March 4, 2022 • 46 mins
I talk to Joey Hendrickson, who became a victim of overzealous liquor control agents.
One would think in the State of Ohio their liquor agents and prosecutors would have far more important issues to address than sending a swat team to arrest a citizen who provides a source of income for struggling musicians.
So much for working altruistically to help others when the State determines you are violating an obscure statute that no one knows about and is violated every single day. Shame on the Ohio Department of Liquor Control and the City of Columbus Prosecutors office.
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Bret Adams is a Juris Doctorate and a recovering lawyer, a former 25-year member of the Ohio State Bar Association Professional Ethics and Conduct Committee, founder of Real Judges Don’t Wear Robes, and outspoken critic of a flawed legal system is using his 35 years of real-life legal experience to call out the incompetency and wrongdoing of lawyers, prosecutors, and Judges.
If you are sick of someone’s shit, let us know here.
Copyright 2025 Bret Adams
I need to give a shout out to my client and friend Murphy from American Idol who provides our theme music.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
song:
Certainly down. (00:08):
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No, by myself.
Just like you to
Bret Adams: Welcome to Lawyers Are Assholes. (00:15):
undefined
I'm your host, Brad Adams, a lawyer, I should say a
recovering lawyer who found a platform to address a broken
legal system. This is where we call out incompetent and
unscrupulous lawyers, prosecutors and judges.
Anyone that touches the legal system.
We're coming after you if you're an asshole.
Today, our guest is Joey Hendrickson.
Joey is an accomplished musician, founded the Columbus,
(00:37):
Ohio, songwriters group and is incredibly well respected
for all he's done to advance the music scene in his
community. So why would a young and well-respected musician
like Joey be on the Lawyers for Assholes podcast?
Well, a few months ago he was arrested and prosecuted, or,
I should say, persecuted under the most archaic of laws and
most ridiculous set of facts you can imagine.
(00:58):
One couldn't even make up the stories about the tell you.
But before we get to joy, let's start with our assholes of
the week. Now we are nonpartisan here because you can be an
asshole as a Democrat or Republican or independent.
But what is the deal with these state prosecutors in New
York and Georgia doing press releases and press
conferences, talking about the evidence or grand juries
regarding the former president?
(01:19):
Whether you hate him or love him.
You either charge the guy or you send him a letter
excoriating him.
Don't taint juries or put anyone through the wringer if
you're not going to charge him.
No prosecutor should be on television talking about
potential prosecution unless they're simply using the press
to enhance their own personal interest.
Remember, most of your local prosecutors are truly
politicians, not lawyers, who earn their positions through
(01:42):
hard work and intellect.
You only see them in high profile cases in most instances
and never lead counsel in the case.
Just do your job and don't make a spectacle of the process.
Folks, this could happen to you and me.
Keep the prosecutors out of the press as the system is
already slanted to the prosecution New York and Georgia
state prosecutors investigating the former president.
(02:02):
You are political opportunists and our assholes.
Asshole number two today is Julie Lynch of the Franklin
County Court of Common Pleas in Columbus, Ohio, the lowest
rated judge by far in the most recent attorney poll
ratings. A judge known only for grandstanding for the TV
cameras and disrespected by all the real lawyers in my
orbit, this judge is changing political parties so the
(02:24):
former Republican can get elected as a Democrat and a
Democratic county.
She says she can no longer recognize her party, but I'm
curious why she decided to wait until election year to
suddenly find her political soul.
Just stand up and tell the truth you can't win.
If people in this particular county believe you're a
Republican again, I don't care if my judge is a Democrat or
Republican, but I do want a judge, to be honest, and
(02:45):
there's no honesty in this pronouncement.
Plus, I'm tired of only hearing about this judge when she
calls in the TV cameras when she wants to ran on a criminal
defendant for her own personal benefit.
You Miss Lynch are not worthy of the title of a judge and
are an asshole. Welcome, welcome, Joey Hendrickson to
lawyers are assholes.
(03:06):
Appreciate you calling in.
Joy, usually.
Usually we get people in the studio, but you're going to
when I let you talk, you're going to explain where you're
at and how jealous we're all going to get.
But anyway, I wanted to tell everybody how I know Joey and
who Joey is and what he's done.
(03:26):
But but we've known each other now, Joey, for about 10
years and I have watched you create the Columbus Music
Commission, the Columbus Songwriters Group mover and shaker
in Columbus, Ohio, in the music scene.
And and just incredibly impressed with what you've
accomplished and where you're at in your career at this
(03:46):
point. And then a few months ago, I see you in the
newspaper and talk to you for a little while and I read
this story and I go, This cannot be happening.
This, this cannot be happening.
This story that I'm reading cannot be real.
This doesn't happen in twenty twenty two.
So I reached out to you and and then got the scoop and then
(04:10):
followed this to the conclusion.
And this does actually have a happy ending, although you're
not going to believe it.
And telling the story so, so Joey, introduce yourself and
take us through what happened here.
Joey Hendrickson: Thanks, Bret. Yeah, I mean, it's been many years of knowing (04:22):
undefined
each other, and I saw you take some of the biggest leaps
I've ever seen someone in Columbus try to take with, with
launching a major festival from the ground up and then
serving artists locally, regionally and nationally.
But it was it was cool to see you throw the football the
(04:42):
way that you did and score some touchdowns and Hail Mary at
around and and you know, in the process, you know, we have
this system inside of Columbus, Ohio that kind of looks to
either support or contain us.
And it's it's kind of been a fascinating journey for me
over the last 10 years, you know, really giving a huge
amount of my personal energy to music and and serving
(05:04):
artists, you know, while also working in technology and
innovation roles for four companies and firms.
You know, it's my heart.
My passion has been making the artists succeed, helping
them succeed, getting them paid and finding different ways
and constructs to do that, that benefit the city and also
(05:24):
the state of Ohio. So.
So when I when I got done with the Columbus Music
Commission project, we had gotten it launched.
We established leadership. I went off and consulted for a
couple of years and then I came back to Columbus with an
idea of, you know, my neighbor was moving out downstairs.
There's only two apartments in the apartment building
(05:44):
downtown. I decided to pick up his apartment and I was
walking around the living room and realized that there was
a there's a spot in the living room that would be perfect
to just have a small platform and have an artist perform.
And we'd have our friends from the songwriters association
come out and and listen to artists and.
(06:04):
And. And so I started creating this thing in twenty
nineteen and we did about 30 different concerts that were
super communal and close.
It almost felt like a Sunday service where friends would
come out and support artists.
And we just we just share a really good energy with good
people.
Bret Adams: And you called it, you called. (06:23):
undefined
You called it the parlor, right, Joey?
And you created very limited space, but you basically had
some couches in your living room, right?
I mean, I want people to understand exactly how innocent
innocent this whole project was.
Joey Hendrickson: Well, and happy to share some photos with you. (06:39):
undefined
I mean, yeah, we I didn't really have any other purpose for
the apartment, except, you know, I I realized it would be a
perfect house concert space.
And so I got it certified with Folk Alliance International,
which is a national organization that certifies house
concerts and protects them from any type of issues with
(06:59):
performing rights organizations, basically makes them legal
to to do what we do culturally.
And so I figured that certification.
Yeah, I mean, I went to IKEA and went across town and found
different, sort of like tufted furniture to put in, and we
kind of themed it around like a 1930s feel.
(07:22):
And yeah, there's four couches, seats, about 30 people.
And it's all it's all facing a little corner stage that
might my friend, who's a carpenter, he kind of put together
and put it in the corner of the room and behind it.
There's a there's a guy that was doing the sandwich boards
for a restaurant down the street, a little taco place.
(07:43):
But he had never done a mural before.
So we painted the wall black and put a mural up above the
stage. And it's a it's a androgynous skeleton type.
You know, you don't know if it's a male or a female, but
such skeleton is playing a trumpet, and so it just kind of
has to. You know, anybody and everybody's welcome kind of
(08:03):
kind of feel to it, we call it the parlor.
Bret Adams: Joe, you weren't doing this to make money and you certainly (08:05):
undefined
weren't selling alcohol and making a profit.
Joey Hendrickson: Yeah, that's that's correct. (08:12):
undefined
You know, while we kept the we kept the place sustainable
through donations.
Our goal was just to serve as many artists as we possibly
could. And you know, we'd have a touring artist who would
play the harp, you know, come in from New York City and
sleep in the apartment and play the show.
And so it made the whole thing very sustainable to just to
(08:34):
just dip into the arts and just get to know artists around
the country, but also artists locally.
Bret Adams: And so. (08:39):
undefined
And if somebody wanted to bring it was BYOB, right?
So so if somebody wanted to bring a six pack in, they could
they could come in and and watch the show and and have a
beer.
Joey Hendrickson: That's right. And so the entire thing was BYOB. (08:51):
undefined
And, you know, after doing about 30 shows, the first year
in twenty eighteen and then to twenty twenty, the pandemic
hit. So we we turned it off for a while.
But the the artists were struggling so much during the
(09:11):
pandemic that any time that they would allow us to do an
event that was, you know, 30 people or less, we would take
advantage of that opportunity from the state and we bring
people together and have a masked, socially distanced
environment, maybe 15 20 people in the room.
But people were able to support artists directly that we're
trying to feed their kids.
(09:31):
And so we kept it going, helping these full time artists to
kind of keep the gigs and and through donations, we
supported them now.
I think this guy, I think I think what happened here, Bret,
is. When everything died down culturally and the city,
nobody was going outside, nobody was doing anything.
(09:52):
You know, we were still we had our email list going and
sometimes we'd do these little these little tiny gatherings
and. I think that that's one of the things that might have
got the state looking at us and saying, you know, why are
20 people getting together in an apartment?
And you know what's going on here?
(10:13):
So it was an it was easy to almost pick us out of the crowd
at one point, I think.
Bret Adams: So you're doing, you're doing the concert, you're making no (10:16):
undefined
money, you're helping artists.
You're doing this is completely altruistic.
You bring a beer.
You're not charging for the liquor.
Everything is, I mean, this is really a good thing you're
doing for the community.
And then the Liquor State Liquor Commission for Ohio gets
involved. Tell the listeners what happened.
(10:37):
I mean, the guy coming in the door and explain what
happened.
Joey Hendrickson: So, so we have these we had a night with. (10:41):
undefined
It was like a blues night.
And I remember there was a guy sitting in the front row,
you know, on a couch.
And he started taking pictures of me and I thought he was
just a fan. I didn't understand what was going on because,
you know, for me, it's usually only friends that come.
(11:01):
I know everybody in the whole room.
And occasionally somebody will bring their friend and say,
Is it OK? And you know, our, you know, we usually we're
like, OK, you know, if you want to bring a friend with you,
that's fine. You know, just we want to get to know them.
And so this guy in the front, I think he's a friend of a
friend. He started taking pictures of me when I was kind of
(11:21):
introducing everybody to the artist that was about to
perform and and share music with us.
And I thought, That's kind of strange, this guy taking
pictures of me. But. I didn't think anything of it, and so
here I am, you know, I my my my friend is there and they
say, you know, they brought their own beer there.
(11:43):
They saw that there was a north high brewing beer in the
fridge. They wanted to try it.
It's a new seasonal brew.
And I was like, Yeah, my my buddy just dropped off some
north I brewing. You can, you know, and so I pass a beer to
my friend and there's no money exchange.
There's nothing like that.
But while I'm in the act of passing the beer from my fridge
to the hand of my friend, this guy in the front row is
(12:05):
taking a picture of me. And so.
You know, we we continue down the road here and, you know,
we do another event that's a Christian group.
They come in, there are folk Christian group sharing some
some Ohio folk music with us, Tim and his wife.
You know, they'd gotten a babysitter for the kids and they
(12:26):
came over and shared music with us.
And I noticed again, there's a couple in the corner that is
kind of taking pictures a little bit more like aggressively
than others. And you know, it's, you know, we had 12 people
there for that Christian group.
You know, it's a very socially distanced night.
Everything's cool.
(12:46):
Everything's chill. And then you give it two days and I've
got seven seven guys banging on my door downstairs while
I'm upstairs cooking some food, I'm literally just making
dinner. And.
Yes, seven huge cops SWAT style are trying to break into
the apartment. I thought it was an artist who left his
(13:08):
guitar behind or something, you know, and he was freaking
out trying to get in. It's seven guys come in, you know,
they put their hand over the hallway camera that's there
to, you know, for security purposes, for the building.
And you know, they they walk all the way upstairs into my
apartment and they they say they want to, you know, they
have a they have a warrant to search my whole building or
(13:31):
not my whole building. But they said they had a warrant to
search downstairs and I said, you can search my whole
building if you want, search everything like, I'm just
making dinner. Can I take the chicken out of the oven, you
know?
Bret Adams: And they didn't identify themselves or what they were. (13:39):
undefined
They're searching for.
At that point,
Joey Hendrickson: It's pretty clear that they were police of some sort. (13:45):
undefined
And then for me, kind of being naive to the situation, I
was just kind of like, you know, I had my shirt off
literally while cooking food, and I'm like, Can I put a
shirt on and take my salmon out of the oven?
Who was salmon? It wasn't chicken.
Can I take my salmon out of the oven?
I'm just like finishing dinner here.
Like? And, you know, they handed me a docket of papers and
(14:08):
it looked like they had a search warrant and, you know,
they looked like they were cops and I was like, OK, you
know, do whatever you want to do?
We have a we have a house concert space downstairs that's
certified with a national organization and, you know,
everybody. But at this
Bret Adams: Point, we're still you don't know why they're there. (14:22):
undefined
I mean, you have no idea why they're there at that point,
you're still in shock that they're in your house.
Joey Hendrickson: Yeah, I'm in shock. (14:29):
undefined
And also there's an artist that that was sleeping
downstairs from Nashville, Tennessee.
And and he's a he's a, you know, a Black American soulful
sax player. And so I'm kind of concerned about seven cops
going in to the apartment while he's sleeping downstairs.
But nevertheless, you know, they have a search warrant.
(14:50):
They're going to do what they have to do.
And luckily, my friend, he was out while they were in
there, but he came back while they were in the place and he
almost fainted. He was just shocked.
And so so they're going around the place and they're
literally just pulling some cans of beer out of the fridge
and putting them in a box as quote unquote evidence.
And it's, you know, it's just local craft beer.
(15:13):
My friend has, you know, brewed some craft beer here and
there. We have some stuff we got from the store.
You know, his stuff is also in the store.
So it was there's no moonshine, there was no drugs, there
was nothing. It was just a beer in the fridge, man.
Bret Adams: So at that point, I mean, after they collect this, did they (15:28):
undefined
say you're under arrest? Did they give you?
They give you a summons? Or what did they do?
What did they tell you at that point?
Joey Hendrickson: Well, so while four of them are in the in the place, you (15:36):
undefined
know, putting stuff in, you know, like counting, like
counting out beers, you know, 20, something, 30 something.
I don't remember the exact number, but they were counting
out some beer. The other two or three were like going
around the building, you know, looking for anything else
that might be suspicious or whatever.
And and I'm just like, All right, well, you guys are in
(15:59):
here. I'm calling my attorney friend that I know who's
downstairs, who's come to our house concerts, and he's a
really cool. He's a really cool guy who's, you know,
supports the Grateful Dead and comes out to the house
concerts. He like the community of it.
And so Dan, Dan Allen comes upstairs and he's there to kind
of explain to me what's going on so that I, you know, would
(16:22):
be my best in this situation too.
So. So Dan, literally, I called Dan and he has an office
downstairs. He's there.
And like, I don't know, it could have been a minute, 45,
you know, he's up the stairs and you know, he's in the room
with me. He's asking the police why they're there.
He's, you know, he he's explained to me what the documents
(16:44):
mean. I'm checking them out.
I sign the documents.
And I'm also I'm also telling the police, you know, hey, by
the way, from my understanding, we have done nothing wrong,
and I'm happy to sign your search warrant documents that
say that you were here.
But you know, we've had we've had City Council members
here. We've had, you know, some of the some of the top
(17:07):
executives from some companies here.
We've had artists here since multicultural,
multi-religious. And this is, you know, we're in the paper
already. You could have looked at our newspaper article
from twenty nineteen when the tourism department was
talking about us.
You know, it's not like this has been a secret.
Like, this is we've got grants from the Arts Council.
We've, you know, this is, you know, I don't know, I don't
(17:30):
know what you guys are doing or why you're doing it.
Bret Adams: Like they they they charge you at that point, Georgia did. (17:32):
undefined
Or did they take this evidence and then come back and
charge you? What was the sequence?
Joey Hendrickson: I think that they had already pre charged me before even (17:42):
undefined
searching, I don't know how that law and order works.
Bret Adams: Well, did they hand you? Did they hand you a summons and say (17:48):
undefined
be in court? Such and such date?
Joey Hendrickson: The papers had had outline what the actual charge that they (17:53):
undefined
said, yeah, the charges that they they were saying that we
had violated or had violated.
Ok, so it was keep replicates in illegal sales of alcohol,
is what they said.
And so I signed off that I had received those charges, I
guess. And then.
(18:14):
The court date, I did not receive a court date at that
point yet.
Bret Adams: Ok, so that is it. (18:17):
undefined
So they didn't handcuff you and take you to jail because
they were giving you a summons.
Right? Correct.
Ok, well, I guess I guess that was nice of them
considering, I mean, seven, I still can't believe that we
waste that kind of resources to come into somebody's house.
If they already had the evidence that you had beer in
during these events, why in the world?
(18:39):
Why would they send seven people to come to your house to
collect a couple of beers?
I mean, that's just that's insane.
That's insane.
Joey Hendrickson: It was weird and it was state it was some sort of state (18:48):
undefined
investigatory unit led by a guy named Eric Wolfe.
I later found out, but it was weird because at the same
time that they were in my house concerts in February of
twenty twenty one, there was there was people from their to
unit in the state that were moving fentanyl from Mexico
(19:11):
into Ohio, who later got charged like four of the same from
the same division for the same police officers that were
moving fentanyl were charged while they at the same time
their guys were in my house concerts enjoying blues night.
Right? Right.
Bret Adams: So now so what did you do? (19:30):
undefined
So at this point, so you get you get the summons, you find
a lawyer and you go and you plead, you plead not guilty and
then you deal with a prosecutor.
Please tell the listeners about your prosecution experience
with this initial touching the court system.
Joey Hendrickson: So so what happened was the same attorney who came into my (19:49):
undefined
apartment, Dan and super nice guy.
He offered to represent me in court in the situation.
But however, he's not a criminal defense attorney, so he
went with me to the court date, pled not guilty, and then I
passed the case over to a criminal defense attorney that
was recommended to me.
(20:13):
At least, yeah.
I mean, I got a yeah, I got a recommendation.
Ok. Ok, so.
So then criminal defense attorney, you know, we he goes to
the pretrial and he looks at the situation, he's like, This
is the weirdest situation I've ever seen, you know, I've
never I've never seen anything like this, but I'd be really
surprised if this doesn't get dropped.
(20:33):
And so he goes to represent me.
And during the pre trials, the.
The criminal, the criminal attorney on their side of the
state of Ohio doesn't drop the case, and so we go back and
back and go three times to pretrial.
Over the course of I don't know, about four or five months,
(20:55):
we have three different free trials here and we keep
talking to the attorney and they are just not willing to
back down on these, you know, for first degree misdemeanor
charges, which is like $2000 fine, that's one hundred and
eighty days in jail.
And it's the closest thing to a felony you can get, you
know,
Bret Adams: Someone it's an m one misdemeanor. (21:14):
undefined
But but Joey did.
This was a young prosecutor.
Did you ask, why are you trying to hold this over my head
for four misdemeanors?
Are you kidding me? I was unaware of this.
This was this was an innocent act.
There was no intent here.
I mean, Joey, I I I had multiple liquor license.
I didn't know this existed, and I don't think the common
person would have any idea this existed.
(21:37):
I mean, how many political fundraisers have I gotten to
where I'm at a house party and you know, you get all the
free liquor that you want to get?
I mean, and this is illegal in Ohio and the state of Ohio,
this is illegal because our liquor control agents have
nothing better to do, apparently.
Joey Hendrickson: Yeah, I mean, I'm doing this for months. (21:53):
undefined
I'm trying to, you know, it's kind of like a bee sting that
like lasts for like four months, just vibrates your system
and vibrates your body. Like, I'm four months and the
situation just kind of trusting me to get taken care of to
an extent, but also every day feeling like this almost like
this abusive kind of feeling like over me, like my nervous
system is kind of acting up, you know, I don't trust people
(22:15):
right now. I don't, you know, I'm kind of feeling,
especially after 10 years of giving back to the music scene
and, you know, supporting over like several million the
million dollars of impact to artists in the last 10 years.
And and I'm just kind of like, I don't understand why this
is happening. And then I also I also was looking at it from
(22:35):
a logic sense, and I'm like, I could not count on there was
not a single time that I ever exchanged money for alcohol.
Never.
Bret Adams: But you told Joe, you told this prosecutor, you and your (22:43):
undefined
lawyer, you had this discussion.
What did the prosecutors say in return when you said, Hey,
this, there was no intent here was it was.
I don't care. I don't care.
I'm representing the liquor commission and I'm afraid of
them. And if I don't prosecute you, I'm going to lose my
job. I mean, was there any indication?
(23:03):
I mean, what did they say?
You remember what that prosecutor said?
I'm curious as to how they could justify this prosecution.
Joey Hendrickson: Well, so our attorney was going to her in trying every angle (23:11):
undefined
of logic to help her understand what we were doing.
And he was he was referencing examples like, you know,
there are college frat parties where you you pay dues to a
fraternity and you drink for free.
And you know, there are there are weddings in people's
homes where you you pay, you know, you give the bride a
(23:34):
gift and in exchange, they have open bar.
And so there was every angle of this that was trying to be
explained to the prosecutor.
The prosecutor was saying that because of, you know, we are
the basically I have a decently large community of friends
in Columbus after being there for 10 years.
And you know, they're probably two thousand five hundred
people who had come out to our house concerts to support
(23:56):
artists over the course of a few years.
And so they were saying that they had enough evidence that
promotionally on the side that of our email list and the
private Facebook page, we maintained that this was
something that was violating the law because of the
promotional use cases of the situation.
But we still go back to the fraternity that has all these
(24:18):
members and we still go back to all the weddings that are
being produced in homes that are inviting, you know,
they're sending out invitations via snail mail, via email,
via Facebook to their friends.
And it's political fundraisers as well being, you know, you
have large camps of people that are being promoted to these
events. So she was holding on to an evidence that
(24:40):
promotionally we had we had basically created a house
concert that was on steroids.
Bret Adams: So she was she was just completely following the letter of (24:45):
undefined
the law. No discretion.
No, no, I'm not going to go to my boss.
I'm not going to. I'm not going to talk to anybody about
this. You did this or you're screwed, which I've seen my
entire career. But that was that was the logic, right?
Joey Hendrickson: Yeah. And and when she was when it got to the point where I (25:02):
undefined
realized that we're probably going to have to go to trial.
I mean, that's when I was just like, OK, I mean, there was
this. I was chill for four months and then I started
responding. I started being like, OK, if we're going to go
to trial, then I'm going to start preparing for this.
(25:23):
And I started reaching out to our community who had a
friend who had come up to these house concerts.
And I was like. All right, let's write letters, let's
prepare testimony, let's you know, I'd like to figure out
who wants to come and testify in trial, please sign up
here, you know, but you also
Bret Adams: Have a city council, right? (25:39):
undefined
You actually took this case to City Council.
Joey Hendrickson: Well, that was the I was embarrassed by the whole situation, (25:43):
undefined
Brett. So I hesitated on going to a City Council meeting.
But there was a point where I crossed the threshold with
this, like because I was talking to a few of my friends
that were like, Joey, this is absolutely ridiculous.
And so they because of those conversations and because of
(26:03):
the really the support of the community around me saying
this never should have happened to you.
This shouldn't happen to us.
Like there's nothing wrong done.
The fire of the the friend around me led me to realize that
I need to go talk to the guys that, you know, the City
Council members who had actually attended our house
concerts and say, We're in this situation and you were
(26:25):
there and you were there and you were there.
Yeah, you know.
And so I found out that you can if something is a pretty
large grievance, like there is the ability in Columbus,
Ohio, to go to basically an open mic, you know, you get
five minutes to speak in front of council and you can write
down or prepare your statement and then you can tell City
(26:48):
Council what's going on and address a community issue.
And so for the first time in my life, I wound down a city
council and I had 20 friends with me, and they represented
about 100000 people collectively through their their bands
in their, you know, Instagram followers and you know, their
their their friends and their groups.
And the 20 of us went down there, sat and I went up on the
(27:10):
mic and I told Shannon Hardin, President Council, you know,
Shannon Hardin and the rest of the I said, you know, here's
what happened and here's what's going on.
And and we're going to advocate for some change around
this. If you don't, we will.
But I expect that you will, too, because you understand the
value of the creative economy in our city and you
(27:31):
understand that times have evolved and during the pandemic,
we need to support those who can't feed their kids.
And you know, we're trying to help our musician friends not
lose their homes, and that's why we're collecting
donations.
Bret Adams: Here's here's a question I question I have for you, Joey. (27:43):
undefined
Then I think I know the answer.
My guess is that none of them reached out to Zach Klein,
the city attorney, or made any effort to deal with your
criminal case. I mean, is that is that a correct
assumption?
Joey Hendrickson: You know, I I don't understand the inner workings of City (27:57):
undefined
Council to know how quickly people receive information
about what goes on in those meetings.
But I do know that it's the first council meeting the city
attorneys that client actually presented on the video.
And so he kind of satellite it in.
(28:19):
And so I'm not sure if he satellite it and then was present
in that meeting and he heard my testimony or or if he was
ever actually aware of it.
But I went back a second time because it seemed like very
little had been accomplished the first time.
And the second time that I went, it was clear that they
(28:40):
were very busy in council.
They had lots of things that they were doing and there was
a big homeless funding initiative that was happening.
There was lots and lots of moving parts, and there was one
council member who who came around and said, I will sponsor
this. You know, I've worked with the public fire and police
for, you know, championing championing them for the last 20
(29:01):
years. And council member Brown, that is and he he he was
actually approaching his retirement that year, but he he
got one of his legislative aides to begin to look into the
policy around house concerts and where that existed or
didn't exist were the definitions were or weren't?
(29:21):
And through this legislative aid and support to the council
member Brown, his name is Grant Aimes.
We started dissecting and looking into any of the policy
that might exist for home based gatherings.
And he was coming up with a lot of this is a super super
gray area and we have no real time policy for this.
Bret Adams: But Joey, none of this impacted your your pending four (29:43):
undefined
cases, though, right?
I mean, ultimately, you went down and because you didn't
want to appropriately didn't want to spend five grand that
it would take to try this case, you pled to something that
you didn't even want to plead to, but you did it for what
most people do these cases for, they can't afford to
(30:05):
litigate.
Joey Hendrickson: Well, and so here my situation was we were up against case (30:05):
undefined
law. So if they had indicted me for these charges, they
could go into every single punk house on OSU campus and
every single little cultural place of peace in Columbus and
stormed through the doors and serve them.
And so I was really, really out of it on.
(30:28):
I mean, at this point, it was my case was one thing, but I
looked at the 400 other house concerts that were happening
across the city, and I realized that if they had collected
donations and we're drinking beer, they would get the same
charges that I was getting.
Bret Adams: So essentially, you took you took one for the team here, you (30:43):
undefined
took one for the team.
Joey Hendrickson: Well, so so what happened was I started initially working (30:48):
undefined
with Grant to create local policies.
That case law couldn't happen so that definitions were in
place so that people could follow the definitions.
But the definition didn't exist, and the city needed the
definitions from the state so that they wouldn't get sued
from the state by having a different set of definitions in
the state's laws.
(31:09):
And so this is a really disorganized policy area where they
didn't know how to align to the state and the state weren't
giving them clear direction on how they could write policy.
And so we realized that we needed to basically change the
keeper of a place law to have clearer definitions so that
cities around Ohio could actually create local policy that
(31:29):
allows their house content providers to to create events
that home based events or gatherings that align to the
state's laws. And so as a giant, not to untie.
And so I began this work and it became part of my my
confidence to advocate in the press about the situation.
And when we advocated in the press, I found that ninety
(31:50):
nine percent of my friends and the people around me were
supportive of the situation, saying, You're right, we do
need policy for house concerts that keeps us legal and we
do need the state to, you know, make those definitions
clear. And we do need the city to basically, you know,
align to those state policies in the most liberal way so we
can do what we want to do in our homes.
(32:11):
And and so after the community agreed and kind of backed
me, that's when I reached out to the state rep, Kristen
Boggs, and I explained to her the situation and I said, you
know, political fundraisers in homes are violating the law
all the time. But because we had a guitar strapped around
our shoulders, we got looked like, you know, the criminals,
you know, where are the criminals? Because we have we have
(32:32):
a piano in front of us or a guitar over our shoulders and
the politicians are getting slammed with this.
We are.
Bret Adams: So you they've drafted a bill. (32:39):
undefined
You sent that bill to me to change the law.
I mean, you, you are single handedly responsible for
changing this or about to change this archaic, ridiculous,
stupid law.
And it looks like that's going to pass, right?
Joey Hendrickson: So it's going to be it's introduced in it's co-sponsored, (32:56):
undefined
which now it just means the communities that get around it
and and support it and that next level of advocacy so that
it's passed. But because of the fact Brett, because this
bill was written by a state rep and being planned to
introduce to the House the prosecutor, when that was shared
with her, this young prosecutor said, OK, we won't go to
(33:19):
trial and we'll offer you a plea.
Bret Adams: So you basically you created Joe, you created your own (33:22):
undefined
leverage, which is again outrageous that you had to do it.
The case should have never been prosecuted as soon as she
saw the facts and that you weren't doing this
intentionally, she should have dismissed the damn charges,
but that was your leverage.
What did you plea to?
What was the ultimate plea?
Joey Hendrickson: So I had to plead to a disorderly conduct. (33:39):
undefined
Bret Adams: Well, that's you, Joe. You're a troublemaker man. (33:42):
undefined
Joey Hendrickson: So, so ended up being a, you know, a fine and a three years (33:46):
undefined
of probation that I cannot, you know, sell alcohol
illegally, which is your problem, because
Bret Adams: Three years, three years probation on a disorderly? (33:57):
undefined
You're kidding me? Yeah.
Who was the judge who?
Joey Hendrickson: So this was initially Judge Skinner, and I don't know. (34:05):
undefined
They there's a different judge in the courtroom at the
time, but he actually looked at me and he said, I'm glad
you didn't go to trial. This would have been a waste of my
time. And I'm thinking I just wasted eight months trying to
untie all these knots that the legal system has to try to
(34:26):
support the city and the state to do something right.
And trial for three days would have been another waste of
time, sure. But also my nine months of time trying to untie
this was a waste of time.
But nevertheless, I think what we're going to end up with
Bret is some sort of interesting environment where we're
now regulating what people do in their homes and in their
(34:46):
next level format with clear definitions.
Just because the state police came out.
We're extremely aggressive around house concerts.
Bret Adams: It's outrageous. (34:55):
undefined
This law is not passed yet.
So if you come to Ohio, be prepared.
If you go. If you go to a political fundraiser or a house
party or your neighbors party and you got a little bit of
music and you take donations, get prepared for the for the
brown shirts to come in and in search.
(35:16):
It's just inconceivable.
I just I still I can't understand it.
You know, I've known about this.
I mean, since we talked about you doing the podcast, I just
can't believe this happened.
I can't believe it happened.
Joey Hendrickson: It's. You out, but but I'm excited about this bill because (35:27):
undefined
the bill actually says it passed, you can have up to five
events in your home where you actually sell alcohol for a
beneficial cause related purpose.
So if this bill is passed, it actually liberalize what you
(35:49):
can do inside your home.
And it creates a way bigger opportunity for people to
actually support artists or support homelessness or support
the causes that they believe in.
And it's spelled out in the law that you can do it if it
passes. And I don't know if police will be those front
doors counting how many events that they have in their
(36:11):
homes. You know, I think that would be a borderline
harassment. So this law really gets us to a place where if
I could have five events in my home and and contribute to
my community, I it could be incredibly impactful for all
the homes in Upper Arlington and Bexley and downtown and
Hilliard and Worthington Westerville.
(36:32):
Imagine five percent of people that live in these
communities having five events that benefit artists or
benefit. The next the next level cause the cancer.
I mean, the amount of money that could be raised to support
community could be millions and millions of dollars through
this through this one law.
Bret Adams: Well, it's incredible. But but look at the sacrifice you had (36:53):
undefined
to make to get it here.
I mean, here's the other another thought Join somebody
turned you in. I mean, somebody, somebody.
And again, I had a mentor.
Tell me early on when I a couple of TV things I did and it
was like, Listen, success springs can tap.
(37:14):
People are going to come after you now and you get any, any
sort of notoriety, publicity.
People are going to always nipping at your heels to to come
after you and joy that had to happen here.
I mean, somebody somebody had to call the liquor commission
that just had a burr up their ass and and know what the law
was because normal people and talk to you, normal people
(37:36):
would have said if this was happening, then we're going to
send him a cease and desist.
We're going to we're going to find him and tell him, you
can't do this.
They didn't do that.
You know, the money they sent for misdemeanors to to go to
your place twice, set you up, take those photos and then
and then descend all those guys in it had to be it had to
(38:00):
be a setup. I mean, somebody, somebody somebody called in
and you need to find that person, Joey.
Joey Hendrickson: Well, it's interesting. (38:07):
undefined
I think that person already sort of identified themselves
because I told you earlier it was ninety nine percent of
people in my community and my world.
My friend group supported me.
There was one attorney who didn't.
And that attorney is also connected to a non-profit
organization that I know that there's one guy in that
nonprofit that doesn't like me because I didn't like how he
(38:31):
became the executive director of that organization is
buying people off.
And I called him out on it.
I whistleblower,
Bret Adams: That sounds well. That sounds logical if an attorney was (38:37):
undefined
involved, because who?
I mean, unless you did liquor law.
I don't know that any of my attorney friends would would
know what this. Know that you couldn't do this house party
and be in violation of of liquor control.
Joey Hendrickson: Yeah. And this attorney specifically said that keeper of a (38:53):
undefined
place law was the law he'd love to use on people when he
was an attorney. And, you know, and representing Columbus.
And so when he singled himself out like that in front of
me, I realized that, you know, and he was basically telling
me, You know, you got to do your time.
It really showed me that that was probably, yeah, he
(39:16):
singled himself out in the situation, and I immediately
disconnected from him and realized that he was the only
single person throughout the entire nine months who had
spoken that way to me as sort of coming down on me.
He was the only single person.
And it's tough because, you know, you have close friends
that you think your friends and you know, it's a huge
(39:37):
violation of my trust.
You know, when when I hear those voices and see those
people kind of single themselves out, but then I don't want
to deal with the reality, Bret, that we have.
We have people who are close friends that would literally
like try to throw us into the police just because of
something that some some sort of interpersonal conflict
they were too afraid to talk about or something.
(39:58):
Well, that's reality.
Bret Adams: Sure, that's reality, Joey. (39:59):
undefined
Success. Success breeds contempt.
It happens every day.
And I think you were think you were a victim of it.
But but man, this this what you've done in changing this
law. And if this bill gets passed to turn such a bullshit
experience into what what you've accomplished is, it's it's
(40:23):
really it's incredible, man.
I salute you for turning this negativity because I talked
to you when you were down and you didn't have the the same
attitude as you do right now, brother.
Joey Hendrickson: That's true, man. And you also sent to me, you sent me a (40:35):
undefined
few, a few really amazing people who had conversations with
who were on the legal side who showed me that the majority
of attorneys actually think the same on this situation.
And you know, I got seven or eight validating voices from
attorneys that are that have dealt with liquor law, and
(40:57):
they said, this is ridiculous.
And that that ended up itself gave me the confidence to
kind of see between the lines and read between the lines
and realize kind of who was singling themselves out as
trying to come down on the law versus who was actually an
attorney. That was that was kind of logical in their
pursuit of what should exist and what shouldn't exist in
society. And it helped me separate things and see things
(41:19):
clearly. And I really appreciate your involvement.
Bret Adams: Well, I really appreciate you coming and telling the story. (41:21):
undefined
I think people need to need to know this and hear about it.
But we were a couple of seconds behind, so I didn't
interrupt you every single time, but wanted to tell
everybody where you're where are you calling me from?
Joey Hendrickson: So yeah, after all this, I mean, I looked around. (41:34):
undefined
I mean, we we ended up having a after I took the plea deal,
we ended up having a few house concerts and starting to
raise money to advocate for this law change.
And I realized that there's somebody out there that's still
salivating to try to, you know, to try to knock off our
house concerts or try to catch me on some sort of a, you
(41:57):
know, a technicality.
And so I realized that once we get this bill passed is
when, you know, I'll be basically safe to resume the House
concerts and and so that door felt like it was closing and
relationally, the trust issues and the violations, you
know, with a close friend, I think that door also closed
(42:19):
for me and around me in Columbus.
I just I looked at the system, I looked the society, the
cold weather, and I realized that the actually the the best
work that I can be doing for artists right now is to
support them and digital means.
And then also there's a company in San Francisco that
backed me to create events all around the world right now.
(42:40):
So I'm I'm actually in Bogota.
I'm in a is a it's an amazing place.
If you speak Spanish, especially the whole world opens up
to you here. And I'm actually going around South America
and kind of producing events with artists here and just
taking some time away from Columbus to see things from a
(43:00):
bird's eye view and decide if that's really the place I'm
going to invest the next 10 years of my life.
Bret Adams: Well, I'm envious of where you're at, and I certainly can (43:05):
undefined
understand why after what you went through with would take
that that break.
But I mean, I really appreciate you telling us to.
I appreciate you coming on.
Follow this bill to the end, Joe and get it done.
Joey Hendrickson: I appreciate it. I will. (43:20):
undefined
And if anybody out there is interested in supporting that
bill, Brett, I'm sure that there's a way that we'll put on
Bret Adams: The show notes. We'll put it on the show, notes joy. (43:28):
undefined
We'll I'll get with you.
We'll get some information here and make that happen.
Ok, wonderful.
All right. Get back out in the sun.
Get back out in the Sun.
Joey Hendrickson: Okay? Thanks, man. (43:38):
undefined
Thanks.
Bret Adams: So thanks to Joe Hendrickson calling in from Bogota. (43:40):
undefined
It sent me some, some pictures which I can't discuss in
Brett's rant. But let me just say this he's he's having a
good time. He's having a good time down there.
But this is the reason that I did this podcast.
I mean, when you when you look at a guy, I mean, this guy,
he is a good human being doing good things, unaware of this
(44:02):
law. And when you got seven, I mean, how many how many
liquor agents does it take to come in and confiscate a few
beers? And if they had the photo evidence before, wouldn't
that have been enough to prosecute?
I mean, why? Why were they trying to build this tremendous
case? And then and then here we go to the problem of having
(44:23):
a young prosecutor.
Joey had told me off audio that he thought the prosecutor
was 20 to 23 years, eight, well, probably 25 if she went
through law school, but nevertheless a prosecutor that
probably didn't have the experience to look at this thing
objectively had that prosecutorial mentality of, you know,
(44:45):
I'm going to get this guy. And some of it may had to do
with Joey and and out there with the media, and they
probably became aware of, you know, he's getting some
public support that that this is this is really stupid.
This is just an unfair prosecution.
And he had mentioned Zach Klein, the city attorney.
I think Zach's a good guy, and my guess is he probably
(45:06):
wasn't aware of it. I mean, he does this little report at
City Council, but he probably wasn't aware that this was
happening because I just can't believe logically that that
he would prosecute this because folks, prosecutors have
discretion, they have prosecutorial discretion.
And if you if you came in and I mean to try to nail him
with four four misdemeanors to have multiple pre trials,
(45:28):
the. But this is stressful to people.
This is stressful. And I know Joey had a tremendous amount
of stress related to this.
And it's and it's unnecessary because one, the case
shouldn't have been prosecuted and two, it should have been
dismissed as soon as the prosecutor realized what the facts
are. And again, kudos to Joey for Joe Joey for turning this
(45:49):
into an incredible positive by getting this bill passed,
but it's just another example of of the of the system gone
awry because there's no logic to this.
There's no sense to this.
And and maybe, maybe we'll get a couple of people at the
Liquor Commission to hear this podcast.
And because I can't, I don't know how you justify what,
(46:10):
what they did and who want that job anyway, who what kind
of person would go in and screw this guy's life up?
Who would do that won't be your intent to go in and get a
beer out of the damn refrigerator?
What kind of person does that?
So anyway, before I really get pissed off, I'm going to,
I'm going to leave it there.
Thank you so much for listening.
(46:31):
The lawyers are assholes.
undefined
No, by myself.
Just like you to
Bret Adams: Welcome to Lawyers Are Assholes. (00:15):
undefined
I'm your host, Brad Adams, a lawyer, I should say a
recovering lawyer who found a platform to address a broken
legal system. This is where we call out incompetent and
unscrupulous lawyers, prosecutors and judges.
Anyone that touches the legal system.
We're coming after you if you're an asshole.
Today, our guest is Joey Hendrickson.
Joey is an accomplished musician, founded the Columbus,
(00:37):
Ohio, songwriters group and is incredibly well respected
for all he's done to advance the music scene in his
community. So why would a young and well-respected musician
like Joey be on the Lawyers for Assholes podcast?
Well, a few months ago he was arrested and prosecuted, or,
I should say, persecuted under the most archaic of laws and
most ridiculous set of facts you can imagine.
(00:58):
One couldn't even make up the stories about the tell you.
But before we get to joy, let's start with our assholes of
the week. Now we are nonpartisan here because you can be an
asshole as a Democrat or Republican or independent.
But what is the deal with these state prosecutors in New
York and Georgia doing press releases and press
conferences, talking about the evidence or grand juries
regarding the former president?
(01:19):
Whether you hate him or love him.
You either charge the guy or you send him a letter
excoriating him.
Don't taint juries or put anyone through the wringer if
you're not going to charge him.
No prosecutor should be on television talking about
potential prosecution unless they're simply using the press
to enhance their own personal interest.
Remember, most of your local prosecutors are truly
politicians, not lawyers, who earn their positions through
(01:42):
hard work and intellect.
You only see them in high profile cases in most instances
and never lead counsel in the case.
Just do your job and don't make a spectacle of the process.
Folks, this could happen to you and me.
Keep the prosecutors out of the press as the system is
already slanted to the prosecution New York and Georgia
state prosecutors investigating the former president.
(02:02):
You are political opportunists and our assholes.
Asshole number two today is Julie Lynch of the Franklin
County Court of Common Pleas in Columbus, Ohio, the lowest
rated judge by far in the most recent attorney poll
ratings. A judge known only for grandstanding for the TV
cameras and disrespected by all the real lawyers in my
orbit, this judge is changing political parties so the
(02:24):
former Republican can get elected as a Democrat and a
Democratic county.
She says she can no longer recognize her party, but I'm
curious why she decided to wait until election year to
suddenly find her political soul.
Just stand up and tell the truth you can't win.
If people in this particular county believe you're a
Republican again, I don't care if my judge is a Democrat or
Republican, but I do want a judge, to be honest, and
(02:45):
there's no honesty in this pronouncement.
Plus, I'm tired of only hearing about this judge when she
calls in the TV cameras when she wants to ran on a criminal
defendant for her own personal benefit.
You Miss Lynch are not worthy of the title of a judge and
are an asshole. Welcome, welcome, Joey Hendrickson to
lawyers are assholes.
(03:06):
Appreciate you calling in.
Joy, usually.
Usually we get people in the studio, but you're going to
when I let you talk, you're going to explain where you're
at and how jealous we're all going to get.
But anyway, I wanted to tell everybody how I know Joey and
who Joey is and what he's done.
(03:26):
But but we've known each other now, Joey, for about 10
years and I have watched you create the Columbus Music
Commission, the Columbus Songwriters Group mover and shaker
in Columbus, Ohio, in the music scene.
And and just incredibly impressed with what you've
accomplished and where you're at in your career at this
(03:46):
point. And then a few months ago, I see you in the
newspaper and talk to you for a little while and I read
this story and I go, This cannot be happening.
This, this cannot be happening.
This story that I'm reading cannot be real.
This doesn't happen in twenty twenty two.
So I reached out to you and and then got the scoop and then
(04:10):
followed this to the conclusion.
And this does actually have a happy ending, although you're
not going to believe it.
And telling the story so, so Joey, introduce yourself and
take us through what happened here.
Joey Hendrickson: Thanks, Bret. Yeah, I mean, it's been many years of knowing (04:22):
undefined
each other, and I saw you take some of the biggest leaps
I've ever seen someone in Columbus try to take with, with
launching a major festival from the ground up and then
serving artists locally, regionally and nationally.
But it was it was cool to see you throw the football the
(04:42):
way that you did and score some touchdowns and Hail Mary at
around and and you know, in the process, you know, we have
this system inside of Columbus, Ohio that kind of looks to
either support or contain us.
And it's it's kind of been a fascinating journey for me
over the last 10 years, you know, really giving a huge
amount of my personal energy to music and and serving
(05:04):
artists, you know, while also working in technology and
innovation roles for four companies and firms.
You know, it's my heart.
My passion has been making the artists succeed, helping
them succeed, getting them paid and finding different ways
and constructs to do that, that benefit the city and also
(05:24):
the state of Ohio. So.
So when I when I got done with the Columbus Music
Commission project, we had gotten it launched.
We established leadership. I went off and consulted for a
couple of years and then I came back to Columbus with an
idea of, you know, my neighbor was moving out downstairs.
There's only two apartments in the apartment building
(05:44):
downtown. I decided to pick up his apartment and I was
walking around the living room and realized that there was
a there's a spot in the living room that would be perfect
to just have a small platform and have an artist perform.
And we'd have our friends from the songwriters association
come out and and listen to artists and.
(06:04):
And. And so I started creating this thing in twenty
nineteen and we did about 30 different concerts that were
super communal and close.
It almost felt like a Sunday service where friends would
come out and support artists.
And we just we just share a really good energy with good
people.
Bret Adams: And you called it, you called. (06:23):
undefined
You called it the parlor, right, Joey?
And you created very limited space, but you basically had
some couches in your living room, right?
I mean, I want people to understand exactly how innocent
innocent this whole project was.
Joey Hendrickson: Well, and happy to share some photos with you. (06:39):
undefined
I mean, yeah, we I didn't really have any other purpose for
the apartment, except, you know, I I realized it would be a
perfect house concert space.
And so I got it certified with Folk Alliance International,
which is a national organization that certifies house
concerts and protects them from any type of issues with
(06:59):
performing rights organizations, basically makes them legal
to to do what we do culturally.
And so I figured that certification.
Yeah, I mean, I went to IKEA and went across town and found
different, sort of like tufted furniture to put in, and we
kind of themed it around like a 1930s feel.
(07:22):
And yeah, there's four couches, seats, about 30 people.
And it's all it's all facing a little corner stage that
might my friend, who's a carpenter, he kind of put together
and put it in the corner of the room and behind it.
There's a there's a guy that was doing the sandwich boards
for a restaurant down the street, a little taco place.
(07:43):
But he had never done a mural before.
So we painted the wall black and put a mural up above the
stage. And it's a it's a androgynous skeleton type.
You know, you don't know if it's a male or a female, but
such skeleton is playing a trumpet, and so it just kind of
has to. You know, anybody and everybody's welcome kind of
(08:03):
kind of feel to it, we call it the parlor.
Bret Adams: Joe, you weren't doing this to make money and you certainly (08:05):
undefined
weren't selling alcohol and making a profit.
Joey Hendrickson: Yeah, that's that's correct. (08:12):
undefined
You know, while we kept the we kept the place sustainable
through donations.
Our goal was just to serve as many artists as we possibly
could. And you know, we'd have a touring artist who would
play the harp, you know, come in from New York City and
sleep in the apartment and play the show.
And so it made the whole thing very sustainable to just to
(08:34):
just dip into the arts and just get to know artists around
the country, but also artists locally.
Bret Adams: And so. (08:39):
undefined
And if somebody wanted to bring it was BYOB, right?
So so if somebody wanted to bring a six pack in, they could
they could come in and and watch the show and and have a
beer.
Joey Hendrickson: That's right. And so the entire thing was BYOB. (08:51):
undefined
And, you know, after doing about 30 shows, the first year
in twenty eighteen and then to twenty twenty, the pandemic
hit. So we we turned it off for a while.
But the the artists were struggling so much during the
(09:11):
pandemic that any time that they would allow us to do an
event that was, you know, 30 people or less, we would take
advantage of that opportunity from the state and we bring
people together and have a masked, socially distanced
environment, maybe 15 20 people in the room.
But people were able to support artists directly that we're
trying to feed their kids.
(09:31):
And so we kept it going, helping these full time artists to
kind of keep the gigs and and through donations, we
supported them now.
I think this guy, I think I think what happened here, Bret,
is. When everything died down culturally and the city,
nobody was going outside, nobody was doing anything.
(09:52):
You know, we were still we had our email list going and
sometimes we'd do these little these little tiny gatherings
and. I think that that's one of the things that might have
got the state looking at us and saying, you know, why are
20 people getting together in an apartment?
And you know what's going on here?
(10:13):
So it was an it was easy to almost pick us out of the crowd
at one point, I think.
Bret Adams: So you're doing, you're doing the concert, you're making no (10:16):
undefined
money, you're helping artists.
You're doing this is completely altruistic.
You bring a beer.
You're not charging for the liquor.
Everything is, I mean, this is really a good thing you're
doing for the community.
And then the Liquor State Liquor Commission for Ohio gets
involved. Tell the listeners what happened.
(10:37):
I mean, the guy coming in the door and explain what
happened.
Joey Hendrickson: So, so we have these we had a night with. (10:41):
undefined
It was like a blues night.
And I remember there was a guy sitting in the front row,
you know, on a couch.
And he started taking pictures of me and I thought he was
just a fan. I didn't understand what was going on because,
you know, for me, it's usually only friends that come.
(11:01):
I know everybody in the whole room.
And occasionally somebody will bring their friend and say,
Is it OK? And you know, our, you know, we usually we're
like, OK, you know, if you want to bring a friend with you,
that's fine. You know, just we want to get to know them.
And so this guy in the front, I think he's a friend of a
friend. He started taking pictures of me when I was kind of
(11:21):
introducing everybody to the artist that was about to
perform and and share music with us.
And I thought, That's kind of strange, this guy taking
pictures of me. But. I didn't think anything of it, and so
here I am, you know, I my my my friend is there and they
say, you know, they brought their own beer there.
(11:43):
They saw that there was a north high brewing beer in the
fridge. They wanted to try it.
It's a new seasonal brew.
And I was like, Yeah, my my buddy just dropped off some
north I brewing. You can, you know, and so I pass a beer to
my friend and there's no money exchange.
There's nothing like that.
But while I'm in the act of passing the beer from my fridge
to the hand of my friend, this guy in the front row is
(12:05):
taking a picture of me. And so.
You know, we we continue down the road here and, you know,
we do another event that's a Christian group.
They come in, there are folk Christian group sharing some
some Ohio folk music with us, Tim and his wife.
You know, they'd gotten a babysitter for the kids and they
(12:26):
came over and shared music with us.
And I noticed again, there's a couple in the corner that is
kind of taking pictures a little bit more like aggressively
than others. And you know, it's, you know, we had 12 people
there for that Christian group.
You know, it's a very socially distanced night.
Everything's cool.
(12:46):
Everything's chill. And then you give it two days and I've
got seven seven guys banging on my door downstairs while
I'm upstairs cooking some food, I'm literally just making
dinner. And.
Yes, seven huge cops SWAT style are trying to break into
the apartment. I thought it was an artist who left his
(13:08):
guitar behind or something, you know, and he was freaking
out trying to get in. It's seven guys come in, you know,
they put their hand over the hallway camera that's there
to, you know, for security purposes, for the building.
And you know, they they walk all the way upstairs into my
apartment and they they say they want to, you know, they
have a they have a warrant to search my whole building or
(13:31):
not my whole building. But they said they had a warrant to
search downstairs and I said, you can search my whole
building if you want, search everything like, I'm just
making dinner. Can I take the chicken out of the oven, you
know?
Bret Adams: And they didn't identify themselves or what they were. (13:39):
undefined
They're searching for.
At that point,
Joey Hendrickson: It's pretty clear that they were police of some sort. (13:45):
undefined
And then for me, kind of being naive to the situation, I
was just kind of like, you know, I had my shirt off
literally while cooking food, and I'm like, Can I put a
shirt on and take my salmon out of the oven?
Who was salmon? It wasn't chicken.
Can I take my salmon out of the oven?
I'm just like finishing dinner here.
Like? And, you know, they handed me a docket of papers and
(14:08):
it looked like they had a search warrant and, you know,
they looked like they were cops and I was like, OK, you
know, do whatever you want to do?
We have a we have a house concert space downstairs that's
certified with a national organization and, you know,
everybody. But at this
Bret Adams: Point, we're still you don't know why they're there. (14:22):
undefined
I mean, you have no idea why they're there at that point,
you're still in shock that they're in your house.
Joey Hendrickson: Yeah, I'm in shock. (14:29):
undefined
And also there's an artist that that was sleeping
downstairs from Nashville, Tennessee.
And and he's a he's a, you know, a Black American soulful
sax player. And so I'm kind of concerned about seven cops
going in to the apartment while he's sleeping downstairs.
But nevertheless, you know, they have a search warrant.
(14:50):
They're going to do what they have to do.
And luckily, my friend, he was out while they were in
there, but he came back while they were in the place and he
almost fainted. He was just shocked.
And so so they're going around the place and they're
literally just pulling some cans of beer out of the fridge
and putting them in a box as quote unquote evidence.
And it's, you know, it's just local craft beer.
(15:13):
My friend has, you know, brewed some craft beer here and
there. We have some stuff we got from the store.
You know, his stuff is also in the store.
So it was there's no moonshine, there was no drugs, there
was nothing. It was just a beer in the fridge, man.
Bret Adams: So at that point, I mean, after they collect this, did they (15:28):
undefined
say you're under arrest? Did they give you?
They give you a summons? Or what did they do?
What did they tell you at that point?
Joey Hendrickson: Well, so while four of them are in the in the place, you (15:36):
undefined
know, putting stuff in, you know, like counting, like
counting out beers, you know, 20, something, 30 something.
I don't remember the exact number, but they were counting
out some beer. The other two or three were like going
around the building, you know, looking for anything else
that might be suspicious or whatever.
And and I'm just like, All right, well, you guys are in
(15:59):
here. I'm calling my attorney friend that I know who's
downstairs, who's come to our house concerts, and he's a
really cool. He's a really cool guy who's, you know,
supports the Grateful Dead and comes out to the house
concerts. He like the community of it.
And so Dan, Dan Allen comes upstairs and he's there to kind
of explain to me what's going on so that I, you know, would
(16:22):
be my best in this situation too.
So. So Dan, literally, I called Dan and he has an office
downstairs. He's there.
And like, I don't know, it could have been a minute, 45,
you know, he's up the stairs and you know, he's in the room
with me. He's asking the police why they're there.
He's, you know, he he's explained to me what the documents
(16:44):
mean. I'm checking them out.
I sign the documents.
And I'm also I'm also telling the police, you know, hey, by
the way, from my understanding, we have done nothing wrong,
and I'm happy to sign your search warrant documents that
say that you were here.
But you know, we've had we've had City Council members
here. We've had, you know, some of the some of the top
(17:07):
executives from some companies here.
We've had artists here since multicultural,
multi-religious. And this is, you know, we're in the paper
already. You could have looked at our newspaper article
from twenty nineteen when the tourism department was
talking about us.
You know, it's not like this has been a secret.
Like, this is we've got grants from the Arts Council.
We've, you know, this is, you know, I don't know, I don't
(17:30):
know what you guys are doing or why you're doing it.
Bret Adams: Like they they they charge you at that point, Georgia did. (17:32):
undefined
Or did they take this evidence and then come back and
charge you? What was the sequence?
Joey Hendrickson: I think that they had already pre charged me before even (17:42):
undefined
searching, I don't know how that law and order works.
Bret Adams: Well, did they hand you? Did they hand you a summons and say (17:48):
undefined
be in court? Such and such date?
Joey Hendrickson: The papers had had outline what the actual charge that they (17:53):
undefined
said, yeah, the charges that they they were saying that we
had violated or had violated.
Ok, so it was keep replicates in illegal sales of alcohol,
is what they said.
And so I signed off that I had received those charges, I
guess. And then.
(18:14):
The court date, I did not receive a court date at that
point yet.
Bret Adams: Ok, so that is it. (18:17):
undefined
So they didn't handcuff you and take you to jail because
they were giving you a summons.
Right? Correct.
Ok, well, I guess I guess that was nice of them
considering, I mean, seven, I still can't believe that we
waste that kind of resources to come into somebody's house.
If they already had the evidence that you had beer in
during these events, why in the world?
(18:39):
Why would they send seven people to come to your house to
collect a couple of beers?
I mean, that's just that's insane.
That's insane.
Joey Hendrickson: It was weird and it was state it was some sort of state (18:48):
undefined
investigatory unit led by a guy named Eric Wolfe.
I later found out, but it was weird because at the same
time that they were in my house concerts in February of
twenty twenty one, there was there was people from their to
unit in the state that were moving fentanyl from Mexico
(19:11):
into Ohio, who later got charged like four of the same from
the same division for the same police officers that were
moving fentanyl were charged while they at the same time
their guys were in my house concerts enjoying blues night.
Right? Right.
Bret Adams: So now so what did you do? (19:30):
undefined
So at this point, so you get you get the summons, you find
a lawyer and you go and you plead, you plead not guilty and
then you deal with a prosecutor.
Please tell the listeners about your prosecution experience
with this initial touching the court system.
Joey Hendrickson: So so what happened was the same attorney who came into my (19:49):
undefined
apartment, Dan and super nice guy.
He offered to represent me in court in the situation.
But however, he's not a criminal defense attorney, so he
went with me to the court date, pled not guilty, and then I
passed the case over to a criminal defense attorney that
was recommended to me.
(20:13):
At least, yeah.
I mean, I got a yeah, I got a recommendation.
Ok. Ok, so.
So then criminal defense attorney, you know, we he goes to
the pretrial and he looks at the situation, he's like, This
is the weirdest situation I've ever seen, you know, I've
never I've never seen anything like this, but I'd be really
surprised if this doesn't get dropped.
(20:33):
And so he goes to represent me.
And during the pre trials, the.
The criminal, the criminal attorney on their side of the
state of Ohio doesn't drop the case, and so we go back and
back and go three times to pretrial.
Over the course of I don't know, about four or five months,
(20:55):
we have three different free trials here and we keep
talking to the attorney and they are just not willing to
back down on these, you know, for first degree misdemeanor
charges, which is like $2000 fine, that's one hundred and
eighty days in jail.
And it's the closest thing to a felony you can get, you
know,
Bret Adams: Someone it's an m one misdemeanor. (21:14):
undefined
But but Joey did.
This was a young prosecutor.
Did you ask, why are you trying to hold this over my head
for four misdemeanors?
Are you kidding me? I was unaware of this.
This was this was an innocent act.
There was no intent here.
I mean, Joey, I I I had multiple liquor license.
I didn't know this existed, and I don't think the common
person would have any idea this existed.
(21:37):
I mean, how many political fundraisers have I gotten to
where I'm at a house party and you know, you get all the
free liquor that you want to get?
I mean, and this is illegal in Ohio and the state of Ohio,
this is illegal because our liquor control agents have
nothing better to do, apparently.
Joey Hendrickson: Yeah, I mean, I'm doing this for months. (21:53):
undefined
I'm trying to, you know, it's kind of like a bee sting that
like lasts for like four months, just vibrates your system
and vibrates your body. Like, I'm four months and the
situation just kind of trusting me to get taken care of to
an extent, but also every day feeling like this almost like
this abusive kind of feeling like over me, like my nervous
system is kind of acting up, you know, I don't trust people
(22:15):
right now. I don't, you know, I'm kind of feeling,
especially after 10 years of giving back to the music scene
and, you know, supporting over like several million the
million dollars of impact to artists in the last 10 years.
And and I'm just kind of like, I don't understand why this
is happening. And then I also I also was looking at it from
(22:35):
a logic sense, and I'm like, I could not count on there was
not a single time that I ever exchanged money for alcohol.
Never.
Bret Adams: But you told Joe, you told this prosecutor, you and your (22:43):
undefined
lawyer, you had this discussion.
What did the prosecutors say in return when you said, Hey,
this, there was no intent here was it was.
I don't care. I don't care.
I'm representing the liquor commission and I'm afraid of
them. And if I don't prosecute you, I'm going to lose my
job. I mean, was there any indication?
(23:03):
I mean, what did they say?
You remember what that prosecutor said?
I'm curious as to how they could justify this prosecution.
Joey Hendrickson: Well, so our attorney was going to her in trying every angle (23:11):
undefined
of logic to help her understand what we were doing.
And he was he was referencing examples like, you know,
there are college frat parties where you you pay dues to a
fraternity and you drink for free.
And you know, there are there are weddings in people's
homes where you you pay, you know, you give the bride a
(23:34):
gift and in exchange, they have open bar.
And so there was every angle of this that was trying to be
explained to the prosecutor.
The prosecutor was saying that because of, you know, we are
the basically I have a decently large community of friends
in Columbus after being there for 10 years.
And you know, they're probably two thousand five hundred
people who had come out to our house concerts to support
(23:56):
artists over the course of a few years.
And so they were saying that they had enough evidence that
promotionally on the side that of our email list and the
private Facebook page, we maintained that this was
something that was violating the law because of the
promotional use cases of the situation.
But we still go back to the fraternity that has all these
(24:18):
members and we still go back to all the weddings that are
being produced in homes that are inviting, you know,
they're sending out invitations via snail mail, via email,
via Facebook to their friends.
And it's political fundraisers as well being, you know, you
have large camps of people that are being promoted to these
events. So she was holding on to an evidence that
(24:40):
promotionally we had we had basically created a house
concert that was on steroids.
Bret Adams: So she was she was just completely following the letter of (24:45):
undefined
the law. No discretion.
No, no, I'm not going to go to my boss.
I'm not going to. I'm not going to talk to anybody about
this. You did this or you're screwed, which I've seen my
entire career. But that was that was the logic, right?
Joey Hendrickson: Yeah. And and when she was when it got to the point where I (25:02):
undefined
realized that we're probably going to have to go to trial.
I mean, that's when I was just like, OK, I mean, there was
this. I was chill for four months and then I started
responding. I started being like, OK, if we're going to go
to trial, then I'm going to start preparing for this.
(25:23):
And I started reaching out to our community who had a
friend who had come up to these house concerts.
And I was like. All right, let's write letters, let's
prepare testimony, let's you know, I'd like to figure out
who wants to come and testify in trial, please sign up
here, you know, but you also
Bret Adams: Have a city council, right? (25:39):
undefined
You actually took this case to City Council.
Joey Hendrickson: Well, that was the I was embarrassed by the whole situation, (25:43):
undefined
Brett. So I hesitated on going to a City Council meeting.
But there was a point where I crossed the threshold with
this, like because I was talking to a few of my friends
that were like, Joey, this is absolutely ridiculous.
And so they because of those conversations and because of
(26:03):
the really the support of the community around me saying
this never should have happened to you.
This shouldn't happen to us.
Like there's nothing wrong done.
The fire of the the friend around me led me to realize that
I need to go talk to the guys that, you know, the City
Council members who had actually attended our house
concerts and say, We're in this situation and you were
(26:25):
there and you were there and you were there.
Yeah, you know.
And so I found out that you can if something is a pretty
large grievance, like there is the ability in Columbus,
Ohio, to go to basically an open mic, you know, you get
five minutes to speak in front of council and you can write
down or prepare your statement and then you can tell City
(26:48):
Council what's going on and address a community issue.
And so for the first time in my life, I wound down a city
council and I had 20 friends with me, and they represented
about 100000 people collectively through their their bands
in their, you know, Instagram followers and you know, their
their their friends and their groups.
And the 20 of us went down there, sat and I went up on the
(27:10):
mic and I told Shannon Hardin, President Council, you know,
Shannon Hardin and the rest of the I said, you know, here's
what happened and here's what's going on.
And and we're going to advocate for some change around
this. If you don't, we will.
But I expect that you will, too, because you understand the
value of the creative economy in our city and you
(27:31):
understand that times have evolved and during the pandemic,
we need to support those who can't feed their kids.
And you know, we're trying to help our musician friends not
lose their homes, and that's why we're collecting
donations.
Bret Adams: Here's here's a question I question I have for you, Joey. (27:43):
undefined
Then I think I know the answer.
My guess is that none of them reached out to Zach Klein,
the city attorney, or made any effort to deal with your
criminal case. I mean, is that is that a correct
assumption?
Joey Hendrickson: You know, I I don't understand the inner workings of City (27:57):
undefined
Council to know how quickly people receive information
about what goes on in those meetings.
But I do know that it's the first council meeting the city
attorneys that client actually presented on the video.
And so he kind of satellite it in.
(28:19):
And so I'm not sure if he satellite it and then was present
in that meeting and he heard my testimony or or if he was
ever actually aware of it.
But I went back a second time because it seemed like very
little had been accomplished the first time.
And the second time that I went, it was clear that they
(28:40):
were very busy in council.
They had lots of things that they were doing and there was
a big homeless funding initiative that was happening.
There was lots and lots of moving parts, and there was one
council member who who came around and said, I will sponsor
this. You know, I've worked with the public fire and police
for, you know, championing championing them for the last 20
(29:01):
years. And council member Brown, that is and he he he was
actually approaching his retirement that year, but he he
got one of his legislative aides to begin to look into the
policy around house concerts and where that existed or
didn't exist were the definitions were or weren't?
(29:21):
And through this legislative aid and support to the council
member Brown, his name is Grant Aimes.
We started dissecting and looking into any of the policy
that might exist for home based gatherings.
And he was coming up with a lot of this is a super super
gray area and we have no real time policy for this.
Bret Adams: But Joey, none of this impacted your your pending four (29:43):
undefined
cases, though, right?
I mean, ultimately, you went down and because you didn't
want to appropriately didn't want to spend five grand that
it would take to try this case, you pled to something that
you didn't even want to plead to, but you did it for what
most people do these cases for, they can't afford to
(30:05):
litigate.
Joey Hendrickson: Well, and so here my situation was we were up against case (30:05):
undefined
law. So if they had indicted me for these charges, they
could go into every single punk house on OSU campus and
every single little cultural place of peace in Columbus and
stormed through the doors and serve them.
And so I was really, really out of it on.
(30:28):
I mean, at this point, it was my case was one thing, but I
looked at the 400 other house concerts that were happening
across the city, and I realized that if they had collected
donations and we're drinking beer, they would get the same
charges that I was getting.
Bret Adams: So essentially, you took you took one for the team here, you (30:43):
undefined
took one for the team.
Joey Hendrickson: Well, so so what happened was I started initially working (30:48):
undefined
with Grant to create local policies.
That case law couldn't happen so that definitions were in
place so that people could follow the definitions.
But the definition didn't exist, and the city needed the
definitions from the state so that they wouldn't get sued
from the state by having a different set of definitions in
the state's laws.
(31:09):
And so this is a really disorganized policy area where they
didn't know how to align to the state and the state weren't
giving them clear direction on how they could write policy.
And so we realized that we needed to basically change the
keeper of a place law to have clearer definitions so that
cities around Ohio could actually create local policy that
(31:29):
allows their house content providers to to create events
that home based events or gatherings that align to the
state's laws. And so as a giant, not to untie.
And so I began this work and it became part of my my
confidence to advocate in the press about the situation.
And when we advocated in the press, I found that ninety
(31:50):
nine percent of my friends and the people around me were
supportive of the situation, saying, You're right, we do
need policy for house concerts that keeps us legal and we
do need the state to, you know, make those definitions
clear. And we do need the city to basically, you know,
align to those state policies in the most liberal way so we
can do what we want to do in our homes.
(32:11):
And and so after the community agreed and kind of backed
me, that's when I reached out to the state rep, Kristen
Boggs, and I explained to her the situation and I said, you
know, political fundraisers in homes are violating the law
all the time. But because we had a guitar strapped around
our shoulders, we got looked like, you know, the criminals,
you know, where are the criminals? Because we have we have
(32:32):
a piano in front of us or a guitar over our shoulders and
the politicians are getting slammed with this.
We are.
Bret Adams: So you they've drafted a bill. (32:39):
undefined
You sent that bill to me to change the law.
I mean, you, you are single handedly responsible for
changing this or about to change this archaic, ridiculous,
stupid law.
And it looks like that's going to pass, right?
Joey Hendrickson: So it's going to be it's introduced in it's co-sponsored, (32:56):
undefined
which now it just means the communities that get around it
and and support it and that next level of advocacy so that
it's passed. But because of the fact Brett, because this
bill was written by a state rep and being planned to
introduce to the House the prosecutor, when that was shared
with her, this young prosecutor said, OK, we won't go to
(33:19):
trial and we'll offer you a plea.
Bret Adams: So you basically you created Joe, you created your own (33:22):
undefined
leverage, which is again outrageous that you had to do it.
The case should have never been prosecuted as soon as she
saw the facts and that you weren't doing this
intentionally, she should have dismissed the damn charges,
but that was your leverage.
What did you plea to?
What was the ultimate plea?
Joey Hendrickson: So I had to plead to a disorderly conduct. (33:39):
undefined
Bret Adams: Well, that's you, Joe. You're a troublemaker man. (33:42):
undefined
Joey Hendrickson: So, so ended up being a, you know, a fine and a three years (33:46):
undefined
of probation that I cannot, you know, sell alcohol
illegally, which is your problem, because
Bret Adams: Three years, three years probation on a disorderly? (33:57):
undefined
You're kidding me? Yeah.
Who was the judge who?
Joey Hendrickson: So this was initially Judge Skinner, and I don't know. (34:05):
undefined
They there's a different judge in the courtroom at the
time, but he actually looked at me and he said, I'm glad
you didn't go to trial. This would have been a waste of my
time. And I'm thinking I just wasted eight months trying to
untie all these knots that the legal system has to try to
(34:26):
support the city and the state to do something right.
And trial for three days would have been another waste of
time, sure. But also my nine months of time trying to untie
this was a waste of time.
But nevertheless, I think what we're going to end up with
Bret is some sort of interesting environment where we're
now regulating what people do in their homes and in their
(34:46):
next level format with clear definitions.
Just because the state police came out.
We're extremely aggressive around house concerts.
Bret Adams: It's outrageous. (34:55):
undefined
This law is not passed yet.
So if you come to Ohio, be prepared.
If you go. If you go to a political fundraiser or a house
party or your neighbors party and you got a little bit of
music and you take donations, get prepared for the for the
brown shirts to come in and in search.
(35:16):
It's just inconceivable.
I just I still I can't understand it.
You know, I've known about this.
I mean, since we talked about you doing the podcast, I just
can't believe this happened.
I can't believe it happened.
Joey Hendrickson: It's. You out, but but I'm excited about this bill because (35:27):
undefined
the bill actually says it passed, you can have up to five
events in your home where you actually sell alcohol for a
beneficial cause related purpose.
So if this bill is passed, it actually liberalize what you
(35:49):
can do inside your home.
And it creates a way bigger opportunity for people to
actually support artists or support homelessness or support
the causes that they believe in.
And it's spelled out in the law that you can do it if it
passes. And I don't know if police will be those front
doors counting how many events that they have in their
(36:11):
homes. You know, I think that would be a borderline
harassment. So this law really gets us to a place where if
I could have five events in my home and and contribute to
my community, I it could be incredibly impactful for all
the homes in Upper Arlington and Bexley and downtown and
Hilliard and Worthington Westerville.
(36:32):
Imagine five percent of people that live in these
communities having five events that benefit artists or
benefit. The next the next level cause the cancer.
I mean, the amount of money that could be raised to support
community could be millions and millions of dollars through
this through this one law.
Bret Adams: Well, it's incredible. But but look at the sacrifice you had (36:53):
undefined
to make to get it here.
I mean, here's the other another thought Join somebody
turned you in. I mean, somebody, somebody.
And again, I had a mentor.
Tell me early on when I a couple of TV things I did and it
was like, Listen, success springs can tap.
(37:14):
People are going to come after you now and you get any, any
sort of notoriety, publicity.
People are going to always nipping at your heels to to come
after you and joy that had to happen here.
I mean, somebody somebody had to call the liquor commission
that just had a burr up their ass and and know what the law
was because normal people and talk to you, normal people
(37:36):
would have said if this was happening, then we're going to
send him a cease and desist.
We're going to we're going to find him and tell him, you
can't do this.
They didn't do that.
You know, the money they sent for misdemeanors to to go to
your place twice, set you up, take those photos and then
and then descend all those guys in it had to be it had to
(38:00):
be a setup. I mean, somebody, somebody somebody called in
and you need to find that person, Joey.
Joey Hendrickson: Well, it's interesting. (38:07):
undefined
I think that person already sort of identified themselves
because I told you earlier it was ninety nine percent of
people in my community and my world.
My friend group supported me.
There was one attorney who didn't.
And that attorney is also connected to a non-profit
organization that I know that there's one guy in that
nonprofit that doesn't like me because I didn't like how he
(38:31):
became the executive director of that organization is
buying people off.
And I called him out on it.
I whistleblower,
Bret Adams: That sounds well. That sounds logical if an attorney was (38:37):
undefined
involved, because who?
I mean, unless you did liquor law.
I don't know that any of my attorney friends would would
know what this. Know that you couldn't do this house party
and be in violation of of liquor control.
Joey Hendrickson: Yeah. And this attorney specifically said that keeper of a (38:53):
undefined
place law was the law he'd love to use on people when he
was an attorney. And, you know, and representing Columbus.
And so when he singled himself out like that in front of
me, I realized that, you know, and he was basically telling
me, You know, you got to do your time.
It really showed me that that was probably, yeah, he
(39:16):
singled himself out in the situation, and I immediately
disconnected from him and realized that he was the only
single person throughout the entire nine months who had
spoken that way to me as sort of coming down on me.
He was the only single person.
And it's tough because, you know, you have close friends
that you think your friends and you know, it's a huge
(39:37):
violation of my trust.
You know, when when I hear those voices and see those
people kind of single themselves out, but then I don't want
to deal with the reality, Bret, that we have.
We have people who are close friends that would literally
like try to throw us into the police just because of
something that some some sort of interpersonal conflict
they were too afraid to talk about or something.
(39:58):
Well, that's reality.
Bret Adams: Sure, that's reality, Joey. (39:59):
undefined
Success. Success breeds contempt.
It happens every day.
And I think you were think you were a victim of it.
But but man, this this what you've done in changing this
law. And if this bill gets passed to turn such a bullshit
experience into what what you've accomplished is, it's it's
(40:23):
really it's incredible, man.
I salute you for turning this negativity because I talked
to you when you were down and you didn't have the the same
attitude as you do right now, brother.
Joey Hendrickson: That's true, man. And you also sent to me, you sent me a (40:35):
undefined
few, a few really amazing people who had conversations with
who were on the legal side who showed me that the majority
of attorneys actually think the same on this situation.
And you know, I got seven or eight validating voices from
attorneys that are that have dealt with liquor law, and
(40:57):
they said, this is ridiculous.
And that that ended up itself gave me the confidence to
kind of see between the lines and read between the lines
and realize kind of who was singling themselves out as
trying to come down on the law versus who was actually an
attorney. That was that was kind of logical in their
pursuit of what should exist and what shouldn't exist in
society. And it helped me separate things and see things
(41:19):
clearly. And I really appreciate your involvement.
Bret Adams: Well, I really appreciate you coming and telling the story. (41:21):
undefined
I think people need to need to know this and hear about it.
But we were a couple of seconds behind, so I didn't
interrupt you every single time, but wanted to tell
everybody where you're where are you calling me from?
Joey Hendrickson: So yeah, after all this, I mean, I looked around. (41:34):
undefined
I mean, we we ended up having a after I took the plea deal,
we ended up having a few house concerts and starting to
raise money to advocate for this law change.
And I realized that there's somebody out there that's still
salivating to try to, you know, to try to knock off our
house concerts or try to catch me on some sort of a, you
(41:57):
know, a technicality.
And so I realized that once we get this bill passed is
when, you know, I'll be basically safe to resume the House
concerts and and so that door felt like it was closing and
relationally, the trust issues and the violations, you
know, with a close friend, I think that door also closed
(42:19):
for me and around me in Columbus.
I just I looked at the system, I looked the society, the
cold weather, and I realized that the actually the the best
work that I can be doing for artists right now is to
support them and digital means.
And then also there's a company in San Francisco that
backed me to create events all around the world right now.
(42:40):
So I'm I'm actually in Bogota.
I'm in a is a it's an amazing place.
If you speak Spanish, especially the whole world opens up
to you here. And I'm actually going around South America
and kind of producing events with artists here and just
taking some time away from Columbus to see things from a
(43:00):
bird's eye view and decide if that's really the place I'm
going to invest the next 10 years of my life.
Bret Adams: Well, I'm envious of where you're at, and I certainly can (43:05):
undefined
understand why after what you went through with would take
that that break.
But I mean, I really appreciate you telling us to.
I appreciate you coming on.
Follow this bill to the end, Joe and get it done.
Joey Hendrickson: I appreciate it. I will. (43:20):
undefined
And if anybody out there is interested in supporting that
bill, Brett, I'm sure that there's a way that we'll put on
Bret Adams: The show notes. We'll put it on the show, notes joy. (43:28):
undefined
We'll I'll get with you.
We'll get some information here and make that happen.
Ok, wonderful.
All right. Get back out in the sun.
Get back out in the Sun.
Joey Hendrickson: Okay? Thanks, man. (43:38):
undefined
Thanks.
Bret Adams: So thanks to Joe Hendrickson calling in from Bogota. (43:40):
undefined
It sent me some, some pictures which I can't discuss in
Brett's rant. But let me just say this he's he's having a
good time. He's having a good time down there.
But this is the reason that I did this podcast.
I mean, when you when you look at a guy, I mean, this guy,
he is a good human being doing good things, unaware of this
(44:02):
law. And when you got seven, I mean, how many how many
liquor agents does it take to come in and confiscate a few
beers? And if they had the photo evidence before, wouldn't
that have been enough to prosecute?
I mean, why? Why were they trying to build this tremendous
case? And then and then here we go to the problem of having
(44:23):
a young prosecutor.
Joey had told me off audio that he thought the prosecutor
was 20 to 23 years, eight, well, probably 25 if she went
through law school, but nevertheless a prosecutor that
probably didn't have the experience to look at this thing
objectively had that prosecutorial mentality of, you know,
(44:45):
I'm going to get this guy. And some of it may had to do
with Joey and and out there with the media, and they
probably became aware of, you know, he's getting some
public support that that this is this is really stupid.
This is just an unfair prosecution.
And he had mentioned Zach Klein, the city attorney.
I think Zach's a good guy, and my guess is he probably
(45:06):
wasn't aware of it. I mean, he does this little report at
City Council, but he probably wasn't aware that this was
happening because I just can't believe logically that that
he would prosecute this because folks, prosecutors have
discretion, they have prosecutorial discretion.
And if you if you came in and I mean to try to nail him
with four four misdemeanors to have multiple pre trials,
(45:28):
the. But this is stressful to people.
This is stressful. And I know Joey had a tremendous amount
of stress related to this.
And it's and it's unnecessary because one, the case
shouldn't have been prosecuted and two, it should have been
dismissed as soon as the prosecutor realized what the facts
are. And again, kudos to Joey for Joe Joey for turning this
(45:49):
into an incredible positive by getting this bill passed,
but it's just another example of of the of the system gone
awry because there's no logic to this.
There's no sense to this.
And and maybe, maybe we'll get a couple of people at the
Liquor Commission to hear this podcast.
And because I can't, I don't know how you justify what,
(46:10):
what they did and who want that job anyway, who what kind
of person would go in and screw this guy's life up?
Who would do that won't be your intent to go in and get a
beer out of the damn refrigerator?
What kind of person does that?
So anyway, before I really get pissed off, I'm going to,
I'm going to leave it there.
Thank you so much for listening.
(46:31):
The lawyers are assholes.
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