E62 – Breaking Barriers: Reentry Challenges for Sex Offenders – Mitch Stupica

I thought that it was okay to be deceptive. That if I told the truth, it would come with punishment. Oh, just tell me the truth and everything will be okay. You're not going to get in trouble. And then when I would be honest, it would come and be reinforced with punishment. So I started living a double life with selling drugs and gang activity and, and trying to be surface compliant, I thought that it was okay to be deceptive. Welcome everybody to Prisoner's Pardon Podcast. I'm Mic J, your host, and today, again, you always know, I always say I have a special guest because I always do. You know why? Because everybody is special. Today we're going to be talking about a really touchy subject. Many people get triggered by this, and you know what? It's prevalent, and I do understand why we're gonna be talking about reentry for sex offenders and. Just so that you know, when you hear that term, it, categorizes a big group of people and it's different categories, it's different circumstances. And I just want you all to be aware of that and your heart softened to listen, but also using your mind at the same time. So again, we're going to be talking about a touchy subject. We won't have any kind of foul language or anything like that. It will be a good listen for, young ones, but not too young because a lot of people, I would say a lot of, not just people, but young people are involved with sex and it is. In my opinion, something like only should be done by adults because of some of the consequences that can come out of that. So I'm glad that you're here. I'm glad that you're taking the time to listen. And I really appreciate all that you do. Please, once you hear this video, Please send us feedback. I really appreciate it so that we can make this show better So people can get the value that they need because this is things that we really should be talking about Again, this is like a taboo subject but here on prisoners pardon. We don't back away from that so we approach things and because we do want to add value in this area too because there is not a lot of things For people that have a sex offender case. So again, that was just to let you know what we're about to talk about. And my guest here today is Mitch Stupica. He is Yugoslavian and haven't talked to him as much as I would like to, but I wanted to talk to him today because he has a great story. He does have a case like this and this is going to be interesting because he's going to come from the, Emphasis of being the male in this particular case. And I want you to listen to what he has to say. Welcome Mitch. Hey, now, for coming on the show. And I really appreciate it. Coming here and talking about such a sensitive subject. So Mitch, tell us a little bit about yourself so people can understand who you are at first. Well, I've been through a lot of trauma in my life from my father having mental health issues. Uh, a lot of mental health issues in my family from my grandma having schizophrenia, there's been Alzheimer's going on in my family, a lot of addiction from my uncle charlie. Um, and you know, I was born in 1984, so crack epidemic and drugs were quite prevalent. And my family and just genetically speaking, I've was diagnosed with attention deficit in 1993 with an oppositional defiant disorder. Um, and in 96 I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. So I was been on medication majority of my life from 93. I remember when my, when they found out and I was diagnosed, I went from getting, um, disciplined physically to He's sick, Mitchell's sick, and um, I really didn't understand what I was going through, you know, um, but I was on anywhere from Ritalin to Adderall to Wobutrin, Devacol, Clonidine, Risperdal, Prozac, it was always a cocktail. And growing up in my family, we, it was me and my sister. My dad was emotionally unavailable. My mom was the alpha female. She's Irish from Chicago. My dad sides from Cleveland. And so it was just the four of us in a avoidant. Type of family that was very passive aggressive, didn't want to talk about the elephant in the room. And majority of the time was spent catering to me with the school system with an IEP. I had a learning disability, emotionally disturbed. And so, I got into drugs quite early on to cope with a lot of the emotional instability that I had growing up at by the age of 12 I was using marijuana, cocaine, psychedelics, you know, just experimenting with alcohol. And, um, I was convicted early on. I had a juvenile case of breaking and entering and stuff like that. Um, just, you know, mischievous things. Um, And when I went into high school, uh, it was, this was 1999. So I'm sorry to interrupt you, but yeah, you just gave us a long little bio about the, mental conditions and some of the medications you've taken and stuff like that. And what about,, did you work how were you in the community did you have any kind of skill sets that you did to was all of your time? Um, just being what we call a bad boy or something like that. I worked, I had a job early on at 14. Team at McDonald's got fired for smoking weed in the bathroom. Okay. And then I got my first, you know, pretty good job at 15. I was working at a, uh, river Hills West Healthcare Center in p Walke and I was in dietary, so, and then I started working at Cold's Furniture. So I've always. kept the job because my, my parents were, um, they weren't well off, but they were real adamant on work, work. But I never was able to usually keep a job. Okay. And that was due to my mental health issues, like bipolar, you know, I wouldn't show up on time and it would really affect my emotional state. So were you doing, When you wasn't showing up on time and stuff, when you lost your job, was it because of just that? Or were you also doing drugs? Well, yeah, you said you were doing the week. I was, I was heavy. Yeah. And I was, you know, prior to me getting heavy in my addiction and self medicating, I was, there was already a plan. Uh, obsession and character defects. Um, where I thought that it was okay to be deceptive. That if I told the truth, it would come with punishment. Oh, you know, just tell me the truth and you know, everything will be okay. You're not going to get in trouble. And then when I would be honest, it would come and be reinforced with punishment. So I started living a double life with selling drugs and gang activity and, and trying to be surface compliant, you know, be perceived in this one way Work and uh, yeah, you know, I got the greatest potential, but on the other side, I was deceptive, manipulative and very disassociated with life, very antisocial behaviors and more of an extrovert. I always felt ostracized from people. I never really felt like I fit in. I never really felt like I had any type of place in this life. And so part of it had to do with the mental health issue, but also just with. All the psychiatry that I was put under with everything was just made to make it seem like I, it was something wrong with me. I was sick and nobody could relate. Okay. So thank you for bringing that up. I think you said a point about being deceptive and you got, the punishment when you were true faith, And that's why you didn't tell the truth because you didn't want that punishment. You didn't. What kind of punishment was that Larry? And I would get the silent treatment, which I would start feeling like I was rejected. Like when my parents wouldn't talk to me. I think that that just the emotional abandonment, uh, I would get. Uh, hit with whatever my dad at the time before that from extension cores to belts. My dad was before these diagnosis were even in, uh, on the table. Uh, I was just this problem. Child that needed to be whooped, you know, come from the old school spirit of spirit of riots for the child and Just the verbal abuse the emotional abuse that you know I remember my mom used to say you're just like my brother. You're just like my mom. Well, I never met my grandma I never really had a relationship with my brother. And so I Internalized that and say well if I'm just like them you're gonna abandon me and leave me anyways You're going to reject me anyways, just like them. So I never really got close with, you know, my mom. I never really got close with people, even those in authority because I didn't really trust them. I used to see a lot of things in the public school system when it came to kids with autism and kids with other learning disabilities and they would be abused and you know it was hard for me to trust those in authority because the people in authority abused their authority. I'm not saying all of them but I saw a lot of things that would give me selective memory to where it would reinforce a lot of the trauma that I went through as a child. So in your estimation like you said they punished you with the silent treatment excessive punishments with, cords, verbal abuse, that quite naturally took your trust away. You know, I think anybody would have that. So what do you think should have been the outcome with you being honest with them? If you were the parent, what would you have done? I think with the, uh, you know, looking back, I think having a safe environment. place to where you could come a judgment free zone where you could be encouraged and be supportive to the child. I know that, you know, there has to be some form of discipline, especially, you know, to correct problematic and antisocial behavior. Um, I think that with my, my parents, they did the best that they could, but I feel like, I was just talking with my sister recently. She was the obedient child and I was the one that always would act out. And this was my way of avoiding a lot of the things that was going on where my parents would fight all the time and argue. And I would think that it was something wrong with me. Well, maybe if you get rid of me because there was always money problems, there was always something that was going on. I'm the one to blame. Maybe if I just commit suicide that I would be able to, you guys would be happy. And I used to take on a lot of that guilt and shame and rejection because my parents never had a good marriage. And so that communication style, I think I just wanted to be heard and understood. And I never felt that way. You never felt you got that one. Okay. Which is understandable because we all need to be, heard, you know, in children. Now understand and we do take on guilt They've really affected with broken marriages. We see this all everywhere. I believe everybody can agree with that that broken marriages and broken homes make broken children, so I was glad to hear that That you said they did the best that they could, and I'm willing to bet something happened in their past where they weren't able to parent as they, should have. So I'm glad to hear that. You have some forgiveness there. Yeah, okay And because that's really necessary But you said the word judgment no judgment zone and I must admit My antennas go up when I hear that word judgment because it's so many times people use it incorrectly um, it depends on the content because god said judge yourself and then it's another part in the bible that says Don't judge so It's definitely two different things meanings there. So it's really said in the New Testament. So it's in Greek. So in Greek, as one of my Bible teachers at church to say, it's more colorful. So it have more, more words. But in English, it's, one word that they would use that could mean a lot of things, but it depends on the context. So, uh, to make it clear, judgment is Um, the way you're, the way you're speaking of is just being able to examine and look at things because a lot of people use that inappropriately and it shuts down the process to actually help somebody because you have to say something to be able to do something. You have to know what, what you're saying. What's going on to be able to attack it, to be able to direct what we need to do to stop the problem. So you have to expose it. But some people, um, misconstrued that they use it in appropriately. And now they stopped that process when they don't know that they're stopping. They actually stop it. So, I would like to say it's examined. Judging is nobody can judge but God because he's the only good person and able to judge. Everybody has done something. Everybody is working on things. So we can't judge. So we leave that judging. to him. But we still must examine. So that being the case, you wanted a safe place in a non judgmental place, right? I guess that's what you should. But you wanted a place where you can be examined. So since they didn't know how they just worked off of what they all they know. So I'm glad again that you have forgiveness and because if you did not, it would be hard for you to move forward because unforgiveness leads to bitterness and it's get sour. And then it's not what they would say, uh, compartmentalized is going to spill over into other places. So you have to deal with it. that. You can't just leave it there because it's gonna actually spill over to all authority. So, and that's exactly what happened with you. So, in looking back and now that we explain like examining them having this safe place, um, what would you think they should have done better? Now that you're in a better place, we're looking back now and we can look at this picture of you sitting there as a child and you're having these issues that they're not aware of and they have issues. So what if we, if it was a perfect world, so somewhat, what would you as a parent do just to validate my feelings? Because I knew that they loved me. I just didn't feel that they loved me. Did they say that they loved you? They would, but it was, it always felt like it was out of obligation. Like we were like, I love you. I love you too. It was never like set me down and say, you know, I know you got some issues. Yeah. And we're working on that, but I really love you no matter what. I like that. That's a good way to do it. At the point where you're examining, validate the person, encourage the person and let them know that you love them. And that's how we should do things. we should do things in love. That means if, if our motives are right, and we're trying to actually build the person up, and not tear them down. And they unknowingly were tearing you down and contributing to the problem. So because most of it was like, well, why can I do that? Well, because I said so, you know, it's just like I'm trying to understand. I'm trying to be understood and I never felt like I was understood. It was always Put a band aid on cancer. Um, and I think that just leads up to, um, just, you know, I look back at the, the conviction that I was, um, convicted of a third degree sexual assault in 2003. Tell us, um, sorry to interrupt, tell us a little bit about that. Um, so, So I was, I got a job at Radio Shack in 2003. I would just turn 18. I was in high school. It was my senior year. And so, um, I was out in Madison and I met a girl she was 15 at the time. She was in high school with me. Well, like, you know, we didn't go to the same high school, but you know, we were both in high school. And so I liked her. She liked me. And, um, I wanted to celebrate, and so we were smoking weed, you know, drinking, and we decided to go back to, uh, uh, my mom's house in Wales, Wisconsin, and we had sex that night. She was, uh She was 15. I was 18 at the time. How did you know her age? Uh, well, she told me. She told you? Yeah. So you knew her age? Yeah, I knew her age. And at that time, you know, I'm in high school. I didn't really think of that was inappropriate. You know, um, I didn't like, this is, we're in high school together. This is my friend, you know, this is my, this is my little, this is my little girlfriend, you know? And, um, I think it was more of like I'm getting the attention that I wasn't getting at home. Uh, somebody likes me for me and we want to build something. I want to celebrate, you know, I just got a job. I was in celebratory mode and didn't realize. Uh, I didn't really look at the red flags looking back. Um, that, why was it so easy for you to come with me when we just met? Um, where you don't have to go home while I'm grown. Okay, well, you've grown. So am I, you know, not really looking at the fact that, well, where's your parents at? I look back at it now. She was, she was, um, she ran away at the time she was on probation. I found this out later during the conviction when we get the discovery. Um, so I was still communicating with her for a couple, about three months. And, um, I got upset. I went out to Madison to get up with her. And my friend and her and her friend, we were going to go on a date and she let me down. She canceled on me. Who is this? The girl. She let you down? Okay. Yeah. And so I struggle with disappointment and being letting down and that goes back to my own trauma. And so I said a whole bunch of, uh, horrible things to her and broke up with her. Fast forward. Um, I was called in by Walker Shaw County, uh, detectives and they asked me about the situation and saying, well, this girl saying you sexually assaulted her at the time, I thought that she was saying that I forced myself on her and, you know, um, was violent. And you know, raped her. So I committed, uh, I, uh, confessed to having consensual sex with my girlfriend thinking like, no, I didn't rape her. So they let me go. And, um, about a month and a half, two months later, this was in 2003, I was charged with second degree sexual assault of a minor because she was 15 and she legally couldn't give consent. And the discovery, she told her psychiatrist that we broke up and then we were having sex. Yeah. And so that's when they investigated it. And because I was 18 at the time, I was an adult. And so back then they didn't have what they call as a Romeo and Juliet clause with the age difference, which now my conviction, if I was 18 and she would have been 15 at the time, it would have been a misdemeanor, but back then it was second degree sexual assault of a minor, it got dropped down to a third degree and I was sentenced to seven year probation to consecutive to another separate case of attempted armed robbery. Because after that, I just went downhill once I got that charge, it just was a matter of time for me to end up in prison for other things because I was already, um, I got, uh, right. Yeah. I'm sorry to answer it, but why did it get dropped down to the third degree? Um, well, I wanted it when I was getting the plea. I wanted to get dropped down to a fourth degree misdemeanor. But but they said, because I had the other separate case, they wouldn't drop it down to a misdemeanor because they already kind of have this perception that I was just violent because I had other batteries and other things going on. So that was their perception. You think that was the right perception at the time? Yeah, I was violent. Um, I didn't see that I was violent towards, sexually violent. So they applied the violence from the other one to this one. Yeah. So that's why it didn't get dropped down to the fourth, but it did come down. Yeah. Okay. All right. Um, why did it start at second degree? Cause she was 15 and my What's the first degree? First degree is like Pedophile. Okay. Rape, first degree, intentional like force. Okay. Uh, pedophile. Like if you were with a prepubescent child and she was 15 at the time, so legally she couldn't give consent and it was already a felony. Right. Since I was 18. Okay. So again, you had that case going on. So was uh, this. What happened before you did the armed robbery? Okay. So after that, I was supposed to be, come to court for that. And then like a week before, I was supposed to appear for court for that. I committed attempted armed robbery and a reckless. And what? A reckless, uh, a reckless endangerment safety. Okay, reckless. Yeah. May I put, um, I pulled a knife to somebody's throat and threatened, um, and attempted to rob them. Was that, it was a, was it that armed robbery was the night before it was a knife as well, or was it? Yeah, that was the attempted armed robbery because no money was taken. No money was. Okay. Um, why didn't it, why didn't you take the money? Cause he didn't have any. I mean, what did you say? Okay. I'll just let you go. Yeah. Like let you go. But they called the police. And when we went in, They were going to try to get dropped down to the attempted armed robbery because no money was took and no money was demanded because, uh, due to what I was saying was pocket check. And what did you, what did you just say? I said, I said pocket check. I put somebody, put a knife to somebody's throat and I said pocket check. I didn't demand it. So in the courtroom, we asked them to define what pocket check means and nobody could, but since a felony was committed, the reckless endangering safety, that's why it was pocket check. Pushed to the arraignment and it's just, it was, you said pocket check and what does that mean? Like I'm going to go in your pockets. That's what you said. Yeah. So you, so it has to be a, you was talking this language and that person understood that it. Okay. Yeah. You were robbing them. Yeah. Okay. And they didn't have any money. So I left it. Went on my way. Okay. All right. So now we understand why they, they, um, yeah. And I had already had others like, uh, batteries and others like on my record. So they kind of put everything in a span of, uh, like six months to like nine months. I had other misdemeanor charges with a fight with my dad. And a fight at school. And they're like, no, you need to be locked up. And so I got five years in for the robbery, and five years extended supervision for the attempted armed robbery case. For the third degree sexual assault, because I got dropped down, it was seven years probation, run consecutive to the ten year robbery sentence. So after I would have finished the ten year robbery sentence, then I would start the third degree sexual assault case. It was, oh, it wasn't combined. No, it was one consecutive. So, now the seven year probation case, they had a stay and oppose sentence, uh, four years in and five years out. If I, if I completed the seven years probation, I would just do seven years probation. Okay. If I didn't. I would go back for four years automatically in five years, which that ended up happening. Okay. So, so, um, I'm going to interrupt there a little bit to give the audience some background on this. It's the Romeo and Juliet law. It's where it doesn't make. Sex with a teenager legal, but it exists to prevent the offender from having to register as a sex offender. So what they do is they apply this when there's a small age difference between the two parties so that everyone understand what the Romeo and Juliet lie is. Not every state has it to my understanding. Wisconsin does not have it. Um, what under this law too, and not having this in place, I would say it can be a lifetime registration. So are you a lifetime registration? 15 years, 15 years. Praise God for that. That's I think that's good because in some cases they can hit people with a lifetime registration. So yeah, I think due to the, the, the circumstances of the offense, that's why they made it for 10 years. And I think that's up to the judge, right? So that is something to be thankful for. because it could have been because some people are hit lifetime for this. So I wanted to tell the audience that it is very vital that young men understand this, especially if they live in the state of Wisconsin and other states, that the girl, whether she consents or not, is a woman. She is considered a minor, meaning that she cannot give consent and the state would take up the case. It, once they find out they're going to take it up, it does not matter what that parents say or the child say, the state actually prosecutes those cases. So it can, you can have cases where I've looked some of these things up. Anybody can look this up online, um, about, especially here in Wisconsin, how you can. If you can just send pictures, if you're a minor, if you're looking at pictures, somebody exposed themselves, you can get charged. So this is very critical that people understand what, what's going on here because they can wake up like you thinking that it's nothing and it's easy to do that, considering our culture that's saturated with sex, it's, um, you have young girls walking around improperly dressed. They look way older than what they are, and they're so easily can fool men. I've heard, I've talked to a lot of men that this has been the case. They didn't, they thought they was older. And they didn't check. They need to check. Birth certificates do not believe what they say. I'm an advocate where, the way God intended it is to be in the boundaries of marriage. And this is one of the reasons why. Because if you get caught outside those boundaries, you can get locked up. And it's confusing considering how people dress, how you have a lot of, uh, instances and laws where they're saying where young kids can give consent, for instance, to do sex changes, different things like that. But then in this instance, we have it where they cannot give consent to have sexual intercourse. Anybody would be confused in that sort of scenario. So my heart goes out to you, I suggest you get informed. That's the reason for this show, to reduce the recidivism rate, to keep you out of jail. And if you go, don't go back. These are things that you need to understand is the laws of the land where you stay because it does impact you. And if you have young people, please talk to them about this. Just sending pictures of themselves exposed. On their phones. It's in the girl for as I'm understanding, it's not being charged with that boy is going to be charged for pornography. Um, even though she doesn't want, even though the girl may not want to be charged, but if she was to get angry at you because you said, I'm not saying this happened with you, but I'm just going to say if the girl happens to get angry, even if you're saying 16. She's 16. You all have sex. You can get charged. Yeah. Period. That's so our audience understand this and how huge this is and how this is affecting a lot of people. And this, you need to be sitting down because I'm going and doing adult things like having sex. You don't understand the consequences of it and how easy you're on a win. On a whim of a female saying that just going and talking about it, it can get back and get you locked up. Yeah. So yes, Mitch is right here. You all can't see him. He's understanding exactly what I'm saying because he has experienced it. So again, here we are, Mitch, not much age difference, did have consent from the young lady. Wait, Mitch was a werewolf? that he can get charged. Just that little bit of information changed the whole trajectory of your life. But what we do here, we encourage because you can learn from this and Mitch is going to inform more people because He's living it. And people, you know, route people to the show, let them hear this episode because this is very, very impactful because it's so easy for someone to get locked up. This could happen to anybody. Yeah. And I just want to say that, you know, looking back, I would have did it way differently. Like, you know, taking the time to get to know her, you know, I look at my part in the, in just seeing the red flags and then looking at the case that she was running. She was on probation. She was seeing a psychiatrist. Had I would have took the time to get to know her, it would have probably had a different outcome. See, I was at the time, I was just thinking about, Oh, she's into me. You know, I get to get what I want out of the situation because what teenage boy doesn't want to have sex, you know, and especially if it's agreeable, you know, and I look at it ruined my life. Yes. It can, you know, everybody, everybody has. And this one here, in this case, anybody can get caught up in this situation. So at the time you weren't at that age of 18, then you put on some of the traumas that you're going to, just not even without the trauma, you still weren't mentally able to make decisions like that and let alone with the other stuff going on. So yeah. So. 20 years later, I'm still having rules that says that I can't do this, I can't do that, I can't go to the park. I mean, I'm not gonna say, I don't want to be too crude here, but we need to be a little bit, to get a little raw. Was it worth it? No, it was not worth it. Because, like, just, had I would have known what was at stake, Of like, okay, if this is what you want to do, these are the consequences when we talked about when we started out about being honest. And then I don't want to be honest because it comes with punishment. And I would have known the punishment of what I would have had to go through where I have to get approval just to data adult age appropriate consenting woman. She has to be my P. O. They have to talk about the conviction. Uh, what if she has kids, you know, what is the perception of that? You know, I'm not going out here trying to groom kids and, uh, you know, on some, a pedophile or child molester or predatorial, I just want to have my life back and I can't go to the lake front without a chaperone, I can't go to certain places because public perception is. Oh, he's he's a sex offender. You know, lock the doors. Put it well. And in fact, if we actually look at it, it's a lot of people are sex offenders and just not having to register and looking at how this case happened. They can't really point fingers at you. Yeah, if it's looked at, at this level, the DOC, they put everybody in the same category because I'm not just talking about their, I'm talking about the culture, the community. And um, it's like, you see these videos. And you see these girls imitating these videos, you know, posture in their bodies and I'll do, you know, and it's like, and then you're saying, Oh, you're a sex offender. And you know, our desires are natural. And then people are getting triggered by this behavior. Yeah. But then. You want to lock them up, but it's no accountability on a community side or on a parent's side in Churches and government everywhere that this has to be looked at as well holistically Holistically because right now you're living in a hostile environment, you know with this virus Because it's all these triggers. That's why they have it. You can't be on the internet, right? You um, you can't go to like for you have to be stopping around you have to do this This is because they put you in with how they look at pedophiles Yeah, and then they got domicile restrictions too that says if your conviction wasn't committed in us, uh our city At a certain time, you can't live in our city. We're gonna banish you from our city. And we're gonna force you to be homeless. And you gotta live over here, and you gotta bounce around. And that's what my situation is, because my, my, my conviction is out in Wales, Wisconsin. And Milwaukee has a, uh, an ordinance. that says that if my conviction wasn't committed in the city of Milwaukee prior to 2016, then I can't reside in the city of Milwaukee. So now I'm forced to be homeless, put on a bracelet, a GPS bracelet, so the DOC can monitor me. Even though I've had many residents. I've had many addresses in Milwaukee prior to the ordinance going in effect, but now they changed because I was in prison at the time when they changed the ordinance. Now I can't live in the city. Where am I going to go? I can't go here. I can't go here. I can't go here. I can't go here. So now I'm just bouncing around. So how are you here? This is, should you be here? Technically, no. Okay. But, um, uh, I registered with sort, which is the sex offender registry. And then now I have to go ahead and hear from the department, uh, the police department to say, if I'm in violation, which a lot of times they fall through the cracks or the police going to send me a, uh, uh, uh, ordinance violation. So I can challenge it because I want to get grandfathered in because I've had many times, uh, residents prior to 2016 in the city mall, and that's why I should have grounds to be grandfathered in. So I. Couldn't reside so I could be in a safe place. So you're waiting to hear back from, how do you say the, the, the Department of Correction. Um, I mean, not the Department of Corrections, the police department with a violation of the ordinance. 'cause I've already registered here at, at, um, so you're waiting to hear back? Yeah. So how long is that gonna take? It could take, however, however long they, they look at it. So they are looking at it, I don't know. It could fall through the cracks. Oh, I'm, I'm believing that I'm hidden in Christ. Until I'm all I got ten months of paper left and I'll be done completely off of this the third degree sexual assault case I'll be completed in because I've been out four years and two months. Okay, so you won't have to register anymore I'll have the register 15 years from now, but I won't have the DOC with the rule Rules and stuff like that. I can move to a different I got family in other states. So how long do you have again before that? Ten, ten months. Ten months. Yeah. Is it okay you doing this interview? Yeah. Okay. I, I see why that could I did an interview. No, I did an interview with Fox 6 News in 2014? No, 2016 when they just made the ordinance with Brad Hicks. And it's on, uh, Fox 6 News. You could probably I tried to find him. I didn't You And when? When did you have the interview? I think that's when he left. I looked, I was looking at trying to see where. Cause Brad Hicks is no longer with Fox and he left around in 2016. Yeah, he was doing the Fox News interview. Okay, I have to go back and look because I was the one I was a big advocate on trying to get because they had everybody homeless at that time. And Mark Weinberg from Chicago was a lawyer that he actually, uh, represented, uh, represented, uh, like seven sex offenders and got the ordinance rescinded. But there's still an ordinance on it. Not as extreme. Okay. Yeah, I want it. The reason why I was mentioning this a little bit because, um, you know, they say you have a debt to society. So, which you do, but society has some accountability as well. And I want to bring that up in, you know, to the surface. So we look at everything. So just to recap what we've been talking about, we talked about your case, how you perceive you got there, what you think could have helped. you perceive you got there is because of your broken home. some mental issues that was going on, um, how you were parenting, and then you looked at how you think your parents could have helped, uh, encouragement along with punishment. What type of punishment do you think they should have had? I just think that With my family, there was a lack of resources just with the help from the public school system with the IEP whole situation. I think if I would have had more mentors, cause I didn't really, I don't really remember having a lot of mentors, a lot of people that were advocates. Yeah. But what kind of, because there is accountability, right? When, so I won't use the word punishment. It is accountability. So what kind of accountability do you think you should have had? I mean, When this was going on is I don't think anything would work being honest because I wanted to do what I wanted to do. I was very rebellious and I don't think anything, any punishment or accountability probably would have helped. Like, so what? Yeah. What do you think it should have happened and how would I think, I just think that if I would've had more of a positive influence, more positive role models and mentors, that would've been the deterrent for me. Not to continue my antisocial, but that, that sounds like, I know, but you said nothing would've helped. So how that that would, how is that? That sound like that would help. Nothing would have helped as far as punishment is concerned. Let me clarify that. Nothing like taking my games away or doing this or beating me or verbally assaulting me. Like none of that would have worked. Don't do that. If I would have had more outlets with mentorship and advocacy and stuff like that and having probably a better peer group, I think that would have helped. More of a positive reinforcement. I'm an advocate of both. I think there should be a balance though. So, I don't agree with rewarding bad behavior because that's going to promote bad behavior. Um, because you know I come from a family where I have a twin brother that's locked up. He's been in and out and that's why I do what I do because I want. Change. Yeah. Looking at things. I'm glad you agree with me. So I'm trying to see where would you say the, um, I hate to say punishment or however you may say a correction, but you can't. Just reward or, or ignore an issue. So what can the parent thinking about it this way? What can the parents have done? And you saying you were very rebellious, not, it's not that it's, um, that, you know, you, you put these things in place to help for boundaries. I would say to, to let the kid know, and adults know that there are repercussions. So if you don't have any, No wonder they're going to keep, cause they don't understand that there's accountability. So my thing is if you would have had some checks done, man, you know, some accountability, not the negative stuff, cause they, they tried the best they can, but they did it not appropriately and negative stuff, but it still should be something in place so that. You understand it starts to get in your head like, Hey, there's repercussions. Like, what are the repercussions? Cause my son, he would do that. He, uh, thank God he never went to jail, but I just sat in his head right away. There is accountability. So what he would do and probably what you would have done in those circumstances, he'll go right all the way up to the boundary. Cause he knew there was coming. Then he'll come back. Yeah. So it's like what I did with him. Was, uh, uh, you know, some talking as well as taking away and when some, cause you catch it small, let him go through the consequences of it and then tell him why he's going through it. Yeah, I didn't have that. And then, and. No, it's talk. Show, show him what it is and tell him, hey, this is why I'm going to allow it and I'm going to help. Sometimes you don't have to use extension cord. Yeah, you don't have to have those talk, right? No, it's just like you know what a lot of times you already get the whooping I don't have to use the belt. I'm like, I'm telling you this is a whooping right here This is what happens when you do this. So you can understand there's consequences because if you don't show them this They're gonna think there is none though. And then they're gonna get bam Yeah, you get sideswiped like I didn't know I didn't know about this. So anyway, we're wrapping this up Thank you for it The interview. I just want to say, um, this was great and this is something people need to listen to. But it's, again, it's getting informed and I want to cut a verse here. It says in the Bible, it comes about talking about mind and what we're doing here is like, we're actually renewing our mind. You're getting the information so that you'll know how to, behave because whatever you think, that's how you're going to act. So it says, do not. conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing and perfect will. And that's the pleasing and perfect will is for you to be healthy, for you, for the community to be safe. Yeah. You know, for you not to. Escalate like you did in getting into other crimes because that was just the start and it escalated. So where do you think you're at now? Well, I'm in recovery right now and really re evaluating what, where did it all start, you know, and counteracting these strongholds. Are you taking responsibility? Yeah, I'm taking responsibility. I'm med compliant now. I've been clean for six months now off all drugs and alcohol. That's great. Um, I'm currently in In hope through restoration Sober living house. This is a great place. I'm here. Yeah. And, um, I hope it's more like this. Yeah. LT Austin, he runs this program so everybody that you know, he's should know about this. And he's so accountable because he actually talks to you. Mm-Hmm. I've had men leave my whole life. Mm-Hmm. never led. We need, yeah. We need more strong men like that. Yeah. So you. So we're wrapping this up, you're saying that you're taking responsibility, you've forgiven your parents, have you forgiven yourself? Yeah, I have. Have you forgiven yourself? Yes, I have. Okay, good. Because a lot of people have guilt and they can't forgive themselves. Yeah, and that's just to honor who I am as far as God's creation. You know, I have to love myself. So I love my neighbor as myself. So that starts with self. I thank you for this interview. Thank you. A lot of people, I'm pretty sure is going to get a lot of, a lot of value out of this because this is, for family members, for people that locked up as well as people involved in the justice system, as well as, um, you know, judges, lawyers, all advocates. is that it's working in this type of deal and plus being able to help people that's reentering, especially people that have a sex case because it's reentry is harder for them than. for people that don't have it. And again, we talked about the Christian perspective, how God looks at this and we looked at our community holding our community accountable as well because they are accountable as well. Not just yourself, but that doesn't excuse how you should be responding and behaving as well. And I'm glad to see that you you're forgiven. Have you forgiven the community? Yes, I have because I know I have to take accountability in the things that I do at the end of the day. I have a choice in the matter. And so what I do, it affects not only me, but it affects everybody else. That was the end of my interview with Mitch Stu Pika. We really thank him. It is so good to have someone be so transparent. When they're being transparent. We can help. Everybody can help. People like Mitch. When he gets to information and we write reinforcements Of accountability and him understanding the ramifications. We stop a lot of them getting into trouble. They simply at times. Just don't know. But if we talk to them, give them reinforcements, validate them. Make sure they're heard, but also make sure he understands the consequences again. Mitch Stu Pika. Is a great young man with a lot of talent. In the show notes, I'm going to be attaching his video with Fox six, as well as his video. That he may wit an amazing song as you would see, he's amazingly. Talented with so much to give. To our community I'm pretty sure you're going to be seeing much more. Mitch Stu Pika. Going about trying to tell other people how not to go. Down the path that he did. Thank you again for listening to the show. May you have a weak field with blessings?