As a now former member of the entertainment industry, I prided myself in being a man of the people. I graduated top of my class in high school and twice in college from a film school and got to work with the industry’s top names. But my all time passion was professional wrestling and I was blessed with 26 years of being a pro wrestler up and down the east coast from New York all the way down to Florida. I’m a former American Idol Season 12 Contestant and was actively pursuing a music career (limited now due to the registry).

But that all came to a screeching halt in May of 2022 when I was texted by my ex that my daughter had told her I had violated her.

Now, this came as a complete shock to me. I thought she was lying to me because she very rarely ever said anything truthful to me. So I did what any man would do with a person he hated but couldn’t get rid of.

I dared her.

Next thing I know, I’m getting calls from a detective.

Fast forward two months later and I’ve got a warrant out for my arrest.

Now, mind you, I still don’t have any clue what any of this is in reference to. But, me, not being skilled in the art of laws in my state, think I can just turn myself in, cooperate, and bail myself out. I mean, how much could the bail really be anyways?

Boom! I’m slapped with $75,000 bond but here’s the kicker!

They won’t let me pay my way out. Oh No, I gotta go through a bail bondsman AND have someone co-sign to get me out and they have to pay for it, I’m not allowed to pay it myself.

Now, this is all BEFORE I’m even out of processing.

So I make a call, find out that my family is a bunch of selfish, watch their own backs, sort of people, who are too scared to put their names to paper for anyone, blood or not.

So off to jail I go.

Now, reminder, I STILL don’t even know what I did as a crime yet.

So 2 months go by, I finally meet my brainless, get all his information via google, 70 year old court appointed attorney who immediately tells me he’s never even handled a case with my charge before so we’re both going into this brand new. Great, thanks Grandpa! Immediately, he tells me he can switch out my evidence hearing for a reduced bond. Well, what good does a reduced bond do me when there’s no one willing to sign, even when they could use my own money to get me out. So I go with the evidence hearing. Well, we all know how that went. Apparently, written testimonies are good enough to count as evidence. Back to jail I go.

I had to wait 4 more months before I got any paperwork back that actually detailed what I was being accused of. At long last, I could get to see what was being said about me.

Here’s the short and simplified version of it: You know how parents change diapers on newborns? Now, you know how at some point, kids eventually learn to do that for themselves and you stop needing to clean them? Well my kid was 6 years old and still couldn’t figure it out. Now my ex had this tendency of only wanting to date meth dealers…well one in particular. When her and the guy would get into an argument and desperate for a week, she’d call me to come in and be temporary daddy. Well, on this occasion, it was on one of her weeks and the accusation came in 2 weeks later when meth daddy was back in the picture. Let’s just say, the kid got coached and a simple bathroom cleaning got blown completely out of context. I could go more detailed but I think you get the idea.

So, at this point, I’ve been in jail now on pre-trial for 6 months, I’ve got 4 more months to wait until I get to go to court for something called an “Arraignment” where I have a chance to plea out. So I start talking to my google lawyer old man dude about plea deals. He says the DA ain’t offering any, if I want to plea out, I gotta just plea guilty as charged. I say I ain’t doing that. He says you can do what is called “Guilty in pursuant of” which is essentially the same thing but you just aren’t saying it in the courtroom. I said “At this point, I’m just trying to get out of jail”.

So that’s what we did. I got 36 months of probation, 10-30 years on the registry, and 36 months of therapy classes.

Now, fast forward to today (as of this writing). I had no idea what I was signing up for. The whole point of the therapy is to admit fault and sexual intent (which were the things I didn’t admit openly to when I pled out), meaning I was getting setup to fail from the moment I stepped out of jail. My lawyer never explained that to me because if he had, I would’ve told him and the judge to shove that where the sun don’t shine. The probation restriction and the registry restrictions I’m cool with because I never did anything to violate those things before the arrest in the first place so no change to my previous lifestyle.

Being an RSO isn’t just about wearing a scarlet letter, the whole process of being accused of it is no different than being accused of being a witch in the Salem witch trials. No evidence is needed, anyone can accuse anyone else of it at any time and it just sticks as fact. Although, men can accuse women, you don’t see it often or at all really, but that’s just more of a society stigma thing and the part of lazy police. I actually witnessed police on more than one occasion rip up and toss my paperwork in the trash when I tried to take out restraining orders on the same ex that got me convicted on this crime. Why? Because she’s psycho!

I mean, there’s just no other word for it. She’s the devil in human form. She destroys the lives of everyone she comes in contact with. I would feel bad for her if she did it without knowing any better but she does know better, she gets off on seeing how bad she can make life for other people and it’s a genetic thing too because her dad, her sister, and several of her cousins are the same way. To this day, she still has family members that stalk me because she knows I have a no contact order on her from this felony she got me convicted of. I’ve had to get rid of all my social media accounts because they were getting spammed with hate messages from all of her relatives, my friends and family have been harassed by them, every public media outlet from my American Idol and pro wrestling days have been spammed with comments from this girl’s relatives trying to make sure to bash me online, and I’ve had to constantly look over my shoulder anytime I go out the front door wondering if one of these crazy loonies of gonna pop out from behind the corner of the house with a shotgun or a machete.

That’s the life of a registered sex offender. There’s many people that may say “Well good for you, you touch kids, you deserve that and way worse” and I used to think the same thing but you know, the label gets thrown around so liberally that maybe, just maybe, not everyone with that label should be grouped together. We get treated worse than murderers, I mean, murderers get life but at least they get treated normal on the inside. RSOs get crap on the inside and the outside. I read an article and it hits pretty hard when it says “Chomos are the modern day ni%g*r!” because as bad as black slaves were in the 1800s, we are looked at as being an even lower form of human scum than the worse one of them were considered in that time. We are the 1% in a world where we are hated by the 99%. We’re Equal Opportunity, There’s equal opportunity for us to be hated by everyone, regardless of race, age, gender, or creed.

“Why’d you kill him?”, “Well he was a Chomo?” “Oh ok, well you’re good, move along!”

For 6 years, I spent a lot of time going through the ringer with my ex. We enjoyed each others company, then she got the positive pregnancy test and she just went to hell after that. It was like I had done the worst thing in the world to her by knocking her up. Guess she was disappointed that I was the one unlucky enough to get the job done and not someone who looked like Channing Tatum and had the rich job, house, and car to boot. So she made sure I spent the rest of my life paying for that mistake. She even said she didn’t want a kid after telling me she couldn’t medically have any kids (Fellas, how many times have we heard that line and actually believed it?). But halfway through the pregnancy, after booting me out (because believe me, I didn’t leave willingly, I try to be a father even if I don’t make a good life partner), she starts saying (with $$$$$ in her eyes) that she’s changed her mind and now she wants the kid (notice she doesn’t say “wants to have the kid”, pay very close attention to context), but that I have to buy her a car in exchange for having any chance of seeing the kid when she’s born (this becomes a recurring theme over the next 6 years leading up to the accusation). Of course, I give in (As I feel I have no choice in these matters) and thus begins the never ending cycle of give give give, take take take.

Am I painting a bright enough picture for you readers yet?

So it’s about a month before the ex’s C-Section and the car breaks down, she starts asking for money to fix it. Well I don’t have any extra money to fix it so I have to decline. Well that pisses her off, so now next thing I know, I try to go see my kid being born but…

I’m on the hospital ban list…

A ban list with only ONE NAME!!!!

Seems kind of petty, but what’s even more petty is that she tried to keep my name off the birth certificate. It took me close to two years and me getting put on child support just to even get my name on my kid’s birth certificate.

The same kid that I was accused of indecent liberties with at age 6.

From a mother who still can’t hold down a residence longer than 6 months at a time and who can’t hold a job for longer than 4 months at a time. (Home health)

Let’s be real, women got a lot of state services available to them to help with rent, food assistant, phone, child card, etc. She doesn’t really have to work. The work she does get doesn’t last long anyways, I’m surprised our kid isn’t in foster care (like she was growing up). I’m in VA disability at the 70% rating and still being evaluated for 100%. Unlike my ex, my income is actually guaranteed. That’s what happens when you do great things for your country instead of leeching off the backs of others. In 2 months, I’ll be buying my first home while my ex is still jumping from rental property to rental property.

So in closing, while being an RSO, especially a wrongfully convicted one, is a drag. The experience has afforded me the ability to shift my mental focus in a more positive direction that I could’ve never had if this experience had never happened. For one, I’d still be dealing with my ex’s BS right now if she hadn’t done what she done, so that’s a stress reliever. With her out of the way, I got to focus on self improvement allowing me to do the things needed to get my VA disability approval that I’d been trying to get for 18 years. Now I’m 2 months away from closing on a house and I’m pretty much set financially for life. These are things that my ex never gave me time for because she was too busy sucking the time away on herself. Either the time was spent on her when she was around or the time was spent on legal stuff trying to find ways of getting custody of my kid so my kid wouldn’t have to live in some drug infested trailer park with a bunch of west Virginia hee haw hillbillies on meth pipes. Unfortunately, until I can get my case reopened and get the verdict of this thing reversed, there’s nothing more I can do to help save my daughter from becoming a carbon copy of her mother and repeating the generational cycle of doing this same thing to another poor unsuspecting guy some time down the line.

Hope everyone reading got something out of this! If there’s one thing I hope people can take away from this, it’s that you use me as an example of what NOT to do with your life.

– Brad