Roger W Upchurch

BRILLIANT MINDS

IN

CAPTIVITY

“Living in a prison camp and stories of Brilliant Minds”

Roger W Upchurch
Brilliant Minds in Captivity

“Brilliant Minds in Captivity” is the continuing from the book “Guilty Til' Proven Innocent” which is a book about my life growing up and becoming a Custom Home Builder, Mortgage Broker an entrepreneur manufacturing synthetic marijuana called K2, everything was legal, and I was making millions. I started a recording studio, record label, two-night clubs, limo service, and concert promotions. I was hobnobbing with celebrities and living a wonderful life.   Then an encounter with the DEA stating I had a banned chemical in my products, but I never even heard of that chemical, it did not matter they will get you after they investigate you.  Their lies, and scare tactics work. They coerce and threaten you into a plea deal. They took two and a half million dollars from me and sentenced me to 48 months in a prison camp. After two-and-a-half years warehoused in the camp and a slave working to keep the prison up next door I was released to home confinement early because of the Coronavirus and now here I am at home living with an ankle bracelet, writing my stories.

I am an advocate for Justice, Sentence, and Prison reform. I want to help good men and women through facing the Justice system BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER sentencing or prison.

I want to help release inmates become successful in life, by helping them with jobs, homes, and keeping them on the right path. Most of all I want to help children of incarcerated parents.   You can help too by going to www.rescuesuccess.org 

                           “Brilliant Minds in Captivity”

This book continues my life in a prison camp with the humor, the drama, and the stories of the Brilliant Minds that I met there, and some not so Brilliant Minds. How the Government and the Justice system breaks up good families with excessive sentencing. Learning how to be a better criminal!

The prison camp is like a working vacation you can get things done that otherwise you cannot get done at home. Turning a negative into a positive

My name Roger Upchurch and I am a sixty-nine-year-old inmate here at the Ashland Kentucky Federal Prison camp and I self-surrendered here on October 24^th, 2017. I am a retired custom home builder and mortgage broker since 2009 when the industry collapsed. Shortly after I was introduced to a business, and it was synthetic marijuana called K2. I searched for it and could find nothing illegal about it. I got into it and started manufacturing it. Soon I was making millions. With the money, I started a recording studio, a record label, two-night clubs, limo service, and concert promotions, a true entrepreneur. I kept many people employed and helped a lot of other people.

A customer brought me a new prospect, and he said that his family-owned stores in Indiana and Kentucky and wanted to use my products and maybe buy me out. All lies and come to find out he was a DEA agent and my customer that brought him to me was a “Whistle Blower”

On February 12^th, 2014 that same DEA agent came to my door and raided me. They took over two and a half million dollars from me. The prosecutor from Washington DC was using their usual scare tactics of threatening and coerce you into a plea deal and it works. They offered me 0 to 5 years. Of course, my attorney says that I will get the 0 and just probation. My attorney argued that I was not a good criminal therefore I should get probation, well that did not work. What about arguing that I was a first-time offender and never involved in violence? How about I was a family man and have built many homes for families. I paid taxes all those years. Married for 38 years to the same woman and was a productive citizen, not a criminal, maybe just made a bad decision. The Judge said I was a good businessman, but I had to set an example and he gave me 48 months in a prison camp. How can I be an example nobody will know? I never would have got into this business or any business if it were illegal and I would never knowingly commit a crime. Now I am a sixty-nine-year-old first time, non-violent offender going on my third month here at the camp and starting the new year of 2018 warehoused with fifty other men in this unit.

So far, I have met several Brilliant Minds and of course not so Brilliant Minds in here. They are Doctors, Lawyers, Politicians (not a surprise), Athletes, Accountants, CEOs of large companies, business owners, and of course drug users and dealers. They were sentenced to prison knowingly or unknowingly committed a crime or says the DOJ. If you are investigated by the DOJ and no matter what department they are with they will find something to charge you with, even if they make it up, no matter how small. It is the agent’s job and they want their reward for ruining someone's life. They make get a steak dinner with their name on the performance board. It is a game to them, and they win 99% of the time because most people do not have the resources as the Government does. The Government wastes millions for convictions. They are always searching and follow up on leads and try to make something out of them.

Example: #1 I met a young man here at the camp and he was Spanish and in his late twenties. He was clean shaving but before he got here, he had a full-length beard and long hair. He looked like a middle eastern terrorist, well that is what a neighbor said. He was living in an expensive home in an upscale part of town with his wife and she was the breadwinner. He took care of the house and did odd jobs and mostly taken care of the elderly. When the neighbor called the authorities and that she thought something was going with him the FBI started investigating him. They could only find on him was that he did not put his father’s initials on his passport application. What a crime. He finally did a plea and the Judge gave him ninety days in prison and he did sixty days in county jail and the balance here at the prison camp. So how much money did the Government waste on this and now this young man has a criminal record and labeled a felon for just ninety days in a prison camp for not filling a passport correctly? What a shame!

Example #2: Father Bill an “Eighty-year-old retired priest” is in here for seven months. He was managing entertainment for a retirement home with bingo, travel, dinners, and such. A wealthy gave him a credit card to use for helping the programs at the retirement home. A jealous resident notice that he bought some personal stuff with the card. The Feds got involved in using someone’s card that was not his. They got him for credit card fraud. The owner of the card said that he did not care it he bought a few personal items, but it did not matter to the FED. They still pursued him, and he made a plea for seven months in prison. He came into the camp after four months traveling from county jails and stopovers with a knot on his forehead the size of an enormous egg. He was handcuffed and shackled the total time until he got here. He said they pushed him out of a bus. The Father bill is about 150 lbs. And 5'5” tall. A big dangerous criminal! How much did it cost the government on this one? I bet the agents are proud and I am sure they got a splendid steak dinner for catching this criminal. There is more about Father Bill later. 

There are too many good men and women in prison for such petty stuff as the two above. Too many first time, non-violent men and women warehoused in prisons, and even if they made a mistake or committed a crime should have got probation, community service, or even home confinement. A lot or maybe most are given restitution to pay, and that is usually way overstated, but how can they start paying it back making $26 a month in prison.

Starting the new year 2018 am sitting in my vacation home at the Ashland Kentucky federal Prison Camp. I am in unit A2 and my room number is #14. My room is 8'x10' with tile floor, block walls 6' high, two twin beds, two lockers, a wall hung desk with light to read, and a 4' opening. The color is a warm soothing soft beige. Right now, I do not have a cellie (roommate) which is fine with me. I share the bathrooms and showers with about fifty other men. Here the toilets are all with medal stalls with doors and each shower is about 3'x5' enclosed with shower curtains and the water pressure is great and hot, genuinely nice.

Our grocery store (commissary) is open every Wednesday and Thursday, we have laundry service, a medical department with nurses, a dentist, a barbershop, an exercise room with bikes, a weight room, a library, basketball courts, a baseball diamond, corn-hole, handball court, and a boccie court. We have the best restaurant in town with brunch on Saturdays and Sundays and the food is surprisingly good. What else can you ask for? I am sure some men will not want to leave. Every day two guards with their keys a dangling come around at 4 pm and 9 pm and count us while we are standing and of course making sure we are alright. They do that also on Saturdays and Sundays and Holidays at 10 am in addition to. I guess to make sure we are not escaping, but who would want to with life so good here.

There are not a lot of rules here but if you get caught breaking the rules, you may go to the hole or even shipped somewhere else if it is your second or third offense. Some rules are no contraband (anything other than what you can get at the commissary) smoking anything, other drugs, drinking alcohol, using a cell phone, and keeping your shirttail in. Of course, I follow all the rules, or at least I have not been caught.

I must make a positive out of the negative I created. I can sit in here and accomplish nothing and just waste time playing cards, exercising, playing games, or sleeping. Of course, I do all of that, but I am a positive thinker and use my time to be productive. I am writing books about my story and fiction books as well. I am planning what I can do when I get out and I am taking this stay here as a working vacation. A rather long one though. I am writing stories of Brilliant Minds I meet here.

Positive thinking people grow in stature, self-esteem, spirituality, and wealth. Turn a negative into a positive.

In a prison or prison camp, you can just do your time or you can be productive with your time and plan for the future and turn this navigate into a positive.

Tuesday morning January 16^th, 2018 I got up around seven am, fixed my coffee, and ate a bowl of Rason Brand. I have come to like Raisin Brand; I never really ate it before. I took a shower and got dressed and walked over to the Barbershop to get a haircut. Jeff was the barber on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I like the way he cuts my hair. He gets paid with that job and I believe it is $26 a month. So, I and most inmates give him something from the commissary. I gave him a jar of peanut butter this time. Jeff is also an excellent cook, and he makes no-bake cookies. My mom made them, and we called them Loony cookies. So that is why I gave him the peanut butter because that is what he used to make the cookies. As you always gossip at the barbershop Jeff was telling me about his ex cellie at the low next door. 

His name is Brian and here is Brian’s story:

Brian had married his fourth wife June. June had been married three times before. June's last husband Ray had a son Jack, and he had autism. June and Ray never really got along and June suspected Ray of abusing Jack. One day June walked in on Jack and he was playing with himself, masturbating. June was embarrassed and said, What are you doing? Jack thirteen said that it is OK dad and I do this all the time. “Nothing like bonding with your father”

June and Brian were getting along well, and Jack was living with her and Brian. Every time Ray would get Jack for visits, he would always try to start a fight. June would also notice bruises on Jack. Ray was always behind on child support and you could tell he was drunk.

Brian was getting upset with the complete thing and said that they had to do something and put a stop to Ray getting Jack and bothering us.

One day Brian went to a bar and ran into a guy that he knew but not well. They were talking and Brian was telling him about Ray and the situation with June and Jack. Brian said it is causing June and I problems and if they do not correct it, it will affect our marriage. Brian said I wish he were dead. Brian said I would give $30,000 to have him dead. The other guy said really, I have a friend that can make that happen and he will do it for $30,000. Brian said are you serious and the other guy said seriously as a heart attack. As they sat, there drinking, Brian was thinking he should do this as he was afraid of Ray when he came over drunk. His drinking friend said give me your number and I will have my friend call you and if you want to go through with this then he will work with you and take care of the trash you want to be removed. A few days later, Brian got a call, and the caller said I hear that you have some trash that you need going. Brian thought for a minute and said yes, I believe so. The caller said to meet him tomorrow at 2 pm at Joe’s bar with $5000 cash, just in case we make the deal. Brian said OK.

What Brian did not know was that the friend he was drinking with was an undercover cop and a “Whistle Blower. The hitman he is setting him up with is an FBI agent. Brian was walking into a trap and really was not his idea it was the friend that had a few drinks with him. Brian had the $5ooo cash and got to the bar and the hitman (FBI agent) knew what Brian looked like and motioned him over to the booth. They introduced each other, and the hitman said I will kill this man and he will be dead, and you will not know how until you read it in the paper. He said I want the $5000 now and the rest after he is dead. The hitman, an FBI agent is wired and recording the conservation. Brian is nervous but says yes, I want him dead and not bothering us anymore, and handed him the cash. In about a minute five other agents pounced on Ray, they read him his rights and arrested him for attempted murder. This is just another example to “Not Trust Anyone”.

Brian pleads to seven years in prison and Jeff said that Brian did not adapt well to prison and was always nervous and called his wife every day. Jeff said at about a year left on his sentence Brian’s wife stopped answering his phone calls. Brian got to talk to his mother -in- law, and she said that June started living with another man soon after you went to prison. That upset him and made him more depressed and never associated with Jeff or anyone while in prison. Brian was finally released, and Jeff has not heard from him.

My Thoughts: I hope he forgets about his ex-wife and gets on with his life. 

Today is Monday, January 15, 2018, It being Martin Luther King Day a National holiday. I am working today in the library at 5 pm until 8:45 pm. As usual, on Holidays they will have a 10 am count and I really do not why. At 7:30 am, I had to get up and go get a sack lunch as on holidays they do not have the chow open for dinner and we eat those sack lunches for dinner. They do have lunch and we had Fried chicken and black-eyed peas, cabbage, cornbread, and bread pudding, I ate everything except the black-eyed peas and cabbage. I just read that there is a meeting on January 19th with the rules and the producers of the U.S. Sentencing guideline, and a possible vote to amend them and reduce the sentencing points, I hear it would take points off of me and would reduce sentence about 6 months, let’s hope so, normally they do nothing and just talk mostly about drug offenders and not white-collar nonviolent offenders.

Can you imagine if Martin Luther King was alive in today’s world with the internet, Facebook, Twitter, etc.? He would protest for human rights as then because it does not seem that not much has changed, in that department. Would he be as strong and a great brilliant man is with his inappropriate sexual past and links to communism, maybe not? He was a great man, and he fought for what he believed and wanted unity for all the people no matter what race or religion.

If you drive through some areas of cities today that are mostly, black, Spanish, or just low income it may not look much different as it did then when he was alive, Has he mattered, Black lives matter and so do Inmate Lives Matter, and a lot of the people in these areas will be inmates. Young men and women are growing up in these areas with uncontrolled and unloving families and I would say that their parents did too, what has changed. 

Kids are still growing up in a life of gangs, drugs, crime, prostitution, and violent crime, just like their parents. School is not helping much, and it takes more, it starts with a love in the home and hugs and kisses every day. It takes teaching your kids to work ethics, manors, morals at an early age. Respect all people and you will get respect in return. That will change things nothing else. Nobody is perfect and it is hard raising a family and bringing your kids upright. Peggy and I did the best we could raise our daughter Shelby. From an early age, we gave her love all the time, there was not a day that went by that we did not tell her we loved her and even today we still do, and she is 34. You may never totally succeed, one day when she was three years old, we were at Perkins having breakfast and Shelby dropped her spoon on the floor and she said God Dammit. We were shocked, where did she hear that, not from us, well maybe. She has always been a daddy's girl I remember when she was four or so she would always go to bed, then holler, Daddy brings me some chunky milk, and I always did for several years. When I went somewhere, I would always say “I love you and never, never leave you” even today. She went to college in Chicago for about four years and I gave her a 2000 Honda accord coupe we had, and it was in Peggy’s name. Shelby was getting a bunch of parking tickets in Chicago and must have been throwing them away so one day we have got a letter in the mail stating that we owe around $1500 in parking finds, unfortunately, Peggy cannot drive in Chicago. Shelby grew up to be a great woman and we are immensely proud of her and love her very much.

Back to Martin Luther King. Here are quotes that still resonate today. 

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; the oppressed must determine it.” Letter from Birmingham jail in 1963”

“Many white American’s of goodwill have never connected bigotry with economic exploitation. They have deplored prejudice but tolerated or ignored economic injustice”. Why cannot we wait, 1964

“A nation that spends more money on military defense than on social uplift is approaching spiritual doom”

Where do we go from here? Chaos or Community? 1967

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”. Love in action from strength to love.

“We may all have come from different ships, but we are all in the same boat now.”  1964

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” 1963

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools”, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” Letter from Birmingham City Jail 1963

The quotes from Dr. King are still inspiring and relevant today. I am sure he would tell those incarcerated to fight the system and their cases and to not depend on politicians to help with sentencing reform without our help.

I met a man today and his name is Tom. Tom is a Real Estate appraiser, white about thirty-five years old, five foot nine, and one hundred and seventy pounds. He is noticeably quiet and seems to be a shy person. We have been playing cards together for a short time and tomorrow he is leaving the camp and going to the half-way house. Here is Tom’s story.

Tom's story is that he has a friend that wanted to have a new career. Tom was wanting to expand and open another office and thought that this would a good adventure for both. His friend Bill found a place about seventy-five miles away from Tom's office. They opened the office and Bill was to get his appraiser's license before he could do and sign off on appraisals. He could manage the office and have licensed appraisers work out of there. They set the office up and Bill got a couple of other appraisers to work from there. A licensed appraiser is the only one that views the property, takes the pictures, reviews the comps, and signs the appraisal. Bill's job is to run the office and solicit business for the appraisers.

This was good timing for Tom as his wife was almost due to have their second child. Tom wanted to take a couple of months off after the baby was born, Tom also had a secretary that he felt like that she was not doing her job as he liked and she was getting very hard to get along with. Tom was going over his books and found out that his secretary was stealing from him. He fired her and never turned her into the police. He was nice enough to not prosecute.

Tom's wife had a baby girl and Tom had an appraisal that had to be done and Bill said that he would do it. Bill viewed the home found the comps, took the pictures, and then sent it to Tom to sign. The secretary knew that Bill did the appraisal, which was the same day she was fired; being upset she called the Securities Board that handled appraisers and she told them what they did.

Tom had always run his business above board and was one of the top appraisers in the state and had received a lot of business awards. The Appraisal Board turned this over to the FBI and after a few months of investigating the FBI indicted him on one count of wire fraud. Why he does not know. The FBI threatened and scared him into a plea deal and they gave him five months in a Federal Prison Camp and five months home confinement. Just for helping someone out.

A costly mistake, and he does not know if he will get his license back or not.

My Thoughts: It looks like the Real Estate Board could have gone to Tom and tell him that he did wrong and that Bill also did wrong and he knew he was not licensed to view the home and do the appraisal. Understanding that his wife just had a baby and his secretary was stealing money from the company and he could prove it. So, a simple mistake could take his business and family income. He should have just received a strong warning and or a fine since this is the first time and had such a good record.

Again, if they investigate you, they will find something!