About the author

 This letter provides some background information about myself that I feel is relevant to my books and how they became.

In 1997, I was arrested and charged by our Federal Government as the Kingpin of one of the largest methamphetamine manufacturing and distribution organizations in the history of Oklahoma. This is all documented in federal court records out of Tulsa, Oklahoma and in many newspaper articles in the Tulsa World. 

At my initial preliminary hearing in State Court before it went federal, I testified that I was set up by the police officers who arrested me. Later, at my federal sentencing hearing, I testified that I didn’t even know one of the informants. The corrupt officers, and later a corrupt DEA Agent, coerced informants to lie. I was sentenced to 35 years and sent to the maximum security prison (USP) in Beaumont, Texas. I appealed my case with the help of an attorney while I worked in the federal prison law library. My appeal was not fruitful, my conviction and sentence were affirmed. I filed my own motion to vacate and several other pleadings seeking relief while in prison.

I was in federal prison for 13 years, fighting my case and helping others with their cases, when the same officers, all five of them, were arrested and convicted on corruption charges in 2010. This is all well documented and you can read about it in the Tulsa World. I filed several motions trying to reopen my case, which included the 1997 transcript of me testifying that the officers set me up. Judge Payne, construed my pleadings as a fraud on the court motion and granted me a hearing in 2012. I was transported back to the new Tulsa County Jail for the hearing. Three of the informants testified that they were coerced and threatened by the corrupt police officers to lie about me. The officers were brought in to testify, as well, but they could not remember anything.

On April 18, 2014, 4 years after I filed, Judge Payne issued an Order expressly stating that it was clear that the case against me was manufactured by the corrupt officers and that it was equally clear that the DEA Agent knew about and participated in the manufacturing of the evidence. I was exonerated and released from the federal prison in Sandstone Minnesota that day. Then, 59 days after my release, a federal prosecutor out of Washington, D.C., appealed my case arguing only one point, that the judge lacked jurisdiction to release me. No mention of guilt or innocence. Then the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held the oral arguments in my case at Oklahoma State University (OSU), where I was able to attend my own oral arguments. It was amazing. It seemed that two of the judges were leaning in my favor during the hearing. Ultimately, two of the three judges ruled against me, but the one judge who was in my favor issued an outstanding dissenting opinion. The Tenth Circuit Opinion states that I met the actual innocence standard on the firearm charge and granted me permission to appeal that charge, but states that I did not meet the actual innocence standard on the drug charges and ordered me back to prison. I had been a completely free man for well over a year. I filed my appeal on the firearm charge and asked to be resentenced, before I drove to Texarkana and turned myself back into federal prison.

I was in prison for 4 months when I won my case for the second time. The firearm charge was overturned and I was sent back to the Tulsa County Jail to await resentencing. When the judge resentenced  me he gave me time served on the drug charges and released me that day. That meant that I was no longer an exoneree, and I had 5 years of federal supervised release to do. 

I went from being a free man, to back in prison, then required to be supervised for 5 years. This was a huge slap in the face for me. I was working the year before I had to go back in, then went right back to work upon my release, but now I had to report and be supervised. Under federal law, a person who is on federal supervised release can apply for early termination of supervised release after one year. I tried that and it did not work. I tried every year for 3 years before I was granted early termination.

Shortly after the termination of my supervised release, I discovered there was a warrant for my arrest out of Oklahoma City from 1997. That warrant could not have been there when I was released on the aforementioned two occasions when I was released from federal prison, or I would not have been released. I had never been arrested in Oklahoma City. Some of the coerced informants had been arrested there and I was charged with drug crimes there, as well. However, those charges had been incorporated with my federal case.

I filed a motion to dismiss outlining all the facts. it was denied. An Attorney friend of mine who worked with the Oklahoma Innocence Project went to court with me on the day I was supposed to be arrested and she talked to the District Attorney, showed him all my supporting documentation and was able to get the charge dismissed before my arrest. This was very stressful.

That brings me to while I was in federal prison working in law libraries and working on my case and cases for other inmates I was an avid reader and writer. I wrote several books. I thought I could be a successful author while serving my 35 year sentence. My projected release date was March 18, 2028. I would still be in prison if those officers would not have been convicted of the same thing I accused them of. After I was released from federal prison the first time, I was contacted by the Oklahoma Innocence Project. I have attended many functions and fundraisers and been a guest speaker on several occasions. I was an Oklahoma Innocence Project Board Member for a while. A small part of one of my Innocence Project interviews was filmed and used in the movie The Innocent Man, based on John Grisham’s book. I was also in a KOCO Channel 5 special called Oklahoma’s Innocent.

I published my Book Forced Attrition on Amazon, and it was very disappointing. Amazon gave away free downloads of my book to Amazon Prime members, and I did not receive any royalties for those downloads. That was disheartening. I would like to spend all my time writing. But, in order to do that I have to make money on my books. Since my release I have been working as a pumper checking H2S (poison gas) oil wells. I also work on vehicles, do welding projects and buy cars and fix them up to resell. I work so many hours to make a living that I have little time to pursue a writing career. I’d like to spend all my time writing.

This is a very short version of events. A lot more has transpired since my release, but this gives you an idea of who I am. Thank you for taking the time to read this.