July 15, 2024 • 54 mins
In this episode of Prisoner's Pardon Podcast, host Michi J discusses the sensitive topic of reentry for sex offenders with special guest Mitch Stupica. Mitch shares his life story, including his struggles with mental health, drug addiction, and his legal troubles stemming from a sexual relationship with a minor and other crimes. As Mitch reflects on his past, he provides insights into the impacts of his upbringing, the consequences of deceptive behavior, and the complexities of reentry into society. The episode emphasizes the importance of community support, understanding, and accountability. Mitch also highlights his journey towards recovery, forgiveness, and his efforts to inform and guide others to avoid similar pitfalls.
00:00 Introduction and Personal Background
00:51 Welcome to Prisoner's Pardon Podcast
01:07 Discussing Reentry for Sex Offenders
03:02 Introducing Mitch Stupica
03:46 Mitch's Early Life and Struggles
05:58 Mitch's Teenage Years and Legal Issues
10:04 The Impact of Family Dynamics
19:19 Mitch's Conviction and Legal Consequences
28:04 Understanding the Legal Consequences
28:34 The Romeo and Juliet Law Explained
30:09 The Importance of Awareness and Prevention
34:58 Personal Reflections and Regrets
36:19 Living with the Consequences
39:09 Navigating Legal and Social Challenges
43:42 The Role of Accountability and Mentorship
49:52 Recovery and Moving Forward
52:16 Final Thoughts and Gratitude
Mitch Stupica Music Video & News Clip from Fox News 6
https://youtu.be/qJmTtXg-pPc?si=AEHw6H5iKv7URbPS
https://www.fox6now.com/news/milwaukee-unrest-destruction-totals-more-than-3m-in-sherman-park-neighborhood
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I thought that it wasokay to be deceptive.
That if I told the truth, itwould come with punishment.
Oh, just tell me the truthand , everything will be okay.
You're not going to get in trouble.
And then when I would be honest, it wouldcome and be reinforced with punishment.
So I started living a double life withselling drugs and gang activity and,
(00:25):
and trying to be surface compliant,
I thought that it wasokay to be deceptive.
(00:51):
Welcome everybody toPrisoner's Pardon Podcast.
I'm Mic J, your host, and today, again,you always know, I always say I have
a special guest because I always do.
You know why?
Because everybody is special.
Today we're going to be talkingabout a really touchy subject.
(01:11):
Many people get triggeredby this, and you know what?
It's prevalent, and I do understandwhy we're gonna be talking about
reentry for sex offenders and.
Just so that you know, when you hearthat term, it, categorizes a big
group of people and it's differentcategories, it's different circumstances.
(01:36):
And I just want you all to be aware ofthat and your heart softened to listen,
but also using your mind at the same time.
So again, we're going to betalking about a touchy subject.
We won't have any kind of foullanguage or anything like that.
It will be a good listen for, youngones, but not too young because a
(01:58):
lot of people, I would say a lot of,not just people, but young people
are involved with sex and it is.
In my opinion, something like only shouldbe done by adults because of some of the
consequences that can come out of that.
So I'm glad that you're here.
(02:19):
I'm glad that you'retaking the time to listen.
And I really appreciate all that you do.
Please, once you hear thisvideo, Please send us feedback.
I really appreciate it so that we canmake this show better So people can
get the value that they need becausethis is things that we really should be
talking about Again, this is like a taboosubject but here on prisoners pardon.
(02:43):
We don't back away from that so weapproach things and because we do want
to add value in this area too becausethere is not a lot of things For
people that have a sex offender case.
So again, that was just to let youknow what we're about to talk about.
And my guest here today is Mitch Stupica.
(03:06):
He is Yugoslavian and haven't talkedto him as much as I would like
to, but I wanted to talk to himtoday because he has a great story.
He does have a case like this and thisis going to be interesting because he's
going to come from the, Emphasis ofbeing the male , in this particular case.
(03:28):
And I want you to listento what he has to say.
Welcome Mitch.
Hey, now, for coming on the show.
And I really appreciate it.
Coming here and talking aboutsuch a sensitive subject.
So Mitch, tell us a little bitabout yourself so people can
(03:51):
understand who you are at first.
Well, I've been through a lot oftrauma in my life from my father
having mental health issues.
Uh, a lot of mental health issuesin my family from my grandma having
schizophrenia, there's been Alzheimer'sgoing on in my family, a lot of
(04:13):
addiction from my uncle charlie.
Um, and you know, I was bornin 1984, so crack epidemic and
drugs were quite prevalent.
And my family and just geneticallyspeaking, I've was diagnosed with
(04:34):
attention deficit in 1993 withan oppositional defiant disorder.
Um, and in 96 I was diagnosedwith bipolar disorder.
So I was been on medicationmajority of my life from 93.
I remember when my, when they foundout and I was diagnosed, I went from
(04:55):
getting, um, disciplined physicallyto He's sick, Mitchell's sick, and um,
I really didn't understand what I wasgoing through, you know, um, but I was
on anywhere from Ritalin to Adderall toWobutrin, Devacol, Clonidine, Risperdal,
(05:17):
Prozac, it was always a cocktail.
And growing up in my family,we, it was me and my sister.
My dad was emotionally unavailable.
My mom was the alpha female.
She's Irish from Chicago.
My dad sides from Cleveland.
And so it was just thefour of us in a avoidant.
(05:40):
Type of family that was very passiveaggressive, didn't want to talk
about the elephant in the room.
And majority of the time wasspent catering to me with the
school system with an IEP.
I had a learning disability,emotionally disturbed.
And so, I got into drugs quite earlyon to cope with a lot of the emotional
(06:07):
instability that I had growing upat by the age of 12 I was using
marijuana, cocaine, psychedelics, youknow, just experimenting with alcohol.
And, um, I was convicted early on.
I had a juvenile case of breakingand entering and stuff like that.
(06:30):
Um, just, you know, mischievous things.
Um, And when I went into highschool, uh, it was, this was 1999.
So I'm sorry to interrupt you, butyeah, you just gave us a long little
bio about the, , mental conditionsand some of the medications
(06:51):
you've taken and stuff like that.
And , what about,, did you work howwere you in the community , did you
have any kind of skill sets thatyou did to was all of your time?
Um, just being what we call abad boy or something like that.
I worked, I had a job early on at 14.
(07:14):
Team at McDonald's got fired forsmoking weed in the bathroom.
Okay.
And then I got my first, youknow, pretty good job at 15.
I was working at a, uh, river HillsWest Healthcare Center in p Walke
and I was in dietary, so, and then Istarted working at Cold's Furniture.
So I've always.
kept the job because my, my parentswere, um, they weren't well off, but
(07:39):
they were real adamant on work, work.
But I never was ableto usually keep a job.
Okay.
And that was due to my mental healthissues, like bipolar, you know, I
wouldn't show up on time and it wouldreally affect my emotional state.
So were you doing, , When youwasn't showing up on time and
(08:01):
stuff, when you lost your job,was it because of just that?
Or were you also doing drugs?
Well, yeah, you saidyou were doing the week.
I was, I was heavy.
Yeah.
And I was, you know, prior to me gettingheavy in my addiction and self medicating,
I was, there was already a plan.
Uh, obsession and character defects.
Um, where I thought that itwas okay to be deceptive.
(08:26):
That if I told the truth, itwould come with punishment.
Oh, you know, just tell me the truthand you know, everything will be okay.
You're not going to get in trouble.
And then when I would be honest, it wouldcome and be reinforced with punishment.
So I started living a double life withselling drugs and gang activity and, and
(08:49):
trying to be surface compliant, you know,be perceived in this one way Work and
uh, yeah, you know, I got the greatestpotential, but on the other side, I
was deceptive, manipulative and verydisassociated with life, very antisocial
(09:10):
behaviors and more of an extrovert.
I always felt ostracized from people.
I never really felt like I fit in.
I never really felt like I hadany type of place in this life.
And so part of it had to do with themental health issue, but also just with.
(09:30):
All the psychiatry that I wasput under with everything was
just made to make it seem like I,it was something wrong with me.
I was sick and nobody could relate.
Okay.
So thank you for bringing that up.
I think you said a point about beingdeceptive and you got, the punishment
(09:53):
when you were true faith, And that'swhy you didn't tell the truth because
you didn't want that punishment.
You didn't.
What kind of punishment was that Larry?
And I would get the silenttreatment, which I would start
feeling like I was rejected.
Like when my parents wouldn't talk to me.
I think that that just the emotionalabandonment, uh, I would get.
(10:19):
Uh, hit with whatever my dad at the timebefore that from extension cores to belts.
My dad was before these diagnosiswere even in, uh, on the table.
Uh, I was just this problem.
(10:40):
Child that needed to be whooped, youknow, come from the old school spirit
of spirit of riots for the child andJust the verbal abuse the emotional
abuse that you know I remember my momused to say you're just like my brother.
You're just like my mom.
Well, I never met my grandma I neverreally had a relationship with my brother.
(11:02):
And so I Internalized that and say wellif I'm just like them you're gonna abandon
me and leave me anyways You're goingto reject me anyways, just like them.
So I never really got closewith, you know, my mom.
I never really got close withpeople, even those in authority
because I didn't really trust them.
(11:23):
I used to see a lot of things in thepublic school system when it came to kids
with autism and kids with other learningdisabilities and they would be abused
and you know it was hard for me to trustthose in authority because the people
in authority abused their authority.
I'm not saying all of them but Isaw a lot of things that would give
(11:45):
me selective memory to where itwould reinforce a lot of the trauma
that I went through as a child.
So in your estimation like you saidthey punished you with the silent
treatment , excessive punishmentswith, , cords, verbal abuse, that
(12:06):
quite naturally took your trust away.
You know, I think anybody would have that.
So what do you think should have been theoutcome with you being honest with them?
If you were the parent,what would you have done?
I think with the, uh, you know, lookingback, I think having a safe environment.
(12:29):
place to where you could come a judgmentfree zone where you could be encouraged
and be supportive to the child.
I know that, you know, there hasto be some form of discipline,
especially, you know, to correctproblematic and antisocial behavior.
Um, I think that with my, myparents, they did the best that they
(12:52):
could, but I feel like, I was justtalking with my sister recently.
She was the obedient child and I wasthe one that always would act out.
And this was my way of avoidinga lot of the things that was
going on where my parents wouldfight all the time and argue.
(13:13):
And I would think that itwas something wrong with me.
Well, maybe if you get rid of me becausethere was always money problems, there
was always something that was going on.
I'm the one to blame.
Maybe if I just commit suicide that Iwould be able to, you guys would be happy.
And I used to take on a lot of thatguilt and shame and rejection because
(13:35):
my parents never had a good marriage.
And so that communication style, I thinkI just wanted to be heard and understood.
And I never felt that way.
You never felt you got that one.
Okay.
Which is understandable becausewe all need to be, , heard,
you know, in children.
Now understand and we dotake on guilt They've really
(13:59):
affected with broken marriages.
We see this all everywhere.
I believe everybody can agree withthat that broken marriages and
broken homes make broken children, so
I was glad to hear that That you saidthey did the best that they could, and
I'm willing to bet something happenedin their past where they weren't
(14:24):
able to parent as they, should have.
So I'm glad to hear that.
You have some forgiveness there.
Yeah, okay And because that's reallynecessary But you said the word judgment
no judgment zone and I must admit Myantennas go up when I hear that word
(14:45):
judgment because it's so many times peopleuse it incorrectly um, it depends on the
content because god said judge yourselfand then it's another part in the bible
that says Don't judge so It's definitelytwo different things meanings there.
(15:07):
So it's really said in the New Testament.
So it's in Greek.
So in Greek, , as one of my Bible teachersat church to say, it's more colorful.
So it have more, , more words.
But in English, it's, one word thatthey would use that could mean a lot of
(15:27):
things, but it depends on the context.
So, uh, to make it clear, judgmentis Um, the way you're, the way you're
speaking of is just being able to examineand look at things because a lot of
people use that inappropriately andit shuts down the process to actually
help somebody because you have to saysomething to be able to do something.
(15:51):
You have to know what, what you're saying.
What's going on to be able to attackit, to be able to direct what we
need to do to stop the problem.
So you have to expose it.
But some people, um, misconstruedthat they use it in appropriately.
And now they stopped that process whenthey don't know that they're stopping.
(16:13):
They actually stop it.
So, I would like to say it's examined.
Judging is nobody can judgebut God because he's the only
good person and able to judge.
Everybody has done something.
Everybody is working on things.
So we can't judge.
So we leave that judging.
to him.
But we still must examine.
So that being the case, you wanted a safeplace in a non judgmental place, right?
(16:41):
I guess that's what you should.
But you wanted a placewhere you can be examined.
So since they didn't know how they justworked off of what they all they know.
So I'm glad again that you haveforgiveness and because if you did
not, it would be hard for you tomove forward because unforgiveness
(17:04):
leads to bitterness and it's get sour.
And then it's not what they wouldsay, uh, compartmentalized is going
to spill over into other places.
So you have to deal with it.
that.
You can't just leave it therebecause it's gonna actually
spill over to all authority.
So, and that's exactlywhat happened with you.
So, , in looking back and now thatwe explain like examining them having
(17:29):
this safe place, um, what would youthink they should have done better?
Now that you're in a better place, we'relooking back now and we can look at this
picture of you sitting there as a childand you're having these issues that
(17:52):
they're not aware of and they have issues.
So what if we, if it was a perfectworld, so somewhat, what would you as a
parent do just to validate my feelings?
Because I knew that they loved me.
I just didn't feel that they loved me.
Did they say that they loved you?
They would, but it was, it alwaysfelt like it was out of obligation.
(18:16):
Like we were like, I love you.
I love you too.
It was never like set me down and say,you know, I know you got some issues.
Yeah.
And we're working on that, but Ireally love you no matter what.
I like that.
That's a good way to do it.
At the point where you're examining,validate the person, encourage the person
(18:39):
and let them know that you love them.
And that's how we should do things.
we should do things in love.
That means if, if our motives are right,and we're trying to actually build
the person up, and not tear them down.
And they unknowingly were tearing youdown and contributing to the problem.
(19:04):
So because most of it waslike, well, why can I do that?
Well, because I said so, you know, it'sjust like I'm trying to understand.
I'm trying to be understood and Inever felt like I was understood.
It was always Put a band aid on cancer.
. Um, and I think that just leads up to,um, just, you know, I look back at the,
(19:25):
the conviction that I was, um, convictedof a third degree sexual assault in 2003.
Tell us, um, sorry to interrupt,tell us a little bit about that.
Um, so, So I was, I got ajob at Radio Shack in 2003.
I would just turn 18.
I was in high school.
It was my senior year.
And so, um, I was out in Madison andI met a girl she was 15 at the time.
(19:48):
She was in high school with me.
Well, like, you know, we didn't goto the same high school, but you
know, we were both in high school.
And so I liked her.
She liked me.
And, um, I wanted to celebrate, andso we were smoking weed, you know,
drinking, and we decided to go backto, uh, uh, my mom's house in Wales,
Wisconsin, and we had sex that night.
(20:13):
She was, uh She was 15.
I was 18 at the time.
How did you know her age?
Uh, well, she told me.
She told you?
Yeah.
So you knew her age?
Yeah, I knew her age.
And at that time, youknow, I'm in high school.
I didn't really think ofthat was inappropriate.
You know, um, I didn't like, thisis, we're in high school together.
(20:35):
This is my friend, you know, thisis my, this is my little, this is
my little girlfriend, you know?
And, um, I think it was more oflike I'm getting the attention
that I wasn't getting at home.
Uh, somebody likes me for meand we want to build something.
I want to celebrate, youknow, I just got a job.
I was in celebratorymode and didn't realize.
(20:57):
Uh, I didn't really look atthe red flags looking back.
Um, that, why was it so easy for youto come with me when we just met?
Um, where you don't haveto go home while I'm grown.
Okay, well, you've grown.
So am I, you know, not reallylooking at the fact that,
(21:20):
well, where's your parents at?
I look back at it now.
She was, she was, um, she ran awayat the time she was on probation.
I found this out later during theconviction when we get the discovery.
Um, so I was still communicating withher for a couple, about three months.
And, um, I got upset.
(21:42):
I went out to Madison to get up with her.
And my friend and her and herfriend, we were going to go
on a date and she let me down.
She canceled on me.
Who is this?
The girl.
She let you down?
Okay.
Yeah.
And so I struggle with disappointmentand being letting down and that
goes back to my own trauma.
And so I said a whole bunchof, uh, horrible things to
(22:05):
her and broke up with her.
Fast forward.
Um, I was called in by Walker ShawCounty, uh, detectives and they asked
me about the situation and saying,well, this girl saying you sexually
assaulted her at the time, I thoughtthat she was saying that I forced myself
(22:27):
on her and, you know, um, was violent.
And you know, raped her.
So I committed, uh, I, uh, confessed tohaving consensual sex with my girlfriend
thinking like, no, I didn't rape her.
So they let me go.
And, um, about a month and a half,two months later, this was in 2003, I
(22:56):
was charged with second degree sexualassault of a minor because she was 15
and she legally couldn't give consent.
And the discovery, she told herpsychiatrist that we broke up
and then we were having sex.
Yeah.
And so that's when they investigated it.
And because I was 18 atthe time, I was an adult.
And so back then they didn't have whatthey call as a Romeo and Juliet clause
(23:19):
with the age difference, which now myconviction, if I was 18 and she would
have been 15 at the time, it would havebeen a misdemeanor, but back then it
was second degree sexual assault of aminor, it got dropped down to a third
degree and I was sentenced to sevenyear probation to consecutive to another
(23:40):
separate case of attempted armed robbery.
Because after that, I just went downhillonce I got that charge, it just was
a matter of time for me to end upin prison for other things because
I was already, um, I got, uh, right.
Yeah.
I'm sorry to answer it, but why did itget dropped down to the third degree?
(24:00):
Um, well, I wanted it whenI was getting the plea.
I wanted to get dropped downto a fourth degree misdemeanor.
But but they said, because I had theother separate case, they wouldn't drop
it down to a misdemeanor because theyalready kind of have this perception that
I was just violent because I had otherbatteries and other things going on.
(24:24):
So that was their perception.
You think that was the rightperception at the time?
Yeah, I was violent.
Um, I didn't see that I wasviolent towards, sexually violent.
So they applied the violencefrom the other one to this one.
(24:44):
Yeah.
So that's why it didn't get dropped downto the fourth, but it did come down.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Um, why did it start at second degree?
Cause she was 15 and myWhat's the first degree?
First degree is like Pedophile.
Okay.
Rape, first degree,intentional like force.
(25:04):
Okay.
Uh, pedophile.
Like if you were with a prepubescentchild and she was 15 at the time,
so legally she couldn't giveconsent and it was already a felony.
Right.
Since I was 18.
Okay.
So again, you had that case going on.
So was uh, this.
(25:25):
What happened before youdid the armed robbery?
Okay.
So after that, I was supposedto be, come to court for that.
And then like a week before, I wassupposed to appear for court for that.
I committed attempted armedrobbery and a reckless.
And what?
A reckless, uh, a recklessendangerment safety.
(25:47):
Okay, reckless.
Yeah.
May I put, um, I pulled a knife tosomebody's throat and threatened,
um, and attempted to rob them.
Was that, it was a, was it thatarmed robbery was the night before
it was a knife as well, or was it?
Yeah, that was the attempted armedrobbery because no money was taken.
No money was.
Okay.
Um, why didn't it, whydidn't you take the money?
(26:10):
Cause he didn't have any.
I mean, what did you say?
Okay.
I'll just let you go.
Yeah.
Like let you go.
But they called the police.
And
when we went in, They were going to tryto get dropped down to the attempted armed
robbery because no money was took andno money was demanded because, uh, due
to what I was saying was pocket check.
(26:32):
And what did you, what did you just say?
I said, I said pocket check.
I put somebody, put a knife to somebody'sthroat and I said pocket check.
I didn't demand it.
So in the courtroom, we asked themto define what pocket check means and
nobody could, but since a felony wascommitted, the reckless endangering
safety, that's why it was pocket check.
Pushed to the arraignment andit's just, it was, you said pocket
(26:57):
check and what does that mean?
Like I'm going to go in your pockets.
That's what you said.
Yeah.
So you, so it has to be a, youwas talking this language and
that person understood that it.
Okay.
Yeah.
You were robbing them.
Yeah.
Okay.
And they didn't have any money.
So I left it.
Went on my way.
Okay.
(27:17):
All right.
So now we understand whythey, they, um, yeah.
And I had already had others like, uh,batteries and others like on my record.
So they kind of put everythingin a span of, uh, like six
months to like nine months.
I had other misdemeanor chargeswith a fight with my dad.
(27:41):
And a fight at school.
And they're like, no,you need to be locked up.
And so I got five years in forthe robbery, and five years
extended supervision for theattempted armed robbery case.
For the third degree sexual assault,because I got dropped down, it was
seven years probation, run consecutiveto the ten year robbery sentence.
(28:04):
So after I would have finished the tenyear robbery sentence, then I would start
the third degree sexual assault case.
It was, oh, it wasn't combined.
No, it was one consecutive.
So, now the seven year probation case,they had a stay and oppose sentence,
uh, four years in and five years out.
If I, if I completed the sevenyears probation, I would just
(28:26):
do seven years probation.
Okay.
If I didn't.
I would go back for four yearsautomatically in five years,
which that ended up happening.
Okay.
So, so, um, I'm going tointerrupt there a little bit
to give the audiencesome background on this.
It's the Romeo and Juliet law.
(28:47):
It's where it doesn't make.
Sex with a teenager legal, but itexists to prevent the offender from
having to register as a sex offender.
So what they do is they apply this whenthere's a small age difference between the
(29:09):
two parties so that everyone understandwhat the Romeo and Juliet lie is.
Not every state has itto my understanding.
Wisconsin does not have it.
Um, what
under this law too, and not havingthis in place, I would say it
(29:32):
can be a lifetime registration.
So are you a lifetime registration?
15 years, 15 years.
Praise God for that.
That's I think that's good becausein some cases they can hit people
with a lifetime registration.
So yeah, I think due to the, the,the circumstances of the offense,
(29:54):
that's why they made it for 10 years.
And
I think that's up to the judge, right?
So that is something to be thankful for.
because it could have been becausesome people are hit lifetime for this.
So I wanted to tell the audiencethat it is very vital that young men
(30:15):
understand this, especially if theylive in the state of Wisconsin and
other states, that the girl, whethershe consents or not, is a woman.
She is considered a minor, meaningthat she cannot give consent and
the state would take up the case.
It, once they find out they're going totake it up, , it does not matter what
(30:36):
that parents say or the child say, thestate actually prosecutes those cases.
So it can, you can have cases whereI've looked some of these things up.
Anybody can look this up online,um, about, especially here
in Wisconsin, how you can.
If you can just send pictures, ifyou're a minor, if you're looking
(31:00):
at pictures, somebody exposedthemselves, you can get charged.
So this is very critical that peopleunderstand what, what's going on
here because they can wake up likeyou thinking that it's nothing and
it's easy to do that, consideringour culture that's saturated with
(31:23):
sex, it's, um, you have young girlswalking around improperly dressed.
They look way older than what they are,and they're so easily can fool men.
I've heard, I've talked to a lotof men that this has been the case.
They didn't, they thought they was older.
And they didn't check.
(31:43):
They need to check.
Birth certificates do notbelieve what they say.
, I'm an advocate where, , theway God intended it is to be
in the boundaries of marriage.
And this is one of the reasons why.
Because if you get caught outside thoseboundaries, you can get locked up.
(32:04):
And it's confusing considering howpeople dress, how you have a lot of,
uh, instances and laws where they'resaying where young kids can give
consent, for instance, to do sexchanges, different things like that.
(32:26):
But then in this instance, wehave it where they cannot give
consent to have sexual intercourse.
Anybody would be confusedin that sort of scenario.
So my heart goes out to you,I suggest you get informed.
That's the reason for thisshow, to reduce the recidivism
rate, to keep you out of jail.
(32:48):
And if you go, don't go back.
These are things that you need tounderstand is the laws of the land where
you stay because it does impact you.
And if you have young people,please talk to them about this.
Just sending picturesof themselves exposed.
On their phones.
It's in the girl for as I'm understanding,it's not being charged with that boy
(33:11):
is going to be charged for pornography.
Um, even though she doesn't want, eventhough the girl may not want to be
charged, but if she was to get angryat you because you said, I'm not saying
this happened with you, but I'm justgoing to say if the girl happens to
get angry, even if you're saying 16.
(33:33):
She's 16.
You all have sex.
You can get charged.
Yeah.
Period.
That's so our audience understandthis and how huge this is and how
this is affecting a lot of people.
And this, you need to be sittingdown because I'm going and doing
adult things like having sex.
(33:53):
You don't understand the consequencesof it and how easy you're on a win.
On a whim of a female saying thatjust going and talking about it, it
can get back and get you locked up.
Yeah.
So yes, Mitch is right here.
You all can't see him.
He's understanding exactly what I'msaying because he has experienced it.
(34:14):
So again, here we are, Mitch,not much age difference, did
have consent from the young lady.
Wait, Mitch was a werewolf?
that he can get charged.
Just that little bit of informationchanged the whole trajectory of your life.
But what we do here, we encouragebecause you can learn from this
(34:38):
and Mitch is going to inform morepeople because He's living it.
And people, you know, route people to theshow, let them hear this episode because
this is very, very impactful because it'sso easy for someone to get locked up.
This could happen to anybody.
Yeah.
And I just want to say that,you know, looking back,
(35:02):
I would have did it way differently.
Like, you know, taking the time to get toknow her, you know, I look at my part in
the, in just seeing the red flags and thenlooking at the case that she was running.
She was on probation.
She was seeing a psychiatrist.
Had I would have took the timeto get to know her, it would have
(35:24):
probably had a different outcome.
See, I was at the time, I was justthinking about, Oh, she's into me.
You know, I get to get what I want outof the situation because what teenage
boy doesn't want to have sex, you know,and especially if it's agreeable, you
know, and I look at it ruined my life.
(35:45):
Yes.
It can, you know,everybody, everybody has.
And this one here, in this case, anybodycan get caught up in this situation.
So at the time you weren't at thatage of 18, then you put on some of
the traumas that you're going to,just not even without the trauma,
(36:09):
you still weren't mentally able tomake decisions like that and let
alone with the other stuff going on.
So yeah.
So.
20 years later, I'm still having rulesthat says that I can't do this, I
can't do that, I can't go to the park.
(36:30):
I mean, I'm not gonna say, I don't wantto be too crude here, but we need to
be a little bit, to get a little raw.
Was it worth it?
No, it was not worth it.
Because, like, just, had I would haveknown what was at stake, Of like, okay,
if this is what you want to do, theseare the consequences when we talked about
(36:57):
when we started out about being honest.
And then I don't want to be honestbecause it comes with punishment.
And I would have known the punishmentof what I would have had to go through
where I have to get approval just to dataadult age appropriate consenting woman.
(37:17):
She has to be my P.
O.
They have to talk about the conviction.
Uh, what if she has kids, you know,what is the perception of that?
You know, I'm not going out here tryingto groom kids and, uh, you know, on
some, a pedophile or child molester orpredatorial, I just want to have my life
(37:38):
back and I can't go to the lake frontwithout a chaperone, I can't go to certain
places because public perception is.
Oh, he's he's a sex offender.
You know, lock the doors.
Put it well.
And in fact, if we actually look at it,it's a lot of people are sex offenders
(37:59):
and just not having to register andlooking at how this case happened.
They can't really point fingers at you.
Yeah, if it's looked at, at thislevel, the DOC, they put everybody
in the same category because I'm notjust talking about their, I'm talking
about the culture, the community.
And um, it's like, you see these videos.
(38:24):
And you see these girls imitatingthese videos, you know, posture
in their bodies and I'll do, youknow, and it's like, and then you're
saying, Oh, you're a sex offender.
And , you know, our desires are natural.
And then people are gettingtriggered by this behavior.
Yeah.
But then.
(38:45):
You want to lock them up, but it's noaccountability on a community side or on
a parent's side in Churches and governmenteverywhere that this has to be looked
at as well holistically Holisticallybecause right now you're living in a
hostile environment, you know with thisvirus Because it's all these triggers.
(39:05):
That's why they have it.
You can't be on the internet, right?
You um, you can't go to like for youhave to be stopping around you have to
do this This is because they put you inwith how they look at pedophiles Yeah,
and then they got domicile restrictionstoo that says if your conviction wasn't
committed in us, uh our city At acertain time, you can't live in our city.
(39:31):
We're gonna banish you from our city.
And we're gonna force you to be homeless.
And you gotta live over here,and you gotta bounce around.
And that's what my situation is,because my, my, my conviction
is out in Wales, Wisconsin.
And Milwaukee has a, uh, an ordinance.
that says that if my convictionwasn't committed in the city of
Milwaukee prior to 2016, then I can'treside in the city of Milwaukee.
(39:55):
So now I'm forced to be homeless,put on a bracelet, a GPS bracelet,
so the DOC can monitor me.
Even though I've had many residents.
I've had many addresses in Milwaukee priorto the ordinance going in effect, but now
they changed because I was in prison atthe time when they changed the ordinance.
Now I can't live in the city.
Where am I going to go?
I can't go here.
I can't go here.
(40:16):
I can't go here.
I can't go here.
So now I'm just bouncing around.
So how are you here?
This is, should you be here?
Technically, no.
Okay.
But, um, uh, I registered with sort,which is the sex offender registry.
And then now I have to go ahead andhear from the department, uh, the police
(40:39):
department to say, if I'm in violation,which a lot of times they fall through
the cracks or the police going to sendme a, uh, uh, uh, ordinance violation.
So I can challenge it because I want toget grandfathered in because I've had
many times, uh, residents prior to 2016in the city mall, and that's why I should
(40:59):
have grounds to be grandfathered in.
So I.
Couldn't reside so Icould be in a safe place.
So you're waiting to hear backfrom, how do you say the, the,
the Department of Correction.
Um, I mean, not the Department ofCorrections, the police department
with a violation of the ordinance.
'cause I've already registered here at,at, um, so you're waiting to hear back?
Yeah.
So how long is that gonna take?
(41:20):
It could take, however, howeverlong they, they look at it.
So they are looking at it, I don't know.
It could fall through the cracks.
Oh, I'm, I'm believingthat I'm hidden in Christ.
Until I'm all I got ten months of paperleft and I'll be done completely off
of this the third degree sexual assaultcase I'll be completed in because I've
(41:41):
been out four years and two months.
Okay, so you won't have to registeranymore I'll have the register 15 years
from now, but I won't have the DOC withthe rule Rules and stuff like that.
I can move to a different Igot family in other states.
So how long do you have again before that?
Ten, ten months.
Ten months.
Yeah.
(42:02):
Is it okay you doing this interview?
Yeah.
Okay.
I, I see why that couldI did an interview.
No, I did an interviewwith Fox 6 News in 2014?
No, 2016 when they just madethe ordinance with Brad Hicks.
And it's on, uh, Fox 6 News.
(42:23):
You could probably I tried to find him.
I didn't You And when?
When did you have the interview?
I think that's when he left.
I looked, I was lookingat trying to see where.
Cause Brad Hicks is no longer withFox and he left around in 2016.
(42:45):
Yeah, he was doing the Fox News interview.
Okay, I have to go back and lookbecause I was the one I was a big
advocate on trying to get because theyhad everybody homeless at that time.
And Mark Weinberg from Chicago was alawyer that he actually, uh, represented,
uh, represented, uh, like seven sexoffenders and got the ordinance rescinded.
(43:12):
But there's still an ordinance on it.
Not as extreme.
Okay.
Yeah, I want it.
The reason why I was mentioning thisa little bit because, um, you know,
they say you have a debt to society.
So, which you do, but societyhas some accountability as well.
And I want to bring that upin, you know, to the surface.
(43:35):
So we look at everything.
So
, just to recap what we've been talkingabout, we talked about your case,
how you perceive you got there,what you think could have helped.
you perceive you got there isbecause of your broken home.
(43:57):
, some mental issues that was goingon, um, how you were parenting, and
then you looked at how you thinkyour parents could have helped, uh,
encouragement along with punishment.
What type of punishment do youthink they should have had?
I just think that With my family,there was a lack of resources just
(44:18):
with the help from the public schoolsystem with the IEP whole situation.
I think if I would have had more mentors,cause I didn't really, I don't really
remember having a lot of mentors, alot of people that were advocates.
Yeah.
But what kind of, becausethere is accountability, right?
(44:39):
When, so I won't use the word punishment.
It is accountability.
So what kind of accountabilitydo you think you should have had?
I mean, When this was going onis I don't think anything would
work being honest because Iwanted to do what I wanted to do.
I was very rebellious and I don'tthink anything, any punishment or
(45:04):
accountability probably would have helped.
Like, so what?
Yeah.
What do you think it should havehappened and how would I think, I
just think that if I would've hadmore of a positive influence, more
positive role models and mentors, thatwould've been the deterrent for me.
Not to continue my antisocial, butthat, that sounds like, I know, but
(45:24):
you said nothing would've helped.
So how that that would, how is that?
That sound like that would help.
Nothing would have helped asfar as punishment is concerned.
Let me clarify that.
Nothing like taking my gamesaway or doing this or beating
me or verbally assaulting me.
Like none of that would have worked.
Don't do that.
(45:44):
If I would have had more outlets withmentorship and advocacy and stuff like
that and having probably a better peergroup, I think that would have helped.
More of a positive reinforcement.
I'm an advocate of both.
I think there should be a balance though.
(46:07):
So, I don't agree with rewardingbad behavior because that's
going to promote bad behavior.
Um, because you know I comefrom a family where I have a
twin brother that's locked up.
He's been in and out and that'swhy I do what I do because I want.
Change.
Yeah.
Looking at things.
I'm glad you agree with me.
(46:27):
So I'm trying to see where wouldyou say the, um, I hate to say
punishment or however you maysay a correction, but you can't.
Just reward or, or ignore an issue.
So what can the parentthinking about it this way?
(46:47):
What can the parents have done?
And you saying you were veryrebellious, not, it's not that it's, um,
that, you know, you, you put thesethings in place to help for boundaries.
I would say to, to let the kid know, andadults know that there are repercussions.
(47:07):
So if you don't have any, No wonderthey're going to keep, cause they don't
understand that there's accountability.
So my thing is if you would have hadsome checks done, man, you know, some
accountability, not the negative stuff,cause they, they tried the best they
can, but they did it not appropriatelyand negative stuff, but it still
should be something in place so that.
(47:30):
You understand it starts to get in yourhead like, Hey, there's repercussions.
Like, what are the repercussions?
Cause my son, he would do that.
He, uh, thank God he never went to jail,but I just sat in his head right away.
There is accountability.
So what he would do and probablywhat you would have done in those
circumstances, he'll go rightall the way up to the boundary.
(47:53):
Cause he knew there was coming.
Then he'll come back.
Yeah.
So it's like what I did with him.
Was, uh, uh, you know, some talkingas well as taking away and when some,
cause you catch it small, let him gothrough the consequences of it and then
tell him why he's going through it.
Yeah, I didn't have that.
And then, and.
(48:14):
No, it's talk.
Show, show him what it is and tellhim, hey, this is why I'm going
to allow it and I'm going to help.
Sometimes you don't haveto use extension cord.
Yeah, you don't have tohave those talk, right?
No, it's just like you know whata lot of times you already get the
whooping I don't have to use the belt.
I'm like, I'm telling you thisis a whooping right here This is
what happens when you do this.
So you can understand there's consequencesbecause if you don't show them this
(48:40):
They're gonna think there is none though.
And then they're gonna get bam Yeah,you get sideswiped like I didn't
know I didn't know about this.
So anyway, we're wrapping this upThank you for it The interview.
I just want to say, um, thiswas great and this is something
people need to listen to.
(49:01):
But it's, again, it's getting informedand I want to cut a verse here.
It says in the Bible, it comesabout talking about mind and
what we're doing here is like,we're actually renewing our mind.
You're getting the information sothat you'll know how to, , behave
because whatever you think,that's how you're going to act.
So it says, do not.
(49:23):
conform any longer to the pattern of thisworld, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind, then you will be able totest and approve what God's will is.
His good, pleasing and perfect will.
And that's the pleasing and perfectwill is for you to be healthy, for
you, for the community to be safe.
Yeah.
(49:43):
You know, for you not to.
Escalate like you did in gettinginto other crimes because that was
just the start and it escalated.
So where do you think you're at now?
Well, I'm in recovery right now andreally re evaluating what, where
did it all start, you know, andcounteracting these strongholds.
(50:06):
Are you taking responsibility?
Yeah, I'm taking responsibility.
I'm med compliant now.
I've been clean for six monthsnow off all drugs and alcohol.
That's great.
Um, I'm currently in In hope throughrestoration Sober living house.
This is a great place.
I'm here.
Yeah.
And, um, I hope it's more like this.
Yeah.
LT Austin, he runs this programso everybody that you know,
(50:28):
he's should know about this.
And he's so accountable becausehe actually talks to you.
Mm-Hmm.
. I've had men leave my whole life.
Mm-Hmm.
never led.
We need, yeah.
We need more strong men like that.
Yeah.
So you.
So we're wrapping this up,you're saying that you're taking
responsibility, you've forgiven yourparents, have you forgiven yourself?
Yeah, I have.
Have you forgiven yourself?
(50:49):
Yes, I have.
Okay, good.
Because a lot of people have guiltand they can't forgive themselves.
Yeah, and that's just to honorwho I am as far as God's creation.
You know, I have to love myself.
So I love my neighbor as myself.
So that starts with self.
, I thank you for this interview.
Thank you.
A lot of people, I'm pretty sure isgoing to get a lot of, a lot of value
(51:14):
out of this because this is, , forfamily members, for people that locked
up as well as people involved in thejustice system, as well as, um, you
know, judges, lawyers, all advocates.
is that it's working , in this typeof deal and plus being able to help
people that's reentering, especiallypeople that , have a sex case because
(51:38):
it's reentry is harder for them than.
for people that don't have it.
And again, we talked about the Christianperspective, , how God looks at this
and we looked at our community holdingour community accountable as well
because they are accountable as well.
Not just yourself, but thatdoesn't excuse how you should be
responding and behaving as well.
(52:00):
And I'm glad to see thatyou you're forgiven.
Have you forgiven the community?
Yes, I have because I know I haveto take accountability in the things
that I do at the end of the day.
I have a choice in the matter.
And so what I do, it affects not onlyme, but it affects everybody else.
That was the end of myinterview with Mitch Stu Pika.
(52:21):
We really thank him.
It is so good to havesomeone be so transparent.
When they're being transparent.
We can help.
Everybody can help.
People like Mitch.
When he gets to information and we writereinforcements . Of accountability and
him understanding the ramifications.
We stop a lot of themgetting into trouble.
(52:45):
They simply at times.
Just don't know.
But if we talk to them, give themreinforcements, validate them.
Make sure they're heard, butalso make sure he understands
the consequences again.
Mitch Stu Pika.
Is a great young man with a lot of talent.
In the show notes, I'm goingto be attaching his video with
(53:10):
Fox six, as well as his video.
That he may wit an amazing songas you would see, he's amazingly.
Talented with so much to give.
To our community I'm pretty sureyou're going to be seeing much more.
Mitch Stu Pika.
Going about trying to tellother people how not to go.
(53:31):
Down the path that he did.
Thank you again for listening to the show.
May you have a weak field with blessings?
I thought that it wasokay to be deceptive.
That if I told the truth, itwould come with punishment.
Oh, just tell me the truthand , everything will be okay.
You're not going to get in trouble.
And then when I would be honest, it wouldcome and be reinforced with punishment.
So I started living a double life withselling drugs and gang activity and,
(00:25):
and trying to be surface compliant,
I thought that it wasokay to be deceptive.
(00:51):
Welcome everybody toPrisoner's Pardon Podcast.
I'm Mic J, your host, and today, again,you always know, I always say I have
a special guest because I always do.
You know why?
Because everybody is special.
Today we're going to be talkingabout a really touchy subject.
(01:11):
Many people get triggeredby this, and you know what?
It's prevalent, and I do understandwhy we're gonna be talking about
reentry for sex offenders and.
Just so that you know, when you hearthat term, it, categorizes a big
group of people and it's differentcategories, it's different circumstances.
(01:36):
And I just want you all to be aware ofthat and your heart softened to listen,
but also using your mind at the same time.
So again, we're going to betalking about a touchy subject.
We won't have any kind of foullanguage or anything like that.
It will be a good listen for, youngones, but not too young because a
(01:58):
lot of people, I would say a lot of,not just people, but young people
are involved with sex and it is.
In my opinion, something like only shouldbe done by adults because of some of the
consequences that can come out of that.
So I'm glad that you're here.
(02:19):
I'm glad that you'retaking the time to listen.
And I really appreciate all that you do.
Please, once you hear thisvideo, Please send us feedback.
I really appreciate it so that we canmake this show better So people can
get the value that they need becausethis is things that we really should be
talking about Again, this is like a taboosubject but here on prisoners pardon.
(02:43):
We don't back away from that so weapproach things and because we do want
to add value in this area too becausethere is not a lot of things For
people that have a sex offender case.
So again, that was just to let youknow what we're about to talk about.
And my guest here today is Mitch Stupica.
(03:06):
He is Yugoslavian and haven't talkedto him as much as I would like
to, but I wanted to talk to himtoday because he has a great story.
He does have a case like this and thisis going to be interesting because he's
going to come from the, Emphasis ofbeing the male , in this particular case.
(03:28):
And I want you to listento what he has to say.
Welcome Mitch.
Hey, now, for coming on the show.
And I really appreciate it.
Coming here and talking aboutsuch a sensitive subject.
So Mitch, tell us a little bitabout yourself so people can
(03:51):
understand who you are at first.
Well, I've been through a lot oftrauma in my life from my father
having mental health issues.
Uh, a lot of mental health issuesin my family from my grandma having
schizophrenia, there's been Alzheimer'sgoing on in my family, a lot of
(04:13):
addiction from my uncle charlie.
Um, and you know, I was bornin 1984, so crack epidemic and
drugs were quite prevalent.
And my family and just geneticallyspeaking, I've was diagnosed with
(04:34):
attention deficit in 1993 withan oppositional defiant disorder.
Um, and in 96 I was diagnosedwith bipolar disorder.
So I was been on medicationmajority of my life from 93.
I remember when my, when they foundout and I was diagnosed, I went from
(04:55):
getting, um, disciplined physicallyto He's sick, Mitchell's sick, and um,
I really didn't understand what I wasgoing through, you know, um, but I was
on anywhere from Ritalin to Adderall toWobutrin, Devacol, Clonidine, Risperdal,
(05:17):
Prozac, it was always a cocktail.
And growing up in my family,we, it was me and my sister.
My dad was emotionally unavailable.
My mom was the alpha female.
She's Irish from Chicago.
My dad sides from Cleveland.
And so it was just thefour of us in a avoidant.
(05:40):
Type of family that was very passiveaggressive, didn't want to talk
about the elephant in the room.
And majority of the time wasspent catering to me with the
school system with an IEP.
I had a learning disability,emotionally disturbed.
And so, I got into drugs quite earlyon to cope with a lot of the emotional
(06:07):
instability that I had growing upat by the age of 12 I was using
marijuana, cocaine, psychedelics, youknow, just experimenting with alcohol.
And, um, I was convicted early on.
I had a juvenile case of breakingand entering and stuff like that.
(06:30):
Um, just, you know, mischievous things.
Um, And when I went into highschool, uh, it was, this was 1999.
So I'm sorry to interrupt you, butyeah, you just gave us a long little
bio about the, , mental conditionsand some of the medications
(06:51):
you've taken and stuff like that.
And , what about,, did you work howwere you in the community , did you
have any kind of skill sets thatyou did to was all of your time?
Um, just being what we call abad boy or something like that.
I worked, I had a job early on at 14.
(07:14):
Team at McDonald's got fired forsmoking weed in the bathroom.
Okay.
And then I got my first, youknow, pretty good job at 15.
I was working at a, uh, river HillsWest Healthcare Center in p Walke
and I was in dietary, so, and then Istarted working at Cold's Furniture.
So I've always.
kept the job because my, my parentswere, um, they weren't well off, but
(07:39):
they were real adamant on work, work.
But I never was ableto usually keep a job.
Okay.
And that was due to my mental healthissues, like bipolar, you know, I
wouldn't show up on time and it wouldreally affect my emotional state.
So were you doing, , When youwasn't showing up on time and
(08:01):
stuff, when you lost your job,was it because of just that?
Or were you also doing drugs?
Well, yeah, you saidyou were doing the week.
I was, I was heavy.
Yeah.
And I was, you know, prior to me gettingheavy in my addiction and self medicating,
I was, there was already a plan.
Uh, obsession and character defects.
Um, where I thought that itwas okay to be deceptive.
(08:26):
That if I told the truth, itwould come with punishment.
Oh, you know, just tell me the truthand you know, everything will be okay.
You're not going to get in trouble.
And then when I would be honest, it wouldcome and be reinforced with punishment.
So I started living a double life withselling drugs and gang activity and, and
(08:49):
trying to be surface compliant, you know,be perceived in this one way Work and
uh, yeah, you know, I got the greatestpotential, but on the other side, I
was deceptive, manipulative and verydisassociated with life, very antisocial
(09:10):
behaviors and more of an extrovert.
I always felt ostracized from people.
I never really felt like I fit in.
I never really felt like I hadany type of place in this life.
And so part of it had to do with themental health issue, but also just with.
(09:30):
All the psychiatry that I wasput under with everything was
just made to make it seem like I,it was something wrong with me.
I was sick and nobody could relate.
Okay.
So thank you for bringing that up.
I think you said a point about beingdeceptive and you got, the punishment
(09:53):
when you were true faith, And that'swhy you didn't tell the truth because
you didn't want that punishment.
You didn't.
What kind of punishment was that Larry?
And I would get the silenttreatment, which I would start
feeling like I was rejected.
Like when my parents wouldn't talk to me.
I think that that just the emotionalabandonment, uh, I would get.
(10:19):
Uh, hit with whatever my dad at the timebefore that from extension cores to belts.
My dad was before these diagnosiswere even in, uh, on the table.
Uh, I was just this problem.
(10:40):
Child that needed to be whooped, youknow, come from the old school spirit
of spirit of riots for the child andJust the verbal abuse the emotional
abuse that you know I remember my momused to say you're just like my brother.
You're just like my mom.
Well, I never met my grandma I neverreally had a relationship with my brother.
(11:02):
And so I Internalized that and say wellif I'm just like them you're gonna abandon
me and leave me anyways You're goingto reject me anyways, just like them.
So I never really got closewith, you know, my mom.
I never really got close withpeople, even those in authority
because I didn't really trust them.
(11:23):
I used to see a lot of things in thepublic school system when it came to kids
with autism and kids with other learningdisabilities and they would be abused
and you know it was hard for me to trustthose in authority because the people
in authority abused their authority.
I'm not saying all of them but Isaw a lot of things that would give
(11:45):
me selective memory to where itwould reinforce a lot of the trauma
that I went through as a child.
So in your estimation like you saidthey punished you with the silent
treatment , excessive punishmentswith, , cords, verbal abuse, that
(12:06):
quite naturally took your trust away.
You know, I think anybody would have that.
So what do you think should have been theoutcome with you being honest with them?
If you were the parent,what would you have done?
I think with the, uh, you know, lookingback, I think having a safe environment.
(12:29):
place to where you could come a judgmentfree zone where you could be encouraged
and be supportive to the child.
I know that, you know, there hasto be some form of discipline,
especially, you know, to correctproblematic and antisocial behavior.
Um, I think that with my, myparents, they did the best that they
(12:52):
could, but I feel like, I was justtalking with my sister recently.
She was the obedient child and I wasthe one that always would act out.
And this was my way of avoidinga lot of the things that was
going on where my parents wouldfight all the time and argue.
(13:13):
And I would think that itwas something wrong with me.
Well, maybe if you get rid of me becausethere was always money problems, there
was always something that was going on.
I'm the one to blame.
Maybe if I just commit suicide that Iwould be able to, you guys would be happy.
And I used to take on a lot of thatguilt and shame and rejection because
(13:35):
my parents never had a good marriage.
And so that communication style, I thinkI just wanted to be heard and understood.
And I never felt that way.
You never felt you got that one.
Okay.
Which is understandable becausewe all need to be, , heard,
you know, in children.
Now understand and we dotake on guilt They've really
(13:59):
affected with broken marriages.
We see this all everywhere.
I believe everybody can agree withthat that broken marriages and
broken homes make broken children, so
I was glad to hear that That you saidthey did the best that they could, and
I'm willing to bet something happenedin their past where they weren't
(14:24):
able to parent as they, should have.
So I'm glad to hear that.
You have some forgiveness there.
Yeah, okay And because that's reallynecessary But you said the word judgment
no judgment zone and I must admit Myantennas go up when I hear that word
(14:45):
judgment because it's so many times peopleuse it incorrectly um, it depends on the
content because god said judge yourselfand then it's another part in the bible
that says Don't judge so It's definitelytwo different things meanings there.
(15:07):
So it's really said in the New Testament.
So it's in Greek.
So in Greek, , as one of my Bible teachersat church to say, it's more colorful.
So it have more, , more words.
But in English, it's, one word thatthey would use that could mean a lot of
(15:27):
things, but it depends on the context.
So, uh, to make it clear, judgmentis Um, the way you're, the way you're
speaking of is just being able to examineand look at things because a lot of
people use that inappropriately andit shuts down the process to actually
help somebody because you have to saysomething to be able to do something.
(15:51):
You have to know what, what you're saying.
What's going on to be able to attackit, to be able to direct what we
need to do to stop the problem.
So you have to expose it.
But some people, um, misconstruedthat they use it in appropriately.
And now they stopped that process whenthey don't know that they're stopping.
(16:13):
They actually stop it.
So, I would like to say it's examined.
Judging is nobody can judgebut God because he's the only
good person and able to judge.
Everybody has done something.
Everybody is working on things.
So we can't judge.
So we leave that judging.
to him.
But we still must examine.
So that being the case, you wanted a safeplace in a non judgmental place, right?
(16:41):
I guess that's what you should.
But you wanted a placewhere you can be examined.
So since they didn't know how they justworked off of what they all they know.
So I'm glad again that you haveforgiveness and because if you did
not, it would be hard for you tomove forward because unforgiveness
(17:04):
leads to bitterness and it's get sour.
And then it's not what they wouldsay, uh, compartmentalized is going
to spill over into other places.
So you have to deal with it.
that.
You can't just leave it therebecause it's gonna actually
spill over to all authority.
So, and that's exactlywhat happened with you.
So, , in looking back and now thatwe explain like examining them having
(17:29):
this safe place, um, what would youthink they should have done better?
Now that you're in a better place, we'relooking back now and we can look at this
picture of you sitting there as a childand you're having these issues that
(17:52):
they're not aware of and they have issues.
So what if we, if it was a perfectworld, so somewhat, what would you as a
parent do just to validate my feelings?
Because I knew that they loved me.
I just didn't feel that they loved me.
Did they say that they loved you?
They would, but it was, it alwaysfelt like it was out of obligation.
(18:16):
Like we were like, I love you.
I love you too.
It was never like set me down and say,you know, I know you got some issues.
Yeah.
And we're working on that, but Ireally love you no matter what.
I like that.
That's a good way to do it.
At the point where you're examining,validate the person, encourage the person
(18:39):
and let them know that you love them.
And that's how we should do things.
we should do things in love.
That means if, if our motives are right,and we're trying to actually build
the person up, and not tear them down.
And they unknowingly were tearing youdown and contributing to the problem.
(19:04):
So because most of it waslike, well, why can I do that?
Well, because I said so, you know, it'sjust like I'm trying to understand.
I'm trying to be understood and Inever felt like I was understood.
It was always Put a band aid on cancer.
. Um, and I think that just leads up to,um, just, you know, I look back at the,
(19:25):
the conviction that I was, um, convictedof a third degree sexual assault in 2003.
Tell us, um, sorry to interrupt,tell us a little bit about that.
Um, so, So I was, I got ajob at Radio Shack in 2003.
I would just turn 18.
I was in high school.
It was my senior year.
And so, um, I was out in Madison andI met a girl she was 15 at the time.
(19:48):
She was in high school with me.
Well, like, you know, we didn't goto the same high school, but you
know, we were both in high school.
And so I liked her.
She liked me.
And, um, I wanted to celebrate, andso we were smoking weed, you know,
drinking, and we decided to go backto, uh, uh, my mom's house in Wales,
Wisconsin, and we had sex that night.
(20:13):
She was, uh She was 15.
I was 18 at the time.
How did you know her age?
Uh, well, she told me.
She told you?
Yeah.
So you knew her age?
Yeah, I knew her age.
And at that time, youknow, I'm in high school.
I didn't really think ofthat was inappropriate.
You know, um, I didn't like, thisis, we're in high school together.
(20:35):
This is my friend, you know, thisis my, this is my little, this is
my little girlfriend, you know?
And, um, I think it was more oflike I'm getting the attention
that I wasn't getting at home.
Uh, somebody likes me for meand we want to build something.
I want to celebrate, youknow, I just got a job.
I was in celebratorymode and didn't realize.
(20:57):
Uh, I didn't really look atthe red flags looking back.
Um, that, why was it so easy for youto come with me when we just met?
Um, where you don't haveto go home while I'm grown.
Okay, well, you've grown.
So am I, you know, not reallylooking at the fact that,
(21:20):
well, where's your parents at?
I look back at it now.
She was, she was, um, she ran awayat the time she was on probation.
I found this out later during theconviction when we get the discovery.
Um, so I was still communicating withher for a couple, about three months.
And, um, I got upset.
(21:42):
I went out to Madison to get up with her.
And my friend and her and herfriend, we were going to go
on a date and she let me down.
She canceled on me.
Who is this?
The girl.
She let you down?
Okay.
Yeah.
And so I struggle with disappointmentand being letting down and that
goes back to my own trauma.
And so I said a whole bunchof, uh, horrible things to
(22:05):
her and broke up with her.
Fast forward.
Um, I was called in by Walker ShawCounty, uh, detectives and they asked
me about the situation and saying,well, this girl saying you sexually
assaulted her at the time, I thoughtthat she was saying that I forced myself
(22:27):
on her and, you know, um, was violent.
And you know, raped her.
So I committed, uh, I, uh, confessed tohaving consensual sex with my girlfriend
thinking like, no, I didn't rape her.
So they let me go.
And, um, about a month and a half,two months later, this was in 2003, I
(22:56):
was charged with second degree sexualassault of a minor because she was 15
and she legally couldn't give consent.
And the discovery, she told herpsychiatrist that we broke up
and then we were having sex.
Yeah.
And so that's when they investigated it.
And because I was 18 atthe time, I was an adult.
And so back then they didn't have whatthey call as a Romeo and Juliet clause
(23:19):
with the age difference, which now myconviction, if I was 18 and she would
have been 15 at the time, it would havebeen a misdemeanor, but back then it
was second degree sexual assault of aminor, it got dropped down to a third
degree and I was sentenced to sevenyear probation to consecutive to another
(23:40):
separate case of attempted armed robbery.
Because after that, I just went downhillonce I got that charge, it just was
a matter of time for me to end upin prison for other things because
I was already, um, I got, uh, right.
Yeah.
I'm sorry to answer it, but why did itget dropped down to the third degree?
(24:00):
Um, well, I wanted it whenI was getting the plea.
I wanted to get dropped downto a fourth degree misdemeanor.
But but they said, because I had theother separate case, they wouldn't drop
it down to a misdemeanor because theyalready kind of have this perception that
I was just violent because I had otherbatteries and other things going on.
(24:24):
So that was their perception.
You think that was the rightperception at the time?
Yeah, I was violent.
Um, I didn't see that I wasviolent towards, sexually violent.
So they applied the violencefrom the other one to this one.
(24:44):
Yeah.
So that's why it didn't get dropped downto the fourth, but it did come down.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Um, why did it start at second degree?
Cause she was 15 and myWhat's the first degree?
First degree is like Pedophile.
Okay.
Rape, first degree,intentional like force.
(25:04):
Okay.
Uh, pedophile.
Like if you were with a prepubescentchild and she was 15 at the time,
so legally she couldn't giveconsent and it was already a felony.
Right.
Since I was 18.
Okay.
So again, you had that case going on.
So was uh, this.
(25:25):
What happened before youdid the armed robbery?
Okay.
So after that, I was supposedto be, come to court for that.
And then like a week before, I wassupposed to appear for court for that.
I committed attempted armedrobbery and a reckless.
And what?
A reckless, uh, a recklessendangerment safety.
(25:47):
Okay, reckless.
Yeah.
May I put, um, I pulled a knife tosomebody's throat and threatened,
um, and attempted to rob them.
Was that, it was a, was it thatarmed robbery was the night before
it was a knife as well, or was it?
Yeah, that was the attempted armedrobbery because no money was taken.
No money was.
Okay.
Um, why didn't it, whydidn't you take the money?
(26:10):
Cause he didn't have any.
I mean, what did you say?
Okay.
I'll just let you go.
Yeah.
Like let you go.
But they called the police.
And
when we went in, They were going to tryto get dropped down to the attempted armed
robbery because no money was took andno money was demanded because, uh, due
to what I was saying was pocket check.
(26:32):
And what did you, what did you just say?
I said, I said pocket check.
I put somebody, put a knife to somebody'sthroat and I said pocket check.
I didn't demand it.
So in the courtroom, we asked themto define what pocket check means and
nobody could, but since a felony wascommitted, the reckless endangering
safety, that's why it was pocket check.
Pushed to the arraignment andit's just, it was, you said pocket
(26:57):
check and what does that mean?
Like I'm going to go in your pockets.
That's what you said.
Yeah.
So you, so it has to be a, youwas talking this language and
that person understood that it.
Okay.
Yeah.
You were robbing them.
Yeah.
Okay.
And they didn't have any money.
So I left it.
Went on my way.
Okay.
(27:17):
All right.
So now we understand whythey, they, um, yeah.
And I had already had others like, uh,batteries and others like on my record.
So they kind of put everythingin a span of, uh, like six
months to like nine months.
I had other misdemeanor chargeswith a fight with my dad.
(27:41):
And a fight at school.
And they're like, no,you need to be locked up.
And so I got five years in forthe robbery, and five years
extended supervision for theattempted armed robbery case.
For the third degree sexual assault,because I got dropped down, it was
seven years probation, run consecutiveto the ten year robbery sentence.
(28:04):
So after I would have finished the tenyear robbery sentence, then I would start
the third degree sexual assault case.
It was, oh, it wasn't combined.
No, it was one consecutive.
So, now the seven year probation case,they had a stay and oppose sentence,
uh, four years in and five years out.
If I, if I completed the sevenyears probation, I would just
(28:26):
do seven years probation.
Okay.
If I didn't.
I would go back for four yearsautomatically in five years,
which that ended up happening.
Okay.
So, so, um, I'm going tointerrupt there a little bit
to give the audiencesome background on this.
It's the Romeo and Juliet law.
(28:47):
It's where it doesn't make.
Sex with a teenager legal, but itexists to prevent the offender from
having to register as a sex offender.
So what they do is they apply this whenthere's a small age difference between the
(29:09):
two parties so that everyone understandwhat the Romeo and Juliet lie is.
Not every state has itto my understanding.
Wisconsin does not have it.
Um, what
under this law too, and not havingthis in place, I would say it
(29:32):
can be a lifetime registration.
So are you a lifetime registration?
15 years, 15 years.
Praise God for that.
That's I think that's good becausein some cases they can hit people
with a lifetime registration.
So yeah, I think due to the, the,the circumstances of the offense,
(29:54):
that's why they made it for 10 years.
And
I think that's up to the judge, right?
So that is something to be thankful for.
because it could have been becausesome people are hit lifetime for this.
So I wanted to tell the audiencethat it is very vital that young men
(30:15):
understand this, especially if theylive in the state of Wisconsin and
other states, that the girl, whethershe consents or not, is a woman.
She is considered a minor, meaningthat she cannot give consent and
the state would take up the case.
It, once they find out they're going totake it up, , it does not matter what
(30:36):
that parents say or the child say, thestate actually prosecutes those cases.
So it can, you can have cases whereI've looked some of these things up.
Anybody can look this up online,um, about, especially here
in Wisconsin, how you can.
If you can just send pictures, ifyou're a minor, if you're looking
(31:00):
at pictures, somebody exposedthemselves, you can get charged.
So this is very critical that peopleunderstand what, what's going on
here because they can wake up likeyou thinking that it's nothing and
it's easy to do that, consideringour culture that's saturated with
(31:23):
sex, it's, um, you have young girlswalking around improperly dressed.
They look way older than what they are,and they're so easily can fool men.
I've heard, I've talked to a lotof men that this has been the case.
They didn't, they thought they was older.
And they didn't check.
(31:43):
They need to check.
Birth certificates do notbelieve what they say.
, I'm an advocate where, , theway God intended it is to be
in the boundaries of marriage.
And this is one of the reasons why.
Because if you get caught outside thoseboundaries, you can get locked up.
(32:04):
And it's confusing considering howpeople dress, how you have a lot of,
uh, instances and laws where they'resaying where young kids can give
consent, for instance, to do sexchanges, different things like that.
(32:26):
But then in this instance, wehave it where they cannot give
consent to have sexual intercourse.
Anybody would be confusedin that sort of scenario.
So my heart goes out to you,I suggest you get informed.
That's the reason for thisshow, to reduce the recidivism
rate, to keep you out of jail.
(32:48):
And if you go, don't go back.
These are things that you need tounderstand is the laws of the land where
you stay because it does impact you.
And if you have young people,please talk to them about this.
Just sending picturesof themselves exposed.
On their phones.
It's in the girl for as I'm understanding,it's not being charged with that boy
(33:11):
is going to be charged for pornography.
Um, even though she doesn't want, eventhough the girl may not want to be
charged, but if she was to get angryat you because you said, I'm not saying
this happened with you, but I'm justgoing to say if the girl happens to
get angry, even if you're saying 16.
(33:33):
She's 16.
You all have sex.
You can get charged.
Yeah.
Period.
That's so our audience understandthis and how huge this is and how
this is affecting a lot of people.
And this, you need to be sittingdown because I'm going and doing
adult things like having sex.
(33:53):
You don't understand the consequencesof it and how easy you're on a win.
On a whim of a female saying thatjust going and talking about it, it
can get back and get you locked up.
Yeah.
So yes, Mitch is right here.
You all can't see him.
He's understanding exactly what I'msaying because he has experienced it.
(34:14):
So again, here we are, Mitch,not much age difference, did
have consent from the young lady.
Wait, Mitch was a werewolf?
that he can get charged.
Just that little bit of informationchanged the whole trajectory of your life.
But what we do here, we encouragebecause you can learn from this
(34:38):
and Mitch is going to inform morepeople because He's living it.
And people, you know, route people to theshow, let them hear this episode because
this is very, very impactful because it'sso easy for someone to get locked up.
This could happen to anybody.
Yeah.
And I just want to say that,you know, looking back,
(35:02):
I would have did it way differently.
Like, you know, taking the time to get toknow her, you know, I look at my part in
the, in just seeing the red flags and thenlooking at the case that she was running.
She was on probation.
She was seeing a psychiatrist.
Had I would have took the timeto get to know her, it would have
(35:24):
probably had a different outcome.
See, I was at the time, I was justthinking about, Oh, she's into me.
You know, I get to get what I want outof the situation because what teenage
boy doesn't want to have sex, you know,and especially if it's agreeable, you
know, and I look at it ruined my life.
(35:45):
Yes.
It can, you know,everybody, everybody has.
And this one here, in this case, anybodycan get caught up in this situation.
So at the time you weren't at thatage of 18, then you put on some of
the traumas that you're going to,just not even without the trauma,
(36:09):
you still weren't mentally able tomake decisions like that and let
alone with the other stuff going on.
So yeah.
So.
20 years later, I'm still having rulesthat says that I can't do this, I
can't do that, I can't go to the park.
(36:30):
I mean, I'm not gonna say, I don't wantto be too crude here, but we need to
be a little bit, to get a little raw.
Was it worth it?
No, it was not worth it.
Because, like, just, had I would haveknown what was at stake, Of like, okay,
if this is what you want to do, theseare the consequences when we talked about
(36:57):
when we started out about being honest.
And then I don't want to be honestbecause it comes with punishment.
And I would have known the punishmentof what I would have had to go through
where I have to get approval just to dataadult age appropriate consenting woman.
(37:17):
She has to be my P.
O.
They have to talk about the conviction.
Uh, what if she has kids, you know,what is the perception of that?
You know, I'm not going out here tryingto groom kids and, uh, you know, on
some, a pedophile or child molester orpredatorial, I just want to have my life
(37:38):
back and I can't go to the lake frontwithout a chaperone, I can't go to certain
places because public perception is.
Oh, he's he's a sex offender.
You know, lock the doors.
Put it well.
And in fact, if we actually look at it,it's a lot of people are sex offenders
(37:59):
and just not having to register andlooking at how this case happened.
They can't really point fingers at you.
Yeah, if it's looked at, at thislevel, the DOC, they put everybody
in the same category because I'm notjust talking about their, I'm talking
about the culture, the community.
And um, it's like, you see these videos.
(38:24):
And you see these girls imitatingthese videos, you know, posture
in their bodies and I'll do, youknow, and it's like, and then you're
saying, Oh, you're a sex offender.
And , you know, our desires are natural.
And then people are gettingtriggered by this behavior.
Yeah.
But then.
(38:45):
You want to lock them up, but it's noaccountability on a community side or on
a parent's side in Churches and governmenteverywhere that this has to be looked
at as well holistically Holisticallybecause right now you're living in a
hostile environment, you know with thisvirus Because it's all these triggers.
(39:05):
That's why they have it.
You can't be on the internet, right?
You um, you can't go to like for youhave to be stopping around you have to
do this This is because they put you inwith how they look at pedophiles Yeah,
and then they got domicile restrictionstoo that says if your conviction wasn't
committed in us, uh our city At acertain time, you can't live in our city.
(39:31):
We're gonna banish you from our city.
And we're gonna force you to be homeless.
And you gotta live over here,and you gotta bounce around.
And that's what my situation is,because my, my, my conviction
is out in Wales, Wisconsin.
And Milwaukee has a, uh, an ordinance.
that says that if my convictionwasn't committed in the city of
Milwaukee prior to 2016, then I can'treside in the city of Milwaukee.
(39:55):
So now I'm forced to be homeless,put on a bracelet, a GPS bracelet,
so the DOC can monitor me.
Even though I've had many residents.
I've had many addresses in Milwaukee priorto the ordinance going in effect, but now
they changed because I was in prison atthe time when they changed the ordinance.
Now I can't live in the city.
Where am I going to go?
I can't go here.
I can't go here.
(40:16):
I can't go here.
I can't go here.
So now I'm just bouncing around.
So how are you here?
This is, should you be here?
Technically, no.
Okay.
But, um, uh, I registered with sort,which is the sex offender registry.
And then now I have to go ahead andhear from the department, uh, the police
(40:39):
department to say, if I'm in violation,which a lot of times they fall through
the cracks or the police going to sendme a, uh, uh, uh, ordinance violation.
So I can challenge it because I want toget grandfathered in because I've had
many times, uh, residents prior to 2016in the city mall, and that's why I should
(40:59):
have grounds to be grandfathered in.
So I.
Couldn't reside so Icould be in a safe place.
So you're waiting to hear backfrom, how do you say the, the,
the Department of Correction.
Um, I mean, not the Department ofCorrections, the police department
with a violation of the ordinance.
'cause I've already registered here at,at, um, so you're waiting to hear back?
Yeah.
So how long is that gonna take?
(41:20):
It could take, however, howeverlong they, they look at it.
So they are looking at it, I don't know.
It could fall through the cracks.
Oh, I'm, I'm believingthat I'm hidden in Christ.
Until I'm all I got ten months of paperleft and I'll be done completely off
of this the third degree sexual assaultcase I'll be completed in because I've
(41:41):
been out four years and two months.
Okay, so you won't have to registeranymore I'll have the register 15 years
from now, but I won't have the DOC withthe rule Rules and stuff like that.
I can move to a different Igot family in other states.
So how long do you have again before that?
Ten, ten months.
Ten months.
Yeah.
(42:02):
Is it okay you doing this interview?
Yeah.
Okay.
I, I see why that couldI did an interview.
No, I did an interviewwith Fox 6 News in 2014?
No, 2016 when they just madethe ordinance with Brad Hicks.
And it's on, uh, Fox 6 News.
(42:23):
You could probably I tried to find him.
I didn't You And when?
When did you have the interview?
I think that's when he left.
I looked, I was lookingat trying to see where.
Cause Brad Hicks is no longer withFox and he left around in 2016.
(42:45):
Yeah, he was doing the Fox News interview.
Okay, I have to go back and lookbecause I was the one I was a big
advocate on trying to get because theyhad everybody homeless at that time.
And Mark Weinberg from Chicago was alawyer that he actually, uh, represented,
uh, represented, uh, like seven sexoffenders and got the ordinance rescinded.
(43:12):
But there's still an ordinance on it.
Not as extreme.
Okay.
Yeah, I want it.
The reason why I was mentioning thisa little bit because, um, you know,
they say you have a debt to society.
So, which you do, but societyhas some accountability as well.
And I want to bring that upin, you know, to the surface.
(43:35):
So we look at everything.
So
, just to recap what we've been talkingabout, we talked about your case,
how you perceive you got there,what you think could have helped.
you perceive you got there isbecause of your broken home.
(43:57):
, some mental issues that was goingon, um, how you were parenting, and
then you looked at how you thinkyour parents could have helped, uh,
encouragement along with punishment.
What type of punishment do youthink they should have had?
I just think that With my family,there was a lack of resources just
(44:18):
with the help from the public schoolsystem with the IEP whole situation.
I think if I would have had more mentors,cause I didn't really, I don't really
remember having a lot of mentors, alot of people that were advocates.
Yeah.
But what kind of, becausethere is accountability, right?
(44:39):
When, so I won't use the word punishment.
It is accountability.
So what kind of accountabilitydo you think you should have had?
I mean, When this was going onis I don't think anything would
work being honest because Iwanted to do what I wanted to do.
I was very rebellious and I don'tthink anything, any punishment or
(45:04):
accountability probably would have helped.
Like, so what?
Yeah.
What do you think it should havehappened and how would I think, I
just think that if I would've hadmore of a positive influence, more
positive role models and mentors, thatwould've been the deterrent for me.
Not to continue my antisocial, butthat, that sounds like, I know, but
(45:24):
you said nothing would've helped.
So how that that would, how is that?
That sound like that would help.
Nothing would have helped asfar as punishment is concerned.
Let me clarify that.
Nothing like taking my gamesaway or doing this or beating
me or verbally assaulting me.
Like none of that would have worked.
Don't do that.
(45:44):
If I would have had more outlets withmentorship and advocacy and stuff like
that and having probably a better peergroup, I think that would have helped.
More of a positive reinforcement.
I'm an advocate of both.
I think there should be a balance though.
(46:07):
So, I don't agree with rewardingbad behavior because that's
going to promote bad behavior.
Um, because you know I comefrom a family where I have a
twin brother that's locked up.
He's been in and out and that'swhy I do what I do because I want.
Change.
Yeah.
Looking at things.
I'm glad you agree with me.
(46:27):
So I'm trying to see where wouldyou say the, um, I hate to say
punishment or however you maysay a correction, but you can't.
Just reward or, or ignore an issue.
So what can the parentthinking about it this way?
(46:47):
What can the parents have done?
And you saying you were veryrebellious, not, it's not that it's, um,
that, you know, you, you put thesethings in place to help for boundaries.
I would say to, to let the kid know, andadults know that there are repercussions.
(47:07):
So if you don't have any, No wonderthey're going to keep, cause they don't
understand that there's accountability.
So my thing is if you would have hadsome checks done, man, you know, some
accountability, not the negative stuff,cause they, they tried the best they
can, but they did it not appropriatelyand negative stuff, but it still
should be something in place so that.
(47:30):
You understand it starts to get in yourhead like, Hey, there's repercussions.
Like, what are the repercussions?
Cause my son, he would do that.
He, uh, thank God he never went to jail,but I just sat in his head right away.
There is accountability.
So what he would do and probablywhat you would have done in those
circumstances, he'll go rightall the way up to the boundary.
(47:53):
Cause he knew there was coming.
Then he'll come back.
Yeah.
So it's like what I did with him.
Was, uh, uh, you know, some talkingas well as taking away and when some,
cause you catch it small, let him gothrough the consequences of it and then
tell him why he's going through it.
Yeah, I didn't have that.
And then, and.
(48:14):
No, it's talk.
Show, show him what it is and tellhim, hey, this is why I'm going
to allow it and I'm going to help.
Sometimes you don't haveto use extension cord.
Yeah, you don't have tohave those talk, right?
No, it's just like you know whata lot of times you already get the
whooping I don't have to use the belt.
I'm like, I'm telling you thisis a whooping right here This is
what happens when you do this.
So you can understand there's consequencesbecause if you don't show them this
(48:40):
They're gonna think there is none though.
And then they're gonna get bam Yeah,you get sideswiped like I didn't
know I didn't know about this.
So anyway, we're wrapping this upThank you for it The interview.
I just want to say, um, thiswas great and this is something
people need to listen to.
(49:01):
But it's, again, it's getting informedand I want to cut a verse here.
It says in the Bible, it comesabout talking about mind and
what we're doing here is like,we're actually renewing our mind.
You're getting the information sothat you'll know how to, , behave
because whatever you think,that's how you're going to act.
So it says, do not.
(49:23):
conform any longer to the pattern of thisworld, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind, then you will be able totest and approve what God's will is.
His good, pleasing and perfect will.
And that's the pleasing and perfectwill is for you to be healthy, for
you, for the community to be safe.
Yeah.
(49:43):
You know, for you not to.
Escalate like you did in gettinginto other crimes because that was
just the start and it escalated.
So where do you think you're at now?
Well, I'm in recovery right now andreally re evaluating what, where
did it all start, you know, andcounteracting these strongholds.
(50:06):
Are you taking responsibility?
Yeah, I'm taking responsibility.
I'm med compliant now.
I've been clean for six monthsnow off all drugs and alcohol.
That's great.
Um, I'm currently in In hope throughrestoration Sober living house.
This is a great place.
I'm here.
Yeah.
And, um, I hope it's more like this.
Yeah.
LT Austin, he runs this programso everybody that you know,
(50:28):
he's should know about this.
And he's so accountable becausehe actually talks to you.
Mm-Hmm.
. I've had men leave my whole life.
Mm-Hmm.
never led.
We need, yeah.
We need more strong men like that.
Yeah.
So you.
So we're wrapping this up,you're saying that you're taking
responsibility, you've forgiven yourparents, have you forgiven yourself?
Yeah, I have.
Have you forgiven yourself?
(50:49):
Yes, I have.
Okay, good.
Because a lot of people have guiltand they can't forgive themselves.
Yeah, and that's just to honorwho I am as far as God's creation.
You know, I have to love myself.
So I love my neighbor as myself.
So that starts with self.
, I thank you for this interview.
Thank you.
A lot of people, I'm pretty sure isgoing to get a lot of, a lot of value
(51:14):
out of this because this is, , forfamily members, for people that locked
up as well as people involved in thejustice system, as well as, um, you
know, judges, lawyers, all advocates.
is that it's working , in this typeof deal and plus being able to help
people that's reentering, especiallypeople that , have a sex case because
(51:38):
it's reentry is harder for them than.
for people that don't have it.
And again, we talked about the Christianperspective, , how God looks at this
and we looked at our community holdingour community accountable as well
because they are accountable as well.
Not just yourself, but thatdoesn't excuse how you should be
responding and behaving as well.
(52:00):
And I'm glad to see thatyou you're forgiven.
Have you forgiven the community?
Yes, I have because I know I haveto take accountability in the things
that I do at the end of the day.
I have a choice in the matter.
And so what I do, it affects not onlyme, but it affects everybody else.
That was the end of myinterview with Mitch Stu Pika.
(52:21):
We really thank him.
It is so good to havesomeone be so transparent.
When they're being transparent.
We can help.
Everybody can help.
People like Mitch.
When he gets to information and we writereinforcements . Of accountability and
him understanding the ramifications.
We stop a lot of themgetting into trouble.
(52:45):
They simply at times.
Just don't know.
But if we talk to them, give themreinforcements, validate them.
Make sure they're heard, butalso make sure he understands
the consequences again.
Mitch Stu Pika.
Is a great young man with a lot of talent.
In the show notes, I'm goingto be attaching his video with
(53:10):
Fox six, as well as his video.
That he may wit an amazing songas you would see, he's amazingly.
Talented with so much to give.
To our community I'm pretty sureyou're going to be seeing much more.
Mitch Stu Pika.
Going about trying to tellother people how not to go.
(53:31):
Down the path that he did.
Thank you again for listening to the show.
May you have a weak field with blessings?
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