The Cole Memo

Tina Reichert returns in this episode to deliver exciting news: Christian Reichert, her son, is being released from an Illinois prison after being  arrested Aug. 2nd, 2016 in the state of Illinois for a “marijuana conspiracy”. In this episode, we celebrate and talk about what the next steps are.

In order to show your support for Christian as he returns home, we invite you to consider making a purchase from this Amazon Gift List: https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/3UYNEBHQLG1W9

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Links mentioned during show

• Christian’s Gift List can be accessed here

The auto-generated transcript is available below.

I was hoping that the next time that we spoke it would be on better terms and here we are um I know I know that I know you just said before we got on the air that that you don’t exactly know uh firm date when but why don’t you break the news uh to F well first of all you were on episode 298 if people want a really in-depth background but why don’t you give a recap and the news just uh in a bottle if you could well you know Chris Recap was um arrested August 2nd 2016 on a $2.5 million bond in Williamson County and then they transferred him to Jackson County for something that occurred over there that he had nothing to do with so he sat there two and a half years and we went to trial but he was charged um 23 years for trafficking the former State’s attorney Mike Carr asked for 40 the judge gave him 23 for that charge and then the max 15 for the conspiracy charge and he had only been in Illinois 6 weeks he didn’t even know he knew two people in the conspiracy that he went to school with childhood friends so anyway Christians release date he did a couple silly favors for his buddy and he ended up getting a total of 38 years luckily concurrently so they go by 23 he’s been in there almost 8 years we just found out he’s being released at the latest February 12th possibly sooner if he passes this test that he has to take he could possibly be out by the end of the month or February 9th but the very latest will pick him up on the 12th of February my birthday’s five days later the 17th so it’s going to be one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had and um he met with a warden and and I I wish I could like thank someone for what they did and helping get him out but the person I can think the most is my son it was his good behavior and taking every class he could possibly take and you know transferring where he needed to go to earn more time off and he’s been a model in mate he had no His good behavior priers he had no violent charges yet received you know a total of 30 years but when he talked to the warden and explained you know I’m missing time here and then they got with the counselor counselor they figured out oh you’re missing a lot of time so it put him at almost immediate release Here we are in January and um so if he passes his test he could get out by the end of the January or the end of January but if not the latest will be February 12th which which as you can see with my painting Losing a friend mess in here and I got little kitties my mom’s kitten or cat old cat from Mom’s in a nursing home unfortunately I want her to be here but I work all the time I put in 80 hours last week and you know just trying to get ready I’m so psyched I’ve never been happier but then like I told you we had a couple of losses I I was just notified right before I talked to you a good friend of mine in Florida um rest in peace Brad boat right wonderful guy um just found out he passed away but lost my dear friend whose name is Tina Also earlier in the week and um it’s just time is so short you never know that’s I’ve just been praying to please God let me hang on see my son again let my mom hang on and you know his sister has been I can’t even think my daughter enough is she’s held the family together the last almost eight years and she’s four years older than Christian and I think he’s more afraid of her than he is me but well I think we’re elated you know other than we’re praying for our Lov loved ones and friends that are going through some very hard times we’re we’re elated yeah and I think uh Christian’s sister reached out to me if I’m not mistaken I can’t remember exactly but uh and this is a good Segway folks one of the reasons I wanted to bring Tina on is is as uh Tina just showed she’s we’re trying to welcome Christian back make sure he hits the ground running and so I wanted to share this Amazon list uh and and Tina if anything else comes up too feel free and I can you know be sure to share this but right now um really simple stuff if you can provide any of these things uh you know it would just really help uh because you know he’s been gone for a long time he doesn’t have any of these things um so you know if you’re able to everything even the poor guy shower curtain so they took the clothes they took the paintings off the walls which I had loaned him so you know it it was crazy I’ve never seen anything like it but I just want to bring Cole and I’m Thank you I’m so thankful to you you don’t even know how much I appreciate you and watching watching your audience grow and you know your your subjects they’re so interesting you’re not only Obama’s one of Obama’s favorite podcasts but you’re mine as well and you know not just on the topic of cannabis but I was following Nevada and I was loving it and I see a big future for you but you really gave us a platform when not many had and we forever grateful and wish you the very best in your career and if you’re not watching Co memo or chois podcast you need to and I know that sounds like a plug it kind of is but I’m so happy and I just can’t help but smile right now because last time I talked to you it wasn’t that way at all you know and we did lose the appeal and they notified me October 13th the appell at attorney notified me October 13th which was Friday October 13th and um he said we lost but the judges in their their footnotes wrote that it seemed like the former State’s Attorney was more interested in the conviction then Fair Equal justice but they they still upheld the decision but you could tell they weren’t happy with some things so kisan’s case is still headed to the Illinois Supreme C court now so um his Appel attorney believes that things were not done correctly you know and um I don’t know what will happen maybe nothing it same case as the appell at court but we’re still taking it there and bringing awareness my fight will not stop my I hope you’ll help me um spread the news about Kevin Allen and Louisiana who had a life sentence you may know about and then recently it was reduced to 35 years hard labor after he’s already spent several years in there and it was over $20 worth of marijuana you know life in prison and I heard he had a prior record but it was nothing violent and he had served his time for those so you know but they make it so difficult this re-entry stuff is so difficult and they come and inspect your house and things have to be the way they they want it to be I know an inmate was recently declined going somewhere because the place he was staying had uh a Yorkie it was a little ankle biter but the PE officer didn’t like it so denied his parole to that house so the guy had to go to a halfway house you know they have complete power you know whether you’re their mother their father immediate family or not It ultimately it’s their decision and in some cases I get it it’s best that way you know there’s things going on in homes that shouldn’t and you don’t want to send someone coming out of prison into a place that only Temptation exists or you know could possibly that’s so easily to get you know to violate parole the the standards are pretty high and so you know and I get that in a lot of cases as well you know but it feels like to me the people that really need that type of attention they’re they’re not getting it you know murderers pedophiles have said it before they make plea deals and and serve a portion of the time you know like a fraction a tiny fraction of the time like it’s it’s unbelievable you they do not want you taking them to trial it is like challenging a king and you do not challenge the king and so I’d also been talking to the current State’s Attorney Joe cantz who I actually campaigned for after my son was convicted and we got car booted out of office luckily um like I’ve said in the past he has cases on the ID channel murder cases and stuff that he didn’t do anything about but yet a kid that’s never been in trouble has no priors he’s ready to hang to a cross you know so there was it was definitely malicious prosecution in my opinion and many others you know judges I’ve spoken to law enforcement correctional officers and Christian wouldn’t be where he is right now if it was for his behavior and the programs that he’s done he’s excelled and and he honestly did this on his own but I can’t than last prisoner project enough because they have helped me so much Stephanie Shephard is my hero I’ve been Naturalizing cannabis breaking down and that woman would take my call and try to guide me through the day and give me the best advice and you’ve been there for me as well and I I can’t repay or thank you all enough I I truly can’t I just I want us to naturalize cannabis it’s so beneficial in so many ways and you know medically and recreationally you and I both know that like I I feel it’s far less dangerous than alcohol you know even though we’re both sipping a cocktail tonight but I’m a little stressed out and I’m sure you are too yeah no mine is actually it’s Gatorade with weed in it oh you okay that’s even better yeah that’s even better well uh I just want Thank you Tina to thank you for the kind words and uh look it’s no problem you know just trying to fight for what’s right and as you said there are many other people we got to continue to fight for but we also you know again I just want to plug again I’m GNA have this uh shopping list in the podcast description so that if you’re able to directly help Christian get back to it uh for lack of better words you know check out this list and see what you might be able to pitch pitch their way and I just want to say you know again thank you for doing what you do not only to have fought for your own son but you did you you’ve always been about the bigger cause and fighting for other people you know yeah and I just want to like acknowledge that and commend you for that because um you could just be like well my son’s getting out I’m done I’m done fighting for this I don’t really care I feel like I’m just getting started Cole yeah yeah exactly the the people that have conv committed non-violent offenses like this just have no place in a cage with people that have committed committed violent offenses that’s the difference here and I I just hope I pray that we understand that you know going forward and to your point that you brought up again there are other people um even this morning unfortunately I got a text from a friend friend that said that they uh could be charged with a Class A misdemeanor for improper transportation of cannabis because it wasn’t in an odor-proof container which by the way that’s also being debated at the Supreme Court right now and again it’s kind of crazy how this was we don’t Cannabis should be treated no differently than alcohol we take our six-pack home right you know what is the difference you know you should keep all of out of the reach of children doesn’t matter you know but it’s like it should be treated no differently than alcohol in my opinion the them not getting on it and getting it legally Federal you know federally legal I I’m like what are they doing with their time what what are these task force doing or that have been assigned to this doing because we what have we really seen in the last almost four years years progress wise we’ve heard a lot of BS but we we’ve heard we’ve seen we’ve heard more talk than we’ve seen action right and I encourage everybody to vote smartly I would never tell anybody who to vote for sure but really research your candidate and vote smartly because you know right now they’re telling us all what we want to hear and you know I question on what what their real priorities are with this drug and the way they’re trying to reschedule it and you know they they won’t pass certain you know banking Acts or this or that you know it’s making it more dangerous for everybody they’re keeping the black market alive and if that’s what they want to do away with they’re they’re ass backwards excuse my French but they’re ass backwards you know they’re they’re only keep being you know the criminal Enterprise going and they could stop it so easily you know I worry someday will they be telling us how many tomatoes we can grow in the backyard how many cucumbers I mean they take more control more control over our freedoms every single day and we as Americans have got to stand up you know I might have been asleep but I’m awake now and I won’t stop like I said my heart goes out to Kevin Allen first and foremost and so many more behind him you know the names are endless but it’s unreal what that that young man got you know and I’m going to really be advocating for him and and anyone else I can I don’t know where this path’s going to lead us but I hope it leads us in a positive direction with maybe maybe our own Foundation to help others you know because there’s not there’s not too many it it takes a village you know and I’ve learned a lot from Stephanie Shepard and last prisoner project well hey when it The fight is not over comes to that let us know how we can help and uh I think that’s a good a good note to end on I want to play just a very very short clip it’s like five seconds and then we can close um as you just said I’m so glad you brought it up and it’s just another Testament to how in the uh in loop on policy Ur um recently there was the rescheduling um It came it it came out that HHS had recommended that cannabis be rescheduled to schedule three now that’s not official yet that DEA has the final say on that but that was as a result of this and I want to play this short clip because this is very important and it makes your okay as I said when I ran for president no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana and we all agree on that nobody should be in jail for just using or possessing or I’m going to add cultivating marijuana um or cannabis or whatever you want to call it and unfortunately as you pointed out schedule three does not prevent people from going to jail um in and of itself it could lead to other policies maybe that prevent some people from going to jail but I just wanted to make that clear there is still stuff to fight for folks um the fight’s not over um and and unfortunately people continue to be affected by this every day uh Tina I don’t want to keep keep taking your time I know you got a lot to get to folks that list please help out it was kind of cool just you don’t have to show it if you don’t want to but you showed me earlier maybe it was a video I saw people have been contributing so to the folks that have contributed so far uh thank you you yeah exactly so oh my God Final thoughts yeah and feel free to show that list I’m a little technically challenged Christian was my tech guy and so I know I’ll get back you know on top of things once he gets home but you know I’ve had to kind of navigate by myself and I think he’d be proud of me I’m he might not like some of my videos when I’m angry but hey you know what yeah he get it I if I get the chance to I’m going to let him know that he should be very proud of his mom because you fought so hard and you just never you never quit I’ve seen all your posts and how on it you’ve been not only about his case but other people’s again it’s not just your selfish you’re not being like selfish about just your case and so I just wanted to commend you again on our way out so I will be such a pest Cole that they’ll have to release some of these guys I’m not quitting until we get them out and I hope I get on their Nerf so bad that they just like God said set him free where this lady will leave us alone you know but that’s my goal is to really I hate to admit it but that’s my goal you well hey any other cases that you want to come on and talk about the door is always open you know so just I’m a message away let me know okay and real quick you are familiar with Kevin Allen in Louisiana are you I’m not I’m G have to do research look him up you willin unbelievable and Stephanie Shepard reach out she knows a lot about his it it’s heartbreaking I mean I I don’t want to start crying I’m on a high right now sure yeah yeah but if anybody deserves to be out that guy does and many many others thousands of others it’s ridiculous yeah no but thank you hypocritical thank you for sharing a story that we can look into and and I’ll definitely do my own research and maybe even bring somebody on the show so that we can bring more awareness to those case this case and so many others so well Tina happy Friday you God bless love you to death and you know I’m following you yeah yeah I’m not stalking you I’m following you I know I know likewise likewise we’re here for each other so thank you and we’ll be in touch take care okay take care bye bye