm one of you guys. Right. And I've never disrespected them. So that kind of that carmic energy worked in my favor. I have this housing area steady now three months. But as the escort officer, I'm able to kind of roam free throughout the prison. I'm still seeing the general population inmates that I encountered from my first couple years on the job.

And my seniority level is up now because, like I told you, the classes are car. coming back and forth. So people think that I've been there way longer than I actually have been. And I gained that notoriety. And I kind of use it to my advantage. Throughout my time on Rikers, I've had a lot of inmates proposed to me, hey, do you want to make money on the outside? Yeah. Right.

You want to bring cigarettes, tobacco, loose tobacco, maybe this water bottle full of vodka, like, You know, I'm good for it. I can make you money. And throughout my first couple of years, I'm just like, I brushed it off respectfully. Right. I never alarmed someone and called my warden and said, hey, listen, this guy is, no, because I'm too cool for that. Like, no, man, like, I'm good. I'm not going to sell you my integrity.

I worked too hard to get here, you know? So I'm roaming free one day and I'm waiting for one of my inmates from my housing. area of H.U. To get out of the visit, an inmate that was there, the entire three years that I've been a CEO at this time, he's been there fighting his case. Ironically, I know this inmate, I've actually seen him in real time outside of Rikers in the street. He's a well-known drug dealer. New York City might seem big to outsiders of New York City, but when you're in the loop of things, you kind of know who's who. And I've actually seen this guy in real time. Prize to me even taking the Department

of Corrections exam. He doesn't know this, but I kind of... I know who he is. I know who he is. Through a friend of a friend. Since day one, very respectful. What's up, Dominguez? How are you? Everything good? Chilin. He's working in the visit floor where he's giving the inmates

an exchange into their regular clothes because at this time 2011-12 on Rikers, you were still able to wear regular clothes. And that was like an up on people because it's so ego statistical in prison and in jail that if you have designer stuff, you're the man. So when you get to the Vida floor on Rikers, you change it to the jumpsuit.

The great jumpsuit, they give you the slippers or brown slippers or the orange slippers. He's working that detail while I'm working for, while I'm working the escort and waiting for this inmate to finish his visit. Take him back to RHU. We start talking small talk and he goes again, just like the rest of them, yeah, we should, we should make some money. like let's make some money like you know you know I'm good for it and deep down it's like he doesn't even know that I know him from an outsider that kind of vouches everything he's saying and I'm just like nah man I'm all right I'm good time passes maybe two weeks and I'm working the one to nine shift

I get put in to work a vacation detail which is the 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. shift a lockdown on Rikers Island is at 11 p.m. at this time. This is 2011, 2012. And all the inmates are locked in. I'm working a sanitation detail. I'm just going with two inmates escorted from a housing area and picking up all the garbage in the facility. So the breakfast crew can open up and, you know, have a clean slate and start out the day and everybody that works the seven and three shift that when things are, you know, happening, Catholic services, visitation, all this stuff, be up and running again. It's the only time the prison kind of semi-shuts down. Nobody's out. Everything is desolate. I see this inmate again. And he goes, yo, Dominguez. And I can hear him.

It's a whole way of nothing. Mind you, it's one in the morning. My inmates are in the kitchen grabbing out the rest of the garbage. And I'm like, hey, what's up, man? How are you? Yeah, what's up, man? Like, talk to me. And I'm just looking at him and I'm like, man. Man, no, bro, I'm good. He goes, fuck bringing stuff in. Security on the outside. And I'm like, security on the outside, what do you mean by that? And he goes, you know, my brother just wants somebody to ride with him.

Like, just drive. You don't got to touch anything. And when he said touch anything, I'm just like, I understand what he's talking about now because I know that he's a known drug dealer in New York City. Right. I've seen him everywhere. So I'm just like, nah, man, like, I'm good. And even as desolate as it is, I'm very cognizant of my surroundings.

And I want to make sure no one's listening and even watching us congregate. Because I don't want to tarnish my character. There have been officers just like Gary Haywood prior to me that were incarcerated because of set situation. But when he mentioned security on the outside, it's like, you know what? I kind of justified it personally. I'm like, well, I don't know what this entails, but I'm not bringing anything in. I don't know, man I don't know

And he continues walking with me Takes out his log book His address book actually He riffs out a piece of paper And there's a number on it already It's like this was kind of premeditated On his end Call this number when you get a chance

I finished that vacation deal I'm not working that shift anymore I don't see him for a few weeks I end up going on vacation myself So I had some time off of Rikers I was already like up to here With the violence I just needed some time off

but I would be lying to you if I said I didn't have that scenario playing my mind over and over and over again. And once that happens, I'm just like, you know what, when I get back maybe, you know, and I sat on my bed. The night before going back into my regular, the morning of going into my one-to-night shift, I'm like, you know what? And I called. And I called, and I spoke to somebody. And he goes, yeah, this is, that's my brother. you were going to call. I've been waiting for you. When are you free? And I'm like, well, I get off at 9 p.m. He goes, well, can you meet me tomorrow morning? And I'm like, what time? Because I have to be

at work at one. He goes, this is like 10 a.m. Okay, give me the address. He's like, yeah, I got you right now. I'm going to text you the address. Seems very youthful, you know, in his voice. He texted me the address right away. I see it. It's like maybe 18 minutes away from me. The morning of that comes and I said, you know what, I'm going to give this a chance. I'm going to see what this is about. Again, I'm not getting into anything until I feel secure about it. I get to Washington Heights. I'm in Queens, Jamaica Avenue at this time.

It's like a 20-minute drive on the Grand Central. I get on the West Side Highway. I call him when I'm outside. He's in like a sweatsuit. He's smoking a cigarette. He's already on the phone. And I'm just, I'm nervous. I don't know what to expect.

broad daylight, which is kind of like saving me a little bit. And at this time, remember, I do have my personal protection firearm. Right. And I am law enforcement. So I could say that this was something that went wrong and I'm just here protecting myself, worst case scenario. I'm playing all these things in my mind. He gets in the car. He looks at me and he's just kind of like astonished.

Like, oh, wow, you're super young. And I'm like, yeah, man, what's up? And now he goes, listen, I'm going to go back upstairs. I'm going to get a duffel bag. we're going to go to 42nd Street and 10th Avenue and I'm thinking in my head I'm doing the time I'm like it's like a 15 minute drive he goes upstairs I type it into the GPS I put it it's 14 minutes and I'm like perfect okay cool I'm nervous I'm shaking I don't know what to expect he tells me to pop the trunk I pop the trunk I'm not I don't touch anything at this time

we're on the west side highway it's just small to yo what's up man this and that y'all like your earrings and it's just like yeah yeah you know like I don't know what to expect i don't even know why i'm in the scenario i don't know how much i'm going to get paid i'm telling myself this was a bad idea i just wanted all to finish and end as soon as possible why because at one p.m i got to go back to rikers put on a uniform and just we get to a parking lot he says go in i'll pay the ticket i pressed for the buying we get the ticket dimly lit we're on tuff avenue and 44th we get down there he meets a car maybe six cars to the left of us. I don't really see much. He gets back in. No duffel bag. He's still on the phone

and he's talking in Spanish. I kind of can't really get what exactly they're talking about, but he's just letting it know that whatever transpired, like, that's it. He's done. Don't worry about her. Do I drop you off? Or would I drop you off? Are you getting off here? Who's going to pay a ticket? And he's like, relax, relax. Take me back uptown. 14, 13 minute drive. I drop a off. He's on the phone the entire time. My heart is coming out of my chest. I'm just like, oh, man, okay. I drop him off. I'm double parked. He gets out the car,

lights another cigarette, and I'm just waiting there patiently. Maybe two minutes passed by. It seems like an eternity. He takes out a lot of cash, and he's counting, and it's all hundreds. Gets out the car, gives me a handshake. I'll call you back, bro. And I'm just like, okay. How much do you give you? You don't know yet? I wanted to get out, I wanted to get out that vicinity.

Right. I wanted to get it back on the bridge, and I wanted to either go straight to Rikers or go back home to Queens because Madra is still early at this time. So I just want to leave. Hey, real quick, just wanted to let you guys know that we're looking for guests for the podcast. If you think you'd be a good guest, you know somebody, do me a favor. You can fill out the form. The link is in our description box. Or you can just email me directly.

email is in the description box so back to the video he tells me hey listen we're I'll call you he's still on the phone mind you this whole time you just paid me a couple hundred dollars and just threw it on the passenger seat I just want to get out at this time I want to leave the vicinity I just want to leave I want to be like clear out of all of this there's nothing in my car so I'm like I can vouch for myself right I hop on the highway real quick and I'm not on my way to work because I did this is under 40 minutes yeah so I go straight home and I get that there in maybe 15, 18 minutes. I park up and it's $1,500. Oh, okay. And $1,500. That's a lot of money for back then to a 23-year-old who's probably getting this with the old overtime, the blood, sweat and

tears that goes into working a housing area that you're not familiar with. And it's just excruciating money, but, you know, correction officers do make bank when it comes to city employees for New York city. They're one of the highest paid, I believe, after sanitation, if I'm not mistaken. And that's because of the overtime. Um, so I'm like, wow, $1,500. And I'm like, well, 40 minutes of my time, I can, I can get used to this. Yeah. So I'm turned out, you know, at that point. And he called me three days later. And he's like, hey, listen, I got another run. This time I have to go to the Bronx. From where you picked me up last time, I need you to go to the Bronx. I have a question. Yeah.

you're just there why because you have a firearm like what the whole like I don't understand what you're doing like what if something happens like what are you expected to do the whole reasoning for him to tell me hey listen we're going to pay you a hefty amount to basically be with my brother is because you have a firearm not so much you have a firearm you have a badge right you have a new york city badge which is like having 10 firearms right you know and And if you were to get pulled over, you are in the driver's seat. This is your vehicle. Hey, credentials are right here. They're not going to search. Another member of service, why would they waste their time? You're just a CEO with his cousin. This guy looks like he can be my cousin.

Right. Literally. Even if he's a drug deal. They can't assess that situation within those seconds of them pulling me over and me having four kilos in the back of my trunk. They're going to let you go. Oh, my bad. Whether it's for the tents. Whether it's for me not stopping so much at a stop sign, regardless of it, the security aspect comes that I have a badge.

Okay. I didn't know if he thought, like, if these guys pull a gun, you need to pull a gun. That was also a thought of mine, and I had to always have that type of mentality because after these runs became multiple runs. And I would always try to assess situations. I would ask them prior to, hey, listen, where are you meeting me? Who am I meeting with? and these things are brewing while I'm still working my regular one to nine shifts. So it's like I have a superhero with the corrections uniform from one to nine and then

anything after or pre that I'm over here transporting what I believe is narcotics only. Because it have been guns, maybe, because I have been more than just maybe. I never touched anything up until certain moments. these moments start to fluctuate in money it's not just $1,500 people are probably questioning you sold your integrity for $1,500 you could have just worked two weeks and made that back then yeah but not if it's every two or three days and it's every two or three days and it fluctuates yeah and within a month that's not 2800 4k sometimes 7k the most i ever got from them was $12,000 this was a four hour run they had me in the car for four hours whatever dealings they had

upstairs and whatever was going on, I was getting paid just to be on standby. Right. Whether these guys got into a gunfight, whether we got pulled over after this, they just wanted to make sure that I was there at all time. That's what I was getting paid for. And I'm going back to work as if nothing.

I see the inmate that proposed this to me from start. And I'm working with his brother inside this organization that now I'm a part of. Right. I'm dealing with his aunt, other cousins, other family members that own restaurants. say, hey, drop this off here, do this. I'm basically a courier. I'm not touching or bagging anything up. So what happened? You said the second time. Was that any eventful or just another checking? The second time now, it's like, okay, if it was this easy, I kind of psyched myself out. And I say, you know what? I can do this. Like, I'm not jeopardizing

Rikers Island stuff. Right. I'm just a law enforcement individual that is abusing my power with this shield and roaming the city with a Glock 19 and drugs. And I'm just, that's it. That's all I know. I don't know anything else. I'm even justifying if I were to get pulled over, I kind of already know what to do. He tells me the inmate that proposed this to me from day one. I see him roaming the building.

He has all of these jobs. He's a very loved inmate within this facility. He's been here for three and a half years, almost four years. Right. Just like me, fighting his case. He has an attempted charge. Regardless of him being a drug dealer, a known drug dealer, he has an attempted charge. And he's telling me, you know, listen, you like that, right?

You're good. What about me? And I'm like, okay, talk to me. He goes, we'll talk later. And then he breezes that off. I get a call from an aunt that I've met prior to on a few of these runs. She calls me and says, hey, can you make? meet up with me tomorrow. It's my day off. I say, yeah, absolutely. I'll go and meet up with her.

I don't know how much I'm going to get. And I'm enjoying these couple thousand dollars that are coming in weekly. Mind you, I'm getting paid biweekly by the New York City Department of Corrections, 1,500, 1600, and it's like, let's play money to me at that point. So the aunt calls me and we don't do a run. She gives me a little brick. It's maybe three inches by four inches. It looks like a small iPhone. It's not a phone, though. It's compressed in like a duct tape fashion, and it's probably like an inch in diameter.

And I'm like, okay. She's like, yeah, just give that to, you know, this guy. And everything that I've been trying to avoid from bringing in this contraband, it's like, what do I do now? Say no. I've probably made 40K at this point with these people just doing these little runs that I haven't touched anything.

Right. But with the first conversation we had with this guy was, you don't have to touch anything. You don't have to do anything. It's just, it's just this. Yeah, yeah, that was the carrot. But to me, I would have probably been like, like, we had this. I was very specific at the beginning. Just what you assured me of? Go for yourself. A deer in headlights, man. Yeah, you were just. So it's like, what do I tell her, no? And this is my third or second time meeting her. You're afraid the whole thing might go right now. And I'm just like, well, I'm in, I'm in too deep already. They know too much. Well, what do you make in a month now? Could it be $5,000 or $10? No, it was definitely over $10. I want to say, again, at that first proposition, at that first proposition of introducing contraband that very first time, I was at least at 40. Mind you, this is three months in, two months in. And it's not an everyday thing, maybe it's twice a week thing, but now you're telling me to introduce contraband into Rikers Island.

something that I know has been found upon since I started the academy, literally since I started the academy. These guys are going to, you know, they're going to sugarcoat this, and they're going to try to mold you, and they're going to try to friend you. And it's like, yo, they drill this in you, Paul, so much that you're just like, wow. And then now you wonder, oh, it's so easy. That is why they tell you, don't fall for it, do not fall for it, because they're all going to ask you, and I told you earlier, they all did ask. And once you told no, and you let them

know, hey, listen, I'm not here for that. It's like, they backed away because three, four months down the line, they're going to get a brand new rookie officer that's going to be like, right, I got you. So I get that small brick compressed, which seemed, again, like an iPhone 3, 4 at the time, which is kind of the iPhone size that I had back then in 2011, 12. And I'm just, you know, just like, okay. I'm like, with nothing else? She goes down. That's it. All right. I go to work the next day, one to nine, and I have this. And I'm just like, oh, man, like, I got to do it, right? What am I going to do? Not do it. And these guys know what car I drive, the license plate, my phone number. He knows where I work. There's too many scenarios where I can't back out. I feel like my back against a wall.

this is all I got to do. And if I do this, it might be just as smooth sailing as it was when I was transporting whatever they had in that duffel bag. Right. You know, I wasn't scared about it then. And if I was scared, I still ran, ran with it. I get into the facility. I'm a seasoned officer, regardless of me being there for years.

There's so many classes under me that I am the senior officer. People are retiring left and right. And I have my own steady shift. I have my own steady housing area. I take care of R.HU, like a golden boy on Rikers Island in C-73. So me going through the magnometer and getting to my locker with this package of, I don't know what, it's not going to be that hard. They're not going to stop me and pat me down.

I go through this magnometer five times a week, you know. I do exactly that. I get to my locker. I have it in my pocket. It's a cargo pant pocket. I also have a tic-tacks in there, like my regular stuff. I get to my housing area, and now it's like, okay, how do I get this to this inmate that I would randomly see throughout random times because I'm an escort officer and get this off of my person? Because what if there's a surgeon?

There's a canine unit. And what if this duct tape is not as strong as I think it is? And it seeps through and the German Shepherd is that, you know, in front of me barking. And now the K9 unit officer is like, all this stuff, all these scenarios are going through my head. I said, I kind of run this building. I run free through this building regardless. No one's ever going to ask me. I'm too much into my head.

Let me just get this over with. I do exactly that. I walk to that inmate's housing area, the dormitory where he sleeps at. I ask him to come outside. I tell him, hey, listen, I need you for such and such. I throw the contraband in the garbage. He knows exactly what to do. He picks it up.

Goes about his way, and it doesn't look suspect. No one's making sure, hey, is that Dominguez? Who's that? What's going on? This is, I'm here all the time. Nothing looks out of the ordinary. And again, I work so many units in housing areas that me picking up this inmate randomly, the A officer is like, what do you need that inmate for?

He's loved himself. He can semi-Rome free. He's not a high classification inmate either. And it just became that. And then when I couldn't get to him, now doing these runs, I'm also getting the contraband on the side, and I'm bringing contraband to Rikazada. So how often is that happening? Just as much as often as the runs happen

Because now what becomes a moneymaker on the outside Also becomes a moneymaker on the inside You didn't have to do it the first couple of times But we showed you how easy it was And you're doing it effortlessly If you don't find me or you can't get a hold of me I'll let you know Hey give it to this guy that's in your housing area

Or when you go to drop off this inmate These guys are watching everything So they know when I have a certain inmate that is diabetic and he has to go to the clinic. They know I got to take him to the clinic at 4 p.m. Why? Because they see me do it every single day. So when you're in the clinic,

there'll be somebody in the clinic waiting for you and you just drop it off. And they'll get it to me. And it worked that way for a very long time. Aren't you concerned at all that now too many inmates know what's happening? That's where I didn't want to get to in the first place because it's like I never worked in your house. housing area for me to see you every single day so this can work like clockwork. So me getting it

to you is the hardest part of this whole scenario. Not me meeting up with your aunt or your cousin or your uncle or whatever it was. I'm kind of already privy and used to this. But how can I get it to you? And it's like, no, you can drop it off at this guy. But it's an organization and, you know, within the, within the organization and is just a black market for impermissible items that you can't get on Rikers, if you can get him, you're the man. Right. And he needed that power. He had it on the outside.

He needed it on the inside. And then, you know, in hindsight, I'm just like, I feel like he was already getting these things prior to me. So there has to be others that are doing the same thing. It was probably Hayward. He had been gone for years a year or three years already. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, remember me starting.

He went to the tombs. Correct. And me starting in the building that I worked in, he was coming out. And then his situation happened. Well, I mean, I'm sure there's other guards bringing it in. So what is it? Is it, is it? Tobacco.

What? Street tobacco. I don't know. Do not quote me on this. To me, you know, that makes always, when I, wrap it up real tight like that. Compressed. Yeah. Compressed as hard as can be.

Again, no more than four or five ounces. But you got to remember. impermissible items on Rikers Island, tobacco being one of them. I forgot if it was Mayor Giuliani. Early 2000s, he took away being able to smoke within any city building. Right. Rikers Island is a city building. So CEOs couldn't smoke.

Inmates couldn't smoke. They used to sell tobacco on commissary prior to this law coming about. So now that the item can't be bought, there's a need for it. I'm not going to stop. smoking after 40 years. I'm going to like it only for a few weeks. I need to get my fix, and I'm going to get it somehow. A finger of loose tobacco, which is a, you know, like a plastic glove filled of loose tobacco,

can go for 150 bucks. And a pouch of loose tobacco, which you can fill a whole five finger row of, is only $3. So, you know, it makes its money. And people get paid. And when they get paid through these Western unions or whether it's in, civilian visitor bringing it in or a mental health clinician bringing it in or a doctor bringing it in and you would ask yourself a doctor why would a doctor throw away everything that they've worked for just to bring in contraband look it up it happens yeah it happens it's not just correction officers

and i kind of want to always let that be known you know during covid there were no visitors so maybe yes it was only the correction officers it could be civilian staff too well i was going to say could nurses, a lot of the time, the nurses, they, these guys get close with the nurses. And they're there just as long as we are. These 16 hours shifts, sadly, after 16 hours of being with somebody for five days a week, you tend to kind of like, you know, have conversations and get to know the person. You know there ends and out. I know when Matt gets a haircut.

I know when he's coming off. I know when he's going to work. I know when his vacation is because kind of live with these people. Right. You know? So, so. You're still doing the stuff on the street, the protection. You're doing this.

I mean, you're making a chunk of money every single month. I'm getting there on top of getting my biweekly check, which gets better because now my time on the job is steady. I'm doing a certain amount of overtime. Longevity is a factor. So I'm getting close to my top pay. Top pay back then, 2012, 13, 14, for a correction officer. was 89,000 base and then again coming with the overtime uniform allowance holiday pay you could bring home 115kk in new york city it works this goes on for a few months and now that i start introducing the contraband i start feeling this type of guilt because it's like damn man i didn't want to do this from the very beginning but i am making good enough money on the outside that the things that I did want are now they're easily

accessible you know I'm able to help on my mom with the groceries now I have my own apartment I have a steady tool on Rikers I'm a city employee I have great benefits again I'm a single male so things are working out I'm doing this for about three months by myself one day I see the inmate and he goes um yeah I don't want to my brother no more and I'm just Just like, mind you, I'm in uniform on Rikers Island. I'm looking around, you know, still very strategic about what I'm doing. I don't like, there's not a lapse in my judgment where I'm not on point about things. You know, I'm still very cognizant of everything.

I want to make sure nobody's listening. Nobody has a clue. I've been cool since day one. So I don't look out of place talking to this inmate. This inmate doesn't look at a place talking to me. So he goes, I don't want to mess with my brother anymore. I'm going to give you another number. And this guy, this is the guy.

like don't talk to my aunt anymore like these people are shit up and he's telling me i'm about to go to trial soon i don't know if i'm going to win i'm a predicate felon if i lose this attempted charge i'm gone 15 to life they got to give me 15 to life as the minimum and he's just expressing this stuff and he's like i just need your help call this Colombian guy and make things work i need a better lawyer like i need more money and i'm just like wow i'm really deep into this because he has this trust to tell me all of this. And, like, this comes to a point where I'm making enough money. I don't want it to stop, but I kind of want it to stop.

Right. Because I've been getting away with it. There's not a question in anyone in the department's mind that I'm, you know, involved in this type of organization. I have a steady tour, like I said, around that time, the assistant deputy warden and the warden of the facility gave me a certificate of appreciation. They gave me a certificate of appreciation for one holding down this housing area. And while I was gone on my vacation relief, when I came back, there was officer during that week that got his radio and his cuff key taken from a slot from an inmate that was in my housing area.

And this guy has a walkie-talkie, and he's on all the channels saying, yo, free this, free this, yo. Oh, such my dick and this and that, blah, blah. He's going crazy until the battery dies. I come back from my vacation and I'm like, give the walkie-talkie back. They didn't want to extract the inmate. He's a high-level mental health, and they just didn't want to hurt him. They got the walkie-talkie and the cuff key back. I got a certificate of appreciation from the ward.

And so, again, I'm the golden boy. Me talking to this guy doesn't look at a place. Circling back, he goes, take this number. It's like kind of back to square one. Call this number. When you call this number, you'll get all the information. And I get this feeling again, like, damn, man, again. Like, what is this going to, like, what is this, what door is this going to open?

I wait a few days and I call the number. And it's a heavy Colombian accent. And he goes, hello? And I'm like, hey, how are you doing such and such? Call me. I gave him the fake name that I always have. And I'm like, hey, this is Tony. And he goes, oh, Tony, I've been waiting for you, blah, blah, blah.

Can we meet at this Colombian restaurant in Queens tomorrow morning? I am off. I can't meet you. I've seen and been to this Colombian restaurant. I go, it's 11.30, 12 o'clock, it's about to be lunch, and I'm nervous again. I haven't had this nervous factor as much as I've had up until now from the very first run that I did that, I didn't know what I was getting into. I don't know what I'm getting into at this point. It's my day off.

I have sweatpants on a hoodie. And I see his Colombian guy come in and he kind of gives me a head nod. And he's like, and I'm like, yeah, he sits down, shakes my hand. The guy looks like he can be my uncle. And I'm just like, hey, what's up, man? He goes, hey, listen, I've heard a lot about you. But, you know, I need you like ASAP. And I need you to, like, be a little more free in the morning, at night, whenever.

I know what you're doing. That's why you're here. That's why whatever these guys pay you, I don't want to deal with their brother anymore. Their brother's getting on my nerves. This is the first guy that I met that gave me the $15,100. And I'm just like, I don't know what he did. I don't care. I don't want to ask.

It is what it is. And I'm like, all right, cool. Call me. And he goes, okay, cool. Can you start tomorrow? And I'm like, yeah. There's been like a three-week period where I didn't get any phone call because, again, he's having an issue with his brother. The next day, we're exchanging text messages.

And he goes, I need you to meet me on Queens Boulevard, close to the restaurant that we met at the first time. I meet him there It's also my day off And I do a run with him But this time I'm driving his car And his Durango It's not good Durango

It's not good Hey yeah Just park your car Get in the car And I'm like You don't want me In my car I go

I have everything And I don't want to Okay Where are we going 44 street And Taff Avenue Oh shit This is the same place

That I went with With with the brother The very first run This is the first run this is the first time I did the first front maybe this is like a meeting ground for whoever they're dropping whoever off to whatever it is

this is where they meet it's enclosed it's on the ground dimly lit like I told you earlier we get there I kind of know I get the ticket I'm in the Durango now and I'm like okay like this is not my car where do I go and I'm asking more questions I'm not as comfortable as I am

this is a brand new person he's a lot older than the brother and I try to be a little more professional about things. Park up, does the same thing as a brother. Gets back in the car, nothing's in the car. He goes, all right, take me back to your car, and then you can go.

$4,000. And I'm just like, in an envelope. Right. Things are a little more professional. All right, man, I'll see you. By the way, do you have someone else that can kind of do this with you just so I can, you know, cover more ground?

I want to, like, I don't want to have to babysit you every single time. I just had to meet you in person. These guys are vouching for you, but, you know, these guys are pieces of shit. They're just street kids that they just spend their money on jewelry and go to the strip club. He's bad-mouthing them. Right. And I'm just like, I don't. Throughout my time as a correction officer, I would have inmates that they wouldn't snitch, but they would tell me, yo, man, this guy's bringing in this and he's doing that.

And you hear the tall tales, and you kind of just, you mind your business. It's not getting in your way. There was an inmate that I would get told about that was making things very hot within the housing area that I actually housed. So the housing area that I housed, it was RHU on the B side. The A side was general population. It was the Crips and the Trinitentiaries, which are Dominican base gang in Rikazam. And he's there as a B officer a lot. Whatever his dealings are with, whether it's with the Cribs,

or the Trinitarios, he's doing his thing. He's actually bringing in contraband. And one day I come in and I tell him, hey, listen, man, you got to relax. And he's just looking at me. I'm like, if you're going to do something wrong, make sure that you do it right. Because I'm letting him know that they're letting me know, like, you're a little too messy with whatever you're doing. And it's within the grounds of, he doesn't know what I'm doing.

No one has gave him a flag. Hey, he listened to Mingas is. Nobody knows what I'm doing. I've been quiet. I've never told anyone anything. And I'm just letting him know like, hey, listen, bro, you don't have to do this. And he goes, it's like, I guess it's feelings. And he's like, yeah, man, but this and that.

I have the conversation that I have with the Colombian deeply rooted here. And I'm like, I know somebody that I'm doing this with on the outside. If you want, you could roll with me and you could do this on the outside. You don't got to get too messy. I'm down. I have student loans. I live in my mom's space. Man, he's kind of going through the same.

emotions that I felt from the very beginning of this dealing where it's like you're kind of doing this wrong thing for the right reason. There's no real malicious act. You're not trying to hurt anybody. You're not bringing in razors. You're just like, you know, and he's already, his integrity is already sold because he's already doing it prior to me. So I know that him doing this on the outside is going to get him a lot more money than whatever these guys are paying him. And we do exactly that. I tell the Colombian guy through text, like, hey, whenever you're ready, I have someone. Perfect.

Let's meet up. Let's meet up at this parking lot in Queens. And I'm like, all right, cool. I tell my boy, he tells me, perfect. I'm awful. So he's on the wheel, but he actually manages to be off this day. He's a little nervous just like I was. And I'm like, listen, I just met this guy too.

They just want us to drive from point A to point B. I told him straight up. I don't touch anything. I don't bag anything up. I don't see anybody getting hurt. Like, you know, you're just a driver. You're a courier. Perfect.

Colombian guy texts us, get in the car, we both get in the car, we shake hands, we meet. He gives us each a duffel bag. And he goes, listen, I'm going to text you both the address. It's the same address. You guys will go in separate cars. You take this, you take this, meet me there. When I get there, I'll grab everything, go upstairs, do my thing. Perfect.

We do exactly that. It's probably 30 minutes out. It's a longer trip than usual. We get there, he's parked, he's looking at me, and it's like, okay, cool. he smokes a cigarette, my partner, the Colombian guy goes upstairs, grabs the duffel bags, does what he does, he's up there for 20, 30 minutes. And we're just there like, and it's just building. It comes back, the Colombian guy gets us in his car and then calls us over, handses us cash.

It's $1,500. And I'm just like, all right, you guys done better than $1,500. I thought I was going to get a lump sum from bringing this guy in because now you have, you guys have me, but just what you said, you want to. to have more coverage. Right. What I do is just split my, did I just split my fucking feet?

And now this guy knows what I'm doing. So I'm extremely vulnerable myself. And he's a static. 1,500. He was getting $200, when he was just bringing in contraband regularly. He's happy. He's like,

let's do it again. Let's do it again. I'm down, this and that. And we continue doing so. This happened three or four times. We don't hear about this guy. We don't hear from this guy for almost two weeks.

And he goes, yo, what's up? And I'm like, I don't know, you know. In my head, I'm just like, if it's dead, it's dead. Like, you know, I made my money. No one knew clean slate. Spoke too soon.

I get a phone call. He goes, hey, I need to meet you guys. This is Monday, June, 23rd, the day after Father's Day. I need to meet you guys uptown in the Target parking lot, separate cars, 830. And I'm like, okay, cool. I tell my boy, he sees it in the group chat. He goes, all right, cool, I'll see you then. I start at one.

We both start at one. Cool, perfect. We get there and we're waiting and the parking lot is desolate. He comes in the white derangell, and he's parked maybe six cars to the left of us. Says, come in the car. We get in the car. Same scenario. Hey, listen, the brown duffel bag is yours, which is my partner.

The black duffel bag is mine. Okay, cool. I'm on the right side. I'm seeing him. I'm going to text you the address. It's in Yonkers. It's about a 40-minute drive. Cool.

I'm going to a bathroom, and then we could kind of all head out. All right, cool, but you guys could head out now, separate vehicles. We do exactly that. We exit the car and exit out. I look at my Nike fuel band, and it's like 8, 50, 9 o'clock. I look at my partner. He goes, I might have to pump gas. And then I look at the time again, I'm like, well, hurry up.

And then as soon as I look back, it's a hearse rental car. doors bust open DEA agents vests guns out get on the ground get on the ground get on the ground and I look at my partner I have the duffel bag in my hand and I'm just like

a deer in headlights he's looking at me a deer in headlights everything is slow motion I don't hear anything I just start seeing cars coming left and right squad cars guns everywhere and I'm just frozen

the only thing I feel is the knee of a DEA agent pinning me to the ground, taking off my personal protection firearm, unloading it, and cuffing me within three seconds. And I'm looking at my partner, face to the pavement, and I'm just like, Stephen, wake up. You got to wake up.

This is bad. This is very bad. Where though? Did we go wrong? Why did you not see this happen? Holy moly. He's looking at me I'm looking at him

We get thrown in the squad car I'm in the back seat As a young lady with a vest on DEA agent Credentials on her neck There's a big white guy sitting next to me Heavily tatted And he's just looking at me

And he goes And I'm just like I'm trying to keep my cool But the DEA's there It's all right It's over What prison are we going to And he goes

Precent. What do you mean precent? And he pulls his badge out and he shows it to me and it's a DEA emblem and I'm just like man We're in separate cars, my partner and I, the Colombian guy from what I saw while I was on the pavement

He's tussling with these DEA agents And he's fighting trying to roam free And it looks crazy And I'm just like holy moly A lot of things are going through my head Were they looking at me? Were they looking at him?

Were they looking at the car? Like, what do I say once we get to an office or a desk and these guys are asking me questions? Like, what's going on? Mind you, he disarmed me knowing I had a gun on me. Yeah, yeah. He knows way too much. He knows. They have my wallet.

It's in my back pocket. I have my shield there. I have to have my shield on me at all times. Why? Because this is my superhero badge and no one can stop me in New York City if you have a shield. I'm trying to think, I'm trying to think of where, like, is the guy in prison who realized he's probably going to jail for 15, 30 years? And, you know, it's slowly set up and he got to a point where he was like, okay, I got, I can use this to my advantage because I'm probably going to. Desperation.

Yeah. Is that what you, is that what you, is that what? I felt that that's probably what it was months after. Mind you. I'm still dissecting what. I don't know what they know. We're on the West Side Highway. And again, I asked the DEAJ and one precinct.

And he's just like, prison. We're going to headquarters. And I'm like, well, this is big. This isn't not, this is not a four ounces of or a gram and a half of whatever it was. I don't know what's in these duffel bags. I didn't even open them. I never opened them. I didn't want to know what they were.

I mean, that for you, for your com. That tells you, makes you feel okay, but none of that matters. None of that matters. It's like the same thing with the guy that goes into rob a bank and says, it wasn't even a real gun. Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. The threat is still there. Yeah.

You know, and people can say, oh, later on, they can argue, oh, why didn't you say this was entrapment? He kind of lured you in. But he told me, hey, this is what I had. This is what I can offer. And I gladly opened that door, you know. And that's not even in federal. court like in new york state that might be a defense but in federal court it's hard it's hard and i'll tell you why it was hard later on so we're on the west side highway on our way to headquarters and

everything is going through my head and i'm just like well i'm supposed to be on rikers island at 1 p.m. today you know and i don't know what my partner is going to do because i kind of just brought him into this world. So he might sing. This might be American Idol for him. I don't know what he knows, what he might lie about. He might throw me under the bus. He's only been New York City correction officer for two and a half years. I've been a New York City correction officer for four and a half years going into my fifth year. I haven't hit Toppey yet. And all of this is flashing before my eyes. We get to headquarters. The elevator opens up and it's a big emblem, jugging for enforcement agency and you're just like, okay.

Yeah, and it's probably a nicer building than the fuck. You know what I'm saying? You can see the budget when you go in these places. You're like, these people have money. This is big boy shit. Even them taking me out the squad car and taking me to the elevator, there's Lamborghinis, there's, you know, the exotic cars and you're just like, wow, they probably, all the toys that they sees are here. You know, this is headquarters. What happened to my car?

oh one of the agents got it they'll bring it over and jokingly he goes you own it and i'm like no i just bought it why did i just buy because i'm making so much money that i can afford a second car i bought a grand Cherokee a latitude of 2014 15 miles on it still had the plastic ripping off and he goes we probably put more miles on it than you did jokingly while i'm in the bullpen just waiting and not knowing what's going to happen i see all these guys and suits come in and now, and then I see my co-defendant coming 15 minutes later. And then I see the Colombian guy come in 15 minutes later after that. Nobody's saying a word. I don't know what's going on. One of the DEA agents come and she goes, hey, listen, we just want to ask you, you know,

these general questions. This is not an interrogation. You do not need a lawyer. These are just general questions. I don't want to make sure that this is your maiden name. This is your address. We just want to get things sorted out. You don't have. have to say anything aside from the things I just told you. Okay. They cuff me. They put me in a room. She does exactly that. Made a name. Emergency contact. I go through everything. Everyone else goes through it and I'm watching them go through it. The Colombian guy's pacing as he gets transported to the room to do what I just did. And he's giving me a look like, yo, you better not tell. You better not say anything. And again, I'm just like, nothing.

Me and my co-defendant now are cells to each other and what we're just like, yo, bro, listen, I don't know. Right away, D-A. Hey, there's no talking here unless you're talking to us. One of the D-A agents comes. He goes, yo, Dominguez, you want to have a chat? And I'm going, no, I'm good. They take my co-defendant next to me, which is my partner.

They put him in a room. They didn't even ask him if he wanted to talk. It's kind of like a psychological game that they're playing. Now I see him going and not even saying. that he does or doesn't, they're asking me in front of everybody, I don't say anything. I kind of was brought up on that culture, you know, until you have counsel present, try your best to just keep your mouth shut. And again, I don't know what they know.

I do exactly that. And the DEA comes in to my cell. They handcuffed me. The district attorney, she's in a suit, and she looks at me, she goes. You mean the U.S. attorney? The U.S. attorney. She goes, you don't want to talk to my guys? And I'm just like, I don't nod.

I try to be as numb as possible. She goes, get them out of here. They do exactly that. We get back into a car. And I don't know if my partner's coming. I don't know if the Colombian guy. I don't know their whereabouts at this time. I asked the officer again that's in the backseat with me while I'm handcuffed.

Where are we going? We're going to Manhattan tombs. You're being arraigned. And if I'm in Manhattan tombs, well, that's a city case. This is not federal anymore. I got arrested by DEA. And I'm like, okay, now I'm very confused. Yeah, I was going to say, do they have the marshals hold over there?

Is that? I don't know what it was, but New York City took over me once I got to Manhattan Tumes. So now I have my peers of the same uniform that I used to wear 24 hours ago. And they're like, yo, what the hell happened? I don't know what happened. And just like the movies, I'm in the bullpen by myself. And the news shows me 17 correction officers, 14 correction officers arrested for promoting prison contraband, bringing in oxycodone, tobacco, all these pills and promoting this and doing

that, part of a huge criminal enterprise. And I'm just like, no, my co-defendant comes 10 minutes later. And I'm showing him and we're on the phone. I'm trying to get in contact with my mom. remember the phone number vividly, I finally get a hold of her. The Rikers had been calling her because at this point it's 3, 4 p.m. She's my emergency content. Right.

Hey, is Stephen coming into work? Is everything okay? Rikers Island does not even know what's going on. This was a whole operation that had to do with a slew of departments of Department of Corrections, Department of Investigations, D.EA, ATF, all of these organizations came about. just to look at me and I'm like this can't be what about the Colombian guy what about the Dominican guy the pieces start coming together and now I realized that I'm here because they were watching the Colombian guy that's what I think that's not that's not exactly what happens but they got 17 other yeah it was all over the place again I don't know where I'm going I don't

know what's going on luckily for corrections when officers do get in trouble there's a union that backs them up, the union benevolent association of correction officers. Yeah, but I'm sure that doesn't last long when it's a criminal investigation. They came through, they bought me food, they try to console me and say, hey, listen, we don't know what's going on, but we got your back. There's going to be a lawyer that's going to represent you at least for arraignment purpose. Right. And I'm like, okay, like, I don't know really the steps.

I don't even know, again, what they know. So I'm just, I'm numb at this point. Four or five hours passed by, I break the news down to my mom. I'm telling her, I don't know what's going on. I'm so sorry. They called me with stuff. I don't know what I was bringing. I don't know how much they had.

I was just being a security guard. I'm trying to sugarcoat it to my mother. And she's just like, what did you get yourself into? They've been blowing me up for hours. We get to arraignment. I stand in front of the judge. My partner stands right next to me with another union president. not union president, another union lawyer with the union president and a union representative.

They read out, the judge reads out, A1 possession, criminal sale, and A1 attempted sale. $500,750,000 bond. And I'm just like, whoa, wait. Like, I'm expecting a 50, 70K, like, you know, and I look at my lawyer. he goes, I'll talk to you in a bit. I'm looking at my mom. She made it. She was with my girlfriend at the time, and I'm just like, I don't know what I'm getting,

what I got myself into? Sale of what? Okay. Anything A1 in New York City consists of, hey, whatever it is, if it's eight ounces or more, it's considered an A1 fellow. Okay. We get back to the cell and I'm like, man, this was big. The lawyer comes back.

He goes, listen, I'll see you in the morning. You'll probably end up in Westchester County or Nassau County. Nassau County is all the way in Long Island, Westchester's and Yonkers, maybe 25 minutes out from where Rikers Island is. Now, I realize that I'm in deep shit. I get to Westchester County. They come and pick me up. They take me there.

There's no words that I don't see my partner anymore. I'm by myself. And I'm just like, what did I get myself into? You know, I don't even know how to explain this to myself. We get to Westchester County. I get to the intake area, the warden comes in, the captain comes in, and they goes, hey, listen, we know what's going on. You're a member of service.

So we suggest you go to PC. And I'm like, well, I don't want to go to PC. Like, you know, I always knew that PC was not a place to be. It was the worst of the worst. It was a lockdown. It was escorted movement. And I'm just like, I don't think I need PC. I've never heard anybody.

I'm not here for hurting anybody. Like, I'd rather go to general population. And they're like, that's that one. There is no way that is a uniform officer still because you're innocent to prove guilty, correct? So you're still a city employee, whether I want to believe it or not, even though I know deep down it's over and I would never be a city employee again, they told me, listen, you're going to PC, sign this paper, wear this arm is sweat, so you want a large, extra large.

And they're just going through the motions. They don't care that I'm a correction officer. You know why? Because I'm not a correction officer anymore. Right. the next morning transpires i wake up i get no sleep i'm in a cell and i'm looking around and i'm just like man this can't be everything that i worked so hard for led up to this moment acts one can i get on the phone they have me on a quarantine my lawyer comes in i'm able to see

him through a glass i'm able to see my mom through a glass i'm trying to explain to her what happens i'm explaining to my lawyer what happened i go to court three days later Subceeding indictment, 17 counts, promoting prison contraband, A1 possession in the first over 8 ounces, bribery receiving, conspiracy 2, 4, 5, again, promoting prison contraband, and I'm just like, what the fuck is going on? I sit down with my lawyer, he tells me, all right, talk to me, tell me everything that you've done, because I've obviously known that you've done all of this. This is my union lawyer. I don't want to tell him everything. I don't know if he's working with the district attorney. I don't know where my faith is going to land.

I started explaining to him how I got into this. And he goes, well, looking through your discovery, knowing how the district attorney is playing, understanding the Department of Investigations, understanding why the DEA was involved in this, it just seems like you're dealing with a confidential informant and a confidential informant could be someone in the jail and you said the person that involved you with this Colombian guy that you were driving freely for how did that connection happen I said well he gave

me a number he goes well there you go this was a confidential informant so the guy that gave me the number and positioned me from day one has been a confidential informant way before I was even a correction officer mind you what did I tell you earlier I've seen this guy in real time right right He's a well-known drug dealer. Like you mentioned, he couldn't take the time. He's a predicate felon. 15 years to life, you better give us something. What are you going to give us another drug dealer?

No, no. So he made it juicy for them and said, you know what, I got a correction officer that's been moving around with me, and I can give you the receipts. And that's something juicy because at this time, Rikers is in flames. 30, 40 slashings per building,

30, 40 slashings per building, 30 40 slashings, stabbing per building. The violence is all over the place. They had depended on somebody. I became the poster boy for introducing contraband to Rikers Island telling the news that I'm the reason why the violence has spiked and things are out of control. They needed to depend on somebody. And I became the goldfish that they made it seem that I was this shark. And that's not, that's not how it happened.

I was reeled into this. And again, you can argue the entrapment. But I chose, I chose to do the bad thing. Right. You know. So what, I mean, what is your, does this lawyer end up staying? He didn't say your lawyer. Once he knows that this guy's involved, this is a, he knows.

So I speak with my mom about it. We have our back against the wall. I already know that I'm not valid. outching my job. I'm not getting my job back. That's already out of the question. He's telling me, hey, listen, if you want to bring another lawyer on, we can do so. I highly suggest you don't. Obviously, this is free will. This is the union dues that you paid biweekly to us. That $45 is basically why I'm here for free. What I can do is offer a forensic psychologist to come in and basically do a kind of pedigree about who you are and what transpired and why you're here and basically

make it seem like you're a product of your environment. And I'm like, all right, well, you know, how much is that? And I said, that was a few thousand bucks. So the money that I made throughout this time, I have to obviously maintain two cars that I have leases for. I have bills of my own. I have rent that I have to pay. I have insurance that I have to pay. So the money is liquidating as time is going by while I'm in county jail fighting this case. As I'm fighting this case, I start realizing that this guy is a confidential informant, that people from his organization kind of knew what was going on. And this was all the means to gather us together and basically make this case that these are the corrupted guys. We're doing our job and we're getting rid of them.

And my lawyer brought it down to me that way. And he goes, listen, you're not looking at two or three use. These guys know how much money you made throughout this process. And you made a lot of money. In comparison to your co-defendant, they don't give up a bottom. They'll give him three, four, five years. He was a probationary office. He's already, oh, oh, the probation. I thought you meant the, he's, he's not a big deal to them. They know that you're the, the guy that they want because one, it looks good to the district attorney. The new BMO, V.I. Porter, MasterCard, is your ticket to more. More perks, more points, more flights, more of all the things you want in a travel rewards card, and then some. Get your ticket to more with the new BMO ViPorter MasterCard and get up to $2,400 in value in your first 13 months.

Terms and conditions apply. Visit BMO.com slash ViPorter to learn more. And it shows that New York City as a whole and the mayor they're doing their job, you know, right? Island is maintaining. And we're cleaning it up. We're cleaning it up. So how much money are they saying you made? In the paper, they're making it seem that they were paying me $500 to $900 per run.

And I'm like, you guys are missing a zero, a whole zero. And you guys know that. But how do the feds justify giving me $5,000 here, $9,000 here? When you read the paper, the New York Times, the Daily News, the Post, the Wall Street Journal, they're saying I was getting paid between $5 and $9,000. $900 per run. It was really between $1,000 and $9,000 per run. But again, why is our tax dollars going just to throw this dirty correction officer away when you can just, you know? So I saw that this was very politically based. And my lawyer let it be known that it was very politically based. And that's why they were going to throw the book at me. My first offer was 12 years. And I'm just like for promoting prison contraband and driving around, it's like, yeah. Yeah. Why not? Why not? We gave you, you signed the oath. You went like this. You said that you weren't going to do these things. We gave you the trust. My lawyer told me you're a minority that they gave power to and you've that up. So are they dropping the, are they dropping the sale? They're not dropping anything. They want to stick to that A1 charge because I did it so many times. I wouldn't be the first time they're just, you're just trained up. They don't want to monitor it that way because of the money that they spent. The money.

and the budget that they had for this correction connection was what the Sting operation was called. Cute. You know? So they knew that this was an investment and they wanted a boast and brag about it. They had a party about this. My lawyer told me them.

And it's just like, man, you know what? So the forensic psychologist comes in. I speak to him for days on at a time. My mother speaks to him. My loved ones. I'm showing them all the certificates I gained from finding dangerous. weapons in TSA, letting them know, hey, listen, I went to John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Like, I didn't come into this sector of business to do the wrong thing. It was just kind of molded that way. But my greed, me not having a patient to, you know, move out of my mom's house when I got out of top pay. I wanted it fast. And they saw that I took advantage of it, so now they're taking advantage. And they'll spend that by saying, exactly. You went to John Jay College.

You knew better. You did this. you knew better, you knew better, you knew better. All those things are all the reasons you should have known better. The forensic psychologist was trying to fight with the label of like, well, maybe you have borderline personality disorder because my phone was tapped for eight months from the feds. Wow. The feds had to pay $480 a month just to have that phone tapped.

And I saw that throughout my discovery while I was fighting my case in Westchester's county jail in my jail cell going through the law library trying to figure out a way to like let it be known like hey guys like you guys are really coming for me and you guys know exactly what happened you guys understand how this transpired into this why are you guys coming at me so hard but again I was a poster board yeah yeah it's not about not about justice it's about doing the right thing I mean about doing the right thing it's about it's about winning yeah it's like if someone gets should get two years and they get 12 it doesn't matter you it's it's the whole well you put yourself in this situation correct so whatever we do to you is justified that's not really what justice

is does it you know if you're a little kid stealing stealing candy you don't cut his hand off you don't give him five years correct but they're like oh he stole candy he put himself here like that come on let's be reasonable yeah so and what what's what's the other guy doing has he already said he got me into this he's He's right next to me. And it becomes weird because I don't know what he's doing because now we don't go to court together. We're going to court separately and I feel like it's a psychological game that the court system is playing to try to pin us against each other because now my lawyer is coming to me and he goes, well, your offer's 12 years. What are you going to do?

You know, this is an A1 felony. The minimum I can try to get you is the eight, but they're trying to make the promoting prison contraband and the bribery receiving and they're trying to. have that run concurrent and I'm just like it's my first time are you are you say are they coming to you saying look we need you to cooperate there's no reason to cooperate but they don't need you to cooperate but are they ladies asking they they're asking for a proffer so a proffer agreement like you know but the audience doesn't know is tell us everything that you did tell us who you dealt with tell us how much you got paid tell us where you went and I'm just like my lawyer's telling me that this is what they want.

And I'm like, what do I see? What do I get for this? What do I get for this? And he goes, I can't guarantee you anything. Maybe they won't give you anything. And you still get eight years. Because now he's letting me know that the 12 years are, the judge is not going to give me eight years on my first time.

It's not New York City is going to base it on, hey, listen, this is not a career criminal. He made poor decisions. It's his first felony and it's not viable. So we're going to give him the minimum, hoping. But you don't have. a choice. Like, it's like eight years at best, but you have a chance. I have a chance to get it to be, to get two or three years knocked off, maybe four years knocked off. Probably not. And my lawyer even mentions, it could even be probation. They could tell you, hey, listen, this is a time, sir.

We don't need this guy in jail. We just need him to give up everybody else. The lawyer is telling me, hey, listen, they want a proffer. And he's basically breaking me down everything that I would have to do for this proffer. And I'm just like, what is a guarantee again? He goes, there is no Guarantee. Maybe they get all this information from you and you don't get shit. Remember, they want to up you over. Right. When he says it, I'm like, no, so there's no reason for me to say anything.

If they know everything, if my phone's been tapped for eight months, I'm looking at the discovery. They have still pictures of me at clubs and doing this and me and my vehicle. They know enough. They really want me to roll over and tell them about other corrupted correction officers that are on Rikers Island. But you don't know anything. I don't know anything because I didn't let anybody know about me. And even though I know these things are happening, I'm still like in my own world. Yeah.

It's like survival of myself. I don't care about what's going on. And I let my attorney know. He's just like, until you don't have anything. And I'm like, no, I don't have anything. People know where my mom lives. There's a certain, like, you know, code of ethic that I have regardless of me having a badge and a uniform at one point. It's like, I know that I put myself here.

Like, why would I drag others with? me even if I did know. The good thing is that I didn't know and I couldn't throw anybody under the bus even if I didn't care. So I let him know that he goes, well, truthfully, I can't get you under the eight. They're not, this aid is sticking because of the amount of money, the time, the overtime, the officers, they had to pay on the cover. And I'm just like, wow, this was a really big operation for this. And they're like, yeah, we had to do it at one point. Apparently, the officer prior to you, they didn't get a lot of time, Gary. Right.

I don't know exactly how much time we did. I'm shocked that, yeah, I'm shocked that the union is still representing you. They had to. I know. I mean, I've always kind of heard that once they realize it's cool. Believe it or not, the union president, Neil Seabrook, at the time, he spoke on air, New York One, I believe the Daily News. And he said, this is a witch hunt against Stephen Dominguez, because I guess he understood

and heard about my character prior to this. Everyone is in shock on Rikaze Island. Dominga is no way. Right. He works the RSU unit and these guys love him and respect them and he gets them their male and like everyone on both ends love him. Can't be. So he probably looked at that and said,

no, this is a good officer. This is a witch hunt. And that's exactly how he played it. And he never spoke bad about me. Want to laugh? I love to laugh. He's currently, I don't know if he's currently incarcerated, but he got indicted on money laundering and wire fraud, and he got seven years, I believe. For what, though?

Money laundering and wire fraud. Right, but money laundering, what? The correction officers, but now have been checked that they would get from each officer $45. They laundered it somewhere in the Dominican Republic. Oh, so he's like embezzling and laundering the money. That's my God, though. Yeah. He said, that's my guy.

He didn't say anything bad about me. And again, like I told you, I got a certificate of appreciation. I was well loved in my facility. You know, I helped a lot of guys psychologically, whether, you know, it's an inmate, or I was always there for my fellow officer. You know, I was a pretty good officer regardless of promoting prison contraband. And all that sounds crazy, you know. So what, what they...

Time passes, and I'm in the law library, and I'm just like, okay, well, if I get this eight years, how can I make it less? Yes. I'm not telling. I'm not snitching. I'm not going to this proffer meeting. I don't know what my co-defendants are doing. Mind you, the officer that I put on, he's not my only co-defendant. This guy's cousin and her girlfriend, his girlfriend, they're also co-defendants of mine. I see this through my minutes and everything. Yeah, you don't know that. You don't go to court at the same time. None of this. It really doesn't have nothing to do with me. It just has to do that. I gave him drugs once and I introduced it to him and he did whatever he did. He's already incarcerated and the girl they let her go, put her. on probation, whatever she was in college at the time. She thought that she didn't know what was going on. It was just like a love thing that she was in, and she did whatever her boyfriend said.

The time passes, it's like 16 and 18 months going in right now in Westchester County Jail. I'm in PC. I am the trustee. I clean the unit. I make sure everything with the laundry is good. I take care of rec. I feel like I'm an officer at this time. The officers that are in Westchester, they're treating me pretty fairly because, again, I'm

in there for like anything aside from disrespecting the badge others might say but they they see my character you know they're wishing me the best my lawyer comes up one morning and he goes listen eight years a trial it's a year and a half this time will go on to the eight years it's not violent you'll probably end up doing six years in 10 months and then you add the 18 months that you've been fighting the case yeah yeah plus you could do halfway how like yeah The halfway house thing, going to work release in New York State Prison. And this is the information that I got while going to the law library. And I'm just like, all right, man.

Like, I want to get out of West Chesa County. I'm tired of this every day back and forth. I see my mom frequently, it's only an hour drive, but I know that once I get sentenced and I go to state prison, I don't know how long that drive is going to be for my mom. So now I create the strain for her. And it's a financial strain, too, because the money that I was giving her freely doesn't exist anymore. I'm in here. I don't even get a bi-weekly check from corrections anymore. I'm on freeze. I'm still within the department innocent to prove it guilty. Once I'm guilty, none of that

stuff exists. I tell my mom, listen, I'm going to take the eight years. And she's just like, right? Like, is that the best? Like, can you talk to somebody? And I'm just like, mom, I've exhausted everything I can. The forensic psychologist, the lawyer, this and that, there's nothing else we can do. But I'm trying to sugarcoat it. tell her with the eight years, I can apply for work release two years prior to my earliest release and I'll be home in six and blah blah whatever. We go to the court and I get sentenced and I let the judge know and the people know I'm sorry for my actions, this and that, desperation. Aspiration became desperation and I'm just letting them know I made a mistake. A lot of weight

is off my shoulders. I get back to Westchester County. Two weeks later, I get sent to Downstate. downstate is the facility that they send you as like a reception so they classify you there everyone goes there high classification inmates because i got eight years makes me a high classification inmate so now with the people that are doing eight years or more i'm nervous when i got to west so i denied pc but they still left me in there because i have a uniform now that i'm outside of the department of corrections technically i'm a civilian where for a one possession charge, a one conspiracy, you know, bribery and all this stuff, I'm just a civilian. And I deny PC when I get to downstate. The warden comes and he goes, hey, listen,

I know why you're here, this is not a good idea. And I'll let him know, like, no, you know, like I'm fine and I'm denying it. Why am I denying it? Because my entire time in Westchester in the law library, I know that if I go to work release, I have to be in general population. I cannot be a PC inmate in work release I can't put me around general population inmates That's the only reason I was denying it For my personal safety I felt that I can do this

I never did anybody wrong I never had a fist fight on Rikers Island I never had to hurt anybody I never put my hands on anyone I got the respect that I gave And I went in with that confidence I'm in general population and downstate And I'm there for about a month and a half

I don't know where I'm going They knock on my door one morning and they tell me, hey, listen, pack up, get on the bus. I tell my mom, get on the phone. Hey, listen, I don't know where they send me. Once they send me, I'll let you know when I get there, and I'll tell you how long that drive is, and we'll figure it out. I'm scared to death at this time.

Now, I'm around and congregating with general population inmates, and I start seeing guys that I used to see on Rikers, and they're like, yo, this is crazy. Remember, I was on the news. Right, yeah. The inmates watch the news. Yeah, there's no way they're not going to know. Immediately.

I start getting the head nods like, yo, that's crazy. And then you're in GP, like, yo, we got you. Like, don't worry about it. When you get upstate, they know you're there. Like, we're giving that stamp of approval that you're a good dude regardless of anything. And I rolled with it. I was on that bus ride for eight hours that morning, and we get to Clinton Correctional Facility. This is a max A prison in Danimora, New York.

This is the second most violent prison statistically. in New York State. No, I'm not going. I'm not going. I had to go. PC. Mom, I'm not going to be doing the work release. I had to go.

So we get there and I see the 100 foot wall that everybody talks about and I'm like, wow, this is a maxi max. This is not mid-level facility that people are roaming free and they get a whole path to the library, like a college campus status. Like, no, I got eight years. I'm going to be with the guys that got more than that eight years or plus. We get off the bus and the screaming starts. Mind you, I've been on this bus for eight hours. And I'm not with my co-defendant. My co-defendant, and let me backtrack, was sentenced to five years.

Why did my co-defendant get five years? Allegedly, what he had in that backpack was under eight ounces. So they were able to give him an A2. Coincidentally, they did that on purpose. They know from the wiretaps that I reel them in, that I brought him into this. They know deep down that he was bringing in the contraband prior to me bringing him in, but I brought him into this world. We're going to give him five years.

He's a probationary officer. He didn't rat either. He didn't flip on anything. He told him the same thing. Like, what can I tell you? I'm guilty just as anybody else. Can I ask a question? The guy that set you up, the inmate.

Okay, you got that coming? Okay. When I get to Clinton, I get a slew of mail that I did. didn't get for the last couple months that I was in Westchester and it kind of caught up to me. I'll get back to me getting off on the bus in Clinton, which is a whole other world. And I get this mail and I'm looking through it and I start reading through my discovery while I'm in the cell in Clinton and I'm just like, I still wonder where this Colombian guy came about. Hey, sorry to interrupt the video.

Just want to let you guys know that we're going to have an extra 15 or 20 minutes of content on my Patreon. It's $10 a month for about an hour's worth of extra content every single week. Back to the podcast. Lo and behold, the Colombian guy is a federal agent. Oh, he was never. Oh. The tussling. It was an act.

It's an act. Him looking at me like, you better not fucking say any. It's all an act. He was an agent. He was just one of the guys, hey, listen, you know, we need you because you kind of fit the part. Yeah, that's why. He's the one who this bags for you. And that's how he played it.

That's how he played it. You know, and he played it well. I gave it to him, you know. I didn't go to trial. I want to say I didn't go to trial because if I did, I would have been facing 32 years with that 17 count indictment. You know, they would have given me the A1 felony four times. And you're guilty as saying. Like, you got no chance.

I'm guilty of everything they said. There's not a lick that they were like, I did this. And I'm like, I didn't do that. Yeah. The newspaper and the media were totally wrong. They thought that I was bringing in kilos of to Rikers. And I'm like, no, I wasn't bringing in kilos of to Rikers. I was transporting it outside of New York City and bringing in and tobacco in.

But I wasn't bringing in like, you know, I try to justify it and say it like that. I get to Clinton, I get off the bus, and this is a whole new world. It's an eight and a half hour ride. And guys on the bus are already talking like, oh, I know exactly where we're going. These are career criminals. I'm like, oh, we're going to Clinton. The records at this time, the CEOs do this, and I'm just like, oh, man, not to mention, I'm an ex-correction officer, and these guys don't know that.

I'm just in general population, a 27, 26-year-old Spanish dude that's from New York City. I don't look like I'm anything other than what I am, and I play it like that. The officers are screaming, this is not Rikers Island, this is not Westchester County. If you want to fight in my yard, you're only going to fight in my yard. If you have an issue with my staff, I will make it prevalent that you will not see out of this wall, and they're, like, very militant. And it's just like, these guys are serious. These guys are very serious.

I'm very quiet. I say to myself, I don't talk much. I'm just, like, listening to orders. And I'm like, okay, wherever I go, I just want to get to a bed. I'm super exhausted. I have to pee. I haven't drank anything. I just want to get to a bed.

I have to start this time. and I want to start it as soon as possible. They take me to the clinic. They're running me through the motions. And one of the officers goes, Dominguez. And I'm like, yes, he goes, come on, you're coming with me. They're desperate. They definitely want to put you in PC, right?

And I'm just like. Or does it look? Are you a concert that it looks bad? And nobody's around. Oh, okay. And I'm by myself. I'm not with anyone that I was on the bus up here with. And he goes, how many years you got?

And I'm like, I got sent him. sentence to eight, I probably got to do like five more. And they go, oh, you'll be out of here. And I'm just like, five years, that's nothing, you know, to you, right? But apparently it isn't because these guys that he's used to, 25 years, 35, 45 years. We get to the unit, it's a PPU. I forget the acronym for that. I'll get it for you. What does that mean? It's basically a segregated unit in Clinton that is for high profile inmates. It's not so much the PC inmate. These inmates aren't really running from other inmates, but other inmates, if they got a hold of the inmates in this unit, they would hurt. Right. For whatever reason.

Right. I'm around. Serial cops, ex-law enforcement, rappers, rappers, ex-law enforcement, rappers, rappers, millionaires, it's just fishbow of people that have a certain status, whether it's because of the crime that they committed or the person, social. status that they have outside of the prison. I get there. It's like 6, 7 p.m. They're telling me, hey, if you want to go to a yard and get on the phone, which is where the phones are, you do it now. I put my stuff in the cell. I don't really see anybody. I don't make eye contact with anybody. I get on the phone. My mom sets up the account, and I talk to her briefly. I let her know where I'm at. She's doing the Google Maps, and she goes, oh, my God, this is so far. And I just feel

guilty. And I'm like, damn, man, I'm telling myself from the very beginning, I was just trying to do the right thing, you know? Time passes. I acclimate to where I'm at. People ask me the general questions, other inmates. Hey, what you come from? What do you hear? What do you have? How much time are you doing? Are you a pedify? Are you this? Are you that? This is the unit where the worst of the worst are, you know, here. And I let them know, I know I was a correctional. about, you are what? Let me see your paperwork. And I'm just like, I remember from when I got off that bus, they said, if we find you

with your paperwork and you're not on your way to law library, you will get a ticket. That infraction will lead you to the box. Going to the box in a max A prison is not a good thing. Going to the box in a max A prison as an ex-correction officer is not a good thing. I don't want to do my time like this. So I want to abide by every single rule possible. I go to the yard and I break that rule. And I said, you know what?

I want these guys to know that I came here doing this, and this is what I'm here for. I don't want them thinking anything different. And if I'm transparent enough, they'll respect that. They know that I just want to do my time. And I do exactly that. People start telling me, oh, I read about you in the paper. I saw about you in the news. And it's like, all right, it's not that bad.

Things are still happening in Clinton. People are getting shot. And you say, how do people get shot? The guards on the towers, they have shotguns ready for when you get in. to an altercation. If you don't stop the altercation on that first warning, shots will be fired. And it happens.

And then we'll go on a lockdown for a couple of days. I'm around this environment, an environment that I'm not too used to, but I'm able to acclimate a little better because I was on Rikers Island. I kind of had prerequisites, jail and prison, I guess, culture and, like,

the rules and regulations. So I kind of moved very, like, freely knowing what I could and couldn't do, and I didn't get in anybody's, And it worked in my favor. So, I mean, you eventually, like you, do you still do all your time there? I do all my time in Clinton. So time passes by and I get work details.

I'm cutting hair. I'm working in the mess. So I get outside details because my crime is nonviolent. And in comparison to the, the serial I'm around, I don't have a lot of time to do. These guys aren't lifers. You know, I'm around lifers. And if you got away and got to a house, you know, two miles away, you're not going to I want to add that the year that I arrived to Clinton was the year that the two inmates

escaped from Clinton, so security was extremely tight. They weren't giving outside detail to just anybody. The warden had to sign off, and he knew, he's like, all right, these guys aren't a threat. I'm going to let them mow the lawn, let them shovel snow, do whatever they want. And it worked in my favor because now I'm able to roam free in a place that is 22 and 2, one hour wreck and one hour whether it's a school detail or it's like job training or whatever it is and the rest of it is in a cell you're in a max a prison i'm in the law library again and i said you know what i remember being able to apply for a work release two years prior to my earliest release

and i do exactly that they deny me and i'm like how are you denying me on the bounds that i have a nonviolent felony and this is my first time oh but you're in clinton max they wrote me back and it's a max a prison. Nobody goes to work release from a max a prison. You got to come down. Medium status. And I'm like, but I am medium status. I only have 24 months until my earliest parole date. And I fought it. And I let them know, hey, listen, this is what you guys said I can do. And here it is. And I've done every vocational. I haven't gotten an infraction. I never got into a fight here. I have a positive, I'm a positive role model here. They write me back and they grant me the work release.

Nice. So I get the work release and this is like, okay. What does that mean? So like a halfway house? It's a halfway house. Work release is basically you acclimating into society in New York City. You have a part-time, a full-time job, but you still got to sign in and go back to this like prison-style camp. And you'll do this up until your parole date.

We'll let you acclimate. You can see your family and loved ones on the weekends, but you have to give us your check. And you have to be within good standing, drug testing, frequent. only verification of employment, those type of things. And I got that. I get home and I call my mom right away, here, listen, now I'm closer to home. After all these visits and all this time, the time's getting better, the time's getting closer.

And I'm just like a new leaf. I want to start all over. I'm letting her know the time while I was in work release. I mean, in Clinton, I was writing this book and letting them know I'm going to make this like a redemption story and letting them feel regardless. of what I put you through, and by them, my loved ones and my mother, letting them know no matter what, had light you saw me, and this is not me, and I'm sorry, and I'm going to make up for it. I'm in work release. They let me out at Whole Foods, making sandwiches,

40 hours a week, minimum wage, but I'm happy that I'm closer to home. I can eat good food. I'm not in a max-a prison anymore. And it's like, okay, I'm starting. I'm starting new. March 3rd, 2020, I get released. Three weeks later, the pandemic happens. And it's like the city shuts down. And now it's like, oh, shit, I just got out of prison. And now the world doesn't know if it's going to, you know, see tomorrow. It was an easy way for me to get back.

And I met one of the publishers while I was kind of promoting that I had this manuscript out. And they were like, all right, you know, we'll give it a chance. And I was like pitching, pitching, pitching. One friend of mine had a podcast. I got on his podcast letting them know I had this. They reached out to me and we're here. Okay. What's your buddy's podcast?

Well, no, this was many moons ago. So I don't think he has it titled the same. It was called Trapping Anonymous. And it was basically me detailing what I was doing as like I did today. It was the first time I did it. I never got in front of a microphone. And I kind of let it be known. listen, this can happen to anybody.

And even throughout my time being incarcerated, I would read in the paper how many times this same scenario would happen to other officers. And it was like there's an actual unit dedicated to, you know, investigating officers that are willing to do the wrong thing. And it's kind of weird, you know, but I kind of like felt that this was like a calling to others, hey, don't be stupid. Right. Don't take advantage because this is what happened to me.

So what I'm wondering is the inmate, not your co-defendant, the inmate that set the whole thing into motion, what happened to him? So a few months into my bid while still in county jail before being sentenced, I had a friend of mine look up this inmate's name. Obviously, I knew this inmate's real government name. And she looks it up and we're on the phone together and she goes, nothing comes up. And I'm like, no, type it this way. And she goes, nothing comes up. He was released. Yeah.

Released where, I don't know, I wouldn't be able to tell you that. Yeah. I mean, I said this, I had, I said this in another podcast one time. I, I had met a guy that at the medium who, like, I got thrown in the shoe one time at the medium because the newspaper came out and said that I had, and in the article, it said that I was coopering with the FBI against a, a corrupt. politician. I'd bribed a cop. I'd bribed a politician to rezone like 100 properties that I own. So I helped him get elected. God, I got him elected. We had a whole arrangement. I ended up taking off the run on the run, but he got investigated for that. And I was, when I got caught and the FBI talked to me, they were asking me about him because they had checks for all these synthetic, fake

identities I had, had written him checks. So you got a bunch of fake people. who'd written this one politician, $500 checks, it looks pretty suspicious. They could add it up. It's like 20-something thousand. And his whole campaign was run on like $30,000. This is Tampa, you know. So anyway, so it comes out front page of the paper. And so they throw me in the shoe for like 45 days.

But when I get back out, you know, I get back out. So now people know that's not good. I'm at the medium. It ain't good. But regardless, I, so at this point, I actually get approached by another end. mate, a black guy that was the biggest guy on the compound selling cigarettes. And he was like, he was like, listen. So he talked to me and to my buddy, Zach, and he was like, listen, if you guys know anybody that's selling drugs or selling this, or he's like, let me know,

or if you know, if you can get close to a CEO, if you could, whatever, you know what I'm saying, he basically let us know that he had just gotten there maybe six months before. But he had been at another institution and had busted a bunch of guards. And when they, so the night before they grabbed all the guards, they came in to his cell in the middle of the night and opened the door and grabbed him and took him out and walked him out and put him in a van and said, where do you want to go? Send him to another prison. And then like the next day when all these guards show up, they grab all the guards, right?

And so he brought him to Coleman, which was a, you know, medium. and he started immediately, he already had some, he was already selling cigarettes. So he had to have a guard bring in cigarettes. Of course. So he's already within six months, he'd gotten another guard. He was working off his time. But I knew inmates who were like high profile inmates that possibly maybe the cartel is looking for. And so if you looked them up in the BOP, you couldn't find them.

Yeah. Someone told me that, and this is far-fetched, but it's not witness. protection. Definitely witness protection. Regardless of it being at a state level, I did get arrested by, you know, the feds. Yeah. So you don't know what dealings this guy had. This guy could have had dealings in other states and things of that nature. But then I always ask myself, I saw this guy in real time. Right. I saw this guy in the street before he came to Rikers Island. So I don't know if they came at him and he was a confidential informant before I was a CEO or he became one while I was and he was just trying to fish wherever he had to, but it's hard because I didn't go to trial.

If I wouldn't want to try, I would have learned a lot more about my case. Your full discovery. I would have got way more evidence and minutes. I would have understood who was who, and it's not just a figment of what I feel it was. Yeah. Well, it's usually it is what you think it is. So, okay, so if we don't know, he basically, they just released it. Vanished.

Most likely released him. The other thing is the publisher, you said a publisher. You said a publisher came to it. So did you get a publishing deal? I got a publishing deal. Again, this is when the pandemic starts. And I'm just like, hey, listen, this is all I have. I'm actually currently in work release.

I'm still on parole. I'm still a felon. Like, would you work with me? And he goes, well, listen, let's see how this does. I'll put you on every streaming platform. Shout out to Jack's molding messages, probably publishing. They gave me a chance. And I've been running ever since.

I've been on a few podcasts. This is an open-ended introduction. to characters that I basically met as my time as a New York City Correction Officer, and I kind of introduced them and how they perceive Rikers Island, their perception of Rikers. So you're going to meet a few characters here that I make myself a character, obviously, but it's kind of third person narrated. Okay, so it's not like a memoir. It's not a memoir.

It's not about me. And that's kind of why I push it so much because I kind of want this to be a TRI series. I have a good producer next to me, Chris Hint, and Albert Sy, who has a very big connection with Shaquille O'Neal, we're trying to get this published, that our screenplay has been professionally graded. I have everything from the show Bible to the episode deck, and I have a few seasons written out,

and all of this time that I did while in Clinton is a concoction of these memories and these characters that I made, the character developments in these stories are real-life characters. I change names, I alter, you know, how they look, but these are real people. Anyone that's been associated with this jail Can understand that same feeling And it's like a survival of the fittest type of thing

So that's how I wrote it You know? Yeah, but if they make it into a series You'll be they'll expand the character Like it won't be a move in this And next thing you know You'll be calling shots But we can start it off as me

It's my first day, my rookie first day And it's like this is a world That not too many people get to enter Getting a city position and employment is hitting the lottery for a young kid like me that's never had anything, you know? Well, it's, it's, um, I was going to say it, you know, obviously, like, it's a dream to get a series. Like, that's the coolest. That's the goal.

But, but the other thing is that they'll take, you know, they'll, they'll, they build the character. It's like, like, orange is, new black, you know, so like by the first season or two, it's over. Like, if you read the book, it's a short book. Yeah. This chick didn't do anything. But they build these characters. up that people are now, they're invested in, and then they spin an entire massive story that you're like, wow, it's like, oh, that's orange.

Like, none of that happened, but it's those characters that, you know, well, the other thing is it's so super unique, because it was the same thing that, you know, Hayward, like, such a unique story, but his story never leaves the prison. No. Do you say that? No. I actually have an encounter with an organization outside the prison, so now I'm dealing with gangs. I'm dealing with mafia money. I'm dealing with street politics. Right. You know, so it's another

endeavor where it's like, oh, we're outside of Rikers, but we always end up back. So listen, if you watch that one that I did with him, you know, I've watched the whole thing. I wouldn't wish that on anybody. But if you span the last 10 minutes where we kind of talk about his book, you know what I specifically said, I said, you know what would be cool? I said, because when they do the series, I said, they'll turn it into this. They'll do this. I said, but what would be great is I said, they could make you now you're doing stuff outside the prison like people have to first they start by giving you something a cell phone to bring my my cousin and then the next thing you know i said like you're moving stuff and then they want you to somebody in the prison or they you know things that

are happening they're asking you to do stuff you're i said you know or somebody in in prison about to go to trial i was like look you need to go talk to this guy i said that's why i said like it'd be cool if they could move it outside the prison but yours is already outside this prison exactly That's where the real stuff happened anyway. Not that bringing in contraband isn't a big deal because you and I or the normal person on the street thinks he brought in tobacco. It's not going to affect them now. Right. But they don't realize how serious of an infrat or of a how serious that issue is for the prison system.

Correct. They take it super. And you're like, it's tobacco. It doesn't matter. matter. People get hurt over that stuff. Yeah, I was going to say, you're giving these inmates power. It's money. Those cigarettes.

It's not... It's egotistical. It's thousands and thousands of dollars. Some of these guys are making so much money inside. They're sending money outside. They send the money back. And I learned that doing these runs, it's like, wow, man, all of this comes back just to funnel it back outside.

You know, because the... And it's just tobacco. It's just tobacco. Crazy, right? I was going to say, and then with Hayward, although yours is, your stories your story is super unique but i mean also the fact that you were doing stuff on the outside that's really cool but what's with heyward what was what always me was arranging for inmates to have sex with other that that's a line that i never even had to cross

i wouldn't fathom crossing i never understood just time and and and environment wise how that how that even happened right that's very very rare mind you i'm not saying that it's far fetched it did happen you know yeah but i don't know i never i never you got to watch this episode because when i go what these what these checks look like he was he he's like you you know what they look like he's like they were it wasn't good it wasn't good you know he was trying not to laugh and joke about it i get it i get it that's a different that's a different animal though you know it was anyway he really kind of the combination of those two stories or they took some of some of that and blended it together but of course you have a you're really not

doing much in the prison no but it's a sense of control for for the guys that have these impermissible items you know you don't have anything so the stuff you're stripped of if I have it I have a sense of control now I can make money and like you said I can funnel enough money to send back home because I'm incarcerated. I can't make the street money that I was making. I got to make it somehow. Right. You know?

Well, this is like it's super unique. And I mean, that's, I love unique stories. Thank you. Because I can't watch another. The way that things came about for me is what makes it unique. You know, it sounds so much to turn around. Everyone has a redemption story. We all, you know, admit to Gil at one point.

I say, hey, listen, we go up and it is what it is. I do want to express that wholeheartedly that I do speak on these platforms. and I did publish this book to kind of give that lesson. Like, hey, don't be me. I know the temptation is there, but don't be me, you know? You have a cooler jacket than I knew, really. I have. I'm on the creator, you know.

I have, I do have my picture on it. Okay. Really, in a way, pushes it over the edge. Again, the book is not about me. Oh, no, mine's all about me. I make fictitious characters that existed once in my life, and I give you their world into this exact community. Everyone's affected by this, whether they know somebody that works there, they visited someone, they're accused of a crime themselves.

This is, it touches home when you're from New York City. And it's a culturally impactful place, whether it's in the rap community or it's in politics. Harvey Weinstein is on Rikers Island currently right now. Donald Trump might go to Rikers Island. So this is a place where it's a whole brewing of stories. And I am not the only person that could talk about. right guys island and i know this right but my perspective the stamp of approval that i have on a street sense the stamp of approval that i have on the jail and prison sense i can give you a really

cool perspective and i'm creative enough to give you these stories where it's like you know what i know someone or i actually felt this once and it's closing why is the prison closing right the prison is closing it's uh do they build another prison no what they're trying to do is you know there's a bail reform going on where you know minor crimes or semi minor crimes you know other than and like you know arson and things of this nature if they deem you fit enough to come back to trial you're going to get arnard up until your next court thing they're doing this to not pack Rikers Island because when I was on Rikers Island, I believe the total count was in the 10,000, 12,000, 13,000 at a time. Remember the scenario I gave you on my first day, I'm in charge

of 100 inmates and I'm on the floor going back and forth. So a population decrease is the main reason for this bail reform. How many inmates was Rikers Island designed for? That I can't give you the exact total amount, but if there was 10 operating buildings at the time that I was a CEO, it was filled up to the T. Like there wasn't enough, you know. When I got to the medium, like they had designed all of the cells were supposed to be, initially they were designed for like one man, you were going to get one man cells. By the time they started the construction, they had decided, no, no, you know what? They're going to have to be two man cells. By the time they were done, they were doing three man cells

You were three, three bunk beds You know how like a submarine That you don't have much You sleep and you just have to kind of skip around It's like half a twin size Yeah So I could imagine Rikers Island had to probably be

It was that So now with this bail reform They've decreased the population a lot And they think that with the decreasing population it's less violent And because the officers have a little more control But why close it? You still need it

It's already infrastructure that is deteriorating. Rikers has been there since like the 1920s, early 30s. Yeah, but they didn't build another prison. Yeah, but it's on the island. It's across the river, the Hudson River from the Guardia Airport. There's a power plant next door. The water's polluted. Things are deteriorating by the day.

The metal is breaking off the walls and these inmates are sharpening these metals and cutting each other with them. So it's not working for anybody. So what they plan on doing is closing those inmates into the society so they can get a real knife. Not so much releasing all of them. But the really bad ones, we're going to put them in the borough jails like Queens and Brooklyn House. And we'll have the same COs that we had on Rikers, just house them there. And it will make it easier for them to go straight to court. There's not so much transportation happening within the five boroughs, which was a big moneymaker for corrections.

Because these buses and having someone with a CDL license and a correction officer with a CDL. license like this is a big business you know so hopefully they close rikers i want to say 2027 28 it's projected still got a few years left but the population is decreasing violence is still prevalent these inmates have phones now something that they didn't have when i was an officer and their internet access kind of let you know that they can get anything in there's still officers bringing stuff in there's visitors bringing stuff and like i told you there's doctors and physicians bringing stuff in so this is this is a never-ending cycle do you ever see escape from new york yes the movie yes i watched it last night yeah i've watched i own it

i've watched i've watched it 50 times you have to watch the night of that has a lot to do with what the steps are prior to getting to rikers okay it's a limited series i forgot what so that's probably like a series you're very serious yeah i'm i'm on time of new you know it's a big dark dark Humor, trust me. But I got to act professional in this couple of minutes that I'm here with you. You want to hear something really funny. But see, you're this almost, you're like the same age as cold. Have you ever seen Escape from New York?

No. My God, bro. Best B movie ever. Yeah, it's good. It's so good. Please watch the Night of. The writers for the night of knew what they were doing. And I kind of want to emulate that with my TRI series.

I know we all have this dream, you know, but the way I'm telling the story and like I wrote it open-ended. this book, it's just an introductory to the hell that is Rikers Island. All right. You want to... Are we good? How do you feel? I'm great, man. I'm happy to be here, truthfully. I do stuff for the journey and the

experience. Tomorrow, I forgot the name of this, a little water park man-made lagoon thing that I'm going with my home girls that I drove here with. And this is just an experience. It's like 20 minutes from here. It's like a lagoon. Yeah. It's like pretty new. Is it called the lagoon? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, yeah, it's not far from here.

They just opened it to non-residents, and I saw, okay, it's not far from Matt. It's not from the, far from the hotel. My wife's on to eat. My wife and her daughter went there a couple months ago. Okay. I've driven by it a much of times. Okay. Yeah, it's got a big water slide.

What are your plans for after this? Like, well, I know, I know that you're a writer too, so I know that you also try to assist these guys with their stories. Like, where are you going? After what? When this ends? This podcast? Not so much this podcast.

I don't want this podcast to end. You know, this is something that people need, you know. I think you meant this specific episode. No, no, no. No, no, not tomorrow. I mean, as a whole, because I know that you can tell these stories. No, I mean, I, you know, I've got, so I'm actually working with a company. It's called Law and Crime and because I wrote a bunch of stories when I was locked up.

Yeah, same. And I wrote a bunch of true crimes, they're all true crime stories. And some of them are just synopsies, but they're large synopsies. They're like, they're, what does Pete call them? Have you told them to screenwriting these? No, because I have always, you know, my understanding is that screenwriting is a very clicky business and they, they, like, it's a group, an inside group and you have to know somebody and you have to have.

And so for me to get in there, it's probably difficult. And secondly, my end was, I know these guys. I was in prison with them. I researched the stories. I have their discovery. I have, you know, the Freedom of Information Act. Check, check things, yeah. So I've got an entire story that I wrote with you, and I didn't spend two hours with

you. I spent, you know, 40, 80 hours, wrote the stories. So a lot of these stories about, I've got, I think I've got like, I want to say it's eight or ten of them right now with law and crime, and they're currently working on turning them into documentaries. And all they do is documentaries. They have had like six different series on, you know, like A&E and Discovery. So they're turning some of them into

into like three-part series. Some are just like anthology because when you write a documentary, you have to have multiple people. Correct. You know, so if it's three people, well, that's maybe a 30-minute episode. If you can get maybe six,

you can get maybe an hour. You can get like 12 people. And it's a good story. You can get yourself a three-part series. So some of them are going to be three-part series. Some are going to be like an anthology where maybe I would be helping tell the story. I don't know if we're out there.

And then my story, company called Foundation Media Partners, which, you know, I signed a shopping agreement with them and they're shopping the story. And I've been working with a screenwriter who's actually just wrote a screenplay called Monkey Man. I mean, screenplay. He wrote this, he wrote the script for the movie Monkey Man, which is like right now, it's like number two. It's in movie theaters. The person that graded my script, co-wrote Hellboy. So, oh, I love it. Love Hellboy. Yeah.

So this is, for me, it's just like a trophy. Like, wow, this is great. This is stuff that I used to think about it myself. And who are they trying to, are they trying to get somebody attached? Yeah, we're trying to get more of like someone that can co-sign this that makes sense, you know? To play you. Not so much to play me. It's kind of push the series and go, hey, this has been such staple in New York City.

I want to talk about this jail before, you know, in the midst of it closing, you know. Like I said, it's going to close. It was a documentary? You're talking about a series. We're trying to push a series because I have I have it written out as such. The screenplay is derived from the book. Right. It's written way differently. Like you said, screenplay writing is totally different. Yeah, you have to really, yeah. Yeah. More character development and stuff like that. Problem like I figured out how to write a book. Like I can't figure out how to write screenplay. English, I almost failed my English regents in high school. I'm not an English manager and I tell

people that too. I say, listen, write whatever you feel. you can express and maybe it'll come to fruition to be something and this is where we're both for. Have they, so have they tried to connect? We're getting there. We've been talking to a lot of networks. The thing with that is that this is such a- I'm not a network. I'm talking about an actor.

No. Okay. Because what they're doing is, what these guys are doing is they've written, they're writing a, you know, a screenplay and they're trying to attach an actor. Then they want to go and say, this actor has agreed to play him if you bankroll. And that's how, that's kind of how they get them. And these guys have done a ton of big stuff and like, you know, and they keep asking me questions. Like, well, what do you think about this?

Like, I don't know anything. Like I keep on and I tell them that all the bomb, why are you asking me? I don't know. I don't know. Well, we want to get your approval. I'm like, I don't know how this works. No, no, but they know, they know it. Again, you can fact check things, you know.

They don't got to really dive deep into research. They can be like, let's ask Matt, what they eat on Thursday? Is it chicken? No, it's not that. No, it's not that. I'm saying they're like, what do you think of these actors? I'm like, what are you talking? about which one will play me? Well, we want to know, who do you think should play you?

I will. You're kidding me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He can't be taller than five foot six. I refuse to, you know what I got it. I got it. Don't let me. I'll pick Brad Pitt. Of course. Like, what do you? Of course. You know, I'm an egomaniac. Don't let me be involved in this. No, I totally got it. Yeah. And I always joke around like, I'm like, me, you know, but I am having fun just like like with the meetings and talking about and thinking about it. Because to me, my fear is, it's not even a fear. This is probably what happens. You go through all the excitement.

So most people tend to focus on, oh, the movie's going to be amazing. It's going to be great. It's going to be this. But the truth is getting there is probably what's great. I mean, I'm sorry, you know, the journey of getting there is what's great. Because once you get there, I'm going to go in that movie with my wife and we're going to sit there and we're going to watch it and we're going to walk out and we're going to look at each other and we're going to go, eh, it's all right.

Right. It's not going to be the real thing. You're never going to be happy. They cut that scene and they did this and they didn't even talk about this. For me, it's a community effort thing. Like this book here, the cover art is done by one of my great friends who also has tattooed me throughout the years. The audio book version of this book, I actually did it in a studio of an inmate that I was with in Rikers Island. So, like, I'm involving people that, hey, listen, this will benefit whatever you got going on.

I can bring you in. And that's kind of what I've been trying to do. So when you say pitching it's actors first, that that's a lane that I haven't done yet. I have a actor list that I would love for people to look at and see, hey, you know what? I can see this character playing this person. So that might be a lane that I might look into for sure. I mean, that's not like I didn't come over that my own. No, no, no.

But it's just looking at it that way because my whole thing right now was kind of figuring out what network we can talk to. This is something that is great. violence, drugs, sex. You can't just put it on ABC. Nobody's coming. Nobody's optioned it? I'm putting in the footwork to do so now, man. This is why we're having a conversation.

I don't know who watches your podcast. And this is where I'm at. I have an episode deck. I have a whole five seasons worth of screenplay. I have two writers next to me that are doing their thing. You know, it's funny. Like, there have been like two people of, option, their film rights

just doing this program. I have everything ready. Jeff Turner, Zach, Zach's got a guy he's working with on a book right now about, you know who Zach is? No. I have a, he's a black guy that I was locked up at Coleman with, but he comes on and does podcast with me. The one with the glasses? Yes. Yeah, yeah. It's so funny

bro. So funny. And he's got an amazing story. He's full of energy too. He's a great story. He's a great story. But yeah, he's actually working with a guy right now. Like I think, I don't know if they have a publishing deal yet, but That's the goal, man. I have a lot of boxes already checked off. There's foundation.

The book has been out for almost three and a half years. I was 43 on Apple Books. Like I said, the audio book is out if you don't want to read. Barnes & Noble's, Amazon, Apple, Spotify, everywhere. And it's a tall tale of something you've heard already, but it just hits home when I look like your neighbor. I look like a friend that you've had before. It's like, hey, I also went through this experience. regardless of me not being a career criminal, you know?

You ready? Yeah. Are you good? I'm good. All right. We're good. I don't know if you watch this. I interviewed somebody the other day, and they had a book, and they were talking about, like, and, you know, this much of the profits of the book are going to some charity or something.

And I was like, oh, hell no. I said, I'm keeping all my fucking, I'm keeping that shit. You're kidding me? So you're a better person than me, bro. I love what it is. I'm a charity. No, I know. I got it.

I'm the charity. Hey, if you guys like the video, do me a favor. Hit the subscribe button. Hit the bell so get notified videos just like this. Leave a comment. Share the video. That really helps. Also, please consider joining our Patreon.

We're going to put a link to the book in the description. So you just go in the description. It'll be like one of the first links. You click on it. Boom. You'll go straight there. It's on Audible? Audible?

It's on Audible. Kindle. Apple, Spotify, Barnes & Noble's, Walmart, Walmart, Target, everywhere. Better copy than mine. The Harvard Bookstore.

Harvard Bookstore. I don't know what that is, but yeah, it's everywhere. So click on the thing, get one sent to you. I really appreciate you guys watching. Thank you very much. See you.