Lapis Stone | One Year Later

Almost a year ago in the first ever episode of Voiceless Behind Bars Sarah interviewed her friend Lapis Stone who had been falsely accused of stocking and illegally detained by the police. Well a year has gone by and a lot has happened.  Listen in as Lapis and Sarah have another great conversation. They discuss updates to Lapis personal story as well as wrongful convictions/accusations and how they can cause so much harm to individuals as well as society.  

You can find Lapis Stone online on Instagram: @lapisosavage or on Youtube.com/@LapiOnTheBeat

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Zoon me the faded inside the catFoodstone, Not every light's gone, and
Catty baby, don't let a mayice bag. You're close to your host.
I love the fashion's kind of shabbykazy because you as to the man
in the morning. It's all kindof Then it's show me the faded inside

(00:25):
the cat Foodstacke, Not every ladn'tgone, and guide you. Yeah,
when I blow up, I'm gonnasaw highlight Peter Pan, the real life,
be living out my dreams, comewaking up for a fourth plane,
whole risk coming up. I wasn'tworn't fine bars, I'm your host.
Here's the Yarman, and I've gotmy friend back off the stone. And

(00:50):
one year ago he was wrongfully detained. He shared history with us, and
now it's really a year later andthis is actually the first episode that they
were on and if you want togo back episode number one, if they
were on, and so one yearlater, they're back off to tell not

(01:14):
only what's happened in the aftermath,but to give more clarity about the situation
all the person who had them wronglydetained. So well, further, Ado,
thanks for coming back. Do youmind reintroducing yourself? Hi. Yeah,
of course my name is Lapis.You can google my name Lappy Lapi

(01:37):
on the Beat. That's what Imake music under, and you can follow
me on Instagram at Lappy Lapi.So savage. I'm a violinist, finger
rapper, producer, actor, model, and journalist. I do a lot
and currently I'm working on my debutalbum and debut mixtape as lafe on the

(02:05):
Beat as well as well. I'vegot some other things in the works that
y'all might find out later, butthat's it. I can't wait. So
I remember all year ago being alsoattained. I remember how scary that was.
And do you mind giving us abrief summary about all that, because

(02:30):
I remember, you know, leadingup to that all like I was the
court date, everything, like Iremember just all that vivid lacity mind,
I just give us a brief rundown. Mm. Yeah, Well, for
anybody who's watched the first interview,I won't, you know, completely play

(02:53):
by place say everything. And therewas a settlement agreement between me and one
of the parties involved, so Ican't get into details about how I feel
about certain things, but I canat least state back and be able to

(03:15):
inform people adequately. So last yearI went on tour to Los Angeles and
I'm from Chicago, so I hadyou know, gone cross country and stopped
in Las Vegas and you know,did like a legitimate tour around And I

(03:35):
went on this tour with the intentionof meeting up with one of my friends
named Shift. And Shift is alsoa journalist and also a musician, and
he is very visible in the FreeBrittany and I would even say tangent me
to spaces of exposing predators and usersand also calling out the human trafficking ring

(04:06):
it seems that is taking over themusic industry and the entertainment industry at large,
and you know, helping people telltheir story and you know, exposing
you know, people who may becontradicting their public image with the things they

(04:26):
do privately. So I you know, met Shift online and we had always
shared like information and helped each otherwith our reporting. And there had been
an incident where the the Greater FreeBrittany need to kind of movement was organized

(04:53):
in a sector under eight predators,this organization, if you want to call
it, and that organization Shift had, you know, was doing some snooping
and looking and seeing you know whatthey were up to and why they're here,
and they purported themselves as exposing abusersand you know, bringing attention to

(05:16):
all of these cases. But therehappened to be one person who was fronting
this movement and seemed to be gettinga lot more attention. And this person
is a former child actor named AlexaNicholas. So you know, Alexa had

(05:36):
used EID Predators as a platform toexpose her own abusers as well as highlighting
stories from other victims and survivors,and she had become a self purported voice
for survivors. So Shift was youknow interested and actually felt aligned with the

(06:00):
visions. So Shift had made contactwith the Predators and their people with a
recommendation from somebody, and they tookShift in and Shift became part of the
Predators and was you know, reallyinfluential in an organization. But Alexa and
Shift had bumped heads eventually, andShift was excommunicated. So Shift, you

(06:30):
know, was still you know,an advocate for survivors and adamantly showing support
for the movement, but the movementwas getting hostile towards Shift and not allowing
Shift to show up at their theirdemonstrations. You know, which were protests

(06:50):
outside of different businesses and record labelsand companies that may have hired alleged abusers
or somehow protected them. And soShift had definitely, you know, showed
up to these previously while being affiliatedwith the Predators, but after being excommunicated,

(07:14):
Shift kept coming and they had startedto accuse Shift of stalking them because
they just simply no longer wanted himthere, and he felt, you know,
kind of slighted since it was partiallya movement he helped. And also
it is the first Amendment to goout there and protest, and you can't
tell somebody else they can't protest whereyou're protesting. So I had felt,

(07:41):
you know, definitely like some typeof way, and I felt you know,
bad for Shift that he was beingtreated this way and was a visible
and supportive member of this movement.So you know, when I came to
LA, I had planned to gowith Shift and demonstrate in support of the

(08:07):
greater purpose of exposing abusers and bringingattention to UH survivors and their their stories,
as well as supporting Shift himself assomebody who had been excommunicated from e
Predators and perhaps was being silenced fortheir effort to expose corruption in the e

(08:33):
Predator's movement, mostly surrounding Alexa Nicholasand so SHIFT had you know, brought
like flyers and done a podcast episodewith two of the original founders of the
Predators, and that podcast was youknow, it went kind of viral,

(08:56):
I guess, and people in themovement had had been aware of it,
so they were very antagonized. Theyfelt antagonized by Shift for just doing the
podcast, So the flyers were likeincendiary to them. And when we showed
up to a protest that they hadbeen doing outside of Red Light Management in

(09:20):
Los Angeles, who is the managementcompany of a producer and djay artist named
Ray who Alexa Nicholas has alleged rapedand abused and groomed her as a miner.
So we had come there to showsolidarity for the movement as well as

(09:43):
perform music in a silent but alsofirm solidarity for the core principle of exposing
abusers and not being silent and silent. So I showed up and I started

(10:03):
playing the violin, and they instantlystarted harassing me, telling me, you
know, I'm silencing them, andsomehow my violin playing and singing was distracting
from the purpose, and I foundthat very contradictory considering we were both using

(10:26):
the First Amendment and people were actuallyyou know, paying more attention to their
movement because I was just playing music. They had no idea whether I was
a part of their movement or againsttheir movement or anything. And I definitely
was not against I was for whatthey were fighting for. But I was
obviously making it a point to standon the other side of the sidewalk so

(10:52):
that you know, they didn't feellike I was like hovering over them,
and so that I could have myown space to do what I do without
being trained by them. And theykept coming over to me and getting in
my face, and this was allalive, you know, so I told
them to back up, this ismy right, and they just kept you

(11:13):
know, harassing me, and eventuallyShift showed up, and Shift had at
that point was there to support me, uh supporting him because he was not
playing music. He was not youknow, yelling or you know, demonstrating
as they were with like megaphones andmy signs. Shift just had the flyers
and actually we had a small signI think that said this is my right

(11:37):
and you know, we had Iwas just playing my music and then he
started tapping on his on his thivesand that's when Alexa Nicholas had pointed Shift
out and said, that's my stalker, okay, and this is the the
what's the inciting incident that started acascade of unfortunate events where the police were

(12:03):
called and we were accused of stalking, and we had, you know,
been cleared of those accusations by thepolice, who said, this is our
first Amendment right to be here andthey can't tell us to leave. We
can't tell them to leave, andyou know, eventually we did leave on
our own. So you know,we finished performing and left, and afterwards,

(12:28):
Alexa had gone to the Internet toair her personal feelings about me,
specifically using terms that I won't repeat. And you know, even with the
nuances of you know, the spacesthat she's in, you know, against
abusers and stuff that she was,she was kind of playing on stereotypes that

(12:52):
me being a black person. Youknow that I felt very offended by so
I had I had asked her toremove them and apologize, and you know,
also I felt that she was violatingmy rights and infringing my rights by
accusing me of a crime, andI had pursued litigation against her, and

(13:16):
during the you know, pending litigation, I had decided to counter protest one
of their demonstrations outside of TMZ,and I made it public. I announced
it beforehand. Shift also you know, made a flyer, and we had
planned to perform. We had plannedto perform a way away from them,

(13:39):
nowhere near them, okay, Andthis time I had a speech prepared and
so it was more organized as ademonstration on our part, and we were
about a football length football field lengthsaway from them, and they had served
Shift a restraining order that they hadfiled a few days previous to the TMZ

(14:03):
administration, and I was reading itout loud on live and I was stating,
how this was lies, this waslies, how this is untrue,
this is made up. And soI had taken my speech and walked over
to them and you know, readline by line their restraining order and how

(14:24):
it was wrong in front of them, and the husband of Alexa Nicholas,
he had you know, gotten inmy face this time, and he had,
you know, specifically said that you'restalking, you're harassing, you're doing
all these things. And I said, this is my first Amendment, right,
I'm allowed to be here just likeyou are. And I said,

(14:48):
are you just gonna lie like thatin front of all these people? And
he had said yes, in frontof all these people. He said that,
And I'm like, really, you'rejust gonna admit that you're lying right
here? I mean, it wasit was kind of just shocking to me.
And he had done it again ata later, you know time,
but it's just so shocking to mehow someone can blatantly lie and admit it

(15:11):
in front of people and then feelno type of way about it. So
I had gone back over to youknow, where Shift and I were,
you know, demonstrating and performing ourmusic, and we had even made money.
We weren't even trying to, butpeople were giving us money out their
cars, and you know, wewere peaceful, we were amicable, we
were positive. We were obviously creatingan energy that was antithesis of what they

(15:37):
were doing, but at the youknow, a whole length away from them,
so it wasn't like we were overshadowinganybody. But they had called the
top again, and you know,I can only imagine what they told them,
because when the cops arrived. Idecided to, you know, go
and talk to them. And asI started walking up to the cops,

(16:02):
they told me to freeze and Isaid, oh okay, and I had
my violin in my hands because Iwas performing. So I was like,
maybe they think the violin is aweapon or something. Sorry, I put
the violin down, or no,before I put the violin down, and
they said put empty your hands andI'm like, oh, okay, so
yeah, they think this is aweapon or something, and so I put

(16:23):
it down and then I had myhands up and I was like, I
just want to talk to you becauseyou know, I know why you're here.
And they said put your hands behindyour back. And at this point
I'm like what And they grabbed myarm. Okay, put handcuffs on me,

(16:45):
and I'm like in distress, clearlyin distress. My face is just
you know, horrified. And thismoment they took a picture of me,
not the cops, eat predators,the people running they predators took a picture
of me. And this picture wasthen used as evidence in the restraining order

(17:10):
against Shift, saying that I wasgetting detained. But it was a restraining
order against Shift, so they wereusing this, this incident, this moment
to paint somebody else as a criminal. And I had explained to the cops
that I was, you know,not, I didn't do anything wrong,

(17:33):
that I was not the person Iknew that they were trying to get.
And they were like, did youdidn't you just get served a restraining order?
No? And they were saying,well, were you stalking them?
No? Were you harassing them?No? Have you tried to contact or
come to their house? No?No, no no. And eventually,

(17:56):
after a couple of minutes, youknow, one of the police officers was
like, oh, you're from apark and was reading my idea and I'm
like, yeah, like I usedto live no Park. So eventually the
energy changed. They started being niceand they went to talk to other people,
and they came back and they said, we are so sorry, we
made a mistake. He's the wrongguy. So I told them this is

(18:18):
what they want. They wanted youto get the wrong guy so that they
can make it look like I'm theperson who's doing something wrong. But not
only that, but to just makeit look like we're doing something wrong.
Because I was wrongly detained. SoI did nothing wrong, but the moment

(18:38):
of me getting handcuffed was enough evidencethat they could take it out of context
and misconstrue it and criminalize not onlyjust me, but somebody else. So
this is, you know, prettymuch the point where the lawsuit got more

(19:02):
heated up and there was a backand forth, and then eventually, you
know, she decided to assume meAlecta Nicholas decided to sue me for stalking,
but it was a counter suit formy defamation lawsuit, so it was
all connected, and then we eventuallysettled. So the settlement agreement is that

(19:25):
we will not disparage each other inany public or private domain, which simply
means we just won't talk negatively abouteach other, and you know, even
if it's true. So I'm limitedon you know, how I can talk
my own opinions because they might beconsidered negative if they make her look bad,

(19:48):
and even some things that might betrue that make her look bad,
I can't exactly speak on. ButI am able to bring light to what
happened afterwards, because there has beena lot that's transpired in this past year.
But that's the summary of what happeneda year ago. So since then,

(20:10):
what has transpired. Have people cometo you with their all own stories
about Alexa. What's happened since then? Oh? Yeah, well there has
been Okay, So I'll get intowhat's the most pertinent part of this Shift
and his situation. Because the restrainingorder against Shift was granted, okay,

(20:37):
the temporary restraining order was granted,and the permanent restraining order was granted.
Okay, And there was a hearingthat took place, I think right before
my settlement had taken place, andyou know, I was a hearing for

(21:00):
my settlement as well that Alecta hadn'tshown up for because I hadn't properly served
her. So there was a lotof delays in the process. But I
had signed up as a witness forshifts settlement for Shift's hearing to testify on

(21:22):
Shift's behalf and state what I knewand what I saw and what I heard.
And I had helped Shift with gettingall of the paperwork together. Shift,
you know, had asked me tohelp, and I had reviewed you
know, the Google Drive documents andall of the evidence, all the text

(21:44):
messages, all of the emails,all of the events, the Facebook posts,
the YouTube videos. I mean,I had reviewed every single piece of
evidence. And I personally felt like, you know, this is a real
battle because you're having to fight everyline, You're having to fight every word

(22:04):
that they said with your own andyou have to supply evidence. And the
way that these cases work, it'snot a matter of like beyond a reasonable
doubt, it's a preponderance of evidence. And for people who are not,
you know, familiar with the justicesystem and tros or temporary restraining orders and
how they work, preponderance is basicallya scale that's weighed. So one side

(22:30):
has their evidence, another side hastheir evidence, and the judge weighs one
side against the other and they cancelout basically whatever they can determine is true
or not true from the other side. And I saw the surmountable, you

(22:51):
know, insurmountable, I guess isthe proper term evidence that was being used
against against SHIFT. So I had, you know, done my due diligence
and trying to figure out every singlething Shift could say and do to fight
this, and Alexi's lawyer kept harassingme and Shift with new evidence every few

(23:19):
days, new evidence, and itbecame so so much. It was hundreds
of pages that they had submitted ofher typing out you know everything that she
you know, said that Shift did, you know, and there were text
messages that completely you know, contradictedthis, and she had sent these text

(23:44):
messages. Shift had saved them.There were other people involved, like Sloan,
who is a YouTube commentator and coverscelebrities and certain abuse victims and their
survivors and their store. Alexa Nicholashad come onto Slone's channel a few times,
and Shift had actually correspondence with Sloneon behalf of Alexa, because Alexa

(24:11):
had temporarily taken Shift on to thePredator's Movement to help facilitate pr and other
relationships. So navigating the the YouTubespace was part of Shift's job, talking
to Christy Carlson Romano, talking toSloane, talking to other people who were

(24:32):
YouTubers that Alexa Nicholas was collaborating with. So there was clear evidence that you
know, Shift and her did notend on bad terms until after Shift left
the movement actually voluntarily, and itwas shown that Shift left voluntarily for stress

(24:53):
related reasons because it was too much, and Shift was temporarily living with Alexaichlis
and left her home willingly, notkicked out or anything and there were text
messages between Shift and Alex's mom,Shift and Alex's husband, and you know,
Shift was taking care of her baby. And then a picture of Shift

(25:15):
holding the baby that Shift had alreadyposted to Instagram was then reported and trying
to say that Shift was abusing thechild or somehow, you know, on
Saints for Children, which you know, all of this stuff is very scary,
and all this stuff is like veryhard to fight and hard to stomach.

(25:38):
I could only imagine what a judgewould think reading all of this stuff,
which is probably why the temporary restrainingorder got granted. But then when
the hearing came, you know,I had showed up to the hearing virtually,
and I was waiting, and Ihad overheard other people's you know,

(26:00):
cases beforehand, and I was hearinghow they were being handled, and it
was clear to me that the LosAngeles County court system is inherently corrupt.
Okay, there were multiple things thatI saw that made it unfair for somebody

(26:26):
who was falsely accused, because you'renot allowed to speak first, so the
other side gets their time, andthen it's like, okay, so what
do you have to say about whatthey just said? You can't come up
and say all the things that youpersonally want to say. It's a matter

(26:47):
of what the judge allows you toaddress. And I felt we were not
prepared. We were not prepared toactually fight this, and we didn't have
enough witnesses. People who were actuallyin the movement were actually on a Lexis
side and they were supporting her statement, and they were giving testimonies, and

(27:11):
some of these people had not witnessedanything. So it was hard for one
person like me who showed up kindof afterwards to fight against all these things
that I had no real firsthand personexperienced with. And all I can just
do is just say, yeah,it's a good person. He didn't do
that, and I knew that wasn'tenough. Also, the fact that my

(27:37):
pending litigation was there, I knewthat they were going to be able to
use anything I said and any typeof strategies that I had, and use
them against me in their counter lawsuitbased off of my testimonies to support shit.
For example, Oh, the restrainingorder got granted, and he was

(28:00):
the accomplice of Shift, and heshowed up to court and said all these
things that the judge claimed were untrue. Or that the judge had thrown out
and basically said we were right overthem. And I realized my ability to
fight on my merits of my casewas compromised based off of my statements I

(28:23):
would be providing that they could usein the event that the restraining order got
approved. And I wanted to,you know, tell Shift that, Look,
I've helped you gather all this evidence. I've helped you, you know,
put all this together. But Idon't think I'm going to be able

(28:48):
to testify and be able to wing. I don't think I'm going to be
able to help you. And Ithink this is actually going to hurt both
of our cases. But me andShift fell out, and it's just it's
just unfortunate timing. Me and Shiftfell out a few days before the hearing,
and we fell out because and ithurts my heart to say this,

(29:12):
because I know, you know,there was no ill will necessarily, you
know, and we had made upafterwards. But Shift recorded me without my
permission, and you know, inthe state of California, that is a
crime. And I didn't know obviouslythat Shift had even recorded me until after

(29:34):
I left Los Angeles, and Shiftmentioned it offhand and said, oh,
yeah, by the way, Iwas recording you during this time. I
don't know if you want that recording, but yeah, and I know technically
I'm supposed to ask first, butyou know, I figured you'd be okay
with it, and I felt likea boundary had definitely been violent because me

(30:00):
and him are both journalists. Ifsome things off the record, you're not
supposed to record it, okay,And individual phone calls, individual conversations with
somebody, you have to tell somebodyyou're recording because their knowledge of the recording
is going to change something that theysay or do. And the reason why

(30:25):
he recorded me was because I hadcalled him in crisis. You know,
I had there was a hearing outsideor there was a hearing for the Taylor
Swift against Ticketmaster lawsuit, and Ihad showed up to support the Swift these
but also eat predators happened to bethere and I had called Shift because it

(30:48):
seemed like they were going to doit again, call the cops on me,
say I did something wrong and Iknow I didn't, and Shift decided
to press record when I called himand didn't tell me. Didn't you know
at least give me a heads up, like hey, by the way,
you're being recorded, you know.And it's not like I said anything incriminating.

(31:11):
It's the fact that I was beingrecorded without my permission or knowledge,
right, and I felt violated.I felt like my boundaries had been crossed
because it was something that we hadboth established as journalists. We know that
the legal we just we both knowand technically the law is called wire tapping.

(31:33):
So you know, I had sentShift a article on you know,
the legality of calling or recording somebody, and it said wire tapping because that's
the name of the law, andShift had taken that, I guess,
and felt like I was accusing Shiftof criminal activity that he didn't do.

(32:00):
And to be honest, I hadno intent to pursue any type of litigation
or you know, because I knewShift wasn't trying to you know, set
me up or anything. But it'sjust, you know, it made me
feel uncomfortable that somebody I trusted didn'task me first and didn't get my approval

(32:21):
and then waited until I was likea whole half of the country away from
them to tell me that they didthis and didn't see it as any serious
thing, didn't see it as anytype of like maybe I would feel some
type of way, and I hadto sit on it and think, like,
should I feel some type of way? You know? Like and personally

(32:45):
I have, you know, myown boundaries, and everybody's allowed to set
their own boundaries. And one ofmy boundaries is ask me, you know,
don't assume that is one of myboundaries. And it goes across the
board. Just asked me, donasuAnd people who don't know me won't know.
But somebody who knows me, whotrusts me, who I trust,

(33:07):
who I've I've built a relationship withwho I've I literally was living in the
same room with Shift for months.You know what I'm saying. I would
expect him to know that, andwe have had conversations about it, and
it was never ever okay. Itwas never okay. There was never Oh

(33:27):
yeah, I wouldn't mind. No, I'm a journalist. I mind.
I mind when I'm being recorded becauseI think about that when i'm, you
know, interviewing somebody. And Iremember when I interviewed with you. I
didn't even tell you about this,but you asked and you said, beforehand,
I'm before we start recording, Iwant you to know you are being

(33:49):
recorded, and that's that validated myfeelings. Like once you said that,
it validated how I felt. AndI'm like, this is just customary.
This is this, This isn't insaneto ask, you know, it isn't.
It isn't not at all. Soyou know, I had I had
brought it up to Shift and Isaid, you know, I just I

(34:09):
didn't. I wasn't okay with that, and Shift completely just blew up on
me, and you know, Shiftsaid, well maybe then you know,
you're just actually some type of plantin this and you were fighting on his
side, and I'm like, ohmy gosh. So communication between us broke

(34:31):
down completely, and days before thehearing, it was like I couldn't communicate
any of these things to Shift.And I still showed up to the hearing
because I was hoping that maybe Icould get a chance to talk to Shift
just briefly right beforehand. There wasno opportunity to do that. And I
just felt, you know, thecloser and closer we got to Alexa,

(34:53):
you know, getting the microphone,you know, it was just the writing
was on the wall. It wasgoing to definitely negatively impact me in my
settlement or my lawsuit against her,and my legal strategy was getting her to
settle. That was my legal strategy. Shifts legal strategy was taking it all

(35:15):
the way, no matter what,Like, even if she's willing to settle
it, I'm going to sue herand I'm going to take this and I'm
going to fight everything. And Icommend Shift and his confidence and his courage
to go up against her and doall that. But you know, as
the practical person, I don't wantto be in court. I don't want

(35:37):
to spend my whole life in acourtroom. I don't want to sue people.
I don't want to be in lawsuits. I don't want people to sue
me and countersuit. I don't wantto have to collect evidence and being have
to fight all this stuff. IfI have to, because I'm literally being
slandered and I need to clear myname, i will. But if there's

(35:59):
a opportunity that me and the otherparty can come to an agreement and amicably
settle this and go our separate ways, that's the goal, and I set
it from the beginning. That's mylegal strategy, and his legal strategy was
different, and you know, wejust don't see how to eye on how
that could have been handled. Sounfortunately, I wasn't able to you know,

(36:23):
testify confidently, you know, forshifts and on shift behalf, and
with all of the mixed feelings oflike being recorded and stuff, I was
starting to question even some of thestuff that Alexa was saying. And I
know that sounds so bad because Ihad gone through this whole thing to fight

(36:45):
for Shift, and it just feltlike, dang, am I protecting somebody
who is a narcissist? Am Itrying? Am I answer been through like
that kind of stuff, questioning everythingthat it's no part of the process.
Because I felt so guilty that,you know, maybe I'd made the wrong

(37:08):
decision and maybe I got myself intothis, or even worse, maybe I
was used. Maybe Shift knew thatI was able to be more visible than
him and fight for him, andit was something he didn't even have to
ask because I'm just that type ofperson, and maybe he knew the whole

(37:29):
time I could take advantage of this. He's going to fight for me harder
than I'm going to fight for myself. So hey, let me give him
the lawsuit and he'll just he'll justarrange everything he'll collect the evidence, you
know. And I'm not saying Shiftdidn't do anything. Shift definitely obviously was,
you know, the main force behindhis I would say, fighting for

(37:51):
his case. But in terms ofthe work being done, you know,
I was on tour, I wassupposed to be performing. I was supposed
to be and I had stayed longerthan I planned because of all these things,
you know, But Shift luckily hadpaid for the place we were staying
up until you know, a coupleof months, so I had a place

(38:12):
to stay in La at least untilMay or April April, and you know,
I was like, Okay, well, you know I can help you
then, and I'll have to,you know, I'll have to take days
off of performing to do this.I'll have to, you know, sit
with you and ask you these questions, and we're gonna have to write everything
down. And you know, Idid that with him, and I helped

(38:36):
him as much as I could.I felt like, you know, he
was as prepared as possible. Andunfortunately, you know, the lawyer that
Alexa had was a real please.He took out every single dirty trick.
They didn't even ask Shift anything.Shift didn't even get to really talk and

(38:57):
they shut Shift down in the courtroom. And then the other witnesses that had
came, they have disabilities and youknow, they needed handicaps that were not
available, were not asked for,and not you know, thought about previously.
So you know, certain people weren'table to articulate their testimony effectively and

(39:20):
they were shut down. You know, I know that I'm a very well
spoken person, and I am veryclear minded, and I can keep calm
in a courtroom, So I knowthe value of me being an asset to
Shift. And that's why I feltsome type of way because I know I
can help Shift, but I alsoknow that this is something bigger than me.

(39:46):
So I don't know if I canactually overcome this on Shift to behalfd
and if all of this is weighingon me to do all of this hinges
on me, is it it reallylike my case? Like, am I
the one who's supposed to be likethe deciding factor between whether or not Shift

(40:08):
gets a restraining order or not?And it was it was a question that
I had to answer myself and say, no, I'm not responsible for shifts
restraining order. I didn't get itagainst him, and the messed up part
is that the restraining order was notagainst me. I had my own case

(40:30):
that I had launched before the restrainorder was even filed, so I was
completely not involved. When it cameto the legal ramifications. I would not
have the restraining order against me.But I knew what their strategy was,
get them one at a time,get Shift, get shipped, and then

(40:53):
get his friend right. And Iwasn't able to communicate to Shift, like
we need to we need to approachthis differently, we need a different strategy.
So, you know, after Shiftgot granted, or the permanent restraint
order got granted on Shift, mysettlement came a week later, and I

(41:15):
think, you know, I cansay that my strategy worked for me,
and I had, you know,tried to contact Shift again and we actually
did reconcile and we talked, andyou know, Shift understood my motivations and
understood why I did what I did. Shift was obviously disappointed, but in

(41:38):
the end, Shift understood that itwasn't something I could stop, and it
wasn't something that I could make happen. You know, it's not my fault
that Shift has a restraining order.And of course I felt all the guilt
that you know, I could bethe reason why Shift has a restraining order
at the same time as feeling guiltthat maybe Alexa did feel harassed and did

(42:05):
feel these things that she's writing thathonestly, if you read you know,
you would feel a heart attack becauseit's like the things she wrote down,
some things about you know, wantingto kill her and all these things.
It just it was like questioning inmy head, like is this the same
person that I sleep in the sameroom with, you know, is this
you? Is there like another sideto you that I don't know, because

(42:30):
like spending every day with each other, twenty four hours a day, it's
hard to hide that type of thing, you know, the things that she
was accusing Shift of. You wouldhave to be an absolute monster, you
know what I'm saying, and youcouldn't hide that. So I felt like,
you know, he couldn't be that. But then maybe, you know,

(42:51):
sometimes people they're really good at masking. Maybe they're you know, It's
like the confusion in my head isstill there. It won't go away,
even now that Me and Shift have, you know, come to terms with
the situation. So uh, meand Shift had actually other legal issues to
deal with outside of Alexa because theplace that we were staying at the landlord

(43:16):
was harassing us, and you know, we had to file our own restraining
order against somebody because they were legitimately, you know, trying to hurt us,
and we had all that evidence andthe police reports, and you know,
eventually that person, you know,they we we exposed them for stamps.

(43:37):
You know, the police had duginto it. And the place that
we were staying was not even zonedproperly, and it was just a mess.
But there were other people involved inthat situation that I won't mention because
you know, I don't want to, you know, disclose their personal details
and lives. But me and Shifthad you know, contact and communication months

(43:58):
and months afterwards, you know,and I had, you know, told
Shift, I'll help you with theappeal, and I did a little bit,
and you know, Shift was definitelygoing through it with all of these
things happening, trying to you know, fight the restraining order and also abide
by the restraining order. And soI think Shift ended up leaving the Los

(44:20):
Angeles area. And you know,since then, we have pretty much not
talked about it at all. Wehave not talked about it at all.
We still kind of interact on socialmedia here and there. But you know,
I think we both have just aninch about it. You know,
we have an inc because there arestill legal pending statuses. Some of his

(44:45):
rights were taken away, and it'sbased off of you know, as far
as I still know, from whatI know about Shift and who I know
Shift is these are lines. Theseare false and you know whoever wrote them,
because I don't know if Alexa wroteit or not. I don't know

(45:06):
if she had somebody who was tellingher what to write her, you know,
if her lawyer was just like saying, you need to say this and
that in order to get this done. But I do know when I settled
with Alexa, her lawyer was stillat it. Her lawyer was still accusing
me of things I didn't do,and I had I had to completely disengage

(45:30):
from that whole situation. I couldn'tlook at it, you know, the
same way anymore. And I thinkeven Alexa had to take a break.
I think she she had a baby, but in the settlement she was trying
to delay the lawsuit because of herbaby coming. But then after the settlement

(45:52):
she had continuously you know was protesting, but eventually I saw she took a
break, and you know, fora while, things were quiet, I
would say, for like the likethe early summer of twenty twenty three was
quiet for all parties. We wereall just kind of minding our business and

(46:14):
not trying to not trying to talkto nobody about it either. You know,
I wasn't here trying to blab andtell everybody what happened and stuff.
I was keeping to myself. Imade my post, I made my announcement,
and I walked away. But recently, in the last month or two,
some things have been hating up becausethere's other people in the industry who

(46:37):
are coming out with their stories,and it seems like eight Predators is attaching
itself to these stories in these cases, which is bringing more people's awareness to
the previous events that happened. Andyou know, of her accusing me and

(46:59):
shift of stalking her, and peoplewere wondering who is the stalker and who
is this and that, and randompeople just found me because of some of
the posts that I had posted thatI guess kind of floated around. Other
people shared and took screenshots. Soeventually people started coming to my page and
started messaging me and saying like,oh my gosh, I saw what happened.

(47:22):
I'm sorry, you know, Icame so late, is like everything
okay. And people are saying likeI want to fight for you. I
know you can't talk and speak,but I want to help you and I
want to do stuff. And Iwould just not answer a lot of times,
and I would just I would justlook at it or like, you
know, like it like heart itor something like that, because I don't
want to say anything that rouse peopleup, or that maybe some of these

(47:45):
people are fake, or or they'resent to me from the other camp and
they're trying to get me to saysomething and so that they can sue me,
or I don't. I don't wantto, you know, set myself
up, you know, and Idon't want to be set up. So
I've been definitely keeping quiet, andyou know, when people bring her name
up, I don't say anything.I don't reply. I tell people I

(48:07):
can't talk about her. I'm sorry. And some people get a little aggressive
with me about it, like oh, you know, like what are you
trying to protect her? And honestly, you know, I don't think now
my silence is a true silence.I think I've said enough that my words

(48:30):
speak louder actually when I don't sayanything. It's weird that it's kind of
come to this point where it's likebefore it was like, yeah, speak
out, talk your truth, everythinglike that, But now I see the
benefit of not saying anything because it'sbeen said and other people are saying all

(48:50):
the things that I could say,right, you know, on Reddit,
people are you know, they're pointingout inconsistencies with the way that eight Predators
moves and the way that they attachthemselves to cases, and you know,
it seems like they're trying to makea living off of the voices for survivors

(49:12):
thing, and it's it's, yeah, it's obvious to a lot of people
that you know, there's ulterior motivesother than actually justice for survivors, which
is something that has been said attheir protests, but something that they don't
particularly involve themselves in. They don'tinvolve themselves in on the process of the

(49:36):
justice. They involve themselves on theexposing the drama of ooh, this happened
to me too, And I understandthere's a place for that narrative, but
when real people in this industry arebeing trafficked and raped and you know,
drugged, and you know, wehave real Harvey Weinstein's, we have real

(50:00):
stories of people, and you knowthis this movement Eat Predators comes about and
it's like one person who's always sayingthis happened to me too. And you
know, it's like, how comewe're just finding out that you know something
about this? Why wasn't it stated, you know, when you were talking

(50:22):
about the other person or you know, you were on net case. It
seems very strategic to when somebody comesout and speaks out about their abuse,
eat Predators comes along and they don'tgive the platform to the person. They
kind of just simply attach in thisparasocial way of like talking about the person

(50:45):
and their case without the person.And I don't know if that helps people.
I don't know if that's that's whatthe movement should be doing or if
it's healthy. And I can't speaktotally on my personal opinion on how they
might be doing this and what thereal motives are because I did research and

(51:07):
I found interests, political interests,monetary interests that I was exposing I was
talking about. You know, maybethere's those receipts out there. But there's
big name lawyers, there's big namelaw firms. There's people who benefit from
attaching themselves to famous people's survivor stories. And it seems to be that they

(51:35):
are using the predators as a wayto infiltrate certain movements and stiphon the fame
of it, the attention to puttowards their own agendas. And that's something
I found the year ago. That'ssomething I was already in the process of
exposing, but you know, Ihad written a journal about it, and

(51:58):
because of the lawsuit, I decided, you know, I feel like I
put out enough information. Everybody doyour own digging, everybody, you know,
I put all of the pieces together. I connected all them dots.
You know, there's an I foundall the information from open source you know,
investigation, meaning I googled, Iwent to the Internet. I looked

(52:19):
up some names. I looked upyou know, Alexa, Nicholas, and
blank, and I found everything thatI I know, you know, I
found everything that people should know thatI was talking about. And hopefully,
you know, somebody else does kindof pick up that torch and become more
vocal about this movement. But Ithink some people are scared, especially after

(52:44):
what happened with me. I thinkpeople are ready to speak out. And
I see people saying like, sheis a person that you can't talk bad
about, and it's ironic because Iliterally cannot talk bad about her. That
it's like wow, you know,And the thing is, I'm I'm agreeing

(53:04):
to this. I don't want herto talk bad about me, so I'm
not talking bad about her. AndI feel like that's cool. If you
don't have anything nice to say,don't say anything at all. It's a
rule I've always gone by that Ican easily abide by. However, I
see other people struggle with this,and you know, I'm not waiting for
the opportunity to, you know,sue her and say, ah, now

(53:27):
I can talk again. I'm reallyactually trying to make sure this doesn't happen
again to anybody. I don't wantanybody to be wrongly accused. I don't
want anybody to be you know,wrongly detained. I don't want anybody who's
speaking up and speaking out to betargeted because somebody else feels like you're overshadowing

(53:49):
their work and you're overpalling their voice. But they have a megaphone and you
you just have an instrument, youknow, like that's all you're doing,
and somehow you're an enemy to themovement. That doesn't make sense. That's
not right to me. So Ifelt just you know, coming back on
your your podcast would help reaffirm thefact that, yeah, you know,

(54:16):
I'm somebody who was wrongly accused,wrongly detained, and I personally got the
justice I wanted. I got whatI wanted out of it. You know,
I personally am not being accused nolonger and hopefully never again. You

(54:38):
know what I'm saying, And youknow I'm not. I would never somebody
who was that interested in Alexa Nicholas. You know, I can deny it
in ten different types of ways thatI was not stalking her, but you
know, anybody who really knows mewould No. I've never said this girl's

(54:59):
name ever in my life. I'venever looked her name up until it started
popping up on my screen and peoplewere telling me to go, you know,
snoop as a journalist and do mydue diligence and cover this story,
which I did. But now Ifeel like I did what I could do.
I don't want to touch it anymore. I don't want to tell this

(55:22):
story any longer because I'm being I'mbeing accused of doing things because I'm simply
trying to find information and I'm advocatingfor people who have been wronged. So
I will still do that. Iwill still dig, i will still advocate

(55:42):
for people, but I'm not overlyinvested in any one person, anyone movement,
And honestly, I'm trying to geton with my life to help the
other people that are really really strugglingand suffering from this sty of human trafficking,
grooming and a perpetuating abuse in theentertainment industry. That is my work,

(56:07):
and I might always be doing thatwork throughout my career. Good for
you. And I can also say, you know, like I saw,
like when you were playing violin,all that I saw that New Shift were
doing nothing wrong. Also, Icannot I've noticed for a long time that

(56:29):
predators Alexa do at catch their namesAlex in particular, Oh me two yeah,
happened to me too. And soeverything that you said like, oh
yeah, I've noticed not only haveI witnessed what happened to you, but
I've also noticed this for a longtime and I do believe. I don't

(56:52):
think believe where truth always comes tolight. I don't wish normal people.
I just want the truth to comeout, and that's all I would want.
I would only want people to speakthe truth and nothing but the truth.
And you know, I honestly it'snot my place to stay whether or
not certain people are lying about theirabuse or lying about you know. But

(57:15):
I do know that we have tovet people. We have to scrutinize people,
we have to scrutinize stories. Wehave to look at the evidence,
we have to double check, wehave to coroborate because this is due disligence.
This is what journalists do, thisis what lawyers do. But the

(57:40):
public, the general public, Iguess they don't have the accountability to do
that, right. They're not beingtold you must find all the evidence and
receipts before you make a judgment.Nope, you don't need no evidence,
no receipts to start judging people.And that makes it very easy for somebody
to come out and say this ishappening to me, and then other people

(58:02):
just jump on it and be like, oh, how dare they? Oh
my god, you know that isa tactic we have to be aware of
is being used to manipulate the publicand whether or not certain people are doing
it. You know that I've mentionedor whatever. I know it's being done,
and that means we should be morecautious and conscientious of jumping on every

(58:28):
single person that says me too.And I know we must believe survivors.
I am a survivor, and Ipersonally would love to be believed of the
harassment that I have experienced in thisindustry, and I would hate for somebody

(58:49):
to not be believed because somebody elseis clearly lying, and people are not
believing anybody anymore because every time somebodycomes out find out, oh, well
there's holes in their story, andyou know that, I feel like it
perpetuates the the abuse culture, theenabling culture, because now, oh,

(59:14):
if your favorite person is being accused, the first thing you can say is
like they're lying because your favorite personis now being accused, So you know
what happens. They're going to losetheir deals, They're going to lose these
opportunities, and you know, youdon't want to believe that it happened anyway.
So the people who we find outare lying make it that much easier

(59:37):
for real abusers to get away exactlyexactly so, And that's what I've been
saying too, because I'm a survivortoo, and I've also said it makes
it that much harder for real survivorsto be believed, and it ruins the
lives of people who didn't do it. And then when when you know all's

(01:00:00):
said and done, and you know, convictions get overturned or you know,
the evidence comes out, it's it'shard for the system to undo what it's
done. I find that, Butit's so easy for it to do it.
It's so easy to get a temporaryrestrainting order just by saying something happened.

(01:00:21):
But you know, when I've been, I've been, you know,
a victim of somebody actually trying tostab me. And I didn't have all
the evidence. I didn't have allof the because it was literally an incident
that I couldn't see coming and itjust happened and I didn't get stabbed.
And weirdly, because I had nophysical mark on my body that showed that

(01:00:45):
to the judge, well, there'snot enough evidence here to say he did
it. Now, that's telling me. Oh so, if I would have
gotten stabbed. Now I can actuallyget justice. That's not what the justice
system is for. It's not towait until somebody dies or somebody gets hurt.
You're supposed to prevent and mitigate whensomebody is doing toxic behavior, dangerous

(01:01:10):
behavior, you're supposed to get tothe bottom of it, and you're supposed
to do at least maybe rehabilitation,you know, have the person do some
community service. Like it was clearto the judge in my case of getting
almost stabbed that the other person wasn'tlying. There was obviously points where it's

(01:01:32):
like that doesn't make sense, Like, and the judge was talking to the
person like you realize, like whatyou say is under oath. Right,
when the judge has to remind somebodythey're under oath, it's a bad sign.
I'm like, because they're like,you're lying and I can tell,

(01:01:52):
and if you keep doing it,I'm going to hold you in contempt a
court. I'm going to put youin jail if you keep doing this.
And it's not even going to bea conviction on this case. It's just
the fact that you're lying in frontof my face. And that's you know,
when they started trying to like bea little bit more honest, but
they were still lying, and thejudge was shaking his head like I'm sorry,

(01:02:15):
I can't I can't do anything.My hands are tied because it's your
words against his. And if Iwould have at least had one witness,
you know, or at least onelittle cut on my body, I would
have been able to get the justice. And it's sad that, yeah,
I got to walk away, youknow, unharmed, but not completely.
I was put out of a homebecause of that. I had to move

(01:02:37):
out of where I was living,and I was then homeless for you know,
a month or two, you know, that displaced me. That really
just you know, it very muchhurt me, even though I wasn't physically
harmed, So there was no reconciliationfor that. I didn't you know,
wasn't able to get anything I askedfor. And then to see somebody who

(01:03:00):
can you know, just write it, write whatever, and then get somebody
else to say, yeah, yeah, that happened, but they weren't there,
and it's known they weren't there,but just because they just say yeah,
yeah, and you get three peopleto do that, you get three
people who testify and write statements thatyes, I saw it happen, but

(01:03:22):
don't have to prove you were there, don't have to do anything else.
It's a preponderance thing. It's amatter of giving enough evidence, not correct
evidence, not exactly their flaws inthis. And I you know, I
think there needs to be more workdone on the justice system to give juice,

(01:03:43):
you know, to everybody. Andthat's what your work is here to
do. You know, you arehere to seek justice for people who have
been wrongfully accused, wrongfully detained,wrongfully convicted, and you know, also
bring light in stories to people whoare wrongfully put under the death penalty,

(01:04:03):
wrongfully executed, you know, peoplewho they knew they didn't have enough evidence
to put them under that. Youknow, they knew that there was evidence
that could overturn. But the governorisn't looking at it. The governor hasn't
reviewed the case, or whoever isinfluential on the case isn't taking any more
information. They've made their decision,even though you know it's clear to the

(01:04:26):
people who collected that evidence, youknow, it's enough to overturn. And
then maybe years later, before theypulled the lever, you know, they
say, okay, let's take onemore look at it and then boom.
Now all those years of being injail, in prison, you know,
having their life taken away from them, being away from their families, not

(01:04:50):
being able to make money and havejobs and be a productive member of society
for doing nothing. They did nothingwrong, and people knew, people knew
they did nothing wrong. But maybesomebody, you know, lied in court,
Maybe the police were corrupt, maybethe whole court system just didn't allow

(01:05:12):
that person to win. And Isee it every day on your page.
Oh and one story I just wantto say touched my heart yesterday when I
saw was it Brendan the person?Yes, yeah, the person with autism.
You know, that really touched myheart because I have a friend who
has the same level of autism,who had, you know, freak out

(01:05:39):
moments in school, who you know, would lash out at teachers and stuff
because he was easily triggered by certainthings. And once he had to be
removed from a school because he gotinto this rage mode and he hurt somebody
and the kid. You know.But you know, as as somebody with

(01:06:01):
autism, your mind is always goingto be behind, like your mind is
always going to be developmentally different thanyour age. So just because you're eighteen
now doesn't mean that you're able tounderstand the consequences of what you what your
triggers are. You know, you'renot able to understand and perceived like you

(01:06:24):
you can't lash out anymore, likethis is your mental development, you know,
this is where you are mentally andare. Our healthcare system and our
school system, our education system isnot the infrastructure isn't there to help people
with these disabilities, and it's notupheld enough to give them the resources and

(01:06:48):
the help that they need so thatthese things don't happen. And then they
kind of just disregard the i EPs, They disregard all yeah, and you
know, they just throw them ina classroom with all the other kids.
It's like what do you expect?You know, it's like what do you

(01:07:09):
really expect? Or they just youknow, they treat them any type of
way because they're just like, oh, yeah, he's just one of the
slow kids, you know, andevery kid has their own thing. Every
kid. You know, you mightbe in the slow classes, but you
might have disabilities and handicaps that theteachers are not addressing because you're just in
there with all the other kids.You know, it's it's heartbreaking because I

(01:07:32):
had an IP too, and Ishare classes with the kids. You know,
it touches me. And I thinkthat story really highlights the harm of
wrongful convictions and how like people whothey can't possibly understand like what they're doing,
like somebody who, yes, hehurts somebody, We understand that.

(01:07:54):
It's not like we're saying it's okayto hurt people. It's not okay to
be hurt. We're not saying that. But it's also not okay to put
somebody who has clearly problems, mentalproblems, just putting them in there,
throwing them in the ring, andthen expecting them to be responsible for everything

(01:08:15):
that happens. It's not feasible.We can't do that. We have to
be responsible as a people, asystem, and a society for the individuals
that aren't up to speed, whodon't have the mental capabilities as us.
We need to find services, facilities, you know, workers and professionals that
can tend to these people and notsay, well, you know, we

(01:08:40):
don't have a doctor for that,or we don't have a teacher for that,
so you know, he's just goingto have to be in the other
class with the other kids, andthen you know, whatever happens happens,
and that's heartbreaking to me. Ohyeah, and the fact that you know
they work from the Plato contests andhe was even asked, do you know

(01:09:00):
what a plea deal is? Doyou understand me? Said no, they
still forced them to plead contest.It shows two that all of these systems
do work together. The justice system, the healthcare system, the education system,
all three of them could completely ruina life because they don't have the
resources, or somebody can't afford oneof them, you know, or because

(01:09:26):
they're overcrowded and there's too many peoplein one of those systems. One of
those systems failing fails all of usexactly. So oh, I felt like
that was a good talk. Ifelt like we really we really touched on
a lot of stuff. So doyou have any other questions for me?

(01:09:48):
Let me know and I'll answer.Okay, So I will yeah, close
that real quick. So thank youfor tuning in. And oh where can
we all find your music? Oh? Yeah, of course, so you
can once again google my name,Lappie Lapi on the beat all in a

(01:10:12):
word, you can find all ofmy new music, and you can also
follow me off Instagram at lappy Lapiis so savage. If you have more
questions about this, you know,don't be afraid to ask. I know,
I said, like, I'm notanswering everybody. If you asked me
a question that I can't answer,I'll just tell you I can't answer it,

(01:10:32):
But please respect that. Please respect. If I can't answer a question,
it's not because like I want tobe messy and I don't want to
say something. It's really just becauseI don't want to get sued and I
don't want to impede my chances tobe able to speak on other stories and
speak on other people and bring lightto this because yes, it's not done.

(01:10:55):
I know that, and there arestill things happening in that Eat Predators
movement that should be talked about.I can't be that person anymore. But
if somebody else wants to take it, you know, I'll help you.
I'll help you find evidence, I'llhelp you dig I'll help you, you
know. But I can't personally speakon it, and I just hope that

(01:11:17):
people can understand my positioning, youknow, And I understand it's not like
I don't want to. I wantto, I just can't. And I'll
be here to support your music.We all will. I'll definitely leave the
links below. And as I said, truth will always come to light.

(01:11:38):
We thank you for coming back on. You're welcome back on anytime. And
everyone keeps spreading the word. Sowme afraid it. The cat foodste not
heavy, light is kind and Caryyour baby. That a very nice bag.
Keep it close to your house,Oh love. The freshion is kind
of shrive you crazy because you rightup to the maness in the morning.

(01:12:02):
It's all kind of van It's don'tbe afraid of it. Be careful,
resides not every I ain't gonna guideyou. Yeah, when I blow up,
I'm gonna saw highlight Peter Pan inreal life, be living out my
dreams. Come waking up, persenta forest land whole wrist covering up in

(01:12:25):
ice dealership. Never asked the price,