Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Domestic Terrorist Arrested His Side Of The Story

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Ryan Parker shares his side of the story about crashing a plane and being labeled a domestic terrorist. ⁣ ⁣ Get your Free Credit Letters⁣ https://www.mattcoxcourses.com/signup⁣ ⁣ Follow me on all socials!⁣ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/⁣ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthewcoxtruecrime⁣ ⁣ Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7⁣ ⁣ Send me an email here: [e-mail]⁣ ⁣ Do you want a custom "con man" painting to show up at your doorstep every month? Subscribe to my Patreon: https: //www.patreon.com/insidetruecrime⁣ ⁣ Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart⁣ ⁣ Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox ⁣ ⁣ Check out my true crime books! ⁣ Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF⁣ Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM⁣ It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8⁣ Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G⁣ Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438⁣ The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K⁣ Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402⁣ Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1⁣ ⁣ Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel!⁣ Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX⁣ ⁣ If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here:⁣ Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69⁣ Cashapp: $coxcon69 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Caught Pepper, Virginia to, so my mom was like, I think, 24 when I was born, and my dad was in his 50s, I believe. Wow. Yeah. So there's a hell of an age difference between the two of them. Right. They had a bunch of issues. My dad left.

There was, you know, wasn't on the outside, you know, the house. looked great. The picture looked great, but the people inside the house, you know, they weren't right, to be honest with you. Each individually, great people, you know, in their own way. But young cut, my mom being super young and kind of still being, you know, I mean, I say, I always say college age, you know, when having me and then jumping right into a family, you know, there was definitely a disconnect. We moved to Albany, Georgia. And then, like, right after 9-11, my dad moved to Virginia.

And my mom moved back to Pennsylvania. So definitely hard growing up, you know, between two states because they would bounce me back and forth. You know, I would go every other weekend or sometimes every weekend, you know, Friday night my mom's spending two hours driving, you know, all the way down to Thurmont, Maryland, to my dad to give me, you know, all for the weekend. So I go hang out there. And it was just, it was super weird. I was diagnosed with autism pretty early. And I don't know how much that kind of like affected my mom. Because like as soon as that happened, a switch flipped inside of her. and so the school told her, hey, for him to be in school, he has to be on medication.

And, you know, I guess my mom and being so young didn't really, you know, kind of know, kind of know, what the implications of that would be, you know, what the implications of putting your kids on, on psych meds would be. And to be honest with you, I mean, it's been the reason why I've had, you know, and we'll get into it and talk about it, just the immense problems that I've had in my life. Right. You know, the substance abuse issues, definitely. I mean, when you give a child a medication and you tell a child, hey, you have a problem.

But guess what? I'm going to give you this. It's going to fix it. They get that ingrained in their head, and I did. And so every single time I would get, you know, the medication, I would think I was fixed. But they weren't fixing anything. They're just masking problems. Right.

So, you know, bouncing back and forth between the two, you know, was definitely really hard. And I didn't kind of know my dad, you know. It was real hard for us to connect. I think Theo Vaughn has a bit about old parents. And he says, you know, we used to play games like catch or don't. And, I mean, that's really true. I mean, we used to, it was very hard for him to connect. me as a child.

He was obsessed with airplanes in real estate. Those are the, in Bud Light. It's like, those are the only three things he cared about. Right. And, you know, he got me

to fly and bug early, which to his credit is probably the best thing he did. You know, got me to flyin bug. Got me involved in everything that he could aviation. He had some buddies that owned some airplanes.

He got in a partnership with one of them. they bought four or five airplanes sold them off, trade them back and forth, didn't really kind of work. I think in his mind he was thinking, oh, we'll all get Ryan trained up, you know, and then he'll be able to fly us around

and we'll be able to make all these real estate deals. I think he was a real pie in the sky kind of a guy. Right. And so, I was having trouble, you know, as an adolescent. They kept changing my medication. Um, you know, and I, I know I skip around a lot. I'm going to, you know, tie everything all up at a bow. No, it's all right. I get, I think that ties imperfect with your, who your dad was explaining that.

Sure. So yeah. So, um, um, you know, I, uh, I decided to leave my moms. I was tired of being put on. Um, so I must have been about 14, 13 or 14, the first time. So this happened a couple different times. And, and, um, You know, my mom was out dating. She had a boyfriend that, I mean, it worked out for so great, but it was chaotic, you know, for me as a kid. And I hadn't realized all the infidelity that my dad had been involved with. You know, my dad was just the cool guy. You know, he was the one that rules at his house were super lax. He'd let me drink beer. You know, I mean, we could.

I could do anything. And you're in the country. So at my mom's house, you know, my neighbor is literally 55 feet, maybe 60 feet away from me. Right. And at my dad's, my nearest neighbor's a mile away. And you better hope that they're home because if not, nobody's getting to you. Right. And so I noticed that there was a freedom out there, that there was a fun out there, that there was.

wasn't at my mom's and when I was down at my dad's I didn't have to take my meds because my dad didn't believe in any of that crap you know um they both kind of abandoned the autism diagnosis pretty early um my mark strike me as autistic sorry you know huh oh i don't you said i don't you don't you don't strike me as autistic oh it's bad the so for for me the autism comes in in and the thinking patterns. So I have a run and loop that's, you know, always going on. And it's all engineering stuff. I'm always trying to solve some type of problem while I'm doing something else.

Also, the way I look at things, I'm not very empathetic. I really have trouble connecting with human emotion with some things. And I hate saying that because it kind of makes me sound psychotic. but I just I can understand the outcome of those human emotions you know like if I see somebody crying I can understand you know oh they're crying they must be upset

but it's always for me though well explain the situation all right that really sucks and it's bad but there's always something that could be like it's super hard for me to connect you know So, and that's how it comes out for me.

Also, I have kind of no filter. I just kind of say the first thing that comes to mind and it's sometimes insensitive. Right. I don't, that's a thing that I do. And conflict resolution is not the greatest for me. So I understand why conflict happens, but I don't connect with it. Right. So, and then, and kind of explaining my situation and kind of what happens to me, I think that will come out.

You know, I definitely, you know, people sit back and say, oh, well, you know, you need to take more responsibility for your actions and things. And I take responsibility for everything, you know. I did what I did. 100%. It was me. I was the guy. But I have trouble in some issues, you know, like with saying that I did. the wrong thing.

Like the incident should. And again, I'll, we'll talk about that. The incident shouldn't have happened. But rules and regulations wise and then training wise, I followed exactly what I should have done. Right.

Given that situation, just where where I had the disconnect is as I should have never put myself in that situation to happen. Right. So, okay. So anyway, so your dad,

so you went back and forth around 14. You're not taking your medication. Yeah, so I'm not taking my medication, you know, and I think the act of like coming off of those medications, I really think that that it does something. I think that like there's a withdrawal period and I just to say psychotic, to say that I was in the throes of psychosis. I mean, that's probably true. I would fight with kind of everybody, you know, for the first two or three days I would come home. the, you know, if my mom would keep me, if it would be one of those times where it'd be like two weeks, all right, I would get stabilized again, but I would be a zombie. You know, I wouldn't be on, you know, I wouldn't be able. It would be hard for me to, to stay awake in school just because of how much medication I was on. I had gotten a girlfriend, uh, pretty, pretty early, um, in high school. Um, and this was, so I was in high school in, in Pennsylvania, where my, my mom was. And kind of, you know, being a new kid in school, you know, you're only there for about

a year or two, you know, everybody in that school grew up together. And I had a girlfriend, was dating her for about eight months, and my grades started to slip. Mom, seen them. And this is when I say everything, like, took a turn for kind of the worst. So my mom seen my grades were slipping, see my attitude was changing. Love the girl I was dating because she was the best, you know, but didn't want me to have a girlfriend, so made me break up with her. In the process of that,

I didn't realize how much other stuff Danielle was going through in her life, and she ended up killing herself like a week and a half later. Whoa. Well, in a school where everybody, you know, is so tight-knit, you grew up together, you were raised together. I mean, they literally destroyed me. You know, everybody thought that it was my fault. Nobody knew the actual story back behind it.

So they ostracized the heck out of me. And when I say they ostracized the heck out of me, I mean, it was, I had a car, I had a 98 Jeep Cherokee that they broke every window on, slashed every tire. You know, that truck sat for like a week until I could get it. You know, it, I had a, I mean, I was beaten up constantly.

And so Pennsylvania, you can't sell beers in the stores. My family owns the only beer distributor in town. So everybody knows me. Everybody knows where to find me. Everybody knows who my mom was. You know, and I mean, some of these kids, their parents went to school with my mom. Right. You know, so at that point, the family kind of, you know, even turned her back on me.

and so I didn't know where to go so I was like I'm off to dads bye what do you mean your family turned your mother's the one that said break up with her yeah well my mom didn't my mom never told that side of the story and to this day she still to this day she still doesn't

want to say that that's you know the whole reality we've argued about it and you know I keep trying to tell her I ended up about five or six months later I was going through my emails there was an email that I had never seen.

I didn't know the email address. You know, it was kind of innocuous. And it was her, you know, farewell letter. Basically, you know, explaining, hey, this wasn't your fault. You know, I was going through a lot with my sisters. You know, she was in the shadow of being, of, you know, two sisters that, you know, there was a lot of competition in that family, I assume. And, you know, I think that there was a lot of pressure from her family, too, to succeed, to, you know, to be the kind of shining star.

And then, you know, I'm sure in some way that I was the straw that burg the camel was back. You know, it's still something, you know, that I deal with today, obviously. But yeah, so I ran away. You know, my mom, my mom never told that side of the story and my mom never. I mean, she said, oh, yeah, well, you know, I didn't want him to have a girlfriend. Oh, yeah. You know, his grades were slipping. She shadowed everything else around.

Well, I guess her and my dad had kind of been talking, you know, without me around. And my dad threw a pie in the sky off her, you know, out, said, hey, you know, know, we're going to go, we're going to send him to, you know, the best place. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. I'm going to make sure that he has all the help that he can get, you know. Central Virginia or Northern Virginia's got great mental health and, you know, he can go see the guy that I talk to and all this stuff. Well, that's not a great decision. You should not ever go and see the same therapist that your, that your dad does. And so my mom kind of was reluctant, but she was like, well, you know, I'll give him a shot. You know, yeah, the schools are kind of better.

You know, he's not going to be bullied. You know, there was more. So I had an IEP in school. So there was more support for that, for those type of kids that had, you know, integrated education plans. And so I went down there and within a week, it was like a disaster. you know, I mean, my dad, everything he told her was kind of like, when they traded me, it was so funny, when they traded me off, dad was like, you know, he said, oh, she thinks that I'm going to go and do all this. Yeah, no, you're, you're going to grow up like a normal kid. Right.

Okay. All right. Whatever that means. But it got me a chance to be around the aviation community. It got me a chance to be around, you know, airplanes. got me a chance to be interested in something that, you know, I mean, obviously shaped, you know, the course of my life and continued to shape the course of my life. I continued flight training all the way up until about 2008.

I was ready to solo. I was ready to do all my sign-offs and certificates and stuff. And then I had had that diagnosis of bipolar, you know, all the diagnosis. And so I went to go get my medical. and I got denied because of the medication that I was on. And I was devastated because I didn't know what to do. You know, I didn't really like anything else because I hadn't really gotten it in anything else. You know, I played guitar on the side.

You know, it's kind of like a hobby. We had horses at that farm. Dad had built another end of the barns, places to put some machinery and some places to build an airplane and some other things. They actually had an unpaved, unfinished surface in the back where you could land. And, you know, I didn't, I wasn't able to finish school. When they told me that I couldn't get that medical, you know, I kind of like lost my grip. You know, at least on my mental health, definitely for sure.

because I didn't know really where to, I didn't know where to go, you know, and I absolutely had no idea what to do. And I had gotten so, like, obsessed and ultra-focused with flying, you know, like I said, I didn't seek anything else out. So I didn't see a way and a path for anything else, you know. Dad had kind of, you know, pushed it. This is, you know, grooming's a, a, not a great term, obviously, because of the connotation that it has nowadays. But that's what he was, like, literally grooming me for. And so I figured, well, I'll try a job in, you know, aviation. So I got a job at Dulles Airport.

I was like 17 years old. Couldn't be on their insurance because I wasn't 18. And so I got, you know, it was the first time I ever got fired from an aviation job. First time I actually ever had a job that I technically got fired from. And so I kind of got like a disdain for for employment. Why did you get fired? Because they can't. At Dulles International Airport, if you're under 18, you can't be on the airport's insurance.

Well, it's not really fired. That's there letting you go. You get fired like, hey, you fucked up. It's like. No, no, no. So it wasn't. Well. Let you go.

Yeah. But so, but they still write it. They still, because they're a bigger company, they still wrote like a termination letter and everything. And so that's how I kind of looked at it As I looked at it like I got fired I looked at it like I lost the job And it was kind of like I didn't feel good enough because I was like

Well you know Once I turn 18 all this will change And so I couldn't make it You know I just I didn't make it I ended up So my dad had Married a woman

Like as soon as the ink dried on his divorce to decree from my mom. So that was a point of contention. That broke bed, you know, almost immediately as soon as they got married. And I could not stand her. You know, I mean, I don't ever like to downtalk women. But, I mean, she was 53 years old, had never been married and spent 33 years at Secret Service. and she was one of those

and it's a finite group of people that this happens to but they get ultra focus in government work and then that becomes their entire life and their entire focus so she was a monster she actually had me arrested the first time

the first time I was ever in jail she had me arrested so her and my dad got in a fight they had gotten drunk I mean a fist fight or an argument when I got there it was I mean he had her on the ground and he was choking her

and so like well and I did the only thing I know to do because if you call anybody there an hour out at least help this pose the body oh I oh man I I got yeah

I I jumped in the middle of them well jumping in the middle of them I didn't realize that that makes me an aggressor in the in the eyes of the sheriff's department so she had ended i got him off of her she immediately ran to the phone and called the cops and her lie was oh my stepson attacked me okay oh yeah my stepson attacked me and i said oh so the the sheriff's apartment comes you know they show up everybody starts getting interviewed well i'm the only one that doesn't have any you know, Mark saw me, any physical, you know, I'm the only one.

Okay. So, but I attacked you. So how did he get the marks on him? Well, they didn't want to hear any of that. They didn't, they had, they cared nothing about that. All they cared about was is that I had mental health disturbances. And I had been to the hospital for those mental health disturbances. And I must have attacked.

Right. to mention my dad can't form a sentence you know so but both of them by the way and in the eyes of the law to me both of them are given you know a testimony while they're hammered so that should not be admissible at all right yet lo and behold i get taken away in cups what are you 17 now or 18 17 okay 17 uh so they take me to the adult to the uh juvenile detention center i'm there for like three or four days. I mean, that's miserable because their juvenile detention center was basically,

you know, just a concrete box. You know, concrete slab. You got a little thin mattress, a little alligator you're on. Right. And, you know, I couldn't talk to anybody, couldn't talk to any of my parents. I had gotten, so

that was my first time in jail, but was my first time getting a charge. Because I got a DUI the year before then. Um, just driving to a friend's house. We had, you know, got some of dad's liquor. We were going to place video games. Um, we drank.

I go to leave. It was like 2 o'clock and I, and I down, I had a six-speed car and I downshift. And when I downshifted, I kind of swerved. And there was a cop that was just kind of like watching me the entire time. He knew exactly what it was, you know, came up and said, hey, I seen you swerving. You're probably drunk. Pulled me out. So I was on probation for that.

Well, luckily my probation officer was kind of a cool check, and she knew this, the problem, because I would talk to her. You know, I would connect with her. I would say, hey, you know, there's things in this house that are going on that I don't like. You know, those two do not get along. And, I mean, yeah, I was snitching all my dad, but hell, I mean, something had to give because it was going to come to a head. and then and she said

well we're going to get you out of here and it's probably better off if you go back to your moms you know figure out a way that we can get it so they talked they got in together she put in a paper for me to be taken off of probation so they took me off of probation

but then they suspended my driver's license so they're like well you know we gave him the probation we didn't suspend his license because he technically didn't have a license, but now we're going to spend it, and we'll take him off probation. He can go to Pennsylvania.

So I go up to Pennsylvania, and I guess my mom kind of thought that I had been, you know, drinking with friends and things like that. So she went and put me into treatment the first time. So I'm around. And this was right at the height of when Philadelphia had their heroin epidemic, when heroin had just hit.

And, I mean, it had spent. built out all the way out until, you know, the little communities. And that's where you can put rehabs. So that's what I was around. I was just, you know, a kid that really liked to drink and like to smoke pot and cigarettes and all that stuff, you know, going at 17 years old going into rehab for, you know, alcoholism. Right. With heroin addicts.

With all heroin addicts. I mean, I was the only one that was in there for alcohol. And their whole, their whole, so that's the first. time I was ever put on suboxin, which is a, I mean, that stuff is almost worse than heroin, in some respects. I mean, it's definitely worse to come off up for sure. So, yeah, I leave that rehab. And again, that rehab didn't take at all. I, like almost, almost within. four or five months from leaving rehab. You know, I was hanging out with friends, doing pills, taking Xanaxes like they were going

out style. I had actually gotten a prescription for them while I was in the rehab. And so I had some friends that broke into a house that was beside my mom's house, and they stole all kinds of electronics and stuff out of it. and then in a I had must have taken probably seven or eight of those things and walked into my neighbor's house

and took his Xbox from his TV had no reason why none I don't couldn't I understand I don't so you had taken some of the electronics from the neighbors no no no so I took some Xanax and I ate about six or seven of them and then I just walked into my neighbor's house

I'm like 18 almost 19 walked into my neighbor's house and took his Xbox. I had no reason why. Same neighbor that had been burglarized? No, it was the other neighbor was the neighbor that, so the neighbor that had been burglarized, he didn't have any kids. But the kids that I was hanging out with,

they seen that he had all kinds of flashy stuff. And I think in the middle of the night, they had gone into his house and stolen a bunch of things. So anyway, so I take this kid's Xbox. Well, they call the cops, obviously. This is how zonked out I was. So it had snowed. And the way they knew it was me is because they followed the footprints in the snow back to my house.

From his porch back to my porch. Good police work. Oh, yeah. Shout out to borough cops. So they arrested me and put me in jail, no bond. So I go to big boy jail this. time. Real big boy jail. Lancaster County Prison. So they don't have any central air at all. There's no heat, no air conditioning.

They call it the castle. It is, well, I'm assuming it was a castle, but it's dead center in the middle of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And it is a disgusting place. So this is a jail, not a prison? Yeah, well, so it's a county prison. So you can stay up there, you know, up to a year. You can do up. You can do one day less a year. Okay. So had you been sentenced or they're just holding you there? No,

they're just holding me, no bond. Okay. They go, they hold me no bond. They say that I had ties to Virginia and that I could flee. You know, my mom would not sign for me. You know, naturally, that was her kind of like. she says oh well you know I didn't want to sign for you because you were danger to yourself and you know we didn't want you around

blah da da da okay well cool um so that was you know kind of her rationale for it well so I I got pushed back sentencing so I was in 11 months before I got no nine months before I got sentenced um never run they and and you know you would think oh well well, you waited nine months to get sentenced. Well, what did they do? Run a PSI on you. Did they, you know, do all kinds of an investigation?

They did nothing. They did nothing. I just refused to sign the plea agreement. Right. Is their first plea agreement that came to me was, oh, well, you're going to take a unlawful entry of a structure. You know, it's a five-year, you know, maximum. And, you know, we're not going to allow you to take it to trial.

And I was like, well, I got a right to take this to trial. And then my lawyer stepped up and was like, dude, you don't want to take it to trial. You take it to trial. They're going to give you the statutory maximum that they can. Okay. Well, so then they come to me and they say, okay, well, you know, we're going to give you a, well, Pennsylvania doesn't have a breaking and entering statute. So Pennsylvania's statute is anything.

If I enter your house and I'm not authorized to be there, it's not an lawful entry. It is a breaking and entering, but I don't have to physically break anything. Right. You know, I just have to cross the threshold of that structure where I am not welcome. Right. And so in the midst, they were having, because of this heroin epidemic, they were having a terrible problem with break-ins. I mean, they were having, it was, and the judge I got through the absolute book at me. So he sentenced me to a one to two years in prison with, um, I could be eligible for parole after nine and a half months.

Well, okay, so I had been in, you know, almost 10 by the time I got to prison. Right. You know, doesn't that time count? And right as soon as I got to Camp Hill, they had told the parole board, it comes to me and said, well, we're not going to, we're not offering you parole. You know, you haven't been in our system long enough. We don't know you. And so he said, I'm not even going to put them. So I had a counselor, and Garner said, I'm not going to put you in for it.

And I said, okay, cool. So then I came back and I got, you know, like a real case of the ass with him. And I said, you know what? Well, you guys can take the parole and shove it. I said, max me out. Max me out. I said, by the way, I don't want to be on probation and parole because if I'm on county probation for a year after this, you know, and state parole.

I said, I mean, and I'm going to go out of state because I'm not staying in Pennsylvania. I didn't want, I didn't, you know, I had disdain for the state at that point. So I was like, I don't want to stay here. You know, I'm going to go to Virginia. Dad's obviously going to take me in. And, you know, that was my, you know, my bright idea. Max out. well when you say max out then you take away your ability to ever go for parole again so okay yeah so

you know i did my two years i got released i went to virginia and within you know literally the same thing happened there i was with a buddy um and uh he comes to me says hey you know and i had been at this point. So while I was in prison in Pennsylvania, I met heroin for the first time. First time I ever did drugs. You know, and I, I make the joke, you know, I have dyslexia. So everything I do is, you know, backwards. Normally people go into jail for drugs. I went into jail kind of for drugs, but I met drugs in there. You know, people do drugs and go to jail. I went to able to do drugs. And I left with kind of like a habit, you know, definitely a pill habit.

And I met a guy that, you know, was selling pills in Virginia. And, you know, I got all pilled out one night and he said, hey, you know, take me out to the store and he'll go out to the store and he ended up breaking into it. I didn't even realize the store wasn't open, you know, they had all their lights on and everything, you know. Right. literally he goes around to what it looked like, you know, the side of the building, which, you know, where another door would be. And, you know, the next thing I know, I hear an alarm.

He comes running out with a hand with, you know, cartons of cigarettes, hops in a truck. I drop him off. And, you know, three hours later, they're coming up to my house, you know, how felony warrant. Repeat offender. How is that? How did they figure that out? No, the license. Well, they seen the truck.

truck and the truck was a farm truck. So I think the cop I think the captain for the sheriff's department lived at the top of my road. Right. So he passed that. He passed my house every day, see the truck. And so I'm assuming he just went to where the truck was. They come, they busts in the house.

They didn't have a warrant. They didn't know actually who I was. They just busted in the house, went and searched for, I guess, whatever was missing. There was nothing missing in the house because I didn't take anything. I didn't have nothing. Right. but, you know, I get arrested for it. So I get arrested for it, go to court.

I refuse to testify. You know, I refused to tell them who I was with. One, because I didn't know who, you know, dude's real name. And so, you know, I take the fall for that. And then they give me, so they give me 10 years for the, for the breaking and entering. 10 years probation. 10 years in court in prison 10 years in department of corrections why did you take it a trial they got nothing but i i drove a truck

yeah i got my fucking truck taking it a child taking it a trial i got in 20 they had to give me the maximum because they wouldn't they they wouldn't pay for a jury trial see this is the thing about virginia people don't understand so they won't pay for a jury trial in those little counties they won't even hold a jury trial in most of those little counties what they'll do is they'll change a venue they'll put in a motion to change venue and they'll send you to whatever the biggest court is around and usually you want that because the circuit court judge that's going to try the case is the circuit court judge for you know five other counties you know the adjoining five counties you know um so usually you want that change that change a venue the other thing people don't

realize is is that it's all backwards You take a plea. So Virginia suspends time. So they give me 10 years, but then they suspend seven years and nine months of it. So they put you on a good behavior statute. Well, since Virginia doesn't have a probation statute,

when you violate your probation, it is a brand spank a new felony. So when you look at my background and you go back and you say, oh, well, he's got 10 felonies. He's got 10 breaking and enterings. No, I don't. I have two breaking and enterings. and I have subsequently five felony probation violations.

Okay. Well, they get graded the same on a background check. They get graded the same against you for a security clearance. It's all graded the same. So I'm thinking at no point in this are you going to get a pilot's license? Well, you're well past the pilot's license stage. Actually, no.

Because none of those, I mean, because none of those charges. So at this point, none of those charges were related to aviation. Okay. None of them were violent. And at that point, none of them had to do anything with substances. No drugs, nothing. You know, I didn't get my, I didn't get my first drug charge until 2016. Okay.

But Virginia has no programs. They have, their Department of Corrections is. filthy and they have no prea protocol they do now but um you know i was victimized there um you know it was easier to get drugs than it was on the street in there right you know heroin uh first time i did cocaine was at palatian um at state farm virginia um you know the first time i tried meth was at Hainesville, Virginia, you know. And these are different presidents they're moving you to? Yeah, so there's a receiving center, which is your, that's where you land first.

Right. And everybody goes there. Usually it's a Powhatan correctional. Now I think they've changed the name of it to State Farm. but there's a couple of prisons on that compound. I think it's like a 4,000 acre farm or whatever. But the receiving center for males and females is there, and then they'll ship you out to what's like your destination or your home jail.

And then that's, you know, whatever one's close enough to your district. Or if they want to ship you, you know, as far away they can, they'll send you to the level 5s out in the mountains towards West Virginia. So I went, you know, to a prison that was kind of close to the location where I was living. It was a Tappahannock, Virginia. But Tappahannock so close to Richmond and all of their guards that they bring in are, you know, inner city Richmond kids, Section 8 kids. And, you know, the drug trade, the gang trade. I mean, it was, it was wild.

So I left, you know, that correctional center with a habit. I got shipped off because I was on probation in Pennsylvania, so I get shipped back up to Pennsylvania, get taken up to Pennsylvania, do like three months back in LCP on a probation violation, they take me all the way off probation, and then just kick me out the door. Well, the problem is when you get released in those type of situations

and you get released from a county center, I'm sure you know, well, they don't give you anything. There's no bus ticket. You know, there's no $25. You know, there's no debit card. If you had money on your books, that's what you're walking out with. And you better hope that they get you out early so you can cast that check. And you better hope you have an ID that they can cash that check with.

And so, you know, I got released on the streets, got put, you know, back on the streets. I get a heroin charge in 2016 back in Virginia. You know, I left Pennsylvania and came back to Virginia. bounce back and forth between the two, you know, really learned how to become a criminal, um, the last, that, that last prison sent. Yeah, I was going to say, you need, you need some educating because so far, you're, you're horrific at this. Oh, yeah.

Dude, I was bad. And that was the thing is I wasn't, I wasn't trying to be good at it. You know, I was literally trying to be a good person. I just, my whole thing is, were, were, were the substances. you know, is getting off of, and getting around people that didn't, so I can be easily manipulated. Right.

You know, I can be easily taken advantage of. It's happened, you know, very many times. I don't normally see it until it's, you know, already happening or, you know, sometimes too late. Right. Well, so I, um, I leave, I get this, I get the heroin charge, uh,

that was a I got to I got set up and I was a driver I had an empty lottery taken on it they got me for the residue gave me the

charge for the residue um full possession charge full simple possession of heroin um but that violated that Virginia probation um so that sent me back to prison for three years oh shit

oh yeah three years yeah and then they don't they didn't send me because I went to a violator's place, they sent me to gangland. So I went to, it's the biggest prison on, and I don't know if it still is, but they boasted it was the biggest prison in Virginia, which is definitely true, 100% true. I mean, the town is built around the prison. Yeah.

A lot of these towns are, you know what I'm saying? People don't realize that. A lot of times the prison will end up doubling the size of the town. town because they take the like the Coleman 8,000 of the something like the 18,000 in, civilians in that town or the citizens that make up that town, 8,000 of them are in the prison. Oh, yeah. Only 9,000 or 10,000 people that are, you know, in the town. Oh, yeah, and that's the same way with, with Greensville Correctional.

So Greensville said that they were the biggest, uh, prison. compound on the East Coast. Now, again, I don't know if that was true. It certainly, you could certainly infer that. I mean, they had four prisons on one compound. Yeah. And then, well, so when I got there, I immediately gotten in an altercation

with a gang member and got an altercation with a cop. So, got in a fight with a gang member. cop runs in, tries to break up the fight, hands up me and me in the kidney to get me down. And so me and him started going at it. Well, they don't play that. And I got put right in a box. Right.

And I did my entire three years in that box. Okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's been worse and worse for you. You're getting worse and worse at this. Well, you know, I said, when I was in solitary, I

never want to ever go through that situation ever again. I don't ever want. So, you know, I started, I reached, so there was a trustee guy that's sleep in a block and whatever. But he worked in a law

library. And the law library was to access that you could get into the regular library, or the regular library. Now, you couldn't bring any regular books back with you. You could bring law stuff back, but you could read, you know, regular books while you were there. So I would go, you know, and they would bring that their big two rolling carts with all their books on them, you know.

And I would find, you know, I'd grab a law book out. I would open it up. But then I'd get another book, you know, something interesting, you know, something maybe about black holes or, you know, UFOs or, you know, ancient Egypt or whatever, whatever, whatever that they had because there was like no novels. It was all like history and educational stuff. Yeah, modern technology and things like that. Right. And so, you know, I would just kind of spend myself up on that. Well, I leave there and, you know, get done with that.

And I'm not on any probation at that point. At least I didn't think I was. Well, they had. they had put me on unsupervised probation, but I didn't have anybody to check into, you know, I didn't, it was, you know, if you get in trouble again, we're going to, you know,

give you all your backup time, basically. They take me, put me back in Fredericksburg, and I just get thrown into that system. I had met a guy that had a bunch of airplanes. He also owned a used car dealership, and I started working for him as a mechanic. I started working for him as a car mechanic, and then I met his airplane mechanic, and I started working for her for a while and started learning how to work on airplanes.

But being around airplanes so young, you know, she said, hey, you know, you really have a knack for this. You know what you're doing. You know, you've been around these things for so long. You've spun yourself up so much on this. You know, you should go for and, you know, get your AMP. So that's Airframe and Power Plant certificate. And that's what, you know, airplane mechanics have to get to be able to work on them.

So she's like, you know, I'll do an apprenticeship with you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We'll get you all your certificates. And so that kind of started, you know, me getting into, you know, being around working on airplanes and building airplanes and stuff. I've always had a knack for building. I've always had a knack for like engineering and, you know, kind of figuring out how things work.

Right. That really gave me access to Steve Brown. And that's the buddy that I got the airplane that I committed my offense with. Right. And, you know, Steve is basically, he's one of these guys that he doesn't want hands on anything. He wants to be hands off with everything. You take it, you manage it, you do it. I'll just, I'll pay the bill.

And, you know, he was like, hey, we'll get the saltralight. We'll refabricate it. We'll do a whole bunch of things to it. You know, we'll get it all taken care of. You know, and I'll fly it for my business. You know, we'll get new sales for. We'll paint it up like airport auto sales. And, you know, I'll use it for my business.

Well, in the midst of this, you know, I'm still having all of these drug problems. You know, I'm fresh out of prison. There's like no resources because they don't do reentry. They don't do, you know, they don't do, and it's easier to get drugs in prison and it is jail, you know. So what to that time I left, I was, you know, I might have been 110 pounds leaving, you know, face sunken in. You know, you're supposed to be big, strong, jacked when you're leaving, you know, prison now, not me. and I was working two jobs I was spending myself

I was in five different directions just kind of like my brain I wasn't focused on any one given thing well in July of 2018 I had been out for maybe five and a half months you know Steve comes to me and he's like hey I want to buy an ultralight you know I want to

want to have an advertisement piece for my company. Okay, cool. Yeah, well, we can do that. We'll find one. So we found this ultralight up in Pennsylvania. We go, we look at it. We fly up there. We look at it.

I say, yeah, go for it. Guy only once. I think he won like 900 bucks for it or whatever. Okay. You know, nothing's together. There's no manual for it. You know, all the parts are here, but nothing's, you know, built.

I'll build it. for you. So we pack it up in the U-Haul, bring it back. I assemble it, put it together. It takes me like a month. The guy who built the thing, dude had no idea what he was doing. Right.

Hey, I guess he was an auto mechanic. He built it in the mid-80s. And he was, I mean, he was gone. You know, he had died, I think, like 95. So nobody, you know, I basically redesigned this thing, rebuilt it, put a bunch of, like,

concept parts on it, which is when you read in that article that I showed you where it says oh, it was held together with duct tape, yeah, there's a reason for that. You know, there was reasons why there was a water bottle overflow, or a radiator overflow that was a water bottle, you know. There were reasons

for all these things, but it's it's what the media can use to make fun of me. Right. Obviously, it's, it's what they can use to, that's their attack vector. Yeah. But it's like, okay, you know, first of all, they don't make a radiator overflow.

That water bottle's cheap. If I had to go and buy something, you know, that means that I got to go to him and say, hey, I need to buy this. I don't know if it's going to work. You know, so all those things, all of that stuff in there was all proof of concept things. Why did I have duct tape on the way? Well, I'm going to run this thing across the ground. I'm not spending $4,000 to get new sales right now for it, to get new covering.

If the thing's not going to fly, we're just going to abandon the project. When they put duct tape over it So it doesn't rip a humongous hole in this thing And we can see if this thing is actually If it's You know, going to be structurally safe So I put everything together

And we take it across the ground a couple of times We put it away, we realize engine's not gonna It's just not produce enough power It's just not running right sounds bad So we take I take the engine off of it I find an engine from a see-dew from a jet ski. Okay. Same engine.

Drive all the way Virginia Beach, go pick it up. Put the prop governor on it, or the reducer on it. Getting a fight with my girlfriend that night. Say, hey, well, I'm leaving. So I leave the house. I go sleep in a hangar. Finish building the airplane that night. That's September 25th of 2018.

So I get up to next morning. it was, you know, overcast, it was raining. There was nobody at the airport. Nobody was scheduled at any of the flight school wasn't even open. You know, none of the mechanics had showed up. I went and bought a gallon of gas, you know, decided to run. You know, I already had a gallon in it. I ran a gallon in it that was out.

Started back up, get on to the taxiway, and I get onto the grass runway. And so here's my thinking of my thought process back behind this. Okay, so it's IMC, instrument, which means instrument meteorological conditions. All right. It's a fancy pilot term just means that it's a different rule of flights, a different certification you have to have on your pilot's license to be able to operate in those kind of conditions. So that means that that limits the number of people that are coming in and out of the airport. Now, you can see, you can get on like a flight aware or any of the flight planning services that are available to file online.

And you can look and see if that airport has any scheduled arrivals. So if there's nothing scheduled in and out, usually the flight schools are really good about, especially because of the airspace that they have to operate in, they're really good about filing flight plans. And it's getting more and more common because of how easy it is now. I mean, you can do it with your phone. I could file one right now if I wanted to go and fly. And if I had to, now, generally speaking out, like where I'm at now,

you wouldn't have to do that just because there's not that condensed airspace. In Northern Virginia, the airspace is super specific. there's actually something called the SFRA. It's their pilots called the SIFRA. And you have to be certified, like you have to go online and take a test to be able to even operate in that airspace. And I think that they started that after 2011.

When I actually took flight training, when I was taking my flight training was so probably 20 miles from D.C. You know, as the crow would fly. Okay. But we're, so I was in, Loudoun County is Leesburg, Virginia. And it's Leesburg Executive Airport.

Where I first started my training, first started, you know, I did my first, you know, I think 15 hours there actually, at least there. And then I went to Winchester, which is out, you know, west. But that airspace back in the day, and so this is probably 2005, 2006, when, you know, when I first started my training. like you had to actually go walk into a center you had to talk to a guy you know who and he had a you know old school computer

wasn't even color it was green it was that old black and green the old CRT screen and it gave you this prompt and then you'd fill out your flight plan right there and you'd have to file one to go out and then you had to file one to come in and so you're just a little guy you're a little you know dirt bike with wings

up there you know but you have to file you have to do this and it used to get so bad if you couldn't get a spot on the radio to come in they'd make you circle you know until you could hit the button and be able to talk because of all the other traffic you know because they're all on the same channel you know all the airlines are talking to the same controller that you know the little the little guy in the sessna right you know that he has you know buzzing around so i mean there'd be time where, you know, we'd actually, when we would do our flight training, we'd actually go to another airport. We'd pick up more fuel because we know we're going to be circling, you know, and burning that gas at, you know, eight gallons an hour. So, you know, if we had to circle for 30 minutes, there goes four gallons right there, you know. So, like, learning to fly up there was super hard. You had to be super on your game. And so when they would hire flight instructors, these were like good guys.

They weren't, um, they weren't, you know, idiots. I, although I, I say that, you know,

um, there were a few idiots in there. Well, my fight, my first, the first guy I ever flew with. He was a great dude. Um,

and, and may you rest in peace. Um, him and a student got it in a situation and ended up plowing into a, uh, uh, behind the airport. They made a mistake on landing and ended up getting themselves into a induced stall condition. And that was really eye-opening. I had only taken, you know, two hours of,

I took my discovery flight with him and, you know, I took my first, my first flight instruction, you know, my stick and rudder basics with him, but that was only one hour. So I only had two hours of flight time with him. But, you know, from hanging around the airport and talking to the guys, you know, getting into the discovery flight, you know, getting that all scheduled. You kind of let you meet these people. And he had been the guy who I had talked to and who they had, you know, when we had first reached out for the information, you know, when dad had said, hey, is this what you want to

do? And I said, yeah, duh, absolutely. And, you know, they said, we called that he was the guy. and then right after you know they assigned me a new flight instructor you know Jeff was he was an aerobatic guy

so you know he knew he could tell you like why things were happening you know the quality of flight instruction night that dude gave was you know shout out to Jeff Ball he's where you know wherever he is

that dude is awesome But, you know, they teach you in flight training that there's two critical phases of flight. There's your takeoff and your landing. And they are subsequently the time when the airplane is going the slowest, which means that you're going slow, flight is harder to lift is harder to achieve. Yeah. Well, they tell you the most, that's the most dangerous, right?

You don't have time for air. If something fucks up and you're in the sky, you got time to figure out what it is and fix it and reroute and do this and the time. The scariest thing, and I can tell you from experience, the scariest thing is having a situation happen on takeoff. And it's happened numerous amount of times.

Once the, and we noticed, especially, you know, in single engine airplanes, uh, if the engine hasn't been running long enough, you know, if it's a cold engine,

and you're starting to put, you know, so those engines are not like your car engine. Your car engine's designed to go through the RPM curve, you know, because you're constantly hitting the gas, taking your foot off the gas, putting your foot on the gas, taking off the gas. Well, airplane, the engines are designed completely different. The engines are designed to be constantly ran at a single RPM.

So, you know, you get it, full and it's designed to run at full power so you get that full power you hit it if something happens it's you're putting you know a lot of stress on that engine you know going through that RPM curve you know especially even even in taxing you know I mean you're hitting and it might be negligible you know you might hit you know 500 600 RPMs to get you know the prop moving enough to pull you, you know, down along the runway. But then you'll always notice when you do a run-up. You'll always notice when there's, and that's why we do them.

But, you know, constantly time and time again, you can read of guys that are, you know, getting haste and, you know, they're trying to beat weather. They're trying to beat a storm, you know, they open their flight plan too early. So they're trying to get out, you know, they're doing things too quickly. You know, they don't go do the run-up. They get in takeoff. and then, you know, go to floor it. Everything seems fine.

They rotate. They get off the ground. You know, 700, 800 feet. Engine shuts off. Engine quits. And that's the scariest thing, you know, and I've seen it happen. I've been in an airplane that was ill-maintained. We didn't actually know that when they were sending them back to maintenance,

that the guys, you know, they weren't cleaning any of the spark plugs. you know, like the, they were just, you know, taking them out, looking at them, saying, oh, okay, yeah, they look good, putting them back in, tightening them up, you know, that we go to pick the airplane up, and it was actually one of the airplanes that my dad had gotten into a partnership with. We go to pick the airplane up. I was with the owner, you know, one of my dad's bodies, and we go to take off, realize, you know, know, this thing's got, it ran up fine, but you could feel yourself, like, it would feel like it was having to climb, like actually climb.

You know, the engine just, I mean, it might say the, you know, all the tent, everything looked good on it, but they come to find out that, uh, they hadn't inspected the motor. They had inspect the engine. They hadn't looked at it. We don't even think they had done a compression test on it because, I mean, the cylinders, they were, they were terrible. you know my dad kind of got in a situation when they tried to sue the company it was a whole

it was a mess so we got ended up getting out of that airplane so anyways all of this leads back to the training you know that when you first start taking your flight training that's what they teach you those are your basics okay you know aviate navigate

communicate so on the day in question that I'm talking about I look and here's where I made you know the worst errors so I aviated okay good cool you know I achieved that did I communicate no I did it aviate mean so fly that means you got in the air yeah I got in the air I got in the air I got in air but I had no way of communicating with anybody why well I didn't have So that airplane doesn't have lights. There's no radios. There's, and I didn't bring my phone with me.

Okay. So when, so if anything were to happen, there would be no way for me to communicate that I was in any type of distress other than given the international sign of distress, which is wagging your wings. Oh, I thought that was, that was. Well, I mean, generally speaking, yeah, I mean, that, that, that it would be. That's my version. Yeah, it would be. Okay, so So

But you knew there was nobody coming in You said you checked Yeah, and I didn't even think I mean it was it was sleepy that morning There wasn't anybody there You know The flight school wasn't open Because they weren't going to be flying

But one of the instructors But one of their instructors had been So I do these three Three ground runs Okay I'm testing And here's what I was looking for.

So there's no manual that comes with this thing, right? So there's no, you know, if somebody who was like, well, what's the speed it takes off at? Well, I don't know. So I have to build that manual. I have to take it across the ground. I have to see at what speed the tail comes up because it's a tail dragger, which means the tail, you know, drags across the ground.

I have to see what speed the controls come active. See what the maximum stopping distance is, you know. know, what the effective, what the effective stall speed would be. You know, where's my initial area to stall? I've got to do all those calculations. And, you know, luckily because, you know, there's so many home-built airplanes now, there's so much support for this. They actually have a, you can, you know, download it offline.

It's a whole calculator, you know, it's a whole, you know, table that you go through, you know, when you're flight testing. And everybody that home builds an airplane, you know, that even, you know, if it's their own design, you know, they'll do this. And so, you know, I had somebody asked me, they're like, well, so why didn't you get somebody else to do it? You didn't have a pilot's license. Why didn't, you know, why didn't you, well, because here's the thing.

And, you know, call me selfish or whatever, but I built this. My hands were on this. if I don't take it across the ground myself I can't if and obviously something happened right so there was a problem so my thought pattern was correct

if I give the keys you know to like let's say I give the keys to my buddy you know and I say hey you know here go take it across the ground you know you have a pilot's license you can do this but and he gets in a situation he panics kills himself i gotta live with that i'm not that i can't have that all my conscience i'm sorry i literally it that was like i i can't i couldn't and so if i'm not willing to test it myself i'm not willing to fly it i'm not willing to give it you know a what for

even if i'm not going to take it in the air because my intention wasn't to fly it no my intention was just to see, you know, just to do this calculation sheet that I had. And, you know, I had a finite time to do it in because, you know, there's rain coming. There was a, you know, rainstorm coming. So, on, I did, you know, three across the ground and on my fourth one, I got brave. So I had been doing these at like 30% power. So I wasn't giving it, you know, I wasn't taking it through the whole RPM curve. I wasn't going very fast.

I was just, you know, trying. I was just going through the first, you know, page of the calculation sheet was like three pages. So on my fourth one, I got brave. And I said, well, I was like, I've been doing it as at 30% power. I was like, I wonder what 100% power feels like. And so I was like, all right, I'm going to,

my thought was, throw forward, see if you can pop the tail up. If you can pop your tail up, throttle back, see if you can get any type of reading off of that. Okay, see, count, you know,

see how long you can hold the tail up. See if you can hold, you know, see if the brakes will hold, you know, well enough that you can hold your tail up. Right. See if you,

see what your brake authority is. So that was all I was going to do. Well, when I firewalled it, I let go of the brakes, and I went to go hit them, and I went to go pull the throttle, back and the throttle just like shook

in my hand. Like it had there was nothing and it was stuck at full and so I was like well don't hit the brakes because then you're going to send a nose into the ground just go figure it out fly your plane. So that's what I did

because at this point like I can move this thing and it's not going to do anything I mean I can shake it like this it was you know I could do this with it right just so what had happened is is the throttle cable had come out of the actuator that's on the top. And the reason why is because the cable was too short.

There was a bend in it already. It must have got damaged when they had pulled the cable out of the jet ski that they had it in. And my system just... It wasn't that the duct tape came off. No, no, certainly it wasn't. By the way, duct tape worked. I mean, the thing flew. I understand.

So what happened? So now you're airborne. So, yeah. So at like, 18 knots. 18 knots. I became active. Well, I had,

I had only put a gallon of gas in this thing. That's a plus. At some point. Well, that was my thought. So I was like, okay, well, you know,

you can't do anything with a throttle. The fuel shut off. If you want to get to the fuel shut off, I can't, I have to take my hands off the controls. I have to reach up because so the motor sat like here. On it. So I would have to reach up.

I'd have to grab it and I'm going to burn myself on the exhaust. Because it's all over here. All where the fuel stuff is, you know, right where the carb and then taking all that stuff. And I would burn myself. There's 100% chance of that. So I wasn't willing to take that risk. I can't shut the key off because if I shut the key off, then I'm going to lose, you know, I'm going to lose the engine power.

So over a densely populated area, that's, a no-go. If I shut the engine off right after it lifted, I'm going to crash into that field. And this is September. It hadn't rained. That's a corn field. They had just plowed, you know, all that corn. There's still remnants. It's going to cause a fiery mess. And I didn't want to be that guy. So I decided I was like, all right, well, if the thing's flying, I can get airborne. I said, I'm going to overfly the terminal and I'm going to wag my wings and it's exactly what I did and that's what they nailed me for

and that's what they continue to try to hammer me for today well that airport so they have it's a little the guy that that bought it he built a better terminal that he put like a little restaurant in there and he never moved his fuel tanks so his fuel tanks

are like you know less than a hundred feet away from, you know, his front entrance. Well, I, when I took off, you know, I could see that there was somebody that had walked out and he had his phone in his hand. And he was, you know, pointing it up at me. So I'm like, all right, well, he's recording this. So I wag my wings at it. I guess he thinks I'm doing, you know, stunts or something with this thing. I don't, to this day, and he, there's no, there was nothing on the record that he said.

said, or at least that they gave to me, you know, when I asked for it, that, you know, all, all that they, all that they had was the video. And, you know, the videos, oh, you can hear him say, oh, my God, look at this idiot. And so it looked like he was filming it for YouTube. While I wag my wings at him, nobody called. Nobody went got help. Right. Nobody, you know, nobody, you know, you would think somebody in the, looks like they're in distress. You know, they're flying super low. First of all, I only climbed up to about 170 foot because I didn't want, you know, I can hear the hardware that hadn't been safety wired yet, jingling. Right.

And so it was like just the amount of fear and panic, I was, I was, in. and I was like, all right, Gino, just figure out a way to get this thing down on the ground. So I overfly the terminal once. I turn around and I try to land on the paved runway. Well, I can see the paved runways wet. And I'm like, I'm not going to, if I don't make this, if I, if I overshoot this, I'm going into route, I think that's route two. And that's a major thoroughfare. I don't want to, you know, plow into the ground.

If I come in it from the other way, I'm going to be fighting a tailwind coming in. And yeah, you can get down, but if I don't stop enough, I'm going in the route too. If I don't, if I come this way, I don't stop well enough. I'm going into the railroad tracks. That's even worse. I said, so this is going to end up bad. Now, so I was like, all right, well, I'm going to abandon that. So I try to come back around.

I try to land into the wind because the wind had shifted at this point. you know, because this rainstorms now approaching. Like it's starting to rain. Where I was at at 170 foot, there was moisture. So, and I'm just like, all right, and I look up and I'm like, all right, coach. So do I have enough gas? You know, can I make a turn? You know, because if I turn, that fuel is going to slosh, you know,

is it going to miss the pickup? And then, you know, am I going to get into a situation? Like, this is, it's bad. Right. So I did the only thing I could think to do is I turned back around. So there's a criminal justice academy that I know in the field house. And they're both at if you land into the winds since it had shifted at this point. If I landed into the wind, there's a gate and a fence.

And I'm going to 100% slam into the fence because there's no time for me to stop. because that grass runway is super short. It's built for airplanes like I'm flying. On a normal day, no wind, you know, you're stopping distance is fine. So I was like, all right, well, I'm going to go and I'm going to risk because the grass runway kind of intersects the bottom end of the real runway, the paved runway.

Right. And I said, all right, I'm going to risk, you know, a runway incursion. I'm going to risk, you know, hitting that runway, because at least if I hit that wrong way, I can stop then because the pavement's kind of up on a little bit of a grade. Right. I said, you know, that's going to give me something to stop just in case I have a break failure. And I said, you know, worst case in a scenario, I can get it on the ground, ground loop it, and that'll stop me, you know, quick enough. You know, you might do a little bit of damage, but, you know, you'll stop fast enough.

And that's exactly what I did. I came back around. As soon as I came back around, I killed the engine. And I said, all right, this is a paper airplane now. I said, what you've got is what you get. And so I came in, porpoised a little bit. I bowed. I bowled. I hit the ground. I bounced and I immediately induced the ground loop. The reason I want, and like I said, you know, I didn't want to hit the brakes.

I didn't want to risk a break failure. You know, I didn't want to get 5606 hydraulic fluid all over me. I mean, that would kind of stink. This is already a bad enough day. and if I stop and I start to slide because it's wet now because there's moisture if I start to slide I'm going to end up nosing it over and I'm going to do damage so I was like ground looping it's the easiest way yeah I might touch a wing whatever did absolutely no damage to the airport did absolutely no damage to the airplane

got the airplane back pulled it all apart seen exactly what had happened I called you know the FAA I told the FAA I told the FAA what the problem was. You know, they asked me, you know, hey,

you know, what happened. I don't want to happen. They said, all right, anybody died. Do they know what's happened? No,

I had no idea. So you're calling in, telling, saying this is what just happened, just want to let you guys know. Nobody's actually called in. Nobody's called in. Nobody made any type of report.

But you assume somebody has. I thought somebody would have. Yeah. I thought somebody would have. Okay. I didn't know nobody did. I didn't know the report didn't get made. for four months I think okay um so yeah so I didn't I had no idea the report got in so

this it's a it's a it's a whole web but uh they um they asked me the FAA was like so what happened we explained the situation he was like okay what's the tail number we're like well it's not registered and he's like okay anybody get hurt. Nope. Anybody die? Nope. Do you do any damage? Nope. Okay. Why are you calling? Right. Just doing due diligence just want to let you know. They're like, well, the airplane's not registered. You know, nobody's called us and complained. Cool. You know, I'll note it. Don't do that again. You know, just be warned. Have a nice day. And I was like, all right, well, that was super simple. That was super easy. Right. You know, I didn't think anything of it.

and I guess so I'm coming out of the well so I had gone to the DMV that so this is I guess I'm jumping around here a little bit you know we took the airplane apart you know we put um there were some things that we're going to fix

You know, we now, now it knew it. Now I know it flies. Now I know it's, it can be safe. You just got to fix a bunch of things. You just got to finalize a bunch of things. Can't be safe. But Steve had run into some problems with, I guess he had some employee issues and some things. And his, he was in the process of changing that dealership over to his daughter and trying to retire. So he can fly more. And, you know, so him and his brother can get, you know, more airplanes. and things like that, you know, get deeper into this aviation community. So they kind of abandoned that project. And then, you know, subsequently they were like, well, we're going to close this hangar down at Shannon Airport. And we're just going to move everything over to Stafford. So then that's what they ended up doing. I had gone to work during, you know, right after then for another car. dealership working as a mechanic.

And I was working on the side on the weekends, detail in airplanes. And so that's why the company that that, that, Steve had started for me was outlaw aviation. And we thought, appropriate. Yeah. Well, it was a joke.

It was, you know, it was supposed to be, it was supposed to be a play on words and fun. Wasn't actually supposed to be, you know, what had, uh, what it happened. But it is ironic,

you know, You know, it is, it is funny. And, you know, I went without any issue, you know, in aviation for, you know, 2018, 2000, you know, the end of 2018, all of 2019, until December 2019. I made a fake piece of paper. I made a fake flight plan to justify me not go into a purpose. meeting to a probation officer. And, uh,

dude, I was so fucking stupid. Uh, and so she submitted that, even though it wasn't real and that, you know, that document, you know, really didn't. I mean,

there, there wasn't any real, real, real cause for concern to take, for her to take it, you know, to the level that she did. But then that's, that got them to start looking at me again. And then I guess, were thinking I was escalating in my criminal behavior and stuff and I guess they wanted to intervene so who's they well at first it was the sheriff's department um the sheriff's

department um so they come to me for an unauthorized use of a vehicle and tampering with airplanes charge um for something that they think happened at at a stafford airport well at get the airports mixed up and they get the airports confused, you know, just because of how close and proximity they are to each other. They both start with S's. Um, and so that case, uh, they, they, they take it to, to trial or, they take me to, to the plea. You know, they arrest me for it. They gave me like, yeah, they give me 10 charges. And it's all these things.

And then there's all these different reports. and there's all these different little things. There's different little tidbits. And it's all just the people that they talk to. And so their case is completely jumbled around. They go to, they, you know, take me to the, we try to do the whole discovery thing. I wave all this BS because I'm like, I'm not, I told him, I said, listen, I said, I'm going to waive, you know, that pretrial conference and all that stuff. But what you're going to give me your return is I say, you're going to take away all this.

And I said, I'll cop out to an unauthorized use of an airplane. I said that's simple. I said, because when I go and I look through the charge sheet, that's the lowest grade of all these felonies that you've got me with. I said, yeah, I'll take that. And then they're like, okay, cool. But what we're going to do is we're going to give you a tampering with airplanes too. And I'm like, okay, whatever, that's a, you know, high-grade misdemeanor at that.

you know and so uh they give me they why are you not allowed to tamper with are you not allowed how are you tampering i don't you have a license to be a mechanic well so i'm not an a mp i'm not a apprentice but no i don't have a mechanic certificate but you don't need one like to for all that issue, you didn't need one. Okay. You know, I mean, countless people, you know, that aren't licensed mechanics build airplanes

every day. You know, I've got a ton of friends that started, you know, building their airplane and then that's how they got their mechanics license. Right. Just because of how long it took them to build their airplane. But, yeah, so February 19th

of 2020, they, the probation officer had set up a meeting for me. So she calls me in and says, hey, you know, you're doing some programs and things. You know, we need to talk about that. You know, I need to get a drug test on you, all these things. And so I'm like, all right.

Well, as soon as I pulled into the parking lot, and I got out of my truck, this guy that's, and he looked home, homeless. You know, he's got long, scruffy hair. You know, it was still kind of cloudy. You know, February is kind of cloudy in Northern Virginia. And, you know, he had, like, glasses on and, you know, like a dirty t-shirt. And he had, you know, paint, stained jeans and everything.

But I looked at it in his hand and he's got a fucking iPhone. Right. And so I'm like, well, they don't, you know, and it's like a newer iPhone. I mean, it's not like older. I haven't. And so every time I would go out and I would smoke a cigarette, I waited in that office in the wait room. So I go into probation office, sign in and everything.

I wait in that wait room for way longer than I should have. And it didn't click to me. Nothing, you know, I wasn't thinking. You know, and I certainly wasn't looking out in the parking lot like I should have been for all the cop cars that were coming in. Right. So every time I was. I had enough time to go out and smoke two cigarettes,

you know, not, you know, one right after the other. You know, I went out, smoked. Every time I would go out, this homeless-looking dude would follow me. And so the second time I'm coming back in, I look in, I see his fingernails. I'm like, oh, shit, I'm like, he must be. I said, something's going on here. First of all, I'm waiting too long. You know, so I go back up to the window and I said, hey, I was like, you know,

they need to do a drug test. Can you get a mail out here? I can go ahead and do this because I got to use a bathroom. I've been waiting here for almost an hour now. So they do that. They do the drug test. You know, they get that done. I'm like, all right, cool, check.

At least, you know, if for some reason she's got something going on, she has to reschedule it, I've at least got that off and they can see how report it. Right. Because they were real bad about those signing logs there. Like, I mean, you could sign in and then, you know, get a probation violation. They're like, oh, well, you never signed in. Well, where's the log? Oh, well, we don't have it.

um right so lo and behold uh i go back into her office i'm sitting in her office and she was playing the part well um she's like yeah you know talking to me about my programs and then all of a sudden you know six the department transportation agents and flag jackets and their rifles and everything come in and make a scene right i mean they make a spectacle well they take me and that they take me into the conference. First of all, they're like, so, you know, we have a warrant for your arrest. You know, and they do all the reading of the rights and all that nonsense.

And so, first of all, and I'm looking at their jackets. I'm like, it's not clicking to me at this point. Because they hadn't told me what I'm arrested for. All they told me was that I was under arrest. So they take me back into a conference. room and they sent me down and they're like, okay, so we have a warrant for your arrest for operation of aircraft without a valid airman certificate. And we have this video.

We're going to plug it in. We're going to watch this video. And they're like, we're going to get this camera out. And do you want to make any statement? And I said, oh, no. I said, what happens from here? And he said, oh, well, we have to go and we have to take you. We have to arraign you.

And then you're going to get a bail hearing. this afternoon. And I said, oh, bail hearing? Okay, cool. I said, I want nothing to do with you guys. I don't care to talk to you. I don't want to make any statements. I said, because you're going to use anything I say and take it completely out of context. I said, let's just, let's just go and sort this out. And so that's what I did. So I got arrested right there from the probation office. They take me into Alexandria, the fourth, the eastern district. And they arraigned me and then give me no bail. And he said, nope. I'm not going to give you any bond. He said, you know, you don't have an address that's local. You don't have your jobs out of state. Because I would travel to Maryland to go work on airplanes.

Right. Gatorberg, but I'm living in northern Virginia. They're like, yeah, you know, you're not inside the district. We're not going to let you out. So I'm like, shit. Well, we had heard that there was some type of, you know, some boogeyman, some, some spooky thing coming or happening. You know, I first heard about, I seen one article that mentioned Corona.

And I liked Corona beer. So I thought that that had mentioned, I didn't had no idea that it would, you know, be. So, you know, I keep pushing. them, keep pushing them, keep pushing them. And I'm like, can you guys just put me into like a halfway house? I said, is there somewhere? So they found an Oxford house that was close to where I was living. I knew somebody down there that had, you know, local work.

And so I was like, can I get at least put on an ankle monitor? And March 12th, they, so we're hearing about the pandemic going on. So March 12, they tell me, okay, well, you can be put on an ankle monitor. But you got to wait, be evaluated, and then they got to come and do it. And that could take up to two weeks. You have a week to get into this halfway house. So let's hope that they, that they play ball. And March 23rd, the day before they shut the fucking government down.

And we're hearing about this. Like the courts weren't, that nobody was in court. Luckily, they had a, you know, they had a case officer that, and she was always on her job. She came out and put the ankle monitor on me and then took me out to the halfway house. And I got put on it on, and then, you know, the world shut down. And then everything changed for everybody. So they, they, I should have took in.

The problem is, is, that I'm 100% guilty of flying an airplane without a license. That's always a problem. Well, and I don't, yeah, I mean, I did it. Well, you're guilty. You're in a really bad spot. Well, yeah. You're in a bad spot if you're not guilty, but you're a much worse spot if you are guilty.

And I didn't want to fight them on that. You know, I mean, they were already asking at that point, the, the prosecutor, he's a new guy. And, you know, I mean, he was trying his hand with every single thing he could try to use. against me. And I mean, to their credit, I gave them all the ammo they needed. They had all the infinity stones. So, you know, I mean, it wasn't hard for them to make me out to be a monster. But the problem is, is that he really pushed very hard to say that I was influenced by the,

I was influenced by the things in Jan 6th to say that I was influenced yeah oh yeah he tried all of it um he tried come up with this I mean they they tried to I did two search histories on what Jan 6 even was because I mean I was on house arrest I couldn't I mean I didn't have you know I would go to work during the day

we heard about it I mean we knew that something was happening in the government, but we didn't know what it was. You know, and this whole time, I'm only being told, you know, I'm going to be put on probation. You know, I had my lawyers like, oh, man,

you know, the last person that did this, he got 10 days, you know, they're not going to, it's, this is nothing. Well, then he stands up in court and says, oh, well, you know, he makes his, you know, closing statement says he flew, over our nation's capital.

And that's where the fucking, and the reporter was this little fucking chick sitting back in the back. This, uh, and just on her notepad, just jotting stuff down. And so

that they, they spun that narrative. Um, there's other articles. I can go back and find them. I've got, I've been able to get one taken down, the one that said that I flew over the White House. That's blatantly lying. They're just, oh, well, yeah. Well, I mean, so, they say that I flew over the White House in an airplane that had 18,000 gallons worth of gas but only weighed 300 pounds.

Right. I mean, they contradict themselves in the article and make themselves look bad. But what the main claim was is that they said that I recklessly operated an aircraft with negligent disregard for human life. Because they say that I flew, because I flew over the terminal, well, the government tried to hit, what my suspicion is is the government tried to hit the airport with a fine because their fuel tanks are too close to the terminal, which they really are. I mean, if you look at what they should be, I'm pretty sure that they make enough money. They just pay the fine every year. So I think that they put pressure on them because they made the claim that I flew.

if I, they were trying to say that in court, they said, oh, if he would have wrecked into, to, you know, those fuel tanks, it would have been, it would have been like a nuclear explosion. Well, first of all, that's completely fucking false. If I had to hit that fuel tank, that fuel tank, I'm splattered on it. That's what's going to happen. You know, I mean, those fuel tanks are built to be hit. Actually, I mean, they pressured.

There's, trust me, I'm not going to do anything to them, but fucking splatter right on them. Right. And they said, you know, they made the claim. And, you know, so, yeah, I get why they, why they said that I acted in disregard. Just because that the, I should have never flown the airplane. Absolutely. I should have never been there that day, you know,

trying to get the ground test and trying to do all these things. But they make this claim that, and what I've been fighting with them on tooth and nail and constantly, and I'll go to the mattresses for, is that they said that I should have shut the airplane. It's the government's official position at the end of all this, and I should have shut the airplane off in that critical phase of play. And they tried to set a precedent with it.

So that means that they're trying to set a training precedent with it, which means that they can use my case in other cases, in other instances to prove a point. And they've been trying to do this slowly to, you know, airplane builders and ultra-lake guys in the backcountry. They're actually trying to stop backcountry flying now. There's a huge push and there's actually legislation to save it going through now.

But, you know, they had a bunch of guys that came in from the FAA that were not pilots that had no idea. what they were really even talking about. And they were testifying to a judge that didn't want to hear it because he was a 33-year naval aviator who hadn't been, hadn't flown anything in 40 years or stepped foot on an airplane probably in 40 years. Right. And I think Judge Ellis was a salty 92-year-old guy, you know. Right. And he thought he had all the answers

And, you know, he Even said, I'm making an example of you And the prosecutor asked for 36 months, Which is the statutory maximum for that charge And he cut it a half and gave me two years I mean, I guess that's not in half I mean, he went over it Yeah, he went over it

I mean, he he he gave you Lockout was a break all together yeah probably 10 years of my life no I mean on that charge oh I did all I did the entire time you did the whole 24 months you didn't get any

time off for good good time they don't give time to terrorists in BOP oh what were you charged with Operation of aircraft without a valid airman certificate that's not terrorism well no it's not

but in the pre-sentence report that the BOP got, they said that I displayed terroristic activity in a terroristic mindset when I did this. They said, they tried to say that I was suicidal and that I was trying, their, their official claim, and I never said this at all ever, ever, ever, ever.

And I never made the, I never made the distinction. You know, I told them that I had, you know, some, some health disturbances. and they used that against me. I told, they said that because of how close it was in proximity to September 11th when I did this, that I must be operating for terrorism. And they went through all of, so they went back and got all of my computers, all of my phones, all of my digital documents,

and used that precedent to provide. pushed their case off for months. I had to surrender all of my electronic. I had to get like a new phone. I had to surrender everything to them. All of my stuff. And they tried to, they tried to make a link.

And luckily Jan 6 hadn't happened at that point. But that was early on in the pre-sentencing phase. Right after, you know, you have to go for all their little conferences and everything. and then they sort of buy the indictment and all that shit. And then they're like, okay, well, now we're going to go into the pre-sentencing phase. Now we're going to get all the investigation on you. When they did the investigation, you know, they said, I had the mental disturbances.

But then, you know, they made an emergency hearing and said, okay, well, you know, we want to link them to terrorism. So, all right, cool. Well, they weren't ever able to officially make that distinction in court. But the BOP makes a distinction anyways. And to then that's all that matters because they're going to be the one. ones that supervise you. They're going to be the ones that, you know, book you in. They're going to be the ones that live scan you. They're going to be the ones that. And that's what they did. So when they live scanned me, they put me in live scan, they put me in live scan as domestic terrorists. And I have to, so now anytime that I get pulled over, anytime I get arrested, it's anytime they do a background check on me. So, I mean, so what if you get pulled over, a cop says the fuck's discharge? They don't ever ask anymore.

They just get out with their gun drawn. I mean, it could be a simple traffic stop. And yeah, they, they, so I got pulled over a month ago because I was doing 80 in a 55. Right. I was driving my Mustang. Cop got out of his car, immediately pulled his weapon, driver. with your, you know, left hand, you know, throw your keys out of the window, you know, I'm approaching a vehicle, put your hands out the window, you know, keep your hands out the window

until I tell you to, pulls me out, immediately detains me. What, for what? Oh, yeah, by the way, you're a domestic terrorist. And I said, no, I'm certainly not. And he said, well, the computer says you are. And it's what I got to go on. And he said, I'm just want to let you know, I got a rich hit ticket. You're doing 80 and 55.

And I'm like, well, was all this necessary? And he said, oh, yeah, well, I don't know you. And so in a way, I get it. But, I mean, they got, like, there's no way to get it off. There's nothing I can do. Nobody wants to take it. Nobody wants to take on the civil rights case about it. And here's something else that they don't know.

You know, they make so. that article comes out. I get a probation violation for her because in the halfway house, um, I smoked a little bit of weed. Right. And, uh,

you know, I, I, I, I, told the probation officer, when she drug test me, I was like,

yeah, you know, is there going to be, there, my pot for THC, you know, and she was like, okay,

what happened, blah, blah, and she was like, well, you know, I got to submit the report. Judge Ellis immediately was like,

well, I'm going to arrest you. So January, I think it's January 12th, 2021, they get, they finally, you know, they, they, they block me up, put me in, um, so Alexandria had COVID. The entire jail had COVID. Um, so they couldn't put me there. So they put me in a private jail in Warsaw, Virginia. They put me in, um, uh, Northern Neck Regional Jail. So my first day there. Now, I had been on seizure medication. I had been on, and I never had seizures. They used

depicode off-labeled for bipolar. Okay. Well, the amount of depocode I was taking a day was like 3,000 milligrams, which is a lot. So it was really affecting my liver, but if they take you off of it and you don't have it, it can actually induce seizures. Right. Well, so I told them, I need this medication. I need the medication I came in with. You know, we, I brought my stuff with me.

You know, why are you not giving me my medication? And I got kind of verbally assaultive with the, with the guard because the guy came up, you know, he had his mask on and everything and he was cussing at me and everything. I'm like, yo, dude,

I didn't even cuss at you or nothing. I'm like, I'm behind this door. You're like, you're aggressing on to me. I said, I'm mad about the fact that I don't have my medicine and I could have seizures because I'm not being.

weaned off of this medication. And he's like, oh, well, I don't know nothing about that, nor do I care. You know, you're in here and you just deal with it. You know, I'll get medical for you when they come around for a call. I'm like, she's like standing right there, dude. You know, like, let me talk to her and ask or something. And so, and I reached my hand out the gate. And I pointed out, I was like, and he, I guess he thought I was going to grab them or whatever.

Well, so then he calls for his buddies. And, you know, he calls assault on an officer. and so they come fucking running. And it was like six or seven of them. So they beat me into three seizures in the cell. They shatter my orbital. Yeah, broke my nose. I'm supposed to be in court the next morning on video for my detention hearing.

They have to push that back because now they have to take me to the hospital. So they hit my head Because they They carried me like a lawn chair Right You know out of the cell I was already beat up My rib was broken

And just for fun They knock my head They knocked my head into the So you know Have you ever seen the cells The pods that have a sally port Yeah Well

In this jail that's a cage So, like, they come in through the main door to the block. Then there's that cage. And it's got the sudden they hit my head. They ran my head into the cage. Right. I'm sorry. That's kind of a talk about.

Into the, to the cell cage door. And knock me out. And I come to when I'm in medical. And they're like, bring a nurse in and they shut the door. like, yo, what the fuck did you guys do? And they're like, oh, well, he was aggressing. He, you know, was trying to reach for the officer. And the head of medical was like, all right, well, we're going to sweep us all up underneath the rug, get him to the hospital.

And they came back. And then I was putting solitary confinement again until I was able to be transported to a... What about video cameras? There's no video? I can't. The jail won't release it. Nobody wants to take it on. nobody wants to help

right I know some of the guards names I know one of the only decent one um her first name's Ashley but it's spelled A S-H-L-E-I-G-H

she had to sign something for me one day and I seen the first name I can't remember she has a common like last name like Johnson or Stanton or something like that is one of the common names around there but she would be she was the only one that told me. So she told, when they brought me back, so I, in the hospital, I seized four times.

I had to be put out. They had to use Fina Barbatol to put me out. Right. I mean, they fucked me up. They did, they did a bunch of damage. Have you tried to do a Freedom of Information Act on the jail? Follow Freedom of Information Act? Uh, so I don't think the jail would respond to a FOIA request. um the i i i had a lawyer friend of mine um that i that i knew call and he said um yeah he said i i talked to him and they they don't they act like you were never here they said they don't even have any record of your of you being an inmate or anything and i said well what do you mean that's like that's just somebody that you're talking to right he said yeah he's like well i tried to flex you know my muscle and he said they

don't that guy does say that's i don't believe that um yeah i don't mean no he's a fucking doucheback trying to get you go away um i would i would fill out a freedom of public records act and freedom of you know it's not a it well so you were being held what by the feds but in the county jail i was being held by the u.s marshals okay so it was for the marshal service now i called the marshals themselves and i made the claim to the marshals and the marshals acted Like they didn't want anything to do with it. It doesn't matter. They're like, oh, well, they're like never.

It doesn't matter. So you want to hear how, how, listen, listen. Okay. The guy that talks to you on the phone is just some local fucking douchebag. The guy you fill out the Freedom of Information Act is in like Washington. Like he doesn't know what's going on here. What he gets is he has access to like a central archive. So he has no skin in the game.

Does that make sense? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He'll put in a request saying, hey, provide this information. And then they're like, damn, we have to provide him the information to forward on to you. They can't say, oh, we don't know who that guy is.

You don't know who he is. Like, no, no, you do know who he is. I can tell he was there. I need that information. They're not going to lie to him. Because trust me, there's all the time when you go directly to the source and they're like, oh, they send something back saying, we don't have this information. Right.

You don't have any information on my case. No. And this is, I've done this for guys in, in prison. They're like, oh, we have no record of him. You have no record of him. There was a three week trial and a two-year FBI investigation, but you don't know who, who he is. You have no information.

So then, of course, you file the Freedom of Information Act with Washington. And then they come back. Suddenly you get 2,500 documents. Oh, wow. Okay. Of someone that they didn't know who this person was. Yeah. I may imagine that.

Yeah. Right. So you have to do it. One, you do it to like the jail. You do it to the U.S. attorney's office. Oh, sorry. The state attorney's office.

You do it to the, the sheriff, of course, the sheriff's department, you know, which is over the jail. You do it to the U.S. Marshals. They do it. So, hammer. And then if they come back, eventually if they come back and say, oh, we don't know who this is, well, now you can file something with the court saying, I'm in a hard time believing it. Listen, I know guys where they said, we don't have anything on this guy.

And then they filed something with the court. And the judge said, that's not possible. He was there. And then they fill it. And I'm wondering. And the thing about this jail is, and this jail is notorious for this. The marshals actually were going to pull their contract. So it's a contract jail.

And they're not a technical, they're not a law enforcement agency because there's no, nobody over, there's no like oversight. There's no police department, sheriff's department over them. It's not, they're just a regional jail. there's a jail administration. So they have like a warden or what they call a superintendent. And they got they have all that. But it's not like a real law enforcement agency.

Okay. Even if it was a private facility, it's still empowered by the state. They have to respond. They can't say, oh, no, no, no, we're privately owned. We're not law enforcement. We're privately owned. We don't have to respond. The hell you don't.

Okay. You do I'm saying? Like, trust me, they all have to respond. Periodically, somebody will be. you know, a douchebag and think he's going to be cute. And so what happens is 95% of people just go away. Well, you continue on at some point. And then you get to use all that. You get to say, look, send them this. This is the letter they sent back. Apparently, I was never there. You know, sent this here. Then they responded, oh, look, I was there for 120 days. Oh, look, I did go to the

hospital. Oh, look, I did this. I did all this, you know, they're covering it up. And the perfect example of that is that when my first few requests were all denied I wasn't even here so what better proof that they're trying to cover up than to say oh he we don't have any we don't know who this person is really because two months later you provided you know 82 pages of who I was right right right right you really want them to deny it and go forward say you you tried to stop this at every possible um at every possible opportunity you tried to kibosh this whole thing And then what you get to say is, so if you're willing to lie about me being there and you only responded to a federal judge saying you had to do it, then what's to, you know, what's to stop you from dumbing up the reports? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the other thing I'm worried about too, because they're, the jail is famous for doing that as well. So.

You still have to move. You still move forward, especially if you can get a hold of tapes. It's even better. Your honor. I in the in the in the motion which by the way can be two pages like you don't have to you don't have to be eloquent to file that motion you can write it in green crown I want to do the whole you don't have to be sure yeah and they're going to respond like absolutely he has every right to get this so what I'm saying is if you request the the tapes and then they say oh those tapes were erased we don't have those tapes wow Oh, that doesn't look good either. Okay. It's like every step that you're trying to cover up, I want to see the tapes because I know the tapes show this. And then, and I know that you got, they're covering it up.

Oh, we don't have the tapes. You didn't know who I was during the phone call. My lawyer, you told him you didn't know who I was. The first time I made a report in writing, you said you didn't know who it was. You finally provided the information that showed that I was there. We asked for the tapes, which I said you were trying to cover up.

You said they were erased. Sure. Amazing. Like, then you say, okay, I want to move forward. And then you try and go for like a civil case. And then, you know what? Then they come to you and say, look, let's give you 10 grand. Just go away.

Not that we're doing anything, but we don't want to have to. We pay attorneys. And then you can start arguing that it's like, no, I want half a million. And then they go, ah, it's not going to happen. We might be able to get you 15,000. You see what I'm saying? like you go back and sure. And that's typically, if you get to that stage, that's typically when a lawyer suddenly steps

forward and say, my God, of course I'll help you. Oh, yeah, sure. Because they're already making offers. Oh, yeah. And I wish you told me this earlier. I would have helped you the whole weight. No, you wouldn't have. Sure, sure.

No, you're ready to step in and because you know this is going to be four phone calls and a mediation. And you're going to get me a check for 50 grand and you're going to take 20% of that. you know, they're going to take 10 grand. And that's worth, that's worth four phone calls and four hours of negotiation. You know, so it's worth 10 grand. Yeah. And then they're going to take any costs out of your end.

So there's another $500 to a thousand dollars. Right. But that's the best you've got coming. But you have to pursue it. Oh, I'm 1,000 percent. And that's, you know, that's kind of why I'm on this little bit of crusade that I am because, you know, the prison system. is messed up the the the the BOP I mean so I was in during COVID which was just the worst possible right well yeah and so I mean like our access to commissary was was bad so I was I went to FCI Loretto um they had me at um the USP first and I was there for a while um uh that went to the receiving and all that all the adjustments um um um that they do and they bounce you around in different placements.

And then Loretto is where finally they found a bed for us. And they shipped. So it was like five of us, you know, ended up going there. And that, see, the problem with that place is, is that, you know, yeah, it might be a low-level place, but it's where they put gang members. They have a gang unit there, which they are trying, They try to do programs to reform them, but they don't really do anything. It just gives them a place to congregate.

And they have a sex offender program there. So it's all where the sex offenders go. And so it was real hard for me because I'm a, you know, smaller white dude. You know, I'm coming in, you know, I, this was at a point where they had had an issue with, people carrying their paperwork around. So they actually, when you got there, they wouldn't give it to you. You couldn't request it. I luckily had some of mine already saved and I had them printed out and then mailed to me.

That ended up becoming a problem. And I finally ended up having to win on that one because I'm like, look, these guys are trying to say that I'm a sex offender. Right. I mean, my story's wild, you know, as it is. and I'm like, you know, nobody believes me. You know, I'm getting, you know, physically assaulted, you know, and it's, you know, like stuff's escalating. They didn't want to hear any of that.

They don't care, you know, and I had a, I had, our counselor was being investigated for a sexual, what is it called when, when you, you, are inappropriate with a co-worker. Oh, okay. Indiscretions or? Yes. Yeah.

He was, yeah. So they're, you know, married guy. He's obviously cheating on his wife. They, they know about it.

They keep, they keep this guy as a counselor. He knows his, his jobs on the line. You know, so he's not doing anything. He wasn't willing to help anybody. You know,

there was no home plan for me. And I was still on probation, unsupervised probation, in Virginia. So what did Virginia do? Immediately put a detainer on me. So that killed me for any of the programs. I was only supposed to do, I was only supposed to do six months and then go to a halfway house and finish my time out in a halfway house. They said, they put that detainer on me as soon as I got to BOP and that killed me. And so I did. And so they said to me, they're like, well, I made a scene in the, counselor's office when he told me he was like well you know you can't go to a halfway house you can't get that i'm like you know for what reason you know um why is this warrant there can you help me get the warrant off virginia responded and was like yep what nope you're gonna have to come here and go to court we're gonna have to transport you and so that's what they did they took me to some raggedy ass

you know a little county jail in uh northern pennsylvania left me there for two weeks came and got me brought me back down here and so i I've been home now. I did on the entire charge. I did almost two years. So it had been like 19 months. And so I've been home now since the middle of last year. What do you do now for a living?

And here's the thing. So it's been super hard to get a job. You know, I've been, I started a detailing company. So I was detailing airplanes again. and but because of the distinctions the court put on me, they told me I'm not allowed to be around an airport or live around an airport to be within a mile of an airport for the time that I was on supervised probation.

Right. So my probation was only a year. I did my entire probation. I was, you know, bouncing through odd jobs and stuff, working on cars and, you know, that, uh, when I finally got, off of probation, which I'm, you know, fully off of everything, you know, now state and federal,

you know, no but no conditions. You know, I started working on airplanes again. And I was, I moved to Florida back down, you know, down where my mom was. You know, that didn't last because every time somebody would run a background check on me, they'd see this and then they'd say, oh, well, you, you know, we can't put you on our insurance. or, you know, we don't hire felons. And, you know, I walk into every interview and tell them, hey, look, this is what I got on my record. Can you work with it? Right.

And so luckily, I found a repair shop down in San Marcos, Texas that, you know, I could move to. I'm a full-time RV guy, so, you know, I live, you know, I can pretty much pack up and go whenever I want. It's an all right deal. it's not really you know I don't know if if airplanes am working on them and all this stuff is really worth it because I don't know if I can get you know nobody can give me a correct distinct nobody can say whether or not I can have a certificate it's all gray area you know so I might be doing all this work you know and in logging all these hours you know in the hopes of trying to get a certificate go to get a certificate and then say absolutely not um so When someone requests or pulls my, if someone does a, pulls my, my criminal record, my background check on my federal case, I don't, it, my stuff doesn't come up.

Really? Yeah. So I'm wondering. And by the way, nobody I know does it come up. Oh, mine does. I've seen it. Okay. I was going to say, so I'm wondering.

I should actually, the background check I sent you should have it. Oh, okay. You know what I'm saying? Like I'm one. Yeah. I have now, I have seen, I have seen when, like if they just use like a regular Sterling company, like if Sterling, if Sterling, if somebody runs my background for, if like Sterling does it or, you know, one of those background check companies, they do it.

Now, they won't show up there if it's just a regular background check. But when it's, but for TSA and DOT, it always shows up. Yeah, I was going to say. So, like if you go to get a. apartment complex or you go to get a regular job. Oh, yeah. No, I try to get an apartment. Can't get an apartment.

Really? Because I've done that twice. Both times it came back. Like both times they said nothing came back. Like one guy I went and I said, this is what I've got. And the guy said, and I told him, I said, but it's, I said, it's federal and I've heard they don't show up. What should I do?

He is, don't put it down. He was let me run it first. So he ran it. He said, didn't even come up. He said, don't worry about it. And then the next time, same thing, never came up. So I've had it happen several times and it's never come up. And I have a couple buddies that have said the same thing.

But I've also had buddies who went to go get a job at a factory that made something for the federal government. So he had to have a security. And he said, no, I got nothing. I'm good. They came back. They said, nah. You're in federal prison for. I mean, I get said no.

To, you know, so I had a, I go to the interview for a job two weeks ago, you know, and everybody, you know, everybody's all excited. The money was super good. They were willing. They were giving me $30 an hour. You know, I'd be working putting in, you know, avionics and airplanes, which is something I'm super good at. And so the lady calls me back and so she's like, okay, she's like, what? You know, I got to run your background check. you know, we, you said you had a felony and, you know, it shouldn't be a problem.

And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So then she calls me back like about four hours later and she said, are you really a domestic terrorist? Oh my God. And I was like, are you kidding me? She was like, yeah, she was like, so they have a federal fire. This place had a federal firearms permit. And so the type of background check, I guess, is, you know, that they have the ability to run. You know, so she looked back.

And so she was like, yeah, she was. like, you know, it, it, your live scans all, she was like, you know, uh, and I had already made the move to Texas at that point, you know, I had already, you know, they had given me the, the sign on it bonus and everything, the money to move. I was like, all right, you know, I hooked up, came down here, go to start the job, go the first day. And then they're like, yeah, don't even go and do the drug test. They're like, you know, we have a federal firearms permit. We didn't know that it was all this. And I was like, well, you know, I told you. You know, it wasn't like I lied.

So, yeah, it's been super, it's been super hard to get a job. And I'm kind of getting to the point where, you know, I don't, there's got to be something else. You know, there's got to be something better than, you know, going through. And I mean, it's a lot of stress. It's a lot of work, you know, that's, you know, small airplanes too. You know, I love flying them, but I'm to the point where it's like, you know, I would love to do it as a high. and not it be the main way I make money. The problem is that my entire employment history is that.

So, you know, it's well, yeah. Dude, it's a story. I mean, it is. It's not good. It's not. What are you going to? What are you thinking?

You said you're detailing. Well, no, I mean, you know, I'm working for this repair shop now. You know what I mean? That's, I've started that and, You know, it seems to be, you know, everything seems to be fine. Dave, they ran the background. They, you know, he told me he's got, you know, guys working for him to have, you know, one guy's got, you know, a role violent record. Right.

You know, the other guys, you know, he's got a bunch of drug addicts and stuff down there. But he's got it, but the guys in his maintenance shop, I mean, all those dudes, they really know what they're doing. Right. All of those are straight, they're straight A guys. You know, some of the porters and things that, you know, I didn't do it in the parts. You know, some of them are the... And my, I was going to say, my ex-wife, when she pulls rent for her renters, when she pulls a criminal background check for the renters, you know, she's like, you have a felon.

And the guy's like, she had one guy. The guy said, I do. And be honest, you know, I did like 12 years in prison. And he was like, it was for murder. And she said, did you murder your landlord? And he was like, no. She's like, okay, well, I'm good with murder. She said, that's fine.

She said, I'm concerned about, you know, she was concerned about like drugs, you know, sex offender. You know, things like things like things that, you know, she's like, you know, rape. She's like that. Those are, she said, but she said, you got into a fight or shot somebody or whatever it was. She's like, you did. It's fine. So it's funny that she was like, unless it was your landlord. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you got to figure. So, well, I mean, like you said, you know, what about just being a mechanical, you know, being a. a car mechanic, right? Like that's... I mean, the problem, so, you know, I run into to this a lot, is that, you know, places where you have to work on things, they have insurance policies. And as soon as they, they look at my record, you know, every insurance company, you know, and I found this out the hard way. So my mom's an insurance agent, and we tried to get me business insurance. Like, we tried to

start my own company. Right. And I just try to get like a basic business insurance policy. And the insurance company said, we don't even know how, you know, like, you know, first of all, you got a criminal record so we can't, you know, insuring use damn near impossible. And their underwriter was, you know, kind of explaining to me, yeah, that, you know, that's, it's normally the reason why when when people say, oh, we had to run a background check, it's not because, you know, the company really cares. Right. It's because the insurance company.

And because they'll raise the premium up, you know, now they got to pay the premium for you. in a salary for you or you know whatever you know your wages they've got to now pay you a wage and you know i in a perfect world you know i would be you know doing this you know podcasting you know i'd just be talking and you know interviewing interest in people um i've tried to start a podcast um it's not really taken off um you know it's it's it's hard um um You know, but I definitely want to do something different. You know, I'm to the point where it's the money that I'm making and the money that I'm going to have to, you know, continue to make to be able to sustain a license and to be able to sustain a mechanic certificate. And then, you know, if the shop's going to require me to have my own insurance, and that's the other thing too.

So some shops require the mechanics to go and get their own policies. You know, especially if you're a contract guy. So, you know, this industry is not, I mean, and it's a fading industry too. You know, I mean, aviation is, I mean, there's with more automation, you know, more streamlined processes, you know, and less people, you know, flying small airplanes, which is kind of a damn shame. You know, people don't want to pay, you know, constantly. I've been at four shops in the last year. And, you know, it always boils down. People don't want to pay their bills,

which ends up meaning that the companies can't pay their guys. And so, you know, I would love to say that the industry is getting better. You know, I mean, things are getting cooler. Yeah, obviously, technologies are getting cooler. I can tell you what, safety is not getting cooler. Last year was by far the deadliest. year on record you know I buried four friends last year um from aviation incidences that all could have been could have been you know stopped right you know

two one of them was a doomed flight to begin with and somebody should have intervened and had to had to wear with all to say hey you guys need to not go you know a family would still kind of would be here so yeah it's it's and that's the other thing too you in this industry. You, it's, you know, I hate to equate it back to drugs, but I mean, it's almost as deadly as having friends that are drug addicts. Right. Their drug just as aviation, you know. Well, but do, thank you for, thank you for.

Okay, I was going to say, you feel like we covered everything? Yeah, I definitely feel like we covered everything. I was going to say, dude, this has been awesome, man. Thank you for giving me a chance to tell the story. Yeah. Um, and, uh, you know, thank you for taking an interest. Um, you're the first one that's actually allowed me to talk and allow me to, um, yeah, I'm curious to know what, uh, what Colby does with the intro. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You'll cherry pick some, some moments and come

out. So if, where, where do I, where do I find this? It's on all major, uh, platform, right? Yeah. It'll be on, uh, I mean, it'll be on, well, Spotify, including the, the video will be on Spotify. Okay. Cool. Because now you can upload video to Spotify too. Oh, really? Like the audio, the video, and then it'll be on YouTube. But that'll be that'll be that'll you know, Spotify obviously trickles down to other things. You know, Apple. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But, uh, but yeah, mostly it's it's YouTube that I focus on. You know, that's what the videos are kind of geared toward. Um, all right. Is this your main source of income now? Yeah. This is pretty much all I do.

I got, listen, I got another one here at four o'clock. I got two tomorrow. I got a guy. I got a lawyer that's driving up from Miami area. Who has, he's just hilarious.

Like he's a hilarious. He's a defense, you know, criminal defense attorney. He's, he's, he's just got one story after another. So he's going to come,

he's coming in person. Cool. The rest of them are stream yards. I typically do three stream yards. a week and one in person. But I have to schedule like seven. Right, right. And, you know, because people just, they just, they don't show or they, the last minute,

oh, I'm so sorry, you know, this happened or that happened. It's like, okay, that's cool. Right. And you have to try and reschedule. So do you, uh, you offer a subscription service like Patreon? I mean, I do Patreon. I do Patreon. Okay.

We do ask for Patreon. Um, but, but, you know, people either, they either sign up. They pay the 10, or they don't. Sure. Yeah. That's fine. I mean, it helps because by the end of the end of the month, it's several hundred dollars.

Like it's, you know, three, four hundred bucks. That's great because that's, yeah, that's a nice chunk of money, right? Yeah, for sure. And I would love to, I'd love to pick your brain kind of all fair on how, uh, on how you monetize this. Um, because, you know, I mean, this would definitely be something that, you know, I'm interested in. And I'm in a really good place for it, too.

You know, San Marcos isn't far away from Austin. You know, you know, I'm right down the road. So, you know, I would like to, I'd like to pursue, you know, podcast and maybe stand up or something like that. You know, I have, I have tons of stories, tons of, you know. Right. And, you know, a way to make it funny. So. Well, I think the, I think interviewing people through stream yard is like, it's an easy way to get content.

Sure. And so how do you, is this a paid for? The service. Yeah, your stream yard. Yeah, I think you pay two to two it's like two 50 or three hundred and fifty dollars a Um, a year. Oh, that's not bad. That's not bad. It's it's, I mean, you could do it monthly or you can just pay it outright. Uh, sure how much. I think it's a couple hundred two, three hundred bucks, something like that. Okay. Um, yeah, that's not, yeah, I mean, this is great.

And I see, I see that it has the live streaming capability too. Right. I need to start live streaming. I talked to a guy the other day that was telling me all he does is live streams. And he's making an ungodly amount of money. I don't even know how it's possible that he's making as much money as he is. Because the advertisers, so I have heard of that. That's a newer thing. So what the advertisers are doing is the advertisers are hammering.

They'll hammer the, you know, free ads around. Right. They're just able to, and it's just money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money. Because, you know, if you stream,

depending on how, you know, many viewers he's got, you know, if somebody clicks, I think those ones, you don't even, you get the money regardless if they click. So, but yeah, I would definitely like to pick your brain off air and try to figure out how to monetize my show. I made a Patreon. That's where I put that emergency episode up. The one that I sent you, I don't know if you watched the YouTube video that I sent you.

Right. I don't know which one, which one I watched. Um, they'd say only, there would only been one. Yeah, there was only only one video. Well, I watched one with you. Yeah, yeah, that was me. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, that's the only. Yeah, that's the only. Yeah, that's the only one. Yeah, yeah. So I had had a guy, well, you know, I mean, that they shut the Patreon down. Why? I have somebody called instead of that, um, somebody called, I guess that somebody called the FAA, the FAA and made a complaint and said that I was making a show where I was given flying advice and that I wasn't qualified to do it. And so and then they the FAA called made the complaint to Patreon and said that I was spread misinformation, that I wasn't qualified to talk about what I was talking about. Well, here's the thing. Patreon shuts the page down, but there was no content on the page. I didn't even put uploaded anything. So I was like, you guys tried to stop this before I got started.

Like, and I mean, it was, it was wild. And what it was was, was, the guy that was disgruntled that I worked for that was disgruntled that he called me the complaint and he used to work for the FAA so you know and I guess he had them call Patreon and it was down for like two days I was in the process of uploading you know an episode I did with a buddy of mine and I went to go up I went to go log in and then it said something about verifying the account so then I verified the account

and then Patreon said, then it came back with an error message. It said that my ability to upload has been temporarily suspended. Please call. And so, I mean, that lasted for like four days. And I just got real mad. And so I made that episode. I made that episode.

And I was like, all I'm going to at least cover, you know, all the stuff I wanted to. And that, of course, was very rough. I mean, but, and I did it in haste, obviously. So, but yeah, I mean, I really like this stream lab. about this. This is a pretty cool way to do it. Hey, if you guys like the episode, do me a favor. Hit the subscribe button. Hit the bell so you get notified videos just like this.

Also, please consider joining my Patreon. All of my book links are in the description. And we are going to put Ryan's YouTube page in the description also. So if you want to check out his YouTube, really appreciate you guys. See you.