The Connect- with Johnny Mitchell - Rikers Island Inmate Reveals Being FRAMED By Corrupt New York City Police & Prosecutors

Episode Date: December 29, 2024

In this powerful and raw account, Victor Abraham, a young African immigrant, shares his harrowing experiences of navigating systemic injustice in Staten Island, New York. He was falsely accused of a crime he didn't commit which sent him to a jail where he was subjected to solitary confinement at Rikers Island. Victor’s story sheds light on the realities of institutional racism, corruption, and the ACS-to-prison pipeline. Despite enduring fabricated charges, wrongful imprisonment, and mental health struggles, he fought back by becoming his own legal advocate. Victor discusses his journey of resilience, survival, and hope, while advocating for justice and reform. This compelling narrative is a testament to his strength and determination to not just survive but to rise against the odds. Go Support Victor! IG: https://www.instagram.com/vskeeee233/ This Episode Is #Sponsored By The Following: Rocket Money! Stop wasting money on things you don’t use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to https://RocketMoney.com/connect PrizePicks! Download the app today and use code CONNECT to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup! Join The Patreon For Bonus Content! https://www.patreon.com/theconnectshow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They had guns raised on me and stuff like that, had me handcuffs, Staten Island, I had fabricated evidence against me. Every time we went to court, I just felt like I couldn't even speak. And then boom, I was on Rangers Island. I was being beat up, assaulted, jump. And then when they got tired of not being able to protect me anymore, they just threw me in solitary and left me there. Victor Abraham is a young African immigrant who grew up in Staten Island, New York City.

While he was still a teenager, Victor was arrested and falsely accused of armed robbery and spent the next year and a half fighting his case on Rikers Island and inside the infamous Manhattan Detention Center where he was subjected to psychological and physical torture by guards and other inmates. He was kept in solitary confinement for months at a time and left on a starvation diet that nearly killed him. He took his case all the way to trial and won. He was found not guilty. But the suffering he endured while he was in jail has left him battling with PTSD that persists to this day. He is now suing the city of New York for millions and damages, and he's here to tell us the story of how crooked detectives

and one corrupt, politically ambitious district attorney tried giving a young man 20 years for a crime that he didn't commit, and they nearly succeeded at it. Listening to Victor's story, you wonder how many other innocent people are serving time in American prisons and jails. This episode will make you furious, but also inspired. Inspired by the bravery of this young kid, determined to stand up to the beast and fight for justice.

Without further ado, please enjoy Victor Abraham right here on The Connect with Johnny Mitchell. They wasn't expecting me to take this all the way to trial. And if all this information would have been told to the grand jury, I doubt that I would have been indicted. I'm not a perfect person, but this thing right here that they're accusing me of, I had nothing to do it. I see myself as a savannah. That's when I see lights behind me start to flash. And I didn't even think. I just hit it.

I was driving like my life depended on. Then I parked the car, popped out, closed the door, and I started running. And he pulls out a burner, Shang, it's like six inches. And he passes it to me. And he goes, here, that's yours. Don't ever leave the cell block without this. He was the reason I made it out of that place alive. Do you think what's happened to you has affected your ability to work?

I believe so because prior to this, I wanted to join the Air Force. That's what I was, you know, my whole life. That's what I was working up to. So even when I was in Africa, I was working up to be a pilot. So when the opportunity presented itself for us to come to a military, I thought that was a good opportunity further my education and things like that. But it's like ever since I got here, it's like the system just been, you know, out to get me. Even when I first, like I was telling you outside with the ACS, you know, they took me away from my mother.

Like, oh, we're going to put you in a better situation just to put me in the worst situation. And then I was there with kids twice my age. And I feel like some of that. That was foster care? Yeah, foster care. and because your mom was spanking you or beating on you or something? Yeah, like just she believed in corporal punishment, just, you know, disciplining your kids. Because even if you look outside today now, parents is being prosecuted for what their kids do.

So if your child do something wrong and you're not, they're going to hold you accountable. So I felt like she was right doing that because if I would have grew up any other way, I would have probably was probably be doing something wrong. Yeah. But she was always doing. me always kept me on track, respectful. Yeah. So were you born in Liberia as well?

No, I was actually born on a refugee camp in Ghana, Akra. Okay. So it's called Budu Brown. And then you moved back to Liberia after the Civil War, yeah. Okay. Okay, I have no idea about the history of that. So there was a Civil War in Liberia. Yeah.

I remember that now. And Charles Taylor was a dictator. Yeah. Okay. So that's the environment that you were raised. the Liberia you were raised. Yeah, that's the library I was raised in, and then by the time that was over, we had already applied before the war, but they waited until after the war to let us succumb.

Because most of our family members was already here. They were sending for us, sending things to us, but they wanted to get us on this side. I see. Yeah. And so you got, how old were you when you first came to New York? I came here 2006, so I was probably maybe seven, okay. 2006, if I'm not mistaken. Okay, so you're American. You were raised in New York for all intents and purposes, most of your life.

Yeah, it's my life. And you grew up in Staten Island. Yeah. Okay. Tell us about that. Staten Island is good, certain parts, not me to people. You know, they're just dealing with a lot, you know. Growing up on Staten Island, it was tough. We was, you couldn't even sit in your building staircase without the cops running down on you. Like, you had to literally tell us. or I live here too. Like, they was back in those days, they would lock people up for just having a little bit of weed on them. They treated it like it was cracked. So that was one of the first things I got arrested for being in this country, you know, just having weed, you know, having weed, little things like that.

How old were you at the time? I was maybe 16, 17, because this was when I first came from ACS. And, you know, I was just finding ways to numb that from that pain, you know. trying to figure out how to deal with that pain. How long were you in ACS for? Foster care for maybe three and a half years, four years. Oh, my God. Yeah.

So they wanted my mom to complete all these trainings and things like that before she could get custody back. Like my little brothers went to live with family and I was sticking in the system because they viewed me as a behavioral problem or something like that. Oh, why? You must have been doing something wrong for your mom to be, you know,

doing that. What is foster care like in a place like Staten Island? It actually, I actually I wasn't forced to kids on Staten Island. It was weird. Like it's like being there with kids twice at age at the time I think I was maybe 13. Did you get fights? Yeah, I got

fights. I got jumped. I got my property got stolen, you know? Wow. It's like being in jail. Yeah, basically. It's the first step. And I always used to, the funny thing with that is like I always used to tell people, you know, they used to tell these horrendous stories about Rikers Island. And I was like, damn, I'm never going to go there, you know?

Like, I'm, you know, I'm always going to stay doing the right thing. I'm never going to do anything that's going to lead me there. So then for me to get locked up for something I even do, and I can't even tell people that now. When people are talking like, oh, I've been the Rikers Island, I can't, I'm not one of those people who say, oh, I've never been there. I said, oh, I've been there. I know what you're doing. And it's so funny that I didn't even go there for anything I did. Yeah.

So the ACS was like, you're scared straight. You were like, I'm never going to be in the streets. never going to be involved in anything that has to do with the criminal justice system again. Not even that I was doing anything streetwise anyways. It was just ACS did what they felt was right at the time. But it was an out-opening experience because even in ACS, kids was getting modified from ACS to prison. So it's like a tunnel system basically. Like, oh, yeah, if you mess up in ACS, not that give them right to modify you to an upstate detention center.

So it's like, it was just fumbling people. Were you bitter? Were you angry with your mother? I wasn't angry with her. I was just angry with the fact that they was like, oh, we're going to take care of you. We're going to make you, you know, you're going to be in a better situation, you know. And then they just put me in a worst situation. Every day, you know, I cry for my mother to take me back to my mother.

Like, because it's like, how can you say my mother was abusing me? but then you don't care about what was going on to me here. Do you get to go to trial when the ACS foster care comes or child protective services, whatever you call it, comes, do they arrest your mother? Like, how does it work? How do they physically take you into custody? Like, did you go to court and get to testify and tell your side of the story? No, I didn't even get to testify or anything like that.

They was mostly going after my mother and then they did arrest her and stuff like that and how to show up into court, but all those things was like, dismissed and things like that because she was able to complete the classes and fight for us back. Like some people, they let the system take their kids and they just sit around and do nothing. But now she wasn't that tight. So that's why I can never be mad at her because some people give up,

but she didn't. She kept doing what she needed to do to get us back. Because when you first come to this country, you don't know the laws. You think, you know, it's like Liberia. I was the same way too, you know. Nobody came and said, oh, this is your rights. This is your constitution.

This is what's going on. I just was brohing it. So. Okay. So you got out of foster care. You're 17? Yeah, 17. What are your plans after you got out?

When I got out. What did you want to do? Yeah, I still was looking at the like military, still looking to serve and join the Air Force. I still have my eye on becoming a pilot. So when I came back, you know, I was dealing with a lot of stresses from that. So when I try to return to high school now, you know, I was. I was overwhelmed. Like, you know, like, oh, it's just too many people, you know,

and I'm dealing with PTSD from that. So I decided to just sign out of high school and go to the GED program because it was smaller classes, smaller settings, and I could just do the work and graduate and get started in the service. So as I was doing that, I took the GED test and I failed the math by, like, two points. I went to the recruiter office, took the ASV, they're like, oh, you just need to bring your MAF scores up, you know, and pass your MAF GED, and then we could start your process.

So then again, I was studying to retake down the MAF portion when, boom, I was arrested for these false charges. That sent you to Rikers Island. Yeah, that sent me to Rikers Island. So tell us what happened. What happened? Who were you with? And who was the victim? And what were the charges?

All right. So October 17 started like a day. What year? 2016. Okay. Until 17, 2016. It's a long time ago. Yeah, started like any other day regular, you know, chilling with my friends. I don't know if it was a Saturday or Sunday, but I'm sure I wasn't in school that day. From what I can remember was chilling, hanging out. Later that evening, like around 7.30, I believe I had parked in front of my building. So 55 Bowen Street is adjacent from 225. boat on Park Hill Avenue

but it's like a parking lot 225. The front is the front of my building but there's a parking lot and that's the back of 225 so I parked my car there went upstairs to my apartment remember I told you you know I had a lot of friends at that time

so people was already in my apartment you know so I went up there grab some herbs some meat and stuff I came back down as I'm walking out the front door I see the cops go flying in that parking lot usually that's where

Everybody hang out, chill, barbecue and things like that. And the cops usually rush back there. And people don't be doing nothing. Just hanging out, socializing. And the cops were still bumrushed them. So I seen that. And I thought that was, you know, just a regular occurrence. So I went back down, walking to my car.

I tripped my car open. And boom, they're like, oh, is this your vehicle and stuff like that? And I'm like, yeah. Well, it's not mine. It's a rental. My mom rented it for me. They're like, oh, what's your name? Victor Abram.

I said, my name is Victor Abram. They're like, oh, well, where we have an eye card for your arrest. Now at the time, I don't even know what that is. So I'm like, all right? I'm like, what is that? They're like, oh, we just want to ask you a few questions and things like that, you know, none to worry about.

Is an eye card a warrant? An eye card is like, it's like they put out like a flyer that if any officers see you to just bring you down to the pre-es. It's not really like a warrant. It's like something for probable cause or something like that. Just they're looking for you.

Cops should be aware that they're looking for you. Not wanted in a sense, but they're looking for you. Sounds like a diet warrant, whatever they call it. They make up things all the time. Sure. When that happened, they took me down to the precinct. They started asking me a whole bunch of questions.

Like, oh, do you know, do you know anything about these robberies and things like that? First, they showed me a video of what appeared to be my mother's car going through the drive-thru at McDonald's. So when they showed me that, they're like, oh, do you know who's driving the car at the time? I was like, I don't remember. But multiple people come in and out my house, and it's possible somebody took my keys without my permission and went to McDonald's. It was a big deal. They was like, oh, well, at the time, somebody's credit card is, somebody stolen credit card is being used. I'm like, well, I don't know anything about that.

You know, that's not my life. That's not what I do. So boom, they're like, oh, well, you know, it doesn't matter anyway because you're, already been selected out of a photo array. Somebody picked you out of a long out of a photo array. A photo array now is like six first is like five fillers like five regular people and then if you'd like the suspect or the defendant they will put you in there with the other five. So that's what ended up happening. And then he was like, oh, you've been picked and stuff like that. I was I was confused. I'm like what? There was like, oh, doing the robbery. Apparently you took off your mask and told the

person to remember your face. I'm like, this is not my energy. This is not what I do. You know, I can't even formulate those words in my mouth to say, oh, remember my face. If I come, no, like, that's not me. So what did the victims say, before we go any further, who is the victim? And what happened at the scene of the crime? Well, the, the crime I was being arrested for on October 17th took place October 9th. So earlier during the week, like early in the week. So October 9th, the guy's walking to his home and two black males is across the street. They walk up on him, demand his property, his wallet, things like that. Relieve them of those things. And before they could leave, apparently he's this type of brazen criminal that

wears a mask. And then once he's getting ready to leave, takes off the mask and say, remember my face. So it's like it defeated the whole purpose of even taking a mask. So but that was the story. came up with. Memorial Day weekend is almost here and it's time to kick off summer right. When I'm getting ready for the first big weekend of summer, Total Wine and More is my go-to, especially when I'm firing up the grill with family. I'll grab refreshing beers, easy drinking wines, and some hard seltzers for the cooler. And with everything that goes into summer, it's nice knowing you're getting the lowest prices. Total Wine and More. Your Memorial Day made easy. Shop Total Wine and More

in store or online. Spirits not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly, must be 21. Did there, was there a gun involved? Yeah, there was a gun apparently lifted his hoodie and displayed what appeared to be a firearm. So boom, that was day one after the crime. So now the detective in my case, Stephen Lutz, and his partner, Glenn Morrow, they show up to the scene, take his statements and things like that. Apparently he's too shook enough to even look at pictures that day, but they did put him in a car, did a little canvas, couldn't find nobody. October 10th, they bring him down to view pictures in like the photo manager system where he got a bunch of people pictures that committed crimes. He viewed 426 pictures, couldn't identify

anybody. The next day, which is October 11th, they bring him down again. He views 40 pictures couldn't identify anybody. October 13th, he's riding the city bus. And as he's riding the bus, he sees a kid who, in his mind, he believes this is the guy who took off the mask and said, you know, this is the guy who robbed me. Boom, he calls Detective Lutz. Oh, the guy is right here on the bus with me. Detective Lutz, like, take a picture of this guy. Took a picture of it. He took a picture of video text. Senator, Detective Lutz, Detective Lutz reviewed the picture and came to the conclusion that was me on the bus. Why you?

Were you in the system already? Do the cops have your photo? Yeah, they had my photo due to the fact that, you know, like August, me and my mom had gone into like a little argument in the street. Because like our history with like the AECS and things like that. So it was like fake beef, you know, like I just came home and we was just, we was getting along. But it was sometimes like, you know, sometimes you get into it with your mom. Like over some petty shit. It was over the car.

Let's say that. over the card, that's what happened. So we in the street, we got into argument, somebody, some random person called the cops and I ended up getting arrested, even though my mom was like, oh, it's nothing, she didn't want to press charges, they still took me down, fingerprinted, and my picture was in there. So, but when I went to court for that case, being that she wasn't pressing charges and all of that, it was looking to get sealed, but they still kept my picture. What was the charge? The charge, I believe it was like assault or something like that in the third degree, but I was, my mom was being aboard, but being that I was just,

a teenager, things like that, they ended up arrested me. Well, if you saw me that day, even if you seen the photo, you would see that my mom was being my eyes. Is this normal African parent behavior, or is your mom a violent person? I mean, clearly, she is a violent person. Yeah, I wouldn't say violent, but that's how her parents, that's how if you go to Africa, that's how you're raised. Everybody, even if you go to school, the teachers is whooping your eyes.

If you leave for school, you don't wear the proper uniform. So that's how everybody is raised in Liberia in Africa. So I wouldn't say she's a violent person. Yeah. Well, that's violence. You might say it's cultural. That's what they do. It doesn't make it not violence, though.

So your mom made a big mistake by doing that to you, especially after you got out of foster care. Okay. So that's how you got in the system. Yeah. So after the victim sends Lieutenant Lutz, a photo of a person on the bus that he says looks like the guy who Jack who robbed it. It looks like this is the guy who robbed me. So then Detective Lutz went through all of these photos in the system that they had, the lineups, and saw your face and said that it looked like the guy from the picture on the bus?

He said it appears to be the same. So instead of him putting that person picture in the photo array, he then put my picture from my mother's arrest picture in it. But where he messed up was basically not even the fact that he said that was me. That's why he added a picture. where he messed up was basically I was the only one wearing a white collar shirt and they're calling to their training their clothes everybody clothes got to be similar they got a match so out of five people it was three people wearing hoodies

and two people wearing cardigans and I was the only one wearing a white shirt so because of that the judge ruled that that was unduly suggestive that made my picture stood out even though the victim in his mind he's looking for the person on the bus And in his mind, he's thinking that out of those six people, I probably look the more resembled the guy on the bus because the detective even went as far as telling him, oh, you know, the skin tone might not be the same in the picture and things like that.

But if you look at this bus picture, you could clearly see that that person wasn't me. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And you saw the photo? Yeah, I ended up seeing, he did not meet a photo my entire trial.

He said he did not know where it was. He destroyed it. He couldn't find it. The picture was of no. use. But mind you, he used that photo to put me in the photo rate. But on the sand, he said the picture was of no use. He destroyed it. But then when I started my lawsuit, that was one of the first things the city produced me, the picture. So I'm like, it's useless now because I needed that during my trial. Okay. And did they, did any of his superiors force him or look into that

harder and make him reveal the photo? No, because even at the time doing the trial, he's like, the judge even gave him a break. Go go look in your files, you know, find it, see if you can look for it. But damn, he didn't know where the picture was. Just to come find out, it was in his case filed the whole time. Okay, so now he's got a photo that he says looks like you. He finds he's going through the lineup and now he connects those. What happens next?

Well, let me just stop that. Remember I told you the car was at McDonald's, right? Right. So that was before, that was after the night. believe the car was there on the 12th. So now because of that little situation, they added me to a pattern because at the time it was a whole bunch of robberies going on Staten Island. So they formed this little pattern and it called it Pattern 23, where it's like a whole bunch of robberies, different strong on things going on. So because of that little car thing,

I was added to the pattern. So he's like, oh, well, when I ran the registration to that car, it was registered of Victor Abram. That's how come I got his picture. And that wasn't the case. We all know now that you looked at the bus picture and you determined that was me. And because of the pattern, your partner gave you a name, a list of names with my name on it because of the car. So they was like Victor Abram. He went in the system. Looked at Victor.

We're seeing the picture with my mom. Looked at the bus picture. Oh, it appears to be the same. Boom. Added me to the photo array. And then so he used a photo array to lock me up on the 17th. The 16th was the photo array. The guy said it was me.

The 17th, he locks me up. Then after I deny everything, asked for my lawyer, the 18th, he calls the guy to come to court. Even though the guy, I mean, come to the precinct. And his name is Sammy Howard, the victim. Okay. All right.

So he comes to the precinct. Detective Lutz puts me in the line of. I'm like, who else is he going to pick? He just seen me the day before. So when he got in front of the lineup now, he picked me again. He's like, well, this is the guy. I remember him from the ride.

boom, boom, he didn't even say, oh, I remember him from the photo rate. You know, he said, well, I remember him from the robbery. It was him. Boom, they charged me with that. So I end up going in front of the judge, October 20th. Okay, hang on. So he saw the guy. He never saw your actual photo before the lineup, Sammy, the victim.

He's seen my photo on the 16th via the photo rate because Lutz on the 13th received the picture and then kept on. trying to track that person down. But when he got tired of looking for that person, he then looked at the bus picture, looked at my picture and said, oh, it's Victor Abram. Okay, and he showed you, he showed Sammy the picture of you, Victor.

Yeah, and the photo. Yeah. Okay, gotcha. So he had seen your face before at the time of the lineup. Yeah. Okay, and that's you and five other people. Yeah. Okay.

So he naturally picks you. Right. Okay. And that makes sense. A victim, if he thinks that's a person to robbed him, wants to get justice. Yeah, he got like a full self, sense of confidence now because he already seen

the eye of four or a man I'm in the line-up. So he's like, who else could it be? Yeah. So after that, I went to Rikers Island. That's now your charge. Yeah, now I was charged. They brought me in front of the judge and stuff. They was trying to set my bill, I believe, like,

$100,000, $50,000. But the judge was like, I've never seen Victor Abram, you know, in my court. He's not a violent person. Like, his history, he's never been convicted, nothing serious like that. Right. So she was like $10,000.

But 10,000, that's still a lot of money for my mom. She's making like $5.00 and I. We're working home LF8 at the time. So I ended up on Rikazil until October 27th. That's when she was able to get the money, bail me out, and things like that. Now it's like 1 o'clock in the morning when I'm getting released. Because that's what they do. They will pay your bill like the 26 and don't release you until like a day later.

And now there was even a big settlement against the city of New York for doing things like that. That people pay their bailing you still keeping them in jail. So that was the case with my situation. My bail was paid on the 26, but I didn't get released until the 27. So at the time, I had never been to Rikers Island before. I didn't even know how to get back to Staten Island. So there was a kid that was being released around the same time I was being released. I asked him, you know, I'm going to Stine Island.

Can you help me out? I put him on the phone with my mom and stuff like that. He's like, yeah, don't worry, Ms. Abram. I'm going to bring him home and then I'm going to take off in the morning. So that's what ended up happening. He brought me all the way from Rikers Island to my property. apartment on Staten Island. That's going, that's the Bronx.

If you don't know where Rikers is, all the way south to Staten Island, it's a long way. Yeah. So that's exactly. So that's what happened in the morning he took off. It's so funny because that morning I ended up getting raided by the NYPD. So they made it seem like they had a warrant for my arrest and things like that. So in the morning, when after the guy had took off that brought me back to my apartment, they knocked on my door, boom, boom, boom, boom.

I'm like, what's going on? I just got back from Rikers Island what could you guys possibly want I slid my ID underneath the door with my Rikers Island card and they slid it back they was like open the door open the door I'm like I'm not opening the door

unless I show me a warrant for my arrest they left for a little bit they went down to my super and I guess they like gaslighted him into landing them in my apartment so a few minutes later they returned with the super boom

he let them in my apartment they had guns raised on me and stuff like that had me handcuffs and then they began to search my apartment. One thing I left out was my mom was working on Stan Island that night, like Home LF-A, so she was going to come to see me in the morning anyway. She hasn't seen me since I got arrested on the 17th.

So she came now in the morning as they was in the middle of doing that. Oh, what are you doing with my son? Why is he handcuffed? He just came off of a break his outline. I just paid a bill. Y'all say I have a warrant. Can I see the warrant? The warrant, long and behold, the warrant is not even for me.

It's for somebody who hasn't lived there in like two years. So boom, they searched it, didn't find nothing. They took off later on that night. I started tearing up my apartment. Like, I was messed up. Like, you know, like. What was the purpose of this raid? From what I know now, they was trying to find more, like,

the pattern I was telling you about, they were trying to see if there was any stolen property in my house, things like that, if they could link any of these things physically to me because they ain't have no other proof than that. So. Do you think the cops knew? that you were going to be there and not the guy whose name was on the warrant? Yeah, they knew who I was because from the discovery I got now, mind you, the feds and all was

trying to lock me up too for this thing. But being that they saw that Stan Island have fabricated evidence against me, you know, lied on me, framed me, and then I got acquitted. They decided to just drop everything. But they were supplying luts with information. They told him where my phone was the night of the Sammy Al-Warri. And long and behold, my phone was nowhere. did. Even if it's good or bad, that's information. They sort of turn over. That's like you,

somebody committed to a murder and then the prints don't add up and then you just keep the person in jail. So that's basically what happened. They had the bus picture information. They had my phone location and they knew their witness that they was using against me was incredible. Okay. So that makes sense. They're a team of people that just come after, you know, young guys from the hood. Yeah, and hope that we would take key deals and they wasn't expecting me to take this all the way to trial. Right. Yeah.

You guys, I don't do sponsored ad reads from any brands that I do not use myself. Rocket Money is no different. Rocket Money helps you find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions. They help you set a budget, lower your monthly bills, and give you monthly statements to see what you're spending. Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions. saving members up to $740 a year when using all of the app's features. That's right.

I use Rocket Money to check everything that's going in and out of my account every month because running a podcast business, I have a lot of different subscriptions. Rocket Money has helped me save hundreds of dollars a year already just by me seeing that, oh, okay, I don't use this, this, this, this, and this, cancel. And in fact, I don't even have to reach out to the vendors to cancel my accounts. I can have Rocket Money do that for me. They will reach out to XYZ company and cancel it. So I don't even have to reach out to customer service.

It's pretty incredible how convenient they make it for you. Stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash connect. That's rocketmoney.com slash C-O-N-N-E-CT. Rocketmoney.com slash connect. Today's episode is sponsored by our now longtime partner, prize picks. You guys know prize picks unless you've been living under a rock, but if you have, they are America's

number one daily fantasy sports app. If you fire on action or if you want to get in on the action for sports this winter, prize picks is the only app you should be using. They now offer Venmo for quick and easy deposits and withdrawals into your account

this sports season. Prize picks is the best way to win real money this hoop season. Which players are going off, which ones aren't. Make your picks in less than 60 seconds and turn your sports opinions into real money all season long on prize picks. So once again, how this app works is you simply pick more or less on two to six player stat projections and watch the winnings roll in.

So in layman's terms, it's more or less on player staff projections. It has nothing to do with teams winning or losing. It could not be simpler. So for example, this week will Brooke Lopez make more than six and a half rebounds and assists? Will Bradley Beal make more or less than 15 points? Boom. This is the way it works.

even a sports dummy like myself can figure it out. That's the beauty of prize picks. Sign up today and get $50 instantly when you play just $5. You don't even need to win to receive the $50 bonus. It's guaranteed. They're throwing money at you, you guys. Download the app today and use code Connect, C-O-N-E-C-T, to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup.

One more time, that's promo code Connect, C-O-N-E-C-T, to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5. lineup. Prize picks, run your game. Okay, so that night, you're starting to lose it a little bit. Yeah, I'm losing it. I can understand it. I'm losing, my, I'm tearing up my apartment and stuff like that. I guess I was coming down or for whatever medications

they had been giving me while I was on Rikers Island. So, I tearing up my apartment, one of my friends who lived on the same floor as me called my mother, like, oh, Vic is hallucinating, he's bugging, he's not himself. She rushed back from New Jersey, called the ambulance and stuff like that.

I was taken to Richmond University. Medical Center where then again I was surrounded by 10 people and drug against my will because there was like oh he's not controlling we don't know what's wrong with him and stuff like that but once I seen him coming I calmed down and they still injecting me or whatever they did and I was like a zombie for like three days in a site unit I couldn't talk my mom would come see me all my speech speech was slurred has this ever happened before no do you have a history of mental illness in your family I do have a history of mental illness, not in my family per se. I would say with me being that I went through the ACS and things like that.

So, you know, I don't know what was going on at that time. Like, I've never had a manic episode before from what I know a manic episode is. So I could only correlate it back to my experience on Rikers. So when they diagnosed me, I was there for three days and stuff like that. They're weaned me off the medication. They're like, oh, you know, this was like the 31st now. So they weaned me off. They're like, oh, you know, we feel you're a good candidate for outpatient program and things like that.

So I was excited. I'm getting ready to leave. I don't feel like a zombie anymore and stuff like that. So I call my mom like, oh, mom, they're about to discharge me, you know, come pick me up from the hospital. They don't want me to get hit by a car, things like that. So she comes out. Mind you, the psych unit now is on the third floor of Richmond University Medical Center. So you have to take the elevator to go meet your family in the lobby.

So I don't even make it down to the first floor as I walk out the site unit NYPD is there again to arrest me. They said, oh, the same night you bailed out, you robbed somebody else. Mind you, I just told you the story about, I didn't even know how to get back to Rikers Island. This guy had to bring me back.

So I'm in the middle of that. How could I have been robbing somebody? So boom, they like, oh, you know, yeah, you and two other people robbed this 16-year-old kid the night you bailed out, October 27th. I'm like, that's impossible. possible, you know? So I just, you know, from what I know, now, I know to remain silent, don't say anything. I want a lawyer. Boom. They, they brought me in front of the judge now.

You know, they're like, oh, you know, your honor, you just gave him bail. And look, what he's doing. He robbed somebody the same day he bells out and stuff like that. What evidence did they have for this? That they say? The evidence, they even really say anything at that time because it's just like, in the arraignment so they're not really going in the details what they had so they just like oh you know your honor you rob somebody beat up this kid ran off uh-uh-uh the judge like all right you know i'm give him a 150,000 bail 100,000 cash and you know we're gonna send him to rake his island at the time i had another case in new jersey that i was supposed to go to court for but being that i was locked up

in new york on these false charges i had to sign like a wave of extradition where i was I was like, I'm not fighting it. You have to come get me. You know, I want to fight whatever is going on in New Jersey. I want to fight that. They never came and got me. Never. It came to the point where they was like, when I received bail, the second time when I was able to pay that $150,000, they said, oh, the judge now, oh, for me to release you now on bail, you have to go turn yourself in the New Jersey or I'm going to revoke your bill and send you back to Rikers Island.

So it was like under threat of arrest. I had to go turn myself in. even though the statute of limitation have passed on the wave of extradition. But I'm like, the whole time I was making the case, like they're not going to come get me because those charges, it's not as serious as the New York one. I'm facing 25 years.

They want to see what's the resolution of this case first before they even come get me. And the judge wouldn't hear it. They kept me in jail on that whole time to like September 29th, 2017, when I was able to post bail again. And that's how come I started to find my case from on the street.

But doing that entire time, I did not know what was going on. I didn't know what evidence. Like, I was reading the bill of particulars. There was, like, the 27th view was identified in a single photo showing to the victim. His name is Alex Lopierre. So where they said this robbery happened? This happened in Paul Richman, the Ninos. This would be like, say this is Paul Richmond.

My neighborhood is like maybe across Brooklyn Bridge, like maybe like, 30, 40 minutes from here. That's where my neighborhood is at. Okay, was it on... But is this Port Richmond also on Staten Island? Yeah, it's on Staten Island. But Ruh, but what I told you,

something could happen in Queens, and then they would come to Park Hill to look for people to do it. So something happened to Paul Richmond, instead of looking in that neighborhood for that person, they would come straight to Park Hill. Like, so that was the case.

So come to find out now, the kid, they get beat up on October 27th, but what this officer did, and he was a sergeant at the time, his name was Stevens, Zelensky. So now he shows up to the scene, right? And they talk

and they talk and he has a picture of me on his phone because I guess I'm the big talk of Stan Allen now. They started this whole pattern with the feds. They passed my picture around. Any crime that happened or showed him a picture of Victor. It's like that was the memo for all the cops on Stan Island.

So when this kid got assaulted, he pulled up to the scene, Steven Zelensky showed him a single picture of me. The kid said, oh, it looks like him, but I don't think that's him. And Steven Zelensky doesn't document that anywhere. In fact, to even show him my picture, he kicks the other officers out the room because I'm sure somebody would have told him, well, you can't do that.

That's illegal. That's against procedure. You're not supposed to do that. That's suggesting to him that this is the guy who did it. And in fact, when he showed him the kid my picture, he was like, oh, he's a suspect in other crimes and things like that. So automatically, again, this kid is feeling, oh, This must be the person who robbed me.

So anyways, when he showed him my picture, the kid said it wasn't me, that wasn't good enough for him. He didn't document that anywhere. And this is exculpatory evidence. Like, oh, you already showed him a single picture of me. It's not Victor Abram. You said it was a document that somewhere. So at least when other officers is going over this where him, they can say, all right, we already eliminated Victor Abram as a suspect. And we don't need to investigate him anymore.

So being that he never documented, oh, I show Victor Abram. I show Alex Victor's picture and he said it wasn't him. Jennifer Hamilton, the second officer now, show pulls up on him on the 28th and does like a canvas around the neighborhood. He don't mention to her either that, oh, you know, I was showing a picture of somebody else, Victor Abram, you know, this wasn't, I said it wasn't him.

Nobody documented, the cop or the victim. So now Jennifer Hamilton, they do a canvas again. Don't see anybody. The 29th, she paid. fix them up, goes down to the precinct, load up a bunch of pictures on the photo manager, and now all of a sudden, the same picture, you know, when I was arrested for Stephen Lutz, the picture they took of me, it was now duplicated in the photo manager. So it was positioned 10 and 11, the exact same picture of me.

And from there, that's where the kid said, oh, that's the person that robbed me. So, but all of that is illegal. All of that is illegal. How is my picture there twice? They can't or the computer did it That's their excuse The computer magically did it by itself We had no control over it

But it's like It's not standard for us to look For the photo manager For any irregularities They train to look in photo arrays To see, you know If say a white person Can be surrounded by five black people

That make them stand up So they train for what makes a photo array Invalid they train for what Makes a show up If valid All these are the identification procedures they train for it. But when it comes to a folder manager,

their procedure is don't even look in it. Just answer whatever and leave it. Don't even check to see if somebody picture show up two times, three times, four times. So they did all of this in a legal investigation while you were in the hospital? Well, yeah, they basically

was doing that while I was in the hospital, like doing the photo manager because, mind you, the photo manager happened on the 29th, the 28th, you know, they did the canvas, nothing, the 27th. If he shows in my picture, he says, it's not me, though. So all of that was happening while I was going through that situation in the hospital. So about the 31st down, they're like, all right, we got everything he need.

He picked him out from the photo manager. We could run with that. But they still messed up and put the single picture on my charging documents anyway, like relying on that to arrest me. But now the point is that they arrested you at the hospital and now you've got two robbery cases. Two robbery cases. Okay. And is it first-degree robbery or what is it? What were the exact charges?

The first one being that a firearm was involved, that was a first degree robbery. The second one, it wasn't even a robbery initially. It was reported as an assault. VIA did not want to call. Like, oh, my coworker just got assaulted, not me. Zelensky showed up to the scene, and he's the one who changed it from an assault to a robbery being on what the kid had told him. So his excuse, though, for that document the fact that the kid didn't, the kid said

It wasn't me and you didn't document. His excuse for that was he's not an investigator. That's why he didn't document it. But you wouldn't investigate enough to show up to the scene and change the crime. You know, like, how can you say that? So you were locked up then back, you were back inside for almost a year on Rikers trying to come up with the bail money. Trying, yep. Okay.

And you had to come up with $150,000? Yeah. Well, yeah. Because with 150, Paul, we put up my mom's house that was in general. Jersey and we had to pay like 15,000 in fees. Right. So the house and the fees. Right.

And so this day, we haven't, yeah, we haven't gone in the back, not like $15. How? Well, how's that possible? It's being that she didn't pay the 450, the whole 150, she don't get that back. She's being that she only paid a percentage. So they scan those like. Oh, yeah, they keep the fees. Yeah.

They do. I remember that. Yeah. You don't get that back. Even though I was falsely arrested, framed and all of that, they didn't want to hear that. They're like, oh, we keep the fees. Okay. So, okay.

So what was Rikers? Like that year you were... It was crazy. Even the first three weeks I was there couldn't prepare me for the second time because it's like I knew now what they was doing. I was angry. I was frustrated and then I was getting treated terribly.

Like I'm African. I didn't have access to my food, you know, my ethnic food. So I had to eat. I had a force feed while I was there. Like because, you know, when you're sick, when I'm sick sometimes, I like to eat what's called food.

foo food. That's like a traditional African male. It heals me right away and I was denied that I was sick. I couldn't, you know, when you crave something and you can't leave, you can't get it, that's how I was feeling in it. Like, I'm really going to. Well, that's also prison. You're not going to break people's heart by

saying I couldn't have, I want a double cheeseburger with a large shake when I'm locked up, you know, but you're locked up. Yeah, as a first time experience, you know, I had a force, even the first time I couldn't even eat. So I was like basically starving when I came home that night. own bail.

Why can't you eat when you're locked up? Are you a vegetarian or a vegan or something? Nah, just the food. Yeah. Yeah, like, you know, I wasn't eating like an American food, you would say, like, on a regular basis. So I was only eating my African food. My mom would cook, you know, special meals and things like that for me. So it was just a whole new experience.

Right, of course. And that food and it was messing up my system because I wanted to eat soups. Or most of that was what I ate for a whole year, just soups. Wow. even now to this day I'm just my internals are still healing from that late from eating top ramen soup yeah yeah yeah yeah you can never look at another one oh my god dude I'm picturing opening up as top ramen soup right now and like the the dust is just starting to fucking billow out the seeds of pagants oh my god I'm having PTSD now buddy oh man that's a bummer

okay so yes you're starving um as as most people do did Did you get a canteen in there? Were you able to get some money on your books? Yeah, my mom was helping me out a lot. That was really the only person I was helping me out because my family, you know, African, they looked at this as an embarrassment because my name was in the papers, you know, old Victor did this. He's facing 25.

So nobody was really there to help my mom and stuff like that. Nobody really showed up to my court days. It was only hurt most of the time. So it was just a... Are you gang related? Did you have gang ties on this street? or anything like that? No.

But my neighborhood, you know, being, they had a little click, being that they rep only the Africans. So being that I'm African and I lived in that neighborhood and I knew all of them, being that we all from the same place, they're like, oh, you know, the feds trying to say I was part of that gang and things like that. I'm like, I just know them. Like, you know people in your neighborhood,

not only the gang with them, even though the gang was called only the Africans. Yeah, so. And as I've been really a gang, it's just a bunch of, you know, kids. Yeah. Friends, right. Was there any African, other African people you could hang out with at Rikers? Yeah, you know, a couple of people from my neighborhood already been to Rikers.

So they already, like, put in, you know, whatever work they did. So when I went there, there was like, oh, you're from Staten Island. You're from Park Hill. You know, this guy, you know, that guy. So a couple of people knew people from my neighborhood. So it wasn't, I told him, you know, I'm here for something I ain't do. And in fact, one of my friends, he had got snagged up in the pattern, too. But it came the past that he was innocent.

And when they brought him to court, the person came, oh, I know him. I went to school with him. He didn't do this. And that's how come he ended up getting released. Yeah. So a lot of people got and snagged in this little pattern that they had put together. Right. And I was the only one who took my case to trial.

And there other people took pleas and things like that. Do you know about innocent people? that took pleas because they were scared about losing a trial? Like my friend brother, the one that when he finally got to court, they was like, oh, I know him when he went to school. He ended up taking a plea because he's like, you know, he already got a bunch of stuff on his record, you know, and they were starting him with more time because of his record.

So like, oh, just take this three years, not me. Come on. That's usually what they do, you know. Take this three years. You'll be home. You already set up two years. You know, they were trying to pull that game to me before we could go to trial. we would take time served you could come home today and stuff like that and they were threading you with 25 years was that the original offer from the DA when I first got locked up with 25 years even the media projected um um what's the word predicted it like oh he's facing 25 so I'm like and even the judge he allowed all this misconduct everything I told you about he knew about it and he still allowed my case to go into trial so it's like if I would have gotten convicted he wasn't going to say probation because he's all right you

allowed it to come this far. So he was going to try to make an example with me. So that's how I was the media involved. What's so special about this? Or was so special that they thought it was worth it to report on it? One, I'm from Park Hill. I'm African. I'm 19.

And this day, even the police commissioner at the time was on the news talking about Stan Island. So Stan Allen was a big deal around that time. And when they arrested me, they went on the news. New York 1.0. where you got Victor Abrams, he custody, he's in point to this pattern and all this thing.

They didn't mention one thing about the bus picture, the phone location, the fact that my picture showed up twice, they made sure they concealed all of that. They hit all of that from the grand jury. And if all this information would have been told to the grand jury, I doubt that I would have been indicted. How was your lawyer?

I had legal aid at the time, and, you know, she was pregnant, you know, not, and she seemed like she was overwhelmed. You know, legal aid, they have a plethora of cases. Is that a public defender? The public defender's office? Yeah, legal is like public defender. So it's like, until this day, I'm like, how couldn't you have seen this?

Like, you were a lawyer. Right. Like, you have to, I believe that's illegal. Like you, the other side with few exceptions, like in the feds, they have like secret indictments. But on the state level, the defense has the right to see every piece of evidence. Things that wasn't withheld, you should say, because a lot of. things was withheld too from from my legal A team like the fact that he had on the first victim Sammy Howard that already identified somebody prior to my arrest she didn't know anything about that

it was only later on when I hired a private attorney that he was able to uncover some of these things that we was missing oh so your lawyer didn't even know that there were the written statements by Sammy Howard saying that there had been a somebody else did you but did you speak up for yourself No, at the time, that's why I was just confused. Like, I felt like I couldn't say anything. Like, you know, by the time I got in front of a rain, man, they was saying so much codes and think, oh, $2.90, Pino, Lord, and all of this. And then boom, I was on Rikers Island.

And then the second time, again, it was the same thing. Oh, Pinoleur, do, do, do. Right. Right back on Rikis Island. So every time we went to court, I just felt like I couldn't even speak. Yeah. So. That makes sense.

That's a very normal thing to feel. You're completely overwhelmed when you're in the system. You feel like you're being. you're in a bad dream, just whisked by people all over the, in the belly of the beast. Exactly. And we know now you need to speak up loudly. That's a fair. And make a big fucking scene.

It's the only way, you know? It's like in the hospital, too. You have to treat these motherfuckers like the pieces of shit that they are. Exactly. Exactly. Okay. So you've got a pregnant dump truck of an attorney, a nightmare. I mean, maybe she was good. I don't know.

but she just has a lot of cases, right? So, all right, so you get bail, though. You managed to put up your mom's house and some cash, and then you bail out. Had you been to the hole yet when you were on Rikers? Yeah, I was not even in the hole on Rikers, but in the tombs. There was some situation that happened

where the house had jumped me, and they seemed that, so they ended up kicking everybody, separating that whole unit. So I ended up, they ended up transferring me to the tunes, Manhattan and stuff like that. So when I got there and stuff like that,

you know, I was getting, I was being beat up, assaulted, jump. Even on my birthday, there was an incident made first when I turned 20 in jail and they jumped me. So from that, there was like, oh, we're going to put you in solitary and stuff for your safety and things like that. At the time, I didn't even know what that was.

I'm thinking, oh, you know, this is for my protection. But when I got there, it was a nightmare because, like, even when the building was on lockdown, you didn't even get your hour a day. So I was in solitary for weeks while getting outside air, no commissary, nothing, just regular jail meals and just surviving. And every time I had to come to court, go home, script searches,

it got to the point where I was calling Rikers Island home. Well, I can't wait to get home. Like, you know, and right then and there, I'm like, damn, this is like never going to end. And I was attempting suicide, you know, stupid, stupid thoughts just started coming in my head because I just felt so alone. I felt so, you know, trapped in there. And the tunes is especially cruel because you could look outside and see life going on.

It's not like Rikers Island where you look outside and you see the ocean and birds and things like that. You actually see kids running in the summertime, getting ice cream, enjoying their life. And me, who's never been in a situation before, like, I wanted to be free. I wanted to be outside. So it just toyed with me the fact that I was going through this intense thing that's never happened in my life before and life was just going on all around me. Nobody even knew what I was going through. How did you, you attempted suicide?

Yeah, I attempted suicide. Try hanging myself, cutting myself, anything starving, didn't want to eat, shower, hygiene was terrible. Even now, you know, it's still, you know, working. working on is a work in progress like even with my hygiene and stuff like that so it's like it's been really tough on me I would say mentally physically emotionally did you uh after you got out of the tombs which so they sent you there for basically being a victim yeah of getting a crime by other inmates that's why they see or so was abusing me because there was this one point in time where I got so fed up and they took me to the decom room and like

My hands was tied beyond my back. They choked me, you know, slap me, mace me, did all of that. And then put me in a ganghouse, in a crib house. And they told the people that I was M.O. Oh, don't listen to what he's saying. Oh, he's crazy. Because at the time, I was inconsolable. Like, I'm like, I just got abused.

This is what happening to me. I had a spraying ink at the time. So it's like, oh, he's an M. Don't pay him no mind. He's... What does M.O. mean? Mental observation.

Oh, he's crazy. He's laced. You know? Like you don't pay attention to anything he's saying. So I'm like, yo, these people just did this to me. They try to kill me. All of this. And the crypt people, they was like, oh, you know you can't stay and stuff like that.

We're just going to let you rock now because of your ankle and stuff like that. They'll be towards you mental observation. You're crazy and things like that. Like, well, I'm not crazy, bro. Look at my situation. But those are all hardcore, you know, people who's been to Rikazov. So they think that's a normal thing, what they was experiencing. Sure.

So they ran you off the. They ran me off the house, and then from there I was put in a mental unit because it was like, oh, we just got to keep an eye on him now. We can't. It was like they didn't want another story like this, you know, another innocent kid dying on Rikers Island and stooping it. So they made sure they watch me from then and then. When they got tired of not being able to protect me anymore, they just threw me in solitary and left me there. Wow. So you're back in solitary.

So how much time the tombs was the real? solitary hard time the real time and solitary yeah how long total were you there i was there for maybe four months oh my god and those conditions yeah in the solitary unit yeah 11 east but now the tombs i read somebody they closed the tombs there so it's like i can't even get access to the broopress i'm like this is the unit i was all wow so they closed the tombs down yeah they closed it were people uh committing suicide in there When you were in there or overdosing or anything? Not to my knowledge, but I've seen a lot of people getting cut. I've seen a lot of people, you know, just giving up.

People didn't even come to their door. They didn't leave their cells. Like, it was a lot of, a lot of people. They just left. Just rotting. Yeah, just left. Mind you, these are people who haven't even been convicted of a crime. Everybody's way to go get adjudicated.

Everybody's way in to see what's going to be done. And is it mostly other black kids? Yeah, black. it was a like when I was in an M.O. unit there was this kid. His name was, um, they called him G or something like that from what I can remember. And he wasn't, he was in a terrible condition. I can't even tell you if this kid is alive today because he, his cell was just, he didn't eat nothing.

Any food they put there, they just left it there. He didn't bathe. By the time I remember them extracting him from his cell, he looked like he was about to disappear. It's so crazy Even as I sit now I can still smell it I can still

You know I still get those I still get those feelings Even though I close my eyes I haven't had a good night sleep since like 2016 Because it's like

It's hard to get this off my mind Because I know as I say here right now And do this interview It's probably somebody going through What I was going through And probably who's not even strong enough Because I don't I'm not strong It's just God

For real I'm not a strong person Yeah I'm not That's what being strong is trying to get through those conditions without going a little crazy, going to a little craigret. How has this affected your ability to work and move on? I mean, you have kids now. You have a wife, you know, so, I mean, that's something that's normal.

It's normalcy. But what is it? I guess I've just never been in conditions like that that have left me with, like, lasting trauma. Yeah. Because it's like I tried working too when I came home. You know, I worked at McDonald's and things like that. But it was just hard for me like because my hands would be shaking and people do the air. People would be like, oh, what's wrong with you?

And, you know, when you go through, like, it's just feels like you have to share. Like, even when I went, when I came home, I was homeless. I was living on the street and stuff like that. I lost my apartment and things like that. I was living on the street. So, once I met my fiancee and then we had our kids, so I couldn't even live like that no more. So when you go to places like this, like rental, they want to see your job history and things like that and your credit and you got a job. And I can't even show them those things.

So it's like the first conversation is like, oh, you know, this is what happened to me. This is why my life is so messed up right now because it's like these people will cut your arms off your legs and then say, oh, why you can't run as fast as us. Why you can't? Oh, you know, I tell them, oh, I want to be a pilot. I wanted this is what I wanted to do my whole life. I don't see nothing else. It's like an artist growing up their whole life. I want to be a musician.

And that's something they lose their voice. And then you tell that person, oh, now, go do work at McDonald's, go do something else. It's like, it's debilitating itself because it's like, this is not what I'm supposed to be doing. And if it wasn't because of yaw, I would not be doing this. I would not be feeling like, you know, I'm messed up. Do you take medication? Yeah, I was on several antipsychotics, but because it was affecting my liver, they weaned me off and things like that.

And I just been on, you know, weed and things like that to help with my appetite. Because as I said, today, I still struggle. I'm still in therapy. You know, the therapist is like, oh, you need to get back on medication. So it's like every time, and that's why I said I don't want to even do therapy because it's like that's the first thing they push you to medications. And if you look online, all these school shooters and things like that, that's the first list they go down. Oh, he was on this, he was on that.

So that is just a big anxiety. If anything happened to me, I want them to say, oh, you know, he was. He was a clear mind. He was sober. He wasn't on this other anti-sychotic. That's why he did this. You know, I want my story to be not clouded by all the fact that I'm on drugs or I'm crazy. This is why I'm, you know, doing this.

Nah, this is what really happened to me. And I'm a human being. You don't, I'm not a NPC who, you know, you know, till this day, it's funny because till this day, they don't forget 9-11. They don't forget the Holocaust. They don't forget anything that happened to them. but they want me to forget this. Oh, move on.

You know, everybody go through this. You won't be the first, who won't be the last? Does that make it right? Because I won't be the first, I won't be the last. Y'all don't forget anything that happened to y'all. So why are you forcing me to forget it?

And I want to forget it. I want their men and black knock on my door right now and hit me with a wand and, you know, I can move on with my life. But it's like I can't. I can't, especially knowing that, you know, if I go to work right now and they go in my taxes and, you know, you pay taxes,

and start to go to public things, police, and things like that. I'm like, imagine I have been serving my country, pilot, did all these good things I wanted to do, and then this happened to me, and then no officer is charged. I will be more mad than I am now, I feel like, because look what happened to me, and they was never charged. They got promotions. They make six, seven figures a year, and the city have the audacity to try to offer me 5K for all the harm they have done to me.

Okay, so let's talk about it. After you got out of the tombs, they sent you back to Rikers? No, after I got the tombs, that's when I bailed out. So you got bail from the tubes? Yeah, I got bail from the tombs. I see. They was like, oh, well, you know, if you want to get released today, you have to go turn yourself. It was a Friday.

There was like Monday, you make sure you turn yourself in the Jersey authorities or we're going to revoke your bail. So I went to Jersey. They all of that. They wanted me on resisting arrest because I had fled from them. I panicked. We were smoking weed in a cemetery. one night and they ran down on me, so I panicked

and I fled from them. Okay. So that's what they was looking for me for. And I would have went to court if it had not been I had gotten arrested on these forced charges. So the warrant was basically for me missing court. So because of that. So it wasn't even a crime. Yeah, it wasn't.

That's not a crime. I don't even care if it's on the books. You should be able to smoke and then run from the cops. That sounds fun. I used to do that all the time. You know what I mean? I mean, like, it's just so crazy. And then when I got to Jersey, they gave me three years probation for that. Like, they slayed me because when I turned myself in, I hadn't yet been acquitted.

So the judge in that jersey case was looking, oh, he's one of the robberies in New York. So he's suspended my license for like two years, freaking give me three years probation. I had to pay all this fund, and then come to find out I got acquitted. And then when he had to take me off probation now and, you know, renew my license and make sure everything was vacated, my lawyer was selling, oh, Your Honor, actually, he was a quitted of all those New York charges. So he felt like, oh, damn, I might have actually went overboard with the three-year's probation. During that time, I ain't getting no trouble.

I was chilling for my case. So now you're, yeah, now you got a, your case is coming up. Did you got a new lawyer? You got a private lawyer. Okay. This must have been an economic hardship or does your family have money? No, like I said, my mom was working at home LFade at the time. What is that?

Like, she'd take care of, like, older. Oh, right. She's a caretaker. Yeah, she did a caretaker, so she was making like $5, $6 around that time. Where's your father? My father is still in Liberia. Okay. Yeah.

Did you guys get help from him? No, being, like him and my mom, because I got a stepfather now, so him and my mom, they ain't really been on speaking terms. He partially blamed her for everything that was going on. So you would argue with her back and forth and stuff like that. Were you able to get a job while you were out working? Or out, you know, fighting your case? Yeah, I was, you know, I was doing something.

I don't remember exactly what it was. I think it was finished line and little side jobs like that, Wendy's, McDonald's and stuff like that. I worked at a factory at one point. You know, I was trying, but it's like... You got this huge case hanging over your head. Carrying this thing on my shoulder. And then even when I got acquitted, I thought that fear would go away, you know, my not knowing

will go away. You know, when you find case, you're facing all this time. and your heart is racing and things like that feeling never went away. Even when I step outside my door, I still feel it. You feel like they could just take you back? Yeah, like, so I just try to stay inside when I, and it's hard on my family because they don't, it's like, even though I was in solitary for four months, right? I would say my whole bed, I was in solitary because it's like I was in that mind myself.

I was going through this myself. Nobody I could really talk to. I went to the lower library. I couldn't really get any help. So it's like I was just, I went through this experience. myself and then even now find this case my family members still don't understand and I'm just going to federal court of myself okay so when you uh and your african family like your extended family they don't want anything to do with you yeah because it's a stigma yeah right um

so you how long are you out on bail before you actually go to trial and tell us about like the deals then they started offering you yeah plea deals yeah pretty soon yeah pretty right yeah from so from 25, they started dropping it to like 15, 10, 7. The last offer I got before the time served was three years. Okay. So you got a three-year plea deal. What defense was your private lawyer offering? Like, what were they pushing back on, like, against the DEA?

Yeah, that's what I say. He didn't have a lot to use. He just was using basically their own words against him. Like I said, he himself too was denied the bus picture. The only reason why we even found out about the bus picture was because in one of the officers, DD-Fives, which is like they do like their scratch notes and then they have to re-type in a computer. So that was how come we found that we started getting information about the bus picture. I see.

And then they was like, well, can you produce this picture now? Oh, I don't know where it's as it's destroyed. It was of no use and things like that. It was only after my when I started my loss, so I even found out that they went and got my phone location too. Okay. So did your lawyer use that against them? Yeah, at the trial. He said, hey, where's this picture?

They said, I can't produce it. Yeah, right in front of the jury. In front of the jury. And that must have looked real sketchy. Real sketchy. Right. Okay. So how long were you out before you decided to take it all the way?

Yeah. So I was acquitted on November 2018. Okay. So you were out for about a year before it went to trial. Yeah. Okay. And doing that whole time, I was, you know, I was scared. I was homeless.

I was literally going off the street to court. to fight for my life. Like, because I lost my apartment. So did you think about going back to Liberia? I wanted to, but not yet. Like, I feel like I still have a lot to do here. No, but when you were out, like, did you feel like just skip it, just fleeing bail and going back to Liberia?

Because if I went there, then I would be, like, a criminal for the rest of my life. I was really, I really wanted to clear my name because it's like I trial when they started saying, oh, you know, he took off his mask. And that's how I might remember his face. I'm like, I never did those things. So it's like I knew I was innocent. Right. Yeah.

And did you feel like, did your lawyer feel like you had a pretty good case? Yeah. The fact that they don't really have any evidence and that the way that they got the evidence was pretty provably illegal. Did he feel pretty confident? Yeah, he felt confident, especially at the Wade hearing being that what they had relied on for probable cause, like the identification is the photo array, photo manager, all those things were suppressed. Right. So he felt confident at that stage. Well, I remember when he first came to see me in the tombs,

I was telling him, like, you know, Mr. Walters, you know, I'm not a perfect person. But this thing right here that they're accusing me of, I had nothing to do with it. And, you know, some people, they say, oh, you know, I'm innocent and things like that. But then when it's actual- Everyone.

Yeah. Everyone in jail. When there's proof actually showing that, and then the cops destroy that, is like, damn, like, you don't even want me to win. You don't even, you're not playing fair at that. went. Yeah, right. Right. So he took your case. You believe you. Probably. And the guy who actually put me into that case, he was firing the murder at the time. And Bob, Mr. Bob Walters, was able to beat the murder. He only lost a gun. Oh, wow. So you were like, okay, this guy wins.

Yeah, this guy is a winner. And when he got in there, he was like, oh, you know is when two different races are trying to identify him. You know how when people are biased. Like, when they see a Chinese person, they'd be like, all Chinese person look alike or all black people look alike. So that was his lead on and the judge was, oh, don't even talk about it. Don't, you know. Because even at the time,

there was something going on between the DA and the Supreme Court on Stein Island where like the cases was being forwarded to judges who didn't, like they wasn't defense-friendly. So even if my lawyer was bringing out these things that made sense, the judge wasn't trying to hear it. Oh, sustained, sustained, sustained.

So it was like, I wasn't giving a fair shot at all. Because even when he suppressed those things, he should have automatically dismissed the case. Totally. Yeah, but he allowed them to come a court. Okay, so they, the Zelensky and who's the other cop? Hamilton from the second arrest. Right.

And they testified against you? Yeah, they took. Zelensky completely avoided my trial. Like the day, the judge had wanted him to show up. he was like, oh, my daughter is sick and things like that because we wanted to know why did you feel like that was okay for you to show the single picture

and then not even document the fact that he said it wasn't me. But what they wanted to do was wanted my lawyer to call him. Like they wanted us to call him as a witness and my lawyer wasn't accepting that. They're like, you're the one who started this case. Y'all the one who put these things on.

Y'all should make the witness available. that's not a job to go do that. And the judge wouldn't give us a missing witness charge. That's what it's called missing witness charge. They wouldn't give us that. And so they kept Zelensky completely out the trial, even though he was the main one who suggested my identity. So a missing witness charge means what exactly?

Missing witness is like, say Lutz, being that Lutz was the one, you know, arresting me and things like that. Just imagine if Lutz hadn't testified at all in my trial. That's basically a missing witness. There's somebody that is accusing somebody of another thing, and then all of a sudden he's not nowhere to be found to be questioned about these things. So it's for the government. That law or that rule is for the government. Even for defense, too, if you put somebody down as a witness for your case and then you don't want to produce that person, you could get a missing witness charge like that too.

So is that a criminal charge? Yeah. Oh, wow. No, it's not like a criminal charge. It's a jury charge. Like, all this evidence would have probably helped the defense. That's probably why you can't see it. he's not here now.

His testimony would have probably helped the defense. That's probably why he's not here now. Even with the bus picture, he gave a charge to like that, or that evidence probably would have helped Victor. That's why he's not here today. That must have helped your case, though, because your lawyer was like, this guy won't even show up to court.

Big time. Okay. Not even that he wouldn't show up to court. And this Lutz can't even say where the picture is. Right. And even when he got on the stand, he admitted that or when he saw the picture, it wasn't me. So now you're talking out of both sides of your mouth.

How can you on one document say, oh, it appears to be the same man. And then on trial, oh, it wasn't, it didn't look like him at all. So right then there, the jury got it. But I'm like, it could have went left either way. Yeah, especially if your lawyer wasn't really aggressive. You got to be really pressing them. How long did the trial last? The trial lasted maybe like two weeks, I want to say.

Two weeks? Two weeks. How much did this lawyer cost? 15,000. Oh, that's a good deal. My mom couldn't afford it, so he put in a motion with the court, and then they was able to do it like an 18B. They made him like an 18B status.

Why would this trial take two weeks? It was just because they had a calling, the witnesses, everybody had to testify, and then he had other engagements going on to, so he had a- Oh, so it wasn't a straight two-week trial? No, it was. So there was 10 days of- Yeah, just every day going to court and things like that, doing different motions, Wade hearings and things like that.

It's so inefficient. Yeah, and then they did an open statement and then Charles thought it was crazy. Wow. Wow. It's crazy. And then the whole time I'm just saying they're like. Right.

You obviously didn't take the stand. Yeah. Okay. So what other elements did the, did they try to produce the prosecution? The prosecute that. That's what I'm saying. They really have a case because they was even

omitting, if I show you the Wade hearing now, they even admitted that what these cops did to me was wrong. Who's that? The prosecutor admitted that was Stephen Lutz there, was Steven Zelensky there, with Jennifer Hamilton there,

all of those was improper, especially the single photo. They said that was unduly suggestive. They conceded, so they didn't even wait for the judge ruling. They're like, oh, yeah, that was wrong. Even though they relied on that and put that on my charging documents.

So they knew offer it that was illegal. They knew. How you are DA and you don't know the law? So you knew. Okay. So, and then how long did the jury? 15 minutes. 15, right?

15 minutes. Yeah. Seven to walk there, one to decide and vote and seven to walk back. Once there was like, oh, lunch is over. Oh, the jury verdict is. You can imagine I was scared of shit. I was scared. Yeah, it goes one way or the other.

If you're really guilty, it takes 15 minutes. If you're really not guilty, it takes 15 minutes. Yeah. So I was scared. I was like, damn, but they got it. They understood what the task. Yeah. Do you turn to the DA after and throw the suck it?

Does you give the Vince McMahon suck it? You know, he was so funny. His name is Michael Tenooses, and he's now a New York State Assemblyman. And that's one of the reason why they're delaying my trial in this federal case now because they've been promoting him as like the new Donald Trump, the new law and order candidate. They want to make him like the actual senator of New York.

So now they like, he like doing the trial, he was mocking me. He was like, oh, my name is Tenoosa never loses. My name is Tenoosa. never loses. And it's so messed up because I'm leaving, what happened September 11, right? The guy, the victim, Sammy Howard called me. And he was like, oh, you know, I thought you hated me this whole time. I thought you didn't like me. The guy came forward and said, you know, I didn't even want to continue the case against me, against you. Because I knew in my heart wasn't you. And Tenooses went out his way to throw me with a year in prison if I didn't come and testify against you. And

That's what... What? Yes. How is that anywhere? How is that not incredibly illegal? It is. And that's why he's not even at the DA office now. That's why they made sure the guy I'm out of there, made him run for office.

He got elected because they swept all of this underneath the world. He probably wouldn't have even gotten elected if people would have known about what happened. But when I first got acquitted, they put it in the paper. Oh, it was a mistaken identification. They didn't even say I spent time in Jeff. It was just a mistaken identification, acquitted, tear for acquittal. You know, and then left to nooses. The cops took me seven years.

You know, I think I sent you the article from February. It took me all that time for them to actually write the truth. And they still left things out. Because if you read it now. Do you believe Sammy? Do you believe that he wasn't just trying to make himself feel better by lying and saying, you got threatened? Right now, right now his daughter, he wasn't a father at the time.

He's a father now. So right now his daughter is in ACS custody. And basically he has to keep a clean. blood to be able to visit his daughter. So I'm like, he's like, yeah, bro, I've been going through hell, you know, ever since this happened. I feel like it's calmer, you know, for not sticking up for you

and things like that. And I hate, I felt like you hate him. I was like, bro, I've been praying for your well-being because it's like, only you can clear my name. Like, I've been praying, nothing happened to you. He was like, wow, like he couldn't even believe it. Like, even the guy who I reached out, because Sammy,

he had 40 got to because it's like this guy, he was going out with this lady and sammy ended up getting the guy wife pregnant and that's how gonna be as a daughter now so they wasn't on speaking terms so i'm going down i'm you know when i first took over my case because i hired a lawyer to you know start the lawsuit and things like that so i can learn more so you know i'm doing my investigation i took over my case right now i'm running it myself so i'm like a pro se litigant so hang on uh we didn't even ask you about your second robbery case that's what yeah Is that what you're talking about?

I was talking about the lawsuit. Okay, okay, okay. But after you get acquitted, you're out on the streets, you still have this second. No, no. What they did was they so messed up, they made it look like I was a predicate. So they combined both of the cases together under one indictment. That's so weird, but there's two victims. There's totally two different circumstances.

They try to make me look like I was a predicate. Like this is my life. Like, you know, or he bailed out and went to rob somebody else. Right. So they combined them. They had both of them come to them. testify from the same jury, try to make, like, oh, you know, they wanted a jury to see me as somebody who does this on a regular. Right. Okay. So after they dropped the first charge from Sammy, the victim, then they were like, well, there's no predicate and they just dropped the second case.

No, everything I was acquitted of everything because everything went to the jury as one. I see. So that's kind of why it took two weeks, because you were fighting two cases in one. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Okay. And both, but still both of the victims testified against you. Yeah, they testified against me. But come to found out, you know. And they swore that that was you? Like, without a shred of a doubt, they pointed at you and said, this is the guy that did it. This is the guy that did it. But, you know, we was able to use their testimony against them. Like, you know, this is what you said at a prior date.

Right. My boy was attacking them like that. You know, it's several inconsistencies. Yeah. So what happened when Zelensky showed you the picture? Oh, I said it looked like him. It wasn't him. But then today's Zelensky in the civil deposition is saying, oh, well,

and I showed him the picture, he automatically said it was him. So why didn't you document that anyway? Why didn't you put out warrant for Victor Abram arrest? I'm not an investigator. And this guy is a lieutenant now. What you mean you're not an investigator? If you was driving on the street and you got the victim in the back of the car, and he like, stop the call, stop the call.

Stop the call. That's the guy that robbed me. You're not going to stop your car and arrest that person because you're not an investigator, right? Right. That makes sense. Yeah, zero sense. So he pointed at someone else for anybody that wasn't clear about what he, Victor just said he actually, well, they were doing a canvas. One of the victims saw who he thought could have been the perpetrator.

No, no, no. I'm saying like my single picture, being that he showed my single picture, it would be what he tried to say is like that scenario. Oh, the reason why it was like a show up. Because that's what they call. When you put a victim in the call, you do a canvas and they see somebody on the street and they'd be like, oh, is that the person who did it? So in his mind, he's thinking what he's doing is a show up, but it's not. That's illegal. because it's like unless they know each other say you and the producer

your guy in the little beef and he took off and the cows show up and they'd be like oh to verify this the producer they show you a single picture of him like oh and then you could be like oh yeah this is him this is the producer I just got a question if you were praying for these guys which is very honorable why would they say that that was definitely you that robbed them somebody robs me I'm never going to forget their face right so I still haven't because I've been robbed. Why do you think they would have taken the stand after all this time and lied on you, basically?

Because I won the first victim, he was 33. Like he had a bunch of criminal things on his record, domestic violence. You know, he's been locked up for, there was some charge in Nebraska. He's got locked up for that the DA concealed from us. Those things are called impeachable material. Those are things we could use against him on a stand. So you're sure you're not only doing this because of your charge, but they held all of that from us.

So he was like, but even with the first victim, the reason why he did that was because he was threatened with a year in prison. Because at a certain point, he was like, I don't, you know, I don't feel comfortable doing this anymore. And they was like, well, if you don't come do it, you're going to go to jail for a year. So being that he's, you know, a living in a half way. Is that documented by the way?

No, he the one who just came forward to me and said that. Okay. So no authorities have that information? No, not yet. Not as of you. I haven't recorded, but, you know, recently I've started talking to a new lawyer, you know, to try to put it in writing now to submit it in front of the court. So right now he's working about what you call an amended complaint because the original complaint I submitted with the courts is not, it doesn't say that stuff. Got it.

Okay. So that's not really the reason that the DA became, got moved. It is working to Albany now because nobody even knows that nobody's even if that guy hasn't come from forward to an authority and said, hey, this guy threatened me unless I testified. That's not really the reason that they moved him to the. Because just the lineups, just everything that happened being that everything was suppressed. Yeah. I don't doubt that he was doing this with a hundred other defendants. You know what I mean?

I just want to, you know, people are really paying attention to this. I want to just keep everything honest and consistent. Okay, so, wow. So tell us now, yeah, give us, walk us through the lawsuit and the journey that it took and how it became a federal lawsuit, which it is now. Yeah, so when I got acquitted, I had went to go see this lawyer, you know, everybody on Stan Island uses him. So they referred me to him.

I went to him, laid my case out on him. At the time, I wasn't so articulate with the facts now. So he had to do a little bit of research. A few months later, they scheduled what is called a 50-age hearing where you're going from the city. And basically, they ask you what happened and things. Try to get like a quick synapses of your case. So before I could go to that, he was like,

oh, well, this is going to be hard work and stuff like that. You know, I can't represent you anymore. So, you know, he fired me or whatever. I'm now looking for a new lawyer. but mind you, I'm not as articulate now. So I'm telling these people, I'm like, you know, I was framed and this and that. They're like, oh, you don't got a case. You don't got a case.

And then COVID happens. So everything is shut down. But during that time, I'm still looking for lawyers to take on my case. So three years later now, 2022, that's when I – But 2020, I went to go do the 50s here and I talked to them. I thought my case was on the books because he filed was known as a notice of claim. Like, oh, you know, we're about to bring this lawsuit forward. This is a quick synapsis of what happened.

He filed that with the controller office, but he didn't actually file the lawsuit in federal court and state court. So now, not knowing that, my statute of limitations was running, was running. But during COVID, Governor Cuomo, he filed like a tolling on statute of limitations. Like, you put a pause on it. So if you commit a murder, you know, it's already no statute of limitations on murder anyway. But little things like that, like 68 statute, all those things was extended by, like, I believe, 220. 20 months of days.

Okay, so you got more time. Yeah, I got more time. And I was able to find this lawyer. He helped me launch the complaint. And being that, you know, my state claims, because you have three years to get it in court. For state, it's like a year and a half, but federal is three years.

So being that he did the toll and then all of that, we was able to launch it in federal court. And then by the time, you know, the city heard it, there was like 5K. I'm like, what? I got the letter story about phone now. It was like $5,000. That's what they offered to make you to drop the lawsuit.

Yeah, and I'm like, to this day, I'm still saying if I was a dumb person and I would have said, give me the 5K, they wouldn't have hesitated. They want to say, oh, no, we was joking, you know, you know, we just wanted to see if you would take it or not. They would have cut that check and gave me that 5K and went home and slept comfortable with it. But, you know, I told them my demand. which is like 30,000 a day. I feel like, you know, 385 days,

I wasn't supposed to be there a minute, and you kept the officers on the fours. They began paying six figures, and now you want to give you 5K, so I told them I wanted 30,000 a day, which is roughly 11.5 million for all my pain and suffering. That's not even the trial.

That's just for my time in prison and everything I've experienced. So there was like, oh, you're being unreasonable. You're being ridiculous. Do they not have a statute? Because when you go to prison, a lot of states, most states, when, say, you're in prison for 20 years,

I actually have a friend from the South, her uncle was in prison for like 25 years. There's actually on the books a statute if you're found not guilty and you've served whatever X amount of time, you're paid per day. Is there something like that? Not in New York.

Not in New York. They don't got no mandatory compensation for victims that's been through this. So it's like when you come home now from this, you got a you got to fend for yourself right and even when I came home I was messed up like they knew that they diagnosed me with schizophrenia schizophrenia schizoaffective disorder and so it wasn't just me saying I didn't want to work I actually had a diagnosis behind why I was feeling this way so then I went to the social security and applied since 2018 since my acquittal they've been denying me

ever since find a reason I feel like they're just doing this so I can suffer and it feels like it's just all tied in to what's going on with my case because Social Security will help me in my family right now, you know, to make sure there's diverse food in our fridge and things like that. But they've wholly denied me that and then they turned off. I will food stamp off and on and stuff like that. It's like the city of New York is really going after me right now. Is they really doing it? So if you're how long before this either goes to trial, civil trial, or, you're, a decision is made.

Like, do you have any idea of how long, how much left this will take this lawsuit? These lawyers is telling me, you know, five, you could take five years, six years. But I feel like it's just gas, like, you know, they just want me to feel like this is never going to end. You know, you should just take this settlement. You should just not me. Just get this case over. But I'm like, no matter, I'm young now. Y'all ain't take decades from me where, you know, I'm 50, 60 years old and I come home and you entice me with

$6 million and then you said, oh, you know, six million is a lot of money for somebody who did 25 years, but I don't feel like that's right for compensation. No, not for somebody. It's a large sum of money at that time. So somebody who's been fighting in jail, oh, they don't want to fight. So I told her, I'm young. I'm 27. I will fight you out until there's nothing left.

And if I go in front of a jury, I'd rather the jury tell me what y'all did to me is right and I don't deserve nothing. I would accept that before I come and say, oh, yeah, let me take your crumbs. and go sit down somewhere and forget y'all did this to me. I'm not doing it. I'd rather go to trial and let the jury hear what happened to me and then let them say, oh, yeah, you don't deserve nothing. And then that would be fun.

And then maybe that's what I need to get off my ass or whatever terminology. Some closure. Yeah. But I feel like a jury is not, nobody can hear this, see the facts, and say, oh, yeah, these officers was right. what do you think you could have done different you know i noticed like when things happen to well what anybody's a victim of something it's not their fault but it's their responsibility no matter what happens to you it's your responsibility right so what do you what part did you play in it or what do you

feel like yeah what do you think the mistakes that you made were as a young man and what do you think you can do now right now for yourself. Yeah, the mistakes I made was, I believe, trying to be a pilot instead of studying the law. And I feel like, yeah, that was, I feel like that was where I messed up at the first time. Yeah, you'd be a good lawyer, man. You really, uh, you still could be a lawyer. You should be. Yeah, that's what I, you know, and I'll just pray to God every day, give me the script. Let me be able to heal. Let me be able to, you know, use this situation to make a difference because a difference is needed. This can't just continue. And then you got the law. the city lawyer come into court, open court,

in front of a judge and saying, oh, you won't be the first, you won't be the last. So that's like saying, we could do this to your kids, too. We could do this to their kids. We could do this to anybody we want to, and there will be no accountability.

Like I said before, what was in that guy in the first victim, Sammy Howard Wilde? An expired EBT card, an expired driver's license, a cigarette, and a piece of gum. And they was getting ready

to give me 25 years for that. Here it is, these cops fabricated evidence against me Withheld evidence against me Laude on me caused me This torment And none of them has been prosecuted Yeah Man

So I can't say you fair and equal If right now you can't even leave your car parked on the street Without getting the ticket You can't even do that So it's like How ya can I say Y'all doing this in the interest of justice

Vawning people lives And then when y'all do something wrong Y'all don't want to go to jail Y'all don't want to face accountability. Y'all just want to, oh, yeah, we're just going to retire and benefit. Yeah. It's really sickening it. And you know, I watch a lot of things like the white supremacists and things like that.

They're like, oh, we hate black people. We hate black people. Let's go kill random black people for no reason. And here I am. Do I do that? Do I say, oh, yeah, let me go, you know, do this. So I feel like white supremacists really need to pay attention to that. Like, you know, this is what we really go through every day.

And not once do we say, oh, yeah, let's go do this mask, shoe in, because we don't like, like, people like the guy that did that in Buffalo. I don't like black people, they're going to replace us. We're just trying to survive. We just trying to stay out of prison. We don't want to do any of those things. But it's like, what do we have? Like, y'all killing us, chilling us.

And, you know, and it's not only black people, you know, injustice happens to clearly, but it's like, I'm black. So, and it happened to me. So that's why I'm, like, speaking from my perspective. Yeah. It's fascinating. And we're sitting here in this apartment in literally this neighborhood where it's like it's got to be one of the top richest neighborhoods in the world just by stat. And why are you right here?

Yeah, you can't even fathom that there's still parts of New York where this kind of corruption and this kind of government violence, we'll call it. And just old school, just railroading. We don't care. This smells like the 1980s. This kind of like real racist. undertone, yeah, draconian law enforcement and the judge, you know, corrupt

at every level. So I really feel for you, man. And I'm sorry what happened to you. Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to even hear me out on this. And it's like I feel like I have a lot of work to do because it's like these judges and prosecutors there's something on the books called absolute immunity,

qualified immunity, where it's like they could do it. they want to. Like right now the lawyer was saying being there's cases out there where prosecutors can lie on innocent people and because of the to save the integrity of the system, the judicial system

no lawsuits can be brought against prosecutors even though they knowingly lie corrupt people, handcuffs people beat, there's been cases where prosecutors even beat people, lying people, put people in chokeholds to sit in line ups and the Supreme Court has said we can't allow

lawsuits against prosecutors and judges because in the interests of justice because they won't be able to do their job. So how is that their job to lie on innocent people? They can't explain that. Victor, what do you want to do with your life? I want to, right now, I just want to hear.

I want to, you know, I want to be in the place where I have strength, you know, to be able to walk out the door, speak, let people know, you know, you need to, instead of being dumb and standing on the block, do the law. You should know how to, you know, navigate your surroundings. You should focus on because, you know, there's a lot going on. If you're not paying attention, you could be in the same mess as me. Yeah, well, I think you should go do that. I mean,

you're doing it now. I'm glad, you know, this is a good first step. But I'm, I think you should not wait for life. You should not wait on the decision. This is just my opinion. This is some advice. Take it if you want. Don't be a victim. You know, that's a weak position. You're not a victim. You're a very capable young man. I see myself as a victim. I see myself as a survivor.

Like, you know, I'm not a victim. I'm a survivor of this like 19 years old. They wasn't going through that. They probably, you know, high school, graduated prom, you know, had a normal upbringing and things like that. So I'm a survivor of this situation. And I never, you know, I might have thoughts, you know, like, oh, you know, why my life sucks like this right now.

but I always, you know, keep my faith. You know, I'm like, God ain't bring me this far now for the devil to laugh at me. So it's like I just use that as motivation to try to, you know, even you right now, you're helping me in my journey to healing because I feel like just talking to somebody, even if it's not even enough cameras, it helps a lot.

Good. Yeah, it helps a lot. And I want to be at a point where I talk, because right now I don't got no college degree, I don't got nothing. So when I talk, I feel like people just, you know, dismiss it or whatever. But, you know.

I don't think so. I don't think so. No, no, no. I think that you've got a lot to say. I think it's, this is a treat to talk to you. And figure out how you can keep spreading your story and figure out, yeah, how to get an education. And just keep one day at a time, dude. You know?

I have no doubt. I have no doubt that you will, that this will result. solve itself in your favor. You know what I mean? Thank you. So you're a good guy, dude. Yeah, I definitely will. I definitely will pray for you. So yeah, and if anybody's listening to this, they can reach out to Victor. I think maybe, you know, if anybody has anything they want to say to you, is there like a way

they can get a hold of you? Do you have like an email address or something? I have, I'm on Instagram. I'm on Instagram. My Instagram is Victor Abram 1451. My name is V.R.C.T.R. A-O-R-A-B-R-A-H-A-M-4-5-1. That's my Instagram. And if you go on there, you can see articles. You can see recordings

from these people deposition and what they're actually saying in the court. So I'm publicly, you know, going after them because even when we went to the federal court, oh, we scared of the victor. We don't know where this lawsuit is going. You think I wasn't scared when I was on Rikers Island? You think I wasn't,

nothing nowhere my life was going at that time? And now for you to be scared because I'm telling the truth. letting the world know what y'all did to me and how I'm not letting y'all get away with it or that's scaring you. I haven't shown up to these people's office. I haven't shown up to their house. I haven't done none of those things. I'm on their public platforms where they talk to their constituents. And I'm like, how can you say you law and order and say Martin Luther King, but you was trying to frame me. You was trying to lock me up for something I ain't do. Yeah. Hopefully somebody from the city sees this or somebody that's, you know, there's been a turnover in power.

So although Eric Adams is now got a federal indictment, Jesus Christ, nobody in this city is so dirty. Look how crazy that is. This guy stole 10 billion in public funds and he can still say, oh, I'm the mayor of New York City. No jail, no nothing, but they was ready to 25 years for a wallet. So maybe somebody can help you if somebody sees this and works for the New York Times or maybe you need to figure out how you can get your story yourself to the Times. You know what I mean? I've reached out to them, but I feel like, you know, they got a lot of stuff going on right now.

They don't want to, they don't want to embarrass the city or whatever. Is there a number that you would settle on? Like if they came at you and said, here's $3 million, you know, it's not $11.5 million, but it's, you know, it's life-changing and it would probably give you some kind of closure. Do you think you would accept a settlement, like a counter-offer? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I would accept a settlement, not just saying $3 million because, you know, I would accept a settlement because, but I also want the settlement to reflect what I experienced.

And I feel like $3 million is not even, that's nothing to them. Because when we went in there, the lawyer at the time, he was like, oh, let's put in a million, you know, let's try to be good faith and things like that. And they took six months to come back with $5,000. So they got on a limited budget, New York City. Even recently, I don't know if you've seen on the news, they was approved for $112 billion. but you need to do a lottery system for housing. And if your family don't get picked in the housing, you're asked out.

But you got $112 billion to just announce out of nowhere. So there's a bunch of corruption going on. And we can see that $10 million that Eric Adams stole from the public, that could have been something that could have been helping my family right now. That could have been something that could have been helping somebody else right now going through this. But, you know, it's just sickening that they could say $5,000. But I want to settle, but I just want for it to reflect if I don't have, because I've already endured too much.

These officers was never charged, and I've been left out here to look like a crazy person. Will your lawyer take it all the way to the end with you? Yeah, from, you know, from what he, because he's working. Okay. You know, he's going to take it there. Good. Good. And I'm ready to take it there, and, you know, I'm not, the money is good.

Like you say, it's going to give us temporary relief. But I've got to live with this for the rest of my life. and I want, you know, whatever settlement, because a lot of people, you know, still believe in the amount I have something to do with this. So any settlement, it got to reflect, like, oh, yeah, they would never pay somebody all this money that they knew had something to do with this.

Right. Because even though I was acquitted, what they go by, if you read the documents, they submit, oh, Victor Abrams, they're arrested for two street robbies. They never mentioned their acquittal. So it's like, oh, he wasn't acquitted. They just couldn't prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. Right.

That's what they put on. you as guilty, you just got off because they fumbled the case. Yeah, technicalities. Even though the victim was threatened. Yeah. Yeah. Right, right. Okay.

Well, Victor Abraham, thank you so much, my man. I really floored by your story, you know. So, like I said, you're going to be okay. Thank you. Yeah. I know for sure. So thank you guys. We'll catch you next week.

Peace.