Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - The Downfall Of A Home Town Hero | Sheriff Arrested

Episode Date: August 25, 2023

The Downfall Of A Home Town Hero | Sheriff Arrested

Everything's going good. I'm married two kids. The swearing in of it was huge. I mean, it was standing room only. People came out of the woodwork to come see me get sworn in. I did some pretty unique things where people writing articles about it. I had the first ever taxpayer hero award in the state of Ohio because I was saving money and rehabilitating inmates. And things were going really good. I mean, really good. And then I was diagnosed with arthritis in 2010. I broke both of my ankles as a kid. And I ended up going to a specialist, and they gave me 105 vacant a month. You know, trying to be a father, a husband, and the sheriff of a county, we get three kids that fall through the ice in the mouth of the river. So I race out there. We get the boat out in that. We lose all three of the kids. They drowned in front of us.

So what do I do? I get help for everybody else. I don't get help for Kyle. So between that and then my marriage is starting to struggle, the amount of Vicodin start to really climb. Different doctor, a couple different doctors, and everybody trusted me. I was the sheriff, you know? Right. Who would ever think that the sheriff would be in it?

That night at 6.30, I get a phone call. You better turn yourself in. I said, what's up? They got a 43 count indictment on you. So they locked. me up. I went interned myself in. I locked me up. Yeah, they locked me up. Here's the sheriff. In your county?

They booked me there and then they took me to adjacent county. What is the, what is the fucking staff doing? They got to be walking around going like, they were. Holy shit. They were like, oh, I go to take my son to school. He says, and I'll never forget this. He's like, Dad, am I going to see you after school? I said,

Dylan, I got this. I said, watch me. I I'll see you after school. Hey, this is Matt Cox, and I am here with Kyle Overmire. He is the former sheriff of, I don't know what county, but he was a sheriff of that county for eight years. We're going to find out. And he was, what were you indicted for?

Dr. Shopping and theft of drugs. doctor shopping and theft of drugs all right not your typical sheriff so this is going to be a good video and it's going to be a good interview whatever all right thank you check this out uh you're gonna you're gonna like this it's good he's a character first of all do you know who sheriff uh gradie judd is uh sheriff judd gradie i think sheriff judd i think sheriff

Grady. Grady Joad. Grady Joe. That name's familiar, but I don't know for sure. Brown hair, glasses. He does, he's the sheriff of Polk County. Oh, okay. You know, and he's constantly doing, he does press conferences where he makes fun of the, the, like, he'll be like, this, this joker, you know, and then he'll do a whole.

Right. He's, he should get him on here. Hilarious. I should. I always love when, listen, I hate to say this, but I love it when there's some homeowners shot somebody for breaking in he's like he's like and he's he'll go and he shot him he said unfortunately he didn't kill him and the man got away so we're looking for and he'll tell him he's like we've we've offered to have the homeowner come and take one of our classes so the next time somebody tries to break into

his house he kills him because that's what we do in bulk county he's a good he's a good oh boy's he's great yeah no and that's what you need to hear you need to hear those things he's awesome That makes you want to, like, live in the United States. Yeah, right? He's, I love him. I'm sure most people don't, but anyways, or some people don't. I think people in Florida do, but all right, so he might cut that out. I never know.

Okay, so I have a question for you, so real quick, which is, where were you born? Fremont, Ohio, Sandusky County. All right, and, I mean, brothers, sisters. One sister. My parents are still alive and married over 50-plus years. Okay. And my father, actually, 38 years in law enforcement. Nice.

Fowled in his footsteps, unfortunately. Kind of. Kind of. Yeah, kind of, sort of. Yeah. Well, so you went to, you know, any problems in high school? No, not really. I mean, my parents, they sent me through a private Catholic school, played.

sports, football, wrestled, boxed, I was an average athlete. Always struggle with that. I always wanted to be, but, you know, kind of being short. Right. You know, comes into one of the biggest factors. But, yeah, I mean. Fucking tall people. Exactly.

Exactly. But I, yeah, I played sports, got pretty good grades. But, you know, of course, I experimented with drinking, you know. And I never thought I could do it. you know, be good enough for my father, actually. Right. You know, always struggle with that, you know, being good enough. But, no, I had a great childhood.

Did you, I mean, like growing up, going through high school, did you think you were going to be law enforcement? Like, was that something in your mind? Like, oh, that's what I'm doing. No, no, not at all. I was going to be an artist. You know, I painted, draw. Yeah, kind of like you.

Yeah. I was big into that and found myself after graduating. and I went to and majored in art for two years at the University of Toledo. Nice. Why didn't you didn't stick with it though? I didn't see any money. I hear you, bro. It was the same thing.

I was like, I'm never going to make any money doing this. Yeah, I didn't see any money. I started partying a lot. You know, I became, you know, I got into bodybuilding and started being kind of a meathead and didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, you know. Yeah, that certainly doesn't fit in with the fine arts college. No. No, no. I went from, I had long hair for a short time. Both of my ears peers went through that progressive stage trying to find Kyle Overmeyer and I lost him up in Toledo and bailed out of college. Yeah. Yeah. I, when I was like going to college and realizing like four of my classmates like lived in a one bedroom together and that these other guys are sharing a car and these guys are taking the bus to school. And I was like, these guys are broke and they're okay. with it. Like I remember thinking, I can't compete with that. Like, I have to be able to make a living. Like, these guys are okay sleeping in someone's spare room. Like, they were okay with that. I was like, yeah, I'm never going to be able to compete with these guys. Right, right. So I did the same thing. When I, I just did it for a degree. And then I said, I got to go for some kind of business or something that's going to make some money. Right. So it sounds like you did it halfway through college. You figured it out. Yeah, but I bailed out. Didn't go back to college right away. I worked in odd factory jobs bouncing around.

and you know always saw that you know my father could put a roof over our house and feed us with law enforcement he was very respected in the community so I even went to him and said you know what I'm going to get in the law enforcement he said you're crazy don't do it and I didn't listen to him I put some money together and I paid my way through the police academy okay how much was that oh I think back then it was like 3,500 bucks and they don't give they don't have like a like student loans uh no no No, not through that because it was such a short term. It was only like six months. You go through it to about four days a week and you're out and you're back in rolling again. So you basically have like a certificate and then you go and you apply for different departments. Yes. And were you hired at the same place your dad? I was.

It took me three times though. The sheriff then who I'll get into talking about him quite a bit. He was kind of hesitant because I had a wild side to me. to still go out and party and, you know, I'd fight. You know, I, you know, I was a wild child still. You know, I wasn't afraid to go out and have a lot of fun. Has you been arrested? No, no.

How does he know that? Because when you're in a smaller community sometimes, people, you know, word of mouth. And then after the third try, they gave me the nod and they hired me in corrections, actually. Oh, okay. Yeah, I started in corrections. That's where a lot of people start there. Yes, it's like entry level, like unless you come out of the military or something, a lot of the guys go, because it's, it gets you.

into the bureaucracy, into handling people. Right, right. And, yeah, getting to actually know the people in the streets because you're dealing with the same people in and out, in and out, you know, daily, monthly, you see the same people, and then you interact with them and then eventually you do on the streets. Right.

My God. Sorry, I was just thinking the nicknames. Tea dog. What's up? What's up? You know, what's up, 336? What's going on? Yeah.

My God. Pookie. Yeah, they all got, everybody got nicknames. Down here, it's, it's like, it's like Billy Bob, you know, Jim, you know, whatever, oh, gosh. Skeeter. There's a lot of skaters. Skeeter's making meth in the single wife. I kind of figure out.

So, okay, so how long did you do, were you in the jail? Corrections, only about three and a half years. And I got the opportunity to be promoted to road patrol. And during that time, I got real serious about law enforcement. I went back. I got my two-year degree in criminal justice. I went back for that and then met my first wife, actually. Okay.

She was in school? She was. She graduated. She was a school teacher, actually. And that was back in, actually, in 99, got married. And I was working on Road Patrol. And then shortly after, within the same year, one day before I won a year anniversary, She had our first child, my daughter, Michaela, actually.

So we had a perfect little civil servant family. Yeah, a school teacher, you know, a cop, and you got a daughter and, you know, lived in a nice house. We bought a house and living the All-American life at first, you know. Right. And then while I worked in Road Patrol, I got pretty serious into drug interdiction. The crack cocaine epidemic was really big in our community. What year was this? 99 to 2000 2000 is when I went to the road patrol and things were really starting to pick up we had a lot of people from Detroit to Mississippi Chicago coming up setting up shop and so I got pretty active on the streets and also I was in I was on the SWAT team as well so I took a liking to the whole drug interdiction taking the dope boys off the streets right and I then decided I'm like I'm going to

take this up a level and I went back I went back to college then right and finished my bachelor's in business administration like you don't seem to me like you would be able to like to me you would pull up and they'd be like cop like as you know as a as a undercover remember who was the chick's name that we that do you remember the chick that we did uh she does crime clean up now yeah she was super clean cut like like she looked actually she was a little little aggressive looking but but are you know very like she she she looked like a cop though too she definitely looked like a cop too but people would look at me and think i and think cop like i don't i can you being undercover well at that time i went from road patrol then i got actually i got

promoted to the detective bureau for a short time okay i was a sergeant i almost left and went federal actually and that's where the sheriff then came to me and said no I'd I'd really like you to stay because you have some talent here into this drug interdiction I almost left and went to the federal system because I obtained my bachelor's degree and you need that to get a federal job and when he dangled the carrot in front of my face to promote me as rank I jumped on the opportunity what does that mean and I was a sergeant at the age of 27 which is very young there and then within a year because I started getting involved with other agencies, boarding up houses, businesses that were selling drugs out of them

and making a real impact in the community. He promoted me to captain. I was top of the food chain, actually. Okay. At 28 years old, very young. Okay. Can we go back to the undercover thing again? Yeah, well, we're getting there right now.

Oh, okay. Yeah, we're evolved. Did I jump ahead? He built some of the nation's largest banks out of an estimated $55 million because $50 million wasn't enough, and $60 million seemed excessive. He is the most interesting man in the world. I don't typically commit crimes, but when I do, it's bank fraud. Stay greedy, my friends.

Support the channel. Join Matthew Cox's Patreon. During that time, my first undercover, I made some small buys. I actually would go out and make some small. small buys, and then before even the whole big drug undercovers that I would do, we got a rash of large-scale burglaries that people were stealing cabotas, tractors, lawnmowers, and we ended up flipping, which street terms were turning somebody into an informant or a snitch. Right.

We had a guy that we had probably with about 30 to 50 felony charges of these theft. And here it was an organization of a group of boiler makers, actually, guys, businessmen that actually had some money and they were hiring, you know, guys that were hooked on drugs to go out steal. They'd turn around and resell the stuff and make a bundle of money, and they didn't need the money. So what happened was that guy then introduced me to the ringleader who lived outside the county who didn't know. And so I started running around stealing stuff with these guys. So when you say a boiler, they were running. a boiler they were selling they had a phone guys on phone on the phone calling to sell the stolen goods correct okay yeah yeah and they had great jobs they were businessman they were basically doing us on

the side to pocket extra cash so you can never have enough cash no i know i know cash is king i really know i know everybody always says you know you were already making two three hundred thousand a year and it's like what you've been another hundred thousand well then you spend that you need to make more money yeah but you don't know that when you're in it no no you know and besides those they probably felt felt like they were insulated i mean those are the guys doing the stealing they did and you're no you're right you're right and it's like the guy driving the the getaway car is like hey these guys are robbing banks how do you know because i'm driving the getaway car so i'm not involved at all right right right that makes sense um so so all right so you you run around and you're you're stealing stuff

with the guys i was i was i was one of them i actually i went by the name of bert Burt was my name, and I would go meet with these guys and go deliver the property. They would give us money. But they're crackheads. Well, no, we were taking it. I went right to the businessman. I went to the top. And I was with these guys that were, you know, basically crackheads.

And they were. So the informant introduces you to the head guys. Correct. And I become one of them. You start selling the stuff for him, giving them the stuff. They're trying to sell it. Yep. I mean, is this stuff that's already like you guys already have like in the evidence room or something?

No. No, no, I actually went out and stole stuff from places, like farm machinery place. Yeah, I'd go out and do it with them and go out and with them and then go deliver it and get the money. Well, what about the farmer? We would go and actually sit down and have a one-on-one with the farmer. After? Listen. Yes, and tell them.

My bad. Yeah, and tell them how. And then they were really happy with us because we're protecting them. So eventually it had all come to an end. And they swooped in on all of us one night. And I was actually arrested and taken in and booked at a county jail. And you go in the county jail with them through the whole thing? Yeah.

And Burt. Yep. Burt went in and then, of course, they slid. Do you see people you know? No, they slid me out of there later and got me out of there. But it made it look good. Right. So now these guys have no clue, really.

So they took, they took Burt. They're probably like they took Burt. They had no clue. They moved Burt. They had no clue until the date of court when I walk in. And they said, Burt. and he looks in Burt, and I said, no, I'm Detective Captain Overmire.

And then, you know what? Oh, Bert. Take the deal. What have you done? Take the deal. Take the deal. They took the deal. What kind of deal?

I don't even remember. Doesn't it seem like, I hear some of these things, like, you know, they're like, you're like trying to get the guy to take like five years or something. It's like five years. That's nothing. Like, in these, I'm not doing five years. Is it five? Not compared to what you did.

You've been stealing. You've been stealing for six, for, not for, for two years, you know, people don't realize, like, you go on to, like, the, the fine, the prison sentence you can get for, like, going on to, like, a construction site and stealing, like, an earth mover or a bulldozer. So, like, it's massive. You get into tons of trouble for that. Oh, yeah. Well, that's tons of money. Can you imagine the money they're making? I can remember when the copper thing, everybody was stripping cop.

copper out of newly constructed all that and then catalytic converters people are going crazy over that stuff yeah yeah i have i actually know a guy that got caught he was stealing a commercial equipment they were stealing it putting on the big rigs or putting on the rigs and then driving to several states over and then they would sell it anyway he did like five years for that you know yeah well this was back in like the 70s when you got no time at all oh wow like you probably got like 10 years he probably got like 10 years and got out in four or five years um but anyway yeah Sorry, go ahead. Now you do Buck Rogers time, you know.

Yeah, it's insane. Yeah, it's all different now. Poor Colby. He doesn't know. So you were doing that and the guys take the deal and then what happens? Then I keep doing a lot of, you know, narcotics investigation. End up getting into a situation where it starts out as a decent-sized ecstasy deal where this guy wants to flip, so I flipping, and he runs into a multiple, multiple kilo cocaine operation.

By accident. That wasn't even what he was doing. We didn't think we were going to, we bumped into. So we worked a lot with the state agency, BCI, and I, who actually ended up busted me. And the DEA. So that guy then, he wants to cooperate. So we go in for a meeting one day with him and everybody, all the agents, we're going to do a, a joint operation, and they said, well, we want you to introduce you to somebody. And they point at one of the guys sitting there that they usually use for undercover.

And he said, no, he looks like a cop. And he goes, they said, oh, he goes, well, who don't? And he points at me. And he says, I want that guy right there. And he pointed at me. And I'm like, you scream cop to me. But go ahead. Well, I had my head shaved bald.

I had a beard. I played the part pretty well. I was a lot heavier, too. Okay. So I partnered up with him. And ran around with him, did a lot of Western unions, shipping money over to Mexico, making all kinds of phone calls, buys,

even one of the biggest buys, 17 kilos of cocaine at one time. Okay. And we would rent a storage unit. The guy would roll in. We dropped the door and break the tire down. Of course, you know, they patch it down and everything like that. And break the tire down, and you could get 17 keys out of a,

attire okay and it was good cocaine still had the stamp on it coming straight from Mexico so when you buy the cocaine yeah I mean who where's that money come from that's got to be a chunk of money but what's the feds you know the the authorities they you know and what a lot of times they'll let some money go but other money um you'd wait so far you know a couple states away and oh bust them say they track that follow the money So it doesn't look. Right, right. And you don't get hurt.

Just before it goes over the border, they fucking grab. Yeah. I mean, you probably know as well as I do from your experiences, you win some, you lose some. Yeah. It's the cost of doing business. Yeah. And so. Well, they're printing the money themselves anyway.

Yeah. Right. Exactly. And but other than that, the dope boys, they got plenty of dope. Yeah. And they're going to lose some, but they're going to make a lot of money. Yeah. So, and that's how we would do it.

It was pretty simple. And I was pretty good at what I did. I was a great talker. I could, uh, I had the gift of gab and I had no problem buying dope. Okay. How long did you do that? About two and a half, three years worked in it. It was undercover operation. We did that. Um, you know, I did that along with actually my detective work too as a normal detective. So I was jumping back and forth. We'd go out a lot in the middle of the night, um, doing buys, you know, I mean, it was, you don't do this in your county, right?

I did some in my county because these guys were coming out of state too. They didn't know what I was. So you're not going to bump into them at Walmart. Correct. Correct. So that lasted up until, well, actually, it leads me to what all happened. But the sheriff who was elected then, he was very impressed with what I've done and where I was headed. And I was, you know, then I was in my 30s, early 30s.

And he came to me one day and he's like, you know, you're doing all this stuff. And you could be me someday. And, you know, he was in his 60s. And I said, well, you know, I might be interested in that, but, you know, you're going to be sure for a while. So probably a week after that talk, he dies of a heart attack. Oh. So I'm 34 years old. Well, he, like, kind of must have felt it was coming, right?

To even have that conversation. Well, I'm kind of wondering because he, why would he have that? It was kind of eerie and spooky. It was about a week prior. And so, and then there was rumblings. He had talked about it. You either run as a Republican or a Democrat in Sundusky County. And I was a Republican.

He had me involved with the Republican Party because he had this idea. And I would go to the events and stuff. And then he passed away. And I thought, uh-oh, what am I going to do now, you know? And the Republican Central Committee came to me. And they said, you know, Sheriff Gangward had mentioned. Hey, we'd like Kyle to someday, you know, take over. Right.

You know, but you're only 34 years old. Right. What do you want to do? And I went then when I was still, I was married. I had two kids at the time. I had my son Dylan at the time, too. I had a daughter and a son. And it was a big, it was a big move to even think about doing that because you could

lose your job because it's an appointed position. You get somebody else that gets mad at you. They're going to push you out of there. Right. So it came down between myself and a 30-year veteran. Okay. And in September of 2008, I ended up running an emergency appointment. It started out as an appointment to an election, and I won unanimously.

They picked me over the 30-year veteran at 34 years of age. Okay. And at that age... But that's to run. I was... Then, and then I had to run. Then you still have to run. And then nobody ran against me.

Which was nice. Oh, okay. Yeah, which was good. Yeah. Because I think what they saw was, oh my gosh, they appointed this guy 34. He must have something. Right.

So it gave me some clout is what it did. Okay. And. But can't anybody could, like a regular citizen can run. No. There are certain requirements in the state of Ohio and from, and they're very strict. And I had every one of them. Oh, okay.

Everyone, even from a bachelor's degree to rank for so long, the sheriff was thinking what he wanted. wanted to do with me and line he lined me right up okay all right because I was a sergeant a captain and I had a and I had a college degree too on top of it so it worked out great so at 34 I was the youngest sheriff in the whole state of Ohio how long had you been a deputy at this point well from 96 and that was 2008 not very long okay okay so not 96 to 99 that's so just over 10 years, right? You said 96 to 98, so 10, 12 years. That's not that long, 34 years old. Right. It's very unheard of, actually, right, to run you. But it's not like

you don't know how things are running. Correct. I work in every division. Right. I was going to say, because if you come in, like, you come in after a year or two, like, I'm still not sure how any of this was really working. Like, how many police officers were there? I had, I had, um, I ran a jail. I had a, that was my thing. I had a jail. A detective bureau, a communication center, a civil office, and a detective bureau. I mean, I had a lot going on, man. Is that 50 people? Oh, no, it's over 100.

Oh, plus you have over 100 inmates, you know. Okay. And it's 24-7 operation. My budget was over $4 million. Right. And I had to figure out how to budget that. I had, and then with my deputies, I had two unions, and I had helped negotiate unions every three years, and that was a pain in the ass.

Right. Yeah. So everything's going good? Everything's going good. I'm married, two kids. The swearing in of it was huge. I mean, it was standing room only. People came out of the woodwork to come see me get sworn in as a new sheriff.

It's a big hype. You know, there hadn't been a sheriff, even though the one passed away. He was a great man. I mean, he supported me a million percent. And, but when I came in, it was like, boom. I was on cloud nine. I'm not going to lie. I mean, I started to get a big head, you know.

I mean, I started to get a big ego. I had things going on, you know. But during that time was 2008, all the foreclosures were coming in. The budget, I had a big budget crunch. I had to cut like 300,000 out of my budget, which killed me. Which is probably already strapped. It was. It was.

But I didn't want to have to lay off deputies. So I had to figure out and think outside the box, how I was going to figure things out. I mean, I even went as creative as I had my own inmate garden. Right. I had my inmates raising their own vegetables, helping feed them. I even had my own chicken coop there, to tell you the truth. I did some pretty unique things where people were writing articles about it. I had the first ever taxpayer award in the state of Ohio because I was saving money and rehabilitating inmates.

and things were going really good. I mean, really good. And then during that time, I was diagnosed with arthritis in 2010. I broke both of my ankles as a kid. And it was agonizing all the time. I get sick and tired. I would go on vacations with my wife and kids.

And we'd go hike, and it would just kill me. So I ended up going to a specialist, and they gave me 105 vacant in my. month and so I started taking those and that was you know good for the pain and things were good for the first year too and but then came along what really screwed me up one night I just got home from vacation we were down here in Florida actually tell you truth in Fort Myers with my wife and children get back on a Sunday and get a phone call that there's a man with a loaded shotgun in a home.

I'm going to kill his family. And, of course, they're... In Ohio. Correct. Okay. Yeah. And I'm back. I'm back.

And so they call a sheriff right away because it's out in the county and I have to handle it. So immediately, I get my family home. I was with my family when I got to call. And I will never forget my daughter's like, this sounds bad, dad. I'm like, Michaela, I've dealt with this stuff before. This is, this is easy. Proceed.

Can't get him out of the house. I got the SWAT team out there. He's, uh, he had just gotten out of prison not too long ago. He did a drive-by shooting and shouldn't even have a firearm under the influence. He's already in a shitload of truck. Correct. Like he, and he doesn't want to go back to prison. No, no.

Can't get him out of there. So I'm like, we need to go and get him. Right. So even with myself, I went into. I'm trained. I know what I'm doing. If my men were going to go in, I'm going in with them. That was kind of like my rule of thumb.

Right. and throw a flashbag in, we get her. He pulls a shotgun on us and we kill him. Right. And that hit me pretty hard. And, of course, we didn't want to kill that guy, of course. And the family is upset with us. I'm upset.

I'm like, man, you know, this is all on me now. We didn't want to do that. You know, he pointed a shotgun. You know, of course I had to put the two guys that were ahead of me that actually pulled the trigger. I went in with them, but I didn't have to pull the trigger, but I was right with them. Put them off on duty, you know, until we got things figured out. We even had to go through a grand jury to find out if it was a justified shooting or not. It was a tough time.

And I could never forget waking up that day the next morning because it went in the late hours because we were going to have a press conference in the media. I looked at myself in the mirror. man, I was like, I can't believe the shit's going on. Because the family was just, they were mad at us. They protested twice up and down the State Street, holding up signs. Kyle Overmire, Brian's blood is on your hands. I mean, nasty stuff.

The media was after us. We had a newspaper, a local newspaper, just crucified us, especially me, any time they could get a chance. The guy did a drive-by shooting. He's in the house with a shot. gun he will not come out right what what like what what else what were you supposed to do well back off let him slowly slip away right you know or sleep it off no because he we're going to still put him to danger so we had all those questions right you're asking matt and you know it got to the point where um we finally got justified in our shooting right and i took care of my guys i oh i got them

help you know i got consulers and the stuff i don't take care of myself so okay it's i'm struggling with it and uh then myself and the other deputies get a 20 million dollar lawsuit slapped on us so we're facing 20 million next this is from the family yes federally it was a federal lawsuit and so that's going on who who pays who who who who who who pays for your attorneys? Like this is through the... The county. Okay.

But if the $20 million, they sued me personally too. Right. But the county still, you thought you didn't have to go get your own lawyer. No, I didn't. No, I didn't. Okay. But if I would have found, you know, and I'll tell you how. But if you lose, it's on me.

It's on you. Correct. Right. And, you know, where am I going to get $20,000? Right. So we're going through that. And then, ironically, another Sunday, we get a call. And, you know, I'm.

I'm still struggling with this and, you know, trying to be a father, a husband, and the sheriff of a county. We get three kids that fall through the ice in the mouth of the river. So I race out there. We get the boat out in that. We lose all three of the kids. They drown in front of us. So what do I do? I get help for everybody else.

I don't get help for Kyle. So between that and then my marriage is starting to struggle. go, the amount of Vicodin start to really climb. Right. As time going on, that 105 would only last maybe two weeks. It'd be gone. And so I had to figure out how to take care of Kyle Overmeyer mentally. So, I mean, I didn't want to think I was an addict because the doctor was prescribing them.

It wasn't like I was going on the street corner and saying, hey, you know, I need a pill. I need a pill. No, no, no. The doctor was given a trained physician who was educated. I had a prescription. Yeah, exactly. So it's not a drug. So I got to the point where I had my jail doctor.

I would manipulate him. I'd say, hey, I hurt my back. I graduated percocets. They became my favorite thing. The little percocet, I loved them. And then I would go from a different doctor, a couple of different doctors, and everybody trusted me. I was the sheriff, you know. You would ever think that the sheriff would be in it.

But it was interesting because I could get a doctor so easy that I would text them. And they would text me back and say, go to my office. That script will be waiting. I didn't even have to go see them. Right. I got at the point. So. Does your, at that point, did your state have the requirements that the doctors notify the state database that you, or they did?

The Hors report. Yes. I'll talk. Yeah, I'll tell you about the. I was going to say that. And how, I mean, how do you think that's going to catch up with you? Well, and I didn't think because I thought I was Teflon, man. I thought I was Teflan.

I was the sheriff. I was Kyle Ofermeyer. I mean, my ego got big and I would go. I would get mine from a specialist, that I would go to the multiple doctors. But shit, sometimes that would run out. So I had to start getting really creative. So we had this countywide take back stuff where the community would come and throw away all the pills. right so we had like the hub there at the county because we were the main place and they could they could get rid of their stuff there and store it so i took it upon myself as the sheriff because you know i would come out with a program we're looking for specifically per cassette 50s you know that's a good idea matt i'll have to write that one now we're paying pharmaceutical prices for anybody it turns it really would like one

If you could just have one. If you just drop off one. No, no, you're right. So I went to the point where I went around personally to the agencies and said, here, I'll pick him up. I'll dispose of them. He's just being a good guy. I'm being a great guy. Just people helping people.

Yeah. And I was really helping myself. I was like putting the kid that was putting his hand in the cookie jar. Yeah. And so I was getting high off that too. I had to. I mean, if not, I was going to get sick. I mean, I could tell.

And, yeah, I got so creative. I mean, and unfortunately, it, you know, as you well know, and when you're in, you know, I went from fighting crime to being in a life of crime, so to speak. I even started stealing from my parents. My parents, you know, both of them went to ping, you know, for pain management and stuff. I went as far as I knew when my dad would pick up his prescription. So I would, dad, I'll go get it for you. I'm going to be a good son.

And you know how they staple? Yeah. I carried a stapler in my car to I mean bending the stapler Exactly to make it look I would hey

lining up the I was I was so bad I even did that I mean I mean and figure out when my parents weren't home so I could go into their house and steal their pills

I mean I was a real piece of work I mean lying cheating stealing I mean like my daughter when she got her wisdom teeth pulled, I'll take care of the prescription.

I was going to say, Doc, you know what's real, which it really works well with her. Right. Perkinses are better than Vicodin. Perkinses. Yes. Those are really the crowd pleasers. Right.

So, I mean, it just, yeah, I mean, I would never then would have said, I'm an addict. Right. I was in total denial. No, I couldn't be the, I couldn't be. the, I couldn't be. Who in the hell would ever thought the sheriff of the county, especially me? I mean, I walked around with a Kool-Aid smile. Everybody thought I was on, I mean, and of course I did because I was high.

But, I mean, and it was interesting. I mean, I'd go for speaking engagements, Matt. I mean, I'd have pills in my uniform pocket. I mean, from the day I, from the moment I woke up, I was taking perkinset's until I went to bad. Right. so and then but then luckily you went to rehab and you kicked the habit and now you're here talking to me and that's that's the whole story I didn't go to rehab no I know so so what so how many times did you so during this whole course are you being reelected like you're still running yeah yeah so I got reelected for two terms four years apiece yeah I was going I was rolling I was rolling strong And, uh, and live in a life of a lie. Right.

Yes. Um, yeah. So during that time, using, using, using. And then on February 3rd, 2015, I go to pick up one of my prescriptions for my Vicodin. And I go, everybody knows me. I go to the same pharmacy. And, um, I go to go up. I'm here to pick up my script.

And she says, hey, I'm here to pick up my script. Kyle, can I talk to you over the side real quick? And I'm like, yeah, so I'm thinking. This is a pharmacist? Yes. And I know her, Leslie. She's a great woman. And she says, I want to talk to you aside.

And I said, no, I want to talk to your side. So I'm thinking, you know what, somebody's probably buying Sudafed and she's going to turn me on to some fucking junkies. You have cooking math. Right. And I'm like, oh, okay, okay. You know, she says, hey, I got to call all those doctors you've been getting Viking and Perkiss that's from.

I said, huh? Now, I played dumb and stupid, but, you know, but my, everything is down to my stomach. I'm like, holy shit. So she's saying, I have to call them.

Correct. Okay. And notified. Because she looked it up and, or was notified. On what you were talking about. Yeah, yeah.

The Orr's report to show I was getting them from multiple doctors. Right. I had been red flagged. That's what they call it. And I'm like, oh. And I'm like, okay and she's like you're done you can't this is done so this scared me so much matt i went home i didn't tell anybody about this i had one vicaran left and you're where that viking went

what i mean down the toilet okay i went cold turkey and during that time when i was married to my first wife and my kids would go to school because she was a school teacher my kids would go to school I'd put my uniform on like I was going to work and she'd go to school the kids would go to school I'd turn around because I manipulated my schedule being the boss I'd take my vehicle and pull it in the garage and put it out I'd come sleep in the mornings to detox myself right I was a mess I was going to meeting sometimes and I'd be not because I was getting so sick because I didn't have I didn't have the Percocets or the Vicodin anymore right and I and I had to hide this and I was I was researching stuff so much on the computer like how can I get through

this and stuff even like sup I mean I was like desperate but I stayed the course I mean I really stayed the course so how long did that take oh my gosh I mean up until the big spot I was still struggling mentally with it so I mean several months I mean to get that out of your system And they say the fog of that takes 18 months for the opiates to get out of your brain. And I believe that I can see that from what I went through. So that's 2015 and I'm coming up for re-election for the primary again. Well, Kyle, I'm pretty, you know, I'm still out there being myself. I'm cocky.

I'm doing my thing. Nobody not figuring anything out. Well, wait a minute. What about the report? So it got red flagged. Like, has it been shifted to the DEA or anything? Nothing. No, no.

No, no. Well, listen, not yet or nothing. So what happened was then I'm getting ready to run for re-election again. Well, I was a Twitter guy too. And so I'm on Twitter. I go by a young sheriff. Right. I had fun and I had rappers following me, porn stars.

I was following porn stars. One of my favorite was Jenna Jameson. And she even reached out to me, tell you truth, because her father was a cop, in the crazy. So this gets thrown out. the media what I'm running for that sheriff of the county follows porn stars oh my guy

my wife was just like what is wrong with you blah blah blah I'm like they're human too they're making taxes her dad was law enforcement yes so Jamerson who I didn't know yes and so I did I said

I mean I have such a nice person so I said oh I must have accepted or like you know followed them by mistake They had articles about it trying to ruin me. Well, actually, people were coming up to me saying, hey. Yeah. I like you, man. You're cool.

I watch porn and all this stuff. And I'm like, okay. I like that rapper. You know what I mean? This guy. I was getting street credit out of it, actually. Right. So I go into the.

Probably not voters, but. I did. Listen to this. I win the primary. Right. 62% of the votes. Okay. A landslide.

I still got the newspaper article. of it showing it on the landslide they tried to crush me and I'm like well I'd rather I'm trying to crush me with that than my dirty little secret yeah yeah so it's getting time and um my marriage is rocky but I of course I hide that because you want to be the all-American sheriff and family man and you know what nobody to know anything I'm still struggling mentally I'm not going to lie I mean do I still am I still thinking about percasses every damn day right right I mean, they're still, you know, like sugar plums dancing in my head, you know. And I hate to say it.

They were. And I can just see the TikTok now where it's a picture of it. The guy puts little little sugar plumb. Go ahead. And I'm running then for the general. I get a phone call. You're over the general election. Because then I have two more opponents coming.

Okay. And that's coming. up close to the fall and I get a phone call from prosecutor the state prosecutor the county prosecutor okay he's like hey we need to talk and I'm like and I get along with you great I mean we're cool yeah I'm like so he's like come up my office so oh man I'm like what's up yeah man they're looking into you dude I'm like why well they're going to run this or his report on you they said yeah I'm like no man no You know, I'm still in denial.

Yeah. I'm holding into my story. No, it's, I said, you know what? They're out to get me. They want, somebody wants my job bad. I said, they already tried the porn star thing. That didn't work. So they're going to try this now.

So I go with the flow. It's a deep state. Huh? It's the deep state. Yeah. So, so I'm going, I'm in denial. Shit ain't going to happen to me. I think I'm, I still think I'm a tough line.

And they put the dogs out. They started really combing and doing it. And I'm getting phone calls and they're investigating you, okay. And then August 23rd, 2016 comes. They were going to take it all to a grand jury. I didn't know what they had. I thought I had it in the bag. So we had our first day of our opening county fair,

the Syski County Fair, which is a big thing for anybody that's an elected official, I'm there for the ribbon cutting. I'm in my uniform. I'm shaking hands, kissing babies, you know, being the great sheriff I am. And I got myself an attorney, too, in case something happened. Day goes through. I understand nobody's come to talk to you. Like, other than you getting the tip-offs, it's not like an investigator ever came to say, like, hey.

Oh, they did one time. Oh, they did? And guess what? Okay. They gave me an option. And what they did, they said, if you can take a drug test, we'll drop that. I did. I took a drug test

and passed it was after I got clean and I was clean at that time when they were started to sniff around and they didn't drop it. You're not going to

sit here and I'm not going to sit here and listen to you say that the prosecutor would lie or not live up to their obligations.

Right. I get it. It's not in this government. You know the deal. Yeah. So. They don't ask

They don't do anything. Nothing they're doing is to help you. Like, well, if you take a lie detector test, like, you're not trying to clear me. Oh, so if I pass it, you'll drop everything? Yes, we will. Because they're really just trying to hem you up. They threw that option at me too.

And I said, no, I'm not. That's voodoo. Yeah. You know, and they don't hold up in court. It doesn't hold up in court. And it doesn't matter how it. If you pass it, that's all. Everybody thinks, will you?

If I take it, I passed it. They said they'll drop it or it'll prove. No, it won't. They'll just say you beat it. Right. You beat it somewhere. Right. only say take this so that you hem yourself up so they can use it to get a confession you know take a drug test so that he fails it so we can get a confession yeah but what if he beats it doesn't matter uh then he got cleaned we're gonna go forward like no matter what they're going forward with their theory they're not trying to exclude you right that's why we want you to talk to so we can exclude you i agree yeah stop it well so august 23rd 2016 ribbon cutting that night at 630 i get a phone call you

better turn yourself in i said what's up they got a 43 count indictment on you i don't know how many you have i mean it was it was it was it was it was it was a lot probably that many it was it was i was gonna say yeah i'm sure it was the numbers around there was tons of them it was there was lots of them there's you know yeah but you plead guilty and they say look if you plead guilty we'll take these 16 and condense them to one and these four and condense them to one and these 12 and condense them to one and then it ends up being like you know Still, in my case, it was like 12. Yeah.

Well, actually, we'll talk about that. Interesting. So they locked me up. I went interned myself in. I locked, yeah, they locked me up. Here's the sheriff. In your county? They booked me there, and then they took me to adjacent county.

What is the, what is the fucking staff doing? They got to be walking around going like. They were. Holy shit. They were like, oh, they felt uncomfortable because they really liked me. They respected me. I was a good boss. I was a good boss.

Right. And I was treated my guys right. And so I go to court hearing the next day. They give me $150,000 bond. And I'm still holding true to it. I'm telling my family, this is bullshit. You know, this is, I'm not an addict. This is, you know, I wasn't doing this, blah, blah, blah.

You know, I got arthritis. And I bond out. And this is the time of re-election. I keep rolling. I keep rocking and rolling. believe what my and that's what I did nice and they came out and they asked me what what my common is I said I'm gonna fight yeah and I was ready so I got out I continued to do debates and I did great in debates and people would bring stuff up

and I knew how to sidestep it I was a manipulator you know I mean I was a drug addict so I knew how to manipulate everything I was a con man so the next thing I did was the parades. I marched and I would walk those parades and it was crazy, Matt. It was like something out of the movie. People were coming off their porches hugging me saying, I'm praying

for you. You got my vote. We're going to support you to the end. I mean, people were supporting me. You just imagine you get picked up and like two days later you're in your jail cell and the guard comes by.

It says, Sorry. No, no, but it was, it was crazy. People were supporting me. We were doing, I had, I had a crew that was helping me a team and doing like phone calls, like who you'd vote for. Yeah. My numbers were through the roof. So.

This is like Donald Trump. Like, indicting him is the biggest mistake you could have made. It didn't. It made me more popular. It was crazy. So I'm doing all that. I'm still acting crazy. crazy. I got a girlfriend.

Right. I got a girlfriend. You got a girlfriend at this time or you had her prior. I had one. I had one prior to this. I had one. I had one prior. And I'm out. And of course, I'm still out catting around like an idiot. And I'm assuming the wife's not okay with this. She don't know nothing about it. Okay. Okay. Did the girlfriend work at the? No. No. No, no, no connection to it at all. Just like they always say. You don't. You don't. You don't. You don't. You don't. shit where you eat. Right. Okay. Somebody that I knew from before, worked at a different company and still doing my thing, thinking that I'm on top of the world, and I'm going to beat this.

I'm going to beat this. I'm going to go out on a limb here. I'm going to say things from not looking good. Well, there's turning points, Matt. I mean, you know, when you start getting the phone calls, you know, and it starts really, and then there's the indictment that a lot of people would have said, Things are not going well. But you know what, I was, I think my ego got the most.

No. Maybe that's not true. Maybe this much, man. Okay. My God. Don't say it's not so. Go ahead. Okay.

So what happened? So it's getting time. It's getting November. My son's going to be 13. And he wants a crossbow because he wants to go deer hunt. We had went through a hunter safety course together. so I went out and bought him a crossbow and I get a phone call from my attorney and they say he says hey did you buy a crossbow for your son for his birthday I said hell yeah I did he says you know you sign that paper of no dangerous weapon it's crossbow you're going to be getting a subpoena for my god I said for what

and I said I don't even possess it right now he goes I don't care I said I took it to my father-in-laws he says I don't care he said they need to hear they're gonna do a hearing with you and they want to they want to revoke your bond oh is this prosecutor is this guy just totally it was a female and um and they I said revoke what come on and he's like no they're gonna so November 3rd is the hearing. I go to take my son to school. He says, and I'll never forget this, he's like,

Dad, am I going to see you after school? I said, Dylan, I got this. I said, watch me. I got this, Dylan. I'll see you after school. So I go to the hearing, and they put me through the ringer. They had all kinds.

They had followed me and everything else. And they had followed me. a good eye on me and I think you know of course I think somebody was telling all my moves who knows who it was but they ended up revoking my bond on November 3rd 2016 put 250k on me no 10% you got to have the cash and I couldn't come up with 250K I mean I had a couple guys that could put some stuff together so they took me to a like a couple county over jail of course I one in there I knew people I mean they knew who I they can't put you in general population it was it was a general pop they didn't think they would know me over

there but I did I ended up actually I ended up breaking bread with the dude anyhow and made some ramen noodles so you know so I'm pretty good at that stuff so I'm there and I'm like you know what it's time so this is this is where I actually surrendered I this is my breaking point that I had to deal with my addiction and the truth. If I was going to have any kind of relationship with my children and my parents, my mom stayed like to this day. I talked to her on my way here. I mean, she was the ride or die. And I told my mom, and my mom knows there's addiction in our family. I broke the news to her, kind of told my dad, even though my dad and I just never totally saw eye to eye. He

was proud of me for me and sheriff, but there was always just that, that wall between us. You know what I mean, that could never be broken. But my mom was good. I never could admit to my wife then at first and my children. So I'm figuring this out, talking my attorney, and so I strike a deal. I strike a 12-count deal, 12-count felonies. Right. He just talked about it.

And he served over a decade. in federal prison for bank fraud. And he still owes the government 6 million in restitution, but he's good for it. He is the most interesting man in the world. I don't typically commit crime, but when I do,

it's bank fraud. Stay greedy, my friends. Support the channel. Join Matthew Cox's Patreon. So I began to sit down. I went to my first AA meeting in there. That was the only thing I could do anything for self-help. Right.

And I'm like, I got to do something with myself. I got to go get some treatment. I'm still struggling mentally. My ego's out of control. I was in denial. And, you know, this shit's got to stop. But I'm going to, like, have a life and see my family. So I wrote a lot of the judge.

I had, like, probably 30, 40 support letters from the community, from people that were very well respected. And I go December 13th, 2016, they take me back. And the judge, I mean, the room was crowded with media. That was a high profile case. Yeah. They even had a live camera on my residence to see what was going on in my house, live at Kyle Overmeyer's house.

It was crazy. You know, a TV van just. And the judge says, what do you have to say for yourself? And I said, you know, I'm an addict. I need help. And I'm sorry. You know, I love my children. She told me I didn't love my children.

She told me I was a narcissist. and, you know what, basically. The judge was female? Yes. And I turned around to all the media, and I apologize to somebody for, you know, everything I've done. And I lied and manipulated. She says, you know what, Mr. Lowe? I'm going to give you the best treatment in the state of Ohio if you need treatment.

I'm sending you to prison for four years. Yeah, yeah, because they'll help you there. Yeah. And I thought, holy shit, what am I going to do now? What did you think was going to happen? What was your lawyer saying? he didn't say anything no no I'm saying what did he say what did he say to expect he didn't really tell me he didn't really tell me it was uh I mean at the end it was it was

it was we kind of broke off and I didn't get any really good vibe or advice from him at 10 how long had the doctor shopping been going on they went all the way back when I first started getting prescription so is this two years six months they charged me all six years back. Six years. Every time I went, every time I went to the doctor, every time they handed me a prescription, the paper, and then every time I went and filled it, they triplicated all the charges.

And they got me with theft in office because I had a fund that they said, of course, they'll do this too. They got into my fund. It was an FOJ and charged me with all this about, because I use the credit card, not enough miles away to use a hotel. which I didn't actually use the hotel. It was one of my workers, but I signed for it and all these other things. They charged me with that.

I had to plead to that. I paid all the money back, $21,000 I paid. They got me for all this. They went back and they said I should have used it out of a different fund line and I used it out of this fund line. So they charged it for theft and office. I didn't physically steal money, but they said because you used it, they can charge you with theft and office. you're you're making it sound like like the justice system is unfair well i think there's a little tilted scale sometimes but and they charge me they charge me with not because in ethics being the

sheriff you have to everything that you're like um any kind of credit cards that your account i forgot to write down a credit card that i owed a hundred fifty dollars on and they ding me for that too a personal no credit card. So I got 43 count in diamond. I got to the 12. Four years and then off to solitary confinement

for 30 days. My first 30 days was in the hole. Okay. Well, wait. Let me backtrack. I get to where I'm supposed to go for two days and I get on the phone with my then wife and kids

and they say my wife's crying my kids are upset crying they're all in the phone and you love another woman and I said what and they said your jail phone calls have been played

you got a girlfriend so they had taken my jail phone calls and played them in the media to not only crush me but they buried me they tried to bury me they wanted me to break physically mentally everything you can think they they did and I know they did why

why else would they put those phone calls look the guy's gonna do four years he's lost his life why why isn't losing your job and losing your job having to pay the money back getting sentenced to four years why isn't that enough for this prosecutor like well I don't understand what what's the problem with the prosecutor there was there animosity between the two of you was there I never knew her before I didn't know her but it was just I think I think that they thought I was pretty arrogant, which I could see that. Right.

Was I an addict? Yes. Did I do those acts? Yeah, I took responsibility for it. But that's how my wife, that and kids found out. And from that point, it was tough. I didn't talk to them for like 30 days because you're in the hole. You don't, I didn't get any phone calls.

Right. And it came at Christmas time, which is unfortunate. in it. You ever do you ever do whole time? Fuck, yeah. Okay, you know what the deal. I came out on the newspaper that I was bribing a fucking, that I was bribing a pod bribed a politician and that I was talking to the FBI about it.

So I saw on the newspaper at the medium where they're stabbing each other, snitch, front page. Not good. It's not good. I did, I only did like 45 days. Yeah. You got me by 15. I did like 30 and then. But I'd already been acclimated.

You came off the street practically. And then I went right to the hole. Right. I'd been locked up a year or two, about two, three years before that. So I was already. Yeah. So mentally, I'm already okay with hanging out by myself for 45 days and reading books as opposed to coming off the street. Like the shock to your ego that that has to be is crushing.

You know, like I would see guys that came in that were multi-millionaires, for instance, come into a jail and they take it harder than the guy who lives in the project who's been in and out of jail all the time or some guy who's been, it's much, much harder on these guys because they can't believe that

the guards are talking to them like this. They can't believe that they're eating slop with these people that they wouldn't, they couldn't get through the gate at their, you know, and their gated community, you know, so they're just like in shock. Yeah, yeah.

It was interesting. And, but, you know, you know and you know the only time you know when it's it's time to eat you hear the concrete the wheel on the concrete you know yeah that's it there's no there's no clock no no no there's no there's no there's no there's no i get to see apple watch in present i'm here to well yeah but i'm saying you're locked up in that little room you don't know dark it's no well you kind of know when it's light correct but barely barely yeah i was going to say depends on where the building is how much light hits that window that you can't see through

So, yeah, I used to say that, like, I knew the day had gone by when it was like, you know, you just count the meals. Right. And that, and that's how I went by. And during that time, I laid in there, you know, of course, my life was taken from me, my children. I mean, that's all that mattered to me. I mean, really? I mean, I had to get it through my thick skull in there. What the hell was I going to do with myself?

And I'm like, I'm not going to be a better criminal. Right. I'm not going to get my shit straight because I got four years to do. Well, you're not a very good criminal because. you know you knew the saw you know the report was being made yeah but i didn't think i you know i didn't think it was going to catch up with let that's not a good criminal like you so so that's why i'm not a criminal today right i was going to say that's yeah so yeah so i did my time and then i get out and uh you know of course like any other person would do um you know i apologize to

you know the first phone call was to my wife then and kids and and, you know, it was going to be over with because, you know, I cheated on her. You know, I cheated infidelity and, and I didn't blame her, you know, she's a great woman. She's a great mother. And, you know, I did wrong. So, of course, the divorce process was started while I was in prison. I got my divorce papers while I was in prison. Right.

You know how I told my son I'll see you afterwards, like my daughter. Yeah. No, not for four years. Really? No. They didn't want to see me in that capacity, and you know what? I don't blame them that. Who wants to see their father like that?

Yeah. And so I talk to them every day, and I built that relationship every day. Talk to my mom, ride or die. No more girlfriend. That broke off. I had to because if you start anything from a bad position, it's only going to get worse. Right. why continue that?

So that broke off. And I started working on Kyle Overmeyer every day. I journaled. The first day, of course, I jumped off the bus. Everybody knew I was coming. Everybody, you know, in there, everybody. Yeah, yeah. It's like they got their own phones.

Hey, Kyle Overmeyer's coming. Mac, you know, Matt Cox is coming. So they were like, hey, come here, man. I know what's your, what's up, man. Hey, I want to be your friend and that. I'm like what? And he's like, hey, you want a sub-attacks? I heard you like perks.

You know, what a dick. Yeah, I'm like, it was a gang member. I still today, remember, I looked him up the other day. He's still in there doing life for murdering his girlfriend. He'll never get out. And I said, no, I'm cool, man. And that's probably would have been my breaking point. That would have been my breaking point.

I came in. They sent me to protective custody at first. I met some good guys in there I started to learn the ropes who the storm man was I'm sure you knew what a storm man was you know got acquainted with them

got you know everybody I knew the weed man the weed man ended up being the barber who I got really close with but I didn't you know I didn't do any drugs but he had been in there for 25 years for murder but he taught me a lot before he left

actually he was in the the riots of Ohio had riots in 93 and he was in the riots and so he taught me a lot and I started to understand how to move while I was in there in prison and how to be an inmate so okay you're you're a drug guy who's locked up with murderers like how it is I mean that yeah it's because it continued like I was I was to say you would think that that would be a lot of times they'll move you into like a you know where they they kind of they kind of group you and different people and they ship you off to a different prison that's like hey this is really for this guy or those guys had been there so long they'd worked their way down they knew they just

weren't any trouble well that was in protective custody because there were some of them at first so I was in there for a few months and then in protective custody I don't know if you know anything about it it's controlled movement yeah and you know from doing your time you want to be able to move you want to be able to live yeah yeah the control movement suck yeah yeah it sucked so i signed up to sign out and they were like that's well that could be a pro i could go bad quick dude did you really and they like and the warden was cool he was like do you really want i said i want to do it he goes if you do this you can't ever come back i said that's cool i said i'm good with that how long were you locked up before you did that oh i can't remember it was like i don't

six eight months but i mean i had four years to do so i get i want to per uh i went from protective custody general but um yeah i got i got tried by somebody um it was funny uh i mean it was a gang member and not any gang members that i got along with but i mean he kick coming in and coming in the day room you know how they'll come in the day room he car barking and he called me on a bad day he wanted to bark at me and call me out i said let's go and so of course going to sell i have my um Um, my, my, my bunky, do six five for me. Is that what you guys called it?

Six five. Look out. It must be Ohio talk. Yeah. But anyhow, I let him go on first, of course. Bang, bang, bang. Took care of him. And I got respect after that.

Okay. So there was no issue. How many people are in this prison? Ooh. I mean, you know, there's several hundred in there. I mean, because there's the, the floors. And, and, and, and, and, you know what? interesting in general pop i continued to be in there with people for murder and stuff actually one

of them that was in there there were um he had 11 bodies in one day he was called the easter bunny killer look him up he just died his name's rupert um he's got an interesting story in ohio he was in there for he lived around the corner from me he sat and ran the uh read the wall seat journal all the time was it a mass shooting uh he killed his whole family with what a gun yeah okay yep i was on easter so They called him Easter Bunny Killer. That's clever. He was in there with me. That's clever.

Yes. Isn't that interesting? So, yeah, I lived. One of my bunkeys was a gang member. He shot tattoos. And actually, my first father's day when I was in there when he did, I had him shoot my kids' names on him in honor. Yeah, I had to bring home.

I know. Maybe you did. A momento? Yes. Yeah, souvenirs. So I got those. And he would have the, he did great work. He was in it.

in a gang and uh he we'd always hide that a tattoo gun in the wall and yeah you know nobody'd ever find it and uh so i think i paid him like i don't know like 20 ramen noodles for it for about two tattoos i got a great deal you know uh so i brought that home um my my my then my workout partner like my first workout partner in there he was uh a blood that was a muslim too and i'm Christian, you know, and I got intrigued by his religion. So I'm like, look, you're praying all the time before we go work out. You got a rug and everything. Seems like a lot of work.

Yeah. So I'm like, I want to, you got an extra Quran. He's like, why? I want to read that thing. I want to know what your religion's about so I can understand. He's like, sure. So he gives me a Quran. Well, comes up March 22nd and it's Ramadan.

Right. So what do I do? I fast. for 30 days with him too. I did Ramadan. I wanted the full effect to understand his religion and respect it and not get so close-minded while I was in prison about people. Right.

So I could understand every culture. So I started to experience that, worked out a lot. There was only a couple programs in there that you could do for anything for like drug rehab, which were everybody that was in that, they would drug test you every week. And guess who was the only one that never come a positive? Me. Right. so spent my time doing that so the judge was right she's no there's all better a lot of

there's programming yeah even though i was seeing people smoking crack and shooting hair and it didn't matter you know and so i mean i i tried to experience and educate like you did yourself um i went back to college again while i was in there i could with a community college um it was for um actually uh substance abuse and addiction which now i um i just finished it up, at home, I'll have my CDCA, which is a chemical dependency consulence license where I can be a licensed therapist with my bachelor's degree. So I figured I'm going to spend my time wisely while I was in there, and I got a free education.

Right. Then they had, which is an interesting story while I was in there, Black History Month. So they had an essay contest. So guess who wrote an essay? Okay. Yeah. So I wrote an essay. You like this story?

What was the essay? The essay was, I wrote about Luther King while he was in jail in Alabama, so I get a knock at my door. He was also a Republican. He was. And he was investigated by the FBI, too. Did you know that? Yes.

Yes. So I wrote that, and I get a knock on my door, and the woman comes, and she's like, I'm looking for overmire, 6,9, 2, 183, and I'm like, that's me. And she's like, no, God, I must have the wrong room. And I'm like, no, that's me. So she's like, you're white. And I'm like, still allowed to enter the contest. Yep.

So I got a free chicken dinner out of it. Nice. And she was like, chicken dinner. That's just wrong. I know. Fried chicken too. So wrong. And it's kind of symbolic.

It was Lee's famous recipe, and I'll talk about that next in the story. So I'm about trying to advertise for him, but great chicken. So, anyhow, she apologized. She's like, hey, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been like that being judgmental. So end up doing that, but then I end up, ironically, back with an old college friend. Right. And this is the guy you worked out with?

He was the next one because then the other one shipped off to another prison. Because the other guy shipped off to another prison. So I ended up in college, university. to Toledo when I was in a bodybuilding in that. I had a friend there, his name's Greg, and I ended up back with him. I had met when he was 19 years old. He was doing 10 years for manufacturing steroids.

So ironically, we end up back together and general population together, and we're workout partners, which ended up being good because we're a good support system for each other, we're pretty sound mind, and we pretty much have the same idea. We're going to get the hell out of here, and we're never coming back. So Greg and I end up back and forth together. And then also during that time,

somebody got a hold of me on J-Pay, which is the email system, a girl. And then I started seeing some other girl, which. While you're in prison? Correct. Yes. Of course, you get lonely, you know? Yeah.

So I end up with striking a relationship with another hometown girl, you know, going through a divorce, thinking that's going to be the one because you're thinking that because you're locked up and that's all there is. Well, you're in a desperate situation. Anybody that pays attention to you is like they become all consuming. Because you're connected to the outside world.

And you're always thinking about what's going on in the outside world. But then most of the time you're trying to pretend like you are in the outside world. You know what I'm saying? Right. Because, you know, you did time. You get it. You do think about what the hell is going on out there while I'm in here. But you got to shut that shit out.

So I got involved with her for a while. Then when I get out, I stay with her for a short time. That falls through. Boots me out. I'm homeless. Right. I get out April 6th, 2020 was my official date and I'm on parole. I never forget going by this dollar store.

I'll never forget this. Calling my parole. officer. I got six bags of old clothes going, I'm homeless and I know I need a residence. What do I? And she's like, get me something because I don't want to send you back, you know? Right. And she was really good with me. So they didn't send you to a halfway house? Oh, I did do the halfway house for a short time, not long at the end. And then that's where I ended up with her. Oh, okay. And then I ended up homeless. Yeah, the halfway house was a mess too. Yeah. That's just a joke. Yeah. And, uh, you know. Yeah. Yeah. It's bad. It's bad.

I would have rather done, if I didn't need the money to save money in the halfway house. I would rather done my time. I'd rather done. Yeah, you might as well just be locked up. It's a mess. So I don't know where I'm going to go. But then there were these two women that actually were dating in that. And I had known the woman, her and her girlfriend, would send me cards in there.

They were older women. And they really supported me after I went away. And I was on one of the community college. boards I was one of the board of directors and I got to know her she worked in the library and she became very fond of me and I was always good to her and I knew she had a couple rental properties and I'm like maybe she'd let me just flop in one I call her I'll never forget calling her when I got my six garbage bags and she's like I don't have anything but I got a spare bedroom with an air mattress you can flop on it so right it was a place

the flop. So I flop there. I call my parole officer. She's like, okay, I can cover you. At least you got an address. So I got an ankle monitor on two. They had me on an ankle monitor too when I got out.

One of those big. Clunky. Yes. Yeah. Yes. So I go there. I flop there and I need a job. So who the hell is going to hire?

The disgrace sheriff in his own county. So I had a friend Who owned two least famous recipe chicken places Okay And that's how ironic That was what you got in prison is Right So I get a hold of Larry

And Larry is a super good guy He's the most outside the box Thinker you'll ever meet He'll take the shirt off his back for you So I call Larry I said Larry I need a job man And he says 950 an hour

You start frying chicken I said, I'm there. So I go, I'm back in my hometown, where I used to go with my deputies to eat chicken. So I'm in there frying chicken, you know, doing my thing, a lot of people coming in and out, and people start taking pictures of me. People that I used to work with in the community. They start putting them out on Facebook, making jokes out of me. I mean, really, it was kind of disgusting.

and they wanted to crush me. Right. They did the wrong thing. Yeah, I was going to say that's, like, if you think that you're going to say something or take a picture of me and humiliate me, I've already been to prison. Like, this is nothing.

You think I can't take some shit. I've been talked to like I was a fucking dog. Yeah, right. I was a number. Right. Like, you posted your picture and made your comment? Like, good for you, bro. I mean, and so they, they even,

did that to me. And one thing I forgot to talk about when I was in prison I had a lieutenant that had a hard on for me in prison too. Because who I was I don't know if you guys had the same rules. You had to keep all your vitamins in the same bottle that you purchased them in.

Yeah. Well, I mean that... If not it was contraband. Well, I had a few vitamins that were mixed into another one. They did a cell shakedown. Guess what? I got charged with a contraband ticket. And the next day, guess what? I call home to talk to my kids right and my they mailed at home listen even worse kids said we just read

the newspaper you're back using drugs again i said what fucking scumbags i said right no what are you talking about you got called with pills and they think their prescription i said listen and and and and i mean i took everything for them to believe me and finally i'm like i went to the warden stuff i'm like look this is this is wrong so they What they did, they went and took the, had the prison nurse, and they compared them because I got them off commissary. Right. Well, finally, and it had like, and I'm like, look, this has ruined things with my kids.

I've been staying clean. Look what I've put my family through. Right. They did that, and I'm sure it was him. He leaked that, they leaked that ticket. Yeah, yeah. And they had, I mean, there wasn't probably a month that went by while I was in for four years. There wasn't an article about me.

They still continued those articles, but it took forever for them to understand my kids that I was clean. Right. I mean, they tried to wreck me. And then I go out and now back to, you know, frying chicken. And these people are still trying to crush me. Right. And I'm like, okay, you better have more than that to get me. Yeah.

So I was still flopping at the woman's house. And her name's Deb, great woman, love her to that. She's like my second mom. And she wanted me to stay forever. She's like, you can stay here forever. I love your company. You know, I bring your breakfast home. I bring your chicken home.

I was good to her, you know? Right. You know what? If you're going to let me live there for free and you gave me a place to lay my head, okay. So I was like, it came to a point where I'm like, look, I got to do something. I got to put some money together and get out and try to get back on my feet. And during that time. time to cope with my addiction, I was going to a lot of NA meetings, too, Narcotics Anonymous.

So I'm going to a lot of meetings, people knew who I was. They embraced me, of course, at Narcotics Anonymous. And I ended up meeting a guy that was running a facility up in Suddusky, Ohio. And he says, hey, you know, why don't you stop over tomorrow? And, you know, maybe we could work out something for a job for you. You know, I was making $9.50 an hour frying chicken. Yeah, yeah. And I said, well, I got to get approved.

I said because I got an ankle monitor and, you know, I got to get over there. And so I did. And he gave me an opportunity to work midnight shift looking over the people in the facility kind of babysitting, you know, for 1150 an hour to get a better job. So it's time when all I got enough money to scrape together. And guess where I got an apartment at? In the hood where I used to kick doors in. That's all I could afford. Right.

So I started living in the hood. Okay. Yeah. I listened, I stayed in the spare room for 18 months before I could find you save up enough to get an apartment. Yeah. Yeah. So I was there. I didn't, I left frying chicken.

They celebrated the day. They thought they were proud of me. I mean, really, they were. They got me balloons. a teddy bear I still got the picture of it you know right yeah I mean I had long hair I was a lot heavier I mean I looked like a different person and I went from there working over there and then I started really coming out talking about my shit right and I publicized it and I think a lot of people wanted me to like run in shame and I owned it instead of renting yeah that's a mistake

to hide right and I'm sure the newspaper that was running all those stories up but they did a big article on you and about when i yes about how did they they did a decent one or oh okay i thought you i was going to say i thought you were they were going to be like oh we're not interested in no after time went on because i started sharing my store on facebook right and i started um helping people people were reaching out to me i was getting them in the drug treatment i was working up at this place and um a couple newspapers reached out and they wanted to i even got a um i got a nice letter from a U.S. Senator actually sent me, you know, saying, hey, I see what you're doing with yourself. I was, I was shocked, you know. And then, you know, I was divorced. I was building

the relationship backup with my kids, which was going pretty good, and dating a few other couple girls here and there. And then from April of 2020, then April 22nd in 2020, my world changed. I met Jennifer and she reached out to me because of my story and because of a mutual friend. We started dating and six weeks later we got married. I know crazy. That's how long. So how long it was that? How long have you been married? A little over two years now. Nice. And so I was going to live in Fremont and commute down to Columbus, Ohio, until I could find something. Six days after we got married, I got a phone call when I'm eating pizza. Some guy who owned a treatment center saw me on Facebook offered me a job in Columbus

working in business development. So I went from 11, 15 an hour friend, working in a treatment center, to actually having a decent job. And then her and I started figuring things out and saying, you know, if you're going to do this thing full go and talk about this thing. and get out to people, we started the organization called K.O. Addiction. Okay. And I saw the hat.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, yes, you need to market. You need a hat. Yeah, those are definite. And, no, I started going out, sharing my story and helping people in treatment. I went from one facility now to another one where I'm a regional director and helping open a behavioral hospital.

and then doing podcasts with you. Right. And staying clean. Right. I interviewed a guy. Remember the guy, was he in California? Where was the guy that runs a treatment center? He was in Denver.

Were he in Denver? I remember throughout all the prisons or something. Yeah, well. They leave prison to go there. Yeah. I have to get you his number. He's got an interesting treatment center. where literally like the guys go there and they they work like you know for free it's almost

kind of like the Salvation Army where it's like you work here you're basically getting paid nothing and and literally like some of the guys to treat there there were such addicts and had not been able to recover ever that literally after being there like it's like I forget it was like an 18 month or two year program or something and then when they get to that point where he's like okay well I mean like you know you've completed the program you can go they're like they don't want to leave they're like can I is there any way I can stay wow And it's like, they're like because although, you know, or the ones that do, they have like a huge recovery rate or, you know, they have a huge amount of people that are recovered. But a ton of them, like, they just don't want to even leave because they're like, this is such a good environment for me.

Even though he said he also has the guys that come in, they're like, man, they're not paying me. They're not this. He's like, well, you can leave. Right. Like, you don't have to stay, but this is a program because your little six week course doesn't work. You know what do you want me to do? You want me to go do an eight-week course? I got to fucking change you.

That's not going to, you know, you need come. And then, of course, he also, I think he has the where they keep coming, the guys that do leave, they come back for continued treatment. Because it's like, it's like, it's like you, you know, like you have to keep going back all the time. At the moment you start saying, I don't need it anymore. Well, that's a problem. Well, yeah, and to go that, I don't regularly go to meetings anymore. Right. I've been clean for over years.

I go talk to somebody a couple times a month, though. Right. I mean, and I... Well, I mean, to think you've got it licked is a mistake, is what I'm saying. Absolutely. You need to constantly, you know, like, that's to me, it's like if somebody brings up prison or anything, like I never shy away from saying, oh, bro, all of a sudden, I was in prison, I did this, I did, like, I don't try and cover it at all because I feel like, like, that's just not good mentally. good it's not a good no no that's why i always say look i screwed up and that's why i try to take full responsibility for everything i did and that's probably why i didn't have a hard time frying

checking in front of everybody yeah because you know what i screwed up and you know what it's just part of it this is just part of it it's the cost of doing business right and you're going to move forward if you don't like it don't talk to me yeah no i think that humility like helps you be so appreciative of life as opposed to being having all your shit together making a bunch of money and having all these people like that's you know a lot of times like that that narcissism and that ego is what like I always say like ego like my pride has gotten into me me into more trouble every bad decision I've ever made was because of pride every single decision I believe that every bad decision anyway i think my ego was the biggest problem with my addiction i mean if

you think about it right because that 43 count indictment was because of my ego because you know what i should have asked for help yeah i was going to say if you could have said to yourself if you could have admitted yourself i'm not perfect i'm not i'm not bulletproof i i have problems i'm not this perfect individual and there's an issue here you could have fucking headed off all that shit you could have said, hey, I, like, I'm sure that the, I'm sure that your benefits would have paid for you to go for 30 or 60 days to a program. You know what I'm saying? If you'd gone in and said, hey, look, here's what's going on. Here's the problem. I got a fucking problem. I need to fix it. I got to go to a fucking rehab. I've got. But instead, you're like, I don't

fucking need any help. I'm good. Well, just like what you said, the pride got in front of me. And, and you know what? I couldn't, I couldn't ask for it. And could I do it today, probably? Because I don't want to be that guy again. And do I believe. that people can change look at you look at me i think a lot of people say oh it's hard to change a human being if you want to change right reasons yeah you can change yeah i'm still kind of a dick but i'm working i'm not really actually be honest i'm not we'm working on it that hard to be honest i like to say you know i'm working on i'm not i tell i tell my wife all the time when she's like hey listen and she tells me something i'm like i know i know but i'm working on it but i'm not really

working i can just trying to get through that moment like i always tell my wife i can be a dick but i'm not a bitch there you go i hear you and you can't say that word in prison you know that yeah i'm um that's bad juju uh yeah yeah boy you had a hard time the releasing the shit to the fucking media yeah what a dick how can you not how can that guy do that and how could you kick back but you know there are those guards there's such fucking scumbags that like he thought to him he's like yeah fuck him uh it's like what's wrong with you bro yeah and you know i mean he was like one of the only ones and and it was interesting because here i am coming as a cop i learned all the tricks to the

trace i knew how all the dope was getting in right i mean those guys trusted me in there right i mean it was interesting it was i mean i'm you know i'm making breaks i'm sure you made some breaks while you're in prison you know with ramen noodles oh bricks breaks okay yeah yeah might be different term federal state i don't know but i mean i said around you know making breaks with all these guys were you're saying you're in brakes? They call them brakes in there. I thought you meant because you know how it looks like a little brick.

No, but they call them breaks in there, like a big bowl, like a casserole, and we'd make them out of ramen noodles, pizza bowls. Oh, I made a pizza bowl.

Cadillacs. They call them Cadillacs. Really? Yeah. Wow. Federal, they'll say, you know,

give me a Cadillac. It's breaks in Ohio prison. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, they would take ramen noodles. Yep. And they would take refried beans.

Oh, yes. Listen, and I'm tell you right now, the shit's good. Like, it's not like, You know, you would get it and eat it and be like, like, yeah, I hate to say this, but this.

Like, if I didn't know that this has about three days worth of sodium in it, like, I'd really be enjoyed that. I'm also thinking I'm dying right now. Well, I know, and you don't think about that until now, but oh, my gosh. And then I knew guys that worked down in the kitchen, and they had this contraption with bags. They tie it and put it in their bag, and then they smuggle shit back to me. And so I do trades with guys all the time, too. And I have extra food from down there. I mean, I learned a lot.

The stealing from the kitchen is like a full-time gig. Like that's like guys will be like... That's a full-time hustle. Yeah, they're not working there for the, for the $12 a month. No. No. No. No. No. But no prison and but, you know, yeah, during that time, I mean, I did, you know, while I was sheriff, you know, between the drugs and the cheating on my wife. I mean, the three peas, power pills and pussy. I didn't lie. That's what it was. And it got in my way. And the pride. Don't forget the pride.

Yeah. Yeah, you should go with four. You got to throw four in there. Four of the pride. No, you made a good point, Matt, because, but you and I wouldn't be sitting here talking today. You know that? Yeah, I'd have passed. I went through your shit and I went to one through my shit.

I'd have passed on this. No, that's right. You know what? I wouldn't, I wouldn't change, I wouldn't change my past. I really wouldn't. Listen, 13 years. Well, yeah, you did it longer. I could have done without it.

No, I get that. You probably could have done four standing on your head, you know. Listen, I honestly, I was so crushed if they'd given me like 18 months, I think I'd have been all better. It'd be like, look, your honor, I get it. My bad. I mean, I honestly, like, as soon as you go, you know, that going from here down to here, it's like, it's so, it's so humbling, you know, which I, without a doubt, I needed to be humbled. I mean, there's no doubt in my mind. I just 13 years of it was like, yeah, it's like after a few years, it's like, look, I get it.

I get it. I'm all good now. Yeah, and I agree with, I think after, you know, 18 months, I would have got it too. Because think about it, here's the worst part of it. People like, oh, the time that, forget about the time. If you give somebody six months, you've devastated their life. They've lost their house, their cars, their credit shit. In a way, I would have been better all, I would have been worse off if they'd let me out after a year than they did.

because at least when they let me out after 13, I got to go to the halfway house. My credit was, there was no credit. So I got three secured credit cards. So by the time I left the halfway house, I have 750 credit scores. I've got a job. I've got some money saved.

So if you'd let me out after a year, I wouldn't, I would have been on the street. I wouldn't have been able to save any money. My credit would have been crap. I would have been, like, I wouldn't have done anything. Like, it would have been probably more. devastating after a year. So really, just by locking anybody up for six months to a year to 18 months,

you've devastated their life. So that extra 10 years doesn't do shit. You're right. Except for cost of taxpayers an extra $400,000 or whatever it costs them. Right, right. Because it cost about half a million dollars to keep me in prison. I believe that. That's just what the, from just the bureau, if you then say, okay, well, if you go back in

and you add in, if you were to go back in and add in, like, the loss of the tax revenue that I would have paid in. Like, it ends up being outrageous. It ends up being well over a million dollars and then some. And just think about how many people are incarcerated. Like, in Ohio, there's 28 prisons. Right. And there's almost 50,000 inmates. Right. That's a lot. Yeah, that's a ton. I mean, that's a whole, that's a whole county. You know what I mean? I was going to say my buddy Zach and I were talking about this the other day. We were talking about how they say, you know, that like 1% of the United States population is in some sort of supervision, incarcerated or on probation. And then what he was saying was he's like, yeah, but you know what they don't take into consideration.

They don't consider the people that are currently in jail waiting to be, waiting to be tried that haven't been found guilty yet. They're just being, they're just incarcerated, waiting. to be found guilty or so if you add that back in you're probably over well over 1% oh yeah they're just sitting there idle that's yeah and i knew a guy that was five years he sat in the five years could you imagine that in the county too because the county's horrible oh i hate county time versus yeah i'd rather go to prison i've been to three different county jails yeah in between everything that's horrible um so you're right in a book. Yes. Hopefully, as you well know, be out by the end of the year. And you were just,

what was the magazine? A recovery today. Recovery today. Yes. Been in that. Was I supposed to mention, was I supposed to mention that? Yeah, you can. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's already been there. No, that's great. Yeah. And, uh, continue to do speaking engagements, working and, uh, coming to see great people like you, Matt. And, uh, that's a plus. Yeah, absolutely. And we're both at same height. Yeah. You might even, Today you're taller because I noticed you got boots on. I have boots on. Yeah, I noticed.

I should wear my timber. I don't own anything without a heel. Oh, I did. I wear flat because I just. Would you? Well, I didn't, because I was coming on your, hey, I didn't want to rain on your grade coming on your territory. So I had flat shoes.

You know what? I still have my Timberlin boots from when I was in prison and I wear them. Oh. I never, I wore the boots they give you, the plastic. No, I ended up getting a pair of timbulins. I traded them for a deal in there and I still wear them. My wife's always like, why do you wear those supplies? Because I don't want to go back to her.

It makes me think. Right. It's kind of a trigger like, don't forget where you came from. Oh, I still have, I still have my tunes. I still have blue jeans that, um. That you got from there? Yes, I got my stock and cap. I got a hoodie that I paid two snicker bars that somebody made for me.

I never, you know, I only bought, okay, now I had about three pairs of new shoes, I think, since when I was there, but I only personally purchased one pair of shoes the whole time. Because when guys would leave. I'd say, hey, bro, you're leaving in like a month. They'd go, yeah, you go, what size shoe are you? And they tell me, I'd say, would you leave me a pair of your shoes? They'd go, fuck, yeah, cops, I'll leave them. My buddy Pete bought me a pair of shoes one time.

My cousin bought me a pair of shoes one time because I wouldn't do it. They were like, you cheap motherfucker. No, I'm not doing it. I'd never forget. They had those bubble TVs, but you had to have a title for it in there. You had a TV? Yeah, well, listen. Well, listen, I got my hands on this bubble TV.

I traded two boxes of laundry detergent to a, couldn't stand him like in and and and and not something else I should talk about you know child molesters you know they're not well respected so I had one doing my laundry every day for a um a pack of cookies a month right we had a we had a we had a uh uh uh you might want to bleep that I'm not sure if that's going to be okay well saying it then then sometimes YouTube will be like they'll oh it'll show up and they'll they'll demonetize you can fix that yeah he'll probably fix it um but I was going to say I uh uh uh There was a guy they called Mr. Cookies.

No, no, they called him the cookie monster. He would give guys a pack of cookies if they would, like the young guys that come in, they're like 19, 18, whatever they come in. And he would give, like, if you'll just show it to me, I'll give you a pack of it. And there were literally, there were guys that would go once a week. He only do it like maybe once a week. He would go once a week and say, hey, man, can I get some cookies in? The guy would be like, well, I mean, you can.

And he's, they go, yeah, yeah, no, I know the deal, bro. And they walk. So you literally, the guys would be sitting around like you'd have the, and I hate to say, it was a bunch of Puerto Rican guys. Oh, my gosh. So there's one of the guy's saying, we're sitting there. Listen, cops, we're sitting there. And one of the guys goes, man, you got anything to eat?

I'm like, I got anything. I missed commissary. What about you? Man, I got nothing. I got some soup. And I said, oh, man, you all want some cookies? And they go, yeah, yeah, he goes, all right, I'll be back. And he walked off, he goes, he came back with some cookies.

And then we were like, where did you get to cookies? And he'd go, man, Mr. Cookies, you know, Cookie Monster down there. All you got to do, they'd be like, oh, man, that's wrong. What are you doing? Oh, my God. Guys would come up and tell me random stories because they knew I wrote stories. I'm like, yeah, I don't think that's going to make it in one of my stories, but I do appreciate you telling me that. That's an interesting one.

The Cookie Monster. I saw a guy who was baloney and turned it into something, too. my god yeah there's some there's some deeply disturbed people very disturbed yeah and very creative yeah yeah very creative in there yeah very i just love the guys that would get the dirty pictures and they would put tape over it they'd make it waterproof and then they go in the bathroom and slap it on to the they take soap rub it on the thing and slap on the thing slap it on in the shower and be in there yeah yeah and do their thing yeah boy i don't i don't miss a days. No, no. You could rent, like they had, some of these guys had had like, not playboys,

but whatever, they had like dirty books and you could rent them. You'd give like a book of stamps. You got to keep the book for, and it's like, what is going on with you guys? I mean, no self-control at all. I got better for you. There was a cell up by the, like the bubble where the female corrections officers would come into. Oh, yeah. Listen, the gunners. Or were these, you know, the snipers with Guys, it would be really far, but the gunners would walk right up on them, put their hand in their pocket. Hey, how are you doing? Well, or this guy would always rent his sellout so they could do their sniper. Yes.

From a distance through the window. And I would only say, why's your box full? He goes, well, let me tell you why my box is full of food because I rent this baby. I'm like, you've got to be kidding. Oh, yeah. And sure they did. Yeah. Yeah, creative business.

Creative business. So many problems. So many disturbed people. Yeah. Listen, what's up with these cops? What, what, that female? Did you see that female cop that was banging like five of the, of her deputies? I know.

What's going on? I was like, this is, these cops. What are they doing? I don't know. Maybe I need to go out and do some consulting. I mean, you need to stop, swing by there and say, hey, look what it did to me. It's this bad news. Chet.

Do you want your, but no. Yeah, I mean, my life was out of control. I'm like night and day now. Yeah. I'm all better. I'm all better. I'm not all better. It's a bad time.

I'm not perfect. I'll never be progression, never perfection. Yeah, you have to, yeah. What was I telling somebody on the phone that, you know, I was going to say that there's certain people, like, you know, people get to, you know, people get to a spot where some people excel. And a lot of those people self-destruct, right? Yes. And so you go, okay, well, I don't understand. And if I was this, I'd be so happy.

But the truth is that it takes a certain type of personality type to excel and be the leader of an organization of some type, you know, and to be able to have the confidence and the ability to be able to tell people what to do and take control and be and, you know, kind of ooze that confidence and that people trust and they follow. But the problem with that is what comes along with that is a certain amount of narcissism. So you have that, like you don't ever get some weak guy at the very top who's, you know, because nobody follows him, they don't respect him, they talk about him, they, they, they, they, you know, he doesn't do a good job, nobody trusts him. And so it falls apart very quickly. So it's, there's a, there's a, a balance there that some people, they just, they self-destruct. Lots of people self-destruct.

Like, I don't understand. This guy's making millions of dollars a year, the CEO of whatever. And he's embezzling on the side, or he's doing this on the side and he does this. Or he's got a girlfriend and a whole other family. Right. You know, like that senator that had like a whole other family, you know, over here. Like, what's going on? Or he's seeing prostitutes on the side.

He's client number seven. Or, you know, it's like, what are you doing? You're a senator. You're this. So you should be happy. Your wife is gorgeous. You've got great kids. Right.

Well, to get to that position, you have a certain amount of narcissism and your ego and your pride and you start to think, like you said, bulletproof. And then you self-destruct and people don't understand why. Because if I didn't have those things, I would have never run for office or tried for that position or wanted to be ahead of that team or wanted to, I wouldn't have never pushed myself and done those things because why doesn't Paul do it? He's been here 25 years. Because Paul can't do it.

No. You're not going to vote for Paul. No. No, and you're right. But like, how did you do it? what you did and how you got back and you bounced back like you did and how am I bouncing back right the same thing you got to have a little bit in you yeah yeah you got as long as you don't have a lot yeah well that's the that's the constant that's constantly telling myself that like who like calm down

don't get excited you know you're not all that because listen I I listen nobody nobody I got you know I've got like fans and people that leave comments in the comment section bro you're amazing and I could listen to you all day. Like I promise you, none of you guys think I'm as cool as I think I am. So I'm, and I'm so, you know, they're like, bro, you're the best.

You don't even have to say it. I almost listen. If I didn't live with Jess, I'd probably tell myself that in the mirror. I'd probably look in the mirror and tell myself that. But the truth, but the truth is, is that so I'm constantly kind of having to tell myself like, bro,

you are, you're a couple of, you're a bad month or two. from from basically from being on the street you know what I'm saying like you're not like you're not all that so it's constantly I'm in my head telling myself calm down be happy you know get your head straight be you know be appreciative of what you have be humble you're not all that great of a person you're not that like I'm constantly doing that to myself because I know deep down inside like I want to go nuts I want to you know like I think about committing fraud I think

about money. I think about I could be driving this. I could be doing this. Yeah. No, I get it. You always think there's more, there's better. Or you can make yourself happy. And I can pull it off. I can do it. I can pull it off. They won't catch me. Because why? Because they didn't catch it before. They caught you over and over and over again. This will be different. And like I didn't think they would catch me and they got me. Right. And like you just said, you know, Jess and my Jennifer, they keep us grounded. That's what my. Yeah. life does for me and my children and we have things to live for and we don't want to behind those walls again yeah yeah I think poor fucking Jess this this chick I feel

horrible for her sometimes she loves you though I can tell yeah oh yeah and my wife loves me I tell you so supportive of me coming here you know and you know you got to have balance in your life she also knows I'm just like a complete doucheback like I'm like I'll read stuff and I'll be like look look this guy said this is this is and this is that's hilarious bro these guys love me and she's like they don't know you okay she's like calm down okay he doesn't know he he doesn't realize that you you know you don't pick up your clothes or that you don't do this or that you make a mess and do that like he he he and you everything you say is funny and that if you fuck up you can turn to colby and say colby fix that

take that out i'm going to start putting random comments how wonderful you are there you don't have bro read the comments i should take all the comments and just read it i honestly i don't I think I would I would just die from the the euphoria would just I'd call me like

to have a stroke or something if I sat here and read like a hundred comments in a row you know it would it would be it's insane

like for every 30 comments that say this is amazing you're amazing you're a great guy you're funny you're so funny I can listen to you all

for all of those every once in a while then there's some guy that says you're a piece of garbage lying scumbag snitch motherfucker rat piece of garbage

like and unfortunately like that's the guy that I'm like yes but did you subscribe did you share the video that's what I would say like you know what I'm saying like unfortunately the guys that say you're wonderful I'm like yeah that's not worth a comment I'm gonna comment to the guy that says I'm a piece of garbage it's horrible it's just stupid yeah no I get it I get I get negative shit too I I love responding to guys I like it too because it turns me up about two more notches yeah it's like say what else can I do you know to piss somebody off you know You know, those guys, what's really funny is when you answer those guys and you go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And before you know, after about six or seven back and forth, they suddenly go, you know, bro, I'm going to, like, erase my comment because, like, you seem like an all right dude, man. I feel, I feel, I don't know what I was thinking. Like, you're, I'm like, I was really just trying to drum you up and I ended up getting a buddy. Yeah. So. Hey.

Spin people. It's like in prison. You spin them. Good times. spin artist. Good times. Yeah. All right,

what are we doing? The aatra? Yes. Unless you have something else. No. You're good? I mean, I'm good. I'm good.

Scale one to ten. Talk to me. We've had some good guess, like, well, listen, what was, say, I always call him Chip, but he didn't like Chip,

it's Wade. Remember Wade? The, the story was it was the stand your ground law where the guy attacked him in his kitchen and he shot him yeah he he runs a he was he was a great i mean totally different story right um but he was a great great uh he told a great story like from beginning to end it was it was i i did interrupt him a lot a lot like a lot like i did you but i think you did a good job interrupted because what it doesn't listen don't stop i think

i'm amazing i get it i think you're one of the best of looking guys ever seen in my entire life. Oh my God. I'll send the money to my wife's Benma. Listen, I was chipped him up from the airport. We were driving and I shifted and I looked down at his arm and I thought, oh my God, his arms

are tiny like mine. He has little tiny hand just like mine. I was like, oh my God. I go, how tall are you? And you know what he said? Wait, it was. I said 5-7 on a good day. Five-seven? Like I say, 5-7 of the good pair of shoes. I was like, oh my God. You guys both have art degrees?

Yeah, yeah. Well, two years. Yeah. I have a degree of fine art. Yes. You have a couple years. And I do not do this. No.

And I'm going to buy a painting off you someday. I want you to buy one. I know. I already heard how long it takes. What? It can take you a long time. What? For what?

The extent of some of these big paintings, I heard. No, for a big one. These are screen prints. That's pretty cool. So what happens is her face and hair are actually a screen print. but I paint so I paint in all the colors and then I screen print it

and then I paint the X's and the little like the little skeletons and I paint the little X's on the eyes and I go back in and touch them up and I put the line around it so it's partially a screen print so but these I sell cheap like 300 bucks and that's to mail it to them

those are cool so the so you know there's not like a huge amount of profit but I sell a lot of them but the bigger paintings I paint myself and that fucking that takes a long time. Have you ever done like personal people like the people that say hey I want to painting of myself? I painted this guy's kid the other day I've painted I've done portraits for people I've done I'm painting a guy's wife right now. That'd be cool yeah uh which is going to be pretty cool um yeah I mean I do stuff like that but you know that's the difference between that is like this is

like 300 and I mail it to you for 300 yeah no that's opposed to do you want to pay 1500 to 2,000 What about, I mean, I think this would be an outstanding one. Do you think I could get a Matt Cox one? Of Mac, of me. So I'm going to put it on my ceiling of my back. You know what? I will give you. What?

I actually have, hold on a second. Oh my gosh. I got Matt Cox. Here we go. This is going to be the best. Oh, listen. Do I get one? Yeah, you can take one.

So listen, I have a Patreon and I give away a different. con man painting every month so like last month I did I didn't I think this is cooler I did Matt Cox right here I got to have I got to have Matt Cox oh wait right look look look yeah look huh that's pretty cool it'll fit in my in my backpack to take home or I can mail it to you I can mail it to you no it will cost you money I don't want to it's like it's like it's like 12 bucks look and then on the back it'll fit it'll fit my back pack. If you say so. It's free. I want to see. And I got I can wrap I can wrap it up in bubble wrap and then I put on the back you know of course I do the real I do the whole

thing. They're both of you in aren't they? Yeah they're both me and then I take the green it's my favorite color. Oh she wants the green no she said this is the better one um and then I put down I put like who who it is but I do different ones like I got pond I got Ponzi I got all of I got all kinds of different stuff I love it thought that's cooler you don't think that one's Why? What's the difference? Well, just because this one's more colorful, that's all I was thinking. What do you think?

You tell me. Yeah, it's your preference. Yeah, it doesn't matter. No, I'm, I get what you're saying because it looks more like, you know, it's quite a more pop artist, is what I'm saying. Andy Warhol? Yes. Did you have a lifestyle like Andy Warhol?

No. Okay. That was sweet. He was. So which one do you think? Flamboyantly. Hey. What's a school for art?

Yeah. Yeah. Would you believe that? We got a lot of similarities. Isn't that kind of weird? Maybe we're... We're brothers from another mother. My dad did get around a lot when he was younger. Yeah. But you're...

Okay, man, I'll have... You're better looking than me. I already told you. He told me I may be one of the best-looking men he's ever seen. Yes. Can you believe that? I know. All right. I'll take this one with me. You can take whichever one you want. I think it's freaking sweet. I'm just saying.

Oh, listen, I'll show you, I'm doing some jokers right now, right? Because you do the joker smile. Yeah, I know. I know you do. I know you do. So I did, I'm going to show you these jokers I do where I put the, the whole thing's covered. It's a panel that's covered with comic books. Then I screen a joker over it.

I got another screen coming so I can put in letters where, so it says, it says, it says, a, do I look like a guy with a plan? And then I've got another, the screen also says, I think it says, I'm just a guy, no. No, no, it's, do I look like a guy? The other one is, oh, why so serious? So, but I'm going to show it to you, super cool. Oh, I bet.

And then I'm, and I'm going to pour, it's not this size. This is, these are big. They're like three feet. And then I'm going to put, what is epoxy? Yeah, resin. It's epoxy. We're going to put resin over it. So it's super, I'll show you, man.

They're cool as hell. Like, that's one of the things I want to start doing is that. could, I could, um, I, I, I should pay you to do a prison one of me. Um, a, yeah, this is a screen, you could do it. Bro, I have to do, yeah, I send these away for, for Patreon. I'm saying, I can get a, buy a screen, and then just screen them. Well, so I screen them and then paint them and then screen them again. But then I draw the line around.

I could have you do one with my, my prison mugshot. Yeah. You know what? Yeah. It'd be pretty sweet. But my, my, my wife will love this when I bring home. Nice. Yeah, I think I'll do the pink because, you know what?

It's that pop artie. Yeah. I'll give you a book too. You get a book. Oh, you're with a shark on it. Well, it's got a shark on. It's got me and a shark on it. You're kind of a shark.

You're kind of a shark. Well, the reason I did that was there was an article when I was on the run that was called sharks in the housing pool. And it was about me. It was about people that were committing fraud in real estate. And then when they catch, then eventually they do another article. And it's the fed. catch a great white something like that you got one on amazon to download um i do my wife downloaded it oh did she oh okay well i also have a physical copy well i read physical she does

the she's got an amazon i don't do that of good stuff i like physical copies okay well i got you i got you man you're taking good care of me here i mean you flew in i you know feel i only i don't feel super obligated i feel semi obligated but i do feel obligated why you paid for stuff fly in. I think it's going to be good. It's going to be good. It's going to be fine. Yeah. And the guy in Canada that does the shorts, he'll cut this up. And so you'll have

a bunch of little shorts, little reels of you. I'm sure he'll cut this up into some different things. We need to get a good picture of us setting here too. Yeah. What do you think? You know, I need to wrap this. You know, we're still on, right? Oh, sure. Okay. Yeah, sorry. He was going to cut it out. No, he probably won't.

I'm going to make most of that in. Yeah. That's good. We were in a great conversation. Yeah, it's good. Plus, look what you're doing for me. This is great. What a momento. All right. Thank you for coming, by the way.

Thanks for flying in. Yeah, thanks for the invite, don't matter. Yeah. This was great. All right. I'm, okay, so Colby just gave me the nod. All right. Hey, so I appreciate you guys watching.

If you like the video, do me a favor and hit the subscribe button. Hit the bell so you get notified of videos like this. Also, share the video to as many friends and family as you can. if you're wondering, hey, Matt, I don't understand why isn't your channel blowing up and why don't you have more subscribers and why aren't you getting more views? It's because you're not sharing my shit.

That's why. So share the video, hit the subscribe button, leave me a comment. Even if it's a mean comment, that's fine. I'm good with that. And also, I wrote a bunch of books when I was in federal prison.

I read a bunch of true crime books. So check out the trailers. And I appreciate you watching. Using forgeries and bogus identities, Matthew B. Cox, one of the most ingenious con men in history, built America's biggest banks out of millions. Despite numerous encounters with bank security, state, and federal authorities, Cox narrowly, and quite luckily, avoided capture for years. Eventually, he topped the U.S. Secret Service's most wanted list and led the U.S. Marshals, FBI and Secret Service, on a three-year chase, while jet-setting around the world with his attractive female accomplices. Cox has been declared one of the most prolific mortgage fraud

con artists of all time by CNBC's American Greene. Bloomberg Business Week called him the mortgage industry's worst nightmare, while Dateline NBC described Cox as a gifted forger and silver-tongued liar. Playboy magazine, named his scam was real estate fraud, and he was the best. Shark in the housing pool is Cox's exhilarating first-person account of his Stranger-than-Fiction story. Available now on Amazon and Audible. Bent is the story of John J. Boziak's phenomenal life of crime. Inked from head to toe, with an addiction to strippers and fast Cadillacs,

Boziac was not your typical computer geek. He was, however, one of the most cunning scammers, counterfeiters, identity thieves, and escape artists alive, and a major thorn in the side of the U.S. Secret Service as they fought a war on cybercrime. With a savant-like ability to circumvent banking security and stay one step ahead of law enforcement, Boziak made millions of dollars in the international cyber underworld, with the help of the Chinese and the Russians. Then, leaving nothing but a John Doe warrant and a cleaned-out bank account in his wake, he vanished. Boziak's stranger-than-fiction tale of ingenious scams and impossible escapes, of brazen run-ins with the law and secret desires to straighten out and settle down, makes his story a true crime con game that will keep you guessing. Bent.

How a Homeless Team became one of the cybercrime industry's most prolific counterfeiters. Available now on Amazon and Audible. Buried by the U.S. government and ignored by the national media, this is the story they don't want you to know. When Frank Amadeo met with President George W. Bush at the White House to discuss NATO operations in Afghanistan, no one knew that he'd already embezzled nearly $200 million from the federal government. Money he intended to use to bankroll his plan to take over the world. From Amadeo's global headquarters in the shadow of Florida's Disney World, With a nearly inexhaustible supply of the Internal Revenue Services funds, Amadeo acquired multiple businesses, amassing a mega conglomerate.

Driven by his delusions of world conquest, he negotiated the purchase of a squadron of American fighter jets and the controlling interest in a former Soviet ICBM factory. He began working to build the largest private militia on the planet, over one million Africans strong. Simultaneously, Amadeo hired an international black-ops force to orchestrate a coup in the Congo while plotting to take over several small Eastern European countries. The most disturbing part of it all is, had the U.S. government not thwarted his plans, he might have just pulled it off. It's insanity. The bizarre, true story of a bipolar megalomaniac's insane plan for total world domination.

Available now on Amazon and Audible. Pierre Rossini, in the 1990s, was a 20-something-year-old Los Angeles-based drug trafficker of ecstasy and ice. He and his associates drove luxury European supercars, lived in Beverly Hills penthouses, and dated Playboy models while dodging federal indictments. Then, two FBI officers with the organized crime drug enforcement task force entered the picture. Dirty agents willing to fix cases and identify. informants, suddenly two of Rossini's associates, confidential informants working with federal law enforcement, or murdered. Everyone pointed to Rossini.

As his co-defendants prepared for trial, U.S. Attorney Robert Mueller sat down to debrief Rossini at Leavenworth Penitentiary, and another story emerged. A tale of FBI corruption and complicity in murder. You see, Pierre Rossini knew something that no one else knew. the truth. And Robert Mueller and the federal government have been covering it up to this very day. Devil Exposed. A twisted tale of drug trafficking, corruption, and murder in the city of angels. Available on Amazon and Audible. Bailout is a psychological true crime thriller that pits a narcissistic con man against an egotistical, pathological liar. Marcus Shrinker, the money manager who attempted to fake his own death during the 2008

financial crisis, is about to be released from prison, and he's ready to talk. He's ready to tell you the story no one's heard. Shrinker sits down with true crime writer, Matthew B. Cox, a fellow inmate serving time for bank fraud. Shrinker lays out the details, the disgruntled clients who persecuted him for unanticipated market losses, the affair that ruined his marriage, and the treachery, of his scorned wife, the woman who framed him for securities fraud, leaving him no choice but to make a bogus distress call and plunge from his multi-million dollar private aircraft

in the dead of night. The $11.1 million in life insurance, the missing $1.5 million in gold. The fact is, Shrinker wants you to think he's innocent. The problem is Cox knows Shrinker's a pathological liar and his stories of fabrication. As Cox subtly coaxes, cajoles, and yes, Khan's Shrinker into revealing his deceptions, his stranger-than-fiction life of lies slowly unravels. This is the story Shrinker didn't want you to know. Bailout. The Life and Lies of Marcus Shrinker.

Available now on Barnes & Noble, Etsy, and Audible. Matthew B. Cox is a con man, incarcerated in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, for a variety of bank fraud-related scams. Despite not having a drug problem, Cox inexplicably ends up in the prison's residential drug abuse program, known as Ardap. A drug program in name only. Ardap is an invasive behavior modification therapy, specifically designed to correct the cognitive thinking errors associated with criminal behavior. The program is a non-fiction dark comedy which chronicles Cox's side-splitting journey. This first-person account is a fascinating glimpse.

is a fascinating glimpse at the survival-like atmosphere inside of the government-sponsored rehabilitation unit. While navigating the treachery of his backstabbing peers, Cox simultaneously manipulates prison policies and the bumbling staff every step of the way. The program. How a Conman survived the Federal Bureau of Prisons cult of Ardap.

Available now on Amazon and Audible. If you saw anything you like, Links to all the books are in the description box.