Falsely Accused - The Heart Breaking Story of Brian Banks

28:05And they are forcing me out of my bedroom, down the stairs and out of the house into a police car. And I remember as I'm leaving my room, my mom's room was just a J like just down the hallway upstairs from mine. You come out of my door, her door is facing my door, bathroom, closet, her door. And to this day, man, I've never seen something that really affected me more than this was my mom dropping to the ground on both of her knees and screaming at the top of her lungs, just in pain, just saying no and why. and, you know, please don't take my baby and what's going on and you can't do this. I mean, she's screaming and crying and I'm being pushed and let out of the house.

28:58And they throw me into the back of this police car and I'm a big kid. The police cars are super small, super tight. And they throw me in with the cuffs behind my back. and

29:13on a small note I remember these two kids were playing out in the front yard a few houses away and once they slammed the door and walked away these two kids were looking to see what was going on and then they probably like 8, 9 year olds they walk up to the police car and they kind of put their hands on the glass and they look through and here I am handcuffed and sweating and I don't know why I remember that so much. It just felt like I was a fish in a fishbowl, and all of a sudden I was no longer a part of the real world. And I had these kids staring me down. Anyways, the police eventually get into the car, two guys, one driver, one passenger, and they begin driving off.

29:59Now, mind you, I hadn't been told what was going on yet. I didn't know what was going on yet. It wasn't until we started driving off, if we probably got to the freeway, heading back to Long Beach, that I finally speak. I'm like, hey, yo, what's going on? Can y 'all at least tell me what's going on? Passenger cop kind of looks back halfway and he's like, yeah, man, you've been accused of rape. Said you raped some girl on your campus.

30:28Man, I had nothing else to say from that. And I, it, it, just hearing that, uh, uh, it's just, uh, I mean, what do you say? You know, obviously I, I didn't do it, but to just be in handcuffs, uh, to be taken the way that I was taken, um, and then to be told that that's why I was took. it just put me in, I think I was in shock, like a little bit of shock, you know, and I just sat there in the back of the car and they drove me to a hospital to perform a rape kit. The most invasive thing to this day I've ever experienced in my life. I've been to prison, I've done strip searches, I've done cavity searches, I've done all of it.

31:21I've never experienced something more demoralizing, more humiliating in my life. You know, they lay you on a hospital bed. They start pulling your pubic hairs off of you so they can collect samples. They're scraping skin off a certain, you know, doing skin scrapes off of certain parts of your body. They're drawing blood. They're taking fingerprints. They're taking pictures. You know, and it, I mean, this is just all happening. You know, it's just all happening. And when they finally finished doing that, My detective came in right away in the same same room sat me down and He played good cop with me.

32:02I was 16 and he said look man, I know you I know you do no mess like this I know you you play football. You're a good guy. Just tell me what happened Just tell me everything and I promise you we will figure this out. Just we just need to know what happened and so I told him every single thing that happened and That was enough to make a case. And when you're dealing with a rape case or a sexual assault case, as long as you say that you were in the area that the crime was supposedly committed and you were there, that's enough for you to be sent to court. So I told them everything me and this girl made out, everything I told you.

32:46And they said, all right, cool. Everything should be fine. You should be good. Let me go back, talk to some people, and we'll figure this out. they took me from the police from the hospital to a police precinct and I was in a they put me in a holding cell one hour turned into two hours two hours to three three to four four to six I'm in this tank and I'm you know I'm freaking losing I'm crying I'm stressing I'm wondering what's going on but then at the end of my in my mind I'm also building this confidence of man they're gonna figure this shit out this is this is some bullshit I know they're gonna figure this out and after about six or seven hours police came and they said look man we still going over this we ain't figured it out yet so we're gonna take you over to the local juvenile hall and you'll be there for probably a day or two until we figure this out I see you Avatar Fire and Ash is now streaming on Disney Plus it's the film critics are calling the best Avatar yet a true epic and completely jaw-dropping.

33:52This is the only purest thing in this world. Return to Pandora on Disney+. It will be an adventure for the whole family. And watch the Oscar-winning phenomenon at home. This is sick! Avatar Fire and Ash, now streaming on Disney+. Rated PG-13. And we're back. Streaming on Peacock. May I present to you the award-winning staff of the Toledo Truth Teller. Slap me. Let's jar something loose. Ay, yes! I like that. The certified fresh series returns. Your boss, you always like this? Or is this just an act? Oh no, this is mad. Oysters, everybody! You have to have my heart. There's a certain satisfaction when you work with someone.

34:31Maybe we could be a family. You sadistic pig! The Paper. New season streaming September 9th, only on Peacock. This show gives me a reason to live. And that was the beginning of incarceration for me, man. They took me to Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in the city of Downey. and I got there probably like two, three in the morning. They couldn't put me in a cell yet. Everybody was asleep. So they put me in this day room. They gave me this makeshift bed that looks like a little raft, like a boat raft. They put a little mat inside of it and they slept me. I slept on the floor the first night. I didn't even sleep.

35:05I was awake the whole time. I just laid there in this little mat until the sun came up. And I'm thinking, as soon as the sun comes up and they open this door, they're gonna figure it out. I'm going home. And I was there for another day. Then I found out I had court in three days. So I literally just sat on my hands for three days. I didn't eat. I didn't come out to sale. I didn't talk to nobody because I'm just waiting for them to, you know, figure this out. I went to court. I saw the judge. The judge denied bail. The judge denied me being released on my own recognizance. Why? No reason whatsoever.

35:41I had never been arrested. I had never been locked up, never even been in handcuffs. I have no international ties. I have no family in other countries. We are we were basically poor. So I didn't have money to flee or go anywhere. And my life was football. All I wanted to do was be on my BS school playing ball. So where was I going to go? You know, there was no reason to deny the bill. The only reason the bill was denied was how the detective wrote up the case. that they basically look at how it's written up, what this, the lies that the girl made, and that put together, I guess, was enough for them to say he should remain in jail while fighting the case.

36:27They ended up giving me a bond of$1.25 million. And obviously, we didn't have that money to post that. And they scheduled me for another court date for like two months. and I'm laughing now, but I remember thinking when I was going to go to court, you know, in the beginning, you always think they're going to figure this shit out. I'm out of here. This, this is crazy. And every time I thought that they were going to figure it out, it just continuously got worse. So it went from, you know, sitting in a, uh, it went from sitting in a jail precinct for six hours, thinking everything would be figured out to sitting in the juvenile hall for three days, thinking everything was going to be figured out to be given two more months to sit in jail to my next court date and then just progress progress progress progress progress um next thing you know i'm in there for a year i've been locked up for a year i was tried as an adult they i i fought what was called a fitness hearing in the state of california you fight a fitness hearing that fitness hearing determines whether or not you are fit to remain in juvenile court or you should be tried as an adult there's a five criteria

37:37determination and it's it's like was a crime premeditated do you have any priors were there any attempts of rehabilitation from those priors the seriousness of the case and the gravity of the case I lost on a seriousness and the gravity of the case based off of how it was wrote up and that alone sent me to adult court so now i'm 17 and instead of facing minor camp time or juvenile hall time i was now facing 41 years to life in prison um they tacked on a kidnapping charge with care which carries life in the state of california um and what was happening behind the scenes what i would later find out which the accuser admitted to on video was that every time she would hear my side of the story uh she would add more to her story because she didn't want to look like a liar because it was getting so deep on her end that she had to keep pushing the story so while i was sitting in jail i was in jail for one count of rape next thing you know it was two counts of rape next thing you know it was three counts of rape next you know it was three counts of rape and sodomy next thing you know it was three counts of rape sodomy and kidnapping now facing 41 years to life.

38:52These charges just continue to stack up. And I had no clue. My mom had no clue. We didn't know how this was happening until years later, finding out how that all went down. Was she accusing you of rape on multiple occasions at multiple times or just that one time? Every time you penetrate, which there was no penetration. We never had sex. but the way that the DA questioned her was, did he, did he, did he, uh, did he put it inside of your vaginally? Yeah. How many times did he try to do it? He tried to put it in there three or four times. Okay. That's three, four S three counts. Right. Did he try to put it anywhere else?

39:30Uh, did he try to put it in, in your, in your butt? Oh, okay. It was kind of like, I don't know if they were coaxing her or she was making it up. I don't really know what was going on on that side. I just know that charges continuously kept showing up and adding them and adding up. Now, mind you, this whole time, the DNA tests was never, they never used, or my lawyer never used the DNA to disprove all of what was being said. This girl had accused me of penetrating her in the report she accused me of ejaculating inside of her that she saw and felt the contents. She described it as white and slimy.

40:17She said that it was inside of her. It was on her clothes. They did DNA testing within a couple hours of us being around each other and there was no DNA found. Excuse me, I'll take that back. I was excluded as a source of DNA, but there was another male source of DNA found and this girl had claimed that she was a virgin, she wasn't messing with other guys or anything, but they found another male source of DNA on her underwear and a secretion of her underwear. But I was excluded. But my lawyer never used the DNA. Why?

40:52Well, that's a good question. To this day, I don't know what I can speculate in the way that my lawyer carried herself. She was on her way to becoming a commissioner, a judge in L.A. she didn't want to lose any more cases so she began to pretty much pawn off her cases getting her clients to take deals to gain favor of the DA and district attorneys offices and the judges so that when she did run for commissioner to become a judge that she would get these favorable reports from the DA's and the judges so the DNA was never used it was never used in juvenile court they sent me to adult court. I faced life in adult court.

41:33It was never used in adult court at all. The entire year that I fought the case. That's the mainstream of evidence. That would have disproved everything. The day of my arrest, this accuser had six different statements as to what happened. Six different statements on one day. And what I mean by six different statements, it was like, we got to the 700 building and Brian grabbed me and yanked me into the elevator. In another statement, we got into the 700th building, Brian wrapped both of his arms around me, picked me up and put me into the elevator. In another statement, she said, Brian, uh, grabbed me by both hands and did something.

42:15And then there was another statement where she said, I willingly walked in by myself into the elevator. He didn't force me at all. And none of that was enough to say, maybe she's lying. Is she not right in the head, huh? I would definitely say she is not right now. Mental health, kinder, bipolar, something. Your guess is as good as mine. I really never tried to break down the psyche of this person. I do know, and this is not to minimize her actions at all, but I do know that her mom was fucking crazy. and I do know that, I mean, I could assume that if she would make up, which she did, a lie like this and her mom found out that this was a lie and instead you were actually on campus trying to fuck somebody, I'm pretty sure her mom would have probably destroyed her.

43:14So I think it was a bit of that. But if you ask me why this whole thing happened, it was because I walked away while we were making out. Do you think if you had had sex with her, you wouldn't have been in this predicament? Yep. It would have not happened. I think she felt that I... My personal opinion, and we never, you know, obviously never got to the bottom of it, because even through the video where she's recanting, she's still lying in that video about things. But if you ask me what I think truly happened, was that she was aware that I smelled what I smelled. She was in fear that I was gonna go back and tell the homies what I just experienced." And so instead of her going and dealing with that, she went back and told a girl in her classroom that I took advantage of her, and I forced her to do everything.

44:05And this girl, she basically went back to class, wrote this note that said, Brian just raped me. How much corruption is involved? Because a lot of these lawyers and QSEs that we have back home, a lot of them do deals and throw people under the bus to get their promotions. There's scandals everywhere. There's corruption everywhere. where police, law, anything, and good jobs, bad, there's always good and bad people everywhere, but how much corruption do you think's involved, and does your skin colour play a part in this? Uh, I would definitely say that... I see you. Avatar Fire and Ash is now streaming on Disney+.

44:39It's the film critics are calling the best Avatar yet. Go, go, go, go! A true epic and completely jaw-dropping. This is the only purest thing in this world. Return to Pandora on Disney+. It will be an adventure for the whole family. And watch the Oscar-winning phenomenon at home. This is sick! Avatar Fire and Ash. Now streaming on Disney+. Rated PG-13. And we're back. Streaming on Peacock. May I present to you the award-winning staff of the Toledo Truth Teller. Slap me. Let's jar something loose. Ay, yes! I like that. The Certified Fresh Series returns. You're a boss. You always like this? Or is this just an act?

45:19Oh no, this is mad. Oysters, everybody! There's a certain satisfaction when you work with someone. Maybe we could be a family. You sadistic pig! The Paper. New season streaming September 9th, only on Peacock. This show gives me a reason to laugh. Skin color plays a part, but before I get into that, as far as corruption, you know, I know that from the moment that I was arrested, her mom filed a lawsuit on the school district for lack of security within days. It was a money grab right away. So I think that that obviously played a part into the lies continuing and the lies progressing because now there was money on the line.

46:04I do know that the letter that she wrote to her friend about her being raped, there's two versions of this letter. There's one that's supposedly in her writing and then there's one that's supposedly a copy of that It's a totally different writing I've had it looked at by hand a writing expert who looked at it immediately and said that's not the same writing So either someone rewrote the letter for no reason why would you rewrite it when you have the original? And if you did rewrite it that means that you've you know, you've enhanced it and you've done something different to it Mind you the girl that received that letter years later had a confrontation with the same girl who had accused me of rape and she told her that it was a lie that it never happened and that's what kind of we later the investigators in my case they would later find this this young woman her name is Sherelle and they talked to her about it she said yeah actually a few years later I got into an argument with her we were friends we got into an argument and I confronted her about it and she admitted that it didn't even happen.

47:15So we got her to help me in my situation. Does color play a part? Absolutely. Color definitely plays a part. I think finances play a part too. I think money plays a part. I think that who you have representing you and what you can do financially with that is going to determine a lot. But yeah, definitely. I think color plays a part, and I think being a black male of interest, because I was a good football player and because I was on the way to play, you know, for university, I think there was a... I think that there was an intent to make a statement out of me to our community, in a way. Why didn't your school have your back?

48:07No. That kind of adds to a little bit more of the corruption. The school initially and I learned later that the school made every attempt that they possibly could to join my attorney in fighting this case on my behalf. They wanted to help get down to the bottom is because obviously if I lose, they get sued. My lawyer rejected all attempts of them trying to help. I do not know why. I never asked why. I never was told why. But the lawyer for the for the school district. And this is kind of going away from what we're talking about now. But when I was sentenced and I was in prison, the lawsuit continued.

48:49and one day while I was on the level three maximum security yard I got a letter saying that I was going to be deposed in this lawsuit they're going to pull me out of the cell and they're going to you know basically do a deposition with her lawyer her civil attorneys and the civil attorneys for the school district so they ended up showing up and deposing me and at the end of that deposition they handcuffed me to take me back to the cell and the lawyer for the school district ran out into the hallway. He said, one minute, can I get one minute with Brian? And, um, he leaned in and he said, Hey, I just want to let you know, um, you were royally fucked in your case.

49:24His exact words, they fucked you over. We made every attempt to try to help you in this. And your lawyer did not respond to us, did not get to us. Um, and, um, about three weeks and three or four weeks later, I'm in my cell and I get caught out of my cell. It was like, you got legal mail. I never get legal mail. I didn't have an attorney. I go pick up the mail and it was my case file. I had never seen my case file. I had been locked up three and a half years and I never had a copy of my own case file, never had it. And he sent it to me because he wanted me to see what was in it. And that's what got the ball rolling to me appealing my case and everything.

50:10I sat there in my cell, and I would obviously wait till like 3 in the morning when my celly would sleep because I'm reading sensitive shit. And I'm reading over my case. I'm reading that the DNA... I never got the results of the DNA test, even though I knew it was negative. I've heard. Why were you not screaming for them? I was ignorant to the system. I was ignorant to the system. I never, we, my family, we never dealt with the legal system before. We never, none of my family was arrested or dealt with, you know, dealt with the police. I didn't know at 16, don't talk to the police. I didn't know that.

50:46I knew, listen to the police, and do the right thing. You've been raised right then. Right. So you're trying to do the right thing, and it backfired. And it backfired. And I never got my case file, and I never questioned that because I was 16, and I didn't know I should have that. Um, when I got it, I realized the DNA evidence was right there, and it was never used. I found out she had six different statements, six different stories. I found out that all is different stuff, you know, and this was only because the lawyer for the school district... Who pecked your lawyer? This also shows a bit more of our ignorance to the system.

51:26My mom listened to a friend of hers who said, this is the lawyer that you need to choose to help your son. And the reason you should choose his lawyer is because she went to USC with Johnny Cochran. You know Johnny Cochran. And that alone was like, oh, she was in school with Johnny Cochran. Okay, so she must know something. Let's go with it. And that was, my mom chose that lawyer because of that. Black woman, older lady, and literally treated me like a kid. I wasn't privy to any information when we were dealing with the case. Everything that was going on between her and the courts, I knew nothing about it.

52:09And she would come and visit me. She barely came to visit. The few times that she would come and visit, it was just she would ask a few miscellaneous questions. She would flip through some paperwork and then she'd disappear. And then she'd have an investigator of hers show up, which my mom had to pay for as well. He'd ask a bunch of questions. I'd give him all the phone numbers and people to go talk to, you know, to help him figure this out. I found out that that investigator never went to the campus, never went to the supposed crime scene, never talked to any of the people that we said that they should speak to.

52:44My mom sold her house, sold her car, sold all her property to pay for this lawyer and her investigator. She lost everything. And they did nothing. I mean, for an entire year of me sitting in jail, it was it was literally just continuances of court dates. Oh, judge, we're not ready yet. I'm going on vacation. All the DA is going on vacation. All the judges on vacation. Oh, we need more time. Oh, let's push it back. I will go to court thinking everything will be resolved every single time. And every time it was come back in two months, come back in three months, come back in a month, come back in four months.

53:19and really no really good explanation as to why, other than everybody had other shit to do. You know? So, yeah, we didn't know about the law. We didn't know when to start screaming. We didn't know who to scream to. We didn't have the money to scream. You got to have money. You can yell all you want to. Everybody in prison is innocent, technically. You know what I mean? So how long did it take before it went to trial? One year? One year. And we didn't even go to trial. Because you had pleaded? I ended up pleading no contest to it, and I was forced into that deal... From her? From my lawyer. That woman again?

53:52The day of jury selection, that woman. We were supposed to go into court. She kept trying to get me to take deals that entire year. When I was in juvenile court, she wanted me to take a deal for juvenile life, which means you go to California Youth Authority, which is prison for youth under 18. Juvenile life is you serve up to the age of 25, And then you're released name you. Yeah, she wanted me to plea out to juvenile to take juvenile life and go to CYA I said no I got tried as an adult Then she there was a deal they offered me for 25 years And then there was a deal for like 18 years and then there was a deal for nine years again And I'm saying no to everything I'll go to my mom like mine.

54:36They said 25. She's like, oh, did you do it? I'm like no we fighting it. We fight when I taking no deals So we kept saying no, no, no the day of jury selection. We're going to trial I'm in I mean they take me to court. I'm in the same in the tank waiting to get pulled out to go see the judge to select his jury And instead they pulled me out and they pulled me into this interview room I'm in this little tank. It's just like this just with that glass in the middle, you know free side locked up side My lawyer comes in big smile on her face. She's hyped up energetic I'm thinking, oh, shit, here's some good news.

55:12What's going on? She comes in, she sits down. Okay, look, I just talked to the DA. I just came up with this deal. I mean, this is a great deal, Brian. Brian, you got to take this. This is the deal you have to take. I'm like, what's going on? Okay, listen, this is the deal. If you plead no contest to one count of rape, just one count, that they will then get rid of all the other charges. This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons Podcast. Have you guys heard about ChatGPT work? It's the new way to use ChatGPT for bigger multi-step projects. And when you need more than just answers, give ChatGPT work access to your apps and files, and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides, and structured reports.

56:01Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting work mode available on PLUS and Pro Plans. You will go to Chino State Prison, and during your stay, you'll go for 90 days. It's called a 90-day diagnostic or 90-day observation. You're going to stay in prison for 90 days, and during that 90-day stay, you're going to be eventually interviewed by a psychologist and a counselor who will determine on a ladder system whether you are to receive felony probation three years or six years in prison. and she said brian i promise you i guarantee you you will get that favorable report and after 90 days you're going to get felony probation you'll be out you can go back to school you get back to playing football you get back on with your life if you do not take this deal you're going to walk into that courtroom and all they're going to see is a big black teenager and you're going to be found guilty they're going to find you guilty you're facing 41 years to life now i'm telling you that you're going to get felony probation after 90 days i need to know what you want to do and i'm sitting here going first of all i'm thinking i'm in juvenile hall while this is all helping i mean i'm with the youth right i'm i'm 17.

57:14first thing i heard was go to chino state prison what the one of the most notorious prisons in the state of california hands down you say chino people go okay you went to Chino respect it's that kind of place you're gonna go to Chino for 90 days what and so I'm sitting here and I'm like well let me talk to my mom I got you know every deal that y 'all bring me I'll talk to my mom and she said no can't talk to your mom this time because I gotta go in there and tell I gotta tell a DA and a judge what you wanna do right now you're in adult court you gotta make an adult decision by yourself. I need to know what you want to do right now.

57:55So she pressed me, pushed me up against the corner. And I sat there in tears for about maybe three or three, four minutes. I'm crying. I mean, just flowing down my face and I'm feeling the defeat. You know, I'm, this is it. Like, I got to take this deal. I'm hearing what she's saying. She's putting it on thick. It makes sense. You know what I'm saying? Like I'm 17. I guess this shit makes sense. She's saying it. She's telling me I'm going to be found guilty. If I go in there, I'm big and black. She knows She's a lawyer, you know, and I'm crying. I'm saying, are you sure? Why? And is this the only way?

58:27And please let me talk to my mom. Brian, I need a decision. I need it. I need to go. I need to tell him what you want to do. Come on. What do you want to do? You want to go to trial and risk it all? Or you want to take the deal? So after a year of fighting the case, I took the deal. And I remember walking to that courtroom. My mom was in there. Family members there. Some friends there. and everyone's thinking I'm coming out to select jury. And I went into that courtroom and... The judge started laying out the grounds for me pleading no contest. I stood up in court and I said, yes, your honor, I plead no contest.

59:10Which in law is basically saying you're guilty. You're not saying guilty. I'm saying I'm pleading no contest. I'm choosing not to fight the case. I'm allowing you to impose whatever punishment you see fit for this situation. supposed crime you know I'm not gonna fight it and I just heard my mom breaking down and everybody's just confused and wondering what the hell is going on and so I take the deal and I remember being like I said I was in juvenile hall I was 17 years old I had just got caught up in some shit in there it was this crazy situation I was in the hole for about a few months and the The day after my 18th birthday, I turned 18.

1:00:01It was so surreal, so weird how it all took place. My 18th birthday, I was in juvenile hall. I was in the hole. It was late night. My cell door opened up and one of the guards came in with a hostess cupcake and a candle in it. He was one of the cool guards. You know, always was, you know, there for me. He said, man, he handed me this little cupcake. And I was just like, you know, this is like big. I'd been locked up a year. Cupcake was everything, right? Eating this shit up. And I go to sleep, I wake up and the cell door opens up again. And they're like, hey, you're being transferred to Chino.

1:00:39Day after my 18th birthday. And they chained me up and the chains were different this time. You know, when you're in juvenile, just throw your little cuffs on in front. They take you where you need to go. And this time it was cuffs behind the back, chain around the waist, chain connected to the ankles. one chain going down the waist ankles down to the legs i'm shackled down they redress me put me in a different different suit and they take me to prison and uh i mean we can go crazy with stories on that that bus ride was fucking insane um talk about insane a guy in a uh they put you inside the bus they have one man's cell uh one man's cages inside those buses there was this guy 51 50 he's crazy as shit.

1:01:25He's standing up in there, chained up. He's bashing his head against the gates. He's bleeding and shit. He's pulling his dick out. He's pissing through the gate trying to pee on people. He's freaking out. He's screaming everywhere. There's guys behind me. We're pulling up to Chino State Prison. Yeah, baby. I'm home. Oh, yeah. I'm sitting there like, what the fuck? I'm just taking it all in. You're trying to keep that poker face. You're trying to keep looking like you ain't scared of shit. I get to prison they take me out the bus strip me down naked they I mean this is just totally different you know didn't juvenile hall stripped me down completely naked stripped everybody body down naked it was a room as big as this what about 60 guys in it naked and they leave you naked until alphabetically they call you out one by one to process you in at you know reset an R &R reception and release banks you'd be walking out connected you've been in there with 60 dudes naked and they finally give you a bed roll with some clothes in it and they start asking you all these questions um and i remember he was like you want a pc i was like what's pc protective custody you want pc i see your your crime i was like what does that mean i you know i didn't even know what it meant what does that mean he's like well that means that you know basically you don't feel comfortable being on a you know general population and uh you know you want to you want to be you know separate I was like no I don't need that I'm fine and so they didn't put me on PC and they put I go through this whole process anyways 90 days of Chino start I'm in there I mean I've seen I watch riots I watched I go into the bathroom and brush my teeth I see a dude in the corner of the shower stabbed up bleed now you just turn around and walk out like you didn't see it you know you you you two guys fighting on the yard on the guards shoots one of the guys in the back with the mini 14 for not getting down.

1:03:16Yeah. He's just starting to get exposed to a lot of crazy shit, you know? And, um, so I'm thinking to myself, just get through the 90 days, just get through the 90 days. And I eventually get interviewed by the psychologist and the counselor and they interview you one by one, not together. And literally walking out of both of those rooms, they both said the same thing. I don't know why the fuck you're here. I read your case file. this shit don't make no sense. I can see right through this case, like you should not be here. The DNA, the inconsistency, the girl's statements, the lack of investigation to your case, it makes no sense.

1:03:54No priors, no record, no nothing. I don't know why you're here. And they said, you know, both of them, I'm going to recommend the lowest that I can recommend, which is the felony and probation. I wish that I can do less. I wish that I can say you don't deserve any of it. Literally from each, from both of them, one by one. And I remember hearing that and I'm just being so overjoyed to hear somebody finally in this situation that knows about law, that's part of this whole system to finally break cold and go, you're innocent. And I didn't hear it for a whole year. No, everybody act like, you know, just let's let the just let it play its way out, play its way out.

1:04:32You'll be fine. You'll be fine. So to hear that was so rejoiceful. I remember during that 90 day stay in prison, we couldn't have any contact or phone calls with the outside world. No visits, no phone calls. Why? They shut it all down. During the 90 day observation, it's kind of like, you know, you're in Chino and you don't get the, you're here on an observation, you're not here as a full-time resident, so you don't get the, I guess, the benefits of a... Is there cameras inside the cells or anything when they're observing? No, you just don't get visits from, you just can't get a physical visit and you can't make phone calls.

1:05:06I don't know why it's like that. How is that though when you plead no contest basically admitting your guilt? How does that then think of your mum? Because part of you would think part of you probably thought did I do it? Did you ever think that? Did I do it? Because everything got turned against you but you start thinking maybe, possibly but how is that when you plead it and your mum breaks your heart because then your mum and dad in life should basically die for you no matter what you fucking do. Listen that's probably one of the worst things you can do but you know what I mean? Like, how hard is that for then your mom possibly getting question marks for maybe my son as a rapist?

1:05:41Did you feel that? Or did she always have your back? I never felt that for my mom. Yeah. My mom is a strong Christian woman, and she raised us in a church, you know, whether we wanted to be there or not. You're going to church, you're going to Sunday school, and you're going to choir rehearsal. So we were there at church three times a week. You know what I'm saying? And we never, you know, she never let girls come over to the house. She never let us, you know, go out on, you know, dates at night. She was very strict. We had a very strict household, you know. Right before I got locked up was the first time she ever let me throw a party.

1:06:22It was a 4th of July party with girls. And I got locked up July 8th, four days later. um so i i never i think the only time she ever really questioned me was the first time we had ever talked about it the first visit she came to see me at juvenile hall that's when she really like looked at me and she was like what the you know you need to tell me everything and after that it was like we never i don't she never showed me that she ever felt that this was real um and i I never sat, you know, it's funny. I never had the thoughts in my head of, damn, did I do something? Did I do this? I never felt that.

1:07:04But what I can tell you I felt was my mind started to fuck with me in a way of I started thinking that everybody has something to do with this. Even my mom has something to do with this. How is she letting this happen? How is she letting me stay in this jail for so long? How is my dad? You know, I'm questioning everybody now. Because the paranoia is setting in because the the the stress and the nervousness and the The feeling of being alone and being taken away from the world and everything that you know to be true And the only thing that's now You know here is you dealing with this situation and everyone around you that can't do anything about it And you start to question why can't you do anything about it?

1:07:45Why am I still in here? And so you start to You start to you know really question everybody and question, you know your lawyer Is she snaking me?" You know? And then you gotta snap yourself out of that because, you know, none of those folks are... My mom obviously had nothing to do with it, but I think it's just a mind game. That's what it takes you, man. It takes you to a... You know, you're in that cell, and that cell will play with your mind in a way that you never could imagine, you know? But no, I never got to a point where I felt like, did I do this? Fuck that. Yeah, but you know what I'm saying is that sometimes the man can play tricks because people are telling you that much, take deals, admit this, admit this, and then you eventually admit it, and then you could possibly question it, especially with all the pressures and the stresses.

1:08:35What happens then within the 90 days? So I got that favorable report, and since I couldn't contact my mom anyway, I could write her a letter. I wrote this letter, and I'm in the letter, Mom, we got it. We got the favorable report. I'm hitting it in big letters, all caps, exclamation marks, smiley faces. I'm coming home in a matter of this many days. We got it. Here we go. I'm so happy. I'm taking my lemons and I'm trying to make lemonade. It's felony probation. It's this, it's that, but I'm getting out of jail. I'm getting out of this. I'll take that at this point. And so I'm very happy to get that report.

1:09:10I finished my 90 days. They sent me back to court. I go back to court and I get in front of the judge and I presented the judge with a stack of character letters from ministers and family and friends and teachers and just people who could speak on my behalf of who I am as a person. I mean, stack. It probably took you a day to read them. The judge goes, okay, I see you got some character letters. I'm gonna go back in the chambers and read these real quick, and then I'll come right back. He came back in about three to five minutes. And I knew it. I just... He didn't read shit. I knew he didn't read shit.

1:09:47I was like, this dude went and took a piss real quick and came right back. I knew he didn't read anything. And he came back and he said, would the mother of the victim like to get up and say a few words? And man, she got up and, you know, you know, when you, I mean, you're a monster. You're this, you're that. You don't deserve this deal. You should be getting more time. You took advantage of my daughter. You took her innocence. You didn't give her a choice when she wanted to lose her virginity. You're evil, yada, yada, yada. I mean, I got family in there. i got friends there i got everyone's in there i people i don't know in there random people waiting for the next court you know their court case and it's just ah man oh there's nothing like uh sitting there here or something like that it's one thing i you know i always one thing i used to think to myself when you said when you think like you know when your mind plays tricks on you is i always thought to myself like i i don't you know i've never committed a crime i never want to and be in jail, but fuck, I wish I was in here for at least something else.

1:10:52Like, you know, even if I did do it or didn't do it, like it would be a lot easier for me to deal with if it wasn't rape, if it wasn't having to be accused of something, like the worst fucking thing that you can do, you know, to be accused of that. And then to have someone be in your face, looking at you, telling you this stuff, and you can't say nothing, you can't defend yourself, you can't say, but what about the DNA? What about this? What about this? You just got to sit there and take it. Why was she allowed to speak? Because it was sentencing. And I guess the judge felt like during sentencing that the mom should have a word.

1:11:28So this was after the 90 days. You're going for 90 days. You're kind of assessed on things. And then they sent you after the 90 days? To determine whether I'm getting that felony probation, three years or six years. So she was saying you took her virginity? She said, oh, you took my daughter's innocence, her virginity. You didn't give her a chance. I mean every single thing you could think of she's saying to me She finishes talking and she sits back down and judge goes. Thank you. Appreciate your words I'm gonna send you to six years Straight up just like that and gave me the high term of six years Didn't explain why no reasoning no justification.

1:12:05Like I said, I never been locked up. No priors. No nothing He gave me the higher term of six years and it was it was ordered up like he was in a drive-thru at a fast-food restaurant It was that quick. And I remember my lawyer playing this. At the time, I believed her. When I got back to my cell, I looked at it again. Just played this whole thing of she was shocked. Oh, my God. She throws her pen down. And you just hear everybody in there crying. And just, I'm crying. You know what? Actually, I was crying. I had some tears in my eyes. I'll be honest when I got when he says six years and They wrote it.

1:12:51They were they were started, you know, giving you all the conditions like once they give you the sentence Then they start saying, you know This time is gonna run and concurrent with the time serve and yada yada yada and they start talking all the sideways stuff And you know, you'll be reprimand five years felony probation You'll be registered for the rest of your life. But do you understand they give me all these yes? No, yes, no, yes, no questions I remember smiling man. I started laughing like I had a fucking freak out like I just was like I was like, fuck. I was like, man. And the judge hit the thing, boom.

1:13:23And I just looked back at my mom and they're crying. I was like, I love y 'all, man. This is crazy. And they just walked me out of the courtroom. All I could do was just laugh. I just laughed after a year of fighting that case, a year of being in jail, no evidence, no DNA, six different stories, everything you need to prove that I was innocent. and no one gave a fuck about it and the judge gave me the higher term of six years not the felony probation not just three years let me give you six years 18 years old i just laughed man once i got out of the courtroom that's when i started fucking crying i got back into the holding cell and uh it's crazy because the holding cell you know in in la la county is fucking ruthless right when you're in jail jail is ruthless you're gonna fight i don't care who you are you're gonna fight you're gonna have some fights you're gonna be in riots you're gonna get tested somebody gonna want to test you it's just how it is in there and uh the one of the scariest places to be is in the holding cell at the courthouse because you're in there with potentially enemies from the same neighborhood you in there with the person that you're going against in court whatever so a lot of times dudes get smashed in that holding cell at the court office so a lot of guys get to court and that that tank's kind of quiet because everybody's in there like you know wondering like it's shit gonna pop off.

1:14:43So every time I went to court, I was always kind of nervous. I didn't have beef with nobody, but there was always that fear of someone knowing my case or what I was in there for. And, you know, anything could happen at any moment. So I was always on guard. I was not on any kind of fucking guard after he gave me the sentence. I remember going back to that holding cell. All them dudes were in there. And I went in there and I sat down and I was just gone. And I was just, I had tears in my eye. My legs were tapping. My hands were shaking. and I'm like feeling like I'm about to pass out. And all I could think about was trying to add up how much time I had left.

1:15:16I was just like, okay, fuck. All right, man, I've been in it for a year and they said six years, I got to do 85 % of that. I carry two to three for five years, two months. I got to do four more years, four years and two more months to go. And I just sat there. and I remember telling the dude there's one guy I didn't even know him he said what they do man they must have sentenced you what happened and I was like he gave me six years he was like oh shit man that ain't too bad and I just sat there and I'm just like this this world is fucking great like I'm just thinking like where am I this shit just don't make sense man and I'm yeah man and I have four more years to go and uh here's the fuck here's all it was fuck here's the most here's the my lawyer was like we're gonna we're gonna fix this we're gonna I'm a file of a motion for remodification of sentencing this is outrageous we're gonna fix this don't you worry and I've got sent back to prison and now I'm sentenced so now I'm going through the process of when you go through a they They call it a.

1:16:31It's a point system, basically, to determine on what level of security of maximum security, minimum security you should go on. And while I'm in there waiting to be told where I'm going to go, I get a letter in the mail from my lawyer. Hey, Brian, how you doing? Hope you're OK. I'm working on your remodification of sentencing. I feel good about it. But in order for us to do this, you need to have an appellate attorney to help you with this. We've got an appellate attorney in our office who's going to help. So I need you to sign this form is going to release me as your lawyer. And then we're going to bring this guy on to help you remodify your sentencing.

1:17:12I signed the paperwork, send it back out and she disappeared. To this day, I never heard from that lawyer again. Really, you know, my mom never heard from her. She she's a judge in L.A. She a judge to the day right now. And I'm. I mean, my mom never heard from her again. I never heard from her again. Her office ended up closing. Number ended up shutting off. I guess, you know, she became a judge and the appellate attorney, as she said, was going to take over. I never I don't know who this person is. Never met him, never talked to him. It was over. It was it. And I was we were stuck. So when you say, like, why weren't you screaming and yelling for help or trying to, to who?

1:17:58That was it. My mom sold the house, sold the car, gave up all she had for this lawyer. She was done. She was cooked. They didn't have nothing else. Don't walk you down the conspiracy route, but what do you think of people getting sacrificed for their own gain?

1:18:12What do you mean? That people get through under the bus, okay, you get a promotion, give me a ham, ham, ham, secret handshake society. Yeah. where you get a promotion, but we need something from you, where people are getting used. Yeah. People's lives are getting destroyed for their own wicked games of whatever society they're in. Yeah, man. You know, I've had the unfortunate opportunity to see the worst in the human spirit, and I've had the opportunity to see some of the best. And I just can't fathom the idea of... taking on the responsibility of... are telling someone that you're taking on the responsibility of trying to protect their freedom.

1:18:55But during that, you see an opportunity for your own personal gain. And that personal gain outweighs the work at hand, the promise that you've made, the commitments that you've put in front of you. you know i'm all for winning um but at the you know at the at the hands of of someone losing their entire life and their future um at the hands of a family being crumbled um at the hands of a mother losing her son uh i just can't understand how people could have who could have that in them can sleep at night wake up just go on about their day knowing that they're they're they're taking people's money and doing the exact opposite of what you said you would do i know that it exists i've i've experienced it my lawyer never wanted to fight my case never went to the crime scene never interviewed any of the people never talked to me and really asked me all the questions that she should ask me.

1:20:06And, um... And, yeah, she's a judge now. She's a judge, man. And I don't... I haven't talked to her. I haven't seen her face. Uh, I don't know, you know... You know, I think there was a point in time where, you know, my story was on 60 Minutes, when I was initially exonerated. And 60 Minutes made many attempts to try to contact her and get her side of the story and get her involved, And she basically, you know, denied it. And I think that she made some excuse about attorney-client privilege. And I was like, fuck, I'll give you all the privilege you want. Come on, tell us what happened, you know, and just disappeared, basically.

1:20:45But, I mean, we gave her a bunch of sentimental stuff. Like, all that recruiting letter stuff that I was telling you that I was getting from, I gave, I told my mom to round up as much recruitment mail that she could to show the judge and to give it to the lawyer. The lawyer never gave it to the judge and we never got it back. So all of my recruiting letters, like, to this day are gone. I don't have none of that stuff. It's memories of my past of football. But yeah, man, people are fucking sick. And I mean, if you would have asked me about this years ago, I would have never believed that it could happen.

1:21:19You asked me about it today, I'm very jaded and I'm fully aware of how sick and cruel people can be. Like, I've seen it. I've seen the worst of people. What was the worst part about it all? You know, it's really hard. There's so many bad experiences. I went through so much. I went through a lot. I've been able to process it, and I'm able to talk about a lot of it now. There's spaces I don't talk about. There's things I don't talk about. I think the worst part of it all is the waiting game. The... The...

1:21:57the unknowingness of what's going to happen to you when you fight in that case. I think being in limbo is the hardest thing of it all. You know, serving a sentence for something you didn't do is horrible. It's bad. Prison is horrible. Prison is bad. Fighting the conditions that I can give you stories for days, five years worth of stories. But I think what hurts the most is being in prison or being in jail for something you didn't do and having to show up in front of the judge every single day. And you have this hope. You've been praying to God. You've been overloading prayer. That this all is, you know, removed from your life.

1:22:33And every time you show up, it gets worse. It gets worse. It gets worse. It gets worse. It gets worse up until a point to where you just you're not going home. I think that to me was the worst experience. Just having your heart ripped out of your chest every fucking time you go to court and you think that they're going to do the right thing. You think that someone's going to step forward and come and say the right thing or do the right thing. It just doesn't happen. You really lose a sense of trust in humans. You lose trust, you lose belief, you lose faith in people.

1:23:12Like I said, I don't think I could put one thing over the other, but if I had to, it'd be the whole process of fighting the case. Something I didn't do. How was that feeling though? Like you said, the worst thing you came in prison for is fucking pedophilia or rape. Yeah. Did people know what you were in for? Did they make the media or anything? Yeah, so when I was in juvenile hall, what you're in there for is pretty much wide open. Juvenile Hall is very relaxed. The guards have a clipboard with your name, And it literally has the case next to it. And they'll sit the clipboard on the table and walk away.

1:23:48We get the clipboard, we looking at it and we talking. Well, you ain't here for this. And then, you know, so in at that level, everyone knows everything. When you get to prison in California, it it changes. And it's it's different by the race of, you know, your color. If if you're a Hispanic or you're white. They're gonna want to see your paperwork from the fucking gate before you get into the prison There's somebody with something on me. Let me see it They won't know what you're in there for Um for blacks in prison in california at least during my time when I was there It's it was more of a don't ask don't tell And as long as you're not drawing attention to yourself We won't really worry about what you're in here for unless you got a high-profile case or unless someone does know you and they come and bring it up to everybody else and we can't ignore it and we got to deal with it.

1:24:43Um, for me, because my paperwork was not asked for, um, I actually created a whole different story about why I was in jail. You know, if I was ever asked, I was telling people I was in there for a home invasion that a buddy of mine committed, but But it was a whole story. A friend of mine committed a home invasion on a guy that we all knew. The guy knew who did it. And he threw a bunch of names into the pot. I was one of those names. I took the rap from my homeboy. I'm here now. That was my story. Only one time. There was one occasion. I was locked up probably. I was three years into my five-year sentence.

1:25:25And, you know, when you're in prison in California, you got to roll with somebody. You can't roll solo. So even if you're not a gang member, then you're going to break you down to your city. So when you come in there, they press you real hard. Somebody go run up on you. Where the fuck you from? You know, it's like real aggressive, you know, and if you're not from somewhere, what city you from? I'm from Long Beach. OK, well, then you got to answer to the people from Long Beach. They deal with you. I was. I had. I won't say connections, but before I got to prison, I already knew like I'm born and raised.

1:26:01in Long Beach. Long Beach is the hood, it's the ghetto, it's gang related. And we had, I had a so like family members, friends of family members that were in prison. So I was able to kind of reach out to a few people before I had even got there to like let them, you know, know that this was happening, I was showing up. So by the time I got to prison, I actually had a few people that were already aware who I was, but in my favor, you know, looking out, stuff like that. On one occasion, I was going to say it was three years in, I was on a maximum security, it was on a level three, and there was a guy that was part of the Long Beach car, and he was going home, he was paroling, and the day before he paroled, I was in my cell doing some shit.

1:26:53My cell door opened up, and he walked in, and he closed cell door behind him and i'm like what's going you know he was my he was my guy he was cool we always you know we ate together we rapped together we played dominoes together so he was cool he closed the cell door and he said look man um i just want you to know um this whole time like i know what you in here for like i know your situation and uh you know i think it's pretty up that you you know you've been walking around here and you you know you're not letting people know what the situation is because that can get us all in the wreck that we, you know, we got you with us.

1:27:30We carrying you around and, you know, you got this on your jacket. I already asked a few people, you know, a few other people about you on the streets. They validated that your shit is bullshit and that you shouldn't be in there and that that whole thing was a setup. So I understand, but I just want you to know if I was somebody else and somebody else found this out, this shit could have went a whole different way. Now, he's basically face-to-face with me telling me this. And when he told me, I wasn't worried about him. He was half my size. If he would have went down in there, I would have fucking destroyed him.

1:28:02There was no problem. But he could easily go and spread the word and make it something crazier. That was the only time I was ever kind of pressed about what I was in there for. Other than that, nobody really asked me. There was one other instance where I could have where my situation could have been really bad, but I really think that my higher power and I'm speaking on God, there were really a lot of instances with instances of of during my incarceration where I feel like there was a divine intervention taking place in my life. I'm a firm believer. They did. Absolutely. Listen, I'm telling you one day when i got to chino state prison they put me in this dorm uh this uh gymnasium that had been converted into a dorm this big ass basketball gym they had three tier bunks two tier bunks which means the bunk beds was three levels you know i mean they had a tower up at the top with the mini 14 a guard up there hanging a gun out 24 7 there was spray paint on the walls that says there will be no warning shots like they're gonna just shoot you start fighting they're just gonna let it off.

1:29:12And, um, when I got into this, when I got into this, this, uh, dorm, uh, I had no idea that they hand the paperwork over to inmates who are controlling the intake of the dorm, you know, to give all the jobs to the inmates. So I'm in there, I'm fixing my bed up, you know, I'm guys walking up to me, you know, talking to me and stuff like that. I'm just getting to prison for the first time, man. I don't know what prison is like. And as I'm fixing my bed, this dude walks up to me. He's like, what's up? What's up, bro? What's going on? He's talking to me. I'm like, what's going on? He's like, you know, I don't want to say his name.

1:29:50His name out there. But he's like, you know, you know X? I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I know. He's like, yeah, it's my crime. Me, it's my cousin. Oh, yeah. Okay, cool. And the guy he was referring to, we were in juvenile hall together. We went to high school together. He was one of my homeboys for many years. He went to prison for a whole lot of time and he was somewhere else. They were crime ease for an attempted murder carjack and some other shit like that. And he was like, uh, he was like, um, yeah, man, that's my crime. You're my cousin, man. He told me about you, bro. Like, I know, don't, you know, don't trip.

1:30:20He's like, you know what else? I'm going to tell you something. And he leaned in. He said, uh, you know, I, I just want you to know, I take care of all our paperwork up front and I got yours. I went on and pushed it and processed it for you. So ain't nobody going to see that. and I'm thinking to myself, had all these people in prison that could be doing the paperwork, that could be processing people in, it happened to be somebody who knew me and who really knew what the situation was. It could have been totally different. I could have been blindsided easily, easily. What's the worst thing you've seen in prison?

1:30:56I think I mentioned it. Worst thing I ever seen in prison was going to the, in Chino, Going to the bathroom to brush my teeth in the morning little towel thrown over my shoulder To brush in my ear got my toothpaste in my hands some soap bars. I'm walking to the thing. I'm Walking to the bathroom I walk in there as soon as I walk in I look to my left The showers are right here the sinks are over here and it's split by a wall I look over right over the bottom. There's a dude sitting in a corner. He stabbed up He's just believe you just see a drain of blood just going to the drains He's out He just turned around walk the fuck about it.

1:31:31You just turn around you walk out and you get on your bunk said it No, he was not dead, but he was he was airlifted out He was airlifted out, but I mean you you literally You you know you can't show anything you just walk out and then you just start seeing everybody one by one kind of sitting on their bunks And then you know when everybody's kind of sitting down cleared out the way that something's going on You know, I think that was one of the worst situations I mean, other than that, just the inhumane experiences dealing with guards and searches and those 3 a.m. searches where they come in busting up this shit and stripping you naked and making you sit on infested floors without clothes on and making you be in rooms with a hundred guys in a room that could probably only fit 60, and you're in there just waiting to be let out while they're searching everything.

1:32:18You know, riots. I've been in riots. I've been stabbed in riots. fights you know I had a lot of fights and you get kind of get used to that stuff um I would definitely say just the the wide-eyed awakening of how serious how violent prison can be especially only being there for a few weeks I was in Chino on a 90-day observation watching a dude get airlifted out you know what I'm saying so you're in there six years obviously before people get out of prison they can't wait to get out how was your mindset with it coming out no career, convicted rapist. How was your mindset going out? Were you glad to get out or were you just scared of the unknown?

1:32:56Determined. Absolutely determined. When I was in prison, I went through many different phases. My first phase was rage. After I was sentenced, I just said, fuck it. I was mad. I was angry at the world, angry at every single person I could think of, a little bit of anger to my family, everybody. I just had this chip on my shoulder. I had four years to go. And so I was just very, very angry. And after a few months, I, I, I felt like I had this epiphany, this eye-opening experience in my life where, um, and they kind of tried to portray it in the film. Um, I, I was in my cell one day and, um, there was this, you know, they gave me this tiny little windows in there.

1:33:46And I remember the wind, the light was just kind of peering through real strong. And so I walked over to the window and the lights hit, the sun has just hit me in the face. And I'm sitting there just kind of looking up, looking over my life and my, in my, in my mind. And a voice just started talking to me. And it just says, but the voice was like, you know, you, you got to stop trying to be in control over things you can't control. and I'm not in control over the things that I'm fighting to be in control of. This entire time I've been trying to change things that I could not change. And I had to realize that what I was doing to myself with the rage and the anger, I was killing myself and I was destroying myself.

1:34:39I found myself doing the job for the people that put me behind bars, living how I was living, thinking the way that I was thinking. And just. It was weird. It was kind of a turn of events for me where I it was almost like a deep breath and and a change of mind of let me start focusing on what I can't control. in a very uncontrolled situation. And what I can control is my emotions, first and foremost. How I think about a situation, how I allow a situation to affect me, and what I choose to do as a response to the situation. All three of those were always in my control. What was going on in my life may have been uncontrolled, but the emotion that I was applying to it was always in my control.

1:35:32and I was applying all the wrong emotions, which in turn was breaking me down inside, changing me as a person, changing my spirit, changing my beliefs, changing my, my beliefs in God and people in, in everything. And I had to let that go. Not only let that go, but I had to let go of the past of things that I was hanging on to so much that I couldn't wait to get back to because I had so much time to get through. And the more I focus on what, what was and what no longer is, it was literally just driving me crazy. I would have never made it out of there. I would have never, I would start, I mean, I was getting involved in shit in there that I shouldn't have got involved in, you know, and it was just because it was just a whatever, whatever mentality.

1:36:20Um, but I had this, I had this epiphany, you know, of, of wanting more for myself, realizing that if there was anything that was going to change, it would have to start with and the change was gonna come from me. What did you ever say to you? Never, no. I never had an idea of I didn't want to be here anymore physically, like I wanted to end my life. And that, you know, that... And no offense to anybody who's ever experienced those emotions, I've done life coaching with folks who have and who are dealing with those types of thoughts and feelings. But me personally, I never thought about that. I never and I don't know if it was just how I was raised with my mom and my family.

1:37:00I don't know if it was the competitiveness of sports and football that taught me to, you know, get hit and get the fuck back up and keep going. But there was always this drive in me that kept trying to figure out the puzzle. I was more fascinated with trying to figure it out than not figure out, you know, figure it out at all. I never... I'm too afraid to try to kill myself. I couldn't do it. That's not something I can do. I don't think I could ever do some shit like that.

1:37:35But I did get really off course in my life, you know, because of what I went through, because of what I was experiencing. I met my mentor when I was in juvenile hall fighting the case. mentor was his teacher at the juvenile hall and I can't even tell you what subject he taught because you go into his class and his focus was discovering who the real you is thinking outside of the box challenging my mind in ways that had never been challenged before you know he would give me literature to read and different things to consider and think about and different ways to work all my spirituality and things of that nature.

1:38:18It's crazy because the first 14 days that I was incarcerated, I didn't come, like I said, I didn't come out of my cell. I lost 14 pounds. I wasn't eating the food. I got real sick. They took me to the infirmary a few times. I wasn't interacting with anybody. I wasn't talking to anybody. And they didn't know what to do with me. One day my cell door opened up. This dude came in. He wasn't one of the guards. He was in plain clothes. He had these glasses on. and he was straight back, upright, and he was very confident. You could just feel his energy, just a different energy that you don't really see in people.

1:38:52And he walked into the room, I saw, and he surveyed the cell, and he looked at me and looked me up and down, and he didn't say anything. And I'm just looking at this man, and he came in, he sat next to me on the bed, and he put his hands in his laps like this, and he looked at me, and he just kind of looked up and down, and then finally he spoke. He said, you know what, young man, I don't know what it is you're going through. but you're going to have to let this go. And I remember instantly hearing this, and the first thoughts in my head was, you know, how could I let this go? What are you talking about?

1:39:22Like, I'm in the midst of the storm. I am in the eye of the storm. And here's this random guy coming into my cell saying, you got to let it go. And I didn't understand what he meant by that. You know, but at the same time, there was something internally within me that I felt connected to what he said. I began to cry, and I would start sobbing, and there was something that resonated with what he said. I just didn't understand it in my mind yet what he was saying and uh later I would start working with him day in and day out on just um my spirituality on my my emotions on uh you know self-discovery self-realization self-love um forgiveness and all these different things of that nature and it really helped me as I was fighting my case it was I felt like he was empowering me building me up with tools of survival and there was a point in time where i felt like what he was doing to me was preparing for me to get out of prison fight this case win and then have this better life and i would i i later realized that he was actually preparing for me to uh to go to prison he was preparing me to be prepared for the worst and when i got sentenced i lost sight of all of that And here's another divine intervention.

1:40:36I feel like a higher power was at work When I got sins I went into a rage and I just let go of everything that he taught me and I kid you not one day I was in jail and I got a letter in the mail from him. I was in prison And he said I just want to write you because I just something in my mind that's telling me that you've fallen off course from your teachings you've fallen off you've fallen off from what we where we where we left off and I just wanted to I wanted to write you and to remind you of of who you are, where you are, and what you can do in this moment. And it was kind of this, it was at the right time.

1:41:11It was very timely. It was almost too timely. It was weird to get that letter and reading it while angry and just kind of losing all the anger and just having this self-reflective moment. But that really helped me. And then, like I said, I had this epiphany and then that really got me on my focus. So right after that I just started getting into like what I could control So I started reading like crazy. I got into a lot of psychology of sociology I got into a lot of afrocentricity studies under moly fakita sante. I got into I read the dictionary probably three or four times I read the thesaurus three or four times I would take the dictionary and take words out of me one by one write them down and then write the definition I'd self-taught, you know, I learned how to speak I would go out into this unto the yard in prison and start using big-ass words on people and they didn't know what the hell I was saying, you know, I mean, but it it it I took the time to Not sit in anger uh, but to Uh work harder for me than anybody else could work harder for me because I know at the end of the day What I want for me nobody else could ever want it from me more than what I want So in order for me to get it, I had to be fully engaged and fully about that life, which was getting back home, becoming free, moving on with my life in the best way possible, rising above the accusations, being better than what I was being labeled and accused of, and ultimately discovering the spiritual side of me, my journey towards enlightenment.

1:42:46What was it like getting out? uh very naive that was very naive i when i right before i paroled from prison um i reached out to my old high school football coach who was now the head coach for a junior college and i told him that when i got out of prison i wanted to play football still and he said well i'm coaching at this little jc you know we love to have you and he actually got involved in enrolling me into college before I even got out of prison. He sent me the playbook in prison. So I'm sitting there reading football playbooks and, you know, I'm getting in, filling all the paperwork to get enrolled.

1:43:25And I got out of prison, I think on a Wednesday, August 29, 2007, it could be a Wednesday. But I know that weekend I had a football game, like a few days out of prison. And I like, you know, you talk about a fucking bat out of hell. I was, I was trying to kill people on that field. Like, I mean, everything there, there's this five years of pent up everything. Now I'm now I got a helmet on with some shoulder pads. I'm, you know, I'm flying around hitting people and, you know, but the naive part was I thought that what I was going to do was get out of prison, get into school and just try and move forward as if, you know, the worst was behind me.

1:44:06I got out of prison and I did exactly that. And within a couple months, California implemented a new law that required all two 90 registrants, which are sex offenders to wear a GPS on their ankle for the duration of their parole sentence. I had a maximum parole sentence of five years. So they within a few months of being out, they fitted me with this giant ankle bracelet. And now I had a curfew. I couldn't live within 2000 feet of any school or park. I had to register as a sex offender wherever I lived. I couldn't play football because it would could get tampered or pulled and broken. And I would be an automatic violation of parole.

1:44:49I couldn't be on school campuses, none of that type of stuff. So it really, you know, my life, I used to have these waves where as soon as I thought that, you know, the worst was over, boom, it hit me again. I'm surprised they even give you a chance, though, by being a convicted rapist. That's a good coach, that, that he's believed in you. Yeah, man. Do you know what I mean? Because everybody, no matter what you say at that point, you know yourself, you've admitted that people thinking fucking deserves it. But, you know, nobody, you know, that I know of believed this story about what happened.

1:45:22You know, no one believed it. And I can't speak for everybody in my city, but what I can say is that growing up in the 90s, in the early 2000s, as a young teen, in my neighborhood, you never heard about rape. Nobody was taking advantage of females. The concept of rape was not in our black neighborhood. Like it did no one was trying to take anything from anybody. It so and then for me to be accused of it, it didn't make sense. Who who was making the accusation really didn't make sense. Everyone knew it was bullshit. Everybody knew it was bullshit. It didn't make sense. And then all the stories started coming out while I was locked up.

1:46:09And where it is, she going around saying it never happened. And where it is, is they got this money from the lawsuit. Now they're buying cars and buying clothes and they're shopping sprees and doing this and doing that and speaking down on you. All these little things start coming out. And so everyone's learning over time. When did you find out they got the money,$1.5 million? I didn't find out until the deposition. After the deposition, I think shortly after, they settled. and I heard from that lawyer because that lawyer for the school district and he wasn't even supposed to do this. He wasn't supposed to stay in touch with me.

1:46:46He wasn't supposed to send me my case file. He wasn't supposed to do none of it but he took my calls. I called him from prison. He answered my calls from his law firm. I'd have questions about legal stuff. He'd answer them. He let me know that they settled and that this was happening, that this was going on. He really, he was like, he was God sent, man. He really opened my eyes to what was really going on behind my back that I didn't know. But yeah, that's what I learned from him, that they settled for like$1.5 million. What are you going through your mind down, knowing that you're innocent, you've lost your football career, your mom's went basically homeless by selling her house and her car to try and get you out of prison, falsely accused by a couple of evil bastards.

1:47:34The mum seems as if she was involved in it because she's seen the pound signs. For me, I'll say it how it is. Fuck them both. Do you know what I'm saying? How is that, though, when you've lost everything but they've gained everything? You know, I didn't really... When I found out about her receiving the settlement, I was already back on my spiritual journey and I was already not allowed, trying my best not to allow things to affect me, but to be in control of my emotions, you know, and how I was allowing things to affect me. I don't think I really got too angry about that because at that point, nothing was a surprise.

1:48:22You know, nothing was a surprise to me anymore. You could have said, yeah, man. And now she, you know, she got a house in clouds and living in space and whatever. Yeah, it makes sense. They put me in jail for something I didn't do. They took away my whole life. And again, it makes sense. You know, I think I was more so disappointed in the fact that I was learning so much about my case that I didn't know and how neglectful my lawyer actually was. That hurt me tremendously that, you know, we put so much faith and trust into somebody and they literally just fucked us over. You know, I mean, so everything else was just kind of like icing on the cake.

1:49:05Oh, she got 1.5 million. Okay, well, makes sense. Why not? Seems like a lot of money as well. Why 1.5 million? Was it in the millions? I guess they were suing for a lot more. And because my lawyer had neglected to work with the lawyers of the school district, they had no case because they couldn't get in touch with me. They couldn't get a hold of me. and they couldn't get a hold of case files or anything because she was the attorney. So they literally had nothing to go on other than coming to depose me later on after I had already been sentenced. You know, what good is a deposition from a person who's been sentenced for a crime?

1:49:49It really don't mean shit. So you get out of prison after six years, you lose your football career again, you're on tag for five years, but your life takes a mad dramatic turn. Like you say, you talk about guidance and faith. we'll touch it on later about how why you went through this but your life kind of goes mad again, you're probably just getting on with your life, fuck it you can't play football you need to do something, you seem like the man who always finds something to replace whatever he's going through to try and kick on, even though you're probably defeated at a time when you were angry and full of violence and rage which is understandable but your life kind of went mad again because you got a Facebook request from your accuser.

1:50:32What are you thinking? And how many years later was this? 10, 11 years? Not only did I get that Facebook request, but it was during a period of my life where my life was just spiraling down and down and down. You know, prison is, uh, prison is, I don't wish prison on anybody. I think the experience, especially a California prison, and I've never been in jail nowhere else, so I can't speak on it. But from my personal experience, I wouldn't wish it on anybody. Um, but, uh, but there is something about being back in the real world, um, and, um, being still being accused as a sex offender, being on a registry list as a registered sex offender, um, having a skeleton in your closet of that magnitude that nobody else has.

1:51:24uh i couldn't find work i couldn't find you know i couldn't get a job no one wanted to hire me and even if they did want to hire me they would have to deal with the fact that i was on parole with a gps ankle a gps monitoring device on my ankle and a parole officer that's when i guess when i you know want to come visit the place every now and then no one wanted to deal with that um so it

1:51:50It was, it was, it was, it was tough, you know, when, how can I say this?

1:52:06you know

1:52:10when when she contacted me on Facebook I was

1:52:18I was broke borderline homeless if it wasn't for a girl that I was dating at the time I'd have nothing I was living with her she was basically footing the bill for everything very, very, you know, hard thing to deal with is, you know, if you consider yourself to be a man or one that understands the the role of being a provider to be in a role reversed situation was so hard. But yeah, I was I was going through every single, you know, negative thing that you could think of, you know, at that time, as far as not having work, as far as being a registered sex Offender as far as having no social life as far as having no experiences as far as losing 10 years of your life It like so many different things.

1:53:05So my life was was was on just But my life was probably at that time that I got that request was that that was that the lowest it could be and I was at home looking for a job online I was on I was on all the different job sites still trying to find work after three years of being on On parole. I think it was three years of four years of being on parole still trying to find work and I get bored. I'm like fucking, you know, I'm filling out these applications. I'm bored Let me take a break and I decided to get on Facebook. I remember at this time Facebook was a Facebook was huge and my space was still around there was no Twitter and there was no Instagram and all this other stuff but Facebook was a thing so I I got on Facebook and And when I opened up the site, I had a friend request.

1:53:56And I clicked the box and the thing drops down and it was her. It was her face, it was her name. And I remember just slamming the laptop down and throw, I literally threw it across the road. It was like, pow, woof. Like it was that, that felt like, whoa, what the, like I got, you know, like I touched something I shouldn't have touched, I slammed it, I threw it across the thing and I just sat there, staring out the window. I was sitting at the edge of my bed. I remember like it was yesterday. I sat at the edge of the bed and I'm staring out the window and I must have sat there frozen for several minutes, man, replaying my entire experience in jail.

1:54:29Flashbacks. I mean, it's just the craziest flashbacks. And my heart's racing. I'm freaking out. And then it hit me. I was like, wait a minute. There's got to be somebody playing a fucking sick joke. It can't be her. This has to be somebody playing a joke. So I got the laptop back. I popped it back open. and I'm looking at the page, and so I said, you know what? Let me send a message. And I sent this message. I said, why would your friend request me? Exact words. Why would your friend request me? Just to see what this person would say. Could you find a present for that? Yes. Automatic violation of your parole.

1:55:04You're never supposed to come in contact with your supposed victim. Automatic violation. So I sent the message back thinking it wasn't her. Why would your friend request me? Just to see what the response was. and immediately within seconds a response came back um i was hoping we could let bygones be bygones um you know um i was looking at your pictures on instagram on facebook and you know you've grown up a lot and you look good and um you know i don't know if you've seen my pictures what do you think about me how do i look you know and it'd be nice if we get to you know hang out and connect sometime and now i really thought there was some bullshit i'll I was like, there ain't no way.

1:55:46I was like, there's no, ain't no way this is her. No way. No way. So my next message was, you call me. I want to see who this is. Call me. Put my phone number there. And a few minutes, my phone started ringing. I stared at her for a bit. And I answered it. And it was her. and uh she said hello and i was just sat there in silence it was just i didn't say nothing for a few minutes and i'm just i'm listening like i'm in full paranoia mode i'm listening to the phone i'm listening to the background i'm trying to hear noises i'm trying to hear who else is on the phone if i'm is it three-way call is is anybody you know is it is it my parole officer with her like what's going on are you trying to set me up put me back in prison like i'm i'm really trying to figure out the situation and uh so she's like hello hello and uh finally you know we yeah what's up like what's going on like what was this and literally she just started flirting with me on the phone yeah you know i was you know i was thinking about you and i didn't know if you was on facebook so i typed in your name and you popped up and wow you you know you you're looking good and you've grown up and uh you know have you seen my pictures like what do you how you think i look and um let's hang out sometime, you know, wherever you are.

1:57:04I love to see you. You know, I don't have a car, but I, you know, I catch the bus to come see you or, you know, I can take a taxi or the train or, you know, let me know. Let's hang out, you know, and be fun. And again, I'm in silence. I'm just sitting there and now I'm just, I don't believe anything. I don't think that I just don't think I'll tell you the honest, I thought that she was trying to set me up to like to be killed or something, I was like, maybe this is like some fucking set up where, you know, you try to get me somewhere and there's some dudes there or maybe you're trying to set me up to go back to jail with my parole officer.

1:57:40And so I'm thinking to myself, like, you should hang this phone up. But then there's this other part of me that's saying, you know, you got to play chess and not checkers. Like, this is your opportunity to potentially shed light on what happened. If you can get her to come forward, then this is all done.

1:57:58So I start playing chess. It's like, all right, well, you know, I don't know about us hanging out right now, but, you know, if you want to maybe we can connect some time and talk. You know, I went through a lot of shit, you know, and I really need help getting my life back. You know, you know, you know, you and I both know what happened was was fucked up. and her response was, well, you know, we can hang out and kick it sometime and maybe I'll think about helping you. You know, all these hinting at, this basically hinting at trying to have sex with me. And I said, well, let me think about it. I got to really think about this.

1:58:38This is a lot going on and I'll get back to you. I get off the phone and for the next few weeks, she's texting me every single day, every single day, every few hours text hey what's up you free hey what's going on what you're up to you know sending jokes and this and pictures and whatever and uh when we're gonna hang out when we're gonna hang out what's what day is this what day is good i mean i'm getting these text messages from her every single day like harassing me but to a point to where you you just don't feel it don't feel real it's like you really are trying to set me up for something and um one day after me just kind ignoring the text messages she sent me a message and she said you know what it seems like you don't want to hang out so maybe i'm not going to help you fix your life if you don't want to hang out then i ain't going to help and i was that's when i knew i had to do something like okay all right she's going to disappear i need to figure out something uh so i reached out to my homeboy um and i his dad had just became a private investigator and i was saying hey i told i I finally broke silence.

1:59:44You know, only me and the girl I was dating at the time knew what was going on. I hadn't told my mom. I hadn't told nobody that this girl was contacting me. So I finally tell him and he's like, look, bro, my dad, you know, talk to him. If anything, you know, he can get us and get you in contact with somebody who can help you. So he gets me on the phone with his dad. I talked to his dad. His dad was like, well, just have her come to the office, the PI office. And, you know, see if you can just get her to talk. So I was like, all right, look, how about this? I text her, come see me on my lunch break.

2:00:19I'm at work, you know, my job where I work at. And we could talk to her on my lunch break, and we're trying to figure this out. She said, okay, I'll be there. And to make a long story short, she showed up the day that we had it all set up. The private eye was there, his wife was there, and we basically set up his office. to where, you know, there was, his office had certain cameras in certain places, but we started putting extras basically to kind of capture the whole thing. And she showed up two days in a row. Showed up the first day and it was just me and her talking initially. And it was mainly me expressing to her what I had been through, what I had gone through, what I had lost, what I had experienced.

2:01:10and the help that I needed. And her response was just like, well, you know, I went through things too. You know, like, you know, people were hating on me because I had all this money and I was buying all these cars and clothes. And I had a lot of haters. And, you know, the DA's office was trying to get me to go and see the psychologists and counselors and all this different stuff. And I just totally just. Oblivious to what all I had just said to her about my life and loss, you know, trying to match it with her experience with the$1.5 million and the help that the, the district attorney's office was trying to get her mentally for opposing, supposedly being taken advantage of all this was her hardship.

2:01:52Um, so I realized I wasn't getting anywhere with her on that front, you know, so I had to take it a different angle. So now I'm talking about like, how can, you know, let's, who can we talk to and get involved into helping me get my life back? And she's like, well, I don't want to talk to any police. I'm not going to talk to any lawyers. I'm not talking to nobody from a courtroom. You know, I'm willing to help you, you know, however I can. But I don't want to have to pay back all that money that they gave me because it's going to take a long time to pay it back. You know, and so I was like, I'm thinking I'm frantically thinking I'm going, all right.

2:02:28Would you talk to a private investigator? He's not involved with anybody. Maybe he could just give us some advice on how to go about it. And she was like, all right, yeah, I'll talk to a PR. That's cool. And she came back the next day. Now, mind you, all of this, during all of this, she's flirting. Like she's flirting right in my face, you know, and I'm dealing with that. You know, I'm dealing with it. Poker face, trying my best not to fucking go off and tell her how I really feel every moment of it. So she come back the next day. and the PI, the first time she came, he was in a different room watching it on the monitor.

2:03:06Second time he was, he, she showed up, she and I were in the office talking and then he act as if he had just showed up to the office. Hey, how you doing? I'm private investigator, you too. You know, he shows up, he comes in, he sits down and he basically starts questioning both of us and that questioning then led, you know, led to just questioning her and kind of asking her those hard hitting questions about did it happen and this, this and that. She admitted to it. It never happened. She actually lost, she said she lost her virginity after this whole thing took place. She said that we were just being young and having fun and being dumb and one thing led to another.

2:03:45And, you know, she made up, she says, I guess she made up a lie and then she blames it on the DA that the DA was asking her questions and then the DA was trying to get more out of her and all this other stuff. It's all on YouTube videos. You can find it on YouTube. You know, it's there. The recantation video. But essentially, he was successful at getting her on tape, admitting that it never happened. It never took place. And then a lot of truth to other things that even further proved that she made up the lie. and uh I remember man this is a side this is a side piece she left the office and I mean when I talk about rejoicing I was fucking crying I'm rejoicing we got this thing on tape the private eye he's crying his wife is crying we all in there hugging each other he's so hyped up he yanks the USB out of the computer before it finished downloading

2:04:52He basically destroyed the USB. So he's like, oh, he didn't finish downloading. Oh, let me put it back in. He puts it back in, nothing shows up. He takes it out, he puts it back in, nothing shows up. I'm sitting there watching from behind him. And I'm just like, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo. And he's sitting there like, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click. And he just stops, he goes.

2:05:19i'm so sorry i'm so sorry and i'm like no no you gotta be kidding i push him out the way i'm pushing it in put it click click click click click his wife's trying it's gone bro the footage is gone i'm crying he's crying he's breaking down and then he's like starts he's like okay calm down we got to figure this out and uh we get in touch with this uh what do you call those people for to repair USB stuff. I don't know. You know what I mean? So we drive all the way to the city. This is a little city somewhere and he drops it off to this guy and we're in a waiting game for like six days, six, seven days.

2:05:54Finally, the guy calls him back and said that he was able to recover 60 % of the drive. Luckily, that 60 % is all the recantation. Most of the first day was gone, which was me telling her about what I was going through and what I had experienced. There's pieces of it that was still there, but all that was gone. The second day was everything that we needed. He was able to recover that. And I never showed him, I never told anybody about that. I've always just never added that piece because I was like, why? I don't know, man, because people never ask. They always ask about the specifics of the case.

2:06:32You never really get into the conversation of my experience. No one asked me about prison. No one asked me about what the life was like in there. and what I, you know, it is always just a story, you know. But yeah, man, I almost lost it. I lost it all. So I get this, to make a long story short, we recover it 60%. I get it. I take it from him. Give me this shit. I got it. And now I'm on this frantic search for an attorney who's going to help me appeal this case. I'm digging, I'm fouling, I'm emailing everybody. I'm calling everybody. And everybody's like ignoring it, not taking it serious. No one will take the calls.

2:07:06No one will answer. Um, I had reached out to an organization called the California Innocence Project. Now I reached out to them initially while I was in prison. When I got my case file from the, the school district attorney, I had, uh, filed my own appeal. I went back to like, so basically because we didn't have a lawyer or have - Can you appeal if you've admitted it though? Absolutely. So you can still appeal even if you've admitted your guilt? Yeah. you file what's called a writ of habeas corpus, which is challenging the evidence of your case with some newly discovered evidence that wasn't presented in court before.

2:07:43So I went back, I didn't have a lawyer, so we had a legal law library in the prison. So I literally spent the next few months becoming a lawyer while I was in there learning the laws, studying my case, staying up late nights, researching stuff. Everybody's in the yard, I'm sneaking to my room, my cell and I'm digging through the paperwork, but no one's around and I'm learning, I'm learning, I'm asking the legal guys in the law library questions that like loosely kind of, you know, not letting you know what I'm looking for, but trying to figure out this and figure out that. And, um, I, I put together on my own a valid, solid writ of habeas corpus that was actually, uh, approved by the courts.

2:08:23Um, I went back to court to, uh, basically contest the writ of habeas corpus and more corruption took place while i was there i got pulled into the court office now mind you you were supposed to they gave me a court-appointed attorney because i couldn't afford one that court-appointed attorney was supposed to see me prior to going to court to contest the writ of habeas corpus i never saw this lawyer he never showed up i didn't see him until the then until i was in the courtroom in front of the judge before the judge came out he goes hey i'm I'm your attorney. I'm inside the box." I'm like, all right, where you been?

2:08:58He was like, hey, I just want to let you know. If you, if the judge approves this and you, you know, you do win your writ of habeas corpus, they're basically going to throw out your conviction. They're going to retry you all over again. You're going to, you know, going to give you a bail again. You're going to stay in jail. And they're going to treat it all over again. You're going to be facing life all over again. It's not as easy as you think. What? I was just about to say that. That's not true. You've already done your time. You've already done. That's not true. Why the fuck did they say that?

2:09:25He said that to me. It wasn't true. Was that another? I don't know. I never saw the guy. He shows up. He whispers this in my ear. He tells me this. I had months left on my sentence. I was out in probably less than a year. And I'm sitting here listening to this guy say this. The judge walks in and he goes, all right, so why are we here today, Mr. Banks? I stood up in the box. I said, Your Honor, I'd like to withdraw my writ of habeas corpus. I apologize for wasting the court's time. Please throw this out. And I would like to finish out the rest of my sentence and go home. And he said, OK, granted, that was it.

2:10:01And I did not know that wasn't true. What's true is they can try to refile more than likely. They will try and refile on you. But that doesn't mean that all these same rules apply the way that he tried to make it seem. It's different. I would have been able to go home. I would have paroled, you know. Did he not see the footage? The footage didn't exist at this time. This was, when I first filed my own appeal, this was probably four years into my five-year sentence, maybe four and a half years into my five-year sentence. I filed my first appeal on my own, and then I threw it out, then I paroled home, and that's when all the other stuff started happening.

2:10:41Right, so this was when you were in prison, and you tried to do it all yourself? Yeah, tried to do it myself. Yeah, so I'm thinking you've got the footage, and you've tried to get money. No, this is before. I filed my writ of habeas corpus on the la on the the fact that my lawyer never used the DNA So technically that was newly discovered evidence because it wasn't it wasn't used In the course eyes is technically not newly discovered evidence because it did exist My lawyer just did not use it, but it was enough for my writ to be heard in in front of court So once I threw that out after hearing this guy tell me that he disappears the the writ of habeas corpus disappears I go back to jail and our prison and finish my sentence.

2:11:19And during that time, I had reached out to California Innocence Project. They turned down my case because there was no evidence that they could use to get me back in court. Now, fast forward, I have this video. And after reaching out to so many different attorneys, I reach out to them once more. And I said, please, if you just watch the video, you'll see for yourself. and there's a lady in that office at the California Innocence Project at the time. Her name was Kim Hernandez. She was the project coordinator. She wasn't an attorney. She was the person that was like, you know, handling the business side of things.

2:11:54She answered the call and she said, OK, I'll meet you to look at the video. I'll bring one of the lawyers with me. She was nice. Here I was risking my my my freedom again because they were all the way in San Diego. I was in LA. I couldn't leave the state, I couldn't leave LA County as a parole condition. So I lied to my parole officer. I said, hey, I got this job interview, but the headquarters for the job is in San Diego. I need to go get interviewed. He gave me a pass to drive out. Um, so I actually didn't even go to San Diego. They met me halfway in the city somewhere. I forgot the city. Even though she admitted that, could you have still got in trouble because you're leaving in her presence?

2:12:36Yes, yes. How did that balance out? Yeah, so, uh, to make a long story short, I showed them the video. They took on my case. Um, and when they took on my case, immediately, they told me, hey, you know, just because you have this video don't mean that you're gonna get your life back. She could have said she was threatened. She could have been down the other - Well, she did all of that. But even more, the-the judge could have said, I don't like the way you guys went about getting this video. I don't like the way you went about getting the recantation. Because you can-can you record without people - You can record if the person is...

2:13:08has been given the knowledge that recording is taking place in the vicinity, which we made sure we put signs all over the office, outside the office, this will be recorded. Inside the room she was sitting in, there were walls and signs everywhere. We did it on purpose. But the judge still could have made that video, uh, not admissible, which would have left me with no evidence, which would have put me back to square one. So, we had to play more chess and not checkers. Were you still in contact with her at this time, just to keep her sweet? No. Once she came forward, I shut the shit down. It was over.

2:13:41I didn't need to talk to her at all about anything. There was no reason for me to even talk to her. I got you on tape admitting you lied. So before we took it to the judge, what we decided to do was take it to the media. If we put it out there to the world, then there's no way that the courts could sweep this under the rug, no matter what the technicalities are, because the video is so damaging for her because she's literally admitting to everything while laughing about it, you know? Um, so we went to the media, which was basically me showing the world that I came in contact with the supposed victim, which is an automatic violation of my parole and my parole officer could send me to prison for it.

2:14:25So we put together this big interview, this big scoop. It was one of the big news networks in LA. And the reporter, his name is Randy Page. God bless him. He stuck with me through the whole process of getting my case turned over. But we put it out there. And literally that night, the phone rang. As soon as it aired, it was my pro officer. Just saw your ass on TV. come to my office in the morning, going to jail. I get to the office in the morning. He's hot. He's going off, you know, this, this, this, this, this, and that he's going off. I'm thinking I'm about to go to jail. And at the end of his rant, he's like, you know, you lucky the, uh, you know, my boss and these people saw it too.

2:15:13And they believe you. So what we're going to do is what they told me to do is to basically remodify your parole conditions that state you can't come into contact with the supposed victim at all unless it's court related and so they basically created a loophole for me the parole office did that kept me from going back to jail for coming in contact with her basically us going to the media helped me more in in in the situation didn't hurt didn't than anything because it put everybody, uh, in a position where they couldn't ignore what they saw. Couldn't ignore it. Because you could have got that video and it would have been this mess.

2:15:55It would have been an outcry. You're back in prison again. It would have been a public outcry if they sent me to jail after that. You know, this man got a video of the girl saying she didn't do it, and you sent the man back to prison for it? You know, it would have been a crazy outcry. So it worked in our favor. Is this the first time you'd felt as if life was starting to work in your favor again? First time. First time, well, getting the video, the recantation i was like i got that then when the media thing worked in our favor that was huge too because what happened after that was once it went to the media um my lawyers the california innocence project were able to do something that had never happened before and i don't think i don't know if it has happened since um the da agreed to uh listen to me without any court being involved.

2:16:43My lawyer was at a, uh, uh, the head of the innocence project was at another one of their cases that they were fighting. And he noticed that the lead detect, I mean, the lead, um, district attorney was there watching him, one of his junior DAs fight the case. He was in the audience when the case was over. Uh, my lawyer went to him and said, I got this kid named Brian Banks. You know, he's got this video has been on the news. We really You just you just listen to him and he agreed. All right. Have him if he can show up within a few hours, I'll sit and talk with him. So he calls me. He's like, put on some nice get to the fucking court office right now.

2:17:21So I get dressed. I smash over to the court office. And I literally sat in the office with my two lawyers, the DA, lead DA and the lead investigator for the DA's office. And they interviewed me. And at the end of that interview, they agreed to join in a joint investigation. into my case, which never happens. Um, and that joint investigation basically, um, uh, put the girl on a run. She basically went into hiding. Um, they couldn't find her. They were training on it. Now you would think that, um, so let me, let me first say this. She went into hiding. The DA's office were trying to locate her, not to help me, but to help themselves.

2:18:05They, if anything, want their conviction to stick. They don't want their conviction to be overturned. So tracking her down and getting her back on the right track would be in their favor. She's basically answering the phone, telling the DA, fuck you, catch me if you can. I'm not coming to court. I'm not talking to nobody. No. They had to subpoena her. They had to do all these different things, basically threaten her freedom for her to show up. Eventually, one of the court dates, she showed up. they interviewed her and at the end of that interview they realized that she had made everything up and it was a total lie and that's what uh that's what ultimately got me free um i went to court um may 24th 2012 and i had a feeling something good was going to happen we didn't know for sure but basically we went into the courtroom and this is on video too it's on youtube um the Judge comes out my lawyer asked to speak to the judge up front the DNA and my lawyer walk up to the to the judge They whispered to each other Obviously in agreeance they come back to the tables The DA says we like to dismiss this case You know do the section cold this this this and that This this guy is innocent and the judge granted it now What's crazy about it is the judge that granted the the conviction to be overturned is the same judge that convicted me.

2:19:38So 10 years later, I'm back in court looking at the same judge that gave me a six year sentence. And now I'm looking at him saying, OK, this over, this will be granted. OK, case dismissed. No apology. No, I'm sorry. No. You know, I hope you do well. You were a kid then. I'm sorry. Nothing. And it was like, all right, granted, granted. All right, case dismissed. And he just walks away. And and that was it, man. I drive my head to the table. Oh, man. And I just saw. It was like an electric shock. It was like a jolt of life, of air, of freedom, of. Struggle, a fight of everything, I was shaking. I put my head down, I'm covering my face and my.

2:20:29eyes were as wide as they can be while I'm huddling. And I just, I was almost like just over, like it was just like almost too much energy just surging through me all at once. Just I'm feeling my life coming back, you know? Um, and just like that, man, just, you know, just with a few words, I got my life back and I wasn't just found innocent. I was found factually innocent. So there's a difference. Innocent means that, you know, the courts don't have enough to convict you. They're like, all right, you innocent, because we don't have enough. Factually innocent is, yeah, we fucked up. We made a huge mistake.

2:21:08You should have never went to jail for this. So I was found factually innocent. What happened to her? Nothing. So this is what law needs to change. False accusations. If someone gets to prison time, you should be doing double what they've done. Million percent. Men need more protection. and listen men fuck up all the destruction in the world is the majority of men we get it but the false accusations there needs to be laws in place because if there's laws in place and i know a lot of people are scared to come forward when this stuff does happen so i'm not discrediting anybody but men need protection from this sort of shit like it does happen quite frequently too frequently our lives are destroyed your life was totally ruined your mom's life was ruined every but of any love for you probably life was ruined because they've seen a young rising star who could have potentially been in the NFL making millions providing for his family and so be it you're fucking king I totally agree I say it all the time it's not a matter of do women lie or what not people lie humans lie for gain for protection out of fear whatever you know whatever's going on in their lives dictates what they're going to say people lie it's not a matter of man or woman it's people and in this case this woman lied and in other cases women do lie and and and yes there should be some type of repercussion punishment i totally agree here's the thing the law needs to be changed there's a statute in the state of california there's a statute of limitation of eight years that after eight years it's impossible to go after somebody for perjury you cannot go after someone for lying in court after eight years i was locked up for 10 years so how am i how am i supposed to know that during my five years of prison and five years of parole that i was supposed to go after a person for perjury uh when i pled no contest to a crime i didn't commit how am i supposed to know that who's going to believe me and who's going to help me fight that case you know eight years it's you can't go after that person so criminally nothing happened to her she was counter sued by school district and the court system um and now owes 2.5 million but she doesn't have a dollar to her name she doesn't have anything so they'll never get a dollar from her so nothing has happened to her other than being what I like to say is guilty by Google.

2:23:37You look up her name, you look up her face, you know who it is, you know the story, but that's the extent of it. Nothing has happened. And so I do agree with you in situations like this, where someone has lied in court and has ruined someone's life for a number of years, whether you're a woman, man, whatever, you got to face the music. You can't get away with shit like that. that we should not have a law or a system that allows a person to destroy one's life and walk away from it unscathed. No repercussion, no punishment whatsoever. For the sake of what? Where do we protect him? Why do you think the whole thing happened?

2:24:17Could it have been a possibly set-up to make this happen? Obviously, just one of those things where she was scared and she didn't know where to go. Because, listen, as much as she's a fucking evil bitch, like, you still don't understand her story. it seems as if she's came from a right fucked up home. Yep. Where she's probably trying to protect herself, not realizing the extent of it. It's went too far. Yep. But still, again, you never ruin someone's life like that. So I'm trying to, I don't want to shoot her down too much because it sounds as if she is really fucked up in the head. Yeah, she made a lie.

2:24:46She made the initial lie. She did that. You know, let's take responsibility. She made the initial lie. She caused this whole thing to begin. And even if it was out of fear of her mother or fear of the school or fear of the police that were involved, she continued to double down and triple down and quadruple down on those lies to protect herself from whatever it was that she was trying to protect herself from. And I'm not saying that that is justifiable in any way, because in the process of trying to protect yourself with lies, you've destroyed the lives of many. You've up, you've, you've put a whole new.

2:25:34not only did she did she mess up my life and my family's life but our community our neighborhood the people that we all know the people that we grew up with the boys in our like my story is used at my high school to this day warning boys water up you know be safe do to make the right choices, but not the other way around. Hey, don't make lies. Tell the truth. Be honest. You know? So there's definitely a lot that needs to change. Laws need to change. Statue of limitations need to change. People being held accountable for their actions needs to change. Like a lot. I totally agree with you. Definitely.

2:26:17But it's quite a personal question. But when you get out of prison, things are going great how do you then have split sex with a girl for the first time in your mind without oh was everything okay wasn't that easy even even do you know what i'm saying but even at that even if someone's saying yeah they're consenting in your mind you're thinking what did they do when they leave this room or what do you know what i'm saying how hard was that to then build some sort of trust yeah it's funny i had no dating life when i was on parole um i had relationships And those relationships were formed by way of me having to expose my entire situation to them prior to anything physical happening.

2:26:59That was for me to do. I was so afraid coming home from prison of meeting women, dating of anything. For one, I had the GPS on my ankle. So if I was going to get down and do something, you're going to see that. Second of all, I never wanted to put my hands on a woman until you knew everything, because I didn't want you to find out later and feel like you've been lied to or tricked. And then I become, you know, I'm back in, you know, some situation again with some female who's saying I took advantage of her by not making her privy to what I had been through. So I'll give you an example. The first relationship that I was in, I got into a relationship.

2:27:39You know, I got out. Obviously, you have your hormones running. You want to, you know, catch up on lost time. But I never jumped out and did it freely or openly. I was on parole. I was a sex offender. I didn't feel comfortable doing that. So instead, I found a girl I really liked. I would date her. I went out with her a bunch of times. We talked, we talked, we talked. And then eventually I remember like it was yesterday. I took her to the beach. We went on this long walk and I got to tell you something. and I told her and she didn't really understand the full thing the next phase was come to my house here's the paperwork I'm pulling all out the Ritter Habers corpus I'm showing all of this I'm bringing my mom let me meet you I want you to meet my mom she meets my mom my mom's talking to her about it they having a girl on girl talk when I'm not involved and then allowing her to make the decision on her own to come to me and tell me in my face I believe you I'm here for you I got your back.

2:28:35I'm with you. That's like having a ghetto with your dating is like a court kiss. Now we can talk about having sex or being physical. You know what I'm saying? It was like that in both the two relationships that I was in, that I was on parole for five years, and I was in two relationships throughout that entire time. I was never single. I was never dating. I never went on a date. I didn't have money for a date. I couldn't even take you on a date if I wanted to. My dates consisted of going on long walks. You know, I didn't have my own house. Where am I going to take you to go get down and get busy?

2:29:07You know, I had curfew. I couldn't be out late past a certain time, you know. So me dating in the beginning, it just didn't exist. The best thing that I could do was to get into a relationship and find somebody who believed me. Did you ever get a sorry from anyone? Like? From the judge, from that girl. I've never gotten a sorry from anybody. I've never had one person that has been on the other side of this Apologize to me for anything the judge my lawyer the woman who made the accusation her family Nobody I've never heard one person say I'm sorry that this happened to you. It shouldn't have happened to you I'll give it the only person I will say that as a person who who made the wrong right, which was the the lead DA who got it, who interviewed me, who created the joint investigation, who stood in front of the judge and said, we're dismissing this case.

2:30:05His name is Brent Ferrer. Rest in peace. He's no longer with us. He went on from becoming the lead DA in Los Angeles to actually volunteering his time with the Innocence Project of Loyola in Los Angeles. He, all because of the hard work of of the Innocence Project, how they were able to prove my case and a few other cases, it really touched him in a way to where he left the DA's office and got involved on helping other cases of wrongful conviction. Because it must be difficult, because in such a sensitive case, the majority of girls do, are telling the truth as well, and the majority of guys will probably be saying they've never done anything, so people would sway towards the girls' story more towards the guys, and plus, you've admitted to it, so people were thinking, so you can understand that but again when you hear your story in depth what you went through what your mum went through to being falsely accused to spending fucking five years six years in prison football career ruined getting out getting a confession but again with your story it's like a fucking roller coaster whether we're the creators of our life before this i don't understand why you would want to create this life because it'd be far too fucking draining but the ups and the downs but there ends up becoming a silver lining you actually end up fulfilling your fucking dreams and becoming an NFL star from the graces of God or whatever.

2:31:29How did that come about? Was that straight away once you found out you were innocent? Just, no, man, this is me. Did you still believe that you were always going to, whether it was a short level? We had a football league in prison and no pads, no helmets and shit like that, but I was tearing shit up out there. You know what I mean? So I knew I still had it. You know, I was, you know, just straight up. It was like rugby out there, just, you know, hitting each other. But for me, what it was was when I was on parole and this girl came forward, we got her on tape admitting that she lied immediately when we recovered that and all of that took place.

2:32:05my mind told me, Brian, you have an opportunity to get your life back. And upon getting your life back, if it happens, when it happens, you are going to have a small window of opportunity to do whatever it is that you want to do in your life. And people will listen. Prepare yourself for that window of opportunity. Whether it's going to present itself or not, whether you're going to have the opportunity or not, Be ready in case it does happen. So when the California Innocence Project took my case on and I had that recantation video, it took a year for them to appeal my case, to fight the case to the point of me being found innocent and the whole thing being thrown out.

2:32:53During that entire year that they fought my case, I was in the gym. I found my old, I got my old homeboy. He was a trainer. His name is Marcus Hobbs. He was training at a gym called Metro Flex. I don't know if you know who C.T. Fletcher is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. C.T. before, C.T. was always a legend amongst us, but before he blew up and had this huge surge of notoriety, he was our pops in our gym who motivated us. But I was with those guys when Metroflex was just, just Metroflex. And all those guys there believed in me. And it was partly due to Marcus and knowing who I was and him vouching for me.

2:33:35But he started training me. I came to him out the blue. I said, look, man, that girl came forward. I think I'm gonna be getting my life back. I wanna be ready for any opportunities with the NFL. And he was the first person to not laugh and say, what the fuck are you talking about? He said, all right, let's let's go. And I start showing up at the gym four or five in the morning training with him. And then I started training with other trainers, Chris Albert and other folks. And basically for that year that they fought my case, I was training twice a day. I got on the eating regimen. I started losing 30 pounds.

2:34:13I I started getting on the field and doing field work. I hadn't talked to a recruiter. I hadn't talked to a coach. I hadn't talked to anybody associated with the NFL. I just knew that if I got my life back, that I would have a window of opportunity and I need to be ready for it. And so I trained for that entire year and I, I, I got into the best shape I had ever been in my life. And sure enough, I got my life back. I was exonerated. I walked out of that courtroom and outside of the courthouse, there was maybe 15, 20 different reporters from news to radio to, you know, international news. And everyone was there asking the same question.

2:34:55What now? What now? What now? And I said, I want to play football. And then my lawyers like, you know, get this guy an opportunity. And, you know, a few people laughed at the whole idea of the NFL. and little did they know that whole year, I was in there fucking training, getting ready, busting my butt, getting up late, I mean, getting up early, going to bed late, eating right, lifting weights, running. And the next day that I made that, that I was exonerated and I made that plea, my phone rang, and it was Pete Carroll, the head coach of Seahawks. He was the head coach of USC when I was in high school.

2:35:32He was the one who presented me with the opportunity opportunity to go play for USC. He, my first recruit, uh, my first, um, scholarship offer, which was a verbal offer, came from them, Pete Carroll and his squad. Is there money in that from college football? There's no money, is there anything? At that time, NIL. On fees, is it? No, there's no signing on fees. None of that stuff existed. But it fucking sets you up for life when you start processing through it. Yeah, so he, he said, uh, he called me and he said, I'm looking for a linebacker. man, you know where I can find one? And I didn't know who it was.

2:36:08I'm like, yeah, you got the right number, man. Who is this? And he's, you know, it's me, man, it's Pete. And it was just crazy, man. It was like it was, you know, here we were doing this recruiting dance all over again, you know, from high school to now in pros. And he was like, I've been keeping up with what's been going on in the news and I see you got your life back. I'm so happy for you. I'm proud of you. I'm sorry you went through all of this. You know, I don't know if you've been working out or not, But if you know if so we love to give you an opportunity and you don't you can't imagine a smile on my face like I'm sitting on the phone and I just smirk like Because I knew I've been training I've been working out and sure enough here was that window of opportunity now I could have very well not worked out not did anything and he calls and he says hey man I'd love to give you a shot.

2:36:54Oh coach. Thanks, man I am not in any kind of shape out, you know, I'm not even ready for that and it would have been over but luckily I took you know, I took the initiative and I was ready. So he was like, you've been working out? Okay, cool. He flew me out the next day. He's like, all right, you're coming to Seattle next day. You want to see what you got? And I remember that day I was being, I had an interview with The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Jay Leno was one of his last few episodes before he was out the door. And I did The Tonight Show and I hopped on a flight that night. I was a red eye and went out there and I tried out for the Seahawks.

2:37:29They loved what they saw. They invited me back to training camp. I did training camp with them and ultimately did not get signed. After that, five other teams started, you know, all the teams start reaching out, which was awesome. You know what I'm saying? And I I tried out for five other football teams, including the Atlanta Falcons. I signed with the Falcons the following year when I tried out with them. It was towards the beginning of their season. And they said, look, if we sign you now, the whole season's focus is going to be you. Like, it's just not a good look right now for what we're trying to do.

2:38:07So after the season, we'll bring you in, you know, at the end of the season to get you acclimated during our downtime. And sure enough, I went to play in the UFL, which is the United Football League. It's like a lower level professional league ball. I did that for one season. uh, well actually half a season, the league folded and went defunct. Um, but sure enough, at the end of the season, uh, Falcons called me back and, uh, said, you, you know, you pass your physical, you know, you, you're in, uh, flew me out, saw the doc, pass a physical and went through a couple of trainings with them. They loved it.

2:38:43Sign with the Falcons. Um, I had an opportunity to go through training camp, summer camp. I played four games with the Falcons, um, before being let I was a 28-year-old rookie, probably one of the oldest rookies to ever play in the NFL ever. No edgy, no college background, didn't go to college, straight out of high school. And I had an opportunity to run out on the field with... with some greats, man. And I had the chance to play in the NFL for a few games, man. It was... What was that like? All those years? It's kind of hard to put into words. Lying in a prison cell fucking known as a rapist, like, thinking there's no way out.

2:39:24But that feeling there, that everything that you've put in, everything you believed as a kid, everything, you probably still had that in a belief, even when you were in prison, even though you were doing five years, you always probably still had that belief. Always. So when you run out in that field as an NFL player, what was the feeling? Was it mixed emotions? That was the... That was the... that was the last chapter to that horrible story for me. And I know, mind you, I still live it. You know, I still think about it. I still have my dreams. What could have been? Must be a hard one. But I mean, what I'm saying is I still have my dreams of what I went through.

2:40:05Yeah. You know, one of my, I never shared this with anybody, but one of my, I only have one nightmare. I don't have any other nightmares. I've been having the same nightmare since I got home. And that nightmare is I today is my day of parole. I'm supposed to be getting out. But for some reason, they're not letting me out. And I'm frantically running around the prison asking what the fuck's going on. Why am I not? And it sounds very simple. But when you've been through what I've been through, it's a pretty horrific dream when you're stuck in prison and you can't get out. But I mean, I still have my dreams.

2:40:45I still have my moments. But I felt like that opportunity to play in the NFL for the small time that I was there was closing the book to that horrible experience. It was a, I told you so. It was a, I'm here now. And it was a, mom, we did it. and regardless of whatever happens after this mom like we did it we're free and I and I recaptured the dream that I said that I was going to recapture um so it was kind of like it was kind of a you know closing chapter into all the shit that had gone down man for the last 10 years of my life um to finally be where I was supposed to be before it all went down on the field with the guys playing ball it's a phenomenal story brother i know it's a painful one but the end product of it is what makes sense the end product is it is what okay somebody's got to went through pain everybody goes through pain to a certain degree you just went through more than most why do you think it happened to you though why you why were you dealt those cards do you ever ask that question you know i i try my best not to ask that question um because my whole life was centered around that why why why why why and occasionally you know i it happens still um but i i try to replace that thought right away with it did happen and you can sit here and focus on why it happened or you can accept the fact that it did happen and you can look at what you did as a response to what you went through not just what you went through i feel like we all have our experiences We all go through things of the unwanted, things that we never thought we want to go through.

2:42:38You have been through something that I will never in my life want to experience. I know for a fact, right? Which tells me that it's not the experience, you know, but how we deal with the experience, how we allow that experience to affect us, what we choose to do as a response. Because no experience comes with emotion. We apply emotions to experiences, right? Something happens in our life. We choose to get angry about it. Experiences don't come with anger. This happened. This is how I'm choosing to feel about it. And. I came to a realization that. I have to remain in the driver's seat when dealing with my emotions.

2:43:23I can't let my emotions drive the car because I'll never get anywhere. You know, I always have to remain the driver in my life and not letting my emotions drive, not applying the wrong emotions to experiences and just trying to.

2:43:45trying to find ways that I can continuously better myself despite everything that I've gone through. And I still, like I said, I still have those moments. You know, there's no way you can go through a 10-year experience that I went through and think that, you know, because I played a few football games, because there's a movie out about my life, because now I'm free and I get to walk around, that I'm no longer going to question why this happened, that I'm no longer going to think about what I went through, that it's not going to haunt me ever again. It does. It does. It absolutely does. But what I focus on is how I apply the emotions to the experience.

2:44:27And that's always in our control, always in our control. I use this analogy when I do speaking engagements. say you and me are in the car and I'm the driver and you're the passenger and I'm driving over 100 miles an hour and I'm going crazy I'm just going crazy driving and there's a car parked at a red light and I don't see it to the last minute and Soon as I see it. I slammed the brake and we just slide We get right behind this car We almost smack it, but we don't write one experience two different reactions because both of us are in the car You may get out of the car, take off your seatbelt and drop to your knees.

2:45:04Oh, God, I made it. I'm still alive. I'm still here. Thank you. Oh, you go home, kiss your family, kiss your babies, kiss your wife. Now you're going to church on Sundays. You know, you're the employee of the month at work. Now you got a better relationship with your family members that you used to hate. Your whole life has changed because of this one experience of near death. Me as a driver, I laughed it off and just kept going. Pill off and just keep going. No, no effect whatsoever It shows us that it's not the experience is the person dealing with the experience and how they allow the experience To affect them and what they choose to do as a response to the experience you went through an experience as The passenger that gave you clarity into your life.

2:45:48I went to dig through an experience as a driver That it had no effect on me at all And you see this all the time guys that go in and out of prison back and forth back and forth back and forth or the guy who went to jail for two days and was like, fuck that. You know what I mean? Like, I got it. I figured it out. You know, that's me. You know, I see opportunities for bettering myself and not hanging on to what has happened. If I hang on to that shit, if I keep dwelling on it, if I keep asking why, it's just going to set me back. Instead of asking why, I just accept what it was and I just find a way to be better than the accusation, the experience, the wrongful conviction.

2:46:36And that's really all we can do, man, with the things that we go through in life. Life is simply life, and all of life is not good. How's life now? Life is, you know, I feel like I have a life like anybody else. You know, I have my ups, I have my downs, I have my good moments, I have my bad moments, But what I can tell you is that none of what I went through dictates that. It's what's going on in the moment that dictates it. I've learned how to manage the past. Occasionally, I'll have those moments where, you know, it's resurfacing. I've had a bad dream or, you know, something happened where I'm now thinking about it.

2:47:17but I've learned how to... All right. Ain't nothing you can do about the past. Ain't gonna change what's already happened. But you can focus on what's going on right now, you know? And what you do in this moment determines what happens next. That's my main focus. I'm a... I'm always in the playbook, trying to make the next play. How was it becoming a father? Greatest moment in my life. greatest moment of my life. Um, even more so, I would say being exonerated, proving my innocence, uh, getting my life back and being able to create life. Um, I feel like they're one in the same. Um, my son is totally changed, changed my perspective on life, on love, on understanding people.

2:48:16I dreamed about my son. I was telling you earlier, when I was in prison, I dreamed of my son. I saw his face. I knew his name. And he's here now. But he's shown me how to... He's given me more hope than I've ever had before. I've always had the drive of my own, but I think he's just giving me an added purpose or a main focus. And that's just giving him a life that I never had, providing him with the type of family I never had, showing him what a man should be.

2:49:01And I'm a full time dad. I spend my days with him, you know, and he's everything to me, man. He's everything. He's the future, and he's definitely, you know, I'm one of those guys where I, you know, we need more beautiful, strong, educated, well-respected men in this world, and I'm so thankful that I'm in a position to have a son

2:49:31to help add another good man into this world. And I know he's gonna be great, and he's gonna do great things, but he's my magic, man. He's my guy. I love him to death. He's a good kid, man. Good stuff. How was it when the movie came out Did it bring back a lot of emotions? Oh, yeah. Was that a good way to wipe the slate clean to try and move on? Yeah, man. Yeah, the movie definitely brought on a lot of emotion. The first time I watched the film was a test screening at a... It was a small studio movie theater, and they put the movie on, and I was in a theater by myself, and it was a small test theater, so it was probably maybe about 40 seats, 50 seats in there.

2:50:30And I sat in the middle, they turned the lights off, they played it, and I probably lost weight, as many tears as I cried. I probably lost a few pounds that day just from tears. Maybe I should stop fucking crying then. I probably lost a few pounds, man, crying, I'm telling you, I just let it all out, but it was to see your life. It was talk about flashbacks, you know, you know, obviously everything in the film is not 1000 percent accurate, but there's there's it's very close. And it was it was a tough watch, but I've seen it so many times now. I've you know, I've you know, I travel around. I'm a I'm a public speaker.

2:51:15I'm a keynote speaker. I do leadership speaking, resilience, resiliency speaking. I, you know, I do a lot of movie and Q &A opportunities. So I've seen the film so many times. I've been on stage talking about my life so much over the last 11, almost 12 years that, you know, it's become a lot easier. But yeah, initially watching that film, it was devastating. It was really hard to watch, hard to relive some of those moments. It's hard to see, for example, the scene of my mom crying and screaming when I'm getting pulled out of my house and arrested. We redid that. We recreated that scene. I wasn't there.

2:52:05I was there when we filmed the whole movie. We filmed the whole movie in Memphis, Tennessee. And I was on set. I was an executive producer. So I had a lot of input, obviously, into what was going on in the film and how things were being depicted. And there are certain scenes I just didn't show up for when we were filming them. Yeah, today is a scene where, you know, you get arrested. Your mom's going to be, okay, I'm not going to be there. I won't be here for that. I'm going to, I will show up. I'm going to tell everybody what it was and how it was, and then I'm just going to disappear. And the same thing too with my mom.

2:52:36I remember when she came on set, I flew her out from L.A. to the movie set when we were filming, and it was crazy. She was so happy to be there and so excited to be there. And she was meeting everybody and shaking hands and hugging everybody. And they was like, all right, let's start it up. And it was the monologue that Sherry Shepard did when she was talking to the DA about, do you have a son? And, you know, what would you do if your son was in this situation? And literally within minutes, she just had to walk away. She just broke down crying. I can't do this. I can't do this. And she walked away, you know, but it's always, it's tough.

2:53:15It's tough. But it's so worth it, you know, because there's so many people behind bars right now for crimes they didn't commit. And so many people that are voiceless that have no one reaching out and speaking up for them, helping them out. You know. I had an opportunity to turn my hardship into a tool for people to learn from, to live vicariously through and to have and to develop hope from. that in their situations or their family member situation or friend situation that, you know, that, that they can get through what they went through, whatever that, whatever it may be. Um, so I, I, I value that.

2:54:00I stepped up to, I stepped up to the plate for that. You know, it was a choice of, do you want to make a film or not? I wasn't always gun hole, like making a film. Um, but the conversation kept coming up and the discussions kept coming up on how beneficial this film could be, how it could help people, how it could change the perception of our legal system. And it just made sense that I went through everything that I went through, um, and maybe to be a beacon of hope for others. Where do you go forward for the future, brother? Um, continuing to get a fight, man. I try, like I said, my main focus is traveling as an educator and speaker on wrongful convictions, on overcoming adversity, on resiliency.

2:54:49I'm going to continue that, I think, as much as I can. However many people want to hear my story, I'll be there to tell it. It's a story that needs to be told, and it's a story that represents so many other people and other experiences. Aside from that, I'll continue raising my son, being a good dad, and just living life as it comes, enjoying it as I can. I can't tell the future. I tend to live in the moment and live for today. And today is just, you know, it's a day to just be thankful. You know, I'm here talking to you. And here's another opportunity for me to share a story that so many people can resonate with.

2:55:38and it's not even about, you know, I can relate to this because I've been wrongfully accused or I've been in jail. It's beyond that. We are all going through things in life that we never thought we would go through. We never thought we would experience, but here we are in that situation. And there aren't too many places to turn to where you can decipher how to deal with certain things. You know, you could read these self-help books and you could listen to people online telling you to just deal with it. You know, you go. And it's like it's harder than that. You can't certain things you just can't deal with.

2:56:17But if you could show if you could show someone pushing and pushing and never giving up and finding ways to be better and finding ways to prove their innocence and doing all that they can to to to.

2:56:38And I think that those stories are the stories that need to be told and the ones that we should continue to enhance and enlighten. So I try to now, instead of, you know, looking at the why me, I kind of look at it now as why not me? Because, you know, I'm in a position now where I can talk about it. I can, you know, I can express what I've gone through and how I deal with it. And it's it's. It's therapeutic for me in a lot of ways, you know, every time I get on stage and I talk, Um, you know, even though I'm talking about stuff that I always talk about, there's gonna be a question that comes in from the audience that's gonna be probably something I've never been asked before, which is gonna put my brain into, you know, different thoughts and flashbacks and thinking of old stuff, and maybe to help me, you know, navigate through that and gain another piece of clarity on this.

2:57:36And, you know, and, uh, I enjoy those moments. Clarity, you know. For anybody that's maybe in a life of trouble just now, what advice would you have for them? the advice for anybody that may be in similar trouble or just trouble in general? Trouble in general, life's troubles. Man, I would definitely go back to the emotional control. I think one of the biggest things that we can master is control of our emotions. Sometimes our emotions get the best of us and will put us in far worse situations than we were in the beginning. you know even if it's something that's small I'm gonna say small because for someone else it's big even if it's a breakup you know you when you break up with someone you love so much you know and you can sit there and dwell on all the negative things and you'll by the time you finish dwelling you'll be in the same place or you can look at the positives redirect your emotions and how you allowing the situation to affect you and do something, uh, you know, positive about it or something more reinforcing that helps you progress and move forward in life, um, versus stagnates you.

2:58:51Um, another analogy I use, I'll say real quick is, uh, remember when you were a little kid and your mom and your dad told you, you know, go in there and clean up that dirty room and you go into your room and you see how dirty your room is. And instead of cleaning and you just throw a tantrum because you don't want to clean it. You kick it and you scream and you fight in the air and you cry and you drop it on the ground and you're flailing all over the place, you know, and your brother comes in and you're asking your brother to help you clean and your brother says no. And your sister peeks in and you ask your sister to help you clean it.

2:59:20She says no. And, you know, you eventually you stop kicking and you stop screaming, you stop crying and you wipe your eyes and you stand up and you look around the room and the room is still dirty. you just spent 20 30 minutes of your life kicking screaming begging other people to help you come change the outcome of your room life right and nothing changed because you didn't do it and ultimately that's what it comes down to is things that we go through in life can easily be overcome in some fashion or form if you put that work into doing it it really comes down to you wanting more for yourself than anybody else could want for you.

3:00:06And I think that's what got me through my experience was the fact that I was never going to quit. Regardless of what I was going through, I was always going to keep pushing

3:00:17because nobody else is going to push for you the way you can push for yourself. So I would tell people to focus on the things that you can focus on and never mind the things that you can't until you can. Learn how to deal with your emotions and not let your emotions deal with you. And always remember what you do in this moment determines what happens next. So make the next move your best move. How can people get in contact with you if people looking maybe to hire you for work or just ask you a simple question on social media? it's all your platforms brother yeah all of my social media handles is brian banks free f-r-e-e my website brianbanksfree.com i have everything up there as far as my story uh to my journey as a public speaker so if anybody has any questions or wants to network and work together i'm always available.

3:01:17I'm always looking for opportunities to further, uh, tell them my story and the stories of others. Well, I said, would you like to finish up on anything else? No, I mean, I, uh, if anything, man, just thank you. I really thank you because I, I, I really respect you and what you're doing, your podcast. Um, the, the platform, um, that you've created has grown so huge and you've, you've gained so much success from it. So I, first of all, I want to say congratulations to you. And then thank you for using that platform to highlight a story such as mine because there's so many other stories out there that's a lot more attractive and sexier, you know, and it may get more clicks, but you're focusing on a really good subject here.

3:02:07And I think people will see that and resonate with that. Keep doing your thing, man. I appreciate it. Yeah, much respect to you. Listen, man, nothing but love, man. It's a phenomenal story, and I wish you nothing but the best for you, the future for you and your son and your partner. God bless you, brother. Thank you. Appreciate it.

3:02:29This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons Podcast. Have you guys heard about ChatGPT work? It's the new way to use ChatGPT for bigger multi-step projects. And when you need more than just answers, Give ChatGPT work access to your apps and files, and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides, and structured reports. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting work mode available on Plus and Pro plans.