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From Montreal to Omaha to Prison: The Wendy Lankton Story · Nightmare Success In and Out

0:01
What happens when your worst fear becomes your reality?
0:04
Hi, I'm Brent Cassidy, welcome to the Nightmare Success In and
0:07
Out podcast where we explore how to overcome your fears and
0:11
nightmares to set yourself free. We're going to be exploring this
0:14
topic with guys that was in Leavenworth with and others who
0:17
survived their own nightmare. These stories can be inspiring,
0:21
sometimes sad. There's some humor, but
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hopefully you can come away with a nugget of something that'll
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help you knock down some of the prisons you built up in your own
0:30
mind. All right, welcome back nine
0:34
more success in and out listers. This is where you come from.
0:37
What happens when your worst fruit becomes your reality?
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How do you adapt, survive, overcome, set yourself free.
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Don't forget to follow. Subscribe, share this thing out.
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Share this show out. We're, we're starting season 4
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here for Nightmare success. I want to thank everybody for
0:55
all the, all the listens and comments and, and support.
1:00
And, and several of you have shared people to interview,
1:03
which I appreciate, like Lynn Espo, who has given me my
1:07
current person I'm interviewing today.
1:10
I appreciate that, Lynn. So the person I'm interviewing
1:15
today, it's, it's, it's a lot of the different people that I've
1:19
interviewed in the last year, several of them have been out on
1:23
the CARES Act. And for those who don't know,
1:27
the CARES Act is situation where when COVID hit, President Trump
1:33
signed into this new order of letting a lot of people out of
1:40
prison nonviolent and they fit a certain criteria.
1:43
There's some people when they first started, it was old and
1:45
then it was nonviolent. Then it, you know, just it, it,
1:48
it. But the interesting thing about
1:50
it is it's been an interesting experiment because my guest,
1:55
Wendy Langton, she was, she was sentenced to 15 years on a drug
2:00
crime, which is a lot of years for somebody that was a first
2:03
time offender. And she was in for three years.
2:07
She's been out for four years. And for a lot of the people,
2:11
what they do is they go to home confinement and they have
2:15
certain rules that they have to follow.
2:18
You know where they're going, how long they're going to be
2:21
there. They got to be in by 9:00.
2:23
They get these phone calls. They have an ankle bracelet.
2:25
It's, it's, it's a quite a structured system to live under
2:30
for a number of years. And I, I know a lot of people
2:32
like Sabrina Morgan and others that have done that.
2:35
But the interesting thing is the recidivism rate is extremely
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low. Like it's less than 3%.
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And for all of you who have listened to this show,
2:43
recidivism as a whole is around 75%.
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So I think it's interesting how this has worked, this CARES Act
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has worked for having an incentive out there for people
2:55
to try to stay out and not be in prison.
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Wendy Langton is a good example of that.
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She, she actually is making good use of her time too.
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She, she helped a lot of people while she was in prison with the
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CARES Act, First step Act, helping people get out.
3:14
I think her interest in all that led her into she's, she's a law
3:17
school student now trying to, to make the best of her time
3:20
because she's an advocate for a lot of things about re entry,
3:23
which we'll get into. I can't wait to jump into all
3:26
that with Wendy Langton. And but before that, I want to,
3:29
I want to recognize our show sponsor, Autoplaza Direct.
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experience you deserve. Autoplaza Direct telling Brent
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from Nightmare Success sent you. Wendy Langton, welcome in.
4:11
How are you? Hi, I'm fine.
4:13
Thank you for asking. So Wendy, you as I said, you've
4:18
you were a 15 year sentence. Which?
4:22
Is a is a lie. I mean, I'd take your breath
4:24
away and through that you, you were three years, you've been
4:29
home four years. What's that been like?
4:36
Very surreal, you know, like when you said about it taking
4:43
your breath away, like when I was being sentenced because I
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did do a plea deal, you know, and when I realized that that
4:53
was going to be the sentence that I was going to get, you
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know, it felt it felt like the end of the world.
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You know, I, I never been in trouble of any kind before.
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So I didn't know the system. I didn't know that I would
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really technically only do about 12 years of that.
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And I didn't know about all the things like the drug and alcohol
5:20
treatment programs you can take to get some time off, things
5:23
like that. And the first step back was just
5:25
sort of this vague idea. I don't, I'm not even sure that
5:29
it had passed just yet. I think it passed just a little
5:33
bit after I got sentenced, like I'm talking like a month or two.
5:38
So I didn't have much hope. My hope, my big plan was that
5:45
'cause I'm a dual citizen and I had, even though I was born in
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the US and lived half my life here, I lived in Montreal for 20
5:54
years. And so I wanted to go back home
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to my kids and family and stuff. And so my big hope that I was
6:02
hanging on was that I could get a treaty transfer and go back
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and at least, you know, get something ironically a little
6:09
more akin to what I'm doing now. That that was what I was hanging
6:13
my hope on. What I didn't know at the time
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is that although it says in all the literature like you are
6:21
entitled to ask for a treaty transfer, unless you can't live
6:27
in the US, they really aren't very big on putting you there.
6:32
Because what they don't want is to treaty transfer you to like
6:36
Canada or Mexico, wherever. Well, Canada is hard to And then
6:39
you come back. And Canada is hard to get into
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anyway as a as an ex felon. It can be, but you know, I
6:45
always prefer people to ask and try because it's a lot more
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urban LED. I don't want to say urban legend
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exactly. I think it has to do a lot
6:55
bigger than the bike. What's your charge is?
6:57
Yeah. Yeah.
6:58
There is a restriction. There are.
7:00
In other countries that a lot of people aren't aware of, but
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Canada is one of those that has a restriction.
7:06
I do know that I've got friends that have travelled to Canada
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that have that I serve time with and they they got a an exemption
7:14
so. Yeah.
7:15
Yeah, it's definitely can happen.
7:17
Well, Wendy, take us back a little bit.
7:19
Like before all this happened to you growing up as a kid, where
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were you? What was life like?
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Mom, dad, siblings? Where were you?
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I grew up in Nebraska, mostly in rural SE Nebraska, and then when
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I was like 11 I believe we moved to Lincoln, which is capital
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city but not the biggest city, not by a long shot.
7:46
It's. A Cornhusker city.
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Yes. Cornhuskers, yeah.
7:50
And so we lived there. And, you know, my parents
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struggled with their own addiction issues.
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My biological mother died when I was four.
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I have very, very fuzzy memories of her at best.
8:06
My father married a woman who had a very good heart, but
8:11
unfortunately she was also very troubled.
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And you know, I don't think she meant to make life difficult.
8:20
I really don't. I'm just not that kind of person
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to think I'll of people like that.
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But the result was, you know, when somebody is hurt very badly
8:29
and experiences a lot of trauma in their life and they don't get
8:33
any real resolution for it besides, you know, you can tell
8:38
yourself I didn't deserve that. It wasn't my fault all you want,
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but it's more than that. And, you know, that can manifest
8:46
in some really ugly ways. So, you know, I was party to
8:51
that as well. My father, unfortunately, was
8:53
dealing with his alcoholism issues a lot, and he wasn't as
8:57
present as he should have been. And I'm not dragging my dad when
9:01
I say that. My dad would come on here and
9:03
tell you the exact same thing. He's been sober for, like, 35
9:08
years now. Next month.
9:10
Yeah. And so he's very accountable
9:13
for, you know, what happened. I can't.
9:18
Yeah. I have two brothers that were
9:22
six and eight years younger than me.
9:24
Unfortunately, my brother, who was six years younger than me,
9:27
died in a terrible car wreck when he was 16 and I was 21.
9:32
It was just before my 22nd birthday or No, I was 22.
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It was just before my 23rd and my other brother is 8 years
9:41
younger than me. And then when my dad got sober,
9:44
he married for the third time. This time he got it right.
9:47
Him and his wife have been together for like, what are we,
9:50
2024? OK, They've been together for 30
9:54
years. That's great.
9:55
And they had two kids as well. And I have one brother who is an
10:01
Air Force captain. He lives in Italy and he is 28.
10:07
No, he's 30 now. Yeah, he's 30.
10:10
And my youngest brother is. Well, if my daughter's 25, that
10:15
means Luke is 26. So yeah, that's the youngest.
10:20
So my dad basically raised kids for 40 years straight.
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That's. That's, that's incredible.
10:25
Yeah. So so in your world growing up,
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things were a little hectic seems like addiction issues,
10:33
maybe a hard step mom and in some ways was what how was
10:39
school was was that was that an escape for you did?
10:43
You. Yeah.
10:44
School was very much an escape. I was killer at school until
10:52
probably like I was about 14 or 15.
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And then you have to remember that that was like the late 80s,
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early 90s. So girls didn't have ADHD back
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then, You know, like to them, ADHD was a 12 year old boy who
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didn't know how to sit down and shut up.
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It wasn't yet. We didn't realize the girl
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looking out the window, who, you know, you call on her and you
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say, Wendy, what's the answer to this?
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And she's like, what class am I even?
11:22
Yeah, we didn't know it was that then.
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So my grades, once I got around like 14 or 15, I couldn't cover
11:32
enough anymore. And I would have either As or an
11:37
F And I got out by the skin of my teeth.
11:41
You know, my grades were all over mostly As, but there were a
11:46
couple events there like in trying to remember like advanced
11:52
physics or something like that, because I was always in all the
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Advanced Placement classes because I was also gifted.
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And I'm like, I think I'm an over tester because they would
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say, you know, some people are under testers.
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They underperform on tests. I'm like, no, I over perform.
12:07
Yeah. And they're like, Wendy, there's
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no such thing as that. I was like, yes, there is.
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So that was difficult for me. And so I didn't know how to
12:16
handle that or what to do with it.
12:20
At that point. I just kind of decided that I
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just wanted to get married and have kids and, you know, live
12:25
happily ever after and didn't make the best choices of that at
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first. So Wendy, I'm I'm curious, did
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that affect you in any way? Like as a kid growing up with
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your mom dies at 4-4 years old, your dad is has addiction issues
12:42
or is an alcoholic. Did you fall into any of that
12:45
like as a teenager or were you totally because you go one or
12:49
two ways, you take a fork in the road or you go exactly the way
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your parents are or you go exactly opposite what?
12:54
Where did you fall into that? I guess both eventually, but as
12:58
a teenager I was getting 2 shoes really.
13:01
Like I didn't do anything besides chase boys, you know,
13:06
like that. That was my yeah, that was my
13:09
sport. And, you know, and very
13:13
unhealthy, needy ways, you know, that we're just super wrong, to
13:18
put it mildly, looking back. Yeah.
13:21
But like, I mean, I, I give myself grace.
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I'm like, I was, you know, 141516 year old kid, like, you
13:28
know, who didn't really have any proper like role models in
13:31
adulting and I didn't know what I was doing.
13:34
Like if that was my kid now, if I got me as a foster kid or
13:38
something, like what would I tell them?
13:40
Oh, I would love on them. I would and drag them.
13:43
So why? I'm not going to drag myself,
13:46
you know. But yeah, that was my unhealthy
13:49
outlet. I didn't, I mean, I think I
13:51
drank like on two occasions before I was 21.
13:55
And it was never like drunkenness, drinking.
13:59
That didn't come until after I was 21.
14:02
And even then, I didn't drink like an idiot until I was really
14:11
my late 20s, early 30s and even my late 20s.
14:15
Nobody would have really been concerned outside of, like, very
14:19
conservative places, you know? And yeah, but then it just got
14:24
worse and worse. So when you said you, you
14:27
decided this is, you know, I'm, I'm getting out of school.
14:31
I want to get married when I have kids.
14:33
How would you have been when you jumped into that world of of
14:37
marriage and kids? I was 19 when I got married the
14:41
first time. 19. Yeah.
14:44
And we were just completely wrong for each other.
14:46
And I was 19, you know, I wanted to get married.
14:50
He was a decent enough human being.
14:53
And we were completely, wildly incompatible, if for no other
14:58
reason than that, like, you know, he didn't want kids.
15:04
What was I doing? You know, I thought, I thought
15:08
that like, he was 24. And then he was just really,
15:11
he'll get over it, you know, And within a year, that was done.
15:15
You know, I on my account, I was like, no, this isn't going to
15:19
work. And I ended things.
15:22
I got married then again very quickly to my second husband who
15:27
lived in Canada where I had my first two kids with him.
15:30
And you know, that wasn't bad at all.
15:34
He was a really, truly good man. But like, we had two kids and
15:41
our first son was profoundly autistic.
15:44
We lost his mother like when we'd only been married a year or
15:48
two. My brother died like when we'd
15:51
only been married a year or two. We had all of these tragedies
15:54
all at once. And of course, I acted like a
15:58
complete idiot, didn't handle things appropriately or
16:01
maturely. And you know, we ended up
16:05
splitting up by my choice and actions for the most part.
16:11
So I stayed in Canada. I got my poli sci degree.
16:15
I did go to university. I'm a poli sci person.
16:19
Yeah, I thought that and it was good.
16:23
And when I was in university, that was when I met my third
16:26
husband and he was supposed to be the forever guy.
16:30
And then we were very compatible.
16:32
We were like 30 and 28 when we got married.
16:35
Like, we were happy, we loved each other madly.
16:40
We wanted the same things in life.
16:43
And unfortunately, I didn't realize that he had a lot of
16:47
demons. OK.
16:49
And. Third time wasn't a charm.
16:51
No, sadly, very sadly. And, you know, the biggest
16:57
problem with that was not that he had demons, but that I had
17:03
never seen anybody deal with somebody like that.
17:06
So to me, the choices were either like dump him or put up
17:11
with it. And whereas I then had, you
17:14
know, these two little kids and I really wanted to make this
17:16
marriage work 'cause I did love him.
17:19
You know, I stayed with him, but nothing ever changed.
17:22
It was always the same. And, you know, he's still, for
17:27
the record, the same today. And which is sad too.
17:32
But now that I'm not his wife, I'm not as invested anymore.
17:36
So we ended up splitting up. But when we split up, I always
17:40
had told him, I refuse to divorce you.
17:43
If you don't want to be married anymore, fine.
17:46
But you're going to divorce me. You're not just going to sit
17:48
here and act like a jerk until I divorce you.
17:52
If you want to in this, be a man, you know, say fine bye, you
17:58
know? And I thought that he never
18:00
would so at. That at that time, Wendy, you
18:04
were raising kids. Does it sound like you had gone
18:07
out? I know you got a degree.
18:08
Did you go out and and and do a job or did were were you doing
18:13
the model? I worked for him.
18:15
He was a solo practicing attorney and I was his admin.
18:20
Everything got it. You know, I handled the phones,
18:23
the files, like all of that, you know, prepped him, dealt with
18:27
clients. Yeah, Yeah.
18:29
I, you know, one time I heard Tina Turner talking about how
18:33
one thing that she would always be grateful to Ike for was that
18:36
he taught her how to work and that she would never be poor
18:39
thanks to him because he taught her how to make money.
18:42
And my exes never hit me. But when you've been beaten down
18:52
emotionally that hard, I knew exactly what she meant because,
18:57
and I have told him since then, you know, if nothing else, you
19:01
taught me skills that if he hadn't taught me those kind of
19:05
skills, I wouldn't have known how to navigate bureaucracy to
19:07
get out of prison the way it did.
19:09
I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have the job that I have now because
19:12
I would have had the skills to do it.
19:14
You know, like so I did learn things and it was good.
19:18
But unfortunately, when we split up, my youngest two were three
19:24
and five, I think at the time. Yeah.
19:27
And I lost my mind. I completely lost it.
19:34
I was drinking all the time anyway to cope with his behavior
19:38
while we were married. That just increased when we
19:40
split up. And one day I was at a party and
19:45
I wasn't in the mood to party. I was just there like because I
19:49
felt that I should leave the house.
19:51
Like there's a block where I don't remember anything for like
19:54
a six month period, not because of drugs or alcohol, but because
19:58
I was so traumatized. Like I've just blocked it out
20:02
and. You know, somebody said to me,
20:05
do you want to do a line of heroin?
20:08
Now, keep in mind I'd never done this before in my life.
20:11
And I was like, yeah, that sounds like a great idea.
20:15
I mean, somebody could have said, hey, you think we should
20:17
light your hair on fire? And I probably would have been
20:19
like, yeah, it sounds fantastic. You know, I just wasn't into it.
20:23
But as anybody who's ever experienced, you know, opiates
20:27
after a surgery or something knows, it was fantastic.
20:31
Everything was fine. I felt great.
20:34
You know, I didn't have the searing pain physically or
20:38
emotionally anymore. And I kept that up and I ran
20:44
with it. So from that.
20:46
Day you were in addicted. I would go back and forth for a
20:51
period of about six months and wasn't even 6.
20:55
That was in June when that happened in October, I remember
20:59
I actually sat down with the guy I was dating at the time who
21:01
would I would also later end up married to and who became my Co
21:05
defendant. For those keeping track at home,
21:09
that guy is husband number four. Yeah, if you're.
21:13
Playing the board game where you're at. 4 right.
21:16
And you know, I remember telling him in October of that year that
21:21
I was making a conscious decision that I was just going
21:24
to use opiates because I felt so much better.
21:27
It was in enabling me to manage my depression.
21:30
I was able to get out of bed and be functional.
21:33
Right, rationalizing all of it. Yeah.
21:36
And then he decided, for reasons I don't understand, that it
21:40
would be a great idea for us to move to Omaha, where my family
21:44
was. I guess he just wanted a change
21:46
of scenery, a change of pace or whatever.
21:48
Well, he blamed his lack of good employment on the fact that he
21:53
doesn't speak French and we were living in Montreal.
21:56
No, the reason he wasn't well employed was because he was a
21:59
drug addict. OK, That was why.
22:02
All right. Do with speaking French.
22:04
Yeah, it didn't have anything to do with that, didn't have
22:05
anything to do with the Asperger's, because there are
22:08
plenty of people who manage both in that town and they're raking
22:11
in box. It's that.
22:13
Elon Musk has done well with Asperger's.
22:15
Yeah, it's that he has. He didn't want to be a part
22:19
society that way and it fit his narrative better.
22:22
And you know, he was a drug addict and it screwed up that
22:27
did. You feel like that you were or
22:28
not really. No, I felt that I was making a
22:31
conscious always some medicate myself.
22:34
Yeah, Yeah. So we moved to Omaha and I
22:37
always had a rule that I didn't do drugs in the US because the
22:42
US penalties are so much more insane.
22:46
So I started going to the methadone clinic there and
22:49
everything was fine, but I didn't have a job at that time
22:54
and my now ex was very financially stingy and stuff and
23:03
he didn't like the fact that I was spending money on the
23:05
methadone clinic. So he was like, why are you
23:07
wasting your time with that when I can just make you stuff?
23:11
OK, fine. So he started making stuff and I
23:15
got the brilliant idea of sharing.
23:21
And so he was making it and I was sharing it.
23:24
And, you know, we got caught because I was a lawyer's wife
23:30
for 10 years. So to me, when a cop stops me
23:34
and asks me something, my response is I want a lawyer.
23:37
OK, I thought that everybody knew this.
23:40
No, apparently everybody runs their mouth.
23:42
My entire discovery is full of Officer Jones stopped Frank at a
23:48
stop sign and Frank said, I know about a fentanyl ring, you know,
23:52
like people just volunteered information, you know, happily
23:57
without even needing to be asked, including our Co
24:01
defendants, you know, and so I got thrown under the bus as a
24:06
big ringleader and they said that Ken, my ex and I had to
24:10
sign the same plea agreement. It was one of those things where
24:14
they knew that he was making it and that this would have never
24:17
happened without him. But they also knew that all of
24:21
their evidence was on me. So because I was the one out in
24:25
public selling it. Right.
24:27
So exactly. So then that was, well, let's
24:33
goodnight. Yeah, that's why I ended up.
24:36
I can, I can imagine what what's I thought it was interesting
24:40
when Lynn was telling me a little bit about your story was,
24:43
is that here you are, this this woman who is in Montreal and
24:51
she's got an attorney husband, she's working.
24:54
And then somehow you end up in Omaha and then you end up at
24:57
this drug ring and then you go to prison.
24:58
It's like, wait, what? A bad 80s hair metal video is
25:02
how somebody described my life one time.
25:05
I was like, what, what what that seems like that happened like
25:09
something something flipped. Yeah.
25:12
So well, before we get into that, let, let's, let's, let's
25:16
take a break here so I can, I can recognize our show sponsors
25:19
because I want to talk about the, the, the, how this happened
25:22
and then the, the experience of you getting the sentence that
25:25
you got and how you rolled into prison that way.
25:28
Before we do, I want to recognize for those out there,
25:33
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there. October 19th starts at 9:00 AM
27:52
Eastern Time. So Wendy, you get caught up in
27:55
all this. Everybody's talking about you.
27:57
You're, you're this, this being made out to be a gigantic
28:01
ringleader who has an addiction issue and you're making this at
28:07
home. So how does it?
28:09
How do you get contacted? You mean like how did I?
28:14
Like you do, you feel the heat's coming on you.
28:16
Do. Oh yeah.
28:17
Hey. I just talked to a police
28:19
officer. I just talked to investigator, I
28:20
just talked to the FBI. Were people telling you that
28:23
they were talking or was it just like boom, all of a sudden you
28:26
are tagged? I felt that like a lot of the
28:30
people that we were dealing with and you know, meeting through
28:35
this kind of activity, I felt that they were very volatile and
28:40
unreliable. You know, like they would just
28:42
do dumb things like get themselves in jail for like
28:46
driving around in a vehicle with no plates.
28:49
And I'm like, what are you doing when you've got like, you know,
28:52
kids, it's Nebraska. So everybody's doing meth and
28:54
I'm like, you've got 1/4 ounce of meth in your pocket.
28:57
Why are you doing things like that?
28:59
You know, or they would get into a hotel room because there's
29:03
this quasi homeless like society where people don't really have
29:08
anywhere to stay, but they just rent these hotel rooms at
29:11
discount rates and stay in those.
29:13
They would get in one with like their girlfriend and they would
29:16
get into a whole domestic violence situation and the
29:19
police would come and I'm like, you've got 3 handguns and a
29:23
bunch of meth in your room. What are you doing?
29:26
You know, and I just felt that that was some really dumb
29:30
behavior. They would get in fights with
29:32
each other. They would rob each other and
29:34
stuff were like, what is wrong with you people?
29:36
Because I was used to being in Canada where people were a lot
29:40
more civilized about that sort of thing.
29:42
You know, it just, yeah, that's kind of stuff happens, but not
29:47
most of the time. And I was just like, these, this
29:51
is weird, you know? So I didn't really trust them,
29:54
you know? And people would tell me like,
29:56
oh, so and so is working for the cops, you know, and I would kind
30:00
of wonder and make you paranoid. It made you kind of paranoid and
30:05
stuff. So I just always had a feeling
30:07
that it would be coming. And then in August 2022, not
30:12
2022, August 2017, they came and raided us for the first time,
30:18
but we had just ran out of everything.
30:20
So we didn't have anything on us.
30:22
We had nothing. And they didn't realize how much
30:25
the computers were involved at the time, like where we were
30:28
getting our supplies. So they didn't take our
30:31
computers. So they had nothing besides 3
30:36
1/2 grams of meth in my pocket and a single barrel manual
30:44
shotgun. I don't know anything about guns
30:47
in the closet that wasn't for like weaponry or anything.
30:52
But I didn't know how to shoot a gun.
30:55
So we were going to teach me target practice and stuff like,
30:58
you know. We're living in Omaha.
31:00
You might need it. Yeah, exactly.
31:03
So like, yeah, so that was it. And this is where I where I
31:10
first realized that this was going to be a little different
31:13
than I had been expecting. So the police get through
31:16
tossing our house after we've sat on our front lawn with our
31:19
hands tied behind our backs for like 5 hours and the cops holds.
31:24
Were you? Scared Wendy.
31:26
Yes, yeah, I was, totally. And the cop holds up.
31:31
But I'm also very much a person who's like, are the kids there?
31:34
No, The kids were at home with their dad.
31:37
They had left just the day before.
31:39
And I later asked the cops, like, did you guys do that on
31:43
purpose? And he said, well, we knew they
31:45
were leaving on that day. And I was like, thank you.
31:50
Yeah. And so.
31:52
Yeah. So we'd been sitting out there
31:53
for 5-6 hours, you know, and the cop holds up the baggie of meth
31:58
that he had found on me, you know, 3 1/2 grams.
32:00
That's a single serving basically, you know.
32:03
And he says, so Wendy, you can either tell me where you got
32:07
this or you can go to jail and or, and yeah, or you can go to
32:11
the jail. And I was like, OK, I'll go to
32:13
the jail because me you, you don't tell them people like
32:16
that. You just don't.
32:18
Now, where I was from in Montreal, if somebody had been
32:21
caught like that, they would go down to the jail, they would be
32:25
booked, they would spend like maybe 10-12 hours there and they
32:28
would go home. So I was like, yeah, sure, I'll
32:30
go down to the jail. Cool, you know, and cuz that's
32:33
what I get. So, you know, suck it up, OK?
32:37
What I didn't realize was that in Nebraska, you go to jail and
32:41
you sit there until the judge sees you for your arraignment.
32:44
And that can be anywhere from 2:00 to 3:00, sometimes five
32:48
days later. So I go down there and I'm
32:51
sitting there for three days. And I wasn't scared of the
32:54
people I was with. People are just people, you
32:57
know, that wasn't the issue. What I was scared of was I did
33:01
not want to go into withdrawal, which I would knew I was going
33:06
to start in about 3 days if I didn't get the hell out of there
33:10
and get myself fixed. And I just didn't want to be
33:16
there permanently, you know? And I looked around, and this
33:20
will tell you how off my thinking is at that time, OK?
33:24
I look around and I see all of these women with, like, their
33:28
roots grown way, way out. Like, it looks bad.
33:32
And I remember thinking to myself, you know, for a while,
33:36
well, I thought, you know, the end is probably coming soon for
33:40
this little fantastic journey of yours.
33:43
And if you're going to get locked up for a while, you don't
33:45
want to be looking like that. So you better dye your hair back
33:48
to your natural color. And when I got out, I did
33:51
exactly that. Yeah.
33:55
I didn't stop. I could go to rehab.
33:58
I didn't, you know, get a little hair, hair color.
34:01
I made sure my hair was OK so that when I went back, I didn't
34:05
have a demarcation line. Yeah.
34:10
So, Wendy, I know these things can take all kinds of different
34:14
paths when somebody gets hit and, and because a lot of times
34:20
what happens is, is when they hit you, they've done a lot of
34:23
investigation up to that point and they have all the questions
34:27
already answered. Was that the situation with
34:30
yours, or was it a long process from the time you were arrested
34:34
until the time that you were looking at the judge and him
34:36
telling you what your sentence was?
34:38
No, it was pretty short. Like they pretty much knew
34:41
everything and they knew who to pick up to, like poke them, be
34:46
like, why don't you tell us everything you know?
34:48
And there's one girl in particular.
34:51
She was one of my Co defendants girlfriends.
34:53
And you know, she ran her mouth about everything, but she was
34:57
also high as a kite when she did it.
34:59
And they scared the living shit out of her.
35:02
And her dad got his friend who was a lawyer, but he was like a
35:05
corporate lawyer, not a criminal lawyer.
35:07
And he was like, you got to tell them everything and they're
35:09
going to lock you up forever. And she was like, so she did,
35:13
but she never lied to me about it.
35:14
So I don't care. You know, I mean, what am I
35:16
going to do, be mad at somebody like that for the rest of my
35:18
life? Really.
35:20
Like I'm sober now. I've been sober for seven years.
35:23
Like, I'm not going to get mad at somebody who she was like 21
35:27
years old at the time. And the cops are sitting there.
35:29
Come on. Like, I have kids that age like
35:32
I can't sit there. And no, we're not going to do
35:34
that. So that I.
35:37
Mean what? Did you immediately know that
35:39
you were going to do a plea bargain?
35:42
No, I didn't know for sure about that until, I don't know, maybe
35:49
like three or four months later. And I started really researching
35:54
and I had people send me books, you know, and tell me about
35:57
this. And I, I had a wonderful defense
36:00
attorney. I'm trying to remember Wendy.
36:03
Because you guys are Co defendants in this situation,
36:06
were you able to talk to each other about the case as it was
36:10
going? No, we both talked to his
36:13
parents and they would kind of be like, oh, he says hi.
36:17
Oh, he wants to know this. You know, it wasn't like long
36:20
diatribes or anything, but, you know, so we knew basically how
36:24
each other were and what was going on.
36:26
But you weren't together. No, we definitely weren't.
36:31
So you had a good defense attorney?
36:33
I had a very good defense attorney.
36:35
He was also born and raised in Canada, so we kind of bonded
36:40
over that. And he also had genetic eye
36:45
problems that he was born with, like I do.
36:47
So we bought it over that too. And you know, he, he was very,
36:54
he was sympathetic without being coddling, which is a very fine
36:58
line to walk. And he helped me out a lot, you
37:02
know, just like mentally. He would come get me very often,
37:06
like at least two or three times a month and, you know, just to
37:10
talk and see where I was and stuff.
37:12
And he would tell me how things went.
37:14
He showed me all of the discovery, which I found out
37:16
later is something that a lot of defense attorneys don't do.
37:20
And we went through every single page, you know?
37:23
So that was how I knew everybody who said everything, you know,
37:28
and so. Were you guys in this?
37:32
You know, as they would have probably, I'm sure PSR had you
37:35
sounded like you were a gigantic drug kingpin.
37:38
But were you making good money with this?
37:41
We couldn't put together $300 to get a friend of ours out of town
37:45
to go on a bus to go it. Really wasn't.
37:48
No. Business proposition for you
37:50
guys. No, because everything we
37:52
brought in, yeah, we turned around and spent on supplies to
37:57
make more, to get more, or to buy meth or to buy toys.
38:00
Addict. At the time either.
38:02
Yeah, and I mean I. I found that interesting too.
38:06
When I, when I was in prison, you know, a lot of the guys that
38:09
I was with, you know what I found out time and time again, a
38:14
lot. There was, there were some guys
38:16
that were really good and they had a distribution network and,
38:19
and commissions and, and everything.
38:21
And they were really, they were running a, a business.
38:23
It was just illegal. But then there were others that
38:26
were just addicts and they were feeding their habit, you know,
38:28
however they could feed their habit and that got them into
38:31
sales and that's got them hit. And then that, you know that
38:33
they go up and down the chain on that.
38:36
So with your good defense attorney, when do you find out
38:42
what's your your proposition is for time?
38:49
Well, they came at us in, I want to say March because we got
38:55
arrested in October, OK. And in March they came at us
39:00
with a plea deal for 19 1/2 years based.
39:07
And they were also going to give my then husband and IA
39:11
superseding indictment because a guy overdosed.
39:16
And like there were there are people like who you know how you
39:20
get in a nitpicky fights with somebody there.
39:22
There are people who would just sit there and talk about me and
39:24
be like, oh, you know, like she killed people on her case.
39:28
And I'm like, if I killed people on my case, believe me, they
39:31
would have put that in my superseding indictment.
39:34
OK. Like you don't get away with a
39:36
fentanyl case where you killed somebody and they don't come at
39:40
you for it because they will. And no, nobody freaking died.
39:43
This guy Od'd and then ran his mouth.
39:46
But what was bizarre was that they never actually proved that
39:51
that was my stuff. He just told them it was and he
39:53
told them that because he had about $4000 worth of product
39:57
from me cuz it's not like I was some gangster or whatever.
40:01
And he never got around to paying me back.
40:03
And he and another friend robbed a jewelry store and tried to
40:07
give me like gold bars to pay me back.
40:10
And I was like, you people are crazy.
40:11
I don't want to go bar. Like no.
40:14
I was like, listen, don't worry about it.
40:15
We're good. I don't care.
40:16
I'm just not going to give you any more product.
40:17
Bye. Have a nice life and no.
40:21
He thought that was just completely unreasonable, so when
40:24
he went no deed himself, he ratted me out instead of his new
40:28
supplier. Yeah.
40:31
So you're standing in front of the judge?
40:34
Well, they offered 19 1/2 years, and I said if you're going to
40:39
put me in prison, I told my defense attorney.
40:41
I said if they're going to put me in prison for 19 1/2 years,
40:44
they might as well put me in for life because at that point, my
40:47
kids will be grown up and what's the point?
40:50
I'll be old. Like, you know, I'm not.
40:51
Why am I going to get out and start myself a life and try to
40:54
find my own retirement at that point, forget it, You know?
40:57
And he didn't want me to take it either.
41:00
He was like, well, I already took the liberty of telling her
41:02
no. He was more colorful in his
41:05
description, but yeah, so he said no.
41:09
And I was, I was shooting for 10.
41:13
I wanted ten. I was willing to settle for 10.
41:17
That seemed reasonable to me. I could handle that.
41:20
I didn't want 10, but I would deal with it.
41:23
It's it seemed like what everybody, you know, it seemed
41:27
when I looked at what I did, a lot of cases.
41:29
Right. Yeah, it seemed sensible.
41:32
And then, you know, they said no 15 and I and me and my journey
41:38
wanted to talk them down to 12 or 12 1/2 for reasons I will
41:43
never understand. My ex and his attorney were
41:48
like, no, we have to take this because like, who cares, Wendy,
41:52
just sign it. We're just going to transfer to
41:54
Canada. And I said there is no guarantee
41:56
we can transfer to Canada. And they were like, yes, it is.
41:58
It says right there that we're entitled to a transfer.
42:00
I said, yeah, it says we're entitled.
42:02
That doesn't mean they have to give it like, hello, you know,
42:06
why do I have to tell people these things?
42:08
But nobody listens to Wendy, you know?
42:10
So, but I was kind of backed into a corner where, you know,
42:15
and finally I decided 2 1/2 years wasn't worth fighting over
42:18
for this. So I was just like, whatever,
42:20
fine, let's do 15. I don't care anymore.
42:22
I'm done fighting. So we signed for 15.
42:25
Wow. So how long do you have to wait
42:29
between the time that you did they?
42:32
Did they immediately remand you or or do you have time between
42:35
that and? I was held on pretrial.
42:38
I never got out. I was arrested October 30th,
42:41
2017. I was sentenced on October 26th,
42:44
2018. And I spent that entire time in
42:47
county and then I spent about another month in county.
42:51
No, it's about 3 weeks. Then they transferred me to the
42:55
Core Civic in Leavenworth, KS, and I stayed there for like 3
43:00
months. And then I went to the transfer
43:05
Center for like 4 weeks, I think in Oklahoma.
43:08
Yeah. And then from there I went to
43:12
Danbury and I was, I arrived there February 12th, 2019.
43:19
Wow, yeah. It's quite a journey, yeah.
43:23
Travel Which? I saw many places as.
43:26
A prisoner by the way, and nobody wants to stay in county
43:29
jail that long you. Were in town for.
43:31
Over a year, that's that's a long time.
43:33
So you get to Danbury and you've already been all around the
43:39
world. What?
43:39
What was it like getting to Danbury?
43:43
It was great. I used to always say when I was
43:46
in county that clearly the purpose of county is to make me
43:51
so miserable that I am excited to go to prison.
43:54
Yeah. And I was, I was thrilled.
43:56
I was like, fantastic. I can't wait to go to prison
43:59
because people who had been to federal prison before were
44:01
telling me about it and what it would be like and stuff.
44:05
And it sounded like freaking Disneyland compared to where we
44:08
were. And you know, and you know,
44:11
people always joke, oh, that federal prison isn't, you know,
44:14
it's cushy and that you know, they don't, it's not real
44:17
prison. Okay, that's a lie.
44:19
But compared to county, it's paradise.
44:22
Yeah, counties rock bottom. Yeah, so it was very nice.
44:27
And there was a moment. Now keep in mind it's February
44:31
2019. I literally, other than when
44:35
walking from a vehicle to a plane, have not seen the
44:40
outdoors since, you know, a year and a half.
44:45
Yeah. Yeah, over a year at this point.
44:47
So I walk out and because they were gonna, because we arrived
44:51
at Danbury at night, because it was, you know, winter.
44:53
So it's dark at like 5:00 there. So we arrived and it was like
44:57
6:00 PM and it was dark. So we don't really see anything
45:02
and we walk in and the next day they tell us to go over to the
45:06
commissary because they're going to let us shop because, you
45:08
know, we don't have anything. So we walk over there and I open
45:12
the door of the building to go to the commissary building.
45:16
And to my right I see and it opens up into this valley.
45:21
And I just like gasped. I was like, you know, 'cause it
45:26
was like all these pine trees, you could see the sun glistening
45:30
on candles. Something lake, I can't remember
45:33
what it's called, but you're. Gonna say the barbed wire.
45:36
No, no, there's the the barbed wire's on like a different part
45:40
of the prison there. But it was beautiful and it was
45:45
East Coast so it was all pine trees and hills and stuff and it
45:50
felt like a home. And I was just like, oh thank
45:52
you God, I was so freaking happy.
45:56
And when we had got there the night before, you know, we made
45:59
our beds and stuff and I was all cheerfully making my bed cuz it
46:03
was a real bed, you know, like a real mattress.
46:06
And cuz, you know, in county we had gym mats, you know which at
46:11
least the gym mats that we had at the county I was at were
46:14
actually filled with filling. The gym mats we had at
46:17
Leavenworth were literally a tarp.
46:19
Some of them, because they were so old, they were just done.
46:22
So yeah, like I was making my bed.
46:25
I was little happy. And one of the girls in there
46:27
who is, you know, I'd been there a minute.
46:29
She was like, you weren't out on free trial, were you?
46:33
And I was like, Nope, she's like, that's why you're so
46:36
happy. I was like, Yep.
46:38
And then they shut off the lights at night.
46:41
And that was the first time that I had slept in the dark in a
46:44
year and a half. So I was absolutely thrilled.
46:48
It was magic, you know, Like, I was comparatively.
46:54
Yeah. I mean, I wasn't happy to be
46:56
away from my children. I wasn't happy to have, you
46:59
know, limitations and restrictions on my communication
47:02
with them, all kinds of stuff. But like, you know it.
47:09
It was so much better than where you were.
47:11
Absolutely. Yeah, 100%.
47:15
No, I, I can only identify I was six days because they, they took
47:18
me from there after I was in for about a year and a half into my
47:21
civil trial and I was in a, in a county jail for six days.
47:24
And, and I couldn't wait to get back to Leavenworth, which
47:27
sounds really strange, but it's, it's, it's just so much
47:32
different and there's so many different things that goes on
47:34
in, in a jail. You know, it's, it's transitory.
47:38
Somebody could be in there for DWI or somebody could be in
47:41
there because they just stabbed somebody to death or, you know,
47:43
it's, it's a, it's a very. Wide.
47:46
Chaotic. Yeah, chaotic place.
47:49
Yeah. And you're locked down all the
47:50
time. So it's it's a it's a weird,
47:53
weird place to live, to live as as long as you did.
47:56
I, I that's that's a long time to not be outside, which would
48:00
drive driven me crazy. So when do you get into this
48:04
Danbury world? What was, you know, for you
48:11
obviously feeling like you're in a better place?
48:14
How did your, how did you walk into it as far as getting in
48:19
part of that world? I mean, I was in a really good
48:23
mood, all things considered, and the thing that I was most happy
48:26
about was that I knew that my kids were going to be able to
48:28
come see me because Danbury's only like 5 hours from Montreal.
48:33
I mean, it's not a short trip, but compared to the difference
48:36
between Omaha and Montreal, it's great, you know?
48:39
And they did come, you know, And you know, my ex brought them, my
48:44
daughter came, you know, and how.
48:46
Old were your kids at? They were like, let's see, they
48:50
they were like 10 and eight. Yeah.
48:53
And, you know, like we never told them how long I was
48:58
supposed to be there. We decided that we were not
49:01
going to tell them until it became necessary, you know, So
49:07
we just said for a while, and then they're going to transfer
49:09
her up here. Might be a year or so, you know,
49:12
because we thought that it would be maybe something like that.
49:16
And then I was denied for my first treaty transfer request,
49:20
which anybody with any experience in this knows they
49:23
always deny the first time. But I didn't know that.
49:30
So I cried. I thought I was going to be
49:32
stuck at Danbury for another 10 years, you know, and I was just
49:35
devastated. And yeah, it was sad.
49:40
But I mean, it's a camp, you know, and like probably a third
49:46
of the women there. No, I would say more like half
49:50
are there on like white collar offenses, you know, and they're
49:55
either like women who had professional jobs, like doctors,
50:00
lawyers, accountants, whatever, or they like were money
50:05
laundering for their drug dealer boyfriends, you know, so it's
50:09
not like there was anybody there who felt that they needed to
50:13
like be, you know, the head bitch in charge, for lack of a
50:17
better term, you know, that they needed to be running the show
50:20
and needed to like front and, you know, make everybody
50:23
miserable. Like no, there, there was some
50:27
of that like petty girl drama with each other, but I never got
50:32
into that, you know, cuz I just didn't care.
50:34
I used to always tell people there's three reasons you get
50:37
into a fight in prison. You're running your mouth, which
50:41
means you're either just talking too much and like bothering
50:43
people or you're snitching, you know, or you stole something
50:49
from somebody or you're not paying your bill or something.
50:53
Can you? So always make sure you have
50:55
your stuff paid or you're fooling around with somebody's
51:00
girlfriend or boyfriend or husband or whatever, you know,
51:04
either outside or inside. I've seen it happen both
51:07
scenarios. So don't do that.
51:10
It's not that hard to stay out of fights, you know, if you're
51:13
going to a camp like that. So, you know, it was agreeable
51:17
and I found things to do. I started working with the
51:19
construction crew. We were rehabbing the staff
51:22
housing there. You know, I was painting and
51:25
putting in doors and it was nice.
51:29
Yeah. So I think it's interesting too
51:32
that like usually you at a camp level, you have to be at 120
51:36
months. So you were able to be at a camp
51:40
level above that. Time is not a security risk
51:44
factor for women for some reason.
51:46
Isn't that interesting? I don't know why I maybe we
51:49
don't escape as much or maybe it's just a way to weed down the
51:53
men because obviously the population disparity is huge.
51:57
You know, there's way more men than women, so.
52:00
But I just learned something new as we're just talking.
52:03
I did not know that until you were talking.
52:05
I thought, well, she had to been in, you know her, she was 15
52:08
years. So obviously she was about the
52:10
120 months. So, so you get into an area
52:15
where a lot of people who were in prison didn't experience
52:18
that's COVID hit. What was that like when Dave,
52:22
because that's, you know, you, you have certain things in
52:25
prison that you kind of it's part of your routine.
52:28
You might work out, you might go walk, you might do this, you
52:30
might do that. But it feels like those are your
52:33
restricted freedoms that are yours.
52:36
And then all of a sudden something hits where I'm sure
52:39
they changed a lot of that. Oh yeah, like, and I had a lot
52:45
of freedom, you know, even for somebody in the prison, cuz, you
52:50
know, like I said, I've worked in construction and I did other
52:54
errands. I was on snow crew, which meant
52:57
they trusted me to go in. Yeah, like a Gator at night.
53:03
And but also like a lot of our staff housing bordered the
53:07
outside world, so you kind of had to walk on civilian streets
53:11
in order to clean their sidewalks and stuff.
53:14
And so I was out there doing that little night with nobody
53:18
watching me. I mean, I could have been to New
53:20
York City before anybody would have noticed, but I didn't, you
53:23
know, it wasn't that bad. I could handle it, you know.
53:26
So when COVID came, you know, we saw warnings about like this,
53:30
this thing was going on. And I was just blowing it off
53:34
initially like, you know, in January and February because
53:37
like, I remember when they tried to tell us that H1N1 was going
53:41
to, you know, be the end of the world or whatever.
53:43
And like, it was nothing, you know.
53:46
And so I just thought that this was more, you know, the media
53:50
hype or whatever. And then things started to shut
53:56
down. And I can't remember
53:58
specifically what day it was, but I remember like it was
54:01
either March 8th or the following weekend, they shut
54:04
down visitation. They said we're not going to do
54:06
visitation this weekend. And I was like, this is really
54:09
sad, the poor people who do, because there are a lot of
54:11
people who have their family come every week.
54:13
Huge deal. Huge deal.
54:15
And I felt terrible for them, but you know, I figured like we
54:19
would be done with this in a week or two, right?
54:22
And no, it wasn't like that at all.
54:25
It was like being in county again, you know, cuz we were, we
54:29
were confined to our dorms, which, you know, for people who
54:33
haven't experienced this, it's a giant room with imagine an
54:37
office cube farm, you know, and instead of like desk and chair
54:42
in each of those cubes, it's a set of bunk beds and two
54:45
lockers. So that's where we were all the
54:49
time, all day, every day, you know, and every once in a while
54:53
we would get an officer who was like, this is crazy.
54:55
You guys just like open the door, go outside, get some fresh
54:58
air, like, you know, whatever. Because it was, it was such a
55:05
performance of trying to, you know, do preventative measures
55:10
because they would tell us that we had to be on lockdown, you
55:14
know, in quarantine. But they would all walk through
55:17
the other two prisons on the campus because they're.
55:20
They would have been the only ones bringing it in.
55:22
Yeah. And like, so it was
55:25
performative. It was totally performative.
55:27
And you know, at first they wouldn't let us wear masks.
55:30
Then they made us wear masks that were like these cloth masks
55:33
that were absolutely useless. Like it was awful.
55:36
And The thing is though, we were an hour outside of New York City
55:40
where it was hit really, really hard in the beginning.
55:44
And a lot of the women that were in there had family that were
55:49
hit really, really hard out there or who were first
55:52
responders or healthcare providers of some sort.
55:56
And they were, you know, really upset about it and stuff.
55:59
And we couldn't talk to them as much.
56:00
We got like 1-5 minute phone call a day with them.
56:03
So of course, like I've been told that Danbury's a little bit
56:07
unique in this, but we went from maybe like 5% of the population
56:14
having access to a cell phone to there was a point where there
56:19
were about 125 women there and there were no less than 50 cell
56:25
phones, you know, that people were passing around to like talk
56:28
or whatever. And, you know, people are just
56:31
calling their families, you know, like texting, like nobody
56:34
was like doing drug deals and calling out Hitch.
56:36
Like it's freaking camp. Come on.
56:40
So that's how it happened. And you know.
56:44
When did you start, when did you start hearing Wendy, that there
56:49
could be a significant shift in how they were going to handle
56:54
this and called the CARES Act? What?
56:56
What? At the end of March.
56:58
OK, so how did that information get to you?
57:01
Did you see it on TV? Did.
57:02
You it was from the. Staff Where'd it?
57:04
Come from they put it on core links, they told us that.
57:08
For those down in the Cayman Islands who are listening, Core
57:11
Links is how it's communicated. It's like e-mail from from the
57:15
prison out and in. Yeah.
57:18
True links. Yeah, they put it on there.
57:19
It was like a notice that Attorney General Barr had a, you
57:23
know, put it out. I don't even remember the
57:25
notice, but he put out some notice or whatever.
57:27
And that was like, I don't know, like March 29th or something
57:30
like that. And you know, when and people
57:34
read it and they're like, yeah, we're all going home.
57:36
And I was like, we're not all going home, you know, like I've
57:41
you were. Going home.
57:43
Absolutely not. I was like, I'm not going
57:46
anywhere. I have I was like, I have a, a
57:49
15 year sentence. My out date is in 20-30.
57:51
Like, you know, that's not going to happen for me.
57:54
But so I'm going to help you fill out your paperwork, you
57:56
know, cuz people had to fill out request forms and there was like
57:59
a process and all this. And so I helped them with it,
58:02
you know, and even when the BOP technically at first classified
58:08
me as somebody who could go home because they weren't doing time
58:12
criteria yet, they were saying everybody who is like low risk,
58:16
you know, nonviolent. And I fit all of that.
58:19
The only thing I did not fit was the time requirement.
58:24
And I was like, yeah, they're not going to let me go home
58:27
saying. 50% right. Yeah, right.
58:30
Yeah, They, they came out with that later because they realized
58:34
that if they didn't have that, this is my suspicion anyway,
58:37
they realized that if they did not add that time requirement
58:40
that they would lose probably 80% of their population.
58:44
Yeah. Because most people aren't
58:46
violent, you know, or. Yeah.
58:49
So. OK, great.
58:50
So I, you know, didn't think anything of it.
58:54
And then even when they, there was a lot of lawsuits, Danbury
58:59
had the infamous one, you know, where we took them to court, I
59:02
still didn't think that I would be somebody who would go home.
59:05
You know, I, I did what I was supposed to do for the suit.
59:08
They asked us to, you know, tell them about our health and sign
59:12
affidavits about the conditions and stuff.
59:14
And I did all that, but I still didn't think I was going home.
59:19
And then? How long, how long into this was
59:21
this that you were doing all that to?
59:24
Work in August on August 24th. Sorry, my voice is catching
59:30
here. So it's August, Yeah, August of
59:32
2020. It's my youngest son's 9th
59:36
birthday. OK.
59:38
They told me that I had been approved for home confinement.
59:43
Now, that didn't mean that I was necessarily going home yet
59:46
because I knew that there was a lot of space in there.
59:48
People still had to sign off. But this magical committee in
59:52
Washington with the BOP had approved me finally.
59:56
And I was just like, Oh my God, you know, like, I just freaked
1:00:00
out because it was my son's birthday and.
1:00:05
So I called their dad, you know, and told him and he had been,
1:00:09
you know, very like encouraging, like we were like war buddies
1:00:12
during this, you know, and so, you know, we're like, this might
1:00:16
happen. Well, then I was like, OK, how
1:00:20
do I make this happen? Cuz then I had the problem where
1:00:23
I didn't have anywhere to go. Yeah.
1:00:26
And. For a while.
1:00:28
Yeah, like I didn't have a home. And here's where the story gets
1:00:32
funny for the background My father's wonderful third wife
1:00:36
that he's been with for 30 years.
1:00:38
She's a probation officer. That is bizarre.
1:00:41
So I can't live with her. She can't have a felon living
1:00:44
with her. That's not a thing.
1:00:47
So I. Mean How crazy is that?
1:00:49
Your dad's third wife is a probation officer.
1:00:52
Yeah, my dad is huge in a a like I am the last person who had any
1:00:57
excuse to end up for. I did.
1:00:58
It's embarrassing, honestly. Like, it was terrible.
1:01:02
So, yeah, So I couldn't live with them, you know, And my unit
1:01:09
manager tried to convince my dad to just say yes and get me
1:01:13
there. They would move me in a couple
1:01:14
weeks. The problem was the people at
1:01:16
the Omaha halfway house were very pissed off that this
1:01:19
program was going on. They were blunt and told my dad
1:01:21
that straight up that they didn't think it was right and
1:01:24
that we shouldn't be getting out at all, blah, blah, blah, blah,
1:01:26
blah. And so they weren't going to be
1:01:28
approving any of this unless they absolutely have to.
1:01:31
And so they weren't approving me.
1:01:32
So they're and my dad was like, now remember my dad is Mr. Law
1:01:37
and Order too. He's married to a probation
1:01:39
officer. They were so annoying that my
1:01:41
dad actually called up and made a complaint about them.
1:01:44
And I'm like, wow, they must have been off the chain for my
1:01:48
dad to be upset about it. So then it was well, how do we
1:01:53
Get Me Out? Right.
1:01:54
So, you know, we, so the attorney who was working on the
1:02:00
case, she said she called, you know, she had me call her one
1:02:03
day. She told me to call her on
1:02:05
Carlinks. And so I called her and she
1:02:07
said, so we have some options for you.
1:02:11
You could go to a halfway house in New Jersey.
1:02:14
You could go to the Fortune Society in New York City.
1:02:17
Or if all else fails, maybe you could come to my basement.
1:02:20
And we're, there's no guarantee the judge is going to sign off
1:02:23
on any of these, but we're going to ask him.
1:02:26
And I'm like, OK, I said, she said you have a choice of any of
1:02:31
these. And I said my preference is to
1:02:35
go wherever the judge thinks I should go.
1:02:37
You know, like, I don't care, you know, just one up.
1:02:40
I I will, I will deal. You know, I'll be fine.
1:02:43
OK. So they do, they go to court and
1:02:48
around the same time COVID finally hits the camp.
1:02:52
This is now in December. So they go into court for an
1:02:55
emergency hearing and the judge basically says why are all these
1:02:58
people who've been approved for months still there, come back in
1:03:01
2 days and they better be gone or you better have an
1:03:03
explanation. And so they came back and I was
1:03:07
one of the people they had an explanation for, which was
1:03:10
problems finding somewhere. And so they then had me go to
1:03:18
what's it called? So then he actually, he wasn't
1:03:22
wild about putting me on a plane anyway, so he had me go to the
1:03:27
attorney's basement, which she basically had a whole
1:03:30
mother-in-law unit type set up down there.
1:03:32
So I basically had my own apartment.
1:03:34
He had me go there for two weeks to like quarantine and said that
1:03:39
we would figure it out during that two weeks.
1:03:41
And we did. Connecticut probation allowed me
1:03:43
to transfer and I went to a sober living house and the rest
1:03:47
is history. Wow, wow.
1:03:51
So where are you now? Living happily ever after with
1:03:55
the man I should have married 30 years ago.
1:03:59
He's been sober since 1995 and the night that he told me that I
1:04:03
called up my best friend and said I'm going to marry him.
1:04:07
Wow, wow. Yeah.
1:04:11
Well, that's cool. And I would have never met him
1:04:13
if not for this journey. But that's a story for another
1:04:16
podcast. That's another story.
1:04:17
Yep. That's so cool though.
1:04:20
So how did you guys meet? I ran into him along the
1:04:24
journey. You ran into him along the
1:04:26
journey and so you get out from you figure all this out.
1:04:33
And so home confinement cuz some of these people actually that
1:04:40
listen to this know the word home confinement.
1:04:43
But what does it mean to you, Wendy?
1:04:45
Like in your life of home confinement, what what is your
1:04:49
life like? Well, I've.
1:04:53
You're four years in, right? Yes.
1:04:56
And I've had the pleasure of having it a couple of different
1:04:59
ways. I was initially watched by US
1:05:03
probation on their federal location monitoring because I
1:05:06
had that huge chunk of time. The only halfway house in
1:05:10
Connecticut at that time was in Bloomfield, and that was like an
1:05:13
hour from where I was. I didn't have a car.
1:05:17
And so they were like, you know what?
1:05:18
We don't know how this is going to go.
1:05:19
We don't want to approve this transfer and then throw her at
1:05:22
the halfway house. Let's just see what happens.
1:05:24
We'll watch her. Because at that time, we didn't
1:05:26
know if they were going to call us all back in three months or
1:05:28
not. We didn't know.
1:05:29
That was a real fear. Yeah, So they watched me and
1:05:33
that was restricted, but it wasn't a huge deal.
1:05:37
I had an ankle monitor on. I had to submit an itinerary.
1:05:42
I did not have to do the thing where you call every time you
1:05:45
leave the house and come back. You know it.
1:05:49
It was fine. I didn't have to like come in.
1:05:51
They came to me whenever they wanted to do spot check or
1:05:54
whatever. They did not call me in the
1:05:56
middle of the night. I didn't have any of that.
1:05:58
I had that, but when I moved to Buffalo to start start pursuing
1:06:04
my JD, then I went under halfway house supervision because, well,
1:06:12
actually First Probation continued to watch me.
1:06:15
And in fact, they put me on the thing where they take off your
1:06:19
ankle monitor because they couldn't find an ankle monitor
1:06:22
that would penetrate through my house walls because I live in an
1:06:25
old building and the walls are like 20 feet thick, I guess.
1:06:28
So they were constantly getting messages that I was gone when
1:06:31
they knew damned well I wasn't. I mean, they could see, you
1:06:34
know, they knew. So they had me get on the system
1:06:39
where you take your picture. And so I didn't have a monitor.
1:06:42
I had my picture. I had a curfew.
1:06:44
I could be out from 7:00 in the morning till 7:00 at night.
1:06:47
That was, it was pretty cool. Then the halfway house here
1:06:51
started taking females and so then I got switched to there cuz
1:06:58
probation doesn't like to babysit for the BOP, you know,
1:07:01
technically that's where I am. So I went there and that was
1:07:05
like, it was kind of like going back to preschool, OK?
1:07:10
Because I was like, I've been out for a bit, you know, like,
1:07:13
whatever. But it's not that, Dave.
1:07:16
I just called tell them I'm here where I'm going, you know, like,
1:07:21
it's not some horrible thing, like, but I'm also very careful.
1:07:26
And I've been watching other people do this for years.
1:07:28
I know people who have fallen asleep and not heard the phone
1:07:32
ring and got go back prison. Yeah, you know, like, so you're
1:07:36
not going to catch this girl out like that.
1:07:37
Don't. So I'm on it, watching what's
1:07:41
going on, being careful, taking care of everything you know and
1:07:45
so. Well, and I think the other cool
1:07:47
thing, Wendy, is you, you've got a job and you also are doing
1:07:54
some law school, so you're not wasting your time.
1:07:59
I mean, you're, you're really. No.
1:08:02
You're using your your time in a really positive way and.
1:08:08
I shouldn't have. You're an.
1:08:09
Advocate for things that you're passionate about, which is is
1:08:12
good because there's a lot of things in the reentry world that
1:08:16
we need passionate people to advocate.
1:08:19
My thought is that I should have technically never had this
1:08:23
chance. There are plenty of people who
1:08:27
deserve this just as much as I do.
1:08:30
And you know, they're not any different than me.
1:08:32
They have families who love them.
1:08:33
They're not violent. They they're first time
1:08:36
offenders. They have a low pattern score.
1:08:37
Just they weren't in the same circumstances I was.
1:08:39
They weren't that lucky. So I feel like the least I can
1:08:43
do is help them if I get a chance.
1:08:47
And the other is that when you get a privilege like that, you
1:08:53
don't waste it. You know, like, the reality is I
1:08:58
walked out of prison on the backs of a million dead
1:09:01
Americans. That's the reality.
1:09:05
And I am very, very keenly aware of that.
1:09:09
This wasn't just like, a yay. That's fabulous.
1:09:12
Like, do I think that this should be a constant program?
1:09:15
Yeah, I do. But it would never have happened
1:09:20
if all those people hadn't died. And I can't imagine anything
1:09:25
more disrespectful then like to either their memory or to the
1:09:31
family that they left behind, you know, then to get out of
1:09:35
prison to prevent me from having that same fate and to prevent my
1:09:39
family from having that same problem and getting out here.
1:09:44
And willfully doing stupid activities to get myself sent
1:09:49
back in. Now, getting sent back due to
1:09:51
bureaucracy is another thing. But you know, I don't need to be
1:09:56
contributing to that. And so I want to do my best and
1:10:02
say, hey, you didn't waste this chance.
1:10:04
It wasn't a bad choice. I can do this.
1:10:07
Watch me. I love it.
1:10:09
I love it. Wendy, what do you think's your
1:10:13
biggest take away through all of it that you went through?
1:10:18
Be grateful. Be very, very grateful because
1:10:25
not everybody gets this. I know people who were approved
1:10:31
and their paperwork just didn't make it around to all the seven
1:10:35
signatures that it needs, you know, from the warden and the
1:10:38
medical officer and all that. It just didn't make it by the
1:10:41
end of May when the CARES Act ended.
1:10:43
So they didn't get to go home and they're stuck there until
1:10:46
2028 now. Yeah, there's a lot of people
1:10:48
stuck, Wendy, just because there's not enough halfway bed
1:10:51
space, halfway house bed space. Which is ridiculous because I
1:10:54
know. But you know what?
1:10:55
That's kind of the way the government works.
1:10:57
You pass a law and then no one's ready to take in what that all
1:11:00
means. But it's crazy because the
1:11:02
recommendations in the Bop's own recommendations say that for low
1:11:08
risk people, the first choice should be at home confinement
1:11:11
because the halfway house might actually be worse for them
1:11:14
because you're getting them around a bunch of people that
1:11:16
they don't need to be making friends with.
1:11:18
Amen to that. I, I did 8 weeks at the halfway
1:11:20
house and you know, I was married and had a job and had a
1:11:24
place to live and, and it was just a, it was a nightmare.
1:11:28
Because. Saint Louis dismiss house is not
1:11:30
a great dismiss house or not a great halfway house.
1:11:33
But all that being said, Wendy, I, I, I can't wait for you to be
1:11:38
an attorney. I think, you know, that's the
1:11:40
type of voice we need as somebody who's gone through the
1:11:44
system. Understand that.
1:11:46
Knows how to help people knows why you help people and those,
1:11:51
those are great things, you know, and I just, I hope you
1:11:54
can, you know, keep all that motivation going because I think
1:11:57
you're going to be a big help to people.
1:11:59
And I'm I'm looking forward to seeing your name out there,
1:12:02
continuing to advocate because you have an interesting story.
1:12:07
I mean, you really do from. Well, our next is for clemency,
1:12:12
so let's hope that happens. There you go.
1:12:15
Yeah, well, and and the and the work that you're doing now too.
1:12:21
So I know you did some work with helping people with their
1:12:25
housing for justice impacted people.
1:12:27
Now you're you're working. Is it?
1:12:30
Is it nation? Is it nationwide?
1:12:33
I work at a nationwide lawn firm, Yeah.
1:12:35
Law firm, yeah. I don't want to disclose who it
1:12:37
is, just be to protect me, you know, but like you know, people
1:12:43
who need help for. What you're trying to get done
1:12:45
and and continue to educate yourself.
1:12:47
So keep doing it all Wendy keep keep keep keeping on Speaking of
1:12:51
being grateful. I am so grateful for Homestead
1:12:53
Financial here, these fancy lights and and and cameras and
1:12:58
equipment, the studio. Homestead Financial's a home
1:13:03
mortgage company and Greg FDF is the home mortgage guy.
1:13:07
If you need anything with home mortgage, go to Greg FDF.
1:13:10
He knows it all. If you're looking for a book out
1:13:13
there, I've got one Nightmare Success.
1:13:15
Check it out. It's on Amazon and Barnes and
1:13:18
Noble. If you got time, please leave me
1:13:20
a review on Apple that helps the show a lot of you have, and I so
1:13:23
appreciate that. I got a fancy new website that's
1:13:27
about a month old. It's brentcassidy.com.
1:13:29
I spell it wrong for the Ty, not a DY.
1:13:33
And as I used to say when I was sending my emails out from
1:13:37
Leavenworth, stay strong. I'll do the same.
1:13:39
Wendy Langton, thank you so much for being with us today.
1:13:42
It's a great story. I can't wait to see what you do
1:13:45
next. Thank you, Brent.
1:13:47
Nightmare success in and out.