The accidental Felon

BowTiedAnabolic on his fall and rise within the legal system

Hi Frens! This is a guest post by at Tony Cannoli (at BowTiedAnabolic) on Twitter. Please enjoy, share, and let Tony and I know if you have any questions or comments. Thank you to Tony for his openness, honesty, and story.

My name is Tony. As a convicted felon, I remember the shock of uttering those words for the first time.

Raised in a middle-class family by two loving parents, I attended a good middle school and a great high school known for producing leaders, not criminals. I was raised for success, but life doesn't always work out that way.

Growing up, I had a bit of a violent streak. Although I never started a fight, I never shied away from one and often enthusiastically encouraged a challenge. This would be my Achilles heel. I had built a resume that investment bankers at the age of 40 would sell their souls for.

Then, one fateful night, I had one too many to drink, and an individual threatened to hurt my mother. I took my knife and made a laceration on his cheek. The cops came and detained me, they dragged me into a room offered me a drink, to which I declined, and kept asking me to tell them what happened even though I requested a lawyer.

They were a bit pushy until they realized that even though I was drunk I was fully cognizant and would not say anything to them. They put me into a small cell to await my bail hearing. It was set, but since my hearing was on a Saturday I had to wait until Monday before I could get out. 

I retained a lawyer immediately, a blind lawyer whom to be honest I only picked because I was a fan of daredevil (half kidding here, he was a former judge for the locality).

He was a fairly dispassionate lawyer but to be honest he got my charges down from years in jail to months.

The negotiation process from my end was a waiting game. He called me and told me, “The district attorney is offering six months jail with 5 years probation, if you decline it he will go for the maximum at trial which is five to seven years, I know his reputation and he will go for it, so I think you should accept this offer”.

I accepted in a heart beat, it was a great deal. I got some feedback from a few other lawyers before I accepted, and they reiterated that sentiment.  Knowing what I know now here is what I would have done.

Look up the D.A, find their name and any organizations they belong to. Most Criminal defense attorneys are in the same groups and organizations as the judges, prosecutors and district attorneys. Facebook and Google are your friends here, try to look at pictures and see who is in them, hire your lawyer accordingly. 

Here I am, arrested, charged, and convicted.

I spent six months in county jail and was sentenced to five years probation.

Many people told me to take two to three years due to probation being extremely difficult, but I chose to take a chance and get out of jail as quickly as possible.

Jail was not eventful, as much as I can remember it was just people trying to do their time and leave. There were maybe two fights both of which I did not witness. I spent most of my time working out in my cell, sleeping, reading or going to programs.

The odd thing about jail from what I saw was that the people overall were not entirely bad people, just theft, drugs, or DUIs. Many would help each other out, regardless of race.

I guess it is because when you’ve been in a position to not have anything it makes you inclined to help when you can. Many of the things you hear on the news and see on TV happen in Prisons, not jails.

Jails are county run prisons which tend to house people doing less than one year in their sentence or a less serious offense. Because of this there are not many problems and even when there were, they were miniscule. 

The first thing I did was go back and finish my associate's degree.

I had various jobs, from car salesman and porter to store-stocker, stock trader, and backbreaking construction. Eventually, I worked my way up to working in accounting again.

By focusing on school and work, I was able to stay on the straight and narrow and earn a second chance at life.

However, I have faced discrimination.

I have had jobs that wanted to hire me, only to turn me down time after time. It was rejection after rejection, for no other reason than my felony, which is understandable but frustrating.

I have never stolen anything and have always conducted my life with integrity and loyalty. I haven't taken a penny that wasn't mine.

Yet, I am treated as a thief, someone not to be trusted, as nearly an untouchable. To go from being a financial advisor to this was quite a blow to my ego and self-esteem.

I made it through probation with zero violations, and did not fail a drug test once.

Probation was a bit difficult, but I had an idea to get on their good side. I had not yet been formally sentenced until after I was in jail, so I had a bit of free time before I would be reporting to anyone.

I decided to attend a drug and alcohol program voluntarily, as well as anger management. When it was time for me to report to probation I already had letters from the councilors saying that I did not need to attend drug/alcohol programs as well as the anger management.

Doing that put me in very good standing really fast and that momentum continued. They’d do a house check once a month, drug tests occasionally, and I’d report 2x a month to 1x a month. I was always allowed to leave a county/state for the day by just leaving a voicemail.

The hardest part for me was the self-control.

I managed to avoid drinking because nobody in my family drank so alcohol was never in the house, my friends all made sure to keep drinking to a minimum when out with me, and never brought any kind of drugs near me when we went out.

But I can’t lie there is nothing like a glass of wine with steak, and that’s what I missed the most.

I never tried to cheat the tests or break the rules, the anxiety was never worth it to me, being on probation was anxiety enough, especially because where I live it’s so easy to accidentally cross county and state lines.

I paid the price, went to jail, and am still being forced to pay.

I at one point offered $30,000 in advance to rent an apartment, but I was still denied.

Not only that, but I am still paying for my misdeed nearly eight years later. I am blessed to have a truly great family to love and care for me, allowing me to live with them. Otherwise, I would be homeless or living in the projects.

This is not sustainable in my opinion, and we need to take action to protect society while also giving people a second chance at life. When you go to jail and finish out your probation/ parole your debt should be paid, and you should start out with a clean slate.

If whatever you’ve done is so heinous you cannot start over, then maybe you should not be released. That is my view on it, a debt paid is a debt paid.

My advice for anyone who is going into the legal system is to do the following, if going to jail, immediately enroll into programs.

Take Extreme ownership of your problems. That means putting ego aside, going to programs before they even ask you. Anger management, or drug and alcohol, try to avoid bullshit in jail if you can.

Once you’re out you are going to cut off everyone from your old life who uses drugs or drinks around you. Join a church, and AA location. This will be your new support network and friend group. If you are not in school you are working or volunteering, yes…even if it's not mandatory..

For work, go straight into the shittiest construction job you can find, many of these places aren't going to be on indeed and will likely be in your city’s industrial center. You’re going to have to do some old-fashioned door-to-door knocking, and come to those areas repeatedly. Eventually you will get a job. It will suck, but it pays the bills and keeps you busy.

Then take advantage of any government aid you can. Go to community college, then transfer to a 4-year once you get your associates. Most colleges do not do background checks, take advantage of this.. You will go to class at night after work, and you will feel like death. Coffee is your friend learn to love it.

Once you get to a 4-year college leverage their networks and contacts, they will likely be able to fast track you into the job or internship; if not, the fact that you are there doing what you are doing will speak volumes. Eventually you will get someone who will look past your checkered background.

It takes time, and it's not easy, so work hard, stay humble and keep your head up. 

Once you’re at the halfway mark, and you’ve paid your fines, and restitution, avoided failing any tests, or committing new crimes, you can apply to get off probation early. The more good things you do, volunteer, go to work, go to school, get a degree. The better the odds of it happening.

You can find Tony on twitter at BowTiedAnabolic. Thank you again to him for his time, candor, and honesty.