Free Bamboozled by Joe Biel Page B

he said, “There’s nothing you could do to me that has not already been done. Fuck you in your Mormon neck.”
    Joey was informed at his classification hearing that based on his notoriety for saving the female correctional officer he would not be housed at Folsom. He was instead transported to the Maximum Security Housing Protective Unit in Corcoran, a unit full of complaints of sexual abuse, beatings issued by guards and inmates, and staged fights setup by guards, eventually becoming the subject of an episode of
60 Minuites.
    After years in Nevada and New Mexico, Joey was not prepared for this kind of treatment. Joey claims he had two friends in there; Charles Manson and Big C. Big C had been firstround football draft pick who kidnapped a college professor for giving him a bad grade. He was serving the 35 th year of his sentence of 7-life.
    In May of 1996, after 17 years of incarceration, Joey came to devour case law books at all hours of the day and he found out that his father was about to pass away. This time the DOC would not release him to see his father. Joey called Ana Luisa, who put him through to Carlos, who instructed Joey to call in a favor from Gomez. Joey claims that Gomez sent one of his men to pretend to be the warden while special agents escorted Joey in a car to kiss his dad goodbye.

    Joey spent the next three years studying law to find an angle to work in his case. Joey began taking work researching cases for other inmates. Out of money after a card show Joey promoted that turned into a bust, Mike Sadek from the Giants was convinced to send Joey signed Willie Mays balls that he would exchange for law books. Paul Moitor would send money from time to time. Joey admits he even traded pornographic pictures of prisoner’s wives and sisters to afford his legal forms. Ana Luisa’s supported him by scouring the fledgling internet for case history.
    The real warden took some inmates off the prison bus from Lancaster one day and beat them to the ground while cutting off their hair and braids. Two guards tossed Joey’s cell one day supposedly pocketing a Roberto Clemente card. They were angry that Joey refused to participate in their staged fights. Now 37 and 230 pounds, Joey was physically shot. The guards began telling Ana Luisa that Joey had been transferred when she tried to visit.
    Shortly after an ambulance was brought on site by a captain before a staged fight that ended with the guards shooting a prisoner, the
60 Minutes
expose broke and the California DOC was in the national spotlight for its staged fights, beatings, and worse. The department responded by passing a new law that forbid California inmates from talking to the media. Joey was transferred to Soledad.
    Joey ran into his childhood friend Lil’ Boxer, who was working at the law library there. Lil’ Boxer got Joey a job as alibrary clerk. He was now a shot caller with keys.
    Joey saw the doctor and learned he had far-advanced Hepatitis C. He started chemo, which made walking up the stairs a struggle. Getting sick and losing weight, Joey asked Lil’ Boxer to watch his back.
    One day Joey was called out to the yard by some bikers. He brought Lil’ Boxer and some 18 th boys out with him. Gypsy walked up to Joey and asked a question as he rolled his head to the right. It was a setup and Joey felt a hot pain in his side. Another fist came and as Joey tried to fight back, his medication knocked him out. Two years later Gypsy was found murdered in his cell. No one came forward to take credit for that one.
    The day after getting knifed in his side, Joey went back to work on studying his case. The cops locked down the yard when they found the bloody knife and went cell to cell, looking for wounds. Joey says he buried himself in his books, asked them to leave, and they slammed the door without checking him. Joe returned to the back of the law library and found new laws President Clinton had signed pertaining to appeals