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The Feds Couldn't Break Her Spirit: The Freya Pearson Story · Nightmare Success In and Out

• 0:00
  They sentenced me this 15 days in the shoot.
• 0:03
  I said OK, that 15 days came. They said Pearson cuff up.
• 0:07
  I said Nope, stay. They were like, what do you mean
• 0:10
  no? I said no, you're leaving.
• 0:12
  No, I'm not leaving. Y'all keep putting me in here in
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  the shoe for something I'm not doing.
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  I might as well do the rest of my time in the shoot.
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  He looked. He he said, know what to do with
• 0:21
  you then. Pearson, who the hell do I want
• 0:23
  to leave the shoot? I said.
• 0:24
  I just told you so he goes to get the Lieutenant.
• 0:28
  The Lieutenant? Come, Pearson, cuff up.
• 0:30
  Nope, I'm gonna stay right here, he said.
• 0:33
  Fine, leave her in the shoe. What happens when your worst
• 0:37
  fear becomes your reality? Hi, I'm Brent Cassidy, welcome
• 0:41
  to the Nightmare Success In and Out podcast where we explore how
• 0:44
  to overcome your fears and nightmares that set yourself
• 0:47
  free. We're going to be exploring this
• 0:49
  topic with guys that was in Leavenworth with and others who
• 0:52
  survived their own nightmare. These stories can be inspiring,
• 0:56
  sometimes sad, There's some humor, but hopefully you can
• 1:00
  come away with a nugget of something that'll help you knock
• 1:03
  down some of the prisons you built up in your own.
• 1:06
  All right, welcome back nightmare success in and out,
• 1:09
  listeners. This is where you come from.
• 1:10
  What happens when your worst fear becomes your reality?
• 1:14
  How do you adapt, survive, overcome, set yourself free and
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  don't forget guys, follow, subscribe, share this thing out
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  like it up. It helps the show really helps
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  the show and I really appreciate it.
• 1:26
  So who are we talking to today? Well, we're talking to Fria
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  Pearson and, and I have gotten to know her.
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  She's part of my my Group, A Monday night group, Jeff Grant's
• 1:39
  white collar support group got to know each other and we spent
• 1:43
  some time talking on the phone. She's, she's quite the
• 1:47
  personality. I can tell you that she is,
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  she's on go all the time. And her story, it's got a little
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  bit of real estate, it's got a little bit of nonprofit.
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  It's got a little bit of a lottery winner all rolled up in
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  one story. And she went to trial.
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  She went to trial. She got, she didn't win, which
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  is usually what happens is she ended up getting 60 months and
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  she's, she's, she's now. I was just talking to her before
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  we got started. She's, she's a paralegal, but
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  she is getting ready to take her LSAT test tomorrow, which for
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  all those who know about their LSAT, that is the entrance exam
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  for law school. I can't wait to see Freya
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  Pearson as a, as an attorney. I, I whoa, welcome, welcome
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  world or Freya Pearson in the in the courtroom.
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  Can't wait to jump into all that.
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  Before we do, I want to recognize show sponsor Auto
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  challenged and changed by her story.
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  Well, welcome in Freya. How are you?
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  I am doing all right today, Brent.
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  I am doing all right. Well, we were both just
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  discussing our knee situations. We both have torn meniscus and
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  Freya was nice enough to tell me she's got a special thing that
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  you can buy at CVS that takes out the inflammation, which I'm
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  going to be buying after the show.
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  I just had my my cortisone shot. So I, I, I'll use anything and
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  everything to get rid of the pain.
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  So I'm ready to, to gear up on that.
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  So Freya, we've had some discussions.
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  I, what, what I was thinking is, is that I, I might be a little
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  bit confused on where you grew up because your, your story
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  bounces back and forth between Kansas City, Atlanta, GA.
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  Did you grow up in Kansas City? I grew up in Los Angeles, born
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  and raised. Wow.
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  So let's talk about that. What was little Freya doing in
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  Los Angeles growing up? You know, and my grandmother
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  raised me OK. And so I actually, she was a
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  school teacher and I had a a great life, well loved and I had
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  a family of educators. So it it was something LA is, is
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  a very different place. Yeah, I mean, growing up as a
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  kid, I'm sure. And plus, you've got teachers
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  that you're growing up with, they probably didn't cut you any
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  slack. 0. 0. Zero it.
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  Might be where your tenaciousness comes from, maybe.
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  And, and it is I've I've been the same way since I was a kid.
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  I I laugh and joke sometime and I think a lot of people tend to
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  think my regular conversation is funny, but I'm serious.
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  So yeah, I get that. I've learned through the years
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  that kind of flow with it, you know, But I'd be serious and
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  what I'm saying, you know, I'm just pretty blunt.
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  Did you have did you have siblings, Freya, or were you?
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  I am an only child from. My mother.
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  I have siblings from my father. OK, SO and my other grandparents
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  lived probably 10 minutes down the street.
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  OK, so the family was pretty tight knit then?
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  Oh yeah. And you said your your
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  grandmother brought you up. Grandmother and her siblings as
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  well and we were very old fashioned, tight family.
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  Did you have a Did you have a relationship with your mom or
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  your dad? It was, my dad died when I was
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  probably 7. OK, so we were young.
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  And my mother, she's just kind of in and out.
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  OK. You know, she, I don't think she
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  was ready for motherhood. Yeah.
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  Yeah. And I don't think she's ever
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  gotten that. I don't.
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  Whatever it is that she needs to to be that, you know, sometimes
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  you have to understand it. It's just not in a person.
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  Right. You know, and then you move on,
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  you know, so. As you moved on, I mean, your
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  grandparents sound like they were great people to be with and
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  grow up with. Absolutely.
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  So when you were going as a high school kid, what were you
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  thinking? Were you thinking college?
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  Where you how did you progress? I was and I was thinking
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  college. I did start off in college for a
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  bit, but being young and dumb fell in love with an older man
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  and and couldn't keep myself on track. 2020 you know, you look
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  back on like, what was I thinking?
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  So you started college for a little bit, fell in love, older
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  man did. Did you just start the.
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  I'm an adult now and I'm. I had a kid, yeah.
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  On my 21st birthday, yeah, I had a kid.
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  So her and I share the same birthday and then another one,
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  you know, so it, you know, life just started lifing, right?
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  It, it started lifing. And I had every reason in the
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  world as to why I didn't go back to college.
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  None of them make any sense. It's rationalizing it all out,
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  yeah. I still use.
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  Yeah, I get that. Now I'm at the tail end of that
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  and getting. All educated.
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  At that part we're going to do something with.
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  Yeah, we can do something with it, you know.
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  So you get married, have kids, What brings you to the Midwest?
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  Family. My mother was born in Saint
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  Louis and my I have a lot of family there.
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  A lot. So I was always back and forth
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  and we didn't get married. We just were together.
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  But I was just back and forth to Saint Louis.
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  From the time I could travel as a little kid on up, I used to
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  spend summers there with families.
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  So it was just a second home. OK, so you just knew it really
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  well. Yes.
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  And you got into the real estate business.
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  How did that all take place? Well.
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  It's not an easy, that's not an easy industry to crack into.
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  I mean, I it's, you know, it's a great job, but it's not if you
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  know people, yeah, you know people.
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  You build up a book of business, you get referrals.
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  But to get started, it's kind of tough, isn't it?
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  Well, I didn't start in the traditional way.
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  I started in the mortgage industry.
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  OK, start mortgage. 1st yeah, I was in the mortgage industry
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  back when they had handwritten 10 O threes and we had, we were
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  able to talk to the underwriters.
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  Yeah. So I learned from the
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  underwriters and from that I learned.
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  I realized that it was very difficult to find a real estate
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  agent. So for clients.
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  So I went and got my real estate license and once I did that, it
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  was just real estate sporadically.
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  But the way I got my real estate license was interesting.
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  I didn't go to real estate school.
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  Really. No.
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  I was pretty decent with mortgages back then and so the
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  real estate Commission granted me a sitting to take the exam.
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  They told me I had to make a certain score and I did, and
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  they granted me my real estate license.
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  So I never went to real estate school.
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  When I tell people that, you know, agents who've been around
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  for 20-30 years, they're like, that's not possible.
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  Well, I mean, it's not. It's not necessarily an easy
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  exam either, but if you're a good test.
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  Tanker, yeah, it is not it. It was a challenging exam
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  because it's especially coming from the industry already,
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  because none of the things on the exam are what you do every
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  day. Usually is that way on those
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  type of exams. Yes.
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  The real life stuff comes after you pass your test.
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  Yes, yes. So it's been an interesting
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  journey, I can tell you that. So you.
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  So you roll in, do real estate back and forth.
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  So is your life going along pretty good before your
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  nightmare lands on you? It, it was it, it was going
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  along pretty good. Things changed a bit and I lost
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  a lot when the crash happened. The, the crash in O7O7O8 started
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  the beginning of O 7 and, and went on through that year was a
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  not a great year for any of us in the industry.
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  So through that time I, I lost quite a bit.
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  You know, we were making a lot of money and spending a lot of
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  money. So, and a lot of us, you know,
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  it doesn't matter how much money you're spending if if you're not
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  bringing in that type of income anymore, you know, you're
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  looking at thirty $40,000 a month, You know that you're no
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  longer making, but you still have a $7000 a month mortgage.
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  Exactly, you still have. Those bills?
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  Right. There's not a whole lot of jobs
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  you can go to to make that kind of money, you know.
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  So I kind of got a little discouraged at that time and
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  just started just focus in a little bit more on real estate
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  and just trying to figure out what I wanted to do 'cause
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  that's how. Old would you?
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  How old would you have been about that time period?
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  Oh, what was I2? 1008 Two.
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  Thousand 30s. OK, I think I'm in the late 30s.
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  Yeah, yeah. So it, it was a challenge.
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  It was a challenge. You know, when there's something
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  that you've always done, you know, to make that change, you
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  know, and then you, you're sitting there without a, a
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  degree, you know, trying to figure out, OK, what would I do
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  from here? You know, it's not all that
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  simple, you know? And then you, you're stuck with
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  a level of arrogance because of the lifestyle you live, you
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  know, and then that situation, you know, kind of humbles you.
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  Yeah. Well, it is quite a few things
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  that you, you know, go through at that time.
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  Some intended, you know, most aren't.
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  Yeah, but you don't, you know, what you find out in that type
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  of situation, I think for you is if you don't stop or you don't
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  quit on yourself, you can usually find a way to make the
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  next thing happen. It's it's when you get stuck and
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  you just you kind of curl up in a fetal position and say I give
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  and everything comes at you like a tidal wave.
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  And you, you, you strike me as that person that always is on.
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  I don't care what it is or what I got to do, but I'm going to,
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  I'm going to take that next step.
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  So how does this all on? How does this unroll unravel for
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  you? Because it it's a crazy story
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  because you know, if you if you look at it from the outside,
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  you've got a lottery person, you've got investments, you've
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  got it on. Can you kind of just let the
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  listeners in on what your story happened?
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  Initially, I moved to Kansas City, OK, and I've been there
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  for a while. I've been there actually, off
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  and on for a while. And a friend introduced me to
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  this lady. And the lady is, I'll just say,
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  a character. She was a character and there
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  were some things that she wanted done that I was not willing to
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  do. And there and then I ended up
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  being that. Kind of.
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  Was she looking for because she'd won the lottery?
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  Was she looking for advice on what she should?
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  Do no, she had. She'd already done that.
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  She'd already. Yeah, two years before I even
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  met her. She she was already set up with
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  the financial advisors and that I.
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  Already done. Yeah, she had won the lottery
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  two years before. And the problem was she was.
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  I don't know how to really describe her.
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  They describe her as financially unsophisticated.
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  I don't know if that's necessarily the case.
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  I think that she's kind of like staying done her way no matter
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  what She she likes it done her her way.
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  And so I ended up being her. For some, it's for a de facto
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  person for everything that she would call me for.
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  Can you run me to the grocery store?
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  Can you do this? Can you do that?
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  You know, and oh, their bank is taking my money.
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  And, you know, it was a situation to where she was just
• 16:33
  simply overdrawing her account every month, you know, but
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  initially you don't. I didn't realize that they
• 16:42
  weren't the problem, so I'm out here.
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  Battling that, everything that's happening is capping.
• 16:48
  Why? So I'm out here battling these
• 16:50
  people and I'm, I'm, I'm, you know, fussing at them and
• 16:53
  they're looking at me like I have lost my mind, you know, and
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  I'm looking at them like, well, no, you're not going to do this
• 16:59
  to her, you know, and you did this and you did that.
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  And then I got caught up in that little whale.
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  Yeah. And I realized that as long as
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  things were going the way that she wanted, she was fine.
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  But if something changed, she was no longer your friend or or
• 17:21
  your person. And she did that to everybody in
• 17:24
  the bank, you know, and she did that to the the investment
• 17:31
  companies. She did that to all of them.
• 17:34
  She would make these agreements with them and everything we
• 17:38
  going fine since she decides she wants to do something else.
• 17:42
  And then you're supposed to just stop, let her out of whatever
• 17:46
  and keep it moving, you know, and, and that's how she
• 17:49
  operated. And I realized in the, you know,
• 17:55
  I didn't realize that really till my situation kind of blew
• 17:59
  up. And we got to looking at the
• 18:01
  paperwork and if she would say stuff like, well, that's my
• 18:06
  signature, but I didn't sign that.
• 18:08
  And this was bank stuff. Yeah.
• 18:09
  You signed this? Yeah.
• 18:12
  You know, you signed all this stuff, you know, you agreed to
• 18:14
  all these things. And then it was no, they tricked
• 18:17
  me. That's the go to.
• 18:19
  Yeah, you know, But when you really look, look at the
• 18:23
  situation, they didn't trick her.
• 18:28
  I didn't trick her. She just wanted to change the
• 18:31
  rules, you know, And I was in no different situation than the
• 18:36
  banks were, to be honest, because I she did a loan for me.
• 18:41
  I paid on it for a year and a half and she had gotten so much
• 18:45
  money outside of the monthly agreement that I had paid almost
• 18:51
  a year and a half ahead. So when the.
• 18:54
  Way, the way that you explained it to me was, is that the
• 18:57
  financial arrangement that you came away with her for the loan
• 19:02
  she was making more than what she would have made with what
• 19:05
  she was doing, where she was over drawing on her accounts.
• 19:10
  And so you were, you actually put her, you actually put her in
• 19:13
  a situation where it was more consistent and she was.
• 19:16
  So how does this how does this build momentum where it lands on
• 19:19
  you? Well, initially she was getting
• 19:22
  like $2500 a month from her annuity.
• 19:26
  OK, so that's what the paperwork says, $2500 from the annuity.
• 19:31
  But the way the annuity works is they budget $30,000 a year.
• 19:36
  OK. That's how you get to $2500 a
• 19:38
  month. So if you take 5000 out of the
• 19:44
  annuity, that's no longer 30,000, right?
• 19:47
  That's 25,000 / 12. If you take 10,000 out for that
• 19:52
  year, then you know it diminishes.
• 19:54
  What? She keeps going down on your
• 19:56
  monthly. Right.
• 19:57
  And she goes down to $780 a month, OK.
• 20:00
  So when we talked about the situation, she picked the amount
• 20:05
  that she want to be paid, which was $1200 and I said 1200 is
• 20:09
  fine. So, but at the time, again, I'm
• 20:13
  not realizing the whole picture. I'm not realizing all of what's
• 20:20
  going on because I'm not fully into it at that time.
• 20:23
  So we, we go ahead, we do the transaction, everything is fine.
• 20:28
  I'm Christmas comes, she's supposed to get a $1200 a month
• 20:31
  payment. She wants $8000.
• 20:35
  So I gave her, you know, make my payments on time.
• 20:37
  I give her the $8000, you know, then every month it's for an
• 20:41
  extra 400 here, 500 there, you know, and then it comes to a
• 20:45
  point where it's like, OK, I'm gonna need a minute because
• 20:48
  you're, you're outside of our, our loan agreement.
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  And but she doesn't, she doesn't care.
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  She only cares that she's receiving whatever she want in
• 20:59
  her mind. I don't care what a great
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  agreement she makes. Even with the banks, she says
• 21:05
  it's her money and she can do what she want to do with it.
• 21:08
  So it kind of puts you in a situation to where it's like
• 21:12
  that's a problem. You know, even the guy from the
• 21:15
  bank, he couldn't stand me. And, and partly I understood and
• 21:19
  partly he was still a jerk. You know what I'm saying?
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  I, I was, I'm on my part 'cause I went off on her, on her
• 21:26
  behalf. And when we got the evidence
• 21:29
  and, you know, information from trial, there was an e-mail in
• 21:34
  there where he didn't want to be her advisor anymore.
• 21:39
  Because she is in in his word, she is blowing through her money
• 21:45
  because that's what she was doing, you know?
• 21:48
  Which by the way, that there's a lot of people there.
• 21:51
  I think even one of the streaming shows had a what?
• 21:55
  I don't know if it was a series, but it was about lottery
• 21:58
  winners, how they went all this money and go broke.
• 22:02
  Well, she did a show. Well, I think, I don't know.
• 22:05
  I I never saw it, but a cousin, my cousin told me she saw it
• 22:09
  where she did a show of lottery winners, where people con
• 22:12
  lottery winners or something. Yeah, you know, and I'm like, I
• 22:15
  didn't even know her when she met, won the lottery for two
• 22:18
  years. I didn't know her.
• 22:19
  She had already blown through the the majority of that money,
• 22:23
  I'm talking probably 70% of that money, was gone.
• 22:28
  Yeah. You know, so a short.
• 22:31
  Amount of time. It was, and it was just from
• 22:34
  shopping, you know, she loved the shopping network, you know,
• 22:37
  and, and you know, when you look at it, it is her money, you
• 22:41
  know, and if she wants to to set it on fire, it's hers to do so
• 22:45
  with, you know, But once you make those agreements, you know,
• 22:48
  with the bank, with the annuity companies, with me for that
• 22:51
  matter, then that's what the agreement is.
• 22:53
  But that's not something that she wants.
• 22:55
  So you guys made a a simple loan agreement?
• 22:58
  In writing. In writing you're going to pay
• 23:01
  her 1200 she's she's asking for more month because she knows
• 23:05
  you. When does it?
• 23:08
  When does the? When does this come to a head?
• 23:12
  Probably about maybe three or four months after I stopped
• 23:17
  payment for a while and I wasn't behind, we got an IRSACI agent.
• 23:24
  She entered the picture and she was a interesting little person
• 23:32
  and I watched how she operated and it was as as if it didn't
• 23:41
  matter what happened. She wanted to proceed with the
• 23:45
  case. This was her first case.
• 23:49
  From what I understand that was she.
• 23:51
  Had her teeth in it. Yeah, you know, and, and
• 23:54
  exactly. And so it, it caused her to, to
• 23:59
  do criminal behavior. You know, it is, she went from
• 24:03
  ACI agent to a criminal because she's testified in front of the
• 24:07
  grand jury, like completely false.
• 24:10
  You know, it's not an interpretation.
• 24:13
  She actually lied to them flat out, you know, and when you look
• 24:17
  at these type of things, it, it, it's quite disturbing.
• 24:22
  You know, you, you look at the, the AUSA, that's another
• 24:26
  criminal, you know, and because she's suborning this perjury,
• 24:31
  you know, and what I learned from going through this
• 24:37
  situation is the hypocrisy of it all.
• 24:45
  The hypocrisy. You have a case agent who
• 24:49
  commits perjury, obstructs justice, commits fraud on the
• 24:55
  court, and that's all right. And it's plain as day right
• 24:59
  there. You have a, a, a USA who lies to
• 25:05
  the court, suborns perjury, and then you have to look, there's a
• 25:09
  level of conspiracy because they had to have discussed this prior
• 25:12
  to it happening. Those are the same things that
• 25:16
  they charge people for. Right.
• 25:18
  You know, I, I, I'm curious with how this rolled up.
• 25:23
  Did you always thank Freya that whatever happens, I'm going to
• 25:29
  trial? Yeah, it it was that way.
• 25:36
  I am an open minded person. So when she initially she and
• 25:41
  don't laugh initially got her indictment on Halloween.
• 25:45
  OK, October. 3rd and so that far and so.
• 25:51
  That was my mom and dad's wedding anniversary too.
• 25:55
  That's always funny to me. Well.
• 25:58
  So anyway, this happens on the 31st of.
• 26:00
  October so I I find out about it and attorney he helped walk me
• 26:06
  in and I walked in and walked right out processed and walked
• 26:11
  right out after after that occurred but I got to thinking
• 26:17
  about things and I I got to going I'm one of those ago.
• 26:22
  Let me go over this in my head. You know what is it that I need
• 26:25
  to do different Could I have done something different
• 26:27
  financially? Yes yes.
• 26:32
  Were they criminal? No, they were not.
• 26:36
  So for me, when I look at this scenario and if a IRSCI agent
• 26:46
  has to commit perjury and if an AUSA has to suborn perjury just
• 26:54
  to get an indictment, that's a problem.
• 26:58
  That is a problem in our system of justice.
• 27:02
  That's a problem. So when you were working through
• 27:06
  this, because I, you know, very rarely do somebody go to trial
• 27:12
  who's your, who's your defense attorney and, and who are you
• 27:16
  working with as you're going through this?
• 27:18
  Well, initially I had federal defender.
• 27:22
  OK. OK, come to find out, because
• 27:26
  I'm just as dumb as a box of rocks in this.
• 27:28
  Yeah, this. Is the first time you've ever
• 27:29
  been through anything like this right?
• 27:32
  I'm just dumb. But now I'm like, you know, my
• 27:34
  Spidey senses are tingling, you know, watching somebody.
• 27:38
  Well, I, I'm curious too for you, when all this came down,
• 27:42
  did they just show up and say, hey, we've got an indictment or
• 27:44
  did you know that there was stuff that was surrounding?
• 27:47
  You I had some I had. They had gone to people's house
• 27:50
  that I knew. OK.
• 27:52
  And so they would. They told me that something was
• 27:54
  going on the people. Did.
• 27:57
  Yeah, they wouldn't. Talk to and I called the
• 27:59
  attorney yeah he was supposed to deal with it now he ended up my
• 28:02
  the attorney end up walking me in but that didn't end up being
• 28:05
  my attorney. I end up with a federal
• 28:07
  defender, Bill Raymond, and get this and over 400 cases and five
• 28:15
  years, Bill Raymond had never been to trial on not one.
• 28:20
  That didn't surprise me. That those numbers are not
• 28:24
  statistically possible unless there's something underhanded
• 28:28
  there. And I after I got to learning a
• 28:33
  few things and I noticed that he wasn't doing anything.
• 28:39
  And then he became hostile when I didn't want to take a plea and
• 28:45
  I'm asking to investigate the case and it's not working.
• 28:50
  That, you know, whatever his plan is, it's not working.
• 28:53
  I'll give you an example. I was in the hospital.
• 28:55
  I had to have emergency surgery in November of 15 and I'm in the
• 29:01
  hospital. And then we ended up with
• 29:03
  complications. He calls, I'm still in the
• 29:07
  hospital. I'm supposed to be in there two
• 29:08
  days and he calls I'm as I'm still in the hospital, he got
• 29:11
  mad that I was in the hospital with complications.
• 29:14
  Come to find out from the pretrial officer, he calls me.
• 29:18
  He says, you know, you have your change of plea hearing next
• 29:23
  week. I said, Are you sure you called
• 29:25
  the right person? And so he kind of chuckled a
• 29:29
  bit, you know, and I said I don't have a change of plea
• 29:32
  hearing. I never said I was changing my
• 29:34
  plea. Are you sure it's me?
• 29:36
  He said, well, hold on, let me look.
• 29:39
  He said, no, you have a change of plea hearing next next week.
• 29:43
  I said that could not possibly be.
• 29:46
  And so he said, you're kidding. He said, you know something,
• 29:49
  this is not the first time I've heard this.
• 29:52
  He said, I'll take care of it. So I don't know what he did at
• 29:56
  that point, but he sent something to the judge to let
• 29:59
  the judge know I was in the hospital.
• 30:00
  We didn't know, you know, how long I'd be in there, which we
• 30:03
  did. And so we got past that little
• 30:07
  step, and then the opening in my stomach wouldn't close properly.
• 30:14
  So I'm steady in and out of the ER OK, so this is the beginning
• 30:19
  of November and I'm steady in and out of the ER.
• 30:23
  So Bill and his little investigator girlfriend is what
• 30:26
  I call his little girlfriend. I'm informing them because I
• 30:32
  don't want an issue. I'm literally taking pictures of
• 30:34
  my stomach. And she, I think she call and
• 30:37
  send them to him. She called one day.
• 30:39
  I was on my way to the ER. She had the audacity to call the
• 30:42
  next day asking me when can she come down?
• 30:44
  I said I just left the ER, you know, yeah, I'm, I'm sick, you
• 30:49
  know, my stomach is not closing like it should and it's like
• 30:53
  full of pus and blood. It was it, you know, messed.
• 30:55
  Up I could get an infection. It, it, it was bad, you know, So
• 31:00
  I went through that for the month of November and the entire
• 31:03
  month of December, you know. But in the midst of this, his
• 31:06
  little girlfriend, I mean, it was like I hadn't seen anything
• 31:10
  like it, you know, when I look back on it, I am so glad I have
• 31:14
  the strength that my grandmother gave me because they were
• 31:20
  brutal. It was really brutal in how they
• 31:24
  treated you when you wanted to go to trial.
• 31:29
  It was brutal, you know, and the, the investigator name is
• 31:35
  Julia. She had such a nasty attitude,
• 31:39
  you know, And I realized that it was because I was saying no,
• 31:48
  that's what it was about, because initially I was nice to
• 31:53
  everybody. I think the first time I had to
• 31:56
  put Bill Raymond in his place was when I was in the hospital,
• 31:59
  and I simply hung up in his face.
• 32:01
  I'm in the hospital. They can't figure out what's
• 32:03
  wrong with me. I don't have time for you today.
• 32:06
  You know, that's kind of bad. Your health.
• 32:09
  Right. So here we are in December and
• 32:11
  Julie is trying to take up the bill.
• 32:13
  Well, you know, men don't understand.
• 32:15
  And I said, let me tell you something.
• 32:16
  I don't want to hear all that. I'm sick and I don't care
• 32:20
  anything about any of those things.
• 32:22
  I need to get well. So all of what you're talking
• 32:25
  about, I don't care nothing about this trial because if I
• 32:28
  don't get all this stuff fixed, I won't be at trial.
• 32:31
  Right. It's that simple.
• 32:33
  You know, I'm, I'm have a bleeding disorder.
• 32:37
  I have a this, my stomach is not closing up.
• 32:40
  I just had surgery, you know, and there's a problem here, you
• 32:44
  know, And she did something I thought was interesting.
• 32:48
  She was texting Bill, so she thought, but she sent the text
• 32:52
  to me. And it was, it was a very
• 32:57
  unprofessional, kind of little disturbing.
• 33:01
  And it showed her posture, you know, And she was saying, I just
• 33:05
  got off the phone with her and she was unpleasant.
• 33:09
  And she's this and she's that. And the only thing that I said
• 33:14
  was I'm sick and you can't come this month, You know what I
• 33:17
  mean? You know.
• 33:19
  She's the investigator, right? Yeah, she, that's his little
• 33:21
  girlfriend, OK, because when they finally came to to visit me
• 33:25
  and, and I think January, they came, they were there two days,
• 33:31
  two nights I think it was. And when they got there, they
• 33:35
  had the little lap. Little, what do you call them?
• 33:39
  Laptops, tablets, tablets. Yeah, 3 tablets.
• 33:43
  And we were all sitting down in the lobby and I kid you not,
• 33:46
  this is what the scenario was. They had the tablets.
• 33:52
  All the evidence was on each tablet.
• 33:53
  I'm assuming they say read the tap the evidence.
• 33:58
  So as I'm reading, I'm saying this did not happen and this did
• 34:03
  not happen. So and I can prove that these
• 34:06
  two things had happened. So what?
• 34:09
  Oh, don't worry about that. We'll discuss that later.
• 34:12
  So I'm just, I'm literally nobody's talking.
• 34:15
  I'm just sitting there and OK, I'm watching this.
• 34:20
  And so we we got past that. I said, well, here, here's where
• 34:22
  we are. You don't like me and I don't
• 34:25
  like you. So let's just agree to disagree.
• 34:27
  Now let's move on. So we going to talk about the
• 34:31
  case. In my mind, I thought that's
• 34:33
  what we want to talk about. All Bill wanted to talk about
• 34:37
  the federal defender was mitigating circumstances.
• 34:41
  I said, listen, I want to talk about my case.
• 34:45
  Well, I think you're going to be convicted.
• 34:46
  I said, well, doing what we're doing right now, you're probably
• 34:49
  right 'cause we're not doing anything.
• 34:50
  So can we investigate the case? Well, I don't think you're
• 34:56
  realistic. I don't think you're seeing the
• 34:58
  forest for the trees, as I'm seeing the forest and the trees
• 35:03
  and I want to investigate my case well.
• 35:07
  He didn't want that. He wanted you to immediately go
• 35:09
  in and do a plea bargain. And they were angry, like it was
• 35:13
  like a tone that they had. And so we go up there, they're
• 35:18
  about this like the next day. And then I go up to, I don't
• 35:21
  remember one of their, I think it was Bill's room and Julie was
• 35:23
  there. And so I'm, I'm trying to talk
• 35:26
  to Bill about the issues I'm having and she's answering.
• 35:33
  So I said I'm trying to talk to him.
• 35:36
  You can't answer for my attorney.
• 35:38
  And Freya, would she have been the F?
• 35:40
  Was she been an investigator with the FBI?
• 35:42
  What was her? What was her official title?
• 35:46
  Investigated. Oh, she was on your side.
• 35:49
  Yes. Oh, OK, I'm I'm misunderstood.
• 35:51
  I thought, I thought that you were meeting.
• 35:53
  I thought you were meeting with your attorney and this
• 35:56
  investigator that has been, she's on your side of it,
• 35:59
  supposed to be investigating your case, Nipple.
• 36:01
  Oh, wow. OK.
• 36:02
  I totally, totally misunderstood that whole transaction there.
• 36:07
  So these are your two people that you're supposed to be
• 36:09
  meeting with about your situation that you want them to
• 36:12
  investigate your case. All right, I got it.
• 36:15
  Now please help me with that one.
• 36:16
  So she told me she could speak for my.
• 36:18
  That is out of bounds. I'm telling you.
• 36:21
  I was thinking, well, if she didn't like you, Williams,
• 36:23
  because she was an FBI agent and she's OK.
• 36:26
  Well, all right. I'm.
• 36:27
  I'm with you now. Well, did you?
• 36:29
  Did you at that point, did you also think that maybe you
• 36:34
  because of this situation that you wanted to change attorneys?
• 36:38
  Well, and this was January, So what I started doing in December
• 36:44
  was recording them. OK.
• 36:47
  I started recording them because I'm looking at all of these
• 36:50
  wonderful accolades that everyone has to say about Bill
• 36:54
  Raymond. OK.
• 36:55
  But the Bill Raymond that I'm seeing is not the person that
• 37:00
  they're describing. And it's very difficult to
• 37:04
  explain to somebody what he's doing.
• 37:08
  OK. And I'm going to tell you why in
• 37:10
  a second. But so I started recording them.
• 37:13
  So this is January. So there's we're trying to
• 37:16
  figure out when they're going to come back because we didn't
• 37:18
  accomplish anything. They came to bully me.
• 37:20
  It didn't happen. So OK, look, you guys might have
• 37:23
  to do some work. Now keep in mind that this is
• 37:26
  January of 2016. I was invited November of no,
• 37:33
  I'm sorry, October 31st of 14th. Oh my gosh.
• 37:37
  So we're talking about a year and a half has gone by.
• 37:40
  Do you hear me? Now let's back up a little bit.
• 37:42
  Let's go. And the other thing for you,
• 37:44
  when this indictment landed on you, what like with your family
• 37:50
  and everything else that was in your world, what what was going
• 37:54
  through your mind that I'm dealing with a federal
• 37:57
  indictment? I wasn't guilty, so I wasn't
• 38:04
  real worried about it. You just thought if we can get
• 38:07
  through and and check the boxes, then they'll all get figured
• 38:10
  out. It I knew with all of it.
• 38:13
  Everybody just needs information.
• 38:15
  That's it. OK.
• 38:17
  And so let's go back to November, now indicted October
• 38:25
  31st. 2014. Yeah, this is November of 2015.
• 38:35
  Bill Raymond said he was ready for trial.
• 38:38
  At that time I had only spoken to him and not at the same time.
• 38:44
  4 hours and 41 minutes. He was ready to go on a federal
• 38:50
  criminal trial. 4 hours. Now, let me ask you this.
• 38:54
  Had had a trial date ever been set at this point or did you
• 38:58
  know of that? OK, it happened.
• 39:00
  He kept extending the trial date.
• 39:02
  Kept extended out which can it happens a lot OK.
• 39:04
  Yeah. And then in November he was
• 39:06
  like, well, we're going to go to trial.
• 39:08
  We're going to have, I said. So the next week I thought was
• 39:11
  pretrial. OK.
• 39:13
  I didn't know that that was a change of plea hearing.
• 39:16
  OK. So I'm sitting here thinking,
• 39:18
  how in the world are we at pretrial?
• 39:20
  He hasn't interviewed one witness, he hasn't ordered any
• 39:23
  bank statements. He haven't even interviewed me.
• 39:27
  Like how are we waiting for trial, you know?
• 39:30
  So I'm watching this stuff. So then that's OK.
• 39:32
  So that's November of 15th. So let's go and Fast forward to
• 39:35
  January. They came, they left, I'm
• 39:38
  recording all this stuff. So now every conversation we
• 39:41
  have, I'm recording. So then Bill starts to do this.
• 39:44
  He starts to say things like an e-mail.
• 39:49
  Well, you said I did a change of plea hearing because you said
• 39:53
  you were going to take accountability for your actions.
• 39:58
  And I'm like, what? So I fired back immediately
• 40:02
  through e-mail. No, no, no, no.
• 40:03
  I have a whole documented trail. I'm talking within minutes.
• 40:07
  Absolutely not you. I've never told you that.
• 40:09
  What are you talking about? You know, then I, I have emails
• 40:12
  where I kept begging them to investigate the case.
• 40:16
  You know, he they did nothing. Come May, I had sent in a letter
• 40:24
  to a judge Fenner, who was initially my judge, OK, And it
• 40:30
  was a 23 page letter. I did a call log.
• 40:35
  I attached the emails, I put it together of what I was saying,
• 40:41
  you know, that the issues were because he wouldn't investigate
• 40:43
  my case. No one had been interviewed, no
• 40:49
  documentation had been requested, no bank statements,
• 40:53
  nothing had been done. But he's ready for trial.
• 40:57
  So during this time, I get a notice about the Marsden
• 41:02
  hearing, that a hearing has been set to change the attorney.
• 41:07
  So, oh, this gets interesting. So we all show up and it's an
• 41:15
  interesting dynamic in the room. We have the prosecutor over
• 41:17
  here, we have Bill and and his little girlfriend at the table,
• 41:21
  Julie, and then we have the judge.
• 41:24
  So the judge is is initially was fussing at, at Bill for not
• 41:30
  talking to me since, you know, he received the notice.
• 41:35
  So I'm watching the dynamic and something in this courtroom is
• 41:39
  off to me. But I couldn't figure out what
• 41:41
  it was. I didn't find out for 2 1/2
• 41:44
  years what it was. So we went through the hearing.
• 41:49
  She didn't want to hear any of the evidence, although she
• 41:51
  already had it in her possession.
• 41:53
  OK. I had also sent the tapes.
• 41:56
  I'd emailed them to her clerk and she didn't want to.
• 42:02
  She said she wasn't going to review the evidence.
• 42:06
  She had already done that, which I thought was weird, was like,
• 42:11
  we, we don't get talk about anything, you know, And she says
• 42:14
  I, she dismissed the prosecutor from the room and then we talked
• 42:19
  a little bit about our communication had broken down,
• 42:21
  but nothing in detail. We had just agreed that
• 42:24
  communication had broken down. He said he felt the same, that
• 42:27
  communication had broken down. So the hearing continues.
• 42:33
  She says she's going to relieve him of duty and find me a new
• 42:37
  attorney. And then this is what she told
• 42:38
  me. She said it's going to be
• 42:42
  difficult to find a new attorney because of you taping.
• 42:45
  When I tell them that you have taped your last attorney, it's
• 42:48
  going to be difficult and you're going to have to get along with
• 42:52
  this next attorney because we're not going to be giving you
• 42:57
  another attorney after this. OK, now I'm the problem.
• 43:02
  He he has done 0 investigation in 19 months, but I'm the
• 43:08
  problem. So she just she takes him off
• 43:13
  the case. I no longer have attorney.
• 43:14
  Now we have a continuous there's no longer a pretrial that's
• 43:18
  coming up. Prosecutors mad if looks could
• 43:22
  kill she'd have killed me. She tried to argue to the judge
• 43:26
  that it has been many continuances and mind you, I'd
• 43:32
  only had one well in the hospital.
• 43:35
  Right. The rest were the attorney,
• 43:38
  right? So I'm like, you know, I'm just
• 43:40
  listening to just say you can say what you want, but she's
• 43:43
  without counsel. So there's not where there's
• 43:46
  going to be a continuous till I find her counsel.
• 43:49
  So she finds me counsel. How does that work?
• 43:53
  CJA attorney John Justin Johnston.
• 43:58
  OK. OK, initially I do.
• 44:03
  You have do you have any say in that?
• 44:04
  I just, I was curious how that works.
• 44:07
  The judge just appoints that person and there you are.
• 44:10
  OK. And there I am all.
• 44:11
  Right. So initially I liked him, he was
• 44:14
  OK. OK.
• 44:15
  The reason I liked him, I realized, was because he did
• 44:20
  more than Bill did. Yeah, which didn't take much,
• 44:24
  but he did more. And one of the things he said,
• 44:26
  he called me. He said I received the file from
• 44:30
  the federal defender today. I said, oh, OK.
• 44:34
  He said there was nothing in it. I said, oh, I already could have
• 44:39
  told you that. I knew that.
• 44:41
  He said, no, I mean, there's like nothing in the file, like
• 44:45
  nothing. I said I he.
• 44:47
  Said he was ready to go to trial.
• 44:49
  Right, I said. That's why I asked for the
• 44:52
  Barston hearing, he said. This is crazy.
• 44:55
  So we got to talk in a little bit and, and again he did a
• 44:59
  little bit more, you know, he ordered some documents, some he
• 45:02
  didn't. I ordered myself when it got, I
• 45:04
  started doing my own advocacy. So I went and got bank
• 45:07
  statements and this kind of stuff and gave them to him.
• 45:10
  And I sent over all the documentation, everything I had
• 45:13
  investigated, all that kind of stuff.
• 45:16
  And I noticed that he wasn't. He was doing more than the last
• 45:24
  one, But the only thing he was doing differently was
• 45:29
  communicating, you know what I mean?
• 45:31
  Like, yeah. Really.
• 45:32
  Well, I'm sure that felt a lot better by having a conversation.
• 45:35
  Sure. Yeah.
• 45:35
  And, and it was good conversation, you know, but he
• 45:39
  didn't do anything that he said he was going to do.
• 45:43
  You know, I pointed out to him about the transcripts when we
• 45:49
  finally got the grand jury transcripts and saw that she had
• 45:51
  lied and the lady didn't even testify, but saw that the CIA
• 45:57
  agent had lied. And I showed him all of this and
• 46:01
  he said, oh, he said, well, did you complete it?
• 46:05
  Well, I had, thank God. I, I wouldn't do the handwriting
• 46:11
  exemplar until they agreed to give me a copy.
• 46:15
  So not only did they give me a copy that day, they, they
• 46:19
  initial it each page. OK, the agents did and they gave
• 46:23
  me my copy. I'm so glad I did because she
• 46:27
  told the grand jury this is what I'm telling him.
• 46:30
  She told the grand jury that I refused to complete the
• 46:35
  handwriting exemplar specifically by refusing to sign
• 46:39
  the lady's name. So she was she then she painted
• 46:43
  a picture like I forged the loan agreement.
• 46:48
  That's why I didn't want to sign the her name on the on the
• 46:52
  handwriting exemptlar. Well, I had him write an
• 46:55
  example. I sent it to him.
• 46:56
  I said, well look at it. I filled out the entire thing.
• 46:59
  Not only did I fill it out, but their initials only on each
• 47:01
  page. He said, I see that.
• 47:04
  I said, isn't that perjury? Isn't that obstruction?
• 47:08
  Isn't that a crime? You know?
• 47:11
  So he's like, yeah, that's a problem.
• 47:14
  I said and the process, the AUSAI said she's suborn that
• 47:20
  perjury. He said, well, I'm not going to
• 47:23
  go that far. I said, what do you mean you're
• 47:26
  not going to go that far? And that's when I got my
• 47:28
  inkling. I said, what do you mean I'm not
• 47:31
  you're not going to go that far. He said, well, I can't say that
• 47:36
  the AUSA, you know, did this. This was ACI agent.
• 47:40
  I said, well, let me ask you a logical question.
• 47:44
  If they're not lying and and conspiring together, how did she
• 47:48
  know to ask her that question? How did she she know to ask her
• 47:53
  to say to her, So she refused to complete the handwriting
• 47:57
  exemption when it's sitting right there complete.
• 48:00
  They had to have worked together to do that.
• 48:04
  So he just kind of got quiet. I said, oh Lord, here we go.
• 48:09
  He'd like to prosecute. I wasn't sure, you know, at this
• 48:12
  time, but I was wondering. So we had a disagreement about
• 48:18
  an extension. He had given her an extension
• 48:24
  again for something that she should have been able to take
• 48:27
  care of the AUSA. So I all I did was, you know,
• 48:30
  tell him. I said, why do you keep giving
• 48:31
  her these extensions? He sent me an e-mail that said I
• 48:35
  don't need to get your permission to extend a courtesy
• 48:40
  to someone that I have to work with for the rest of my career.
• 48:46
  That was kind of disturbing to extend the courage to someone
• 48:50
  you have to work with for the rest of your career.
• 48:52
  Why is that in your head? You know, and you supposed to be
• 48:55
  defending me. So I'm like, OK, so I'm watching
• 48:57
  a few little things happen. Then he was supposed to address
• 49:02
  all of the misconduct at trial. So every day he would say, I was
• 49:05
  like, why are you going to dress it?
• 49:06
  I'm going to just hold on. I'm going to take care of it.
• 49:09
  So I'm like, OK, well, let me back up because I skipped a step
• 49:13
  prior to trial. We're doing vorder.
• 49:18
  We get the jury set. Let me back up.
• 49:22
  Prior to the jury being set, one lady stood up.
• 49:26
  She was a white lady, I'll tell you that on purpose.
• 49:29
  And she because there was only one black person in the entire
• 49:32
  jury pool. And this lady stood up the white
• 49:37
  lady and she said, I have a question, Your honor.
• 49:42
  And they fooled around and saying what?
• 49:45
  And she said, I am concerned that no one in this jury looks
• 49:50
  like her and that she won't get a fair trial.
• 49:55
  Wow. And the judge, you know, based
• 49:58
  on what I appreciate your concern, you know, and it's
• 50:02
  noted, you know, and, and she sat down.
• 50:04
  Well, the jury got picked. That one black guy got picked.
• 50:10
  Now I'm sitting there and I'm watching the prosecutor talk to
• 50:14
  this guy shaking his hand and apologizing to him for the death
• 50:21
  of his mother because he said that his mother was murdered and
• 50:26
  the prosecution got the guy that murdered his his mother and he
• 50:31
  was appreciative of that. So after he was chosen, the the
• 50:37
  prosecution team was shaking his hand and apologizing him for the
• 50:40
  death of his mother. So I said to my attorney, I
• 50:43
  said, did you see that? He said what?
• 50:46
  So I told him what I just told you.
• 50:48
  He said, no, I didn't see it. I said, well, they just did
• 50:51
  that. I said they can't do that.
• 50:53
  So the judge gets up, asked does anybody have any more questions,
• 50:58
  you know, because she's ready to move on.
• 51:00
  So he goes, well, no, But you know, then he asked me, well, do
• 51:04
  you have any more? I said, you ain't saying about
• 51:05
  that juror that they talked to the juror private.
• 51:08
  And so he goes like frustrated because he didn't want to.
• 51:15
  My client points out that someone from the prosecution
• 51:19
  team was talking to the juror and shaking the juror's hand.
• 51:26
  And, and so the judge snapped her head over to the prosecution
• 51:31
  team. But in that time, the the AUSA
• 51:35
  had turned and looked at the person who did it.
• 51:37
  Mind you, nobody said who it was yet.
• 51:40
  So she saw it happen. So the judge said who?
• 51:45
  And so they said who it was. And well, your honor.
• 51:50
  And he she she just went, she did go off on them.
• 51:52
  She did. She went off on them.
• 51:55
  And then she said, well, what do you want to do?
• 51:57
  So he looked at me. I said, what are we supposed to
• 51:59
  do? What what can I do?
• 52:01
  He said, well, it's really it you we probably just need to
• 52:05
  move on. I said we're not supposed to do
• 52:07
  anything. He said no.
• 52:09
  I said, oh, OK, I didn't know, you know, to.
• 52:14
  I knew they shouldn't. I don't think they should be
• 52:16
  talking to the juror. I saw that on TV, you know, but
• 52:19
  I didn't know that there was something I could have done.
• 52:23
  Feel for you. You know, starting this trial,
• 52:28
  you've got a new attorney. He's doing more than the other
• 52:32
  guy did by communicating with you.
• 52:34
  How did you feel walking into a courtroom for the United States
• 52:38
  of America versus Freya Harrison?
• 52:41
  What? What did that feel like to you?
• 52:44
  Well, I was worried. I was worried because my
• 52:50
  confidence in him had dwindled because of the lack of follow
• 52:58
  through. I liked Justin, but I'm, I'm
• 53:04
  going to say this because it's the truth.
• 53:08
  Justin. What I found out was a
• 53:12
  recovering alcoholic in therapy trying to rebuild his career.
• 53:20
  And I I was his stepping stone. I was one of his stepping
• 53:23
  stones. I wanna assume.
• 53:25
  Yeah. And so I didn't, when you have
• 53:30
  all of those things going on, you, you're in the middle of a
• 53:33
  trial, you're fighting your own counsel.
• 53:36
  You know, I'm, I'm trying to get my case investigated.
• 53:39
  I'm watching the, the, the Magistrate Judge, you know, a
• 53:43
  little strange, you know, some of the things that she's saying
• 53:45
  and doing 'cause I'm learning, I'm researching as these things
• 53:48
  are happening. And then I'm watching my new
• 53:51
  attorney. You, you, you have the weight of
• 53:54
  the world on your shoulders and you don't process things as you
• 53:58
  normally would. So the intelligence that you
• 54:01
  would normally have, you may not have in that moment.
• 54:04
  Right. So I'm watching all of these
• 54:07
  things happen and then all of a sudden I'm convicted and I'm
• 54:12
  trying. To figure out the trial last. 3
• 54:16
  Three or four days. OK.
• 54:17
  So it wasn't a long trial then? No, it he let, he didn't.
• 54:23
  There was, he was the worst defense attorney in court.
• 54:29
  I mean, it was watching him. It was just like, did you hear
• 54:32
  that? Did you see that?
• 54:34
  You know? And he's like, and I'm looking
• 54:37
  at him like, sure, what? You don't do anything.
• 54:39
  And when the jury came back in you, you were.
• 54:42
  Feeling like I would, I said, OK, if they're going to get me
• 54:45
  on the 8th, the 9th one, they can't get me on, which was the
• 54:48
  false statements because there were three false statements, OK,
• 54:52
  that she accused me of making in one charge, accused me of saying
• 54:57
  that I lived in Kansas City when I didn't.
• 55:00
  Well, the lease was in my name, the utilities were in my name
• 55:05
  and nobody else stayed there. That was my place that I had
• 55:10
  $60.00 in bank accounts. When I had more, well, I
• 55:16
  actually said, and they pulled out the paperwork, I had $60.00
• 55:19
  in Bank of America. And then the third one was that
• 55:23
  I had interest income from my corporation.
• 55:28
  When I said I didn't have any more income, well, I had pulled,
• 55:32
  went and got the bank statements for that, and the corporation
• 55:37
  had $300.00 of interest for the whole year.
• 55:40
  It was not material, but there was no breaching of the
• 55:45
  corporate veil. But he allowed the trial to go
• 55:49
  on as I'm the corporation and they never even breached the
• 55:55
  corporate bail. So it was so many things that
• 55:58
  were going on that I'm looking at that I'm just like, OK, what
• 56:03
  just happened? So after the trial, I look.
• 56:06
  And he gets yeah. And you've got to wait for
• 56:09
  sentencing, right? Right, You know, and I'm like,
• 56:12
  got this guy. I'm like, what the hell just
• 56:13
  happened? Well, I knew what happened
• 56:15
  because he didn't put on a defense.
• 56:18
  So I said to him, I said you didn't address any of the
• 56:22
  misconduct. I said the the prosecutor lied
• 56:26
  to the court in the severance request.
• 56:28
  She, she, they suborn perjury prior to they, they committed
• 56:32
  perjury. I said these are not.
• 56:34
  I said, are is this me guessing or did you see this
• 56:37
  documentation? He said, Freya, I had to watch
• 56:43
  what I did to the prosecutor so as to not affect my future
• 56:46
  cases. I was devastated.
• 56:50
  I looked at him. I said, why didn't you tell me
• 56:52
  that beforehand? Why why didn't you tell me that
• 56:56
  that was a problem you had before taking my case?
• 57:01
  And so he and the other little attorney he had helped him.
• 57:07
  We had went back and we were all talking and and she said, well,
• 57:11
  you know your case, we did good on your case.
• 57:14
  I said you call this good? I said when you tell me that you
• 57:18
  had to watch what you did to the prosecutor so as to not affect
• 57:21
  your future cases. Well, I mean, I did good work on
• 57:26
  your case. You know, I did defend you.
• 57:29
  I said, well, let me ask you a question.
• 57:30
  If you took your daughter or your wife to an attorney in the
• 57:34
  beginning that he told you that, would you hire that attorney?
• 57:39
  Well, Freya, I hear what you're saying, but I said that ain't
• 57:42
  what I asked you. Would you hire that attorney?
• 57:45
  You telling me what a good guy did?
• 57:48
  Would you hire that attorney? He never did answer the question
• 57:54
  because when you keep telling me how wonderful you are for making
• 57:57
  those type of statements, yeah, I got to kind of have a problem
• 58:02
  with that. Well, and, and you get sentenced
• 58:06
  to, you know, it's not a year and a day you get sentenced.
• 58:09
  To 60 months, I had 0 criminal history points and the judge
• 58:13
  gave me the Max she said I have. This is the worst case I have
• 58:21
  ever seen in my history of cases.
• 58:25
  And there was so many moving parts and I had to be quiet
• 58:29
  because I'm looking at him because the prosecutor had
• 58:34
  manipulated stuff that didn't even go here, like, and I'm
• 58:41
  just, I'm quiet. And the reason I'm quiet is
• 58:45
  because she has to make the decision to let me stay out for
• 58:50
  my kids for the next few months. So I can't say what I want to
• 58:55
  say, you know. So for the sake of my kids, let
• 59:00
  me shut up and let them do whatever they're going to do
• 59:03
  right now, you know? And she gave me the Max she
• 59:06
  could give me with. Are you your kids at that time?
• 59:10
  How old would they have been? Oh my gosh my grandbaby was 5 or
• 59:15
  6 OK and my daughter was 15. So they were young.
• 59:22
  Yeah. So the you get to voluntarily
• 59:28
  surrender. What are your thoughts when you
• 59:32
  pull up and walk into that world that you never thought you'd be
• 59:36
  walking into? Well, my thoughts initially was
• 59:39
  I wasn't going into this world because we had this appeal and
• 59:43
  he was going to file for me to be extended.
• 59:45
  Why I didn't have to go while the appeal was pending and when
• 59:50
  I saw the appeal initially, because again, I'm done.
• 59:55
  I didn't know at that time. And I'm look, I'm like, oh, this
• 59:59
  looks good. OK.
• 1:00:01
  OK. But I noticed you don't have
• 1:00:02
  anything in here about the prosecutor stuff, you know, and
• 1:00:05
  all this stuff. So I didn't understand about
• 1:00:07
  preserving, you know, and all that kind of stuff.
• 1:00:10
  So the pill is going on. And then he doesn't want to file
• 1:00:15
  for me to stay out. Yeah.
• 1:00:19
  Wow. So he wait.
• 1:00:21
  So you, so your minds, your mind was set on the fact I'm not
• 1:00:24
  really going. Yeah, because I've got time and
• 1:00:29
  this appeals going to happen and I'll be able to work through it.
• 1:00:32
  Yes, I want to take a break here because I want to, when we get
• 1:00:35
  back, talk about the Freya Pearson in prison and how you
• 1:00:41
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• 1:01:23
  white collar criminal justice system.
• 1:01:26
  I'm a member of the White Collar Support Group, and I can tell
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  you this is a bunch of people who help each other through the
• 1:01:30
  criminal justice journey for free.
• 1:01:32
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• 1:01:33
  through to the other side, this is great space for.
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• 1:01:42
  OK, Freya, we're back and you are now not getting an appeal.
• 1:01:50
  Yeah. You are entering prison, the
• 1:01:53
  unknown world that you never thought you'd be going into.
• 1:01:57
  How do you enter that world? What are you thinking?
• 1:02:00
  I entered it quietly. They thought I was weird because
• 1:02:07
  I never talked to anyone initially and all I would do was
• 1:02:10
  go back and forth to the law library with this little bag I
• 1:02:12
  had, the white bag I had. So they thought I was weird and
• 1:02:21
  it was an interesting, interesting time.
• 1:02:25
  It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.
• 1:02:28
  The only bad part was being away from my kids for sure.
• 1:02:31
  But you a long ways away mileage wise.
• 1:02:34
  Yes, I was in Alderson. OK.
• 1:02:37
  Yes. And so I forgot about this the
• 1:02:45
  the after a little while, I was, like I said, pretty quiet.
• 1:02:52
  And the compound bully decided I was going to be her target that
• 1:02:59
  day. OK.
• 1:03:02
  And that did not end well. That did not end well.
• 1:03:12
  She learned very quickly that I probably wasn't a person to be
• 1:03:18
  played with. And I couldn't believe at my
• 1:03:23
  age, here I am banging someone's head into concrete.
• 1:03:28
  And you've been there for about what, a week?
• 1:03:32
  I had been there, maybe, I'd say maybe about a month, right?
• 1:03:39
  And right around there. And I didn't know she was the
• 1:03:42
  compound bully because I didn't mind anybody's business, you
• 1:03:44
  know, at the time. But she attacked me, you know?
• 1:03:48
  And I'm like, oh, this is what we don't show.
• 1:03:52
  This goes down, yeah. Yeah, there's not going to go
• 1:03:55
  down like this, you know, and that turned ended up being an
• 1:03:58
  ordeal. And I'll never forget the
• 1:04:00
  Lieutenant and not the Lieutenant, the officer that was
• 1:04:02
  in there, probably they didn't know what happened and probably
• 1:04:10
  they came running. You know, it was a mess, but
• 1:04:13
  they didn't know who was involved.
• 1:04:17
  And so the officer, about two or three days later, she called me
• 1:04:21
  down into her office and the Lieutenant was sitting in there
• 1:04:25
  and she said Pearson and I just looked at her, 'cause I still
• 1:04:29
  wasn't talking to know, you know, I just, you know, And she
• 1:04:32
  said I didn't know you had it in you.
• 1:04:36
  She said she didn't beat up everybody on this compound.
• 1:04:40
  Is this new? And, and she said, I can't
• 1:04:44
  believe I. I can't believe that you
• 1:04:49
  responded like that. I still didn't say one word.
• 1:04:53
  And she said, are you OK? I still didn't say anything.
• 1:05:00
  And so I left because if you're fighting, you go to the hole.
• 1:05:09
  Their hole was a county jail. And.
• 1:05:10
  They figured, and they figured that out after the fact.
• 1:05:14
  They don't ask. Questions before right yeah, and
• 1:05:17
  be and well she told me that it because that was the compound
• 1:05:20
  bully. I didn't know that, you know, I
• 1:05:23
  just not you. Anybody come here, just hit me,
• 1:05:25
  you know, like we're not about to do that, you know, and I just
• 1:05:28
  could after the fact, I've all I could think about was I cannot
• 1:05:32
  believe that here I am supposed to be a professional.
• 1:05:38
  Right. And I am here with this
• 1:05:40
  foolishness right here. Are you kidding me?
• 1:05:44
  Throw down prison fight I'm. Telling you, you know, and then
• 1:05:48
  that stuff follows you. So I'm a rebel.
• 1:05:53
  So I got to write them up in there.
• 1:05:55
  When they got to messing with me, I messed with them back.
• 1:05:58
  Where you going to put me? I'm already in here.
• 1:06:00
  So they have a doctor in there who was who should have been
• 1:06:06
  locked up. They had an older lady in there.
• 1:06:10
  I have to think I have all of it put up somewhere, but I had
• 1:06:13
  there was an older lady in there and she kept coming in there and
• 1:06:16
  I was going in there at the time.
• 1:06:17
  I was having pain in my, in my back and I kept saying it was my
• 1:06:23
  kidney. I didn't know what it was.
• 1:06:25
  And so I'm going in there every day because if you harass them,
• 1:06:28
  you know, they finally do some. But this doctor was a demon and
• 1:06:31
  this lady would come in there and she was in or had a Walker.
• 1:06:34
  She was older lady and she was very sick and they will keep the
• 1:06:39
  doc kept sending her out. Oh, she just wants to sit in
• 1:06:42
  here and I'm looking at her like I'm watching her deteriorate.
• 1:06:48
  Every other day she's looking more pale.
• 1:06:51
  You know she's just not looking right.
• 1:06:54
  So my situation is escalating. So I'm coming in every day.
• 1:06:58
  So I finally they finally do the test that they need to do.
• 1:07:02
  So now we're waiting on the results.
• 1:07:05
  I'm coming in every day because they taking too long with the
• 1:07:07
  results. So finally I come in on the day
• 1:07:10
  that the doctor is not there, that the nurse practitioner is
• 1:07:15
  there and she likes me. And so she said you're here
• 1:07:19
  again. Come on, let's look.
• 1:07:20
  So we look. She said, Oh my God, you have
• 1:07:23
  hydronephrosis of your right kidney.
• 1:07:26
  I've got to get you on. I don't know what that is, but
• 1:07:28
  that sounds bad. It's a blockage in your kidney.
• 1:07:32
  So I said OK, so she went. And the way she got me the
• 1:07:37
  medicine, it didn't show up in the system.
• 1:07:43
  Is what I'm gathering OK, For whatever reason.
• 1:07:47
  So this is a Friday. Come Tuesday I go back to Earth,
• 1:07:51
  you know, because I'm not the sick call, because I'm not
• 1:07:54
  feeling well. So then every time I go in,
• 1:07:57
  because the doctor hated me, she pulled my slip.
• 1:08:01
  So she pulled my slip. I go in there with her.
• 1:08:03
  I don't know what made me do it. Now mind you, I've been on
• 1:08:07
  medication from Friday to Tuesday, you know.
• 1:08:10
  So I say to her, I was wondering have my test results come back
• 1:08:15
  yet? Let me look.
• 1:08:18
  So she looks in the system and she looked, Nope, your test
• 1:08:23
  results aren't back yet. I said, really?
• 1:08:27
  She said Nope, so you're just going to have to wait.
• 1:08:31
  It's probably a sciatic nerve. You're going to have to deal
• 1:08:34
  with it. I said, oh, OK, well, thank you.
• 1:08:39
  I didn't say anything because in my mind I didn't want to nobody
• 1:08:44
  to get in trouble, right? So I didn't say anything.
• 1:08:48
  And I left there. And then I spoke to the NP, the
• 1:08:51
  nurse practitioner, and I told her.
• 1:08:53
  She said I don't care if you say something.
• 1:08:55
  I said OK, good. I lit her on fire to that ward.
• 1:09:01
  What? Was the outcome.
• 1:09:04
  Oh, nothing, of course. Well, I wanted, yeah.
• 1:09:09
  She. Died.
• 1:09:10
  Oh my gosh. She died.
• 1:09:13
  Well, she died shocking, but not shocking.
• 1:09:17
  I, I think I've maybe you and I talked about this, but my dad
• 1:09:22
  had a, a colonoscopy in prison and they perforated his colon,
• 1:09:28
  which made him septic and then he went into a coma.
• 1:09:31
  And the thing of it is, is that I don't think people really know
• 1:09:36
  how bad medical treatment is in prison.
• 1:09:39
  But you don't want to find out how bad it is because it's just,
• 1:09:42
  it's really bad. But I want to talk about Freya.
• 1:09:46
  You ended up in the hole a few times to the point where they
• 1:09:51
  were saying they wanted to get you out of the hole and you said
• 1:09:55
  no, I'm fine here. Well, wait a minute, let's back
• 1:09:57
  up. Because I didn't tell you
• 1:09:59
  something while I was at Alderson before I left because I
• 1:10:02
  was in the hole somewhere else, OK?
• 1:10:04
  When I was at Alderson, they had made me mad.
• 1:10:09
  So if you make me mad that I have to learn, so I got to
• 1:10:12
  learn. So I wrote up all of them to the
• 1:10:19
  regional. They showed up on the compound,
• 1:10:22
  the regional and the assistant regional and a bunch of people
• 1:10:26
  showed up on the compound. I left.
• 1:10:30
  I was there from the end of May to December.
• 1:10:34
  They had done, they were done with the transfers to Pekin, but
• 1:10:37
  they wanted me off the compound so that I decided I wanted to go
• 1:10:41
  because it was volunteer. I said, I guess I'll go.
• 1:10:45
  And so they were like I said, but it's past the dead.
• 1:10:48
  Like, don't worry about that. The warden says you can go
• 1:10:50
  wherever you want to go you. Can go.
• 1:10:52
  We want to throw you out of here.
• 1:10:54
  He wanted me up the compound. Well, what ended up happening, I
• 1:10:58
  leave the compound. The investigator had caught,
• 1:11:01
  came and saw me probably twice I think it was.
• 1:11:05
  And they ended up, and you can look this up, walking the warden
• 1:11:11
  off and the captain was arrested, ended up taking a plea
• 1:11:17
  and got 10 years. Captain Grimes.
• 1:11:21
  Wow. From all the information I had
• 1:11:23
  written up and gave them, I was mad at.
• 1:11:26
  So then we get to Pekin. That's another camp.
• 1:11:30
  They got mad at me, kicked me off their compound.
• 1:11:37
  So because I was writing them up, wrote them to Congress.
• 1:11:39
  You know, these people don't do anything.
• 1:11:40
  You write them up, don't nothing happen.
• 1:11:42
  Not not like it's supposed to. There's not really a grievance
• 1:11:45
  system in prison. The administrative remedy
• 1:11:47
  process does not exist. So now let's get to the compound
• 1:11:50
  you talking about. They put me behind the wall at
• 1:11:53
  Aliceville. And so when I first get there,
• 1:11:57
  my first month, everybody's like, don't go over there.
• 1:12:00
  And I'm seeing the door. That's the shoot.
• 1:12:03
  I was like, I don't want to go over there.
• 1:12:07
  They scared me about the shoe, you know, And then one day this
• 1:12:11
  guard couldn't stand me. She was a hot mess.
• 1:12:13
  She used to bring contraband into the, the people.
• 1:12:17
  And I, I didn't buying, I didn't get anybody business.
• 1:12:20
  I don't care what you do as long as you're not bothering me.
• 1:12:22
  I don't know what her thing was with me.
• 1:12:25
  And she ended up writing me up, saying I said something to her
• 1:12:30
  and I, I didn't. The Lieutenant comes, he's he,
• 1:12:36
  he this is what he told me. He said, I I went and looked at
• 1:12:39
  the video like you asked me to. And you're right.
• 1:12:45
  I don't see where you said anything to her.
• 1:12:50
  But I'm still going to have to take you to the shoot, I say.
• 1:12:54
  But if you see that I didn't say nothing to her, why am I going
• 1:12:57
  to the shoot? He said we have to.
• 1:13:02
  For their CE OS. For our officers, I said, but
• 1:13:06
  she's lying. So he takes me to the shoe.
• 1:13:09
  I'm scared. They're trying to get over
• 1:13:11
  there. I'm like, Oh my God, I'm about
• 1:13:13
  to go to the shoe. I get into the shoe and I'm
• 1:13:15
  looking around and I'm like, OK, you know, I, I thought it was
• 1:13:21
  going to be the boogeyman to hear somebody, you know, but
• 1:13:24
  you, you go into a room, it's a bunk man in there.
• 1:13:28
  Your own shower desk, OK. OK, so that sounds like a better
• 1:13:34
  shoe for those listen down the Cayman Islands, that's called a
• 1:13:37
  special housing unit is what the shoe is.
• 1:13:41
  So I go there the first time I do my little time, it's just a
• 1:13:45
  few days and then I come back. OK, so now she didn't wrote me
• 1:13:50
  up again. I said OK, this what we don't
• 1:13:57
  want not a problem. So she I go back to the shoe.
• 1:14:02
  They moved my unit and that's something they don't usually do.
• 1:14:06
  So they moved me from A to C OK, so I get down there and see it's
• 1:14:10
  a mess with that that unit managers.
• 1:14:13
  Apparently her husband previously what we find out
• 1:14:16
  slept with one of the inmates. OK, so now she has a disdain for
• 1:14:20
  inmates. I bet.
• 1:14:22
  OK, so she's just a hot mess. Terrible attitude.
• 1:14:26
  They say. She she didn't used to be like
• 1:14:27
  that, but now she's hostile. So she tries to put the compound
• 1:14:31
  bully in the cell with me when they doing a bully check.
• 1:14:34
  I mean a sale change that ain't gonna happen.
• 1:14:37
  That a compound bully to compound drug dealer.
• 1:14:40
  She wasn't a bully. She's a drug dealer.
• 1:14:43
  And I'm like, absolutely not. I'm not getting involved in this
• 1:14:46
  type of stuff. And so the officer says that the
• 1:14:53
  lady, the girl threatened me, which she did.
• 1:14:56
  And but I, I wasn't scared, but she's threatening.
• 1:14:59
  So the officer did not give me an order.
• 1:15:04
  She wrote me a time that I was given an order and I denied the
• 1:15:07
  order. What that did not happen.
• 1:15:08
  So I get over there and mind you, I had already been to let
• 1:15:11
  them know that I've been threatened.
• 1:15:12
  I don't want any problems. So the Lieutenant was supposed
• 1:15:16
  to have been on it. It did not happen.
• 1:15:18
  So they ended up putting me in the chute.
• 1:15:20
  I said I got something for them this time.
• 1:15:24
  You can't put me in here. The stuff I'm not doing, I'm
• 1:15:27
  going to stay in the shoot. So the shoe she they sentenced
• 1:15:31
  me this 15 days in the shoot. I said OK, that 15 days came.
• 1:15:38
  They said Pearson cuff up. I said Nope, I'm staying.
• 1:15:43
  They were like, what do you mean no?
• 1:15:45
  I said no, you're leaving. No, I'm not leaving.
• 1:15:48
  Y'all keep putting me in here in the shoe for something I'm not
• 1:15:51
  doing. I might as well do the rest of
• 1:15:53
  my time in the shoe. He looked.
• 1:15:56
  He said what to do with you then?
• 1:15:58
  Here. So who the hell do I want to
• 1:15:59
  leave the shoe? I said.
• 1:16:01
  I just told you. So he goes to get the
• 1:16:06
  Lieutenant. The Lieutenant.
• 1:16:08
  Come, Pearson, cuff up. Nope.
• 1:16:11
  Stay right here. He said.
• 1:16:15
  Fine, leave her in the shoe. He thought he was doing
• 1:16:17
  something. About 2-3 days they come back
• 1:16:22
  trying to Get Me Out of the shoe.
• 1:16:24
  No. Then they try to put a monkey in
• 1:16:26
  there. Well, if I got to be in here
• 1:16:28
  indefinitely, you are absolutely not putting a monkey in here.
• 1:16:31
  Let me hear by myself. No.
• 1:16:34
  So when you're getting an incident report, well, hurry up
• 1:16:36
  and write it up. Let me see what you got to say.
• 1:16:38
  So well they is there boy, I ended up with three of them.
• 1:16:41
  They tried to put 3 bunkies in there and so I ain't care 'cause
• 1:16:45
  I told them. I said well where are you going
• 1:16:46
  to put me? I'm already in the shoe.
• 1:16:47
  Was she going to give me some time in the shoe?
• 1:16:50
  So the Lieutenant comes now it's been 40-5 days.
• 1:16:56
  I only have 15 now it's been 45 days.
• 1:17:00
  Lieutenant comes, you are getting out of my shoe.
• 1:17:02
  Pearson cuff up. I said, Nope, Pearson, I'm going
• 1:17:08
  to send our SRT team in here, I said.
• 1:17:11
  And I'm going to cuff up then. And when they put me outside the
• 1:17:16
  door, I'm just going to lay on the ground to count and then you
• 1:17:20
  know where they're going to put me back in your shoe.
• 1:17:24
  He got the cussing. He was, and he was the one, the
• 1:17:26
  nice Lieutenant. He was so mad.
• 1:17:30
  You are getting out of my shoe, I said.
• 1:17:32
  And I have three incident reports.
• 1:17:35
  He goes, no, you don't because I dismissed them all.
• 1:17:37
  I just looked down. I wasn't expecting that, you
• 1:17:43
  know. But I said, so this where I'm
• 1:17:46
  going to stay. So they knew that one of the
• 1:17:49
  lieutenants I really like, they respected.
• 1:17:52
  They called her from home, Lieutenant St.
• 1:17:56
  John. She came up to the she came up
• 1:18:00
  to the shoe and she said open the door.
• 1:18:05
  They were like Lieutenant we can't, they're not supposed to
• 1:18:07
  open the door unless you cuff up.
• 1:18:08
  She's open the damn door. She came in there.
• 1:18:12
  She said man what is it? What?
• 1:18:13
  I didn't call me from home what is going on?
• 1:18:15
  So I told her, I said they keep putting me in here for stuff I'm
• 1:18:18
  not doing so I might as well stay in here.
• 1:18:20
  I said because every time you go to the shoe they throw away your
• 1:18:23
  stuff your open. Stuff.
• 1:18:26
  You know, and why are you throwing away shampoo when you
• 1:18:29
  you give it to the people it's already open you know.
• 1:18:32
  So why are you throwing that kind of stuff?
• 1:18:33
  Why are you throwing away deodorant?
• 1:18:35
  You know that kind of stuff. But they throwing it away.
• 1:18:37
  So I said I might as well stay in here.
• 1:18:39
  I said y'all gonna bring me all the stuff I need.
• 1:18:42
  And since I had medical I got special stuff, I got oil, you
• 1:18:45
  know. So I didn't I didn't care.
• 1:18:49
  So she finally convinced me to come out of the shoe.
• 1:18:53
  She put me in the third unit. They only had three.
• 1:18:56
  Well, they didn't want me in the unit.
• 1:18:59
  You can hear them back and forth when she announced it on the
• 1:19:02
  radio. I mean, back and forth.
• 1:19:04
  The other unit management with this unit, it was a mess.
• 1:19:07
  So finally I get over to the unit and the unit manager says
• 1:19:12
  don't unpack your stuff because you're not going to be here
• 1:19:15
  long. I didn't say anything.
• 1:19:18
  So I sat for a little while. She came back, Don't get
• 1:19:22
  comfortable. I I said, OK, I got something
• 1:19:25
  for them. So I left out of there.
• 1:19:27
  I went over to the war and I said that war.
• 1:19:30
  I said they starting to get on my nerves so I told them what
• 1:19:33
  happened. I said Nah, I haven't done
• 1:19:35
  anything. I said do I bother your
• 1:19:37
  officers? Do I really disrespect them?
• 1:19:38
  No, you don't. You just work my nerves.
• 1:19:40
  I said OK, but I do it in right. She's like yeah.
• 1:19:43
  I said so I don't sick it. She said don't worry about it.
• 1:19:47
  I said well I don't worry about it.
• 1:19:49
  Pearson go back in there and unpack.
• 1:19:53
  Next thing I know the unit manager come by and said you
• 1:19:57
  become a problem in here, I'll send you out of here.
• 1:20:03
  Close. Was that to you getting home?
• 1:20:07
  That happened in January of 20. I was out of the shoe and I came
• 1:20:14
  home in September. So did you when you signed that
• 1:20:17
  paperwork, did you? How long did it take for you to
• 1:20:19
  get released? About 30 days, 30 days, I had to
• 1:20:23
  go to quarantine. You had to go to quarantine
• 1:20:26
  because it was COVID. So then when you got released
• 1:20:31
  for a, what was your? What was re entry like for you?
• 1:20:37
  I mean, I was, I was released into my house, OK, It was a
• 1:20:41
  little hiccup in the beginning because I didn't know I had to
• 1:20:44
  go to the halfway house, right? So I went home and then they
• 1:20:49
  called me and I was like, I didn't even know I had to go
• 1:20:52
  there because when I signed my paperwork, it was through a
• 1:20:54
  locked door. I never got to read read it.
• 1:20:57
  And thank God I sent an e-mail to ask for a copy of it so I can
• 1:21:00
  see what I signed. OK, because I had that the guy
• 1:21:04
  at the halfway house, the director, he violated me.
• 1:21:09
  OK, When I came when I got out because I didn't come the first
• 1:21:12
  day, I. Said you were late.
• 1:21:14
  Yeah, I said I didn't know to come out.
• 1:21:15
  I came in, then I had to audacity to show up in a rental
• 1:21:18
  car. Yeah.
• 1:21:20
  So I didn't know, you know, So he made me stay and it was my
• 1:21:24
  grandbaby's birthday. I was so mad.
• 1:21:26
  I'm finally home for her birthday and then you this what
• 1:21:28
  you do. But I stay from maybe that
• 1:21:31
  Friday, Thursday or Friday. I think it was Friday to Monday.
• 1:21:36
  And that was it in the halfway house.
• 1:21:38
  Yeah, he, he was. When he came and I, I had the
• 1:21:42
  paperwork, you know, and I was showing him.
• 1:21:43
  I said I didn't have the paper. I said I didn't know I would
• 1:21:46
  have came here. I said, why would I come here?
• 1:21:48
  I'm I wasn't to stay. I was just going to come check
• 1:21:52
  in and go right home. So why would I not come?
• 1:21:55
  And so he's like, well, I was, I said, well, he said, well,
• 1:21:58
  people, you know, they want to rush home.
• 1:22:00
  I said, but I was going home. So that don't make no sense.
• 1:22:03
  You know, I said I, I, if I'd have known I had to come in, I
• 1:22:06
  would have came and did that. But nevertheless, I stayed there
• 1:22:09
  for three days. I met a couple of people, you
• 1:22:11
  know what I mean? So it was OK.
• 1:22:12
  But I was able to get home. My grandbaby did have her little
• 1:22:15
  birthday, you know, on her birthday.
• 1:22:17
  Plus I did something, you know, when I got home.
• 1:22:20
  But re entry was very, it was emotional, but a quiet emotional
• 1:22:27
  for me because I had kids. I had to get back on track.
• 1:22:30
  My daughter, you know, wanted to finish school.
• 1:22:32
  I had to get all that situated, you know, And it, it was, it was
• 1:22:39
  different because I came home doing for everybody but me.
• 1:22:44
  Well and work wise. Oh, that's my same job.
• 1:22:48
  OK. The paralegal piece of that
• 1:22:51
  didn't. Come till later.
• 1:22:54
  Didn't come until later. How did that happen?
• 1:22:57
  Well, I came home and did by 2255, and the judge was now the
• 1:23:05
  chief judge. She wasn't chief judge at first.
• 1:23:07
  2255 for those that aren't paralegals, what are what are we
• 1:23:11
  talking about? That's your habeas relief.
• 1:23:15
  So once you've gone through your your appeal, then you can file
• 1:23:21
  for your habeas relief. So it's your 2255 and you, you
• 1:23:27
  supposed to do that within a year or whatever, your final.
• 1:23:29
  Well, my final was the Supreme Court 'cause I went to the
• 1:23:31
  Supreme Court, they ain't do nothing.
• 1:23:34
  But I wasn't, you know, I wasn't as experienced then as I am now,
• 1:23:40
  right? Oh, I didn't do things right.
• 1:23:42
  Yeah. But what would that happen?
• 1:23:44
  I decided I said something's got to give.
• 1:23:48
  So I start a FOIA request. And FOIA is a very interesting
• 1:23:53
  little creature and I'm, I'm still fighting them, but I, I, I
• 1:23:59
  filed A FOIA request that was in 21 and they lied and lied about
• 1:24:06
  the paperwork, you know, but we'll talk about that another
• 1:24:09
  time, but. Pretty much information.
• 1:24:11
  Yeah, in 21. And so I just got to the point
• 1:24:16
  my daughter got to going off on her own in 22 and then I had to
• 1:24:22
  have a surgery and and then I decided, you know, I need to
• 1:24:26
  figure out doing something for me.
• 1:24:28
  What is it that I want to do? Well, I got to helping other
• 1:24:31
  people with the paperwork, you know what I mean?
• 1:24:33
  And I've always been a rebel or, you know, writing them up in in
• 1:24:38
  when I was inside of there, you know, And so I said, well, you
• 1:24:41
  know what, I might as well go get the paper to do so.
• 1:24:45
  So I went back to school. I turned A2 year paralegal
• 1:24:49
  program into one got my AS degree and my ABA approved
• 1:24:55
  paralegal certificate. OK and then I said well I might
• 1:24:59
  as well keep going so I have one more semester left for my
• 1:25:04
  bachelor's in law and paralegal studies.
• 1:25:07
  That's. Great.
• 1:25:09
  And so then I got to think and you know, during this time and
• 1:25:11
  I've gotten so discouraged cause I've been very sick.
• 1:25:16
  Do I want to move forward with this law school?
• 1:25:20
  You know, this LSAT is kind of tough.
• 1:25:23
  You know, I have the skills to perform in law school.
• 1:25:28
  I have skills to perform. Absolutely.
• 1:25:30
  But I don't this LSAT is different 'cause I took it once
• 1:25:38
  and I didn't like my score. So this is the second time
• 1:25:42
  tomorrow, OK, that I'll be taking it and I'm just, if I get
• 1:25:49
  past that part, I think I'll be all right because I'm holding a
• 1:25:53
  four point O, you know, so and then with my, I think they, with
• 1:25:58
  the school I'm in now for my BS, it'll be, I have a four point O
• 1:26:02
  bringing in the combined grades from because you know, you got
• 1:26:05
  to combine all of them. I'm at a 3.952.
• 1:26:10
  That's fantastic. So and I have been sick, as you
• 1:26:14
  know, very good in the last nine months.
• 1:26:17
  I had a heart attack in July. I have been in and out of the
• 1:26:22
  hospital prior to that and I will tell you it has been a
• 1:26:26
  struggle. It has been a struggle.
• 1:26:30
  But nothing keeps you down, Freya.
• 1:26:31
  That's the thing that I love. And, you know, I think, you
• 1:26:36
  know, hopefully if nothing gets in your way, I, I, I would love
• 1:26:40
  to see you go to law school and, and, and make that happen just,
• 1:26:45
  and you know, a lot, you know, a whole lot more than you did from
• 1:26:48
  that person. It was sitting next to that.
• 1:26:52
  But if you if you think about everything that you've gone
• 1:26:54
  through Brea, what do you think's your biggest take away
• 1:26:58
  through it all? Well, what I realized, I used to
• 1:27:07
  be like most people and I used to believe that our system of
• 1:27:13
  justice was flawed. But I've since learned that it's
• 1:27:18
  corrupt. It's not just flawed.
• 1:27:22
  And it's a hard thing to swallow to watch open corruption go
• 1:27:28
  unchecked and the lack of accountability.
• 1:27:31
  And So what I, I realized is that in order to, to win, they
• 1:27:39
  need to fight differently. You know, people, you know,
• 1:27:43
  they're, they're so hell bent on fighting law enforcement.
• 1:27:48
  And although I do agree that in some ways law enforcement are a
• 1:27:53
  problem and, and they can be a big problem, but the ultimate
• 1:27:58
  picture when you really look at the culprit in the scenario is
• 1:28:04
  the prosecutor. They they let the the the
• 1:28:08
  officers off even when they prosecute them, some of them
• 1:28:13
  they don't prosecute them with the vigor to actually win their
• 1:28:18
  entire case. And if you look at the culprit
• 1:28:23
  in the system, the only person who was not checked who goes
• 1:28:28
  unchecked is the AUSA and the prosecutors.
• 1:28:32
  They have no one correcting their behavior and they are
• 1:28:36
  running rampant through everybody, through everybody.
• 1:28:42
  Look, you know, I'm look at the president's case.
• 1:28:47
  Come on now. You know, he's a lot of things.
• 1:28:50
  You know he is, you know. But come on now, that was some
• 1:28:56
  foolishness. Yeah.
• 1:28:57
  And I think one of the things out of that, right, as I think
• 1:29:02
  it does shine a a bigger light when you see these bigger cases
• 1:29:06
  and people pay more attention to them, like, well, that doesn't
• 1:29:09
  seem quite right. That almost seems like a law
• 1:29:11
  fair. And, and I think when you see
• 1:29:14
  those type of things, you know, when, when you go through it,
• 1:29:18
  you feel it, you live it and you know it and, and it's a it's a
• 1:29:22
  different feeling. But when you see these different
• 1:29:24
  cases that go on where there's a lot of light that that's shot
• 1:29:28
  that's shown on that, I think that's one thing that could help
• 1:29:33
  change things is that that there does need to be.
• 1:29:36
  I mean, you look at the percentages, yeah, you look at
• 1:29:39
  the percentages, you know, 97% of the people indicted, they
• 1:29:42
  plea. You know, I think there's a 1%
• 1:29:46
  chance of somebody winning at trial.
• 1:29:48
  If they go is, it's just. It's it's just.
• 1:29:50
  The numbers are higher than that.
• 1:29:51
  I looked that up. What's the chance?
• 1:29:53
  What's? The when I looked it up it was
• 1:29:55
  like 45% if you fight the the majority.
• 1:30:00
  Oh, you mean the numbers higher if you go to trial?
• 1:30:03
  You go to trial. 45% win it was. It was a higher number because
• 1:30:07
  this is the problem you face, I realized.
• 1:30:10
  And you might be right about that one because the one that I
• 1:30:13
  always focus on is the 97% that get it died because they don't
• 1:30:17
  hardly ever go to trial. Right.
• 1:30:19
  But then and. Then you go, you kind of get a
• 1:30:20
  trial penalty if you go to trial because they don't want to do
• 1:30:23
  that. And, and and they do, they give
• 1:30:25
  you a penalty and they're not supposed to do that.
• 1:30:27
  But the accountability comes in the indigent system.
• 1:30:31
  Yeah. You know, because the indigent
• 1:30:33
  defense, they give you unqualified attorneys, right?
• 1:30:37
  They give you attorneys that that are scared, you know,
• 1:30:39
  that's using these cases as a stepping stone to their private
• 1:30:43
  careers. Then you have some federal
• 1:30:45
  defenders, not all you know, who are collecting A cushion salary
• 1:30:51
  and they're really not doing anything but setting up.
• 1:30:54
  Please, they're not defending people.
• 1:30:56
  You can't tell me A and. That really is the system,
• 1:30:59
  though. I'm not really so much talking
• 1:31:01
  about state because state has a little bit more fluidity in it.
• 1:31:04
  But, but on the federal side, you're basically setting up an
• 1:31:08
  attorney to go make a deal for you.
• 1:31:11
  And then they try to mitigate as much as they can to get to where
• 1:31:15
  they get to. And everybody says, OK, I, I,
• 1:31:18
  you know, you give up. But but you didn't do that,
• 1:31:21
  which I, I think that's, that's so that's a, that's why I want
• 1:31:27
  you so badly to go to law school because that, that fight of
• 1:31:31
  going through the system, knowing the whole system of
• 1:31:34
  going to trial and the whole thing.
• 1:31:37
  I think that would make you a ferocious.
• 1:31:43
  I'm on fire, you know they what what they say, they they set me
• 1:31:47
  on fire not realizing burning my burning bright is my best
• 1:31:51
  attire. Well, I, I know you, you, you
• 1:31:54
  are on fire and I, I, I Raya, thank you so much for, for doing
• 1:32:00
  and sharing your story. And I want to for thanking think
• 1:32:03
  Homestead financial home mortgage.
• 1:32:06
  If you've got home mortgage and he's out there.
• 1:32:08
  Greg Afdev is your guy. If you got to looking for a book
• 1:32:13
  out there, I've got one nightmare success, loyalty,
• 1:32:16
  betrayal, life behind bars, adapting and finally, finally
• 1:32:20
  setting yourself free. And for anybody who's wanting to
• 1:32:25
  know what I'm doing, go to brentcassie.com.
• 1:32:28
  I spell it wrong. I spell it with ATY, not a DY.
• 1:32:32
  Also have a new website callednightmaresuccess.com.
• 1:32:36
  As I always used to say to my people when I was writing my
• 1:32:39
  emails back and forth from Leavenworth, stay strong, I'll
• 1:32:43
  do the same. Raya Pearson, thank you so much
• 1:32:46
  for for sharing your story today.
• 1:32:48
  What a fighter, What a fighter. Get ready because I'm about to
• 1:32:52
  start some. That's what I'm now.
• 1:32:55
  I'm not done, I'm coming. She's just getting started.
• 1:32:58
  Just. See them in that courtroom?
• 1:32:59
  I'm coming. Not her success in and out.