5. When Meteors Strike (Part 1)

Passengers, buckle your seatbelts. This is gonna be a bumpy ride. In the first part of this series, find out how Commander Gem’s mom ended up in federal prison. 

Featuring: Sheena Eizmendiz

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Captain on the cap I have me the same. Let's
go to the mission one ready for a theme launching,

(00:32):
Hello again, Earth Things, Welcome back to in our own
world pod. We're so happy to have you here with us,
as we always are, as we always are. So last
week we did a little bit of a dive into
me and Emily's past, into our childhoods, into our upbringings,
and we thought, who better to have on this week

(00:53):
than my mom. Welcome Mom, Okay, we're happy to have
you here. I'm happy to be here. So we talked
a lot about what kind of what kind of upbringings
we had and how that up those upbringings contributed to
the kind of people that we are today. When I
was younger, when I was about to graduate from high school,
my family as a unit went through a pretty traumatic experience.

(01:17):
I was seventeen years old about to move to sort
of the other side of the country to go to
school in New York, which was my dream from the
age of eight, and my mom was sentenced to a
federal prison. I sure it was, Um, so shall we
just get into it. Let's do it? Yeah. I mean,

(01:38):
first of all, thank you for being here. And I
think that we need to have this conversation because, for example,
when you guys came into my life, um, you know,
a lot of people here something like that, they get scared,
they get worried, they automatically start to judge you without
even you know, hearing you out and understanding how not

(01:59):
only you end up in that position, but how so
many other people are wrongfully convicted and end up, you know,
fighting the legal system in that way. So I want
to destigmatize that and have these conversations openly. And you know,
I am really grateful that you're here. I am too,
And I'm really grateful that you girls decided to have
this type of conversation. I believe that this is a

(02:21):
conversation that is necessary to have, especially in the times
that we're living in right now. Yeah. I would say
that before this experience, before we you and I went
through this, or we did as a family, I thought
a lot of things about the justice system, and towards
the end of the experience, my opinion of the justice
system was entirely transformed. It's not what people think that

(02:43):
it is. We completely generalized the population of people who
go through the system as just bad people. People that
you have to stay away from and that's just not true.
There's a lot of ways that somebody can end up
in the system um and unfortunately, and I know that
there are a lot of organizations out there that worked
towards this. There are a lot of wrongfully convicted people.

(03:03):
And sometimes for as much as you want, as much
as you fight, you don't end up winning. And that
was our our story. I want to hear your story.
Let's start from the beginning, mom beginning of the beginning,
the beginning of the beginning. I'd love for you. Yeah,

(03:23):
open the story book. Let's share with us. You know
what happened? How did you end up there? Sure? So
it really happened back in I think this was you know,
and if we really look at it, if we're going
to look at it from as far as time frame,
it was probably a couple of years before that, around

(03:44):
two thousand and seventh of dollan E when sort of
the unfolding of this began. Right. This was a friend
of mine whom I had all the respect for. She
was a mortgage broker, someone who at the time when
we first met, she was in a business that was
very successful. She was already giving person so immediately the

(04:05):
trust factor was there right from the beginning. At some point,
I was looking to sell my our home. Remember we
lived in a town home at the time, and we
were looking to move into something larger, and she was
going to be helping with with that. So obviously she
had my information, she had my source security. You know,
we were going through the whole process, and we decided

(04:27):
to kind of put all our trust in her. At
the time, I was in a relationship, we were engaged, Yeah,
and we began that process, and somehow somewhere along the lines,
she having my information, having my source security and all
that private information, she took it upon herself, unbeknownst to me,

(04:48):
to purchase quite a few homes in South Florida. Oh no,
she sure did. But I didn't know this right because
I had no clue, and I'm assuming obviously the homes
were purchased under your name they were, and also under
my business name. So she she went a little far
into utilizing my business. So when did you find out

(05:09):
or how did you find out? Forward to two thousand eleven,
when did you sorry, when did she buy the homes?
That's where you were? We bought the home in two
thousand eight. This home, this residential home, right, we had sold.
I remember you were so grateful to her. Well, I
was grateful to her because she was someone that actually
looked up to. She was an extremely giving person. This

(05:32):
was a person. So I don't know if you remember,
jem Um, especially during that time, my my my office
was very involved in charity. Remember, and this is the
person that within minutes I had a courier knocking at
my door bringing me a check company Chuck. She was
donating whatever it was. And this woman that it was
responsible for this, this woman that we're talking about, let's

(05:54):
call her Sarah. Okay, can I call a girl self?
Don I mean, that's after That's what I called her,
so you could think of Okay, so let's call her.
Let's call her Griselda for anonymity. Well that was the
name I gave her in my book. So so Griselda,
back to where you were in your in your story, Well,

(06:16):
I was very grateful to her because she facilitated the
entire process very quickly. It was a very seamless process
in the moment, and you know, I would love you know,
I know that you're being honest, But did you ever
suspect that that was a little weird at all that
that was. So I'll share this with you, and I
don't know, I don't remember if I ever had this
conversation with you. Well, I was young when this all

(06:37):
started in two thousand and eight. I was thirteen turning
four teen, So I'm still learning. Yeah, there's a lot
of details to this, right. Um. The discovery of this
was um my then fiance and I we we needed
to go to the bank. We had I had purchased.
Aside from the residential home, I also purchased stay kind

(07:00):
of like it's a vacation apartment of some sorts. Right.
It was an investment opportunity that she brought to our
attention where we decided we would purchase two apartments in
sunny aisles. It's a great opportunity. At least it sounded
like a great opportunity right at that time. Uh, little
did I know the things that came after that and
uh in doing so, about a year after we purchased this,

(07:22):
she called me. She's like, listen, um, you know you
you're gonna have to either short sale it. Uh, You're
gonna have to take it from here. Right during that time,
She tells me that. I said, well, listen, when I
went to the closing at the bank, you I never
got the closing statements. If I'm going to sell this,
if I'm going to hire a realtor and we're gonna
do something with this property, I need the closing statements

(07:45):
and and just and the reason why I'm bringing this
up is because of the trust level that I had
in her. So I went to I went to do
the closing at the bank at Regent's Bank. To me,
it was a real closing, right, I mean, I'm scheduled
to she tells me before. She's like, tomorrow, you have
to show up at Region. You have a closing at
ten o'clock. Great. I go to Regions, asked for this person.

(08:05):
I do that. I you know, I'm giving the closing
statements I signed away. I'm looking at the amount. To
my knowledge of the amount that I was purchasing the
apartment flour was a hundred and seventy dollars. And that's
what I saw there the closing statements. Right, So there
was no foul play at that point. And I walk out, Well, no,

(08:25):
let's let's backtrack. I say, um, are aren't you gonna
give me the copies once we finished the closing and
the lady who attended to me said, you know what,
I need to make copies. I know you're in a rush,
and truly I was in a rush. I had to
get back to my office. I had sessions throughout the day.
She said, I'll give these two Grisilda. I said, okay, no,
nobody deal, I'll get come from her at some point,

(08:45):
some point never came. I I did mention it or
say hey, I didn't need for the closing things. She's like, oh,
don't worry. Whenever i'll see you'll give them to you.
Totally forgot about that. A year later, year later, when
she calls me, and at this point she already knew
what was happening. She already knew that she had been discovered,
all her all the fraud that she had been committing,

(09:08):
kind of like that the hat was out of the
orf the cat. So I my my then boyfriend, and listen,
we need to go to the bank. We never got
these closing statements. We have to go there. And when
we arrived at the bank, we spoke to an officer

(09:28):
there sat us down. An officer, well like a bank officer.
The bank officer right said, give me your information. We did.
Next thing, you know, the screen goes up. I see
her typing my name, my social security and next to
my name there's something that says fraud alert. And I remember,
I can still remember vividly looking at my name reading

(09:52):
fraud alert and I'm like, the hell? And I asked her,
I said, what is that? Yeah, she looks at me
and she says, I'm sorry, you need to wait here.
And so I told I tell my my boyfriend, what hell.
I'm like, Yeah, He's like, that doesn't make any sense.

(10:12):
I'm like, I don't understand. Why would that, you know,
why would my name have that? Did? He work with
her too? So he also purchased an apartment. We bought two,
I purchased. We purchased like one. So you guys didn't
work together at all. You were just friends who you
and Gris Grissuther and I were friends. She was a
mortgage broker and this was an investment opportunity that she
brought to us. So the first time that you went

(10:33):
to the bank was that like an actor. So no,
it was actually an employee of the bank, whom was
also in Coot with all of these mortgage frauds that
were that we're going on. Yeah, listen, we're talking about
three hundred three NaNs. I remember at the time of
the case, I remember reading the newspaper and it was

(10:56):
the second biggest mortgage fraud case history. You've been out done.
I'm sorry to let you know, no longer top two,
but at that time it was, yes, it was. It
was so the this officer brings someone else from the
bank and says, we're sorry, you need to They give
us a business card for the Mortgage Task Force. Oh good,

(11:19):
which at that time there was something that Obama put
in place because there was so much fraud going on,
especially in mortgages and in the real estate market. And
I'm like, no, somebody needs to explaining to this, you know,
needs to explain this to me right now. That was
my response, Like I'm not leaving here. They're like, I'm sorry,
we recommend that you call them and look for an attorney.

(11:40):
Shut up. So now my boyfriend says, wait a minute,
I also purchased the property with this mortgage broker and

(12:02):
look me up and look me up, and yeah, it
also had the fraud alert. Fraud alert. So this is
how you found out that something had gone down. This
is how I was like, what is going on here?
I mean you use Yeah, I mean I called her.
I called her many many times. You went to the

(12:23):
bank because she didn't give you the closing statements. Yes,
I went to the bank. What was her excuse not
giving them to me? Yeah, like when I was a
busy woman. I was a busy woman. I was running
a very very busy business. So you were like, let
me not bother her. I just felt like, she's got them.
You know, I've never been really like this second. I
don't less anyone, don't trust anybody. Yeah, well, paperwork. But

(12:49):
when you were there the second time in the bank,
it was to get your closing I was there to
get the copies for closing my closing statements. Did not
have them because you wanted to sell that apartment. Yes,
that was the idea. I told you need to exactly
and I'm like, but what do you mean? I can't
talk right now. She was very very short, very brief
in her phone call, and so I obviously immediately try

(13:11):
to call her. Her phone was disconnected. Yeah, so I
called her at home. Nothing, and then I called a
front of mine. I remember calling this front of mine.
She at the time work for an attorney. Said listen,
this just happened. And she said, oh that was her response. Oh,
we can't help you with that. You need to find someone.

(13:32):
And this is when I came across a real estate
attorney whom I made an appointment to see, and uh,
I told him, listen, this is what's going on. He's like, well,
let me look into this. I'll get back to you.
Give me about a week. All right, week goes by.
I got a call. Uh, we were scheduled to come in.
I remember walking into the conference room and there was

(13:53):
I mean from like left to right, imagine this large
conference room. It was like documents after documents, after files
after files, and I'm like, well, that's a lot of
paperwork just two properties, right, and uh he gives me
a post it He gives me like a stack of
post it notes, and he gives it also to to
my next and he says, I need you to sit
down and go through every single document. Wherever you see

(14:17):
a signature that is not yours, I need you to
put put a post it note. And I was like,
what that makes no sense? Of course, because he had
already gone through all the paperwork, and he noticed there
was a there was a huge disparity between the signatures
in the signatures, and immediately, I mean, your signature is
pretty iconic, so like it's like the same signature you've

(14:39):
always happened, that's happening again. Well, and it's almost like
a scribble, right. It's very you. It's very un It's
like I don't have time for this. Okay, before you
move on, because this now, this is getting juicy. It's
very juicy. I have one question, when was the moment
that you started to have like a gut feeling that

(15:00):
she that. Like, for example, if I was in my
apartment for a year, and my friend who helped me,
you know, texted me and was like, oh you gotta sell,
I'd be like, bitch. I'd call it the phone and
be like hello, Well we were speaking on the phone.
This was a call, and I said, what do you mean?
But what's going on? She's like, I can't talk right now,
I can't speak. It's better if we speak in person.
But there was no in person because she took off anyway.

(15:23):
So he tells you, so we put put put a
post it note being through the pages. I'm like, it
was so it was such a neat signature. I knew
that wasn't me. Yeah, this is so not like I'm
a mess. This is not it right, And I just
I was like, wow, she didn't even try. There wasn't
even an attempt in trying to mimic my signature. That

(15:46):
never happened. So it was really easy obviously to be
able to find. And you know, and so at that moment,
I remember him trying to explain, Listen, I think there's
been you know this, this is much more than what
we think it is. And at that time he said, um,
I looked into this, and there's about a hundred and
eighty loans that have been purchased through this mortgage company,

(16:10):
all under your name or no general. We didn't even
know at that point how many. I know that there
were several properties. He did mention that, and I remember fighting,
literally like fighting with him, arguing with him she lit this,
and I said, no, you're absolutely wrong. I know her.
I mean, I could have put my hand on fire.

(16:31):
So you're arguing with him vouching for her, So I'm
vouching for her. I am arguing with simultaneously with the
attorney with his assistant and my then fiance, and I'm saying,
absolutely not, you're crazy. You don't know her like I
know her. I've known her for a number of years.
And I said, this is not her, this is this

(16:52):
has to be someone in her office. So you saw
her as a victim too. Absolutely, I said, this has
got to be someone in the office. I know this woman.
I know her in an intimate setting, right. I knew her.
You know her children and her daughters. I knew her.
And and to me it was like, this is not
it's it's not impossible. It was impossible. So I left

(17:13):
their very emotional, again trying to call her, making more
attempts and trying to call her, couldn't reach her. It
was impossible to reach her. And so fast forward the
unfolding begins, and the unfolding begins in US in US
now for a period of four years, uh Civilly trying

(17:33):
to prove and actually we went after Regent's Bank. I
was suing Regions. But we've been allowing this to happen, right,
And this all really happened. It took place because she
had a very close friend who was the loan officer
for all the mortgages at Regions. This is how she
was able to get all of these loans approved. It
was operation. It was a whole operation, from from the

(17:54):
person that the appraisals, to the inspections, to the loan officer,
the closing age. I mean, you name it with the
exception and I will say that with the acceptance of
the title company. Okay, so while you're going through the
civil part of this those four years, you never made
contact with her. I couldn't. My attorney forbade it. Yeah,

(18:15):
so we were able to actually prove to kind of
just bring it to that point that all of my
signatures were falsified. Right, we want that part in court.
We were able to bring in AIG court in civil
court signature specialist, someone who obviously an expert, and I
mean we didn't really need one, but of the court, right,
we wanted to make sure that we had this. And

(18:38):
for me, it was like, okay, that's it. I mean,
I got nothing else to do with this, Right, you
thought you were completely on the outside that you just
happened to be, you know, like, oh, it'll get cleaned up.
And I can't believe she did this. I'm sure you
were devastated to find out, you know that your friend
had done that, had been in that position, But you
never thought, or you can tell me if not. You
never thought, oh I'm in danger. I never did not once. Um,

(19:03):
I thought she's in danger, and I actually felt for her,
like I really didn't like I truly, in my heart,
I still didn't see her as a bad well, because
I bet you saw yourself in her, a single mom,
two little girls. So you proved that basically she had
forged your signature, mine and my ex because of yours,

(19:25):
entangled in this, and you won that case. I did,
we did? We both did? Yes? So then how did
that turn into what it ended up being? I get
a call how long after? Not too long later, I
got a call from my civil attorney and he's like, um,
you're gonna need to hire a federal attorney. That's the day.

(19:46):
I don't know if you remember this jump that you
and your sister ran to the bathroom. I was vomiting. Oh,
I remember that you girls were holding my hair. I
remember because when he said you have to get a
federal attorney, he said, this is this is huge. Now,
I really I distinctly remember that I remember I was
so sick to myself. People. This happened a couple of times,

(20:09):
like I remember during that process, you me watching you,
and it was very hard. Oh god, no oh cry
or cry I let it out. That's why we're here
in our own world full of tears all this. You know,
it's just really hot in here. Okay, okay. I remember

(20:34):
several times like not don't look at me, several times
not knowing really like what was going on, but just
watching you and you're so tough, like you're an ice queen. Mom,
you know you're an ice queen. And watching you, like
get to those emotional levels of complete despair to the
point that your body was reacting, and me being like
what however, being Amber crying with you, not having any

(20:56):
idea what was going on, and just like how do
we help her? Well, I guess we hold her hair up.
It was tough times. The unfolding of it, right, was
the uprooting of so many things, because for me, it felt,
you know, when I look back at that time, it
was a time of just probably the most disruption I've

(21:18):
ever had, and it was a kind of disruption. It
wasn't like when I divorced your dad right where. I mean, no, really,
because and this is important. I mean, I listened. I
was twenty three. I was twenty three years old, divorced
your dad before and Amber was eleven months and even then,
even then, I mean those it's not like that was
just a walk in the park. But this was such

(21:39):
a different scenario. This was almost for me freedom, as
you know, and it's always been probably the most important
thing a human can have, is their freedom. And I
felt at that time like someone was trying to rip
that from me, my freedom and everything. It was so
hard for I built the business from the ground up,
and you didn't do anything at that time. I remember

(22:02):
you had a radio show on Wednesdays with Therapy my Heart,
with thy Heart, I Heart, you have great taste. I
was filming for reality show. We're filming for reality show.
I just feel like you were like at the pinnacle
of everything that you had worked so hard for at
that moment when this all happened. So you're throwing up

(22:26):
with the toilet everywhere, pretty much vomiting. There's god, how
can you do this? It was almost like a bad
hangover without the alcohol, minus the alcohol, right, I had
several of those episodes. I mean, you know, I was
in fear. That's the truth. I was afraid. I was afraid.
I was a single mom and I had and I

(22:47):
bet it's really even scarier to have felt like you
overcame the situation and you had probably that sense of
peace and like that exhale that it was over, and
then for it to turn its ugly head and come
back for you. It's like, that's what it felt like. Yeah,

(23:10):
so you he was. He told you need to hire
a federal attorney. And I said why, I mean why
I thought this was over. No, it's just beginning. You
need to hire. This is not my expertise. So he
recommended someone, and I hired her, gave her ten thousand
dollars as a retainer. She wouldn't even put me in

(23:30):
her appointment book. Remember that she would have a conversation
with me. I had to pay her ten thousand dollars.
I remember, because I remember the moment where you were like,
I don't have ten thousand dollars. Where am I going
to get ten thousand dollars? I did? It wasn't I
mean it was in a c D but was available

(23:50):
like liquid excuse me, liquidated it was inaccessible for a
you know, like in twenty four hours, I need this money.
When a CD you have to go through the whole
process to get that money out of the air. And
I was able to when I gave her. I gave
her the money, I retained her, and then I came
in to speak to her. And that's when she said, well,

(24:11):
let's see. So, um, we're looking at probably a year
in prison, just like that, just like that, and dry, no,
not just like that. It was she had spoken already
this bedside Dollar lawyers. She had broken already to the
prosecutor and she said, listen, this went to granjury. Once

(24:31):
it goes to granjury, she said, you're gonna get indicted.
You're going to be indicted. What what is indicted? Doesn't
come with tomato sauce? Yeah, I get a free coke
with that, You're gonna get died it She explained what
that looked like, What is it? What does that mean? Well,
it's it's when the FBI basically comes for you as

(24:55):
if you were Bablost Cabars girlfriend in a nutshell why
and nutshell? So they look into your whole life. Well,
the indictment is, you know, remember the schools in front
of a grand jury. They it's basically like they accuse
you of a crime somewhat. They feel that they have
sufficient evidence, which they call discoveries, and based on these discoveries,

(25:17):
they bring this to the grand jury. Grand jury, sys,
let's do it. Let's suh indict them. And mind you,
we were twenty being indicted. I was not the only
pond in this fish you mean fish in the pond? Yeah,
I think you have. I think you have a condition
of metaphor reversal. First the cat in the hat. There's
a pond and a fish, And I'm trying, as you

(25:39):
said that, I was trying to picture what it looked
like pulling a pond out of No. Absolutely, absolutely not.
I'm a lot more intellectually. You're very vertually. You just
have a case of switch your uppers. So you find
out you're going to get indicted, I get yes, And
just so we can follow along the timeline, when was
this do you remember? Yes? Of course this was in eleven,

(26:07):
And I'm like, what is this going to happen? Where?
I just like, I can't tell you that I have
no clue when and where what's going to happen? Like
A couple of days later, I'm in my office. I'm
working with a client. I stepped outside I had to
go to the restroom. When I come back in, I
have two FBI agents standing in my front desk and

(26:30):
they were there. They wanted a question my employees. So
I immediately called my attorney. I knew my new found attorney,
and she said, nope, tell your employees in front of
them that they don't have to answer anything, they don't
have representation, and you can tell them to leave. Okay,

(26:51):
So I did. I told them to leave. I was shaking.
I remember right now as i'm sharing this with you,
that moment, it's sort of like I have that picture,
that image in my head of them walking in. They
had a huge badge. It probably looked bigger because I
was just so nervous. They were so intimidating, and you know,
they're they're just this this presence right of like I'm
taking you away, or at least I thought at the moment,

(27:13):
I thought, oh, this is the indictment, that thing my
attorney told me about. And they did. They went away.
They went away. And that's when a couple of days later,
you and your sister had talked about, oh mom, there's
no school the next day. Well, hold on, because there's
one part of this that I really remember, and it's

(27:34):
that for weeks, for weeks, we would see the car
parked out of our apartment building. And she had told
you that they would be listening into everything, all of
our phone calls, all of our conversations, and I remember
like that looming presence of I don't even know who
it was in those in that white car. So yeah,

(27:54):
I really remember. You know, we're we're We've always been
pretty spiritual people, and they like to consider myself a
little bit of a budha. But yeah, I remember that
the next day we had to sleep over at our
house because the next day there was no school. Amber
had a friend and I had two friends friends, And
because I had two friends, I let them take my
room and I slept on the couch and I remember

(28:22):
like it was yesterday. It's so crazy when you have
these feelings and you don't know where they come from.
That I woke up for no reason. At that time.
I was not an early riser. I was not the
morning person that I am today. Baby, sorry, And it
was like what like five thirty in the morning, and
I remember Mom laying on that couch, and the couch

(28:42):
shared a wall with your room, and I remember hearing
you like Russell, like you, I knew that you were
either waking up or about to wake up. I didn't
make a sound. You had no reason to be woken
up by me. We weren't just awake at the same time.
I don't know if it was a prem anisition or
just something. And then like maybe five minutes later, the

(29:08):
doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo on
the door, and I remember not knowing what to do
in that moment. I'm blocking the doorway, like I can't
let them in. They're gonna take my mom. And of course,
what am I gonna do. I mean, I'm seventeen, and

(29:31):
you know, I could probably get in a lot of
trouble for doing them. But I was like, they can't,
they can't commit, they can't, they can't take you. And
you call me down, And at that point the entire
house was awake, and Ambers or friends and my poor
friends Amber immediately breaking down them yelling at you to
open the door. You opening the door, and then like

(29:52):
well like five six agents coming to grab you as
if you don't know we're dangerous or we had weapons
in the house, like and it was so fast, so
they literally broke down the door and they know we
opened the door. We all remember pushing gemmany out of
the way because so just backtrack a little bit. I

(30:16):
remember the pounding in the door, and I still today,
I will tell you this, still today, when I hear
certain sounds that are just not the norm very loud sounds,
there's sort of that PTSD with it, right that it
comes with it where I'm like, there's this startled that
that comes with that. Because the pounding was so loud

(30:36):
that I remember sitting in my bed and thinking, am
I dreaming this? That was my first thought, I dreaming this?
And I remember laying back down, putting my head back
in the pillow and it was like louder and you
were screaming, and I just rushed out of my bed.
And at that moment, immediately the first image was you.

(30:57):
You were you were like holding the door. Where's your fiance?
Just complete this along with other things, you know, um
years it was four years, that's right, sometime I passed
and I remember telling you, Jeffany get out away, because

(31:17):
all I can feel it's like this door, you know,
you know how you see in the movies that they're
gonna come down, right, they break it open, break it open.
And so you got out of the way, and I
turned to you and I said, call Elizabeth. Oh my god,
that was the only thing I can think of, Call Elizabeth.
And when I opened the door, they grabbed me and
they had guns. They had guns pointed at my automatic rifles.

(31:43):
And I remember doing this and going, oh my god.
They're like, how many people tide everything? I'm like, there's kids,
there's kids. There's kids. That's all I would say. There's kids.
There's how many kids. There's one, there's two, there's there's more.
I just kept counting because in my head I kept
seeing all these faces of all these girls. Right, and
I'm like five five five, you know, And I mean

(32:03):
you were the only adult in the house. Yes, they
handcuffed me at that moment, and DCF I know that
they sort of the left the door open. This is
all I saw her. It was so quick. DCF walked in,
two women, right, they walked in, and obviously it's part
of the protocol. They went for the kids, right, the
kids in the house, and at that moment, you know,

(32:26):
they tried to call me down and they said, we're
gonna bring you back in. You're not gonna look at anyone.
You're gonna you're gonna tell me where your bedroom is.
I said, I couldn't even coordinate. In my head. I
could it just couldn't. It's to the left. I'm handcuffed, yes,
And all I kept thinking it was would I know

(32:47):
that you all saw you specially? That's all that was
the movie in my head, you know, me opening the door,
these guns, and my daughter just saw this the trumma,
you know, and be it that I had worked trauma
my whole life. All I can think of is the
impact that this was having more than you and your
sister and your friends and me, and then open you

(33:09):
don't care your selfless, you don't care, You don't care
about you. You know. I wasn't afraid for me. I
was afraid for them. Well, and you didn't have, you know,
their father, a partner there that you know, you had
that relationship with. So I'm sure even the moment that
you were driving away, that's all of the thoughts that
you had, like where are they? What are they doing
with them? You know, like what's going to happen? And

(33:31):
ironically I was just focused on them. Well, it's a
big sister, right, you know. So what happened from from
They brought me in and immediately took me to my room.
They said that I could change remember to two lady
officers whatever, and they let me pee and they said, Okay,
we're gonna walk you out. You're not going to look
at your daughters, can look at anybody in the room.
You're just gonna look straight and and whatnot. And they did,

(33:55):
and they escorted me out and into one of their vehicles.
There was so many cars. I mean, think about it,
this is like five seven agents. I never left the apartment.
I never saw Yeah, I just was holding amber when
they were walking you out, so I never saw that view.
And I also remember calling my friends moms, them calling

(34:16):
their moms how long until you saw until you guys
saw her again? That same day. That was my first
time ever stepping into a jail. That that was a
holding facility, by the way, this was not a prison,
a holding facility. And it was just like in a movie,
you know that that cold toilet in the middle of

(34:36):
a room. It's holding facility. Tons of other women there,
they were there for other crimes. And the moment I
walk in, well, let's let's back track, because they take
me to the FBI office first. So I go into
their FBI office and I'm handcuffed, and this is where
I see Griselda and everyone else in my case, including

(34:56):
my fiancing, my ex fiancing. Yeah, I hadn't seen any
of these people for years. So they grabbed you all
at the same time. So the raid, it's called a raid.

(35:18):
The raid happens at the exact time for everybody, for everyone.
There's no way you can escape. There's nothing you can
do if if, in fact, you were preparing for something
like that. And then from there they transfer you over
to downtown to the holding facility, the Federal holding facility,

(35:40):
and there's a self for men right and then right
next like right next to it's like wall to wall,
there's a self for women. And I have to tell you,
I've never felt smaller in my life. And that's from Leo.
Leo the Lion and me that like needs and me

(36:02):
was definitely I remember just walking. It was like a movie.
Everything was very slow, but yeah, it was kind of
happening fast, but not for me, taking my fingerprints and
my DNA. It's like, this is like the kind of
stuff you see in a movie. And I was crying
so much. I was sobbing, sobbing the whole time. And

(36:23):
I was shackled by the way, shackled like chains. There
were chains on me. There was I remember there was
a chain going on my damn like it wasn't a
violent crime. Chains in my my feet, and then there
was a chain that went from my foot, it went
up and it clipped onto my waist spelt right, and
then there was another chain that held my hands. It

(36:44):
was like this like at the time, it's really it's
it really leaves an impression on you. Aside from the
fact that was uncomfortable as hell, it's definitely an impression
on me, right, Yeah, so you know, and being in
that being in that space. Now I'm with her, I'm
with everybody everyone in my case, and this is where

(37:05):
you kill her. No, you don't want to hit her, no,
you like, at least a little bit. I never felt
that it was about her for some reason. I mean
that was your way also of I don't know, I
think it was my soul, right, you know, our soul
knows there's this. I mean, if she was that bad,

(37:28):
then you would have had to have been wrong about
her the whole time, and that's a really tough pill
to swallow. You're absolutely right, true. I did hear her
many times comment with the other women that were there
were also very emotional. I don't know why we're here.
I don't know why any of us are here. You're
gonna see, nothing's going to happen. Then I definitely would
have hit her mom. I was. I was upset because

(37:52):
I'm just saying somebody. Yeah, I was upset at that
point because I felt like she's she's still lying. That's
what I felt, She's still lying. It didn't feel fair,
especially to other women. Remember I had already been working
on this case for four years. A lot of them know,
A lot of them did not, a lot of them

(38:12):
did not. It just makes me think like we were
one family, and like she did this to nineteen others.
Oh my goodness, like the ripple effects. I'm going to
correct you because from the twenty you have to count
her brothers. Okay, so how many were actually innocent? I would?
I mean, listen, I I don't know the to what

(38:35):
extent their involvement wasn't all this, but definitely it wasn't.
It wasn't twenty people who didn't know what was going Okay,
that's you think. There were like varying levels of yes,
and they're definitely were people like myself. I had no idea,
I had no idea. I just had this total her
and she's so charismatic, she's so believable, and I think

(38:59):
that who to some degree she really is that person
because again it's not like how much can you really fake? Yeah? Yeah, crazy?
So what did they tell you at that point when
you were in the holding facility? Were they like, okay,
you have to wait until the trial, Like was there
a trial? What was the next step? So there there's

(39:21):
a hearing that takes place while what you're there, because
you have to go in front of a judge and
at that point they decide if you can leave and
bond you leave leave a bond or or stay or stay.
So you gotta got a weigh in what they're going
to decide. And I remember when they came to get us,
because obviously when we're inside that cell, you don't have

(39:42):
any change. There's no chuckles, there's no there's nothing going on,
there's you're sitting there. I sat on the floor the
whole time, sat on the floor. Remember they brought in
this tiny little box with a with a salami sent
which was like at salami inside, right. I didn't eat,
I didn't anything. I didn't drink water, nothing, nothing, nothing.
It was there was. I never paid. I didn't even

(40:04):
remember about to be because I don't feel like I
think biologically. My whole body just shut down. Yeah, and
all I did was crying. All I did. I cried
so much. All I did was crying because I cried
from I remember it was it was pain, but it
was also like that release that I needed in order

(40:25):
to cope with what I was actually going throughout that moment.
I needed to cry, let it. Oh my goodness. And
your parents, how much did they know? When did they
find that they knew everything? Right? They did? I had
discussed this with them because I called them to the apartment.
I called them. I know they came. I just don't
really remember much about that day, Angels. It's like the

(40:47):
moment that the FBI agents walked in. Then after that
is blur, blir, just blur, did you call? Were you
able to like no, no, no, no, because you're in
this holding facility waiting to go to the hearing, right, uh.
In arrangement, that's what they call it. And I remember

(41:07):
when the officer came in, Oh my god, in the doors,
the sound of these doors locking, you're you're watching movie
in prison, but you know there's like this crazy sound
like I can't really mimic it. And where he came
in and he's like, all right, ladies, and he threw
the chains on the floor. It's still to meet me,
like edibalistic. I remember that that feeling, this the humanizing

(41:31):
feeling of oh my god. And you know, they started
calling our names one by one, and because we didn't
all fit inside the elevator, obviously it's a small elevator,
and he shocked. The officer shackles me. I'm crying. I'm
like sobbing. While he's shackling me. He's like the chains.
He's like, stop crying, and I'm like, ugly crying, O

(41:55):
ugly cry. I I owned it at that moment, that
oprah ugly crying. And I remember him I couldn't barely walk.
Think about it, how you walk with all these chains.
There was so much fear, and the fear it's still debilitating. Yeah,
I mean, it's crazy, it is. And then I went

(42:15):
into an elevator which I had to face the wall.
I remember that face the wall, and I don't know.
At some point the doors opened and I was escorted
into into a courtroom and we were all sitting, all
twenty of us shackled. So you were with Griselda. I
was with everybody in the case. We're all sitting. Talk

(42:36):
to her. You can talk to anybody. I mean I
could have talked to her in the cell, but I
chose not to. She was comforting many of the women
that were there. Remember this vividly. She was comforting them.
She didn't attempt to get close to me. I think
I just I needed to be alone. I was sitting
on the floor the whole time. I never said anywhere

(42:56):
but the floor. I want to be in the floor
because I felt like I was on before. Like that's
I mean literally I felt that way. And all of
a sudden, the judge arrives and they opened these doors.
They were all double doors, and a ton of people
walked in. I remember a lot of people walked in. J. C.

(43:17):
Jac was there. He walked in, My friend Christina walked in.
All that people that you nail in like sitting down
like there to support you. Well, my friend Christina at
the time worked with this gentleman named Alex, whom I
also knew, and he was a Bill bondsman, so he
came in My parents. How did they all find out

(43:39):
about this? Probably Grandpa and Grandpa I don't know, somewhere.
I mean, I know I called a couple of people.
So I remember I told my father if anything happens
to me, and I gave him Alex's card, the Bill bondsman,
you need to call Christina and she's going to call
him so they can get me out. Grandpa ah, and uh,

(44:01):
you know when everybody comes in, and the most interesting
thing happened to me. I had not met the prosecutor.
I had no clue the prosecutor is no idea what
he looked like. And I remember seeing this gentleman, very
handsome by the way, and maybe that's why I don't know.
I was like, who's that. He came in and I

(44:22):
remember he came in with the group of people and
I said, oh my god, you're the prosecutor. This this
is what I said to myself, right, this is my
own inner thought. And as he approached the bench, I said,
I don't know why, but I know him from somewhere.

(44:42):
It was sort of this instinct like I knew him.
I just know it wasn't from here. Yeah. So then
what happened when you were in the in the courtroom,
we each had a chance to go up and for
the arrangement, and I was able to leave. I think
it was a two hundred thousand dollar bond, and at
that point was your attorney with you? So my attourney

(45:04):
came up to me and she was there that day. Yes,
my my attorney gets called right, and I remember she
came up to me and she's like, hey, how are
you holding up here? Like, all right, you're gonna be fine.
We're fine. I needed to give me ten thousand dollars
right now if you want me to represent your here

(45:24):
right now? All right, don't worry about it. I think
I have someone else is going to represent you. That's
when she introduced me to Stephen Castner, and he was, well,
he was an attorney who was there who knew her,
But he was wasn't he like appointed by the court wasn't.
It's not that he was appointed. He gets part as
part of the process. He's one of the attorneys that there.
My attorney had just literally like exit the case. She

(45:47):
was literally like, oh, you don't have ten grant. I'm what, love,
I'm going to throw a couple of hard boiled exit.
Let's let's put her in Griselda the same washing machine.
Maybe it'll come out nicer. And you know, at that point,
I felt like, I'm going to stay here for the
rest of my freaking life. Despair. Yeah, well obviously you

(46:14):
didn't because you're so So you meet, you meet Stephen
castor what happens, Like how does this stay close? It
closes where where I believe each and every one of us.
I think that with the exception of one person, um,
everyone was able to go home that day. We were
all released. Yes, yes, later in the afternoon. This was

(46:37):
close to six pm, almost at the end of the
of the work day. And yeah, you have to go
through a process in order to get out of there.
So then after you got home, what they I know
you had the bond when like what happened after that?
Because I remember I remember you and I fighting. I
don't know what the period of time was, because I

(46:59):
just need to reiterate. All of this is blurry, because
you wanted me to testify on your behalf. I think
it was that. No, it was the character letter the
instead of a letter I wanted you to speak to speak.
But what was that? But that that's that was the
point of the sentencing. Okay, so let's back up, because
there's because this happened in September twenty eleven, September, to

(47:26):
be exact of. This is the indictment. Okay. This is
where hell begins, alright, because this is where the uncovering,
the unfolding, the dismantling. This is where I get to
learn how many properties throughout South Florida she had involved
me in. Right, this is where you really start to see, right,

(47:47):
this is when so when I go to to Stephen
Castor's office in the Gables, we met and he had
all these discoveries. It was kind of like, oh my god,
I'm here really living the same thing again. Right from
from my civil attorney get to the conference room, all
these all these files, all these discoveries, and he's like
he starts putting all these addresses, all these homes home

(48:08):
purchases in front of me. I'm like, okay, what is that? Yeah,
that's my home. Yeah, that's the apartment that what is that?
What is that? There was all this what is that?
And I remember seeing this address. I'm going, where the
hell is that? Like, I think I've ever even driven
through there all my whole life living in Florida. Yes, yes,
I'm like, what is this? He's like, well, you own

(48:30):
all of this. So she her office was in a
commercial building and bird I own that one too. I
used to go there all the time because I used
to go out to lunch with her. I own that
ship too. She's just like, okay, so did you throw

(48:53):
up again? Then? No, No, the vomiting was under control.
The vomiting control. But this is where the negotiations speaking, right,
And this is where it's really interesting, and this is
where I start actually really learning how how the criminal
justice system works. My attorney calls me and he's like,
you need to come in. Um, I spoke to the prosecutor.
He has an offer for you. Offer okay, offer. So

(49:18):
I get to my attorney's office for in the conference room,
he puts a list of all other nineteen nineteen individuals
in my gigs and he says, gives me a pen.
He's like, I need you to check off everyone that
you know was involved in this case. What what my
my ex fiance's name was there too, Like, what the
hell is this? He's like, yeah, the offer is for

(49:41):
every person whose name you check off, they're going to
give you less time. What do you mean check off?
Literally quite literally list? It was a list name. It
was like name and last name. What was the prerequisite for,
Like what would make you put the check on? If
you knew that I knew that that person was aware

(50:02):
in some way or another were involved. You could have
lied at this. You could have lied and said that
you knew they were involved, even if you didn't actually
think hold on, hold on. But if I'm you right
and I'm in this position, I'd be like, wait a minute,
I didn't do anything. I don't know what's going on.
He knew this, I had. We had already met several
times with about the case. He had already he brought
him all the civil case. I brought him the CD

(50:24):
with all of the discoveries from the civil case. At
this point, sorry, the moment that you check off a
name that was essentially like you being like, oh yeah,
I had something to do with it, right at this
point where you it was like, oh yeah, I know
that this person, this person right had something to do,
but you would have had to first acknowledge that you

(50:44):
had something to do it. But it was an offer.
So the way that the stakes go is, listen, you're
gonna be seen guilty no matter what. That whole remember
being really angry and until proven guilty, Yeah that's bullshit.
Well I remember being really angry you because I had
an incredible history teacher this blank will reach out to her,
will shout her out again, Blanche, and I learned so

(51:08):
much with her, and like, I knew that if you
pled guilty, your chances of ever trying to like renegotiators
obviously if we're gone, because you can testify as not
guilty and still be rather still be sentenced as if
you were guilty, and then fight that sentence. You can appeal, right,
you can appeal. If you say you're guilty, You're you're

(51:30):
screwed because you're admitting guilt. And how can you admit
to being guilty for something you did? I'm something that
you already had proved that your signatures were forged on
a legal court cases. That's where it gets interesting because
from the nineteen according to my attorney, I was the
only person who wanted to go to trial. I was like,
we're going to trial. We're fighting this. We've got all
this stuff, we have four years of documents, four years, right,

(51:53):
We're going to trial. He's like, listen, this is the offer.
My job is to tell you what he's offering you
for every person. And I remember grabbing the paper, putting
it back in front of him, telling him, tell him
to go funk himself. Yeah, that's right, I said, my
integrity is not for sale. How can you ask me
to check off people. I don't even know some of

(52:14):
these people. I didn't even know she was doing this.
How am I supposed to say that they were involved
in this with her? I can't do that. No, And okay,
calm down, let's go home and think about them. There's
nothing to think about. To go fun himself. I went home.
I was just so I remember, it was just there

(52:35):
was an anger in pain mixed all in one mind. You.
I don't know what's happening with all these other nineteen people, right,
Because if I got that offer, you know that. Probably
they did too in my ext two. But there's no commerce.
You can't there's no communication amongst gonna have a feeling
that we're gonna have to put him in that washer too.

(52:56):
Oh we are. But yeah, so everybody got this offer.
So they did and uh and they probably got other
offers as well, which I did not know about. And
then about a week too later, my attorney tells me, um,
the prosecutor wants to give you a final offer. This
is it, like, this is the final offer, and if
you take those offers would avoid a trial completely well

(53:20):
in the event of a sentencing, right of losing the case.
Then it would give me credit. That's what it's about.
It's about credit. And the more credit you get, the
less time, right, because you're cooperating with the government. The
government is whimps, they are. So he calls me back
in and then the offer was it was my ex

(53:42):
it was him. It was his name in the list,
only him. You say that he was involved and he
had a real estate He did, but I just had
a real estate license, but he wasn't. He wasn't practicing,
So absolutely the same thing. It was like absolutely not
tell I said to tell the prosecutor to stick this

(54:03):
up his ass. That was good to roll it up
in a very yeah, yeah, it was innocent. He was innocent,
like he his degree of involvement with the same as mine,
Like we did not know, we did not know. How
can I do that? So after he rolls that one

(54:23):
tightly up his ours. So at this point, my attorney
tells me, listen, no one's going to trial, no one.
You're the only one wants to go and you're so.
That means that they all took the deals, and they
all took Yes, they took the they took the deals.
I don't know again, to what extent and what that

(54:43):
looked like. I never looked into that, and I could
and I could have, because it's part of the discoveries, right.
I didn't want to know, That's just it. It really
wasn't something I was even interested in knowing. And this
is where I had to make the decision if I
was going to plead guilty or continue on with wanting
to go to truck. I was so mad at you.

(55:14):
My attorney sat me down and he said to me, um,
you know, I've been in A've been an attorney, federal attorney,
for probably thirty years. And my wife is also a
federal attorney, and you know, her brother went through a
situation similar like this that it wasn't a mortgage thing
with something else, and we told him to take the police.
And I'm like listening to the story, just like all

(55:35):
engrossed in the story. And he said, you know, you
could be my daughter because because I could write age
and he said, if you were my daughter, I would
recommend that you take the police, maybe because something we
had no and I know what it is. At that moment,
obviously I was appalled. That was angry. How can he

(55:58):
asked me to take the poling knowing the story, having
the information in front of him. But the thing is,
this is at the time the second largest case in
your sister of mortgage fraud. This was around the time
of the collapse. Remember the economy collapsed two thousand. This
is all a realistic collapse, right this, So we were
going to be plaint for this. That's just it. Bottom line.

(56:22):
Somebody needed to go down. Somebody had to go down.
And what about the signatures, Like if you went to trial,
you couldn't have proven that. Again, there was nothing to
prove other than to utilize it as part. But we're
looking at so Grisilta opened up a bank account in
Regions under my name during this whole process, and there

(56:45):
was thousands of thousands, I don't know to even what
degree of money being deposited into this account under my
name and withdrawn. So that was harder to disprove how
she saw you. It's like, last, let me take advantage
I did not. I never had, so I remember saying
I never had a bed, I never banked at Regents.

(57:07):
The only time in my life I've ever even walked
into Regions was that day that I went from for
that closing. Right well, that day the whole fraud alert right, No,
the day that I closed on the apartment, the fake closing.
And by the way, I didn't tell you why it
was fake closing because I ended up being a three
hundred and twenty dollar mortgage, not a hundred and seventy thousand.

(57:30):
That paperwork apparently was false. Yeah. Wow, So when did
you decide? How did your mind start to change about
So he said go home and think about it. You
need to think about it, because he said, you're either
going to give them thirty years, that's what they're asking
for thirty years. I still remember. I remember the conversation.

(57:53):
If you went to trial and you lost, it would
have been thirty years. And he said to me, um,
there's something that a lot of people don't understand about
the federal system. You have a five percent chance to win.
I'm like, how can it be that's impossible. We'll hearsay
it counts as evidence. Five percent chance to win, you
have a nine chance to lose years And what was

(58:17):
or I will try my best your first time offender.
You don't even have a traffic ticket. I have a
freaking traffic ticket. He's like, I will try my best
to try to get you at most home confinement, which
is house arrest, holse arrest, it's another term for it.
I was like, how's arrest? No, this, this is the
argument him. I don't deserve house arrest. That was my

(58:40):
you know, well, you didn't deserve any of it, right,
I was like no, He's like, think about it, and
that's when I went home. I remember driving home thinking
about it, and by the time I got home, I
did make the decision. Because you have to understand that

(59:00):
I still felt that I had an obligation to you
and to your sister, and that they could take a
year or four months. At that point, I was thinking
about those four months in house arrest, but that I
still had a chance. I still had a chance to
be a part of your life, and I had to
put my ego to the side. You know, my ego

(59:21):
wanted to fight, no doubt you wanted to fight. I
wanted you to fight. My ego wanted to fight. Um,
but I also knew that my ego was not who
I needed to listen to you in trouble. I have
a difficult question for jem I wish Amber were here,
but she didn't want to be here by sisters a Capricorn,
and I asked her, she's too cool for our too traumatizing.

(59:43):
My sister was if I was seventeen, my sister was,
that's tough. I admire you guys a lot. I can't
imagine she's here. I love her very much. If you're listening,
I love you. I have a tough question. You're gonna
be going. I'm not going to do. As long as
nobody vomits will be okay. I'm so happy that we

(01:00:06):
only release clips of this podcast. To us releasing this clip, UM,
I want to know if I'm thinking if that were me,
and now where my mom or my dad? Did you
ever have a moment where you thought, what if she

(01:00:26):
does have a part of this? No, not really, like
that's such a great question. Never asked you. I've never
even thought about that. No. No, I thought that maybe,
like you might have been involved carelessly, But I never
thought that you knew what was going on. And there's
a lot of truth to that, because of course I

(01:00:48):
was careless, right, I wasn't on top of things. I
didn't ask questions. I had such the level of trust
that I had in her, was your a trusting person.
So you drive home. By the end of your drive,
I'm assuming that you decided that you were gonna yes, yes,

(01:01:09):
Well at that time, that's what you thought it was,
That's what I thought it was going to be. I said, yeah,
I'm I'm going to I'm going to take the plea.
I mean honestly, at first, when you hear things like that,
it's like, what, you know, I would never do that.
But when you're when he's sitting, you really have to
hear the story to understand she was actually be in

(01:01:29):
your position. So you make this decision who did you call?
And then I call my parents, who came over, and
then I told him I'm going to plead guilty. So
you decided to plead guilty. I got mad at you.
Grandma got mad at you. I didn't understand. I was like,
I just read about this in the history book. This
one doesn't know what she's doing. She's about to screw herself. Look,

(01:01:54):
she's innocent, like she doesn't need to. So I I
remember you say that you're pleading you see, and I
referenced this before, but you asking me to speak at
your sentencing, yes, and I'm not gonna lie. I'm still
kind of mad at you for that, because you were

(01:02:16):
mad at me because I was saying no, and I
was like, how can you ask this of me? Of course,
seventeen year old me couldn't put into words that I
felt like if I didn't say the right thing, it
was on me what happened to you, not that I
didn't want to be there for you. And I'm sure
that it translated like that in the moment, and I'm

(01:02:38):
sorry for that. If you felt like I was trying to,
I don't know if maybe he felt abandoned my me.
I felt this pressure, like, oh, it told me, okay,
I have to speak, and then the judge is going
to decide based off my character evaluation of my mom.

(01:02:58):
Wush I remember being Mary a most show if she
goes to Chailer. I know what, accept the responsibility. Even
now hearing you say that, I'm be sure you didn't
think of it like that responsibility. I think that desper well.
And I think as as you were growing up, I
always you know, I've always thought it. I'm like, jiminy

(01:03:19):
have this light. I've always said that to you have
this light. We have this light. And I think that
at that moment, I felt that because you articulate your word,
you know, the way you articulate them, or so, it's
just so well that it would help. It would help
if the judge heard you coming from that space of
a daughter expressing herself talking about her mother. You know,

(01:03:42):
for you, and it's a lot You're right looking back,
I don't even know. For years it hunted me because
I was like, damn, I didn't say this, funk. I
should have said that, Oh damn, I messed out this
lift out this part. Maybe I shouldn't have focused on
what happened to me. You know when I was down. Yeah,
I couldn't let her down. I was angry. I didn't

(01:04:02):
want to. I really didn't want to, even that day.
I didn't want to, but I felt like I had to.
I mean I did. I kind of had to, because
then I would live with regret the rest of my life,
wondering them maybe I could have said something, maybe I
could have convinced her. I still wonder if I could
have said something difference. But everything you said was perfect
because everything everything lines up perfectly. I didn't turn out

(01:04:26):
that way in my head. Difficult decisions, they're always going
to come up in life. You know, we're not meant
to be in a life where everything is just an
easy choice with a black and white. You know, you
guys have helped me, being in my life to understand
that there really is no black and white. You know,
it's it's all a big gray blob and you just
have to like paddle your way through it with grace.

(01:04:49):
You know. It's so crazy because I share your story
with so many people and I never get emotional, but
I feel like having you here is like too too much.
I talked about it, and like you need to know
this because I feel like I'm sharing golden information about
just like the reality of the American justice is some
like what it's like, and that there's other people out
there like you, other girls like me, boys like me,

(01:05:12):
children like me, desperate, helpless, having absolutely no way to
help their families. And so I love to share your story.
Plus some of the details that we haven't even gotten
to yet are incredibly fascinating. They're almost unbelievable. But I
talk about it and it's fine, and then here you
are and I'm not. I'm not okay. You're reliving it

(01:05:33):
in a way too, you know, And when we have
these conversations, we don't really talk about it that we
don't we don't we we we do a good job,
and I don't know if it's really good. I'm just
using that as a as a term and just kind
of like move forward. It's just so traumatizing, you know what.
I think that you guys um turn it into purpose,

(01:05:55):
you know, into outreach and trying to help and trying
to educate, But the emotional component are something that maybe
you keep to the side or in another place because
facing some of those things, I mean, even me just
hearing it from your perspective. I got a stomach ache
just thinking of Okay, now I have my little sister,
my friends are here, my mom is literally gone from

(01:06:15):
one second to then. I wouldn't I wouldn't know what
to do, Okay, So I want to know I want
to go back. So you then, I'm assuming after you
talk to the family and everything, you call the attorney. Um,
you tell him wait, wait before you tell him to
put that offer in his whatever other orifice you told
him to put it in. So I'm sure that you

(01:06:35):
called your attorney and you were like, Okay, you know,
let's do it. And I'm assuming at that point you
were just like, it's four months of house arrests and
we're done, right, And so what was his what was
his response to you? When I'll let you know, we're
gonna have to go to a police hearing where you're
going to have to say you accept the police, and

(01:06:57):
then from there we will get a date for your sentencing,
and then we'll know we'll know what we're looking at.
But I don't think we're going to get more than
house arrest. Did he tell you there was ever a
chance or do they have the right at this point,
let's say you do take the plea, can they turn
around and sentence you to the thirty years. No, Once

(01:07:17):
you accept the plea and you signed its signature, you've signed.
It's it's really a contract. You accept this plea contract
once you Once you accept it and you sign it,
it's that's it. But I'm saying, like you said, because
you thought it was going to be house arrest and
obviously foreshadowing that that's not what happened. So what is
the highest if you if you take the plea, what

(01:07:38):
is the largest amount of time they can put you
away with one? That's the longest that they could that
they could, right, That's what they did. That's what that was.
The agreement right up to this was twenty one months.
But remember in my mind, I was like, well, it's
gonna be four months to me. I'm going to be
home because I remember asked by Turning. I was like,

(01:07:59):
I get still to my office. It's to work, Yes,
of course, it's to work. You can have certain restrictions,
but you can go to work. They're going to allow
you a certain amount of time to go get your
grocery and get a cool little anklet. You know, life
didn't have to stop for you in your head, right right? Yeah,
still have a felony, no doubt. I remember the sentencing.

(01:08:24):
You were there, I was, I had to be, she
had to be there. That's that's where I spoke. And
I remember that's when we've kind of realized that, Yeah,
that's when it became real. Well it had been real,
but that was very real. And I remember that your
ex walked away with not only his pension reinstated, but

(01:08:50):
nothing he didn't deserve. Oh yeah, he did not to
be one single day. How long after the sentencing hearing
does the sentence start? Right? They tell you when you
have to turn yourself in. So in May, in May,
remember that the incitement was September. In May, May was
my um plea agreement, right, my plea hearing, And at

(01:09:13):
that point we were told that no, I'm sorry, let's backtrack.
It wasn't in me. It was it was about it
was about a monthly for May, and then in May
was my sentencing. May was my sentencing. So wining weeks
after my my plea hearing was my sentencing, and uh,
the big day came and the prosecutor I had a

(01:09:35):
chance to speak, and he made his recommendation. He recommended
the court to give me the maximum sentence of twenty
one months. After all, I was part of the second
largest case in your with history, right I was. I
was part of this massive collapse in the economy. And

(01:09:58):
this was a forty million dollar cry by the way,
it's not about forty million. And my attorney spoke also
made his recommendation of your honor first time offender, all
these character letters that he couldn't say she's innocent because
you had taken the pleadia and uh, he said, you know,

(01:10:19):
this is what I'm recommending. Obviously I am not a
risk factor, right, and I am not a flight risk.
And uh the judge said, all right, I've come to
my decision. And shortly after she said, I hereby sentence
you to twenty one months in federal prison. But but

(01:10:43):
there's a but. Right, this is where kind of like
I say, the angels stepped in. Is you know I
believe in angels. And she said, but I will give
you a split sentence fourteen seven. You will serve fourteen
months and I feeder a prison with seven months of
home confinement. I think at my home after that was

(01:11:07):
with three years of probation two hundred hours of community service.
So it was like a five year and a restitution
of wait, hold on, repeat that and any restitution of three.
You know, it's a shame you were actually involved. So
when you hear the judge give you this sentence, how

(01:11:30):
do you feel my head? My forehead? I remember I
was sitting at the table and I remember there was
this like thump sound. It was my forehead that had
hit my hand, um, my body. It was like an
out of body experience. It was almost like an existential
crisis at that moment that I was having. I couldn't

(01:11:51):
feel my body, I couldn't hear anything. All I heard
was one that was sort of this resounding twenty one
twenty one right? And uh, how long after that did
you have to turn yourself in? So she was very
gracious to give me sixty days to self surrender and

(01:12:13):
I have to and I mean it when I say gracious,
because she did have the option at that moment to
say you're going to take me, which does happen? It
happens actually very often. Did it happen to anybody in
your case? I don't know. I don't know how long
was Griselda sentence. I believe it was six years, six
and a half years. That's not what she served, but yes,

(01:12:35):
it was around that time, six and a half to
seven years. I believe those two months my high school
graduation sucked. My last concert ever. I remember Amber texting
me because you guys never made it inside. You were
just too emotional. That's so difficulty it was. I remember

(01:12:57):
it was my last orchestra concert ever. Had played orchestra,
I played violated in school since third grade. And it's
like just such a big moment, and there was just
I think my grandparents, no, not even I don't think
there was anybody in the audience there For me, it
was horrible. Let's put on a concert again. Look like
things happened the way they needed to. I can't go

(01:13:20):
back in time and change any of that. And I
didn't know. I wasn't mad at you or anything, because
I can't. I didn't even imagine. No, I wasn't didn't.
It's okay. I made a lot of mistakes, and I
know this um looking back, and I thought about this
many times. How selfish of me, because I I know
that you and your sister needed me. But I thought

(01:13:43):
because I had been such a provider my whole life
right for my family, that if I worked more, I
was able to leave this business running so when I
came out, I could just jump back into it. This
was my idea, right, and and and yes, to some degree,
there wasn't a money factor, But it was about leaving
all of you enough money. I made this calculation where

(01:14:05):
I would leave enough money for everyone to be okay.
I didn't think about, oh my god, I'm going to prison,
you know for me, or what's my life going to
look like. It was more about like, how can I
leave everybody? Okay, there's the only thing I cared about.
So how how did you? Finally? Um? How was that
day when you turn yourself into that was horrible? First

(01:14:28):
of all, she didn't turn her, she didn't leave. I
was angry at you to remember the going away party. Okay,
I know that part party, if you can call it.
I was mad at you for this. I probably didn't
tell you because I was like too busy being proud.
But you left like a few days before you had to,
And I was like, why isn't she trying to spend it?
Every moment she came with her, and I didn't. A
matter of fact, it was my deflection in not having

(01:14:51):
to deal with the part that hurts so much in
my heart right that I felt that I had failed.
I really, I generally felt that I had failed. I
remember you saying that a lot. I felt like I failed,
and and and knowing that I had to leave, even
though in comparison to so many other sentences, I was
so incredibly blessed, you know, I really was. I still

(01:15:14):
felt like I failed, and so I needed to assure
I need. I needed to feel like I had poured
in every little bit of me into leaving some form
of stability or what I thought was what you guys needed.
You put a lot of your stuff in the storage,
but I did. I put a lot of things in storage.
And I remember in the Ember and I who were

(01:15:36):
you and Amber were living with at this time. I'm
getting there, Amber, and I will never forget this say.
We sometimes talk about it. When you left, I don't
know if you left, like at night or early early
in the morning. I think it was really early in
the morning, because I remember you saying goodbye to us,
and in the apartment all there was was a mattress

(01:15:58):
and different mattress to throw away and some towels and amber.
And I woke up that morning when you had left
two this empty place that like we lived in, that
we had once lived in, and it was just literally
me and her on this lone mattress in the middle
of the living room, and you were gone. And I

(01:16:21):
know she knows when did you say goodbye before she left?
So now we're at the part in the story where
you go to prison, part part, and I think, I
think this is the perfect time to close. What what
do you mean? Gasp? Cat falls from ceiling, glass shadows

(01:16:45):
tornado sound? What else? La la la la la? If
you hit me with a freestyle, I could put one
of my weird little songs under. It means that it's

(01:17:06):
not gonna guess you didn't do very well in prison.
I did not. I did not get my musical talent
from her. Okay. So yeah, so we're at the point
where you go to prison, and I think that this
is a perfect time to stop. Thank you guys for
listening and for going on this journey with us. We
hope that you've enjoyed it as much as you can

(01:17:26):
and look forward to sharing more with you next week.
So join us for episode six next week, and don't
forget that you can go back into our Mothership directory
and please check out all the other episodes so you're
caught up and ready to go for next week. For
the rest of this incredible story, and this has been
When Meteor Strike Part one. This podcast is brought to

(01:17:47):
you by Moonflower Productions in partnership with I Hearts Michael
podcast Network. For more podcasts, visit the I Heart Radio
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