True Crime with Kendall Rae - Baron Li Survives 9 Gunshots & Is Here To Tell His Story

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

Be sure to support Baron and Arik:  Baron's social media: https://linktr.ee/baronbli  GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/world-turn... Route 21: https://rte21.org/ WIBM: https://wibm.us/ & https://waboysandmen.org/ To: [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]  Cc: [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]  Subject: Support for a Commission on Boys and Men  Hello Chairs Mena and Valdez and members of the State Government committees,  I am very excited about the potential for Washington to become the first in the nation to establish a Commission on Boys and Men. I am writing to ask that you please help make this happen.  I know that the idea of a government commission focused on helping boys and men sounds strange at first. When you look at the statistics, and you hear the real stories of struggle, though, it becomes clear that a commission on boys and men is indeed warranted and needed. Its work and recommendations will help amplify ongoing efforts to improve outcomes around education, homelessness, incarceration, suicides, mental and physical health, drug and alcohol abuse, family cohesion, and other important issues.  If possible, I strongly recommend checking out the work of Richard Reeved and his American Institute for Boys and Men, along with his book Of Boys and Men. I also want to point out that Democratic governors in multiple states have recently used their State of the State addresses to talk about the importance of supporting boys and men – including governors Wes Moore (Maryland), Gretchen Whitmer (Michigan), and Ned Lamont (Connecticut).  Thank you for your open heart to care for all Washingtonians, including boys and men, and for looking at what role you can play in bringing about the creation of a Washington State Commission on Boys and Men.  For more information on the grassroots advocacy campaign to establish a Washington State Commission on Boys and Men visit WABoysandMen.org and WIBM.us. — Check out my foundation, Higher Hope: Higher Hope Foundation: https://www.higherhope.org/  Shop my Merch! https://kendallrae.shop This episode is sponsored by: Hiya Quince Nutrafol - promo code: KENDALLRAE Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT: For Business Inquiries - [e-mail]

Hello everyone and welcome back to True Crime with Kendall Rae. Thank you so much as always for joining me today and if you are new to the show, then welcome. I'm happy to have you here and guys today I am so excited, so eager to jump into the story I'm going to be telling you because this is the story of a survivor and I've never had the opportunity to actually speak to a survivor on the show. Today I'm gonna be joined by Baron Lee,

who I can't even put into words how much respect I have for this man, how much I like him. He is an incredible human in so many different ways. The story of what he went through alone when it comes to the crime that he survived, which is you're gonna just be blown away by that alone, but his entire life and the things that he is still doing to this day, he is a remarkable human

and I am truly honored to get to have him here. Truly Baron, thank you for taking the time to come on the show and tell your story and also spread a very multiple very important messages that I hope you guys will really take to heart and try to understand because the things that he is fighting for just are not being talked about enough. I've had the opportunity to talk to him over the phone and just listening to the passion in his voice and how badly he wants to see change in the world was so inspiring. And so right off the bat, I'm going to ask you to take out your phone or if you're on

the computer and go to his Instagram. If you are on Instagram, go to his social media. I will put his handles up on the screen. It'll also be in the description box. His Instagram handle is baron, B-A-R-O-N-B-L-I dot C-K-M-D. And I'm really hoping that you guys can come out in big numbers for him and give him that follow to help him amplify his message and reach more people.

And by the end of this episode, I will explain to you why it is so important that we support Barron because what he's doing is just so much bigger than what he has been through himself. We have a lot to go over today, plus you're gonna be hearing from Baron quite a bit throughout the episode, so I wanna go ahead and jump in by telling you, you know, giving you a little bit

of context about Baron's life before I officially introduced him, because the reality is he is someone that has not had an easy life by any means. I mean, it's pretty much since the day he was born. And despite all of that, he has remained so resilient and so kind and just a good human. And people like that just inspire me beyond words.

So Barron was born in July of 1972 in Thailand, but when he was young, his family moved to Hawaii. And it was there that he was put into foster care after being abused by both of his parents. My name is Baron Lee. I'm also known as the Asian 50 cent. I was born in the Khon Ratchasima, Thailand. When I was a year old, my family decided to relocate to Hawaii, where my dad is originally from. At the age of three, the authorities were called out to my family's home after my neighbors

had heard me crying for three days. When the police arrived, they found me laying in an inch of water in my family's bathtub. I had burn wounds covering both of my arms and my legs, and I was barely alive. They rushed me to Hilo Hospital, where they were able to stabilize me and put me into surgery to do a procedure called skin graphing to care for my burn wounds. Fortunately, I made a recovery.

However, during their investigation, they had discovered that my parents had burned me with a clothing iron. So I was placed into my very first foster home. I remained in the foster care system until I was 17. During that time, I had 17 placements, six group homes, and in and out of juvenile detention centers. The foster care system played a big impact in my life.

I went through a lot of challenges and adversities and also learned a lot of life lessons. My experiences in foster care helped mold me into the man I am today. Now, when Baron was 22 years old, he was still living in Hawaii, but in the aftermath of the Gulf War, as tourism dipped in the state,

he decided he wanted to try living somewhere new. So he took a leap and ended up buying a one-way ticket to Las Vegas, along with a one-week stay at the California Hotel. And his friends sort of thought he was a little crazy at the time because he didn't really think through anything beyond that, but it all ended up working out. He first got there in 1994, and eventually he got a job working as a dealer at a casino.

And as you can imagine, or maybe you know from personal experience, this is a very social job, which led to Baron meeting all types of people. And personally, when I talked to him, I could just tell that this was a great position for him because he is a very social and talkative person who is filled with interesting things to say. And he's just, like I said earlier, very kind.

So I think he thrived in that environment. And in 2001, he ended up meeting a woman named Deedee. Now Deedee was originally from Thailand, just like him, and she had just moved to Vegas after graduating college in Canada. And Baron was one of the first friends that she made when she came to the States. And yes, I said friends and it will all come full circle in a bit, but I wanted to mention her right off the bat because she ends up playing a very critical role in saving Baron's life in more ways than just one.

But just so we're clear, at first they were just friends. Dee Dee ended up getting married and had two kids in Vegas, Sophia and Ethan. And in October of 2010, Baron got married himself. He ended up marrying a woman named Sharon Kelly, who he first started talking to online in late 2008. They didn't officially meet until January of 2009, which is when she drove down from Washington to Vegas to meet him, but things went well enough that she ended up moving

to Vegas, where the two of them ended up getting married on October 10th of 2010. But by January of 2011, they ended up leaving Vegas and going back to Washington, where Sharon was originally from. And it was there that they had their son, Eric Dragon Lee. Now he was born in April of 2014, and he's actually going to be a focal point of this episode today. And since we have Baron here today, I thought it would be best for him to explain what ended up happening to Eric, but first I will give you a little bit of backstory. So basically right before their son was

born, Sharon ended up getting in an argument with their OBGYN over the weight that she had put on during pregnancy. And because of this, she ended up deciding not to give birth to Eric at a major hospital and instead she went to a midwife birthing center. And when it came to his actual birth, it actually went very smooth. She was only in labor for 30 minutes and he was born perfectly healthy.

However, just a few days after taking him home from the hospital, they noticed that he was starting to turn yellow and develop jaundice. Now this is something that is actually very common. My daughter also had jaundice and was put under the lights at the hospital for a couple of days because she had a pretty severe case of it. So I know there are probably so many of you out there who understand jaundice and babies

and sort of the process of dealing with it. But if you aren't familiar with it, it happens when there's an excessive buildup of bilirubin in the blood. And there are many different ways of reducing the levels of bilirubin and depending on how high they are, it can require different levels of treatment. And obviously the higher the levels, the more dangerous it can be. Well, when they noticed that Eric was developing that yellow skin that you see in babies with jaundice,

they called the birthing center to ask what to do. And they were told that all they had to do was put baby Eric in some sunlight, which is something that you're often told to do. When we left the hospital after my daughter was treated and her bilirubin levels started going down, they did tell us to try and get her some indirect sunlight because it does help.

And of course, they were first time parents, so they just trusted that this was the best advice and in a lot of cases, it is good advice. However, by day eight, he wasn't getting any better. In fact, it was actually getting worse and he clearly seemed to be very uncomfortable. So they ended up taking him to their family doctor who took a look at Eric and the first thing he told them was that they needed to bring him to the emergency room at Seattle Children's Hospital right away. And I want to have Baron himself explain what they learned and how that resulted in the

disabilities that Eric still lives with to this day. When my daughter was younger and on the baby food train still, she was eating all kinds of veggies and loving it and I thought I had a miracle child. Turns out as soon as they're a toddler that is all over, at least for my daughter and I know a lot of people have similar experiences, so that's why I opt for adding a children's vitamin into her diet. But most typical children's vitamins are basically candy in disguise, filled with two teaspoons of sugar, unhealthy chemicals, and other gummy additives that growing kids should never eat. And that's why Haya created a superpowered chewable vitamin. Haya is made with zero sugar and zero gummy additives, yet it tastes great and it's perfect for picky eaters. Like my daughter, for example, she's very picky but she loves taking her high of vitamins. Haya fills the most common

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order and to claim this deal you must go to hiahealth.com. This deal is not available on their regular website so just go to hihialth.comr and get your kids the full body nourishment that they need to grow into healthy adults. This is my son Eric Dragonley. He's 10 years old now. When he was born, he was born in a birthing center here in Everett, Washington. When he was just eight days old, we saw that he was very sick and we were instructed by our family physician to take him immediately to Seattle

Children's Hospital to the emergency room. When we arrived, they took Eric from us and immediately took him up to the newborn ICU and then took my ex-wife and myself into a room to tell us what was his condition. They had about 10 to 12 doctors and nurses in the room and basically told us that Eric had a severe case of hyperbilirubin. They said that most kids when they're sick, they're at about a level 10 to 15 and they have to be put under blue lights to be treated. Anything over 20, they typically have to do a blood transfusion.

They said my son's Bellarubin levels were a level 47, the highest that anybody has seen at that hospital. We were going through a lot of emotions at the time. I was upset, I was mad, I was concerned. And I asked him, what was the future for Eric's going to look like and why was he this sick? Comes to find out that when the birthing center sent a nurse to do a genetic testing on my son when he was a day old,

left the lab sample in the back of her car for a week. So they didn't know anything about him until we came into the hospital and they discovered that he had a genetic disorder called galactosemia, which did not allow his body to break down galactose, which is found in lactose. We had been feeding Eric breast milk for the whole week. So basically he was being poisoned that we hadn't known. I was told that if we had been informed, we would have been putting him on a non-lactose diet and some type of formula and he would have been just fine.

But because the bilirubin levels were so high, he caused severe brain damage to him. In the beginning, they told us that he could possibly be a vegetable, he could possibly die. But fortunately, he did survive, but he did end up with a form of cerebral palsy called dystonia. Dystonia affects all of his motor skills, so he's never going to be able to walk or talk, communicate the way you and I do. He also has some vision issues and audio-neurotopy, which affects his hearing. He has a form of connectoris and a thing called GERD, which affects his gastro, and he gets a lot of severe reflux, can't keep things down. gastro and he gets a lot of severe reflux, can't keep things down.

Currently he has a medical pump in his stomach as well to to administer Baclofen which manages his tone levels from dystonia and he also has a gj tube which he's fed everything through. He doesn't take anything orally. What does this mean for Eric? Well, he has to have, you know, 24-hour care. There's nothing he can do on his own. He's always a very happy boy. Even with all the adversities that he's faced, he always finds a way to stay positive and happy. While we also went and sued the birthing center for their negligence, however, because they were just a birthing center and not a major hospital,

their insurance company had a maximum payout of a million dollars. Our lawyers had instructed us that we more than likely weren't gonna be able to get more than that, even if we went after the doctors and the nurses personally because it would have been hard. It would cost more money to try and get that from them instead of suing for more. So we ended up settling out of court and the insurance company paid us a million dollars. But with lawyer fees and everything, Eric was left with $650,000.

dollars. Well, with lawyer fees and everything, Eric was left with $650,000. So I had put that into a special needs trust where that money would be able to grow tax free and I wouldn't have access to it or neither would. It's not. However, there's a caveat. If the event that Eric was to pass away before the age of 30, the beneficiaries have a payout on whatever is left in the trust. There is a small piece that my ex-wife didn't realize, though in the state of Washington, before beneficiaries are paid out, Social Security and Medicaid, they get paid back before the beneficiaries.

So if he had passed away, we would have ended up with nothing either way. But I have no access to his money, even though I have custody with him. This money is strictly for his medical needs. He has everything cared for until he's 18, so that money can grow without it being touched. So when we are no longer here, at

least he has some funds to help manage his care. But as you can see, he always finds a way to smile and laugh. Say bye. I'm really glad you guys got to see Eric there and I think it's very obvious how much Baron truly cares for his son, loves him more than anything in the world and would do anything to make sure that he gets the best care and is able to live the best life possible. And fun fact about Eric, I loved this, but he has seen Moana over 2000 times, which to me that's one of the best Disney movies ever and is so impressive.

But as you can clearly see, Baron loves his son so very much. And the fact that he put money in a trust to protect him, it really just goes to show that his son's wellbeing has always been a priority for Baron from the beginning. But the truth is that amount of money will just not be enough to take care of Eric forever and it doesn't change the fact of what happened and how it was completely preventable. Because of their gross negligence, Eric requires

around-the-clock care, which thankfully Baron has always committed to giving him. Now Sharon on the other hand, not so much. In the year or so after he was born, she was going through a period of depression, which definitely can happen after giving birth. And of course, while I have sympathy for anyone experiencing postpartum depression, at the end of the day, she was neglecting the very specific type of care

that her child desperately needed. And on top of that, she also wasn't being faithful to Baron. So in 2015 he decided that it would be a good time to end their relationship and not just for himself but for the best interest of his son and he also knew it would be an Eric's best interest if he was his primary caregiver. However, when he told all of this to Sharon, it resulted in a big fight where neighbors ended up having to call the police. And get this you guys, oh my god this pisses me off. But when officers arrived, Sharon began falsely accusing Barron of not only beating her, but

also beating their son. And I can't stress this enough, these allegations were completely baseless and that clearly didn't stop her from making them. And so it eventually led to a saga of events that resulted in Barron not only losing custody of his son, but also becoming homeless. Now something that Barron and I spoke a lot about when we were on the phone the other day is that he feels that this never would have happened if the rules were reversed. I mean, being a man in this situation,

the officer didn't look for proof of Sharon's claims and she basically was able to say whatever she wanted and the officer just took her out her word. And I wanna be very clear here that it is super important that we believe victims of domestic violence, but women are not the only victims. And I don't think that is something we talk enough about in society, men can be victims too.

And in this case, Barron was a victim who was painted to be the perpetrator. And at the root of it all, what is so heartbreaking is that the person who really suffered the most was Eric. In the first three months that he was in her care full time, he was hospitalized five times. And keep in mind that while his condition is serious,

it's not like he was always in and out of hospitals. And obviously this concerned Baron a lot. I mean, that's putting it lightly. He was very upset, very angry, and really felt helpless in this situation. And to make matters worse, when he would go and see Eric at the hospital, Sharon would lie to the security and tell them that he wasn't allowed to even be around his son. And they did end up kicking him out, which prevented him from seeing Eric at all, which is heartbreaking to me because this man,

like I've already said probably several times at this point, loves his child more than anything in the world and would do anything for him. So for him to be denied access to him in the hospital when he needs, that love from his parent and support is just devastating. And you'll hear Baron explain this in a minute, but on top of it all, it got to a point where the support payments and the court fees became too much to keep up with and he was somewhere between $12,000 and $14,000 behind. And he was told if he didn't pay it by December, he was going to be sent to jail.

So he had to make the incredibly hard choice of leaving Washington because he knew that he wasn't going to be able to fight for his son from behind bars. The day I decided to leave Sharon and take my son, I came home from work and picked up Eric and headed out the door. On my way out, she started screaming at me, asked me what I was doing, and refused to let me leave the house. And she started pulling on Eric and screaming. I was afraid Eric was going to get hurt, so I handed my son over to him. And in the meantime, she's screaming.

The neighbors heard the commotion and called the police. When the police arrived, she made some accusations saying that I had abused her and my son, and I was breaking furniture around the house. When the police interviewed me, I explained to them that this was not true. Clearly there's no broken furniture and I hadn't hit her and there was no bruises

or marks or scratches to prove otherwise. I did agree that if she would take Eric and leave, we could handle this in court. So the police allowed her to take Eric and they advised us that we should handle this in court. So the police allowed her to take Eric and they advised us that we should handle this in court. A couple hours later, Sharon decided to come back to the house without Eric, but she had brought a couple friends of hers and she was trying to get into the house. I had already managed to get the locks changed the minute she left because I didn't want to have any issues with

domestic violence or being arrested for false accusations. When she tried to enter, I called the police. When the police arrived, she said that she was trying to get into the house because I had posted nude pictures of her online. Explained to the police officers, obviously this wasn't true, and I asked if this is the case, please, you, please provide proof of what she's making accusations of. She claims that it was posted on Facebook on one of her friend's posts. When asked her who the friend was or where the post was, she said it was deleted and she doesn't remember which friend saw the post.

The police officers that came the second time weren't very friendly towards me and told me that if I was posting this kind of stuff, I could go to jail, explain to them this wasn't the case. They told me that I couldn't legally keep her out of the home because she's on the deed of the house as well. And I explained to them, I just didn't want to have a domestic violence charges. And that the previous officers had recommended that we, you know, be apart for the time being until we could settle this in court.

She ended up leaving. Then two weeks later, I was served with a temporary restraining order and a protective custody order and was told that I'd have to go to court in two weeks to contest this. But in the meantime, I was being evicted out of my house and I was only allowed to take my car and a bag of clothing. I had to leave everything else in the meantime, I was being evicted out of my house and I was only allowed to take my car and a bag of clothing. I had to leave everything else in the house. Two weeks later, I ended up going to court. I found out that this was a ploy for her to get a favorable parenting plan.

And she had basically told the courts that she was afraid that Eric would die in my care because I didn't know how to care for him, which was a lie. When the judge looked at the case, they threw out the protection order with prejudice, but the parenting plan that they created was still in place, which required me to pay all the household bills, $1,900 in cash, which was a total of $6,000 in undifferential support. Even with the false accusations being unfounded, they limited my visitations to see my son two hours a week, twice a week. And I had to pay a guardian edel item, $1,500 for supervised visits based off the accusations that my son would die in my care. I went and paid the guardian edelham so I could get my visitations put in place.

And within the first visit, the guardian of Lightham asked me why I was having supervised visits because clearly I was a capable father. I knew everything about my son. I knew how to manage his tone. I knew how to manage feeding him and giving him medication and that it seemed ridiculous that I needed supervised visits. So when I went back to court, the second time I tried to appeal on the child support because I couldn't afford $6,000 a month in support and also try and find a place to live. I failed the appeal.

However, they did remove the supervised visits and I was able to pick up my son twice a week. However, these transitions or exchanges were very volatile. Sharon had made it very difficult to manage these exchanges. And at one point, she tried to literally run me over. I ended up on the hood of her car and she drove with me on the hood of her car for a couple hundred yards until I was able to roll off

her car successfully. And when I told the police what happened, they refused to allow me to press charges, told me that I had to manage this thing in family court because it's a civil matter. And then when I told the family court what had happened, they just told me that we had to learn to co-parent better. With all that was going on during this time, Eric was being hospitalized as well.

And I was concerned about his welfare and his care because his mom wasn't taking care of him was the main reason I was wanting to leave her in the first place. The courts refused to listen to me and my son kept going to the hospital and every time I went to visit him, Sharon would make lies and get me kicked out of the hospital and I'd have to contact a social worker to get access to see my son again. All this time I was paying as much as I could with the support, but I wasn't able to keep up with the total costs. I was living out of my car in the middle of a winter, you know, at a rest stop in Everett and by the time December came around, he had been out of my care for a

little over four months. The courts threatened to throw me in jail if I didn't catch up with the back support, which was about $12,000 to $14,000 at the time. And I had to make a decision. Do I end up going to jail or do I figure a way to stay out of jail and come back and fight for my son another day? So he did make that very tough decision to leave Washington. And in doing that, he knew that people were going to think that he was abandoning his son.

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true test of quality. So give yourself the luxury that you deserve with Quince. Go to quince.com slash TCKR forr to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Once again, quince.com slash tckr. Leaving Washington was a strategic move to be able to regroup and prepare to get his son back for good. And Vegas was where Baron decided to go. And a big reason that he was able to gain the strength to keep fighting was because

of one special person who I've already mentioned, Dee Dee. While going through all of this, no one believed anything that I was saying. Most people doubted the severity of the situation I was facing. However, Dee Dee was there for me emotionally. She and I met back in 2001, shortly after she completed college in Canada. She moved down to Las Vegas to live with her mom. We became friends right away,

and over the years we kept in contact. When Didi found out what I was going through, she suggested that I move back to Las Vegas, where she could help me get back on my feet. Three months after moving to Las Vegas, Didi and I had decided to move in together with her and her two children, Sophia and Ethan. Sophia was six at the time and Ethan was nine, and they grew to like me right away. Sophia started calling me daddy right away, and then Ethan shortly after that.

We did a lot of stuff together. We went on road trips, and I was able to put a little bit of the situation I was dealing with to the side, but I knew that eventually I needed to get back to Washington to fight for Eric. Dee Dee and I made a decision that when that happens, that we were going to relocate our entire family to Washington. This way, I could be with Eric, and also Sophia and Ethan

could end up going to a better school and having a better life here in Washington as well. So like you just heard, Barron was still very determined to get back custody of his son, even though he himself was still trying to get back on his feet. And in May of 2017, an opportunity presented itself. He got a call from CPS saying that Eric had been placed into a foster home. And I just want to start off by really emphasizing that the woman whose care Eric was placed

in was an absolute saint. I got the opportunity to learn about her more from Baron when we spoke and her name is Denise and he could have not said nicer things about her. I mean, just raved about her. In fact, he said that she will always be a mom to Eric in a way because of how well she cared for him and how close the two of them got.

And we also spent a lot of time discussing how unfortunately rare that is. I mean, I think most people understand that there are major issues in the foster care system and sadly a lot of people do it for the wrong reasons. Do it for the money and the children, you know, that are placed into these homes, the wrong homes, just do not get the care and support that they need and it's very traumatic. And of course, there are a lot of amazing foster parents out there who are absolutely doing it for the right reasons.

And if any of you are out there who are foster parents and you're doing it for the right reasons, hats off to you because oftentimes it cannot be easy, but you're making such a massive impact on these children. But like I said, it's unfortunately very rare for children to be placed into a foster home with foster parents who actually care about them and are doing it for the right reasons.

And this is one of the many things that Barron is really trying to call attention to, spread awareness about, because yeah, a lot of foster parents are not like Denise at all. In Barron's own personal experience, he was placed into 17 different foster homes and only a small percentage, a small handful of those homes he actually felt supported in. And he is definitely not alone. There are so many people who share similar experiences to what he went through.

And the reality is this could be a topic on its own. And I'm sure there are some of you out there who have been through the foster care system and know firsthand, and I'd love to hear from you in the comments and start more of that conversation. And I'll be touching more on this later. But among the many problems with the foster care system, there's a major lack of care that leaves kids like Baron

and Eric in incredibly vulnerable positions. Luckily though, Eric had a great foster mom and thank God for that because just listen to how he got placed in her care to begin with, which I'm sure you're wondering about. While Barron still didn't have custody, Sharon had an in-home nurse and this nurse ended up finding Eric barely alive, barely breathing, and yet Sharon decided to still go to school that day. And given the severity of his condition, thankfully, this nurse immediately called 911 and then rushed him to the hospital.

Well, while he was there, CPS started an investigation and found out that Sharon had tried to order a do not resuscitate and a tracheotomy for Eric during one of his many hospital visits in her care. And the hospital staff, of course, I'm sure they were very confused by this, and they basically told her that she could not do that.

And clearly, Sharon is someone who doesn't like hearing no. So she left and brought him to two different hospitals who ended up telling her the same thing. And when those two hospitals spoke to each other, they felt like this whole thing was really weird. And I'm very curious to hear all of your thoughts about it because in my opinion, it's bizarre and really, really scary because Eric wasn't in any kind of medical state where a DNR or tracheotomy would have been necessary.

And so after looking at the situation as a whole, CPS determined that Eric was not safe in the care of Sharon and that is how he ended up in Denise's care, his foster mom. So that's when CPS ends up calling Baron and asking him if he would be able to take care of Eric instead. And just to be clear, it had nothing to do with Denise's ability to care for him as a foster parent, but obviously at the end of the day, it's best for him to be with a biological parent. They specifically told him that if he was able to establish medical care in Vegas,

then they would have someone bring him down. And I just loved what Baron's response to this was because he knew that his son already had an established team of doctors at Seattle Children's Hospital. So instead of having Eric come to them, he, Dee Dee, Sophia, and Ethan all moved up to Bellevue, Washington to go to him. So that right there just shows you what a dedicated and selfless

parent Barron is. And also I want to shout out Dee Dee, Ethan, and Sophia for making that move as well, uprooting their lives because they knew it was going to be best for Eric. What sucks though is he wasn't given custody of Eric right off the bat. A judge had him and Sharon go through a dependency case where both of them would be given partial custody and a decision would be ultimately made about which parent was a better fit. And this went on for a whopping two years. And they actually had to do exchanges at the local police station because of how hostile things had become between them.

And get this, Sharon didn't want to have to physically hand Eric over to Barron. So instead she would put him on the ground, on the dirty, germ-filled ground. And as you heard Barron say, there were times where Sharon would straight up try to run him over with her car. Barron, to be clear. And this would happen in the parking lot of the police station. up try to run him over with her car. Barron to be clear. And this would happen in the parking lot of the police station. So it's wild to me that it took two years for them to determine that he was the better fit because it's so clear, but that's how long it took.

Finally in May of 2019, he was given physical custody. However, and unfortunately, Sharon was still granted visitation on the weekends. And every time his son left his arms and went with her, Baron feared that his son was going to die. So when I say that his efforts to gain custody were actually efforts to try and save Eric's life, I mean that. But getting physical custody wasn't the end of it. Things were trending favorably in his direction, including the fact that the child support payments were reduced from $6,000 a month to $800 a month. But this was still an uphill battle, and that battle came to a head on July 10th of 2020. It is time once again for me to talk about one of my favorite brands on the market, and that is Nutri-Full. If you guys have

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I was asked to fill in for one of my co-managers who was on vacation. Typically on Fridays is my day off and I would be spending the day with my family. Our normal routine would be getting up, getting ready, and then going out and doing something together as a family. Because at five o'clock on Fridays, we were required to drop Eric off at the Kirkland Police Department to go home and visit with his mom on the weekends. But instead, I was walking out at 820 by myself and I had heard what I thought was fireworks. And so I looked to my left and I didn't see

anything. As I turned to my right, I saw a shooter heading towards me and firing. I ended up getting shot in my right arm. I shattered my arm immediately and I ended up dropping my keys. Fortunately, I had just unlocked my car door with the fob, so I decided to run towards my car and with the fob, so I decided to run towards my car and take cover. Shooter's still shooting at me as I open my car door.

I take a shot to the back of my right leg. I end up falling to the ground and I pull myself behind the car door because he's still shooting at me. A few seconds later, I look up and he's standing right over me and shoots me and goes right into my chest. And at that point I'm thinking, oh shit, I'm going to die. And I didn't really have much options. So I decided to dive into my car and hide my head under the wheel well.

My right arm was already dangling. So I'm like this hiding under the car. He fires the entire left side of my body until he runs out of ammunition. Then he bends over, picks up some shell casings and then takes off. Then I end up falling back out of the car and I'm laying on the ground

next to my vehicle bleeding out. At that point, I hear one of my neighbors saying, hey, are you okay? And I'm like, no, I've been shot. I need help. Please call 911. And they're like, where are you shot? I'm like, everywhere.

Just call 911. And then a few seconds later, the first neighbor to show up, her name was Krista Mann, finds me there laying on the ground bleeding out. And I was dressed in black, black pants, black shirt, black jacket. So she couldn't see any of my wounds except the one that was on my chest.

So she grabs a metal cookette and starts applying pressure to the chest hoping to slow down the bleeding. She gets on the phone with 911 and another neighbor comes out and I remember asking them to go and knock on my door and tell my wife that I'm outside and tell her what's going on. I figured she probably didn't hear anything because in the morning, as we're getting Eric ready, giving medication, preparing his food and stuff, we usually have him watching Moana or listening to something on the TV.

They get my wife to come out and I remember having this conversation with 911. I don't know what it was. Either my wife was on the phone with 911 or Christa was on the phone with 911. But I remember them asking if the shooter was there, if we knew who the shooter was. And I remember replying, telling the dispatch, I did not know who the shooter was. The shooter had left. Nobody's here anymore. I just call and just get the ambulance here right away. I'm dying, you know? 911 emergency. Hello? My husband got shot. Okay, it's your husband? Yeah. Okay. Okay, and is he awake and conscious right now? Yes, he is. Okay.

And is it possible for me to speak to him? Is he awake? Yes, once again, please. Just help me. Just get it. I'm really scared. Okay, and where are you shot? Once, two, three shots.

More than three, mama. Where are you shot? Okay. Okay, I can speak to your wife. My arms are all shot, mama. My legs, my chest. Okay. Okay, I can see your life. My arms all shot by my legs, my chest. Okay, okay, sir. Okay, where is the gun?

The guy ran with the gun. It's not in here. Please hurry. Okay, can you hand the phone to me? Please hurry. Okay, who shot him? We don't know. We don't know. Okay, okay, so the person's no longer there? No. We'll get, we'll get there. Ah!

Okay. Ah! Ah! We have one second. I'm sorry, ma'am, can you hear me? Hi, I knew. Hi, hello, ma'am? Hello, it's us, ma'am.

Here. Yes. Hello, can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you. Hi, okay, so is someone applying pressure right now? Yes, my name is Krista. I'm applying pressure to the chest wound. Okay, and just to verify, is the person who shot him or is it self-inflicted? Did he shoot himself?

I believe that somebody has shot him. We heard multiple gunshot wounds and there have been people in our apartment complex that reported seeing a gentleman flee from the scene. Okay. Okay, and did you see which way he went? Where's our ambulance? I mean, I hear sirens. Okay, yeah, we have officers in our aid crews

notified of what's going on there, okay? I can't feel my arm. I can't feel my right arm. No, it's not my right arm. I literally can't feel my fingers. It's okay. You're gonna be just fine. You're doing a great job. You're under pressure, okay?

And then I shift my focus to my wife and I told her that I love her. I told her that I wanted her to take care of Eric and take care of Sophia and Ethan. And she told me, I got this, don't worry. You're going to make it. You're going to be fine. You're going to be okay. Then the police show up.

They were the first ones on the scene. They start tying tourniquets on both my arms and my legs. As the paramedics show up, I remember telling Dee that I loved her, I needed her to go and take care of Erica. And then the paramedics load me up on a stretcher, put me on the ambulance, and we're on our way to Harborview. Now in the ambulance, it's pretty chaotic. They're basically trying to cut off all my clothing,

trying to find where all these bullet wounds are. And at that point, I remember I was just done. I was ready. I felt like I was at peace and ready to pass. Felt like I was laying in a peaceful meadow and I was ready to just fall asleep. The paramedic started shaking me and telling me, hey, you have to stay awake.

And I remember after he said that, I was ready to fall asleep again. And all of a sudden I felt this sharp pain. He ended up sticking his finger in one of my bullet wounds. And I remember screaming, fuck, fuck, don't do that. I'm awake, I'm awake, don't do that again. And that gave me enough adrenaline that I actually stayed awake.

And we then arrived at Harborview and they rushed me into the ER. And they got me on the hospital bed and they're hooking me up with IVs and pouring a bunch of morphine into me and painkillers and whatnot. And I end up laying in the hospital for that entire day. They didn't actually get me into surgery until the next morning at one o'clock. And I remember being awake the whole time thinking who shot me, you know? But they finally get me into the operating room and I remember them counting down as they were putting anesthesia for me to go under.

I end up waking up the next morning and I have bruises and gunshot wounds all over my body. My right arm had been shattered so they had me in a brace. I couldn't move my right arm at all. It was in a sling. I could move my fingertips. That was it. I could move my fingertips.

I had been shot twice in my right arm, once in my right leg, twice in my left leg, twice in my left arm, one in my left hip, and then one in my chest for a total of nine shots. I was told that they were able to remove three of the bullets, but there was still three inside of me as well. They couldn't remove it because they felt that it would do more damage trying to get it out and cause maybe more nerve damage. However, I did have severe bruising around all of my bullet wounds as well. I felt like I had been hit by a truck or I had just been beat up by a bunch of bunch of guys it hurt a lot. I'm sure you guys all agree with me but Baron's attitude and his strength and just

the way he talks about what happened to him is so remarkable and impressive to me. To have survived all of that which is something almost nobody can say they have done, and still come out of it with so much strength and positivity is astounding. And you heard him say it earlier, and I love this, but he was actually dubbed the Asian 50 Cent, which, if you didn't know, 50 Cent actually also survived being shot nine times, which is just insane. And calling it a miracle is really the only way I can explain it. And one of the things I thought was especially incredible was how he told Sophia and Ethan. They were actually visiting their grandparents in Florida at the time, but he wanted to let them know what happened,

and he wanted to do it in a way where he could show them that he was going to be okay. So the day after he got out of surgery, he took a picture of himself physically standing up out of his hospital bed, and he has actually said that this was very hard to do, that he was in a ton of pain. It was so important to him to show them that he was going to be okay and to show strength and God, I just, I love Baron so much. To him, the idea of sending a photo of him laying down just didn't send the message that he wanted them to hear. And this message has really become his motto, which is, life may knock me down, but it can't

keep me down, which is something we should all keep in our minds every single day. And if there is one thing I am confident in, it's that nothing will ever keep Baron Lee down. He has exhibited so much strength throughout all of this, and not just in terms of the shooting, because before getting shot, the accusations made by his ex-wife stripped him of everything he had. Not to mention the fact that he was abused by his parents

and went through 17 different foster homes. But none of that has stopped him from fighting for what he knows is right. And in all honesty, Barron has said that being shot nine times is actually not the worst thing that's ever happened to him. In fact, he actually called it a relief because it meant that people would finally believe the truth

that he had been the victim all along. When he was shot, he may not have known the identity of his attacker, but he was confident that only one person could have been behind it, and that was his ex-wife, Sharon Kelly. She was the only person who had the motive, and luckily the investigation led police right to her. So let's talk about it. As soon as first responders and police arrived on scene, one of the major priorities besides obviously saving Baron's life was finding the shooter. Because of course for all they knew this was an armed gunman on the loose and that is a major public safety concern. Their special operations group was even called and they spread out all

over trying to track down this shooter. Now for context, Barron and his family were living at the overlook at Lakemont Apartments and there's this staircase that leads down to a tunnel and then that tunnel opens up to a shopping complex and a park. And a witness actually told police that they saw someone running in that direction shortly after the shooting so this was an area that they primarily focused their search. Unfortunately, they didn't find anyone and they quickly realized that this may not have been a random attack. While some units were canvassing the area, others were processing the scene, and people at the scene realized that this didn't really look like a random attack. If this had been something like a robbery gone wrong, you would expect things to have been stolen, right?

But Barron had two phones on him, his wallet, his car keys, and valuable jewelry. And on top of that, both a witness and Barron later told police that they saw the shooter picking up some of the spent shell casings. And your typical shooter doesn't do that. Then they had a police canine come in and the dog tracked the scent from the parking lot where Baron was shot to the lower parking lot by the park. And the dog stopped very abruptly in that lower lot. And that indicated to them that the shooter got into a car at that point and fled, almost like they had an escape plan.

So now they had to consider that someone wanted him dead. But who? Well, according to Dee Dee, who spoke with investigators while Baron was in surgery, Sharon was the only person who didn't get along with him, and she explained that his ex-wife might have been trying to get back at him for gaining custody of Eric. Plus, if we're talking about motive here, there was that hefty malpractice trust fund that was set up in his name, so I mean, logically speaking, it was the only thing that really made sense. However, once Baron was out of surgery, he explained that it couldn't have been Sharon

who pulled the trigger. Now, he wasn't sure if the person who shot him was male or female, but he was certain that this person was thin, and that just doesn't match her description. But just like Dee Dee had said, he told investigators that she is the only person he thinks would have the motive to do it. And they also did have to consider Dee Dee's ex-husband, who I guess there was bad blood with, but he was very quickly ruled out. But at the end of the day, the signs really only pointed to one person, but obviously

signs and evidence aren't exactly the same thing. So investigators just had to keep working the case to see where it led them. And ultimately it ended up being security cameras that led them in the right direction. When they were canvassing the area, investigators found a camera that was mounted to a building and that building just happened to face

one of the main roads in and out of that lower park area. And when they went through the footage, they saw that a little less than two hours before the shooting, there was a maroon-colored Ford F-150 that drove into the park area. And then a slender looking figure could be seen walking up the road towards the direction of Baron's apartment. Which that alone wasn't all that strange. But then, an hour and 50 minutes later, that same person could be seen running down the road, away from the apartment, but then, an hour and fifty minutes later, that same person could be seen running down the road, away from the apartment, and then that same truck could be seen speeding

off in the opposite direction it came from. Which obviously didn't feel like a coincidence, and what also wasn't a coincidence was the fact that where this truck was likely parked was the same area where that canine lost the shooter's scent. So assuming that this was connected, investigators had to try and figure out who this truck belonged to. And using traffic cameras in the area, they were able to do just that. They basically were able to track that same truck across multiple cameras and a few things stood out. I mean, starting with the fact that there were

not one, but two people in the truck. And truthfully, they couldn't really see the driver all that well, but they could see that the guy in the passenger seat was wearing the same white shirt as the guy who ran away from the apartment complex minutes after the shooting. And they also saw that he was wearing what looked like a gold chain necklace and that he wasn't wearing his seatbelt correctly.

And this is very interesting. He did have his seatbelt clipped in, but the part that goes across your chest was tucked under his arm. And this will be very important later on, so we'll come back to that. But the other key thing that they saw was the truck's license plate,

which showed that it belonged to a guy named Arthur Mendez in Mount Vernon, Washington. However, they learned that it wasn't Arthur who typically drove that car. It was his 17-year-old son, Quincy. But the strange thing was, neither Arthur nor Quincy had an obvious connection to Baron. And assuming that the driver of this truck was connected to the shooting, you would expect that there would at least be something.

So the special ops team began following the truck over the next few days to see where it went, hoping that it would lead them to some more answers. And they also decided it was time to go ahead and pay a visit to Sharon. And that whole interaction really rubbed investigators the wrong way. What happened was, they went to her house and they knocked on the door and explained that they were from Bellevue investigating a crime. And mind you, they didn't provide any specifics at first. Yet her response to them was something like,

the only person I know in Bellevue is my ex-husband, and I have no idea what's going on with him. But they never said that this had anything to do with Barron in the first place. Now, they did eventually tell her that it was about him, but for her to independently bring that up on her own felt weird. And she also didn't mention Eric, her son,

who also lives in Bellevue. And not only that, she was very quick to bring up the idea that Barron also had people in Nevada who he had problems with or had problems with him. And obviously she's trying to shift their attention in another direction. Then as expected, she just decided to stop answering questions altogether, so they had to walk away.

But luckily though, they didn't need her cooperation to find Baron's shooter. On July 15th, the special ops team was tracking Quincy, the teenager, in his truck and they ended up following him to a gas station. And in the car with him was another teenage boy who just so happened to be wearing a gold chain necklace and who had his seatbelt tucked under his arm. And this was really interesting to me and honestly gave me a little peace of mind, but I guess this is really rare for people

to tuck the seatbelt under their arm. The investigator that I heard speaking about it said that it's less than 1% of the population who does this, so it's a very specific thing for a person to do. Certainly looking like the person that was seen running away from Baron's apartment after he was shot. And it wasn't hard to figure out who this kid was. So after going to Quincy's high school and showing the faculty a photo of the other guy,

they learned that it was actually 17-year-old Joseph Good. What was interesting though is neither of these boys were known to be troublemakers. Quincy was even planning to join the military after he turned 18, but that dream of his would never come true because police suspected that he was the getaway driver in a murder attempt. And that of course would mean that Joseph was the shooter. And of course, this was just a theory at first, but it was confirmed after investigators got

a search warrant for their electronic data. Now, obviously going through months of someone's electronic data takes a long time and we're talking about teenagers who are on their phones all the time and all their devices. So it did take three months to sift through, but they ended up finding some pretty undeniable evidence. It turns out that Joseph had an email in his inbox from a website called Brick House Security,

which is a company that sells tracking devices. And this didn't make a whole lot of sense to investigators at the time. I mean, why would a 17-year-old need a tracking device? I mean, unless your parents set you up with one for whatever reasons, but it turns out that it wasn't necessarily his. Listen to this. Investigators ended up going back to Baron's car, which was still in their possession, and right there on the ground was this tracking device. It had been taped to the bottom of his car, and while it was sitting in evidence, the device had fallen off. And after getting a search warrant for the data on that specific tracker, they learned

that it was registered to none other than Sharon Kelly. Shocker. Finally, it gave them the connection that they had suspected was there all along. And get this, the device was actually purchased back in 2015 and it didn't end up being activated until two weeks before the shooting and then only four days after the shooting the device was deactivated. They also found texts between Sharon and Joseph about payment for the job. She was going to pay him $13,000 to kill Barron but because he wasn't successful she wasn't

going to give it to him at all. Now Joseph was apparently determined and said that he would try again. Thankfully though, that didn't happen. And luckily, all of this was enough for investigators to finally make the arrests. On October 8th, all three suspects were arrested and investigators ended up doing it all at the same time

to avoid anyone being able to tip off the other. And it went smoothly. All three of them were detained without problems and searches were even performed at each of their homes. But ultimately, they actually never recovered the weapon that was used to shoot Baron. To this day, they did find some money and even a burner phone at Sharon's place, but not the gun itself. It wasn't at her place, it wasn't at either of the boys' place, so who knows what they

did with it. Now as you can imagine, as a parent of a teenager, to find out that your child was involved in something like this had to have been incredibly shocking. And Quincy's parents were very, very shocked at the news. And they thought that police had to have been mistaken, but they weren't. Their son and his friend were involved in an attempted murder plot, which is why they both were booked on the charge of attempted murder in the first degree. And I'm sure you're wondering, how did Sharon know these boys to begin with?

It turns out her teenage brother went to the same high school as them, and Joseph was the one she connected with. She offered him $13,000 to kill Baron, and he eventually roped Quincy into it, and he agreed to be the getaway car for a cut of the money. Which is just so mind-blowing, I know teenagers don't have, you know, there's, there lacks some critical thinking skills when you're that young, but to throw your life away, or to risk throwing your life away and to take someone else's life away for $13,000, actually less because they were going to be splitting it, however they had agreed, it's just so mind blowing to me. And we know all of this because Quincy just flat out confessed.

The other two stayed completely silent, but he told investigators everything and even took responsibility for his role right off the bat. And given the threat of what they all were facing in terms of jail time, all three of them ended up just pleading guilty in exchange for lesser sentences.

And another detail about this case that just really warmed my heart and made me admire Barron even more is he actually advocated for the boys to get lesser sentences. He didn't want their lives to be ruined over a horrific mistake, but a mistake. And he knew that they were very young

and yeah, he just didn't wanna see that happen. So that level of forgiveness just... Barron is a true salt of the earth rare type of human. I don't know if I would have that type of strength and forgiveness if I was in his shoes. So Quincy ended up pleading guilty to assault in the first degree and he got a sentence of eight years and 10 months. And Joseph pleaded guilty to attempted murder, an unlawful possession of a firearm and received 12 years and eight months. Now as for Sharon who we have zero empathy for, she pleaded guilty to solicitation to commit murder in the second degree resulting in a very underwhelming sentence of only 165 months or just under 14 years behind bars.

Which when I heard that, my jaw was on the floor. I felt instantly just filled with rage. How could someone only get such a low amount of time for something that horrific, especially given her history? And even to Baron, that sentence is not nearly enough. But at the end of the day, the good thing here though, is that will keep her behind bars past Eric's 18th birthday, which ultimately means that she cannot gain

access to his trust. Forgiving the boys wasn't something I thought about right away. It actually took me some time to think about everything that transpired. It wasn't until I realized that the boys were victims as well. It was Sharon that pulled them into her diabolical plan. She ruined their lives, ruined their family's lives. So when the prosecution approached me about offering them a lower sentencing, I was all for it. My intention was that the boys would be able to see the opportunity being given to them. That they would go ahead and get an education while they're in prison.

And then eventually when they got out, go ahead and make a life for themselves. I was glad I was able to meet with Quincy's parents. I wanted them to know that I had no ill will towards them or towards Quincy. And I also wanted to relieve them of any burden of guilt. I mean, I couldn't imagine if one of my teenagers went and did something as silly as that and what kind of guilt I would have. So I wanted to give them that peace and let them be able to just focus on being able to support Quincy and eventually, you know, being there for Quincy when he gets out. As far as sharing goes, her sentencing was definitely

not long enough. When the prosecutor told me that they wanted to give her a plea deal and lower her sentencing down to 152 months from 300 months, I was adamantly against it. And the prosecutor basically told me that they were going to take this plea deal because it's a guaranteed prosecution and they didn't want to risk going to trial and possibly not being able to get her prosecuted. And I told them I didn't care. I wanted to go to trial. But they went ahead

and moved forward with the plea deal. So when her sentencing came, I went in front of the judge and I told them, you know, that I was against the plea deal. However, instead of the 152 months that she should get the 165 months, which was the maximum for that plea deal they offered her. Since they already had taken it down from 300 months, 165 was more than fair if she was gonna get a plea deal. Thankfully, the judge agreed and she got to 165 months, which means that she won't be getting out before Eric turns 18.

My intention is to get Eric's guardianship in place so he'll be protected from her when she when she finally gets out. Which even though she deserved so much more time, that alone, the fact that she can't get access to the trust is such a massive relief. I mean this woman is a monster and really the shooting is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean it goes so much deeper than that. Obviously the shooting was the tipping point and very scary and undeniably big part of this.

But one of our biggest goals with this episode was to share with you all that there is so much beneath the surface that led to that point. And part of that is the reality that Eric was always her target. There's no denying that Baron is a clear victim in all of this. I mean, he got shot nine times doing everything that he could to protect his son. But it was Eric's trust fund that she wanted. And Baron was just someone who was in the way of her getting that.

Honestly, this entire story is almost unbelievable. And it's a huge reason why I wanted Baron to come onto the show and tell you guys about it himself. I mean who could explain this story better than him? So we also wanted to take the time to share what he has been doing as a result of all of this and highlight the major systemic issues that allowed this to happen in the first place. Specifically as it relates to the custody dispute with Eric, the baseless claims made against Barron, and how the system is not set up to support fathers.

Because with no proof whatsoever, Sharon was able to strip Barron of his parental rights and force him into homelessness, which led to a contentious custody battle that eventually resulted in the shooting. Sharon was manipulating the system in her favor and it almost cost Barron and Eric their lives. This whole case is very layered and at each layer, Barron and Eric were the victims. Obviously, women and mothers are failed by our systems all the time, but Barron's case serves as a very important reminder that fathers experience the failures of the system as well and the protections in place

for fathers are not always the same as they are for mothers. Again, keyword, not always, and there are just so many issues across the board for everyone, but it's really a huge issue that he has been calling attention to and trying to advocate for. Specifically, he wants people in Washington to help support the Washington Initiative for Boys and Men in getting House Bill 1266 heard and passed to create a commission for boys and men. If this bill passes, boys and men will be better advocated for when laws are passed, and it will also look at current legislation and seek to make changes

as well. This bill, along with Senate Bill 5446, will focus on policy recommendations in five areas, including education and skills, mental and physical health, fatherhood, family and relationships, jobs, careers, and financial health, and experiences of males in the court system. So if you live in Washington and want to show your support for this bill, you can call or write your legislator.

As always, I'll have an example typed up in the description box of this episode or the show notes if you're listening on Spotify or Apple podcasts. And so that'll make it really easy for you to just copy and paste unless you wanna change it up or write your own, that's great too. And currently no other state has a commission for boys and men, but you can still reach out

to your legislators and ask for one. Barron told me that he has connected with thousands of other fathers who are in very similar situations to what he went through, and he did that through support groups. And so this is something that men are experiencing all across the country. And he also wants to encourage people to petition their representatives to fight for 50-50 parenting plans so that kids get equal time with both parents and neither parent is alienated. And obviously this really goes without saying, but that's if there's no evidence to suggest wrongdoing or unsafe conditions on either side. In Barron's case, the false allegations made against him were believed.

And then when they realized he was a capable father, he still wasn't able to get back complete custody. He was deemed guilty until proven innocent. And not having fair due process is something that is not unique to him. And he's hoping to change that for other fathers going forward. The main reason I lost custody of my son is that we have a broken family court system

here in the state of Washington and many states across the country. My ex-wife was able to file for a protection order because she said I was abusing her and my son. Two weeks later, the protection order was thrown out with prejudice because they realized they were all false allegations. However, a parenting plan was put in place, which required me to vacate my home, pay her $6,000 a month in child support, and restrict my visits to two hours twice a week. I was required to pay $1,500 for supervised visits because she said my son would die in my care. On top of that, I lost all medical decision-making for my son.

After I had my very first visit, the guardian at Lytton realized that I was more than capable of being a father and knew everything about my son's medical conditions. However, this is a tactic that is used by lawyers because there is no perjury mechanism in the family court system, so anyone can lie and make up any type of stories. So after I was shot, I really wanted to advocate for father's rights, and I met a gentleman named Blair Daly. He started an organization called Washington Initiative for Boys and Men. And for the past four years, he has been trying to get a House Bill passed to create a commission

for boys and men with the intention of making sure that boys and men are represented anytime a law is created. I am hoping we can also get legislation to create proper due process for men in family court system and to make 50-50 parenting a standard. Now I'll put more information about this initiative in the show notes or description box. But if you guys have any questions, Barron is very willing to connect with anyone out there who wants more information or wants to learn more. You can always reach out to him, you know, just through his social media. He says DMs are the best way to do so. So once again,

pull out your device, find Barron on social media, please give him a follow. This man deserves it and his content is excellent. He's planning to do much more with that. So help him spread the word and give him that support. It would mean a lot to me and I know it would mean a lot to him. And another way that you can help him is by supporting the would mean a lot to me. And I know it would mean a lot to him. And another way that you can help him is by supporting the nonprofit that he co-founded and it's called Root21. I really love what this nonprofit is doing

and it all stemmed from his own experiences in the foster care system. Together, they recognized a need for children currently in the system to be mentored. And who better to do that than someone who's already gone through the system themselves? So what Route 21 does is they pay young adults who have graduated from foster care to mentor youth who are still actively in it.

And what they're really doing is twofold. For one, they're helping kids in the system learn the skills that they need to survive once they hit adulthood. And two, they're providing a unique paid opportunity for young adults who have aged out of the foster care system to make money and give back. What they're doing is really, really cool and unique. It's a seven-year program where every year they select eight kids starting their freshman year

of high school and they are paired up with eight mentors. And it's very new, the first group of kids are actually entering their second year now, but year one is all just about establishing a relationship between the child and their mentor. Trust is something that can be really difficult for foster kids to develop with someone new for obvious reasons. And so that's really the first thing that they're working on building.

So once a week, they'll go out to breakfast with their mentor. And then twice a month, the whole cohort does a group outing like seeing a movie or going paintballing, going go-karting. And then every quarter, the mentors and students will meet to learn about life skills related to their acronym, which is WHEELS, W-H-E-E-L-S. It stands for wealth, health, education, emotion, life skills, and spiritual.

And it's the curriculum that their mentors have developed to prepare the students for life after they age out of foster care. And it was so cool learning about this from Barron. You can just tell how truly passionate he is about helping. And that's not all he has done. He and his business partner also have a general contracting company, which he will tell you more about in a minute. But just to give you a little background on it, basically, Baron wanted to find a way

to take things a step further for kids who have aged out of the system. He really does care very deeply about giving these young adults real opportunities to succeed in life beyond just giving someone advice or a job. He talked a lot about how important it is to him to make sure that these young men are setting goals and finding passion in life and learning how to navigate and operate businesses so that they can go on and start one of their own. Because I grew up in foster care, I've always wanted to help foster kids. When I saw that I had a platform where people were listening to me tell my story, I started

spreading awareness about what foster kids go through. That's when Blair introduced me to a gentleman named Rick Newell. Rick and his wife Rebecca had successfully run a nonprofit that mentored inner city youth for the past 10 years. Rick explained to me that he was stepping away from the program and wanted to start a program similar to that, but for foster kids. He also explained to me that he had very minimal experience with foster kids and asked me if I would be willing to mentor him for a year. And during that year, we met once a week. I shared a lot of my own personal experiences and things that I went through. We discussed the obstacles that we would face dealing with the issues that are currently

in the broken system, also with the issues with the children and their trauma and things that they have to deal with, as well as the obstacles we would have to face putting together this program and creating a curriculum that would help these kids thrive. So after a year, we started Route 21 and our main goal is to take previous foster kids in the ages of 20s and 30s and pay them to mentor kids currently in care, starting at freshman year age.

Our hopes is to keep them out of the streets and facing some of the normal social issues that foster kids go through, like drug addiction, incarceration, homelessness, and sex trafficking. Instead, give them the tools and the knowledge needed so they're able to thrive once they hit adulthood. I've been on the board of advisors and the board of directors for a couple of years now. However, recently I stepped down from the board of directors because my business partner and I started a general contracting company.

Since we're both in foster care, we wanted to create a business that could help aged-out foster kids. So what we do is we employ aged-out foster kids and teach them the construction industry. Our goal is to help them find something that they like in the construction field and create a subcontract company giving them their own business, teaching them how to run a company, network and market for themselves as well, as well as hire and manage their own team. We wanted to do more and we hope that by what we do that they're able to eventually replicate what we do and help other kids as well. Now I'm sure you guys feel the same way about Baron as I do. He is truly an amazing person.

And once again, I just wanted to say thank you Baron for taking the time to come on my show. Like I said on the phone, I really hope you and I get the chance to meet in person one day and I just I feel like you have so much to offer this world and you you truly inspire me and I mean that with my whole heart. I'm also so inspired by everything that Route 21 is doing. I think it's really cool. I'd love to see more programs like this across the country. I know probably some do exist, but we definitely need more like them. So I'm going to be making a donation to them, of course. And if you're interested in making a donation to Route 21, I will have their website linked below or in the show notes so that you can do that. And you can also donate directly to Baron via his GoFundMe, which will go towards a number of things, including his continued fight for custody of Eric. And yes, you heard that right.

Barron still does not have legal custody of his son. He does have physical custody, but not having legal custody prevents him from being able to make important decisions about Eric's life, such as his health, which he needs to be able to do. One of the biggest challenges I still face is getting custody of Eric. Most people don't realize this, but I don't have legal custody of my son. When I started the custody battle with my ex-wife, she was given custody and I was limited visitations to a couple hours a week. This never changed even once he was put into foster care. When they took him out of her home and put him into foster care,

that's when they opened up what they call a dependency case. During that dependency case was where we had that two years of Sharon and I both getting visitations. And it wasn't until she did that crazy stunt, putting my son on the floor, that the dependency court deemed me a more suitable parent. And I was given temporary physical custody of my son.

In August of 2020, we were scheduled to go to trial in family court because we were trying to get the ruling from dependency court adopted to family court where the parenting plan could be changed where I would have legal custody. But because Sharon wanted to contest it, she was afforded a trial, which was scheduled in August of 2020. However, I got shot in July of 2020, so that trial never came to fruition. While she was incarcerated in King County Jail for three years, awaiting sentencing, they would not allow her to attend a Zoom trial or in-person trial to family

court to get this parenting plan changed. So I had to wait until she was sentenced. Well, a year ago when she was sentenced, I went back to family court to petition only to find out because the case had been inactive for three years, that they went and closed the family court case. So I had to petition and only recently got it reopened. And now I'm in the process of figuring out whether I'm going to have to go to trial or they're going to just allow me to get custody of my son since she is now incarcerated.

I haven't been able to get a lawyer yet to figure out what my next steps are, but that's kind of where I'm at right now. The crazy part about this is if the rules had been reversed, the women wouldn't have to do anything. The state would have called in what they call an emergency court hearing and called for the best interest of the child and automatically get paperwork and give custody over to the mom in this situation.

But as a father, I get no help and I have to do this all on my own. You'd like to help me with a couple of things I could ask if you guys know a lawyer that wants to take a case offer pro bono and also to just follow and support me on my socials. You can find all my links on linktree slash baronblee. Thank you. So I'll be sure to have that linktree in the show notes or description box of this episode and I really want to encourage you guys to follow along baron is constantly posting updates about his

case and about Eric and all the things that he's advocating for and I know that having support from you guys would just mean the world to him and also like you heard if you are a lawyer or know a lawyer that can potentially help him with his custody case, that would be truly incredible if we can help him get legal custody of his son back. I'm sure you all agree, but after everything this man has been through, to still not have this part of things resolved

is just incredibly unfair. He has shown that he can care for his son, that he's the best person to do it, and that he's always willing to put Eric's best interest first. So to not have legal custody at this point is just maddening. And again, it's a huge reason why he's advocating for the equal treatment of men and boys. And I want to remind you one more time of Barron's motto, which is something I think we can all live by in a way. Life may knock me down, but it can't keep me down. And there's just something so powerful about those words.

Barron has been given more than enough reasons to wanna give up, but his resilience has always been 10 times stronger. And while a lot of that has come from his own personal strength, I feel it would be wrong to not also give some credit to Didi. She is such a strong and incredible woman and the way that she took care of Barron and the kids during his 15 months of rehabilitation,

that deserves to be celebrated. Barron says that the transition after getting out of the hospital was likely harder on her than it was on him, but she did it without hesitation and I've heard her say in interviews that she was happy to do it, that she enjoys taking care of her family. And as we come to the end of this episode, I wanted Barron to once more give you some final words today, sort of his final message from all of this. So here he is one last time. The hardest part for me with all of this was what happened to my son. What most people don't know that is when someone goes through a brain injury there is a chance that the undamaged portion of the brain is able to learn or relearn skills and tasks and

When Eric was taking from me, he was 15 months old and he wasn't returned to me until 10 days prior to his fifth birthday During that time was the most crucial time for any child's early development, but with a brain injury, it was even significantly more important that he got the support, therapy, and whatnot in order to progress his situation. However, in his mother's care, he was treated like an invalid. She kept him home.

There was a home nurse that came in and out. So it was a completely different way than I would have raised him, where I used to take him out into the public. We'd go hiking. We'd go experience the world together. And that was stolen from him and stolen from me. And I'll never be able to get that back. The other thing that I would like to point out is that while I was going through all of this, I did this pretty much alone until I met Didi.

It was hard for good people to understand the evil that is out there. So a lot of times what they heard from me, they thought it was exaggeration and embellishments and not understanding that I was married to a woman that was capable of doing such evil. So I encourage those that know that have someone out there that they know that is a father that is going through something similar. And when you listen to them, you know, don't roll your eyes. Don't write them off. Maybe take the time and hear them out and at least support them. Because that person more than likely is struggling and doing it all on their own. I want to thank everybody that's followed me over the years and has supported me.

And for any of you that are watching and hearing about my story for the first time, if you ever want to reach out and talk to me, I'm always available. I'd love to have a conversation. I also want everyone to understand that adversities are something that we all go through, but it never lasts. That's why my motto is, life may knock me down, but it can't keep me down. I hope my story can inspire anyone going through a rough time to persevere and get through it and come out even better than before.

As for Kendall Rae and her team, I want to thank you wholeheartedly for giving me the opportunity to share my story and give a little bit more background on the things that I had to go through and some of the challenges I'm still facing. I appreciate you very much and thank you everybody. And Baron, once again, I know I've said this so many times, but thank you. Thank you so much for not only coming on my show, but trusting me with your story and

teaching me so much about the system that I didn't know. And you have just inspired me to be the best person I can be, to have strength in moments that I feel are difficult that are nowhere near what you've been through. But then also, as I've told you before, you've truly inspired me as a parent. I mean, just seeing your love for your son is, oh my God, it's so beautiful. I'm gonna get emotional, but you, you just

rock. I absolutely adore you. And I'm really, really grateful that you took the time to come on my show and share your story and your message. That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked or you can just search Kendall Rae. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.