Wrongfully Accused of Molesting My Daughter-Matt Huett

0:02 you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't you know I mean uh this is a situation where you can only be supported privately and not publicly and I get it and I understand but what people don't understand is is uh it's going to stay with me for life no matter what yeah I was found innocent proved it you know beyond the shadow of a doubt but no matter what that stigma follows you everywhere that little that symbolic Scarlet Letter is probably going to be on me forever no matter what have you been able to get a job or anything like that no I haven't been able to find a job a relationship anything uh I after trying so hard for so long I basically gave up on it and this is because everyone sees you as a

0:50 sex offender even though I was acquitted of everything those charges are still on my record you know they they still show and I it costs thousands of dollars to get him expunged and I don't have a dollar to my name right now how many years ago did this happen this happened uh we're going on the three-year anniversary I was made aware of the allegations on my 40th birthday which was March of 22 that's how that's how I spent my 40th birthday being uh told I had allegations of sexual abuse against me with your daughter with my daughter yes so how how did this happen you're who who said something to who the story kind of goes back to I want to say late 2019 early 201 20 uh my ex-wife uh fought me in court to move to Minnesota with a guy that she

1:35 met online only months before and I lost the case they let her move and from 2020 on my daughter was away from me and I saw her very little I was supposed to see her once a month but of course that didn't happen what's your relationship like with your ex-wife horrible yeah you know uh she hates me and she's very vindictive and has proved it by doing this um so it started then and when my daughter left she was a sweet little girl that loved horses Littlest Pet Shop The Legend of Zelda you know she was as innocent and sweet as can be describe your relationship with your daughter at the time it was awesome at the time like she was attached to my hip you know uh nothing but love good times all the time we had a lot of fun uh she's got a older

2:22 brother and a younger sister we were always together you know every time we spent time together all four of us were always together we did a lot of stuff we had a lot of friends with kids their age we hung out with a lot I mean it wasn't perfect all the time I'm sure you know there's um I you know haven't always been as financially strong as I wanted to be but I was still always there and took care of her then after them being gone in Minnesota for a couple years things had started to change uh she changed dramatically and uh then before I know it she sent me a message saying hey dad can you buy me some stuff on Amazon I said sure what do you want and she sent it to me and I sent it to her and that was the last thing I heard from her and

3:08 then two weeks later I found out that uh she accused me of sexually abusing her and nothing like that ever happened not even remotely close to never I mean What Hurts the Most is it's something I'm not even remotely capable of um I've been known for being awesome to children I've been told that I should work with them teach them uh one of my exes used to urge me to be a musical therapist like the guy that goes through sick kids in the hospital and stuff just because you know I was a growing up as a kid for me me and my family we were like that to all the kids in our family so my older brothers all raised me up that way they were great to me and and so you know we always have time for a kid because a lot

3:54 of times people have didn't have time for us and I carried that on as a parent and it's just so godamn [ __ ] like I can't even describe how much it hurts knowing that my daughter's gone you know she's gone probably forever and there's really nothing I can do about it now today's video is sponsored by better help I work every day I don't take sick days some days everything falls into place and other days it just doesn't we've all been there life has its ups and downs and that's just how it goes when things feel heavy having the right support makes all the difference a therapist can help untangle external

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5:26 first month of therapy because taking care of yourself isn't about waiting for perfect it's about showing up for yourself every day thank you for watching and now back to the video Mark the accusations of what I allegedly did were tickling my daughter smacking her on the butt and having my hand on her leg it's in all the documents it's in the it's in the police report it's everywhere you look at those but I was charged with six felony counts of criminal predatory sexual assault my ex-wife has everybody believing that there was actual sex acts going on I got people that message me all the time saying oh you [ __ ] your daughter and you raped her and you did this and do

6:11 that and they don't know any details I come to find out my ex-wife is telling everybody that that's not even what my daughter said and then she gets on the St and the prosecutor says so your dad stuck his hand on your pants and touch your vagina right she goes no I never said that he never did that budy but he touched your breast right no I never said he did that she did but he did smack me on the butt 148 years for smacking your daughter on the butt and I'm not even saying I did it what father hasn't out there if if you're a dad you tell me this might make you think differently it's a different world now you mean to tell me they they

6:58 can lock you up in prison for tickling your daughter smacking her on the butt and you get charged like you're a Jeffrey dmer or something I don't I don't know any famous child molesters sorry I can't cite one I I don't know I don't know the one to name I'm sorry about that but it's that easy and I'm proof of it is that easy for somebody just to say you did something he did it oh it has to be true throw the book at him let's not even look into it let's not even investigate him let's not do any bit of leg work oh she said he did it he did it oh oh he put his hand on her leg and tickled her uh life in prison 148 years go ahead and you what do you think happened

7:45 with where these allegations came I'll probably never know but through my investigation of her social media and messages and things like that um I think her mom probably had a lot of influence her mom works Social Services you know like DCFS or CFS Child Protective Services things like that that's what she does for a living ironically and um I noticed online like on Tik Tok my daughter was falling in with a group of sexual assault victims let me say I am totally sensitive to sexual assault victims I don't want anybody to uh take this the wrong way of anything I say at all I am very passionate about that if there's anybody out there that has gone through that

8:30 reach out to me I'll talk to you I've got a different perspective I'm a victim of a whole other side of it that's never talked about the uh wrongfully accused falsely accused I don't know if I ever use that term right but it is what it is and it just like you can't even wrap your head around it sometimes and now I'm in a position where sure I'm free I proved it you know they reported me on the news when they first when I was first arrested they reported me as oh look at this monster right and I had six counts against me and this was in the news this was in the news oh yeah uh locally in Central Illinois where I'm at but when I was acquitted the story changed from he was a monster to it was a man who fought for his life

9:16 against a a non-credible uh witness and overcame it so that was kind of kind of nice but the undoing of the damage yes is it pales in comparison to the damage that happens when news comes out right absolutely and um even though I've got so much support man like I had a bunch of people pull together just to get me out here you know I wouldn't be here your your friends pulled up a bunch of money to fly you out yeah and I and I offered to do that for you but you didn't want to accept it yeah um I really thought you know I this is such a big opportunity Mark and what you do is is so great for everybody out there I admittedly didn't know about you before this um ironically enough uh

10:04 another production company had reached out to me uh and wanted to do a documentary with me about this we shot it everything went great and at the last minute they went ah we just we just can't do this we don't want to be associated with this we think it's too risky and all this stuff I was heartbroken you know like I I didn't ask for that they came to to me for that I was feeling like wow I finally have a chance to actually say something on my own behalf which I never had before and then everybody recommended you and uh I'm like I'm not there's no way right this guy's not going to want to talk to me and you got back to me less than 24 hours we talked and here you are here I here I am yeah the uh tell me what you were going through when this first kind of hit the news and hit your life when

10:50 this first happened like I said on my 40th birthday happy birthday to me uh just Shell Shocked um were you working yeah yeah I was making about 100K a year was doing really well I was in the process of hiring my replacement to be moved up in the company and they were going to double my salary and I was looking for that they said all right you need to go out and find Matt or better so we can move you up and I'm like well how the hell am I supposed to do that but uh I was doing that and then the allegations came I wasn't arrested until 4 months later we're sitting around waiting because they had nothing there's no evidence there's uh all the witnesses that she named they were never interviewed and they're my kids and my

11:35 and they all vehemently denied everything and four months goes by and me and everybody else are thinking there's no way this is going to happen they're going to drop this there there's nothing there ex hear say just he did it that's that's it I get home from work one day in Late July I get out of the car they swarmed me arrested me took me to jail and I was there for 65 days on a 1 million ion dollar Bond and once again my friends and family came up with the $100,000 to get me out of jail and they're all in debt now to uh help me um overcome this and that feels [ __ ] horrible too even though I'm so grateful for it but a lot of people stuck their neck out for me man

12:21 and they're in debt forever my friend sold her house to get me out of jail what happened to your job I was fired cuz I was arrested flat out when I got out of jail um I was out for I don't know six months or so and I was talking to my dad and he said did you ever try to file for unemployment and that just doesn't compute in my brain I've never done that before you know if I needed a job I just went and got one I don't like I I didn't even know how to do it and then he suggested it and I didn't have any other options at the time so I did that and I reached out to my former employer and I just said hey why did you guys fire me they said we fired you because you were arrested I sent that to unemployment they were like all right you're paid for

13:06 six months so that helped me for a while but then at that ran out a long time ago so uh even though you were proved in innocent I wasn't proved innocent until years later this all started in well I was told in March of 22 this just ended in November of 24 they postponed my trial my first trial date was September of 2023 the State's Attorney's Office in mlan county in Illinois delayed my trial for 14 months CU they didn't have anything they were waiting for something new to come up that would never come up and they wanted to make my life miserable and they did a good job doing what were you what were your feelings when you were sitting there in jail for all that time um will I ever get out

13:51 it's going to cost 100 Grand to get out and I've never seen that my family's not rich I mean we working class blue collar my dad was a heating and cooling guy for 30 years like we weren't poor but we weren't Rich you know and I'm thinking man I might never get out of here you know and if I wouldn't have bonded out for 100 grand I'd have been there for two and a half years for something I didn't do even the inmates I was in there with they took a look at me I was in there with real real life child molesters nobody talked to them nobody messed with them but they did with me and they didn't find out why I was there until a few weeks after I was there one guy pulled me to the side one day cuz he saw that I was you know worried about it

14:37 and I'm like man you know I'm not going to you know make you guys look bad by talking with you had you know you make friends in there you don't have a choice and uh he pulled me to the side and all the real you know abusers and child messers and everybody knew they were guilty they they pull your file they look you up they don't just jump on you cuz they heard it they they will they look at your stuff first they're thorough in there he pulled me to the side and he said uh hey man you see all them guys sitting together down there I said yeah he goes you see how we never [ __ ] with them talk to them I said yeah he goes you see how you're here with us every day I said yeah he goes just stop worrying about it man everybody in here knows you didn't do it even the [ __ ] inmates I was in there with new just by looking at me talking to me hearing my

15:23 story looking at the police reports and stuff even they knew think just imagine that imagine that you're in somewhere I'm not a criminal you know I didn't even know like when they handed me my indictments I didn't even know what an indictment was you know here's your indictments I'm like what's an indictment oh those are your charges oh sorry I'm not a a proficient uh criminal or anything and then like that everything gets taken taken away from you yeah your job your everything I lost everything my job my house my car reputation relationships one of my best friends of 20 years a guy who I stuck up for all the time who got picked on and nobody

16:08 picked on him anymore after he was my friend I was the best man in his wedding um loved him always you know kind of a nerdy guy you know but uh we we both like the same things he was a good dude I liked him so we became good friends first thing I saw when I checked my social media when I got out of jail was him uh wishing me to get you know [ __ ] in prison and go to hell and all kinds of stuff not even talking to me first that's the thing man you get accused of something like this everybody automatically assumes you're guilty automatically assumes you did it people that have known me their whole lives were like [ __ ] him you know and then after I talk to him they're like oh [ __ ] man sorry well you know too little too

16:55 late man it it yeah it's nice that they come around but do they you know what kind of work were you doing when you lost your job I was in charge of shipping and receiving for a large electric car manufacturing plant and uh I was thriving really for the first time in my life uh I never made more than maybe 50k a year my whole life and uh you know working in warehouses labor driving a forklift lifting on your feet all day manual labor type of stuff and i' finally worked my way all the way up to running a giant operation and it took me 40 years to do it you know I didn't go to college and all that stuff couldn't afford it you know could have done it but this wasn't in the cards for me and when I finally had gotten to that

17:44 point gone and you were getting ready for a raise as well I was getting ready for a substantial raise I mean I'd been living large big time you know 200 250k I mean I was getting ready to buy my first house I've never never owned a home never was afforded that I've never owned a new car I was literally in the process of doing all those things had everything picked out my kids were excited about they're like oh man you we're going to have a a new house and a new car and they were excited for me and just like that gone your ex-wife must be happy or she must have been happy for a while she was probably happy for a little while um I don't think she's so happy now

18:31 and she might be because at the end of the day I she still wins uh hurt me in the worst way possible took everything from me ruined my life but she ruined it up until uh November 22nd of 24 when I was found not guilty unanimously uh by a jury of my peers who smiled and nodded at me when I finally had brought my face out of my hands so emotional when I heard them read not guilty six times in a row and I finally got the courage I I I could I didn't want to look at that jury the whole time I was in there I didn't want them to think I was swaying them or anything I didn't know what to do and then I finally looked up and I looked at

19:18 him and I saw this old man who sat on the end he was he was the jury Foreman I think I could be wrong about that but when I looked at him he just looked at me and kind of gave me one of those those and that was a real validating moment and then we celebrated celebrated real hard that night it was it was it was uh my family was there with me and it was it it was pretty awesome but the but the problem remains that the damage is done yeah it's Everlasting damage you know and like you said earlier the The Scarlet Letter is it's there forever no matter what and we live in a world now where you we see stuff like this way too much even in

20:04 Central Illinois which you're familiar with Mark uh seems like every week somebody's getting charged with a similar crime and they list all of their charges in the report he did this this and this and this and this and mine there was none of that it makes good news yeah it makes good news and unfortunately a story like mine and this doesn't because it's not negative it's not sensationalism it it will sell ads on the on the news yeah no no so it's a good story for the news station it it's it's a good story for internet trolls to go on there and and talk a bunch of [ __ ] about you and and send you messages all the time uh how many strangers have taken the time out of their day to harass me about this and uh has been pretty bad uh they noticed I was out here for this I got a couple messages yesterday from

20:50 people uh telling me I should kill myself and no matter what I do and blah blah blah and all this kind of [ __ ] you still get these messages even though all the time all the time I'm harassed all the time and I know who and I know who you are I know who a lot of you are and uh they don't harass me to my face you know they're cowards but they know it gets to me because they know I'm going through this [ __ ] and they know it gets to me and I try my D just Mark to uh you know put my best foot forward and not let it get to me but it does man uh it does bad how how old is your the daughter who alleged she's 13 now she

21:36 was uh just about to turn 10 when this all started so what what is your relationship like with her now there isn't one um I wasn't allowed obviously wasn't allowed to speak or talk to her uh when I was released from jail and bond I wasn't allowed to even be around anybody under 18 they tried to keep me from my other kids but luckily uh for me their moms knew I didn't do it believed in me supported me the whole way so so your kids are with different moms yeah yeah all three of my kids are with different moms that's right just the way I planned it right no um you know [ __ ] happens and uh they have been behind me so much uh they still are um a month after I was

22:22 out they appeared in court and said we don't want these restrictions we don't think Matt did this we want him in our kids' lives they've been behind me big time and they know how much I appreciate them for that too that's great and uh it's just there isn't a relationship Mark um I don't really know what to do about it I don't know if I don't know if I can do anything about it at this point um I hadn't seen her in so long when she took the stand and testified I didn't even know who I was looking at I didn't even recognize her anymore so much she grew you know in the couple of years since since I'd seen her I didn't and when she was in there I looked at her as much as I could cuz I was pretty sure that was the last time and that the hole that that leaves

23:10 in my heart every single day of my life will never go away because the last time I really saw her as 9 years old saying goodbye on her last visit over uh New Year going into 22 spent a great weekend together hung out with friends hung out you know just it nothing wrong happened at all it was a pleasant time we were really happy to see each other and she left you know all right goodbye and you know all that and then everything was different after that that's the last time I really saw her except for being in uh Court I don't know what to do about it it it might not even be possible um my family's really hesitant of it uh my

23:58 other my other children's parents are very hesitant of it and as much as I love my daughter I almost I mean I did lose everything I didn't almost lose everything I did I mean I'm on a comeback now but what what do you do you know like there's you can think about it until you're blue in the face there there's no answer to this I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't forever if if I don't have a relationship with her I'm just a dead beat dad if I do I'm I'm setting myself up for maybe this happening again I I I don't know do I do I want her in my life of course I do but is it

24:44 possible I don't know yeah I don't know the the UN the the Bal the unbalance of how damning that as you said Scarlet Letter is is when you get accused of this or or have to go through all of the jail time and the news media and all the Social Media stuff I'm sure and and then there's the undoing of that the undoing of that is nothing compared to to the damage that was done no and uh when you're acquitted how do you do it you know somebody tell me how but if there's anybody who can turn a nightmare like this into a dream come true it's me and that's what I plan to

25:31 do and there have been a lot of good things happening uh lately this um I've managed to kind of go viral on YouTube on my own uh luckily with my music uh I'm a professional musician I've been playing instruments since I was in kindergarten it's my passion it's what I've wanted to do uh quite frankly Mark what I want to do is what you do and I feel like I have the capability and the knowhow and just the aptitude and the talent and the ability to do it but I need opportunity and that's just all been taken away until well until you came along man until now so I'm kind of at this Crossroads in my life

26:16 where you know all I thought about the whole time was God I can't wait till this is over I can't wait to get my life back it's going to be so great I'm going to get right back out there I'm going to show everybody and now that I'm free I don't know what the hell to do with myself I'm depressed anxious I mean I I have bipolar depression on top of it and so compound with a situation like this it's crippling man uh I can hardly leave the house I can hardly do I can hardly function or do anything I want to so bad but I can't you know I'm just mentally blocked from everything what ises it what does it do to a man when he gets accused of this even though you know it's not true even though the

27:02 courts found out it's not true it's still has got to away you know it's got to be the Dark Cloud that follows you it's IR it's damage that just never goes away it gets a little better you know I have a lot of I have so many great people in my life man right now friends and family who have supported me from day one they still do and that that helps that that gives me a lot of strength and it it kind of picks me up but at the end of the day I'm sitting there at the house by myself all the time uh stuck stuck in here and I don't know where to start or where to begin and you know you can only apply for so many jobs that ignore you and

27:48 they take a look at these stupid charges that I'm acquited enough that are still there you know you call the court or you talk to your attorney it's like yeah it's going to be you know anywhere from 3 to 5 Grand just to get them to go hit hit a delete button I'll never come up with that I'll never have that kind of money unless things take off for me or or whatever it's going to take a long time and um it's like I can't get a job because of it and I can't it it's vice versa you know it's just you you flip it you flip-flop it and I can't come up with the money to get it off my record because I can't get a job and I can't get a job because the shit's still on my record and I don't I don't blame employers for that you know I've I've hired hundreds of people in my life and

28:35 if I would have saw something like that maybe I would have been like H you know it's it's safer not to hire them it's safer not to and you know it's hard enough to well do they go oh let's call this guy in for an interview and take a look at him no no and so now I'm almost forced to pursue my dream of of being my own boss and a content creator and a pro pro musician I've dedicated my life to music I and uh I'm pretty good at it and I've started to really work hard at that because what other options do I have you know I can't get hired anywhere else I was I was a a top level executive at one

29:21 point and now you know McDonald's probably won't even hire me by looking at this [ __ ] I don't have a choice but the make a success of myself now and it's hard you know being a being a musician isn't you know what everybody thinks you don't make any money you know like I might make a couple bucks here and there if somebody buys an album or I mean even the big artist with millions of streams everybody knows about that Spotify they don't even get paid Taylor Swift gets paid like 10 grand for a billion streams or something it's ridiculous and so it's I'm I'm even in a profession that it's so hard to make a success of I'm just like I'm Mark I'm caught in a void I'm in this void this like force field that surrounds me and no matter

30:08 what I do it just all circles back and it just all kind of keeps me trapped in this bubble it's like I can't do any right who who was of your family or friends was there anyone that was really a good support oh man all of them uh my best friend Nikki um took out loans used money from the sale of her house she's uh gave me a place to live I mean she's been my rock through all this and she's just a friend you know like we we're not romantically involved at all beautiful you know and she uh she's going to be happy to hear that so so hi Nikki uh and my mom and dad uh have been there so much so many

30:57 friends man uh so many good friends uh my friends the Olson in Morris Illinois have been by me uh so big time ah man just there's a lot there's a lot it's nice to have people that see who you really are and and and are helpful and supportive that's been a a source of Hope for me because I hear that a lot and you know if I was such a piece of [ __ ] and a monster why would my whole Community rally behind me and help me and they have and they have since the beginning and yeah I've got a couple haters here and there I mean who doesn't I mean they crawl out of the woodwork a little bit you know they see something there's guys that dislike there's people that are so miserable out there that's

31:44 just that's just social media you know they're so miserable with their own lives that they they have to try to make you miserable too and they see a guy like me that has no choice but to be and they just like ah let's let's [ __ ] with Matt you know what was your darkest point um My Darkest point I mean about I'd say probably about a year after I was out I fell into a really really bad depression like I could hardly even get out of bed or anything it took everything for I I used to be vibrant I used to be like way eccentric over the top people would tell me to you know slow down and and stuff I'm you know I'm I'm an Entertainer I always have everybody laughing and joking I'm I'm a kind generous guy this whole thing it it stole my whole

32:30 Spirit it took everything from me it it I I don't even know who I am anymore that that's what it did to me and I was just laying there every day and couldn't get up couldn't do anything and that's not me man yeah I've suffered with depression and I've had my bouts with it and stuff before so it wasn't really a new thing but on a whole on a whole different level that you can't even imagine cuz all you all you are left with is just you're you're trapped in here and Oh I thought about offing myself plenty of times planned it had it all mapped out knew exactly what I was going to do but what stopped me from doing it was

33:16 I've got two kids that do want me in their lives that love me more than anything that can't wait to be there with me every time and people that commit suicide are selfish and all they end up doing is hurting everybody else way more than than you are and it hurts me so bad to see everybody hurt for me already so I couldn't do that and I've never given up on a damn thing in my life and I'm not going to do it now but I came pretty close and I get and when you're in a depression like that and you get messages from trolls telling you to do it almost push me over the edge a couple times it's so easy for an angry ex-wife to create something like this isn't it no I'm not saying that's what happened

34:02 it's it I want everybody out there to listen to this this could happen to any one of you words just words alone this could be you somebody could say you did this and they will throw the book at you mark they wanted to give me 148 years in prison 148 okay no evidence no Witnesses the police didn't even do an investigation did they talk to any of those potential Witnesses my other kids or the other people that were supposedly around when it happened no they didn't talk to them did they talk to my children no they didn't do anything detective Kurt Moss the mlan county sheriff's department didn't do a damn

34:48 thing he sat and waited until he could pester a grand jery to come up with the charges he admitted it on the stand there was no investigation they didn't search my phone they didn't search my apartment they didn't search my internet history they did nothing they didn't even talk to me they didn't do anything then I get arrested I'm in jail I get out then the prosecutor gets it and all the state of Illinois the mlan county States attorney's office all they did was stall stall stall stall me and my lawyer were ready to go to trial from day one we were the only ones who presented any evidence or did anything the prosecutor my lawyer didn't tell me this until after my trial they

35:33 came to him a few months before the final trial date and said hey this case is weak you know the the prosecutor that assigned to prosecute me said I'm going to go to the Head State's Attorney and I'm going to see if we can drop this case man like let's let's get him out of here he took it to the head States Attorney her name's Erica Reynolds in mlan County she said I'd rather you try him and lose then drop the charges because I don't want it to look bad on us politically and that prosecutor told my lawyer that who then he didn't tell I was kind like for like that brief second I was like you didn't tell me about oh I see why you didn't tell me about that because I would have FL I I would have flipped out you know I'd have been like oh my God like I would have that would have been a much more obsessive last three months or three or four months whatever it was

36:20 before it went through but even the goddamn prosecutor knew but when it was time for trial he tried he tried to burn me as hard as he could that's his job my lawyer kept telling me Matt don't take it personally don't I'm like what I'm like if he tried to drop these charges why is he trying so hard to put me away he's like they that's what they want him to do he's doing his job that's a that's a hard pill to swallow I get it I understood it but it's kind of hard to understand when you're sitting there an innocent man and there's a guy trying his damnedest to lock you up for life for something you didn't do so forgive me me for you know not being so receptive to that idea it's a tough story isn't it it's a

37:07 tough story to hear it's a tough story to tell no matter how many times I've told it and all I want is redemption I know I have a lot to offer this world I know I'm a super talented guy and I've worked really hard you know I found out at a young age that I was blessed with a lot of ability and I worked my ass off my whole life I wasn't a kid who really played outside a lot I was in my basement playing the drums for eight hours a day playing the guitar learning piano I taught myself everything and I dedicated my life to it and I never had Rockstar dreams I just wanted to do what I loved for you know for a living if I made $30,000 a year playing the guitar I'd feel like a

37:53 millionaire cuz that's what's that's that's what I'm supposed to do and then I had a hard enough time making it before this and now with with this happening now what do I do well I guess I I guess I do this I think I think the world will probably get you this might rival the attention that your original accusations got you know and that would be great I'm not asking anybody for anything uh all I'm asking all I all I wanted this whole time was to be heard and I was never heard once I was locked up I was put through all this and my voice

38:39 was never heard my voice wasn't heard until I took the witness stand that's the first time I ever got to speak on my own behalf the first time I ever got to even remotely defend myself this whole time when I was on the witness stand took the stand in my own defense looked the jury in in the face emphatically denied everything and I think they I think when they saw that I think that's when they knew you know and now this opportunity came up and I've been Le you know I I struggled with if this was a good idea or not I really did but my voice needed to be heard and I

39:24 started thinking about everybody else out there I started thinking about all the other families that have reached out to me that have gone through this uh I've been reached out to by organizations in Canada the UK that uh want to talk to me about this uh gave me strength uh you know anybody out there that's gone through this I'm here for you I'm an advocate for you now I'm kind of in line to be a top advocate in illino and now everybody's kind of encouraging me to do it um and you know what I'm pretty pass about it now uh I live in the state where there's the most wrongful convictions in the entire country there's almost 600 exonorees in the state of Illinois who were convicted jailed and then later released when it

40:10 was proven they were innocent now guys that are get Chargers like me I was actually lucky think about this completely innocent no they got nothing on you and I was lucky to come out of this on top because everybody gets convicted of this well I was so worried about this the whole time mark this is what I was worried about with the jury the little girl said he did it how can we how can we how can we go against that that's scary because why you know why wouldn't they right and then you get messages from people saying you mean to tell me that this girl just made it up

40:56 and blah blah blah I don't know I don't know if she made it up I don't know if she fell in with her group of uh alleged victim CU I wasn't the only person she accused she accused many others uh she's got Tik Tok posts saying uh me and my friend were sold to a sex trafficking ring uh this other guy did this she uh her the boyfriend her mom moved to Minnesota to be with she accused him too I wasn't the only one I didn't find all this out until later and I'm like why isn't anybody looking at this I supplied all that to them they didn't give a [ __ ] jury did though they sure the [ __ ] did when my lawyer was giving his uh closing statements he said something that kind

41:43 of stuck with me he goes did the state present one bit of evidence to you no because I shared text messages and stuff between us and cuz we actually had some contact with each other me and my daughter for the few months before my arrest there was no restrictions on anything yet and uh I tried to talk senson to her and ask her what was going on and why they did this and they they tried to turn that against me that I was trying to get her to change her mind or whatever of course I was because she wasn't telling the truth I was trying to reason with my daughter because she she does I don't even think she still knows the uh the level of Destruction that was caused by this maybe someday she will I I I don't know but um my lawyer said

42:28 you know about this because Matt's the one that presented this evidence like they tried to use messages that I share between and my daughter against me the state didn't tell you to show you that Matt did the state didn't do this Matt showed you this Matt's the only person who provided any lick of evidence in this whatsoever can you believe that Mark they took it that far on hear that far all the way trial every State's Attorney in the building was sitting on the other side of the courtroom watching because there uh they had no family of there show up there was no nobody showed up on their side no one I take that back her mom showed up for one day no family nobody supported

43:14 them but every State's Attorney in the building in that mlan county courthouse was sitting on the other side of the courtroom and I saw my lawyer talk to one of them and I said who the hell are all those people he goes oh that's every uh st's attorney in the building I said what the hell they doing here he goes cuz they're afraid of me I kind of laughed it off ha okay Okay Kevin Kevin sorne Love you um I'll be damned if he wasn't right he was and uh I want to thank him too Johnson Law Group in Central Illinois really worked hard for me and believed in me from day one and they were not going to settle for anything less than not guilty and uh they gave me a lot of time I believe me I was bothering them as much as possible uh

44:01 and man you know $60,000 later that I didn't have um it was a big help imagine if I didn't have an attorney you'd probably still be sitting in jail I'd be in jail I'd probably be convicted and spending life in prison right now for something I didn't do it's sad man uh it wouldn't have been hopeless but your chances go up dramatically like if I would have never bonded out of jail I probably would have got convicted because I wouldn't been able to work so hard and and fight my case if I would was been trapped in there hell I might have gave up I might have plead I might have said just [ __ ] get this over with you know I would have went crazy I was there for 65 days and I was going crazy in there as it is imagine a couple years somebody like me who's already

44:47 kind of cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs uh at times anyway you know uh it's just like you can't even wrap your head around it you know it's hard it's really hard all right Matt hu thank you so much for flying out here to share your story thank you so much Mark uh this is a tremendous opportunity uh keep doing what you're doing you give you you help people like me out there giving the people a lot of strength and uh you know for such a dark instance this brings me some light and I think now you you gave me closure man you deserve it you really helped me so

45:33 thank you all right [Music] Matt when I was designing the first softwood underbelly book I realized that there were so many great portraits that weren't going to make it into that book they just wouldn't fit and once I saw how well that first book sold I knew might have to design a second book this second book is finally ready to ship like the first one this book has a collection of some of the best portraits from soft white underbelly accompanied by a quote from that person's interview this book features another group of Rebecca portraits as well as a collection of color images of the Whitaker family and plenty of others you

46:19 can order yours for $125 or $150 for a sign copy at softwhite underbelly dorg again like like the first book once this book is sold out I will not be printing more of them the portraits are what softwood underbelly is all about and these two books contain the best of all that work thank you for watching