Don't sign parole papers you don't understand

I am writing you this letter to let you know what happen to me and maybe you can help keep other prisoners from making the same mistakes I made.

I was serving 12 years for a drug charge. Late 2005 I received mandatory parole. At the Walls in Huntsville, while going through the discharge process they made me sign a lot of papers. I was just learning to read back then, but I noticed something that did not make sense to me so I asked what that was all about. They said it was just a speculation of my parole. I told them I was not going to sign that part because I had never been charge or convicted of a sex offense. They said it was just a technicality, that once I reported to the parole people in Austin, Texas I could get it all straightened out. I said no that I was not signing those papers. They told me that they could not let me go if I did not sign, so I signed.

When I reported to the austin parole board they said I had to go the Travis County Sheriffs office & Register as a sex offender or go back to T.D.C.J so I went to the Sheriff's office to register. At the Sheriff’s office they ran my social security number and driver license number and told me I did not qualify as a sex offender. The officer told me to go back to the parole people and tell them I do not qualify as a sex offender. When I told the parole people what had happened, one of them called the sheriffs office and told them it was just a speculation of my parole only while on parole I had to sign, so I was allowed to sign up. That was the first and last time I signed those papers.

They made me take classes and charged me a lot of money for each class. I could not pay for the classses so the bill kept adding up. I could not get a job anywhere because I was considered a sex offender. They even made me take a lie detector test. They said I had to take one every 90 days, but when I proved I was not a sex offendor they stopped making me take them.

Because I would not sign up to each year as a sex offender they violated my parole. In 2007 I went back to T.D.C..J. for that violation and did 2 1/2 years before I made parole again in 2010. I had a good parole officer, after six month he told me there was some kind of mistake in my records because they wanted me to sign up as a sex offender for a drug charge. He said I did not qualify as a sex offender. He said he would help me get it all straightened out. I had less than two years on the 12, so I said I would go back to the T.D.C.J. and serve all my time before I sign up again. In Sept. 7, 2013 I was arrested again on a 30 year old charge CR 87-0140 of kidnapping. This was the fourth time I was detained for that same charge but this time they had a new D.A. that somehow lost all physical evidence that had proved in the past it was not me they were looking for.

I did not know anything about the Law so before the trial started I ask the judge if I could fire my attorney because he was not ready for trial. The judge said “No” that I had ample time to prepare my defense. The judge ask my attorney about that and my attorney said “I made some calls to no avail, could not contact anybody.” I asked the judge how hard is it to contact the Austin police department or the parole board? The judge said there is going to be a trial and even if you lose you can always file an appeal.

The first day of trial things looked good for me because they had no physical evidence. That night the jury went home and looked me up in their computers and newspapers that said I was one of the top 10 most wanted sex offenders. I could see it on their faces when they came in. My attorney worked with the D.A., not for me, so I was railroaded. I still cannot believe what they did to me. I have lost everything and everybody I love thinks of me as a bad person.

Please let my brother inmates know, don’t sign anything you don’t fully understand.