Episode #155 w/ Ruben Wills

Ruben Wills was once a rising political force in Southeast Queens—serving as a New York City Council Member for District 28—until everything changed. In 2014, he was arrested and convicted on charges he insisted were false. He spent over three years behind bars. But in 2020, Ruben’s fight for justice paid off when the New York State Appellate Division overturned his conviction, ruling that he had been denied a fair trial. In 2021, he was officially exonerated—cleared of all charges.

But Ruben’s story isn’t just about the system failing him—it’s about what he chose to do after. He returned home not defeated, but more determined than ever.

In this episode of Dog in the Yard, Ruben shares his powerful journey—from the South Jamaica Houses in Queens, through political office, prison, exoneration, and now back on the campaign trail with his eyes on re-election. He’s the founder of Policy, Inc., a nonprofit fighting for criminal justice reform, and he’s deeply committed to mentoring youth, testifying before lawmakers, and reshaping the system that once tried to bury him.

This isn’t just about redemption—it’s about leadership, legacy, and never letting your circumstances define your impact.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Himself.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
That'll be.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Hope a south darks a over your mouth, red.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
You less.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Clear?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
That's right?

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Yeah, yo yo yo, whatady knows your boy Pistol Pete
walking back the dog in the yard? Today we got
Ruben Wills in the building. Ran for city council twenty ten,
twoy eleven thirteen reelected two thy seventeen, was convicted multiple
fenity chargers. And with that being said, let's get right

(01:50):
to it. You already know your boy pistol Pete dog
in the yak.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
What up? What up?

Speaker 3 (01:57):
You already knows your boy Pistol Pete walking back to
the dog of the yard. And we have Ruben Wilson
in the building.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Absolutely thanks for having me. You've been mother good, I'm good.
God is good. You know, just moving, just doing what
we need to do to put some things together. Okay, yeah,
run up a city council again, trying to regain the
sea that loss.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Okay, Uh so hopefully we be able to regain that seat.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, you know, yeah, we've been doing a lot of work.
You know, we're putting a lot of work into a
lot of work in the community since I've been back,
you know, just using everything that I learned while I
was away to try to, you know, make me a
better person and benefit people.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
M So, tell us a little bit about yourself for
those that don't know, Ruben, I mean regards to your
upbringing and to your onto the situation you got, you
got to you know, whatever happened in the situation that
you want up being incocerated. Yeah, So a little bit
about your background, where you're from, you know, your upbringing?

Speaker 2 (02:53):
All right, Well I'm from I know you think the
Bronx is the greatest, but I'm from South Jamaica, Queens, right.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
All right, Okay, shout Queens.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Shout out the Queens, and especially shout out to South
Southeast Queens, Big Queens and from forty projects. Grew up
regular guy, lived in Saint Orbans for a while, you know,
moved around, did a few things when the school came back,
got into a lot of activism, trying to fight when

(03:21):
the hospitals was getting closed in my area, fighting against that,
just kept fighting for courses, fighting for causes. Took a
natural progression and I wound up in the city council.
You know. It was mentored by council member Leroy Karmedy,
who was not Senator e Comedy and Assembly womber of
Vivian Cook, and I was. I was privileged enough to

(03:41):
serve in the City Council from twenty ten to twenty seventeen. Wow, yeah,
so I did. We did a lot of work too,
you know, especially coming from District twenty eight, which was Jamaica,
Richmond Hill, Rochdale and Baisley in south Old was on Park.
You know, we had a lot of rough neighborhoods, but
we had a lot of good neighborhoods, so we merged
the best of all of them.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
Yeah, he was. He was able to overcome all the
all the all the bullshit that we raised with. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, absolutely. You know, when we get into it, that
flashes forward to something my cousin told me when I
got incarcerated, which bugged me out. But yeah, so we'll
get into that.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah. So yeahad tell me a little bit about you.
So so when you started, like what what made you
want to get into politics?

Speaker 2 (04:27):
And I didn't. And I was never trying to get
into politics. I was about trying to make money, period.
And I took a lot of money that I got
and flipped it into a construction company and I hired
like maybe fourteen guys from the neighborhood that was coming
home and couldn't get jobs right, So I said, well,
we don't need nobody else, We're going to do it ourselves.
We got to it, got into a lot of construction

(04:50):
and stuff. I met a specific person who was who
had a lot of minority contracts and he was then
a senator. He had just become a senator. His name
is Malcolm Smith. And he asked me, he said, you know,
every time I see you on a boulevard, do politic
and you got a bunch of young people around you
coming so I would go home. I'm like, yeah, we'd
have made it. You know what I'm saying, I'm gonna

(05:11):
get these contracts. Because he had a lot of construction contracts.
He wasn't talking to me about no contracts and nothing else.
He was telling me he wanted me to be his
body person and just work with him in politics, and
I wasn't interested in it. I wanted to get to
the bag and God had something different. So I went
with him for a little while. He as send it
to a minority leader and then he became Democratic leader

(05:34):
of the state Senate. There was one point in time
when I was really, really, really down. I didn't know
what to do, just got married, wasn't sure if my
placement in life. I knew I had a purpose, didn't
know what it was. So I was praying and fasten
for like seven days, and on the seventh day, I
was out with a gentleman council member, Leroy Comey, and

(05:57):
me and him at the Fishhouse Rockaway Boulevard, and he
asked me if I want him to eat, and I
was like, nah, I'm good, I don't need nothing to eat.
So he says, he said, wow, you don't have any
money on you, and I'm looking at I'm like, like,
I had like thirty five hundred and forty five hundred
dollars on They're like, I'm more money than you were
talking about. I said, nah, you're not going to understand
this God. I'm fast and I just need clarity. So

(06:18):
he said, what makes you think I wouldn't understand spiritual matters?
And I'm like, I just don't think you would. He said,
whenever God tells me tells you what to do, you
tell me. We went aside and everybody who was older
than me in my hood gave this guy a lot
of respect. So I'm looking at him like I thought
he was just some corny elected official, right, corny politician.
He wasn't. So, I mean, he wasn't in the street

(06:40):
to shake it nothing, but you know, he they respected
him of respect. Got in a car and God told me,
you're gonna do what he do. And I said, God
just told me, I'm gonna do what you do. Didn't
even know what he did, though, keep it eye.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
I did not know what he did.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
And he said, all right, good, we're gonna start working
on it. That had to be maybe like a Friday Saturday.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
Old you was wow, Well year I was.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
I was. I can tell you I was thirty two. Yeah,
it was thirty two when it happened. And he said
all right, So the next two days we started. And
I was with him every day for like four or
five years, every single day, no pay. I was just
with him. And it wasn't like he didn't want to
pay me. I was just like, I don't need it.
I have my construction company money, I had money saved

(07:21):
up from other stuff. I was good, just did the
parallel track and from there it was on. You know,
I just kept moving and started running campaigns and doing
this and doing that, and God led me to that.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yeah, so it was it's an incredible journey.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
You know, it was an incredible journey.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah. It was a process, the process, and I know
you understand process.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yes, yeah, yeah, it took. It took. It took a
little minute. But you was there.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah. I was there and I didn't even realize I
was getting there.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
Wow, I ain't. I wasn't going in for so you
finally you finally got it.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
We ran in two thousand and nine for city council.
There was my predecessor, Thomas White Junior, and we ran
in two thousand and nine. Lost forged a great relationship
with him, and then twenty ten, unfortunately he passed away
from cancer. And when he passed away from cancer, they
came back and told me like, listen, we want you

(08:15):
to run.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Now.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
These are the same people that was against me wanted
me to run this time. So we ran and we won.
We got elected and I got sworn into November twenty ten.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, so it was incredible. And that's when the remember
that big blizzard happened and the whole city was shut down. Well,
you was this this is twenty ten. Remember that it
was so bad that the subway, I mean, the sanitation
trucks couldn't even get through the city. So that's when
I got elected. So then we jumping right to it.
We was having heart attacks and the ambulances Gonnay couldn't
walk through the snow, so we had to manage the
district through that, and we just kept it moving from there.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
So what was what? What was it when you find it?
You know, you got you finally was they was elected? Like?
How was it? I mean, what was the feeling? Like,
you know, you it was a long process. I mean yeah,
but you know what is it was?

Speaker 2 (09:00):
It's a real right. I didn't I didn't realize I
was elected. I knew I was elected, but to me,
it was like still like a dream. You know, it
was real hazy because that wasn't the path I put
myself on. So when it happened, like you know, I
was crazy excited, but it was shocking. Yeah, it was
a shocking. It was bittersweet because you know, they got

(09:20):
they went and got in the Cole Bell Sewan's fiance
to run against me. That's how much they hated me,
Like they did not want me in office.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
Wow, and it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
They went and opened up a campaign office right up
the block for me. And during the night of the election,
they had nine news vans outside her campaign cause they
knew she won. And when they announced it, I won.
None of the news vans came down to the office.
Nobody called us and congratulated us. We just went to
a local restaurant Saint Grier and just had some food
and ate and then that was it, you know. So

(09:48):
it was kind of anti climatic, and then we just
got busy. We just started getting to work.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yeah, what was the first things that you started to
get into as far as work modes?

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Everything. As soon as I got sworn in, I got
sworn in and November the storm hit, so we had
to deal with the blizzet, get everybody out of that.
Then we had to get the offices up and running.
And then all the bullshit started. Can I say bullshit?
I can say yes, all the bullshes started, you know,
like the Manhattan DA came to me and wanted me

(10:18):
to wrap up into something and that I have nothing
to do with. And because I told him, no, I'm
not dealing with it, he was telling me, oh, we
don't remember you not wanting to cooperate, and I'm like,
I don't care about what you feel, you know what
I'm saying. And it was real nasal that we got,
you know it. It was crazy, which started a lot.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
Of pressure, a lot of pressure. Yeah, it was a
lot of pressure.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
But it was unnecessary, like right, because you want me
now to start dealing with stuff that other people had
done nothing to do with that, you know what I'm saying.
So I told him, listen, I'm from forty projects. So
if I'm here for a day or yeah, I'm good.
We made it right, so nobody this is the first
time we made it. So I think it was like
a month later or two months later, they started coming

(11:00):
after me for some minor stuff that I had got
an a c D on ten years prior. You know
what I'm saying, Oh, because I told him to kick rocks,
they started doing that, and then you know, I would
have two more elections back to back and they try
to get me.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
What was it they was trying to do though?

Speaker 2 (11:17):
They want so since I didn't want to deal with
them on that, they found a case that I had
ten years old where I owned a contract and company them.
I told you the construction company. So when I had
the construction company, the dude didn't want to pay me
down and Tribeca. So I'm like, you're gonna pay me
my money. So I went back in and took my
stuff out. I didn't know. You know, I'm thinking, you

(11:38):
didn't take possession of the property, yet you ain't pay
me for the stuff. I got the receipts, so I'm thinking,
it's gonna take one stuff back. This dude runs and
tries to play super tough. He's on the phone with
this guy who is my business manager, and I was like, well,
I mean, you know, I could just meet you in Jersey.
I got your address and oh, you're threatening me. Next
thing I know, I had to turn myself and down

(11:58):
to the DA mahat. He was saying all kinds and stuff.
So you know, we took an acd aquittal contemplating dismissal
six months to get dismissed, paid twenty five hundred dollars
done right. Wasn't no big deal, didn't have a record.
I was chalked it up. I wasn't. I didn't go
to school for business, so I just talked that up
to me being hot off, you know, and then no

(12:19):
big deals paid. The twenty five hundred dollars business manager
never paid the money. But I had been moving with
elected officials, going to the DA's checking my record and
stuff like that was never don there. The city council
did an exhaustive background search on me to make sure
that I could take office. I was fitting worthy for office.
Didn't find anything, but these dudes had it in their pockets.

(12:40):
So when they came to me and I told him
I wasn't gonna help them, they pulled it out and
now they was just saving it. They were saving it,
so then they tried to put it on display. I
was in the front page all the newspapers, you know,
like front page, the Daily News and all this. I'm like, yo,
this was something ten years ago. I'll become public intemy
number one, you know what I'm saying. So the DA
was trying to get his rocks off. I'm gonna get
this elected official, Bubba by, you know basically what he

(13:01):
was trying to do. He's like, I'm gonna come after
this nigga in the South Side. I'm gonna get him
up out of here.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah, that's basically what it was.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
That's basically what it was. He want a nigga name
for itself. So, you know, my election was happening, and
I had some lawyers that smoked it, and it was
like total the judge, this was an electionnaire and you
can't try to do this while he got an election
going on. So the judge was like, you're right, and
then after that they dismissed it. I mean they dismissed
it a cop out to a misdemeanor afterwards. Yeah, but
it shouldn't even went that for all. Right, now I'm

(13:27):
getting ready to get that overturn too. That conviction not overturned,
That conviction is getting vacated. Yeah, because the statue of
limitations was going Number one, number two was a CD
and you shouldn't even have came after me. But he
was trying to say, right, but he was trying to
say it was bell jumping so it could be an
active felony because he wanted me to get convicted for
felony be moved from office. That was his whole thing.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yeah, the whole goal was just to get you out office.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
That's all it was. The whole goal was to get
me out of office and make some names. And from
then I wasn't smart enough to people and just say,
let me just leave this stuff alone, let me go
back to private money. You know what I'm saying. I
just stayed in it because I wanted to do the
help I wanted to do.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
So were you able to put in any kind of
work and if were able to do anything?

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Oh yeah, we got busy. Like you know, I passed
the synthetic marijuana legislation. I passed a lot of legislation
dealing with homeowners. I'm the one that passed the legislation
that maybe people were able to write the vote on
rik As Island. You know, they wasn't letting people vote
on right As Island before me. I passed that legislation.
I started the foreclosure work in New York State where
we took money and was able to make sure that

(14:29):
we help people negotiate their mortgages so they can stay
in their houses. We did a lot of work.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
That's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah, I mean we I was the largest, So I guess.

Speaker 3 (14:37):
That's what they wanted you to do.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah, that's what it was.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
You kept for the project queens. Yeah, you relate to us. Yeah,
this guy's dangerous and that's what it was because I
can relate to that's just basically what it is. That's
exactly what it was. So in a different time in
the ror now though.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Yeah, but they still do the same thing, you know
what I'm saying. They still doing the same thing. You know,
it's like it's it's a trick bag, right, So we
got the same people in the Democratic Party who they
want to keep spending us. Oh, look at Trump. Trump
is evil, Trump is this, Trump is that? But you
are the reason for Trump, you know what I'm saying, Like,
if y'all didn't play that game with Biden, y'all knew
he was on mental decline, and y'all knew what Kamala

(15:14):
wasn't gonna win, But y'all played that and til now
y'all want to blame everything on him. When y'all did
it right, you spun people with the bullshit, and now
you know you got to stand up and take accountability.
We messed this up. Now we could do this, so
people don't want to keep hearing that and fighting everything.
Trump is a boogeyman for everything. It doesn't work like that.
There's a lot of things that y'all did that wasn't right,

(15:34):
and that's what happened.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
Now, escalated to that, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Escalated to that. So I mean, you know, but I
mean God got a plan for everything. And most of
the time it's people in the church yelling about all
we're gonna die, this guy's gonna fall. Like if that's
the case, and that's what God wills, right, you believe
in God all the time, How you're gonna be mad?
If God put that.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
Right?

Speaker 2 (15:53):
That's like me, how I'm gonna be mad? God allowed
me to go to prison because of a plan for
my life. I was bitter in the beginning, but once
I came back to myself when I said, wait a minute,
God is a control of all. As we got free will,
but he's in the control of all. I'm be mad.
You can't be mad no more. You can't do both.
You can't say one thing and two things.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
That I'll be mad. You ain't gonna get blessed like
that anyway.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
Can't do it.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
You can't do it right. So what year they they finally,
you know, you got arrested and they said that you
that you actually you know, did something wrong.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
And yeah, so that was the Manhattan, DA and then
Eric Snyderman was the state attorney general. Okay, so the
woman I worked for, he wanted to go after her.
And in that time that he was going after her,
we found out that he had did something to a woman,
a couple of women he knew, we knew. So then

(16:45):
he said, well, let me just discredit this guy, so
I'm gonna go after him. So they said, yo. He
stole money from his now for profit. He brought Louis
Baton bags, he took money from campaign finance. He did
all of this. He made me out to be like
I was some super criminal. And it was thirty two
thousand dollars we was talking about, right, and I'm like,
thirty two thousand dollars, I got neckties worth two like not.
But this is what I did. I had see myself, right.

(17:07):
So he wanted me to cop out. They you know
how they do it. Everything is a felony. Everything is
a crime. So they gave me twenty six or twenty
eight felonies. And then I went and cop out, and
he was like, well, if you don't cop out, we're
gonna put six more on you in Manhattan. So they
put the six on me Manhattan. I still wouldn't cop out.
They kept trying to get my lawyers dismissed from the case,
because you know, every time you get a new lawyer,

(17:28):
you gotta put another seventy five thousand and fifty thousand
dollars out, So they kept trying to do that to
try to bangrub me. That didn't work. I say, we're
gonna go to trial on this. So then they said, listen,
don't go to trial. We'll give you six months and
a a misdemeanor, global misdemeanor, settle everything. All you gotta
do is resign. They say, you did it, It's not
gonna happen. Then they was like, well, we won't give
you no time. Just just a a misdemeanor. You can

(17:51):
go about your life. It's not a felony. Just say
you did it. I'm not doing that. I didn't steal
the money. I'm not doing that. So we ready to go.
We get in the court, We ready to rid. My
attorneys is killing them. They had seventeen witnesses, one witness
that I could they could stay that I used my
card per None of the other witnesses could say anything.
We were killing them. Then it was my time to

(18:12):
put my defense on. All of a sudden, the judge
starts two stepping and let me have witnesses. I'm like,
what do you mean, I can't have witnesses? What he said? Now,
you can't have these witnesses and he made it all
these excuses, and my attorney kept jumping. I'm like, you know,
this is an appealable, like why would you do this?
You know this is gonna win on appeal. And he's like, well,
you have it for appial Like basically, I know it

(18:33):
can be a pill, but we're gonna get a conviction
out this dude.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, we're just trying to get him a conviction. And
then were worried about that later.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
All that's exactly and exactly what it was. They just
had to have this conviction, and it happened to be
going right around my election.

Speaker 3 (18:47):
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
What I'm saying, So all of that played in the play.
So they got the conviction, remanded me, and they gave
me He wanted to give me two to six consecutive.
He wanted to give me three. Two to six is executive.
I'm still thinking, like, you know, this is thirty two
thousand dollars. Yeah, we go to Prinson for thirty two
thousand dollars. Right, But like my brother Boss said, is

(19:10):
because he said, because I was an elected official, he
had to make a real statement. But a statement like that,
that's too much of a statement, right, So the thing
was a little bit harsh. It's a lot harsh. Right,
It's a lot of harsh in the same thing. Right,
it's thirty two thousand and it's not it's not fed time. No,
they wasn't giving me a camp neither. They put me
up state, upstate, you know what I'm saying. So you

(19:33):
know we did that that got convicted. Uh, they sent
me the rikers.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
What was what was your state of mind at that point?

Speaker 2 (19:44):
What you was going through?

Speaker 3 (19:45):
Like, I mean, here you go, standing up for your people,
trying to do the right thing. You know in your
mind that you had never stole nothing, you ain't never
rob nothing, you ain't never this ship illegal. What was
going through your mind? Now here you go, you've gone
the records out going over the bridge.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
You know what, there was a bunch of stuff going
through my mind. I already had Bush, like Derek Hamilton,
you and him his may and Rinnie, But I had
Bush and Shobacca sh call on him. They actually came
to me when they had come home. Just happened to
come into me from people from Brooklyn telling them that,
you know, I'm gonna work with him. So they was

(20:25):
already there. They was like, Yo, they railroad, and you
like they were standing up doing interviews with the posts
and everybody, but they wouldn't run their interviews.

Speaker 3 (20:32):
Right.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
They were saying, Yo, the railroad and this this is
gonna happen, blah blah. So I was kind of prepared
for it, right, and I'm coming from south Side, so
I'm like, this is everyday occurrence for us. But what
I couldn't grasp was the fact that you were really
going to try to send me to prison for it. Right.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
I was a guy.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
If I get the conviction, I get a pill. I
beat the conviction. But you they really sent me to prison.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
You wouldn't even think that you will go to prison
for that Nas Island and go through all that.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So I'm like, yeah,
you could catch a bullet right eight months on pistol pete.
You know, like I wasn't terrible exactly right, I'm like
and I don't I don't even like that dude, man
staying pistol pe dude, the ruin it for everybody, right, yeah, yeah,
but it just really fucked up. It was. It was

(21:22):
so you know, prior to that, I had a bunch
of surgeries, so I had a real medical condition.

Speaker 3 (21:29):
And throughout this whole situation, throughout the whole situation, Yeah,
tough town.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
And I just want to put on like the indictment
happened in twenty fourteen, right April of twenty fourteen. I
just want to put that out there for a reason.
So we go in. The judge tells them, yo, this
is my commitment order take them straight to nick you right,
they take me to the island. And when I came in,
you know, when they come and through the first processing thing,

(21:57):
I'm the first person of the dudes in the case.
Jesus was the first person off the bus. And I'm
off the bus, right, they started erecting these these screens,
these mobile walls. Right now I'm seeing, you know, the island,
I'm seeing the nick Q building like three hundred feet away,
six hundred feet away. So I'm like, why are y'all
doing all of this?

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (22:16):
You gotta go in there. And I'm like, what's all
this for? So the CEO is a lot of them
live in my hoods, right, and a lot of them
I done work with. There's like a ruben no worried
about what'll take care of you? I said, were taking
care of me?

Speaker 1 (22:25):
For no?

Speaker 2 (22:26):
No. When the CEO w ward and she comes out
flipping out, I'm like, ye know, what's wrong with you, lady?
Like you don't know why? I Am like, why are
you bugging out like this? Right? She said, oh you
got that blah blah blah. I said, yo, I could
walk to the nick Q building right. What are y'all doing?
You had me on the bus already with everybody. It
wasn't like I'm not a protective custody. Why are you

(22:47):
wilding like this? They put me in a van and
they had me shackled up with no seatbelt, and they
took me to the Bronx to the boat. And when
they took me, I'm going across that bridge and I'm saying,
and why am I going across the paint bridge? I'm like,
you know, Nick, you was right there. Why are you taking?
You taking? Why are you talking about you processing? Me

(23:08):
over there that van. It was it was, it was bad.
And I woke up like it. It was throwing me
around and stuff, and I was unconscious and they woke
me up and I was on the floor of the
van and he kept like shaking me to wake me up.
And because I'm like, what's going on, I'm mad foggy,

(23:31):
and they's like, yo, well you gotta get up, you
gotta get up. And I was like, all right, cool,
I'm like, I said, yo, y'all didn't hear me, Like
what was that? That's crazy? And they said I just
get up till we could take you inside. I said, yeah, man,
cause it's getting laid. I gotta get through it. Let's
just get it done. So I get up and you
know the benches in the vans, I was like to

(23:51):
go to grab and jump up on the bench. And
I stood up on the bench. I just felt like
this pain shot through my body and I was like,
just give me a minute, give me a minute. So
now they yelling on their radio, it's all fuck, they
bugging out, and I said, just give me a minute. Man,
it's a height. And I tried to do it again,
like ten minutes light. I couldn't walk. Like every time
I would extend my leser, I just would fall back down.

(24:13):
These dudes had to go get a gurney and bring
me into the boat. And when you get on the boat,
you know there's those first two cells here and there
it's the long cells. So they had me up in
the cell and they couldn't find my medication because of
my profile, you know, they couldn't find my records because
they had to be kept secret. The doctor didn't have
no medication. Sergeant came in and was like, he wasn't

(24:35):
supposed to be here. He was supposed to be a
nick you they'll be. I'm signing the thing. They get
him out of here right away. I'm saying, all right.
So and at this time, it's crazy, right because I
still got money on me. I got the warm up
suit on me. You know, they ain't processed me, and
I had my cash so I can put it in
the books. So I think I had like thirty five
hundred dollars thirty tw hundred dollars on me, and they

(24:58):
the doctor gave me talent on three had codine in
it or something like that, but it got me sick.
So I was sitting there sick all night and I
woke up in the morning, you know, the CEO woke
me up and she was nasty. They took me out
to the van again in a wheelchair. They processed me.
They was like, yo, let's get everything you need. I said, Yo,

(25:20):
make sure my money goes on my books. Blah blah
blah blah. Took me back to the van outside. I'm like,
this ain't a good idea. Like I told you, it
wasn't a good idea. At first, I'm like, why are
you putting me back in this van? She was like, yo,
we ain't got no choice. We got to take you.
And they took me the Old Boy. But I'm like,
how am I get to How am I get to
the yo? You brought me out here? I couldn't walk.

(25:41):
How are you gonna put me back in the same
thing that started it? So they laid me on the
floor and they took me the old Boy and they
gave me some crutches and took me twenty minutes of
walk across of the block. And you was going through it, yeah,
I mean, you know it wasn't. I found out later.
You know, dudes go through a lot worse. Yeah, you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
Yeah, but but you put in per se like you know,
you particularly like you never seen your life go through that,
Like this is not what you signed up for, you
know what you know, I mean, some people sign that
you sign up for it right here, right right right
doing Robby were out here doing bad stuff. He wasn't
doing that, right. You know.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Up until I was sixteen, I thought I was going
to be going that route. But then after that I
was like, I'm good. You know what I'm saying. I
found a route. I'm doing this, I'm finishing school, I'm
going to I'm doing my construction company. You know. So
I would never have thought that I would have ended
up there, especially if it was it was going to
be for something that I did, you know what I'm saying.
But you know, coming from where we come from, everybody

(26:43):
go through stuff, but this was this was like a
shock to the system.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
There's a shock not only to the system, to the community.
You know what I'm saying, because those those people that
look look at you as this is the only hope
we have, we finally got the hope that you feel me.
It's like you all of a sudden you're gone. It's
like shit, And.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
It's crazy because I didn't see that part, like you
just you just identified it. I didn't see that part
until the last two years, you know, Like I've been
jumping in ubers and I'm going places and the uber
drivers are recognizing me and they're like, yo, aren't you
the counselorman And I was like not no more. And
it was like no, we know what happened to you.
And it was like, you know, when we was young, guys,
we always saw you moving around and stuff, and like

(27:24):
we was proud of you, like we really wanted to
be with you. We wanted to meet you. I remember
some of my friends we talking about they just wanted
to shake your hand and take pictures. And I'm like, well, nobody, actually,
you know, the community was with me, but I didn't.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
Feel that at that point.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
At that point, we were just working, you know what
I'm saying. But I didn't know that people really looked
up to me and all that stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah, of course you have people. You know, you're gonna
have people that's gonna say fuck you, but you also
donna have people it's gonna be like that. Counselman, Right,
you know he's doing this thing. Yeah, you know, he
making a statement, and only that you're making a statement
period from the beginning, because of where you come from. Yeah,
and that's not a big part like for us individuals

(28:02):
that don't have educations, people that just out there lost.
For you to just move move like that, it's something
to it's something to look forward. You're like, shit, he
did that. He look at him. He come from the projects.
What he's doing, you know what I'm saying, it's just
a push for the youth, for the for the for
those that come after you, you know.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
And that's why I said that statement to the DA
when I went, when I told you the first part
of the story. You know, I have made it from
the projects, bro one day a year. You can't take
that from me. And the dude that's coming behind me
is gonna be even better. So I was like, go
do your worst, and they did their worst. That's what
started all that.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
Bs, Yes, started the whole bullshit.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
Yeah. So they they finally did that in twenty seventeen,
that got remanded, went upstate. I was in the wheelchair
for eight months and then they was like bouncing me around.
So Eric Snyderman was the Attorney general at that point
in time, and in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, that's when
he had a fall when he had to resign because

(28:59):
they found out heard this all that stuff to the women.
So I'm like, bingo, we got action, you know what
I'm saying. Now, we got public cooperation for it. I'm
going home, right, I could show you that this guy
was right, and I can show you this like I had.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
It was no good, no good.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
Now I came, I did another year, came home on
work release. I was re unite with my family. You know,
my daughter when all this started. Remember I was two
years prior to that. I was in the hospital a lot.
So my daughter was like, you know, she was a baby,
she was.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
It was complicated. Yeah, it was only in jail. But
you was you could wasn't even yourself in a wheelchair.
You you know, I guess I wasn't myself.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
You're right, I ain't not. You know what, I didn't
eve think about it because as you move, and you
just moving, you just adapted.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
You adapt, of course, but you're not even yourself. That's
not who you are. I mean, that's the who who
you were yesterday? Right, right?

Speaker 2 (29:50):
Right? You feel right?

Speaker 3 (29:53):
It's crazy, man, she was to have been like I mean,
very stressful, very very you know what I mean for
you to be here today and like and and want
to run for it and and and I want to
go again and create these changes, and it's amazing. It's
something to look. You know, we look at you that like, Wow,
you know what I'm saying, he's going back for it.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
God didn't give me make enough common sense not to
do it. I don't know no better.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
But you know we did nothing wrong. So you're clear.
You're clear, your conscience is clear. You feel me like
you could do that, you know what I'm saying. When
when when you improved that you you was innocent the
whole time? Yeah, you feel me. It's like you was
never supposed to have been in that situation.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
Yeah. And you know what's crazy? Sohm, you know how
they say lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place.
So I come home on work release, Yeah, brief a
brief stint. I'm getting ready to go on parole, right,
getting to go merrit parole, getting ready to go seven
and zero from work release. I got beef with the
with the debut ward and that's in there over some

(30:55):
other stuff. I'm helping people. They're not giving people jobs
like they're supposed to do. So, you know, my pen
game was crazy. Like I was upstate, I was getting
people home, and they came out with the new EU
analysis machines in twenty nineteen, and I'm the second person
in the state that they test for urine and it

(31:17):
comes up dirty shit, right, So they telling me, then
everybody else is coming up for chilita for this, for that,
for that. I'm like, I don't even know what chili
What is chilita?

Speaker 3 (31:29):
Right?

Speaker 2 (31:29):
So the guy's telling me, he said, nah, you ain't
do that. I said, how you know? He said, because
that's our people drug. And I was like, all right,
so what is it? So he was telling me what
it is. We it looked like, I said, I remember
that when I was upstate. I saw it, but I
didn't you know, I don't fuck with drugs. So that's
what came up in my came like, these drugs, it's
what they give you. It's the drug they gave you
to take you off of pills, like if you're on

(31:51):
AXI coding and stuff like that. You know, if you're
on heroin, they give you a methadone. So this is
for like the axi and the other pills like that.
They give you that and it usually comes in like
a little you know, nice so lott strips you put
on your tongue. It usually comes looking like that, right,
So dudes take it to get high, and of course
you know it makes it's a lot of money in prison.

(32:12):
So they said I was guilty of that. They said
I had something else in my system, and I'm like, yo,
you're bugging. I don't take drugs at all. So they
was like, well, we're gonna put you through the Temporary
Release committee and they find you guilty, you're going back upstage.
So I'm saying, no problem, man, I got enough connections
with people. I'm gonna call and they gonna get this straight.
It usually took them sixty days at somebody, send somebody upstate.

(32:33):
Them people have me in sing sing in like fifteen
fourteen days. They have me bapping, sing sing. I'm sitting
there like, how the fuck I get to sing? Sing?
You know what I'm saying. So, but you know I
get in there. I don't know if you know Kwame
he used to be Latin King, one of the kings.
So Kwame was in on my tier. So me and
Kami is talking and I'm sitting there one day on
a cell bed and Kwame walked by and he started

(32:54):
talking to me. I was like, you know, no disrespect, man,
I want to hear none of that. He's like, no,
I want to tell you some scriptures. I was like,
I'm good with the scriptures.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
Bro.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
I was raising, I don't want to have none of
that because I'm like, yo, this is my second time
I didn't do it. I'm up here again. So I'm like, okay,
So now I just got to become a monster because
evidently I'm supposed to be here for a reason, right.
So KWAMEI said, well, I'm gonna pull up. He pulled
his chair in front of my sond just starts reading
scriptures to me. And one scripture hit me and I
was like wow, and he said he said, when you

(33:21):
do what you have to do, he said, just remember
the people here, and we was in sing sing. He
was like, we need more. He said, I'm trying to
get into an education program. I can't get into it
because of the space, and I'm trying to do this
and I'm trying to go home and I'm trying to
do this, and I was like, a cool And it
reminded me because when I first got to Marcie, the
shirts came outside. Now I'm in a wheelchair. They got

(33:42):
me in the back of the draft room by the
picnic table and they came outside and it was like, yo,
we know who you are. And I'm like, I'm sure
you do. You read my folder right, and they said
we glad you here. So I was like, fuck, Like
what kind of racist is They was like, no, we
don't mean it like that. They was like, but you
have a profile and when you go home, you'll be
able to fix what goes on in here. He said,
we don't like to do what we have to do

(34:03):
in this prison or any other prison, but we need
somebody to fix it.

Speaker 3 (34:07):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
And they said you're gonna be the one that can
go home and fix it, right, And I was like,
don't nobody want to hear from me. I'm like, I
just you know. He said You're gonna be the one
Marcy Is where they killed mister Brooks. You know what
I'm saying. So I was like, I have to actually
get something done. Now, and I'm just remembering the story
about Kwame because he told me that. And then when
I got to Walk Kill, because you know, once we

(34:29):
ain sing thing, it's different. Right in the match, you
got a prison you got to sell and the dorms,
everything's wide open. You don't know something's gonna pop, you know.
So the cells to me was more I like the
cells better.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
So privacy shit.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying. You just put your
sheet up on the ball, get whatever. Yeah. So I'm like,
all right, well I'm gonna do this. I'm just whatever
they're gonna do. But I wasn't under the understanding that
when you failed out of a program, eighty five percent
of the time, they snatch your date and you gotta
go to another board like two years later. So I
didn't think they're gonna try to hit me for four years. Right,
I'm thinking I'm gonna do this a couple of months.

(35:02):
I'm gonna go home anyway. So my people was say, oh, no,
you can't be in sing saying you're crazy. I look up.
One day they transfer me to Walk Kill, right, so
I get to War Killed, and when I get to
wold Kill, QUI me pulled up. He was there, so men,
I think it was walk killed me and was kicking it.
Then I'm in walk Kill and a lot of people
that came up from Lincoln was getting hit with the

(35:24):
drug testing. So me and a dude they mail branch
or shout out to mail branch if you did, please
get in touch with me. Man mail Branch and a
few other people pull up to me and they say, Yo,
what you gonna do. We know you don't use drugs,
and we don't use drugs. I said, I'm not copping out,
because they was like, listen, just cop out and you
can go home. We'll just you know, you just go home.
You able to take the case of that program. But
you're gonna go home. We're gonna keep you in here

(35:45):
on restriction for a month. You'll go home. I said,
I'm not copping out to this. I ain't cop out
to the first thing. So that's when they sent me upstate.
They spun me up there, and they spun like twelve
of us up so a few of the dudes came up,
throwing them some dudes from Brooklyn and I got him home.
I was writing their pills and stuff like that, and
I couldn't get myself home. Wow. And one of the
dudes came over to me. One of the bloods that
was up in Marshy with me that actually helped me

(36:05):
get out the wheelchair was there and he was like, Yo,
how does ship keep happening to you? He said, how
you how you feel? You writing and getting these dudes
home and you can't get you You can't get yourself home?

Speaker 3 (36:16):
Crazy? Right?

Speaker 2 (36:19):
I went right to the cell. I was depressed for
like three days.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
I sat there and read Takashi Coach Book and I
just sat there for like three days. I couldn't you know,
I just couldn't do it. You know.

Speaker 3 (36:30):
It was better?

Speaker 2 (36:30):
Yeah? Yeah, man, I was back there being better again.
You know what I'm saying this dude, They was, you know,
bringing the food to me. You know, we had our
own web, like there's a cooking facility, so you know,
they was bringing me my food and stuff. But I
was like, I couldn't. I ain't understand. And then I
got sick. I was like, yo, what is going on? Man?
Like God, what is happened?

Speaker 3 (36:45):
Yea?

Speaker 2 (36:45):
I swear to you. At one point in time, man,
you ever seen that Chris Rock Special when he said,
I drove through Harlem and I had my car and
the cops came over to me so much, and they
was like, you stole this car. He said, no, this
is my car. And he said the cop so persistant.
I was like, damn, did I steal his ship? Yeah right?

Speaker 3 (36:59):
I was feeling that crazy man, that shit happened to me. Man.
Then got pulled over. Young that's the reason that's so
long ago. Oh I got and they pulled me over.
It was like he came over to the cars. Do
you know how much monus your car has? Where you
get this call from? Like the girl that was with me,
she was like, excuse me, you just.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
She got involved. She was like what you just asked him?
I was like this, I got this because I don't
want to now.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
Yes, I was like what He was like, No, I'm
just you know, cause just demolog it. What's that numbers
up there? And I'm like, sir, you stopped me for
what you stopped?

Speaker 2 (37:39):
How do you even know what?

Speaker 3 (37:40):
That's crazy? What do you stopped me before? Anyway? Your
ten windows? So let's just deal with the ten windows, Like, this.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
Is my car?

Speaker 3 (37:45):
You asked me for my driver's was weird and then
he just came back. Well, actually what what? What calm
things down?

Speaker 2 (37:52):
Was?

Speaker 3 (37:53):
I had a I got a bunch of PBA cars
badges said this is a time to pull this out.
I guess, look, buddy, tons of cops and d everybody here.
He was like, he was like all right, he left,
he came back. He was go ahead, man, you know,
nice call and this. Then I was like, that's what
it was. Yeah, I was like, what the fucking youngest doing?

(38:15):
I love young because I was like, you know, like,
I'm like, that's one of those places that I like,
I'm like caught that one though. I was like, ship
and I was like, cool, I just left and all that.
But I was, yeah, it was it was weird.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
You caught that one? You probably he probably show you
through the front wind. She was like, yo, he looked
like the dude that took my girlfriend something.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
I don't know what the fuck he was like he
was on it and thank god that you know, it
turned out okay. He came back, but it was weird
him asking me different ship, that count, how much manage
I have? What year is it? What did you get
the papers that he I don't know. He was busy
watching the dash and when it says certain, it says

(38:56):
like eight eight. So he was like, how much monusors
car has?

Speaker 2 (38:59):
Like this?

Speaker 1 (39:00):
You have it?

Speaker 3 (39:00):
How long you been having it? I was like, Yo,
what the fuck was? It was crazy? But thank god,
you know, it was all good. I give him the
PB eight cars and he came back.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
He was like, whatever, Now everybody watched this podcast, like
how we get PBA cards. Everybody want a card now? Right?

Speaker 3 (39:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (39:18):
Right?

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Believe yeah man, because they helps you.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
It was better. Man, he was going through a lot.
Was it was a dark moment for you?

Speaker 2 (39:25):
Yeah? It was a long you know this is this
was This was popping off from almost immediately from when
I was in office twenty fourteen. It really jumped off
with the indictment and stuff like this. This dude rolled
me out and I was indicted. I was on everybody's
every newscast, his lips. It was crazy, and I'm like,
did I catch like eight bodies? Like I don't, like,
where did all this come from? So we kept progressing

(39:48):
through it and they when I finally got to walk
kill and I'm working with stuff, I'm on the phone.
We got a legal call and I step out the
depth for security was there and he said, he wills.
You don't want to go home, do you? I said,
we're talking about of course I want to go home.

Speaker 3 (40:08):
You know.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
I'm like, I gotta I gotta date soon, right, a
par date? He said, Noah, you must not want to
go home because if you want to go home, you
will mind your business. I said, my business, you know,
not to be disrespectful. But whose business am I getting in? Right?
Is something going on? I don't know about? And he
was like, yeah, could you keep helping everybody? I said, well,
I mean it's the math is the math? Right? If

(40:29):
you hold me, I'm one person. But if I get
ten people home, if four of them do the right thing,
four people can reach more than I can reach. So
fuck it. The math is the math. So he was like, well,
if you want to go home, you know they're not
going to let you go. This is exactly he said.
They're not gonna let you go one day sooner than
what they have to. So I said, wait a minute,
do you mean I'm gonna do this full six months
or you mean they're gonna hit me for the full

(40:50):
six years? Because now I'm the math got to start
mathing with that too, right, and he was like, it
is what it is. And sure enough they was trying
to deny me the program because five percent of the
people they blow their date. They were trying to deny me,
saying that they wouldn't when I went to parole, they
didn't even tell the pro people had an appealing for
what was going on. But my appeal is what actually

(41:11):
shut everything down with the U analysis machines and stuff.
When the Inspector General did her report at think twenty
twenty one, it was because of my emails and stuff
going back and forth that they realized something was wrong
with these machines, you know what I'm saying. And they
still haven't reversed me. Everybody else in the state that
got caught up because of this the UR analysis machines,
they reversed all that stuff. My stuff is still as

(41:34):
an active what's the name one on?

Speaker 3 (41:36):
So you came home and he's still still We came
home still.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
Yeah, it was crazy.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
He came home.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
I came home in twenty one for four years. Yeah, yeah,
three and a half years. I've been home and he's
still waiting. Oh shit, I'm still with listen, I'm still
waiting for the laws. I'm sorry nineteen twenty nineteen. I'm
sorry the lawsuit is still pending, just for the Riker's
Island for me being in a wheelchair for eight months.
But don't put me in a wheelchair that was started

(42:02):
in seventeen because you got ninety days. They usually wait
till you come home. I got the the the depth.
You know, you do the little mini deposition. We did
the mini deposition in Christmas of twenty twenty. We ain't
even get discovered yet, you know what I'm saying. So
the wrongful conviction and the year analysis that's not even

(42:23):
popping yet. We got the lawsuits in it, but it
ain't not moving. And I came home and got legislation
passed like I'm the one that did the restoration of
a vote. So not anybody. As soon as you come
out of prison, you got the right to vote, right,
and please make sure y'all go out and vote like
you come home and you think it don't matter as
soon as you leave, soon as you walk out your facility,
you have the right to register the vote. You ain't
gotta wait for a parole office or nothing.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
You got. We did that.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
You know what I'm saying, so, I don't understand how
I got legislation passed before a lawsuit can make to
be able to come and make me hold happens. But
that's part of the process. They don't want you to
have it. You know, even with the conviction I got it.

Speaker 3 (42:58):
They're just making it hall.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
They hate to prove that. They hate gonna have to
hate to prove the fact that you was innocent. You
never did ship.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
Exactly exactly, and I gotta I got a I got
a unanimous reversal from the second. You know what I'm
saying that that don't unanimous. I got a unanimous reversal.
And people were still saying the political people when I
was getting ready to do my first comeback, was still
saying he wasn't innocent. It was technical. I'm like, the
fuck you mean technical? It's a constitutional violation. How you
not gonna let me have my witnesses? Like, how do

(43:29):
you tell the judge tell you you can't have witnesses.
That's like telling somebody we're gonna have a bacon competition
and everybody we want to see who makes the best cake,
but we're not gonna give you four ingredients.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
What the fuck, It's not gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
It's not gonna happen. It's crazy. So I said, all right,
well let's go back to trialing because I want I
want an exoneration. Let's go back to trial. And they did.
The AG called up. Remember he got shut down, so
then Tis James became the AG and the AG we
had to go to the judge. The judge was like, yo,
y'all got three months to make a decision on what

(44:01):
y'all want to do. So you know, the court dubbed him.
The door was like, we're not letting you come back back,
but if you want to go, take him a trial.
Take him a trial. And I was like, I don't
want this open over my head. Let's go to trial.
And the day we were supposed to make the decision,
they called. My attorney was like, no, well he taking
a misdemeanor. I was like, I'm not taking nothing. You
ain't go just like what the fuck? So I know,
I'm I don't even do that like her, but I
was just mad. I was like, we ain't mean take

(44:22):
a mistermeanor so you could justify locking me up.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
Yeah. I was like if I would have took the mister,
meaning throw it in your face the whole time.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
Right, So I'm like.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
Your counsel again, you got you got a counsel.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
You under see I'm saying, I say, now we're going
back to trial. You got a little money leftover, We're
still gonna go back to trial. And they ain't want
to go back to trial. They like, forget it, we're
gonna They're not going to do that. No, they ain't
doing it. And then they made some bullshit up. They said, oh,
well the case is old and blah blah Blah'm like,
the case is three years old. I had the case old, y'all.
Take people. Look at Andre Brown. They trying to take
Andre Brown back. He just come on already with the nonsense. Right,

(44:54):
leave people alone. So then I got my dismissal. I
was exonerated, and it's crazy. That's why I brought up
the PEP twenty fourteenth day because I got the dismissal
April twenty twenty one.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
Seven years to love it, that's right, you know. So
so now you're up and ready, which.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
I'm up and reading. Well, I've been doing a lot
of criminal justice work, consulting work, I've been doing the
clean slate. So we were the first ones in the
state to do the clean slate but not for profit policy, inc.
So we got a bunch of people's records sealed. We've
done two of those already.

Speaker 3 (45:25):
We're going to like ex convicts. Yeah, yeah, somebody get
my ship sit.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
Yeah. I don't know, man, I don't know if you
could do like nice guy, Man, you're a nice guy.
Now got pushed, but no they yeah, if you really yeah,
if it's over, if it's seven or eight years old
for a felony and three years for misdemeanor, three or
four years for misdemeanor, you can you get it sealed.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
Ship twenty years Well then yeah, put in for some
of them.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
But it's a state not federal. I think you did
both right, Yeah, yeah, so it's state. But I mean
you get to state up off of you because a
lot of dudes are not A lot of was havn't
moved with opportunity like you did that made their own lane,
you know, so they're stuck and taking crummy jobs and
they can't really pay their rent and take care of
they can't stuff because of a record, they can't get

(46:10):
the right housing and all the other stuff. So this
helps you do all of that.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
It's just it's just it just it's just it's easier, man,
because life is tough coming out of jail and having
all that behind you.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
Yeah, you try to get an apartment, w I'd be like,
I gotta go through hell. Yeah, I was trying to
get this apartment in Jersey. I paid so much money
to get that. I'm like, just because of that, just
because of that, and it just sucks, man.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
So you know, I've been working with people like Rinnie
and Derek Hamilton and Chbacca. We know, it's a lot
of people. We we've been working with trying to get
people home, like my brother bal his man and Steven Lopez.
So he was, you know, a Central Park eight. It
wasn't five. So three of these dudes had copped out
because their lawyers told them at that point in time,
they're gonna put your lights out. They cop out, and

(46:59):
they got and it was kids. There was kids, so
they copped out. So when they came home and the
five got celebrated and everybody made the movies about them
paying them, nobody took care of the three. You know what,
I'm saying, so he I mean, he did it for
my own good. But at that point I was like, bro,
leave me alone. I don't want hear none of this,
you know. So, but he brought them to me, said, Yo,
you gotta get back to your work. That's gonna be

(47:20):
the healing. So we got him exonerated, you know what
I'm saying. And so we did that. And we've been
doing all this with no money, no nothing, just on
the strength of love for the people. But I don't
think if I went if I didn't go through what
I went through, I wouldn't be in that segment. I
wouldn't have been able to understand that.

Speaker 3 (47:34):
I think you might be. I think this time around, man,
I think you'd be more powerful, more effective than anything
you do.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
Yeah, what I'm saying, I got people I can call
on that I'm saying, I'm calling pistol pete. Yeah, I
need a bunch of t s hats right here, let's go.

Speaker 3 (47:51):
But uh uh, you know your attitude and and how
you going about it is is inspiring. You know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (47:58):
Is I like that.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
I like the that you never gave up. You know
what I'm saying, Because that's just because you come from
all where we all come from, you know what I'm saying.
So it's always good to see a brother, you know
what I mean. That's not giving up with all the
bullshit and everything against them and everything they try to
put against you, and all the bushes that you've been through.
You know what I'm saying, Because you've been to some ship,
not only in jail period, but you was physically fucked up.

(48:21):
You know what I'm saying. You wasn't right, you know
what I'm saying. So all that shit is tough man,
being in jail in those conditions and not you, not
you losing your faith and able to come back home,
you know, and be home three years and a half
and you're running for counsel again. Yeah, you know what
I'm saying. We went you this time.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
Yeah, that's just let's go.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
Anything you need from us, man, we got to the
platform is here. This is your platform. This is created
for us as convicts, for those that never had a voice.
You know what I'm saying. You want to welcome to
come back up here, you know what I'm saying. And
uh uh, we love it, man. We love everything you do, man.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
And we tell you Thank you for doing this podcast.
This platform is important. There's a lot of guys out
here that are really really and young ladies too that
are out here that are really really really trying to
get busy and do the right thing. You know. Like
we got guys that like Ray Waterman that do he
came home and started the first not for profit food trucks. Like,
we got a lot of people doing a lot of great,

(49:16):
great things.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
That I have to say is a lot of good
brothers out there and sisters that came home. They are
doing an amazing jobs out there.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
Man, what's the guy's name? He was in up in
walk Killed. He came home and had a string of
optometry shops. Wow, you know what I'm saying. He sold them,
got the bag And you know I asked him one day.
I's like, listen, we need to hire some more people.
A lot of people coming home from walk from walk
Kill to have the skills set. Like he's like, yeah,
you want me started again to say the word Like
we got people that's ready to push the button.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
And I think that we should be able to we
should be able to create our own generational wealth behind it.
You know what I'm saying that we just got to
put into it. But I think this platform is incredibly
important for it because it doesn't promote the regular nonsense,
it doesn't promote the right stuff.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
Yes, that's that's that's what it is. That's what was
created for. Was created to to to show the youth
and the world, the young brothers out there, sisters, that
it is hope. Absolutely, you know what I'm saying. It
is hope and this and you can actually have a change.
You could change brothers. You know, like, Bro, it's really
me man. People thought Pete nah never you know what

(50:21):
I'm saying, Like, it's always a transition, you know what
I'm saying, But you made.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
A conscious effort to make that transition.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
Facts. You gotta be real with yourself. Most importantly, I
tell other young brothers and sisters, you gotta be real
to yourself. You can't fake the funk and think you're
gonna do this and do that. You can't have that right.
You know what I'm saying. You gotta be able to
stick to what you what you want to do. You
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
And you know what I was looking at with you.
It was like people will say, well you know he's certified, alright,
he stamps, so it's easier for him to make the transition.
But it's really not because once you get certified, once
you are stamped, once people see that you tend told
the system don't want people like you to make The
system hates people like that, you know what I'm saying.
So and I found that. I see there's a lot

(51:03):
of hate towards me, and I'm like, yo, I try
to do the right thing, you know what I'm saying.
But the fact that I came home and overcame people
hate me for that, you know. So I know, I
think people need to realize that it wasn't easy for you.
You know what I'm saying. I think people just see,
you know, running around with the ts change on, and
you know what I'm saying, I'm shining and I got
the podcast in front of a bunch of eyes. They

(51:25):
don't see that you had to really go through it
because I know that, I know theiced a lot of
times you was tested. I ain't have to be with you.
I thought you was testing and you wanted to go back.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
To your course.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
So people don't understand.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
I mean, I mean, we all were human. You know
for us to say that. You know, I never said
I'm gonna beat you up right on in life and
ship that I'm lying what I pound you out? Man?
You know, you know I ain't cutting you another guy.
But you know, if we don't have a fighting side,
I'm still man, right, you know. But you know, uh,

(51:56):
it was a definitely tough transition. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
I appreciate it. I thank God for you and others
just like you that made that transition.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
Appreciate you too, because you you someone that we could
look I when I see brothers like you, was like,
we all do what we could do. When you could
come from wherever you come from and be whoever you
want to be, you feel me regardless of what's around you.

Speaker 2 (52:20):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
You know what I'm saying. I wear I wear a
T shirts now that says dog in the yall and
in the back and says gangster has changed too. There
we got to wear the Rkords Island. It's crazy. I
go to Rakords Island, to the worst jail, to the beacon,
to the worst units. Right, they only gave me the job,
only one condition, take the worst spots. Yeah, they tell
you or you gotta just take the worst spots. We

(52:44):
need you at the Beacon.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
They need you here.

Speaker 3 (52:47):
And ever since, it's been a blessing, right because it's
because I love to go there and inspire the brothers
and they all look everything be like, oh that's soon
as I get to the ships, and then they see
the shirt in the back and says, gangsters change. Yes, yeah,
gangs has changed.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
I guess I ain't gonna never have a shirt in
the back and I ain't getting nothing on that game.
Gonna make sure like what's popping? Man, Like you know.

Speaker 3 (53:11):
I got they give me. We're gonna make sure that
when you get when you when you get re elected,
that you had that dog in the y'all munk shot
in your thata at that table.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
You see what I'm saying. You you you bullshit, But
I'm dead serious. No, I'm dead serious.

Speaker 3 (53:25):
I will. I promise you. It's one thing about me.
You know, real jail guys. You know we we have
as I work. You know what I'm saying. So I'm
still still moving, I still move the same way. I'm
about firm. I'm with the word, I'm with. If I
promise you, son, this is what it is if I
tell you something, and as well as I want to

(53:46):
share with you and tell you if you need the
platform that I told you, this platform is here for us.
If you need it for what you're doing now to
re elect, and you need a commercial, you come up
and you do a commercial for it. You can give
it a K. We're gonna put it on our podcast
and we're gonna have to run and we ain't gonna
take it down. And there's no charge. You're my brother,

(54:08):
and this is the way we're supposed to do it.

Speaker 2 (54:10):
I appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (54:12):
Yeah, so you gotta do do the commercial, official commercial,
Give it a c K and we're gonna put that
right up on it.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
Answer my call when I do that, all right? Be
sure I ain't calling for the T shirt. I'm calling
I want the T shirt too, though, Yo, you.

Speaker 3 (54:31):
You know what that being said? Your boy Pistol pete
dog in the yard, look out for my brother man Wills.
All right, let's get give it enough running for council.
Let's get it absolutely what up? What up? You already knows,
your boy Pistol p walking back to the dog in
the yard. First and foremost, I want to thank Ruben
Willis for coming through. Keep doing your thing, my brother.

(54:52):
And like you said, the comeback is greater than the setback.
And with that being said your boy pistol pet dog
in the yard. Thank god, Kay are set out.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
It was sliding. We're alive, shelf shuting, We're alive and
self shutting