October 14, 2025 • 44 mins
In this first ever “Double Episode” of Exposed. Jim Chapman brings you first into the case files by Social Media Influencer Brianna Ortega accusing Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy Eric Piscatella of stalking her multiple times after a chance meeting at a fair. Jim continues in this double episode by bringing you the story of Stacy Shuler a P.E. Teacher and athletic trainer at Mason High School in Mason, Ohio who was arrested and incarcerated for sexual acts with five football players at the school.
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The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts and guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of any affiliated organizations or institutions. While we strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information, we cannot guarantee the completeness, reliability, or suitability of the information discussed.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, and welcome back to Exposed Scandalous Files of
the Elite. I'm your host, Jim Chapman, and today I'm
bringing you a case of stalking. And y'all, this one
may surprise you just a little bit because it's not
from someone you may expect. So a civil suit surfaced
(00:21):
on August twenty six of this year, and it was
accusing and alleging that a Riverside County and y'all, Riverside
County is in California, a Riverside County Sheriff's deputy by
the name of Eric Piscatella. A civil suit came out
accusing him of stalking and it was filed by a
(00:41):
social media influencer by the name of Brianna or Tega.
Now a little bit about Brianna Ortega. She is a
really large social media influencer. She has over one hundred
and forty five thousand Instagram followers and over thirty two
two thousand TikTok followers. She focuses on fitness on her
(01:04):
social media and she'll take pictures of herself and you've
seen these fitness Instagram videos and pictures where basically you're
standing in front of mirror, you're doing selfiees, etc. She's
twenty nine years old, and as you may expect, she's
a beautiful girl, very in shape and not what you
would consider shy to show off her body. I guess
(01:29):
she's also a mother of three children. Now, as I mentioned,
the defendant in this case is Eric Piskatella. Eric is
a thirty year old or was a thirty year old
deputy with the Sheriff's office when all this got filed.
He had worked as a sheriff's deputy for approximately five
(01:50):
years when he and Ortega crosspaths. So let's get into
the wild chain of events that occurred when this happened.
So in September of twenty twenty three, Brianna was attending
a county fair and she was with her son and
her daughter. And while she was walking around the fair
(02:11):
with her kids, they're doing what you do at fairs.
They're playing various fair games in the midway, and her
son spots some Sheriff's deputies handing out stickers to all
the kids. Now, that son then approaches the deputies and
among them is Eric Piscatella, and he gives this kid
(02:35):
a sticker, and as he's pulling the stickers out give
them to this kid. A conversation ensues between Ortega and Eric,
and in the course of that conversation, Eric asked Brianna
what her name was, which she tells him, and that's
pretty much where the conversation ends. Nothing beyond that, No
(02:57):
numbers were exchanged, no emails else, nothing beyond her just
telling him her name. Now Brianna's kids, they got some stickers,
and off to enjoy the rest of that fair. So,
according to Ortega, this interaction was innocent enough. She didn't
really think any more about it, and it was kind
(03:20):
of a forgettable conversation in her words. So life goes
on and fast forward about three months and now we're
in January of twenty twenty four and Brianna is chilling
out at home, She's looking through her Facebook, Instagram, whatever,
and she gets a text from an unknown number. Now
(03:41):
the texter claimed to be her quote personal private officer.
In Ortega, she was pretty used to getting these weird,
off the wall, unsolicited, flirtatious text and a lot of
that was due to her large social media presence, so
she just kind of shrugged it off. She did, however,
(04:03):
respond back and ask this mystery person how they knew her,
and the Texter responded they met at the fair. She
then recalls the sticker incident that I just told you about,
and so this kind of freaked her out and she
quit responding after that because she knew she did not
(04:25):
give this deputy or phone number, and she's like, oh,
how the heck did this guy figure out my number?
It also kind of freaked her out because one thing
I didn't tell you was prior to the texting incident.
Officer Eric shows up in full uniform at her door
and he's inquiring at that point about where Ortega's daughter is. Now,
(04:50):
I'm not sure exactly what the officer used as the
context for asking where her daughter was, but I do
know that according to Ortega, something didn't seem right to her.
She didn't tell Piscatella the location of her daughter, and
he was making up some kind of bullshit about this
that sort of halfway made sense, but regardless, she didn't
(05:14):
say where her daughter was because those red flags came up. Right.
So at this point, you have three interactions with this guy,
the first of the fair, the second at her home
when he was asking about her daughter. In the third,
those text messages. And this is all in about three
months time. Then in February of twenty twenty four, or
(05:39):
Tega reaches out to Eric Piscatella, So it's the other
way around, but she did it to help her sister.
Her sister was going through some things and she had
actually become the victim of a crime. So she reached
out to inquire about some things with her sister. But
she didn't realize this deputy has issues, and when you
(06:01):
got those kind of issues, the worst thing someone can
do is give any attention to that person because that's
adding fuel to the fire. Right Well, she reaches out
for assistance, and according to Brianna, rather than help her
with her sister, Deputy Piscatella asked Brianna out on a date,
(06:22):
which she said, she flatly turns him down. Now, this
totally freaked her out even more than the other occasions
with this guy. Freaked her out so bad that she
actually changes her cell number at this point. So unbeknownst
to Brianna by this point was the length that this
(06:44):
deputy went through to get information on her. To get
her phone number, he actually searched her name. This was
in January of twenty twenty four through the patrol vehicle's computer.
This is also how he got her address, which he
used on the call where he shut up at her
house and he was asking her where her daughter was.
(07:06):
That's how he was able to find her house. He
was actually searching that shit through a company computer. By
the time of the latest incident in February of twenty
twenty four, when she needed help with her sister and
he asked her out on a date and she had
to change her phone number, this guy's interest was clearly
turning into an obsession. According to court documents, it became
(07:30):
almost a routine thing for Deputy Eric to access or
take his information on law enforcement databases. On July second
of twenty twenty four, he allegedly ran or take his
license plate using his work computer. Then he shows up
(07:50):
yet again at her house. He bangs on her door.
When she answers, he makes the claim that a black
man with dreadlocks had just been seen jumping over her
back fence in an attempt to break into her home,
which Brianna. She had just got home three minutes prior
(08:13):
to when this deputy was banging on her door, and
that led her to believe wait a minute, he had
to be following me and surveilling me, waiting for me
to get home and get this. While he's telling her this,
in my opinion, bullshit story about a guy attempting to
break into her home, he starts making romantic comments to her.
(08:37):
He tells her things like she looked beautiful without makeup,
and according to Brianna, the way he was saying it
was not in a like a sweet, complementary way, but
a scary, almost sleazy way that made her feel very uncomfortable.
(08:58):
It was also during this interaction that he says he
knew she changed her phone number, and he asked her
what her new number was. Well, in her mind, he's
gonna text me right here and now if I tell
him the wrong number, and he's going to know that
I gave him a fake one and he's going to
(09:20):
freak out. So, under duress, she gives him her new number,
and y'all, a lot has been made of her doing this.
Some people are like, you know, did you really not
want this guy's attention? I mean, you gave him your
number a second time after you changed it, But put
yourself in this position. You have an officer that will
(09:41):
not leave you alone. You have never given him any
information and he knows all your information. Not only that,
but he knew that you changed your phone number when
you never told him. Couple that with the fact that
he's a police officer. I mean, they have rest power,
but also a lot of public trust, and it's a
(10:04):
pretty scary situation for a young, beautiful, twenty nine year
old single mother with three kids. So she gave in
and she gave him that new number, and just as
you may suspect, shortly after Ortega gives the officer her
new number, he starts texting her yet again, and in
(10:26):
one of those texts, he even tells Brianna he was
going to quote steal her from her boyfriend. But by
this point, Brianna has had enough. He just pushed her
over the edge with all that shit, and she reports
all of it to law enforcement. She gives them the
(10:48):
text message evidence and explains to them everything I've already
told you about these interactions with this police officer. So
law enforcement takes that and they investigated, and that is
when they discovered these massive amount of searches the deputy
Eric Piscatella had made through the law enforcement database as
(11:14):
it related to Brianna Ortega. So, Piscatella, he gets arrested
and he's charged with seven felony counts of unlawful use
of the Sheriff's departments database. That means that he searched
for her on seven different occasions and those are all felonies.
(11:35):
And on July twenty third of twenty twenty five, what
do you think he does? He gets charged with this stuff,
and he takes a deal, he pleads guilty, and then
exchange for that guilty police, all of those charges get
reduced to misdemeanors. And what do you think he got
(11:57):
at that point, Well, you guessed probation. Now. It was
just shortly thereafter that this civil lawsuit that I'm covering
today comes out. And in this civil lawsuit, Brianna is
not only suing Piscatella, but also a guy by the
name of Chad Bianca, who is the chief of police,
(12:21):
he's responsible for his employees, right, and another officer by
the name of Martinez Marino, and she was suing him
for culpability because he allegedly knew of the incidents and
he did not report them. And I gotta say, I
don't blame her. She gets no justice here from the
(12:43):
criminal side of things. I mean, this dude got probation.
He's obviously got a major problem. And let me tell
you it may not be the case in this case,
but in many cases, these stalking incidents, that's how it starts,
and then it turns into rape, and then sometimes it
turns in to murder. So he gotta be real cognizant
of this. And I don't know how many times she
(13:05):
had to tell this guy no, and how many lanes
she had to go through, such as changing her phone number,
and he would not leave her alone. So I don't
blame her. She got no justice. And this guy was bordering,
in my opinion, on something much more sinister had she
not reported him when she did. Look, you'll never find
(13:26):
someone more pro police than Jim Chapman. But here's a
newsflash for you, good cops. They hate bad cops more
than the general public hates bad cops because it's those
bad cops like Eric Piscatella that not only put a
black eye on the entire law enforcement industry as a whole,
(13:53):
but it also makes it extremely difficult for the good
cops to earn back the public trust, so I will
keep you updated on this case as more updates become available.
I know this wasn't a super long case, interesting nonetheless,
and I knew you would enjoy hearing it.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Jim, did you see what happened in Texas today?
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Wait before you tell me that, let me tell you
what happened in New York.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
It cannot be as crazy as the case I told
you about yesterday in Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
You know what, we should do a podcast.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
About it, and with that we did. Crime War Weekly
covers the crime news headlines that have dominated the week.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
We cover trending crimes from all over the country, and
even sprinkle in a few globally.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Crime War Weekly is available now wherever you listen to
your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Simply by searching Crime War Weekly or clicking the link
in the description of this podcast. And of course, because
it was a little shorter than my normal podcast that
I give you, I'm gonna give you a double edition
(15:08):
of Exposed Candala's Files of the Elite today, and I'm
gonna jump into another story that I have for you.
And this is about another bad teacher by the name
of Stacy Schuler. So to tell you her story, I'm
gonna bring you to Mason, ohiatt and I'm gonna tell
you about the exploits of former pe teacher and athletic
(15:31):
trainer at Mason High School named Stacy Schuler, who in
twenty eleven was convicted of sixteen counts of sexual battery,
including three counts of offenses involving underage persons. So let's
get into it, and I'm going to take you back
(15:51):
to twenty ten for this one. And Stacy at this
time was a thirty two year old gym teacher at
Mason High School. She was also the athletic trainer for
the Mason High School football team, and that would play
a key role in this case because remember, a key
(16:15):
part of what enables these bad teachers to do what
it is they do is the access to the students.
And in this particular case, Stacy Schuller had an extreme
amount of access, and we'll get into that. And Stacy
was not new to teaching. She wasn't new to teaching
(16:37):
at Mason High School. She had been employed at the
school for ten years when these allegations came down. So
in January of twenty eleven, Mason High School they received
notice that Stacy Schuler allegedly engaged in a sexual relationship
with get ready for it, five male students football players
(17:03):
at the school between August and December of twenty ten. Now,
apparently one of the students came forward and this student
made claims against the teacher that were sexual in nature,
and that launched the initial investigation. And as it happens
in a lot of these cases with bad teachers, you
(17:23):
get one complaint and then you start investigating and come
to find out it's multiple people. No different here. So
the investigation revealed text messages, alcohol consumption, a lot of
sexual allegations. All of these things were brought to the forefront. Now,
when this was originally reported, this case, as I said,
(17:47):
involved that one student and it was reported via anonymous tip.
So police, after they discovered another four students were involved,
they knew that they were going to have a problem
on their hands if they didn't act quickly. They get
the word to this teacher of these allegations and Stacey
(18:07):
actually turns herself into police. Now, eventually she has an arraignment,
she bails out in this case goes to trial. Now
this is where the absolutely wild details of this case
come out. At the trial, and incidentally, all five of
(18:28):
these students were seventeen during the incidents, which is important
because at the time, the age of consent in Ohio
was sixteen. But they did have a laws similar to
many states now that says even if you're seventeen and
you consent to sex, if it's with a teacher, it's
(18:50):
a criminal offense. So she was still charged criminally, even
though technically these kids were seventeen in could consent to it.
She was in a position of trust and that's why
she was still charged. So in trial, one of the
students testifies and he describes a situation where he had
(19:13):
injured his ankle at football practice and he texted Schuler
and asked if she had anything for pain. She replied
that although she didn't have anything for the pain, if
he still wanted to come by for a visit, he could,
meaning come by her house. Red flags everywhere, right, So
he goes over to her house and he has a
(19:35):
friend with him, and you can't blame this kid. I mean,
he knew what was up, He knew what time it was,
this teacher telling him, oh, if you just want to
come and hang out, he knew what was up. He
had a friend with him and Stacy Schuller good looking
woman and from all accounts, very flirtatious with these football players.
(19:56):
So he and his friend go over there and Stacey
makes both of them what she termed as vodka smoothies.
How about that sounds like dackeries to me. While they're there,
According to this student in the trial, they then smoked
some weed, at which point she gave him a massage,
(20:20):
and he said she was making overtures to him that
he took as being an invitation to have sex, which
they did. Now, I've covered a lot of freaky teachers
on bad teachers, but Stacy Schuler, she may be the
freakiest I've covered thus far. He described the incident, saying,
(20:42):
during this visit quote she just looked at me and said,
do whatever you want to do to me. He testified
that he and his friends took turns having sex with
Stacy two times each. He said, at some point, three
of them went outside to have a cigarette, and the
(21:05):
attorney then asked, wait a minute, we're all three of
you naked when you went outside, and the boy replied yes.
He went on to say the second time, he and
the other boy went to Schuler's house just five days later.
This was on August twenty seventh of twenty ten. He
had sex with Schuler on her kitchen counter. He said
(21:28):
he stopped after two visits, and when the attorney asked
her why, he said he had become interested in another
girl his age, he said his friend. However, he went
to Schuler's home three more times after that with other players.
On one occasion, his buddy, another friend, and Shuler ended
(21:54):
up having a bubble bath and then the three had
sex in the shower, and then again at the same
meeting in Schuler's bedroom. It came out from yet another
football player that she craved sex multiple times during a
(22:14):
session if you will, and he said when he and
his friend were having a threesome, he finished and turned
down having sex with her a second time on that
meeting because he said, quote, I was getting grossed out
about all of us having sex with her and how
easy it was. Another football player testified that Schuler and
(22:37):
himself had sex at her home seven times during his
five visits to her home. He said that he and
one and even sometimes two other friends would go to
her home and they would all have sex with her together.
And that included shower sex and massage oils. And get this,
(23:01):
a teacher's aid, a nineteen year old teacher's aid, said
in the trial that Shuler told her about the sex
escapades and that quote she was about to lose everything
because of these sex escapades. This is before she got caught.
She just had a feeling she was about to get caught.
(23:24):
And another eighteen year old teacher's aide testified that Schuler
told her, apparently the day after an incident, that she
had a hazy head due to a hangover, but she
could recall helping one of the football players put on
a condom. So you got all this evidence in testimony
(23:47):
just mounting heavily against Schuler, including some DNA from one
of the boys that was pulled off of a mattress,
and the defense and Stacy dueler, they suddenly change her
plea from not guilty to not guilty by reason of insanity.
(24:09):
I know what you're thinking, how can that happen? Well,
there were several levels to the defense team's defense of
Stacy Schuler. Now, first, she tried the I am a
victim defense. She claimed that while she would drink with them,
the students would allegedly get her drunk and then take
(24:30):
advantage of her after she was drunk. She said that
she would never do those things sober and that she
was the victim. Now, the problem with that defense is
that this happened on five different occasions. It was not
a one time thing, so you can throw that defense
right out the window. The second level of her defense
(24:54):
was she was suffering from PTSD at the time from
a difficult divorce. And keep in mind votes this divorce
was in two thousand and six, four years prior to
any of this shit coming out, and the defense also
said she was bipolar and she was taking the drug zoloft,
(25:18):
claiming that it could have contributed to her behavior. However,
the biggest issue with the defense was that prior to
everything coming out, no one at the school from an
adult standpoint, saw any signs of anything outside of this
teacher being a great teacher. She seemed happy, she never
(25:42):
seemed depressed, all those sorts of things. So what happened
in this case? Well, on October twenty seventh of twenty eleven,
Stacy Schuler is found guilty on all sixteen counts of
sexual battery in three counts of providing alcohol to minors,
(26:06):
and she sentenced to four years in prison and required
to register as what's known as a Tier three sex offender,
which is the highest tier possible in Ohio. So that's it, right,
she serves her time. Whatever. Nope, never goes that way,
does it. In November of twenty twelve, after serving just
(26:30):
over a year into her sentence, Stacy applies for early release,
and part of that process is to write a letter
to the judge. Anytime you apply for early release, regardless
of the crime, you write a letter to the judge.
And Stacy writes said letter. And guess what I have
(26:52):
said letter in front of me. I'm going to read
it to you quickly, says Honorable Judge Peeler. I'm writing
you this letter to question you consider allowing me in
early release for my four year prison sentence. I've been
living at the Ohio Reformatory for Women since October thirty,
verse twenty eleven, after leaving the Warren County Jail. Although
(27:13):
I did not take the opportunity to speak publicly at
my trial, there are some things I would like to
share with you now in order to help make your
decision about my judicial release. I would like to begin
by saying how I shamed I am of my actions
and behaviors that led me to my incarceration. With all
of the education and training I have had in mental
(27:34):
emotional health and substance abuse, I did not ask for
help when I certainly needed it. Looking back on my
life during the fall of twenty ten, I can clearly
see how I was beginning a downward spiral that led
to poor decision making and some very serious consequences for
me and others. I knew my depression was deepening, my
(27:55):
work label was increasing, and my sleep deprivation was worsening.
Instead of turning to my family for support and knowing
my place of employment was not a safe place to
turn for help, I retreated into the safety of my solitude.
Against my better judgment, I started down the slippery slope
of drinking wine in the evenings to aid in sleeping,
(28:16):
instead of cutting back on my work hours, reducing my stress,
and making time to see my doctor, I can clearly
see how flawed my thinking was and how dangerous it was.
At the time, I knew it wasn't the best decision
to maintain the hectic lifestyle, but I rationalized that I
will be able to handle it. I had always pulled
(28:36):
through before. Sadly this was not the case this time.
I was so broken down that I prayed to God
to help me out of this mess that I've created
with my selfish thinking. God knew I wasn't paying attention
to my little hints to change, so it was going
to take something big to get my attention. The situations
I allowed myself to be involved in or inexcusable and
(28:59):
could have been for a and it had only been
willing to ask for help. I've always had a strong
sense of morals and values and need the difference between
right and wrong. Unfortunately, my decision to drink wine impaired
my ability to make decisions, and I opened the door
to compromise my beliefs. I've never been in trouble with
the law before. I've always stayed true to my beliefs
(29:21):
and maintained my strong faith and work ethic to be
stable and a contributing member of society. I take my
commendments in a seriously. I realized my choices and actions
are not only an embarrassment to myself and my family,
but also reflect poorly of my professions of educator and
athletic trainer, as well as my place of unemployment. I
(29:42):
also realized my choices and actions have caused harmed of
the five young men who came to my house, as
well as their families and close friends. My choices and
actions also harmed all of my students, athletes, parents, co
workers who looked up to and trust to me to
do the right thing. Since I've been in prison, I
have taken every opportunity to heal and work on becoming
(30:04):
a healthier individual, as well as giving back to the
other women here. I requested to be on the yard
crew for my job. There are only a few small
number of people who have the privilege of working this job.
By doing this, that provided me with the opportunity to
take care of the prison grounds by shoveling, snow, cutting grass, edging,
(30:25):
trimming trees, painting, cleaning out condemned buildings, taking trash to
the dumpster, separating the recyclables, disposing of hot trash, and
various other duties as decided by the captains. This is
a job that takes a large amount of trust, as
I am working out of the direct supervision in tempting
(30:45):
situations where I could break the rules. I take a
lot of pride in keeping the prison grounds looking professional
and clean for all of the inmates, workers and visitors. Additionally,
I work at hell Cottage where I live, as a
tutor for women who are trying to pass pre GED
and GED tests. Since I've always been passionate about teaching
(31:06):
and I value education, I was honored to be given
this chance by the sergeant Inhaled to assist these women
in their goal to further their education. I've been specifically
working on reading, writing, and mathematics, although women are starting
science and history as well a few of them. I
applaud these women for being brave enough to acknowledge they
(31:28):
need to better themselves and for trying to improve their
lives through education. It is equally as rewarding for them
as it is for them. When they pass another section
of their tests. They come with genuine gratitude to thank me,
but my reward is seeing the excitement in their eyes
when they actually understand what we have been working on.
(31:49):
They don't always get the personal attention in their classes
and often get frustrated when they come to me for
help and make that commitment to take control of their lives.
I'm reminded of how I will no longer make excuses
for myself and I will have the courage to ask
for help when needed. Another area I've been able to
assist is with the pre release program. They're able to
(32:12):
apply and be accepted into the program and have a
separate norm, special parts, and a variety of programs not
available to other inmates, such as education, religion, wellness, vocational choices, etc.
The mineral health director for the prison contact to me
to ask if I be willing to plan and implement
a wellness class for thirty women in the wellness tract.
(32:35):
The next day, I gave her a syllabus and we
discussed my plan. The following day I began teaching a
two day per week ninety minute wellness class incorporating meditation, yoga,
healthy eating, decision making, etc. It is such a pleasure
to share techniques with these women who are trying to
make positive changes in their lives to ensure their rate
(32:57):
of recidivism will be zero. Opened up so much to
me since the course began, and have allowed themselves to
become vulnerable in order to heal and grow. I've had
the pleasure meeting the families in the visiting hall, where
they share with me how their loved one is developing
into a healthy, mature woman and then thank me for
assisting with the process. I always thank them in return,
(33:19):
because these women teach me daily how to become a
better person through their courage to grow. Another wonderful opportunity
I've had is to teach yoga class to other women
who were in emissions with me, which then blossomed into
the opportunity to teach a weekly class at the rec
center open to all inmates. While I was in admissions,
I saw how scared and alone these women were, and
(33:42):
how this caused them to act out. After living in
general population, I realized it was the same there too.
Fear and loneliness caused many women much unhappiness. After attending
yoga classes on a regular basis, they would tell me
how freeing it felt to work through their emotions with yoga.
Some of these women have been living in the same
(34:03):
negative patterns for many years, and we're open enough to
the idea that there might be a better way to live.
This again, is a lesson for me which taught me
I can always learn and practice healthier ways to deal
with my problems. In addition to my work in volunteer activities,
I've been involved in many activities and groups through mental health.
(34:25):
I mean every six weeks with a psychiatrist who diagnosed
me as being bipolar. He manages my medication and behaviors
to see if changes need to be made. He's very
strongly recommended a mood stabilizer when I first arrived, but
he gave me the chance to prove to him that
I can balance my moods through various techniques that I've
(34:46):
learned over the years, staying active, eating healthy food, getting sleep,
reducing stress, practicing yoga, among other things. Although the sleeping
nutrition parts are challenging in prison, I have been successful
in balancing my moods to the point where I'm not
taking additional medication. I've also learned through meetings with my
psychologists that my overactive schedule is how I kept myself
(35:10):
from the more negative, depressive moods I don't enjoy. Over
the years, I've learned how to adjust my activities so
that I could avoid darker moods associated with being bipolar.
My psychologists and I spoke about different groups that would
be beneficial for me to participate in for my healing,
although many groups have significantly long waiting less based on outdate,
(35:33):
I have completed the domestic violence group, which taught me
my warning signs to look for in future relationships and
show me how unhealthy that my marriage was. It also
made me realize you do not have to be in
a domestic relationship to be in an unhealthy relationship. Through
my weak boundaries, I've allowed myself to be manipulated by
(35:54):
aggressive individuals and many of my relationships were violent, and
received a certificate for mental health wellness. While in admissions,
I am on the waiting list for boundaries courses, a
bipolar group, and a few other decision making healthy living groups.
Even if I do not complete these groups before my release,
(36:15):
I plan to seek similar help groups in counseling to
grow as an individual. One group that I requested to
be in immediately after arriving was a sex offender group.
Although the law has changed and this group is no
longer mandatory, I requested that Mental Health add me to
the class list. I realized I will have a constant
(36:36):
reminder of my poor decisions for the rest of my life,
as I will have to register as a Tier three
sex offender every ninety days for as long as I live.
More than that, I am aware of the consequences of
my choices on others and will have to deal with
the hurt and pain caused by my actions. This class
only reiterated that point and reminded me how many hurting
(36:57):
people there are in the world. I do not want
to be the cause of any suffering to any living
being ever again in my life. I also created an
inaction plan to identify personal risk factors that I need
to be aware of that could trigger becoming involved in
harmful situations and how to combat those. The big areas
(37:18):
for me would be to abstain from alcohol consumption, ensure
adequate sleep, keep a reasonable work schedule, set and enforce
healthy boundaries for myself and others, and to ask for
help when I need it. For my support group, besides
my various jobs and classes, I regularly attend support groups
as well as AA Alcoholic Anonymous weekly meetings. I have
(37:40):
gained much insight into my behaviors by listening to the
women in recovery share their stories and growth process. I
now know that I am codependent in the sense that
I want to help everyone to the detriment of helping myself.
I understand that I turned to alcohol to help me
sleep instead of taking the time away from my work
(38:00):
to make a doctor's appointment or just cut down on
my schedule. Because of this, it leads me to continue
making poor decisions for my own health, which eventually led
to poor decisions that affected other people's health. I fully
realized how significant the consequences of putting my needs behind
the needs of others are, and I will no longer
(38:21):
delay asking for help when I need it. Another wonderful
opportunity that I have since arriving here is the chance
to deepen my faith through the various religious services offered
each week. I attend Catholic Mass in a Protestant church
service twice a month. I attend Buddhist meditation class, which
(38:42):
is offered twice a day. I've attended a weekly Bible
study course in praise ministry activities when offered. I'm amazed
how much I have learned from the time I have
spent just from observing and listening to the women around me,
and have come to realize how much pain and suffering
in this world could be prevented through proper educational opportunities
(39:03):
and outreach programs. Ohio Reformatory for Women is a last
resort to help people who who need intents restructuring of
their lives, and should therefore provide opportunities to educate, rehabilitate,
and help inmates so that upon their release they may
have skills, knowledge, and support to be law abiding citizens. Unfortunately,
(39:24):
from my experience in prison, which is likely due to
the prison being understaffed, many women are scared to leave
the safety of the prison walls because they have not
yet developed a strong enough moral character to fight their
personal demons and regain the confidence and inner guidance to
make healthy decisions in their lives. I consider myself lucky
(39:44):
to have had the chance to enroll in and attend
programs and classes that help me elevate the areas of
my life that need to be worked on. Ya, honor,
thank you for considering my judicial release. I respect your
decision and realize the difficult job you have to balance
way the options of giving chances to people like me
by graining an early release versus consequences to be dealt
(40:07):
with if we do not live up to the court's expectations.
I've learned throughout the last two years how strong my
family and friends support group is, and that it is
not only okay to ask them for help when I
need it, but it is absolutely necessary. I've learned to
appreciate even more the value of my education and my
ever grown faith in God. For healthy decision making and
(40:30):
boundary setting. I need to use my education, my faith,
my more values, and yoga by which I live. I've
learned it has never okay to allow myself to get
so worn down physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually that I
turn my back on everything and everyone that keeps me
on the right path in life. I realize now more
than ever that I can do nothing on my own,
(40:53):
and it is only God's grace and strength that I
live every day according to His will, and I must
ask daily for the guidance to feel His purpose for me.
I acknowledge that through my wrong mindedness, I had brought
hurt and pain to numerous individuals who trusted me and
have faith in me. I continue to pray daily for
peace and healing for all that I may have harmed, respectively.
(41:17):
Stacy Schuler, Now, why did I read you that long
ass letter? Well, that's because I wanted you to know
what the judge read because it plays a very important
role in what I'm about to tell you. The judge
considers it, and shockingly, at least to myself, she's actually
(41:42):
released from prison on November thirteenth of twenty twelve. So
there you have it, and I'd be curious to know
what your thoughts are on this. Should she had been
released after hearing that letter she wrote the judge. And
what is she doing now, you may wonder, Well, she
UN's a business in Ohio where she teaches yoga to
(42:07):
women in the down and Boom in the Dayton, Ohio area.
And that's all I got for you today, a double
dose of Exposed, scandalous files of the Elite, and a
few quick announcements. First, please, if you have not left
a review and you like what you're hearing with Exposed,
(42:29):
I would love it if you could take a second
and do so wherever you were listening. This really helps
us more than you know. And check out Crime War Weekly,
a podcast I do with award winning podcaster Kelly Jennings.
We discuss all the headlines of the week as it
relates to crime from all over the United States and
(42:50):
even if you stories from around the globe. It drops
every Friday and you can find it wherever you're currently listening.
Just search Crime War Weekly or by clicking the link
in the description of this podcast. And if you like
to hear historic stories on the United States' largest maximum
security prison, check out my podcast Bloody in Gola. It
(43:13):
details these stories and history of one of the country's
most notorious prisons, Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. And finally, today,
if you like what we bring to you with Exposed,
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(43:33):
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(43:54):
of stuff. Files of the cases that I talk about.
Check us out patreon dot com, slash Exposed Podcasts files,
and until next time for exposed scandalous files of the elite.
I'm your host, Jim Chapman. Much love,
Hey everyone, and welcome back to Exposed Scandalous Files of
the Elite. I'm your host, Jim Chapman, and today I'm
bringing you a case of stalking. And y'all, this one
may surprise you just a little bit because it's not
from someone you may expect. So a civil suit surfaced
(00:21):
on August twenty six of this year, and it was
accusing and alleging that a Riverside County and y'all, Riverside
County is in California, a Riverside County Sheriff's deputy by
the name of Eric Piscatella. A civil suit came out
accusing him of stalking and it was filed by a
(00:41):
social media influencer by the name of Brianna or Tega.
Now a little bit about Brianna Ortega. She is a
really large social media influencer. She has over one hundred
and forty five thousand Instagram followers and over thirty two
two thousand TikTok followers. She focuses on fitness on her
(01:04):
social media and she'll take pictures of herself and you've
seen these fitness Instagram videos and pictures where basically you're
standing in front of mirror, you're doing selfiees, etc. She's
twenty nine years old, and as you may expect, she's
a beautiful girl, very in shape and not what you
would consider shy to show off her body. I guess
(01:29):
she's also a mother of three children. Now, as I mentioned,
the defendant in this case is Eric Piskatella. Eric is
a thirty year old or was a thirty year old
deputy with the Sheriff's office when all this got filed.
He had worked as a sheriff's deputy for approximately five
(01:50):
years when he and Ortega crosspaths. So let's get into
the wild chain of events that occurred when this happened.
So in September of twenty twenty three, Brianna was attending
a county fair and she was with her son and
her daughter. And while she was walking around the fair
(02:11):
with her kids, they're doing what you do at fairs.
They're playing various fair games in the midway, and her
son spots some Sheriff's deputies handing out stickers to all
the kids. Now, that son then approaches the deputies and
among them is Eric Piscatella, and he gives this kid
(02:35):
a sticker, and as he's pulling the stickers out give
them to this kid. A conversation ensues between Ortega and Eric,
and in the course of that conversation, Eric asked Brianna
what her name was, which she tells him, and that's
pretty much where the conversation ends. Nothing beyond that, No
(02:57):
numbers were exchanged, no emails else, nothing beyond her just
telling him her name. Now Brianna's kids, they got some stickers,
and off to enjoy the rest of that fair. So,
according to Ortega, this interaction was innocent enough. She didn't
really think any more about it, and it was kind
(03:20):
of a forgettable conversation in her words. So life goes
on and fast forward about three months and now we're
in January of twenty twenty four and Brianna is chilling
out at home, She's looking through her Facebook, Instagram, whatever,
and she gets a text from an unknown number. Now
(03:41):
the texter claimed to be her quote personal private officer.
In Ortega, she was pretty used to getting these weird,
off the wall, unsolicited, flirtatious text and a lot of
that was due to her large social media presence, so
she just kind of shrugged it off. She did, however,
(04:03):
respond back and ask this mystery person how they knew her,
and the Texter responded they met at the fair. She
then recalls the sticker incident that I just told you about,
and so this kind of freaked her out and she
quit responding after that because she knew she did not
(04:25):
give this deputy or phone number, and she's like, oh,
how the heck did this guy figure out my number?
It also kind of freaked her out because one thing
I didn't tell you was prior to the texting incident.
Officer Eric shows up in full uniform at her door
and he's inquiring at that point about where Ortega's daughter is. Now,
(04:50):
I'm not sure exactly what the officer used as the
context for asking where her daughter was, but I do
know that according to Ortega, something didn't seem right to her.
She didn't tell Piscatella the location of her daughter, and
he was making up some kind of bullshit about this
that sort of halfway made sense, but regardless, she didn't
(05:14):
say where her daughter was because those red flags came up. Right.
So at this point, you have three interactions with this guy,
the first of the fair, the second at her home
when he was asking about her daughter. In the third,
those text messages. And this is all in about three
months time. Then in February of twenty twenty four, or
(05:39):
Tega reaches out to Eric Piscatella, So it's the other
way around, but she did it to help her sister.
Her sister was going through some things and she had
actually become the victim of a crime. So she reached
out to inquire about some things with her sister. But
she didn't realize this deputy has issues, and when you
(06:01):
got those kind of issues, the worst thing someone can
do is give any attention to that person because that's
adding fuel to the fire. Right Well, she reaches out
for assistance, and according to Brianna, rather than help her
with her sister, Deputy Piscatella asked Brianna out on a date,
(06:22):
which she said, she flatly turns him down. Now, this
totally freaked her out even more than the other occasions
with this guy. Freaked her out so bad that she
actually changes her cell number at this point. So unbeknownst
to Brianna by this point was the length that this
(06:44):
deputy went through to get information on her. To get
her phone number, he actually searched her name. This was
in January of twenty twenty four through the patrol vehicle's computer.
This is also how he got her address, which he
used on the call where he shut up at her
house and he was asking her where her daughter was.
(07:06):
That's how he was able to find her house. He
was actually searching that shit through a company computer. By
the time of the latest incident in February of twenty
twenty four, when she needed help with her sister and
he asked her out on a date and she had
to change her phone number, this guy's interest was clearly
turning into an obsession. According to court documents, it became
(07:30):
almost a routine thing for Deputy Eric to access or
take his information on law enforcement databases. On July second
of twenty twenty four, he allegedly ran or take his
license plate using his work computer. Then he shows up
(07:50):
yet again at her house. He bangs on her door.
When she answers, he makes the claim that a black
man with dreadlocks had just been seen jumping over her
back fence in an attempt to break into her home,
which Brianna. She had just got home three minutes prior
(08:13):
to when this deputy was banging on her door, and
that led her to believe wait a minute, he had
to be following me and surveilling me, waiting for me
to get home and get this. While he's telling her this,
in my opinion, bullshit story about a guy attempting to
break into her home, he starts making romantic comments to her.
(08:37):
He tells her things like she looked beautiful without makeup,
and according to Brianna, the way he was saying it
was not in a like a sweet, complementary way, but
a scary, almost sleazy way that made her feel very uncomfortable.
(08:58):
It was also during this interaction that he says he
knew she changed her phone number, and he asked her
what her new number was. Well, in her mind, he's
gonna text me right here and now if I tell
him the wrong number, and he's going to know that
I gave him a fake one and he's going to
(09:20):
freak out. So, under duress, she gives him her new number,
and y'all, a lot has been made of her doing this.
Some people are like, you know, did you really not
want this guy's attention? I mean, you gave him your
number a second time after you changed it, But put
yourself in this position. You have an officer that will
(09:41):
not leave you alone. You have never given him any
information and he knows all your information. Not only that,
but he knew that you changed your phone number when
you never told him. Couple that with the fact that
he's a police officer. I mean, they have rest power,
but also a lot of public trust, and it's a
(10:04):
pretty scary situation for a young, beautiful, twenty nine year
old single mother with three kids. So she gave in
and she gave him that new number, and just as
you may suspect, shortly after Ortega gives the officer her
new number, he starts texting her yet again, and in
(10:26):
one of those texts, he even tells Brianna he was
going to quote steal her from her boyfriend. But by
this point, Brianna has had enough. He just pushed her
over the edge with all that shit, and she reports
all of it to law enforcement. She gives them the
(10:48):
text message evidence and explains to them everything I've already
told you about these interactions with this police officer. So
law enforcement takes that and they investigated, and that is
when they discovered these massive amount of searches the deputy
Eric Piscatella had made through the law enforcement database as
(11:14):
it related to Brianna Ortega. So, Piscatella, he gets arrested
and he's charged with seven felony counts of unlawful use
of the Sheriff's departments database. That means that he searched
for her on seven different occasions and those are all felonies.
(11:35):
And on July twenty third of twenty twenty five, what
do you think he does? He gets charged with this stuff,
and he takes a deal, he pleads guilty, and then
exchange for that guilty police, all of those charges get
reduced to misdemeanors. And what do you think he got
(11:57):
at that point, Well, you guessed probation. Now. It was
just shortly thereafter that this civil lawsuit that I'm covering
today comes out. And in this civil lawsuit, Brianna is
not only suing Piscatella, but also a guy by the
name of Chad Bianca, who is the chief of police,
(12:21):
he's responsible for his employees, right, and another officer by
the name of Martinez Marino, and she was suing him
for culpability because he allegedly knew of the incidents and
he did not report them. And I gotta say, I
don't blame her. She gets no justice here from the
(12:43):
criminal side of things. I mean, this dude got probation.
He's obviously got a major problem. And let me tell
you it may not be the case in this case,
but in many cases, these stalking incidents, that's how it starts,
and then it turns into rape, and then sometimes it
turns in to murder. So he gotta be real cognizant
of this. And I don't know how many times she
(13:05):
had to tell this guy no, and how many lanes
she had to go through, such as changing her phone number,
and he would not leave her alone. So I don't
blame her. She got no justice. And this guy was bordering,
in my opinion, on something much more sinister had she
not reported him when she did. Look, you'll never find
(13:26):
someone more pro police than Jim Chapman. But here's a
newsflash for you, good cops. They hate bad cops more
than the general public hates bad cops because it's those
bad cops like Eric Piscatella that not only put a
black eye on the entire law enforcement industry as a whole,
(13:53):
but it also makes it extremely difficult for the good
cops to earn back the public trust, so I will
keep you updated on this case as more updates become available.
I know this wasn't a super long case, interesting nonetheless,
and I knew you would enjoy hearing it.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Jim, did you see what happened in Texas today?
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Wait before you tell me that, let me tell you
what happened in New York.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
It cannot be as crazy as the case I told
you about yesterday in Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
You know what, we should do a podcast.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
About it, and with that we did. Crime War Weekly
covers the crime news headlines that have dominated the week.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
We cover trending crimes from all over the country, and
even sprinkle in a few globally.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Crime War Weekly is available now wherever you listen to
your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Simply by searching Crime War Weekly or clicking the link
in the description of this podcast. And of course, because
it was a little shorter than my normal podcast that
I give you, I'm gonna give you a double edition
(15:08):
of Exposed Candala's Files of the Elite today, and I'm
gonna jump into another story that I have for you.
And this is about another bad teacher by the name
of Stacy Schuler. So to tell you her story, I'm
gonna bring you to Mason, ohiatt and I'm gonna tell
you about the exploits of former pe teacher and athletic
(15:31):
trainer at Mason High School named Stacy Schuler, who in
twenty eleven was convicted of sixteen counts of sexual battery,
including three counts of offenses involving underage persons. So let's
get into it, and I'm going to take you back
(15:51):
to twenty ten for this one. And Stacy at this
time was a thirty two year old gym teacher at
Mason High School. She was also the athletic trainer for
the Mason High School football team, and that would play
a key role in this case because remember, a key
(16:15):
part of what enables these bad teachers to do what
it is they do is the access to the students.
And in this particular case, Stacy Schuller had an extreme
amount of access, and we'll get into that. And Stacy
was not new to teaching. She wasn't new to teaching
(16:37):
at Mason High School. She had been employed at the
school for ten years when these allegations came down. So
in January of twenty eleven, Mason High School they received
notice that Stacy Schuler allegedly engaged in a sexual relationship
with get ready for it, five male students football players
(17:03):
at the school between August and December of twenty ten. Now,
apparently one of the students came forward and this student
made claims against the teacher that were sexual in nature,
and that launched the initial investigation. And as it happens
in a lot of these cases with bad teachers, you
(17:23):
get one complaint and then you start investigating and come
to find out it's multiple people. No different here. So
the investigation revealed text messages, alcohol consumption, a lot of
sexual allegations. All of these things were brought to the forefront. Now,
when this was originally reported, this case, as I said,
(17:47):
involved that one student and it was reported via anonymous tip.
So police, after they discovered another four students were involved,
they knew that they were going to have a problem
on their hands if they didn't act quickly. They get
the word to this teacher of these allegations and Stacey
(18:07):
actually turns herself into police. Now, eventually she has an arraignment,
she bails out in this case goes to trial. Now
this is where the absolutely wild details of this case
come out. At the trial, and incidentally, all five of
(18:28):
these students were seventeen during the incidents, which is important
because at the time, the age of consent in Ohio
was sixteen. But they did have a laws similar to
many states now that says even if you're seventeen and
you consent to sex, if it's with a teacher, it's
(18:50):
a criminal offense. So she was still charged criminally, even
though technically these kids were seventeen in could consent to it.
She was in a position of trust and that's why
she was still charged. So in trial, one of the
students testifies and he describes a situation where he had
(19:13):
injured his ankle at football practice and he texted Schuler
and asked if she had anything for pain. She replied
that although she didn't have anything for the pain, if
he still wanted to come by for a visit, he could,
meaning come by her house. Red flags everywhere, right, So
he goes over to her house and he has a
(19:35):
friend with him, and you can't blame this kid. I mean,
he knew what was up, He knew what time it was,
this teacher telling him, oh, if you just want to
come and hang out, he knew what was up. He
had a friend with him and Stacy Schuller good looking
woman and from all accounts, very flirtatious with these football players.
(19:56):
So he and his friend go over there and Stacey
makes both of them what she termed as vodka smoothies.
How about that sounds like dackeries to me. While they're there,
According to this student in the trial, they then smoked
some weed, at which point she gave him a massage,
(20:20):
and he said she was making overtures to him that
he took as being an invitation to have sex, which
they did. Now, I've covered a lot of freaky teachers
on bad teachers, but Stacy Schuler, she may be the
freakiest I've covered thus far. He described the incident, saying,
(20:42):
during this visit quote she just looked at me and said,
do whatever you want to do to me. He testified
that he and his friends took turns having sex with
Stacy two times each. He said, at some point, three
of them went outside to have a cigarette, and the
(21:05):
attorney then asked, wait a minute, we're all three of
you naked when you went outside, and the boy replied yes.
He went on to say the second time, he and
the other boy went to Schuler's house just five days later.
This was on August twenty seventh of twenty ten. He
had sex with Schuler on her kitchen counter. He said
(21:28):
he stopped after two visits, and when the attorney asked
her why, he said he had become interested in another
girl his age, he said his friend. However, he went
to Schuler's home three more times after that with other players.
On one occasion, his buddy, another friend, and Shuler ended
(21:54):
up having a bubble bath and then the three had
sex in the shower, and then again at the same
meeting in Schuler's bedroom. It came out from yet another
football player that she craved sex multiple times during a
(22:14):
session if you will, and he said when he and
his friend were having a threesome, he finished and turned
down having sex with her a second time on that
meeting because he said, quote, I was getting grossed out
about all of us having sex with her and how
easy it was. Another football player testified that Schuler and
(22:37):
himself had sex at her home seven times during his
five visits to her home. He said that he and
one and even sometimes two other friends would go to
her home and they would all have sex with her together.
And that included shower sex and massage oils. And get this,
(23:01):
a teacher's aid, a nineteen year old teacher's aid, said
in the trial that Shuler told her about the sex
escapades and that quote she was about to lose everything
because of these sex escapades. This is before she got caught.
She just had a feeling she was about to get caught.
(23:24):
And another eighteen year old teacher's aide testified that Schuler
told her, apparently the day after an incident, that she
had a hazy head due to a hangover, but she
could recall helping one of the football players put on
a condom. So you got all this evidence in testimony
(23:47):
just mounting heavily against Schuler, including some DNA from one
of the boys that was pulled off of a mattress,
and the defense and Stacy dueler, they suddenly change her
plea from not guilty to not guilty by reason of insanity.
(24:09):
I know what you're thinking, how can that happen? Well,
there were several levels to the defense team's defense of
Stacy Schuler. Now, first, she tried the I am a
victim defense. She claimed that while she would drink with them,
the students would allegedly get her drunk and then take
(24:30):
advantage of her after she was drunk. She said that
she would never do those things sober and that she
was the victim. Now, the problem with that defense is
that this happened on five different occasions. It was not
a one time thing, so you can throw that defense
right out the window. The second level of her defense
(24:54):
was she was suffering from PTSD at the time from
a difficult divorce. And keep in mind votes this divorce
was in two thousand and six, four years prior to
any of this shit coming out, and the defense also
said she was bipolar and she was taking the drug zoloft,
(25:18):
claiming that it could have contributed to her behavior. However,
the biggest issue with the defense was that prior to
everything coming out, no one at the school from an
adult standpoint, saw any signs of anything outside of this
teacher being a great teacher. She seemed happy, she never
(25:42):
seemed depressed, all those sorts of things. So what happened
in this case? Well, on October twenty seventh of twenty eleven,
Stacy Schuler is found guilty on all sixteen counts of
sexual battery in three counts of providing alcohol to minors,
(26:06):
and she sentenced to four years in prison and required
to register as what's known as a Tier three sex offender,
which is the highest tier possible in Ohio. So that's it, right,
she serves her time. Whatever. Nope, never goes that way,
does it. In November of twenty twelve, after serving just
(26:30):
over a year into her sentence, Stacy applies for early release,
and part of that process is to write a letter
to the judge. Anytime you apply for early release, regardless
of the crime, you write a letter to the judge.
And Stacy writes said letter. And guess what I have
(26:52):
said letter in front of me. I'm going to read
it to you quickly, says Honorable Judge Peeler. I'm writing
you this letter to question you consider allowing me in
early release for my four year prison sentence. I've been
living at the Ohio Reformatory for Women since October thirty,
verse twenty eleven, after leaving the Warren County Jail. Although
(27:13):
I did not take the opportunity to speak publicly at
my trial, there are some things I would like to
share with you now in order to help make your
decision about my judicial release. I would like to begin
by saying how I shamed I am of my actions
and behaviors that led me to my incarceration. With all
of the education and training I have had in mental
(27:34):
emotional health and substance abuse, I did not ask for
help when I certainly needed it. Looking back on my
life during the fall of twenty ten, I can clearly
see how I was beginning a downward spiral that led
to poor decision making and some very serious consequences for
me and others. I knew my depression was deepening, my
(27:55):
work label was increasing, and my sleep deprivation was worsening.
Instead of turning to my family for support and knowing
my place of employment was not a safe place to
turn for help, I retreated into the safety of my solitude.
Against my better judgment, I started down the slippery slope
of drinking wine in the evenings to aid in sleeping,
(28:16):
instead of cutting back on my work hours, reducing my stress,
and making time to see my doctor, I can clearly
see how flawed my thinking was and how dangerous it was.
At the time, I knew it wasn't the best decision
to maintain the hectic lifestyle, but I rationalized that I
will be able to handle it. I had always pulled
(28:36):
through before. Sadly this was not the case this time.
I was so broken down that I prayed to God
to help me out of this mess that I've created
with my selfish thinking. God knew I wasn't paying attention
to my little hints to change, so it was going
to take something big to get my attention. The situations
I allowed myself to be involved in or inexcusable and
(28:59):
could have been for a and it had only been
willing to ask for help. I've always had a strong
sense of morals and values and need the difference between
right and wrong. Unfortunately, my decision to drink wine impaired
my ability to make decisions, and I opened the door
to compromise my beliefs. I've never been in trouble with
the law before. I've always stayed true to my beliefs
(29:21):
and maintained my strong faith and work ethic to be
stable and a contributing member of society. I take my
commendments in a seriously. I realized my choices and actions
are not only an embarrassment to myself and my family,
but also reflect poorly of my professions of educator and
athletic trainer, as well as my place of unemployment. I
(29:42):
also realized my choices and actions have caused harmed of
the five young men who came to my house, as
well as their families and close friends. My choices and
actions also harmed all of my students, athletes, parents, co
workers who looked up to and trust to me to
do the right thing. Since I've been in prison, I
have taken every opportunity to heal and work on becoming
(30:04):
a healthier individual, as well as giving back to the
other women here. I requested to be on the yard
crew for my job. There are only a few small
number of people who have the privilege of working this job.
By doing this, that provided me with the opportunity to
take care of the prison grounds by shoveling, snow, cutting grass, edging,
(30:25):
trimming trees, painting, cleaning out condemned buildings, taking trash to
the dumpster, separating the recyclables, disposing of hot trash, and
various other duties as decided by the captains. This is
a job that takes a large amount of trust, as
I am working out of the direct supervision in tempting
(30:45):
situations where I could break the rules. I take a
lot of pride in keeping the prison grounds looking professional
and clean for all of the inmates, workers and visitors. Additionally,
I work at hell Cottage where I live, as a
tutor for women who are trying to pass pre GED
and GED tests. Since I've always been passionate about teaching
(31:06):
and I value education, I was honored to be given
this chance by the sergeant Inhaled to assist these women
in their goal to further their education. I've been specifically
working on reading, writing, and mathematics, although women are starting
science and history as well a few of them. I
applaud these women for being brave enough to acknowledge they
(31:28):
need to better themselves and for trying to improve their
lives through education. It is equally as rewarding for them
as it is for them. When they pass another section
of their tests. They come with genuine gratitude to thank me,
but my reward is seeing the excitement in their eyes
when they actually understand what we have been working on.
(31:49):
They don't always get the personal attention in their classes
and often get frustrated when they come to me for
help and make that commitment to take control of their lives.
I'm reminded of how I will no longer make excuses
for myself and I will have the courage to ask
for help when needed. Another area I've been able to
assist is with the pre release program. They're able to
(32:12):
apply and be accepted into the program and have a
separate norm, special parts, and a variety of programs not
available to other inmates, such as education, religion, wellness, vocational choices, etc.
The mineral health director for the prison contact to me
to ask if I be willing to plan and implement
a wellness class for thirty women in the wellness tract.
(32:35):
The next day, I gave her a syllabus and we
discussed my plan. The following day I began teaching a
two day per week ninety minute wellness class incorporating meditation, yoga,
healthy eating, decision making, etc. It is such a pleasure
to share techniques with these women who are trying to
make positive changes in their lives to ensure their rate
(32:57):
of recidivism will be zero. Opened up so much to
me since the course began, and have allowed themselves to
become vulnerable in order to heal and grow. I've had
the pleasure meeting the families in the visiting hall, where
they share with me how their loved one is developing
into a healthy, mature woman and then thank me for
assisting with the process. I always thank them in return,
(33:19):
because these women teach me daily how to become a
better person through their courage to grow. Another wonderful opportunity
I've had is to teach yoga class to other women
who were in emissions with me, which then blossomed into
the opportunity to teach a weekly class at the rec
center open to all inmates. While I was in admissions,
I saw how scared and alone these women were, and
(33:42):
how this caused them to act out. After living in
general population, I realized it was the same there too.
Fear and loneliness caused many women much unhappiness. After attending
yoga classes on a regular basis, they would tell me
how freeing it felt to work through their emotions with yoga.
Some of these women have been living in the same
(34:03):
negative patterns for many years, and we're open enough to
the idea that there might be a better way to live.
This again, is a lesson for me which taught me
I can always learn and practice healthier ways to deal
with my problems. In addition to my work in volunteer activities,
I've been involved in many activities and groups through mental health.
(34:25):
I mean every six weeks with a psychiatrist who diagnosed
me as being bipolar. He manages my medication and behaviors
to see if changes need to be made. He's very
strongly recommended a mood stabilizer when I first arrived, but
he gave me the chance to prove to him that
I can balance my moods through various techniques that I've
(34:46):
learned over the years, staying active, eating healthy food, getting sleep,
reducing stress, practicing yoga, among other things. Although the sleeping
nutrition parts are challenging in prison, I have been successful
in balancing my moods to the point where I'm not
taking additional medication. I've also learned through meetings with my
psychologists that my overactive schedule is how I kept myself
(35:10):
from the more negative, depressive moods I don't enjoy. Over
the years, I've learned how to adjust my activities so
that I could avoid darker moods associated with being bipolar.
My psychologists and I spoke about different groups that would
be beneficial for me to participate in for my healing,
although many groups have significantly long waiting less based on outdate,
(35:33):
I have completed the domestic violence group, which taught me
my warning signs to look for in future relationships and
show me how unhealthy that my marriage was. It also
made me realize you do not have to be in
a domestic relationship to be in an unhealthy relationship. Through
my weak boundaries, I've allowed myself to be manipulated by
(35:54):
aggressive individuals and many of my relationships were violent, and
received a certificate for mental health wellness. While in admissions,
I am on the waiting list for boundaries courses, a
bipolar group, and a few other decision making healthy living groups.
Even if I do not complete these groups before my release,
(36:15):
I plan to seek similar help groups in counseling to
grow as an individual. One group that I requested to
be in immediately after arriving was a sex offender group.
Although the law has changed and this group is no
longer mandatory, I requested that Mental Health add me to
the class list. I realized I will have a constant
(36:36):
reminder of my poor decisions for the rest of my life,
as I will have to register as a Tier three
sex offender every ninety days for as long as I live.
More than that, I am aware of the consequences of
my choices on others and will have to deal with
the hurt and pain caused by my actions. This class
only reiterated that point and reminded me how many hurting
(36:57):
people there are in the world. I do not want
to be the cause of any suffering to any living
being ever again in my life. I also created an
inaction plan to identify personal risk factors that I need
to be aware of that could trigger becoming involved in
harmful situations and how to combat those. The big areas
(37:18):
for me would be to abstain from alcohol consumption, ensure
adequate sleep, keep a reasonable work schedule, set and enforce
healthy boundaries for myself and others, and to ask for
help when I need it. For my support group, besides
my various jobs and classes, I regularly attend support groups
as well as AA Alcoholic Anonymous weekly meetings. I have
(37:40):
gained much insight into my behaviors by listening to the
women in recovery share their stories and growth process. I
now know that I am codependent in the sense that
I want to help everyone to the detriment of helping myself.
I understand that I turned to alcohol to help me
sleep instead of taking the time away from my work
(38:00):
to make a doctor's appointment or just cut down on
my schedule. Because of this, it leads me to continue
making poor decisions for my own health, which eventually led
to poor decisions that affected other people's health. I fully
realized how significant the consequences of putting my needs behind
the needs of others are, and I will no longer
(38:21):
delay asking for help when I need it. Another wonderful
opportunity that I have since arriving here is the chance
to deepen my faith through the various religious services offered
each week. I attend Catholic Mass in a Protestant church
service twice a month. I attend Buddhist meditation class, which
(38:42):
is offered twice a day. I've attended a weekly Bible
study course in praise ministry activities when offered. I'm amazed
how much I have learned from the time I have
spent just from observing and listening to the women around me,
and have come to realize how much pain and suffering
in this world could be prevented through proper educational opportunities
(39:03):
and outreach programs. Ohio Reformatory for Women is a last
resort to help people who who need intents restructuring of
their lives, and should therefore provide opportunities to educate, rehabilitate,
and help inmates so that upon their release they may
have skills, knowledge, and support to be law abiding citizens. Unfortunately,
(39:24):
from my experience in prison, which is likely due to
the prison being understaffed, many women are scared to leave
the safety of the prison walls because they have not
yet developed a strong enough moral character to fight their
personal demons and regain the confidence and inner guidance to
make healthy decisions in their lives. I consider myself lucky
(39:44):
to have had the chance to enroll in and attend
programs and classes that help me elevate the areas of
my life that need to be worked on. Ya, honor,
thank you for considering my judicial release. I respect your
decision and realize the difficult job you have to balance
way the options of giving chances to people like me
by graining an early release versus consequences to be dealt
(40:07):
with if we do not live up to the court's expectations.
I've learned throughout the last two years how strong my
family and friends support group is, and that it is
not only okay to ask them for help when I
need it, but it is absolutely necessary. I've learned to
appreciate even more the value of my education and my
ever grown faith in God. For healthy decision making and
(40:30):
boundary setting. I need to use my education, my faith,
my more values, and yoga by which I live. I've
learned it has never okay to allow myself to get
so worn down physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually that I
turn my back on everything and everyone that keeps me
on the right path in life. I realize now more
than ever that I can do nothing on my own,
(40:53):
and it is only God's grace and strength that I
live every day according to His will, and I must
ask daily for the guidance to feel His purpose for me.
I acknowledge that through my wrong mindedness, I had brought
hurt and pain to numerous individuals who trusted me and
have faith in me. I continue to pray daily for
peace and healing for all that I may have harmed, respectively.
(41:17):
Stacy Schuler, Now, why did I read you that long
ass letter? Well, that's because I wanted you to know
what the judge read because it plays a very important
role in what I'm about to tell you. The judge
considers it, and shockingly, at least to myself, she's actually
(41:42):
released from prison on November thirteenth of twenty twelve. So
there you have it, and I'd be curious to know
what your thoughts are on this. Should she had been
released after hearing that letter she wrote the judge. And
what is she doing now, you may wonder, Well, she
UN's a business in Ohio where she teaches yoga to
(42:07):
women in the down and Boom in the Dayton, Ohio area.
And that's all I got for you today, a double
dose of Exposed, scandalous files of the Elite, and a
few quick announcements. First, please, if you have not left
a review and you like what you're hearing with Exposed,
(42:29):
I would love it if you could take a second
and do so wherever you were listening. This really helps
us more than you know. And check out Crime War Weekly,
a podcast I do with award winning podcaster Kelly Jennings.
We discuss all the headlines of the week as it
relates to crime from all over the United States and
(42:50):
even if you stories from around the globe. It drops
every Friday and you can find it wherever you're currently listening.
Just search Crime War Weekly or by clicking the link
in the description of this podcast. And if you like
to hear historic stories on the United States' largest maximum
security prison, check out my podcast Bloody in Gola. It
(43:13):
details these stories and history of one of the country's
most notorious prisons, Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. And finally, today,
if you like what we bring to you with Exposed,
please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon. Folks, my Patreon supporters,
(43:33):
I call them, affectionately, my celebrities. This show could not
exist without them. The expense involved in the research and
production of this podcast costs money, and it's these folks
who make all of it possible. The benefits are great too,
commercial free early releases, bonus episodes, quarterly gifts, all kinds
(43:54):
of stuff. Files of the cases that I talk about.
Check us out patreon dot com, slash Exposed Podcasts files,
and until next time for exposed scandalous files of the elite.
I'm your host, Jim Chapman. Much love,
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