December 15, 2025 • 40 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
It's the Opperman Report and now here is investigator.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Okay, welcome to the Opperman Report. I'm your host, private
investigator Ed Opperman. You can get a hold of me
at Opperman Investigations and Digital Forensic Consultant if you reach
out to me through my email Opperman Investigations at gmail
dot com. Our guest today is Alex Stern and he's
a friend of a guy who is currently incarcerated named
(00:31):
Dimitri or Rosemond. Now they've written a manuscript called Bias
Justice astonishing true story of a wrongful conviction, and that's
a Dimitri Roseman. You can find Dimitri roseveand on Instagram.
And we're gonna hear this whole story here from mister
Alex Stern.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Mister Stern, you're there, Yes, I am. Thank you for
having me.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
No, thank you so much. Man. So tell us before
we get into your story about your friend there at Dimitri,
tell us about yourself. Who is Alex Son.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
So I come from a Ukraine. We came here as
with my parents in nineteen eighty eight. I was sixteen,
So I like to say that I finished growing up
in the United States, because despite what sixteen year olds think,
I now understand that you're not an adult yet and
you're still be informed by your all surroundings. So here
(01:27):
since nineteen eighty eight, when I left it was still
Soviet Union, and now the part of Slovie Union that
I left from is Ukraine. I went to college here,
have had already two pome careers, and now in search
of the third one. And despite a little bit of
(01:50):
an accent that I'm sure you're here as Americanized an
immigrant as they come.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I've hardly noticed your accent at all. Thank you now
your friends to meet you. I know that he was.
He's considered the cigar king over there in Arizona. What
kind of businesses have you been in? Look at them occupations.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
So Dmity came here at about the same time that
I did, but unlike me, he came on his own
at eighteen, no parents, no supporial. When I met him,
he lived there on the corner from me, in the
most Russian peaking part of the United States, Brighton Beach
neighborhood in Brooklyn. He rented a room in an apartment,
(02:34):
left on a mattress on the floor. But he was
always very ambitious, and when I met him, he was
already working as a cold caller for Bear Serns trying
to break into the dugal business.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Just incredible, you know, you know you hear these stories man,
people like come from foreign countries, they hardadly know the language,
don't know anyone here, and they just get off that
plane man, just you know, rocking and rolling. Man, they
hit the ground running. You know, they put the Americans
born here. They put us to shame, really did h
And so you met him momentre in Brighton Beach air Booklyn. Now,
(03:13):
like you said, you know a lot of Russians over
there for sure, that's why.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Absolutely, yes, that's where we met. He was very poor,
as you can imagine. And uh he isn't the stament
budget for every day. He was just twenty five cents.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
He would play if he would play an arcade machine
that was in the nearby Russian Western Lobby. I played
his machine two and that's how we'll happen.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
What kind of machine.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
It was a game where you wore a police officer
chasing somebody in the car and you had to h
the club and stub them.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah, like a video game.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, it was. It was a you know for somebody
to team from Soviet Union, which didn't really have much
of anything like that.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
This was very exciting to be able to play games
like that.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So how did Dmitria become Because when you read about him,
he was like he ran the cigar guy, had a
cigar empire.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Right, Uh, he certainly did. So. Dmitri always believed in education,
so he went to college. He graduated with an antigrad
degree from UH State University of New York, the college
at Polk Vee, my alma mater as well, by the way,
(04:35):
uh and UH. After that he passed a series of
seven Exama became a stockbroker, and he worked as a
stockbroker for for a few years and then decided that
he needed to further his education and he applied and
got in uh to an NBA program at Parnell University.
(04:59):
And UH. As he was finishing that program, he got
an idea of his cigar business. An idea he got
is that the way very well described in the book. Uh,
he realized that there are these perfumes sold that say
(05:21):
that they're similar to famous confuss like like Theata. And
he realized, wait a minute, why couldn't I do this
thing with cigars that was his big idea, and he
put himself on a plane to Dominican Republic and found
himself a manufacturer. He could produced quality of cigars with
(05:44):
boot quality of tobacco and issue. The cigars were very
similar to some big brands, and he was selling them
as and he decided that he was going to sell
them as alternatives to their brands. And once he found
them any church Is started searching for a good place
to open up his first store. Uh. And he wanted
(06:06):
to be in in the States where there's a favorable
that environment for businesses. And that's how he ended up
in Arizona. Uh and uh, that's where he opened up
his first store, calls without therehouse and it's really too cold,
and led to multiple store openings in Arizona and pet.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
You know, I think I bought cigars from him, and
it's a smaller ton cigars back in the nineties and
the eighties. Uh, it's your warehouse. I remember that they
had a website Cigar Awarehouse.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And and like you.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Said, the thing with the perfume, that's very common too
for Russian immigrants to go into that perfume business. So
you see a lot of those in the I'm from
New York myself, and you see a lot of that
back in New York too, and in the malls and
stuff like that they set up, yeah store. Yeah, So
then what once you give us the story? And I
because he's in prison right now, man, is that And
he said he lost his least appeal, So why don't
(07:04):
you give us the official story of what the charges
are against him? What was he accused of?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
So he was accused for conspiring to murder his ex
wife because supposedly he was upset to the divorced settlement
that she got. Uh, that was the accusation. Uh and
uh the supposed higher killer was an employee of physics
(07:34):
for the other house. So that that that's the short of it. Uh.
The longer version is that diffimply his Levi Majar convinced
(07:55):
uh leet at that point already ex wife that Dmitri
had hired them to fold us. And the story was
then told to the cops, who organized a thing where
they put some reposing devices and Levi h and sent
(08:17):
them to talk to Dmitri and the police claimed that
that that repoising showed that Dmitry really did want to
hire him to kill his wife. But if you dive
deeper into the repoisings has showed no such thing. It's
(08:40):
barely audible. If most of it is just black. There's
just a few very short moments of actual video, had
actual video to you saying that they did. Yes, they did.
It was a little bit so it was in the
car for most of them. Nderstand, the reploiding device was
(09:03):
on Levi's keys, and he really couldn't hold it well
enough to have good video. So for the most of
the time you just hear a conversation, you don't really
see anything, uh, and then near the end for just
a few seconds to see the Met.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
So this is Levi and Majar. Now what is his
version of this story? That he was approached by the matrix?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Correct? His version is that he was approach save me
to uh and that Met wanted him to find someone
uh to murder his ex wife.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Okay, and then Levi went to the police or went
to the ex wife. What is his next step?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
My understanding is that first he went to his to
his ex wife and she is the one who went
to the police.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
And then these videos are from undercover police, so officers
talking directly to to Maitri or was it Levi?
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I don't believe with Levi the police officers with Levi
in the reporting devices.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
So they were both there, Levi and Roxen.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
No, No, it's just Levi uh and Dmitry War and
Dmitri Star Uh the officer and uh mind the saying
is a couple of his colleagues, War, a surveilled van,
closed lives.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Okay, A couple of questions. Then, what would Levi's motive
be to tip off the ex wife? Was he friendly
with the ex wife or did he have some kind
of case he was working off or was he an
informant in other cases?
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Uh? So the motive became quite apparent later he was
he had come then and he just wanted money. Uh.
And the reason we know that is because he came
to the ex wife. Her name is Yanna by the way. Yeah,
(11:01):
he came to Jana asking her to pay him one
hundred and seventy five thousand dollars, which was shortly after
Depi was directly In fact, Yanna was so taken aback
by this and scared enough that she went to the
police and told them about it.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
So Levi goes to Yana and says, hey, for one
hundred and seventy five thousand dollars, I'll make sure that
Dmitry goes to prison for hiring a murder.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
So we don't know exactly what was said, obviously, but
the motivation of money is becoming pretty clear when you
learn about this conversation that we have with Jana, that
she felt so unnerved by that she went to the police.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Okay, and then then the police I guess they confronted
Levi and got him to cooperate in this scheme to
record Dmitrian.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
So the hundred tenty five thousand dollars conversation took police
I already asked that too was arrested. So when he
came to Janna, I guess expecting to be paid for
the services to people of Ian. Again, this is all ciculation.
We'll know exactly where the diga comes from one hundred
(12:28):
five thousand dollars. We just know that he came to
her to ask for this money and made it very uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Because because when you read the news articles about this,
and it's very little written about it that has any detail,
it seems that the allegation is is that Demitry was
offering between five and fifty thousand to murder not just
his wife but also like his father in law, and
then he was going to take his kids out of
the country. Is there any evidence for any of that?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
The only evidence of death is Levi's board.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Gotcha so that to me? She did he have plane
tickets to leave the country or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
No, he did not. He did not. The persecution made
argument that he is in me and he can get
out of the country he wants to. But the reality
of it was he had a business to run. H
this was already after divorce was finalized. He already have
a girlfriend. He had no intentions of going anywhere. He
(13:33):
had the regular educations with his children, whom he adored.
So yeah, there was no there is no desire to
leave anywhere except for vacations.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
That's interesting you say that, because why would if his
motive for the ex wife was, Hey, she's costing me
too much money. So the solution is, well, let me
throw away my whole business and flee the country. Doesn't
seem like a very solution for a guy that seems
like a pretty uh savvy business person. You know, he
seems like a lot of bottom line numbers guy, right right.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Right, Yeah, it made no sense. The whole thing made
no sense.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well, then what was the what was the settlement in
the divorce that that could have been the motive for this?
Was she getting the entire business?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
No? No, I believe she was getting, if I'm not mistaken,
somewhere between four and five hundred thousand dollars as a settlement,
plus obviously child support for the kids. So yeah, the
settlement was I mean boots for her for sure, But
(14:46):
for Dmitri, yes, it was unpleasant, but it wasn't something
that was going to financially bake them in any way.
He was doing quite well for himself.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Then what do you think it was that would motivate
the police to target to Maitri and go to this extent,
because you know, you know, they get these kind of
reports all the time, especially during divorce. It's oh, when
he's starting to kill me, you get this kind of
you get that stuff all the time. What would cause
them to pull off an undercover operation with video and
all this kind of stuff?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
So my understanding is, and I don't remember the exact name,
but they were part of his unit that was created
to to work with like high profile crimes, and by
the time this case rolled around, the decision was made
(15:36):
ready to divan the unit. But I guess their motivation
was to show that they can do some good work.
Plus Ulvi, I think Wei convinced them that this is
actually happening, So that's why they rand that of sting operation,
(16:01):
so so they can report me to saying that he
wants somebody killed, which is not through. He never said that.
Levi events some kind of a code that proposes with
me to using to talk about it. But it was
not a code. It was actually exactly what they were
talking about, some renovations to the house.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
M Yeah, yeah, it seems like a police unit that
you described there that their previous arrests involved like Nazi
gangs and stuff like that. And there was one other
murder for a hire, but it seemed a lot more
a cut and drive than this one here. Now, what
about Dmitri though, Did he have any kind of criminal
background or anything that would cause him to have a
(16:45):
bad relationship with the local police.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
No, not at all. He did not have any final background.
He had no introductions with police as far as I know,
and I don't know if he has gotten a topic ticket. Uh,
so that I don't even know if he did, but
if he did, that would diction the police, Uh prior
(17:10):
to this.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Okay, so then what about when they arrested him. The
scant take us through the arrest. He first comes to
contact with police and did he confess was no?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
So Uh, he was spending the night with his girlfriend
in Victoria. Okay, this was the day after he met
with Levi, and there is a knot in the door. Uh,
And he opens up and it's the police and they're
(17:43):
telling him that something terrible happened, Uh, that his wife
and her family were murdered, and uh, it would like
him to come with them to talk to him. That's
how he became aware of this. H.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
So they were they were still playing along with the
with the whole con game. They told him that his
wife and his children were murdered.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
To see, I don't remember anything about children being sad,
And that's the only reason I didn't say it. But
Dmitry's whole take on this was that this was not true,
that somebody's making this up for some reason. So he
(18:29):
didn't really believe that at any time anybody was in
real villager. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
So then then I guess then he took the fifth
right away and waited for his attorney. But they did
you do anything?
Speaker 1 (18:44):
So he eventually asked for an attorney. Uh, but not
before talking to the cops for a little bit, okay,
and uhh yeah, and then he asked for an attorney.
I mean, I've seen the video recordings of the interrogation room,
(19:04):
which of course for reaching full interview room. How he
was sitting there waiting for somebody to come and talk
with him for a while and then to find the
common tellum and start talking to him about this. Uh.
And there is no h on the video, doesn't It
doesn't show anywhere that he asked for a lawyer specifically.
(19:27):
It just shows him sing, I'm trying to decided I
need a lawyer. He says that afterwards they arrested him
and that was the end of the apporidings.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Before he asked for an attorney. Did you make any
incriminating statements anything they use against the trial?
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Ah? So yes, he made statements that during the trial
were presented in incriminating life. But he never ever said
a you think look, yes, I hired somebody to kill
my swallow. He never did that. And like I said,
(20:08):
he didn't even believe that anything like that really happened.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Okay, but I'm guessing he did, probably did a mental
conversation with Levi and things like that. Is that what
it was?
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah? Probably? Uh you know, somebody is asked he do
kind of in a friendly way. Uh do you know Levi? Well,
of course he knows Levi's he hired le by that time.
Levi worked for him for two years.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
I do.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
What was it about?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
What was it about Levi that anyone would think if
he would have connections to hire hitman? Did he have
a background crime?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
He had some kind of Yes, he had some kind
of trouble that when he was younger. Not in Arizona,
I think, if I'm not mistaken, it's from Kentaki where
he had that trouble when he was younger. I'm kind
of a death five I understand.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
It's okay. So he gets arrested and they charge him,
and now what were the charges exactly perstinctly murder?
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Uh the charges were conspiracy to pick them that murder
from from what I understand. And I'm not a lawyer,
and uh, you know, I'm probably not going to use
the right words. But uh, they used the same statue
on him that they would use against the gang leaders
in the mafia bosses. Not what didn't actually do it,
(21:39):
but ordered it.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Did any money actually change hands into to get into
Levine's hands?
Speaker 1 (21:47):
So uh, MITI gave Levi five thousand dollars again thought
it was something something having to do with organizations to
house that supposedly worth uh slitting or something like that.
That's it. That's the only amount of money to change
times except, of course you know the VP by DPK checks.
(22:11):
I believe I work here, employee at the the gut
wall house.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Gotcha? Now, how much time is mister Dmitri? How much
time does he face right now?
Speaker 1 (22:22):
So the sentences twenty five to wife, Oh, he's been
in prison since early two thousand and nine, so she
still has quite a few years to go before seting
of the mast at the role.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah, now there's no he has no previous charges though
in the state of Arizona.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Okay, now so then okay they must have the first
Yeah is scoorshy? They really, you know, no previous charges,
you know, the first time offense. Now they must have
made him an offer to plead guilty and probably get
out like in eight ten years now, didn't they offer
something like that?
Speaker 1 (23:04):
So they had an offer on the table, yeah, that much.
I didn't know what. I don't know what it was
because Petrie very adamantly told the lawyer that he's innocent,
and he doesn't even want to hear what the offer
is because he's innocent. And before you even say something
(23:27):
that I think you were going to say, yes, I
think that was stupid to not even at least hear
the offer. Yeah, but this was a man who believed
in in in justice system and he believed that he
was innocent. He's they in coordible to them.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Yeah, yeah, okay. Now so he goes to trial. Okay,
he decides to go to trial. And you were telling
me off the air that there was some misbehavior with
the handling of scope tory evidence.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Is that what it was correct?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (24:05):
But it didn't come out during the first trial. He
didn't realize and again me not being a lawyer, I
don't remember exactly why that initial conviction returned, but the
the haadlant of evidence was not even known to him
at that time. But what we found out eventually is
(24:30):
that apparently, according to things. The rules all evidence must
be impounded at the end of shift. That never happened.
The police had the recorders with them for four months
(24:51):
without impounding them. One of the expert witnesses that testified
I believe it the second trial said that, you know,
in four months, a lot of things could have been
done to it. Uh that the video and order recordings
are not that difficult to manipulate change tweak.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
In fact, he used us the sentence that it would
be as easy as editing of words documents. And there
was a quote from an expert witness.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
What reason did did the prosecutor all these detectives give
for not inventory that that that performed?
Speaker 1 (25:35):
You know, they they continued to uh say that there's
no rules for impounding audience and unfortunately submits week he
didn't find those rules until after the second foul, by
which point obviously the second taliory that took place. And
(25:58):
they right they used that in in the appeal to
try to overturn the case, but it didn't. It didn't work.
The judge said that even though the gradi E violations
were there, it was not malicious or intentional and doesn't
(26:19):
wortant to be the feating of the conditions.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
But not even a reduction in the sentence to avoid
a second show. Nothing like that. No, yeah, okay. And
now since his conviction, then, okay, has anybody recanted their
story that made this? Levi came out and said, okay,
exaggerate or anything like.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
That, Nothing like that happened. I did find out just
recently that apparently Levi was recently in big trouble with
the law, something involving understandling of a dead body. Yeah,
I'll be honest with you. I haven't checked into it,
(27:05):
but uster said that somebody googled his name and something
like that came out.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
So then what about the Metri does does what happened
to the cigar business? Is that still running? Does he
have an income now or is he bankround?
Speaker 1 (27:20):
No, he has no income. After he was convictism imprisoned, Uh,
Yanna final a civil suit wanted to take control of
the business. Obviously, he couldn't do much to defend himself
against the suit from PRISM, and she got full control
of the business, uh, which by my understanding is doing
(27:43):
terrible or or doesn't even exist anymore soon understand So.
But but yeah, that's can that takeover. Bo plays that
that much was already incasing.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Gotcha, but now now I'm assuming he had a private attorney.
Did he have a private attorney of public defense?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Well, he had a private attorney. He was talking about
the criminal cases. Yes, he had private attorney for the
first gate. For the first trial, he hired and then
ended up firing two more private attorneys and realized that
(28:28):
although the popular wisdom on this is that you don't
represent yourself, that it was really the only choice for
him because no lawyer was taking this as seriously if
he wanted them to take it, and he didn't want
to push for answers to some really important questions that
(28:52):
needed an answer. So that's where he decided that he
was going to resolve himself. And that's what happened is
doing a final trial. He had avented himself.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah, but Alex, he got the first trial overturned because
he had an attorney, and why wouldn't he continue?
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Look, he hired so, so here's what happened. He had
the first attorney. The first attorney took the good day
game while being hired, uh, but then refused to employ
the strategy that he wanted him to employ. So Dmitri
had to fire him because he didn't think the strategy
(29:39):
that that lawyer wanted to employ would work. But in
the meantime, you know, he spent some money on the
layer lawyer, spent some time working on the case. Then
he found another lawyer and there was a similar result.
And then he was completely out of money, so he
couldn't hire and a journey anymore. You know, he uh
(30:03):
for the first trial, I mean, he didn't have access
to his business uh income the moment he got arrested.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
His first trial was paid by his father, who lives
in Moscow, and you know, of course quietly well off.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Then those two other attorneys, I believed his father financed
them as well. But then you know, the the well
went drive and there was no more money coming in
to pay for product attorney.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
And this is one of those things that I think,
UH is wronged with the justice system. That you know,
if you can't afford a big attorney, you're much less
likely to end up in prison. Uh. And here was
he treated to the third afforded good attorney for the
(30:58):
first for the first all the money ran out good.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Yeah, well that's very true. You know, you do get
better justice if you can afford. And it's but even
a public even public defenders though, man, and if in
a serious case like this and when you're facing twenty
five to life, they will work hard for you. You know,
I think it would have been better off with a
public defender in this case. Was he able to put
a plus he's sitting in prison, he's waiting, he's sitting
(31:25):
in jail and happily prepare for her for a trial
or a solo trial. Was he able to put on
a defense and call witnesses?
Speaker 1 (31:33):
And yes he was so. The last attorney who he
fired had the case. Br The judge didn't allow him
to completely step away and to serve in advisory role.
But Meetly was really running the show. Uh. He was
the one asking questions of witnesses, even opening goals and
(31:58):
business to jun was open. And he had a jury trial, correct?
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Were they both jury trials?
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yes? They were bold jury trials.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
And I know and some of them in the Little
Synoptis is sent over to me a back your book
called The Biased Justice Astonishing True Story of a Wrongful Conviction.
You mentioned about how the jury was like star struck
by this and they were just eating up the prosecutor.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Yes, but I would also say that the book is
not just a memoir. It's also a study on what
is wrong with the justice system and what can be
done to improve it. So due to took a broader
view of not just his jury and his trial, but
(32:44):
all jurism. All trials just just trot the police for
us the authority, because m you know, when you grow
up in a society, you were taught to try us
the authority and trust to their book. Mm hmm. So
(33:06):
his book goes a lot into that and quote many
other books written by people in academia to study physiology
and pathology. So he makes the argument that he has
the jury start drop in all cases, not just in history.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
So so then what kind of recommendations does he have
to improve the justices?
Speaker 1 (33:36):
You know, I am tempted to uh not say it
here uh and tell you and your listeners to write
the book once to get published. Uh, because that's that's
where he gives those recommendations. I can just say that
he looked at some other countries uh and pulled out
(33:59):
of there with felt would would improve the system of
justice in America.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Really, So, in his opinion, he thinks that he would
have kind of a better shake, a more fair shake
in Russia.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
No, not in Russia. When he says about the other countries,
is talking about the Western European countries that have a
different criminal justice system in the way the evidence get handled.
There is a bit different and more impartial. Got you?
Speaker 2 (34:33):
So then what is he looking to do? Now? He's
looking to draw attention to his case. But how can
people help out if they want to help him out?
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Well, for one thing, he would like more people to
hear about his story on shows What Yours? He is
hoping that that's going to help him get his book published,
which he would get the story out to even more people.
And at some point a I mean, he's hoping just
(35:01):
to think, like many people who are imprison that somebody
who can do something about it will do it because
now they know about to escape, so govern a pardon
for them. Yeah, that's that's his hope, and I I
(35:21):
can't blame him for having hope. I mean, what else
does he have going for him, even conserving a sentence
of twenty fast to life.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah, And remarkably, some of these inmates, you know, they're
very enthusiastic they're very positive in prison. They're running websites
and get all following the constantly email and calling me
every five but they'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
That get through to me.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
So I got a lot of energy while they're in there,
getting a lot of things done. Has he had any
problems while he's in there, any new charges, any new
kind of write ups while he's sitting there in prison. No.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
No, As far as I know, he's been a model prisoner.
He Uh my nunderstanding is that the prison to the
prison right now, it's like a model Prism prison. Uh,
which is like safer than other prison. Uh. Yeah, he
has he has no problems.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
So do you know what the name of the prison
he's in. It's not Arizona State and Florence, is it?
Speaker 1 (36:22):
No, it's not he He wasn't Florence a certain pace
it for for a while. No, this is mindus than
this is a private crison prison.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
We really how long was he in Florence for?
Speaker 1 (36:37):
I don't remember, honestly.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
That's a brutal prison, man. That is a brutal prison.
That is a one of the worst in the country.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
I know that there was a prison that he was
squnched from for his safety. So maybe that was the one.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Yeah, okay, all right, So what would you like to
leave us with and any kind of to sum up
this story here? What would you like doing to know?
Speaker 1 (37:06):
I would like the audience to know that my friend
is innocent, that this conviction was obtained using flawed and
temperthy with evidence. But still yet he still believes that
the systems can work for him in the end, and
(37:29):
she's hoping that people will buy his book once it's published,
listen to his story and shows what yours.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
And.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Go to his Instagram page and lead messages for him
that obviously he can't look at it himself, but I
can look at it him and let him know.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
But all avenues of appeal have been exhausted.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
All evidence of appeal have been a fell correct. It
started with appeal in in Arizona State Court. Uh then
went on to feederal court and the last request that
he really did send in even though he thought it
was not going to happen with the United States Supreme Court,
who of course refused to hear to take on the case,
(38:21):
which is what they do for mostly you know, obviously
don't makes be on a very small essentiship creatures both.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
To them, and was he filing these appeals process as well?
Speaker 1 (38:35):
I'm sorry he needed that.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Was he representing himself in the appeals?
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Correct?
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Yes he was?
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Uh he's uh oh look you uh I think you
mentioned an autemization before that.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Uh that music.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Seems to be a very smart man. Yeah, and he
is excepting his personal life, but well when it comes
to academics, right and business, he is very very smart.
Uh So I'm sure that that appeals were written as
well as any lawyer be convi them.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Okay, we got Alex Stern. The book is called Bias Justice,
Astonishing True Story of a Wrongful conviction. And our friend
there in prison now is a Dimitri rosamond r o
z E N M A N. You can find him
there on Instagram as well, and keep an out for
(39:36):
the book. The book's not published yet, but keeping up
for a Bias Justice, Astonishing true story of a wrongful conviction.
Mister Alex Stern, Thank you so much, good answer.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
M
It's the Opperman Report and now here is investigator.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Okay, welcome to the Opperman Report. I'm your host, private
investigator Ed Opperman. You can get a hold of me
at Opperman Investigations and Digital Forensic Consultant if you reach
out to me through my email Opperman Investigations at gmail
dot com. Our guest today is Alex Stern and he's
a friend of a guy who is currently incarcerated named
(00:31):
Dimitri or Rosemond. Now they've written a manuscript called Bias
Justice astonishing true story of a wrongful conviction, and that's
a Dimitri Roseman. You can find Dimitri roseveand on Instagram.
And we're gonna hear this whole story here from mister
Alex Stern.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Mister Stern, you're there, Yes, I am. Thank you for
having me.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
No, thank you so much. Man. So tell us before
we get into your story about your friend there at Dimitri,
tell us about yourself. Who is Alex Son.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
So I come from a Ukraine. We came here as
with my parents in nineteen eighty eight. I was sixteen,
So I like to say that I finished growing up
in the United States, because despite what sixteen year olds think,
I now understand that you're not an adult yet and
you're still be informed by your all surroundings. So here
(01:27):
since nineteen eighty eight, when I left it was still
Soviet Union, and now the part of Slovie Union that
I left from is Ukraine. I went to college here,
have had already two pome careers, and now in search
of the third one. And despite a little bit of
(01:50):
an accent that I'm sure you're here as Americanized an
immigrant as they come.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I've hardly noticed your accent at all. Thank you now
your friends to meet you. I know that he was.
He's considered the cigar king over there in Arizona. What
kind of businesses have you been in? Look at them occupations.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
So Dmity came here at about the same time that
I did, but unlike me, he came on his own
at eighteen, no parents, no supporial. When I met him,
he lived there on the corner from me, in the
most Russian peaking part of the United States, Brighton Beach
neighborhood in Brooklyn. He rented a room in an apartment,
(02:34):
left on a mattress on the floor. But he was
always very ambitious, and when I met him, he was
already working as a cold caller for Bear Serns trying
to break into the dugal business.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Just incredible, you know, you know you hear these stories man,
people like come from foreign countries, they hardadly know the language,
don't know anyone here, and they just get off that
plane man, just you know, rocking and rolling. Man, they
hit the ground running. You know, they put the Americans
born here. They put us to shame, really did h
And so you met him momentre in Brighton Beach air Booklyn. Now,
(03:13):
like you said, you know a lot of Russians over
there for sure, that's why.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Absolutely, yes, that's where we met. He was very poor,
as you can imagine. And uh he isn't the stament
budget for every day. He was just twenty five cents.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
He would play if he would play an arcade machine
that was in the nearby Russian Western Lobby. I played
his machine two and that's how we'll happen.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
What kind of machine.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
It was a game where you wore a police officer
chasing somebody in the car and you had to h
the club and stub them.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah, like a video game.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, it was. It was a you know for somebody
to team from Soviet Union, which didn't really have much
of anything like that.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
This was very exciting to be able to play games
like that.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So how did Dmitria become Because when you read about him,
he was like he ran the cigar guy, had a
cigar empire.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Right, Uh, he certainly did. So. Dmitri always believed in education,
so he went to college. He graduated with an antigrad
degree from UH State University of New York, the college
at Polk Vee, my alma mater as well, by the way,
(04:35):
uh and UH. After that he passed a series of
seven Exama became a stockbroker, and he worked as a
stockbroker for for a few years and then decided that
he needed to further his education and he applied and
got in uh to an NBA program at Parnell University.
(04:59):
And UH. As he was finishing that program, he got
an idea of his cigar business. An idea he got
is that the way very well described in the book. Uh,
he realized that there are these perfumes sold that say
(05:21):
that they're similar to famous confuss like like Theata. And
he realized, wait a minute, why couldn't I do this
thing with cigars that was his big idea, and he
put himself on a plane to Dominican Republic and found
himself a manufacturer. He could produced quality of cigars with
(05:44):
boot quality of tobacco and issue. The cigars were very
similar to some big brands, and he was selling them
as and he decided that he was going to sell
them as alternatives to their brands. And once he found
them any church Is started searching for a good place
to open up his first store. Uh. And he wanted
(06:06):
to be in in the States where there's a favorable
that environment for businesses. And that's how he ended up
in Arizona. Uh and uh, that's where he opened up
his first store, calls without therehouse and it's really too cold,
and led to multiple store openings in Arizona and pet.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
You know, I think I bought cigars from him, and
it's a smaller ton cigars back in the nineties and
the eighties. Uh, it's your warehouse. I remember that they
had a website Cigar Awarehouse.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And and like you.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Said, the thing with the perfume, that's very common too
for Russian immigrants to go into that perfume business. So
you see a lot of those in the I'm from
New York myself, and you see a lot of that
back in New York too, and in the malls and
stuff like that they set up, yeah store. Yeah, So
then what once you give us the story? And I
because he's in prison right now, man, is that And
he said he lost his least appeal, So why don't
(07:04):
you give us the official story of what the charges
are against him? What was he accused of?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
So he was accused for conspiring to murder his ex
wife because supposedly he was upset to the divorced settlement
that she got. Uh, that was the accusation. Uh and
uh the supposed higher killer was an employee of physics
(07:34):
for the other house. So that that that's the short of it. Uh.
The longer version is that diffimply his Levi Majar convinced
(07:55):
uh leet at that point already ex wife that Dmitri
had hired them to fold us. And the story was
then told to the cops, who organized a thing where
they put some reposing devices and Levi h and sent
(08:17):
them to talk to Dmitri and the police claimed that
that that repoising showed that Dmitry really did want to
hire him to kill his wife. But if you dive
deeper into the repoisings has showed no such thing. It's
(08:40):
barely audible. If most of it is just black. There's
just a few very short moments of actual video, had
actual video to you saying that they did. Yes, they did.
It was a little bit so it was in the
car for most of them. Nderstand, the reploiding device was
(09:03):
on Levi's keys, and he really couldn't hold it well
enough to have good video. So for the most of
the time you just hear a conversation, you don't really
see anything, uh, and then near the end for just
a few seconds to see the Met.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
So this is Levi and Majar. Now what is his
version of this story? That he was approached by the matrix?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Correct? His version is that he was approach save me
to uh and that Met wanted him to find someone
uh to murder his ex wife.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Okay, and then Levi went to the police or went
to the ex wife. What is his next step?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
My understanding is that first he went to his to
his ex wife and she is the one who went
to the police.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
And then these videos are from undercover police, so officers
talking directly to to Maitri or was it Levi?
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I don't believe with Levi the police officers with Levi
in the reporting devices.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
So they were both there, Levi and Roxen.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
No, No, it's just Levi uh and Dmitry War and
Dmitri Star Uh the officer and uh mind the saying
is a couple of his colleagues, War, a surveilled van,
closed lives.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Okay, A couple of questions. Then, what would Levi's motive
be to tip off the ex wife? Was he friendly
with the ex wife or did he have some kind
of case he was working off or was he an
informant in other cases?
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Uh? So the motive became quite apparent later he was
he had come then and he just wanted money. Uh.
And the reason we know that is because he came
to the ex wife. Her name is Yanna by the way. Yeah,
(11:01):
he came to Jana asking her to pay him one
hundred and seventy five thousand dollars, which was shortly after
Depi was directly In fact, Yanna was so taken aback
by this and scared enough that she went to the
police and told them about it.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
So Levi goes to Yana and says, hey, for one
hundred and seventy five thousand dollars, I'll make sure that
Dmitry goes to prison for hiring a murder.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
So we don't know exactly what was said, obviously, but
the motivation of money is becoming pretty clear when you
learn about this conversation that we have with Jana, that
she felt so unnerved by that she went to the police.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Okay, and then then the police I guess they confronted
Levi and got him to cooperate in this scheme to
record Dmitrian.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
So the hundred tenty five thousand dollars conversation took police
I already asked that too was arrested. So when he
came to Janna, I guess expecting to be paid for
the services to people of Ian. Again, this is all ciculation.
We'll know exactly where the diga comes from one hundred
(12:28):
five thousand dollars. We just know that he came to
her to ask for this money and made it very uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Because because when you read the news articles about this,
and it's very little written about it that has any detail,
it seems that the allegation is is that Demitry was
offering between five and fifty thousand to murder not just
his wife but also like his father in law, and
then he was going to take his kids out of
the country. Is there any evidence for any of that?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
The only evidence of death is Levi's board.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Gotcha so that to me? She did he have plane
tickets to leave the country or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
No, he did not. He did not. The persecution made
argument that he is in me and he can get
out of the country he wants to. But the reality
of it was he had a business to run. H
this was already after divorce was finalized. He already have
a girlfriend. He had no intentions of going anywhere. He
(13:33):
had the regular educations with his children, whom he adored.
So yeah, there was no there is no desire to
leave anywhere except for vacations.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
That's interesting you say that, because why would if his
motive for the ex wife was, Hey, she's costing me
too much money. So the solution is, well, let me
throw away my whole business and flee the country. Doesn't
seem like a very solution for a guy that seems
like a pretty uh savvy business person. You know, he
seems like a lot of bottom line numbers guy, right right.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Right, Yeah, it made no sense. The whole thing made
no sense.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well, then what was the what was the settlement in
the divorce that that could have been the motive for this?
Was she getting the entire business?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
No? No, I believe she was getting, if I'm not mistaken,
somewhere between four and five hundred thousand dollars as a settlement,
plus obviously child support for the kids. So yeah, the
settlement was I mean boots for her for sure, But
(14:46):
for Dmitri, yes, it was unpleasant, but it wasn't something
that was going to financially bake them in any way.
He was doing quite well for himself.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Then what do you think it was that would motivate
the police to target to Maitri and go to this extent,
because you know, you know, they get these kind of
reports all the time, especially during divorce. It's oh, when
he's starting to kill me, you get this kind of
you get that stuff all the time. What would cause
them to pull off an undercover operation with video and
all this kind of stuff?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
So my understanding is, and I don't remember the exact name,
but they were part of his unit that was created
to to work with like high profile crimes, and by
the time this case rolled around, the decision was made
(15:36):
ready to divan the unit. But I guess their motivation
was to show that they can do some good work.
Plus Ulvi, I think Wei convinced them that this is
actually happening, So that's why they rand that of sting operation,
(16:01):
so so they can report me to saying that he
wants somebody killed, which is not through. He never said that.
Levi events some kind of a code that proposes with
me to using to talk about it. But it was
not a code. It was actually exactly what they were
talking about, some renovations to the house.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
M Yeah, yeah, it seems like a police unit that
you described there that their previous arrests involved like Nazi
gangs and stuff like that. And there was one other
murder for a hire, but it seemed a lot more
a cut and drive than this one here. Now, what
about Dmitri though, Did he have any kind of criminal
background or anything that would cause him to have a
(16:45):
bad relationship with the local police.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
No, not at all. He did not have any final background.
He had no introductions with police as far as I know,
and I don't know if he has gotten a topic ticket. Uh,
so that I don't even know if he did, but
if he did, that would diction the police, Uh prior
(17:10):
to this.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Okay, so then what about when they arrested him. The
scant take us through the arrest. He first comes to
contact with police and did he confess was no?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
So Uh, he was spending the night with his girlfriend
in Victoria. Okay, this was the day after he met
with Levi, and there is a knot in the door. Uh,
And he opens up and it's the police and they're
(17:43):
telling him that something terrible happened, Uh, that his wife
and her family were murdered, and uh, it would like
him to come with them to talk to him. That's
how he became aware of this. H.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
So they were they were still playing along with the
with the whole con game. They told him that his
wife and his children were murdered.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
To see, I don't remember anything about children being sad,
And that's the only reason I didn't say it. But
Dmitry's whole take on this was that this was not true,
that somebody's making this up for some reason. So he
(18:29):
didn't really believe that at any time anybody was in
real villager. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
So then then I guess then he took the fifth
right away and waited for his attorney. But they did
you do anything?
Speaker 1 (18:44):
So he eventually asked for an attorney. Uh, but not
before talking to the cops for a little bit, okay,
and uhh yeah, and then he asked for an attorney.
I mean, I've seen the video recordings of the interrogation room,
(19:04):
which of course for reaching full interview room. How he
was sitting there waiting for somebody to come and talk
with him for a while and then to find the
common tellum and start talking to him about this. Uh.
And there is no h on the video, doesn't It
doesn't show anywhere that he asked for a lawyer specifically.
(19:27):
It just shows him sing, I'm trying to decided I
need a lawyer. He says that afterwards they arrested him
and that was the end of the apporidings.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Before he asked for an attorney. Did you make any
incriminating statements anything they use against the trial?
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Ah? So yes, he made statements that during the trial
were presented in incriminating life. But he never ever said
a you think look, yes, I hired somebody to kill
my swallow. He never did that. And like I said,
(20:08):
he didn't even believe that anything like that really happened.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Okay, but I'm guessing he did, probably did a mental
conversation with Levi and things like that. Is that what
it was?
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah? Probably? Uh you know, somebody is asked he do
kind of in a friendly way. Uh do you know Levi? Well,
of course he knows Levi's he hired le by that time.
Levi worked for him for two years.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
I do.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
What was it about?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
What was it about Levi that anyone would think if
he would have connections to hire hitman? Did he have
a background crime?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
He had some kind of Yes, he had some kind
of trouble that when he was younger. Not in Arizona,
I think, if I'm not mistaken, it's from Kentaki where
he had that trouble when he was younger. I'm kind
of a death five I understand.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
It's okay. So he gets arrested and they charge him,
and now what were the charges exactly perstinctly murder?
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Uh the charges were conspiracy to pick them that murder
from from what I understand. And I'm not a lawyer,
and uh, you know, I'm probably not going to use
the right words. But uh, they used the same statue
on him that they would use against the gang leaders
in the mafia bosses. Not what didn't actually do it,
(21:39):
but ordered it.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Did any money actually change hands into to get into
Levine's hands?
Speaker 1 (21:47):
So uh, MITI gave Levi five thousand dollars again thought
it was something something having to do with organizations to
house that supposedly worth uh slitting or something like that.
That's it. That's the only amount of money to change
times except, of course you know the VP by DPK checks.
(22:11):
I believe I work here, employee at the the gut
wall house.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Gotcha? Now, how much time is mister Dmitri? How much
time does he face right now?
Speaker 1 (22:22):
So the sentences twenty five to wife, Oh, he's been
in prison since early two thousand and nine, so she
still has quite a few years to go before seting
of the mast at the role.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah, now there's no he has no previous charges though
in the state of Arizona.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Okay, now so then okay they must have the first
Yeah is scoorshy? They really, you know, no previous charges,
you know, the first time offense. Now they must have
made him an offer to plead guilty and probably get
out like in eight ten years now, didn't they offer
something like that?
Speaker 1 (23:04):
So they had an offer on the table, yeah, that much.
I didn't know what. I don't know what it was
because Petrie very adamantly told the lawyer that he's innocent,
and he doesn't even want to hear what the offer
is because he's innocent. And before you even say something
(23:27):
that I think you were going to say, yes, I
think that was stupid to not even at least hear
the offer. Yeah, but this was a man who believed
in in in justice system and he believed that he
was innocent. He's they in coordible to them.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Yeah, yeah, okay. Now so he goes to trial. Okay,
he decides to go to trial. And you were telling
me off the air that there was some misbehavior with
the handling of scope tory evidence.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Is that what it was correct?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (24:05):
But it didn't come out during the first trial. He
didn't realize and again me not being a lawyer, I
don't remember exactly why that initial conviction returned, but the
the haadlant of evidence was not even known to him
at that time. But what we found out eventually is
(24:30):
that apparently, according to things. The rules all evidence must
be impounded at the end of shift. That never happened.
The police had the recorders with them for four months
(24:51):
without impounding them. One of the expert witnesses that testified
I believe it the second trial said that, you know,
in four months, a lot of things could have been
done to it. Uh that the video and order recordings
are not that difficult to manipulate change tweak.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
In fact, he used us the sentence that it would
be as easy as editing of words documents. And there
was a quote from an expert witness.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
What reason did did the prosecutor all these detectives give
for not inventory that that that performed?
Speaker 1 (25:35):
You know, they they continued to uh say that there's
no rules for impounding audience and unfortunately submits week he
didn't find those rules until after the second foul, by
which point obviously the second taliory that took place. And
(25:58):
they right they used that in in the appeal to
try to overturn the case, but it didn't. It didn't work.
The judge said that even though the gradi E violations
were there, it was not malicious or intentional and doesn't
(26:19):
wortant to be the feating of the conditions.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
But not even a reduction in the sentence to avoid
a second show. Nothing like that. No, yeah, okay. And
now since his conviction, then, okay, has anybody recanted their
story that made this? Levi came out and said, okay,
exaggerate or anything like.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
That, Nothing like that happened. I did find out just
recently that apparently Levi was recently in big trouble with
the law, something involving understandling of a dead body. Yeah,
I'll be honest with you. I haven't checked into it,
(27:05):
but uster said that somebody googled his name and something
like that came out.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
So then what about the Metri does does what happened
to the cigar business? Is that still running? Does he
have an income now or is he bankround?
Speaker 1 (27:20):
No, he has no income. After he was convictism imprisoned, Uh,
Yanna final a civil suit wanted to take control of
the business. Obviously, he couldn't do much to defend himself
against the suit from PRISM, and she got full control
of the business, uh, which by my understanding is doing
(27:43):
terrible or or doesn't even exist anymore soon understand So.
But but yeah, that's can that takeover. Bo plays that
that much was already incasing.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Gotcha, but now now I'm assuming he had a private attorney.
Did he have a private attorney of public defense?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Well, he had a private attorney. He was talking about
the criminal cases. Yes, he had private attorney for the
first gate. For the first trial, he hired and then
ended up firing two more private attorneys and realized that
(28:28):
although the popular wisdom on this is that you don't
represent yourself, that it was really the only choice for
him because no lawyer was taking this as seriously if
he wanted them to take it, and he didn't want
to push for answers to some really important questions that
(28:52):
needed an answer. So that's where he decided that he
was going to resolve himself. And that's what happened is
doing a final trial. He had avented himself.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah, but Alex, he got the first trial overturned because
he had an attorney, and why wouldn't he continue?
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Look, he hired so, so here's what happened. He had
the first attorney. The first attorney took the good day
game while being hired, uh, but then refused to employ
the strategy that he wanted him to employ. So Dmitri
had to fire him because he didn't think the strategy
(29:39):
that that lawyer wanted to employ would work. But in
the meantime, you know, he spent some money on the
layer lawyer, spent some time working on the case. Then
he found another lawyer and there was a similar result.
And then he was completely out of money, so he
couldn't hire and a journey anymore. You know, he uh
(30:03):
for the first trial, I mean, he didn't have access
to his business uh income the moment he got arrested.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
His first trial was paid by his father, who lives
in Moscow, and you know, of course quietly well off.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Then those two other attorneys, I believed his father financed
them as well. But then you know, the the well
went drive and there was no more money coming in
to pay for product attorney.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
And this is one of those things that I think,
UH is wronged with the justice system. That you know,
if you can't afford a big attorney, you're much less
likely to end up in prison. Uh. And here was
he treated to the third afforded good attorney for the
(30:58):
first for the first all the money ran out good.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Yeah, well that's very true. You know, you do get
better justice if you can afford. And it's but even
a public even public defenders though, man, and if in
a serious case like this and when you're facing twenty
five to life, they will work hard for you. You know,
I think it would have been better off with a
public defender in this case. Was he able to put
a plus he's sitting in prison, he's waiting, he's sitting
(31:25):
in jail and happily prepare for her for a trial
or a solo trial. Was he able to put on
a defense and call witnesses?
Speaker 1 (31:33):
And yes he was so. The last attorney who he
fired had the case. Br The judge didn't allow him
to completely step away and to serve in advisory role.
But Meetly was really running the show. Uh. He was
the one asking questions of witnesses, even opening goals and
(31:58):
business to jun was open. And he had a jury trial, correct?
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Were they both jury trials?
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yes? They were bold jury trials.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
And I know and some of them in the Little
Synoptis is sent over to me a back your book
called The Biased Justice Astonishing True Story of a Wrongful Conviction.
You mentioned about how the jury was like star struck
by this and they were just eating up the prosecutor.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Yes, but I would also say that the book is
not just a memoir. It's also a study on what
is wrong with the justice system and what can be
done to improve it. So due to took a broader
view of not just his jury and his trial, but
(32:44):
all jurism. All trials just just trot the police for
us the authority, because m you know, when you grow
up in a society, you were taught to try us
the authority and trust to their book. Mm hmm. So
(33:06):
his book goes a lot into that and quote many
other books written by people in academia to study physiology
and pathology. So he makes the argument that he has
the jury start drop in all cases, not just in history.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
So so then what kind of recommendations does he have
to improve the justices?
Speaker 1 (33:36):
You know, I am tempted to uh not say it
here uh and tell you and your listeners to write
the book once to get published. Uh, because that's that's
where he gives those recommendations. I can just say that
he looked at some other countries uh and pulled out
(33:59):
of there with felt would would improve the system of
justice in America.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Really, So, in his opinion, he thinks that he would
have kind of a better shake, a more fair shake
in Russia.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
No, not in Russia. When he says about the other countries,
is talking about the Western European countries that have a
different criminal justice system in the way the evidence get handled.
There is a bit different and more impartial. Got you?
Speaker 2 (34:33):
So then what is he looking to do? Now? He's
looking to draw attention to his case. But how can
people help out if they want to help him out?
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Well, for one thing, he would like more people to
hear about his story on shows What Yours? He is
hoping that that's going to help him get his book published,
which he would get the story out to even more people.
And at some point a I mean, he's hoping just
(35:01):
to think, like many people who are imprison that somebody
who can do something about it will do it because
now they know about to escape, so govern a pardon
for them. Yeah, that's that's his hope, and I I
(35:21):
can't blame him for having hope. I mean, what else
does he have going for him, even conserving a sentence
of twenty fast to life.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah, And remarkably, some of these inmates, you know, they're
very enthusiastic they're very positive in prison. They're running websites
and get all following the constantly email and calling me
every five but they'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
That get through to me.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
So I got a lot of energy while they're in there,
getting a lot of things done. Has he had any
problems while he's in there, any new charges, any new
kind of write ups while he's sitting there in prison. No.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
No, As far as I know, he's been a model prisoner.
He Uh my nunderstanding is that the prison to the
prison right now, it's like a model Prism prison. Uh,
which is like safer than other prison. Uh. Yeah, he
has he has no problems.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
So do you know what the name of the prison
he's in. It's not Arizona State and Florence, is it?
Speaker 1 (36:22):
No, it's not he He wasn't Florence a certain pace
it for for a while. No, this is mindus than
this is a private crison prison.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
We really how long was he in Florence for?
Speaker 1 (36:37):
I don't remember, honestly.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
That's a brutal prison, man. That is a brutal prison.
That is a one of the worst in the country.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
I know that there was a prison that he was
squnched from for his safety. So maybe that was the one.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Yeah, okay, all right, So what would you like to
leave us with and any kind of to sum up
this story here? What would you like doing to know?
Speaker 1 (37:06):
I would like the audience to know that my friend
is innocent, that this conviction was obtained using flawed and
temperthy with evidence. But still yet he still believes that
the systems can work for him in the end, and
(37:29):
she's hoping that people will buy his book once it's published,
listen to his story and shows what yours.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
And.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Go to his Instagram page and lead messages for him
that obviously he can't look at it himself, but I
can look at it him and let him know.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
But all avenues of appeal have been exhausted.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
All evidence of appeal have been a fell correct. It
started with appeal in in Arizona State Court. Uh then
went on to feederal court and the last request that
he really did send in even though he thought it
was not going to happen with the United States Supreme Court,
who of course refused to hear to take on the case,
(38:21):
which is what they do for mostly you know, obviously
don't makes be on a very small essentiship creatures both.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
To them, and was he filing these appeals process as well?
Speaker 1 (38:35):
I'm sorry he needed that.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Was he representing himself in the appeals?
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Correct?
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Yes he was?
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Uh he's uh oh look you uh I think you
mentioned an autemization before that.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Uh that music.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Seems to be a very smart man. Yeah, and he
is excepting his personal life, but well when it comes
to academics, right and business, he is very very smart.
Uh So I'm sure that that appeals were written as
well as any lawyer be convi them.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Okay, we got Alex Stern. The book is called Bias Justice,
Astonishing True Story of a Wrongful conviction. And our friend
there in prison now is a Dimitri rosamond r o
z E N M A N. You can find him
there on Instagram as well, and keep an out for
(39:36):
the book. The book's not published yet, but keeping up
for a Bias Justice, Astonishing true story of a wrongful conviction.
Mister Alex Stern, Thank you so much, good answer.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
M
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