Pleading Guilty when you are Not Guilty

This is something that happens in courtrooms across the U.S. every hour of the day. Pleading guilty when you're not guilty is all about weighing the options. Going to trial, whether you're guilty, innocent, or something in-between, is always a gamble and in many cases it is your life at stake.

I've always been a gambler of sorts – not in an addicted way, but more involving a lack of fear and a refusal to back down when I know I'm correct and the other side is worse than most could imagine. Of course I never claimed actual innocence in the case and always stated that I was not guilty as charged. The charges were serious overkill and that's on them: they lost.

My co-defendant, Rocky, did not exactly have the same opportunity for a trial as I did, but I have already told that story on this blog. Read The State of Florida Drugs Its Witnesses for part of the story. The rest of the story is stated in various articles here, but the shortened story is that Rocky had a $900,000 bond. When he had a hearing to reduce the bond, the judge gave him a $0 bond – as in no amount of money or property could secure his release. Rocky pled guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Racketeering (RICO) and agreed to testify against me to get a $20,000 bond and be released from the Orange County jail. Yes, I know that this is a violation of the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution, but trust me; it doesn't matter. Prosecutors screwed him in the end anyway. This often happens here.

It should matter, but those in power in this country do whatever the hell they want, disregarding law. This is, of course, something that I learned during the course of the case, before we ever made it to trial. I'm sure that it happens often in U.S. courts.

I will never forget the case of Lev Trakhtenberg. Lev sure wasn't guilty as charged, but similar to me he wasn't completely innocent. He may have been guilty of visa fraud (stating a lie on visa applications for dancers), but he sure wasn't a sex trafficker. If you know Lev at all you know that calling him a sex trafficker is laughable. He's a nice guy that wouldn't harm a soul. If you're interested in Lev's story, read The US System of Injustice.

Today Omar Khadr pleaded guilty to five charges. If you're interested in my background on the Khadr case, read The Show Trial of Omar Khadr. I later stated that his attorney had a serious health problem and the trial was postponed. Apparently he was talked into a plea deal in the interim.

I think that we could all understand why Omar Khadr took the deal, right? He weighed his options which were life in a U.S. Supermax prison vs. pleading and actually being free some day and serving the remainder of his eight year sentence in Canada within a year or so. What would you choose regardless of guilt or innocence or something in-between? Before you answer consider that he was being judged by a jury consisting of hardline military members in a War on Terror case.

Prosecutors intend to have the widow of the soldier that died testify at Khadr's sentencing. She will be pleading with the judge for a more severe sentence. I sure hope she isn't successful as prosecutors made a DEAL to get that plea and they should, by law, be required to stick to the deal. Prosecutors do lie and say or do anything to get a plea though, so only time will tell in this case.

I read an article somewhere early this morning – sorry that I cannot recall where – that stated Omar Khadr's head was down and as he answered the judge's questions relating to his so-called guilt in each of the counts. As he answered the questions he held his head in his hands. As with many victims of the US system of injustice, he had no choice except to lie or the plea would not have been accepted. I am sure that it is a lesson that he will never forget care of the land of the free.

Defining Freedom of Speech

Well, we are back to full moderation of comments here on this blog. This is, obviously, not the first time it has happened, but once again I am verbally attacked by some moron. It is easy to spew lies when you post anonymously, but guess what? This is my blog and I can as easily delete your ridiculous comment. Exercise your right to free speech and start your own blog.

As for my story in Memoirs being all lies – place your name on that along with a contact email and I'll publish your comment. After I publish your comment I will subpoena your information from the appropriate ISP and file a defamation lawsuit for your attempts to place me in a false light. I have said it before and I'll say it again – anything in the book stated as fact is exactly that. I sure do not see anyone coming forward to file a suit against me, and I'm sure I won't.

I never accepted the false information disseminated by agents or their informants in past and I will not be accepting it today either. I went through far too much hell in the case to tolerate such attacks. I fixed it by publishing the book and commenting under my real name anywhere that I comment. If my attacker is so ignorant that he doesn't understand why I did this, he need only contact his attorney and ask.

We have some level of freedom of speech in the US, but this does not extend to disseminating false information that places a person in a false light and ruins anything they attempt to do in life. The only absolute defense in a defamation suit is truth, and Memoirs is full of facts and truth, which is of course why no one has sued me.

The person that chose to attack me is most likely an agent from some unknown agency or an informant – the MBI agenda changed in December of 2008, when former director William Lutz retired, though they are still clearing up cases from the long Lutz era.

The person that attacked me verbally also has a right to free speech, and guess what? He can start his own blog by going HERE. He may name the blog "VickyGallasisaLiar" if he so desires. I may (and would) then subpoena his contact information and serve him in a defamation suit. I do not have to tolerate lies about my person, my family, or my former business, and I never will – just ask the agents that lost in the case or anyone else involved, including their informants.

Still trying to bury my story huh? Funny attempt anyway, but screw you "anonymous" attacker.

Responses to Witnesses and Informants

The witnesses and informants in the Miami Companions (MC) case are beginning to climb out the ditch and initiate first contact in attempt to involve others in this mess of a case. If you signed-up for a PACER account and read the complaints and the main indictment, well, then you are aware of the number of potential witnesses and informants involved.

What are plausible responses when you suspect that a witness or an informant is emailing or calling you and begging to meet with you?

A list of stories to use when you want to avoid further contact:

1. I'd love to meet with you, but my dog died today and he was sooo fond of the crystal blue water in Nassau that we are having him cremated so that we can scatter his ashes while hang gliding over the white sand beaches of Nassau. Ciao.

2. I think I was bitten by a brown recluse spider. My leg is swelling and I have this huge, hard red area right on my thigh, a fever that is worsening by the minute, and I've got to run throw-up before the ambulance gets here…click.

3. Oh my friggin God! All I did was flush the toilet – I swear – and the water won't stop. I'm standing in water up to my ankles and the plumber still isn't here! This is horrible and we'll be in a hotel for days. Can I call you back another time?

4. I think you've been screwing my boyfriend behind my back and now you both want to kill me. I will be talking it over with my psychiatrist this afternoon and he'll tell me if I should meet you or not, but don't hold your breath. Click.

5. Answer the phone and start one of these recordings at the same time (repeat as often as necessary):

Number was successfully traced

The call you have made requires a coin deposit

Your call cannot be completed, please check the instruction manual

The phone you are calling from is not in service

Your line has been temporarily disconnected

The number dialed cannot be reached from your area


Okay – here's an UPDATE on 28 January 2013 @5:45pm EST: Phone Recording Archive is no longer available. Apparently the website owner has discontinued the site or hosting for it. I have found a few websites with same / similar recordings:

Telephone World - Miscellaneous Automated Intercept Telephone Recordings

Art of Hacking Sounds

Bell System Recorded Announcements



Image: Incredibly Busy Man 2005 © Victor Prikhodko / 2010 © iStockphoto.com

Third Culture Adults

I admit that I have never adjusted to life in the US, and if I had a choice I wouldn't live here. Many people consider me to be un-American, to say the least, and I have been attacked on the topic more times than I care to remember. There is nothing like being told to leave the country when you disagree with poster statements on a forum – as if I could, right? Of course it is always stated obnoxiously, but the translation in my mind has always been, "You do not think like I do and therefore you are un-American. Get out and don't let the door hit you in the arse." I actually had one poster offer to pay for my one-way flight, but of course the person didn't come through with real information. (yes, I asked).

Incidentally, those statements that I disagree with usually involve the US invasion of the Middle East and the "support our soldiers" assertion parroted by so many Americans. Their favorite take on it is always, "Even if you do not support the war, you must support our military." The hell I must. Supporting volunteer soldiers is no different than supporting the illegal occupation of the Middle East, and sorry, but I'm not going to pretend to consider this acceptable; not to sell books on Amazon and not to make anyone feel warm and fuzzy about me. Really I do not give a flying crap what anyone thinks of me – that is a fact that you could take to your fact bank.

One early morning this past week an Amazon forum poster took the time to tell me about "Third Culture" kids and adults, and this was the most helpful information that anyone has ever given me since I have been in the US. Wow! There is a coined term for what I feel, what I am, why I disagree with Americans all the time, and why I have never adjusted to life in the United States! It was a shocker for me as all along I considered that it must be me, and what a depressing thought. My contradictory thoughts of being a foreigner in a foreign land are now reconciled.

The Amazon forum poster was so kind as to furnish a link to a website on the topic and offered a book recommendation. I think the poster is female and figure that she must be another one of us third culture kids to be as knowledgeable as she is on the topic. The Third Culture Kid (TCK) website has lists with 500+ answers to:

You know you're a TCK when…

- “Where are you from?” has more than one reasonable answer.
- You go into culture shock upon returning to your “home” country.
- Your life story uses the phrase “Then we moved to…” three (or four, or five…) times.
- You know how to pack.
- You have the urge to move to a new country every couple of years.
- You wince when people mispronounce foreign words.
- You don’t know whether to write the date as day/month/year, month/day/year, or some variation thereof.
- Your minor is a foreign language you already speak.
- When asked a question in a certain language, you’ve absentmindedly respond in a different one.
- You think that high school reunions are all but impossible.
- You realize what a small world it is, after all.

I am sure that you have the idea anyway.

On that note, I am seriously sick and tired of Americans calling me un-American just because I disagree with their own indoctrinates in American society. It is an indoctrination in which I did not participate.

Image © 2007 S. Greg Panosian / © 2010 iStockphoto.com 

Attorney Lynne Stewart Receives Lengthy Sentence

In the case of defense attorney Lynne Stewart the DOJ prosecutors sought a sentence of 30 years in prison, but much to their dismay Lynne was sentenced to 28 months by Judge John G. Koeltl. Prosecutors appealed the sentence and on July 15, 2010, Lynne Stewart was re-sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. Her indictment was under the watch of former US Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Lynne Stewart is only guilty of zealously defending an unpopular client in the faux War on Terror. I discussed my feeling on the entire case long ago in Zealous Legal Representation, so I will not rehash it all herein. For those unaware of the good accomplished by this true representative of the downtrodden and legally abused in our system of injustice, read here: Lynne Stewart

Is it any wonder that this has transpired in the Southern District of New York? It is par for the course for these overzealous whacko persecutors bent on incarcerating as many as they can rack-up as they disregard reality. This woman is a civil rights defender and a real defense attorney, though it is clear that the paper-pushing plea bargain attorney is far more appreciated by the so-called representatives of the people in the United States.

Drug War is a Total Failure

The War on Drugs takes in unimaginable sums of money and at the same time it costs taxpayers in the range of $50 billion annually when state and federal agencies are taken into account. Does that make sense? Perhaps it does, if we consider the independent variables. The Drug War money goes into the system in the form of forfeitures of property and cash, fines, and court costs charged to defendants. Money from forfeitures is then split among participating agencies and funds the pursuit of more Drug War prosecutions and the salaries and expenses of agency workers. This sounds like a never-ending vicious circle.

Drug War arrests and prosecutions also fund the prison system. The US incarcerates more of its population than any country in the world. We like to lock people up here, and often for any reason that we can find or create. We also hand out the lengthiest sentences in the world, and the longest tend to be for drug prosecutions; not violent crime. According to studies conducted by the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London, in 2007 there were 2.3 million people incarcerated in the US, and I have little doubt that the figure has since increased. China came in second with 1.6 million imprisoned.

I'm not going to fill your mind with a lot of statistics here, but will include links to websites at the end of this post if additional information is desired. I sometimes read through press releases on US Attorney's Office websites for various districts just to look at prosecution and sentencing trends, and what I've read lately is scary. It's hard for me to imagine anyone with a marijuana offense doing 20+ years in prison, but it is happening. Texas is a place that I'll never enter again. How can there be so much pot available at such great prices and so many prosecutions resulting in decades in a prison in the same place? This makes little sense to me.

South Texas has always had plenty of smuggling operations due to its geographical proximity to Mexico. If you read through press releases in the past year and half you will see sentences so long that it's mind-boggling – many are life in prison. They also work hard for as long as it takes to extradite the indicted from Mexico when necessary. In one recent case they worked on the extradition for eight years! Try to imagine the costs involved in that.

When forfeitures and prison costs are taken into account, the taxpayers are still spending close to $50 billion a year to prosecute and incarcerate drug users, drug dealers, and drug traffickers. What this is saying is that beyond building prisons, jails, and new courthouses, and paying millions of workers, they are still in the hole by $50 billion a year on the average. If this were a business it would have been dissolved long ago. We have a large percentage of our population that is so poor they have no health care and only eat because they receive food stamps. I believe the most recent figure is 31.5 million Americans receiving food stamps.

It is far past time to end the failed US War on Drugs. I get it and much of the population gets it, including many in law enforcement, so why don't our politicians get it?

Links to check out the statistics:

LEAP – Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
Drug War Clock
Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)
Bureau of Justice Statistics
November Coalition – Working to End Drug War Injustice
Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM)

Stop voting for politicians that don't get it!

Operation Plastic Empire Update

I posted State as a Con Artist in January 2010, and that con game lives on at this point. The case that I am referring to is Orange County, Florida case # 1996-CF-011913-B – the "B" means that Trevor is defendant B out of A through I. Trevor Campbell's Motion to Vacate and Set Aside Judgment of Conviction and Sentence was denied on March 10, 2010 by Circuit Court Judge Richard F. Conrad.

How could I even imagine the State of Florida doing the right thing for a change? Really; I should've known better. Judge Bob Wattles died and the state found a judge that would rule in their favor. Go figure. The State of Florida rarely represents the people and is not concerned with justice. Prosecutors in Florida are only concerned with convictions, and whether those convictions are correct is totally immaterial. Don't let them kid you.

When looking at the Bingo Racketeering Fiasco and the state's avoidance of complying with court orders to pay the $millions, this is made obvious. In that case the prevailing parties have now filed a motion seeking enforcement. The Florida Attorney General's Office is dead-set on costing the state an additional $million by prolonging the payout and forcing the parties to return to court again and again, so of course I should have expected the state to fight in Trevor's case.

Even when the Court of Appeals reverses the judge's order the state isn't going to give-up. Instead prosecutors with the Office of Statewide Prosecution will push it to the Florida Supreme Court. Poor Trevor will be fighting for the next decade to get this conviction reversed. Eventually it will be resolved in his favor, but eventually we will all be dead too.

I have a copy of the original Motion to Vacate, the state's response to the motion, and Judge Conrad's order denying the motion. The state speaks with forked tongue and uses the straw man approach in every responding paragraph. They include the reasoning that Trevor's motion should be denied because "it could pose an intolerable fiscal and intellectual burden to the judicial machinery of the state...." No shit, right? What about Trevor and the list of other defendants that were incorrectly prosecuted for commercial, and not criminal, behavior. What about the defendants' lives and financial burden?

The worst part of the state's response is the statement that places all blame on Trevor for making the guilty plea to begin with, and for not filing this Motion to Vacate in a timely manner, as after all – Trevor should have known better than to plead guilty to this trash case, right? What the State of Florida is saying is – hey Trevor – we don't give a flying fuck! You were dumb enough to plead to this crap and now you're stuck with it; right or wrong. Never mind that we held you in the rotten Orange County jail for an entire year before you made this plea and received "time served" plus probation. Never mind that you had an attorney that we intimidated into compliance. They are saying that Trevor should have known better.

They actually have the audacity to blame Trevor for not filing this same motion to vacate in 2000, and state that "Padilla wasn't a secret." According to the state, the "Motion to Vacate became time-barred as of March 9, 2002. Wasn't a secret to who I wonder? Regardless, the Michael J. Peter citation eliminates the issue of time in Trevor's case, but then the OSP has no stupid prosecutors and the state is well-aware of this fact.

Each defendant in the original case had at least one attorney, and most went through 2, 3, or more. No attorney was willing to take on the OSP and the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI). As stated in Memoirs, I spoke with Trevor's second attorney, from the Public Defender's Office, and this guy had no intention of going to trial; none whatsoever.

I think I'll make a list of all attorneys involved in the far-reaching mess so that you know where not to go for legal advice if you ever have the need.

The one attorney here that fights for the defendant and doesn't know the MBI well enough to fear them is Nick Sinardi. He is a Tampa area attorney and he handled the original case from Hillsborough County wherein defendant Padilla appealed his conviction in the Tampa court over the very same credit card sting operation by a Tampa area law enforcement agency. That case went on till 2000, when a Florida Appeals court reversed the judge's conviction and sentence. Trevor was smart and hired Sinardi to get the conviction vacated. Thanks to Sinardi, Padilla prevailed. That case is Padilla v. State, 753 So.2d 659 (2DCA 2000).

It's obvious to me that the law is a mere game to prosecutors in this state, and the many defendants in this case are proverbial notches on a belt of convictions. Shame on them!

Read the article entitled "The Screw-ball Scheme" in New York Magazine (pg. 30 also called "The Love Float") if you're interested in the IRS Operation Out Call that spawned the ridiculous MBI Operation Plastic Empire.

The Great Bingo Fiasco

It floors me that no article concerning the bingo racketeering case or the civil forfeiture filed at the same time so much as mentions the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) or the agency attorney, Joseph Cocchiarella. The MBI pursued the defendants like a pack of vicious wolves back in 1995, stealing their property under the guise of forfeiture laws, and Cocchiarella engineered the entire fiasco.


When I attempted to make a complaint about MBI agent Brant Rose back in 2000, it was Cocchiarella that threatened me with the power of the state in the form of a racketeering arrest if I didn't close my business immediately, and of course refused to accept my complaint by screaming at me for 20 minutes until I slammed the phone. This prosecutor later, with the help of the Office of Statewide Prosecution, made good on the threats.

It may interest some to know that Cocchiarella is still serving the people of the State of Florida. I know that he was with the State Attorney's Office (Florida's Ninth Circuit) as recently as late 2008, and may still be, though finding any information on him today is far from easy. He was also the Director of the MBI from the late 1980s until 1991. The Florida Bar Association lists his current employer as the State Attorney's Office in Orlando, Florida so I will venture a guess that he is still employed as an ASA. I believe he had one of those fake Florida retirements wherein the state employee retires to collect a large sum of money and then returns to work at a higher rate of pay; in Florida this is referred to as the Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP).

With the understanding that Cocchiarella is still with the State Attorney's Office and working directly under the State Attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit of Orange and Osceola counties in Florida, why would the Orlando Sentinel omit his name and all references to the MBI in articles relating to the bingo case? It was, after all, Cocchiarella that prosecuted the bingo defendants and filed the paperwork to forfeit the defendants' property. Cocchiarella has been involved in every far-fetched MBI prosecution since the beginning of his lengthy career. The great majority of those prosecutions have been clusters involving serious police and prosecutorial misconduct, though none are ever charged as such; this includes drug cases and vice/organized crime cases.

I can think of many instances that officers should have been charged in a variety of cases over the years, but apparently having a pal like Cocchiarella in the SAO gives agents a free pass to do whatever they want to do. Now this inept moralistic jackass is costing State of Florida taxpayers in the $7 million range, but no mention of him anywhere? What gives? Is he planning to run for political office?

Our State Attorney General was also of substantial assistance to the MBI in past, before he became our AG. Bill McCollum has been subpoenaed in a March 22, 2010 hearing on the bingo racketeering mess. If he doesn't come out with a solid answer as to why his office is disobeying the court order to pay, he could be charged with contempt. The Florida Supreme Court ordered the state to pay the remaining defendants for the forfeited property with interest several years ago, but instead of paying as ordered the state has spent additional money to prolong the situation.

The case in Orange County court is #1995-CA-006890-O. According to the case docket, the Motion to Enforce Judgments is scheduled for 9AM on March 22nd and it is in Division 40 with Judge Robert M. Evans presiding. AG McCollum did file an emergency motion to quash the subpoena on March 9th, though there is no response or order recorded as of this writing. The case is Florida State Attorney General's Office vs. Bradenton Group Inc, et al. Court records searches are through the Orange County Clerk of Courts.

The legal opinion can be read here:

http://www.5dca.org/Opinions/Opin2007/110507/5D05-3338.op.pdf


Hopefully full restitution will be made soon in the 15 year-long bingo racketeering fiasco.

Informants and Snakes

Informants and snakes have one thing in common: they think nothing at all of biting the hand that helps them.


We have serious trouble in our criminal justice system here in the US. The worst part of the show trial system is the use of informants. Law enforcement will tell you that these dregs of society are a necessary evil, but don't buy it. They are necessary only to further an agenda that requires a created witness when there is no actual or real proof of a crime.

There are two main types of informants at work as you read and I write. There are informants that work for monetary or personal gain – and are actually on a payroll at one government agency or another. They get paid as they produce. The other type of informant is a defendant that has been arrested but has made a deal for a lesser sentence based on how many other (usually bigger) cases that they help agents make against targets. I have been the victim of both types at one point or another in my life.

My racketeering and conspiracy arrest and trial – at least the conspiracy part – was based on the word of an informant that was working off her own charges pertaining to her own escort service. Her name is Theresa Isaacs AKA Theresa Ryssdal and AKA Theresa Raines and I discussed the witch thoroughly in a now removed post. She may use other names that I have yet to discover. Ann had other motives as well: to eliminate Rocky (my co-defendant and alleged co-conspirator) as a competitor; and revenge as I refused to help her get rid of Rocky a year earlier.

The main difference in the two types of informants is that the type that's working off their own charges or sentence in a hidden plea deal will rarely survive a trial; at least not if the defense is investigating thoroughly. The informants that work for monetary or personal gain usually are undiscovered by the defense. Of course prosecutors are supposed to disclose this information as a case nears trial, but few do and most lie.

The personal gain that I reference could be many things including U.S. citizenship. Trust me; US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) utilizes the services of clean informants that seek both money and citizenship.

The main reason that I'm writing this is to remind the unaware that we live in a country that embraces show trials and created cases. I guarantee that there are as many informants walking around the U.S. as there ever were in the former Soviet Union. Either type is a serious danger to all that they encounter, and in some cases even their handlers. A snake will bite anyone.

The Good Cop

If there is one main lesson that I have learned in the last ten years, it is that no matter what the situation and regardless of factual evidence, a cop will always back-up another cop. The perspective is that a fellow officer can't be wrong. It is an "us v. them" philosophy wherein if you are not a cop, you are a perp; period. There are no other options.

Once in a blue moon we encounter someone that is different and doesn't have such a black or white mindset. That person thinks in shades of gray and is open to other possible theories, weighing the evidence without bias or disregard for facts damaging to his own cause. That person is the one that keeps me from despising all cops for the actions of a small group. He is the good cop.

There was a good cop involved in my case. Since I refuse to out him by name, I'll refer to him as "Joe" the good cop.

I had no clue who Joe was or what part he played in my case, but for whatever reason the officer was on the defense witness list as we approached trial time. My attorney never said much about Joe except that he really did not want to be called as a witness; however, would be honest on the stand if he was. My attorney knew that calling Joe as a defense witness would be a career killer for Joe as Joe could counter the testimony of other agents in the case, exposing the group as the liars that they are.

When it was time for the decision, after the prosecution had presented its case, my attorney stated that we didn't need to call Joe, but could if I wanted to as long as I realized the repercussions that Joe would face for his honesty. Steve (my attorney) didn't feel that the prosecution had presented a valid case, and if we didn't call any defense witness except me, the defendant, he would have the final fifteen minutes to address the jury. That is how Florida trial law works and Steve felt that he needed the last word in the courtroom so I agreed. Joe never had to testify and I learned little about Joe until several months after the trial was over and I was acquitted by the jury.

My chance encounter with Joe came late one night when my son was outside our apartment building talking on his cellular phone. You see, the building is concrete block and most wireless phones do not work well inside and drop calls. Apparently there had been some issue with people in a nearby building selling drugs – I mind my own business and do not really care unless it affects me, and it did that night as Joe and two other cops were bothering my son for standing outside.

I immediately instructed my son, then 15, to not speak to the officers. Joe is a big guy, perhaps 6'8 to 6'10", and jumped right in front of me. He demanded, "Who are you? His lawyer?" I responded that, no, I was his mother, he was 15 years old, and they did not have my permission to speak to him. Even at 15 my son was big, around 6'2", so this most likely surprised the officers.

Joe practically screamed down at me, "How about if I arrest you for obstruction of justice?" I responded in a calm and quiet voice that he must do whatever he felt he had to do, and I would respond accordingly. Suddenly Joe stepped back, looked at me questioningly, and asked: "What is your name?" I responded that my name is Vicky Gallas. That moment it all transformed into something like a reunion between two people that never met, but realized that they knew plenty about each other.

Joe informed me that he was in charge of the task force in Brevard County that worked with Orlando/Orange County's MBI in my case. Agent misconduct was not appreciated by Joe, and he actually resigned from his position on the task force to get away from the bad cops at the MBI. It was all the more believable as Joe was driving a patrol car that night. Demoted to patrol cop for his refusal to watch fellow agents commit various acts of misconduct, Joe and I developed an unspoken understanding of the lasting effects that bad cops can have on a victim.

Joe is the only good cop that I have ever encountered in my life. Unwilling to back his fellow agents in a false persecution, he stood alone, obeying the law that he swore to uphold and defend. Joe the good cop will always be my hero.