

This web site is about what happened to me at UCONN.
In this section I will attempt to answer questions
regarding my past involvement in a student protest at
Wesleyan University.
Some printed articles written about the Wesleyan incident
mix facts with speculation with regards to my involvement.
Some of the gaps are due in part to the fact I have never
spoken to the press about it with the hopes of just putting
it all behind me.
Obviously, it has come back up. For those who have questions
let me set the record straight about a few things.
The protest I was involved in happened in 1990 during the
administration of President
and former CIA Director George H.W. Bush. It occured at
Wesleyan
involved two individuals besides myself: Nicholas Haddad,
and Kofi Taha who after Wesleyan worked at
Spike Lee's Forty Acres
and A Mule film productions, went on to attend Columbia
University and is now attending urban
design school in Boston. (Both people, when looking back
had the odd trait
in common of either looking or behaving or both much older
than college sophomore's but
having the ability to pass at the same time much like students
1 and 2 as discussed on the law enforcemt page not of this
web site).
Nicholas Haddad actually planned
most of it and ran it by the other person charged and
myself.
Kofi Taha was selected to throw the actual
incendiary devices because he was the most athletic and
believed he could jump
the four foot fence the easiest. He went on to other
colleges also and worked at organizing others at
colleges like Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut,
and Brown.
Kofi claimed to know the specific area best. Apparently
some of the
journalists who wrote some of those articles had other
things to do
that were more pressing than research, as this is all
part of the
record. After the incident the other person charged and
my self each
decided Nicholas as being too extreme, too dangerous and
that
we were
more interested in non violent forms of protest.
Haddad constantly lied and made up stories upon stories.
An
example can be seen in this photo where he is like all the
other
students supposed to be on a hunger strike and his demeanor
would
portray suffering and deep feeling. He laughed about
this
photo later as he was not on a hunger strike and claimed
all those
who
really were, which was most of them, were "fools."
All this
while claiming to be against the establishment and spending
curious
amounts of time at Middletown Police station voluntarily.
A student at the college once warned me he had heard Haddad
and Taha were both law enforcement officers working
undercover. At the time I dismissed it out of ignorance and
the fact they had recruited me. I had never been in protests
nor given it any thought or attempted to become involved
prior to my meeting them.
They recruited me and convinced me
to become involved first in peaceful protests, then
convinced me and other people to engage in more violent
protests.
Kofi Taha
claimed to
have stepped it
down to just nonviolent protest when he moved on to
organizing with student
groups
at Trinity College in Hartford, Ct. and Brown University.
Trinity College also had violent protests that year. At this
point
Kofi Taha charged was able to get away from Nicholas.
I had
another problem.
Nicholas had previously legally purchased some guns
from a local gun store called The Meriden Gun Shop
(now New England Field and Stream) in Middlefield, Ct.
I foolishly let
him store them at my house. These included two
handguns and semi automatic assault rifles.
He had even filed the serial numbers off of some of the
guns.
I was scared and didn't want
to tell him
to remove them immediately. I asked him to move them as
soon as he
could and he said he would. This went on for a while.
Finally I
called him and told him he had to remove his things
from my house.
He said he would in a week and asked if he could come
over to look
at them.
When he arrived and got his Ak-47 machine gun he
loaded it with a
double clip, cocked it and pointed it at me. He told me
he was in a
difficult position because I knew he had the guns at my
house, and I could
link him to
any future crimes. He reminded me that my storing them
as in my bedroom was also illegal.
That scared me also
not only for myself, but for my mother. He told me I could stay out of his
plans for now
but when he needed me I had to be there or he would
kill me. He then
said he would take one gun and leave the other at
my house.
I should have gone to the police, but was afraid I
would have to give myself up for my involvement in
the protest.
I was in over
my head but had no idea how deep.
The semester went on and more incidents took place, but
I had nothing to do with those. He would come over to
my house periodically and talk in an effort to discuss
in his increasingly more dangerous, looney and threatening
to ntional security ideas
(such as his one-sided desire for me to become his
bodyguard which anyone who knew me at the time would probably
roll on the floor with laughter upon hearing).
But, I would always find a way to say I wasn't
interested or that people suspected me and it would put
him in danger if he did anything with me. He asked me to
introduce him to my cousin who I had previously told him
occasionally sold marijuana. Nicholas was looking for a
way to get a lot of money and thought he could supply
my cousin with money to sell drugs. My cousin said he wanted
to meet him too.
I hoped when the school year was over he'd go home and I
would be free of
him. However, at the end of the semester he came to me
and told me he flunked
out of Wesleyan University and would need me to help him.
I felt I was just out and suddenly I was back in.
He reminded me of
his threats and I remembered. He said he wanted to
come with me to the
University of New Haven where I had been accepted and was
planning to just go
on with my life in music. He told me he had been selling
drugs with my cousin
and he could afford an apartment in New Haven. He wanted
me to live with him
until he got established. I was getting worried -
panicked to be honest.
He was becoming less interested in his revolutionary aims,
but he still occaisionally talked
about it. Of course he wasn't doing anything just
talking. But, he was selling drugs and talking about the
easy money
and all the things he could buy with the money. He talked
about fast women and fast cars, and
revolution was no longer high on his list.
Getting a cool
bachelor pad in New Haven was now more the topic than
anything resembling social consciousness. He always
maintained that his
family were terrorists and if anything happened to him
they would kill everyone
he told them about. He said this was his insurance like
someone saying my family
is in the mafia so do what I say or else.
It sounds too wild to fathom, but I wasn't the only one
who believed his tales. He spun them all over the Wesleyan
campus and most people he talked to believed him. His
drug dealing with my cousin was going on and the
first school semester had not yet started.
He mentioned
a big sale where he was giving my cousin money to sell
a large amount of cocaine. They were to split the profits.
A previous drug deal had apparently gone wrong, so one
day Nicholas showed up unannounced at my cousin's apartment
where he lived with his mother.
My cousin wasn't there and when he later asked
Nicholas about this he reminded him he knew where he
lived and if anything happened on this next drug deal he'd
kill my cousin's mother and sister.
Well, my cousin's
partner who was to help him sell the drugs was robbed of
all the money Nicholas had given them. My cousin
called Nicholas and said he had the first delivery of money
to split with him and said he wanted to meet him. When
Nicholas showed
up he was shot and killed by my cousin in order to protect
his mother and sister.
My cousin called me that night and told me Nicholas had not
shown up for
their meeting. He said he was worried that something had
happened to Nicholas.
I was petrified and told my cousin I was going to have to
run because Nicholas'
family would kill me due to may knowledge.
He decided to run too claiming he
feared the same thing.
We had been on the run for a few days when we were apprehended
by police in another state. They
said I could return home. What I didn't know then was,
they caught my cousin's accomplice
in Nick Haddad's murder
and he told them everything.
I still had no idea my cousin was
involved in it. I had no reason to believe he would kill
Nicholas. As far as I knew they were in business and things
were going fine. At that point I was still afraid of
Nicholas' family and had the police call the
local FBI office to try and seek witness protection from
Nicholas' family.
Some have wondered about my involvement in Nicholas
Haddad's murder. Let me start with this; if I was
involved in the murder
what reason would my cousin's accomplice have not
to implicate me? He was not in the least bit
scared of me at all, and he had no emotional
ties to me.
In fact, had he done so and I was involved, he
would obviously have secured himself a better deal.
He did not implicate me, but he did provide a
statement about my cousin who was perhaps one of his best
friend's in the world. They had known each other since
they were young boys growing up in a tough neighborhood
on the same street, Marshall St., in Hartford, Ct.
The reason he did not is simple. I had
nothing to do with Nicholas Haddad's murder. I
had no previous knowledge and didn't find out the
story till after my cousin was arrested. If I had
known I most certainly would have tried to stop it,
period.
Yes I wanted to get away from Nicholas, but my hopes
had been increasing as he needs for my involvement in
his craziness had become less and less. By keeping myself
out of drug dealing I had secured a way out for myself.
He wanted to continue down this path and knew I wasn't
interested then and most likely would not be.
As his interests seemed to turn more to the world of what
he could do with all the spoils from selling drugs, he
becama less and less interested in anything else. Despite
my want to break away from him
it hurt me when he died. He was someone who, at
the time, I believed I knew personally. I learned
just how foolish my belief was as the case unfolded later on.
I was not a terrorist as everything I did after the first
protest incident was fueled
by my fear of Nicholas and my percieved threat from his
family.
I was so scared that I sought witness protection.
I was an eighteen year old C student at best and was not
well read enough, intelligent
enough or experienced enough to pull off a sham of that
magnitude.
As far as the
firebombing was concerned the other person charged has
recently sent me an email
confirming my assertions that I did not throw any bombs
and has always belived
I was coerced by Nick Haddad. He also states he believed
I was coerced by the
government.
He was not alone in his beliefs as his defense was based,
in part, on that premise during
his trial. A jury viewed that argument was credible and
found him not guilty.
His beliefs evolved away from contact with me as we have
had
no contact until recently when he wrote me an email asking
me to remove his name
from my website so that it did not come up when people
googled his name.
I said I
would if he'd write a letter finally admitting I did
not throw the
bombs and his name
would be removed, except when conained in an image
lika a scanned document. He has moved on with
his life as I mentioned
previously in this section. If you wish to view the email
he sent me you can click
here.
As a side note it should be known the Federal Government
decided to prosecute me
(the person providing testimony for their case and thus
helping them out) both at the federal and state level
with both my sentances to run concurrently. This
meant I would have both a state and federal record.
They made an example out of me. As for Kofi Taha, who was
being tried for throwing the bombs,
the feds decided to drop all charges against and only
charge and proceed at the state level.
Thus, although I was helping them out I was being punished
more severely by the feds, and
being made more of an example out of. This is strange,
I know, but I have documents to prove it
here.
As it turned out Nicholas Haddad was simply a liar. The
FBI said there was no reason for witness
protection as there was no merit to any claims of his family
having been actual terrorists.
They never interviewed me again about it then or after 9/11.
It's my belief young
adults and juvenile offenders should have the opportunity
to rehabilitate themselves and not be
relegated to the fringes of society. Society's underbelly
can only offer the sorts of social circles and lifestyles
afforded by the circumstances within those environments. The
neccessary changes won't happen by themselves, but
when a person has started change, a civilized society
should foster and encourage their positive growth.
They were youngsters and children when they commited their
crime and no one is free from the sins of youth. It seems
to me the only people who are the most insistent upon
relegating young people to the outskirts of society, end up
being those who are reminded most glaringly of their own
indiscretions when beholding such people. The thought of
their own past coming back to haunt them must be pretty
scary given some of the reactions I've recieved in the
roughly twenty odd years since my own period of teenage
turmoil.
It would be an understatement to say I was a stupid kid.
I'm a different person now shaped by the events of 1990.
I'm stronger, more experienced and a little better educated.
If I ran across a Nicholas Haddad now I'd see him
for who he was, but I guess that's what they mean when they
say hindsight's 20/20.
In reading this it should become obvious to anyone that I
am not beyond reproach. I don't claim to be an angel,
and am willing to put up non public documents not always
flattering to me and my bad youthful choices. But
I did my crime and served my time. I do believe I have
the right to go on with my life like any other American.
I've worked hard to better myself step by step and make the
most of every situation when I could.
Even though my past seemed to keep coming up over and
over
I did not see anything else into it than just that. As
an
example I was once being trained by a black jack dealer at
Foxwoods Casino here in Connecticut to get a job in that
field.
It was not exactly what I wanted to do, but the money was
good. All the other decent paying jobs I came across
I either was not
qualified
enough for or did not have the experience for.
The dealer,
Nathan (Nate) Palermo, told me after I revealed my
record to him it should be okay as there was somerone
working as a card
dealer
who was on parole after serving approximately four
years
for armed robbery. Well considering the
environment it seemed my background should be the last
issue
as I had never even served time and could still be bonded.
But the state licence division told me I could not get a
license given my background.
Everyone deserves the chance to better themselves within
reason. That's my only wish and what I'm trying to say.
Until I get my point across I will keep saying it.