Latest / Nightmare Success In and Out / Scott Carper's nightmare drug bust on the border
Transcript
- 0:01What happens when your worst fear becomes your reality?
- 0:04Hi, I'm Brent Cassidy. Welcome to the Nightmare Success
- 0:07In and Out podcast, where we explore how to overcome your
- 0:10fears and nightmares that set yourself free.
- 0:13We're going to be exploring this topic with guys that was in
- 0:16Leavenworth with and others who survived their own nightmare.
- 0:20These stories can be inspiring, sometimes.
- 0:22Sad. There's some humor, but
- 0:25hopefully you can come away with a nugget of something that'll
- 0:28help you knock down some of the prisons you built up in your own
- 0:31mind. OK, welcome back, Nightmare
- 0:36success listeners. This is where you guys come for
- 0:40what happens when your worst fear becomes your reality.
- 0:42How do you adapt, survive, overcome, set yourself free?
- 0:47Well, I have got an interesting. I've really been looking forward
- 0:51to this interview because I was just talking to Scott about he
- 0:54and I were at the same place. Leavenworth and Gina Pentegraph
- 0:58was nice enough to send me. I think Scott did it every month
- 1:03if if I'm not mistaken. But he had a newsletter from
- 1:06from Leavenworth and and I told him, you know it's kind of like
- 1:10you know somebody that went to the same high school as you and
- 1:12you graduated a little bit later.
- 1:14I was reading to see like what's going on at that place at
- 1:18Leavenworth and he was he was giving us the the blow by blows
- 1:22of of the wonderful world of camp Leavenworth.
- 1:26But so Scott and and and Scott's got an interesting story, 'cause
- 1:31I was reading his bio, I forget where I was reading his bio.
- 1:36But he he did one of those things like you see in the movie
- 1:39where you go like cross the border, you know and think I'm
- 1:43going to go down and get some painkillers and come back and
- 1:45and and he and he did and I I and we'll get into this.
- 1:50But I think that he even, I think he even declared the
- 1:55medication. But he came up with some kind of
- 1:58funky story that he was getting it for his mom and and that
- 2:01ended up to be a charge for lying to a federal officer.
- 2:04There's more to the story, which we'll probably get into, but I
- 2:07can't wait to get into this because I think the other unique
- 2:11thing about Scott is we were just talking about this before
- 2:14we got on. He just got out at the end of
- 2:17September and all of this is fresh in his mind.
- 2:20And I think some of the steps and things that he went through
- 2:24will be revealing for me and to the listeners out there.
- 2:29So before we get into all that, I want to recognize our show
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- 3:22All right, Scott Carper, here we are.
- 3:26You made it. You're out through the whole the
- 3:30whole journey. Here you sit talking on a
- 3:33podcast. How are you?
- 3:40You know, I'm good. I'm real good.
- 3:45Prison for me was I think at the end, well, I'm still still
- 3:49technically in it, but I have really a big net positive.
- 3:52So I'm I have a really good outlook and I I look back and
- 3:56I'm working on some stuff that's kind of.
- 3:58Put my journey in perspective and I think think I did it
- 4:02right. And I think it helped me in a in
- 4:04a lot of ways, as terrible and brutal as it is.
- 4:07Well, let's go back a little ways.
- 4:08Because I mean, for for people who don't know you, Scott, your
- 4:15world before you entered into the nightmare of prison, like
- 4:18growing up, being a kid, what, did you have a pretty normal
- 4:21life or were you wild and crazy? No, I was.
- 4:25AI was a good kid. I I mean, I I like to toe the
- 4:30line I think. But no.
- 4:32Played a bunch of sports. Wasn't a super athlete like a
- 4:35lottery guest or like you were. I was.
- 4:37I was good at the athletes. I bet I was good because I
- 4:39worked really hard at it. So you know I I played junior
- 4:43varsity varsity. But was the guy who played, but
- 4:46wasn't the guy who played a lot, but.
- 4:50You know, prom, high school, prom king.
- 4:52I was actually valedictorian. I had a great.
- 4:53I had a perfect You're the prom. That's awesome.
- 4:57Well, I'm. I'm married to the to the
- 4:59homecoming queen, so you know that stuff stays with you for
- 5:02life. Yeah, I know.
- 5:03I I mean, yeah, our group, our group was kind of the a group
- 5:07that got nominated for that stuff and and so yeah, it was it
- 5:11was fun and I but I had perfect. I had perfect.
- 5:14I had wonderful friends, fantastic parents.
- 5:18You know, went to college, had a great college experience.
- 5:21And then where'd you go to college?
- 5:23I. Got injured and that would be
- 5:25the start of when things started getting sideways, I'd say,
- 5:29Scott, where where did you go to college?
- 5:31When did you see Santa Barbara? Santa Barbara's a nice place to
- 5:34be. Oh yeah, it was.
- 5:36It was unbelievable. I loved it.
- 5:39OK, OK, So you you got hurt. How did you get hurt?
- 5:43So the first time. Let's just put it this way.
- 5:46I'm a tactfully bad driver. So and and in that in in that
- 5:51breath, I'm also the person that's in the car when somebody
- 5:55else gets in an accident. So if you and I are going to,
- 5:57you know, drive somewhere to go to lunch or dinner, there's a
- 5:59good chance that we're going to get in an accident because I'm
- 6:01in the car with you. So OK, so I got in my senior
- 6:04year before I'm going to college.
- 6:06Like after I graduated I was in the passenger side of a
- 6:09girlfriend's car and. It wasn't major but we wrapped
- 6:13did a couple you know one 80s and slammed into a pole and that
- 6:16that was the first time I significantly hurt my back.
- 6:19And you know when you're young you kind of think oh it'll be OK
- 6:24and this will bounce things off. But I it was a significant
- 6:26injury and I should have handled it better.
- 6:28But I I just thought, you know I'll be fine in a couple years
- 6:31or I'll be fine in a couple months and it it didn't go like
- 6:33that. But I figured out a way to to
- 6:36work with it the stretching and. Therapy, physical therapy.
- 6:40And I got it so that it was workable, but it was challenging
- 6:42like it was it was a it was one of those things where you're
- 6:45young and you don't want anything to affect your life.
- 6:47And it did. It was significant.
- 6:49How old would you been at the time?
- 6:51I was just going into college. So what, 18?
- 6:55Oh, you were like a young kid. Yeah, yeah.
- 6:59And it was back. And, you know, I mean, everyone
- 7:01has back problems now. And so they'll get it.
- 7:02But it was bad. So as at that age, you're going,
- 7:05oh, you know. A backpack was tough, riding a
- 7:08back, buying a bike. So you know, with good
- 7:11therapist, I figured it out. I figured out how to make it
- 7:13work and and it wasn't like I couldn't do everything I wanted
- 7:16to do, but I could do most of it.
- 7:18Like I could run, I could play sports, I could play softball,
- 7:21bike around. So it was fine.
- 7:23It was manageable. So you head to college.
- 7:30Is there anything that happens in college that we should know
- 7:33about or is was that just a step in your life?
- 7:37No, college was. I mean on the negative end or
- 7:40the bad end or what? No, just in general for your
- 7:42life experience. No, college was.
- 7:44I know I was. I was.
- 7:45I was wildly successful in college.
- 7:47I was that kid who really didn't have to study much and got the
- 7:49best. But I, you know, spent a lot of
- 7:52time with attorney. I was in UC Santa Barbara at
- 7:55Lambda Chi Alpha. I loved, loved the fraternity
- 7:57experience. And you don't have to do it at
- 7:59Santa Barbara, actually. Yeah.
- 8:02I mean, I had a bunch of accolades in school and and.
- 8:05You know, when when I ended college, I was ready for the
- 8:09next experience in life. So, So what happened?
- 8:11What happened to the next? What was your next step?
- 8:14OK, I started started working in advertising and and in the
- 8:19movies, in the movie industry. So I've made a lot of
- 8:22connections in college working for MTV and for Viacom where,
- 8:29you know, I had the potential to go into these different
- 8:31industries and was super excited about that and.
- 8:35But I started in advertising because I wanted kind of a more
- 8:38secure job. And then then then let's see
- 8:42where, where, where can I take you into a little Segway here
- 8:44that'll lead to the fun. All right, here's the one.
- 8:50I was getting all excited about MTV.
- 8:52And then he told me he took the advertising job IT.
- 8:54Was a great experience and again, all through college and
- 8:56stuff. So I'm being honest, I'm
- 8:57partying, but I'm partying under control.
- 8:59Sure. On the weekends with buddies.
- 9:01Have it. Have it under control.
- 9:02Yeah, no, I did the fraternity thing.
- 9:04Yeah, I did the fraternity thing.
- 9:06I loved it. So, but you know, I'm doing, I'm
- 9:09doing coke and I'm doing, you know, I'm drinking, not a big,
- 9:12I'm a big drinker, but I don't really like drinking now.
- 9:14All the other stuff I like I'll be honest about.
- 9:17But so anyway, what ends up happening is I I'm about 26,
- 9:22about 25 and I get this really crazy injury to my stomach.
- 9:26It's called a pelvic floor injury and don't even know how I
- 9:31got it, but it was. Absolutely.
- 9:33Mind boggling. Debilitating.
- 9:35So it may have been related to my back problems, that's what.
- 9:40I was thinking, so you know it started affecting me
- 9:43significantly in terms of pain in in that area and I went and
- 9:46saw every pain specialist and every urologist and gastro and
- 9:50your neurological. I was on a mission to try and
- 9:53fix it and they basically came to the conclusion that you know
- 9:58it is what it is and you're going to have to live with the
- 10:00pain. And now.
- 10:01Taking pain medication as a part of your lifestyle.
- 10:04And although I hated hearing that, it was that kind of level
- 10:08of pain and that kind of daily pain that I did say, OK, this is
- 10:13that part of the gig? Yeah.
- 10:16So I started taking it and you know, things were fine until,
- 10:22you know, getting into my late 20s.
- 10:24And are you, are you taking this every day?
- 10:28This is part of your daily routine, OK?
- 10:31Part of the daily routine and actually I ended up figuring out
- 10:36what was wrong. It was it was so crazy.
- 10:39Not like an exon on a, you know, like X marks the spot on A on a
- 10:43treasure map. But we kept when you battle with
- 10:45doctors, you know, here, here's my thing.
- 10:48OK, so my pretend you're throwing a football all day.
- 10:51Throwing a football all day and the next day your arm hurts.
- 10:54Why does your arm hurt? It's because you were throwing
- 10:56the football. So I had this big battle with my
- 10:58doctors. They'd say no, it's.
- 11:00It's this. And I'd say, well, it hurt.
- 11:02It happened when I was doing crunches or it happened while
- 11:04I'm doing sit ups. So how can you tell me it's, you
- 11:07know, a thigh injury? Like, it was crazy.
- 11:10So I kept trying to work on the area that I thought it made the
- 11:13most logical sense. And turns out it did.
- 11:17I met this doctor that recommended this one test.
- 11:19He was a very specific diagnetician who retired, but he
- 11:23was really great at telling people what's wrong with them.
- 11:26So I meet this guy. He tells me what to do.
- 11:28And end up finding this whole big community that's available
- 11:30for men that treat pelvic floor injuries.
- 11:33And after four or five months, it starts getting remarkably
- 11:37better. Wow.
- 11:38So Oh my God, wow. So in the meantime, marriage had
- 11:42dissolved because me and the fiance didn't work out, probably
- 11:46in large part because she didn't want to be with the guy that was
- 11:48going to be hurt. Well, how long?
- 11:49How long was that? How long was that time period?
- 11:52We were that we were dating or that.
- 11:56Well, did you get did you date and then get married or you
- 11:59dated and got married or you just dated?
- 12:02No. We didn't get married.
- 12:02We were a month away from getting married.
- 12:05She pulled. She pulled the blog about a
- 12:06month before. OK, how did that work?
- 12:09So I'm brutal. You know?
- 12:10I mean, I'm devastated. I mean, I really relied on this
- 12:12girl a lot at that time. And again, I'm thinking this is
- 12:16going to be the rest of my life. So now I've got this spam.
- 12:19I can start getting better, and it's noticeably getting better.
- 12:21But here's the kick, Brent. Here's what I'll be honest
- 12:24about. I like pain pills.
- 12:25Yeah. And so do you feel like, did you
- 12:31But, Scott, were you, did you like them or were you actually
- 12:34addicted to them because you had that kind of just part of your
- 12:37daily feel of what you had as your routine of how you were
- 12:41living. Were you addicted or was it just
- 12:44like, OK, well, I like it. Well, here's that's a good
- 12:48question. I mean that's a great question.
- 12:49Here's the part of it that that hooks me up is is I when I was
- 12:53getting better and I didn't need to take them.
- 12:55I could have stopped now. I was already addicted to him.
- 12:58I mean we would I went, I went through detox twice and the
- 13:02detox for painkillers, the amount that I was taking was
- 13:05crazy. It was absolutely brutal.
- 13:08So I actually went through that in my late 20s and then again
- 13:12when I went to Leavenworth, so which which is now at 48 years
- 13:16old or what was 47 at the time. But yeah, I, you know I got
- 13:21better and I I kept taking him on and off well and I know and I
- 13:26know that you're I was reading like your dad was an attorney.
- 13:30Your mom was a teacher. And I don't know if you had
- 13:35siblings but like all along the way with you having this hurt
- 13:40part of your body and and then the pain, where was your mom and
- 13:44dad? Are they a part of this whole
- 13:45thing or you just live in this hole by by yourself?
- 13:49Yeah, I have. My parents are absolutely
- 13:51spectacular. They.
- 13:53Been a part of it good and bad in terms of the support me
- 13:55through all of it they've felt the brunt of me you know trying
- 13:59to get better and feeling and and I mean I couldn't ask for
- 14:02better you know friends and and and parents I mean they're
- 14:05they're my best friends too So yeah that's great I mean.
- 14:08It was. It was.
- 14:08It was tough for them too. So all this time, are you still
- 14:13in the advertising world? Yeah, I had a during this time
- 14:18for. About 18, about 16 to 18 years.
- 14:22I was a large part of CBS Outdoor.
- 14:26I ran a very small portion. Actually one of my closest
- 14:29friends is now the the biggest guy there.
- 14:32His name's Chris Steinbacher. He runs the the entire real
- 14:35estate division. But I was a couple steps below
- 14:37him running Southern California, Las Vegas, doing billboards.
- 14:43So a lot of the, a lot of billboards you see on the side,
- 14:45the roads, the digital stuff. We were a huge part.
- 14:49He still is. But in my you know late 20s,
- 14:53early 30s, I was a huge part of putting up a lot of those signs
- 14:56and and a lot of areas that that.
- 14:58I mean, people never thought we'd put them up.
- 15:00So it was a huge movement. The billboards became incredibly
- 15:03valuable and we were kind of where the kind of a pioneer and
- 15:09was that good money? I mean, will you make a good, I
- 15:12mean you're at a young age there where it sounds like that was
- 15:14you had a big region and it sounds like you possibly make
- 15:17good money doing that. Absolutely, it was.
- 15:20It was a great job. It was a great career.
- 15:22Lots of fun people and it and it and you know, one of those
- 15:24industries where you pull back the curtain and it's gigantic.
- 15:27And there's some, you know, our boss was already Marino, who
- 15:30owns the the and who owns the Anaheim Angels.
- 15:33So it was a super fun guy. He actually sold it to Viacom,
- 15:37so. You know milk Harmazon and they,
- 15:40I never met them. They weren't my bosses but they
- 15:42owned the company. So we were just this massive
- 15:44company with all these resources and all these neat people and
- 15:48you know so big. But yeah, it was a fantastic job
- 15:52and and again I worked with one of my best friends and a bunch
- 15:55of friends and you know a great boss and so I I really enjoyed
- 15:57the job. But yeah during that whole time
- 16:00I was not all of it. I mean again it's there's
- 16:03there's stages of it where it was worse.
- 16:05I just want to be real honest with you and with the viewers
- 16:07and with my family who. Who obviously will watch this,
- 16:09that I'm not sugar coding anything, 'cause that's one of
- 16:12the things that bothers me when people tell their story, You
- 16:14know, they try and minimize things and I will not do that.
- 16:18I need to own this stuff and I'm and I'm happy to, cause I've,
- 16:21you know, nothing to be afraid about, about being honest about
- 16:23it. But during that time I, you
- 16:26know, on and off, you know, there was a good period of five
- 16:29or six years where I was sober again, not on any pills.
- 16:33And then then I got back on them and you know I was kind of a
- 16:37functioning. So he was just struggling.
- 16:41I, you know, and I've watched some of the there's quite a,
- 16:43there's two or three shows on right now on Netflix pain
- 16:48hustlers and well, there's two or three of them that are on it.
- 16:52Just it it shows, you know, it was almost like a a moment in
- 16:56time when all these pills were being kind of divvied out there
- 17:01to say, hey, you know, does your knee hurt, does your elbow hurt
- 17:04here? And you know, all these people
- 17:07started getting addicted and it became, you know, something that
- 17:12they didn't expect. And and you know, the struggle
- 17:17is what I think people maybe don't understand, is how hard it
- 17:22is to to remove yourself from something that you're addicted
- 17:26to because that that it's, there's such a strong, you know,
- 17:30feel of your body to it. It's it's like nothing I can
- 17:35explain, I mean. That I read a lot of books and
- 17:38and over the last two years and some amazing books on addiction
- 17:41there's a book by an ex football player that that that just was
- 17:45written God I'm trying to think to remember name of it.
- 17:48Anyway he he does the best job I've I've seen on somebody
- 17:52you've played with Carolina Panthers that's what I do.
- 17:54Oh Lord of Lord of the underground.
- 17:56Hero of the underground, and he talks about addiction better
- 17:59than than any book I've read. And it's just brutal.
- 18:03I mean. What it does to your body when
- 18:05you detox, you know, when I was in Leavenworth for the first
- 18:07four months, I was detoxing for four months straight.
- 18:11And it was, Oh my God, I wouldn't wish it upon anybody.
- 18:16It's it's miserable. And you know, just so you see
- 18:20when you see the way it does that when it has that kind of
- 18:22effect on you, that's crazy. But also you see and hear the
- 18:25stories about what people do to get drugs.
- 18:27They go broke, You know, procuring them.
- 18:29They get into dangerous situations I.
- 18:34Mean the story and the struggle's real and it's it's
- 18:37scary Well so Scott cause up to this time and when did when did
- 18:44it get to the point where you got into your nightmare and you
- 18:48found yourself going down to Mexico Was that something you'd
- 18:52done before or was that a first time deal that you were going
- 18:56down for painkillers. No, I mean.
- 19:01You know I've been down to Mexico sporadically for fun
- 19:03trips and and purchased them then.
- 19:05But no, this was a new plan, a new stupid plan.
- 19:07Obviously want some spectacular thought went into it.
- 19:10But no, I this was just part of a of something that I was
- 19:15already doing. I was getting into the cannabis
- 19:17industry and some of the people that worked for me, some of the
- 19:20connections you know had access to these people in Mexico that
- 19:23had pills. We were driving close to the
- 19:25border to visit locations and. Temecula and and yeah, you know,
- 19:30just anyway, so it was one of those things like, Oh yeah, I'll
- 19:34go over to the across the border and see what I can do and then
- 19:36I'll go back and then you know take a look at some of the farms
- 19:39on the way back to Los Angeles. So because again at that time
- 19:42I'm living in LA, so do you go over across the border by
- 19:48yourself and then come back through with the with the pills
- 19:54or like had you first of all, it sounds like what happened was,
- 19:59is that you declared those pills when you went back to in or back
- 20:05into the United States. Is that how that happened?
- 20:09I did. But here, here's the here's the
- 20:11kicker, and here's where you know I've written out my story
- 20:13for people to read. It's a very complicated story
- 20:16and I'll I'll do my best to to to.
- 20:19Let's get complicated character for it, but what?
- 20:22What happened? Here's the gist of it.
- 20:25I trusted some people that were working with me that I shouldn't
- 20:28have and while in Mexico this guy that was working for me put
- 20:34enough meth in the car, in the floorboards and other things to
- 20:38populate. You know mess for for an entire
- 20:41another country. Now I drove through the Mexican
- 20:45border not thinking a thing of this.
- 20:48They asked me to declare anything.
- 20:50Yes. I'm declaring the pain pills
- 20:52that I purchased and and it just so happens that a dog probably
- 20:58located at the. Again I'm simplifying the story
- 21:01but you can get the grip just of I should have never been in
- 21:05Mexico. Was that the dumbest thing in
- 21:06the world for me to have done? Yes.
- 21:08Should I have known something was going on?
- 21:10Absolutely. Did I?
- 21:11No I did not and I will never change from that version of the
- 21:14story. But should I have?
- 21:16Yeah. So, you know, I've been getting,
- 21:20I'm a smart guy. Comments forever.
- 21:22I saw that in your pile. Yeah.
- 21:24And so this. This may take the cake, but
- 21:27again, when you're when you're looking and you're an addict,
- 21:31you're trying to get pills and stuff, you overlook some really
- 21:33obvious things. So I'm not, you know, this is
- 21:36100% my fault. I'm not pushing the blame off on
- 21:38anybody. But anyway, so the the dog
- 21:41sniffed it. They asked me if I'd go through
- 21:43secondary inspection. I'm like, sure nothing to work.
- 21:46I mean, I'm literally watching Rick and Morty on my iPad.
- 21:50I've been waiting at the at the border.
- 21:52We go through the secondary unit.
- 21:56Some red flags must have been raised.
- 21:57They asked, did you get out of the car pretty soon, that I have
- 21:59cuffs on me and then I'm sitting, you know, in in the OTA
- 22:03Mesa border lobby, wherever they, you know, hold.
- 22:07What are you thinking, Scott? At that time I was wasn't.
- 22:12I was thinking some sort of mistake.
- 22:14And then when they called me in, you know, the next day and they
- 22:18they started, you know, talking to me.
- 22:20And then again, the law enforcement can be very funny in
- 22:23certain ways. But I'm, I'm starting to get out
- 22:25of them what what I did wrong? And they're telling me, oh, you
- 22:27know, and they wouldn't tell me. And so finally I, you know, I
- 22:30got loud and I'm like, listen, there's so many games, you know,
- 22:33let's be honest here. As soon as they said mess in the
- 22:36car, I said counsel. And then I was freaking.
- 22:40Out. Wow.
- 22:42So what were the next steps that happened?
- 22:47Well, I'm at that point, I'm starting to detox even a few
- 22:50days off of the medication and you start to start to feel it.
- 22:54Now I've been taking, you know, a lot large quantities at that
- 22:57point. So my father immediately bailed
- 23:01me out. I was in, I think I was in four
- 23:04days at a medical portion of the San Diego and then I was in the
- 23:10SSMCCI think it's called for, you know, maybe 11 days total.
- 23:15And then I'm out and then I'm putting my case together,
- 23:22deciding that I'm going to go to trial.
- 23:24I'm figuring out my game plan how this is all going to work.
- 23:28So you're out. Your dad's an attorney is is he
- 23:31helpful in this situation knowing, you know the jam that
- 23:35you're in and and you know this is a federal case and you're
- 23:38talking about drugs and it sounds horrible.
- 23:41Like what what all is happening in your world.
- 23:46So unfortunately he had retired so he actually UN retired at a
- 23:50later date so he could help me. He's a poor guy but I but it's
- 23:54you know I actually have a lot of friends that have jobs in in
- 23:58law and unfortunately they're all state or or civil or and so
- 24:04federal crime is far different than you know better than than
- 24:09state. And so I'm sitting here going, I
- 24:11got all these resources. I did not.
- 24:13I had very little resources. So you know, we used referrals
- 24:19from other people, but we ended up going with attorneys we like
- 24:23and. You know there's nothing you
- 24:26Scott, you. But Scott, you bring up a good
- 24:29point there because I think that there was a moment certainly hit
- 24:34me when you see the United States of America versus your
- 24:40name. I mean, I don't know if there's
- 24:42anything more intimidating on God's green anchors than to see
- 24:47the United States of America versus your name, because you
- 24:51all of a sudden feel the weight of how heavy that is and what
- 24:55that means, and there's nothing you can do at that point.
- 24:59But try to step forward, and it's a heavy step.
- 25:05I think people don't understand too, how incredibly powerful to
- 25:09get the resources, the unlimited budget.
- 25:11I mean, they can. There's a reason they have a 96%
- 25:15conviction rate. And it's not because there
- 25:18aren't people out there that have, you know, great stories to
- 25:21tell that might be innocent, provide innocence.
- 25:23It's because they come at you with the with the machine gun
- 25:26and it's crazy. I mean, if they don't like your
- 25:30answer or that you, you beat them on something, they'll just
- 25:33switch up the verbiage and come after you for something
- 25:34different. It's crazy.
- 25:37It's crazy how much power they have and how they can influence
- 25:39it. And so fighting them, you know,
- 25:41knowing now what I said then, I would have, I would have never
- 25:44even begun. I would have just told the
- 25:47public defender to to find the best deal that we could.
- 25:50How long did the whole process take for you?
- 25:52It was during COVID. COVID really threw a wrench in
- 25:56all of it, but I don't know if the how much.
- 25:58That would have speed my case up, but it was about two years
- 26:02to trial and then, you know, it'll be four years when this is
- 26:07all said and done from beginning to, yeah, incarceration.
- 26:11So all along you're saying I'm going to take this to trial?
- 26:15Yeah. I mean, I had a different
- 26:20mindset at that time. And at that time it was a very
- 26:23simple thing. I mean, I'd never even been
- 26:26around meth and bite, for crying out loud, I couldn't finish
- 26:28Breaking Bad. I I have again a new found
- 26:33respect for meth. Since when you go to federal
- 26:36camp or prison you realize everyone on drug who's there for
- 26:39drugs has done meth. But at that point in my life, I
- 26:42mean, this is completely wrong on my part, but I'm just going
- 26:44to be honest about it. I was offended anyone could
- 26:47think I was had anything to do with meth and I just didn't know
- 26:50anything about it. So kind of like I had this
- 26:54belief that I was in some different echelon of drug right?
- 26:57Addiction. Like I didn't.
- 26:58Do you were in the upper class drugs.
- 27:00Yeah. And I'm.
- 27:01I mean that was that was just terrible logic on my part.
- 27:04But that's honestly how I thought.
- 27:06So I just did coke. I just did pills.
- 27:08I didn't touch that stuff. So how dare you accuse me of
- 27:11that. And so and I thought, you know,
- 27:13hey I I'm on the board of directors at UCSBA Greek Man of
- 27:17the year. I'm a Valedictor.
- 27:18I have all these amazing accomplishments.
- 27:20I have this All Star team of people that want to go to to bat
- 27:22for me. I'm thinking there's no way
- 27:24they're going to think I did it. You know, they're we're going to
- 27:27figure something out. It could not have been more
- 27:29wrong. They didn't care about any of
- 27:31that. As a matter of fact, they
- 27:32probably motivated them to go after me more.
- 27:34They're like, oh let's let's, let's make an example of this
- 27:37kid or or this kid should have known better, you know, all and
- 27:40all true things. So they did not.
- 27:43They did offer me at the very beginning lying to a federal
- 27:46officer before any of it. And you know, if I could go back
- 27:50in time, I probably could have took that.
- 27:51I probably wouldn't have done anything.
- 27:53But but again, at that time I'm going, oh, they wanted me to
- 27:57sign a statement saying that I knew there was methamphetamine
- 27:59in the car and at that I was not going to do so.
- 28:03You know, everyone asks these questions and and it's so funny,
- 28:06they can tell you're faced with this hypothetical scenario.
- 28:09It'll never understand. But facing between 15 and 20
- 28:12years in jail is terrifying. And so that's the risk you take
- 28:18if you go to trial because if you don't go to trial, maybe you
- 28:21do, you know, a couple years or maybe you get out on probation.
- 28:24And in my particular situation, they did offer, you know, line
- 28:28to, but I didn't even go into discussions with it.
- 28:30We were going to fight it. And so we went down that route.
- 28:34So tell me about it. Oh boy.
- 28:39You know, maybe we were cocky. Maybe I was naive.
- 28:44I thought we, I thought, being frank, we got our ass kicked in
- 28:48in in trial. It's not that my attorneys
- 28:51weren't good. They just here the power of a
- 28:54prosecutor is spectacular. We had all these motions set up
- 28:57to what motions are in this particular set sentence is their
- 29:01rules set up to how the trial is going to be governed.
- 29:04So for example, when I went across the border, the agents
- 29:08said I was out of control and combative and sweating and out
- 29:12all whacked out. And I'm like, that is not true.
- 29:15I was watching, watching a program on iPad, Rick and Morty.
- 29:18I want that video right now, that video.
- 29:21And there's videos everywhere of everything.
- 29:23I want to see that stuff. There's no way it went down like
- 29:25that. So, OK, so they start getting
- 29:28the videos together and I get the testimonies from the border
- 29:32agents who say all these things that I did.
- 29:34And then guess what? The video goes missing.
- 29:38Crazy, Right. OK, so so now we can't verify
- 29:42what I said or verify what they said.
- 29:44So we put together a motion in order for us to set the rules of
- 29:48how we're going to discuss that stuff.
- 29:50So I couldn't talk about what I think happened on the border.
- 29:55They weren't supposed to be able to talk about it either.
- 29:57OK. In terms of my, you know, my
- 30:00actions and what I look like, OK, so that's that's one of the
- 30:04things that's in place is a rule to govern the trial.
- 30:06When we're at trial, the prosecutor just ignores all.
- 30:09This, in my opinion, she just, she says whatever she wants.
- 30:13And so we're sitting here flipping through the guides
- 30:15trying to find where we said you could say or couldn't say this.
- 30:18So I feel like she really caught us off guard, like she got us
- 30:21off our game. And so I think we spent half the
- 30:24time in disbelief that she was doing the things that she was
- 30:27doing and getting away with them, 'cause the judge would
- 30:29admonish her, but she'd just keep going.
- 30:30She'd just stay at a slightly different way.
- 30:33And again, this is all my take on it.
- 30:36And then you know my, my. But this is interesting though,
- 30:41Scott, because most people don't go to trial.
- 30:44No. I know the and been smart but my
- 30:46attorney thought you know that there would be no you know I
- 30:49wanted to call these witnesses and put on the show you know
- 30:52about what what what a great guy Scott is and my attorney is like
- 30:55you don't need to do that. And then I also think that some
- 30:59of the people that we wanted to bring forward who were in
- 31:01cannabis wouldn't have been strong witnesses for me.
- 31:03They would have been picked apart.
- 31:04I think people underestimate when you go up as a witness
- 31:08you're going up against very intelligent people that do this
- 31:10for a living. So they would have been picked
- 31:12apart by the prosecutor who was sharp I So I just think my our
- 31:17our strategy was wrong. I disagreed with it, but I
- 31:19deferred to them. And you know, in the end we lost
- 31:24and we lost big. But here's the caveat.
- 31:30The prosecutor, I mean, said some outlandish things
- 31:35throughout the trial that we objected to and that the judge
- 31:38should have reprimanded her further but kept making mental
- 31:41notes. She said things like nobody in
- 31:44the history of of our office has ever had this much meth and
- 31:48occur and not known about it. How do you?
- 31:50How can anybody say? That when you you don't know
- 31:52what you don't. Know, right.
- 31:54She would say stuff like that to the jury and and that's a very
- 31:57powerful statement. And so literally out of luck,
- 32:01there was a there was a we had a big audience for this trial and
- 32:04in the back there was there was attorneys that were in the same
- 32:08office as our attorneys and they just happened to know of an
- 32:11exact case where this exact same thing happened where somebody
- 32:14didn't know about it was massive amounts of quantities of meth
- 32:17and it was under the prosecutor's caseload.
- 32:20So it looked awful for the prosecutor that she just made
- 32:24the statement. So we objected right after the
- 32:26jury verdict and the judge had everyone get together and
- 32:31basically she said to him, hey they've got a point.
- 32:35You're making up. You're making some.
- 32:37You're making some statements that you can't you can't
- 32:39possibly be saying you shouldn't be saying.
- 32:41So I think you guys need to come do a a plea deal.
- 32:44If you don't, you know, I may consider throwing this verdict
- 32:47out, which would have been very bad for her and her publicity.
- 32:51And so I had admitted on the stand of line to a federal
- 32:54officer. I did lie to a federal officer
- 32:57and so I took that. So then when I go to sentencing
- 33:02and I, you know, didn't have the right strategy because the
- 33:06attorney at that point, I hired another attorney because I was
- 33:08upset at the previous attorney. So the new attorney I had was a
- 33:10brilliant litigator but not so good at which, you know, at the
- 33:14rules of the BOP and the rules of getting into R DAP and what
- 33:17place do you ask for and if you want to get a lower sentence,
- 33:20how you need to talk to the judge.
- 33:22We didn't do any of that. So I learned about the prison
- 33:25professors and the Justin Bernies and Michael Santos after
- 33:29I'd already been sentenced. So wow.
- 33:31Missed out on a big opportunity. So I just went up there and
- 33:34said, hey, OK, wait, what do you got for me?
- 33:36And not in a disrespectful way. I just, you know, so I got 24
- 33:41months, the judge said to me, you know, I don't think you
- 33:45knew. I don't think you knew, but you
- 33:48should have known and that so all this stuff I've just said in
- 33:51the prior where I I feel like I'm justifying my actions.
- 33:55No, let's just you're just telling the story of of what
- 33:58happened. OK, well, good.
- 34:00I'm glad you feel that way, 'cause it's something I'm really
- 34:02concerned about, because the story is what it is, and I'm not
- 34:04going to let go into something I didn't do.
- 34:06But what an idiot for being there, for being in that
- 34:10situation. Nobody can.
- 34:12Nobody can prove that you knew anyway, Scott.
- 34:15You're the only guy and you know that's the.
- 34:18That's the unique thing about your case is, is that nobody can
- 34:23get inside your head except you and.
- 34:28Obviously you weren't. I mean, and just listening to
- 34:31your story, you're not even a meth guy.
- 34:33You were looking for painkillers because you were addicted to.
- 34:36And you you, you thought this would be an easy, fast way,
- 34:40cheaper way to stay on your high that you were addicted to.
- 34:44I get it. So I think another incredibly
- 34:49fascinating thing is, is that you're a California guy and.
- 34:55How do you find out that you're going to Leavenworth?
- 35:00My lawyer asked for Lompoc, which did not have an ARDAP, so
- 35:03that was a mistake once. So we started filling out this
- 35:05paperwork to try and get to an ARDAP, which was Sheridan.
- 35:08Oregon was supposed to be the closest.
- 35:12About a week before I'm headed to to turn myself in.
- 35:17We find out it's in Kansas and Kansas does have our ARDAP and
- 35:21I'm going wow, so four 1496 miles away is where you guys
- 35:28have designated me. OK, that's going to be
- 35:31interesting. So we we hop on a plane and flew
- 35:35to Fresno. My father was nice enough to
- 35:37come with me and and got up, walked up right in front of that
- 35:40big beautiful prison and terrified as can be and. 1879 is
- 35:46when that thing was built and they and they walk everybody
- 35:49through that gate, which is. Not where the camp is, but you
- 35:53process through. Yeah, you know better than I.
- 35:58Brother and you know The funny thing about and and terrifying
- 36:03thing about it is is when you walk through that and they
- 36:06process you and they they put you in that holding place in
- 36:09that basement for a while hours, you start thinking first of all
- 36:15I don't have any idea. You know what happens next?
- 36:19And nobody's going to tell me, I guess, until they tell me.
- 36:22But I'm wondering if they know that I'm not supposed to be
- 36:25here. And I wonder if that's what they
- 36:26hear all the time. Oh, yeah, You know, Hey, I'm not
- 36:30supposed to be here. Oh, yeah, that's fine.
- 36:32Yeah, whatever. Everybody says that.
- 36:35Yeah, they don't. They don't care.
- 36:36But you're right. You're wondering what they've
- 36:37heard and what they don't. If they believe some people or
- 36:39if others, they just shake their head at all of it.
- 36:42But you don't know. But you, you, you, you finally
- 36:45get through that process of getting prisonized.
- 36:50You get yourself set and ready to head down to the place that
- 36:54looks like a rundown schoolhouse with a big barbed wire fence
- 36:57around it and fenced. I think it's one of only three
- 37:00in the United States that has fencing for a camp.
- 37:03Bless their heart. Bless their heart.
- 37:06And tell me about walking in that place.
- 37:10Oh man, the best part is when I'm walking they say, hey say
- 37:12just walk that direction and and again you you know there's some
- 37:16fields and and. Buffalo for a long time without
- 37:19seeing anything. Buffalo sitting there thinking
- 37:21I'm going to get shot. Like they're going to think
- 37:23somebody's escaping because I'm not walking the right way.
- 37:25And I'm out in the middle of nowhere and finally I get to the
- 37:29camp. There's nobody there.
- 37:31And so I'm just trying random doors.
- 37:33I'm thinking now I'm late and somebody's getting in trouble.
- 37:35And so anyway, eventually I see somebody walk out of the one
- 37:38door I didn't try. And you walk right into the camp
- 37:41and you're going, whoa, this is, this is not what I thought it
- 37:44would be. So welcome to Leavenworth.
- 37:46What? What time of year was it?
- 37:49What season? Oh, it was October.
- 37:52What, eighth? Yeah, so winter.
- 37:54Yeah, yeah. And that's the other thing.
- 37:57You know, everybody talks about Leavenworth because it doesn't
- 38:00have air conditioning, which was really bad.
- 38:03But the other part of it was is that it got really, really cold.
- 38:07And they didn't turn the heat on until about a week before
- 38:10Thanksgiving. And you'd freeze to death in
- 38:12there. Yeah.
- 38:14Yeah. So Scott, you walk in, you walk
- 38:18into this place and where where were you?
- 38:23A 2A1 No, I start at you. I'm sure you I started in C2.
- 38:29I started in the in. The OK C2 OK, yeah.
- 38:34And you know, I'm. I'm then right down and walked
- 38:39out of the RDAP office And then the way I do things is I'm going
- 38:41to start getting working on whatever I need to be worked on
- 38:44and on the To Do List. And my first thing was you got
- 38:46to get an RDAP. Yeah.
- 38:47And so I spent you. Know I might.
- 38:50I'm going to. Let's let's explain real quick
- 38:52for those people down in the Cayman Islands, what RDAP is?
- 38:57RDAP is a residential drug and alcohol program that you can
- 39:00take. It's between 9:00 and 11:00
- 39:03months. It's structured.
- 39:05It's about 3 1/2 hours every morning, Monday through Friday.
- 39:09And if you pass, which is not as easy as you'd think it would be,
- 39:14you can get up to 12 months off your sentence.
- 39:17On the FSA, first step back credit.
- 39:19Now, depending on your sentence length, you may go as low as
- 39:22four or 12 months or six months. Excuse me, which I got six
- 39:26months because my sentence is 24 months.
- 39:28But for anything over 34, you get a a full 12 months off your
- 39:33sentence. So there's a big incentive to do
- 39:35it. So when you went in there, you
- 39:37you mentioned that you were starting to detox.
- 39:41Was that going on as you I mean you said the first four months
- 39:46every you know again I spent all this money prior trying to find
- 39:49out what drugs I can take look up what what the BOP says is not
- 39:55he knows better than anybody. It's not necessarily what's
- 39:57going to happen at the individual institution or what
- 40:00the nurse may do or what that. You know, particular staff may
- 40:03want to do at that time of day, at that hour, you know, based on
- 40:06their vibe. So the medication I've been on,
- 40:09which is a wonderful drug that helps you stay off opiates and
- 40:12helps with pain. And it's not a narcotic like
- 40:15Vicodin or like opiate, but it's called Suboxone.
- 40:19Suboxone is huge and the BOP says that you can take it
- 40:23Leavenworth. Leavenworth has it in their
- 40:26medicine cabinets. They can administer it, but they
- 40:29didn't want to because they claimed there was some problems
- 40:32with some inmates abusing it. So I said what I could have had
- 40:38two years. I could have weaned off this.
- 40:39If that was the case, we said, oh, it's OK, we'll just, we'll
- 40:42wean you off it and then a month later we'll put you on a shot
- 40:46called Vivitrol. Now I don't know anything.
- 40:49Can't look up the stuff on the Internet here.
- 40:51The Vivitrol and Suboxone are far different things.
- 40:54So I I detoxed off Suboxone and it was.
- 40:58I've been on it for over 10 years.
- 41:00Legal doses, not abusing that but wow.
- 41:04Wow. So that was that was awful.
- 41:08That was, that was absolutely awful.
- 41:09The advice was, you know, for detoxing was go visit, go to go
- 41:14to church or or or walk the track.
- 41:17Like there's no, there's no, you know, I went to the bubble once
- 41:21at like 4:00 in the morning because I thought I was dying.
- 41:23My heart was pumping through and the the guard looked at me and
- 41:26he goes you know they knew we got this way they Carver do you
- 41:30want to do you want to go to the shoe and and and be there or do
- 41:33you want to have it do you want to go back to your top bunk And
- 41:35I'm like OK I'm I'm. Going and of course I want to go
- 41:38to the shoe, but that's that's those are your options.
- 41:41Special housing unit the whole how, how did you start?
- 41:46Now you're in this new primitive world.
- 41:48You you're you're not someone who's been in this primitive
- 41:51world before. How did you start to adapt
- 41:53through it? I got kind of lucky.
- 41:57I think at the very beginning I met some really great people
- 42:01that were super supportive. But I also my particular skill
- 42:04set and the way that I love to help people.
- 42:07That's one of my passions in helping people.
- 42:09I was able to help some key people.
- 42:11That kind of just made my life easier right off the get go on a
- 42:15bit of, you know, luck. Wasn't that Scott?
- 42:18Wasn't that like one of the biggest surprises to you about
- 42:21prison? It was for me, is.
- 42:24I always say that I, you know, I was such a Pansy when I was
- 42:27standing at the, you know, the gates thinking, OK, let's see,
- 42:31I, I, I guess I'll get raped and then I'm going to get beat up
- 42:34and maybe get stabbed. I've seen that on the movies.
- 42:37And it was like immediately people, because I was walking
- 42:40into their world, they really did want to help me get set up.
- 42:44They really did want to help me, you know, get as comfortable as
- 42:49you can get into that environment.
- 42:51And I guess for me. Walking into an environment, a
- 42:56primitive environment like that, it was kind of the opposite of
- 42:59what I had planned in my head. And these guys helped me.
- 43:04They they truly helped me because I was like, you know, a
- 43:08pup just out of, you know, just walking.
- 43:11And and they knew that and they just took me and said, hey,
- 43:14we're going to help you. And they did.
- 43:17I mean, you have, like you said, you if you want to be safe at a
- 43:20camp, you can be safe at a camp. You can get in trouble if you if
- 43:23you're looking for it or if you fuck around, sure.
- 43:26But for the most part you're it's safe.
- 43:30I agree. So you said and one of the
- 43:32things I noticed was you you you talked about losing 70 pounds,
- 43:35you're reading 150 books and then he went through this
- 43:38paralegal program that you've actually did really well in. 95%
- 43:44or above is what I remember but. Then you really started helping
- 43:48a lot of people through motions and and all kinds of deals that
- 43:52happen. Is that how is, is that
- 43:55something? Did you have that planning in
- 43:57your mind when you were going through or did was this Once you
- 44:01were there, you're like, this is going to be a way for me to kill
- 44:05my time, eat up my time. By doing this.
- 44:07I mean you know this. The key to prison or surviving
- 44:11prison is avoiding idle time. Idle time is is absolute death
- 44:14match. But no, I didn't.
- 44:16I didn't plan on. I plan on doing the paralegal
- 44:18thing because I wanted it. That was part of my plan to stay
- 44:20busy. But to be honest, I mean, I had
- 44:22ABA in law and I I've always kind of loved to think of myself
- 44:25because of my dad and other factors that I have some sort of
- 44:28law genius. But I'm not.
- 44:30I don't know anything. I'm actually.
- 44:32I mean, who am I kidding? Let me be totally real.
- 44:35I'm not impressive with that. But I got better at it.
- 44:38And so I really forced myself to try and help people in these
- 44:43situations because they had no better option and what they were
- 44:45doing was, was just terrible in terms of its potential for
- 44:50success. And some of these people had
- 44:52really strong arguments. They just needed somebody to
- 44:55advocate for a little better. And so I didn't do anything
- 44:58other than organize them and put their story together in a better
- 45:01structure and then really push for them because it's it's kind
- 45:04of one of those funny things where sometimes we're we're the
- 45:06best advocate for other people than we are for ourselves.
- 45:10And so when it was somebody else, man, I was, I went to war
- 45:12for and we were very successful. I mean we.
- 45:15I'm sure that's why in the limited time, limited times that
- 45:18I got into some trouble, which wasn't much, but I'm sure I got
- 45:21messed with because of those potential things that, you know,
- 45:24I, I, I did go into the office hours and other other things
- 45:28representing other people with them there.
- 45:30And that's not usual. They let me get away with it to
- 45:32a certain extent. But you know, they put my dad on
- 45:36the watch list because you you send in legal mail that they
- 45:40didn't like, which was my newsletters, which I was just
- 45:42walking 20 feet over to give you another case manager.
- 45:46So there was stuff like that where it was just like, OK.
- 45:50So did you start writing your you did Scott, Did you start
- 45:54writing your newsletter from month one or did you start?
- 45:58Did you work your way into that? No, I wrote it every week.
- 46:02I'm on my 58th week right now, and I promised I'd do it
- 46:06throughout my incarceration. I did it the first week before I
- 46:10left, I think maybe 2 weeks, and then I wrote it every Friday.
- 46:16And then my dad, bless his heart with we we built the kind of
- 46:20program to have it and send it to him.
- 46:22He put it in for him at it, proofread it, and then he'd Kick
- 46:25It Out. Speed.
- 46:26And did you get any backlash from Leavenworth on that little
- 46:30bit? I got some funny.
- 46:32I mean I I I try to be proactive about it.
- 46:34Again, I I didn't use names and although I I had some very
- 46:38interesting things to say about certain staff and whatnot, I
- 46:41didn't, I didn't call them out individually.
- 46:43I actually brought it to a lot of them and showed them it said
- 46:46hey this is what I'm doing. I mean Noel knew about it.
- 46:49My my bosses at the kitchen, they knew about it.
- 46:54And then all my DTS staff, the RDAP program staff, I went and
- 46:58brought it to them and and you know, they were, I wanted them
- 47:01to know because our nap staff reads all your e-mail, it listed
- 47:04all your phone calls. You can get in trouble for some
- 47:06of the craziest things. And I saw people get in trouble
- 47:08for the craziest things. I saw a guy, they they heard him
- 47:12on a phone call and he was talking about his girlfriend and
- 47:15they knew he had a wife. So they made him call his wife.
- 47:18Tells him like so. There's crazy stuff that goes.
- 47:21On well, I mean I I wanted to get when you when you're talking
- 47:23about that Scott, you think they can't listen to all those phone
- 47:26calls we got. We lost our movie privileges for
- 47:31a month because a guy was talking about bragging about
- 47:34that we saw a first run movie that they got from Unicorp and
- 47:38because he was bragging on on riding.
- 47:41It was no, it was a phone call and that was it.
- 47:45And then he got in trouble and the whole camp lost the movie
- 47:49rights for a month, which you're like, wow, they really do.
- 47:52They really do listen to all that.
- 47:54Well, let's talk about, let's talk about this too, Scott,
- 47:56because your your, your world and my world crossed over
- 47:59because you worked in the kitchen.
- 48:02I worked at the food Warehouse and Co, Noel, correction
- 48:07Officer. Noel was my boss at the food
- 48:10warehouse and he was your boss in the kitchen.
- 48:13He'd changed jobs by then. Yeah.
- 48:17Well, Noah's a fan of you. That's that's what cracked me
- 48:19up. And he was, he was, I mean, he
- 48:20liked everybody, but he wasn't a fan of of people.
- 48:23But I I thought Noah was one of the good, probably two or three
- 48:26guys in that whole camp, staff wise, that was a good deal.
- 48:29He actually had some empathy and he went out of his way to try
- 48:32and help people. But I I got a job in the kitchen
- 48:35to be super honest with you and I.
- 48:38One of the things that I struggled with over the last 20
- 48:41years is I got lazy and I I did not, the lack of a better word,
- 48:45roll my sleeves up and get dirty.
- 48:46And I knew there is no way I would have gotten the job in the
- 48:49kitchen. That wasn't my style and so
- 48:51that's why I did do it is I wanted to wash tables and also
- 48:55I'm a terrible cook. I wanted to.
- 48:56I thought I was going to learn. To cook.
- 48:57That's not how it goes. But I wanted to, since I've
- 49:02screwed up so royally. I wanted to lean into this whole
- 49:05experience and say, OK, if you're going to do this, if
- 49:07you're going to change your life, if you're going to get
- 49:09better, you need to do all these things that you know are huge
- 49:12red flags, huge things you're failing at.
- 49:14You're going to succeed at it. Step one is stop thinking you're
- 49:17so fantastic you're not, and get a job where you have to bust
- 49:21your ass. And to me, that was the kitchen.
- 49:25And I I guess Noel was one of the kitchen cops.
- 49:31But there's usually like, what, two or three that you had to
- 49:33probably work through. But yeah, there's there's McCoy,
- 49:36who's who I like a lot, but it had his, had his interesting
- 49:39brushes, but Kingis was was one of my favorites.
- 49:42But it's 'cause he didn't fire me the one time.
- 49:45One time I just tried to steal something, not even for me,
- 49:48'cause somebody else asked me again, I'm a terrible criminal,
- 49:52but somebody asked me to get him some bread.
- 49:55Which man? When you turn around, half that
- 49:57half the inventory goes out of that place.
- 50:00I don't know how I got caught, but I I had a half a loaf of
- 50:03bread all in and I walked around the corner and he's standing
- 50:06right there and I throw it underneath the bin like he
- 50:09didn't see it. And he goes, really.
- 50:12And so I finished my shift and after he calls me in and he
- 50:15goes, you going to be an asset or a liability?
- 50:19And I was like, Oh my God, sorry, you know, I didn't mean
- 50:24to do it. He's like, OK, I just don't ever
- 50:26do it again. So I kind of actually helped
- 50:28Lucladi and fire me. Yeah, well, they do.
- 50:30Sometimes they do. Oh, absolutely.
- 50:32For far less. I think they knew I I just
- 50:35worked and and got. Yeah, you're a good worker.
- 50:37Yeah, they probably didn't want to lose a good worker, 'cause
- 50:39they're hard to find. And I mean, did you think it was
- 50:42odd, 'cause you and I talked about this before we got on, but
- 50:45did you think it was odd that that Noel, your boss, was
- 50:49reading a book that was from a prisoner from Leavenworth?
- 50:56Absolutely. I've never seen any of them.
- 50:58I mean, I know that I I used to have some good conversations
- 51:01with McCoy. I know McCoy reads and he, he's
- 51:04up on a lot of the shows and whatnot, but I've never seen and
- 51:07he's and he's earmarking it. Again, Brent, this is a huge
- 51:10compliment to you. And I mean, I guess I wish I
- 51:12would have known what I know now, so I can talk to him about
- 51:14it. But he was reading it because
- 51:15he's interested. He was reading it, 'cause he
- 51:17thought highly of you, which, which again, I didn't put this
- 51:19in together until way after, you know, a couple, I think a month
- 51:22ago. So you and I had already talked,
- 51:24and I still didn't remember it. I remembered it once.
- 51:26I saw your book and I and I saw the name 'cause he was, he was
- 51:30showing me and it was funny. He asked me for some illegal
- 51:33advice. He goes they don't need
- 51:35permission to have my name. Was he and I go no I I he
- 51:39doesn't. But I I didn't know the answer.
- 51:40I was just and I qualified that I said I don't know the answer
- 51:43to that but I don't think so. But he's not saying anything
- 51:45negative. It's is he bashing you?
- 51:47No. Then then what would you what
- 51:48reason would you have to be upset.
- 51:49But he was he was excited about it.
- 51:51He was highlighting it. That's I know.
- 51:52I. Thought that was, well, he was
- 51:53one of the good guys and you know like you said there it's,
- 51:56it's it's unusual because a lot of them really take advantage of
- 52:02the situation that you're treated like.
- 52:04Cattle and which is unusual because at Leavenworth are
- 52:08actually our Buffalo roaming in the in the front.
- 52:11That's not something I expected to see at prison.
- 52:14But so let's talk about this Scott.
- 52:18You you kind of get through and and become a guy that's helping
- 52:22people. You're giving yourself your own
- 52:24self punishment of doing the hard work in the kitchen that a
- 52:28lot of people don't like to do. You start getting close and then
- 52:31you you do well. You do so well in RDAP that you
- 52:34you give the commencement address to to our class.
- 52:39Both you and I had that in common.
- 52:41I I didn't know that I was going to take RDAP as as far or as to
- 52:46take it to as much as it I took in from it.
- 52:52How did you start? Once you start feeling like
- 52:54you're getting closer to the door, what what did you start
- 52:57thinking about getting to the next steps?
- 53:04I guess I as soon as it was my, you know, our our transition
- 53:08quarter, I started planning or the realities of that I would
- 53:12soon be leaving, started hitting me and I started trying to
- 53:15adjust plans for what would be going on outside.
- 53:18But my attitude in prison was kind of I had to do it one way.
- 53:22Like I didn't, I didn't talk a lot of the phone to people.
- 53:24I emailed a lot. But if I'm in prison, I'm in
- 53:27prison. If I'm out, I'm out.
- 53:29And so I really had trouble with that part of trying to stay
- 53:33connected to my life outside. Plus, you were so far away.
- 53:36Yeah. And I just so I didn't do well
- 53:39with that. So I really focused on prison.
- 53:41So I kind of was all in on our DAP up until the last day.
- 53:44And then when it was over, then it was a ton of emotions hit me
- 53:47and you know, it was crazy. Then I'm going home.
- 53:51Yeah. And I think that's always kind
- 53:54of a weird transition because you do get into living your
- 53:58primitive life and your routines in prison.
- 54:01And the closer you get to getting out, you start to kind
- 54:06of open up that world in your mind is like, wow, I'm going to
- 54:10go out and I've got to get and then and then that you have that
- 54:15unfamiliarity of. First of all, you can't wait to
- 54:18see your name that you're going to be released.
- 54:22But then you had this really unknown world of what you're
- 54:28going to be walking into next because so many people say,
- 54:31well, the next step you're going to hate it worse than, you know,
- 54:34the the than the world you're in right now with your halfway
- 54:37house. Tell us how those steps went for
- 54:40you. Well, it was funny as I'm as I'm
- 54:43leaving, I'm getting on there, you know, about to get on the
- 54:46plane and you're wearing all grades.
- 54:47So you know, half the people probably know you're either they
- 54:50probably think you're military or you're a prisoner And sitting
- 54:52there going, you don't get, you get $10 you don't get, they tell
- 54:56you you got to make some phone calls.
- 54:58So you're scoping out, you know, people that you can go up and
- 55:01ask to use your cell phones because we're not public phones
- 55:03anymore. And so I'm standing there and
- 55:05this guy goes, hey, congratulations.
- 55:07And I, I look around, he's he's a employee at a, like a earphone
- 55:12headphone store. And I said for what?
- 55:14And he says, well, you just got out right.
- 55:16And they're like, how do you know?
- 55:17And he goes, bro, we know, OK? And so he goes over there.
- 55:22Guy actually gets me. He sees the crappy headphones
- 55:26I'm wearing. He goes, you need a good pair of
- 55:27headphones. Guy gets me, you know, for a
- 55:29dollar. He gives me a really nice pair.
- 55:31Of Wow headphones. What a guy like it lets me use
- 55:34this phone so I can activate the credit card.
- 55:35And now I can buy something more than, you know, $3.00 with,
- 55:40which is what they gave us. I was excited to get home.
- 55:43I miss my family. I miss my friends.
- 55:47The I knew I was going to have trouble at the halfway house
- 55:49just because I don't like that kind of structure.
- 55:53I feel like you're half in and half out and don't like that.
- 55:55Like I said, and I wanted to get to home confinement as soon as I
- 55:58possible. The thing I'm cracking up about
- 56:00now is it's not easier. It's just different each step.
- 56:04Yeah, it's. Such a good.
- 56:06That's such a good point, Scott. Such a good point and I think
- 56:10that's something. But I maybe a lot of people
- 56:13don't realize what you just said is so good.
- 56:15It's it's it's it's it's your next step it's it's not
- 56:21necessarily easier it's your next step of getting to where
- 56:26you want to be. But there's nothing easy about
- 56:28any of those steps. I mean, I I I had all three of
- 56:32my jobs denied. I mean, what a job?
- 56:37Working at prison professors. White collar advice, helping
- 56:40felons to advocate for better positions.
- 56:42Like a no brainer job that they do hope they want me to do.
- 56:46I work in a law firm as a paralegal and then as a work in
- 56:50an advertising agency. Something I did for 17 years.
- 56:54My mind was blown. Like I would think like I can't.
- 56:57I turned these in on the first day.
- 56:59I thought they were going to go, wow, great, you know, thank God
- 57:01you've got these these resources good for you.
- 57:03That's lucky. Go at it instead.
- 57:05They're like, no. And I'm like, well, what do you
- 57:07want me to do? And they're like, well, no, we
- 57:08need you to work at this kind of place or that kind of place.
- 57:10And I'm like, all right, what's the next step And who I need to
- 57:13talk to? And so I eventually am getting.
- 57:16That so they so Scott, I want to make sure I that I understand
- 57:20what you just said you had three different jobs set up and your
- 57:25case manager said, I don't think so.
- 57:28She said no. She said the BOP reviewed these
- 57:32and they said the BOP said no. Did was there any qualification
- 57:35or why that those three jobs that sound like great jobs for
- 57:38somebody to do? I will get into it.
- 57:41But here's here's the first part.
- 57:42I said I didn't invent the wheel here.
- 57:44I'm not some brilliant guy that came up with these job ideas.
- 57:47These are things that other felons are doing right now out
- 57:51there in America. It's not like I came up, you
- 57:53know, I'm the guy inventing the Rubik's Cube in space and the
- 57:56no, these are jobs people are doing.
- 57:58I'm just copying them. How are you saying no to them?
- 58:01So the reasons I got that I got were that I need permission to
- 58:05speak with felons and so I said OK let me do I need to talk to
- 58:10you to get that. Then the other one, the law
- 58:13firm, they said they didn't want me around that type of clientele
- 58:18and and or potential felon thing.
- 58:20And I said excuse me, you don't know if I walk into McDonald's
- 58:23if I'm. Exactly under that.
- 58:25Under that theory, I can't go to an A, A meeting or an AA
- 58:29meeting. I'm felons all the time.
- 58:31I can't step outside of this house.
- 58:33So then then the the best one, the one that I got most, she
- 58:36said you nobody works from home, you can't work from home.
- 58:39I said after COVID, Everybody works from home.
- 58:43And working from home is a prevalent way.
- 58:45Well, we can't go to your house to view that.
- 58:47I said yes you can. The first day I met with you, I
- 58:50stand the way of my life. You can.
- 58:52You can walk in this house right now.
- 58:53So what are you talking about? So once I put all those
- 58:57arguments together in an e-mail and I said please, you cited
- 59:00some things in the manual that said I can't do these things.
- 59:03I've reviewed the manual. Please specifically point out
- 59:06where those things are. They took a looser stance and
- 59:09all of a sudden they're approved.
- 59:10But but for people that don't fight back, for people that
- 59:12maybe go, you know, I I don't know.
- 59:14If no, they fall through the trap door.
- 59:17Yeah, I mean, what are you supposed to do?
- 59:19They fall through the trap door. And Lewis L Reed's got a great
- 59:23analogy about, you know, the guy running on the track.
- 59:27You know the the the fire, the gun goes off and they start
- 59:30running and the the guy falls down and he gets back up and
- 59:33everybody cheers and says that's such a great guy, he's got all
- 59:36this potential keep running and they they cheer him all the way
- 59:39to the finish line, he said. Now let's take that same analogy
- 59:42and work it back to the the the race of life.
- 59:45Gun goes off, starts running, guy falls down, they make him go
- 59:49back to the starting line. And then he goes and starts
- 59:53running again and these trapdoors start opening up that
- 59:56he doesn't see. And each time he falls in the
- 59:58trapdoor he has to go back to the starting line.
- 1:00:00What you just said is exactly what Luis L Reid said is that if
- 1:00:05you wouldn't have done what you did Scott and been smart about
- 1:00:08it and get the information out and say tell me where it says
- 1:00:12this, that person just got walks away without three jobs that
- 1:00:16they could have had. And and that's the part of the.
- 1:00:19BOP. That scares me.
- 1:00:20Is Is. You don't know who's pulling the
- 1:00:22strings, who's saying no. Are they saying no just because
- 1:00:24they don't want to at that time being because they have some
- 1:00:26justification, but it's such a big deal because that's a life
- 1:00:29changing thing? Yeah, it's it's scary.
- 1:00:32It's scary how much? Power.
- 1:00:33They have all the entire BOP. And again, I won't get on my
- 1:00:36soapbox about this, but it's scary and you know this, this.
- 1:00:39They wield an inordinate about a power and I know society
- 1:00:43doesn't. I just thought, they don't care.
- 1:00:46They don't really know what's going on with all this.
- 1:00:48But if they did, if they even knew a shred without mismanaged
- 1:00:51and how corrupt and how unethical a lot of the stuff
- 1:00:54was, I think it would shock people.
- 1:00:56Yes, utterly well. I think what you just said
- 1:01:00shocked me, and I've been through the process.
- 1:01:03You know that that that story you just said as a guy that's
- 1:01:07gone through all of it shocked me.
- 1:01:10I mean those are all good legitimate jobs and you just got
- 1:01:14somebody said, yeah, I don't think so.
- 1:01:17I want you to go, you know, drive a bus, drive a school bus.
- 1:01:21You know, it's it's it's fascinating.
- 1:01:24But I think there's the more voices that are out there and
- 1:01:27you telling your story and and people listening to that it it
- 1:01:31it at least invites them to understand that there's some
- 1:01:35real hardships that happen because you know you've got a
- 1:01:38situation Scott, where and I, you know, and I did too.
- 1:01:43Where you have support for those who don't have support.
- 1:01:46When you have to check the box off that you're an ex felon when
- 1:01:48you're trying to get the job and then you got to tell a really
- 1:01:50good story to convince them to get past that or to go try to
- 1:01:55find a place to live and you got to check that box.
- 1:01:58They say we don't we don't rent the ex felons.
- 1:02:01Those are really tough things to get past that that you know you
- 1:02:05you you can see how it jumps up the recidivism rate with people
- 1:02:09that are really actually trying to make it work and then they're
- 1:02:13getting hit right in the face and and you're living it right
- 1:02:16now. I mean I I I've been excited to
- 1:02:19talk to you on this interview because you're everything's so
- 1:02:22fresh. You just got out of the halfway
- 1:02:24house. You just went through that with
- 1:02:25the case manager. You just had to go to battle for
- 1:02:28yourself. So where you are now are you?
- 1:02:32Are you, I think, are you doing all three of those jobs or what
- 1:02:36did you end up doing? Yeah, I mean.
- 1:02:40Funny thing, I of course we, you and I know you don't get
- 1:02:45healthcare in prison. No, you do get healthcare, but
- 1:02:47you do not get healthcare. Might not want to try it, no
- 1:02:51hey, but I got a hernia the last.
- 1:02:53Three months in there and then I got an Abscess on my tooth.
- 1:02:57And again, if these things could have been fixed quickly.
- 1:03:00They might have been not became the problem as they are, but so
- 1:03:03I had to get that stuff worked on.
- 1:03:04So I had emergency surgery on my mouth the first day I was out of
- 1:03:08the halfway house and then I finally got to the doctor on the
- 1:03:111st when my insurance kicked in. And so I'm dealing with that
- 1:03:15stuff, but. There is.
- 1:03:19All three of the jobs are in play now.
- 1:03:21I'm already doing some of them, but what I've been doing is I
- 1:03:25wanted to. I wanted to really tell my story
- 1:03:28as well as I could in addition to the newsletter.
- 1:03:31So I've actually been working on a website that I just finished.
- 1:03:33It's just Scotty carper.com and I'm really proud of it.
- 1:03:38And it's going to basically for the remainder of people that
- 1:03:41don't know about what happened to me, because there's still a
- 1:03:44decent amount of people, you know, I want to, I want to
- 1:03:47really tell my story and then give everybody everything they
- 1:03:50want to know about it. So I.
- 1:03:53I partitioned a lot of live time off on that and worrying about
- 1:03:56the health. So now the health on its way and
- 1:03:58that's done. Yes, I'm gonna be working the
- 1:04:00advertising agency. I'm gonna be donating as much
- 1:04:02time as I can to help people on this journey.
- 1:04:05You know, I do that a few hours minimum every day.
- 1:04:07Love it. I had a bunch of calls today
- 1:04:09working with people. I'm talking about RNAP, talking
- 1:04:11about the ways that I would navigate the system, and it's
- 1:04:14incredibly rewarding. I love.
- 1:04:16Love being able to help people that are going in terrifying
- 1:04:18well and and see the thing too Scott is is that you can be such
- 1:04:22a help to somebody. And for that to be denied that
- 1:04:25you shouldn't be able to talk to that person.
- 1:04:27When you're the person that needs to have your your seat at
- 1:04:29the table to actually help walk those people through.
- 1:04:32Because you just experienced it and you can help them.
- 1:04:35And there's some new things in place with the first step back
- 1:04:37and some other things that people need to know about.
- 1:04:39And attorneys don't really get that involved in it because once
- 1:04:42you are done with the plea or you're you've pled or you've
- 1:04:48you've been sentenced, you're the attorney part's done.
- 1:04:50When you start to stand at that gate and you enter that prison,
- 1:04:55there's a whole nother education that goes on and you can educate
- 1:04:58people because you can take some of that.
- 1:05:00And I always say, you know nothing is ever as bad as your
- 1:05:03mind makes it out to be, not even prison.
- 1:05:05But people need to be able to walk through those steps and
- 1:05:09understand that too. It's funny you said.
- 1:05:16What you just said because. I completely agree it's.
- 1:05:18It's it's on you to how you decide you want to deal with
- 1:05:22this but this journey. But if.
- 1:05:25You can advocate for people. I think you should take the
- 1:05:27chance and do that, because there's a lot of things you can
- 1:05:30do and educating people on how this system works and how it you
- 1:05:34can what you can do within it to make your life better, That's
- 1:05:37essential, Yep. So Scott, out of everything that
- 1:05:42we've talked about and all that you've gone through, what do you
- 1:05:45think's your biggest take away through all of it?
- 1:05:51Wow, I think. We underestimate how powerful
- 1:05:55people, how powerful. People and and their actions and
- 1:05:59what? They do can mean to our lives, I
- 1:06:01thought. I I absolutely blew with all my
- 1:06:04friends and family, I thought. This was.
- 1:06:07Unforgivable and. They're never going to forgive
- 1:06:09me. And that's a lot of why I wrote
- 1:06:11the newsletters I wanted. I had to start building a case
- 1:06:14for that. I was going to be honest and
- 1:06:15that I was going to tell my story from day-to-day, good or
- 1:06:18bad, because that's it's full of stupid things I did, full of
- 1:06:21mistakes, full of me getting kind of realizations of of the
- 1:06:25people I hurt and how. But I I just thought I I
- 1:06:29underestimated how incredibly amazing some of my friends and
- 1:06:32family are and the support they have.
- 1:06:34But also I think. I was scared of this opportunity
- 1:06:38that I was going to prison. Life's over.
- 1:06:41And then it snapped for me and I got to be honest with my friends
- 1:06:45in prison are the ones that really got me to see it this
- 1:06:47way. A guy named Jason Newling, Phil
- 1:06:49gets some other people that just have are are unbelievable human
- 1:06:54beings that I feel so grateful to have met.
- 1:06:56But you know I'll give you a good example.
- 1:06:58So I'm going to Fresno and I'm like, God, I do not want to go
- 1:07:01to Fresno. This is going to suck.
- 1:07:02My attorney actually told me to try and stay in prison.
- 1:07:06At the camp. But you can't do that if you're
- 1:07:07an art app. So I, you know, I'm complaining
- 1:07:10about it. And in a funny gesture, one of
- 1:07:12them says to me, oh, no, man, you got to go to Fresno and get
- 1:07:16the most gangster job you can. You can own it.
- 1:07:18Like, you've been owning this entire process.
- 1:07:20You got a terrible job at Leavenworth.
- 1:07:22You've been doing, helping people for free.
- 1:07:24You've been doing all these things that I can't believe
- 1:07:26you're doing. And now you're going to stop at
- 1:07:28Fresno. And so he was right.
- 1:07:30Like, you know, if you're going to do this.
- 1:07:33If you're gonna fail spectacularly, you might as well
- 1:07:36put a Sherry on top and I'm gonna do everything I can.
- 1:07:40To make this the greatest story of my life, love it.
- 1:07:42So if that means volunteering in a clown costume.
- 1:07:44Spinning, you know, tables, I will do that because that's a
- 1:07:48great story. So, you know, if my hernia
- 1:07:50hadn't happened, I would have got a job at 711 or or Costco
- 1:07:53or, you know, going door to door giving out leaflets.
- 1:07:56I would have done anything to make it a great story.
- 1:07:58And so that right there, if you're going in, find out what
- 1:08:01you're what you're, what you're feeling at.
- 1:08:03Figure out a successful plan and then own it.
- 1:08:06Like if you want to lose weight, lose weight.
- 1:08:07If you want to public speak public speak.
- 1:08:08If you want to be a leader, be a leader.
- 1:08:10But do that stuff. Because there's no better time
- 1:08:12than trying that in prison. Man, I love that.
- 1:08:15That's a good way to end it because that is exactly spot on.
- 1:08:19Scott Carper, good job. Hey, if anybody wants to get a
- 1:08:24hold of you, Scott, what's the best way to do that?
- 1:08:28Well, I again the. The website just launched.
- 1:08:30It's WWW. Scotty Scotty carper C arper.com
- 1:08:38Or you can just Google me. I'm everywhere and you know that
- 1:08:43that works that way. Love it.
- 1:08:44And if anybody wants to get a hold of me, go to
- 1:08:46brentcassidy.com. It's with Aty, not a DY.
- 1:08:50I would have liked to have been a Cassidy though, like a Sean or
- 1:08:53David when I was growing up. But it's always, it's always
- 1:08:55been spelled wrong. It's with Aty and leave me a
- 1:08:59message there, 'cause I I'd love to go back and forth and and and
- 1:09:02respond to questions and answers and do all that.
- 1:09:07If if you like the show, hit the follow button.
- 1:09:11Share, share it, share it. It's a big deal to share it.
- 1:09:14Scott gave some good stuff here today.
- 1:09:15Share this thing out. I'm loving everybody.
- 1:09:19I've gotten a surge of of new reviews on Apple and it's just
- 1:09:22pumping the volume on the show and I so appreciate everybody
- 1:09:26out there doing that, so. As I used to say when I was
- 1:09:31riding back and forth from Leavenworth, stay strong.
- 1:09:34I'll do this thing. And Scott Carper, thanks so much
- 1:09:38today for sharing your story. That was awesome.
- 1:09:40Thank you for having. Me, I'm your success in and out.