August 25, 2025 • 32 mins
With his world crashing down around him, Marc finally hits rock bottom and faces extreme consequences. As he struggles to deal with the fallout from his terrible choices, one piece of “good news” has the potential to set him on the path to rehabilitation.
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Mark as Played
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
They came in and grabbed him to make it look
like he was one of the guys as well.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
But that was like the end of his job. If
you will, Hey, you did what you needed to do.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
We got the guy nowt I never saw him again,
never heard his name again, never knew nothing at all.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
As I know is that I was told that he
was an undercovered PDA.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Agent, and I'm damn near shit my pants, honestly, And
when they ripped me out, I saw them rip him out,
but it was a fake rip out because at this
point I don't know Jason undercover PA agent. So when
they pulled him out, you could almost see him like
just push him over to the left. I can actually
remember seeing that, and then I'm like, this fucking guy.
(00:46):
But anyhow, they threw me down, foot on my throat,
gun on my head and basically said you're in for
a long night, buddy from iHeartRadio.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
In doghouse pictures. This is shock incarceration. I'm Jeff Key.
(01:25):
Mark was rolled over, handcuffed, and brought to the local
State Trooper barracks, where he sat there and waited for
a DA specialist coming in from Westchester County. Here's a
retired Special Agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency
Tim Foley, discussing how task forces might originate.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
I believe the investigation started based on local media reporting
in twenty eleven, where the Township of Woodbury, New York,
Police Department identified the Woodbury Commons Outlet Mall as being
a hub for or drug trafficking organizations. And the reason
(02:04):
I believe they determined that was that they had a
commercial retail public mall that's accessible off the highway, so
it's easy for drug traffic organizations throughout the state of
New York or New Jersey, let's say, use the interstate
highways to find something that's rhetorically available to do their
(02:24):
deliveries of drugs or sales there. The operation only comes
from several sources. It could come from an informant, somebody
who's providing information about that particular area. It could result
from arrests that the police department make in those areas.
It could result from cases that occur in other cities
(02:48):
that kind of overlap into those jurisdictions, and it kind
of culminates into an operation where it becomes multi leveled,
with state, federal, and local police departments working together to
address a public safety issue.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Mark realized that Jay was a DEA undercover agent who'd
been plotting this bust for several months. More than likely,
one of Mark's mini buyers had been recently arrested and
led agents to the Naughty Monkey and Mark, the self
described man with the blow. Mark was now kicking himself
as he thought back to how he first met Jay.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I didn't clear Jay, and that was mistake on my part.
Shame on me.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I mean, that's the golden rule, right, Who are you?
How do I know who you are? I don't know
And I didn't do that. And you know, but that's
because he was in our circle for a couple of weeks.
He seemed like a good guy. You're just going with
your gut. My gut said a what the hell?
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Why not? The guy just wants to, you know, a
little bit of party. He wants to have a little
bit of fun.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
So there was no vouching for him, and that was
the the should have been the biggest red flag for
me of all time when the guy asked me for
an ounce. Quite honestly, I do see it that he
was just doing his job. I should be mad at
myself and myself only that's what he gets paid to do.
He's an undercovered DEA agent and he did his job
pretty well.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Shame on me.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
When the new DEA agent arrived at the Woodbury Police Department,
Mark was surprised at the first thing the agent wanted
to do.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
And when the dagent got there, he was starving and
he said, we're gonna have to get some sandwiches and
was talking to the other cops and he said, do
you recommend anything, and I said, oh, you got to
go to Big Mics. I told him Big Mikes says
they got the best chicken partment. I said, I'll buy
for everybody. That's because I'm a wise ass. But they
kind of chuckled about it. They ordered sandwiches and I didn't.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Pay for it. We did our paperwork.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
They asked me other questions, and quite honestly, I didn't
tell them where I got it from. I didn't mention
a name. I knew I was in trouble and I
knew I had consequences to pay. I didn't know exactly
what they would be, but I knew it wasn't good.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Given his situation, Mark reached out to the one person
he knew would have his back, Rob canepl Well.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
First of all, this man has been unbelievable to me
as a friend, has a good advice, and I knew
I could count on him. That's why I called Rob.
I knew I was in a bad position. I knew
I fucked up, but I also knew at the end
of the day, it doesn't matter if it was two
o'clock in the morning, five o'clock in the afternoon, he
would drop what he's doing and he'd be there. That's
the kind of guy he is. I called him to
(05:32):
tell him what happened. He didn't bail me out that
night because I went. They took me to jail and
they were going to process me, keep me overnight and
then I would be eligible for release the next day.
So I had to go down to Orange County and
get fingerprinted and get checked in, and they put me
in a cell for the night, which ironically was cell
(05:53):
blocked d B seven.
Speaker 6 (05:55):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
I talked about my grandfather, Donald Boyd, and his birthday
was May seventh, So d B tell me my grandfather
wasn't there watching me?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Right, Honestly, I mean, you can't make that shit up.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
But Rob came the next morning I think after they
processed me in paperwork and personal stuff back.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
It was right around lunchtime.
Speaker 7 (06:14):
I got him out the next day, picked them up
and I took him to eat, and I took him
to Kelly Jeans in Goshen, and he was a straw
and I bought him some food to settle down, and
I think you wanted to buy the people that were
there a drink.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
I was absolutely shocked that I was in that position.
I knew I did not belong in that position, although
I did because of what I did, But that's not me.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
It's not me.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
And ultimately, really what I was thinking about the most
was what the hell am I going to tell my family?
What am I going to tell my mother and father?
How am I going to explain this to them? How
the fuck am I gonna explain this to my job
that I'm going to lose? That was going through my head.
I didn't care about an attorney at that time. I
(07:07):
knew I was in trouble and knew I was going
to get consequences, but more importantly, how am I going
to tell my family?
Speaker 4 (07:13):
But before Mark dealt with his family, he needed to
get a lawyer to defend him and quickly.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
The way I found Alan, my attorney, was through Rob.
Rob is a very well known guy in Orange County,
from political contacts, judges, attorneys, you name it. Rob has attorney.
That's his only client has Rob. And told him the
situation and he said, do me a favorite. Give Alan
to a call. I know him, you can use my name.
I feel that he'll do the best that he can
for you. We called Alan. I explained my situation to him,
(07:44):
and he said, can you be here? You know today,
I'm in the office. I have some time, so we'll
come right now. We went, We sat, we talked to him.
I felt confident.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I did. I have to tell you.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
I felt he was extremely well educated and spoken human being. Clearly,
his credentials are posted all over his walls, been established
in Orange County for twenty five plus years. Told us
straight up, oh, I know all the prosecutors, I know
all the judd Now anybody can say that, but he did.
He did, played golf with them, you know all that stuff.
(08:15):
And I gave him a thousand dollars deposit that day.
As a matter of fact, I had to get it
from Rob because he had it on him, you know.
And he wanted ten thousand. That's what he wanted. Ten
thousand was the fee. And you know, he made a
few phone calls and he got all the facts from
the police departments of what had gone on. And I
was under the impression he was going to work for me.
(08:36):
He was going to touch base with the prosecutor and
touch base with everybody else that had some insight in this,
and try to work out something to keep me out
of jail.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Mark was consumed with thoughts about what he would tell
his family and friends, and he'd already missed a day
of work with no explanation so far.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Tony was my boss. So that next day I didn't
go to work and I made up some bullshit.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
I'm sorry. I didn't answer the phone. I wasn't feeling good.
I'll be in tomorrow, and I was. I was in
the next day. I never said a word to him.
I didn't tell him anything that happened. I beat myself
up and my brain was going a thousand miles a minute.
It's gonna be in the paper, and it was they're
gonna find out, and they did. They didn't find out
(09:20):
from me, they found out from the paper. That's ultimately
how my job found out that I got arrested for
selling coke.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I never told my boss.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Once the newspaper article was published, Mark began to face
the repercussions of his arrest.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
It's a horrible feeling, an absolute horrible feeling. And you
don't know where to go, you know, sometimes because you're embarrassed, right,
and you don't want to bring a family member, and
you don't even want to bring sometimes your best friend.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And you know, how am I going to tell him that?
How am I going to tell him what I just did?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
You know, when I lost my job, that was a bottom,
right I was let go from BMW. I was, you know,
making a six figured position, single guy company cor benefits
four oh one k. That's a bottom that was just
taken from you. That What are you gonna do? All right,
I gotta go get drunk. I gotta go get coke.
You know, I have to go do something to make
(10:12):
me feel better. There was a lot of bottoms. I
think that was a major bottom, losing a position, you know,
losing your job.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
After Mark had lost his job at BMW, it was
just a matter of time before his parents found out
about his arrest. Mark knew he had to tell them
the news quickly so they would hear it from him first.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
So I wanted to find out or get a good
understanding of what may happen before I told my parents.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
I didn't want to have to tell them.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
If there was no reason to tell them, I was
going to hide it from They wouldn't have seen the paper.
It was a local paper and Orange County. My parents
are in Jersey and they don't read the papers. Would
they found out eventually, I'm sure at some point, But
that was the least of my worries. My main thing
was what was gonna happen to me? So after we
spoke to the attorney, who was absolutely no help, he
(11:17):
told me Mark, it's your first offense. It's a larger amount.
In the state of New York, anything over fourteen grams
is considered an a one felony, So that I had
going against me. The things that I had going with
me was that it was a first time offense. I
had no priors. I have no criminal record, no history.
I don't even think I had a fucking parking ticket,
(11:37):
I'm serious, nothing, And he knew I had a job,
full time job. I was making six figures at the time,
not bad for a single guy, and he was going
to work with me. And I think I can do
everything I can and keep you out of jail. That's
all I wanted to hear. Keep you out of jail.
Those were the words I wanted to hear. And he
said that to me. He told me that. So I
(11:59):
did not tell my parents for a while, and I
wanted to wait for that first court case or whatever
the case may be that was going to come up.
I remember the date, which I think happens normal. It's
normal procedures. It gets postponed, and then the next one
gets postponed because they want to talk to the prosecutor.
They want to do this, they want to do that.
And I remember getting a phone call from him. If
(12:20):
I had a guess, it was probably it was in
the summer, June or July, and he said, Mark, I
got news for you. He says, there's a very strong
possibility you're going to jail. And my heart, I mean
I lost it. I literally just paused. I had to
take it in for a minute. You said I might
go to jail, Allen. Yeah, there's a very strong possibility.
(12:42):
They're looking to make an example at you. I'm a
Jersey guy. Billy was a New York guy. His father
had some local connections this and that. So you're putting
the pieces of the puzzle together. And when I truly
found out that I was going to go is when
I told my parents. And it was probably two months
before I went to jail, so I went in September,
(13:04):
So yeah, it was probably the end of July when
I actually told my parents. I said, hey, I got
to sit down and talk to you, and we did.
My parents are divorced, if you remember, they live in
the same town. So I actually had asked them, both
of them to meet me at King George Diner. Is
where we we sat at King George Diner, and I said,
(13:25):
I really have to talk to both of you.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I need both of you to be there.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
They knew right away something was wrong, Believe me, they knew.
But I also wanted to do it in a public place.
Not that I was worried about my mother or father
are doing anything to me, but I felt a little
bit more relaxed at an actual diner, sitting there with
my parents versus in their house, believe it or not.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
And I was in shock. I was stunned. And I
said what happened?
Speaker 8 (13:52):
And he said I was doing something I shouldn't have
and they pulled me over and they found drugs in
the car. And I'm like, Mark, really, and I was
just so beside myself that the thought of it didn't
sound good. It wasn't like Dave's problem it was, And
(14:14):
so Dave said he would go with him to court.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
Mark anxiously awaited facing the judge and hearing his sentence.
But before he went to court, he was able to
have one less dinner with Liz.
Speaker 9 (14:28):
I think the night before he went to jail, we
went out to Anthony's col Far Pizza, which was one
of his favorite places, and I have a picture of
us that night, and he ate like it was his
last meal.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
It was sad.
Speaker 9 (14:39):
I mean, before he went in he was on blood
pressure medicine.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
He definitely was not healthy.
Speaker 10 (14:43):
He was eating chicken pol arms and chicken broccoli every night.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
He needed to be healthy. It was kind of depressing.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
So the day I went to court with my attorney,
I didn't know exactly was gonna happen. I knew I
was going to go to jail. They told me I
was going to jail, and he said we're looking at
probably three years. So we went into court and it
was a courtroom filled with other people. It wasn't just myself,
the judge and my attorney. There was case after case
after case after case, you know, and they called somebody up.
(15:15):
They do their thing, Mark Lombardo, So they called me up.
I went up, and my twin brother and my brother
in law came for support, just to see what was
going on. You know, your palms are sweat and you
don't know exactly what's going to happen. You're looking back
at your brother, your brother in law, you know, they're
giving you the thumbs up type kind of thing. And
(15:36):
I went and the one thing I specifically remember is
when the judge said, all right, we sentence you to
three years in New York State prison. And the bailiff
came over and he took me here, and I looked
back at my brother and I do remember crying. I mean,
I had a tier coming down, and it was a
(15:57):
horrible moment. It was a horrible moment in my life,
and that to me was bottom. I was fucking bottom
right there. And I actually saw my brother in law cry,
and I've never seen that before. So they took me
into another room and I had a suit on, so
they gave me the Orange County jumper and I said,
(16:20):
can I give my brother my wallet and my keys
and my clothes and he said, yeah, absolutely, So I
put her roll in a bag and they walked me
out and I said, here, take this. Just tell mom,
I'll see you're in three years. And that was fucking
bad because within a couple of minutes, I'm already thinking,
who's going to die when I'm in prison? Who might
(16:43):
pass away? Am I not going to be able to
go to a funeral? Am I not going to be
able to see a family member ever? Again? These were
thoughts that went through my head within the first ten
minutes of being escorted out, and that's not a good feeling.
(17:15):
The judge says, okay, we're going to sentence you to
three years, and I was literally handcuffed right there and
I was brought to Orange County Jail.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Some of his family, like his older brother Don, didn't
really know what Mark was facing until that court date.
Speaker 10 (17:32):
Nobody had said anything to me about it, Like, nobody
was like, what's going on here? How is it that
I didn't know anything about this? And I find out
that they took him away, and then he was inside
and I was like, oh my God, like, now my
little brother's in jail.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Mark's mother, Linda, was nervous as she waited for any
news about where he was being taken.
Speaker 8 (17:56):
They took him, I took his clothes, took everything, you know.
So now where do I get.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
In touch with them?
Speaker 8 (18:03):
What can I do? How can I talk to him?
I knew nothing, nothing, had to wait for a phone
call from Mark. He was in Orange County, New York State.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I was there for eight days.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
I was transported to Downstate facility in Fishkill, New York,
which is a very overwhelming facility for somebody who's never
been in prison. This place, it's a max prison. You
have people in there, you know, twenty thirty forty years
to life, arson, murder, rape.
Speaker 6 (18:37):
It is.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
The craziest place I've ever been in my life.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Old, cold, rusted.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
It's something that you could see like a fifties movie
where you see the old bars, you know, and just
come out and concrete little cell with a thirty inch
metal bed and a mattress about that deck. You know,
your toy it's right in the center of the room,
you know, through your bars, people walking through you seeing
you're taking a shit.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
When Mark first arrived at Downstate, Mark was given a
nickname by an inmate in the cell next to his.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
The gentleman that was in the cell next to me,
it was a Latin king, and he asked me to
come to the bars. He said, hey, come to the bar,
I mean, walk up. I want to see you. So
I walked up here. He said what's your name? And
I said Lombardo. And he said what I said, Lombardo
And he said, I can't say that that's Italian. I said, yeah,
(19:35):
he says, your name's Linguini, and it's stuck from there.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
I wrote that in a letter to my family and said, hey,
you know.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
They're calling me in Laguinian here, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
And it was funny because nobody that went was at
Downstate went to Ulster with me. But I told other
people that story about Ulster, and some of the people
that went from Ulster went to Shock with me, you know,
so a couple people continued to call me Laguini all throughout.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
The Latin king also had a unique nickname of his own.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
His name was maniac. And I asked him, I said,
can I ask you why they call you maniac? And
he said yeah, because I took my sister's cat and
I put it in a microwave and I turned it
on high until the cat exploded. And he said, my
mother called me a maniac. And he said, ever since then,
my family calls me maniac. That was That was the
(20:38):
second night in Downstate. That's how I started my journey.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Mark feared the dangerous felons that prowled in some areas
outside his cell.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
But they had like a big room where there was
phones to call out, which would ultimately close fights because
there was like two phones and ninety people in this
one wing, you know, and of course they after, you know,
the big guy gets to call, you know. And then
they had this one little area where you could watch TV.
It was the place that I stayed away from. So
I was pretty much in the cell twenty four hours
a day. You showered three times a week, and that
(21:11):
was one by one by yourself.
Speaker 6 (21:13):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
You walk to a shower, guard stands outside you shower,
he walks you back.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I mean, it was a nightmare.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
Mark's mother, Linda, was finally able to see your son
for the first time since he'd been taken to the
Orange County Jail from the courthouse.
Speaker 8 (21:30):
I wasn't able to see him at Orange County because
they moved him to Downstate. The next time I saw
him was at Downstate, and it was heartbreaking to see
him come out with his head or shaved, and he
(21:50):
was very skinny. He lost a lot of weight. And
we were able to hug just once and with him
for I think an hour and Jack and just talk
about what he's been going through. He was nervous for
(22:13):
seeing us the first time, and he looked tired.
Speaker 6 (22:19):
Ed.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Revere vividly remembered where he was placed before he entered
the shock incarceration program.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
My recrrectional facility is hell on Earth.
Speaker 9 (22:30):
When I went in there, you just cannot describe the tension.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
Scary. It's pure fear.
Speaker 9 (22:39):
As you go through the processing center, you finally get
assigned a cell that could be on Tier three, block
fifty two or something crazy like that. You walk into
your cell, you'll see just a old stained mattress, the
window that has a six pane window where two of
the panes are busted out, and snow's coming in a
(23:02):
toilet that has not been cleaned in five years, to
shit and piss all over it.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
It was very intense.
Speaker 9 (23:10):
It was you're with rapists, murderers, people doing multi life sentences.
And again, I'm a guy from upstate New York, where
he was from one of the largest high school classes
of eighty two students, So it.
Speaker 6 (23:29):
Was just I wish it was bad. It was bad.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Ed describes the moment that he was most fearful.
Speaker 9 (23:39):
So when they were in the mess hall or the cafeteria.
Now the cafeteria, maybe two three hundred people could fit.
Speaker 6 (23:47):
In there easily.
Speaker 9 (23:48):
Those guard towers where they would have rifles sitting there
with the red laser on it and they'd point it
right at you. But one time we're standing there and
as we're approaching to where they start getting in line
to get your food, four inmates jumped over and they
were running.
Speaker 6 (24:06):
I felt like straight right at me, and.
Speaker 9 (24:08):
I turned around, did not see a single correctional officer,
no correction and probably about three people in front of me.
They grabbed this very scrawny kid, grabbed him, started kidding him,
and next thing you know, I just see blood, blood all,
not just a little bit or I'm saying, it just
(24:30):
saturated the floor.
Speaker 6 (24:32):
So other people are backing up. I'm backing up, and
now all of a.
Speaker 9 (24:36):
Sudden it may have been For me, it seemed like eternity.
It seemed like shocking. This kid was dead. They killed
him right in front of me. All of a sudden, O,
correction officers start showing up. They're like, who did it?
And on those guy goes did All the rest are
(24:57):
already now back on the other side, serving food like
nothing happened, you know. A correction officer like, okay, Bob, well
come along with me, you know the routine. But it
was no big deal. And here this person is just
laying there. So apparently this Bob is doing ten life sentences.
But the story goes that the individual that they pulled
(25:19):
out a line killed two children, so he never should
have been There's a lot of stories he never supposed
to be there, but he did, and correction officers kind
of had their breaks at the same time.
Speaker 6 (25:32):
I'm like, how would they know? It was exactly that
guy like three in front of me?
Speaker 9 (25:38):
So that was and if that can happen so easily,
just no real consequences, like dah, this just happens daily,
no big deal.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
This life in prison.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
Had quickly learned one way of avoiding being attacked in prison.
Speaker 9 (25:56):
So when other inmates would approached and asked for your
paper they wanted to know what you were charged with.
And I was convicted of driving around intoxicated, and as
soon as they saw that they would leave you alone.
If you didn't have your paperwork, they would give you
a day to show your paperwork. And if you didn't
show it, they knew that you were a sexual predator
(26:18):
or some type.
Speaker 6 (26:19):
So that wouldn't have been good.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Locked in a cage at a maximum security prison, Mark
received some unexpected news that changed his luck. He was
eligible for the Shock incarceration program, something he had never
heard of.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
I was in that cell for twenty seven days, twenty
three hours a day. You showered twice a week during
that time. I was introduced to shock because I believe
in the state of New York, if you have a
three year or under sentence and it's a first time offense,
by the law, you are entitled to complete the show program,
(27:00):
which would help you eliminate your sentence. It was a
counselor that handed out pamphlets that went around to the cells,
gave you literature on different programs, whether.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
It was drug related, alcohol related, you.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Know, different programs that you could because fishkill it's a
holding cell essentially, and then when you get transferred to
whichever prison you're going to go to, they can help
put you into these programs. So I saw the opportunity
to do shock and I said, well this is for me, like,
I want.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
This, I need this.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
You know, I can get out early, I can save
two years. Am I sentenced by doing this program? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Where do I sign? You know?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
And they took anybody that was willing to do that
was willing to want to learn about shock. They put
about thirty of us in a room. We watched the
video on what shock is all about, the daily routine,
what goes on, and they kind of lightened that video
up a little bit, you know, they made it look
a little better than it really is. But they said,
(27:58):
if you feel you, I think you can do this
sign at the bottom and we'll get you out of here.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
And that's what I did. I signed it.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
I remember writing my parents a letter about shock, and
I'm going to go this is what I'm going to do.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Mark got to connect with his childhood friend Jason before
he entered the shock incarceration program.
Speaker 11 (28:19):
I remember talking to Mark prior to his shock. We
had a couple of conversations on the phone. He kind
of shared with me a little bit of the background
of what had happened. It gave me a little the why, like, Hey,
this is what was going on. And he said, Hey,
I'm going to enter into this program that's a military
style of corrections and it's going to be really hard,
(28:41):
but I think it's going to one kind of helped
me get back to the person that I want to
be and who I was, and also expedite my sentence
a bit. And I said, wow, it sounds interesting but challenging, right,
I don't think that you've gone through a military experience
and you are you sure that's what you want to do.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Mark spent two weeks at Ulster before leaving for the
Lakeview Correctional Facility in Brockton, New York.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
They brought us to Ulster County Prison, which was essentially
a dorm style facility. It's a prison behind a wall, fences,
everything barbedire, but it was another holding pin, if he will,
until we were approved to fill a platoon or fill
a spot in the shock incarceration facility, and I was
(29:29):
there for two weeks before I went.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
His mother, Linda, was able to see him one more
time before he was transported to Lakeview.
Speaker 8 (29:38):
I can't really say a happy visit, but he was
looking forward to the shock program. He knew he had
to do what he had to do, and he was
very lucky to get that opportunity. And he pointed out
a couple of guys visiting with their family and he
(30:00):
would point out, Oh, he's coming with me. He's coming
with me, and the kind of became friends and looking
forward to whatever this shock program was. And he knew
in a certain amount of months he would be out,
so it was a little bit lighter. The visit was lighter.
(30:23):
He seemed to be a little bit more up. He
wasn't so dragged and down in the first.
Speaker 10 (30:29):
Time as we saw him.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
And soon after meeting with his mother, Mark began the
long bus ride to begin the shock incarceration program at
Lakeview Correctional Facility in Brockton, New York.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Maybe it's about thirty backers, he said, pack a batic.
We own your New York State owned nobody.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Don't do anything you're gonna make mistakes and we're gonna
call you out on everyone. The only time that there
is not a drill shocked around is when you're in
the shower and you have three minutes. And there was
a couple of times where some people threw a couple
(31:10):
of quick shots at somebody. It was just a way
to go in there, whack the guy and basically said,
don't fucking do it again. All right, you threw me
under the boss, you did this, I got you back.
Speaker 12 (31:30):
Shock Incarceration is a joint production from iHeartRadio and Doghouse Pictures,
produced and hosted by Jeff Keating. Executive producers are Mark Lombardo,
Tommy James, Noel Brown, and Jeff Keating. Written by Jim Roberts,
Tommy James, Chris Rigazzo and Jeff Keating. Story edit by
Jim Roberts, Edit mix and sound design by Lame Kraus
(31:50):
from Herd's Creek Productions. Music composed by Diamond Street Productions,
accompanied by Tyler Greenwell, Danny Watanis, Sean Thompson and Spencer
garn I Shall. Thanks to Trinity Investigative Group and Mark
Lombardo's family and friends who contributed to the podcast
They came in and grabbed him to make it look
like he was one of the guys as well.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
But that was like the end of his job. If
you will, Hey, you did what you needed to do.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
We got the guy nowt I never saw him again,
never heard his name again, never knew nothing at all.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
As I know is that I was told that he
was an undercovered PDA.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Agent, and I'm damn near shit my pants, honestly, And
when they ripped me out, I saw them rip him out,
but it was a fake rip out because at this
point I don't know Jason undercover PA agent. So when
they pulled him out, you could almost see him like
just push him over to the left. I can actually
remember seeing that, and then I'm like, this fucking guy.
(00:46):
But anyhow, they threw me down, foot on my throat,
gun on my head and basically said you're in for
a long night, buddy from iHeartRadio.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
In doghouse pictures. This is shock incarceration. I'm Jeff Key.
(01:25):
Mark was rolled over, handcuffed, and brought to the local
State Trooper barracks, where he sat there and waited for
a DA specialist coming in from Westchester County. Here's a
retired Special Agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency
Tim Foley, discussing how task forces might originate.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
I believe the investigation started based on local media reporting
in twenty eleven, where the Township of Woodbury, New York,
Police Department identified the Woodbury Commons Outlet Mall as being
a hub for or drug trafficking organizations. And the reason
(02:04):
I believe they determined that was that they had a
commercial retail public mall that's accessible off the highway, so
it's easy for drug traffic organizations throughout the state of
New York or New Jersey, let's say, use the interstate
highways to find something that's rhetorically available to do their
(02:24):
deliveries of drugs or sales there. The operation only comes
from several sources. It could come from an informant, somebody
who's providing information about that particular area. It could result
from arrests that the police department make in those areas.
It could result from cases that occur in other cities
(02:48):
that kind of overlap into those jurisdictions, and it kind
of culminates into an operation where it becomes multi leveled,
with state, federal, and local police departments working together to
address a public safety issue.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Mark realized that Jay was a DEA undercover agent who'd
been plotting this bust for several months. More than likely,
one of Mark's mini buyers had been recently arrested and
led agents to the Naughty Monkey and Mark, the self
described man with the blow. Mark was now kicking himself
as he thought back to how he first met Jay.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I didn't clear Jay, and that was mistake on my part.
Shame on me.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I mean, that's the golden rule, right, Who are you?
How do I know who you are? I don't know
And I didn't do that. And you know, but that's
because he was in our circle for a couple of weeks.
He seemed like a good guy. You're just going with
your gut. My gut said a what the hell?
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Why not? The guy just wants to, you know, a
little bit of party. He wants to have a little
bit of fun.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
So there was no vouching for him, and that was
the the should have been the biggest red flag for
me of all time when the guy asked me for
an ounce. Quite honestly, I do see it that he
was just doing his job. I should be mad at
myself and myself only that's what he gets paid to do.
He's an undercovered DEA agent and he did his job
pretty well.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Shame on me.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
When the new DEA agent arrived at the Woodbury Police Department,
Mark was surprised at the first thing the agent wanted
to do.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
And when the dagent got there, he was starving and
he said, we're gonna have to get some sandwiches and
was talking to the other cops and he said, do
you recommend anything, and I said, oh, you got to
go to Big Mics. I told him Big Mikes says
they got the best chicken partment. I said, I'll buy
for everybody. That's because I'm a wise ass. But they
kind of chuckled about it. They ordered sandwiches and I didn't.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Pay for it. We did our paperwork.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
They asked me other questions, and quite honestly, I didn't
tell them where I got it from. I didn't mention
a name. I knew I was in trouble and I
knew I had consequences to pay. I didn't know exactly
what they would be, but I knew it wasn't good.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Given his situation, Mark reached out to the one person
he knew would have his back, Rob canepl Well.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
First of all, this man has been unbelievable to me
as a friend, has a good advice, and I knew
I could count on him. That's why I called Rob.
I knew I was in a bad position. I knew
I fucked up, but I also knew at the end
of the day, it doesn't matter if it was two
o'clock in the morning, five o'clock in the afternoon, he
would drop what he's doing and he'd be there. That's
the kind of guy he is. I called him to
(05:32):
tell him what happened. He didn't bail me out that
night because I went. They took me to jail and
they were going to process me, keep me overnight and
then I would be eligible for release the next day.
So I had to go down to Orange County and
get fingerprinted and get checked in, and they put me
in a cell for the night, which ironically was cell
(05:53):
blocked d B seven.
Speaker 6 (05:55):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
I talked about my grandfather, Donald Boyd, and his birthday
was May seventh, So d B tell me my grandfather
wasn't there watching me?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Right, Honestly, I mean, you can't make that shit up.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
But Rob came the next morning I think after they
processed me in paperwork and personal stuff back.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
It was right around lunchtime.
Speaker 7 (06:14):
I got him out the next day, picked them up
and I took him to eat, and I took him
to Kelly Jeans in Goshen, and he was a straw
and I bought him some food to settle down, and
I think you wanted to buy the people that were
there a drink.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
I was absolutely shocked that I was in that position.
I knew I did not belong in that position, although
I did because of what I did, But that's not me.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
It's not me.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
And ultimately, really what I was thinking about the most
was what the hell am I going to tell my family?
What am I going to tell my mother and father?
How am I going to explain this to them? How
the fuck am I gonna explain this to my job
that I'm going to lose? That was going through my head.
I didn't care about an attorney at that time. I
(07:07):
knew I was in trouble and knew I was going
to get consequences, but more importantly, how am I going
to tell my family?
Speaker 4 (07:13):
But before Mark dealt with his family, he needed to
get a lawyer to defend him and quickly.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
The way I found Alan, my attorney, was through Rob.
Rob is a very well known guy in Orange County,
from political contacts, judges, attorneys, you name it. Rob has attorney.
That's his only client has Rob. And told him the
situation and he said, do me a favorite. Give Alan
to a call. I know him, you can use my name.
I feel that he'll do the best that he can
for you. We called Alan. I explained my situation to him,
(07:44):
and he said, can you be here? You know today,
I'm in the office. I have some time, so we'll
come right now. We went, We sat, we talked to him.
I felt confident.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I did. I have to tell you.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
I felt he was extremely well educated and spoken human being. Clearly,
his credentials are posted all over his walls, been established
in Orange County for twenty five plus years. Told us
straight up, oh, I know all the prosecutors, I know
all the judd Now anybody can say that, but he did.
He did, played golf with them, you know all that stuff.
(08:15):
And I gave him a thousand dollars deposit that day.
As a matter of fact, I had to get it
from Rob because he had it on him, you know.
And he wanted ten thousand. That's what he wanted. Ten
thousand was the fee. And you know, he made a
few phone calls and he got all the facts from
the police departments of what had gone on. And I
was under the impression he was going to work for me.
(08:36):
He was going to touch base with the prosecutor and
touch base with everybody else that had some insight in this,
and try to work out something to keep me out
of jail.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Mark was consumed with thoughts about what he would tell
his family and friends, and he'd already missed a day
of work with no explanation so far.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Tony was my boss. So that next day I didn't
go to work and I made up some bullshit.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
I'm sorry. I didn't answer the phone. I wasn't feeling good.
I'll be in tomorrow, and I was. I was in
the next day. I never said a word to him.
I didn't tell him anything that happened. I beat myself
up and my brain was going a thousand miles a minute.
It's gonna be in the paper, and it was they're
gonna find out, and they did. They didn't find out
(09:20):
from me, they found out from the paper. That's ultimately
how my job found out that I got arrested for
selling coke.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I never told my boss.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Once the newspaper article was published, Mark began to face
the repercussions of his arrest.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
It's a horrible feeling, an absolute horrible feeling. And you
don't know where to go, you know, sometimes because you're embarrassed, right,
and you don't want to bring a family member, and
you don't even want to bring sometimes your best friend.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And you know, how am I going to tell him that?
How am I going to tell him what I just did?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
You know, when I lost my job, that was a bottom,
right I was let go from BMW. I was, you know,
making a six figured position, single guy company cor benefits
four oh one k. That's a bottom that was just
taken from you. That What are you gonna do? All right,
I gotta go get drunk. I gotta go get coke.
You know, I have to go do something to make
(10:12):
me feel better. There was a lot of bottoms. I
think that was a major bottom, losing a position, you know,
losing your job.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
After Mark had lost his job at BMW, it was
just a matter of time before his parents found out
about his arrest. Mark knew he had to tell them
the news quickly so they would hear it from him first.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
So I wanted to find out or get a good
understanding of what may happen before I told my parents.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
I didn't want to have to tell them.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
If there was no reason to tell them, I was
going to hide it from They wouldn't have seen the paper.
It was a local paper and Orange County. My parents
are in Jersey and they don't read the papers. Would
they found out eventually, I'm sure at some point, But
that was the least of my worries. My main thing
was what was gonna happen to me? So after we
spoke to the attorney, who was absolutely no help, he
(11:17):
told me Mark, it's your first offense. It's a larger amount.
In the state of New York, anything over fourteen grams
is considered an a one felony, So that I had
going against me. The things that I had going with
me was that it was a first time offense. I
had no priors. I have no criminal record, no history.
I don't even think I had a fucking parking ticket,
(11:37):
I'm serious, nothing, And he knew I had a job,
full time job. I was making six figures at the time,
not bad for a single guy, and he was going
to work with me. And I think I can do
everything I can and keep you out of jail. That's
all I wanted to hear. Keep you out of jail.
Those were the words I wanted to hear. And he
said that to me. He told me that. So I
(11:59):
did not tell my parents for a while, and I
wanted to wait for that first court case or whatever
the case may be that was going to come up.
I remember the date, which I think happens normal. It's
normal procedures. It gets postponed, and then the next one
gets postponed because they want to talk to the prosecutor.
They want to do this, they want to do that.
And I remember getting a phone call from him. If
(12:20):
I had a guess, it was probably it was in
the summer, June or July, and he said, Mark, I
got news for you. He says, there's a very strong
possibility you're going to jail. And my heart, I mean
I lost it. I literally just paused. I had to
take it in for a minute. You said I might
go to jail, Allen. Yeah, there's a very strong possibility.
(12:42):
They're looking to make an example at you. I'm a
Jersey guy. Billy was a New York guy. His father
had some local connections this and that. So you're putting
the pieces of the puzzle together. And when I truly
found out that I was going to go is when
I told my parents. And it was probably two months
before I went to jail, so I went in September,
(13:04):
So yeah, it was probably the end of July when
I actually told my parents. I said, hey, I got
to sit down and talk to you, and we did.
My parents are divorced, if you remember, they live in
the same town. So I actually had asked them, both
of them to meet me at King George Diner. Is
where we we sat at King George Diner, and I said,
(13:25):
I really have to talk to both of you.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I need both of you to be there.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
They knew right away something was wrong, Believe me, they knew.
But I also wanted to do it in a public place.
Not that I was worried about my mother or father
are doing anything to me, but I felt a little
bit more relaxed at an actual diner, sitting there with
my parents versus in their house, believe it or not.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
And I was in shock. I was stunned. And I
said what happened?
Speaker 8 (13:52):
And he said I was doing something I shouldn't have
and they pulled me over and they found drugs in
the car. And I'm like, Mark, really, and I was
just so beside myself that the thought of it didn't
sound good. It wasn't like Dave's problem it was, And
(14:14):
so Dave said he would go with him to court.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
Mark anxiously awaited facing the judge and hearing his sentence.
But before he went to court, he was able to
have one less dinner with Liz.
Speaker 9 (14:28):
I think the night before he went to jail, we
went out to Anthony's col Far Pizza, which was one
of his favorite places, and I have a picture of
us that night, and he ate like it was his
last meal.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
It was sad.
Speaker 9 (14:39):
I mean, before he went in he was on blood
pressure medicine.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
He definitely was not healthy.
Speaker 10 (14:43):
He was eating chicken pol arms and chicken broccoli every night.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
He needed to be healthy. It was kind of depressing.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
So the day I went to court with my attorney,
I didn't know exactly was gonna happen. I knew I
was going to go to jail. They told me I
was going to jail, and he said we're looking at
probably three years. So we went into court and it
was a courtroom filled with other people. It wasn't just myself,
the judge and my attorney. There was case after case
after case after case, you know, and they called somebody up.
(15:15):
They do their thing, Mark Lombardo, So they called me up.
I went up, and my twin brother and my brother
in law came for support, just to see what was
going on. You know, your palms are sweat and you
don't know exactly what's going to happen. You're looking back
at your brother, your brother in law, you know, they're
giving you the thumbs up type kind of thing. And
(15:36):
I went and the one thing I specifically remember is
when the judge said, all right, we sentence you to
three years in New York State prison. And the bailiff
came over and he took me here, and I looked
back at my brother and I do remember crying. I mean,
I had a tier coming down, and it was a
(15:57):
horrible moment. It was a horrible moment in my life,
and that to me was bottom. I was fucking bottom
right there. And I actually saw my brother in law cry,
and I've never seen that before. So they took me
into another room and I had a suit on, so
they gave me the Orange County jumper and I said,
(16:20):
can I give my brother my wallet and my keys
and my clothes and he said, yeah, absolutely, So I
put her roll in a bag and they walked me
out and I said, here, take this. Just tell mom,
I'll see you're in three years. And that was fucking
bad because within a couple of minutes, I'm already thinking,
who's going to die when I'm in prison? Who might
(16:43):
pass away? Am I not going to be able to
go to a funeral? Am I not going to be
able to see a family member ever? Again? These were
thoughts that went through my head within the first ten
minutes of being escorted out, and that's not a good feeling.
(17:15):
The judge says, okay, we're going to sentence you to
three years, and I was literally handcuffed right there and
I was brought to Orange County Jail.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Some of his family, like his older brother Don, didn't
really know what Mark was facing until that court date.
Speaker 10 (17:32):
Nobody had said anything to me about it, Like, nobody
was like, what's going on here? How is it that
I didn't know anything about this? And I find out
that they took him away, and then he was inside
and I was like, oh my God, like, now my
little brother's in jail.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Mark's mother, Linda, was nervous as she waited for any
news about where he was being taken.
Speaker 8 (17:56):
They took him, I took his clothes, took everything, you know.
So now where do I get.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
In touch with them?
Speaker 8 (18:03):
What can I do? How can I talk to him?
I knew nothing, nothing, had to wait for a phone
call from Mark. He was in Orange County, New York State.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I was there for eight days.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
I was transported to Downstate facility in Fishkill, New York,
which is a very overwhelming facility for somebody who's never
been in prison. This place, it's a max prison. You
have people in there, you know, twenty thirty forty years
to life, arson, murder, rape.
Speaker 6 (18:37):
It is.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
The craziest place I've ever been in my life.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Old, cold, rusted.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
It's something that you could see like a fifties movie
where you see the old bars, you know, and just
come out and concrete little cell with a thirty inch
metal bed and a mattress about that deck. You know,
your toy it's right in the center of the room,
you know, through your bars, people walking through you seeing
you're taking a shit.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
When Mark first arrived at Downstate, Mark was given a
nickname by an inmate in the cell next to his.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
The gentleman that was in the cell next to me,
it was a Latin king, and he asked me to
come to the bars. He said, hey, come to the bar,
I mean, walk up. I want to see you. So
I walked up here. He said what's your name? And
I said Lombardo. And he said what I said, Lombardo
And he said, I can't say that that's Italian. I said, yeah,
(19:35):
he says, your name's Linguini, and it's stuck from there.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
I wrote that in a letter to my family and said, hey,
you know.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
They're calling me in Laguinian here, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
And it was funny because nobody that went was at
Downstate went to Ulster with me. But I told other
people that story about Ulster, and some of the people
that went from Ulster went to Shock with me, you know,
so a couple people continued to call me Laguini all throughout.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
The Latin king also had a unique nickname of his own.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
His name was maniac. And I asked him, I said,
can I ask you why they call you maniac? And
he said yeah, because I took my sister's cat and
I put it in a microwave and I turned it
on high until the cat exploded. And he said, my
mother called me a maniac. And he said, ever since then,
my family calls me maniac. That was That was the
(20:38):
second night in Downstate. That's how I started my journey.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Mark feared the dangerous felons that prowled in some areas
outside his cell.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
But they had like a big room where there was
phones to call out, which would ultimately close fights because
there was like two phones and ninety people in this
one wing, you know, and of course they after, you know,
the big guy gets to call, you know. And then
they had this one little area where you could watch TV.
It was the place that I stayed away from. So
I was pretty much in the cell twenty four hours
a day. You showered three times a week, and that
(21:11):
was one by one by yourself.
Speaker 6 (21:13):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
You walk to a shower, guard stands outside you shower,
he walks you back.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I mean, it was a nightmare.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
Mark's mother, Linda, was finally able to see your son
for the first time since he'd been taken to the
Orange County Jail from the courthouse.
Speaker 8 (21:30):
I wasn't able to see him at Orange County because
they moved him to Downstate. The next time I saw
him was at Downstate, and it was heartbreaking to see
him come out with his head or shaved, and he
(21:50):
was very skinny. He lost a lot of weight. And
we were able to hug just once and with him
for I think an hour and Jack and just talk
about what he's been going through. He was nervous for
(22:13):
seeing us the first time, and he looked tired.
Speaker 6 (22:19):
Ed.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Revere vividly remembered where he was placed before he entered
the shock incarceration program.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
My recrrectional facility is hell on Earth.
Speaker 9 (22:30):
When I went in there, you just cannot describe the tension.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
Scary. It's pure fear.
Speaker 9 (22:39):
As you go through the processing center, you finally get
assigned a cell that could be on Tier three, block
fifty two or something crazy like that. You walk into
your cell, you'll see just a old stained mattress, the
window that has a six pane window where two of
the panes are busted out, and snow's coming in a
(23:02):
toilet that has not been cleaned in five years, to
shit and piss all over it.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
It was very intense.
Speaker 9 (23:10):
It was you're with rapists, murderers, people doing multi life sentences.
And again, I'm a guy from upstate New York, where
he was from one of the largest high school classes
of eighty two students, So it.
Speaker 6 (23:29):
Was just I wish it was bad. It was bad.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Ed describes the moment that he was most fearful.
Speaker 9 (23:39):
So when they were in the mess hall or the cafeteria.
Now the cafeteria, maybe two three hundred people could fit.
Speaker 6 (23:47):
In there easily.
Speaker 9 (23:48):
Those guard towers where they would have rifles sitting there
with the red laser on it and they'd point it
right at you. But one time we're standing there and
as we're approaching to where they start getting in line
to get your food, four inmates jumped over and they
were running.
Speaker 6 (24:06):
I felt like straight right at me, and.
Speaker 9 (24:08):
I turned around, did not see a single correctional officer,
no correction and probably about three people in front of me.
They grabbed this very scrawny kid, grabbed him, started kidding him,
and next thing you know, I just see blood, blood all,
not just a little bit or I'm saying, it just
(24:30):
saturated the floor.
Speaker 6 (24:32):
So other people are backing up. I'm backing up, and
now all of a.
Speaker 9 (24:36):
Sudden it may have been For me, it seemed like eternity.
It seemed like shocking. This kid was dead. They killed
him right in front of me. All of a sudden, O,
correction officers start showing up. They're like, who did it?
And on those guy goes did All the rest are
(24:57):
already now back on the other side, serving food like
nothing happened, you know. A correction officer like, okay, Bob, well
come along with me, you know the routine. But it
was no big deal. And here this person is just
laying there. So apparently this Bob is doing ten life sentences.
But the story goes that the individual that they pulled
(25:19):
out a line killed two children, so he never should
have been There's a lot of stories he never supposed
to be there, but he did, and correction officers kind
of had their breaks at the same time.
Speaker 6 (25:32):
I'm like, how would they know? It was exactly that
guy like three in front of me?
Speaker 9 (25:38):
So that was and if that can happen so easily,
just no real consequences, like dah, this just happens daily,
no big deal.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
This life in prison.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
Had quickly learned one way of avoiding being attacked in prison.
Speaker 9 (25:56):
So when other inmates would approached and asked for your
paper they wanted to know what you were charged with.
And I was convicted of driving around intoxicated, and as
soon as they saw that they would leave you alone.
If you didn't have your paperwork, they would give you
a day to show your paperwork. And if you didn't
show it, they knew that you were a sexual predator
(26:18):
or some type.
Speaker 6 (26:19):
So that wouldn't have been good.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Locked in a cage at a maximum security prison, Mark
received some unexpected news that changed his luck. He was
eligible for the Shock incarceration program, something he had never
heard of.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
I was in that cell for twenty seven days, twenty
three hours a day. You showered twice a week during
that time. I was introduced to shock because I believe
in the state of New York, if you have a
three year or under sentence and it's a first time offense,
by the law, you are entitled to complete the show program,
(27:00):
which would help you eliminate your sentence. It was a
counselor that handed out pamphlets that went around to the cells,
gave you literature on different programs, whether.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
It was drug related, alcohol related, you.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Know, different programs that you could because fishkill it's a
holding cell essentially, and then when you get transferred to
whichever prison you're going to go to, they can help
put you into these programs. So I saw the opportunity
to do shock and I said, well this is for me, like,
I want.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
This, I need this.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
You know, I can get out early, I can save
two years. Am I sentenced by doing this program? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Where do I sign? You know?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
And they took anybody that was willing to do that
was willing to want to learn about shock. They put
about thirty of us in a room. We watched the
video on what shock is all about, the daily routine,
what goes on, and they kind of lightened that video
up a little bit, you know, they made it look
a little better than it really is. But they said,
(27:58):
if you feel you, I think you can do this
sign at the bottom and we'll get you out of here.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
And that's what I did. I signed it.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
I remember writing my parents a letter about shock, and
I'm going to go this is what I'm going to do.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Mark got to connect with his childhood friend Jason before
he entered the shock incarceration program.
Speaker 11 (28:19):
I remember talking to Mark prior to his shock. We
had a couple of conversations on the phone. He kind
of shared with me a little bit of the background
of what had happened. It gave me a little the why, like, Hey,
this is what was going on. And he said, Hey,
I'm going to enter into this program that's a military
style of corrections and it's going to be really hard,
(28:41):
but I think it's going to one kind of helped
me get back to the person that I want to
be and who I was, and also expedite my sentence
a bit. And I said, wow, it sounds interesting but challenging, right,
I don't think that you've gone through a military experience
and you are you sure that's what you want to do.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Mark spent two weeks at Ulster before leaving for the
Lakeview Correctional Facility in Brockton, New York.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
They brought us to Ulster County Prison, which was essentially
a dorm style facility. It's a prison behind a wall, fences,
everything barbedire, but it was another holding pin, if he will,
until we were approved to fill a platoon or fill
a spot in the shock incarceration facility, and I was
(29:29):
there for two weeks before I went.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
His mother, Linda, was able to see him one more
time before he was transported to Lakeview.
Speaker 8 (29:38):
I can't really say a happy visit, but he was
looking forward to the shock program. He knew he had
to do what he had to do, and he was
very lucky to get that opportunity. And he pointed out
a couple of guys visiting with their family and he
(30:00):
would point out, Oh, he's coming with me. He's coming
with me, and the kind of became friends and looking
forward to whatever this shock program was. And he knew
in a certain amount of months he would be out,
so it was a little bit lighter. The visit was lighter.
(30:23):
He seemed to be a little bit more up. He
wasn't so dragged and down in the first.
Speaker 10 (30:29):
Time as we saw him.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
And soon after meeting with his mother, Mark began the
long bus ride to begin the shock incarceration program at
Lakeview Correctional Facility in Brockton, New York.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Maybe it's about thirty backers, he said, pack a batic.
We own your New York State owned nobody.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Don't do anything you're gonna make mistakes and we're gonna
call you out on everyone. The only time that there
is not a drill shocked around is when you're in
the shower and you have three minutes. And there was
a couple of times where some people threw a couple
(31:10):
of quick shots at somebody. It was just a way
to go in there, whack the guy and basically said,
don't fucking do it again. All right, you threw me
under the boss, you did this, I got you back.
Speaker 12 (31:30):
Shock Incarceration is a joint production from iHeartRadio and Doghouse Pictures,
produced and hosted by Jeff Keating. Executive producers are Mark Lombardo,
Tommy James, Noel Brown, and Jeff Keating. Written by Jim Roberts,
Tommy James, Chris Rigazzo and Jeff Keating. Story edit by
Jim Roberts, Edit mix and sound design by Lame Kraus
(31:50):
from Herd's Creek Productions. Music composed by Diamond Street Productions,
accompanied by Tyler Greenwell, Danny Watanis, Sean Thompson and Spencer
garn I Shall. Thanks to Trinity Investigative Group and Mark
Lombardo's family and friends who contributed to the podcast
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