CHAPTER 166
After talking to Raymond Junior on the phone, Damon and I drove out of the gated community across the street to a Sushi restaurant to meet him. We parked Troy’s van in reverse so Junior would know who we were and watched him park and walk toward us. “Are you Vince’s friends? I just got back from visiting him in the hospital. He’s out of his coma and they are going to transfer him into the jail tonight.”
Damon said, “Thanks for going to see him that means a lot and says a lot about you.”
Raymond Junior said, “Let’s go inside and eat, it’s on me.”
We went inside and I could see what Vince saw in Raymond Junior. He looked true and loyal and like he cared about people. Sitting at the table I asked him, “What did Vince tell you?”
“He said he got beaten unconscious for digging up dirt on the Hadley rape case.”
“Is that all he told you?”
“He said there was more he wanted to tell me, but couldn’t. He said he hoped his homeboys got a hold of me. Were you to in Pelican Bay with him?”
Damon said, “It’s too early to talk about that kind of stuff.”
I said, “You have to earn our trust piece by piece, inch by inch.”
Raymond Junior asked, “What should I call you guys?”
Damon said, “Call us Comrades.”
I said, “Call us brothers.”
Then I explained the three strike proposition his Dad got involved in and told him the truth about what we were doing. I studied Raymond Junior’s body language. His expression looked hurt that he’d been duped by Vince the whole time, then frustrated, then mad. I explained that Vince’s notes told us how much he liked and respected him and that it wasn’t his plan for it to go down the way we were taking it. I reminded him of how Vince had tried to get his Dad to sponsor a nonprofit foundation to help ex-prisoners re-integrate back into society.
Damon told him why he and Vince went to Pelican Bay.
Raymond Junior said, “Vince never even said anything about that.”
It looked like Raymond Junior was back on our side. Then his phone rang. I listened to his Mom tell him, “Your father is missing! Do you know where he is? I just filed a report with the Sheriffs and they asked me if he was with another women, or at a friend’s house! Would you come home and help me look for him?”
Raymond Junior went home and called us. “A reporter from the news is coming to interview my Mom about my Dad’s disappearance. Can I do anything to assist you?”
CHAPTER 167
Raymond Senior, Damon, Troy and I watched the reporter’s interview in the bonus room on a big screen T.V.
The reporter: “The Sheriff’s office put out a report of your husband missing under suspicious circumstances, but allude to the possibility he might be at a friend’s house.”
Raymond’s wife: “The lock to the gate’s been cut! The horse he rode back on is in the barn! He’s been kidnapped!”
I watched Damon put his president Nixon mask on and yell, “We’re going to be indicted for kidnapping! That’s a life sentence!”
I said, “If we would have sent our video to CNN without this report they wouldn’t have played it until they got hold of Raymond Senior to make sure he authorized it.”
Raymond Senior said, “You didn’t kidnap me. I came over here on my own after meeting you on the horse trail!”
Damon changed the channel to CNN and we all watched the reporter announce breaking news.
“This just in. Raymond Senior has been reported missing under suspicious circumstances. His wife believes he’s been kidnapped, as she reported to the media. We have just received a video feed allegedly from Raymond Senior. We’re waiting for the F.B.I. to review the video. Stay tuned…”
I watched Damon audibly groan at how close we were. Now it looked like the F.B.I. might put a block on our voice. Troy said, “I’ll just send that video to The reporter and the rest of the news. Someone will want to be the first to break it!”
It didn’t take that long. The CNN reporter came back after the commercial break. She announced, “We have clearance from our Atlanta Studio to play the Raymond Senior video.”
We watched Raymond Senior’s 30 second sound bite and erupted in joy. I hugged Raymond Senior so hard we both tumbled to the ground. Damon jumped in and then Troy and the rest of us all rolled around in a dog pile like kids. I watched Troy sneak away and video us laughing and playing. I let Raymond and Damon jump on top of me and heard Raymond say, “I want to make another video! I’ve got more ideas we need heard!”
Ten minutes later while we were setting up another video sound bite, CNN announced an F.B.I. spokesman had a report about Raymond Senior.
“The F.B.I. in conjunction with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department has concluded that Raymond Senior has been kidnapped by a California prison gang, with ties to Pelican Bay State Prison and a white power movement, to coerce Raymond Senior into being their mouthpiece to argue the three strikes law. We have phone records to substantiate this and one who was released from Pelican Bay a few years ago in custody for street terrorism, extortion and assault and battery on the police. This inmate has been in multiple race riots and took part in a shower stabbing that almost killed two innocent inmates. This is an example of a local terrorist organization funded by drugs. Another suspect to the crime we have traced phone records is a cartel level gun and drug dealer who has promised to shoot it out with the police. We believe these suspects are armed and dangerous!”
I stared at the T.V. in silence and watched Damon’s face go from joyous, to a stoic granite mask just like mine was becoming. I observed Troy staring at Damon and I for leadership and mirror our thoughtful postures. I watched Raymond Senior propose, “I’ll make another video stating I haven’t been kidnapped or coerced!”
I responded immediately. “It’s a lot more complicated than you realize, sir. We need five minutes of silence to pray about it for guidance before we problem solve this.”
CHAPTER 168
I videotaped the next video of Raymond Senior sitting in the Louis the 14th chair behind the table with the chess board to his right.
“First of all, I haven’t been kidnapped or coerced in any way. The truth is, I took part in a lie when I campaigned against redefining the three strike law, as a glaring example of a form of terrorism by our own government. By definition, terrorism is instilling fear. By telling the public that CHILD MOLESTORS, RAPIST AND MURDERERS will be released if the three strikes law is redefined, it did just that, it instilled fear in our public. It was a false fear. I’m confident that the American public will see the facts as this is re-examined. Then I’m beseeching the American public to demand more TRUTH from our government. I’m proposing a third party, maybe on a NON PROFIT LEVEL, whose sole responsibility is to monitor our congress and the rest of our government and their relationship with special interest corporations. The only difference between the thugs in Las Vegas and the ones in government is the thugs in Vegas are gambling with their own money and the ones in congress are gambling with the American people’s money and then pointing the finger the other way to misdirect the attention to another outrage. I’m contacting my attorneys to speak for me, and, the individuals I’m with who are being slandered and falsely targeted, one of which is in custody for uncovering corruption on a local level. I’m asking the American people to stop believing the hype from the highest levels that lead us into a war over lies! Let’s clean up our own backyard before trying to fix someone else’s!” Troy walked into the camera’s view and brought Raymond Senior a bottle of Pinot Grigio wine. They clinked glasses and Troy said, “I support this message.”
I thought at least now it won’t look like we’re a white power homegrown terrorist group.
We sent the video feed to CNN.
A half an hour later CNN announced some breaking news!
“We have received another video feed from the allegedly kidnapped and coerced Raymond Senior. We can’t play the video. T
he F.B.I. has to clear it with Homeland Security. An F.B.I. spokesman is here to explain.”
“We are working with Homeland Security on this homegrown terrorist group with local task forces on the ground. We don’t negotiate with terrorists and won’t play their propaganda video feeds to give them a voice and encourage more of this extremism.”
I watched CNN go to a commercial and said, “They’re scared of a civil revolution. If that happens we’d be made an example of in a swift execution in the name of freedom.”
Damon said, “Martial law.”
The CNN reporter came back and announced, “We have a legal expert from Harvard here to consult about the three strikes law and the proposition 66 that failed years ago.”
“My research on proposition 66 brings me to the conclusion that child molesters, rapist, and murderers would not have been released if the law would have passed to redefine certain strikes under the current law.”
Troy said, “The federal government can’t block us from sending the video on UTUBE!”
I smiled as a vision flooded my thoughts.
We set up one more video feed. Raymond Senior was sitting in the Louis the 14th chair and stood up as he spoke. “Fellow Americans…Leaders of the free world… Does that statement sound a little hollow to you? Isn’t it time we tell our government to start showing our own Americans who are struggling with addiction compassion. We’re getting closer and closer to the point where you are either working for the government or the target of the government. Now that we’ve given an example of big government manipulating the public on a state level in California with the prison union; you can see they were scared they were going to lose their stronghold to keep building more prisons and giving themselves pay raises. I propose we flip the script. In the name of compassion, forgiveness and rehabilitation let’s look at how we can utilize the inmates who aren’t incarcerated for violent crimes.” Raymond Senior picked up a chess piece and moved it on the board and continued.
“We have to find a way to place some of these prisoners while they are incarcerated so they have A JOB ALREADY and another skill so they don’t get out of prison in our fast paced society without any placement. What if we helped our struggling auto industry by providing them with some workers at minimum wage to help them compete and give rehabilitation a real chance, by giving low-level non-violent criminals a chance to dig some new roots? How about we explore ways to build more industry with these prisoners to produce more “made in America” products in a way that ensures these prisoners jobs when they finish their sentence. Industry, not incarceration for petty drug crimes! What if we put every alcoholic in prison? The pendulum has to swing the other way before we’re breeding more and more prison gangs and violence!”
CHAPTER 169
“I work for Internal Affairs now, Jade. I’m not with the Orange County task force anymore. I live in Marina Del Ray and work out of an office in downtown L.A.”
“John Maltobano, I have a feeling the detectives are going to kill my ex husband and his friend. They uncovered some corruption related to the Hadley gang rape case and they have other video evidence of corruption! Can’t you do anything?”
“Where is this evidence?”
“I don’t know! I can’t call him on the phone…”
CHAPTER 170
“My son doesn’t live here anymore! You already know that! His Lincoln Town Car isn’t out front! Don’t you have to have a warrant to search my house Detective Pincher?”
“We have reliable information that led us to believe your son was hiding out here and is involved in a criminal conspiracy. We have to take your computer and all the cell phones we find into evidence for our technicians to dissect. If your son has sent you anything in emails or any other video feed you better give it to us or you’ll be charged as a co-conspirator.”
CHAPTER 171
I studied Damon’s face and body language, his forehead was creasing in intense thought. I felt something too. Something was closing in on us. I asked Damon, “What’s our exit strategy?”
Raymond Senior didn’t look like he was feeling our stress at all. “Why don’t we just turn ourselves in to my attorneys? I’ll have you guys out on bail in hours. You’ll be protected under my attorneys and I promise you I won’t do any talking for myself. You’ve convinced me trying to talk and explain myself isn’t wise. I’ll let my attorneys do all the talking.”
I said, “It’s not like that when you’re on parole. You can’t bail us out. We’re going to have to do violations of parole, up to a year. I want to get a separate copy of Vince’s discovery evidence somewhere else safe.”
Troy said, “I sent the video footage to your Dad, B.J. but I couldn’t get Vince’s discovery notes. He wrote in those coded ruins to him with the gang rape information.”
Damon said, “Let’s either bury it or drop it off back in Vince’s P.O. Box.”
I stared out the passenger window at the dirt tracks and hillside outside of El Toro that still hadn’t been built up from when I was little, and, imagined myself riding a bike at the same rate we were going in the Hummer, and doing tricks on all of the dirt twists, turns and bumps. I heard Raymond Senior talking on the phone and it took a second to realize he shouldn’t be on the phone.
“Turn your phone off!”
Raymond Senior took the phone away from his face. “I’m just talking to my attorney and establishing him as yours also.”
“Turn it off!”
I watched Raymond Senior speak back into his phone. “I’ll call you back shortly.”
“You just gave away our location and who you were talking to!”
I looked at Troy. “Why did you give him his phone back?”
Detective Pincher stood next to detective Marks and detective Buzkill behind the substation when his phone rang.
“Raymond Senior made a call. He appeared to be in a vehicle traveling on El Toro road heading toward Trabuco Canyon.”
Detective Pincher asked, “Who did he call? Maybe that’s where they are heading!”
“I don’t think so. The call was to a law firm in Irvine the other direction from the one they were traveling. They’re heading into Trabuco Canyon. Maybe they are doing something else first.”
“Okay we’re going to get moving in the Crown Victoria toward Trabuco Canyon, there’s only one main road out there.”
Detective Maltobano raced around the corner, bounced over the oversized speed bump, and saw the faintest image of taillights turn a corner ahead. He thought, those looked like Hummer taillights. He pulled up to the house and ran to the garage door. It had window squares to look through at a height of about six and a half feet, he stood on his tip toes and bounced a few times and gave up. He ran around the fence to the backyard. It was locked. He hopped the fence and tried the garage door. It was locked. He ran further into the backyard and looked through the sliding glass door. It didn’t look like anyone was home.
“Jade they’re not here. Where else could they be?”
“I heard them talking about a P.O. Box in Trabuco Canyon, or Silverado Canyon.”
Detective Maltobano raced the high performance Crown Vic. through the gated community in the same direction he’d seen the possible Hummer’s tail lights. Outside of the community at a traffic light he searched the On-Star for directions to a P.O. Box. There was only one. It was in Trabuco Canyon.
Detective Pincher looked in his rear view mirror at detective Buzkill in the backseat and explained the plan detective Marks already knew about. “We’re either looking for a black Lincoln Town car with the PRESTO plates or a tan Hummer with CROSSROAD plates. When we find them I’m going to isolate them as much as possible and I’m going to take Raymond Senior into handcuffed custody and get him away from B.J. and Damon so you both can operate with impunity. You handle the business like you’ve been trained to do at the firing range so the suspect’s game is over for good. One of you get B.J.’s finger prints on the drop gun and leave it next to his body.”
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br /> Detective Buzkill asked, “What drop gun?”
Detective Marks handed a Ruger 9 m.m. to detective Buzkill and dropped it as detective Pincher swerved around a corner.
Detective Pincher said, “Just stick to our story and we’ll be heroes in the media for rescuing Raymond Senior from violent kidnappers! We’ll feed the media their crime histories piece by piece to keep the feeding frenzy on our side.”
CHAPTER 172
I watched the road as Damon waited to pull out of the country western business lot where we’d made the drop at the P.O. Box and noticed a Crown Vic. with tinted windows accelerate through a corner heading toward us. Damon didn’t hesitate and floored it right in front of a Porsche, sending us by the Crown Vic. in a blur. I pulled the passenger sun visor down and looked through the mirror behind us to watch the Crown Vic’s reactions. The Crown Vic. skidded to a stop at the entrance to the parking lot and tried to flip a U-turn. A Mercedes Benz that had been behind us was pulling out in our direction and an impatient driver in a B.M.W. did the same thing keeping the Crown Vic. pinched halfway through his U-turn. I watched the rear view mirror hoping that the windy road would make it impossible for the driver of the Crown Vic. to see which way we turned at the next corner and lost sight of it just in time. At the corner, Damon accelerated right in front of a Corvette going right.
Damon said, “He’ll think we went left toward the freeway where there are more streets to get lost in
I was thinking the same thing but wondering why we weren’t going that way. The direction we were headed was a lonely remote road without any options. “Why are we going this way? There’s nothing out here but hills.”
ROLL CALL ~ A Prison List (True Prison Story) Page 44
